Astros Beat Rays In Opener, NBA Western Conference Tip-off Preview, Rockets Possible Offseason Moves

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Saulsbury.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Okay, let's do this.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Shawn Salisbury to usc Troup's longtime friend, Shawn Salisbury, Dan matthewscuse,
this is the Sean Salisbury show.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Orange batting gloves for Carrotine.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
The pitch and Victor hits us in the air pretty
well out to right center field, racing back on it
his Meisner and you.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Can't kiss that one. Good bye. Victor.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Carratini goes deep to right center and the Astros lead
one to nothing. Number three for Carrotini, and that is
hammer down the left field line. That's a fair ball.
It will bound all the way to the wall. Byer
scores easily. Smith tearing for second base and he's in
with an RBI double. Astros leader two to nothing, and

(00:55):
that's lifted in a shallow center field and that'll drop
in front Bash Smith around third. He scores chas McCormick
makes it three to nothing Astros as he picks up
his first RBI of the season.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
This was shot to ryfield, backing up on a capaero
onto the warning track now and it's gone up.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
It's the field home run for Jake Myers and the
Astros take.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
The lead back. Oh on the walls.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
He squares bunch it, pops it up and it is
caught by out two Bay. It was a safety squeeze
and al Tuove caught it playing in just to the
right of the mound, wound up on the ground. After
coming up with the baseball and the razor. Down to
their final out, Peter brings the hands together after getting

(01:41):
the pitch call from Carracini, So one one to roar
Beth and he pops it up shallow left side. Parade
is going back in the foul ground. Will he have
a play? He does, reaching over the rail by the camera. Well,
and that is the ballgame. The Houston Astros hold on
and defeat the Tampa Bay Raise four to three.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
And you're able to hold on it. You're able to do.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
Enough in the Astros win last night, as you just
heard Robert Ford tell you right there, and with that
we say away we go. Good morning here on the
Sean Salisbury Show Sports Talk seven ninety it's Dan Matthews
here with you, Ari Alexander KPRC two hanging out with
us this morning.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Here is Ari.

Speaker 4 (02:26):
Did you push that red button right there that turns
on the microphone.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Gosh, there you are. That's it, man, morning, how about it? Huh?

Speaker 4 (02:34):
You TV guys you usually have to stay up late,
and you're waking up early with us.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
Man, didn't even know six o'clock existed. Man, this is
get to the airport time.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
I was gonna say, this is you know, one of
those that Randy McAvoy, Hey, man, you know need you
to go to Cleveland, you know, follow the Texans up there.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
That's that's about my best Randy.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
The guy that usually sits in your chair in the afternoon,
Adam Clanton, he does a spot on Randy.

Speaker 5 (02:57):
Yeah, I'm not gonna do it right now, but I
can rival Adam impression.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
You've got a pretty good one. I've got a good one.

Speaker 6 (03:03):
You know.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
It's only six oh three, So I like our chances
of maybe being able to cope that all the show
is over. There we go, But are gonna be with
me tomorrow and also today? Obviously, I mean you're here
right now, so we know that's the case. But I
mean the Astros last night able to get the win.
I guess we can kind of start from the beginning

(03:24):
to the end here. Colton Gordon much improved this time,
around and runs into a little bit of trouble there
in the fourth and then the fifth, but able to
get through five and a third last night.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, he solid, works fast.

Speaker 5 (03:37):
He's a guy that not gonna walk a lot of people,
but he doesn't throw very hard. He's he's in ninety
one miles an hour, crafty left. He is how he's described,
what everyone describes him as, and he's a guy that
he's there to fill in, but he's also not bad.
So right now, where you have all these pictures injured,
Hayden Wisnski out for the year, with Tommy John surgery,
You're still waiting on Spencer Arraghetty to come back. You're

(03:59):
still seeing how far into a game, Lance mccullors Junior
can go. And you had all these these pitchers, all
this depth. Still don't know when Luis Garcia is coming back.
Still tracking Christian Xavier after the All Star break, JP
Franz potentially after the All Star break. If you can
come in and get a guy like Colton Gordon to
be solid, to be what he was last night five

