The A-Team: Jon Morosi, Mattress Mack and Chandler Rome Join The Show

Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adamtalking your Teams series, Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A team Ateam right. All they do is win.
The Houston Astros open up their finalhomestand of the pre All Star Break

(00:25):
portion of the season with a dubbeat the Miami Marlins by a run and
open up the six games homestand withtheir forty seventh win of the season.
Josh Hater coming in taking care ofbusiness. He did not give up a
home run, five for five inhis last five save opportunities, crushing it,

(00:46):
killing it, dominating Renel Blanco.That is so irresponsible of you and
accurate. Renal Blanco with a seveninning performance, Another All Star caliber pitching
performance from the purple haired Astros starter, going through those seven innings, allowing
just two solo home runs and watchinghis offense come through after the second of

(01:08):
those two home runs tied up thegame at two. That what we saw
yesterday at Minute Made Park and manyof you taking advantage of the Astros five
dollars tickets Tuesday happened to be dollarDog Night as well. Five dollars tickets
continue tonight and tomorrow for this series. In light of the activities around the
Houston area and surrounding areas. Thatwas an Alex Bregman ball game. They

(01:30):
haven't had too many of those thisyear, and the more that are in
the future of the twenty twenty fourAstros, the more likely it is they
will get even closer than the oneand a half games behind Seattle they were
for some of last night before theMariners took care of the Padres. Stupid
Mariners, and back to the sametwo it's now been for quite some time.

(01:53):
Astros trail the Seattle Mariners by twogames. In the West. There
are games already underway today's schedule thatimpact the Astros hopes to chase down a
postseason spot, because there are sixof them they are eligible for. Four
of them. Are the Yankees alreadylosing. The Yankees are not yet losing
today. I'm sure you can cookup a potion in your pot and maybe

(02:16):
ride your broom into the studio tohelp with that. Of all the things
I've been called by listeners or peopleon social media, which doctor's got to
be the first? I am kindof combining which because it's a very popular
word to use when discussing fans andotherwise because rhymes with another word. Yeah,

(02:36):
well the reference is more to thewhich doctor nature of your powers,
which were referenced a little over anhour ago on one of our other shows.
But here's the hearing Sports Talk sevennine. It's called the Matt Thomas
Show, and they elicit callers tojust get things off their chest, things
that they're not real happy with.Besides the hurricane. Yeah. Sometimes in

(02:57):
the sporting world, sometimes traffic,sometimes sometimes people, sometimes co hosts sometimes,
yes, host here on seven ninety. The fact that I am on
someone's mind that is a Yankees fanthat much as they live here. Do
they live here in Houston? Yes, that is a listener to Sports Talk
seven ninety. That's why you're ontheir mind. They're just not seeking you

(03:19):
out from New York. Who hatesme and I hate them. We had
a guy though that called the MorningShow that was very loyal Astros fan.
But he lived in New York andI mean he had the thick accent and
everything. I think he was inthe Bronx actually, but he had come
his name Nick t uh No,it wasn't. It wasn't that one.
I don't even think he lives inthe Bronx, but he he had come

(03:42):
to the astronom as a child andbecame a lifelong Astros fan because of that.
Even though he grew up in NewYork and had many many friends obviously
that were Yankees fans, probably hadsome Mets fans sprinkled in there somewhere.
But uh yeah, I just ifyou really think I have that hold or
that sort of sway, or thatI'm even trying to manifested, I'm just
saying what happens every year. Theystart to tailspin right around July, and

(04:04):
they're right on schedule. I waslooking at it last night. They've what
got fifty six wins after last night'sloss? Fifty six and forty eight.
I want to say, is theirrecord or thirty eight? Fifty six and
thirty eight and the Astros have whatforty seven wins now after last night's victory?
Be a lot more if they couldbeat the Yankees' bel cooler, if
they did. What happened to yourface? Dude? Did you see that

(04:27):
I posted on my Instagram? Hehas what really happened to his face?
He said it was a beasting,okay, that that was very swollen,
that it wasn't a wasp. Ita bit. He's been working with b
Paullen and things like that, orI don't know something in Central Texas where
he lives. But going back tothe Astros and the Yankees, like the
gap being as close as it evenis right now, and it did not
go past me that Carlos Rodon isthe one that gave up that three run

(04:53):
bomb last night, and he's righton schedule. Individually, he sucks.
He's a fraud. He always hasAnd for a guy who ran his mouth
about the Astros as much as hedid, it did pain me that he
got over on them earlier in theseason, But then again, so did
everyone else. And I bet youif these two teams played right now,
it would be a very very differenttune. And that's honestly baseball and a

(05:15):
microcosm. That's how it is.And a lot of times, whoever's the
hottest Rangers gets to the World Seriesand wins it some years, or the
Nationals or any other team that hadno business defeating the Astros in a playoff
season series but actually managed to.Rangers are actually both the team you were
referring to from last year's postseason hottestand currently hottest. They've won five consecutive

(05:40):
games about time. So confident isMax Scherzer. When he was asked about
the possibility of waiving his no tradeclause at his contract, he had a
comment about that today, which we'llshare with you. They still trail the
Astros by three and a half games, same back distance back in the wild
card race. Two of the teamsin wild card position ahead of the Astros

(06:02):
are playing right now. That's whyI said there are a couple of games
of note to keep an eye on, so we will both from the Central
Division. The two teams chasing theGuardians and two teams the Astros are chasing
Royals and Twins are both playing today, both on the road in Saint Louis
and Chicago, respectively. Those gameswill wrap up shortly. Astros obviously on

(06:23):
the diamond again tonight over at MinuteMay Park as they work their way through
this three game series with the Marlinsfrom Valdez gets the ball tonight for the
Astros. Witch fromber the one whowears fifty nine, going against kind of
an opener situation or a pitcher notlikely long for the game, though he's

(06:44):
been successful this year. Astros andMarlins. That comes up a little bit
over an hour after we wrap up, So as usual, after we get
done, we get straight into Astroscoverage with the On Deck Show and then
Robert and Steve have you from there. Another team right there with the Astros,
Rays are the team hosting the Yankeestonight in Tampa. The Mariners continue
their series in San Diego against thePadres after winning last night, and it's

(07:08):
an earlier start time. It actuallystarts about two and a half hours from
now. Rangers are at the Angelstonight as they try to convince management maybe
they should not be trading players,because, like we talked about yesterday,
they have a whole host of them. And on that front, General manager
for the Astros, Dana Brown,at his usual Wednesday visit here on Sports

(07:30):
Talk seven ninety, we'll share withyou some of his thoughts, several of
them centered around adding pitching. Wealready knew there was one way they were
going to be adding pitching when theytry to make more pitchers on their forty
man roster appear on the actual rosterrather than the sixty day injured list.
Obviously a reference to both Luis Garciaand Lance mccullors Junior on their way back

(07:54):
all season long until now. Talkedabout that briefly yesterday. What Dana and
Joe spot I had to say aboutyesterday referring to Lance's setback and where things
stand with that and the Astro desireto do some mining around the majors for
major league pitching help, regardless oftheir situations, regardless of the mystery neck

(08:16):
and potential back discomfort for Justin Verlanders. He spoke with the media yesterday and
he's no closer to a return either. All that being said, they won
forty to their last sixty five games, fifteen over five hundred for better than
a third of the season. Oneof the best teams in baseball, one
of the best records in baseball forsuch a long period of time, much

(08:37):
of it without many key performers,including offensively Kyle Tucker. So there's a
lot to play for it. There'sa lot to be watching each night,
a lot to be listening to herewith this team for another run towards the
ALCS. Yeah, and not beingsellers at the deadline. I'm interested to
talk to a national media type aboutsuch a situation. Good thing we have

(08:58):
once Edule Today, John Morosi ofMLB Network will join us at the bottom
of the hour. Of course,we will have our weekly visit with Chandlerome
in lou of football at five.That'll be at five o'clock. It'll be
baseball at five and in between bedJim that wrong. That is the most
wex thing ever to put on therundown for today's show, Mattress. Max's

(09:22):
gonna stop by at four thirty becausewe didn't get well. Frankly, we
didn't get enough of him last weekwhen we were out there. We can
get any of them. I missedit, That's what I'm saying, So
we will catch up with him.He has some good news for those of
you out there who are still ridiculouslysuffering through loss of power. That's just
a whole We could do a wholeshow on that, but we won't.

(09:43):
We'll just stick to sports. Geton down the hall or something. Ramon,
do you think the power will beon by tonight at our house thing
so we can get some pie?Yeah, that's how that would go,
all right. So, yeah,we've got a lot to get to here
on a Wednesday edition of The ATeam. Oh and we'll give away free
concert tickets because that's what we doas well. The A team continues,

(10:09):
Let's go to James and Garden OaksSon seven ninety. I'm gonna talk about
this this local dude here, Ithink he's the witch doctor, mister Adam
Klinton, well over here on youknow, on the station with you guys.
Look, man, he talks somuch trash about the Yankees. Look,
just let it play out. Now, I need a judge's opinion here,
judge's ruling. What was more egregiousthe call from James or the eye

(10:35):
roll from WEX when Dan played it? Just now I need I need a
judge's ruling. How do you gradethe egregiousness of the blindness I'm trying to
put on myself when I roll myeyes all the way to the other side
of my head. Well, they'restill stuck up there. Uh, they're
not stuck up. I can tellyou that they're fine. I just love
that I elicit such reactions from people. I just I you want to go

(10:58):
back to segment one. A witchdoctor was originally a type of healer who
treated ailments believed to be caused bywitchcraft. So, if you are some
sort of Yankees, Are you anAstro's witch doctor? Like who's hurt?
Who are you healing? I thought, yes, I think you're hurting them
or asking for them to be hurt. Now you're now I think we're trying

(11:20):
out what I am. He calledyou a witch doctor. The witch doctors
are supposed to be good. Theyhelp you. Maybe they go to the
top of the mountain. Maybe theyjust have some spells. Maybe they beckon
for excellence and healing. But inreality, you're more like, as James
described, some sort of Gian CarloHamstring Tanton, some sort of voodoo doctor.

(11:43):
Like you're poking hit Anthony Rizzo's ribs. You are handling Garrett Cole's elbow
and refracturing his jawje Carlos, allsorts of things like that. Bringing up
his jobbing fractured just means you gotto bring up the rat since he was
the culprit. There. Wait,wait, who is it again? Michael
Fires Fires is the one that fracturedhis jaw. He threw a baseball at

(12:05):
his face. Why I knew that, but I forgot that it was him
that threw it. Yes, wow, what a dirtball he threw. He
hit him in the face. Yeah, they stretched him off the field.
Yeah, I remember in their careerwhen they faced off again. He went
up and in on him again againagain, then he weared him down.
He went up and in on theAstros as well, the entire organization.

(12:28):
I would call you more of avoodoo doctor. But the Yankees aren't losing
because they're getting hurt because of anyspells you've put on them, because they
suck. Now they just can't beatteams. Mention those two other games that
were going on this afternoon both havegone final, the Twins and White Sox
actually wrapping up a previously scheduled game, and then we'll get to their regularly
scheduled game a little bit later tonight. But thanks to Michael Kopek and the

(12:50):
Chicago White Sox, the Twins havelost and only scored one run today.
Michael Kopek. I mentioned him becausehe came on in the ninth inning and
in true Luis Garcia phil Maton form, he threw nine pitches and struck out
three batters. That is called animmaculate inning. That is immaculate to close
out the White Sox three to onewin today over the Twins. Twins now

(13:13):
fifty two and forty the other teamplaying this afternoon. That matters to Houston
as we are long underway with ourscoreboard watching here with more of the season,
lot more of the season to gothan usual for scoreboard watching. Kansas
City Royals in Saint Louis, CardinalsKansas City six, Cardinals four. Where
are they playing? So they're inSaint Louis. Saint Louis. Kansas City

(13:35):
gets their fiftieth win of the season. Astro sitting at forty seven. Red
Sox have also been crazy hot oflate. They have fifty wins. Those
are the three wildcard teams that trailthe top wild card team, the New
York Yankees. It's hilarious. TheYankees are a wild card. That's gotta
make James E. Bro Yeah,it might not last. No, they

(13:58):
won't even have that by the time. Can I talk about how insufferable I
will be? Even if the Astrossomehow missed the playoffs. If the Yankees
were walking around peacocky all first halfof the year and don't even make the
postseason again, that would be themost Yankees thing in the modern era to
do. Ever, don't forget,guys, you haven't won anything that's mattered

(14:20):
since a Rod had a syringe stickingout of his ass at the plate.
Just remember that Yankees fans, especiallyyou James signed the witch Doctor. They
have a five game lead over theRoyals, who are outside the playoffs.
Thus, if the Royals, RedSox, and Twins all past the Yankees,
well, the Yankees would miss theplayoffs. The Astros aren't even involved

(14:41):
in that discussion yet, and theycertainly are another team that could pass them.
The Astros of eight fewer wins thanNew York six fewer losses, thus
seven games back in the standings.With this much baseball left tonight's game ninety
two for Houston, that obviously meansthere are seventy games still remaining, four
of which come on this side ofthe All Star Break. Two of w
one are still against the Marlins todayand tomorrow before the Rangers hit town.

