Another Astros Heartbreaker, Positve King Tuck News and Texans 53 Is Final

Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on August 27th 2024.

• Astros lose another one in late innings. This time to the Phillies...
• Hitters continue to be... Meh...
• A new Astro could be joining soon. 
• A positive Kyle Tucker update. 
• A return of Rafael Montero?
• Texans 53-man roster is set. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named at him talking your teams,
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team A.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'll tell you WHATX.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
The thing I'm upset.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
About these days Astros getting a late lead, actually getting
an early.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Lessons have cut their roster down to fifty three men.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
Man, I'm just so bummed after last night. I'm tired
of the Astros having good pitching in it going for
nothing because you know things, and yeah, the.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Other team's loaded and the Astros are playing at least
one man down. I designed two men down.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
Yeah, if they were so loaded, then why couldn't they
manage more than three runs and extra innings against the Eat.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Because they're playing a good team. The Astros are the
Astros loaded. No, they're playing a man down and based
on the fact they keep giving guys days off, two
men down, all right, so that's you're playing zero men down. Yeah,
that's why when you get to extra innings and both
lineups are lined up pretty much exactly how you want it,
you kind of have to come through. Theirs did the
Astros didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Yeah, and that included Jose al Tuve, who did get
an at bat in last night's game in the ninth inning,
but it didn't go particularly well, nor did not a
full day off Nicky, Well, do you okay, how mentally taxing?
Do you think that one at bat was, Plus the
defense he had to play there after, it was pretty taxing.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
He's in the lineup tonight, He'll be batting lead off.

Speaker 4 (01:30):
So hey, you know who else is in the lineup
who's been taxed recently?

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Mauricio Dubon. He's playing left field tonight. The Astros also
apparently will be adding yet another available outfielder. They've been
trying to find a solution at both first base and
in the outfield wherever for months, and there's gonna be
another person in the mix. It looks like report from
Brian McTaggart that Jason Hayward of the recently of the

(01:56):
Los Angeles Dodgers, they chose Kevin Kiermyer over Jason Hayward,
but they certainly a choice, had to make a roster
crunch move here recently, but reportedly the Astros will be
in hot pursuit and be likely to finalize the deal
with him on the major league side, so he will
become probably a part of this roster when the Astros
are set to take on Kansas City. I guess possibly

(02:18):
as early as tomorrow's finale against the Philadelphia Phillies, but
that remains to be seen. Last night's game did fall
by the wayside after the Astros were up and then
allowed the Phillies to tie it and they went to extra innings.
Astros did not push the run across from second base
that was gifted to them by Major League Baseball, but
the Philadelphia Phillies were able to push the run across

(02:39):
that was gifted to them by Major League Baseball without
even having an out recorded. Josh Hater, who has been
lights out this entire month, walked the leadoff hitter and
then to the left handed Bryce Harper gave up the single,
and that is the end of the story. Astros lose
three to two. They've lost three of five here to
these two outstanding teams on the front side of this
long stretch of x teams that are sitting in front

(03:02):
of them. The next excellent team could be a first
place team by the time the Astros face them. Because
the Royals are taking apart the Guardians on a regular
basis have another opportunity to do that Today and could
in fact be a first place team when they get
to Houston. But Astros and Phillies again. Tonight, Justin Verlander
will make his second start since his return from injury.

(03:22):
I would imagine they'd like more than five innings out
of him. Five innings two runs is what he gave
up in his most recent start. He will have a
little bit higher limit on the pitch count. Hopefully that
gets him through those eighteen outs. Every pitcher so far
on this road trip, which is the other five because
now they're in a six man rotation, has either gone
five and two thirds or six full and the Astros

(03:45):
have been in front when they walked off the mound
three of those times. They've been tied the other two times,
and yet three of those five games have come back
in the lost column for the Astros. So plenty to
get to today. We obviously do have the lineup for you.
John Singleton is in it at first base. A little
bit surprising considering the lineup they put out there yesterday

(04:06):
that he was in but not playing first base. I
thought maybe his days of playing first base were over.
An interesting article from Chandler Rome as per usual on
the subject of chas McCormick, something we definitely also need
to dig into. But as mentioned today, at four minutes
and twenty seven seconds ago, league wide, every team had
to get down to their fifty three man initial fifty

(04:28):
three man roster. On the NFL side, the Texans are
no different. Most of the moves that needed to be made,
a variety of cuts, releases, waved, waving players with injury settlements, releases,
season ending IR, whatever it takes to get from ninety
down to fifty three. I think we're aware of nearly

(04:49):
all of the moves, and there turns out there are
a couple of surprises, but maybe starting with the quarterback room.
And the Texans have not made this announcement official yet,
but as expected they're keeping two quarterbacks c J. Stroud
and Davis Mills. Maybe a little bit unexpected. They won't
be playing case Keenum in twenty twenty four, not because
they released him, but because he's going on season ending IR.

(05:12):
Seemed pretty obvious he was dealing with something during camp.
I was not certain of exactly what the ailment was,
but at different points in camp he was just not
in attendance, not participating. He did leave the game Yester
or Saturday with the injury. It was the same foot
that had been bothering him throughout training camp and is
the reason that they are expected to place him on

(05:33):
season ending ir. What it will do, though, is keep
him with the team. It will keep him in the
quarterback room. It will keep him in that quarterback circle
of trust, if you will. All but one person that
was with the Texans last year that related to CJ.
Stroud's performance is back. Only Shane Day, who was an
offensive assistant who left for the Chargers to go work

(05:55):
with John Harbaugh's brother is not here. Bill Laser's back,
Gerrad Johnson returned, Bobby Slowick return, and obviously Davis Mills
and now Case Keenum return. And I think all those
things are somewhat tied together in the way they manipulate
a roster and what needed to be done with Keenum.
I said this in the press box to Stan and

(06:16):
was not sure why and how it would play out
to be true, but felt like it was going to
be true. While we were watching Case Keenum, I said,
I think these are the last passes we're ever going
to see him throwing a text. He really said that.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
I mean, it's at least if it was going to end,
and it's not just it.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
Goes into free agency after this season, it's what is
on the other side of this last year of his contract,
where he'll spend the whole year on ir remains to
be seen. He's gonna be a glorified coach. Well, you
can do a number of things. I mean, it'd be
hard to this year he will be, but that's based
on a legitimate move with a player that's injured. I'm

(06:55):
not sure what they would do to make that happen
next year unless they gave him as a coach exactly. Yeah,
which I mean, here's the deal.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
If Bobby Slowick does indeed move on, that means you
had a good season.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
It just does that.

