The A-Team: GEOFF BLUM, Texans Looking For A Dub and Stone Cold Locks

Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on September 15th, 2023.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named AdamRaised, my girl Nolan Hockey, multifide,
the magnificent roller coaster ride that isHouston Sports. Hello, Chill,

(00:22):
lhdown for the only home grown afternoonteam. Is talking your teams? Adam
Clinton and Adam Wexler are the Ateam A straight up three o'clock here on

(00:45):
the A team, it is SportsTalks seven ninety. Hey, where's the
blood intro? Relax, We'll bewith us in thirty minutes. A little
bit of a little bit of aswitcheroo on the schedule today as the Astros
are in lovely Kansas City, whereI believe, as he posted this morning
on his Instagram account, did blummerit was sixty eight degrees. It might

(01:10):
have been sixty nine not or sixtyif to do accurate things. Was it
really sixty? I mean you're talkingabout the post of the water that had
the degrees on it. Yeah,Zok, I want to tell you something
funny about that post because it's inKansas City where my in laws are,
right. So of course I texted, because you know, we always have
a running dialogue when our baseball teamsplay each other, especially back in twenty

(01:33):
fifteen, and my father in lawwas talking about it being Hispanic heritage unite
a Kaufman Stadium. Tonight, whenthe Astros open up a three game weekend
set against the Kansas City Royals inKC. He said, it's too bad
that they show that picture for KansasCity. He didn't realize it was a
picture that was taken. He's like, because a lot of people do that,

(01:53):
that come into town, they takepictures of that. I guess it
makes a good pick. But Icall it Bleep Creek. When they completed
it, they would send and Idon't know the name of this word,
so I'm not gonna try and pronounceit, but I think it's some sort
of boat they would send whatever downthe river. But they soon found out
someone was dumping raw sewage in theriver, hence the name. They refer

(02:15):
to that as Bleep Creek in KansasCity. I didn't know that. So
anyways, there's your Kansas City tidbitfor the day. But the Astros and
the Royals and they also said congratulations, we're gonna be gifting you six wins
over the next week or so.I said, you haven't watched the Astros
play this year, particularly in Houston. I think the Astros will find a

(02:37):
way to lose one of these threegames this weekend, and it wouldn't surprise
me if they found a way tolose two of them back here in Houston.
That's just the pessimist in me,and that's just going on what I've
seen of late. I hope theyget it together. I hope it's a
it's an easy breezy weekend. Ihope they launch missiles into the stands at
Kaufman Stadium because it's on the road. Whatever the case is with why they

(02:59):
can't play well at home versus onthe road, I hope all that's just
a it's easy street all weekend,because that would be very nice. Seeing
as how the Rangers swept the BlueJays in a four game series and our
a half game back of your Astros. That's insane to me after everything that's
happened. Good offense and for asmuch as the injury now we know moving
forward to Max Scherzer matters. Hepitched in one of those games and gotta

(03:21):
win. They won all four oftheir games. A lot of it had
to do with their much more in'starting pitching. Another good start for Montgomery,
a good effort from Dunning, andmore than enough offense. Essentially,
they just blew them out of thewater. These games weren't close. Yesterday's
game wasn't close, and the furtherthey were getting out of the starting rotation
for the Blue Jays, they werejust making it worse. I championed.
Yesterday's game is featuring one of thetop three pitchers in the American League,

(03:45):
Kevin Gaussman. He was awful,He couldn't give him five innings. And
the Blue Jays again, this doesstill matter from a just get to the
postseason, just accept your invite tothe dance. Every loss the Blue Jays
has makes it a little bit easierthe Astros to make the postseason. You
essentially you got a three game gapin the standings between your team and the

(04:05):
Blue Jays, but they won theseason series, so it's only a two
game gap. You got a gameand a half lead over the Seattle Mariners,
but it's less than that because theywon the season series. Those things
matter this year way more than everbecause there are no additional games to be
played. When one sixty two havebeen played, that that's it. If
you lose tiebreakers, you can stayat home. There's three teams that they

(04:28):
would all have to pass the Astros, and granted I just told you why
passing is a relative term. Theyjust need to make sure that doesn't happen.
Better case scenario, win the division, get the time off, get
to start the postseason at home,potentially continue playing postseason baseball at home,
because just keep in mind, ifyou're the two seed, well that that

(04:48):
means you have the second best recordof you know, your second best seed,
and you're gonna host everybody in theAmerican League except one team, so
you don't play that one team.Then you're at home and you have home
field advantage. And one other thingto remember, the Astros suck at home.
So I don't know what it's goingto mean this year. That's what's

(05:09):
so interesting about analyzing this year's postseasonfrom a Houston perspective. Never before had
you ever had to consider, man, I sure hope they can win at
home. Now when in fifty gamesa year, fifty two fifty five,
best record in baseball at home andthis year they are a mediocre team and
they barely win more than they lose. With six games to go, they've

(05:29):
flipped the switch before to the postseason. They've had postseasons where they've been unbelievable
at home, and then they gotto the World Series and Washington beat them
four straight times. You never everknow when it comes to baseball and the
postseason, but odds have been prettycomparable each year. That aren't this year.
The odds were if the Astros hadhome field advantage and they were playing
at home, they had had agood season at home, and that was

(05:51):
going to continue in the postseason.Throw it all out this year, just
go win some games. Probably figuredthe Astros could manage themselves getting through to
the division title. If they wantsix out of nine against Oakland and Kansas
City, that's the lowest you couldpossibly accept. Seven and two seemed likely
eight and one or nine and ohwould have been absolute dominance, and you

(06:14):
can forget about catching them. Well, they've already lost two of those my
acceptable three losses, so now theygot to go five and one against KC.
Hard to do nuts. Most teamshave done things like that, and
you look at what the Rangers andMariners have done against them this year.
That's what they've done against them thisyear, So yeah, it can happen.
Now you just have to match that. I kept saying that all along
about the A's and Rangers, etc. Well, the Astros were one game

(06:36):
better against the A's than the Rangerswere. Well, they've got five wins
to get against Kansas City just tomatch what the Rangers did against them.
Now, the good news is theRangers could catch the Astros, but again
they have to pass Houston because theAstros have the tiebreaker over the Rangers,
and the Astro are the Mariners andthe Rangers are also going to play each
other, which helps at least.I mean, I've never I've never actually

(07:00):
sat and thought about what would needto be the best case scenario in those
games between the Rangers and the Mariners. I mean, I guess you want
them to split right, well andnot kind of depends on where you are,
you know. Well that's why,I mean, you know, and
where they are, you know,the team that's closest to you, Well,
hopefully they're the team that fares theworst in those games. Or if
you're doing your job, then nowit doesn't even matter. You're ahead of

(07:23):
them. You don't need their helpanymore. Just win your game. Yeah,
you don't need their help. Theycan help, you know, they
can help Toronto get in. Ifthey do beat each other, one of
them likely lands behind them. ButToronto also stinks against good teams. It's
sad but true. They're likely fiveother playoff teams or six in Toronto's case,
since they're out. The only teamthey had a winning record against this

(07:43):
year was Houston. They did notwin a series against any of the other
likely American League playoff teams. Asin, if you're good, then you
beat Toronto, and we just watchedit these last four days. Yeah,
but that's so odd to me becausethey had how many extended winning streaks this
season and they're in another one rightnow. Six in a row the Rangers

(08:05):
have won. But they're also probablythe only team that you could say,
of the competitive teams that we're talkingabout here playoff would be contenders, or
at least playoff teams that has hadan eight game losing streak. Astro's haven't
done that. Nobody's done that.So of all the teams that are that
we're putting into this conversation right now, this team could be very well on

(08:26):
its way to a postseason appearance.This team could be winning the Division.
Potentially, they're the only team thatcan say we have an eight game losing
streak in addition to now injuries factoredinto that and whatnot. But like if
you're the Rangers and you were flyinghigh from most of the season, much
longer than the Yankees did a yearago. Remember at the All Star Break,

(08:46):
everybody was crowning them, Oh,Astros, better look out, and
the Astros laughed at that, andthen they won a World Series again by
sweeping the Yankees in part during thepostseason. But the Rangers were that team
that had, you know, throughthe All Star Break and into this second
half of the year, had maintainednot only their their play but their their
lead. For much of that it'sall because of their start. There are

(09:09):
two games under since their start.But what I'm what I'm getting to is
what they've gone through in the lastI guess we're getting close to two months
with the injuries. I mean significant, big time injuries that they had not
encountered before this. Jacob deGrom theyknew about. Well, they encountered a
Corey Seeger injury for five weeks.Yeah, I guess the best player in

(09:30):
the American League this year, howlong was your don out compared to that
longer, So it's like six okay, but Adolas Garcia, uh, Josh's
like four or five games and thenyou go out and get Max Scherzer and
he's done now, right, buthe also he hasn't missed any games yet.
That's in the future. Yeah.The Rangers are fine, honestly.

(09:50):
That's because there because they can theycan hit the ball. They have far
fewer issues with it. They've hadsome issues obviously, like Houston did much
of the year, but it's whythey dominated Blue Jays the last couple of
days. They are in Cleveland thisweekend. Gray gets the ball tonight and
Lucas Suckolito pitches for the Guardians.Bayo pitches tonight for the Red Sox at

(10:11):
Toronto Barrios on the Hill for theBlue Jays, and later on this evening
the Mariners are at home. They'llget around over under eighty nine and a
half pitches from George Kirby and they'refacing the La Dodgers with Miller on the
hill. So these are all goodmatchups. These are all competitive teams on

(10:31):
both sides of the field. Ifyou allow for the Guardians, who've not
yet been eliminated in the central race. To make that statement somewhat true,
raising Orioles are also playing one another. I don't think it will impact anybody
else. It just impacts them andwho gets to play them, because one
of them is going to be theone seed, one of them is going
to be the four seed. Butthere's only a one game gap between them.

(10:52):
Now Orioles are ninety one and fiftyseven. The Rays are ninety one
and fifty five. And again,if the Astros are not a division winner,
they could be either the five seedor the sixth seed. If they're
the five seed, they will openat whichever American League East team does not
win the division. Yeah, andI think in that scenario it's better.
Obviously it's they opened at the Orioles. But I also think that that's just

(11:16):
like order is going to be restored. I mean, I'm not saying that
the Orioles aren't good, but theylooked like they were going to run away
with the best record in the AmericanLeague like a week ago, or I
guess two weeks ago. And I'vealways thought, okay, well, if
those two got together, if theywere even remotely competitive down the stretch,
Tampa's gonna win that division. Well, Tampa keeps losing people for different reasons,

(11:37):
some to injury and some for domesticother reasons, and they just keep
playing ball. That's what they've doneall season long. Both of them,
again are just nine win shy ofhitting a hundred. There's nobody else in
the American League that is going toget there, and it's a really decent
chance that both of these two getthere. But again, the playoff format
says only one of them gets theoff week. One of them has to

(11:58):
start on the road and has tomake it through four postseason series. Last
year, the Phillies made it twofour postseason series, but they only made
it through three of them. Thenthe Astros were waiting for them, and
they took care of them. Yeah, the Astros took care of everybody until
they got to the World Series andthen they only lost a couple of games.
So I don't think it's gonna bethat easy this year, but I
do think it should be that easy. In Kansas City this weekend, and

(12:20):
has promised at the bottom of thehour, we will be joined by Jeff
Blum, Astro's television analyst, formerplayer, all around great guy in front
of the show here on the ATeam Sports Talk seven ninety for his weekly
hour long visit. But plenty toget to in the next segment that we
haven't even touched on here in theopen when we come back here on the
A Team Sports Talk at seven ninety. Right now, though, I want

(12:41):
to tell you guys about UVC PowerSports, Tractors and Outdoors. First of
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especially on Instagram. They've been puttingout some pretty good content of late,
especially with the crazy rain they actuallycame through. I know, there was
that wet stuff coming out of thesky that we're not really familiar with.
They took advantage of that made somesocial media posts in the heavy rain yesterday

(13:03):
talking about all the things you canget your hands on when you go down
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advantage of a one stop destination forall your outdoor equipment needs. Kawasaki side
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(13:24):
and implements, and even the trailersof the Big Texs and Aluma variety to
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or whether you want to test driveany of it out on the fifteen plus
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(13:45):
destination for all your outdoor needs.Check them out online at their website UVC
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Talk seven ninety sent you in thethird coast. The only time we're being

(14:07):
third is actually right where we wantto be. Back to our home grown
atoms, the A team find SportsTalk seven ninety. All right, we

(14:28):
are about to launch into an hourlong of baseball discussion, So I would
say now would be a very goodtime to get you ready for the big
matchup this weekend, the home opener, and apparently wex you need to get
into your seats by eleven thirty am. The team would like you to do
that because there's some sort of newintro they're going to do for the Texans.

(14:52):
Can't we just get ready for thegame yeah, all right, let's
do that. Thank you Colts.The man across from you women plays,
I'm not taking we got the mostunderrated the line in the NFL. Who
was holding last weekends? The tenstrata number two, number four playing each

(15:16):
other. It's not quarterback first quarterback. It's been you know, the Easton
Texans versty Colts. He's a botherbut not competed. Beast outbats were outside
to defeating myself every day. Thisis how to get better? N three
four three play? Hey, whatdon't think? What do you think he
hiked? Was that from the showplaymakers any of that? Or was that
all cults related? All cults related? Straight from the Colts social media account.

(15:39):
You heard their head coach mimic me. It's not it's not the number
two quarterback first quarterback. It's teamversus team. You're not even gonna play
each other. You want to reallyget hyped and follow along with your message
and bring it back to h town. That came from the Colts, obviously
on their social media channels. Here'swhat the Texans cranked out today. What
do you do? Pow wow,blood champ, what's up? Baby?

(16:02):
Stadium is gonna be rocking this year. Used to Texas. You know it's
on all fans. We call anall fans. Make sure you get there
early for all the tail game.You got to stay for the end of
the game, and we're gonna tailgateafter the game. You know, we
turn it up. Man, Wow, baby, what did it? Dude?
I'm a stadium. Go Texas,baby, go Texas. Let's go
there, you have it. Hmmthat's interesting. You're ready? Yeah?