(15:03):
Astro's reluctant to indicate who will getthe ball in any of the remaining games
after today. After Valdez gets thestart tonight, it will probably. I
would assume Joe Spott will confirm whathe said yesterday because all went well with
Jake Bloss and he'll start Thursday,if they stay on regular turn through the
weekend to get to the All Starbreak, Brown, Araghetty and Blanco would

(15:26):
still make starts, and they don'thave that many other options currently, So
even if they're watching innings and tryingto steal extra rest, you know,
say Araghetty's turn was skipped somehow,all of a sudden, he gets to
rest from the day he made hislast start all the way into whenever they
choose to slot him in after theycome back from the break. If these

(15:46):
are things they're considering, it's stillpossible that it wouldn't just be as simple
as Brown, Araghetty and run AuBlanca. Okay, and that last name
you just mentioned. I'm here tobe the voice of reason to all the
up and arms, Astros fans andothers out there. A few things I
know that Jose Altuve has said thanks, but no thanks to the last like

(16:07):
I don't know gajillion All Star appearancessince his MVP season, and that if
he does it again this year,there's something. There's some sort of rule
or something happens. Gordy and Iwere talking about this and I forgot what
it was. Something in his contract, even maybe I'm not sure, but
it's it would behoove him to actuallymake that appearance in Arlington where he would

(16:29):
be booed, which is hilarious,and the fact that it would make Marcus
or yeah, Marcus Simeons stay athome. I guess, wouldn't it?
Just I mean, I guess,what do you mean? Well, if
Altuve bows out, he's going tobe the plug in, would he not?
Which means he's already on the team. Is that what you're saying,
isn't he Yes, that's what That'swhat I mean. He would start.

(16:52):
They would get their wits start.Okay, Yeah, so he's doing the
Rangers of favor. He's a niceguy, but it's the least he could
do after ripping their hearts out thelast home game of last season. It
wasn't a World Series game they won, the broken up. They're still talking
about it, which is funny,which is what you should do. Talk
about a team you beat to goto the World Series where you won.
No, you shouldn't do that,Okay, you shouldn't. Corey Seger,

(17:15):
same thing. What are the Astrosdoing to the Yankees NonStop? When we
just spent two segments on it talkingabout the Yankees, the team they beat.
Yes, no, no. Ifif you leap frog a team like
they did in the ALCS to goto the World Series, why are you
talking about them at your victory parade. Astros didn't do that. That's what

(17:37):
I was getting at with Seger.Yes, with Seger, because they fancy
a rivalry which could be starting behindthe Mariners. Uh, the Astros Rangers
never. Astros never had anything withthe Rangers when they were doing all their
parading because the Rangers never mattered.Yeah, because they went to parading the
Astros clearly matter. You're using thatterm rather loosely. It wasn't a parade.

(18:00):
I know, it was a procession. I know. I watched the
Celtics, just not too long ago. I watched the uh, the Rats
in Florida, the Panthers, theyall they both paraded here. Not only
Panthers that'll parade. And it didnot look at all like what happened in
Arlington, really because it was ina major metropolis and they were right there
and there was actually a parade thatcommenced instead of what you call what would

(18:22):
you call that? Fighting? Likethis is for you guys. You guys
were with us a circle of thecomplex. That's what I would call what
the Rangers. Yeah, it's likethey were surveying it to see we could
maybe add another statue of Pudge here. Good. Uh, well, maybe
we could add where should the bannergo. Let's kind of slowly drive through
here and get some of Corey's inputand see what Nathaniel thinks about where we

(18:42):
should put this. And Bruce,if you want to weigh in where maybe
we could hang another banner, that'dbe great. Oh yeah, there's some
fans five hundred miles over there thatthat want to high five you for winning
the title? Does Corey Seger havetwo of the most meaningless World Series rings
in the history of Major League Baseball? To every nobody gives a crap about
a Mickey Mouse Championship in twenty twentywhere everybody had COVID, and they certainly

(19:04):
don't give a crap about one thatcouldn't even commence in an actual parade.
I don't know. No, Iwant to really answer from you before we
go to break every team that's wononly one World Series since the Astros began
this run. You know how I'mgonna start next segment as we bring on
a national MLB media member, Isthat the worst MLB World Series parade You've

(19:29):
ever seen? John Morossi of MLBNetwork, coming up next beta, you
see two Sports Talk seven ninety onany device with our free iHeartRadio app.
See that chapoo. I'm stick thatHouston Sports in my ear holes. It
is the eight team here on SportsTalk seven ninety Wednesday edition of the program.

(19:52):
Adam Wexler over there, Adam Clantonright here and has promised joined by
John Morossi of MLB Network. I'vegot a just right into the frying pan
question for you or I guess intothe fire. At this point, there
was a member of the Verlander familynot named Justin that said the Astros are
inevitable. Do you agree or disagreewith him? Well, here's what I'll

(20:18):
say. I think that they havedone an admirable job of jumping right back
into the race in the last monthsix weeks or so, where a lot
of people, myself included, thoughtthat they were looking kind of done through
the first third of the season.Maybe, And full credit to them and
to Joe A. Spotta. It'sa tough, tough task to take a

(20:41):
team that's got the streak of ALCSappearances, and then you step in in
the first beginning part of your firstyear starts going sideways on you, and
you have to really save the seasonbasically midway through. And I think obviously
he's got a lot of help froma very talented court, but I want
to credit Joe and then I thinktwo on the on the pitching side,
they've been able to make it work. I think that probably will need some

(21:04):
help on in the pitching department justwith all the injuries they've had to maybe
acquire an arm. But the goodnews is for Astros fans that you know,
in a lot of different markets thatI'm that I'm talking with now and
going around the major leagues, there'sa lot of uncertainty about what certain teams
are all about how much money theyhave to spend, how willing ownership is

(21:25):
to to put that bill, Andclearly with Jim Crane is not an issue.
I mean, he wants to win. He's going all in. Dana
Brown, I think, is onboard with that, with that concept.
So I think Astros fans are reallypretty lucky. I mean, it's been
an amazing run in Houston for along time, and I think based on
the people they've got in place andthe way that the team is performing on
the field, they've got a verygood chance to keep that going. It's

(21:48):
an interesting time. While there aretwo weeks roughly till the deadline, the
National League has maybe two teams thatdefinitely are in the race, and then
it's a question about the others.Thus, who will be selling and what
will they be willing to part witha few more teams than the American League
and the Astros GM today right hereon our station said they absolutely are looking
for pitching and certainly would hope toland someone. Is there a team or

(22:10):
two that most likely is a matchfor them when looking for starting pitching that
they also then actually have the assetsthey can give up to get a pitcher.
Yes, I think that in thiscase, I would mention the Toronto
Blue Jays. They have they havefallen out of the of the AL East
race and of the AL wild Cardrace in my estimation, They've got Yusa

(22:32):
ka Kuchi who is eligible for freeagency after the season is over. And
if if you're more inclined to lookfor a controllable arm, I would mention
Kevin Gosman and Chris Bassett is bothbeing very good options there from that perspective.
With Toronto, so I would Iwould pay very close attention to their
starts as a group in Toronto.I think the Tigers with Jack Flaherty,
who's got to start coming up.He did miss a little bit of time

(22:53):
with a back issue, so Iwould pay very close attention to him and
see how how Jack is doing bouncingback. I think that there are a
number of teams the Miami Marlins havesome pitching to move. Wouldn't surprise me
if the Cubs would listen on Jamesand Tyne. Of course, he's from
the Woodlands original, which would bekind of a fun story. From a
Houston perspective, I do think there'senough out there Frankie Montas with the Cincinnati

(23:18):
Reds if they end up being sellers, there's plenty of pitching out there.
I think what is in short supplyin the industry right now is good quality
hitting and really good bat to ballguys that put the ball in play.
I think that's why from an offensiveperspective, the Tampa Bay Rays are a
pretty good position if they wanted tosee if they could get some good return
for someone like a Yondi Diaz.I think he is someone that would have

(23:40):
a very high value. Even thoughRandy and Rosarena is having a down year,
he still is a proven playoff performer. East sack paedees as well with
Tampa Bay. So there are somebats out there. But I think the
good news for the Astros is thatwhat they need, in my opinion,
starting pitching out and maybe even abridge bullpen piece. What they need is
out there in pretty supply. We'retalking to John Morosi of MLB Network here

(24:03):
on Sports Talk seven to ninety,and of course the only reason we're able
to have this conversation isn't just becauseyou know the Astros have clawed their way
back into it, but because thismight be the worst division that has elite
pitching at the top of it currentlyin all of baseball. What a weird
Al West twenty twenty four is Becauseyou have Seattle with I think I mean
top to bottom. It's hard toargue that they're not the best staff in

(24:26):
baseball, or one of them,and yet it only has them up on
the Astros by two games, andit seems like nobody really wants to take
hold of this division. You're right, and let's group the defending World Series
champions in there too. And Ithink that the Rangers are one of the
more interesting teams out there because theyin a lot of ways hold the key
to the deadline if they if theydecide that they want to sell a release

(24:49):
or open to selling Nadie Valdi.Think about all the playoffs pedigreed that he
has and all of a sudden hecould be available to a team like the
Yankees or or like the Dodgers.The Dodge, by the way, my
goodness, what a disastrous rotation theyhave at the moment. They just optioned
Bobby Miller down to the minor leaguestoday and they've got Glass now, Yamamoto,
Bueller, and Kershaw all in theil My goodness. I mean,

(25:11):
that's just a remarkable amount of attritionon their rotation here in the middle of
the season. And so I thinkthat with Seattle, I agree they they're
an interesting team. I think theirteam batting average is like two to oh
six or two oh seven at lastcheck. I mean, it's just it's
hard to win that way. Thereare different ways to win offensively. I
made the point I was actually onthe air in Seattle yesterday, I made

(25:33):
the point on how when the whenthe Royals won the American League Pennant ten
years ago, they hit the fewesthome runs in the American League, their
bottom of the bottom of the leaguein home runs and one and won the
American League. But the reason whyit worked is because they hit in situations
well. They hit with the runnersand scoring position, they ran the base

(25:53):
as well, and the Mariners arenot really doing that, so they're striking
out. So that that's so ifif the Astros win the division and make
the playoffs, it I agree withyou, it's gonna be because the Mariners
underplayed what is a really strong rotation, like one of the best rotations we

(26:15):
have seen in recent baseball history,but their their lineup is just it's kind
of been mathematically this nonsensical. You'vegot Cal Rowley batting under two hundred,
and I'm a huge cal Rally fan. He's batt like one nine n eight
and is on pace to drive inlike ninety nine runs. It's just these
are numbers that don't really make sense. Julio Rodriguez all of a sudden not
hitting for powers. So it's it'sa really confounding team in Seattle, and

(26:40):
and they should be up comfortably.If they had a competent offense, they'd
have a ten game lead. Butthey don't. And so that's what allows
Houston to creep back into this.And I'm sure the fans in Seattle when
they see Houston just two games back, they say, uh, oh,
here we go again. Well,and of course you've got a monstrous see
he's coming out of the All Starbreak in Seattle between these two, and

(27:03):
so that's going to be fun,hopefully more fun for Astros fans for the
for the sake of this conversation.But you know, you talk about that
rotation and then you talk about,you know, things like the All Star
Game, and we all know alot of times it's a popularity contest.
But were you surprised that Renel Blancowas not at least on the roster after
the ridiculous story he's been this year. Yes, I was. And now,

(27:27):
granted, there are a lot ofdifferent dynamics in baked into the the
All Star selection process that you've gotto have representation of all the different teams.
You may have said, when youlook at it, if it came
down to a to a conversation Blancoversus Gilbert, because you look, there's
a lot of there's a lot ofbelievers on this on this team, and

(27:51):
so I think that correctly, justbased on the way that it works out,
you actually don't need if you're justtrying to get through the game.
Yes, you want to recognize everybody, but from a standpoint of managing the
game, you don't need any morethan three or four starting pitchers. You're
doing You're playing a nine inning gameand you're probably gonna have him only go
one inning at a time anyway.And so you know, guys like a

(28:11):
Trek Scoobel is a no brainer,a handful of others that I think are
in that same category. It's probablycame down to Gilbert versus Blanco, to
be honest with you, and Gilbert'shad an amazing year. I mean that
he represents one of the better rotationsin the game. I think I happen
to think there were no wrong answersthere. Gilbert certainly had more of a
track record in the league before thisseason started. Blanco, obviously, with

(28:36):
with the no hitter and the thingsthat he did, maybe got on people's
radars a bit more. But Ithink that his recognition is coming and anybody
who has followed the game this seasonshould know who he is. And I
think that he is gaining a lotmore notoriety and respect around around the league,
and I expect that's going to continue. And again, given the Astros

(28:56):
pedigree, you would expect that he, like Bber before and others that maybe
were a bit underrated at times,he'll have his chance, maybe in October,
to make a name for himself onthat stage. Two, John,
can you say with any confidence thatthe fact that he was suspended for ten
games with the substance issue, canyou be confident in saying that had nothing
to do with his All Star mission? Well, I don't think that it's

(29:18):
It would not for me. Ifwe look at MLB's track record in terms
of guys that are allowed to comeback in after suspensions to the All Star
Game are different honors. I donot believe that that played a role at
all. No, I don't.I think MLB from a standpoint of onfield
discipline, knowing all the different mechanicsthat go into these selections, I would

(29:40):
I would be very surprised if therewas a call from the disciplinary office that
said, hey, once he comesback, now, he's still not going
to be in the All Star Game. Honestly that I think that in a
lot of ways, that the stickystuff suspensions are there and they're forgotten about.
Pretty I'm not forgotten about, butthere there. Once you've served your
suspension, you're back. And lookat Max Scherzer, and he was there