Speaker 4 (07:09):
That's the cause and effect. Maybe Gerad Johnson is the OC,
maybe it's someone else, But if it is, I mean,
there's it's it's plausible at least to see case keenum
kind of fill in that role, maybe as quarterbacks coach
or something along those lines.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
Again, that's if that's what he wants to do. But
the fact that he's not going to be actually playing
is one thing. Having him around still, which he will be,
is a very good thing for CJ. Stroud because that's
what this is all about, provided he's healthy. It's making
him the best quarterback he can be in year two,
fulfilling all of the ridiculous yet somewhat reasonable expectations given

(07:48):
what he did as a rookie.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Gotta take the next step.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
That's just the name of the game, the encore until
you are, I guess, firmly entrenched as one of the
all time elite quarterbacks or at least current elite quarterbacks
in the NFL. And that's what he's obviously gunning for,
and I think that's what a lot of people think
he's going to try to do this year, because let's
face it, the Texans have the type of success that
some of us think that they could or at least

(08:12):
capable of. It's not going to be well, you know,
he's he's one of those up and comers. He'll be
mentioned along all of the current greats ahead of guys
we've even been talking about this current offseason at the moment,
which I mean that Dak Press goott like that for rest.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
The division, Will Levis, Trevor Lawrence, Anthony Richardson good seasons
from anyone or all of them would put them on
a this is an up and coming quarterback. This could
be someone that could become a real player in the AFC.
CJ's already passed that exactly as you're saying. He's looking
to solidify a spot among the top four or five

(08:50):
AFC quarterbacks, among the top five or six quarterbacks overall
in the NFL. And if you're listening closely, you'll notice
there's a serious shift on or lean with the balance
of power and quarterback play from the AFC. Again this
year with the NFC, and this time when we say
it before the season, I think it'll be even more
true because I'm going to assume Aaron Rodgers will complete

(09:11):
a couple of passes this year as opposed to last
year when we were looking at the Jets new quarterback
and saying, well, now the Jets have Rogers and Tuas
in Miami and Allen's in Buffalo. Look at those three quarterbacks,
and in this division you have Lawrence and you have
c J. Stroud. We didn't even know where c J.
Stroud would fit in Herbert and Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and
Joe Burrow, etc. And Kenny Pitton just kidding, So there's

(09:33):
so much on their road to being excellent that's in
their way. You know, yesterday I and Connors giving us
an eleven and six mark, and that would be fantastic.
We'll get to our season predictions not too far off
in the future. We still have another eight programs before
the Texans will kick off their season against the seven programs.

(09:55):
Thanks to Matt Thomas reminding me that quickly that we
do not have a show tomorrow with the three o'clock game, though, well,
you have a show. We will be on the air
after Astros Phillies for the tenth inning show, probably around
five point thirty five forty five six o'clock. But by
the time the Texans get to that opener, we will
have laid out the AFC South predictions and clearly as
we go over the next couple of minutes here, a

(10:17):
couple of segments will run through some of the other
interesting decisions the Texans have made. I think there's a
surprise or two in the backfield for sure, and probably
not what people were expecting the Texans to do with
their decisions behind their starting quarterback.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
How much of the decisions that the Astros manager made
last night, especially down the stretch. Do you have a
problem with and I'm not talking to you specifically, although
you're very tell me what they are well, I think, Well,
for example, someone just tweeted you specifically that they were
not a huge fan of how Joe Spotty uses his relievers.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
The believers who gave up no runs. See that's a ghost, guys.
And I wish that.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
Person had heard you on the radio before or had
interacted with you on social media, because they would have
known better.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
They knew that answer every given day. You might have
a problem with how you deploy them, once you get
into how they performed, that's usually not Joe's fault. I mean,
if he sends out so you know, some established inner groove,
like the other night when a bread gave a five
hits and five runs, I hope nobody was blaming Joe
a spotter for that. That's how would he know that?
That's not on him. That's so unexpected, that's so out

(11:26):
of character. He had gotten him the rest that everyone's
been begging him to get. Now, this is what happens
in baseball all the time. It's a great jumping off
point for the next segment.

Speaker 4 (11:37):
Here on the A team The A Team on Sports
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Speaker 1 (12:38):
We now return to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexworth on
Sports Talk.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
Eighteam Rolling Along here on a Tuesday edition of the
program Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Home Network. I'm
actually trying to find the exact tweet I was referencing
in the last segment about well, just the fact that
some people maybe aren't happy with the way things So it.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
Wasn't in reference to the game. It was in reference
to more of the general It reads the way Jews
the way Joe uses relievers is a blank show they
have one in spite of his being terrible at his job,
he used an emoji. Most teams that ride in first
place with the issues that this particular team has probably

(13:32):
not considered being terrible at his job. So I'm not
sure if you're in the minority or the majority and
thinking Joe is terrible at his job. But I'm not
in the same group that you're in. They had a
team that was imploding because of the personnel and how
they were performing for a month and a half. That's

(13:53):
not on the manager. This manager managed a different team
than last year's manager, Dusty Bakker man four different teams,
though all four of his teams were very very similar,
and none of them were like this team. Much like
none of them were like any team that really AJ had.
This team because of their performance were bad, not because

(14:15):
of how Joe deployed them. I can't imagine thinking this
in the opening series of the season. Why do you
keep putting a brave Presley and hater out there with
the Astros in front? What are you doing? Come on, Joe,
get it together. They blew it over and over and
over again early in the season, and the offense was
doing the same when they were given opportunities to get

(14:37):
this team over. The same guys, same guys that have
performed before. The only thing he did at the beginning
of the season that is still worthy of questioning, and
maybe Wilk does this is he decided kind of on
his own that let's go ahead and change things up
with the lineup. I've got Tucker back, I've got tu
Ve back, I've got Alvarez back, and I've got Bregman back.

(14:58):
But he chose to do something a little bit differently
with the lineup. And whether that had any impact on
how those particular players performed at the beginning of the year,
I guess you could say yes, because it happened, although
once the lineup stabilized Alex Bregman was still awful, almost unusable,
awful offensively, So I think a lot of what went
wrong earlier in the season was had little little to

(15:20):
do with him. And in recent days as we just
kind of went through how well the starters have pitched
over the five games so far of this road trip,
and yet it's only amounted to two wins. Most of
that is due to the fact that against a good team.
So it's not like the offense is awful. It's it's
tough to score runs. It's tough to overcome a good team.
Even their bullpen's not awesome. But they've had some moments

(15:41):
against Houston. I think the saying that there's something wrong,
like we'd happened to come in after yesterday's game and
I don't know what you want from those relievers. They
all did their job.

Speaker 4 (15:53):
Yeah, no, look what's going on right now? And you
mentioned Alex Bregman. By the way, it's very easy to
forget that this was not a season. There's a lot
of layers actually to his twenty twenty four this was
not a season with his traditional slow start. This was okay,
it's two and a half three months into the season.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
Who is this guy. This guy wants a new contract.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
This guy's agent, Scott Boris, is going to ask for
some stupid number like three hundred million or whatever it's
going to be. You gotta be kidding me, to the
point where we and other people were talking about the
fact that maybe the Astros get do get a discount
because he's just been so bad, and would you want
to sign that version of Alex Bregman to the complete

(16:37):
opposite where he's had some of his best ad bats
as an astro. With all of the years he's been here,
including the twenty nineteen season, including the twenty eighteen season, frankly,
which I think was better for him individually, it's just
been wild to see.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
And that's just one player.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
We're talking about one player with all that going on,
Tucker's injuries, Verlanders injury, so many things have happened this
season that I just even even if he was making
a plethora of bad decisions, I would still seemingly give
Joe a spot us some sort of a pass based
on that alone, because this is probably the most injured

(17:14):
roster during this run of ALCS two World Series contending teams.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
Yeah, just look at the guys he's trotting out there
every six days now, with Verlander being the last of
those six. He's asking Spencer Aghedy to keep him in
the game every fifth or sixth day for an entire
almost an entire season, and he's done it for about
half the season. He's asking Hunter Brown to go from
a back end of the rotation guy to one of
the worst starters in baseball to one of the best