(04:20):
and a third, you know, he gives up a couple
home runs. These are good major league hitters, but struck
out some guys didn't walk anyone. If he can keep
doing that, you stabilize that five spot. I like where
he's at right now because they have done a great
job of developing guys out of nowhere. He's a little
less than out of nowhere, like a JP Franz was
out of nowhere. Out of nowhere, Colton Gordon is a

(04:42):
bit of a guy. If he can keep doing what
he did last night, I think they've been good on
the pitching side. The bullpen has been incredible this year.
You have guys truly coming out of nowhere, which is
bullpens are known to do. And you can sustain winning
as long as the lineup can give you a little.
You don't have to be great. You're surviving without yard
On Alvarez. But if you can get five and a

(05:04):
third three runs out of a guy that probably shouldn't
even be in the big leagues this year because you
assumed you had all this depth, you're doing fine.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
Yeah, and you mentioned the bullpen and they were fantastic
again last night. You get in inning in a third
out of Brian King, He gives up that inherited run
but still scoreless to his ledger and then Brian a
bra you fantastic, and then Josh Hater. I mean twelve
times you've called on him in save situations this year,
twelve times he's answered.

Speaker 5 (05:29):
You come into this year knowing you're eight to nine
is locked down with two of the best relievers in
the game, even though they struggled a little more last
year than you would have expected. Especially you pay Hater
ninety five million, which present value the biggest closer contract
in all baseball. But you put this bullpend together with
the Steven Oker to the world, a guy that you
signed off the street, a veteran who was coming off
a bad year. Brian King, late round pick, absolutely came

(05:53):
out of nowhere, had a nice season last year, but
not a big enough sample size to be able to
rely on him. And you may be you were looking at,
is Taylor Scott gonna be your seventh inning guy this year?
He's not on the team anymore. He was just DFAD
and Brian King has stepped up. I mean, he's got
a one something era. Steven Okertz got a one something
era Caleb Ort now that he's back from injury, two

(06:14):
oh eight era. Dubin is off of injury, is pitched
nicely filling in. Gusto has been stronger in that long
relief role than he has been as a starter. And
suddenly you know that seven eight nine, you got King
a Bray, you hater, and you have some other guys
that can fit in there. And Forrest Whitley is not
too long from coming back, and even though he keeps

(06:35):
getting hurt, the guy does not give up runs at
the major league level. I know the sample size is tiny,
but the stuff is good. If he can ever stay healthy,
you do have a bit of length. And that bullpen
there so much so that coming into this year they
were relying on Miguel Castro to be a big piece
of their bullpen. They paid him one point five million
in the Majors. They never made the Majors. They just

(06:56):
traded him to the White Sox because they just flat
out don't need him.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah, I mean, they've been fantastic, and I mean, I
guess the part that has been a little less to
be desired is the middle of the lineup. And that
showed its head again last night, where you move jose
Al two bay to the three spot. Now, granted, just
like Chas McCormick, it did look like he got one
that had a chance to get out to left, but
that wind just knocks it down, goes right into the
left fielder's glove. He wears an OO for four last night,

(07:22):
Christian Walker, same deal, no shrikeouts I'll contact from him,
So I guess, I mean that's not nothing.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
And then Janer Diaz.

Speaker 4 (07:30):
Who, I mean, what is it with him in that
low and away slider man Like he just he cannot
lay off of that pitch right now.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
And you want him to learn eventually. He's a guy
as a catcher. He's sitting there seeing all that kind
of stuff coming from his pitchers, and it takes a while.
I mean, catchers develop later into their career. He's such
a free swinger and that helps you some of the
time and it hurts you some of the time. And
I'm not sure how much I like having him in
Altuve in the lineup closer to each other.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
You want to keep those guys are not going to
take pitches.

