The A-Team (Live From Tom's Watch Bar): Astros-Rangers and Astros Decisionmakers

Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on April 12th, 2024.

• Astros limp home from Kansas City.
• Rangers are next
• Astros decision making according to Reggie Jackson. 
• Ime Udoka and the future of the Rockets. 

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named AdamTalking Your Teams. Adam Clinton and Adam
Wexler are the A Team A Team. It is a Friday edition of The
A Team Here on Sports Sox sevento ninety. We are live from one

(00:23):
of the coolest places I think we'veever been a live broadcast. Tom's watch
Bar is absolutely fantastic. Seen youknow, many things in this space over
the years, but this is notthis space, not the no And that's
the thing. I think what I'dsee in the past was fraction of of

(00:43):
this, and it's absolutely fantastic.Obviously, the weather is amazing and so
all of the windows are open.It's a large one that I've been here.
I'm here for the first time today, but I haven't been here since
last night. I haven't been heresince Tuesday. I haven't been here since
three times last week. Are youin Alcoholic? They serve awesome food and
if it's on you're watching it here. Yeah, I'll do this for you

(01:07):
as quickly as I can. One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,
thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty,
twenty one, twenty two, twentythree, twenty four to twenty five.
That's twenty nine. That's thirty two. That's thirty five forty two televisions,
and then the eight that are behindme, and then the fourteen that
are outside. So we're pushing closeto sixty eighty one hundred television sets.

(01:33):
Like I said, if it's on, it's on at Tom's watch Bat.
And you didn't even do that likeRecon, that was right on the spot.
I mean, I do know someof the numbers because, like I
said, familiar. Yeah, Andwe encourage you to come on out here,
especially those of you that want togo see some Astros baseball. Anytime
you want, you come out hereat Tom's Watch Bar, and they'll get
you hooked up. They'll really getyou hooked up if you want to go

(01:55):
on over to the game, becausethey've got a free shuttle over here.
You can park in the Green Streakarrived, they'll validate your parking and they'll
take you to and from the Astrosgames. You don't have to hassle with
the outrageous parking over there, andyou can just enjoy yourself both here before
the game and after. Obviously youcan enjoy things all throughout the afternoon and
evening for anything you want to takein right here at Tom's Watchbar. Where

(02:15):
to do that this afternoon leading intoa handful two broadcasts We've got for you
tonight. Both the Astros and Rocketsare in action as your home. For
the Astros, we will deliver thatprogram for you right here, and the
Rockets will tip off a little bitlater in Game eighty one against the Blazers.
We will have that for you onnews Radio seven forty kh airy.

(02:36):
Is this the fastest Well, Iknow it is relative to the last three
years, but this is the fastestwe've gotten through a Rocket season seemingly.
I think just the fact that itwas so bad the private last last three
years there was only one story rightthis year, there are many stories,
the story of what do you dowith this player in the future, How
did this player develop, What doesit look like they have with their coach,
What does it look like they havein the Western Conference? How are

(02:57):
their matchups working? Can these groupsplay together? How much money do you
want to play these third year players? What do you think about these second
year players? What do you thinkabout these rookies? And how did you
do with what you brought in infree agency for the first time that matters.
Any player that was brought here infree agency in years past was rosterphiller.
The players they brought here this year, you know, consider any night
you want, Fred Van Vliet andDylan Brooks start, Jack Landell and Jeff

(03:21):
Green come off the bench. Asinjuries have hit this team the last three
weeks. Reggie Bulock Junior a bigfactor on the bench. So a lot
of storylines there, but we're justdeveloping the storylines for the four win Houston
Astros. They're also a ten lossHouston Astros team. I got a roster
full of elite pitching talent on theinjured list, and hopefully nobody else goes

(03:42):
on and only people start coming off. After this weekend, we probably won't
see Justin Verlander pitching for any ofthe Astros' minor league outfits anymore. And
if that goes well, then,like I said, soon enough, he'll
be back. Far from what willcure this team. A lot of arguments
on this show each day as theygo from you know, zero and four
to two and whatever to where theysit today at four and ten about what's

(04:03):
wrong with this team, you can'treally give a wrong answer, because any
area of the team, any peopleinvolved with putting together the team, anyone
involved with managing the team, andI don't specifically just being the manager,
they all have some blame. They'reall doing things that aren't enough or aren't
what needs to be done. Andin almost every situation, there are things

(04:26):
that can be done. There arethings that will fix these problems, and
that's what. At some point yourrecord does speak for itself, and you
dug yourself such a hole that there'sno getting out of it. That has
not happened yet. There are onehundred and forty eight games left. They
are not in a hole too largefor them to get out of. At
some point, it starts now,better be soon. What does start now

(04:46):
is a three game series against theteam you have two wins against. If
you can beat the Rangers once thisweekend, you'll have more wins against them
than the rest of the league combined. Early in the season. That's a
silly thing to say, but wouldbe nice if at home and off of
a poor finish to a road tripwhere you got swept in Kansas City,
you immediately the very next day we'reable to fix things tonight by getting a

(05:08):
dumb well, yeah, I mean, it's you've never felt like you needed
a win more than this early inthe season in recent years. I mean,
I can't even, like we talkedabout yesterday, the twenty nineteen season,
as amazing as it was, peopleforget that that start in Tampa led
to what was a two and fivestart. But you've you've essentially doubled those

(05:30):
two figures in the win lost column. And that's where you're at right now,
at four and ten, and itjust feels like it doesn't matter that
it's the Rangers, it doesn't matterthat the Braves are coming into town after
that. You can't even think abouthow daunting that actually looks like on paper.
You just have to start. Andit's not even about winning and losing,
although it is. You got tostart playing better baseball overall. And

(05:50):
whenever you can utter the line thatyou just said, which is that there's
no wrong answer to what's wrong withthe Astros, that's when things are going
very very badly. That's how youget to four and ten. That is
literally what we're trying to tell you. That is why a panic button can
be pushed. Are there possibilities thatyour extremely talented offensive players can get better.

(06:12):
Yeah, there's a pretty good chanceof that. They're gonna hit better
with the runns in scoring position.It's a pretty good chance of that.
Is your pitching staff gonna be anyworse from a starting standpoint than it is
right now? No, probably notreal. Blanco is not gonna throw one
hitters and no hitters all year longeither, but you're probably going to see
I'm gonna make a guess. I'mgonna set the over under at point one,

(06:33):
and I'm gonna take the under numberof starts the Astros get the rest
of the season. Where a relieverthrows a pitch in the first inning,
It's already happened twice. It happenedtwice on this road trip. I'm gonna
go out on a limb and sayevery starter they use the rest of the
entire season will get three outs everysingle time, all one hundred and forty
eight games, just like they havepretty much every year for the last fifty

(06:55):
years, pretty much barring injury.I mean, this is out of the
ordinary to the billionth degree that ina single road trip you had two pitchers
not be able to get out ofthe first for any team, not just
the Astros. Yes, and itdoesn't matter who you put out there when
you bring up a double A pitcherbecause your affiliate in Double A was close
to where your road game was,and he was on schedule, and he's

(07:18):
not a top prospect, but thecircumstances dictated, well, we just had
to go use him, and heknew it was gonna be for a day
and he'd go back down. It'sstill even those starts don't go as badly
as the Blair Henley start did,and certainly a starter one plus year in
doesn't usually set the all time recordbecause it's literally never happened before where you

(07:39):
give up eleven eleven hits without gettingthree outs, like Hunter Brown did.
These are unforeseen issues. They're stressingtheir bullpen so beyond belief that I'm not
sure what to envision for their future. But you don't have to worry about
the big picture every single moment.At some point during each game, it
seems like Joe's had to think aboutthat, which is why Hunter Brown threw

(08:01):
so many pitches, which is whyGreg Kessinger has more innings pitched this year
than Justin Verlander. Because you haveto think about things like the terrible line.
Hopefully well he also has to seea mera zero. That is so
sad. God, what a sadsenter man. I don't want to give
you the what if I told you? Yeah, what have I told you?
On April twelfth, when the ashotyou're taking on the Rangers, just

(08:22):
a couple of wins behind the firstplace team that Greg Kessinger had thrown more
innings one than Justin Verland. Butit is true. It is true.
Yeah, Hey, it could beworse. I guess Justin could have an
interpreter that's in custody right now.But then again, that would mean that
Justin Verlander doesn't speak English. Yeah, it would mean that he does.

(08:43):
He grew up. I'm learning Englishhas a first language. This is both
locally and overall, probably one ofthe oddest starts when you factor in all
the pitching injuries and the discussion aboutit, and then oh, yeah,
the best player in the entire gamehas this skill going on around him.
This is one of the weirdest startsto a Major League Baseball season I think
I've ever experienced. Yeah, I'dlike to be super semantics. Yeah,

(09:07):
so I'm not really ready to callshohe Otani in twenty twenty four the best
player in baseball. True, allhe does is hit the baseball. Pitch
you get thrown out at home playedevery now and then, or third base.
He's been thrown out at third baseand home already. Well maybe he's
distracted, so yeah, he's gonnabe. He's been very good. Their
top three hitters have been superb,as I think everyone would have expected.

(09:28):
So yes, he is one ofthe but he's human. This year.
He hits the baseball and runs thebases. Mike play a little in the
field and that's about it, likeeverybody else who doesn't pitch, because that's
what he does this year. Butit matters this year for the National League.
Won't matter much to the Astros becausehe has shifted leagues, and I

(09:48):
think every team in this division washoping to take advantage of that. Mike
Trout's Angels have not gotten off toa miserable start. The A's finally they
got rid of freaking Otani and theycan take off now and spread their wings.
They were steam before he got there. Oh yeah, just ask Mike
Trout. But if you want toknow anything about baseball, you gotta go
inside. You got to have peopleon the inside telling you what's up.
And we absolutely cannot wait to tellyou what's up inside the Astros organization,

(10:13):
how they operate, what they thinkof their own personnel, what they think
about the start that this team hashad, and how they or if they
will recover. As some of thepeople inside the team we're sharing thoughts.
Some of those people are named ReggieJackson, and I cannot wait to let
you hear what he had to sayon a podcast for a couple of New
Yorkers. So he used to beone of them, and he was asked

(10:35):
about the Astro So he gets somepretty entertaining answers. We've got them for
you coming up on today's edition ofthe A Team. Entertaining is one word
that could be used to describe them. Yes, we will do all that
and a whole lot more, aswe mentioned at a fantastic location, Come
on down to Tom's watch Bar andsee what it is all about right around

(10:56):
there. I mean's basically, ifyou know where the House of Blues is,
you know where the front door isbecause it's right across that's the way.
So come on down experience everything theyhave to offer. And as wex
mentioned and we've been telling you allweek long, if you're heading on over
to the Astros game tonight, youare going to have a free shuttle to
and from the game courtesy of Tom'swatch bar. Get on over here,
and not only that, once yougo home tonight after the game. If

(11:18):
you're coming down here or once you'rewanting to watch the games this weekend,
maybe you're wanting to watch the Masters, whatever you're wanting to watch and consume
using Wi Fi. If you don'thave fast speeds throughout your home, if
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(11:39):
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(12:00):
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(12:24):
today. That's Exfinity dot Com.Call one eight hundred Infinity or visit a
store today Exfinity, proud sponsor ofyour Houston Astros. Back to Adam Clinton
at Adam Wexler the eighty on SportsTalk seven ninety. Out here at Tom's
Watch Bar. It's Friday. It'sgorgeous. I mean, I can't see

(12:46):
the entire sky. It's not likea solar eclipse is going on. But
there doesn't look like there's a cloudin the sky. So come on out
and join us out here plenty toenjoy every day ten pm till close.
It's just five dollars drinks and food. So I say come on out long
before that. We'll be out hereall afternoon. We do have tickets to
go see the ball game tomorrow afternoonover at Minute May Park. So you

(13:09):
definitely want to come by say hello, get yourself all signed up, a
little registered to win, giveaway,to go see your strows, try to
claim Texas. Heck they win tonight. They are up for the season series
three games to two. If theycan go ahead and take care of business,
we certainly hope that they can.And obviously there's a bunch of little
parts to it all. And likeI said earlier, the names on the

(13:30):
list of man I think it's onyou. There's twenty six guys on the
team, plus the additions they've alreadyhad to make. There's a general manager
who certainly over the course of thefourteen games of the season, but I
think it goes on much longer thanthat. There's fingers to be pointed and
questions to be asked, many ofwhich were asked of the GM Wednesday morning
at nine thirty when he joined theSean Salisbury Show. And he does that
each and every week, so youdefinitely want to not miss that again.

(13:56):
The people above him and in thegroup of decision makers that Reggie Jackson describe,
Yeah, there's figures could be pointedat them as well. And it's
more than just winning and losing ofthese fourteen games. There's more to it
than that. There's, you know, the construction of the team, the
construction of the daily lineup, theconstruction of the bullpen, the opportunity to
enhance that roster, which never ends. There's really not a point in time

(14:20):
in season beyond the postseason, priorto the regular season, during spring training,
or quite obviously during the season.The Astros have made multiple changes to
their forty man roster, their activeroster just in the fourteen plus days of
this season, because it was outof necessity and also because it was out
of opportunity. When players are outthere that you think can help your team,

(14:41):
then you go out and make thosemoves. And Dana Brown has done
some things to try to augment that. Again, we're not talking about elite
level players. We're talking about playersthat you might find a use for,
whether it's for your team or forsomebody else's down the road. And none
of these items, for the mostpart, have really netted any real dividends.
And some of the things are hardto believe because you have gotten some
tremendous pitching out of your starting rotationon the front side and the backside.