(30:00):
right in the middle of the postseasonlast year, and we weren't really at
least I wasn't focused on what hadhappened with his suspension either. So I
guess it's a lot of It's aninteresting question, it's a fair question,
but I don't think it had anybearing at all on the decision there,
levelheaded John Morosi joining us here onSports Talk seven ninety Adam and Adam here
with you, and I mentioned thatbecause both of us are lifers here in

(30:22):
Houston, have either followed or coveredthe Astros for many decades, and thus
we've been here throughout the on fieldand then inside the organization ride for Craig
Bigio for all these years. Therole he plays now, the role he
played carrying this franchise into meaning somethingin Major League Baseball. He and Jeff
Bagwell for so many years, andwe actually talked about it yesterday since you

(30:45):
brought it up in your conversation withhim, how the majority of his career
could very easily have been spent elsewhere. He had nineteen hundred and fifty five
hits with the Astros after he saidno to the Rockies and came back to
Houston, right, And that wasan interesting thing for me to hear in
Craig's conversation. Our podcast is entitledThe Road to Cooper's Down, and we

(31:06):
work on it through the MLB Network, Radio and the Hall of Fame itself.
It's a joint effort and part ofthe idea behind it is to ask
players questions about the ups and downsof a career, of things they went
through that maybe they don't often getasked about. And I didn't even come
into this knowing that I would askhim about when he almost joined the Rockies,
but it just the conversation just sortof led there, and he was

(31:30):
great talking about how it really camedown to one phone call minutes away from
signing with the Rockies, right inthe middle of their Hey David Larry Walker
and Dante Bichett and that group ofplayers. It was so interesting to hear
him describe that. And even thenyou go further back, he almost he
almost decided to play football. Ifa Division I school in the Northeast,
and of course, you know hegrew up on Long Island. If a

(31:52):
Division one school out there had offeredhim a scholarship to play football at Rutgers
or wherever it might have been,he was gonna play football. You never
would play baseball. And then meanwhile, then he enters the when he enters
the draft as a high school senior, the Tigers call him up and say,
listen, if we offer you thisand a bonus, would and if
we take you, would you sign? And he basically said, if it's

(32:13):
not gonna buy me out of myeducation comparable value to what I'm gonna get
at Seaton Hall, then no,I'm not gonna sign. So they didn't
take them. So they had takenhim in eighty four, he might have
been a Tiger during during those years. It's just it's a really interesting alternate
universe conversation for a Hall of Famerin Craig Bigio and I think also switching
positions. That to me is whatstood out the most is he works with

(32:35):
mcalonte to become a good infielder.You move out from back behind the plate
to second base, then he movesto centerfield, then he moves to left,
then he comes. It's just theamount of times that Craig moved to
make the organization better, I thinkspeaks to the person that he is and
why he's still part of the organizationtoday. And you think about he moves
from ketcher to second because they coulduse his legs more at second base.

(32:55):
Then he moves to the outfield whenthey have a chance to sign Jeff Ken
and we know about what a greatteam they had, you know, for
as the results of Craig's decision.That's that's value to your team. And
the other thing that stood out tome about his career that I didn't really
know as much about when we startedthe conversation was his relationship with Yogi Bearra
And how as you probably no formerastros onner John McMullen also owned the Devils,

(33:19):
and because of Craig's connection to theNortheast, he was back home in
the winter time, went to aDevil's game and there was John McMullen's dear
friend, Yogi bearra who of coursewas an Astros coach for a while and
that's how they got to know eachother and so that relationship and Craig said
that it was great, and you'dprobably heard of the podcast. He said
that every day on his birthday,Yogi used to call him and say,
hey, kid, happy birthday.So it's just pretty cool to hear those

(33:43):
connections between Hall of famers and theimpact that Yogi had on Craig. You
wouldn't have thought that, but itwas really cool to hear about those details
and just a really fun conversation.So I hope you check it out The
Road to Cooperstown wherever gets your podcastfor sure, and real quick, John,
before we let you go, andwe could keep going for another three
hours because you been great. Butnot to take any win out of the
sales from that conversation, is inyour opinion, is jose Al Tuove already

(34:07):
the greatest Astro of all time?And do you think the scandal will affect
a potential Hall of Fame vote?The great question. He I wouldn't quite
say already the best of all time? He's up, I mean the postseason
performer. Man, there have beensome great Astros, and I think the
one thing that's unique, so youthink about Nolan Ryan's legacy is sort of

(34:30):
carved up among multiple franchises. Ithink that that might obviously that al Tuobe
is gonna play more years in anAstros uniform than Nolan did already has.
Basically I think Bigio and bagwell,wow, there are such such great players.
Al two by, I'll say this, what he was able to do
entire career in an Astros uniform,sustained playoffs success. I mean, that's

(34:54):
that to me, and I alwaysam interested when I'm asked about the Astros
on different you know, different networksand stations. During the course of the
season, I often make the pointto listen, yeah, was twenty seventeen?
Is there an asterisk there in theminds of a lot of people,
Sure there is. But you don'tget to the Alcs this many years in
a row by luck or by youknow, by a subterfuge if you want

(35:17):
to call it back from back intwenty seventeen. I look at this time
as being yes, complicated, andthere are there is some context to bear
in mind with numbers, especially fromtwenty seventeen, but they've done a whole
lot of winnings since twenty seventeen,and I think that that needs to be
mentioned and acknowledged and celebrated. SoI'm a voter that I've tended to look

(35:40):
at careers in full context. Ivote for Carls Beltron. I don't put
them on my no list because ofhis involvement in twenty seventeen. And so
certainly, if I'm voting for Beltronand he had had that level of involvement
in twenty seventeen according to what thereport said, I'm not going to hold
that against Hoseel Tuovay. Years fromnow and hopefully I've got the chance to

(36:02):
vote him for the Hall of Fame. The Facebook relationship status between MLB fans
and the Astros labeled it's complicated.According to John MOROSSI, hey, it's
still complicated. But you know what, at the end of the day,
the Hall of Fame is complicated inmany ways. And let me tell you
this, if sports weren't complicated,my friends Adam and Adam, we wouldn't

(36:22):
have jobs. So I'm off withthe complexity. I'm off for the discussion.
I love it. Amen to that. John Morosi of MLB Network you
can find him on x or Twitteror whatever you call it at John Morosi.
John, we appreciate the time,great conversation. You got to really
enjoy it to look forward to seehim, Ben and Mad during the course
of the season. All the best, absolutely, John Morossi here on Sports

(36:43):
Talk seven to ninety will come backto wrap up the three o'clock hour next.
Some people strive to have a nicehouse, cushy job, and well
adjusted children. Not Adam and Adamnew Way. They strive to give you
the best damn drive home in Houston'sThanks guys, Bring your kids to work

(37:04):
day is a real treat around here. A little bratts Back to Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler. Fine Sports Talkseven ninety eight team winding down the three
o'clock hour here, I mean plentyof baseball chatter an hour and number one
and much more to come. Grantedinterrew with John Morosi. For those that
missed it, you'll be able tocatch it via the podcast. We'll probably

(37:24):
play back a clip of it lateron in the program. Got our Wednesday
visit with Chandler Rome coming your wayfive o'clock for him to join us.
We've yet to hear from some ofwhat Dana Brown had to say earlier today.
Obviously, the Astros with the seveno'clock game tonight, the availabilities from
over at the ballpark, and thethings that are still on their plates from
both last night's win and what isupcoming to try to wrap up the final

(37:47):
five games before the break in thebest possible way. I mean, there's
five games left until the All StarBreak. The Astros could hit the break
as the first place team in thedivision because they're only two games back heading
into play today, about two hoursfrom first pitch of the Mariners game,
the Astros against the Marlins again tonight. A right hander on the mound for

(38:08):
the Marlins, so the Astros willsend al Tuo, ve Bregman, and
Alvarez out there at one, two, and three in the order tonight.
Alvarez will be batting in this game, but will not need his glove.
Janer Diaz will do the catching withfromber Valdez, the second game in a
row that Diaz has caught him,after a long gap in between games where

(38:28):
he caught him the game against theAngels and then not again until his last
start. He's still the cleanup hitteris yiner Jeremy Paignet short John Singleton continues
to get the bulk of the playingtime over the last week at first base,
but Mauricio Dubon still a part ofthe Astros' efforts. Like last night,
the last three spots in the orderare handled by their three starting outfielders,

(38:52):
Jake Myers in center, Mauricio Dubonin left, and Joey Little Brafito
getting start in right field tonight ratherthan Chas McCormick and a right hander making
the start for however long he staysin the game and low Perfido getting the
opportunity to get back in the lineup. Low Perfito is going yard tonight.
That's my prediction. Y know.He had the you know two things
that happened while I was gone ofnote one was his near homer nearly got

(39:17):
another one and obviously we didn't talkabout it yesterday. The catch that he
made that I think has the stetto the staying power to last as the
not just for the day. Ithink this is the current catch of the
year. I think it's going tolast all season long. That was nobody's
topping. It will be the catchof the now, a play could get
made where like a home run getsrobbed, Jake Myers gets turned well for

(39:42):
the Astros. Yeah, I'm sureit's not going to get like Jake Myers
had two of the catches of theyear and now he's second and third on
the list right because Joey's ahead ofhim. But around you know, if
a game ends, you know,late in October to you know, or
late in September when it's in theplayoff race and someone makes a spectacular defensive
maybe, but as it turned out, any runs that might have been added

(40:02):
to the Twins ledger that day,it was rather important that they didn't.
Since he made that catch, didthat come in the win? Huh?
I couldn't remember. I thought forsome reason that his catch in that that
particular catch came in one of thetwo losses. So it came in a
game they gave up twelve runs inone. I hated they lost two out
of three, But again, theTwins are not bad. So yeah,

(40:22):
with if there was more time withJohn Morosi and hopefully, like he said,
we'll catch up to him later thisyear at Minute May Park, the
Twins are for real. The Royalsmight be here. By the way,
this wild card the Red Sox arefor real. They're all ahead of Houston
still, which is why the twogame gap between the Astros and Mariners for
the spot in the playoffs is juicy, and the division win. That's why

(40:45):
it appears to be much more likelyfor the Astros to get there that way
than any other way. Let metell you about Glasgow Lead Buick GMC.
They, like everybody else, understandingwhat's going on right now and hopefully soon
enough, be back in action.They are and the rev summer sales event
is ongoing. The GMC Sierra twentytwenty four zero down four ninety nine per

(41:07):
month on a lease ten thousand milesa year. You could get that done
right now. You're looking at atwenty twenty four GMC Terrain sl E again
zero down two ninety nine per monthon a lease ten thousand miles per year.
They got eight thousand dollars off twentytwenty four yukond Nali's as well.
They're right off the Kadie Freeway justwest of Highway six. We're talking about

(41:29):
classic elite Buick GMC. We areprofessional great. When you head on over
there, you'll find that brand newvehicle of your dreams. You tell them.
Madam Wexler sent you by two lifelongHouston sports guys named Adam Talking Your
Teams series. Adam Clinton and AdamWexler are d A Team A hour number

(41:57):
two underway here on Sports Talk sevenninety. It is the A Team already
had a conversation which was absolutely spectacularwith John Morosi of MLB Network. We'll
probably play you a chunk of thata little bit later on in the program
still to come at the top ofnext hour. Chandler Roam of the Athletic
making his weekly visit. I checkedin with him earlier. He informed me

(42:19):
that because of his loss of poweron his side of town, he was
at the stadium by one o'clock yesterdayto cover that game that started at seven,
just to enjoy the air conditioning,which, by the way, a
couple of things about that so lastnight and throughout this series. By the
way, astros obviously welcoming fans tothe stadium as they normally would have anyways,

(42:40):
but making some of the seats availableto would be ticket buyers for the
lolo price of five dollars because ofwhat's going on, Like if you've got
no power right now and you justneed a distraction. Well, they're not
going to charge you an arm anda leg to sit in certain sections of
the stadium and take in an airconditioned baseball game, which is great the

(43:02):
Astros to do until I saw this. I saw this one post, and
of course it came across my timeline. This woman was very upset. I
think she was on Facebook because theAstros were, in her opinion, trying
to grab for money and taking upall the power, and several people had

(43:22):
to inform her that's not how itwork with the power. They're not taking
all the power at minute, madeaway from you, and then once your
power comes on, it's okay.It's not how that works. I know
people are like hot and bothered literallyabout the situation right now, but I
thought it was a good gesture bythe Astros. And there are worse places
to be if your power and yourair conditioning that goes with it are out

(43:44):
than in an air conditioned stadium inthe middle of Houston. Yes, a
lot of people are trying to justfigure out ways to get through morning to
night, yesterday, today, thenext day and the next day and again
without any real, definitive answers onwhen the end will be for any of
them with getting their power back onand trying to get back to people's jobs
are still there in some form offashion, depending on what you do and

(44:06):
how those businesses are impacted. It'sjust I think the thing that has people
and I don't want to speak foreverybody, but it's pretty obvious that too
many people that this has happened multipletimes, very recently for reasons I think
a lot of people would like tosee better solutions for is why the picture

(44:29):
hopefully it's I don't know. Imean, I'm hoping I'm not being duped
by anybody seeing a graffiti sign outin the city of Houston. No,
it's real, it's real, andit's it's spectacular. It's just a shame
that it has happened again. Andthen there are people who are in charge
of trying to solve problems, andit seems like multiple times it's been a
very reactive situation and the preparation inadvance for many different types of call them

(44:54):
disasters, and then relief efforts ateverything that we've had. We've had them
all. With the last couple ofstorms here this year. Obviously with the
freeze there, that's a very differentreason why things happen. But ultimately at
the root of it all is tryingto figure out a better solution where whether
of this nature does not have thiskind of impact for our city's residents,
of which we are here on SportsTalk seven ninety and doing some of the

(45:17):
same things that you guys are aswell. You and I talked a little
bit in a different way, justabout the normal yard work, you know,
plant and flower beds, mowing theyard and whatnot, and my extreme
joy in doing all of those things, any sort of outdoor activity yard.
It's my favorite thing to do inthe world is take care of the yard.