Speaker 5 (08:00):
You want to keep those guys as far away from
each other in the lineup as possible. But right now,
the way that they're built, Pain is looking really good
at the top of the lineup, and they have to
move up east sok Pretis because he's the guy that's
going to take pitches. I think Christian Walker is a
guy who you want to see take more pitches, who
you want to see walk more. But he's at a
point of the year where he's working out some of

(08:20):
the mechanical stuff and he hasn't had a good start
to the year. And it's shown in flashes. This is
not a Jose Bray situation. It is shown in flashes,
and you are missing yord On Alvarez even though he
wasn't playing well to start the year. You have the
benefit of the doubt there. You know, how many years
now has he been one of the most feared hitters
in baseball. That he'll find his as I was just

(08:40):
thinking about this morning, like we miss Dusty a little bit.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Water finds its level.

Speaker 5 (08:44):
It's one of those things that you don't think about
that you've heard Dusty say sixty times and then you're
brushing your teeth in your morning You're like, yeah, water
finds its level. So that's that's what's gonna happen with
jord On Alvarez. Eventually it should happen with al Tuo Bay.
You hope it happens with al Tuo Bay because he
is in the first of a five year extension. You
hope that the decline isn't now. He's just a guy

(09:05):
that you cannot be that close to the lineup to
or Diaz. I want to see a little bit of
those those different mixes, and I want to see Christian
Walker take some more pitches because I know it's in
there and you got it right now. They're moving east,
soak up to the two hole for a good reason.
His pain is that bats are quick. He's a guy
that likes to swing as well. He doesn't walk a lot,
even though he's been tremendous this year and the walk

(09:26):
rate is up. But there are some lineup construction things
they can do. But yeah, that middle, You're right, the
middle of the lineup is not as dangerous as it
could be. The good thing they're winning and half the
team is not hitting even close to what they can
and have done.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah, it's something that Dana Brown every single week he
joins us on Wednesday, is that he's been saying all
along is look, you know, the lineup still kind of
trying to catch up to what the pitching has given you,
and I mean that's the thing. You close that gap
just a little bit all of a sudden looking up
at the Mariners, and I know that you've been, you know,
neck and neck with the Rangers for right now. I
mean those two teams. You wonder if Seattle's going to

(10:03):
continue to hit this way. They've had some pitching injuries too.
Oh by the way too, I mean they're without a
couple of their key guys right now and they're able
to still pitch the way that they are. But then
the Rangers, I mean, aside from the starting rotation, I mean,
you're you're a Mets guy. You know the story of
Jacob de Grom quite a bit that, Yeah he looked
really good the other night, and yeah, he can.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Look really good.

Speaker 4 (10:25):
But just like people here complain about Lance mccullors, it's
been the same thing with the Graham during his career.

Speaker 5 (10:30):
Yeah, and you're the Rangers. You pay this guy one
hundred and eighty five million, and it's because of the upside.
The upside is the best pitcher in baseball, potentially the
highest peak of any pitcher, like that night when he's
facing Hunter Brown.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yes, is a Mets guy.

Speaker 5 (10:43):
I'm going back, and I'm watching twenty twenty one to
Grom Highlights, which is the most insane pitching anyone potentially
has ever seen. He's not that guy anymore. He's still
really good at ninety seven. He's still really good with
the slider. But I mean, you've wistful Gram at one
oh one with a ninety four mile an hour slider
and you just don't know when it breaks. There's a

(11:04):
reason he's ratcheted down this year. Jack Lder had a
nice start until the Astros were able to chase him.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
They have some guys, they have the lineup.

