The A-Team: No More Snell Watch Needed, JVUpdate and Say What?!

Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on March 19th, 2024.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston Sportskies named Adham TalkingYour Teams series, Adam Clinton and Adam
Wexler are the A Team A What'sUp Houston? It is a Tuesday edition
of the A Team Sports Talk sevenninety wex Ac the show Killer Dan Matthews

(00:26):
with you as we take you upuntil five o'clock. The Rockets will try
to sweep the Washington Wizards, whohave four road winds all year, so
it shouldn't be hard. But Isay that, oh, yeah, no,
they do. They absolutely only havefour road wins. I mean home
wins. That's better. Did Isay road twice? Did I say road
the first time and the second timewhen I try to correct myself. That's

(00:47):
unfortunate. I was thinking of theRockets having five road wins for forever,
and then they've like ripped off awhole bunch of them lately. But yeah,
Rockets Wizards basketball coming up starting atfive o'clock. You got us for
two hours here on the A Teamand we won't be celebrating Blake Snell the
astro today. I started to thinkthat that'd probably be the case right around

(01:10):
the time you heard the reports ofthem balking. Here's my problem wex this
guy signed for one of the figuresbecause you know this exact to the eighth
degree decimal point. What did hesign for in San Francisco? Two years?
Sixty two million dollars with an optout? Yeah, technically an opt
out after the second year because thecontract will be over. Let's do lizard
face Newsom's tax bracket. Wait,it's lizard face. Yeah, he's he's

(01:34):
a lizard person. You didn't knowthat? How does he? So?
Have you ever seen him? Doesthat mean he's capable of living on both
land and sea? Is he likea mermaid? Probably? Okay, God's
good because he's on the coast,right, that's California. Yeah, and
eventually it's gonna fall into the PacificOcean. Anyways, that's the rumor,
right relative like while he's still ameaningful politician maybe, oh okay, but

(01:55):
the problem with that lizard man,Okay, go on, sorry, everyone
else will fall into the ocean too, that's living there. So anyways,
Yeah, like once all of thoserotten taxes get taken out and there are
a time and I'm not asking anybodyto feel sorry for Blake Snell or any
professional athlete that makes millions of dollars. But again, this guy basically balked
at the Astros offer over roughly twomillion dollars same amount of years, right,

(02:21):
reportedly, yes, sixty six versussixty two? Is that fair enough
to say? Close enough? It'snegligible even though it's millions of dollars to
us, it's majorly negligible, notnegligent. Shouldn't it be for him?
That's what I'm getting at here.And I realize we talk about this all
the time. You could argue thebest two pitchers of the National League now
pitch for the same team. Histeam. Yeah, I don't know.

(02:45):
Well, show Hayes not a pitcherthis year exactly, but he will be
maybe not well Snelle as a Giant. Do you think the Giants are good
now? I thought they were goodbefore I didn't. Okay, Well,
all they have to do is getto the playoffs see Arizona. That's true.
They just won the whole league.It's cool, and then they can
get like clobbered by whoever. Mostteams still think it's a pretty neat season

(03:07):
to reach the World Series and winyour league. You know what I didn't
use to describe the twenty nineteen seasonfor the Astros because the Astros neat because
they aren't most taste. Ruin ajdidn't put in Garrett call in the seventh
in the in the game seven andthey were leading by a run. That
was neat. Every other team ishoping to win for the second time in
the last eight years or the firsttime, but Houston every other team,

(03:30):
so they're not like the other team. You're in case of the Yan the
World Series first time since two thousandand nine, it's yes, the Giants
are good and this made them better. So they'll still lose to the Dodgers
in the division and they won't.Well. In the last two years,
the Dodgers have won the division andlost to a team in their division.
They have their own issues, butwe're not talking about them, right So,

(03:52):
I mean, you don't have tobe better than the Dodgers for one
hundred and sixty two games. Youdon't have to be better than them for
a series of five. I wishsomebody would tell Dodgers in that because every
year they sound the same. Youknow, they're starting to sound like Cowboys
fans. They're both the same.Win a bunch of games in the regular
season, roll over and die earlyon in the postseason. Boy, the
Cowboys probably would be thrilled if theywere considered the best, most talented team

(04:15):
in the entire league. They havethe Dodgers. Just ask the nobody thought
they were the best team. Everybodythinks the Dodgers are the best team.
That's the difference. The Dodgers dohave the best roster, yeah, probably
top to bottom. And if itwere another sport, they would probably be
far and away the favorite, farand away expected, and they would probably
complete the deal. But baseball it'sa different animal. Its why we love

(04:36):
it, boy, well, it'swhy we love it and hate it sometimes.
I mean, the Alcs last yearwas it was the closest I've come
to feeling like twenty nineteen. Andthat wasn't a neat feeling either. Well,
late in the day yesterday it wasreported that the Giants will be the
team for Blake Snell two year sixtytwo million and opt out after the first
year. Very similar structure to eachof the other four members that have signed

(05:01):
deals who are getting snowed right now, all of them. Chapman is now
his teammate, He's got opt outsand each year of his three year deal
with the Giants. Obviously there wereopt outs for Cody Bellinger and his three
year deal with the Cubs, andnow Snell on a two year deal if
he again is one of the bestpitchers in baseball, which he's already done
multiple times in his career. Butthat's the issue that the players that Boris

(05:26):
represents, at least specifically these threeand maybe more because Jordan Montgomery does not
have a deal yet. They didall of this already had a great year
in their proven year, and Chapmanprobably didn't have a great year in his
proven year last year. But youknow, I've been under control. I
haven't gotten to extension land. I'mnot a complete and total free agent yet.
Okay, here I am. Andit didn't pay off. It didn't

(05:49):
pay off at all for these guysbecause now they have to do it again.
It was, you know, situationthat Carlos Korea kind of laid the
foundation for. And it is interestingleast that was my first thought when I
saw that it was the Giants,and the Giants and the Astros had long
been reported better than the last week'sworth of time. These were probably the
two teams that would were the mostlikely to land Blake Snell it turns out

(06:12):
to be the Giants. But Ifound it interesting again upon completion that this
is another team, or it's anotherplayer that Scott boris in an uncertain market
hasn't developed yet time in his agent'slife, which now runs three market he
developed for Blake Snell. Didn't ityet last night? I mean, I
don't want to go back and lookat his transcript from Carlos Korea's Minnesota Twins

(06:33):
introductory press conference, or to hiswritten out, prepared speech for his Giants
press conference, which never happened.What about the Mets? Did you have
one there? I'm sure he wasgoing to say the same thing about Korea
that he's now saying two years laterfor these different players. The market never
developed for Carlos, so this iswhat we want to do, and Carlos
did opt out. He then endedup re signing with his original team after

(06:56):
other deals, but he had adeal in place for Carlos Korea all the
way up until the press conference tobe a Giant, And now this offseason,
with two of his players not gettingwhat they sought, they're also in
San Francisco now, at least shortterm do you think that this is going
to be And I don't know why. It's just like, I'm sure this
has happened with a non Scott Borisclient, right, but like this is

(07:19):
becoming a pattern with him, Andit's not that he's not getting his clients
paid, they're just having to waitan extra year or two. Well,
they're definitely not. I wouldn't callthem getting paid to the extent that they're
Oh, I want to be afree Why is Alex Bregman leaving because he
wants two or three hundred million,Well, nobody's getting that right now unless
you're Show Hay or an import whogot the other big contract both from the

(07:40):
Dodgers this offseason. And that's whattoday's real conversation should be about. What,
if anything, can you make anyreal conclusions on what this offseason means
to next offseason, to Kyle Tuckerthe following off season potentially, or are
these players saying, look, Idon't want to deal with this. I
don't even want to take the chanceanymore. Just I'm not into it.

(08:01):
You saw a couple of players,probably most notably with Wheeler the deal he
end up signing with the Phillies tostay there. That was one of the
most lucrative deals, and he wasn'teven on the market. He was kept
by his own team, and insteadof letting him test the market, or
having him want to test the marketbecause he's already under contract, he decided

(08:22):
the deal I'm getting from the teamI want to be with is perfectly satisfactory.
Rather than hitting the unknown of whatis out there watching what isn't being
spent? Are these teams waiting fornext year? Well, that's that's perfectly
reasonable theory. Next year, whenBregman and others hit the market, I've
saved my money. I didn't spendit on these guys. Well, Blake

(08:43):
Snell and Matt Chapman and Cody Bellingercan be joining that market also, Well,
how many teams are spending the bigmoney? You know who's going to
get it? Is the market floodedwith so much talent, nobody feels the
need to go out and pay it. That's what's impossible to determine, and
that's why you have to kind ofguess. I mean, could you see
Alex Bregman looking at this and thenfinally instructing Scott Boris to say, look,

(09:07):
I want as much money as Ican get out of the Astros,
and that'll be that. I don'twant to go out there and say,
man, I took my chances ofthe market. I know what the Astros
are offering you out I can.I just don't. I don't feel like
that's what we want. So let'sgo out there. Where's my two fifty,
where's my two eighty? I thoughtyou said we were going to get
it, and then he asked toagain settle for a three year, eighty

(09:31):
seven million dollar deal with two optouts. It is It is fascinating to
think that that would be. ButOkay, if Alex Bregman was going to
do something like that, it's onlygoing to come about because he's been to
the table and I mean by he, I mean obviously his agent and discovered
that you. I mean, thisis the first time since what Dallas Kichel

(09:54):
where it's really gone this deep,and Dallas was like July of that year.
That was a different part of Onepart is timing and the other part
is money. These guys are notgetting long term guaranteed deals. The most
money that Snell got from anybody guaranteedis sixty two million. That's it.
And he's got a pitch through twoyears to guarantee that he gets it.