(45:40):
Okay, I hope everybody's listening tothat, closely slathered in sarcasm.
I was doing yard work today becauseit needed to be done. That was
me yesterday. All the refuse fromthe trees and some of the roof are
roof a little bit, nothing ofany kind of major variety. I didn't
know this at the time yesterday,whether we'd have power, what it would
look like there. I didn't seeany of it until we got home.

(46:02):
So all that was to be donethis morning and do appreciate the neighbors behind
us for propping up the fence whichultimately is going to fall over eventually.
It's without repair at least, Ohit's good's gone. It needs to be
repaired. They actually had a coupleof fences that are completely needing full repair.
But that's again, that's like somany other people out there. You

(46:25):
go through this neighborhood, that neighborhood, your neighborhood, my neighborhood, if
you've had the opportunity and the timeto try to take care of it one
yard after the next. With everythingthat's fallen down, whether it's house materials
or tree materials, they're all hopefullygoing to get picked up. And as
the city gets through that. Iknow, the garbage in our neighborhood,
the regularly scheduled garbage pickup happened todayand they were able to take care of

(46:51):
that. So we'll be here foryou through all of it. We obviously
are talking a lot about the Astrosand taking care of business at home,
which they have been as good asany buddy in baseball at doing. That's
now twenty one wins in their lastthirty one home games. How about something
that can't possibly come as a surpriseto anybody that's been paying attention to the
Astros these last eight years, especiallylast year and this year. The Astros

(47:15):
won last night. That was theirseventh consecutive win at Minute Made Park.
They had no such seven game homewinning streaks in twenty twenty three. They
had no How was there what wasthe longest winning streak? They could not,
could not, would not. Iwill not win a game at home.
Right it on the board, BartSimpson, I will not win a
game at home here in this firstI thought you were a doctor Susi series.

(47:37):
I will not win a game athome. I will not win a
game at home. And I toldyou then it is an absolute fluke.
I wish I could tell you why. The team wished they could tell you
why, because then you'd have asolution. It was the batter. The
solution was just go play baseball nextyear and everything will be fine. They
are a great home team this year, and that's after they got all to

(48:00):
this miserable start. I keep goingback to the Mexico City reboot when the
team was seven and nineteen. Well, they had gone to that point in
the season. They were three andnine on the road, or three and
ten on the road, and therewere four and nine at Minute Made Park.
They sucked consistently. They were horriblehere because they were a horrible team
no matter where they played. Ithad nothing to do with where they were.

(48:21):
They could not win. So theywere four and nine to start the
season at Minute May Park. Andnow they've won twenty one of thirty one
and are riding a seven game homewinning streak into a game tonight against one
of the worst teams in baseball.We joked that at the time, well,
they just got to get out ofthe country and hit the reset button.
That's exactly what they did. Itis will you know at the time,
when you win those two games andthings started to feel like you were

(48:44):
doing the baseball things necessary to winover the next handful of games. Yeah,
we referenced it as a Mexico Cityreboot and have been referencing it as
such ever since then and at differentpoints in time during that thirteen out of
fifteen, they were the best teamin baseball. Since this date, they
were the best team in base ballsince May twenty second, and they continue
like this stretch of baseball it's sixtyfive games deep. Well, another sixteen

(49:07):
games and it's half of a season. Let's say they go ten and six
in that stretch of games, Well, then you just went fifty to thirty
one, right, I know whaton pace guy would tell me about a
fifty and thirty one stretch, you'reone hundred win team. Well, here's
the deal. This stretch, speakingof which of the schedule, that's basically
gonna start post All Star Break.That's where the rubber is gonna meet the

(49:30):
road or whatever cliche you want tothrow in there, You're gonna find out
exactly who they are. Were theyas bad as their record indicated at the
beginning of the year. No,I don't think we ever thought that,
which was why it was so perplexingand frustrating and just nauseating to watch the
type of baseball that they were playingnight in and night out. But we
kept saying, you are what yourrecord says you are, and honestly,

(49:51):
they were playing as such back then. They've been playing improved baseball, but
you had so many layers of crapto claw your way out of because of
what you did to start the yearhome or road, that now you know,
are they as good as they've been? Well, I don't know,
like we're gonna find out this stretchof the schedule, and again it's not
going to take long at all,as in the second you get off the
All Star Break, we're gonna findout. And that's I said it to

(50:15):
John Morosi, and I've been sayingit. I've had that series circled on
the calendar for at least a monthnow, because once the Astros started turning
things around in June, that seriesin Seattle post All Star Break to start
the proverbial second half loomed large andit's never loomed larger. And by the
way, Astros and their fans andus and everybody else, we're not the

(50:36):
only ones that have circled it.Everybody in Seattle, and John Morosi said
that they have. They've circled,circles straits like etchton Stone. They've circled
that thing because they're probably nervous aboutit right now if we're being honest,
as he was describing the Seattle Marinersand talking about their hitting, which isn't
there, and they're pitching, whichis they do have the worst batting average
in baseball. They counter that withhaving the most strikeouts as hitters in baseball,

(51:00):
as in I'm joking, they strikeout all the time and they don't
get any hits. It is amazingthey actually still lead this division, but
that's because they're pitching, especially onthe starting end, where Logan Gilbert is.
He's a deserving All Star and comingdown to have two pitchers who both
deserve to be there is ultimately whatit did. You still have the rule,
which I do think I wonder ifMajor League Baseball will continue to either

(51:24):
expand rosters for recognition even though you'reprobably not gonna play because for all the
reasons he said, I mean,how many guys do you need to play
one baseball game? You certainly don'tneed twenty six. There's like no games
that twenty six players get used ever, right, you don't need them.
And I know the pitching is different, but you still don't usually use all
the pitchers. But we still haveto represent every Major League Baseball club there.

(51:45):
Ultimately, to me, that's whyhe's not an All Star because teams
that had so few guys to choosefrom, some of them really just one
guy had to make the team asa pitcher or as a starting pitcher,
and it limited the opportunities for anout. But that also means whatever he
wants to do to prepare to havehis most used season of his professional life,

(52:07):
to prepare for that second part ofthe season. He's gonna throw one
hundred and sixty hundred and seventy hundredand eighty innings for the Astros this year
or more, Well he does,he's never done. He doesn't have to
worry about prepping for his one inningin Arlington or his one batter. Now
that's me talking baseball. Of course, it would be awesome for Brunelle,
the purple haired pitcher to be inArlington to celebrate his remarkable journey and everybody

(52:30):
else to hear the story. Butyes, from a baseball standpoint, I'm
sure it will be just fine forthe Astros to get him to I mean,
I hope they don't do this,though they could. He could make
back to back starts, right,I'm fine with actually him. Now.
He could start on Sunday against theRangers and rest Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, and then start again againstthe Mariners. No, don't well,

(52:52):
I don't know. I tend tolean on this. Be shocked if
that happened. I tend to leanon any sort of like you know,
no, your don in the homerun derby is how they want to much.
Yeah good, don't screw up yourswing? Who was in it?
They have five participants in is Arson? Three open spots? Still he's not

(53:13):
one of them. He needs tobe. I need him to either screw
up his swing or whatever. Justput him in there. Everybody wants to
see him. You should do it, So go ahead and do it.
Then, Arson, get in there, all right. We will give away
free tickets when we come back.We will talk to mattress Mac at the
bottom of the hour. Still aton to get to here on a Wednesday
edition of The eight Team. Butnow before I tell you guys about X

(53:36):
marking the spot because if you wantto save on some of the biggest names
in streaming on the network made forstreaming, Exfinity is where it's at now.
I realize a lot of you arewithout power right now. If you're
managing to listen to us somehow,just just hold off on the eye rolling.
I promise you it's all going toget better. We were without power.
It happens. This is just goingthrough it right now. But once

(53:58):
everything gets settled, you know you'regonna want to binge those shows that you've
been missing out on, stream thosemovies and just get back to normal by
being in front of that screen.And that's where Exfinity comes in because now
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(54:22):
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(54:45):
for streaming, and bring on thegood stuff. Go to Infinity dot com,
call one eight hundred Infinity or visita store today. Exfinity proud sponsor
of your Houston astros from h Townfor h Down. This is Sports Talk

(55:06):
seven nights because right now you seeLeighton Houston right now back to the eight
team with Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler. A quick amendment to a comment from
last segment, there are actually onlytwo open spots in the home Run Derby
coming up next week in Arlington,because yesterday Jose Ramirez of the Guardians was
added to the list that includes MarceloZuna, Alec Bohm, Pee Alonzo,

(55:30):
Bobby Wit Junior, and Gunner Henderson. I love that because all of those
players you just mentioned are on teamsahead of the Astros in the pecking order,
and all of their seasons are aboutto go into the toilet. Three
of them are in fact American Leagueplayers. Well, all of the American
League names you mentioned is what Ishould have said, Bobby Wit Junior,

(55:51):
Jose Ramirez, and Gunner. Gunnerand Jose probably matter very little because they're
probably playing for division winners, butboth races aren't yet completed. We just
need to add Arson to that mix, man, and keep all of the
Astros named Jordan out of that competition. They have actually changed the rules a
little bit to try to limit thestrain on the hitters, putting a pitch

(56:15):
limit on it. You only getthis amount of pitches. It equalizes it
a little bit, and then atthe end usually when the clock's running out,
they don't try to like, okay, just boom, but just throw
it faster, start, I don'tcare if it lands. Just let's go.
That's a pitch clock on this well, it's you know, it's it's
a number of pitches. It's kindof they're trying to go the other way,

(56:36):
right, so as not to haveguys speeding up. And that's another
topic that we didn't broach with John, but you could hear in his answer
it actually kind of begged for itwhen he called the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching
situation disastrous because he ran through allthe pitchers that were unavailable to them because
they're hurt. And I've seen otherpeople that followed their teams and their respective

(56:59):
Major League cities start to realize,well, it isn't just us, and
then they say, well, there'slike five teams that are missing five pitchers.
Tyler Glass now is on the injuredlist now, and that's kind of
what precipitated that thought. We knowabout the Astros situation, there's many others
and the question I'm referring to thatwe didn't get into with John yet and

(57:21):
we will with every baseball person thatwe talked to from time to time,
is when will we feel like,as either a team, an agent,
management, or baseball in general,when will we feel like the data is
actually there and we can start saying, well, when we give them a
pitch clock and when we take awaycertain substances. Have we put all this

(57:43):
together? Now? Do we havethe data to say, well, look
at how many more of this typeof arm injury or elbow injury or shoulder
injury that we've seen, and howmany more of this surgery and that surgery
have we now seen players go through? And how many more games did these
injury forced players to miss? Howmany teams are running through twenty five,

(58:04):
twenty nine thirty arms in a seasonand maybe they're you know, in addition
to just the injury side of it, should we look at how we allow
teams to roster themselves throughout portions ofthe season. I mean, the Astros
have done this pretty much repeatedly almostthe entire season, and they had to
do it again with mister Caleb Ortpitching for the Astros this weekend. Well,

(58:27):
somebody else pitched the day before andthey ran through their bullpen and they
know pitcher X is now unavailable forthe next day or the next day or
the next day. Well, hecan't be on the roster because they can't
afford to go into a game withthat many unavailable arms. Because there are
limitations on your roster with the twentysix man roster and how many players on
it are pitchers. The Astros haveactually kind of cheated the system because you're

(58:51):
only allowed to carry a certain numberof pitchers. The Astros cheated, I
know what my words are, butthey're only carrying four starters because they had
two bullpen games, because they've hadoff days. Part of this last road
trip. They had so many offdays they were able to carry in an
additional reliever pretty much the whole time. And jo Aspotta said, awesome,

(59:12):
I will use them. And youknow the orcs that have come up here,
Wander Suerro had a cup. Youknow, Nick Hernandez has obviously been
here and gone. It's just thelaundry list of pitchers they've used. And
I do think it's something we seeelsewhere other teams for the same reason.
But yeah, there's just it doesseem like there's a connection the exact connection

(59:34):
just doesn't have enough data behind itfor anybody to make Major League Baseball reevaluate
at least those two particular rules,substances that can be used, and the
pitch clock, which isn't even uniformover the course of a nine inning game.
This is the amount of seconds youget in between pitches if nobody's on
base. This is the additional secondsyou get if somebody is on base,

(59:55):
and it's it's amazing that I understandwhy. I totally it, and I
think there may still be some tinkeringneeded to try to balance all sides of
that element of the game. Andeven if they changed the rule mid season,
it wouldn't even be the first timethey changed a stupid rule mid season.
I would think this is one theywouldn't. I know, they just
did with the substance change and thespider tack and things like that, So

(01:00:19):
I can't say never, but itsure wouldn't make any sense. Do you
think Garrett Cole would be as upsetif they did that versus the stake?
So, because then he would talkabout it, and then you could play
it, play it, play therecord. All right, we will catch
up with our good buddy Mattress Macwhen we come back here on the eight
team. But first we want tocatch up with lasting joint pain relief that

(01:00:40):
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with a free consultation, So youmake that phone call and you can get

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that done. Seven one three nineone three fifty two eighty five. As
you mentioned, a visit any oneof their for Houston area locations. Get
that free consultation set up today andsay goodbye to chronic joint pain with QC
Kinetics seven one three nine one threefifty two eighty five. Is Kylin Tucker
gotch every Astros game on Sports Talkseven ninety, Wild Tougher the Globe Glover

(01:02:05):
and streaming on the free iHeartRadio appeighteen continues. It is Wednesday afternoon here
on Sports Talk seven ninety and unfortunatelyalso a Wednesday afternoon where many of the
people here in Houston are without power. Just last week who took the show
over to Gallery Furniture, And bywe, I mean Adam and not me
unfortunately because I was out of town. But the Mattress Mac always there and

(01:02:29):
always there for everybody here in Houston, and he is here with us now
on Sports Talk seven to ninety.Great to talk to Mac. As it
is always and I know a lotof people out there on site with you
over at Gallery Furniture are once againbeing treated right and being helped out.
How much of it? How muchdoes it mean to you to again be
able to help the community and alsounfortunately be needed to help the community first?

