Altuve All In LF Today, A Bold Astros Prediction, Dana Brown and Christian Walker From WPB

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named at him Talking Your
Team series, Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
A Welcome In. Welcome In. It is a Tuesday edition
of the program. It's Sports Talk seven to ninety. It
is the A Team wex and Ac with you until
six o'clock tonight, as we continue the countdown to not
only Astros baseball later on this month, but also the

(00:36):
Rockets resuming their schedule on Friday. I'm getting pumped about
that game for a number of reasons. We've got I've
got a buddy of mine who's bringing his kids to
the game that night, and that's gonna be fun because
he's like a die hard season ticket holder. But he
like I grew up with him since high school and
he's a true, you know, true blue Rockets fans. And

(00:58):
he's like we were talking about this last night, he's
a Titans fan because he's one of those people that
when they went to Nashville, he followed the Oilers. But
he's a Houston guy. Throw him through diehard Astros, diehard Rockets,
and he's like, I'm losing my NFL love, you know,
with each passing day. He's like you know, I it's

(01:19):
more about the Titans than the NFL. It's the way
they're being run right now. We understand that here in Houston,
we just went through a rough period with the Texans,
and they've had several rough periods in their brief existence,
but the rock or the Texans have come out on
the other side. Anyway, I say all that because it's
a big game and the Rockets should cross cross both
hands here, cross both fingers, be somewhat one percent healthy

(01:43):
or at least close to it when they're ready to
play the Minnesota Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards future Rocket on
Friday night. You're not as optimistic, are you.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
They should practice tomorrow, and they should practice and probably
give us an idea of where that actually stands.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
I would be very I'd be surprised at a chance
of playing.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
I don't honestly, I know that the timeline on Jabbari
is that he's close. But unless Fred's been, you know,
pounding the hardwood with the basketball the last seven days,
then he's not close because he hasn't done He hadn't
even been cleared for practice. The hope was he would
be cleared for practice at this point, if he's clear
for practice as a step when he's not playing.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
He's questionable instead of just you're not ready to.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Play if you haven't practiced, right for most For most
players coming off of an injury like this, and certainly
an older player, I wouldn't think so. But yet practice tomorrow,
properly practice definitely practice Thursday, and then see what the
what the status is for Friday night.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Uh doesn't mean they can't win.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
They've they've played pretty good basketball at times with the
groups of players that they've had, and obviously they'll still
be according to what emai Udoka said before the break,
they'll still be dealing with their thoughts on Tari.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
And Steven Adams.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
From a back to back standpoint, they play Friday Saturday,
they play back to back again.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
The next two games after that.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
For these next five games are at home, and just
before the break, they began that stretch of thirteen of
seventeen at home, So it's a little bit different scenario
for them to actually get practice in travel a whole
lot less and maybe that will help with whatever group
they have available to them. The good news is it's
not real Thursday or Friday or Saturday, Friday Saturday, the

(03:22):
two game days. They shouldn't be treated as any kind
of deadline at all. There's thirty some odd games left
for most teams, twenty plus games left. That's what's most important.
The playoffs don't begin until April. We're in February. Unless
there are new injuries. Obviously, that can happen for anybody,
not just the players coming back. The timing of it
probably won't be so bad. If you can tell me

(03:43):
Jabari and Fred are good to go for ninety percent of.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
The remaining games.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeahtari and Steven Adams are good to go for eighty
five percent of the remaining games. I mean, there'll probably
be one other new injury, that's just nature of the game.
But other than that, I would say i'd like where
they aresidering. We've got to watch almost three months October,
short month November and December.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
They've had virtually zero injuries. Get this game, maybe steal it,
although I wouldn't consider it a steal since it's home,
and then beat the team that only the Lakers can't
beat the Utah Jazz because they suck on the road
the very next night in a back to back where
you are traveling obviously a very it's actually a pretty
lengthy flight. But then you know, get healthy and let's

(04:28):
push forward because this playoff run, and that's what it's
going to be. It's a playoff push for a playoff run.
This is not just an appearance in the first round.
Let's you know, you need to The Rockets are too
good this year and have come too far to just
make this a you know, consolation appearance. All right, this
is successful. We made the postseason. Try to win a
playoff series like that should be the goal this year.

(04:49):
That's what top four teams should want. Yeah, exactly right,
top four team. I still expect them to be there playoffs, right.
I don't know that they'll be favored.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
I would like to think that, but I got to
be a realist about who they they might be playing.
Never know what Minnesota looks like when they get there,
and they very easily could be five. The Lakers from
a gambling standpoint, might carry some weight. Who knows what
the Luca Lebron Lakers will look like. They could be five,
they are currently five. Even the Dallas Mavericks Anthony Davis
has hurt today and tomorrow and for another thirty days probably,

(05:19):
but is he healthy later and have they found a
way to get to the five seed. They're currently eight,
but there's only four games separating five through eight. A
lot of different matchups could obviously still be in front
of them. Sacramento, Golden State, Phoenix, and each of the
other teams we've mentioned along with the Clippers, those are
the other playoff teams. Those are probably five through ten.
One of those teams obviously can't be the Spurs, I

(05:41):
don't believe will be a part of that. The Spurs
are almost I'd feel pretty confident saying they'll finish twelfth
this year. So just outside once again, but it's good news.
There's worthwhile discussion to be had. Why did they lose
this game matters now? Why did they lose this game
last year? In the years before, well, we didn't need
to debate why. We knew why they played bad basketball.
They didn't have enough talent, And it's no longer the case.

(06:03):
It's gonna be a question about it from the astro
side of things. Is that still true When they were
losing games for the last eight years, there were questions
about it. Certainly the playoff games not gonna pretend one
hundred and sixty two games. We need to go about
man that one hurt, even though on this show we
do sixty five seventy five times a year, maybe seventy

(06:24):
three times, whatever it might be. But there in camp
in full day two of work today a couple of
minor injuries which Joe a spot ha mentioned on the
pitching side of it, the hitting side of it, position
player side of it sounds pretty good as it should
be with no lingering issues from their off seasons and
obviously over the one and a half workouts they had
had when Joe talked, nothing of great significance to push

(06:47):
anybody back. We'll hear from Dana Brown, who spent a
little time with the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Our show,
Matt Thomas and Ross are there today, tomorrow and throughout
the rest of.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
The week to see what's up.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
Chris Gordon doing some great work over the last handful
of days as the team got there from pitchers and
catching standpoint. We've been there throughout and continue to bring
you that coverage. So some of the conversation that Dana
had with Ross and Matt will bring that to you.
Three thirty five point fifteen, we will hear from Christian Walker.
He got to camp yesterday, spoke with the media a
little bit and shared some of his time with Matt

(07:21):
and Ross. We talked about him yesterday quite a bit,
and I'll be very enthused for you guys to hear
what he had to say today about the role he's in.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Jo Spotta also asked, and we'll.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Hear from him about that leadership question we talked about yesterday.
I think it's a question only for whatever number of days,
because at some point during the season it will happen
organically and he will be one of the needed leaders
for a team that lost several of them this year
and many of them during this Golden era.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Well as Rick in Sugarland mandated yesterday we are done
talking about Alex bregnant talk. He just asked, no, he
mandated it. That's what I got for.

Speaker 3 (07:59):
Listeners, don't and followers and fans and those that we
appreciate still don't speak.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Don't wish again today if you're not looking, if you're
looking for us on television, you will not see us
back out back at it again tomorrow doing a little
maintenance over on the Space City side. So at three
o'clock when you normally see our bright, shining faces. You
won't see that today. But we will be back at
it again on the TV side tomorrow starting at three o'clock.
But we've got you here for the remainder of the afternoon.

(08:26):
And yeah, it's funny you the way you phrased that
yesterday talking about Christian Walker. All right, give him about
thirty seconds and he's going to be one of those
clubhouse leaders. It's not just that that's the type of
guy he is, and that's the type of guy he's
been wherever he's played, But it's that it has to
be now. I think it has to be. It has
to be good or else it really won't matter. He's

(08:48):
going to be good. Are you really concerned about him?

Speaker 3 (08:50):
No, I'm not saying that at all, but just take
I don't mean it that way at all. I mean,
you're not going to lead as a new player if
you're hitting two fifteen, which first month it's two fifteen,
it's not an impossibility.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
This is like, Okay, remember the other night, it could happen.
Remember the other night when Joel Embiid got after somebody
and I can't remember the situation, And it was like, okay, dude,
why are you Yeah, why don't you go ahead and
maybe play a week at a time before you start,
you know, handing out orders on this team, on this.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
SAME's that's an injury issue much more than he's going out.
And that'd be like one of your better players playing
like garbage and getting on you for it. Well, he's
not even there. So it's kind of a weirder dynamic.
But there's no doubt who their best players are when
Joel and Tyrese Maxey and they're going not going anywhere
without them, Well, step inside the Astros clubhouse. Hey, there's
Jose al Tuvas. He's a leader, he's one of their

(09:40):
best players. There's your Don Alvarez, he's the leader, he's
one of their best players.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
And that's it. There's Christian Walker next, Yeah, he's their
next best player. Because I mean, I'm trying to think
of even like pitchers. Well I'm not.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
I'm not including them for obvious reasons, but why because
they're not in the lineup every day?

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, but who was it that was barking at the
team in Dodger Stadium during the World Series one of
Erlander's brother There you go. And I know that he's
a special case because he's like a Hall of Famer,
But like I know what you're saying about pitchers. No,
you're there's a difference.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
So I'll add the second part of it. None of
those guys are on their staff. They don't have anybody
that's another name that's out the door.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah, five guys off of last year's team that went
to the playoffs. Not here.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
All five contributed in some ways, Him in a way
that was much more of a leadership than his performance.
Kakuchie a lot less leadership and a lot more performance.
And then Presley, Tucker and Bregman.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
I'm at daring degree, I'm gonna do this next segment
against my better judgment. Martinez, Yes, obviously him, although he
is available again, we can't forget about him. I'm gonna
do this when we come back. I'm gonna I'm gonna
do something I did at the beginning of the football season.
Oh bold predictions. Cool it is, and it regards your astros,
and I don't feel good about it. I don't feel

(10:58):
good about having to do it. It's not that I
don't feel about the season, but I'm gonna lay it
out there. Now's the time. Haven't even played a spring
training outing, so now's the time to go ahead and
do it. And I will do that when we come
back here on a Tuesday edition of the show.

Speaker 4 (11:11):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (11:16):
We now return to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexworth on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
It is The A Team. It's Sports Talk seven ninety.
It's a Tuesday edition of the program. Again. We had
somebody asking us about this yesterday. Hey, hey, where are
you guys. We're here. We're just not televised today, doing
a little maintenance on the Space City Home network side
of things. So starting at three o'clock, it'll still just
be radio like the olden days, but beginning tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
And for those of you listening, you won't be able
to tell it different. No, and we last your Scember, October, November, December, January, February.
However many months that is.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
I was asking today when we started doing this TV
side of things, and I have no concept of time.
Once my child of August was it? Good Lord, We've
been doing that since August.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
I think the official promoted launch came after a few
weeks of I was changed on the air and then
the early portion of September.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yeah, don't let too many people know that we're doing
this so we can get all the kinks worked out.
Now you can tell her about it. Good news is
there were barely were any by the time we finally
hit the Yes, that was the idea. So all right,
let's get down to business here, because it's easy to
make predictions, especially this time of year, about the baseball season.
And don't worry, we will. We'll make our full season

(12:37):
division winners, wild cards, all that kind of stuff, predictions
because we're so awesome at it. Just to see our
stone cold locks. Yep. But here's the day.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
Thank's Royals, Astros three. You only do the National League two. Yeah,
you got the Royals winning the division.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Huh. Very competitive. So it'll be like with eighty eight
wins and they'll win it by game and a half
or some or game. I guess four teams. He wins
by half games at.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
The end of the year, unless you're the Astros who
last year. I forgot about that. Yeah, I think four teams.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Are in the mix.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yeah, Twins, Guardians, Royals, and the team that need not
be named here on the show.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
You could argue that it's a more competitive division than
the AL East, even though I wouldn't those teams are better.
I mean, from a competitive.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
There's one team division that can't win, and then there's
four teams in each division that can. If you give
Toronto a little bit of the quality of the AL
East East teams though, is better.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Oh wait, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, And and the
ALS sucks.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
You know, we're focused on a lot of things here
quite clearly, but there'll be a little bit of of
an eye towards, you know, players that were once here
in their futures. And Kyle Tucker's future is a little
bit different than the others because he's currently about to
go into free agency after the next six months go
by and whatever happens with Chicago unless he signs at
some point during the season, which you always can do

(14:01):
well Toronto. Speaking of them, Vladimir Guerrero met with the media,
so did their GM, and they talked about well, they
actually had a deadline because they discussed it and this
is what they came up with, and it just passed
and they did not come to an agreement with Vladimir Guerrero.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
So Guerrero. That sounds like Carlos carraz As we sit.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Here, Guerrero and Kyle Tucker presumably lead next year's free
agent class. We have to at least acknowledge it's possible
two players in this year's free agent class will also
be in next year's free agent class, Pete Alonzo and
Alex Bregman, because they will have that option. Though I
don't suspect Alex will use it, it's possible that Pete

(14:39):
uses it. And if he uses it, then that might
open the door for the Mets to say thank you
in two ways, thanks for your time here and thanks
for opening the door for us to spend money on
Vladimir Guerrero to play first base. But just kind of
looking at at what Toronto could do. Toronto I think
did a lot of good things this off season. Is
it enough to catch or pass any of those other
three teams? If it is or it isn't, they're still

(14:59):
going to a harder team to mop up on or
beat down than they were in the past. So four
teams there have a chance to win the division. Four
teams in the Central have a chance to win the division.
I think it's only fair to say three teams in
the Astros Division the American League West have a chance
to win the division. That also means there's four bad teams.
Only four bad teams in the American League, which is

(15:22):
not usual.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
No, it was a very small number. Nobody won one
hundred games last year. Well, nobody won one hundred games
last year, end of the sentence. But in the American
League particularly like you got close, like because the Dodgers
screwed around for two games and couldn't even win a
hundred with Shoheo Tani idiots, we won the World Series.
Good for you win one hundred games, so I could
be impressed. All right, here we go, Dan, here's your cue.

(15:46):
I did this last season at the start of the
NFL year, and it was more of like a gut
feeling more than anything. And anybody who heard it at
the time probably thought, Ah, that's just a radio guy
in Houston, just being a anti Dallas guy, even though
they don't play in Dallas, they play in Arlington. I said,
the Dallas Cowboys are either going to be really really

(16:08):
good and actually make some noise and not get crushed
in the opening round of the playoffs at home by
the Packers, or it's going to be an unmitigated disaster.
And I was not lining that up with injuries, which
ended up factoring in obviously. But they sucked before Dak
Prescott went down. Okay, the earlite quarterback went down. Yeah,
what are you gonna do? But they sucked while he

(16:29):
was playing what are you gonna do? So here it is,
the Astros are about to have a very Dallas Cowboys
like season now. One way or the other. I'm not
saying they're gonna do what Dallas did. But with everything
that we just got done talking about, with the competition
as it is in the American League and with you

(16:49):
know only basically I think three teams having the ability
to win in the Astros specific division, it's not gonna
be one of those seasons, in my opinion, where they're
scraping by and at the very tail end it's been
a a juggernaut. It's been a tractor poll and then
at the last day or last week of the season,
they edge ahead and they win. They're either gonna win

(17:10):
it with like anywhere from eighty five to ninety wins,
or they're gonna be down there with the Oaklands in
the Anaheims of the world. And I feel very strongly
about saying that. And here's why you cannot. You just
cannot ignore what they've lost from a leadership standpoint. The
production standpoint speaks for itself. That's not even a conversation starter.

(17:33):
You just lost Alex Bregman. Well, those numbers are trailing, Okay,
I'll give you that. Well, he's an unseasonably slow starter
every year, and it was even worse last year. Right,
Kyle Tucker was awesome until he went down and then
he missed the rest of the season practically, and that's
when they took off. I get that too. But Bregman, Tucker,
and to a lesser extent, Presley in the bullpen, those

(17:56):
departures are not small in any way, shape or And
I'm not saying anything that any of you don't already know.
But the problem is when it comes down to predicting
what's gonna happen in twenty twenty five with the Houston Astros,
nobody knows. You can't sit there and say, yeah, they'll
be all right, because this, this and this, all those this,
this and this is are unproven commodities at best in

(18:19):
an Astros uniform well they got Christian Wacker. Great, he's
never played a game here. Well, he's gonna abuse the
Crawford boxes. He might, but he'd better. Is more like it.
You have to not only, you know, replace that production
on the field, you have to replace that production in
the clubhouse and in any sort of intangible area. And
I'm just not willing to sit here and say it's

(18:40):
a foregone conclusion. And so that's why I say it's
gonna be feast or famine. They're either gonna win this
division and it's gonna be like, Okay, they're all right,
they're at least still in it because they'd made some moves,
some contingency plans, even with the departures they had, or
it's going to be one of those seasons where we're like,
oh my gosh, this is the longest summer ever. It's
hard to say that that's some possibility.

Speaker 6 (19:01):
So I won't.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
I don't see it the same way.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
I actually think it's going to be a lot like
last year, except temper both ends of the schedule. Don't
start the way against the Yankees. Don't start twelve and
twenty four. Yeah, don't do that. And I don't think
they will. If they don't do that, you're in a
much better spot. And I'll tell you how the leadership
comes in. But also I don't expect them to finish
with the record they had after they went twelve to

(19:25):
twenty four. I mean, I kept tracking it all throughout
the year. Here's another few days, another few days, another
week where it's seventy five games, we're one hundred and
one games or one hundred and twenty games. They were
the best team in the American League for the majority
of the season. This got off to such a miserable
start that their record overall never really indicated as much.
There were twelve games under five hundred. They finished fifteen

(19:45):
games over five hundred. So they played at twenty seven
games over five hundred, with one fewer game than everybody
else practically the rest of the season, the final one
hundred and twenty six games of the season. That's not easy,
and that put them above everybody else, some of the
teams that ended up winning more games than them.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
They got off to a.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
Great start, they were well ahead of them, and then
the Astros outplayed him for four months. That's probably not
gonna happen this year. Not gonna happen because I think
the American League is so much stronger overall, and I
know the balance schedule doesn't keep you from playing National
League teams, but I think it's gonna be much more
difficult for the Astros to put those type types of

(20:26):
things together. We look at last year's staff, pitching wise,
starting pitching wise, man, they went through so many injuries.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
They yes and no. The last spot in the rotation.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
They couldn't figure it out because that spot always needed
to be replaced until they got Usay Kakuchi. You had
JP France go down. You obviously had Christian Javier go down.
You had a couple of guys who you thought might
be back after four months, and Lance and Luis that
never came back. But you also got twenty eight starts
from four guys. Yeah, that's a healthy season, yep, from

(20:56):
your starting pitching staff. Big picture, the worst of the
the starters you used last year a ninety point one
innings worth of it. He's in San Francisco. You did
lose another sixty innings of Yusay Kakuchi. You lost another
fifty plus from Ryan Presley. Those do matter, and you're
you're counting on people like was Nesky to take the

(21:17):
spot of Erlander.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
That's a big ask. And who's behind him Nobody, literally
nobody right now for the Astros. Lance mccullors would have
you think he's in the waiting, but he's not ready yet.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
Well, Lance isn't pitching for the Astros until late late
late late late April, if that early, And I don't
mean that to rain on anybody's part. That's the best
case scenatter, he said, that's what the team has said.
He needs to pitch in the minor leagues. He needs
to be in games before he can pitch in these games.
I'm not trying to forecast him setback. That's with no
set you also have to have him pitching those games. Yeah,

(21:49):
he'll if as long as he pitches and is healthy,
he'll he'll make it back, regardless of the results. I
feel pretty confident that they'll give him that opportunity. But
they don't really have anybody else that they know anything about.
They got pitchers in camp, you know, blue Ball and
a few others. Clearly the names you might have heard,
they would be the next guys in line. They would
be the guys that would have to take a start
if somebody can't. If they need to go deeper into

(22:10):
their starting repertoire the first month six weeks of the season,
so they're already up against it right as the season begins,
that's something that could derail them. And last year, if
they started twenty and fifteen, would they have really needed
to dig down deep and lean on their experience and
lean on their leadership to make sure they kept winning. No,

(22:35):
they needed it because they weren't winning. And they absolutely
positively have to prevent needing their leadership in the first
six weeks of the season because it's so limited right now.
Christian Walker's is gonna have a really hard time becoming
a leader of this team when they start ten to
twenty if all he knows is losing Astros Baseball. If
all they know from him is he's come to a

(22:56):
team and they've they've lost. So they need to come
out of the gate. They don't have to be in
first place, they don't have to be five games over.
They just need to not be burying themselves. And now
I do think that will happen. So while I'm not
forecasting something great or something awful, I think it's gonna
be similar to last year that it's gonna take a
little while for them to really get going. They're just

(23:16):
not gonna bury themselves early. And I don't think they're
gonna get going to such a level that we saw
last year. That was It's one reason why baseball can't
ever I hope lose people. There's no explanation for the
Astros doing what they did last year when Kyle Tucker
was giving you nothing and your offense outside of jord

(23:37):
On Alvarez was just okay. This is why they Dodgers.
They have a lot more to back up. I mean,
Mookie Bets could hit two hundred this year and they'd
win the division. Maybe, I would say definitely. Their division's
better than that. It doesn't matter. They're unbelievable. They got
like nine starting pitchers, all of whom would start in
every rotation in the majors.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah, and everybody is paid on credit, well pay pay
no interest, nobody or no salary until twenty thirty five.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
One of the louder voices from a Players Association side,
Lance mccullor is no longer in that role, but you
know he had a conversation about that. Chandler had asked
him a few questions along the lines of you know
the Dodgers and how they do things, and I don't
know how you could answer it any other way. He
gave a really long, detailed answer about yeah, and so,
so the Dodgers are doing it. So what if the

(24:29):
owner wants to go yet any of the other twenty
nine teams can do it if they so choose. It's
not bad for baseball, it's not bad for the players.
These are his only person for the organization. Down the line,
it could be we know it won't be well.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
If you're deferring a bunch of money. You know you're
you're presumably going to be paying all that when you're terrible.
It's my understanding.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
The franchise values pretty much go up all the time,
so I was told even earlier today, even even on.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Valentine's Day, especially when you have, you know, a built
in television deal and a big market in baseball since
a handful of marketable talents, and imagine being outbid for
Wan Soto having all that going for you. Sometimes, Yeah,
it happens, all right, we get to the best of
X next. We do this each and every day. Around
two thirty we combed the streets of social media. Sometimes

(25:17):
they are really really dangerous, and we find the best
stuff for you. We'll do that when we come back.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety Oh, what are.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
We having for dinner tonight? You're Wings? There you go.
See that's how you answer that question. And honestly, WEX
was a little slow on the draw.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
Say I don't know real quick, and I'll translate, I
don't know Big City Wings?