(15:05):
Right at the top of Christian HavevierI could have easily won all three of
his starts. Renel Blancos made apair of starts. Clearly they were quite
good, very very good, bestof the season in Major League Baseball one
of them. The other one henearly duplicated it. I mean, just
right there, that's five wins.Just right there, that could be five
wins. But they weren't able towin all of those games, quite obviously,

(15:26):
and they need to clearly do morefrom the three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, becausethat's how many different pitchers have already
been asked to go out there andstart games for them and try to win
games for them and give the teama chance to win. Honestly, this
starting staff, that's probably what theyshould have been looking at to try to
accomplish this year. They're not tryingto win games a boy themselves. They
don't all have to be Renal Blanco. But you need to give your team

(15:48):
a chance to win. You've gotto give them six innings of reasonably pitched
baseball, so then your bullpen hasa chance that day and the next day
and the next day, and thenyou lean on your offense, who had
has had way, way, waytoo many games of three runs or less,
those are winnable if you are anelite baseball team. Currently the Astros
are not that. That's why nearlyall of those three runs are less games.

(16:11):
Nine of them have been losses.They have won. Once you know
a taxed bullpen, I thought,you know, I mean, anybody,
any team can have things that don'tgo their way from a health standpoint that
cause that, and that would benice in a weird way if that were
why or that was the only reasonwhy the bullpen is taxed, but historically

(16:33):
bad Hunter Brown, I can saythat it's not for effect, and then
others that have just not I meanBlair Henley's different. Now you can take
Hunter Brown's start no problem. Ifthe night before that day game, right,
you got more than three innings outof your starting pitcher, If the
night before that day game that yougot only three innings out of your starting
pitcher, if that didn't also occurduring the same road trip, you got

(16:56):
one out from your starting pitcher.But all three of the those things happened
within one week's time on one sevengame road trip. I think that's why
it's easy. Like if you're justJoe Schmoe baseball fan. Maybe you're a
Yankees fan, or you know what, don't even say that, because that's
they're gonna you're gonna get some biasin there. I don't know. Maybe
you're a Braves fan. They're comingin next week and you're looking at things

(17:18):
and you're like, man, theAstro have fallen off. That's not even
an accurate portrayal. They haven't fallenoff in the truest sense of all that.
You know, they lost players andin the parts of this championship engine
have been scattered to the win eventhough that's also accurate if you want to
get down to it over the years, this particular season, well, but

(17:41):
they were not on last year's Divisionchampion ALCS participate team, So I can't
I can't be with that. No, they were all not here a year.
You did all those things, exceptwith this not the same win total.
It's a fair assessment. Oh,when you swept the Braves the last
year too, during that season you'retalking about, right, to say last
year's team it had none of thosewould be accurate. But to say last

(18:02):
year's team was like the twenty twochamps or like the nineteen World Series team
or like the seventeen champs. That'sinaccurate, and that's where is Was this
already in front of them a littlebit? Was there a sign of decline?
Well, I sure hope they sawit. They won ninety games,
that's nothing special. It was enoughto win this division. It was enough
to get them a handful of daysoff before the postseason started as well,

(18:23):
by finishing with the second best divisionwinning record in the AL. But clearly
you weren't the kind of team youhad been when everybody knew you were gonna
win the American League. Everybody knew, well, who's gonna be in the
ALCS with Houston? Who else?Who's the only other team from the American
League that even has a chance toget there? Because there's only one available

(18:45):
spot The Astros have the other.That probably wasn't true this offseason leading into
this season already, and I don'tknow that everybody faced that, But nobody
should have forecasted this because the teamthey have is absolutely capable of They're capable
of being ten one and four ifa couple breaks went their way and they
got a few key hits and thethree most experienced, proven elite members of

(19:07):
their bullpen didn't have so many badoutings, not to mention with each passing
start. And that's literally what we'retalking about here, that graphic that's out
there, which again it's it's hardto point to this because at least two
of the guys on that graphic younever weren't coming around until August anyway.
But let's just say on paper youhad everybody healthy, and that does include

(19:30):
Lance McCullers and Luis Garcia. It'sjust it's insane not to I mean,
take that from any team that fanciesitself even a good team, let alone
a championship contender, and you startsaying to yourself, and then what were
we talking about before this week?Geez all this stuff has happened, and
yet the starting pitching has been reallygood. Yeah, And again I think
it's it's like what the starting pitchingis now, because you only have fourteen

(19:52):
games to look at. It's likea reliever's whole, you know, season.
No guy goes out there and pitchesten, has ten appearances in May
and gives up no run, nineinnings of work, a couple of strikeouts,
didn't give up any runs. He'sgot a zero ra in May.
And then June second, he goesout there and gives up three runs in
and doesn't get anybody out all.All of a sudden, his ra over
his last ten games went from zeroto three. Then he gives up two

(20:14):
runs in the next sitting. Nowhe's given up eleven runs in ten innings,
and all of this or in tenappearances. So everything changes drafted drastically.
The astro starting pitching is only aproblem when three guys make the era
outrageously bloated. Right, add upArragetty plus Henley plus Brown, you get

(20:34):
four innings. You get Depenser wentthree, Hunter got two outs, and
Blair got a single out. Sothat's four innings. He only gave up
five plus seven plus nine runs.You give up twenty one inning, twenty
one runs in four innings. Now, I don't like the yeah, but
if you take this away, wellI'm being literal, I will take that

(20:56):
away because at one point during theseason moving forward, you will not have
Blair Henley in the rotation, youwill not have Spencerraghetty in the rotation,
and at this time you won't haveHunter Brown on the rotation. He's definitely
not going to be in the rotationall year. I feel confidence saying that.
So if you take all three ofthem out at different points or at
a certain stretch of games during theyear, that's totally fair to look at
it to me, to look atit that way. So what is the

(21:18):
astros era without those three starts?In such a small sample size, Nearly
every starter is given them an opportunityto win that afternoon's game, which is
eleven times out of fourteen, andthey've won three of those games because remember
they did win Blair Henley's start,So in those other games, the other
eleven games, they still have onlywon three times out of eleven reasonable opportunities

(21:42):
to win. He actually had alead, He was given a lead before
he threw his first major league pitch, and a few minutes later he was
taken from the game without the lead. Seconds It feels that way. Pitchclock
isn't quite that fast. If youblinked yesterday, by the way, in
the first inning, I mean,could you imagine being and I'm sure this

(22:02):
happened to somebody listening to us,could you imagine just kind of like being
a little late to the start ofthe game and settling in when it was
only you know, five nothing orwhatever. It's just just incredible. Those
innings are. Henley inning was thesame. The Iragedty inning was the same
because I remember all these runs.I'm talking about them giving up Spencer.
Araghetty had two shutout innings to openthe game. Henley five run inning,

(22:23):
Raghetty seven run inning, Brown ninerun inning. It wasn't a series of
well you went through the lineup acouple times and eventually things blew up.
It wasn't like that at all.And yes, every time each of those
three things, pitchers were out there, you're like, man, Henley,
you got two runners on, you'vegotten somebody to pop out. Just get
somebody by luck to smash one atJeremy Pania catch fire a second, that's

(22:47):
two. Same thing for Aragedty,You're like, can he get somebody to
hit it at him? And hedidn't have quite as many hard hit balls
against him. There was an infieldhit where you know, the play was
made by Payania and he's like,well, I can't even attempt to throw
here, and Ragetty's like I getit, I get it. And then
Hunter yesterday or yeah yesterday. Itjust they were they were where nobody was,
so I thought Kansas City actually earnedall that they hit it. They

(23:10):
took what was coming and just said, well, they're just hit it right
back out there, and that's allthey did. There are only two extra
based hits during that eleven hit barrageand nine runs. None of those guys
are pitching tonight or tomorrow night orthe next night. So I do think
that things will be a little bitdifferent this weekend. And they're two and
five at home and they're two andfive on the road. Something's got to

(23:30):
get You can miss me with thethey can't win at home, as I
said, yes, because they can'twin anywhere, right, all right?
You know, I don't want topile on, but we might have to
next segment. I I can't.I mean, I can believe what I
heard. But yet, if you'rean Astros fan and you're wanting to be
optimistic, let's just say for thefuture, both short and long term.

(23:53):
I don't know if Reggie Jackson instilleda lot of confidence in how the Astros
are going about their business these dayswith decision making. We will let you
hear what he had to say whenwe come back. If you can buy
Astro's gear, on it. Youcan hear us on it usen live for
free on any smart device. Itis the A team here on Sports Talks

(24:18):
seven ninety live from Tom's watch bar. Can't get over how spectacular this place
is. Can I let me go? Let me go, Iron Eagle on
you Can I just say something you'resupposed to say? Sure can? Sure
can? Even the bathroom's nice inhere, awesome, That's a big deal

(24:40):
to me. Man. I'm justsaying I like touchless options. Let's just
put it that way. Being thetrue you have that option every time you
go in the bathroom. Well,oh, you mean the stuff that's in
there. Yeah. Well, I'msaying like to make it easier to do
that, if you know what Imean, to not touch anything in any
public space because of the freak thatI am and I freely admit it.

(25:04):
But AnyWho, all right, whenyou heard, you know, the podcast
that John Hayman was conducting that ReggieJackson joined, and you started kind of
listening, the first thing I wantto ask you before we play this for
anyone was your level of surprise,and it could be zero. The first
thing I did is go to theactual podcast rather than just only see what

(25:29):
was being floated around the interwebs,so I gets more of exactly what was
said context, well not just context, but what else was a part of
the conversation, What else were theydiscussing, what else was on their mind,
and you know, maybe what questionspreceded anything you might have heard,
because again they just posted a littlesnippet. It was a full Oh that's
how you, you know, kindof promote stuff. You talk about something
and you record a podcast and youtell everybody, oh my god, listen

(25:52):
to this lightning bolt. Yeah,and hopefully people go then and listen.
But for our purposes, since it'sa it's a member of Astro's management and
it certainly, you know, soundslike you might want to know exactly what
kind of let into some of whathe had to say and what he was
thinking and what position he's in isalso kind of of note. So,
yeah, Reggie Jackson was talking withJoel Sherman, he was talking with John

(26:14):
Hayman, and they were asking himbasically about the club and you know about
Alex Bregman situation, because obviously that'sa big point of contention with him.
Now one hundred and forty eight gamesaway from reaching free agency and how the
team's been doing, what some oftheir thoughts were about how they would put
things together this past offseason. Andhe also kind of unprompted, discussed a
little bit of what their decision makingstructure is, but initially was just talking

(26:38):
about their I guess baseball team,and you know, kind of what they
have to offer major League Baseball andits fans. We're outstanding at third base,
we're outstanding at short stop, we'reoutstanding at second base. We're struggling
offensively at first base. We've gota new catcher that's a good defender,

(27:03):
surprisingly better for him, better thanyou normally expect him to be for his
age, with the framing and howto catch in hall it call a game,
et cetera. But he's an outstandinghitter. He's got a chance to
be a catcher and hit three hundred. And then of course we have pretty
good left fielder with Myers and McCormickand playing center and sharing that as well

(27:26):
as you're done playing some left field. And then of course our left fielder
is an all Star. I don'tknow how much long we're going to have
him, and we've got and we'vegot really good pitching, so we'll get
it straightened out. We'll get itfigured out. And so I'm not really
worried about our guys, not reallyworried about your guys. But as usual,
a big long sound, but there'sprobably something that needs to be yanked,

(27:48):
it needs to be pulled on,and I'll let you heard more clearly.
I don't think he quite meant itthe way he said it, but
if you were listening closely to twoparticular things, I wanted to point those
out. First of all, theydon't have four guys lined up on top
of each other every day in theoutfield. Even though it sounds like that
he thinks that, Yeah, wellcan I let's hear him say, yeah,

(28:08):
we have pretty good left fielder withMyers and McCormick and playing center and
sharing that as well as you're doneplaying some left field. And then course
our left fielder is an all staron how much long we're gonna have him?
And then when I replay it foryou, you couldn't possibly have missed
it, even though he thought allthree players except for Myers were left fielders.