(16:25):
Fired up? Uh no, notfired up. I'm just ready. Come
on, man, well look whatdid it do? Okay? Now I'm
ready. After after that, let'sgo. What it do? Now?
I'm ready? Okay, I thoughtyou might be. I just I just
wanted to win. Is ready togo? I'm being serious? I know,
but then Dan played this and nowI want to kill my sexons.

(16:48):
Injury report just came out. Asexpected, both starting safeties will not be
playing this weekend practice. It's notnew. Jalen Petrie and Jimmy Ward both
out. I want to react appropriately, Oh why don't you react appropriately to
two Texans offensive starters being listed questionablefor the game? Which ones are they?
Well? Just because Laramie is agood team player, he knows that
since the rest of the offensive lineis hurt, he is questionable. He

(17:11):
did not suit up for today's walkthrough practice and did not practice on Wednesday,
was limited on Thursday, so he'slisted as questionable with a knee added
to the injury report today with aright shoulder injury. Limited at practice is
a first strink. Quarterback CJ Stroutlisted as questionable. Great, he's starting
just come down, So we're afrog's hair away from Davis. Well,

(17:34):
maybe the Texans thought that, youknow, we're on track to win too
much. CJ was too good andwe want to hook up the Arizona Cardinals
with a super duper top pick,and this Colts team stinks and the only
way we can lose to them isto take our best chance of winning off
the field and in turn protect himfor the long term futures, which is

(17:56):
when we really want him out there. It is a little interesting that CJ.
Stra would be listed, considering therewas no designation Wednesday or Thursday,
So anything that might have taken placeduring the game that would have him limited
in the two padded practices didn't today. Again, I mean I call it
padded practice because today is a walkthroughwasn't there, so I couldn't tell you

(18:17):
each and every bit of equipment everybodywas wearing. Even though I can see
the video. I would think thisis more following along with NFL injury reporting
protocol, but I'm not selling youwith that for sure. That's my one
hundred percent total speculative guests. Forall I know, there is a concern,
or I mean there's obviously concern becauseI think they're being truthful when they

(18:40):
say he was limited. So maybethey're protecting that shoulder, Maybe they're protecting
that arm so he can go outand play. We just watched the guy
who is a partial owner of theLas Vegas Raiders spend nearly every week on
the injured list or on the injuryreport, Tom Brady every week shoulder shoulder,
shoulder, No, not often.And this is worth noting. That's

(19:02):
the red flag words. Well,doubtful is the real red flag means you're
probably not gonna play right. Butquestionable is there's a there's a better than
average chance you won't you could notplay well again potentially. Well, they've
updated their terminology in the last coupleyears. There are only three designations.
Now, uh huh, there isno probable. Well good, so there's
out, Jimmy Warden, Jalen Petrie, there's doubtful, like Travis Kelsey was

(19:26):
in week one until he didn't playand was out, and he's gonna play
this week like I told you yesterday. But now Andy Reid said it and
that carries more weight literally, Butdid Taylor Swift say it probably wouldn't matter
if she did, and then there'squestionable. That's it. Those are the
only three injuries designation. Yeah,I mean we we have We're lucky enough
to have a full three hour showto day. I don't know how much
time. Like the Amazon Prime team, we don't need to spend a lot

(19:48):
of time asking Jason Kelsey after theirsecond win of the year, what's going
on with Travis and Taylor? Butbut we could like they did you did
not like that? Did you?I mean, it's fine, it's not
necessary. No, that's just theyasked him if he'd found his Super Bowl
ring yet, because I've obviously watchedKelsey which he loses his ring. He
did say he found it and lostit again. Are you serious? Yeah,

(20:11):
wow, you lost it twice.Yeah, I'm sure he'll find it.
I mean there, maybe he'll getanother one. I mean, does
this guy go through sunglasses like crazy? He said he put it in a
tube sock because he figured this timehe wouldn't lose it. Hey, let
me introduce you to a concept calledsafety deposit boxes, because if nothing else,
keep it at the house. Ohman, these guys with their seventy

(20:33):
five thousand dollars I had. Sincewe're on it and before we dive right
back into the Texans. And howsignificant is noting that C. J.
Strout is listed as questionable. Everybodyelse, by the way, that had
a long, long injury list overthe course of the week. Everybody else
other than those five players. NevilHewett is the fifth. He was limited
throughout the week because of an illness. He's listed questionable, but everybody else
another eight players, including John Metchithe third. They all have no injury

(20:57):
designation. We're all full purchas.Spenser practice today and are available to be
active on game day, though Ican't tell you all eight of them will
be, but there's a pretty decentchance seven of the eight will. I'm
not sure that they need all fourrunning backs up. Daria gunba Walle could
be in a healthy scratch. Butwhile we have a moment here last night's
opening game of Week two, nowhe did fumble like his teammates and lose

(21:21):
one. Kirk Cousins, he lostone of the team's four fumbles, but
that one wasn't on him. Hepicked apart the Eagles defense. He drove
them up and down the field whenthey needed it. It was a competitive
game. They never had the football. Their defense could not get the Eagles
off the field. They were luckythe Eagles didn't get further ahead, and

(21:41):
they just kind of, you know, didn't have enough time because of just
the way things went. Their lastpossession obviously was nothing more than a hail
Mary. I think the punt returnermade a mistake by returning that you have
time for a sideline play and somethingdownfield if you have twelve, thirteen,
fourteen, fifteen seconds. He decidedto return it and it kind of limited
them to just the one snap.But the Eagles are just, you know,

(22:03):
at this point in time, findinga way to make sure it happens.
Great game for DeAndre Swift and Isay that to bring it back to
Houston. Great game. That's underratingit too. Yeah. Week one,
they knew they the coach is screwedup. Kenneth Gainwell's fine, and they
won and he ran well, butwhat's DeAndre Swift here for to help you
win? He needs to see theball, he needs to see the field.

(22:26):
And after the game they realized thatsomehow didn't realize it during the game,
that they just simply didn't use himenough. And the exact same thing
happened here in Houston. With Houston, i should say, in Baltimore,
which they're oc. Bobby Slock notedyesterday, and the team is well aware
of that is no way, that'sno way to go through life. If
you're running back when it's Damian PiamianPierce gets twenty eight carries and five yards.

(22:48):
Any Texans are absolutely well, Iknow, But I'm just I'm taking
DeAndre Swift's night and applying it tothe Texans run game. If that happens,
they're absolutely winning that game. There'sno doubt about it. But yeah,
well one does. It definitely goeshand in hand. You run the
ball that much because you're way outin front and they can't stop you.
You're right, it's almost automatic.But Kirk Cousins, your favorite whipping boy,

(23:11):
Yeah, That's why I'm saying,like, I'm not going to do
that. Yeah, he's been awesomethis year, except he's kind of Josh
Allen in it. He's still givingthe ball away three times with the fumbles.
He had an interception in three fumblesin two games. Is four too
many? Yeah? No, Butif you had him, just for example,
in fantasy last night, that's avery strong. Now, if you
could start two quarterbacks in your leagueand you carry three, one of them's

(23:33):
Baker Mayfield, one of them's BrockPurty, and the other one is Kirk
Cousins, absolutely, by all meanstheoretically make theoretically in a league I'm in,
definitely want to play Baker Mayfield andBrock Purty and sit Kirk Cousins.
Who's the NFL's best fantasy quarterbacks sofar this year? Who did it?
I don't know? So come on, it's not in our league because we

(23:53):
can't carry we don't play two quarterbacks. I know. I want to know
who I know in your other leagues? I did that? You don't know
him because I don't. I don'teven know who did they listen to the
show. I don't even think theylive in Houston. Well, aren't even
in your league. I mean thecomputers do work. So this fraternity league,
I've been out of college for quitea few years. What do they
live in Austin or do they actuallymove out? Like I said, if

(24:15):
it's the team I'm thinking of,it's someone whose name. I literally looked
at the owner's name. I'm like, who is that? But he's in
your friend No, it's some guythat's probably over the years we have opened
up a spot or two and friendswith somebody else, not me. I
don't have friends. Well, thatguy's stupid for doing that. Yeah,
and maybe for other reasons, butI don't know him neither. All right,
when we come back, we willcatch up with our good buddy Jeff

(24:36):
Blum at and t Astro's analyst,and he will make his weekly visit here
on the show when we return hereon the A Team, you don't have
to be a pip to get yourlady to work at your command, mister
Bunbe. That's right, just actsus more device to play Sports Tuck seven
ninety on iHeart Radio. You lookat it. Look, oh yeah,

(25:03):
this is radio. You listen toit. On Sports Talk seven ninety Astro's
broadcaster, Jeff Blom on seven ninetyis brought to you by low T Center
and just like that, Blumbs onthe phone with us. It is the
eight team here on Sports Talk sevenninety and it is Jeff Blom live and

(25:26):
in living color from Kansas City,Missouri. Hey Blummer, what's the temperature
now? Because this morning when youposted the sixty degrees, you are I
know what you were doing. Youalways know what I'm doing. You look
at it. But yeah, thiswe got done talking about this in the

(25:48):
first segment. They're on the road, but as you know, my in
laws are up there and they've alreadythey've already gifted us six wins. According
to them, they're like, God, we're gonna fatten up the Astros.
I'm like, no, you haven'tbeen watching in the Astros this year.
I just hope that the good versionof the team is in full effect,
not only for this three game weekendset, but of course when these two
teams come back here to Houston laternext week. Yeah, you just hope

(26:12):
that everything sets up right. It'sgood to be all with you guys,
and it's good to be on theroad, and that's where we kind of
anticipate where the Astros are going toplay really good baseball because there's such a
massive discrepancy between what they do athome and what they do on the road.
So I think the combination of playinganother team that has a hundred losses

(26:32):
and playing on the road in aballpark where they have a tendency to actually
put up some pretty good numbers.I mean, sitting in my seat,
one would have to assume that they'regoing to have a good three game series
against these Kansas City Royals, Butthey still have to play the game well.
They do get one break, Iguess you'd say when you're trying,
and it's not like Caleb Williams isthe number one overall pick and this year's

(26:52):
Major League Baseball Draft and there's nolottery, because both of those things aren't
true. But Kansas City handing theball all season long in a starters role
to both Jordan Lyles and Zach Granky, both of whom will face the Astros
this series. Granky goes tonight.I mean, there's no better sure far
away to make sure you get offto an awful start than sending a sixteen

(27:17):
game loser and fifteen game loser outthere, both of whom have VRA's at
least in the mid fives, ifnot worse. Yeah, things are definitely
putting in the direction that the Astrosshould be able to do the damage.
Which interesting too, is it forboth ex Astros And one has been in
the league an extremely long time,the other one's been in the league a
very long time, yet there's avast age discrepancy between the two of them.

(27:41):
But at the same time, Ithink having Grank you start tonight,
you know, I wouldn't doubt ifZach wanted to start this game against the
Astros, just because of the historythat he does have with the Astros.
I actually think, and I'm hoping, I'm anticipating that it's going to be
an entertaining start for him, dependingon how long teams in there. But
I think you're going to see somepitches that maybe sub sixty miles an hour.

(28:02):
You're gonna see some interesting pitches,some smiles and things like that.
But yeah, when you've got twostarters with a combined thirty with one losses
between them, he would imagine theAstros are favored in this series to get
at least two games out of thisbecause in between Cole Reagan's has actually pitched
pretty well. Is it bad thatI'm openly hoping for Zach Granky to throw
sixty miles an hour at Jordan Alvarus? I can see what he does with

(28:23):
that deposit? Well, isn't thatthe idea? Though? I feel like
that something that Zack Ranky would actuallyentertain is throwing three straight pitches of fifty
eight, fifty nine and sixty milesan hour and actually seeing how far Gordon
could actually make that deposit. I'mdown for it. I would not shock
me one bit was Zack Ranky hisattitude and understanding how the season is gone.

(28:45):
But if he doesn't give him achance, it's a go ahead hit
it. But yeah, I justI mean, I think I feel like
the last time the Astros were upat Kaufman, they and I'm this last
year, it was like a barrage. I feel like it was a multi
home run at least one of thegames. And they typically during this stretch

(29:06):
of played very well up there,and of course that coincides with the Royals
being not very good. But thenagain, you just had an A's team
come in that although they were scrappyand although they were, you know,
given fits to the Rangers before them, I just thought the Astroids would take
care of business better. What isit, in your opinion, because we've
talked about this a lot, what'sgoing on at home? Why is this

(29:29):
a thing? And if it issomething physical with the stadium, why hasn't
it affected them in prior seasons wherethey've had no problem winning at home.
Well, I'll actually take it onestep further. I mean, if you
want to talk about the physical Iknow what you're saying by the physical attributes
of Mintie made Park. I mean, the one thing that we've heard is
the batter side. So the onething for me is the fact that the

(29:51):
offense is much less at home.But like you said, in years previous,
they've been very good at home anddominant at home. Why is it
change now in twenty twenty three.I don't know the answer to that,
because at the same time, opposingoffenses that have actually put up great numbers
as well. So when the Astrosactually get into Minute Made part, and

(30:11):
I'm sure guys inside the clubhouse ormaybe if we really started to dig a
little bit deeper might be able tofind a reason why. But the interesting
thing to me is it's not justthe offense at minute Made part, it's
also the pitching staff. The pitchingstaff has an employed at the ARRA at
Minute Made Part two, which kindof raises a little bit of concern for
me. It may not necessarily bethe bullpen guys, but I know for
a fact that the starting rotation theirra at home is much larger. And

(30:36):
then if you go and look atthe numbers for the Astros, we kind
of broke it down as far asleft and right, at least on my
own I did. I looked atleft handed pitchers right handed pitchers, and
the Astros against left handed pitching arehitting two seventy or better at home,
but against right handed pitching, they'rehitting around two forty two forty five against
right hand pitchers at home, Soyou know, go figure. I don't

(30:56):
know what it is or why thatis, or if they're hitting the ball
hard positioning is actually killing them.But at the same time, everything that
they're doing on the road is soexemplary in comparison to what they're doing at
home, and that's why we kindof wonder what's happening at home, especially
when they have a thirty seven andthirty six record at home, I think,
and they're they're about to amass threemillion fans coming into that ballpark.