Speaker 2 (25:37):
There you go, what are we having for dinner? Big
City Wings? I know it. If you aren't trying out
Houston's wing joint, Like say, you're like been under a
rock and you haven't been to Big City Wings. Why not?
First of all, you got thirteen locations. Secondly, it's like
the best food on the planet. Thirdly, you already missed
out on their chocolate covered strawberries for Valentine's Day. That's
a you problem. I can't help you.

Speaker 6 (25:56):
Now.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
You'll have to wait almost three hundred and sixty five days.
But there's plenty on the menu besides that. That's absolutely
gonna get the job done.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
I wonder if they have any specials going on today,
considering it's today that ends in Why well, they must
because they have specials all seven days Tuesdays or two
for Tuesday wings bone in or boneless. That's food and
drink specials every day, something no other wing joyed here
in the AH can do, but they can. Over at
Big City Wings, they got some new catering packs crawfish
at the ready for you as well at any one

(26:26):
of your wall to wall TV covered Houston area locations
for Big City Wings, we call them Houston's Wing Joint.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
You know why, because they're Houston's wing Joint.

Speaker 5 (26:35):
We now return to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexwerth on Sports.

Speaker 4 (26:40):
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (26:44):
Did you see this?

Speaker 4 (26:45):
We should be putting out between five and fifteen.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Posts O day, four hundred people were arrested for things
that they said on social media. History repeats itself type
Benuels succeed.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
Never doubt that you're.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
The one two puts on one building yore the best X.
Nothing's gonna ever top you know yo, the best post
an every single day, you're the best of X, breaking.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
The entire Internet, taking a little liberties with best of
X today and moving forward expanding what can find its
home on Best of X. As you know already, we
do this each and every day on the show at
two thirty, and anything out there on social media or
quite possibly the Internet at large could find its way

(27:35):
to the best of X, but usually the X platform,
because that's the song I've parodied, TikTok Ig, Facebook, whatever,
But I am going to expand that, especially for me,
and I know you at times also could contribute in
this way. They will also include posts not sent by me,

(27:58):
or drafts, because there are quite a few out there.
I had one earlier today. We'll start with that and
move on to bigger and better things. Both from baseball,
John Morosi reporting that the fallback option, which we had
talked about the last couple of weeks for the Cubs,
looked like if Alex Bregman chose to play elsewhere, that
this was the player the Cubs would probably go after.

(28:19):
I say, well, at least we can sign him. John
Morosi after the news broke that Justin Turner in fact
will reach an agreement with the Cubs. Looks like he's
about six and a half million bucks or maybe one
year six million. Jesse Rodgers reporting just less than half
of what he somehow made last year thirteen million Morosi

(28:39):
tweets was told Justin Turner turned down more lucrative offers
elsewhere because he wanted to be a Cub. And now
we know the offer he signed was for six. So
I guess there was a dumber team that offered seven
and an even dumber team that offered more. Maybe eight,
maybe nine, maybe ten, I don't know. I quote tweeted
it and didn't post my two cents. Kept it pretty simple.

(29:02):
Forty year old office, worst season after camp's open. That
was it. That's all I needed. He's a forty year
old ballplayer. When your team that you cover, or certainly
on the internal side, if you cover him and this
signing happens, proven major league hitter plus postseason, there's all
sorts of things you can talk about about the player

(29:24):
you sign, if you were writing some sort of thank
you speech, but it has nothing to do who he
is today, and that's the player you're getting. If Justin
Turner is a super helpful CUB this year, I will
be glad to print this on company paper and eat
it at some point later in the year. Eat it, Harvey,

(29:45):
I will literally eat my words if that's the case.
I'm not saying he's gonna be awful and unplayable, But
I find it fairly unlikely that he will have a
huge impact after Like most athletes major leaguers for sure. Well,
the production goes down with age, and it went down
quite significantly last year. Now he's forty. Nonetheless, better baseball

(30:05):
stuff for you. Let me see if you can recall
this particular moment that included a former Houston Astros catcher
you remember and former Houston Astros center fielder you remember just.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
A few years ago.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
And if you don't, our friend's over at a Baseball's
Greatest Moments posted this yesterday, got a few eyeballs on it.
That time Carlos Gomez pimped a ball so hard that
it started a brawl. I remember Carlos Gomez, the former
Astros outfielder who did he almost brawl with first when
he got to home plate because he couldn't get to
home plate because Brian McCann, former Houston Astros catcher obviously

(30:44):
was at the with the Braves at the time, wouldn't
let him get to home plate because he was so
mad at him for pimping the homer of Paul mahallme
left hander for the Braves that got quote tweeted by
the player that Jake morisnik ran over at home plate
when he played for the Angels. Yeah, this all ties
to the ass that's Jonathan Lucroux.

Speaker 7 (31:04):
Boy.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
That is seventy thousand degrees of separation.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
So Jonathan Lucroix quote tweets the video of Carlos just
mouthing off to everybody around the base, is staring down
the picture and then meeting up with Brian mccannon at
home plate. And if you watch the video when he
meets the at home plate with McCann, the batter in
the ondeck circle who tweeted anyone down for story time

(31:28):
is Jonathan Lucroix. M He's got a background on this
particular event, So I figured I'm down for it. I'm
happy to indulge, and I'm sure many of you others
would also like to indulge on exactly what took place here.
And so he kind of took you behind the curtain
and talked about what took place. If you had to guess,

(31:50):
you could probably guess if you really really study the video.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
But he goes right into it. So the picture's Paul Mahollm.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
The previous year he hit Gomez, and he explains he
throws eighty seven miles an hour, so it's not like
it was that bad. As far as I know, it
wasn't on purpose, but I don't even remember it. Gomez
was known at times to be a pretty intense guy,
and he took things personal, has a memory like an elephant,
and he never forgot. So he waited a whole year

(32:19):
to face Paul and had been saying, if he hits
a Homer his first at bet, he's going to pimp
it hard. And that's exactly what you saw. A revenge
in his eyes, plain and simple. As we all know,
Brian McCann takes things very serious, and he kind of
went through there and he talked about who met up
in the fight and who did this, and who the
strong guys were and what they could do. He says,

(32:41):
that's the backstory, just a revenge for a perceived slight
over a year in the making. So people obviously commented
a little bit on this, and some of the players
I've just mentioned love these types of stories.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Thanks for sharing. That makes it way better knowing that
he didn't just pimp the Homer for no reason.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
I'm glad Can is no longer playing. He is what's
wrong with the sport. Those Braves teams who tried to
police everyone were horrible. Multiple people with comments very similar
to that.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
They were horrible.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
They thought they ran everything, they did my rules or
get out of here like before. I mean even with
McCann here, and he was phenomenal as an astro, phenomenal
period just a game and he was awesome in every stop,
Awesome with the Yankees, awesome with the Braves for a
number of reasons, but one hundred percent, the thing that

(33:40):
he sits on is bright red all the time during
a baseball game, absolutely shiny, bright as can beat.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
But again, huge, huge, think about that backside redness. Yeah,
him and Darren Urstad had that in common, and it's
one of the things that probably made him great. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
Hello, I mean if I took like right now, and
you don't probably don't know all thirty catchers off top
of your head.

Speaker 8 (34:00):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
I don't either. No, who's gonna do what McCann did.
Somebody pimping a Homer I mean, no, Maldy, No, I'm
including hi.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
I'm trying. He ain't got one of them catchers need
more per is salve Salve might a statesman, and Salve
Might well, he'd also have to be playing catcher and
not dhing that's true.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
He'd have to be the guy that maybe, remember, Okay,
I know why this guy's doing this.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
I'm gonna show him. Maybe that's such a good guess.

Speaker 6 (34:25):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
I just couldn't think of any other. There's just not
the colorful catchers we used to have.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
And the other thing that I'm pointing out that we're
gonna get a lot more of as years go by,
we're getting further and further away from active players during
the twenty twelve to twenty twenty portion of Major League Baseball,
you know, when sign stealing was huge, and we're gonna
hear more stories like this. People will be less afraid
of saying, well, this one on and that went on.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
This has nothing to do with sign stealing.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
The story that Lucroi brings us, and I hope he's
telling the truth. It's very easy to believe and there's
no reason for him to make it up. But I
do anticipate we're gonna get more and more of this,
especially since we've seen some active players the last three years,
Chris Bassett and glass. Now they've basically said this publicly
on a podcast during an interview in the locker room

(35:15):
about the silliness of how it was all treated. The
further away we get from it, and the more players
that are moved on from it or not in the
league at that, I think we'll hear a little bit more.

Speaker 6 (35:25):
Of it, all right.

Speaker 7 (35:26):
You know.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
The only problem I have with that is that you
were asking, are you kidding me? Do they not run things?
The reason they did run things is because Greg Maddox's
strike zone ran things like they might not have won
but one World Series during that stretch. Suck it, Braves fans,
You'll never have that over the Astros during the night

(35:48):
the nineties was like, this should have been so much
more epic. But I feel like the Astros, pound for pound,
could put their run up against the Braves at any time.
This is far more dominant and far more different ways
other than just the pitching stif But Greg Maddox's shrike
zone has dominated BA It dominates baseball to this day.
You ever seen that video where he's talking about going
inside on Jeff Bagwell during the regular season and then

(36:10):
telling his catcher in the postseason. See I told you
he was gonna go for that pitch, and that's why
I threw him this one. Three months later in the
postseason strikes out. Yeah, well he set him up. They
didn't have anything to do with take three months before.
It was awesome. Yeah, he's really really good. It's funny.
I can respect him this whole topic.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
It's okay to steal signs in Major league bas Yes,
it's totally.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
It's been happening for years. Just now. It's just a
matter of how you do it.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
And we don't call the Braves cheaters because they weren't
behind the plate. They just took advantage of the fact
that the umpires were morons. Oh yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 7 (36:45):
No problem.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
There's still morons abs system. It's coming, baby. Hurry Spring
training starts Friday, Bob Manfred, Hurry up.

Speaker 4 (36:54):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (36:59):
We now returned to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexworth on Sports.

Speaker 4 (37:04):
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
It is the eighteen Sports Sock seven ninety winding down
the first hour of a four hour program today. Well,
it's time, it's time, wex It's been a great run,
but it's been long enough and it's time for Tillman
to sell the Rockets, all right, not really. He's hardly

(37:30):
owned the team. He's had it since what seventeen. I
believe seventeen was the year that he purchased the club
and almost immediately nearly won a title if it weren't
for some terrible officiating from Scott Foster and Tony Brothers
and Chris Paul's hamstring. But the official NBA team valuations

(37:51):
for the year twenty twenty five are out courtesy of CNBC,
and the Rockets are very, very valuable. Ahead of the Magic,
head of the Jazz, head of the Wizards, come on,
head of the Hornets, head of the Pels, just to
touch ahead of the grizz the thunder Blazer, Spurs, Pacers, Bucks, Nuggets, Hawks, Kings, Calves, Raptors, Sons, MAVs, Sixers, Heat, Clippers, Celtics, Nets.

(38:22):
That's twenty five NBA teams. Yeah, Celtics is what stands
out there. All those other teams don't matter ever, you.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
Know, because you've seen it, and I'm asking out loud,
even though I'm not taking calls on it or soliciting
posts our way on the X platform. But if I
told you the Rockets were fifth in valuation as of
February of twenty twenty five. You could probably guess the
four teams ahead of them, the only four teams ahead

(38:50):
of them, because you have a little bit of NBA
history in your brain, recent NBA history, and you've studied geography,
and that's.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
All it take. Those are the two factors.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
A team that plays their basketball in Chicago, Los Angeles
and New York. And mind you, the other team that
plays in New York is awful is Brooklyn, and they're
right behind you. And the recent NBA history you have
in your brain would tell you, I don't know. Golden State, Yeah,
Golden State, the Knicks, the Lakers, the Bulls, and your

(39:26):
Houston Rockets and through five.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Again, enjoy that run while you can, Warriors, because you're
gonna go back to irrelevancy before we know it here.
I really do believe that. By the way, they don't
have the management in charge there that built that monster.
Now they have a brand new playpen, the house that
Curry built, and that's going to lend itself to the
overall value. But I don't see them, like five years

(39:51):
from now, being at the top of this hell.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
And I'm a little surprised that they aren't going to
be able to keep this going because we were faced
in the NBA every other team, all the other twenty
nine places, with the real possibility of this team piling
up championships, loaded with talent, paying some tremendous salaries and
taxes to do so. But they also had two very

(40:14):
high lottery picks during this time. One of them was
James Wiseman injuries and performance, he's no longer there and
didn't turn out. And the other one is Jonathan kuminga
who's good but not cornerstone caliber player. Doesn't look like
that he's now that he's this far into the league,
even though he's obviously going to play a complimentary role

(40:35):
with the players that are still there.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
They're not talking about a death lineup featuring him many times.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
Ye like they really could have really continued this.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
Look the guys.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
Curry's done carrying the team and he's not even the
player he once was, but he's definitely still carrying the team.
And I do think they're better with Butler said that
the day they made the deal. They're better, but they're not.
They shouldn't be in the championship hunt this year. And
they shouldn't be in the championship hunt until somebody almost
as good as any of the stars they've had is
on their team and nobody are not, and they're not.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
And honestly, like Klay Thompson right now, they could use him,
that's the crazy part.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Yeah, I mean he would, just like he is in Dallas,
but they weren'ting. There was no that was third. There's
no reason to pay him.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
But the taxes they've paid is a big reason why
I'm saying what I'm saying. At some point, it's like
the Dodgers, it's gonna catch up with them eventually, just
not for another thirty years.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
And one thing to note about just the numbers of it.
They're valuing the Rockets at five point seven billion, and
that's fifth most among the NBA franchises. If you add
three point seven billion to the five point seven billion,
that's when you get to the Warriors at an absurd
nine point four absolutely absurd, way ahead of every team

(41:53):
in the league, including the ones in LA and New York,
way ahead.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
And New York is number two, which still there. They
have only started now to be competitive, like the last
year and a half, over the majority of the time
that James Dolan has owned them. Good bet that they're
one of the last two teams standing in the East.
Lakers doesn't surprise me because they're the Lakers. The Bulls
are still living off of Michael Jordan. They haven't been

(42:18):
crapped before him, and they haven't been crapped since then
since that, save for that one little period of time
where Derek Rose won the MVP and gave us one
of the best clips of video I have ever seen
in my life. That comes up every year right around
the All Star Game. Look at these two jokers next
to me on the stage. I hate being here right now.
I love that video and I hate this is the

(42:39):
other joker. Shaq was one, No, it wasn't shack it
with n White, Howard and Lebron dancing like a couple
of idiots, and Derek Rose is like, this is the
All Star Game. We're the best of the best. Stop
acting like jackasses on state.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
Stop having fun at the All Star Game. We've just
I will through this the last day and a half
enough with the fun.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
Geez Toobe and Don MJ didn't have fun like that,
and they also want a lot and people liked them
and held them in high esteem. I mean, Kobe won some.
He won a lot more than Lebron. He has how
many titles, just to remind the people, four five?

Speaker 3 (43:12):
Now he's fives five and Lebron has four I believe. Okay,
so twenty five percent more.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
It's a lot more. I agree, it's a lot that way,
It really is. Uh so, yeah, And I was just
talking about this yesterday the Chicago Bulls. The Chicago Bulls
have never since the script on the front of Jordan's
jersey his rookie year, they have gone with basically the
same logo jerseys. What have you since?

Speaker 7 (43:36):
Then?

Speaker 2 (43:37):
There's some alternates thrown in there. It's a good seller.
It's got cashet, iconics, got value, absolutely all right. Three
o'clock hour coming up next here on a Tuesday edition
of The eight Team. Right around the corner.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety two. Lifelong
Houston sports guys named him Talking your Team. Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler are the A Team A Team.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Three o'clock out. We're underway here on the program. It
is Sports Talk seven ninety Again a reminder we are
not on Space City Home Network today. Back at it
on the televised side of things tomorrow. So it's just
the good old fashioned radio show that we used to
do for so many years, keeping you a company until
six o'clock tonight. Wex and AC with you. On a

(44:32):
Tuesday edition of the program. Talked a lot about both
Astro's spring training full squad workout variety, the Rockets resuming
their schedule at the end of the week, the proverbial
second half, and the fact that I cannot wait for
that to get underway, especially because you have you have
Anthony Edwards in town, and every time you get to

(44:54):
see him in person, that is absolutely worth the price
of admission. Like the other night, the Phoenix Suns came
to town, and I honestly went into that game thinking,
all right, I'm hearing more and more rumblings about you know,
you're seeing this now. It's like a wide open non
secret anymore. Everybody's coming after Kevin Durant this summer. You
think the Rockets are just gonna waltz their way to

(45:14):
the Phoenix Suns with the best offer and say, oh yeah,
we're getting Kevin Durant. Yes, well, the Lakers are absolutely
going to go after him.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
Okay, so provided Rob Plenka can't wait to hear this
talks to the Suns huh, and the Suns by the
end of the or beginning of the off season of
the new league year, whenever they want to get to it,
provided that they have hired the recently fired Nico Harrison
to be their GM. And he says, I'm interested. You

(45:46):
can't talk to any other teams. You can't take you
can't get any other offers. You can only talk to us.
Will you agree to that? Because we can't let this
get out. You got to negotiate with me and only me.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
Nobody else, nobody else. Dude, what are the Lakers going
to offer? No, they got nothing that they've gotten.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
No, No, we got our first round pick in twenty
thirty one back. You can have Dalton connect. He doesn't
want to be here. He's got to process things before
he plays. He's what an absolutely took a whole one
game off that they wont it doesn't matter. He could
take it off. He could have taken three hours off
and it still looks so weak, so weak. I've got
to process this before he played basketball. Oh my gosh,

(46:24):
are you kidding me? Right now? I don't do what
you're going to do. Think you are, No, I'm not kidding.
Is anyone to play fine?