(28:32):
Listen again to his description of theirall star outfielder and his future.
This is when he talks about TuckerReggie Jackson on Astro's left fielder Kyle Tucker.
Of course, our left fielder isan All Star on how much long
we're gonna have him? That bodeswell for their future negotiations. One of
the I don't know how many membersof the staff five Well, I don't

(28:53):
know that yet because we haven't playedit for our listeners yet. Oh,
okay, think that Reggie's right,But he's basically just said bye. You
know we have Yeah, he justsaid goodbye. You know, we have
a great leadership group with our GM. Also, we have a couple of
other advisors in Craig Bgio pribing histhoughts on the team. You know,

(29:15):
here's a good out. And that'swhy we keep saying every day about the
panic button. These guys are waytoo good for what they're doing. That
is one hundred percent fact, rightuntil they actually prove otherwise. Fourteen games
is not a sample size to provethat. Abray is a little bit of
different story because the decline was alreadythere. But Alex Bregman's not going to
be one of the worst offensive thirdbasemans in baseball. Third basement in baseball

(29:37):
the offense is not going to beone of the five worst teams with the
runners in scoring position all year long. I would feel very comfortable saying that.
All that being said in a litanyof comments about all those individual players,
all of which what he said wascorrect. He talked about how their
production at first base was for hetalked about how good things are going with
their catcher offensively and defensively. Hewasn't wrong about anything he's said there,

(30:00):
except for some reason when he sayswe've got an all star left fielder.
It was literally the last position hegot to and he decided to drop in
there. I don't know how muchlonger we'll have him as he approaches his
second to last year before club controlexpired. While taking a step further,
how many people just kind of wanderedinto that exact sound bite and thought he
was talking about Jordan because he saidleft field instead of right field. Thus

(30:23):
I was again, I hope you'vecan find a long all segment. I
called him that as well for Reggy'sbenefit. I mean, he were only
a day removed from him losing hisco star, So I don't know how.
And again I think he taped thisbefore he found out about his co
star from Naked Gun passing away.But again, I've said it before,

(30:44):
we all make little mistakes. That'sa little mistake. He doesn't mean that
he knows where they play. Onething I took out of there, just
for timing standpoint, He continued tosay. Yeah, I'm not worried about
our team. I'm not worried aboutour guys, and I'm going to join
them on Thursday, and I'll probablybe with them for eight or night.
Again, most of those eight ornine days are the ones they have here
at minute May Park, the Rangersand Braves this series, he'll be with

(31:06):
them. Well, that also unlesshe meant I was hopping on the flight
back from Kansas City, but notgoing to be with them for that.
Well, Thursday was yesterday, andThursday was arguably the worst of their bad
days this season. He hadn't seenthat yet when this was recorded, and
and things obviously went in the directionthat they did. So again, of
all the things he said there,and that was just the baseball part,

(31:29):
I just kind of shocked that hewould say that when it was completely unnecessary
to say that publicly. And I'msorry, I'm listening so closely. Why
why wouldn't you, I mean everyoneelse is so the list is the least
you could do doing, you know, doing what you do for a living.
But I just look, there havebeen I don't want to I don't

(31:55):
know if you want to call themwhispers or speculation whatever about the state of
the decision making in the Astros frontoffice. You know what percentage of this
guy was responsible for the bad Monterodeal. And that's why at the beginning
of the show, I said,we have the person inside, yeah,

(32:16):
to give us that information. Thatis Reggie Jackson wanted to set it up
for what he thinks of the teamhe and whomever else has put together.
He's going to tell you who whomeverelse is. He's going to tell you
how they make their decisions, andhe's gonna talk to you about how they
spend their money. And he's gonnado that right here on the eight team
when we come back Adam Clinton andAdam Wexler. The A Team now continues

(32:43):
Beck at here on the eighteen SportsTalk seven ninety live from Tom's watch Bar.
Picture perfect day outside RUFE will definitelynot be open tonight with this weather.
Now, there need that a greatday for golf as well, especially
if you are named Bryson, notso much of your name John, and
you have a green jacket from lastyear. Tiger's decent name to have the

(33:07):
runner up at the Texas Children's Houstonopens. Having a fine time of things,
although not as fine as it wasearlier in the day. But if
you know all those golfers are,then we'll tell you about that a little
bit later. No other direction butto follow up on what we we talking
about. We're talking about Reggie Jacksonnow taking you inside the ASTROS organization how
decisions get made as he describes iton the New York Post podcast. Here's

(33:30):
Reggie on decision making for the Astros. You know, we have a great
leadership group with our GM. Also, we have a couple of other advisors
in Craig Bigio and Jeff Bagwell,who her very much involved in our decision
making. I'm involved. Jim takesthose decisions and puts them together, listens

(33:55):
to our management and coaching staff onthe field, talk to our GM and
his staff, and then of coursesome of the analytics come into the future
of a player and our decisions aremade that way. Along with being fiscally
responsible. Fiscally responsible was a leadinto a specific answer about pursuits of other

(34:21):
major league talent this particular offseason,which we'll get to momentarily. But running
back through his description of Astro's management, they do have a general manager.
They do have not one, nottwo, but three assistant general managers.
They've got special assistants to the generalmanager are now granted, I don't think
anybody listening to the New York Postpodcast is going to know any of their

(34:45):
names. So maybe telling them,well, Gavin likes to do this,
and you know, Andrew kind ofwe lean on for the who what,
So they know who Craig Bigio is, they know who Jeff Bagwell is.
Clearly they know who Reggie is ifthat's who they're talking to. Usually the
podcast host knows who the podcast guestsare, but not every time, not
every time, not if you're SageSteel. But those are the names you

(35:07):
know. But he also wasn't hewas telling you Jackson's. He also wasn't
telling you something that I don't thinkeverybody here is kind of afraid of.
It's not really applicable in necessarily everyother sport, and it's certainly not a
generic statement that always holds true,But I don't think the idea of former

(35:29):
players running operations for their teams inany sport is usually the way to go.
It doesn't mean they're all going tofail, it doesn't mean they're all
going to be great, but itdoes tell you who he's listening to.
After all these years listening to JeffLuno and his analytically driven forward thinking group,
and then a very short time periodlistening to James Klick and many holdovers

(35:51):
from the Jeff Luno era, he'snow moved almost completely away from that.
Even though all those positions are stillheld. They really deal in a lot
of analytics. It's a lot ofwhat the day to day operations are their
minor league development team thinks about thatuses that none of that stuff has truly
changed, but they're making moves thattell you this. And Reggie's describing a

(36:12):
front office operations and decision making processthat is clearly taking you away from all
that. I don't mean to tellyou stuff I really don't one hundred percent
know for sure, but Reggie Jackson, Craig Bigio, and Jeff Bagwell are
not pouring over the same information andnumbers that each of the past ten years

(36:32):
worth of decisions that were being madefor this team, whichever the GM was
in place, they were absolutely doingthat and the results are very clear,
and so are the newer results.We were only just at the very beginning
of seeing what those new results areand we don't like them. Yeah,
they're reading the back of a baseballcard results and I'm sorry, that's not

(36:53):
I don't think that's too far togo when you've heard the type of being
made like that this week, inaddition to the ones we're playing for you
now. And my question is,and I don't think it's out of line
to ask this either, how thehell did Jeff Luno ever get the job
as general manager with Jim Crane Ifthis is how he thinks and these are

(37:15):
the people he now wants taking advicefrom his roster. I think he respects
Jeff so much even still he thinkshe can use what's already in place,
use what Jeff helped build, usewhat James helped build. You some of
the people who are still here,use some of the process that they are
still here, some of the stuffthat mister Correa didn't steal from the Astros

(37:36):
illegally and get sent to jail fornot that Karrea the other one. That's
why I went with mister to seeif I can fool anybody. I'm not
talking about Dan Yeller husband, I'mtalking about the Christian Karia. Did you
just enunciate her handle on social Yeah? Okay, just making sure people got
that. Yeah I did. I'mso good. But it is clear that
they're doing things differently. If I'mnot correct, you tell me. But

(37:58):
the three players they've spent the mostmoney on from outside the organization in the
last year and a half, onevia trade and two signing. They spent
thirty nine million or six nearly sixtymillion on jose A Brave, they spent
the remainder of the contract that theywere on the hook for in the trade
for Justin Verlander, and ninety fivemillion on Josh Hater. Okay, so

(38:22):
what do I mean? Since yousaid it and you love saying it and
there's merit to it, those threeplayers have something exceptionally significant that they share
as to why I'm putting them alltogether. Some of the other players they've
added might have three or four lineson their back of their baseball card.
The back of the baseball card forthose three individuals is littered with the greatness

(38:45):
that has already taken place in allof their extended periods of greatness as major
leaguers. They are absolutely saying thename is awesome. Jose A. Brave's
name sounds like, well, hemust still be awesome. Justin Verlander's name
says well he must still be awesome. And the same thing with Josh Hater,

(39:05):
who probably will still be awesome.But I doubted it then and I
doubt it today in the last yearof his deal, two years of a
deal, three years of his deal. But you also do some of those
things when you think you're is thisit is the end? Near? Do
we have to milk everything we canout of this problem? Is they're handcuffing
themselves into the years where they allfalling apart. He just told you Kyle

(39:25):
Tucker's gone in a year and ahalf. It doesn't sound like they would
then be letting him go because theysigned Alex Bregman. So the guys they
have under contract are gonna be theguys that well, they're not the foundation
for anything moving forward. And thisis what I mean. Everybody tiptoes around
this, and I guess it's becausethey've won at such a high level for
so long, the highest level,the highest you're right, better than every

(39:49):
single team. Ina, you're settingyourself up for a crashiest of crash landings,
and you could kind of see itcoming. But here's the My biggest
beef with all of this is he'stalking about being fiscally responsible after having done
the exact opposite with the players you'retalking about. And you know, I

(40:10):
don't literally for him the opportunity toexplain himself what he means by fiscally re
Sure, Please explain what you meanby fiscally responsible, please, A Reginald
being fiscally responsible, I think iswhat kicked us out of the Snell deal.
He signed a two year deal,I want to say, for sixty
two. I'm that's too much forhim. He's been hurt a couple of

(40:37):
times, and I think there's incentiveson top of that. He's also got
an option on his own, andbetween the four or five people that make
the decisions with the Astros, wedon't play that game, okay, So
if I am to hear him correctly, we will not sign Blake Snell to

(41:00):
a two year deal because he's hurttoo much, but we will continue to
pay perfectly healthy jose of Bray,You who just playing sucks for the same
amount of time. Well that's what'shappening. Yeah, but I wouldn't put
those two together. I'm not.But here's the deal. Ray is on
the decline while being basically healthy.He's but he was literally I think if
you tally the numbers up, thehealthiest player in baseball that they signed,

(41:22):
he played one hundred and fifty plusone hundred and sixty or all sixty games.
Right. He was healthy, sothat was not a concern. They
figured, well, three more years, he'll stay healthy for three more years.
Well, he has stayed healthy forthe entire all things considered, the
entire portion of the very short termpart of this contract. He was headed
to decline, though, and thenumbers were there to back it up.
Not to this level, but therewas clear decline in the last year,

(41:44):
and they were reading those numbers.They were reading the back of his baseball
card. And in Blake Snell's case, I think the concern is real.
But to me, that's kind ofwhy you short term. That is why
you short term it. You've thusprotected yourself from any long term damage.
You've created some uncertainty on his option. That's fair too. But if you
really felt like it was worthwhile topursue the conversations continue talking with Jordan Montgomery's

(42:07):
former agent, Scott Morris, thenyou probably were interested in him and you
had a line and he wanted tocross it and you didn't. He described
the reasons why. Yeah. Well, there's a few other things I want
to touch on when we get tothe top of next hour, not the
least of which is I mean,it's just unbelievable what he's just saying out
loud. This is what happens whenguys get on podcasts. This is why

(42:29):
guys say no to interviews. Podcastsare the best for us, for us.
Yeah, but unfortunately we're passing alongthe bad news and it's it's getting
worse. And there is I mean, there is another aspect of this that
I also want to get to aswe get to the top of next hour.
Here live from Tom's watch bar.It's the eighteen on Sports Talk seven
ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys namedat him talking your teams, Adam and

(43:00):
Adam Wexler are d a a ournumber two here on Sports Talks. Seven
ninety is underway from Tom's Watch Bar. Just met one of the partners here.
This place is absolutely fantastic, rightacross the way from the House of

(43:21):
Blues. So if you know,if you're familiar with that part of downtown,
I mean, we can basically throwa rock at Toyota Center from here,
corner of Carolina Polk there was theactual you know, if you want
to use like actual directions and streetnames, I mean, Caroline. There
you go. But man free shuttleto and from Astro's home games, which
you can start taking advantage of assoon as tonight, and buy one,

(43:43):
get one free drink specials. I'mlooking at the menu right now. I've
heard nothing but good things. See, you have been here several times,
so you already know about what everythingthey have to offer is. Wings are
awesome. Yeah, I'm good withthe Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich as well.
You can have that as wing flavor. By the way, can't tell you
anything bad about the loaded tots andfries. You've had all of this,

(44:06):
that's why not. So anyway,it's on you if you want to go
even better, it's one of theirprime items, butter poached lobster and shrimp.
Oh my gosh, all right,now I'm get hungry. Well that's
mac and cheese, by the way, really mac and cheese, butter poached
lobster and shrimp. You know,that's like ninety five percent of what Carson

(44:28):
wants to eat every meal of everyday. It involves mac and cheese.
Bring him out, Yeah, heneeds to come to a bar. All
right. So we were talking aboutthe wonder that is Reggie Jackson and really
a larger issue, because that's whatI'm gonna call it, is the brain
trust. Now, before we goany further, is this to you the

(44:50):
most you've ever heard Craig Biggio's namementioned. When it comes to actual decision
making, we always hear, what'shis title? Executive advisory decision non maker
of the app. Sure, Idon't know. It's a terrible decision.
That's to name him that. IfI were hiring Craig Bigio and he'd come
out to games to watch Cavin playand the Astros play, I'd probably name
him the special advisor like Baseball Operationsand Community Outreach executive. I'd probably give

(45:14):
him the title of So what's thesame with enis Cabell? Okay, so
what's Jeff? That's not Jeff Bagwell'stitle. Jeff Bagwell's title is slightly different.
He's a special advisor, a senioradvisor ownership in baseball ops. So
senior advisor means desk is right outside. You could actually jim you Now.
He's the guy that says they negotiate. I mean, I guess, oh,

(45:37):
you don't think it was a negotiationwhen he just said, here,
take all this money, not washedup a bray you like. Do you
think they had to go back andforth a bunch? No? Right,
exactly, Oh, here's fifty eightmillion done. Hey, we'd like to
argue, yes, that's how itwent. And that's what you're getting right
now because you read the back ofhis baseball card different, Like all these
things aren't the same. The AbrallonMontero signings are not the same as trading

(46:00):
for Justin Verlander, as signing JoshHayter, as extending jose Al Tuve.
They have people in place to dothat, in addition to still listening to
Reggie craig enis Jeff. But whenthey signed Montero, and when they signed
a Bray, they had a bunchof assistant gms, some of whom are
not with the Astros anymore, butthey didn't have anyone else in the position

