Astros Look To Split Mariners Series After Losing Two Straight, What To Expect From Jose Abreu

Ross Villarreal of The Nightcap previews the Houston Astros attempting to split the road series against the Seattle Mariners after dropping the first two games. Ross also discusses Jose Abreu's first two performances back in MLB, gets a surprise call from a Houston figure, talks about the latest "Headlines" with producer Connor McGovern and more.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
The work day is done. Nowkick back, popa top and catch up
with your Houston team Rank Cap RyCap. This is the Nightcap with Ross
vieil Ran Cap Rank Cap Sure sixone pm here on Sports Talk seven I

(00:32):
D Hello and welcome to another editionof the Nightcap program, Ross Viial with
you. Normally I would say untilseven o'clock. This is a one hour
program. Are we getting time anda half on this connor? Are we
getting extra? We have to goin extra thirty minutes because Matt Thomas has

(00:54):
begged us to. He couldn't gothirty extra minutes on the Astros on Deck
Show, but we have to gothirty extra minutes on the night Cap.
Well, lucky Matt, Yeah,lucky for him. I guess he doesn't
have to work. He's uh inhis Kingwood studios. He's gonna bring you
the acre coming in. No,you know, are you serious? Come
on, man, he's not gonnabe here. And Joe, you're not

(01:15):
even producing it right, It's gonnabe josh See coming in just to spell
you at seven thirty. I don'tknow even discuss that. Okay, well
you guys can figure that out.In the meantime, Connor's still here.
I mean, for the love ofGod, talk to him on the phone.
Seven one three two one two fiveseven ninety is the phone number you
can talk to me of course aswell. This is I think Connor's first
time working this show or something didwe discuss Did we get a final answer

(01:38):
on that? I couldn't remember.I was training with Dan early on.
This is my first time solo,right, Okay, So Connor is here
for the first time on a nightcap. He's gonna bring us some headlines
coming up at six thirty. We'realso gonna talk about a number of different
things in Houston sports. Phone linesopen at seven one three two one two
five seven ninety seven one three twoone two five seven night He can also

(01:59):
find us on Twitter. I amat sports RV Conna. You can find
at Connad McGovern over there as well. So a lot of things going on
in Houston sports. We got thenews yesterday of Nico Collins' extension. We
can talk about that, but Ithink the thing that people are most talking
about is your Houston Astros, andreally for a team that is twenty four

(02:24):
and thirty one and at this moment, hopefully it can improve five and a
half games back of the Seattle Marinersfor the first place spot in the American
League West. And oh, bythe way, you're two and a half
games behind the Texas Rangers, whoare twenty seven and twenty nine, and
that is depressing as a sentence tocome out of my mouth. We've got

(02:46):
a lot of stuff to talk about, a lot of storylines, a lot
of things going on with this team, and just some intrigue from the jose
bray you stuff, which we willget to in just a moment. By
the way, if you have notseen, he is not in the lineup
today, so that's good news.The Josea bray You haters among you,
well, I guess nobody probably lovesjose A braw as far as Astros fans,

(03:09):
but the actual real haters who getso upset online and say this is
organizational malpractice and everybody needs to befired because jose A brah is in the
lineup. Okay, whatever, He'snot in the lineup today, John Singleton
at first base, You've got jordOn Alvarez at the designated hitter spot for

(03:29):
the Houston Astros today. I'm moreon the lineup as we get to the
Astros on deck show with Matt Thomascoming up at seven point thirty, but
Hosea Bray, you not in thelineup today, and then you have what
is going on with Christian Javier andwhat is going on with Jose Orkidy We
at least have I did I missit? I haven't seen any details on

(03:51):
what's happening with either of these pictures. Apparently we heard that there was supposed
to be some imaging yesterday. Wehad Joe as spot on for his normal
spot at twelve thirty and he said, Nope, I don't have any details
for you guys, hopefully coming upat four o'clock. And that was local
time because they're in Seattle and thePacific Northwest, so Pacific time over there.

(04:12):
They were supposed to have some detailsand then we still don't have anything.
And as our good friend Chandler Rome, a friend of the A team,
spelled out about Ronald Lacunya getting anACL tear, and then the news
coming out later that day after anMRI confirming the ACL tear and the Braves
announcing it. The Astros, forwhatever reason, I don't know why,

(04:33):
they like to keep it close tothe vest when it comes to injuries.
So unfortunately, that leaves us hereto lie and wait, and that leaves
us to worry. I just feellike the more you don't hear anything,
the silence becomes deafening with the HoustonAstros. And that wasn't the case with
from er Valdez. Right when weheard forearm discomfort, he's getting sent back

(04:56):
to Houston. We had feared theworst. And while he missed a couple
of weeks and he came back,and now he's having somewhat of an up
and down campaign as we're used towith from Ervaldez. But now you have
the issue with both Christian Javier andJose Arkety. If you read the tea
leaves, it sounds like things aren'tgonna be so hot for Jose Archty,

(05:17):
but maybe there is some hope forChristian Javier. But we continue to await
some details or you know, justan announcement or anything. But for whatever
reason, the Astros don't like revealingthis information. I don't know what competitive
advantage is being gained by the SeattleMariners or any other team in baseball for

(05:39):
them just not saying anything about what'shappening. If they do know that's how
they go about things. It canbe frustrating as a fan, it can
be frustrating as a member of themedia, but it is what it is.
Nonetheless, time marches on for theAstros, and they're gonna have to
dance with Ubrungham for this for thismoment right now. Whether or not Javier
come come back, I don't know, but the starting pitching that they have

(06:03):
right now is going to have toperform. The good news is, you
got a really good start from HunterBrown yesterday. You got a great start
from Ronel Blanco on Sunday against theOakland A's. And if you recall,
I don't know if you heard,if you've been living under a rock,
he was suspended for ten day gamesbecause of the sticky stuff situation, and

(06:24):
there was some doubt. At leastfor me, I didn't have a ton
of doubt because I saw the numbersthat his spin rates were very consistent this
year with what they've been so farin his career. It's not like all
of a sudden everything had made ahuge jump and there was this air of
suspicion surrounding Renel Blanco. He's justa really heavy sweater I don't know what
that means for Rosen I don't knowwhat that means for if something got into

(06:47):
his glove and his non throwing armand all that and all that controversy.
But the Astros did that, andChristian Javier himself did not appeal his suspension,
which led me to believe that therewas maybe something amiss. Course,
the comments was that guy Eric Bachisor whatever his name is saying that it
was the stickiest stuff in the glovethat he'd ever seen. But whatever after

(07:09):
that and the cloud surrounding Renew Blanco, Yes, it was the Oakland A's
who have become the whipping boy ofthe Houston Astros so far this season.
All praise be to the Oakland Ase. Where would the Astros be right now
without the Oakland A's on their scheduleconsistently this year? But yeah, Rena
Blanco took care of business against theOakland A's. Justin Verlander was good in

(07:31):
his last start. He goes againtonight against the Seattle Mariners, who don't
have a great murders roll lineup,but it is gonna be a matchup against
major league hitters and hopefully he cancontinue to bounce back after he had that
horrific start in Yankee Stadium where he'dgive it up like three home runs in
seven earned runs, and then hefollowed it up with a pretty good start

(07:56):
in Detroit, a not so hotstart against the Mohaicky Brewers, but did
pretty good against the oaklan Ads.And again, as I said, with
Renel Blanco, it is the A's, so hopefully he can turn it around.
So the starting pitching has to begood, and then the lineup has
to be good. And this isbreaking baseball analysis here for you. The
bullpen has to be better as well. Ryan Presley giving up a run again

(08:20):
last night, and it feels like, you know, early on the season,
when the Astros were losing on abunch of games, it just kind
of felt like they were snake bit. They would end up in this situation
with guys and runners in scoring position, they would ground into a double play,
they would Jose Al Tuovey would missa ball. Jose A Bray you
at that time, who was inthe lineup consistently at the beginning of the
season, was missing a lot ofballs at first base, and he missed

(08:43):
one last night. That kind ofthe feeling that I get with Ryan Presley.
It's like he just can't catch abreak. Even though he had been
pitching much better last ten twelve outingsor whatever it was, numbers much improved.
That was just some hard luck andno favors done by Ryan Presley's defense
behind him. Last night against theSeattle Manors, things unraveled in the eighth.