Speaker 3 (46:29):
Then he played in the All Star weekend, played fine exactly,
nothing exactly.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
So why was anything even made of it? I've got
to say something of it. Who's making something of it?
Because dude, don't don't do that.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
He got traded, he traveled, he went somewhere else, and
then days later, after processing the trade, it got rescinded.
It didn't get rescinded five minutes later. He had to
process it at all, is what I'm talking about. Yeah,
because he wasn't playing, so they're going to give a
reason he.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
Do something that literally thousands of guys have done over
the history of the course of this league. You had
to process being traded and then it went sideways. Oh,
the trade itself being rescinded. That's one thing. That's the
whole thing. It's not the whole thing. It is this guy.
Everybody else gets traded and stays where they got charity,
except for the thousands you just mentioned. It's actually like

(47:20):
thousands of guys twelve. You've got to let me go
cents out sometimes the thousands of trades that have happened
in the history of the NBA is what I'm talking about.
Did this one go sideways? Yeah, of course, But the
fact that he's having to process this, like Robert already
didn't need to process anything. When he came back, he
was like, all right, you wanted to trade me, screw it.

(47:42):
I'm gonna freewheel and do what I have to do.
And he freaking became one of the most clutch shooters
ever because why not they already tried to trade me.
Once you realize they traded him twice, like people forget
about that they I guess Rudy had to have the
conversation with Robert. He comes back to town and he
you know, ends up obviously hitting some seriously clutched shots

(48:03):
on the way to two championships, and then they turned
around and traded him again two years later. One year later,
I think there is a ninety six season right for
an even better player. How do you feel about that deal?
Bet Shewan Elliott in the Hall of Fame, I don't
think so. I think Charles is. Yeah, but you're saying
they traded for Charles Barkley like it was Philadelphia.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
Charles Barkley or something they traded for Phoenix's Charles Barkley.
He's still very good when the Rockets got him, he
just wasn't as awesome as he was at other points,
and he's.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Grabbed a career high thirty three rebounds. First.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
To go through all this to proof that Dalton connect
is a little bit weaker mentally than Matt Bullard and
Robert Lorriy, we could just go with that, but totally fine.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
But don't you like that's not just a Dalton Connect
thing though, But there's nobody else. Who else are we
bringing into the conversation. It happened so infrequently in the NBA,
just the general way the NBA players carry themselves these
days on average.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
How about taking in the in the locker room. I
think this will be a fun place for you to go.
The raw gets management clearly and Rudy. They made the
deal they traded Robert Rory Matt Bullard. They thought it
was gonna make the team better. I don't think there's
a soul inside the Rockets locker room that was like, yeah, man,
if we need to move Robert Rory to get better,
let's do it. He's okay, but we're part of this.

(49:19):
And I know the story is that Lebron and Ad
and Luca and any that they didn't know about.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
This that deal. I don't believe that.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
You don't think, Okay, so forget that. That's not this deal.
That's a totally separate deal. He's going back into the
locker room where my guess, and it's a total speculative guess,
I'm going back into the Lakers' locker room where one player,
in particular, the pseudo GM, said yes, get rid of
him if it gets us him. I'd rather have a

(49:48):
big who's less talented than this awesome, totally stolen seventeenth
pick in the draft that's probably already our best shooter. Yes,
I'd rather do that. And now he has to go
back in that locker room where he knows the in
the locker room didn't want him there. We're fine with
seeing him shipped off. I know what they say publicly,
and I'm playing it on a little harsher than it
probably is. Well, I'm thinking was coming back into a

(50:11):
locker room like that. I don't think Matt was coming
into a locker room like that. And he's coming back
from a management team that orchestrated a deal and he's
got to face that. And Dalton did too. But I
think there's a more of a locker room aspect in
this situation maybe than in the other one.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
What you're saying reminds me of you know, both these
teams made significant trades, these championship teams the Rockets had.
I know, the more that we talk about this, the
more I realized, oh my, could you guys win another
one already? It's been thirty years Robert or for Sean
Elliott and Matt Bullard thrown in. That makes more sense

(50:47):
from a team standpoint. You're playing, You're you're trading a
small forward for a small forward, well two in the
case of the Rockets, even though he was six ' ten,
Bullard was a small forward. You were trading your starting
power forward who averaged double digit rebounds in Otis Thorpe
for a guard which you already had in Vernon Maxwell,
even though he was knocking out fans in Portland for

(51:08):
talking to him.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Worked, I know, But like it's just but a legend.
Those players playing very good basketball.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Yeah, but those players weren't a fan of that trade,
like you're talking about with Dalton connect they're not fans
of that trade because wait a second, this guy helped
us actually win something. He's not Dalton Connect, who's a
rookie who happens to shoot the three.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
To o K right, but who was coming into their
locker room Clyde freaking Drexler.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
Yeah, I mean Sean Elliott was a good player in
Detroit at the time. Yeah, I mean he went on
to bring his you know.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
He was a one time first time and after that
he became a two time All Star.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
He only won one. He only got one All Star
in San Antonio.

Speaker 5 (51:54):
M M.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
That's so sad. Well, he was not a he was
not a great player. He was very well what Missy
will tell you, miracle he.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
Made a shot, memorial miracle, big shot Sean.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
I'm like thinking to myself, Okay, he hit a game
winner in a playoff series. Mario Ellie got there in
the twilight of his career and did the same thing.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
How do you want to close out the Dalton Connect
Shawn Elliott segment? You want to go after Sewan's best
basketball reference nicknames?

Speaker 2 (52:23):
There's two of them.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
Oh my gosh, you'll never get either one. I could
give you a thousand clues.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
You talk about a guy who honestly and he had
a great NBA career and he's continuing as a broadcaster.
He has no business having a nickname, let alone two
fake ones on this website.

Speaker 3 (52:39):
I play in the NBA. You you qualify, you need
a nick I disagree.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
Some people should not have.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
Are you saying you think it's silly that he has
a nickname? Yes, that's one of them.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
Silly? That's it? What's his other one? Ninja Smith's nickname?
You're done, aren't you? I'm out. I'm done with that life.
Get me out of what's the point. It's Tuesday weeks over.
That's so. Basketball Reference is for everything you do for us,
and we salute you for the numbers. Your nicknames are embarrassing.
They're appalled them. They're terra better. Why would you do this?

(53:13):
Unbelievable man? Silly? And what was the other dumb one? Ninja?
I'll get I'll let I'll see.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
I'll check our schedule the next time the Spurs come
in town. I will schedule you to work that game
at Toyota Center. So I can look to my right
and say, hey, j feet away, Hey, you get screaming
at him, he'll never never.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Okay, here's the deal. They're coming in on the twenty sixth.
It's the last time they play them. M I'm pretty
I know I'm working the twenty eighth because you won't
be in town. Who don't they play that night? I
think they play that night. Maybe they don't, but they
definitely play the Spurs on the twenty sixth. And I
only know this because somebody has asked me for tickets
to that game already. I know you know people and uh,
and I'm I'm going to ask him about this, and

(53:54):
I'm gonna have somebody record the conversations so that you
can see it.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
Hey, Sean, if I told you two nicknames record to
your Basket Reference, not according to the teammates you played
with for ten to twelve years, what would you say
they are?

Speaker 2 (54:04):
You think that's how the conversation's gonna go. How it's
actually gonna start is Hey, man, I hate the Spurs
more than anybody in this building. Just wanted to start
with that. Now, let's get down to business. How dumb
are the Basketball Reference nicknames? And then, having said that,
how much dumber are your two fake nicknames on that site?

Speaker 3 (54:21):
We'll get into a couple of things that are more
in reality than where we were that last segment. On
a trip to West Palm Beach, Joe spot them meeting
with the media as you will do each and every
day before the team works out a couple of interesting
items from him, one of them specific to their new
first baseman, Christian Walker.

Speaker 4 (54:41):
The a t on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
All right, program this in your cell phone so that
it's always there. But even if you don't do that,
don't take my advice right now, you're gonna be able
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Two eight one two two two twenty two, twenty two,
and you're like, a, see, what's this for? This is
if the horrible happens you're in a collision. Nobody wants
that to happen, but it's gonna happen eventually to a

(55:06):
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of traffic going on right now, especially outside where we're
sitting on the West Loop. That's why you need Mocarum
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help you obtain the highest possible compensation and put your
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Speaker 5 (56:02):
We now return to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler on Sports.

Speaker 4 (56:07):
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (56:17):
Eighteen.

Speaker 2 (56:17):
Rolling along here on Sports Talk seven ninety wex and
Ac with you. Pertis paina Dubon walker. That's your infield.

Speaker 3 (56:28):
That's what the Astros look like today around the infield
and not unexpected, although nationally when things are getting picked
up from Astros camp, it's it's gonna be jarring for them,
and it's probably going to be presented in the most
hype possible, not necessarily accurate, as in, it's day two
of full squad workouts, and they've got the schedule posted

(56:50):
and go through their workouts of who's doing what, Jose
Altuve working exclusively in the outfield, and then in super
tiny print that you can't read unless you have the
Dakota for the invisible inc it says it's only day
two and they were working other people in the infield,
which he's played for his entire career and probably pretty

(57:10):
good at.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
But that's not part of the story.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
He's working exclusively, which is accurate for today in the
Astros outfield. But the four players I just mentioned other
than Penya, obviously, we're not your opening day starters last
year around the Astros infield, two years removed from where
Dubon played a chunk of the Astros games at second base,

(57:33):
probably at his best season as a major leaguer, both
with the glove and the bat. Obviously, Perettis at the
time was with Tampa. Now he's since been in Chicago
and now he's here and they celebrated his birthday before
the practice. Their practice session today brought in some musicians
to help sing him Happy Birthday in front of his

(57:53):
new teammates that he's just now getting to know. Perettis
also talked to the media today and said he knew
of players' names before he got here, really only knew
a couple of guys, New Yordan Alvarez from the limited
time they spent together in an All Star Game, and
New Saysar Salazar, from a limited amount of time they

(58:14):
spent playing little winter Ball together. Other than that, he's
basically meeting and getting to know his new teammates as
we speak. He'll be at third base, Christian Walker at first,
Jeremy Paynott short, Muricio Dubon. Possibly you're starting close to
everyday second base, and we'll find out a lot more
that as spring training continues. Bryce Matthews, unless Joe a

(58:35):
spot of changes his mind, He's going to start Saturday's
first spring training game at second base, and I bet
you he gets a lot of work at second base.
If they move al two by to more outfield play,
then Duban obviously's going to need a lot of work
over there also. But Christian Walker doesn't really need any
work at first Base's a gold Glove caliber player.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
He's joining a new team.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
We discussed the idea that he could be a leader
on this team almost immediately because he spoke with the
media about that topic yesterday. He also sat down with
Matt and Ross says their show is on site at
West Palm Beach at the Astros and Nationals facility.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
We will give you that interview coming up at five
point fifteen. Joe a Spota, after our conversation yesterday about
the idea of Christian Walker becoming a leader, was asked
by Matt about the leadership possibilities quickly or not with
Christian Walker here with the Astros.

Speaker 9 (59:29):
I think Christian is getting a feel for the Lamb.
I will have more conversation with Christians in the in
the coming days. But when it comes to leadership, you don't.

Speaker 10 (59:39):
Ask to lead, You expect those guys to step up
and lead. And he did that in Arizona. And once
he gets he speaks settled here, I'm sure he's gonna
he's gonna find his way, He's gonna find his boys.

Speaker 3 (59:54):
It's kind of what I talked about yesterday, and Joe
brought up the same Arizona aspect to it. He spent
a little bit of time on Arizon on his team
as a reserve while Paul Goldschmidt was playing at an
elite level at first base, and then he went to
the Cardinals and Christian Walker took over, and not long
after he was one of the leaders of the Diamondbacks.
And that's why the Diamondbacks are now asking Josh Naylor
their new first base when what it's like to take

(01:00:16):
over for a big time clubhouse leader like Christian Walker,
who will, as I said very clearly and totally believe it,
he will be a clubhouse leader for this Astros very
very soon.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Yeah, it's this is when it's happening. It's happening right now.
All of this talk about Jose al Tuve and left field,
all of this talk about you know, first base, all
this talk about obviously everybody who's everybody who's left. I
mean it's we've we're used to like a guy leaving
in the offseason, like a big name. I mean, there's

(01:00:48):
tons of turnover in baseball, there's tons of turnover in
sports in general. I don't think there's ever been a
mass exodus relative to the one guy that has left
like this.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
We talk, we keep talking about it, and I'm glad
we keep bringing it up to remind people there's a
bigger reason why there's a mass exodus. They sent two
players away. When have they done that now, Not with
somebody that matters as much as Ryan Presley or Kyle
They told them to go play somewhere else. And I'm
again laying it on a little thick that's what trades are.
You're telling them to go play somewhere else. And in

(01:01:20):
both cases it doesn't have anything to do none to
have much to do with performance, has nothing to do
with the performance of Kyle. I suppose the Astros could
have had some concern about Presley's performance, but so little
that they're moving on from him and moving into We
don't have any idea in their bullpen without him. He's

(01:01:42):
their seventh inning guy this year if he's here. But
a monetary move made. In both cases, they certainly could
have afforded either one for one more year, but this
is not where they wanted to be financially, and they
knew that they would be without both of them in
a year, and most specifically without Kyle Tucker because of
the amount of money he'll command as a free agent,
which we still expect him to get to an older leader.

(01:02:02):
And Justin Verlander, who came back and stepped right back
into a leadership role. These are three players you lost,
and quite obviously we can go. You know, losing Bregman
is from a leadership standpoint, very similar to losing Korea.
It just didn't happen to happen with the four other
players that their baseball or their leadership meant so much
to this team. Obviously talking about the infield also, Joe A.

(01:02:23):
Spotta talking a little bit more about well, not only
did it sound like this outfield, this infield is full
of new players, Well it is. So they've got a
lot of time now to work on chemistry.

Speaker 9 (01:02:36):
He takes repetitions, you know, a lot of coaching. You know,
I need to put those guys in games right away.
It's just to get a feel from one another. There's
space in between one or another, the capabilities of one another.

Speaker 8 (01:02:48):
Christianities.

Speaker 9 (01:02:49):
You guys are going to witness probably the best first
baseman in the in the game the last three or
four years. So there's a lot of there's a lot
of area that he covers. So he's got to get
you know the guy too, He's right, how much how
much space that person covers. So same thing with Jeremy
up the middle. So there's there's some things Paradis joining
the organization, Jeremy getting to know Okay, what side, you

(01:03:12):
know what what areas of the field, Paradis will need
me to help them with and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 8 (01:03:17):
So yeah, we got some some work to do. And
and you guys will see you will.

Speaker 9 (01:03:21):
See me kind of changing things around so we can
get some familiarity from the from the very beginning.

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
Yeah, just work on some chemistry. Flip it, fire it,
that's too scoop it out of the dirt. Parties will
get those throws up. Hey man, you gotta work on this.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
Hey maybe maybe you slide over a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
Our infield coaches knew as well Tony Paris, Chica. So
that's what's spring training. Even that has changed, well, you
know what else while they're losing defensive abilities, and Joe
Spot has said when asked about their assessment of where
they think Parretis is defensively as a third base, I
mean he say it's pretty average. It's interesting to hear

(01:03:56):
that being said. And we'll let you hear that as well.

Speaker 2 (01:03:58):
Still confidence as you move forward out Alex Bregman's gold gloves.

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
Well, I don't care about that. I care about well,
he's in your clubhouse now, he says he's your player.
But I think all parties recognized there's room for improvement
and they need to see a little bit more, and
they can. But you're gonna lose something at third base,
quite clearly, a little bit of range, probably the throwing arm,
the accuracy, all those things, the aggressiveness and you know,
making plays. You're going to gain a lot at first,

(01:04:23):
a lot, and you're going to gain probably quite a
bit at second. Defensively, we're so focused on a twove
moving to the outfield and providing some offense for the
outfield and seeing what it's like there while recognizing now
you're not playing a poor second baseman defensively, and you're
playing a plus second second basement defensively because we think

(01:04:45):
Dubon will spend a lot of time there. There's one
other aspect to that, Dubon's six ninety ops. Dubon's complete
lack of power. I mean, how this move for al
Tuve is all nice and everything, but you're doing it
and in response to that, because second base is now open.
Are we seeing a four hundred and fifty at bat

(01:05:06):
Mauricio Dubon season or more?

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
I said, this pains me because he did fill in
so well for Altuve when he had the broken thumb
a couple of years ago. Best season of his career
in a championship career. Actually, no, that was twenty three,
wasn't it. It wasn't twenty two.

Speaker 3 (01:05:23):
Mauricio Dubon's twenty twenty three he won the Gold Glove
utility player, had a seven to twenty OPS career ops
is six seventy four, had an OPS plus over one
hundred right at ninety seven, I should say, and again,
that's slightly below average. He's and that was clearly his
best year. Last year went down. The year before that

(01:05:44):
it was down. I don't think it's gonna go up,
even though he's bigger. Can camp a little bit bigger?

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
Well, he does have more power. I'm gonna go with no.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
Okay, how about new He had one awesome month last year,
and the timing of that did coincid with a start though,
but then he had two insanely bad offensive months before
the last month of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
Well, if he if we get the twenty twenty three.
Mauricio Dubon Astro should be in good shape since he's
going to be their second basement apparently.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
And you know, I'm not trying to tell you he's playing,
you know, one hundred and twenty games at second base. Okay,
So put alt Twove at second base. Okay, Well, now
left field's open. Guess where Dubon played most of his
baseball last year, left field.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
Bond's playing a lot in your lineup? Sure looks that way. Yeah,
well you're out and you put that with the outfield
and it's I'm telling you. I try to tell you
guys are earlier.

Speaker 3 (01:06:38):
I believe when Chaz told me they're going to surprise.
I know it sounds I know you guys know me,
and you think it sounds like I'm being sarcastic, but
I'm not. I think Chas McCormick is going to be
a successful offensive Keay, this can't be much worse. I
have to figure out how to say it is as

(01:06:59):
softly as pa. I don't know if he's a bounce back.
I don't know if he's back to where he was
in pre twenty twenty four, but man, this guy needs
to be sent down. I don't think we're gonna see
that Chaz this year. How much more than that would
be nice, how high that can go. But he's not
the only one. We have those questions about he and
Jake and anybody else that might be out there.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
Ben Gamble's no different. Taylor Tremmell is no different.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
And being as they have had, you know, first full
squad workouts yesterday and today, of course I put together
my first installment of their opening day roster and batting order,
but we'll get to that later. As promised, when we
come back, we will hear from the general manager, Dana Brown,
as full squad workouts been underway for two days now

(01:07:43):
in West Paul Beach, fla.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
The GM on the A team next.

Speaker 4 (01:07:49):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety Myers prusses it.

Speaker 11 (01:07:55):
Said goodbye, Hey Sjake Myers catch every Astros game on
Sports Talk seventy ninety before the iHeartRadio app Home of
Your Astros.

Speaker 3 (01:08:07):
We're in the middle portion of our number two, not
quite to the midway portion of the program today and
as promised, a couple of trips to West Palm Beach, Florida,
the Astros spring training Complex as they prepare for the season.
Game one of spring training is Saturday, and we will
have coverage of the Astros throughout, including sometimes during our
time slot, a lot of noon games, so preceding us

(01:08:30):
our new lead in oftentimes will be Astros Baseball. Handful
of games will come your way in the evening right
after our show or an hour after our show, beginning
at seven o'clock on delay basis some of Major League
Baseball getting started on Friday, the Astros Nationals game coming
up on Saturday. I heard from Dana Brown when he
sat down with us during FanFest.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
Heard from Dana Brown when he sat down.

Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
Or stood up with the media last week when spring
training officially opened for pitchers and catchers. Today, he sat
down with Matt and Ross as part of the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross earlier this afternoon. Good conversation which
you can catch in full via Sports Talk seven ninety
dot com or right there on the app, the iHeartRadio app,
the new and improved iHeartRadio app, the one where you

(01:09:13):
can now have presets, all sorts of customizations and everything
you want right there in the palm of your hand
to listen to our program and of course their program,
and of course the Sean Salisbury Show with Brian Lilim,
everything you get right here on Sports Talk seven ninety
and the entire iHeartRadio family right there via the all
new iHeartRadio app. The conversation began with a bunch of

(01:09:33):
different things, continued with probably the most popular topic at
Astros spring training, Jose Altuve, the Astros left fielder.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
Some of what Dana Brown had to say on that
and beyond.

Speaker 12 (01:09:45):
I think Altuve is having a ball out there in
left field. First of all, he's excited about it. He's
out there like a little kid. It's unbelievable. He's always smiling.
And you know, we wanted to create some versatility and
if you could use him, you know, in left field,
you know that's going to create some versatility and we
think that could be big. And you know, we needed

(01:10:06):
a bat in our outfield, so that helps us with
a bat in our outfield. But uh, you know, he's
he's done a great job. He's really taking well to it.
And as long as he's having fun, you know what,
you know, we we don't have to commit to it today,
but as long as he's having fun and getting better,
and we feel like, look, he's got a chance to
be a.

Speaker 6 (01:10:24):
Really good defender. Why not. You know he's he's doing
a good job.

Speaker 12 (01:10:28):
I just went out earlier and watched him take some
fly balls and man, he was getting good jumps and
you know, getting balls in the gap and coming in.
If he wins the gold Glove and our staff you're
going to look back, expert. You know, I'll take a
strong average defender at this point. If he becomes that,

(01:10:50):
that that's that, that's outstanding in our outfield.

Speaker 6 (01:10:53):
So he's for sure taking to it very well.

Speaker 8 (01:10:58):
And what about jord On? How does he fit in
the left field picture?

Speaker 12 (01:11:00):
Yeah, I think we'll give him some time, but no,
ultimately he's our DH. You know, we want him to
worry about hitting and driving and runs, and so we
will give him some run in the outfield.

Speaker 6 (01:11:11):
Joe's made that clear.

Speaker 12 (01:11:13):
This all up to Joe and how how many times
he wants to put him out there, but he's he's
really our DH, and so both he will get some run.
And I'm sure Joe's probably talked to him about it
and said, look, we're going to try to protect you
because we want you to play as many games as
possible and the way you could do it at issrhere
just dhing.

Speaker 13 (01:11:34):
So is there a metric for that because there are
some guys, remember Michael Brantley, he despised being a DH.

Speaker 8 (01:11:40):
He wanted to be in the action other guys.

Speaker 13 (01:11:42):
I'll go back to David Ortiz, I mean reinventing himself
by getting.

Speaker 7 (01:11:46):
Off of first base.

Speaker 13 (01:11:47):
So do you guys look at numbers of how he batted,
how he performed the day after day before he played
in left field?

Speaker 12 (01:11:53):
No, I just think it's one of those things where
you know he's gonna hit, whether he's a you know,
left fielder or or DH. You know, Alvarez will hit.
So I don't think that really had much to do
with it. I just think if he's in the dugout
thinking about hitting all the time, he can really lock
into what he wants to do, whether he wants to,

(01:12:14):
you know, figure out what the picture is strong to him, study,
you know, what his patterns are, whatever the case may be.
Any time that he could spend on hitting is a
good thing and we want to see big results from
him because when he goes, the team goes.

Speaker 13 (01:12:27):
It feels like the twenty six man rosters just about set.
But if it isn't somewhere, where would that be? Would
it be decision on a utility infield or an extra
arm in the bullpen? In terms of that, where do
you see as you look for the next month when
you watch these games, where is it?

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
Well, I can go here, I can go here in
this plaic with position.

Speaker 12 (01:12:46):
Yeah, I think you know obviously the bullpen, you know,
with making a move for Presley, you know, trading Presley
opened up a spot there, right, so we we definitely
have some room to talk about, you know, what is
our peng on on a light. And then you know
outfield wise, you know, how are we going to be platune?
Is McCormick you know, gonna really you know, get back

(01:13:09):
to this twenty twenty three year. So I think those two,
you know, spots like you know outfield and also relief
pitching is where the room you know, we have to
make our decisions.

Speaker 8 (01:13:23):
For Lachuer and I'll get Ross get one more question
one for me.

Speaker 13 (01:13:27):
Our audience loves this team and is with every intricate move,
and they'll always bring up the minor leaguers Melton Matthews
and then we'll get to Cam Smith, how much do
you think that's gonna be a conversation piece internally about
when they're going to be ready.

Speaker 8 (01:13:41):
Look, nobody knows. You have to take it. Even if
they're crushing into triple air, Douba, you still it's a guess.

Speaker 13 (01:13:47):
How much will you intently watching those three guys, especially
in the first couple of months of the year, if
some of those major leaguers are not performing up to
your expectations.

Speaker 12 (01:13:54):
Yeah, I'm locked in on them, you know, regardless if
the major leaguers are doing well, and if they're not
doing well, I'm still locked in on those guys. Those
guys have a chance to help us. I really feel
confident that they could turn the corner pretty quickly, and
so I'm used to, you know, moving players fast, you know.
I mean, I told these guys when I got the job,

(01:14:15):
I sat down and I talked to a lot of.

Speaker 6 (01:14:16):
The minor league players.

Speaker 12 (01:14:17):
I think it's important that you always have good young
players coming in the major leagues. I think it reminds
the older players that, hey, we got good young players
in the minor leagues, and it reminds the younger players
that if I do well, I'm gonna get moved up,
and I think you want that energy throughout your entire
organization and until I'm a firm believer. So I think
if these guys are if they go down there and

(01:14:39):
they're doing well, we will talk about moving them. You know,
I don't know how fast or I can't put a
timeline on it, but we're not afraid to move them
to the big leagues if they're doing very well.

Speaker 14 (01:14:50):
Starting pitching question real quick, what was it like seeing
Hayden Wesnsky from Afar now getting him in the house
and working with him, and then as far as the
depth Luis Garcia and Bunce Papillos.

Speaker 12 (01:15:02):
Yeah, so wesn Netsky he's fired up, of course because
he's back at home in Houston, right and so he's
he's locked in. You know, I've had multiple conversations with him,
and I think his stuff is going to play very well.

Speaker 6 (01:15:16):
I think our pitching guys are really good, and so you.

Speaker 12 (01:15:19):
Know they're gonna get him, you know, to his next
step in life and in this game, and so I
think they could. You know, our guys have a way
of finding out what you need to do to make you,
you know better, And I think, you know, he's been
a sponge and you know, hopefully we can we could
help him to make those adjustments, you.

Speaker 6 (01:15:39):
Know, Garcia, I think Garcia.

Speaker 12 (01:15:40):
You know, we'll know more as he continues to throw here,
but I anticipate him turning.

Speaker 6 (01:15:47):
The corner, you know, somewhere in the early part of
this year.

Speaker 12 (01:15:50):
And so once he starts throwing here, we probably have
more of a firm you.

Speaker 6 (01:15:55):
Know, deadline or or target date or whatever you want
to call it.

Speaker 12 (01:15:59):
And he could be he's gonna be some help that
we were going to need in that rotation. So we
really feel like we got ten guys total in depth
in rotation, and so we'll feel like we're in good shape.
You know, last year we had that period where we
lost like five starters at one point they were all out,
and so we feel really good about that. And then mccolors,

(01:16:19):
you know, he's been thrown off the mound and he's
been participating in you know, the PfP drills and so
you know that's a good thing. And so once once
he starts to throw even harder, we'll get a pretty
much target date or you know, a timeline on him
as well. And so I feel like both guys should
be pitching at some point this season, hopefully sooner rather

(01:16:41):
than later.

Speaker 3 (01:16:42):
Not too descriptive on a timeline front, but luckily Lance
has given a pretty descriptive one in the couple of
times he's met with the media here during camp. Participate
in PFPS earlier today as he did earlier in spring
training also, so everything seems like the track for mccullors.
Get into spring training games, pitch in spring training games

(01:17:05):
when they get further along, make the trip down to
sugar Land when the Astros open up their season. Hey,
first time ever by the way, the Space Cowboys are
opening their season at home. They are the defending champions,
of course, and I expect him to be there for
probably the full rehab allowed allotment thirty days and get
all his working and if there are no setbacks, I

(01:17:26):
do believe that's when they'll figure out how to get
him on the roster, what they need to do. We'll
obviously have a keen eye on how second year pitcher
Spencer Harraghetti is doing and second year starter Renel Blanco
is doing, and first year starter for the Astros Hayden
Wesneski is doing. Provided they're all healthy, and you'll make
your decision at that point. A little bit cloudier obviously

(01:17:48):
in the case of Luis Garcia, but not necessarily negative,
just not quite as clear on where he would be.
And those are just two of the pitchers at some
point to stay pitching in an Astro's uniform. Again, you
had Javier and France to that among the starters. That's
four potential starters not gonna be ready at the beginning
of the season, and the latter two probably you could

(01:18:09):
say might not pitch at all this season. But Javier
has a pretty pretty good future I think, still here
in Houston, and an injury he'll absolutely recover from. It's
just a it's a timeline issue with him. Appreciate Dana
Brown sitting down with Matton Ross. As mentioned, We'll catch
up with Christian Walker at five fifteen. If you missed it,
its not necessarily Alex Bregman related, but I'll relay one

(01:18:34):
item from yesterday's press or this weekend's press conference you
might have missed, and a totally different Scott Boris story.
I don't know if he was expecting it. I certainly wasn't.
That's next.

Speaker 4 (01:18:46):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 13 (01:18:52):
There's a Space City Home Network's Todd Kallis.

Speaker 8 (01:18:55):
There's the A team.

Speaker 4 (01:18:56):
You got him.

Speaker 1 (01:18:57):
It's Adam Clinton and Adam Wiggler Clanton.

Speaker 13 (01:19:01):
Stop impersonating me on Sports Talk seven nights.

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
Hey, before you know it, I'll be back on Space
City Home Network calling game for the Astros. Right around
the corner.

Speaker 3 (01:19:14):
First game is Saturday geez that they have. That will
be the first of the ten games our friends of
Space City Home Network will broadcast this spring.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
Alright, let's be honest.

Speaker 3 (01:19:24):
Also be my first day back at the station. What
do you mean, I've got Saturday Nights Rockets game.

Speaker 2 (01:19:30):
Oh okay, you'll be uh handling studio duties downtown as
the Rockets are in Salt Lake City. You got it.
I'm just getting everybody in the places where they need
to be. I will be up here handling the radio
side of things. So it's you and Calvin. Yes, is
Gerald gonna be making a cameo.

Speaker 3 (01:19:47):
I don't believe Saturday Nights late night start is a
triple threat.

Speaker 2 (01:19:51):
He got that written into his contract that he considered
me one of the threats. All right, I love Calvin. Okay,
So when Scott Boris signs or when a when an
athlete that is beloved on your team signs with Scott Boris.

(01:20:12):
Let's start it like that, he gone, yeah, that's isn't
that it? You know we always hear just not a
hell twove, but many many others like and this is
the thing. What if he's been on your team for
a while and he hasn't had Scott Boris it is
as his agent. And then as he gets relatively close
to when he could get major money and walk away
from your team, that's when he signs with Scott Boris.

(01:20:33):
That's when you really hear.

Speaker 3 (01:20:34):
He gone, So where does I know you got somewhere
else to go? Where does Hunter Brown fit into that?

Speaker 2 (01:20:40):
Oh? Right there?

Speaker 3 (01:20:40):
Okay, he's if you're unaware he is a Boris to
walk out of here. They've got some rbers still, how
many they've got plenty of times?

Speaker 2 (01:20:49):
Let me ask you this, since I and I did
this by the way, I purged a section of my
closet the other day, would you like to know what
I did? It's it's relative to this conversation. What do
you You're still looking for a fifty eight jersey? So
that's not a part of the closet. You know why
I did that? Did you dump a thirty five? I

(01:21:11):
dumped a thirty five, I dumped a two. I dumped
a thirty. I dumped a fifteen and an eighty seven.
One was white, one was red. Eighty seven and a
fifteen door which jersey. No, this is not I've switched sports.
You just didn't know it. Well, there's no basketballer that
wears eighty seve fifteen, very very prominent footballer. Yeah, Will Fuller,

(01:21:34):
I said it already, Will Fuller. Why did prominent not
forgettable forever? What team he plays in the central part
of the country. Oh, Travis Kelsey's quarterback and Travis Kelsey's
jersey because that's eighty seven.

Speaker 6 (01:21:51):
Dude.

Speaker 2 (01:21:52):
Was my understanding, according to a pin tweet, that you
were h town all through. I didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:21:56):
I've totally forgotten, even though I've seen were of them
in this studio.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
There a carry out season. When you have a youth
minister running your team, all bets are off, that's true.
And I adopted the Chiefs for a while there because
of family reason. Yes, totally, It's totally fun.

Speaker 6 (01:22:11):
My bad.

Speaker 2 (01:22:12):
I I've seen the light and also too, there was
a green one, a green one for what team? Green Bay?
It was twelve? No way, I had an Aaron Rodgers
Rogers jersey. How'd that happen? I bought it during COVID
just to piss some people off because he was going on,
here's such a rappel, right I am. That's where my

(01:22:32):
dad calls me. Free agency for.

Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
Hunter Brown hits in twenty twenty nine unless the Astros
buy some.

Speaker 2 (01:22:37):
Of those years out. Okay, So that's that's the first
question that we need to get to here. Is that
enough time to invest in a fifty eight? And keep
in mind, the only reason I don't already have one
is not because of any sort of performance. I knew
he was gonna be good. I knew he was gonna
come back to the fold the stupid jerseys they released
last year with the small letters on the back if

(01:22:57):
you bought one, well the rep because this year are
gonna have bigger letters.

Speaker 3 (01:23:01):
As noted by Brian mctagger yep, specifically, the lettering on
the jerseys are it's.

Speaker 2 (01:23:06):
Back to normal bigger. So that's why I waited, not
even kidding, that's the only reason I waited, because I
knew the replicas. I'm not gonna buy an authentic Come
on now, so Scott Boris, Scott Boris signing or having
Hunter Brown in the in the fold in his pen
if you will. That freaks people out, and it should.
And sometimes the opposite happens. Sometimes a guy who plays

(01:23:30):
on a very prominent team, although I wouldn't really call
him a prominent player, decides to do the opposite. He
has Scott Boris and says, beat it, Scott, I don't
want to make the most money anymore. I want to
do it myself. I present to you, Nick Castianos.

Speaker 15 (01:23:47):
I think that just now I probably would want the
opportunity and to say, like, I'm not not ever going
to be represented again. You know, It's not like I'm
against having an agent. I just think that where it
was with Scott, I was at a point where, you know,
I just wanted the opportunity to speak for myself. You know,
I have no malice towards the Force organization at all.

(01:24:09):
I texted him the congrats when that Soto contract came out.

Speaker 2 (01:24:13):
He's very good at what he does. But I think
that as far as.

Speaker 15 (01:24:17):
Now, if anything pertains to my career, I'd rather just
have that conversation with you know my employer. Yeah, wow,
this this offseason was like, hey, these trades came out,
is this true? You know, I can just go to
the person who would be trading him, and then when
he tells me no, you know, now I have I
have that information.

Speaker 2 (01:24:38):
I'm not not going to have an agent necessarily. That's
that's one way to go. Did you see how he
totally thru shaded Alex Bregman by congratulating Scott on that
want Soto deal. I know it's more before you say anything,
but come on, he just got Alex Bregman forty million
per Yeah, less than one. There's only two in between

(01:25:00):
with higher annual average value.

Speaker 3 (01:25:02):
He congratulated Scott on the second biggest deal ever signed
in Major League Baseball, not Alex's one twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
If Alex hadn't beaten him in the World Series, you
know you would have mentioned, hey, I want to congratulate
him on the Soto and Bregman deals. It's a fair point.
It's a fair point. He's got malice in his heart.
It will be interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:25:18):
I'm sure at some point this year if Nick continues
another Nick c continues to not have an agent when
he gets questions about his future from the media, and
he said not, I'm just I'm gonna I'm here to
play baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:25:31):
Let my agent handle that. He'll stay with a smirk.

Speaker 3 (01:25:34):
And as he discussed, when management or the GM or
somebody in the front office needs to get a word
to his agent, he can just come on down to
Nick's locker and just tell.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
Him by the way going through the agent. I don't
think Nick Castianis is a particularly likable guy.

Speaker 3 (01:25:48):
Uh, He's probably among the group of players that is
very well liked.

Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
In his own clubhouse, his own clubhouse, and everywhere else.

Speaker 3 (01:25:58):
Unfortunately, he's got a moment that we all he made
a very unexpected spectacular diving catch against the Astros. At
one time or another, he found himself to a very
good situation delay a really really awesome teammates.

Speaker 2 (01:26:13):
Yeah. Yeah, and one of his teammates has a really
really awesome girlfriend now one of his teammates in Philadelphia
unless our new girlfriend, unless Baum is now no longer
playing third base. There, No, he's there. I just don't.
I don't think that everybody in the media knows about that.
That's proof positive that you can be a rock star
or an athlete and poll whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:26:37):
The A teen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:26:44):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham Talking Your Teams series,
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A.

Speaker 4 (01:26:55):
Team A.

Speaker 2 (01:27:00):
Number three is underway. It is the eight team. Sports
Talk is seven ninety Tuesday edition of the program. A
lot of Astro's spring training conversation, a lot of well
baseball conversation in general, but the fact that full squad
workouts are now underway and as you mentioned, wex before
we know it, we're gonna have actual spring training action.

Speaker 3 (01:27:21):
Yeah, we'll have spring training action on Saturday. Caleb ort
and Sean Dubin will not be participating, though I believe
they will both make the Astros opening day roster if healthy.
Joe spot Of mentioning that earlier today minor situation with Orton,
you'd call it a setback, considering he came to camp
healthy but don an obleaque issue as him sidelined for
a few days, and Dubin's trying to make progress so

(01:27:44):
he can get back on the hill during spring training
and obviously hopefully get back out there and pitch in games.
That's really it from the injury front, which is clearly
good news. There will be other pitchers who will step
into those opportunities, a bunch of names you probably don't
know a whole lot about Oak and Women and some
other non roster invitees, and then a few of the
other players who will I think are very likely to

(01:28:07):
make this roster out of camp that if not been
a big part of the astros before. Those two would
be similar people. I do think last year you saw
enough of Brian King. He's probably part of If Benefsusa
is healthy, he might be part of it. I think
Forrest Whitley is nearly a lock, especially since he's out
of options to be a part of it. And then
there's Rafael Montero. If he pitches well, I think they

(01:28:30):
will probably believe in what they're seeing versus well, he
didn't get it done the last time and so we're
not going to give him another opportunity. I think they
will give him another opportunity if he shows them a
reason to and then they'll act accordingly. If it doesn't
work out, there's the investment in him is unchanged. The
only thing that would change is he's not on the
forty man roster, so they would have to clear a

(01:28:51):
spot in order to put him on the major league
roster the forty man roster, so roster move of some
sort would then have to be made. It could cost
you a player that out of options. There's things that
potentially would prevent it, but it really didn't have anything
to do with the eleven plus million dollars that he
still owed. The Astros overall situation in terms of how

(01:29:12):
much money they're spending, is heavily impacted by that. You
could take that money off and the ABRALLU money off,
because currently you don't expect either one of those players
to assist this team in any way, but the money's
going to be paid. They're one of the higher spending
teams in baseball because of it. They'd be much more
middle of the pack if those weren't there.

Speaker 2 (01:29:29):
But if those weren't.

Speaker 3 (01:29:30):
There, there's a real possibility they would have spent the
money elsewhere or would have been more inclined to do
something different from a financial standpoint.

Speaker 2 (01:29:39):
But that's just not the case.

