7/10 Nightcap

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
The word tasone. Now kick back, pop a top and catch up with
your Houston team rank yap ran ahead. This is the Nightcap with Ross Verial
than Cap Badge six two in thePM here on Sports Talk seven ninety Hello

(00:30):
and welcome in that to another editionof the Nightcap program. Ross very out
with you alongside my producer Noah Fouls, who wouldn't want to be anywhere else
in the world. We're gonna bewith you until seven o'clock all week long,
baby, that's right when the Astrosor Rockets when the season starts,

(00:53):
are not in action. Normally,we were with you from six to seven
here on the Nightcap Program, andwhile breaking news. It is the All
Star break, so no Astros gamesuntil Friday. And then when they do
start on Friday, your Houston Astroswill be hitting the road and they will
be in Angels Park or whatever thehell they call their park these days,

(01:15):
you're gonna be over there. Soit's gonna be West Coast Baseball late eight
thirty eight starts, so you knowwhat, you'll have me from six to
seven there as well, since theyare on West Coast time. So five
count them. Five straight nightcaps hereon a sports talk seven ninety, mark
your calendar, tell your friends,tell your neighbors. Phone lines are going
to be open and available for youin five seconds when I open them up

(01:42):
four three two, okay, openand available for you. It's seven one
three two one two five seven ninetyseven one three two one two five seven
ninety. You can also send tweetsto at sports RV and at Noah seven
ninety on seven ninety and no,have you gotten on the three verse yet?
Are you a threader? I seewhat it is. I see people

(02:04):
doing it, but I know it'sbasically like Twitter, but made by Mark
Zuckerberg and not as good, atleast at this point, because you know
how you end up on the fourYou tab on Twitter on accident, and
you end up getting a bunch ofweird tweets that you never wanted to see
in the first place. That's whathappens on threads all the time. There's
no just thread for following, likeI open up mine, and so my

(02:25):
algorithm is like, okay, youlike sports, right, And then I
get stuff from like the Padre's accountor the Phillies or something, and I
have to mute the Padres and thePhillies like, Okay, I like sports
Algorithm. You're in the right ballpark, But that doesn't mean I'm getting locked
in on Padre's baseball. I don'tneed to see that, But there you
go. You can just find meat sports RV on any sort of social

(02:46):
media, but Twitter is mostly theone that I use if you would like
to interact that way. So wedo have a number of things to get
to. You have the Rockets overthe weekend playing a couple of Summer League
games, and I said this onTwitter, It's like, man, I
like watching summer League games, andyou kind of have to be a different

(03:07):
kind of fan for the Rockets thelast several years. And hopefully that's over
now with some of the free agentsignings they've made and with the big time
or i'm sorry, high level youthfultalent that they have that will hopefully develop
into big time talent. But Imiss the old days where the Rockets would
be picking like twenty fifth in thedraft and you didn't have to get locked

(03:29):
in on Summer League. And lookhow they are, and they have a
bunch of like first round picks fromthe last couple of years, like Tarry
Easton has been playing well now shutdown. Jabari Smith Jr. Is like
a summer league god at this point, So I'm in Thompson has hurt as
well, but Cam Whitmore. It'slike, I like when the team was
pushing for what the Western Conference finalsand hopefully the NBA Finals, and you

(03:51):
didn't have to get locked in onthat. But that's where we are with
the Rockets. We can talk aboutthat as we go along. And then,
of course your Houston Astros mercifully hittingthe All Star Break, limping into
it losing three of four against theSeattle Mariners in a series where the offense
was quite frankly terrible. You scoredfour runs, I'm sorry, six runs

(04:15):
in the four games against the Mariners. Two of those runs came from home
runs of the bat of Marti Maldanado, who hasn't been giving you much of
any offensive production really the whole seasonat the end of the day, So
I mean, they just got completelycarved up. Starting pitching for the Mariners
is pretty good. And then Imean, of course we know that they've
been missing some key pieces. Idon't know if you heard of that guy,

(04:39):
your Don Alvarez. He's pretty good. Jose L two, etc.
And then the guys that they havebeen. It feels like it's kind of
been some of the same broken recordfor the Astros in the twenty twenty three
campaign. It's been a lot ofinjuries and some under performances, but still
somehow they continue to hold the gluetogether because right now, even though they