(09:05):
They give up the three runs,Two of them were earned, one
unearned for Ryan Presley, who's eraballoons to five point three to one on
the season. But he had beenturning it around and he did strike out
the side. It's not like hewas just giving up a bunch of rockets.
So I can still continue to besomewhat overall encouraged by the progress of

(09:26):
Ryan Presley, even though in awhat have you done for me lately?
Whorled he was not good his lasttime out. I still feel somewhat confident.
How were you feeling when he cameinto the eighth inning last night and
it was a one run game.I wasn't feeling great, but I was
optimistic. And then the leadoff doublehappened, and that's my optimism vaporized within

(09:46):
the matter of like five seconds.And then he gave up a bunch of
runs and then they lost the game. They couldn't get anything going and it
just the offense has been sputtering thelast couple of days against a very good
Seattle Mariner's pitching staff. But justtwo runs in the last two games.
Not going to get it done forthe Houston Astros, but easier said than
done against this starting rotation. Imean, you had Luis Castillo last night,

(10:11):
you had Bryce Miller of the daybefore, George Kirby today, Logan
Gilbert Tomorrow, who absolutely shut youdown to the tune of eight innings of
shutout ball the last time he facedthis Astros lineup. So it's gonna be
tough. This is Mariner's baseball.They play a bunch of close games and
you can't make mistakes. You can'tshoot yourself in the in the foot,

(10:33):
and the Astros did that last nightand they have been unable to come through
in the first two games of thisas a temper for May. For May,
a very big series for the HoustonAstros so far in this twenty twenty
four campaign. So a lot ofstuff to get to on the Astros front.
We can talk about the starting pitcherswhere they are how are you feeling

(10:54):
and how were you feeling when RyanPresley got called out of the eighth inning,
Jose. We continue to talk asa hot topic, and I'll have
some more on that when we comeback, and anything else you want to
get to. We're talking about theTexans. Of course, I know probably
a lot of you don't want totalk about the NBA playoffs or anything like
that, but anything goes anytime.On the Nightcap it's seven one three two

(11:16):
one two five seven ninety seven onethree two one two five seven ninety.
We got some headlines coming up fromConna McGovern. We have your phone calls
if you'd like to get in allahead of the Matt Thomas helmed to Astros
on Deck show here on Sports Talkseven ninety at seven thirty. Back in
a second here on the Nightcap sixeighteen pm here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

(11:48):
The Nightcap program extended addition deep intothe evening here on Sports Talk seven
ninety. Well, not me,I'm going till seven thirty. Normally we
go till seven, but in extrathirty minutes. Uh, that's not even
like a cherry on top, that'sa plus fifty percent. I need to
talk to management about this, butwhatever. Matt Thomas will be on at

(12:09):
seven thirty for the Astros on DeckShow presented by Exfinity, and then it
will be eight forty pm West CoastLate Night Astros after Dark here on Sports
Talk seven ninety George Kirby and JustinVerlander. Seattle a minus one fifteen,
very very slight and the Astros alsoa minus one oh five. This is

(12:31):
how the books make money, folks. Both teams you have to lay extra
money to bet on, but aslight extra favorite are the Seattle Mariners in
this one, so stick with us. And also Matt will be taking your
calls after the game, win orlose on the Astros tenth Inning Show seven
one three two one two five sevenninety. The phone number if you'd like

(12:52):
to get in seven one three twoone two five seven ninety. Can also
send tweets at Sports RV and atConna Dee McGovern as well if you'd like,
let's keep it going on the phonelines. We'll not keep it going.
We're gonna start it on the phoneline. So been on the northwest
side, go ahead on the flooris yours? Yes, sir, I
wasn't a big fan of Dubon.When I first saw him, he didn't

(13:15):
seem like a good power hitter orsomebody that would fit in with the Astros,
But he surprised me. He's earnedhis spot. He played shortstop,
he's played third, he played second, he's played outfield, center field.
He did what he had to doto earn his spot, and he's been
impressive in the battle spot. Sowe talk about him in Dubon, I

(13:39):
mean him and A Bray. Youknow, the coach has to go with
what you know, who's hot,who's not. Yeah, oh, well,
Jose Abrady was a primary first basemanand Mariciro Dubon plays all over the
place, and they don't play himmuch at first base. They've only played
him twice at first base in thelast two years. I'm sorry three times.
Yeah, yeah, but we're not. I mean, at some point

(14:01):
in time, as a coach,you you know, money issue isn't the
problem. You shouldn't be the problem. It's got to be the guy that
that that's taking the team to thenext level, and that's gonna, you
know, earn and earnest spot.I understand A Brady's making a lot of
money, but come on at somepoint in time, you got to dig

(14:22):
down deep and and and do whatyou gotta do and earn that spot,
you know. I mean, thereshould be a They should always be a
cause. And this is my perspective. They should always be a cause in
baseball. If you're not doing thisperforming, you know, as you know,
as you're supposed to do it,you know. Well, yeah,

(14:43):
I can't say that, Ben,You got that, Connor, Okay,
good, Yeah, this is stillwe're not into save Harbor. I think
until like ten thirty or eleven.If I remember my f SEC training,
You cannot say that word, Ben, But appreciate you making the call,
Appreciate your sentiment. Look, we'regetting a lot of talk from people Mauricio
Duban, Mauricio Duban. We needmore Mauricio Duban, and there's a lot

(15:07):
of you out there. In twentytwenty two, when he was hitting two
to oh eight, the hated MauricioDubon and wanted to see nothing from him.
But that's the ups and downs,the ebbs and flows. Duban unfortunately
not in the lineup again today.But also we have to remember, first
of all, there's a log jam, there's a couple of things happening.
There's a lot of moving parts.It's not as simple as ABC is.