Speaker 3 (01:29:40):
Haven't talked a whole lot of football today, but I
certainly think, especially here locally, there's not one but two
good reasons to do so very good. Almost impossible to
believe reasons. Hey League, I can't believe you did that.
Hey League, I think you messed up. Hey League, I'm
going to tell you messed up, and you're going to

(01:30:00):
agree with me. It actually happened. It actually happened for
not one, but two Houston Texans football players. All they
did was, you know, run their mouths a little bit. Well,
they didn't say anything they shouldn't have said, and some
people said, I think the other people didn't say, and
then we're attributed.

Speaker 2 (01:30:17):
It was attributed to them.

Speaker 3 (01:30:18):
Joe Mixon, as we all know, was fine for his
postgame comments following their lost last loss of the season
to the Kansas City Chiefs, some of his comments from
the locker room, whichever ones they chose to select, which
was none of them, because that's not what he said
that he was fine for, and the league sent out
a letter of apology. Here's how it reads. The letter

(01:30:40):
saying you're twenty five thousand dollars fine has been rescinded.

Speaker 2 (01:30:44):
I'm not going to read it to you in full.

Speaker 3 (01:30:47):
You stated during the appeal hearing that what you meant
by your statements referring to the officials, you said that during.

Speaker 2 (01:30:54):
Your appeal hearing, which we granted you. As you know,
statements can be interpreted differently by every individual. It seems
like you understand the weight and detriment of public criticism
towards the officials can be so given how impactful your
platform is as a player. Integrity of the game and
its officials is the responsibility of everyone involved in the NFL.
After reviewing the totality of the evidence, I find for

(01:31:18):
the plaintiff, I find that you did not necessarily this
is a courtroom, publicly criticize the officials.

Speaker 3 (01:31:24):
I want to read you that sentence again. In finding
for Joe Mixon, in ruling in his favor Chris Palmer,
the hearing officer writes this sentence, I find that you
did not necessarily publicly criticize officials. NotI you didn't for
the reason set forth above. The NFL roots into your

(01:31:46):
twenty five thousand dollars fine amount. Multiple reports now also
indicate the comments made by his defensive teammate, will Anderson
Junior that cost him twenty five thousand dollars. His fine
also rescinded not necessary. I find that you did not
necessarily publicly criticize it.

Speaker 2 (01:32:03):
I feel like some people raw out of bed every
day trying to figure out how to make me have
an aneurysm on the radio. I really feel like that sometime.
There's any number of people in my life and people
like this not in my life, but they've come across
them because of this.

Speaker 3 (01:32:16):
It's gonna happen when you file an appeal, pursue it
to Article forty six of the twenty twenty Collective Bargaining Agreement,
which was her January thirtieth. And by the way, this
letter constitutes the decision on that appeal.

Speaker 2 (01:32:27):
You know what we need, We need doge for these people.
Go in there and trim the fat. This is taking
entirely too long and is too entirely stupid of a process.
I mean, he should have even had a hearing.

Speaker 3 (01:32:38):
Hey, John, Yes, Yeah, my assistant John, Chris Palmer's assistant
to the regional prosecutor.

Speaker 2 (01:32:46):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:32:46):
He asked John if he could pull from the file,
the digital file, the form letter we send out when
ruling on appeals. Could you do that perfect and then
go ahead and send it because I don't need any
All I have to do is change the dates. It
was dated January twenty second, when you were fined. It's
dated January thirtieth, when the appeal was heard. Doesn't mention

(01:33:10):
Joe's name in the letter? Now it does say dear Joe,
so you did have to change that, oh, dear Joe.
It doesn't get into the specifics of what he said.
This isn't time consuming. You think like taxpayer section of
the file? Which form letter do we need today? Do
you think like taxpayers? Ticket prices are.

Speaker 2 (01:33:26):
What fund some of these idiots that do these jobs
as poorly as they do them. First of all, how
do you get the quote wrong? I'm seriously asking. This
is all a conversation right now. This the fine itself
in the first place, is all happening because some dumb
ass couldn't quote the right player in a locker room.

Speaker 3 (01:33:45):
We're a little low on collections this go around this year.
I know we're late in the year and there are
not many opportunities. There's only eight teams left, and now
that they've lost, there's only another five games. I mean,
I'm not sure how much more money we can generate
for the kittie. And I know he didn't say it,
but if he doesn't appeal, we get it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:02):
Let's just see what happens. That's honestly stupid and ridiculous.
Is that sounds of course that could happen, and probably
did got tons of Did you see his deal? Three years,
twenty seven million. All we're asking for is twenty five
thousand for something somebody else said. If he doesn't appeal it,
we get it. We can just we just take it
right out of him and just make stuff up all
the time then and get money, which they don't do.

(01:34:23):
That's like the cold comedy. We're a little comedy here,
a little stand up. I'm seriously asking who funds these people?
Who are these people?

Speaker 6 (01:34:30):
You do? What?

Speaker 2 (01:34:32):
I do? You think the mahomes and Kelsey jerseys are free?
Oh no, no, no, I get jerseys, buy tickets, buy pretzels. Listen.
That is first of all, I don't buy pretzels at
that stadium ever. And second, last time you went to
see a game at G. E. H A Field, would
you eat media food press box?

Speaker 5 (01:34:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:34:54):
They paid for it. I got over on you. He
thought you won the game, but I won the war.
You've been to a game there as a fan? Yes? Yeah?
What did you eat? I don't think we got anything
that night, easily let me tell you why nowhere, let
me tell you why. It was Christmas night?

Speaker 4 (01:35:09):
It was.

Speaker 2 (01:35:09):
It was Mahomes's rookie season, which means he wasn't playing.
So Alex Smith, Alex Smith out there flinging it against
division rival Denver. Yeah, before a feature JJ ended him.
Who featured? Who is their quarterback? Then in twenty seventeen,
some bump the Broncos. Yeah, let's just say it was
Russell Wilson. You said, some bum man. I know that's

(01:35:30):
not accurate. Ye, well, brock Osweller, you want to go
with that. I know that's not accurate either. It's not
because he was he was at that time he was.
I think he was still busy torpedoing the Texans.

Speaker 9 (01:35:40):
Nah.

Speaker 2 (01:35:42):
Point of it was, it wasn't It was cold, but
it wasn't like frigid like it was when when we
were up there for this last game. But it was
also raining, so we were all wearing like the equivalent
of ponchos and layers underneath the ponchos. So if you
wanted to go get whatever, I take that back. We
did get some food. I'm remembering the night now. I
think we got something, but I don't remember what it was.

(01:36:03):
I just remember going to the conchession. It was just
me and Teresa though, because it was a group of us.
So this was before Halloween. No, this was Christmas Night
of twenty seventeen, okay or sixteen, one of those two.
Oh see that makes me. Well it was a Monday
night game, I believe, so whatever, Christmas fell on Monday

(01:36:24):
and the Broncos played the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Ge. Well,
back then it was just Arrowhead. Yeah, that that's fine.
Then they had yeah, and they weren't winners and one
any things since the seventies back then hadn't ruined the
league yet.

Speaker 3 (01:36:39):
Just for everybody to be able to put their heads
on their pillows tonight and sleep. Coming accuracy is Alex
Smith versus Trevor Simon.

Speaker 2 (01:36:46):
Oh my gosh, it's doing worse than I thought. And
I believe this is before Alex Smith had mangled his leg.
Well that came in a different uniform against the Texan.
He was a Redskin and JJ Watt did it and
Kareem Oh Korean helped. They were it was this a
double team tackle. I if I never if I could
get if I could like scoop out that memory from

(01:37:08):
my brain of watching that E sixty about his leg.
I wish I could do that, because I would. That
was Andy Reid against wait, John l Way, Gary Kubiak.
Kubiak was coaching then, Yes, how do I not remember that?
M Oh shucks, it's raining. It's probably what he said
that night. All right, Well, good for Joe mix and

(01:37:29):
he's twenty five thousand dollars richer, but not really did he.
Do you think they took the final already and then
gave it back. They might not have given it back yet,
but yes, I'm sure they took it. It'll be in
your direct pause and on the fifteenth Joe just be
on the lookout for it next month. Sure, that's how
that goes. All right, I have got something that Well,
first of all, wex is going to say, yes, see,

(01:37:50):
I told you so. But is it my favorite segment? Oh?
You love those segments. We've got one of those next,
regarding the Rockets and their rebounding prowess in today's.

Speaker 1 (01:37:59):
NBA The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety back to
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler The.

Speaker 2 (01:38:09):
Eight Seriously, coming off the last segment, I just want
to eliminate stupid people people from my life. Good luck
we're here myself. You know what I just thought of
in that vein. I've got to get on the west

(01:38:30):
Loop to leave. There's gonna be a lot of those
out there.

Speaker 6 (01:38:33):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:38:33):
You wanted to send us down the basketball path and we'll.

Speaker 2 (01:38:38):
Rockets right before we get to that. This is going
to be a very statistic heavy segment, which is why
you are signed up. You are locked and loaded for
this one. However, you say his last name, it's spelled
A M I c O. So you guys do what
you want with that. Sam Amiko, sam Amico, sam and
m Les Landa, Lama ding Dong whatever. Every NBA team,

(01:39:01):
he just tweeted this during the break. Every NBA team
is averaging more than thirty one to three pointers per
game in twenty fifteen. That's ten years ago. There was
but one, your Houston Rockets. I that is insane to me.
There was one team, and I remember that at the time.

(01:39:22):
And remember this was before Eric Gordon was there. This
was before Ryan Anderson was there. I don't even know
if Trevor Ariza had been brought to the fold yet.
James Harden was definitely on the team, but the talent
surrounding him was, you know, the Dwight Howards of the world.
I think Trevor was on that team, but once Eric
Gordon came along and then later Chris Paul, I mean

(01:39:45):
there was it was actually impressive if they didn't take
thirty or more per game. And I remember those days,
and the thing is they were making them and so
in that vein doesn't necessarily have to do with what
I'm gonna get into, although it it does. I was
I had come across a tweet earlier today and I

(01:40:05):
was like, look, Wex is gonna love this, and I
sent it to him because this graphic perfectly entails what
we were talking about with regards to the Astros being
just ungodly at rebounding. I said the other day, I'm like, man,
does it seem to you like the Rockets give up
an inordinate amount of offensive rebounds? And I had talked
to you about this, I had talked to Craig Ackerman

(01:40:26):
about this, and you both had the same reaction. No, Like,
the the Rockets are like the best, one of the
best rebounding teams in the NBA. They've constantly either been
number one or two this season, I believe, and therefore
you know their offensive rebounding is going to be one
of the best as well. But then I asked you,
is that just because they missed so many shots, because

(01:40:46):
they're taking threes, they're taking twos that they're not making.
And this tweet came out and it had a graph
on it, But basically it comes down to the Rockets
are in the middle of an unprecedented season offensively. That
sentence a lo is just crazy to me, because you
don't think of the Rockets as this offensive juggernaut at all.

(01:41:09):
They're a bottom five half court offense ninety one and
a half points per possession as twenty seventh in the league,
but they're twelfth in overall offensive efficiency. Make that make sense.
Despite having a half court offense five point nine points
worse than the league average, the Rockets are one of

(01:41:29):
just two such teams over the last twenty two seasons
to have a positive relative offensive rating. They've accomplished this
by being generational on the offensive glass thirty five point
six offensive rebounds per percentage that's first this season, third
highest since two thousand and four. First in points per

(01:41:52):
miss that's first fourth since two thousand and four, and
twenty three point eight put back plays per one hundred
misses also first since two thousand and four. The Rockets,
in other words, create more put back opportunities than any
modern NBA team ever. And you sent something back that
was hilarious. Steven Adams is dominating on the offensive glass.

Speaker 3 (01:42:12):
So since ninety seven, ninety eight offensive rebounds per thirty
six minutes. You'll recognize these names on the list. Moses
Malone in any given season, he's on there five times.
Larry Smith's on there, Dennis Rodman's on there, Andre Drummonds
on there, Jason Williams with a y harshly at the
top of the list. You said, Roy Tarpley, Yes, he's

(01:42:35):
on there. Clint Capella is on there. Steven Adams is
on the list nineteenth best offensive rebounding season twenty seventeen
eighteen when he was with Oklahoma City Dreams, in the
top twenty five. Also any given season, that's the neighborhood
of about five point four rebounds per thirty six at the
bottom of the top twenty five and six point eight
offensive rebounds per thirty six minutes play that is number

(01:42:58):
one in the NBA in the last twenty eight seasons,
Jason Williams six point eight one. Steven Adams is at
seven point nine this year. He's not even barely beating it.
He's blowing it away more than one rebound per thirty
six minute, ahead of everybody in the last thirty years.

Speaker 2 (01:43:16):
Which is important for him to this. He doesn't play
that much.

Speaker 3 (01:43:19):
It's important that when he gets out there, he says, oh,
you want to hold my arm, great, I'll just use
the other one rebound with my other arm, because you know, you, guys,
what he does, you can't keep me out of this spot.
I'm obviously not a huge part of the offense away
from the basket. I'm a huge part of the offense
and creating opening Like it's hard to find a player
that you that is looked at like Steven Adams so badly,

(01:43:43):
so miss grated as a player because there's all sorts
of categories of skills you need for your team.

Speaker 2 (01:43:52):
And he might be the best at two of them in.

Speaker 3 (01:43:54):
The entire league. One of them, he clearly is the best.
He's the best offensive rebounder in the NBA. Yeah, you
want an open shooter, why don't you have him set
a screen. Ask thirty NBA head coaches, who's the best
screen setting big in the NBA. I bet you're more
than fifteen of them, say Steven Adams.

Speaker 2 (01:44:11):
The operative word there being big. He is a mountain
of a human being. You're not getting through him, not
fighting through anything with him, you're dying. So getting him
in trade knowing he couldn't play last year when you
were gonna be averaged, Oh totally. I knew what they
were doing having him available for it, and they might
just move him this why why why would you want

(01:44:32):
to This is before he played this year they were, Oh,
he's a tradable contract. You know he went, didn't play
for him? You need him if he was if the
Rockets were bad, one hundred percent chance he gets traded
at the deadline because somebody's gonna use him. Everybody can
use like that, seriously, a missing piece when it comes
to that aspect of the game, which, by the way,

(01:44:53):
if you don't rebound in the playoffs, you better be
shooting the lights out of the three pointer because you're
not gonna win. And that's not that super ste any
style of play that you can talk about. Mid nineties
when people were beating the crap out of each other.
You needed to notice Thorp or you need somebody. It
was gonna grab your rebounds. Twenty sixteen, when everybody's shooting
thirty three is a game. Well, the Rockets were the
only team and now there's you know, everybody. You better

(01:45:14):
have a rebounder because there's gonna be misses and you're
gonna want first, second, third chance points.

Speaker 3 (01:45:20):
Yeah, and I think if you look at the percentages,
because you brought up, they missed a lot of shots,
so there's a lot of rebounds to get on the
offensive gloss.

Speaker 2 (01:45:26):
Grab a lot of rebounds because there are a lot
of rebounds. There's no denying those cold, hard, simple facts.
But they're number one in the NBA and offensive rebound percentage,
and again by a pretty wide margin. You know, thirty
six point three.

Speaker 3 (01:45:40):
The Grizzlies are next to thirty four to four, and
pretty much everybody is super clustered together except for them. Adams, Shingoon, Eason,
Amen Thompson all among the best offensive rebounders for their
spots on the floor.

Speaker 2 (01:45:54):
This is all play for the Rockets. This is like
such an al gore thing. Oh my good. The amount
of off getting up the lock box here. Oh yeah, no,
that's what The amount of offensive rebounders here is staggering.
That's what he would say. Now I have ented the internet.

Speaker 3 (01:46:10):
I think Adams A, men Alpi and Tari would not
be offended if their jump shooting teammates said we're gonna
we're not gonna give you as many opportunities. We're gonna
start making more of our shots.

Speaker 2 (01:46:24):
Yeah, I think they'd be Okay, he will gladly sacrifice
this aspect of our dominance.

Speaker 3 (01:46:29):
Yeah, their percentages might stay the same, but they'll just
be fewer in total. Fred should be back sometime, probably
in February. Could be much sooner than that, as they
play four games in the next six days after our
beginning on Friday. Looks like Jabari Smith Junior and what
was a good three point shooting season from him, should
be back also in that similar timeframe, maybe just to

(01:46:50):
touch ahead of Fred. You know, Jalen Green had a
super strong previous month month of January, far less so
here in the month of February, but his numbers shooting
last year to this year are also up. And Dylan Brooks,
despite his last couple of games where I think he's
getting more fouls than shots made.

Speaker 2 (01:47:08):
He's in a pretty good stretch.

Speaker 3 (01:47:10):
Well maybe if that continues, holding onto the four spot
becomes that much easier. And yes, getting started with the
Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night, two teams that would like
to be on the right side of that separator one, two, three,
and four spot versus five, six, seven or eight. Pretty
important game. And the Rockets they haven't lost to anybody

(01:47:32):
three times this year. I don't believe they haven't played
the thunder enough to lose than three, because they beat
them once. They still have two remaining u h the Warriors.
Warriors have three wins against him.

Speaker 2 (01:47:43):
That last one honestly almost sent me over the edge.
I forgot their most recent game because everybody forgot it.
You know why, because there was a line change in
the middle of it. Because he may wanted to forget
about it that night. Yeah, the Nate Williams game. That
was what you had their signature segments four thirty on
a weekda afternoon here on the eight team. So say
what that's.

Speaker 4 (01:48:02):
Next the Aight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:48:09):
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Speaker 2 (01:49:26):
Nice stream Davis talking about frog baseball, House Strike one.

Speaker 13 (01:49:31):
Hey, you dummies, listen to Astros baseball and Rockets basketball
games on any device with the free iHeart Radio app.

Speaker 5 (01:49:38):
God, this is Adam and Adams Weekly choked through mind
buckling moments that make you.

Speaker 2 (01:49:47):
Go, hey, what what what?

Speaker 9 (01:49:54):
Tipe?

Speaker 6 (01:49:54):
What is here? What are you talking about?

Speaker 9 (01:49:56):
It?

Speaker 2 (01:49:57):
On a Tuesday Way what Jean I did?

Speaker 16 (01:50:01):
Now?

Speaker 6 (01:50:02):
Say what?

Speaker 2 (01:50:04):
That's right? Say what Tay?

Speaker 3 (01:50:06):
An extra segment on a Tuesday Saw a list made
me scratch my head a little bit and wondered what
we all thought about this. If you remember earlier in
the show, you were talking about the Cowboys and you said, oh,
they were playing bad football before they even lost Dak Prescott,
and I, for the first time ever interrupted you and said, yeah,

(01:50:28):
they're elite quarterback Dak Prescott, and you just kept on
going like I didn't even say it.

Speaker 2 (01:50:31):
Couldn't believe it. You're usually so polite.

Speaker 3 (01:50:34):
I know, elite quarterback Dak Prescott saw a list that
placed the NFL starting quarterbacks in a tier, and I
thought it deserved a little of attention, something I was
planning on doing myself at some point this offseason, following
this last year that's gone by. Different parts of the
list may be a little bit more difficult to put together.

(01:50:55):
Some should be super easy. Top four quarterbacks category all
by themselves. The big four better than elite, the big four?
Who's the big four in the NFL quarterbacks right now?

Speaker 2 (01:51:08):
Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, Just kidding, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen Hurts
is one reason why this is say what? Okay? Well,
so it's Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen. Who am I forgetting?

Speaker 17 (01:51:24):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:51:24):
The only active AFC quarterback that's still a starter that's
played in the Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (01:51:30):
I honestly can't. I can't go Burrow.

Speaker 3 (01:51:32):
Oh okay, So Mahomes, Alan Jackson and Burrow. Those are
the four big four, a cut above everybody else. We
have a group of five that fall into the elite category.

Speaker 7 (01:51:44):
C J.

Speaker 3 (01:51:44):
Stroud's in that group, as you should be. Yesterday we
talked at length about Matt Stafford. He's in that group.
Justin Herbert of the zero playoff victories in two tries,
especially one against the Texans, is on that group. In
that group, so top nine. Second, what did you just say?