(05:00):
could have won on Sunday and beenonly one game back of the Rangers,
and they could have won on Fridayor any of the other other games and
they would be tied, because theRangers just lost a series to the freaking
Washington Nationals, and the Rangers havejust been backsliding the entire month of June.
And what a little bit they've beenplaying in July, and the Astros
haven't been able to capitalize fully,but they have made some games up now

(05:25):
just two games back, and that'swhere you are, and that's I'm feeling
pretty okay about it. I thinkyou're gonna get some reinforcements, of course,
well I know you're gonna get somereinforcements with Josel Tuba and Jordan Alvarez
getting some rehab stints very shortly hereafter the All Star break and coming back.
But that's why I'm kind of wondering. It's like, where are we

(05:46):
feeling? How what's our perspective rightnow? Because I think there are a
number of different ways you can lookat it. You can look at it
as, oh, no, theteam's underperforming, they need a bat,
they need a bat, they needa picture. The relief pitchers have been
coming out way too many times,and the appearances are high for Brian and
Bray and Phil Maton and guys likethat, and you still have to go
to the Raphael Montero well far toooften, and we don't want to do

(06:08):
all that, and we're worried aboutthe lineups and what's happening every day.
But I honestly choose not to seeit that way. I choose to see
it this way. You are talkingabout a team that Lance mcculler's junior has
not thrown a single pitch for allseason long, and say what you will
about his lack of health or anything. In the offseason. You're figuring he

(06:30):
was going to be able to factorin for the Houston Ashrows, but unfortunately
the same issue that he's had sincetwenty twenty one cropped up again and hopefully
the flexor tendon surgery that he hadnow is going to allow him to be
healthy going forward. Luis Garcio withTommy John, jose Er Kenny shut down
for months with this shoulder issue,and then you're going to guys like Brandon

(06:51):
Black and Ronel Blanco and I meanJP France really wasn't on anybody's radar,
but he's got an e R underfours very solidly for the squad. Then
adding Josel Twove's broken thumb, thenJR. Don Alvarez oblique injury, and
then oh, by the way,Josel Tuve hits the base wrong in Los
Angeles, missed time with the heelinjury, comes back and oh, now

(07:14):
he's got an oblique injury, andall these things that have gone wrong.
And Jose A. Bray who hasbeen an unmitigated disaster except for the month
of June when he started to turnit around but is now backsliding somewhat,
batting average down below two forty,all of these things that have happening.
Alex Bregman hasn't been very good allseason long. A Martie Maldonado has been
an automatic out save for the couplehome runs in the Seattle Mariners series.

(07:40):
Still, his batting average is waybelow where you would want it to be,
and just the entire team, itfeels like almost everything that could go
wrong. Oh yeah, that guyRaphael Montero mentioned him having a huge backslide
from where he was last year,completely unreliable, your two games out first
place. Everything that I mentioned,A lot of it going to get better

(08:01):
with health, and a lot ofit hopefully going to get better with internal
improvement from somebody like Alex Bregman,who we know struggled all of last year
until September turned it on, eventuallygot his ops over eight hundred, and
we've seen some flashes of a coupleof weeks have sustained good offense from him.
But hopefully he can completely put ittogether with some time and the off

(08:22):
in the All Star break. Andthen you're getting out two vain and you're
on Alvarez back Michael Browley. Let'snot hold our breaths on that one.
But still, I mean, somany different things have gone wrong for this
Astro squad in twenty twenty three,and you are just two games back of
first place. And I didn't evenmention Texas Rangers have been playing well over

(08:45):
their heads and where they were expectedto be. It was supposed to be
the Astros and the Mariners in adog fight for the American League West.
In the twenty twenty three season.Rangers came out of nowhere. Their offense
was white hot to start to see, it's cooled off somewhat. If you'd
have taken them out of the ALWest equation, which we didn't expect them
to be, then you're probably fouror five games up on the Mariners.

(09:09):
But that's not the case. Wedon't live in an alternate reality. We
live in this universe, and inthis universe, the Rangers did play over
their heads. They have been slidingsomewhat and they are still in first place,
but they feel catchable to me.If you can just have a couple
of things break your way, likeyou know, you're superstar players staying healthy,

(09:31):
that would be cool, and thenprobably get some help at the deadline,
which I think is going to happen. Is it going to be earth
shattering moves? I don't know ifthe Astros have the pieces for that,
but we know that Dana Brown's goingto be aggressive because we know that James
Jim Crane, not James Click.Jim Crane likes to be aggressive, and

(09:52):
we are looking at probably one ofthe last handful of chances this team has
to really challenge for a World Series, and I think they should go all
in as much as they can,depending on what they have. You're a
little short stacked right now to stickwith the poker analogy, but that doesn't
mean you can't double up, baby, and that's what we're hoping for.

