The Gang is Back Together....But The Astros Are Falling Apart!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised, my.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Girl Nolan.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Multipot the magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston sports.
Chill lage down for the only homegrown afternoon team is
talking Your teams. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the
A teams.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
A welcome back from the weekend.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
Oh my dear lord, Adam Wexler is sitting in here.

Speaker 5 (00:48):
It's gonna be awesome, great to be back. It's been
a while, been a few had a week off for
you at the celebration of our great nation, then a
week off for.

Speaker 4 (00:59):
Me another year older.

Speaker 5 (01:01):
And here we are ready for the All Star break,
the Derby tonight, the game tomorrow, nothing on Wednesday, and
not long after the Astros will take on a different
foe from inside their division, one that has visions of
passing them inside the division. Can't do that this weekend,
but they can get an awful lot of that distance

(01:23):
between the two of them gone if they keep playing
the way they're playing talking about the Mariners and the
Astros keep playing the way they most recently played on
this very disappointing home stand. But we have a lot
of things to catch up.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Long Yeah, this is what happens when the show, as
you know it, misses two straight weeks, essentially because one
of us was out over the last two weeks completely
like it doesn't matter what day it was. We weren't
the whole show for the last two weeks, and in
that time, well I thought for a second there we
were going to go an entire week without the Astros

(01:55):
winning a game. We got real close.

Speaker 5 (01:57):
It seems so bad because it's so recent, you know,
losing way they did to a team that everybody loves
to beat, Losing the way they did to a team
that hadn't beaten anybody in ten games, and then losing
all of those games, they still went four and five
over their last nine because just before that, again missed
time when we weren't here together, was the sweep of
the Dodgers. So there's a lot of things to get

(02:18):
into with this team over the next four days before
they play again. What does need to happen, what has
most recently happened? Why they are where they are? The
good and the bad? We do, obviously on a Monday,
have the good, the bad, and the ugly, and some
things certainly would fit under there. There's some pretty clear
reasons why they are where they are why, which is
a good place, a very good place. There's only six

(02:40):
teams that have a lead in their respective divisions. There's
only two teams atop the American League, and the Astros
are still one of them keeping pace or staying ahead
of Toronto, who's now taken over in the East with
Boston charging hard. That's really to me over the last
two weeks which changed the most. The race for the
postseason in the American League now is a full on sprint,

(03:01):
even with two months to go, because now there are
four teams in the East, and now those teams in
the Central that well, they're not going to catch Detroit.
They're absolutely in the wildcard race. There isn't necessarily even
an elimination for the Rangers or the Angels yet from
the playoff race. And obviously the Mariners have started hitting
the ball so well that they've been winning a bunch
of games. They did a really, really important thing if

(03:24):
they're going to chase the Astros this past weekend in
their series against Detroit. So there are, again around the
league a bunch of different things that matter to Houston,
but most specifically inside their own building, and that I'm
not sure where you know if you spend these last
two weeks that we have not been here together for,
which includes the sweep of the Dodgers in their building,

(03:45):
including a national TV appearance, so everybody got to see
the damage that can be done the six game homestand
that was very much the opposite of it with what
the Guardians did to the Astros. Another Lance mccullors appearance
that did not go very well, and a bunch of
other reasons why the Astros only one once where they
have been winning NonStop at home. At one point during

(04:06):
this run towards the division lead, they were the best
home team in baseball. Well, usually the best home team
in baseball doesn't lose five out of six at any
point in the season. Their worst stretch was losing four
out of six to open the season when they played
the Mets and the Giants and really hadn't seen anything
like it. They still have an insanely good record against
the other division leaders at thirteen and two in the

(04:29):
five series that they've played against them. They'll have one
coming up not long from now against potentially a different
leader in the East. They've yet to see the Yankees,
they've yet to see the Boston Red Sox, and all
those things being said, I do think there was still
one more thing that stood out to me about the
Astros more than anything else since I was last here.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
Let's hear it.

Speaker 5 (04:52):
How they handled Jake Myers. Oh my gosh, I think
it's worse than any other injury that they've had in
the last five years.

Speaker 4 (05:02):
That you know what's that's saying.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
It's saying a lot. That's why I'm putting it at
number one. How they handled Kyle Tucker recently, clearly, how
they handled Jeremy Paana, Jordan Alvarez, JP France, Christian Javier,
Lance mccullors, Luis Garcia, et cetera. And I do think
this one stands out above all of the others. You've
got a guy out there right next to him, to

(05:25):
his right, Taylor Tremmel, that hurt his calf. Not all
calves are created equal, but not all calf injuries are
created equal. How you heard his calf in spring training
and he made his baseball game debut well over two
months after that. Jake Myers heard his calf in some
form is he described it in the second of his

(05:45):
two wild interviews with the media. He said he just
felt a little tightness. So it took a couple of days,
and then he went out and did a workout and
he cut here, and he did that and did everything,
and he felt great, and there was no real reason
for him personally or obviously the team in this case
to not send him out there. Two days later, he
couldn't even make it to first pitch, walking around center field,

(06:08):
warming up, loosening up his arm, turning, and ultimately we
now know he is on the IL heard from Dana
Brown a little bit yesterday's usual Sunday appearance. We're gonna
let you hear a bunch from him. Unfortunately, we're about
two months into the almost the entirety of a Dana
Brown interview, whether it's Wednesdays with the Sean Salisbury Show
at nine thirty in the morning or at Sunday afternoons

(06:29):
with the Robert Ford on ASTROS Radio, which is what
we'll have for you today. It's basically sitting here with
me right now is doctor Dana Brown of the Houston Astros.
It is nothing but a medical recap. And this past week,
well we've been out at different times. A note about
the Astros forty man roster. When they continue to shuffle

(06:49):
the deck, Shay Whitcomb goes down and you get the
major league debut of Bryce Matthews. With Whitcomb going down
and Matthew's coming up, Whitcomb became the only player on
the entire forty man roster that isn't either on the
team and in uniform or on the IL. And I've
covered this team for several decades, I can't remember anytime

(07:14):
during the forty man roster era that an entire team
has been either on the team or injured at the
same time. That's why they've gone through all this, That's
why you got eight or nine guys on the twenty
six man roster that probably should be putting on their
Space Cowboys uniform on a regular basis, but instead they're
not only putting on an Astros uniform, they're in the

(07:35):
lineup regularly taking three and four at bats.

Speaker 4 (07:38):
The Sugarlands Space Cowboys, as I put it after attending
the game as a fan on Wednesday last week, are
more often than not taking out bats for your Astros
on the major league level. And that all all that
happened over the weekend is that you know it's that
what's the word I'm looking for? There was there was
another addition to that equation. Now you can say it

(07:59):
was because of injuries and whatnot, but Bryce Matthews, Oh, it's.

Speaker 5 (08:04):
Because of injuries. I think his two Stars showed you
it's because of injuries.

Speaker 4 (08:08):
You know what though, And I hate this because when
he was on the program he was such a nice guy.
Still is Cooper Hummel. I mean, dude, you don't have
to swing it every freaking pitch. It's like three pitches.
He is back in the dugout every time. And there's
both sides of it. Zach Schortz not a major league
caliber player. Walk off.

Speaker 5 (08:28):
He hit the walk off in a game they were
trailing up well, getting to bat in the night or
in the eleventh inning when they needed two runs, he
brings home the winning run. Cooper Hummel has done things
in games to help this team win quite obviously, and
ain'ighth thinning homer and nothing nothing game a couple weeks back.
They've all had bits and pieces of it, but when
they play every day, we see the big picture, and

(08:49):
there's a reason why they don't have a permanent home.
Those two players specifically have been at this same level.
They don't belong in Triple A, but they don't belong
in the majors, so they keep getting released and brought
on board. And it is a situation that Joe Spot
and Dana Brown have had to navigate. You hate having
to navigate through a season like that, and yet this

(09:10):
is what they've done and have outplayed everybody in the
American League here at the break except for one team,
a team you have played once and beat them in
that series. The only team that's outplayed them from a
wins and losses standpoint is Detroit and it's one of
the five division leading teams they've played, and they've had
series victories over all of them. And they could definitely

(09:33):
play better baseball moving forward if, as Dana will suggest,
some of them start coming back and playing for the Astros,
the Houston Astros, not a rehab assignment, not a setback,
not a simulated game, not a live VP, but all
those things moving forward. Like I said, many many different
things on that front. We also had basketball, real live,

(09:56):
actual NBA player or two depending on what night it was.
Each team that is that summer league. There is probably
an NBA player or two on each roster. The Rockets
have maybe one and a half reed Shepherd and maybe
in Fally Dante finds a backup to the backup role
for a team. I don't know if it'll be this
team anymore, since he got bumped to fourth in the

(10:19):
rotation with the signing they made of Clint Capella, even
though obviously Jack Landell moved on and will be playing elsewhere.
But there's some NBA to discuss. We obviously have not
sat here in these seats since all of the Rockets
transactions have become official, all the signings that bring Fred
Van Vliet and Jeff Green and Jay Sean Tate and
Aaron Holliday back, the move they made just a couple

(10:42):
days ago with the Cam Matthews signing in the Nate
Williams release Beat It Nate. And obviously the billboards we
now see around Houston aren't they great? They're awesome. I
saw one obviously today for the first time live. I
believe it made it to social media about a second
after it was erected and posted, so I've seen it
and it is. It's pretty awesome. With all of the
Rockets contingent in Vegas, which is totally normal. Pretty much

(11:05):
everybody has so many players, coaches management there. Even though
e May is not coaching, and rafel Stones made the
majority of his offseason moves already. They are there, so
are Jalen and Dylan and a men and sometimes they're
sitting together and it's amazing stuff which you get in Vega.
It's is a great place to go at this time

(11:26):
of the NBA calendar for that very reason. So in
light of that, we've heard from Rafell, We've heard from
e May on the acquisition. Obviously there was no press
conference yet for We've also heard from Jalen and Dylan Brooks,
Danielle Lerner among those there. Vanessa Richardson also there. We've
heard from some of the interviews that they have had

(11:46):
an opportunity to bring to us. So there are things
on that front to discuss, and of course a week
that will have no baseball of great consequence tonight tomorrow,
notwithstanding until later this week, we do have some other
in between game activities to take care of. Here are

(12:07):
I think we've had one topic football wise that's generated
the most off season conversation and they kind of all
come together here and it is a little bit list related,
which oftentimes Let's Radio should absolutely be pushed aside. However,
there's a couple of them today, one most popular list.

(12:28):
If you've been listening to the show this offseason following
the spectacular year one of c J Stroud and the
almost unspectacular year two of CJ Stroud, you know what's
likely coming your way over the next three plus hours.
C J Stroud is where on the best quarterbacks in
the NFL list the latest? And who has AC's back

(12:51):
on that? Not once but twice in one long comment.
So that is also on tap for you today. Like
I said, we'll see things up for the Astros and
their health situation. Probably need to discuss a little bit
of what's been going on with Cam Smith as he
gets to his first breath during his rookie season. During

(13:12):
this All Star break, Who went to the All Star Game?
And who will participate in the All Star Game for
your Houston Astros, all on tap on an outstanding welcome
Back A Team edition of the A Team here on Monday, The.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (13:51):
You know, it doesn't really feel like a cause for celebration,
but maybe after I would say probably since the beginning
of the season, the roughest patch the Astros have gone
through on the tail end of maybe their best patch,
which is like over a month.

Speaker 5 (14:07):
Yeah, the Zach short walk off prevented their longest loosing
streak of the season.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
Like they hadn't lost more than two games in a
row prior to this week.

Speaker 5 (14:16):
And that would have been among the gut punchiest losses.
Bray you eighth inning homer, hater ninth inning homer with
two outs to the Rangers.

Speaker 4 (14:27):
Let me just say, I don't care what anybody in
southern Oklahoma wants to say, whether it's whether you want
to call in. You can call in Rangers fans seven
one three two one two five seven ninety, you.

Speaker 5 (14:38):
Can call in Astros fans seven one three two one
two five seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (14:41):
I'm your huckleberry. I absolutely I would. I would love
for you to call in and let me tell you
what a fluke your championship was a couple of seasons ago.
Just like the fact that they they their fan base,
their organization, people that broadcast for them, et cetera, et cetera,
try to put themselves in a similar conversation to the Astros,

(15:02):
especially after this weekend is hilarious to me, Like, I'm
not gonna sit here and make excuses for the Astros
because I expect them to win every time out just
like they do. And Joe A. Spot has said as much,
I think while you were gone, but definitely was during
the Dodgers series when he was interviewed during the Saturday
game on Fox, and it's like, how are you doing
this right now with all these injuries. Well, we expect

(15:23):
to win every day, and it is a culture thing,
and so it is an expectation thing, and it's not oh,
we got hot one year and ended up knocking off
the Astros in the process, and so now we think
we have bragging rights. That's Rangers existence and them coming
in here and taking two out of three this weekend
against the Cooper Hummels of the world. I mean, I'm
not gonna dog on any one individual guy. I'm certainly

(15:45):
not gonna dog on Zach Short for being the guy
that hit that walk off. But I mean, like the
Astros are duct taped together from like the four spot
really down right now. Christian Walker came back down to
Earth and that he ever really left it was just
had a good Dodger series.

Speaker 5 (16:02):
Yeah, I've said it now for the entirety of their season.
I'm not looking at anything he's done as man. This
looks like he's about to turn the corner. I feel
like there's something ahead. I feel like now we're seeing No,
I've never felt that. I didn't feel it during the
Dodgers series, even from Afar, although technically I was closer
to them than you were.

Speaker 4 (16:23):
Yeah, out on the West coast much.

Speaker 5 (16:25):
I was in the PNW, the Pacific Northwest. And yes,
of course it's story time.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
Yeah, it's good.

Speaker 5 (16:31):
Of course it's a week on the show. But it
is a it's a dead spot in the lineup, and
with so many, so many players that they just I mean,
Joe spot Is not can't write a lineup with Taylor
Tremmeell batting Foth. He can't write a lineup with Zach
Schort or Cooper Hummel batting Forth, And so when Christian
Walker is not out for paternity to leave, there are
a bunch of games where he puts him forth. He
could write lineups with Cam Smith Forth and he has

(16:52):
quite a few times, and he's been great in the
fourth spot. But they have so many other things that
they have to work around. Christian Walker has been thrust
back into the I'm going to kill your lineup spot,
and he is killing their lineup once again. Even with
all these other guys who are also killing their lineup
on a regular basis, Rangers aren't quite completely out of

(17:14):
this race for the postseason. I think they're completely out
of the race of the division championship. But it's all
because their offense finally came around. I mean, the Rangers
came to Houston and scored sixteen runs in three games.
Two of those three games were started by All Stars,
even though neither will pitch in the game. Hunter Brown
is technically and truthfully an All Star, and from ber

(17:36):
Valdez was erroneously not selected as an All Star or
a replacement or another replacement or another replacement or another replacement.
Still so far down on the list of people who
don't know what they're doing that he didn't make it there.
But they won two out of three and scored sixteen times,
with those two pitchers being out there for almost half
of those innings just between the two of them. They

(17:56):
also scored eight runs or more in the last three
games of their series against the Angels. This is the
only reason why they're not ahead of Seattle. They couldn't
score for the first seventy five games of the year,
and now it looks like their offense is at least
adequate enough to give them a chance to win when
their pitching gives them a chance to win. Their pitching
does give them a chance to win. The Astros got

(18:18):
to de Gram a little bit. They did not get
to Nativevaldi. They have a very good pitching staff, at
least their starting staff. If they can continue what they've
been doing, and maybe they'll be a threat in the
wildcard race. That will be about as much fun as
I think the fans and Arlington will have with that team.
By then, they'll be onto the football team anyway.

Speaker 4 (18:38):
Yeah, and that'll be a massive disappointment for them as well.
But yeah, look, it's crazy to think that the worst
stretch butted up against the best stretch, even though the
best stretch was, like I said, more than a month's
worth of baseball. They were the best team in baseball,
no matter who's on the roster, doesn't matter who's starting,
all that kind of stuff, which, by the way, let's

(18:59):
just get to that. I don't know that it's mechanical.
Although you heard if you watched the if you watched
the television broadcast over the weekend and you saw yesterday's
game more than one occasion, I believe Jeff Bagwell said
it didn't feel like Hunter Brown's locating. You know, he
he had a rough start to last season and then

(19:21):
kind of unlocked something from a mechanical standpoint, to hear
him say it, from that point moving forward, and then
he's just looked like the best pitcher in baseball, not
in Detroit all season long until the last two starts,
where he's looked very, very ordinary, especially against this This
Rangers lineup is trash.

Speaker 5 (19:40):
It's absolute trash. Yeah, they have been for the majority
of the season, but clearly at this point in the
season they're not. Unfortunately, and it happened to coincide with
their trip to Houston, they've just been a lot better.
That's again, it's the reason why they aren't ten games
under there one game under. But Hunter Brown giving up
ten runs and eleven innings over two starts is clearly
not the Hunter Brown we've seen this seas. He's a
little bit I don't know that it was out of

(20:02):
the ordinary the location. I think the walks or something
that confuses people to the extent that well, he didn't
walk that many batters, and five is not a crazy
total for a guy over two games.

Speaker 4 (20:11):
It is for him.

Speaker 5 (20:12):
Well, he's had a five walk game. He's had multiple
four walk games. It's not unheard of for him to
miss the zone. But it's in the zone where he's
missing his location. It's the balls that he's normally missing
bats with or at least getting weaker contact with, because
it's where he wants it in the zone. Thus they're
going to swing at and hit themselves into outs. He
had eight strikeouts. He had eleven strikeouts and eleven innings.

(20:35):
The stuff I think was still there, and I think
Bagwell in this instance was correct. I do think the
location has probably been the thing that's worried in most
And you look at these two starts against Cleveland and
then obviously yesterday against Texas. The run total is one thing.
Ten runs in eleven games. The Guardians scored in three
of these six innings against him, and the Rangers basically

(20:56):
did the same thing each inning. He's struggling to get
out of innings without giving up runs. That's to me,
the biggest departure from any of his other starts, even
some of the starts where he gave up runs. I mean,
the Rangers scored in the second, third, and fourth, putting
those four runs on Hunter Brown in the game yesterday.
That's not normal.

Speaker 4 (21:15):
Well, let's just say that while some of the principal
key components of that twenty three Rangers World Shoi's championship
team were being dfaight, the Astros were without the Jeremy Pannels,
the Jake Myers, the Christian Javier As, the Luis Garciaz,
the Jordan Alvarez is the chest, Like all these guys

(21:36):
are on the shelf right now. And I'm sorry, it's
not trying to make yourself feel better, and it's certainly
not trying to soften the you know, crash landing of
not doing much at the at the trade deadline. But
that's a bleep ton of really talented parts that if
you have, you're probably even better off than you are

(21:57):
right now. And you're doing really well considering all of
these injuries, and then considering where you are right now,
not just in the division. You're chirping up the tree
of getting the best record in the al until this week,
like not that long ago, you're right behind Detroit.