(46:23):
of handling the roster. There wasno general manager. This was the part
of the Jim Crane ownership, afterJeff, after James, and before Dana,
by his choice, so that youget rid of James. And he
didn't have to wait several months tohire anybody, but he did so in
that vein when the abray you situationis happening, and yes, that's what

(46:45):
I'm gonna call it, when that'shappening, and Jeff Bagwell is spearheading it
for lack of a better way ofputting it. Those assistants at any point
they had to have, by theway, I have no doubt at this
At what point did they raise theirhands in the room, throw a text,
I don't know how it works,say hey, this might not be

(47:07):
a very good idea. Okay,that's you're right. When did they probably
not enough, not soon enough,or not loud enough, or if the
clock back, you don't sign him, and you don't sign Montero, that's
turning the clock back. So that'san extra thirty million a season you have
to spend over those three years roughly, So you're probably keeping at least Hector

(47:30):
Naris, maybe you're keeping all three. Maybe you're spending that money somewhere else.
You're probably looking to spend some moneyat first base. If it wasn't
a brave you, that's the obviousquestion. It probably would have been last
year because last year they would haveplayed with nobody, and clearly you're gonna
want somebody over there else pay theydon't keep you, and Alex Bregman are
gonna have a lot of errors ifnobody's out there, they don't keep you

(47:50):
in that scenario, No, theyusually don't want a guy that nobody wants.
I mean, he does not havea job right now for a reason.
So it would have been somebody elsefor far less money, who might
have been able to produce, andmight have been a platoon. It might
have been a minor leaguer. Theteam would certainly be better if those things
didn't happen, and they didn't haveto now think about their spending quite so
tightly because they were now pushed upanother thirty million. That's fair, but

(48:15):
it still has nothing to do withthe eight other spots in the order that
are producing three runs a game moreoften than not. That's true. This
team could easily be overcoming all theseshortcomings right now. Be eight and six,
be seven and seven, which isn'tgreat, but isn't panic time.
If the guys that should be hitting, that have been hitting, that have

(48:37):
carried this team, that have WorldSeries experience, that have rings on their
fingers, were doing what they normallydo. And Kyle Tucker's been about fifty
to fifty this year. About halfthe year is good. About the other
half the year, he's trying todecide whether he wants to slam his bat
down or take off his batting gloves. Alex Bregman has had an incredibly poor
start to his season. He willhit a homer this year. He hasn't

(48:57):
hit a homer this year. Andthen the other two guys at the top,
Alvarez and Altuve. After Alvarez gotaway from the first six games of
the year, which is one badweek and no big deal, he's been
a monster again. Altuve has beenfantastic unless runners were in scoring position,
so those guys could actually be doingmore than they are, and if they
were, things would probably look different. It's amazing that you've got arguably the

(49:22):
best offensive position in baseball at catcherthis year with what Carotene he's done when
he's been behind the plate and whatDiaz has done when he's been behind the
plate, not to mention when Diazisn't behind the plate, he's been fine
as a DH and hasn't had quitethe spreads that he has in years past.
Small sample size, How are theymanaging to score so few runs that
people still want to crush a guywho doesn't even play every day anymore?

(49:46):
In Jose Abrau, he's that bad. He's not even out there, so
he's still hurting you because part ofthe money you could be spending to make
your team that money is being spenton him. Is the money. But
if he was, if he washitting two fifty, had a homer and
four RBIs, do you think they'dbe six and eight? They've probably be

(50:06):
I mean, they could because hehas had a bunch of opportunities. Would
it make you feel any better?He definitely wasn't gonna be the player that
he was in Chicago. Would yoube accepting of a guy who can with
forty extra base hits, you know, twenty five doubles, fifteen homers,
and sixty five RB guys he hadninety last year because he was too high
in the order. Well, abetter player would have had one hundred and

(50:27):
twenty. That brings me to whatI wanted to talk about this segment.
The very first SoundBite we played wherehe was where Reggie was running down.
You know how they're strong at eachposition. Just play Dan, Just play
the beginning part of that again.I'll tell you when to cut it off.
It was the very first one weplayed where he's just basically saying what
they have and where they're strong.We're outstanding at third base. We're outstanding

(50:50):
at short stop. We're outstanding atopstop stop. Yeah, they're outstanding at
third base for a guy they're gonnalet walk at the end of the year.
That's another thing. He's just usuallytalking about how strong they are,
Like at least when he talks aboutKyle Tucker. They've got more than this
season remaining with him. Sure,But like like when I said, why
would he bring up his future whenhe's clearly talking about this year. Same

(51:12):
thing with Alex they do have agood third baseman. It's not on Regie,
it's not on Dan, it's noton Joe, and it's not on
Jim Alex. It's going to behard to win if the guy that's hitting
forth has a bad season. It'sbeen fourteen games. He hasn't had a
full season. He almost never finisheswith the same early numbers. By the
end of it, he's recovered.The last handful of years, he's been
a good, not great player.First couple of years of his career,

(51:36):
he was an outstanding, elite player. He hasn't been that the last couple
of years, but he's been morethan good, and he's a tremendous defensive
player. We also never talk aboutany of that stuff like defense. That's
what I'm actually so nervous about missingnext year when he's gone, Like you
can't just a man. That's theworst way to say, Ah, there's

(51:57):
always next year, because you're tryingto make next year sound worse it is
right now. But they're four andten right now. Well take away just
his defense because it lee. Imean, yeah, he's had his gaps
as well. He had one theother day in Kansas City that allowed the
tying run. But then yeah,well that's what WEX would have said.

(52:17):
But I just like, I don'tknow, like these guys all in a
room, and then the fact thathe's going and talking about it, it
just, to me confirms a lotof people's fears they already had about how
and it's just it's crazy to me. That's why I asked the original question,
How did Jeff Luno ever get thisjob when his vision and his way

(52:44):
of doing things is essentially the polaropposite of what you're doing right now,
and you're still whatever success you're having, for the most part, is based
off of deals either he or JamesClick made before they were departed. How
did he do that? I willgive you the answer in my own words
when we come back here live fromTom's watchburd don't forget. I mean,

(53:05):
you know you want to see theseguys, these four and ten Astros.
It's the beginning of the year.It's a ballpark, it's baseball, it's
awesome, and they're going to startwinning. We've got tickets to those of
you who want to come see theAstros. Come on out here, register
to wind boxes available to you.Sign up, drop your name in the
hat, and you could be awinner and go see your stros tomorrow.

(53:25):
Looking forward to making some people veryhappy with that, and I'm also looking
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PRIMEWAYFCU dot com, Primeway FCU dotcom Touchdown Texas Coast stark here back

(54:32):
to the eighteen with the Adams,Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton on Sports Talk
seven ninety, Houston's home of LonghornFootball. Oh my goodness, eighteen Rolling
along here on Sports Talk seven ninety, wexover there ac right here. We

(54:52):
are live at Tom's Watchbar, Carolineand Pulk the Cross Streets downtown, just
across the way from House of Blues. It's an amazingly beautiful space that they
have built out here. Used tobe two different places, and they're just
like, we're gonna take the wholecorner over and just make it awesome,
and they have. If you're listeningearlier, WEX gave you the rundown of

(55:15):
the amount of screens out here,various shapes and sizes, and there's plenty
to be able to watch whatever youwant to want out here. Two various
shapes really just one. They're allrectangular, so the shapes and sizes covers
the other part of it. Yeah, I mean the sizes somewhere are bigger
than others, but every one ofthem has the same shape. They're all

(55:35):
rectangles. You're unbelievable. The onesbehind me, those are rectangles, the
huge one over the bar rectangle.The five TVs surrounding the TV over the
bar, that's five more rectangles,no squares. I'm gonna get a custom
oval shaped television put in my homejust to spite you. Well, then
this conversation we're having right now,I'll invite you over. Probably want to

(55:58):
beat me up now. So youasked a question, how could Jim Crane
hang with Jeff Luno in the mannerthat they did well? To me?
It happens this does, I thinkhappen in all sports and not all the
time. But what does Jim Craneknow about baseball running a team when he
first buys the team. He's alittle bit different, to be fair,

(56:20):
than most owners, in that hewas an athlete and played baseball, which
is very rare for a basketball teamowner, unless you're Michael Jordan, a
football team owner, unless you're JerryJones Les you're Jerry. That's where the
conversation is, right and there arethere's there's been a handful of owners that
have played I mean, you wentall the way to Arlington for your answer.

(56:42):
Why didn't you just say right herein Houston, cal played football.
I'm also got a business to go. I do for certain to a certain
degree that there's some that have andobviously at different levels. But I think
Jim Crane knew the game very verywell. But I almost bought the Cubs
before this, and has always,yes, always been interested in specifically baseball
ownership for those reasons, not justsomebody who's interested in ownership because he wants

(57:07):
to be in charge of you know, he loves sports and then you're looking
for this franchise in this sport andwhat not and the other So buying a
team and allowing yourself to learn aboutwhat it takes to run things from good
people, whether they were already thereor you've brought them in, that's usually
the way to go. Now,he happened to have somebody that he decided
to believe in, and I thinkJeff was able to convince him very with

(57:30):
a good plan. By no meanswas a guaranteed to work. I mean,
think of how many things that theytouched that turned a goal, just
one after the other after the otherafter the other. And they deserve the
credit for that. It isn't allluck. Maybe one hundred percent success rate
is a bit of luck, andthere maybe weren't quite that, but it
sure seems that way. When draftpick after draft pick after draft pick,

(57:52):
many of which they managed to makesure we're at the very top of the
draft, and even the one BradyAiken that clearly didn't work, work tremendously
well when you parlayed that into anothertop pick by not having him on the
team and not signing him. Itwas unbelievable how they were able to make
that work. But they hit onall those players, all those first round

(58:13):
picks, Tucker, Springer, CorreaBregman, just dominant, dominant players.
Credit to the development system they hadin place, and we're creating which you
would think that Jim appreciated and Idon't think there's any doubt that he did.
And there are still some players thatwill be able to utilize that,
but they have not only are theynot hitting, they don't even have the
opportunity to hit. This is whyanother reason why it's not a coincidence you

(58:38):
astros didn't get punished people. There'sno first round pick for X year.
There's also no first round pick forwhy year or second round picks from the
same X and Y years. Theydidn't but they didn't get punished. I
mean, you could have hit onall four of them. Again, not
at the top of the draft.You could have hit on three of them.

(58:59):
Two could have hit on. Asper usual, one player in baseball
matters. If you hit on oneplayer with the thirty second pick, the
thirty eighth pick, whatever number itis, many turns into a top flight
you know, every fifth day guyor whatever. That's enormous. Yeah,
as per usual. Most just regular, casual, not even casual baseball fans

(59:21):
in that sense, are just dumberthan a sack of rocks. I'm sorry,
it's true. Like you can't.It's not a coincidence, the timing
of all this coming together. No, and you're explaining it very well,
and yet you're still gonna have dumbassesin New York and LA, primarily not
to mention the idiots up the roadin southern Oklahoma that'll always say. Do

(59:44):
you want to recreate one minute oftotal psyclonists from Astros fans? I can
do that for you. Oh,Astros line is out. Astros Twitter has
its own problems. So the Astroslineup comes out, and Astros get to
learn that yesterday's final pitcher of theafternoon is the starting third baseman today,

(01:00:05):
Greg Kessinger. Okay, so,and then a minute later, okay,
they find out that Alex Bregman isn'tfeeling well. He's ill, not benched,
not traded, not holding out fora new contract, just not feeling
well. Greg Kessinger will bat ninthand he will play third base today.
That's fine. Dang Dunning will dohis very, very darnest to shut down

(01:00:27):
the Astros as has the honors todayof batting clean up behind Kyle Tucker.
The five hole hitters their first basement. John Singleton, Hmmm. McCormick is
also a little dinged. He's gota leg, as Gary might say,
he's got a leg. He's battlefighting though, little hamstring issue. That's
good. Well, look I'm finewith it. Wow. We finally found

(01:00:52):
a way to get Alex Bregman totake a day off, and it only
took less than two weeks into theseason. I'm not gonna say Joe can't
call on him late in the game, techniclear. We're into their third week.
This is, you know, righton the other side. Yeah,
Thursday to thursdays more than it's fifteendays. You just can't help yourself.
We are into the Do they giveyou give any indication what the illness was?