(10:15):
So that's where I am on theAstros. How do you feel about it?
You just feeling like it's not gonnahappen for them in the second half,
Waiting to see what happens at thedeadline. Where are you at on
the Houston Astros seven one three twoone two five seven ninety The phone number
as I mentioned, seven one threetwo one two five seven ninety. A
lot of different stuff to get toas we go along with you until seven

(10:37):
o'clock here on the night cap.Back after this short break, Welcome back
to the nightcap here on Sports Talkseven ninety Brass VI Area with you.
Not necessarily a news item where thegoing to discuss much here in Houston,

(11:01):
Texas, but Northwestern head coach PatFitzgerald has been fired. According to Pete
Thammel of ESPN, I think hewas the first one on it after I'm
not sure if you're aware. There'sbeen a whole hazing scandal. He was
suspended for two weeks. Then thebombshell report from the Northwestern student paper talking

(11:24):
about details of the hazing that theywere getting into and I'm not going to
read those on air. You canfind those if you'd like. Then a
number of players coming out and sayingPat Fitzgerald was aware of it. And
then now that was enough. Northwesternhas fired Pat Fitzgerald after I mean,
seeming like he was going to havea lifetime contract over there, not a

(11:48):
whole lot of expectations with Northwestern football, had a couple of good seasons here
and there. Just feels like hegoes up and down. He is a
former Northwestern Wildcat legend, so itfelt like he was gonna be there forever.
But now with this whole hazing thing, Gonzo is Pat Fitzgerald from Northwestern
football? All right? Seven onethree, two one two five seven eighty

(12:09):
the phone number, few of yougetting on hold. I appreciate doing that
here on the Nightcap program at sevenone, two, one, two,
five, seven eighty. If youwant to get in, the lines will
open as we take them, startingwith Jay in Beaumont. What's up,
Jay? Hey, we're all howare you doing? I'm doing great?
What do you at? Hey,I's gonna talk about little Astro's talk Dusty

(12:33):
Baker Junior and the beef he haswith Chas McCormick and me and a truck
dribber fan I was talking about hejust left and uh, he's a big
Astro fan like me, like alot of us out there. But I
was just wondering, what is thebig controversy? And also, I mean,
we're not one hundred percent. Ourteam has not been one hundred percent
since Jose out two Bay got injuredat the very beginning of the season.

(12:56):
We have nothing. We have enduredinjury after injury. That's why we're hurting
right now. We do need hell. I've heard of Tanny, I've heard
Mike Sergier, I've heard Jay z. Yeah, bring somebody brings, bring
some more players, Diana. Wegot to get something done fast because the
second half of the season coming upFriday. Okay, all right, thanks

(13:18):
a lot, Jay, appreciate yougetting in on your first point about our
good friend Dusty Baker. He doesn'thate Chas McCormick. He just doesn't.
I know some of you are reallytrue believers that Dusty just has some vendetta
against Chaz and he doesn't want toput him out there. And that's not

(13:39):
the case. The thing is justfor his entire career, Chas McCormick hasn't
been as good against right hand pitchingas he has been against left hand pitching.
And if you know one thing aboutDusty Baker that I can tell you,
first of all, this has beenhe's been around the game for a
super long time. The next thingI'm gonna tell you is he loves to
go to the platoon split call hardhe likes to have If somebody can hit

(14:03):
lefties, he likes to get himin there. If somebody can hit righties,
he likes to get him in there. If he wants always wants a
lefty arm or a lefty bat.It's something he's been clamoring for in his
bullpen for two years now that justhasn't come to fruition. He likes to
go to the lefty versus righty card, and he likes to use Chas McCormick.
It against lefties, he likes touse him less, so against right

(14:26):
he's And then there's also other guysthat you want to rotate in, and
usually it's Jake Myers. Sometimes it'sbeen Mauricio Dubon playing in center. But
Jake, who has been scuffling atthe plate, to say the least lately,
I'm with you on that has justis he's a better off defense excuse

(14:46):
me, defensive center fielder is JakeMyers than Chaz McCormick. So he factors
that in. And it hasn't beenChatz every single day, should it be?
I would argue yes, or atleast the majority of the time,
and then you can do some ofwhat you did last year. If you
recall Dusty Baker is no fool.Chas McCormick started the majority of the postseason

(15:07):
games for the Astros last year becausehe is the better option of the two
between between Jake Myers and Chas McCormick. He just is. And I'm trying
to pull up. Let's see,he played in every single He started every
single World Series game last year.He started all four of the games against

(15:28):
the Yankees and two of the threegames against Seattle. So when it comes
to whatever you want to call it, Nutcutting time or the big time or
the playoffs or whatever, Dusty Bakeris gonna roll with the best and Chas
McCormick. To me, it's prettygood. But it's not like Chaze.