(31:18):
Those numbers don't match up. Youjust answered the question with this. The
answer is baseball. You just rattledoff the Astros crushing left handed pitching at
home. Why didn't they win thefirst two games of the series against the
A's because they couldn't hit the A'sleft handed pitching? It does not make
sense. Walde chuck it kind of. I wouldn't say he embarrassed them,

(31:40):
but six no hit it inings againstthe team that was hitting the way they
were is pretty awesome. So moreof a hat tip to him than a
knock on Houston. And then obviouslyJP Sears got out of trouble early in
the game and never got back intoit, and those two lefties helped the
A's win the first two games ofthat series. And that's why I do
think the answer is yes. Butobviously I'm going to ask you more than
most times when the Astros trying tomake it a happy flight with an end

(32:02):
of series win, was the winon Wednesday maybe a little bit more important
than many others that have preceded it. Yes, and I'm gonna also to
answer it in the sense that youknow, I think, and hopefully this
comes true when they finally clinch apostseason spot, when we see them play
postseason baseball in Minute May Park,which around the league, if you take

(32:25):
a consensus, they have said thatis one of the loudest, most most
crazy environments on the road. Withthe lid on the juice box, that
place gets loud, it gets raucous, it gets crazy. It's an intense
environment, and a lot of itis because of how good the team is,
and it's also how good the fansare in reacting the situations on the
field. So that being said,what you just mentioned about them losing the

(32:49):
first two games against Oakland and thensaying on Sunday, man we gotta win,
or on Wednesday saying, man,we gotta win this ball game.
Let's lock this down. Go outthere and play well. You've got a
great pitching performance for five innings,and this might be how it plays out
for that third fourth starter in thepostseason. Two is go out and give
me five of your best innings.Hunter Brown went out there and absolutely politerated
that lineup and allowed the Astros confidenceenough time to figure it out, score

(33:13):
some runs and go out there andwin. But at the same time,
I love the fact that they understoodthat that was almost a must win situation
and they can focus, they canlock down, they can win in that
ballpark. It's just a matter ofbeing in that situation where you're forced to
go out there and focus a littlebit more, because maybe that was a
situation before. Mad You've got goodpitching from the from the Oakland A's,
but maybe a little bit of alackluster effort in the first two games.

(33:36):
So hopefully that changes a little bitthe closer we get to the postseason.
Blumber with us here and tell fourthirty Live from Kaufman's Stadium. You've already
posted video of your arrival at thewell both stadiums technically, because of course
the qu a great CONFLX. Huhit's I mean, well, I can't
tell if you're being sarcastic. Now, oh, it's great. I love
this place. Yeah, they're youknow, they're trying to build new stadium,

(34:00):
but it is. It's very coolwhen you when you walk up or
you drive up and you see afootball stadium right next door to a baseball
stadium, So that's where you're at, and we'll continue to discuss the Astros
series there in Kansas City this weekend. As we continue here on the eight
Team Sports Talk seven nineties, letme hit you with some info about UVC
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sent you on. By Hey,it's the trill O G. Bunby.
The eighteen continues with Clinton Blummer andan Ass on Sports seven ninety. You

(35:30):
know, I'm pretty sure all threeof them are asses, though. The
obligatory question for our guests. JeffBlumo's in Kansas City today and join you
each and every Friday over the courseof the baseball season. Astros and Royal's

(35:52):
coming up tonight, Javier gets theball for the Astros, and Zach Grinky
will throw the ball to the Astroswhen he's standing on mount and they're in
the batter's box. I'm not goingto ask you what place you must visit
when you're there for Kansas City Barbecue. I will ask you what must be
on your plate when you make yourorder of Kansas City barbecue. I'm a

(36:15):
little more rib guy here in KansasCity, and obviously with my connections here
through Adam Planty. I am aQueue thirty nine type guy. Yeah,
Ribs and Queue thirty nine go handin hand for me when I'm in the
Kansas City area. Last time Iwas in Kansas City was for a University

(36:36):
of Houston Cougar basketball trip to theregionals, and we ate a Que thirty
nine in the snow in March.Oh Man. The sauce they make on
site that they can't bottle because ofsome of the ingredients, like they'll it'll
you know, it doesn't work thatway is so good. I think it's
a cilantra something about the you can'tbottle that, but is it's absolutely saying

(36:59):
our shows on it. You justcan't bottle this. You can't. You
can't. You'd like to blum,but you can't bottle us. No,
And I wish I heard what youjust said. For whatever reason, my
phone cut out, So I'm gonnasay, yes, you're right. We
were talking about the magic of thethree of us together. It's so magical.
You just agree you can't bottle it. No, you can't bottle it.

(37:19):
You can only put a number onit. It's still not going to
be big enough. No, it'slook going up there to Kansas City has,
there's many Midwest charms, if youwill. And just just to wrap
up the barbecue portion of the discussion, I didn't know what burnt ends were
until I started dating my future wife. Had you were you aware of burnt

(37:42):
ends and how that's a that's astaple of barbecue up in Kansas City.
Well, you know what's interesting aboutthat is we had a conversation about this
on our broadcast the other day,and I didn't realize it was a Kansas
City thing either until I had atalk with Todd Tallas about it because somebody
asked, us, well, youknow, what's your favorite eats at the
ballpark? A minute made And obviouslythere's some great stuff out there, but

(38:05):
I always go up into the rightfield corner and a killing Killings is up
there. But there burn ends upthere are phenomenal, and literally that's the
only place I've ever had them whenI've been in Houston. So I didn't
realize it was a Kansas Y thing. But now that it is the Kansas
City thing, it goes right nextto my ribs. I'm good to go.
Yeah, see killings is that's thefirst place I've ever heard that actually
does that, and he's I don'tknow of any other place, and there's

(38:27):
lots of places, but like it'sit's presumably it would be an easy thing
to do. I mean, youhave the ingredient right there in front of
you, just burn them. Yeah, yeah, I've mastered that. Yeah,
well, good on them for doingthat. And yeah, I did
hear that discussion of the fact thatyou have to go from one end of
the other to the other to getyour favorite food versus your favorite beverage.

(38:49):
I knew exactly what you were talkingabout. Oh yeah, well, most
people who know the geography of MiteMade Park and my habits and tendencies,
Yeah, you know exactly what Iwas talking about. Kansas City hosting the
Astros for the next three lineup forthe Astros today will put Brantley in left
field, and thinking about Kaufman Stadium, is that something at all meaningful in

(39:10):
that, you know, one ofthe two left fielders, provided it is
either Brantley or Jordan, and Jordanis dhing today does have quite a bit
of ground to cover. Is thatI mean to me that that's a good
thing that the confidence from Dusty isthere defensively, which is something he always
champions that he would have Michael Brantleyout there for a game in Kansas City.

(39:30):
Yeah. I actually think it's agood thing too, because I mean,
we're all kind of curious, youknow. We know Michael plays a
very good left field at Minimey Park, but you put him out here in
space and Kaufman Stadium and you getto see him run around a little bit.
And I think that actually might bepart of the idea is he's played
a ton of baseball here in theAmerican League Central, so he's pretty comfortable
here at Kaufman Stadium. And likeI said, there's plenty of room to

(39:52):
roam out here. There's not goingto be some perky outfield or you know,
the stands down the right field lineare going to come out and John
pat him a little bit. It'sa pretty wide open space that he has
a good feel for. So Ithink with Christian Javier on the mound,
you're gonna get plenty of fly balls. So they'll give him an opportunity to
at least see how those legs feela little bit and let him move around

(40:13):
and go out there and have somefun and left field. I think this
is a great spot to be ableto let him go out there and play
some left field. You've also gotChazz out there in center field who will
protect him in that left center fieldgap. Also, so I think you're
just gonna put Michael out there andsay, hey, you're comfortable here,
get a good read our ball,and you've got everything from right at you
to the right side. Go getit. Christian Javier, of course,

(40:34):
means that I probably complimented him alittle too early before he you know,
had his last outing, which wasagain it's I just can't believe this is
the same guy that was so insanelygood last year and he's had his moments
this year. But man, itis like you look at his starts and
it's like it's bipolar, because hewas arguably far more were effective in a

(41:00):
loss to the Yankees, and thenhis outing against San Diego, you know,
where the team actually won, buthe only goes four innings, and
it's just I don't know what tomake of the guy. I don't know
which guy's going to show up,kind of like Hunter Brown. You got
the good Hunter Brown against the A'sthe other night, and but you know,
was that because it was the a'sor was it because of Hunter you

(41:20):
know, fixing some things, Andso I kind of go into this one
looking at that similarly, where you'vegot a guy who's had his struggles,
you've got a struggling team. He'sgoing opposite. Maybe he can get right
tonight. Yeah, you would liketo think he'd be able to get right.
Obviously, there's gonna be a coupleof pitfalls in this lineup, just
because number one, you don't knowthese guys and their tenancies maybe too much.

(41:40):
You've got a Bobby Witt junior inthere, who's a pretty pretty electric
young player. So you've got tobe careful of some guys. But at
the same time, you're right aboutthe bike polarness. And it's almost first
time through the order, second timethrough the order for me, because much
like Hunter Brown, we've figured outthat Christian Hobbier and Hunter Brown could be
hyper effective when they're aggressive in thezone in the first two pitches. I
know that we want them to throwthat first pitch for a strike. We

(42:02):
hear it all the time. It'sbecome cliche, But at the same time,
the reason people keep saying it isbecause it is affective and if you
have stuff that is effective in thezone, like a Christian Hobbier or a
Hunter Brown. Why wouldn't you wantto try and get ahead and command me
at bat. I think it's whenthey stop commanding me at bat they fall
behind and they're forced into predictable countsas far as what pitch is going to

(42:24):
come. That's when they start toget hurt. And I feel like when
these guys try to throw strikes overthe plate, that's when they get hit
hard. And that's why I'd liketo see tonight see Christian Haaber be hyper
aggressive with the fastball like we knowhe can't be, and I want him
to rush that thing through the topof the zone. If that thing starts
to play, I want to seethat confidence build and not to see him

(42:45):
throw that early first pitch strike orsecond pitch strike. I want to see
him do it the second time throughthe order. Because if you go back
and look at the numbers early onand these starts for guys like Christian Javier,
they look great the first two orthree games, and then it all
falls apart when they try to nippick the edges and maybe the mix the
sequences up a little bit. Iwant to see them find the fastball location

(43:07):
and pitch off the fastball. Ithink that's where Christian Javier could really build
and build some confidence and maybe starttrending in the right direction. To that
end. I always love when yousend me in that direction. The Wexler
Research team unfun Christian Javier stat ofthe day. First ten starts of the
season, Javier had zero three walkgames. Zra was two point eight four

(43:29):
at that time. He's had threewalks or more in five of his last
seven games and in the fifteen gamessince those first ten starts. His era
is satan like six six six.Hey, now, as Blum said,
throw strikes and you can rise upfrom however many hundred feet under the earth,
you've been residing next door to Satan. Well, I have Moore with

(43:51):
Jeff Blum coming up here on theeighteam another half hour ago with Jeff as
Christian Javier gets set to take theball in Kansas City against the Kansas City
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(45:06):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are da teen. Our number two begins as
our number one ended with another coupleof segments with our own Jeff Blum eighteen

(45:28):
t Sportsnet astro's broadcaster on the callednight in Beautiful Kansas City, Missouri,
opener of a three game set betweenthe Royals and your Astros with Christian Hobber
on the mound against former astro's pictureZach Granky and you know, kind of
looking ahead a little bit in thisseries, we talked about JP France and

(45:49):
I feel like I ask you asimilar question each and every week, But
there's a weird part of me that'slike, when is this guy going to
turn into a pumpkin? This isnot normal. This guy has been You
could, are you Blum that JPFrance has been the most consistent astro starter
the entire twenty twenty three campaign.Yeah, I don't. I don't think
he could do much to really arguethat, unless you really want to go

(46:12):
back maybe in the last four orfive starts where he's had two games where
there's been a little bit of ahiccup. But it was also interesting to
watch him kind of have he hadthat hiccup against the Boston Red Sox.
I believe that then facing the followingweek can fitch extremely well. And I
think that kind of that gives mea little insight into maybe the mentality and
maybe a little bit of a heartand work ethic of a guy like JP

(46:35):
France, because he doesn't have thestuff that you're going, oh my gosh,
he's got that ninety six mile andhour fastball. Oh my gosh,
did you see the shape of aslider or the shape of his curveball.
He's a guy that you know,to his credit, has worked hard in
the minor leagues, spent a lotof time down there, and finally got
his opportunity and he's maximized it.And I think a lot of it is

(46:57):
because he is a little bit older, a little bit more mature, and
he's not afraid to adapt. He'snot afraid to try something new. He's
not afraid to make adjustments because hewants to beat here so bad. And
that's kind of speaks to maybe thementality in the heart of this guy,
because he is willing to make thoseadjustments, and he's not fearful of making
mistakes and getting blown up because heknows he's going to get another opportunity.
But I think that's a credit toJosh Miller and Dusty Baker continuing to give

(47:21):
him those opportunities. But I agreewith you as far as consistency, because
even though he's had a couple ofhiccups, he's bounced back. And that's
probably the biggest thing is you wantto have somebody that's going to go out
there and compete. I think whenyou start facing playoff teams, when you
start pitching in September, you've gotto have those starters that go out there
and compete for you. And ifyou had to get past JV and Drombert
and he said, who's going tobe that third fourth guy, JP France

(47:43):
I think has legitimately pitched himself intothat opportunity. And again, you know,
depending on what the astros want todo in those and you know in
those series where they need that thirdfourth starter is give me five innings and
we'll get to our shutdown bullpen.But JP France has been a lot of
fun to watch, and I thinkthat he's actually a guy that, even
though he's exceeded a lot of hispitch any pitched numbers, I think he's

(48:04):
one of those guys just continuing towork and grind through that and he'll come
out better on the other sideboard.I think there's a pretty decent chance he
starts his postseason in Arlington when theRangers emerge from their wild Card series as
the sixth seed to face the Astros, and by Game three, the Astros
would have two games to none leadJP France v. Dane Dunning. I'll

(48:29):
give that as my click, soit's a click come the postseason. But
I'm curious about you mentioned Josh Millerand some of the other parts of the
staff. When you have multiple pitchers, you know, reaching the major leagues
over the last three four years thathave spent tons of time in this organization,
France, Hunter Brown, Javier LuisGarcia, and all the professionalism stuff

