The A-Team: Flat Astros, So Long Rafael and Chandler Rome Joins The Show

Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named AdhamTalking Your Teams series, Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A Team ATeam straight up three o'clock in Houston,
Texas. It's a Wednesday edition ofthe eight Team Sports Talk seven to ninety

(00:25):
And as we begin the final showof July twenty twenty four, all of
the goodwill that was built up onAlex Bregman's walk off home runs on Saturday
night is absolutely gone. Look,I know that Pittsburgh's not a rollover and
die franchise anymore, but I'm kindof getting tired of watching Michael A.

(00:48):
Taylor hit half of his season's totalof home runs in minute made park.
Wex and I don't like seeing HunterBrown just gassed and trying desperately not to
throw his arm at the mountain,at the base or the home plate.
Winn. He's throwing his final pitchesof the night and being rewarded with a
Michael A. Taylor home run,because that's what happened last night. And

(01:11):
this has been a nightmare series,And honestly, the body language of the
Astros almost since this series began hasbeen that's the exact word I would ussely
describe it. I don't know howyou spelled that. By the way,
Yeah, one more deal did godown before the deadline. Apparently for the
Astros. They've reacquired Jose Abray andall the bad batch that everybody wanted to

(01:32):
say, Well, this is thereason why these Major League baseball players don't
know how to play baseball anymore,and now the trade deadline is the new
reason over a two day stretch,two days while they were the Astros don't
know how to play baseball anymore.We'll find out tonight which fifty five and
fifty two baseball team we'll get totheir fifty six win. The two teams
playing tonight at Minute May Park havethe same record. Astros no longer in

(01:56):
first place. They were losers obviouslylast night. The Mariners were not.
The Rangers were and are again thisafternoon. So we'll keep you update on
what's going on. And absolutely,with two months to go on the baseball
season is scoreboard watching time for ateam that is in the middle of a
race that is not likely to endbefore the final few games of the season,
just like it did not end aseason ago, and it did end

(02:19):
in the right way. With theAstros winning the division, earning the number
two seed, earning a handful ofdays off, and playing their good baseball
in the postseason as per usual,all the way into the last game of
the American League Championship Series from berValdez gets the ball Tonight's usually a pretty
good sign and opportunity for them tosnap their second three game losing streak.
Since the All Star Break, theAstros have only won three times in their

(02:40):
last nine games. Saying all thattheir last eighty one games, which encompassed
the same time period we've been talkingabout since they left the country, The
Astros since they went to Mexico City, are the best team in the American
League. No team in the AmericanLeague is better than the Astros over exactly
one half of the season games.For every American League team, nobody has

(03:02):
more wins than this team. That'sthe team that needs to start showing up
again. Some of that record obviouslyincludes time with Kyle Tucker watching and not
playing, so that excuse probably didn'thold a lot of water for me.
At some point. He'll be backat some point. That should help the
offense. The offense shouldn't be completelyinept for almost a week's time here,

(03:23):
if not more. And yet ithas been and it's been the reason why
the Astros have left their pitchers ona very difficult island almost every single night,
whether it's Hunter Brown last night orwhether it's the non starting pitchers the
night before. So, yeah,there's a lot of things that they have
to deal with and they need tojust kind of put it all behind him,
whether there is some lingering effects feelingsvibes tummy hurts over what took place

(03:46):
at the trade deadline with the Astrosdoing exactly what they said they needed to
do, which is at a startingpitcher. Now they lost a starting pitcher
in the process, which I don'tthink anybody expected them to do. They
had a five man rotation. Oneof those five pitchers is no longer in
the rotation or on the team.One of the players in the clubhouse with
them, who was extremely well likedby the players, not just our conversation

(04:08):
yesterday with the fans and wives offans who loved him so much, but
very well liked in this clubhouse.And I think the hope for him to
be something for them on the fieldmore than he had been thus far.
Early in his rookie season. Talkingabout Joey lo Berfdo was definitely a feeling
shared by the players. So yeah, I'm not denying there isn't some vibe.
We even talked about it yesterday thatthey have had previous deadlines where the

(04:30):
clubhouse feels the effects of what doeshappen, what doesn't happen the players that
are in the players that are out. That is human nature, but that
also can't linger so long that youturn this nine game homestand into a real
telling point of the season in thewrong way. It can still be a
real telling point in the season inthe right way, but obviously that needs
to get started tonight with Fromber onthe mound, with the Astros heading into

(04:53):
an off day, kind of gettheir bullpen set back up again, hopefully
and taking on a raised team thatstill has been extremely aggressive in unloading the
players that got them to this pointin the season, which is roughly the
same spot the Astros are in froma record standpoint, a little bit difficult,
more difficult road for them to getthere because they're not going to win
a division, but it's a teamthat many of their key contributors are not

(05:15):
in their uniforms anymore so four gamesremaining on this nine game homestand against the
Pirates for one and the Rais forthree over five days. Yes, I
would think the Astros should be ableto head back out on the road afterwards.
I feel a whole lot better aboutthis home stand then than they do
today over at the ballpark. Iswe're just a few minutes past, you
say Kakuchi being introduced to the Houstonmedia, and probably shortly prior to that

(05:40):
his teammates, and where a fewseconds passed Rafael Montero getting DFA. This
was I can't. I'm so madat myself for not saying it this week
because I was convinced it was goingto happen. We were talking so much
about the deadline, and you broughtup something about the back end of the
bullpen. You know, they gotto get an arm because these guys are

(06:01):
overworked, and I kind of spunit in the other direction while they're tied
together. They needed to get anarm so they wouldn't have to use the
other guys, but they could useother guys. Joe Spott has been stuck
saying, well, I've got TaylorScott, I got a brew you,
I got Montereo, I've got Presly, and I've got Hater. I can't
throw him in every game, butI still don't want to moving forward.

(06:21):
I need these other These are theother guys that have to be replaced.
These are the other guys that can'tget the ball every day. You know,
Sean Dubin is back with the team, even though again the difficulty in
throwing strikes isn't remarkable. But Ithought because he had been so unable to
get guys out, and I finally, I'm sure everybody saw it and got
a lot of eyeballs on it.The Montero numbers over his last fifteen appearances,

(06:45):
seven of which had included him gettingscored upon his better than two point
two whip, which is insane.It was screaming at them to well,
we can't pitch him anymore, andif we can't pitch him anymore, he
can't be here anymore. It's fortunatelythe exact same thing that happened with the
previously mentioned jose A Bray. Youcan't have him in the lineup. He

(07:05):
cannot help you win. He isactually hurting you because somebody else might give
you a chance, and he's notand they finally come to the same realization.
And now all three players signed duringthe exceptionally short period of time that
this team did operate without a generalmanager. Michael Brantley was signed, obviously
for just one season, but inan unbelievable amount of money. For the

(07:28):
amount of baseball you were assuredly goingto get from him, twelve million bucks
could have been sixteen. He didnot earn his incentives. Did you ever
like go by inning with him onper inning dollar amounts, because you could
have. If I would have turnedto the Wesley research team and asked them
to do that, they would say, well, we can go ahead and
look for some new employees. Theywould have given you two fingers. They

(07:48):
probably would have won from each hand. Now that's one player gone twelve million
bucks on a one year deal.The three year deal at nearly sixty million
for Jose Abreu, and he didnot quite make it halfway through that contract.
Rafael Montero made it just more thanhalfway through his three year, thirty
four and a half million dollar contract. Three bad deals. We definitely knew

(08:11):
two were bad at the time,and that's Brantley and Montero. I didn't
think the player in a brave wasever going to perform as abysmally as he
did. And I really, Imean again, I thought that was a
reasonable player to add at an absorbentcost. The players may be gone and
the spots on your team will befilled by more capable ones, but the
money remains. Bagwell as a personnelguy even more anemic than Bagwell at the

(08:35):
plate in the postseason. Yeah,I said it. I just like,
again, today's decision doesn't change wellyou thought, no, we are.
This is not. Oh I can'tbelieve it's they kind of had to do
this. It just confirms or reaffirmsor whatever. I mean, it's just
don't just let him stay. Look, I'm fine with him being in the
organization as an ambassador, as aguy who you know, helps on the

(08:58):
field, but like personnel decisions,come on, man, Like we're done
with that, right we have tobe. And this is just the latest
example of that. This is thediscussion We've had for almost well the entire
time Dana Brown's been here. Aren'twe like I think we are? Like
you bring it up like it's stilla thing now. Granted, especially since
Reggie told us he's Jeff's in thecircle of trust now, Jeff. And

(09:20):
by the way, if you missedthe social media post from the Astros when
wakery Onik was signed and then tookBP on the field and met Craig Bigio,
and Bigio's conversation with him was prettyclear that he had nothing to do
with that, which is probably normal. I don't think any of these advisors
are doing much from a draft standpoint, but Craig Bigio may have that role

(09:43):
in that title and may get askedevery now and then. He's really far
removed. There's a reason why hisname is almost never brought up in any
of these discussions. Reggie's and Jeff'sare quite obviously, and Jeff's even more
so for his own self inclusion inthese discussions. But my opinion, however
incorrect it might be, is onceDana Brown was hired, Jeff's ability to

(10:05):
alter the biggest decisions of this franchisegot a lot smaller. So you think
that it was just simply for effectslash trolling, slash good natured fun.
When say, for example, BenVerlander tweeted a picture of Jeff and Dana
Brown in the box the night beforeYeah, the night before the trade deadline,

(10:26):
during the game after they had obtainedKokuchi but had yet to do the
Ferguson deal and the we didn't getit done YONDI Diez or whoever else deal.
I'm trying to understand exactly how you'reasking you that. Yeah, I
don't. I don't think that there'sanything like do you think Jeff Bagwell is
not making personal Bagwell had something todo with them trading for U, say
Kakuchi. Uh No, But Ibet I would be willing to bet more

(10:50):
so than not that he was inthe room and had an influence on whatever
they were trying to get the playerthey wanted is not coming, in my
opinion, not coming from Jeff Bagwell'sbaseball knowledge, just coming from Dana Brown's
pulling the trigger on the deal,maybe coming up with it. Except there
may be parts of that that Ican't tell you for certain Jeff's influence wasn't
there. But nothing about what thisdeal was screams to me if Bagwell or

(11:15):
you know, maybe there's a littlebit of Jim Crane like on most major
deals. And remember when Bill Belichickwas asked about Jack Easter being went out
of his way to say this isnot a personnel guy. I'm not saying
I need the Astros to do thatwith Jeff Bagwell, but I'm not saying
I don't. It would be incredibleif they did, especially because the backgrounds
of those two guys are dramatically different. Great way to start the show today

(11:35):
on the A Team. The ATeam continues one Sports Talk seven nineties In
case you missed it early appearance today, the Astros made a handful of roster
moves in advance of tonight's ball gameagainst the Pittsburgh Pirates. They expected the
arrival of the two pitchers they tradedfor, and that has happened. You

(11:56):
say, Kakuchi donning number sixteen,Ale Ferguson wearing number sixty four, Sorry,
Brandon. They've reported and they're onthe active roster. Had to make
moves to allow for that to happen. Pitching staff had to be shuffled,
Seth Martinez optioned to Triple A Sugarland, And earlier I had mentioned Joe Spot

(12:16):
really has four guys to turn to. I certainly should have included Martinez in
that. And this is more aboutwho's pitched and kind of how they can
manage their way through this than SethMartinez has not been effective. He certainly
has been more often than not,more recently a little less effective. But
he has been optioned to the SpaceCowboys and Rafael Montero has been designated for

(12:39):
assignment. It's unlikely that he willthrow another pitch for the Astros. It's
also fairly likely he won't throw pitcheselsewhere and the Majors this year, but
some teams always think that there's anopportunity for them. He throws hard,
he just doesn't get guys out veryoften, and unfortunately, during most of
his time here, including the timeprior to the contract, there are few

(13:00):
more poor times than good times.Had some stretches where the swing and miss
was there, where there was somedeception where there was life on his fastball,
and you really got intrigued by whathe could do. So much so
that front office was intrigued by whathe could do, and they paid a
middle reliever who was never expected toascend up that ladder, certainly not on
this team to a more high leveragerole. Was given a three year,

(13:22):
thirty four and a half million dollarcontract, much more than any of the
three pitchers in comparable roles last year, were offered elsewhere after very successful seasons
for all of them. Talking aboutMayton and Nerris and Ryan Stanek, Stanek
who's now been moved again. Maytonwho's now been moved again. Keep in
mind of those three players, that'snow five different teams they've played for and

(13:43):
they only left last year. Sointeresting way to put it all together,
But those things have happened. Infront of tonight's game, Joe Spotto will
have his usual meet with the media, the clubhouse will be open, and
the Astros hopefully will although wake upa little bit because it's it's been a
pretty simple formula for why they've comeup short in most of these six losses
over their last nine games. Theyjust have it had very little offense and

(14:07):
a little bit ironic in that itwas their offense that woke up in a
five to nothing game the Saturday gameagainst the Dodgers turned that into a seven
to sixth victory and had the walkoff. They had those two days where
they scored runs. They've run intothis series. They had the Seattle Series,
which were wins. They had theRanger Series right before the All Star
break, the last two of whichwhich were losses. Almost all of those

(14:30):
games were tied together by the sameinability to put four, five six hit
innings together. A multi run homeruns hat tipped to Janner Diaz, as
you would say, he's doing hispart. A four hit game last night,
including a laser beam home run,barely got off the ground. It
seemed like I guess it got thirtyfeet off the ground because it made its

(14:50):
way into the Crawford boxes and therewasn't much around that. The Astros have
really, like I said, they'vereally struggled kind of up and down the
lineup to string it all together,and that obviously will have to change if
they're going to compete with the Mariners, who, as much as we might
not like it, I mean,I'm trying to be honest about it.
I told you yesterday, I toldyou the day they made their first deal.