(01:52:05):
He's only been in the playoffs twice, lost to Trevor
Lawrence and the Jags lost to CJ.

Speaker 2 (01:52:10):
Stroud in the Texans. Whoa, whoa? Whoa? Can be true
senator to the Hall of Fame already? Yeah, I know
after he said it was a bye week. Exackly, I'm
not even I'm stunned. Justin Herbert got by accident in
the league that and got into the playoffs more than twice.

Speaker 3 (01:52:25):
Well, he also can't win the division because Kansas City
is there. No, I know that, but I just so,
he's definitely going to be on the road for so long. Well,
his career also only spans five years. This is year five. Wow,
So he is in the elite group, which, like I said,
made me double take. Jayden Daniels end the aforementioned Dak Prescott.

(01:52:48):
That's your top nine Mahomes, Jackson, Allen Burrow, Herbert Stafford,
Daniel Stroud, Prescott. In other words, the reigning Super Bowl
champion who's played in two Super Bowls, has been electric
in both Super Bowls. Scored thirty five and forty in
the two Super Bowls. The defense helped pause.

Speaker 2 (01:53:09):
Yeah, but Saquon Barkley didn't, right.

Speaker 3 (01:53:11):
But they did put literal points on the board while
Jalen Hurts was looking at the surface tablet.

Speaker 2 (01:53:16):
He was the one that won that Super Bowl, not
Saquon Barkley.

Speaker 3 (01:53:19):
And you're gonna hate the list even more when I
tell you what they titled the group of nine quarterbacks.
He's in the very next group of quarterbacks. So the
first one is what the elite?

Speaker 2 (01:53:29):
The Big four? Oh, the Big four? Then the elite? Okay,
these are the game managers. Oh my gosh, who's this
entity again? This is someone who covers the NFL. What's
their name? Uh, we'll get to that after. It's not important.
It seems important. If you're calling Jalen Hurts a game manager,
you moron.

Speaker 3 (01:53:48):
Every starting quarterback in the NFL that wears number one
is in the game manager's group. There are three, Kyler, Murray,
Tua and Jalen Hurts.

Speaker 2 (01:53:57):
That that's so funny to me. Sam Donald free agent
to be we think, by the way, the franchise tag,
transition tag window opened today. Yeah. T Higgins and Sam
Donald are gonna love their seasons in Cincinnati and Minnesota, respectively.

Speaker 3 (01:54:15):
Cincinnati reports already indicate they will do it with T Higgins,
he's gonna love that. They're gonna be very few officially
handed out, if any, until the very end of his career.

Speaker 2 (01:54:24):
You're Cincinnati, I'm sorry, those are the rules.

Speaker 3 (01:54:26):
Yeah, it's bad for the player, and maybe it promotes
them finally putting a long term deal together. We'll see,
but yeah, it looks like maybe those two players.

Speaker 2 (01:54:34):
Could get it. Bad for the player, It just means
he doesn't have a long term deal. He's getting a
crap ton of money.

Speaker 3 (01:54:40):
Right, but if they don't tag him instead of getting
we'll call it twenty one million guaranteed, he can go
anywhere else he wants and for sure get thirty forty,
maybe even fifty guaranteed that very moment.

Speaker 2 (01:54:52):
All that's guaranteed is your signing bonus. If you've learned
nothing about the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:54:55):
He could absolutely get that by He just doesn't have
a long term deal, so he has to play unknown
other healthy productive season, which is a wide receiver, as
we see here in Houston, can be difficult. So Tua Kyler,
Jalen Darnold, Jordan Love, Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff, Rock Purty,
Gino Smith. The more I read through it, the less
bad it sounded. Except golf'spin to the super Bowl. Heurts

(01:55:19):
has been to the super Bowl twice. Party's beIN to
the super Bowl. These are game managers. Party's about to don't.

Speaker 7 (01:55:25):
I know.

Speaker 3 (01:55:25):
People don't like it, and people are like, come on,
he doesn't deserve that. He's not that good. Party's getting
a fat contract this offseason. Might even be the highest
paid quarterback in the NFL, just from a timing standpoint.
If he's the guy who gets it this year and
he's a starter and they are good even though they
weren't last year, he gets it.

Speaker 2 (01:55:43):
But I'll move on.

Speaker 3 (01:55:44):
There's fifteen quarterbacks left, but I'd digress if you hadn't
listened close land up. I'll just tell you right now.
Of the worst fifteen quarterbacks starting quarterbacks in the NFL,
three of them play in the AFC South, No kidding.
Breaking news.

Speaker 2 (01:55:57):
One was being rumored to be interested in by the
Pittsworth Steelers until everybody was like, no, they're not.

Speaker 3 (01:56:05):
I think you're gonna start liking the titles of each
of these more and more as I rolled down the list.

Speaker 2 (01:56:10):
It's gonna be tough to top. Game managers might not
like this group of five. They're called undecided, Okay, Trevor Lawrence.
What's the undecided in reference to.

Speaker 3 (01:56:17):
I'm not sure if they're good or game managers. I'm
not sure if we don't have a full read on
them yet. I haven't made a final decid to hear
the other four names Lawrence, Drake May, Michael Pennox, Junior,
Bryce Young, and Caleb Williams. So basically four kids and
a fifth year quarterback, Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 2 (01:56:33):
He couldn't be further from the undecided. Where is that?
Not good?

Speaker 3 (01:56:37):
This program has long since decided you suck, Trevor Lawrence.
Next category also five participants not good but serviceable.

Speaker 2 (01:56:47):
And Trevor Lawrence is not in this group. Not in
this group.

Speaker 3 (01:56:50):
This group sounds awful except for one name, which was
actually the biggest. I shook my head at name eighteen O'Connell, Russell, Wilson,
Derek Carr, Aaron Rodgers. Serviceable but not good. That's not
terrible definition, pretty interesting group of three longtime Vets, two
of whom have won a Super Bowl, and Aidan O'Connell.
But the other name is bo Nix.

Speaker 2 (01:57:11):
He's good. I mean, he's had one years.

Speaker 3 (01:57:14):
He was outperformed expectations even though he was the top
fifteen pick. And I know they had a great defense,
and I know they're very good in the trenches, both
offensive and defense. He played good football. I'm very surprised
to see him that poorly thought of. But now we
get to the last group. I'll save the name of
the group till the end, but it includes hot garbage
that would be applicable. Will Levice and Anthony Richardson of

(01:57:38):
AFC South Fank.

Speaker 2 (01:57:39):
Very very good submissions. DeShawn Watson, well, he's hot garbage
as a human too. Daniel Jones also hot. Well, I
don't know how he is as a human, but definitely
hot garbage.

Speaker 3 (01:57:50):
I did not shake my head at this one even
for a second. Kirk Cousins Now, granted, the Falcons have
two quarterbacks listed here, so took some liberty.

Speaker 2 (01:58:00):
Them were good. So it was.

Speaker 3 (01:58:01):
Big four elite game managers undecided, not good but serviceable.
In the last group, I just read off those five.
The category was described and categorized as kneehow.

Speaker 2 (01:58:13):
Knee how huh? That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:58:16):
So Scroud being in the elite top nine in the
NFL better than Golf, better than Hurts, better than Love,
better than Baker.

Speaker 2 (01:58:26):
Yeah, you're good with all that. Yeah, I'm aren't you? Uh,
he's not ahead of him, or who is ahead of him?
I should say he's different. But a huge winner and
a huge clutch player and a big time performer. How
can Jalen Hurts be behind him? That's all they Yeah, No,
I'm fine with him being ahead. I mean, he just
won the Super Bowl and he just went for the

(01:58:47):
second time in three years, right with two different coaching
staffs Holmes, then Chris Collinsworth would be beside himself. Nobody
would have wanted to be anywhere near him either. No,
at that moment in time. No, that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:58:58):
But Jared Goffer Bowl quarterback, not winner, but super Bowl quarterback,
perty super Bowl quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:59:03):
These are all behind c. J. Stroud. Yeah. Okay, if
you're talking to somebody right now who's running their NFL
team and they can have any of these guys, they're
not taking them above CJ. Stroud.

Speaker 3 (01:59:14):
That's fair and honestly, just put your top ten together.
I still think I'm mentioning those names, not that I'm
saying they deserve I'm just pedigreeing them.

Speaker 2 (01:59:22):
All we're saying is CJ. Stroud top ten NFL quarterback.
Believe it? In fact? Yeah, truth, we were doing top
five this time last year. Then we were Bobby Slowa
Kapp and I read an article about, you know, just
why he got fired, and of course I forgot to
put it anywhere where I could find it later, like
right now, you're probably aware of it.

Speaker 7 (01:59:44):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:59:44):
Over the last week, I posted this link to each
of the pieces. Djb Enemy of ESPN, is the beat
writer here in Houston for the Texans. For ESPN, he
wrote a very lengthy, detailed story from the sources that
I'd spoken with inside the organization.

Speaker 2 (02:00:00):
The one I'm making sure it was.

Speaker 3 (02:00:01):
It was why things didn't work out and why they've
moved on for Bobby Slowick.

Speaker 2 (02:00:06):
The next day, John Alexander.

Speaker 3 (02:00:08):
Who covers the Texans for the Houston Chronicle, he's their
beat writer. He wrote a story which was basically why
there is hope that it will work out with Nick Kyley.
So I posted both of the links to those stories
on my x account over the weekend. If you want
to catch up with either of those two very well
written pieces on your Houston Texas you can do so there.

(02:00:28):
But Jalen Hurts, super Bowl Champion, just a game manager,
say what.

Speaker 4 (02:00:36):
The age? On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 17 (02:00:40):
Touchdown Texas coach Stark Here back to the eighteen with
the Adams, Adam Wexler, and Adam Clinton on Sports Talk
seven ninety Houston's home of Longhorn Football.

Speaker 2 (02:01:00):
It is the eight team Sports Sox seven to ninety.
You know, we were talking about how the quarterbacks are
looked at UH in the NFL coming out of this year.
Basically there was just an absolutely ignorant statement made by
sam Acho, which I know that's going to surprise a
lot of you to watch his work.

Speaker 8 (02:01:22):
He is.

Speaker 2 (02:01:24):
He was, he is warning against and this is I'm
making sure, yeah, I'm making sure. The date on this
this was yesterday. We were all blown away by c. J.
Stroud his rookie year, right, everybody pretty much for the
most part consistently, this kid's got it. He's got the
it factor. He's going to be a star. He's going

(02:01:44):
to be great for years to come. The Texans nailed
it with that draft pick. That was all everybody was saying.
Same thing with Jayden Daniels this year, right, pretty much
like almost the exact same script. I mean, this kid's awesome,
and he got to the playoffs and made a little
bit more noise, definitely. So now sam Acho is here

(02:02:05):
to pump the brakes. He's here to let everybody know that,
you know, even though Stroud had an awesome rookie year
in twenty twenty three, Daniels had an awesome rookie year
this year. You gotta be careful. It's got to be
up to Jaden Daniels, as he says, it's got to
be up to Cliff Kingsbury the entire coaching staff to say, hey, Jaden,

(02:02:27):
I understand how excellent we were, but in order to
not have that slump like we saw with CJ. Stroud,
we're gonna have to work on some of those little things.
How many times should I put my head through a
brick wall after reading that to general, I mean, yeah,

(02:02:47):
for starters, that's the first thing that's wrong with it.
That's so shortsighted though to just say, ah, it was
CJ's second year, so of course, he slumped. What did
you watch the games? Did you see the numbers that
have been floating around the reason that they've got Nick
Kyley here now? The re like, it's just it's interesting
with this.

Speaker 3 (02:03:08):
I'd like to refer to the pass rush win rate
and run block rate, all those things throughout the year.
Final numbers for the year, the offensive lineman related numbers
pass block win rate, run block win rate.

Speaker 2 (02:03:23):
CJ.

Speaker 3 (02:03:24):
Stroud's offensive lineman rated twenty second and thirty first in
those two categories league wide this past season twenty second
and thirty first. Jayden Daniels offensive lineman there with the
Commanders rated ninth and second.

Speaker 2 (02:03:39):
So we're good.

Speaker 3 (02:03:42):
Check they've tackled all the boxes, They've crossed all the
t's and dotted the eyes.

Speaker 2 (02:03:49):
I haven't even gotten that.

Speaker 3 (02:03:51):
His second year won't be a huge slump. I mean,
he has the added benefit that CJ doesn't. If he
wants to run for eight hundred yards next year, he
can just like he did this year. I mean, he
was basically he was unbelievable. And in addition, if he
ran for his zero yards, he was an awesome passing quarterback.

(02:04:11):
He was an awesome playmaking quarterback. With his arm, and
he was also awesome with his legs.

Speaker 2 (02:04:18):
That's an and to it.

Speaker 3 (02:04:19):
It's not he's a he's a dual thread or he
can his run game is so far his pass game.

Speaker 2 (02:04:24):
He's fine.

Speaker 3 (02:04:24):
He's fine as he appeared to be fine as a
reader of defenses, as a quarterback who had time to
and then execute, going through his progressions, finding the right guys.
They can absolutely add more talent, you know. Bringing zach
Ertz into the fold was massive.

Speaker 2 (02:04:40):
Yeah, great team. He was also being cast aside by others.

Speaker 8 (02:04:44):
He was not.

Speaker 3 (02:04:45):
He produced there like nobody expected. He plays with probably
the quietest superstar in the NFL. Strength, Terry McLaurin is phenomenal.
I know, we just watched c J. Stroud produce less
this past year in his second year. It certainly can happen.

(02:05:05):
There's film on the Washington offense, what Cliff Kingsbury liked
to do. There's film on Jayden Daniels. There's tendencies, there's
all sorts of stuff to get better at when you
game plan for them.

Speaker 2 (02:05:15):
I cannot. I'm sorry, but I just don't see it.
I can't.

Speaker 3 (02:05:18):
Here's this slump coming from to to this big degree.
That Sammy a now again again sam Ocho is the espnacho.

Speaker 2 (02:05:25):
Yeah, this was on categorize them, but they show box. Yeah,
now that was bad enough. But the article and I'm
gonna even give you a site because it's it's a
crap site. But they just happen to have sam Ocho's quotes,
which is what brought me here. The article itself. The
person who wrote this article is maybe one of the
dumbest people I've ever seen in my life, just because

(02:05:46):
of these next two paragraphs. Injuries to stars like Tank
Dell and Stefan Diggs played a role in Stroud's poor performances. However,
and here's where he really breaks it down, because he
clearly watched the Texans this year. However, he didn't look
as in the pocket as he did in his rookie campaign,
threw some erratic passes, and was often caught being indecisive,

(02:06:07):
leading him to being sacked fifty two times, fourteen more
than his debut year. Before I get to the next paragraph,
that's the paragraph he didn't say why. He just said
CJ woke up his sophomore year and started not being
as composed and threw erratic passes. Are you freaking kidding me.
Then the next paragraph, in case you didn't like that
one enough, the film Stroud put on in his rookie year.

(02:06:30):
Now he pivots too, was enough for defenses to jot
down an effective game plan against him. Daniels will have
to work on his deficiencies in the offseason, and the
Commanders will have to upgrade the talent around him or
risk their young quarterback meeting the same fate as the
Texans start did last season. I have to read it

(02:06:51):
like that because it looks like a five year old
wrote it. Carson would be embarrassed at this kind of
non journalistic talent, which he's like, I just can't like
these people. Just I think they're just like filling space. Well,
I gotta have a certain amount of words, so I'll
just write this drivel. Well, there's no mention of the
offensive line being absolute garbage in this whole thing, right,

(02:07:13):
But what does the writer have to do with it?
He's the one that wrote that. Yeah, but he's just
taking Sam's quotes word for word. Those last two paragraphs
are the writers. See, now you're confusing. That's why I
said that before I read the paragraphs, I said the
sports website that this is from is not even worth
mentioning because it's crap. Here is an example. I thought
you got that. I didn't. Well, it's your comprehension is

(02:07:34):
still above this guy here. The whole time, I was like, man,
he's really ripping this guy. No, sam Acho just had
the part about he's gonna have a sophomore sham.

Speaker 7 (02:07:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:07:42):
He and Hannah Storm, our friend, had a discussion about
CJ and Jayden Daniels in the light of their paths
following one another.

Speaker 2 (02:07:50):
In order to not have that slumplake we saw with CJ,
we're gonna have to work on some of those things.
You guys got it all figured out.

Speaker 7 (02:07:56):
Man.

Speaker 2 (02:07:57):
You clearly watched the Texans a lot.

Speaker 3 (02:07:59):
I mean everything in there was accurate, except for leaving
out the reasons why he seemed to have me more intecises.

Speaker 2 (02:08:05):
All of that's truer. But you can't just not say why,
and you can't make a sound like it's all on CJ. You,
Oh my gosh, some of these people, these people, these
people all right, Football at five coming up now, I'll
try to follow along better this coming segment and hour.

Speaker 4 (02:08:22):
The A team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (02:08:25):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham talking your
Team series. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A
team A.

Speaker 2 (02:08:52):
I think my blood pressure is back down. Not everybody
should write about anything.

Speaker 3 (02:09:00):
Then you've got to separate the needed. I know it's
good to point out to people if you read this,
you shouldn't pay attention to it. But there at such
a level that nobody that's listening to us is going
to be reading that.

Speaker 2 (02:09:12):
I don't think no. And again I'll tell you how
I found. I came across that drivel. I was looking
for the article that you mentioned that who wrote it? Again?
Djb Enemy, Yeah, that was the one I was. That
was the article about CJ. That I was looking for.
Where not he quoted anonymous players in the locker room saying, hey,
look it was time for a change at offensive at

(02:09:35):
the offensive quarter or offensive coordinator position. And here's why
you know these things were going on. I just stumbled
across that and it was, man, come on, Google, you
gotta do better than that. And all I did was
search c J. Stroud. There was nothing attached to his
name when I searched that. I was again looking for
that other article, and I accidentally stumbled upon idiocy. Speaking

(02:09:56):
of which, let me give you five names and want
you to tell me what they have in common. I
don't have to blind rank them. No, I will not
do that to you, because I am nicer. Josh Williams
he is the RAMS Director of Scouting Strategy. James Gladstone
he would be the Bear's assistant general manager. Actually, no,

(02:10:20):
let me take that. Let me let me start over.
Josh Williams is the forty nine Ers Director of Scouting
and Football Operations. James Gladstone is the RAMS Director of
Scouting Strategy. Ian Cunningham he is the Bear's assistant GM
and Packers Vice president of Player Personnel. John Eric's hyphenated

(02:10:41):
I know who these guys are, Sullivan, do you know
who they are? What about Ethan Waugh? Oh? Yeah, he
is the current Jaguars interim general manager. He too, is
on this list of five who could be your Jacksonville
Jaguars new general manager.

Speaker 3 (02:11:01):
Child Alexander Champ Kelly, John Robinson, Brandon Brown, Terrence Gray,
and Trey Brown missed the cut. Eleven general managers were
part of the interview process for the Jaguars. The five
you mentioned are the finalists. How bad you have to
beat to miss the cut to be the GM of
the Jags.

Speaker 2 (02:11:16):
I'll say I was aware of the work of two
of the five that made the finalist lists, including the
person I think is going to get the job, and
that's Ian Cunningham from the Bears. I think he will
be So you Ian is going to work with Liam?
Is that what you're saying here?

Speaker 3 (02:11:30):
I think so okay, and Ian is going to replace
the person that Liam wasn't going to work for and
wanted to stay in Tampa.

Speaker 2 (02:11:38):
If they made him an all British sounding front office,
if that's the way you want to go shod Con,
I think that'll be fine.

Speaker 3 (02:11:46):
I'm just being I would know one thing about Champ Kelly.
He's the was the assistant GM in la or in Vegas.
Vegas hired a new GM spy Tech and he's basically
gone through the internal interview process and kind of one
by one we're hearing, well, this person is no longer
with the team and they're you know, they're moving on.
Dwan Daniels, I think, is the scouts name that went

(02:12:10):
to the Raiders a couple of years ago. So worked
through a couple of different coaching staffs there, but it's
among the people that will no longer be there. And
I had a feeling, because of why he came there
and who was there then, that he probably had a
line to Nick Cassario. And I don't know what moves
the Texans plan on making and that part of the
front office, the personnel side, but most years there's a

(02:12:31):
couple of changes. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he
ended up working with Nick Cassario again with the Texans
organization as early as this offseason.

