Start Spreading The News...Bronx Bye Bye Bombers STILL STINK

Wex and AC hit you on a Thursday with conversations of the departure of the Yankees from the playoffs, plus inishgt on the recent changes to the Astros coaching staff eith Chandler Rome from The Athletic. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised my Earl
Nolan got a multed by the magnificent roller coaster ride
that is Houston Sports chill lage down for the only

(00:24):
homegrown afternoon team is Talking Your Teams.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
A Welcome in to a Thursday edition of the A Team.
It is Sports Talk seven ninety Ac wex called Thompson

(00:55):
with you taking you until six o'clock tonight. Got a
lot to get to on the program, and even more
than maybe we thought we would, even just a few
minutes ago, or you know, several minutes ago, let's put
it that way. Thought I'd come in here probably the
first thing off the top of me to talk about
Kevin Durant's debut last night for the Rockets. But then

(01:16):
the Astros decided to start cleaning house, and it kept
going and it's kind of snowballed, and so at this
point you're looking at like basically the entire coaching staff
not named Joe Aspoda, and the head athletic trainer and
the assistant GM no longer being with the Houston Astros.

Speaker 4 (01:33):
Did I miss anybody? I probably did I mean basically
the entire coaching staff. Well, yeah, I mean anybody that really,
really really counts. I mean, I'm not gonna is the
third the pitching coaches count?

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Oh yeah, is the Is the third base coach still
gonna give the windmill?

Speaker 4 (01:50):
I think they're not going to fire him, but I
don't think he'll be standing outside of the third base
pillow anymore personally?

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Is it a pillow? Once it gets bigger, they may
change the size of the bases. Is that when it
became a pillar?

Speaker 4 (02:01):
Astros have indicated that the hitting coaches will no longer
be needed for this upcoming season, at least those particular
hitting coaches Alex Centron and Troy Snitker have told Andrew Ball,
one of the assistant GMS, that he will also not
be asked to work for the Astros moving forward. Same
thing for head athletic trainer Jeremiah Randall, Brian McTaggart, Chandler Rome.

(02:23):
Reporting on all those items. Michael Collins, one of their
major league coaches who specifically over the years has worked
with the catchers, also not coming back. So that is
a pretty significant portion of the coaching staff under Joe
Aspata employees have employed this past season to pitching coaches,
to hitting coaches, a bench coast, a first and third

(02:45):
base coach, and four other coaches that deserved to various
responsibilities along the Astros bench and centron snitker Michael Collins
among that group not coming back. That's pretty significant chunk
of It doesn't necessarily mean that all the changes in
terms of who's outgoing have already been complete. Probably is

(03:07):
the case, but over the course of the day we
may find out otherwise. Maybe some reassignments. Certainly some outside
coaches I would expect to be brought in rather than
just looking simply in the system. I think they're highly
respectable people in their system, and some of them may
land major league coaching positions under Joe Aspota. But this
was not necessarily picking which names they were. But this

(03:28):
should have been one hundred percent expected. It was just
mentioned yesterday right here between two and six on the
A team, the Astros were not going to be returning
their coaching staff intact. Joe Aspota obviously is under contract,
Dana Brown, both of them are going to be back
for this upcoming season, and now we know both of
them are making changes to those that help them do

(03:49):
their jobs very very very very much expected and unfortunately
some people who've been with the organization for a long
period of time. All three of those coaches on the
Astros bench or in their bullpen have been with the
team for a long time. Centron's first coaching position, he
was originally hired helping out as an interpreter, but not
long after was on the coaching staff, coincided with Joe

(04:12):
spottas first season in twenty eighteen, and now Joe continues
Alex does not. Troy Snicker probably has a tremendous amount
of connectivity around Major League Baseball considering his family's name,
although now both he and his dad, unforeseen maybe are
not working. His dad retired, has a position for himself

(04:35):
in the Braves organization, which is the only organization he's known,
And now I think Troy Snicker probably is a Major
League Baseball team employee moving forward, just not here.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Well, I think, and you know this, this is interesting because,
like we were talking about with Brian McTaggart yesterday, and
like we will in all likelihood discuss with Chandler Rome
coming up at the bottom of the hour, you have
to factor in the Astros' injuries into twenty twenty five.
But I think some of the things that were happening

(05:07):
this year, regardless of who was or wasn't available in
the lineup from a hitting perspective, were happening in twenty
twenty four when you were a lot more healthy than
you were in twenty twenty five. And those types of
things happening two seasons in a row, even if the
people at the Helm were the same people that were
there for a majority of this Golden Era, and even

(05:28):
a championship season in twenty twenty two in some cases,
like what types of things, well, the not being able
to get runners home but getting them on, I don't
know if that's going to be pointed too well. We
know what's being pointed to. After these decisions have been made,
right or wrong. You're holding them, You're pointing to them

(05:48):
as being a part of the fault.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
Yeah, the fault is the Astros don't do anything that
they should do, and every other team pretty much other
than the Yankees does. It's one of the reasons why
the Yankees are at home. It's one of the reasons
why the astra are at home. We're not asking you
to create hits. You can't make major leaguers get hits.
You can't coach them to say, man, you didn't get
a hit. What's wrong with you? I told you to
get a hit. Why didn't you get a hit? I'm
your hitting coach. We spent all this time, and I

(06:12):
said the whole time, for all thirty minutes, get a hit,
over and over over again. Then you didn't. You don't
have to swing from your heels on nine hundred and
ninety nine percent of your swings, and too many of
them in this organization have been doing that at the
major league level, and it prevents you from It makes
it harder to score runs. Your score runs only when
you get hits. Multiple hits, back to back to back

(06:34):
to back hits, station to station is something they just
don't do very often, because two strike hittings doesn't seem
like a thing with the Astros, and it sounded pretty
clear from Dana Brown it was supposed to be. You're
not trying to take hitters who've done something for ten
years and tell them to do something totally differently. You're
trying to tell major league hitters in these situations two

(06:55):
strike counts. Runner on second tie game in the eighth, ninth, tenth,
eleventh inning. That runner cannot still be at second base
when you come back to the dugout. It just can't happen,
and too often it did. It's something that shouldn't happen
for a team as talented as they are. Usually means
they're talented with the bat too. And again I'll point
to the crew that was behind the MIC's last night

(07:16):
for the Blue Jays Yankees game. Don't worry, We've got
lots of Yankees coverage for you today, the first day
of their offseason, full first day of their offseason, which
began last night. But Miles Straw, of all people, a
former astro, what he did in last night's game is
what you just saw so remarkably infrequently from this team. Again,

(07:41):
while they were super successful, How much complaining should you do?
How much looking back at well, why didn't we do that?
I mean, they're winning, they've been winning so much. I
think a lot of the stuff that could have maybe
still helped them anyway, we didn't look at But he
stuck his bat out and hit a baseball. He really didn't.
He barely made contact with it. He just made sure
he didn't miss it, he hit it at extremely low

(08:01):
velocity and just put it in the right place, happen
to go over the second basement in front of the
right fielder, and you scored an extra run. It's just
the simple things. And the Astros have enough batters in
their lineup in twenty twenty five that are Miles Straw esque.
Because of the injuries, those players should have been asked
to do that a lot more often. Granted they're not
usually as talented. We get it, but this was not

(08:23):
not a surprise that the Astros decided that they just
need to do something differently when they're at the plate
with their major league caliber hitters. They're All Star caliber hitters.
So the lineup they could put out there next year
could be former All Star leading off, followed by a
former All Star hitting second, followed by a former All
Star hitting third, followed by a former All Star hitting fourth,
and on and on and on. They have some talented players,

(08:45):
and they just need to do more with them. Even
if they're not hitting two fifty or two seventy or
two eighty, and even if they're ops is slightly under
seven hundred, there's more to be done with the players.
They did have on base throughout this season, last season,
and really even the year, and we'll see what they
have in mind for who these hitting coaches are. Again,
I would expect at least one of them not to

(09:06):
be in the system already somewhere in the Astros organization.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, I just I think after a season like this,
I mean, any season where you come up wolfully short,
which for the Astros this was not even making the
postseason for the first time since twenty sixteen. That's that's
woefully short given what their expectations have been for the
better part of a decade. But when you factor in
the amount you know, MLB record amount of injuries, it's

(09:34):
it's harder, I think, to just say, all right, well
we're going to fire a bunch of people and hope
that that changes everything.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
Well, firing the athletic head athletic trainer is one of
those reasons. And again will point this out as many
times as I feel it's necessary, and I still feel
it's necessary. You're not firing your head athletic trainer and
probably a big chunk of the staff along with it
because players got hurt. Now it may be part of it.
Strength and conditioning, what you're trying to do for an
injury prevention standpoint, And believe me, you guys, I'm sure

(10:02):
aware of this. Major League Baseball, NBA, NFL teams they
all have things in place, systems in place, programs in place,
processes in place for injury prevention. They all do it.
Everybody does is some teams are lucky and do it
a little bit better than others. And when you have
a rash of injuries, we've seen the Texans do this.
I think it was silly, but I get it. They
had a rash of injuries and they let their entire

(10:24):
strength training staff go. And I don't know that it
was their fault, but they certainly took a lot of
the heat for it. And that's probably part of it here.
But I still think it's on the other side of
the injuries. After the injuries happened, you could not have
been happy with how their athletic training staff, their medical
staff handled everything. And it wasn't just twenty twenty five.
It's been a much much longer period of that. I
think it's going back prior to this GM and Dana

(10:46):
Brown's entering year four, so it's a long long time
of mishandling the program, mishandling the return to play procedures.
Too many players would be gone for far, far longer
than other players the similar injury, other players in the
years past with similar situations, and you know, guys going
out to the field when they clearly shouldn't be. Guys

(11:07):
going out and taking BP, but you hadn't done enough imaging,
so you're sending a guy to take BP with a
broken hand. You know, Jake Myer's going out to center
field and hurting himself before the game starts because he
already had a calf injury that clearly wasn't ready for
play yet. So whatever means necessary to prevent that from happening,
they weren't happening. This was the most obvious move of

(11:30):
them all. And again not all their fault for all
of the things that happen, but if you can't handle
the things after they happen, then it's time to move on.
And the Astros have finally done that.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
Yep, And we will discuss Like we said with Chandler
Rome at the bottom of the hour, we'll talk a
little bit more about this subject in the next segment
as well, because well, when there's so many to choose from.
You can really kind of dissect the reasons. And not
only that, I don't know who the replacements will be,

(11:58):
but that's a huge part of assuming that with health
the Astros just bounce back next season. I don't know
that they will, but you know, who they hire in
these positions is going to play a big role in that,
just as much as you know, having a fully healthy roster,
regardless of who's still there and who moves on.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
And we know who some of those names are. But
I digress.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
We'll get to all that mentioned Channeler Rum at the
bottom of the hour, Katie's debut last night, and oh yeah,
Week six of the NFL begins tonight. All that more
on a Thursday edition of the show.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
It's the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety AC and wex
with you on a Thursday edition of the show along
with Cole Thompson Scott spread Yeah.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
Talking a little bit of everything today, obviously the Astros
making changes. You mentioned that the situation with the Rockets.
You got to see Kevin Durant for the first time,
you personally, and everybody that was in attendance, everybody that
was washing on Space City Home Network as well. It
is a big deal, as evidenced by the recently released
annual NBA dot Com GM survey, which we'll definitely want

(13:13):
to dig in on a little bit of how it
relates to the Rockets and how it relates to some
of what we talked about yesterday during Wednesday's BS. We're
all back here together again and everyone's calm, so we'll
try to keep it that way when we get into
that survey. But a lot of people figured the acquisition
of Kevin Durant would be a pretty sizeable one in
terms of taking a team from one level to the next.

(13:34):
The Rocket's ware a playoff level team. When you don't
win a playoff series, that's about as high praise as
I can give you. Even finishing second in the West.
You know, team in number two spot, Houston won fifty
two games. Other teams that were in the playoffs and
didn't win series, we're in the forty seven range. Very
very little difference between two and three and four and
six and seven and eight and on down the line.

(13:54):
But if you don't win in the playoffs, then there's
a big step to take, and you don't add Kevin
Durant to take a small step. They're not trying to
win a playoff series this year. They're trying to win
all of their playoff series, all four of them. There's
off opportunities by weeks in the NBA, they're trying to
win every single one of them. Little glimpse of what
the offense might look like with what probably will be

(14:16):
the group that he's playing with quite a few minutes.
I think there's still some question about who the fifth
starter will be, But a lot of what Kevin Durant
is going to do for this team isn't really predicated
on whether or not Reed Shepherd is on the floors.
Is he playing alongside Jabari Smith Junior and then Thompson
and alprin Shoon for a ton of his rotation minutes
certainly at the beginning of games and then clearly at

(14:37):
the end of games, which they don't do during the preseason.
The end of games in the preseason, or for the
guys trying to say, hey man, you definitely want me
on your G League team because I'm going to show you.
But we sure saw a lot of good things from
the Rockets, their ability to play through a new point
guard who's tall and from Turkey. A new point guard

(14:58):
who's tall and has a twin in the NBA, it
doesn't really matter where it's coming from, but they realize
they have players that can create for others, and Kevin
Durant I think will also become one of those players.
He also scored with extreme ease. He could have gone
ten for ten, He could have gone three for ten.
The other team wasn't preventing his makes or missus missed

(15:20):
his first three, made his last seven shots in a row,
a cool, comfortable, casual, smooth, twenty points on ten shots.
All five of his free throws dropped. I'm not sure
what people were expecting him to look like in a
Rockets uniform, playing with those caliber of teammates and their
particular skill sets. It's what I expected, and I couldn't

(15:42):
like it much more than I did.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
You know, I can't remember if it was Cole or
Josh before the show that was talking about how it
didn't even look like he was moving fast, and all
of a sudden boom, he's at the rim.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
I'm like, well, well, yeah, a sudden boom throwdown well,
and my immediate he was, yeah, he can still dunk,
unlike the player who his former teammate was we were
talking about yesterday. Yeah, well he just doesn't. He just doesn't.
But I mean thirty seven year old dunkers like Jeff
Green last year. Think about what the crowd does when
Jeff dunks. Well, that's because he's old. He's the same age,
he's been in the league the same amount of time.