(10:16):
It's at his choice. And Idon't really like the articles that say,
man, you know, look atthis guy, he got ninety million this
offseason, thirty plus more than Snell. Well, when the contracts aren't the
same length, that's stupid. It'slike he's not you're acting like he's retiring
after the second year of the deal. Like, let's go ahead and add
on whatever money he makes at agethirty three with the next contract or the

(10:39):
new or the redone. Like CarlosKorea, he signed a deal that was
for one hundred and five million whenhe left the Astros with an opt out
after year one and year two heopted out. Well, and then what
did he make more than the remainingseventy million that was on the contract that
he opted out of. So thosecomparisons are really really hollow, kind of
lame. And do you think thereason that, yeah, I would tend

(11:00):
to agree with that, but onthe flip side or in those people's defense,
do you think the reason they saythat is because in baseball, yeah,
the money is guaranteed, but ifyou only have two years of guaranteed
money and you get hurt, thenit becomes like the NFL. Okay,
well you got paid for those yearsand now you're out, Like you've got
the NFL. You run the riskof not having anyone interested in Major League

(11:20):
Baseball, even as a pitcher.But more likely another player like Alex Bregnan
could miss the entire season. What'sthis contract offer going to be for the
off season. It's not gonna benothing. Yeah, no, I know.
But if you're getting to be eightfigures minimum for one year. Yeah,
but if you're getting a long termdeal that's guaranteed, that is better

(11:41):
than a short term deal. It'sguaranteed, of course, no question about
it. That's probably they're comparing himto lesser players who signed for more money
because they are making way less peryear. Yeah, it's it will be.
Blake Snell's had no years that wouldhave necessitated a contract for anything less
than what he's getting right now.If he pitches just like he has no

(12:03):
better, no worse, no cyYoung Award, wins, no postseason appearances,
his next contract is not going tobe less than thirty one million annually.
So I'm okay pretending to add thaton what are we looking at Bregman
getting. By the way, youryour your best guesstimation, is it around
that that figure? That's the verylow end. Wow, See, I

(12:26):
was thinking that was like kind ofthe middle. I mean, Cody Bellin
you got three years eighty million withopt outs, so that's obviously well under
thirty million a year. You thinkAlex Bregman's getting under thirty million a year
if he has a thirty five homerone hundred and ten RBI season, No.
Eight fifty oh ps, which wouldbe a better season than he had
last year. Yeah, be It'llbe fascinating what he ends up getting and

(12:50):
where I just don't have a goodfeeling that it's going to be with the
Astros. So yeah, that isone of the big stories of the day
that we will get to. We'llget to our Wow, We'll get to
our JV update wex when we comeback here on the eighteen. I'm Clinton
Wexler. Continue on Sports Talk toseven ninety, goes up Tours, Rockets,

(13:11):
Basketball Lives Here eight team rolling alonghere on Sports Talks seven ninety.
It's Tuesday edition of the program wexand AC with you taking up until five
o'clock. You know, I wasthinking about what you were talking about with
with you know, the comparisons betweenyou know, at least for example,
the boris four as it were,and then give me the give me the

(13:33):
rundown again. So we had BlakeSnell, we had two year sixty two
million opt outs throughout with the Giantsfor Snell, three years eighty million with
the Cubs for Bellinger opt outs throughout, three years fifty four million for Chapman,
up Yere opt outs throughout, andJordan Montgomery is the loan what are
you calling now the last one standing? The boris what I mean, he's

(13:54):
let's make turn them into the fantasticfor it and apply them apropriately to the
abilities of those out there. Iwould think Blake Snell is mister incredible,
you know, long arms, ableto stretch into any different position kind of
thing. Guy more well versed onthis day. So there's invisibility. Depending
on which movie you saw, I'mgoing with the Jessica Alba version, that's

(14:18):
probably Matt Chapman because his free agencywas kind of invisible because he was so
awful last year in Toronto where hewas literally invisible. Jordan Montgomery's probably Reid's
friend Ben, who's a non scientistbut gets turned into the I mean,
this is where I'm not well versed, but you know, kind of the
the monster, the bigger, biggestof the guys, and that's Jordan.

(14:41):
Why don't we do the for soBellinger is Michael B. Jordan Junior.
I wish we would have done thefour principal characters from Tombstone, the what
kind of foresome were they? TheTombstone for a badass forsome? Well,
yeah, the last man's sinning again. Montgomery. He's been long linked to

(15:03):
the Red Sox and ultimately that maybewhere he ends up. The Astros have
never been linked to him, butclearly they've spent as much time as any
team other than the Giants talking toScott Boris this offseason between al Tuvey,
Snell and Bregman. Although they're Bregmant, conversations I do believe are extremely limited.
They've they've had a lot of conversation. I'm sure right before Scott says

(15:26):
all right, are we done here, he says what about Jordan or something
like that. So I'm sure thatat least the name has come up,
But I would not Peg Montgomery aslikely to land in Houston, but he
is still available. So that's thatbrings us to the real question here.
How much are you panicking If you'rean Astros fan, you're not zero,
Well you shouldn't be. But likeI'm seeing a lot of this, like,

(15:48):
well they better the guy who geta starter, Mike, why because
Rakidi got hurt? Because if thatwas what made you really need a starter,
then I don't think you really havethe proper perspective on the rotation of
again with it's a little concerning whenyou're starting the year without Verlander and even
when he comes back, okay,well what is he and how much?
And is he gonna get hurt again? Same thing on JP France. He

(16:10):
probably is in the rotation, buthe's obviously not at his finest and is
there an issue a week, twoweeks, three weeks into the season with
him? Now, you really can'thave any issues with Brown, Javier and
Valdez and they all have their ownbaseball related issues. Well, before you
go any further, the funniest thingabout the France comment not by you.
I'm just saying in general, JPFrance is only a thing because he stepped

(16:34):
up when someone got hurt last season, right, and that's why people will
then we didn't bring it up yesterday, but they'll then bring up the name
Spencer Araghetti. He's been perfectly fineat spring training. He's had some good
outings, he's had some less lesseroutings. He pitched fine in the prospect
game over the weekend for two innings. He's the next guy in line that
has not yet made his major leaguedebut, and odds are pretty high that

(16:57):
he'll make it this year, notjust because of these things, but just
in general. I think the timingof his rise through their system and what
the Astros have for at least thenext three months, because we're still two
months away from even thinking about thereturns of Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers.
And when you think about it,it doesn't mean it's imminent. When they
get to June, they might startthinking about it, but neither one of

(17:19):
them are expected to be pitching forthem before July, and maybe even not
before August. But the idea ofa tie, a real concrete or timetable
might be in place at that point. If you've gotten to that point in
the season and you haven't had anyother issues, then you're an exceptional position.
It'd be great to go out aveteran that can do it. I
mean, Michael Lorenzen has never beenattached to the Astros for good reason.

(17:41):
He's one of the guys who's justavailable. He was sought after last year
because he just happened to be pitchingwell at the time, and then he
threw a no hitter for the teamthat acquired him, and then he was
terrible again, and so he's onthe market this year. It's an arm
you could get, but I don'tknow what you'd want to really commit to
that, and it would certainly beshort term. Panic button is a bit
much. I mean, the teamthey're here in the stiffest competition with is

(18:04):
a team that's in the very verysame boat. They're gonna be counting on
a lot of arms early in theseason that they won't want to have to
be counting on later in the season. If de Gram comes back, if
Scherzer is himself at some point,obviously some other issues that still hit their
pitching staff last year could hit themagain this year. They're not any different

(18:25):
than you, so I wouldn't betoo concerned. The Astros are not one
hundred and five win team. Neitherof the Rangers their mid nineties are below.
It's about where they were last year. They should not be significant.
They'll be significantly worse than last year. If they're pitchers that are healthy aren't
good, not because they ran intoinjury issues. In my opinion, You
know, I was fucking about thistoo. Is that. I mean the
Rangers, the defending champs, afterall, are dealing with not the same

(18:51):
situation or scenario. But I mean, what's their rotation right now an opening
day? What's their rotation? It'sa bunch of the guys that our gap
fillers. You know, Dunning hada really good stretch of games last year.
He'll be back out there. Ivaldiwas hurt for a short time last
year but finished the season healthy.He'll be at the top of the rotation.
You know, John Gray had sometimes where they weren't sure quite how

(19:12):
to use him, but he's there. I mean, people, I think
that's the guy they probably forget aboutthe most, and then it's all the
other injured guys at some point thatwill fill in those gaps. You think,
or you hope, if you're theRangers. Well, I mean,
especially in the case of the highpriced ones. Yes, they'll be back.
It's you know, I don't knowthat the otherwise you're basically talking if
Jacob Brohm isn't back, then hiscareer is over. There's a better than