(15:48):
He's just stifling some all star playerin Chazz. Although his numbers have been
pretty impressive, especially from the platethis year, and he is the lefty
crusher, and he does have eighthome runs in a very small, limited
sample size, but Dusty also likesdefense, and Jake Myers is a better

(16:11):
defensive center fielder, and Chaz strugglessomewhat against right handed pitching, so you
don't see him as much. That'sjust it. I think you have seen
Chaz a little bit more. Andthere's been a lot of times where they've
gotten them both in the lineup withChaz and left and Jake Myers in center
and then Kyle Tucker and right,I think that's your probably best well,

(16:33):
depending on how you feel about MauricioDubon, but one of your best defensive
outfields as you can put together.Corey Jokes is solid out there. Of
course, remember he robbed that homerun from Mookie Betts and stuff like that.
But it's kind of a mismash rightnow with some of the guys you
got hurt, you want to rotatesome people, you want to get some
guys looks. It's it's not easyto try to keep everybody in there and

(16:55):
fresh because everybody's like, oh,when Dubon is hitting hot in the beginning
of the season, gotta get duBond in the lineup every day. Get
him in there every and then Joseltub It comes back and it's like,
where do you put them? Samething with I mean, Corey Jokes can
get hot for a little bit,Well, gotta put him in every day.
And there was one time, believeit or not, when Jake Myers
was getting hot at the play ita little bit and he wasn't playing every
day. They're just trying to rotateand keep everybody fresh. This happened last

(17:15):
year and then come playoff time,the Astros are ready to go. And
I think the proof is in thepudding. They won the World Series.
So I don't think that Dusty Bakerhates Chas McCormick. And then on to
your other point about the trade deadline, I feel like something's gonna happen.
I don't know if they have enoughto get a Schuzer Shootani in your dreams.

(17:40):
But there are some other names thatwe've pointed to and talked about,
some rentals that could maybecome the Astro'sway, the Lucas Giolitos, the Lance
Lens, maybe a Marcus Stroman.If you can get away with not giving
up too much, then that Ithink that's ideal for the Astros, especially
with the rental player or with theinjuries to some of the guys that they've

(18:03):
had. Do they want somebody that'sunder control for a second year, like
a Shane Bieber or Paul Blackburn fromthe Oakland A's, then you're gonna have
to give up a lot more.And then are you just gonna have to
strip the cupboard bear at that pointand then hopefully just be good at the
major league level for the next coupleof years and continue to try to keep

(18:25):
that window open by making those deals. I don't know. It's gonna be
tough for Dana Brown. I can'tpredict what direction it's gonna go. I
think all our needs starting arm bat, probably an outfield bat. Unless you're
in love with Chas McCormick, whichsome of you are, and that's okay,
or a reliever. To me,reliever is the easiest deal. There's

(18:45):
always a ton of relievers on anyteam, and you can find one of
them that's pretty solid. It's notgoing to cost you much. So I
feel like that is like a leadpipe. Cinch some relief help, and
then the other things are gonna bea little bit more difficult. When you're
talking about everyday players, those areharder to acquire. Teams are less likely
to give them up if they're good, depending on their price, and there's

(19:07):
gonna be other buyers in the market. So we'll see seven two one two
five, seven nine of the phonenumber. Jeremy and Alvin next up,
holding longest. What's up? Jeremy, Hey, Rothman, tell you I
love the show, and I cannatell you that Lawyer Eric Dick has one
of the best commercials ever that I'veheard and forever he walks a fine line.