(16:12):
He is a toucholder, but he's not averaging twenty six. No,
he's not.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
And the strides that Kevin Durant makes are the big
This is like Jordan running the bases.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
Gosh, he's fast.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
Well, yeah, it helps when you're like six foot six
or seven feet. In this case, he.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
Only has two bases left in his the remainder of
his major league career. To get hurt on he's been
hurt sliding into second, don't do that, and he's been
hurt running across home plate. We just put his foot
on backwards. He's running hard and he went right across
the dish. Who knew stepping on a dish was so hazardous? Well,
it is when the stupid umpire doesn't keep it from

(16:47):
being slick.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
It was his fault.

Speaker 4 (16:49):
Rockets got in and out of last night's game, as
usually as the case during the preseason, without issue, we'll
find out what he may has in mind for the
two road games next week. They will leave Houston for Birmingham, Alabama,
for a Tuesday night game against the Pelicans, lovely this
time of year, and then they'll make their way to
see the Hawks for a second time, this time in Atlanta.

(17:11):
That is a week from tonight, and then the preseason
is over Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday off and then October
twenty first, their first game of the season, the first
game of the NBA season, and some clarity on what
he intends e May intends to do the start games,
and as the season progresses, we'll find out what he
intends to do to finish games. And I don't think

(17:32):
that will be set for quite some time and maybe
not at all, and it'll be a little bit based
on matchups and nightly impact from certain players. Jabari Smith
Junior is someone we probably don't mention enough because of
all the other things going on. There's a big three,
Kevin Durants got here. We're expecting big things from Alpi,
a big jump forward, maybe most improved type of player
on the court in a men. But I can't help

(17:54):
but absolutely love the Rockets getting I don't think it's
happened in all four beginning of games and meaning first half,
second half, but it's happened three times right out of
the gate to open each game and last night to
open the third quarter, Jabari Smith Junior behind the three
point line, splash.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
Guess who found him both times? Well, actually, I'm not
sure about.

Speaker 4 (18:15):
That offensive rebound and he had two actually to start
the game in Atlanta. It's just the the Rockets are
different in this major way this year versus last year,
just simply because of Kevin Durant and the skill set
of your big three, wide open shots for a player
who's going to make them, Jabari Smith Junior. They are

(18:36):
going to be there all day, every day, all season long.
And a monster three point shooting season is a request
from me. I'm not guaranteeing it on you, but I
certainly think it can happen.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
It's just terrifying to think about no drop off defensively
and an increase in three point shooting that is significant.
That's the recipe for knocking out. It's not oh been
built to beat the defending Champs. I mean in this
case it's the thunder and not the Warriors. But and
by the way, we got to talk about that Ringer
article that Darryl Moury shared on his Facebook page if

(19:10):
he hadn't seen in other places, Oh my.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
Gosh, Facebook, Sorry you don't. Yeah, but you realize Best
of X almost never includes Facebook because I never said it. Yeah,
but that's a problem other people. Yeah, other people do.
That's why I was just acknowledging that I didn't see.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, I don't do it as much as I used
to either. But yeah, it's we'll get to that a
little bit. But no, just real quickly. Jeremiah has got
to be the least surprising of all the firings, given
what happened last year and the way it happened, right,
I mean, I know it is.

Speaker 4 (19:41):
Yeah, I said that in the opening setting. It is
to me, and I think there's still a split in
duties that has to be recognized. It's not doctor Jeremiah Randall.
He's the head athletic trainer and runs the you know,
all the things that they're doing and the performance aspect
of it. He works with the players every single day.
He works through their rehab program. But he's also not
the one doing all of the medical diagnosing. He's diagnosing

(20:06):
things when a player has to take their glove off
because they've been hit on the finger. He's diagnosing them
when they're limping down to first But then you move
on to the imaging specialists and the doctors and everyone
handling those types of things. So firing Jeremiah Randall has
not solved their problems. I think it's helped with one
very very significant problem, and that's kind of the department

(20:27):
in general. But the doctors involved in some of this
are there's going to be some issue with how they've
diagnosed things, how they've suggested the program for rehabilitation must go.
You go under the knife for Tommy John surgery.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
You're not.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
They're setting out saying, all right, procedures done by They
have a plan in place which they convey to the
people that work for the astros that make sure this
is what we recommend and we want to see him
again here, And there's just too much involved for them
to just think. And I don't think they think this
Jeremiah Randall out perfect. We're all set now. It's far
from that.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
No, But I will say this, I think the days
of discomfort are over.

Speaker 4 (21:06):
But think about it. Who do you think was pushing
that narrative that word. I hate that word. I know,
and I really don't. I mean, I don't want to
say I don't understand the hatred for it. But the
vast majority of the times the word discomfort would come
from the team would be the immediate night of commentary
mentioned during the broadcast because it just happened, right, You

(21:30):
don't know the specifics of it. You don't want to
get into the specifics of it before you know the
specifics of it. It is an easy crutch, but it's
used all over the place, all over the league. It's discomfort.
And when we get more things done, and when he's
slept on it, when we get back and we look
at it again, we'll give you a little bit more. Now,
the giving us a little bit more. It didn't come
until part of the way through the season. And that's
clearly something that I think whomever is hired will be

(21:52):
uh weary. A nudge you say, we're gonna steer clear
from the path we have taken in the past, because
it helped absolutely nobody didn't help. The players, didn't help
the team, didn't help us and certainly did not help
our fans.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
Well, we'll get to that more in depth because I
don't want to take any time away from our next
segment with Chandlerome of the Athletic. He's going to join
us about all the moving and shaking going on inside
the Astros organization.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
That is straight ahead the A team on Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (22:32):
It is the A team Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Wex ac Cole Thompson with you on a Thursday edition
of the program and joined as promised by Chandler Ome
of the Athletic.

Speaker 4 (22:43):
So, Chandler, I don't think that I don't.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
Think a lot of these moves the Astros made are
surprising so much as the fact that maybe we weren't
expecting all of them to be made this offseason. Is that,
like A Is that a fair assessment of what's gone
on with all of these if you will.

Speaker 5 (23:02):
Well, I think you had to know changes were coming,
especially when you know they can paint it how they want.
But taking a week to decide whether you're going to
bring your manager or GM back, that's the first sign
that things are Probably there's some uneasiness and some tension
and some things that need to be resolved in the organization.

(23:22):
So once I made the decision that Dana Brown and
Joe Spott were going to continue in their roles, you know,
you kind of knew that they couldn't just run it
back as it was both on the personnel side and
you know, on the coaching staff and the staff side.
So you know, I've kind of said my piece about
the offense and about hitting coaches in general. You know, look,

(23:45):
they have a lot of guys on the team that
swing a lot. They have a lot of guys on
the team that chase outside the strike zone a lot.
They have a lot of guys with a similar offensive profile.

Speaker 6 (23:54):
And when they got.

Speaker 5 (23:56):
Hit with a bunch of injuries this year to the
guys that are not that profile, you saw what happened.
So you know, is it is bringing in two new
hitting coaches going to just completely revitalize the offense.

Speaker 6 (24:09):
I don't believe.

Speaker 5 (24:10):
So I think maybe what I've took more from the
moves today is you know, you look at Troy Snicker,
Alex Sintron, Michael Collins, and Jeremiah Randall, even the head trainer.
You know, they've all been with the team since at
least twenty eighteen.

Speaker 6 (24:26):
It's a it's a group that is very much the same.

Speaker 5 (24:29):
Like, not much has changed here other than, you know,
the couple managers and the GM office has changed, but
the coaching staff and the philosophies and the voices have
stayed the same. I wonder, honestly, if they were just
looking to shake it up a little bit, like see
if a different voice, see if you know, a different
set of eyes, a fresh set of eyes can maybe
help them unlock some stuff. But you know, that's kind

(24:52):
of the main thing I took away from it. I'm
not sitting here saying that they're going to go hire
two hitting coaches and they're going to lead the league
ops next year. It's more than that, Like, it's not
just as that bunch of a quick fix and.

Speaker 4 (25:04):
The other part of it with that, you are who
you are, and these are the players that were acquired
over the years or developed over the years. How much
I'm very hesitant to blame hitting coaches the ones that
get fired mid season, it's even worse, it's it's usually
not on them for the vast majority of the issues
that you have. But is it more about and I
talked about this last second. It's just more about situational

(25:25):
hitting decisions made with the bat that even hitters who
have a certain profile can adapt to two strike hitting,
hitting behind runners, making more contact things like that.

Speaker 5 (25:37):
I mean, sure they can implement all these you know,
new philosophies and new rules and and things like that
of doing stuff different when two strikes, doing stuff different
when they're second, third.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
One out.

Speaker 5 (25:48):
But at the end of the day, like the hitting
coaches aren't going up there and like actually executing, they
can say all they want, Like my pushback this whole
time has been do you guys not think that Troy
Snicker or alexin Tron like sat yin ideas down at
one point, like hey, you need to stop chasing it
everything outside the strike zone, or like they've sat people
down and like they know what these guys as shortcomings are.

(26:09):
It's just it didn't get fixed. And I don't know
how much of that you can put on the player.
I don't know how much of that you put on
the coach. I think there's a fair serving of both
that deserve blame. But yeah, I mean I don't think
it's the worst thing in the world to get some
new sets of eyes in here and to get some
new you know, just maybe some language and some lingo

(26:30):
in some way of doing things.

Speaker 6 (26:31):
That they just haven't been accustomed to.

Speaker 5 (26:33):
Because, like I said, this is a group, a coaching
staff group that has been together for a very very
long time. And I'm not gonna sit here and say
complacency setting, because I don't.

Speaker 6 (26:43):
Believe it did at all.

Speaker 5 (26:44):
Like they are not a complacent group. But when you
keep having the same message and when you keep preaching
the same thing, you know, sometimes it can get a
little bit stale. And I'm not saying that happen in
this situation, but I do think it can be beneficial
to just have a different voice and to have maybe
a different way of looking at things.

Speaker 4 (27:02):
What's the line or what's the balance between the department
that Jeremiah Randall is running, the athletic training staff and
everybody that's under his watch and his day to day
duties and handling the injuries and then the coming back
from injuries, and the actual medical staff and the doctors
and those doing the imaging and making the diagnosis and
things like that, Because there's more to it than just
it's all by no means is it all on Jeremiah.

Speaker 5 (27:25):
Oh no, it's not. It's not It's not just all
on Jeremia Randall. This is like a holistic problem that
you know, they've probably made some changes. They probably made
some changes in the season that we don't even know
about and we probably will never know about, just in
terms of like how they do different things, and maybe
in terms of imaging, in terms of you know, timelines
of how they maybe they're you know, they're standards of

(27:47):
care of how they take care of certain injuries. I'm
sure they've made some changes. To put it all on
the athletic trainer is misguided, but you know, I do
think again, it's the same Jeremia Randall been with the
team for twenty fifteen, he spent ten years as their trainer. Like,
I don't think medicine has I mean, I'm sure medicine
has evolved a little bit since then.

Speaker 6 (28:08):
You know, I'm not a doctor, so.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
I don't want to play one on the radio, but
I'm sure like methods and ways of doing.

Speaker 6 (28:13):
Things that's been different in those ten years.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
And again, maybe a different set of eyes, a different
set of you know, voice, a different voice would help.
But This is not just to fire the trainer and
everything's fixed like they've again, and just in the same way,
like like firing the hitting coaches is not just a
fix like they've This is there's more to it, Like

(28:36):
they've got to evaluate personnel, they've got.

Speaker 6 (28:38):
To evaluate roster construction, they've got to.

Speaker 5 (28:39):
Evaluate processes of return to play things like that, maybe
the strength staff.

Speaker 6 (28:44):
You look at the.

Speaker 5 (28:45):
Strength of conditioning, kind of what they're giving these guys
to do in the off season. Like it's a holistic
thing here that's not just going to get solved by
one or two names departing.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
Well, we're talking about all of the departures, and you
mentioned the first, I guess wave of information coming from
inside the Astros organization is that there would not be
a change at GM and there would not be a
change at manager. Your thoughts on those positions staying where
they're going to be, and also how much does the
assistant GM factor into you know, that decision and everything

(29:17):
moving forward and what's going to end up end up
being a very pivotal and interesting offseason. It seems like
we always say that, but this one really feels like
that's going to be the case.

Speaker 5 (29:25):
Look, I'm here to say for the last week and
a half, there's been a lot of uncertainty in that
building as to who was going to continue in roles.
There was a lot of uncertainly about Dana Brown's future,
a lot of uncertainly about Joe Spotts future.

Speaker 6 (29:37):
This was not a situation.

Speaker 5 (29:39):
Where they just like, oh, like everyone's you know, they're
making too much out of this, like like no, no, no, no,
Like there were people in the building that did not know,
and it was up to you know, the one person
that has authority over everything over there, and you know,
Jim Crane decided that he wants to keep both of
those guys. They both are under contract through twenty twenty six.

(29:59):
I think the interesting thing now that you know they
have to hire at least three coaches, you know, Joe
spot As contract is only through twenty twenty six. Like
you kind of get into the college football recruiting thing.
Remember how you like Lane Duck coaches can never recruit
right because you'll get negatively recruited and things like that.

Speaker 6 (30:19):
Like I do.

Speaker 5 (30:20):
Wonder how that's going to impact their search for coaches,
Like how many coaches you know want to come work
for a manager that's only under contract for one year.
So there's a lot of layers here, and it's you know,
maybe just scratching the surfaces to you know, some things
that are going on. But yeah, I mean they've you know,
they're under contract, and it didn't surprise me just in

(30:43):
a vacuum that they both came back because I think
I've talked about it on here. You know, I don't
think you can blame either of those guys specifically for
this team not missing, for this team not making the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (30:53):
But there was.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
Certainly some some some tense days over there within the
last week.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
You were asking him about you know, I don't know
who would come to work for a lame duck manager.
I would say a very ambitious coach if they want
to look at it as an opportunity, I guess, right.

Speaker 6 (31:10):
I mean sure, but like how often does that happen? Right?