(01:02:52):
Is always great for the eight teamshere, do you guys have a
personality and know more about sports thanmost anybody I knows. There's always great
about her doing the remote, Alot of fun, a lot of interesting
conversation. Uh, this is avery tough situation in Houston starting Monday around
general in the morning, and uhwith so many people being out of the

(01:03:15):
power. The rain, rain andhurricane was bad enough, but then with
uh two or three millions to peopleout of the sur they just added insult
to inrew with one hundred degree eightand the ninety five percent of humidity.
So we've I think we've had threethousand people out here that the last three
days brow Wednesday, probably do alot of people are hurting, lots of

(01:03:40):
all. Right, We're gonna tryand get a better connection with Mac there
because there's obviously a little bit ofuh, not only interference on the line,
but a little bit of a qualitycondition situation, so we will u
we'll reconnect with him. But yeah, having been out there last week,
and you know, we all knewin the back of our mind that the
storm was coming, you didn't actuallyknow exactly where it was going to be

(01:04:00):
hitting. We didn't know we weregoing to get a direct hit until much,
much closer to the weekend. Buthaving been out there and been around
Mac and seen everything he's done forthis community, just just take the storms
themselves. And I say that plural. Unfortunately, over the years, this
guy has been right in the middleof helping everyone in this city out and

(01:04:21):
this time was and continues to beno different as Mattress Matt continues to help
the community in so many ways shapesand forms and gallery furniture has done that
a million times and now a milliontimes. And one, let's get Mac
back on the line here as wetry to smooth out the conversation here on
Sports Talk seven ninety Is he onyet? Making sure that he's on?

(01:04:44):
Yeah, we don't hear him.It's not punched up. He's still not
punched up there. He is,all right, Max, Sorry about that.
We've got a much better connection nowjust you know, pick up where
you left off. So we knewthe crap was hitting the fan, so
we decided to go out and pickup people in our high water boat that

(01:05:05):
had been flooded out or people who'scar saw. We brought them in,
opened the doors to give free foodand you know electricity. People think,
charge up their cell phone, theirPC and get out of the tremendous heat.
Hey, we had about three thousandpeople on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
expecting three thousand and more Thursday.As we try to help these Houstonians

(01:05:25):
get through this colossal hurricane, windstorm, rainstorm, and then even worse,
the colossal power out. Is becauseall of us are kind of helpless these
days without power, no electricity,no AC, no gas plane at the
pumps, and worst of all,no internet connection. There really is in

(01:05:46):
this day age, it seems likethat is what people are up in arms
about. Like my wife does whatwe do for a living as well.
She could not wait to watch hertrash TV. You know, the Love
Islands of the World and all that. You can't do that without internet.
That's the unfortunate part. Yeah,you can't do a lot of times you
get a lot of people that youdon't know anybody's phone number. They're all
on your phone and you can't callpeople and you can't order for stuff.

(01:06:12):
So it's been a rough two stormsfor Houston, two kind of freaky storms.
But we've been hit hard on theend of the electricity thing. So
one of my campaigns for next year, along with cheering for the Houston sports
teams, are going to be cheerfor center part just fix this electrical grid.
It seems like a worthy thing tocheer for. We cheered for some

(01:06:33):
of the teams and it's worked.Rockets have won a couple of titles,
the Astros won a couple of titles, The Texans are ready to win a
title. And maybe cheering for whatyou just mentioned can help everybody out doing
the same cooling center of food,obviously air conditioning with that cooling center,
charging your phones, all these thingswe kind of take for granted when we

(01:06:54):
can do them without thinking about itevery single day. Or are things that
people can now access over there atyour place, over at Gallery Furniture on
our friend Sam over at Big CityWings helping the cause as well, And
we do appreciate that you did mentionrooting for these Houston sports teams, and
I know the gang was out therelast week. We were out there at
your facility a little over a monthago. Things have certainly changed for the

(01:07:15):
Astros fortunes and it's starting to lookagain like you're going to be cheering for
the Astros in the postseason and hopefullyvisiting with some of the fans in these
opposing cities for an eighth straight postseason. Yeah, getting a warm welcome from
the fans the other day. We'dbe interesting to go to New York say
we're kind of welcome we get upthere. We had a very warm welcome
in Philly a couple years ago.I really enjoyed your interaction with the Phillies

(01:07:39):
fans as we spoke about last week, and hopefully we can get maybe a
new fan base. He'll be acquaintedwith Mattress Mac. But Mac, we
appreciate the time. We appreciate evenmore so what you're doing out there as
per usual. You are just apillar of the community here in Houston,
and we appreciate everything that you doout there. Well, the real pillars

(01:07:59):
are that are so resilient. Sothree cheers for all the Houston residents to
overcome all adversity, just like theAstros and the Rocket and of course of
the Texans. So thanks the ATfor Collins. Absolutely. Mattress mac here
on the A team on Sports Talkseven ninety helping out the community as usual.
You know, the last thing yousaid there was the people, the
city, people helping each other,helping each other in your community, your

(01:08:23):
neighborhoods, all those things like that. And unfortunately, because it's now happened
so recently with this last storm andhas happened so frequently with people who've lived
here for decades like both of us, people are even saying, man,
Houston strong truly means something, thoughI'd prefer if we didn't have to keep
using it. People helping people.I heard it when I said it,

(01:08:45):
Vince Vaughan over there at the dinnertable. I mean, no better company
to help people out there than HolyShirts and Pants. Why was he talking
about that? Was it the cadventure capitalists? You know they're just trying
to help people. But what wasBradley Cooper talking about? Mister Ricky Seal?
Oh my gosh, it's just anabsolute He played that role to perfections,

(01:09:09):
all right. Think about that tablethough. Todd was there, Yeah,
and they wanted to tell he leftto go paint things. Senator was
there obviously, Yep. Grandma wasthere. Grandma was there, although they
wanted to tell they wanted to takeher to bed. God say, Jane
Seymour might be of all the theOh my gosh, she's still in the
house. Pervert. What a greatfilm. I cannot believe that film is

(01:09:33):
almost twenty years old, and yeton a relatively last year more than this
year, the Meat Loaf Nightly withAstros Baseball. You know what's funny is
that people have to have that explainedto them by Jeff Blum, our weekly
guest, who, by the way, will join us coming up on Friday
out at the ballpark, just intime for the hated uh Texas Rangers to

(01:09:57):
come to town. All right,we will take a quick time out.
Don't forget Chandler roam of the Athleticas the guest brigade continues here on a
very busy Wednesday edition of the ATeam. He's coming up at the top
of the hour here on sports talksof an ninety Adam Clinton at Adam went
for It. The eighth Team,An update to the update from earlier today

(01:10:17):
when one of us said there arethree spots available for the Major League Baseball
Home Run Derby, when in factthere were only two spots available. Well,
now there's only one spot available,and to the delights of one of
the Adams you, a new participanthas been named selected to participate in the

(01:10:38):
twenty twenty four Home Run Derby Monday, July fifteenth at his home ballpark at
Globe Life Field Adulas Garcia. It'sgoing to launch all Okay, I thought
I thought you were going to tellme that Jordan had been chosen. I
purposefully did not look. Not hishome ballpark. Yeah it is. Every
ballpark is got it. I gotit, But especially Toronto. No,

(01:11:00):
he loves it north of the border. Well when they get an All Star
Game, I'm sure he'll say.Yes. They probably will, since they've
done so much to the Rogers Center. Seriously, why wouldn't you want to
go to Toronto in the middle ofthe summer. It's easily the best climate
available and easily one of the bestvenues after what they've done. Sure,
but and it's better than Arlington.Players get in late Sunday. Do some

(01:11:20):
media on Monday and hang out.Eight of them hit balls over the fence.
Then the next day they play fortyfive minutes of baseball and go home
and cares where the game is.Well, then why not have their families
go with them and they get towalk the red carpet, which is usually
outside, which they've always managed todo. They walk to the ballpark every

(01:11:42):
other day. They can walk outsidewherever it is. But not everybody is
going to be as polite a boottown. So one spot left and one
of the people you probably he's not. He already said he wasn't. Well,
I want to make sure Arson getit in there. The dullest Garcia
Do they know he hasn't been roidingthis year, so he's not gonna hit

(01:12:03):
mey oh he will. He willhit plenty. They are so desperate to
make the Rangers relevant again. Wellthis is I mean, it doesn't happen
every time, but their home ballpark. They don't even have a starter.
This is kind of pathetic. There'ssee I did. I saw a bunch
of that stuff. That's utter nonsense. Why who, there's only nine who

(01:12:25):
should be starting. You're the defendingWhat World Series? You mean to tell
me that if the Yankees were havinga similar season as the Rangers are having
this year, albeit you know,mediocre at best, and they had just
won the World Series last year.MLB wouldn't have figured out a way to
still force half their outfield in thereor two thirds of it. That's the
team that's not a starter. Startersare voted on by the fans. This

(01:12:47):
is they're an Arlington. How arethey gonna get a starter? You're right,
they should have a good player thatpeople would want to vote on and
see, but they don't exactly.They suck well Jose two Bay wins at
second base every year. Jordan Alvarezis clearly gonna win a DH. Now
that show he is not a DHin the American League. So that's two
spots they can't win. Where's Corey? So happens that even though Simeon's terrible

(01:13:11):
this year, he happens to playsecond base, so he can't get voted
in because there, but the correctterm is that he's terrible every year.
He just played above his head likethe entire team did last year. The
only difference is he was getting paidstupid money because what's his name? I
forgot his name? What's their GM'sname. I forgot a six foot ten
guy. Yeah, what's his name? Again? It's super unique. Nobody

(01:13:31):
else's named Chris Young that played ChristopherOld. Such a great GM. You
paid a quarters of a billion.He is a great You said it himself.
Nobody even looks at them as aremote threat ever. Again, yeah,
they're sellers at the deadline. Greatchamps, great Championship, great World
Series. Arizona and Arlington, theworst World Series ever. Even the Marlins

(01:13:58):
had a more captivating World Series iswhen they play the Yankees and then they'd
have a fire sale every time they'dwin, which is what the Rangers are
gonna do. I did like thatthat line. Also with that team,
they did it twice. What didthey do? They they bought that They
bought their win right, Yeah,I guess, but that that's what was
all. They went out and theybought all these players and they won a
bunch of games. Did everybody goesout and buys players? That's literally how

(01:14:18):
you operate a professional sports team.You buy your players. You spend your
money on your players. I alwaysthought it was I get it. I
know the difference. I know whyit was said. But even the Astros
could be accused of it because theywent and bought just they happened to then
repay him and extend if they boughtZach Rank. Yeah, what's the big
deal? They bought some teams dothe other team was paying for a chunk

(01:14:40):
of the salary right? Well,at least in Arizona's case. I don't
know what was the situation with Detroit. They actually gave up good prospects which
they weren't buying justin Verlander. Theywere giving up home grown talent to add
to their homegrown talent. The Astrosactually build the champion, a sustained champion.
Nobody's confusing with this flash in thepan trash third place Rangers. So

(01:15:02):
do you believe the Rangers believe inthemselves management that they will not be sellers?
They probably have. They got atwenty six man ross. They probably
have six guys at least that theycould move at the deadline if they wanted
to. If Sures Are included himself, which he said today he would not
by not waving his no trade clutch. So he's going to stay in.
They're gonna win the one five ina row. We're gonna be in this.
We're gonna win. But Andrew Heeney, who's gonna pitch this weekend against

(01:15:25):
the Astros. Lorenze Wu they justsigned, which was another you know,
there's every which way you do it. That's a good Did you like how
I resisted calling Nate Uvaldi a bumand were on the phone with John Morosi
just because could be available, KirbyYates could be available. Other players that
they have that they could easily getreinforcements for for next because quite honestly,
the players they need to win withwill still be there. They're gonna have

(01:15:47):
some question marks about their pitching somehow. Andrew Heeney's been one of their most
effective starters over the last couple ofweeks, which is crazy because he throws
beat balls at the Astros. Ican't believe other teams aren't hitting him like
they do. Who's there others ArtJohn a phenomenal start to the season,
and now he can't get anybody out. Yeah, he's gone three or four
starts now where he just cannot.Yeah. Hate to see it. You

(01:16:10):
hate to see it. I meanagain, and I'm not I know,
I'm saying it for effect because theyplay where they do and they have Texas
on their gear, which should beoutlawed by the way. You don't represent
this state. You don't even representthe city you're supposed to represent. You
represent the Metroplex. But like theyall, all of them, Adulas Garcia
included, especially played so far.The only guy on that team who's a

(01:16:31):
legit star is Corey Seeger, andhe played as much last year or played
as such last year for sure.But everybody else on there, with the
exception of Josh Young, I'll giveyou that that's a homegrown talent who's actually
like, I respect that guy.He he wore the Astros out too,
But all the other guys who did, Adulas Garcia included, it just comes

(01:16:53):
off as even more fluky than usualafter what they've done this year and what
he did before he got to youknow, the tray of the before he
was trays the cafeteria. Yeah,that's what What did he put on his
tray? Well, I need somejello, a little bit of this.
I'll take a couple of ice waters. I'll have two creams and one clear.