(19:33):
average chance of that. Wex I'dprobably say less than average chance of that.
But his track record says otherwise.Lately, his track record says he's
been hurt, not he's headed toretirement. I think this point in time,
considering he's barely pitched for the Rangers, he's into year two, it
was nothing but hurt at the endof his Mets career, which is why
people were shocked at how They weren'tsurprised they let him walk. They were

(19:56):
surprised that the Rangers were willing tocommit that kind of baseball money, which
is one hundred percent guarantee their GM. So awesome, just ask everybody.
Well, that continues to drive meback to the don't cry Rangers team and
fans about RSN money not being there. You're the team that spent one hundred
and sixty seven million under Grom,three hundred and twenty five on Segur and

(20:18):
another one hundred and seventy five onSimeon and that's why you're out of money.
Yes, a revenue stream went downthat you were counting on, but
you're the ones who made those tosee. The Astros have continued to not
hand out contracts like that for areason. What's the worst one hit wonder
you've ever heard in your entire life? Chumbawamba? Uh? Probably the uh

(20:40):
Pumper, Probably the Proclaimers. Ithink they did a super long walk.
They made it about five hundred miles. That is a good one. I'm
trying to compare that to the Rangerschampionship. That's what it's going to be.
No, it's not sure, itis No, it is. Why
not? It just isn't Why where? I mean? I'm sorry. The
Astros offense is great. Rangers offenseis no different. They are absolutely loaded.

(21:03):
Yeah, as long as they're roidingup Adulas. He's not even their
best player. I can be theirsecond best player. Offensively speaking, Corey
Seeker is their best player. Yes, he's an MVP. He was second
in the MVP race. They're reallyawesome offensively. So it's good. It's
money well spent, then exactly soquick crying about it. Yeah, No,
I'm not crying that. I'm talkingto them. Okay, we were

(21:26):
talking of both of us, weren'tyou. No, you don't cry about
them for different about them. Ido. I do yell, not yelling
about the other teams from Texas thatneed yelling. I did. I've done
a lot of yelling today already.I feel mental yelling. No, No,
it was live yelling. It was. It was absolutely real yelling.
And there you have it. Thelatest on Justin Verlander. Well do that
when we come back here on theeighteen p JP France here supports Talk seven

(21:53):
ninety as your home freshers Baseball streamevery game on the free iHeartRadio app.
I have to share something with you. And Dan doesn't know that I'm gonna
do this, but it's funny tome, so I'm gonna do it.
Anyways, Dan comes in and hegoes, did I miss a cue that
segment? And I go, no, we just didn't get to the JV
update. He'll call for it.We just started gabbing and we didn't get

(22:15):
to it. Yeah, my shortterm memory is starting to fleet me a
little bit. So Dan thought maybehe missed a que or something. I
said, no, you're fine,Like today I legitimately filled up my water
cup and was like, when didI do that? Oh? Well,
you probably have low testosterone and needto go to men's t clinic. Short
term memory is part of that.Okay, anyway, do you know where
the button is? It's right infront of me. WEX, We're good

(22:37):
to go. I'm ready. Areyou ready? Let's go? Are you
ready? Here's your cue? JVupdate the same as before JV update.
He's gonna throw live VP to teammatesin the next day or two. Tomorrow's
an off day for the Astros.They don't have a spring training game.

(22:59):
Oh yeah, but they do haveplenty of players still in camp and it
wouldn't shock me if they utilize tomorrow'soff data. You know, I'll put
in a small request to some ofthe players. Could you maybe swing by
at the facility around I don't know, eight fifty in the morning. Number
thirty five wants to throw a liveBP you down. Can you maybe grab
a stick and head on out tothe dish put on a helmet for us?

(23:22):
Or if not, they'll end updoing it on Thursday as they drive
within less than a week from leavingFLA. But if it's all an indication
for where we are. The Astroshave a game against the Yankees on the
twenty eighth. They'll be back inHouston for two exhibition games beginning Monday of
next week. There's only so manygames left for him to get into an
exhibition game. Odds are dwindling thatthat will even happen, but live vps

(23:45):
are always an option, and there'splenty of ways for him to ramp it
up beyond what spring training gives you. But again, no stepbacks, no
reason to believe there's anything other thana calendar issue with JV. But these
are the types of things that mightshow you if there is something. If
he can't really harness or get itup to what he wants to, if
he's not seeing the kind of movementor the shape on his pitches, and

(24:07):
certainly wouldn't feel comfortable going out thereand facing major league hitters in a game
where they keep scoring count wins andlosses, then that would be something different.
But that's what's on the horizon forhim. The rest of the staff,
Jose or Keaty, according to ChandlerRoman, those assembled with the team
in Florida, is scheduled to speaktoday, and maybe he will shed more
light than what has been shed already. Beyond he's not gonna throw for a

(24:29):
while. The timetable on him is, as expected, unknown and likely long.
They have not said anything about aUCL being needing and in need of
repair, but right forearm strain certainlydoes not suggest anytime soon where he's gonna
be throwing against major league pitching.A great Kessinger is gonna be off his
feet for a few days even withthat news, as he is the leader

(24:52):
for making the roster as their secondutility player because obviously Mauricio Dubon has the
first utility role spot locked up,and he's been unbelievable this spring, Mauricio
hitting almost five hundred and playing allover the diamond like he always does.
But Greg Cassingers, I would bethe doesn't play again before they get back
to Houston. Maybe he gets ina game late next week, but they'll
probably want to play it safe becausethey want him on the opening roster,

(25:15):
which again is twenty five players andnot twenty six for two days. Because
major League Baseball doesn't get it isdumb, but anyway, at least they
got it for a few days.In last year's postseason and did not tell
Brian A Braid to not pitch theremainder of the series, but rather these
much less meaningful games against the Yankeeswith one hundred and sixty games to make

(25:37):
up for it. We have weburied the lead to start the season.
What are the Astros? We keeptalking about all these issues they have with
their starters. How are they goingto make up for the remaining suspension that
Brian Abray you has to serve well, brought it up yesterday that they have
some issues after their starters as well. You know, Seth Martinez is definitely
making this team. They've got somequestion marks about who else. There's a

(26:00):
tremendous amount of confidence in Bennett's SUSA, who's never proven to be a quality
Major leaguer in the past. Hehad a good month with the Astros.
He was available to every team inbaseball at the time because the Tigers had
just let him go. But yeah, he's probably going to make the team.
Parker Mushinski is making a bid tobe one of another a third left
handed arm out of the Astros pento open up the year. But yeah,

(26:22):
a lot of that is absolutely upin the air. You know Rafael
Montero. For those that took inthe second game yesterday, we had the
radio game early and then the SpaceCity Home network had the TV game late.
You know, Raffael Montero came intothe game, knock, knock,
knock, ground ball up the middle, and he was out at the inning
with no runs because someone tried tostretch a single into a double got thrown

(26:42):
out. And then with two runnerson, having truly not actually retired any
batters, he got the next batterto hit one up the middle, scoop,
flip fire, double play zero.If only he could do that several
times over the course of the season, he'll be right back to his twenty
twenty two form. Yeah, Iwas just it seemed like it was head
towards a second consecutive yikes outing forhim. And the reality is, you

(27:03):
know, they're not just looking atthe results of the numbers. He put
a zero up there, looking atwell, these three guys barreled him up,
or these two guys did that.But those are the significant injuries.
And then I mentioned today the Astrosmade a couple of roster moves. Trey
Cabbage was optioned to minor league campthat was not unseen. He hadn't done
a whole lot, and I don'tknow that they had much of an opportunity.

(27:26):
He would have had to tear thecover off the ball in spring.
Probably sadly to say this to unseatJohn Singleton, even though he has a
little bit more positional flexibility. Singletonplays first and DHS and Cabbage can play
other positions, certainly the outfield isamong them. He goes to minor league
camp. David Hensley, who's inthe utility player role. He was optioned

(27:48):
out today, and three pitchers whojust were not in the mix to be
a part of this team were alsosent down. Wander Swear an interesting name
and that they brought him in asa free agent. He actually had some
pretty good moments, so I thoughthe threw the ball pretty well in spring,
but just too far on the outsidelooking in. Maybe somebody later this
year has an opportunity with the club. Brandon Black gets the start today and

(28:10):
it becomes more and more notable andthat he's probably going to get a start
when the season begins. He's inBlue Jays and he's out of options,
so either he makes the team orhe's made available to everybody else in the
majors, either via trade or release. Let me tell you right now,
they better not put him on waivers. If they want to keep him,
somebody will scoot you. Oh forsure. It's not even But it's not
because he's great. It's because therethat doesn't really hurt you to grab him

(28:34):
and use him in the same waythe Astros probably want to. Who was
it that was put on waivers,maybe even last season, and I remember
thinking, Wow, they're not.That's a surprise that they weren't picked up.
I can't remember who it was.I feel like it was an Astro.
But b Lack is actually super Idon't want to say he's important,