(48:51):
that you mentioned with France. Canyou separate or is it all one thing
where the credit should go to thepitcher, the player, the person that
he is is that's allowed him to, you know, not be phased by
what ever's happening to him on anygiven day when he gets the start,
or is it a little bit ofa combination over the years learning those things
through, how the Astros get themto work, get them to work on

(49:13):
their pitches, get them to focuson certain pitches that they favor and are
going to help them out, becauseit seems like this is even killed success
or no success each of those fourpictures I mentioned, maybe with Luis Garcia
being the shakiest of them. Fromthat standpoint, they all do seem to
share that same characteristic And I wonderif a little bit of that comes from
the system, a little bit inHouston versus well, this guy just has

(49:37):
that makeup. No. I thinkit has a lot to do with it,
you know, And it's I thinkit's a credit to the Astros organization
for why they've been so good forso long. Did I get that question
all the time? What are theydoing? You're not going to have guys
like JP France or Hunter Brown orsome of the Cavier or some of these
late signings as far as Latins areconcerned, as far as age, You're

(49:58):
not going to have these guys succeedif they're not developed well. And I
think it's something to be said aboutthe Eastern organization. They know what guys
they want in their system. Theyknow what guys are going to perform well
at the big league level, butthey also know how to develop them and
get them ready to pitch at thebig league. You've got to have the
talent that you've got to have certainattributes, whether it be as a pitcher,
you've got to be able to havevelocity, you've got to be able

(50:19):
to add high spin. But theyalso figure out how to take that attribute
and maximize it. And I thinkthat's where you see these guys understand what
the coaching staffs trying to give them, and then they get to the big
leagues or they battle in the minorleagues to get to the big leagues.
But at the same time, allthe coaching and all the talent is no,
you can't replace that with experience.You know, you can't replace that
with experience. Experience goes a longway with these guys. It's using that

(50:43):
stuff in certain situations that is goingto make these guys better in the long
run. Now, JP France,just to take him as a single case,
he has his experience in the minorleagues. That's why he's appreciating and
working hard to stay here in thebig leagues. On the other hand,
in two or three years, wemay be talking about Hunter Brown or remember
some of those issues he had hissecond year in the show, his third
year in the show. That's whyhe's so good now. So you're kind

(51:07):
of combining the development the player andthe experience, and that's where you get
guys to were able to go outthere compete and continue this winning tradition that
the Astros have created. Well,and in the case of Hunter Brown,
you're always going to hear the samething when he even when he does struggle,
which is that he has the stuff. I mean, that guy,
it's electric. But I just youknow, given what you just got done

(51:28):
talking about, are you because you'reso close to the organization and a former
player at the same time, doyou look at, you know, the
rankings of the minor league systems andkind of laughed yourself sometimes at how many
times the Astros have been, youknow, ranked low or just not in
the top. You know, thisteam has this system and it's highly touted

(51:49):
because of what you just got donetalking about, they keep churning out these
players that are not only effective,but are contributing to a winner. Yeah,
and again it goes to the organizationtoo, because you start sending a
lot of these scouts out there,they may they may not be turned on
by the talent level. They maynot be turned on by age or certain
movements of a player. And youknow, the fact that the Astros had

(52:12):
to they had to draft well,draft well enough to put guys in the
big leagues, but also to beable to trade for some key creations along
the way is what's depleted that.But at the same time, they get
overlooked because the guy that they havein the minor leagues that may be highly
touted inside their organization and may beable to you, you may be able
to fromgnosticate that they're going to filla void in a year or two or

(52:36):
even this year, may not registerto the overall, you know, greatness
of a player or an organization ora farm system. And I think,
you know, through throughout the courseof it, I think early on even
Jeff Luno was kind of kepting someof these guys and like the idea of
being ranked highly as a farm organization. But I think he kind of drew
into the fact and understood that beingbetter at the big league level and having

(52:58):
a less sports that farm system actuallypays bigger dividends. And I think that's
what we're seeing right now with theAstros. Is, and I know our
fan base leaves going out there going, hey, your farm system's cute,
it's great, it's beautiful, looksgreat on the shelf. But tell you
what, I'd rather have a WorldSeries trophy on the shelf. And that's
where the Astros have been for thelast six or seven years as far as

(53:19):
the big league level is concerned.Because once they do have that talent that
might be coveted and move their farmsystem up and ranking, they put them
in the big league and they win. I think that's a better idea.
Yeah, they've had enough players asa part of this, and again you
look at the roster that they're goingto trot out there today, Altuve,
Paenya Alvarez, Bregman, Tucker McCormick. That's five of the nine guys out

(53:42):
there. They're lifers. They're Astros. There's never been anywhere else, and
they all grew up in the systemwhere they're just obviously spent a short time
in the system when they've been sogood that they got to the major leagues.
And that's just a small fraction ofwhat has allowed them to do what
they're doing during this period of timewhere obviously has been the Golden Era.
I do think, because how thingslook in the American League, they are

(54:04):
going to be the favorites to winit, provided all the players that are
healthy today are healthy when they getto the postseason. Total respect for Baltimore,
total respect for Tampa and anybody elseamong the other five teams that are
in the American League playoffs, butnone of them will have had the experience
of winning in the playoffs. TheMariners were here last year, and the
Rays have been there a few times, some of them at least. But

(54:24):
it is still going to be asomewhat of the same story, just not
quite the same Astros team. Andthat's where we'll pick the conversation back up
on the other side, the differencesbetween the team that we think is entering
the playoffs this postseason versus the onesthat have all found residents the American League
Championship Series now six consecutive years,and they're just a handful of wins away
from making it seven consecutive years.Handful of playoff wins still to get obviously

(54:50):
there, and there is not ateam in the American League yet that has
clinched a playoff Berth Jeff Blum withus from Kansas City. One more segment
will continue that conversation with him onthe other side here on the A Team.
Hey, it's the trilog bunby.The A Team continues with Clintons Blumbers

(55:10):
on sports. You know, I'mpretty sure all three of them are asses.
Though you know what that music means. It means we are bumping Stone
Cold Locks to five fifteen today oursignature segment. We will do that from
a Texans college game of the week, which is here in town. Both

(55:35):
of those games our Texans will playon Sunday. The Cougars will play on
Saturday night over TDCU, and thatis our Stone Cold Lock game of the
week. Cougars seven point dogs.We've got Jeff Blum for another segment here
with the Astros on the road,not a lot left in the season.
There are five series to go.I guess this is a road trip.
You took a trip, you goton a plane and you'll get on it

(55:58):
again to come back. But thisis the only city going to the last
trip of the season takes the Astrosto Seattle and then to Arizona. Baltimore
is obviously also on the schedule,and as it looks currently, the games
that are not against Kansas City arelikely against teams that are still playing for
something. Baltimore is still trying towin their division, Seattle is still trying
to make the playoffs or win thedivision, and Arizona is right there in

(56:21):
the mix for one of the wildcardspots in the National League. And to
that end, how this team hasplayed against that caliber competition. They don't
have some sparkling record against above fivehundred teams, but they certainly don't seem
to have as many of the letdowngames. You're a ballplayer. We talked
about this the other day, Jeff. I think it can be seen on

(56:42):
the basketball court. I think itcan be seen on the football field when
you feel like this team isn't bringingit today, or maybe even that they're
flat. I don't think it's soeasy to see or even have it happen
in baseball, because the dynamic ofbeing successful against that day's pitcher and all
the other things is so dramatically different. Do you think I'm seeing those comparisons

(57:04):
correctly? Would you describe it adifferent way? Yeah? No, I
think I think you're right. Youknow, I think it's easier for a
football game to kind of be perpetuatedin that flatness if the other team's just
dominating you. And then the sameway in basketball, if you get down
early trying to battle back, sometimesit's just a monumental feat. I think,
you know, the other team justhunts and they move on to the

(57:25):
next game. But at the sametime, baseball is a little bit different
because on any given innings, youknow, a picture can blow up,
lose command Lee pitches out over theplay, and it takes one guy like
Jordan elbros That we saw in thatother game the Getaway Day Wednesday against the
Blackburn where you got a pitch youcan handle and shoots it out of the
ballpark. So it just takes oneswing to kind of turn innings around.

(57:46):
Or on the other hand, youcan have a picture go out there and
dominate that first two or three innings. You're going, hey man, we
got a chance. This guy's dealingtoday, Let's back him up with some
offense. So it's a little bitharder to read. I think, you
know, there's gonna days where youjust do not have it and you just
kind of go okay, you giveinto the fact that you're going to show
up the next day. But atthe same time, you know, you

(58:07):
can turn things around relatively quickly ina baseball game, depending on what the
old team is doing. The Alvarezhome run from the moment of contact,
did it take a nano second foryou to think that's got to be one
of the hardest hit balls he's everhad. Yeah, that one got out
in a hurry, you know,until you actually put put the number to
it and try and understand what thatthing was doing. I was just shocked

(58:29):
at how far it went, Butat the same time, at that low
trajectory at one hundred and seventeen pointseven or whatever it was, kind of
gave you the understanding of why itgot out so quick and why it ended
up, you know, deep intothe second deck and didn't really have a
chance to go foul because it wasmoving at such a rapid rate. But
to have it be the hardest hithome run in the stack at there for

(58:49):
the Astros doesn't shocking at all.Yeah, and they were both hit at
minute made they being that one andthe one he hit to walk off the
Mariners last year in the postseason inGame one. I was obviously there for
that one. I wasn't for theother nights, And I remember thinking to
myself, other than you know,a million other things, like, holy
crap, they just won that game. How fast that that home run,

(59:14):
which was an upper deck shot leftthe batter's box. And so I don't
I actually don't remember. I'm sureWEX could find it in like a nano
second, but I don't remember theexit velocity of that particular home run.
But when I saw one seventeen there, I knew it was far because and
I saw four twenty and I lookabove it on the graphic you guys put
up, and I was like,one seventeen nearly one eighteen. That was

(59:37):
an absolute, you know bomb,And it was funny because it was kind
of to the general vicinity of wherehe hit that bomb that that Todd lost
his mind on a few years.And I think that was also against the
A's, No, it was againstthe A's. It might even have been
against Blackburn. And that's this fourthhome running shit off this guy, and
they've been just you know, monsterblasts, you know. But at the

(01:00:00):
same time, if he just gota little bit of elevation off that fall,
it might have gone up into thosekilling burn ends. That we were
talking about earlier. Because that ballwas hit so freaking hard. I'm gonna
ask you did you know question aboutlast game the Astros played was on Wednesday,
and you're good, buddy. KingTuck put one over the fence circled
the basis to complete the one hundredthmajor league home run of his career.

(01:00:25):
The did you know is? Didyou know that that home run pushed you
down to nine hundred and ninety ninthplace all time in career home runs.
I had no idea nine hundred andninety ninth place on the all time home
run list. That's now where youreside now that he got his hundred homer.

(01:00:50):
Cool. The reaction, the reactionthat I expected, und I had
a hundred more home runs, andI guarantee you a lot of the population
of America thought it ever did No, I don't. I don't say it
as a as a number down there, and every time I'm actually proud of
it. You should be. Andthe home run that is always added to
the ninety nine regular season home runsis an absolute sense of pride and absolutely

(01:01:15):
should be the idea that this groupof Astros, Tucker, Bregman, Altuve
Alvarez and maybe some of others ofthe younger players, maybe even McCormick maybe
paining you if that stroke comes back. That's something that this group of astros
is also going to show over thecourse of time there they they're going to

(01:01:37):
hit for power. This offensive explosionthey've enjoyed during this time is because it
is up and down the lineup.He's batting fifth again today. This has
been pretty standard for Dusty one throughfive at least, or maybe even one
through six when a Brave is inthe lineup, which is normal. Do
you think that kind of has cementedwhat Dusty likely trot's out there for the
postseason one through six in the order, Yeah, I do. You know,

(01:02:00):
it could be altered depending on,you know, how many left handed
pitchers they have in the rotation orhow many left handed pitchers they have in
their bullpens. Because he's actually mentionedthat he goes. He's said, if
you know opposing teams have that lefthanded starting there can go deep, will
separate and put a right hander inbetween, that kind of mix things up,
and then if they don't have toomany left handers out in that boltend,

(01:02:22):
he's not afraid to put those guysback and back as far as you
know, the Tucker and Alvarez orthe the Tucker at Brantley's, just because
it kind of forces the opposing managerto pick with you know, how early
in the game do they want tobring in that left you to face Alvarez
and Tucker, which could hamstring themlater in a ballgame. So I think
it's kind of interesting that dynamic andthe way that sets up. But again,

(01:02:45):
when you start to have that kindof production in a lineup that is
one through nine, and then youadd into the fact that you've got to
do Bond coming off the bench,you've got a Yiner Diaz coming off the
bench. I think it offers alot of weapons for Dusty to be able
to go out there and then latebecause we know the first two games of
any of these series, if youget to pick the rotation, Maldonado's going

(01:03:05):
to be catching jav and fromber Soyou've got you've got potential weapons on the
bench, which actually kind of helpsyou down the stretch if you're willing to
go out there and pinch it fromthe seventh inning. All you know,
going talking about Tucker the other nightafter that that hundredth home run. He
was being interviewed, and I think, if I'm not mistaken, the question

(01:03:25):
came up about watching the scoreboard,watching the standings, that kind of thing.
Now, it's this is an obviousquestion at this point on September fifteenth,
because I would think that anybody wouldbe if you're even remotely in contention
at this time. Here you're talkingabout the last couple of weeks handful of
games of the season. But whenyou were playing, when did you allow
yourself to start doing that? Didyou really pay attention throughout the year?

