T'was the Night Before Training Camp & Brice Matthews Exploded!!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
There are two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam, raised.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
By Earl.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Nolan, multed by the magnificent roller coaster ride.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
That is Houston Sports.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Chill lags down for the only homegrown afternoon team is
talking your teams. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the
A teams.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
It is the A team. It's Sports Talk seven. I'm
very happy the Astros won last night. I'm very happy
that it was the Bryce Matthews coming out party. Set
up the letters there we go.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Now delivers and Matthews hits it high in the air,
pretty deep to left center field, racing back Carol and
Guryel Carol at the wall, olypic s Atlanta.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
The first big league home run for Bryce Matthews is
a three run shot and the Astros go up three
to one.

Speaker 5 (01:38):
No, let's time for us to talk sports.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Let's go calm down over there, oh Curudgeon. So it's
it's a bittersweet start to the show because Ozzy Osbourne
passed away in the last hour, or at least the
news broke of him passing away in the last hour,
and I feel like we were just watching that. I

(02:01):
don't know, it wasn't like a tribute show because he
was part of it. Even though it was a tribute show,
I feel like that was just five minutes ago because
it basically was. So I was all like happy about
what happened last night, and then that's that's that's some
bittersweet news to get on a day where I mean,
come on, life lived well and packed a lot into

(02:21):
seventy six years and just one of the icons of
not just metal but just music in general. And so
rip to Ozzy Osbourne. I'm guessing we'll hear a little
bit more from him, at least during this first hour
when we can play that kind of music. But yeah,
Astro is getting to win last night, and well, Bryce
Matthews was the main reason. I know that Christian Walker

(02:44):
did a little damage as well. But Bryce matthews first
major league home run, and it didn't take long to
see his second one. But how about a three run
shot off of Zach Gallen to have your your first
leave the yard moment. That's pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (02:56):
It was awesome.

Speaker 6 (02:57):
Hopefully it also showed everybody that the pursuit of Zach
Gallon should be over. I hope nobody's hoping the Astros
land Zach Gallen.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Not a good audition. Huh, well, he sucks. You need
him this year, I don't want him this year. He's
hectoris stars or he used to be effective, but now it's.

Speaker 5 (03:17):
He's having a bad year.

Speaker 6 (03:18):
And I don't see last night's perfect evidence of why
he was able to get him deep into the game,
which is nice because his pitch count is low because
he throws hit able pitches.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
Last night is nothing new.

Speaker 6 (03:28):
I don't know why he has fallen off quite so badly,
but he has, and I hope people were paying attention.
His name will continue to be listed everywhere because now
a player like that, a player like that doesn't even
matter if they're in the race or not. And they
filled to one game under five hundred with the loss
to the Astros. So I'm not sure that it's going
to enhance their firm commitment to whichever side of things,

(03:49):
sell or buyer or nothing. They feel like they would
want to trade him regardless. They shouldn't want to pitch
him every fifth day, no matter what their plans are,
unless they're intentionally trying to lose, because he would enhance
their chances.

Speaker 7 (04:02):
To do that.

Speaker 6 (04:03):
But yes, the much bigger story was Bryce Matthews, especially since,
as the Astros have been doing for two weeks straight,
they needed to score to catch up.

Speaker 5 (04:13):
The other team scores first.

Speaker 6 (04:14):
Oh, I should say it this way, Hey, the Astros
are playing today, and then you would say, so, you
mean the other team's gonna score first at twelve straight games.
Asters haven't lost twelve straight games, which is remarkable, but
they've lost a lot of those. They have lost the
same number of games they've won on this road trip
that began so badly. All it took was two good
days of baseball and all of a sudden, you've won two,

(04:34):
you've lost too. You've got fromber Valdez going tonight, and
you got to get away day game on Wednesday, and
an opportunity to come on back home with many more
wins than losses, twice as many wins as losses, potentially
if they sweep the Arizona Diamondback. So I do think
are going to end up being sellers just for looking
at the bigger picture. But yeah, the bigger picture for
the Astros maybe crystallized a little bit that you were

(04:56):
down one nothing and he immediately turned that around into
a three to one with a bomb the second one
is a bigger bomb. But he got a hold of
both of those pitches. He really drove them into the
power alley right there between left and center, and it's
a welcome sign. The jokes that I've tried not to
make about who is in the Astros lineup every day,

(05:19):
well sure, but there's no reason they can't help you win.
You have players like that in your lineup every day.
The Astros in twenty twenty five, they don't have nine deep.
They're not nine deep. Most teams aren't. They're probably not
seven deep, even on a great day. So somebody else
coming through. And it's been back to back days of
these guys have been here for five minutes for a
second cup of coffee. Maybe Taylor Tremmel on Sunday and

(05:43):
obviously Bryce Matthews yesterday. You got eight RBI from those
two players and two wins. He held the opponent to
three runs in each of those games. Obviously one of
those was with Hunter Brown starting, but he only gave
you four innings. Bullpen shut them out for five. Yesterday
was with Colton Gordon starting, and he's pitch like he
always does, throws very hitable pitches, gets himself into trouble

(06:03):
is able to get the Astros at least five innings.
He probably is kicking himself for not getting six innings,
but into the six, two outs into the sixth, which
enhances your ability to work through a still pretty used bullpen,
and you're able to give the ball to Josh Hater
with a three.

Speaker 5 (06:20):
Run lead in the ninth inning.

Speaker 6 (06:21):
And even though the bullpen hated throwing strikes last night,
walking guys left and right, ochred a pair Hater a
pair just to get your heart rate going a little bit,
all without allowing any runs, and the Astros open up
this series the right way. Huge to see from a
guy who offensively he has pop he can hit, but

(06:42):
he strikes out a ton. His other two of bats
are strikeouts. Many of his other bats as a major
leaguer are strikeouts. You can be in the lineup every
day and strikeout all you want if the other at
bats are productive, if you're hitting the ball hard elsewhere,
landing on base, driving in runs. It's the only game
of his entire career where he's hit a homer or
driven in runs, but that's how he helped the Astros

(07:04):
win one game. You need guys to help them win
one game all the time. Who will it be tonight?

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Well, and that's that's been the quote unquote fun part
of this, even though it's not fun going through this.
And gosh, I don't know if you guys heard the
Matt Thomas Show with Ross today.

Speaker 6 (07:23):
I missed it today. It was like a freaking oozy
that did well. We'll replay some of it, the part
that had Joe Aspata. Yeah, the positive part, I guess.
I don't know if it was a positive or negative show.
I mean, Matt's a positive person. Ross, the analytically positive person.
I assume it was pretty good.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
For four hours. Well, they were like, I mean, it
was downright depressing.

Speaker 5 (07:41):
They were depressing about what.

Speaker 6 (07:42):
Well, I just less than twenty four hours away from
training camp practice beginning for the Texans and twenty five
other teams. The Astros are on a two game winning streak. Yeah,
Obi wan O Kogie just signed with the Rockets. What
is there to be upset about? Or what pressed about?

Speaker 3 (07:56):
They were daring each other almost to say, well, I
don't think he'sas is coming back this year. Well, I
don't think jord On Alvarez is going to hit another
home run this year because he's not going to be
able to play. It was just one thing after another.

Speaker 5 (08:08):
I might be a little bit of Oh man, what
a year this could have been?

Speaker 3 (08:12):
Is whistling by the graveyard? Does that apply here?

Speaker 7 (08:14):
Well?

Speaker 3 (08:14):
That was their show.

Speaker 6 (08:15):
I would actually disagree if those were things were actually said.
I think Astakpretis will add at least one in the
games played column before the end of the year, and
I think jord On Alvarez will add at least one
to his very very low number of home runs this year.
I could see this season the Askers going into the
playoffs no matter what those two guys do. In my opinion,
if you don't get a single game from either one

(08:37):
of those players, the Askers are going to the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (08:38):
Yes, because are going to win the division.

Speaker 6 (08:40):
So it could turn into yeah, they made it, and
yeah they gave us some extra excitement and the race
down the stretch was interesting. But man, what could this
year have been if not for that? Considering what this
team might end up doing, which is win eighty six
eighty eight ninety ninety one games, win a division, maybe
be the first or second seed. Remember their two game

(09:00):
out of having the best record in baseball, let alone
the American League where they're just one and a half
games back of the Detroit Tigers.

Speaker 5 (09:08):
And Lotto in between them.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
I mean it is.

Speaker 6 (09:10):
I know there's a negative side to it because of
how many things didn't go right and probably won't be
in place when they get to the postseason, which probably
prevents them from winning big this postseason. But this ride
is something else, and that's the very non comparable to
any other season this Golden Era has had, even the

(09:30):
twenty nine and thirty one postseason, even last year's run
to the postseason.

Speaker 5 (09:35):
This is different.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
This is new.

Speaker 6 (09:37):
This is both exciting, unfortunate, crazy, wild, awesome, all the words.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
I guess that when you say it like that, that's like, ah,
this is a fun, cutesy little sit like they have
higher expectations and when healthy, I think they still should
so I don't. It's kind of like the twenty twenty season,
the COVID season, where I was just like, I don't
want to see and go to the postseason if they're
just gonna do this, if they're just gonna play with
their food all the time.

Speaker 6 (10:03):
Yeah, but all the stars were doing it, All the
healthy stars were doing that for sixty games and when
they got all the healthy stars, flip the switch in
the postseason.

Speaker 5 (10:12):
The Astros are doing this with unhealthy.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
Stars doing with the space Cowboys.

Speaker 6 (10:16):
Well again, I don't I'm not a huge fan of
that description of who that.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Who they are.

Speaker 6 (10:20):
This is who the AFN is, I mean, yeah, but
so it is. There are players that would be out
there constantly for this year's roster, Like I'm not sure
what people thought of Jake Myers before this year, except
I'm one hundred percent positive. Well, this team can't win
any games if Jake Myers is your center for starting
center fielder.

Speaker 5 (10:39):
What a joke that these guys are.

Speaker 6 (10:41):
Oh, I'm sure Esach Perettis is gonna be great over
third base, butchering baseballs and hitting two forty But yeah,
great trade. I can't wait to see what Cam Smith
does in twenty twenty seven when he joins the Astros
for the first time. So, Chazz and Jake and Jose Altuve,
that's gonna be your outfield this year in twenty twenty five. Great,

(11:02):
can't wait to pick a new team to be a
fan of. And this is what this is what people
will think. I don't know like it I guess, and
then baseball happens. Baseball is awesome, end of story. This
is why baseball can be awesome. Is awesome. They should
not be here, They're they're running this division again.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yeah no, I get Look everything you're saying is fair
and right and all that stuff. Blah blah blah. I
just it's it just feels like the sports gods are
just playing with us. And look, we are spoiled here
in Houston to a large degree. That's a big part
of this. I guess, I don't know it Like twenty one,

(11:47):
it just felt like house money. And at the same time,
I remember, well, they'll be back, and they were the
next year and they won. But you can't you don't
normally think that way in baseball. Ask the Rangers how
it's going with after their title? How's that title defense coming?
Because we're still waiting on it. We're still waiting on
them to even be like a fraction of what they
were that year where they randomly got hot one.

Speaker 5 (12:07):
Well, successfully defended their title last year? Is that why? Yes,
that's unsuccessful?

Speaker 8 (12:12):
Was that?

Speaker 9 (12:13):
Is that?

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Another example of why baseball is so awesome? The Rangers
winning a World Series? Nobody even remembers.

Speaker 6 (12:19):
I mean, if I wasn't down here in Houston, I might.
It's the same principle you're talking about that like Arizona
Diamondbacks hitting the World Series and steroids help everything.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
I mean sure if you believe both the chances, both
the teams.

Speaker 6 (12:31):
Say that from nineteen seventy six to July twenty second,
twenty twenty five.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
All right, we will talk. We will have a lot
to discuss about, not only the Astros, but yeah, the Texans.
It's happening like tomorrow. We'll have Aaron Wilson on to
talk about that and a whole lot of other things.
Here on a Tuesday edition of the program.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
The AE on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (13:02):
Matthew's close to the plate, first Pisch from galland Eddie.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Slugs this one left field a deep.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
There goes.

Speaker 10 (13:13):
A two run hover by BT.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Shoots and it's six to three.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
That was deep, about ten rows deep into the seats
at Matthews with home runs one.

Speaker 11 (13:25):
And two of his major league career.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Astro's home runs just mean more with Ozzie underneath him,
agree or disagree what they mean, and they're not even
in the sec that's true. It is the eighteen Sports
Talk seven ninety Tuesday edition of the program, Astros get
the win the opener last night in the desert. Now,
all of a sudden, doesn't look so bad that Fromber's

(13:51):
starting the game just now after the All Star break.
See Joe knew what he was doing. Shut the bleep up, Clanton.
You don't know bleep right? Is that about right?

Speaker 6 (14:00):
That's just what I was going to say.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yeah, I know, well, you know Seattle, the old reliable.
That's the one thing we didn't mention in the first segment.
They did their part.

Speaker 6 (14:10):
I mean, they've been playing the best of the best
in baseball for a while, including Houston, and finally, at
least for one night, that caught up with them. The
Brewers have ascended to well sixty win territory if they're
one of two teams with sixty wins. They've been busting
through everybody eleven wins now, and they shut them out
last night in their building. So it's an opportunity for sure,

(14:32):
But as per usual, I really do think we can
watch the scoreboard or not if they just continue doing
what they're doing and they've played the Astros have played
five hundred baseball now for a decent stretch because of
the great road trip that included the LA sweep, followed
by the poor home stand that included all losses but one,
and now you've split these first four games. They've been

(14:53):
kind of right here at fourteen fifteen, sixteen games over
five hundred for quite some time. But an opportunity to
it just win a few more games than that. You know,
you win these last two of this series, you come
home for a four gamer with the Athletics without any
days off in between, that starts on Thursday. You know,
maybe there's an opportunity that one of these many teams
major League Baseball wise, you're not really chasing the Brewers.

(15:16):
You're really just chasing the Blue Jays and the Tigers.
I mean, the Blue Jays have been the best team
in the American League for about a month, and that's
thus they passed the Yankees for first and passed the
Astros in the overall standings. They're probably not gonna stay
this hot forever, and certainly not for the remainder of
the season. I'm not you know, the Astros had a

(15:37):
very good stretch and there's still one of the four
probably the fifth best record. I believe in the last
thirty five games or so. I'm not sure why that's
gonna stop, because it includes that awful one in six stretch,
and it doesn't include Jeremy Payna, Jordan Alvarez, Christian Javier
or Spencer Raghetti. I'll mention those four injured players only

(15:58):
because I think those are the four most likely relatively
soon rejoiners of the team.

Speaker 5 (16:04):
Well, what did not say, Zac Perettis? Intentionally?

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Yeah, I know. Well, you're joining the theme of the
show prior to us, that's what you're doing right there.

Speaker 6 (16:12):
Well, Joe Spota said it, We're gonna play Joe Spot
at three thirty, and Joe Spot has said he thought
it would be a while. We'll let you hear his
exact words for it, but not too promising on his future.
I did not expect it to be Obviously. Last night
we got the update that there was no update because
they had not been able to medically do the things
they would have liked to do if they did not.

Speaker 5 (16:30):
Have travel issues.

Speaker 6 (16:31):
Astros were in Seattle, wanted to get the medical stuff
done back here in Houston, and hopefully later today there
will be even more information on that. Presumably Tuesday, after
a Saturday injury, you can gather the initial medicals necessary.
But I don't think anybody expected him to be back
when the ten day il stint was up. I don't
think people watched that injury and the limp off and

(16:53):
expected him to be back maybe in an attend to
twenty day period. And I certainly don't after hearing from
Joe a Spota earlier today.

Speaker 5 (17:00):
What about some of the quotes?

Speaker 3 (17:02):
And I was reading Channel Rome's account just for example,
when I saw that some of the the Jordon Alvarez
quotes are really.

Speaker 5 (17:13):
Is he predictory?

Speaker 3 (17:14):
Well, that's the number one thing, actually, But I just
one of the most frustrating superstars I've ever seen here
in Houston. You know, he was starting to remind me
of I hate to say it because especially since he's
he has contributed to a higher level of winning, but

(17:34):
he's he's starting to get into the Yao territory with
me because and let me explain, like obviously Yao was
not ever playing for a championship and didn't win a
championship here in Houston, but he was getting to the
point at the very end where it was like, Okay,
if he's healthy they're good, they're gonna be good to go.
They are championship contenders. But he's never gonna be healthy.

(17:55):
And I it's starting to feel that way about Jordon.
It's always something and it's never something small.

Speaker 6 (18:02):
Yeah, always something makes it to me very you know
what was wrong with yao? Did he have a bad shoulder,
a bad knee, bad hip? He had bad feet and
one thing and it was never it was never gonna go.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
Up with you'ord on.

Speaker 6 (18:12):
It's like a myriad effence. Well, the only thing that's
kind of repeated itself. Two things his knees have had.
He's had issues with his knees many times. He's had
some procedures done to hopefully alleviate that, and we haven't
seen too much of a return, although it's kind of
out of the ordinary for a player to re injure
a knee sliding, which he did last year. And the

(18:33):
hands are just the way he talks about them now,
it just cements everything I've been saying for about four
or five years.

Speaker 5 (18:40):
Where's TNS ever?

Speaker 6 (18:42):
Yeah, Like he has had so many problems as a
major League baseball player with the inability to swing the
bat because his hands hurt It's not he broke a
bone and then he recovered and we're all good. It's
I don't even know that he broke a bone. I
can't understand why he has soreness. I don't understand what
this problem is because we've just done the necessary imaging

(19:03):
and medic work, and doctors have said the bones healed.

Speaker 8 (19:07):
Well.

Speaker 6 (19:07):
Then why when you picked up a bat and started swinging,
was your hand all puffy and swollen and you couldn't
even pick the bat up the next day? This is
just this injury. This is just this season, This is
twenty twenty five. This has happened before. Again, I didn't
even I don't know who, didn't know who to blame
then either, when Dusty Baker would say that, wouldn't give
you the direct information and wouldn't even tell you which

(19:28):
hand it was, And then Jordan was doing the same thing.

Speaker 5 (19:32):
What's wrong with you? What's the injury?

Speaker 6 (19:34):
We didn't nobody really ever got a straight answer about
what was holding him back.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
There was no definitive this is hurt.

Speaker 6 (19:40):
This is the procedure that we've done, or need to do,
and he should be back in six to eight weeks.
None of that ever happened, and we're right in the
middle of that all over again, probably for a different reason,
because we have so little about what I think he
has little about why he can't.

Speaker 5 (19:57):
It's healed, like you broke a bone.

Speaker 6 (19:59):
The bone on is heeled, pick up the bat and
swing and move on, and he's unable to do that
for some somewhat unknown medical reasons there. Well, let me
read the quote so people understand what we're talking about
with the contradictory aspect of it. You know jord On
yesterday talking about the pain in his hand. Where the
pain is in the hand, it's a little bit difficult

(20:20):
to have surgery there. That's why I say I need
a little bit of rest right now. It's an area
where normally we don't get surgery. But I think it
isn't something I'll have to keep dealing with. I think
it isn't something I'll have to keep dealing with. Chandler responded,
or a reporter responded with will you have to deal
with it all year? I wish not, but I don't know.
If I have to deal with it, it will be for

(20:41):
the rest of the season. I think I need to
rest it. But again, I need to come back and play.
I think I'm in the right direction right now to
come back and play. So even though there was a
question in between, I'll read you those sentences in succession. Now,
I think it isn't something I'll have to keep dealing with.
If I have to deal with it, it will be
for the rest of the season.

Speaker 7 (20:59):
I think.

Speaker 6 (21:00):
I think it isn't something I'll have to keep dealing with.
But if it is, I think it's something I won't
have to keep dealing with. But if it is, like
he just doesn't know, months and months and months into
this saga, he doesn't have an answer. Clearly he would
if the doctors had an answer, but they don't have
an answer.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah, so he's the one. That's why it's so frustrating,
because it's I just feel like it's always something, but
then you don't get you get the typical lack of
clarity involving the injury, whether it's the team, whether it's
the player, or.

