Series Win, Yordan Walkoff/MVP, USA World Cup/Balogun, NBA Activity

Monday on an abbreviated edition of The A-Team, with Adam Clanton on vacation, Adam Wexler recapped the Astros' big series win over the Rays, discussed Yordan Alvarez's growing MVP case, broke down the latest surrounding the U.S. Men's National Team, and covered all the major offseason activity across the NBA.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Weekend one and all, wex here with you today and

(00:04):
through the week with AC on vacation. As I was
out last week, he is now out this week. But
no shortage of things to keep us entertained. Hope everybody
enjoyed themselves over the weekend, enjoyed themselves safely, enjoyed some
fireworks and all the good times because of our freedom
here and because your baseball team took care of business,

(00:24):
not the greatest kind of business. Because we're here Friday
after the first game of their series with the Rays
that did not go in their favor, little lack of
offense there not much offense yesterday, and a whole lot
of fireworks worth of offense on Saturday, and the Astros
take two of three from the Rays over the weekend.
Something you've heard me say on this show throughout the
first ninety one games now ninety two games of the

(00:47):
season for the Houston Astros, AC and I get into
these discussions. You got these teams coming in, You're on
the road against those teams, lesser competition, teams below them
in the standings. Doesn't matter, It does not matter. The
Astros have beaten some very very good teams as they
did this past weekend. They've lost games to teams you
can't believe, but they're also right there among them. Very

(01:08):
very little separation in the American League for good reason, because,
as the Astros proved against Tampa, just not a whole
lot of difference, even though Tampa is the only team
truly out front with their fifty two win season ongoing.
Maybe you could say the Angels as their skid continues,
hopefully not through this week as they play a team
in contention, but most everybody else somewhere in between of

(01:32):
should we be selling, should we be buying? You got
a month until the Major League Baseball trade deadline on
August third, and the Astros well, they won six of
their last seven series. The fireworks on Saturday punctuated by
the second two home run six RBI game of this
season for jr. Don Alvarez, the two run homer to

(01:53):
walk it off to win the game and set into
fireworks on Saturday Night over at TIKN Park was July fourth,
a game maybe more importantly because we've seen Jordan do that.
We've seen him do it twice this year. We've seen
him be the best player at the plate in baseball
not just this year, really basically since he first joined

(02:13):
the major league team. But the Astros were down seven
to two in that game. Their ace was on the
hill and struggling zero clean innings, just really could not
get anything done on the mound, and then the bullpen
held it down, allowed just the one run, allowed the
opportunity for the Astros to score in multiple innings on

(02:35):
their way to coming back. Jiner Diaz with a two
run opposite field home run among the runs scored of
the final eight to help get them back into the
game and ultimately into the win column, evened up the series.
And if you recall on Friday night during the Astros
tenth inning show, when I was here with you for
those that were with us, very short game, but deep

(02:56):
into the night, I said, looking ahead at the rest
of this series, you just got a spectacular pitching performance
from Spencer Araghetty. He dominated, allowed the leadoff hitter to
get a hit, give up a hit to the second
to last guy he faced, and none in between. That
second it was a home run, and that was a

(03:17):
little bit more than the Astros basically could deal with
on this day because there wasn't much offense. I said, well,
they've got Hunter Brown and Peter Lambert going Saturday and Sunday,
and still this might be and probably will be the
best pitching performance you're going to get in this series.
Six innings, one run granted, some discussion about whether or

(03:38):
not he should be taken out of the game after
only seventy three pitches, but nonetheless he was, and each
of the relievers that followed allowed to run and the
Astros lost. I did not expect somebody to out pitch
that six innings, one run allowed performance. Peter Lambert did.
That's why the Astros did win this series. If the
other team can't score, they can't win. Amidst all the

(03:59):
rule change and long history of baseball, it's pretty simple.
If you can't score, you can't win. If you don't
score any runs, you will not win that day. That
is not possible and it will not happen. And it
did not happen. The Astros got runs next to swings,
one from Christian Walker, one from Esak Perettis home run
in the fourth, a home run in the sixth. Bullpen
did their job, as per usual, especially when you are

(04:19):
able to align them up as you'd like. Steven Okert
as usual, coming in during an inning and taking care
of business one inherited runner and one inherited runner who
did not score. Then he gave the Astros a clean seventh.
Brian King was able to allow a leadoff single but
not a run in the eighth, and then Josh Hader

(04:39):
was able to allow a leadoff walk but no runs
in the ninth, and the Astros got the shutout, another
one started by Peter Lambert, who went the first five
and two thirds loaders. Zra below three to three on
the season, and the Astros have forty five wins forty
five wins, the same number of wins as the Rangers,
and only two fewer wins then the team atop this division,

(05:01):
the Seattle Mariners. I mentioned the Rangers because the Astros
will see them. It's one of the two teams they
have left before the All Star Break. They will play
through Sunday three games Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, so Tonight through
Wednesday against the Nationals, the team who's one game over
five hundred, the off day Thursday, and then they'll finish
things up with the Rangers Friday. Saturday. Sunday will not

(05:25):
play again until Friday, A one Astro selected to the
All Star team, and that's accurate, a one deserving Astro.
He's been the best offensive player in the American League
and he is on his way to winning the MVP.
And that's yard On Alvarez, and that's it. And yet
this team absolutely is going to win this division and
absolutely is headed to the playoffs. I do think they

(05:46):
had a second chance to start the season over. Just
a couple of weeks after Josh Hater returned, Hunter Brown returned,
and while each of his last two starts haven't even
been particularly good, I do think this team is just
they're just night and day. When those two things are
in place, games are over after eight innings. Now, Josh
Hater's gotten a save opportunity nine times. He has nine saves.

(06:08):
He also has three wins because he's been used in
situations that have sent games to extra innings or held
teams down during a tie game situation. There's only nine
innings in a game. He pitches one of them, you're
in good shape because they're not scoring in that inning.
He's a lot of home run He's allowed no runs
in his last eight outings. He allowed two hits total.

(06:28):
Since he has returned shortens games, and Brian King has
been almost as sharp. Steven Okert has been almost as sharp.
As the bullpen continues to look better and better and better.
Christian Javier made his return to the Astros lineup over
the weekend, pitching out of the bullpen, giving them two
strong innings stuff wise, is what was probably most impressive,

(06:50):
considering all the swings and misses then he got and
we'll see what kind of adrenaline he has the next
time he goes out there and how long he stays
out there in the bullpen. Will have rehab appearances tomorrow,
starting rehab appearances for Renel Blanco and Lance mccullor Junior,
provided no plans have changed. The Astros mentioned that over
the weekend that at sugar Land, Lance mcculler's expected to

(07:13):
start tomorrow and for Corpus Renel Blanco expected to start tomorrow.
Nobody in the minor leagues has games on Mondays. They
play six games series that begin on Tuesdays and run
through Sunday. Bennett's Susso was on the mound as part
of a rehab appearance yesterday, a clean inning for the
Space Cowboys, so they will have a lot of options.
They will have to do a lot of maneuvering with

(07:34):
their forty man roster and considering nearly all of their
pitchers that could be returning our sixty day IL pitchers,
all but Lance mccullor's junior Hayden Wiznski is another also
in the process of making his rehab appearances now, so
they all have to not only be activated, but a
spot on the forty man roster would have to be
cleared to get them there. A pair of moves from

(07:58):
the offense side made over the weekend, which I want
to get into a little bit later on the show,
what they've done with the outfield over the weekend and
their hopes of maybe finding something before they ultimately have
to do what they have been looking for pretty much
the entire season, and even in the offseason, making trades
and adding players and calling up players and sending down players.

(08:20):
It's been a non stop carousel for the Astros outfield
and all through it. The Astros have been the best
team in the American League over their last forty one games,
not better than they were at the beginning of the season,
not better than a couple of teams in their division,
better than the other fourteen teams, a game and a
half better than the other fourteen teams in the American

(08:40):
League at twenty five and sixteen over their last forty
one just happens to roughly roughly represent one quarter of
a baseball season. Basically one quarter of the baseball season.
The Astros have been better than every team in their league. Look,
that sounds like a playoff team. Even during that stretch,
you didn't even have Hunter Brown for all that, you
didn't have Josh Hader for all of it. Close, but

(09:02):
any part of that that continues. And we even go
back to when I said they had gone fifteen and
ten over a stretch of twenty five games, and this
was about twenty games ago. If they can just go
fifteen and ten over each stretch of twenty five games
over one hundred game period, which is well over half
the season, they're gonna win this division. I don't think
another team in their division, whether they're missing players or

(09:25):
have underperforming players, or just hoping that they get it going,
I don't think any other team in the division is
likely to put anything like that together. Rangers had their
streak that sent them to the top of the division,
and they have fallen back a little bit. The Mariners
maybe are in a streak right now, but they're still
getting next to nothing from cal Raley, who has returned.

(09:45):
They are in the midst of a concussion protocol stint
for Julio Rodriguez, keeping him off of the Diamond. They
got two more wins than Houston right now, and that's it.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Now.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
There's a few games left against them, and that could
absolutely determin things. If Seattle continues their mastery domination of
the Astros, then forget it. The Astros arent gonna win
the division. But I don't think that will continue in
the Astros again. These next six games, just like the
first three over the weekend of their final nine, just
keep doing what you're doing. It would be nice if
they swept somebody. It would kind of, I think, stamp

(10:18):
something in their minds about how they are playing. But
they've said it themselves. This is they're playing their best
baseball on their record over that time without having sweeps,
which is crazy. Six series victories in their last seven
series played, they haven't swept any of them, and they've
been playing virtually nothing but close games. So we'll dive

(10:39):
even further into what the Astros have been doing. A
little bit earlier today. Several hours ago, the NBA's July
moratorium ended, so many of the deals you've heard about
will be made official today. Statements from teams involved in
those the Bucks with Jalen Brown are excuse me, the
Celtics with Jalen Brown, and the Bucks with Giannisna koop Bo.

(11:00):
They've made comments about it without necessarily revealing the details
of the trades officially, because as I mentioned last week,
the league has a tendency during the moratorium period to
continue to talk and say, why don't we add this
to the deal, Why don't we bring this team into
the deal. Why don't we see you a trade exception
for this team and a couple second round picks for
this team and a sign and trade with this team.

(11:22):
So some of the details will still yet to be
worked out. There were several more deals made over the
few hours we've had today, and we will have it.
I wondered if by the time we got here at
two o'clock I would even be able to get into
this leading into tonight's Round of sixteen match for the
United States of America soccer team in the World Cup.