Speaker 2 (02:12:43):
So again, do any of those that it's not the
probably worst list of names ever the best GM's candidates.
If you are a GM, we've heard of you.

Speaker 3 (02:12:54):
If you're not, we haven't most of the time, So
it's not an I don't think it's an insult to
them to say that. And obviously the Texans have been
involved in this not that long ago with Nick Cassario,
so and some of these names might have come up then.
But each and each year I try to keep track
of all the teams, including the fact that the Texans'
own division, Jacksonville's going through this now. Finally, they should

(02:13:17):
have done it many years ago. Indianapolis should be doing this.
They keep not doing this because they keep running Chris
Ballard out there every year. Titans have done this twice
in the last couple of years. So a lot of
the same names I just mentioned. John Robinson, who was
replaced by Ran Carthon, who's been replaced this offseason, did
not make the cut, did not make the finalist list

(02:13:38):
for the Jaguars.

Speaker 2 (02:13:39):
It shows you where you know.

Speaker 3 (02:13:40):
I do think the Colts and the Jags aren't embarrassments,
but there's no way they should outplay the Texans out talent.
The Texans outperform the Texans at least for one more year,
if not for multiple more seasons.

Speaker 2 (02:13:56):
Remember when the forty nine ers went with John Lynch.
How much experience did he have prior to that? Little
to known? Right, So I'm not gonna obviously automatically write
this off.

Speaker 3 (02:14:10):
But those player or candidates were extremely long time, high
level pro the Pro Football Hall of Fame caliber players.

Speaker 2 (02:14:20):
Okay, I'm glad you're saying that. I'm glad you're adding
that context to what I'm about to say. None of
these five finalists have been a general manager before, which
means the team's three main decision makers are gonna be rookies,
Liam Cohen, first time head coach Tony BASSELLI does that
so familiar Texans fans.

Speaker 3 (02:14:40):
He was given a new but extremely I think powerful position.

Speaker 2 (02:14:45):
Weeks into his tenure as the team's executive vice president
of Football Operations. I E. That's that's basically John Lynch.
Although John Lynch is their GM, is he not? Yes?
In San Francisco, Who's been awesome by the way, I
mean Carrie president and GM. He plays in a football ops. Yeah,
I think a lot of teams. Well, I wan't want

(02:15:05):
to say if.

Speaker 3 (02:15:06):
You want to, he's the you're mentioning Tony Biselli, executive
VP of Football Operations.

Speaker 2 (02:15:10):
Correct, yep. The Texans used to have one of those. Stop,
why do you have to bring me down? I'm having a.

Speaker 3 (02:15:16):
Vertically good Actually have another one now it's Nick is
also the executive VP of football.

Speaker 2 (02:15:21):
Does he tell jokes on the side, No, not much
of a joke teller. I just that again, though, I
go back to John Lynch, even though I don't think
this is gonna be John Lynch, Like, you can't say
it's going to be a disaster, man, I mean, how
many times have we seen, all right, this guy is
a first time head coach. This guy's the first time GM.

(02:15:42):
They're all first timers.

Speaker 3 (02:15:44):
Even though it didn't happen at the same time. Here,
Nick's only GM job is here. Dimiko's only head coaching
job is here?

Speaker 2 (02:15:51):
Is it? Rick Smith that dissimilar was an assistant GM.
He would never be He's never been a GM before.
I mean, Gary Kubick could never been a head coach.
Just said with Nick k it's he wasn't concerned. It's
everybody's first time. He was a first time play called
first time head coach. That's different. Why is that different?

Speaker 3 (02:16:08):
He did not do the things normally you would do
to earn the right to even be interviewed, rather than
be higher.

Speaker 2 (02:16:14):
At least before the Texans hired Tamiko, they had an experienced,
improve it head coach in Lovey Smith. Yeah. I don't, well,
you don't even have to.

Speaker 6 (02:16:22):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (02:16:23):
I don't want to make it sound like you need
play calling experience in the in the Culli case to
be considered.

Speaker 2 (02:16:29):
But he's he's basically just a staffer. He's on your
coaching staff. He was was the Baltimore Ravens wide receivers coach.
He was just another coach's. He's not ascending to this level.

Speaker 3 (02:16:39):
He didn't wasn't constantly being promoted because oh my god,
we're going to lose him if we don't do this,
or another team's going to take him.

Speaker 2 (02:16:46):
Well, us, you're trying to lose on purpose without telling us.

Speaker 3 (02:16:49):
And it's I hope it's not being taken personally. Colley's
is a perfectly good guy and earned the right to
be an NFL coach for decades. It was decades long
into his NFL career about him not on a head
coaching pat.

Speaker 2 (02:17:01):
He paid him twenty two million to go away, and
he of course he said, yes, he's smart. You know
what I would do at twenty two million right now
would not work, That's true. I would be nothing against you.
I would be I'd give you some of that. You'd
probably still be working though I got the money. Yes,
that's what I mean. I would work. You would still
be works fun.

Speaker 3 (02:17:21):
You find a job you like, you do it, not
for twenty two million. I mean, if they want to
pay me twenty two million, they'll do it for that.

Speaker 2 (02:17:27):
I can tell you this right now. Iheart's never paying
you twenty two million dollars.

Speaker 3 (02:17:31):
One of the interviews earlier today with the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross live from West Palm Beach, FLA at
the Astrospring Training Complex was with new first Baseman three
years sixty million dollars. Christian Walker sat down with them.
We wanted to share a good chunk of that interview
with him next here on The A Team.

Speaker 1 (02:17:51):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety The A
Team Continues.

Speaker 4 (02:18:00):
Talk ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:18:07):
Mentioned a couple of times I wanted to get you
a little bit of a listen to the astros New
First Basement. If you missed it earlier on the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross, you can catch a bunch of
it here. You can catch it in full right there
on our website at Sports Talk seven ninety dot com
or view of the iHeartRadio app. You should be subscribing
to the podcast for this program, their program, The Sean
Salisbury Show on all of your favorite programs. We'll forget

(02:18:29):
to utilize some of the new features of that new
and improved iHeartRadio app, including station presets and all the
great things that you'll now find. If you haven't downloaded
it already, you definitely should wide wide network of excellence
found there on the iHeartRadio app, including yours truly right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety, the conversation with one

(02:18:49):
of the best defensive first basemen in baseball, Christian Walker,
begins with his thoughts on a different offseason for him.

Speaker 18 (02:18:56):
There's definitely quiet periods and crazy period in the off season. Fortunately,
we had a little bit of leverage coming in, so
I wasn't too worried about, you know, if if somebody
was gonna call. It was just a matter of finding
the right fit and the place that that I wanted
to play there. There's not a lot of chances and
opportunities in the business side of things these days to get.

Speaker 7 (02:19:16):
To pick where you play.

Speaker 18 (02:19:17):
Yeah, try to pick a place where you want to play.
So so we were we wanted to use that to
our advantage. And you know, Arizona was great, but but
it was pretty far.

Speaker 8 (02:19:26):
From home for us.

Speaker 18 (02:19:27):
We live in South Carolina, so so going into the
off season, my wife and I had Houston circled. It
was a city that we were excited to be a
part of and just super pumped when when the front
office reached out.

Speaker 8 (02:19:39):
And what's it been like for you getting here, getting acclimated.

Speaker 14 (02:19:42):
Obviously first full team workout here today, but from the
outside looking in and now kind of being here for
a little bit, getting to know the guys that the
the Astros.

Speaker 18 (02:19:50):
It's the club clubhouse you feel for you Yeah, it's great.
It's uh, you can tell winning is is at the forefront.
But in the same sense, you know, at this time
of the year, it's just getting back into the swing
of things, and it's it's a pretty lighthearted attitude.

Speaker 8 (02:20:03):
I think.

Speaker 18 (02:20:04):
You know, you see guys working hard and getting their
reps in, but also you know, joking around and having fun.
It's it's a it's a good time of year. We're
all we're all got the itch after a long offseason
and uh, you know, being being back in the good
weather and playing playing baseball again is what we want.

Speaker 13 (02:20:18):
Did juny ricon about the astros an organization when you
knew they were on the shortlist?

Speaker 18 (02:20:23):
For yourself a little bit, a little bit other than
the obvious things, you know, it's it's cool, uh, you know,
meeting a guy like Bagwell, getting to have some conversations
with him, how much pride he has for this organization,
and you know he said something today. He's been wearing
this this uniform since nineteen ninety. Uh so, so here
and hearing little things like that really remind you of

(02:20:44):
the culture and uh, you know, the the winning tradition.

Speaker 13 (02:20:47):
Three straight gold gloves for yourself. First of where are they?
I mean, do you have them in your at the house?
Or where where can I find the goal glob of yours?

Speaker 7 (02:20:54):
Yeah, they're They're in the house.

Speaker 18 (02:20:55):
I have a little workout room upstairs with h some
some gears, some bat that I've had signed by guys
and some teammates, and and they're in there, you know,
on the on the the trophy rack if you will.

Speaker 7 (02:21:06):
Who is your first baseman idol growing up? That's a
good question.

Speaker 18 (02:21:12):
So I didn't actually start playing first base until college.
Growing up, high school, middle school, I was I was
in infielder but mostly third base.

Speaker 7 (02:21:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 18 (02:21:22):
I loved watching Scott Roland. He was he was my guy.
I got a chance. I was a Phillies fan growing up,
so he he came through Philly and and you know,
watching him was was a lot of fun. And then
and then Ryan Howard. You know that that first year
he had that rookie year broke onto the scene that
was that was a lot of fun to watch too.

Speaker 7 (02:21:37):
I was. I was in high school for that when
we were growing up, and probably you as well.

Speaker 13 (02:21:41):
A lot of the first basemen were big, stogy guys.

Speaker 7 (02:21:44):
Just find a place for him.

Speaker 13 (02:21:46):
First of all, I grew up watching Jeff Bagwell, so
I knew there was intricacies to it, uh, Juligurielle before
a couple of years before.

Speaker 7 (02:21:53):
Your same situation.

Speaker 13 (02:21:54):
The art of playing first base, thankfully, I think is
no longer just put the fact out there.

Speaker 8 (02:21:59):
It's a skill.

Speaker 13 (02:22:00):
Holding runners on fielding your position, Well, tell me the
biggest adjustment for you going from the left side of
the to the right side of the infield and being
able to say, yeah, I want to own this part
of the field.

Speaker 7 (02:22:10):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 18 (02:22:11):
I think what helped me was was playing on the
other side of the infield at one point and knowing
what it's like to feel like you have to make
a perfect throw, feel like you got to hit somebody
in the chest over there for them to.

Speaker 7 (02:22:21):
Make the play.

Speaker 18 (02:22:21):
And you know, I pride myself on not being that guy.
I want to be somebody that you know, my shortstop
can lay out in the hole and come up and
throw from his knees and know that if he gets
it close, we're going to make the out. That that
always helped me as an infielder, know when I had
somebody over there. So you know, that's something that's important
to me playing first base.

Speaker 13 (02:22:37):
Now, Christian Walker, Newest Houston astro with us here on
the radio program. Very excited that you came here because
we were all anxious about what's gonna happen with Alex.

Speaker 7 (02:22:46):
And figuring out with Kyle and whatnot.

Speaker 13 (02:22:49):
When you finally signed on the dotted line, tell me
what it was like, get trying to find your teammates,
know what was going to be there, and honestly, this
infield's going to be completely different. How long do you
think it's gonna take? And is there gonna be a
magic day that you're go all right, we as a
collective group know what we're doing in here.

Speaker 8 (02:23:06):
Now, that's hard to pick a data.

Speaker 7 (02:23:07):
I think.

Speaker 18 (02:23:07):
I think Tony Perry's cheek is going to do a
great job of making sure we get quality reps out
there together. I think practicing fast is important. Yeah, you know,
feeling out, feeling out each other's range and and you know,
like something little like knowing that you know, Juban is
such a great arm uh, but but trying to figure
out his arm action. Does he does he cut it?
Does he does? He does he throw it clean?

Speaker 7 (02:23:28):
You know?

Speaker 18 (02:23:29):
Is it is it a true ball? Does it have armside?
You know, everybody has their has their tendencies. So so it's, uh,
it's fun to get to know, you know, some new
really really good infielders.

Speaker 14 (02:23:38):
How long can that take to get used to? In
that climate too, this time of year, it happens pretty quick.
It's uh, it's never really a struggle. It's just you know,
before we know it, here we're gonna have hundreds of
ground balls together and you know, hundreds of double plays
that we've turned on the backfield. So it happens quick,
i'd say, here, and you know, about a week or so,
we all start feeling pretty comfortable with each other.

Speaker 8 (02:23:58):
You have a lot left in your career.

Speaker 13 (02:24:00):
But once the clock turns thirty and beyond, did you
have to just getting ready for this season, getting maybe
a little sooner as compared to maybe when you're in
your twenties coming up in the game.

Speaker 18 (02:24:11):
I mean, yes, I know, I think there's there's a
side of it where the more time you spend around
the game, the the more you know yourself and you
know your routine and you know what you need to
be ready for a season. Sprint trainings, it can be
it can be a long amount of time and it
can be short.

Speaker 8 (02:24:27):
It's a right.

Speaker 18 (02:24:27):
It's like some years you feel like you just you're
not clicking, you're not clicking, and then all the opening
day comes and it's it's it's it's lightning and and
then other years it's like by ten at bats in
you feel like you're in a good spot and you
could go to opening day the next day. So it's
you know, the the the age or anything like that.
That's that's that's nothing that's on my radar. My body
feels good. I spend a decent amount of time in

(02:24:49):
the weight room. It's something that I pride myself on.
It's it's helped me stay on the field for a while. So,
you know, feeling strong, feeling feeling ready to go and
and looking to looking forward to playing a lot.

Speaker 13 (02:25:00):
Your overall thoughts about playing it at what dyke In
Park Now you've been there obviously a few times over
your career.

Speaker 18 (02:25:06):
Very excited. I like the dome feel. I think that's cool.
I think I think the consistency in the environment, knowing
you know that the weather in Houston and the rain
I'm sure, I'm sure it comes in quick, and the
humidity and all that. So knowing if there's a home
game we're playing, that mental h just just knowing what
to expect, getting into a routine. You know, there's there's
nothing like waking up on a on a gloomy day
and trying to figure out if there's going to be

(02:25:27):
a delay or if you're hitting VP on the field
and this and that.

Speaker 8 (02:25:30):
So so I'm looking forward to that. And then you know,
the fans.

Speaker 18 (02:25:33):
It's something that's always stuck out to me coming in
as a visiting team, is playing in front of the
fan base.

Speaker 14 (02:25:38):
What was your conversation's been like so far with Joe's Spott,
Because I mean, as you know, first base was in
flux for the last couple of years. Now, if you like,
give you a big hug, say, I'm happy to put
you at first base every day.

Speaker 8 (02:25:50):
Any conversations also about DH and can you play left field?

Speaker 13 (02:25:54):
Just kidding, Yeah, we're trying to figure out leftfield. Everybody
their mothers wants to play left field.

Speaker 18 (02:25:58):
Of Parlan and I actually coming up with a few
different teams. There was a lot of really good first
basement in front of me, So I have played left field.

Speaker 8 (02:26:04):
Oh that's glad we got from the head. Here we go.

Speaker 18 (02:26:08):
Hopefully we just started a controversy to see it because
it's not a it's not pretty out there, no, I mean,
I mean d ah and cool like if that's something
where you know, it's a way to maybe take a
day and and and get the legs back under me.
But but honestly, I like to be out in the field.
I think it helps me stay in the routine offensively
and you know, stay moving, and it's it's something that
I've I've just grown up doing. I enjoy. I enjoy

(02:26:30):
being out in the field for sure, But but yeah,
I think I think there's something too, uh coming in
and feeling valued. You know that that makes you excited
to play and makes you excited to prove everybody, everybody right.
You know that the standards are real, the expectations are real,
and it's it's something that that you crave as as
a big leaguer. You want do you want somebody to
put pressure on you and and you have to go

(02:26:50):
out and prove it. So you're South carol or native. Yeah, no, no, no,
I grew up grew up at just outside of Philly.

Speaker 13 (02:26:56):
Oh, I was gonna say, because I was like, you
have no accent whatsoever. You have all of a South
Carolina accent, none of that.

Speaker 7 (02:27:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 18 (02:27:02):
Yeah, they've they've both kind of disappeared. I I went
to school there obviously, and and just fell in love
with the area and never left. But grew up just
outside of Philly.

Speaker 8 (02:27:11):
Same city as Mike Piazza and Gino Arima. Do you
research Matt Come on, yeah, Tommy Lasorda.

Speaker 7 (02:27:16):
By the way, we know we know your.

Speaker 8 (02:27:17):
We know your dog's names too. Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 18 (02:27:19):
What was it, Dottie and uh Jack Jackson, Millie Millie?
We had we had there's a cat. Oh okay, yeah,
she's she's a she belongs to the neighborhood.

Speaker 8 (02:27:28):
Oh really, the neighborhood cat.

Speaker 13 (02:27:29):
Yeah, she's just So what part of South Caroln Do
you in Columbia itself or.

Speaker 18 (02:27:33):
We do just north of Columbia. We're like, we're like
fifteen minutes from campus.

Speaker 7 (02:27:36):
So can you walk around town in cognito?

Speaker 8 (02:27:39):
Or do you do people stuck at the grocery store.

Speaker 18 (02:27:40):
Uh, they they they recognized me for sure. But it's
it's it's more from the game Cock days than than
from pro ball. The Braves are the team there, so
so everybody knows knows the game Cocks more than more
than that.

Speaker 7 (02:27:51):
Do they realize how.

Speaker 8 (02:27:52):
Many home runs you've hit in the last five years? Yeah?

Speaker 18 (02:27:54):
Yeah, Arizona. Arizona was cool. It's a crazy thing getting recognized.
It's it's humbling and all that. But but back home
in South Carolina, it's it's mostly from the from the
national championships.

Speaker 13 (02:28:02):
Okay, uh as, I've never been to South Krolina apparently
quite an experience. I mean for football basketball, the women's
team never loses.

Speaker 7 (02:28:10):
I mean, I don't know, that's all.

Speaker 8 (02:28:13):
Yeah they did.

Speaker 13 (02:28:14):
They did anyn SEC smack talk in the clubhouse at this.

Speaker 8 (02:28:18):
Point, not yet, not yet. I'm sure.

Speaker 18 (02:28:20):
I'm sure it'll start once, especially when football season starts
back up, but but nothing, nothing so far.

Speaker 13 (02:28:25):
Well, we're very happy to have you here. Such a
nice surprise when you came here. I mean, I mean,
we're anxious, but this is kind of new to us.

Speaker 8 (02:28:32):
We we've known Briggs.

Speaker 13 (02:28:34):
We've known, uh, you're a couple of years ago and
we had you know, JV and Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 8 (02:28:38):
This is uh, you're actually coming.

Speaker 13 (02:28:40):
Not at a bad time because I think they're all
your teammates trying to figure out what the ViBe's going
to be right now.

Speaker 18 (02:28:45):
Yeah, Yeah, it's a it's a fun time. It's it's uh,
you know, guys, guys come and go. It's it's part
of the business side of things. Unfortunately, you know, you
never want to lose guys, especially people who you know,
we're staples in the lineup and a part of a
lot of successful years. But I think there's a there's
a cool opportunity about that of being able to keep
the success going with a different group of guys, different responsibilities,

(02:29:08):
different roles. And so far the clubhouse has been great
and I'm looking forward to you know, continuing to.

Speaker 13 (02:29:15):
Mesh, he alluded to the DH for let you run.
Do you like the DH once in a while to
get off your feet a little bit? Or is that
you just I need to be if I'm in the lineup,
I need to be at first base.

Speaker 18 (02:29:23):
So I mean I would much rather be at first base,
but I would rather be in the lineup than not
at a full day off. Yeah, period, So you know,
if that's a way to get some at bats and
help the team on days where you know, maybe we're
trying to rest up the legs or something like that,
for sure, very very interested in something like that. But
but if it was my call, I'd be at first

(02:29:43):
every day.