(01:01:12):
Do is you have flu like symptoms? It's unnecessary to divulge that,
uh huh, but it almost alwaysis that what kind of flu too?
It could be the regular headsholu,or it could be the stomach flu.
Those are very different things. Ithink those guys, especially where you're wearing
the home whites, those guys shouldappreciate the fact that usually if I'm ill,
I'll probably just go to work anyway, receive no treatment, and have
nobody on staff to talk to.Literally what you always do anyway. But

(01:01:36):
if you a baseball player, ifyou play professional sports and you feel ill,
yes, there's all sorts of thingsthey'll give you, tell you what
to do, make sure that youdo, tell you to stay home,
whatever the case may be, becauseI don't want I mean, if I
come to work sick and have anyconcern about getting anybody else sick, it's
pretty much a grand total of oneother person. Now that would wipe out
the entire organization, because that's ourwhole show at least today on site,

(01:02:00):
and Alex Bregman would have to gettwenty five other players ill to wipe out
the whole organization for any given day. So I don't know exactly what it
is, but I don't think it'sof great importance. I do feel for
him and my heart goes out,but he's ill. He'll be fine.
Five hours ago an account on whateveryou want to call it, the X
platform, whatever, it's Twitter atj Luno. It's a picture of him

(01:02:24):
on the street corner, presumably inMadrid. That's where he spends a lot
of his time. What does hisbio say? Oh, his bio.
Let me go ahead and read.Some people know who at Jay Luno is
CEO of Blue Crow Sports Group,Presidente Club Deportivo Laganis. I heard what
you said the first time in EnglishPresidente Cankun FC. So well, why

(01:02:47):
did he leave out the part thatI'd love to see in media? Where's
his previous? Oh that would taketoo long because he would have to put
all the accolades in achievements, previousastros, previous baseball, previous successful,
previous ring earner, and he couldput anything there, monster builder there you

(01:03:08):
go live off of of of her. But yeah, he was just it
was a was he in his ownpicture? Did he post a picture of
himself? Uh? Yeah, thepicture that in the actual tweet was him
on a street corner. He's pointingup to a sign or a banner that's
above his head, but on theopposite side of the street. That's what

(01:03:29):
That's what he said. He's pointinginto a picture. You don't want me,
I'm out of here. He's pointingto a picture of Aaron Rodgers.
Underneath that it says R E LA X. I'm gonna reach out to
him and I'm gonna see what hereally thinks, and then I'm gonna not
tell you. He only responds witha gift. What would it be about
the way the astro season is going? Oh man, I'm gonna have to

(01:03:52):
think about that one. Oh look, we're up against a break. I'll
have to uh specifically asked at thattime by me. Yeah, I'm gonna
have to uh contemplate that over thecourse of this little time out we're going
to take. And then as weget you ready to give away not one,
but two pair of Dave Matthews bandtickets, I'll tell you what I
think that gift would be when wecome back. Hey, it's Craig AfOR

(01:04:15):
Listen to the Home of the Rocketson yours smart speaker. Just ask hey
Google play Sports Talk seven ninety oniHeartRadio as Dan gets that information. I
did want to discuss something that happenedlast night. No, not the Rockets
managing to completely waste a forty pluspoint effort from Fred van Vliet, the

(01:04:38):
second consecutive game in which he justwent off and really overall, I mean,
the Rockets hit a ridiculous amount ofthree pointers and yet they only led
by three at a half, andit was a very frustrating, steady decline
into a three point loss in whichyou scored one hundred and twenty one points

(01:04:59):
on the road at Utah against theworst defense in the NBA teen games in
a row. You know what IWhen I got home, my wife goes,
did they win? And when Itold her no, she goes,
wow. Even I know that Utahsucks because right now Utah was bad,
and then they decided to play nobody. Yeah, and that's how they've managed
to win three now four times sincea All Star break. By the way,

(01:05:23):
is it Kenneth Loofton Jr. Rememberwhat we were talking about him before.
I'm like, I know his name'sKenny, but that just doesn't sound
right because he sounds like a baseballplayer. Because his name, guys could
never play the outfield because he's fat. Well, I don't understand how he's
not a bad dude, and Iknow there's clear shortcomings to his game,

(01:05:43):
But there's seventeen spots on a roster. There's you know, twelve to fourteen
guys that are permanently basically with theteam all year. I cannot believe there
hasn't been a team that just says, in practice, he's got value to
us. On game nights, youknow, there's too much good. And
I thought this from the moment hetried to make a roster and he's failed
in a multiple different places. Idon't understand why I'm not asking teams to

(01:06:08):
give him even regular minutes. Idon't even asking him to be in the
rotation. But he's got no businessnot being on a roster, and last
night kind of showed you why.Now. The Rockets are not a great
team, and that's pretty obvious bythe fact that they're hoping to win their
final two games to get to fivehundred to finish at the season. But
the Jazz basically said, hey,man, if you're good, then you're
not playing. And a lot ofthem have true injuries, but their top

(01:06:29):
six maybe seven players were all unavailablelast night. So these are a bunch
of guys that don't get minutes,aren't in the rotation, have spent time
elsewhere with their affiliate, all sortsof different reasons why they aren't on the
court usually, and they outplayed theRockets. They outworked the Rockets, and
ultimately they outscored the Rockets by threepoints. I'm pretty sure that I read
he was averaging two point seven points. Yeah, but that's so silly.

(01:06:50):
I mean, these guys. Heraised his average to three to three last
night in one game. So theSemanchik, who basically hadn't played much this
year, well, the last handof games he's got in real minutes he
scored twelve and seventeen last night.Twenty. Well, this average is still
like three because he'll come in fortwo minutes a night and not even take
a shot. Yeah, so theaverage will be if you played these players

(01:07:11):
they you know, that's not inthis particular case, but per thirty six
minute numbers or something that ought tousually give you a little bit better idea
of what a player might be ableto do in certain situations. And yeah,
there's no excuse for that, butemy kind of told you what all
the excuses were, at least fromhis standpoint about you know why things went
the way they did. And it'sa shame that they weren't able to get
at least a little bit from afew guys because they totally fell apart in

(01:07:33):
the fourth quarter. It's hard todo what they did together in the same
game. The fourth quarter of lastnight's game, they made six of twenty
eight shots. So that's terrible,that's awful. They had zero turnovers in
the fourth quarter. They didn't givethe game away, they didn't fumble it
away, they didn't kick it.They literally could not put the ball in

(01:07:54):
the basket, mainly because Fred wasgassed. He took nine shots, he
missed nine shots. And the otherreason is Dylan Brooks should never be looked
to score unless he's already shown youthat this is a night where he's going
to He was. He took tenshots in just the fourth quarter. He
made two. Well, and theguy who really didn't do anything he hit

(01:08:15):
a three. Well, he wasn'teven on the court, so well,
again, you gotta have it wasn'ton the court because he was taken off
the court for large stretches. Yeah, Jalen Green barely played in the second
half. He didn't do anything inthe first half other than play poorly.
His three minute stretch in the thirdquarter happened to be right went and it
didn't happen to be. He waspart of the reason why the Jazz went
basically on a ten er run.He was a minus ten in the second
half and three minutes of play,and thus he really didn't come back in

(01:08:38):
the game. He came back invery late, kind of on an offense
for defense switch, and even thatpossession was not a worthwhile one. So
of course the other guys got tiredbecause some of the normal contributors just they
did not bring it, and thusthey were not asked to play. And
that's exactly why after the game whenin his postgame comy Udoka, without saying

(01:09:01):
his name, was absolutely talking aboutJalen Green when he said this, to
see if he could get a sparkgoing after sitting that long. You know,
it was not aggressive offensively and wasn'ton the possession he had the ball
on the break and then another defensiveair he had a lot of guys were
making throughout the game. But sowhen I saw nothing changed, so I

(01:09:21):
went back to the guys that weredoing well. I mean, it's not
the first time this has happened.And what's interesting is that this is now
Booke ending that amazing month of Marchthat he had. And look, I
don't know who has the wh We'vebeen talking about managerial or front office sway

(01:09:42):
all show long, basically with regardsto the astros, I don't know who
has more of a sway in theupper echelon of Rockets decision making right now,
I hope to got it to emyUdokah's got the final say. I
mean, at the end of theday, the owner has the final say.
But it doesn't sound to me likeif, for example, this offseason,

(01:10:04):
the Rockets decided to go in adifferent direction and it didn't didn't include,
it didn't include I should say,Jalen Green, I don't know that
ema Udoka is gonna be like upnights regretting that decision. I'm not saying
that one way or the other.I don't know what he's thinking. Yeah,
to me, last night did seema little bit different, even though
the same obvious part was true.He wasn't asked to play in the fourth
quarter. He was taken out soearly in the first half and taken out

(01:10:27):
so early in the third quarter.It definitely made me wonder, is he
going You know, he's obviously goingto be asked about it. He's going
to say that, you know,he tweaked something, or we're doing we're
using these three games to do somethingelse, to look at different rotations,
look at different players, give someother guys an opportunity like they're clearly now
going to do. I think thesenext two games. You know, Fred
van Vliet's not going to play tonightagainst the Blazers. List is a hip

(01:10:51):
injury, which I don't doubt thathe had last night. He got a
head injury, a shoulder injury,you name it. He was knocked to
the floor. Stupid Camra guys somany nights or so many times last night,
but there was nothing to it beyondthat this seemed to be much different
than other We don't want him outtheres because there have been a few and
Ema explained what they were last night. He also wasn't alone, I don't

(01:11:11):
think with the all that being said, Oh, they didn't come out with
the readiness they needed. They didn'tcome out with the right Jews. They
led by ten after the first quarter, I mean they lost by thirteen the
rest of the game. He scoredtwenty points in the first quarter and they
lost. It's just now he wasmainly a first and third quarter guy last
night. Well, he hit zeroshots in the second quarter, followed by
zero shots on the fourth quarter.So, like I said, he was
mainly a first and third quarter guylast night. He still managed to score

(01:11:34):
forty two points. A crazy Iknow. People know he's a fifty point
scorer. He's done that once.That's the only game in his career till
last night he's had a forty pointgame. His only forty point game in
his career before last night was hisfifty four point outburst a couple of Februaries
ago. So obviously last night wasthe most he'd ever scored as a Rocket.

(01:11:55):
By the way, you handed mea copy of the Rockets notebook the
other night book yearbook. That's whatI meant to say. And uh,
I was just signed by your friendsbefore the summer. No, I signed
one for some working with you,Adrian, have a great summer. Hope
to see you again next year atRockets University. You're an idiot. I
actually did sign one on my wayout of Toyota Center, which was like

(01:12:16):
an autograph. Yes, nice,I wrote a message. I didn't sign
any autographs because I didn't leave thearena until literally almost everybody was gone.
Calvin wasn't. Calvin left before me. He did his uh on the air
together. His wrap up is ratherquick. All right, let's go.
Oh you mean he doesn't have alot of stuff to pack? Basically,
okay, hen wait on you.He doesn't need to wait on me.

(01:12:39):
That's amazing. All right. Well, I was gonna say the reason I
brought that up is because if yougo to the back and you see all
of the uh forty point games fromJames Harden, do you know that they
actually said we don't have enough room, so we're just gonna do. These
are only the fifty and sixty pluspoint games on his forty point club category.

(01:13:00):
He blows everyone away. Look atthat guy dominating. He'll be in
Dallas for the playoffs. Who willbe disappointed more Clippers or Mavericks fans after
the first round. I love thatthose two are playing each other because it
guarantees somebody is going to be like, uh, this ain't working, and
that's the that's why the to me, the NBA playoffs could be so good
every year. Yep, if you'reasking me right now today, who are

(01:13:21):
the three teams regardless of matchups andit changes because of the matchups. The
three teams in the West, Iwould put my money behind to win the
West the most. Denver definitely Denver. The Clippers are definitely one of the
other two, are they really?And then it's between Dallas and OKC is
the third? Like I really trulybelieve Dallas can win two series in this

(01:13:42):
Western Conference. The problem is Dallasand the Clippers can't because they're there immediate
playing each other. And I lovethat because again it means somebody's gonna be
sad that I don't like. Thewinner of that series is probably gonna play
Denver before the conference final, andso then the second team, so somebody
that probably is not yeah, notamong the top two or three my choice.
I was right again about both ofthese teams slash players. James Harden

(01:14:06):
can't cut it and Dallas can't cutit well. One of them is absolutely
going to this year guaranteed because they'replaying each other. No, not past
the second round. That's what I'min. We'll see all right. We
will come back to wrap up thefour o'clock hour next live here at Tom's
a Watch Bar. On the ATeam Sports TX seven night, there's a

(01:14:26):
space City Home Network's Todd Kallis,there's the A Team. You got him.
It's Adam Clinton and Adam Webfler.Clinton, stop impersonating me on Sports
Talk seven nine. Get every timesomething fun comes up in sports. You
know, a father son gets aplay against one another on the same team.
Two guys that went to high schooltogether meet again to the majors,

(01:14:48):
or are on the hardwood together,brothers, whatever, that's always fun.
You can't help but think something funnyis happening tonight over at Minute May Park.
Rangers and Astros. Both of themwould like to have gotten off to
a little bit better starts. Butthe Rangers are seven and six and still
top of the division probably don't feelso bad. The Astros are four and
ten. They what I was referencingwas tonight's pitching matchup. We'll get more

(01:15:12):
into it during the on Deck showtoo, into the stats specifics and the
super important stuff. This is thedumb stuff. It's Dane Dunning against JP
France. Are you gonna say somethingabout their glasses? Yes, so few
players that wear them. There's sofew pitchers that wear them. Yes,
not to mention, I mean Dunningdoes also have chin hair, thus really

(01:15:34):
a goatee. He didn't have ahandlebar mustache. I know he could though,
for all we know, he's probablyhe's brought it out for two days.
That's weaker than JP's situation. Ofcourse it is. Well, but
yeah, two guys wearing the crossbreed of Rexpecs and glasses are on the
Mounta tonight for their respective teams.I mean JP France looks like an extra

(01:15:55):
from Tombstone. I mean even especiallywhen he takes his hat off and he's
got that floppy thing going on.He didn't want, No, he's yeah,
there's probably a few guys from YellowstoneTombstone that have that hair. But
when he when he has his haton, you don't expect that. No,
That's what I'm saying. To expectthat. But when you when a
guy takes his ten gallon hat offand something billows out from there as well,

(01:16:16):
you don't expect that. What doyou expect in his third start of
the season second against the Rangers.I mean, you have to factor in
the lineup that he's facing, asyou would with any pitcher. But it's
just, you know, I don'twant this to become about the Astros not
being able to win at home.I'm done with that narrative. Like you
were apparently a day ago. Forsure can't win at home. That probably