(17:39):
starters in baseball. All that's happened, you know, much of
the season without JV much and now the rest of
the season without two other guys who clearly would have
been starting in Erketi and Javier. Presumably you would add
JP France to that. Again, at what level he'd be pitching,
I don't know. But here this far down the list,
and he and the team and the hitting coaches and
the pitching coaches and Dana have managed to have this

(18:01):
team leading everybody else in their division yet again, three
and a half games ahead of the Mariners after last
night's activities, Mariners win, Astros lose. You know, the guys
that are performing for him for this team out of
the bullpen, especially those beyond a bray you Presley and
Hater and oh, by the way, currently there is no

(18:21):
Presley's back into the bullpen, and look at who was
out there just yesterday and doing their job. These are
guys he's asked. These are Sugarland Space cowboys that he's
asking to get the job done. And you know, eventually,
maybe they are now permanent major leaguers. But Caleb Or's
had opportunities before and just has never really cemented himself
as a full time major leaguer. His time with the

(18:43):
Astros has been unreal. King is in a really tough
spot in yesterday's game and a really long it bat
to try to get out of that inning after he
lost the batter before him, and he made a pitch
and guys staring at strike three and they get to
go back to the dugout and remain in a tie game,
and who has a spectacular inning and Hater has a
spectacular inning and then you have to ask Cater to

(19:05):
go a second inning. If this is what you mean,
and maybe you're saying they're bad in extra innings because
of the way you use your pitching staff, I don't
agree with that at all. Personally, the way that extra
innings are set up, you really can't say, well, I
hope to have him waiting so I can use him.
Then you can't wait. You can't hope. Some other teams
may be in a different situation with a different group

(19:25):
in the bullpen can he can't. And because you started
so poorly, you also didn't have the luxury like say
the Yankees did when they went in their massive and
extended slump. Well, the cushion had already been created. The
Astros were the opposite. So he chose and in my
opinion shows correctly he and Dana to basically grind these

(19:46):
guys into stumps and it worked. They're in first place.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
Yeah, but how long does this stay there? And look,
I don't I know that we've talked about how the
Mariners who have gone through their own slump and that
was a large part of simultaneous with the Astros ascension,
so that really helped. But this is the closest the
Mariners have been to the Astros. And well, how many
weeks it's been, right at that five to four games

(20:12):
back mark, and now it's three and a half because
once again the Astros lost last night and the Mariners won,
And that had been a rarity of rarities and now
you've got, you know, a little bit of you know,
breathing down your neck, and I think that's actually a
good thing. But you mentioned and I think it's the
same article we're talking about here. You mentioned Channel Rome's
article in The Athletic Chas McCormick, the quote that he gave.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
I need to stop being a witch with me exactly.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
That is see we I don't know, can we say
that stuff now that we're on TV.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
I never know what I did.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
Should suffice yes, yeah, yeah, no, for sure. Just in
the past, I probably would have just said it. That's
a quote from Chas McCormick. I've been getting so much
help throughout the year and I've been listening. I love
the advice, but at this point it's on me. I
have to do it myself. I'm the one leaping going
out there. I love the advice and everyone's been trying
to help me, but it's been six months. I need
to go out there and stop being what you mentioned.

(21:08):
And he went on to say, I need to find
it in myself to get out there, get confident and
have good at bats.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
It's on me. I what happened to Chas McCormick.

Speaker 4 (21:18):
That's the biggest question I have, because of all these guys,
you're not signing a Jason Hayward. Potentially, if Chaz is
even producing a little, I don't think.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Yeah, Chaz has been a part of the Astros three
years now, roughly the same amount of time, about one
hundred and twenty games each year, about three hundred and
four hundred bats each year, and none of them have
even resembled this. He hasn't even had stretches where it
was this bad. Now he's had an entire season. You
could if there are the you know, the five worst
major leaguers offensively, he's one of them. Most of the

(21:47):
other guys who have performed at his level or below
are not major leaguers anymore. And this entire conversation, especially
the part about how Joe's managed to get them here,
we didn't even mention the fact that he was the
one task with trying to figure out how to win
games while playing Jose Bray nearly every day or a
terrible at the time John Singleton, they had the worst

(22:08):
first base production by so much for six weeks because
he'd been saddled with this player, and you had the
same thing in the bullpen every third or fourth day,
You're like, well, everyone's pitched except for Montero. I kind
of have to use him today because he's in a
uniform and he's sitting out in the bullpen. I don't
really have a choice. And these are two pitchers who,
for the most pitcher at a player who just they

(22:29):
just shouldn't be here. And Chaz quite honestly is another one.
And because of the Tucker injury and because nobody else
has stepped up, it's even more magnified. Chas could be
having a miserable season. He'd barely even notice if Jake
Myers was a seven thirty ops guy who didn't strike
out every other at bat or try to hit into
a double play every other at bat, If Mauricio Dubon
didn't immediately start hitting more poorly as soon as he

(22:52):
got everyday work. Those things have also happened. They've had
the worst production out of their non Alvarez outfield, I'm
sure in the entire league for running on five weeks
now as they extended their division lead well and Ali
Choe's doing is not easy.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
Alvarez has been bad at home too, so he doesn't
get a free pass. But yeah, I just and we're
gonna hear from Joe Aspota on on the injury situation,
specifically on Kyle Tucker, because it's a big sticking point.
But look, we're getting we're getting close to the point
where he's actually going to be back in the lineup,

(23:29):
which is a very good thing, and you're hoping that
that comes sooner rather than later. No actual pinpointed date,
but when he gets back in the lineup, it's just
one less thing you hopefully have to worry about, even
if it means he's rounding his way back into shape.
We'll do that when we come back here on the
eight Team Sports Talk seven ninety, the.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
A team on Sports Talk seven ninety. If you can
buy Rockets gear on it, you can hear us on it.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Listen live for free on any smart.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
So it's August.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
Twenty seventh, which means that we are a mere well
potentially mere days away, maybe even a week away. Let's
just say it's a week from today or maybe well
it's like best case scenario, Kyle Tucker returns on Monday,
Labor Day. Do you think Joe's spot is looking forward

(24:29):
to when he comes on Sports Talk seven ninety and
isn't asked about Kyle Tucker anymore.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Because it has been like three months. You have a
calendar in front of you. I do, so. Did you
count how many days from today Labor Day?

Speaker 5 (24:40):
Is?

Speaker 3 (24:41):
Well? How many baseball games do they have a day off? No? Ooh,
so today's game? Yeah? Not playing today right now? I
don't think so, he's not in the lineup. That's one game,
two games Wednesday, three games Thursday, four or five six
over the weekend. So six games from now, six days
from now, on the second of September, which is Labor Day.

(25:02):
You're telling me that he will have been cleared to
do everything that he currently still can't do, and he
will have played in enough rehab games and we'll be
back in Houston ready to play for the Astros.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
Well, I preface that by saying it's the best case scenario.
It's not a realistic one though, No, it's not.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
The first week of September continues to be the refrain
from Dana. Well, that is the first week. That is
the second day of the first week.