Speaker 3 (02:29:44):
Very interested in something like that. Seven hundred and twenty
six games at first in the last four years, thirty
seven is DH. It will happen rather and frequently, but
it will be utilized here and there.

Speaker 2 (02:29:54):
They have a guy that can already do the DH
thing very well here.

Speaker 3 (02:29:58):
Yeah, I like all of their DH candidates also have
a position in the field they can play, or multiple positions.

Speaker 2 (02:30:05):
An inordinate amount of time dhing this year. I mean,
he's arguably your worst fielder given the circumstances. I mean,
I don't know what that number would be. Well, but
especially now that Jordon's going to be there more, presumably
that's the big deal.

Speaker 3 (02:30:22):
Jordon's going to DH a ton And if you're telling
Jose Altuve to DH, well, now you need a second
baseman who has to hit to James Dubond Okay, So
He brings his awesome offense to the plate four times
a game, and you got to have somebody play left
field because it's not al Tuve and it's probably not
gonna be Alvarez very often.

Speaker 2 (02:30:41):
That's the thing. Is that that.

Speaker 3 (02:30:42):
But if l Twove's dhing and you're not going to
play Alvarez in the field, well then that's a lineup
you're probably not going to put together very often because
Alvarez has to be in the lineup.

Speaker 2 (02:30:52):
This is why you were supposed to sign Urick some profar.
They could have done that. Three years, forty two million.
Not a bad I would have liked him, honestly. He
always seems to hit against the Astros well too. I'm
sure he will for whoever he plays for this year.
He's signed somewhere. I just can't remember where it was,
the Atlanta Braves. All right, we'll take a quick time out.

(02:31:15):
When we come back, we will get to the things
we have not talked about today. It's called in case
you missed it, It's next.

Speaker 4 (02:31:22):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 19 (02:31:26):
No need for a roadmap when all roads lead it
as sweet, iHeart Radio app Astros and Rockets games plus
legendary Houston Sports Talks seven ninety on any device with
the free iHeartRadio app. Now that's the art of living.

Speaker 8 (02:31:48):
All right.

Speaker 2 (02:31:49):
The eighteen continues here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Want
to remind you next segment, pair of tickets on the
line to see both Jason Aldeen and Darryl Hall. You're
gonna want to be listening this entire segment. Yeah. By both,
he means either, well, there's both, they're both options. Yes,
I'm just letting you guys know, just give me options,

(02:32:11):
all right, in case you missed it begins now.

Speaker 16 (02:32:15):
All right, So the NBA no games being played right now,
So let's go ahead and bring up the topic that
everybody loves to always bring up Lebron and MJ and
sometimes people will add Kobe in there. Well, Kendall Gill,
former NBA player, was on the Barbershop Conversations podcast and
I didn't realize this that he had overlap with all
three players. He played the first couple of years of

(02:32:38):
Lebron's career, and he talked about the comparison and according
to Gil, there is no comparison when it comes to
Lebron and the other two.

Speaker 20 (02:32:46):
I could tell you what Lebron is going to do.
Bron is going Lebron is going to go right. When
you go right, you're going all the way to the best.
When he goes left, he's gonna pull up for his
jump shot most of the time. Okay, Now he may
do some other stuff, you know, but most of the time,
that's what he's gonna do. I can't tell you what

(02:33:07):
Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant is gonna do, okay, because
they're too skillful, they have too many tools in their bag.
They're both great on the post, they're both great in
the mid range, and they can both knock down a
three point shot. And they play in the triangle offense,
which makes them twice as hard to guard. So that's

(02:33:28):
why I can't put Lebron in the class of Michael Jordans.

Speaker 3 (02:33:32):
Know what Lebron's gonna do, still can't stop him. That's
a negative, apparently, according to Kendall Gill. So Mark Kendall's
guild down as Lebron's not the best player in the
NBA or the second best player in the NBA, even
just among those three. So maybe he's even fourth, fifth
or tenth. Just Mark Kendall Gill down not a Lebron guy.
He's too predictable.

Speaker 2 (02:33:51):
Well, you might not be able to stop him, but
he can't stop you either. To be fair, he plays
no defense, and now he's with another guy who plays
no defense. They're definitely gonna win the title.

Speaker 3 (02:34:04):
No defense at age thirty five six seven, eight, nine.

Speaker 2 (02:34:07):
And fourteen four three, two and one.

Speaker 3 (02:34:10):
Yeah, I'm sure some somehow the horrible idiots that voted
him all defense six times made a mistake six times.

Speaker 2 (02:34:17):
Oh, now we're going to be on the side of
the voters in NBA circle.

Speaker 3 (02:34:20):
That's enough. Well, Lebron doesn't play defense now. Of course,
he played phenomenal defense when he was.

Speaker 2 (02:34:27):
But he's still he plays defense that well, that way
nobody cares cares. Gill cares. I care.

Speaker 3 (02:34:33):
He didn't say anything defense. He didn't say one word
about it.

Speaker 2 (02:34:36):
I know he said it was predictable on offense, which
everybody who's listening.

Speaker 3 (02:34:39):
Michael Jordan with the Wizards, awesome at defense, if you
were unaware, awesome at defense, best time of his life.
Couldn't could not go by him, couldn't do anything with him.

Speaker 6 (02:34:48):
He was ida.

Speaker 2 (02:34:49):
Why do you hate Michael Jordans so much has nothing
to do with Michael. That's what I hear it has.
That's kind of the joke. This doesn't have anything to
do with Michael, it never does. It only has to
do with Lebron. Lebron as a prime player, was one
of the prime defensive players in the.

Speaker 3 (02:35:04):
League, very very good, elite. He currently is not in
that group and hasn't been for five years minimum. Here
we are, all right. You did say player.

Speaker 2 (02:35:18):
I know, I know what I said. I know I
jumped in too fast. I know you did.

Speaker 3 (02:35:22):
Even though every single player that's called elite is good
at both ends except for Lebron.

Speaker 2 (02:35:28):
He's the only one I ever said that. But that's
what you portray. That's what the NBA portrays. That's my point.
You're saying it today on this show right now. What
the NBA says every day of the week. They're not
saying it like you say it, not with the not
not like that at all, because I'm a little bit
more transparent about it and not pretending like they do.
Top fifteen, top twenty. Is he fine?

Speaker 6 (02:35:50):
Right?

Speaker 2 (02:35:51):
Isn't he one of those guys? But he's fine. He's
fine on one end of the floor. He's fine. What else?
All right, so let's go to Major Lee Baseball. Vlad
Guerrero Junior more than likely going to be a free
agent next off season. He and the Blue Jays had
set a deadline of last night, no deal as the
blue Jays general manager Russ Atkins Ross Atkins said that

(02:36:14):
their offers were very, very aggressive. Now, I know positions
are different, but Kyle Tucker going to be a free
agent next year, Alex Pragman possibly could. Was this due
to those guys? Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:36:26):
Atkins said this deal, whatever they got to, would have
made him well, the highest paid player in Blue Jay's history.
And he said it would have made him among the
highest paid players in baseball. And that's to me, what
he's saying is he's not making Soto money, he's not
making Otani money. But now he's making the same money
as anybody.

Speaker 2 (02:36:43):
Else out there.

Speaker 3 (02:36:44):
And I believe that's the place where he thinks in
free agency he will be. So I bet you they
gave him a very fair offer. I bet you they
would have been. You know, we're in a ballpark that
he might still be able to surpass. He's also only
negotiating with one team. He's also not negotiating in a
pool of players that will include we think Kyle Tucker.
I think it will include Pete Alonzo. We got into

(02:37:05):
that a little bit earlier on the show. I don't
think it'll include Alex Bregman, and then drop off after
that is pretty sizable. But there was one player two
years ago that got seven hundred million, there was one
player this offseason that got that kind of money, And
there'll be one player next off season, or two because
they're both gonna be there, Tucker and Guerrero that are

(02:37:25):
going to be paid three hundred million. Two different teams
are going willing to go ten years, eight years, you know,
three hundred whatever, you know, wherever it ends up being.
I think because Guerrero got off to a little bit
of a slow start last year, it might have made people,
since we talked about him so much, think differently about
what he's actually done. He's been unbelievable. He is an

(02:37:48):
unbelievable offensive talent.

Speaker 2 (02:37:50):
I mean, you, I know, are old enough to remember
when he was being traded from the U.

Speaker 3 (02:37:54):
And I said no because I didn't know that they'd
resign him, and you would have then had just the
year and a half of him. That's and he was
off to a slow start when that was being thrown.

Speaker 2 (02:38:04):
And I hear this conversation. That's all I can think
about though. It's I mean, for all we can say
about Bregman's numbers declining and him getting the money that
he got. No way did the Astros even flirt with
the idea of Bregman's on the block. That absolutely was
a storyline with Vlad not that long ago. They weren't
gonna win. Yeah, the Astros new. Well, the funny thing

(02:38:27):
is they're still not gonna win. We'll see.

Speaker 3 (02:38:29):
Like I said a couple of times, I really think
they did some good things this offseason. He needs to
have a monster walk year, which happens quite often. Last
year he was great nine to forty oh ps six
in the MVP voting. A couple of years ago he
finished second in the MVP voting. And essentially the line
that Aaron Judge had last year when he led the
American League, essentially across the board, that's what Vladi did in.

Speaker 2 (02:38:51):
Twenty twenty one, when he was twenty two. He's only twenty.

Speaker 3 (02:38:55):
He played last year at age twenty five, and he
will turn twenty six, and I.

Speaker 2 (02:39:01):
Still can't believe he's that young. He looks like he's
thirty two. He looks like he's thirty seven. He does
he looks old.

Speaker 3 (02:39:08):
I think it's the weight of one things that should
add that he said when he was asked about you
know he's he said, well, now they're going to have
to beat all the other teams the offers. He said,
my dad didn't win a World Series. I want to
win a World Series. So I want to go to
a team where I can win the World Series and
give him the ball.

Speaker 2 (02:39:29):
I don't know about that. It would have been awesome
if he did.

Speaker 3 (02:39:32):
I mean, that would have been nice, I guess, but
I don't think he ever went that route.

Speaker 2 (02:39:37):
Maybe never said that.

Speaker 3 (02:39:38):
His dad was in the room with him, so he
knew he was joking. Maybe now Kobe didn't speak. I
don't think Kevin said it. No, maybe Flattie.

Speaker 2 (02:39:46):
I believe it since I heard him say it through
a translator. Yes, I forgot.

Speaker 3 (02:39:52):
So if you've been listening closely this segment, last segment,
certainly this hour, something that was said will be your
ticket to tickets that we'll be giving away. Like we
mentioned to Daryl Hall and Jason al Dean when we
come back here on the A Team.

Speaker 4 (02:40:06):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:40:10):
Maybe you have been awarded a huge, multi million dollar
contract and you still find yourself in debt. It's not
an Antoine Walker joke, I promise you. But there are
a lot of people that find themselves in debt and
they never intended on being in that kind of debt.
So what you want to do is make sure that
you go to prime Way Federal Credit Union and get

(02:40:31):
rid of that debt, get rid of the stress that
comes with it, and start your journey to financial freedom.
If you're in debt for whatever reason, don't let those
high interest rates keep you drowning in even more debt.
Consolidate it into one low monthly payment at prime Way
Federal Credit Union. And no matter what the reason, unexpected
car repair, school tuition, medical bills, whatever's on that list,

(02:40:52):
get rid of that debt and get rid of the
stress that comes with it, and take your first step
to financial freedom by going to this website w FCU
dot com, visit PRIMEWAYFCU dot com. Today, Oh ladies and gentlemen,
Kevin Heart.

Speaker 4 (02:41:07):
What's up, guys?

Speaker 2 (02:41:08):
Uh? You're listening to Adam Clinton and.

Speaker 5 (02:41:11):
Adam Wexler sweat Guy.

Speaker 20 (02:41:15):
Okay, cool, Kay, just met these guys today, Sweater Lion,
I didn't I know them?

Speaker 4 (02:41:20):
They're cool, They're the best.

Speaker 5 (02:41:22):
Listen eighteen a Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:41:27):
How about that our good friend who, like everybody else,
was celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of SNL.

Speaker 2 (02:41:37):
I did watch complete.

Speaker 3 (02:41:40):
I think it was about three and a half minutes
of every cast member via their openings for every year
they were on the show.

Speaker 2 (02:41:46):
Open. Got to see everybody's name and how they appeared there,
so I got to see little.

Speaker 3 (02:41:50):
Jyfair, Jay fhareall. But now is our opportunity to continue
with the summer of fun.

Speaker 2 (02:41:55):
Wait a second, who is the name of the long
time and nowner who did the open for SNL? He
just recently? Yeah, that sounds right, okay, I think he
was still doing it when I attended back in twenty year.

Speaker 3 (02:42:07):
There was another two thousand and nine joke from the
News that I'll play for you tomorrow because it combined
the same two favorite things I played for you yesterday.

Speaker 2 (02:42:18):
Adam Sandler's song also was very very good. Yes, did
mention that? All right, summer fun continues here in February.
February eighteenth, So a pair of tickets to see Jason
Alden on his Full Throttle tour with special guests Nate Smith,
rail In and d J. Silver. That's August fifteenth the

(02:42:38):
Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets are on sale this Friday at ten
am at ticketmaster dot com. Or a pair of tickets
to see Darryl Hall with special guest Glenn Tilbrook of
Squeeze of Course, Saturday, March twenty second at the Arena Theater.
Underrated venue by the way. Arena Theater. You like that place,
It's underrated as a venue. Tickets are on sale now

(02:43:00):
ticketmaster dot com. All right, last segment. We did what
we always do right around five thirty every day in
case you missed it, and WEX and I got heated, heated.
We came to blows during the commercial break. He has
a torn shirt. I have a black eye. He got
the better of you this time, but I'll get him

(02:43:21):
next time. I'll kick your ass all over Lebron Raymon, James,
you did it two days in a row. Yeah, I did.
You did it two days in a row. Are you ready?
I guess?

Speaker 3 (02:43:32):
So we told you to listen Throughout the hour, we
played you ten minutes of Christian Walker with the Matt
Thomas Show and Ross. And during that entertaining ten minutes
they talked about where it was from, but most notably
where he played his college baseball. He mentioned the name

(02:43:53):
of the team multiple times and obviously what they did
while he was there. And then they got a new
conversation about some of the other sports. So that university
plays very very well. We're asking you for that university.
Where did Christian Walker play his collegiate baseball a couple
of years ago before he played for the Astros, Diamondbacks
and Orioles.

Speaker 2 (02:44:13):
Didn't the late original Texans owner attend this school? That
is correct, all right? Did they not? Feat I won't
give you more hints.

Speaker 3 (02:44:23):
One three two one two five seven ninety seven one
three two one two five seven ninety We're always looking
for new bits and segments, not necessarily the steal, but
maybe ones we can create on their own our own
and considering our phenomenal promotion staff and all the people
we work with, continue to provide us with giveaway items
two days in a row, both days of the week,

(02:44:45):
every day this week, I will try to make it
three for three tomorrow, I will try to give you
the answer to the original trivia question before it's asked.

Speaker 2 (02:44:54):
Well, now I know what to do. Well, actually, in
this case, I know what to not do. Give you
the answer ahead of time, and I won't have anybody
write it in the document.

Speaker 3 (02:45:02):
But then you'll have to say, and our question is,
and don't guess wex or else I.

Speaker 2 (02:45:06):
Might Well, there's nothing I can I really.

Speaker 3 (02:45:09):
Did that out of more confusion than anything else, because
I was trying to figure out what confuse me Just
to get to Lebron's nicknames, because I know how you
like to needle me.

Speaker 2 (02:45:24):
You know what, I can't wait until he retired. How Hey,
by the way, before we get to these very's for
another day, we did Lebron out. There is no We're
not There's one more thing. All the things we talked
about with All Star Weekend that people were upset about
Big Matt online about whatever it like. We talked about

(02:45:44):
the fact that he waited until like the eleventh hour
to say, hey, I'm not playing.

Speaker 3 (02:45:48):
He tried his best to get healthy until he couldn't
get healthy anymore.

Speaker 2 (02:45:51):
Yeah, he knew he wasn't playing, and and there's two
things about that that are just egregiously just gross. Okay,
there's no other way one that plot, that spot could
have gone to somebody who would have really wanted to
do that, like Norm Poll. Yeah, that probably that would
have been the guy. He was there, an LA guy.

Speaker 3 (02:46:11):
Well, he's a three point participant, so he's literally on
site and he was probably one of the bigger man
He really looks like All Star Game and just didn't
make it.

Speaker 2 (02:46:20):
But then, just to remind everyone for all time that
he didn't play in the event, but he was still
a part of it. He takes his he takes his picture,
his official team picture where everybody else is in their
junior their uniforms in his story clothes, and Giannis was
in uniform despite not participating. Yeah, he found a way
to get dressed. He put his shorts on one leg

(02:46:41):
at a time. Except after he put his shorts on,
he looked like he played Make Gold Records. I watched
that the other day. I'm telling you you're gonna want
that cowbell that is it's top ten. Yeah, for sure,
Like of all the skits ever on that show, it's
top ten.

Speaker 3 (02:46:56):
Horatio is limited as he performed that he did a
good job.

Speaker 2 (02:47:00):
Chris did a good job. Jimmy Fallon did not. Jimmy
was typically Jimmy's got that's amazing. Are you even in
this skit? All you're gonna do is laugh at the
jokes the whole time, like the audience.

Speaker 3 (02:47:09):
When someone who is a cast member breaks character, it's
usually a thing because they don't do it very often. Right,
he's the opposite, obviously. Jeane was fantastic. The guy with
the shirt that didn't cover his belly, Will Well, his
government name is Will and Parnell was awesome. Yeah, well,
not to mention the man was Yeah, well he carried

(02:47:30):
the scene. Chris Chris walk In, Yeah, it was very good.
Uh yeah, but I haven't watched the look of that.
I was I'm trying to remember who I was talking
to about this, and they were saying, you know, I
think we don't realize it until we watched the episode.

Speaker 2 (02:47:46):
When they have athletes on the show, it's usually awesome.
Barkley was great. Barkley was great. Mannings was great. The
Rock was good. The first time he's cameo by Triple
Ah a little bit of a.

Speaker 3 (02:47:56):
Crossover, and he's been in a couple of flicks, a
couple of movies. He's he's been an actor. He's an
athlete a little bit different. He's an athlete. He played
at the You Manning Stars and commercials and his own
show and the rock Stars and everything.

Speaker 2 (02:48:11):
But what's funny about those two is if you were
to walk into a room and you didn't know anything
about them, had never seen them in your life, which
one's the athlete? Not the guy in the khaki's with
a big forehead, obvious archies. Uncle, he just dude, Peyton
Manning has never and will never look at an athlete.

Speaker 3 (02:48:25):
He was one of the people that get tall lines
to gave a role in the special. The other night
they had him asking questions to ten and Amy.

Speaker 2 (02:48:32):
Was it United Way where he's pegging the kids in
the back of the head with the football. Yeah, to
teach the kids. I can't even look at you right now.
All right, that's gonna do it for us today.

Speaker 3 (02:48:41):
We'll come back with more inane fights tomorrow and nonsense topics,
but mostly we'll give you more coverage from spring training.
Our crew, Matt and Ross are theirs. We'll spread some
of that wealth your way when we hit the airwaves.
At two o'clock tomorrow and look forward to well, the
NBA does return tomorrow. One Lebron James's team will be playing.

Speaker 2 (02:49:01):
That no defense playing has been is going to be
on national television.

Speaker 3 (02:49:04):
Good luck meeting the Hornets without Lebron's defense. For Wex,
that's me, For AC, that's him, And for Dan he
is next with the nightcap.

Speaker 2 (02:49:12):
We'll talk to you tomorrow

Speaker 1 (02:49:13):
Too, The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Altuve All In LF Today, A Bold Astros Prediction, Dana Brown and Christian Walker From WPB

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Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

All Episodes

Altuve All In LF Today, A Bold Astros Prediction, Dana Brown and Christian Walker From WPB

Stuff You Should Know