(11:44):
But we will have to do it. We will have
a hashtag Balligan update all throughout the afternoon. Appeal, this appeal,
that red card lifted, rest card postponed for the next year.
All this fans fantastic stuff regarding a player on the
US men's national team who as of right now is

(12:06):
eligible to play, and as of right now he's also
expected to play. All that coming up over the course
of the afternoon here. We'll also have some football to
discuss as we get a little bit closer to training
camps opening this month, including your Houston Texans. Steve Sparks
will stop by from his morning visit. We'll give you
a little bit of what he had to say. We'll

(12:26):
do that at three thirty, but you're also welcome to
join as per usual seven one three, two one two
five seven ninety here on the program. It's Monday, after
the July fourth holiday. We dig in deep on the
second half of twenty twenty six when we return back
here with you, Wex and Josh here for the Monday
afternoon edition of the A Team lots to discuss, whether

(12:48):
it's on the pitch. I don't think we're going to
talk much Wimbledon, but it is going on on the grass.
We are going to talk a lot of football, a
little NFL, little NBA with some of the moves that
we're made today. One of the very interesting ones, I
was curious how people would respond to that particular move
considering where the Rockets stand, So something that took place today,
I wondered if it would peak the Rockets fans attention.

(13:10):
And I can't speak for all of you. I can
only speak to at least one person who responded to
that information, So I'll share that with you. With a
move made by the Sacramento Kings, and obviously the baseball
world will take a short break from gameplay as a
Sunday with Futures Game, Monday with the Derby, Tuesday with

(13:33):
the All Star Game, and then a couple of days off.
The Astros will be off until Friday once they get
through this week, so four days off kind of get
themselves back in order, probably reset the rotation, maybe have
some questions answered about some pitchers, especially on the starting
side of things. And we'll get a little bit from
Dana Brown also. Over the course of the next couple hours,

(13:54):
we will go and do Astros on deck mode at
four thirty because it's an early first pitch not only today,
but tomorrow and Wednesday from Nationals Park five forty five
for first pitch each of the next three days. The
Astros would love to take advantage of a team that
does not pitch well. The Nationals almost more than any

(14:17):
team in baseball, even though they're in the race for
the playoffs and above five hundred, they don't like keeping
other teams off the board. They are an easy team
to hit there, an easy team to score runs against.
They just tried to outscore you, and they've been pretty
good at it this year. With both James Wood and CJ. Abrams,
a pair of the players added in the Juan Soto
deal from US several seasons ago. Actually some news from

(14:40):
that deal also with a move made by the Padres
earlier with Robert or by the Nationals earlier with the
player that might have been considered a bigger prospect than
either of those two guys, Robert Harrell dfaid. The Astros
have played the DFA game quite a bit this year.
In fact, I would assume one of their starting outfielders
tonight will be player in Lamont Wade that spent much

(15:02):
of the year playing minor league baseball, but the Astros
knew that they had outfield issues and hoped he would
provide something for them, and he has. While his return
from the al has just happened and he's gotten in
just the weekend's worth of activity, he is somebody they
hope can provide a little bit more than what the
rest of their outfield has. Mike Burrows and Micholas will

(15:24):
throw tonight Mechlas, if you missed it, was involved in
the brewjaha between the Nationals and the Red Sox last week.
Both of the starting pitchers tonight would like to see
the last seventy so games of their season go a
lot differently than the first ninety or so. Burrows with
a five poin fifty eight era, Micholas with a forty

(15:47):
four era. I don't, for the life of me, understand
how any of Mecholas's starts don't result in an early exit.
He throws. He just doesn't have good stuff, and he
doesn't get people out, and he gives up a lot
of runs and he keeps landing starting spots in different
teams rotations. I hope the Astros can take care of it. Remember,
they just beat the Diamondbacks two out of three. But

(16:11):
what did they do to get there? Offensively? What did
it look like for the Astros offensively? The same thing
it's looked like during this great stretch of winning. They've
won twenty six out of forty one. They scored two
runs yesterday in victory. They scored one run in the
Friday loss, three runs the night before that. Obviously they

(16:32):
had the explosion in the Saturday game, but two of
the three games three runs are fewer. That has been
a very common theme as they've been winning baseball games.
I don't need to explain it much more deeply than that.
I think you can figure out why they have been
in so many games. They're pitching. They're pitching has gotten
a whole lot better from the first inning to the
ninth inning. Probably a bigger step forward from the bullpen
than from the starters, especially if the starters just give

(16:55):
them the innings necessary to get to the right guys
in the bullpen. And the Astros are in great when
you look at the work that's being done by Okurt
King and Hater, specifically aj Bluebaugh, to help bridge that
gap on days where the starter isn't going deeper into
games they win, those games get closed out, these one
and two run games that didn't really even exist at

(17:16):
the beginning of the year because the Astros might score three,
or they might score five, they other team would score
eight or ten or thirteen, and that's just not happening
nearly as often, almost never the last handful of games,
really handful is maybe like two handfuls. The last time
the Astros saw an opponent put ten runs on the

(17:37):
board against them was roughly a month ago, a game
against the Angels started by Kaiwei Tang, and they scored ten.
The Astros have scored ten runs on two different occasions
since then, and the opponents haven't done it even once.
And that just wasn't happening at the beginning of the
season when they fell to twenty and thirty one, when
they were eleven games under five hundred, when none of

(17:57):
their starters, especially in Hunter Brown's absence, or pitching particularly
well outside of the Astros pre All Star Break pitching MVP.
I know you know who the Astros offensive MVP is
pre All Star Break, because he's gonna win the MVP
in the American League this year, and that's jord On

(18:18):
was great at the beginning, great in the middle. He's
been great over the last forty five days, with the
Astros winning best player in Baseball offensively and certainly the
best player offensively in the American League. But the Astros
pitching MVP pre All Star Break. He's gonna get one
more opportunity to throw. He pitched yesterday. It's Peter Lambert.
He's been in the rotation since the second week of

(18:39):
the season, and he's answered the bell. He has made
this team better because of him. They needed him, or
they needed somebody to give him five six innings almost
every time out and give him a chance to win.
And that's the simplest way to provide your team and
invaluable service. You get the ball, you start the game.
When I'd done, my team has a chance to win.

(19:00):
Not asking you to throw shot out baseball. Although Lambert's
done it a bunch this year, it was another opportunity
yesterday where he went and left the game without allowing
a run. Fourth time this season, excuse the third time
this season he's done that. You win games like that.
You also win games because of him on other days

(19:21):
when he's getting you into the sixth inning repeatedly He's
given them seven innings three different times. No other pitcher
on this staff has done that. He is their first
half pitching MVP. First half again, slip by me. I
try to literally never say it pre All Star Break MVP.
The Astros will be playing game number ninety three tonight.
I'm pretty good at math. Ninety three plus eighty one

(19:44):
is too many. Eighty one is the halfway point. They're
thirteen games past the halfway point after they play baseball
during this series against the Nationals. That's how good, that's
how helpful, that's how what a find. Peter Lambert has
been for the Astros this year. So another pitcher just
comes around like that. Maybe Spencergetty's July is a lot

(20:07):
like his May, with how he started it on Friday night.
Maybe Hunter Brown's hiccups will end after his last start
on Saturday, even with the Astros winning, he obviously did
not have the kind of afternoon evening he would hope
to have. And they do have other options, almost assuredly.
I don't know if anybody gets hurt between now and then,
but they're going to see the return of Renel Blanco

(20:29):
and Lance McCullers Junior and maybe long after that Hayden
was Nesky and or Bennett SUSA, all while they're trying
to figure out who are the best possible arms to
put out there, all while they've seen two different minor
league additions to the team not even have a place
on this team despite being incredible. Miguel Yola had two

(20:50):
games as a major league so far before he was
sent down because he only gave them two innings in
each start without allowing any hits in any of them
and striking out four batters. He has options. Olibersonta same thing.
He was record setting with his work and they don't
have a spot for him right now, and he has options.

(21:10):
That's why that move was made. They will contribute to
this team over the final two plus months of the season,
I have little doubt, and they might likely be in
position to trade from a position of strength surplus as
we see the next month unfold and what they have
to offer in deals. The best players that will be

(21:30):
dealt this year are not likely to be Astros, but
we will discuss it since for some reason it was
brought up by one of our favorite baseball writers nationally
with a couple of names that are likely to be
moved that the Astros are definitely in pursuit of. We'll
get to that after we deliver what comes each and
every weekday afternoon, halfway through our number one, we'll have

(21:53):
Best of X next a team Sports Talk seven ninety
watch and Josh here with you this afternoon. Plenty of
things that could drop in here. And before I jump in,
just mention this Astros again earlier first pitch. They're just
barely over three hours away from first pitch in Washington.

(22:14):
The first of what should be two roster moves this
week regarding the shortstop position. Braiden Shoemaker will be active
for tonight's game, because you can't be in the game
if you're not on the active roster. I haven't announced
what the move is, but he slotted into bat eighth
tonight and play shortstop for the Houston Astros, and the
expectations are Jeremy Payne is going to bat lead off

(22:38):
Friday night against the Texas Rangers for the first of
the final three games pre All Star Break. Again, I'm
not sure what the corresponding move will be for the
Astros reg getting Braden Shoemaker back onto the active roster
and into play for tonight's game. Nick Allen's essentially holding
things down the last several games. I think we all

(23:00):
know what he can do, and he was involved heavily offensively,
and Saturday has come from behind whin He's done his
very well defensively. I think the Astros knew what kind
of defensive player he was. The adductor strain that's had
Braden shoemake out since the end of May is what
he is returning from. He had a nice little burst,
just like Lamont Wade did when he first joined the

(23:22):
Astrossies a little positional flexibility. Not only is he in
the lineup tonight, but as the Astros have traveled back
away from dyke In Park, I imagine Joe's spot is
hoping that the bat for Bryce Matthews will go with
him because his bat at dyke In Park has been
awful and almost useless, but his bat on the road
has been excellent. He's one of the four best Astros

(23:44):
offensive players provided the games not being played at dyke
And Park. He's got center field duties tonight till bat ninth,
maybe as a secondary leadoff hitter after they get through
the top of the first inning. Same for at the top,
Altuve Alvarez, Paritis and Christian Walker as jested with a
writing on the mound. For the Nationals, Montway Junior will
get another start. He's in left field, Cam Smith and

(24:06):
Wright Jander Diez do the catching for Mike Burrows. And
there's eight and nine with Shoemak and Matthews astros related
best of X from the X platform from this past
weekend if you missed it, the last of these seven
games to be played at Houston Stadium during the World

(24:27):
Cup took place over the weekend. The team Canada was
in town and a picture was posted. Manav Gupto, who's
covered the Houston sports scene for the last several years,
posted a picture of one of the suites during Morocco
and Canada, and I had a picture of two apparently

(24:48):
very familiar faces. Jeremy Pagia was actually staring into the camera.
I'm not sure if he could really see from that
far away, but that's what it looked like. And he
was in the suite with Carlos Correa. Correa, there was
this Danielle and Jeremy there with his fiance as they
look forward to becoming officially a pair. Now Julia, his