(01:16:41):
means you're doing something that prevents it. They didn't do anything to prevent it
other than the same thing they doat every ballpark in America. Yeah,
is not not play for good enoughbaseball. He played against pitched against them
obviously in the opening series between thesetwo teams, which was last weekend in
Arlington, and gave his you know, at least this year, a very
typical start. Both their starts havebeen rather comparable, and that he nearly
pitched six innings gave up three earnedruns in both. So he's faced this

(01:17:03):
lineup before. He obviously saw alittle bit of him last year as well.
I don't think the who they areis of great concern, but I
do think like the Astros there,I think the Rangers enjoy hitting here.
I pretty much guarantee you the Astroscontinue their home run hitting at home.
They're one of the top home runhitting teams in baseball this year. I

(01:17:24):
think they're gonna put the ball overthe fence. During this weekend series with
the Rangers, it looked like theywere gonna do that repeatedly. Against the
Royals, it kind of dried out. But again, there's no one part
of this team I'm gonna say,well, this isn't going on. There's
too many parts that are going well. That's how you get to four and
ten. Get well, I don'tcare where it is. It don't have
to be get well at home,doesn't have to mean get well. Just
get well. And he doesn't haveto crush this team. He doesn't have

(01:17:45):
to give him seven shutout and heneeds to give him a chance to win.
Figure crush. That's what he does. He's done, I think,
almost his entire career. Yeah,and that they need more up. I
mean specifically to the last two games. They cannot have their bullpen arms going
back out there almost every single day. The Astros have to make some sort
of roster move because they're carrying apitcher right the back end of their pitching
roster that is unavailable and isn't apermanent Major leaguer. So a guy comes

(01:18:10):
up, he pitches a few innings, he throws a bunch of pitches,
and then they have to half thetime, these guys have been out of
options or they've got to find theirway under the forty man. Jo Wanderswerro
went from a training camp invite tonearly making the roster, to going to
Triple A to being called up andfound a spot for him on the forty
man. He threw his two pitchesin the tenth inning against the Royals,

(01:18:30):
and they needed his spot again,and so he went down and then he
was just DFAD because they need aforty man spot for Joel Koonel, because
they've got to have arms available tothem at least starting tonight. And they
say do this every day. Now, is it safe as to say this?
Is crazy to say this? TheAstros three best pitchers are pitching in
this series. If you think aboutall things considered, I mean, try

(01:18:56):
to say that you're wrong. Well, I mean, I guess it does
kind of come off obvious the waythings is gone of late. But those
names are France, Blanco and JavierNot. What's wrong with that? Nothing,
It's just not expected no hitter guyand one hitter guy this year.
I'll take it right right, andand I do see on the schedule it's
finally going to happen. The Astrosare going to face that bum Nate Uvaldi.

(01:19:21):
So nobody's getting a run on Sunday. Oh good, you're coming around
by calling a bum a no zerorun. Let me finish. He's a
guy who is a bum, butalways pitches crazy good against the Astros of
late and the other team. Sono, but see, I don't think

(01:19:41):
he's always been there again the yearthis year he gave up two runs in
the Cubs. Look at his baseballcard. Wex you're looking at this season
and that's what That's not what thisteam is about the Astros. We're looking
at baseball cards, all right.I'm sure he'll have any era over for
again like he hasn't in the lastIs there a worst choice of words that
Dana Brown could have made with regardsto this roster and some of the parts

(01:20:02):
of it, only because he's notcognizant of how ridiculous Astros Twitter can be
sometimes? Why does he have to? Why is discomfort and back of a
baseball card? It's like Oh mygod, I got to jump off a
building. Someone said, back ofa baseball No, I we got to
push the panic button. I'm off. Here's what I'm out the Astros.
Here's why any baseball fan base whowas given that word and that line ad

(01:20:30):
nauseum about think about a Yankee fans. We're dealing with the same exact scenar.
Like they signed Josh Donaldson for what'son the back of his baseball card.
Okay, but they did sign him, and then their GM didn't go
out and say, look at theback of his baseball card. And they
don't use discomfort every time Aaron Judgehas a soft tissuing, you know,
or Gean Carlos Stanton has a softtissue issuery, or someone else you know

(01:20:54):
has aft issue. And James andJim got some discomfort, you know,
his elbow. The Astros seven consecutivepostseason trips to the ALCS. That's what
they gave the Astros. It's okayto be greedy fans. I don't blame
you. The windows are wide openhere at Tom's Watch. You can't their
window be open too. If youhaven't seen Tom's watch. Bar on the

(01:21:15):
corner of Caroline and Polk. Thewindows are open, which makes the inside
the outside. That's actually where we'recamped out. Plenty of umbrellas outside as
we are again near the Green Streetarea. It is the corner of Caroline
and Polk. Because we've mentioned toyou before, I know a lot of
people I can I can pretty muchtell based on their gear that they are
headed to minute May Park after theytake in the A team here and they'll

(01:21:39):
be coming back to Tom's watch barafter the game. And they can do
so through free parking at the GreenStreet garage, because all you have to
do is park there, get itvalidated here at Tom's, then hop on
Tom's free shuttle that will take youto and from Astros home games. They're
playing at home tonight. They're playingthe Rangers. So you can do all
of those things, and you canstop by right now and enjoy the absolutely

(01:22:00):
And you know what, if you'renot parking a vehicle from Classic Elite Chevy
sugar Land or Classic Elite Chevy Highwaysix in that parking garage, what are
you doing with your life? Whyhaven't you taken advantage of what they have
to offer over at the GM Dealerof the Year. Now thirteen years in
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(01:22:23):
six is going to be open foryou on Sunday this weekend, like they
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and operated by Jeff and Tiffany Sebastian, have to offer you. Obviously the
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(01:22:44):
for you. In fact, employeepricing is available for everyone that walks through
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Dealer of the Year, thirteen consecutiveyears, Classic Elite Chevy sugar Land and
on Sundays at Classic Elite Chevy Highwaysix, tell them of Clanton from Sports
Talk seven ninety sent you into eitherlocation. Two lifelong Houston sports guys named

(01:23:08):
Adam Talking Your Teams series Adam Clintonand Adam Wexler or the A Team A.
You're right at Pusson Football five o'clocksome five o'clock football Professional football in

(01:23:33):
America is a special game. Wecan now say we are within the window
of two weeks from the NFL Draft. For the Texas it took another day.

(01:23:54):
You want to you can, youcould say it. I won't say
one week and several hours and thenanother week. I was waiting for that
part. I mean again, ifthey hold the draft, you know,
another three or four hours earlier thannormal. Yeah, they'll pick around five
o'clock. If it's the date,you can say it West my god.
Yeah, they're within two weeks ofthe draft. They are within two weeks

(01:24:14):
of Day two of the draft.There are three days of the draft.
Texans activity will take place on Daythree, Day two, and Day three.
I do not expect them to moveup into the first round and would
be very bit, like I said, very surprising. I'd be shocked if
they don't make several other moves.Though. They've gone from having seven picks
initially that's what you get every year, all the way up to eleven in
some years, and then back downto nine on draft Day. The majority

(01:24:36):
of the players they usually end upgoing with are guys long before the end
of the draft. He almost alwaysstopped piles some of those late sixth and
seventh round picks just in order tohave them to use them for few He
would love to trade a seventh roundpick in twenty twenty four to get a
sixth round pick in twenty twenty five. It's easily done, and it happens
all the time. I'd be shockedif that's not something that Nick Casario wants

(01:24:59):
to do in any draft, anddefinitely in this year's draft. It's not
really about who's out there and who'snot and what they need currently. They've
spent a ton of money this offseason, among the top ten spenders in or
following the season spending. Whether itwas for their own extensions or for outside
free agents, that's quite clear.The money that they're now due to.
You know Joe Mixon and Stefan Diggs, both of whom were acquired the trade,

(01:25:26):
Daniel Hunter and Deniko Autry on theirdefensive line, along with a couple
of other players Fotacasi and Settle whowill at this point in time, they
stand a very very good chance tonot only make the team, but be
a part of their interior d linerotation. You only have really a couple
of holdovers from last year's team,neither of whom started both starters on the
interior or elsewhere. Now, withRankins leaving and Collins being told to leave,

(01:25:48):
I don't think they hated him,but they did trade him. Rankins
had the option and he chose tosign it elsewhere for more money. Good
choice. So they you know,Khalil Davis, Kurt Heinisch, and then
the new That's what makes up theirinterior till they almost assuredly draft at least
one defensive tackle. Pretty curious aboutwhat some of the players from the other

(01:26:09):
Nick Cassario drafts will do in theirrespective next years. Next year for some
is just year two, and Idon't mean the guys at the top is
pretty obvious. What is going tohappen with Will Anderson, It's pretty obvious
what's gonna happen with CJ. Stroud. Something you might not know that's obvious
with both of them is they'll bemade available the first day the Texans are
available this offseason. Both the twoof them and Jamiko Rans will meet with

(01:26:30):
us on Monday, that is dayone of this upcoming off seasons workout program.
There's not a whole lot they're goingto do at this point in time,
and it isn't even mandatory yet,but they will both be there as
a handful of teams got started lastweek, a few others the week before.
Most of the league gets started thisfifteenth, April fifteenth, which comes
up on Monday for the Texans,so we'll get a chance to see what

(01:26:53):
they have been up to. Iknow in both of their cases what they've
been up to based on social media. CJ. Stroud is a multi sport
athlete. We knew that already,and he likes to play exhibition games in
the other sports. He's played somesoftball and he has also played some basketball.
We know his car works and hasa passenger seat. We know he
works out at UCLA with current Texanswide receivers Stefon Diggs and Tech Dell among

(01:27:16):
others. And Will Anderson's case,we know he likes to throw the weight
around, the brows throw the weightsaround with Miles Garrett clanging and banging.
One of the most freakish looking andplaying athletes in the NFL, especially with
Aaron Donald leaving, but just absolutelyshredded and continues to produce at an incredibly

(01:27:39):
high level. For Deshaun Watson's teamin Cleveland. But yeah, I spent
some time working out with Will Anderson. They share some of the same management
team. The other thing I wantedto get to this segment as we kind
of float out to the rest ofthe NFL. And I say that because
while there's no team necessarily that he'ssoociated with. But what is wrong with

(01:28:01):
Tom Brady? I'm seriously asking you? Is it ego? Is it the
you know, like Jordan was insanelycompetitive to a fault at times, whether
it was basketball, baseball, golf, gambling. Posted this morning at ten
twenty seven am at Patriots sent thisout on the X platform. So at

(01:28:25):
Tom Brady is coming back on Junetwelfth, then you could be there and
or to win two tickets to TomBrady's Patriots Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
So they were joking about what Ibelieve is not going to happen. He
did comment where did he comment ona podcast Love It, Love It Deep
Cut. Just to be specific,he said if a team called him on

(01:28:46):
the cell phone that he broke onpurpose, he would consider at least didn't
wind up in the bay like thetrophy almost did. I did think about
Tom's cell phone destruction this week yesterdayas a matter of when I was reading
more on Epey and the fact thatthey were going through seven years worth of
texts between Shohas, so a lotof and again all the stuff that they

(01:29:13):
continue to claim is not in therewas not in there. But Tom Brady
returning to the NFL. How couldyou not at least consider it like Drew
Brees considered it. I know he'shealthy, and Drew wasn't even healthy,
he's shorter. There's thirty two teams. There's probably twenty that think, if
everything goes well, this could bea year where we're a postseason team that
could do damage. So he's notgoing to think about the other twelve.

(01:29:36):
But of those twenty, yep,five of them will have a quarterback injury
of great significance. Another three orfour will have a quarterback performance poor of
great significance. So why wouldn't helisten to any one of them? Especially
when I already eliminated twelve teams?And the reason I eliminated them is because
they employ a quarterback that's worse thanTom Brady. And once these good teams

(01:29:59):
who employ a quarterback that's younger thanTom Brady and good once they're out of
the picture for whatever reason I justdescribed. Of course they think they can
win if Tom comes back. Ofcourse he thinks he can win if he
comes back. Heck, he wentto Tampa and won, you know,
just two years ago. Right,You're ready for the most excruciating scenario ever.
I guess I'm probably gonna be allfor it. You know, us

(01:30:20):
c J. Stroud gets hurt,he's done for the year, but Tom
Brady comes in and wins the SuperBowl for the Texans. Could you imagine?
So CJ. Stroud. The othertwo quarterbacks are currently under contract,
both Davis Mills and case Keenum.Case Keenum has played with Stefan Diggs now
three times in his NFL career,So I do think another quarterback will be

(01:30:41):
with them in camp. And thepossibility that one of the other two quarterbacks
isn't on the roster this year,you can do a little You can do
things a little differently with your quarterbacksfrom a game day perspective. With that
third quarterback, you can elevate aplayer from the practice squad to be your
third quarterback, meaning carrying a developmentalplayer there as your third instead of rostering

(01:31:02):
a third is something they might consider. And again, either one of them
could be moved if another team feelsthe need to add them. But if
C. J. Stroud gets hurtfirst couple of weeks of the season,
I do not want that to happento be a long term situation. Yes,
Simiko would comment and comment on itthat day's game and then sometime during
the week. The chances of ustalking to the GM early in the week

(01:31:23):
about it might actually be pretty high. And then to that end, of
course, he he of all gms, would get that question. I don't
know if you have it or not, but do you think you could get
Tom Brady's number? Nick? Yeah, even though Tom probably has Nick's number
under Cesario and they don't know howto text off twenty years together. They

(01:31:44):
text often about who knows what?But for real, do you not think
Tom Brady could join one of fifteenteams and win? Oh? Think about
this. Of course he could.This receiving corps is what It'd be the
third best he'd ever played with.I'm only putting it behind the one that
had Randy Moss on it and theone that he won in Tampa Bay with
just because that had Mike Evans,I mean, it's comparable to any of