(15:30):
Mauricio Dubon is a Gold Glove caliberfirst baseman who hits with a ton of
power and has great matchups against leftiesand righty so he should be in there
every day. That's not the case. First of all, he's very poor
against right handing pitching, right handedpitching in his major league career, So

(15:52):
you did not see him yesterday againsta dominant righty and Luis Castillo. You
are not going to see him today, at least in a starting capacity against
a well, at least against theAstros. He's dominant right handed pitcher in
George Kirby, And I'm not sureyou know you're gonna throw him in against

(16:12):
righty's every now and then, becausesometimes, especially depending on what team you're
playing up against, there's not gonnabe enough lefty starters, and you want
to get him in the lineup hereand there, especially if it's a day
game after a night game type ofsituation and he's got fresh legs. But
Logan Gilbert also a right handed,dominant pitcher against which throughout his career,

(16:33):
Mauricio Dubon has struggled. Also,of course, the factor of jose A
bray You. You know why he'sin the lineup. I know why he's
in the lineup. Jose A brayYou is in the lineup for the Houston
Astros because of what it says onhis contract, because of his game checks,

(16:53):
because of this fully guaranteed nineteen anda half million dollars that he's making.
That's why he's in the lineup.And that's it's just as simple as
that. They gave him a shotto start the season. He was horrible,
some of the worst at bats I'dever seen from a major league or
so I let alone a guy thatwas an MVP in twenty twenty and showed

(17:17):
some signs of life in the playoffslast year. So's he's going to get
a bit of a shot. They'regonna give him every chance to resuscitate his
career here because of the money thathe is making. They do not want
to eat what's left of this contract. As we're into May. What are

(17:38):
we like fifty games into the seasonat this point, a little bit over
and you got one hundred plus gamesleft. That's a lot of money to
eat. They're gonna give him evenif he looks like he's on life support
and the plug needs to be pulled. And I agree with you those you
that say pull the plug. Butthey're gonna give him that chance because of

(18:02):
what he's worth. And if hedoesn't, then they're gonna cut bait.
But he's given his last chance.He was terrible to start the season.
They send him down to the freakinginstructional League, which he was gracious enough
to accept. He was down therefor over four weeks. So I don't
want to hear it from those ofyou saying, oh, well, he
was rushed back. He was rushedback. He was away from the major
leagues for a month. That's notbeing rushed back. But now, yes,

(18:29):
two rehab games where he would overseven and in the first game he
got a base knock, knocked ina run, but some bad AB's yesterday
a couple of strikeouts on three pitches. If he continues to do this for
a couple of weeks, they're goingto let him go, but they're also
going to give him this chance.And I understand this is the biggest series
of the year for the Houston Astros. They've got one hundred plus games left.

(18:49):
It's the end of May. That'swhy we're seeing them. If anything,
this is the perfect time to figureit out. You wouldn't want him
coming back in the middle of Augustor September and then throwing him into the
fire. No, you're throwing himin in May. A couple of weeks
doesn't work out. You see zerosigns of life. And it's not even

(19:10):
just necessarily the production. It's thebat speed, it's the controlling of the
strike zone. How poorly is hewhiffing and at what rates is he seeing
anything? Was last night it didn'tlook like he was seeing much of anything.
And well, he's not in thelineup today, but he's gonna get
some semblance of a chance, especiallybecause it's not like you have a super

(19:32):
ready, you know, top prospectat first base. I know Joey lip
Petrefrier is very good, but clearlythe Astros weren't comfortable throwing him in at
first base because they didn't do itwhen he was up here. And it's
not like John Singleton is, youknow, a Lance Berkman reincarnate. So
you're gonna have because of all thosecircumstances, some of Jose bray You in

(19:53):
the lineup, and it's not justone to one Maurso Dubon is your play
everywhere utility guy who struggles against righthanded pitching. He has a certain role
on this team. It does notcoincide with the role of what you're hoping
jose Ah bray You was, whichis right now the worst offensive player on
the planet. I get it,but like I said, you know why

(20:14):
they're playing him. It's because ofthe money. A lot of times when
you have questions following sports, whythis? Why that? What's going on
with this money? A lot oftimes he answers money, and in this
case with jose A bray You,the answer is money. Seven one three
two one two five seven ninety thephone number. Let's go to a Frank
in Crosby holding longest. What's up, Frank, Hey, Ross, what's

(20:38):
going on? Man? I noticedthat you're you're still trying to tell us
why they're playing. We don't wantto hear that. What do you want
to hear We're we're winners. No, no, no, it's not even
that I want you to lie tome. I want you to be on
the same page with me. Iwant you to be on the same page
with all of us fans. Imean, nobody knows we're not losers anymore.

(20:59):
We went through three years of lean, lean baseball with a bad line
up. Nobody was good. Everybody'sgood in this lineup except On Alvarez hasn't
been hitting. Hasn't been hitting.Alex Revan hasn't been hitting. What's the
batting average? Is it better thanone eight of Alex bred it's not one

(21:19):
for one? You're not playing whosebray jord On Alvarez? It's John Singleton.
What's his batting average? Who's inthe line today? By the way,
Okay, so he's hitting, then, I'm very surprised. But I
mean then why wouldn't you play He'sgo ahead and give a bray you you
know his six innings. But Imean, once we get to the bulton,

(21:41):
why not put somebody else in theirfirst base? Is not hard to
play. My daughter can play firstbase. Okay, Well, clearly the
Astros disagree with you. They haven'tputt Mauricio Dubond there. They didn't put
jord On Alvarez there, They didn'tput hardly your yan Yard Diaz. Remember,
everybody wanted to get him time atfirst base yesterday. I'm I'm telling
you this. It's it's not aseasy as you say. Otherwise, they

(22:03):
would have put low Berfito there,they would have put you on your ideas
there, and they'd be putting Dupondthere more. It's it is that easy.
I don't understand that. Yeah,I don't know. We go they
made a bad deal and they gavethis guy a lot of money, but
now we got to suffer. Imean, how well are you left?
This is the only thing I havein my life. A lot of us

(22:25):
don't have much going on in ourlives except for winning baseball, and I
don't have that. I would Iwould encourage you to find some friends and
go for some personal growth. Then, Frank, if you're living with life,
have winning baseball. And then theanswer is because you don't getting rid
of a brad because of the timeyour your sports team is going to let

(22:47):
you down. That's why don't makethis your life, Frank, Please,
I'm your life. Please don't dothat. And I just I just don't
appreciate it. Whenever you guys,I mean, are just constantly just oh
no, it'll be okay. It'slike d're in luck with losing right now?

(23:07):
What are you talking about to losethe games? Listen to me.
Did they lose the last two gamesbecause of Joseah Brey You? Yes,
they did. The whole light upscored two runs, Ryan Presley gave up
three in the eighth, and itwas because of jose Bray. You.
It's not easy to get a hitin the major leagues. I mean,

(23:29):
these guys, all of them,But you're still gonna throw them down our
throat, all right, Frank,I'm not throwing anybody down anybody's throat.
I'm not putting jose Ah Bray youout there, all right. I gotta
let you go. We gotta doa break. But I'm just telling you,
first of all, I know,I imagine your tongue is in your
cheek and you're joking, Frank whenyou say this is all I've gotten stuff.