(01:03:47):
Did you wait till September? Youknow, in a situation like this,
this is this is kind of unchartedwaters for the Astros because they're always just
you know, boat racing. Thecompetition in the aos very different dynamic this
year, When did you allow yourselfto start looking at the scoreboard every single
night? For example, you know, And it was usually around this time,
like the middle of September, becauseI played on Padre teams and oh

(01:04:09):
five or six oh seven, whereyou know, it was literally game to
game down the stretch, you know, and you had to knock out the
Diamondbacks and then all of a suddenyou had to knock out the Dodgers and
try and win that division like wedid in OH five and oh six o
seven. You know, it waskind of interesting because we got down to
Game one sixty three and we werewatching that scoreboard and it with Colorado Rockies
went on some ridiculous twenty game runand we couldn't fend them off towards the

(01:04:32):
end of the season, eventually losingto them in Game one sixty three.
And then it was similar m Ofive when I got to Chicago. You
know, we had a fifteen gameleads and then all of a sudden,
it was the Minnesota Twins. Itcouldn't be beat. It was the Cleveland
Indians at the time, now theGuardians, it couldn't be beat. And
we're sitting there, going, man, this gap is starting to shrink a
little bit, and it's not panic. But I think the panic, you

(01:04:54):
know, translates into listen, fellows, we need to take care of our
own business and we'll worry about thatscore or later. But I think,
you know, once you took careof your business, you were a little
more willing to look at that scoreboardand see what was going on behind you
because hopefully that's where you tipt itwas behind you. Yeah, no,
for sure, and I think youknow to that end, that's probably some
of what was said when when youknow, Justin to Tress the team the

(01:05:15):
other night. I don't know ifthat was overblown because of how Chatz characterized
it, just saying that Justin spoketo the team. I don't know if
it was like some formal thing orif it was just like a little chat.
But you know, Wex has beensaying it for weeks. You take
care of your business. You're goingto be in good shape if you're the
Astros because of where you are rightnow in the league. Yeah, and
I mean, ultimately that's what everyteam says. You know, you've just

(01:05:38):
got to be able to go dayby day, especially this late in the
season with all the bums, allthe bruises. It's easier to toss those
out of your mind when you understandthat you are in contention because you do
have something to play for it soyou kind of relish in the fact that
you do have these games to playfor. You're playing with purpose, You're
not making plans for October like alot of these teams are so go out
there, play the game as hardas you possibly can, and kind of

(01:05:59):
take these at back or these inningsthat you pitch at team innings that team
at That's how am I going tohelp the team this any how am I
going to help the team with mybat that I have right now? And
that's usually the teams that come outon top of the play that good,
good team baseball down the stretch andthen let the other stuff take care of
itself while you go out there andwin your ball games. Jeff Blum always
appreciate you joining us here each andevery week from Kansas City this time around,

(01:06:21):
and we certainly appreciate the people thatmake it possible. Yep. I'm
a big fan of Low Tea Centers, not just because they get me on
air with you guys, but alsobecause they keep me rolling every single day.
And I appreciate these quick trips becauseit allows me to stay in my
routine of going into Low Tea Centerevery week. I go in about every
month month and a half. I'llhave my levels checked and we'll make sure

(01:06:42):
that we're on the right program.They do a wonderful job of taking care
of me. Again, it's onlya ten to fifteen minute business. Every
time I go in there to getthat shot and make sure I'm right.
They've got other products in there.Be twelve shots are great. Some of
these other things that they can dofor you. So go to low tecenter
dot com. Check them out,find that location nearest you. They're all
over Greater Houston. All right,Blumber, get us, get some some

(01:07:03):
burn ends, get some ribs,and get us three wins while you're at
it. While you're up there incasey, yeah, we don't get at
least two ws on burning semands.Sounds good, Blumber. We'll talk to
you next week and you get backto town all right later, boys,
appreciate you, all right. JeffBlum here on the eight team Sports Talks
seven ninety his customary weekly visit ona Friday. Always good catching up with

(01:07:25):
Blumber. We are at the halfwaypoint of a Friday edition of the program.
Plenty of football to get into,especially next segment when we give away
some football related activities. We willdo that when we come back next year
on the Eighteam cannon Balls weekends arebetter away with Astros baseball. Let's just
tell your smart device Alex play SportsTalk seven ninety on iHeart Radio take a

(01:07:58):
giveaway time. Let's go see theCougars play TCU to open up Big twelve
play for the University of Houston Cougar'sbig announcement earlier today with Moral Herman on
board, as they set sail onan awesome football operations center. If you
haven't been over to TDCU in abit, you'll load us some of the
best that they've got gone on thereonly to get better. A pair of

(01:08:18):
one and one team. So thanksto our good friends over at bud Light,
I want to invite you to joinme in the bud Light Cougar Dead
for the game this Saturday with theseven o'clock kick. Six o'clocks in time
can be spent in the bud Lightbackyard area tailgate before you make your way
on into the stadium. So doeswater snacks and of course ice cold refreshing

(01:08:39):
bud Light throughout the evening as theCougars take on TCU. As many of
you know, as I give youa chance to win this four packet tickets
via our trivia question at seven onethree, two one two five seven ninety.
If you know the answer to thisquestion, Daniel Holgerson experienced when it
comes to bringing a football team intoa new conference, this one in particular,

(01:09:00):
he's already done it before. Sohe enters the Big Twelve as a
head coach for the second time,and in both instances he was already on
board at that university and then theyentered the Big Twelve. The question is
against what team did coach Daniel Holgersonearn his first Big Twelve win? Against?

(01:09:23):
What team did he beat for hisfirst ever win against a Big Twelve
team? He'll be looking for onetonight or excuse me, Saturday night against
mister Dikes and the TCU horn Frogs. Like I said, also one and
one on the season seven one threetwo one two five seven ninety. If
you want an opportunity to join myself, our good friend Dan Matthews. Matthews

(01:09:47):
will be out there, Kevin Jerrytim among our earlier in the week winners
will be out there as well.You guys are gonna be just crushing all
sorts of adult beverages, s budlights. It's a matter of fact, just
one more to get in there.Why is it every time you say Dana
Holgerson's name. Maybe it's because Ijust don't encounter alive Dana's in my life.

(01:10:09):
I can't stop thinking about Ari DanaGordion. I will say this for
Dana, I would think, withoutany debate, without anyone taking the other
side of the conversation, I wouldrate him as the greatest University of Houston
head coach ever named Dana. Isit better than Dana demmel oh okay?

(01:10:33):
I was like, wait, whois the other Dana, because there has
to be I thought you were goingto put him in in the all time
rankings of Dana's that are famous.You know, interestingly enough, as they
go into this game. You know, Sunny Sunny Dikes and Dana were on
staff together under Mike Leach many yearsago. They're both in their thirteenth seasons

(01:10:54):
as a college football head coach.Dana's eighty nine and sixty two all time,
Sonny is eighty five and sixty six. That's crazy. It's very,
very similar. It's the second stopfor coach Holgerson, the fourth for Sunny
and naturally, as things move forwardand Big twelve is gonna look quite a
bit different that already began this yearwith the new entries, more new entries

(01:11:15):
are coming especially from out West,and two obviously are on their way out
so and both teams have split theirfirst two with I'm not gonna say there's
pressure on TCU to win this game, but there's pressure on both teams.
I actually do believe that to openup Big twelve play. You know,
TCU played Colorado. Obviously, theyput a bunch of points on the board.
But it's the signature game of thecollege football season so far. In

(01:11:39):
week one obviously, Week two obviouslyit was Longhorn win Overbama. Obviously,
but they beat Nichols. Great,No, that's not a okay, we're
back on I say that though,this has more a lot more to do
with the fact that Uova's got trouncedby Rice a week ago. Trounce's.
Let's go ahead and hit the dictionaryfor the definition of trounces. Well,
look at the score for the majorityof the game, and then look at

(01:12:00):
the final score. They went toovertime. Who gets trounced in an overtime
game? Literally, nobody goes downtwenty eight nothing or twenty one nothing to
Rice. It's a timed game.What's the score when the time is up?
I don't know when did you startplaying that they played a good half,
so did Rice. Rice has justhappened to be first. I guess
they did not get trounced by Rice. Now, I don't think they're very

(01:12:20):
happy that a team came and beatthem the way they did in overtime after
they hadn't scored the whole second half. Great, they're up twenty eight nothing,
but you clearly had all the momentumand just weren't able to carry it
through and weren't able to make astop when when necessary, you would stop
them the whole second half, couldstop them in overtime. So as much
as I think there's a little bitof pressure on TCU to kind of keep

(01:12:43):
their momentum from last year, andhaving a start to their season at one
and two and an o and onestarting conference play would certainly put a little
dent in that, there's certainly pressureon the University of Houston side. Also,
this is a big deal. They'vespent months, years, decades wait
for an opportunity like this, waitingfor the doors to reopen again to major

(01:13:03):
college football conference play. There's fourconferences in college football now, not even
the five that they've been trying toget into for years. There's four and
they're in one of them. It'sa big, big deal. And we've
seen Arkansas when they went into theSEC. We've seen Texas, A and
M as they went into the SEC. We'll find out with Oklahoma and Texas

(01:13:23):
as they move forward maintaining competitive footballas you take what is a step forward,
and I think even A and mArkansas and the two schools I mentioned,
it is a step up to gointo the SEC from the Big Twelve.
I mean landing where the predictions havethe Cougars would be disappointing. You
know, they have them at theback back back portion of their preseason predictions

(01:13:45):
of the Big Twelve predicting them tofinish twelfth. They would like to not
only start a lot better than thatin year one in the Big Twelve,
but continuously play better than that.It just doesn't. I mean, you're
you're going to have better facilities,you're gonna have better recruiting, you're gonna
have a lot more money. ButI don't think it will be very fun
or last forever. If eight ornine teams outplay you every year in your
conference. That's not what you're movinginto that conference to do. And this

(01:14:09):
isn't This isn't related completely, butit kind of is because of what we're
talking about here, is it.I mean, you're a Longhorn guy.
Well you went to ut I don'twant to say you're a longhorn guy.
But just as it pertains to thisdiscussion with the Big Twelve and the fact
that they're on their way out asis Oklahoma, these are the two signature
franchises, if you will, thathas to make it a little less you

(01:14:34):
know, of a luster on thiswhole situation. No, I do think
that. I think there's something tobe said for that. But you know,
there's, like I said, there'sfour conferences in football every other sport.
Moving forward, the SEC, Ithink is regarded correctly as the leader
of the pack. If USC iscontinuing to play like they have been in
UCLA is certainly respectable. Michigan andOhio State or back at their respective peaks,

(01:14:58):
and Penn States not far behind.I don't think there's much debate that
they're next. Okay, so there'snow there's two left. There's the ACC
and there's the Big Twelve. Mycontention is the Big Twelve in both football
and basketball is significantly better than theACC. I think Florida State being back
is great, and I think theyare back, but I think there's better
football in the Big Twelve moving forward. Yea, even without Texas in Oklahoma,

(01:15:21):
and I don't even think it's close. North Carolina and North Carolina State
and Duke and Virginia can have allthe history they want. They're just simply
currently not nearly as good as whatthe Big Twelve is gonna put out.
What the crazy sentence you just do, It's really not even close. When
it comes to college basketball, thosefour teams you just need those programs,
and it's true, it's accurate,but it's just like, wow, where

(01:15:43):
to place in time where that isthe case, But you know it's all
cyclical, That's that's what's happen.But yeah, it's more about where debate
where where can they find themselves athome? And that's why I keep going
back to Texas. A and M'strip into the SEC an absolute, non
debatable, no brainer. The bestthing they've ever done in athletics is moving
to the SEC. And I'm beingtotally serious. It's it's the absolute right

(01:16:04):
thing to do. They should neverthink about it as a regret it was
smart. It's better for them.No, no regrets, not even one
letter. But you also want towin an outside of the man's l time
the Magic and it was awesome andit was huge for them. For more
than just that one season, it'sbeen super difficult for them to be highly

(01:16:25):
competitive. I need D at Aand M. I'm gonna keep saying it
until it happens. I'm gonna manifestI mean, in light of the fact
we see it a possible opening overthe next year or two, I understand
I'm gonna go to the SEC.It's the next logical step, right,
it has to be there a lateror a lesser of an upward move.
This is in his hands. Heis already in a position. I think
if things go like I believe theywill this year, he gets to dictate

(01:16:48):
that. You know, let's sayAuburn comes calling. He can say no,
yeah, let's say who. Idon't know. I don't know what
he's looking for as either a nextstep or the end game. Is the
endgame to go be the CEO atthe NFL level rather than at the college
level. I don't think it is. Would you want drafting for your NFL

(01:17:09):
team? Right now, there's worsescenarios. I mean a lot of teams
out there. I still I hopepeople realize what he's doing. He's got
the magic touch. Man. Well, you have to understand when you see
it. You got to understand twothings. At the college football level,
you could probably get away with one. At the NFL level. You have
to know people kids who are veryhard to know and read. And you

(01:17:32):
have to know talent and relate toyou. If you know talent. At
the NFL level, whatever you haveto overcome from who this guy is or
who that guy is, you'll getit figured out because they're just talented.
It doesn't always work out that wayin college because you've got to keep them
there. You've got to win withthem. You gotta show the next group
you can win with them. AndI know we're super early and it's just
two games, but if you spentany of the six hours of their two

(01:17:56):
football games actually watching them play threegames after what's happened, Yes, the
Colorado State stinks. True, it'sthe worst team they've played. That's still
gonna be like ninety to nothing.It might be that would be a cover.
Don't call lots about a half anhour away. They're good. Watch
them play, watch Sanders play,watch Hunter play, and the list of
good talented Power five Division one toplevel players is way deeper than just those

(01:18:23):
two, or else they wouldn't havedone what they did against TCU, and
they won't continue doing this. Ithink we're gonna find out a lot over
the next three weeks when the scheduleshifts from a game against Colorado State to
games against Oregon a SC. There'san update on the whole Dion Sanders situation,
as a matter of fact, Sosince we're on the subject, we'll
get to that when we come backnext to wrap up the four o'clock hour
here on the eight team. Rightnow, though, I want to rank

(01:18:45):
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it. So I would argue thestress that comes with the debt is actually
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But if you've got i'way Federal CreditUnion on your side, the good
news is you can get rid ofthat debt and the stress that comes with
it with taking a break from highinterest rate credit cards or whatever it is

(01:19:09):
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Lock in your rate today by goingto their website PRIMEWAYFCU dot com. That's

(01:19:54):
PRIMEWAYFCU dot com. Back to AdamClinton at Adam Wexler the eighteen on Sports
Talk seven ninety We're Rockets and Astrosplay and Real Texans Talk Wow. Winding

(01:20:20):
down the four o'clock hour. Itis the a team here on Sports Talk
seven ninety WEX and AC with youalong with Dan Matthews. So yesterday when
we were discussing the vaunted Colorado ColoradoState Showdown. Now I'm saying that tongue
in cheek, but I mean gameday is gonna be there. It's it
is a big deal because of Dion. It just is. And I'd say

(01:20:44):
yesterday when we were talking about opposingcoaches, talking about Dion and how he
should take his sunglasses and his hatoff, just one coach, but this
current opposing coach, Yeah, wellthat's one too many. We thought it
would probably be a lopsided game,right, so did Vegas long before the
comment was made. Correct what Diondid since our show. If you guys

(01:21:13):
haven't seen a video, he isup in the auditorium in front of his
entire team, and before you knowit, the side door opens and there
are assistant after assistant after I guessthey were students, I don't know who.
These kids were handing out sunglasses toevery single member of the Colorado football
team, and he wanted them toput them on and told them how good

(01:21:35):
they looked at them. This isthe equivalent of remember when Bill Simmons used
to just write about sports and wasn'ta total blowhard. And he would talk
about the Patriots and Bill Belichick whenthey were dominating during the nearly undefeated season,
and he would talk about the futouchdowns at the end of games when
they were blowing out the other team. That's what this is. That's Dion

(01:21:55):
saying, yeah, I know,I talked on the field the other day
that we're gonna they made this personal. Now I'm going to show you what
it's like when it gets personal.The fact that he did this, that's
what makes me say things like ninetyto nothing, which you said would be
a cover. I mean if sixtyfour points excuse me, sixty six depending
on what number. Yet it's justlike he and again he's in this instance

(01:22:19):
he's being reactionary, so it's noteven really on him. He's like,
you want this, fine, Iwill take it and run with it.
And that's kind of what he's done. As you know, he went into
Colorado and did things that I don'tthink. Well, he definitely doesn't care
what other people think because that's notimportant. He cares what he thinks is
going to work, and this iswhat he thinks is going to work.
Keep in mind he took over aprogram that was absolutely awful at playing football.