Speaker 5 (31:13):
Yeah, We're like hot shot, like this isn't this isn't
like U of H going to hire some like twenty
two year old Cliff Kingsbury disciple to come be their
OC and then when Willie Fritz Bottom's out they can
just elevate him. That's it's not really like that sort
of thing. But yeah, I mean, look, there's only so
many of these jobs available, like they're gonna find coaches

(31:35):
don't worry about it. But I just think I just
think that adds another layer of complexity that maybe didn't
need to be there.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Interesting stuff for the Astros and interesting stuff around Major
League Baseball that we're always keeping an eye on, as
are you, Chandler.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
We appreciate the time.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
We'll look forward to more of your good stuff in
the athletic and we'll catch up again soon.

Speaker 5 (31:55):
I was at the Rockets game last said is reached
Shepherd really that team's point guard.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
Ask you if you had any thoughts on the Rockets
or the Texans before we let you go?

Speaker 6 (32:04):
Had is so skinny?

Speaker 5 (32:05):
Oh my god, he's he's so good though then Tho
Thompson's better than him, but like, oh my goodness, as
very skinny in person.

Speaker 4 (32:13):
Wow, that's a little hot take from a Chandler on
the way he bounces around, dunks the ball, passes the ball,
does things we don't often see, but probably not better
than Durant. But that's okay. We got a whole season
figure it out.

Speaker 6 (32:26):
They should let him run the point.

Speaker 4 (32:29):
We have already talked about that saverious stute observation with
Reeed Shepherd on the court, I do think other players
are actually running the point. He's technically the point guard,
but we're in positionless NBA now he's the shooting guard.
He runs down the court, when somebody else brings it up,
he hangs out behind the three point line, runs around
without the ball and hopes they find him for an
open three. I think we'll see a lot.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
Of that this year.

Speaker 6 (32:50):
There you go, that's kind of like, what do you god? Kentucky? Right?

Speaker 3 (32:53):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (32:53):
He actually did even more there for his one season
there and remarkably paying that turned that into you know,
the number three overall pick in the draft. But you know,
in the SEC it just means more.

Speaker 6 (33:03):
That guy was a number three overall pick in the draft. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:07):
It's good stuff, isn't it.

Speaker 6 (33:08):
I need to brush up on some NBA.

Speaker 4 (33:10):
Damn Well, baseball season isn't obviously over, and really it
will never end with the meetings going on, and there
will be major changes this offseason. I'm sure we'll need
to check in on the free agent status of Kyle
Tucker and Alex Bregman. In a couple of weeks for sure.

Speaker 6 (33:26):
All right, thanks guys.

Speaker 3 (33:27):
Chandler Roam of the Athletic here on Sports Talk seven
ninety will react to what he had to say and
more when we wind down the two o'clock hour coming up.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
Next the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
You know I didn't get to celebrate the Yankees demise
with Chandler Roome while he was still on the phone.
Just too much to get to.

Speaker 4 (33:55):
Yeah, Astros related, there is baseball to get to. There
are two baseball games today, of which will begin while
we are on the air, penning the weather in Los
Angeles and which is good. And then the other series
that is still continuing in the DS will go off
tomorrow Seattle in Detroit not quite finished yet. Four teams
attempted to stave off elimination yesterday. Seventy five percent of

(34:19):
them were successful. Well, the Yankee season is over. You
guys can figure out which team was unsuccessful. It was them.
So we'll talk about the Yankees as your Southwest home
for Yankees baseball in the three o'clock hour at length
for your pure, unadulterated enjoyment. As we finished our conversation
with Chandler, I think it was a lot of what
we were trying to explain. He did a nice job

(34:40):
of reminding people again the problems they had on both fronts,
how they were unable to score runs as an offense
and how they were unable to successfully navigate the season
from a health standpoint. Multiple seasons on that front is
far more than a well, let's get rid of the
athletic trainer, the head of metal performance, and let's get

(35:01):
rid of the hitting coaches. Problem solved. It's the weekend
that's hod on out to the beach. We're good. It's
much bigger than that. And the hitters, as always, they
bear a brunt of the issue on their shoulders, whether
it is wild swingers, guys who do chase, and their
chase rate was not what it needed to be. They
didn't have quite the talent on the field this year

(35:22):
for obvious reasons as they have had in the past,
and we probably expected a downturn in it even if
there was full health. We all went into the season
knowing that Kyle Tucker was swinging a bat for the
Cubs and Alex Bregman was swinging a bat for the
Red Sox. The expectations that they would be as they
had always been. Those were already gone, but it got
progressively worse with who ended up being out there. The

(35:43):
amount of it bats for players who will never be
will never be Astros again. They probably might not even
be major leaguers again. It turned into a very difficult
time for the offense to do it. But when you
talk about the core group of players that were there
last year and many of whom will be back next year,
there's some things that can be corrected if the players
are willing to buy in. And maybe there wasn't enough

(36:04):
buy in too. Because Dana talked about it, it's obvious
that Troy and Alex were also aware of it, and
we're trying to convey their message, and you know it
obviously was not being deployed or executed well.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
He mentioned something there like, if if the injuries weren't
what they were this year, I wonder, if we're talking
about the hitting coaches hitting the bricks, if what if
the injuries were, I would hope so well.

Speaker 4 (36:28):
Their problems were not injury based. Their problems were their approach,
which was not being the approach that the management team
wants the baseball team to have, was not being executed,
and as is always the case, you can't fire all
the players.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
Yeah, but it wouldn't have been a problem executing. And
if you had better players that were healthy executing. Yeah,
we're talking about two different things.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
Executing. Your plan when you're on Alvarez is at the
plate is there isn't a plan. You don't tell him
what to do. You're not asking him to do certain things.
Perettis and some other players Altuve, same thing. There's only
so much you're really asking them to do. I mean,
you might want to ask alto Bay to bunt less,
but that message definitely wasn't received if it was ever given.
Those guys do what they do because they're good. And

(37:10):
when you take two players like them, Tucker and Bregman
out of the lineup, now there's more players in the
lineup that do need direction, that do need to understand.
Like I think, George Springer's a good example where the
hitting coach is ever telling him, hey man, there's two strikes.
Can you stop trying to twist yourself into the dirt
with how hard you're swinging at this pitch? I bet
you they never told him that, nor would I. I

(37:31):
don't want him to it's more about the other players
that aren't at that level, and this year they just
had more of them, those who got to be the guy.
Get something out of your bat. You've got to be
better at this. You've got to do something differently when
you're up there. I don't want you, mister four a player,
mister reserve in the lineup because we got injured. You
can't be swinging from the hill. I don't want you
to try to hit your third homer of the year

(37:52):
in September. You're not a home run hitter. You're not
a doubles here, you're not an extra. Just hit the
ball where it's a pitch. Hit the ball where we
need need you to. This is how they're defending you.
And we know this going in there's the hole. It again,
easier said than done. This is baseball. But I think
that's where the disconnect was. And it's like I said,
it's not really the fault of the hitting coaches to

(38:13):
a certain extent, almost never. I mean, they have a plan,
they have a design, they go through their meetings, they
talk to the players, and then the other pitcher does
what he does. And unless you have runners on second base,
that can clearly relay the signs to you, like we're
seeing all over the playoffs, you're gonna be in trouble.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
It's gonna be wild if, like, let's just say youord
On Alvarez, because he's probably the most injury prone of
all unfortunately, because he never takes a little time off
when he's down, it's gonna be a while if he
just like plays one one fifty five next year.

Speaker 4 (38:52):
I would be willing to make a wager on that.
But just like you think about what you're saying now
versus what was said to open up the show, and
I really didn't disagree with it. It's just such a
harsh way to describe they felt woefully short. If they
win one game, they could be sitting where Detroit is
right now in Seattle playing a fifth game of a DS.
That's all it took. Yeah, I know that you always

(39:13):
say that, but like I just I wouldn't be striving
to get to eighty eight and seventy four. Second, I understand.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
That the premise for what you're saying is true because
it's baseball quote unquote, but like nothing they showed me
all season was ever I never because it's not like
It's not like twenty twenty, where they were like two
games under five hundred and it was a COVID season
and all this kind of stuff like that was a
completely different and far more talented lineup forget the pitching,

(39:45):
and far healthier.

Speaker 4 (39:46):
Yeah, it was just a matter you had one hundred
and two more games left in the regular season. You
were fine, thinking they'll get it together. There just wasn't
that their team was good. They just currently weren't.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
But what I'm saying is like, nothing about this team,
whoever was in at any given time told me that, oh, well,
if they got into the playoffs, they could do something.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
I just didn't see it. Well, nobody sees it. I
don't see Detroit doing anything either when they got to
the playoffs, limping, limping, limping to the playoffs. Yet they
already won their wild card series. They've already beaten Seattle twice.
That's the beauty.

Speaker 3 (40:14):
But the majority of this season they did a lot
of the things they're now doing again. That's the difference.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
The A team. On Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named at him talking your Team's.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are The A Team.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
Straight up three o'clock Here on the A Team, It's
Sports Talk seven ninety it's Space City Home Network, WEX
and AC with you along with Cole Thompson on a
Thursday edition of the program. Already an hour in the
Books on this show, already an interview with Chandler Roam
of the Athletic in the Books. We'll get that up asap,
and if you missed any or all of that, you
can check out what he had to say about a

(41:05):
litany of departures from your Houston Astros, from the head
trainer to the assistant GM to the hitting coaches. The
list goes on and on. And I like the way
Chandler kind of phrased it, which is that a shakeup
was inevitable when you have a season like you did
this last year. But I feel like, and I've said

(41:26):
this a few times since the end of the year
as time has gone on since the Astros were officially eliminated,
and I'm not doing it to point to an excuse.
I just feel like the injuries almost loom larger than
they did during the year, and I don't I guess
it was because they were still so competitive while going
through this record number of il stents, and that's why

(41:48):
maybe it wasn't an even bigger storyline as far as
their lack of success. But I feel like the more
the dust has settled, it's not that I'm giving them
a pass for anything, and it's not that I even
disagree with these changes, because I don't. I think all
of them are probably good decisions as far as Jim
Crane goes. But I just wonder if how many of
them would have still happened had the Astros just not
dealt with the injuries, because I don't know what the

(42:10):
season would have been if they had been healthier.

Speaker 4 (42:12):
Yeah, I don't either. For sure, I would be willing
to wager they would be playing baseball today. Yeah, the
American League has game scheduled for tomorrow. If you're in
a game, they would still have games to play. Pretty
easy to say that all they needed to do was
win one more game and then win two out of
three in a wildcard series, or win four more games
and thus you'd be the division champion. Beat the Mariners

(42:34):
of one or two more time, do any number of
different things instead of taking one hundred plus games on
the sidelines for Jord on which remember counts those games
at the beginning of the year, he was essentially on
the sideline because as bats were pretty much useful. Because
that was not him. It changes to me, it changes everything.
I don't really care what word anybody wants to use.
I will. I'll use the simplest one. Of course they

(42:55):
make the playoffs, that they weren't hurt to this extent,
of course, of course, of course, of course. And if
you want me to take every team in the Major
League Baseball and make all of them as healthy as
put them all on the same level, make them all
equally healthy. Give the Yankees back Garrett Cole, give this
team back, the Dodgers, back all these other players. That's fine.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
Do all that.

Speaker 4 (43:13):
The Astros would make the playoffs under those circumstances. I
feel pretty confident in who they have on the roster
and how they play their baseball what would have likely
taken place. So it's the number one I don't even
think there's other things that make the top five. It's
number one through five of why the season went the
way it went. But you still can look at how
they play the game. And we're two years into not
having any postseason victories from that organization. Their last postseason

(43:36):
victory came in the most recent year. They did not
win the World Series in a very disheartening postseason series.
But then last year their postseason involved only two games
which they did not win, both of which were here
in Houston. This year it involved no games. Time for
change was screaming at you, Time for change. The people
that were asked to no longer work here, other than

(43:59):
Andrew Ball, who was only here slightly shorter period of
time coming aboard, when James Klick came aboard. These were
all people that were extremely important to the best era
this baseball team, this organization, and these fans have ever seen.
They were hitting coaches during this run of excellence. They
were the head of the athletic training staff during this
run of excellence. They were a big, big part of

(44:22):
success here. And as success moved further away, and recognizing
Jim Crane's willingness to make change under any circumstances, seeing
Dusty Baker leave after what was still a very successful
season and just a year removed from winning it all,
seeing James Click move on the year before immediately after

(44:43):
winning it all, Well, now you're two years into not
winning anything of consequence in the playoffs, so it seemed
very likely that this would be the year that they
would make some of those changes. Some of the mass
of injuries probably helped make the decision on that front.
But I've said this countless times already. The astro's issues
from a health and performance standpoint, training standpoint, medical standpoint,

(45:05):
we're far from exclusive. Starting on January first, twenty twenty five,
They've been long standing concerns about how things were handled
on the medical side, and hopefully the new hires will
make amends for that well.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
And the other thing that got my attention was that, yeah,
Joe's back, Dana's back, but there was some serious doubt
throughout that building over the past week and change, which
tells me. I mean, he specifically said Dana Brown didn't
know for sure whether he'd be back, and.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
I think some people are not surprised by that.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
I think some people are very probably surprised by that,
given what we saw prior to these firings at the
press conference at the end of the year and all
that kind of stuff. I mean, the whole he's under
contract thing is always like the most non confident vote
of confidence if you will, it.

Speaker 4 (45:57):
Was heard last night.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
Yeah, I still don't think, like like Kina what Chandler said,
I don't know that Joe a spot as long for
the manager piss.

Speaker 4 (46:06):
If they don't play any October baseball next year, I
don't think either one of them's back. Yeah, I think
where Jim Crane is fair or unfair, just making comment
my opinion on it. I don't think there's a fourth
season for Joe with no playoff victories for the roster
that I think that they will have next year, the
one that they had this year and the one that
they had in his opening campaign. I just don't think
there's a Jim Crane viewpoint of that that says we're

(46:28):
doing what I want to see us doing. I think
he will give Dana the ability and mix in his
own abilities to put a roster in front of Joe
to work with it. They believe is October caliber, that
is playoff winning team caliber. So if it doesn't happen,
then you clearly have fallen short, and you're not in
year one, and you're not in year two, and you're
not also in year three if you're a Dana Brown.