Speaker 5 (11:12):
I think the Rangers scare me more than the Mariners do,
because this is now what the third fourth year in
a row that they've had the pitching, and they don't
have the lineup, and the lineup is finally hitting. How
long can can it last? Cal Rawley has been incredible.
They did a great job extending him. Julio Rodriguez is
getting paid two hundred million. He's not hitting the way
that you would expect him to. Ever since his rookie year,

(11:34):
he hasn't been quite as good. Jorge Polanco, who the
Astros chased after this offseason and didn't offer him quite
enough money. He's been really good. But if you're the
Mariners and you're the Astros and you're looking at all, right,
here's the guys we have that we were relying on
the rest of the year to produce. And the Astros
are waiting on Jose Altuve, a future Hall of Famer,
and Jordan Alvarez, one of the best hitters in baseball.

(11:55):
Those are the guys you're lying to regress to better players.
And then you're the Mariners and you're relying on Randy
rose Arena, who has a massively wide range of outcomes.
You're relying on Jorge Polanco, who has been hurt and
is not as good as your on Alvarez to continue
what he's doing. And you're relying on Julio Rodriguez, who's
obviously a really good player. But now we're starting to
go to a point where this is the third year

(12:17):
of Julio Rodriguez being good but not quite what we
saw the rookie year. And to me, it just feels like,
from a trending standpoint, the Astros are in a better
place than the Mariners are.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Raine'er scaring me a little bit.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
The Mariners don't yeah, I mean, it's still a long
way to go as far as the season. I mean,
you know, you're not into Memorial Day yet. And I've
had numerous people that have been following baseball for years
tell me, you know, looking at the standings. They're like, no, don't,
don't do that yet. Don't. Don't even think about the
standings right now. They don't even matter because Memorial Day
is almost kind of what Christmas Day is to the NBA.

(12:52):
That that's when the season in earnest gets going. In
June and July, that's when kind of the pretenders and
contenders actually start to separate themselves a little bit.

Speaker 5 (13:01):
Yeah, and you're still figuring out what your lineup is.
You're still figuring out how much left field can Josel
Tube play? How much can you move him back into
second base? Is Brendan Rodgers going to be good enough
to play their long term? Do you need to find
someone else? Who else are you going to mix in?
What's going on with the rest of the outfield. Cam
Smith had a couple hits last night. He's been better.

(13:22):
Camp Smith is above league average as a hitter, and
he's been playing a really good right field and even
he's getting mixed in with Zach Dezenzo's had his good
stretches and Chaz never plays. And he came off the
bench and had had a decent game, got his first RBI.
It is May what was it twentieth today? And he
got his first RBI on May nineteenth. And it's not
for lack of playing. Well, he just doesn't play. They're

(13:45):
such a weirdly built team sometimes because right now they're
carrying says our salas are that all? It says, our
salas are But he hasn't had a bat. Couldn't you
find someone who's going to get in that bat? And
I get why he's there as the third catcher because
Kartine's been playing a lot and he's been really good, which,
by the way, shout out Dana Brown. I know he
gets a lot of criticism, sometimes it's deserved, and he

(14:07):
gets some praise sometimes it's deserved. One of these moments
where he gets praise and it's deserved. Nailed the Victor
Carrotini signing absolutely, Yeah, there's no doubt about that. I mean,
you know you're able to add him, and I mean
he's been a plus with the bat that I mean,
I think that's been the absolute added bonus you've been
able to get out of him. And I mean he's
been fantastic.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Last night.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
You win that game huge part because of him six seven, eight,
nine last night, accounting for six of the eleven hits
that you got. So while we've talked about the middle
of the order has had their struggles, those guys have
also been the ones that have kind of carried this
thing a little bit.

Speaker 5 (14:40):
You want to guess where the best hitter resides in
the Astros lineup?

Speaker 4 (14:45):
It is Jake Myers batting seventh last night. It is
the ninth spot in general. Ah about that, which is insane?
Why why is your ninth spot your best hitter.