(01:17:14):
I mean whatever he put in,I don't know. Do you have
some greens and I'll take those andget some reds oh, I'll take those
two allegedly, you think, eventhough there's never even been one story written
about it, even possibility. No, we just saw the size of his
head. So he ripped the threadsoff of the sleeves of his shirt by
putting it on. The Last timesomeone's skull got bigger, he was hitting

(01:17:34):
seventy three bombs and was routed upfrom Balco. You can't dispute that nobody's
skull gets bigger. It's not amuscle, it's a head, and it's
bigger than it was by like tentimes. He looks like he went from
like six and seven eighths to seven. And what was that bad movie that
Jack Nicholson was in about the aliens? Jack Nicholson and Aliens? Huh,

(01:17:57):
he's in the mid nineties four Mar'sAttacks. He looks like the guy on
that movie with the big head.Why did you say it was a bad
movie because it was? It wascalled Mars Attacks. It sounds excellent,
it sounds like it sounds smart.A C level actor stars in it.
Jack Nicholson had no business being inNo, he's eight plus. What was
he doing in it? He wasprobably pro He was in a lot of

(01:18:21):
bad decisions. That year him,he was in Wolf, which was terrible.
I'm I'm I'm questioning the actors inthis movie. Now, he had
a run there where he was absolutelytrying to recapture the magic from nineteen eighty
nine's Batman, where he was thejoker, and it just was not happening,
probably until as good as it gets. I would guess that's when he

(01:18:43):
kind of recovered. I'd have tolook. So Mars Attacks, uh huh.
Danny DeVito, I don't know,I've never seen it. Michael J.
Fox, I don't know sure.Jessica Parker, she has her oat
bag in the film. Pierce Brosnan, is this the wrong movie? Well,
he was in Missus Doubtfire that sameyear, so that was definitely a

(01:19:03):
wrong below the success of that film, all right. I mean, just
because Tim Burton made it doesn't meanit's weird. There you go, Tim
Burton trying to recapture the magic ofBatman. Was Jack Nicholson the President of
the United States of America? Ithink so he was. And you know
what, I take that back,because he was in a Few Good Men
in nineteen ninety two and that wasawesome. Do you think as we roll

(01:19:26):
to break here, he could winthe election. Jack Nicholson could absolutely run
right now and beat both of thesejokers. Which movie character would he want
to be to win the election ofany movie he's been in Melbourne? Would
he want to be or would thecountry need him to be? Because Jack's
the one. So Jack from theShining No Jack, Jack from Batman,

(01:19:49):
Departed, Jack from Batman, Jacobafrom protecting us. He literally, he
literally has to basically overrun the oldman in front of him to get to
where he wants to be the boss. And he did. Now I'm not
saying he does he should do thesame thing that he did to Jack Palance,
right, Yeah, you're not sayingthat, right, But I'm just

(01:20:12):
saying the old guy in front ofhim gets out of the way so he
can be in charge. Can't waitfor him to get his name on the
ballot. Vote for Jack is avote for success, all right. When
we come back, we will catchup with our good buddy Chandler Rome of
the Athletic will ask him his favoriteJack Nicholson film, as well two lifelong

(01:20:32):
Houston sports guys named Adam Talking YourTeams series Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are
the A team. A five o'clockhour is underway on Sports Dog seven ninety
and no better time than the presentto bring in our good buddy Chandler,

(01:20:56):
Rome of the Athletic here on SportsTalk seven ninety. First and foremost Chandler,
other than appreciating the time, areyou doing okay? Post storm?
I am what. I got powerback. Actually during the game last night,
I think about eight o'clock, Igot power back. So I'm very
lucky. I know there's a lotof people out there that don't have power.

(01:21:16):
Hope you're hanging in there. Hopeyou have enough liquor to keep you
nice and lubricated. I hope youhave box fans to keep you nice and
cool. And maybe you can listento adults and tones of Robert Ford and
see sparks tonight Sleep. They didproduce an entertaining product last night. Earlier
on the show, I called itbasically an Alex Bregman game, the type

(01:21:39):
of games his career has been litteredwith, but in twenty twenty four there
have been far fewer of them.Huge hit to bring home McCormick, huge
home run to put him back infront the second time and final time,
and more of that clearly is alwaysneeded. But it does seem like the
post All Star Break portion of theseason, which maybe will include Tucker Will,

(01:22:00):
jord On Alvarez, and Alex Bregmanbatting in succession in this lineup,
they're just going to need more ofthat. What has he just kind of
continued to I guess, slowly butsurely talking about Bregman get more and more
comfortable at the plate on a dailybasis rather than falling into these ruts here
and there. Yeah, I thinkI think he's been great since probably middle

(01:22:21):
of May. I mean, hisnumbers have been in line with what he's
not his whole career. It's justhe got off to such an awful start
and it was longer. It wasa longer bad start than normal, So
the numbers are going to take awhile to kind of skew a little bit.
But I mean he's been everything thatthey've needed him to be. The
only thing is the on base percentageis a little bit down. You know,

(01:22:42):
he's still swinging a good pitches,the chase rate isn't high, and
you know, he's been one ofthe more vocal people that said that they're
swinging at too many pitches. They'reswinging too much, and I think even
put himself in that category. He'sgot the highest swing rate of his career
right now. That's been kind ofa lineup wide problem, but it has
dissipated a little bit lately. Ithink just watching this team, they bats

(01:23:04):
have looked a little more patient.They're not swinging at everything, and when
they are swinging at everything, they'reusually swinging at good pitches and hitting the
ball in the line, hitting theball well. So yeah, they I
don't think this year we've really seena lineup with a fully functioning Gregman,
Altuve, Tucker, and Alvarez alltogether, And if we have, it's

(01:23:27):
been for only stretches of like fiveor six games. So the promise of
that after the All Star break hasto be great. But what this offense
is doing right now without Tucker,they after the ass have to be really
encouraged, because I mean they haveconsistently been really really good offensively for about
almost going on a month. Now. Well, did you bring up Kyle
Tucker. We'll try to quick fireit if you could. What do you

(01:23:50):
know and where do things stand withTucker and Verlander and Lance mccullors and Luis
Garcia, Tucker is still not doinganything on the field until he does that.
Until he gets on the field todo things. He can do as
much baseball activity inside as he wants, but there's not going to be any
meaningful progress until he gets back outon the field. Luis star see it.

(01:24:14):
It's a little interesting. Joe'spota waspretty like specific that they wanted him
to throw a bullpen today before goingout on another rehab start. He did
not throw that bullten today, andJoe's spotta said they'll get him here tomorrow
to quote see how he feels andthen see if he's gonna throw a bullten.
But Joe spot it insisted that heis healthy, that he feels fine.
It's just the byproduct of the storm, and the storm kind of throws

(01:24:39):
him stuff off and threw him outof his routine. Lance McCullers, there
isn't much of an update other thanyou know, he had a setback.
He's not growing, and it soundslike they're going to have a meeting here
in the next couple of days aginto determine it's next for him, and
then Justin Berlander played what I wouldlabel as a very intense game of catch
today. Just watching it from thepress box, really seemed like he was

(01:25:01):
putting the foot down and getting afterand letting me go a little bit.
Had a pretty long conversation with JoshMiller, Joe Spawna, and trainer Jeremiah
Randall after Joe Sponta didn't really divulgewhat was said or kind of give me
more of a timetable, but itdid look like he was throwing with more
intensity. But again, until hegets off of the mound, there's really
gonna be no meaningful progress. Talkingto Chandler Roam with the Athletic here on

(01:25:26):
Sports Talk seven ninety for his weeklyvisit, speaking of pitching, I guess
a two parter about Renel Blanco.Were you as surprised as many were that
he did not make the All Starteam? And then secondly not just so
much the All Star Game? Butis it kind of a blessing in disguise
as this guy's you know, nevernever, I guess approached the threshold of

(01:25:46):
innings he's about to pitch this yearand they're going to ask him to pitch.
I was surprised that he didn't makeit. But then once I looked
at the voting breakdown kind of howthe guys got in, like it made
logical sense. It's a tough rule. It's a rule that you know,
every team has to have representative andit just so happened that Tyler Anderson and

(01:26:06):
Logan Gilbert for the two representatives ofthe Mariners in the Angels, Gart Crochet
too, the gar Kurshoe's going inAll start, no amount of what team
he played for, you know therewere And then you look at the player
balloting. Tanner how got in onthe player balloting Blocker didn't. And then
if it seems like the one thatyou can maybe quibble with is col Reagan's

(01:26:27):
getting in over him. That's anMLB selection. But col Reagan's had thrown
I think fifteen more innings than Blancoat that point. And you hate to
keep bringing this up, but youdo wonder if Ronald Blanco doesn't get suspended
for that foreign substance violation, heprobably makes at least one more start,
maybe two more starts, and ifhe pitches the way he has hitched all

(01:26:47):
year, then he's probably in theAll start. You know, as far
as whether it's a blessing. Youknow, I don't know what they're going
to do on Sunday. There's stillTBA if he pitches Sunday, and which
which he has lined up to do, is if they stay on schedule where
an Oblanco would pitch Sundays and Rangers, that would leave him ineligible to pitch

(01:27:08):
in the All Star Game, andunfortunately for him, would probably prevent him
from getting a spot altogether. Becauselook, I think at the end of
the day, where an Oblanco doesdeserve to be named an All Star,
whether he pitches at the game orgoes to the game, like who really
cares, But he deserves that accoladeof being named in All Star because that's
something that you know that goes onyour resume forever. And I do wonder

(01:27:30):
if they pitch him on Sunday,if they announce he's pitching on Sunday,
then that may you know, theleague, the league's going to need replacements
for some of these pitchers that aren'tgoing to be available. If they listen
for an al Blanco as their scheduledstarted on Sunday, that may mean that
they're just not going to take himbecause they're not going to give a spot
to someone that's not going to pick, especially a replacement start. Yeah.
But yeah, so to to toanswer your other question, yes, he

(01:27:55):
needs a break. We saw itlast night, the velocity with down.
He got through it because the Marlinsare awful, but if the velocity continues
to trend down a little bit,that's gonna be a big concern. And
you wonder how effective you can keepbeing because he's going to enter the All
Star Great probably at about one hundredand seven hundred and eight innings pitch and
he's never plarned more than one hundredand twenty five in a season. He's

(01:28:18):
a big, strong dude. Butthat's good. Take it as toll.
They're going to really have to mindsfor him to make sure his stuff stays
christ. Yeah. Over the nextfour days for the Astros of the final
four games before the break, JakeBloss acknowledged as tomorrow's starter by Joe Spotted,
but they've left it to TBD forthose games that you mentioned against the
Rangers over the weekend. The Marinershave actually listed their probables for their final

(01:28:41):
four games Thursday through Sunday, andLogan Gilbert is their scheduled starter for Sunday,
which would put him in that situation. You were just mentioning about not
being available for that, so thatcould be interesting. One other thing about
what's been going on on the fieldfor the Astros and now it's become a
regular thing again, and that's JohnSingleton getting penciled in at first base on
are pretty much everyday basis, whichis just what Joe a Spotta kind of

(01:29:02):
said from the beginning. I'm playingguys that deserve to be out there,
and for some of the time atthe beginning of the post Jose Brew scenario,
that was Mauricio Dubon and now withJohn Singleton earning those days, is
that essentially what it boils down to. He's gone out there and given them
productive at bats, made a niceplay defensively late last night in the game,
and continues to get the call,especially obviously it gets right handers,

(01:29:25):
but more often than not, he'sjust been there there guy this last seven
eight days. Yeah, I thinkit's a couple of things. The abats
or the atbats are always gonna bedecent because he's always going to swing at
strips and knock swing at balls,and that's advantages. But I think the
other thing too, is like itseemed like it was either walk or home
run for him earlier in the season. He's sprinkling in singles. He's sprinkling

(01:29:48):
into some good at bats and goodcontact to all fields. And it's not
just a locker a homer. Likehe's able to kind of pass it the
town a little bit more and getsome hits things like that, And I
think he's to me he's made hemade a nice play last night. He's
made a couple of nice plays onthe road trip that kind of went unnoticed
a little bit. And I thinkpart of it too is Mauricio Dubon's value

(01:30:10):
to this team is more as autility guy. They can sprinkle around everywhere,
and you know, Chess McCormick's notproducing. They need someone to maybe
step up in one of those corneroutfield spots. With Mauricio Dubon to night
and left field, they need Dubonmaybe a little bit more to help in
the outfield. Maybe it's been atfirst pace, so I think kind of

(01:30:31):
all those factors are leading to it. But this is I mean, John
Singleton's earned it. He's earned morerun, He's earned more consistent at bats
than Joe Spott is giving it tohim. You wonder if it can sustain
like this, But you know,for right now, he's an above I
mean you look at ots plus,he's an above average major league hitter.
Real quick before I'll let you go. I just saw a quote from Brian

(01:30:55):
Cashman who's talking about being happy thatthe Yankees got off to a hot start,
and I'm pair of phrasing so thatthey have enough cushion to hopefully work
through this because it's gone on longenough. Is is there annual swoon which
usually happens right around this time ofthe year, kind of getting more and
more surprising with each passing year.I mean, you know, they lost

(01:31:18):
on Carlos Stanton, who's having ahuge year for them. Both these come
back down to earth, and sois the do go. I think for
me, the pitching is what's reallykind of swambics to me. I mean,
Luis Heel was never going to havea sub one e R all year,
and he's kind of regressed pretty hard. Carlos Rodon seems like a master

(01:31:38):
at this point. I mean,Garrett Cole is always gonna have his bumps
coming back but he's been better lately. Strumman's just kind of whatever I think
they're pitching has been the thing tome that has been the most surprising of
how they've done this. And youknow, Aaron, Judge Monson or like
two of the best players in baseball. And I think this is showing again

(01:32:00):
just like you know the Angels haveshown over the last ten years. You
can have one or two of thebest players in baseball and it doesn't matter
if you don't have time to supportaround them. And I think the I
think the Yankees will be okay.I think there's too much talent on that
team for them to not turn itaround. But they need people around Judge
and Soda to step up because it'sgonna It's been a tough go for them.