Speaker 6 (21:30):
Lack of clarity. I think it's helped maybe in my opinion,
super naive opinion. I'll say it here. If I don't
think they have an answer, they're not hiding it from us.
They're not hiding it from your tone.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
They're not lack of clarity. They don't know. There you go.
The lack of clarity is not a shot at the
ash couches. It's just that there has now there has
been lack of clarity about other injuries and that kind
of thing, but in this case they don't know. And
you know, the the ability to have that kind of
talent when healthy in what he's doing is absolutely spectacular.

(22:01):
But if he's not healthy, then it's just a big,
huge tease. And then you talk about the fluke nature
of you know, in an injury like like Jake Myers
or Spencer Getty. I should say where it's kind of similar.
There's a broken bone, it's healed, so what's taking so long?

Speaker 5 (22:17):
Yeah, the timing on that is questionable.

Speaker 6 (22:19):
The recovery from it looks like it's going as it should,
just maybe not in the timeline we thought. I want
to get to the Astros, specifically into their clubhouse there
in Arizona. We'll take a trip inside there and visit
with Astros outfielder Taylor Troummel.

Speaker 5 (22:33):
He will join us next here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
Back at it here on the eighteen Sports Talks seven ninety.
It's a Tuesday edition of the program. Wex ac Cole
Thompson with you and Taylor Troummel as promised joining us
right now part of this. Don't even know Taylor, what
the best word is to describe what you guys have
been doing of late winning. Yeah, that's that's the best word.

(23:07):
But it's not conventional, right If you look at what
you guys are doing and how you're going about it,
it's it's not conventional, is it?

Speaker 9 (23:16):
Oh?

Speaker 10 (23:16):
It was awesome this We got a lot of cool
guys on the team, a lot of guys like great coaches,
So you know, we kind of say unconventional and everything
like that. I personally don't think of it that way.
I think it's just you know, the boys going out
and playing a game they love, and then all the
numbers and all the statistics and everything like that, what

(23:36):
people say on paper, We don't really focus on that.
We just had faith and all the nine guys that
are on the field and we're just going after.

Speaker 6 (23:42):
It been a different season for you, obviously, the way
things went to had a chance to catch up with
you before you went out to spring training over at
FanFest before the year, looking forward to your opportunity to
be with this ball club. Spring training came and went,
and unfortunately you weren't healthy at the season's beginning. Tell
me about the more long time it felt long to me,
and I know you've said it felt long to you

(24:03):
in getting back healthy. So the opportunity for them to
call on you to help this team finally came. Tell
me about those couple of months that got this all started.
They probably weren't that weren't that happy a time for you.

Speaker 10 (24:16):
Yeah, it was a long It was a long kind
of like recovery process, to say the least.

Speaker 8 (24:21):
I thought that was kind of like the biggest thing.

Speaker 10 (24:22):
But just it makes a lot easier and a lot
shorter when you know the guys are calling.

Speaker 8 (24:27):
In on you, checking in on you. You have a
good group of you know, family and friends that are
around you.

Speaker 10 (24:33):
You know, my wife, she's been amazing during this process,
During that.

Speaker 8 (24:36):
Process, so for me, it was just about day by day.

Speaker 10 (24:39):
That's kind of like the thing I was just saying
every single day was you know, day by day, you know,
was conquer the day and let the rest, you know,
take care of itself.

Speaker 8 (24:47):
So now I thinking about the passion, I think about
the future.

Speaker 10 (24:50):
Just what do I have to do today to make
myself successful and then ultimately make the team.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
Successful day by day. Is a very head on your
shoulders straight way to look at things. And I appreciate
you your candor, but come on, you were playing Seattle
and you had the type of game you had in
that finale. There had to be a little bit of
extra something behind that.

Speaker 10 (25:07):
Absolutely, it was no this, you know, just kind of
going after every single day like that. You know, for me,
it was just like, you know, you prep the same
way you do, you know, go out out the same
things the same way, eash and every day and baseball
is kind of a weird game where you know, some
days they fall, some days they don't.

Speaker 8 (25:26):
That day the ball started to fall, and then it
was it was pretty cool feeling. But it felt good
to be feel good to be back there.

Speaker 10 (25:34):
Like I said, a lot of people that I know,
a lot of good friends that over there.

Speaker 8 (25:38):
It was great to compete against those guys.

Speaker 10 (25:39):
I'm glad we got to, you know, take that game
in the road, and then obviously yesterday we got to
take a game yesterday as well.

Speaker 6 (25:46):
Taylor Trebelle joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety. So,
compare that feeling to the feeling you have when Bryce
touches home and you're there waiting for him after his
first big league homer and he puts you guys in front.

Speaker 8 (26:00):
Yeah, I wanted to.

Speaker 10 (26:01):
Uh so when he hit it, I knew right off
the bat, I was just gonna see if he was
gonna watch it and enjoy it for a second. But
you know, he's he didn't do it, and he did
a little bit on the second one. But no, it's
like my little brother.

Speaker 8 (26:15):
He's he's just a true pro. One of the things
I always say, he's a good rookie. He's he kind of.

Speaker 10 (26:22):
Stays out of the way, he's doing his job. He's
always asking questions. You know, he's the first one in
like he's he's just taking on this role of, you know,
being a big league player, and he's just he just
wants to learn. And for me, that's the only thing
I can ask him. If I have anything to say
to him or anything like that, I go.

Speaker 8 (26:42):
Up to him.

Speaker 10 (26:42):
But he's just an amazing kid. I say kid because
he's only like twenty.

Speaker 8 (26:47):
Three, so.

Speaker 10 (26:49):
You know, you look at him, and you look at
what he can't what he's going to do in the
obviously in the big leagues. But that's that's another discussion.
He's a great person at the end of the day,
and that's what's going to ultimately prove, you know, prevail
him to be the type of player that he's going
to be in the future.

Speaker 6 (27:06):
That relationship with you and Bryce or maybe anybody else,
but specifically to him, does that develop when he gets
called up in your hair? Does that develop during the
very short time you spent together with the Space Cowboys
before your arrival here in June? Does it develop during
spring training because you obviously were new to the organization.

Speaker 7 (27:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (27:23):
Absolutely.

Speaker 10 (27:24):
We kind of knew each other kind of like we
met each other at FanFest.

Speaker 8 (27:28):
In spring training, we got to get a lot closer.

Speaker 10 (27:31):
So he was He was one of the guys that
I talked to obviously during my reha process and stuff
like that. But I just have the utmost respect from
kind of like his demeanor and how he kind of
goes about his.

Speaker 8 (27:43):
Business and how he's very locked in its. You rarely
see that from a lot of guys that are.

Speaker 10 (27:48):
Just coming into the league starting the spring training and
throughout that time. Like actually probably a few years ago
at the Futures Game we met each other them.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
But so obviously that's someone that's kind of like a contemporary.
But is there anybody that either you gravitated towards or
gravitated towards you in the clubhouse that has kind of
maybe taken you under their wing from that standpoint, more
of a veteran presence that you're looking to or learning
from more than than anyone else.

Speaker 12 (28:21):
Yeah, I think the most part, you know, we look
at those guys cams A guy who I like to
talk to just each and every day, just how he
goes about his business the same way as brands like
at about you know, plays in the field, what you know,
situations may occur or anything like that. You know, talking

(28:45):
to those guys I have, it's always fun because I
have experiences or anything like that, because just talk about
the game and for me, like.

Speaker 8 (28:58):
Just every day and like.

Speaker 10 (29:05):
Pretty much I think everybody in the clubhouse is in
all every single time he goes out there, just how
calm and collective he is no matter what happens, he's
the same guy. And that's I mean, obviously It's why
he's one of the best best closures in the game
just for that reason, not being the best. So you
look at him and it's just like I try to
take a lot of that, whether be how I go

(29:27):
about my daily business, you know, how I go about
whatever it may be. Uh, he's the same guy. He's
same cool, calmon collectness. Like you can't tell if he's
having a good day or a bad day or whatever.

Speaker 8 (29:39):
He's the same guy. And everybody was being around.

Speaker 6 (29:42):
Is this, even as brief as it's been since you've
gotten to this club, to the Astros and been a
part of their day to day operations and been in
the lineup quite a bit, is this the best time
you've had as a pro ballplayer thus far?

Speaker 10 (29:55):
I would say so, this is kind of like a
cool Uh, it's kind of a cool time in my
life where I.

Speaker 8 (30:01):
You know, for me, I feel like there's there's nothing to.

Speaker 10 (30:05):
Lose, you know, with a whole bunch of guy who's
playing the game that I love. We have a great staff,
we have great coaching staff, and we're just out there
having fun. You know, we're having you know, we're being free.
We're not caring about what anybody says about us or
what teams well, like what people may say about Ironet or.

Speaker 8 (30:25):
Anything like that. Like we've come to the same you know,
into the clubhouse every single day. We're just ready to compete.

Speaker 10 (30:31):
And you know, we have a lot of packs in
the clowns you know, out there and there, you know,
in their tail online and every day.

Speaker 8 (30:40):
And that's that's kind of like how many roll. So
it's it's a fun time for me.

Speaker 10 (30:43):
And yeah, it's a lot of guys that I really
enjoy being around out of here and this, uh, it's
pretty fun.

Speaker 6 (30:50):
Best time about the best thing about that answer to
me tailors that I think I might get that from
many others. Maybe Jose Alve might give me a different
answer because he's had like a thousand best times as
a baseball player with this organization. But it's hard to
compare anybody to what he's done. And we certainly appreciate
your time. We'd love to have you a little bit
longer and hope to catch up with you again here
soon and enjoy the very little bit of this road

(31:12):
trip is left. Two quick games tonight and tomorrow, and
we'll see you back in Houston on Thursday.

Speaker 13 (31:17):
All.

Speaker 8 (31:17):
I appreciate it. Thank you guys, God bless you.

Speaker 6 (31:19):
Bet Taylor Tremmeel joining us here from Arizona with the
Astros part of the big one of the biggest reasons
why they've been able to flip this road trip from
how it started to how it's currently going now, looking
for a third straight win, looking for a series victory.
Scored seventeen runs in the last two games, allowing just six,
and he has had a role in both of those things.

Speaker 5 (31:39):
Didn't even have the opportunity.

Speaker 6 (31:40):
I would have preferred a better connection, and maybe we
would have connected a little bit longer, but that happens
from time to time. His defense matters, especially when your
best defensive outfielder is unavailable. They do have very good
options now that both he and Chas McCormick are here defensively,
probably again with a better connection, considering they won. I

(32:04):
would have asked him about one of two defensive plays
that he was close to a the defensive play he
co opted with Murcio dubon two days ago to nail
the runner at home plate after Cooper Hammer nearly made
a great running catch, he was able to back him up,
fired to Mauricio who then fired home for the out,

(32:24):
or more likely I would have lightheartedly asked him about
Chas McCormick's unbelievable sliding catch and last night's game followed
by him forgetting that there were only two outs in
the inning.

Speaker 5 (32:35):
Well, that's true, that is it is how that went down.

Speaker 6 (32:39):
The run would have scored one hundred times out of
one hundred, so I don't have to even address man.

Speaker 5 (32:47):
They could have gotten up and thrown him out. He
could not have.

Speaker 6 (32:50):
Gotten up and thrown Corbyn Carroll out at home plate
unless Corbyn Carroll was doing an esoch peretis impression running
to first.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
Or a two different occasions Seattle Mariner's impression with their
base running gaffs in that series.

Speaker 6 (33:04):
That would be just a plain mistake. Yeah, if you decide,
I don't know should I go, Should I stay? Should
I go halfway? Should I then come back? Should I
follow Bryce Matthews bask of first base? So I don't
get doubled off? No, Julio, just stand there in between
first and second. See what happens.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
You know what we didn't do enough yesterday? Rip the Mariners. Yeah, okay, Well,
here's the thing. Cal Rawley was awful for most of
the series.

Speaker 5 (33:26):
Good on Houston's pitch it was, and Julio.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
Rodriguez remains overrated. I've said it a million times and
I'll continue saying it until proven otherwise.

Speaker 6 (33:34):
Because he is understood. We will dig in on the Mariners. Yes, next,
more Mariners. Aaron Wilson joining us to talk a little
Texans training camp at the top of the hour at
four o'clock. Have Joe Spata with us at three point
thirty more on from his visit earlier today here on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Thanks again to Taylor Troummel for joining us last segment.
I did get a kick out of the fact that
when I asked him about, aside from his contemporaries, you know,
the younger players that are around his age range, now,
who are you drawn to the most in the clubhouse
from a veteran presence, And immediately, of course he talked
about rookie Cam Smith. But Cam has much more experience,

(34:25):
having been there from day one of this twenty twenty
five campaign. And we were talking about it last night,
you know just how he we were in an event together
and the game was on and it was just insane
how he has been able to just play a position
he had never played before and use his scary athleticism

(34:46):
to be so successful at it.

Speaker 5 (34:48):
He makes stuff look routine that isn't routine.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
And you know whether or not you think the offense
and the bat has caught up to the defense, which
is kind of crazy to say with who you're talking about.
The Astros aren't looking like morons for throwing him right
into the fire right off the bat, because he's had
a successful season.

Speaker 6 (35:09):
No, this is an athletic enough player, and they gave
him at least enough time there to show that he
could handle himself. Now he's made a few plays on
the run, I bet you they did not expect to make.
I don't want to pick on him, but I'll just
tell you what I see. There's still a massive amount
of room for improvement, and most of it stems from
getting rid of the baseball. I can't remember an Astros

(35:32):
outfielder taking longer to get rid of the baseball than
Cam Smith. I'm not sure what the reason is behind it.
Has a perfectly strong arm, and obviously he's getting a
lot behind it, but it's taking forever for him to
get to that point. Whether it's a ball that he's
chased down in the corner or just a simple ball
that he's coming to and fielding off the ground, or
even fly balls, it just does not get out of
his hand very quickly, some of its footwork, some of

(35:54):
its mechanics. And he's been an outfielder for five seconds,
so I do get it, but it is still there.
Just about everything else about his outfield play is beyond plus.
I mean, and the statistics are there to back it up,
with defensive run saved, the number of four or five
star catches that he's made, the high low catch probability
balls that he's chased down and made plays on both

(36:17):
running to his left and running into foul or running
to his right and running to his left in foul territory.
In ballparks let alone, he's never played, and half of
them he's probably never even seen before. The dimensions out there,
they're all new to him. He's playing yesterday in Arizona.
I don't believe Florida State had any games Chase Field.
I guess I could be wrong. I believe I've been

(36:38):
to Chase Field more than he has. So it's remarkable
what he's done. I think that questioned it did get
an interesting answer that was almost a given that he
had to give an untraditional answer. Who could he turned
to as Tremuel joins the Astros in mid June last month,

(36:58):
who is he there to lean on? Like Victor's an
older position player, Clearly Altuve's an older position player. The
outfielders is not probably going to talk to Jose and
get his thoughts about outfield play. Might get his thoughts
on baseball in this clubhouse in general, but otherwise he's
working with Cooper Hummel and I believe you know obviously

(37:21):
Cam Smith, like there is no veteran presence not out there.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Well, the veteran presence is on the shelf right now too,
and a lot of examples.

Speaker 6 (37:28):
Well, yeah, it's become that certainly with Esac and elsewhere
on the team. But you know, the team itself when
you lose the players they've lost over the years in
this offseason specifically, you know, Kyle Tucker's a veteran presence,
a veteran player, Alex Bregman's veteran presence, a veteran player.
We talked about it in spring training. Christian Walker can
become that, but he can't be that immediately. Same for

(37:52):
esach Parentis, and in Walker's case, it becomes even more
difficult to become that when you're performing in the way
that you are, underperforming in the way that you are,
it's a tough spot to be and you're not there
to lead a bunch of guys when they're watching you
struggle the way you are. Offensively, nice to see him
hit the ball hard last night. Not nice to see
him go to his former ballpark and pick very He

(38:16):
clearly chose to do this, hit the ball as far
as he can, maybe the farthest ball he's hit that
hasn't been a homer ever in his entire career. Well,
when you hit it to dead center in that ballpark
with where their yellow line is painted on that big,
daunting black batter's eye, it's just a double. Just a
four hundred and twenty seven foot I absolutely got all

(38:38):
of this double.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
You, as usual, were prophetic talking about the dimensions of
that ballpark on yesterday's show before they played a game
in this series, and there it was.

Speaker 6 (38:49):
Well, the one other thing I mentioned yesterday that Joe
a Spotta you'll hear from him again, like I said
in thirty minutes, mentioned today, not surprised to me, I
mentioned it yesterday. I don't know that Altuve plays outfield
at all in this ballpark. Played second base. We'll do
or DHD yesterday. He's not gonna be in the outfield
again today. They'll be flip flopping. The catchers of Victor
Carratini has been just killing it. He was behind the

(39:11):
plate last night. Jander Diaz had an entire game off,
and he'll be behind the plate tonight with Frobber on
the bump.

Speaker 3 (39:19):
And again, I can't be more excited about that guy,
that particular guy pitching because and again this is recent
but different from how it's gone for Hunter Brown this season.
Fromber's been awesome pretty much the entire year, and Hunter
Brown had been as well until recently. Sundays was just weird.

(39:39):
It was like he just had the one bad inning
where the pitch count ran up and then it just
it was almost like a Lance mccullor situation where it
was more about the pitch is thrown versus anything else.
I didn't feel like Hunter Brown's location was awful or
even that he was pitching that poorly, but he just
ran out of juice because he he had run his

(40:00):
pitch count up, whereas Fromber's been consistently awesome this year.

Speaker 6 (40:04):
Yet again, Yeah, their numbers now are pretty identical. The
last fifteen starts for Fromber, he's got a two twenty
seven ERA, He's been unbelievable. His last seven starts, he's
five and zero. It's a two to nine ERA. And now,
like I said, with Hunter bumping back towards Fromber, their
season numbers are very very very close to one another.
Who set it for the entire season, nothing has changed.

(40:26):
There aren't that many teams that have two aces that
have had this strong of a season, respectively, and the
Astros have that, and it's probably the only reason they've
been able to survive because the other three starts every
single trip through the rotation since Arraghetti went down and
then Blanco and Wisneski went down.

Speaker 5 (40:45):
It's it's tough. Gordon did his job yesterday.

Speaker 6 (40:48):
Gordon has done his job more than it probably seems like,
because they have a chance to win almost every time
he pitches. He doesn't pitch them to victory, but they
have a chance to win. When he gives the ball
to Joe Aspota, and he did that again yesterday. It
wasn't a great day the era. Coming out of a
game where you give up three runs to earn five
and two thirds, it's not sparkling. He had a ton

(41:09):
of base runners. They had a ton of base runners
after he left, but they managed to keep them from
scoring often enough that they were able to win the
game six to three.

Speaker 5 (41:17):
They got the hits necessary.

Speaker 6 (41:20):
I can't even probably put it into words how monstrous
that second inning home run was for Bryce Matthews.

Speaker 5 (41:27):
They ended up scoring six times.

Speaker 6 (41:28):
He ended up hitting another homer, But immediate answer from
this ball club after falling behind one nothing in the
first inning when it looked like they would be able
to hit Gordon all evening. It was huge and the
Astros got a second win in as many days. They'll
go for three in a row tonight. We'll reset things
you get you start on the three o'clock hour. Welcome
in the television audience when we return here on the

(41:49):
A Team.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
The aged on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong Houston
sports guys named Adham Talking your Team. Adam Clinton and

(42:11):
Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 6 (42:16):
Into the three o'clock hour second hour of the program,
first hour of the Simulcas. Those of you welcome in
on Space City Home Network and here on Sports Talk
seven ninety Wexsac and Cole here with you as we
are two days into back to back wins with the
Astros over the Diamondbacks. Last night the day before obviously
was the Mariners to close out that series a six
to three final. Last night, Colton Gordon and a host

(42:38):
of relievers closed out by Josh had five RBI, first
two career home runs from Bryce Matthews made sure it
got done. Astros need heroes, new ones almost each and
every day. Spoke with Taylor Trommel in the two o'clock hour,
the hero one of them from Saturn or Sunday's win
along with Victor Carrottini, who was back out there again
continuing to do what he's been doing for better than

(43:01):
a month offensively. They'll go at it tonight with from
ber Valdez Wardo Rodriguez. On the other side of things.
They will see three pitchers who have well they've pitched
like the Arizona Diamondbacks are finding their way out of
the race. Last night it was Zach Gallon, not a
good pitcher, and the Astros showed why they are.

Speaker 5 (43:18):
Looking to move him today.

Speaker 6 (43:20):
It's Rodriguez who's made a bunch of money here as
he reached free agency not long ago and just has
not pitched where very well. After tomorrow's starter, I'm not
sure who he'll be opposed by. Brandon Fott of the Diamondbacks,
and he are a nearly five. He does have ten wins,
but that's because their offense has been very, very good.
So good news that the Astros were able to slow

(43:42):
it down. Very good news that Aujaneo Suarez didn't have
quite the lift on all of his absolute smash jobs
that he had from last night's game, hitting the ball
over three hundred and thirty feet once twice, three times.

Speaker 5 (43:55):
Four times.

Speaker 6 (43:56):
All four times he came to the plate and was
given a pitch swing. At the fifth time he came
to the plate, he wasn't given any pitches to swing at,
and Josh Hater walked him and actually put the tying
run at the plate in doing so. It really didn't
have much to argue about it for me. He was
able to work around it. He's their hottest hitter. He's
arguably the hottest hitter in the majors, and he also

(44:18):
might be a diamondback player on the move.

Speaker 5 (44:20):
They have talent.

Speaker 6 (44:21):
They did put together a team that I also agreed
could definitely push the Giants, Padres, and Dodgers in that division,
and quite obviously three teams from the same division with
three wild cards being available can all make the postseason,
but probably not going to be the case, as both
injuries and performance have taken them to We're not even

(44:42):
a five hundred baseball team anymore.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
Yeah, I don't. And you mentioned Zach Gallen the first hour.
If that were as an audition, not great. But going
back to whether or not they're gonna be buyers or sellers,
I think that's I think that was probably already determined
before this series. Last night's gonna knock to help. And yeah,
a sub five hundred teams at this time of year.
It's always crazy to me because you have these players

(45:06):
on these teams that aren't doing well and yet everybody
wants them and gets into a bidding war for them.
And you were like, if they were this great, wouldn't
they be helping their team win more? But baseball just
doesn't always work that way.

Speaker 6 (45:17):
Yeah, they're still in a little we talked about seven
pitchers starting pitchers that could be on the move and
the Arizona pitchers or He and Merril Kelly both were
thought to likely be on the move. Meryl Kelly's had
a good season. He's had a run of good seasons.
If they move Meryl Kelly, the team that lands him
should be excited about what he can do for them,

(45:38):
less excited about what it costs to get them. If
you're putting anything into a Zach Gallon acquisition your own
prospects that you actually care about, you're doing it wrong.
And I definitely don't expect the Astros to be in
that situation. Last three years, Gallon's been great, really good. Obviously,
he was a part of a team that made the
role of the World Series, largely because he and Kelly

(45:59):
were very good in the starting rotation, among others. And
this year he's just an incredible American I can be
hit machine. Everybody's crushing this guy. Bryce Matthews hit home
runs number twenty two and number twenty three off Zach
Gallen this season. That leads the majors. That's not a
good thing. Hey man, you're a league leader this year yeah, what, Yeah,

(46:22):
but it's a bad thing. He led the majors in
Whip three years ago and it has steadily been on
the rise. He's not over the hill. This doesn't often
happen to a pitcher at this stage of their baseball life.
He's gonna be thirty later this month or early August,
but he just he's not getting outs. He gives up
too many hits, gives up too many runs. And last

(46:44):
night's game, if you hadn't seen Gallon pitch this year,
that's how his games go. They didn't tattoo him. There
were a bunch of innings where he's thrown seven pitches
and the Astros are going down one, two, three with ease.
He struck out plenty of batters, as he has throughout
the season, six and six innings. Had a ten strikeout
game a couple of games ago, uh, but he gave
up six runs, and the game before that he gave

(47:04):
up six runs, and three starts before that he gave
up five runs. The other twenty eight teams are more
than welcome to place phone calls to the Arizona Diamondbacks
GM and figure out how they can get Zach Gallon.
Dana Brown and whoever's in the circle of trust. No
phone calls needed. You can call Arizona. You can't talk

(47:25):
about him. You didn't asked about Kelly. You can say,
have the Yankees traded Firs Suarez yet or is.

Speaker 5 (47:31):
He still available? And anybody else you might want, but
not him.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
So we are at that just brilliant part of the
calendar where the doul drums have faded away. Astros are
yet again in hot pursuit of whatever baseball excellence they
can muster with given the injuries and all that kind
of stuff. And yeah, the trade deadline has yet to happen,
But here we are wex it's training camp eve, and

(47:58):
I'm gonna make fun of you right now, all right
to your face. I saw what you tweeted earlier. Did
you drive over there to take that picture? Because you're
that excited about training camp?

Speaker 10 (48:08):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (48:09):
You guys know us pretty well, right, and you know
we know each other pretty well, right? Yeah, so you
got you have to answer that question, did you?

Speaker 3 (48:16):
I want to know.

Speaker 5 (48:16):
I'm not answering it first, you have to answer your
own question.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
I feel like you already had it.

Speaker 6 (48:21):
I think you drove over there and specifically took a
picture of the Texans fan set up for training camp.
They don't have a fan practice till Saturday. You specifically
drove over there, have this thought in your mind, I
want a picture of something that isn't even up right
now over at the stadium. Did you drive over there?
I'm answering it for you. Of course I didn't drive
over there to take a picture. You know how many

(48:43):
pictures of training camp the stadium every I mean, I'm
you would, but you would be ticked off with all
the oh my god, delete this. You're never gonna need this,
want to get to there. Have so much textan stuff
in there, and I can't even believe I always on
your phone.

Speaker 5 (48:59):
I made it was It was.

Speaker 6 (49:00):
A chore July first, second, and third to get on vacation.
I was deleting stuff for hours and hours on ends.
Not because I well, maybe I'll need this. I definitely
don't need this. I don't need a SoundBite from a
player who was only there in training camp that I've
kept for two years. I don't need a three second

(49:21):
video that I should have deleted the moment after I
recorded it because the quarterback dropped back and then Jira
Johnson wanted to tell him something, so it didn't even
throw the ball. But you have video of a snap
to Tim Boyle, him taking three steps and then standing there.

Speaker 3 (49:36):
Yeah, I do.

Speaker 6 (49:37):
Hundreds and hundreds of them made it all the way
down to a respectable amount of space to fill up
the Wexler Family Vacation shared photo album where that I
was the unofficial team photographer for the vacation. You know,
Ryan contributed quite a few and Robin had a few
bad ones.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
And why do you got to do that? Why do
you have to do r like that? I mean, is
she not a good picture taker? You should?

Speaker 6 (50:04):
We don't want all this stuff in the picture. I
don't need to see what shoes I'm wearing far away
the pavement underneath them. You know, I need to see
what's in the picture. And I like to get a
good You can always crab it out, you can always
change it.

Speaker 5 (50:15):
Yeah I can.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
But why I can?

Speaker 5 (50:18):
Why are you are surprisedly?

Speaker 3 (50:20):
Okay?

Speaker 6 (50:20):
I could have I could have easily just said instead
of her, she contributes the fewest pictures. It's of no consequence.
She she had to take a shot.

Speaker 5 (50:28):
I was mean, Uh, really, are you to take the
worst pictures?

Speaker 9 (50:31):
Are that.

Speaker 6 (50:32):
Do you want us to take a picture of you?

Speaker 3 (50:34):
No, I don't if you're asking, see, but I do
that all the time, and I'm a good picture taker.

Speaker 5 (50:39):
It's different.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
You're surprised how many people are bad at taking pictures
with cell phones and twenty twenty.

Speaker 6 (50:43):
There is a little bit of a guessing game. You
have to guess what they want and sometimes if you
just if you want to you know me, I definitely
want to have a long conversation with them and we
can talk out what we'd like to see here.

Speaker 5 (50:53):
And if you have some you know, some license on
that long conversation.

Speaker 6 (50:56):
I don't know what your background is in photography, but yeah,
so we all contributed pictures. Let's just hypothetically say there
were a thousand pictures and videos from a ten to
eleven day trip. That's unbelievable, just a hypothetical number. It
could be higher, could be lower, just throwing a random
line on. I probably took seven hundred of them, yeah, easy,

(51:19):
maybe more so. I got all the space I cleared
out for vacation is roughly the same amount of space
I need for the next twenty training camp practices.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
Put that in the cloud. But it's all gone.

Speaker 6 (51:31):
Oh for sure, for sure, there's room in the cloud.
You know that page on your Apple iPhone. It's under settings.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
You mean you're not if you're not a Third World
citizen an you don't have an iPhone.

Speaker 6 (51:44):
There's a part right at the very first three things
you see on the settings page.

Speaker 5 (51:49):
Do you know what they are? At the top of
your head.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
It's some sort of of space Apple ID suggestions, right,
which means things they want you to be aware of
that you probably I should go ahead and do I
have a red number two next to that.

Speaker 6 (52:03):
The next one says update iOS eighteen point five. I've
got a red number one next to that, and the
phone I've had for more than two years. The line
under that it says, finish setting up your iPhone. I
got a red number one next to that. Those are
all notifications of things you need to do and have
not done. Your iPhone can't be backed up, you don't
have enough space in the iCloud. iPhone not backed up.

(52:25):
Finish setting up your iPhone. Update you don't have enough
space update put it in the cloud.

Speaker 5 (52:31):
You're hilarious.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
You're such a disappointment to somebody to who is as
technologically savvy as you are at certain things. I know
that is just pathetic.

Speaker 6 (52:42):
Well, I mean, the easiest way to create more space
on the phone is just get a new phone with
more space.

Speaker 5 (52:47):
Well, that's always my solution, such a bad solution.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
But then I'm like, wait a second, I just got
this phone, how is it already full?

Speaker 5 (52:55):
That's the way it goes.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
I got a buddy of mine that just absolutely just
shakes his head at me the way I'm doing to
you right now, because I'm just as bad about that thing,
and I can't seem to figure it out. Like I
don't want to put everything.

Speaker 6 (53:05):
You take your apps and folder them, you page after
page after page where you have to swap No.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
No, I'm very organized about that, because if I wasn't,
i'd never be able to find anything.

Speaker 6 (53:15):
And then you have apps, all the apps on your
phone you've used within the last six months.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
Yeah, because they're offloaded if they're not being used in
order to save said space.

Speaker 6 (53:25):
That's at least part partly good thing I try to
probably have. I'm sure the numbers way out of control
of apps that are unnecessary.

Speaker 3 (53:30):
It's really bad. You're in the pit at a Metallica
show and you start losing things you thought you had
saved in the cloud because you didn't have enough space
to even do that. Stupid iPhones.

Speaker 6 (53:39):
Fifteen minutes from now, we will visit with Astro's manager
Joe Aspota from his earlier visit on the show.

Speaker 5 (53:44):
But you brought it up and we will actually get
into it.

Speaker 6 (53:47):
The top storylines from Houston, Texas training camp, which starts tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (53:51):
The discussion on that starts.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
Next the ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
It is the eighteenth It's Sports Talk seven ninety. It's
Space City Home Network. It's a Tuesday edition of the program,
which means here on July twenty second, that we've made
it wex We've made it through well the remainder of
the quote unquote winter, we've made it into spring, into summer,

(54:23):
and now training camp is a mere hours away, which means,
no matter what's going on in your life, even if
it's consternation and concern and just downright anxiety about your
hometown nine your local baseball team, football just always makes
things better.

Speaker 6 (54:41):
This is one more excellent thing for us to discuss here,
and we'll be out there tomorrow morning in full force
and throughout the week four straight practice Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday before they catch a day off. Got a couple
more practices before they actually make their way out of
town early August to the Greenbrier in advance of their
first preseason tilt the Vikings game. They've just got one

(55:04):
game here in Houston, comes the following week against the Panthers.
Final preseason game comes against the Lions. They'll have a
singular joint practice against each of the Panthers here and
then the Lions there as they get ready for the
upcoming season. A lot of value on those joint practices
in my opinion. I'd actually I think Demico probably decided

(55:26):
after experiencing it a little bit as a player and
as an assistant coach, and then a little bit more
as a head coach. Remember Matt Stafford, Sean McVay and
the Rams were here last season. I think he's definitely
of the opinion that one joint practice is all that's needed.
You know, in the past, the Texans under previous regimes
and at other times other teams have had back to

(55:48):
back days of joint practices. I think getting in, taking
care of business and moving on is all that's needed
and that's what they'll be doing both of those instances.
By the way, rams have begun training camp. Who's on
a little bit of a load management throwing program already
at the opening of training camp.

Speaker 5 (56:08):
Matt Stafford.

Speaker 6 (56:10):
We're going to be watching him already and not really
an issue, but the one hundred and twenty five year
old quarterback shoulders that of one hundred and twenty five
year old quarterback, so they are keeping a close eye
on him as they get set for a season where
there are a lot of things in place for them
to be awesome. Saw how they played defensively at times

(56:30):
last year and what they can do upfront. Their front
seven we were talking about front seven is yesterday very good,
but not necessarily considered among the best.

Speaker 5 (56:39):
That's why the Texans, at least.

Speaker 6 (56:40):
According to one group of people or one analyst, doesn't
think they are too formidable for the Texans out of
the gate. But Matt Stafford is after a limited camp
and after a slow camp after his fiftieth camp. However,
it ends up being a couple weeks from now, that's
who the Texans will face opening week of the season.
I hope those comments don't come back to bite me.

(57:01):
Because we just got out of an off season where CJ.
Stroud wasn't throwing. Yep, I'm not throwing at this practice.
If it was a regular season, I'm sure he.

Speaker 5 (57:10):
Said he's fine. They said he's fine.

Speaker 6 (57:11):
They held their two day mini camp and he participated
as if nothing was wrong. Through all the passes you
would expect the number one quarterback to throw. And that
was that and we left it at that, and there's
no reasona believe there's any other way that he will
get to camp. We even saw on his Instagram story
throwing passes to his teammates, as he's done every year
since he's been a here at parts unknown, I'll try

(57:33):
to figure out where it was.

Speaker 5 (57:34):
I'm just happy they all got together and went through it.

Speaker 6 (57:37):
Jay Lenoel among the players out there, someone who's yet
to really get on the field and work through a lot.
Because both spent some time not able to or not
asked to perform as they otherwise would have at either
mini camp or voluntary OTAs, so it's possible CJ gets
a day off or is asked to throw less.

Speaker 5 (57:57):
So they can see David Bills throw more.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
Let's just cut to the chase when If that happens,
how much are people like us and I mean media
going to freak out about it?

Speaker 6 (58:10):
Well, freak out is one thing, But if you're talking
about storylines, if CJ. Stroud is not operating as if
nothing is wrong, completely operating as if nothing is wrong,
and no pitch count, no days off, no nothing. Quarterbacks
don't get days off during training camp when they're the
number one quarterback because that's how you practice best. When
your best players are out there practicing, especially your quarterback
running a brand new offense behind a brand new offensive

(58:30):
line with a brand new offensive line.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
Coach couldn't say it better.

Speaker 5 (58:33):
If he's not out.

Speaker 6 (58:33):
There, then you could take all your other storylines and
stuff them in a sack because that's the number one storyline.
I don't know that I'm gonna freak out about it,
but it is first thing and last thing you should
be talking about about the future, immediate twenty twenty five
future of the Texans.

Speaker 3 (58:48):
No pressure, then, CJ, when you show up tomorrow, start
taking all the zaps.

Speaker 5 (58:51):
He's fine, and he will be fine.

Speaker 6 (58:52):
And it's just a matter of will they actually believe
there's some value in it?

Speaker 9 (58:56):
Is there?

Speaker 6 (58:57):
Are there some lingering things, and from a honest perspective,
does he actually get sore after a day or three
of training camp with what they're going to be asking
from him. I'm sure they've got a pretty good plan
in place to make sure none of those things happen
like they would with any healthy starting quarterback. There haven't
been any issue with that in year one or year two.
Never really saw any issue with it with any other

(59:18):
previous starting quarterbacks that I've covered camp for here with
the Texans, whether they were splitting reps with Tom Savage unnecessarily,
or they were getting reps alongside Ryan Mallett because they
were Brian Hoyer, or even if they were Dave Carr.

Speaker 3 (59:31):
I have had car When did you start involved in
calling him that he used to do this?

Speaker 6 (59:36):
Well, two prominent players characters on this team have the
same first name, and after twenty twenty one, I decided
that I can't call one of them David, so I
won't call the other one David either. That's coach Dave
and Dave Carr. I'll call David Anderson David Anderson. He's

(59:57):
earned that. But I'm not gonna call David Cully. She's
what he goes by David. No, now I no longer
call David Carr David Carr. He's just Dave to me,
I guess NFL network analyst.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
Yeah, I guess I just did. That's the one.

Speaker 6 (01:00:08):
If you want to call Dave Colli because he's coach Dave.
He's just going to hang out with coach Dave. I
don't know if you want him coaching your football team
at the NFL. I don't, but I hanging out with
him is great. I do know that I don't want
him doing a saperdize. Guy, total down to earth, knows football,
just not very well suited to be an NFL head coach.

Speaker 5 (01:00:25):
Nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 6 (01:00:26):
Most every other team knew that, and that's why he
didn't have other head coaching interviews or land the head
coaching job with any other NFL team, either before or after.
The Texans gave him seventeen games to show what he had,
and with the roster they gave him, he didn't have anything,
and not really his fault.

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
I'm prepared now, with a few minutes left of the segment,
to tell you what's gonna be the most concerning, slash
annoying thing about the coming days I already know it's
gonna happen, and I should preface this by saying I
feel like this every year about a lot of different
positions and position groups. So not just me picking on
the offensive line, but I just training camp is so

(01:01:07):
overblown about so many different things, and it's going to
be It's gonna apply none more so this year than
how's the offensive line work, how's it look, how are
they operating together? All of which is fine, It's what
we all want to talk about, especially if CJ is
on that normal schedule. We're not going to worry about
any other sort of subplot. But there is only one

(01:01:30):
true way to find out if the Texans offensive line
is better than it was last year, And frankly, that's
just not gonna happen until the games start to count.

Speaker 5 (01:01:37):
It's gonna happen before that.

Speaker 6 (01:01:38):
That's gonna happen against the Panthers on the fourteenth, is
gonna happen on the twenty first, a week later against
the Lions because you're playing somebody else and you're now
at game two. In game three, presumably they'll play these
guys at least again. This is why having a joint
practice versus a preseason game is awesome. You know, you
rarely sit healthy players at a joint practice. You sit

(01:01:59):
healthy players at a pre season game constantly. So the
five guy that should be starting have earned the right
to be the starter. A month from the opener, they're
gonna play against somebody else. They're gonna play presumably against
Aiden Hutchinson and presumably against the Panthers defensive front, and
they're gonna do so for an entire day. They're gonna
get fifty to seventy reps against them in a joint practice.

(01:02:20):
They're gonna have drills against them. They're gonna run too
many against them. They're gonna run eleven on elevens against them,
and it will matter. Now CJ is gonna be fully
healthy after those fifty to seventy steps because nobody's gonna touch.

Speaker 5 (01:02:29):
Him, and nothing's gonna go to a natural game.

Speaker 6 (01:02:31):
But we're gonna know if the if they're doing any
kind of job, if they're getting the job done, And
I'm not gonna I'm a I like you in one respect,
I'm not gonna sit here and say, man, the offensive
line looked bad today at Day three of Texans training camp.
Look bad doing what against whom at what speed? I'll
tell you who's lining up where and why, and maybe

(01:02:52):
i'll single out some if someone's doing something poorly.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
What if somebody's rocking back? Will you talk about it?
Will it be in your Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:02:59):
I probably already would have posted on X it looks
like Laken Tomlinson just ran a lap around the field.

Speaker 5 (01:03:04):
I'm sure you can guess why.

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
That's what you're gonna say, isn't it?

Speaker 6 (01:03:08):
Probably Although it won't be him, He's a veteran interior line.
It's much more likely to be Blake Fisher or Tay
Urcer or Cam Robinson, or if Trent Brown gets on
the field, one of the tackles juju on the rookie? Oh,
I mean he plays tackle. That's what tackles do?

Speaker 9 (01:03:21):
I know?

Speaker 6 (01:03:21):
I mean off sides and tackles go together like lamb
and tuna, fish.

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
Don't no, no, no, no, peanut butter.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
And jaetti and meatballs. Do you like that analogy better?

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
That's why I'm having straight out of a movie.

Speaker 6 (01:03:33):
I will tell you who is the what they look
like when we're out of practice? Who are these five guys?

Speaker 7 (01:03:38):
Now?

Speaker 5 (01:03:38):
Who's getting worked in?

Speaker 6 (01:03:40):
Are Tay Erser and Cam Robinson splitting reps or Blake
Fisher and Ursery splitting reps. How are they outfitting the
group around, Probably a pretty clear head and shoulders above
the guys behind them. Interior offensive line. I don't think
the interior offensive line is even one position back. I

(01:04:00):
think all three spots have already been determined and they
would have to play their.

Speaker 5 (01:04:04):
Way out of those spots.

Speaker 6 (01:04:05):
Haven't really gotten into that too much and given you
names and given my thoughts on that, But obviously we've
got full show today still and all throughout training camp
to give you my thoughts on that.

Speaker 5 (01:04:13):
But I will expand on what I think.

Speaker 6 (01:04:15):
The interior of their line will look like at the
onset of the season when they get the Rams on
the opening game on September seventh. Next though, we will
hear from the Astros manager after last night's victory earlier
today on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:04:28):
Joe Spata next.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 14 (01:04:45):
All right, all of the burning questions you have about
the current state of the Houston Astros, all the injuries,
all of the rotations, all of the lineups, everything that
has culminated to this point here on July twenty second,
where they to lead the Aos by five games and
continue to keep getting help from the Seattle Mariners when
they don't play each other.

Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
That was a big part of the discussion as Joe A.
Spot of the manager made his weekly visit. One of
the first things talked about here well, coaching a guy
who was an absolute beast in last night's win over
the Diamondbacks and the opener not one but two home
runs from one Bryce Matthews.

Speaker 13 (01:05:26):
Yeah, Yeah, he's been the game he had yesterday, you know,
against a really good starter in.

Speaker 9 (01:05:32):
The position that we are in right.

Speaker 13 (01:05:34):
We are fighting through tough stretch of injuries, and these
young players continue to come up and step up and
have games the way Brice just did.

Speaker 7 (01:05:44):
It just impacts you know.

Speaker 13 (01:05:46):
It brings his energy to the club palace and to
our team that we needed. And you know, I'm not
surprised about his success. We know that he's got all
the ability and the capabilities to be a really good player.

Speaker 7 (01:05:56):
But how every.

Speaker 13 (01:05:57):
Game he's starting to settle down, calm down on understand
what they're trying to do, play good baseball on both
sides to the ball has been remarkable and a great story.

Speaker 7 (01:06:06):
You know, this is a Houston kid, is a kid that.

Speaker 13 (01:06:09):
Went to the Astros Academy. So the whole thing is special.
And you know, it's great to see having success and
we you know, we need to keep this going and
and and it's excited to be to be managing this,
this group of players who are so excited and want
to contribute.

Speaker 15 (01:06:24):
Are you committed Joe to keeping him at second base?
Obviously you're the second basement before him has been playing
a little bit of left field, obviously some DH as well,
and you moved him to second. We're speaking obviously with Jose,
but what are your plans at least for the short
term at that second base spot.

Speaker 13 (01:06:37):
You know what I really want to I want to
really give him an opportunity. You know, it's it's you know,
right now with our roster and how much is changing,
and we can really predict what the future will bring.
But right now he has earned the right to continue
to get opportunities. Like I've always said, you know, any
young player, you had to keep an eye on how

(01:06:58):
he reacts and how we mix adjustments. I don't want
to throw a young player out there and not.

Speaker 7 (01:07:05):
Be able to help them through struggles.

Speaker 13 (01:07:07):
So I'm constantly keeping an eye on all these young
players and trying to put him in a position where
they can feel comfortable and have some success. But right now,
he's handling himself.

Speaker 15 (01:07:16):
Very very well with all the injuries and your roster adjustments.
I mean, the sugar Land, the Houston Express is unbelievable,
toll charges and everything, but you guys can handle that.
Let me ask you about trying to get guys off
their feet, whether it's Jose, whether it's Victor, whether it's
Jan here, does it become even a bigger challenge because
I feel like every other series you're having to kind

(01:07:37):
of create and manipulate a new twenty six man roster.

Speaker 13 (01:07:40):
You know what, I think that it's it's challenging.

Speaker 7 (01:07:44):
But when you get guys to like Bryce right who's
performing the way he is, he allows me.

Speaker 13 (01:07:51):
To give Altuve back to back DH days like I'm
going to do today today with Hostel too, but I'm
going to DH him again. Byce can get another opportunity
to play, second, I can keep Hosy off his feet
on the turf. You know, Carotine will get a blow
today again. Your DS will be back in there today
against a lefty pitching. I am really trying to get
everyone involved with Tremmel swinging the bat really well, so

(01:08:12):
he's getting an opportunity to play more on the field
or make you know, have two hits yesterday. He can
play some center, So I'm really trying to get everyone
a breeder doing the best I can to try it
also win as many games we can. Keep it in
mind that we need to keep these guys healthy, and
you know, doing this next nine ten days that we
we have games. But I think you know, we are

(01:08:33):
kind of controlling the volume of the early work we
do our VP times. We're kind of pushing things trying
to keep these guys healthy while we get the rest
of the guys, you know, get back to us.

Speaker 15 (01:08:43):
Joey sincerely apologize that so much of our conversation this
year has been about injuries, but that has been a
storyline of this team, and you're you're certainly well aware
of that. Let's get to your very talented third basement
who looked absolutely terrible running to first base at our
day And I know there wasn't much word yesterday. Do
you have anything more you can tell our audience right
now about what we know about Esak and in any
evaluation you have medically here in town.

Speaker 13 (01:09:05):
Obviously you know the injury did not look good. It's
going to be it's going to take it. It's going
to take some time for for us to get Paradis back.

Speaker 7 (01:09:13):
You know, this.

Speaker 13 (01:09:14):
Handstring injury was different from the other one.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
The other one.

Speaker 13 (01:09:18):
What's more, it was not as intense or as you know,
as bad as this one.

Speaker 7 (01:09:23):
So this is going to take Paradis some time to
come back.

Speaker 13 (01:09:27):
And we are going to miss him during during this
stretch of not having him in there. And and again
we need you know, who's going to be the next
guy up, who's going to step.

Speaker 7 (01:09:36):
Up and and and help us.

Speaker 13 (01:09:38):
We've been doing that good guys for some talking about
I feel like for a few months now, but I
feel good about our guys. Many they fight, They they
understand in the position that we are in, we're protecting
our house, We're protecting what we what we love, and
it's it's continued to be the best team in the West.
And as long as we got this guy's fighting and
trying to do the best they can, that's all I

(01:09:58):
can appen.

Speaker 6 (01:10:00):
I have some interesting decisions every single day and That's
basically what he was talking about right there. How do
I outfit this team without running guys into the ground
when we're losing so many other guys. You've got an
entire side two players of the infield out with Paynya
and Perettis. Mauricio Dubon is an everyday player, clearly because
he has to be. And now there's two spots where

(01:10:20):
you can use him. You know, Zach Short getting starts
at shortstop while Dubon plays third. You got an instance
in the extra inning game where you had to shift
a bunch of players around and all of a sudden,
Bryce Matthews is getting time at third base and had
to make a play charging in on a ball, ended
up throwing the guy out at first rather than taking
a chance on throwing it elsewhere. These are all things

(01:10:41):
that they're dealing with. It's not just that players are out.
It's that you've got to figure out how to make
your way through the twenty seven outs, or sometimes through
thirty three outs in a ball game, or thirty two outs,
however many you can get an extra inning when Hector
Narris is out there and it's.

Speaker 5 (01:10:55):
An everyday thing.

Speaker 6 (01:10:57):
Probably going to see the Astros doing more with the
batters that hit from the left side. He mentioned Keratini,
he mentioned Taylor Trammel. It's not this Tremmell has provided
something for this team and plays excellent defense. It's an
imbalanced lineup. They carry a left handed bat, switch hitter
in Carrotini's case, but a left handed bat is something

(01:11:19):
that they clearly value because they have so few of them.
It would appear that in every way, other than being
able to hit from the right side, Taylor Tremmell is
a better option on a daily basis than Cooper Hummel,
and that's what Joe has essentially put out there. But
specific to his comments about Perettis, and Perettis kind of
said it similarly the night he was hurt. It's different

(01:11:40):
than the first time. It doesn't feel as it feels
more severe than the first time. And it's probably, you know,
with a hamstring injury, not only does it take a
while to heal, it takes a while for the player
then to kind of recognize, Okay, when am I ready
to push it. Even if he's returned to the lineup,
he's maybe not necessarily at the percentage men to where
he feels like, well, if I'm going to turn this

(01:12:02):
into a two bases, then I better start testing this
hamstring on this ball that I hit to the wall.

Speaker 5 (01:12:08):
So I think we're quite a ways off.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. That was not at all
very promising, the tone, the way he delivered that. What
he said, well, yeah, I mean, hamstrings are so finicky anyways,
no matter what the sport. But I guess the good
news would be that you could put him if you,
if needs be in a d H situation sooner, rather

(01:12:34):
to get his back back sooner rather than later. Just
not wanting him to field. I guess there's still there's
still some things there.

Speaker 6 (01:12:41):
Does no running when he fields, He does nothing but
running when he hits.

Speaker 3 (01:12:45):
That's not true.

Speaker 6 (01:12:45):
You feel you just catch a ball that's tied that
you have to dive for.

Speaker 3 (01:12:51):
How do you die? Do you use your hamstring or not?

Speaker 5 (01:12:54):
Just lean over and let your body hit the ground,
just fall over.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
I'm glad. I'm glad that you only have to lean I.

Speaker 6 (01:12:59):
Mean, if it's not hit right at him, guess what
it's he's falling over, it's gonna be in the outfield.

Speaker 5 (01:13:04):
Oh man, all right, you like lists? I love lists.

Speaker 3 (01:13:08):
When it comes to the Houston Texans, I got a
new one, and this time it doesn't exactly make me
as mad as it normally does with regards to that
one quarterback on that one team that always gets under
my skin. I'll explain next.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
It is the eight team Sports Talk seven ninety, Space
City Home Network, winding down the three o'clock hour. Aaron
Wilson joining us next segment to discuss all things Texans
as we get ready for training camp twenty twenty five.
And in that vein the athletic with some power rankings,
and here's the deal, wex these are completely overrated, mean

(01:13:52):
really nothing, but I still get worked up about them,
in large part because when it comes to like what
we were talking about earlier this summer, just the last
few weeks, you know, with position groups, is CJ. Stroud
a top ten quarterback? If he's not, who did they
rank ahead of him? That makes you the maddest. And
of course you guys know that Justin Herbert is on
my hit list here in twenty twenty five, He's in

(01:14:14):
the crosshairs. I'm going to absolutely be watching everything he
does like a Hawk. So I can say hah each
and every week whenever I want to, especially when CJ
outplays him. But in that vein, I just thought it
was interesting when they were the athletic and this is
according to Again, everything's subjective, but this is Josh Kendall.

(01:14:36):
They're you know, they're just doing the generic. Here we
are at training camp. Here's what I think about where
the team stack up before we've seen really anything. Philadelphia
is at number one, Baltimore is at number two, Buffalo
is at number three.

Speaker 6 (01:14:50):
So the Super Bowl champions fall above the three teams
ahead of the Texans in the AFC.

Speaker 3 (01:14:55):
Yes, that's a good way of putting it, because everything
in between the top four, which are all from the AFC,
and the Texans, who find themselves a little lower should
we say, are NFC. So the Texans are a top
ten team at eight, and the Chargers are outside of

(01:15:17):
the top ten. So I mean I get that there
more goes.

Speaker 5 (01:15:23):
Texans are fourth in the AFC, the Chargers are fifth.

Speaker 7 (01:15:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:15:27):
Why is the biggest reason for that?

Speaker 1 (01:15:29):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:15:29):
They air defense.

Speaker 6 (01:15:31):
The Texans defense is definitely better than the Chargers. The
Chargers offensive issues, who are largely their running game and
they've made attempts at fixing that, mainly with their running
back personnel. I think they felt like their line is
in the process, younger line especially all but he's their
best lineman already. I think they have two very good

(01:15:51):
tackles and he's one of them, So that are a
very good position to have that if it's the biggest
issue fixed, they're personnel wide. Receiver stinks and I don't
think they made an off of a play to make
it better. But Conkie was an absolute find and he's
a stud. But roster for roster is probably the biggest.
It's just pure talent. I don't think there's a soul
that looks at the Chargers roster and thinks it's as

(01:16:13):
good as the Texans roster.

Speaker 3 (01:16:14):
And yet many many people that we've highlighted on the
show think that Justin Herbert is ranked ahead of CJ. Shroud.
And I only bring this up because obviously this list
the teams are where they are, but that doesn't necessarily
mean anything. With the big debate about this, this is
the first list that wasn't lazy about CJ's analysis or
analysis of CJ.

Speaker 6 (01:16:33):
In my opinion, Yeah, this list was written by Adam Klanton.
I know you said something about Josh Kendall, but you
wrote it it says CJ. Stroud was sacked fifty two
times last season, more than anyone other than Caleb Williams.
And you even indicated you should scream when reading this part.
More than ten percent of his dropbacks ended in a
sack or interception. And Houston's offensive line and you put

(01:16:53):
this in quotes lost Laramie Tunsel. I guess he doesn't
have directions to the facility anymore. Does explain how they
lost him, but it just says that they lost him.
And you weren't done at eight and you put in
the rams you put on the Vikings. You you know,
did you contracted for somebody to write the write ups
on them because you were just locked in on the AFC.
You wanted to get to the eleventh right team, the Chargers,

(01:17:15):
and Clinton here wrote the Chargers were blah blah blah blah, YadA,
YadA YadA. Justin Herbert is entering his sixth season and
it's getting expensive now. His average cap hit for the
next five seasons will be fifty four and a half million.
It's probably time for his first playoff win again. The
yelling parentheses from you.

Speaker 3 (01:17:35):
Now, all of what you just said from the standpoint
of who wrote it is a lie, as well as
the quotations and the yelling and all of that.

Speaker 5 (01:17:42):
But everything else you said word for word, I could
have written it.

Speaker 7 (01:17:46):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (01:17:46):
Best the off season.

Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
List that did all of the scens.

Speaker 6 (01:17:50):
We also aren't giving you every single list ever written.
It's why the people make them. To me, it's why
people make them because there's so many of them. Yeah,
everybody has a different pain.

Speaker 3 (01:17:59):
Why is it this is the first one we've come
across that actually makes sense to me.

Speaker 6 (01:18:02):
I guarantee you that we've there's no way everybody has
the Chargers ahead of the Texans. The Texans of the
fourth best team in the AFC and have consistently been
the fourth best team in the AFC actuality each of
the last two seasons, in the final four, and in
how people have viewed them, I'm not I don't I
remember quarterback play. Yeah, Justin Herbert is far too often

(01:18:23):
found himself on a list ahead of CJ. But team
for team, I don't think there's too many lists. This
one is an example of what I think is true,
and I think I've seen more than any others, but
rather than a team more than this team.

Speaker 3 (01:18:33):
Yeah, but rather than just say, well, the Texans defense
is top five, and so that's why we're giving them
the ranking they have and giving Justin Herbert's team the
ranking they have, even though we think Justin Herbert is
better than CJ. Stroud. Actually they win. Talking about the
two quarterbacks respectively, which again is the most positioned, the
most important position in sports, and clearly in this league,

(01:18:55):
they go there. They're transparent, they have clarity, as we
like to talk about here today, right.

Speaker 6 (01:19:02):
And you know, several months ago in January, if you
said CJ. Stroud was the fourth best quarterback and Justin
Herbert was the fifth best quarterback in the AFC playoffs,
that would have been totally fine. If you would have
said the opposite. It absolutely would have been totally fine
to say that. And then they played in the same game.
One of them got to play against the Chargers defense
with the Texans offense backing him up as a teammates,

(01:19:24):
and the other got to play against the Texans defense
with his Chargers defense backing him up as teammates. And
we saw what happened much more challenging to face the
Texans defense and the results were evident, much less challenging
to face the Chargers and Seed didn't have an unbelievable day.

Speaker 3 (01:19:39):
Oh it was a bye week for somebody, just.

Speaker 5 (01:19:41):
One, and they advanced. But they're close.

Speaker 6 (01:19:45):
Like this whole idea that you're insane for thinking Justin
Herbert is better than c J. Stroud or you'd buy
stock in him moving forward, I wouldn't. You wouldn't, But
I don't think it's insane. I think we have both
factual EVAs results of games, we have performances of those individuals.

Speaker 5 (01:20:03):
There's some team element to it.

Speaker 6 (01:20:05):
But it's just like with all these you know, power
rank is a great example of it, Like there's only
so many places they can be. Like CJ's not nineteenth
with Herbert five hundred slots ahead of them. They're right
next to each other almost every time. It's just not
CJ in front of Herbert every time. Yeah, and calling

(01:20:26):
the Chargers the fifth best team in the AFC totally reasonable.

Speaker 3 (01:20:30):
Well, I just I think what it comes down to
for me, and this is the basic, most the easiest
way to explain why I get so riled up is
that I am not at all saying, oh, I have
a problem with you know, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Pat Mahomes.
You know, these guys placed ahead of CJ. Shroud on
the in the pecking order. I have a huge problem

(01:20:52):
with so many people putting Justin Herbert ahead of him
consistently in these kinds of lists.

Speaker 5 (01:20:59):
Right better, This is a team. This is a team sport.

Speaker 6 (01:21:02):
Quarterbacks are everything until they're not everything when you actually
have to play the game and you keeping score and
points matter and you're against their defense versus him against
your defense. The reason you're any issue with Lamar, Josh
or Pat being ahead of him on any list, and
being ahead of everybody in the AFC is because they

(01:21:23):
outplay them statistically pretty clearly, and the team that they
play on is better. So they're winning more games and
they're individually out playing Lamar. Jackson is a better individual
player than CJ. Same for Josh, same for Holmes. They
also play on a better team. There's no debate to
be had everybody else in the AFC that's in the picture.

Speaker 5 (01:21:44):
Joe Burrow's Bengals.

Speaker 6 (01:21:45):
You know, last year Russell Wilson Steelers, now Aaron Rodgers, Steelers, Bownicks,
and the Broncos. Justin Herbert and the Chargers, they're all
in the same boat. I might like Herbert a lot
more than this guy. I love Burrow more than everybody
in this group, but his team sucks. They only play
one side of the ball. The Bengals, behind the Texans,
behind the Chargers, ahead of the Steelers, ahead of the Broncos.

Speaker 1 (01:22:09):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named Adham talking your team.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 3 (01:22:31):
Four o'clock Now we're underway here on the A Team.
It's Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Home Network, wex
ac Cole Thompson with you, taking you until six o'clock
tonight and as promised, joined by Aaron Wilson. Feels like
we are just hanging out a few hours ago, Aaron,
And in light of what we were there for and
what's about to get underway tomorrow morning. No shortage of

(01:22:52):
subplots here in twenty twenty five. And I know that
there are a lot of things as training camp gets
underway that we get to. But I feel like, you know,
even aside from CJ's year three and some sort of
bounce back. The offensive line will be the number one
story going into tomorrow's festivities.

Speaker 9 (01:23:12):
Agree or disagree, I agree absolutely the offensive line, because
that's what's going to make the difference, in my opinion,
between being a division champion and a team that you know,
gets maybe past one playoff game and then losing the
divisional round or making a serious run. And it's a
big ask. Though, when you trade your five time Pro

(01:23:32):
Bowl left tackle, you overhaul it all. You've changed the
offensive line. Coach, you only have two guys that started
at the end of last season returning to their starting
lineup right now. It's or of the projection's Titus Howard
Blake Fisher, so a real agent of change. Cole Popovich
and Tamiko Ryan signaled all this. Remember when he said
that the NFL scouting combine a few of us local
reports are there on the side. He said, we're going

(01:23:55):
to do a reset of the offensive line. Man, it
has been dramatic change, and now we're gonna watch these
guys and evaluate them and see, so is it gonna
be any better? I think if they can go from
really bad to solid with good coaching. The coaches were
not on the same page last year. If you have
a singular voice and Dante Screnecia one of the best

(01:24:18):
off into line coaches, disciple, I could see some improvement,
But you know, talent, You know, people don't think they're
very talented. They're ranking them thirty seconds by per Football
Focused We'll see, you know, is that maybe a little extreme?

Speaker 7 (01:24:32):
I think it could be.

Speaker 9 (01:24:33):
I don't think they're the worst stuff into line in
the NFL. That that's a to me, kind of a
gross overstatement. But you know, the tape's gonna tell us
the truth.

Speaker 6 (01:24:42):
Not sure if that'll make it on any determination statements
that you see around the building this year, if we
can go from really bad to solid, but it is
actually what we would like to see them do. Do
you think there's any chance I brought this up earlier, CJ. Stroud,
Do you think there's any chance he is on any
kind kind of throwing slash participation program as they get

(01:25:04):
into training camp because of just a general soreness he
had this off season, right.

Speaker 9 (01:25:11):
Yeah, A lot of that was from some overtraining issues
with the connected tissues and the shoulder and went to
the peck and my understanding, and I was just with
CJ that he's full go and he had a summer
without setback, so he should be normal. If they ramp
him up at all, you know, maybe like on they're

(01:25:34):
counting the throws, maybe we're not as privy to that.
It may be a little subtle to notice how much
she does. But I think he's going to be out
there as QB one throwing. I haven't heard anything different
to think about a throwing program, and but you know,
he said it, well, it's a matter of when, not if.

(01:25:55):
As a throwing athlete, you're going to eventually have something
that's true.

Speaker 3 (01:25:59):
You know him better than I do for sure. I'm
not going to speak for WEX, but I feel like
I wonder how much he even pays attention to and
if so, how much it has placed a chip on
his shoulder, the coverage that he's gotten in light of
how last year went, because I know that it wasn't
all the offensive line's fault, but it also wasn't all

(01:26:21):
CJ's fault that his numbers took a dip, his efficiency,
his completion percentage, all the kind of stuff you look
for to see that growth in year two from a
franchise quarterback. So has he spoken on that at all,
at least with you. Do you know where his mindset is?
Is it a chip on his shoulder? How is CJ's
mindset going into this year three?

Speaker 7 (01:26:41):
I think he's you.

Speaker 9 (01:26:42):
Know, obviously determined, and he's excited about the ownership that
they're granting him of the offense. At the same time,
in terms of like outside the way his criticism, he
tends to be pretty blocked out style and not super
sensitive to this kind of this core of oh well,
this person says this about you. I just don't think

(01:27:04):
he gets that into that unless you're in the arena,
like you know, if a player was to say something
to him. He's not too proNT of reacting to a
lot of media stuff. In terms of behind the scenes,
I think he's you know, you got a lot of
confidence and he's very sure of what he's doing and
the work he puts in. So he's not one of

(01:27:25):
these guys that's completely blinders on. But he does kind
of block some things out. You're not always seeing him
post a lot. Uh. There are workouts he does that
aren't on the internet, that aren't on Instagram. He organizes
a lot of stuff. But yeah, I think he answered
the Broder question. I don't think that he's you know,
feels like he's.

Speaker 16 (01:27:45):
Been pointing the finger at in terms of last season
as much as Hey, I got sacked a lot, He's
never once blamed the offensive line or you know, point
of a finger.

Speaker 9 (01:27:56):
I think he's always been smart enough to not create
a controversy. You know, what's the only thing last year
what that he kind of low broad Caleb Williams. I mean,
he kind of stays out of stuff. And he was
obviously trying to be nice to Caleb and say, hey,
you know, hanging there. I think you're really good. And Caleb,
you know, wasn't trying to hear it. He was up
sad they lost the game. He got sacked, son of ty,

(01:28:18):
his butt kicked by the Texans, very good defense, and
I just think he's good at avoiding these things.

Speaker 6 (01:28:24):
He has been, and he was able to joke about
it with Caleb Williams not that long ago at the
Fanatics Fest. Aaron, I'm curious if you think these are
at the top of the list. They are for me,
a position battle, A true position battle for who starts
when they get to the opener against the Rams, one
on defense, one on offense, on defense. I'm hopeful, and
you wrote a little bit about it yesterday. Christian Harris

(01:28:46):
is healthy enough to be in a real true battle
with Henry Toto if they believe is he is. Al
Shaire is on the field all the time, and one
of those two linebackers remains on the field with him
for most of those four to two five looks. And
then if you could all so address what will undoubtedly
be a position battle at tackle, though it involves three players.

(01:29:06):
Cam Robinson probably starts at left tackle tomorrow, Blake Fisher
probably starts at right tackle tomorrow, but rookie tay Erseri
certainly fits.

Speaker 5 (01:29:15):
In in one of those two spots.

Speaker 6 (01:29:17):
From a I'm battling for their job perspective, as they
open camp, start with the defense and then hit us
with that offensive league if you.

Speaker 9 (01:29:24):
Tend to yeah, you're right on it. And the fact
is at linebacker, the incumbent really is not Christian Harris anymore.
It's Henry Tote. Henry took control of the job, and
they don't just reward guys all of a sudden. They
have missed a ton of time and hand them the
job back, you have to earn it back. And he
has calf. He's made major progress. He had a good summer.

(01:29:46):
Henry Totol missed some time. The only real X factor
is do they go to EJ. Speed If these guys
can't stay healthy and stay on the field. The preference
is to go with the younger player. But both those
guys have missed some time. Henry more recently just for
minor stuff in the spring. But Christian it's been chronics,
the cast thing, and it cost him last season, and

(01:30:08):
then he heard his ankle and he really wasn't in
my opinion, one hundred percent when he got back out there.
So the real injury factor is more so. I mean,
Christian to me is the most talented of the three
and the best athletes. Pure athlete. You want him out there,
but it's only if you can count it as durability.
So there are some things there, some wrinkles on offense

(01:30:31):
Erseri is the biggest guy other than Trent Brown, who
was recently medically cleared by the Dallas Cowboys team doctor
the d surgeon as Pteller tendant. They'll ease him into
camp because he's missed a lot time he's so big,
he might be the best right tackle they have, But
can you count on him staying healthy? Probably not Erseri
is the future? Is he also the president? And I

(01:30:54):
think that could happen. Blake Fisher to me is more
vulnerable to losing his starting job than anyone else on
the offensive line. And the performance last year in his
first season as a starter wasn't great. Especially in the
playoff game. You have three sacks. They could very easily
turn the page and say, you know what, we're starting
fresh with ursery. That could happen.

Speaker 3 (01:31:15):
Talking to Aaron Wilson here on Sports Talk seven to ninety,
that's crazy when you talk about Fisher being one of
the new guys, one of Nick Cassario's draftees. Why is
it this is just a basic just tear all the
sugarcoating away. I think he's done a terrific job drafting
this roster, I really do. I think Nick Cassario's put

(01:31:37):
together a great roster except for the offensive line, and
I know that's the most important unit in all of football.
Why why has it been such a difficulty? Is it
just a matter of they just haven't been able to
hit on some of those picks the way he has,
especially on the defensive side of the football. Is it
as simple as.

Speaker 9 (01:31:54):
That, Well, it's been a hole in their game in
terms of personnel department and coach. His co chanced to
develop the guys, but if you look at personal decisions
that haven't really panned out. They signed Titus Howard to
a second you know deal. It was very expensive, and
you know he has been I think solid is probably
the right way to put it. Solid, you know, pretty

(01:32:15):
above average. The Laramie Council extensions. Ultimately Laramie, you know,
traded and you had a nineteen tenby season, you got
two scrugs. You draft him. He wanted to play center,
had trouble with line calls. He's now a backup. He's
not We're not even talking about him competing really for
the starting job. We think Titus Howard, Lincoln Holmes start
going to be the guards. So then Shaq Mason, who

(01:32:39):
was a great player for the Patriots but declined with
the Buccaneers, and you signed some an extension and you
traded for him, and now Shack has been cut and
doesn't have a current NFL job. So that's just kind
of the shorthand of it. And then Blake Fisher. You
drafted him last year and he hasn't solidified himself just yet.

(01:32:59):
He's you know, working on it. I think he did
make some improvements. To be fair, Blake has had a
pretty good offseason. But you know, is it going to
be better than what you think you have the potential
of Ursery? That's the question they have to answer. I
don't think it's like, oh, he can't vue it offensive lineman,
because he was part of the Patriots with Logan Mankins
and Nate Solder and Sebastian Folmer and a lot of

(01:33:22):
really really good offensive linemen. But it's just for whatever
reason here it hasn't come together. It's not to say
that they can't draft offensive lineman. I think they can.
It's just no. I think with Ersery, he's clearly a
really talented guy, and I think maybe they finally got
the guy they want. But sometimes you miss, and you
can miss in other positions too. That happens. You know,

(01:33:43):
John Mitchie the third, you know, some of it his health,
but also since he got healthy, hasn't really played the
way he did Alabama, and that happens. I think everybody
misses all the good drafting teams that covered the Ravens
for a long time. Do you know they once drafted
Matt Elm in the first round and then Arthur Brown
in the second round consecutive picks. Ozzie needs to have
also drafted Jonathan Agaden and Array Lewis with the first

(01:34:04):
two picks he ever made, So he hit two Hall
of Famers in nineteen ninety six with the first picks
he ever put in. So yeah, I mean it's a
mixed bag drafting. But for some reason offensive line, they
just even had good luck or they have another right evaluations.
I think they've nailed the nursery pick. What we're gonna see.

Speaker 5 (01:34:22):
We will find out shortly. We'll see you out there
tomorrow morning.

Speaker 6 (01:34:25):
Appreciate all your input here on Sports Talk seven ninety
and also over at KPRC two is the Texans insider
Aaron Wilson joining us here on the show.

Speaker 5 (01:34:32):
Aaron, appreciate the time as.

Speaker 7 (01:34:33):
Always, Thanks great talking to you guys.

Speaker 6 (01:34:35):
Well jump on some of the things he said, including
the Ravens catching strays when we come back here on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:34:43):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:34:54):
Thanks again to Aaron Wilson for joining us last segment
giving some of his insights on to the twenty twenty
five Houston Texans. They will convene for training camp tomorrow
morning out at the training facility, and a lot to
look forward to this season. I think that offensive line
is definitely going to be under the microscope. Am I

(01:35:17):
crazy for getting low key very excited about a sort
of under the radar signing the Rockets made earlier today? No,
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:35:25):
I don't know how excited you are.

Speaker 3 (01:35:27):
I'm I would say, as the kids say, rafel Stone
has cooked this offseason. Joshua Koge can't hit a shot,
can't hit the broadside of a barn.

Speaker 5 (01:35:40):
So you're super excited? Sounds like, well fired up.

Speaker 3 (01:35:43):
What's the answer to that, Well, just don't let the
other Just don't let your opponent ever get a shot.

Speaker 5 (01:35:47):
Plus minus can be zero if they don't score either.

Speaker 3 (01:35:50):
I feel like they're going to be better defensively next year,
if that's possible.

Speaker 6 (01:35:54):
I may, can you describe the kind of player you'd
like to find to help this team that you've already
put together?

Speaker 5 (01:36:00):
You and rafel put together pretty well this offseason.

Speaker 6 (01:36:02):
Just kind of describe the attributes of this player, you
might find out they're on the free agent market. It
would be somewhere where the player would have the name
Josha Kogi. Those would be the assets that the player
would have back of his jersey. It will say, oh, Kogi,
and that's what we wanted. A player that we want
in free agency, screams E ma Udoka type player. A

(01:36:27):
get this guy off of me, defender, now you and.

Speaker 3 (01:36:31):
Not like Jose Alvarado. Get him off of me. This
is guy's legit seven foot weenod's like Jose Alvarado. Well,
I just the way you said it. I just wanted
to make sure that we weren't confusing the two types
of responses to what that defender is done.

Speaker 6 (01:36:45):
Defenses, man, you don't even belong in this league. I
understand why you have to try to play tricks on people.
Josha Cogi's defense is akin to players that are in
a very good team's rotation. Now, he wasn't in a
very good team's rotation at the end of the year
when he was part of a deal to send him
to Charlotte, but only to make the deal happen. Played
with Phoenix the last couple of years and started his
career in Minnesota, and he is somebody that when you

(01:37:08):
work through your rotation, you're playing different teams, they are
nights where you're going to want something from your bench.

Speaker 5 (01:37:15):
He's not gonna start for this team. He's not gonna
fill it up for this team.

Speaker 6 (01:37:17):
He's gonna hit one or two shots per game if
he's even in the rotation. And that's reality. If he's
even in the rotation. They're that deep. Still, they moved
on from two guys. They moved on from Dylan Brooks,
they moved on from Jalen Green. They've added Clint Capella,
They've added Kevin Durant, They've added Dorian Finney Smith, and

(01:37:38):
now they've added Josha Kogi. Everybody else that plugged a
hole last year, Jeff Green, Aaron Holliday, clearly, Steven Adams.
At different times, you could have said, this is a
player we're going to see tonight, tomorrow, the next game,
the next game, the next game.

Speaker 5 (01:37:52):
They're twelve. Did they need Josha Coogy?

Speaker 6 (01:37:55):
Absolutely not from our big picture perspective, But I think
they're just trying everything we need to do to give ourselves,
like fifteen insurance plans. Yep, they're gonna be Knights though,
where you're gonna want him out there and you'll see it.
He's a plus defensive player, someone very pest like but
also can be physical. I think there's a lot of

(01:38:16):
similarities to what the player brings to Jay Sean Tate.
Tate does it in a little bit bigger, slower body,
and a Koge brings it into a little slighter, quicker body.
But both wing defenders, both guys that I think have
worked on their shot. I don't really believe that Josha
Koge is a thirty five percent three point shooter for
who you got it is what he shot last year.

(01:38:38):
You know, jay Sean Tate similarly had his moments of
making a higher percentage. Their career numbers are probably pretty
on point, though, a Kobe's at twenty nine to nine
and Tate's at thirty point nine. And these are guys
that do not space the floor, that will be left open,
that will be begged by other teams to shoot threes
if they're out there. But you've just given yourselves this
roster a more flex ability, more opportunity to not be

(01:39:02):
damaged by injuries and the practices that we know about
from the first two years of email. Udoka will be
just as man that's harder than a game sometimes when
they're out there against the guys that they'll be practicing against.
But he absolutely struck me as a as an Emai
type of ad And they had options if you were
looking at different positions or maybe someone who handles a

(01:39:24):
little bit better and more of a you know, a
true say one or two guard, or even someone in
the front court. I know they signed Clint. I don't
think they're particularly bulky as a team. They're tall, wingspan,
and they've been an awesome rebounding team. And if they
were an offense awesome rebounding team and you moved on

(01:39:46):
from only Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks, you're probably going
to continue to be an awesome rebounding team because A
Men Jabbari Tari are all way big time plus human
rebounders YEA and clearly Opring Steve, and Steven's the greatest
offensive rebounder of this generation.

Speaker 3 (01:40:04):
He's the best guy since Moses Malone or Dennis Rodman.

Speaker 6 (01:40:09):
Honestly, he just doesn't look like those that's an offensive rebounder.
He has no equal in the current NBA.

Speaker 3 (01:40:14):
Right, and in today's NBA where it's just such a
different league than the one that those two guys, for example,
that I just mentioned played in, and in a league
where today on July twenty second, twenty twenty five, a
wing defender or just stocking up on wings, as Kendrick
Perkins put it when he saw the signing, it's probably.

Speaker 6 (01:40:35):
Drick Perkins said stocking up on wings well, and it
was a reference to basketball.

Speaker 3 (01:40:39):
I left myself open for that, as did he. He's
it's it's important, it's very very important in this in
this NBA to have a perimeter defender, to have a guy,
I mean, seven foot wingspan that's just always going to
get my attention as long as they know how to
use it.

Speaker 6 (01:40:55):
And he does put your arms out, well, putrans up, dude,
they can't defend with your hands out, Patranzop.

Speaker 3 (01:41:01):
There have been guys that haven't defended very well, that
have had the tools to God given tools to do so.
I just I don't know. I'm not sitting here saying
we're planning the parade. I just think they're very well
equipped to offset anything. Anybody else not named Oklahoma City
has done this season, and really, all Oklahoma City has
done is just spent money on the guys that carried

(01:41:22):
them to a championship. So there's no criticism there. I
don't know what people are expecting them to do otherwise,
we won the championship. We need here's what we need? Nothing, Yeah,
just pay the guys who got you there.

Speaker 9 (01:41:34):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:41:35):
I like the Rockets team on paper. Again, it's kind
of like the Texans offensive line. I won't know until
I see it, and it all has to work, but
I trust imay just because of what he's done in
the very short tenure, and if he wanted to go
get Josha Kogi, then I'm down.

Speaker 6 (01:41:47):
It allows you maybe to lean a little bit less
on Dori and Finney Smith potentially, not that he's ancient
and he's only on essentially a two year deal. It's
a four year deal, but two years guaranteed. Maybe that
that affords you the opportunity to do that. They definitely
have a roster that says, hey, if we don't want
to play Kevin Durant seventy five games this year, we
definitely don't have to, even if he's not hurt. If

(01:42:08):
we don't want to play Fred van Vliet seventy five
games this year. We don't have to. It's probably the
position they have the least depth at. But with Aaron
Holliday and Men Thompson and Read Shepherd, I'd certainly think
that is something they could do.

Speaker 5 (01:42:20):
But just run down the list real quick.

Speaker 6 (01:42:23):
Van Vliet amend, Kevin Durant, Alprin, Shinguon, Tarry Easton, Jabari
Smith Junior, Dorian Finney Smith, Stephen Adams, Read Shepherd, Aaron Holliday.
Now you get to Josha koge In, Clint Capella and
Jay Schantate and Jeff Green.

Speaker 3 (01:42:38):
I mean, this team tight rotation.

Speaker 6 (01:42:41):
There's got a lot of talent, and I think they're
veterans as we've seen for each of the years. They've
all been there specifically Jeff and Aaron and Jay Shawn
as well. They know what their role is. They're going
to put on their uniform. They're going to go through
layup lines. Jeff Green is going to sprint off the
court at the jump ball and come back in a
few minutes and they'll watch the game like we will.

Speaker 3 (01:43:02):
They'll just be wearing rockets, sweats, very expensive, comfortable.

Speaker 6 (01:43:07):
And then when needed Jeff will rise above the twenty
year olds that are defending him and dunk in their
face and it's going to be awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:43:13):
Or hit a fade away from the base like they
I just it. I know that it was not fast.
I know that it was a slow burn, if you will.
I just am impressed with how quick, relatively speaking, e
May's tenure has turned this into like a serious contender.
And that's why I was so mad about the way

(01:43:35):
last season ended. Why did it have to be them
and why did the Rockets have to make them look
like something they actually weren't, which was a championship content,
not even a championship contender, just a team that could
make noise in the postseason. I don't care about Jimmy Butler.
Jimmy Butler's thirty what six? When the season begins.

Speaker 6 (01:43:53):
I would be hard. I don't know how other people
see it. He's thirty six. Yes, May, they stepped thirty teams.
Four of them won a playoff series and nothing else.
I don't know what kind of noise that is. They
won a series.

Speaker 3 (01:44:05):
But the series they won was against the Rockets, who
I just thought were better than that, Even if it
was only the first year in the postseason, even if
Jalen was awful for a large part of the series
except for Game two, all that kind of stuff. I
just wanted the Rockets showing to be one of the
I wasn't asking for a championship and year one of
making the postseason far be it. But I just thought

(01:44:26):
that they would have a better showing than they did,
and taking the Warriors carcass to seven games was not
it for me. There's a lot of other teams they
probably could have played, and I know the West was
close where I feel like they would have fared better.

Speaker 6 (01:44:40):
So other than Memphis, I thought, well in the first round.
I think that's pretty clear for those that will listen
to this show.

Speaker 3 (01:44:47):
Okay, but that's two of the other three choices I
would have had.

Speaker 5 (01:44:52):
Well, so you know four or five would have been the.

Speaker 3 (01:44:54):
Other first round matchup out of those three that we mentioned, Warriors, Memphis, Lakers,
and who would have been us? Yeah, I guess those
were the two that play each other. I with the
Rockets defense, I take I take their I take my chances.

Speaker 6 (01:45:09):
I took my chances them against the Warriors. You've said
it in a roundabout way like a billion times since
the series. All accurate, they should not have lost that series.
That's what I'm really trying. They just did, that's all.
It's very unfortunate. Say what, We'll do that next.

Speaker 1 (01:45:25):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 17 (01:45:31):
This is Adam and Adam sweetly charged through mind barckling
moments that make you go what what what?

Speaker 10 (01:45:43):
Tag?

Speaker 9 (01:45:44):
What is there?

Speaker 7 (01:45:45):
What are you talking about?

Speaker 5 (01:45:46):
On a Tuesday?

Speaker 2 (01:45:48):
Way what odin?

Speaker 1 (01:45:49):
I did?

Speaker 13 (01:45:50):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:45:51):
Say what?

Speaker 3 (01:45:54):
All right, it's about that time our signature segment on
a Tuesday, where we go around the world of sports,
we find something that makes us say just that makes
us ask that question? Say what this one is? I
guess semi close to home and that it involves a
guy who has many, many fond memories in his career

(01:46:16):
here in Houston. That would be Justin Verlander. He is
no longer in Houston and he is not having very
fond memories in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 6 (01:46:23):
Yeah, the Wexler research team actually was doing some work
on Justin Verlander earlier this week.

Speaker 5 (01:46:29):
I'll tell you why after we hear the clip.

Speaker 3 (01:46:31):
Okay, so he's with the Giants now and they got
unceremoniously swept over the weekend by the Blue Jays, the
surging blue Jays, who the Astros all of a sudden
were trying to hold off, and then they passed them
in the American League. So the Blue Jays had their
way at Rogers Center at home against the visiting Giants

(01:46:56):
and at one point umpired Chad Whitson on Sunday, he
had made some calls that the Giants dugout, let's just say,
didn't really agree with. And then in the top of
the sixth inning, I guess Justin Verlander was one of

(01:47:16):
several people in the Giants dugout. Given wits in the business,
Witson had had enough and he ejected Justin Verlander. And
after ejecting Verlander from the game, he threw a little
verbal grenade at the future Hall of Famer. See if
you can make this out, we'll let you know what

(01:47:37):
he's actually saying here, But this is what it sounded like.

Speaker 2 (01:47:40):
Jed Witzon just tossed Botolping out.

Speaker 3 (01:47:46):
So if you can't make that out, and probably you couldn't,
he throws him out, and then he says to Verlander,
how about you worry about getting out of the third inning?

Speaker 6 (01:47:55):
Huh, Yeah, so you know this typical of an umpire
from a gesticulation. He's on the plate, he's made his
billiant awful call of the day. The dugout's been letting
him here it all afternoon, and so he looks over
and whoever he sees saying whatever they said again, he
thumbs him.

Speaker 5 (01:48:10):
He sends him out of the game.

Speaker 6 (01:48:11):
And then when the manager comes out to argue whether
he's been the one ejected or otherwise, he comes out
to say, what's up, Chad? And Chad takes his mask
off and heads over in that direction and says, what
you just heard ac repeat justin get out of here?
How about you worry about how about you worry about
getting out of the third inning?

Speaker 7 (01:48:29):
Huh? Justin.

Speaker 6 (01:48:30):
Verlander's last start during this very troubling season for him
was in this series, so Chad was there for it
at a different umpiring duty spot. He did not get
out of the third inning, gave up nine hits in
less than three innings of work, four runs, and he
saw his ERA sit at four ninety nine. We'll get

(01:48:51):
to the Verlander portion of it, because that really doesn't
have anything to do with this. Did you think umpires
were sensitive he probably did because they are overly sensitive
and now they're gathering ammunition from their off days behind
home plate, because when you're out in the field, it's
to me, it's an off day from criticism. You make

(01:49:12):
a bag call at second base, nobody really cares. They
review it and they fix it, or you move on.
You make a bag call at the bases, they review
it and they fix it. You miss fifteen calls and
Toronto's a plus one point six y nine runs from
the umpire's scorecard, umpire auditor, that's a pretty glaring day
of work. I don't know who's side to be on here.

(01:49:35):
I kind of think like he's a human being. He
watched the game. He had a great seat for the game.
He was paid to stand at first, second, or third
base and watch the Giants in Toronto play a baseball
game and make a few calls while he was there,
and Justin Verlander was awful. You couldn't get out of
the third inning for the latest time. So while he's
trying to do his own job a couple days later

(01:49:58):
behind home plate, he's not having a very good of it.
Justin on his off day where he gets a great view,
he's in the dugout all day. He knows he's not
gonna have to do anything else. He gets to watch
the game, He gets to watch the Blue Jays and Giants.
His ammunition is you stink you miss that one. Come on, Chad,
do something, do your job. I don't know what Justin said,

(01:50:18):
but I can imagine it with some of those things,
maybe with some colorful language. So you could just eject
him and go on. Or you can say, oh, this
guy's insulting me, why don't I insult him? To look
at his resume, Why don't I just throw it right
back at him. I can thumb him, and I can
send him to the showers, which I did, so he
can take his off day into an off day that
ended even earlier. He's not even in the game, well,

(01:50:41):
and I can insult him on top of it.

Speaker 3 (01:50:43):
What you're saying is absolutely true, because both these guys
have points. But it's a precedent. Like if an umpire
decides to mouth off with personal shots every time he
ejects insert player's name here, that's not a good look
for them. But Justin Verlander, you explained it perfectly. He

(01:51:06):
sucks this year, and he is the last guy to
be lobbing job performance complaints at another Major League Baseball
affiliated employee. You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (01:51:19):
Like, yeah, I mean I hear you.

Speaker 6 (01:51:21):
It does seem like no, no, no, no, no no, it
doesn't matter how you perform. If he's not performing, you're there,
You're in universe.

Speaker 3 (01:51:28):
Do you think was like, wait a second, I don't
staying at me.

Speaker 6 (01:51:33):
Now you've gotten to where everybody wants us to talk about.
I'm not taking it from you. Justin Verlander, you bum,
you stink. I'm not taking grief from you. Soon to
be Hall of Famer, Right, he's five years out. As
soon as he retires, he's soon to be in the
Hall of Fame. Is what he did before he became
a forty two year old broken down. I hardly make

(01:51:54):
starts for the Giants, and when I do, I'm awful. Yeah,
and it pains me because he was awesome here where
he's still a he just can't execute anymore. He knows
where the strike zone is. Yeah, Chad doesn't know where
the strike zone is, right, Totally fine to catch grief
from the last player on the roster.

Speaker 5 (01:52:10):
Anybody good batter.

Speaker 6 (01:52:11):
Otherwise, I don't think Justin's at all in the wrong
for being one of the many voices in the Giants dugout,
for telling him in the sixth inning five innings worth
an hour plus almost two hours maybe of constantly saying, dude,
not again.

Speaker 3 (01:52:27):
Come on.

Speaker 6 (01:52:27):
You know when Aaron Boone's getting ejected by this umpire
or this manager Scott Service years ago getting ejected by
that home played umpire, it's because of not again, Bob,
Not again, Angel.

Speaker 5 (01:52:40):
You did this to us last time.

Speaker 6 (01:52:42):
Angel, Like, it's not always coming from just today's work
you have.

Speaker 3 (01:52:47):
You're bad one. Angel's gone, so we don't have to
worry about that.

Speaker 6 (01:52:50):
That's why I used his name. I could have said, too, whoops.

Speaker 3 (01:52:53):
This is another situation that never happens. If the ABS
is there.

Speaker 6 (01:52:58):
It probably need to be full ABS for Whitson's game,
because you'd run out of challenges.

Speaker 3 (01:53:02):
I mean maybe just no, I'm saying ABS like in
its traditional sense, a robot's calling it, not any sort
of quote human element, although Justin probably would have talked
trash to the computer.

Speaker 6 (01:53:14):
I feed me he's doing a good job again. I
hope there's still back there in some capacity. We can't
trust technology.

Speaker 3 (01:53:20):
Right, Well, there was a few calls in the Seattle
series that were rough that went against the Astros. The
zone was apparently higher than it needed to be.

Speaker 6 (01:53:33):
The Astros got a third strike call with the bases
loaded on JP Crawford when mccullor's was on the mound, yep,
and it was awful, and the according to the scorecard
unofficial umpire scorecard Seattle was still very heavily on the
plus side of how the umpire played that game, how
he performed that day, Even with a huge momentum swinging

(01:53:53):
call like that to end an inning and send JP
Crawford their leadoff hitter of the bench, sometimes it works
out that way. There's a bunch of other things that
could have fit here today, but umpires insulting Hall of
famers felt like a good spot to hit you with.

Speaker 3 (01:54:08):
Say What.

Speaker 2 (01:54:10):
The age on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 18 (01:54:12):
Ninety so during Say What, xac Cole here with you,
we were talking about the player catching the business from
the umpire after the umpire rejected him.

Speaker 6 (01:54:25):
It was Justin Verlander. I told you the Wexler research
team was doing some work on JV. It's not very
fun work. It's very happy work. It's actually very mean work.
Justin's season this year for the San Francisco Giants personally
has produced zero victories. He's started sixteen games, he personally

(01:54:45):
has logged a w in none of them. They've won
four of his sixteen starts. In other words, the Giants
are absolutely awful. Twenty five percent of the games he
starts they win, absolutely awful. That'd be the worst team
in the league. And when he doesn't start well, they're
playoff team.

Speaker 5 (01:55:02):
Not his fault.

Speaker 6 (01:55:03):
He's not unbelievably bad. He's not even nearly as bad
as Zach Gallen. But he's been bad, but bad enough
that I actually had to felt compelled to look this up.
He's own eight he started sixteen games. What's the worst
or the most losses a his starting pitcher has had

(01:55:23):
at least fifteen starts in a season, meaning he was.

Speaker 5 (01:55:26):
A starter, most losses a pitcher has.

Speaker 6 (01:55:29):
Had without any wins, And if he gets two more
and doesn't win any games this year, the answer will
be him. Over the last fifty years, there's a couple.
There's two pitchers that have gone on nine as primarily
starting pitchers for the course of an individual season. He's
sitting at zero to eight now, probably worth noting we

(01:55:50):
would have done it if he was pitching here. His
last eight starts, one of those was the Giants win
just one, and the Giants busted out huge offensive display
that day back in May. They've put three runs on
the board, whoa, and Justin Verlander left the game after
allowing just two.

Speaker 5 (01:56:09):
They won. They won the game three too.

Speaker 6 (01:56:12):
The other outputs run totals they've scored while JV got
the start that day, they've scored one, two, two, two,
zero and zero with JV on the hill. Now, he's
been bad, so it's really not an excuse. It's just
a fact. When he's pitched, they just don't score. But

(01:56:32):
when he's pitched, he just doesn't usually pitch particularly well.
He's given up twelve runs this month. He has not
quite pitched twelve innings this month.

Speaker 3 (01:56:45):
What did you just say?

Speaker 6 (01:56:47):
Eleven to two thirds innings, pitch twelve earned runs. He's
actually given up fourteen overall.

Speaker 3 (01:56:50):
What is he? Lance mccullors, He's he's not having a
very good season.

Speaker 6 (01:56:54):
And I don't know that I knew he wasn't good.
I didn't think he would go over this season. And
we have two months of baseball left. But they're in
a race, they don't win. Whny pitches? Do you do
something else? Does he get taken out of the rotation
He's I don't think he's pitching in the majors next
year quite honestly.

Speaker 3 (01:57:15):
Yeah, that's I mean, are we talking about a DFA
situation for Justin Verlanders?

Speaker 5 (01:57:20):
Probably only if he no.

Speaker 6 (01:57:22):
I think he would just say if you if you
can't use me and I can't pitch here, he us walk.
I think he would unless he's, you know, one of
the old you know a player players, especially really really
talented Hall of Fame. It's really hard to face it.
And maybe he's like, dude, Wex doesn't know what he's
talking about. Whoever Wex is. I've had bad luck. I've

(01:57:42):
not executed the way I wanted to. I had to
get over a minor injury earlier in the season. I
know I can still pitch. I know I can still
throw strikes.

Speaker 3 (01:57:50):
I know I can still execute my pitches, and I
have enough gas in the tank I can get hitters
out and help the team I'm on when I'm not retiring,
when's he start doing it? And to further that question
back here at home, is lance In danger of that

(01:58:10):
if this keeps.

Speaker 5 (01:58:11):
Up, not to be DFA. No, I don't I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:58:14):
That's not even I don't think it's even an option
because he has a different excuse. Justin's excuse is not
an excuse. He's old, it's it he might not have
it anymore, and trending in that direction the last couple
of years pitching, even with Houston, clearly trending in that
direction when they brought him back and was already there

(01:58:34):
with the Mets right before that, Lance just came back
from injury that left him not pitching in any competitive games,
let alone Major League Baseball for a layoff that we
almost never see with anybody, like who are we comparing
Lance to? Like nobody? I mean, I hope we don't
have We're getting there, and it's it could be comparable.
At least he is back on the rehab circuit. But

(01:58:56):
that's that's where I would leave the ad. The Astros concern.
Can he help us win this year? Not is he
washed completely it's over for him, but it's a real
thing for this year twenty twenty five. Astros need someone
who can help them win games. I mean, Colton Gordon
is not a world beater by any means. He's giving
up a batting average still around three hundred. He's easy

(01:59:19):
to hit, but if he gets you five and two thirds,
he allows your bullpen to have somewhat of we didn't
have to burn them all day. That's useful. Lance has
to have useful starts. He certainly can. He's had several
of those. They just haven't been his recent starts. Last
two starts have been astro killers, and you can't with

(01:59:39):
two months to go, with sixty games to go, you
can't afford those very often. They don't have any other options.
He's been helped by that. But as soon as and
I think Araghetti and Javier are quite clearly the closest
and probably only two rehab starts away. If that in
both of their cases, and a change would be made.
If they had to go into the minor leagues, they
absolutely could already given aj blue ball one start. Lola

(02:00:03):
is at least is highly thought of as him. They
might not want to get him up here to do that,
but Jason Alexander is still pitching for the Space Cowboys.
They have some very not pleasing options, but they're not empty.

Speaker 3 (02:00:18):
I guess I'm just trying to figure out, Like I
think the pitching in a weird way is going to
end up being a whole lot more in better shape
than the position players when all of a sudden done.
And that's a lot to weed through, I realize, like
with a with a very very sharp machete. I mean,
there's so much, but the types of injuries to the

(02:00:43):
position players are just so much more question marks, so
much more time is maybe needed, even if it's the
best case scenario, whereas the pitchers, they might not be
stretched out, they might not be where you want them
to be, but they're like the trajectory has never there's
not been any setbacks, let's put it that way.

Speaker 6 (02:00:59):
Well, we also aren't considering the obvious. How about how
they pitch Erica, he's gonna be healthy in two weeks?
Is going to be healthy in two weeks? Are we
sure they're about that pitch? Well, well, yeah, I am.

Speaker 3 (02:01:09):
I think if they're healthy, I just don't worry about
the And I don't even worry about the position players
because I know what they are when they're healthy, or
at least this year, but I just I don't know yet.

Speaker 6 (02:01:20):
He made two starts this year. Which one do you like?
Because one of them you can like. I don't even
the other one you're gonna hate.

Speaker 3 (02:01:26):
I honestly don't remember.

Speaker 5 (02:01:27):
Well.

Speaker 6 (02:01:28):
He gave up one hit in his debut this year
against the Mets. He threw a one hitter over six
innings and obviously the Astros crushed They won two to one.
His second start five six days later, I believe I
gave up five runs and three and two thirds and
they had to pull him early again. Jenny got hit
on the head with a batted ball in BP. Who
was he throwing the first road trip?

Speaker 3 (02:01:50):
That doesn't instill a lot of confidence.

Speaker 6 (02:01:52):
Oh interes saying there's not much to go on. The
only other you have to go on, clearly was his
rookie season.

Speaker 3 (02:01:57):
But I can't. That's the thing I can't. I know
there is a happy medium between you know, having a
book on a guy versus never seeing him, and you know,
newness and all that kind of stuff, the stuff that
he had, the poise that he displayed as a rookie,
everything about him just screams confidence. And this guy's going

(02:02:18):
to be Like Chandler and I were talk about him
all the time last year and Chandler was very very reserved,
very cautious, and I was like, I think he looks great,
but you know, I'm me. I don't worry about that though.
He gets healthy. But why isn't he healthy? That's the
one guy currently healthy. Yeah, but what was the setback?

(02:02:39):
I guess is what I wanted to know. I'm not
aware of any setback. Well, then why did it take
so long to heal that beat?

Speaker 9 (02:02:44):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (02:02:45):
That's okay, So if it's not a setback, it's at
least quirky. Five o'clock hour and football at five on
the eve of Texans training camp twenty twenty five is next.

Speaker 2 (02:02:56):
The ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:03:01):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the eighty.

Speaker 3 (02:03:15):
It's straight out five o'clock on July twenty second. Training
camp begins tomorrow. All right, we talked about c J. Stroud,
We talked about where he belongs on list. We talked
about the offensive line, what it looks like on paper,
what it could like look like on the field. We've
even talked a little bit about, you know, what the
Texans did in the draft. From a stockpiling receivers standpoint,

(02:03:39):
If I take all of those away, and you're walking
into training camp tomorrow morning at eight thirty seven.

Speaker 6 (02:03:47):
Maybe seven minutes into Nick Cassio's meeting at earlier.

Speaker 3 (02:03:52):
That's right, you're gonna get there at six am, aren't.
You're gonna get there.

Speaker 6 (02:03:54):
You're gonna want to see over there once today to
take the picture so I could post it on social media.

Speaker 3 (02:03:58):
Remember, yeah, I know, it's what I told everybody.

Speaker 6 (02:04:00):
It was actually taken on July twenty second, twenty twenty.

Speaker 3 (02:04:05):
Four, and you went back exactly one year.

Speaker 5 (02:04:09):
It just happened to be that's where it was.

Speaker 6 (02:04:10):
I knew I had a picture of training camp in
my phone, and so I went and found it, and
that's the day it happened to be.

Speaker 5 (02:04:14):
What So if I went to training camp at.

Speaker 6 (02:04:17):
A reasonable time tomorrow morning, Yeah, what were we gonna ask?

Speaker 3 (02:04:19):
And after you talk to Nick, which he didn't, he
didn't say anything, Probably what are you? What are you
looking at? Outside of those, those are the obvious storylines, I.

Speaker 5 (02:04:31):
Mean, as boring as it is.

Speaker 6 (02:04:32):
Attendance is always something of some consequence, and who's working
out on the side fields and how they plan on
getting players up to speed. First game September seventh. Tomorrow's
July twenty third. There's still a ton of time before
they play the Los Angeles Chargers, other team in LA
they play the LA Rams open in the season. I
still didn't get it right, even though I got the

(02:04:53):
city right. So those things do matter, and it might
not be of great importance to everybody else. But who's there,
who's not there if there's a reason, there shouldn't be
any reason for a player not to be there due
to unhappiness. They're not like the Cowboys. They're not like
the Bengals. They're not like the Bills, who are all
dealing with things along those lines unhappy players. They may

(02:05:13):
have some unhappy players, but not to the point that
they won't be there because of it. Any player not
participating tomorrow or not attending, and I do think they're
two different things. I don't know anyone that's not gonna
be there if you're not participating, that's another story. We
talked to Aaron about that, and so I'll keep an
eye on what it looks like in the backfield. Considering,
you know, Nick Chubb signed and was immediately the best

(02:05:36):
player they have in their group because Joe Mixon and
Damian Pierce weren't practicing. They didn't participate in their offseason
work due to injury. And we'll see how that progresses
for those two and for obviously the role Nick Chubb,
because we don't we're not gonna talk about it much
because it's a reserve role. I'm not really sure how
Damian Pierce makes this team, to be honest with you,
Daria gunbaldarre A Goombal Wale probably does. If a Gumba

(02:06:00):
Wally makes it, and Joe Mixon makes it and Nick
Chubb makes it, you're carrying four running backs. Those four
running backs after drafting Woody Marks, I mean, there'd have
to be some interesting circumstances for that to happen. So
I'll be curious to see what he looks like health wise,
if you can participate all the way through camp, but
specifically to tomorrow, I do want to see what they look.

Speaker 3 (02:06:23):
Like when they kind of without pads. Remember that's all
it is. Tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (02:06:27):
You know what they look like with a full complement
of defensive players. We've had different players in and out
over the off season, and CJ. Gardner Johnson does change
this defense a little bit, you know, going from Jimmy
Ward and a combination of Ward and Eric Murray's finalizing
things with Petrie last year at the beginning of the year.
Then he's your slot corner, your third safety, but then

(02:06:48):
playing so much of the season without him, Petrie Stingley,
Las Year, Kayln Bilock, CJ.

Speaker 3 (02:06:54):
Gardner Johnson. If they get seventeen starts out of those guys,
forget it. Rest of the life league, it's over. This
position group could absolutely be the number one position group
in the NFL.

Speaker 6 (02:07:06):
I think they start the season with that thought personally,
and I guarantee you CJ. Gardner Johnson is telling everybody
about it.

Speaker 7 (02:07:13):
You know.

Speaker 6 (02:07:13):
CJ has been on a couple of different teams where
he likes to believe in Look what happened after I
got here, Look what this team did with me on it.
And I think he brings that same attitude here. This
is a really good team. This is a ten win
team or eleven win team. It's a playoff team. It's
a division winning team. We've won playoff games the last
two years. Yeah, but nothing has changed. Who thinks the

(02:07:35):
Texans are going to win a second playoff game this year?

Speaker 5 (02:07:37):
He does.

Speaker 6 (02:07:38):
Players inside the clubhouse locker room will, but I don't
know that people outside think that they will because are
they better than the other three teams?

Speaker 9 (02:07:46):
Yet?

Speaker 3 (02:07:50):
Just hold that thought. Since we're here in the middle
of football at five, Alance mccullors junior placed on the
injured list with a blister on his right finger. Nick
Hernandez has been called up to take his spot on
the active roster.

Speaker 6 (02:08:06):
So it just means they will have to figure out
if tbd'd tomorrow's game. From the onset of the All
Star Break, had not made an announcement on what they
were going to do with that spot. Ryan Gusto pitched
twice out of the All Star Break and on back
to back days for the first time. Lance mccullors junior
made his shot start as short as it was and

(02:08:27):
now for a second time this year, non elbow or
shoulder related injury. It's a pitching related injury. A blister
on your pitching hand makes it very difficult to pitch.
And it's probably not something they were unaware of before today,
Probably something that you know, they said, he might have known.
I need to keep an eye on this and as

(02:08:48):
I go through my in between starts routine.

Speaker 5 (02:08:52):
We need to keep an eye on this.

Speaker 6 (02:08:53):
But they made that announcement with their game notes released today,
and Nick Hernandez has bounced up and down this team
now for two years. He's unhittable in the minor leagues
and he's extremely hittable in the major leagues. This is
a short term. It actually helps them out in the
super duper short term because they've added a bullpen arm,
which they Lance mccullor's wasn't pitching tonight. Y Hernandez clearly

(02:09:16):
can and they have been using bullpen arms very very quickly.

Speaker 3 (02:09:21):
Not even a shot at Lance mcculler's junior so much
as it's just can we just go a week? Just
a week. I'm not even asking for like a month,
just a week where we don't have aun injury for
the Houston Astros like they've served their time.

Speaker 6 (02:09:37):
Man, Well, let's give you the full update here at
Football at five since we haven't and it's breaking news
on all of that. The daily game Notes or weekly
game notes update on the rehabbing Astros. Spencer Araghedtty, JP France,
Luis Garcia, Christian Javier all have made recent rehab related
starts and all are moving on to make another one

(02:09:59):
other than he's gonna pitch with Corpus Christy again this week.
Jp Frantz off of his FCL work back on Today's Tuesday,
Monday yesterday, he will pitch for Corpus Christy this week.
Luis Garcia pitched for Fayetteville last week, he'll pitch for
Corpus this week this week.

Speaker 5 (02:10:17):
And Christian Xavier, who pitched for Corpus.

Speaker 6 (02:10:19):
Back on the eighteenth, so he should be scheduled to
start probably, I would guess Thursday, possibly Wednesday, sugar Land.
They will have the work for Christian Javier, each of
them not apparently, I'm taking their typed words for this.
There wouldn't appear to be any setbacks from any of them,
no soreness that prevents them from starting again on a

(02:10:41):
somewhat regular rotation, all four of those pitchers, and that
would be I would consider that extremely good news. Jordan
Alvarez just going through a hitting progression. Jake Myers rehabbing
in Houston, Jeremy Paania hitting running, throwing progression, that's really
no different than his last update. He's in Florida, which
live BP for Sean Dubin. That is new news and

(02:11:04):
good news. Hopefully he doesn't have any setbacks because he
was dealing with a right forearm strain, the sometimes precursor
to much more significant arm or elbow surgery.

Speaker 5 (02:11:15):
Hopefully that's not the case.

Speaker 6 (02:11:17):
Last week, Brendan Rodgers went on a rehab assignment with
the Sugarland Space Cowboys. It lasted two at bats and
two innings because he got run over by the shortstop
on a ball that was hit just to the opposite
side of second base. Suffered a concussion and nasal fracture,
so he was actually extended. He went to the sixty
day IL to open a roster spot because they obviously

(02:11:38):
had some forty man issues. Long been out, Zach Decenzo,
don't forget about me, Zach Decenzo. Running and throwing still
not progressed to hitting yet. That hand injury that he had,
those are the ones that I guess, Jeremy are. Jacob
Melton also not moving along very quickly, and when he
was hurt, the indications where it would not move along

(02:12:00):
very quickly. Just a hitting, running and throwing progression in Florida.
So Lancemerc Collers Junior, if you missed that just a
couple of minutes ago, the Astros announced he is il
bound fifteen day il right finger blister's retro to his
last outing.

Speaker 3 (02:12:15):
Even when he's back, it's a nightmare.

Speaker 5 (02:12:18):
It's been a nightmare pitching, and it's been a nightmare.

Speaker 6 (02:12:20):
And that this is now well, he spent time on
the ile when the year began because he had not
yet come off, and now this is the second time
he's had to go back on for two different unrelated injuries.
And I hope espot A. I wonder if he has
an answer tonight for who starts tomorrow's day game.

Speaker 3 (02:12:38):
Quick turnaround. I hope the bullpen doesn't get Friday tonight,
although it won't because Frober. I say that, but Fromber's
usually reliable for at least six innings.

Speaker 6 (02:12:48):
I mean, I do hope the bullpen doesn't catch over
use again tonight be the third time in four games.
Even if they don't, the bullpen's getting fifteen outs tomorrow,
twelve in them. I mean, yeah, who's who's throwing? Who's
getting more than eighteen outs that they can get aj
Blueball's not getting more than eighteen out.

Speaker 3 (02:13:07):
The Rays have an opener, they can loan the Astros.

Speaker 6 (02:13:10):
You can choose to go with an opener. It doesn't
make things any better, I know. I mean, unless somebody's
pitching extended innings and they do not have a long man.
Unless they've somehow feel like they've given Ryan Gusto enough
rest since his last one inning outing to close out the.

Speaker 5 (02:13:24):
How many pitches do you throw? He threw sixteen pitches.

Speaker 6 (02:13:27):
That's not that much, but he threw pitches the day before,
and he's not he doesn't how many. It's the first
time he's thrown in back to back games his entire
major league career.

Speaker 3 (02:13:35):
I know he has a future. Let's keep an eye
on that. I know, but he was starting games. I
think he's stretched out. In an emergency situation like this,
he can give you three innings four innings tops. Okay,
let's do that.

Speaker 6 (02:13:47):
He's fully healthy or feels fully recovered from pitching in
back to back games, I thought, I think this is
more of a and I'd have to look. I know
Alexander recently started. I just can't remember the day. I
know blue ball was a couple of days ago, but tomorrow.
I'm not sure who they really have at their disposal.
I've never but otherwise you were giving the ball to

(02:14:09):
Lance not to be mean.

Speaker 3 (02:14:13):
Isn't the next logical step for him the bullpen? At
this point, I don't know what it is. It's next
logical step is not pitching him? Oh that's that's the
next best thing.

Speaker 6 (02:14:25):
He said it, Dana said it. And even those circumstances
are a little bit different. They never pegged him for
a bullpen arm. They never thought he would be coming
back to be used out of the bullpen, and after
pitching unsuccessfully potentially and going through multiple injuries which keeps
him he's not gonna throw pitches for fifteen days probably
or for some period of time. He's even ready when
he comes when the fifteen days expires, Now you're gonna

(02:14:47):
put him in the bullpen with the arm trouble that
he's had.

Speaker 3 (02:14:49):
I've never seen anything like this. We'll continue to discuss
here on a Tuesday edition of the show.

Speaker 1 (02:14:55):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:15:07):
I don't know anymore, man, all right, So where was I?

Speaker 5 (02:15:11):
So the Texans will be a training camper?

Speaker 10 (02:15:13):
No?

Speaker 3 (02:15:14):
I mean, it's like, I'm not even I'm not sitting
here saying but Lance mccullors has a blister on his finger,
and that's taking the wind out of training camp. That's
not what I'm saying. I'm just so tired of it, Like,
can we go? Can we go a freaking week without
anybody involved in the Astros organization getting hurt? I feel
like the next thing is gonna be like like like they.

Speaker 6 (02:15:36):
Have barely played more games post All Star Break than
have had players hurt.

Speaker 5 (02:15:41):
They're at four to three right now.

Speaker 6 (02:15:43):
Yeah, they've played four games and three players have gotten hurt.
Zach Short missed the game because it got hit by
a pitch of the ribs. Esak Peretis will miss a
series of games after he came up lame running to
first and a Lance mcculler's junior after making his appearance
post All Star Break, will miss multiple turns in the rotation.

Speaker 3 (02:16:01):
Hey, it's only five o'clock, man, and it's a late game.
There's still time to even this out.

Speaker 6 (02:16:06):
It's so the only way to even it out is
they need two injuries in tonight's game five and five.

Speaker 5 (02:16:11):
It's not happening.

Speaker 3 (02:16:12):
They'll be oh really, twenty hold my beer.

Speaker 6 (02:16:15):
M M.

Speaker 3 (02:16:16):
They're gonna play a full game tonight, sands injury. I'm
gonna start calling injuries. I'm gonna go reverse psychology on
this sports karma that we're dealing with. You don't scare
me sports karma. I'm like Kevin McCallister coming out of
the house before he runs into old Man Marley again.

Speaker 5 (02:16:31):
I'm not afraid anymore.

Speaker 3 (02:16:33):
That's Astros fans. Every time the guys go out on
the field for a game, well, who's it gonna be tonight? Like,
we weren't even playing when this happened. The team wasn't.

Speaker 5 (02:16:42):
Even playing, but he got hurt playing.

Speaker 3 (02:16:46):
How long do you think they've been holding this information
on the blister to wait for the exactly right time Saturday.
So he's had this blister for a while, right, if.

Speaker 6 (02:16:55):
It was I assume it wasn't bothering in pre All
Star break, but I don't know that.

Speaker 3 (02:16:59):
And I'm this is not a taking a shot at
the Astros medical staff. I'm just I honestly, at this point,
would it surprise you if the powers that be sat
around and said, when can we release this information where
there would be the least amount of wailing and gnashing
of teeth by the fan base who is so sick
and freaking tired of dealing with injuries.

Speaker 6 (02:17:18):
I mean they needed to do it strategically because it
gives them and I talked about it last segment.

Speaker 5 (02:17:24):
It's a good thing for them. No, this is actually
a thing for Lance.

Speaker 6 (02:17:27):
But you would never sit on this and say, I'd
like to carry this pitcher that's not pitching today for
as many days as possible while our bullpen arms are
on fumes right now.

Speaker 5 (02:17:35):
But you gotta give me an extra bullpen arm.

Speaker 3 (02:17:38):
I'm not sitting here saying, ah, well, I can't expect
to have injuries. It's sports. Why would I want that.
I get it. It's a part of the business. It
happens every year. It happens to this team every year.
But does it happen this much to this team all
the time? No, it's just insane.

Speaker 6 (02:17:53):
Seventeen players on the injured list for the Astros, with
the addition of Parentis and mccullors. During the week the
eighteenth was Jason Alexander's last appearance for sugar Land. It
would put him on short four days of rest if
they flew him to Arizona to start tomorrow's game.

Speaker 3 (02:18:09):
Wouldn't be the first guy that flew to this road
trip and then made a start that night. Well, in
his case, it might be who was it that flu
on the other day?

Speaker 6 (02:18:19):
Short he was there, but Chaz joined them for this trip.

Speaker 3 (02:18:23):
I feel like somebody flew in the morning of that
game to play that night and it was the Seattle finale.
Who am I thinking of?

Speaker 7 (02:18:32):
Oh God?

Speaker 6 (02:18:32):
I mean Fretis went on the il. So who joined
the team in his place? I can't remember Shay Witcomb.
It was Shay Wickham.

Speaker 3 (02:18:39):
That's who they were talking about during the Bronco and
that was an earlier start because it was a day game.

Speaker 6 (02:18:45):
And then he chased down Cooper Hummel. We didn't even
talk about that. It was one of the plays of
this season. That was fun. Chased out a runner and
then what's the call when you go into home plate?
Hants first slid into home plate, avoided the Mitch Garver tag.

Speaker 5 (02:19:01):
Garver was like, what's what's happening?

Speaker 3 (02:19:03):
He was like the matrix.

Speaker 6 (02:19:04):
He's like, who do I tag? What do I do?
How about nobody? That was like, uh, who was the pitcher?
Colin Farrell, No Price, m McHugh that did the matrix
and they made a bobblehead out of it.

Speaker 5 (02:19:17):
Yeah, he was very Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:19:18):
I looked for I look forward to shay Wickcamb's avoiding
the tag slide at home plate Bobblehead Night in twenty
twenty six.

Speaker 5 (02:19:25):
Really gonna be a high in demand item there.

Speaker 3 (02:19:29):
That was seriously like I got I texted somebody in
the organization about this, and their response was simply, dog dawg,
like I got nothing? Are you kidding me? Just right
back at me.

Speaker 6 (02:19:43):
They're gonna eat the injuries this year. It's gonna happen.
It's it's clearly happening on a daily basis. Almost maybe
it's it's good news for the future.

Speaker 5 (02:19:51):
We won't even out. You're not for me.

Speaker 6 (02:19:55):
Back to back seasons of an overwhelming number of injuries,
all while they're winning, All while they're back five games
up on Seattle. The Astros are throwing from ber Valdez
in a game tonight against a team that's under five hundred.
Mariners are playing the hottest team in baseball, and they're
facing the Brewers all star pitcher, all twenty five innings

(02:20:15):
worth of Jacob Mizerowski.

Speaker 7 (02:20:18):
That guy.

Speaker 5 (02:20:18):
But maybe it'll work out again and.

Speaker 6 (02:20:20):
The Astros will be heading into tomorrow's day game, which
boots us off the air. Unfortunately, by the way love
Astros baseball, but we also like yubriyabbering about sports and
Texans training camp and Astros baseball and Joshua Koge and
tomorrow that will be taken away from you.

Speaker 7 (02:20:36):
Guys, just one.

Speaker 3 (02:20:37):
Hundred and thirty pounds soaking wet going against the Seattle
Mariners tonight. By the way, you have no one to
blame but yourselves. If you don't win the division this year, Seattle,
you couldn't stave off or you couldn't overcome. I should say, well,
first you couldn't stave off, and then you couldn't overcome.
The Sugarland Space Cowboys. I know you don't like that.
I call them that, but that's who they are right now.

(02:20:58):
Half the lineups from sugar Land. That's those are facts
half the line So now one of their pictures is
from sugar Land because Lance went on the il. Another
sugar Land space cowboy. What would we do? What if
they weren't in sugar Land. I know they're on the
road right now, but have you ever thought about that?
What if they were still in Fresno? The Grizzlies, the
Astros Triple Afield. It's a longer flight than the twenty

(02:21:20):
thirty minute drive to sugar Land in Constellation.

Speaker 6 (02:21:23):
I think they'll they'll take their chances that. Well, we're
playing eighty one games here in Houston. We got another
seven in Arlington, so having sugar Land right there is
probably not so bad for US.

Speaker 3 (02:21:32):
Fresno is actually closer to Arizona than sugar Land technically
right now it is.

Speaker 6 (02:21:37):
I I'm correct in thinking it's in California at least?

Speaker 7 (02:21:40):
Is that alright?

Speaker 9 (02:21:41):
Is that?

Speaker 7 (02:21:41):
I believe?

Speaker 3 (02:21:41):
So good? Bakersfield and places like that where Dave Carr's from.
He went to fres and Derek both retired NFL quarterbacks.
What are you gonna start calling Derek nothing? And why
would he come up again?

Speaker 2 (02:21:55):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (02:21:56):
What if he's on NFL network like his brother? No way,
why is Dave on NFL network? He needed something to do? Well,
I'm sure he did, we all do, but you don't
get stellar analysis from him.

Speaker 6 (02:22:08):
All right, Well, we'll do the car as solid because
we did this for another exceptionally famous Texans NFL brother
duo and their earnings, the Watson No offense to Derek,
who also made money as an NFL player. Do you
think there's a chance even though Dave was the number
one overall pick in the draft. Do you think there's

(02:22:29):
a chance that younger brother, second round pick Derek Carr
made more NFL money than older brother Dave. Chance he
made a little bit more with his careers and bounds more.
The Texans paid Dave an ungodly sum of money for
his five seasons.

Speaker 3 (02:22:50):
There, No, he stole an ungodly amount of money from
Bob McNair.

Speaker 18 (02:22:54):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (02:22:55):
The not crazy super to the penny accurate number that
you'll see from our runs over at Spas Track, forty
million dollars. That's those are the career earnings for number
one overall pick, Houston Texans legend.

Speaker 3 (02:23:11):
Stop it, Dave Carr. Hopefully he invested it.

Speaker 9 (02:23:13):
Well.

Speaker 6 (02:23:14):
How much money did Derek Carr make in his last
season last year?

Speaker 3 (02:23:21):
Fifty thirty?

Speaker 6 (02:23:22):
Okay, so he was one year had he not retired,
although I think he actually gets some of this money.
He's basically a two hundred million dollar earner. What five
times the money? What year was Derek's first in the
NFL twenty fourteen when Xavier Sophila was playing for the
Texans instead.

Speaker 5 (02:23:39):
Of him, because they're afraid.

Speaker 3 (02:23:41):
Of drafting another and They traded up for him, didn't they?

Speaker 6 (02:23:44):
They were right near each other in the second round.

Speaker 3 (02:23:45):
Who was the one out of a Notre Dame they
traded up for Lou Knicks.

Speaker 5 (02:23:51):
He passed, but yes, was the one lineman?

Speaker 3 (02:23:54):
He was a tackle, wasn't he?

Speaker 5 (02:23:55):
Lewis Knicks interior defensive lineman.

Speaker 3 (02:23:57):
And they traded up to get him.

Speaker 6 (02:23:59):
I believe that to be true.

Speaker 3 (02:24:02):
I can't remember.

Speaker 5 (02:24:03):
I mean, that sounds right that they traded twenty fourteen.

Speaker 3 (02:24:05):
That was the draft.

Speaker 6 (02:24:06):
I not doubting a moment of it. This is the
years I beg out of all of them in terms
of accuracy.

Speaker 3 (02:24:13):
Davian Clown was number one. Khalil Mack was number five,
maybe to the Bears. No I thought Khalil Mack was
drafted by the Bears.

Speaker 6 (02:24:26):
Very important stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:24:27):
But yeah, that doesn't surprise me at all that in
nearly one season he made more than his brother's entire
career when his brother was drafted and O two.

Speaker 5 (02:24:34):
And again they're very twelve years apart.

Speaker 3 (02:24:35):
If Derek and TJ were that or if JJ and
TJ were that far apart, TJ.

Speaker 6 (02:24:40):
Would make ten times as much as JJ. Practically now,
Michael Parsons got into that conversation a little bit.

Speaker 5 (02:24:46):
Today he was at Cowboys camp.