Speaker 5 (22:13):
So and you're still even because now it was bad
in the division race that Seattle swept them. Well, the
Tigers have lost four in a row. The Astros have
lost one game to the Tigers in the last ten.
In the standings, there's still only two and a half games.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
Play out of the break.

Speaker 5 (22:28):
You play the Mariners out of the break, the team
you now lead by only five games, because they've gained
two games on you with how they've played over the
last ten. Obviously the sweep I just mentioned, they have
been steadily getting better offensively while they're pitching hasn't been
And I think that's why I still think the Astros
have a pretty good chance of going up there and
avoiding what would be a disastrous first series out of

(22:50):
the break. Fifty six and forty, which is of course
what you would take no matter what the circumstances are
at the break for the Astros. When I tell you
one more extremely hard to believe item, when we come
back from this break, as we also get to the
best of X, you won't It makes no sense that

(23:11):
the Astros are fifty six and forty when I tell
you a statistical part of how they got there, And
we'll do that when we come back here.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
On the eighteen, the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (23:26):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Were putting out between five and fifteen posts.

Speaker 4 (23:31):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 6 (23:35):
History repeats itself type and you will succeed.

Speaker 5 (23:40):
Never doubt that you're the one to puss for no
one building. You're the best of X.

Speaker 6 (23:47):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know, you're the best of
X post an every single day and you're the best,
the best breaking the entire Internet.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
Sorry, before we get to the best of X, what's
the one thing about the astros? You were going to
HiRail us? Just such good stuff.

Speaker 5 (24:11):
I mean I did have a little bit of time
today barely before the show started upon my arrival, because
you took it.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
Every minute.

Speaker 5 (24:19):
Today is fourteen hours and thirty four minutes old, and
I have spent well, I've spent all of it technically Monday,
I've spent all of it here in America.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
But you began the day not in America.

Speaker 5 (24:35):
Well, I mean technically yesterday was you know, Sunday. I
woke up Sunday in Canada at four o'clock in the morning,
in advance of a day where I did not expect
to sleep before I got on the plane, which was accurate.
I did not sleep before I got on the plane.
I did not get on the plane until today at
two am.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
You took a red eye, Well we did. Yeah, why
I'm assuming it was cheaper, but that's not why.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
I It was a NonStop but the reason was to well,
why not squeeze out one more day of vacation? Why
not make it to our third national park on the vacation.

Speaker 4 (25:11):
I see that part right there. The way you said
it as well just strikes me as that was not
fun for you.

Speaker 5 (25:17):
I don't want to I have so much to tell
people about the vacation because they'll think, Man, this, no
way we went on this vacation. No way he did that.
That doesn't sound like him at all. But I did.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
But if you're made to, it's not about it. I
don't think I was made to it all.

Speaker 5 (25:33):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (25:34):
I don't majority rules three to four, three to one.

Speaker 5 (25:36):
I don't tell them what I want to do, and
I don't argue with what they tell me. We're doing
it's right. Fine.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
That last part is what it's really all about. I
was told, we're doing this and it's fine. This is
what our vacations are, and it's it's all good. So, yeah,
it was. It was a rather long day.

Speaker 5 (25:52):
I spent some of the day in a car, I
spent some of the day on a boat, and then
I ultimately spent some of the day and I plan
I got them all knocked out in a very short
period of time.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
I means trains and automobiles.

Speaker 5 (26:03):
But to the number that you were asking about, do
you remember last year at the break ninety one games
played for Jordon Alvarez, and he and Chicago current Chicago
Cub Kyle Tucker were the Astros team leaders, respectively in
home runs at the break, not the halfway point. Ninety

(26:27):
one is not half of one sixty one?

Speaker 4 (26:28):
Do you know how you feel about this time?

Speaker 5 (26:30):
So, how many home runs did ord On Alvarez have
at the All Star Break last season?

Speaker 4 (26:35):
I'm gonna say nineteen. He had nineteen. Okay, you always
get those, right, I don't know why.

Speaker 5 (26:39):
So if I told you at the All Star Break
this year the Astros were sixteen games over five hundred,
had a five game lead in the division, and utility
man Maurice de Dubon had twice as many home runs
as yard On Alvarez. Could you possibly believe that? Are
you kidding me?

Speaker 4 (26:59):
Is he using a tour pedo bat steroids and signed
stealing illegally to hit his.

Speaker 5 (27:04):
I don't know twenty five homers?

Speaker 4 (27:06):
Well, that's.

Speaker 5 (27:08):
So Dubon has twenty four homers somehow, because Jordan's got
to have at least twelve. No, he doesn't. He's not
he had, He's been hurt and he didn't play a
whole lot. So he has eight and Mauricio has sixteen.
Is that what you're trying to tell me? No, he
doesn't even have eight. Oh, you ust to have at
least five. So Mauricio hit ten home runs in the
first ninety some odd games of the season as a
utility player. No, he doesn't even have ten. He only

(27:32):
has six.

Speaker 4 (27:33):
So Jordan hit three homers and the Astros have a
five game lead in the division and they have the
second best record in the American League.

Speaker 5 (27:42):
Just that one thing. I don't have to tell you
that Bryce Matthews and Brandon Walter both made their Astros
debuts this year. I don't have to tell you that,
Ryan Gusto and pick one of the seen other names
that made their major league debuts. It feels like all
those things happen over the first handful of games this season,

(28:02):
pre All Star Break, pre second part of the season.
And even with clearly ending it on a downer, this
was a downer. Yeah, you came home after a sweep
of the Dodgers where the offense went wild. Jose Altuve
was holding the Dodgers baby in his arms as their daddy,
and then unfortunately they could not. This is what one

(28:26):
of the other things had. I been here and I
didn't want to post it on the X platform where
we are here in the best of XS, because I
figured I'd just say it here. I said it for
three days straight. I don't care who you are, Hunter
Brown from ber Valdez, Colton Gordon, Ryan Gusta, I don't
care who you are. I only care who he is.
Why are you pitching to Jose Ramirez? Dude, the Guardians

(28:50):
cannot score. They scored no runs during a ten game
stretch where they got no wins.

Speaker 4 (28:56):
Cole like you just kept throwing him pitches to hit
out of the ball and hit all over the yard.
Nobody else on their team can do anything.

Speaker 5 (29:03):
Give me time, give me the full credit call.

Speaker 4 (29:06):
I was saying it before the series started, not after
Game one, right, I honestly screaming it.

Speaker 5 (29:13):
Show Yeah, it's it's this is a team. Remember a
few years ago, the aj Hinch era, they intentionally walked
nobody ever and I loved it. And I think it's
almost always the right play, especially when there's strategic angle
to it late in a game. Why do this? But
in this case, they've got such a terrible offensive team,

(29:34):
you're putting yourself in a hole every time you throw
him a pitch, whether it's the beginning of the game
he's giving you a two nothing leader, or it's later
in the game he's having the most important bat.

Speaker 4 (29:41):
If he's up there, just stop pitching to him. That
that's because he's the only guy that hit away from
X from But for that reason, he's the only guy
in that lineup really that can hurt you. And I
realize I'm saying that after another guy hit a grand slam.
It's just like un they run together.

Speaker 5 (29:56):
Now, I didn't see it. I was paying attention to
game and then I was aware that after they got
to extras it was six to six, and then it
was ten six, and then I don't know if it
was later that night or a day later. I saw
where it went and how long it took that pop
fly to get out of the stadium. Only one. Only one.

Speaker 4 (30:15):
Don't worry, there was another home run just like it
in the next series this weekend Hater's twenty twenty four.

Speaker 5 (30:20):
Josh Hater has been out there for about the last
three or.

Speaker 4 (30:22):
Four Nate Yuvaldi didn't give up a home run on
the first pitch yesterday because of the exact antithesis of that. Yeah,
so that heat minute made dyke in whatever they want
to call it.

Speaker 5 (30:31):
Sometimes sometimes it helps you, sometimes it hurts you. But
that was That was the one thing that I thought,
just overwhelmingly from a number standpoint, just makes absolutely no sense.
You got essentially not only does Jordan only have three homers,
he's been awful, like he's been bad when he was
out he was out there, and this extended period of
time that he has been unable to return from, and

(30:52):
I don't know if it's gonna go from May third
all the way to June third, all the way to
July third, all the way to August third, which is
rapidly approaching before he makes his next appearance on the
ball field for the Astros. But we shall see to that.
In we wanted to let you here a little bit
from Dana Brown. There were a bunch of items that
really did fall onto the Best of X that we

(31:14):
could have dropped in here. I didn't know if you
wanted to get into Major League Baseball draft talk, but
it is kind of what major League Baseball is doing
today and yesterday. The Astros made two picks yesterday, and
we'll make their remaining.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
At picks in the subsequent rounds, which have been going
on all day.

Speaker 5 (31:30):
Every thirty picks. The Astros have come up one twenty six,
one fifty six, one eighty six. They've dipped into LSU
with one of their picks yesterday, they've drafted a high
school player out of the gate, which is not very
Astros like over the last handful of years, but probably
it'll get us to the next segment. Something I mentioned earlier,

(31:52):
and you can see it every time they talk about it,
and this is like the nineteenth time we've talked about
it this offseason. Your quarterback number seven, where he was
last year ranked number seven. That's an inside the top
ten best quarterbacks in the NFL. No longer there not
even among the ten best. There's only thirty two teams,

(32:13):
and the Texans apparently do not again have one of
the ten best quarterbacks in the NFL. We'll get to
that next.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (32:31):
Get down, Get Down, Get Down, Get Down, Get Down,
Get down, get down, Get down Down.

Speaker 4 (32:42):
Eight team continues back together again here almost halfway through
the month of July and a month number seven deep
into the off season for the NFL into the All
Star break for Major League Baseball and Summer League Basketball
continues out in Vegas. The Rockets will play Game three
and a little under an hour against a group of

(33:04):
players that will be facing nobody that will have an
impact on the Rockets next year because, according to what
they said out there, Kelly Eco, just noting that the
Rockets planned to shutdown, reed Shepherd from the remainder of
Summer League. He went out there for the last two
games their first two games of Summer League guaranteed to
play five.

Speaker 5 (33:23):
The fifth game is not yet scheduled. That is pending
their performance over the final two games. But he went
out there and he took forty four shots in two games,
ten to twenty five in the first one with a
bunch of threes, and then not a very good one
in the second game, the Rockets coming out on the
wrong end of it in both instances. He and Fally

(33:44):
Dante and maybe one or two other players will actually
play in a game for the Rockets next year, or
maybe in any game for any NBA team in the future.
Summer League is always something I like to make sure
people don't pay much attention to. Certainly definitely not the
numbers of unless you go there and then it's cool.

(34:06):
It's the most awesome event. It's the entire league is
in one place.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
Just doesn't have that bear big of a bearing on
the grand scheme of things. Like if you're saying watch
him work, watch him, I mean watch Reed Shepherd play
basketball against players that aren't as good as him.

Speaker 5 (34:23):
That's what happens. Watch these other players who that's what
you're supposed to do.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
And when people get quote shut down for the remainder
of it, like Cooper Flag, like Reed Shepherd, it means
even less.

Speaker 5 (34:34):
It's just you got to make sure that they're you're
not putting them in a position in this where you
don't mean, we've seen guys get hurt before. Sometimes it's
something that lingers into the regular season. Sometimes it doesn't.
That's obviously the reason that you would want Read Shepherd
not to play anymore. He did what I guess they
wanted to see him do, and yeah, there are some
good moments. Just keep this. It's the same thing as

(34:55):
the G League. You're not playing against NBA players, you
just aren't. You got five on five and two of
them are NBA playing like the Pistons played them in
the second game. Ron Holland plays for the Summer League Pistons. Right,
that's an NBA player. He's a lottery pick and he's
probably gonna continue to get better and he was in
their rotation last year. And that's pretty much it. And
for the Rockets it's the same thing. There's Reed Shepherd,

(35:16):
and that's pretty much you're playing against players that you're
never gonna play against in the NBA. They're just not
good enough.

Speaker 4 (35:21):
Much like you know, the the G League or I
guess minor league baseball. That to me has more of
a litmus test or measure of success actually matters than
this does. But even that has to be measured like, oh, hey, look,

(35:42):
John Singleton's hitting home runs against everybody. Yeah, I mean
that kind of that's your That's what I'm saying. You know,
he's gonna keep doing that against because he's he is
basically a quadruple A player.

Speaker 5 (35:53):
Right. If they let veterans play in summer league the
way veterans try to get to the major league see
astronomical member. Any anybody who's spent any amount it, like
even John Singleton amount of time at the major league level,
if that were the NBA equivalent at summer league, like
Jeff Green, would destroy these players absolutely embarrassing. Aaron Holliday
would score forty five points, no problem. If you put

(36:14):
him out there for the whole game, he'd be the
best player in the whole league, in the whole summer league.
Aaron Holiday best player out there, without question, no doubt
about it. Now, Cooper Flag in a year or two,
maybe he's better than him. And same thing with Ace
and Dylan and some of the other young kids. Dylan Harper,
not Dylan Brooks. But yes, it was nice to see
him trying to play the way the Rockets want him

(36:35):
to play, because that was the other thing you got
from some of the comments that were made over the
last couple of days in Vegas. The Rockets are now
saying the things publicly that we already have been telling
you about they've been saying privately. They made these moves
because they believe in him impacting this team in a
positive way starting now, right now, two guys on this

(36:56):
roster that you could just give the ball to and
you say we need a shot, well you could get
it from him, and neither of them are here. Jalen
Green is in Phoenix and Cam Whitmore is back home,
so to speak, in Washington. They're going to score a
lot of points for those two teams this year, and
they are creative offensive talents. I would maybe even argue
that at this current time, Cam Whitmore is a great

(37:19):
offensive talent, not able to prove himself to the point
where his coach wanted him out there as much as
I think his talent offensively suggests, well, they got to
find offense. Kevin Durant is not going to do all
of it all by himself, and clearly some of the
players are going to be hopefully still advancing. Jabari Smith
Junior a better player next year than he was last year.
Tari amn alpri same thing for all of them.

Speaker 4 (37:40):
But also, you know who he is, He's Kevin Durant.

Speaker 5 (37:43):
Yeah, you know who he is. He's Kevin Durant's. Sometimes
it is that simple, but they're going to have to
get They are putting it in motion where it could
help derail this team to a certain extent. Although I
do think Aaron Holliday is your very very good insurance plan.
They're planning on Reed Shepherd being that first guard off

(38:04):
the bench. They're planning on Reed Shepherd going in at
the six minute mark, the seven minute mark. He's the
backup floor general. He's a backup point guard who they
hope and I think everybody thinks it's a real possibility
that he needs to become one of those players they
add to this year's team that wasn't on last year's team,

(38:25):
a plus three point shooter. If you're getting thirty eight
plus percent from Dorian Finney, Smith, Kevin Durant and Reed
Shepherd next.

Speaker 4 (38:33):
Year, you're in good shape.

Speaker 5 (38:34):
That's a big bump from what you got from your
team last year, where it was really just Dylan who
was up above thirty eight percent, which, by the way,
and I'm not guaranteeing Reid gets there because he was
awful as a three.

Speaker 4 (38:45):
Point shooter last year, to be real, Yeah, but part
of him being awful was his hesitancy, sure, and his
minutes in all those things. He's right, And I look
who has been more blunt and real about what they
are at any given time during his very brief tenure
your Steel still than ema Udoka. It tells me something

(39:05):
that they didn't deal Reached Shepherd in a maybe bigger
deal this offseason or just just from the standpoint, didn't
let him go much like Jabari Smith Junior, but to
a lesser extent, they did not package him in any way,
shape or form in any sort of trade conversations out there.
And I think that that's just as much emay Udoka
as it is Reach, or it is as it is

(39:28):
rafel Stone. Because look, if if if ema Udoka doesn't
think you can play, or doesn't think that you do
the things that warrn't getting playing time, you're not playing.
That's as easy as it as it gets to say,
so we shall see. But it tells me at least
a little bit that ema Udoka's confidence in reach Shepherd.

Speaker 5 (39:47):
I think it tells you a lot. I totally agree
with that, and that's what you hopefully got out of
these first two games. See a couple of players that'll
be with them in camp, be with them at different
points during the season, an opportunity for Matthews to maybe
get a more substantial deal moving forward as one of
their very very few developmental back end of the roster players.
They are so veteran heavy now on this team with

(40:09):
basically everybody coming back other than the two players you
dealt and Jock Landell, this is a very very similar
team outside of that and very little on the side
of development. There were some other moves that were made
official over the last handful of days when the league
technically got it all started while we were not together
as the a team, and they are impactful in the

(40:32):
Western Conference. Oklahoma City spent a bunch of money. Everybody
that's chasing Oklahoma City has made moves like getting Kevin
Durant to Houston from Phoenix to try to take that
next step to try to be the team that pushes
them off the Western Conference pedestal and all the other
things going on in the conference that's not nearly as
good as the West. Those things happened to mentioned CJ.

(40:54):
Stroud last segment did not have a chance to get
to that here in the opening hour of the show,
but certainly will as the Texans are nine whole days
looking at it right here nine times, nine times, we
will come to this holy crap, and there will not
be a practice for the Texans, and then there will
be July twenty third, the Texans will be practicing for

(41:15):
their upcoming season in an attempt to win the division
for a third straight year, to win a division with
head coach Tamiko Ryans for a third straight year, to
win a division with CJ. Stroud and Will Anderson is
the unquestioned respective leaders of both sides of the ball
for the third straight time and maybe not for the
third straight time winning more than just one home playoff game.

(41:37):
On that and other things, as we hit our number two.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
The a team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team.

Speaker 8 (41:55):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
Hour number two underway here on Sports Talks seven to
ninety It is the a team. By the way, if
you're looking for our Bryce shiny faces, we will not
be on Space City Home Network today or tomorrow, but
eventually we will.

Speaker 5 (42:15):
Yeah, they'll actually have some hoops for you today and
we'll be back with you via the simulcast on Wednesday.
But of course we're right here each and every day
this week for the full boat, the full four hours
back in the saddle together here. Now that the NBA
season is truly underway, off season free agency, reshaping of rosters, etc.
Major League Baseball taking their break from games to count activities,

(42:37):
you'll have eight people trying not to ruin their second
parts of their respective seasons by participating in tonight's home
run Derby, and of notes, cal Raley is one of
those participants. He has had a remarkably strong offensive campaign
as we get to the break for the All Star Game,
and now he's gonna take care of that and we'll
see how it impacts him on the other side of

(43:00):
the All Star break. But he and the Mariners are
also the team that will welcome the second part of
the season to the Houston Astros. The Astros will make
that trip to Seattle trade places with me flew in
from Seattle SeaTac earlier today this morning, on a flight
that left just over eleven hours ago. And here, I am,
why did they say?

Speaker 4 (43:20):
And I'm seriously asking because I've never been there, But
Matt always talks about this, and it's not necessarily Seattle
because there's not an NBA team there, But Portland is
similar because it's so close. Is it really that much
further than going out to like the West Coast for
La or San Francisco.

Speaker 5 (43:36):
You mean from a flight time, yeah, it was about
It was about a four hour flight, a little bit
less time on the way back. And we also didn't
fly into Seattle. We flew into Eugene on the way
out there.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
So that was Eugene this time of year.