Speaker 4 (25:33):
Yes, I think that he'll be asked about it one
more time next week and it'll probably in all likelihood
be if not concrete pointing to a specific date.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, Dana will be on the Sean Salisbury Show tomorrow
morning and they'll get a little bit more. Dana will
be on the Sean Salisbury Show a week from Wednesday
to fourth and I think at that point in time,
if you don't have an actual plan from Dana, then
probably something is not a gone. According to the most
recent plan, like, he is set to play for the
Space Cowboys this weekend, and we're hoping he needs just

(26:06):
two days will sell he feels after each of those days,
and if that also goes well, then he will rejoin
the team on this day or or something very close
to that. If he's not in that position to say
so on the fourth, then I would be pretty uninspired
by what lays out in the future. Joe A. Spotta
made his weekly visit on the Matt Thomas Show earlier today.
This is what he had to say about Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 5 (26:28):
Yeah, so Tuck, you know, he's been sending us videos
every day about his work, and he's actually running on
the field in the outfield doing sprints. I can call
him sprints now because he actually, you know, he's getting
to fifty sixty percent Matt's effort. So he's actually looking really,
really good. I think in the next couple of days now,

(26:51):
when we go home over the weekend, we'll see him
and see if we could get on the basis. But
I feel pretty good about the work he's doing, you know,
and I mean he wants to be on feel so bad.
I I you know, when we text one another, we
have our conversations. He you know, he feels how you
know that his teammates need him, how the CD wants

(27:11):
him on the field, being out for so long something
that he hasn't want to do. But he's trying to
get back on the field, you know. And I expect
him to, you know, early September, to be with us
and you know, on in the lineup. So you know,
I'm just hopeful and I keep praying that it's soon
because we can really use Calatuck in matline up.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
What would be good news is if he were playing
in Houston this weekend. Sugar Land to be exact, Space
Cowboys begin a six game series tonight, all six of
those games overt Constellation Field Salt Lake is in town
for those six. The typical minor league Monday day off
and then they go to Oklahoma City. Based on those
two locations and where a corpus will be, I don't

(27:55):
believe a trip to northwest Oklahoma to following JV's footsteps
is in Tucker's future. So I do believe there's a
pretty good chance based on what Joe has said and
Dana has said that either this weekend, maybe Sunday, maybe Saturday,
while the team obviously has returned home from this road trip,
maybe there's an opportunity and he is ready to take
part in a rehab game, and then that way he
will then also get the use of the off day

(28:18):
designed off day, and maybe he does spends time in
Oklahoma City, or maybe there's just the one trip to
Oklahoma City. That series obviously begins on the third and
runs through those six days, but still get him back
before those first week, first ten days of September. And clearly,
this team I don't just need him back on the field,
they need him producing and back on the field, that
lineup gets extended. You know, if Jeremy Payna can hopefully

(28:40):
carry a little bit moment of momentum from the games
in Baltimore, if janer Diez continues to hit well the
three in front of all of them. Now with Tucker,
maybe you do have a lineup that's five or six
deep instead of once you get through the first three
or four batters, you're on easy Street because it's Whiffsville
after that.

Speaker 4 (28:56):
By the way, and I know this is in the
probably farther back of anyone's mind right now as it
pertains to the Kyle Tucker situation. And I'm not being like,
this is not for effect. This guy mentally has a
never dealt with anything like this, at least not at
the major league level. And b there is going to

(29:18):
be an insane amount of pressure on him to produce
like you were having you were in the MVP conversation
before you got hurt. Now you're expected to just be
that guy when you come back on a short times
table for a team that desperately needs it. I'm interested
to see how he reacts to that aspect of it. Yeah,
And I wonder, let me just take the other side

(29:39):
of it. Will there be that much?

Speaker 3 (29:40):
They're clearly waiting for him, they clearly need him, but
the team is in another look at the team and
the position they were in when he left versus the
position that they're in when he's returning. And granted in
a week things could be different, but clearly they're going
to be better with him, yes, but they're not relying
on him. They're relying on him too outperform what they've

(30:01):
been getting from everybody who's been trying to replace him.
That's why Jason Hayward's likely going to be signed. That's
why Ben Gammel is getting regular starts. That's why Joe
Espada has to juggle his I got it. He's been hot.
He's won for his last six. That's better than the
zero for eight that this guy has. And I gotta
do this every single day for almost two months. You know,

(30:22):
Jake Myers, at the beginning of the season, or at
the beginning of the Meyers injury, and then just prior
to it, he was actually in a really good groove.
He was really helping this team offensively as much as
he was helping this team with his glove. But now
he's been in an extended, extended, extended period of time
where he isn't He had a really nice at bat
in Baltimore when he was called upon to pinch hit

(30:43):
first pitch he saw with runner and scoring runner on third,
second and third and less than two outs, he hit
a long fly ball. It's guaranteed to get the run home.
You had a two run lead. He made it a
three run lead. That was a fantastic job. And he
just needs to do more of that. And last night,
you know, just he does three things. Either he gets
an unexpected monster hit the home runs he grounds into.

(31:04):
He hits the tar out of the ball but right
at somebody who flips it and fires it and now
there's two more outs and you're out of a run
scoring opportunity. Or he's down er two in the count,
like he is way too often and the end result
is a strikeout. He's got the worst strikeout rate among
the Astros that have been regularly playing the past two
and a half months, and that has been He's not alone.

(31:26):
He's not dragging the team down, but he is. Among
all these players we're talking about, he's the only one
that's an everyday player. He isn't being taken out of
the lineup because they really can't afford to. His defense
glove work is still very very good, but he he's
been in a prolonged.

Speaker 4 (31:41):
Slump and again, all this stuff is I feel like
it's a little bit magnified when you're taking on I mean,
nobody cares about your schedule. Nobody's gona feel sorry for you,
but they are. This is probably the teeth of the
entire season's worth the skin. They have not played a
stretch where it's like boom, boom boom these type of teams,
not only that, playing at the level they're playing at

(32:01):
right now. Phillies had a little bit of a swoon
earlier in the year, but the Orioles, the Phillies, and
the Kansas City Royals for the most part year long
have been fantastic And they're in the middle of playing
all those teams.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
But they're one of them.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
No, that's true. That's true, and they haven't been all
season though. That's the difference between them and these three.
So certainly something to further discuss, as are your Houston
Texans some of the surprises, well, we'll see what surprised
wets the most about your Houston Texans and some of
the roster cuts that they made getting down to the

(32:35):
fifty three man roster just in time for the deadline today.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
We'll discuss that more coming up. Next year.