(28:55):
but he's not. He's not justa trivial name. That's that's depth right
now with what they're going through,and he can pitch. I mean,
you might not be the biggest fanof his, but he show me enough
to where I want to keep himaround. I certainly don't want to put
him on waivers. No, Ithink they are not in a position to
do that with the rest of theirpitching staff. But what I'm saying later
this year they might be forced todo that, or they would have to

(29:17):
figure out again in order to keephim, he's got to be able to
hold down his spot so when otherguys start coming back, they're not bumping
him off the roster to where he'seither exposed or they have to trade somebody
him to make room for him.Oh, you trust more right now in
a relief role, Brandon Black orRafael Montero. I mean, Blak is
gonna be He's the first. Whenyou have to go early in a game,

(29:41):
you're going to him. And I'mtalking about obviously he's not, but
he's not going to pitch in thesixth or seventh inn to get three outs
very often. If ever, he'sgonna pitch in the fourth inning to get
nine or twelve outs. Right,No, that would be the definition of
long relief. I'm just saying.Yeah, what I'm saying is I still
hate the Montaro contract. That's whatI'm saying now. Fortunately, that's where

(30:02):
we're at, all right, Hey, how about we get to some football.
We will do that when we comeback to round out the three o'clock
hour here on a abbreviated edition ofthe A Team Sports Talk seven ninety Rockets
Wizards coverage right around the corner inthe meantime, what are you going to
be watching it with tonight? Whatare you gonna be watching this upcoming baseball
season with, or when the draftis upcoming, or training camp or the

(30:23):
NFL season. What are you goingto have glued to the screen. Is
it going to be two eyeballs withtwenty twenty vision? If it's not,
what are you waiting on? Youcan get it. It's going to be
fantastic, it's going to be affordable, and best of all, it's going
to be safe and effective. We'retalking about the only way to get LASIK
at Berkeley Eye Center. And ontop of that, you're getting leap year

(30:45):
savings because at Berkeley Eye Center theylove leap years, and we're in the
middle of one right now. Theywere giving away this savings of this variety
last month. You know when there'sactually a leap day February twenty ninth,
but they've extended it here into themonth of March. The leap savings that
come around once every four years,But unless you want to wait that long
to get that twenty twenty vision,then leap into lasik this month at Berkeley

(31:10):
Center with their leap year's Lasik celebration, and all you got to do to
find out all the details is goto their website b E C. Lasik
dot com. That's b E C. Lasik dot com. Or you can
call them, you know, talkto an actual human being seven one three
five two six eyes. An amazingstaff at Berkeley I Center is awaiting you
at seven one three five two sixE y E s. And when you

(31:30):
talk to them tell them. AdamClanton from Sports Talk seven nineties, since
you in Adam Clinton, Adam Wexler. The at continue continues, Banks Ball
football basketball. In my Sports Talkseven ninety home for your home teams,
it is the a team here.On Sports Talk seven nineties, we mentioned

(31:51):
Rockets basketball coming up in a littleover an hour. They're out on the
East Coast. They'll be going forthe sweep up. By the way,
I was, I was doing alittle research for the pregame for the network
tonight. Wex you'll be doing thetelevision side of things. Yeah, got
my tie on already. Yeah,that actually surprises me. Well, I'm
gonna be, you know, ina little bit of a rush because I'm

(32:15):
trying to do my best to performon this show. First, are you
one of those people that can tiea tie successfully to where it looks good
in a hurry. Now that I'vebeen on TV IS a lot lately,
it's getting easier. So you wereout of practice for a while. And
yeah, for sure, but it'sall about knowing, well, where's you
get where's the length of the endthat you want hidden. Once you have

(32:35):
that down, you're good to go. We're like six days shy of our
fifth anniversary. I saw some ofthose anniversary things coming around. That's awesome,
man, we rule well not you. You weren't here for like a
few more weeks. I started backon the march on March twenty fifth.
I mean you you came along short, so we get two anniversaries trying to
say it's I mean, that's somethingthat Thomas would do. Awesome. So
you're doing some research Wizard's rockets.Yeah, do you think that Jordan Poole

(33:00):
ever sits around and thinks, man, I had it good? No,
Well, I know, I knowyou're going. I know what you're gonna
say. He has the ultimate greenlight, now do whatever he wants.
He's still making the same money,right, so more money they extended him.
Oh I didn't know they extended it. So you obviously I did radio
for the first Washington game and I'llgive you I'll help with your research.

(33:22):
The worst perimeter defender in the NBAis Jordan Poole. By far. Doesn't
surprise me. You will be amazedat how uninterested he is. That's good
for Jalen Green take. It's goodfor whoever it was good for. Fred
Van Vliet was our post game guestafter the matchup more against him in that
game, they just s witchever guy. They just switched whoever they wanted to

(33:44):
take him apart, they would givethe ball to and that's what they would
do. Jalen took him to theI mean, I'm literally writing highlights.
Green takes pool. Van Vliet fliesby pool like it's amazing. And we
were joking with Fred after the game. He had more layups finishes at the
rim in this game that he's probablyhad in a month, and he agreed
with us because he just doesn't haveany where he gets all the way to

(34:05):
the cup for a finish. Grantedthey don't have a rim protector either,
but he was just they were runningpool. He literally is like the epitome
of the league as a whole.What's number one on the whiteboard that the
coach writes now in the NBA outscorethem. And he's not being he's not
joking like if we have one twentyat the end of the game and they
have one ten, then we win. He's literally saying, they can score

(34:28):
as much as they want. Idon't care you he'll score more. And
that's what Washington plays like. Andhe's the poster child for that. He's
playing. His defense got even worseas he got hot. He got hot
in the third quarter and he's justthrowing up shots and everything was going in
and he was, you know,trying to be all globe trottery. But
man, is he bad. He'sa bad basketball player, which is why
he really wasn't a very good fitin Golden State because I think he thinks

(34:51):
he's a good basketball play. Definitely, he's a talented offensive player. And
two guys like that, Kuzma Icould tell is really doing his best to
not fall into that and actually bea leader. He was actually coaching his
teammates after their fifth time out,after their tenth He's trying to say,
look, this is we cannot Imean obviously we're getting blown out already,
but still you this is your joband this is your responsibility. And he

(35:15):
wasn't taking He was like five ofeight or six of ten, and seven
of he was taking the shots heshould be taking, not just jacking it
up all the time because everybody doesthat on the Wizards, they're gonna If
they don't clobber the Wizards, thensomething happened. The Wizards are awful right
now, and I actually, yeah, that's the exact word I will use
to describe them tonight as well.Here's the deal, though, with these
two guys, Kyle Kuzma Jordan Poole, I can't refer to either of them

(35:40):
in good faith as bad basketball playerswhen they were both contributing members on a
championship team. Now, I don'tcount the Lakers championship that Kyle Kuzma helped
them win because it happened in thebubble and all the things surrounding that.
And I I hesitate with Jordan Poolebecause basically, I just you know,
I can't stand the Warriors. Buteverything that happened with Draymond Green, like

(36:05):
all of that, like you know, they chose Draymond Green over him,
an old Raymond Green over him.That tells you something. They were in
different situations, I know. Butlike Jordan Poole's not he's a luxury on
a team like the Warriors. He'salso a his He had one really respectable
offensive season last year. No,I won't know how respectable i'd call a

(36:29):
thirty four percent shooter. Who's ashooter? Is well? He averaged he
averaged twenty last year. I wantto say jack all the time. So,
so you're saying before he actually shotthe ball well enough that it warranted
taking that many shots. Right theyear after, he's like, well,
we don't have anybody. Everybody's hurt, so I'm just gonna jack it up
all that. Now was the wasthat the championship year? Now I can't,
I've lost track. Oh, definitely, ask me. No it was

(36:51):
no, you're right, it wastwo The year he was good, Denver
won it last year. Yeah.The year he was better was obviously the
year that he was So the Wizardshave two guys that were key key members,
albeit in a reserve or not astarring role of championship teams, on
their team, and they suck.I mean the Wizards, I don't know

(37:12):
they're hurt, but they sucked whenthey were fully healthy. I mean,
they just they are terrible. Theydon't play defense right and they don't and
they don't have talent. They've madesome terrible picks. They've taken chances on
first round picks that did not panout, and they haven't gotten enough in
return. They only have three playerson their team that they drafted, and
they're obviously at the high end ofthe draft every year, at least in
the top ten lottery wise, andthey just have not panned out. I

(37:36):
mean Pool and Pool was like thehe was the fifth best player on the
Warriors. Probably that's not a hugeI mean, he did score a lot
of points, but four guys weremore important than him, Thompson, Draymond
and Steath Loony was probably more importantthan him. Also, Looney's been important
for them for a while. Butyes, we can move. Luckily,

(37:58):
they they didn't force us to talkabout the win. Is there's much this
year. They played them last weekfor the first time and tonight for the
last time, in and out byebye. They are They are a bad,
bad, bad basketball team. Soyeah, the Rockets should uh should
win this one. Comfortably tonight andget themselves into three out from the playing
game. Is this gonna happen?Well, they're three out, but you