Speaker 5 (43:47):
Well, so Eugene was a brief stop, but it did
allow me to visit the Oregon campus, which is awesome.

Speaker 4 (43:53):
I mean, that whole part of the country is like
insanely picturesque.

Speaker 5 (43:57):
From everybody that I've talked to, I don't I've never been.
It was one of the countless cities we visited where
anybody there said, oh, so you got away from the weather.
I'm like, well, yeah, not only that, the weather there's
ridiculous what I say. Son, It's the middle of summer
and we saw snow during this vacation.

Speaker 4 (44:14):
How many times do we think about Seattle specifically? Oh,
it always rains there. I can't imagine why everybody's depressed there,
and yet you were there while it continued to it rained.
Today I'm looking outside, I'm like, oh good, it's raining again.
I woke up this morning to blinding sunlight. But sure enough,

(44:34):
before I had left to come here, it had rained again.

Speaker 5 (44:38):
Yeah, I would say we spent time in four major cities, Portland, Seattle,
and then in Canada, Vancouver and Victoria. It's not for
shale yet. And if I ranked them, Portland will be last. Yes.
I don't know if it's just for where where we
did and where we were, but it was. I'm not

(44:58):
trying to say it's bad, but someone's got to be last.
They were last. The other three were very close to
even trying to figure out where to rank them. Seattle
for what it is, even though from a rivalry standpoint,
baseball wise, clearly it's hateable and I definitely was intentionally
picking out of my suitcase. Now, there's some people in
my family that have each of their day's outfits packed.

(45:22):
I'm wearing this on this day, and this on that day,
and this on that day, whereas I am I need
this number of shorts, this number of shirts, this number
of pants, and they're going in the suitcase and let's
go and I'll figure it out later, figure it out later.
I wore a shirt that clearly represented the city we're in,
good Ram shirts, a Houston shirt that was in Seattle

(45:44):
Pike Place Market.

Speaker 4 (45:46):
Is that where you saw the idiot wearing the Julio
Rodriguez jersey.

Speaker 5 (45:50):
That was, yes, one of the Hulario Rodriguez jerseys we
saw during our time in Seattle. And then when we
made our way back to Seattle and our ferry back
from Canada to the States, if you will, that was
the day or one of the days for the Astros hat,
just in case any Seattle people happen to be wandering around.
But Vancouver is really, really nice. There's a reason really

(46:11):
used to live there. In the offseason. I saw one
Vancouver Grizzlies jersey.

Speaker 4 (46:17):
Mike Bibbie Bryant reeves. That's the only two guesses I have.

Speaker 5 (46:21):
I couldn't without making it too obvious. See whose jersey
it was?

Speaker 4 (46:26):
Did did you see the number?

Speaker 5 (46:27):
I couldn't see that. The front did not give me
an indication of the number, and nine fifty year every
country back. I saw John Morant jersey obviously love him
there and we did go to a baseball game on
this vacation.

Speaker 4 (46:38):
I saw, okay, where were you again? So Portland has
some baseball. They got the pickles and they're trying to
get more. Eugene has baseball. Obviously, Seattle has baseball. They
were not there, so we did not see the Mariners,
their Triple A team. They were there yesterday Tacoma, but
they weren't so we didn't see them. We saw baseball
while we were in Canada. In Victoria, we saw the

(47:00):
Victoria Harborcats and the Colonna Falcons play.

Speaker 5 (47:04):
Basically summer baseball. All these Cape Cod League on the
East coast. This is the West Coast League over on
the West Coast, so most of the teams are in Canada,
but some of them are Upper West Coast. My wife's
mom's sisters daughter's son pitches for that team, so we

(47:27):
get and we got to see him pitch. Oh good
through through two plus innings in relief came in with
his team down, had a rough first inning, and they
got further down, and then they scored five runs for him.
He picked up the dub.

Speaker 4 (47:40):
That's how that level of baseball goes.

Speaker 5 (47:42):
The infield dirt. What do they do with the astros
games before the game?

Speaker 4 (47:46):
Break it down like it's tress letches. You're gonna get
true bounces. It slows things down. They don't do that.
It is in the whole.

Speaker 5 (47:56):
The field was fine, but there was way too much
sand in the infield and the shortstop. I felt bad
for him. He got eaten up like five times, bounces
off the lip of the grass, bounces right to him.
But there's dirt flying everywhere, and thanks for an interesting game.
Saw a couple of home run balls. And it was
actually Harvey the Harborcat's birthday. Some of the other mascots
made their way over to the field for some of

(48:17):
the festivities typical other minor league promotions. You know the
promotion where you get two people out of the stands,
you hand them a bat, You ask them to place
the bat on the ground and then put their forehead
on the bat and spin around it and immediately upon
saying all right now, go. Both of them try to
run and fall down to their right immediately. A man
and a woman who probably were a couple that was

(48:38):
like a frat house beer first. Now, they did have
their own specially canned ballpark beer like our friend's over
at Carbock Brewing litter the stadium in a great way
with the Crawford Bach and over at Carbock Brewing they
had their own SuDS there as.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
Well, and it didn't have a rainbow on the side
of it.

Speaker 5 (48:57):
We were sitting behind a couple that were or three people,
two women and one man. They were significantly older, so
probably regulars there. And I could have been more fired
up about the sport of baseball and going to baseball
games than when I saw the man make his way
back from concessions. Three dogs fully loaded, one for everybody,

(49:19):
and three beers, probably in their early eighties, maybe late seventies,
maybe even older, and they were enjoying a baseball game
the right way. It was awesome. Plenty of Blue Jays
jerseys around because they don't have another team that's Canada's team.
Did say a Springer jersey. They got a shed out there,
got all the stuff, So yeah, I mixed in a
little bit of that, but a lot of fairies, a

(49:40):
lot of boats, whale watching harbor crews. Two fairies to
get two and from Canada and back, two flights on
our way, and I drove to the airport. I drove
back from the airport. And I only was behind the
wheel for this extremely long driving vacation. One other time

(50:01):
in a parking garage to back the vehicle in a
parking garage that's significantly worse than the one we park
in every day.

Speaker 4 (50:09):
Where were you at?

Speaker 5 (50:11):
This was in.

Speaker 4 (50:13):
Vancouver Island, So one of these places you obviously rented
a vehicle.

Speaker 5 (50:17):
Oh, we had a vehicle. We ran a vehicle as
soon as we dropped down in Eugene, and we drive
all these places.

Speaker 4 (50:21):
Oh I didn't know, Okay, for some reason I thought
you were. I don't know what I found. So it
was to say she did all the driving. Well, he
always does all the driving. I don't even ride shotgun
half the trip. I'm not even trying to be mean.
How do you do that as a man?

Speaker 5 (50:34):
I know?

Speaker 4 (50:34):
And it's not even about women, it's just it's a
I can't be in a vehicle I'm not in control
of at any given do.

Speaker 5 (50:43):
You think I'm quiet while she's driving?

Speaker 2 (50:44):
No?

Speaker 5 (50:45):
Do you think I say, why didn't you do that?
Why aren't you doing?

Speaker 4 (50:48):
And I think she says back to you, why don't
you drive? And then you could have its right? It's
pretty much. And the kids say, what, Dad, she's got it.
She knows which one says that Ryan Okay.

Speaker 5 (51:02):
Well, he's like, you know, they plan the vacation, Ryan
and Robin, Right, My daughter and I go on the vacation,
Samantha and I. So it's the same thing with where
we're going in directions. If I were driving, lock it up.
Five wrong turns guarantee to happen.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
Is that why you don't drive?

Speaker 5 (51:17):
It's one of the reasons, even though we have all
the necessary tools to get us there properly. But this
is the maps. We know where we're going. We've probably
have even gone there. It's the same thing. I do
it here on occasion when I hop out of the elevator.
I definitely do it at the hotels, but again out
of the there's only two directions when you get off
the elevator. The room's numbered this way and the room's
numbered that way. I go the wrong way every time. Oh,

(51:38):
my gosh every time. Are you one of those people
that doesn't know where you parked and you're trying to
accommodate for that.

Speaker 4 (51:44):
I will like to clarify this is not a marriage thing.
We drove to Arlington for the ALCS a couple seasons ago.
It was under no circumstances was wex going to drive
and made that very.

Speaker 5 (51:58):
Piece of cake. I just get just sit there.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
And we were given a vehicle by a sponsor at
the time, and so it wasn't like I was a
choose the vehicle thing. This was whatever vehicle we're taking.
I am not under any circumstances doing any driving. That's
how it was presented to me, and I, being who
I am, said awesome, awesome, because that's what I like.

Speaker 5 (52:20):
Yep, it was a good time again. I'll sprinkle some
other deats in there from it. It is a good
opportunity for us to kind of reset your astros with
where they sit here, where they sit in the division,
where their real competition is not just for the final
sixty plus games, but really when they get and they
will get to the postseason. Probably be a little bit

(52:41):
tough for people to stomach tomorrow when they're watching Kyle
Tucker take at bats and field balls and doing the
same with Alex Bregman, who both of those two players
are not only playing well, but playing for teams that
are playing the way. That looks like they're going to
find themselves in the postseason their first year away. They're
obviously both All Stars in Chicago and Boston, respectively, but

(53:01):
these are teams you might have to go through. We
liked the way the Astros went through the Cubs when
they were here a couple weeks ago, and have not
yet seen the Astros against the Red Sox this season.
Bregman missed roughly two months, made his return during July,
and they haven't lost since. Their winning straight actually started
before he came back, and just has not stopped Tampa, Toronto, Boston,

(53:28):
New York. Basically everybody but Baltimore has a real shot
to make the postseason. Out of the American League East.
This race clearly is an over, and Seattle can make
a big dent in the Astros lead, which was once
better than seven games and now sits at five heading
into their three game series over the weekend in Seattle
to open up the second part of the Major League

(53:48):
baseball season for them, respectively, and the other division race
is probably over, but Cleveland, Kansas City, and Minnesota certainly
are still in the wildcard race. A little scare for
Carlos Korea over the weekend when he was slid into
at second base. It happens they there are a lot
of teams still in the race. And just in the
last handful of days, Toronto played Oakland, the team representing

(54:13):
Oakland in West Sacramento, and they got swept. Detroit played
Seattle and they got swept. And the Astros played Cleveland
and they got swept, and then they played Arlington and
just absolutely tortured me most of the weekend. It was
nice that Adolas Garcia hit the had the RBI in

(54:33):
the extra inning game so he could, for the second
time in a week, absolutely lose his mind in celebrating
in a game in which his team then lost.

Speaker 4 (54:43):
H Yeah, he's a loser and a anyway, that team
is right where it deserves to be, as is that
organization and that fan base, speaking of which it was
a rough patch on and off the field. Let's hear
from Dana Brown when we come back here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (55:23):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven ninety. By
the way, I'm not actually sure how big of a
fan you are. I know we share Van Halen love Zeppelin.
Their new documentary that came out that is it was
in theaters. It is now on Netflix. I believe watched
that over the weekend.

Speaker 8 (55:41):
Very Good.

Speaker 5 (55:44):
Stopped at the Museum of Pop Culture and they had
an entire they I think this was in the Nirvana
homage room.

Speaker 4 (55:52):
Yeah you think, yeah.

Speaker 5 (55:53):
So they had all sorts of interactive musical options in there,
and they went through all this Nova Cela section and
he just went through a bunch of audio files of
him describing where his musical influences came from. And then
they had headphones next to it and it listed when
when he was this age in this area, this is
who we listened to, and this is who we listened to,

(56:13):
and this is who we listened to. And so there
was a whole I think there are nine Zeppelin tracks
to enjoy.

Speaker 4 (56:20):
See you did cool things like that. You went to
what was the car place that you went?

Speaker 5 (56:26):
You were like stay in Tacoma, right across the street
from the totally useless Tacoma Dome right, which is that
it's the home of the nothing, but what.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
It used to be the home of.

Speaker 5 (56:37):
They had a year of Sonics basketball when they were
redoing Key Arena. They've had some indoor soccer teams. They
still have some events. I believe there's a big scary
car event, Monster Jam type. Yeah. I believe some comics
will be there soon. Nate b will be performing there.
And so it's the astro Arena of Seattle. I mean

(56:57):
it is, yeah, but it's it's a it's less you used. Yeah.
So right across the street the American Car Museum. It
was pretty awesome. Yeah, and I will be posting some
very awesome vintage Chevies that were littered throughout the point.

Speaker 4 (57:12):
Was eleanor In there from Gone in sixty Seconds.

Speaker 5 (57:15):
There were only a few cars that were truly recognizable
from a TV movie or something show. Christine was there,
although it was this one. They made sure to say
this is not the actual vehicle. But as soon as
I saw it, I'm like, yeah it is. There was
Anne Aston Martin there from a Bond movie and a
few others from assorted other programs.

Speaker 4 (57:35):
I do miss that auto auction event that we used
to do because Eleanor was always there and you could
smell the fuel when they would move the cars, and
I'm a weirdo who likes to smell gasoline exhaust. Yeah,
very green.

Speaker 5 (57:45):
It was a good stop yesterday among the national park stops.

Speaker 4 (57:49):
Was it a good stop for Dana Brown when he
was talking about all of the things like he went
into the booth this weekend, as did Jeff Bagwell because
Plummer was being honored in some city about some World series.

Speaker 5 (58:03):
I don't remember what happened. It was mean to be truthful,
as I'm sure you were when it took place over
the week. It was probably more meaningful to a lot
of people, just in the unfortunate situation that Bobby Jink's
recent passing. But the world champion Chicago White Sox were
honored a lot of field time and time to talk
to the fans for aj Perzinski and Can Americo and

(58:24):
Jermaine Dye and obviously Jeff as well well.

Speaker 4 (58:27):
And you know that sort of thing is scheduled so
far in advance, and so Bobby Jinks might have maybe
would have been there. I know what he was suffering
from that ultimately took his life. So you don't ever know,
but yeah, that was that put a little heavy pale
over things, if you will. But like the situation with
the Astros and what was going on as Dana Brown

(58:51):
is visiting in the booth with the television broadcast side
of things, and then of course making his weekly visit
yesterday with Astros Radio. And look, there was a number
of topics that were touched on. But one of the
things that came out of not only this weekend but
obviously what's going on with the amount of injuries, is

(59:12):
the fact that, oh, by the way, Bryce Matthews began
his big league career. He looked like he was making
his first few adpats in the big leagues a lot
of times during the series. But Dana Brown speaking about
the call up of Bryce Matthews, I.

Speaker 9 (59:27):
Think the big deal is that we're deep into our
Triple A depth right now with all the injuries. I mean,
that's a big component of it, and so you know,
sometimes you have to go get guys, you know, a
little earlier than you would have liked. But look, we'll
make no mistake. He's got the makeup and the talent
to overcome it. I'd knowl he's off to a slow start.

(59:48):
You know, we're not worried about it. We're encouraged. You know,
he's gonna be all right. Okay, he's gonna be a
piece of this franchise. And you know, former first round
pick Athletic could play the middle of the nfield.

Speaker 4 (01:00:01):
He's got some power.

Speaker 9 (01:00:04):
But you know, sometimes, you know, some guys come up
and they just get on to tear other guys have
to learn a little bit at the big league level.
And look, it doesn't help when you're facing guys like
the Grom, you know, and then you know, Lighter the
other day was up to ninety nine. I mean when
he got up to the TI bat the other day,
Lighter went ninety nine, ninety eight, ninety nine, one hundred,

(01:00:27):
you know on his fastball. So you know, even the
other your opponents know, you know the implications of all
of this.

Speaker 4 (01:00:36):
So he's gonna be fine. I just thought it was
surreal looking at the lineup card and seeing that not
only was he called up, he was gonna be playing
second base and he'd be playing on the field with
Jose Al Tuve.

Speaker 5 (01:00:48):
Yeah, I said this. I think when they made so
obvious that they were going to make the move with
al Tuove. It is al Tuove related completely. They're a
better defensive team if he's not playing second base. That's
very clear. He is a left fielder. Their best defensive
lineups if he's playing that day and isn't the DH
because as assuming that you're on is it's to play
him in left field, which means their future second baseman

(01:01:11):
is maybe an unknown. It's Bryce Matthews. Bryce Matthews is
the opening day starter at second base in twenty twenty six,
that's seventy games away. He's going to be there. He's
going to be the opening day starter, and if he's not,
the door is open for that to actually take place,
because if he can't hit at this level at some
point over the next however long he's still up here,

(01:01:32):
then maybe they will have pause on that. And I
don't know what their alternative is because it's just like
this trade deadliner A. They're really going to go out
and add somebody to play second base, the only true
open position when everybody's healthy, which is comical to even discuss. Now,
you could trade for anybody you want it. You can
easily find a spot for him. Tremel's in the lineup.
Every day, humbles in the lineup every day. It's not hard.
They have so many injuries they really do need some

(01:01:54):
bats out there. But this is where he is supposed
to be in the very near future. He's a college
baseball player. There's only so much minor league seasoning you
would want before you probably somewhat made your decision. At
some point he should be crushing, and he hasn't been
crushing at the minor league level. He has some pretty
good overall numbers in a hitter's paradise when he's not

(01:02:16):
playing at Constellation Field, but when he is, which is
not a hitter's paradise, his numbers are there aren't even average,
they're below average. His strikeout numbers were through the roof,
and everybody knew that. Nobody's really that surprised by what
has happened in just two starts, five k's and seven
at bats with no hits, but it is. It's the
same thing that so many other Astros players have faced before.

(01:02:38):
When they've gotten to this point. There's only so much
rope they can truly give a player, even if it's
a prospect, because they're trying to win. If the Astros
were forty five and forty eight. When they hit the
field yesterday, Bryce Matthews would have started his third consecutive
game without question, because you'd just be playing him. You'd
give him every day at bats. They want to give

(01:02:59):
him every day. That's the opening is there at second base,
but it's also been there for two months, and it
was only expanded because Jeremy Pane is now out, so
Mauricio has to play shortstop. And they still went through
Zach Short, Luis ki Orme, Shay Witkam multiple times before
they called Matthews up. Because they're telling you. I'm not

(01:03:20):
saying they're telling you without telling you. They're telling you
loudly and clearly. They know he's not ready. They know
the way he has played in Triple A suggests he's
going to struggle at the plate at the major league level.
Very small sample size of two games, but that's exactly
what's happened so far.

Speaker 4 (01:03:37):
Yeah, it's just another example of how this season has gone.
I'm not gonna say wrong because a lot of things
are going right. That's what's great it's gone, and especially
with who's on the shelf, but just who's coming back.
Like I'm sorry, but like I don't. I don't expect
a lot at the trade deadline, and Dana Brown is

(01:03:59):
in booth talking about this, Well, we'd like to get
a left handed bat, would you like to get to
back end starter, or we'd like to get another Yeah,
but how are you going to get them? And why
would you give up real assets to do so when
you've got not an All Star team, but really good players. Essentially,
I'm All Star caliber players on your on your shelf
right now.

