The A-Team: Astros Win! JV Update, Caserio Talks and Bit Stealing

Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on February 28th, 2024.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named AdamTalking Your Teams series, Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A Team A. It's almost three o'clock. Nice of
the Astros to finish on time todayso we could start our show a little

(00:24):
early. The A Team coming atyou on a Wednesday edition of the program
as we will get preempted tomorrow forAstro spring training, but today full three
hours for you as wex is overthere, AC right here, and the
show killer Dan Matthews in his usualspot producing the program. It was good

(00:44):
to see the offense wake up wexI just wanted to get that right out
of the way, get it outof my system and tweak you a little
bit. In the first opening segmentsof the show, man like eight hits.
At one point I was like,they are cruising through this one.
It was good. Chas McCormick,Jake Myers, Guyner Diaz, Victor Carratini.

(01:04):
Players that won't matter to the Astrosthis year all had good days,
got in some more. AB's gotto face some few guys, maybe one
guy who will pitch in the majorsthis year. Been playing at the Marlins.
Usually they will throw a lot moreof their regulars, and obviously their
lineup was that and so the earlyAstros arms also got to face I'm grand

(01:27):
it's the Marlins, but they're majorleaguers too. They got to face major
league hitters and they had no issueswhatsoever with them. Seth Martinez coming in
with the bases loaded, two pitchesand they were out of trouble. Wandersweo
has now had a couple of niceoutings. Bennett Susan and not have a
great outing today, but it wasMartinez that got him out of trouble.

(01:49):
Tomorrow has followed suit with the otherstarters before him. You started a game
for the Astros, well, didn'tyou pitch two innings and don't give up
any runs. That's been the storyof all spring training. He's not likely
to be with this team when theybreak camp, but he is someone they
have some hopes for moving forward intothe future. So yeah, it was
a good day of baseball for theindividuals that got out there on the field.

(02:10):
More time for Jacob Melton, moretime for John Singleton. David Hensley
had a couple of hits. Ahiccup in the field, although an exploding
bat can do that to you.If you're trying to field a baseball and
on about their business, you feelbetter. I feel the same. That's
what I was looking for. Wexis always even keel about everything, even

(02:32):
in spring training. So yeah,Also in that note or in that vein,
I should say, we'll catch upwith our good buddy Chandler Roam of
the athletic in exactly two hours fromright now, when the five o'clock hour
gets underway, typically our Football atfive conversation, but he joins us once
a week during the baseball season,and so we'll catch up with him.
Before you know it. We'll haveBlummer on for his weekly visits. He's

(02:54):
like an elite guest because he waitsuntil the games actually count start weighing in
with his opinions. But he's outthere in Florida as well as he and
Todd are doing a smattering of gameson the television side, so it's all
ramping up and that is a verygood thing. We'll have our non signature
segment of the day next segment whenwe get to our JV update. And

(03:19):
obviously, with the NFL combine goingon right now, we heard a lot
and we didn't really hear as muchas I think either of us planned to.
Yesterday from Demiico Ryans, we did, but not a ton. We
had a lot more while meat onthe bone, if you will. And
Nick Cassario spoke today and again Ikeep saying this, he is probably the
most important person in the entire Texansorganization for the foreseeable future, definitely this

(03:45):
offseason. I don't think that's toostrong of a statement that suspends if he's
the one making the final decisions,or if he is taking very good information
from those that know as much aboutwinning and the on field product and what
works in the locker room is heknows about, Well, this is what
my skyl e tell me about thisplayer. Do you think in that vein?
Do you think because he was ahit because he wasn't a bust and

(04:08):
in fact the opposite of that thatbecause Will Anderson Junior was as good as
he was his rookie year and sohe probably should only get better from here.
Do you think we'll ever get thereal story about who made that decision
in the Texans organization? You know, like sometimes a big move is made
and it doesn't really pan out,or it flops spectacularly and nobody wants to

(04:30):
cop to it. Do you thinkwe'll find out that Demiko may have had
a bigger hand in that just becauseof what we're talking about here. Uh
No, I don't, because Ijust think they have. As sad as
this will sound, there's two differenthands in it. Literally. You know,
Tamiko's gonna give you, man,we really could use this player.
I'm telling you, this is thetype of player that could turn our franchise
around. But he's probably not indiscussions with Nick about well, if we

(04:54):
give them this and they get that, we'll still have this in the future
and it's worth this, and myvalue charge tells that he's not gonna do
any of that stuff. He's Idon't think he cares to be involved,
at least not yet in the earlystages of his coaching career. You know,
every once in a while, you'llget a head coach that wants to
be involved in everything when he knowsnothing about it. That was the coach
we had here before. But Nickwill then say, look, this guy's

(05:15):
pretty convicted, and his football people, his other defensive coaches, people that
they might have talked to at Alabamaand elsewhere, they keep putting that bug
in Dimico's here, and they keeptalking amongst themselves saying, look, I
know, we don't have a pickuntil just outside the top ten, and
there's obviously no way will Anderson theTexan and we're not even truly considering it,

(05:38):
but we think we have to figureout is there even a possibility.
And so he's not doing that onthe night before the draft or a week
before the draft. He's doing thatright after they've met with Will Anderson,
the final interview, after the goneto the combine, after they've scoured over
film, after they've had meetings eachother, because most of the time,
it's, you know, leading allup to this, the coaches are meeting
with each other. They're looking attheir players, they're looking at what they

(06:00):
can do coaching wise, they're lookingat their scheme and the scouts of the
personnel side. They're looking at thefuture of the team, and the future
players are the draft picks. Andthen the combine comes along, and slowly
but surely, over the next twomonths, those meetings happened together and they
start to share their ideas and theystart to get an idea of what the
coaches think of this player. Imean, I just go back to you.
One of the stories that two peoplethat left San Francisco at the same

(06:21):
time talked about. Ran Carthon leftSan Francisco to become the Titans GM and
Demiko Ryans obviously left San Francisco tobecome the Texans head coach, and they
both individually recounted a story about howtheir team came to drafting Eli Mitchell,
the backup running back for Christian McCaffrey, and why it made sense and why

(06:42):
this group was pushing for him,and how they work together on this is
the type of player that we thinkwe can do this with. And mind
you, Tamiko's coach and defense,he's not trying to get a running back
for the offense, but he understandsthe process of why this particular person player
fits so well for our team.To me, I don't think there's much
debate about it at all, becauseafter the crew, the whole head of

(07:05):
the team, all of the headsof the team gets we think that there's
a real we should actually try tosee if this is feasible, and you
start making phone calls and you startthinking about your future assets, and then
you're the one I mean, I'mgonna imagine that Demiko Ryans even today has
had zero conversations with monte Asin Fortand Nick Cassario is trying to cultivate a

(07:28):
deal and figure out if something canbe done again. I don't I don't
think the deal was bad at allbecause the results are what they are.
I still even today think with thenumber of picks and where they were that
they gave to Arizona, I'm juststill surprised that it took that much to
get there. I don't think theyshouldn't have done it because it costs that
much. I'm just surprised. Asbusular night, I just don't know.

(07:50):
I still can't figure out that whyArizona wouldn't have just pulled the trigger for
less considering what they wanted out ofthe draft, which was just a tackle
trading up for. But yeah,I think that's I wouldn't say it's all
Casario, but deals like that getput together by the personnel department, the
general manager. They don't make thatdeal if he doesn't have a good handle

(08:11):
on what their assets are, whatthey're worth, which gms that he's already
created this relationship with or put abug in there or started the process of
it. So in they're very small. The Texans select CJ. We better
get on the phone with Arizona,Like, that's how much time you have
to make sure it all comes tofruition. So you get to make the
very next pick. It's a windowand you got to be unless you're the

(08:33):
Minnesota Vikings, you've got to beready for that window. What year was
that that that happened? Well,that was I mean there was no deal
to be made, that was thenwaiting to see if this could happen,
and then nothing happened. So fourteen, I want to say, sure,
I feel like it was the JohnnyManzel draft. I bring this up in
part because of something the Texans actuallyposted on their Instagram account today. It's
a graphic with Tamiko Ryans and heis the quote is it's always person over

(08:56):
player and bringing the right person anin and then their caption is adding to
the culture and I have to readit because they put it there. It's
a bullseye emoji, but it's justit begs the question. And I do
think it's collective. But you know, it's easy to look at what happened
last year and say, oh,well, that's completely that was de Miko.
I mean, he's a defensive coach. He's a defensive guy. It's

(09:18):
his first year. He wants tohave a stud on the defensive side of
the ball. Since they got theirquarterback on the offensive side. It's easy
to think that and that may verywell have been the case. But I
just you know, at the endof the day, and at the end
of whenever they build or finish building, or I guess get it to a
point where they've built a championship contender, I'll be fascinated to see just how

(09:43):
the inner workings really did go downas it pertains to putting those parts together.
Because I think we all agree,and I was talking to somebody about
this over the weekend that is insidethe Texans organization, and I mean we've
said this on the show. It'snot a secret. I think you would
agree with me. Within five years, the Texans will not only be competing,
but I think they'll win a SuperBowl with CJ. Stroud. I

(10:05):
really do think that. If byfive years you mean eleven months, I
would agree with that. Well,that's within five years. It is absolutely
qualifies. I'm I'm okay with thisand it may seem obviously, we live
in Houston, we broadcast out ofour Houston studios, and the Houston Texans
play in this city. So homerit up all you want if you think
that's how this comment comes across.But I don't see any reason why they're

(10:26):
not competing for a super Bowl immediately, Like, I don't even consider this
year not competing for a Super Bowl. There's eight teams left, there's one,
eight teams that have a chance towin the Super Bowl and one of
them. Do you think that becauseof the way the flop happened against Baltimore,
people would want to temper that.I wouldn't because I would certainly not
call it a flop. They itjust didn't win. They look out,

(10:50):
They looked out classed on that dayon the field. In my opinion,
I guess they just didn't move thefootball. I mean, outlass, you're
making a You're don't mean to debateit. I just think I look at
it a little bit differently. Youknow, they weren't totally out of sorts.
They weren't turning the ball over,they weren't a litany of mistakes.
Their defense outplayed the Texans office.They had no time to throw. He

(11:13):
I think he had a lot moretime than the result the results suggest at
all. He must have been underdress all day, every dropback, not
necessarily the way I saw it fiftyto fifty. Maybe they were not Those
guys weren't winning their matchups and therewas no running game, So you know,
maybe I'm very very much in thesmall side of that. I thought
he was rushed a lot more thanyou're remembering. Maybe. I mean,

(11:37):
I don't have the film, andright right in front of me at this
moment, it just felt like hewas. Now he might not have gotten
hit or even sacked, but Ido feel like more often than I was
like, ah, geez, herewe go again, they're breathing down his
neck. He can't get anything donenow. The part about guys not being
open certainly happened, but I justjust my memory of watching that game and
how it unfolded, it felt likehe was not able to do the He

(12:01):
wasn't able to basically employ the magicwe had gotten used to with him,
in big part because he didn't havetime to yep, and as they went
into the final thirty minutes Baltimore ten, Texans ten, you can't keep saying
that though at thirty minutes is aneternity in an NFL game. Look,
yeah, at the halftime of theJets game, Jets nothing, Texans nothing,
well played, well played. Yeah, it is just half of a

(12:24):
game. But that's what I justwouldn't call it. The the better team
definitely won. There was absolutely nothingflukey about it. Yeah, man,
if they just if this one playwent their way. There wasn't a penalty
called or not that wasn't and bythe way, that factored into it a
lot. I just can't They couldn'tget anything done once the Ravens did.
Once the Raivens started getting things done, they couldn't stop them and their their

(12:46):
side never changed. They never gotanything done offensively, period. They played
an entire game without getting into theend zone with their offense. That is
a probably gonna win zero playoff games. And that was definitely part of it.
It wasn't just CJ's side of thefootball or CJ himself. The defense
could not stop Lamar Jackson or anybodyelse out there in the second half.
Yeah, they did all the thingsyou do on an afternoon where you're like,

(13:07):
man, I can't believe they're inthis position. The way things have
gone, they've been very unsuccessful.But they're going into the locker room for
their non hyped up speech and it'sall tied, and they of course should
have been in front had they madetheir field goal. But even that,
I don't think. I don't thinkthat's so much momentum that they lost or
air o wind out of their saleskind of thing. It's thirteen to ten,

(13:28):
Baltimore scored twenty four points in thesecond half, you scored none.
I don't think those three momentum wisewould have changed the whole lot. But
yeah, we can describe it anyway you want. As the Demiko said
yesterday, in addition to making thatcomment, they turned into a graphic yesterday,
he said, what teams that shouldthink Super Bowl would think to say
the season didn't end the way itwanted. He became head coach of a

(13:52):
terrible outfit that hadn't had even fivewins in a season in four years,
and they won ten regular season gamesand a playoff game, and he correctly
said, the season did not endthe way we wanted it to. They
went to the playoffs off of havingthe number one pick in the draft until
the last game, the second pickin the draft. When they got to
draft day, they went to theplayoffs, got a home game, won

(14:13):
a home game because they had wona division and the season, did not
get the Comeback Player of the Year, they did not win, have their
season end the way they wanted.That's correct. Yeah, you're there,
You're one of the eight. Howeverit happened, and luckily enough, one
of your players is CJ. Stroud. You know, you take the final
eight teams and they have someone Iwould think all eight of them that they

(14:33):
believe they can win a Super Bowlwith. I'm sure the Packers think that
with Jordan Love, obviously, theNiners think that with Brock Purty, and
pretty much none of the other quarterbacksthat were there are even debatable. Well,
neither is CJ. Stroud. It'swhatever awards he might win along the
way, and however many precision passingcompetitions he wins at the Pro Bowl games.
You have a quarterback that you canwin the Super Bowl with. Scrolling

(14:56):
through Instagram earlier today, also sawsomeone had put together a reel of all
of Tank Dell's touchdowns and I'm like, man, I was scrolling through Instagram
and someone put together a reel ofAaron Rodgers' entire twenty twenty four highlight package.
Last long, I was about tosay, how many plays is that
test? That's what I feel likereels And they know, good friend TikTok

(15:16):
are all about not Tank Dell.I mean Tank del too. I just
you forget you don't, but youdo that. Boy, he would have
been nice to have had. Ibet he would have been opened on some
of those plays against Baltimore, evenquestionably. I mean they had their version
of him, their rookie Zay Flowers. It was a huge, huge factor
in the game, especially in thatsecond half we were talking about. All

(15:37):
right, mentioned it before our nonsignature segment. Will give you a update
on Justin Verlander, among other things. When we come back here on the
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(16:47):
people strive to have a nice house, cushy job, and well adjusted children.
Not Adam and Adam new Way.They strive to give you the best
damn drive home in Houston. Sports. Thanks guys, Bring your kids to
work Day is a real treat aroundhere, Little bratts. Back to Adam

(17:07):
Clinton and Adam Wexler. Fine SportsTalk seven ninety eighteen rolls along here on
a Wednesday edition of the program.Normally, this would be the last day
of February. We get one morebonus day today, and then it'll be
March, and then the blow torchwill start and games will eventually start to
count. Can't wait to wish allthe people happy fifth birthday tomorrow when they

(17:29):
turn twenty. You know, it'sso bizarre because when do you celebrate it.
I would assume it's today most years, and not March. First.
You look forward to celebrating your birthdaymany years, and then maybe later in
life you don't. So in theearly years you probably go with the twenty
eighth, and then in the lateryears you are like, maybe they'll forget
about it if I wait till March. Fist, when you're a kid and
mom and dad are like, no, you have to wait an extra day.