(01:32:05):
them that he played with, buthe just his groups were always so good
because they literally did what he wantedthem to do. And many of them
were there long enough that they literallyknew the playbook so well they could read
each other and change plays mid route. And then yes, some supreme talents,
and clearly Rob Gronkowski is one ofthe greatest, and some of that
was because he was him, theother parts of it because he's good,

(01:32:28):
and definitely Randy Moss short time wasthere. I don't think people really consider
Amadola, Edelman and Welker as likeall time greats, even though when you
look at the postseason charts, statisticallyJulian Edelman's postseason career is elite. But
yeah, Nico Collins, Stefan Diggs, and Tank Dell for sure playing in
an offense that Bobby Slowick runs absolutelyworking with a team that I think has

(01:32:51):
the same type of belief players likehe had a bunch of players that are
all probably gonna end up in theHall of Fame because they were all together,
but so many of them are morelike the group that every team in
the NFL has they just don't havethat many, and they don't have Tom
Brady with them. But there's guyslike Richard Seymour here, that's Will Anderson,
or that's daneal Hunter. They guyslike you know, Teddy Bruski and

(01:33:15):
that's now Aziz el sha here,maybe it's Christian Harris. But they're not
playing for the Patriots and getting theirfinger sized up for new rings every year
yet, so I don't know thatthey know that. And he would be
playing under a very different, youknow, coaching style because like you can't
help but called dmiko, especially ongame day, definitely a practice. He's
absolutely a raw, raw guy.He's the biggest cheerleader on the field and

(01:33:38):
the best way possible, very unlikeBill the hoodie well, but Bruce arians
was like their game prep and thefact that the team believes in what they're
teaching, believes in what they're tellingthem, goes out and wants to.
I mean Bill Belichick from all accountsfrom all the players that have played for
him, talk about how awful itwas there, how it wasn't any on,

(01:34:00):
how you couldn't do this and couldn'tdo that, and on game day
they wanted to run through a wallfor him, just like people want to
do here with Domiko. Different strokesand whatever works, But there'd be worse
options. I just don't want thatto happen. Yeah, I don't mean,
I don't know. I mean,I appreciate you localizing. I just
think that it would be interesting consideringall the Patriots talk about the Texans over
the last I don't know how longthat's. Don't you think we're done with

(01:34:21):
that? Not if he comes backin place for them, this one guy
and he's the best player in hisposition in the history of the game.
I know that doesn't make you PatriotsSouth. It makes you smart, it
makes you Brady South. I mean, if his quote was, well,
he just slid something in, I'mnot opposed to it. I don't I

(01:34:43):
don't know if they're gonna let meif I become an owner of an NFL
team. That was point number one, number two, He goes, I'm
always going to be in good shape. I'll always yeah, we know,
I'm always going to be able tothrow the ball. So to come in
for a little bit like MJ comingback. I don't know if they would
let me, but I wouldn't beopposed to it. For the record,
he's comparing himself to Wizards MJ,not MJ. The second time around.

(01:35:04):
He's it's that's not what he's says. Tom Brady with the Bucks runs circles
around Michael Jordan with the Wizards,but he does not run circles around the
second coming with the Bulls. Imean he was in his what eighth,
ninth NBA season, in his firstyear back. Of course, he was
still awesome. He was young,but he wasn't He wasn't the same guy.

(01:35:28):
Very different games, so he waslike the two best players in the
NBA during that time were Michael Jordanversion one and Michael Jordan version two.
Correct, it's two point zero andthen three point zero. Still the best
player in the league by leaps andbounds. Yeah, he was just doing
he was going about it differently andhad a very different team around him.
I mean in the back court,I mean all deference to dream Oh yeah,

(01:35:49):
no, for sure. When hecame back the first time, Dreams
fade away better than Jordan's fade away, by the way, because that's what
he employed the second time around.When he came back to play for the
first time, he was thirty oneand it was his ten NBA season.
Yeah, that's if Brady came back, he would not be thirty one,
and it would not be his tenthNFL season, and it would not be

(01:36:09):
basketball, which is a very bigpoint, by the way. All right,
we will get some of the thingswe have not gotten to when we
come back. We call it incase you missed it, that is straight
ahead. We now return to AdamClinton and Adam Wexworth on Sports Talk.

(01:36:30):
This is the part of the showhere on the A Team live from Tom's
Watch Bar Downtown. We're running theCarolina right at the corner of Carolina and
Polk. In a reminder of thoseof you who want to hit the Stros
game tomorrow, we can help getyou there. We got some tickets for
you registered a win box right hereon site Tom's Watch Bar, the corner
of Carolina and Polk. Sometimes thatcan be confusing to people, not when
they take up the entire corner ofCarolina and the entire and it's awesome.

(01:36:55):
That's why Tom's Watch Bar is suchgreat spot to enjoy all the events.
We've been staring at the putters anddrivers throughout much of the afternoon. Soon
enough, we'll be watching the ballstrikers, baseball strikers and everybody else bounce
that ball in the hardwood and allthe things that we have not yet discussed
here on the A team. That'swhy we get you caught up on in

(01:37:15):
case you missed it, what wegot all right. You talked about the
putters and the drivers, and ofcourse we've got to go to Augusta second
round of the Masters at Augusta NationalGolf Club, and your leader is three
tied atop the leader board at ScottiScheffler number thirteen on amen corner a bogie
there now it's six under for thetournament. He is tied with Maxhoma and

(01:37:41):
former SMU Mustang Bryson Disshambeau tiger Woods. You ask, is he going to
stick around for the weekend. Hewill indeed do so, and even for
our second round he has won overheading into the weekend at the Masters Defendnijamp,
John Rahm is going to also makethe weekend spike well. He plays
very badly on the final six holes. He's in position to make the weekend.

(01:38:03):
He's a plus four projected cut lineat five and it's definitely noteworthy the
Tiger Woods. Can. I knowit's not what he did because he worked
his tail off to be capable ofdoing what he did. But he's not
even playing competitive golf. He's noton the tour. Basically, he doesn't
play, and he can go tothe Masters and prepare for the Masters.

(01:38:27):
And he's in T. Twenty threewith that even par at plus one through
his two completed rounds. That's incredibleand it is an awesome Tiger being involved
in anything is great for the sport. It's great for the fans, great
for Augusta, it's great for thePGA Tour, it's great for the ratings.
It's just great. And it's unlikelyhe goes from plus one to anywhere

(01:38:49):
near contention. Now. He couldstart his day over the weekend as one
of the earlier tee times and makehis way up the leaderboard while other people
haven't yet gotten to the course yet. But I don't think he'll be among
the final groups playing when we getto Sunday. Regardless, it's remarkable.

(01:39:09):
The golf course looks good, mygolf swing feels good. I like my
chances. Let's what a product?Now? What else we have? All
Right, So it has been acouple of days for us to try to
get to this story. But thisis one that I think AC will either
love or hate. The headline reads, Sylvester Stallone catching hell for demanding blinking,

(01:39:30):
ugly and tub of lard extras onthe show Tulsa King be replaced by
pretty young girls. Now, thisis all surfaced, and it was found
out by barstool Sports that a castingdirector resigned from the show because of a
toxic work environment. And this wasfrom screenshots that were posted on Facebook that

(01:39:55):
Stallone observed the observed the background actorsthere and called over the director and was
like, what is the deal withall these blanking, ugly background actors?
He and the director proceeded to callcertain people terrible names, lapped up them
to a large, fat guy witha cane, making fun of them.

(01:40:15):
Sly supposedly said, Brian, somepretty girls to be around me. Brian's
some pretty young girls to be aroundme. I can't do this, man,
I'm at the end of my rope. I'm trying to do this show
and you got all these ugly peopleand tubs of large Like, I gotta
get some pretty looking people around hereif I'm gonna do all these episodes of

(01:40:36):
Tulsa King, so you should withhim standing up for all these people.
Don't even think he would have phrasedit a little bit differently. Well,
apparently not. If that's a quote. You know what the thing is,
it doesn't make what he said right. But if you watch his other show,
everybody's beautiful except for him. He'sprobably only tubble. He's probably thinking,

(01:40:58):
this is why I love the Rambofranchise. Everybody was fit. No,
there's basically no women in the movie. I don't have to worry about
it. There was the one,there was the one the whole movie.
She got destroyed in the sequel.But no, I say that joking.
He's actually not a tub of lard. He's like in his seventies, and

(01:41:20):
he's about as jacked as you canbe. He and Adulas Garcia undoubtedly have
visited the same type of people.Have many actors do. We had the
same scientists on h on standby.No, I mean, it doesn't make
it. Here's the thing in Hollywoodthese days, I don't ever know who's
telling the truth. That that verywell could have been said by Sly.

(01:41:44):
It just as easily could have beenmade up by somebody who's disgruntled for some
reason, and the moral of thestory as per usual as I just never
know who to believe coming out ofHollyweird, because that's that's what that place
is now. It's too much,there's too much's stuff going on over there.
So these people that are like leavingHollywood to go like live in Oklahoma
and that sounds like that. Ohto be a part of Tulsa King Cool.

(01:42:06):
I like that. How that allcame together, that's neat Well that's
not exactly why, but I guessthat does apply. By the way.
An update to the updates, Ihad joked that unless he blows up John
rom just double bogie. He's noton the other side of the cut line.
What else do we have a right? Finally, an NBA note,
Timberwolves star Karl Anthony Towns announcing quotehe's back hours before they take on the

(01:42:29):
Hawks tonight. He has been sidelinedsince March the fourth due to a torn
meniscus. Does that significantly change theWestern Conference playoff picture? Now? Not
to me. I think they.I mean, it makes them stronger,
but you're talking about now do theyadvance further? It doesn't make me think
differently. I would, I would, I would say no, I mean

(01:42:53):
I yes, yes, essentially,Okay, you're caught up. That's in
case you missed it. Yeah,it means they have to beat somebody like
the Wolves are gonna be first,second or third. None of the top
three spots are decided. I don'treally have you know. That means if
they finished first, they're playing theLakers, Warriors, King's sons. I

(01:43:15):
would pick them to beat the Kings. I would, I don't think.
I just don't know that I pickedthe Kings and Warriors. I'd pick them
to beat either without Carling. Idon't know. Yeah, because Karl Anthony
Towns, to me, doesn't haveany I know this is going you're gonna
completely disagree with this, and it'sgonna sound, you know, surface,
But it's just to me, they'regonna go as far as Anthony Edwards takes

(01:43:35):
them because you're not being fueled byRudy Gobert, and you're not being fueled
by Karl Anthony Towns, who isthe ultimate empty stats guy. Until this
year when they added Rudy Gobert,and you know, Anthony Edwards started playing
like a monster. Well, theyadded Rudy Gobert prior to this year,
and then they finally figured it out. They finally realized how to play together

(01:43:58):
together this year. But you know, Karl Anthony Towns is a hundred.
I mean, he was patting hisstats in previous years. He could have
done that again this year, butit's not helping the team. He's actually
trying to play in a way thathelps the team. His numbers have absolutely
taken a huge dive, but thewin totals the best that's ever been and
he definitely makes them a tougher out. Now, is he the guy that's

(01:44:19):
taking the line's share of the clutchtime shots? Well, that's also a
no. You knew they'd be inthe best position possible once somebody else passed
him on their own roster, andthat's happened, and Edwards has passed him.
They are an unbelievable defensive team.And the only reason why I said
that that he doesn't make a hugedifference is because they have the sixth man
of the year. In my opinion, I love the leak Monk. I

(01:44:42):
think Bogdanovich has a case two inAtlanta, but I think the sixth man
of the Year is probably nots reedand he's just hard. The role that
he fills when Carl is Anthony Townsis out is ideal, and now that
they're both backed, I'm probably dismissingthem a little much. I just still
don't. I think some of theother teams, the older ones, the
Suns, the Clippers, the MAVs, I think their players just kind of

(01:45:05):
winged it during the regular season sothey can in the postseason. Yeah.
And the reason I reacted the wayI did for the most part, is
because if a guy like Carl AnthonyTowns, but you know, a guy
who I actually think does make adifference wherever he is, returns to the
lineup like this at this time ofyear, it normally should be like more

(01:45:28):
of a oh yeah, that's that'sgonna change. I just don't look at
Carl. Maybe some people do.I don't look at Carl Anthony Towns as
the kind of guy that does thatmoves the needle that much, whatever you
want to call it. I justhe doesn't. He's never been that guy
for me. And just because theyhave a good record now for the first
time really since he's been there,that's not changing it. If they have
any success this year, it's goingto be because of players that, in

(01:45:51):
my opinion, aren't Karl Anthony Towns. But I could end up being proven
wrong, same as I could beend up being proven wrong about the Dallas
Mavericks, who I absolutely don't believein for many of the same reasons.
They do a lot of stuff inthe regular season that ultimately is hollow,
and they don't get it done inthe postseason, and that could be applied
to both of these people we're talkingabout, Karl Anthony Towns and Luca for

(01:46:13):
very different reasons. Of course,if we're being fair, all right,
we got about a half hour agoof the eight team, then we've got
Astros on deck coming your way.All of that straight ahead here on a
Friday edition of the show, Livefrom Tom's watch Bar. Hey, it's
Robert Ford from the Astros broadcast team. Catch every Astros game on Sports Talk
seven ninety and the iHeartRadio app Homeof your Astros. It is the A

(01:46:39):
team here on Sports Talk seven toninety. We are live at Tom's watch
Bar, and we were hanging outwith Kyle during the break, whose dad
Joe is apparently a huge fan.He goes, yeah, my dad's a
huge listener. I said, well, what about you. He goes,
well, I listen to when I'min the car. I said, well,
that's how I started listening to talkradio too. My dad had it
on in a car, so I'lllisten to Metallica. You think, do

(01:47:01):
you think Kyle's a Metallica guy?His shirt says he is. Oh,
I didn't see his shirt so hekind of turned back in his chair,
so I haven't seen the front ofhis shirt. I mean, he might
hate them and he's wearing it asa joke. I don't know that'd be
really ironic. Yep. Well,I mean, do you think that guy
likes Hooters? I definitely think thatguy likes Hooters. I agree, I
like him. All Right, youwant to give away some Astros tickets.