Speaker 4 (32:42):
On a Tuesday edition of the eighteen, Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
The a team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
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Speaker 3 (33:21):
All down the thunder, Well, now you got it.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Adam Clinton, Adam Wexford, all right, let go weck. The
eighteen continues on Sports Talk seven nineteen.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
You think of aj Dillon, the running back for the Packers, Uh,
nice reserve. Okay, I'm just wondering how big of a
blow you thought that would be to a team like that.
That's not going to be with his services for this
year for next stiffness.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
Well, I mean they went out and decided, well we'll
get Aaron Jones done, We'll start anew with Josh Jacobs.
Josh Jacobs will be a workhorse there and you know,
AJ Dillon is a good reserve running back. I don't
think he would ever be in a position to take
over full time, but yeah, that hurts him a little bit.
It's gonna be the Jordan Love show regardless. I think
that's what they're expecting. A bunch of young receivers there,

(34:21):
none of whom are so clearly a number one. I
say that for you, head coach Lafleur, I know how
much you hate that really, really talented group. I mean again,
there's no obvious you have to shut this player down.
You follow him across the field if you have a
cornerback that can do it. But across the board, they
have three or four guys that on any given Sunday
I really think could be a matchup nightmare. I might

(34:41):
help prove to be the reason why Jordan Love can
be so successful. But you know, things like that we're
gonna see around the league. I think other teams are
looking at the Texans in that same regard, and looking
at Christian Harris, who's expected to be on short term
ir to open the season. I mean he could be
back in four weeks, miss those first four games. Thus,
the question you asked about the Packers would be asked

(35:03):
about how much do you think this impacts the Texans defense.
I think tremendously considering the drop off from their top
two linebackers Harris and al Shaier to anybody else on
their roster as a linebackers pretty massive. If Christian Harris
twenty twenty four is the Christian Harris that finished off
twenty twenty three, both the last several games of the

(35:23):
season and then both of his postseason games. If that
player returned to the field this year playing alongside Al Shaire,
that would have been tremendous, and hopefully the final thirteen
games of the season that will be exactly what we see.
But having Jake Hanston or Neville Hewitt or Henry Toatoa
or somebody that somebody else didn't keep on their own
fifty three men roster as the linebacker next to Al

(35:46):
Shaier for these first couple of weeks, also, which will
be played without Deniko Audrey, that is a problem. It
definitely impacts what this team's going to look like defensively
for each of those first four or six opponents. And
we've kind of looked around at those games for reason
and because three of those teams have quarterback situations where
it could have been rookies, and it might be for

(36:07):
two of them. Drake May probably will be the Patriots
starting quarterback at that point in time, if not the
initial Sunday of the season, and clearly Caleb Williams, barring injury,
will be the Bear starting quarterback in Week two. Minnesota
will be starting a bad quarterback in Week three. It
just won't be rookie. JJ McCarthy could be Jaron Hall,
could be Sam Darnold, could be a number of different players.
But either way, it's probably a better time than some

(36:30):
other time in the season for the Texans to see
those quarterbacks considering what they could be missing defensively. Not
all the moves have been made official. I know there
is a deadline. I'm sure the league knows, but the
Texans have not finalized it officially. There were teams that
sent out their entire roster hours before the deadline hit.

(36:50):
The Jaguars were one of them. The Texans just have
not done that yet. Most of the reports indicate probably
one of the bigger surprises to me, and it is
on what the two subjects we've talked about the most.
The wide receiver group and the running back group. Apparently
British Brooks is going to make the initial fifty three
man roster. Now keep this little piece of thought in

(37:12):
your mind for what gms are doing. Well, let's keep
British Brooks today and let all these other teams look
at the running backs that are available to them tomorrow
and go ahead and make all their final decisions on
their fifty three men roster. And then maybe later before
the season starts, we'll do something a little bit different
with the roster. And maybe they won't be in a
position to take this player and they think they're already set,

(37:34):
they won't need him anymore. Maybe we can sneak them
through and get him on the practice squad. Or quite
possibly they are using Brooks because he could actually help
them as a blocker. All three fullbacks that we're in
camp with the Texans have been released or waived or
whatever manner in which they are no longer on the
roster Troy Harrison, Andrew Beck, and recently signed Nick Bouten.

(37:54):
Doesn't mean they won't carry a fullback. It's another thing like,
let's not have Andrew Beck take up a fifty three
man spot. On August twenty seventh on September fifth, Has
anybody picked him up? Is he still available? Well, we
want him for our first game, we want him for
every game, so we're going to make that move a
little bit later in the process. So again, the initial
fifty three when we see it today in its falling

(38:16):
up final form, is far from final, but that is
an interesting way to try to outfit the team. They'll
keep three tight ends and it's nothing's official, but Tigging
Quatoriana won't be here, as he was hurt after the
first game and spent almost all of his time with
the Texans injured since he was drafted now two seasons ago.
Stover Jordan, Brevin Jordan, and Dalton Schultz. You know, it

(38:37):
looks like Juwar Jordan is gonna be waived with an
injury designation, and hopefully that means he will remain with
the Texans. The wide receiver group, at least early reports
suggest they barely let anybody go. Yeah, they're all making
the team. Well, they're not going to be all on
the team when they get to the game against Indianapolis.
You're not gonna have eight roster spots committed to wide receivers.

(38:58):
But as of current reports. That's what they're looking at.
That's why the word initial is so important on a
daylight today. And Aaron Wilson, for example, just mentioning another one,
Steven Simms Junior making the initial fifty three man roster.
No word that Johnny Johnson's not there that I've seen.
So that's two. You kept Mechi and Hutchinson. That's three. Four,

(39:19):
you kept Woods, that's five. I'm pretty sure Nico, Steph
and Tank are making it. I don't know, man, that
is eight. Tank's been kind of rough. Have heard word
on the other receivers that I didn't list, and they
are among those that will not be back, including Ben's scronick.
Not beyond the initial fifty three. Again, that's a terrible
way to say it. They certainly could be back, but
at this position where there's unbelievable depth. And Steven Simms,

(39:41):
you know, I talked to him after the game. I
kind of wanted his general idea on what he thinks
about the kickoff rules, but obviously I talked to him
about his performance and his opportunity to make the team
as well being from Houston. On top of it being
in as the last time the Texans played a game
that the result mattered, he was the only one who
scored a touchdown in it. In their playoff game against Baltimore,
and in their Saturday preseason game, they handed the ball

(40:03):
off to him and he hauled off a thirty eight
yard run. He has been their primary kick returner and
I think he will retain those duties moving into this year,
especially in light of the fact he's on the initial
fifty three. I think they have questions about what they're
going to do with their punt unit, But there are
ways where players who are specialists. If you run into
a team that is aggressive and cocky and says, no, oh,

(40:27):
we're kicking off and we want you to return it, well,
Steven Simms Junior can be a weapon, and I think
they might see it that way.

Speaker 4 (40:33):
By the way, do you think they'll do what like,
for example, the Broncos just did this ten minutes ago.
You think the Texans social media accounts will put out
that official fifty three man roster as soon as it's finalized.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
Finalized fifty five minutes ago. So I'm not they could
put it out whenever. Why does me make a social
post about it?

Speaker 5 (40:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (40:52):
I mean I don't. Again, teams can do whatever they want.
They don't even have to put a release out if
they at all. But that's what's fascinating to me is
now teams go about it, you know, and uh, it's
not that it's not that you need that you're gonna
know about it before the social team puts it on
their account. It's just I don't know. I just think
it was interesting that they did it is interesting. I
don't get it. It's I have no idea why they

(41:13):
did would do this. And you were talking about other
teams finalized. It's been finalized for fifty five minutes. There's
no release, there's nothing on their social media. They again,
they can operate any way they want. I don't understand
the reason for it. And maybe maybe there's a technical reason,
and I'm just, you know, barking up the wrong tree.
I'm sure that they may their way the powers out
of NRG. I don't know. But again, I think of
all the things of consequence, I would like to know

(41:36):
if there were a couple of defensive end. Hey, I'm
a reporter, maybe I should be off doing my work.
You can turn it around on me. That's fine, Well,
you're doing your work right now. You're not just a
Are you consider yourself a reporter or a host? I
mean you have to decide. No, there's not one or
the other. You have to you can know you can.
Everyone can handle it, however they see fit your TV days.
If I feel like I can pick up the phone
or bust off a text to an agent or a

(41:57):
player and ask them their situation, then so be it.