(01:22:42):
Yeah, and so he did somedramatic thing the roster which is completely
available to him, which it wasnot in It really would have been very,
very difficult to do five years ago, let alone ten, fifteen,
twenty years ago. But with howtransfers are allowed to Hey, I want
to play there, and you're allowedto play there and you can bring his
money in, and he was.It was in front of him to take

(01:23:05):
that step, and so he decidedto do it right away. And old
school, old er, jealous,fearful coaches, whatever they can, they're
they're latching onto stuff to complain abouthim and Oregon, I mentioned is on
their schedule Oregon USC or your nexttwo weeks Now. I don't think what
the coach said is wrong, andit's definitely not attacking Dion because Dion wasn't

(01:23:28):
even there. But I'm sure itwill be used because Deon is flat out
He tells us that he doesn't payattention, but he also says he keeps
receipts. He knows everything that's goingon out there, and that's why he
continues to use it to his team'sadvantage. But when Oregon's coach was asked
about, you know, losing Colorado, they're moving on to the Big twelve.
What tow does that impact? Whatdo you think? He goes,

(01:23:48):
well, I don't remember Colorado winninganything, do you. And it happened
to be the end of his presscovers, like okay, no more questions,
and he walked off it. Imean, I think people take it
as some sort of wow, thisguy's really he's they just didn't He's not
really doing anything. He's not reallysaying anything. They were non competitive for
so long they and but they've beenso bad then just irrelevant. Yeah,

(01:24:13):
exactly nothing. They might have hada season here or there, and it
wasn't that long ago where they quoteunquote mattered. But man, the program
as a whole, it's just beenawful that the twenty sixteen season they won
ten games. I'm not gonna saythey went bowling in the COVID season even

(01:24:33):
though they did, because that's silly. But they have more one win seasons
than ten win seasons over the lasttwenty plus years. They have not mattered.
He appropriately answered a question about sorryto see him go or what does
it It doesn't mean anything. It'sit's only a numbers thing, and they
have somewhere to go already for Oregon. It doesn't matter at all. They're

(01:24:56):
going somewhere that they should be plentyhappy with. If so, they smash
Colorado State this Saturday. Fine,if they go to Oregon and even if
it's close, they win that gameon the road, and that sets up
I mean, you want to talkabout an over hyped matchup between Colorado,
whatever they're ranked. Then if thathappens and at this point number five USC

(01:25:19):
and he goes in and wins thatgame, or maybe even he doesn't win
that game, he's just super competitive, or it's close, or you know,
I don't know any any number ofscenarios where they basically don't get their
teeth kicked in. You're gonna starthearing whispers about him bolting after this year,
aren't you. That's not out ofthe question. We're talking about college
football here, that's the name ofthe game in today's college football. He

(01:25:43):
might balk at that just in theyou know, I think people, I
don't think again, I don't thinkhe cared what people had to say about
his departure from an HBCU to Colorado, but I think he is aware of
it himself. Does how can Imake this move? I didn't. I
don't have any problem with it either, and I won't have any problem with

(01:26:03):
it if he leaves Colorado. Iwonder if he thinks I'm still here to
do something, because you could definitelyargue he was at Jackson State to do
something and he did it. Yeah, he accomplished his goal to a certain
extent, and maybe just winning atColorado is the goal. I really don't
think so. That's that's why Ithink the goal of Colorado is something.

(01:26:25):
I mean, he could reach itin this season, but I don't think
he will in these two games.Like these next two games we keep talking
about Oregon and SC at least willgive us an idea of where they stand
versus them. There are other teamsin the conference that I think are very
good, that are on their schedulethat will will find out more. I
mean, yeah, you're probably right. If he's beating those teams, then
he might win every game. Imean, but if he doesn't, and

(01:26:45):
if they don't, then maybe we'relooking at a seven and five or six
and six or an eight and fourColorado. Does he have to leave after
that year. I'm sure somebody wouldwant him to and would offer him the
money to do so. But wouldit be the move he would want to
go to? Is the other partof it? He could again, I
think it is as difficult as hasever been. If you if we ever
put this much thought into it,what does he want? Like? What

(01:27:05):
is he where does he want tobe in five years? What does he
want to be doing in five tosix to eight years? And we're also
I don't think we've mentioned it once, so I will. He's coaching his
son. That has to mean somethingto him. That's awesome, that's cool.
That's from just a personal standpoint.He's not going to have that opportunity
elsewhere for long. Obviously his soncould follow him again if that was in

(01:27:26):
their their plans, but I don't. I don't think that is, and
I don't I'm pretty sure he wouldn'twant to give that up. Football at
five is straight ahead. We aregoing to have a response to some trash
talk from an current NFL quarterback,and we have huge breaking baseball news.
I cannot wait to see Wex's expressionand to see if it tops the one

(01:27:46):
he just gave me. Off airhere practically as we go to break,
but five o'clock hours started next AdamClinton and Adam Wexfler or the A team.
You're right at bush football. It'sfive o'clock. Some day it's five

(01:28:09):
o'clock football. Put over the professionalfootball in America is a special game.
Well, I know it's football atfive. But we've got to get some
impressing, very important breaking news.Even though it came about about fifteen minutes

(01:28:30):
ago, it happened. Channel Romegot it done. The batter's eye is
being painted green at Minute Made Parkfor the next home is the pair it
is. The Astrals are adding greenpaint to the right side of the batter's
eye at Minute Made Park. Theadjustment will be complete prior to their next

(01:28:56):
home game, their upcoming homestand thatbegins Monday, September eighteenth against the Baltimore
Orioles and for the final six regularseason games and any future games during this
campaign in postseason more paint. Well, listen, you know what's wild If
the Astros start mashing at home.I mean, come on, you have

(01:29:18):
to admit, it's gonna get talkedabout. It will definitely get talked about.
It's a very easy TV story becauseit's a visual So it'll be a
part of each of the local teamsnews teams broadcasts on a couple of days
basis leading into it, and throughthe games, it'll be questions for the
play Hey, you stand over hereand this is where added paint should be

(01:29:39):
good for you. Now that Imean, it will absolutely be a thing.
But hopefully whatever happens, they winbaseball games, they've they've won thirty
seven times, they've lost thirty sixtimes, or thirty eight and thirty seven.
Excuse me, that has to change. It's very unlikely you're gonna be
able to split all these home gamesin the postseason and be playing a lot
of them because you'll be out ofthe playoffs. I would think having the

(01:30:00):
difficulty of not managing your way throughyour home games that you never know,
you know, home field advantage tosome people as overrated. Anyway, come
postseason, it's oftentimes just did yourguy have it today? I mean,
look at the back to back gamesbetween the Astros and Phillies and the postseason
last year, Christian Javier, Ithink you could say he had it.
Lance mc colors, you could probablysay he didn't have it. Did it

(01:30:21):
really matter whether we're playing for eitherof those two games? What are the
bas i look like in Philadelphia lastyear in the World Series? The thing,
could the Astros win on the road? No? Not if the other
team hits a billion homers and youdon't hit any only five, Yes,
they don't get any hits and youscore all the runs and everything. Can
you believe that? Like if youreally just think about that postseason run last

(01:30:44):
year, undefeated through the American Leagueand not in any way, shape or
form, is good as dominant asit sounds, Well, it wasn't the
Alcs That Seattle series completely different.Like, all due respect to the Mariners,
they played the Astros probably tougher thanany opponent they had, including the
phil You get to the World Series, you dropped Game one after you had
a what five nothing lead, twohome runs from Kyle Tucker in the same

(01:31:06):
game, and you lose with Verlanderon the mound. So at best you're
getting a split, going to threestraight games in Philadelphia, and then in
Game three you get absolutely shelled becausethey're Glance mccullar's they knew what he was
throwing every single time out, andyou still win that series. In six
games. Just it's I still can'tbelieve that happened. October eighteenth, twenty

(01:31:30):
twenty one. How was the lasttime the Astros lost a playoff game two
an American League team. You justlove saying that, don't you. They
got it. They got a year'sworth of a winning street against American League
playoff teams. They should have atleast lost one and probably the first game
of the postseason last year. Theywon all three against Seattle, they won
all four against New York, andthen they went to the World Series against

(01:31:53):
the National League team. The threegames they played after that date, they
beat Boston handily three straight games,outscoring them twenty three to three, ten
consecutive American League postseason games. Asthey hopefully headed to the postseason this year,
Wax, they're cheaters, they aredoesn't matter as usual. That's how

(01:32:15):
we opened our football at five segmentsand with the baseball story. But it
is of note and a couple ofdays you'll get to see it when the
Astros again. It's just a threegame road trip to Kansas City. They'll
be back on Monday to play Baltimore. Paint should be dry in the outfield
next to the Batters. I somepretty significant news for the Texans as we're
into football at five. As soonas I saw the injury report and traveled
down to the new name on thelist. All week they had twelve players

(01:32:40):
listed on their injury report, somewho hadn't practice and we're limited and with
an assortment of injuries. And todayone name was added to that list,
and it was quarterbacks CJ. Stroudlisted as limited today. His shoulder,
right shoulder, throwing shoulder leaves himlisted as questionable because basically he was limited
today. Larrmy Tunsil also questionable.Same with nevill Hewett because it's been sick

(01:33:02):
throughout the week, and Jaylen Petrieand Jimmy Ward are out. But the
more I looked at the list,especially with CJ. Stroud added to it,
it was just a couple of weeksago the Texans had announced their team
captains. There were two weeks intothe season. This is game two.

(01:33:24):
I don't know the playing status definitivelyfor all four of these individuals, but
there they sit on the injury list. The CJ. Stroud situation, though,
is just that's Jamie, Jimmy JayThat's a formality though I believe it
is Lamy Thomns. I couldn't tellyou one way or the other. It's

(01:33:45):
a fifty situation. I would thinkhe would, but I don't doubt that
this is something they're already concerned with. If he's playing like this every week,
the odds of him playing every gameare pretty slim because there's probably gonna
need to be an opportunity. AndI know the bywe does come on the
front side of the schedule, maybethat helps, But you know you're gonna
go out there and ask him toplay every snap. That's what offensive lineman

(01:34:06):
do say. It's it's it's awful. There's only the cornerbacks, safeties,
offensive lineman, and quarterback. Probablythose are the only four spots that play
every single snap. Where are theteam's injuries? Both starting safeties, all
across the offensive line, their quarterback. But the only guy that hates practicing

(01:34:27):
more than Laramie Tonsel is Allen Iverson. Come on, now, he's never
at practice. He's barely missed asingle practice this go around. No,
I'm not saying being there, Imean practicing this week. Was he had
one vet rest day during camp thatI can recall. Maybe it was two.
Well, I'm and i'm obviously whenI say that he was practice field
and practicing all the time. Imean again, you're I think what's your

(01:34:50):
most pointing to is the twenty twentyone season. Who cares? Well,
it was a Cully season. Itwas a joke and he knew it and
he treated it like it. Sohe showed them how stupid they were.
No, that's hey, I meancriticizing him for it. I'm just saying
what his rep is fair or not, or he rep of not practicing,
Well, he did that here.He didn't play in the games. Of

(01:35:11):
course he didn't practice. He wason our r But wasn't it like it
was a thumb injury. Yes,wasn't it one of those things where like
if they were good, he probablywould have played the same thing with Derek
Stingley Junior last year. In myopinion, there's no way that was a
missed the final eight games of theseason injury. But they're looking towards twenty
twenty three, hopefully it pays offand that he's out there all the time.
But you love you some, LaramieTonsil. I don't think you realize

(01:35:35):
what a difference maker he is.For an offense. No, I know
what a good left tackle can do. I just and look, Stan was
in here last earlier this week.He thinks he's top five in the NFL
at left tackle. It's a verypopular opinion. Yes to sixty six percent
of the room thought it that day, and like one hundred percent of people

(01:35:56):
who follow the NFL think the same. Maybe I would, maybe I would
be more glowing about the guy ifhe didn't play for the Texans. I
don't know. I never thought hewas all. I mean, he's in
Miami for sure, But like Iwould hope, so the player they traded
for is the one they currently have. They overplay paid for the player that
they got at the time. Correct, he's better, And I think,

(01:36:18):
and I think I am going toadmit it because I will when it comes
to this kind of stuff. I'mI have to be transparent and I have
to be honest with myself and withyou guys. That probably clouded my judgment
of him coming in. And it'sand it's and why who's attached to it?
Who's attached to the initial move?Jack O'Brien, There you go,
Bill Easterby, there you go.I hate that dude, What do you

(01:36:41):
think Billy Easterby does for a livingthat doesn't motivate people and tells bad jokes?
Yeah? Probably so both that guy. It just sounds like a kind
of a not so fun person.Yeah, which one sounds less fun?
Bill Easterby, what are you doing? Give me the activity you're you're spending
the time insurance salesman? Oh well, then that's Jack and he's very unfun.