(17:52):
It would be the day after thetwenty eighth. Well, if you
celebrate your birthday as a kid,when you have the party, and that's
going to come on a weekend,so whatever day it falls on, whatever
weekend, they didn't have to beon your birthday when you're a kid,
because you're just there for the cake, ice cream and gifts. And I
think a buddy of both of oursgot married on that day a few years
back, well four years back exactly. Dropping dad jokes into his speech about

(18:14):
leaping into this marriage. Was wasit something like that? I don't think
so. I just like, whendo you do your because our anniversary is
the first of March. But wedidn't mess around with that. Me and
you? No, me and missus, oh, you and t okay.
Yeah, so my it's very easy. My birthday is the first of February.
Our anniversary is the first of March. Her birthday is July fourth,

(18:34):
but not be easier years birthday,anniversary, April Fool's Day, and then
the final eight months of the year. Yeah, those are the non mattering
months. The first day of themonth is pretty important to you. So
you're telling me me and my fianceshould a lope tomorrow. So if I
forget our anniversary, I can say, hey, no, it comes every
four years. No, no,well that's fine that in theory. That

(18:56):
is a fine theory. What I'mtelling you is that you should have low
period. End of sentence. IfI could give everybody advice out there,
and I've been married twice so Iknow this, don't waste money on a
stupid ceremony. I I hear whatyou're saying, you don't hear it.
I think you don't hear it becauseyou talked about the expenses of the event.

(19:17):
But your wedding is a party.Why do you want a party?
It's fine, it is a partythat is accurate, but everybody has a
good time. Yeah, but youhave a much better time when you go
party just the two of you onyour honeymoon, which is where you should
spend the actual chunk of the money. Yeah. If there's some costs involved
and you want to, you know, spend a little more on one versus

(19:38):
the other, you can just headon down to the courthouse and then take
a long vacation. I was like, oh, so informal they give you
a piece of paper, you cantake a picture with it. What's the
problem? I just yeah, Iget it. I understand most like ninety
nine percent of the women in atraditional marriage are going to be the ones
that are appreciate about this day courthouse. Ever since I was a little girl,

(20:02):
I always dreamt of going to talkto the judge with just the two
of us and signing a piece ofpaper and then going back to work.
Is the greatest day ever. Youknow, it's a reason I got married
on a Tuesday afternoon. And Icome in the next week and Brian Erickson,
our program director at the time,goes, did you get married last
week? That's exactly how he saidit. I'm like, yeah, yeah,
we did. We'll have the honeymoonlater, which we did. It

(20:22):
was March first, and we didn'tgo on our honeymoon until July. Yeah.
Two people getting married after their twenties, the further along you go.
And if it's not the first oneand things are, you have different ideas,
you do it differently. What doesVince Vaughan saying just two people wanted
to make bad decisions together? Theyget honest crashing weddings during the opening scene
where they crashed like five thousand weddingsall at once, and he's eating cake

(20:47):
atrociously trying to make balloon animals bicycles, Mazel tov, I just want a
bicycle. Make me a bike,you clown, all right. So anyways,
we need to get to the importantpart of this segment, which we've
done every single day since spring trainingcommenced well, at least pitchers and catchers
reported, and that and then wefound out there was a hiccup involved.

(21:10):
Of course I had to add thatlast caveat on just so it's official when
we give you today's JV update,JV update. He threw that ball lyrics
JV update, do you wake upokay? Stiff neck? So he did

(21:32):
throw the baseball quite a bit overthe last couple of days, and all
has continued to be headed in theright direction. I did like this line
from the MLB dot com story fromour good friend it's covering the Astros the
last handful of days, Bill LadsonBill, and he writes the Astros have
not ruled out Verlander for opening Day. In fact, general manager Dana Brown

(21:56):
expects Verlander to be a major partof the rotation into I mean, contrary
to public opinion. In fact,Dana Brown expects Verlander to be a major
part of the road. Yeah,we know, that's why com on.
But the update is good. Hewas able to wake up nicely. He

(22:18):
felt great this morning. His bullpensession with a little bit higher intensity yesterday
Tuesday went well. And again it'salways about how did you feel after the
workout, after the strain on theshoulder and arm and body of the forty
one year old, and everything wasgreat. So as the Astros were mopping
the floor with the Marlins, wasexpected that he would play catch this afternoon,

(22:44):
and that's good as opposed to havinga catch. Yes, and provided
that session of throwing the baseball backand forth with limited velocity, he would
be fine, and he would beprepared for another bullpen session as they lead
into the weekend. And it's nowat the point where if that goes well,
if the intensity goes up again,then his next step might be live

(23:07):
b P and LIVEVP means he's goingto be and I don't know if he'll
they're at the point where the fullarsenal of pitches will be thrown, because
he has not even done that yet. But a live BP might mean,
Okay, he's gonna throw a seriesof fifteen to eighteen fastballs to uh Dixon,
Machado and Jiner Diaz and Joey Loperfito. He might not be throwing any
to Machado right away. Machado didleave today's game with a little bit of

(23:30):
an injury, that's true. Well, he's probably these Sometimes these live bps
don't include a lot of swinging,so if they need someone just to go
ahead and stand in there. Tome, they could probably do that.
Hell, well, that's all he'sdoing. So you're saying there's a chance,
a chance of what opening day?No, I'm not, you're not.
The astros are, well, they'redoing the smart like this timetable stuff.

(23:52):
It was it's a good question toask, and it was asked of
the manager earlier this week, ashe's been ruled out for opening day,
or what do you think about beingthere for opening Day? And he said,
I'm not really gonna comment on thatnow. Well, why should he
it's a month away, there's noif he were hurt and there were a
clear injury and there's a clear recoveryprocess, so there's a minor procedure,

(24:14):
then come what comes with it?A timetable? That's not what's going on
here. And that's good. Imean, I'm always a little bit hesitant
to believe everything because he is tellingus it's just a timing because people lie.
Well, he's just behind schedule.So far, that appears to be
true. Two weeks into normal throwing. He's throwing every day he's supposed to.

(24:37):
He's ramping it up every day he'ssupposed to this does appear like how
a player. It's just the wrongpart of the calendar. He should have
been doing this upon arrival. Likewe're two weeks in. Wednesday is when
he talked about drinking all too muchsprite and having a hiccup in his shoulder.
So two weeks ago, if therewas no hiccup, this is where
he would be as he got tospring training, being prepared to go seventy

(25:00):
five to ninety pitches against Garrett Colea month from the twenty eighth, which
is today. People, He's justnot at that point yet, and so
far there's no reason to believe he'son his way to getting there. Just
might be April tenth or April thirteenthor April seventh. I like April seventh
better than those other two that youmentioned. He will probably, in fact

(25:23):
be a major part of the Astrosrotation. How about this in twenty twenty
four, So they've got the fourgame series with the Yankees, then they
play the Twins every like once aweek. We got to do this up
until the season, Like this isthat's the third different team you've guessed and
they're all wrong. What doesn't matterwho it is because it doesn't matter who

(25:44):
it is who they play. Afterthe Yankees, the belief it doesn't matter
who they play. See, that'show you do it. After the team
up east comes to town, theteam further up east, even from America,
comes to town, the team fromNiagara falls North. Yes, if
he comes back on April seventh,it would be to pitch in a mimic
made park in Arlington. I wasabout to say that's what I was driving

(26:06):
at here. Yeah, you didn'treally cared for three And then GV shoves
against the Rangers and then they goto to Texas again. That is a
four game Friday to Monday opening roadseries. The raining defending disputed their dispute
dispute it, Yes, why wellare you not the Knicks filing a protest
that they didn't really win it.I love it. It's so funny,

(26:29):
I think, I really, honestly, just once, I want the NBA
to say, you know what,all right, let's play it. Let's
play the final five minutes or whateverstupid chunk of the game you're protesting.
If they I liked that, theleague said, uh, let's see the
obvious. Like, I get beingmad, big mad, but what are
you filing a protest for the rulesare super clear, and the league did

(26:53):
officially say today, thanks for yourten thousand dollars. It took us about
zero minutes and zero seconds to handleyour protests. Wait wait, because everything
necessary to deny your protest took placeimmediately upon the action, then after the
game, and it was already over. This is a dumb question. I

(27:14):
don't care ten thousand dollars a teamhas to give the league. You have
ten thousand dollars hitting me with yourIt's just like when you applied for college.
I applied for college. There's athere's an application. Well that much,
and if it was I'd be like, we I'm out. I'm not
going. I don't need it anyway. Well, at the time, you
were making no money and you hadlimited networking minimum wage, which at the

(27:36):
time, I think, what wouldyou say your net worth was in nineteen
what was your net worth less thanJames Dolan's. It was probably three digits.
What is it now? Oh,it's much higher than that, it's
at least four. Yeah, theyspent ten thousand dollars to follow protests that
could not was a guaranteed loser uponsubsision and I think I have learned that

(27:59):
the NBA is just it's smart's yeah, give your money. It's just like
the fines for playing like Jabari Smithpicked up a technical foul fine last night.
You pricked up a technical foul finejust like that in literally a couple
of seconds now, apparently, accordingto court side reporting from Jonathan Fagan,
as confirmed in the Pool can getcourt side reporting from Ryan Hollins, who

(28:23):
was doing nothing last night, oreven court side. They were close,
but they weren't literally tweeting through itlast night. They Jabari Smith Junior apparently
after the call was flipped upon reviewalprin Shanngoon's charge, which I thought they
got right after they reviewed it,which went against the Rockets, right,
he indicated that they were making dinnerin their house at cooking okay. Apparently

(28:55):
he literally said, that is theofficials dinner in their house. I did
not get the home cooking man.I thought maybe you'd seen that that's kind
of a path to get there.I think it's somebody who's putting a filter
on your tweets. I don't eversee, are you know? I didn't
say any I didn't sweet anything aboutit. Oh, okay, you know
what it is though. I'm justnot much broadcast. I was just trying

(29:15):
to make sure we you know,everything was cool on our end, and
was it naturally? No quarters byphone? No, I was in the
studio. That's good. You're liveand in living color. Yeah, all
right, one minute and seven secondsbehind MM no feed. Yes, if
you were unaware. When we doa broadcast from two different locations, one
of us is at the game,that's Matt, and the other person,

(29:37):
whether it's myself or Ac, isnot. But we do have the ability
to watch the game with Matt inreal time, so we can talk to
each other in real time about what'sactually happening, replays and everything else,
unless we don't have the ability todo that, like last night because it
was a national game. Right,Okay, enough behind the scenes, speaking
of talking to each other the mediaand Nick Hissario did that at the NFL

(30:00):
Combine. Today you will hear fromthe Square job vest next. I gotta
listen to every game anywhere on theiHeart Radio Sports Talk seven ninety it's home
of your Rockets. It is theeighteen here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

(30:23):
So yesterday at the NFL combine.Uh, Demiko Ryans shared some of his
thoughts, and you did a greatjob of perfectly extracting the I don't want
to call it coach speak because Ifeel like that's a slight at Dimico,
but it basically what happens with freeagency. But I'm very proud of what

(30:44):
he did for us last year,and we'll see where free agency plays out.
Love JG and love what he didfor us this year, and finally
we'll see what happens in free agency. But we would love to have Devin
bang just see. I don't wantto do it, but I kind of
have to. But again, Thenkois not the one you typically think of
when you think of filling the blankspeak with. Well, keep this in

(31:06):
mind. The only reason we evenhave access to that is because he decided
that he would attend I love youtaking digs at Mike. I can't help
it. Every day every day,It's awesome. Can you do that until
the start of the next season.Every day? And at some point during
our about Demiko, he just hadhis wife and he and their family just
added a daughter. Yeah, coupleweeks old, now, very very young.