(19:30):
Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah,it makes me uncomfortable five times a
day. Jeremy, go ahead.I have to turn down the radio if
my kids are in the car whenthat commercial comes on. So but I
have two quick comments and then aquestion. I was at Saturday Night's game
and that place was electric. Youknow, that place was sold out,
and it was just it was likea playoff baseball game. It was like

(19:51):
at a It was just awesome.And for all these as those fans who
have never seen Ryan Pressley walking inthe night thinning, that was awesome.
I mean I filmed it. Iput it on Facebook and a lot of
my friends that they don't show thaton TV, but that was awesome.
Yeah, I love it. It'sit's cool, especially when he was like

(20:14):
he was doing it. He's beendoing it for a while now, but
to me, it is just oneof the most awesome. First of all,
you can't get much more legendary asfar as voice and pipes than Johnny
Cash. And then like the justthe feeling of the song, then the
lights going in and out. It'sit's great. It's it's just electric.
It's fun. And he just hehe just strolls to the mound, you
know, the umpire's gout and theycheck his hands, has had his belt

(20:37):
whatever, Yeah, and then hecomes to the mound. So the question
that I have is in the ninthinning, when Julio Rodriguez came up and
he had two balls, two strikes, and uh, Presley should have struck
him out on a chick swing.Yes, but he thought, I guess
he thought it was ball four,right, so he strips, he stripped
all of his equipment off. Yes, and then they realized that it was

(21:00):
it was ball three. Why didthe clock keep going out? That's umpire's
discretion. The umpire did not haveto The umpire basically he's in control of
the clock. I think he gavehim a break. He said, all
right, you know what, thiswasn't anything malicious. He miss judged the
count, which batters do routinely,and he's just gonna give him a break,
and then restarted the clock basically,or paused the clock while he went

(21:22):
and got back his gear. You'reright, the umpire didn't have to do
that. The umpire could have feltlike they were getting shown up or whatever
and just continue to let the clockgo drain out, and then he could
have struck out with a pitch clockviolation. Yeah, exactly. That's the
way I felt about it. Andmy last little comment is all these people
who were worrying about the astros,like you just said we're two games out

(21:47):
with a broken ship at the AllStar Game. Could come Friday. Some
players are gonna come back. Iain't worried about the Astros. I haven't
been worried about the Astros in sixyears. I ain't worried about him now.
All right, just and you knowwe're gonna gonna we'll be all right.
Thank you, Jeremy, appreciate it, thank you for the comments,
thank you for the call, andI'm with you. I think. Look,

(22:08):
I'm not if I'm picking a teamto win the American League West right
now, I'm still picking the Astros. They're gonna get healthy, starting pitching.
There are some question marks right now. Hunter Brown's been up and down.
Christian Javiers not having a great notlooking great going to the break,
but hopefully the week plus wrest willbe helpful for him. You open,
Framber can continue to lock it down, and then maybe they're gonna trade for

(22:29):
somebody line up. I expect JoseBrady has been going in the right direction.
We've seen some signs of life fromAlex Bregman, and then you get
your Don Alvarez, who's just Imean, wakes up in ops is over
a thousand and Jose al twove,I'm feeling like things are gonna be okay.
You do have to remember, ofcourse, other teams are gonna be

(22:51):
making deals. We already saw theRangers trade for Roldis Chapman. I imagine
they might not be done. Theydo have I think a top ten farm
system, so they could be makingdeals there and other guys around the league
as well. But I think youshouldn't be scared if you're an Astro's fan,
and then yes on the Julio Rodriguezthing, real quick, I feel

(23:11):
like you would want that same leewayapplied to an Astros hitter. They just
made an honest mistake and misread itand not be so hard lined, so
I wasn't too upset about it.All right, We're gonna go ahead and
take a break here on the Nightcapprogram here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Those who view who are on hold, you are next. If you want
to get in you can at sevenone three two one two five ninety seven

(23:33):
one three two one two five sevenninety Welcome back to the Nightcap, Rosbria
with you Noah Fouts along as well, and you at seven one three two

(23:59):
one two five, seven ninety.You can also send tweets to at sports
RV and at Noah on seven ninetyone from sports Hutch in the last segment
to the last caller suggests the Astrosshould be looking at to Otani, Scherzer
and JV. Dude is not justone card short of a full deck.
I think his box is missing aquarter of the cards. Autan, and

(24:21):
look, if the Astros were gonnatake on Scherz or JV, you would
have to have the Mets taking overa lot of the salary and giving them
you wouldn't be able to give muchback. But I don't know. You
would have to be that kind ofway. So that seems like it's far
fetched. And then the Otani thingis way far fetched. You have the

(24:44):
Astros, I think last night checkedor twenty ninth in baseball in the terms
of a farm system, and evenfor I'm curious actually to see how it
plays out when it's even for arental, how much it is going to
command as far as Joho, honey, if the first of all you need
the Angels to decide to trade Showhyotani, you're not completely out of the wild

