The A-Team: Astros Take Brewers Series! Jose Abreu Back? Good, Bad and The Ugly

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named AdamTalking Your Teams series, Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A team Aall right, So it's one thing to
sweep the Oakland A's. It's quiteanother. And I mentioned this last week

(00:25):
when we were talking about the upcomingschedule. We were already in the midst
of, you know, the longesthomestand of the season ties for the longest.
I guess that. You know,a very good team was coming into
town, right smack Dad, inbetween the Oakland A's and the Los Angeles
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, OrangeCounty. And I think at the time

(00:50):
I mentioned there was only three otherteams in baseball that had a better record
than the Milwaukee Brewers. It mighthave been more. I've slept since then
a little bit, but man,that's a good baseball team. The Astros
just took two out of three fromand I can't even enjoy it. I
know you knew this was common,wex I can't even enjoy the fact that
the Astros are probably one of thehottest teams in baseball not named the Yankees.

(01:12):
Right now is their winning street continued, But I can't enjoy it,
and you know why you know,why don't you? Uh? I mean
I didn't know it was hit you, but apparently it has well cut on.
I know it hit other people.Well, you know what we're talking
about. We have to make surewe're on the same page first, Yeah,
yeah, sure, go ahead.No, I want to know that
you know, uh, somebody thathardly matters at all I think is who

(01:34):
you're talking about. Well, you'regonna have to say more, because here's
the deal. People didn't listen toeverything you said and jumped some flu off
the handle something like that. Idon't agree with that. Okay, well
how can you not? Let's justgo right to it. Why don't you
play the Jose Abreu update from DanaBrown right there in RCS please so we
can get right to it. Becauseinstead of talking about the Astros being fourteen

(01:57):
and let's get this out of theway since the Mexico City reboot, instead
of them winning both of the seriesalready so far at home going six and
one, instead of nearing the numberwe knew they had to get this home
stand, instead of talking about thefour games they've gained on Seattle and the
three they've gained on Texas and thefact that there are only five games under
and they're clearly playing the best baseballof the season, all of which is
true. Kyle Tucker's been the bestplayer in baseball since the Mexico City reboot,

(02:19):
and their bullpen back end has onlygot a zero point eight nine ERA
and thirty two strikeouts in twenty anda third. Let's talk about this instead.
Yeah, the good thing is,we just talked to Jeff Bagwell last
night. It was me Joe rightbefore the game. In fact, me,
Joe Aspata and Jeff Bagwell. Wehad a conversation because Jeff was down
there working with him for a coupleof days. I know he's been down

(02:42):
there working with Renee and so ultimatelyhe's doing, you know, doing well,
making some adjustments. There's a chancewe could see him back for the
Oakland series. We're gonna give hima few more games either down there or
maybe potentially in TRIPLEA. Get themtwo games and you know, travel the
off day up to Oakland and maybewe'll see him back on Friday. But

(03:06):
you know, he's making some adjustmentsand that's a good thing. Bagwell gave
a really good report on him,he's starting to get his hands loaded.
His timing is back, and we'dlike to see him play a little bit
more and really fine tune it.Okay, just before we go any further,
they're playing the Oakland A's following thisseries that begins tonight at home against

(03:28):
the Angels. Correct, Yeah,starting Friday, And he was talking about
jose Bray since he really didn't sayit, but right, just to clarify,
that means Friday, May twenty fourth, today is Monday, May twentieth.
Yeah, he might be back forthe Oakland series. So if you
were listening closely, that was onething he says he might be back,
and he said he could be soin both instances when he referenced a potential

(03:49):
return, he did not say definitively, of course, and was very loosely
wording about it. And that's whyI think people are freaking out for no
reason. Well, the reason they'refreaking out is because even though he said
might and could be, why wouldyou say that in any sane world where
your team's playing better than it hasall season and it's getting production at the

(04:13):
position that jose Abray you is goingto presumably play if he comes back.
Why would you bring up a guywho isn't even taking at bats in a
ball He's at your Florida training facility, like taking at bats and rookie level
games. Correct, So say hewas tearing the cover off the ball there,
which he's not, why would youeven remotely flirt with putting him on

(04:38):
the major league roster or having himalong for the trip. Oh again,
I do definitely think it. Iknow I always seem like I'm on the
other side of it for no reason. I just don't think. We don't
manufacture this. By the way,it's such a it. He's not going
to come back and play and sitsomebody who's helping this team win repeatedly Friday
and Saturday and Tuesday and Thursday andSaturday again. And and you're not gonna

(05:00):
be looking at this saying I cannotbelieve the Astros are this stupid. I
can't believe they're forcing him back intothe lineup. They're one hundred percent I
guarantee you not going to do that. And I don't believe he's gonna be
with this team on Friday. Idon't even believe he's going to be on
the flight to join them. Whysay it because he doesn't know that yet.
He could have said nothing. Hecould have continued to say nothing,
and I wouldn't have a problem withthat either. I just don't have a

(05:21):
problem with this until I see somethinghappen. He hasn't played any of the
games you're talking about, and hestill might not. Like you said,
he's had three games of this levelof play. He's playing against rookie level
players, guys who've either recently beendrafted or just simply down in minor league
camp, both with for the Astrosand against today happened to be the Washington

(05:43):
outfit. They play at their sharedhome ballpark. And like we told you
when he got sent down optioned tominor league camp, you basically get to
do whatever you want there. He'sbatting leadoff. He doubled in his second
at bat. He did not receivereach bait safely in any of his other
for at bats, including a strikeoutin his initial at bat. He's got
three hits in his fourteen at batsagainst this level of competition, which is

(06:05):
quite clearly nowhere near what it isat the major league level. Should he
make his way to sugar Land laterthis week, and I don't know what
it is that they're seeing the peoplethat see him on a regular basis,
which basically includes one person, JeffBagwell, because that's all that data indicated
has really got close eyes on him, that is reporting back to them with

(06:26):
information. I'm sure there's other peoplethat they're talking with and they're seeing him
on a regular basis, but that'swhere they're getting the majority of their information
of and obviously they don't know theyhave anything to refute it because they're not
watching it. They're not there.If he makes his way to Sugarland,
I would be even in a absolutehitters freaking paradise that the Pacific Coast League

(06:46):
is FYI. The Triple A leaderin slugging percentage is still Houston Astro's outfielder
Joey Lo Perffido. The minor leagueleader in run batted in is his former
teammate Pedro Leone. The minor leagueleader in extra base hits is another teammate,

(07:08):
Jesus Bestidez. It is a hitter'sbleeping at paradise, even though their
ballpark is a little bit more balancedthan some others, and that's where they'll
be. Maybe he will go thereand look like the Jose Abrew that can't
contribute, okay, and thus,well, his timing looks great as he

(07:30):
went one for nine in two dayswith a single and pull the ball zero
times. Like is that gonna say, well, we got to get him
on a plane to Oakland so hecan watch his teammates, Because if you
think anything he's done suggests he shouldgo into Joe Aspada's lineup, that's utterly
ridiculous. And I'm gonna take theirside of intelligence on this. That's utterly

(07:57):
ridiculous, and to view it anyother way would utterly ridiculous. I'm fine
with everything you said, I reallyam, But because of what you said,
I need to ask you this question, like if if, if he
comes back in whatever, you know, whatever scenario unfolds, it's not this

(08:18):
weekend. Even say it's later,yep, let's say it's let's say it's
June twentieth. Let's just give hima month from now. If the Astros
are playing similar baseball? How isthat? I'm asking you this. I'm
dead serious, as I need agenuine, no smart ass like legit response
to this. How is that?And I'm asking this for a lot of

(08:39):
people. How is that? Anythingother than a major distraction. Well,
yeah, I know that's a cliche. It could be a distraction on top
of the fact that it would makeno sense, And that's where I would
start. If the Astros are playingfine and he's not. If it,
first of all, if it takesto the middle of June and he's been
playing double or triple A baseball forthree weeks, that's a pretty good indicator

(09:00):
of why he doesn't belong here.M If he hasn't shown you that his
timing back, his timings back,or his rhythm's back, then if you're
bringing him up, then again,I don't know what for he provides you
the same positional flexibility or less thanJohn Singleton, who bats left handed,
which now for this team isn't quiteas a unique commodity because they actually have

(09:20):
a handful of left handed hitters,but still something of value to them.
He doesn't. I think John Singletonhas probably impressed them to the point that
it's a coin flip or advantage.John Singleton from a fielding standpoint, actually
playing well for them. He's doingwhat he's capable of doing, which is
a slight years ahead of what youwere getting from the guy we're talking about,

(09:41):
yes, for less than a month. It's small sample size, and
it's a less than you got orclose to what you got from a Brave
last year. And I don't meanat the end when he was good.
I mean the whole year. Right. What Singleton's given you for three weeks
or three plus weeks is what aBrave essentially was last year. Except Singleton's
hit a couple of homers, butthat literally is it. I know he

(10:01):
had an RBI single yesterday and anRBI ground at which would be awesome if
that's something he did regularly. Hedoesn't. He hits the ball over the
fence. He happened to have hitmulti multi run homers. So he's got
four homers and ten RBI. He'dliterally basically has almost nothing else. And
I think people forget Bray. Whilehe was terrible last year, all things

(10:22):
considered, he was significantly better thanthe player that we saw this year.
Why he get back to that,I don't know. But he also drove
in a lot more runs than youwould likely have seen from John if he
were here all year. But allthat aside, they still I think believe
Dubon is an option at first andthat he's played there twice. Now with
all the other players that are onthe roster, I think the time to

(10:43):
freak out is when it happens.But it's okay, I get it.
Here's where we are. We're inthe land of x and the home of
sports radio. So since Dana Browndecided not to clamp his lips and say
nothing or lie and say I don'tthink he's doing anything, I don't think
should be up here anytime soon.He just doesn't look right like, I
don't know what else he's he's asuper positive guy. And you haven't You

(11:07):
haven't even taken your your most themediest part of his entire commentary before.
We have eleven more segments to go, so I can't wait for that.
But all that being said, it'sa worthwhile topic. Look at why they
were so down, Well, partof it's mental. Well look at why
they're so up. Part of itis mental. So let's leave it there.

(11:28):
Yeah, and mentally I should sayI don't. I didn't mean to
rain on what's happening. Literally rainyeah. Strows are playing the best baseball
this season, and they are absolutelybreathing down the necks of anybody that's ahead
of them all two teams who areas just as close or slightly closer to
the wildcard race. Yeah, yeah, that's something, but I don't want

(11:50):
to look at it that way.I just want people to recognize where they
are right now. There are options, and they're not quite starting over.
There's still five under now they startover in Mexico. We already established they
haven't even gotten back to level that'scoming. Yeah, the Mendoza that would
be two hundred and batting this isfive hundred. Oh okay, I got
you all right, So we willdiscuss obviously, the mediest part of what

(12:13):
Dana Brown had to say. WhoI ran into him yesterday over at the
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(13:22):
Adam Clinton at Adam Wexler on SportsTalk seven ninety, you know, of
all of the litany of things youmentioned that we could be talking about instead
of Dana Brown's ominous crypt it's notcryptic. I'm not going to use that
word. His update. It's notan update, That's what it was.

(13:43):
It's not an update. If ifyou're telling me that, it's just basically
we shouldn't even be paying attention toit. Essentially, and I'm paraphrasing,
but you didn't mention the one thingwhich is me self congratulating when they get
back to or above five hundred beforethe end of the month. That is
very much within reason right now.Gotta won a lot of games to get

(14:03):
there and not lose very many.Going six and one to start this home
stand clearly helps. Being seven tonineteen at one point doesn't. But they
have played the kind of baseball thathe gets you there. The Mexico City
reboot is real. Fourteen and sevenduring those twenty one games that they've played
since then. So even though someare pointing to the teams that they might

(14:24):
have beaten, granted six of thosefourteen wins are against Oakland, who is
fading extremely fast at Colorado, you'restill eight and seven in the other fifteen
games, And while that's not great, it's phenomenal when you start the year
seven and nineteen and you look likeyou don't know what you're doing. You
look like you don't know how toput your shoes and pants and glove and
hat and iblack on, and youforgot what baseball was. But you're crushing

(14:48):
some of these teams that stink,those two in particular, and you're managing
yourself pretty well against the others.We said before the homestand that you know,
seven was a must. Seven winsout of ten, you know,
winning all three series a must.Well, they're two thirds of the way
there in terms of winning the series, only one left to go against another
team. It's not fading quite asfast because they had a soft land in
the last couple of days they playedthe team from Arlington, so it wasn't

(15:11):
too hard for them. They comein off of a win yesterday and again
without their I guess, the mostname recognized part of their lineup, and
they don't have a particularly good pitchingstaff. The redet Versus pitched well at
times, and that's who they seetonight. Framber Valdez goes for the Astros.
He's thrown seven innings in each ofhis last two starts. The type

(15:31):
of starting pitching they've gotten has becomemore the norm. And even though there's
a four spot against Spencer Araghetty andhis last start yesterday and a four spot
against Hunter Brown in his most recentstart, both of those came in Astros
victories. And I'd certainly think lastnight, in the case of Araghetty,
if he and his catcher have maybea slightly better communication on a ball hit

(15:52):
between them, maybe he looks alittle different, and if the inherited runners
don't all score, it definitely looksdifferent. No, I mean it's it's
it is good. And what ironicthing is if you're able to kind of
get over the hump here or itjust you know, get let's just let's
take back to what I was talkingabout. At the end of the month,
you get to add five hundred ormaybe a game above whatever you will