(01:37:04):
Bill's not knocking on your door totry to sell you insurance. Bill's
like, you're going out with Billand you're meeting up with some people,
and it's just the en Knight's notgonna end well at the church social.
Not at the church social, mostlikely at the bar. It's awesome to
see y'all's minds think. It's obviouslyboth of you are really gifted. Thank
you. See he still likes us. Go directly to Hell. All right,
when we come back our Stone ColdLocks, I'll give you a preview.

(01:37:28):
I'll give you an early one.Jackie Easterby will never be an executive
in the NFL again. Stone ColdLock. Isn't that good? Wow?
Look, hang on a lens.You just put yourself out on you hear
that you step out, take achance, patting myself on the back so
hard it hurts. You know what'sgonna be funny about that? What someone
he's gonna get as funny as JackieEasterby's gonna get some executive or some writer

(01:37:51):
to say blank. Team brought jackEasterby in for an interview, for a
conversation. That's fine, which ishilarious. I have all the conversations you
want. They're not hiring your sorryass. We will take you into Stone
Cold Locks. Texans are, accordingto our numbers, favored this weekend over
the Indianapolis Colts. Stone Cold Locksare next. Adam Classon Adam Wexler,

(01:38:16):
The Afternoon Team covering your teams Stateto Love Center Fail. This is Sports
Talk seven ninety, home of Astro'sBaseball. Remember that magic eight ball?
A nice little shaken look at thisI'm getting late tonight answer. You can

(01:38:38):
trust whatever it said, or youcould trust these two guys named Adam.
It's a crap shoot either way.But these are your stone cold Locks.
The stone Cold Well the answer tothe question that Dan was unable to give

(01:39:00):
mister Thomas earlier today. The reasonthey're called the stone Cold Locks is because
we recognize what they aren't and weare poking fun at ourselves. Stone Cold
locks two weeks in. This isweek three, a signature segment on a
Friday to recap. I've posted athree and two week twice. AC's posted

(01:39:20):
a two and three week twice.Dano joined me on the winning Ledger last
week with a three and two week. So I've got six dubs and ten,
you've got four, Ac, he'sgot three. The man with three
will kick us off this week withhis mandatory player prop and his pick on
the college football game of the weekthis week. That game will be played

(01:39:41):
right here in Houston over at TDECUStadium. CCU comes to town. Currently
as a touchdown favorite, they areminus seven. The over under is at
sixty four. Give us your playerprop and give us your Game of the
week selection, please Dan. Allright, So, Ac, you're probably
gonna need to find another one becauseI'm sure you had Sudor stand shoulder Sanders

(01:40:03):
easy enough for me to say,passing yards over three fifty and a hook,
I'm going to take the over thatit's all yours. That's a huge
number in that one, But asDion said, it's personal and of course,
I think Sun will probably follow suits. They made it that way.
Three fifty. I'm sure you don'tknow the answer to this. That's got

(01:40:25):
to be the highest passing number onthe board this week. It's out of
control, I would and I don'tthink it's a crazy bet. I would
think so. I mean, theonly other one that I maybe can think
of is maybe some people riding highwith Jaden Daniels. I don't know if
it could be. All right.And for TCU of H pick game of
the week. I don't know ifyou have H wins the game, but
I'm not necessarily confident in TCU,so I'm gonna take you of H with

(01:40:47):
the points you're giving seven like itAc you went the prop first. The
order does not matter to me.I am easy going. It's Friday,
all right. I did the samething last week and it was the same
number. I did not hit.This was one of my overs, if
you will. Anthony richardson passing touchdowns, I gotta go back to the Well

(01:41:08):
because he's coming to town. Ithink he's going to throw a touchdown pass
to Michael Pittman. I do notthink he's throwing a second touchdown pass.
Well I do, so give methe over on one and a half.
By the way, c J.Stroud's number, I'll have to check it
again. Even though he did notthrow a touchdown pass and his NFL debut,

(01:41:28):
it did rise from a half inweek one to one and a half.
Well, that's Baltimore's defense. Andagain, most quarterbacks have a one
and a half number on passing.TV's not Kirk Cousins. What say you
about TCU, You of H,I'm taking the over the over, okay,
yeah, sixty four is the number, So that is somewhat bold,
not really though, Well, keepin mind a week ago it did not

(01:41:53):
look like they'd get to it withyou of H sitting on zero at the
half. Yes, and then allof a sudden were getting fifty six,
and then they went into the eightiesby going into double overtime. I just
think both of these teams are ableto put up points and might I might
be going a little overboard, butah, I get it. There you

(01:42:13):
go. I will take you ofH plus seven. I kind of feel
the same way that Dan did anddescribing it. I think it will be
a very competitive game. I thinkit will be decided late in the fourth
quarter, and thus I think eitherway, a dub obviously gets them to
cover or a game played down tothe wire likely does the same. I
wrote this particular play a lot lastyear, and based on what happened in
Week one and the falling on thesword that happened from the offensive coordinator,

(01:42:39):
I'm gonna take Damian Pierce over fiftysix and a half rushing yards against the
Indianapolis Colts. He said it yesterdaywhen he met with the media. The
day the coordinators meet with the mediais Thursday, and he made note of
it, just that it was notthe intention. And it's very fair to
recognize you have a plan, youknow, even you don't even have to

(01:42:59):
sc ripped out the first fifteen plays, but you have a plan of what
you want to do, and it'syou know, sometimes he gets thrown out
the window, or sometimes you strayfrom it unintentionally. The OC last year
did the exact same thing in Weekone, and you know, Pep Hamilton
knew it. I just I questionedhim then and the media question slowick yesterday
about it in the same way,how do you let that happen? You're
out there for three hours, whoyou know, you're you're watching it happen.

(01:43:23):
You're making it happen by call thoseplays. So I think he'll he'll
do something to correct that. Here'swhat he said about that yesterday. DP
should touch the ball more than hedid. I don't think anyone in here
has any question about that. Imean, we all want to see Damien
run, so that's definitely something wewant to do. Mix him, mix
in Motor, you know, mixin Boone, mixing Dare, all those

(01:43:44):
guys. And in case you didnot know, Devin Singletary's name is Motor.
What about the other ones? Uh, their correct names were given.
DP for Damian Pierce, Boon forBoone, and Dare is Dare. Okay,
all right, three more games topick. We'll hold the Texans Colts
game to the end. You gottwo more wildcard selections to make. Dan

(01:44:05):
all right? Last week, Iwent both college This week, I'm gonna
go one up each. I'm gonnastart off in the NFL. I'm gonna
go with the Chiefs minus three ina hook on the road at Jacksonville.
Travis Kelsey is back. He istorking on the practice field, and Chris
Jones is also back this week,Plus just don't see the Chiefs going to
own two to start off the year. I'm going to tell us you again.

(01:44:28):
They are on the road in Stark, Vegas, taken on Mississippi State.
I took it at nine and ahalf, so I will ride the
Tigers nine in a hook ride thattiger Tiger? Is that a line from
Tiger King? I've seen it,you haven't none none episodes? What were
you doing during COVID watching the lastDance? By the way, the Kansas

(01:44:49):
City cover us, thus a winsince their favorite. That's how the Texans
interer next week as the first placeHouston Texans. Well, it's possible.
I guess all that has to happenis they win and the Jags lose.
Either they're tied with the Jags andand nobody else wouldn't be the first time
they've tied with them. Where theTitans also slide into first place with them.

(01:45:10):
Well, it's funny that Dan wouldpick that game, because I too,
am going to go with that contest, mainly because I think it's one
of, if not the most intriguingmatchup on the calendar for Week two,
simply because of the plot lines goinginto it, namely, what you know
has happened with the Chiefs or havenot happened so far? The Jags are
if they have a win over theChiefs and a division win two weeks into

(01:45:32):
the season, that's an awfully goodplace to be, a very good place
to be, and in that vein, even with the returning Chris Jones fresh
off a one year extension, theChiefs and Jags at fifty one, I
will take the over and the othergame we're gonna see the Packers continue packering
as they take on the Falcons.Who packers like? Does anyone packer like

(01:45:56):
the packers? No? One packerslike he packs. He's the biggest packer
I've ever seen, and he's gonnakeep putting up numbers. Forty is the
number on this one. I'm takingthe over. Believe me, he's gonna
packer. Who are the Packers packingagainst the Falcons? The dirty Birds packering
against the Birds? Forty? That'sit. Yeah, it's not hard to

(01:46:18):
go over. Those teams suck,they absolutely suck. But one's better at
packering than the other. I willtake zero NFL games. Money were mouth
talking Colorado all week. Somehow Coloradois still just a twenty four point favorite.
I will take them to sneak pastthat number against Colorado State in the

(01:46:43):
first half Colorado minus twenty four.Again, I can't stop saying it.
Just watch how good some of theirplayers are, Like Sanders. Dan just
took him to throw for over threehundred and fifty yards. It's like he's
Kirk Cousins or something incredible. AndI will go inside the big twelve again.
I suppose for kse State minus fouragainst Missouri. I think Kansas State

(01:47:06):
is actually a pretty good team,maybe maybe the biggest challenge the Texas Longhorns
inside the Big twelve this year.Ben Dubo's faints, that's he probably knows
what's coming, all right, Texanstime, Texans minus one and a half
over under thirty nine and a half. What's say you, Dan? I'm
gonna go with the Texans in thisone one and a half. Just feel

(01:47:29):
like this is a bad spot forthe Colts, and I feel like the
Texans showed some good things last week, so I believe things. There's gonna
be a lot of turnovers. Whatare you taking the I don't know why,
I bother are you taking the overnine and a half? The number?
Take that son of a bitch.Under the under. Yep, the
under, Yep, it's thirty nineand a half. It's the under,

(01:47:54):
all right. I don't want toturn over. It's locked in. Like
you've already hung up the phone.You're out of the game. Final answer,
you've gone home. Yeah. SoAnthony Richardson's gonna go over two touchdown
passes and the game is gonna gounder. Yes, as Davis Mills playing,
yep? Oh okay, so youwere gonna go over before now here
on Monday and all this stuff happens. It's not happen. Okay, Davis

(01:48:16):
Mills might play in the game,he's not going to play the first play
of the game. You don't knowthat. I feel confident. Yes,
CJ. Stroud rips his peck warmingup. It could happen. It hasn't
before to a quarterback's first time foreverything. Uh. If I think the
Texans are going to be in firstplace, I obviously think they're going to
win. Provided I don't think they'regonna win by one, they will cover.

(01:48:39):
I will take the Texans minus oneand a half. You all are
so dead. There's your stone calledAlmost as good as I feel about my
stupid fantasy football team. You're almostnot winless, dude. That was embarrassing.
Did you have the lowest point totalan hourly? Of course I did,
so that means I owe more money. Explain yourself. There's nothing to
explain. Happened. They sucked.It was a draft day. So you

(01:49:02):
mean because if you like, youknow how you have the projected totals for
the points. I never look atthat. You should? I constantly him
looking at it, never stop.Absolutely should. It's got me. It
had me at a not great number, but certainly triple digits, and it's
got me in a fantastic number thisweek. So I don't know where you

(01:49:23):
again, you want me to sayit? That's you mean? Say it
as him? They Hearston bad ambreise. You're taking what's my avatar photo?
All right? Tell me just tellthe listeners what it is. I want
the people to understand. This isour league here at the station. There's
a team that fancies themselves as theultimate Spurs fan team. That is,

(01:49:44):
and what's their avatar? I don'tknow the avatar Free conversation Wemby the morning
current morning show producer has a hasa squad in our league the red haired
ram Horns. I mean, there'ssome the flavor to this, you know.
Not the Atlanta Falcons are trusty producer. Cal Rough Riders is part of
our league. Ross's go to,Ross's go to. We've got the major
market Burger. I wonder who that'sgoing to be, the bad Ombres,

(01:50:09):
the Houston Toros, yep, that'sMatt Thomas, the Mills High Club,
that's you. And we have ateam called seven ninety Gordy Chris. Seriously,
he's not even doing parodies anymore,so he didn't have that as an
excuse. It currently holds a fourto nothing lead over the Bad Ombre.
Wait a second, Today today isas a Friday going did he do a

(01:50:32):
parody? Did he do a parodyor not? No? Fire? Wait,
what's the first part of that?Don't we have the first part of
that? You don't want him onthe field anymore? Yeah, well,
chop the field, play the wholething. It's so great because he says,
well, fire get out of here. Can we please play the Rosy

(01:50:55):
Rams just for fun? It's Friday'stwo minutes of him is verbally murdering Rosy
Old. I'd like to take somemoney out of her fat ass pockets.
She's Rosie is very unattractive both insideand out. It's so good. I've
never heard a stream of conscious takedownlike that, like you talk about hit
him up the disc track by Tupac. Come on, man, it's like

(01:51:19):
professionally crafted verbal assassination. That's amazing. Would you shut upon? Who the
vegetable telling the orange guy to shutup? Are we about to go to
break these with the two people thatwe could find a run for president in
this country that was really a productorthat was really a productor second, eat

(01:51:42):
some pudding old man. All right, back with the final thirty minutes of
the show. Next, listen toany game anywhere on the iHeart Radio Sport
Talk seven ninety It's home if you'rewell. Rosie O'donald's disgusting, I mean,

(01:52:04):
both inside and out. You takea look at her. She's a
slob. She talks like a likea truck driver. Rosie attacked me personally
because I was very happy when hertalk show failed. The other thing that
failed and this was a real monsterand everybody was sewing her. It was
her magazine. Her magazine called Rosiewas a total disaster. So I loved

(01:52:24):
it. I'd gloat over it.I think it's wonderful because I like to
see bad people failed. Rosie failed. I'm happy about it. She's basically
a disaster. Well. She calledme a snake oil salesman, and you
know, coming from Rosie, that'spretty low because when you look at her
and when you see the mind,the mind is weak. I don't see
it. I don't get it.I never understood how does she even get

(01:52:44):
on television. I believe Barbara madea terrible mistake putting on and I think
Barbara's probably paying a big price.I were running the view, i'd fire
Rosie. I mean, i'd lookat right in that fat, ugly face,
I'd say, Rosie, you're fired. We're all a little chuck,
but Rosy's worse than most the most. But it's not the chubbiness. Rosie
is a very unattractive person, bothinside and outs, a person that's very

(01:53:06):
lucky to have her girlfriend, andshe better be careful or I'll send one
of my friends over to pick upher girlfriend. Why didn't she stay with
Rosie if she had another choice?She told you she's trying to get even
with me, But with me,we fight back. I'll probably sue Rosie
because she doesn't tell the facts toget to the best part. She said

(01:53:29):
I was bankrupt. I never wentbankrupt. So probably I'll sue her because
it would be fun. I'd liketo take some money out of her fat
ass pockets. Great, you knowit's funny about that. And I don't
care how you feel politically one wayor the other. That was before he
was president. She's been trying toget out of that body bag ever since.