Speaker 5 (01:04:19):
Yeah, you're on. Alva is an All Star, Jeremy Paanna
is an All Star for the first time this year.
Two players that are shelved. You might make a case
that some of the arms, probably most specifically Christian Javier,
has pitched like an All Star at times during his
major league career. He's been a part of no hitters,
He's thrown a part of a World Series no hitter.
That's a that's an All Star caliber arm, and he's

(01:04:40):
obviously not contributed at all so far this season. And
to the other end of it, we've talked so much
about how little Alvarez has given him, how nothing has
come from multiple injured arms. What they're actually missing is
what Jeremy Pagnia has given them. This is really the
first time somebody who was a major league contributor to
why they are where they are. He's the best leadoff

(01:05:02):
hitter in baseball from the moment in time where he
became a leadoff hitter for the Astros, and they're missing that.
They're missing that big time. Even though Parretis has been
perfectly fine as a leadoff hitter. They're missing Jeremy Payana.
They need a player to do what he does in
their lineup to help the other guys do what they
do in their line of Paradis as an All Star.
He traded for a guy with near eight hundred ops

(01:05:23):
and Cam Smith in a season you never expected him
to be a rookie at this level this year. He
would be a rookie at some point, never expected to
be this year. And you traded for an All Star
in the Kyle Tucker trade. Partis made the All Star
Team by however you want to describe it. And Cam
Smith has been there. Of healthy players, he's been their
best offensive player for the last two months.

Speaker 4 (01:05:44):
Yeah, I'll take it. And by the way, speaking of
both Paanya and Jordan Alvarez. Dana Brown addressing when we
might see both of these guys. You'll hear from that
when we come next, when we come back.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
The add on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 4 (01:06:12):
Right now, who would help the Astros more with their
return Jeremy Pania or you were on Alvarez. You only
get one choice, though, and your mortgage depends upon it.

Speaker 5 (01:06:25):
Uh, you mean the twenty twenty five versions of each
Just I didn't say any qualifications. I kind of feel
like a one thousand ops middle of a lineup guy
would really make things awesome. But that's a really that's
that shows you how good Jeremy's been this year that
I'm even pausing.

Speaker 4 (01:06:43):
Right, No, that's kind of why I asked it in
that way. Both of these guys are well, they're certainly
closer to returning than they were. I don't even know.

Speaker 5 (01:06:53):
As you woke up this morning and tore the page
off your three hundred and sixty five sports Facts a
day calendar, that's why they're closer.

Speaker 4 (01:06:59):
Now there's only three n and sixty four. Yeah, that's
kind of how I feel about yord On Alvarez. Although
if he's gonna be cleared to start swinging a bat
this week, that's I'd like to say, that's good news,
but every time he's done it, something's happened.

Speaker 5 (01:07:13):
That was bad, right, And we don't even know if
he was really cleared.

Speaker 4 (01:07:16):
Right, that's just a rumor.

Speaker 5 (01:07:17):
He just really picked up a bat and started swinging.

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
But didn't hurt.

Speaker 5 (01:07:21):
Didn't hurt when he did it, and then it did.

Speaker 4 (01:07:23):
That was the last time. So you might wonder what
we're talking about, Dana Brown talking about the return of
both of these guys or just the update, let's put
it that way, of both these guys. We'll start with
jord On Alvarez. This is what the Astros general manager
had to say about forty four.

Speaker 9 (01:07:39):
Yeah, so we're gonna reevaluate him on this Thursday. He's
got another evaluation. We're gonna talk with the doctor. We'll
probably do it you know by zoom or or or telephone,
but we're gonna get on and we'll have a conversation,

(01:07:59):
you know, with the doc. And I think once that's over,
the doctor could potentially clear him to start swinging a bat.
And you know, as I mentioned before, it's just as
long as your dye feels good. We're gonna try to
expedite his return because you know, we'll take We'll take
whatever he can give us right now because we're missing
that left hand bat in our lineup.

Speaker 5 (01:08:20):
So but very encouraged.

Speaker 9 (01:08:23):
Talk to your and I yesterday absolutely no pain in
his hand. Doc wants to give him to Thursday to
circle back on it, and we should know some more
by Friday morning.

Speaker 4 (01:08:35):
It's funny because you described him as doctor Dana Brown,
and that's exactly the role he's playing right now. But
it almost sounds like if you were to translate that,
that the very tail in there. Yeah, we'll take that.
It will take eighty percent of Jordan Alvarez right now
in our lineup versus zero percent.

Speaker 5 (01:08:53):
You could I mean, you could take it that way,
or you could say we'll take whatever he can give
us because and this is me, because he's going to
give us more than the guys that were playing every day.

Speaker 4 (01:09:03):
Well that's the truth.

Speaker 5 (01:09:05):
I mean, no offense to Humble and Trammel in short.

Speaker 4 (01:09:08):
But he has to be healthy, you know, Like eighty
percent has to mean well he's just not ramped up yet,
not eighty percent healed fracture or that kind, which I'm
not saying. I just feel like if they're going to
have a doctor clear him on Thursday of this week.

Speaker 5 (01:09:22):
Potentially, that's that say, very very good sign. I'm a
struggling with the ramp up portion of it. He's your
designated hitter. You're saying he's too tired to go up
to the plate four times and run the bases like
his legs are fine.

Speaker 4 (01:09:37):
Exactly what kind of conditioning does he have? But you know,
does he need to face pitching somewhere else? If you're
saying that, that's something, but we've talked about jord On
for years now. He never does that.

Speaker 5 (01:09:47):
You just just go out there because if you're not ready,
so what you're more ready than these guys. Yes, it
doesn't make you know. I think the health portion of
it is very clear. Either you are or you are
not able to swing a bat on a relatively everyday
basis as a player is not going to be in
pain the next day. If he's still going to be
in pain, then he can't play. Then he shouldn't be clear.

(01:10:07):
Then he isn't ready. Then that is not what's going
to be told to him when they are told to
everybody in this meeting that they're going to have missed
the game. Obviously on Sunday the last game of the
Rangers series. He's been on the il going back to
the third it was the sixty fourth game, the sixty
fifth game, excuse me that he's missed just since that time.
They're forty and twenty five in those games. Hey, don't

(01:10:30):
need your don Just kidding, but sixty five games is
going to be seventy. It's probably going to be seventy five.
It's probably going to be eighty. He's going to miss
half the season.

Speaker 4 (01:10:41):
And they're in first place by several games. They will
likely face Seattle for the last time without him this season.
Like all these things, they're playing reasonable well, they don't
play Seattle again, I believe until the end of the season.

Speaker 5 (01:10:58):
Correct, last homestand and you finish with Texas, then Seattle.

Speaker 4 (01:11:02):
Six games on the road, by the way.

Speaker 5 (01:11:04):
Six games at home, first six games on the road
to finish the season in Sacramento and Los Angeles.

Speaker 4 (01:11:10):
Yeah, after those games against Seattle, I mean six games
on the road. But I hope those games are relatively
meaningless by that point'd be tough.

Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
I mean, even a five game lead means the final
six games of the year are meaningfull for a division.
Hopefully that You're going to win Seattle and Arizona out
of the break, the Athletics and Nationals come to Houston.
After that, those are your first four series. Arizona is
not going to the playoffs. The Athletics are not going
to the playoffs. The Nationals are not going to the playoffs.
And those are also your last three series before August

(01:11:42):
first and the passing of the trade deadline. You're playing
those teams who are all going to be moving players.
The Nationals are going to be moving on from players
that already moved on from their manager and GM. The
Athletics are going to be moving on from players if
there's any veterans that are of any value.

Speaker 4 (01:11:58):
Otherwise they might as well just keep most of their
youthful players that are out there. I bet Luis Severino
gets moved.

Speaker 5 (01:12:03):
I think there's a pretty there's a decent chance.

Speaker 4 (01:12:06):
I don't like each other.

Speaker 5 (01:12:07):
He gets a lot, makes a lot of money, So
I'm not sure how many other teams are gung ho
to get a pitcher who's been now overall less than
what they would have hoped. And then there's Arizona. Arizona
has as many desirable players. It's just about any team
that's likely to be sellers, and it may impact how
they kind of go about things. Seattle first though, two

(01:12:27):
games Friday and Saturday night, and then the Sunday afternoon game,
and then a trip to Arizona next Wednesday's game a
week from two days from now, they get away afternoon
gameet another day where Astros Baseball dominates the A team
to the point that we won't even be here.

Speaker 4 (01:12:45):
Now know it's true, we won't. And when we get back,
we're gonna hear from the other All Star trying to
make his return, Dana Brown's thoughts on Jeremy Pina.

Speaker 5 (01:12:55):
When we return.

Speaker 1 (01:12:58):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
It'll be a minute until Todd, Kallous and Blumber are
in the Great Northwest where Adam Westler just did a
whole bunch of vacationing, and then they'll be in the
booth to call. I don't want to say that the
most important three games of the season. I'm not gonna
go that far, but the Astros started this home stand
with essentially a seven game lead on the Mariners, and

(01:13:29):
now it's five. I would like that to not be
the case, especially going to the All Star break. You
looked like you were going to go in with a
lot of momentum and you ended up only winning one
out of six games.

Speaker 5 (01:13:38):
Yeah, definitely a little bit of a different situation. Obviously
the lead would be bigger. I kind of figured if
you didn't. I'm sure everybody was paying close attention as
the Astros finished up the Dodger series. That pretty much
finished up two, three, four weeks of the Astros just
kind of killing it, but they weren't up ten games
in the division. They just kind of kept Seattle where

(01:14:01):
they were. Seattle would draw within six and a half,
they'd fall back to seven and a half, and ultimately
you're essentially they were right where they had been for
the last couple of weeks because they were also catching fire,
they were also playing well. They just were able to
continue it. Even though their schedule got more daunting. They
just handled it. They're in a groove right now offensively,
which is helping out their pitching staff a great deal.

(01:14:22):
They did have some games where I'm sure they'd like
to go back the Munnos game where I think people
believe they were tipping pitches, but nonetheless, a five game
lead heading into a three game series, yes, very very
different than say a seven game lead, kind of like
in the midst of any individual game, you know, having
a three run lead, which is fine, but you're not
that far away from seeing that time run to come

(01:14:43):
to the plate. You don't want any team to be
able to tie the game with one swing. If you're
up four, well, up five, that'd be nice. Up seven
seems a lot better than up five because when you
go there and you come back with nothing, well, then
all of a sudden, it's a two game lead. And
I don't think that's the thing. I don't think that's
what's gonna happen. I don't think that's where they want
to be. The Astros might not have any pitchers pitching
in the All Star Game. Josh Hater is there and available.

(01:15:06):
Hunter Brown is there and unavailable after pitching yesterday, is
not on the active roster for the game. But major
League Baseball, there's a lot of things that make no
sense for this game, and some of the replacements that
they've named or among them, but the Astros should be
able to set things up how they want. Gave Hunter
Brown the ball yesterday. Colton Gordon got into the game
out of the bullpen, I do think if things go

(01:15:29):
well for the Astros, we're not gonna see Colton Gordon
much the rest of the way. But that's the pitching
side of things. We'll spend a little time on that
as we continue. The offensive side of things is clearly
where they've they've left a little bit to be desired.
That's the realist, most honest way, and that's both before
and after these injuries. Jordan Alvarez, we believe was healthy

(01:15:49):
when the year began, and he did not have a
good start to the year. At some point the hand
injury impacted his ability to start having a good year,
and then he just stopped playing entirely. As and Christian
Walker have remarkably similar numbers, and in both cases they're
very disappointing. The Astros have gotten some key hits from
them on occasion, but they just haven't been the kind

(01:16:11):
of players offensively. I think everybody would have expected. Nobody
walked off of or walked into this season thinking the
sixty million dollars they spent on Christian Walker was going
to look this bad. I don't think anybody expected a
second consecutive year of a lesser offensive version of Jan
or Ds, but it's what you've gotten. He's hitting below
two fifty is on base percentage is a pathetic to

(01:16:33):
eighty and his OPS is six't eighty eight. Basically, I
could tell you the same thing for Christian Walker. Their
numbers are far, far too similar. When they're on the
wrong end of it, and Walker still strikes out at
an absolutely unacceptable rate, it's going to set a career
high in strikeout. It's going to have a career worse
strikeout percentage and way too often. I explained this earlier

(01:16:55):
in the show. It's coming out of the four spot
in the order, after you've set the table. Then he
comes up and says, I don't know what you're eating tonight,
but I'm not going to help you put it down because.

Speaker 4 (01:17:08):
Pulling the place mat off the table, and it's going
to go everywhere.

Speaker 5 (01:17:10):
And I'm not a magician. It is absolutely going to
go everywhere. Two hundred and six at bats Now.

Speaker 4 (01:17:17):
He didn't yank hard enough. Excuse me.

Speaker 5 (01:17:21):
Two hundred and sixty bats for Christian Walker out of
the four hole, he's hitting one seventy with a five
O eight OPS.

Speaker 4 (01:17:29):
What's his best numbers relative to the lineup? Okay, two
hundred and six at bats. That's roughly five times the
at bats that Cam Smith has. Camp Smith's been there
for just ten games forty four at bats. That'd be
two twenty if you multiplied it by five, So twoh
six to two twenty it's roughly five times as often.

Speaker 5 (01:17:48):
He has eleven RBIs and ten games as the four hitter.
Christian Walker has twenty one RBIs all year in fifty
four games as the four hole hitter. In other words,
their four hole hitter is better than Christian Walker every
day when he's not there, but he continues to be
there because the lineup is not what it is. And
Jiner again he falls in that same boat. It's almost
like Yanner's gotten away with it from an angst and

(01:18:10):
anger and come on man standpoint, because Walker is doing
the same thing. They're kind of bouncing off each other
of well, they're not gonna be down on me because
you're here with me too. There's too many guys not
pulling things together. Al Tuove has had a good year
offensively not awful, not quite as good as last year,
but certainly good enough. Preddits has played like an allstar
and is and cam Smith has been an overwhelmingly positive surprise.

Speaker 4 (01:18:34):
So where's the best spot for Where's the best spot
for Christian Walker in the lineup?

Speaker 5 (01:18:40):
I always thought, and I'll give you the numbers. I
always thought it would be in the sixth spot after
I saw him perform. He's a four hole hitter. He's
been there for three years with Arizona and there was
no issue whatsoever. But it just wasn't happening here, and
I thought moving him two six might be the best spot.
His best spot has been five, and it's pretty clear
his ops at four I just gave you it's barely

(01:19:02):
over five hundred. He's under four hundred in the six spot.
Limited work, that's I mean in the five spot. The
next time he starts as the five hole hitter, he'll
have one hundred played appearances. That's a pretty good chunk.
He's got an ops over one thousand. Like I totally
guarant I don't know this for a fact. I'm gonna
guess when they were in LA he was hitting in

(01:19:24):
the five spot, just because I'm just looking at these numbers.

Speaker 4 (01:19:27):
He had to have been hitting there. Why do I
feel like he was in the fourth spot there?

Speaker 5 (01:19:31):
Well, it would be almost all of his production would
have come in those three games.

Speaker 4 (01:19:34):
Then I'm not I'm looking that up as we speak,
but I don't really care what he hits in the
other spots. I just don't want him there anymore.

Speaker 5 (01:19:43):
And I hate the lineup discussion too much because it
really should not be then that impactful. But we have
numbers in baseball for a very very specific reason, because
we like to use them. It's why people shift, it's
why teams acquire pitchers and throw these pitches. And those
are way more technical than you're batting fourth versus your

(01:20:05):
batting fifth. Figure it out mentally why one should be
at all different, And it shouldn't be then the other
from a preparation standpoint of from where you end up
in the lineup standpoint, it just shouldn't be like that.
But the numbers are what they are.

Speaker 4 (01:20:18):
He batted fifth in the first game, which was of course,
the eighteen to one drubbing. He batted fourth in the
final two games of the series.

Speaker 5 (01:20:28):
So one of his home runs of the five he
said all year, came in La as the four hole hitter. Yeah,
and those are just two of the guys. Again, Cam Smith,
I'm kind of blown away every time he goes up
there and has a professional at bat. He's down oh two,
and all of a sudden, he gets a walk, and
he swings at the first pitch and belts it into
the outfield. He goes the opposite way and drives in

(01:20:50):
the run. He scored the game winning run after drawing
a walk in extra innings in the eleventh inning on
the Zach short at bat. He's just never imagined that.
I don't imagine this for any player, not any of
the players that got drafted yesterday or today. I don't
expect any of them to play thirty two minor league
baseball games and then be the rookie of the year.

(01:21:12):
And he still can be the rookie of the year.
In my opinion. He's outplayed Jack Wilson over the last
forty or fifty games. I don't know that he's outplayed
Nick Kurtz, who continues to he's gonna he could have
a thirty homer season this year, and he wasn't even
on the roster when the year began, or on the
didn't make the team out of spring training. So it's
a pretty good year. That's just three candidates. Narvaez is

(01:21:33):
another very good candidate. But Cam Smith played Rookie of
the Year caliber baseball for the Astros. Imagine that. See
Jeremy Payinnea, see Luis Garcias, Hunter Brown, and on and
on and on and on the past ten years, they've
had an incredible amount of Rookie of the Year caliber players,
even though they haven't all won it.

Speaker 4 (01:21:52):
But will the voters see it? That's the questions.

Speaker 5 (01:21:55):
Just so much season left, it's still to be determined.

Speaker 4 (01:21:57):
Yeah, all right, we'll take a quick time out. We
will get to Dana Brown's Jeremy Penia comments as it
pertains to the Astros starting short stop.

Speaker 1 (01:22:05):
Coming up next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety
teen lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham talking your team.

Speaker 8 (01:22:21):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen eighty eight.

Speaker 4 (01:22:29):
Two hours in two more to come here on the
A team. It's Sports Talk seven ninety It is wex
and Ac and Cole Thompson back together again for the
first time in two weeks. As we take you up
until six o'clock tonight and no Astros game for the
remainder of this week until late on Friday night.

Speaker 5 (01:22:48):
AP five shows without Astros baseball. They will play on
Friday night and give you a quick play by play
rundown of the Rocket Summer League action.

Speaker 4 (01:22:56):
Adonnis Arms plays for the Rockets. He just drove down lane.
He has Adonnas Arms does Adonnas Arms. He's scored for
your Houston Rockets.

Speaker 5 (01:23:06):
Now, had he not had an open lane, he could
have been able to pass it to Great. Great Osabor
is playing in the paint. He's their big man right now.
His first name is Great because it is great. I'm
not even kidding. They're actually getting lit up by Jack
McVay of the Atlanta Hawks. He was a big summer
leaguer for the Rockets, two way player for the most
of last year. Malik Wilson just checked out for your Rockets.

(01:23:29):
There u of h Couger, who is part of their
summer league roster here in Vegas. Jermaine Samuels Junior maybe
a name you know. He's out there with him alongside
Kennedy Chandler. These are the players that make up the
last three games of the Rockets Summer League to a reach.
Shepherd's not gonna play any more summer league basketball. He's
on the bench tonight in Streets all of this on

(01:23:50):
display front row seats yet again tonight or this afternoon
in Vegas for GM rafel Stone head coach Immy Udoka
and several members of the for Tita family that are
not currently the ambassador to Italy.