(16:15):
have done so in large part becausetheoretically, like you should sweep the Angels,
you just should. But the Rangersdrop two out of three to them,
and the Angels have won some gameswhere I just you know, I
can't help it. I say,I'm not scoreboard watching because I'm just not
supposed to yet. But as theAstros get closer to five hundred, as

(16:36):
the Astros get closer to breathing downthe next of the two now teams ahead
of them in the division, youcan't help yourself a little bit. But
like Dave won games that they shouldn'thave for as bad as they are,
and I don't want that to bethe Astros over the course of the next
three nights, well two and ahalf. So one thing on that series
against Texas, when a Dola Scarciais out of the lineup, pretty much

(16:59):
the only one on the team thathits the ball over the fence with any
kind of regularity. If you lookat the Rangers offensive numbers this year and
the guys that were in the lineupwhen he was out last couple of games,
it isn't very good. Cory Seegersquietly had an awful, awful offensive
start to his season, and nobodyelse on their team is recreating well any
of their history, let alone whatthey did last year missing a couple bats,

(17:21):
But mainly it's the guys that theycould be counting on it, and
they just haven't gotten a whole lotfrom them. They're pitching still hasn't been
a huge problem, even though BradfordSureser and the guy from the Mets.
I'm gonna see how long we cango without saying his name and wonder and
see if people actually forget who heis. Just we'll call him the guy
from the Mets. Big deal lastoffseason, pitched a little bit, then

(17:42):
got hurt again and is still hopingto come back later this year. Pretty
good arm, and honestly, hisnumbers as a National leaguer, and with
the Mets when he wasn't hurt,were just stupid. We'll see what he
if he ever does this for Texas. And I don't really care about the
speed with which they get there.It's just more about you got to play
this baseball for five months. Ifyou play the rest of May and through

(18:04):
June, July, August, theninto September, you're all set. Not
only will they be in good position, they'll win this division. You've gone
five and five against the two teamsthat are still ahead of you in this
division, and much of that wasplayed, almost all of it while you
were in the worst funk you've beenin in eight years. Well, what's
it going to look like when you'renot in that funk? When you see

(18:25):
Seattle again, they are one ofthe upcoming series before the end of the
month, They've got the Angels.Now they go to Oakland and then up
the coast to Seattle on a sevengame road trip, So four more games
against the Mariners here before the secondmonth of the season concludes. Well,
if the Mariners are now going tosee the better version of the Astros or
again kind of the version they startedto see, because it was during this

(18:47):
stretch here in Houston, and theirpitching was great. Their pitching still is.
What if you take three out offour there, even if you split
there, which means you're still justthree and four against them in the first
seven games. We'll go out andthen beat Minnesota and St. Louis and
the Angels again, and the Giantsand the Tigers, and your opportunity for
the first time this year to seethe Chicago White Sox. That's the next

(19:07):
month for the Astros through June twentieth. It's May twentieth. Those are the
teams they're going to see. Ifthis is the Astros team that's going to
visit all those places or going backto a minute May Park, where again
I'll stress they're good, they hitwell, They're going to be very good
record wise at home. There'll bean unbelievable shape just by the middle of

(19:30):
June. I'm not looking at howfast they can do it. I'm looking
at this team has to continue thewhole rest of the year the way they're
playing now, can't you can't stop. This is who they are, this
is who they've been well, thisis who they should be. So just
keep doing it and I was gonna, you know, as it pertains to
that, because you just kind ofsaid something like that similar a few minutes
ago, and it made me think, Okay, they're going to just buy

(19:53):
law of averages and maybe it doesn'thappen, because I mean, we've seen
them have just a dominant run intheir base. Like see since like twenty
nineteen, they didn't have this happen. What I'm about to say really,
unless you just want to talk aboutMay of that or April of that year,
because it wasn't great. They're gonnahave another slump as a team,
whatever it is, whether it's athree, four or five game losing,

(20:15):
whatever it is, I don't know, lose three series in a row,
whatever that is. You just haveto you have to build that into what
we're talking about. You just haveto. How about maybe at some point
they aren't carrying yard On Alvarez alongand like they're doing right now. I
couldn't believe what I had to dothis weekend with the numbers that I put
out there, because I knew ithad never happened before. Now he's carrying
a mid seven hundreds ops into ballgamesevery day. Now, he's been at

(20:40):
or below eight hundred ops the entiremonth, and he's still there. It's
make twentieth. He hadn't had abat after April in his entire major league
career, at any point in anymonth of any year of since twenty nineteen,
when he came up with an OPSunder eight twenty ever not won at
bat, but going into any game, it's never happened. He's done it

(21:00):
for almost an entire month this year, while they're on the best stretch they've
been on, and a comparable stretchto all the good stretches they've had.
When he came up in twenty nineteenand didn't spend a day with an OPS
under a thousand as a first yearhalf year player, and it's been in
the nine hundreds forever. Among activeplayers, is one of the top five.
It's insane. How good of ahitter, how productive of a hitter,

(21:23):
and how little he has slumped asa hitter. I said it two
weeks ago, and we're not outof it yet. This is the worst
slump as an astro he's ever had, and they're regularly winning and scoring.
It's unreal. I can't tell you. It's three different people. I've gotten
a text message from that have saidbasically the same thing. When he gets

(21:47):
going, they're gonna be like insaneagain. It's just I don't know,
it's just crazy to think about.Granted, Kyle Tucker's never hit this many
home runs either. What an absolutefreak. We need to talk about him.
We need to give him his flowers, whatever you want to call it,
and we'll do that when we comeback next here on the A team
Sports Talk seven ninety. If youcan buy Rockets gear on it, you

(22:11):
can hear us on it. That'samazing, listen live for free on any
smart device. Kyle Tucker's acting afool right now and tied for the league
lead. I believe at this pointGunner and Kyle with six with fifteen home
runs apiece. So I guess suckat Aaron Judge bringing up the rear.
Oh my, guess he what sevenin a row? Aeron judged it best.

(22:34):
Aaron Judge basically took the entire monthoff. Yeah, and now has
been back to I'm probably one ofthe five best hitters in baseball of home
runs. Uh yeah, And AaronJudge is not Kyle Tucker and his awesome
homers. He's ops is lower thanAaron's. That's fine, but again I
don't Here's the thing, and Iknow we just got done talking about Jordan,

(22:56):
but when they're at their best,on Alvarez is a better complete hitter
than Aaron Judge, I would agree, and he strikes out far less,
which is one of the reasons whythe answer is correct. But any Yankees
fan would want to fist fight meif I said that to them on the
street of the Bronx right now,which they would probably want to fist fight
me for a variety of other reasons. And I'm fine with that. But

(23:18):
like you know, and again,I actually like Aaron Judge personally. I
think he's a pretty good dude,especially considering the environment he's in and some
of the garbage we've dealt with fromthat. But I just think that if
he wore a different jersey, likea lot of guys in that jersey over
the years, Derek Jeter, hewouldn't get the love that he does,

(23:41):
not nearly as much. Anyway,that's a tough one. Why you don't
think I'm wrong about you don't thinkI'm right about Derek Jeter, for example,
And I'm not saying he wouldn't bea Hall of Famer. Aaron Judge's
only downfall for how he should beviewed is he's a bad postseason player.
Okay, which is huge, that'shumongous. It is. It doesn't detract
from it doesn't do anything to theirpostseason viewpoint either. They stink. It's

(24:07):
the one of the biggest reasons whythey don't. You know who you're describing
right now, not Derek Jeter,So I'm not sure you're describing the meteor
part of the Dana Brown update thatwe didn't get to last segment. Yeah,
that's Jeff Bagnell. Aaron Judges hasbeen phenomenal in regular see. I
think he's as good as everyone shouldshould act like. But he and his
teams have come up short in thepostseason. That was my whole statement.

(24:30):
No, it wasn't finish the sentence. They have come up short in the
postseason every It's not just an Astrosthing. I know, literally every single
time. But again, and thisis what I always bring up, and
this is why when I hear thathe's making the report or he signed a
bray you or he had a hugepart of it, I'm like, Okay,

(24:51):
look, I can deal with anera of Astros baseball where they came
up woefully short year after year afteryear. It's one thing if you fall
in a series, it's a toughfought, you know, seven game series,
whatever it is. But when youjust completely, for the most part,
disappear in the postseason, that's onething. But then you're gonna compare

(25:11):
it to just, I don't know, take a handful of five Astros in
the core of this run of sevenplus years. They're going to destroy anything
he and Bigio ever did in thepostseason. And that's not to say they
weren't great players. It's not tosay they aren't Hall of Fame players even
but I'm sorry, like this eraof Astros baseball has made it to where

(25:32):
one of my childhood heroes, JeffBagwell, I'm like irritated with right now
because we're not allowed to criticize himbecause of what he supposedly accomplished as an
Astro, when all he accomplished asan Astro was put up really really really
great regular season numbers and nothing inthe postseason. Give or take maybe one

(25:53):
other difference is his team, otherthan the team with Randy Johnson on it,
the ninety eight teams biggest disappointed.Well, they were regularly considered the
second best team in the series moreoften than not, including against the Padres
and Kevin ok that was the RandyJohnson here. They are definitely not the
second best team in that series theyjust played. They were barely even competing

(26:15):
with the Braves. Oh we're inthe playoffs against that, We're done because
their pitching was insane, yes,or the hitting was terrible. Right,
you can someone who is in thedecision circle, the DC for the Astros,
is perfectly okay to criticize or applaudunless he gets wind of it.

(26:38):
I mean, I whatever you wantto do, I think is reasonably.
If it's a reasonable criticism, it'sreasonable to me. I'm not being unfair
when I say this, and I'mgoing to say it knowing full well.
Like listen, this is what comesdown to, the only difference being the
guys that I'm comparing here. Oneof them actually played and was successful as

(26:59):
a player, and the other guy, I don't even know how he got
into the inner circle of the HoustonTexans. But right now there is a
very easter By vibe to Jeff Bagwellbecause as a personnel guy. He just
I don't think he has any businessmaking those decisions. And I don't think
that's unfair to say. I thinkthe comparison is unfair. But I don't
think what you said about you know, you're talking about his job. He's

(27:23):
a baseball guy. He knows baseball. He's gone to camp for decades.
He's whether he's a player or asa pseudo coach or member of the front
office, he knows the game.Right. But you know, understand what
I'm saying. Sometimes trying to makethe baseball decisions for lots of former players
and lots of correct is very difficultto do. But asking someone who has

(27:44):
baseball knowledge to analyze baseball players seemslike a reasonable thing to try. Yeah,
But asking someone who is not qualifiedfor it in any way, no
matter how many years he came tothe facility and got the players to sit
in a prayer circle and tried tomake them feel good about them, which
is an awesome thing to do.That doesn't qualify to you to do anything
inside a football operation in any way. And he handles logistics, Yeah,

(28:07):
he doesn't belong there, right,And I'm saying, as a decision maker
only That's why I qualified it beforeI said it. But also you brought
up a very good point, andthis isn't just true in baseball. Clyde
Drexler had no business being a coachof the U of H. Cougarsh.
Michael Jordon could not magic the Yeah, some of the best you just named

(28:32):
off, some of the best playersever to the top seventy five players in
NBA history. They were a disastrouspersonnel people. How would you rate for
example, Steve Phillips, he's atalking head now when he was what running
the Mets, I believe it wasnot great, Yeah, but not a
former player of any value. Imean, we got so many basketball players

(28:52):
like Joe Dumars. Wasn't real good, I didn't think. And some people
said he was really good for someof the teams he put together. Now
he works to the front office.Larry Bird actually turn out to great coach.
Uh. And you know there's youknow, I don't know what if
we want to kind of eliminate thecoaches and only look at the front office
side of it. And in baseball, they're more and more players that have

(29:14):
a say m M. But evenin Bagwell's case, it's kind of nebulous,
But he's not an assistant GM,and they have several, and he
isn't the GM. They clearly haveone, and he's not a scout and
they have plenty of them. Buthe's in the he's in the DC,
he's in the decisions, and againhim and Reggie are in the same boat
as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, I mean, Craig Bigio I think

(29:37):
has as much of an opportunity ifhe wants it, to give them what
his information is or just share orto be louder. I just think he
has not done that as much andhas had other things on his plate with
the Astros and in his life thatis not I don't think he ever felt
compelled to to kind of get moreout of it than what he's given this
team. And again, I don'tknow how any of you listen or you

(30:00):
want to if you want to signpercentages or what to the decision to sign
a bray, you to both thelength and money of that contract. But
again, if you are a majorpart of that decision, and I happen
to believe Jeff Bagwell was mainly becausehe told anybody who had listened that he
was. Then when I hear that, Jeff Bagwell is the guy reporting that

(30:25):
a bray you is looking good orhis swing is better or insert whatever comment.
I'm sorry, but that means nextto nothing to me as far as
bringing a guy back, especially inlight of basically since the day he left,
give or take, they've improved theirplay tremendously. And again, like
like we knew when it was happening, a Braid wasn't making this team bad.

(30:51):
He was producing almost nothing. Neitherwere the other eight guys in the
lineup. Their pitching staff was adisaster. Look who wasn't pitching? Then?
Look who is? I mean,it's it's a little bit short sighted
and tunnel vision on. They stink. He's here, he's gone, they're
great. Uh oh what if hecomes back, They're gonna stink again.

(31:11):
But because they're breakspaceman who plays onceor twice a week is back with the
team other than Bregman, who couldyou have described, in addition to those
two as an automatic out every timethey got up there? Just him?
So three maybe four times a game? What about the other twenty four?
Again, if you're not making thembetter, aren't you by default making them

(31:32):
worse? Also, fair. Okay, I saw what I'm saying. You're
definitely they definitely were worse with himin the lineup. Whether they were winning
and losing that day, they wereworse that day because he was out there
and with that version of Bregman inthe lineup, especially where he was batting
in the lineup. So again,blame all around. Astros are doing better.
Just don't mess it up. That'sall I'm saying. All Right,
it is the A Team here onSports Talk seven ninety. We do have
some other things we need to getto we haven't even touched on. As

(31:56):
we continue here on a very verybusy action pack Jim Act edition of the
A Team on a Monday, AdamClinton sounds like this, Adam Clinton here.
Adam Wexler sounds like this. Hey, it's Adam Wexler. Which one
is missing in Adam's apple? Theydon't bet with the eighteen continues on Sports
Talk seven ninety. I gotta sayI was talking yesterday on the way into

(32:20):
the game, as I was ableto take in the finale in person.
We were just discussing, I'm likeyoually, the Rangers and the Mariners didn't
do them any favors you ended upjust basically breaking even those last two days.
But over the course of this stretch, I mean we were talking about
this, you have to, whatget six minimum wins on this home stand.

(32:43):
Seven would be really ideal. Imean, you're you're right on track
to I mean if you if youget seven, it's a more than a
mile disappointment. Yeah, of courseit is. They've got six already.
You're playing the Angels. That meanstwo more better becoming three. If you're
really gonna go out there and playthe count of baseball you played these last

(33:04):
seven games, they'd be seven.And oh if they played the Angels seven
times or team like the Ais seventimes. I mean, look at the
game that they did not win,they easily could have won that game.
He just didn't. Yeah, Milwaukee'snot a pushover. Milwaukee can hit homers,
Milwaukee has a good offense. Gotthe win. How did you feel
about the handling of the the becausehere's the deal, And if you listened,
like to the television broadcast, allBlum kept talking about was it's the

(33:29):
amount of pitches in the inning.And I get it. And you could
see Justin was trying to rear backand get that last out with everything he
had left in the tank. Imean, I think Blum even used that
verbiage to describe what he was doing. So you think Joe should have gone
out there after like the second threeto two pitch, the fourth, maybe

(33:50):
the fifth, like in the middleof the bat. Is that what we're
gonna debate. I've no, no, no, no, We're not gonna
debate anything. I've just I've neverseen anything like that. And the Justin
Verlanders start, it gets to thatpoint you almost feel like it's going one
way or the other. You know, Contrera's is protecting very well, Justin's
keeping it most of the time.It was literally on the play, Contreras
wasn't, you know, doing hima favor or hurting himself by reaching out

(34:12):
of the strike zone. And soyou felt like one of two things is
going to happen. He's going tofinally get one by him or fool him
on a pitch in the zone becausehe won't I don't think he'll really chase
her change up going early there,he's going to clear the bases and I
didn't know that he was going tohit himself in also, but he did.
He's also their best hitter. He'salso probably one of the guys,
maybe there's four National leaguers who arehaving a better year than him offensively,

(34:37):
and he's a catcher coming in,Like I they they were all over it,
and they should have been. Thenumbers were there, So don't walk
hitters. And I'm telling this personwho knows it better than any other and
here in twenty twenty four doing itmore than he ever has and it's killing
him. He's Lance mccullors. Well, he can't get out of it as

(34:59):
often as he would normally have beenable to, but his numbers as an
astro pitcher are insane. Prior tothis year in terms of walking hitters,
he just didn't do it, andnow he's doing it far too often,
and it's just doesn't have quite theexecution on He certainly doesn't have to put
away pitch and it doesn't have quitethe execution. Like I'm surprised this at

(35:19):
bat lasted as long, and Idescribed it as such, in that most
of these other at bats, thereare a lot of them, are in
the similar situation where oh, he'sgot this guys, he's got him at
two strikes and then he misses andthen he misses, and then he misses
his last start. I believe itwas, or if it was not that
one, it was the one beforeit where he got out of a basis
loaded jam. He was able todo that. But it's just you know,

(35:42):
how many pitches was it forty fiveforty two in the inning? Thirty
of them went to Contraras thirteen toThis was ridiculous and just. But I
never once felt like, oh,this is going to end the worst possible
situation, even though I should,because that's what he does. He'll give
up a home run, but unlikein the past, like you pointing out,
it's usually a solo shot because hehasn't walked to other guys. It's
also the fifth inning and two batterslater, or two batters into the Astros

(36:07):
half inning, Jake Myers is atanother homer and it's four to two,
and you still have slightly more thanhalf year outs left. Because I was
with one out in the fifth inning. You didn't score again. They didn't
score again. That was it?Is it wrong that after this Angel series,
which we all hope is a sweepobviously, that I just hope the
Astros get out to a lead.Well in any of the games and keep

(36:30):
it so we don't have to seethe freaking heat sinking missile that is the
A's closer. Well, he Idon't know how Katsey is trying to figure
out how and when to use himbecause they don't win anymore and they don't
have leads anymore. So he justbasically pitches him whenever. That's what I'm
saying. Stupid, He's gonna pitchagainst the Astros, right, but just

(36:52):
be in a good situation when heis. That's what I'm saying. You've
got I mean that sounds dominely good. Well, yeah, maximum is four
innings in a series, Huh,it's probably more like three, maybe more
like two. Take take care ofthe other twenty to thirty innings whatever.
It's a three games bad series,and this one is a four game series.
Or the first one is a fourgame series, this one is a

(37:12):
three game I'm not too concerned aboutMiller because if you're going to the eighth
or ninth inning against Oakland and they'rebeating you, you deserved it, kind
of yeah, and he will absolutelypreserve that because you're not hitting one O
three one O three. I thinkhe got up to one O four.
At one point during that series,Singleton maybe was fouling off one O three
one O four, which was justto foul that off was impressive. But

(37:37):
yeah, and by the way,because Singleton is in the position he's in,
and because we were talking about aBray, you potentially maybe sort of
could come back. I do wantto I do want to talk about Singleton
long term because I'm wondering if whatDana Brown had to say in some way,

(38:00):
shape or form was fueled by thefact that the astros just don't think
that Singleton can keep this up.And you mintioned, you just mentioned it
the small sample size. I knowwe're talking about John Singleton here, but
again, keep what up hitting twothirty with a low seven hundred ops.
All right, now, give mea BRAYWSE numbers again before he left.

(38:20):
Replacing a Bray with Singleton long termis not the answer, and they know
it, and John knows it,Jose knows it. But what fits it?
Okay? But what is the answerthen, Because if it's if you're
gonna say dubond, well that's that'snot long term, that's short term.
So we don't care about that.They don't care about the short term.
If John Singleton can give you reasonablefirst base and this year, great,
we solved our short term problem.Okay, the season is over. Who's

(38:43):
available at first base? Because heain't it? Oh for sure, I'm
talking about next year through twenty twentyfour. Well, then that's short term.
Yeah, no, that's what Imean. But but I meant long
term for this season because it isstill May twentieth. It's still early.
Wes, not really all right?The A Team continues here on Sports Talk
seven ninety hours, Number two comingup next. Two lifelong Houston sports guys

(39:06):
named Adam Talking Your Team series.Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A
Team. A It is the ATeam here on Sports Talk seven ninety and
thirty minutes from now exactly, We'regoing to be giving away Sir mix a
Lot tickets. Now, I knowthis is an obvious question. What is

(39:30):
your favorite Sir Mix a Lot song? Wex come on? Now? Well
you should say, and then whatwhat do you mean? And what comes
in what rate? Second? Oh? Because you think he's a one hit
wonder, Well, I'm just sayingeverybody knows the hit. But he's been
an artist, a performing artist fora long time. Yeah, there have

(39:52):
to be other songs that people like, clearly one would assume, and undoubtedly
there are. You know, itwas a pro I'm in a story,
not a story that a song aboutBroadway, doesn't he I'm sure he does.
Yes, he does posse. Yeah, he likes biscuits my understanding.
Yeah, uh, bark like youwant it? Probably on the set list.

(40:14):
What is a subtle what's a subtlename for a song? Yeah?
And by the way, at leastone episode of Friends centered around this biggest
hit. That's good. Well,yes, so listen up, as we've
done over the past couple of weeks. A lot of concerts going on here,
and we like to make sir,you can enjoy things. Around four
to thirty, We just encourage youto listen to the show over the next

(40:34):
half hour, and something that wediscuss or say, we will ask you
about at four thirty, so ifyou were listening, you will know the
answer. We've talked a lot ofAstros on fact, almost exclusively in the
first hour. One thing we canget to in the first hour as the
astros again take two out of threefrom the Brewers. They have been absolutely
on a tear. They have beeneverything you could have hoped for. They're

(40:55):
this close to have sweeping the homestand so far on this ten game season
long ten game homestand with the lowlyAnaheim Angels coming into town Los Angeles,
what do they call these days?Seriously, I don't know Los Angeles.
It changes every other year. Whydo they do that? They just couldn't
They really couldn't find something that theycould latch onto. But during this stretch

(41:16):
where the Astros have crushed it gonefourteen and seven since the Mexico City reboot.
It's three games better than the Mariners, it's four games better than Texas.
It's six and a half games betterthan Oakland, who's half game worse
than LA. Since this all started, they shot past the Angels and A's.

(41:38):
The Angels are eight and thirteen duringthe same time period, the Astros
are gone fourteen and seven. Butthey did just beat the Rangers two out
of three, so that's nice.Well, okay, So, as you're
looking at things that have happened overthe course of this huge run by the
Astros, this consistent elite level winningchampion ship caliber or whatever you want to

(42:00):
call cost in baseball, Yeah,there have been some superstitious moments. I'm
not superstitious, but I am alittle stitious type situations, and I thought
of two, including the one yesterday, Because the guy that we're talking about,
Kyle Tucker, hardly the only pieceof gear that he's superstitious about.

(42:21):
Is he wearing batting gloves? Ishe not? There's always something going on
with him, But I've never seenhim change cleats in a game on his
way to a golden sombrero that turnsinto two home runs before the day is
done, like he did yesterday,two needed home runs correct in a game
that looked like it might just begoing back and forth, and once the
spencer araghedetty seventh inning got away fromhim when you thought they were in better

(42:44):
position, probably should have had afew more runs but didn't, and all
of a sudden it's a nine tofour game and you get out of there.
He has decided on multiple occasions withhis gear talking about Kyle Tucker,
that that must be the reason.I'll convince myself that's the reason, and
then that's why I will move onto something else. He has batting gloves
on, batting gloves off, evenin the middle of a game, let

(43:05):
alone a stretch of poor play.He has changed bats earlier this year Mother's
Day. Oh, he loves hismom. He impressed, and they loved
their mom. And yet, ifthe pink bat wasn't giving me any hits,
I don't mind tossing it aside andpicking up a different stick, which
he did. And then yesterday strikeoutwith orbits cleats, celebrating this weekend for

(43:27):
Orbit's birthday. And then another strikeoutin orbits cleats, and then another third
strikeout in orbits cleats. He decidedto go orange cleats for the next at
bat, and when that resulted ina normal Tucker pulled ball smash home run,
he decided to keep the orange cleatson again and hit an opposite field
Crawford Box three run homer Kyle Tuckerstyle fifteen home runs, more home runs

(43:51):
than anybody else in baseball other thanGunner Henderson. More home runs since anybody
else other than anybody else. Sincethe Astros have gone on this stretch,
He's had ten homers in these twentyone games. He's had a teammate and
Alex Bregman, who has gone mustacheless mid game for similar reasons. I
actually had a conversation all about allthis stuff. Friday before the show,

(44:15):
before Jeff joined me, I wastalking to somebody with the astros just about
how the season had gone and thingsthat were going on, and how I
hoped he and his wife and theirfamily would get their power back soon,
which they did not have at thetime, as many of us in the
city still don't, which is insane. But I know they're working hard to
get it back. But I wastalking to him about, you know,

(44:36):
the way things were going, anda lot of it was centered around Bregman
and getting it. You know,we've had the conversation. It's in his
head, but I don't mean thatin a bad way. It's always in
his head. There's always something he'strying to think about or tweak, and
it's so different than some other guys, at least at the front of it
all, like Tucker and I literallyhad that conversation with him saying. Tucker's
like, oh, this bad doesn'twork, I'll just pick up another one.

(44:57):
Oh it did work, well,then I'll okay, I guess I'll
keep you using it. It's notlike it's he's so superstitious. It's the
bat You're cursed I can't hit acurveball with this. Joe Bo's bad at
me, get out of here.I gotta pick. He's just like,
I'll just go with this. Ohit's the cleats I struck out three times.
I'll change cleats. Well, that'show he is about everything. If
you ever actually, like you goto a a autograph show or whatever whatever,

(45:22):
you see him on the street,you end up having a conversation with
Kyle Tucker at any given time.It's going to be the same way every
single time, no matter what's goingon in his life. Good, bad,
up, down, same guy.I mean, he is the most
unassuming normal I just happen to bea future three hundred million dollar baseball player

(45:44):
I've ever seen in my life.You don't think so? Did you see
that over the weekend from everybody's favoritefake people on Twitter? I wasn't.
I wasn't referencing that. I wasmore talking about reality. Here's three hundred
and twenty five million. Yeah,Kyle Tucker to remain with the astros made
its rey around the X platform overthe weekend because the falsified tweet put a

(46:10):
picture in his avatar that looked alot like Jeff passing, and so some
people said, wow, this isI can't believe this. Well, you
shouldn't believe it. We were talkingabout this on the way out of the
stadium yesterday, my buddy David andI who went to the game together with

(46:30):
the little man, And I'm notgonna throw him under the bus, but
i will say what he talked about, because you know, he was talking
about how the price of you know, beers, for example, and they're
at an all time high and minutemade park and it's not just because of
inflation, it's because they can becausethey're winning at a high level and have
been for close to a decade now. When that's happening, and then you

(46:53):
still let a guy like Kyle Tuckerwalk, for example, it burns more
to the fan base, does itnot. Don't you feel like that's how
they look at things, even ifit's an overly simplistic view. In order
for the team to build the waythey have and keep some of what they
have and build a payroll which isclearly among the highest in baseball, the

(47:13):
fans have to do their part right, and they absolutely have done their part.
So then so that's why it hurts. They're like, what we can't.
What more can we do to convinceyou to continue to spend. We're
literally supplying you with the money.They have done that, but you would
also, I think you'd have tosay, he has two Their payroll was
here, and their payroll has donenothing but go up. He's made trades

(47:37):
for higher on BRAH doesn't count wexwell, even without Jose abraw their their
payroll will be right at two hundredmillion. Like, it's not for spending
again, it's one thing spending itwisely is obviously what you'd prefer. Okay,
Well, the moment you let AlexBregman walk this offseason, you better
turn around and give Kyle Tucker afat deal. Otherwise you're going to get

(48:00):
extreme backlash. You never expect themto be able to have the answer each
time you let somebody go. Andthis is the time where the scale is
shifting away from that. They've letCarlos Correa go, and now Jeremy Panna,
the new and improved former postseason twotime MVP, looks unbelievable. This
killing you. We're fine, youknow, George Springer left a little bit

(48:27):
a little after Jordan Alvarez arrived,and you were fine, you knew that
was your answer. Basically, twoof your three outfield positions or d two
of your four outfield d H positions, now one of them is covered with
him, so you're okay there.The pitching side of it, they've obviously
managed to have answers with Javier andhopefully some others. Injuries have kind of
cut into that now, and Verlanderbeing re signed helps because otherwise, like

(48:53):
everybody else, he would have beenlet go. Now he was let go
the second time. He wanted tobe resigned only to get traded back for
But those those days I do thinkare over, Like, you can't let
the next wave of players also go, because this year should at least be
telling you that, like what happened, this year should be telling you what
do you look like? If youdon't replace them, Well, you're gonna

(49:15):
get a player that looks like theBregman that played so far this year,
which isn't very good offensively, he'sstill unbelievably defensively, and you're gonna get
a player like what Alvarez is doingthis month. Well, that's what you're
gonna get in place of Tucker ifhe leaves a guy who maybe has a
because I don't know where If you'renot spending on him, why are you
spending on somebody else? Why areyou spending twelve million a year on somebody

(49:36):
else, or twenty five for twoyears, or thirty five for two years
for somebody else. Just say him, right, And that's where the the
for way more Julie Guriell situation.Okay, like you weren't gonna give him
that money, so jose O brawlooked better I guess on paper coming in,
But now that he's not, Like, why are you giving a thirty

(49:59):
six year old at the time thatkind of money? But you're not gonna
give a twenty six year old biggermoney. But he's gonna I mean,
he's so much better. I thinkthe way they look at his short term
long term, it doesn't even matterwhat the number is on a break new
it's a short term deal. Yeah, And so they look at it that
way when he probably wasn't worth nineteenper or close to twenty per, they

(50:20):
thought, well, this is theonly way to get him here. So
it's fine, a couple of extramillion each year, that's what wins us
the battle, so to speak.I'm not even sure who was battling for
him at that rate, but theycertainly you would think he gave him the
best use of anybody. Last season'soff postseason does not do Kyle Tucker any
favors as far as arguing for thistype of money. Yeah, he's had
a longer than you'd expect run ofpoor postseason performance, but everybody else has

(50:45):
been so unbelievable. He's been herefor most of this run, and it's
still almost everybody else. We talkabout, like, if we name the
best twenty five offense at bats inthe Astros run of postseasons, Kyle Tucker's
and what none of them? Oneof them because even in the game that
he had two home runs in aWorld Series game, they lost, right,

(51:05):
I mean, I'm not trying toand then there's nothing after that base.
Other guys have been so ridiculously good, ridiculously productive, shown up in
the big moments, been so clutch. He hasn't. He has helped them
win. He just happens to nothave had the huge game changing momentum.
And they also won a World Seriesbefore he got here, so some of
that's not there for him. Butseriously, to what you're saying, give
me your favorite Kyle Tucker postseason moment. I know it's it's crazy. I

(51:30):
mean how much he's been here,and it's probably that two home run game
in Game one of the World Seriesthat you lost to the Phillies in twenty
twenty two. I don't know anotherone, but you would argue against re
signing him once he and his agenthang up the phone when you're in the
decision circle. That's what you're gonnasit there and tell Jim, or he's
gonna tell you, guys, wedon't we can't have this. He's not

(51:51):
going to show up the post.I'm gonna pay him forty million or thirty
million a year for one hundred andsixty two games of excellence in a fourth
place finish in the MVP vote,And then what's he gonna do for me?
And the guy telling you that,one of the guys telling you that
is a classic postseason non prease.You can't think like that, Jim.
You got to get there first.This is baseball. It's not like this
nonsense you're seeing on the ice andthis hardwoods you're seeing every night. Yeah,

(52:14):
they all get there. Everybody makesthe playoffs, and everybody has a
chance to win. It's different inthis sport, which is why the Dodgers
have the World Series and that's it. It's just hard and they don't even
have that. I know it's fake. It's from Disney whatever. That World
Series is fake news. All right. When we come back, a signature
segment, as per usual on aMonday, it's the good, it's the

(52:36):
bad, it's the ugly, comingup here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
But now before I tell you guysabout Exfinity and the amount of speed
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mean, I don't know really howto measure it because it's invisible, but
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get wall to wall Wi Fi fromExfinity. Here's the deal. You don't

(52:58):
want to have any play in yourhome or even around the outside of your
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for that situation when you have WaaldewallWi Fi from Exfinity only on the Exfinity

(53:22):
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the connection, you've got the speed, you've got the reliability, and you
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case, don't have any lags anddon't worry about that. You don't have
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(53:45):
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(54:07):
or you can visit a store inperson. Today Exfinity proud sponsor of your
Houston Astros. They say you onlyhave one laugh, so we don't waste
it. Being Dallas fans door backto Houston's A team. Alright, alright,
alright, Adam Clinton Adam Wexler onSports Talk seven ninety Now the good,

(54:31):
oh good, the bad, that'snot good, and the ugly don't
make me good with the A team. We still want you the good the
bead signature segment here on the eighteamSports Talk seven ninety The Good, the
bad, and the ugly from overthe weekend. Wex You're good, I'll

(54:52):
be bad, and Dan certainly ugly. A lot of options as always,
multiple days worth of activities going on, but I'll just go to yesterday.
Spencer Araghedtty is the good. Thisis something this team has to have.
They can hope that everybody that's currentlyhealthy stays that way, and then they
can also hope that Luis Garcia,Lance mccullors junior and maybe clearly sooner Jose

(55:16):
Orketi can come back and help thisteam out and give them again solid outings.
But they're not gonna get anywhere ifthey don't have guys like Arraghetty,
maybe like Hunter Brown also, whohas one of the starts in this series
against the La Angels, can startgetting outs with regularity. This is a
very good Brewers team that just cameto town, and Araghetty was clearly in

(55:37):
the midst of the finest start ofhis major league debut season, got in
trouble right out of the gag doublesingle run run on the board, and
then he basically settled in and wasgiving the Astros to kind of start they
get from an ace and he clearlyis not that, but that's what he
gave them. Wasn't in a tonof trouble the few innings where runners reached
scoring position, it was kind ofon him to make pitches, and he

(56:00):
did a lot higher percentage of strikes, certainly leading into that final inning of
work. I was very excited thathe was out there pitching in the seventh
inning. Probably could have navigated throughthere a little bit better. But when
they left him in after the firsttwo guys reached and he immediately struck out
the next batter and then got Perkinsto bleed one about twenty feet in front

(56:21):
of home plate, you figured,all right, two outs, two runners
on and scoring position, maybe hecan get out of it. Well,
there weren't two outs because neither henor Victor Krattini decided to aggressively go after
the baseball might have been a singleanyway, because it was just kind of
hit where the catcher wasn't going toget to it very fast, and Raghetty
was so far away from it tobegin with. It was just going to

(56:42):
be a tough play. But bothof them thought the other guy was going
to get it until it was toolate, and all of a sudden the
bases are loaded, and we knowBrian abrad came in after that allowed two
hits, so all of Araghetty's runscould score and Abraa could jump back out
of the game still with a zeropoints zero er for his day's work.
But Eric ghet is showing what Ithink the Astros felt he would be capable

(57:02):
of. And this is just atthe onset of it. There's no reason
to think there's steps back where there'sbooks that teams will get on him to
the point where he's gonna hurt thisteam. He's now helping this team by
taking the ball. I know hisseason long era is awful, and six
and a third while allowing four runsis not a great day's work. But
there should be some people who looka little bit deeper than that. You

(57:25):
walked off the mound in the seventhinning of a game and the opponents had
a run. That's a good day'swork. That was a good performance.
That is the good. All right, I will do the bad obviously,
and from over the weekend. It'sgot to be the home teams in the
in the NBA semifinals, the Conferencesemifinals, both home teams absolutely in very

(57:51):
different ways, rolling over and dyingagainst the visitors. Now the Pacers,
they're very interesting. Look, I'mnot going to give the Knicks all the
excuses just because of the injuries theyhad to deal with, but come on,
that's I mean, we know aboutthat better than anybody here in Houston
about how injuries can affect a series. But I think it's funny after all

(58:13):
of the talk about the small marketteam during this series getting calls and on
and on and on, Rick Carlislemaking about the pay one nine yikes,
it was record setting. I mean, this is pretty outlandish for the Pacers
to go out there and say,yeah, we should go ahead and make
more than two thirds of our shotsfor the game, which they did.

(58:37):
And Halliburton is gonna be a thornin the side for a long long time.
I hate to say it, becausethe the Pacers and him specifically are
the opposite of how I feel aboutthe Minnesota Timberwolves. I don't like Rudy
Gobert. You don't certainly like RudyGobert, don't care for him. I
think Karl Anthony Towns is probably oneof the more disappointing superstars out there for

(59:02):
the majority of his career so far. But there is nothing to not like
about Anthony Edwards and there is nothingto not like about how they respond.
They were down twenty points in thethird fifteen and a half. Anthony Edwards
didn't particularly have a great night.In fact, shooting was about as inefficient
as you'll ever see from him,but especially since he's been unreal right in

(59:23):
this series and this postseason. Butthey gutted it out, and they did
it defensively. Fourteen points in thethird quarter, they held the Nuggets to
I mean, we're going to havea Minnesota Boston NBA Finals. We're gonna
have a first time star champion,Lucas getting his first, Edward's getting his

(59:45):
first, Haliburton's getting his first,or Tatum's getting his first. Yeah,
And those were a lot of thefaces that were on that graphic that we
were talking about a couple weeks backabout who's going to replace the Lebrons the
staffs of the world. Well,I think we're finding out. Even though
he plays in Minnesota. I loveAnthony Edwards, I really and you know,

(01:00:06):
go back to when that they justdismantled the Rockets one of those games
this year and it was like wow, because I didn't want to say they
were for real. They're for realbecause of last night's They've had a lot
of examples. Last night's the bestexample of it. Their best player can't
find the bottom of the net.He can't put the ball in the basket,
and it's hard for them to lookelsewhere in this series for points.

(01:00:27):
So they just said, well,then you're not going to score anymore.
We're just going to stop you fromscoring. And we can because we have
the personnel for it, and ourstyle is dictated by that, and they
do have. People have to recognizehow talented their roster is. They're top
six obviously if you count their sixthman of the Year. You don't need
to be better than that. Theydon't have these They're not a Tatum and

(01:00:51):
Brown team. They're not a Lucaand Kyrie team. They're not a Lebron
and Anthony Davis team. They're nota Zion Williams and a Brand and Ingram
team. They're not a two superstarteams. They have a great team because
when the other team has the ball, they're great. Unlike the number one
offense in Basketball Boston, Unlike thenumber two offense in Basketball Indiana, this
team is great when they don't havethe ball. And guess who got a

(01:01:15):
lot better when they don't have theball. At the trade deadline this year,
and we've been telling you here allyear, the Mavericks trading for PJ.
Washington Daniel Gafford saved a season whereLuca could have said enough of this.
Well he'll say that after this series, we'll see I give them zero
chance, absolutely zero chance against them. So that's gonna be the bad,

(01:01:35):
But it was good for the Timberwolves. So a little bit of both and
the ugly golf fans three prong here. So it starts first with the video
that was out there of Bryson Deschambeautossing the golf ball to what he thought
was a ten year old kid,where it was some other momo who grabbed
it tried to run off with itand then Bryson said no, no,
no, no, give it tothe kid. And then on his final

(01:01:59):
t shot number eighteen, some idiotyelling in his backswing as he was coming
through to approach the ball, whereit's like, how many golf tournaments do
you have to go to to knowlike, don't do that? And on
top of it all as well,I do this out on Twitter. Stop
yelling mashed potatoes, stop yelling bababuie or all of these other things.
The final one an errant t shot. You don't have to run up to

(01:02:21):
the golf ball, just stand back. They're gonna clear you out of the
way anyway. Just sometimes I watchthese things and I'm like, have any
of you ever even been on agolf course before and see how this is
supposed to go? Golf fan didsee Bryson try to treat the patron with
a ball on his during the roundand an older fan, you know,
an adult fan, taking the balland jogging away. But Bryson stopped and

(01:02:45):
said, hey, get the let'sgo, and he did the right thing.
Eventually, the tournament itself, Iknow some people will look at it
and say this is not major championshipgolf, and it would seem like they
have a point when everybody beat thehell out of the course. That's not
normal. That should not be whatPGA wants, Right, it was too

(01:03:08):
easy? Well, I mean Ithink you kind of want it, like
somewhere in the middle of it wasthe easiest major in the history of majors
by like the biggest margin of alltime, but not like US Open,
where it's the winner is like plusfour. Well, you're right, you
don't have to be a middle ground. But they weren't just slippy are They
were so far in the other likeit was out of control. It was

(01:03:30):
really really easy. The one groupof athletes that will bitch like nobody's business
are golfers. And if it's toohard, then it's oh, I don't
ever want to come back here becausethis was way too hard. I don't
want this. I was watching aninterview with the reigning champion Sunday morning,
and he was acting like he wasout of it. He was ten shots

(01:03:52):
off as he got to set totee off. He was probably right,
but people are firing sixty threes andsixty twos like it was a walk in
the park. Why didn't. Hehe probably had already done it earlier in
the week. He didn't, buteven if he had, he was correct,
he was still out of it.I mean, look at Scheffler,
absolutely blew up on Saturday, rolledback into the top ten. No problem

(01:04:15):
on Sunday. All right, wewill keep problem. Yeah, we will
leave it at that. So youwant these tournaments to finish with guys multiple
guys at twenty under. Hey playthe course. It's out there, right,
So let's stop making the courses likethis, and they don't do it
often. That's why this one standsout. Are y'all done? I guess?
Oh, we could go on.That's why I kind of get the

(01:04:38):
feeling. No, I don't wantto go on. All right, fine,
when we come back, we'll giveaway some mix, a lot tickets
and an update on an Astros starter. We'll give you that when we return.
If you can buy Astro's gear onit, you can hear us on
it, bet give us and livefor free on any smart device. So

(01:04:59):
a few minutes ago saw our goodbuddy Chan the Rome of the Athletic tweet
the following jose Erkidi, We'll startthis weekend for triple A Sugarland Joe Aspota
meeting with the media, and thatwas one of the things that he shared
that would put him where when hegets back. That's my first question among
many that center around some of thecomments that joe'spota had. You mean,

(01:05:25):
where were the astros b when he'sready to return? No, I'm saying
where are they where? What ishe doing for them when he returns?
Well? Because they will be outof the depths of we don't ever have
any days off, even though theyhave a stretch of games a second time.
As soon as this Thursday day offcomes, they got a bunch of
games until June fifth before they haveanother day off again. I know Dana

(01:05:48):
Brown addressed this a little bit aboutwhere he would go, but honestly,
Hunter Brown really dictates it along withher kid. I think Kidi probably goes
into the rotation because of the injury, not because of any other reason.
If you're going to have him withthis team trying to help this team until

(01:06:08):
you're fully and totally convinced that itis past this and he can do that,
which I don't know if it's noteven a cut and dry puts more
stress on or a less stress on. It's more about how can he adapt
to needing to prepare to come intoa game when he doesn't already know he's
coming into a game as you wouldas a starter. That's all it really
comes down to. But that's Ithink where he would go. I wish

(01:06:29):
it was different for me. It'sjust I don't know that it ever will
be. I don't know how manygood seasons or starts in a row you'd
have to have for me to changethis, But it just never really inspires
me with a whole lot of confidence. Granted, the back end of their
rotation is absolutely he's earned the rightto return from injury and take a start
from Hunter Brown, potentially take astart from Spencer Araghedtty. That's fine.

(01:06:51):
I'm not saying that. I'm justnot sure that Okay Arkaty is healthy.
And now there's your first five starters, and you figure out what to do
with Aragedtty and and Hunter Brown.After that, Valdez and Verlander obviously,
Christian Xavier returns, and reneld Blancowill be available to the Astros before or
Katie will be when he comes offof suspension. So then there's your fifth

(01:07:14):
guy. Yeah, you can giveit to him out out of the gate,
but he's not automatically going to keepit. Yeah, no, I
guess when you said Hunter Brown SpencerAraghedy, those are the two names that
came to mind. I mean,again, when everybody's healthy prior to Garcia
and McCulloch's junior coming back, andthat day could be here in two weeks.
Yeah, that's seven starting pitchers.I just wonder like, which,

(01:07:41):
well you says for both guys?Which guy are you getting? Are you
getting the Spencer Aarraghedy that pitched yesterdayand was phenomenal for the most part.
Are you getting the Hunter Brown thatpitched his last time out, who's probably
at this point the best version ofHunter Brown that you could hope for in
twenty his last start, again,the result could have been better, but
the pitching was clearly significantly better,and that's what I mean. And then

(01:08:03):
the outing before that, out ofthe bullpen was the best he's thrown all
year. But the out of thebullpen portion of that statement is the one
that I think they'll end up listeningto most loudly. Well, because think
about it, he's coming out ofyour bullpen. Well, he's also now
replacing let's say Sean Dubin right nowthe spot on the roster technically immediately,

(01:08:24):
probably Dubin goes down when her Keaticomes back. So I'm not exactly sure
how this will play out from who'sin who's out roster wise, injuries usually
dictate that like another one comes up, But yeah, think about going to
him instead. I mean, Dubingave him three great innings the other day
to not have them need a secondreliever Thursday's game. I mean they went
back to back days and only usedfour pitchers, the starter and one pitcher

(01:08:45):
out of the bullpen, and neitherstarter pitched into the eighth. You got
two innings from Martinez one day,you got three innings Fromdubin the next day.
That's phenomenal. It's a great wayto reset things. It's another reason
why everything was in place for themto do well on the back end against
Milwaukee if they needed to, becauseeveryone got all that additional rest. But
Hunter Brown's stuff certainly looks like heshould be able to come out of the

(01:09:08):
pen, and now when he's reachingback for something extra on one of the
twenty five pitches he's gonna throw insteadof seventy five or eighty five or ninety
pitches might even be that much moreeffective. He was clearly effective as a
pitcher out of the bullpen for thisteam in the postseason a couple of times,
and late in the season the firstyear he came up, and I
think ultimately at least in twenty twentyfour, if there are no new injuries,

(01:09:33):
he probably didn't have more than fouror five starts this year. Hunter
Brown coming out of the bullpen,though, is something that as you go
forward, if the team continues toplay this well, and I realize he's
been a part of that of latebecause of his last start, for example,
but as you kind of supplement,let's just say, let's just assume

(01:09:53):
that her katy is what's the word. He isn't serviceable? Yeah, a
fifth starter. Yeah, there yougo. But he's not you know,
he's not a disaster when he getsout there. All that kind Hunter Brown
coming out of the bullpen is nothingshort of electric because he's proven in small
spurts, he's darn near unhittable attimes. We hope he has done that

(01:10:18):
before. I mean, put itthis way, I don't look at Hunter
Brown coming out of the bullpen,and that say, that's his role for
the remainder of twenty twenty four.I don't see him coming out there and
just absolutely bleeping the bed. It'shard to do that in the way I
mean he would end up. Unfortunatelyhe would because it's in season. To

(01:10:40):
me, he's most likely stuck wherehe's black and he pitches when they need
him to, or he gives themthree innings on the days where the starter
blows like it's not ideal because hisstuff's probably better than that. But asking
him to transition in season two,instead of throwing eighty five pitches once every
six days five days, we needyou to throw twenty pitches three times a

(01:11:01):
week, and all of them aregonna be north of ninety nine miles per
hour. I mean, here's thething, though, in a weird way,
don't you agree with this sentiment?He would have less pressure on him,
even though it's likely in a higherleverage sometimes situation versus all the build
up that comes with you're the startertonight, we gotta get five innings out

(01:11:21):
of you, minimum, hopefully six. But that's what he is. It's
a different type of pressure though you'retotally trying to think about it. Shouldn't
know that day when you're gonna pitchwhat the situation's gonna be. But if
you're Hunter Brown and you have thestuff that he does and you're not,
oh, this is my start,I just feel like he could thrive more
in that situation. Based on whatI've seen, I think they will eventually

(01:11:43):
realize that for the short term.Also, it's pretty rare that a guy
comes up and starts and starts andstarts and succeeds and succeeds and rises up
the charts and belongs on the prospectlist where he was and comes to the
majors and then all not long afterwe need you're a bullpen guy. He
could eventually be. That seems likea very short term eventually for a pitcher
with that much And it might justbe he didn't really have good additional pitches,

(01:12:06):
executable additional pitches at this level.Wasn't that mccullors for a spell one
season? If I recall, there'sbeen so many different where he was what
out of the bullpen. I mean, it's I misremembering this is an injury
related No, I know, Iknow, but it kind of is in
a way because people are being shuffleddue to injuries and people coming back.

(01:12:28):
It's just a different scenario him.I know you mean, but what I'm
saying is I feel like one ofthose seasons and I could be misremembering mccullors
came out of the bullpen. Hehas appeared out of the bullpen three times
in his Astros career. In twentyeighteen, I think maybe at the end
of that year, that's what I'mthinking, is what he did because he
was hurt that year and needed TommyJohn correct and he said, I am
going to be a part of thisteam as long as I can, for

(01:12:53):
as effective as I can. Heleft in August early August with the injury
and came back and throw out ofthe bullpen and then on endo the postseason
in the same role. To me, it's stunning, and I'm not going
to be like Yankees and Dodgers fansand just assumed that it would have happened.
To me, it's stunning that theAstros went as far as they did
when both he and Al Tuvey,especially who had his neon backwards that year

(01:13:16):
and we didn't know about it untilafter the season. It went as far
as they did pushing the eventual champsthe way they did. First of all,
it took a two run homer beingtaken off the board to lose one
of those games. In all likelihood, he went what six games against the
Red Sox in the ALCS in twentyeighteen. I just wonder what could have
been. I don't know, baseball'scrazy. A lot of things could have

(01:13:39):
happened. I'm not going to justsay, oh, they would have won
it. That's what Dodgers and Yankeesfans say about the Astros cheating. But
it's crazy. They definitely should haveone more, maybe a couple during this
run. Remember his last outing inthe postseason for the Astros was that last
poor start in the World Series wherehe gave up seven runs. Yeah,
and with those seven runs in lessthan five innings, he still has a

(01:14:00):
three forty seven because shoved for seveninnings. I'm just saying for his career
in the postseason, right, he'sbeen really good. But that part,
that's big part of it. Becauseit was shut out. It was seven
shutout innings and everybody pitched a shutoutin that game, a one nothing final
to clinch the series. All Right, we will take a quick time out,

(01:14:20):
come right back and continue to discuss. But first I want to tell
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they are open for your convenience.Telemut of Clanton from Sports Talk seven ninety
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Six. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler. The A Team now continues, Uh
Bark like you want it. Probablyon the setlist. A Team continues Monday

(01:15:51):
afternoon edition. Welcome back from theweekend edition of the program. Obviously heavy
on the team that's won six oftheir first seven games of this ten game
homestand with the Angels coming into townto night, and the Astros will have
Framber Valdez on the mound be throwingto the eighth hitter in the order tonight,

(01:16:12):
Jiner dis batting eighth and doing thecatching tonight. Maurcio Dubon not the
personal left fielder for anybody, buthe will be in left field tonight for
Franber Valdez. That means he's atthe bottom of the order, batting ninth
in front of Al tuo Ve,Tucker, Alvarez, Bregman Pama has been
the top five in the order forquite some time. Here, Tucker looks

(01:16:33):
to improve on his major league bestfifteen home runs on the season, ten
of which have been hit over thelast couple of weeks during the stretch since
the Astros left for Mexico City andhave since returned and have gone fourteen and
seven over those twenty one games.Jord On Alvarez still in a funk,
still with just the eight home runson the air, still hitting just two

(01:16:55):
fifty four and an ops of sevento fifty nine. Jeremy Pania has continuing
to be one of the most hitone of the hitters with some of the
most hits in the league. He'sstill near the top of the league hitting
three twenty eight eight twenty nine ops. And Jake Myers. Jake Myers has
been on a tear and it doesn'tlook like it's gonna end anytime soon.
He's back in center fields. OPSis nine twenty. He's got a three

(01:17:17):
to zero two average overall on theseason. As I keep referencing this time
frame where the Astros the post MexicoCity, basically their reboot he's been in
the middle of all that excellence forthis team in that time. Jake is
hitting three eighty Clearly, that's thebest mark on the team. Is OPS

(01:17:38):
of ten eighty six is only betteredby Kyle Tucker, and unfortunately, there
aren't a lot of other hitters whoare really enjoying themselves, which is amazing.
The Astros basically have the second bestoffense since the Mexico City reboot,
the second best average, second bestOPS and where most of the year,
even with those numbers, the runscored was way down, their runs is

(01:18:00):
now appropriately attached to numbers like that. Clearly, John Singleton has essentially gotten
start at first base every day butone Mauricio Dubon was over there. He's
been significantly better. Remember he alsohad zero home runs before they went to
Mexico City, before they made thedecision with Jose Abrave. He's since hit
four homers, has twelve RBIs.Two of those came yesterday, one on

(01:18:24):
a ground out with the bases loaded, one on a single to center field
to bring home an additional run intheir nine run outburst. And Jose brew
has been a topic of conversation todayafter Dana Brown had his weekly hits with
Robert Ford on Astros Radio right hereon Sports Talk seven to ninety, the
pregame show on the Sunday Astros games. Joe A spotted today, asked and

(01:18:45):
answered questions also about the potential returnof Jose Abrey. You know, he
has check a lot of the box. He's only one hands each other,
you know, Number one, he'sswinging decisions, he's swinging mechanics, he's
seeing involved really hard. He's movingwell, and he's been able to repeat
that swing every single day, everyup back. So he looks like in
a much better offensive position. Andalso mentally, that's also another area that

(01:19:11):
we wanted him to just kind ofclear his mind, kind of reset,
and we feel like he's getting closea lot. If you talked to him
at all, does he does hesound like he's more encloyers than he was.
Yes, through our conversations also textmessages, just you could just hear
the vibe. I talked to somecoaches down there, how hopey he is

(01:19:32):
excited. He is you know,you could just see, you know,
the smile and he's he's in amuch better place. If you envisioned playing
time, the tune get him inthere right away. Any thoughts about that
at this point, you know what? Not really we I'm going to talk
to Hosey when he gets here,but I do want to say that for
us to see the adjustment he've madeand get him back going, he's going

(01:19:56):
to have to play, you know. He if he agreed to go down
there and make does those adjustment andwe point out and we're going to have
to play them to get the results. So once he gets up here,
we'll we'll talk and we'll figure outwhat's the best way for him to help
us win games. Because you know, all the guys that I've producing and
they're playing really well. So it'simportant for us to everyone to contrive it

(01:20:20):
and for us to get what we'llwant to get to. We all got
to continue to play together as ateam. Obviously, that is the key
winning and contributing. Does also soundlike they made a bit of a deal
with jose A Bray. Look,if you go down there and agree to
do this, we agree to giveyou an opportunity to show you that things

(01:20:41):
are better, to show us thatthings are better. So even with the
team playing better, the likelihood thatwhen and if he comes back. He
will be given every opportunity to showthem, well, the Jose air bray
you saw the first month of thisyear is not the one that you're going
to see the rest of this yearand maybe for the rest of the contract.
We'll see exactly how it plays outat Thomas over at the ballpark today,
gathering that he'll have the astros ondeck show for you coming up at

(01:21:05):
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Team A you gotta fussing football fiveo'clock some lead. It's five o'clock football.

(01:22:44):
Professional football in America is a specialgame, special enough that last week
the schedule comes out and generated atremendous amount of conversation. This week kind
of actual football time for OTA's timefor It's okay if you don't want to

(01:23:06):
come, but we'd really frown uponit. Portion of the off season because
is voluntary. You don't you don'thave to go. It's not mandatory,
there's not finds assessed, but theTexans on the field today. They'll be
on the field again tomorrow, acouple times a week over the next couple
of weeks. They will have amandatory mini camp early June, and then

(01:23:26):
they will be off until they reconveneto prepare to take on the Chicago Bears
in the first of their four preseasongames. Be out at the facility tomorrow
morning to see what they have ondisplay for us, what it looks like
for CJ and the rest of theplayers who are there, And again,
I do not expect attendance, andI am curious to see what it looks

(01:23:50):
like from a recovery standpoint for ahandful of players, if my Instagram eyes
are to be believed. The recoveryfor Tank del Can tinues to go very
very well, both from last season'sleg injury and this off season's incident with
the gunshot. Confirmed by the teammultiple times, he's going to be fine

(01:24:11):
and he's going to be back whenthey need him. They just weren't very
clear about exactly when that was.And I don't expect him to be a
full time participant in a lot ofthese activities that take place before training camp,
and I am certain he'll be ona schedule other than you're out.
You are healthy, so you're goingto be out there every day, but
more like we're going to give youadditional time to make sure that your eighteen

(01:24:35):
week season, seventeen game season isas fruitful for everybody as possible. As
he gets into year two in thisoffense, year two with CJ. Stroud,
year two with all these teammates,year one with Stefan Diggs as a
partner in crime. Among the widereceivers, their top three, I'll say
it till it's shown otherwise during theseason. Their top three are the best

(01:24:58):
three best trio in the NF tankDell, Nico Collins and Stefan Diggs.
I think they'll be extremely difficult todefend. I think you'll see tremendous productivity.
I don't know that any one ofthem is among the league leaders in
even any statistical category, but betweenthe three of them and their passing game
and their offense, they will beelite. Could easily see it's an area

(01:25:19):
where Stefan Diggs is a double figuretouchdown guy, or Dell or Collins or
all three. You can only catchso many balls and I'm not. I'm
not here for the memes that areunnecessary about Stefan Diggs being upset about targets
here, but I know some peoplewill try to make that happen. We're

(01:25:40):
so far away from that. I'mmuch more curious about what does it look
like. Is he a participant insome of these offseason workouts here with the
team, and that he's obviously beenworking out on his own a lot.
He has worked out with CJ.Stroud and with some of the other wide
receivers. I don't know that it'sa given that he has to be here
and that he feels compelled to behere. I think it usually does wonders

(01:26:02):
for new players to be a partof things moving forward, so I would
honestly expect him to be there.We've seen Laramie Tunsel and some other veterans
in the past be smaller, moreobservant, more observers than participants in some
of the offseason work so being thereis fine. Being healthy is much more
important, and once training camp rollsaround, that's when it truly will become

(01:26:25):
much more important. But I thinkthey are not yet those that are believing
in the hype. I think everybodyelse believes in it, and I certainly
do, but I think they realizewhat they are and where they have to
go. What they were not lastyear, that has to change for this
year. They can also just watcheverybody else in the league deal with although
their other issues before they do stickingwith the wide receivers. That clearly was

(01:26:45):
going to be a topic of whatwas going on in at least two camps,
one for a good reason that couldturn bad and one for a bad
reason that probably will stay bad.That's the Rashi Rice situation. Their investigations
ongoing, and while they are participatingin OTA's attending with the Kansas City Chiefs,
probably trying to keep hold of hisposition there. He did emerge as

(01:27:09):
the top wide receiver target for PatMahomes last year, and rightfully so.
He's the most talented wide receiver onthe roster, and he will be again
this year most likely. I don'tthink Xavier are worthy. He's ready to
come into this league and take offquite right out of the gate. I
certainly think the skills are there,and he's playing in an offense that might
actually afford for it. But youstill have a guy in Travis Kelsey,

(01:27:30):
it might have his numbers and anybodyelse's slowing down a little bit. The
other situation with a wide receiver that'sslowly unfolding is it's a good thing in
principle, it's possibly a bad thingin practice. And that's the Justin Jefferson
situation. He is the best receiverin the NFL. He is now playing
with a quarterback that's nowhere near thebest quarterback in the NFL, and honestly,

(01:27:53):
he wasn't playing with one last yeareither with Kirk Cousins. But as
a passer, which isn't as importantas being label a winner as a quarterback.
It's nice you throw for a lotof yards and you will have a
guy like Justin Jefferson piling up eyepopping numbers, but it won't necessarily equate
to your one of the best teamsin the NFL and you have a chance
to win. They had one reallystrong regular season together, but mostly disappointment

(01:28:16):
both in the regular season and certainlyin the postseason. He is not attending
the beginning of Vikings OTAs while theycontinue to talk about his own contract extension
and the timing of it. Justlike anybody else, that's near the top
of whatever position group they're part of. He's absolutely emerged from contract negotiations if
they come to an agreement as thehighest paid wide receiver in the NFL.

(01:28:41):
I don't even know that he wouldget passed by anybody over the next twelve
months, but yes, he hasabsolutely proven that that's where he belongs.
He missed his first game action lastyear, missing seven of their games,
and he's still a thousand yard receiver, still a guy that if he's on
the field, you can't defend him. His first three years were probably not
are probably not going to be matched, even though the new receivers will all

(01:29:04):
play seventeen game seasons. So hehad his first year in just a sixteen
game season, but he had betterthan fifty seven hundred yards the first three
seasons of or forty seven hundred yardsthe first three seasons of his career.
I don't believe we're gonna see anotherreceiver do that possible, But if I

(01:29:24):
already guess, I would say no. In his situation, it's no different
than any other NFL player. Youget paid, you don't try to get
moved to get paid. He's gonnaget paid. It just doesn't matter who
ends up paying him to him,he doesn't want to play in Minnesota for
the next six years. He doesn'tknow what his quarterback's gonna be. He
wants to get paid, though,so pay me then we'll figure it out

(01:29:46):
later. You need to move mebecause I don't want to play here with
Sam Darnold or JJ McCarthy. They'llmake it work. They'll figure out a
way. He'll sit out. They'llhave some contingencies in there or the guarantees
in there. He'll get his moneyone way or the other, whether it's
from them now or as he getsto his again. That fifth year which

(01:30:06):
they've obviously picked up he would playunder if there's no agreement, Well,
there is a sixth year and thereis a seventh year. That's the advantage
to drafting supreme talents, the advantageto a team drafting supreme talents in the
first round where you have that fifthyear option, it's really a fifth,
sixth, and seventh year option becauseyou have the franchise tag. There's not

(01:30:27):
another player on that ross. They'regoing to need a franchise tag. It's
two years to follow. Now.He's not gonna be happy about it,
and it might turn out to bethe way he ends up pushing his way
out the door. But they don'thave to look at it that way.
He's technically under their control still forseven years. He's played the first four,
there's now three more coming. Idon't expect the Vikings to be a
huge factor in the NFC, soit's a moderately interesting storyline to watch.

(01:30:50):
I don't think players are going tobe sitting on the sidelines this year or
any other year moving forward. Itnever the player never benefits from it.
It shortens the life of their careerof greatness, and it almost often nets
them less money, not more money. I think the agents and the players
know it. Unfortunately, the teamsalso know it. So we'll see if
it ends up hurting, helping orwhatever. But again, that's the Minnesota

(01:31:12):
Vikings and this year it is ofconsequence to the Houston Texans as it relates
to their schedule. Well, theMinnesota Vikings and Justin Jefferson and his brand
new quarterback, whomever wins the startingjob at least out of the gate,
well it's gonna be Week three.They're coming to Houston in Week three.
He won't have any chemistry with whomever'sthrowing them the ball. I assume he'll

(01:31:36):
be on the field because, likeI said, I do think he's gonna
end up getting paid by them,and I would assume they would also want
to accelerate their future by playing theirfuture, not having him watch Sam Darnold
throw the football. So I thinkit back to back weeks, the Texans
will be seeing a rookie quarterback.Week two will be Caleb Williams in primetime
against the Texans, and the followingweek they will go to Minnesota. I

(01:32:00):
believe, I said coming to Houston, go to Minnesota and take on the
Vikings J J. McCarthy and JustinJefferson and John Grenard and Blake Cashman in
week three of the season. Asthe Texans will at least be looking for
win number two. I hope they'relooking for win number three. And obviously
you're gonna beat the Bears, right, You're gonna beat the Bears, Kayla

(01:32:23):
Williams not coming to town and becomingthe next CJ. Stroud right out of
the gate, basically against you inweek two, So I wouldn't be too
concerned. But I actually think theTexans were given a gift by seeing these
rookie quarterbacks early in the season.I know it paints a picture that some
people were very in my mind,unnecessarily afraid of at the end of the

(01:32:45):
season, not just tough opponents,but tough opponents in short order. Fifteenth
through the twenty fifth of December.Dolphin's chiefs Ravens. But if you beat
Anthony Richardson in like his seventh gameever, and you beat Kayler Williams in
a second game ever, and youbeat JJ McCarthy as he throws his seventieth
NFL pass, then you're in greatshape. You'll be fine, You'll have

(01:33:06):
confidence, and everybody will know whythey've been gunning for you, because you
sit at the top of list.By the way Week four, the Jacksonville
game, the Jaguars, by thenwill have also paid Trevor Lawrence. He's
gonna get his deal this offseason.It's gonna happen before the season. It's
gonna be lucrative. And while Iunderstand why the team is doing it,

(01:33:28):
because where are they if they decidehe's not the future. They're back at
square one and they're one of theworst teams in the league again, which
is where they've spent far too muchof their franchise. He's given them a
glimpse, a glimpse, but thatis Danger's own contract giving justin our excuse
me, giving Trevor Lawrence that kindof money after the first few seasons of

(01:33:48):
his career when you clearly have himunder control. Again, any guy you
draft from the first round, yougot him for seven years. If you
want him, do you have topay him? If he hasn't proved that
you need to pay him. That'sfor the Jaguars to decide. In case
you missed it, some items we'venot yet delved into far enough or at

(01:34:09):
all. That is next. Wenow returned to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexeler
on Sports Talk seven ninety that partof the show each and every day here
on the eighteen, where we diveinto a few things that probably need to
revisit, or some items we've noteven scratched the surface on yet. It's

(01:34:30):
in case you missed it, whatdo we have today? All right?
So the Astros did make a pitchingsigning earlier today, Eric Lower, who
most notably with the Milwaukee Brewers,where he had the best years of his
career, but was on a minorLeague deal with the Pirates until being able
to opt out and come here.Now it's pro rated one and a half
million dollar deal with opt outs onJuly first and also August the first as

(01:34:57):
well. However, this is whereit gets interesting for the Astros. Wex
if he does make it up tothe major league roster and stay well because
of his service time of four plusyears, that they would have arbitration control
until twenty twenty five. So kindof a diamond in the rough, you
know, take a shot here byDana or is it also too Does that

(01:35:18):
kind of say a little bit aboutLance mcculler's in Luis Garcia where they are.
I don't know that it says muchabout them as opposed to somebody in
front of them, JP France,the JP France situation, and I do
not have clarity on it, butthe injury to him that makes me wonder
if on the short term Garcia andmccullar's timetable is really what this says more

(01:35:41):
about to me, they're two monthsaway. I mean, it's possible that
Louis Garcia is pitching for the Astroslate June July and maybe a comparable timetable
for Lance mccullors. Well, ifthe Astros need somebody to start because Erkidi
has a setback because somebody that's currentlyon the roster can't start, they don't

(01:36:05):
really have anybody's turn to other thanwe're not trying to win Blair Henley.
They literally hardly have anybody in thesystem, certainly not on the forty man,
and he obviously would present a similarchallenge, but he's an immediate option.
He's been pitching not very well forthe Pirates, which is one of
the reasons why he opted out andwas not being given an opportunity. But

(01:36:27):
he can start for you. Well, I don't know how he would pitch,
but you said it, and Idon't know that everybody's aware of it.
I think they should remember what hehas been for parts of his career,
pitching for Milwaukee pretty successfully over atwo year stretch, had a one
thirty plus a couple of year seasonsago. He was not particularly good in
twenty twenty three and was on asteady decline, which is why he's in
the situation that he's in, Butfor roughly two seasons, basically a full

(01:36:53):
starter for both of those two seasonsand twenty one and twenty two giving him
the ball every fifth day was fora winning team. I think that's why
they're taking a chance. And i'manprobably you see the money on that and
realize that he's more than just ajust some guy who's on the street.
I would love him if they don'tneed him. But I can understand why
they would do this now that theylook at their look at themselves in the

(01:37:15):
mirror and say, oh, yeah, we are good and the season does
matter, all right. So oneof the guys I mentioned, Lance mccullors
junior, catching up with our goodbuddy Will Kunkle Fox twenty six, and
part of the conversation was mccullor's voicinghis frustration about not being able to contribute
for almost two years. Now.For me, I know like where my

(01:37:36):
heart is. I know how muchI've sacrificed and you know to get to
this point in my life. AndI think people are like, oh,
you know, it's like, whywould I want to be hurt? You
know, this is my life's,my life's work, my life's dedication.
I dedicated him a whole life tothis, so it's like, why would
I want to be missing out onthe most prime opportunity, prime times of

(01:37:57):
my career with injury, and it'sall field remated, you know. I
mean a lot of guys get hurtriding mountain bikes on ATVs, you know,
you know, doing things they shouldn'tbe doing. I mean it's all
field related, all right, Sofair points by mccullor. Is there the
first part? I mean, yes, nobody wants to be hurt, and
I think that probably a huge Iguess fueling aspect of all this is well,

(01:38:20):
was it five years eighty five millionthat he signed a few years ago,
So it's like, oh, well, you're getting your money. What
do you care. That's the pointthat he's making there. And the other
one too is kind of where I'mat with him, where it's okay,
I get that it's FUELD related.I get that it's hey, this happened
from me pitching. That's all fineand good. Then you need to consider
a way that you're not continuously inthis situation, and wex that way,

(01:38:43):
whether he likes it or not.That's the bullpen. Well, it's kind
of like our Hunter Brown conversation ina different light. Not an injury related
situation with Hunter, but the ideathat well, he has good stuff.
He definitely succeeded there. And Iwonder about the mccolor stituation. We we
have seen it before, and Ithink it maybe clouds are judge into thinking,
oh, well, if he didit, so can you. And
that guy's John Smoltz. Why ifLance mccullors pitches out of the bullpen,

(01:39:10):
will he be uninjured? And Iguess that's not even really the question.
I think it's people are seeing itfrom the other side, and this is
probably why the idea of it iseven born. We already know the answer
when he's a starter. Well,if we don't know the answer when he's
out of the bullpen, we shouldat least try it. To me,
that's the only reason you would doit, because you think you have the
answer right now. He has beena starter his whole career. He has

(01:39:31):
been injured for far too much ofit than he would like, clearly and
clearly from a helping the team standpoint, So why don't we do something different.
It's not really a guarantee that hisarm is going to be bouncing back
as often. Even though AC andI earlier addressed the yeah, he has
pitched out of the bullpen briefly asin terms of a portion of his career,
doing it at the end of thetwenty eighteen season and then again successfully

(01:39:55):
eight appearances, five in the postseason, three in the regular season out of
the bullpen, and he was verysuccessful in that short term role. He
also wasn't transitioning kind of mid season. He was transitioning when he came back
off of being hurt. Since AugustI understand it. I wouldn't be against
it. It certainly could be away that it helps the team more.
You are going to be pushing intosome question marks on that bullpen side.

(01:40:19):
At some point, a Brave isnot under club control forever. Ryan Presley
is playing out the final season ofhis current contract twenty twenty five. It
all ends for Rafael Montero. Iwould assume you will have some questions that
will need to be answered, andthen Lance mccullors will still be playing under
that contract that he signed. Ido think perception of him would be dramatically

(01:40:43):
different if that contract didn't exist,And it's not on him. He shouldn't
be catching the heat for saying yes, and I think he does. It
isn't really on him for not beinghealthy, but he catches a lot of
grief for it. Who's gonna sayno when a team wants to pay you
that kind of money. I don'tknow of anybody. It just becomes a

(01:41:06):
workload thing for me. I mean, that's what I'm wondering if he is
able to handle the workload that hehas had, because I mean, well,
what he's had is the reason Ithink being a starter as troubles.
His workload has been nothing. Asa starter, his workload is super low.
Even in the years he's been relativelyhealthy. He's not pitching seven or

(01:41:27):
eight innings. He's not throwing completegames. He's throwing a ton of pitches
to successfully navigate one run over sixinnings. That's why I think it's fair
that you bring up the point aboutis it just a foregone conclusion he's going
to bounce back, Because again,I mean, we've seen this with pitchers
before that have other issues that havekept them out for more than one season.
I mean, you're kind of justtaking for granted what they've been.

(01:41:48):
There's no guarantee they're going to bethat guy. There's a guarantee that he's
going to be that guy. Hisnumbers post twenty eighteen, the first major
I was out for a year surgery. Twenty twenty, twenty one, and
twenty two are remarkably good for thetype of pitcher that he was to come
back and have an r ND orfour for a partial season the COVID year,

(01:42:09):
so he played the full season,but it was only a partial major
league season. The next year,he was really good. That was I
wouldn't even debate it. That wasthe best season of his career. One
hundred and sixty plus innings, threesixteen ARA. Following year, it was
a partial year again but very successfullythrown. I think it's he's been really
really good as he kind of hedoesn't reinvent himself, but I do think

(01:42:32):
that should absolutely be something to consider. Look at the starting rotation for the
same reason I talked about the bullpen, Justin Verlander is not going to be
in the starting rotation for a particularlylong time. We focus in on the
contracts of Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker. Franber Valdez is under club control for
one more season this year and nextyear. That is it. There is

(01:42:54):
no long term extension for him yet. You don't know what Hunter Brown is
you might have a spend sarraghetti movingforward. Renelle Blanco doesn't have a track
record enough to say you're already readyto count on him. And now Christian
Xavier, who's at the onset ofhis extension, just went through albeit minor,
thankfully, the first you know,kind of real setback from an injury

(01:43:15):
standpoint, only a neck injury,not an arm or an elbow, which
is great, but they're not setin the rotation long term either. Let's
move on to the Texans as itwas a shot thrown from a now former
player, Stephen Nelson, over theweekend. Of course, the genesis of
it all came from the Corner Suitepodcast, tweeting out we need local sports

(01:43:39):
teams to send relief to Houston residents. People are without power and food,
hashtag Texans, rockets and stand upat the end. He posted it on
his Insta story yesterday, Let's gomilk dud man, it's your time to
shine. Damn all that meathead personatime to get your hands dirty for the
city. Was noted by our buddyCole Thompson that I guess Nelson last year

(01:44:03):
had called out Nick Cassio after thetwo sides could not agree on a contract
extension. But it is worth notingthough that c J. Stroud at least
took him up on this and wasvideoed over the weekend of being out helping
Houston residence. Yes, this goesunder the category of yeah, here's a
sense deleted tweet story for you,Steven Nelson. It worked. He got

(01:44:29):
a contract the last time he didthis, and that's what you were referring
to when he dropped a vest commenton Casero, which is something I do
from time to time. Though I'mnot looking for a contract extension. It
has been a it could work out. Everything could come out smelling like roses
for Steven Nelson. But while he'sunsigned as a starting caliber corner, he's

(01:44:53):
not even the best unsigned starting calibercorner out there. So there'll be a
time where a team goes through trainingcamp because I don't I don't believe he's
going to have a contract before trainingcamp. At this point. He has
been very steadfast, he and hisagent apparently on what they're looking for and
not taking any less. So he'sbasically waiting for somebody to get hurt and
hoping that it happened. Not individuallyhoping, but hoping that there is an

(01:45:15):
opening early enough in the season orearly enough in training camp where a really
good team is compelled to say,we can't have this gaping hole for our
super Bowl caliber team. And beingthat he is available, he knows we're
desperate, so we're going to payhim. I don't know all the whatever's
said as he walks out the door, probably finally, and I think we

(01:45:39):
already knew this was final long beforethis. Since deleted tweet, it's okay
for players to not like where they'vebeen, even if it's your place.
I don't think we're going to seeanother eighty nine Since deleted tweets from the
other teammates from him from twenty twentythree because they were as apparently as unhappy
as he was. I mean,I can only go with what I know,

(01:46:00):
and that is that Demiko seems likea guy that is highly about his
business and doesn't necessarily make it personal, either good or bad against anybody in
terms of how he wants this thingto be run. And he was that
way when he was a player.It seems like he's that way as a
coach too, as well, Likeit seems like this is more on Steven
Nelson than it is on Demiko.Well, it's definitely not. I'm on

(01:46:23):
Demiko, although I would say there'sno way everybody likes him, it's just
not. That's not how sports are. Who cares it shouldn't. It is
a total non concern. You're onehundred percent accurate with that. You're not.
You're not there to be the mostfavorite coach in the history. Go
out to win games. He's thereto win games. He's there to represent
the franchise, clearly, that's weall know that. And he's there to

(01:46:45):
win games. If they're winning games, that's what you like about him.
If he's making you a better footballplayer, which some of the younger players
probably feel like he has. Maybesome of the older players like Steven Nelson
might feel otherwise. But he's not. He probably shouldn't be ninety nine point
ninety nine percent approval rating. Mostcoaches wouldn't be. You think everybody loved
Bill Belichick, It's quite clear thatthey did not. Did they respect him?

(01:47:09):
Did they play hard for him?A much more important question and answer,
and the answer of courses yes onboth counts. Well, I mean
it's it at least feels genuine.I mean the guy that used to be
here, that walked around with acold towel at training camp. It was
hot out there. Who could blamehim, Let's just say that it seemed
like there was a lot of appearancesbeing put on. Oh, by the
way, speaking of him, Iguess one more before we get out the

(01:47:30):
door. David Johnson retired over theweekend, blowing out for Bob. Yeah.
Long Instagram posts from David Johnson abouthis career didn't really have mentioned any
teams by name, including this one. Remarkable production early in his career and
was able to carve out eight yearsbasically because of it. Not a particularly
good player here, very good personand nice career for a very unheralded player.

(01:47:54):
And yes, he announced his retirementover the weekend via social media.
Who got more in your way?A little bit more on the Texan side
of things, and a handful ofitems we've not yet gotten into regarding the
Astros and they're fourteen and seven stretchhere since leaving for Mexico City. Hey,
it's Craig Afford. Listen to theHome of the Rockets on yours smart

(01:48:16):
speaker. Just ask hey, Googleplay Sports Talk seven ninety on iHeartRadio.
There actually was one more football itemI wanted to get to and didn't get
it in there during a football atfive. In the light of OTA's beginning,
it's year two for the guy whowent ahead of c J. Stroud
in the draft, the guy whoseteam is one to zero against c J.