(01:53:54):
That was like two thousand and eight, maybe it was a long time
ago. Anyway, you love thatsound bite, you know, you do
just how it fits on everybody,but Rosie loves that sound bite bite.
I wasn't done, you just cutit off, thankfully. So the Astro's

(01:54:15):
batter's eye being a thing, firstof all, I hope all of you
are giving chandeler Rome the credit that'sdue since the last time, like you're
gonna be hosting Astro's on Deck andtenth Inning shows tonight, correct, yep,
So the last time I did that, well, technically it was the
time before that, because I hostedthe Friday and Saturday last weekend. On

(01:54:38):
Friday night is when they got justdestroyed eleven to two. Blake Snell was
awesome. They couldn't, you know, make anything happen offensively, and of
course the pitching was it was adisaster. So I got a bunch of
phone calls after that, naturally abouthow Channel Rome hates the Astros because that's
on topic for something like that,and I was trying to explain to a

(01:55:00):
lot of people, like he's hedoesn't, it's not, it's there,
it's one, it's not one wayor the other. He's just covering the
team, and people, I think, just whatever he does at any given
time, they think he's like outto get them. Yeah, comments right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety fromthe organization, whether it was the Astros
bench coach Joe Spatta or their generalmanager commenting on the batter's eye, you

(01:55:24):
heard it right here on our station. As they've now moved in that direction,
they've made some changes to it before, and it's been changed a lot
over the years, quite obviously,not only that, you know, think
about what it looked like in theirdays at the Dome, just as a
ball club, and then as theymoved into Enron Field and ultimately into Minute
Made Park center Field, has undergonetremendous change. There is no Richie Sexon

(01:55:46):
hit the pole with a long flyball. There is no Craig Visio or
Lance Berkman face planet on Tal's Hill. Now there's just man. I just
couldn't see the pitch coming out ofhis hand because the batters I stinks and
there's so much. Yeah, that'sthe thing a lot of I've said,
come on, this is not thereason they aren't hitting. Could they make
changes to it where it does help? And again, it doesn't just help

(01:56:09):
one team. Both both teams haveto look at the same place. They're
they're a game over five hundred athome. Jeff brought the other point up
earlier. We've talked about it too, So explain So they're pitching is bad?
Also why right, because the otherteams can't see either. The stuff
doesn't it doesn't act when they're gettingshelled. They're seeing the ball very well
coming out of Astro's pitcher's hands.I just it's what you do is you

(01:56:30):
make it and not what you tryto do. Is what they are doing
is eventually you're gonna have a batter'seye that isn't worthy of a complaint.
It doesn't mean you're going to starthitting. It just means there's no an
excuse. Yeah, because it doesn't. The complaints should not exist anymore when
you have a reasonable batter's eye,which I can agree that they can make
improvements to it. Again, lookat the other ballparks they play in,

(01:56:53):
and they're not all perfect, andthere are some that are worse, but
the majority of them are quite simple. Yankee Stadium, for instance, what's
out there, blackness, pure,unfiltered, unimped not as much as the
last Yankee Stadium, which it wasliterally black. I agree it was even
better. Yeah. Yeah. Andyou know, for all the times we
make fun of the Rangers new stadiumthat looks like a Lows, I mean,

(01:57:15):
think about how well the Astros havehit there in the brief time it's
been open. I bought my tickets. Where can I find the tarp?
Oh, it's out in center field, you can, It's on Aisle nineteen.
We keep the tarp in the centerfield of our Lows. Yeah.
And also when when you go outthere to sit in that section, you're
gonna be catching an Astro's home runball because they deposit many of them out
there. That's where you can findthe orange push carts to carry the Astros

(01:57:36):
baseballs to your car when you leavewith your purchase. They're blue from lows.
They're blue, are blue at lows. That's correct. You got the
wrong. Is there a home depotlook alike stadium in Major League? I
don't think so. Maybe they shouldget on that home depot is orange?
A good call. I was justthere the other day, right which you
get? I actually I have togo back. I'm the way home.
So I had a broom, thepush broom, if you will. It's

(01:57:58):
i mean, like a construction qualitypush broom. No, and here's why.
It was a rubber what do theycall that? The neck, the
handle, probably the handles are taught, but it's long. You know,
it was a push broom. Itsnapped off like after a month of owning
it. I said, nay,I take it back in there. I
said, I need this other oneover here that's made out of wood and

(01:58:19):
not flimsy plastic. And it hasa few dollars where they they didn't even
exchange. They did right by me. But yeah, that's what I was
there for. I've I have togo. You ready for this? I'm
ready? What do we talk aboutrecently about my viewing habits during sporting events.
Sometimes what happens. You're angry,so you do things that angry people
do. I'm talking about something nobodyin my own house even knows, and

(01:58:40):
I can't believe they haven't. Ispackle for the holes on the wall when
you punch them. No, Iwas strategic about my anger. When you
Jurrekson Jurickson Champa, Well, itis for this. When he hit that
home run the other night in agame they ended up winning, took out
the light fixture in the theater bathroomwith a phantom punch. It wasn't phantom.

(01:59:02):
It connected. Is that really whereyou broke the handle off? But
you've been in that bathroom. Thereare many there are many, many pictures
hanging, many billions of pictures hanging, And I strategically aimed for the one
thing that would not get damaged thatI cared about. The light switch.
Knock the corner off. I gottaget a new frame for it. What

(01:59:23):
am I if I'm not honest aboutthis on the air. I need to
share with our listening new wallplate foryour light fixtures. Yeah, it's like
two cents at one of those twoplaces doesn't really matter. Dan'll hook up.
I figure I'll go to Lows sincethat's on the out out bound side
of my my way home. Nice. Why is Dan gonna hook me up?
It's a lot of money. Ican't. I can't help you out
there. What are you about?Fifty two cents you can borrow? Dan?

(01:59:45):
Yeah? Sure, I got youlike to do like the d I
y. I was like, no, you're on if you can't fix his
light switch, and he's take thefirst screw out and then you take the
second screw out. You remove thedamaged light frame, and then you put
a new one on and you putthe two screws back in until next time.
They hit a home run against theAstros. Yeah, I mean I
could probably do that. I justthought it was funny though. I thought

(02:00:08):
to myself, X would get akick out of this because of all the
things for me to punch and breaksomething over. It was a home run,
and again the Astros ended up winning. Yeah, that was no accident
what you did. But if youare in an accident, car accident,
truck accident, pedestrian accident, drunkdriving accident, you need somebody on your
side. That's somebody Stewart Jay GussPersonal Injury Attorneys, Trust Gus. Why

(02:00:30):
do we tell you that, becauseit's exactly what you can do with them
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and over fifty thousand clients have beenhelped buy them in time of accident and

(02:00:54):
need twenty four seven, you canmake that call three sixty five or even
online you can trust Gus dot com. Yeah, these collisions we're talking about,
this is not something minor, likea fist into a light frame.
This is something a little bit moreserious. So you're going to need a
little bit more muscle behind you whenthese types of things happen. Hope they
don't. Hope you don't need thisnumber, but if they do, this

(02:01:15):
is the number to call. Eightsix six Trust Gus eight six six Trust
Gus or Trustgus dot com. AdamClinton Alight on Sports Talk seven ninety Fish
goes up Stars, Rockets, basketballlives here. Houston is all systems go.

(02:01:44):
We love our has Strowsen news,but she like that Trump ran now
trust the loan Stars, but youmissed Trump. Now we're talking about Rosie
and we shout though, how greatis this song? It's Trump's our previous
worst song played today. To believewe heard football time in Houston briefly on
today's program. I black that out. Now there's not Now we've got this

(02:02:08):
and the whistle was good downhill.Since you don't like the I'm a go
go astros stylings of Houston's got theastros. I don't even know who sings
dealing around the base, is drivingin the runs. I'm that one.
Yeah, it's fine. It's notthis. This is iconic. Definitely not
this, and I don't know whaticonic means, but I don't think it's
this. I think it is.And you can tell when hang on hand.

(02:02:31):
He used to his old systems goalour stros are wrong track. I
want to hear him go up andoctave. It's coming that a get rid
of that. Somebody went into astudio and actually thought, you know what,
this sounds good? I want itplayed on the radio, and then

(02:02:54):
I was there for him. Whydo I have this feeling that the Cults
are gonna win this game? Everythingon Anthony Richardson, which is perfectly fine.
I think he's gonna be I dothink he's going to be awesome.
I think he's gonna be a greatquarterback. It's only game two, though,
I don't think he's gonna be agreat quarterback on Sunday. I think

(02:03:14):
they're in a better spot because probablyZach Moss will take over for fumbal itis
Deon Jackson and that will help,But not seeing either of the Texans safeties
will also help. Eric Murray,M J. Stewart and Graylan Arnold likely
be the three that get the snapsat safety. That's that's a concern,
but the Texans played so well upfront last week there's really no reason not

(02:03:35):
to think that would continue. Don'treally know the status of Quentin Nelson,
but he has listed his questionable andwas limited at practice. That would be
a big burden to them to haveto overcome playing without him up front.
So I think They're gonna do plentydefensively to win. It's just a matter
of who the offense put a fewtouchdowns on the board. They're not gonna
win with three field goals. They'renot gonna win if they can't get into

(02:03:55):
the red zone a little bit moreoff and obviously have some success there.
Probably gonna see a little bit differentlook from the five that are active at
wide receiver, and you probably willsee a little bit different usage because Noah
Brown went on ir this week.John Metchi is undesignated from an injury standpoint.
As they finished the week, Iwould suspect all five will be active,

(02:04:16):
so he'll be in uniform for thefirst time as an NFL player.
Tank Dell and Noah Brown do notdo the same things for the Texans offense,
I think quite obviously, But thenext person in line to get the
reps is clearly Tank Dell because XavierHutchinson and John Metchi are the only other
two guys that could even be active. So between Dell, Collins, and

(02:04:36):
Woods, it'll be a little bitdifferent look that the Colts are going up
against versus what the Ravens saw.Dell was on the field for a neighborhood
of half the plays, which wasfar less than Brown's snap share, and
maybe those wide receiver screens that weresent Brown's way will be sent Dell's way.
Maybe some of how Baltimore used ZayFlowers will be how the Texans use

(02:04:58):
Tank Dell. Because we saw thoseplays during the preseason. They're they're in
the Texans offense, just didn't seehim a whole lot on Sunday a week
ago. And yes, CJ.Strout has listed on the injury report with
the right shoulder issue listed as limitedpractice, listed as questionable for the game.
I do not have any intel thatsays he's not going to play in
the game. My suspicion is thiswas accurately logged from a protocol standpoint by

(02:05:19):
the Texans, and he'll be outthere on Sunday with no limited And conversely,
defensively, given who they're playing atquarterback, is this if you had
to choose a game for both yoursafeties to be out just because he's Oh,
this is perfectly fine. I meanthat's what I'm saying. Yeah,
yeah, absolutely, because he's moreapt to well maybe not more apt to
use his legs, but he's hewill use his legs as much as he'll

(02:05:42):
use his arm. Yeah, aquarterback who's going to drop back throw forty
balls and pick you apart is ateam I would not like to play because
then you're really counting on Nelson andStingley and Tavier to really be sharp,
because unfortunately it's it's usually the caseif your starters are out, you want
to have his much depth as possible. But there's a reason there's starters,
and there's a reason the other guysreserves. You know, Eric Murray and

(02:06:04):
MJ. Stewart aren't starting caliber safeties, and both have had opportunities to prove
one way or the other, andthey've proven they're best suited to be backing
up the starters. By the way, before we go, Tom and Downtown
tweets in and says all systems gois more important to Houston than the oilers
were. He's got a point.Yeah, it's Friday afternoon and a happy

(02:06:25):
hour. I wonder where that tweetcame from. All right, Well,
I love Tom, Hi do two. I don't know what he got to
that bar that he's apparently tweeting usfrom, but I can tell you this,
if it was in a vehicle fromclassic Elite Chevy Sugarland or Classic Elite
Chevy Highway six, it was certainlya comfortable and dependable ride. You can
get the same thing courtesy of Jeffand Tiffany Sebastian when you go to either

(02:06:48):
location this weekend, for example,especially as it pertains to this weekend,
because the Sugarland location is going tobe open for you tomorrow, but the
Highway six location is going to beopen for you on Sunday Day if tomorrow
doesn't work out. So you've gottwo to choose from, and both of
them offering four doors Silverado fifteen hundredswith payments of four ninety nine a month

(02:07:09):
one point nine percent APR. Overthree hundred to choose from of those.
If you want a four door Silveradotwenty five hundred with payments of six ninety
nine a month one point nine percentAPR, they've got over a hundred of
those to choose from. From theGM Dealer of the year twelve years in
a row in Sugarland, and ofcourse, as I mentioned, open for
your convenience at the Highway six locationon Sundays tell them. Adam Clanton from

(02:07:31):
Sports Talk seven ninety sent you intoeither location. Classic Elite Chevy Sugarland,
Classic Elite Chevy Highway six that isgoing to do it for the show today.
Thanks to everyone who participated, includingour own Jeff Blum at and t
Sportsnet. He'll be on the callwith Todd Callis on the TV Sides night.
Of course, you can hear itright here as you always can on

(02:07:51):
your home for Astro's Baseball Sports Talkseven ninety for Dan for wex I may
see it is the A team.We leave you in anticipation of Astro's coverage
that opener against the Kansas City Royals. Have a great weekend, enjoy all
three games here this weekend as wellas the Texans, and we'll come back
on Monday to talk about it allat three o'clock. Yes,