(31:30):
But as Demiko indicated with the inhouse media. Uh, she is
super calm, the calmest of theirfour. How could he have a child
that's not calm? True? True? I mean I don't know his wife,
and Jamila is probably more to fiery, No, just more. She's
the one obviously literally right now,as he's vacationing in Indianapolis. Nobody vacations

(31:55):
in india nobody. But yeah,he had a pretty you know, like
I don't know if you want itor you don't want it, but yeah,
a nice little excuse to say,Man, I am gonna get some
good sleep. You know. It'sactually impressed, right, It's actually impressive
that he was as ferocious as hewas on the field, because the guy
has not changed one iota since becominga non player physically either, No freaking

(32:19):
he's like cut out of granite andhe's the nicest person you'll ever meet,
which helps. If he didn't coach, well, but he does, so
it's like a bonus he does.But interesting, but he sucked a little
bit. Later on the show,we will get to the thoughts on him
as a coach, as told tous anonymously by his players. The NFLPA

(32:45):
now annual survey it's in year twowas released today. Some good teams got
some low marks, and some teamsin Houston got good marks just as they
did a year ago, but theydidn't rank as highly as they did a
year ago. So explain a littlebit of that and get into all that.
We will start with one thing fromDemiko, since we brought him up
first, and we'll slide into somecasarioisms from earlier. This afternoon. Happened

(33:10):
to be over at the Astros whenthey had their media luncheon and they launched
their new campaign for the upcoming season, Relentless, and then when Andre Johnson
went into the Hall of Fame,and then not long after met with us
over at the Texans facility. AndI don't know how I missed it during
the year, because I'm sure itwas there for postgame press conferences. That's

(33:31):
pretty much when you are in theteam auditorium, which is where we talked
to Andre and where we talked toKush and a bunch of other people throughout
the year, and Demiko and CJall year in postgame pressers. But right
there on the wall immediately when youwalk in, you're staring at a big
sign that says Relentless in big,huge Texans colors, and Demiko Ryans indicated

(33:53):
that, yes, this team isrelentless. For me, it's a clean
slate. We start over at twentytwenty four. Now, who are we
going to be? Right? Andyou know, we have a lot of
great matchup versus a lot of greatteams this year, and I'm excited to
first off field our team again theproper way of guys who are just looking
to compete, Guys who have theirrelentless mindset, Guys who want to go

(34:15):
out play for each other, Guyswho want to hunt, Guys who want
to play with relentless effort and finishlike. That's what I'm looking to build
as we start these off seasons.And the astros gotta love that free marketing
by Dimiko Ryans. But you know, I do think that will be the
theme, the unofficial theme, I'llput it that way of this upcoming Texan

(34:37):
season, getting away from everything thatwas magical about the maiden voyage of both
Tamiko Ryans and CJ. Stroud.Because here's the thing, it was great.
Everybody loved it, but you cannotif you are looking back on it
basically at any point from here onout, you're you're not moving forward,

(34:58):
you're actually going in reverse. It'sjust also to me very refreshing, I
guess, or the right way todo it. He said the same thing
about the year before now Grant hewasn't here and it sucked. But he's
presenting the exact same thing following avery good year, a very good year
that he and his staff, mostof which is back, was all a
part of, and a tremendous amountof their personnel will be back for next

(35:20):
year also even with whatever free agencybrings. So they begin the year with
we don't know, although there's areasonably good chance they're gonna have to wait
a long time the day that theyplay opening weekend. If I were to
guess, I don't think they willThursday night. No, I mean wait
after they wake up, because theywon't be playing at noon or three.
Oh well, but I think Thursdaynight, Sunday night, pair of Monday

(35:43):
nights. I think eight teams.I was talking to somebody, the same
person I mentioned a couple segments ago. I think there's a very good chance
that Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs areopening up against the Houston Texans. I
don't know anything and this person didn'teither. But if you want a sexy
matchup to start off the year,I mean, you could do a rematch,

(36:04):
But I don't think they play themthis season on their schedule, do
they? The two first place teamsplay each other Kansas City and Baltimore.
No, I meant a Super Bowlrematch, because it hasn't that been the
case in the past. Uh,I mean I thought you were talking about
ANFC title game rematch. No,that could be the case. But why
not put the youngest, hottest,up and coming quarterback against the best of

(36:27):
the best right now and have thatbe your opening game. Nobody is going
to miss that game? Oh?CJ. Stroud and Pat Mahomes, I'm
in right. Put anybody on Thursdaynight to open the season. Nobody's going
to miss it. Like the radiesare going to be through the roof.
Sometimes you actually have to consider,like are we wasting this matchup? We're
gonna get good numbers, and yeah, they'll be better with them, but

(36:50):
do we want to use it ata random week where they're going to drive
the numbers? It is though,Is it not tradition that the Super Bowl
champion plays on that Thursday? Ithas business and they do play the Niners
in San Fran, So I don'tthink they would send Kansas City to San
Fran open up the season. Yeah, no, I don't think so either.
That wouldn't be really fair since theywon. Fine, it's fair.

(37:12):
Life's not fair, though, kid, All right, when we come back,
as promised, we will hear fromNick Cassario from today at the NFL
combine on. He's gonna tell useverything he's gonna do in the upcoming draft
up in April. He's gonna justgo blow by blow, pick by pick.
He'll do it. No, notreally, but we'll hear from him
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(39:07):
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Town. This is a for hTown. This is Houston six. This
is Sports Talk seven ninety because rightnow you see it Leton Houston. Right
now back to the eight team withAdam Clinton and Adam Wexler. Unbelievable.

(39:34):
I can't believe you said that beforewe turned our MIC's on, so we
Ar'm not gonna say it after No, that's good. Hey, uh.
We are winding down the three o'clockhour here on the A team Sports Talks
seven ninety. A very important lookat the NFL Players Association's survey annual survey
coming up at the top of thehour. You won't want to miss that.
But in the meantime, so theTexans have a quarterback. The Texans

(39:59):
are about to get to the lastremnants of the Deshaun Watson deal. They
got a couple of picks in thisdraft that are still some of the booty
they got from that hall. Whydid you have to say booty like when
you that's what it's referred to,like treasure. I'm sorry, I can't
stop I can't keep going with therest. It's just not a Raptors game.

(40:20):
Take it easy. I cannot ingood conscious allow you to say the
words Deshaun Watson and Booty that closetogether on a segment of our show.
I was only going to present thatto you to ask you a very important
believe it or not question. I'mtwelve. At the twenty twenty four NFL
Combine, during Nick Cassario's media availability, he was asked a question about Deshaun

(40:43):
Watson believe it or not? Believethat he was very early in the proceedings
man and answered it if you didn'talready, he has got a lot of
respect for Cleveland and he thinks theyhave a good football team. He knows
they won a lot of football gamesand Deshaun is going to be a good
player in this league for a longtime. But also he's focused on the

(41:06):
Houston Texans and what they can doto that. And again they caught the
question was about the improvements to therosters since the trade of Watson, so
it wasn't specifically like are you followinghis career? Are you glad that it's
worked out this way? You knowwhat you pick is actually worse than the
one you're getting from Cleveland. Youknow, the sense of you guys were
awesome and awesomer exactly winning in theplayoffs against them. You know it would

(41:30):
have been better is if he hadsaid, yeah, we have a lot
of respect for that organization. Theywon a lot of football games, but
not their last one. But Idigress and then kept on talking. Yep,
so he is again, I knowvest is popular and probably won't go
anywhere, and he does still havethem. What about the jaw? Is
that popular? He's he's quarterzip guy. Now it's like a it's much more

(41:50):
of a constant quartership. Well,sometimes he wears both quarters. Becuzario met
with the media today and we're goingto dig right into the actual matter at
hand, because they have now aweak like every other NFL team, to
make a decision on whether or notthey're going to utilize their franchise tag,
whether they're going to ensure one oftheir good players who otherwise would hit free

(42:10):
agency and would hit the market andthey'd be in a battle for his services
if they're even inclined to try toretain him. Well, they can prevent
that with the franchise tag or atleast ensure that they will get something very
significant in return if he ends upelsewhere. So kind of describing the process.
Obviously we've thought that John Grenard couldcertainly be involved with them using the
franchise tag. Initially talking about howthis particular tool they have to make their

(42:37):
roster as they want and work underthe constraints of the cap. He said
this, anytime you assign a tagto a player, it's essentially you're committed
to that value. Now doesn't meanyou can't work out a long term contract
the extension with that player, butit's sort of a fixed number, And
I would say, kind of likeI talked a little bit earlier, it's
almost a starting point in negotiation.So you have to figure out is that

(43:00):
valuable? Does that make sense?Or let the player get to the open
market, let the market dictate whatthe value is. So honestly, it's
a little cat and mouse game.So you just try to take the information
in, try to have a generalunderstanding of the market, and try to
make a good decision. To me, that is one hundred percent about how
are they going to handle John.Do they want do they feel comfortable?

(43:22):
Do they want to see if someother team or teams are in the four
years ninety million dollar range, doyou five years one hundred million dollar range
forty some odd guaranteed an average annualvalue of well over twenty million a year,
where as the franchise tag is justa shade above twenty million. Their
own deal could certainly put it atmuch less if they were able to agree
to one without him able and hisagents to pit one team against the other

(43:45):
to say, I've got this offeron the table from team X. If
you want to retain me, thenyou better give me a contract that says
X plus whatever. So, yes, it seems pretty clear that these are
basically discussions they're having internally, havehad probably over the course of the last
year as they watched him turn inthe finest season of his career, as
they watched him be a great bookendon one side, with will Anderson on

(44:06):
the other, and know how muchthis team will be struggling to either replace
him or struggling mightily if they areunable to replace him. But he also
kind of unprovoked talked about another playerwe hit on almost every day about his
future, even though he's not aboutto hit free agency, as he continued

(44:27):
on this topic. We have someflexibility relative to financial commitments that we might
be able to make, but youdon't necessarily have to use all your money
up in one year. So we'vetried to I've talked about this previously,
really look at your team and sortof two year increments. So whatever you
don't do this year, that money'sgoing to be used in future years.
I'm sure I'll get a question herevery soon about an ego Collins that's coming.

(44:51):
So that could be a player thatmaybe he's a part of the future.
So you're dealing with the president,you're focused on the short term,
but part of our responsibilities kind ofthink ahead a little bit so and just
try to make good, sound decisionsfor the team and the organization. If
you just want to fall for itflat out and let him play us by
saying it publicly, he's to me, he's saying, yeah, our discussions

(45:13):
with Nico Collins will come, justas they have with John Garnard after his
initial four year rookie contract plays out. He's what he's basically saying. If
you're supposed to be reading into whathe says, if he wants you to
do what he's asking you to dojumping to conclusions. That sure sounded like,
yeah, those discussions are coming whenhe is playing in his contract year,

(45:37):
which he has not done yet.That does not happen until he begins
play in year four, which isnext year. We will wait and see.
He could be a part of ourfuture. But with the current state
of affairs and where things could othermoney could be sent. Now. I
mean, you could look at itcertainly from a well, we're not paying
CJ. Stroud very much yet.And granted it's not like every other first

(45:58):
round quarterback. The difference in payin his first three four years versus Justin
Field's first three four years and versusPat mahomes first three four years, they
still are pretty different. It's notcrazy money, but the number two overall
pick gets a lot more money thanthe tenth pick or the twelfth pick or
twelfth and tenth as I said itpreviously, and that's where those two quarterbacks
were drafted. But in addition tothat, in twenty twenty four, Nico

(46:22):
Collins makes nothing, and even ifyou extend him, I'm sure you wouldn't
put that money on next year's books, but you could do something to change
them. And it could go alittle bit higher, but why not you?
That's I'm sure how the team wouldlook at it. Go ahead,
have another great year, Well we'llpay you then, But right now we're
paying you off being a third roundpick three years ago now four which means

(46:44):
you're one of our lowest salary players. Certainly one of our lowest salary players
that matters. Did he just inadvertentlytell everyone that the Texans don't talk to
guys and tell they're about to beup, kind of like Jim Crane said,
I don't do more than six yearson a d Is that what I
just talk about? It was justa couple of years ago. With TJ.
Watt in Pittsburgh. It means allworld one of the best players in

(47:07):
the league early in his contract,his first round contract it brings with four
years in an option year, andtheir normal operating procedure in Pittsburgh is we
don't extend anybody. Why would wedo it for him? He's like the
best player in the league. Likemost teams, even with first round picks,
they might definitely consider it with aquarterback, they're probably gonna talk about

(47:28):
it if you're a running back,but not do it unless you're McCaffrey and
a few others, and then yougo on down the line with who else
what other positions these top picks play. It is rare, and certainly not
before the fourth year is up,because you still have them for an option
year plus the option of two franchiseyears. And Nico Collins is a player
outside of the first round. Youmean Russell Wilson getting extended in Seattle as

(47:51):
a middle round pick. That wasn'teven a slam dunk. It wasn't a
home run. No, it definitelywasn't a home run. He can't use
touch wasn't it. It wasn't atouchdown because he threw it to Malcolm Butler.
And it's because it's a football contractwe're talking about. We can't use
the same sports scoring description. Allright, when we come back, we
will get to and we'll hear morefrom Nick Cassario later on in the program.