Speaker 5 (14:55):
That's where, like in literal league, you put the kid
that plays right field, who's like growing quite as fast
as the rest of the kids in fourth grade and
is out there picking his nose and maybe carried his
juice box in the back pocket to right field and
it's spilling a little bit down his pants, and you
think that might be something else, but it's just the
apple juice.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
That's your best part of your lineup. This is such
a weird team sometimes.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
Dan, Yeah, there's no doubt about it, and hopefully you
can start to get to some of those other guys
going because I know the Astros could really use them,
no doubt about it. Again, Ari Alexander KPRC two hanging
out with me this morning in for Sean Tripoli is
still here and we'll continue the Astros conversation Sebon one
three two one two five seven ninety Again, that's SEB

(15:39):
one three two one two five seven to nine zero
Game one Western Conference Finals between OKC and Minnesota tonight
they're in OKC. Some potential Rockets news to get into
here today as well as so we're already getting in
the rumor season and the Rockets of course gonna be
in the center of all of those. But coming up next,

(16:01):
we finally got to hear from Jordon. But is it
necessarily the news that we wanted. We'll discuss that here.
It is the Sean Salisbury Show right here on your
home with the Astros and the Rockets.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
Change your Loofah Sponge monthly great and right now listen
to more Sean Salisbury.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
That's your job, man. Don't you get paid for him?

Speaker 1 (16:21):
A pro tip from Houston's official listen while scrubbing your butt.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
Morning Sports show Western Conference Finals. Tonight's in Okay see
between the Timberwolves and the thunder Some one three, two, one, two,
five seven ninety is the number to get in. And
just mentioned Jordon right there as the weekend that was
in Arlington. Yet four straight days of people going to
the PR staff and saying, hey, Jordon, you know you

(16:48):
think he'll talk, Oh, let's go ask him. No, I'm
not talking today, and then you know, the next day,
the next day, the next day after that. I mean
a little bit different than like what uh, you know,
Rory McElroy just did at the PGA Champion But that
was one and it was Gordy that was in your
seat yesterday. We were talking about this and I said,
that's not good. Like if he's I take it to

(17:09):
mean that a player that doesn't talk to the media
when they're injured, that they're doing it because one, they
don't really feel like they're part of the team at
the moment. But then it's also too if you're not
doing that, like you don't feel like you're close to
being able to come back, And that kind of flies
in the face of what we've been hearing. Ah, he's close,
he's feeling better every day, all these different things, and
then yesterday he talks and we find out, yeah, he's

(17:30):
been hitting off a te in the cage, and it's
like that's another that doesn't sound like he's close, Like
all right, we're getting close to this goes on about
another week, you're gonna have to send him out for
a rehab assignment because of him as much time as
he's messed.

Speaker 5 (17:43):
Yeah, I mean it's not surprising. This is what we
see with the Astros forever and ever and ever, that
there's not a whole lot of clarity on a number
of guys. And I don't think Jordon wants to talk
when he wakes up and the hand hurts every day,
and it's just like, look, I'm not coming back tomorrow,
so like what am I? Why am I talking? So
I don't know how close he is. We don't know
anything other than his hand hurts a little bit and

(18:05):
he's hitting off a tea. So it is frustrating and
they're waiting on this guy, and it's just there's never
gonna be a whole lot of clarities. Remember last year
with Kyle Tucker and the shin that wasn't broken, that
was broken, and I don't think his shin is broken.
I don't think his hand is broken. And we've seen
the soreness in the hands in jord On for a

(18:26):
number of years and he's a guy that sometimes can
have stuff like that happen, and yeah, that reaction does
tell me that he doesn't feel like it's coming today.
It doesn't feel like it's coming tomorrow. And you hope
that he gets back as soon as possible. But it's
one of those things where he's got a sore hand
from a muscle strain and he can only do as

(18:46):
much as he can do, and he wakes up every
day and if it doesn't feel better, it doesn't feel better,
and you know it's not helping him to have to
come every day and go. Yeah, hand still hurts, still
hitting off a tea, it's not fun. So, yeah, it's frustrating.
It's been frustrating with some of their injuries, and Jordon specifically,

(19:07):
who has the knee stuff, he's got the hands stuff.
He's Uh, there's a reason that his extension was what
it was because when he's on, he is one of
the three best hitters in baseball. But his body is
set up in a way where there are parts of
it that are not always going to be healthy, and