Speaker 4 (42:00):
Then you become a reporter. I'm not becoming one just
for that time. Okay, you don't get to do it
full time. That's just not in the job description.

Speaker 3 (42:07):
All right.

Speaker 4 (42:07):
The A team continues here on Sports Talk seven ninety
About thirty thirty minutes from now, we will get to
the on Deck show four o'clock hour.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (42:21):
Back here with you to help you enjoy your football
Sunday morning with bud Light. You can smell it. It's
coming up hex Saturday as well, but certainly with the
official beer sponsor of the NFL, that is bud Light
Special edition cans on their way as per usual. But
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(42:41):
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Speaker 1 (42:53):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named at him talking your
Teams series, Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are d A
Team A.

Speaker 4 (43:06):
T Our number two here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
It is the A Team Adam Clinton right here, Reporter
Adam Wexler over there.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
As we have been.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
Going over the Texans trimming their fifty three man roster
down to just that. We've also been going over the
fact that the Astros lost a heartbreaker last night, I believe,
and I don't think it was you, but you tweeted
something similar. There was somebody last night that had a
screen cap of three of the last five games the
Astros had lost. You might have seen this where the

(43:40):
score is clearly the Astros are leading, and it's late
to fairly late stages of the game. Yeah, Astros, muse
that's who it was, and they lost all those games,
and look, that's baseball. I just think the fact that
those three games have all come within like the same
week has been a little bit harder to dumback than usual.

(44:02):
Nobody said that this was going to be easy with
the teams you're playing right now, but the fact the
Astros have found ways to lose as opposed to finding
ways to win, which is what they were just so
recently doing in a big reason why they had increased
their lead over the Mariners, who are now all of
a sudden within three and a half. Again, just I
guess after last night a little bit of a bitter
pill to swallow.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
Last night was a little different, at least to me,
finding a way to lose. I mean, I hate saying it,
but those two games in Baltimore, it seemed like that's
kind of what happened last night. That's not really I
didn't see it that way. I mean, you gave up
an hundred and run in the extra ending nonsense, Your
bullpen kept finding ways to keep it scoreless or keep
the game tied, and your offense just never was just
unable to score and again in these games as opposed

(44:46):
if you were playing probably any one of about fifteen
sixteen teams, it would be different. But you're playing a
team that thinks they're going to win the World Series.
You've played them all five games of this road trip,
and you're going to keep playing them for the rest
of the this route swing and all four games against
Kansas City. The team on the other side thinks they're
going to be the last team standing, and they should

(45:08):
think that. That's how good these three teams are. It's
not gonna get a whole lot different most of the
rest of the season. You haven't seen San Diego yet.
They're still a team that believes they can do that
with how they've gotten better up pretty much all the
way throughout the season. But the Astros are one of them. Also,
if they were playing other teams, I doubt they'd have
three losses in these five games. But because they're playing
these teams, those things are bound to happen, which is

(45:29):
why you're counting on your offense more than is probably
rightful for who they are currently. And it's all happening
while you continue to deliver off days to players, and
maybe it'll pay off over the final four weeks of
the season, final twenty twenty five games, the days off
that have finally been given to players which really weren't.
I don't think Joe spot I felt they could afford
themselves the idea to do that earlier. You still need

(45:51):
to get something from these other guys in the lineup.
As long as it's not empty at bats, as long
as they're grounding out and moving a runner over, not
hitting into double plays, walking up to the plate and
then walking back with their bat because they've just struck out,
you'll probably find a way to put some runs on
the board. Pretty good pitching matchup tonight. Guys who both
started games in the World Series when they played against
one another. Though Aaron Nola's games were awesome for Houston

(46:15):
and that they continued to score runs off of him,
they only scored twenty two runs in the World Series
of six games against the Phillies, and eight of them
came off of Nola. He had two starts, and they
were getting to him in both. It's a little bit
of time removed from that, and he, like Wheelers, is
still one of the better pitchers in baseball, one of
the better pitchers in the National League. If you're lining
up pretty much any team and you get to the postseason,

(46:38):
you say, who's one two do you like the most?
There are people that would say these two and the
Astros I thought did a good enough job to find
their way to a win against Wheeler, just didn't play
out that win. I actually kind of assume they will
do the same tonight. Top four in the lineup, al Tuo,
ve Bregman, Alvarez Diaz has worked out pretty well for
Joe and this crew over the last couple of weeks. Again,

(47:01):
it just got they have to get other guys, so
the pitcher doesn't know. Just exhale as soon as Janar
Diaz has done batting. By the way, Hector Nerris is unhittable.
He has well, there now no longer undefeated when Hector
Naris pitches. He's pitched in each of the last two
games and has done his job. And now you all

(47:21):
of a sudden, I mean, what they've been throughout the
season versus what they might be from September tenth through
the postseason. From a bullpen standpoint, Spencer Aghatty gives you
five innings, he's at eighty nine pitches. You're heading into
the late stages of a playoff game that you've given
him the ball to and you're up two to one. Well,

(47:42):
now you still need to get twelve outs and at
your disposal. You have Nerris, Taylor Scott, Bryan abraw, Ryan Presley,
Josh Hater. It sounds a lot better than it did
at other times this year. And I added Taylor Scott
because I'm hopeful he gets back to what he was.
I didn't mentioned Caleb or or Brian King, both of whom,

(48:03):
whatever you want to say, I don't know any other
way to put it. Just just watch them work and
look at the numbers that they've think thrown there. It's
not flukish. I'm not saying I trust them, but I'm
not blind to what they I do trust.

Speaker 4 (48:15):
Is them more than Rafael Montero, whose name is all
of a sudden being thrown out there again? Okay, now
all of a sudden, Well, I mean, why would you again?

Speaker 3 (48:23):
Those names you mentioned, are they world beaters?

Speaker 4 (48:26):
No?

Speaker 3 (48:26):
Did you know who they were before this season? Probably not? Well,
why don't we just give you the Joe spot of
bringing that up? Because I mentioned this yesterday? The six
man rotation puts a strand on your bullpen. Hopefully, the
Astros not only will be getting Cal Tucker back, but
some more flexibility with the lineup. For the same reason,
your bullpen hopefully becomes untaxed when you're able to expand

(48:46):
the rosters, get an additional position player, get an additional pitcher.
Addressed today, that's subject by Joe spot on the Matt
Thomas Show.