Speaker 4 (01:24:04):
Yeah, well he can't be there because of the job
he's working part of the JAB description. No. Look, and
I'm excited about what. Somebody said this on social media
earlier today. It was either today or yesterday, and it
was in relation to Read Shepherd, but also just the
Summer League concept in general, Like we talked about a
few segments ago and it was like, well, basically, if

(01:24:25):
your Summer League team sans the Read Shepherds of the
world are absolute crap, you're a contender. And I'm paraphrasing mightily,
but I think that you know, that's probably when Chris
Paul got traded to the Rockets that summer. I believe
there was some fracterinizing as that deal was coming into play,
because it was all in the month of July, and

(01:24:47):
look what happened there. I just I said this while
we were gone, while you were gone, I should say,
I haven't been this excited about a Rocket season in July,
probably since the Chris Paul deal.

Speaker 5 (01:25:00):
Yeah, you got statements from Rafell and e May and
both have now appeared in several interviews from Vegas Limited
on all the things they're getting into because they're not
really interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:25:12):
Haven't even formally introduced him. They've made it official. I
don't think they will until media day.

Speaker 5 (01:25:17):
Yeah, timing may work out where it's just that way,
but they think the fit for Kevin Durant and above
and beyond the obvious, he's really good, still, really really good,
still offensively certainly, and I think as a helpful winning
caliber player he impacts winning still even though it doesn't
look like that for the team he just left. He
can only impact winning so much. But on a team

(01:25:39):
that's already winning. That's where you know, Oklahoma's cityder Oh,
the Oklahoma City Thunder. If Kevin Durant wasn't the best
player on the team, and he was, they would have
been a pretty good team. Bigger role for James Hard
and Russell Westbrook MVP caliber player and clearly enough cast

(01:26:00):
of players around him Sergea Bock, etc. That was a
pretty good team. He was on a very good team
and he helped them win by playing winning basketball. When
he was in Brooklyn and James Harden was his teammate,
they were a big foot. I had a lot of
bigfoot talk this week. Man Sasquatch was everywhere in the
Pacific Northwest, even though I never saw him. If not
for a big foot, that is a team that would

(01:26:21):
have been among the final eight, and maybe even more
in Brooklyn. A very helpful winning player on a winning team.
Clearly that was the case with Golden State. They would
won with or without him. They did win without him,
then they won with him. A winning player with a
winning team helping them to win. He didn't do that
in Phoenix because they weren't good. You could only do

(01:26:41):
so much, and he wasn't playing by himself. There were
other players that should have helped them more like him,
and it is still to this day, and it looks
like Bradley Beal will be on the open market whenever
they finalize a buyout for him or find a way
to rid themselves of him. His numbers were actually good.
Devin Booker obviously is a pretty top level maybe not
as great as season, but a top level player, and

(01:27:02):
same with Kevin Durant, and they still couldn't figure out
how to play any defense or win any kind of
basketball on a very tough West. But the fit here
seems sound. I certainly will bring offensively things that I
do think this team lacked, and I don't think it
will come at the expense of the rest of the
development that's still needed for Jabari, Tari, Alprin and a
Men to really be the core of this team. It's

(01:27:24):
a little different than what I was saying the last
couple of years with Jalen and Alprin, with Jabari and Tari,
with a Men and Cam and with Reed Shepard, all
those years of acquisitions they made around him, the veteran players,
specifically two years ago, I kept saying, they're not gonna
win because of those players carrying them. They can't be
the best players on the team, they can't be among

(01:27:44):
the best players on the team, or else you're going nowhere.
And I actually think that kind of played in the
postseason last year. Fred was unbelievable. There's no question the
final four games of that series, he wasn't one of
your best players. He was your best player. And it
wasn't good. That's not a great thing. And I don't
mean that in the negative way towards Fred. But this
team is not only reliant on Kevin Durant. They're not

(01:28:05):
gonna win or lose because of him only. They have
to win because a Men's a better player than he
was last year, because Jabari's playing a bigger role than
he had last year, even though some of his minutes
might be taken by Durant. Although Durant is basically a
two guard for this team, those players have to get
better or else adding Durant isn't gonna work.

Speaker 4 (01:28:25):
No, I think I'm dead series when I say this,
Fred van Vliet needs to be your third best player
at best at best this season in order for the
Rockets to go where we want them to go. That
means any sort of order, tier, hierarchy or whatever of
Kevin Durant, Alprin Shingoon and A Men Thompson needs to be.

Speaker 5 (01:28:47):
Ahead of him the fourth best.

Speaker 4 (01:28:49):
Well, that's what I'm saying. Like most Knights, most Knights,
he needs to be fourth, Yes, in order for them
to do so. I should I misspoke, but third is
okay on some nights.

Speaker 5 (01:28:59):
Just over. I think you're right. That's the kind of
team you want to have you're counting on him to
make those players be awesome and help them be awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:29:07):
I don't. I have no doubt that Durant's gonna work
whilst also missing a lot of games. I'm gonna go
ahead and pencil in fifteen games he'll miss that way,
when he misses less, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Speaker 5 (01:29:18):
Sixty six and a half is a reasonable, pretty reasonable.

Speaker 4 (01:29:21):
Very Vegas friendly. Yeah, albrinchingoon, I have no doubt is
going to take the next step. I think we saw
evidence of that in the postseason. He didn't back down
from the moment over the course of the series. Did
he have some moments early on? Yeah, you know, heine
Draymond Green. However much credit you want to give or
not give, I get that. But he's gonna be your
second best player. I think that's that's you know, easy

(01:29:42):
to kind of pencil in as well. And I'm going
to the bank, going to Vegas. Whatever you want to
say that aman Thompson. And I'm biased because I just
love him.

Speaker 5 (01:29:55):
Because you think he's permanently or I'm axing permanently.

Speaker 4 (01:29:59):
I think he's to take like several steps this year.
You and Kyrie both Kyrie, what did you say? What
was his exact phrasing, He's gonna run this league? Didn't
you use some squear words in there.

Speaker 5 (01:30:09):
About where he is now? A promising he's seen it
all full star? Oh talking about a man? Yeah, we
just saw Shay in a position to run the league
and they won the title.

Speaker 4 (01:30:20):
How's a men gonna get all the way up that ladder?
Because the men plays defense and Shaye doesn't.

Speaker 5 (01:30:24):
He does.

Speaker 4 (01:30:25):
Shae doesn't play defense. He plays free throw defense in
that he wants your defense to create him free throws.

Speaker 5 (01:30:32):
Okay, and it works because.

Speaker 4 (01:30:33):
He's who else has ever? Even James Harden didn't get
the Moniker free throw merchant.

Speaker 5 (01:30:39):
That's but you're acting like he doesn't he does. I
know he plays defense at right. It's fine.

Speaker 4 (01:30:45):
If he's the size of Reed Shepherd.

Speaker 5 (01:30:47):
He's not the size of Reed Chef.

Speaker 4 (01:30:49):
Well, he looks like it.

Speaker 5 (01:30:50):
He's six six, two hundred pounds. He's sixty six. I
guess he'd probably what would I say, ninety kilograms? He's
sixty six. A buck fifty is what he really is.
It's not there's no way he weighs two hundred pounds.
Do you like when you, I don't we're not getting
were doing that yet.

Speaker 4 (01:31:04):
By the way, let's get into this really quick, like
for thirty seconds, since you weren't here, and then I
need to ask you next segment about a rocket signing.
But since you weren't here, how excited maybe in a
way are you that? Basically the thunder need to win
the title again this year because that's it, because that
second Apron is going to be a businessch They spent

(01:31:28):
a lot of money, a lot of money definitely over
the course of the respective contracts given to their top
three clear top three best players. And shit, there's no
other way around this. You can't hide from this fact.
He was shoved for how many games this year? It
was a lot, right, yeah, And they didn't miss a beat.
Yet they invested all that money in a guy who's

(01:31:50):
already missed over one hundred games in his brief two.

Speaker 5 (01:31:53):
Year career yep, eighty two games seasons, two hundred and
forty six games he's total to be played. He played
in one hundred fo fourteen of them every single game
of his second year, after missing every single game of
his first year, and then he missed fifty last year.
He and Wimby are on cruise control for an early exit.
Fe there. He's a very very good player, and he
again makes your team better. He might not pile up

(01:32:16):
these numbers, but he's going to help you win because
he's he's just standing there. I mean in a good way.
You know Wemby's the same way. It's difficult. Rudy Gobert
is this winning defensive player of the year over and
over and over again, just because he's there.

Speaker 4 (01:32:28):
He's tall.

Speaker 5 (01:32:29):
It matters.

Speaker 4 (01:32:30):
It's tough to play half court offense against teams that
have players like that.

Speaker 5 (01:32:35):
So that's a little bit of the NBA. I mean,
we'll mention if we know anymore about in Fally Dante
limping off the court and holding his calf, which happened,
But obviously I don't know much more than the buckets
within one not giving the score updates.

Speaker 1 (01:32:47):
Sorry the AE on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:33:02):
It is the eight team Sports Talk seven ninety on
a Monday edition of the program, back together for the
first time. Did you know that we're gonna have all
of two days as a trio before Cole leaves again.
He's going to Atlanta.

Speaker 5 (01:33:16):
Yeah, I heard about that. Atlanta A very popular place
for people that used to that currently do what Nick
Saban used to do. And we'll sprinkle in coach in
the SEC. Yeah, coach or coach in general, but yeah,
specific to the SEC, where it just means more. He
had the Big twelve last week, getting together Willie Fritz
and his four players and assorted other teams in that

(01:33:39):
very competitive conference took care of their business last week.
This week is SEC's turn, and they definitely need many
days for all of their teams and all of the
great voices they have heard a little bit from Brian
Kelly today. I don't know if it's good, bad, or ugly.
It was kind of gonna get everybody else's opinion on that,
but we'll say that maybe for football. At five he
met with the media tay as did some of his players,

(01:34:02):
and that will continue over the course of the week.
We are the home for both the LSU Tigers and
the Texas Longhorn sports programs football and basketball. On the
Longhorn side, Football for LSU, so you catch their action
right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. LSU very very
focused on their opening opponent, as Brian will tell you later.
Mister Kelly and the Texas Longhorns continue to try try

(01:34:27):
to win all the recruiting battles, which over the last
week or two. Maybe some are not super excited about
what has taken place. I think they'll be just fine
with this year's team and next year's team and every
team that Steve Sarkisian coaches. But I'll admit this is
the first year I go into a season for the
Longhorns thinking I think it's realistic that it could be

(01:34:48):
sarked last year at Texas, he's done that much of
a hot sheet.

Speaker 4 (01:34:53):
Really, no, not a hot seat, no no, no, no, no, no,
nfl on.

Speaker 5 (01:34:57):
Somebody's going to give him so much, what do you
say he's going to take it?

Speaker 4 (01:35:02):
I didn't see what you were saying there.

Speaker 5 (01:35:03):
Okay, most most years that he I just think it
wasn't going to be the right time, even if they
won a national title, even if he cultivated some incredible
offense or quarterback play from then yours and maybe this year,
I do maybe think it's different. I think most people
look at his quarterback and say, yeah, even though they
don't all have to be fine bomb and slobbering over him.

(01:35:23):
They even though he's barely played but most people view
him as an NFL quarterback. He has an NFL quarterback.
This is the type of player we want to see, Well,
what can he do with this player at the college level,
And as it translate, everybody knows he runs an NFL offense.
Everybody believes he and their recruiting staff there and their
coaching staff there are clearly now producing NFL players at

(01:35:44):
a pretty good clip. And I think the players that
are on the field this year for them and more
recruits on the way. They're recruiting NFL players like they
haven't done since the Mac Brown era at all spots,
not just clearly offense or quarterback, but teams are going
to be littered with Longhorn players on their rosters moving
forward to such a degree that that also plays into
his favor. And I don't necessarily mean only for the NFL.

(01:36:07):
I don't think there's too many jobs. If there may be,
some people think the answer is zero. I think there's
one any jobs he would leave for in college. Is
there any amount of money that somebody could give him
in college before we move on? So I don't forget
on this vacation. We always somehow find a way to
hit some college campuses. You know, we've gone on vacations.

(01:36:28):
As Samantha was on her way to deciding where to go,
visited a bunch of college campuses just to see them.
There's nothing to do. We're not taking tours, we're not
sitting in on a class. Maybe we'll have a meal
on campus. We went to Oregon when we were in
New Eugene. Great little football complex, nice little campus, very green,
very nice. We drove by Washington's campus. Can vote to games,

(01:36:54):
which is incredible. This is the off seasons. Is not
much activity there. We're driving by there and Ryan says,
you know, weren't they really really good recently? Didn't they
just play for the title? And my immediate reaction was
thinking about Washington and their recent history last ten fifteen years. Well,
I said, they used to be really good, and then

(01:37:14):
they've just been kind of an also ran they've been okay,
but not really playing for anything great. Just a good program,
but not nearly a one that's playing for everything. So no,
they haven't done anything like that. And he's like, no,
didn't they just play, Like, weren't they in the title game?
Didn't they play for the weren't they I'm like, no,
they just they've been good but nothing and just I
said it twice and he goes, no, I'm serious. Didn't

(01:37:36):
they just play for the title? I'm like, oh yeah,
and I was at the game. That was the part
I was two years ago before Alabama stole their head coach.
Just a brain fart, just a total, complete, absolute exactly
what the reason Kirk Cousins is so upset these days?

Speaker 4 (01:37:53):
Man?

Speaker 5 (01:37:54):
We could definitely get there's some really good Netflix has
a new SEC program all the way Netflix Quarter. Obviously
many people have now had a chance to watch it,
and I didn't hear his comments, so I don't want
to comment on his cry baby comments yet, but that's
what they struck me as. Nonetheless. So yeah, so Washington,
all that stuff. What you said there was one program,

(01:38:15):
before you say which one you think it is, if
there was one where Sark would leave for.

Speaker 4 (01:38:20):
A lateral movement in the college game, even in other words.

Speaker 5 (01:38:23):
You wouldn't want it to be called lateral movement because
why are you leaving? And I'm I'm trying to figure
out what what team is even in a position where
they believe they're in national power, but clearly they're not
doing that and the ones that come to mind. I
have one in mind. It's gonna be my guess, and
I don't believe it will happen, but it's my guess.

Speaker 10 (01:38:42):
Is USC Now for me, it was actually Ohio State
And they're not gonna get rid of Ryan Day because
they just wont a national title.

Speaker 5 (01:38:49):
Right, So that's why. How could you even suggest it?

Speaker 4 (01:38:51):
Because I think it's the only job in America that
will pay you whatever it takes to go ahead and
landy if they want you as a head coach.

Speaker 5 (01:38:56):
That's why.

Speaker 4 (01:38:57):
So strictly on the caliber of the pro not the
likelihood that the opportunity is. Why do you think about
USC that he mentioned though he ain't going back to us,
See he's never going back to us.

Speaker 5 (01:39:07):
Like the situation in there that they're in is why
I suggested them. They went out and spent tons of
money to get Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams. Basically that's
why Lincoln Riley was hired, I think, and it's just
gone incredibly poorly, and with me being in Big ten
country on the Pacific Northwest for the last week, I
mean seriously, so I can't believe I even thought in

(01:39:29):
that country dumb, Well, that's us. He is Big ten country.
It's silly, but that's a program that I think. I
don't think they would ever come up with the money
for it, even with how things are. But that's where
they fashion. They fancy themselves as wanting to be a
part of this all and and they're just currently not.
And it's it's not that Lincoln's a bad coach, but
he's done a bad job. They have the wrong guy,

(01:39:50):
and they are I think heading into a year where
you said else you think his seat's that hot? Lincoln
Riley's seed is absolutely blazing hot. He's walking on the
sun every day he gets out of his car, goes
into his office.

Speaker 10 (01:40:01):
Starvey's fired this year, but definitely things have got changed
defensively if he wants to.

Speaker 5 (01:40:06):
Be back in twenty twenty six and beyond. Yep, things
have got to change defensively at SC. And we'll see
if next year is the third straight year Nick Cassario
drafts a USC defensive player. Did it two years ago
correctly with Kln Bullock, did it this past year more
secondary help with Smith. We'll see if there's anybody he
likes next year.

Speaker 4 (01:40:25):
And Sark has never coached at the NFL level, correct.

Speaker 5 (01:40:28):
Not as a head coach, but he's been offensive coordinator
and he's been on staff obviously at SC. So I
think there's a real chance an NFL team looks at
their situation believes they need to, you know, the bold move,
or we got to spend the money.

Speaker 4 (01:40:42):
Does that have to coincide with Texas once again at
minimum being in the final four. Yeah, let's just go
with this. I don't think that Sark's gone anywhere after
this year. Now in twenty twenty six, when Arch does
come back for another year and does help Texas win
a national title and does lee after that season.

Speaker 10 (01:41:01):
Then we can have that conversation. But I don't think
as long as Arch bangings on campus, he's gone anywhere.

Speaker 5 (01:41:06):
And the team that's going to want him either believes
they should be winning, like Jim Harbaugh going to the Chargers.
They thought, well, we should be winning more and we
have the guy, so we're gonna hire the coach to
be with the guy.

Speaker 4 (01:41:19):
And then you lost again, so he's not the guy.

Speaker 5 (01:41:21):
The guy is just sorry, or he's going to a
team that isn't going anywhere but has a top pick
and has their eye on. If it's twenty six, clearly
that particular quarterback, Like Demiko and the Texans in twenty
twenty three. I mean it was clear that Texans were
drafting a quarterback. We just didn't know which one. In
this case. If you are a three and fourteen team

(01:41:42):
and you landed the number one and you have Davis Mills, well,
if looking ahead at the twenty twenty seven draft, let's
say New Orleans, if you're three and fourteen, you probably
want to fire your coach and you probably don't have
a quarterback, and you have the number one pick. If
you're two and fifteen, you definitely have it. If you're
three and fourteen, you might have it. And if Texas
is just one big with Arch for a second straight year,
whether it's a title or not, then wouldn't you be

(01:42:05):
looking at this two year starter in college football at
an elite level with a head coach with an NFL
offense and just package it up and say here's our
new franchise.

Speaker 4 (01:42:12):
I was about to say Cole talking about Arch Manning
returning if they win the championship, there's no way returning.

Speaker 5 (01:42:18):
He likes college like if they win the national champion
I will bet up there to win. He's there to
become a great NFL player. He believes playing college football
will help him. He will.

Speaker 10 (01:42:27):
I will throw one thousand dollars right here on the line.
No questions asked that Arch Banning will return to college
football in Austin for twenty twenty six National champion or
not next That.

Speaker 5 (01:42:37):
Is the favorite right now. My favorite is he's playing
starting for two years starting now.

Speaker 4 (01:42:43):
Just because it would be two years starting versus.

Speaker 5 (01:42:45):
Because they believe in what he has done so far
and that he wants to be there. He wants to
be with Sark. He thinks it's better for his development.
He thinks it's going to help him be a star
NFL player, and one year is probably And I say
it almost like a joke, but he's said it and
his family has said it like he likes the life.
He's making tons of money. By the way, Yeah, but

(01:43:08):
he's a college he's on a college campus. He's a
college student. He's a college royalty too.

Speaker 4 (01:43:13):
He's also not hurting for money in terms of not
just the Manning family, but if I signed a multi
year ANIO deal with Red Bull with how much I'm
getting compensated plus everything else, and I get to stay
in college and do this for a few more years. Yeah,
I'm absolutely it's not gonna hurt my draft.

Speaker 10 (01:43:30):
Stop.

Speaker 4 (01:43:31):
Do I get creeper photos of Arch from a certain
member of my family? Oh yes, all the time. He is,
like you said, royalty, whatever you would call he is.
He's the big man on campus. There.

Speaker 5 (01:43:43):
WEX certainly should be moving forward. The good, the bad,
the ugly. First signature segment of the week comes your way.

Speaker 1 (01:43:50):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety. Now the good, good, bad,
that's not good and the ugly, don't make me good
of it?

Speaker 2 (01:44:04):
With the A Team, we're showing.

Speaker 4 (01:44:07):
Good signature segment time here on the A Team on
a Monday.

Speaker 5 (01:44:12):
That means the good, the bad, the ugly. AC will
have the ugly, Cole will have the bad. I will
get started with the good, which clearly is that we're
all back together again. Hope you guys managed over the
last two weeks worth of shows without all three of
us here. I know Cole, AC and assorted guests handled
things brilliantly, even when they talked about Taylor Swift with
Chandler and Tyler. Thanks for that, Tyler, brilliant segment. And similarly,

(01:44:34):
in the three days you were out during the full
week you were out two of those days. I was
also out because it was the baseball third and July
fourth that we're all out for. But the good is
actually back to something that I think is going to
keep giving to you, the fans at us here in
these chairs, at least for the next three years. Kevin

(01:44:55):
Durant has not signed an extension yet, but we do
think that's forthcoming. What value for We'll find out how
valuable it is for the team or not. If he
decides to take the full amount that he can, well
the Rockets will give it to him and we'll figure
out how to manage things accordingly the next three years.
Or there's certainly an option where he doesn't take quite
as much and make things a little bit easier on

(01:45:16):
trying to figure out what pockets of this team need
to be improved if necessary, during the final two years
of his contract. But it doesn't have anything to do
with that. It has to do with the relationship between
Kevin Durant and his coach, and it has the relationship
between Kevin Durant and his fans on social media. A
DeAndre Williams posted watching Emy versus kde film right now.

(01:45:40):
If you remember in the Rockets release about Kevin Durant
becoming a Houston Rocket in the very very small, super
uncomplicated trade that landed him here in Houston, he indicated,
it's been great coaching against him and coaching with him
Team USA and Brooklyn and playing against him. He played

(01:46:02):
against Kevin Durant. He's not gonna coach Kevin duran There's
not that many players left in the NBA, certainly not
in that many really really good players in the NBA
that he may U Doka did defend or attack offensively.
But this particular post on the X platform says, watching
Ema versus Katie film right now, e may was kind
of locking you up, which of course means it was
followed by an act at KD tray five. What does

(01:46:25):
Kevin Durant do on the X platform, he responds all
the time, he says, good film. Study, ain't gonna lie.
It was a wrestling match. I looked over to the
ref one time and he was like, stop all that
bleep and crying. He was an og, so sounded like
an ank when he said it. I had to lock
in real quick and a basketball question followed, which usually

(01:46:46):
does when a reasonable response from Kevin rather than a
more of a shut your ball mass up type response
comes And this is a very reasonable basketball response. He goes,
what's the adjustment in the moment, knowing the refs are
gonna let smaller defenders get away with We saw it
in the finals with Alex Caruso quite a bit all
postseason Fred van Vliet, similar, smaller player, they get away

(01:47:07):
with a lot more. And Durant says, great question. Play
at a slower pace, get lower in an athletic stance,
don't think too much about the physicality. Refs can see
their aggression a little better if I play at my pace.
All that being said, Emy joined the broadcast the other
day for one of the Rockets games and was presented
with I'm sure you saw that the post about you

(01:47:29):
locking him up, and he immediately responded, I never locked
him up. Don't get me, don't start with that nonsense.

Speaker 4 (01:47:36):
This is I have been convinced this whole time that
and again, rafel Stone, meeting with the media on the
day that you presumed you would be missing the Kevin
Durant presser, I mean it ended up being you got
all the fun stuff while I was gone, and then
you missed nothing.

Speaker 5 (01:47:55):
Yeah, we will normally get an ASTROS player interview on Tuesdays.
Won't have one tomorrow they're not playing, and get the
week off. The week you missed. We did get that
interview at two thirty. It was Cam Smith. It was
a very fun interview and.

Speaker 4 (01:48:08):
That's correct you. I'm really happy for you.

Speaker 5 (01:48:10):
The following week we were having discussions about who it
might be, and knowing that the roster.

Speaker 4 (01:48:14):
It was nobody.

Speaker 5 (01:48:15):
I said, you'll probably get Cooper Hummel and he was
the guest, but it wasn't even scheduled while you were on.
It was at one thirty. He struck out with Matt
Thomas instead. Sometimes that's the bad, sometimes it's the ugly.
For me, it was the good and yes I did
not miss the Kevin Durant introductory Prescott.

Speaker 4 (01:48:30):
You know what Max. At the tail end of that interview.

Speaker 5 (01:48:33):
Matt Thomas wrapping up the Cooper Hummer Humbroll said it
like ten times, So don't get to get let's get twister.
Let me give you got radio interview.

Speaker 4 (01:48:44):
I'm going to give you a hint. He is a
Portland native. That's your hint. It's a very good one,
is it?

Speaker 5 (01:48:49):
Clyde Drexler related kind of?

Speaker 4 (01:48:51):
He asked him, who is an all time great Portland Trailblazer?
What do you think? Cooper Hummel's answer was, so it
is that answer? The first name out of his mouth
terrry Porter. He said, Scottie Pippen. Matt almost fell out
of his chair. And I wasn't even watching him. I
could hear it answer, and he didn't get to Clyde

(01:49:12):
Drexler's name until Matt forced it into the conversation. He
must have named off a million other blazer.

Speaker 5 (01:49:18):
He name any redheaded white centers.

Speaker 4 (01:49:21):
Matt did, okay, Bill Walton, and the guy was like,
you gotta remember when I was watching the game, it
was like the Brandon roy era. He's a kid, Okay,
So again, why does Scott Pippen come out of your
mouth first? I mean they went to the what the
two thousand Western Conference Finals where Kobe got the alue
to shack and they lost so great that made that

(01:49:44):
meant Scott Pippen was an all time great Blazer for
the two years he played there.

Speaker 5 (01:49:48):
Age six, Cooper Hummel couldn't get enough of it.

Speaker 4 (01:49:51):
I just I was so disappointed and it was a
really great interview up until that point.

Speaker 5 (01:49:56):
Is that the bad No, I don't have the bad
today a both of you.

Speaker 10 (01:50:00):
No, that's not the bad. Bad is is that we
haven't gotten to it yet. Jeremy Pania, he is currently
in Atlanta for the All Star Game, which is great.
He's not gonna be playing because if he's still on
the IOL. But Dana Brown was asked about it, Hey,
you had a really big important series coming up. I
will be the bold one AC and say, yes, this
is the most important series of the Houston Astros entire season.

(01:50:22):
I want to see them sweep the Seattle Mariners and
build an eight game lead heading into the next week
when you play against the Arizona Diamondbacks. So to me,
when looking at this offense, when looking at where this
team is and after an underwhelming performance with the Guardians
and really outside of a Zach Short RBI single to
walk off the Texas Rangers, not a good homestand for

(01:50:45):
the Astros in the Silver Boots series.

Speaker 5 (01:50:47):
But Dana Brown was asked, hey, you.

Speaker 10 (01:50:50):
Think you're gonna see Jeremy Pania, who was taking grounders
and has said two Sports Talks of a ninety Stan Matthews,
I feel really good.

Speaker 5 (01:50:58):
I think I'm getting close.

Speaker 4 (01:51:00):
Will we see potentially one mister Jeremy Pania return to
the lineup.

Speaker 9 (01:51:05):
That's a little early because we, you know, we want
to take it a little slow. We're encouraged that he's
doing baseball activities like swinging a bat and fielding ground balls,
not really throwing yet. I really don't want to aggravate
that rib, but you know, I think it could be,
you know, in the near future, you know, sometime at

(01:51:25):
the start of the second half. Not sure right now,
you know how or how soon, But I think he
may be one of the first guys to come off.

Speaker 4 (01:51:33):
The I out. So the reason why I say that
and I played that clip is because of one of
the first guys to come off the IL, which means
we still don't have an answer on yourn Avarez either,
and that's bad.

Speaker 1 (01:51:45):
It is.

Speaker 4 (01:51:46):
Although you heard what Dana Brown had to say earlier
in the show, maybe talking about Jordan Alvarez potentially being
cleared by doctors as soon as Thursday to start swinging
a bat and he has no pain right now. Those
are two very promising bits of information, but it doesn't
mean anything until he actually swings said bat and the
non pain remains a non factor.

Speaker 5 (01:52:08):
Yes, this a non timetable answer, unfortunately from Dana. He
could be the first guy back. Okay, awesome, no timetable
and I'm not blaming Dana at all. I hope it
didn't come across that way. But Zach's having a.

Speaker 4 (01:52:21):
Heck of a year. By the way, quietly, I think.

Speaker 5 (01:52:24):
Yeah, Zach Decenzo's not close to coming back. Chas McCormick.
I don't know if they're looking for success during his
rehab stint with the Space Cowboys, but there hasn't been
an He's two for twenty with eight strikeouts. He obviously
health wise, probably is close to coming back, and with
who they're playing in the outfield regularly, I would think
he would be back before Paynya. He may not have

(01:52:44):
counted him in the coming back category. We'll carry over
the ugly to the other side. The Major League Baseball
fun during the season begins tonight with the Derby, tomorrow
night with the All Star Game, and then a little
bit of extra time off before baseball begins. Surely that
will be a part of the Ugly next the eight

(01:53:05):
on Sports Talk seven ninety You got right to it.
Put a wrap on this signature segment, the good, the bad,
the ugly.

Speaker 4 (01:53:14):
What do we have for the ugly? All right, both
of these you get you a two for one. Both
of these are MLB related, the last of which is
late breaking. Somewhat earlier this morning, an article is written
up about, uh something that let's just say is very
near and not so dear to the hearts of Astros fans.

(01:53:37):
We all know that the process of naming All Stars
after the fact is sometimes more controversial than the naming
of the initial All Stars. In other words, it's a
bunch of guys that get called to be starters for
the team they're voted in and what have you, and
then the reserves get you know, installed, and then inevitably, injuries,

(01:53:58):
pitching assignments and whatnot takeover, and you wind up in
a situation where fromber Valdez is sitting there like, uh, hello, hello, Hello,
I'd like to be in the game. No, we're just
going to put a different Yankee in there. And that's
what happened in the AO. Well, usually when this kind
of thing happens. The players themselves, both ones that are

(01:54:20):
being selected and the ones that are maybe either snubbed
or on the team. Of those that are perceived as
snubs kind of keep their mouth shut.

Speaker 5 (01:54:30):
Not the Phillies. Phillies are pissed.

Speaker 4 (01:54:33):
So Jacob missus Zowski is going to be in a
National League All Star pitcher. He weighs approximately one hundred
and seventy pounds, soaking wet.

Speaker 5 (01:54:46):
He is unquestionably the chet holgrown a Major League bay.

Speaker 4 (01:54:49):
There you go, That's what I was looking for. And
he's going to replace Matthew Boyd on the NL roster.
So you know, Dave Roberts and company are all like,
oh yeah, this is good, good choice, good selection. Not
the Phillies. Trey Turner, what a joke. That's effing terrible.
I mean, that's terrible, dude. That's his quote. Nick Castianos,

(01:55:11):
who hits home runs when people are apologizing, said it's
turning into the Savannah bananas. These are two quotes that
I've gotten to so far, and it keeps going. And
this is because the Phillies think that. And I, by
the way, I agree with him on the first guy,
especially Ranger Suarez. He was filthy against the Astros and
Christopher Sanchez. They are putting forth those two names as

(01:55:35):
examples of more deserving All Star replacements than Zarewski jt
Real Mutel. That's just how MLB does it. Now, nothing
against the kid, but Suarez and Sanchez are deserving of
being on the team in the first place. There's no doubt.
Castianos went on to say, Major League Baseball is really
just focusing on the most marketable players. So the fact

(01:55:56):
that they can have somebody in the game that is
gonna basically blow out one inning and throw one oh three,
one oh four, they're going to get more eyeballs on baseball.
They're going to think it's getting more popular. So all
of these quotes, like supporting their teammate, that's not the
ugly part, but the fact that they're going this far
in what they're saying, and it's just another example of

(01:56:19):
Major League Baseball's I guess process of putting these rosters
together is hilariously ugly to me. It's hilarious because it's
funny to me, but it's ugly that they're attributing these
quotes like they're going on the record and saying this
kind of stuff. It's a bad look, but wex that's
not nearly as ugly as the other part of this.

(01:56:40):
You know, you had to have known, even if you
weren't listening on the free iHeartRadio app while you were gone,
that I at least devoted one, if not several segments
to how stupid it is that they're going to have
the automated ball strike system in a meaningless exhibition game
and then just go right back to the things being

(01:57:00):
business as usual right after that in games that actually count.

Speaker 5 (01:57:04):
So spring training, they had it in most ballparks in
spring They didn't have it at the Astros Ballpark, but
they clearly played a bunch of games where they did
have it. You're allowed to challenge whatever number of pitches
based on how successful you are at it. It's not
the entire game is called via an automatic ball strike.
It's just you get the opportunity to challenge a pitch

(01:57:24):
you don't agree with either the hitter or the pitcher
catcher tandem. So they're going to do it for the
All Star Game, where way more people are going to
see it then saw it during Spring training, like way
way way more people, way less pitchers are going to count.
None of it counts. Clearly it's exhibition both of the
games I brought up or exhibition games. Is there some

(01:57:45):
sort of public feeling, sentiment, social media response that they're
looking for by having it here.

Speaker 4 (01:57:52):
Well, here's what I think it's going to happen. It's
only going to do the thing that I guess they're
afraid of. It's going to prove that this way of
doing things gets it one hundred percent accurate, whereas the
people that we hire to do that never do that.

Speaker 5 (01:58:07):
I'm not sure if this is right, and I'm not
sure if you watch Saturday Night this last game, not
the last game, the Dodger game National game, was there
no Fox because it was a Fox no Fox box
on the strike zone it was.

Speaker 4 (01:58:22):
It was the same as the Rangers game where it's there,
but it's super faint.

Speaker 5 (01:58:26):
Well, I don't know then, I can't recall where it
was or how recent it was. Watching a game without
that box changes everything. Once they brought the box to
the fans. Visually, it's changed the viewpoint of the job
that the umpires do. And same with when you see
guys complain about it, you know you had a player
the other night, ninth inning of a game, the ball
Ernie Clement of the Blue Jays and the ninth inning

(01:58:47):
of a one run game, and he ticked off the
third strike call. He thinks it's a ball. Well, it's
right there on the white line. That's that's a strike.
We all know it. He looks like a fool for arguing,
or is he like because it's there, we get this
distorted viewpoint. I think of what we look at and say, well,
that's a strike. Well that's not a strike. And the
umpires don't have a box. They're just they're calling the game.

Speaker 4 (01:59:10):
Okay, if there was a uniform box that the obviously
the computers are using, then it's okay to get at
that upset because you're seeing what the computer's seeing.

Speaker 5 (01:59:21):
Yeah, I think that. I mean, I don't know if
I'm right or wrong. I think that's maybe the reasoning
behind it. But I'm with you that they know it's coming,
they know it should. What is what's the hold up?
We know it makes the accuracy of the umpires better.
And if you're not striving for that, I'm not sure
what you're doing. You want the human element, Well, but
that means you're striving for to see things happen that

(01:59:44):
you shouldn't want to see that. The fans don't want
to see that, the players don't want that to happen.
And I guess this word about these ramifications that they
think are gonna happen. You know, these pitches that weren't well,
now this is a strike when I have to change.
I just think they're flat wrong.

Speaker 4 (02:00:00):
Guess what bothers me is that they've taken so long
just to implement this version of isn't It's not even
gonna be one hundred percent abs. It's a challenge system.
And yet they will violently ram through gimmicky things like
you know, the Gift Runner and things like that, in
the name of COVID, of course. But then we're just
gonna keep it because the players like it. Okay, whatever

(02:00:23):
you say. Football at five is coming up next The A.

Speaker 2 (02:00:28):
Team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 8 (02:00:29):
Ninety Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight team.

Speaker 5 (02:00:42):
Final hour of the first show of the week. Here
on a Monday edition of the A Team Always brings
you in the five o'clock hour, Football at five, Wexac
and Cole Here, there are a bunch of different things
that definitely deserve a lot of our attention. Save the CJ.
Stroud conversation for later this hour, if not later this segment.
Save a few other items for after this opening item.

(02:01:07):
So LSU and the other fifteen members of the SEC,
they've got media days right now. Brian Kelly I mentioned
there's some audio from him, so I wanted to center
around that. I'm gonna start though with the NFL. Got
news earlier today that Garrett Wilson, tenth overall pick in
twenty twenty two, has signed an extension with the New

(02:01:27):
York Jets. Makes him the fifth highest paid wide receiver
in the NFL based on average annual value, gets one
hundred and thirty million via this Extension's played very good football.
He's had a DeAndre Hopkins like group of quarterbacks with
him during his time akin to hopkins time in Houston
his time in New York, and you've seen him change
who they've had as their signal caller. Last year, he

(02:01:50):
was consistent with who he had throwing in the football
just wasn't particularly good and it was Aaron Rodgers who's
now gonna not be particularly good for another outfit. Fifth
in the NFL average annual value thirty two point five.
The four that are ahead of him very reasonable, Jamar Chase, Justin, Jefferson,
ced Lamb DK metcalf All making thirty three or more,

(02:02:13):
and Jamar is at a ridiculous forty but earned. It's
the rate of pay. He's easily one of the three
four best wide receivers in the NFL and thus has
earned that money. One year ago, basically fourteen months ago.
Late May of twenty twenty four, Houston Texans general manager

(02:02:34):
Nick Casserio signed an extension agreed to an extension with
Texans number one wide receiver Nico Collins. Nico was drafted
the year before that, not nearly as the tenth overall pick,
the eighty ninth overall pick, and he just turned in
one remarkable season, and then last year he turned in
a second remarkable season. Twenty four point twenty five million

(02:02:54):
average annual value for Nico Collins. That's eight million per
season on these respective extensions, less than Garrett Wilson and
puts him fourteenth. It means players like Brandon Ayuk at
thirty million and Jalen Waddle at twenty eight twenty five,
which is four more million per season, they're in between them,

(02:03:15):
they're ahead of Nico Collins. If you can't follow the
value on the contract for Nico Collins, which will change
dramatically if there's a second contract extension, and I believe
there will be. It's incredible. We knew it then, we
knew it the day he signed it, and it's continued
to play out for each year that he plays under it.
The value on the contract for Nico Collins is incredible.

(02:03:39):
It's really good money for the player. He's getting seventy
two and a half million and basically it'll be guaranteed
because he's gonna get it all and the team is
getting him at less than Jalen Waddle, less than t Higgins,
less than Brandon Ayuk, less than Devonte Smith.

Speaker 4 (02:03:53):
So I know that the roster sizes are different, but
all three teams in town have these types of content.

Speaker 5 (02:04:00):
Who has the best value per roster in town?

Speaker 4 (02:04:05):
Because you just mentioned Nico Collins, obviously Alprin, Shingoon and
now Jabari Smith Junior are lower than scale so to speak,
especially when you compare it to Chad Holmgrim who got
the max even though he misses like two hundred games.
And then look at Jordon. Now, probably a bad time
to bring that up. Uh, same with like calling Lance

(02:04:28):
mccullors junior, you know, valuable at this point because he's
missed so much time. But when those deals were signed,
both of them, we were like ooh, kind of got
like a raising of the eyebrows because and even Bregman's
first kind of extension, we knew they were being underpaid.

Speaker 5 (02:04:47):
Yeah, six years for both of those last those baseball deals.
You're talking about six for Bregman for one hundred and
six for one fifteen for Jordon. Jordon'll make twenty six
million plus next year, but six years, one hundred and
fifteen million is less than twenty million a year. It's
incredible value for the team. He's one of the five
best hitters in the American League. Health went healthy, and

(02:05:11):
you've got him at a very low rate. I mean,
there's a there's a few contracts out there, and I
think Jabbar's is interesting because I'm not sure how we'll
feel about it in a year.

Speaker 4 (02:05:22):
I think we feel pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (02:05:24):
He would have to get a lot better in my
opinion for me to call it a steal. It's gonna be.
It's not a bad contract under any circumstances for the team.
I know that today, turning it into a steel means
seeing these the elevator his game significantly, just pointing at
at where the Texans are and their position is comparable
to where the Astros have been over the years. They
have these decisions to make over and over and over again.

(02:05:48):
They've paid Derek Stingley Junior. They've paid Nico Collins. You know,
they've given out a lot of money. They've extended. These
are all the extensions. I mean, they've extended stingly. They've
extended calls this offseason. They extend Danil Hunter. We know
what's staring in the face. They've extended Jalen Petree. Next
offseason is the window, the extension window for two guys

(02:06:08):
who are going to make way more money than any
of the players we've talked about. I think I know CJ.

Speaker 7 (02:06:13):
Will.

Speaker 5 (02:06:14):
I believe that's the stratosphere that Will Anderson Junior is
putting himself in. You could have the highest paid edge
rusher in the NFL on your roster next year when
or who's signed the average annual value. He won't be
playing under that money yet and Anderson. You have that
today with Derek Singley junior. You could also have it
with CJ. Stroud. You can, I mean you can if

(02:06:35):
these players and their agents allow for it. Pay everybody,
but that nobody pays everybody in the NFL, no matter
how much you're winning, no matter how much you like
these young talented players. I mean, Cincinnati's going through it.
We thought they were going to see T Higgins walk
out the door at some point. Didn't know if Jimar
Chase would be happy. Ultimately, it's likely going to cost
them Trey Hendrickson and this is only three or four guys.

(02:06:58):
That list for Houston is massive. They've done a really
good job with their young players.

Speaker 4 (02:07:02):
I know this is football five and I keep bringing
in baseball and basketball. But what we talked about with
Oklahoma City in the second apron, which a lot of people.
When I say that, I don't know if a lot
of people understand, is it's relatively It's not. It's not
new from the sense it's been around. But I do
think it's going to play a large role when the

(02:07:23):
Collective Bargaining Agreement reconvenes for negotiations. Yet again, I don't
even know when that is. It's not like it's baseball.
We're in two years fround. I think we're gonna lose
the entire season. I really do think that, by the way,
but you're penalized for drafting well and trying to keep
your core. That's the That's the simplest way to put
it in the NBA right now, I mean, can you

(02:07:46):
really disagree with that?

Speaker 5 (02:07:48):
Is there some alternative?

Speaker 4 (02:07:49):
Though not right now? I don't think.

Speaker 5 (02:07:50):
I mean, what would you want them to do otherwise?
You've played out this rookie contract with just very team friendly, right. Yeah,
it takes a while for them to really start making
big money and then when you make the decision to
extend them early, which they did in this player. In
Jalen Williams case, Shay a little bit different. You have
the option is to clearly, you're no other option. Either
he walks or you give him the max.

Speaker 4 (02:08:12):
Right, but you didn't give either alprin Chingoon or Jalen
Green and now Jabari Smith Junior the max in any
of those cases.

Speaker 5 (02:08:21):
I don't view them as comparable players.

Speaker 4 (02:08:24):
Well, Jalen is No, You're absolutely right, they're not. But
relative to where they were taken, like Jabari Smith Jr.
Was taken exactly one pick behind ched Holmgren. Now I
get cheded. Holmgren has had when he's been on the
floor a much bigger impact, but he hasn't been on
the floor nearly as much as Jabari Smith Junior, and

(02:08:44):
I I just I feel like there's that asterisk next
to guys like him, well whin healthy, Well yeah, but
he has to be out there, but yet they still
macked him out. What I'm saying is, forget the injuries.
You draft guys at the top of the draft in
the NBA, and you put together through the draft the
right way, so to speak, without going out and getting
help in free agency or trades, and then you're penalized

(02:09:08):
for trying to pay them what they're worth to the
point where you can't either feel the team around them,
which is what could happen with the Thunder, other than
you know they're gonna use all those first round draft
picks they have to replace guys that are inevitably gonna walk.
But if you don't and you want to keep that
court because there is such a thing as chemistry, then
you're you're getting penalized basically for drafting.

Speaker 5 (02:09:29):
Well, I definitely understand how It can be seen that way,
and you reach a certain point where we've made rules
the league so you can keep them, but then you're
restricted in other ways. It's not the like filling out
the roster is going to be challenging if they're really
eating up that much of a percentage of the cap,
putting them in the separate second apron category like you
talked about, you're gonna need to find like the two

(02:09:52):
of the three players of the Rocket signed, Jeff Green
and Aaron Holliday. You're the contract figure is one number,
and amount of money they're making is one number, but
their cap figure is nothing because they're in that veteran category,
and you're allowed that's one of the loopholes that you're
allowed to because they're literally they gotta fill out a roster.
You gotta have enough spots up with players that are

(02:10:13):
literally available to play for you. I don't think what
Oklahoma City did is a wrong or be harmful to
their product and their future. They're in a different situation
than most because they have that many options, with that
many number one picks, it's gonna cost them some of
these other players. It's gonna do the same thing it
did the first time they chose three players, they chose

(02:10:33):
the right three and there were only three to choose from.
But it's gonna cost them the others. It cost them,
James Harden to me similar reasons. They chose Ibaka Westbrook
and Kevin Durant, and they could not give the amount
of money that James Harden felt like he could get,
so he said, I'm not taking that contract. He's still
under contract and they chose to move him. It's gonna

(02:10:54):
cost him all the other players. Like who else on
that team is signing any kind of reasonable extension of
their young players? But how good are they? Like I
think Aaron Wiggins is a really good player. I think
Lou Dort's a really good player. I think Cason Wallace,
these are really good players. They're not going to sign
long term lucrative contracts with the Thunder because now they can't.
So they'll see that player ship out and the twelfth
pick in the next draft will be one of theirs

(02:11:16):
and the fifteenth pick, or they could package picks and
getting even better player who's now on that rookie scale
where his money's locked in the first three. You're normally
such a low value.

Speaker 4 (02:11:24):
Normally your response to that will be like, well, and
you're just gonna assume that they're going to be as
good as the players they're replacing. But in the case
of Sam Presty, he drafts like a bad You.

Speaker 5 (02:11:32):
Just have so many opportunities where if what you said
is true, where you've missed, well, okay, well did I
miss on all six of these picks over the three years,
or each of these three or I think he has
such a cushion of mistakes that I look at his
it's the play I would have made if I'm Oklahoma City.
Just lock them up. Yeah, get it done now. Hopefully
as the cap if it rises after next year, where

(02:11:55):
it's not supposed to rise ten percent but rather seven,
then you'll be in position, good position. Just don't lose
sight of how good they are. You have the best
player in the league. You have one of the next
fourteen best players in the league, because Jalen Williams is
all NBA this year.

Speaker 4 (02:12:11):
He was amazing. And you have one of the three
or four most impactful defenders. We can shake Gilds, seven
defenders can shake Gilges, Alexander and and Jalen Williams. Win
you another championship. If Check goes down with that supporting cast,
I say probably yes, because they were so far and
away better than everybody else just from a record standpoint.

(02:12:33):
Although Chet's best game of the playoffs probably came in
Game seven of the finals, definitely of that series. But
if he goes down again for an extended period of time,
you're gonna find out the answer to that, whether you
want to or not, because now you've committed that kind
of money that not only pays that guy, but if

(02:12:54):
he's out, it's keeping you from paying other guys who
after this season are going to leave that roster and
make them vulnerable to not having the dynasty they're trying
to build.

Speaker 5 (02:13:03):
All that being said, he was healthy at the right time.

Speaker 4 (02:13:06):
Just like just like Anthony Davis in the bubble.

Speaker 5 (02:13:09):
They basically had an entire rotation's worth of team, the
entire team ninety nobody got hurt old.

Speaker 4 (02:13:17):
And that is another thing, and that's true for any
support obviously, especially football. But look at the Astros they're
going through it right now. Imagine if they are completely healthy,
how much way better they could be.

Speaker 5 (02:13:27):
They'd probably be in first place.

Speaker 2 (02:13:31):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 4 (02:13:33):
Ninety I've been I've been thinking bectually.

Speaker 5 (02:13:39):
There are a couple of things on the football side
that with table for a moment, have time to hit
them and put them on the table and eat them
up here on the a team Wexac and cole with.
You'll need some opinions on what exactly is being talked about,
if it's a good thing, if it's a bad thing,
if it needs not to be discussed, or maybe if

(02:13:59):
I'm even overreacting to it. So sec media days ongoing,
Lane Kiffin meeting with the media a little bit, given
us the props to coach Sarkesian, coach smart to the
best in the country played each other twice last year.
Should be an interesting year. Now correct me if I'm
wrong as I shift to Brian Kelly, who also had
some of his media responsibilities. Right, So, LSU has not

(02:14:25):
won an opener to their college football season since they
won every game and went fifteen to oh under coach
oh each season since then, most of which are Brian
Kelly seasons. Florida State a couple of times USC obviously,
but not since that nineteen season have they won their

(02:14:46):
opening game.

Speaker 10 (02:14:47):
They are zero and six since the twenty nineteen season
and in Week one openers.

Speaker 5 (02:14:51):
Okay, so this season's Week one opener pretty big one,
maybe maybe the second best matchup in the country with
Clemson a true home game at Clemson, LSU opens up
the season now definitely features one of the probably the
most intriguing quarterback matchup of the opening game.

Speaker 4 (02:15:13):
Versus QB two in college football, two of the best
in college football.

Speaker 5 (02:15:16):
Yes, I'm still not quite where our resident SEC hanks
are with Garrett Nusmart. It doesn't mean I don't think
he's very good. I definitely think he's very good, But
I don't know that he's one of the two best
quarterbacks in the country or even in the SEC. But
I definitely think kid Klubnick is awesome. And even though
his final game last year might not have looked that way,

(02:15:38):
I think he was up against more than his team
could help him handle. I think he's tremendous college football.

Speaker 10 (02:15:44):
He was elite in that game. It's not his faunt
the Clemson's defense Tan Wall show up.

Speaker 5 (02:15:47):
It's exactly he basically all he could do to put
them in a position where a couple of extra bounces
go their way. Maybe it turns out a different way,
but just not a game that they were going to
win that day. Very good matchup, awesome, really awesome opening weekend.
Brian Kelly talked about how they're preparing for their season,
so I wanted to play something for you from him

(02:16:09):
to kind of set this up and then ask the
question about it after he was asked about their preparation
and how they're attacking week one.

Speaker 11 (02:16:18):
If you go through our weight room, we've got a
Cleanson paw prints on the bags that we hit every day.
It's on every monitor in the building to go one
to zero. And I think it was important to have
a tangible, specific goal for us to start the season,
and I think it's important our kids want that they

(02:16:39):
can taste it.

Speaker 5 (02:16:41):
My first thought as I started to listen to it was, man,
gimmicky nonsense. You got to be kidding me. You know,
you have that paw prints of the opponent who they
don't even have a rivalry with. But it's a very
good team. It's a huge game. It could set the
stage for the season. The more I thought it out,
they've been playing big opening week games for years and
they coming up short, and every coach in football seems

(02:17:04):
to always go with the we're just trying to go
one and oh this week, it's a one week season.
We'll get to the next opponent when we get there.
We're not looking ahead. This is our entire focus. It
happens to be at the beginning of the season. So
there are clearly is much more you could do if
you want to, whether it's scouting or pure preparation for
just this one team. So my first thought, I think

(02:17:25):
is not the one I currently have. I think this
is totally fine and it's definitely fine for college football
or am I wrong that he's this is silliness.

Speaker 10 (02:17:35):
It's silliness, but it's necessary silliness because if there's a
standard in LSU, I mean, like, let's just call it
as is. Your expectations when you are the head coach
for the Bayu Bengals is to compete for an SEC title,
college Football Playoff berth and a national championship. And for
Brian Kelly specifically, he's going into year four. By the

(02:17:55):
time that Less, Miles ed Ordron, and Nick Saban got
through the end of their fourth season, they all won
national championships. They weren't getting paid with Brian Kelly's getting paid,
They didn't have the type of talent that Brian Kelly has.
They they weren't having stability at the quarterback position and
having the chance to reinvent their entire rosster with the
NIO funds and bring in players that weren't even considering LSU.

Speaker 5 (02:18:18):
So it's necessary silliness.

Speaker 10 (02:18:21):
Because of Brian Kelly more than any coach in college
football needs that win Week one in the other Death Valley.

Speaker 5 (02:18:27):
Yeah, focus on the game, I think is what shifted
me into This is fine. It's it's not a joke.
It's not a gimmick.

Speaker 4 (02:18:33):
It's not your being a fool or I'm gonna sit
here and mock you and you.

Speaker 5 (02:18:37):
Rip you to shreds because I don't think you're greater.
I went into a thing. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm
going to do, and yet had a change of heart
a little bit. Remind you last year when they suffered
that loss to open up the season, it was largely
because of Houston Texans running back Woody Marks opened the
game with a touchdown, closed the game with the touchdown. Also,

(02:18:59):
remember we told do the USC sucks and that's who
beat LSU and their opener life.

Speaker 10 (02:19:03):
Yeah, and they sucked it. Their offense was fine, their
defense sucked.

Speaker 5 (02:19:08):
We'll get more of this, I'm sure from the other
fifteen coaches something that we'll need to pick at. I'm
sure as we speak, Oh, missus head coach has delivered
something that will need to hit you with tomorrow. The
other thing from SEC media to day is, I guess
it was bound to happen this year because it wasn't
going It couldn't happen last year because it was year

(02:19:29):
one without Nick Saban. Oh, let's not do this, like
what would is this just total? This is the fast day.
You've got an entire season's worth of storylines that are
really really good to talk about, whether it's the playoffs
or the team's involved or arch or Ohio State or
anything like this is somebody brought this up. You're not

(02:19:51):
wanting me to do it. I'm doing it late in
the segment specifically for that reason. We're not really going
to have extended conversations up until this season opener or
something we're gonna do now every season. I think Nick
Saban might be coming back to college football. I think
he's got that itch. I think someone could get him
back on the sideline.

Speaker 4 (02:20:09):
Have I ever been more sure about the fact of
something like he's never he's never coming back, He's never
coming back. And listen, Greg McCrory was the one to
report it. Greg mccroy played for him at Alabama, and
he won a national title in two thousand and nine,
and he has a radio show out in Birmingham, and
he has sources close to the program.

Speaker 10 (02:20:26):
So I don't think that Nick doesn't miss coaching. I
think that he does miss coaching. I think he misses
being on the sidelines. But let's just call this as this.

Speaker 4 (02:20:35):
He is very much a partner in a relationship with
Miss Terry.

Speaker 5 (02:20:39):
Miss Terry's done.

Speaker 10 (02:20:41):
Miss Terry is not going back, and she's not leaving Tuscaloosa,
and they're not going out go ahead and start elsewhere.

Speaker 5 (02:20:47):
And I don't think Kaitlyn de Boor is losing a
job anytime soon.

Speaker 10 (02:20:49):
So he's not coaching Alabama again, which he won't at
seventy five years old. He's not coaching in college football anymore.

Speaker 5 (02:20:55):
It's interesting that your source is close to the program
because he's a tech. He's still a part of Bama's
football program until basically otherwise.

Speaker 10 (02:21:04):
I mean, he's the most hated media person ever come
from the University of Alabama. But yeah, oh yeah, Alabama
fans can't stand Greg McRoy.

Speaker 4 (02:21:13):
So wow, how how like the phone calls getting made
and a package is being put together as soon as
Kailen de Boor's season of eight and five or nine
and four is replicated this year.

Speaker 5 (02:21:26):
They went nine to four last year in year one. Oh,
that's cute. It's it's absolutely gonna happen. It's adorable that
he's going to say I'm not coming back to coach.

Speaker 10 (02:21:35):
Well, that's not gonna happen. But still, I mean, I'm
glad that we live in a fake fancy.

Speaker 5 (02:21:39):
Are They're going to be so good.

Speaker 10 (02:21:40):
They're gonna be Ryan Grubbs back number one.

Speaker 4 (02:21:43):
That's that's that's the number one thing. Number What position
does he play?

Speaker 5 (02:21:46):
Offense coordinator?

Speaker 7 (02:21:47):
Oh?

Speaker 10 (02:21:47):
Pretty, pretty good with the exhibition at all. Hey do
you remember that offense that Kaylen de Borr implemented out
in Washington with those really good wide receivers that led
him to a national title.

Speaker 5 (02:21:56):
Yeah, the architect that Alabama have the eleventh or third
teenth best starting quarterback in the SEC. I would go ninth.
But so.

Speaker 4 (02:22:05):
He's in the top ten. He's he's about Thomas ty Simpson. Yeah, exactly,
He's fine. Both of you guys. You need to stop.
I'm only back one day. You're trying to sports MTM
me to death. Take it easy. It's fine. By the way,
it has to do more with just Nick Saban not
wanting to do that.