(48:15):
But a very very important event everysingle year this time of year in
the NFL took place again recently.We need to talk about that next.
We'll do that. Let me talkto you about going on over to Classic
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(49:28):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler r DA team A four o'clock hour underway here
on the eight team Sports Talk sevenninety WEXA scenes Showkiller Dan Matthews with you
until six o'clock tonight. By theway, we should probably let you know
a segment ahead of time. Signaturesegment time is next, so you must

(49:52):
be talking about that. Yep,there is a today. It's Wednesday,
So what will you be doing stealingbits? It's Wednesday's bs, gotcha.
There's a better than average chance.We have opened the door to the prize
closet. Yes, okay, sothere's something inside for you people if you
want to call in and win.As per usual, we don't know what
we'll be doing. We never knowwhat we're going to be doing. All

(50:14):
I can say is we have notyet spun the wheel. But if you'd
like to be ready with your dialingfingers yes, and your interest in prizes,
I'm stripping away. I'm gonna bevery blunt. If you're a prize
pig, you need to dial sevenone three, seven ninety right about now
and get in line. Oh wow, line them up, prize pigs,
call now, all right, andno haggling over prizes. What we have

(50:37):
is what we have. Do peopledo that? Yes? Oh my gosh,
Oh you don't have any more ofthis. No, I just told
you what we have. It's free. We're literally giving you something, and
you're complaining. I can't think ofsomething more American in twenty twenty four.
Anyway, speaking of complaining about thingsthat are nice, the NFL players are

(50:59):
so siation annual survey just got released, and there's always so every time this
happens, right, there's always somethings that you know, kind of get
your attention, I think. Andif you go to like ESPN dot com
right now, it's the top story, which is hilarious to me. Look

(51:21):
at the prize pigs lining up onthe phone lines. That's funny. They
make a big deal, and Ithink rightfully so. Out of the fact
that the Kansas City Chiefs, thedefending two time Super Bowl champions, were
the second lowest graded team in theNFL, ahead of only the Commis,

(51:45):
that's a big deal. Let's laya couple things out for everybody. The
NFLPA does now an annual survey.They began last year and they have continued
this year. Last year, aboutsixty percent of the players responded this year,
almost eighty percent of the players responded, and they asked them questions and
ask this year more than last year, about some additional information more than just
yes or no or good or bador high or low, but some actual

(52:07):
information regarding a bunch of different thingsthat relate to how your team is run.
How does your team treat the familiesof the players. What's the nutrition,
diet, food, all those things? What are they like? The
locker room, set up facilities foryou to be in shape, the weight
room, the training room, thetraining staff, strength coaches, the trait

(52:29):
team travel. Do you have aroommate? Can you pay the team to
not have a roommate? And yes, in some cases teams do have that.
Texans do not have roommates. Otherteams say, if you want to
give us seventeen hundred and fifty dollars, you can get your own room per
week or total. I didn't actuallydive further into it. That's interesting.
It's only one night, So ifyou're staying at a seventeen hundred and fifty

(52:52):
dollars a night room, it's probablya very nice hotel, which is where
teams stay. So maybe it's almostone hundred dollars a week if you were
to do it that way, butyou also have to add the additional cost
to the team travel planner we'll callthem, because there's an additional envelope they'll
now have to fill out and putthe logistics guy. No traveling secretary is

(53:16):
as Costanza used to be. Itwas a fine, fine title. Help.
All those people are people people.But they added a couple of items
this year that they did not havein the past. They asked the players
about their head coach, and theyalso asked about ownership because in their mind
it kind of goes together. Andthis isn't just to give ESPN something to
write about or sports talk radio hostssomething to talk about. This is all

(53:37):
done in an effort to be veryclear to management, to the adversaries of
the union. These are the thingsthat we don't like. These are the
things that we need change. Theseare the things that our team doesn't do
that other teams do that don't seemlike a big ask, but it might
be a good way to make ushappier, get more free agency, or

(53:59):
get more out of your play.All those things go into it. So
that's how that's basically what players areasked to do, and you can take
it as seriously as you want.Hopefully you take it more seriously than voting
for boban Maryanovich as your All Starplayer when they hand out ballots to which
happens every year in the NBA.No offense to bobon just a player,

(54:19):
I suggest the moment, who's obviouslynot an All Star caliber player. So
I hope there's them taking he's anall star person and a social media giant
yep, and a literal giant anda movie star. The Texans grades across
the board, and again I can'tbelieve that they did this. What do
I rail about when we when weget in grades for the draft? I

(54:40):
mean, like thirty teams got Bminus and thirty teams got a B plus.
Like, come on, man,how do you give us differentiate between
thirty two of them? Thirty twoteams got a letter grade in treatment of
families and like five of them gotan A and another six got an A
mine which was one better than theother, because I don't and why?

(55:00):
Yeah, so what goes into this? Every single grade the Texans received was
a B minus or better. Therewas no overall ranking. Had them seventh
in the NFL out of thirty twoout of thirty two. They were fourth
a year ago, and in everysingle category that was on last year's category

(55:20):
list. Winning has a price,they ranked in the top ten. They
went from fourth to seventh. Well, it's mainly because other teams did things
that their players appreciated or were newto them, versus the timing of when
the Texans, Like the Texans gota brand new locker room, but not
right before this year. It wasright before last year, so it stood
out more. It's just yeah,little different things. But I do think
adding the head coach and ownership tothe list because of where the Texans ranked,

(55:46):
dropped them on the list, whichis a little surprising. They got
an A minus overall in their coachcategory and that ranked fourteenth in the NFL.
Is giving Demico any thing other thanan A plus backups? Maybe?
Yeah, But like that's the thing, what's the reason if you give him

(56:07):
an A okay, but an Aminus. There are some additional pieces of
information that you ask of the players, like in different categories like that one
for instance, and you might beable to say, here's where why we
did this or why we did that. In the Texans case that a minus
for Dimiko. Eighty nine percent ofthe players feel head coach Tomiko Ryans is

(56:30):
efficient with their time. Eighty ninepercent sounds high, right, mm hmm.
That ranked twentieth in the NFL becauseeleven thinks he sucks with his time.
The players feel that Demico Ryans issomewhat willing to listen to the locker
room, and that ranked in thatcategory. Of the overall that ranked seventeenth.
Well, the reason he's not aswilling as maybe some to listen to

(56:52):
the locker room is because he's usuallythe one talking in the locker room.
Well, you've seen the video.Should he listen? Well, those aren't
the only times, the locker roomtimes. I know, it's just funnier
that way. Of course, he'snot in a position to listen to them.
I know he's nobody, so tospeak. It's his first year.
But who are they right? Youknow, the holdowers are literally from a

(57:14):
football sense, the only thing wewould they would know is losing. And
the newcomers will they bring a certainelement of winning. He specifically brought them
there, so it's not like hehad to listen to them. He brought
them there so the players would listento them. I think that's an area
that probably just goes nowhere but upin his case as they get to know
him. Their ownership ranking a Bplus sixteenth right there in the middle,

(57:37):
based in the NFL eight point sevenout of ten is the rating that CEO
call McNair received from the players whenconsidering his willingness to invest in the facilities.
So a very specific item within thatgroup, specifically to his willingness to
invest in the facilities, he basicallyranked right there in the middle. And

(57:59):
again a lot of this is timing. How many players are playing in a
building that's five years old or newer. Nobody on the Texans clearly right,
and you know some of their facilitieswithin the locker room, I do think
they've made upgrades to the cafeteria anda nutrition. Have they made upgrades recently
to their strength and performance department orto their weight room and all these things,
ASAWNO, these are all places wherewe don't see them every day.

(58:22):
We don't think about them as much. We don't think it has a huge
impact on the players. It mightmentally, or you know, we watched
Major League I mean, I don'tthink the Texans are grabbing a boat motor
and sticking it in a tub andsaying, here's your hot tub. But
are they bring the Texans clothing offof a cardboard cutout of Hannah. Well,

(58:43):
luckily the lawsuit went away, soI don't think anybody's trying to move
the team. Oh geez. Bythe way, I love the fact that
the Texans don't like their weight roomand they really don't like the strength coaches,
both of which got bees twenty andtwenty fourth respectively. Yeah, their
assistant strength left. It was CharlieHeck's brother who was the assistant strength coach.
And if you ever attended Texans practicethis past year as a fan or

(59:07):
media, you could not miss him. This is a football team and he
towers over the players. He isabsolutely an just humongous person. But he
moved on to a different position,and so there'll be a little bit different
look to their department anyway, whetheror not. Obviously the survey has much
to do with it, but thehopes, like it was last year that

(59:29):
the JC tread to the president ofthe Players Association, feels like the information
that has been given to the teamsthat they now see and they get all
this stuff in more detail than wedo, will pay dividends to making Again,
it probably doesn't matter to us.But if your daycare costs one hundred
and fifty dollars for two kids,and next year costs fifty, and they

(59:49):
do this, that and the otherfor moms bringing two, three, four
kids, whatever the case may be, these are things that do tend to
matter to players and at least brightentheir day. I wonder how much,
say lot better? Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. I
wonder how much longer the Texans isgonna be playing in that stadium? Where
are you putting the new one again? I'm putting it downtown? You're putting
it? Oh yeah, lots ofroom down there. Well, which of

(01:00:10):
the three stadiums right next to eachother you're getting rid of so you can
take that space? I have theories, Okay, I have theories, all
right? When we come back,like I said, and there are a
few of you on hold already,but you want to get in line.
I cannot even believe people are alreadyon hold seven one, three, two,
two, five, seven ninety.There's a better than average chance you're

(01:00:31):
gonna win something if you get inline, right, now at seven one
three two one two five seven ninetyfor our signature segment on a Wednesday,
that is next. This is EllenGreen Green, Great Given Dough from Green
sit Down. You're listening to Adamand Adam Wixon, the Two Adams,

(01:00:51):
the eight and eighty eight Sports Talkseven ninety Home for your Rockies, a
little help over the humped with someWednesday BS bit stealing with the bit stealers
better known as I Gotta Take thesitcom a whole bunch of it, the
A Team You Stole My Moves.Signature segment time of course, on a

(01:01:15):
Wednesday, that means uh, Wednesday'sBS. Whether it's The Sewn Salisbury Show,
the Next Up Program, the MattThomas Show with or without Matt Thomas,
Space City, Saturday Astro Line,the Nightcap, any number of programs
here on the station we lean onfor this very special Wednesday segment. So

(01:01:36):
go ahead and won't you spin thatwheel? Five minutes left in the show.
What should we do? We shouldplay America's fastest growing sports radio game

(01:01:58):
show. We simply call it itor not. Here's how it works.
Called seven one three two one twofive seven ninety. That's seven one three,
two, one two five seven ninety. Today's category all things NFL combine.
I'll read you a statement about theNFL combine. If the statement is
completely anotherly accurate, you'll say this, believe it. If the statement is
erroneous, full of bunking, madeup, you'll say this not to correct,

(01:02:20):
believe it or not. Answers ina row when you a prize,
What are we playing for today?We are playing for or tickets to go
see the Rockets take on the Heatlater on in the season. Rockets dot
com if you're looking to buy alsoas well. Coming up this Sunday night
at the Bay You Center, theKing of Queens himself, Sean Payton himself,
Kevin James is going to be performingthere. Let's right have a seven

(01:02:44):
ninety T shirt. Awesome prizes people. As we take off on this voyage
through believe it or not, thankyou Mt Sports, RV Connor McGee.
It's amazing you knew what to sayas the wheel was getting to the end
and landed on this. It isamazing. One hundred and five minutes left
in the show. What should wedo? One hundred and five minutes left

(01:03:07):
of the show, What should wedo? All right to the phones we
go. Tim Aren't here on SportsTalk seven ninety. Are you ready to
play, believe it or not?Already? I'm glad that you are ready.
Talking about the NFL Combine. Thefirst NFL scouting Combine was held in
Indianapolis in nineteen eighty two. Believeit or not, believe it not,

(01:03:34):
I'm sorry, Tim. It wasin Tampa. I've said it once,
I've set it a thousand times.You gotta know where your NFL combines were
held in nineteen eighty two. Noone has the disdain for their listeners.
I'll lah Alex Trebek the way MattThomas does. Let's keep this going.
Kyle here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Next up, you're ready to play,
believe it or not, Let's doit. The Combine, the NFL

(01:03:55):
Scouting Combine now has been held inIndianapolis since nineteen eighty seven. Believe it
or not. Believe it. Believeit? Oh, that's one. You
get another one. You get todip your hands in the price pack.
Yukon defensive back Byron Jones has thelongest broad jump in combine history. He
did it at twelve feet three inches. Believe it or not. I almost

(01:04:23):
cite not not, And you're notgoing to be a winner. As we
told you once, we told youa thousand times. You've got to know
the exact distance of Byron Jones broadjump in twenty fifteen. I like if
you could hear him in the background. Oh, who's next. We've got
Mike excuse me, James on amobile here on the eighteen for an addition

(01:04:43):
of believe it or not? You'reready to play? Yes? Oh so
excited. Julius Peppers has the combinerecord on the bench press fifty one reps.
Believe it or not? Not?Not well done? You should know
the record is in fact fifty one, but done by somebody else. Get

(01:05:03):
another one right, you will bea winner. Your second question, Former
Titans running back Chris Johnson has thefastest forty yard dash time in combine history
at four point two two seconds.Believe it or not? Not not?
This guys is a winner. Thisguy's going that's good. It was.