Speaker 5 (48:53):
Yeah, during those names in bullpen are on the consideration.
They're throwing the ball really, really well. You know, Montero
has made some adjustments, and you know the reports that
are getting are super positive. And and Wiley has been
throwing the heck out of the ball. So he's also
someone that we were considering. Uh, you know, like you

(49:15):
mentioned Staalastar and and you know all the few position
players are also in consideration. We'll sit we'll sit down
when we get back home and we look at our
roster and and we'll look at what's what's next for us,
what September looks like, and then we'll we'll make those decisions.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
When you think about minor league fools gold, Okay, you
know what I'm saying when I say that, do you
think it's more prevalent from a hitting perspective or from
a pitching perspective.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
Well, pitching like JV's I think a good example. He's
thrown multiple games down the minor leagues. His last start.
The success was there his first two starts, way back
at the beginning of the season. From a result standpoint,
we're embarrassing. He was terrible, but nobody cared. I think
he didn't care. The Astros shouldn't care because they're not
looking at results, so the numbers were totally irrelevant in

(50:05):
his case. You're being very specific to Forrest Whitley and
Rafael Montero. Those are the two names that Joe Spott
was talking about there, and Montero's now had an opportunity
to pitch in six games here this month for the
Space Cowboys. He's given up three hits, He's struck out
fourteen batters, He's given up no runs. He's also only
walked one batter. He actually got into trouble in his

(50:27):
last start, but that was only due to the fact
that errors were made behind him, and then with the
bases loaded, he struck out two batters.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
That to me, what you just went over is gives you,
or gives anybody. I would think listening to it more
hope than Jose Abrau went down to wherever whatever level
it was, and he's still not performing well.

Speaker 3 (50:48):
They also didn't They didn't what Montero's doing, he's gonna
end up getting essentially a month's worth of work, six seven,
eight nine, maybe ten appearances a braid got a couple
of days because after he left, the scl brought him
up to the minors, he barely did anything, and then
they put him back in the lineup. I think they
already knew the answer, and maybe that's why it was
a formality. Yes, they were doing as they told him

(51:09):
they would do. Here's your last opportunity, and we appreciate
the work you put in, and let's see what happens.
But they weren't really saying that. We know what's going
to count his money, we know what's going to happen.
You're just unable to contribute to this team right now.
In Montero's case, is he throwing as hard as he
used to? Yes? Is he locating as well as he
needs to know? Is his sequencing as strong as it
needs to be? Clearly not. That's why teams are having

(51:32):
their players go up there, and they're kind of just
sitting on his mistakes, and he's making too many of them.
They're gonna have better reports, quite clearly than these numbers
would tell you. When I say he struck out fourteen
batters or he got say seven whiffs in a three
or four appearance stint span Well, does that mean they
were swinging and missing it balls that would have been
called strikes? Otherwise? Does that mean he set them up

(51:55):
very well and they left the zone to go get it?
Are they looking heater and he's got good snap to
you know, something off speed that's breaking out of the zone.
Or are these guys a bunch of free swingers trying
to get that call up to their own team and
swinging and everything he throws, and thus the numbers look
very good. Whitley's numbers are almost identical to Montero's over
the same stretch of time. He's given up a few

(52:15):
more hits and had a few more base runners out there,
but he's been very good at throwing strikes, commanding his pitches.
And I think not only because those are the two
names mentioned, I think it's it's pretty much at this point.
I would say it's almost a given if nothing else
changes and there's no new injury or no different way
they want to outfit things, that one of those two

(52:36):
names is gonna have a plate in the Astros clubhouse
when they expand.

Speaker 4 (52:40):
The roster, and it's so expanded rosters one thing, playoff
rosters another. And I'm just I will be very curious
to see who's left off at this season.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
Yeah, these two players, neither of them Forrest Whitley and Montero,
barring some major injuries over the final month, they won't
be pitching in the postseason. You would probably look at
Ort King and Seth Martinez as the likeliest to not
be on a postseason roster. You also keep in mind
that they currently have six starters. They're all going to
be on the playoff roster, and two of them probably

(53:12):
will start zero games, So it changes what you might
need to have. Like if for some crazy thought they
would think, well, Sean Dubin's our long guy, Well now
you don't need him anymore because you have two new
long guys that are no longer starting. So he's a
real long guy, and he's another player who's now currently
not with them. He's probably not somebody you would put
on the playoff roster because again, if everybody's healthy between

(53:33):
now when they get there and that they get there,
there's no clinching that's been done, then I think they
have much better options than it looked like at different
points in the year.

Speaker 4 (53:41):
You remember that episode of Friends where they were playing
for the apartment. They were playing the game and Ross said,
I'll tell you yeah, Ross said, the test is ready.
The Texans fifty three man roster is out officially, like
with graphics and everything on social media, and we will
go over every single player. No, I'm kidding, won't do that,
but it is out so we can for sure, for sure,

(54:03):
for sure dictate what we think going into the initial
fifty three man roster for a twenty twenty four season
that will have all of the promise and all of
the I mean, there's a lot of good mojo going
into this year for the Texans. We'll discuss in the
final segment of the eighteen coming up next the.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
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Speaker 1 (55:21):
Back to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler the.

Speaker 4 (55:24):
Eighty well seven wide receivers not eight.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
Yeah, I told you I had not heard anything on
Johnny Johnson, the third yet. I did not think he
would make the team, even though I think he's He's
probably an NFL player based on what he's been able
to show this team the last couple of camps and
even in the preseason activity here in a little bit
of game action, but he was the last, essentially the
last player not included in the initial fifty three man,

(56:04):
Digs Woods, Dell Mechi, Collins Hutchinson, and Steven Simms the
seven that make it on the initial fifty three man. Again,
they're almost two weeks until they play a game, so
a lot of this can and likely will change. Just
the two quarterbacks C J. Stroud and Davis Mills. There
are five running backs, and I do think British Brooks
may have an opportunity to fulfill full back duties if necessary,

(56:25):
but that remains to be seen.

Speaker 4 (56:27):
Are you surprised that Damian Pierce is on this roster still?

Speaker 3 (56:31):
No, I'm surprised how many people made it into something
is actually what I'm surprised that I mentioned that yesterday,
the idea that Cam Akers was beating out Damian Pierce.
That's correct. That's a topic, that's a conversation worth having.
The fact that they were going to tell Damian Pierce,
we don't need you here because we have Cam Acres,
Joe Mixon and Dario Gunbowale. Never thought that would be

(56:53):
the case, especially since they've they've purposely starting last year
and running through all camp and preseason this year. He's
part of their special teams unit, a very good unit
and one they expect to be very good. Again, he
has more to do whether he's a part of the
running game. Again, that's very reasonable conversation to have. But
I would expect that the answers probably know because as

(57:16):
soon as they give cam Akers an opportunity in a
regular season game, which probably comes Sunday, September eighth against
the Colts, which is the opener, and when Joe Mixon
needs a blow, I think you'll see that there are
things that he has a he's really good in addition
to also being a very good fit with familiarity for
this offense. And it remains to be seen if Damian pierces.
You can look at some of the numbers in the

(57:38):
different scheme that he's had in his career, the pre
Demiko Bobby Slowik portion of his career, in the post
Demiko Bobby Slowick portion of his career, and it's just
night and day the success that he's had. And he
didn't just become bad, it didn't just become unusable. But
I don't think they were ready to say, yeah, let's
just let somebody else have him. Yeah. No, that's a

(57:59):
very good point.