(01:32:20):
And the Orioles are really good.The Red Sox are surprisingly like Alex
Cora is just like getting a biggerpaycheck by the day from whenever team's going
to manage next year. Just howthis team keeps playing and no reality or
they as good as their record,but Alex scr has got them playing well.
They're they're really really good and Ithink at a tough division and if

(01:32:41):
the aches aren't careful. They couldlook up and they could be out of
the playoff spot here in a couplein a couple of weeks they' and start
playing better. That would be reallyreally sad. Chandler, we really appreciate
the time as always. Glad tohear you're safe and sound, and we'll
do it again next week. Allright, thanks guys, Chandler, roam
of the athletic here on Sports Talkseven ninety. We'll come right back.
We'll get you caught up on someof the things we have not discussed in

(01:33:03):
in case you missed it, Thisis Green, Green, great given Doe
from Breen sit down. You're listeningto Adam Clanton and Adam Wesley, the
two Adams, the eights and eighteighth Sports Talk seven ninety. Huh for
your rockies. All right, let'sget to a few items we've not yet

(01:33:26):
gotten into today. This is incase you missed it, though you heard
it already here on Sports Talk sevenninety. Dana Brown, Astro's general manager,
is weekly visit on the Sean SalisburyShow with Sean and Brian that is
at nine thirty every Wednesday, oras his schedule permits, but he's almost
always there. On Wednesday at ninethirty, the unfortunate situation with Lance McCullers

(01:33:47):
was obviously discussed, along with LuisGarcia's situation moving forward. You heard a
little bit about how I Joespota discussedit this afternoon at the ballpark from our
guest Chandler Rome. Moments ago.This is what Dana had to say about
the latest on Lanceoma colors and alittle bit on Luis's return to the mount.
The setbacks are really difficult when you'recoming off these injuries, and so

(01:34:11):
you know, hopefully he can grindthrough it. You know, it's gonna
it's gonna take us some time beforewe could really, uh you know,
get figured out. But uh,you know, hopefully we can, you
know, we can figure this thingout and he can get through it.
But I don't think it's a youknow, there's no damage to the arm
or anything like that. So that'syou know, that's refreshing. It's just

(01:34:34):
that he's in the grind right nowto get back. And when you're coming
back sometimes you start to you know, you start to stress the arm a
little bit when you just you know, you start throwing and you start trying
to pick up the velocity, andI think sometimes it's just it's normal sort
of. I liken it to therunner who's running distance and he's breaking his
legs down and he gets a littletired, and then now all of a

(01:34:56):
sudden he gets the second win andhopefully, you know, him going through
this, he'll he'll he'll get afight through it. Well, mccomors could
come back and be a real goodforce out of the pin. That would
be great, you know, Andso I'm still hopeful, you know,
we we have to let the medicalside play out. As far as Garcia,
I think Garcia is going to giveus some starts, yep, And

(01:35:18):
you know that, you know,I think we're gonna you know, we're
gonna be finding that area and he'sgoing to be exactly like getting the trade.
And we're also in the market foryou know, potential trade. You
know, hopefully, you know,we could land a starter in this trade
market. I know it's gonna goall the way down in the wire.
You know, teams are going totry to hang in there and try to

(01:35:39):
make it to the postseason, andthen they'll sell probably late. The ones
that are going to sell a coupleof things in there to address. You
obviously mentioned the situation with Lance,and we talked about it yesterday, the
setback and the plan. They're notone hundred percent sure what is the next
course of action. He did quiteclearly say potentially be a force out of
their bullpen. I think it waskind of obvious that all these pitchers coming

(01:36:01):
back from injury at a certain pointin time, they you can only start
so many guys. I'm not sureif you would piggyback any of them.
Know, if they'd go to asix man rotation, at some point,
you were going to have to sendsomebody to be a part of their bullpen
crew. And maybe that is whereLance might end up. But again,
I don't even know if that's realisticfrom a timeline standpoint. And the other

(01:36:23):
thing was, as we talked aboutwith John Moros, who was they are
absolutely making the phone calls necessary tobe prepared to pull the trigger on a
deal for a starting pitcher as thetrade deadline approaches. He said it'd probably
go right down to the wire,as most deadlines do. John Morosi was
with us earlier, and that interviewfrom three to thirty is available to via
podcast. Right there on Sports Talkseven to ninety. But it's very easy

(01:36:45):
for you guys to access it becauseyou're already subscribe to the eighteen podcast,
which is where you'll find it rightThe Toronto Blue Jays are a team that
are probably going to have to admitthey need to sell, and they do
have some interesting names there, andI'm just curious how much the Astros might
be interested in them. But alsofor the entirety of that Dana Brown interview,
you can catch it at the verysame place. Subscribe to their podcast,

(01:37:09):
or catch it right there at SportsTalk seven ninety. The iHeartRadio app
lots of different ways to catch allthe great stuff right here on your home
for Astros Baseball. Another place toget great stuff is Vegas. Just got
back from Vegas, could not quiteextend my vacation quote unquote for another couple

(01:37:29):
of days, unnecessarily to coincide withBig twelve media days in Las Vegas Allegiance
Stadium. The wonderful hosts drove byit many times when I was out there.
You can see in it during theday a little bit, so I
got a little bit of an ideawhat it might be like to play football
inside the death Star or host footballteams like Oklahoma State, for instance,

(01:37:49):
they made the decision to include likelythe best running back in college football,
or certainly one of them, OliGordon. I had a chance to watch
him very up close and personal fromthe sideline last season. A very very
very good player, but a DUIarrest just recently, not long before media

(01:38:12):
days. They chose to send him, chose to address it head on a
twenty year old Gordon, and soobviously he did address those questions. It
was very much the topic of theday for them and that school, and
they're head coach. Many sit downstake place, and when Mike Gundy sat
down with a couple of reporters interviewers, one on one type of setting,

(01:38:35):
this is what he decided to sayabout Oli Gordon's arrest. So I looked
it up on my phone. Whatwould be the legal limit like in Oklahoma's
point eight and Olie was point one. So I looked it up and it
was based on body weight. Notto get into the legal side of it,
but I thought, really, twoor three beers or four, I'm

(01:38:58):
not justifying what all he did,only what decision I made. Well,
I thought I've probably done that athousand times in my life, and I'm
you know, it's just fine.So I got lucky. People get lucky.
All he made a decision that hewished he could have done better.
But when I talked to Ollie,I told him said, you're lucky you
got out light because you make alot of money to play football. So

(01:39:19):
back in the day, being ableto cover the cost of what he's going
to go through would be difficult fora college player. It's not for him.
Now. I'm not speaking for him, but I'm just saying that's not
an issue for him. Where tobegin. I first of all, it
doesn't surprise me that Mike Gundy gavethat sound bite. Secondly, it's probably

(01:39:43):
not even the most controversial thing he'sever said in front of a camera or
microphone. He's up there. Tome, it is, well you use
the word controversial. Yeah, themanner in which he's handling this, and
the fact that he would say whathe said, he's calling him and I'm
obviously as one of the most famoussound bites of all time, But there's
nothing really controversial about that. U. Though you felt bad for the reporter,

(01:40:05):
I don't think you should have feltbad for her all Jenny Cars.
There's nothing wrong with how what shedid, how he handled he'd be downgraded
and she was fine. It wasthere's nothing I didn't I don't think there's
anything that the conscious heart was howhe acted, and so you could say
the same thing how he's responded toit. We'll get to his clarification because
he clarified his comments. I don'tknow why you need to, because they're

(01:40:28):
hard to I mean, unless there'sa part you thought we misunderstood, like
taking I've done it a thousand times. Did you mean you've made a bad
decision a thousand times? Did youmean you've had three or four beers or
I don't know, maybe two pointfour and three point six because your body
weight is different. I mean,I guess there could be something to misunderstand.
But you know he's talking about thesecond part. Oh, but since

(01:40:49):
we're paying him, it's not abig deal for him to handle it like
that has nothing. Why are youeven bringing that up? I guess to
make people forget what you just said. And I guess what I'm trying to
say is that because it's Mike Gundy, nothing really surprises me, even though
I'm not at all, condoning whathe's saying or even how he's saying it.

(01:41:11):
It's just it doesn't surprise me becausehe's just that guy. I mean,
it surprises me a great deal.I can't believe anybody would go out
there like he's trying to make apoint. But the way he did it
was so ridiculously awful. Do peoplemake mistakes? Do twenty year old people
make mistakes? Do people make mistakeswith alcohol and driving and actions? For
sure they do. And the mannerin which he's trying to back his player

(01:41:33):
is outrageous to me. Yeah,done it a thousand times, and that
is what he meant. Yeah,but it's might misunderstand Dundy, so that
I know what you're trying to say, we're probably both trying to get to
the same conclusion in different ways.I'm just like, well, yes,
Mike Stundy popping out, this isMike gun is what he does. It's
kind of like that at all.It's kind of like, to me,

(01:41:55):
well, it is crazy what he'ssaying, But to me, it's like
Charles Barkley, that's just Charles beingCharles. How many times do you sue
there? I mean, I don'tI mean, I can appreciate Kevin Harlan
and all, but yeah, likethis is bad. No, it's not
great at all. It's not greatat all. In fact, I don't
I mean, maybe this is thething that finally gets Oklahoma State to step

(01:42:17):
in. I don't know. Isit a fireable offense him saying this is
no, but it's just a terribleway to handle it. Like some people,
these things happen and a lot oftimes, Okay, how did the
school handle whatever transgression was? Hesuspended for a half? He suspended for
two games, which is the Dunesthing? Are they coached by Urban Meyer?

(01:42:38):
Whatever the situation is, and sothe punishment kind of elicits some of
the questions they got here because it'snot expected that he would miss any time
for this incident. And then todo that is like I couldn't shake my
head more faster, harder, hurtmyself to he's sitting there, the way
he delivers it and the description ofyou know, I've done it a thousand

(01:43:00):
times. So it's just he didclarify. So I'll give you that as
well. One thing that I cansay in You're twenty as a head coach
that I probably wouldn't say in yeartwo is everyone needs to look in the
mirror and think, have I donethat and not gotten caught? Have I
had two or three beers and drovea car? Because two or three beers
can put you over the legal limit. People need to put some thought into
that and not throw stones through glasswindows. Not that it's right. And

(01:43:24):
I want him to understand the seriousnessas a parent, and I think he
did. And to that point,I can't even tell you how many times
there's been a member of the mediawe don't necessarily find out about it.
But part of the problem I thinkwith especially today's media, is you are

(01:43:45):
quick to judge or paint a storyany which way, and I get again,
this is not this is what itis, very black and white subject.
You drive drunk or you are drunkunder the influence whatever that there's nothing,
there's no excusing that. But Ido think in this current world of
getting clicks and it sells sex,whatever it sells. One more element of

(01:44:10):
his clarification remarks is probably worthy ofadding as well, which came, of
course, after he received the criticismfor his remarks. My intended point today
at Big twelve Media Days was thatwe were all guilty of making bad decisions.
It was not a reference to somethingspecific. So he is trying to
spin back the manner in which hedelivered. I've done it a thousand times.

(01:44:30):
It was not in a reference tosomething specific. I'm not sure how
it wasn't. But there you go, this edition of Mike Van or Mike
Gundhy in front of a microphone.I'm sure you dropped that Van Gundhy reference
in there, because I'm not sureif you saw it, but I bet
a lot of people did. Incase you missed it. One of the
reporters covering USA basketball workouts when theywere you working out with the coaching stuff.