(23:51):
But it feels like there's a lotof you out there that are taking
this personal with Josea Bray. You. The Astros are not your life.
They don't know you anything. Now. Yes, you're the fans and you
support them and all that type ofstuff, but they're also gonna do what
they think is best for their organization, and that's what they're doing financially as
well. They're going to cut baiton hosea bray you at some point if

(24:11):
he continues to produce in this manner. They bumped him. They started off
the season batting. Did he betclean up in the first game or fifth,
it doesn't matter. He got bumpeddown, down, down, then
got bumped down to the instructional league. Now he's back up for another taste.
They're gonna give him one more chance. If it doesn't work out,

(24:32):
which it doesn't look like it's goingto, they will let him go.
So if this has hurt you personallyin some way, I would encourage you
to go to therapy or meditate,or find some friends or hobby or something,
because if you're latching on this hardto some guy playing first base on

(24:53):
your TV, you need a realitycheck. All right, back in a
minute. I'm losing my voice.I don't want to be screaming at you
people. Seven one three seven ninetythe phone number. Back in a minute.
Here in the nightcap, some ofyou folks reacting on Twitter to our

(25:19):
good friend Frank Holy bleep, thatcall was amazing. Disastro socialism completely calling
a Nightcap, says Larry Footsack.Uh, we can get aways encouraging me
to cal him down. Let menot call him just having a little fun.
It's okay, it's not that serious. We're just talking some sports.
Uh, Steven says, Frank needsa hobby, and uh, let's see

(25:44):
kill a bee says I almost drovemyself into a barricade. Well, stay
safe out there, folks. Theweather has been quite dicey the last few
days. And you know what,A lot of you people interacting on the
Twitter verse, a lot of youon the phones, and we'll get to
you. But match, is thistrue? Is this the real Mattress mack
here on the Nightcap program? Yes, it's Ross. Hey Mac, how's

(26:06):
it going. I'm working at thefurniture store and listening to you. You
ever listened to Mark Levin on sevenforty? Uh? Yes I have?
Did I sound like him? Youwere streaming louder than he does? Yeah,
but I didn't say New York Compostor anything like that. Yeah.
Well, the good thing about theTimes go ahead. Yeah. The good
thing about Frank is he's a diehardfans, but he's listening to all the

(26:29):
broadcasts and he's listening to my radioas he's helping make sure all you radio
guys are employed because he's getting goodnumbers with Frank listening. That's true.
That's but I think Frank needs tomaybe find a hobby if he's latching onto
the team that hard. His hobbiesbaseball, obviously, that's true. All

(26:51):
Right, anything else, mack alight, Ross, that's it. I haven't
got enjoy your shows. Thank you, all right, thank you very much.
Appreciate your mattress Mack for getting onthe program. Follow that you can
at seven one three two one twofive seven ninety seven one three two one
two five seven night. Look,yeah, I understand, and there are
some of us and those of youwho take this more serious than others.

(27:15):
And it is what it is.And like I said, I know that
Frank was mostly joking. Else,I think or hope that he was mostly
joking. But if you're personally offendedand it ruins your day that jose A.
Bray was in the lineup, youneed to grow up. I mean,
yeah, he's trying his hardest.He's a nice guy, class act
accepted his assignment to the Instructional League, and he's doing what he's can what

(27:37):
he can and when he hit thatRBI single, I was cheering. I
was up off my couch. Firstof all, I was stunned more than
anything. One hundred and two offthe bat, nice single, hard hit
ball, let's go. But Icheered. I was happy because I want
the Astros to win. Now,do I think jose A Bray you all
of a sudden, this light bulbwas gonna turn on and he's gonna flip

(28:00):
the switch and resurrect his career.No, but he's gonna get that opportunity.
And as I said in the lastsegment, you know why, it's
because of the money. Seven onethree two one two five seven ninety is
the phone number. Seven one threetwo one two five seven nine. Let's
go next, up to Sheena insugar Land. What's up? Ah,

(28:21):
good evening. You know that's alittle intimidating to have to follow mattress mac
here, but yeah, don't screwthis up, Sheina, come on now?
Yeah, well, you know Iwas calling it feel like you need
a little support. I'm agreeing withyou know, just about everything you're saying,
this this idea that people have hadall season. Just throw yord on
at first base. You know,he's a big guy and can hit,

(28:42):
so obviously he can play first Justthrow little Braffito just you know, all
these people Mauricio Dubon, I meanlow Berfito hasn't played first base consistently since
freshman year of college. He mightbe able to hack it, but this
isn't a position that you just throwanybody at first base. It part of
a lot of plays and do youhave to know how to scoop You have

(29:02):
to know how far to play offthe bag to hold the runners on.
There's a lot of different intricacies aboutthe position that I think people are just
seeming to ignore. I mean,forgiveness sake, it's joking here. But
if it's so easy to play,Mauricio Dubon got nominated for a Gold Glove
at second, Play him at secondto get him in the lineup and throw
out two they First's that easy?Yeah exactly, I mean, I just

(29:26):
don't understand this. And then witha bray you you know, you put
him down the instructional league. Hehad to agree to that. He you
know, accepted it. He realizesthat he's not living up to what you
know, anybody expects. Did wejust think he was going to be there
all year, or did we thinkthat he was going to come back up?
You're going to put him in forone game and then cut your losses.
No, they're gonna give him achance, and if they're giving him

(29:48):
a few days off, I expectit's going to be probably three series at
least that they're giving him a solidchance to show if he can hack it
or not before they cut their losses. Yes, the money has to do
with it, But I don't understandwhat what did people think was gonna happen
here? I mean, they're gettingso upset with him being in the lineup.

(30:08):
And do you think we lost lastnight's game because he was in the
lineup? Singleton had an over.I think Tucker was an over Penya Myers
Diaz. You know, he wasn'tthe only one that was not looking good
at the plate. Yeah, Imean, there's just it's it's, you
know, a little bit ridiculous howfrustrated people are getting here because some of

(30:32):
this you just we should have expected. Yeah, all right, thanks a
lot, She and I appreciate yougetting in. You did her. You
did a fine job following up Mattressmackappreciate you getting in. Yeah, I
mean, I understand. And thisis the nature of fans, right,
everybody wanted Dusty Baker or fired inlast year, last couple of years,
even as he was winning games inthe World Series. I was sitting there

(30:56):
doing the postgame show at minute MayBark with Michael Connor, somebody complaining that
Rafael Montero was left in too long. Montero had gotten six outs, did
not give up a run. Like. It's somewhat the nature of fandom,
and I get it, and Ido feel like it's more toxic in the
last several years with the advent andproliferation of social media than it has been

(31:21):
before. But there's always been toxicbad fans, I mean, arrest his
soul. Howard Memorial called this stationand others for two decades with nothing but
negativity. It happens, but itjust feels like it's getting worse. And
it does feel like like some peopleact like they're owed something or they deserve
something. If anything else, weneed to be thinking the Astros two World

(31:45):
Series in the last ten years,zero prior to that in their history.
So yeah, it's a good problemto have people care about the team,
and the fan base is bigger thanit's ever been. But uh, you
have to not just latch yourself ontolife and death in these games in the
middle of May against the Seattle Mariners, and hopefully, as we know,

(32:08):
they can win tonight because winning,as we know, cures everything, and
well, a victory tonight against GeorgeKirby, who has just carved up the
Astros throughout his career would be verynice, so we can, at least
for a day spell some of thistoxicity that's been going on in this fan
base. But of course they dowin, it'll be because jose A Bray

(32:31):
was not in a lineup all right. Seven one three two one two five,
seven ninety is the phone number.It is an extended edition of the
night Cap with You until seven pointthirty. We had some blow ups on
the phone, so we're gonna goahead and run a couple of you guys
on the calls. We'll push backour good friend Conna de McGovern. He
gets even more time to prepare thegreatest headline segment of all time. We'll

(32:53):
get to that as we go along, and we'll get see you on the
phones at seven one three two onetwo five seven ninety. Oh, I
hope Matt Thomas is still listening.This says jam, please send uh you
know what. Actually he asked forthis earlier today, Matt Thomas was wondering

(33:15):
if you could send at sports MTyour favorite Imagine Dragon songs, any recommendations,
because he's always looking to explore newhorizons. Go ahead and send those
two at sportsm T all right,welcome back to the Nightcap program here on
Sports Talk seven to ninety. Becauseof that man I just mentioned, we're
going until seven to thirty working extraextra double overtime is Connor McGovern. He's

(33:38):
going to bring us some headlines atthe top oh the hour. Matt will
be on at seven thirty for theAstros on Deck Show eight forty. First
pitch your Stros taking on the SeattleMariners looking to salvage a split, needing
to beat George Kirby and Logan Gilbertin the next couple of days. Gonna
be fine, totally fine. Sevenone three two one two five seven ninety.