(01:48:36):
Stroud's team since they were both drafted. Bryce Young and his Panthers did
beat the Texans last year. BryceYoung and his Panthers this year have a
new head coach, Dave canallis offensiveminded head coach expected to pair for the
long term health of the Panthers withBryce Young, and all of a sudden,

(01:48:56):
he's going to be really, reallygood. So of course Dave Canalys
is talking today after their OTAs andasked about Bryce Young and how he throws
and what he looks like. Inthe midst of telling everybody, he was
excited that he could focus on Bryce'sfootwork and why could he do that because
short, intermediate, deep balls,he's just really accurate, and he's great
with his accuracy, so we canlook at his footwork. He's done a

(01:49:19):
great job of picking up the offense. But Dave actually had me when he
talked about him being so great withhis accuracy. Now at OTA's there will
be some eleven on eleven's, therewill be some seven on sevens. There'll
be a lot of drill work withoutany defenders. You might even throw it
stationary targets, you know, netswith holes in him where at the last

(01:49:42):
second your OC will yell at youwhich target to throw to, and you'll
put it right there and nestle itin the hole and say job well done.
Or you could just watch the gamestake some of the numbers from there
where Bryce Young over the last fiveseasons. The list of quarterbacks who have
completed a lower percentage of their passesthan Bryce Young at least five hundred throws

(01:50:08):
over the last five seasons. Heobviously had over for five hundred throws last
year. There are two. Thereare two quarterbacks that are less accurate than
he is. Zach Wilson, whowill not be starting for anybody ever again
with any regularity, and Drew Locke, who probably should be given the same
treatment, but rather he will probablybe finding his way to the field beating

(01:50:29):
somebody out or being a nice reserve. I'll give you it's only been one
year for Bryce Young. I thinkthat's at least fair. Expecting a jump
from year one to year two,his first offseason as an NFL player,
the entire offseason, all that stuffis fine. Learning a new offense even
might give him a longer excuse,although I think the new offense will be
better and better suited for what heis and what he can do. But

(01:50:55):
he's not an accurate passer. It'sone of the reasons why drives would stall
out. It's one of the reasonswhy they didn't move up and down the
field. It's a huge issue atthe NFL level so far for Bryce Young.
And what's worse, in the lastfive seasons, same group of quarterbacks
at least five hundred attempts, Noneof them. There's not a single quarterback

(01:51:15):
in the NFL that's thrown at leastfive hundred passes since twenty eighteen that's averaged
less than six yards per attempt exceptfor him, and he's at five point
five quarterbacks that are out of theleague for age or ineffectiveness. Not that
low, Bryce Young, way lower. Again, I'll give you your lone

(01:51:41):
excuse, and I'll give you alittle grace. Rookie quarterback. Small sample
size limited talent to be sure onthat team offensively, I'm not giving full
judgment on this, and he's reallyno longer needing to be compared to CJ.
Stroud. It won't ever escape him. It'll be there for or Soul
Live, Ryan Leaf, Peyton Manningand many others. It's there, it

(01:52:02):
won't go away. But you canalso both be successful. It's not a
either, it's not an either or, and one really has nothing to do
with the other when they're this farremoved from one another. He only has
to concern himself with the three othernot particularly awesome teams in their division.
Just go out and get better thanthem. Everything will be fine. Panthers

(01:52:23):
could be the best team in thatdivision if he's not awful and they continue
to get talent, which I dothink they did a reasonably good job of
this offseason, not so much lastoffseason, which is his first year.
Texas have gone out of their wayto make their team better around c J.
Stroud in both opportunities. Prior toand during his rookie season and now

(01:52:43):
prior to and I imagine during hissecond season. The group he played with
last year they were able to winten times. They were able to score
when they had too laden games ona number of occasions, and they put
together a phenomenal game plan against anexceptional defense in the postseason. I know
two of their touchdowns were defensive ones. By the way, you guys remember
who scored one of those defensive touchdownsfor the Texans in the playoffs last year

(01:53:06):
against the Browns, Steven Nelson withthe long, long, long interception return
for touchdown. But this offense wasexplosive and spectacular at times, and much
of that second half of the seasonwas spent without Tank Dell and clearly there
was no step On Diggs there yet. So whatever other teams are doing to

(01:53:28):
help supplement the talent augment the talentaround their young quarterbacks, pretty I think
easy to make the argument nobody's doneit any better than what the Texans have
done, at least on paper andat least in theory. But I do
think it'll play out this year,and definitely from a passing game situation.
I've already dubbed their trio of widereceivers the best of the NFL from a
passing perspective. Mixin Schultz and thosethree wideouts, they are not too many

(01:53:53):
teams that can match up with thatboth defensively or if you're just comparing those
five offensive weapons, your top tightend, your type running back, top
one running back, and your topthree wide out targets. There are very
few teams that can put a groupof five out there on the field at
the same time, and that willhappen for the Texans this year. Quite
honestly, it might happen where allfive of them are lined up, lined

(01:54:15):
up not in the backfield, notbehind CJ. Stroud, in a five
wide set, where you have atight end and you have a running back
out there helping you to create thosemismatches, well, they probably are mismassage
mismatches for your wideouts as well.That's going to be fun. So I
think here our focus on Bryce Young, the number one overall pick in the

(01:54:36):
twenty twenty three draft, we'll restdown at about zero this upcoming season.
Last year, it should have registeredbecause the Texans had a division they could
very very easily have gone four andzero against. They lost on the last
play of the game to both thePanthers and the Falcons on field goals.
They don't have the luxury of playingthat Crappia Division this year, and it

(01:54:58):
actually might be a a little bitbetter this year. There might be some
confidence in Tampa, and maybe there'ssome talent at quarterback this year in Atlanta.
But the Texans don't have the luxuryagain of playing that crappy division again
this year. It would be anice group to have, considering the rest
of their schedule got noticeably more difficult. Well more segments to go before we

(01:55:19):
turn things over and send things outto the ballpark over at Minute Made Park
with the Astros getting set for Gameone against the Angels as they continue this
super successful home stand. More onthat coming up. One show two Adams
Endless Possibilities eight continues on Sports Talkseven ninety A couple of things on baseball

(01:55:45):
before we call a show here.Hat tip to former Houston Astro Corey Jokes.
Made his debut with Chicago White Soxover the weekend. After the Astros
d fade him, they worked outa deal to trade in Chicago. Made
his season debut ors period with theWhite Sox over the weekend, hit one
over the fence, gets Carlos Rodonand then brought one back from over the

(01:56:06):
fence. Jose Travigno thought he'd homered, and technically he hit one over the
fence, but Corey Jolks was thereon the part of the field out there
in left field. It's not thateasy to hot rob a home run,
and he did. He was rewardedby not being in the lineup today for
the White Sox and they did notwin, lost to the Blue Jays.

(01:56:27):
Worst team in baseball are the WhiteSox. But good for Corey, he'll
get an opportunity. I would hope. That's why I lament that he wasn't
in the lineup today. Should beout there pretty much every day, and
there are familiar faces there. Ifyou were unaware, they're catching duo,
both astros, former astros Corey Leeand Martin Maldonado. Corey Lee ops of
right around eight hundred. If youwere unaware, you haven't been locked in

(01:56:53):
on Chicago White Sox baseball, whichI assume is one hundred percent of you.
I'll let you know how Martin Maldonadowas doing, who began the year
as their primary catcher, and it'sseeded some of those duties to Corey Lee.
As I mentioned, Martin does haveseven hits this year in seventy five
at bats that is an batting averagethat begins with a zero. It's batting

(01:57:16):
ninety three. If he gets basehit today, he will get his ops
over three hundred. I say allthat because we spent so much time talking
about Kyle Tucker's recent excellence, JakeMyer's outrageous hot streak, Jeremy Paania being
among the league leaders in hits,Jose al Tuve. We didn't mention another

(01:57:38):
leadoff homer off another first pitch,Alex Bregman having a better month, but
still not all the way back.Let's go down further in the order.
Someone we almost never talk about,jannardy As batting eighth today, hasn't been
there this year. Best numbers ofhis career come well, batting eighth in

(01:57:59):
all this year, and not ahuge sample size, but probably about where
he belongs considering what he has beendoing of late, and of late,
he's been among the least helpful offensiveplayers on this team while they've gone fourteen
and seven since the Mexico City rebootthat I referenced so often, he's hitting
two thirty nine so ps is fiveninety one, easily the worst mark among

(01:58:24):
all the regulars. He and MauricioDubon are the only Astros who haven't homered
since they went to Mexico City amongactive astros, so he's still sitting on
that same number of three he's beenon since early April. He's gone more
than twice as many at bats asany teammate without hitting a homer. He'll

(01:58:45):
step into the box for the firsttime today looking for his first homer in
one hundred and nineteen at bats,and having said all that and being so
mean to him, unnecessarily ripping himapart. I'll make note of this.
Second on the team in RBIs thisyear is Yanard y As. Currently for

(01:59:06):
the season, only Kyle Tucker hasdriven in more runs than yanardy As.
You've got to be wondering how inthe heck is that possible. It's true,
nobody for the duration of the seasonhas been getting clutch hits. Nobody
has been cleaning the bases with multirun homers with regularity. You remember his

(01:59:29):
most recent big hit was a basisloaded double drove in all three runs he
got twenty one. Jordan Alvarez doesnot have twenty one RBIs this year.
He'll be playing in his forty seventhgame today, Jeremy Pania does not have
twenty one RBIs. He'll be playingin his forty eighth game of the season.
It's remarkable they've gotten enough production upand down the lineup that they have

(01:59:51):
recently gone on a scoring binge.Their batting average still among the best in
baseball, their ops is still amongthe best in baseball. But it's got
to start coming closer together where theruns driven in runs scored portion matches up
with those numbers, which it normallydoes for teams with those other numbers getting
a ton out of Jake Myers gettingmore out of first base than they were

(02:00:13):
at the beginning of there, quiteclearly. And Kyle Tucker's pace with homers,
it's unfortunately he only has thirty threerbys to go with his fifteen home
runs, but a pace that putshim around fifty and it's I don't know,
it seems to me that he's lookingfor them, which I'm totally on
board with. That's an interesting dayto have, one that I would venture
to guess he will not repeat inhis career. Three K's two homers,

(02:00:40):
five AB's two sets of cleats.I doubt very seriously. Kyle Tucker has
a second performance like that for theAstros or anybody else over the rest of
his major league career. What itwas all part of a nine to four
win the last handful of times outthere in these last couple of series,
both before this homestand began and duringthis homest and Astros scoring more than four

(02:01:01):
runs, more than five runs,that's now the norm. That is what's
happening more often than not. They'repitching has been better. Clearly, e
are a way over five for thefirst twenty five games, twenty six games
of the season before Mexico City.It's good, it's not great. Since
then, they've gone fourteen and sevenbecause their offense has come alive and they're
pitching has avoided often blowing up.There's still a Verlander blow up, there's

(02:01:26):
still a Javier blow up start.But their RA is below four. Not
again, that's not great. That'snot among the best in the league.
Among the teams that have the bestrecord in baseball since that Mexico City reboot,
nobody has an ERA as poor asthe Astros up there. Everybody else
that's won, you know, thirteengames or more, and there's five teams
their are eras are two nine tofive two three three, two four zero.

(02:01:49):
The Astros is three to ninety.They're scoring runs, they're putting guys
on base and getting hits with runnersin scoring position. That's been the biggest
difference. For the most part.Some of the players have kind of flipped
hats in that situation, like theMauricio Jose al Tuove flip. Mauricio the
hottest hitter in baseball for about thirtydays with the runners in scoring position.

(02:02:11):
Now I basically can't buy a hit, and Jose al Tuove the flip.
He was one of the least successfulhitters with runners in scoring positions. First
eighteen at bats in that situation,believe he had one hit, and now
he's had a hit in about fortypercent of those at bats. That stuff
is more of the norm. That'smore likely to continue. And the top
five in the order are gonna carrythis team at some point this year.
Really hasn't happened yet, but anow two ve Tucker Alvarez, Bregman Payna

(02:02:34):
top five for who these guys probablyare. And I asked in our show
tweet today, which I will answerhere as we walk out the door,
are these the real Astros. Yes, this is who they really are.
Three times out of five, gonnaget a great start. The other two
times they should still have a chanceto win, Gonna get shut down every

(02:02:54):
once in a while. Pitcher willbeat them every once in a while,
but not often enough, not likewhat was happening when they got off to
the seven and nineteen start. Theirdefense clearly has been a whole lot better.
Heck, the inning that got awayfrom Justin Verlander, you had your
best arm in the outfield ready tomake that play when that one out fly
ball was hit some Moresio, Dubonor nobody out bases loaded and he fired

(02:03:17):
home. His throw was on time, beat the runner wasn't online, and
it helped to extend the inning,and that the Astros didn't turn a double
play there, but everything lined upfor that play to actually get me.
There's not another outfielder on this team, I don't think, other than maybe
Jordn that makes it any closer.And teams are still taking advantage of that,
but not to the tune of itcosting them games and costing them wins.

(02:03:41):
They have made a lot more plays. Pain has been spectacular again,
and I expect this series to deliverwhat we said it would when this home
stand began. Seven was the bareminimum. The bare minimum now should be
I say nine, I'll take eight. But you win eight games out of
ten on this homestand you've been success. So that's three series victories and you're

(02:04:01):
right back in the thick of therace. They had their swinning streak snapped
Saturday. They won yesterday, sotime to start streaking again for the Houston
Astros. As mentioned earlier, appreciateMatt Thomas for getting us the spot of
comments on Jose Bray. That's becauseMT is out at the ballpark and getting
you ready for Astros baseball. Momentarily, He's got the on deck show for

(02:04:23):
you this evening three with the LosAngeles Angels, Reed det Meers and Framber
Valdez, a couple of lefties goingtonight over at the Ballyard. Enjoy yourselves
out there. If not, enjoyit on your home for Astros Baseball right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety.We will return tomorrow at three

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