(25:06):
card, but starting to trend thatway, and then you have to have
them feel that there's no chance Shohiotani'scoming back, because I don't think if
you think you can retain him,you would trade him away. And then
you have to outbid every other majorleague team, or at least every other
major league contender for his services.So that's a lot of ifs that I

(25:29):
think add up to the Astros havingabout a zero point zero chance of getting
I'm not somebody who really comes outhere and likes to speak in absolute,
so I'll say a zero point onepercent chance. But I'm just gonna say
it ain't happening in all likelihood forthe Astros to get show Hey Otani seven

(25:49):
on three two one two seven ninetythe phone number. As I said,
let's go to Debbie holding longest onthe phones. Hello, Debbie, Hi,
what you got. I just wantto thank you for talking about Jake
Myers being a great outfielder, becauseChas McCormick is a showboat. Every time

(26:10):
a couple of steps, every timehe takes a couple steps, he has
to die for the ball. Everythinghas to be dramatic. I hated the
way he grabbed the first baseman's armthe other night Seattle. I mean he's
a showboat and he's wow, notright for the clubhouse. You think he's
Jim Edmonds in it. That's whatJim Edmonds used to do back in the

(26:30):
day for the Cardinals swing up sohe could get on Sports Center top.
Absolutely, just watch him, watchhim a couple of times. Watch him
and at the at the wall he'lljump, but he doesn't need to jump.
You just watch him, all right, Debby, thank you. I
appreciate you weighing in. The funnything is you would describe what she just

(26:51):
described Chas McCormick as wouldn't you saythat was a Jake m that Jake Myers'
mom. It might have been missusMyers. I appreciate you calling in.
That was that's look, that's Iwill say this. I'm not gonna say
that Chaz is a Jake ha ha. I'm gonna say there are some plays

(27:15):
that it's a little bit more difficultto make for Chaz McCormick than Jake Myers,
where Jake Myers will be under theball just and it's not necessarily Chatz's
fault. Chat is pretty good.I mean he's a solid center fielder.
He's not a negative guy. ButJake Myers is one of the best in
baseball in terms of patrolling center fieldbecause he doesn't have a super strong arm,

(27:38):
but the amount of ground that hecan cover and the sprint speed that
he has, and if you lookat outs above average numbers and stuff with
the fielding Bible and a lot ofadvanced stuff, Jake Myers is one of
the best center fielders in baseball.And yeah, Chas McCormick does make a
lot of spectacular diving catches, andsome of that is because he's not over

(27:59):
there time when other center fielders wouldbe there. And like I said,
I'm not saying Chas McCormick is bad. Jake Myers is a little bit better
out there. But Chaz, it'sat the plate. It's not even close.
It's Chas McCormick. And even thoughwe got like a couple of flashes
of a good couple of weeks ofJake Myers, at some point, what
was that, like maybe in Juneor I can't even remember where we were.

(28:22):
We were just overflowed with applications tothe Jake Myers fan club. He
got pretty hot for a little bitthere, but has cooled off considerably at
the plate. I like Jake Myersand I roof farm and there's this whole
bit that we do, and I'min the fan club, And when I
did to Jake Myers fan club,I was just really saying that I thought
he was. He's a good ballplayer. He put together some good abs

(28:45):
in his first year. He canreally run out there in center field,
and I was hoping that he wassome sort of like close to gold close
to gold Glove level, if notgold Glove center fielder who can ops for
like seven fifty. He was overthat for his first year, and this
year he's at six seventy six.If you're a friend of ops plus,

(29:07):
which I am, one hundred isleague average, he's at eighty eight,
and our good friend Chas McCormick,I'd have to pull him back up.
I think he's at like one twenty. Yeah, one twenty, which is
really good. Twenty That means you'retwenty percent better than the average hitter.
And he plays a solid center field. So if the playoffs started today,
I'd want Chazz out there every singleday. And that's what happened last year.