(34:00):
The phone number of number of youon hold, so let's keep it
rolling. If you are on,I promise I will get to you.
Starting with Carl on the northwest side. What's up, Carl, Hey guys,
and enjoy all the banter going on. Uh just kind of why I
Uh, Mattress Mac is awesome.I had a couple of years ago when
he had a heart attack. Hewas in the hospital. I was buying

(34:22):
something at his store, and theytransferred me to my phone to him on
his hospital bed after he just hada heart attack to to give me a
better deal on something that I wasbuying there. So I've always appreciated Mattress
Mack and what he does for thecommunity. Uh. Mainly called about the
Astros. Just looking no further atjust today's lineup and and and see,

(34:49):
you know how how the how themakeup of the team has changed. When
you got McCormick and dz hitting lastin the lineup, you've got Altuve leading
on Tucker, Jordan Paynya, BregmanMeyer Singleton. Now I still see that
Abrea has a slow bat, butyou know, going picking between him and

(35:09):
uh and uh uh Singleton is likethe punching the face or punching the balls.
Hmmm. I'm gonna go with theaad me too. But any case,
Uh, there's been a lot ofpositive things this year. I mean,
some guys that you would have neverexpected obviously, and Blanco and and

(35:30):
the the Aussie Trevor Scott and SethTaylor, Seth Martinez and all that.
But all the haters are going tobe coming out in force when their team
turns his things around and they go, how do these guys come back and
are in the playoff? Uh?Game again? But uh they they're the
overall the team is just too good, and they've had a bunch of underperformers

(35:52):
so far, and hopefully, uh, you know, we'll have to stop
saying, well, you know,just tip your cap to the picture,
because you know, those those Seattlepitchers give up runs. So maybe tonight's
a good start, and uh we'llsee how go. Yeah, all right,
thanks a lot, Carl, appreciateit. Yeah. Well, I
mean George Kirby is card with theAstros. He's also not having a year

(36:13):
so far that is up to parfrom previous seasons. So or I guess
he was a rookie two years agowhen the Astros faced him in the playoffs
and I don't remember what he thinkhe threw like seven scoreless or eight.
I think it was that eighteen inninggame right that Luis Garcia threw five innings.
George Kirby started that game and gavehim like seven eight scoreless anyways,
or maybe one run ball, itdoesn't matter. He's very good and he's

(36:37):
been very impressive. But yeah,he's gettable. He gives up runs.
He's got a four point three tothree ERA. And yeah, Jose oh
Bray, who's been a you know, as Chandler Rome said on the A
Team, a sore thum that sticksout like Martin Maldonado did last year when
other guys are not performing on yourideas, has been atrocious the last month
or so. Same thing for joseL Twovey. He was hitting three fifty.

(36:58):
Now he's down in two ninety five. He hasn't been hitting well.
Jordan Alvarez has just been in thiskind of malaise. He had a couple
of hits yesterday, but when's thelast time he had a home run?
And Alex Bregman some brief signs oflife week week and a half ago,
and then he's just been terrible since. And then even our guy Jake Myers,
steady handed Jake Myers, you canset your watch to him hitting three

(37:20):
hundred I'm being sarcastic because I'm presidentof his fan club. He was over
four, So yeah, A Bradywas over three, but so was Kyle
Tucker. Penya was over four,Jake Myers over four, Singleton Yanye over
three. I mean, they scoredtwo runs. So it's not just up
to jose Ah Bray. You tofirst of all of you, if your

(37:44):
organization is counting on jose A Bray, you to be the guy that is
gonna leverage you into wins. Hehad issues, but that's also not the
case for the Astros. They arelittered with all star talent on in this
lineup and also in the starting pitchingit in the bullpen. They're just underperforming.

(38:07):
That's why they're twenty four and thirtyone. That's why we're sitting here
talking about almost June, and they'refive and a half games back out of
first. Thankfully, the Mariners aren'tvery good either. Getting a couple of
wins the next two days would bea nice start to trying to claw back,
even though before this stretch, theselast two losses, that is,
they had one twelve out of seventeen. I don't know if you knew all

(38:28):
right, next holding the longest isBobby in moriial, what's up, Bobby.
Nice to hear from you. Oneof the things I guess the main
attribute of great hitters is their abilityto hit it all over the field.
I'm old enough to have watched TonyGwenn and Rod Carew and Wade Bogs,
and their ability to spray the ballover the field was the reasons why they

(38:51):
were three hundred hitters. It seemslike we have a lot of guys that
are pull happy, Bregman being oneof them, and I think if they
would acasionally at least try to hitthe ball the other way, I think
they would do a lot better.My question to you is you hear this
term all the time, pass thebaton. I've got some ideas of what

(39:12):
I think that means, but I'dlike to hear if you could give me
an example of a situation where wewould pass the baton. Yeah, I
mean just stringing together base runners,or say there's first and second and you're
at the bat and you get asack fly and that moves the runners over,
pass the baton to the next guy. Keep the train rolling right.
The more guys that come up tothe plate in any given any the more

(39:35):
opportunities you're going to have to scoreruns. So work a walk, hit
it the other way, like yousaid, get a BLUEPI single and excuse
me single, an infield single oranything that you can do, or the
occasional sacrifice fly, not necessarily justtrying to launch it over the fence.
But really, when the Astros offenseis at their best in this great run
that they've been on, it hasn'tjust all been the long ball. It's

(39:59):
been keeping the trainer rolling. Single, a walk, a double, that
type of stuff. Pass the baton, keep guys coming up the plate,
keep that train rolling. And Ithink that if if we did a better
job of that, we wouldn't bein the position that we are in right
now. And do you think thatthey're not being coached to do it or

(40:21):
because there clearly could be a lotbetter at it. That's yeah. I
mean, now these are all thankyou, Bobby, appreciate you getting in.
These are all professional hitters. Imean, Jordan Alvarez knows what to
do, know when he do whenhe comes up to the plate. Troy
Knicker and Alex Cintrom have been herea long time, while Jordan Alvarez been
one of the most feared player hitterson the planet. Kyle Tucker looks like
they're doing a pretty good job withthem. Josel Tuve started off hitting three

(40:43):
point fifty. I mean, butalso Jose al Tuve doesn't need to learn
about hitting from those guys. Heknows how to hit. He's up there
when he struggles, if you've seen, he swings at everything. But also
when he's really hot, he swingsat everything. That's just the Jose al
Tube experience. But you know,he's gotten by with one of the greatest
hand eye coordination, ball to batskills, bat to ball skills I've ever

(41:06):
ever seen. But when he goesthrough a funk like how twov is now,
he really goes through a funk andhopefully he can snap out of it
soon. Jose Bray, who's beenan MVP, he knows how to hit,
or at least he should. They'vedone a good job. You know,
it's funny we bring up the hittingcoaches, like what's going on the
Jordan Alvarez can't hit. Maybe weneed a new hitting coaches. Kyle Tucker's

(41:28):
hitting just fine. Jake Myers ishaving the best season of his career right
now at the plate, So canwe give some credit there? I don't
know. Same thing with the pitchingcoaches. Oh well, we had a
guy earlier today blaming blaming Troy Snicker, a hitting coach, for not getting
Hunter Brown. Right, Huntter Brownwas spectacular yesterday. And do they get

(41:52):
any credit for Renal Blanco having thegreatest season of his career? And yeah,
I got busted for sticky stuck stuff, but he was fantastic against the
A's. So it's about these guyswho are established major leaguers. Oh yeah,
Jeremy Penia, Troy Sticker and alexIn Trones would be doing a good
job with Jerrey Pina. So it'smix and match. And also, and

(42:14):
I'm consistent, I'm not, I'mjust joking when I'm giving all the credit
to the hitting coaches. It's aboutthe players as well. You can only
do so much to an extent.And these coaches, both on both sides,
pitching and hitting coaches, were herewhen the Astros won the World Series
in twenty twenty two, so Ithink there is some level of competency there.