(01:47:23):
We told you you have an opportunityto go see Astros baseball. Heck,
and a lot of people here Iknow are going to see Astros baseball.
As a matter of fact, Isaw Bregman jersey out here. Well,
Gordy's here. You know there's asecond Bregman jersey definitely out here. Well
yeah, but a lot of peopledo make their way through Tom's watch bar,
corner of Carolina Polk to enjoy whatthey have here. Again, they

(01:47:45):
will validate your parking at the GreenStreak Garage and then you can enjoy their
free shuttle too and from games,so you can hang here after before during
you name it. But we alsohad our registered wind box out here for
tickets to tomorrow's game. An afternoongame means even more time to enjoy out
here Tom's watch bar. If youso choose, I believe you've picked a
winner. I have. Well,actually, our lovely bartender picked the winner.

(01:48:10):
So technically she's the one that drewwith the QR code. Yes,
it's rather easy to scan. Yes, she's five six, she went to
this university. Is that what it'son the QR? Hey? Can I
scan you real quick? It's amenu, Okay, I think it's just
amazing. So anyways, she drewChristina Lozano's name. Christina Lozano is our

(01:48:34):
winner. So four tickets to tomorrow'sAstros game. And knowing what I know
about these seats, they're very good. They're very very only the best,
only the best seven ninety. Yeah, absolutely so, Christina Lozano, congratulations
on winning the Astros tickets. Thanksfor coming out. I know you'll be

(01:48:55):
out here again. Oh my gosh, I want to come out here again,
and we will. Tom's watch.That's where we're at right now.
We are absolutely having a blast.I have partaken of the menu. You're
not spoiling your appetite, but youwill, so I may, and I
will. I'll be here a while. I'm be in this building for another
hour, and then I'll be atthe building that is adjacent to this building
after that. Another Rockets game forCalvin and I tonight. Are you guys

(01:49:18):
still a fishbowl situation? Yeah,of course. You can see us when
we're on TV. I haven't walkedback. I finally did it the other
night. Usually people are looking atus, waving and smiling, and whether
we're on or off the air,I usually acknowledge them, wave back,
smile, even though we've got lightsshining in our face right so they can
see us very very easily. It'sa little difficult to see them. But

(01:49:39):
I finally actually said, all right, enough of this. You're always taking
pictures of me. I'm gonna takea picture of you. Did you post
this? I haven't even looked atit to see how it turned out,
because it's probably super dark. LikeI said, I've got all these lights
in my face. I can barelymake it through the glare if five people
are out there or one person's outthere, if the person is a fourteen
year old person or a forty fouryear old per and I can't tell.

(01:50:00):
And sometimes you think they're a fourteenyear old person and they are a forty
four year old I'm not Josh giddy. Wow, Wow, I'm proud of
you, ah man, that's adig and a half. I still can't
believe he made that shot from hisbackside against the Rockets. A lot of
practice in a game they love.Oh, I didn't always even listening to

(01:50:25):
it. Yet. What I wassaying is NBA players practice a lot of
different shots, trick shots, Imean, clutch does I mean. I
could continue here, but I don'teven on a Friday, even on anything.
Anything. I'm gonna cap myself off. It's multiple unnecessary we innuendo statements.
I could. I could deliver alot more, since you were talking

(01:50:46):
about taking shots and where he wasand his position, but I won't.
Well, good glad that you've grownup over the course of the last minute.
I like everybody else, here gotolder one minute? What older is
Adam Wexler here on the A team. Again a reminder, we've got Astros
on deck coming up at the topof the hour, because we'll get you

(01:51:08):
ready for It's just a very likeif you were to tell me the Astros
are gonna lose to the Rangers inthe ALCS, then the Rangers are gonna
win the World Series, which noone will even remember. Then in the
ensuing season, which we already knewwas this was gonna be the case,
because like everything else major League Baseballdoes everything weird, we already knew that
you were gonna play the Rangers twoout of the first However, many five

(01:51:30):
series that we're into. Now,you are good. Let's get it going
right, But then to tell mewhere both of these teams are and their
respective seasons right now, because again, you definitely rather be in the Rangers
position than the Astros situation. Butthe you're not that far off in the
grand scheme of things, and it'snot like the Rangers are lighting the world

(01:51:53):
on fire as defending champs. Allthat is true, but the reality of
your big picture statement is you arenight and day. The Rangers, like
Houston are awaiting the arrival of severalpictures in their forties. Also Michael Lorenzen,
Oh yeah that guy. But yes, two older pictures, one of
whom is in his forties. Ithink Susiers reached that point very close to

(01:52:15):
it. Either one of his eyeshas their His eyes are the same age,
it's just not the same color.I thought one was older. Because
of the different colors, I don'tknow, Like, why is that such
a big DEALU It looks weird.I could look at ten different people here
and I'd say ten different color eyes. So because I can only look at
one person and say two different coloreyes, it's a big deal. I
want some attractive pictures whose eyes matched. What I was saying is that part

(01:52:35):
of their existences are comparable. They'reon the front side of all this.
This is they're not the Orioles withthe unbelievably bright future, but they're they're
totally on the front side of along term window of success. I don't
know what level of it. Imean, it could be we reached the

(01:52:56):
postseason and flame out type of success, very Dodger like. It could be
Braves like. But they're playing alot of young players who deserve to be
here and are going to prove assuch. They have their two long term
contract players in the heart of theircareers, and Simeon and Seeger and their
pitching staff. Without these other guysandrewhen's not great and they might have a

(01:53:18):
need for a fourth or a fifthstart, which is why they got Lorenzen
because they did lose Montgomery. Butthey're fine now. Lecleric is the same
issue regular season that he was lastyear. That's why they got robertson the
team with the brightest future in thedivision. Forget about where they were last
year or what they accomplished last year. Wipe it all clean. These five
teams in this division, they unequivocallyhave the brightest future of anybody in the

(01:53:43):
division. It's unfortunate, gross,but they do well. Hopefully they won't
actually capitalize on it, and they'llcome up woefully short from here on out,
and for it. You could lookat it this way. Yesterday both
teams played, and both teams thenhad to travel to Houston. Neither of
them had a happy flight. Yep, but the Rangers didn't even score any

(01:54:04):
runs yesterday, only had a hit. He scored, Astro scored three times
yesterday and lost by ten. Well, the Rangers lost by one. They
all count the same, they do. It's an hell, but the pitching
involved very different. So that's somethingto keep an eye on. Hey,
Hunter Brown will be fresh for hisnext start. Look at it that way,

(01:54:24):
right, only forty pitches even thoughit was nine to nothing. I
still find it hard to believe,but this is a fact, as we
had to break here. Prior toreceiving posting. Earning their tenth loss,
the four and nine Houston Astros rankedseventh in the power rankings in Major League

(01:54:44):
Baseball with their four and nine recordafter losing for Amber Valdez, who was
the ranking entity the Worldwide Leader.Oh, a worldwide leader was probably just
looking at the back of their baseballcards. Of note, they went up
from eight the previous week. Wow, they were better. They rose,
did the Worldwide Leader watch? Iknow they saw at least one game since

(01:55:06):
they aired it against the Yankees whohave to be number one? Right or
is it the Dodgers again? Priorto yesterday's game, the eight and four
Royals were twenty first. Then theycompleted their sweeper. The Astros of the
eighth rank or sixth ranked actually Yankeeswere only first among al teams. Who's

(01:55:26):
overall the Dodgers and they can't getenough of them. I can't wait for
both of those teams to absolutely losein spectacular fashion come playoff time if they
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back to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexlerthead It is the a team final

(01:56:54):
segment of this show. But wearen't going anywhere. We've got you covered
with ash rows on deck coming upat the top of the hour as it'll
be the matchup of the shades orthey're not so shades. I guess glasses
is the correct term. I wonderif those things automatically get dark in the
sun, like if you're pitching outdoors. Those are fancy well, we've seen

(01:57:15):
them do that. We've seen themperform in those conditions. They don't,
Yeah, but I'm sure they makesome that do. But these two pictures
don't wear them. Well, maybethey should. Why because if it's bright
and it helps, I mean,think about it. We see outfielders infielders
on sunny days, pop ups andwhatnot, they definitely want them. Yep.
Pitchers don't usually wear them, bythe way. Heck, if a

(01:57:35):
ball's hit in the air, youknow what the pitcher's supposed to do run
away. Yeah, but okay,since we're on the subject, and this
kind of goes across the board,because this is also worn in football,
I guess I've never seen it insoccer. Is I black? Really?
Like? What does it do?I know what, it's what I've been

(01:57:56):
told it does. But how effectiveis that? If you're probably effective enough
that people are should wear it.It's reflective light that it's supposed to.
It's supposed to diminish the level oflight that's hitting your eyes. I don't
get that because what I mean unlessyour skin is the same color as literally,
like there's a term that says blackas in people, which is inaccurate

(01:58:23):
because I'm wearing a black headset andthat is not the color of any person's
skin that I've literally ever seen.So the reflective strips or the eye black
is literally the color black. Yourskin cannot be that color. Nobody's is.
So in many of the players we'retalking like the sports, you know,
football players will sometimes they won't wearit for a effect for its use,

(01:58:47):
they'll wear it for its ability tomake their face look like they're going
to battle or they're a wrestler,yea or latimer in the program. Yes,
they're painting their face, they're notprotecting their eyes. I just figure,
if you're going to the fall player, I'm wearing I'm wearing flips probably,

(01:59:08):
or if you're a football player,you can put the visor situation up
together. I've never understood why thequarterbacks don't do that every time. Well,
these defensive backs are reading your eyes. But the defensive yeah, that's
a good reason for the defensive backhas to look up for the ball.
The quarterback doesn't have to look upfor the ball. He just throws it
unless he gets his pass batt andhe wants to catch it and then run

(01:59:30):
for several yards like Lamar Jackson.That's true, unbelievable. I still can't
well, I really and again Idon't even think it was him. They
got run over by their team.Yeah, they man handled them in the
second half and both trenches, bothoffensively and defensively. And Lamar, because
he's a threat, he always impactsit. But whoever he gave the ball

(01:59:53):
to was no trouble at all runningagainst the Texans. They owned him,
it was. It was a thrashingfor thirty minutes. Really a tie game
when it's when the second half started, I know, and it should have
been at Texans. Lead could havebeen much like brock Ostweiler had a lead
at New England in the postseason.That was a thing that actually happened.
I'll start Tom Brady New England team. We'll call it check all that.

(02:00:15):
Keep that other item in mind aswe get closer to the draft. That
also means we're closer to the schedule, and I know we probably make a
bigger deal out of it than usual. But when your team's good, you
care if you care which of theseteams that play old weather cities are hosting
you, Yep, at what timeof year October or September? When do
you go into Lambeau this time?You care about how many other people in
the country are gonna see how youdo things down here in Houston. Because

(02:00:38):
it's happening this year. Probably fivetimes, you're gonna get a Monday night
game. You obviously get Thursday night. You're gonna be on Sunday Night football
probably more than once. You mighthave one of these special date games where
you're in prime time and all ofthat's going to happen in your brand new
uniforms. Would I'm gonna hold offjudgment until I actually see them. But

(02:01:00):
I just I'm preparing myself to besupremely let down. Not because I think
they'll be ugly. I just thinkthey'll be underwhelming. That's the term.
Yeah, I think we're The reasonI say I think we overblow it sometimes
is because I what can you do? It's all very much? Yeah,
it can be cool, it canlook good, but you can't really do
a whole lot with it. Theseare the colors we're gonna like. The

(02:01:21):
shades of blue. I think we'regonna like the where they've mixed it in,
while it's not the overwhelming color Ido. Actually, we didn't bring
it up the other day, thethird helmet, because I know there's people
that don't like the red helmet.I think the red helmet is like the
best thing out. What's the reasonthey just don't like it? It's one
of them standing right over there,the other half of next up. But

(02:01:42):
I think the red helmets are phenomenal, absolutely the best things that they've put
together from a uniform standpoint, followedclosely by their color. RUSH like their
reds as well, And I thinkI'm gonna like what they have and the
way that the Texans took that informationand I've all emojied it on social media.
I think that pretty much guarantees thatwas a we did this. They
had the opportunity, because they werealready in the redesign process for this season,

(02:02:06):
to have a third helmet prepared andready for play this year. And
I think the way they handled thaton social media when that news came out
indicates, Yep, we have theability to do it, and we did
it, and we can't wait foryou to see it. At least they
didn't do a white helmet because thoseare stupid. How do you know that
I do? Oh? You knowthat right? Okay, I didn't know
that. I'm just kidding. Iknow, I know you're kidding. It

(02:02:27):
wouldn't it be? Of course,there's only so you have red, white,
blue, and some color that's notin their color scheme. That's that's
the only color left. Hopefully it'sliberty though, because we all know it
has to be liberty white. Allright. We will step aside here,
but get you ready for Astros Baseballwith the Astros on deck show, getting

(02:02:47):
you ready for the game. Oneouting between the Astros and the Rangers.
That is straight ahead next,