(01:05:25):
It was four point two to two, though it was done by somebody else.
See if we can get at leastone more winner. You tell me
who's next. Let's go with hJames on a mobile. Oh sorry,
let's go with Ricky. Okay,we're going with Joe. Hey, Joe,

(01:05:45):
you're ready to play Believe it ornot? I'm ready awesome. Former
Houston Cougars defensive back Stanford Route onceran a four to two seven forty yard
dash at the combine Believe it ornot God Believe it. Bye got to
know how fast university fuston cornerbacks are, and he is, in fact a

(01:06:09):
four point two seven forty yard dasher. Ricky, You're next here, Unbelieve
it or not? You ready toplay? Believe it? Let's rock and
roll. This guy's ready. Hallof Fame wide receiver and Texans legend Andre
Johnson. He scored a twenty threeon his Wonderlick test Believe it or not

(01:06:34):
not Believe it? Andre appreciates yourconfidence in him, unless you thought it
was lowered, but he didn't factscore at twenty three on his Wonderlick test.
One last contestant will file through thesystem here. It's gonna be Daniel.
Daniel, are you ready to playthe A Team edition? Right?
Smack dab in the middle of ourshow of Believe It or not? Believe

(01:06:57):
It awesome? Former Texans quarter backRyan Fitzpatrick scored a perfect fifty on his
Wonderlick test believe it or not,Believe it not our one last contest that
thought he was a genius, whichis accurate but not perfect. He scored
a forty eight out of fifty andthus concludes us handing out one prize today

(01:07:21):
on Wednesday's BS thanks to the questionsprovided by the show Killer and the game
show itself given to us gifted tous by Sports Empty and Sports RV and
you read the questions and Dan Fieldof the phone calls, I did absolutely
nothing for this award winning segment.So I literally was the one that was

(01:07:43):
embracing the true essence of this segmentby not doing absolute bleep, no you
a commentary, you're right right,and peek behind the curtain a little bit.
Dan in fact, did not comeup with the questions during today's program
while we were on the air,while he was being pestered by one of
us to come up with the questionsand topic. While he's also supposed to
be hosting a co hosting a radioshow, right that would be something that

(01:08:06):
another show would do, but notours. What are we doing for I
believe it or not? Today?I don't know, freak it sound bite
or he'll just out and out say, I don't know that, Connor,
what are we playing for today?Uh? Let me see here? Uh
let me see what's on the price. I don't know. Hang on,
we'll go get something here. Gotsome Emerson, Lake and Palmer tickets to
give you. I'd like those.Would you go and see them? Uh?

(01:08:29):
Yeah, probably you had to choosebetween them or Electric Blue Light Orchestra.
There's no blue lights in there.I'm not going to their hotel room
to see what kind of problems they'vehad. I name the band. There's
no blue It's just Eyello. It'snot don't they E blow? Don't feel
awesome? Are you going to seetonight? E Blow? What kind of
show is that? I can't talkabout it? Is it a vape program?

(01:08:51):
Where does the internet come in?E Blow? I mean you're getting
a vape convention or something. Iwould I would go see them, as
would I would? You? Like? We do you know this? And
you're you love seeing the the oldiesmake their world or their nationwide tours.

(01:09:13):
The Eagles are coming to town,Fleetwood Max coming to town, Sure Whites
coming to town or survivor is comingthrough the age. Foreigner is having a
ship like you love it. Deathleft. Jonathan Kane just had his seventy
fourth birthday yesterday. You know whathe's doing. He's on tour like you're
seventy four? What's wrong with that? Some coins nothing unless you're the president

(01:09:34):
and you're like, he's seven yearsolder. He's on tour. Who's fining
tickets? They're touring his body aroundhis half dead corpse. Yeah, that
made you uncomfortable. Oh, Ijust wasn't ready to come back at you
just just yet. Why not,because I wanted to make sure I had
all the necessary information. We're changingpeople's lives, like I don't even know

(01:09:56):
when he said that. That wasa long time ago, when he was
in his eighties and he was noteating ice cream. So just keep this
in mind with the commentary about thesetwo gentlemen, these two being him and
the other one aren't eighty one yearold president uh huh, who did replace
and may be replaced by the seventyseven year old soon to be candidate again,

(01:10:20):
which one doesn't look like he's aday over sixty seven though, and
then which one looks like he's almostdead. I mean that's kind of a
loaded question. Do you mean theguy that thinks George Hamilton doesn't do enough
plastic surgery or the other spray tanning? You mean, my goodness, I

(01:10:40):
mean, there's more to being presidentthan your looks. Clinton. We need
not be concerned. They're too perfectlyhealthy, and part of it is what
they say, which both need tohave a little bit of a refresher course
on. I'm sure we'll be justfine moving forward with Donald John Trump or
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. His middlename name fine is Robinette? You got

(01:11:04):
to be kidding me. No,I don't have I was today years old
when I found that out. Areyou serious right now? Robinette? Yeah?
Is it E T T E?Well, naturally the feminine, there's
no other spelling once you add theet. If that's you know better than
anyone. Robin is a uh,the year done. Once you've said robin

(01:11:25):
there's no I don't need the additionalport. Well, but yeah, but
that's a that's a a unisex name, kind of like Kelly. Why don't
people why do don't Tracy the otherguy, the candidate, Why don't we
call him DJ or Donnie T.Well, we do call him Donnie T.
Oh, why don't we call him? His name is Donald John Trump.
DJ is so obvious because he doesn'tgo by his middle initial for his

(01:11:45):
last name, DJ Trump. Believeme, we're gonna, we're gonna spend
some records. I just, uh, I go back to the other Donald
John Trump pulled in the next iterationof Donnie being president if that were to
take place, you mean, likeactually in his cabinet or just what he'll

(01:12:09):
do? You mean, I knowhe's a trustee and executive VP of the
Trump Organization, but we'll you know, will he get a better title and
work for us here in America inour government? Hey, how about all
of anybody who's in our government workfor us? How about that? It's
a concept. We will move onfrom this segment after I ask AC one
more pertinent question about DJ Junior,Believe it or not, in the category

(01:12:30):
on his extremely accurate and always resourcefulWikipedia page, he is known for two
things. What is he known for? Oh? I just gave you the
answer to one. He's known forbeing an executive in the Trump organization,
Okay, And the other one iswhat I have no clue former boardroom judge
on The Apprentice. How many werethere on that show? So here's the

(01:12:51):
thing. I never actually watched thatshow ever, not one single episode.
Fire. I knew that, andit was on because I was working at
NBC at the time, so itwas always on on whatever night that it
aired. Did you watch the SportsApprentice? No, I was there when
we did that. Me and RagsAlan and the crew found some aspiring sports

(01:13:13):
a professional. Any of them actuallymake it? I mean some of them
did a really nice job, butdidn't ultimately say yeah, I'm gonna go
ahead and take this career path.They all had jobs, they were all
adults, so none of them likeswitched career paths. No, I don't
believe. So isn't that kind ofwhat you're supposed to be doing all this
for? It seems like Trump's Apprenticeprobably could help you more than we could

(01:13:35):
because we were just basically selecting awinner, Like you can't win the show
and an internship with NBC New Yorkand a five thousand dollars change your job,
you know, we didn't have thatto give them. You can't read
a prompt or you're fired, That'swhat he would say about that sports apprentice
job. All right, when wecome back, is a certain marquee free

(01:13:58):
agent to Houston picking up some steam, will tell you when we return.
You like free stuff. We alllike free stuff. Guess what our iHeartRadio
app is free and free never sound. It's so good. So these people
that are always talking in the offseason, I'm seeing this more and more

(01:14:20):
today. It could just be me, could be the algorithms of the various
social media platforms that are at playhere, could be a nefarious force at
play. I don't know. Veryawesome word, thank you, it's not
used nearly enough. Agreed and bythe way, nefarious absolutely something that was

(01:14:44):
associated with the Texans organization very recently. I don't think so much anymore.
All I want to know is whoare these people and what are they talking
about? Who are these people?Are you seeing more and more on your
side of things over there in theinternet of Saquon Barkley to the Texas well.
What we got into yesterday was wehaven't quite gotten to the on field

(01:15:05):
part of the combine. It startstomorrow. The quarterbacks today. The defensive
lineman spoke already, and on downthe line, each position group starts their
five day trek through arriving in interviewsand team meetings and on field and lifting
weights and leaving medicals. So we'realmost to the on field portion, but
that means we got to talk tothe coach's gms the last two days the

(01:15:27):
GM for the Giants, we playedsome of Joe Shane's comments yesterday regarding Saquon
Barkley, less than one full dayafter Adam Schefter reported that Saquon was in
a group of running backs with theirrespective teams that would not be franchise tagged,
and he then the next day said, we haven't closed. I wouldn't
say no to that just yet.It's possibility. It's a tool we have,

(01:15:48):
but we certainly would like to avoidit. It's not what we want
to do, and Saquon wants afair deal and I can respect that.
We're gonna, as they all say, we're gonna make the decision that's best
for the team. I haven't seenanything since he spoke into today any different
than what came before it. Itwould actually be in the other direction in
that I think there's a tiny bitmore belief the Giants will try to actually

(01:16:13):
reach an agreement with him, becauseeven if the nonsense lies, they were
saying publicly yesterday that they still believein Daniel Jones are true. So Jones
should be healthy when they start theyear. What are they going to look
like if he's healthy and Saquon Barkley'snot in the backfield? Terrible worse than
they were last year if that's possible, and terrible may be too strong.

(01:16:34):
How about not one of the sevenbest teams in the NFC and not on
the rise. Meanwhile, and bythe way, by the way, I
do think this factor's into it,and there is. It's probably at least
of for discussion of those two divisions, which one's better ours and theirs?
Mm hmm, NFC East, AFCSouth top to bottom. Funny you ask

(01:16:59):
that only in that I'm literally staringat someone's graphic that ranked the eight divisions
and that one of the teams inthat division, not the Texans, has
a very high draft pick this yearthat could completely change the complexion of the
franchise, much like the Texans ayear ago. I'll go with nobody's gonna
have a wow season like the Texansdid. Not the team the drafts Caleb,

(01:17:20):
not the team, the drafts,Daniels, May McCarthy any up,
no one's gonna have that. Theirfuture might be bright, but they're not
going to the playoffs and winning adivision. I don't think no. Three
wins to ten win turnaround. TheCowboys and the Eagles are in one of
the two divisions and the Texans andnobody else are in the other division.
So I can't say the Texans havea better division than the nfcas So that

(01:17:43):
means you don't believe in Trevor Lawrence. Well, Trevor Lawrence I like,
but I don't like him more thanDak Prescott or Jalen Hurts in this case,
well, I mean the comps,you know, one to one Stroud
v. Hurts, Lawrence v.Prescott, and it's awesome, so difficult.
I mean, I like Anthony Richardsonmore than whomever the other two teams
have and whoever they drafted for.The Commis and Anthony Richardson are going to

(01:18:06):
kind of be similar in that theyjust didn't play that much last year.
One of them didn't at all,and Anthony Richardson made it to like two
games. But I think it's fairto say if you were buying their futures,
you would be willing to spend moreon the future of Anthony Richardson as
the much more physically gifted. We'llfind out if those physical gifts translate into
being a great quarterback or healthy quarterbackor his health now has to be what

(01:18:29):
got him hurt? Well? Againstwhich team? Did he get hurt playing
the Texans? What about Levis?Oh? Yeah, well that's because he
got folded like an accordion. Yep, I supposed to bend that way.
I think the AFC North is stillnumber one overall. Yeah, I mean,

(01:18:49):
the Bengals went nine to eight andfinished last and we're the only team
that missed the playoffs out of theirdivision. And the Steelers probably will improve
at quarterback if they know what theydo there should be back in the playoff
hunt at the very very least.But what is Cleveland with Deshaun Watson.
We don't know. That's the crazypart. I don't think their offense is
going to be much different unless they'readding something elsewhere, like if Chubb came

(01:19:11):
back and was great, or ifa wide receiver came back and was horrible,
well, their defense might still bevery very good. Listen to what
you just said, and I'm notnot you, It's it's the truth.
You're paying a guy two hundred andthirty million guaranteed to be maybe as good
as Joe Flacco off the couch.Let me know when I give you a
quarterback that you like less than DeshaunWatson. AFC quarterbacks only Lamar Jackson,

(01:19:35):
Joe Burrow, CJ. Stroud,Trevor Lawrence, Pat Mahomes, Justin Herbert,
Josh Allen, Tua, Aaron Rodgers. That's way more than half of
the AFC, and you still haven'tstopped me. That's why I say that,
is it? Joe Black is betterthan any of them except for Aaron

(01:19:57):
Rodgers last year anyway, And here'sjust one bunch of games him. You
shouldn't be even mentioning Trevor Lawrence's name. You could have stopped me there.
But I can say them in order. I can't ignore the tail spin they
went into to lose the division withhim at quarterback. For a lot of
those games I lost down the Stretchwas with him. The only game they
won down the Stretch was the onethat miss not a small detail. No,

(01:20:20):
he did not make improvements in yeartwo with Doug Peterson and year three
as an NFL quarterback that you kindof expected after a playoff season. You
know, their season ended comparably tohow CJ. Stroud's first season. Lawrence's
second season was a playoff trip,a miracle opening playoff game where they came
back from that massive deficit against theChargers and Herbert, and then they lost

(01:20:41):
in the following round, but theywere among the final eight teams to be
playing football. And then last yearthey found their way out of first place
and out of the division race andout of the playoffs, and that one
guy on Twitter for them just hadto eat it and it was awesome.
So no, I haven't seen anynew traction Saquon Barkley to the Texans.
But up the next week is ratherimportant because if there's no tag, then

(01:21:04):
it's open season for him and hewill get to hit the market. He
will get to see what's truthfully outthere. He'll weighs options on how much
guaranteed money he can get from avery competitive team, a moderately competitive team,
or his old team. It's gonnabe fascinating, all right. You
know what else is gonna be fascinating? Chandeler Roam at the top of the
hour, he will make his weeklyvisit to talk all things ASTROS and MLB.