(42:36):
Uh seven one three, five seven, And let's get Paul and Ireland
real quick ahead of the top ofthe air. What's up, Paul?
Hey man? What the names?Senas? Is the best call the week
right there at Racker. Hope youdidn't come back hurt and too bad from
Vegas? You all right? Uh? My throat is a little sore,
I think from the dry Vegas air. But oh yeah, I'm old enough
to know that I need to schedulea recovery day. So it came back

(42:59):
Saturday, and I didn't really havea full day of work till Tuesday.
I was talking financially, Oh,financially, I lost a couple hundred bucks.
I miscounted. I thought I thoughtI'd won a couple hundred, but
then I miscounted a withdrawal from theATM. But you know, hey,
you got to listen to a song. Buck Owen's the Nugget Lament talk a

(43:20):
better trip to a Golden Nuggets GoogleMachione. All right, okay, now
I'm sorry to break up the Astrostalk. Look, I mean astros are
going to be what they are,huh. A couple of years ago the
Rockets had a couple of five guysthat were like eighteen or nineteen. How
have they developed? Are they stillwhat are they doing good? What's going

(43:40):
on there? It's a mixed bag, Thank you, Paul. Let's see
Tarry eastenwrs hurt all last year,albrnshing Gun developed well and then got hurt.
Jalen Green developed well for about amonth as he was like threatening for
a Conference Player of the month,and then eh Men Thompson's a work in
progress. I think Jabari Smith Juniorhas been improving, but nobody's developed into

(44:00):
a superstar. And that's what youneed to contend. Look at the teams
left in the NBA playoffs while countingthe Pacers as far as the final four
teams are really anybody almost that madethe playoffs has more star power than the
Houston Rockets do. Look at donteteKyrie Irving. Rockets can't compete with that,
Karl Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards,and Rudy Gobert Defensive Player of the

(44:25):
Year for whatever you want to talkabout the level of his play. Dude's
a four time Defensive Player of theYear. He's pretty good. Rockets don't
have anybody like that. And JasonTatum, Jaylen Brown, Chris hous Frozingis,
etcetera. For the Celtics Tyrese Haliburtand Miles Turner. You get a
lot of talented players, then yougot a shot. Right now. They
have guys who are, as wesaid even earlier today on the Matt Thomas

(44:50):
Show, who are side dishes.But you need an entree if not too,
to compete for a championship in thisera of basketball. Seven one three
y the phone number thirty minutes togo here on the night cap ahead of
the Astros on deck show of MattThomas coming up after we'll come back with
some headlines after this top of thehour break the word he is done.

(45:15):
Now kick back, pop a topand catch up with your Houston team.
Right cap, right cap. Thisis the night's cap with Ross Vieil.
Right cap, right cap, rightcap. Sure seven o four pm here

(45:38):
on Sports Talk seven ninety hour ortwo kind of our number one point five
is what it's going to be ofthe nightcap here on Sports Talk seven ninety
And that wonderful music in the backgroundmeans as maybe you know, maybe you
don't, it's time for some headlineswith fill in the blank of who's producing
the show today. It is ConnorMcGough for the first time ever. Uh.

(46:00):
First of all, Connor, howare you doing? What time did
you get up here today? Well, I got to the studios. I
got to our building in around eightthirty because I went to the gym.
Okay, nice? So, andthen I got up here. What was
it leg day? Or are yougetting some cardio in? It was leg
days? Okay? Ooh, whichI hate. Oh you had to stay
here long on leg day? Yeah, that's rough. That's okay, that's

(46:22):
all right, you're gonna make itokay. So you went to the gym.
You've been here since eight thirty.It is seven oh five. How
you feeling? I'm okay. Youknow, my eyes are burned a little
bit looking at these computer screens allday. Yeah. You know what you
might want to get, like somekind of spectacle. Your back's gonna be
all jacked up in your eyes.Good luck with all that anyway. It's
what all the top sports news headlinesof the day. Well, the first

(46:42):
of all, we'll keep it local. So yesterday, the Houston Texans signed
a wide receiver Nico Collins to athree year, seventy two point seventy five
million dollar contract extension that includes fiftytwo million dollars guaranteed and a maximum value
of seventy five million dollars. Yes, I did, of course, we
talked about that yesterday. But Ialso saw, according to Pro Football Focus,

(47:04):
our good friend Mike Florio, whoby the way, that he didn't
credit some guy Audio and when gotcompared to aggregators, He's like, hey,
I'm not one of those aggregators thatlike, brother, your whole idea,
your whole existence is aggregating. Butanyways, Mike Florio got the contract.
Apparently it's only like thirty two millionfully guaranteed because there will be a

(47:25):
roster bonus on the first day ofnext year's league year, and then after
that another ten million dollars fully guaranteedon the fifth day, so twenty of
that. I don't think it's scinpy. I mean, it's gonna end up
being guaranteed unless Nico Collins' is justsome kind of disaster or decides to quit
football and walk the earth or somethinglike that. But I'm overall, I'm

(47:47):
on board with it. Jamar Chaseis probably gonna get paid. He's holding
out justin Jefferson's probably gonna get paid. That's gonna really reset the wide receiver
market. I imagine they're gonna wantmore than I'm on Ross Saint Brown.
I'm not saying that they're better,but whoever gets paid next generally likes to
get more money than the guy thatwas paid before. So you're talking about
thirty thirty two to thirty five whatevermillion dollars a year for those guys,

(48:09):
twenty four million dollars for Nico Collinswith the production that he's given and banking
on or betting on that he isgoing to be able to keep up this
production, which I think he willoverall happy with the deal from the Houston,
Texas all right, So moving onto the next story. You've got
criminal charges against Scotty Scheffler have beendismissed, ending a legal saga that began

(48:31):
with images of the world's top golferbeing arrested in a handcuffed in Louisville during
the PGA Championship. Oh man,I mean, was this ever going to
go any other way? I alsosaw that they had to sign some kind
of agreement that neither of them wouldseek any further legal recourse or something like
that, Like Scotty Scheffler can't sueLouisville PD because of I don't know false

(48:54):
arrest or I don't even know whatthe charger would be because I'm not a
lawyer. So that is good.And then it's just hilarious that Scotty Scheffler
and this report, this police officerthat reported that he was dragged twenty to
thirty feet and ruined his eighty dollarspants and had wrist injuries and bruises and

(49:17):
all this type of stuff, justwriting his own fan fiction on the police
report. And then of course,we as the general public in America in
the world, jump to all ofour own conclusions before any of the facts
come out or video or anything else. Just wait, and it looks like
Scotty Scheffler was not in the wrong. Charges dismissed. And really, I