(25:09):
fiance is a member of the national team. The Canadian
national women's soccer team also places professional soccer, so they
were in a suite for Morocco Canada. Caption reads as follows,
Astros shortstop Jeremy Pane and third basement Carlos kore here
at Houston Stadium for the Round of sixteen match between

(25:31):
Morocco and Canada. It's very accurately said that is exactly
what is happening and what you can see in the photo.
And some people responded, why is pay youa wearing a
Canada shirt? I think I've explained why a handful of
posts away, you'll see it, and one very important quote

(25:55):
post of this indicated the rather obvious from the photo.
You can see six people in the photo. I told
you who four of them are. One of them I
do not know, and I do not know that anyone does.
But the other one's pretty fairly recognizable. Arguably the most
recognizable player in the history of professional hockey, and he

(26:16):
has one of the greatest nicknames of all time, the
great one. Wayne Gretzky is standing up right next to
Carlos Korey and standing right in front of Jeremy Bania
and unmentioned in the caption and rather hilarious in that fact,
literally like the face of hockey. And obviously he really
became the face of hockey in America for a period
of time because when he was of his trade from

(26:37):
Edmonton to the La Kings. I happened to respect his
hockey career a great deal. I do think one of
his greatest moments was as host of SNL because it
was so hilariously awkward, but the great one is one
of the greatest all time nicknames and the fact that
it was and he is obviously one of the greatest
players in the history of the sport and has been

(26:58):
around the sport long after his career, both working in
front offices and additionally just making sure the game is
where it needs to be. There he is standing there
rooting on his country team, Canada team Morocco in what
was a very very very very entertaining game up until
the late stages when Morocco kept scoring and Canada kept

(27:21):
not scoring in basically the final moment of the game.
But just thought that was a rather noteworthy and like
I said, eventually, I think after the photos circulated a
little bit more people realized what was there. Frequent visitor
of the program weekly guest Chandler Rome among them, noted

(27:43):
that Wayne Gretzky was in the suite, and I think
that helped the post pick up even that much more attraction.
But Daniel did have one of my favorite comments on it. Hey,
a couple of goats and a former hockey player. That's
right up my alley the same way I would note it.
And I do want to point this out since we

(28:05):
are talking about it, what Houston did over those seven matches,
and probably just as importantly over the fan festival for
so many more matches and over at Shell Energy Stadium
for so many more matches. Great job, Houston, despite what
some of the traveling media says in other sports when

(28:27):
they come for say a Super Bowl and they just
feel the need to trash the city for really no
good reason other than it was hard for them to
get around and so other cities are everything's all in
one place. They don't even think about what the city
is or what it has to offer. Fans do, and
fans who traveled here for the game, people who live

(28:48):
in this city permanently that are fans of the game,
and obviously have international ties to whichever their home country
team is or just the team they root for. They
took advantage of everything that Houston had to offer, the
Harris County, Houston Sports Authority, everybody involved with FIFA Houston
twenty six, Patti Smith, Chris Connetti, Chris Massey and everybody involved.

(29:09):
Just unreal. It isn't over twenty thousand people plus over
at Shell Energy for a pair of games with Team
Mexico's sixty eight thousand in attendance for all seven games
or more at Houston Stadium obviously NRG Stadium, a reliant
stadium moving forward, and people waiting for hours to get

(29:31):
into fan Fest in advance of games. You know, FanFest
opens up at eleven for this match. Fans are outside
the gates at nine am. You know the scene. If
you saw some of their social if you or weever
out there. Some of the stuff I've had a chance
to post as well, just unbelievable stuff. There are a
handful of more games remaining, including tonight's contest with Team

(29:52):
us A. We will continue with little Astros talk mention
the moves unofficially that the Astros have made today. Hopefully
have some details on that but also the moves that
were made over the weekend I thought generated an interesting
reaction from people. The two moves made in the Astros outfield,
outgoing players and incoming players. We'll talk about that next

(30:14):
here on the eight see us here on Sports Talk
seven to ninety. Astros officially announced the move to get
Braden Shoemake on the roster for tonight's game, where he
will start in bat eighth play. Shortstop Rainell del Gato
optioned back to triple A, again a player with options.
They are still likely to make another move with their

(30:36):
infield coming up on Friday. See what the next three
games present. Hopefully nobody gets hurt, but if somebody does,
that probably would be where the Astros would go with
their move. They got a little positional flexibility in the
infield and outfield with Bryce Matthews still on the roster,
and that's kind of where I was going. Bryce Matthews
is still on the roster. He's got a five sixty
four ops, he's a strikeout machine, and he's almost unusable

(30:58):
offensively at Dyke and Park. I'm sure it will go
away at some point. It won't matter. There is no
reason why he can't hit at home, but he can't,
and it does leave you wondering what's he doing here? Well,
he does give you more than the players that were
optioned back to Triple A. Joey low Perfido and Jake
Myers were sent back down to Triple A over the

(31:18):
weekend in front of Saturday's game, and Zach Decenzo and
Lamontway Junior were activated. And Wade obviously is going to
play quite a bit. They need a left handed bat
and they're basically replacing low Perffito right now. With that
give Essentially, nobody in the Astros outfield other than Cam
Smith is an everyday player. Whether he deserves to be

(31:40):
or not, it's not really the point of my discussion.
He is an everyday players in the lineup nearly every
single day. None of the other outfielders are day here
for Matthews, a day here for low Perfito, a day
for whomever. And they're hoping that Wade will present that
option for them where he provides enough offense that he
can become an everyday player. Somebody has to. They're often,
in general from an outfield perspective, has not produced hardly

(32:03):
at all this year, and when that moves. So those
moves were announced and people were talking about a little
bit over the ballpark, obviously on social media, and Jake
Myers part of that discussion obviously kind of jumps to
the forefront. I mean, Joey Loperfido clearly has never established
himself as a major league talent. He had an opportunity
here briefly then was thought of highly enough to help

(32:24):
the Astros land at Yusai Kakuchi, and was thought of
highly enough by the Astros after his time in Toronto
that they wanted to reacquire him. They also wanted to
save a boatload of money, which they did by sending
Heyesu Sanchez his contract to Toronto for Joey Loperfdo's contract.
The player goes with him, of course, but low Perfido
is a minimum salary player and Sanchez isn't. He makes

(32:46):
about ten times as much as Joey Loprafdo does, so
that's why that move was made. But again sending him down.
He's played well, he's done some good things, but he's
not an established every day player. Get him every day
at bats. That's actually what they need for Jake Myers two.
He needs every day at bats to show that he
can even pretend to replicate what he did last year,
which wasn't even great. People tied to batting average would

(33:09):
love it. People tied to baseball and how it's analyzed
in twenty twenty six would not. I used a singles machine.
Last year, if he got a hit, it was a single.
So his batting average was pretty good. It was almost
three hundreds in the two nineties. Most of the year
it spent some time over three hundred, but finished off
at two ninety two. But he has zero pop in
his bat anymore, and really, unfortunately, it does still seem

(33:30):
like it stems back to the injury suffered in the
postseason against the White Sox five years ago. He hits
for zero power. Hype again, give me a little hyperbole.
Year he hit singles when he hits them, But this
year he hasn't been able to do that. He still
strikes out a little bit too much. And defensively, I
wish I could just keep it simple, and I can

(33:52):
with most players. Player X is a good defensive player.
I can't do that with Jake Myers. Jake Myers is
an elite eat center fielder. With his glove, he is
among the worst center fielders with his arm, and you've
seen it on occasion this year. Teams just take advantage
of It actually cost the Astros a game this year

(34:12):
because he's had a couple of sacrifice flies in extra innings,
so a runner on second just wandered over to third
base rather easily on a ball that otherwise I don't
even think they challenge a center fielder or let alone
make it in there safely. And it's just a shame
that that combination of who he once was much better arm.
I don't have any doubt that it has its impact
is his ability to throw, because he's never thrown the

(34:33):
same since that injury. But this is the correct move
and there were people who also thought of it this way.
Not sure why Jake Myers has constantly been the guy
in centerfield all these years. What's the same reason he
was the center fielder this year because they have not
made any attempt to replace him. Look at how many
players aren't here from last year's outfield, and Chas McCormick's

(34:55):
probably at the top of the list, and Zach Cole's
another one because they're not better than Jake, which is crazy.
Zach can't hit at all this year in Triple A. Unfortunately,
he was actually taken out of last night's game trying
to determine why in the fourth inning. But he's just
not hitting it all this year. It's really his first
long term opportunity at Triple A. He can't hit, so

(35:15):
he was not really an option to be brought back up,
and Chas McCormick spent the entire year in Iowa as
a Triple A player for the Cubs. I don't know
what happened to him, because he was a plus level outfielder,
one of the best hitters against left handed pitching among outfielders,
and also a very good defensive player and just hasn't
been able to put it back together offensively. I think
too many people or too many talking to him about

(35:37):
his swing or tweaks to his swing and just hasn't
been able to recapture it. The job wasn't really given
to Jake Myers every year, just nobody was brought in,
and nobody that they had in was able to take it.
So he just kept going back out there. That's what
the Astros are still needing to do, and unfortunately this
year they also opened up the second outfield position because

(35:58):
they still don't play yord On Alvarez out there hardly
at all. And if he's gonna hit offensively like he
is this year, I don't mind one bit. But nobody
else has been able to take the rein. So that's
why they focus at the deadline. From everybody outside the
organization and acknowledged internally by Dana Brown on numerous occasions, Yes,
they are in search of an outfield bat, most specifically

(36:18):
an outfield left handed bat sometime soon. You don't have
to wait till the deadline to make your move, but
it does look like that is where the Astros are
headed with less than a month ago before the trade
deadline comes Nationals and Astros in an hour and a half.
We'll get into that coverage, but we will dip into
what has happened in the NBA today as it relates
to your Houston Rockets when we come back here on

(36:40):
the A team. Welcome back from the holiday weekend to
one and all via the simulcast. You can catch us
at SEHN right now. You can catch the Astros game
both there and here on Sports Talk seven ninety tonight,
five forty five. First pitch, so we'll get into our
coverage at four thirty. I'll have the Astros on deck
show for you, then can run through the roster moves

(37:01):
the Astros have made, the pitching probables for this upcoming series,
and what the Astros have in front of them over
the next six games with three with the Nats day off,
then three with the Texas Rangers, and how things look
inside the American League playoff picture. I know kind of
feels like this is about the time you should really
actually start scoreboard and standings watching, and before we get
into some of that Rocket's news that I mentioned before

(37:24):
the break, and we want to work to fumbs a
little bit here seven one three, two one two five
seven nine ye. I keep going back to the team's
win totals in the American League as I look at
the races, because there's still a pretty big discrepancy for
a handful of teams in terms of how many games
they've played, and honestly, the way that everybody in the
league essentially is at or below five hundred. To me,

(37:47):
it seems like looking at their win total is the
most prudent way to look at how these teams are
performing and what is likely to be ahead of them.
Forty five wins for the Astros, forty five wins for
the Rangers. There are five teams, only five teams with
more wins than Houston in the entire American League, and
three of those five teams only have forty seven wins,
just two more than Houston Yankees have forty nine, and

(38:10):
the team the Astros just beat two out of three
Tampa has fifty two. Forty five wins and still under
five hundred. Are your Houston Astros. As they've gone twenty
five and sixteen over the last forty one games, which
is the best record in the league, they still have
not reached even one game of five hundred. There's still
two games back of five hundred, and have not been

(38:30):
up and over five hundred since that disastrous road trip
that started the season. Their very first road trip of
the season, they went one to nine. It flipped their
five and two start into a six and eleven overall record. Honestly,
while I think they've recovered from that, their record has
not to be over five hundred for this long period
of time. And for me to sit here and say
they're gonna win the division and go to the playoffs

(38:51):
and feel comfortable saying that. I'm not bold predicting. I'm
not going out on a limb. I'm saying you heard
it here first. Oh, I just think they're gonna outplay
the Mariners by two games the rest of the way.
Canna outplay the Rangers by a game and a half
the rest of the way, because that's all it takes.
They are two and a half games back of the Mariners.

(39:11):
They are one game back of the Rangers. Rangers currently
hold the final wildcard spot, so the Astros are one
game out of the wildcard spot with that team They're
set to face head to head Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
pre All Star Break Washington. First. That's it, That's all
it takes. They are playing better baseball than those teams
as we head to that direction. My expectation is the

(39:34):
same team that's been more aggressive than the same other
two teams for the last several years. As the trade
deadline approaches, your Houston Astros will likely be that again.
The Mariners aggressive at this deadline that would be shocking
considering the moves they've made over the last couple of
years and who they have in their system and their roster. Etc.
I'd be very surprised if something of significance came to Seattle.

(39:57):
And Texas is kind of already. I think this offseason
where they put their moves in place. I don't know
if they surprise themselves to be five hundred to the
point they're willing to do more. But the Astros clearly
lead the way and teams likely to do something to
help them. I don't know if they have the arsenal
to do it. We'll get into that a little bit more.
But like I said, I wanted to get some of

(40:17):
you in on the phone lines. They're always available to
you seven to one, three, two, one two five, seven
ninety times. Been nice enough to join us here on
a Monday after the holiday weekend. A little astros chatter.
What's going on today? Tom? What do you have for us?

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Great handicapping by you for this season. I agree with
all the things that you talked about. Hey, I want
to throw something at you. I look at a handicaps
of the season in groups of eighteen runs. If you
take the number eighteen and times it by nine, you
get one sixty two. So you're looking at nine runs
of eighteen game stretches. That's three weeks of baseball to

(40:54):
evaluate your team. Now, the Astros started the season. In
the first thirty six games, they went fourteen and twenty two.
In the third they were five hundred nine and nine
and they just put together in another thirty six games
two ten and eight runs. So now they're priming this team.

(41:16):
I love what Joe Espada has done with this team. Psychologically.
He's making these players know they're going to be making
those trips up and down the Highway to come to
get this team into the playoffs, and that gives this
team confidence collectively for a competitive ball club to be

(41:37):
on the field every day. I agree with Shoemaker. I
think that guy can. He can do a lot of
things good for this team, especially now. I don't look
at the division as a weak division. That's just a record.
I look at as a team. Each one of those
teams can win it. Now, the Astros have a couple
of things going for them. And the one thing I'll

(41:59):
say right off the bat, their bullpen is killer. You've
got three lefties coming in in a row and the
way they've been doing it, they're just mowing guys down
and if they can, it'd be hard to really expect
them to keep it up, but I don't know. There's
something magical going on on this team. They believe in it.

(42:21):
Joe Aspata is making great moves. I'm real happy with
what direction that they're heading in. So you know, if
they fall flat on their face, they're still going to
be in the game. In the vision lead this next
ten to fifteen games. Like I told you last week,

(42:41):
if they'd go eight and five, they're going to stick
with it. They're gonna have a chance. I want to
see Jeremy Pannier playing, but I'm worried he's going to
hurt his calf again. That's why the All Star breaks
for the Astros is going to be very important for
players like Jeremy Paaneer to get better. Like I said,

(43:01):
you did a great job handicapping it bullpen. I think
that's their edge if that bullpen can hold it together.
And you can say that for any team in baseball.
But the way they've been going, they got momentum. It's
going to be awful hard, you know, to beat them.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
I think I'll see what happens.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
Tom.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
Appreciate your input there. I want to get into one
thing you talked about specifically, was well two things. But first,
Jeremy Payna brought it up a couple times in the
last handful of shows. With him being out, the Astros
are twenty five and twenty when he starts, it's roughly
half of their games. He started forty five of their
ninety two games, five games over five hundred and forty

(43:41):
five game stretch. We seem locked in on segmenting these
season parts. That's playoff baseball. That's going to put you
into the playoffs. That's going to this year specifically, it's
going to be one of the better teams in the
American League and if things turn into Hunter Brown has
returned to ace like form and Peter Lambert or Spencerghetti

(44:04):
can pitch the way that they've shown at different times
this season for Lambert almost the entire season. I know
that sounds nuts, but what playoff series are you going
into as either the second or third seed, Because with
everybody still so close together, the team that is going
to win the Central Division, they basically have the same
record as Houston does today. They're two forty seven win teams.

(44:27):
The Astros are forty five win teams. So the idea
that the Astros can not only make the playoffs, not
only win the division, but earn one of the top
two spots in the postseason absolutely in play so all
of a sudden, you're not forced to play games two
days after the regular season ends. You're not forced to
go through starting pitching for a couple of days just
to get to the next round of the playoffs. You

(44:48):
eliminate the wildcard series, which is something they obviously have
been unable to do for the last two seasons. Last
year they missed the playoffs, we a tiebreaker, and the
season before they had to play in the wildcard series,
and they didn't win any of those games, al though
they were two games and done. You win the division,
you lay in one of the top two spots by
being one of the two best division winners. You get
Monday off and Tuesday off, Wednesday off, and Thursday off

(45:10):
and Friday off, and then you play a game on Saturday.
Your rotation is exactly how you want it, and the
other teams is absolutely positively not the way they want it.
Because you're catching a team that's been playing baseball and
they had to win to get there, potentially had to
play three games to get there, and the same thing
impacts their bullpen. They will have had one day off

(45:31):
if they went three games, and it's just a huge,
huge advantage on paper. Baseball is a funny game and
it doesn't always work out to your favor, but it's
absolutely where you want to be, and it's just such
a huge advantage, and you know, you know how much
five days can mean to your body. I don't really
care for the rust versus rest conversation because I think
it's silly. There's no such thing as is baseball. They're
not gonna get rusty over five days. Even in football

(45:54):
when we get to the NFL playoffs and teams that
are resting guys in week eighteen because they've already sown
things up and then they have an off because they
were in the number one seed. If they lose, that
ain't the reason why. And the same thing for me
is true in baseball. Absolutely, you should be shooting for
that and you should be playing your games accordingly. I
wonder if the Astros gave it much thought. Jeremy Payne

(46:17):
is probably coming back from all the reporting coming from
the ballpark, and we've talked about Chandler Rome weekly and
talked to Brian McTaggart on Friday as well. All signs
point to the work that he's doing during the last
couple of days on the il. Then he's going to
come back for three days. He's going to be coming
back on Friday, and I presume that he's coming back
to play all three games, and then he will take

(46:38):
the next four days off like everybody else other than
jord On Alvarez. If he doesn't come back, then all
of a sudden, he's got those extra days, a full
week's worth of extra days with no full on baseball activity.
Because I can see where you're coming from, Tom and
anybody else that's worried about the fact that he has
had well three different injuries, but two of them specifically
on the leg injury side, that it's concerned that he

(47:00):
keeps going out there, he keeps running the bases full
tilt and doing everything else he does full tilt, that
he's liable to once again sideline himself, and this team
clearly is dramatically different when he's not out there. If
I told you they're twenty five and twenty when he starts,
you can do the math. That means they're twenty and
twenty seven when he doesn't. That's a pretty different baseball team.

(47:21):
That's one team is going to the playoffs and the
other team is training players away at the deadline. It's
a very different outlook for your team, and he does
make that much of a difference. There's a few other
players we could probably point that out with, but with
the time that he's missed, it does certainly stand out.
Their main stays offensively, the guy's batting one, two, three, four.
They've been out there for the majority of the season.

(47:43):
Only a small amount of time missed by any of them,
including al Tuve because the magic of his recovery did
not have him sidelined very long. Most of the rest
of the lineup has changed a bunch other than Cam
Smith and injuries aside. That's probably more performance based. But
you lengthen the lineup. I Jose al Tuve is hitting,
you likength that it even more. If Cam Smith is hitting,
and if Jeremy Payne is back at the starting line

(48:04):
and the starting spot batting leadoff as he should be
and will be, you hopefully can create a little bit
better offensive play and consistency to get them there. So
Tom Sentnis in the Astros direction and I appreciate it
for that, but we will get into the NBA next
Sacramento at the center of the NBA. I wouldn't quite
go that far. Some of the deals that we've heard

(48:25):
about for weeks have now been announced, goodbyes have been said,
and that's where we're going next. Here on the EIGHTEAM
get to a little NBA talk as the NBA's off
season is in a little bit different gear now. The
reports that you've heard can now become official. I think
a few of them, especially as it relates to Houston,
could actually turn into something else. The end result will

(48:47):
be the same for who's coming to the Rockets, most
notably also who's leaving the Rockets if you missed that.
Over the last handful of days, the Astros or excuity,
the Rockets were able to package three second round picks
to get a team to say, oh, yeah, sure, we'll
take a year of Dorian Finney Smith from you. Remember
he signed the off season deal last offseason reported because

(49:10):
he has agents were smart four years fifty plus million
dollars for Dorian Finney Smith dot dot dot super tiny
fine print, but only the first two years are guaranteed.
We just played his first guaranteed year. This upcoming year
is guaranteed year number two. I don't think there's anything
he can do to play himself into getting more money

(49:35):
out of what he's getting this year. I don't see
how widely regarded as a plus level three and D
player when he was with the Lakers prior to joining Houston. Obviously,
he had off season surgery. It was very very much
downplayed during the off season and following his signing and
even into training camp and even into the beginning of
the season, but it kept him off the court for

(49:56):
a tremendously long period of time, and when he returned,
he was not a three and D player. He wasn't
a plus defender. He was nice as a guy you
could put out there, but I wouldn't have called him
a plus defender with what he did last year for
the Rockets, and part of that was probably team related,
but he also was not a plus three point shooter.
And that's the main reason he's on the court, especially

(50:16):
for this team. You needed some space and you needed
your wings to hit threes. When you have a lineup
that includes a lot of time with the men Thompson
on the court, a lot of time with Albert and
Shangoun on the court. The Rockets would be best served
not having them be floor spacers because they don't make
enough threes to warrant that well. That means the other
guys have to make him at a pretty high clip.
Kevin Durant Can reed, Shepherd Can didn't do it all season,

(50:38):
but for the most part, I think he can be
a trustworthy plus level thirty eight thirty nine to forty
three point shooter for sure. Jabari Smith probably needed to
shoot a little bit better, but not really the culprit,
not nearly as much as DFS was, And sohow he
is no longer on the Rockets roster. When that move
becomes official, and the official signings editions of Bogdan Bogdanovic

(50:59):
and Marcus Smart we'll soon follow. A few teams around
the league have made officials some of the larger moves.
The Tyler Hero to the Bucks in exchange for Jannis. Yeah,
let's call it the Tyler Hero trade. I actually like
it for both teams. We never really got into that
when those deals were reported. The Jalen Brown deal as well.
I think you know where I stand on that one.
But the Boston Brass has said their thanks and goodbyes

(51:23):
to Jalen officially and both Miami and Milwaukee's key performers
in that deal, Tyler Hero and Jiannis Anodokompo have sent
out their social media posts thanking the teams in the city.
And I grew up here and became a man here
and became an All Star and went to all that stuff.
That's great. Probably have to read it to you later,
maybe play some of Gianni's awesome video that he put together.

(51:46):
But nonetheless, those deals were made. As I mentioned the
Bucks and Heat, you know, the Bucks sending both Bobby
Portis and Jannis to the Heat. The Heat if they want.
They can play already big and tough on the front
line if there are lineups, and I think they might
have the flexibility in the backcourt to do it. Of

(52:08):
Bobby Portis, Junior Bam out of Bayou and Giannis Anatacumpo,
one of them is a floor spacer. I'm still kind
of amazed at how under the radar Bobby Portis's career
has been. He's still known for punching a teammate, which
is hard to get over, but basketball wise, he absolutely
has He's a forty one percent three point shooter over
his six seasons in Milwaukee. He brings that floor spacing,

(52:29):
toughness and rebounding to Miami with Giannis, with Bam and
whatever they come up with in the backcourt, because clearly
some of the most of what they had was shipped out.
You had Haimi Hakes to the deal. The other part
of their front line klo Ware sent along to Milwaukee.
Milwaukee had to start over, essentially, meaning after Jannis Postga,

(52:50):
and I think this is a good way to start it.
Three first round picks, a pick swap, a second round pick,
and these players, two of which Hero could probably is
about at the top of his career. I don't think
there's more better basketball from him, And maybe you could
call it the downside, but not like he's about to
fall off or anything like that, as long as he's
healthy and he's had some injury issues and where it's

(53:12):
definitely on the front side of what could be a
very promising career on the interior. So I think they
did a great job. I think they are in very
good position. They're just not a very good basketball team
necessarily right at this very moment, and I don't know
how much help they're getting from Nate Ammett in the
draft just yet, but picking a player like that outside
the top ten probably a worthwhile gamble to see if

(53:34):
a young kid one year of college turns into a
really good player for them, that player that Miami got.
So we'll see where those teams go. A deal or
a player today comes up, and I'm curious what everybody
else thinks. I'll tell you what I think. The guaranteed
money for Damar DeRozan this upcoming season was small enough

(53:58):
that he and the Kings have come to agreement and
he is going to be released, waived and available to
anybody in the NBA he becomes a free age. He's old.
The Rockets have added quite a few older players the
last handful of years, and the two players they're adding
this year not young. Obviously, Kevin Durant not young. One
of the just handful of players that's productive and older

(54:21):
than DeMar DeRozan. Derozen is an all time scorer. There's
only four players that are active in the NBA that
have more points than he does. There's only one player
in the NBA that has taken more two point field
goals than he does. But after leaving Toronto in twenty
eighteen when they send him to San Antonio. At twenty

(54:41):
eight He's now thirty six, and he will be thirty
seven before the year starts, so basically half of his
career was spent in Toronto. This will be his ninth
season out of Toronto. He played nine years in Toronto.
He's I'm not sure how the least harsh way to
say this is, but unless he's picking a fight, as

(55:03):
he's done with the Rockets numerous times, although most of
those players aren't here anymore, he doesn't really matter in
the NBA. He hasn't mattered in the NBA for the
second half of his career. His time in San Antonio
is basically a waste of time. His time in Chicago
was even worse. His time in Sacramento is even worse
than that. I'm not blaming him for all the losing,

(55:24):
but I don't think he impacts winning like some of
his totals suggests. He's a low efficiency scoring player because
he can't shoot threes. Can't shoot threes. He's made a
few game winners. He's made a few over his career.
He's smart enough not to shoot a lot of them.
He's averaging less than two of them per game attempts,

(55:47):
so he's smart enough not to shoot them, but that
means he's an all time bad analytics player. He shoots
a ton of twos, and he's not Chris Paul, and
he's not a big he's not making the nearly a
high enough clip to warrant it. I'm not sure what
people are I guess fascinated by a multi time All Star,

(56:09):
he's been in the league forever and a high scoring player.
I don't really find anything fascinating about attaching him to
the Rockets, and I've seen a few again on the
X platform, not demeaning the people on it, but I
don't think that means that we should have interest. But
that's what I'm asking. Is there a reason for the
Rockets to have interest in a player who's now available
at whatever cost? And I'm sure it won't be a

(56:30):
tremendous amount, knowing what they've done with the rest of
their roster, how they're fitting in the signings of Bogdanovitch
at a veteran's minimum and Marcus Smart on a two
year deal that's very inexpensive and doesn't eat up all
of their available money and keeps them well below the
apron and allows them potentially to bring in an impact player.
Is this him? I'll give him one thing. He plays.

(56:54):
Of all these players that have been in the league
and playing at a high level for a long time,
he plays more than any of them. He's missed a
little bit of time the last five years. All as
an age thirty plus player, He's started in seventy four
games or more every year. Most of his career has

(57:15):
been nothing but that. Even as he heads into year eighteen,
and if Kevin Durant can play in eight seventy seven
games a year ago before he gets hurt for the playoffs,
I'm sure tomorrow DeRozan can do the same. But now,
put this team on the court. Who's out there. It's
a two point game with four minutes to go. Read

(57:35):
Damar Amen, KD and Alprin. I mean, Kd's gonna find
his way to open threes and I guess some other
people could, but who's gonna put them in? He had
very little shooting out there. I'm sorry, but this day
and age in the NBA, if you can't shoot, you
can't win. You gotta be able to shoot threes. Some nights,
you won't nixt some night shot poorly, spur some night

(57:57):
shot poorly. You got enough players on your raw so
that you can consistently count on to to make those shots.
And you also can't come back from a twenty nine
point deficit in the playoffs if you can't make threes.
Obviously the Knicks did and they came back. I don't
know how many minutes a night you can play with
those players. That's why Bugdanovich is here, so he can
be a player. On the plus side of that, it's
why you've got to have concerns about Marcus Smart being here.

(58:20):
He's terrible three point shooter, and it showed in last
year's postseason one series that started with him shooting well
against Houston and then a second series where he was
absolutely dreadful. He's among the worst shooters in the league,
especially when talking about backcourt players. Me, I'm not the GM.
I don't make the moves for the team, but I
don't imagine they would have any interest in DeMar DeRozan.

(58:42):
A veteran's minimum would have me on the phone, but
I'd probably talk myself out of it. Even at that.
We're gonna hear from Steve Sparks, Astro's radio analyst, when
we come back on taking down the best team in
the American League, and is jord On Alvarez the best
the Astros have ever had? That's next back at you

(59:04):
here halfway through our number Two'll only make it through
halfway of our number three because we'll transition to Astros
Baseball with the Astros on Deck Show five point forty
five First Pitch Nationals and Stros from Washington, Mike Burrows
making the start. Astros took two of three from the
Rays over the weekend, have won six of their last

(59:24):
seven series, and potentially if they win a series and
don't lose a game in the series, well they'll be
over five hundred for the first time since the opening
weeks of the season. And that I'll get started tonight
with Washington. Earlier this morning on the Morning Drive, you
heard from Steve Sparks Astros radio analysts, so wanted to
share a little bit of that with you here on

(59:45):
the program. You can always catch the full interview if
you don't catch it live Steve's appearances al R at
eight am. But if you've missed that, you can find
it in its entirety right there at Sports Talk seven
ninety dot com via our show pages and our podcast
you know, our podcasts or the subscribable to and right
there available for you at via the Arheart Radio app.
Start the conversation with Steve's thoughts on what it meant

(01:00:10):
so the magnitude off it, how they did it in
taking down two out of the three games, the best
team in the American League to do.

Speaker 4 (01:00:17):
It against Tampa, who plays the game a lot differently
from most teams.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Did the Astros seed during the course of the season.
You know, they still six.

Speaker 4 (01:00:24):
Pass a couple of days ago and the astro Is
still won that game.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
That I don't think that happens very often, but.

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
It's just interesting that certain guys just keep coming up.
With Peter Lambert once again pitching very well for the
Astros to knock out that series win. And we were
talking a few weeks ago with the Astros were down
pretty good and just said, you know this, just start
going four and three and five to two in some
of these weeks and see where it gets you before
they all start breaking.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Here we are talking with Steve Sparks.

Speaker 5 (01:00:54):
He's up there in DC about to go walk and
help go clean the reflecting pool up there.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
But Steve, were you as.

Speaker 5 (01:01:01):
Surprised as I was Saturday night? I mean, Al two
Vay works the walk in the ninth in a tie game,
but my.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Goodness, you just what are you doing pitching a yord
on there?

Speaker 5 (01:01:09):
I mean, I'm happy they did, but my goodness, why
with a game on the line, would you even want
to pitch this guy right now?

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Yeash Man, we.

Speaker 4 (01:01:16):
Say so many times, and we tell the other team,
the broadcasters, we don't understand why anybody ever.

Speaker 2 (01:01:22):
Pitches to yor and on if people just get it.
I mean, he's just.

Speaker 4 (01:01:26):
So far, far and away the best player that we've
seen here in a while, and it's just fun to
watch him come through in the clutch so often.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
It's exciting. But I'm with you, man, it's really hard.

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
You know, in a tie ball game, it's eight to
eight to intitially put him on and put out two
Vay with nobody out in scoring position. I can understand
where Kevin Cash is coming from, too, but I'm refused.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
It's like, over and over, how do you pitch it him?

Speaker 6 (01:01:56):
At least, for my money, the Astros have never had
anybody like youord On Alvarez. It's like, I understand what
Bagwell did, what other guys have done in their past,
but just the full package of not only what he
can do across the board production wise, the respect that
he commands at the plate in most situations too.

Speaker 4 (01:02:12):
I mean, don't forget about Jet Bagwell unbelievable. I mean
it's easy to forget, you know, things that happened thirty
thirty five years ago, but Backwell unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Nineteen ninety four.

Speaker 4 (01:02:22):
That season was incredible in many seasons for him, He's
a Hall of Famer.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
Jordon's not there yet.

Speaker 4 (01:02:29):
But ever since I saw Jordone, I knew there was
something special. It reminded me of of a player I
pitched against a lot of David Ortiz, and he continues
just to get better.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
He's in the prime of his careers, twenty nine years old, and.

Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
His pit is swing decisions, pitch recognition, using the whole field,
all of the above. I think right now, outside of
Barry Bonds, he's the best hitter I've seen with my
own eyes. So he's really fine to watch it. I mean,
we say this a lot in our booth. We're very

(01:03:09):
lucky We're very fortunate that we get to watch this
every night, and I'm glad we got this front row.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
But I think he's did his prime, you know, and
knock on what.

Speaker 4 (01:03:18):
He stays healthy this season and we can see where
those those numbers might end up at the end of
the season.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
But sure, sure, happy the Astros happen.

Speaker 5 (01:03:27):
What do you make of where they are with this
rotation right now? What do you want to see how
these guys going into the break?

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Well, the first thing.

Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
I'm going to say about that is the week before
the All Star Break is very tricky and it's very dangerous.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
Because you start thinking about your All Star plans and
you can't wait to rest your body and your mind
for a few days. So these games are tricky.

Speaker 4 (01:03:47):
You know. You got to keep your foot on the
gas pedal and win a couple.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Of more series.

Speaker 4 (01:03:53):
The Astros go forward to on this road trip, you know,
and it's a tall task.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
Nationals are playing well, Raisers and playing well. But if
you go forward to you're five.

Speaker 4 (01:04:03):
Hundred at the All Star Break, and I think you
can you can look at that and feel like you've
accomplished a lot from where the Astros were early on.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
They've won a lot of one.

Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
Run ball games, a lot of two run ball games.
I think they've won the last nine games that were
decided by two runs, and that tells me a lot
about the bullpen, which in the last six weeks has
been the best in the American League right around two
and a half ERA. So this, you know, you need
some rest for those guys. I get it, but these

(01:04:32):
last six games are super tricky and they can get
away from you. And you can look back at this
last week either saying all right, we took care of
business or we let it slip away.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
So I think starting tonight, somebody needs to step a tote.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Two for good, one for bad.

Speaker 6 (01:04:47):
The bad obviously Hunter Brown just what you've seen out
of him and his starts. But then one of the
good was Spencer Raghetti being able to bounce back.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
What did you glean from those starts?

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
I think with hundred you.

Speaker 4 (01:04:58):
Said not being able to located his fastball the way
he typically does. You know, in two of the last
three starts that's been the case, and I know it's
frustrating for him, and.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
I think you.

Speaker 4 (01:05:09):
Guys talk about it just before the segment before I
came on that you're really not that worried about Hunter.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
We're confident that he'll figure it out.

Speaker 4 (01:05:18):
And we still saw some fastball velocities get up to
ninety seven miles per hour, ninety eight miles per hour,
So injury wise, we think we're in good shape as
far as that's concerned. And arrogantty, I just saw a
much more confident pitcher once we got to the third
or fourth inning the other day. Somebody who uses fastball, well,

(01:05:41):
he's never going to be a command fastball pitcher. He
he sprays his fastball. He can pitch backwards as well
as anybody on the team. And I've asked him before,
I said, how do you have such good command with
your curve ball early in the game.

Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
It's such a field pitch. He says, It's the same
one I three when I was twelve years old. I
just I don't have to think about it. I know
where I want to start it, I know where it
typically ends up.

Speaker 4 (01:06:03):
And every once in a while I'll look at that
ripping scoreboard and make sure that you can look at
the scoreboard at Dykon Park or Eddy Paul Park right
now and see where your spin rate.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Is and how much great you're getting perfectly and or.

Speaker 4 (01:06:16):
Its luckily, and it makes it for an easy adjustment if.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
You need to.

Speaker 4 (01:06:20):
But he's really in tune with that stuff, and I
think he's such a different look compared to everybody else.
You just keep on somewhere. Everything's what the coaches are for,
right you know, if you guys have little dips, and
whether it's the hitting.

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
Coaches with the pitching coaches, coach them up. Man, we
know what's in there. We know what's in there with them.

Speaker 4 (01:06:38):
I we know when he's on.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
Top of his game.

Speaker 4 (01:06:41):
Previous two games he struck out twenty one in those
previous two games combined.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
That's in there, So coach him up. Let's get him
through a tough time or two.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
Coach him up. Baseball is usually the toughest one to
say that about. But hopefully between the analytics, the R
and D departments, obviously, the pitching coaches, the catchers, everybody else.
I'm on the pitching side, they might be able to
rectify the extreme inconsistencies they've gotten from tatsu Emi. We

(01:07:14):
talked about it a lot last week. In the simplest math,
that makes you probably the most angry. He's made twelve
starts for the Astros here in his Major League Baseball
rookie campaign, twenty five percent of them he's gotten four
outs or fewer three out of twelve. That is disastrous,
But Mike Burrows throws tonight. His contributions to the team,

(01:07:36):
or lack thereof, been a little bit different and not
nearly as tough to overcome. Get into that a little
bit and continue on our discussion as we get you
a little bit closer to Astros and Nationals five forty
five First pitch here on Sports Talk seven ninety the
A team on Sports Talk seven nineteen. Continue with our
previous discussion, as we just heard from Steve Sparks and

(01:08:00):
I'd seen from a couple of the Astros starting pitchers,
specifically the weekend outings Friday and Saturday, Spencerraghedtty and Hunter Brown.
The confidence from Araghetty and the lack of execution and
command from Hunter Brown. Hunter even echoed the same thing
after the game, although he was like everybody else marveling
at Jordan Alvarez, who homed early in late had six RBI,

(01:08:21):
hit two home runs, and for his work. Last week,
Major League Baseball announced the obvious. He's the American League
Player of the Week three three hit games. Half of
his games he had three hit games, drove in ten runs.
His OPS was over fourteen hundred. He didn't slug one thousand,
almost slug nine to fifty seven over the six game span.

(01:08:43):
And the other part of the conversation that I've had
with our listeners, probably for more than a year, but
much more definitively during this year, was brought up to
Steve about the Astros never having had any player like this,
and he talked at Jeff Bagwell deservedly about the work
that he had done and don't forget about him, and

(01:09:04):
I know it's been a while, and guy won MVP
Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, Bagwell's finest season was the
cut short season. But what he did that season, and
he did have a much higher batting average. He hit
over three to sixty that year partial year broke his
hand and then the season was canceled. He would have
missed a ton of time, probably the remainder of the

(01:09:25):
season with that broken hand. But the season that took place,
it goes on record, and he was exactly what jord
On is this season, extremely feared, and the question comes
up every key moment of every game, why are you
pitching to him? That was faced by the Rays at
the end of the game on Saturday night. Very nice

(01:09:46):
job by Jose Altuve in front of Alvarez to get
on base via the walk. They chose to pitch tow
Alvarez and the game ended because of it. Hit the
ball over the fence the dead center field looked. It's
like for his second maybe Cedric Mullins will be able
to chase it down and get up and over the
fence for it, but he couldn't. It was hit a
little bit further out of his reach. Not a particularly

(01:10:08):
tall outfielder, but I don't think there are any outfielder's
even Byron Buxton, who might have gone up there to
get it. And this is what he has done all season.
It's what he did in his rookie season. In between.
Some seasons have been a little bit better, some season
has been a little bit worse than a lot of
them have been impacted by injury. But what I've said
consistently for a while now and will continue to say it,

(01:10:29):
I'm open for discussion, but I firmly believe this He's
already and will go down as the best hitter to
ever put on an Astros uniform. He is today. He
doesn't need fifteen hundred, two thousand hits, he doesn't need
three hundred, three hundred and fifty home runs. It's over.
He's the best hitter the Astros I've ever had. He's

(01:10:50):
played there long enough for me to say that, you know,
there are very few people that you could even have
in the discussion with him, whether they were here longer
or even here a shorter period of time. He's the
best hitter that's ever put on an Astro's uniform. And
all he's going to do the rest of his career
is make it a non debate, make it an obvious
to everybody who's a Jose al Tuve fan, to who's

(01:11:13):
a Lance Berkman van a moist as a lou fan,
a Jeff Bagwell fan. Quite obviously. I don't think it'll
even be close. And just because say four hundred and
forty nine home runs for Jeff Bagwell ends up being
a higher total than jord On, I don't think it will,
but it could. When jord On Homer's on this road trip,
that'll be two hundred. He's sitting at one ninety nine.

(01:11:34):
He's not even halfway to Jeff Bagwell, although he could
be before the end of the season. If he pops
fifty home runs this year, he's going to be right
at about the halfway mark of Jeff Bagwell's all time
Astros record, and he is obviously in the Hall of Fame.
He could be one of the very very very few
Astro players that finishes his career if all things continue

(01:11:58):
going this well. With three hundred batting average right now,
he and Jose al Tuovey are about at the same spot.
Al twove is at three to oh one, Alvarez is
at two ninety nine, and two players who are here
for a much shorter period of time, Moises Alot and
Michael Brantley, have a better than three hundred average as
the Astros, but neither one of them played five hundred
games here as long standing members of the team. I

(01:12:22):
would want them to be that in order to put
in the conversation as in, I probably don't count Miguel
Tata as the fifth best hitter the Astros have had.
His two ninety eight batting average says that he is,
but I probably wouldn't consider him for that. Alvarez, Altuve, Bagwell, Berkman,
they were all here long enough that they would be
in that discussion, and deservedly so. But I just there's

(01:12:43):
nobody been been like jord On. He's got good postseason numbers,
They're not unbelievable, but they're very good. His regular season
numbers are essentially unparalleled, and to be doing what he's doing,
I do think he will join Jeff and Jose as
an MVP winner. He's going to do that this year.
I don't even know who the stiffest competition is for
him this year in the American League, because each of

(01:13:06):
the players competing with him to win the Triple Crown
are doing it and that's their one place they're doing it.
Nick Kurtz could go on some incredible run maybe and
get a little bit closer to Jordon. In some of
the other categories. He trails him in RBI by one
Junior Cameron Aro trails him and Homers by three and

(01:13:27):
one thousandth of a batting average point three twenty one
to three twenty is where YONDI Diaz leads Jordon. But
Diaz is not in the MVP conversation and then the
fact that he's a teammate of Cameron Arrows that probably
hurts Junior's case, but I think he has one. He
plays for the best team, and he's on an absolute heater,
and he's incredible and everything about him is MVP caliber.

(01:13:50):
Maybe in a season where Jordon's not playing, Arson Judge,
Aaron Judge, He's not in the conversation. He's not gonna
play enough games for anybody to truly consider him. And
if Ben Rice wasn't doing what he's doing, then the
Yankees wouldn't even be where they are, which is in
the midst of a long losing skid. By the way
we are, I don't know how much time we are
away from it, but we might be five or six

(01:14:11):
minutes away from Ronaldo no longer being in the World
Cup because in extra time Spain just went up one nothing.
We are your home for the World Cup here on iHeartRadio.
Could have some more action here with your team coming
up later should they advance a back to Jordon. I
don't think anybody is even competition for him. He's going

(01:14:33):
to win the MVP provided he plays the majority of
the remaining games, and he's gonna do so with the
season essentially rarely seen in Astro's history, and it's gonna
there's no reason for this to not continue because he's
not just this or that as a hitter. You watch
what Christian Walker has said and done as he has
been his teammate for the last year and a half.
If you missed it, Jabi er Gonzalez, who covers the

(01:14:55):
Astros really nicely at Astros coverage on social media, he
got had video of post celebration Jordon walk Off Homer Saturday.
Christian Walker had gone over to grab the bat that
the toothpick that Jordon had tossed aside. He picked it
up and he was, you know, cleaning it off, you
know as hitters do, underneath their arm with it, but

(01:15:16):
he's also rubbing it against his body, you know, trying
to get some batting luck. There's probably a few more
hits in there. Jordon doesn't need all the hits. Give
me some of these hits. And he even commented on
it Tavier after the game and he said, yeah, that's
what I was doing in a comical way. But his
teammates are marveling at him. The guys in the booth,
Steven and Jeff and Todd and Robert Garrett and Julie

(01:15:36):
and everybody involved in them. They're all marveling at him,
everybody because this is incredible, and each time these big
moments come up, he keeps coming through. The come from
behind win was probably the astros most important win of
the season, all things considered, best team in the American League,
down seven to two. He's had like four moments like this, Oh,
this was his MVP moment till his next MVP, and

(01:16:00):
there's going to be more. There's plenty of games left
for the Astros for him to have MVP moments, and
I don't think there are enough. The Astros playing the
last few years, this Golden Age, they made it hard
for other people to win MVPs because their team was
so much better than everybody else. But they had so
many guys contributing, you could still win. The Astros aren't
so bad this year, They aren't so far out of it,

(01:16:22):
because they're not out of it at all that that
would ever be counted against them. I don't believe Mike
Trout's been in the MVP discussion for years when his
team was terrible and the Astros aren't even terrible. They're
two and a half games out of the division lead,
they're one game out of the wild card, and anybody
can clearly win the American League this year. Who knows
what the Yankees will look like when we get there.

(01:16:43):
They've had a bunch of injuries recently, and shock, Carlos
Redon is among them. Now the Rays, you saw what
the Astros can do against them. I do think they
are the best team. And who are the Guardian's gonna
win the American League this year? Are the White Sox
gonna win or the Mariners? They're all and the Astros,
mainly because of jord On and the significantly improved pitching

(01:17:05):
they've had over the last forty one fifty to fifty
five games. The Astros are not only in it, They're
gonna have the MVP, They're gonna be one of the
division winners. And the magic is gonna continue for Astros
baseball into the postseason. Yet again, I cannot wait more
of that, A little bit more on the actual moves
made by the Rockets and what it means moving forward,

(01:17:26):
as the four o'clock hour begins next the way through
what would be a normal show, but much more than
halfway through of a show that is followed by Astros
Baseball in Washington, a five to forty five first pitch today,
tomorrow and Wednesday. So we will get you into Astros
coverage and just a little bit about it. Halfway through

(01:17:47):
this hour we will be in the Astros on Deck show.
I have a chance to hear a little bit more
from Steve Sparks and Astro's general manager Dana Brown from
his visit yesterday with Robert Ford on the Astros broadcast,
as he always does each and every Sunday before games.
We'll do that about half an hour. The Astros are
in action tonight, obviously, but not too many others that

(01:18:08):
matter in the division are. In fact, none that matter
in the division are the Astros are on, but the Athletics,
who now are in the midst of a big long
skid four wins behind Houston they are off, the Rangers
same number of wins as the Astros, forty five they
are off, and the division leading Seattle Mariners. They are

(01:18:30):
also off their series that will begin tomorrow as the
Astros continue with the Nationals. Mariners are at the Marlins.
Marlins made what I would consider very bad news yesterday.
The Rangers will play at home against the Angels, and
the Angels are doing the usual. They are fading very
very fast. Are now thirty six and fifty five real quickly.

(01:18:53):
Since I brought it up yesterday, the Marlins had something
special going on baseball. They love the special things that
fans can see kind of out of nowhere. That's what
was happening yesterday as they were taking on the Athletics.
I can't believe how the game finished, but it really
didn't have much to do with the story. The Marlins

(01:19:14):
put a couple runs on the Athletics over the first
couple of innings. They ended up with a six to
nothing lead through three, had an eight nothing lead through six,
and that same eight nothing lead through seven. But the
point of the story is they Athletics had not done
anything yet. So they'd sent twenty one batters to the plate,
and all twenty one had been retired in succession. Obviously,

(01:19:37):
Uri Perez was in the midst of a perfect game.
His final pitch of the bottom of the seventh inning
was pitched number ninety two. He had returned from the
injured list a couple of starts ago, made one rehab appearance,
but then his last three starts, including the one yesterday,
all made at the major league level, eighty six pitches
in his previous outing and ninety two in the one yesterday.

(01:19:58):
It was a hamstring injury that sent him into the
sidelines for about seven weeks. He is a recovering pitcher
from Tommy John surgery twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five.
The bulk of was missed because of his recovery from
Tommy John surgery, and he's a young pitcher with someone
they have high hopes for. It's eight nothing, He's thrown

(01:20:20):
ninety two pitches. He's six outs away from doing something
that very few pitchers in the history of the game
I've ever done. You can't go out by out the
rest of the way. You can't go, you know, batter
for batter. It's time to go hug him and say
that that you did what we needed today. Enjoy yourself here,
you know, revel in your Nobody's ever gonna remember this

(01:20:43):
start now because I've chosen to take you out of
the game. And I'm sure the pitching coaches had the
discussions along with the Marlins manager, but I don't I
know where we are in baseball. I know the picturing
injuries seem like they're out of control, and it is
very common. A whole two days before that, Spencer Araghetty

(01:21:06):
was taken out of a game after seventy three dominant pitches.
He gave up one homer, he gave up two hits,
he walked one. He was in total, utter control and
command of that game, and he was taken out after
seventy three pitches, and the Astros ended up losing three
to one. They were down, but they weren't down at all.
It was a one to one game when the Astros
bullpen stepped to the hill. In this particular game, you're

(01:21:29):
up by eight runs. You need six more outs. The
game is not in doubt, or it shouldn't be. You're
merely concerned about the future and the health of your pitcher.
But I don't know how you can I don't know
how anybody can agree with that that move. You know, CLAYT.
McColl is their manager. He's been around for just over
two hundred games as a manager. I just don't like

(01:21:52):
that at all. History is part of the game making.
History is part of what makes this game great. Memorable
moments and fans who were there in attendance, and Marlin's
fans worldwide who've gotten over the Derek Jeter era, deprived
of the opportunity to see even perfect games get broken up.
It's dramatic, it's exciting, usually not for necessarily what particularly

(01:22:14):
happened on that play, but just in that it did happen.
You know, give him five pitches, he's given up his
first hit, I made it seven and a third. Let's
go ahead and protect this young arm and head to
our bullpen now. Not given the opportunity to do that
at ninety two pitches, especially when clearly he's dominating eight
k's over the twenty one outs that he recorded. They're
just not a fan of that. I mean, he saves

(01:22:36):
himself with a tougher decision. If Perez had gotten three
more outs in succession and taken a perfect game into
the ninth inning, and now he's sitting at one hundred
and five or one hundred and eight or one hundred
and ten pitches, and that's usually the excuse. Well, he
was never gonna get there anyway, because we never would
have let him throw one hundred and five, one hundred
and eight and one hundred and fifteen pitches. I understand
all that too, just my opinion shared by many that

(01:23:00):
I would have liked to see it play out a
little bit longer than just seven innings. By the way,
the reliever of the start of the eighth inning did
not record an out and the final score was nine
to eight. They actually had to score in the top
of the ninth inning to prevent that game from going
to extra innings. The A's scored eight runs in the

(01:23:20):
eighth the ninth innings, but the Marlins won. Unbelievable. Baseball
history is fun. I think we should want to see
more of it. But that's the scene for Major League
Baseball hitting into tonight and it's a Burrows against a
Micholas start for the Astros and Nationals tonight. Braden Shoemake
now back on the roster, Reinel Delgado option back to

(01:23:42):
Triple A. Expectation is another move will be made by
the Astros in advance a Friday's game of an off
day on Thursday, and that move will get Jeremy Pana
back on the roster. They've made a ton of moves
this year out of necessity, out of lack of production
and clearly due to injuries. But they're forty five and
forty seven. They have the best record in the American League.
Over their last forty one games, they were twenty and

(01:24:04):
thirty one. They've since gone twenty five and sixteen. That
is the best mark during that span for any American
League team. It's actually a game and a half better
than anybody else. It's two wins more than anyone else.
That continues, and I see no reason for it not
to other than injuries. And remember, Carlos Korea did not
play in any of those most recent forty one games.

(01:24:24):
He'll continue to not play in any of the remaining
games for the Astros. They've played ninety two, they got
sixty to go, and he won't be out there for
any of them. Everybody else that at some point or
another or is currently on the injured list could potentially
play a role in the Astros performance the rest of
the way. Presumably that means it could be better. Oftentimes,

(01:24:48):
many times your replacement players aren't up to the level
of the players that are on the aisle, and Jeremy
Payne you being there currently probably sits at the top
of that list. What they get from Renel Blanco, what
they get from a return from Lance mccullors, what they're
gonna get from Javier, who's now just return. I don't know.
You don't know at what level those guys will be
able to pitch too. But presumably there's a reason why

(01:25:09):
this team has them as part of the roster, and
they all of them essentially have track records that suggest
something is better in the future. Lance mccullors and Christian
Javier obviously present more of a debatable point because their
recent history suggests otherwise. Their career history suggests they're very
good pitchers, their recent history which is probably much more
applicable to what might happen. Yes, that is something to consider.

(01:25:33):
A couple of minutes here before we hit this break
on what is a very important day, very busy day
around the NBA officially announced from the Miami Heat their
deal to send Jannisna to Cumpo, to add Jannisna to
Cumpo and send Tyler hero Khalel where Haimi Hakez and
other assets to the Milwaukee Bucks was announced. The good
byes from Brad Stevens and the Boston Celtics and the

(01:25:55):
Jalen Brown for I don't know what deal that Brad
Stevens orchestrated to I guess relieve their uncomfortable situation went down.
Quinton Post signed a restricted free agent deal with the Grizzlies.
You know, remember him, the guy who was absolutely terrible

(01:26:16):
against the Rockets as a rookie in the postseason two
seasons ago. He's a third year player and he got
ten million a season for three seasons from the Grizzlies.
The Warriors have until Tuesday to match I'm not imagining
they can or will if they still have designs on

(01:26:37):
not being a total non factor in the NBA next year.
If they're Big three next year with virtually nothing else
is Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler, then they
won't matter next year. They won't be in the mix,
they probably won't be healthy, and they will be wasting
or watching the final years of one of the better
players in the history of the league. Steph Curry just

(01:26:59):
go to waste or be done with without figuring it out.
The Lebron James angle to every team that doesn't know
what they're gonna do but thinks they can get better
by adding him. Saga probably not gonna end anytime soon,
and I'm like most people, I think he's gonna end
up back in Cleveland, but we will see warriors. I
think thought they could orchestrate a set of scenarios that

(01:27:21):
would have him there, possibly Anthony Davis there, although I
think both of those things will not happen. Rockets involvement
in other deals I think is still going to happen.
And with very little time left in this segment, which
I can talk as long as I want, but I
don't need to, I think twenty seconds twenty five seconds

(01:27:41):
is probably about enough time to get into the quote
unquote report that Kevin Durant is interested in joining Caid
Cunningham in Detroit. Come on, man, seriously, I know Kevin
Durants played for a lot of teams, and I know
he's like a lot of superstar James harden Man. As
soon as he gets here, it's like he wants to leave.

(01:28:03):
It's like it's not working out already. I'm aware of
what took place, probably with his teammates and his pension
for posting on the X platform, and the likelihood that
somebody else chose to make sure everybody could see what
he was talking about on his ex platform Burner account.

(01:28:23):
But he's not getting traded to Detroit this offseason. In
the final two years potentially of his NBA career, he's
not going to finish it out by playing two unsatisfying
seasons in Phoenix, one unsatisfying season that barely included the
playoffs because of his own injury in Houston, and two
seasons in Detroit. I'm not sure what Detroit wants to

(01:28:45):
give up for Kevin Durant. And yes, they have some
things the Rockets could be interested in. But the idea
that he and Albern Shangoun were both going to be
moved in a Jalen Brown deal to get Jalen Brown here,
and Kevin was gonna end up in Detroit all of
a sudden, somehow, from just one reporter would be reporter

(01:29:06):
someone who've constantly said, don't pay any attention to him.
That's where this comes from. So that's the amount of
attention I will pay to it. Opening Night will be
at an undetermined location and date. The NBA has yet
to release their schedule unless another injury occurs. Because Kevin
Durant is fully recovered from his playoff injuries, he will

(01:29:28):
be wearing number seven in these sweet new Rockets threads
on opening night for the Houston Rockets. Feel pretty confident
saying that, and I won't mind at all having to
come back on the radio and say I was wrong,
because they just don't think that's gonna happen. What else
can the Rockets do. That's for the next handful of
days and beyond. But Kevin Durant suiting up for the

(01:29:51):
Pistons as soon as the start of next year, Uh huh,
that ain't happening. Go Ext and Joh back here with you,
as we had set to transition to Astros on deck coverage.
It's just a few minutes. We'll do so here coming
up after this next break, but finishing some thoughts on
both the Astros, the Rockets, and the NBA at large here.
This segment didn't get into any NFL chatter today, but

(01:30:14):
we'll do so tomorrow with some thoughts on what people
think about the roster of the Texans, specific to their
skill positions, specific to the wide receiver, and maybe overall
that you may not agree with, but that stuff out
there trade deadline talk with the astros'll also talk a
little bit more about tomorrow as it relates to Jeremy
Pania and as it relates to incoming talent, very interesting

(01:30:38):
to the players that have been at least reportedly available
and possible targets for the Houston Astros. And I'll tell
you all about that. Like I said, a little bit
more on tomorrow's program, same setup with a five to
forty five first pitch for the Astros tomorrow in Washington.
Hopefully tomorrow the Astros will be playing to reach five hundred.
The Astros started the year at home. They had a

(01:31:01):
four game series with the Angels, which they somehow only split,
and then they won three straight from the Boston Red Sox.
The Astros were five and two, and then they were
six and six. Handful of games into that awful road
trip to start the year. They've never been five hundred
since they were five hundred twelve games into the season.

(01:31:22):
They were above five hundred eleven games into the season.
They haven't been near either of those marks since because remember,
once they got to six and six, they then piled
on five more losses in a row, a one to
nine road trip still stinging the Astros from six and
eleven to now forty five and forty seven hunder Brown

(01:31:43):
is back, but not quite pitching like an ace. Josh
Hater is back. He's actually pitching like the best closer
in baseball, and that's why he has very very quickly
racked up nine saves and has been almost unhittable. I
put a runner on last night via walk and then
retired the next hitters, including the two of the final
three via a strikeout, and the Astros were able to

(01:32:04):
close out yet another shutout behind Peter Lambert winning two nothing,
and it got him to within two games of five
hundred three with Washington and three with Texas to close
out the pre All Star Game portion of their schedule.
If they stay in turn and have a five man rotation,
which is not a given but a likelihood, one more

(01:32:26):
start for everybody except for Tonight's starter Mike Burrows, who
would be lined up for two tonight and then Sunday,
with the off day Thursday coming up on the finale
in Arlington, and I think with the day off, that's
most likely where they'll go. Christianavier obviously works into it
somehow if something went very poorly with one of their starters,

(01:32:47):
maybe tomorrow night's starter Tots who EMI starts Tomorrow night,
and Spencer Araghetty, who is fantastic on Friday night. He
makes the start on Wednesday, the off day, and then
of course Brown and Lambert again the first two starts
of what should be a per important series against the Rangers.
The Rangers are one of the two teams there's only
two teams in the division that I think are still
in the race because the Athletics just simply aren't going

(01:33:09):
to be able to win with their ballpark situation and
their pitching situation. Because of it, they can't keep teams
from scoring runs. I spent quite a few minutes last
segment talking about the Marlins game. Just of note, the
Marlins had sixteen hits and scored nine runs. The game
was played in West Sacramento. You don't win games when
you can't keep the other team from scoring. When the
Athletics are at home, they cannot keep the other team

(01:33:32):
from scoring sixteen hits, seven walks. As a miracle, they
only gave up nine runs in that game, and even
though they scored eight of their own. It's a lot
like what the Astros were doing at the beginning of
the season. Plenty of runs to be scored, but they
couldn't keep the other team from scoring at all. I
put out some numbers on the Astros earlier today via
social media as I keep mentioning this stretch of games,

(01:33:54):
when they went fifteen to ten. Through that stretch of
twenty five games to begin what I thought would be
a season changing one hundred four sets of twenty five,
they went fifteen to ten. Just keep replicating that and
you win the division. Well, they've gone twenty five and
sixteen now since that fifteen to ten stretch started, and
they're on their way to doing that, winning at least
five more than they lose over each twenty five. But

(01:34:16):
during those last forty one games, it's a little bit
more noteworthy than that as you compare them to the
rest of the league, because they've outplayed the rest of
the league. They're a game and a half better than
anyone in the American League during that time. They've hit
more home or they are tied for the most home
runs hit during that time. They're fourteenth in batting average.
There's only fifteen teams in the American League. They're about

(01:34:39):
halfway up that chart in ops and a little bit
higher and run scored number one in homers second to
last in batting average. It's very Yankee like. That's what
the Yankees have been doing for years. Nobody can get
it on base, but they every time they do, they
hit a homer and bring them home or in the
Astros case, a few too many solo home runs but

(01:35:00):
game winner the other night to run shot Jrron's got
three Grand Slams since the beginning of July. Be nice
if they had a little bit more traffic via the
hit and put pitchers in a little bit more trouble
because of that. They still don't walk enough to offset that,
but first in homers. As they've been the best team
in baseball for the best team in the American League

(01:35:23):
over the last forty one games. The pitching is very similar.
They've given up the second fewest hits, they have the
second best batting average allowed, but they're nowhere near the
top of the era because they walk too many hitters,
they hit too many hitters, and they've given up the

(01:35:43):
second most home runs during that time. They've kept guys
off base well enough because nobody's hitting them that they've
managed to win more than they lose. If they just
stopped walking hitters. As a team, a little bit more consistently.
Everything else they're doing suggests this is the run they're
going to be on. It's not going to be a
ten out of eleven or an eight or nine game

(01:36:05):
winning streak, which has eluded them all season, nothing close
to it. But they're winning two out of three every
three days. They're winning four out of six every six gays,
They're winning eight out of twelve, on and on and
on and again. Turtle, tortoise and hair. They're going to
win the race. Even playing like that. It's definitely worth noting, though,
as he was just named Player of the Week Jordon

(01:36:25):
Alvarez for his week. This is what Jordan's done during
that forty one game stretch where the Astros have outplayed
every team in the American League. He is first in
just these categories home runs and runs and hits and
RBI and batting average and on base percentage and slugging

(01:36:46):
percentage and OPS and a lot of other extended advanced
numbers surly OPS plus among them. Not anybody there is
nobody doing what he's doing this year, not over the
entire season, not over the last forty five days, not
in the last forty one games, just keep pitching to him.

(01:37:09):
The question was asked, why would the Astros be pitching
to junior Cameron Ero, especially when he was batting third
with no other good hitters after him. Issach Peretis has
hit a lot better over the last four weeks than
he had at the beginning of the season. It's providing
enough protection if he's in the three hole, which over
the last handful of days he's been back in that
spot with Walker batting fourth. The teams are still pitching

(01:37:31):
tow yord On not leaving the league in one category walks.
He's walked a lot, and he is number one in
intentional walks, but they're still pitching to him, and he's
in one of those grooves again. He's been in a
good groove all season. This current groove with three three
hit games over his last six is another special special time.

(01:37:53):
More of that, among other things, a recap of their
win yesterday, thoughts from Steve Sparks and Dana Brown, and
all the parts of the Astros on Deck show we
will get into when we come back on the other
side the ag on Sports Talk seven ninety