(38:21):
got to consider some of the tiebreakers. They're three games behind, like
four out in reality. Well they'refour out legitimately on the Lakers, but
the Rockets have the tiebreaker because theyown them, right, and they're three
back of Golden State, but theydon't have the tiebreaker. Don't they play
Golden State one more time? Nomore games? Oh? I thought they
had one more And I don't know. I haven't figured it out yet what

(38:43):
a three way tie would result in. To see who gets eight to nine?
Working on, working on? Comeon, man, what's going on
with the Wexler research staff? Arethey sleeping again? They're gearing up for
baseball season. I can't wait?All right? I know I said we
would talk about some football, butwe didn't. But we will. And
next segment, And here's why dumbmoney's being given out again. And I
know that if you don't think aboutit even that long, you know who

(39:06):
I'm talking about. Wex We mentionedhim yesterday, it happened again today.
It's just incredible, and it's anotherreason why I don't trust a certain member
of the AFC North. We'll tellyou about it when we come back.
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named AdamTalking Your Teams series, Adam Clinton and

(39:28):
Adam Wexler are the A Team A. It is the A Team here on
Sports Talk seven to ninety hour numbertwo here on the program wex over there
AC right here showkiller Dan Matthews takingus up until five o'clock tonight. Talked
a little bit about a lot aboutthe Astros in the first hour and a

(39:52):
little bit about the Rockets tonight asthey'll be taken on the Washington Wizards coming
up at the top of the houras we get our coverage underway, then
mentioned I would get to some football. Wex mentioned this guy yesterday or mentioned
this team yesterday, and we've beenyou know, we've heard from Deshaun Watson,
and it's you know, it's comicalwhen a guy who really has not

(40:15):
gotten his career back on track fora variety of reasons is saying, oh,
yeah, we got all the piecestogether for a Super Bowl team.
You're not even the third best teamin your division. Necessarily in an indirect
way, he totally put it onhimself, like, what's your excuse?
No, he said, he didn'tsay this, but what he was saying

(40:36):
was, well, our defense isawesome. We have all these pieces.
We were great last year. Ouroffense was still okay, and obviously we
won a bunch of games with JoeFlacco and even with me. And we've
added hopefully Nick Chubb back to theteam he missed nearly all of last year.
We've now added Jerry Judy and we'llget to that news on the contract,
and the rest of the group thathelped them win is back. It's

(40:58):
on him. If he he playsup to even remotely close to his potential,
they are going to win. Theyare going to be good, they
are going to be hard to beat. They are going to the playoffs.
But if he's the Deshaun Watson oflast year or the year before or the
year before, they're not and it'sgoing to be because of him. Does
Jerry Judy and Amari Cooper and Davidand Joku strike fear in the hearts of

(41:21):
opposing AFC defenses. No, butit's fine. It's not awful, and
it's it's just not at the top, it's near, it's above the middle,
like In other words, if JerryJudy had been a member of the
Cleveland Browns earlier this year and comeinto NRG Stadium to take on CJ.
Stroud in the Texans, would theresult have been any different? I mean

(41:42):
not in the playoff game. Nobodywould have changed that result. But your
point is would they have? They'rebetter because of him. They absolutely lacked
a second threats I say, andnow they have one, not a particularly
good one. If DeShawn had beenthe starting quarterback and Jerry Judy was opposite
Amari Cooper in the playoff game,does that change much? No, they're
actually able to Again the passer thatJoe Flacco stinks, we know that,

(42:06):
right, He's not elite, buthe was better throwing the football than Sean
Watson. And that's all you needto know about why he's a massive,
like an ultimate risk taker. It'sone of the reasons why he started making
a lot more mistakes after his Baltimoredays where they didn't want him to do
that. But even the you know, his most famous play is a huge
Well, just chuck it up thereand see what happens. Oh, the

(42:27):
defensive player is gonna totally screw thisup. And Jacoby Jones gonna run underneath
it and we're gonna win. Buthe just he throws the ball so badly
the last two years and both ofhis years in Cleveland. It kind of
takes away from all that. Butthe Judy story, he signs a fifty
eight million dollar deal, three yearextension, forty one million dollars guaranteed,
adding Jerry Judy was smart. Tradingfor Jerry Judy for what it costs,

(42:50):
which was next to nothing, wasa smart fourth and fifth round picks in
next year or this year's draft.And then signing him to this extension is
asinine, right is this unless youI mean, there's no one less he
could play into that contract, butyou're paying him already. He doesn't have
to. Now he's not He's notever played in this jargon. No,

(43:15):
no, no, He's played fouryears in Denver with a multitude of quarterbacks
and multitude of offenses, and he'sbeen off the field a little bit of
that time. Think about what I'masking, But he's not. He's not
being paid like this. These arebasically there's three contracts that I think we
would look at. The Pittman contractis certainly one of them the contract today

(43:35):
with Judy and obviously the unsigned contractof Nico Collins. Right, my comment
on this contract, this contract,some people were saying, why does why
doesn't Cassario keep sitting around and lettingthe market go up and up on Collins?
This contract is so far below thefloor for any If the Texans offered
this to Nico Collins and his reps, they're laugh in their face. They

(43:58):
wouldn't laugh, they'd they'd be pissed. Yeah, that's actually true. Like,
what do you think? But Ihave heard this about you know,
since you brought him up. Isn'tit better if you do believe he's the
guy? Isn't it better to getthat done now? Always, always,
always, always better if you're willingto take the risk, because Nico Collins

(44:20):
is not as good as you thoughtafter one year and he fooled you,
which he didn't. But again that'salways there if the injuries that were part
of his first two years now becomea part of his next couple of years
while he's now under this massive contract. We had some leg injuries and he
had I think he also had ashoulder injury. So in other words,
not things that they're some reputational,Well, he didn't. They're more about

(44:40):
he had a hard time staying healthyversus he blew out his knee right.
He had a hard time playing tenweeks in a row, twelve weeks in
a row, eighteen weeks in arow. Last year, he did miss
a couple games, but never morethan a few in a stretch, and
nothing obviously that derailed him from havingnearly thirteen hundred yards and showing up like
a monster when he had nobody elseoff opposite of him. When Taylor went

(45:07):
out, they played the game inIndianapolis, he was totally unstoppable. Played
the game of the playoffs, laythe game, especially if you take away
the first play he had eight catchesfor one hundred and twenty yards. That
game was stupid. I mean,he was great. He was a number
one. And so when I quotetweeted the details money details on the Judy
tweet, that's what I noted.Jerry Judy had a pretty good twenty twenty

(45:29):
two. He didn't have a particularlygood twenty twenty three, and both of
those years pale in comparison to theone awesome year that now Nico is coming
off of. It's just not evenclose. He was one of the definitely
under he was one of the fivebest receivers in the AFC. I think
you could argue he was even higherthan just a group of five and Judy
was one of He's probably a topthirty receiver in the AFC. He's just

(45:51):
a guy. He could prove tobe more in their offense. He could
take some pressure off of the Cooper, but he's never done that before and
he's had four years to do itas the fifteenth overall pick. It's it's
this contract is so low, you'restill the Michael Pittman contract is much more.
And I think they're very different playersand they're used differently. But the
production that you're getting from him inthe amount you're counting on them, he's

(46:15):
Michael Pittman is what DeAndre Hopkins becamemaybe in his sixth or seventh year.
He just did it his whole career. He's a volume pass catcher, he's
a target machine. He gets yourkey yards, but he's not super explosive.
So that's not quite like Nico obviouslyafter his seventy five yard touchdown.
Uh, but that's the money rangeyou're looking at. He's he's not taking

(46:37):
less than twenty a year. Hedoesn't have to. That's what that was
My next question, Well, it'stwo part what do you think it winds
up being? And I guess Iguess that's like depending on when they do
it, because my next part ofthat question would be do they do it
before the season? Right? Ican't answer that, but I gave you

(46:59):
the answer to the question. QuestionI can answer when should they do it?
And I've said it for I literallyasked Nico that in the locker room
about it just something you'd like toget done? Is anything happened if you
already had talks? And I knowAeron Wilson has asking the same thing since
the offseason began. Happy birthday bythe way to Nico Collins yep. Also
one of the col was nice enoughto let us see what he looks like
in the Jersey. Great video thatthe Texans posted of him carving opposing defenses.