(01:44:57):
You know what basketball coaches do.They'll involve themse make the entry pass,
run through a screen. Here's whatyou want to do here. Well,
jeffan Gundy was doing that and Lebronwas defending him, and so he
was running through this entire play offto the right, run through a screen,
over the top, get the ball, do this, and the reporters
comment, Lebron James locking down JeffVan Gundy. I mean it was pretty

(01:45:18):
fun. It must have looked likea midget. They're playing their exhibition tonight,
by the way, against Dylan Brooksand Team Canada. How many Well.
Also, Kawhi Leonard can't play inthe Olympics because it's not right,
and he's replaced by Derek Lee.Who's Derek Lee the baseball player. Yeah,
Derek White. Derek White. Whothat's a surprised to me. I

(01:45:41):
know he's only the thirteenth best playerin the available pool of players. I
know that he had a sensational finalsactually for a role player, shot very
well from distance, and I meanhe was not just a bit contributor.
But I know they will do alot a lot of teams, so there
will be opportunit unities. I thinkhe'll play the fewest minutes of anybody on

(01:46:02):
the roster. It just feels likethere was roughly fifty other better guys gotta
be available. Yeah, I haveto want got to be in shape.
Yeah. Usually it's from their previouspool of guys that have worked out with
him. But sometimes they just say, oh, the team, the select
team was right here with us.We'll just take one of them. They
chose not to. It's it's thatwas a decision, all right. We

(01:46:24):
will continue here on the A teamSports Talk seven ninety thirty minutes or less
before we make way for Astros onDeck. Here on your Home for Astros
Baseball timing stop by Dubaugh. Fantasticplay by Mauricio Dubon. This is Mariso
Dubon Sports Stock seven to ninety andthe iHeartRadio. You're home for the Astros.

(01:46:45):
Hey, WEX about time. Rememberthe time we had John Morosi on
the show. John Morosi joined usearlier today. Yeah, as a matter
of fact, we appreciate everybody that'sbeen with us throughout the day. But
for those of you that weren't withus around three thirty when he joined,
we'd like to give you a littlesnippet of that conversation. We'll welcome you
in on the phone lines and everywhereelse as we continue over the final twenty

(01:47:05):
plus minutes of the show before weget to Astros on Deck. But Ac
got to open up the interview andhe decided to dip into the Kate Upton
family with his opening question. Therewas a member of the Verlander family not
named Justin that said the Astros areinevitable. Do you agree or disagree with

(01:47:26):
him? Well, here's what I'llsay. I think that they have done
an admirable job of jumping right backinto the race in the last month six
weeks or so, where a lotof people, myself included, thought that
they were looking kind of done throughthe first third of the season maybe,
And full credit to them and toJoe a. Spotta. It's a tough

(01:47:51):
task to take a team that's gotthe streak of ALCS appearances and then you
step in in the first beginning partof your first year, uh starts going
sideways on you, and you haveto really save the season basically midway through.
And I think obviously he's got alot of help from a very talented
court, but I want to creditJoe, and then I think too on

(01:48:12):
the on the pitching side, they'vebeen able to make it work. I
think the probably will need some helpon in the pitching department just with all
the injuries they've had to maybe acquirean arm. But the good news is
for Astros fans that you know,in a lot of different markets that I'm
that I'm talking with now and goingaround the major leagues, there's a lot
of uncertainty about what certain teams areall about, how much money they have

(01:48:34):
to spend, how willing ownership isto to put that bill, and clearly
with Jim Crane is not an issue. I mean, he wants to win.
He's going all in. Dana Brown, I think, is on board
with that, with that concept.So I think Astros fans are really pretty
lucky. I mean, it's beenan amazing run in Houston for a long
time, and I think based onthe people they've got in place and the

(01:48:55):
way that the team is performing onthe field, they've got a very good
chance to keep that going. Awesomestuff continue the rest of that interview,
and I think that's how we feellike other Major League Baseball teams are acting,
certainly how their team's fans are acting, believing, and there's still a
lot of season left. The Astroscould easily finish eighth or ninth honestly,

(01:49:16):
in the American League, they couldfinish third in the seedings by winning the
division. I don't think they're gonnacatch either of the two teams that lead
the other two divisions, but Ithink anybody else is fair game, and
they you just have to hope thatwhat they have done to date hasn't stressed
them so much that it becomes difficultto do that. I don't want to

(01:49:38):
go with the saying that people havewhen teams go to the NCAA tournament or
when they get through a long seasonand have they peaked too soon? Well,
have they won? They won't gotan eighteen game winning streak going into
the NCAA tournament. On the basketballside, well, w they loss serve
this team? Well, I don'tthink the Astro is really peaked at all,
so I'm not too concerned about that. But the starting pitching is going

(01:50:00):
to be a concern until the lastday of the season no matter what happened.
It is my opinion, and thiscould be wrong because of how the
season plays out. I don't thinkyou can peak if you're not at your
most healthy, although you can obviouslyplay better with less health, which they've
done. Like if they get KyleTucker back and Justin Verlander back and they
don't play at as well of apace, then you could make that argument.

(01:50:24):
I just I feel like the bestversion of the Astros hasn't been able
to play yet. And I wastalking with somebody a few weeks ago about
a member of the Astros organization,let's put it that way, who had
pointed to the twenty sixteen season andhow it took so much out of them
just getting back to the Mendoza lineor whatever that that was in this person's

(01:50:47):
opinion, why they didn't do anythingof substance, And then of course twenty
seventeen happened, and here we are, YEP, long trip through all those
CS's and they're almost they're a littlebit past the halfway point of this season,
and the idea that they're going tothe ALCS again is absolutely alive and
well unbelievable. Three that only threegames over five hundred forty seven forty four,

(01:51:08):
but they're also fifteen games over fivehundred during their sixty five games stretch
since they left the country, wentto Mexico City and have played good baseball
since then. It's a reasonable pace. You know, you double that and
it's still with plenty of baseball tobe played, you're get doing it again.
Is not that easy, I'm themath is there, But you got
to play baseball at roughly twenty fiveto thirty games over five hundred if you

(01:51:30):
really want to ensure you're going tothe postseason. They made it to the
postseason last year eighteen games over fivehundred, ninety and seventy two. Most
of their other recent teams have beensignificantly better than that record wise, which
is crazy. That was the worstof the teams, and that was the
one that went to its seventh consecutivealcs. Actually have a question. I'm

(01:51:51):
going to part the a giant cartway ahead of the horse when it comes
to the postseason here in twenty twentyfour. In the final segment coming up
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MEN'ST Clinic dot com today, dadusbefore we wrap things up, Tom and
Downtown's been holding the longest to sevenone three two one two five seven ipologies
sorry Toms guys to get on yourshow. Great show, by the way,

(01:53:47):
thank you. I have talk inone way and I think you can
probably get me out or hear meout. I don't think they should make
any grades at all, and thathurts that hurts. I think he's got
a bad signal. We got ahe's underwater. It's bad. I apologize

(01:54:13):
Tom, because I know you waiteda while, but the uh I couldn't
hear it. What are you saying? Yeah, I can back him up
on this because obviously I took thecall. It's he doesn't think that the
Astros have players worth trading. Thatis always the thing that with all these
prospect lists and all these rankings theycontinue to tell us, And it's been
going on for about eight years now. Now I do understand, and I'm

(01:54:36):
on board with they have liquidated thesystem with so many trades they have already
made. But it only takes oneor maybe two or maybe three GMS to
disagree with. No offense to thisperson, Keith Law or anybody else that
puts out a prospect list. Teamsdesire your players, that's it. Joel

(01:54:57):
Praffido not a top prospect, nothingthat he had done throughout much of his
major Minor League Times suggested this guy'sgoing to hit eight thousand home runs in
the first five weeks of the minorleague season. Do you think teams might
have gotten interested in him? Doyou think that's somebody you could include in
a deal. Are the Astros insuch a surplus position shockingly in the outfield,

(01:55:19):
especially if they know and they're theonly ones that do know that they
feel like Kyle Tucker is a longterm Astro. If you know you're gonna
resign Kyle Tucker, if you've hadenough conversations, or if you really believe
you can prevent him from hitting freeagency, Well, you've got two guys
locked up for five years with Jordanand Kyle. How many spots in the

(01:55:39):
lineup are there every day for JakeMyers, Chas McCormick and Joey Lo Perfito?
Then well not enough? How muchinterest is there in Jake Myers when
he's having a better season. Iget it. Their prospects aren't blowing people's
doors off. And while they don'tblow people's doors off, Hunter Brown will
be elite now he was a topprospect. And what's Jake bloss gonna do?

(01:56:00):
Probably keep pitching well for the Astros, but the pitch of big times.
He also hasn't been in the systembut for a year, right,
just got drafted, don't you feellike? And again this could be recency
bias. Don't you feel like whenit comes to Astros prospects or even guys
they bring in that are other teamsprospects, the pitching always seems to inevitably

(01:56:21):
rise to the top where the hittingcould be hit or miss. Yes,
more often than not, I guessyes for sure. And I think what
ultimately will happen is the Astros willtry to make a deal and they probably
will fall short. For the reasonI'm fighting against, it's not that they
don't have players, in my opinion, that teams will want. They may
be lower level players, but otherteams have more, and other teams are

(01:56:43):
more willing to give them up,and other teams have more players that are
ready to be major leaguers and arewilling to give them. It's about they're
gonna get out bid. It's not. And yes, that's partly the same
thing. They well, if theyadd more, well, how can you
have more prospects? You're good they'replaying for you, or they've been in
a way to go get Garrett Cole, Zach Granki, Justin Verlander twice and

(01:57:03):
on and on. Even these otherdeals. The the Trey Mancini deal took
a player Jase McDermott. That couldhave meant something in a deal, or
meant something to you. The ChristianVasquez deal took away and Manuel Valdez and
a brave you are Miles Straw dealgot you Yiner Diaz. So it goes
both ways, but you moved toget him Miles Straw. You got two

(01:57:26):
guys that contributed or are contributing,respectively to winning teams in that deal,
and you gave up Miles Straw.I do actually at the end of the
day, and I've said it before, so I'll have to say I agree
with Tom. I don't think they'regonna end up making a deal, and
I'm hopeful that it doesn't get metwith bad vibes in that clubhouse. I

(01:57:48):
think this year is different, andI'm not saying this hasn't been the case
in other years, but I thinkthis year is different in that you kind
of are getting a new player backwith just getting healthy because you're getting Verlander
and Tucker back, and Luis Scarcia. Yeah, but I'm more thinking,
Okay, those other those first twoI mentioned are going to absolutely contribute to

(01:58:10):
whatever you end up doing positively,whereas Luise it's gravy and Lance is not
going to And we're about a monthin Verlander's case and more than a month
in Tucker's case from the last timethey played, and we don't really have
a timetable on either one of them. Just say it was a fracture with
Kyle Tucker to keep choking us boneBruce, by the way, I was

(01:58:30):
what I was going to get toparty, putting the cart ahead the horse.
Yeah. Uh. If the Astroswere to make the postseason, I
know it would probably be more relaxingfor all involved if they won the division,
But do you think it would bemore fun to have another division championship?
Or maybe let's go let's go throughthe wildcard route this time. Hate
the wildcard route really, I mean, if they're the wildcard, they're probably

(01:58:51):
not going to be the number fourteen. They're probably not going to be the
four. There'll be a five orsix, which means they got to win
too out of three on the roadat Yankee Stadium, could be at yank
Just kidding, they won't make thepostseason. I'd rather just go ahead and
take the days off. Yeah again, though, even if they win the
division, Rangers last year say takethe days off if they win the division,
they're probably going to be the threeseed. Unlike previous years, they're

(01:59:12):
gonna have to play in the wildcard series. Anyway, they would just
be at home, which in twentytwenty four would have been Yeah, good
bad last year, good this year. So yeah, all right, just
wanted to throw that out there.Oh, by the way, breaking news,
not really as we depart, theNBA has agreed to terms on a
record setting media deal, according toESPN, on eleven year agreement worth seventy

(01:59:38):
six billion dollars with multiple partners.Unbelievable. Yeah, and Turner's not out
of it, but they've got tomatch one of the part portions of this
total deal in order to keep Ernieand Charles and Jack and Kenny pumping into
our living rooms. Hopefully it happens. It's not looking good though. What

(01:59:59):
is looking good is your ability onceyou get back on your feet and maybe
look, maybe you're you've got remorsethat you didn't have a capable vehicle throughout
the storm earlier this week, getinto a twenty twenty four custom Silverado over
at classicallye Chevy Sugarland or classically ChevyHighway six. I hear a lot of

(02:00:19):
people regretting that they didn't have agenerator at their disposal. Well, there
are a lot of people that alsoregret not having a truck at their disposal,
especially when the water started to geta little bit higher. They really
can come in handy, not justobviously when storms blow through, but for
a lot of situations. And theonly reason I bring it up is because

(02:00:39):
Classically rev Up Summer Sales event isgoing on right now, and you can
get into a twenty twenty four customSilverado with four ninety nine down four to
ninety nine a month on a thirtynine month lease with ten thousand miles per
year on said lease. Just oneof several deals they've got available to you
at the GM Dealer of the Yearthirteen years in a row, Classic Elite

(02:01:00):
Chevy sugar Land, and always keepin mind that Classic Elite Chevy Highway six
is open for your convenience every singleSunday. It's how Jeff and Tiffany Sebastian
won it. They are the ownersout there and they are here to help
you at either location. Tell themMadam Clanton from Sports Talk seven ninety since
you into Classic Elite Chevy Sugarland andclassic Elite Chevy Highway six. That's gonna

(02:01:20):
do it for today's program. Gotto thank everybody, and I do mean
everybody. This stopped by the showtoday John Morosi of MLB Network. Of
course, you can check out thatinterview on the podcast Mattress Mac in the
four o'clock hour and Chandler Rome ofthe Athletic in the five o'clock hour.
Check out all of those interviews onthe podcast sports Talk seven ninety dot com.

(02:01:43):
You know who's up next, RossViial. He's got the Astros on
deck show making way for Astros v. Marlins, part two of a three
game set. He's got you nextfor Wex, for Dan I may see.
It is the A team here onSports Talk seven ninety. We'll talk
to you guys again tomorrow at threeo'clock

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