(29:30):
I went through it. It waswas it thirteen playoff games? Chaz
started twelve of them. I believeJake started the other. So the end
of the day, I think that'swhat will happen, as long as things
trend in the direction that they havebeen. Seven one three two one two
five, seven ninety the phone numberif you'd like to get in, if

(29:52):
you're a family member of a HoustonAstro and want to defend them, or
if you just want to bash somebody. No, actually we're not going to
do that right Seven one three twoone two five Venati is the phone number.
If you want to talk about theAstros. We still have to talk
about the Rockets and the Vegas League, Vegas Summer League observations, stuff like
that. Anything you want to getto, we'll get to here on the

(30:12):
Nightcap one segment to go with youuntil seven o'clock here on Sports Talk seven
nighty one war. That's hitting theair pretty deep to right center. It

(30:48):
sends back with Cormick onto the warningtrack, leads at the wall anyburg stick
ditch, Oh what a catch Barbick. Cormick crash to get to the thirty
yea a deep right center fail.Joe catch the catch of his life for
McCormick comes back to Philly, hishopetown and makes a wonderful catch, the

(31:11):
wall crashing as he makes it atthe top of his lead where the out
of town scoreboard is inbedded into thatwall, and there's chain link fence in
front of it. Nope, padding, and that's where McCormick went full speed.
Well, you dream of a catchlike that in the World Series,
A game saver perhaps, and McCormickrobs the Phillies. Yes, you do

(31:36):
dream of a catch like that,and yes it was a good catch.
I don't think well, I don'tknow. You want to say he hammed
it up a little bit when hestaying on the ground. I don't think
so. But welcome back to theNightcap program here on sport Stock seven ninety
Ross VI Real, no fouls,having a little fun. We get the
call her Debbie in the last segment, not happy with some of the chas

(31:59):
McCormick's antics out there in the field, saying that he is showboating it.
And then yeah, I made thereference to Jim Edmonds who used to just
kind of slow up and then makesure he would make a diving catch and
try to get on Sports Center,web gems or something, but um,
Jake Myers is better in the field, Chas McCormick better at the plague,
and we can just leave it atthat. Seven one three two one two

(32:21):
five seven ninety. The phone numberalso tweets to at sports RV Tiffany seven
two two saying ask her if sheliked chatz is catching the World Series.
She probably did, I think,Pedro says, Okay, Debbie, and
let's see Forrest Gump forty nine ersays Chaz McCormick is Jim Edmonds with some
laughing crying emoji's hashtag showboat. Yeahit's I will say, I have the

(32:49):
thought has crossed my mind, notthat Chaz is slowing up, just that
okay, well, I'm better centerfielder might have gotten there a little faster.
But hasn't crossed my mind to thinkthat the chat is doing it on
purpose. But that's what Debbie says, and she is entitled to her opinion.
Tony, your next step on thenightcap. What's up? Hey,

(33:09):
guys? You know, I thinkDebbie's onto something, And I was looking
back and thinking about, you know, we got a third base in that
t showboats he'll make that a littleshort, slow roller. He'll throw off
his left foot and runner out andeven sometimes Pa Man that that guy tries
to do it. Jeter from hedid get a Jeter over the weekend.

(33:31):
I was there. It was itwas horrible. Why would you do such
a thing, right, why wouldhe try to show about that way?
Hey, Jared? Yeah, JaredPainion made a couple of slick plays over
the weekend, as did as didAlex Bregman. Bregman made a sweet one,
that little ball that went over thebag. It was like maybe a
centimeter off the bag, and hesays, focus and yeah, right,

(33:52):
he had to get down low becausehe was expecting a regular hop, but
it hopped off the back, soit was low. Yeah, I remember
exactly what you talking about, Tony. Yeah, well, thanks, guys.
I appreciate the fun, all right, I appreciate it. Yeah,
Tony, of course, with histongue in cheek with that just joking,
but yeah, I didn't think aboutthat, Tony. Yeah. Jeremy Penney

(34:15):
made a couple of great plays overthe weekend, and that's good because his
bat has been average for the balanceof the season, and that's one of
the things that I slipped somewhat hereand there. But Mauricio Dubon has been
very good defensively. Jose Breyu iswell. Unfortunately, nobody's going to confuse
him with Julie guriol who did wina Gold Glove. But I imagine Julie

(34:38):
Guriyel is not hitting that well withMiami lately. Otherwise I would have seen
his batting average plastered all over allover Astro's twitter. Okay, he's hitting
two sixty eight, does have ahigher OPS. He's only got three home
runs. What's to break you upto now? Six or seven or something
like that. So Jose bray whodoes have him beat in the home run
category, but overall, ULI withthe OPS and batting average advantages seven home