(46:49):
So yeah, I would think a change would be coming.
I think they probably know that and even though they'll
probably get questions about it. We talked to coaches about
that gms are from time to time and other sports similar,
and I believe when I when they say it, because
it is the reality of it. But it doesn't. I mean,
I'm gonna try harder, I'm gonna manage harder. I'm going

(47:09):
to make more phone calls to other teams. I'm gonna
I mean, there's only your You're doing your job as
well as you think you need to do it, as
hard as you need to do it, putting as much
time and effort into it already. These guys don't take
their positions lightly and just oh man, I made it.
I'm here, I'm making millions. All I got to do
is put my costume on every day and sit in
the dugout. This is sweet. I just got to grab

(47:31):
that blazer out of the closet, hit the booth a
few times, do a little media. This is great. I
love this life. It's that's not how it is.

Speaker 3 (47:40):
Now and uh yeah, next year, but starting this offseason especially,
very very pivotal because the infield huge question marks their
pitching staff without fromber because I don't think he's going
to be there and in some of these injuries, especially

(48:00):
from a pitching standpoint, Like you already know, Luis Garcia
is not going to be a part of things.

Speaker 4 (48:04):
You get that little tease. I don't think he's going
to be a part of things ever. Unfortunately, so's a
Rachidi now just from a similar timing situation. Remember the
Astros did give him that final contract year knowing he
wasn't going to pitch that year. That's what the Astros
are going to do with Luis this offseason. But more
he's not under contract, he's not under club control, and
I think he'll be on his way unfortunately, a much

(48:25):
more talented pitcher than Urkidi ever was. Yeah, and maybe
there's an opportunity because you see where things are headed
and you feel good about his rehab in the twenty
twenty seven season. So maybe there's a still a financial
solution in the future that really isn't super costly. Maybe,
but that's now next off season's issue. They do. I
feel pretty safe, especially after watching Day to Operate last year,

(48:48):
They're going to make a trade this offseason. They're going
to take somebody off of their major league roster in
order to make a trade, and it may be more
than one player, in order to get other players that
fill their roster out a little bit better than it
currently is situated. You mentioned the infield, there's not room
for all of the players that they have currently to
be in the everyday lineup with a lineup that they
can respect offensively and defensively. Finding takers or a taker

(49:11):
for Christian Walker likely requires you to pay Christian Walker
to play for somebody else you'll have to take on
I'm sure some of the forty million dollars that he's
still owed. You have to fix your catching situation if
Jiner Diaz isn't part of it, and not only mention
those two players specifically because I think there's an opportunity
to move them. I think a team in need of
a first baseman that believes a guy that can drive

(49:34):
in eighty five ninety runs hitting in the middle of
your order, do some things to help you defensively, which
is what he did here in Houston, is a value
to them if they're not really on the hook to
him for twenty million dollars. It's like the Astros acquiring
Carlos Correa they're not paying Carlos Korea Minnesota Twins money.
They're paying him their own rate of that money, with
the Minnesota Twins taking on the other part of that,

(49:55):
and it's the only way they would want that deal
to have been made. And in Yiner's case, I bet
you there are still a bunch of teams that believe
a catcher with his offensive abilities that he's shown in
the past is somebody that can help their team, and
a young enough guy and enough control moving forward a
commodity that's tradable. But the Astros certainly couldn't go into
the season next year or even the off season making

(50:18):
a deal without having already signed Victor Karattini back he's
a free agent, or having already made other plans for
somebody outside the organization to take the bulk of the
catching duties. I don't think that's where Ceesar Salas are
is yet. I know their recent draftee out of Sam
is not there yet, Probably soon if that's the kind
of prospect he is. But those are probably your most

(50:40):
worthwhile position player commodities that could net you something in return,
clear up the infield glut, and potentially land you a
starting pitcher.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
So that was a big part of the first hour,
as was a little bit of conversation about KD finally
making his debut last night. By the way, were you
surprised when he suited up for the second half? I
kind of wash.

Speaker 6 (50:59):
Not.

Speaker 4 (50:59):
After I heard from e May before the game, I wasn't.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
Oh, I didn't.

Speaker 4 (51:04):
I did not actually hear what he was said in
regard to that plan would be the same for the
guys in the first game, because Alpi and others didn't
play in the second half. He said, no, we'll probably
give him a little run. Okay, yeah, I didn't hear that.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
I just for a preseason game and for a guy
that I just almost want to put in bubble wrap
before the season.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
Starters twenty eight minutes or less. All the starters in
double figures. All the starters shot over fifty percent individually.

Speaker 3 (51:27):
It was a I mean, look, it was the Jazz,
but they hit twenty threes.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
Did you go away out shot the Rockets and lost
by thirteen? That means the Rockets were very, very good offensively,
despite not being able to slow down to the Jazz
from hitting everything they want. I gotta respect the Jazz
because I'm I was actually very impressed with what they
have now. Not the worst team in the league, probably
not even a team that wins low twenties. They and

(51:52):
a lot of their guys were hurt last night. They
they will win some games that will make you. If
it's your team, You're like, come on, man, they're.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
The first time played the Rockets last year. Yep, and
Keyante George had thirty. That's stupid. All right, We're gonna
get to something else that was not stupid last night,
the demise of one of our favorite teams to hate
here in Houston.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
We'll talk about that next.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
It is the eighteen Sports taw seven ninety, your Southwest
home for Yankees baseball every day, not every day, pretty
much pretty much every day forward.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
Well in that regard, Yeah, I didn't pop a bottle
or anything last night.

Speaker 4 (52:53):
That's only because I was working. Others did.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
Yeah, in the visitors clubhouse as they play Frank Sinatra.

Speaker 4 (53:02):
Yeah, it is fun for everybody. So give the Yankees
level of excellence, level of competitive abilities, some credit because
it is pretty clear everyone likes beating the Yankees. You
don't like beating teams that stink that are no no,
no challenge at all, even though it feels that way
sometimes this can I just interject on that point right there.

(53:25):
I disagree.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
It's not necessarily about beating the Yankees, because everybody does that.
It's about beating their fan base that's so arrogant and
annoying and stupid. They're very stupid. Not the team that
ever said we want Houston. That's their fan base. Yeah,
but I do think they probably did want Houston, and
what happened they got that we can't beat this team.

Speaker 4 (53:48):
Well, we can't beat if we don't play them. I
hope there are next up. Oh, we're done. Everybody does
take a little bit of enjoyment, and in this case,
there's some history, clearly, because George Springer is a member
of the Blue Jays, a very prominent memories, the first
one to bat in every single game, and I'm sure
it was fun for him to do it again. Miles
Straw I already mentioned him on the show. I had
a big hit and yesterday's win helping them get out

(54:10):
to that fifth run and kind of coast from there.
There's a couple chances for the Yankees to make a
bigger dent in things, and Aaron Judge had a remarkably
for him, very remarkably good postseason, good individual series, offensively
final a change at the end of a series he
came through. He nearly hit a ninth inning home run.
He hit a laser off of the outfield wall in

(54:33):
left field.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
You do remember he was the one that completed the
sweep back in twenty twenty two, rounding out meekly to first.

Speaker 4 (54:38):
Did ground out and that ended it. Also, I believe,
if I have the pictures correct, this is the third
consecutive year a clincher against the Yankees was on their field.
So so it happens we don't have home field advantage
and he gets swept, team picture gets taken on their field,
all the good things that go along with it. But
just a quick reminder of what took place late last

(54:59):
night as there season did come to an end, from
the final out to the amazing Absolutely we go on
and on and on about inside the NBA, which by
the way, is back for two episodes opening week of
the NBA. After the Rockets and Thunder play on Tuesday,
they will be back for Wednesday and Thursday, So pregame Wednesday,

(55:20):
they probably have a lot to say about Durant and
the Rockets, but sending the Thunder to an zero to
one record, it's not quite the same because of how
infrequently it is seen. But the group of a Rod,
Big Poppy and Jeter along with Kevin Burkhardt, we've seen
a ton of it. It's awesome. It's fun to enjoy
what they're doing. They enjoy needling each other and taking

(55:42):
everything that goes along with it. And like inside the NBA,
they clearly have a ringleader and he's awesome and it's
Big Poppy. So from the last out last night to
the group on that set enjoying themselves, some of them
after the win, as they do their in clubhouse interview,
Big Poppy and Vladimir Guerrero Junior onto the speech given

(56:06):
from the manager John Schneider. We always love those when
the team that has fallen is about whom they are
speaking and it is excellent. And then what will probably
be the last appearance of twenty twenty five on our program,
Yankees super fan and friend of the program, Friend of
the Station, Friend of the Station, Nick Turturro all rolled

(56:27):
into the Yankees season is overs.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
The Toronto New Jays have punched their ticket to the
Championship Series going through the New York Yankees.

Speaker 4 (56:47):
Start spreading the news.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
I'm leave them today.

Speaker 7 (56:56):
Yankee Lowes, Let's go where, Let's go ahead.

Speaker 4 (57:06):
Hey, let's a game.

Speaker 7 (57:09):
Yunks the Yunkins. But you don't take it personal life New,
we are new, we are one more.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
Yes, every single one of you can both end game.

Speaker 7 (57:33):
Nathan Lucas moms stroll. Your mother detects.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
Everybody every day, starts brending news bitches, running.

Speaker 6 (57:40):
These little town Blue.

Speaker 8 (57:44):
Love enough to say we didn't show up. We didn't
You can hit after a great emotional win, I thought
we would have momentum and we the bet.

Speaker 4 (57:53):
As an offense, judge did everything.

Speaker 6 (57:55):
You could do.

Speaker 4 (57:56):
Cam Sweat Love was terrific. Kept us in the game
than an Era. Of course, that's an Achilles heel era
as era.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
Couldn't get a big hit, had.

Speaker 8 (58:05):
Men on base, seventh, eighth, just could not get it done.

Speaker 7 (58:09):
God beat by a better team.

Speaker 8 (58:11):
It's just very frustrating, very sand in every October in the
last eight, ten, twelve years sucks like this.

Speaker 3 (58:28):
Last part. He just he just screamed into the void
because that's what they're walking back inside.

Speaker 4 (58:35):
It's avoid it is now not taking any any fun.
And what will likely happen teams that come up short
over and over and over over again. They might actually
might actually make some significant managerial, coaching or front office changes,
but one of them. We'll leave that up to how
they lost for the very simple reason I think we

(58:58):
talked about all year. They club home runs like nobody
else in Major League Baseball against run of the mill,
everyday average, third, fourth, fifth starters and bullpens that are
incapable of getting them out. You don't face those teams
throughout the postseason. They played seven postseason games. They were
in an elimination game four times in those seven games,

(59:22):
losing this last one obviously, which ended their campaign. Aaron
Judge was awesome, and his teammates were awful, awful, awful
awful offensively in this series. Had a handful of Yankees
that played in all seven games with Aaron Judge, and
as a group they were just completely and totally inept.

(59:42):
And it was even worse in this individual series. For instance,
Anthony Volpi, their shortstop who they love so much. He
had fifteen at bats, he did have a hit, and
three times he didn't strike out every other time. He
struck out eleven k's and fifteen at bats. Trent Grisham
did absolutely nothing while striking out the majority of his

(01:00:03):
at batch. You got guys hitting one eighty one, ninety two,
oh five, one eighty five, one ninety two and Aaron
Judge hit five hundred in the series. But it's baseball.
You can't win a series. You can't win three times,
four times, two times all by yourself. He wasn't clearly overwhelming,
and he wasn't even the best offensive player in the series.
He wasn't even the second best offensive player in the series.

(01:00:25):
Vladimir Guerrero was insane and Ernie Clement was outrageous, and
they dominated them and ended their season.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
And by the way, on the other channel, Pedro, who
just happens to be the godfather of vlad Junior, was
absolutely eating it up.

Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
And I fled so easy to root.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
For, and honestly, Toronto's other than Bobaschett, who just looks
like a Delta Bravo.

Speaker 4 (01:00:53):
He didn't make the roster.

Speaker 3 (01:00:54):
Yeah, well, everybody everybody on that like, again, I might
get what I want. Tigers Blue Jays is a very
likable alcs if you're an Astros fan.

Speaker 4 (01:01:04):
Yeah, it certainly is. It puts George Springer and Miles
Straw and Joey loperfido or a saying Joey loperfdo because
I think there's a chance he makes their roster. Oh okay,
well he was not on their DS roster. And I
don't know how you do this to the salary that
he makes and the status that he holds as a veteran.
But Anthony santander Is was at least in this past

(01:01:28):
series just useless.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
The one guy that was a worse free agent signing
than Christian Walker.

Speaker 4 (01:01:33):
Yeah, he's a big money I guess too much money. Again,
this is a seven game series. You're gonna put the
player on the roster you think's gonna help yourself.

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
Helps considering what you brought them to town to do.

Speaker 4 (01:01:44):
Yeah, I mean he was hurt to give him at
least he didn't have really a chance to get out
of the early season slump because he didn't play anymore.
And Christian Walker was awesome if he wasn't playing at
dik And Park. He was a pretty good road hitter,
which is unfortunate even though those are half of your games.
It'd be nice if you were good here in this ballpark.
But yeah, I think that would be phenomenal. And we're
an awesome dominant Taric Schooble start away from seeing that happen.

(01:02:06):
He will get the ball in the finale of this series,
which goes tomorrow. The other two series will go today.
Both the Cubs and the Phillies will try to do
it for the second straight day, stave off elimination. Phillies
behind early and then their pitching decisions were actually very
good ones. They had a plan for Aaron Nola to
pitch only briefly in the game. He did very well.

(01:02:28):
Ranger Suarez was set to come in. He did immediately
gave up a home run to the very first batter,
very first pitch he threw, and that was it. He
was awesome after that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
I want him this offseason so bad.

Speaker 4 (01:02:39):
And they have Christopher Sanchez going today. Tyler glasnow goes
for the Dodgers. The ace of the Brewers' staff will
try to end the Cubs season. Freddy Peralta on the
hill for the Brewers and Matthew Boy who should be
well rested after several brief appearances so far, to any
Cubs postseason run, and Kyle Tucker is public enemy number
one in Chicago. Got a few hits but also one

(01:03:01):
of the worst pickoffs in a postseason game you will see.
I don't know ever, certainly this year. That's what happened
to him yesterday in their win.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
The AE on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
You remember that time when Clayton Kershaw came into a
playoff game and got blown up, you can pick one.

Speaker 4 (01:03:31):
It happened again last night.

Speaker 3 (01:03:34):
But there was that one time where it happened against
the Astros because Julie hit that three round bomb to
tie the game, And the only reason given for that
happening was not anything that had happened in his past
postseason appearances prior to that, which would have kind of
given you a track record that, hey, this guy's not
really good in these situations. But it was only because

(01:03:54):
the Astros had cheated that exact time. So I don't
know what the excuse was last night.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
After seeing Rockets hit all over the place in his
first inning of work trying to keep the Dodgers close,
which he did to Oscar Hernandez making two rather unlikely catches.
He's not a great outfielder, so he may have made
an adventure of the one of those two, but nonetheless,
he helped Clayton Kershaw deliver three outs without allowing any runs,

(01:04:21):
which prompted the play by play announcer on the television
side to say Clayton Kershaw's postseason moment as he got
out of an inning without allowing any runs. And it
might have been nice way for him to ride off
into the postseason sunset to help everybody. I guess forget
or at least not have it the last time he

(01:04:42):
ever pitched in a postseason game, because the last time
he pitched in a postseason game before last night was
his less than an inning's worth of work against the
Diamondbacks when they scored six runs off of him, and
it was part of their series that they got eliminated
in before the Diamondbacks went on to very poorly represent
the National League in the World Series. As we all recall,
so he was on the postseason roster for the ds

(01:05:04):
not the Wildcard Series, and was able to come out
keep them in the game for one inning. And this
is nice. They're back at home in front of their fans.
They got to see him one more time and this
was nice, a rare scoreless postseason appearance from soon to
be Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, and then Dave Roberts

(01:05:25):
sent him out there for a second inning. Didn't have
anybody else up in the bullpen. Figured we could get
through whatever we needed to get through with Clayton on
the mound, even after what he saw in the inning prior. Scoreless,
but not the way you'd like to see a relief
pitcher in this instance's throw. And then everything you thought
you could get away within the first of his two innings,
you got away with nothing. In the second of his

(01:05:47):
two innings, six hits, five runs, four of them earned,
three walks, two of which were not intentional, and a
three to one game is an eight one game as
you're trying to put down the Philadelphia Phillies. He turned
it out to be one of two Dodgers pitchers to
watch a schwarbaumb go over the fence. He absolutely massacred
the first of those two homers. But we're focused on

(01:06:08):
Clayton here. I figured it would be difficult to do.
With his lengthy postseason career, a number of innings, he's
approaching two hundred postseason innings, and we already knew. We've
been telling you his postseason ERA stinks. He's not good.
But he did manage to have it go up with
his appearance yesterday. He managed to get it a little

(01:06:29):
bit closer to five with what he did yesterday against
his own team. He's just it's I know, he's a
different pitcher, he's older. All that stuff is fine. He
just finished another extremely successful regular season. He had a
three thirty six ERA and one hundred and twelve innings.

(01:06:50):
He's James Harden. James Harden is different than him. This
James Harden is phenomenal in the postseason, provided you're early
in the series and elimination is not either a foot
or approaching games five, six, and seven, he just becomes,
Oh my god, is this even the same player, Clayton?
Just against your only pitching against the best teams. These

(01:07:13):
are playoff teams. These are only the best teams. We
get it, but far too many other elite regular season
pitchers have also been elite postseason pitchers, or much closer
to it than he has. So it was very much expected.
It's very unfortunate for the Dodgers. It gives the Phillies
that much more life. They go into the guy. They
probably had the most confidence in Sanchez and how he's pitched.

(01:07:33):
I mean, Suarez was awesome during the length of the year,
but he was definitely not pitching his best. As the
season finished, he pitched great. Yesterday, they got the offense
that they had been unable to unearth the trio at
the We mentioned the best of both teams offensively going
into yesterday, they really weren't doing anything. The biggest hitters

(01:07:53):
for the Phillies, Harper and Schwarber, weren't doing anything. The
biggest hitters for the Dodgers weren't doing anything. It stayed
true for one of those two teams yesterday. Well, I
show hey another over at the top of their lineup.
I know that I might have even brought this up
to you recently. Do you ever sit around and think
about like and I know, by the way, he's the

(01:08:13):
guy that provided the loan run in the clincher against
the Phillies in Game six, But do you realize how
utterly ridiculous it was that on either side of the
twenty twenty two World Series, Kyle Schwarber was just I
don't want to say he was owned because he got
off against the Astro, especially if Lance mccullors was pitching,

(01:08:35):
and he did hit a home run to give them
the lead temporarily in Game six to try and keep
their season alive, but he also bunted out in that game.
He was like relegated to human and he's been anything
but on either side of it. He is a just past.
He had a nine to twenty eight OPS. His career

(01:08:56):
OPS as a Major League or scarver is eight forty six,
which which is very good. One hundred and twenty seven
ops plus very good. His postseason OPS is much better.
He's a nine to twelve OPS player in his postseason career,
and much of it has been against Houston. He played
against Houston when he was in Boston, he played against Houston,
Weedis in Philadelphia, and last night he hit career postseason

(01:09:19):
homers twenty two and twenty three. If he's going to
pass Altuve, it's going to be him.

Speaker 3 (01:09:26):
And there's only one guy on the list after that,
and that's man ram yep Manny Ramirez.

Speaker 4 (01:09:30):
Obviously, Correa would still have a chance, George Springer would
still shore. He's got plenty of years. He was doing
his interview with Lauren Shahati after the game and kind
of a question about, you know, the pitching and the
way Ranger pitched tonight. What are you think. He goes,
you know, he's so good, and he kind of paused.
He goes, well, I know I don't play defense anymore,

(01:09:52):
but I know how much fun it is for the
guys playing behind him on a night like this. Why
would he have to stop playing? He goes up to
bat Ford five times a night, runs the bases a
couple of times, and that's that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:03):
But you know he's thirty two. Oh boy, Yeah, he
might actually do it. Although they've got to get there though.
Here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:10:10):
Their postseason team pretty most every year. You have to
get there and then you have to perform.

Speaker 3 (01:10:16):
And those are two things that we thought we're gonna
keep happening for Altuve for forever. I'm not saying he
still can't add to that total next year. In fact,
I think the Astros will be back in the postseason
next year. But then he has to get there and perform,
and you can only perform if you're there, and if
you're not. Like last year, they were there for like

(01:10:36):
a whisper, they did not win any games. Therefore, he
did not have as many opportunities, and so it's just
it's not a given. So I know we're sitting here
saying this about Kyle Schwarber. I feel like we had
the same conversation about Altuve and he was thirty two,
not that long ago.

Speaker 4 (01:10:50):
Yeah, Schwarber is still a pretty much an all or
nothing player right his last two postseasons, obviously after their
World Series and after twenty twenty two postseason appearance. Last
two postseasons, he has four hits in twenty twenty four.
He was two for sixteen this year so far as
two for eleven. Three of the four hits are homers. Yes,

(01:11:11):
is what he does. He'd be great on the Hochs.
They would love him on the Yankees. His postseason batting
average is terrible. It's two thirty four. His postseason ops
is awesome. It's nine to twelve. It's incredible. I feel
like that's Jordon's numbers. But he's probably a little bit
better of a pure hitter. They have the early game today,
The first of the two National League games will go

(01:11:31):
off in a little over an hour, Phillys at Dodgers.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
By the way, there is football tonight, maybe we should
talk about it a little bit. We'll do that next.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
The a T on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
Can you start this by asking you, guys, if you
think that the dreaded I'll call it a sophomore slump
for his tenure as an Eagle has set in for
Sakuon Barkley.

Speaker 4 (01:12:03):
It almost sounds like you made that up. No, I
didn't make it up. How many carries did he have
last week? What he barely saw the ball?

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
Well, his numbers are insanely down compared to a year
ago at this time, yep.

Speaker 4 (01:12:16):
I of a sophomore slump for a player in the
second year with a particular team in his eighth year
in the NFL. But I'll go with it. That's what
I present. Is he in a sophomore slump five games
in a year two. It's not even about the volume.
Part of the volume is due to the fact that
there's a lack of success. His worst full season with

(01:12:37):
the awesome New York Giants worst his last season, where
he averaged three point nine yards of carry. A couple
of seasons before, not quite as full of a season,
he averaged three point seven. This year, he's at three
point two, which is we don't hand a player that
as three point two yards of carry the football. He's
different because he's so explosive. Jonathan Taylor's been through that

(01:12:58):
before in similarly explosive. You know a big run eventually
will come, so you usually don't abandon it completely. But
there are signs of the Eagles doing that in multiple
games this year. I think part of the infighting that
they have had players only meetings and personal get togethers
between Smith, Brown and Hurts about their passing game because
they've been so run heavy, and he has the most

(01:13:21):
run heavy quarterback talking about Saquon especially with Lamar out,
but just in general, Jacalben Hurts runs the ball ends
up with the carry after the play has been made
more often than anybody else out there right now. So
it's clearly it takes away the opportunities that he will have.
But they just haven't had as much success this year,
so I don't And and there were times where they

(01:13:42):
weren't having success throwing them ball and you think, well,
what's they They haven't had offensive success period?

Speaker 3 (01:13:47):
They are you know who they remid me of, They
remid me of last year's chiefs. I mean, look at
their record, they must be great. Yeah, but it's so
lacking in what we're used to seeing. AJ Brown can't
figure out what emotion he wants to feel on any
given day. He's very very disrespected and has cryptic tweets.
But I'm okay, I'm fine. And then Saquon Barkley's just not.
I mean, it's the reason I say sophomore slump is

(01:14:11):
because he was so good in his first year there
that you almost forgot about Jalen Hurts at times. And
I'm being serious when I say that nobody is doubting
that Jalen Hurts is a big reason why they won
the Super Bowl last year. But Saquon was so freaking
good that it almost overshadowed him at times. And yet
they're sitting there four and one taking on a one

(01:14:32):
and four Giants team tonight. Very easily could be five
and one, very easily could finish the season with the
type of looks like it's dominant record that the Chiefs
had last year, but they're just nowhere near what they
were the year prior.

Speaker 4 (01:14:46):
Yeah, I think that's fair. They clearly aren't the same team,
but it's also a chore to beat them. I think
that's what they've shown this year. You know, they beat
the Chiefs, Rams, and Bucks, three likely playoff teams. Even
with the Chiefs at two and three, I think that's fair.
They've lost to I didn't mention they beat the Cowboys
for obvious reasons. They lost to the Broncos last week
in a game very few people can believe they did

(01:15:06):
lose with a seventeen to three lead in the fourth quarter,
allowed to touchdown Sean Payton went for two to take
the lead, which they got and then held on and
ended up winning twenty one to seventeen. Took the lead
at eighteen seventeen. They just spent a little bit unpredictable
with what they're going to produce. Offensively, they have ultimately
put points on the board. They've gotten help from their
special teams. They obviously had the kick blocking game, which

(01:15:29):
helped them beat the Rams. That's another near loss. But
their games have been very similar every single week. They've
played five one score games, they've won four of them.
That's still usually the sign of a pretty good football team.
And they're playing the Giants this week tonight. They get
ten days before they maybe see the return of JJ McCarthy.
Otherwise they're playing Carson Wentz and then they see the

(01:15:52):
Giants again, the terrible awfal Saquon's no good this year.
Philadelphia Eagles almost a lock to be seven and one.

Speaker 3 (01:16:02):
That's what I'm saying. I just it's you're are a rector.
You are what your record says you are, except for
sometimes you're not. Well.

Speaker 4 (01:16:10):
They're just not as formidable. And that's why the NFC,
I mean, go into five locker rooms right now. Tampa's
the Rams, the Commanders with a healthy Jaden Daniels. Certainly
the Eagles probably named two more teams, at least the Niners.
They're four and one. We're going to win the Super
Bowl this year, all right, one two three, nine Ers
or one two three, whoever. They can all say it

(01:16:32):
and believe it. I didn't mention the Lions liness are
probably the best team in the NFC so far, but
they look like they are. They do look like it,
and they're they're just overcoming all the changes that were made.
Many of them weren't personnel related, which is why I
think they've been able to I guess overcome the coaching changes.
Hired some good people, kept a lot of their principles

(01:16:52):
certainly offensively in place, but there's just they're just loaded.
If their offensive line is good again this year, and
it looks like it will be even with minor chain,
they still have Jamison Williams, they still have am On
Ross Saint Brown, they still have Laporta, they have the
best two headed backfield in the NFL. They're loaded, and
if they have to outscore you, because it's a day
where their defense isn't making plays or shutting the other

(01:17:12):
team down, which they're capable of but don't always do,
then they can and they will. They probably look like
the best team. The Niners are getting there while they're continuing,
likely this week to start Mac Jones. Another early no
practice for brock Purty. This week looks like another back
Jones week. All of a sudden, they're the I think

(01:17:33):
maybe two or three years ago version of the Niners,
very hard to beat, even with all their injuries. Look
out when they get healthy. Because they're doing all this
without Kittle, they probably won't have a full complement of
targets this week. Maybe Jennings returns, but not necessarily see
a return for Pearsall. They just keep going out there
and Kyle keeps getting regular season wins, so tonight any
chance to the at all? Why what do you like

(01:17:57):
about the Giants?

Speaker 3 (01:17:59):
Cam scat?

Speaker 4 (01:18:01):
What's he gonna do to help you beat the Eagles tonight?
He's gonna run past them, run through them, score multiple times.
That all sounds good, But he's not gonna do those
things he might. I don't think. I don't think he will.
I mean I I'll put it this way.

Speaker 3 (01:18:16):
I have less confidence in their quarterback than their running
back going into this game.

Speaker 4 (01:18:20):
They're a little bit more unpredictable now because Dart when
he makes something out of nothing, it actually usually results
in something. But he's also a factor in their favor.
It's in their favor. But he can't throw the ball.
I know, but I didn't mention that for obvious reasons.
His turnovers are a little little bit much. I wouldn't
want a five consecutive possessions with turnovers. He's thrown for

(01:18:40):
one hundred and eleven yards and two hundred and two yards.
He had an average even six yards in attempt in
either start, and he was a big reason why they
didn't beat the Saints.

Speaker 3 (01:18:52):
And yet Russ cannot get back in.

Speaker 4 (01:18:54):
No he never gets. If he gets playing time again
this year, will either beat a Dart's injury or they
were able to trade himself. Like I'm a little bit surprised,
And because if you're willing to settle for Joe Flacco,
I'm a little bit surprised you weren't able to get
Russell Wilson if you're Cincinnati in a trade absolutely, or
Jamis Winston for that matter.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
Yeah, I gotta say if it's between those three, but
just the first you mentioned, they definitely got the vers
the worst one and the oldest. But I yeah that
I can't but I can't see Russell Wilson. Actually, I
take that back. Jamar Chase would probably love it. Hey
find him.

Speaker 4 (01:19:33):
They would be throwing deep a lot. He still ranks
near the top of the league in most downfield throws.
Not all successful, but he that's what he likes to do.
He is very very good at it still, but it
also leads to mistakes and leads to potential for turnovers,
et cetera. Uh, the Eagles losing a division game on
Thursday night to the Giants.

Speaker 3 (01:19:54):
Telling you, I've got you're feeling about it?

Speaker 4 (01:19:57):
I don't know. I'm surprised the line is as low
as it is just over a touchdown. Also favors the Giants.
I mean, it's telling you that there's that game that's
telling you there's some belief in the Giants' ability to
do this. But I get I said none. Right, how
much Chamill lasted, I said none. I'll stick with that.
You and Cole hates. That's what I've learned from this.

(01:20:17):
He's not beating the Eagles by him, seating them by himself.
He and his three point eight yards per case doing it.
It's gonna be awesome. He's gonna up that average. I'm
in all right, I am too. Let's watch it together,
all right.

Speaker 3 (01:20:27):
Four o'clock hour is coming up next the annual NBA survey.
Guess who got mad about something on that list?

Speaker 4 (01:20:34):
He's in this room.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:20:40):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 3 (01:20:48):
Four o'clock hour underway here on Sports Talk seven ninety
and Space City Home Network.

Speaker 4 (01:20:53):
It is the A Team.

Speaker 3 (01:20:53):
Wex and AC with you on a Thursday edition of
the program. We've got Cole Thompson at producing Josh. She's
sitting in there today what's up. Josh worked the first
game with him last night as the Rockets continued their
preseason schedule.

Speaker 4 (01:21:07):
We's already worked with him, so he congratulated him on that.

Speaker 3 (01:21:10):
Earlier this week, the Rockets moving to two and zero
with their preseason slate, outlasting I guess the Utah Jazz,
who hit twenty threes in a game that was completely meaningless.
But it wasn't in the fact that Kevin Durant made
his debut for the Rockets last night and just as
efficient as a twenty point night can be, seven of ten,

(01:21:32):
hit five of five from the free throw line, didn't
really do a whole lot of other activity out there.

Speaker 4 (01:21:39):
That's fine, That's what he was brought here to do.
I did, seriously, dude, one assist and two rebounds? Are
you even trying?

Speaker 3 (01:21:47):
I mean, you're seven feet tall. Can't you just accidentally
get a third rebound?

Speaker 4 (01:21:50):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:21:50):
I just I was thinking this last night in that regard,
after he had checked out and I'm looking at the
stat line and.

Speaker 4 (01:21:56):
Checked out, all right, one assist, two rebounds, he done.
I guess it'll be okay. Thank god they got him, Like,
what's the most efficient you ever saw Jalen Green. And
I'm not trying to pick on him at all, but
you know what I thought, after one game of seeing
Kevin Durant in a preseason uniform for the Rockets, I

(01:22:17):
don't think anybody is.

Speaker 3 (01:22:19):
Going to miss Jalen Green. And it's it's not to
be mean, it's not to pick on him. It's just
that he wouldn't be traded for Kevin Durant if the
two of them approached the game and performed in games
the way they did the last year.

Speaker 4 (01:22:34):
I think he wasn't traded for Kevin Durant. You're making
it sound like this is a one for one, a
star for star, and that's that's not fair. You traded
his game for Kevin Durant's game. You traded a bunch
of assets to get a player that's light years better
than him. Why, Jeff, he's a zero time All Star.
This is one of the best players in the history
of the NBA. They're not comparable.

Speaker 3 (01:22:53):
Yeah, Spot, you could have gotten Kevin Durant before this offseason,
and you didn't because you wanted to see if Jalen
could take that next step or whatever you want to
call it, and he didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:23:04):
Well, how are they going to get Kevin Durant previously,
like before this past year he set you know, earlier
in his Phoenix career.

Speaker 3 (01:23:09):
Yeah, because ever since the Rockets acquired all those picks
that belonged to Phoenix, this was in play. I think
this was the end game all along when you make
that deal, because remember at the time, they had the
Nets future, right, which is still probably better from a
standpoint of where those draft picks end up falling. And
you're like, well, that's kind of a head screen.

Speaker 4 (01:23:29):
No, it's not. They have Kevin Durant, Yeah, all in
an effort to do something to make this core better.
Rather than the future of the Rockets better, Their core
is better, so the future of the Rockets by proxy
got better because the future is now. No, he was great,
super efficient. Like I said, I don't really think it's
there's much of a comparison, not only for the big picture,
but he happens to be one of the lesser efficient.

(01:23:52):
He's not an efficient offensive player. He never has been,
and I don't know that that's going to change at
any point time. It might be a volume score and
the other guy's like the most efficient player in the
history of the League. Offensively, he's a fifty forty ninety
threat every year he plays, even still to this day,
has hit. You know, I'm sure he'll miss another shot,
but he hit missed his first three last night, and
I was like, this guy sucks. I washed seven of seven.

(01:24:14):
That was a great text I received from somebody. The
rest of the way, and again, they're gonna figure things out,
where to go, what to do. They already showed signs
of having LPB a humongous creator and creator for a man,
a mena creator for him, a mena creator for the
bigs and vice versa all the way around. And you
don't I like the fact that they really were never
stuck with having Durant as the bailout for a poor

(01:24:37):
offensive possessional or we're eighteen seconds in and we don't
haven't done anything yet. Just give it to him. Something
good will happen, which will be true, and they will
do that at times this year. Everybody does that as
Kevin Durant, but they really weren't relegated to that because
they were running a much better offense than that. I
think they've played two teams that likely will not have
particularly good defensive seasons and the preseason is no real

(01:24:57):
way to measure that, but their offense I think has
been able to do the things that they want to
start doing and start learning how to do and how
playing together the way that they need to. So that
was a great sign. Last night brings us into their
two road preseason games that'll be Tuesday and Thursday of
next week, and a week from this coming Tuesday, they
will open up the regular season against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

(01:25:18):
This just in thankfully we have the NBA dot Com
annual GM Survey to confirm to us that the gms
in the NBA, the thirty gms, believe the Oklahoma City
Thunder just might win the NBA Championship this year. Really
for a second consecutive year, you do they have as
the MVP. So there were fifty questions asked in seven

(01:25:41):
different categories as this GM survey hit the masses earlier today.
So I'll ask you about what you think it shows
for the Houston Rockets. Questions about the season predictions, who's
gonna win it all, and where are the East and
Western Conference team going to factor in? So obviously Houston
is on that list there in the West, so of

(01:26:04):
the other forty eight questions about players, offseason moves, rookies
and international players, defense, coaches, and miscellaneous. Of those forty
eight other questions, how many times do you think a
rocket answer was given at some variety got at least
one vote for whatever these questions might be. Best offseason,

(01:26:25):
best young player, player you'd like to build around, best coach,
best assistant coach, All sorts of questions like that, forty
eight questions, how many time was a rocket player, coach,
assistant coach, etc.

Speaker 3 (01:26:36):
Mentioned?

Speaker 4 (01:26:36):
Thirty It's very good, guess it's twenty five. Okay. They
are heavily mentioned in all these questions, which are only
talking about really good NBA things. There's no questions about
which franchise would you not like to run? Don't answer
your own team. There were no questions like this is
bringing up the rear record wise this year? Do you
believe your team can land the number one pick in

(01:26:57):
the draft via the lottery and the rigged lottery? Just kidding,
I didn't mean that. So you start at the top
of the list with the just predictions. I'll allow you
to pick out and I'll pick out mine. On the
positive side, you'll pick out yours. On the negative side,
what got you almost as fired up as yesterday's Wednesday's
BS from an NBA front, But the straight up predictions
to open this conversation has Cleveland, New York, Orlando, and

(01:27:21):
Atlanta finishing one, two three four. In the East. It
has Oklahoma City, Denver, Houston, Minnesota finishing one, two three four.
In the West, Rockets, Nuggets, Thunder the only ones to
receive at least one vote to win the West. Rockets
got one vote to win the West, Oklahoma City eighty

(01:27:45):
percent to win the title, Nuggets and Calves got seven percent,
and the Rockets and Knicks each got a single vote.

Speaker 3 (01:27:52):
I know that the Oklahoma City Thunder getting eighty percent
to win the title is just going to seem like, oh, well,
they're just far and away the best team. That to me,
and this might be a little odd in your opinion,
has a whole lot more to do with just if
you make out of the West. It's de facto because
that's how bad the East is in comparison to the

(01:28:13):
West this year. Like if the Thunder had gotten out
of the West last year and it wasn't the Indiana Pacers,
And then because Tyre's Halliburton didn't get hurt until what
game late in the series with a six I don't
remember how many games it went. But if that's the
Boston Celtics on the other side, and they're fully healthy
and Jason Tatum, you know, is there obviously because he's

(01:28:34):
not going to be this year because he ripped up
his achilles, I'm not I'm probably still picking the thunder,
but they've got more than a puncher's chance to beat them.
Their defense is what makes that possible.

Speaker 4 (01:28:47):
So I'll pick my category of positivity because that's how
this show works. I'm always mister dry blanket positivity. Love sports.

Speaker 3 (01:28:54):
It's great.

Speaker 4 (01:28:55):
There's nothing to be mad about, no complaints here, right,
And I'll allow you for the other side of it.
For the common listeners to the show, they know how
that works. Which players most likely to have a breakout season?
Is the question I choose. I like the answers here.
Players like Brandon Miller, Wemby, Franz Wagner, and a bunch
of others also receiving votes. Amen Thompson was number one.

(01:29:16):
He got thirty percent of the votes, But that's not
why I like the question so much. Which players most
likely to have a breakout season. Here are the players
that at least received some votes for it, Amen Thompson,
Alpera and Shangoon Reached Shepherd and Jabari Smith Junior you
know who they played for. Four different players from the
same team were voted on by a GM to say
this is the player most likely to have a breakout season.

(01:29:39):
Do you think the Rockets have a good young roster?
The answer to this very question obviously is yes, based
on those answers.

Speaker 3 (01:29:46):
And you're saying that about a roster that also has
Kevin Durant on it and other veterans, so it's not
just like all youth like it has been.

Speaker 4 (01:29:53):
Right, they have something to lean on. I'lp having a
breakout season means you're voting on a player who's an
All Star and now gonna have a breakout season. The
guy who won the vote Amen, an All NBA guy
to now have a breakout season. Look at the level
they're already at, to the level where people mbagms think

(01:30:14):
they can get to.

Speaker 3 (01:30:15):
Well, that makes him a betting favorite to be the
most improved player, which is actually just laughable when you
think about it, because it's just it kind of crystallizes
the embarrassment of riches that is the Rocket's young core.
Even if you take the Kevin Durant to the world
out of it, He's gonna be the most improved player

(01:30:35):
after what we saw last year.

Speaker 4 (01:30:37):
Holy cow, Yeah, that's the breakout season. Some people predict
finishing second behind Amen Thompson naturally his brother a sore
of the Pistons, who will be at Toyota Center for
the Rockets home opener the Saturday of the opening week
of the season. How much Friday of the opening week.

Speaker 3 (01:30:53):
How much does Wimby getting all these votes in various
categories have to do with the fact that apparently grew
two inches over the offseason.

Speaker 4 (01:31:02):
Come on, I'm not sure where that came from, because
I don't think it comes from an actual team measurement.
I did see something that is usually where we get
it from on social media. One of the either content
team members in San Antonio or maybe one of the
reporters there, took a picture with Wemby when he was
a rookie and then took basically the same picture again
this season. Maybe he shrunk at media day and well,

(01:31:23):
it's a woman shrunk. The angle wasn't identical. So I
already had my doubts, but it doesn't really like is
he gonna block another three shots? Is he gonna have
a couple more shots of his own not blocked because
he's seven six versus seven four or seven three, or
it doesn't matter at this point. It's way more about
the actual skills that he possesses. He's a good shot

(01:31:46):
blocker's it is a skill, not just height. He has
a good ball handler, he's a good shooter. That's why
he's getting the run that he is. Totally different list
and we'll save your This really got you ticked off
for the upcoming segment. But the IZ Top one hundred
finally unveiled their top ten. Well you didn't need six, seven, eight,
nine or ten to find him or five either. I'm

(01:32:09):
afraid to tell you where he finished because I know
it's likely to happen, but I'll probably have to next segment.

Speaker 1 (01:32:15):
Dude, the a on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:32:26):
All right, picking up where we left off, I'll tell
you what upset me. This annual NBA survey, which again
this is uh is it GMS only or is it
the mixture of GMS and coaches and front office types.

Speaker 4 (01:32:44):
I can't even remember GMS. Okay, but you can't.

Speaker 3 (01:32:47):
You can't say anything about your own team when you
answer these questions. So somebody out there, somebody's out there
were like, you know, let's talk about some things. Let's
talk about the the fact that the Rockets had a
really good offseason, but the Hawks that was much better,

(01:33:08):
much better.

Speaker 4 (01:33:09):
Off season moves. Which team made the best overall move
this offseason? Celtics got a vote, Magic got two, Nuggets
got three. Rockets with a second best team and overall
moves this off season, twenty seven percent of the GMS
thought it was them. But that's about half of the
love given to the Atlanta Hawks, who came in at
number one. Fifty three percent of the GMS around the

(01:33:30):
league thought the best overall moves this off season were
made by the team that visited Toyota Center on Monday night.
And we'll host the Rockets a week from the lost
and lost.

Speaker 3 (01:33:40):
Since we're bringing up I have to say they didn't
win with that awesome offseason. Just give me just rattle
off the moves you think went into that decision.

Speaker 4 (01:33:48):
At the top of the list is obviously the tall
guy Kristaps Porzingis.

Speaker 3 (01:33:52):
Okay, because Kristaps Porzingis does what for you? Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:33:57):
He's played for some pretty good basketball teams.

Speaker 3 (01:33:59):
Uh huh, and he would they not asked to be
their best player or their second best, or their third
best or their fourth best.

Speaker 4 (01:34:04):
Come on, where was he on the Celtics? I mean
did he even play in the finals?

Speaker 1 (01:34:09):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:34:09):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (01:34:09):
He didn't have to get at the time because he's
gonna get hurt again. That's why that doesn't count as
a move. Now do the next one in Fally Dante.

Speaker 4 (01:34:17):
Okay, I'm obviously joking, but it's true.

Speaker 3 (01:34:21):
Do the next one?

Speaker 4 (01:34:22):
Uh, Nikhil Alexander Walker. They drafted Asa Newell, and they
added the league's premier marksman from downtown, Luke Canard.

Speaker 3 (01:34:34):
Ooh, Luke Canard, Now you have my attention. I'll I'll
stop you when you go to a move that I
think is better than getting Kevin Durant on a fifty
plus win team that was the two seed last year.

Speaker 4 (01:34:48):
Yeah, this is for the I don't know, seventy five
seconds I put up a defensive resistance. This is absolute
lunacy because they're answering a different question, whose team do
you think might be most improved off of their team
last year. Well, the Hawks won forty games last year,
and they play in the East, and the East is
torn to shreds with injuries right now. They better win

(01:35:10):
the East. They have a good player in Trey Young.
They have a probably ascending rookie into his second years.
I ever heard you refer to Trey Young as a
good player. He's not a great player. He's not an
All NBA caliber player in my opinion, but I can't
dismiss he's the current he's the active leader and assists
per game, and it's only he's going to stay there
the rest of his career, and he makes he makes

(01:35:32):
it easier for other players the baskets. He's a good player.
He makes some decisions that make you scratch, and he's
a bit a bit of a chucker, but he's very, very,
very good. So he's their best player. But they won
forty games last year. They missed Jalen Johnson for more
than half of the season. Well, he's he's healthy today.
Let's say he's healthy this season. Riesache was very bad

(01:35:54):
at the beginning of his rookie season. He was significantly
better as the year. War On all right, let's say
he makes more improved this year. Cannard is legitimately one
of the best three point shooters in the NBA. You
take advantage of him on defense, and he beats you
on offense. You saw that at Toyota Center, very very
easily like market Price times. No Mark Price can play
this guy's there's a one dimensional player. He shoots threes,

(01:36:15):
but a very very high level. And now you have
Kris STAPs as well. Can they go from forty to
forty eight wins? Probably forty eight? Okay, So a ten
win improvement is gonna be among It could be the
league's best. It'll probably be first, second or third most
improved team, just purely by win to Rockets won nineteen
more two years ago, eleven more last year. Gonna be

(01:36:36):
virtually impossible to win ten more for them. They're at
fifty two. But that's not the question. There's no way
you should think their off season moves their off season
was better. You're you're answering a different question. It's ridiculous.
And yes, how many different people misunderstood the question. I

(01:36:56):
think more than happen. That's a very good point.

Speaker 3 (01:36:58):
I think that the hot pick for having the best
off season the best off season.

Speaker 4 (01:37:05):
I know that's I guess that's subjective. I don't think
three percent every other team. Like you answer the Magic
because you like the Ben Desmond Bain deal. You answered
the Nuggets because you like the flip with the Brooklyn
Nets to send Porter out and bring Johnson in. These
are legitimate thought process answers.

Speaker 3 (01:37:23):
I would put Orlando's off season ahead of the Hawks.
This isn't even about the Hawks so much. So let's
help ourselves, let's help our listeners. I don't want to
see a repeat of yesterday. I know the table is
still intact.

Speaker 4 (01:37:34):
But what's his name? Kevin Pelton? Immediately after that, and
I believe the survey was written up for US readers
the same way it was handed out to those who
filled it out. I'm sure it was like a scantron
or something, but you had fill in the blanks like
you're writ in votes. The very very next question, which
team has made the best overall moves this offseason? Very

(01:37:56):
well worded, hard to misinterpret, but we believe they did.
The very next question, which one player acquisition will make
the biggest impact? And there were five names given, None
of them sound like Kristaps Porzingis, Miles Turner and Milwaukee
Drew Holiday and Portland Cooper Flag and Dallas each got

(01:38:18):
one vote. Desmond Bay got seventeen percent of the vote,
and Kevin Durant got seventy three percent of the vote.
These people are idiots, the same people voting on two
questions that are very closely related to what they were doing.

Speaker 3 (01:38:32):
They sent this out and it was digital, okay, so
they can put their votes in via their phone. All
of them were sitting on the crapper looking at something
on X or whatever and just kind of like lase fair,
like just half paying attention.

Speaker 4 (01:38:48):
Ah, that sounds good, all right, I'll do that. This
is the same question basically.

Speaker 3 (01:38:54):
Gosh, man, I just I'm not asking for like homersm
Rockets all the time. I'm just asking for you to
not be an idiot.

Speaker 4 (01:39:01):
So some of the other things Houston related best small
forward in the NBA. Durant came in third, behind Tatum
and Luka Doncic. Obviously this year I would go with
Durant being second. Tatum's not gonna have a very good game.
Tatum's gonna drag his leg around the flame. Lebron James
came in fourth, and he's also out three to four
weeks with an injury. Just announced today it begins. The

(01:39:22):
season starts in less than three to four Weeksers, It's coming.
I told you it was coming. Dorian Finney Smith received
some votes for most underrated player acquisition. A pair of
GMS put his name out there. Best perimeter defender in
the NBA was in the building on Monday night. Dyson
Daniels of the Atlanta Hawks. He led the league in

(01:39:43):
steals by so much last year, I'd never even seen
it before. So awesome this year.

Speaker 3 (01:39:49):
Hawks.

Speaker 4 (01:39:49):
He did have an incredible season a year ago, but
also not an off season acquisition.

Speaker 3 (01:39:55):
These awesome things that they have going for them on
a forty win team in the East.

Speaker 4 (01:40:00):
Geezman Thompson Best perimeter defender. He came in third in
that vote. Most versatile defender in the NBA, ahead of Daniels, Anotokumpo,
Draymond Green, Evan Mobley, and wemby Aman. Thompson again leading
vote getter, number one most versatile defender in the SBA.
Guess what else is about to happen? Last year?

Speaker 3 (01:40:20):
Draymond about to go down fast?

Speaker 4 (01:40:23):
Tary Easton also got to vote for that best defensive
team in the NBA. Overwhelmingly the Oklahoma City thunder handful
of teams gotta vote, Rockets were one of them.

Speaker 3 (01:40:32):
I think that's also going to change this year.

Speaker 4 (01:40:34):
Coaching. This one also made me think they don't know
what they're doing. Best head coach in the NBA? Eric
Spolster one, which head coach is the best manager motivator
of people? He also finished number one, but barely. Why
is best head coach in the NBA? Email Udoka did
not receive any votes, but only five coaches did. Spolster,

(01:40:55):
Daniel Tyron Leu, Rick Carl Island, Nick Nurse.

Speaker 3 (01:40:57):
Spolster was so awesome that Jimmy Butler could not wait
to go play with Draymond Green's carcass.

Speaker 4 (01:41:02):
Again, that's best head coach in the NBA. Only five
coaches got to vote. The very next question, which head
coach is the best manager slash motivator of people? Can
I rewrite that for you? M hm? Who's the best
head coach in the NBA?

Speaker 3 (01:41:16):
Thank you?

Speaker 4 (01:41:17):
That is their job what they put managing and motivating people.
That is what coaches do. They're people people. Eric Spolster
again finished first, but with far less support. Fifty two
percent of the change said he was the best head
coach in the NBA, and then I could tell you this.
Fifty two percent of the vote was split between the
top two vote getters, and this question best manager motivator

(01:41:38):
of people split with Email Udoka twenty eight percent for e. Spolstra,
twenty four for Email Udoka. You know what, out of nowhere,
not among the best head coaches in the NBA, but
really good at managing and motivating people. He must suck
at x's and o's and can't coach defense clearly?

Speaker 3 (01:41:55):
Well, definitely the defense part, because you know the Rockets
are just absolutely pedestrian defensively.

Speaker 4 (01:42:00):
Head coach makes the best in game adjustments. He may
also receive the vote. There are you beginning to see
coach has the best defensive schemes? He finished second. There
he sucks.

Speaker 3 (01:42:09):
Are you beginning to see why some of these idiots
can't put a roster together?

Speaker 4 (01:42:13):
Yes? They like the way he said. I mean, that's
that's basically what this comes down to. Can you decipher English?
That's what this is about?

Speaker 6 (01:42:20):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:42:21):
Give me this. This is a tough question to answer.
But because you're familiar with the league and the people
we know well. Top five vote getters, best assistant coach
in the NBA, I'll give you number one, Mike and
Nori in Minnesota. He's the you spent a little time
out there, bet. Jason Terry in Utah. I just saw
him last night like that, and he did not make
the list. I love Jet. The next three people all

(01:42:42):
have Houston ties. One's on the staff, one used to
play here, and one used to coach here.

Speaker 3 (01:42:48):
I'll ponder that during the break because we're out of time.
But that's good stuff right there.

Speaker 4 (01:42:52):
Four thirty, we'll bring us our signature segment. What's up
with that?

Speaker 3 (01:42:56):
Is next.

Speaker 1 (01:43:00):
On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:43:05):
A new signature.

Speaker 3 (01:43:11):
Why don't you sing along with the sing along?

Speaker 4 (01:43:13):
It's too old? My voice is bright. Chan can't hit
that note anymore?

Speaker 1 (01:43:19):
What are you heart?

Speaker 3 (01:43:20):
That was live? It was where we pulled this audio from.
Yeah you were were you singing along with the original? Yeah,
so technically it's copyright.

Speaker 4 (01:43:28):
Maybe it's not live. Excuse me, I misspoke. This is
our signature segment here on the A team and on
a Thursday, we ask a pretty simple question. Almost always
sports related, but man, the way things are going, sometimes
we find it elsewhere, but not today. What is up
with that saw I shoot the other day on social
media from some of the new team members at NBA

(01:43:51):
on NBC and Peacock very excited to be part of
the team. A real opportunity. It's one thing we do
get with the additional outlets to draw your attention to
NBA games. There are a lot more people that are
are in NBA prominent national NBA jobs now because there's
just that many more opportunities for them, and we'll get
a chance to see it with your rockets opening up

(01:44:12):
the season and several times throughout the season. You brought
it up, probably earlier this week or late last week
that you were still thrilled last time you saw a
spot promoting NBC and Peacock's coverage of the NBA, because
I think you were always a little bit back of
your mind, not one hundred percent convinced even though they
told you they were going to. We knew they were

(01:44:32):
going to. It had been repeated over and over that
they would keep the old NBA on NBC Music. But
you're now believing that it is in fact in place. Well,
they're using it on promos.

Speaker 3 (01:44:42):
They are, and I would think that would be an
even somehow miraculously dumber thing to do.

Speaker 4 (01:44:50):
You should believe it. It's it's happening. Oh, it's okay
to believe it now. And I was thinking about this
actually just now. Blah blah bha basketball it's it's back. Yeah,
Like people are a our age old yeah, old heads
whatever you wanna call us, Like I'm forty four. The
last time that music hit like a drug was like,

(01:45:13):
what two thousand and twelve?

Speaker 3 (01:45:15):
When did they go away? When did ABC start ruining basketball?
For me? With Mike Breens not answer? When did he
start ruining games? Just just go go on? When did
their they didn't ruin? When did the inferior theme song
start playing on another.

Speaker 4 (01:45:29):
Network's now that's fair a few years back? Okay, so
but they're back now.

Speaker 3 (01:45:34):
People don't these people, these youngs, they don't realize what
that music. Two youths don't realize two youths, they don't
realize what that music means to people like us. And
you know why, because they're all Lebrun's de goat people.
Whereas the people that love that music and it hits
like you know the C word. It absolutely is fueled

(01:45:58):
by MJ's The Goats because that music defined his and
the Rockets championships for eight years in a row, basically
the nineties, which, by the way, pound for pound is
the best decade ever. I finally just I've come to
this conclusion. You can argue with a wall the nineties awesome.

(01:46:20):
Go back and look at it sometime.

Speaker 4 (01:46:22):
I'm with you. It had the internet a rare occasion
for me not to chime in and beat you down.
I'll just go with you because I know you don't.
You don't like the eighties. The eighties are great. I
love the eighties. As they say, maybe Matt was the
one that didn't like the eighties. The eighties are pretty awesome.
A lot of access. Nineties are good, a lot of access.
That's fine. So I know there's a point to all
this NBA on NBC and music, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (01:46:44):
Oh yeah, Remember the guy that did all the voiceovers
for NBA and NBC and basically NBC sports in general.

Speaker 4 (01:46:51):
Okay, his name's Jim Fagan.

Speaker 3 (01:46:55):
This is him here in twenty twenty five voicing some imaging,
if you will, for some upcoming NBC events.

Speaker 4 (01:47:05):
Welcome to American Express.

Speaker 7 (01:47:07):
At the half.

Speaker 3 (01:47:12):
Two of comics football's most iconic programs meet at the
LA Commesee December fifteen.

Speaker 4 (01:47:17):
Michigan visits USC on NBC.

Speaker 1 (01:47:20):
And Peacock Here come Saturday night.

Speaker 4 (01:47:24):
That's it right, sounds great? Right? Did he forget to
mention what ranking USC had? He said number fifteen, Michigan
and they just said USC's name. Now they must be right,
Texas doesn't. Okay, So he died in twenty seventeen. Twenty seventeen,
Fagan passed away. That's just icky, right. They're using AI

(01:47:47):
and I knew this. I thought you did as well
because I knew it. I'm playing it up a bit.
But here's the thing. Also, they as part of an agreement,
as part of the NBA coverage, they came to an
agreement for I believe a select number of promos generated
recreation of Jim Fagan's voice will be heard. Well, look,
here's the deal.