(49:40):
mean, I'm gonna be honest,that police officer shouldn't be working anymore.
They got you on tape lying youshouldn't have a job, and I know
people make mistakes and all that typeof stuff, but you entrust police officers
to serve and protect, not lieon the reports when they have you on
video. Anyways, I digress.What else you got Connor USC freshman guard

(50:04):
and son of NBA star Lebron James, Bronni James. I like how you
led with USC freshman guard to BrinniJames to remain in the twenty twenty four
NBA Draft and four go his remainingcollegiate eligibility. According to Clutch Sports CEO
Rich Pole, he talked about earlier. I'm a little bit surprised about this,
and I'm also gonna be honest,I'm a little bit worried. If
do you remember that I made thebet with Matt Thomas about Bronnie James and

(50:28):
he's gonna play with his son ifhe does end up getting drafted and Lebron
James is going to be a freeagent and all that type of stuff.
Yes, and then mac Matt clappback and said that he's going to be
a Laker or that Lebron's gonna staya Laker. Yeah, if Lebron stays
a Laker and Bronnie James does getdrafted, there technically I win the bet.
My bet, My part of thebet is that they're going to play
on the same team next year,even though it doesn't it sounds like Bronnie

(50:49):
James wants no part of that.Sounds like from interviews like he's not.
I don't want to form my ownidentity. I don't play my dad,
but Lebron James is the King,and Lebron James is with Rich Paul runs
Clutch Sports, who effectively run ina sense, the Lakers in the portions
of the NBA and certain organizations.So we'll see what happens. But also

(51:14):
by my fallback of that bet wasthat the bet was canceled if if,
if Bronnie James came back, becauseI thought, just from all the reports
that he has not really thought ofas a high level prospect. I thought
that he was going to to basicallyhear from the NBA types that you're not
really draftable right now and go backto school, which is not gonna happen.

(51:35):
He was in the transfer portal.I thought he was gonna end up
at a new school and get abig nil deal. But now it sounds
like he's gonna go to the NBA. Who do you think wins the bet
between myself and Matt Thomas Connor?Oh Man, your gut feeling, where
does does Bronnie James play with LebronJames next year? I'm gonna say,
no, I don't think that theLakers, whoever their later pick is,
that they're gonna they're gonna throw itdown Bron, I think. I don't.

(51:57):
I don't think they're gonna play together. Yeah, can they like m
I guess I would even have tolook at the Lakers draft and where they
are. I think eventually, rightbefore Lebron retires, it's gonna happen.
Yeah, but what if what ifBronni James gets drafted by I don't know,
the Charlotte Hornets and then they playhim in the G League the whole
time, and then they decide he'snot worthy of being played and then he
he has to go play overseas orsomething. Well, that's so there's a

(52:20):
lot of factors in play. Idon't know. There's a number of ways
this could play out. He alreadycame out and said that he's not signing
a two way contract. So hedid I believe, So I'll double check
down. I believe he said hewon't sign two way. What's he gonna
do go to Russia. He's gonnamake sure he's on an NBA roster,
I guess without every team that signshim. Huh. In interesting. Well,
I guess we'll see how this playsout. Right now, I would

(52:40):
make Matt Thomas in the favorite we'dmade a dessert. Bet, I'm gonna
have to owe him a dessert.It is terrible. This is very terrible.
I really thought that Lebron James wasgonna push uh and push for this.
But anyways, all right, anythingelse? What else is going on
in sports world or otherwise? SoUSC is a starting off their twenty four
twenty twenty four season playing LSU onSeptember first at a Legions aim in Las

(53:04):
Vegas. However, USC head coachLincoln Riley reportedly tried to act that game
for the primary reason that he didn'twant it. Why didn't you want it?
Why doesn't Lincoln Riley want to playLSU? Didn't get any reason?
Who's reporting this? According to MattHayes of Saturday Down Matt Hayes Saturday,
Matt Hazel Saturday. Nowl's off.That's pretty funny. Now, I know

(53:29):
there have been a lot there's alot of history of certain games getting acxed
and stuff like that. But Iguess Lincoln Riley thinks he's not gonna get
ready, is it gonna look badfor recruiting and it didn't. It come
out recently that they paid like thirtymillion dollars for the first year of Lincoln
Riley at USC. Yeah. Ithink the the financials don't have to come
out because they are a private institution, but it leaked out somehow through some

(53:52):
sort of tax documents. They paidthat dude thirty million dollars the first year
he was there. And I don'tknow how much he makes from there from
then on, but he's making thatmuch money and you're scared. You're scared
of LSU and you've been there thatlong and worked the transfer portal and all
that type of stuff in USC hasn'tbeen what it once was. But you're
Lincoln Riley and this is USC andyou're running scared of LSU. Come on,

(54:15):
now, that's weak sauce. That'svery disappointing. Lincoln Riley. I
guess it shouldn't be shocking, right. He ran away from the challenges that,
oh you to go and be atUSC. He ran away. He
was scared of the Texas Longhorns.Yeah, baby, running scared. Okay,
maybe that's not true, but whateverhe went, it was a money
grab. That's fine. I don'tbegrudge him for that, But is Lincoln

(54:37):
I are we into Lincoln Riley's overratedterritory? I think so he's made a
playoff, didn't he make the playoffsa couple of times? But things at
USC have not really been going hisway, So I think I think we
have to put him in overrated territory? Or do you have to win a
championship? I mean, that's sucha difficult threshold. Eleven and three is

(54:59):
first sea at USC. Then hehad the number one overall pick last year
and went eight and five won aHoliday Ball. Although Mac Brown thinks that's
a great all right, We're gonnatake a quick break here on the Nightcap
one segment to go. You wantto get in. You can talk about
anything that we mentioned. We alsobeen talking about, of course, your
good friend Joseah braw the astros atlarge, the pitcher injuries that we are

(55:21):
still waiting. We'll give you thelatest on that as well when we come
back. You can also get inon the phones. It's seven one three
two one two five seven ninety sevenone three two one two five seven ninety

(55:45):
Welcome Back. Final segment of theextended edition of the nightcap. This one
goes out to you, Matt Thomas, just for you. I'm out here
losing my voice for ninety extra minuteson the air, but that's okay.
Happy to be here. You wantto get in. You got a couple
of minutes left if you'd like.Two at seven to one, three to
one to two five seven ninety sevenone three two one two five seven ninety

(56:07):
did some headlines in the last segment, Connor, you had a clarification.
What was the It was a BronnieJames point or something like that. Yeah,
Rich Paul, which is the Jamesfamilies agent. Uh he said still
Bleacher report that Bronni will not signa two way contract coming out of the
draft. So I was just makingthat point clear. He will sign it.
So he's not gonna sign it,man, if it sounds like he's

(56:29):
just gonna go to the Lakers,right, like the Lakers are gonna want
Lebron James back, even though Imean, look, I love Lebron James.
I don't know. I don't thinkof him as the number one best
player of all time, but Ithink he's closer to the to Jordan than
others like to argue. Some liketo argue it's not close to me,
it's probably Jordan one A, butit's mega mega close. And then of

(56:52):
course Kareem Abdul Jabbar and I putin that conversation as well as a six
time MVP and six time champion.But anyways, I'm a Lebron James.
I root for Lebron James because Ithought he got a lot of undue hate
throughout his career. But he's goingto be forty years old and you're gonna
bow down to his demands of givinghim fifty plus million dollars and drafting his