(01:21:28):
Coming up at five, we willhear more from Texans GM Nick Cassario
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I'm the window in hey is JayShaun Tate back to the eighteen Adam Wesler,

(01:22:58):
Adam Clayon Sue Adams one, bringoh my on Sports Talk seven ninety
Black Ship Station of your Rockets.I'm glad I'm not justin Jefferson today.
It is the A team here onSports Talk seven ninety. As mentioned,
we will catch up with our goodbuddy Chandler Rome of the Athletic I was
just thinking about the text he centerearlier. Really really good stuff. Has

(01:23:19):
nothing to do with baseball, confirminghis appearance. Yeah, that's what I
meant. Perfect. What'd you thinkI meant something else? That's definitely what
I thought you meant. That's whyI said it. All right, good,
we only played like one SoundBite fromNick Cassario earlier. Right, yeah,
so far. What was it aboutthe tag having flexibility, the idea
that they could consider Nicocollins' future beforehe begins playing in the final year of

(01:23:43):
his contract. Well, do youremember when I was talking earlier about who
actually made the decision to draft WillAnderson and trade up in this case to
get him. I do remember thatthat was on Today's show, Today's show.
It might have actually been less thantwo hours ago. It was definitely
less than one hundred and five minutesago. I do know that he kind
of gave a little insight into howthat came about, not from the standpoint

(01:24:08):
of who made the actual decision,but from the standpoint of him talking to
a coach that retired. You know, the one Nick Saban's friend Bill Belichick.
No, Nick Saban, Yes,okay, you should have said Bill
Belichick's friend Nick Saban. Didn't knowwhich one you meant, and it would
have worked. Well. I guessthere is two different soundbites involving these two
guys. But yeah, when itcomes to Will Anderson, he had a

(01:24:30):
chance to chat with Nick Saban abouthim. Nick is great to talk to.
I mean it's similar to Bill insome respects. They have such a
library and history of players that youcan benchmark against one another. You're talking
about two of the best minds infootball. So I've had a number of
conversations with coach Saban before the draft, not only last year, but previous
years, and his insight is veryvaluable and useful. I mean, I

(01:24:56):
think everybody who spoke on Will's behalfand the way it Wilvers present, you
know, we saw that in spadesand maybe it was even better than maybe
we even thought. So we're happythat Will's on our team. Henry's a
great job this year as well,kind of in his role, kind of
came in as a backup. Hewas forced to play in the middle of
the year. I'm gonna say weeksfour or five, six, where we
had some players that were injured andhe went out there and had some productive

(01:25:18):
plays. So excited about those twoplayers and their growth and really from year
one to year two and try toimprove on some of the things that they
did they did last year. Okay, nothing he said there was controversial or
particularly interesting. That's fine. Butit made me think of this that then
back to back years they drafted twoNick Saban players. No, but that's

(01:25:41):
true each draft. Yes, thiswill never happen, but it should.
Are you ready they're making a tradefor Bryce Young that actually applies to what
I said, but not even anywherenear close what I was getting at what
you got. You are notorious,specifically you for watching Monday night football du

(01:26:01):
du du dum on the alternate channel. Hey, it's the Manning Cast exactly
with Tua Tagobailo and his guitar.Would you not make it appointment viewing each
week to watch games commentated by Sabinand Belichick. So the Manning cast is
Eli and Peyton, and Peyton isclearly the driver. He helps him with

(01:26:24):
push poo, push things along andmake sure his guests not we gotta let
you go or can you just hangwith us for another segment. Does the
pairing of Sabin and Belichick present oneof them as the driver of the show
or do they need a host likea moderator in a sense, well,
someone that can nudge them along orjust get in the middle of it.

(01:26:45):
Maybe not necessarily a Molly Karen rolewhere she's underutilized and just listens to people
yell at each other. Well,yes, do you think a third person
will be required for Bill and Nickto make sure you got the best out
of them? My first question,because i'd watch to answer that question,
is one that actually kind of hitsclose to home. You remember when you
found out that Jeff Van Gundy wasgoing to be on national NBA broadcasts and

(01:27:11):
you thought of Jeff Van Gundy,the guy who coached the Rockets, and
they'd win by thirty and it wouldsound like they lost by thirty because the
rebounding tonight was substandard and the defensiverotations made me want to gouge my eyes
out, like but he didn't nevertalk about but you and I know him
from off the podium. That waspodium Jeff right talking to after practice Jeff,

(01:27:32):
whether it was on the record oroff to the side, when he
was wearing socks and wind pants.That's who went on television, right,
Jeff. Well, he shaved andhe put a frumpy suit on, but
no, like he was fantastic.I feel like Belichick might be that guy.
Well, we've seen I think manypeople have seen some of the NFL
films work that they've been a partof, and then you know the greater
thing. Well one of them wasspecifically about parcels, but they've had them

(01:27:56):
on set to go through whatever greatnessin the NFL that they would were part
of, and there's a special whereit's just the two of them. They're
just so good. Yeah, AndI have to I mean, I'm not
personally one on one, but I'vetalked to Bill Belichick at practices and when
they were together with the Texans,and very different. He's very very It's
okay. It was also before practice. They didn't weren't preparing for a game.
They didn't just get there get beaten. They didn't have one play go

(01:28:18):
wrong on a night where Brady threwfor five hundred yards that he was the
only thing he was about. It'she's just different. Is Nick Saban the
undisputed greatest college football coach of alltime? I mean for all of our
listeners this era. Yeah, Butlike I say that because you could probably
argue against Belichick even though he's gotas many rings as anybody. There's the

(01:28:41):
if you're rings than anybody, Well, that's what I mean. If you're
having to say, well, hehasn't run anything without Tom, then you're
already kind of not It's not asdefinitive as Saban in this sense, is
what I'm saying. I mean,if Saban could have gotten some of those
players to stay longer, who knowsexactly me He did have to turn his
team over, but he also hewas in charge of everything. At some
point Bill became that. But Saban'she's in. He will be part of

(01:29:05):
our college football season in probably theywill utilize him for some other stuff as
well, but he's definitely going tobe a part of that moving forward.
And Nick's comments today about Belichick arewhat most people who've been closest to him
have all said. You know,we're better off if he's a part of
the game, whatever that means.If he's on a sideline, if he's
a consultant, if he's sitting insomebody's war room, if he's at the
combine, or if he's behind adesk talking football in a studio, We're

(01:29:29):
all gonna benefit from it. Ifhe's a part of the football game this
coming fall, and as of rightnow, he's not. If I'm a
network executive, I try to makethis happen somehow. It doesn't have to
be Monday night. And look atwhat you're talking You're talking about two guys
who are close, who are friendsfriends, Why would they say noing,
like what's the downside? And occasionallythey'll bring Tony Larusa in. I mean,
Eli and Payton aren't even together.They're at their own respective studio homes.

(01:29:55):
Like I just want to see NickSaban go off on a play that
doesn't make sense to him, likehe did in a press conference, and
he would That's again, that's thebeauty of the alternate broadcast, which I
thought really became popular with the nationaltitle games and the playoff games when they
would bring in six five six activecollege football coaches. They'd sit around a
table and they'd watch the game togetherand talk about the formations and what they're

(01:30:15):
looking at, why this didn't work, or when they played us, or
I was recruiting this kid. It'sphenomenal. You're talking about basically of the
recent most you know, recent generation, the two best coaches at the respective
levels getting together to talk about alive game. I just don't know how
they haven't made this happen yet.Yeah, and think about what you said
just about you know, Belichick.If you're trying to spin that he's not

(01:30:38):
the greatest coach, which I'm not, well, then somebody else has to
be who's that exactly? Like,who's the defacto? And he read he
would be fun to listen to?So that's not on me, Like it's
that's a pretty tough sell to puthim above Belichick if especially if you're downgrading
Belichick for what reason? He onlywins with Brady be down gading him?

(01:31:00):
So how's Andy Reid different the onlyones with Mahomes he loses with Donovan?
It's the same thing, right,Yeah, all right, we're gonna get
our good buddy Chandler rome In,who's also a huge close personal friend of
Nick Sabans when we come back.Also likes cheeseburgers like Andy Reid. Yeah,
well, who doesn't like a cheesebroI had one last night? Yeah,
how's he famous for liking cheeseburgers?We all like cheeseburgers. He's not

(01:31:20):
Jimmy Buffett. He is correct,that's not and Jimmy Buffett isn't either.
That was a downweight to end thesegment. Five o'clock hour next, Yeah,
that was awesome. Two lifelong Houstonsports guys named Adham Talking Your Team,

(01:31:41):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are da team. A five o'clock hour
on a Wednesday HARE on Sports Talkseven ninety means a visit from Chandler Rome
of the Athletic covers the Astros inMajor League Baseball and is with the team
down in FLA as they're about topush through week one of games played earlier

(01:32:04):
today. Handful of players that likelyhave an impact to make with the twenty
twenty four Astros were involved, andobviously from him, we also need an
update on the injured arms of theAstros, those who've had hiccups and otherwise.
But yeah, let's start with thesuper important month out from his opening
day lineup being set. Chandler,what do you think about jo Aspottas thoughts

(01:32:28):
about how he might line up one, two, three, and four with
Jordan Alvarez at two. I thinkit's pretty fascinating. I think it's certainly
a more modern twist on kind ofhow modern baseball views a batting order.
Now you look across the league,Corey Seeger hits second for the Rangers.
Mike Trout normally hit second for theAngels. Aaron Judge normally hits second for

(01:32:51):
the Yankees. I think Freddie Freemanhit second for a good bit of last
year with the Dodgers. I don'tknow what they're gonna do with the tawny
now. And you get the point, like the best hitter often hits second.
I mean analytics have determined that ifyou hit second, you can get
the most plate appearances that you cannet so many more plate appearances hitting second.

(01:33:14):
I do think that there is athere's a healthy debate to be had
just given given the profile of bothAlvarez and Tucker. Maybe hitting Tucker second
wouldn't be a bad idea either,just because he does provide you a little
bit more on the basis he cansteal bases. He's a I'm not saying
you're not slow by any stretch ofthe imagination. I think he's more athletic

(01:33:35):
than maybe we get to see ona on a regular basis, just because
he's normally the ching and he's normallyhitting home runs. But I think he's
more athletic than maybe meets the eye. And I don't think he's a liability
on the basis, But I justthink Tucker's probably a better base runner.
Just more heads up can steel basesgo first to third easier. But I

(01:33:56):
don't think there's a wrong answer.I think they're both very good. But
I mean I think your boy downto you know, basically what I just
described. You know, you goingon. Alvarez is one of the three
or four best hitters in baseball.And you look where the other best hitters
in baseball hit and batting orders.They're usually hitting second. And that's kind
of the place where in the moderngame you put your best hitter, and
Joe spot is going to go aheadand put his best hitter hitting second.

(01:34:18):
Is it just as simple as hegets more at bats, just tear everything
else away. I mean, Ithink that that's the that's the root of
it. Yeah, I think,you know, I'm I'm of the I'm
of the controversial opinion here that yougive your best hitters the most at bats
what And I think it's crazy certainlywhen you put when you put Alvarez fourth,

(01:34:41):
I mean, look in the cleanupspot, he would have more opportunities
to drive in runs, he wouldhave more opportunities to clear the bases.
There's opportunities to come up with moremen on base than just one and you
know, do more damage. ButI think the I think getting him in
the box more outweighs that, thatsort of outweighs that that concern. And

(01:35:02):
you know, you look if ifJoe lines the lineup up like he wants
to with Altuve, Alvarez, Bragmanand Tucker. Again, it's not like
Kyle Tucker some slouch. Kyle Tucker'sjust I mean, he's he's a little
bit just the numbers. He's alittle bit worse than your and I use
worse in the in the most inthe nicest way possible. It's not like

(01:35:23):
Kyle Tucker is some slouch. Imean they they've got a very good cleanup
hitter in Tucker. So I waswe were debating this a couple of us
down here, a couple of thereporters were debating this. I kind of
just said, it's kind of difficultto f this up with with these four
guys. When you have these fourguys, it's kind of difficult to screw
this up. And you know,whatever order that they they end up going,

(01:35:45):
you know, those four guys aregoing to be the catalyst to this
offense, and it should be theirpre it should be their priority to get
their best hitters the most at batsand games. And that's with as I
think there's a one added element toit potentially, And then you know,
there were fifty six games last yearwhere Kyle Tucker batted fifth. Well,
there might not be any games wherehe bats below fourth, certainly if this

(01:36:10):
initial lineup construction has him fourth,And like you said, you obviously could
toy with the idea of flipping thetwo of them two and four, so
it could likely also mean additional atbat's overall long term for Kyle Tucker.
Let's talk about the pitching side ofthings. The guys who've been giving the
ball first in each of their springtraining games have obviously fared very very well.

(01:36:30):
Obviously they must feel pretty good abouttheir stuff. Renelle Blanco is going
to be the first to go fora second time when he gets the ball
tomorrow. Did anything other than theresults stand out about how Urkidi threw or
Hunter Brown throw, or Renel Blancofor that matter, who pretty clearly is
there? I guess, first guyin line to fill a starting role should

(01:36:51):
he be needed early in the season. Yeah, I think a more intrigue
was kind of what are Cutie saidafter his outing that, you know a
couple of things that they kind offigured out. He was tipping pitches last
year with his glove where he wassqueezing his glove, or he was holding
his glove a certain way when hewas gonna throw a pitch, and to
the point where they were I don'tthink paranoid's the right word, to the

(01:37:12):
point where they were concerned that whenthey played in the Alds that Carlos Korea
and Christian Basquez had picked up onit, because those are two guys that
are really really good at that,that are really good at picking up tells
and picking up tips. And that'swhy. I don't know if you remember
when he pitched in Game four atTarget Field, but he was manipulating the
pitch clock a lot like he wasquick pitching. He was varying his times,
and it was to distract them.It was basically to not let them.