(19:28):
the hand is one of them, the knee is one
of them, and sometimes that kind of stuff just happens.
The malaise that he's been in at the beginning of
this year, that's not to be expected. But missing a
little bit of time because of something like this, I
think the Astros had that priced in.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (19:44):
So Jordon, as I mentioned, did speak with the media
yesterday and Julia Morale is passing this along on Twitter.
Says continues to get better hitting in the cage off
the tee. His right hand has been hurting him and
he was able to play through it for some time
until the inflammation forced him to stop. He also didn't
want it to be an excuse for any results. Pretty frustrated.

(20:04):
Did not think that it was going to take this
long for him to return.

Speaker 5 (20:07):
And that's where you're playing on it and you're just like,
all right, it'll be fine, I'll go away. Like today,
I went one for two with two walks. I didn't
swing the back quite as much, or I took it
easy in the cage today. I should wake up tomorrow
and it won't hurt or it's not going to be bad.
It's going to be kind of a dull ag and
then he wakes up the next morning and it hurts.

Speaker 4 (20:27):
And I mean that's the other part of it as well,
is that the fortunate, you know, situation you find yourself in.
Is what we talked about in the first segment. You're
two and a half games out of first you haven't
really hit that well your three games above five hundred.
I mean, credit to the pitching for doing what it has.
So where I'm going with this is that it seems
like the Astros and Jordon can be a little bit

(20:48):
more patient with this because this happens last year at
this time and we're talking about this exact same thing.
Then it's probably also a little bit of a two
way street there of he's trying to hurry it back
in the ass are kind of like, hey, how you
feeling the day You think you can give it a go?

Speaker 5 (21:03):
Yeah, you're in panic mode if this is last year.
Last year they were chasing and it's hurt them all
year because they're playing with so much energy from behind.
It's one hundred and sixty two game sport it's a
six month sport. You can take days off ish, right.
You couldn't do that when you're twelve and twenty four
and you're chasing wins and you're trying to just get
to a point where the fans aren't freaking out. When
you're where they are now a few games about five hundred,

(21:25):
like you're hanging out near the top of the division
with all the other teams. You can take a few
days because they're also not having losing streaks. They'll lose
a game here, they'll win a game there, but they're there,
they're right up there, and you can let yord On
sit for three, four or five days and see get
this guy back, right.

Speaker 4 (21:42):
Yeah, that's something the Astros are absolutely hoping to do.
And it is just kind of like a day by
day thing. And that's the thing too, is I mean
you brought it up where I mean the inherent kind
of distrusts that we have when it comes to situations
like this, where you know, hey, it's not structural, it's
not structural, it's not structural, and then all of a
sudden it's like, hey, guys, yeah, actually he's got this.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Like I'm not saying that's.

Speaker 4 (22:03):
The case right here, but it at least leads you
to say, Okay, what's the true story, like, like, what's
the full story here? Like what are we talking about
when it comes to his hand.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, they just.

Speaker 5 (22:14):
Really haven't done a good job of engendering trust in
what their injury diagnoses are pictures, especially where it's one
thing where this guy's gonna go and sit out and
we'll see what's going on and then bang Tommy John surgery.
Like the fans can take it, like just say that
his elbow's barking, there's a chance he's gonna need this,
And then if you're kind of leaning into the pessimistic

(22:36):
and then it turns out it's not bad and you
can put a Cortison shot in there and he's good,
like great, Like no one's gonna blame you for setting
the expectations low and then they turn out to be Okay,
they're gonna blame you when it's going the other way,
and it has gone the other way a lot of
the time.