Speaker 5 (02:22:24):
You brought Miss Terry into it, and I would have
said that similar analogy, like we know that Bill Belichick's
eventually going to break up with Jordan Hudson. They're not
going to get back together. He might miss her, just
like Nick misses coaching, but he has no intentions of
getting back together with Alabama, just like there will be
no getting back together with Jordan. I'm sure Bill will
miss her at least certain things. They're not going to

(02:22:46):
be getting back together whatever it is that it happens,
And I'm not wishing their relationship to fail, just making
the assumption that it will.

Speaker 4 (02:22:53):
Well, yeah, it can't succeed.

Speaker 5 (02:22:55):
Well, I mean, I don't know what you call success,
but nonetheless, there you have it. Ian Kelly Clemson, good
luck Tigers, because you're also the Tigers the age.

Speaker 2 (02:23:09):
On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:23:14):
Let's get to in case you missed it here? What
do we have today? Cole home run derby.

Speaker 4 (02:23:19):
Tonight as eight contestants try to go ahead and hoist.

Speaker 5 (02:23:22):
Up the home run Derby Crown.

Speaker 10 (02:23:24):
There was a late change no longer Ronicun and Junior
will be playing in it, and said matt Olsen will
be the representative for the city of Atlanta, which is
hosting the All Star Game. Favorite to win it right
now is cal Raley after leaving the MLB and home
runs with thirty six but pulling up the rear three
young players and James Wood, Junior, Kiman Era and Onneo Cruse.

(02:23:44):
You look at the betting odds going into the Knight's game,
the favorite is cal Rally a plus two sixty On'eo
Cruise a plus three twenty five, James Wood, who has
been phenomenal in that Juan Soto deal, basically kind of
replacing him as the future face the organization at plus
four hundred, and then Matt Olsen at seven to one odds.

Speaker 5 (02:24:02):
Feels like the dark horse.

Speaker 9 (02:24:03):
Now.

Speaker 10 (02:24:04):
The other name that you have to pay attention to
is Byron Buckston, who, despite at the age of thirty one,
having a killer year, probably going to match his total
in terms of games play twenty one home runs his
audrea plus eight to fifty. And then Brent Rooker, who
currently this year is a long of four hundred and
forty feet home run.

Speaker 5 (02:24:21):
He's also a plus eight fifteen. I would probably, as
you heard earlier when I was talking about my plays
over at Prize Picks, I would probably play Camon Arrow.
I think the ball will jump off his bat, and
I think he's perfectly capable of getting hot and finding
that swing in boom boom, boom boom. So I would
play that. But I think the odds are probably right

(02:24:42):
on the money all the way around. And by the
way James would it's rare. I would say it this way.
He got his manager fired. Yeah, he's so good. And
Abrams is also having a very good year another part
of that deal.

Speaker 4 (02:24:54):
And Mackenzie gor is also having a You can't have that.
That's two of the nine guys in your lineup every day.
They're all star caliber offensive player. Why do they lose
every game? Basically, he's too.

Speaker 5 (02:25:04):
Good for them not to be winning more. And thus
Dave Martinez and their GM we're told get out of here.
I think the only thing one of the one of
us here wants to see is cal Raley have to
say in a month. I think being a participant in
the home run derby kind of messed up by swing. Yeah,
I'll say one one thing for sure, he will hit
fewer home runs post All Star Break then he hit

(02:25:27):
pre All Star Break. The math is obviously heavily in
favor of that when the two parts of the season
aren't even close to being split in half, but thirty
eight home runs. If I set the over under on
the season total at fifty eight and a half, what would.

Speaker 4 (02:25:42):
You take on cal Raley at fifteen and a half
fifty eight and a half for the season? I take
the under today, take the under. I think that's probably
where I would play it. All So, we've mentioned.

Speaker 5 (02:25:52):
This a couple of times, and I haven't had a
chance to get to it over the course of the day.
When a particular list comes out, we talk to executives
and we talked to other people around the league, and
we had them submit their choices for the best quarterbacks
in the NFL. And we'll give you our top ten,
and we'll give you our honorable mention, and we'll have
our people here the worldwide leader discuss it, and for

(02:26:15):
this show's purposes, actually split the comment into two parts
so it could help Ac feel better about himself, not
just once, but twice. It's been one of the most
popular topics this offseason for the Houston Texans and CJ.
Stroud not landing high enough on these are the best
quarterbacks in the NFL's list. There's a top ten newest

(02:26:38):
edition of it, and I mentioned where the top ten
comes from, and with it coming from those created a ESPN,
that means they had to talk about it. Newly re
signed X quarterback Dan Orlowski commented on this situation, asked
about in his mind, the biggest oh my gosh, I
can't believe it of the top ten, CJ. Stroud is

(02:27:01):
not a part of.

Speaker 12 (02:27:02):
My biggest issue with the list two one c J
Stroud not being on the list.

Speaker 5 (02:27:05):
It's I think, silly, dumb, idiotic. The people that said
after c J.

Speaker 12 (02:27:10):
Stroud's rookie year, best rookie season we've ever had. And
in that year of twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (02:27:16):
Three, he was like forty one hundred yards, twenty three.

Speaker 12 (02:27:19):
Touchdowns, five interceptions, like sixty three percent completion percenter, So
numbers wise, pretty darn Good last year with bottom five
offensive line, he lost his number one, number two and
number three three receiver for significant stretches, sixty three percent
completion percenter of thirty eight hundred yards and I think
he had twenty touchdowns now twelve interceptions. Interceptions went up,

(02:27:40):
so disaster all around him. By the way, offense coordinator.
Offensive coordinator never evolved disaster around him and put them
somewhat similar performance wise. So the guy that people were saying, like, hey,
he's the next Joe Burrow top five player, all of
a sudden it.

Speaker 5 (02:27:54):
Is out of the top ten.

Speaker 12 (02:27:56):
That for me is probably the biggest gripe.

Speaker 5 (02:27:58):
Again, executive cole Ac that put this list together, Jeremy
Fowler gathering that information and cranking it out your top ten.
That does not include C. J. Stroud Top four as
they have been with pretty much everybody, not always in
the same order, but Mahomes, Alan Burrow and Jackson go one, two, three, four,
No problem with that. Jaden Daniels, Matthew Stafford, Justin Herbert,

(02:28:23):
and Jared Goff go five through eight. Nine and ten
are Jalen Hurts and.

Speaker 4 (02:28:28):
Baker Mayfield, the Super Bowl champion nine and the guy
who some people think is going to represent the NFC
in the Super Bowl this year. They're crazy, but still.

Speaker 10 (02:28:39):
I mean, the most under appreciated quarterback probably in the
last four or five years.

Speaker 5 (02:28:43):
Yeah, I would agree with that. Now there's a also
receiving votes category and an honorable mention category, which lists
the following quarterbacks. These didn't quite make an honorable mention,
but were voted on and thought to be at least
in some of their top tens. Bo Nix Tua, Aaron Rodd,
Dak Kyler, Murray brock Perty all outside the top twelve

(02:29:06):
but receiving votes, and the two honorable mentions essentially eleven
and twelve c J. Stroud and Jordan walk So one
of those names was not like the other. That's all
I will say. Well, the second part of this, before
you get to it, was what he finished with dan Orlowski.
I told you once he had your back, and you
heard that he had your back.

Speaker 4 (02:29:26):
We've also tweeted each other before and he likes me
and told me so.

Speaker 5 (02:29:30):
I told you one of the quarterbacks that was inside
the top ten, and he also had a comment about
that too.

Speaker 4 (02:29:36):
We can make the conversation.

Speaker 12 (02:29:37):
Jalen Hurts higher than a Justin Herbert, but CJ. Stroud
not being in there's biggest issue.

Speaker 5 (02:29:42):
At least he wanted to put Jalen Hurts ahead of
Justin Herbert, seventh best in the NFL according to personnel
that works in the NFL. Idiot ranked him as high
as three. Justin Herbert.

Speaker 3 (02:29:54):
Somebody ranked Justin Herbert the third best quarterback in the
nfl' resuming behind Mahomes and Jackson's Mahomes Jackson Justin Herbert,
that's ridiculous.

Speaker 5 (02:30:06):
He's always been a top five to eight QB, accurate
to all levels, athletic, sound decision maker. It's almost like
he's underrated now, in my opinion, he's taken for granted.
This is a comment from an exec in the AFC
on Justin Herbert.

Speaker 4 (02:30:23):
It's almost like he's underrated. Now, what do you hide?
Have you read any of these lists? Have you seen
how people gush about this guy who took on a
bye week last year and got rottled by Houston's defense. Yeah, now,
to just it's okay to not think of these guys
as the best in the NFL. They're the best in

(02:30:45):
the NFL. Are who we all agree they are. They're
Lamar Jackson. If you think I mean he's taken for granted, Like, shut.

Speaker 5 (02:30:52):
Up, Lamar Jackson. Joel Laura is taking for granted.

Speaker 4 (02:30:55):
I'm talking about paston Herbert's and Josh Allen, you're kinda
what he wrote. That's what he wrote about him.

Speaker 5 (02:31:00):
So executives would prefer Justin Herbert, am I taking it
out of context to saying they prefer him over Burrow
over Jackson? Like I can understand some Jackson backlash because
all right, look, he maybe hasn't won as much as
you think a player of that caliber, with the talent
on his defense and on his roster around him, should win.

(02:31:22):
But you're comparing him to someone who's done none of
that ever, and he's not a first or second year
or third year player.

Speaker 4 (02:31:29):
And the most offensive thing written in that whole paragraph
is the very last part. There's a quote. This is
a veteran NFC personnel evaluator. He said this, The offense
he currently plays in is by far the least quarterback
friendly in terms of the passing game, which doesn't help him.

(02:31:49):
Justin can get there. He has the ability, so it
should come in time. I gotta tell you, I don't
know what is least quarterback friendly, what Justin Herbert's offense
is or putting c J. Stroud behind Swiss cheese. But
I can tell you this the answer is the second part. Well,
to be fair, they fired the guy who was putting
him behind the Swiss cheese, and the offense that currently

(02:32:11):
is being run out in Los Angeles, he's still running it. Yeah,
and that got him an honorable mention behind the seventh
best quarterback in the NFL, Justin Herbert. I get what
you're saying. I have got I have more flat with CJ.
Stroud being a top seven quarterback last year having very
similar numbers. Yes, the air septs went up, but again

(02:32:31):
Dan broke it all down that offensive line play. It
gets a see at the wide receiver spot. And we're
just gonna ignore the fact that Jadeen Daniels is top
five after doing basically the same thing of what CJ did.
Seams to go.

Speaker 2 (02:32:48):
But why are we.

Speaker 4 (02:32:49):
Giving this exactly because wasn't getting that kind of leave
last year one?

Speaker 5 (02:32:52):
He was number seven a year ago five, he wasn't
top five.

Speaker 4 (02:32:55):
Okay, here, my bottom line is that if there's any
regression at all, surrounding Jayden Day and he should be
thirty the exact same type of retribution that we saw
from CJ. Stroud and Justin Herbert has to be ahead
of him on every single list ever. Yeah, that's what
CJ's dealing with right now. I have a much bigger problem, honestly,
with all the with all the Justin Herbert love, than

(02:33:16):
I do with the non love for CJ. Shroud. I
really do, Like, what is he ever done ever in
the history of ever? Nothing? Nothing? What's he won? WEX
tell me? I'll wait.

Speaker 5 (02:33:28):
I don't want to ruin this stream conscious.

Speaker 4 (02:33:31):
I'm just so like done with the like you don't
have to slobber all over a guy who's done nothing.

Speaker 5 (02:33:38):
So much so he is the most separted quarterback in
the He's the most.

Speaker 4 (02:33:40):
Overrated quarterback in the NFL. Boom. I said it, it's done.
It's out there.

Speaker 2 (02:33:48):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:33:54):
I'm gonna read aloud from the social media street of X.
This is from brad at Astros fan forty eighty three.
I don't know what that means. The seg between the
Herbert hate and the low t ad might be a
top ten Clanton radio moment. It was flawless, relevant and hilarious.

(02:34:20):
I want to quote tweet this. I want to tag
Justin Herbert. He's on X right, and I want to
say Justin Herbert is the most overrated quarterback in the NFL.
And then I just want to sit back and watch
the twenty twenty five season unfold, and then we'll revisit
after the season. We don't have to wait till July.
We'll come back after the Super Bowl, in which he
will not be participating, and I'll say, see, I was right,

(02:34:43):
and c J.

Speaker 5 (02:34:44):
Stroud is better than him.

Speaker 4 (02:34:46):
Maybe they'll play in the playoffs again. Maybe it'll be
a bye week for the Chargers in which they lose.
How do you lose on your day off? As the
saying goes.

Speaker 10 (02:34:54):
You should probably send a thank you card to Justin
Herbert for how much money you're making off of him.

Speaker 4 (02:34:58):
Now, what I'm gonna do is send a a thank
you card to Dan Orvlosky for not being a dumbass
like every other anonymous executive.

Speaker 5 (02:35:06):
I'm sure year six will be the year Herbert and
his team put it all together.

Speaker 4 (02:35:09):
Yeah, I'm sure next year.

Speaker 5 (02:35:11):
By the way, your CJ is three more seasons away.

Speaker 4 (02:35:16):
But don't worry. Justin Herbert is top three according to
one anonymous exec on this rank. I don't even know
why I get so mad about this stuff. Again, it's
not even so much about CJ. Like CJ had a
down year compared to his only other year.

Speaker 5 (02:35:33):
And still a decent season with a defensive line. Falling
in love with Joe Burrow because of what he looks
like throwing the football and the excellence you've seen throw.
Falling in love with Herbert in the same way, I
get it, But I still want the winning plays and
the ball placement. I want that. I can't watch Justin
Herbert's first five seasons with all different coaches, all different ocs,

(02:35:56):
and all different receivers and think, oh, yeah, that's the
the third best guy out there. That's the sixth best guys.
The results have to matter at some point. And I
know he's not a one man team, no quarterback is.
But he's played for some offense that they fired their
coach because they thought so they should be winning more.
And then they got a new coach and they won
more in the regular season and a very good division,

(02:36:18):
which is commendable, And I don't want to take that
away from him. But then they went to the postseason
against the team that played in a weaker division, was
probably had probably had a weaker season, and all they
got to do was host because they won their division,
and they got just demol His offense got demolished. Miracle
day from McConkey in that they just simply couldn't stay
in front of him and he threw the ball to

(02:36:40):
the Texans four times.

Speaker 4 (02:36:41):
But remember the only reason that happened is because he
didn't play in a passer friendly offense for his quarterbacking.

Speaker 5 (02:36:48):
Well, do you.

Speaker 10 (02:36:48):
Guys remember the last time that he was in the
playoffs too? He went up against it. He went up
against a team that was in a weaker division, that
probably just barely made it into the playoffs and was
lucky enough to host a playoff game and Percee to
have the single worst half of an entire quarterbacks tenure
en route to losing to Jacksonville.

Speaker 4 (02:37:06):
Hang on, it's almost like he's underrated. Now. That was
a quote from an AFC executive, so they don't even
have the excuse that the veteran NFC personnel evaluator said
that's in another conference that's the only excuse I'm giving him.
This is an AFC guy. Can he's underrated? Can?

Speaker 5 (02:37:23):
I ask? Out of curiosity?

Speaker 10 (02:37:24):
And I don't an ac not you wax only top
ten quarterback Justin Herbert going into this year?

Speaker 4 (02:37:30):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (02:37:30):
Or no top ten? Not no no number, just top ten? Yeah?
I think so, thank you. It's all I want to hear.

Speaker 4 (02:37:40):
Ask me. I don't need to come on do it.

Speaker 5 (02:37:43):
The difference between five through twelve is very small. That's
the point.

Speaker 4 (02:37:48):
How about this? How about just take the two honorable
mentions that they have on this list.

Speaker 5 (02:37:53):
Which one is wrong? But okay, well C J.

Speaker 4 (02:37:56):
Stroud and Jordan Love like Jordan Love? Is he a
top ten quarterback too? He's very Is he worse than
Justin Herbert?

Speaker 5 (02:38:07):
Yes? I think careful when you answer this thing. I
think he's worse than Justin Herber. Yes, okay, but why
because he makes more? He makes too many mistakes. He's
too erratic.

Speaker 4 (02:38:16):
He plays with that gunslinger notion of I'm just gonna
throw it and trust me, someone will come down with it.

Speaker 5 (02:38:23):
And sometimes they do, and sometimes the other team does.

Speaker 4 (02:38:26):
What was the biggest playees of that game between the
Chargers and the Texans, the.

Speaker 10 (02:38:30):
Big explosive place where he was the gun slinger and
decided to turn into Brett Farv who.

Speaker 4 (02:38:34):
Came down with it. Was it the Texans or his team?

Speaker 5 (02:38:36):
It was the Texans. You guys are yeah, I mean
you're talking about mistakes. Well, Justin Herbert made no mistakes
for entire seas better than Justin Herber game. He was
incredibly mistake prone because their offensive line was the way
the Chargers offensive line played against the Texans, and it
was because the Texans defensive line is great. That's what
CJ played with seventeen times last year. Justin Herbert played

(02:38:58):
against that one time.

Speaker 4 (02:38:59):
How about this no protection at all, almost the entire
game from everywhere, from the left side, from the right side,
from the middle, everywhere. That's what CJ played with all year.
How about this win healthy? Is Dak Prescott a top
ten quarterback?

Speaker 5 (02:39:12):
Yes? And that's where I was saying, one of those
is not like the other.

Speaker 4 (02:39:15):
We're gonna run out of numbers, like they can't all
be top ten. Can we yell about this tomorrow again?
I believe me I will, But that's why I said five.
After you get past Jackson, Allen Mahomes and whoever. I
forgot to say Burrow five through twelve. I'll take Baker
Mayfield and think I can win it all. I'll take
Jared Goff, I'll take Stafford, I'll take Jalen Hurts, I'll
take CJ. I'll take Justin Herbert. There's very little difference

(02:39:39):
at underscore. I found hoffa great name. By the way,
we all know where he is at Adam Clee, swimming
with the fishes at Adam Clanton. Herbert is better than Stroud.
Block me watch what's about to happen after the show.
I'll provide video. Okay, we'll have to leave it at that.
No Astros baseball tonight, but the worst home run derby

(02:40:02):
field in the history of the event will be unfolding.

Speaker 5 (02:40:05):
Yeah, we've got a pregame coverage of the derby. Cole
will have a nightcap for you coming up as soon
as we wrap up.

Speaker 4 (02:40:10):
It is the nightcap is the pre game.

Speaker 5 (02:40:11):
We'll do it all again tomorrow. We'll get started to
a clock, a bunch of things, bunch of things that
are definitely worth our time, our discussion with you guys
out there for tomorrow's show already on tap and I'm
sure some more holiday wishes from our are a couple
of weeks away from you, and some things that may
have happened that we need to share with you. We'll
we'll do all that tomorrow again, beginning at two o'clock.

(02:40:32):
Until then, we will we'll see all on those social
media streets.

Speaker 2 (02:40:37):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

24/7 News: The Latest

Crime Junkie

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Gang is Back Together....But The Astros Are Falling Apart!

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

24/7 News: The Latest

Crime Junkie

All Episodes

The Gang is Back Together....But The Astros Are Falling Apart!

Stuff You Should Know