Speaker 4 (58:01):
And by the way, unlike the Jacksonville Jaguars. For example,
the Texans will have five running backs on the roster
Jacksonville with three today. Yeah, but I just you know,
this is the day to make fun of all that
kind of Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
They don't have a fullback there in Jacksonville. They also
have two of the top fifteen picks in the twenty
twenty one NFL Draft at quarterback, both Mac Jones who
went fifteenth and Trevor Lawrence, who went first. That's their
quarterback room right now. CJ. Bethard hurt and was let
go through. That mean three tight ends for the Texans.
Like we mentioned, I actually was correct on the nine
offensive linemen that would make it, and that includes both

(58:37):
k E. N period Greens, Ken Yon and Ken Drick.
Kendrick J. Patterson, Blake Fisher and Nick Broker will be
their reserve offensive lineman. I don't think that's going to
change before the opener. By the way, defensive lineman. Only
one surprise there was Tim Suttle Junior, only in the
fact that he's been hurt for so much of camp.
I wasn't one hundred percent sure on the scenario that

(58:58):
he would be in moving forward, but he's one of
their eight Kurt Heinisch is on short term ir so
not currently among those eight. One surprise among the defensive
backs m J. Stewart. The only reason that's the surprise
is because he's been like me to a certain degree
the last handful of practices. And I don't suggest I
was on the field watching, but I was there watching
and that's unfortunately, all that he was able to do

(59:19):
is he had been hurt, so I wasn't sure that
the length of time that his injury would require him
to be out, but hopefully not into the season. He's
a part of the active roster. Among the ten defensive
backs that they kept, that includes Chris Boyd, I thought
Chris Boyd probably showed that he was the next guy
in line after their starters in Jeff Akuda unfortunately got

(59:40):
hurt in Saturday's game. He did not leave the bench
area though, so it didn't appear to be serious. He
had his calf heavily taped and wrapped, and hopefully it
isn't serious. He does make this team. He joined the
team late last year, a lot of time on the
practice squad. Del Sean Phillips probably the only surprise today
that makes it among the linebackers on the initial fifty three,
probably the one of the players that realizes the situation

(01:00:04):
and went in. If the Texans find players that they
might think fit a little bit better, he might be
they got one of the players they have already earmarked
to be replaced. But rookie Jamal Hill, Neville Hewitt elite
special teamer, and the other three line bickers I mentioned
that will be on the field with Christian Harris on
short term. I are not a part of the active
roster for at least the first four weeks. I'll share

(01:00:25):
here j Canson and Henry Toatoa and of course the
great flow of Tommy Townsend your new punter along with
Kaymi and John Weeks.

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
And those are your Texans, John Weeks starting his fiftieth
season with the Texans, who have only been around since
two thousand and two.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
Yeah, not too many surprises, some very clear options for
practice squad. Juwar Jordan if you'd missed the report on
that earlier today, expectation was his injury would be a
way that he would be here. Juwar Jordan, Filderius Pain
and taking Quittorriano waived injured and those are players that

(01:00:59):
aultimately likely revert to the Texans roster practice squad sometime
in the very near future. Case Keenum and Brandon Hill
on season ending ir. Brandon Hill was hurt in Saturday's game,
had to bring the air cast out and he was
carted off the field and his entire team came out
on the field because everybody realized the severity of the injury,

(01:01:21):
which is going to require surgery for him. He was
right there on the fringe of being one of the safeties.
Probably probably would have been on the outside looking in,
but as a second year player, he would almost certainly
have been back here on the practice squad if that
were the case. And the two players that haven't been
a part of the roster and won't be moving forward
for two totally different reasons. The non football illness list

(01:01:42):
is where Dylan Horton goes. He's been there throughout camp,
has worked on the side fields throughout most of camp.
And Denico Audrey, who goes on the reserve suspended list
six games he will be gone for before being reinstated
and hopefully and having no issues over the final eleven.

Speaker 4 (01:01:58):
So you feel good. You feel like they're gonna win
thirteen games. You feel like they're winning the Super Bowl,
you're on the AFC Championship.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
What are they doing? I think the manner in which
you guys heard him ask that question, you already know
my answer. I feel the same as I did twenty
four hours ago and forty eight hours before that. The
initial fifty three man roster should not be setting anybody
off one way or the other. And even though I
do think they had a lot more talent in camp,
it's really on the front end. Some of these selections

(01:02:23):
might have been difficult for the coaches and the GM
and everybody involved with personnel. I totally get that, But
I'm not gonna sit here and say I look at
this roster and think they are loaded and they have
so much depth. I think exactly the opposite. Defensively, I
think they're totally set. Offensively, I think they have depth
at every spot, wide receiver, offensive line, running back, tight end.

(01:02:43):
Maybe there's a fourth tight end you'd want to carry
later in the year, or somebody of value on the
practice squad. Just because three is a bit tough, especially
if you're not necessarily using a fullback. I'm not sure
you really want to have stover and Jordan taking too
many reps where they're trying to lead the way or
at least schematically confuse a defense. But defensively, after Barnett,

(01:03:05):
Anderson and Daniel Hunter, I'm not super enthused about anybody else.
And you don't play these guys one hundred percent of
the snaps. Every defensive end that's active plays every game.
When you're active, you get out there, you get twenty snaps,
you get thirty snaps, you might get forty snaps in
a game. So who else that will be right now?
Is Jerry Hughes the same thing. On the interior, they
chose to reshape the interior of their defensive line. They

(01:03:28):
traded Elie Collins, and they lost the race for Sheldon Rankins,
which by sending him into free agency, that was almost
a given that that would happen. They were not the
team to trade for Eric Armstead may or may not
have turned out to be a good decision or bad
decis and we'll see what he looks like where he landed.
But everybody that's on the interior has been a fringe,
part time starter. Sometimes good player like Mario Edwards Junior

(01:03:51):
is kind of bounced around. He's starting for the Texans. Now,
Foley Photoicasi was not an entrenched key performer for any
of the defenses he's been on. He is a starter. Obviously,
Christian Harris isn't even there for these first four games,
so linebackers are major concern. Jalen Petrie, Jimmy Ward, Kamari Lassiter,
Derek Stingley Junior. That is a really, really good first four.

(01:04:13):
But Petrie's in the slot. So another safety will be
on the field all season long, most of the time
when they're in that defense, which is probably seventy five
percent of the time. Right now, it's Eric Murray, who
I do think actually might have a better situation now
because of how they play than at any point during
his career. But I do think Kylen Bullock ultimately unseats him.

(01:04:35):
So now all of a sudden, maybe you're okay. But again,
right after that, I'm not really enthused about the safeties
after that, and right after those top two corners, it's
Jeff Okuda, it's Chris Boyd, it's Miles Bryant. I would
just go far from calling that ideal.

Speaker 4 (01:04:50):
Now, you are as much as you are bullish on
the additions this offseason. The defense overall. I'm I'm not
saying that you think they're going to be terrible, but
you definitely only you sound skeptical at best.

Speaker 3 (01:05:03):
I mean, I don't know if we have to make
a wager on it, but we'll get a number when
we get to our Stone Cold locks on Friday, September fifth.
Jonathan Taylor is going to have a rushing number, and
I'm pretty sure whatever it is, he's going to go
over it, or the Colts as a team will have
a total yards rushing number, and I think there's a
pretty good chance they'll go over it against the Texans

(01:05:24):
opening week.

Speaker 4 (01:05:25):
I'm hoping that they surprise everybody because that's I mean,
I get Jonathan Taylor is fantastic. But we'll have to
leave it at that for the football conversation because we
obviously have astros on deck to get you ready for
game two of their three game step between the Phillies
and your astros from Philadelphia. We will do that when
we return here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety