When With Rome, Just Calll Chandler!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
The two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham raised.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
My Earl.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Nolan multed by the magnificent roller coaster ride.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
That is Houston Sports.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Chill late down for the only homegrown afternoon team is
Talking Your Teams. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the
A Team.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
What's Up, Houston, Texas?

Speaker 4 (00:45):
It is a Thursday edition of The A Team Sports
Talks seven to ninety. We will be simulcast at the
top of the hour on Space City Home Network. AC
is in, wex remains out. I think he's still in Canada.
We've been tracking him. I did not ask him to
share his location on his phone, which is weird.

Speaker 5 (01:04):
My wife also wants me to do that for her
and I also.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
I refuse to do it. That's maybe a segment later
on in the show. In fact, I think today's guest
host would probably have fun with that type of topic.

Speaker 5 (01:15):
We'll see, We'll see.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
And speaking of which, Cole Thompson is in as per
usual producing and Chandlerome of the Athletic is in the
building and I cannot think of a better day to
have chandler Ome sitting across from me for four hours. Then,
after the Astros come home after sweeping the Dodgers, gets
swept by Jose Ramirez and a bunch of ragtags, and

(01:40):
then Jake Myers just the whole Jake Meyers situation last night.
I cannot think of a better guy to have in here.
I don't even know where to begin. So I went
to the game as a quote fan last night, had
no idea. You know, I've had these tickets for a
couple of weeks and shout out to who gave them
to me.

Speaker 5 (01:59):
You know who you are, and you are an absolute saint.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
I love you because they're good seats and we had
a great time if the four of us, my wife
and a couple of friends of ours, and you know,
we're sitting there and you know they're down to nothing
before you even finished with your hot dog or whatever
you're having. And that wasn't even the most dramatic, ridiculous
part of the night. As a guy who was covering

(02:22):
the game and was actually working last night, unlike me
for a change, just kind of go through how that
was unfolding for Chandler Rome, writer for The Athletic.

Speaker 6 (02:31):
Do you want? Do you want the real story?

Speaker 5 (02:33):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Of course we do.

Speaker 6 (02:34):
I had what I considered to be a very nice
feature on Jake Myers Ready to Go. Like, I was
in the middle of writing it. I was gonna write
it during the game, and it was gonna post this morning.
It was I mean, I guess I can give some
of it away. It was basically about how he's grown
into his voice. He's grown into being comfortable being the
guy out in center field, you know, moving Cam Smith around,

(02:57):
moving jose Al Tuve around, being kind of how he's
found his voice a little bit. And I was writing that.
I was in the middle of writing that story, and
Matt Kawahara, who sits next to me, who's the beat
writer for the Chronicle, he like tapped my laptop as
I'm writing, and I look up and the first thing
I see is Jake on all fours and Joe a
spotted down there. Eric Velaska is the assistant trainer, and

(03:19):
Taylor Tremmel. And the first thing is like, oh, crap,
I gotta find something else to write now, because I
had this story all ready to go. But it always
seems to work that way. But yeah, it was so
I didn't even see it happen, And to be honest,
I don't think many other people did either, because we
went back and looked on the TV broadcast and like
it was like we were playing the Zapprouver film because

(03:42):
like they had they had like they I mean, obviously
they couldn't have known that Jake was gonna get hurt
running to his position. So like they were showing estoc
paratus because they were talking about him making the All
Star team. They were showing Brandon Walter and then like
in the back, like in the back of the shot,
you can see Jake kind of start to limp a
little bit, and so we had to even go back
and see what happened. But yeah, it was it was

(04:04):
certainly something. And then you know, obviously to see him
struggle to get off the field and then to take
him to the loading dock, not even to the clubhouse,
that was a that was that doesn't happen often. And
then I didn't end up seeing the video until this
morning when they put him on the cart in the
loading dock, and to see Jake's reaction was was was

(04:25):
pretty heartbreaking because you could tell he was he was
pretty bent out of shape and you could tell he
did not feel good.

Speaker 5 (04:30):
Who was and I this is gonna they'll make you laugh.

Speaker 4 (04:33):
I always draw a blank on his name because he
was just he was kind of a forgettable member of
that rotation. Who is the pitcher for the Astros a
couple of seasons back that had to get carted off.
Jake oder Rizzy. I knew his name was Jake, Jake
odo Rizzy. We all thought that's what that's what you know.
It was something serious like that, And I don't we
don't know what this is, by the way, we should
probably start the show off with that, because of course

(04:56):
we don't. But I'm not even upset at the Astros
for you know, lack of transparency or any of that
kind of stuff. I think that they're getting their ducks
in a row before they reveal whatever this is. But
the fact that the reason I bring up oder Rizzy
was that not how he was taken off the field
that night, because it's serious.

Speaker 5 (05:15):
If you take them through the loading dock, well they.

Speaker 6 (05:16):
Cart well, so that was at Fenway Park, was right,
He got cart it off at Fenway Park and they
brought up they brought a cart onto the field and
they put him on the cart and wheeled him away.
I mean, we all watched what happened to Odor Rizzy
And we thought like he had popped his achilles because
like he was. I think it was a PfP. He
had gone off the mound to go cover first and
just completely stopped in his tracks and went down was

(05:39):
holding the back of his leg, which is usually an
achilles and it actually good for Jake. It turned oder Rizzy.
It turned out that it was more minor than that.
It just, you know, I think it was just a
calf thing. I think he was out for about three
or four weeks and then came back. You know, here's
hoping for Jake Myers's sake, that's the that's the case here,
But obviously we won't know much. But you know, he

(06:01):
was not moving around great in the clubhouse last night.
It you know, he needed assistance to get off the field,
had to put his hand around Eric Flaska as the
assistant trainer to limp off the field. And yeah, it
just it did not look good. And it's certainly not
what this team needs from a guy, but from a
guy that has you know, it's not an understatement to

(06:22):
say he has changed the entire trajectory of this team,
given how much better he's playing offensively. I mean, he
has been the most improved player in baseball. No player
in baseball has a bigger jump in their batting average
from last year to this year than Jake Myers. Of
the one hundred and seventy three qualified hitters in baseball,

(06:42):
only two of them have a higher jump, and they're
on base percentage from last year to this year. He
has been the most one of the most improved players
in baseball and has really kept this lineup afloat while
under performance and injury have invaded it. And yeah, it's
a tough blow. It will be a tough blow if
they're without Jake Myers for an extended period of time.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
Well, there are so many layers to this because of
who we're talking about, and you just touched on a
bunch of them right there, because I mean, I'll admit it,
for the longest time, like coming into this season, probably
the oddest off season during this run of you know,
championship contendership or just playoff contendership. However you wanted to

(07:22):
characterize the Astros coming out of how last season ended,
especially with how last season went start to finish, and
then going into this year, you don't have Alex Bregman,
you don't have Kyle Tucker, you don't have Ryan Presley.
To a little bit of a lesser extent, you have
new parts moving parts in place, and what do you know,

(07:42):
Like Jordan Alvarez doesn't look right, we find out he's hurt.
That's been a whole saga. And then one by one
guys have either remained out or they've gone down, and
several in both of those categories. And then you have
two guys. I think that as far as returning members
of this life that you've been not just pleasantly surprised with,

(08:04):
but with what you just said, does not happen without
them performing the way they do. And that's Jake Myers
and Jeremy Pannya. You know, there's lots of other guys
that have contributed, but those two guys having the seasons
that they were having up to the points where they
were out of the game for whatever reason. Jeremy it's
been a while, and Jake it's now starting. You're not
where you are right now in first place by several

(08:25):
games and doing what you're doing without those two.

Speaker 6 (08:27):
No, And I think if you hooked Astro's officials up
to truth serum like they didn't expect this from Jake Myers.
I think they've always had confidence in him. I don't
think they expected him to be hitting three hundred on
July tenth.

Speaker 5 (08:38):
Take it a step further. Do you think they really
thought that that Jeremy Paya would be having this season?

Speaker 6 (08:42):
They were. I mean, I had Joe a spot on
my podcast and he was he was bullish. He said,
he's my pick to click. He's the guy that I
think is going to take the reins and be the leader.
And I think they were more bullish on him. Did
they think he would have the second highest war in
baseball behind Aaron Judge at this point. I don't think
they thought that, but they thought he was going to
take a step forward. But I mean, let's remember, like

(09:04):
Jake Myers, Dana Brown was at the GM meetings this
past offseason and was asked about the outfield and mentioned
everyone in the organization's name but Jake Myers. Like there
was like some real thought that maybe Jake Myers would
get non tendered at the tender deadline. Now he survived that,

(09:24):
and then you know they got to camp and you know,
outperformed Chazz And this is what happened. But they were
not expecting Jake Myers to be hitting three hundred on
July tenth. I certainly wasn't expecting that. I know, you know,
even the most optimistic orange and blue glasses wearing Astros fans,

(09:45):
they can't say that they expected Jake Myers to do
what he's doing at Ross And well, he is the
president of the Jake Myers fans.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
Yeah, yeah, no, And I think I mean, you're what
you're saying is spot on obviously, as as per usual,
this is what we've come to expect from you.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
And that's that's why a.

Speaker 4 (10:01):
Number of reasons why, that's one of the main reasons
why today is going to be such a fun show.

Speaker 5 (10:05):
Chandler Rome is in.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
All four hours as we take you up until six o'clock,
and again, don't worry. At the top of the hour,
you can leer and stare at Chandler Room because we'll
begin the simulcast on Space City Home Network.

Speaker 5 (10:16):
But radio only.

Speaker 4 (10:17):
For the remainder of this hour, we will hear from
Jake Myers following last night's events when we come back.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
Before we get started, there is some concern with Jake
Myers and center field. This istant athletic trainer Eric Velaska
is out talking with Myers, who's down on one knee.
Jake he missed the last two games with tightness in
his calf. Taylor Treppelle also over there as well, coming
over from left field. So this is not good news

(10:51):
for Jake Byers. You wonder if this is a recurrence
of that CAF titaness that kept him out the last
couple of days. Force him out of the game on
Sunday against the Dodgers.

Speaker 7 (11:03):
He's having a long conversation with Joe has Spotta. He's
on one knee. He's not putting any pressure on that
left cap, but it looks like.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
Yeah, he's front flexing his right leg there.

Speaker 7 (11:14):
Like the Astros are probably gonna have to make a
substitution here to start things.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Hey, Yeah, it was the right cap that have been
bothering Myers and it looks like he's coming out of
this ballgame. Eric Velasquez is holding his glove.

Speaker 6 (11:28):
I see Kennedy Coroni.

Speaker 7 (11:29):
Yeah he's limping pretty badly, so yeah, he's gonna have
to come out.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Hello darkness, smile friend.

Speaker 5 (11:39):
Seriously, Like, is there any more appropriate song to play
for what this is a first place team, but it's
like a mash unit. It's like the Sugarland Space Cowboys
are the bottom of the lineup every night and the pitchers.

Speaker 6 (11:55):
It just I tweeted it last night. They're being held
together by duct tape and vibes.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, that's what.

Speaker 5 (12:00):
No, that is so true, especially and I'm glad you
brought that up.

Speaker 4 (12:03):
Channel Rome sitting in for Adam Wesler here on a
Thursday edition of The eight Team.

Speaker 5 (12:07):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
We will start the simulcast over on Space City Home
Network at the top of the hour. Cole Thompson along
for the ride as per usual. But yeah, the ViBe's
part of it. You were in Los Angeles?

Speaker 6 (12:21):
I was not. No, Actually I went to I went
to Denver to not go to LA.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
How did you decide that? Don't you want to go
to LA?

Speaker 6 (12:26):
I mean, I could get into all the machinations of it,
but long story short. We get a budget. Yeah, at
the athletic we get a budget for how to They
give us a lump sum of money and say make
that work to go travel to as many places as
you can in you have to make some decisions, and well,
LA's expensive as hell, and I mean to be honest
to holiday weekend. It's a holiday weekend, and I mean,

(12:47):
I don't I don't write for clicks, I don't write
for views, but we do need to write when our
consumers are more at their most voracious year readership and
very I couldn't have predicted that the Ashers were gonna
go up there and win twenty nine to six and
three games and everyone was gonna want to read everything.
If I knew that, I'd have gone.

Speaker 4 (13:05):
But when you say vibes, that's the first thing I
think of, Oh wow, what a great weekend in for
holiday weekend in Los Angeles against that team and everything
the history there by the way, I just want to
put this out there, and I'm going to be very
careful how I say this. This is the little peak
behind the curtain. I have it on good authority that

(13:28):
the Dodgers organization, for all the things that have been
said between these two teams ever since twenty seventeen and beyond,
the Dodgers' organization went out of their way to take
care of the Astros organization because it was a family trip.

Speaker 6 (13:44):
It was Yeah, it was on that entire trip Denver
in LA was a family trip, a lot of significant
a lot of spouses, a lot of children, And yes,
I do know that that is a fact. As well.
They did a very nice job of making sure that
they were taken care of, they were protected if they
needed to be protected.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
Like went to great links and I don't want to
get into the details of it. Was pretty impressive when
you consider how much bad blood is there and all that.

Speaker 6 (14:09):
I think it's one thing that gets a little misconstrued.
Like obviously the fan bases don't like each other, and
there's been some war of words with some players. But
I mean, like if you get to a game early enough,
like go watch like as these guys are stretching and
warming up, like you'll see like players from both teams
are like cordial and amicable.

Speaker 5 (14:27):
Like too.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
It was taking pictures with fans.

Speaker 6 (14:29):
Oh yeah, I mean it's like it is not there.
It is not as cutthroat and as like we hate
them they hate us. Like there's very little an true
animus in the game. Are there some players that don't
like other players, sure, but like I think that's in every.

Speaker 5 (14:45):
Who has the biggest beef in major League Baseball right now,
That right, I mean, like I think Tommy fam and
Jack Peterson.

Speaker 6 (14:50):
But that's in every business, Like every business you have
like you get along with your co workers and you
have maybe that one co worker you don't like you
have like Andy Cole, and that's the case in baseball.
So yeah, but yes, the Dodgers, I do know.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
Now, we love call. All right, let's get back to
the task at hand. And I just wanted to put
that out there because I thought that was really cool
to find out, and I just found that out a
few hours ago. But as it pertains to Jake Myers,
let's first go inside the clubhouse where you were last night,
and we're just gonna lay out and let you hear
what it was like as Jake Myers after all of

(15:27):
that stuff you just heard happened, was then talking to
the media and being asked questions about you know, what's
going on here. Let's we'll just lay out in the
play the whole thing, it's entirety, and then we'll react.

Speaker 8 (15:40):
I remember probbing at one of the priser tomorrow. I
felt I felt good going right again and just had,
you know, like tightened up running out run out to my.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Position every day.

Speaker 8 (15:56):
It's just like absolutely, yeah, I felt I felt good,
you know, prepared for the game.

Speaker 4 (16:02):
Like any other day.

Speaker 5 (16:05):
Yeah, would you guys do before then?

Speaker 9 (16:08):
Taking sure you shot good?

Speaker 8 (16:10):
I mean a bunch of spraining, like a good amount
of springing good?

Speaker 5 (16:14):
Uh you know dyamic warm up.

Speaker 9 (16:18):
Cuts cuts him and out.

Speaker 5 (16:21):
It felt good doing all that good, you know, twenty
twenty five minutes workout hit you know. Then I went
through the day. I can I can know the day.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
So trying to give more information amorrow, do you guys today?

Speaker 9 (16:44):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (16:49):
Crashing into that, I think you're their game.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
That's that's all I got, all right, So I know
the audio is a little rough. There is h There
was just voracious showering going on behind him. Apparently he
is close to the he his locker is close to
the bathroom. I did notice. I haven't been in there
since all of the change. I haven't been in there
the season. I haven't been into the clubhouse because I
just don't find myself in there with my schedule the

(17:15):
way it is as much as I used to. As
I watched Kyle Tucker take an at bat there against
the Twins in Minnesota as a member of the Cubs.
It's just another example of this, like Jordan Alvarez now
occupies Alex Bregman's old locker. You know, there's some changes
in there, And so I actually don't know where Jake
locker Jake's locker is. Is it the same it's always
been or has it moved closer to the showers.

Speaker 6 (17:36):
I don't know if it's exact. It's in the same
vicinity he's Uh, he's on the He's on the right
side near the back near cam Smith, near where Josea
Brave's locker used to be, where Christian Walker is now.
Chaz is right there. Yeah, he's in the same vicinity
over there.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
So all of that is to say it might have
been heard hard to hear some of the questions that
we're being asked, But the gist of it is he
was feeling good. He was going through his routine like
he always does, making cuts, making, you know, sprinting, all
that kind of stuff, and didn't feel really like anything
was wrong. And then at the very tail end he

(18:12):
was asked, is it worse than the first time you
had this kind of injury? And he basically chose not
to answer.

Speaker 6 (18:20):
Yeah, that's that's exactly how it went. And I mean, again,
there were only a few people in there last night,
so no one would know this, But I mean watching
him walk around the clubhouse last night, it was we
got the answer for ourselves, Like we didn't need him
to say yes, it's worse, like he didn't. He was
not moving around well. Now, I mean, who knows he

(18:42):
could have slept this. He could have slept last night,
woke up this morning and could be feeling better, and
he could be walking around.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (18:47):
They're off today, we're not going to see them until tomorrow.
But he certainly did not look like someone that was
feeling good. He looked like he was in a considerable
amount of pain. And you know they're gonna get more
tests today. But you know, I think it's important to
note that he did say he was on board with

(19:08):
playing last night, that he felt good doing the doing
the as he called it, the dynamic warm up and
the sprints and everything, and he was he wanted to play.
I think, you know, if we want to get into this,
I think in a vacuum, you can look at this
and say, oh, like it's it's just rotten luck, right,

(19:28):
Like guy thought he was good to go, thought and
just a freaking, a freak thing running out to his position,
and it happened. Given though, what has transpired within the
team last year year and a half in terms of,
you know, getting guys back on the field, in terms
of setbacks, in terms of things of that nature, it's

(19:53):
hard to look at this as just a one off,
as just a ah man like aus Shuck's tough one
like it is. It's becoming more and more difficult to
just brush these off as coincidences and to brush these
off as just, you know, this is what happens in baseball.
Because either the Astros are the unluckiest team in the

(20:14):
world and they've just got a ton of guys that
are suffering setbacks, a ton of high profile guys that
are suffering setbacks or that can't be diagnosed right off
the bat. Either they are the unluckiest team in the
world in that regard, or there's something that they need
to look at and something that they need to evaluate
in terms of how they get their guys back to play.

(20:36):
And let's not forget your doppelganger. James Klick did say
in twenty twenty two after the team rushed, of all people,
Jake Myers back from a shoulder injury. He did say
that they needed to review the team's return to play procedures.
So it is something that at least a former head

(20:56):
of the Baseball Operations department has said needs to be.
You waited. As far as I know, it hasn't been,
or if it has been, Dana Brown is not has
not revealed that. We asked him last year if he
thought that would be prudent, and he did not believe so.
So I'm not going to play a doctor on here.
I don't want to do that. I don't want to
speculate or anything, but it is just it is becoming

(21:18):
more and more difficult to look at this body, this
body of work, and this the precedence that has been set,
and to just completely keep rushing this off as a coincidence.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
Well, I'm going to rip the band aid off when
we come back. We got Chandler roam with the athletic
in here. I want to talk about I want to
talk about the Astros medical staff. I do It's it's
I don't want to dance around the situation because I
think what you just said is you're not even remotely
the only person in town that is thinking that, and
I just think it's it's time we had the It's

(21:49):
time we had a conversation, as Charles Barkley once said,
So we will do that when we come back here
on a Thursday edition of the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (22:08):
How do you know I was listening to the Goo
Goo Dolls when I was driving around town today because.

Speaker 9 (22:12):
I listen to them every single day. Do you really
that's my favorite band of all time? Seriously, seriously, not
even joking. I have seen them in concert at least
fourteen times.

Speaker 5 (22:20):
I think they're coming to do a smart financially.

Speaker 9 (22:23):
Okay, I am going trust me, any single time they
come to town, I immediately drop everything. It's like back
to the future. It's on TV. Don't even text me.

Speaker 5 (22:31):
You learned something new every day about Cole Thompson. How
do you feel about the Goo Dolls there, Channel Room.

Speaker 6 (22:37):
I mean, they're good. I'm not like gonna go you
give you.

Speaker 5 (22:40):
The bat Thomas answer.

Speaker 6 (22:41):
They're fine, They're fine. Like I'm not gonna I'm not
gonna go actively seek out their music or go watch
them in concerts, but they're going.

Speaker 9 (22:50):
Google for the Googo dolls, that's for sure.

Speaker 4 (22:51):
I probably love them more than the average male does,
not as much as Cole Apparently.

Speaker 5 (22:57):
I didn't know that, and I would like to go
to that show, but I just did not see that
coming today. Here's how crazy I've gone. I remember when
I was interning at SiriusXM. I got on a bus
and I went up to Buffalo to go watch them
in a concert up there, and then got back that
same night. That's how much I was god to go
seeing Johnny Resnick. So he's like, they're like your Metallica
slash Billy Joel.

Speaker 9 (23:16):
For me, my most prized possession that I own is
when I went to a concert at the Pavilion when
I was seventeen years old. I had all three members
who were still in playing at the time. Siney program
that is stilling into my office is still my most frame. Yeah,
kind of the frame is really really deteriorated because I
had a college and I was like on my own

(23:37):
wall in Alabama where it was in the fraternity house.
So naturally a lot of crazy things happening ins out
of that room. So I was like, hey, you know what,
it's I need to get a better frame for it.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
All right, This concludes the Googoo Dolls conversation portion of
the program today. Let's get back to Jake Myers and Lamenting. Okay,
I'll just ask you this point blank. You can answer
however you want. Chandler, is the is the Astro? Those
medical staff.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Not up to snuff?

Speaker 5 (24:05):
Are they? I'm not asking if they are the reason
these things keep happening. But like, just for example, the
Astros and Dodgers got together in LA and both teams
have a very expensive injured list right now. The Dodgers
is more expensive, of course, but they have show Hay,
so I'm not going to feel sorry for them one bit.
And it was awesome watching them get swept again, even

(24:27):
though the Astros just get swept. But like, do you
think that it's more than just a coincidence? Do you
think let me ask you, let me put it this way.
Do you think the way they go about business contributes
perhaps to maybe some of these types of injuries either
lasting longer, getting exacerbated however you want to phrase it.

Speaker 6 (24:50):
The short answers, I don't know. Like I said, I'm
not gonna say I don't I did not go to
medical school. I hate science. I I did not. I
don't think I took a science class.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
And actually so.

Speaker 6 (25:02):
I don't know. I will say this, like the Astros
didn't go higher guys off the street to be their
team physicians and to be their head trained. Like these
people are very qualified. It's not as if they are incompetent.
It's not as if, at least I'm led to believe,
like I don't believe these people are not good at

(25:24):
their jobs. However, you know, when you have all of
this happen, and when it keeps happening, and when it
keeps happening to star players, you're you're left with You're
left with no other thing but to wonder, like what
is going on? Because I tried, I tried to lay

(25:44):
this out in the story Roe this morning. You know,
setbacks happen across the sport, like every day there is
a setback with some injured player on some team. Every day.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Every day a manager or GM has.

Speaker 6 (25:58):
To talk for another team and say, oh, well, you know,
we thought we were gonna get this guy back tomorrow,
but actually we're gonna give it another couple of days
and he's gonna heal up like the fact that there
have been you know, stop and starts and setbacks, and
you know they've needed extra imaging to find things. You know,
that's that's not an Astro specific problem. That is something

(26:20):
that happens across the league when you have a general
like we just talked about it. James Click openly questioned
the Astros return to play procedure because of they brought
Jake Myers back three years ago from a shoulder injury.
He was clearly not ready to be back. They put

(26:40):
him in the major leagues. He scuffled badly, and he
got option to Triple A, and after they got he
got option a Triple A. James Click, who was the
head of the Baseball Operations Department, said, we need to
review this to make sure that we didn't do anything
wrong when that is said by any by anyone with
that sort of authority publicly, publicly, And I believe I

(27:03):
don't remember off the top of my head, but I
believe he said that on this station when he was
doing an interview with Roby Hit or it may have
been with Robert Ford before a game. I can't recall,
but he may have. I mean, this is the flagship
radio station for the Houston Ashers, Like, if he's gonna
say that, then that automatically perked your ears up right.

(27:23):
Oh yeah, like that's that's not nothing.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
Just like when Dana Brown was talking about re signing
Kyle Tucker the way he did initially, that got people's attention.

Speaker 6 (27:32):
And then you know, Dana Brown last year on this
radio station during a pregame hit with Robert Ford, said,
we rushed JP Frantz back from a shoulder injury in
spring training. JP France had shoulder surgery, He's still not pitching.
Like what other conclusions are we to reach?

Speaker 4 (27:50):
Jordan Alvarez imaging thing is what really got And look,
you you have named several examples just in the last
three seasons, not even three. Yeah, well Jake Myers got
in twenty one touring that but he got hurt in
twenty one and then they tried to bring him back
in twenty two. So it was in Chicago, it was
in Chicago and the Alds, right, So you know.

Speaker 5 (28:09):
Let's just take that not quite five year sample size
that you just that the incidents you just mentioned and
then this year with Jordan Alvarez, last year with Kyle
Tucker's leg.

Speaker 4 (28:21):
It makes me wonder about what was anything that we're
talking about now having to do with why Alex Bregman
had such a rough year with a quad injury, you know,
And I'm not saying it did, But again, these are
not unfair questions to ask when these types of things
keep happening and it's not the same type of injury

(28:41):
and it's a different player, all these different players. I
just and you're right, like, I don't and I would
have never pursue presumed that the Astros would hire somebody
off the street or somebody that wasn't qualified. But you
know what, there's a lot of managers that are qualified
to be Major League Baseball managers and they get fired
all the time for whatever reason. Just there's a lot

(29:02):
here to just ask questions about, if nothing else. Yeah,
I want to be very clear, and I want to
I want to say this. I want to say this unequivocally.
I am not sitting here advocating for anyone to lose
a job at all. But again, what you're saying that
James Click said, for example, that's what that insinuates at
least needs to be looked at.

Speaker 6 (29:20):
He insinuated we need to review this, we need to audit,
whether it's an audit, whether it's an analysis, something. We
need to review what we did in this situation, because
very clearly we had a player that suffered a significant injury.
We brought him back before he was ready, and we
watched I think the beginning part of James Click's quote

(29:42):
about that was we weren't seeing the physicality, like he
physically was not ready to play major League baseball. That is,
according to what James Click said, like that does desert
like they needed to look and see and analyze every
part of it. Whether that has happened. And I don't know.
James Klick was fired three months after he said after

(30:03):
he said that, And I don't know whether they've done that.
Maybe they have, Maybe they have you know internally, maybe
they have done it and we just don't know about it.
You know, I think it would be who Like they
are at a point and we're now going to cross
over a little bit into like public perception. They're at
a point now public and I don't know that they
care very much, but like they're at a point now
where like with their fan base and with a lot

(30:25):
of you know, people that cover the team, it's to
the point where like anything about injuries just goes in
one ear and out the other, like they have lost
any benefit of the doubt when it comes to this
kind of stuff. So if they have done an audit,
or if they have looked at their return to play
protocol and they've made changes or they've seen things that

(30:48):
they could do better, maybe it would behoove them to
tell us that, to be like, you know what, Yes,
a couple of years ago, we did this, we found
out we need to do this, this and this. You know,
maybe that's the case. But while I'm my position is
like I can only go off what is said, what
people say. And you now have two different heads of

(31:09):
baseball operations that have run this team, two people that
are the complete opposite of one another, and James Click
and Dana Brown that have gone on the record and said,
for lack of a better word, we rushed guys back
from significant injuries. And that is something that I mean,
in my humble opinion, needs to be examined, needs to

(31:31):
be looked at. That's something that James Click said, we
need to look at this. And again, whether it's happened,
I'm not sure, but it's something that I think, and
I will say this too, I think it goes above
Dana Brown's head. I think this is something that I
think this is what has to I think this is
an this is an ownership thing, where like Jim Crane
probably needs to consider, you know, I need to look

(31:55):
at why some of my most valuable assets And I
hate to make players out to be assets or assigned
dollar signs to them, but you just said Ashers have
a pretty expensive injury list right now. A lot of
their highly paid players are not on the field, and.

Speaker 5 (32:11):
A lot of them are just coming back. In a
case of like Lance mccolors, right, we had to mention
his name, and.

Speaker 6 (32:15):
It's like, you know, the Astros are a billion dollar
into a billion dollar enterprise, and when you can't get
your most valuable assets on the field, if you can't
get them to stay on the field, you know, maybe
that's something too that they need to look at it. Again,
I'm not smart enough to know what needs to be done,
if anything needs to be done, I'm not smart enough

(32:37):
to know that. But all I can sit here and
say is, like we have had there have been two
heads of baseball operations that have acknowledged we did something,
something went awry, and how we were getting these guys
back and to me that that's a red flag.

Speaker 4 (32:52):
Well, I want to as we wrap up the two
o'clock hour next, I do want to ask another question
as it pertains to that topic on the play side
of thing. Like I know we're talking about we're talking
about the medical staff. There's a lot of moving parts.
There's a lot of things that go into when a
player is going to play in a baseball game.

Speaker 6 (33:09):
And I think that's well, if we got to go
to break let they know. But I thinkyeah, we do.
That's important too because at the end of the day,
it's part of this the doctor and the trainer, they
aren't feeling they're not in the player's body. They can't
get in there and say like I feel this, Like
it's up to the player to be truthful and it's
up to the player to understand what's going on. So
the players are not without culpability here either. Yeah, I

(33:30):
want to get into that.

Speaker 4 (33:31):
Chandler Rome is here from the Athletic He's here until
six o'clock for the entirety of the show, filling in
for Adam Wesler. It is a Thursday edition of The
A Team Sports Talk seven ninety. The A Team on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 9 (33:47):
I walk the.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Only road, the only one that I have ever known.
Don't know where it goes, but it's on the men.
I walk on.

Speaker 4 (34:01):
The final segment of the two o'clock hour here on
the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety simulcast over on
Space City Home Network, beginning at the top of the hour,
so you can stare at myself and Chandler Ome at
that point, and Cole Thompson as Carle has a camera
installed in there.

Speaker 5 (34:17):
But Wex is out.

Speaker 4 (34:20):
And I know that we always give Wex a hard
time because he doesn't like to take vacations at all,
and when he does take vacations, inevitably something big happens either, like,
for example, we all thought we would be over at
Toyota Center on Monday afternoon this week for the introduction
over the Top Variety of Kevin Durant, and then it
turns out his schedule wasn't there, and it turned into

(34:41):
a very very toned down little media scrum with rafel
Stone and that was about it. I don't even know
that we're going to see Kevin Durant at all in person,
in the flesh until Media Day in the end of September.
I really think that's what's gonna happen, just what I've heard.

Speaker 6 (34:55):
So did he turn down the opportunity to co host today?

Speaker 5 (34:58):
And that's why he texted me Kevin Durant, Yeah, if
I could get Kevin Durant on the show, you would
absolutely be on the sideline today. So it's not even
it's nothing about you. I understand he's everywhere right now.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
He's having apparently he's having a very busy summer, even
busier than usual, and he's got I think, I'm not
even sure a lot of Houston Rockets fans know just
how many irons in the fire that guy has.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
He's invested in a lot like soccer teams.

Speaker 5 (35:25):
He's a very shrewd. It's kind of like Shack.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
You find out he's almost a billionaire because of like
investments that have almost nothing to do with what he
did for a living in the NBA. So I'm very
much looking forward to hopefully getting to know him a
little bit better. I've always been a huge fan. It
just tore my heart to shreds when he played for
that crap team out on the West Coast.

Speaker 5 (35:45):
I don't even say.

Speaker 6 (35:46):
Their name because I just I can't believe how skinny
he is.

Speaker 5 (35:50):
Yeah, well like he is. Tracy McGrady was like that too.
He would look at his legs and be like, where
are the rocket boosters? Clearly has huge vertical leap. Where
is it coming from? Because he just not developed legs
like that. So anyway, I'm still sad Jalen Green had
to go, though.

Speaker 6 (36:07):
I really liked it.

Speaker 5 (36:08):
Really I liked.

Speaker 6 (36:08):
Watching him play.

Speaker 5 (36:09):
You are not alone in that opinion.

Speaker 6 (36:11):
I really liked watching him play.

Speaker 5 (36:12):
I think he's a good kid. I think he worked
very hard.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
From everything I was told, he was the first one
in and the last one to leave when it wasn't
game night, and when it was game night from a
practice standpoint, and it was just very he did what
was asked of him by that very demanding coaching staff.
I'm not the one, not the one he started with
talking about Imidoga, clearly, but it just when you had

(36:38):
an opportunity to get Kevin Durant, you take it, Yeah, for.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Sure, So you got to.

Speaker 6 (36:42):
You gotta give up something to get something right.

Speaker 4 (36:44):
It's got to hurt a little bit, and uh yeah,
seeing Dylan Brooks arrive to the facility as well.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
It's just it's weird.

Speaker 4 (36:49):
Takes some getting used to, but a lot of that
stuff gets conveniently forgotten once Kevin Durant gets to town
and the Rockets are winning games.

Speaker 9 (36:56):
And he's averaging twenty five points and he's.

Speaker 5 (36:58):
Doing it easily. All right, one of the things I
wanted to get to.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
And this might bleed over into the first segment of
the three o'clock hours, we'll begin the simulcast. We look,
you want to think we're bagging on the Astros and
their medical staff specifically, everybody is going to be put
under the microscope today because when you have this many
injuries to this many different players, and it's a variety
of which there's just a lot of people to ask

(37:25):
questions of. And I think one of those people needs
to be the players in certain cases. If in Shohn
Salisbury was talking about this this morning, you're always gonna
get yes, I'm ready to play from a player. That's
always gonna be the answer unless they've got they're just
not wired right, like that's how and a lot of

(37:47):
these guys I don't even know that you're gonna find
somebody that won't be like that, because you don't get
to this level, regardless of the league, unless you're wired
that way.

Speaker 6 (37:55):
Especially in baseball. Like there's another layer to this in
baseball too. And I'm I'm gonna use Jake as an
exact sample here. I am not at all saying that
this is how Jake's thinking, but like Jake's in his
second ear salary arbitration, where the arbitration system is based
on stats, it is based on how you perform. And
he's I mean, he's I mean, I'm not trying to

(38:16):
make him out as poor anything, but he's playing for
money like he's got a he's got to. You know,
these guys want to put up as many stats as
possible because they're going into arbitration. They they're they're gonna
go That's how salary arbitration figures are calculating in a
lot of these guys, that's that's in the back of
their minds, like, well, I gotta play like I gotta

(38:37):
play because like I need I need a raise.

Speaker 5 (38:39):
It's legitimately a performance it's a performance based business.

Speaker 6 (38:43):
And I'm not saying Jake thinks like that I'm not
saying Jeremy Payne or anybody, but like that is another
thing to consider here. Like and I'm not saying guys
on guaranteed big contracts act differently, but especially young guys.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
And you hear this.

Speaker 6 (38:59):
You hear this all the time with younger players that
want to stay in the league, right Like they'll pitch
through anything, they'll play through anything because they want to
stay in the show.

Speaker 4 (39:11):
Hold that thought, we're gonna break. We gotta get the
TV thing all synced up and everything. We will absolutely
carry this discussion over because there's been a lot of
guys that I you know, you've asked that question of
So three o'clock hour coming up next channel roam in
for Adam Wexler on a Thursday edition of the show.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 9 (39:32):
Two.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Lifelong Houston sports guys named at him talking your team,
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight team.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
Straight up three o'clock here in Houston, Texas. It is
a Thursday edition of The A Team Sports Talk seven
ninety and now on Space City Home Network. As we
take you up until six o'clock tonight. As you can see,
wex is no longer here. He's here, he's with us.
He's in Canada right now, so maybe figuratively he's no

(40:10):
longer in America. He's with us, he's just not.

Speaker 5 (40:14):
With us this week.

Speaker 4 (40:15):
And so a couple of days this week I had
guest hosts installed. Yesterday, Gordy sat in. First couple of days,
it was just me and Cole along for the ride,
and it'll be Cole and myself tomorrow. But I had
reached out the chandler about coming in this week and
peak behind the curtain. WEX wanted to have you in
last week, but you were on the road in Colorado,

(40:36):
and so he couldn't and it was a road trip.
And so I know that deep down right now, and
he's probably listening on the app. He's very jealous that
I have you in right now. We're selfish like that.
When one of us is out, we like to have
you in at least one show. And as we said
all during the first hour, And I was thinking this
last night while I was at the game. I cannot
think of a better day to have chandeler Roman on

(40:58):
a night where Ake Myers hurt himself before he even
took an at bat, and threw a pitch.

Speaker 5 (41:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, And we were talking a lot.

Speaker 4 (41:08):
During the first hour about how this has happened a lot,
not this, but just injuries, which again happened to every team.
There is a very expensive injured list for a lot
of very good teams. I might add, by the way,
the Dodgers are one of them. And the Dodgers got
swept by the Astros and then they got swept by
the Brewers. And I saw a lot of this on

(41:30):
social media, you know, outside of the stupid things that
Oral Herscheizer says on their broadcast. People are like, well, congratulations,
you beat their triple A pitching staff.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
I'm like, what do you think was hitting against them?

Speaker 4 (41:43):
Like some guy said you beat I can't remember what
the pitcher's name was, whatever night it was, and uh,
it's probably the eighteen to one game, and uh, I
was like, yeah, but the Taylor Tremmell and like Cooper
Hummel were in the lineup that night. Like it's so,
I know, the Astros have some talent that they planned
on having at the beginning of the season that's still
in the lineup, but a lot of it's not. And

(42:05):
so that goes for the pitching staff as well. So
on a night where all of that comes into play
because yet another one of your would be starters at
the beginning of the season goes down with an injury.
We're just trying to figure out why this keeps happening,
and we brought up the medical staff. We're not trying
to attack any one part of the organization, and I

(42:26):
kind of started to bring up the player side of things,
and I really wanted to ask you this last segment.

Speaker 5 (42:31):
We kind of ran out of time.

Speaker 4 (42:33):
You know, when Kyle Tucker the saga that was his
bone bruise, like the most effective bone bruise in the
history of bone bruises, until we all figured out, yeah,
there's a break. There's a break in the bone there.
That's why he didn't play for a giant chunk of
the season. Jordan Alvarez this season, well, he's having some

(42:56):
discomfort in his hand. That's the magic word. Now he's
having inflammation. What we did additional imaging and it turns
out he had a broken but what like that was
my reaction that day and then now you know the
bone is eighty percent healed. Now it's still it's healed
even more now but he's having recurring discomfort like this

(43:17):
keeps happening. How much of this, in your opinion, can
and maybe is players wanted to get back out there
sooner than they should.

Speaker 6 (43:25):
I mean, I think that's part of it. I think
there also has to be the adult in the room,
like all of these people are adults, but there has
to be the person that's that has the player's best
interest in mind. And I believe that I'm not sitting
here saying that the Astros don't have their player's best
interest in mind. I think they one hundred percent do.
And I think they're medical staff, their strength, the conditioning staff,

(43:47):
the coaching staff, they're they're all there for the players.
And Joe A. Spot has said last night like if
I didn't think he could play, I would not have
written him in the lineup.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
Right, and that I mean I watched it.

Speaker 4 (43:59):
I was very excited when he saw the lineup yesterday. Oh,
Jake Myers is back. And then I was like, in
the back of my mind, well.

Speaker 6 (44:04):
I mean I watched it before. I watched it at
two o'clock before the game at dyke In Park, like
Jake was in right field, sprinting, running, Jeremiah Randall was there,
the trainer, Joe Aspatta was there, some of the strength coaches.
Like it wasn't as if like he walked in to
the clubhouse at two thirty and Joe asked him you
ready to go, and he said yes, and he just
put him in the lineup, like they put him through

(44:24):
the requisite workload that Jake talked about after the game
last night, and they thought he could go, and Jake
thought he could go, and it just it did not
work out. And again, like we said in in the
first hour in a vacuum, if this was an isolated incident,
then I don't think we're having we're talking about this
for going on an hour on the radio because oh,

(44:47):
I mean, it happens, you know, like you know, we
tried to get him back. He re injured himself. Man,
that's a tough break. But the problem is isn't an
isolated incident. This is this is something not maybe this public,
not that you know it happened during a game, like
before a pitch was thrown. But like I mean, Jordan
Alvarez a month and a half ago was hitting live
BP off of minor league pitchers and then the next

(45:08):
day like, oh, by the way, he has a hand fracture.
Kyle Tucker was in the in the middle of that
bone bruised fracture. Saga was trying to run about a
month after he suffered the injury, and you know, it
just wasn't working, so they had to shut it down.
And that's I believe when they found the fracture. I'm
not sure, but I mean last night was not just

(45:31):
an isolated incident. There have been too many of these
for this to be called just, oh, like a coincidence. Oh,
it's bad luck. And then look, part of this is
bad luck. Like I mean, you can't just look at
this and say, oh, man, like this is bad luck.
Like you finally get this guy back and he reinjures
himself right off, and then same thing with Alvarez and

(45:53):
Wes Palm last or a couple weeks ago, Like some
of this is poor fortune. But also, like we talked about,
you've now had two heads of Baseball operations, different guys entirely,
James Click and Dana Brown that have both said on
the record we rushed guys back, and one of them
called for a review of the return to play procedure

(46:15):
and whether that has happened. I'm not sure, but all
of that coalescing kind of tells you that this is
not this is not just a fluke, This is not
just there is something amiss here and I'm not smart
enough to know what it is.

Speaker 4 (46:31):
Well, and I you know, I think that in the
case of Kyle Tucker, I know you and I talked
about this both on and off the air last year,
it was turning into a disservice to the player who
is trying to get back out there in that it
was a misdiagnosis initially. We're talking about two consecutive years

(46:51):
where that's happened. Because now that happened with your on Alvarez,
Well we did more imaging. When did you decide to
do more imaging that it wasn't first of all, was
it not caught the first time? And that's a I mean,
I could even I don't know. Again, I'm not a
doctor either, right, but I'm sure that happens all the time,
where you don't see something on an initial imaging and
then you go back for more.

Speaker 5 (47:12):
But when when was the decision made to do that?

Speaker 4 (47:15):
Because this guy was taking swings and you were talking
about it and being very public about Hey, look he's
he's getting close and then all of a sudden, Oh
it hurts, so we're doing more imaging and oh it's
a break.

Speaker 6 (47:27):
Yeah, I mean it's it has it is not. It
is a public perception problem and it's gonna be hard
for them to dig out of it. And look, I
will give them credit since because part of this too
has been a communication issue. It's been a you know,
a lack of transparency. It's been you know, the updates
are always just effusively positive, well like maybe he's back tomorrow,

(47:51):
and then tomorrow, maybe he's back the next day and
he's feeling better today, like maybe we'll get move and
it just kind of kicking the can down the round.
I will give the Ashers credit since the Outrez saga.
You have seen it, you know, all all three of
us Beat writers have posted about it, you know in
the game notes. Every Monday, we now get a very
lengthy and very detailed injury report, which is which is great,

(48:13):
and that.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
Is a step toward transparency.

Speaker 6 (48:16):
When Jordan Alvarez had the setback in West Palm and
they had to send them to a hand specialist, we
got a seven paragraph press release about what the specialists said,
what they did things, and that is a very welcome change,
and I applaud the astros for doing that. That can
help because it helps us to better cover the situation.

(48:37):
It helps fans to maybe better understand what's going on.
But also like the fact, the fact also is that
this keeps happening, and until it stops happening, I don't
think it's going to sate many people.

Speaker 5 (48:51):
No, And I think that you know, if you're if
you are just wanting the astro like what's the status,
let me just ask you this, what's the status of
Jordan right now? You know?

Speaker 4 (49:02):
Because I think we're at the point now where I know,
the other day Joe A Spotta, I think it was
Joe's spotted that said if his best guess was the
first guy to be healthy enough to play again would
be Jeremy Panna.

Speaker 5 (49:15):
Is that correct?

Speaker 6 (49:17):
I'm to the point now where I don't want to
guess on any of this stuff.

Speaker 4 (49:20):
Like he's got a cracked rib, Jordan's got a cracked hand,
now Jake has we don't even.

Speaker 6 (49:25):
Know what I look neither until until either of them
is swinging a bat, Until Jordon Alvarezer or Jeremy Penne
is swinging a bat. Jeremy Penne is not even doing
baseball activities, right, Jordon Alpharez isn't either, to my not well,
he's doing a little bit of like throwing, but like,
until either of them is swinging a bat, there's no point.

(49:46):
There's no point right in thinking about a timeline.

Speaker 4 (49:49):
Yeah, and that's probably not what fans want to hear,
especially when you like that. I kept getting messages like
this all weekend long. How are they doing this against
the Dodgers?

Speaker 5 (49:59):
How are they?

Speaker 4 (50:00):
How are they this version of the team doing this
not just against the Dodgers but everybody, and now you
know they just got swept by Cleveland. By the way,
why do you pitch to Jose Ramirez. I'm just gonna
put that out there for the third consecutive show.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
He is so good, he's so good. He is so good,
but he doesn't look like he should be.

Speaker 4 (50:17):
He looks pudgy, he looks like he's unathletic, he's short,
he's everything you would never think would be a sensational
athlete to play major League baseball, and he just kicked.

Speaker 5 (50:27):
Their ass every time.

Speaker 6 (50:28):
Robbie Devers. People think is yeah, yes, look, the the
offense is amazing. He's an incredible hitter. But that play
he made on a two, that play he made in
Aul two V last night at third base, like backing
up ball caught him to the throw.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
He is incredible and he's really Honestly, I know the guy.
I know that he wasn't the one that hit the
grand slam the other night. He's probably the only guy
that can actually really probably hurt you in that lineup
if you pitch to him, and man, before you knew it,
it was it was two nothing last night and that
wasn't even the first run that he hits.

Speaker 5 (51:00):
So that was that was a rough series. Maybe come
back down to earth a little bit, but we will continue.
You remember that south Park episode where it was like
there are no stupid questions, only stupid people. Well, I'm
gonna I'm gonna prove that that's the case when we
come back with a Chandler Rome question for him.

Speaker 4 (51:18):
When we return. It is the A Team on a
Thursday edition of the show The A teen on Sports
Talk seven ninety. It is the A Team Sports Talk
seven ninety. That's a juicy tidbit that I can't reveal.

(51:40):
Y'all should just keep a lookout for what Chandler Rome does,
whether it's writing in the athletic or whether it's anything
else he does in the world of media. I gash
you up because I care. I mean, there's not a
lot of people. Well you know what, if no one
else will, I will, right Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 5 (52:00):
It makes me think of him.

Speaker 4 (52:03):
By the way, just looking back at that, I know
it's not even a complete season before we get into
what I wanted to talk about here.

Speaker 5 (52:13):
Uh, the Astros did very well in that trade, so.

Speaker 6 (52:16):
Are the Cubs like that? Again, the trade will ultimately
be judged by do the Cubs win the World Series
this year, which I don't think they do. Do the
Cubs win the World Series this year? And do they
resign Kyle Tucker? And it will be judged by what
Cam Smith looks like for the next five years. I
think the initial returns on Cam Smith are excellent. They're amazing. Yeah,
east ok Paratus is an all star. Like he has

(52:36):
exceeded I mean, they had pretty lofty expectations for him
and he has exceeded them. But yeah, like the two
biggest Tom the two biggest things that will judge how
that trade ultimately ages are what the Cubs do this
year and how Cam Smith of all the next five years.
But as of this moment, as of July tenth, twenty
twenty five, it's a win win. Dana Brown deserves a

(52:59):
ton of credit for the return that he got because
it has really really helped. Kyle Tucker is doing everything
that the Cubs could have imagined and more. Both teams
came out of that looking very very good.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
You mentioned, you know, one of the two things. One
is obvious, it's very hard to do in Major League Baseball.
Sometimes opposing fan bases of the Astros forget that. It's
hard to win a World Series even if you are
perfectly healthy.

Speaker 5 (53:23):
It does help.

Speaker 4 (53:25):
But re signing Kyle Tucker right now on July tenth,
where do you put that as far as that happening
him returning to the Cubs.

Speaker 6 (53:37):
Thirty five percent? Ooh, that's still probably a little high
for me. I mean, I usually take the field in
these situations just because it's an easier bet when you
have twenty nine other teams been in forum as opposed
to one. But I'll say this, like Kyle Tucker is
not what you would call like reflective or very like.

(54:00):
He's just he's very plain. He doesn't say much, doesn't
let his feelings be known, is very guarded and very
close to the vest. He did say something when he
was in Houston, when he was doing his scrum before
the first game. He talked about as effusively as I
can remember him talking about Chicago, like he really does
seem to like it, He seems to like playing there.
He seems to like the Cubs.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
There's a lot to like.

Speaker 6 (54:22):
Course, I love Chicago, great city, and the Cubs are
a legacy franchise. Now, as he said that before and
now was just the first time I had heard it,
I'm not sure, but like I wouldn't, I wouldn't rule
it out. I mean, the Cubs have money. Contrary to
how they spend, they have money, like they are rich.

(54:43):
I wouldn't rule it out. I think, especially if they
win the World Series. I think that would only encourage
him to do it more. That would only motivate them
to do it more.

Speaker 4 (54:52):
You know, I was I found fascinating about him, and
it shouldn't probably really be a surprise other than the
franchise we're talking about. Well, he always to me, And
maybe he wasn't like effusive about it, but he it
felt like to me he was always very fond of
the idea of maybe playing in Tampa because of he's
from there. But Tampa is not rich, or at least

(55:14):
they don't. They don't run their team that way. And
I just don't see them being able to pony up
the type of cash that would And by the way,
if they did well, they're not going to have like
any sort of competitive baseball team because he's gonna he's
gonna get like five hundred million.

Speaker 6 (55:28):
You know who trains in Tampa? Who Planton you know
who's spring training home is in Tampa?

Speaker 5 (55:32):
The Houston Astros. Oh God, we don't need that in
our lives.

Speaker 6 (55:37):
And he can. I mean, hey, he could sign with
the Yankees. Live in Tampa, like, go to spring training
in Tampa, play in the off like live there in
the off Seaton perfect.

Speaker 5 (55:45):
I mean, yeah, is jeddge playing center right now? Is
he right? Because uh so, what what would happen there?
Would he go to right to center field?

Speaker 6 (55:52):
Bellingers and center?

Speaker 5 (55:53):
Oh that's right, that's right.

Speaker 6 (55:54):
They have Bellinger And I think Bellinger's a free agent.
I think I think he's a free agent after for sure.
But I mean again, you're getting with Kyle Tucker, You're
getting there's gonna be like five teams in because like
there's only a certain number of teams that are going
to give that contract, Like he's gonna you just said,
he's gonna get something that starts with a four and.

Speaker 5 (56:10):
Maybe minimum, maybe even more than that. Like I got seven, Yeah,
didn't Kyle Tucker get five? At least?

Speaker 8 (56:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (56:18):
Wan Sodo, I mean he's want so it is a
better player than Kyle Tucker. But Kyle Tucker is a
better base runner, he's a better defender, he's a more
all around player. Soda is obviously the better hitter. But yeah,
just a I mean, he is a five tool player,
And wouldn't you start getting into that amount of money.
You know, there's only five to seven teams, and I

(56:39):
mean you can say the two New York teams. I
doubt the Mets are gonna go after him because I
already have Soto. You have the two New York teams,
You have the Phillies, you have the Cubs, you have
the Dodgers. I don't think that I never rolled the
Dodgers out on anything. But I mean, I don't know
that they're going to be clamoring to add another huge contract.
And so you start to look at it, and there's

(57:00):
not gonna be a ton of teams that are just
gonna hand over four or five hundred million dollars. So
you can kind of start to narrow it down as
to what teams are really going to be in on this.
I would I don't expect the local team to be
one of them, but yeah, but yeah, I mean it's
he's gonna he's gonna get paid handsomely, and he's going
to get play and he's going to get to play

(57:21):
in a massive media market.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
What are those other like you mentioned the Yankees, what
are some of those other teams? I mean, because I
know I know some certain teams probably come to mind
when you start talking about, well, this team could afford
it because they spend a lot, But some of those
teams are already spending and so therefore they won't be
in on it.

Speaker 6 (57:38):
Well, let's let's look at teams that dodgers. Let's look
at teams that have done this. Let's look at teams
that have gone to that four or five hundred you know,
I mean, obviously the two New York teams. But I
don't think the Mets have a very highly paid corner outfield, right.
I don't think they need Kyle Tucker the Red Sox.
Would the Red Sox have have spent that? Would they
do it again? I'm not sure. They just loaded all

(58:00):
endeavors as contracts.

Speaker 5 (58:01):
So maybe maybe that's where I'm going next, by the way,
so keep that in mind.

Speaker 6 (58:04):
Maybe they make a run of him. You know, you
got the Phillies, you know, the Cubs, obviously, the Blue
Jays have played in that market. They just gave Vladdie
a huge deal. Do you consider them rich though they are?
I know they're rich, like they are. I mean, how
come they don't They were runner up for Oani.

Speaker 5 (58:22):
Yeah that's true. I forget about that. And weren't they
kind of.

Speaker 6 (58:26):
They were kind of in on Soto like they ran
on Bregman like they were they were. I mean, they
got Santander, they gave Vladdie a ton of money, like so,
I mean they're a team that can certainly lurk. And
they're playing well right now too. They're like right behind
the Astros, I think record wise, Like so, if they
keep playing and then you know, Kyle Tucker knows George
Springer over there, there could be some who knows. The

(58:48):
Giants have been a team that has gone out there
and demonstrative a willingness to spend. They tried to sign Judge,
they tried to sign Otani, They tried to sign all
these big free agents. None of them wanted to come.

Speaker 9 (59:00):
Do they want to go after Soto?

Speaker 3 (59:02):
Who?

Speaker 5 (59:02):
Uh?

Speaker 9 (59:03):
Giants Soto?

Speaker 6 (59:05):
SODA's with the Mets?

Speaker 8 (59:06):
No?

Speaker 9 (59:06):
Did they try this passa?

Speaker 10 (59:07):
Oh no?

Speaker 2 (59:07):
I mean they tried like they were in on it.
They almost got Korea, but they did well.

Speaker 6 (59:11):
They did say for like five seconds they did get Korea,
just like the Mets got him. But yeah, so, I
mean you start to look at it and like the
teams separate themselves, you it's pretty easy to know which
teams are going to be the ones.

Speaker 4 (59:23):
I I am fascinated by what has happened in Boston
as it pertains to Alex Bregman, because when he got
that deal initially forty million per for three seasons, but
there's an opt out anytime he wants each year, And
I was like, wow, out, yeah, now he he was
opting out before he was Yeah, but that is that

(59:45):
is betting on yourself, clearly for a guy that is
a notorious slow starter, and he was anything but that
this year. He was awesome out of the gate, and
everybody in Houston was like, hey man, what the hell
where was that? And everybody like, I think a lot
of people still love him here, and I think he
loves Houston still, but they just I was. I got

(01:00:06):
to the point where and we would text about this
during the offseason. There was a number that I just
like the Astros.

Speaker 5 (01:00:11):
I guess I just was not comfortable with them spending
at his advanced age and all that kind of stuff
and his reputation. But he blew a lot of that
out of the water. I did not see the Devers
thing going the way it did, though, And that felt
like a very very intensely personal divorce, if you will.

Speaker 6 (01:00:32):
I don't even blame like that was mishandled by everybody.
Craig Breslow, Okay, the I think they call him the
Chief Baseball Officer. He's their GM, but like they have
a fancy title for him, Like they didn't even tell
Devers that they were signing Bragman. Like they didn't they
didn't keep him abreast of what was going on. And
I'm not saying if they tell him that, hey, we're

(01:00:53):
gonna we're gonna try to sign Bregmant, it would have
gone over better. But I'm sure he didn't like being blindsided.
And like, I don't blame for signing Bregman. It makes
your team better, but you have to be able to
communicate with the guys you have, and I think Devers is.
And look, there's been a lot of stuff that's come
out about Devers that he's not necessarily the greatest. I
don't want to say he's not a good clubhouse guy,

(01:01:13):
but he's not.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Look what he's doing in San Francisco this week.

Speaker 6 (01:01:16):
Yeah, I mean he's not. He very much just likes
to do his thing. And what I was talking about
this with someone, and I won't say who it was.
I was talking about this with someone within the Ashers
organization when the Devers stuff was blowing up, like right
when they traded him, and I looked at this person
and I said it. I said, it's the perfect example
of you have to be really careful who you invest in,

(01:01:37):
like who you give three hundred million because and I
looked at the guy and I said, you guys have
done a pretty good job of that because the one
guy you guys have invested in, Jose Altuve, is the
complete antithesis of Raphael Devers.

Speaker 4 (01:01:49):
Yeah, well, we will will follow up just to kind
of put a bow on that topic, because I did
want to ask you about Bregman this offseason. And then again,
I promise I will get to the there are no
stupid questions, only stupid people question that I was going
to ask Chandler Rome when we come back.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
All right, it is the A team Sports Talk seven
ninety before I asked the South Park esque question of
Chandler Rome, who is filling in, by the way, all
day long for Adam Wexler.

Speaker 5 (01:02:27):
He will be back on Monday. The A team will
be whole again.

Speaker 4 (01:02:30):
But I can't think of a better guy to have
in here on a daylight today than Chandler Rome of
the athletic And we were talking about the former Astros,
the Kyle Tuckers and the Alex Bregman's of the world.
So we both agree and goes without saying he will
opt out after this first year there in Boston. But
isn't it fascinating to you A just dealing with and

(01:02:54):
I don't know how much Like I'm not asking you
to reveal your sources obviously, but I think any Scott
Boris client is for somebody like you, especially, not even
for us, but somebody like you that's a writer that
breaks news, by the way, is so much more fascinating
to cover than say a usual run of the mill

(01:03:15):
even superstar that is not a Scott Boris client.

Speaker 5 (01:03:19):
I just think that he adds an element to these guys.

Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
That all of us here in Houston are like, ah, bleep,
he signed, like Hunter Brown signs with Scott Boris or
Jeremy Payne signs with Scott Boris, and I'm like, great,
that's gonna be awesome when he leaves.

Speaker 5 (01:03:34):
The astros like that's just what you assume. I just
can't wait for the puns. I can't wait for Scott's
how he's gonna like his dad jokes do the wordplay
with Hunter Brown. There's gonna be something about like what
can Brown do for you or something? And the Jared
he's gonna put He's gonna do something with pain you
with like JP's like it's it's JP three. I cannot
wait for those.

Speaker 6 (01:03:55):
But yeah, I mean generally, when when Scott Boris, when
you when you hire Scott Boris, you don't hire Scott
Boris to give a discount, to get a discount. You
hire Scott Borris to get what you're worth. And I mean, again,
we've litigated this over and over, but the Astros do
have two players that buck the Boris trend of Josel
two Van Lance McCullers, who are Scott Boris clients al

(01:04:17):
two they got two extensions. Mcculler's got another. He does
do extensions. But it's those two situations were the player
told Scott I don't want to play anywhere else. I
don't want to do free agency. Free agency is not
my thing. I want to stay here for the long term.
And Scott got it done because Scott works for the player.

(01:04:38):
Like I think that gets misconstrued a lot, like whatever
the player tells Scott Boris to do, he does like
he works for them. Now, I'm not suggesting Jeremy Pana
hasn't expressed that he wants to be in Houston long term.

Speaker 4 (01:04:51):
They all said that though, but except for George Springer,
he's like I'm out of here.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:04:57):
But other than that, you know, corres It.

Speaker 4 (01:05:01):
Said it was so vocal about it, Did you think
there's ever a chance that one would actually come about?

Speaker 5 (01:05:08):
Or was Jeremy Pania waiting in the wings more than
we even knew at the time.

Speaker 6 (01:05:11):
I don't think that. Again, I think if you hook
people up to truth serum, I don't think they thought
they had this in Jeremy Pana waiting in the wings.
But I will say this, when they didn't re sign
Korea like that to me, signaled that they're never going
to do it, Like if they weren't going to do
it for him one one like ABSRT and sole guy

(01:05:33):
sole like the most like effervescent, like just his aura
was just him and al two V the aura was
unmatched like still that way, if they weren't going to
do it for him, then they probably aren't going to
ever do it for anybody. And then to extent the
same thing with Alex Pregnant, I mean stayed here longer.
I mean, but what in one one he was one

(01:05:54):
two but again face of the franchise, leader like guy
like pillar of the club. If they weren't gonna do
it for those two guys, if they weren't gonna go
to if they weren't gonna go out of their comfort
zone for those two guys, and out of their comfort
zone being longer than five years, more than one hundred
and fifty million dollars, Like, if they weren't gonna do
it for those two guys, are probably never gonna do it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:15):
And that seems to always be the offer you hear about, Well,
they offer Jeremy Panna this, and it's always one hundred
and fifty million, you know, and it's it's not lowball,
but it's not gonna get it done.

Speaker 5 (01:06:26):
And so it's almost like.

Speaker 4 (01:06:28):
A conciliatory offer, like, well, put we put serious money
out there, just not serious, serious.

Speaker 6 (01:06:34):
Heart, and it's like it's, look, here's our offer, take
it or leave it.

Speaker 4 (01:06:36):
So where That's why it's fascinating to me about Boston,
because I don't think Scott Boris and Alex Bregman sat
down and said to themselvesselves, we're gonna get this money
and we're not gonna be playing with Raffi Devers. Like
it's however you feel about that situation in Boston as
a Red Sox fan or the organization or what have you.
They're not as good without both of them on the

(01:06:58):
team as they were when they were both there.

Speaker 5 (01:07:00):
No, they're not, but they're still really good. Yeah, I
mean it's still a really deep lineup. But does does
Alex Bregman re sign with the Red Sox. I'll just
go right to the point.

Speaker 6 (01:07:09):
I mean, I don't think they do it now. I
think because I mean it, it wouldn't make sense unless again,
the only way a Scott Bors client will ever sign
an in season extension or an extension is if it's
got to be the offer you can't refuse.

Speaker 5 (01:07:23):
Well, that's what I'm saying this off season right he stayed,
will probably opt.

Speaker 6 (01:07:27):
Out of this deal. And again, I think it depends
on what the Red Sox do, Like do they make
the playoffs?

Speaker 9 (01:07:32):
Do they?

Speaker 2 (01:07:33):
Right now?

Speaker 5 (01:07:33):
I don't think they're going how do they.

Speaker 6 (01:07:35):
Do this season?

Speaker 8 (01:07:35):
Like?

Speaker 6 (01:07:36):
But you do have to remember, like they didn't they
didn't do this trade to clear payroll space, but they
got a lot of money. They got a lot of
money there that they can spend. When they got Devers's
contract off the books, I mean that was three hundred
Devers was a three hundred million dollar player and they
got that off the books, so they're in a prime
position to pounce, like whether it's on Bregman, whether it's
on Tucker, like, who knows. Like they've their outfield is

(01:07:59):
pretty set. They've got Iran, They've got Raphaela, They've got
former Asters farm hand Willie or a bray you like
their outfield, Like they don't necessarily need Tucker, but I
mean if they can go get him and they can
maybe trade some of that from that surplus and help
their pitching, who knows. But yeah, Like they're in a
position where they can do a lot of interesting things
this offseason, and I think Bregman's kind of He's gonna
be at the top of their list.

Speaker 4 (01:08:19):
To consider how nauseating would it be for Astros fans
if Bregman and Tucker are playing in Boston.

Speaker 5 (01:08:26):
Horrifying?

Speaker 6 (01:08:27):
I mean, I mean they could do whatever they want.
I mean, John Henry's John Henry's very rich, like every
owner in baseball, Every owner in baseball is very rich. Again,
I I think Tucker's less likely just because of what
I said. They have, So their outfield right now is
so young and playing so well and cheaper and cheaper. Yeah,
So like Bregman is more of a need. Like they

(01:08:47):
do have Marcela Meyer, they do have Roman Anthony, like
they have young guys on the infield, but like Bregman,
it's I mean, he's doing the same thing in Boston
that he did here. Like you read coverage from Boston.
It's like even when he's been out, like he's been
a godsend for the young kids, like he's mentoring them,
he's being he's being Bregman. He's doing Bregman things over there.
He's really helped that clubhouse, like from a leadership perspective,

(01:09:12):
from just a galvanizing perspective, like he's doing everything you
would expect Alex Bregman to do.

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
So like he in all likelihood, you still think that
he would wind up in Boston though, and then it's
maybe somebody else they add, however that goes, but Bregman,
like it felt like they wanted to go. That's the
other question I had about this. I promise I'm gonna
get to the question next segment I was gonna ask you.
But that's the other thing.

Speaker 5 (01:09:38):
How realistically close did he get to signing with actually
the best team in the AL this year? The Detroit Tigers.

Speaker 6 (01:09:46):
He close, like the Red Sox came in with another offer,
like at the last minute, and they got to where
that they got to where Bregman and Scott wanted to
be like they were like he thought. I think he
has said this on the record, like there was a
period of time in spring training right before he signed

(01:10:06):
with the Red Sox where he was convinced he was
going he was going to Detroit.

Speaker 4 (01:10:11):
That's fascinating to me, especially with aj Hinch there and
seeing what they've done this year and thinking about Alex
Bregman being a part of that.

Speaker 6 (01:10:18):
Yeah, and who knows, maybe the Tigers get another could
have been Asher's third baseman, Nolan Arnotto. Maybe they get
him at the deadline.

Speaker 5 (01:10:26):
He'll be what forty five when that happens.

Speaker 6 (01:10:27):
Maybe.

Speaker 5 (01:10:29):
All right, we will take a quick time out.

Speaker 4 (01:10:31):
I promise, I promise we got all the Tucker and
Bragman conversation out of the way. I will finally ask
Chandler Rome what that question was about. As it partico
this goes back to the Jake Meyers injury.

Speaker 5 (01:10:43):
We will do that next.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:10:55):
All right, so many of you guys may recall an
episode of South Park? Are you fan of the show?

Speaker 6 (01:11:01):
I am, Like, I can't quote it offhand, like I
don't remember like specific episodes, but I am a fan
of the show.

Speaker 4 (01:11:07):
But the best part about south Park is that they
are equal opportunity offenders, that they don't care about any one,
that they're absolutely nobody. There's no prisoners, take no prisoners,
there's nobody is safe, all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 9 (01:11:19):
Show a TV show of all time?

Speaker 3 (01:11:20):
Is it really?

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:11:21):
It is.

Speaker 9 (01:11:22):
I can quote almost like a single episode.

Speaker 4 (01:11:24):
So you remember when the line was said, there are
no super you know, there's no stupid questions.

Speaker 5 (01:11:29):
I only stay with people. Yes, yes, mister Garrison, And
we're gonna take Tyler's phone call here as well.

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
Do you like we were talking about this before the show.

Speaker 5 (01:11:39):
You can only recall like one achilles injury in Major
League Baseball.

Speaker 6 (01:11:43):
Yeah it's Joe Smith.

Speaker 4 (01:11:45):
The NBA just had three in the span of one postseason,
and all of them, to the best of my knowledge,
I recall or complaining of calf tightness before it happened.
Now here's the stupid question, stupid people part. Is it
literally as simple as the playing surface they play on

(01:12:09):
a hardwood ninety four foot floor versus a baseball field
with either turf or natural grass.

Speaker 6 (01:12:14):
I mean, maybe it's also like baseball is not near
as high impact of a sport as I mean basketball.
You're sprinting for forty eight minutes up and down the floor,
You're constantly changing directions.

Speaker 5 (01:12:26):
I mean, but there is planting, There is sprinting, sure, but.

Speaker 6 (01:12:30):
Like I mean fielding there there there are there are
times in a baseball game where like if you have
a I mean especially if like Fromber's pitching, or if
you have a good strikeout guy going, like the outfielders
could just stand there all game and like they have
to move some. They have to get in the ready
position and move. But like the way they don't have
to make a ton of like huge sprints, a ton
of change of directions sort of stuff. So like that's

(01:12:52):
more constant in the NBA, Like I presume like the
playing surface has to have something to do with it. Again,
I'm not trying to play a doctor here, but I
would imagine just because it's more of a impact sport,
there's more running, there's more Just that is that is
the ethos of the sports, right, But I wonder, like,
is that their version of Tommy John is that their

(01:13:14):
version of ucl Is is achilles injuries, like the NBA's
version of elbow injuries, or to.

Speaker 5 (01:13:21):
A less a much lesser extent.

Speaker 4 (01:13:22):
But I still think that that NFL and Major League
Baseball players. I mean, I know this happens a lot
in the NBA, but we're talking about major ones. Like
hamstring injuries are right up there. Like George Springer had
one like every year while he was here in Houston.

Speaker 6 (01:13:37):
Alex Bregman for a little bit too.

Speaker 5 (01:13:39):
Yeah, I mean, and I think Jordon at one point
had a hamstring.

Speaker 4 (01:13:43):
Maybe I'm mixing them up with somebody else, but you know,
booking it down the first base line, you know that's
where that happens a lot, right, But.

Speaker 6 (01:13:50):
That's not like you could have some games where you
go for four four strikeouts. You don't. You never run
down the first base line like yeah, like the NBA
like no matter, like you are running the whole game
like non stop, like when you get to the arena,
like like baseball is a game where like you never
know how much action you're going to have going into

(01:14:11):
a game.

Speaker 4 (01:14:12):
That's why you can look like Matt Stairs and have
a long career in Major League Baseball, right, or.

Speaker 6 (01:14:16):
Matt Lato's for those for those that really want to
have getting the way back year Like yeah, like basketball though,
like you know, going like even if you're a scrub,
even if you're like the best player in the world
playing against the worst team in the world, Like you're
gonna run for forty eight minutes and it's gonna be
high impact like baseball, like you you know, you truly
never know when you get to the ballpark how much
physical activity you're gonna have to exert that night.

Speaker 5 (01:14:38):
All right, let's get Tyler's phone call in here.

Speaker 4 (01:14:41):
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety's a
telephone number seven one three two one two five seven
nine or Tyler, what's going on?

Speaker 9 (01:14:48):
Man?

Speaker 10 (01:14:49):
Hello, gentlemen, thanks for having me.

Speaker 6 (01:14:52):
Hello.

Speaker 10 (01:14:53):
I just uh, yes, I have spent a lot of
time with Chandler uh co hosting the Crew City Territory podcast,
and so I happen to know that he is the
world's biggest swift bee, and so I have an important
question for him, and that is, if he could describe
this astro season with any Taylor Swift album, I'll settle

(01:15:15):
for a song. If he has, you know, to use
a cop out, but if he could describe it with
any Taylor Swift album, what would that be?

Speaker 6 (01:15:23):
Well, Tyler, let's start off with the Astros are living
up to their reputation as as one of you know,
the American League's most dominant teams, no matter who's in
the uniform. Recently because of the rash of injuries, they
are kind of acting like some tortured poets with you know,
having so many guys out, but you know, talking about it.

(01:15:46):
You know, it's not really in their nature to talk.
You wonder you want these people more. Have you want
people that you don't get available enough? You want them
to speak now and they don't. So that's tough. But
you know, this isn't nineteen eighty. This is twenty twenty five.

Speaker 5 (01:16:02):
Unbelievable.

Speaker 6 (01:16:03):
This is twenty and twenty five, and the Astros are
you know, they're fearless.

Speaker 10 (01:16:08):
Well, I appreciate it, lover, I will, I will continue listening.
Thank you for the wonderful answer.

Speaker 5 (01:16:15):
Well, that was a nightmare fuel for me.

Speaker 6 (01:16:18):
That's the best segment. You that's the best phone call
you've ever taken, phone call we've had all year.

Speaker 4 (01:16:23):
Well, there's like you can count on one hand that
wasn't a guest. I mean you you are a giant swiftie,
right I am, And you know that I despise her.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
Right Why she's great?

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
She sucks?

Speaker 6 (01:16:34):
No, she doesn't, she's like.

Speaker 4 (01:16:35):
In fact, I've got an example. I saw this just yesterday.
I was scrolling Instagram as I'm want to do, and
it was a duet. I can't remember the song, but
it was her and Stevie Nicks on stage. Now what
you should know before I go any further is that
my wife is the biggest Stevie Nicks fan on the planet. Yes, okay,

(01:16:58):
that's her solo career, but obviously she was in Fleetwood,
Mac and my wife. My first gift to my wife
after we were married, my first birthday gift to my
wife after we were married, is a signed Stevie Nick's
guitar that is framed and in her studio at the house.

Speaker 5 (01:17:14):
So it's it's like that it's serious.

Speaker 4 (01:17:16):
And they were on stage together at a live show
and it was like I think the caption was something
along along the lines of it. I'm paraphrasing because I
don't have it in front of me. Some some artists
should never be backup singers. And what they were saying
was that it was a Stevie Nick song that Taylor
was trying.

Speaker 5 (01:17:37):
To take the lead on and she just was.

Speaker 4 (01:17:39):
She was out of her depth with Stevie Nicks standing
next to her on stage. And I like, like she
is a think I will give her a credit that
she is a somewhat talented songwriter, somewhat. I mean, I'm
not gonna if I don't like her music. I can't
just go I can't gush about the songwriting.

Speaker 9 (01:17:55):
Dide. I hate her and I think that she's a
brilliant song.

Speaker 4 (01:17:58):
That's what I'm saying is and see what he means,
I think, because we both despise her, is that she
has the ability to write songs that a lot of
people get stuck in their head or are catchy.

Speaker 5 (01:18:11):
I mean that's what the gist of it is, sure,
but like if.

Speaker 6 (01:18:13):
You you can get it suck in your head, but
like if you really like like if it's stuck out
and then you break down the lyrics' like damn, this
is good.

Speaker 5 (01:18:21):
Yeah it is good. It's about whatever breakup she was
writing about that day, you know. And I get that
people write about breakups.

Speaker 6 (01:18:28):
That's not how she wrote a football song on the
last on Torture Post Apartment, The Alchemy is a football song.

Speaker 4 (01:18:33):
I mean, do you understand because this gets Wex so
upset when I bring this up? Do you understand why
it's not even about her so much as like, I
just I want to watch a freaking football game without
seeing her arrival every time she picks her nose?

Speaker 5 (01:18:48):
Well do you don't?

Speaker 4 (01:18:49):
And Wex will sit here condescendingly because that's what he does.
He'll say, they only cut away for like three times
during the game. He's like sitting there because it's only
three I shouldn't be so upset.

Speaker 5 (01:19:00):
You have a daughter, right, m hm? I have a stepdaughter, yes,
but she's like a daughter.

Speaker 6 (01:19:05):
Does she like football?

Speaker 3 (01:19:06):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
Eh?

Speaker 6 (01:19:07):
Does she like Taylor Swift?

Speaker 5 (01:19:08):
Course?

Speaker 6 (01:19:09):
Will she watch a Chiefs game because Taylor Swift's on?

Speaker 5 (01:19:11):
Well, she'll watch it also because her nana is from
Kansas City and is diehard fan, But she won't. I
don't think she sat down and watched the game because
Taylor Swift was there.

Speaker 6 (01:19:20):
But it keeps her entertained, doesn't it. I had something
to do there, you go, That's why they do it.

Speaker 4 (01:19:25):
She's brutal. She's absolutely brutal. All right, four o'clock hour
and zero Taylor Swift discussion.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
Next, The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
Te lifelong Houston sports guy's named Adam talking your Team.

Speaker 2 (01:19:47):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckfler are the A Team.

Speaker 4 (01:19:53):
Straight up four o'clock here on a Thursday edition of
The A Team. Two hours in, two hours to go.
I'm always this is my gauge when I have a
guest host in is channel Roam with the Athletic is
in all show long. Wex is currently in Canada. I
don't know if he's I don't know. I think he's
in Vancouver today.

Speaker 5 (01:20:13):
It's been it's been the great trek to the Northwest,
uh for the Wexler family. And he'll be back on Monday.

Speaker 4 (01:20:19):
But uh, I wrangled in Chandler Roam of the Athletic,
not knowing that the whole Jake Myers fiasco is going
to be the latest injury the Astros are dealing with.
And we don't even know what we're dealing with here,
we being Houston and Astros fans and the organization even
I'm guessing they have a somewhat of an idea, but
when when we will find out what that is remains

(01:20:42):
to be seen. But I always gauge how things are
going when I ask whoever's sitting is is.

Speaker 5 (01:20:49):
The show flying by? Is it dragging? Is it just right?
How do you feel so far two hours in? Are
you gonna come back again the next time? I ask you?

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
No, I definitely will, Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:20:58):
I recorded a podcast this morning, crushety Territory, part of
the All Territory Network. Please subscribe and rate and review
with Tyler with Tyler Stafford. I recorded that this morning. So,
like I have already talked for like an hour. Oh,
it's like another four It's like okay, like I'm getting
on your off day I might have on the off day. Yeah,
so I'm I'm okay, but like also I'll be happy

(01:21:19):
like in two hours when it's over, Yes, I'll be
like all right, I can go home and like not
speak to anyone, not consume any media. I can go
home and just chill.

Speaker 4 (01:21:27):
Well, So, what's funny is you and I were discussing
you coming in for this date a while back, and
you knew it was gonna be an off day and
that they were going to be a home, which makes
you available. And when I reached out to Brian McTaggart
of MLB dot Com, he was like, well, Thursday is
the only off day, so enjoy Chandler, you know, and
he was he was, he was being funny but like

(01:21:47):
you and in McTaggart. So I've known McTaggart basically since
I started in this business because he was in the
clubhouse back in two thousand and five when I started
covering sports, you know, covering astros for the first time.

Speaker 5 (01:21:58):
I started in two thousand and four.

Speaker 4 (01:22:00):
But it's you two are probably when it comes to
baseball people in this town like my favorite two people
to interact with away from the game, in addition to
about the game, because it's just no, there's no bs,
there's no and you're funny. But you're both but you're
both dry when you're funny, like two of the driest

(01:22:23):
people on the planet in a good way though, So
and it cracks me up because I always think about
when you were basically, hey, justin Verlander is going to
have Tommy John and like the entire fan base, hey, man,
what are you doing? You're not even a fan? And
like they say all the dumb things, all because the

(01:22:44):
team hadn't confirmed it yet and he was getting a
second opinion and all that kind of stuff, and you
were like, you guys can say and do whatever you want.
I'm just letting you know what's going on here, and
you can thank me later, you can tell me I
was right later or whatever. But that's what I've always liked,
is that Chandler Rome is just gonna He's good. He's
a straight shooter, so I knew I was going to
get that today for four hours.

Speaker 6 (01:23:05):
Don't shoot the messenger is basically exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:23:08):
And I always tell people that, like, we'll get off
the phone with you for your weekly visit and which,
by the way, you're off the hook if you don't
want to come on tomorrow, but if you do, we'll
take you at five o'clock.

Speaker 5 (01:23:18):
There could be things to discuss. I know, right, we
might you know, what, screw that you're not off the hook.

Speaker 4 (01:23:22):
You're coming on at five o'clock tomorrow on the phone,
But I like, we will get off the phone. And
a lot of times I'll say, I don't know why
people hate on Chandler Rome in the in the Astros
fan base, like All he does is shoot you straight.
He doesn't dance around. He doesn't. So we've gotten a
lot of that for two hours. We're gonna get it
more for two hours, and just to kind of reset
what we've been talking about. Jake Myers, prior to even

(01:23:43):
taking a single at bat last night or anything of
that nature, went to you know, went to the loading
dock side of the field to leave the field. Was
not moving around very well in the clubhouse. Spoke briefly
in the clubhouse, the conclusion of which was, Hey, is
this a worse injury? How is it feeling essentially this

(01:24:06):
time around and the last time he had an injury?

Speaker 5 (01:24:08):
And he didn't want to answer that question.

Speaker 6 (01:24:10):
Yeah, And I mean props to Jake, first of all.
I mean we were initially told that he wasn't going
to speak to us. Okay, it's an open clubhouse. We
can still approach him. And he was gracious enough and
chose to speak to us. And we appreciate that he
handled it the best he could. It's a tough situation,
but you know, part of that's part of our jobs.

Speaker 9 (01:24:31):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:24:31):
We didn't want to be there. We didn't want to
have we didn't want to talk to him, like, that's
not we don't get joy.

Speaker 5 (01:24:37):
Out of it, especially about that. No, but it's part
of our jobs.

Speaker 6 (01:24:40):
So like, first of all, thank thank you to doubt
Jake's listening to this, but thank you Jake for stopping
and talking to us. But yeah, it was tough and
it was tough to watch him honestly try to get
around the clubhouse. And there's been a couple of those
this year. Jacob Melton after he sprained his ankle about
a month ago. Remember he got his first extra base
hit that game, first major league extra base hit, a triple,

(01:25:03):
And of course we had to talk to him about
spraining his ankle. And he walked in the clubhouse. I
kid you not like he needed a chair. He like
supported all of his weight on his chair to like
stand up and talk to us. It was like it
was you know, and it was such a it was
such an unfortunately fitting encapsulation of their season. Yeah, because

(01:25:23):
like it was one of these. It was supposed to
be celebratory, like this is their top prospect who got
his first big league extra base hit. It was supposed
to be a nice, a good celebratory interview, and instead,
like he can't put any weight on his ankle, and
we're having to ask him like, oh, like when are
you go on for scans? What are you getting done?
Like how long do you think it's gonna be? And
it's just it's that sucks. That stuff sucks.

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
Well, you know, we don't like that.

Speaker 4 (01:25:46):
Just in that vein before I get to something else
that I think is pertinent in light of the latest injury,
I I will give the astros credit as far as
this goes from basically the time I'm talking about, you know,
two thousand and five until today, regardless of who is
in charge of media relations, regardless of any of that

(01:26:08):
kind of stuff, there have been a lot of examples
of guys who didn't shy away from an uncomfortable or
an unpleasant moment. And the top of that list or
the start of that list is just at least as
far as the timeframe I'm talking about. I can't tell
you how many times brad Lidge would stand in front

(01:26:28):
of his locker and take questions after his latest mental breakdown.

Speaker 2 (01:26:32):
And that's what it was.

Speaker 4 (01:26:33):
After the poolh Holes home run in a series they won,
by the way, people forget that he the next season
and the seat. I can't remember exactly how long he
was here until he went to Philly and then redeemed
himself and closed out a World Series championship.

Speaker 5 (01:26:47):
I think in eight.

Speaker 4 (01:26:49):
He stood there every single time he would blow a
save or had a rough outing.

Speaker 5 (01:26:55):
And there's been a lot of that.

Speaker 4 (01:26:57):
Like Lance mccullors, the Annel Central is my day this year,
Like that's a great line because he what is he
gonna say?

Speaker 6 (01:27:03):
I mean, two nights ago, Josh Hater sitting in front
of his locker after giving up the h the routine
pop fly that landed in the Crawford boxing Fort.

Speaker 5 (01:27:11):
Du Man Crawford boxes, give it and take it away.

Speaker 3 (01:27:13):
They do.

Speaker 6 (01:27:14):
But Josh Hater sitting in front of his locker, like
scrolling on his phone, like he sees us walking over,
put his phone down, stands up, answers questions for two minutes,
like that they have a good clubhouse in terms of accountability,
in terms of professionalism, they are a very good clubhouse
to deal with of the guys in there, the coaching staff,
like they have a good thing going in there. And

(01:27:34):
again like I think I'll two vase. That's the tone
for all of that. But it was funny when you
were talking about like there are there's always been athletes,
and there's always been guys in there that that will
not shy away from difficult interviews. Uh, there was one
that that had to be convinced. But he did a
he did a difficult interview after Garrett Cole after the
twenty nineteen World Series.

Speaker 5 (01:27:52):
Garrett Cole, I am representing myself.

Speaker 6 (01:27:54):
That was man.

Speaker 4 (01:27:56):
Garrett Cole was a mercenary. He was never an astro.
I'm not saying he didn't. Look you were talking about
truth serum earlier. If you were to give Garrett called
truth serum and say, hey, what was your best season
and what will probably be your best season for the
rest of your career, it's twenty nineteen and it's never
gonna change.

Speaker 6 (01:28:16):
I mean, he didn't want He won a cy young
two years ago, so technically yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:28:19):
But that's what I'm saying, Right, he was more dominant
in my opinion in twenty nineteen.

Speaker 6 (01:28:22):
He was, but he had the unfortunate well, it was
fortunate for the astros, unfortunate for Garrett himself that he
shared a rotation with Justin Verlander. Right, it was just
as good and won the Cy Young that year. But yeah,
he was.

Speaker 5 (01:28:32):
You should have had a no hitter, Well he should
because Justin did.

Speaker 6 (01:28:35):
It was no you know what it was. It was
the one It was a start in Arlington that year
at the old Ballpark on Arlington. He gave up like
seven runs in four innings.

Speaker 5 (01:28:45):
Was that in April?

Speaker 2 (01:28:45):
It was in April? Yeah, his April sucked that year
and that cost.

Speaker 5 (01:28:48):
Him the cy Young, Yeah, because Justin was good consistently
the whole year.

Speaker 6 (01:28:52):
That one start, Like if you took that one start out,
or even if you just like take April out though
well not even April, like if that one start, if
you took off like fourign runs, like let's say he
went five innings and gave up two runs, like the
er like he's better than Verlander by every man, Like
that's how close this was, Like it came down to
if he allows like three fewer runs in that game.

Speaker 2 (01:29:14):
He probably went to Sidon.

Speaker 4 (01:29:15):
And they were both on the staff and they didn't
win a home game in the World Series and they
lost to Walgreens.

Speaker 6 (01:29:21):
Are we gonna talk about the trade deadline because I've
got like some I've got like a parallel to the
twenty nineteen team. As far as this upcoming trade deadline goes.

Speaker 5 (01:29:30):
You think they're gonna go get it Justin Verlander or no,
they wouldn't be Justin Verlander. It would be who did
they get that year?

Speaker 9 (01:29:35):
Is that?

Speaker 3 (01:29:36):
Well?

Speaker 5 (01:29:37):
Think about it like Andrew Heney Andrew he is not
Zach Greenky.

Speaker 6 (01:29:42):
But think about it like this team, they're not gonna
go get a position like depending on what happens with
Jake Myers, Like, if we find out tomorrow that Jake's
unfortunately not coming back for a very long time, maybe
that changes the calculus. But for now, let's let's upright
under the assumption that he's going to play again this season.
They're not going to go get a position player that

(01:30:02):
could come in here and play every day, Like who
are you taking? Like unless they go find a second basement,
which like, I don't think there is one out there.
I don't think the Rays are trading Brandon Low because
the raiser in the playoffs right now and he's one
of their best players. I don't think that's happening. So
like there's no position player out, Like Christian Walker's not
getting out of the lineup, Yer Diaz is not getting

(01:30:22):
out of the lineup. No matter how much you guys
don't want to hear it, they're going to stay in there.
There's no place to play an everyday external edition. So
you start to look and you're like, all right, where
can they upgrade the most? And this was kind of
the talk in twenty nineteen, right like, oh, like, this
team's been excellent the whole first stack, Like they look

(01:30:42):
like Juggernauts, like but you know they had the dominant
one two punch of Cole and Verlander, just like this
team has Valdez and Brown. And you're like, where can
they improve? Where can they get better? And kind of
start to think about it, and I mean, I see
some parallels. Maybe we'll talk about the next No, we will, Let's.

Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
Save it for the next segment. All right, when we
come back, I'm assuming you have a name in mind. Maybe, Okay,
well you'll have to find out. He might reveal it,
he might not. It's Chandler Rome's world and we're just
living in it here on a Thursday edition of the program.

Speaker 1 (01:31:14):
That is straight ahead here on the eighteen the A
team on Sports Talk seven nig.

Speaker 4 (01:31:30):
All right, what a tease going into this segment. Chandler
Rome gave us the trade deadline will be here before
you know it. All Star Game is next week. The
final three games of the pre All Star Break portion
of the calendar will be against the hated Texas Rangers
this weekend. They're playing tonight, so they're gonna be right

(01:31:50):
back into town Friday morning. They're getting in here probably
around five o'clock in the morning. The good news, Chandler,
is that I'm looking at the pitching probables.

Speaker 6 (01:32:00):
That'sna be fun.

Speaker 4 (01:32:01):
I mean, Lance hates them, genuinely hates them and has
said that before. I'm right bleeping here, remember that. And
then Fromber and Hunter, so you're gonna have probably Hunter, right,
it is Hunter, the problem the probables are out from
He's not going.

Speaker 5 (01:32:18):
To the All Star Game because of this.

Speaker 6 (01:32:19):
He's gonna he's gonna go. He's gonna he's just gonna pitch.
He's not gonna pitch. Yeah, Lance will pitch against Jack
Lyder on Tomorrow night.

Speaker 5 (01:32:26):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:32:27):
Fromber versus Jacob de Gram on Saturday. That is going
to be that's gonna be a show. And then even
butter Fox right on Fox, Yes, and then even better
on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (01:32:37):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:32:38):
Hunter Brown, and it is Native Aldi, those who I've
affectually referred to as a bum. I know you probably
would disagree with me, but I can't stand the guy
of all these.

Speaker 6 (01:32:46):
He's really he's really good. The Astros have had interest
in him for they're not he that is not happening,
But the Astros have had interested him for a very long.

Speaker 5 (01:32:54):
Are you surprised that marriage never happened. It's been like
three different times he could have come here.

Speaker 6 (01:32:59):
Well yeah, But also like they didn't need to starter
this off. I mean, they got was Nesky in the trade,
but like they he'd be perfect now, right, I knew
they had from or coming. They like they haven't really
been in the market for like a starting pitch, like
a starting pitcher of that ilk they've always needed, like
the bridge pitch they've always needed, like the middle of
the rotation guy. But like they've got so much pitching
now that's having three fourths of it's hurt in West Palm.

(01:33:21):
But like they've got so much pitching now that they
really didn't need him. But yeah, they've they've had they've
long long coveted they.

Speaker 4 (01:33:28):
So the Silver Roots series is this weekend, but before
we get to that, you know, Spencer Arrighetti, I know
I'm assuming, which puts the cart way ahead of the horse.

Speaker 5 (01:33:39):
And I know he's only had one season.

Speaker 4 (01:33:41):
I love what he has and if he can come
back and just be what he was last year, which
is easier said than done, because he's gonna he's gotta
get stretched out and he's got to get into form
and all that. This is gonna be like the latest
spring training ever. But does that kind of does them
getting healthy offset the need to go out and make

(01:34:02):
moves at the deadline, which is, by the way, gonna
be hard for them to do because they don't have
a lot to offer.

Speaker 6 (01:34:06):
Right I think they are still in very much wait
and see mode. They want a left handed bat. I
think if Jake Myers has to miss a significant amount
of time, I think that will only increase their desire
to add a bat, preferably a left handed bat. I think,
you know we're talking about in the last segment the

(01:34:28):
parallels between this team and twenty nineteen. I mean, let's
be real, the twenty nineteen team was a better team.

Speaker 5 (01:34:34):
It's the best team and never won a title.

Speaker 6 (01:34:36):
Correct, It's the best team they've ever had. Yeah, it is,
I mean better than championship teams. I mean, the twenty
two team was very good. The twenty nineteen team was absurd,
Like it's the best team they've had. But you know,
I kind of feel like with this deadline, like there's
a lot of parallels, like that nineteen team had an
amazing one to two punch of Verlander and Cole, and

(01:34:57):
then you didn't really know what you had behind them,
like they had Wade Miley. Wade was excellent until he
started tipping his pitches in August and no one figured
it out and he was getting hit around the ballpark.

Speaker 5 (01:35:07):
He's so tailed off, Yeah, because he was tipping.

Speaker 6 (01:35:10):
Because he was tipping his pitches and the ashers couldn't
figure it out. You know, you look at this this
current team, Hunter Brown fromber Veldez, and then you've got
Lance who has is working his way back, but it's
still has been inconsistent.

Speaker 9 (01:35:25):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:35:26):
Then l Central has been his daddy, but his words.
But yeah, but pitched well against the Dodgers and Dodgers
Stadium last week. But you still like don't have a
ton of assurances behind them. You know, I think they
are going to wait and see how Luis Garcia and
Christian Haavier and Spencer and Getty how they respond. But
I do wonder if there is something to be done

(01:35:49):
to really give them a lot more comfort in the rotation.
And I wonder if they could partner with the d
Backs again, because the d Backs have two pitchers, two
starters that would be rentals that are pitching very well,
and Merrill Kelly and Zach Allen. The d Backs at
this point they don't want to sell. It'll be fascinating

(01:36:12):
the Astros go there that they start the second half,
they have a three in Seattle and they go three
in Arizona, and those are gonna be three big games
because at the Diamondbacks are at the point where like
their deadline is kind of hinging on each day's results.
Like if they keep winning, then they're probably not gonna sell.
If they start losing, then they probably will sell. Like

(01:36:33):
I wonder if the best way to help this team
is to get an established like third starter, and it
doesn't have to be a grinky like I mean, the
only reason I bring up nineteen is because the parallel
between how the rotation stack up, because while nineteen was
going on, like you watch the nineteen team, and you

(01:36:55):
knew two out of five days they were almost guaranteed
to win, just like this team. I mean, Hunter lost
his last start, but that was a blip on the radar.

Speaker 5 (01:37:03):
But I bet he no hits the Rangers. He's so mad.

Speaker 6 (01:37:06):
Maybe, but like again with you don't really notice it.
But with this team, and just like in the twenty
two the nineteen team, like every those other three days,
like you really didn't know what you were going to
get going to the ballpark from your starting pitcher. Now,
the Astros have a great bullpen that has helped. They've
done just enough offensively. But I do wonder if you

(01:37:28):
know they could afford to get a rental like a
Gallon or Merrill Kelly this year's Kakuchi basically yeah, like,
but I think it would cost a lot more because
well that's what I was gonna ask. It would cost
a lot more because you say Kakuchi at the time
they acquired, you say Kakuchi last year, he was not
a good pitcher, right like he was.

Speaker 4 (01:37:47):
These two are though, these two have been, especially Gallon,
who I think was who they would target probably the
most of those two.

Speaker 6 (01:37:54):
You know, I mean, I haven't done enough looking at
their profiles of to what they like, what know their
pitch mix or pitch repertoire. And as we know, the
Ashers have this infrastructure that they get a pitcher in
here and they'll find something to unlock and it'll make
them better. But you know Gallon's counting stats are not
as good as Kelly's. You know Gallon's got an ERA
about five. But so did you say Kakuchi last year

(01:38:16):
in the.

Speaker 2 (01:38:16):
Ask Justin Berlander, was it pitching well when they went
and got him?

Speaker 9 (01:38:18):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:38:19):
The first time no, like or the second time no.

Speaker 6 (01:38:22):
So like I I'm starting to wonder, like if that
is the best way to improve, to meaningfully improve this team,
because I think they're gonna get a bat, But I
think I would caution everyone, like temporary expectations for the bat,
Like I think you're looking at like a tray Man
Scenie style, like guy.

Speaker 5 (01:38:44):
Guy who's supposed to hit home runs because of the
Crawford boxes and then never does well.

Speaker 6 (01:38:47):
They say that with every they say that with every
right hand.

Speaker 4 (01:38:50):
Tray Man catch along the first baseline in Philadelphia was
worth the trade as far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 6 (01:38:56):
The ball caught him.

Speaker 5 (01:38:57):
It was unbelievable that game had two of those kinds
of catches, Chaz being the other one. By the way,
Chas McCormick.

Speaker 6 (01:39:04):
I would expect that he's going to be activated on Friday.
He's playing. I believe he's playing this rehab game right now.
That would be the obvious corresponding move if Jake Myers
has If Jake Myers has to go on the IL, that.

Speaker 5 (01:39:17):
Would actually be so.

Speaker 4 (01:39:21):
Sadly ironic, given that they've been this kind of mash
unit out there platoon for basically since the day George
Springer signed a contract with Toronto.

Speaker 6 (01:39:32):
Yeah, and I mean you finally got for like the
first three months of the season, you're finding, Oh, Jake's like,
this is Jake, this is Jake. We thought we were
getting this is Myers's job, Like he is the center
fielder for the foreseeable future. And now, I mean he
still could be and probably will be, but you know,
this obviously derails it. But yeah, it does make a
lot of sense that Chaz would be if Myers needs
to go on the IL. Would make a lot of

(01:39:54):
sense that just Chaz is activated off the visions, off
the IL and he gets a he has a. I
mean they would get away.

Speaker 2 (01:40:02):
Why because what always fascinates me.

Speaker 4 (01:40:05):
I mean you see guys have you know, breakout seasons,
and then you see guys who are clearly cheating. I
mean like, like, you know, I still I think Mookie
betts Is twenty eighteen is very suspect in really good. Yeah,
but like look at the number Cody Bellinger really like
some of these guys.

Speaker 6 (01:40:26):
Well, Cody Bellinger like tore his shoulder apart, like right
after his MVP season and that's what killed him. That's
why his numbers haven't been good.

Speaker 5 (01:40:34):
Maybe he was smoking too much, perhaps, you know, but
there are guys like like going back way back to
oh gosh, who is the guy for the Diamondbacks in
two thousand and one? Louis totally like fifty home runs
or something stupid like that.

Speaker 6 (01:40:51):
You never do, you know what was going on in
two thousand and one.

Speaker 4 (01:40:54):
Everybody was juicing, correct, especially some guy named Barry who's
had size went up about fifty. But yeah, I just
like why all of this is to say what happened
at Chas McCormick after twenty twenty two, you know, because
it wasn't just the catch that he made the defense.

Speaker 5 (01:41:13):
He's a serviceable defender. Twenty twenty, twenty twenty three was
his best year. That's right, I'm thinking of he came
back in twenty three and was was veterible. Yeah, you know,
I think some of it was injuries, some of it.
You know, just I think Chaz is a player that
you know, he's a lot of it's a lot of
it's mental sometimes and you know, started out slow, had

(01:41:34):
some injuries last year, and I think it just all
kind of compounded on him. But you know, who knows
he's had he's had some time.

Speaker 6 (01:41:40):
Off, he has some time on the IL fresh start
and having a runway to play, because if Jake's on,
if Jake Myers on the IL, like, it's pretty clear
that Chaz is going to be given a runway to
to kind of prove himself.

Speaker 5 (01:41:52):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:41:54):
Something that we kind of brought up earlier and I
brought up yesterday that I want to discuss with Chandler.

Speaker 5 (01:41:59):
And then it's a large your subject about the same team.
It's what's up with that?

Speaker 4 (01:42:02):
Our signature segment on a Thursday, it's gonna be a
Seattle Mariners edition.

Speaker 5 (01:42:07):
We'll explain next.

Speaker 2 (01:42:10):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety where a new
signature seven called What's up with That? What's up with that?

Speaker 8 (01:42:25):
What's up?

Speaker 2 (01:42:28):
I say, what's up.

Speaker 9 (01:42:32):
With that?

Speaker 4 (01:42:36):
It's the signature segment you all know and love here
on the A team Sports Talk seven ninety, Space City
Home network.

Speaker 5 (01:42:44):
What's up with that?

Speaker 4 (01:42:45):
Well, first and foremost, I have to selfishly put this
out there. I just got the email call in my inbox.
Your ESPN Fantasy Football League has been reactivated by Commissioner Ross.
They think I'm kidding, they being the other participants of
our league here at Sports Talk seven ninety, that I'm retiring.

Speaker 5 (01:43:06):
I'm quitting after last year's debauchery and finished.

Speaker 4 (01:43:11):
Uh No, I actually considering all of the injuries, and
I know they are part of the game, just like
we've been talking about all day long with Jake Myers.
I know they're part of every single fantasy league. But
it was it was freakingdiculous what happened to me last year?
And I didn't. I said to Ross, I said, look,
we have at least two members of this league that

(01:43:34):
just they haven't worked here in forever. They don't I
want a ten team league or I'm out because I
don't like when injuries happen and you cannot there's no
sort of talent pool because it's so deluded. And of
course the first thing everybody's gonna say is, woll she
did drafted better?

Speaker 6 (01:43:51):
I did?

Speaker 5 (01:43:52):
I drafted very well.

Speaker 4 (01:43:54):
And the fact that I actually was this close to,
you know, getting to the postseason, all that, and nobody
cares about any of this stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:43:59):
I stand that, Welly Kimon.

Speaker 9 (01:44:01):
Dead lost in my league, and it's because of seventh season,
I think injuries.

Speaker 4 (01:44:04):
I mean I had the number one pick, and so
of course Christian McCaffrey sat on the shelf all season.

Speaker 9 (01:44:08):
Well, I was on you being a dummy for taking
Christian McAffrey number.

Speaker 5 (01:44:11):
But I wasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:44:11):
You were.

Speaker 4 (01:44:12):
We drafted late, and by all accounts Adam Schefter included
he was ready to go and then he wasn't, and
then he wasn't again.

Speaker 5 (01:44:20):
I mean, it happened, it went all season long.

Speaker 9 (01:44:22):
If I was working here, I would have taken your phone.
I would have slapped out of your hand and said,
go pick Saquon Barkley and prosper.

Speaker 2 (01:44:28):
Yeah, that's easy to say now after he wins the
Super Bowl.

Speaker 9 (01:44:31):
August of last year I didn't believe in Christian McCaffrey.

Speaker 4 (01:44:35):
So you're gonna be my personal assistant if I go
back and don't quit this year, I.

Speaker 9 (01:44:40):
Gonna be the assistant GM. Yeah, of course I'm I'm
out in the league yet, So it's like I'm gonna
wait for somebody to go get drops so I can
go ahead and kick everybody's.

Speaker 2 (01:44:47):
Ass or maybe even have my spot when I drop.

Speaker 9 (01:44:50):
Okay, I will molly wop every single tiar should.

Speaker 2 (01:44:53):
Be in that league, no questions asked.

Speaker 4 (01:44:55):
And somebody in fact, you're gonna be in this league
because one of our former doesn't work here, isn't in
the business. He's out. I just made the decision on
the air. Right now, you've got his spot.

Speaker 2 (01:45:07):
I'm gonna hold you to it.

Speaker 4 (01:45:08):
And I'm not the commissioner, and I don't have to
be so ross. If you're listening, you know who I'm
talking about. Make it so, and then I might consider
playing this year. Do you play fantasy football? Chandeler High,
I mean.

Speaker 5 (01:45:22):
I do, still there I do.

Speaker 6 (01:45:23):
But the problem is like when the fantasy drafts are happening,
it's like August, which is.

Speaker 5 (01:45:29):
Like trade deadline.

Speaker 2 (01:45:30):
Well, I guess that's right after the deadline.

Speaker 6 (01:45:32):
But like you, I'm in the middle of covering the
season back in a day there was another deadline, right,
And so it's like I I've done it the last
couple of years, but like I've not paid enough attention.
And it's to a point where now it's like almost
I'm one. I'm asking myself if it's worth it, but
I probably will do it again.

Speaker 4 (01:45:48):
But well so every year it's just it's the beginning
of is it good fellas? That's when I thought I
was out, they pulled me back in. That's what it
feels like. We'll see what happened. All right, what's up
with that Seattle Mariners edition? It's a two parter? And
I'm so glad you're sitting there for this. Have you
ever and again this is not He is having a

(01:46:10):
phenomenal season, no questions asked, as is Aaron Judge. Have
you ever seen someone who is so clearly not fueling
his team to even a division lead get as much
love as cal Rawley get as much love.

Speaker 2 (01:46:25):
I mean, he's having a great season. I mean he's
I mean, he's he's doing things that like.

Speaker 6 (01:46:30):
A catcher just doesn't do and I think that's why
he's getting because of the position, right, It's a positional thing,
and when your nickname is the big dumper.

Speaker 5 (01:46:40):
Like I mean that he looks like he lost weight
ironically though.

Speaker 6 (01:46:43):
I mean not in the area where it's not in
the area where not that.

Speaker 4 (01:46:47):
I sit there and stare at his butt, but like
he's in the division. I see it like a gajillion
times a year. He looks more in shape this year,
and so it does not surprise me at all that
he's putting up the insane numbers.

Speaker 5 (01:47:00):
But that's what I wanted to get to. What's up
with this? He's having an amazing season.

Speaker 4 (01:47:04):
They have the pitching staff they do, and I know
there's been some injuries, but they're way healthier than the
Astros by far, and a lot of other teams. And
this division's not very good. How are the Seattle Mariners
not better than they are? Again, I mean they they're
they're good, Like they're not They're not elite. I think
the problem has been it's kind of twofold one. Like

(01:47:26):
the Astros went on that incredible run in June, and
I think it really did coincide with like every time
the Mariners lost a game the Astros won, and so
like the Division League just.

Speaker 6 (01:47:37):
Kept growing and growing. Like part of it, it's not
coincidence by any stretch, but part of it is like
you have to win when the Astros lose and vice
versa to make this competitive. Like I mean, they they've
lost the past two nights to the Yankees.

Speaker 5 (01:47:52):
While the Astros have been swept, have been swept, so
like the Mariners had because they're off on Monday, right,
the Mariners had a prime opportunity to close to within
five four games and they couldn't be. I mean, they're
a Yankee and it's not a it's not an easy
assignment by any means. But they didn't beat the Yankees
the last two nights. So the Division League stays at
six and a half. But you have George Kirby, you
have all these pictures.

Speaker 6 (01:48:13):
Look, the pitching has been this is not phonetically correct,
but the pitching has been less good.

Speaker 5 (01:48:18):
Yeah, no, it has been. George Kirby is one of
those guys, right.

Speaker 2 (01:48:21):
And he was hurt.

Speaker 6 (01:48:21):
He was hurt to start the year. Logan Gilbert got
hurt in the middle of the season. He's back now,
but he's that again. What they wasted last year, and
again it's what's one of these things that's going to
drive Jerry Depoto, their president baseball operage, can drive him nuts.
Not only did they waste, like the performance of their pitchers,
like they had a run where their entire stat like,

(01:48:43):
none of them got hurt.

Speaker 5 (01:48:44):
I think Brian wu went on the injured list once.
It was very twenty twenty two.

Speaker 6 (01:48:48):
None of them got hurt. They wasted a season where
just they had five elite starters that made every start and.

Speaker 5 (01:48:56):
They didn't go get anybody at the deadline.

Speaker 6 (01:48:57):
They got well, they went and got bats. They got
Randy or Arena.

Speaker 5 (01:49:00):
Oh that's right. They did get a Rose the year before,
they got a.

Speaker 6 (01:49:03):
Rose Araina at the deadline, and like again, but they
were just they were too far gone. But you know,
the off their offense this year is actually better. They've
got a one twelve ops plus, which is twelve points
above league average. I mean they've got eight guys with
an ops plus above one hundred. Do you want to
know who is the lowest of that ops plus?

Speaker 2 (01:49:21):
Of those?

Speaker 5 (01:49:22):
Yeah, I think he's the most overrated player in baseball, honestly,
All Star.

Speaker 6 (01:49:27):
Yeah, exactly. I don't get worked up about much with
the all so stupid. It's an it's an exhibition game.

Speaker 2 (01:49:31):
Who cares?

Speaker 5 (01:49:32):
But I mean, come on, He and Jeremy Panya came
into the league at the same time. They're best friends,
not best but they're very close.

Speaker 4 (01:49:39):
Do you think he's closer to him than he is
to Hector Norris, who's now back for the third time.

Speaker 6 (01:49:45):
The odd thing is he and Hector were are they buddy?
They were very like what happened, they shared represent they
share an agent, like it's that whole thing was very
odd because like they are close like they are they are,
they are friends. I don't know if they still a are,
but at the time when that happened, they were friends.

Speaker 4 (01:50:03):
So again, Jeremy Paanna and he's hurt, so it wouldn't
have mattered as far as the All Star game. But
like I I have always felt like, not that Jeremy
should get more love, but I'm like, why is Julio
Rodriguez constantly other than he's a young up and coming player,
But it's not a huge market it's not a marketable.

Speaker 6 (01:50:26):
He's very marketable, jo insanely market and I like him
and so is Jeremy Panna. But Julio, I mean, you
got to give him credit. Julio did have a great
first couple of years and he's very marketable, very personal.

Speaker 5 (01:50:38):
And who won that game? Isn't that funny? Like it's
just what a run?

Speaker 9 (01:50:44):
And I love h guess I still get a joke.
He's in the All Star year.

Speaker 5 (01:50:47):
Were you there for Game three?

Speaker 6 (01:50:49):
Yes? For all for all seven hours.

Speaker 2 (01:50:52):
It was awesome.

Speaker 5 (01:50:54):
I know it wasn't for you.

Speaker 6 (01:50:56):
It was work when you're working for a newspaper and
you gotta have a deadline game story in ten innings
and no one's scoring.

Speaker 4 (01:51:01):
Yeah, all right, we'll take a quick time out. We'll
come back. We're gonna wrap up the four o'clock hour
next here. Oh, by the way, we've got another replacement
potentially for Jake. I think your replacement was actually better
and he's already on the team. But we'll discuss next.

Speaker 2 (01:51:18):
The eighteen On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:51:30):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven ninety shout
out to Greg Towey, who is listening you guys may
or may not know who tooy is, good friend of
the show and a big part of this business that
we call sports talk radio.

Speaker 5 (01:51:44):
And yes, Jared, I'm aware.

Speaker 4 (01:51:47):
Because he sends me a message that says that's not
good fellas, bro and it's just a gift of a
guy like rubbing his eyes. And I said, well, I
was trying to think on the fly and that's dangerous
for people like me. Yes, it was very much Godfather.
So I apologize for saying that. I think it's good
foods whatever, Sumy. But anyways, so we are continuing here

(01:52:12):
on a Thursday edition of the program. Chandler Rome is
in for Adam Wexler, who is still vacationing through the
remainder of the week.

Speaker 5 (01:52:19):
He'll be back in it on Monday. He is up
in Cannada right now.

Speaker 4 (01:52:24):
Cole Thompson here, as per usual, ac with you, and
we've been talking a ton of Astros, not just because
Chandler Rome writes for The Athletic and covers the Houston Astros,
but because of what happened last night, not only the
sweep at the hands that's like such a back seat,
like if it weren't for Jake Myers, we'd be in
here doing sky as Falling Radio. Oh my gosh, I

(01:52:44):
can't believe they just got swept by the stupid Cleveland
Guardians after sweeping the Dodgers in LA. But Jake Myers
kind of blew that out of the water, you know,
Cole brought up Cedric Mullins as a replacement, Like, what
do you.

Speaker 8 (01:53:01):
If?

Speaker 4 (01:53:01):
I think what you said earlier is probably going to
end up being the most prudent cause if you have
to deal with no Jake Myers for any or all
the rest of this season, Chas McCormick is like right
there about to get ready to play again, And that
makes the most sense, except for that he hasn't performed
the way you would like to, right.

Speaker 6 (01:53:22):
And they've got time to give Chaz runway though obviously
have these three games and then you come back. I mean,
you've got about two or three weeks before the deadline.
If you run Chad again, We're presuming in a world
where Jake's unavailable. You run Chas out for the next
three weeks. See what he can give you. See if
it looks good, see if it doesn't look good. But

(01:53:42):
even if it looks good, like Cedric Mullins does profile
as someone that the Ashers should have interest in. You know,
he is he is a left handed bat. He plays
the outfield, is not performing like a guy that you
would want to play every day. He's right at one
hundred oh ps plus right now. League average player is

(01:54:05):
a rental and because of the performance, because of the
performance of really the past three seasons, he hasn't been
some elite player. The last three Sea's been perfectly average,
and because he's a rental, you would think that the
price is relatively cheap. I know everyone listening is going
to automatically say Ryan O'Hearn, Ryan O'Hearn, Ryan O'Hearn. He

(01:54:28):
is certainly another left handed option that they should consider.
But he is going to the All Star Game. He
has had a very nice season. The price on him
is going to be higher. Does that mean the Astros
can afford it. Maybe, But you're looking at a team
with a bad farm system and a major league roster
that they don't really have much to trade off of

(01:54:49):
from their major league roster, So Mullins makes sense. Again,
it would be very similar to Trey Mancini. Cedric Mullins
and Trey Mancini were kind of the two guys that
survived that rebuild, that survived the awful first couple of
years of the michae Elias regime in Baltimore where they
were rebuilding things. It would be like trading an icon.

(01:55:12):
I mean calling Mullins and icons a little much, but
a very well known guy in Baltimore, a guy that
the fan base really likes. But it would he would
come here if that were have happened, he would come
here and at least initially would profile as a platoon guy,
as a guy that you want. You probably don't want
him playing every day, but he can play all three
outfield positions. He can give you left handed bat and

(01:55:34):
give you a competent left handed at bat, which is
not something that they have right now.

Speaker 5 (01:55:39):
Baltimore is the most disappointing team in the AL. Atlanta
is the most disappointing team in the NL. I agree,
uh yeah, yeah, on both counts.

Speaker 6 (01:55:46):
I don't think that's a I don't think it's meant
really much of a debate.

Speaker 4 (01:55:50):
Like I, Atlanta is one thing, because this is the
first year, really but like Baltimore was pretty disappointing last
year in the grand scheme of things, where.

Speaker 6 (01:56:00):
I mean they the way they performed the playoffs obviously,
and then in the second half they slipped and you
could tell that it had been coming for like they
were so good two years ago and then you could
tell they just kind of got exposed for having a
lack of experience in the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (01:56:15):
Are you surprised if Santander has not been better or
was that like the most easily predictable thing. Throw that
guy a bunch of money and he's not going to
perform up to the standards.

Speaker 6 (01:56:25):
I think there's something to be done about what happens
to any guy that signs a big free agent deal
that goes to a new team, like Santander was awful
the first couple months.

Speaker 2 (01:56:36):
Now he's injured.

Speaker 6 (01:56:38):
We know the struggles Christian Walker has had here in
his first couple months, to which he has said, you know,
part of it is I'm pressing. I'm not nervous, but
part of it is I'm putting a lot of pressure
on myself.

Speaker 5 (01:56:50):
It's mental.

Speaker 6 (01:56:51):
It's a mental thing. Wan Soda was not good in
April and May with the Mets. Now he was the
NL Player of the Month in June and has been
incredible in July, so he's back going. But I'm telling
you there is something too when you sign a big deal,
when you are the face of an off season like
santander was. Christian Walker wasn't the face of the Astros

(01:57:13):
off season, but was still someone that they counted on
to hit in the middle of the order. Juan Soto. Obviously,
there's something to it. There's something to having an adjustment period,
to having an acclamation period, to getting acclimated to your
new surround Remember, Anthony Santandera had not played anywhere in
his career but Baltimore like that was his home. Like

(01:57:34):
now he's going somewhere new. You there is something to
having to, you know, get used to your surroundings in
a new place and the pressure that comes with, you know,
signing a ninety to one hundred million dollar contract.

Speaker 5 (01:57:48):
But none of that applied to Alex Bregman until he
got hurt. No, that's the crazy thing, right, and it's
not everybody. Although he always played well in Boston as
an Astro.

Speaker 6 (01:57:57):
Correct and that's why that's why he I mean, the
park was part of why he signed there. Scott Boris
said that Alex said that himself, like he hits well there.
That park is tailor made for him. Just I mean,
so is Dyke and park with the short porch and
Levet that's why I but that's why East Soak Paritis
has been so good here right right, Like, but Alex
has the Crawford Boxes, the Green Monster in Boston and

(01:58:20):
he can just bang doubles off of like it is
the perfect ballpark for him. But yeah, he is the
exception to that norm though, because he signed a big deal,
got there in the middle of spring training and just
started to rake from the moment he got.

Speaker 5 (01:58:33):
Which is the most non Alex Bregman thing in the
history of his career.

Speaker 6 (01:58:38):
Yeah, he's not a He's a traditionally slow starter and
he he'll be the first one to tell you that.
But I don't know what it was. There was that
weird two weeks where everyone are the Ashers hitting coaches,
Okay now now that they have like the seventh highest
ops in baseball and the best batting average in baseball,
because there was like two weeks there where everyone just
looked at Alex Bregman doing well in Boston and automatically

(01:59:00):
said it was you.

Speaker 5 (01:59:01):
Know what's funny about that?

Speaker 4 (01:59:02):
And you're absolutely correct, and it's accurate and and it
has it happened just like the Batter's Eye was a
story a couple of season ago all that, but like
you know, it's never ever ever been in question during
this run of the Astros.

Speaker 5 (01:59:15):
The pitching. No, not once Brent Stromer, no, Brent Trump.
It is never.

Speaker 4 (01:59:20):
In fact, it's the opposite. You go here, uh, you say,
Kakuchi to revive your career. In a lot of cases,
you go here, Steven Okert. Like these guys that are
like pitching leverage innings for them, it's the same thing.
The bullpen has been spectacular, you know, notwithstanding Josh Hater's
Grand Slam the other night, he was due.

Speaker 5 (01:59:39):
Frankly, he's been.

Speaker 6 (01:59:40):
He's been every bit of a ninety five million dollar
Speaking of guys that signed big contracts, yes and come
and struggle are like he said that to us on
this show. Struggle is a relative term with Hater last
year because he was still pretty good, but certainly not
this He.

Speaker 5 (01:59:53):
Just wasn't dominant. All right, five o'clock hour, Football at
five coming up next.

Speaker 1 (01:59:59):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety. Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A team.

Speaker 2 (02:00:09):
All right.

Speaker 5 (02:00:15):
It is the five o'clock hour on a Thursday edition
of the program.

Speaker 4 (02:00:20):
Tomorrow at this time, we'll be talking to the guy
sitting across from me right now on the phones, Chandler Rome,
because we always preempt football at five on Fridays with
Chandler Rome's visit.

Speaker 5 (02:00:31):
But and you know what, he'll probably you'll probably have
some new news to be talking with us about from
an astro standpoint. But since I got you here, and
by the way, for those of you who don't know,
once upon a time, Chandler Rome did cover college football
and spectacular coverage of Nick Saban at the time, Chandler

(02:00:52):
was explaining to me how Nick Saban went about his
press conferences during that time period, and you were just
that was your first.

Speaker 6 (02:00:59):
Game, uh second second, like professional gig.

Speaker 4 (02:01:03):
Okay, it was you guys were just tools for him
to get his message across to his players.

Speaker 6 (02:01:09):
Oh that's what That's what all of his press conferences are.
It's it's not like he is not talking to the media.
He is talking to his players because he knows. I
don't have to say this, like, Nick Saban's very smart,
but he's a very smart dude. He realizes that everything
he says is going to be plastered all over social

(02:01:29):
media ESPN wherever his players are consuming media. So he
knows that. So he's talking to his team through the
press conference, like we like he would go in there,
and he's not the only coach that does this, but
he mastered it. Like he goes into press conferences knowing
what knowing exactly what he's going to say and what

(02:01:51):
messaging he's going to bring. It doesn't matter what questions
you ask him. You could ask him if the sky
is blue and if he wants to get a message
to his defensive line, he's going to do it, you know.
He if most of his rants come you know, came
during like when they were playing the Rental Wins and
the FCS, and like one of his most famous rants,

(02:02:14):
like the person asked a question about like the that
team's I forget who they were playing. It may have
been like some it was some FCS team, something some
like D two team, and so they asked him like
how good is their quarterback? Like he's got a ton
of Division one experience, and instead of answering the question,
he just like like just goes off on his team

(02:02:37):
for like their preparation. Like the guy was trying to
get like an answer about what the quarterback does well
and it didn't even matter what the question.

Speaker 4 (02:02:44):
You know, it always fascinated me about guys like him
is that they were friends with other guys like that,
Like he and Belichick are like besties. Yeah, I wonder
what he thinks about Bill Belichick dating a twenty three
year old.

Speaker 6 (02:02:54):
I would love I would love to know what he
thinks about Bill Belichick's recent career.

Speaker 5 (02:03:00):
Jectory, going to North Carolina, getting back.

Speaker 6 (02:03:02):
Getting in college ball, having all the stuff with his.

Speaker 5 (02:03:07):
What are we calling her Jordaan? Is it the girlfriend fiance?
Like I don't think they're engaged? Person of interest conquest because.

Speaker 6 (02:03:16):
Like that is like Nick Saban has avoided any of that.
He and miss Terry and Terry. He and Miss Terry
have been together for almost fifty years.

Speaker 5 (02:03:25):
Like does she really cook meals for the team and
all that kind of stuff. I bet you that was
the most delicious food ever.

Speaker 6 (02:03:31):
Like she is as crucial to everything they do.

Speaker 2 (02:03:35):
She's the CEO.

Speaker 9 (02:03:36):
Yes, Okay, think about this. Do you remember Friend and
at Lights, the TV show with Colin Chandler, How important
it was for Connie Britton's character.

Speaker 5 (02:03:43):
It's that like Connie Britton, Connie low key hot, low
key stud I'm a big fan.

Speaker 6 (02:03:49):
I don't have a frame of reference, so I can't
compare it to this. No, I watched saw the movie.
I didn't watch a TV show. But okay, Nick, Actually
he just got inducted in the Louisiana Sports Hall of
Fame because he coached LSU for a while, and he
was I was watching his acceptance speech and he was
talking about how when he was taking the job he

(02:04:11):
had he was still the coach at Michigan State. And
a couple LSU alumni and boosters like came and met him,
and they did a secret meeting in Memphis to like
interview him. They offered him the job, but he said,
I can't take the job, like I've never stepped foot
on campus, Like I don't want to take a job
sight unseen. And so he said I couldn't go to

(02:04:32):
the campus because if someone saw me, like it's over,
I'm dead because I'm still the coach at Michigan State.
So he sent miss Terry no kidding, he sent her
to campus to like tour it and give him the lowdown.

Speaker 5 (02:04:46):
Is this a widely known story?

Speaker 9 (02:04:47):
Yeah? I think at this point it is.

Speaker 5 (02:04:49):
Yeah, I've never heard that.

Speaker 6 (02:04:50):
Well, so as Nick goes on to tell the story
at the Sports Hall of Fame. He said, you know,
I called her to get the debrief, and she goes,
the facilities are tear and they were like the they
don't have a practice facility. Their coaches are like in
this building off campus, like it's just it's not the
infrastructure is not there what we need. And then as

(02:05:12):
Nick tells that, he said, but then she told me,
I walked in that weight room and they got some
damn good looking football players, and like that's what sold him.

Speaker 9 (02:05:21):
Like that.

Speaker 2 (02:05:21):
She is as important too.

Speaker 5 (02:05:23):
She knows what she's talking about.

Speaker 6 (02:05:25):
Like mal Moore, like the ad at Alabama that hired him.
He often says that, like Nick wouldn't talk to him,
like when they kept making the because he was still
the coach the Dolphins and they kept making overtures to
Nick Saban and like he kept turning them down.

Speaker 5 (02:05:41):
So mal Moore went to Terry, went to Miss Terry
to like woo her this secret weapon and that and
that worked.

Speaker 9 (02:05:49):
I was gonna ask you, Chandler, wasn't she like one
of the big influences on him getting to tescalusive.

Speaker 2 (02:05:54):
Yeah, she hated.

Speaker 6 (02:05:55):
She very much likes being the bell of the ball
and she hated being in Miami. The NFL lives It's
very different. It was more though, Like I mean, Miami
is a massive city. Like Miami is You're you're not
like being the Dolphins coach in Miami is nothing.

Speaker 5 (02:06:12):
Yeah, you're you can go anywhere you want.

Speaker 6 (02:06:14):
And if you're the Alabama head football coach in Tuscaloosa,
if you're the coach's wife, and I like, you are
one A and one B most important. And I think
she liked that.

Speaker 2 (02:06:25):
Yeah, she liked being important.

Speaker 9 (02:06:27):
And people sort to this day talk about her in
just such a prominent light down there, like that's what
she's done.

Speaker 4 (02:06:32):
But you see, okay, you can be that way, meaning
you want to be the center of attention, so to speak,
the bell of the ball. Like you not in a
bad way, but you have you have to win. Yeah,
you like okay, And I know you know where I'm
going with this. We have that here in Houston, you
know that, right. Yeah, Hannah McNair fancies herself the Miss

(02:06:53):
Terry of the Houston Texans organizations.

Speaker 6 (02:06:55):
How's that working out for him?

Speaker 5 (02:06:56):
They gotta win, They've got to win.

Speaker 4 (02:06:58):
And now look they have I mean, and I give
her a lot of credit because it is clear the
moment she really stepped in and they didn't have a
stupid youth pastor running their team, and they didn't have a.

Speaker 6 (02:07:13):
The differences hold on. The difference is like miss Terry
doesn't like she's not at the facility, like like like
interfering with like the football operations.

Speaker 4 (02:07:23):
She's not answering Nick Saban's press conference questions either.

Speaker 6 (02:07:26):
No, Like her husband is smart, he's in charge. Her
husband like is in charge of everything, and she is
like a perfect compliment to him.

Speaker 4 (02:07:33):
Now this is a coach versus an owner, right, So
I realized there's a little bit of a difference. But she,
I mean, come on, guys, you all know and look
she's given she has been given a lot of credit
as she should get because I mean, I'm not saying
Cal couldn't have or this stuff wouldn't have happened without,

(02:07:53):
you know, with Cal being the sole person in charge,
because like, look, if Demiko Ryans wants to come home
and coach your team and then you have CJ. Stroud
fall on your lap, that didn't take a lot of
necessarily intelligence to have happened.

Speaker 9 (02:08:08):
Well, do you remember the press conference right after they
fired Lovey Smith.

Speaker 5 (02:08:12):
I've slept since then, you remind me.

Speaker 9 (02:08:14):
So we were sitting in there and I'll never forget
somebody asked a question about who was going to be
in charge of having final say on the next hire
and the draft process, and without missing a beat, Hannah goes,
I can answer that, and we all just look and go, Nope,
you just did.

Speaker 2 (02:08:29):
You just answered it. We know who's in charge.

Speaker 6 (02:08:31):
When's the last time Cal did a media availability without her,
like it's been at least climbing him to like to
like make sure she interjected everything.

Speaker 9 (02:08:43):
It's been probably since twenty twenty two. I would say,
right after the Lovey high.

Speaker 5 (02:08:47):
I want to take you for Cole, That's what he
would say.

Speaker 9 (02:08:51):
Look, I don't he's a lovabullet goople.

Speaker 5 (02:08:54):
I don't even care.

Speaker 4 (02:08:55):
Like, as long as they win, it's better than what
we were dealing with with, Like, do I think they're
gonna win a Super Bowl?

Speaker 5 (02:09:03):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (02:09:04):
Like they've got a great defense in place. I think
they have their franchise quarterback. But if they don't care
enough to protect him, does it really matter that.

Speaker 5 (02:09:13):
You have all that other stuff?

Speaker 9 (02:09:14):
Does it make you mad that the number eighty ninth
player voted on by players in the top one hundred,
was just traded to Washington to block for another franchise.
Quarterback Larry Towns also just came on the tap.

Speaker 4 (02:09:26):
See, I can't sit here and say, oh, I miss
larry Ton so when I bagged on the guy every
week last year and I can't, But can.

Speaker 9 (02:09:33):
You say it when you get to say week fourteen
and we're already looking at near the same amount of
sacks allowed on CJ.

Speaker 4 (02:09:39):
Stroud, Well, look y'all just better watch out because the
day after he gets hurt in a game because he
wasn't protected, there's gonna be verbal napalm on that microphone
over there because I'm assuming that Wex will be in
town because he doesn't vacation.

Speaker 6 (02:09:54):
I have not followed anything they've done this offseason.

Speaker 5 (02:09:56):
Is there?

Speaker 6 (02:09:57):
Have they gotten the offensive line?

Speaker 8 (02:09:58):
No?

Speaker 6 (02:09:58):
Better?

Speaker 4 (02:09:59):
No, it's well I'm not gonna I'm not gonna sit
here and say it's worse because we don't know until
we see it. But you don't as much as I
bag on Laramie Tunsel, you don't not replace him and
get better on paper.

Speaker 5 (02:10:14):
You just don't.

Speaker 9 (02:10:14):
Let's just go with this. They have already been three
articles coming out with power rankings for offensive lineup, all three.

Speaker 5 (02:10:20):
There's thirty two teams.

Speaker 2 (02:10:23):
In case you didn't know, I know you know that.

Speaker 4 (02:10:24):
I know that that's that's dead last people, and I
until until there's a reason to think differently. I just
can't help but think, oh, great, second consecutive year that CJ.
Is gonna be playing with one hand tied behind his back,
or however you want to look at it. Now, he's
good enough, I think, to to offset some of that.

(02:10:46):
But you know, everybody here that's been watching the Texans
since the beginning, they remember David Carr's first year not
saying that he's gonna get sacked seventy six times. But
I'm not saying he's gonna get sacked only twenty six times.
You know, it's it's gonna be until proven otherwise. It
is definitely going to be a sticking point. And even

(02:11:07):
when training camp gets underway and we start watching these
guys try to kind of coalesce as a new unit,
you just won't know, and you certainly won't know in
the preseason because I don't think CJ. Stroud's going to
play more than a series if that, especially now that
preseason is only three games and before you know it,
it will be only two.

Speaker 5 (02:11:24):
All right, we will continue here.

Speaker 4 (02:11:26):
On a Thursday edition of the program Sports Talk seven
ninety Space City Home Network, Chandler Roam sitting in for
Adam Wexler. We'll get back to some baseball conversation and
some of the things we have not talked about here
on a Thursday edition of the show.

Speaker 2 (02:11:42):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:11:50):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven ninety Space
City Home Network ac N. Wex is out.

Speaker 4 (02:11:56):
Chandler Roome has been sitting in kind enough to do so,
will all show long and Cole Thompson, of course, as
per usual, is our producer. By the way, I'm having
the it's the usual conversation I usually have via text
message with my wife around this time of day.

Speaker 5 (02:12:12):
What's for dinner? Where should we go?

Speaker 4 (02:12:14):
Because I think we've decided that I'm gonna be tasked
with picking up something on the way home.

Speaker 6 (02:12:19):
Can I say whatever? Does it matter that they advertise
or don't advertise with you guys?

Speaker 9 (02:12:24):
Mm?

Speaker 5 (02:12:26):
No, what are you creating something or what?

Speaker 2 (02:12:30):
I don't know?

Speaker 6 (02:12:31):
Let me see what do I usually think Craft Peda
is excellent. Really Craft Peda is really good. Okay, I
don't know, Like what are you in.

Speaker 5 (02:12:39):
The mood for. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:12:41):
See the problem is I need to.

Speaker 4 (02:12:45):
When I'm driving with the traffic I deal with, I
kind of have to time everything out. And so what
I like to do is find a place that has,
you know, a reasonable enough order a head situation, but
it also is on the way home.

Speaker 6 (02:12:59):
Just open door dash and like, oh, get a door
dash for pickup.

Speaker 5 (02:13:04):
Yeah, yeah, I might do that.

Speaker 6 (02:13:06):
I do that.

Speaker 9 (02:13:07):
You can also just go over to Houston Spring Joint.

Speaker 5 (02:13:10):
Well, I know that.

Speaker 2 (02:13:11):
Well, I know.

Speaker 9 (02:13:12):
I'm just making sure sponsoring.

Speaker 5 (02:13:15):
I have talked with Sam about this, and I keep
pushing for him to do something. I'm just is he
going to do what I have asked you to ask
him to do?

Speaker 2 (02:13:27):
I don't.

Speaker 5 (02:13:28):
I don't remember now and I don't want to w
W making it a something. Uh, we'll have to discuss
off air. We'll discuss this off the air.

Speaker 4 (02:13:37):
I'm just look, the moral of the story right now
is that I'm very hungry, and normally around this time
of day it starts getting to be like because I
do the fasting thing, which you could never do Chandler, There's.

Speaker 6 (02:13:46):
No way you probably could.

Speaker 2 (02:13:48):
You don't need to, though, Yeah, you're like you're at
a very.

Speaker 4 (02:13:52):
You do inter minute fasting or you do it's extreme intermitute,
so it's once a day I eat like an absolute
savage and then the other twenty fur three hours of
the day I don't.

Speaker 5 (02:14:01):
And like, can you consume like claughter and black coffee?

Speaker 6 (02:14:03):
Okay, so black coffee? So you can't, like do you can?

Speaker 9 (02:14:05):
Now?

Speaker 5 (02:14:05):
I can? But I'll notice immediately the difference.

Speaker 4 (02:14:08):
Okay, That's what's crazy once you do this enough, Like
for example, we were on vacation last week. I knew
I was not going to probably stick to it. And
what's crazy was I felt like crap the whole time.
But I also like, I felt like I looked like crap,
which is really awesome when you're on the beach without
a shirt on it and all that kind of stuff.
But as soon as I got back and got on

(02:14:28):
the the fast again, my body leaned out like instantly,
which is like, why couldn't you do that this week?

Speaker 5 (02:14:34):
This past week? But whatever, it is, what it is.

Speaker 4 (02:14:38):
As Matt Thomas would say, But yeah, I just I
get that wex gets me in the last few hours
when I'm at my wits end because I haven't had
anything to eat, and that's every day of our show
because I eat after the show.

Speaker 6 (02:14:53):
How's that go for you, guys?

Speaker 5 (02:14:54):
It's fine because he's you know, he's a bit of
a grump too sometimes. But the funny thing is I
got him to.

Speaker 6 (02:15:00):
It, so he's, oh, he's fasting now too.

Speaker 4 (02:15:02):
He started to do it and he dropped a lot
of weight, so he's happy about that. And so but
he's he goes, I've been cheating, And I know right
now on vacation, he's cheating.

Speaker 5 (02:15:11):
Because that's what you do.

Speaker 6 (02:15:12):
Who knew not eating cold, that's eating?

Speaker 5 (02:15:16):
You sound like him? Yeah, I'm starving myself. I like, yeah,
but you're not. You realize that, Like the whole concept
of us eating three meals a day is completely gluttonous.
Is in the grand scheme? Like in general, I don't
usually eat three meals a day, right, but like some
people are like, oh, well it's breakfast, Well it's lunch,
well it's dinner, and I have to do it. Like

(02:15:36):
that whole concept of eating three times a day did
not always exist.

Speaker 6 (02:15:40):
Yeah, side, yeah, I don't, Like I don't if I'm
not hungry, like I don't force myself to eat breakfast,
or if I if I'm not hungry around lunch, like
I don't force myself to eat lunch.

Speaker 5 (02:15:49):
Right.

Speaker 4 (02:15:49):
So like and when you start getting full, you push away, right,
that's the other side of it.

Speaker 6 (02:15:54):
I'm I'm firmly like in the camp and I'm why
am I giving like weight loss or body image to people,
But like, I'm firmly in the camp of like you
can eat whatever you want, just as long as you
don't eat an enormous amount of it moderation, yes, Like,
it's not it's not that. I mean, I guess impulse
control is is hard for some people. But like, I
guess the way I view it is like if I

(02:16:15):
want pizza, that's great. I'm not gonna eat six slices.
I'm gonna eat two.

Speaker 5 (02:16:20):
Well, maybe you shouldn't see how you feel and tell
me about it.

Speaker 6 (02:16:22):
I'm good, I'm good. I don't need that in my life.

Speaker 4 (02:16:24):
Like pizza is so like, pizza is one of those
foods where it does it like it's pizza, right, so
it's going to be a version of good even if
it's not great pizza.

Speaker 5 (02:16:35):
Like have you ever had that truly bad pizza?

Speaker 6 (02:16:38):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (02:16:39):
Okay, well where was this frozen pizza? I mean frozen,
but it's.

Speaker 5 (02:16:43):
Still it's still like better than no pizza at all.

Speaker 6 (02:16:46):
I'd rather know pizza at all that some of the
frozen pizzas I've eaten Toombstone frozen pizza maybe the worst
thing ever been it.

Speaker 4 (02:16:52):
So see you've already ranked. That means by default that
there are frozen pizzas you think are better.

Speaker 9 (02:16:58):
Because if there's a bottom, like it's like it's rock bottom,
like there is nothing there.

Speaker 5 (02:17:03):
What is it about tombstone that makes you just it
tastes like cardboard?

Speaker 9 (02:17:06):
Look a stone and it's the same taste.

Speaker 5 (02:17:08):
It tastes like cardboard. What's the best for Sheta? I
mean probably like CPK, I personally like scream in Sicily. Interesting,
These are all readily available in the grocery store. Just
go to your locro itch b. It's right there, okay,
walk right in, turn left, then you got a horror
of them.

Speaker 9 (02:17:25):
Go get Tombstone, Go get scream in Sicily, go get kill.

Speaker 5 (02:17:28):
All right, so what are you?

Speaker 9 (02:17:29):
You will have one that tastes like cardboard and the
other two are at least fine.

Speaker 4 (02:17:33):
So you, guys, since you're so adamant against frozen pizza,
how do you feel about like pizza rolls.

Speaker 6 (02:17:39):
I never got even when I was like in college
and high school, and like you're supposed to love those things, like,
I never got the allure of them.

Speaker 9 (02:17:46):
I didn't either. Good. I was big into bagel bites.

Speaker 5 (02:17:49):
Let's see, that's the same concept.

Speaker 4 (02:17:50):
It's the ingredients on a pizza in a bite sized
product that you can conveniently eat.

Speaker 5 (02:17:56):
That's terrible for you with all the preservatives.

Speaker 9 (02:17:58):
Sure, but it was bagel bites and they were awesome.

Speaker 2 (02:18:00):
Well, that's how I feel about pizza roles.

Speaker 9 (02:18:02):
Though, okay, feel that way about docinos.

Speaker 2 (02:18:04):
I don't care.

Speaker 6 (02:18:05):
I will say this, like to consume any of that,
I will have needed some some I need some like
reason to consume that. I guess usually it comes late
at night or early in the morning. If I'm gonna
if I'm gonna consume any of that stuff, like I
have to be, there has to be events set proceeded.

Speaker 4 (02:18:27):
I understand what you're saying is that when you is
that when you most commonly consume funions and Cheetos and Dorito's.

Speaker 6 (02:18:36):
And uh in that state, I'm a big sweets guy.
Actually really, yes, what kind of sweets if? If you
want to make me like happier than ever. Chocolate chip
cookies are my weakness in any in any.

Speaker 5 (02:18:52):
You have to have milk.

Speaker 6 (02:18:54):
No, so it's just okay cookies chocolate chip cookies and
put them in the toaster oven for like three to four.

Speaker 9 (02:19:00):
I was just saying, do they have to be warmed up?

Speaker 3 (02:19:01):
I will?

Speaker 4 (02:19:02):
I will warm them up. Yes, So like TIFFs treats
must be like the most amazing thing ever.

Speaker 6 (02:19:07):
I have a TIFFs Treats. I live in the Heights,
and I have a TIFF's Treats like in walking distance
from me.

Speaker 5 (02:19:12):
And how often do you go there?

Speaker 6 (02:19:13):
Actually not as much as you would think, because like
I try to like maintain some semblance of staying in shape,
so I try to like avoid that, but it is
it is difficult. I like I go to the Colotchi
shop right next to it. I go to it every Saturday.

Speaker 4 (02:19:28):
So yeah, see, for a while there, little man was
like he would wake up on Saturday and he knew
he expected that I go get donuts. I'm a Klachi's
on Saturday well, yeah, that's the thing colachi's are. And
you know what's funny, Teresa did not know what a
kolachi was when she moved here from Kansas City.

Speaker 6 (02:19:48):
That's not I mean, yeah, I would expect her.

Speaker 4 (02:19:50):
Not to know, but but I would always I would
assume that that was a Northeast type thing that made
its way down south.

Speaker 9 (02:19:57):
Well, it's a check, it's a checho slava check, it's
check thing. And think about it this way. There's also
two different types of ways they explain colacchi's. One is
the one that's filled with meat and cheese, and the
other one is filled with fruit. So in the Midwest,
if you hear fruit, then you're not gonna know what
it is down here.

Speaker 5 (02:20:12):
Yeah, well that's okay.

Speaker 4 (02:20:13):
So the barbecue thing in Kansas City, she came down
here for the first time and went to go get barbecue,
and she goes, can I have some burnt ends?

Speaker 5 (02:20:21):
And they looked at it like she had six heads?

Speaker 6 (02:20:23):
Is it bad that I think all barbecue is basically
the same? Yes, yeah, I love bit. I mean like
like when you get down to.

Speaker 5 (02:20:30):
It, like, where are you originally from Louisiana?

Speaker 6 (02:20:33):
Like we're not known for Barbie, Like we're known for
seafood obviously, seafood like Cajun creole kind of stuff. Like
barbecue is not something that is like you grow up
going to in Louisiana. But like I mean, I love
Texas Barbara, and I get like the sauces are different,
Like you have vinegar based sauces in Carolina, you have
the white barbecue sauces. Also, I believe in the Carolina

(02:20:53):
is like Burbama and there's burn ends in Kansas City. Like,
but like, I think brisket tastes the same here as
it does in Kansas City as it doesn't like every
every place I've gone where the it's a quote unquote
barbecue hub. Like I'm like, yeah, this tastes like the
barbecause I get in Houston.

Speaker 4 (02:21:13):
Well, I asked you this earlier in the show what
your favorite road stop was. Since you do what you
do for a living, you get to see the country
that's like a byproduct of it, and the the the
enamo of that is probably worn off at this point, probably,
but you said Chicago is your favorite stop on the road.

Speaker 5 (02:21:32):
Yes, what do you have to eat in Chicago?

Speaker 6 (02:21:35):
Uh, go to go to mister Beef which is the
inspiration for the bear U the Italian the Italian beef
there is phenomenal. I like, I'm not in love with
deep Dish.

Speaker 5 (02:21:45):
I'm not the place everybody says to go to there.

Speaker 6 (02:21:47):
Uh, it depends on who you ask. Giordano's I think
some say Giordano's, some say some I think it's I
forget the other one, but like, yeah, like I like
O'schevelle is there? They have one in New York one,
the Oshavelle is excellent. I've been. I have so many
restaurant RECs in Chicago that are excellent.

Speaker 4 (02:22:05):
All Right, I'm gonna catch up on those during the break,
and I'm absolutely that will end the Martha Stewart portion
of the program where we talk about nothing but food.
But I gotta tell you it was one of my
favorite segments of the entire show so far because it's
not as depressing as talking about Jake Myers' injury.

Speaker 2 (02:22:23):
Whatever it is. In case you missed it is next
the A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:22:38):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety, Space
City Home Network, Chandler Rome sitting in for Adam Wexler.
Today has been all day long.

Speaker 4 (02:22:48):
But this is where we highlight our producer col Thompson
in that he goes and starts talking to us and
has us talk about things that we have not talked
about today up to and including.

Speaker 5 (02:23:00):
Delicacies at your local grocer.

Speaker 3 (02:23:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (02:23:02):
So Andy on the line has a message to send
you guys. Motor City Pizza number one frozen pizza that
everyone has to try. Tastes zagon like any single deep
dist pizza that you could want, Detroit style. He says,
get the meat lovers, not the meat lovers. You go
get the pepperoni.

Speaker 5 (02:23:20):
Sounds like it's inspired by Detroit, Michigan.

Speaker 9 (02:23:23):
It is inspired by Detroit, Michigan. So if you like,
do you like deep Detroit pizza?

Speaker 6 (02:23:29):
I don't mind it.

Speaker 9 (02:23:30):
It's fine, it's fine.

Speaker 2 (02:23:31):
It's fine, it's fine.

Speaker 9 (02:23:32):
You know what I am going to be pissed off
at after all the news that has happened, which has
been great in the city for the Rockets who had
it in Kevin Duran and then brought back to Link
Papella and extended Steven Adams and extended Fred Van Vliet.

Speaker 2 (02:23:44):
Well, remember that.

Speaker 9 (02:23:45):
Team that Oklahoma City that just won a championship. Yeah,
they're running it back because of Oklahoma City and Star
champion Jalen Williams have agreed to a five year maximum
Roocky contract extension that could reach up to two one
hundred and eighty seven million dollars, according to agent Bill
old Duffy and Justice Haines. After becoming a second youngest
team in NBA history to win a title, they have

(02:24:06):
now locked up long term deals with Shade Gildes, Alexander,
Jada Williams, Chet Holmerim, all who will be playing together
for over the course of the next decade. Gill Does
Alexander course signed that four year, two hundred and eighty
five million dollar deal, and earlier this past week, Chet
Holmerim signed a five year, two hundred and fifty million
dollars deal.

Speaker 5 (02:24:24):
Okay, is anybody gonna start talking about the second apron
or am I gonna be the first one to reign
on this parade? Go ahead? Because that's all well and good,
and those are three amazing pieces. Although I think Chet's
to me, Chut's over and Chet's overrated, and here's why.
This season is proof of that. He was gone for
like jordan esque chunks of the year and they just

(02:24:47):
didn't miss a beat, but yet they gave him a
rookie Max. I'm telling you right now, I.

Speaker 4 (02:24:52):
Don't know how he's doing it rafell like, and I
get it, there's caliber of players and all that, but
like the fact that he didn't have Alprin Shingun or
now Jabari Smith Junior inked to a Max rookie contract
is huge because they're gonna be able to afford role
players that after like two years from now, the Thunder

(02:25:13):
just won't be able to Am I crazy saying this
like they better repeat this year?

Speaker 9 (02:25:19):
You're not crazy? I think that the big question is
what is the next step. Can they be a dynasty,
Can they be a team that continues to get better
with the youth movement or do they need that big
time player. Do they need to go out and out
in that veteran because they have the compensation to where
they could make a move for say a Yannis, and
that keeps the window alive even longer because of you
have SGA. Let's say you believe in Williams more than

(02:25:42):
you believe in Holme Gram, you send off Holgram. He
gets at he gets paid elsewhere they're want to take
on that contract and you get better with Jiannis because
if he is that veteran, that is just that missing
link to keep the dynasty part of it.

Speaker 4 (02:25:54):
Are you ready for a hot take on that particular subject. Yeah, sure,
I hope they do that because it will. Why would
you mess up something that you've got.

Speaker 5 (02:26:02):
Going right now?

Speaker 9 (02:26:03):
Why did you mess it up?

Speaker 6 (02:26:03):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (02:26:04):
Well, that's what you would do if you're okay, see,
that's what you should do. It's not. You're not even
Houston where I don't want to break up this core
because look at what we've got going.

Speaker 5 (02:26:12):
You won the championship. Why would you mess that up? Now?

Speaker 4 (02:26:17):
If you don't win this year and you think it's
because of this, that and the other, and you think
Giannis will get but the thing about that that's going
to completely change the way you play.

Speaker 5 (02:26:25):
The dynamics and all that kind of stuff. I just
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (02:26:31):
They're the only thing, in my opinion, realistically in the
way of the Rockets legitimately complete competing for a championship
this year. Now, Kevin Durant might start playing this year
and it's not working for whatever, but on paper right
now and Vegas agrees with me by the way, the
only thing standing in the way of the Rockets in
a title is Oklahoma City.

Speaker 3 (02:26:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:26:52):
So if they want to self destruct in some way,
shape or form by doing something insane like that, go
right ahead. But it looks like just inking their their
own guys to big, huge deals. That second apron of
the of the penalty phase, if you will, for spending
this kind of money is gonna be interesting to see
how they handle.

Speaker 9 (02:27:11):
So let me ask you, guys, you think that there's
gonna be an asher that goes to the Home Run
Derby this year?

Speaker 5 (02:27:15):
I hope not.

Speaker 6 (02:27:16):
There's probably not. There's only one spot open, yeah, left,
I think y because Brent Rooker didn't Brtent Rooker sign
up to do it to.

Speaker 9 (02:27:22):
Mull which is where we're going next. Brent Rooker officially
adding his name to the ballot to be a part
of the Home Run Derby participant. It was announced Thursday
that he would be the first Athletics player competing in
the Home Run Derby since Matt Olsen in twenty twenty one.
His fifty eight homers since the start of the twenty
twenty four season ranks him among the top three in
all American League players. The last time a a's player

(02:27:44):
won the home Run Derby was in nineteen ninety two
with Mark Reguire, and then you'll send a cesspitis in
twenty thirteen. In twenty fourteen, he'll be competing against Atlanta's
Ron mcunya, Minnesota's Byron Buxton, Tampa Bay junior Cameron Naro,
Pittsburgh's O'Neal Cruz, Seattle's Big Dumper, and Washington Shames Wood.

Speaker 5 (02:28:02):
It's gonna be awesome when Big Dumper swing gets screwed up.

Speaker 6 (02:28:05):
I think that that is like when I saw him
sign up for that was like, oh.

Speaker 5 (02:28:09):
I would never do so you subscribe to that theory
like I do.

Speaker 6 (02:28:13):
It didn't hurt Pete a Anso's done it the last
like he's not doing it this year, but he's done
it like the last four years and didn't seem to
affect him. It didn't affect Bregman did it two years
and like he had no problem with Judge. I don't
think he He's always said he's never gonna do it.
The only way he's he has said the only way
he will do it is if Yankee Stadium hosts all started.

Speaker 5 (02:28:33):
By the way, another hot take on this station in
this city, and you'll probably be able to confirm this
better than anybody I know. Aaron Judge is a really
nice guy. Yes, yes, I've heard I like him a lot.

Speaker 6 (02:28:46):
I've heard nothing like Again, I firmly subscribed to the
theory of as media members, even as beat writers, like,
we don't know these people like we think we do,
we think we do, we don't like.

Speaker 2 (02:28:56):
We don't know what these people do.

Speaker 6 (02:28:57):
When they go home. I hope they're all on the
up and up. We don't know that. Everything I have
heard about Aaron Judge from people inside the industry outside
the industry, suggests that he really.

Speaker 2 (02:29:06):
Is good dude, a top not human view.

Speaker 9 (02:29:08):
No, let's stay in New York for a minute, because
they may be going after a pitcher. I don't know
who just yet, but they're gonna need to because Clark
Schmidt officially will undergo Tommy john S surgery for the
second time in his career. Aaron Boone announced Thursday he
had an MRI last Friday, confirming the injury. Schmid had
been dealing with elbot sore and since June fourth, when
he exited against the Toronto Blue Jays this past season.

(02:29:30):
As a first round pick in twenty seventeen, had a
three thirty two ERA and fourteen starts. This is now
the second pitcher for the Yankees that is going to
miss the rest of the year, as Garrett Cole never
pitched this season for TJ surgery.

Speaker 4 (02:29:43):
Since you've got since I've got you here, and I
think I've asked you this on the phone during one
of our weekly segments.

Speaker 2 (02:29:48):
Do you think the pitch can clock A is causing
more of these?

Speaker 9 (02:29:52):
And B?

Speaker 4 (02:29:53):
Do you think that will be taken into account and
maybe changed later. They're never changing it, so it's always
going to be there changing. They're never taking it out
because it's worked.

Speaker 5 (02:30:02):
How can I fight Rob Manfred? That's my next question.

Speaker 2 (02:30:05):
Go to New York. I want to physically fight.

Speaker 6 (02:30:06):
I'm not going to give you his address, but go
to New York. I mean, pitching is unnatural. Throwing the
ball overhand at ninety eight to one hundred miles an hour,
it is an unnatural motion. Injuries are always going to happen.
I don't think the pitch clock. I don't think the
pitchclock is I don't think you can blame the pitchclock
for that. I think it has always been unnatural. Has

(02:30:28):
a pitchclock contributed to maybe some, sure, but I don't
think it is an all encompassing reason for why this
has happened.

Speaker 4 (02:30:36):
Interesting, all right, we will leave it at that for
the latest edition of In case you maysed it, but
we got one more segment to go, we will give
away a four pack or twenty. We'll definitely give at
least one four pack away of tickets to the Hot
Wheels of Monster Trucks Live Glow and Fire Show coming
up July nineteenth and twenty at that Toyota Center when
we return.

Speaker 2 (02:30:58):
The a on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:31:12):
Well, according to our good buddy Brian McTaggart, we have
a call up on the way you want to announce
it here Chandler Rome, who's filling in for Adam Wexler,
and the final segment here on a Thursday edition of
the show.

Speaker 6 (02:31:26):
I mean, I'd like to be able to confirm it myself. First,
good job tags, good job scooping. Yeah, it sounds like
Bryce Matthews is coming up to the big leagues for
in time for MRS game against the Texas Rangers. According
to Brian McTaggart.

Speaker 5 (02:31:40):
So when you first hear that, what's the first thing
that goes through your mind.

Speaker 6 (02:31:45):
I mean, they're going to have to make a roster move,
and the roster move would probably be Jake Myers going
on the IL. I wonder if they didn't see what
they needed from Chas McCormick in his rehab starts. He
has not been the results of not in there for
Chas McCormick on the rehab stint. Usually teams don't and

(02:32:05):
the astros included. Usually they don't put a ton of
stock into like the stats from rehab starts. It's about
how a guy's feeling, how guys, whether they feel the
timing's right. They usually don't care about stats. But I
haven't looked at the stats lately, but he was as
of last night, I believe, for twelve with ten strikeouts,
which is not good. So maybe this is a temporary

(02:32:28):
thing just to they The other thing is like they're
putting Myers on the IL if they If they are
putting Myers on the IL, if that's the move, they
have no other position players on the forty man roster,
Like that's like they sent shay wickhamb down today because
they had to get Christian Walker off the paternity list.

(02:32:48):
I guess theoretically they could have just caught this series.
Christian Walker will be back for the Country series, right,
so they have no one else really, So yeah, I
mean it'll it's a chance for Bryce Matthews to get
his feet wet. I don't know what if it'll be
a long stint, but uh yeah, good for him, and
he'll get h walk home of the big leagues. You

(02:33:11):
get Jack Lyder, Jacob de Gram and Natavaldi.

Speaker 5 (02:33:14):
Well and you and you get You're in the middle
of this.

Speaker 4 (02:33:17):
I don't know how hotly contested this edition of the
Silver Boot Series is going to be. Given that the
Ranger say, okay, can I just ask you this question?

Speaker 5 (02:33:25):
And this is not a fan thing, this is just legitimate, Like,
is that not the flukiest Garbage World Series Championship in
the history of I mean it's probably not the most,
but it's got to be up there. I mean, how
do you what happened in twenty twenty three besides a
certain guy with a huge head cycling for them, I'm
saying that not you.

Speaker 6 (02:33:45):
They just got I mean, and the d Backs are
the same way, like they just got hot at the
right time, and it's what it's what see.

Speaker 5 (02:33:51):
I hear that, and I think of the Nationals against
the Astros.

Speaker 6 (02:33:55):
I think the braves that hold on that Nationals team,
Steva Strassberg, Max Trey Turner, Anthony Rendon, Juan Soto, like.

Speaker 2 (02:34:03):
That was a good team.

Speaker 5 (02:34:04):
That they were good all years and then they did
the Florida Marlins fire sale after they.

Speaker 6 (02:34:08):
Started at nineteen and that that team started nineteen and
thirty one, and then after they started that they were
incredible after that. So that team was good. Uh, the
d Backs and the Rangers like it. Just it goes
to what I try to say every time we talk
about playoffs, every time we talk about, you know, teams
that are struggling, it's it's about getting hot at the
right time. And those two teams did it.

Speaker 4 (02:34:31):
But I think and I hate that because it there
is nowhere it is that come into play, more so
in my opinion than baseball, because yeah, teams get hot
in other sports and they go on runs and that's it.
But for the most part, in the NBA, the best
team is going to win more often than not, provided
they're healthy. In the NFL, more often than not, the

(02:34:54):
team with the most talent is going to win. That
just does not happen in baseball.

Speaker 2 (02:34:58):
No, I mean you can be there.

Speaker 3 (02:34:59):
I mean.

Speaker 6 (02:35:01):
Fans have lived it, like you can have the best team.
I mean Dodgers fans too have lived it. The Dodgers
have been the best team in baseball many times and
not won the World Series. Like again, it's about health,
it's about getting hot, it's about like it it's why,
like when it's why when I try to talk about

(02:35:22):
like specific series, Like everyone got so excited that the
Astros swept the Dodgers, which again they should have been,
Like it was a it was a cathartic experience for everyone,
But like, that's three games in the middle of June,
Like it's not. It's such a long season and so
much can change between now and then now.

Speaker 4 (02:35:43):
And there's been times where the Astros have won either
World Series or it definitely definitely making it to the
ALCS and maybe even again and then defeating a team
that actually maybe had their number during the regular season.

(02:36:04):
Or I mean, that's the crazy thing about bringing up
the Rangers. That was when I really knew the Astros
were for real. They stopped losing either stupid games or
just games in general to the Rangers, who had their
number through twenty sixteen, even after they made it back
to the postseason in twenty fifteen. That year, they didn't
make it in twenty sixteen. A bigger reason why is

(02:36:25):
they kept losing these stupid one run games to the
Texas Rangers of all people, and then seventeen that started
to change and the rest is history. So and they've
had their number ever since for the most part, until
twenty three happened, which again.

Speaker 6 (02:36:38):
Fluke, I mean, I'm gonna call it Fluke, I mean,
they beat the Astros four times in their home ballpark.

Speaker 5 (02:36:45):
Did you feel like if the Astros had home field
advantage in that series or didn't have home field advantage
in that series, they would have won. It's so crazy
to me because you were there for Game five, Like
to me, we talked about the other day, and tell
me if you agree, because I know a roldus arroydus
Garcia had many moments, especially in those last two games
here in Houston, but like, don't you feel like jose

(02:37:06):
Al Twovey's three run homer is still the most key
moment of that whole seven game series.

Speaker 6 (02:37:12):
That was one of the That was one of the
most insane things I've ever seen. That was the most clutch,
and it's hard to it's hard to appreciate it because
they lost the series. It's kind of it's the same thing.

Speaker 5 (02:37:23):
Really, Rangers fans thought it was over after that.

Speaker 6 (02:37:25):
It's never going to have the same effect just because
the pool Holes Homer was such a majestic blast. But like,
it's the same effect as.

Speaker 2 (02:37:32):
The pool Holes Homer.

Speaker 5 (02:37:33):
Like it's just a gut punch.

Speaker 6 (02:37:34):
It's a gut punch, and you're like, man and like
you kind of forget, like in the moment that oh man,
like the ash. Like the Ashers lost that series, right,
just like the Cardinals.

Speaker 4 (02:37:43):
The Cardinals lost that series too, and they lost it
at home, by the way, just like the Astros.

Speaker 6 (02:37:48):
Yeah, I can confirm by the way that Bryce Matthews
is coming up to the big league again. Good job tags,
but yeah, Bryce Matthews will be in the big leagues tomorrow,
a source confirms MLB Dot Comm's report.

Speaker 2 (02:38:00):
So that'll be fun.

Speaker 6 (02:38:01):
Hometown Kid too, went to a task is from a
task Asda gets to play in a place that he's
been for going for a while, gets to play in
the Silver Boot series. Like again, not the easiest introduction
with Jack Lyder, Jack Lyder, to Gram and Avaldi as
your first three big as your first three starters. But
you know, good chance for Bryce Matthews to he was

(02:38:22):
gonna go play in the Futures Game this weekend. Instead
he will, uh said, he will be in the big leagues.
Good for him.

Speaker 4 (02:38:27):
Well, I cannot thank you enough for coming by today,
especially on a daylight today. Now we couldn't have planned
what happened. But it's like I can't. Like I said,
I've said it all day long. Could not have thought
of a better guess. Tags would have been good. I
don't want to give him, you know, I want to
give him the amount of love that that I should.
And uh, he's he's going to come in here and
do this one of these days. We'll have to get
the schedule figured out.

Speaker 6 (02:38:48):
I mean, Tags was busy scooping my behind on this story.

Speaker 5 (02:38:51):
So that's why it's my fault. You would have had
this story probably maybe even before him.

Speaker 6 (02:38:56):
I don't know about that. Tags is really good.

Speaker 9 (02:38:58):
He is.

Speaker 6 (02:38:58):
Tags is the man.

Speaker 4 (02:38:59):
You guys are both the men. You are very good
at what you do and that's why we have you.
You will be back on again tomorrow. I'm gonna make
you come on tomorrow at five o'clock for your weekly hit.
We'll probably have some more information other than what we
just broke here or what we've just talked about. The
broken news was Bryce Matthews. Will probably have some more
information on Jake Myers. They are obviously off tonight, so

(02:39:20):
anything can happen, but we will set it aside for now.
We've got the Nightcap coming up next and we'll be
back at it again tomorrow for another four hours, the
final show of the week without WEX, and be back
on Monday. It is the A Team for Chandler Roame
filling in for cal Thompson, Madam Clanton. We got the
Nightcap coming up next year on your home for Astros
Baseball Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:39:43):
The Ad on Sports Talk seven ninety