Speaker 6 (02:24:48):
They had gotten under way, probably two fun stories about
Cowboys Camp. He and Trayvon Diggs did a partnered up
interview at practice today. Talked about why he was there.
Trayvon talked about why he was there, the energy, all sorts.

Speaker 3 (02:25:00):
Of good style. Both of them talked about how much
they love Jerry.

Speaker 6 (02:25:02):
We may just in fact give you some of that
audios we continue, but also noteworthy that this was day
one of practice. They've just gotten there and are they're
about to be there, and you know what you might
have seen. You know, our friends over at the Worldwide
Leader had some had some oops moments about us, that
training camp going on.

Speaker 3 (02:25:21):
So it doesn't surprise me.

Speaker 6 (02:25:23):
It doesn't take much to get it figured out. And
you run a what presumably as a reputable television program,
you probably shouldn't make mistakes like that, but they happen
from time to time. We got in case you missed it,
those items and others coming your way next.

Speaker 1 (02:25:38):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:25:46):
Before we go any further, wex have you noticed an
uptick in the amount of trolling Matt Thomas has done
towards our show and specifically me of late.

Speaker 6 (02:25:56):
In case you missed it, Matt Thomas has been trolling
our show and Adam Clinton in particular of late.

Speaker 3 (02:26:02):
Tanya Harding randomly about an hour ago, tweeted the following,
my name is Tanya, what's yours? Matt Thomas, who you
can follow at sports MT, replied with, my name is
at Adam Clanton? What do you think? I replied with
just now during the break.

Speaker 5 (02:26:22):
I haven't the foggiest well.

Speaker 3 (02:26:24):
I attached a gift and then I wrote in all caps,
why why? How's my Nancy Carrigan impression?

Speaker 6 (02:26:34):
I think she's going with consistency surrounded by success.

Speaker 5 (02:26:39):
So that was one hour ago.

Speaker 3 (02:26:41):
Roughly, she posted on the X platforms like celebrity fights
and stuff.

Speaker 5 (02:26:46):
My name is Tanya, what's yours?

Speaker 6 (02:26:48):
By the way, her handle is It's Tanya Harding, but
she felt compelled to post my name is Tanya, What's yours?
Her last post on the X platform May nineteen of
this year, what was it? My name is Tanya Harding?
And the fools that we are here in America gave
her one point one million views on that. I can

(02:27:09):
only imagine the nine hundred and thirty comments are pure brilliance.
My name is Tiffany Fonk. Welcome to Hell, Tanya, and
my name is Heidi. My name is Joe Exotic. The
world needed this. My name is Robert Paulson.

Speaker 3 (02:27:22):
Did anybody respond with.

Speaker 6 (02:27:27):
Ug with a gift of someone?

Speaker 5 (02:27:30):
By the way, help me. You can call me Ron Mexico.

Speaker 6 (02:27:35):
Nice to meet you. My name is Luke log Off. Finally, howdy, neighbor?

Speaker 3 (02:27:39):
I Tanya? Really Tanya Harding? Why trash? Tanya Harding? To
her because she got Margot Robbie to play her in
a film? She did?

Speaker 5 (02:27:51):
They did?

Speaker 3 (02:27:52):
Yeah, but she didn't deserve that. First of all, she's
not hot like that. Secondly, she tried to have her
opponent clubbed death okay, maimed, hit maimed.

Speaker 6 (02:28:06):
Alva says, I remember you. You hired your boyfriend break
there Nancy Kerrigan's leg because you were afraid she should
beat you in figure skate, one of my earliest sports memories.

Speaker 3 (02:28:15):
Nineteen ninety four, February.

Speaker 6 (02:28:19):
That's nice, honey. Can you find out where on your
rings are? And I'll have another bud light?

Speaker 3 (02:28:24):
Did you ever watch it, Tanya? I've seen enough of
it to see how badly. Alice and Janny treated her
Margot Robbie even as Tanya Harding Smoke Show.

Speaker 6 (02:28:37):
Yeah, of course, well it's still Margo. It's not like
she's her face.

Speaker 3 (02:28:42):
And how about the fact that after all was sudden done.
I think Tanya she got disqualified or whatever, and Nancy
was silver because won the gold, and so they take
her to Disneyland or whatever or Disney World, and she's
in that parade, and it turns out she's as much
of a scumbag personality as Tanya.

Speaker 6 (02:29:00):
In case you missed it, Joe Spot had joined the
Matt Thomas Show earlier and indicated there would be some
lineup changes tonight, with Janer Diaz sliding back behind the plate,
which he did.

Speaker 5 (02:29:10):
You gotta left you on the mound.

Speaker 6 (02:29:11):
Victor Kartini will sit out this one, at least from
a starting lineup standpoint, but be available switch hitter off
the bench. Cam Smith, Jose Altuove, Christian Walker bat's third,
and Yaner Diaz is doing the catching. Mentioned that Altuve
was again not playing second base. He's the dh Chas
McCormick off of his infield single and bunt single is

(02:29:33):
batting fifth. He's your center fielder Bryce Matthews off of
his two homer game. Now that he's been with the
Astros for five minutes, he's batting sixth. Murraic Dubon is
playing third base, and he is batting seventh, Cooper Hummels
and left. And your shortstop, of course is Zach short.

Speaker 3 (02:29:50):
Hey, did you mention that Christian Walker was batting third?
Is that what you said?

Speaker 9 (02:29:55):
He?

Speaker 6 (02:29:55):
You say, you know, I did mention that, and I
will have the research team put together some data even
if it doesn't become a bigger sample size.

Speaker 3 (02:30:04):
So he's not batting.

Speaker 6 (02:30:04):
I ripped him batting forth again for like the nine
hundredth time, and did it on social media with all
sorts of numbers.

Speaker 3 (02:30:11):
Behind it and here, because I was there and.

Speaker 6 (02:30:13):
Said I would pretty much never bat him forth under
any circumstances moving forward, even though the circumstances are ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (02:30:18):
I get Joe.

Speaker 5 (02:30:19):
I understand why he's doing it.

Speaker 6 (02:30:20):
And then he batted him forth for a couple of games,
and he produced in both games.

Speaker 5 (02:30:24):
So we'll we'll see if he continues.

Speaker 3 (02:30:27):
He's batting third, So therefore he has his own two
home run two home run game confirmed for tonight.

Speaker 5 (02:30:33):
We can't have Christian Walker batting forth? How does he
not have these numbers? Watch this?

Speaker 6 (02:30:38):
Yaner Diaz in his exact same season is batting forth tonight.
We actually have some items that need some addressing here
on the show, Cole, what do we have?

Speaker 19 (02:30:46):
So we got previewed it just a little bit ago. Uh,
Cowboys start camp today. And minus the fact that first
take the side to show a video of who was
it Brandon Cook's catching a touchdown pass, there were some holdouts.

Speaker 6 (02:30:59):
Let me let me since you brought it up, so
you don't have to revisit it. First take decided to
talk about George Pickens new receiving target for Dak Prescott,
and then they went to the video. Here's Dak finding
him one of the first passes of training camp here,
as Cole mentioned, it was actually a pass from Dak
Prescott to Brandon Cook's.

Speaker 5 (02:31:19):
It was actually a pass from Dak Prescott.

Speaker 6 (02:31:21):
To Brandon Cooks from twenty twenty three, and it was
reposted today or yesterday actually July twenty first, on the
X platform and they just took it as well. It
happened today just as the reposter mentioned it, and they
went through an entire segment on it. But Cole, they
did recognize their mistake and addressed it here.

Speaker 2 (02:31:43):
Put cleanup on our part.

Speaker 5 (02:31:44):
Earlier, we showed a video that.

Speaker 4 (02:31:45):
We identified as George Pickens at Cowboys training camp.

Speaker 18 (02:31:48):
It was not George, So we apologized on that mistake.

Speaker 19 (02:31:52):
Yeah, so first take out, a second take tire, go
ahead and fixed that.

Speaker 7 (02:31:55):
Out with Danbay.

Speaker 5 (02:31:55):
We apologize for that mistake. Coming up nack here on
first tig.

Speaker 3 (02:32:01):
We'll yell at you some more guys that wears number
three for the Cowboys, all the same.

Speaker 6 (02:32:04):
Parsons, Trayvon Diggs, Cowboys camp.

Speaker 9 (02:32:08):
Go.

Speaker 3 (02:32:08):
Yeah, it wasn't pretty.

Speaker 19 (02:32:09):
You had the conversation you actual day with Jerry Jones
calling out both Micah Parsons and Trayvon Diggs for their
off season alignment, whether it be working away from the
facility or holding on out to be able to pay them.
James Later of NFL Network was kind enough to go
ahead and sit down with both them and ask them
just simply put how you deveilout the comments here was
Trevon Diggs.

Speaker 11 (02:32:29):
I was upset yesterday because it's not like I'm not
putting the work in doing everything I was supposed to do.
Of course, they do a great job here, but you know,
I just thought it was for my best interest to
you know, gus where else to rehab for my off season.
But it's unfortunate. You know, by the end of the day,
hopefully I'll make it back.

Speaker 19 (02:32:46):
And then of course you also had Michael Parsons who
basically said, hey, Jerry Jones, I know how talented I am,
and I'm not here to play for just you.

Speaker 20 (02:32:55):
Weah, everyone's situation is differently, you know what I mean
at the end of the day, Like, I'm here for
my team. You know, I'm not here to please another
grown man.

Speaker 8 (02:33:02):
I'm here for them.

Speaker 18 (02:33:03):
You know.

Speaker 20 (02:33:03):
I want to be here with Trey, watching rehab, watching
you on the field, watch his groove. I want to
be here battle with Chann Still like I'm here for
these guys. I'm not here for him, you know. So
I think, you know, I think in the day, he's
on the field with us. You know, we're on the
field playing the games and things like that. So I'm
gonna just control my teammates, keep boosting it and uh,
you know, we're just gonna keep playing together.

Speaker 6 (02:33:26):
He did an interview with Jane you know, to be
me Cole. She didn't sit down with him. They were
all standing up, and then the rest of the media
jumped in and did their thing, So she actually got
that stuff initially, and then he kind of repeated himself
there and you kind of jumped it.

Speaker 5 (02:33:43):
I'm not playing for an old man or not.

Speaker 3 (02:33:45):
I'm not going to please a grown man.

Speaker 5 (02:33:47):
He's a grown man.

Speaker 9 (02:33:48):
Man.

Speaker 5 (02:33:49):
He sounds like me.

Speaker 6 (02:33:49):
Last segment talking about Lance accidentally twice, but nonetheless he
said what the players are always up against when they're
in these situations of wanting their money and wanted to
hold out, but these are their guys, these are teammates.

Speaker 5 (02:34:03):
He's not He's going to participate.

Speaker 6 (02:34:05):
He wants his money, but he feels like the right
thing to do is still be there and participate.

Speaker 5 (02:34:11):
As they take forever to get him signed to an.

Speaker 3 (02:34:14):
Extent will change his mind eventually. They all do.

Speaker 1 (02:34:19):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (02:34:42):
Heyx heay Man, listen that last second of the show.

Speaker 5 (02:34:45):
Just knuck it in.

Speaker 3 (02:34:46):
What do you What are you doing on Christmas Eve?

Speaker 9 (02:34:50):
Man?

Speaker 3 (02:34:50):
I never know what you're doing back there. What are
you doing for christ it's your Christmas Eve.

Speaker 6 (02:34:55):
It's a lot of people's Christmas Eve.

Speaker 7 (02:34:57):
This is.

Speaker 6 (02:34:59):
Person and I'll say respectably, if I post anything from
training camp or any post relating to training camp, he
will permanently, constantly and very effectively hit me with a
reply that includes an Alan iverson gift practice practice?

Speaker 3 (02:35:18):
Who does that?

Speaker 6 (02:35:19):
He just like practice? This is what you're telling me about.
I mean, that's all in good fun Matt Thomas. It's
definitely not Matt Thomas.

Speaker 3 (02:35:27):
Well, who is it?

Speaker 6 (02:35:28):
Just someone who's a long time listener a sports talk
radio and us here on the show.

Speaker 3 (02:35:32):
So he just does it. He has no time for
training camp because it's not real. Essentially, does he go
to see movies? I'd gotten it.

Speaker 5 (02:35:41):
I just receive it, respond to it thumbs up.

Speaker 3 (02:35:43):
Does he dress out for Halloween and pretend that he's
somebody he's not? Those are all fake too.

Speaker 5 (02:35:48):
That's one day a year. This is like forty times
every year.

Speaker 3 (02:35:53):
Does he think that they get better by not practicing?

Speaker 5 (02:35:57):
I really didn't think about it in such.

Speaker 3 (02:35:59):
Deep I feel like I need to jump into your replies. Nah,
it'll be fun. We're good. I think it'll be fun
and you can participate too.

Speaker 6 (02:36:07):
I had an extended back and forth with somebody for
the first time in a long time this weekend.

Speaker 3 (02:36:12):
An argument.

Speaker 6 (02:36:13):
Basically, Okay, so you've listened to me here on the
show since May fifth. May fifth, the Astros recalled, saysar
Salazar to the third catcher, third catcher, you love the.

Speaker 3 (02:36:26):
Move over the weekend the Astros option, saysar Salazar to
the shre Land space. Cowboys must not have needed a
third catcher anymore. They played sixty five games during that time.
He was the third catcher. I games did he play in.

Speaker 6 (02:36:38):
Not counting the game he pitched. Well, that doesn't count, correct,
he played seven times.

Speaker 3 (02:36:43):
That's more than I thought. That's like six more than
I thought.

Speaker 6 (02:36:45):
Well, it's it's not a very good high percentage is
very very small percentage, a little over ten percent. It's
it's a It gives you the option of doing different
things with your catcher.

Speaker 5 (02:36:57):
I don't want to dismiss that.

Speaker 6 (02:36:58):
And basically, not long after, they had a series of injuries.
They've been injured all year this just in so, playing
Victor Carratinian and Jiner Diaz in the game together was
a pretty constant thing.

Speaker 5 (02:37:11):
So if one goes down the other needs to catch.

Speaker 6 (02:37:13):
You could be left without a catcher, you could be
left losing your DHS as a lot of things that happen.
I understand why you might want to do that from
time to time, but to do it for two months,
you're basically telling Joe spot At every game you play,
you're only allowed to use one fewer player than the
other team every game because you're not gonna play says
ar salas Heer. You're telling this this every day, fifty
eight times in sixty five games. You're not going to

(02:37:35):
play him. I'm not saying he's the turning point to
the Astros season, that they would have sixty five wins
had they not done this, or if their thirteenth player
had been better than a third catcher, says Arsalasar. And
that's why I ended up going back and forth on this,
because I was the tact that Chris was taking. Chris,
I think at the end of it all, we had
a reasonable finish to it, and he's obviously locked in

(02:37:58):
on the Astros and the show and a lot of
other shows, so he's very active and very knowledgeable about
the Astros, so really didn't have anything to do with that.
It's just had a matter of a difference of opinion,
and I wanted to keep it as basic as possible.
Just do your best to roster the most reasonable, helpful players.

(02:38:18):
If you have a player on your roster you do
not intend to play, there's only so much value in it.
And to me, well, let's say you only had two catchers.
Let's say you want to play them. Let's say something happened, Well,
how many games is that can impact one?

Speaker 5 (02:38:33):
The only game had happened, So then you call up
a catcher. Somebody got hurt, Well, okay, he's here the
next day.

Speaker 6 (02:38:39):
Now, if you did it all year long and you
kept losing your catcher and having you switch your DH
to your catcher and now you don't have a DH,
if it happened over and over and over again, which
would never happen, then maybe you could go a different route. So,
rather than impact fifty plus games with a short roster,
just impact that one day's game with a short roster.
And whoever the thirteenth player is all always unless they're

(02:39:01):
a third catcher, brings something to the table. Shay Wickham,
he's maybe he's a four A player, but he gives
you positional flexibility when you're in an extra inning game,
and you need a shortstop, third basement, second basement or outfielder.

Speaker 3 (02:39:13):
He can do that.

Speaker 6 (02:39:14):
If Bryce Matthews wasn't your starting second basement and he
was your thirteenth player, well you send him out to
second base and the tenth inning to replace almost anybody
because he's the fastest player on your roster.

Speaker 5 (02:39:24):
Now, with Jerrey Payin, you hurt.

Speaker 6 (02:39:26):
There's value that these extra players that you don't use
every day can be used. And it's not every day
you need all thirteen players, but just having someone you
can use it seems so simple. I didn't really understand
why the need to argue about it, but you know
my point. He sees it differently than I do. I'm
glad the Astros aren't carrying a third catcher. They need

(02:39:46):
all possible options for Joe every game they play.

Speaker 3 (02:39:49):
I wonder if we'll be bored next year, when they're
relatively healthy in winning the division by like ten plus games,
we will be like, well, we don't know what to
do with ourselves. There's no injuries to report.

Speaker 6 (02:39:59):
Who's started the second game of the year, Christian Havier,
who's starting the third game, Spencer Arraghetty, And then what
Luis Garcia and then what.

Speaker 3 (02:40:13):
JP France? He is in corpus.

Speaker 5 (02:40:17):
Somebody they signed this off season.

Speaker 3 (02:40:19):
I would guess, in true typical Astros fashion, that win
not if, but when they watch fromber Valdez walk out
that door to sign a lucrative deal with someone else.

Speaker 5 (02:40:33):
With three World Series rings.

Speaker 3 (02:40:36):
Yeah, it's gonna be awesome that they'll then pivot and
spend a lot of money, but not as much as
they would have had to spend to keep him on
a lesser back of the rotation guy and just elevate
everybody else.

Speaker 6 (02:40:53):
All right, that's super fun at all Texans practice first
no pads, very heavy, intense practice, tons of a great
useful eleven on eleven work. I can't wait to see
it at Laramie Tunzel. Laramie Tunszel will not be well.
He's missed quite a few practices over his time in
a Texas.

Speaker 3 (02:41:08):
You need it, Laramie, you never did this anyway.

Speaker 6 (02:41:11):
That's what you come up with for your day ahead
of training camp. You're looking forward to. Nothing about Laramie Tunseel.
That's what you're looking forward to. Tex No Laramie needed.
That's the guy that should be their official has Tagh
shouldn't get past the better teams the AFC in their

(02:41:31):
buildings in the playoffs the last two years because of
Laramie Tunzel.

Speaker 5 (02:41:35):
No Laramie this year, they can't.

Speaker 3 (02:41:38):
How awesome would it be if you typed in hashtag
no Laramie needed and then the little Texans logo came
up after so you knew that it was the official hashtag.
Would be awesome.

Speaker 6 (02:41:46):
I don't think that's going to catch on with the
rest of the Texans team players, former teammates. I don't
think they're really trotting out any no Laramie needed to.

Speaker 3 (02:41:54):
You know what, when the Texans are preparing to play
in the AFC Championship, I'm gonna go to the locker
room in anticipation of the game that week, and I'm
gonna go down all of the you know, really big
names and I'm just one by one asked them, Hey, yeah,
you miss Laramie. And they're all gonna say nah, because
they'll be on their way to THEFC Championship and he'll

(02:42:15):
be at home.

Speaker 6 (02:42:16):
He'll have lost, they will have lost. The NFC game
will be earlier in the day. No, they will have
the NFC title game that he's playing in will be
the first game, and then the Texans game.

Speaker 3 (02:42:25):
I'm playing in the NFC title game.

Speaker 5 (02:42:27):
Why they were there last year without him?

Speaker 9 (02:42:28):
I know.

Speaker 6 (02:42:29):
Oh he's gonna now, he's gonna bring them down. Well,
that brings the Texans.

Speaker 3 (02:42:32):
Up sophomore slump. Come on, don't you watch CJ coverage.
That's what's gonna happen there in Washington.

Speaker 6 (02:42:37):
Will bring you our insights from practice tomorrow. At some
other time tomorrow, we will have Astros Baseball for you.
The Astros and Diamondbacks finale tomorrow, the Astros and Diamondbacks
Game two tonight, an episode of the Nightcap. It's always
engineered and brought to you by the voice Cole Thompson.
He has you next here on Sports Talk seven ninety A.

Speaker 2 (02:43:00):
G on Sports Talk seven Ninete