(35:04):
runs for JOSEA Brayu. But that'ssomething that's just just now, I don't
want say, deteriorating, which notas good as it has been in years
past. I mean back in theday when you had George Springer out there
and center and stuff like that,and Michael Brantley, we know that the
plays that he was capable of makingout there and left and he hasn't been
out there, and of course he'sa little bit longer in the tooth,
but the guys they have out therepretty solid. If you look at some

(35:25):
of the advanced statistics, some ofthem have Kyle Tucker taking a step back
of where he's been in years past, but he is a gold Glover and
defense maybe not what it once was. But they just need to get better
and improve in every facet of thegame. And that's another thing you have
to think about too. When Joseltwo they comes back. Is is a

(35:46):
lot of talk about Mario Dubon andis hot hitting early on. Defensively,
he's been one of the best astros, So you wont his glove in the
game as well. Does that meandh Josel twove some and getting Mariiso DuMond
back there and at second base becauseI'm by some metrics I saw it pulled

(36:07):
up like he's one of the bestsecond basemen in old baseball this year afforded
that opportunity, of course because ofall of the all the time missed by
Josel Tuve. So that's something tokeep an eye on as well. Try
to keep his glove Maurisso Dubon inthe field because right now is hot hitting,

(36:28):
is somewhat fallen back to earth.Remember I mentioned the ops plus where
average is one hundred. He's atninety three. So really the only plus
offensive players the Astros have right nowin a big way. You're on Alvarez,
whoof OLPs plus one sixty seven.That's nasty, two thirds better than

(36:49):
your average hitter. That's really good. One thirty one for a Kyle Tucker
onety No, that's one h three, sorry reading the wrong thing. One
h two for Alex Bregman, onewith three for Corey Jokes. So a
lot of the Astros hitters, unfortunatelyhave been average or below and then your
best one. Jordan Alvarez missing alot of time with that oblique injury,

(37:12):
but sounds like he is going tocome back shortly after the All Star break,
and I think this team is gonnabe okay, I'm still predicting him.
I'm gonna tell you, just betweenyou and me, just between us.
I was a little worried they weren'tgonna win the American League West when
they got about what's the worst,it got about seven games back somewhere in
that neighborhood or did it get toeight, I don't remember, And it

(37:36):
doesn't matter because now they're only twogames back and they're gonna get some of
their horses back. I think alot of the questions are well all over
the place. How long can youcontinue to tape it together with the rotation?
Is Javier gonna improve because he hasbeen sliding hard? So Hunter Brown
gon gonna get some time off andlet that rookie arm get a little bit
of rest and be ready for thesecond half. How long can JP France

(38:00):
keep it together? Because the RAnumbers are good, but much like Brandon
Black, if you look at someof the peripheral numbers and the analytics and
the hard the field independent pitching andexpected RA numbers and stuff like that,
it's not good. And there's there'san expectation that some of them will fall
back to earth because, as youknow, Brandon Black gets a lot of
and a lot of traffic of thebase paths and then double plays happen at

(38:23):
sometimes at some point for stretches,those double playballs may not come. So
where do they go from here?We shall see especially question marks in the
bullpen as well. A lot ofappearances for Brian A. Brayu, a
lot of appearances for film Maton.They're closing in on career highs at this

(38:44):
point. Our good friend channel Romeof the Athletic covering the Astros updates us
almost every time they come in.Kind of like setting the alarm bells for
for unprecedented usage for those guys.And are they going to get in bullpin
arm? Can you improve with thetrade deadline or at least internally, it'd

(39:06):
be cool if Josea Bray who hasa July or into August like he did
in June. He hit like anAll star in June. He hit like
a double A player in April andmay so will the real Josea Bray you
please stand up? And he hasn'tbeen great in July in a smaller sample
size. Still some hard hit contact. Still I think gonna be okay.

(39:28):
But you didn't sign him to justbe okay to a three year, sixty
million dollar deal. All right,that's gonna do it. For the Nightcap
program here on Sports Talk seven ninety, my name is ros Ivie Reale,
and I would like to say thankyou very much for listening. If you
made time for the program, Iwant to remind you that we'll be with
you all week. No Astros untilFriday, but then they're in Anaheim,

(39:52):
so it'll be a late start.So six to seven the Nightcap will be
with you all week long here onthe All Star Break. I also want
to thank Noah Fouts for producing doinga great job as he always does.
My name is Rosby Real. Iwill talk to you folks next tomorrow at
noon as part of the Matt ThomasShow twelve to three here on Sports Talk
seven ninety and till then, I'ma pleasant but most importantly safe rest of

(40:15):
your Monday evening.