(47:24):
Mike Evans got twenty and a halfmillion guaranteed. He's probably going to
get about twenty four to twenty fiveper based on the incentives that I think
he'll get. Michael Pittman got threeyears seventy so that's about twenty three million
in change. Calvin Ridley got twentythree million for four years from Tennessee,
and again it could end up beinga little less than that because it's a

(47:44):
little longer term deal. There's noway Nico Collins is taking significantly less than
any of those guys. All ofthem are at twenty one or more or
twenty and a half or more.He's going to be there also, no
question about it. He's also onlyentering his fourth year. You're signing him
to play through years four, five, six, and seven, and he's
technically already under contract for four,so you're in his prime years with a

(48:07):
prime thrower of the football in anelite offense. That's the thing. If
you're worried that he's not going tobe able to back up last season with
an encore whatever you want to callit. The only way in my opinion,
that happens outside of him getting injured, which that could happen, it
is it is the NFL is ifCJ gets injured, it's just that's his

(48:30):
guy, and having Tank back outthere in a crazy way is actually going
to help his numbers get bigger becausethey can't just double on him and they
can't do all, you know,all the intricate things that they were ironically
like you were talking about trying todo once Tank was out that didn't work,
but are really not gonna work whenyou have to account for the guy
on the other side. And likeDeAndre Hopkins, he's an awesome red zone

(48:54):
target. And I don't just meanbecause he's big or he has some massive
catch radius. Nobody's like DeAndre andthat regard. He's a wizard at making
the ridiculous. Just throw it upthere, he's gonna catch it, Stick
a fade, whatever you want,it doesn't matter. He's going to make
the play. But he runs hisroutes in a similar way. When you
get inside the ten yard line,some of those quick slants where the ball
is snapped and before the ball evengets in CJ's hands, you can see

(49:16):
that Nico's beating his man. He'sgoing to be on the inside, he's
going to have the angle. Youjust have to catch the snap and throw
it to him and it's a touchdown. He does that very very well.
And they also designed some of thosethings very well. You know, one
of the touchdowns he had last year, I think it was against the Bucks
early in the game. I can'trecall which dB. He just completely flat
footed in the end zone, turnedaround the other way and it was like

(49:38):
nobody was defending him. And thisis in the red zone, which is
it's very hard to create that muchseparation on a short yardage pass like that,
and he did a tremendous job reversinghis field heading back towards the corner
of the end zone, and CJeasily floated the ball out there to him.
It's going to be costly, they'rein position to do it. There
are still they've restructured the deal thatShaq Mason signed last year. There are

(50:00):
others they could do that with.But more importantly, there are players that
they could still move on from thisoffseason and utilize those cap savings. So
they never pushed themselves up against itand are still in good position next year.
A couple of receivers, other receiversand other players for that matter have
signed. You know, the Texansadded a defensive tackle or defensive line and

(50:22):
I think most of the time he'llplay on the inside. Be a seventh
team in ten years. Mario Edwardsis now a Texan. According to reports,
Mike Williams, another charger who theycouldn't figure out a way financially to
keep Keenan, Allen goes to theBears. Mike Williams signs with Aaron Rodgers
Jets today for fifteen million dollars.And while that sounds like a lot of

(50:43):
money, a player in his eighthyear coming off a major injury who's been
hurt a lot, that's an awesomerisk to take. If I were the
Jets. The Jets, you alreadyhave Garrett Wilson. You're expecting Aaron Rodgers
to, you know, be thesame guy he was, and I do
expect him to be that now presumea healthy Mike Williams on the other side.
That's for fifteen million dollars on aone year deal. That's a very

(51:06):
good move, in my opinion,better than the deal that Jerry Judy got
today from the Broncos. That's justthrowing money away. You're really not high
on Jerry Judy. You just don'tneed to pay that. You don't need
to pay nineteen million dollars for aguy, and that's what he's proven to
be, which is why Denver movedon from him. Yeah, no,
there's no argument here. He's justthe problem is, if you're Cleveland and

(51:30):
you feel like you have you've puttogether, you feel like what Deshaun Watson
said is true, especially on thedefensive side of the ball, and yet
you got to the postseason and yougot just destroyed by the Texans. You
can't just assume that Deshaun Watson's goingto make everything all right. I hope
Kevin or let's see who did TheColts signed Flaco, So I hope Shane

(51:52):
Styke and at some point this offseasonor maybe even during camp, you know,
we really like what we have,you know, behind Anthony, you
know, a really great mentor.I mean, he did throw three touchdown
passes in the playoffs last year,so he's probably good for us. You
mean to the other team two ofthem that was bad. That was It
was satisfying, especially since Joe Flaccowas the quarterback of teams that inflicted so

(52:16):
much grief upon the Texans in thepostseason. Not saying he was the one
who inflicted Yeah, absolutely was onthat team and he did play quarterback.
Unbelievable. But what's a bigger flukethe Ravens in twenty twelve or the Rangers
last year. Well, the Ravensteam clearly because they were winning with Flacco.
How good was their team defense?How good were the players that Flacco

(52:39):
was playing with? So good?Yeah, but how about the fact that
the Jacoby Jones of all people windsup being the star of that whole situation
after what he did against the Ravensto screw the Texans with the muff punt.
That was a little too much forme to swallow. Both that and
Joe Flacco being quote elite gross.That's why I'm asking bigger fluke because you

(53:02):
know the Rangers are one hit wonder. Baltimore is not a fluke. I
mean, so by default I haveto It's only two answers. You said
the Rangers were a fluke. Lastyear, Baltimore perennial championship contender. Even
with Flacco the one year he didn'tscrew up, they won a title.
Two teams, two markets. Icould not want to see when less all

(53:22):
right, we will take a quicktime out. We'll come right back.
We'll get to our signature segment ona Tuesday. Every Tuesday, it's say
what that's straight ahead here on theeight team. It's the team I'm Planting,
Adam Wexler, Fine Sports Talk sevenninety, your rockets, your astros,
your voice said, what what?What are you talking about? Man?

(53:52):
What do you say? What?One moment segmenture segment here on a
Tuesday edition of The A Team,we call it say what. We basically

(54:13):
find things that are in and aroundthe sports world to make you kind of
scratch your head. And we haveone of those such things today. So
you want which former NFL quarterback?Say what would you like for get?
Former NFL? He's the current NFLquarterback, former NFL quarterback both turned analysts.
Former quarterback who wasn't very good inthe NFL and former or former quarterback

(54:37):
who was good in the NFL buthad a short career. The one who
wasn't good, Well, that's ChrisSimms. So each year, almost without
fail, Chris Simms decides to telleverybody how I'm smart, he is prospective
NFL talent. It has become athing. It's the fun most fun people

(54:59):
have with an analyst every off season. What ridiculous list is he going to
put together? That makes absolutely nosense? So it's way beyond I'll just
being contrarian here, It's beyond thathe is an analyst. He is actually
pretending that he's looking at these playersgrading them out like any other draft Nick

(55:19):
would and this is what he's comeup with. So again to set this
up as a reminder, now,the twenty twenty one draft for quarterbacks was
in fact awful. We've seen allof them moved or want to be moved.
Besides the number one overall pick,Trevor Lawrence, he's still a member
of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the thirdbest quarterback in his division. Probably Will

(55:44):
Levis might might have something to sayabout that. But the other quarterbacks we
recall right after him, Zach Wilsonand Trey Lance were picked. Right after
that, Justin Fields and Mac Joneswere picked, and there were others drafted
later on, etc. Is predraft rankings that year. Number one quarterback

(56:04):
coming out in twenty twenty one,and we knew he would be drafted high
as the number one guy. Everybodyhad Trevor Lawrence and it wasn't even close.
Well except for Chris He had ZachWilson, the number one rated quarterback
as a prospect heading into the twentytwenty one draft. Not only did they
have Wilson first, and Mac Jonesthird, sandwiching Trevor Lawrence. He had

(56:25):
Trey Lance sixth, he had JustinField's fifth. Okay, we know all
five of those guys went in thetop fifteen. So somebody that didn't go
in the top fifteen, even thoughfive quarterbacks did, was ranked fourth on
Chris Simms List twenty twenty. Whohave you named already? Wilson, Lawrence,

(56:47):
Jones, Fields, and Lance thefive quarterbacks that did go in the
top fifteen? Who am I missing? That's gonna be? So I'm gonna
fall out of my chair, aren'tI? No, because I think everybody
nobody's going to guess this because it'sso ridiculous. That's the point. Okay,
So those guys all made his topsix. But one other quarterback who
I'm not sure how he made itthere did. He was drafted sixty sixth,

(57:10):
one spot ahead of Davis Mills,who is drafted before his dad said
the Texans were going to draft himand then they didn't. Kellen Mond of
Texas am Oh my goodness. Sofirst was terrible Zach Wilson, and fourth
was Kellen Moond. Neither of thembelong in the NFL. As we can
see, even though Zach Wilson canbeat the Texans, they're terrible. That's

(57:35):
what he thought about that class.So that sets us up for this year.
Super strong class at the top ofquarterbacks, super strong class at the
top of wide receivers. Who isthe unquestioned, no doubt about it,
number one wide receiver according to everybodyin this draft, but Chris Simms not
Marvin Harrison Senior. Marvin Harrison Senior'sson, Marvin Harrison Junior, is widely

(57:59):
regard as the best NFL prospect,not only in this draft, but among
wide receivers. Maybe in the lastseveral drafts and the last several draft have
produced some pretty good wide outs.Both LSU receivers land ahead. Both LSU
receivers land ahead of Marvin Harrison Juniorthis year on Chris Sim's list, And

(58:19):
I don't even think it's the worstpiece of draft prospect info he's given this
offseason. We go to quarterbacks,the top three quarterbacks off the board will
be whom Caleb Williams, Drake Mayand Jaden Daniels. Jade Daniels, Yes,
so two of them are in histop three, four or five Williams.