(57:15):
son and mortgaging the future of yourfranchise to the James family. Man.
That seems like a lot of stomachfor somebody who's still I mean, I
think he was third team All NBA, but not playing defense anywhere to the
level of where he was in hisprime. Still a really good, impressive

(57:37):
offensive force, but not anywhere closeto what he once was offensively either crazy.
All right, Well, we'll seehow it plays out. I guess
one of us myself for Matt Thomasor no. Either way, he's entering
the draft, so one of uswill be owing the other some dessert.
Okay, Also, we've been talkingabout the Astros and the night Cap a

(58:00):
lot, as some of you calledin, and we had a good first
hour. They're even heard from Mattressmacam the Nightcap, which is a first
for me. But one of theconversations and points of discussion we've gotten to
a lot over the last couple ofweeks has been the Josea Bray you situation.
So I just want to give youguys a clip Chandler Rome earlier today
on the A team. He joinsthem every Wednesday, I believe at five

(58:24):
o'clock. You can find the fullconversation at Sports Talk seven ninety dot com,
but here is some of Chandler Romelaying out the situation as it pertains
to one jose A Bray. Youcan see what's happening. And you know,
both Joe Spotta and Dana Brown,two guys that did not ask for
this situation, that did not createthis situation. They have to be the

(58:46):
public faces of it. And theyhave to understand too that their quotes are
going to be read by by playersand by things like they're not going to
go on the record and just destroythis guy. I mean, it's been
it's been said before that he wasnot in a good space mentally when they
sent him to West Palm Beach fromtalking to him in sugar Land. When

(59:07):
when we got to talk to himthis weekend, it was it was obvious,
it was visceral, just how muchmore at ease he was, how
much happier he was. The numbersare what they are, but but there's
a lot more going on here thanjust you know, this is a guy
that's that's struggling. So they're inboth Joe's spot and Dana Brown are in
a tough spot here, and youknow they're going to keep playing him.

(59:30):
There is no public metric available,There is no nothing stats, wives no
advanced stats, no underlying metrics thatsupport the decision to keep playing him.
But it sounds like that's what's goingto happen. Yeah, And that's basically
where we are right now. AndChandler laying it out as eloquently as he
always does, writes great stuff forthe Athletic dot Com, And it's just

(59:53):
a situation where what do you expectJoe Spotted to say and what do you
expect Dana Brown to say? AsChandler says, like this is not a
situation they created. This is adecision that was made before a spot.
It was the manager. There wasa decision that was made before Dana Brown
was hired as the Astros general manager. And Jeff Bagwell for however strong his

(01:00:16):
role is in the organization. Hedoesn't have an official title, like except
for a consultant to the owner orwhatever his title is. That's it.
He doesn't have to speak to themedia. He's not obligated to speak to
the media. Same thing for JimCrane. Jim Crane doesn't speak a whole
lot to the media unless there's somesort of big announcement where he's firing his

(01:00:39):
manager and general manager after a scandalor making a big signing or something like
that. Otherwise you're not gonna hearfrom Jim Crane on Joseia Brety. You're
getting sent down and called back upand then being inserted in the lineup.
He's not gonna call a presser forthat. He's just not He's got other
stuff to get to and also hejust probably doesn't feel like he needs to
answer those questions. Very clear thatJim Crane and or Jeff Bagwell as part

(01:01:04):
of this organization are gonna give himevery opportunity, him being Joseah Bray you
to try and show some sort ofSime's of life. But I just and
I don't think it's gonna happen.But that's what it is. The situation
is what it is. He's gonnaplay. We all know why. So
I would encourage you don't get madat Joe Espada, don't really get mad
at Dana Brown. But Dana Browndid say earlier speaking of you'll hear from

(01:01:30):
him in the In the next showon the on Deck Show, as Matt
Thomas will play some of that conversationfrom earlier today with Sean Salisbury, Dana
Brown basically says, like it's insight as far as how long Joseah Bray
you the opportunity he is going toget. And I understand this feels like
the these mega important games you gottawin. It's a must win series for

(01:01:52):
the Astros. I'm sure I canfind somebody on Twitter who said that.
But it's not a must win seriesbecause there's over one hundred games left.
Would you like to win the series? Sure? Well, first of all,
you're not gonna do that now youlost first two games in the series.
And also I would argue they didnot lose the first two games of

(01:02:14):
the series because jose A Bray wasin the lineup. You got opras all
over the place, from Kyle Tuckerto well, I guess yesterday Jose al
two they got one hit and theday before I think the top of the
lineup first game of this series islike one for seventeen something like that.
And then top of the lineup wasn'tvery good either in the last game,

(01:02:35):
the entire lineup. You've scored tworuns in back to back games. Yeah,
would you have liked to have josebraw crushed three run shots in each
of those games. Sure, that'snot practical to have expected for him to
driven in that amount of runs intwo games. And while he uh,
he didn't have good at bats inthe last game, he did drive in

(01:02:57):
a run the first game. Soyou've only scored scored four runs. Let's
do a quick math, folks.You've only scored four runs in this series.
Jose A Brayh's driven in one ofthem. He's one out of nine,
which is what eleven percent, Andhe's driven in twenty five percent of
the runs. So at least bythat rudimentary math. He's been out performing
his expectation. It's been the entiretyof the lineup. We're focusing on Jose

(01:03:22):
A. Bray. You he's hittingeighth. We said this last year.
If you're losing because of your ninthhitter, that being Martin Maldonado. If
that, if that's the reason you'regetting blamed, then somebody else has been
screwing up. So you can't justblame Martin Aldonado. You can't just blame
Jose A. Bray You. AletmisDiaz has had a horrible month. Al

(01:03:43):
Twovey has been slumping. Jordan Alvarezbasically been slumping almost the entire season except
for the beginning. Alex Bregman don'teven get me started on him slumping.
And then Singleton has been hot er. But it's batting average down to two
twenty eight. So let's not Iact like if if Johnson Ingleton hitting two
twenty eight with an ops to sevenhundred and yes, I know both of
those numbers are about double of whatJose A. Bray is bringing to the

(01:04:08):
table. But if you were justin the line at the last two couple
of days that he would hit acouple of three run bombs and they would
have won the first two games.I don't think so team game and because
of the contract, we're gonna haveto endure a little bit more, JOSEA.
Bray, So just brace yourself,just settle down. There's no reason

(01:04:28):
to yell at anybody. We don'thave any I want to say and just
be like, hey, you don'thave any control over it anyways, So
I don't care. But we don'thave control over anything that happens on these
ball fields and NBA courts and gridirons. Yeah, we call and talk
about it and argue about it becauseit's fun. But I would just say
I would caution against taking it tooseriously as I think the way that I

(01:04:53):
would put it. But no,jose Bray, you in the lineup today.
So if they lose, I guesswe'll just and them not putting Mauricio
Dubon in the lineup today. Allright, That is going to do it
for the Nightcap program here on SportsTalk seven to ninety the extended ninety minute
edition. You're welcome, Matt Thomas. Thanks to all of you for listening

(01:05:15):
to the program. I truly doappreciate you. Thanks to Connum McGovern.
I was gonna call you Josh sebecause Josh is in there. Conna McGovern,
go get some sleep, Connor,get the hell out of here.
Thanks for producing the show, doinga great job as you always do.
I'll talk to you folks next tomorrowat noon. Is part of the Matt
Thomas Show. Right now, it'sthat man, Matt Thomas with the Astros

(01:05:35):
on a deck show here on SportsTalk seven ninety. Don't go Anywhere,