Speaker 3 (01:48:06):
Nobody loves this more than me because it sounds like
we're still in nineteen ninety five and he's still doing
you know, the promos and the music's there, and everything
about that hits you in the fields. If you are
a fan of the NBA, NBC and just NBC sports
in general is here for you. But I just don't

(01:48:27):
know if it's like right, like he's not He's not
really doing it. It's just a I And if you
can't have Marv Albert calling the games, which you won't
he's long retired, by the way, that's gonna be a
rough one for me. I'm just letting you know. Now,
that's like up there with Billy Joel, like take the
day off of work type thing to grieve. Okay, what

(01:48:50):
it's a soundtrack to my childhood, Like Matt Thomas, I understand,
Like I just don't like just you know, you've got
you're gonna have who's gonna be the main voice on
the NBA NBC Mike Turico, He's gonna be number one
lead voice. I mean, it's not Marv. It's never gonna
be MARVD. Thank god, it's not Mike Breen.

Speaker 4 (01:49:08):
Well that's the thing with everything else, like you got
to move on and somebody will. We already have somebody,
and it is Mike. Mike's phenomenal, right, No, I love Mike.
He's not Kevin Harlan. That would be my number one
twenty years from now, when you're looking back at the
Mike Turrico called excellent, they'll be great. They're gonna be.

Speaker 3 (01:49:25):
Awesome, and there will be imminently more superior to Mike Breen,
just like Marv was.

Speaker 4 (01:49:30):
Are you looking forward to Special Contributor Michael Jordan's contribution really,
Peacock's because I don't think they're gonna be good. I'm
not still not quite sure. They haven't gone specific in
detail of how he's gonna be used. Vince Carter, Grant Hill,
Derek Fisher, Austin Rivers, OK, which I think is going
to be awesome. Boston Rivers is phenomenal.

Speaker 3 (01:49:49):
Oh he is.

Speaker 4 (01:49:50):
Go back to the name that you mentioned before him,
Brad Doherty. Nope, Bryan Scoal, No, I know who you
want me to say. Robbie Hummel.

Speaker 3 (01:49:57):
Why are we doing? Why are we trying to still
make Derek Fisher thing? I don't know, Stop trying to
make fetch happen. He's a bad guy on the floor,
he's a bad guy off the floor.

Speaker 4 (01:50:05):
And he's not particularly interesting to listen to.

Speaker 3 (01:50:07):
And one time, in a chapel session at Toyota Center,
I was having impure thoughts because I wanted to do
violent acts to him.

Speaker 4 (01:50:13):
I'm like, what are you doing in here?

Speaker 3 (01:50:15):
You need to pray?

Speaker 4 (01:50:15):
But what are you doing in here? I mean, I
guess a bad guy impure can apply those kind thoughts.
Really consider that that. But I'll take your.

Speaker 3 (01:50:23):
Word for it. It's all biblical.

Speaker 4 (01:50:26):
He's just not, you know, studio analyst. I like, what
it's a name. Oh, I think I've heard him enough.
I think I guess him. I think he'll be very good.
What do you think about Derek Fisher. I'm not a
fan of his work. We've heard him before.

Speaker 3 (01:50:41):
I just got done saying I don't think Mike's going
to be good either, But it's not because he's a
horrible person, which he is.

Speaker 4 (01:50:47):
But that's different. Who's not gonna be Good's Derek Fisher?

Speaker 3 (01:50:49):
And Mike?

Speaker 4 (01:50:50):
Who's Mike? Mike Jordan? Who's Mike Jordan? That's a me move,
Mike Jordan Jordan, goodness, gracious, would be the greatest thing
ever Scott. If they bring him out the first time,
and that's what they call him, he would walk off
the set. If they introduced him as Mike George. I
don't think they would.

Speaker 3 (01:51:06):
He would you know why why because the jingle wasn't
Can I be like Michael?

Speaker 4 (01:51:11):
It's ironic that you say that, because you're totally right.

Speaker 3 (01:51:13):
Gatorade had a very successful campaign. If I could be
like Mike, If I could be like Michael, nobody called
them Mike Jackson either.

Speaker 4 (01:51:22):
I don't think PEPSI never had a Mike Jackson campaign.
Did they call me Mike?

Speaker 3 (01:51:27):
Only my friends call me Mike's Bubbles?

Speaker 4 (01:51:31):
NBN NBC Peacock Opening Night, Rockets, Thunder be there.

Speaker 1 (01:51:38):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety Hey, wex dog.

Speaker 3 (01:51:47):
I'm gonna read aloud from my Twitter feed now.

Speaker 4 (01:51:51):
By the way, during the break between last segment and
this segment, Clanton mentioned to me, Oh, we're gonna have
some fun this segment. I don't know why, but I'm
eager to find out.

Speaker 3 (01:51:59):
Well, you're not tagged on this. You probably haven't seen it.
It's just me. We were talking about the NBA NBC
last segment when you brought up the fact that this
person seven minutes.

Speaker 4 (01:52:10):
Ago brought up that's key because there's two okay.

Speaker 3 (01:52:14):
Ac, Remember NBC is going to have a special contributor,
Michael Jordan speak on that. Please four minutes later after
I clearly had done that without seeing this tweet. So
the greatest player ever ac is going to have horrible
basketball breakdowns. You're crazy, well, Adventure Ray or Miami day

(01:52:36):
de Rey, as you are on your handle, you remember
that time where the greatest player ever was a part
owner and GM of a team and they consistently sucked
every single year, and when they had the number one
pick in the draft, they took Kwame Brown.

Speaker 4 (01:52:54):
Don't tell me I'm crazy. So can you add to that? Magic?
Johnson as a basketball coach and or executive executives a
little less, pretty much not gonna be here next year.
Isaiah Thomas really good NBA player. You know who the
r basketball decisions. Clyde Drexler, you have h head coach.
Sorry Clyde, I love you, but I mean, yeah, that's

(01:53:15):
maybe it's a little different. I mean, Jordan's running a team.
This guy's coaching the Tears an exception. Larry was very
good at Larry Bird. Yeah, there's way more.

Speaker 3 (01:53:24):
You know why though, because Larry's personality lent itself to
him being successful in a role like that. I don't
give a bleep about any of you because I've accomplished more.
But also, I don't give a bleep about any of
you because I don't care what you think about the
way I'm doing things.

Speaker 4 (01:53:38):
Now, get it back to what he's actually doing. He's
now following in the footsteps to a certain degree, Michael
of Tom Brady.

Speaker 3 (01:53:45):
Uh yeah, but I mean, and I know he joked,
Tomic does do studio work, it's just not what we
see is often and the other media week doing three
plus hours of game. Michael's gonna come in how many
times this season?

Speaker 4 (01:53:59):
I mean Tom Brady in the studio would be in
a different role than in the play or in the
color analysts chair, for sure, but it took him a
little time to get where I think he's he's clearly
getting better, but he's still not the best that they have.
He's the best football players, not the best analyst. I'll
say this, I think Jordan's contributions will be limited light.

Speaker 3 (01:54:17):
Yes, if it's anything like the last dance, I'm here
for it. I mean, they're gonna come back and it's
gonna be halftime and somebody will have shrugged during the
game and he'll be like, and I took that personally
because he stole from me, I.

Speaker 4 (01:54:29):
Feel like it's almost inevitable that instead of actually kind
of breaking down this game or that they're gonna just
keep that. Well, how do you think that would have worked,
you know in your day when y'all did the it's
gonna be too much of that? I don't know. That
Just kind of something that I feel was, we'll see
I'm not watching it's the same.

Speaker 3 (01:54:45):
What if he says, what if he's watching something and
then he gets emotional like he did in the documentary.

Speaker 4 (01:54:50):
If you don't want to play that way, don't play
that way.

Speaker 3 (01:54:52):
Break?

Speaker 4 (01:54:52):
You think he'll say break and then they'll go commercial. No,
he'll get up and walk off the sea. Oh no, no.
And gosh, that documentary so good.

Speaker 3 (01:55:00):
I don't care if it was like heavily influenced by
him or that it made Scott Pippen get mad and
cry and write a book?

Speaker 4 (01:55:06):
Was how good? It was heavily influenced by what was
going on in the world or at least here. Well,
that was that we didn't have anything else, and we
didn't have any sports.

Speaker 3 (01:55:15):
Oh, I thought you were talking about the actual during
the tie and team I'm talking about years happening. Will
you please release it. Why can't we get all ten
out of the gate. But look, that thing could drop today.
We would have never seen a minute of it, and
it comes out tonight and everybody would say the same
thing they say now.

Speaker 4 (01:55:31):
It was amazing, even if you didn't like the ball.

Speaker 3 (01:55:34):
Heck, I went out and bought a pair of Jordans
after I saw it, and I hated the guy for
twenty years. The first ones I bought were the elevens,
which were the ones he wore in ninety six.

Speaker 4 (01:55:47):
I think they were the space Jam ones. Where are
they now?

Speaker 3 (01:55:50):
Where in my closet?

Speaker 4 (01:55:51):
You wear all the time?

Speaker 3 (01:55:53):
Honestly, of all the Jordans I wear or I own,
they're the most comfortable.

Speaker 4 (01:55:57):
All right, Just quickly, because we got thirty five seconds.
Here the NBA player list of shoes that you have.

Speaker 3 (01:56:04):
It's just those.

Speaker 4 (01:56:05):
No Kobe's, no steps. Here's here's a little dirty, little secret.

Speaker 3 (01:56:10):
Most of them are ugly. Like that was the thing
about Jordans. They wouldn't have sold the way they did it.
They didn't look good. Clearly, it's not about Some of
them are very uncomfortable. I don't think the fours are
very comfortable on my ankles. And I'm not like picky
about that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:56:24):
And you weren't playing basket were boots most of you
playing basketball in them? They are basketball. I mean, I
don't know if you know this, but they're basket. They
are basketball shoes.

Speaker 3 (01:56:32):
People say, people some people say they're the most comfortable
Jordan's they own of all the Jordans.

Speaker 4 (01:56:38):
And there are many. Okay, how many Jordans do you
think he wears?

Speaker 3 (01:56:43):
Our owns? None?

Speaker 6 (01:56:47):
I love the.

Speaker 4 (01:56:47):
Threes, but after that they went downhill.

Speaker 6 (01:56:50):
None.

Speaker 4 (01:56:50):
No, I'm gonna go with none. Yeah, I think I
think you're probably right, just because these topics always seem
to go together. We didn't mention it specifically. We'll get
football at five and at the top of the But
the report is it's sciatica on his right side. That
is what Lebron James will be sidelined for for at
least three to four Whys I want to answer, but

(01:57:11):
I want to say something else first, because I think
it's the same thing, the same thing when NBA players
are out three to four weeks. He practiced, he heard
his hamstring today. He turned his ankle. He's got a
high ankle spray. He tweaked his knee. They're gonna get more.
Whatever it is. When I hear sciatica without really any
I'm not trying to I don't know anything. I'm not
a doctor. I'm many times wrong on these things. Sciatica

(01:57:35):
sounds like something that would be hurting somebody much older
than an NBA player. Yeah much somebody was older than
an in front of his age.

Speaker 3 (01:57:44):
At least you know what's bothering at me right now
as I sit looking at you at this angle. Every day,
my left sciatica because I'm forty four, same as about
two weeks after my forty fourth birthday, I woke up
and then my back just started hurting every day for
no reason.

Speaker 4 (01:57:58):
It's nerve pain. Basic need to call twenty three year back.

Speaker 3 (01:58:01):
That is what I need to do.

Speaker 6 (01:58:02):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:58:02):
The actually some of the actual terminology type of nerve
pain that radiates along the siatic nerve obviously satica, but
which runs from the lower back through the butttoks and
down the back of each leg. But the thing is
about asiatica.

Speaker 3 (01:58:14):
A sciatica will make you think that you are having
like a ruptured disc.

Speaker 4 (01:58:19):
It's so painful and it's very hard to sleep.

Speaker 3 (01:58:22):
With one two.

Speaker 4 (01:58:23):
Weeks before the season starts. This is not a good
sign for his season.

Speaker 3 (01:58:30):
Okay, I don't want to go full Wex on you,
but what did I tell you two days ago?

Speaker 4 (01:58:35):
He's going to be totally healthy and the Lakers are
going to win the title.

Speaker 3 (01:58:38):
And then you woke up and what did I really say?
They're not both even compete? I didn't say that, but
we'll compete for what, right?

Speaker 4 (01:58:47):
The title? They're not a title content? No, and they're not.
I mean they are a.

Speaker 3 (01:58:52):
Six seed this year at best.

Speaker 4 (01:58:53):
Yeah, And I think that's honestly from what I've seen
so far. And we'll get more precise when the season
has actually approached. But what I am reading and seeing
and predictions out there, that is what most people are
looking at. Don't looking at them as a back end
of the postseason in the Western Conference, a team that's
not likely to finish near the top. They're obviously going
to have to manage their way through the season even

(01:59:15):
more than we might have thought because of this situation.

Speaker 3 (01:59:17):
And I think people realize that he and his sciatica
took the full ride and did not give the Lakers
any sort of discount, which, by the way. I'm only
bringing up because I do think Kevin Durant is going
to do that for the Rockets. I do think he's
going to not take a full max or he'll take
some sort of some semblance of a.

Speaker 4 (01:59:37):
In their case, it's more about so we can keep
the team together.

Speaker 3 (01:59:41):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:59:42):
In the Lakers case would be more like so we
could put the team toge.

Speaker 3 (01:59:45):
Well, he's looking around, Well, these players that I brought
in aren't getting it done, So I'm going to get
my full money.

Speaker 4 (01:59:50):
Yeah, I mean, I hate getting on players for I mean,
come on, man, it's okay. He's the GM too. Michael
and Lebron and some of these extreme high level rivers
of the entire league. I mean, why should they be
making less money? The league is so successful.

Speaker 3 (02:00:06):
Michael was saying, don't fire my coach, and I'll come
back and we'll win again.

Speaker 4 (02:00:10):
That's different. Lebron was saying the first time or the
second time? The first time, okay, the second time

Speaker 1 (02:00:15):
He played for the Wizards the ad on Sports Talk
seven ninety