(58:40):
Kail Williams is number one, JadeDaniels is number two, Drake May
is number six. I just haveto ask, because who is he intrinsically
Well, what happens is somebody overat the NBC Sports Family slides the ratings
that they've compiled from all the peoplewho know what they're doing. They put
it in front of him and theysay, look, man, I mean

(59:00):
we could do it, but we'drather you do it. Just pick somebody
at the very very top of thelist and put him low, and then
pick somebody at the very end ofthe list and put him super high.
Then we can send this out andsay you made the list, and then
we people will talk about us.It's working. I'm falling for it.
Who is he intrinsically tied to asa media talking head? Who's Chris Sims

(59:21):
tied to NBC? Yeah? Butwho who on NBC? Who is his
counterpart so often? I mean hehosts Pro Football Talk with Mike Florida.
There you go. Therefore, myquestion to you, is Mike florio more
insufferable or is Chris Simms more dumb? Like I've said all this negative about

(59:42):
Chris and his analysis and all that, and I still rank him buttoning his
shirt to the top as the worstthing of all. But you notice what
I said, though I didn't sayMike Florio's stupid, because he's not.
He's he's he's eloquent, you know, he's well spoken. He's just wrong
and he's just insufferable. He justhe pays attention to the dumb things.

(01:00:05):
Yep, picks a lot of fights. Right, smartest guy in the room.
I know what I'm doing. Youdon't on all this stuff, but
that's fine. And then we debatewho do we want to talk about?
Less? So this time of yearis when Chris Sims gets his run and
unfortunately for him from us, it'sfor being unintelligent. But do you understand
to prospects And I'm always saying andagain, nobody's perfect, but he's consistently
ridiculously wrong, right, and yethas a very large platform. That's okay.

(01:00:30):
Again, nobody's paying attention to this, like nobody says, well,
Chris Sims had him here. Theydo it before because they know it's done.
Then they'll do it after when it'spretty to prove my point that I'm
about to make who what's the list. What's the list of guys who you
were where you trust to be notAnd I'm not talking about the Schefters of
the world. I'm talking about it. He wouldn't know, I know,

(01:00:50):
but he still serves a purpose,or at least has in the past.
He's fallen off if you want tosay that, I'm talking about legit.
You know, draft prognosticators, draftpredictors, guys who have a list of
people who do it for a living. Here's my first since okay, not
Adam Schefter. Is mel Kiper onthat list? What's the list? Disagreeing

(01:01:15):
with him is fine, and Ido it all the time, Matt Miller.
Disagreeing with him is fine. Ido it all the time. But
they're doing the work, but aresearching the players at least ten because especially
with the NFL network and with CBSand you know, ESPN, there's five
guys at least at each place thatI do think really spend enough time actually

(01:01:36):
looking at film, following the collegegame, doing the work of researching what
teams are actually thinking, talking topeople and getting an idea of what they
might be considering which teams might bewilling to actually move in the draft,
and Yes, there's at least fifteenguys. Daniel Jeremia is at the top
of the list. What's he beendoing, Oh, I don't know,
working the combine, covering college football, working the senior ball. I mean

(01:01:57):
the guys that do that are theones that and have annually been involved in
this, are just the best onesat it, and he's certainly in that
group. There's plenty of others.But yeah, Chris Sim's nobody. Honestly,
I don't know why I gave himthe time of day, but I
offered you the option. Can weslide to the other option? Absolutely?
Let's hear from RG three. CalebWilliams should pull an Eli Manning and demand
that the Chicago Bears do not drafthim number one overall. After everything that's

(01:02:20):
happened with just Justin Fields, canCaleb Williams really look at that and say,
you know what, this is theorganization that has my best interest at
heart, and they're gonna help developme into the player that I want to
be. Yes, I do thinkhim going back to Washington where he's from.
He's a DC kid. I thinkthat's the best spot for him.
But he has to answer that question. I think where he's coming from is

(01:02:43):
totally right. The Bears are headedinto a year of we're about to fire
our entire coaching staff his first year. That's what they're gonna be going through.
His GM has put a team aroundhim much more suited to help him,
versus what Caroline is did with BryceYoung and versus what Chicago has done
with Justin Fields. But all thesecoaches are own. I mean, they

(01:03:06):
shouldn't have been brought back to beginwith. And a first year coach at
least, if it's not Frank Reichprobably has some staying power unless he's a
Moroun like Nate Nathaniel Hackett. ButCaleb's going he will be a Bear,
and he's not going to demand that, nor should he. But I understand
his thought around where the Bears are. Okay, so now you put your
demanded, have the Bears listen toit? Now, what where are you

(01:03:28):
going? And he suggests his formerhome Washington. I mean, Dan Quinn's
a legitimate head coach. We don'tknow what the job he'll do in Washington,
but certainly his track record as ahead coach is fine. He's been
he coached the team to the SuperBowl. He was a part of multiple
years in a row of defensive teamsgoing to the playoffs with Dallas and plenty
of good history. This is afranchise that's been an absolute embarrassment for years,

(01:03:52):
even while r G three was there. They have a new owner nobody.
I mean, you can say thisis going to be better, and
you're definitely going to be right becausehe's taking over for Daniel Snyder take it
worse much. So, yeah,he is that a better situation. Okay,
you're forcing your way to Washington.Well, if the Bears don't draft
you, then you're forcing Washington tobe the team that trades up to two.

(01:04:13):
You can demand out of Chicago allyou want, but then they have
to cut a deal. And Iknow he's trying to find a solution,
which I appreciate, not just sayingdemand you don't go there, Well,
then where does he go? Anddo you think the reason Eli Manning was
successful is because he wasn't a chargerand was a giant and I don't even
know what you call successful. Hewon two Super Bowls. I hope that's
successful. I just wish it wastwo markets where you could apply the line

(01:04:35):
from Jerry McGuire all sir, forSki, I just want to win.
Jerry Cush, Yeah, he won'tdo it. He shouldn't do it.
And I remember during the years,there were people floating the idea that,
you know, he could continue hiscareer at USC if he was so dis
disappointed at the prospect of playing forwhomever had the number one pick, he

(01:04:56):
could always use that as a welland just go back to school, which
was never real. Though there's noreason. The money is sitting right in
front of you. It doesn't matterwho you get it from. Just go
get it. Why would you takea reason? I mean, he could
get good nil money, but he'snot getting a five year contract or four
years plus a fifth year guaranteed.He's going to the NFL. He's going
to the Bears. The Bears havealso done the things necessary to show everybody

(01:05:17):
after meeting with Caleb Williams that he'sgoing to be their pick. He's not
going to demand this, nor shouldhe, and he'll be fine in Chicago.
He is already starting the blame game, though I don't really like that.
Like already there's an out in hismind for Caleb not being successful in
the NFL Number one picks that aren'tsuccessful, usually not because of who drafted

(01:05:41):
them number one overall picks. It'susually the team. I mean, it's
usually the individual. David Carr isa perfect example. People want to say,
Noh, he got hit all thetime, he had no protection,
he's no good. Uh said,what'd you say? What was the last
thing he said, he's no good? Yeah, that's it was JaMarcus Russell
raft a number one overall. Yes, it's not the Raider's fault. It

(01:06:01):
was his fault. I was tryingto remember if that if that applied here.
See, he's not the biggest bustas a number one overall pick quarterback,
He's be hard pressed to push somebodyelse in front of that list.
There have been first round picks thathave failed as quarterbacks, very high,
but he was number one overall.He'll be the first to tell you year
wrong though. Well, I'm gladhe's confident. I'll never forget the time

(01:06:21):
I had an interaction with him onTwitter. That was fun day. All
right, Speaking of interacting, wewant you to interact with us next segment
because we're gonna give away some tickets. Stone Tiple pilots with Live and Soul
Asylum coming up on August twenty secondat the Woodlands Pavilion. We will give
away those coming up next here onthe eighteen. Back to Adam Clinton at

(01:06:43):
Adam Wexler the eight on Sports Talkseven ninety. We've touched on a little
bit of this, a little bitof that here on a Tuesday edition of
the program. Obviously a lot ofbaseball conversation in the first segment, especially
talking about the fact that Blake Snelldoes not go here to the Astros,
winds up signing alongside another of theBoris Four with the San Francisco Giants.

(01:07:05):
He and Matt Chapman wind up inthe San Francisco Bay area. They'll be
donning Giants gear. It is interestingthat a lot of these free agents that
you would think, okay, well, if they're not gonna come to the
Astros in the case of Blake Snell, at least they're going to the National
League and not necessarily going to be, you know, in the case of
Blake Snell coming back to potentially harmyou with an American League team. But

(01:07:30):
I in light of what has happenedto a lot of rotations and the Yankees
are right there at the top ofthe list. I was a little surprised
that they weren't maybe in on this. I realize they've got a lot of
money tied up, especially in theirrotation, but when's that stop the Yankees
from doing this before? It willbe interesting to see where Jordan Montgomery winds
up going. I'm with WEX,I don't anticipate that being here in Houston,

(01:07:55):
but I also think it's gonna beinteresting to see how things shake out
here in Houston with what's going on. The injuries continue to mount, and
the uncertainty was already there with guyswho maybe won't be hurt long term,
but aren't necessarily going to be openor ready for opening Day or at least
the opening series or two for theAstros in the case of Justin Verlander and

(01:08:16):
JP France. So how it allends up shaking out will be very interesting.
But of course, the big newsof the day from the Astros standpoint
the fact that Blake Snell will notbe signing with them, will not be
a member of that organization, andso that has been a big topic.
But as I mentioned, when wecome back to round out the show and
get you ready for Rockets Versus Wizards, no better opportunity than to catch up

(01:08:43):
with one of the more visible,one of the more famous or infamous former
Wizards. Fact, he might haveplayed for the Bullets. That's how far
back he goes. Man, ifyou have not heard what he is saying
about today's current NBA players as itpertains to I'll just call them groupies or

(01:09:04):
women, and what they should bedoing. He is advising these women to
basically take advantage of today's NBA player. You're not gonna want to miss what
Gilbert Arenas is saying. I'll tellyou about that when we come back,
not before I tell you about qC Kinetics. Wex and I have been
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for QC Kinetics. Adam Clinton,I'm Wexler Power a Team, returns on
Sports Talk seven ninety three. HeadsYour Rockets play here. You know it's

(01:11:00):
gonna be less of a surprise hereas we wind down this Tuesday edition of
the A Team here on Sports Talkseven ninety. The fact that it's Gilbert
Arenas, or the fact that thisis what he's saying, because like they
Gilbert Arenas and just scorching hot takesor off the wall. I get it.