(01:37:38):
It was to throw them off becausehe thought that Korea and Basquez had
tipped the Twins off to what hedoes. So he worked this offseason on
getting that, on getting that rectified. They did work on it during the
season last year, but there's onlyso much you can do in the middle
of the season. But other keitie, it's always going to be about,
you know, can he be deceptiveenough. He's always gonna throw strikes,

(01:37:59):
but he's throwing the good change up. You know, he's got the sinker
now to help him against Righty's right. He's have really given him trouble the
last couple of years. The factthat he added that sinker that he can
you know, throw inside the righthanded hitters. Just get more weak contact,
get more ground ball outs, getmore early contact outs. I think
that's going to help. And thenyou know, you look what Hunter Brown
did. Hunter Brown just filled uphis zone, which he liked to see

(01:38:23):
from him. You know, it'skind of the lingering concern with him is
how much is he going to bearound the strike zone. He was around
the strike zone a ton of hisdebut. So again, it's only one
outing. He's gonna he won't makea traditional start in his next down and
he's going to piggyback Fromberveldez on Friday. And that's for no other reason than
you know, they just want tokeep everyone on turn. They want to

(01:38:44):
keep Hunter Brown on a every fifthday schedule. And that's his day to
pitch, and they want you know, Fromber's got the seniority a little bit
and he's going to get the actualstart. The hunter will come in out
of the bullpen and kind of pickhim up. So and Ronel Block has
thrown well too, So yeah,they have to be encouraged a little bit
early on with what they've seen.But I think again, you know,
I wrote this last week and it'skind of its kind of obvious that I

(01:39:08):
really think the keys of this rotationand maybe the keys to like the overall
success of this season really hinge onfromber Belt, as in Christian Hobvier.
If they can have bounce backs,if they can pitch to the level that
I think the Astros anticipated them pitchingto last year, I think that makes
this rotation all that much more deepand all this on all that much more

(01:39:28):
imposing to get through. You know, It's interesting because I mean, Fromber
was on the mound for Game sixwhen the Astros beat the Phillies. Now
they obviously had outrageously fantastic performance fromthe bullpen after him, but that was
the guy that couldn't find himself inthe Alcs this year against the Rangers and
you just win one home game,you're back in the World Series against an

(01:39:51):
eighty four win Diamondbacks team. Whatis the one thing for him and the
one thing for Christian Javier when yousay that that they need to fine,
that they need to rediscover or whateverit is Fromerveldes has to go back to
getting ground balls, like we know, like the Aschers nov Can and that.
I mean, look, you stilllook at him. He led the

(01:40:12):
American League and ground ball rate lastyear, but you look at his sinker
specifically, and the ground ball ratehas steadily declined on that pitch specifically the
last two or three years. Theythink they found something with his release point
kind of how he releases the balland how he manipulates the ball where it
comes out, because that, likethe sinker, is such a movement based
pitch and if it moves down andif it has the sink, then it's

(01:40:36):
going to get ground ball outs.I think what kind of goes hand in
hand with it is him throwing harder. You know, he averaged I think
ninety five miles an hour with hissinker last year. It's better when he's
around ninety three because it has thattrue movement, and you know, talking
to the pitching coaches, talking topeople that have worked with from er It,

(01:40:57):
they don't want to describe it allto the velocity. They're more concerned
about him finding his release point becausethey do think when he tries to throw
hard and when he gets that velocity, it's because the release point is off.
So they think if they can gethim, they can get the release
point and the delivery and the mechanicswhere that needs to be, the sinker
will be fixed. And I thinkthat is the key for him, just

(01:41:19):
getting that pitch back, because youknow, we know he's got the curve
ball, we know he's got thecutter that he's added. It's been a
good pitch for him. But Imean the sinkers his that's what he bases
his whole arsenal around. And ifhe doesn't have that to get ground ball
outs, if that pitch is beingelevated or lined or hit for line drives,
and that's not a good sign.So he's got to get a sinker

(01:41:41):
back, and I think Christian Hobvierjust has to. I mean, he
acknowledged that he was a little bitheavier last year than he would have liked
and he thinks that impacted his mechanicsa little bit. I think it's mechanical
with both of these guys, butI think Javier, you know, he's
come in the he said he lostfifteen pounds this offseason, came into camp
noticeably center. You know, maybethat he did say that the weight may

(01:42:03):
have gone hand in hand with thewith the whacked out mechanics. So maybe
now that he's dropped the weight alittle bit, the mechanics can can kind
of can kind of come back,you know. Assistant pitchy coach Phil Murphy
said that Javier tended to overthrow somelast year. He was just, you
know, just trying too hard,to be honest, and I think that

(01:42:24):
was because the mechanics were off.He was trying to compensate a little bit.
So they need they need both ofthem to be good, because you
know, I would never doubt JustinBerlander doing anything. But he's still forty
one years old, and you dokind of wonder, I mean, he's
got the shoulder thing right now,you wonder kind of that's a question mark
because he's a forty one year oldpitcher, and you know, behind Valdez

(01:42:46):
and Javier it's Hunter Brown, it'sJP Frantz, it's his a Erkiti.
It's guys that have been good butnot great. And you know, I
think if Fromber and Xavier can elevatetheir game, this rotation becomes one of
the best in the American League.Whereas right now I think you have to
say that the rotation is probably thebiggest question mark on the team, certainly
among few. But yes, thatside of it is at this point,

(01:43:11):
one month out, an unknown becauseof all those things you just mentioned.
We certainly appreciate it, as wealways do as we dip into almost week
two of spring training baseball game Chandleralways appreciate the input. All right,
thanks guys, Chandler Rome of theAthletic joining us here as he does on
a weekly basis over the course ofthe baseball season. To the Astros again,
one month away from us, joiningyou guys out at Minute May Park

(01:43:35):
for the season opener against the YankeesMarch twenty eighth. Starting pitching assignments,
Well, they're TBD, but it'sprobably gonna be Garrett Cole and Framber Valdez.
We'll hit you with in case youmissed it. On the other side,
in case you missed it earlier,Ac was telling you about UVC Power
Sports Tractors and Outdoors and about SteveAustin. He's stone cold even told you

(01:44:00):
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(01:44:26):
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(01:44:49):
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eight one eight two four eleven ninetyeight for UVC Power Sports Tractors and Outdoors.
This is Bill Warra, And you'renot the cold blooded Adam Klant the
mouth of the Southwest, Adam Wesler, Oh, the collect that the A

(01:45:30):
team continues on Sports Talk seven ninetyHome of your Rockets. You know that
music means and it's time for Incase you missed it, a handful of
items we've not yet had a chanceto discuss worthy of our discussion. I
have a question for you as weget started here. Are you familiar with
Matthew Merriman doesn't ring a bell?Are you familiar with xavr Babu dar No?

(01:45:59):
Well, Merriman is an attorney.His client is Xavier, also known
as chiefs Aholic. Oh yes,chiefs Aholic Superfan. Uh huh, chiefs
Superfan. He pled guilty in federalcourt today, charged with a string of
eleven robberies, attempted robberies eleven.He's got a long way to go,

(01:46:20):
stretched across seven states, so pledguilty to one count of money laundry,
one count of transporting stolen property acrossstate lines, and one count of bank
robbery. The sentencing is still severalmonths out early July, after some additional
investigations are complete. So that's obviouslyon some awful stuff. His attorney,

(01:46:45):
mister Merriman, on these steps ofthe federal courthouse, delivered his statement.
I've parsed a few comments from himfor you, Dan and our listeners to
hear. This is about chiefs Fanchiefs Aholic, as delivered by his attorney
after he pled guilty to those countsI just mentioned. From the beginning of
this case, folks, the governmenthas been blitzing an. Xavier's pocket was

(01:47:11):
collapsing, but today Xavier stepped intothe pressure. Yes, this is real.
Comment continues. If I know anythingabout Xavier, and if the Chief's
Kingdom knows anything about chiefs Aholic,we know that he doesn't give up.

(01:47:34):
We know that if he stumbled andhe fell, he didn't let his knee
touch the ground. Please tell methere's more. Well, the football puns
are done, but the twenty nineyear old needs your support. We still

(01:47:55):
have a lot of work to doon his case. But Xavier wants everyone
to know that he loves the ChiefsKingdom, he loves Kansas City, and
he hopes that you'll rally to hissupport. Thank you and God bless You
can pun yourself to death and Iwill only laugh at it. But that
last comment, are what the bleepwas that? Rally around him? Why

(01:48:21):
rally around this criminal? Why becausehe roots for the Chiefs? Well are
king? No he's not. That'swhat he meant. But the first part
he was joking, right, notnot falling to a knee. He was
ready to handle the blitzing government.He stepped into the pressure. Yeah,

(01:48:41):
this collapsing pocket that was full ofstolen money. Unfortunately, I don't think
any of that was a joke.And I usually will try to speed things
up, you know, take outunnecessary pauses. I left all the dramatic
pauses in there. Well they neededto be there. Frankly, so where
what one eight hundred? This ismy first case ever attorney file? Do

(01:49:01):
you think he found this guy?I would say in the phone book,
but I don't even know if thoseexist anymore. I had a conversation with
Brian the other day about a phonebook. Can't remember why. He's like,
what's this for? Is? Areyou kidding me? Like I was
showing him what's in it? Andhe's like, really, oh, you
had one? Yeah, it wasold, early two thousands. Like I'm
trying to figure out the last year. You can find a restaurant in here,

(01:49:23):
you can find a plumber in here, I mean, yeah, everything,
Attorneys, it's ridic He goes,why don't you just look it up
online? He gets it, hegets it, So good luck. I
guess I'm going to say good luckto the government. I was waiting sentencing
comes forward. I was waiting forthe go fundme address. He pled guilty
to these chargers, not all ofthe charges, mind you. Please,

(01:49:45):
Kansas City fans, you've paraded threetimes your home of mahomes. You've got
Jason Kelsey's brother. Do not rallyaround Chief Sholk, please Kelsey's brother,
please? All right? What elsedo we have today? All Right?
I feel pretty confident in saying thisour good buddy Mattress Mac Gallery Furniture.

(01:50:06):
Another bet, this one on theHouston Cougars to win the twenty twenty four
NCAA Men's basketball Tournaments if the localbasketball team downtown Houston Colin Boulevard wins the
basketball Championship for people out of highschool but not yet turned professional. Is
that how you describe it? Youdon't infringe on any polease copyrights. No,

(01:50:28):
that's pretty good. Yeah, that'sactually that. The billboard says that
exactly. You guys paying attention tocollege basketball again. Last night, Cougar's
manhandled Cincinnati. They're now twelve andthree in the conference with three games remaining,
and are the number one ranked teamin the country. They finished their
season three games from now hosting theKansas Jayhawks, the almighty Kansas Jayhawks,

(01:50:50):
who lost at home last night toBYU. So the magic number to clinch
over Kansas, who's not even insecond place, is one. Kansas has
to win out, uh has tolose out just for them to tie with
the same record at the end ofthe regular season. Iowa State's the really

(01:51:10):
now the only team that can standin the way of U of H saying,
hey, big twelve, we runthis in year one and they won't.
Nope, they won't U of Hcontinues to not lose at Fortita Center
sixteen and oh we know first handknowledge. Yeah, Andre Johnson, Edrin
James, Charles James, and DavidOverall court last night sitting next door our

(01:51:32):
good friend, co worker and engineeringguru David Obert. Man, I love
that Andre just goes to sporting ofit. You think it's cool, like
this is it's they go to Rocketsgames. Obviously a lot of the people
who live here that are famous sportsfigures, current or beyond. CJ has
been to multiple games with Tank thisyear at Fortita Center, and Dre is

(01:51:53):
a visitor as well. It's theplace to be, man. You know
it's funny is there are a lotof athletes from other sports in this city
that support the other teams. Butno matter how many times you watch the
Highlight and it's a good one towatch on repeat over and over again,
you'll never not be able to watchjose Al Tuve send the Astros to the

(01:52:15):
World Series without seeing Russell Westbrook andJames Harden sitting next to each other and
matching orange jersey's Like did he justdo that? Totally locked in on the
action right well, Russ reacts yep. I mean he's like he's like,
I think he grabs James's shoulder,like, oh, this might be over,
and it was. It's it's prettyawesome. Then they're both gone and

(01:52:39):
they're playing together still. By theway, if you were unaware part of
the Bearcats were in town to loseto the Cougars last night, Barracatz Edgerrin
James was court sided with Drake watchingthose barricats son uh huh play for the
Cincinnati bear and another reminders that wereall closer to death. Do you do
you know his name? Edgrin Jamesthe tenth His full name is Drin,

(01:53:01):
But if you look on the Cincinnatiroster and you try to call him out
by name, he would respond towhat is listed, which is Gizzle Gigsel
James. Pause the Gigsel James onTwitter, jigsel dot James on Instagram,
and in your program, Gizzle James, what else we got today? I

(01:53:24):
can't make contact right now? Allright, Mac would win seven point five
million. If indeed the Koug's notpray Pray pray, they will be I
mean the favorite, they're winning itall. I'm guessing they're going through the
Memphis Pod, one of the eightplaces they could go for their first and

(01:53:45):
second round games, and then throughDallas at the AAC for regional action,
and then onto the Helly of theSun to win it all. That arena
sucks, by the way, butlook at what are they? All the
thing outside? What do they callit? A statue? No? Not
that the all the stuff outside theylike refer to. Maybe I'm thinking of

(01:54:09):
Dallas or Arlington where the two stadiumsSex is live. Yeah, that that's
over the baseballers. They have somethingoutside of the basketball arena which actually is
located in Dallas. Like the othertrying to Rolando Blackman. What about Roy
Tarpley complete with an iron which heused on his girlfriend. He ironed his

(01:54:30):
girlfriend and was addicted to cocaine.That's his legacy Dallas. I believe it's
champions Plaza, by the way,that's what they Yeah, champions again Dan
Champion Plaza, Champion Plazas. Noone else, just the one champion paralyze
it. And this is what Ibring on my song. I mean there's
no I mean, if you havemultiple titles champions plazas, backets could build

(01:54:53):
one of those by Toyota Center andcall it champions plaza. They have a
singular champion statue. But he didwin two champion hips unless you're talking about
the Dallas Mavericks being a champion ofthe NBA one time and then Roy Tarpley
being a champion of ironing his girlfriend, and then you combine those two championships
and they're in champions plaza. Heironed his girlfriend. And do people even

(01:55:17):
believe the nonsense that he says?Sometimes it's not nonsense. Can you believe
he just totally made that up outof thin air? Roy Tarpley ironed his
girlfriend and Oorenthal killed two people?How do you facts? How do you
do it? Tie it all together? There's nothing there? Stop just say
it being domestic violencers. Specifically,he was accused of burning his girlfriend with

(01:55:39):
a clothes iron. So he ironedhis girlfriend. That's what that means,
wex. He put her on theironing board and he smoothed it out with
an iron. It was hot ontheir skin. Yeah, all right,
the Nick's lost their protests. Rocketstill suck it, Nicks? All right?