(15:11):
I think they did the things necessarywith what was available to them to
make their team at its weakest,their offense much better. And just think
how much better it certainly could bewhen everybody's healthy, and that should not
be far away. As the Astrosmade their way to the top of the
division and kind of stayed day today whatever the Mariners do the Astros do.

(15:33):
The Mariners were doing it without ArosaRainer, without Justin Turner, without
JP Crawford, and without Julio Rodriguez. And to say they weren't doing much
of anything, because that's for playerswho probably from late August through the end
of the season, barring any newinjuries, well, they'll be in the
lineup the final thirty games of theseason. Thirty five games of the season.
That's going to be a dramatically differentteam. And again, two of

(15:56):
those players are already in. Rodriguezmight not be far and we'll see what
the Mariners look like then. Idon't think anybody believes their five starters are
going to be wearing down. Mostof them feel like they're I think the
Mariners feel like they're capable of takingit all the way through the season.
They've been very careful with Wu's theonly one who's been hurt, Castillo,
Kirby, Gilbert Miller. It's what'sgotten them to this point and their strength

(16:22):
remains such. If it remains thatway the rest of the season, it
is going to be a little difficultfor this Astros team, who made moves
to help them, but nothing Iwouldn't think anybody expects to change them dramatically.
Well, you saw the graphic I'msure you did the other night during
I believe it was Monday night's game, where they were looking at the three
teams that still have a shot atwinning this division and their strength of schedule.

(16:45):
How many teams above five hundred orhow many games against teams above five
hundred they're going to play between hereand the end of the season. Just
something we talked about yesterday, howmany games period that are on the schedule,
in that the Mariners have two morethan the Astros. Still, things
like that that will assuredly factor intowhat looks like it's going to be a
tight race. And I go backto what you've said for so long about

(17:07):
the Astros. They've just got toworry about themselves. I know we're scoreboard
watching, we're all doing it,and they are two, but that's the
only thing that they can actually control. But I'm not gonna lie to you.
Last night, after that second consecutivegut punch loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates,
and I realize they're not dog meatanymore. They're just sort of mediocre.

(17:29):
Now. I hated the fact thatI looked immediately to see if the
Mariners had won or lost. Sawthat they had won, and saw that
one of the biggest reasons weile.Two of the biggest reasons they won were
that their two trade deadline or deadlineacquisitions in that vicinity both drove in runs
last night. And that's what we'retalking about here. And so did you
get better after the break in whichof these three teams, as I asked

(17:52):
yesterday, I will ask now again, got better moving forward for the stretch
run? And it's just a coupleof games in if you want to,
you know, call it that,so we won't know yet. That's not
fair. Well, the Astros gotpictures, they got everyday players. This
is a totally unfair argument. Sixand Oranges. They're gonna be all even
lost players because they sort of hada picture pitch in that game. So

(18:15):
they were losing players who could noway they can contribute. And you're trying
to compare them to what the Marinersdid. You act like I went out
and put together a list of allthe players that were added and lost by
all three of those teams, becauseI did in a spreadsheet. I mean,
it's I just used the space onmy daily show notes Doc. Okay.
The only two moves for the Astroswere counteracted by six moves by the

(18:37):
Mariners and four moves by the Rangers. Although one of their moves under the
added column it says cash and Idon't mean Kevin's ball playing son, I
mean actual Greenbacks. I love thatyou made a cash column. Well,
I had to write something there.The Rangers didn't really add anything that was
going to help them win any gamesthis year, but they were able to
trade a fringe major league player inDavis Winzel to another team for straight up

(19:00):
cash. That's literally what they gotfor him. Their reserve catcher that they
added is in their lineup today asthey had him catching Andrew Heeney. I
mean the balls that he could getfrom the mound to the plate without the
opposing team smashing them for hits,which the Cardinals were doing early and often
today to the Rangers, which isnice. And then probably Chaffin is they
made four deals, but it's justChaffin and Kelly that are gonna have any

(19:22):
kind of impact on their team.They didn't do a whole lot. They
are a little bit like Houston inthat they are waiting for, you know,
Josh Young's permanent return. He hasalready returned. He's been in the
lineup now, yesterday and again today, and then all those pitchers the Astros
farm team. Will see Tyler Mallleytoday pitching against the Space Cowboys as he
rehabs his way back and will makehis Rangers' debut barring any setback sometime in

(19:47):
the future. And clearly the otherpitchers that have not been able to contribute
either of late or at all thisseason, one of those being Jacob de
Grom, those things matter a greatdeal. And if the injury to John
Gray is not significant enough, thenhe will also return. But it's really
the Mariners that did things to kindof reshape where things were going. You'll
Ryan Stanett got moved, which openedup a spot in their bullpen, and

(20:08):
it was taken by Yimi Garcia,who has been very very good this year,
just like he was very very goodbefore the Astros acquired him at the
deadline three years ago. He's avery valuable addition to their bullpen. The
Arosarrain and Turner deals, or theother two most significant deals of the six
that the Mariners made, they're goingto play every day the rest of the
season. There's fifty five, fiftyfour, fifty three games they'll probably be

(20:30):
in the rest of the way.That's going to make an enormous difference.
You're taking a tie France out France. Since June was hitting in the one
sixties, he was embarrassingly bad offensively, you'll be rebra you ask. He
was twice as good as a Brayin the one sixties, almost well.
Verbray did get it up over wherethe first number after the decimal was a

(20:51):
one when they finally said that's enough. But these guys aren't well Turners,
not a world beater, although twogood months of Turners not thinking atypical of
a belief you could believe it.I'm not expecting it. I am expecting
Randy Rose Randy to be particularly good. He was on a heater to begin
with with the Rays. I don'tsee any reason why that will change as
he changes scenery there in Seattle,and the opposite of what happened in this

(21:15):
clubhouse, if you believe in thatis what's going on in Seattle. Seattle
did do things that I can't imaginepeople in that clubhouse looked down on in
any way or our question did wereally get better? And when Kokoochie pitches
and when Ferguson pitches, that clearlycan change overnight. But I think that's
already happened in the Seattle Clubhouse andit's a kind of a TBD situation in

(21:38):
the Houston Clubhouse. Yeah, youwant to be given hope. You want
to be given or bolster if youwill, the reasons to believe in your
club at the trade deadline. That'swhat it's all about. That's why famously,
back when there used to be twodeadlines, that when Dallas Kaikeele bristled

(21:59):
at the fact that the front officeJeff Luno in this case, had not
done anything to his liking to gohelp the Astros in twenty seventeen win that
soon to be World Series, thatwhen the second deadline approached, even with
thirty seconds or less to spare,they were able to pull off the deal
of that of that year. So, yep, the first acquisition via trade

(22:19):
of Justin Verlander. Dana Brown,the general manager of the Astros, is
weekly visit on the Sean Salisbury Showcomes on Wednesday mornings at nine to thirty.
That happened this morning. You're gonnaget four good minutes of Dana and
Sean on this very topic. Whenwe return, you're gonna get the best
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Good hey, as coach Udoka hereevery Rockets game on Sports Talk seven
ninety and on the iHeartRadio app Homeof Your Rockets. Welcome back to the
A team. On a Wednesday editionof the program, WEX and AC here

(23:49):
with you talk a lot of astrosyesterday and we're doing the same again today
as they headed to the finale ofthis three game series with the Pirates get
set for an off day in afinal game seven eight nine of this nine
game homestand the Dodgers, the currentPirates and obviously the Rays coming in town
next mentioned earlier, I wanted tolet you in on what Dana Brown had
to say today. A lot ofappearances this week for Dana Brown, as

(24:11):
expected, same thing around Major LeagueBaseball for the decision makers with deals either
being made or not being made,players being introduced, and a lot of
time on the phones for Dana.And he always makes time for Sean Salisbury's
show Wednesdays at nine thirty. Alot of good stuff coming from Dana today.
If you missed any of it,and any of it's not contained here

(24:32):
in this four good minutes we sharewith you, you can always find it
via the podcasts. You can subscribeto their show, our show and listen
to it all on the free iHeartRadioapp. The conversation here begins with Sean
asking him after a few minutes intothe conversation, kind of talking about some
of the particulars about how things kindof went down and the things that led

(24:52):
to the ultimate decision to make thesedeals. Leads Dana into the answer to
this question, did you overpay fora rental? No? I mean,
look, the market is the market, you know. I mean when you
acquire I mean if you look outthrough all all the trades that take place,
not only this year, years before. Uh, you know, the
market is the market. If youwant to acquire a really good pitching at

(25:15):
the deadline, it's going to cost. And uh, you know, winn
income at a call it comes ata cost. And so you know,
you can't just show up in theMajor League and say, oh, yeah,
we're good. Well, you knowwe're going to be good this year,
next year. There are trades throughoutevery organization each year that you're going

(25:37):
to have to make in order tobe good down the stretch. And you
know, if you if you don'tmake these trades, then you know your
team possibly could fall off. Andand you know, no one wants that,
and so when you're dealing with otherteams, you know, these guys
are these guys are smart baseball men. You know, you can't trip teams

(25:59):
into taking less talent. You know, teams, you know, know that
they have to do what's best fortheir organization. And ultimately, winning comes
at a cost, you know,and if you if you don't put the
work in and if you don't acquirethe talent, you know, there's there's
a good chance it's going to beeven more difficult to win. And so

(26:22):
I felt like, look, ifwe're going to get back to the postseason
and get deep into the postseason,and you're sitting here right now with six
starters on the IL, and youknow, you go through this trade deadline
and you don't make a move andyou have six starters on the I L
and then you feel like, look, your rotation is beat up a little

(26:44):
bit. And then all of asudden, you know, you meet those
tough games in at dog days ofAugust, and if you're sitting there seven,
eight, nine games back in August, that's a difficult place to be
in. And so winning come goingto cost, and sometimes you have to
make these trades and these trades arenot new to baseball. It happens.

(27:06):
It's part of what we do.Was the rental hard for you to pull
the trigger or was it easy data? Here's what I would say. I
would say, I spent my entirecareer acquiring talent, and so I feel
like, you know, when you'rein this position and you have to make
these decisions, sometimes you're gonna endup making decisions to acquire a rental.

(27:32):
Sometimes you may make a decision toacquire a guy that you may have for
a year or two extra, butultimately you're going to have to give up
prospects. And because I spent myentire year a career acquiring prospects, I
feel like with our staff and withmy leadership and what I've done in a

(27:53):
game, I've developed a reputation ofacquiring talent. And so you know,
you you have to replenish every year, and that's what it's all about.
And and some of these guys aregonna make it and get to the big
leads and play for you, andsome of the guys are going to be
uh traded. I mean, itgoes with the territory. It's uh,

(28:15):
it's part of the business, andit's what we do. Uh, when
you when you when you want towin, and so ultimately it's a very
difficult thing to to give up prospects. But certainly when you're giving up prospects
for a rental, you know,it makes you think twice. But you
have to realize when you do that, you also have to replenish, and

(28:38):
you have to have a vision toreplenish the talent and the organization and and
that's what you do in order tobe successful and to continue and sustain long
term winning. All right, farbe it from me too. Well,
let me just put it this way. I am all about so one who

(29:00):
has that kind of confidence A andB is willing to be you know,
go on the record is saying it. I think all these guys that are
executives probably have. You know,we're talking about egos all the time on
and off the field. I'm finewith that. I have no problem with
it. If you're gonna say somethinglike that, though, moy you better
back it up. You have better. I've got this reputation as acquiring talent

(29:22):
you do in Atlanta. Well,keep in mind, one of the reasons
they were able to make this dealis because one of the players he acquired
correct, Jake Bloss, was aDana Brown draft pick. And that's what
he's talking about, because for themost part, that's how the current Dana
Brown Astros are gonna add talent replenishthe farm. It's gonna be through the
draft now this offseason if they had, you know, some of these injuries

(29:45):
are going to prevent it because you'renot moving two guys still in the midst
of Tommy John recovery. I wouldn'tthink in Javier or Akiiti. But if
you get every if there's a pointin the off season where the confidence level
in some of these pitchers that they'rehealthy, and obviously ver Lander's not in
the mix because he won't necessarily beunder contract with anybody at that time,

(30:07):
but if Luis Garcia has returned andpitched well enough that he's part of the
future major league plans again, plusall the guys you currently have, which
are the four guys in the rotation, not including Kokuchi, and then you
maybe move down the list to thenext guy and the next guy, and
maybe Ryan Husto is a little biggerpart of your thoughts because of how he's
pitched a triple A this year anddid so again yesterday. Have you gotten

(30:30):
to the point where you're in positionto actually now do what he said,
actually move guys, to get guyssign other players that allow you to do
that, and maybe they probably willbe in the market to sign a starting
pitcher, but they may be inthe market to do something about their current
group. He has to have supremeconfidence to say what he said. But
the only reason you're able to makeany of these deals, and you go
all the way back to the firstof these touch deals a lower level pitcher

(30:52):
in Kokuchi. But you can't makethe Verlander deal, the Cold deal,
or the Granky deal unless you haveplayers that other teams want, and the
list of players that other teams wantswere always questioning one team wanted them,
and the quality of pitching available thismarket outside of Jack Flaherty, who most
people still can't figure out that dealthey got made yesterday. There wasn't,
as it turned out, a lotof top flight starting pitching. There was

(31:17):
a lot of pitching, and I'dargue that a few other pits, certainly
Eric Fetti and Zach Eflin, justright off the top, they've had better
seasons. They are much highly thoughtof players pitchers that could have helped you,
and they'll probably help the teams thatthey're on and the Orioles and Fetti
going over to the National League.But he has to make good on that,
just like you said. It's theonly way they can continue is if

(31:38):
they keep having players that somebody elsewants, or they follow the other route,
they keep replacing players they no longerhave and could do so confidently.
Joey Loperfdo was in the lineup todayfor the Toronto Blue Jays. He was
one for five, singling in theninth inning of a ten to four Laws
struck out as first to at batsand is being afforded the opportunity of a

(32:00):
prime spot in the order behind GeorgeSpringer and in front of Vladimir Guerrero.
Will see if that's part of theirplan to see what he has. It's
a can't find a better place intheir lineup than that. But they're also
finding they clearly have faded out ofthe race. They're in a different position.
He could play every day of therest of the season. It will
not impact their plans. The Astroswere not in that position. That's why

(32:21):
he wasn't playing every day. Thisstill looks weird in Toronto gear when we
come back, I want to aska question about the deal that was and
the deal that maybe could have beenwhen it came to the astros. Right
now, I want to talk aboutwhat could be with your vision, specifically
for those of you out there thatare either first responders or teachers, because
Berkeley I Center they always honor theirheroes with special Lasik savings, and they're

(32:44):
doing that specifically with first responders andteachers, honoring all the linemen who helped
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(33:06):
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(33:32):
EIGHTEAM in the afternoon what he cameup with that idea? Possibly? Adam
Back to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexleron Sports Talk seven ninety EIGHTEAM on a
Wednesday, wex today see here withyou. We will continue our Astros conversation
throughout parts of the afternoon and thendefinitively once again at five o'clock for our

(33:52):
visit with Chandler Roma. The athleticjoins us each week Wednesdays at five almost
all the time, and certainly plentyof things to discuss with a couple more.
It's a baseball left and now thetrade deadline in the rear view mirror
for the three combatants here in theAl West, with the Astros seeding first
place to the Mariners last night,hoping to get it back, same team

(34:13):
matchups for each of those three intotoday, Rangers with an early start.
Astros, of course, playing theircustomary Wednesday night game at home. I
say that with tongue Planet firmly incheek, Rangers losing earlier today ten to
one to Saint Louis Astros with theirseven to ten first pitch tonight against Jake
Woodford and the Pirates, and theBoston Red Sox have one run through the

(34:37):
first two innings. The Seattle Marinershave none runs and they are trailing one
to nothing seven one, three two, seven to nine. If you guys
want to weigh in on where thingsstand with your Houston Astros, we'd love
to chat it up with you.Just heard from Dana Brown, and we
have more from him to share withyou over the course of the next couple
of segments leading our way into theafternoon. Soon enough, I'll mention to

(34:59):
ac that the matchup of two formerTexas Longhorn greats is going as expected with
Rockets assistant coach and Longhorn legend RoyalIvy guiding South Sudan against the United States
men's national team in the Olympics.But Kevin Durant, the basketball player from
Texas who's still playing basketball, ishelping his team. Likely. I don't

(35:22):
want to say anything yet, butwith one hundred and two seconds remaining,
they're up twenty on South Sudan,and that would make two wins of the
six that they will get on theirway to winning a gold medal Olympic Games.
Yeah, hey, there's still time, and there's still time. Be
at least they decided that playing JasonTatum was a good idea today, Steve
or you idiot, Tyrese Haliburton gotin some quality minutes as well one of

(35:45):
the other sit downers from the firstgame who make their way through. Let's
get to the phones here and getin on some of y'all's thoughts on where
things stand out on a mobile onMatt is hanging out this afternoon with us.
Matt, welcome into the show whichis on your mind. Hey guys,
thanks for having me on. Appreciateit, love the show. Just
calling in. Let's take the Kakuchitrade off the table, because apparently,

(36:07):
you know, winning comes at acost. I'm a little bit more concerned
about the moves we haven't made.Kyle Tucker has apparently hurt a lot worse
than we think. He's off theshelf for a little while. And I
mean, come on, if hethinks that one Ton is a viable World
Series caliber first baseman, then wehave a lot bigger issues than we really

(36:28):
think. I wait, what didyou call him? Single? One?
Called him homer Ton, some calledhim Singleton, and Matt's giving him up.
Now, I don't. I thinkyou got to give Dan at least
some leeway on the Singleton because thisis this is the guy who is currently
playing first base. He's not likelyto say anything negatively about him. He

(36:49):
said, generically, we could addof bat, we could do this.
We try to augment that he's aware, like everybody else, that they could
make themselves a better situation at firstbase, but it just was something that
never came to fruition. Yeah,I agree. I mean, listen,
he says all the right things ashe made any moves that I think are
the right ones. Listen, I'mjust you know, an arm core che
armchair quarterback, if you will.But it's my job's a lot easier than

(37:13):
his. But we'll wait and see. I mean, obviously he kind of,
I think, in my opinion,contradicts himself of you know, we
have two pictures that are coming back. Obviously we need more arms. I
mean that's granted, but I meanwe definitely need bats. I mean,
our offense is you know, hitor miss, no pun intended, and
it's it's been a little stagnant lately, and I think we definitely need I

(37:36):
think something's going on with Kyle Tuckerthat we we don't know about. We
know how they hide injuries, andyou know, I'm not a fan of
one ton, but hanging up alisten, guys, thanks for having me
on. Appreciate you guys, yougot it. Appreciate it, Matt.
Just so we're all on the samepage here. The Astros have their their
injured list section of their game notes. Is the best way we can tell

(38:00):
you exactly what's going on with anyplayer who's not currently available, It says
Tucker right shin contusion date July fourth, games missed forty six in which the
Astros are twenty eight and eighteen.Those are the facts, as it states
right there. Now, I saythat with a little bit of tongue in
cheek. We're like, you werefully aware of bone contusion. Shin bruises

(38:22):
don't last this long. And wego back to the day he was hurt,
the day before the fourth where heactually tried to stay in the game
before realizing that I just cannot dothis. He wasn't put on the IL
immediately that night, but obviously themove was made the next day when they
realized the extent of it. It'sbeen described many times publicly as that a
bone bruise, a very bad bonebruise, tremendous swelling, swelling and bruising.

(38:45):
That's preventing him from doing anything thatwould get him back on the field.
He's very, very very slowly makinghis way through bast He's not a
fast healer. Apparently from a bruise. Well, we wouldn't really have had
much knowledge about his healing powers,and that he had been so healthy and
playing so much baseball thuring throughout almosthis entire major league career. Missed some

(39:08):
games, and I had had someminor injuries, but nothing of this nature
where a third of the season ormore is going to be missed by Kyle
Tucker. The offense being hit ormissed is it's certainly fair. They happened
to hit for about forty games orthirty five games of the Kyle Tucker absence,
scoring better than five and a halfalmost five and a half runs per

(39:30):
game. That numbers come down recently. But other than first base, where
were you going to? Oh,you look at the players moved and what
you thought you might be into froma deal where were you going to get
a player and where were you goingto put him? In light of the
fact Kyle Tucker is going to return, I assume at some point first base
seems like the only real option,I mean, were You're going to no

(39:50):
longer play Jakin center every day andgo find a center fielder. You saw
that there really weren't any moved ofsignificance unless you were in the running for
Randy or Rose Arena who was goingto play along with Tucker Alvarez and somebody
in your four player outfield dh rotation. And I really don't think they probably
made one phone call on him.I think they attempted to make themselves better
at first base and did not finda deal they could make. Yeah,

(40:14):
and yeah, that's that is goingto remain a sticking point because you didn't
get it. You know, ifyou got a Yan dideas well, you've
got that. We talked about itthe other day before the deadline actually passed.
You've at least solved one of theproblems for multiple seasons. Now you're
looking at next season if Bregman leaves, who are your corners? Yeah,

(40:35):
your corners plural yep, for sure. I mean that's not a small thing
for a team that fancies itself.Maybe Dana is able to pick up the
phone and talk to the agents andsay, how would your client like to
play for the World Series champion HoustonAstros. Well, I don't know what
a recruitment that is, versus howwould your client like to get paid more

(40:57):
money than they're being offered by theteam therewith currently that usually does the trick.
That's what's gonna happen with with AlexBregman, right or is it?
I mean, I like I keepsaying I can't imagine any owner and I
don't. I'm probably selling their aggressivenessand naivete short. There probably will be
some owner that gives his GM moreof a push than he should and saying

(41:20):
no, no, keep going,no, we'll we'll go higher than that.
I this is what I want youto do. I want a cornerstone
player that we can build around,that is a great clubhouse guy, that
is a leader in every way,that's a gold glover down at third base.
I don't care if his offense hasgone down, and I definitely don't
care that he was involved in youknow, sign stealing. I mean because
now he's gonna be on our teamand no one's gonna care anymore. There

(41:42):
probably will be one that's gonna wantto give a deal to him that I
can't believe is out there. Ifthere isn't, then the Astros have a
chance. That situation it's I've neverit's never applied more the phrase the situation
is fluid than with the Alex Bregmanimpending free agency. I really do feel
like I think there's a the fluidityhas been dammed up for two months.

(42:07):
They're not going to make an offerto him during this season. Oh no,
no, no, I'm just sayingthat even though they will, Yeah,
well yeah, there's still how manygames are there's still time. I
do think they'll be in the running. I do think they'll have conversations.
I do think we'll have conversations overthe next two hours. So he's put
to bed the three o'clock hour hereon the A team. One of the

(42:27):
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Teams series, Adam Clinton and AdamWexler are the a team. A four

(43:44):
o'clock hour underway here on Sports Talkseven ninety. It is a Wednesday edition
of the a team on the finalday of July and the first day after
the trade deadline, the dust settlingand all that good stuff. What the
Astros did do, what they did, I didn't do, and more is
fair game. As we get intothe next two hours of the program,

(44:05):
as are your phone calls at sevenone three two one two five seven ninety
seven one three two one two fiveseven ninety I believe Martin has been hanging
the longest here on the phone line. So Martin, you're up next.
Welcome into the program. What's goingon? Man? Hey? Man?
Yeah, hey, maybe they cancreate and you positioned for Jeff Bagwell like
cal McNair and heav him outside ofthe stadium cooking Hamburgers for everyone. But

(44:30):
what I really called about yesterday Youhad a guy call in yesterday and he
was all he was. He wassaying, hey, they pulled Brice Matthews
from the hooks lineup and another guy, another player, they pulled him out
of the lineup, and uh anduh, and had everyone had y'all going,

(44:51):
and had me going like there was. He was implying there was a
major trade about to happen, andof course nothing happened. And I'm just
wondering what the hell happened? Itwas this guy just calling in, pulling
around and goofing around on the stationor what I mean. Actually, the
comments you're referring to, I thinkI actually made them in reference to a
caller. The lineup came out forthe Hooks in the middle of the afternoon

(45:14):
yesterday like it usually does, andBryce Matthews wasn't in it. It was
noted by a few people floating aroundthe atmosphere known as x. I also
noted that Zach Cole, another topAstros prospect, was not in their lineup,
and so I kind of mocked thatwhole idea that we're up against the
deadline here, there's thirty minutes leftor an hour left, and they're not
in the lineup, and we knowthe Astros are talking to the Pirates,

(45:35):
we know the Astros are talking tothe Rays. What is happening? And
if you are unaware, because maybeyou don't follow the Hooks. Earlier today
at two sixteen pm, they posteda picture of Bryce Matthews flashing the h
with the caption breaking, Bryce Matthewsenjoyed his day off yesterday. It was
just a day off. It wasnothing more than that. He's in their

(45:58):
lineup today, so is Zach Cole, and so are all of the Astros
prospects that we're here four days ago, other than Will Wagner, Joey Lo
Braffito, Jake Bloss, and KellyAustin. I want to go back to
something that you said in the firsthour about Jack Jack Flaherty. Well,
that all of what I said yesterdaystem from what happens in baseball. Jack
Flaherty has been scratched from his start, Jake Bloss has been scratched from his

(46:22):
start. Well, why because theycan't afford to have them pitch or play
because they're about to get moved.So when you don't see somebody in the
lineup, even though the team hasn'tsaid anything, why not have some fun
with it. Well, if you'regonna go move a bunch of pieces that
everybody's gonna get up in arms aboutfor a pitcher, I realize what you
said yesterday prospects for the Dodgers greaterthan prospects for the Astros in this case,

(46:49):
although were they Well, there area lot of people questioning the return
for Flaherty, for sure, questioningthe Tigers, and that did you get
enough when you just watched another pitcher, a lesser pitcher, both of them
rentals. Talking about the Kakuchi deal, you watched that deal go down.
But that's coming from only looking atthe numbers that make your dispute of their

(47:09):
value worthy of a question of theirGM. Well, if the Astros moved
say two, five and nineteen,and you only got five and twenty four,
well they obviously gave up more.Which it's not apples to apples.
I mean, if there's a fulltwelve hundred player prospect list that everybody inside
baseball is married to, well,then yes, we could maybe use that

(47:31):
as a point of reference. Thereis a top one hundred list, and
none of these players the Astros involvedin the deal were in that top one
hundred, and so that gives youan idea of where their their standing is
as a as a franchise with theirfarm system. But you know, there
are other circumstances with Flaherty from theYankee standpoint. Apparently they did not want

(47:52):
to pull the trigger on a dealfor whatever they had offered because they were
concerned about the medicals. And itseems reasonable that the Dodgers, even in
pulling the trigger on the deal hadsome concerns, but we're still willing to
say, well, we're not askinghim to give us one hundred starts.
We're asking him to give us tenor fifteen starts if we make and have
a long postseason run. So you'remuch more willing to do it, even

(48:15):
if maybe the medicals aren't exactly whatyou want. He also had not had
any issues so far this season,even though in his past there had been
a few. Again, comparing someof these deals, even to the point
you look at the three team dealthat involved Eric Fetti, look at the
Rays Orioles deal that involved Zach Eflin. If we wanted to sit here in
debate, did the O's give upmore than the Astros for Eflyn or less

(48:37):
for a better pitcher? I meanthose conversations that certainly we had, and
I think there's some merit to them. I think the Astros based on what
it sounded like from Dana Brown,and again I send you to the podcast
page on our Sports Talk seven ninetydot com or via iHeartRadio the app in
the conversation with Son Salisbury this morning, this is essentially who they were after

(48:59):
There were things in his Arsenal hispitch repertoire that they desired. They certainly
were looking at other pictures. Ithink once they acquired him, they also
essentially stopped doing that because they feltlike this was the move they had the
ability to make, and it wasmade, and with everybody else that had
already been taken off the market,there weren't any other pictures for them to

(49:20):
really go aggressively after. But Ido think that's a worthwhile point to make
about this. There were other picturesavailable, for sure, they got moved.
It does appear that the Astros,for whatever their reasons might be,
and hopefully we'll find out this weekendwhen he starts whenever that is there they're
specifically targeted. There is a smatteringof people out there that would have you

(49:43):
believe they got the guy of thedeadline. We just don't know it yet.
I just don't see a lot ofthem, that's all. And I
mean there are people that are reputable, and they are people that are on
national networks, and there are peoplethat know or have forgotten more baseball than
I'll ever you know, they're notjust you know, Twitter people, They're
not eggs. I mean, I'mwilling to discuss all those things, but

(50:05):
I can't ignore the obvious. Thebest picture that got moved could turn into
anybody. You got ten starts towatch, You got ten starts, and
whatever their future contracts are, that'sfair. Nobody. None of these guys
have pitched for their new teams yetother than Neflin, But you can't tell
me looking at what their careers havebeen, looking at what their twenty twenty
four season has been, They're underno circumstances. Did the Astros get the

(50:28):
best picture that's moved either before him, which eliminates Flairty from the conversation because
he was moved after or and Idon't even think he was the next best
picture or maybe even the next bestpitcher. I mean, but if he
comes here and he's got a subthree forty three twenty era, I'm trying
to be nice, and you knowmakes makes ten starts, gives you six

(50:55):
quality starts of those ten wins halfof those games, you'll be ecstatic.
Right if you're at the back endof the rotation that's getting all those things,
cause you're getting five wins out often starts from the back end.
As long as you're doing fine,at the front end, which you're supposed
to be. Then yeah, youwould absolutely take it. He makes all
his starts, gives you those sixinnings more often than not. And again

(51:19):
I can't help but point you outto the fact that his last eight starts,
he's averaged less than five innings perstart. Granted he's playing for the
Blue Jays, and maybe you feelthat's a significant difference in what those games,
how they unfold, I suppose,but you do have to recognize where
he was brought, what he wasbrought into doing where he slots in.
If they added Flairty, things wouldbe different. You would be expecting him

(51:39):
to go out and win you games. If he's giving you ten starts,
well then you should win seven ofthem. The Blue Jays didn't expect that
from Kukuchi, the Mariators didn't expectthat from Kucie. The Astros better not
expect that to It might happen,but you can't expect that. That's not
who you acquired, and that's notwhere he slots in. I mean,
he's not better than your top three. I think we definitely know that.

(52:02):
And arag Getty's last four starts werethe kind of things that keep you in
a rotation, and Cacuchi needs topitch at least well enough to do that.
Let's go back out to the phonelines. Hey, Carl, good
to see you. What's doing well. I am a fan of the big
one time. You know, hehas his days, everybody does. He

(52:25):
was regulars, you know, goingthrough uh, strike strike strikes beginning the
season, and he got on fire. Uh. But you know, we're
in a big mess with the pitchingtwo and uh, you know, it's
just ridiculous that we're in the situation. We got all this dead weight sitting
there, not playing, and it'scosting a fortune. I don't know where

(52:46):
this man is getting all this moneyfrom paying for all these people that aren't
participating. And you know, Ithink, man, we had Charlie Martin
a few years back. We letall these good guys go thinking he was
good man. You know, welet him go, and heck, he's
starring in with the Mariners. Wegot ourselves in this hole. What we

(53:06):
gotta do is play some baseball rightnow. Tighten down the hatch, and
that's the only way we got we'regonna win. We gotta start winning some
games if they want to win andget in the championship, They're gonna have
to get out there and really hustleand play hard. And little Dido,
I'm sorry to say it. Iloved him out He'll never saying, but

(53:27):
man, he was just not hittingthe ball. And you know, I
hate to say that about the guy. I really thought he was a great,
great alf chielder. You know,we appreciate your thoughts, So we
probably will use this as a motivationalspeech for the Astros if we can get
this audio inside of their clubhouse andmake sure that they understand now two former

(53:49):
Astros Stanky and Lipperhito, and whatthey're doing elsewhere. By the way,
Stanky he now pitches for the Mets. The Mariners traded him and Loperdido is
on the Toronto Blue Jayson. ButI like his passion. He almost made
me think he was on board becausehe's talking about battening down the hatches.
I hope he doesn't believe the Astrosare some sort of sinking ship. They

(54:10):
have lost their last three, theyhave lost six of their last nine.
They have an opportunity to get backinto first place. All they have to
do is win today and see theMariners lose. Dana Brown did speak again
today since his interview on the SeanSalisbury Show earlier this morning. Some intel,
some insight into what might be thenext move we already mentioned earlier today
the Astros officially DFA designated for assignmentRafael Montero, although something you may have

(54:37):
heard before regarding the Astros and ahighly paid player and their potential future plans
for him, maybe coming back aroundagain that among other things, we'll get
into the discussion. Welcome your phonecalls into it as well, in terrift
back into some Major League Baseball conversationon the A team Right now, though,
to celebrate Team USA going for thegold, Exfinity is offering all of

(54:59):
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(55:40):
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the babe boom. We rolling withthe A team. Adam wesleyand Adam right
now, let's go two Adams forthe price of warning. A sports talk

(56:04):
seven night back here on the eightteam, talking a little bit of everything
on a Wednesday afternoon, X andAC here with you and you of course
on the phone lines. Lots ofyou want away in on what's taking place
with your ball club. Love tohear it as they attempt to make it
eight straight, eight straight trips tothe Alcs might take a division crown to
get to the playoffs, as thewild card race seems a little bit more

(56:27):
difficult each and every day. Butthis division race looks like it will probably
go down deep into late September,so our thoughts are certainly on that ball
club seven one three, two,one two five seven ninety mentioned that the
Astros made some roster moves today andlight of the two trades, both of
the pitchers that they have acquired arein uniform and on the active roster ready
for use, although Kakuchi will notbe used tonight because Joe Spotta just said

(56:52):
he will make his Astros debut asthe opening starter in the upcoming series Friday
night against the Race, so hewill throw out the the actual first pitch
of the game. I'd have tolook and see he's got the ceremonial first
pitch on Friday. I know.Andre Johnson or Tray of the Truth,
Trey's got it tonight. Andre Johnson, one Hall of Famer to another last
night very cool. I think theAstros did an awesome job with how they

(57:14):
are helping us all celebrate Andre Johnson. He mentioned it when he was in
the booth with Jeff and Todd lastnight, and it was it seems obvious
in what I know about this cityand their fans, but hearing Andre say
it and having him kind of lividis even better. He mentioned to them
when he was downstairs earlier, theyhad an opportunity to buy a special edition

(57:38):
astros Andre Johnson hat, and hewas in the Union Station lobby signing hats
for fans, and they kept tellinghim, I'll see you this weekend.
I'll be there in Canton. Ican't wait to see this. And he
said, as he's gone around townand whenever he's out, this is what
people keep telling him. And hesaid, I think a lot of people

(58:00):
are gonna be there. A lotof Houstonians are making the trip. And
it is awesome. This is whywe always say it's it's this look.
It's lurking in the background, theRockets two championships. You saw with that
if you were here and you wereyou know of age to remember that thirty
years ago. Plus we're coming upon these second We're coming up on these

(58:22):
second championships thirty year anniversary next year. I mean, just kill me already.
But you know that's been a thirdalready. I mean, well they
should have been twenty eighteen. You'regonna get me mad again, stupid Scott
Foster. Anyway, you know thatwhen that happened, that's fantastic. And
you know Geene Peterson just recently passedand and you know that kind of brought

(58:43):
back another flood of memories again,and then what the Astros have done.
And yet it's just I know this, I know this, you know this
from living here as long as wehave. It's just not going to compare.
And believe me, I've been therefor all four they were all awesome
and I was on on the youknow, the field for the last one.
For the Astros. There's nothing likeit except for if you win a

(59:05):
Super Bowl. And I'm telling youright now that is indicative to me of
what I'm saying. When you've gotpeople they're gonna go to Can'ton Ohio,
probably use some vacation time to doso in a lot of instances, to
use their hard earned money to go. I mean, look, it's it's
not cooper'stown in the middle of nowhere, but Can't Ohio's not a booming metropolis.

(59:28):
You're gonna go up there to seeand you're gonna watch every speech before
you get to Andndre because he's lastin the heat in August to go see
a Hall of Fame induction, andthat's just a Hall of Fame induction this
team, if they do something likewe think they might with the guy who's
number seven, it's going to beit's gonna surpass anything you've ever seen on
a championship level in either of thetwo other major sports in this town.

(59:49):
It can't help but make I thinkall of us consider, Because you were
talking about championships and where things are, it's pretty obvious where the Astros are.
They're looking for an eighth straight ALCS, they're looking for a third World
Series in the last eight seasons.They are the reigning division champions. So
are the Texans. I know nobodyreally cares about divisions in the NBA.
I certainly don't. They're so relegatedto nothing. The Rockets finished nine games

(01:00:14):
out of first last year in theeighty two game basketball season. The Mavericks
actually won the super important south WestDivision title last year by one game over
the New Orleans Pelicans, with theRockets again trade that division championship to actually
win the finals. So, likeI said, I don't think it really
matters in basketball. What really mattersis for the I guess I don't know

(01:00:36):
which season you want to start with, Probably the one we're in starting now.
The Astros season here in twenty twentyfour, the Texans season here in
twenty twenty four, and the Astroor the Rockets twenty twenty four to twenty
five season. Yes or no,all three teams will make the postseason.

(01:01:00):
I think yes or no? Yeah, No, I really do. I
mean, I'm not gonna sit hereday after day and just clobber Lebron James
and the Lakers because I think theRockets are gonna have a better record than
them, And that's much saucier,but it's true. It's possible. They
suck. Man. I watched themplayers last year and all they did was
get worse. I know. Andyou're gonna hate this argument because it really

(01:01:22):
doesn't matter. How. There's afreaking Olympic team they just put together and
two of them are on it.Two of their best players are on it.
Two of the best players on thecurrent Olympic team are teammates on the
Lakers. This is when Anthony Davisis always healthy the offseason. As part
of it, be part of theequation. Yeah, Lakers were a forty
seven win team a year ago.Rockets were at forty one. The team

(01:01:45):
they were closest to making the playin tournament was the Warriors forty six wins.
Two teams with forty six wins hadthe last two spots, Sacramento and
Golden State. I think Sacramento's dealfor DeRozan probably makes them better, and
Warriors got worse this year. Warriorsprobably got worse. The Pelicans definitely didn't

(01:02:05):
get better, but they might staythe same. He's the Anthony Davis again.
It's hard to say. The Sunsare wildly impossible to predict. Wild
hard They have so much riding onthree players and almost nobody else, And
in my opinion, they're now tiedto the Rockets future. If they don't
have a good start to the season. I think that's where the Rockets will

(01:02:29):
directly get better from because I thinkthey're going to trade for Devin Booker.
I just do man another Olympian,Well, you want your draft pick back,
we'd like Devin Booker. Please.You're blowing it up anyways, because
you're not. It's not working.Kevin Durant a year older. So the
Rockets get Devin Booker, and thosethree teams we just mentioned are not better
at best three to four. Didyou mentioned three or four? Three or

(01:02:50):
four? Phoenix was the fourth teamof the three that you mentioned prior the
Lakers, the Pelicans, and theworst the four playing teams last year.
And we also have to consider Memphiswas not among any of them because the
raw decimated all year. They're goingto be they're going to go to the
playoffs. So you know, that'sone of the teams that didn't make it
that we're now putting in. Youknow what that be worse? Oh yeah,

(01:03:10):
they're gonna be worse. James Harden, he's not gonna win a ring.
Still. Again, you could gettraded to somebody who wins a ring.
Nobody's trading for him, and ifthey do, they're He's not gonna
help them win a ring. He'sgoing to do the opposite. All this
being said, discussion about the Astrosfor an hour and a half today and
every day leading up to this.I still think they're the best team left
and we think they're going to makethe playoffs, win the division. We
just made our comments. We thinkthe Rockets can find their way into the

(01:03:31):
top ten and at least be aplaying team, and there needs to be
no discussion. We're not discussing itfor a second. We know the Texans.
We're confident, we're locked in.Of course they're going to the playoffs.
Well, that one guy doesn't thinkthey are, Well, I'm sure
there will be other people who predictthat as we get closer to the start
of the season. But see,look, I don't think I'm not trying
to say that Indianapolis and Jacksonville arejust awful and the AFC is a breeze.

(01:03:54):
No, But I think the Texanswill win enough games the division.
Not the talent level, but thecompetitiveness from a standpoint of is it a
three horse race like the Al West. I think it's similar in that respect
because the talent level is better.Like against the rest of the of the
league you're talking about, I thinkTexans, Colts, Jags are much more

(01:04:19):
you know, acclimated to be competitiveagainst any team on any given week versus
you know, whoever wins this division. For the Astros and the Rangers and
the Mariners, they're gonna be anunderdog in probably every series just because of
what's happened around the rest of theAmerican League this year. Yeah, they'll

(01:04:39):
win the division and thus have homefield advantage in whatever scenario. If they're
the two seed, which is veryunlikely. That obviously have the time off
and then be the home team forthree of the five and if they play
in the wildcard series, they'd bethe home team for all three Oriols Yankees
in almost did it. Wow,it's been a wild Guardians, yes,
and the Royals, well, I'mjust saying right now and likely at the

(01:05:01):
end of the year. Also,the team that wins the division you said
they'd probably be underdogs. Well,the winner of this division currently has the
worst record of the six teams thatwould be in the left I think very
likely that will be the case.When we've played one sixty two, the
team with the worst record will bethe three seed because it's going to be
too much to overcome to getting sortof better standings. They're not so far

(01:05:24):
behind it won't happen. But KansasCity's not gonna fall apart, Minnesota's not
gonna fall apart. These teams arereally good. If the Yankees and they
played really well against Houston, well, the Yankees have such a cushion.
Although they're beating the crap out ofthe Phillies every night, what is going
on ten more wins than Houston.I don't think the Astros can out win
them by ten games. They beatthem straight up. That's a lot to

(01:05:45):
imagine. I let off this wholeconversation about the Astros roster moves because I
wanted to get to the two playersthat are no longer on the current roster
Seth Martinez was set to triple Aand Rafael Montero was DFA, though Dana
Brown said earlier today out at theballpark that they approached him in the very
same manner that they did with Joseabraw in hopes that he would either accept
the assignment to the Miners or acceptit if he if the opportunity presents for

(01:06:10):
him to say, return to theAstros as an unclaimed player, basically as
he's waived, if that would bethe course they end up taking, would
he be willing to, you know, go through things, work on things,
see if there's a way that hecan come back. Which is great,
nice and a no lose situation forthe team until they act like he's
fixed and they bring up back.How bad is your career going when the

(01:06:31):
Astros have to give you the JOSEAbray You treatment. I mean, the
numbers are what they are. Imean you say it in a joking way,
but this is it's played out thevery I mean it has played out
the very same way. They've gota highly paid player in a very specific
role that he knew he would have, and they always earmarked it for him
in middle relief, and he haspitched poorly enough to have Their decision is,

(01:06:54):
we can't leave this on Joe anymore. Joe has him on the roster,
he has to use him every nowand then. We can't put that
on him anymore because we don't wanthim out there any Hey, Jim,
I'm thinking about signing this player.Get out of here, Jeff. That's
how that conversation should go. Therest of our conversation continues next, but
not until I tell you about Men'sTea Clinic. They are in the midst
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(01:07:17):
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Why don't you have the energy youused to, Why aren't you able to
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Why do you have brain fog.Why can't you remember what you ate for
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(01:07:40):
on the radio, but I amgoing to send you to one of five
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(01:08:02):
back to being you. Visit Men'sT Clinic dot com. That's Men's Tclinic
dot com. Adam Clinton at Adamwet for it. The eight Team,
It is the A team here onSports Talk seven ninety winding down the four
o'clock hour here on your home forboth Astros baseball and Rockets basketball. Yeah,

(01:08:24):
I'm taking three titles in eight yearsfor the Astros over the first Super
Bowl in the city's history this season. If I know that the window is
wide open, as you said,for the Texans moving forward. But I
will say as we don't get todo football at five today because Chandler Ronan's

(01:08:44):
gonna be joining us at the topof the hour. I am I've never
been a fan of preseason games,and I realized this is the last.
This is legit, the last daywe can talk about the Texans before it's
game day the rest of the year. I rolled my eyes. You guys
couldn't hear that through the microphone.It hurt you, didn't it. They
are playing a football game tomorrow night, they being the back sixty four players

(01:09:09):
on the roster. I could notcare less about these games. Well,
I would never say that because Idon't believe it. It is. There
are players that will play that matterto the Texans this year. It will
be a pretty small number until wefind out how many players go down and
they need other players to step up. We will also see their jerseys for
the first time. Which ones arethey wearing? Do we know? I
don't want to tell you. Comeon, you don't care. I don't

(01:09:31):
care about the game. You justwant to see their costumes, right,
but you don't care about the game. Hey, do you think Demiko will
put one on you know. Ohwait, it's not baseball. My bad.
Maybe he'll wear a suit or atie like Tom Landry, Like,
what are you guys doing? It'sAugust, so maybe don't wear a suit
outdoors. No, they do playthe Bears tomorrow night. Bears were okay

(01:09:53):
with telling the world that their starquarterback is not going to be playing.
Caleb Williams will not debut as anNFL play in the preseason against the Texans,
but rather later in the preseason,and then he will play, presumably
if healthy, when the Texans openup their stadium. And I say that
not literally, because they literally willnot be opening up their stadium, although

(01:10:14):
there'll be an opening in their stadium. That'll be the second week of the
season, Sunday Night football for theTexans and the Bears, after the one
to oh Texans take care of theColts during the opening week. Demiko was
very clear and almost agitated, eventhough he didn't get flooded with the question
about who's going to play, buthe was asked about it and ended his
press conference with him not running downa list of who's playing and who's not.

(01:10:38):
I'm not doing that, all right, thanks, by I know it's
something that a lot of people wantthe answers to, and like you,
I don't think it matters a wholelot on Tuesday or Monday that we find
out that this player and that playerare playing. As he also indicated in
his answer, you'll find out onThursday. Davis Mills is going to play,
Tim Boyle is going to play.Case Keenum returned to practice late this

(01:11:01):
week. I'm not sure that hewill play, but everything health wise seem
to be okay, and CJ.Stroud's not gonna play. I wouldn't expect
any of the offensive linemen that theyexpect to start the season to play.
That includes Jews Scruggs only in hissecond year. That includes Kenyon Green and
his second on field year, thirdas a pro player, missed all last
year with injury, Shaq Mason,Titus Howard, and I think I would

(01:11:26):
say the door's open. I don'thave any definitive knowledge. The rookies are
different. You know, Blake Fisher'sbeen running with the Ones all year,
so maybe because he hasn't worked withanybody else basically that will be out there
with him, maybe that's a reasonto not have him out there in this
game or in the fact that he'sprobably your swing tackle, and maybe with
the three remaining preseason games, youknow you've got plenty of time to get
him the reps they need. Theseare all bonus reps. By the way,

(01:11:49):
no other team in the league otherthan the Bears and the Texans get
these four games worth. I mean, there's seventy five eighty plays in this
game, and they're gonna have tomake their way through it, even though
a lot of guys will be out. Kamari Lassiter he's a starter. Is
he gonna play in this game againsta bunch of backups? I kind of
think he's not. And then youprobably get further down the list of the

(01:12:09):
guys they drafted and some other undraftedguys this year. Most of those guys
are who's gonna play. I wouldassume Bullock will make his NFL debut and
anybody else they drafted after that.They have such a competitive wide receiver room,
the top three should all sit.Nico Tank and Steph probably see John
Metchi and everyone on the depth chartafter him other than Robert Woods and probably
other than Noah Brown. Brown wasout of practice yesterday, though appear to

(01:12:32):
just be a vet day off.I don't think they need to see him
in a first preseason game with thebackup, so it's probably further down the
list for them too. I can'tsay one thing that I didn't get to
yesterday. Because we're so locked inon the trade deadline and the Astros,
we haven't gotten a whole lot ofinsight onto what exactly is going on with
Joe Mixon. Certainly no timetable.We know how far away we are from

(01:12:54):
the regular season opener, still morethan a month away from when they're in
Indianapolis playing a game that will countin the standings. Based on what we've
now seen him do because he's beenat practice for the last couple he's now
getting things done work wise at practicewhile he is not practicing, and I
can just tell you based on whatit appears that he's going through. I
didn't have any concern before, andI have even less concern now about him

(01:13:16):
being ready to play for this teamwhen they're playing for real. I don't
know. Like I said, I'mnot going to get into any specifics suits
I don't know them, but basedon what I've seen, it's the same
thing I've talked about with Laramie.Laramie's ready to go. If they wanted
him to practice right now, hecould. And again, I can't tell
you that for sure. I knowless about Joe, but I have seen
what they're doing, and I thinkthe idea that they'll both be on the

(01:13:39):
field when Indianapolis game is played,I'm confidence saying yes, they will both
be there. How long is Anthonyrichards In last this season before something keeps
him out of a game? Well, the concern today is already still his
shoulder. I'm curious how Indianapolis willwork in camp. Maybe we'll find something
out about it. Because they're limitingthis, or they're holding him back there

(01:13:59):
he doesn't this preseason, I'm notsure because of that. Is there a
scenario he misses the opener because ofthis? No, only he would have
to have a setback. And we'veseen shoulder guys before, like Dak remember
his preseason a couple of years ago. We're not sure if he can go.
We're not really sure what's going on. It really turned out to be
nothing. These are different situations andthis is a surgery that he had last
year. But I've said all along, I think that was a smart thing.

(01:14:21):
To do. Looking at the bigpicture, looking at this long term
future, I'm actually less worried aboutthe actual current injury that he's trying to
get over to be ready to beon the field, which I think he
will, and always more concerned tome he's already. He and Tua to
a lesser degree, are a littlebit more worrisome than CJ, but they

(01:14:43):
all hopefully don't carry this going forward. CJ's been through one NFL season and
has missed two of the seventeen gamesfor a concussion. Two has been through
three NFL seasons, had multiple seasonsmarred by injury, one of them heavily
marred by concussions, and Anthony Richardson, like CJ, missed multiple games at
two different times for multiple injuries,one of them and the initial one being

(01:15:09):
that concussion. His style is whathas me most worried, because it's hard
to ignore it when you're the coach. It was hard to ignore it when
you were the Shanahans and you haveRobert Griffin third too good not to use
hard, when you had Cam NewtonCarolina too good not to use. Well.
It takes its toll, and you'reasking your most important player to take
additional punishment. And when they're inthat kind of body like he is,

(01:15:31):
like Newton was, he's so confidentthat he can almost dish it out as
much as he can take it.It just becomes it adds up. It's
a scary proposition unless they scale himback dramatically. And when you're the coach,
and you're especially their coach, he'san offensive coach. This play's going
to work. He's going to win. I can use him. It's hard
to scale back even when he's yourhuge soon to be big money guy.

(01:15:56):
Yeah, And it's why I knowthat running quarterbacksquote unquote or are exciting more
so, I guess than traditional attimes. But I'm just glad CJ's not
that guy. He can throw,he can sit there in the pocket and
fling it. He can. He'sgot wheels if he needs to. He's
not gonna, for example, ifhe ends up playing two decades or whatever.

(01:16:18):
And it's one of the all timegreats, like we think, and
I know I'm putting the cart wayahead of the horse where it belongs.
I don't you know, even inhis older years, I don't think he's
gonna be as slow as a tomBrady. You know he's never going to
be the case if he wanted neededto get out and get some yards,
but traditional passer. I'll take that, and I really like the future here

(01:16:39):
in Houston for this kid. Alot of reasons to do that for sure,
to like that future. Shift itback to baseball. Chandler Rome joins
us next from the ballpark, righthere on the A team. I'll tell
you about Classic Elite Chevy sugar Land. I haven't been over to Classical Elite
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Made it a two car family herein the Wexler household, making a

(01:17:03):
second purchase over there. Love workingwith the people over there. It's fantastic
for you, just as it canbe for me and my family if you
hit them up, especially during theirreve it Up summer sales event. Check
out everything they've got going on withthe vehicles ready for you because elite service,
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(01:17:23):
over there classic Elite Chevy sugar Landand Classic Elite Chevy Highway six you tell
them Adam Wexler sent you by twolifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your
teams. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexlerare the A team A team. Five

(01:17:46):
o'clock hour underway on a Wednesday,which means it's time to bring in our
good buddy, Chandler Roam of theAthletic. I can't imagine that we have
anything to talk about with this guythe day after the trade deadline. All
right? For thing out of thegate, you're just your overall general assessment
of what did go down, andmaybe on some of the things that didn't

(01:18:06):
go down involving the astros, Ithink I think they did what they had
to do. They had to geta stabilizing starter to put in their rotation.
And Ysay Kakuchi was depending on howyou view jad Clarity with either the
first or second best guy out thereavailable. It was a seller's market.

(01:18:27):
It was a market that was notconducive for the astro, the team that
doesn't have a ton in their farmsystem, and it was a difficult one
to navigate and it was going tobe a difficult price to pay. And
that's what happened. You know,they did. They were in on Flarity,
as you know I reported all along, and as was kind of came
out yesterday that they were in onhim, but I think Ysa ka Kuchi

(01:18:50):
was was higher on their board.I think he was their top target.
He's who they wanted, and theywent out and domed. I know the
return is infuriating for a lot ofthe fans, but I'm not here to
tell you it wasn't an overpay.It was like it just by volume alone,

(01:19:12):
it does look like an overpay,but I'm not sure the reaction is
as should have been as fierce tothe package. You know, Will Wagner,
to be quite honest, was blockedhere. He doesn't really have a
great defensive position, and the defensivepositions he plays the best are locked up

(01:19:33):
here for a while. Joey loBerfido certainly could turn into a nice player,
but kind of profiles as a fourthoutfielder type with a lot of swing
and miss in his game, butcan certainly get better. And I think
Jake bloss is the one that ifyou're the aster, you're gonna look at
this five or ten years down theroad. You want to see what his

(01:19:56):
career looks like, because I thinkhe's probably the best prospect he gave up
in that I think part of ittoo, was they had already started Jake
Bloss's service time clock. He eithertwenty three year old with eight starts above
a ball, and they've already startedhis service time clock. They used an
option year on him, so thatdecreed that. You know that that depressed
his value a little bit, tobe honest with you, So I don't

(01:20:20):
think it was this egregious overpay thateveryone is claiming it was. It was
a lot, It was a steepprice. It was more than I thought
they were going to have to giveup, especially for Kokuchi. But I
think some some nuance and some rationalthought is needed to discuss the whole thing

(01:20:40):
curious because I would agree with youbased on the way they went about it,
and you just said it the same. Why what made Kokuchi their target?
What is it about his arsenal,his pitches? His I mean,
I don't want to say track recordbecause I don't think there's much on it
that suggests otherwise. You know,there are advanced numbers that might suggest certain
things. But I guess the simplestquestion is what I initially said, Why

(01:21:02):
was he their top target from thestarting pitching pool? His stuff? I
mean, he can be up toninety seven to ninety eight from the left
side. There's a ton of pitchescan miss bats when he's when he's on,
is still has the best strikeout rateof his career. Isn't walking anybody
either. You look at the underlyingperipherals, You look at the FIP is

(01:21:25):
about a run run and a halflower than the era. You look.
You know, everyone's talking about thesix eight seven era in his past twelve
starts. Well, he's got arounda four fifth in that timeframe, so
you think that there is some regressionto a meme coming. He's not an
ace, but as we talked aboutall along, the Ashers never needed to
get an ace. He if andI think they have faith in their pitching

(01:21:48):
development and they're pitching infrastructure that theycan find some usage things. They think
his mechanics are great, And yousay, Kakuci said the same thing today.
He said, is he feels likehis mechanics. It's never been a
problem. You know, he talkedabout he's left too many pitches over the
middle of the plate. He said, some of that has common situations where
he was trying to limit damage andnot let run score laden games. I

(01:22:14):
think the astors think that they canfind some usage patterns with him throwing certain
pitches different places, throwing certain pitchesmore, throwing certain pitches less that will
help him out. And I also, quite frankly, you have to look
at the roster he was just on. The Blue Jays have one of the
worst bullpens in baseball. Their wholeteam is I mean, they just sold
off the whole team. But theteam that was there was not giving off

(01:22:35):
great vibes as if it was afun and happy time going on over there.
So I don't know how much thatcontributed to it as well. I
haven't looked it up yet, butI'd be curious to know of the runs
Yusei ka Kuchi allowed in Toronto,how many were scored after he left the
game, and like baseball's worst bullpencame in and allowed some inherited runners to

(01:22:57):
score. Again, that's not likespending. The numbers. Numbers are what
they are, and one thing isfor sure, And I wrote this the
night of the deadline, the nightthat they made the trade. He is
under immense pressure to come up hereand perform. And then again, it
doesn't have to be a sub toera. I'm sure they'd love it if
it was that. But given thepackage that they gave up, and given

(01:23:18):
the public perception of this trade,he is under a ton of pressure to
come up here and fitschwell, andyou know, to make to make it
sting a little bit less. Iguess from a public outside perception. You
guys had a chance to talk tohim a little bit earlier at the ballpark.
What what did you say? Haveto say? His English? Joe

(01:23:40):
spont actually said this today too.His English is very good. He's spoke
in Japanese today but didn't need ourquestions translated for him. We got a
little bit of a side session withhim, just to introduce ourselves, and
it seemed like a very nice,very affable guy was already you know,
chatting up in the clubhouse when wegot in the clubhouse. Sounds like George

(01:24:00):
Springer gave some guys a little bitof a scouting report on kind of what
kind of guy Cancucci is, sothat helps a little bit. But yeah,
he just said he was excited tojoin this ball club. Said,
you know, he was pressed alittle bit on you know, why his
numbers are what they are, andI just kind of told you he said
he's leaving too many pitches over theplate. He said he thinks his mechanics

(01:24:23):
are fine. He said he wasinterested to hear what the Astros coaches and
analysts had to say about what hecan do, and they're actually having that
meeting as we speak right now.They're going to do that during the VP
today because he's going to start onFriday, So there isn't much in the
way of what they've told him heneeds to do better, what they've told
him he needs to throw less orthrow more. I think we'll all find

(01:24:45):
out together on Friday and when hestarts against the Rays and we can see
kind of how his pitch usage isand maybe what he looks like. You
know, you mentioned the pressure thathe's under, and I think we all
recognize that, and of course theteam is, you know, whether meaning
to or not placing that pressure onhim just because of the situation. Do
you think he knows that, Doyou think he feels that or a little
bit of both, or do youthink it's just business as usual and you

(01:25:09):
know he feels wanted because you knowanother team went out and came and got
him. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Him well enough
to you know, diagnose or analyzethat. But you know, I don't
think he's dumb. I think heunderstands that. You know, they they
brought him here to perform. Theybrought him here to help get this team
in the playoffs. And that's somethingthat he said to that he is that
he was excited about playing for acontending team, about getting trying to help

(01:25:33):
his team get to the playoffs.And I think too, you know,
we just talked about the bad vibesthat that Blue Jays team had. I
think getting into a clubhouse where youknow, it's a better just ube,
it's a better mood, they're incontention, they're playing meaningful baseball, you
know, maybe that can give hima jolt, Maybe they can give him

(01:25:53):
some energy. I would assume he'saware of kind of why the team acquired
him, but I don't know yetwhether the pressure is going to be too
much for him. But I didfind one thing interesting today. You know,
he talked about and I'm paraphrasing alittle bit here, but when he
was when we were asking, youknow, what had gone wrong in the

(01:26:13):
last twelve or thirteen starts, hedid mention that, you know, some
of the time. He kind ofhinted that he was overthrowing a little bit
in pressure situations in toimesury I hadguys on base, he was maybe miss
executing pitches, maybe trying to dotoo much. Well, now he's in
a situation where every start is goingto be a pressure packed situation. So
you have to hope, if you'rethe Astros, that he doesn't revert back

(01:26:34):
to that tough luck outing. Iwould say, in a lot of ways
for Hunter Brown, and part ofthat his own doing last night, because
the fielding that's usually just we takefor granted was just not there in a
lot of senses. But you know, I can't help, and I said,
this is the first segment of theshow today. I can't help but
think about how high and good thevibes were Saturday night when Alex Bregman hit

(01:26:57):
that walk off homer, and justhow things have not unraveled since then.
He finally lost ground to the Mariners, like just last night, but it
just feels like it was a veryflat outing, particularly last night for the
team in general. Yeah, theydidn't play well last night. That was
probably one of their ugliest games inthe year, just in terms of they
made three errors, they didn't takemini quality at that. They hit some

(01:27:21):
balls hard right at guys. Butyeah, just that's one you want to
flush, and it's easier said thandone, especially now at this point in
the season, when every game carriesa little bit more, meaning you can't
afford to have a lot of thomsand the ashers used up. Maybe they're
won last night that they'll have forthe rest of the year. But yeah,

(01:27:41):
I thought Hunter Brown was actually prettygood. You know, the sincred
of Michael A. Taylor. Heactually talking to Hunter about it after the
game. He didn't even think itwas that bad of a pitch. He
just thinks that he doubled up onit. He thinks that Taylor saw a
sinkerd to pitch before. He thinkshe was timed up and ready for it.
He just beat him to the spot. So he thought, may if
one slider there or another pitch,maybe that would have kept Taylor off of

(01:28:03):
it. But you know, Ithink other than that, you look,
I think if they averaged like aneighty two mile an hour ex of velocity
off of them last night, alot of ground balls and just were hitting
the right place, a lot ofbad luck that's going to happen. But
you know, I thought the stuffwas really good. He was still up
in ninety eight, ninety nine.I think he struck out six or seven
guys, So I'm I would notworry about what happened to Hunter Brown last

(01:28:25):
night. Was it was just anoff night and certainly he didn't help himself,
like you said that with that throwingera, which he kind of said
he should have just eaten that ball, not even thrown it. Joe A.
Spot has said he'll make his astro'sdebut starting the series that begins on
Friday against the Rays. Caleb Fergusonis available for work as early as tonight,
so after his first couple of appearances, we will ask you about him

(01:28:46):
next week during your visit with ushere on the A Team. Chandler always
appreciate the time, thanks for theinsight and looking forward to the pieces coming
from you in the athletic in thecoming days. We got through this whole
interview with Um talking about Rockfield Montero. I'm sorry, what do you think
about him being dfaed? You gotfive seconds inevitable, That's what we kind

(01:29:06):
of talked about earlier. Chandler you'rea wizard. Thank you so much.
Yeah, we did have a veryimportant topic that, as he noted,
we did not get to. Butwe looked more at what is a part
of the team moving forward rather thanwhat will almost assuredly not be moving forward.
Plenty of stuff for us to chewon from that and a few other

(01:29:27):
items for us to get into aswe continue here on a Wednesday edition of
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(01:30:33):
Killer B Craig Vigio up a threethousand hit club. You've got Killer A's
in the afternoon, though they havethree thousand less hits. Oh, we're
having some fun. Adam Clinton andAdam Wexler on Sports Talk. I told
you you did a really great linerfor us, Craig Bigio. It is
the A team here on Sports Talkseven ninety. It's the most Craig Bigio

(01:30:55):
liner ever. By the way,he was involved last night, Like we
mentioned with the Hall of Famer toHall of First Pitch, you were glad
that Calvin Bigio and his team hadleft town. Bigio recently picked up by
the Dodgers. And he hasn't beengreat, but he's been better, and
he was certainly very effective over theweekend series against the Astros. And it
was a little odd. It wasalmost like I might have been writing it.

(01:31:17):
I saw someone out in the socialmedia universe or in an article comment
on his dad as in Cavin homeredor doubled or triple whatever it was.
In a interesting reaction from Cavin Bigio'sdad after blah blah blah, I'm like,
I mean, I guess everybody knowshis dad's Craig Bigio the Hall of

(01:31:38):
Famer. It's a pretty unique name, but when you're not in Houston,
it doesn't. I'm not ever sureof that. I found it interesting just
in the way that they that theyphrased it that way. Couldn't help think
about that same father son thing.In considering where Will Wagner was traded,
it does seem like the most popularplace for super awesome baseball players kids to

(01:31:59):
go play baseball, and Bobaschet's kidbeing there, Vladimir Guerrero Junior's kid being
there currently, and now Will Wagnerhoping to have an impact with the Jays
mentioned. Joey low Perfido was withthe Jays yesterday, arrived during the game,
did not play. Made his debutwith them today, getting five at
bats in the two hole in theirten to four loss, couple of strikeouts
and a single in the ninth inningof that game, Rangers were losers earlier

(01:32:24):
today the Seattle Mariners with George Kirbyon the mound after they gave him the
lead two to one after five innings. They had been trailing one nothing through
the early portion of the game.He gave it back in the bottom of
the sixth inning, was unable tofinish that sixth inning for the first time
in months, and the Mariners sitin a two to two tie with the

(01:32:45):
Red Sox in the bottom of theseventh inning. Obviously, the Mariners leapt
shot way past the Astros and thestandings last night by one game by virtue
of their win over the Red Soxyesterday, and the Astros loss pirates well,
and let's not forget they're playing ateam that is upcoming on the Astros
schedule, as are several Monsters.They've got four game series with the Orioles

(01:33:11):
and the Phillies of the world.I mean, it's not going to be
a cake walk in quite the oppositeas a matter of fact. So you
know, celebrate any any losses theMariners are having to some of these teams
at your own peril, because yeah, easy on, I don't want to
go cal Raleigh on the Mariners It'salways great when the Mariners lose, right,
I'm not doing that now. Ifthey lose and you won, that's

(01:33:32):
a good thing obviously, But justyou know, there is a tough,
tough schedule down the stretch for theAstros, and I believe that graphic I
was talking about earlier that they showedin either last night's game or the game
before I can't remember which, itshowed that other three the Astros do have
the toughest schedule. I think allof them have barely back half of the

(01:33:55):
league strength of schedule meeting. Noneof them have a super difficult one,
but yeah, relative three, it'sslightly more difficult. But it's of lil
sign of his lineup tonight. Theonly interesting thing that jumps out to me
is that it is another game whereJoe Spotted has both catchers in the lineup.
But I think this is the firsttime this year he's had Jiner Diaz

(01:34:15):
catching while Victor Carrattini is the designatedhitter from ber Valdez on the Mounta tonight,
so once again we'll be throwing toJiner. Top five in the order
unchanged, al Tuo, Vey Bregman, Alvarez, Diaz, and Jeremy Paine.
John Singleton again gets a start atfirst right hander on the mound for
the Pirates, only making his thirdstart of the season. He's been awful
in both. Jake Myers back incenter. I mentioned Victor Carrottini designated hitter

(01:34:39):
bats eighth Chas McCormick another day inthe Astros lineup and against a full roster
as pedro Leone is now with theteam and as yet to make his debut
after a whole one day in uniformyesterday. Caleb Ferguson in uniform in number
sixty four and available out of thebullpen for the Astros. Yuse Kakuchi makes
his start tomorrow or excuse me Friday, in the opening game of their series

(01:35:01):
against the Rays. I mentioned thisbefore just to keep people aware. Even
though the Rays were in dramatic sellermode. They're loss today to the Marlins
pushed them behind the Astros by ahalf game. They had the same record
as Houston as play began today.What do you think there thinking is behind
that they don't have a chance towin their division, so they only would

(01:35:25):
be in wild card position. Ithink it's fair to think they wouldn't catch
multiple teams, because that's clearly whatthey need to do, Kansas City or
Minnesota, and then all the teamsthat are in front of them, like
Boston and Houston's on even level withthem, or Seattle, whomever it is.
I think that they were kind ofbeing realists about it. They have
been in the playoffs for quite afew years. I believe it's each of

(01:35:45):
the last five, and they're notslamming the door shut that they can't get
back because none of those guys wereoverwhelming. But it's a lot to overcome
when you've traded away a Rose Arenaof the biggest trades Arena Adam Perettis and
Elfin that that's a pretty serious firepowerfrom any team. If you take four

(01:36:06):
guys, two from the or onefrom the rotation, one from the bullpen,
and two in your everyday lineup,that's a lot to overcome. They're
definitely kicking it this season. They'vegiven up on the season. The record
says they probably could stay in itfor a while, but I would love
to see the Astros immediately take advantageof that. That's the next team they
see, by the way, Justto go back to something completely off topic,

(01:36:27):
but discussed earlier in the show.I'm aware of what the Texans are
wearing tomorrow night. I have discoveredit. I went to out there.
I went over to a social mediasite on x and I wouldn't help you
at Houston Texans. Now, Ijust kind of kind of came across my
timeline the white tops and the No, these are not black pants. So
the Falcons uniforms. Uh, sure, well, I thought the Falcons ones

(01:36:51):
were the red ones. No,the Falcons ones are the black ones that
look oh it looks like the Falconsand don't I will probably won't say that
again moving forward, because I reallylike them. I mean, we obviously
have seen them modeled during both theunveiling and at other times. I did
have a good shot of the reduniform the other day because that's often what

(01:37:13):
Toro has been wearing around the facilityfor the fan invaded practices. They also,
by the way, don't practice athome again until August eleventh. We're
not even in August yet, butthat's because they're staying in Ohio for the
next eight days and then making theirway to Pittsburgh for the game against the
Steelers on the ninth. But everycombination is cool. I'm most looking forward

(01:37:34):
to basically the City Edition uniforms,as I call them, the ones with
the Columbia blue oilers, blue kindof dotting everything outlining things, whatever the
case may be. Was looking ata lot of recent highlights of the team
from last year. I still absolutelyloved their color Rush uniforms or however they

(01:37:55):
termed them most recently. I lovedit from the day that they put them
out there when Deshaun I want somemore of them on Sunday night, and
there have been some slight changes tothem. One of the reasons I was
looking at those uniforms was because they'reThey've now left just ten players to unveil.
On the NFL's Top one hundred list, the list as voted on by
the players, and there was aTexan in the top twenty. I'm not

(01:38:17):
going to make you guess because it'sso obvious which Texan landed in the top
twenty. Yeah, it was moreabout who didn't land in the top whatever,
uh Texans it is, well,I think that well, I don't
want to leave people hanging. C. J. Stroud was twenty. It
goes without saying I said it.Yeah, but you just had to say

(01:38:39):
it. Yes, don't you thinkwhere did uh? Where did Nico Collins
wind up? I keep looking andlooking and looking and looking. Yeah,
because everything's been released outside of thetop ten, and he's not likely to
come inside. That's just that's justaccurate. I'm sorry. There's not ninety
nine other players that are better thanhim, so fred in this case on

(01:39:00):
the list, he's not one ofthem. Stefan Diggs was fifty six,
Laramie Tunsel was seventy one, andis it obvious? I think it is
because of their career. Not here, Daneil Hunter, he is number sixty
eight. So again, I'll checkagain, but I think I've got it

(01:39:25):
down. You brought up how couldNico Collins not be there? And I
think that's probably true. He's hadone awesome season. But I'll go back
over some of where the wide receiversgo because I've already kind of listed out
the quarterbacks. I honestly think hecould say the same thing already, and
I know why he's not there aboutWill Anderson Junior. And after this year,

(01:39:45):
when he debuts on the list nextyear, it won't be ninety one
through one hundred. It won't beeighty one through ninety. It won't be
seventy one through eighty. WHOA,he will jump in so high next year
because of what he's going to dothis year for the Texans. If I
have this correct, CJ. Stroudat twenty, there are eleven other quarterbacks.

(01:40:10):
Ten other quarterbacks listed behind it,Purty love to a Borough Stafford,
most closely listed to him. Weknow three quarterbacks listed ahead of him inside
the top twenty. Dak Prescott's MVPlevel season, that's hilarious. Right behind
Lamar He's sixteen, Jalen Hurts fifteen, Josh Allen eleven. I'm trying to

(01:40:34):
rack my brain, but I believethere are two quarterbacks in the top ten
Aaron Rodgers, I mean, LamarJackson and Pat Mahomes, which would leave
CJ sixth overall. So what andthose were the names we were talking about
earlier this year when we were puttinghim as a top five quarterback. Dak's

(01:40:55):
the one, it would I said, get out of the top five.
Out of the top five takes somework. And if you want dakfive,
Dak ahead of him to make himout of the top five by all means,
make a mistake. That's on you. That's what they did. I
mean, it's fine. After thisseason when they play head up and CJ
goes into his house and embarrasses him, and it's the beginning of the end

(01:41:15):
of Dak Prescott is the Cowboys quarterback. Then we'll all see what's what,
won't we wax? I think wejust might. I think we just might.
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(01:42:23):
dot com. Throw This is cambickmorehere every Rockets game more Sports Talk seven
nine hands streaming on the Ihart Radioad Home of Your Rockets. It is

(01:42:46):
the A team here on Sports Talkseven ninety. That music means, in
case you missed it, Dan,take it away. All right, Hey,
we got to meet Caleb Ferguson today. Well US three didn't physically get
too, but Brian McTaggart and thecrew did. They caught up with them
and he said, yeah, thetrade was a surprise. Yeah, I
definitely didn't see him coming, butI don't think you ever do. So

(01:43:08):
I guess you can say I wasa little bit shocked or surprised or whatever.
But it's a business of the game, and I've always I've always been
interested in playing Texas. So herewe are. Yeah, there he goes.
So now he gets to play inTexas and also too. They did
ask him about being on this sideof the rivalry now with the Dodgers,
and he kind of politely brushed itoff, was like, I wasn't on

(01:43:30):
a team at the time. Idon't know. Oh he's about to know.
Yeah, we mentioned that yesterday.He met his major league debut with
the Dodgers in twenty eighteen, waspart of the organization, been drafted by
them in twenty fourteen, and he'salso able to bring in his Yankees background
now. He was signed by theDodgers this off season to a one year
deal and then subsequently traded to theNew York Yankees, and that's where he's

(01:43:51):
been all year, forty two gamesout of their pen. You're a just
above five. You heard a littlebit from Dane over the course of the
day on what they like about himand hopefully he displays a little bit more
of the getting guys out form.He wasn't awful, and again, inflated
numbers from relievers are very easy tocome by sometimes with some poor outings.

(01:44:12):
But available tonight, should Joe callon him? And just a total guess
based on how things lined up infront of this game. I think it's
pretty reasonable to believe that he willpitch and possibly in the tough pocket of
the pirates lineup on any given night. If Reynolds and O'Neal cruise line up
close to each other as they normallydo, we shall see bullpen's taxed,

(01:44:34):
Yes, taxed? Yeah? Whatelse? All right? So, I
think you guys talked about this offarea esterday. Didn't make it on air,
but there was a little bit ofan interesting moment at Tennessee Titans training
camp, Jeffrey Simmons getting pretty upsetwith a host on one oh four to
five Zone there in Nashville, andit bled over onto the air when they
were about to have Roger McCreery on. Well today, footage is out of

(01:44:59):
the host, Buck Recing, andalso Simmons talking with each other, and
Simmons told reporters that now he hasan understanding and Recing has an understanding of
where he's coming from. And alsohe has a job. I have a
job. So he was so upsetthat and there's no doubt he knew that

(01:45:21):
the radio show was on. Yeah, because everybody knows when radio shows are
live when they're on remote and peoplehave their headsets on and they're talking,
they would definitely not try to starttalking to them while they're doing that.
Well, I'm giving him more creditand that he's around that sort of thing
more versus the people who just walkup to us when we're doing a show
and starts having full conversations and we'relike, we're on the air talking to

(01:45:44):
each other with headsets on. Younot yet, but your fans. So
we'll make do, and maybe Ialways love you. I'll just pop my
headsets off and let AC handle it. Well, we'll chat it up,
it's cool. Or I'll give youan answer you might not know, or
how you can register to win.I won't yell. I got that on
Fritzello walks by so much much muchnicer Mike for telewalks by. But he
also knew they were on the airsince the words back to him from the

(01:46:05):
person on the air. Where I'mon the air right now and I'm being
rude to Roger. Yes, JeffreySimmons, in the precursor to his usual
Q and A with the media,made his apology, said, it's not
who I am. You're not gonnasee that for me again. I'm setting
an example I'm a leader of thisteam. It was a mistake and we've
now talked and thus us probably allwon't be talking about it again either.

(01:46:27):
Do you think you'll call him thesame name again anytime soon? I don't
think. So what else? Allright? So I'm not gonna tell anybody
to turn away, no spoilers,anything like that, because that was such
a hit with you Rex the otherday. But I will give an updated
metal count. US has thirty ofthem, but they are in seventh in
terms of golds. It's interesting,and this is maybe just a me.

(01:46:50):
I watch a lot of the Olympics. I pay attention to who did this
and who won that, and there'scertain events I care about more than Otherre's
another bunch of events that are notfascinating and that I'm just shocked there even
in the Olympics as a sport atall. But I almost never pay attention
to the medal count. I meanonly because this is the expectations for the
massive United States contingent. They're gonnado what they do, and Winter Olympics

(01:47:13):
a little different than the Summer Olympics, and there's certain areas where they're low
in other places where they're high andit is a focus for so many others,
but I'm just focusing on a fewthings. Nice to see what the
women did on the rugby side andthe manner in which they did. It
was awesome to see the self dubbedGolden Girls dominate on the mat. And
the whole Mikayla dust up has beenhilarious. They are destroying her as deserved

(01:47:40):
based on the comments, and I'vegone back to watch them. Clearly,
I'm locked in on the team USAgetting two of the six wins they will
definitely get on the hardwood. Theyfinished off South Sudan earlier today. Four
more wins and they can get SteveKerr the gold medal, Lebron another gold
medal. KD and Carmelo Anthony welcomedLebron James to the three hundred points scored

(01:48:01):
as an Olympian club today as Lebronfinally got there to join them. But
yeah, there's a few things we'llpay attention to. Hat tip to the
men's gymnastic team, also a medalingthe other day. It's been some pretty
good stuff early on and plenty moreto come. A lot of water stuff,
a lot of the events on theswimming side are coming to a head
in the next couple of days aswell. Why does Mikayla Maroney not like

(01:48:24):
Simone Biles. It's not Mikayla Larrone. She did come out on and commented
on one of the mic drop postson Instagram to say, I feel like
I should apologize just because of myname, even though I'm completely uninvolved.
There are two gymnasts who have beenon recent United States Olympic contingents. McKayla

(01:48:44):
Maroney, who is a skinner,well known for her not impressed face.
She meddled but not gold when shewas the best in the event, just
was not at her best at theevent. And then there's Mikayla Skinner.
Different Mikayla's and differently decorated as Olympiansas to say, one highly and the

(01:49:05):
other one not at all. Skinner. Yes, and by the way,
they're not the Golden Girls. Youknow what their real team nickname is,
right, Yes, the Golden Girlsas they dubbed themselves. Okay, fine,
we'll go with it. I mean, were you way to do it
here? Because we certainly can't saywhat they said. It's one that was
a famous video that a guy didof a graph where you if you did

(01:49:28):
something, you would find out likeif you It was difficult for Simone to
say it and process it in herhead because she was trying to go with
just the initials of the f's thatwere needed and the a's and the O
that fits in there somewhere. Butyes, she did say that at the
podium, when prompted to by formerOlympic teammate Allie Raisman, who had asked
the question what is y'all's nickname?Says, you can see from the graph,

(01:49:51):
the more you do this, themore you'll do this. Yes,
what else the you touched on alittle bit? The Mariner in the Red
Sox. They're tied at two inthe Rangers loss today, So Astros do
your thing tonight. Hopefully you knowthat's all two Vay, Bregman and Jordan
not just hitting singles. Yeah,Jordon, I'm hesitant to say that he's

(01:50:14):
come around, but it was goodto see at least him being in Minute
Made Park and getting a key hitas opposed to popping out. Yeah.
Nice of the Pirates to finally posttheir lineup, as I was suggesting earlier.
Maybe you would see Caleb Ferguson inthe Reynolds O'Neil Cruz pocket Reynolds' switch
hitter obviously, and Cruise bats fromthe left side. Frombert throws from the

(01:50:39):
left side, and the only lefthanded hitter in the lineup tonight is O'Neil
Cruz Cutch it's gonna lead off tonightand recently acquired former Astros farmhand Brian dal
La Cruz in tonight's lineup and battingcleanup with his eighteen home runs coming over
from the Marlins. Just don't giveme a Michael A. Taylor home run.

(01:51:01):
He's batting ninth and he'll probably hitanother one. I'm on board with
what ended the Matt Thomas show earliertoday. I'll put my name on it.
Michael A. Taylor will not Homertonight. Here full name, that's
Adam and j Westler. Wow,you know, just wanted to make it
consistent, all right. Final segmentof the program is straight ahead here on

(01:51:21):
the Wednesday edition in the final dayof July. Of the eighteen continues,
is Rob Gronkowski on any sort ofTV regularly. Fox's often used him,
but I don't believe he's a regularon the panel. Like the pregame or
is he some of those settings.Yeah, sometimes yes, but most of

(01:51:45):
the time no, it's not alike we were just watching. Joe Buck
doesn't hate the Astros. In fact, he thinks they're much better than that
super Bowl we went to. Hewas among the people that were made available,
Carissa, Tony rob I really enjoyall of the people that were made
available at that thing. Yeah,Joe Buck, I actually changed my tune
on right then and there. HCarissa, big fan, did not change

(01:52:10):
your tune, kept singing the same. I improved the tune. The tune
got better. Freaking Oh my gosh. Tony Tony Tony Gonzalez, who's like
a legend in Kansas City, gavemy mother in law shout out. She
was like she practically passed out inher living room in suburban Kansas City.
Uh. Yeah, everybody there wascool, and I always I've always liked

(01:52:31):
Troy. I know people don't becausehe was a cowboy or whatever, but
I think he does a good job. I mean, he's a little vanilla,
but what do you want Tony Romoa different Cowboys quarterback who screams at
you the whole time. Jim,you get it by the way I was
having a it's having a text discussionwith someone we both know about what you

(01:52:53):
had said earlier about the Texans havinga Super Bowl roster. Yeah, and
he said, you're out of yourmind. I think there's some areas where
they need work. But I'm youknow what my response was, because he's
a Cowboys fan. Do the Cowboyshave a Super Bowl roster? The answer
is no. I mean, andthe fact that they're most of who they
have is not new. Like I'venever seen daneil Hunter play for the Texans.

(01:53:16):
I've never seen all the additions thatthey made play for them, So
I can't see these guys play Cowboys. Yeah, these guys have all been
there. They're clearly not a superBowl The point the difference between going to
and winning the Super Bowl and callingit team's roster capable of it. Well,
the point being if the Texans aren't, you can't definitively say the Cowboys
are. The difference being this personknows how bad the Cowboys always disappoint,

(01:53:38):
so he just laughs about it.Yeah. I am probably a little clouded
by how awesome the wide receiver roomis, how awesome the quarterback is,
and what I think their edge duois capable of this year, and Hunter
and Anderson especially since when if thosethings are what they are, even though

(01:54:00):
they might have problems elsewhere, youcan crush teams. You're creating all the
explosive plays you need to win games, even when it's not your best day.
Because Collins is his matchup, Digsis one his matchup, Hunter's caused
a sack fumble, Anderson's got threesacks on whatever the case is. That's
why I say it, And it'sprobably a little bit much. It's probably
not quite on par with those secondtier teams, but very very either,

(01:54:23):
very very back end second tier behindthe Niners with that other group are very
very high on the tier next tothat. But here's the thing, which
is why they're one of the sevenor eight favorites. Yeah you want to
go that deep on a list offavorites. Yeah, But here's the thing.
These two teams play each other,and by the time they get together

(01:54:43):
way down there on November eighteenth,like right around Thanksgiving time, but not
quite, you're gonna have a prettygood idea how how both teams are gonna
fare the rest of the year.I'd say, I mean injuries can dictate
things. But at that point,and I don't know exactly what weak this
is, I'm not gonna count.It's a week eleven and they will not
have had their bye week yet,so they're eleventh game. Neither of them

(01:55:03):
will have The Texans don't have theirbye week until a couple of weeks later.
Okay, Cowboys will have had theirs. I just feel like you're gonna
know. And actually, now thatI hear that week eleven, it's not
as late. I mean it's late, but it's it's kind of more towards
the middle of the season, giveor take. That's on the other side

(01:55:25):
of it. But you're gonna knowfor the for the most part, who
these team are unless either has hada catastrophic injury leading up to that game,
and so you'll get, in alllikelihood the real true test of who's
better in Texas. Yeah, Texashave to take advantage of the kid quarterbacks
they see all on the front sideof the schedule, presumably when you see

(01:55:45):
Caleb Williams, when you see eitherSam Darnold or JJ McCarthy Jacksonville Buffalo,
and then that third young quarterback,probably Drake may although funny to read reports
that he's being outplayed in camp byJoe Milton. Your second game with Indianapolis
is there, and then the twogames leading up to the Cowboy game,
and probably worth noting you're playing Indianapolisnearly at the end of October on the

(01:56:11):
twenty seventh, but before the monthends, you've got that second game in
five days. That's the Halloween gameagainst the Jets, long layoff at home
before you see the Lions. Thoseare the two teams you see before the
Cowboys, the Aaron Rodgers led Jets, the Jared Goff led Lions. And
the Cowboys game will be the thirdconsecutive primetime game you're playing, because the
Jets game is on Halloween at seveno'clock or some fifteen, the Lions game

(01:56:34):
is on NBC for Sunday Night Football, and then the Cowboys game is Monday
night the following or the Yeah thefollowing week. So Texans will be a
trap game for the Cowboys. Rightafter they lose to the Eagles in Dallas.
They've got the Commanders the following week, so they'll be looking to Washington.
They'll be looking ahead to Jaden Danielsand Cliff Kingsbury's offense, and they'll

(01:56:58):
just forget all about C. J. Stroud to be O Rys and Will
Anderson track game. You're so good, you got a trap game and it's
the Texans. I think we alreadydid this once this year. I mean
the Browns game right out of thegate. If you lose that, you
should beat the Browns. If you'rea good team, you just should in
their building Yep, against Miles Garrett. Yep, they don't have Laramie Tunsel.

(01:57:18):
No, I'm talking about the Cowboys, That's what I mean. They
don't have Laramie Tunzel to hold MilesGarrett off like the Texans do, and
like he did. Well, you'realso playing against the Shan Watson, who
sucks. Now you've got to winthat game. If you think if you
are good, not even if youthink you're good, then you got the
Saints. You better be two andoh if you are gonna be good this

(01:57:41):
year, because then you got toplay the Ravens. And I know you're
gonna go the Giants and slap themaround because they suck. But at the
Steelers Lions forty nine ers, allof this is and then you stuck out
the Eagles, as you said,with the Falcons sandwiched in between. Yeah,
but you've got the sixteenth best quarterbackin the league. You're fine.
That is just a joke. DakPrescott, where's he playing next year?

(01:58:04):
It's not in Dallas? Right,They have to win the Super Bowl.
I would think, Wow, that'swhat it takes. They have to reach
the title game, Conference title game. So he's not gonna play in Dallas
next year, right exactly, Andsomebody's gonna pay him big to And here's
my prediction. He's so good.You're like, oh, I'm telling you
right now, all right, becauseof what you're just about to say,

(01:58:25):
he's gonna go somewhere else and he'sgonna win bigger than he did in Dallas,
and it is going to absolutely killthem. And I love it.
I think that's a real part.Like free agent quarterbacks that are his as
talented as he is, regardless ofthe results, don't become free agency not
very often. They do very infrequently. I just it. Then there's gonna
be any reasons why. I'm noteven saying it's dumb off the Cowboys to

(01:58:45):
have gone this route. No,but there's gonna be a team out there.
That's the Cowboys fault for not puttingit around him. Would in their
fault last year when he totally bleepedthe bed. There's nothing wrong with their
roster. They have made mistakes,they've they've blown it. It's it's not
a The personnel was fine. Ibelieve it could have been if they had,
you know, done anything year inthe year before the three straight enough

(01:59:11):
to win. But he made missmake breaks. Season is on your on
the precipice of it, and youdid nothing outside of the draft. You
did nothing. So you're gonna signa bunch of long term contracts for guys
you want to win with, andthen what if you don't win? I'm
sorry, are you gonna do withall these guys? I was mistaken.
You signed Ezekiel, Elliott Carcass.He's back, baby, unbelievable. All
right. We will be back tomorrowfor a Thursday edition of the A Team

(01:59:34):
here on Sports Talk seven ninety stop. It it's not game day unless CJ's
starting, and he ain't a prettygood chance he won't even dress. Texans
pass of the twenty twenty four preseasonwill be thrown by Davis Mills. He'll
be in street closed, as thekids say, and the kids don't even
say that. He'll probably be onthe field for warm ups like a lot
of the starters before the game,and then not soup sweats, no in

(01:59:57):
real uniform for warm ups. Tapeand his akles for that. You know,
quarterback's not getting all taped up toomuch for a preseason game. I
wouldn't be too worried about the tapejob for CJ. Just be worried about
what takes place tonight here on SportsTalk seven to ninety, the finale of
the Astros and the Pirates that comesyour way after us

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