(01:11:23):
I get what he's trying to do. He's doing what a lot of
either former and in this case currentathletes are doing. I mean, hello,
Lebron Well. I guess the differenceis I mean others who have entered
the hot take realm. Yeah,didn't at the very least lay out a
gun to be used in a gunfightagainst somebody else in an NBA locker room.

(01:11:45):
That happened. There's a reason heis referred to as no Chill Gill.
He just doesn't have a filter.And I get that he's trying to
get clicks, He's trying to getnumbers. That's fine. I mean,
when you're spending NBA earnings on sharktanks that are supposed to be installed in
your home, you probably run outof that money really fast, and you've

(01:12:06):
got to get the revenue stream goingagain. So whatever this though is gonna
I'm telling you right now, Idon't know what will be done, if
anything, but I would be surprisedif the NBA doesn't do something. I
don't know what it will be.That's the problem. I don't If you're
if you're Adam Silver and you're hearingthis, you're seeing this all go down,

(01:12:29):
I don't know what you do.It's probably not a great look.
So it's not surprising that not onlywas it Gilbert Arenas, but also Nick
Young just one of the great mindsin NBA history, just a real,
I mean winner. When I thinkabout NBA winners, I think about Nick
Young. They're on the podcast togetherGil's Arena and Data sided to start talking

(01:12:56):
about Instagram models. That's I mean, that's where we are in today's culture.
In today's world, you can beInstagram famous. In fact, if
you're making a ruckus at an airportor in an airplane, for example,
you can tell the passengers as you'rebeing booted off the plane that they don't
know who you are. Your Instagramfamous, that's my favorite. Just living
in your own little bubble. Sothey start talking about Gilbert Arena, starts

(01:13:20):
offering up advice on how women canmake a lot of money if they would
just, you know, sleep withmultiple NBA players. Quote, let's just
say four if you bleep four dudesa year or three dudes a year,
I'm telling you, from the agesof probably what eighteen to thirty five,

(01:13:45):
treat it like a business. That'sa quote from Gilbert Arenas. Oh,
don't worry, he's not even closeto being done. Get you some NBA
players, three NBA players, thinkabout it. The NBA player on the
lowest end, I'm not even gonnaclean up what he calls them on that
end of the spectrum. He's talkingabout, you know, earnings as an

(01:14:05):
NBA player. If you get theone on the lowest end, he says,
he gonna pay you about five granda month just to bleep with you.
Five grand a month. So ifyou got three of them, that's
fifteen grand a month, just onthe bottom end. Now you talking about,
like if you got a James Harden, Paul George or something like that.

(01:14:26):
You're talking about just to mess aroundwith you. You're talking about ten
twenty grand a month, just tobe cool. You might have to sleep
with dude. Maybe twice a month, three times a month, right with
those dudes three times a month dependingyou make sixty grand a month? What
job? What education you going toget from the ages of twenty to thirty

(01:14:46):
five? That's gonna pay you sixtygrand? I mean, let me just
take a moment here to talk aboutwhat a savant this guy is. I
mean, just absolute. Who needsany of these huge financial welfare advisory firms
when you've got Gilbert Arenas, Because, after all, between the ages of

(01:15:06):
twenty to thirty five, what's gonnapay you sixty grand a month? This
guy is so far ahead of histime, right, sound financial advice for
the females in this country. Tojust get with an NBA player. It's
that easy. He goes on,if you got three Max players. Now
he's talking about actual contracted guys inthe NBA, like Max guys. If

(01:15:30):
you get three of them, you'retalking about, they'll pay you twenty grand
a month just to just to chill. Remember, Zion was this is a
great question. I can't believe I'mreading this. Remember Zion was paying old
old Shorty twenty grand a month.He's talking about that. I guess she
was a porn star. It's justI don't know, like he goes on

(01:15:56):
he knows what he's talking about.Though. That's that's where Adam so has
a problem. Quote. The ignoranceis appalling. Then when they wind up
or when they end up on exorbitantchild support payments, they're hollering and crying
foul. You brought it on yourself. Deal with it. The fact that
my dude is talking up tricking likethis is crazy. These are comments to

(01:16:18):
these guys are saying to Gilbert Arenaslike, I just it's insane to me
that a former NBA player. Thosewere comments, by the way, talking
about what Gilbert had to say,not Gilbert. It's just crazy to me
that a former NBA player is openlyon his podcast with another former NBA player

(01:16:40):
encouraging women to go after this generationof NBA superstars. I can't imagine he'll
be offered or offered any ambassador roleswith the league anytime soon. I don't
think they're gonna have him talk atthe Rookie Symposium. I don't think they're
gonna be sending him to China totalk to NBA players or potential NBA players

(01:17:01):
across the globe. Whether it's Chinaor anywhere else, because his advice for
the groupies that are going to bechasing these said NBA players is to get
them on a sort of retainer,you know, using their bodies between the
ages of twenty and thirty five.Like I said, it's not even remotely

(01:17:21):
surprising to me that Gilbert Arenas isthe one saying this, Nor is it
really surprising to me that anybody who'sin a former NBA player is saying this,
other than I would think he wouldcare more about, you know,
this generation's NBA player than this clearlyshows he does. But what do they

(01:17:41):
owe to him and what is heto them? I mean, I think
that's kind of You've hit it righton the head from the beginning of this.
He's trying to get listens, he'strying to get clicks, he's trying
to get things like we're doing rightnow in terms of the rookie symposium that
brings somebody in to do the completeopposite of what he's doing. No,
don't respond to the DM right.Not go out with that person just because
oh hey I liked her on Instagram, because we've all seen how that's turned

(01:18:05):
out. Ghost at you well,I'd like to get Gilbert A. Renas
into Sean Watson in the same roomjust to see what happens, just to
see what happens. Like, seriously, it's incredible that he's He's not just
like kind of saying this on theDL. He's on his podcast saying it.
And I get it, Like yousaid, it's for clicks, but

(01:18:26):
man, like this cannot make AdamSoilber very happy. Well, I mean
the only thing that can necessarily beable to stim this is what's the famous
dating app that like you have tobe famous and show that you're iriyah and
that the name of it. Idon't know. I think that's the one
that Jonathan Owens and some own bileswere on when he tried to act like,
oh I didn't know who she wouldreally, you didn't know who a

(01:18:47):
Preety Time Golden Medalist was. Yeah, I really buy that, Jonathan.
Uh, It's incredible. I mean, it's very it's very on brand for
Gilbert Arenas. I'll just say that. But when I saw that, and
I saw that the Rockets were playinghis old team tonight in his old gym,
I figured, why not bring thatout? That'll get you ready?
For Rockets Basketball. Hopefully none ofthese players on the court tonight are the

(01:19:12):
victims of the financial advisor for youngNBA female fans that Gilbert Arenas is advising.
I don't even know what would thewhat would the name of his firm
be called? Like if he's noChill Gill for his podcast, I don't
even It's just incredible, just absolutely. I saw that, like I'm reading
it and I'm like, I can'tbelieve this, And then the more I

(01:19:33):
read, I was like, oh, I can definitely believe this. Don't
risen the DMS kids it. It'sjust incredible. It did. Okay for
me, all right, Well,they don't have to worry about Gilbert Arenas
tonight, but they might have toworry about Jordan Poole. Not really,
he's going to be a He's goingto be awful defensively, as WEX mentioned,
and hopefully that's good news for JalenGreen, who is the reigning Western

(01:19:54):
Conference Player of the Week. Hopefullythat stretch continues. Hopefully the Rockets get
a six consecutive win, and we'llhave it all for you right here on
your home for Rockets Basketball Sports Talkseven ninety. That's gonna do it for
us today, but don't go anywhere. I'll be right around the corner with
the network coverage of Rockets Wizards.Stand Northfleet in to get you ready locally

(01:20:15):
for the UH Rockets Wizards game.Here on Sports Talk seven ninety four,
WEX for Dan, i'm ac.It is the A team here on seven
ninety Back at it again tomorrow ZionWilliamson and porn Stars