(01:56:02):
When we come back, we willcontinue here on the A Team Sports
Talk seven ninety. I'll see ifI can find some other Roy Tarpley limericks
or antidotes or something of that nature. But in the meantime, I want
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TA Clinic dot com. This isJoyce Potto. Listen to the astros on
your radio and on the free iHeartRadioamid Sports Talk seven ninety's your Home phil

(01:58:16):
Astros Baseball. During the break,I was reading up on Roy Tarpley.
Uh they actually so. If yougo to top ten busts dot com,
it's base that's reference to being ahighly touted basketball prospect or draft pick and
not working out as opposed to someonewho has been jailed or arrested for drug

(01:58:40):
use as in a bust or crimesof even though he would fit in both
crimes of several different natures. Theyhave a list right of It's it's Roy
Tarpley off court problems, summer ofases at CVS receipt basically in length.
Yes, I'm not going to readall of it, but I am going

(01:59:03):
to point out summer of eighty sevenenter treatment program for cocaine and alcohol dependency.
They put strike one next to thatthe very next line January eighty nine,
suspended indefinitely a missed forty nine gameswhile undergoing rehab for testing positive to
cocaine. Strike two. Then youhave to scroll past October eighty nine,

(01:59:26):
November eighty nine, April ninety,November ninety, March ninety one, May
ninety one before you finally get toOctober ninety one. Right after that May
ninety one arrest for domestic violence,you know where he ironed his girlfriend,
not strike three. After that,Strike three was the next arrest, Actually
the next incident where he received thelifetime ban for refusing to take a drug

(01:59:48):
test. That was strike three andhe was finally out. So despite that
presumed lifetime ban, he was reinstatedby David Stern prior to the ninety four
ninety one, So he did getthat. He did have that going for
him. Maybe he was a calminginfluence over the triple js of the mid
nineties. There Jim Jackson, JamalMashburn, and Chason Kidd, who's now

(02:00:12):
the coach of the Mavericks. MavericksTarpley super duper talent, great player at
Michigan would have likely been a greatNBA player had these issues and bad decisions
taken over his life passed away manyyears ago. The NBA draft was lengthy

(02:00:34):
back then. When he got draftedin nineteen eighty six h six rounds worth
of draft picks, one hundred andsixty two selections. Yeah, I just
asked Mario Elli. There were twoplayers in that draft who averaged ten or
more rebounds. He was one ofthem. Yeah, by the way,
the other much more normal person thatalso averaged ten or more rebounds a game

(02:00:57):
from that draft Jennis Rodman, SoutheastOklahoma State. That's correct, by the
way, once he got that secondlife in the NBA. I just want
to give you the first infraction.There are mini after October of nineteen ninety
four. I know you just rememberit like it's yesterday. Receives a speeding
ticket for going ninety two miles perhour in his Mercedes on a Dallas highway.

(02:01:18):
Full disclosure, I'm fine with that. I continue. Within one hour
of getting the ticket, Tarpley lendsthe car to a friend who proceeds to
get in an accident with a utilitypole. Anyone buying that excuse if so,
I have a bridge connecting Brooklyn andLower Manhattan to sell you. That's

(02:01:39):
one hour after getting the speeding ticket. Utility pole, not another car,
not a wall, even he wentutility pole. That's a lot of cocaine.
Man, I've never done it.I've heard things very troubled. I've
heard it to hell of a drug. That's the quote I've heard. Yeah,
you're right, I mean this islike a perfect. Look at Eddie

(02:02:01):
Griffin, these guys that have thistalent, and you're like, what is
going on in your head that makesyou die the way Eddie Griffin did.
For example, John Lucas spent alot of time with Roy Tarpley in the
early part late parts of last centuryand the early parts of this one in
an attempt to help him. Where'sJohn Lucas right now? And why isn't
he helping the rocket still? I'mbeing dead serious. I mean, he

(02:02:25):
was never expected to be on thebench or be an assistant coach. I
don't know if the role that theymaintained that he would have has not been
accurate because obviously around the team,But why wouldn't I may Udoka want him
to stick around? All the playersknew him that were already there, and
the players that weren't already there wouldlove him because nobody doesn't love John Lucas
And what he does is helps teamsin ways that can't really be quantified with

(02:02:51):
stats and all that kind of stuff. I don't why did I say stats
like Christopher Walket, I don't know. I definitely heard it stats, that's
stat's I don't know. I justwonder what he's up to. He's got
to be still here in town,right, Yeah. I do think he
has a role, but obviously verydifficult to determine what that is on a
day to day basis with the rockets. All right, that's all I have

(02:03:14):
on Roy Tarpley. Yeah, Imean I have two segments of put some
items, You put some items,Dan, put some items down on things
we'd like to talk about today.None of the segment on Roy Tarpley did
not appear at any point another housesegment. It's just I don't know.
It's it's very unique infraction that he'sknown for with the iron. It's just

(02:03:40):
not like even top fifty on thelist of things I would have, you
know, the Yeah, I would, I would probably player is going to
do this. They wouldn't have eventop one hundred an iron, of all
things. Even if you want togo household items, I mean, I
don't want to. I can't evenhelp it, like I could understand it

(02:04:00):
like a frying pan, a hardmetal object. I baited you and it
worked, but uh it ironed.It was thus plugged in and being heated.
Right, So in other words,someone was ironing and he just picked
it up. And used it.Okay, I got you. Now I'm
with you. Which one of themwas it? Well, he was the
one charged with or accused of,attempting to burn her with an iron Yeah,

(02:04:23):
but do you think he was ironingclosed or do you think she was
originally before it became a weapon.I have not read the report. Maybe
you should. During the break,I will we can have a Roy Tarpley
segment in the show. What doyou want? No? Non, if
you could go any topic in Americathat's not Roy Tarpley to finish out the
show. You want to think aboutit? J Simpson, No has to

(02:04:44):
be pertinent. Why he just hidsa message the other day that he's not
in hospice care? Who's us?Do I have to receive them? America?
Thank you? Awesome? The worldgot to learn more about that.
So stick around apparently here on yourhome for Roy Tarpley and OJ Simpson Sports
Talk seven ninety. What team isthat? The F team, the J

(02:05:06):
team, the Tarpley team, Well, the eight team will come back for
a final segment of the Wednesday program. But now before I tell you about
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(02:06:35):
two atoms, one rational atom andone with the mental stability of Mike Tyson
in the nineties. Well, I'mtalking to you the way I want to
talk to you. You have aproblem, turn off your station. We
promise no children will be eaten duringthe course of this program. Building No,
we can't promise that. Back tothe eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety

(02:06:59):
Hey, it's world. I'm justkidding, No want to talk about him.
Not kidding, But it was actuallyI went the video. I saw
it was I think it was fromSuper Bowl Sunday. I was just had
my attention brought to it recently.So we've been following this story all throughout
spring training. Astros played again today, We'll do so again tomorrow. Great
conversation with chandeler Rome at the topof the hour a few minutes ago.

(02:07:20):
If you miss that, you cancatch that via the podcast that undoubtedly you
already subscribed to the eighteen podcast viathe iHeartRadio app, and earlier this week,
one of the Boris four found ahome three years eighty million for Cody
Bellinger a lot of weed to continueplaying baseball in Chicago for the Cubbies Matt

(02:07:40):
Chapman, Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell. The other three of the four still
do not have home. Scott Borison this situation with the baseball free agent
market, set the following today,Well, there are variables. We have
some irregularity going on in this currentmarket. We have close to eleven teams.

(02:08:01):
He could have just given us thenumber. We have close to eleven
teams that are spending less money thanthey did a year ago, in light
of the fact we have record revenuesin baseball. Okay, I can't get
past the first sentence. We haveirregularities. If by irregularities youm of team
I've got a really good player thatwants an enormous amount of money, what

(02:08:24):
do you say, No, thereare some irregularities in the market. Irregularities,
in his opinion, mean people aren'twilling to fork over large sums of
cash to my clients. Therefore,I'm gonna call it an irregularity. Yeah,
And I can't help but think atleast in the case of these three
players, and there honestly we talkabout those players now, three of them,

(02:08:46):
like they're the only really good playersthat aren't signed. Ryan Stanek does
not have a team. Jad Martinezdoes not have a team. There are
plenty of other players who still didMaton sign He signed with the Race.
Oh, that's right, and Nearriswent to the Cubs. Yes, okay,
so there are there's some really talentedplayers that will help a good team
probably win or a bad team ticketson that. Sure, there's not a

(02:09:07):
place for Stannik to come back here, is there? Well, if you
still think there are question marks afteryou, after Jospota visits the mounder before
he hands the ball to Abrado,Presley and Hater, there is same rollie
out a year ago. Somewhere inthe middle of Montero's name. I don't
know that he's auto everyone just asuit. Well, internally he's he's our

(02:09:28):
sixth thinning guy Game seven of theWorld Series right now, And you can
only pick two pitchers, Montero orStanik, who you got I know who
I'm taking. Well, just toremind you, I'll take Stanick as well.
While he was his best season wastwo years ago regular season, and
he was not a huge part oftheir postseason when they just rolled over everybody

(02:09:48):
shorter postseason because they kept sweeting everybody. Huge part of the celebration. I
have it on video, yes,but he just wasn't asked to pitch.
And that whole postseason we know it. People were calling and tweeting, how
come they won't go to him?Like they're winning every night? Why are
you telling him they're They're not doingit wrong. It's just a matter of
circumstance. And when you have daysoff like they had in the schedules,

(02:10:09):
he can throw a bray you everygame. He could throw Presley almost every
game, so why not, especiallywhen they never give up any runs?
And so he did, and obviouslyMontero was a bigger part of that.
Stanik as a postseason pitcher, andit includes two appearances before he became an
Astro, but all but two ofhis appearances are with the Astros in the

(02:10:30):
playoffs. He's got a two seventycareer postseason era in twenty innings. I
mean, they've not been asked todo a lot. He obviously came in
last year in a very memorable spotwhere he one pitched double played himself and
his team out of a big troublespot in an inning. So he has
had some pretty good moments. AndI'm not sure what figure it is that
he and his agents are are strugglingto find a home with because every bullpen

(02:10:58):
he has a little bit about theof not throwing strikes quite enough, but
he throws, he gets so muchswing and miss he has a home.
Yeah, the Rangers would definitely bea team I would think might want to
add him, but I hope again, we're a week with them for a
week into camp. I mean,justin Verlander was two weeks behind because he
had a hiccup. All these guysare going to have trouble being where they

(02:11:20):
want to be. And I knowit's football, but when we see guys
that don't get prepared for the seasonproperly, well, it seems to affect
them all season. So I'm hopefulfor all of these guys that it doesn't
even though I'm almost sure that itwill. I hope Blake Snell signs with
the Yankees and is very affected.Then you have to run back to what

(02:11:41):
did he sign for? Did heget one of those Korea deals where he
can opt out after one year?Did he commit for three years and now
they're stuck with him for five years? Three hundred millionaire, that's what I'm
wanting. I don't think he's goingto become yet another Yankee three hundred million
dollar player. For Pete's sake,that money that would be in irregularity in
the market on the goods or whateverit would take for them to commit that

(02:12:01):
much money to him and then henot perform. I think because these pitchers
are so good, the Yankees areinterested Montgomery and snell snow more than Montgomery,
but they don't have to have them. And we talk about the astros.
If they're healthy and if Frambur andJaviera come around, well the Yankeeston
still will Cole, Stroman, Cortesand they'll probably find one, two,

(02:12:22):
three of any series. Obviously Radonwould be four. I mean, they're
not as bad as everyone wants themto be because they haven't constantly been great
and healthy. What's Stroman like inthe postseason? I feel like he's not
good. Limited just from how oftenhe's been there for one thing? Yeah,
because well that was the first thingI would think of right off the
bat, and then obviously who heperformed for and what the result was.

(02:12:46):
He has pitched in the postseason exactlyzero times since the Astros run began in
twenty seventeen, that he did makea couple appearances before that. That's what
I wanted to hear. Yeah,that's a that's a big moment right there.
Uh. Hey, your task,should you choose to accept it,
is to get this team that isspectacularly failing in the postseason over the hump

(02:13:09):
here. Just draw on your vastexperience doing that. Go. I can't
wait till the Astros play them inthe ALCS. Just kidding, they won't
be there all right. Before westep aside for the day, I gotta
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(02:13:58):
it a family environment, family atmosphere. And I am chomping at the bit
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of free maintenance. Tell them.Madam Clanton from Sports Talk seven ninety sent

(02:14:41):
you in to either Classic Elite Chevysugar Land or Classic Elite Chevy Highway six.
That's going to do it for today'sshow. Thanks to everyone who participated
the game players of Believe It orNot, as well as our very own
channel Room of the Athletic joining usin the five o'clock hour for Dan,
for Wex, I may see itis the A team here on Sports Talk

(02:15:01):
seven ninety. Guess what A liveedition of the Nightcap with Ross Vireal and
his mood lighting is coming up nexton the eighteen. I mean on seven
ninety you knew what I meant