Speaker 4 (22:51):
YEP, definitely has. And I mean we know the track
record when it comes to that. So I mean that's
kind of how we start to ask these types of
questions and trying to wait and see what's gonna happen
with yourd on. So yep, that's exactly it with him
right now. It's a wait and see and hopefully the
waiting is not too much longer when it comes to
him getting back into the Astros lineup again. Semon one

(23:12):
three two, one two five seven ninety the number two
jump aboard on the phone lines.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
The guy starting the night for the Astros, Brandon Walter.
I don't know much about him, but the good news
is we got mister Shugarland right here. This man knows
anything and everything when it comes to the Space Cowboys.
So we will talk about what to expect from tonight's
Astro starter. He's gonna go against Zach Lettel, who's three
and five with a four point three to one e

(23:38):
r as. So we continue the Astros talk here. It
is Sean Salisbury Show. Ari Alexander KPRC two in for
Sean right here Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
We're the Sean Salisbury Show. Continued thought about that this morning.

Speaker 4 (23:54):
You know, before we get back into the Astros conversation,
if you're the Nix and the Pacers, you're kind of like,
wait a minute, like cause the Knicks finished up on Friday,
when the Pacers finished up like Thursday or Wednesday last week,
so they're not gonna have played for like almost a
solid week at this point, Whereas like I'm sure Oka
See and Minnesota are looking at it like hey, hey,
whoa like wait a minute here, like you know, we

(24:17):
pretty much just finished up. Not Minnesota, but okay, see
where they just got a travel day or actually not
even a travel day, they stayed home.

Speaker 5 (24:23):
Yeah, the Nuggets fans were complaining about that back to
back seven game series is and almost no days off.
Well that's what you get for having a seven game series.
So I this is the schedule. You gotta deal with it.
It's the playoffs, man, So Pacers and Knicks is gonna
be fun. And then you are running into just superstars.
I think we're discounting Haliburton Brunson a little bit on

(24:44):
that side, but I mean Anthony Edwards's future face of
the league, Gil just Alexander so good.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
I mean this, this is the matchup.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
So I didn't have a chance to see it last night,
but I saw that Tyrese Haliburton was on Raw, and like,
was it Jalen Brunson or somebody that mentioned something about
yes involving WWE. So now like there there are they trying, like,
you know, Triple E to almost, you know, bring back
the old school Pacers Nicks here of let's create something here,
Let's have some storylines.

Speaker 7 (25:12):
Yeah, some storyline, yes, because now now now it matches
up with when they both appeared on WWE.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
Okay, well there you go.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
Went in doubt always enlists the talents of Triple H
and everybody over at WWE to get involved. And you
know that's uh, We've already got Knicks fans throwing trash
at people. They're trying to hit Brian Windhorst the other day.
I'm like, I'm like, what do you what are you
getting upset with Wendy about? I mean, I understand, you know,
he's a lebron Hank, but still, I mean, you know,

(25:41):
to Wendy's.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Credit, he handled that really well. That was hilarious.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
So the guys like, oh, we don't care in space
and Wendy thought it was funny. So that was Nicks
fans are a different breed man.

Speaker 4 (25:51):
Yeah, they're definitely showing it right now out in the streets,
accosting opposing fans, you know, just if you want to
show you hadn't been there while just act that way,
just just act, you know, act the way that Knicks
fans have been.

Speaker 5 (26:04):
They truly have not been there in a while. This
I the team that they put together, as I mean
just apparently how you win in the NBA is put
like nine Villanova guys on a team. You have the
Popes blessing now, and then you just hope that things
work out and then you get O g Nanobi and
suddenly like the Knicks are a series away from being

(26:24):
in the finals. This is a weird Eastern Conference Finals.
This is the Pacers, I know are back in that
in the Eastern Conference Finals. No one ever thinks about
the Pacers. But the Pacers are better than they've let on.
Then the NBA has really let on. They don't get
a lot of attention. Lakers get a lot of attention.
Lakers get too much attention. Right, Like, we watched this

(26:44):
whole season the same three four teams, even the Knicks
being in New York. I feel like by just the
you know, the national narrative, same six things that Kendrick
Perkins and them talk about the Knicks don't get that
much love. And there is no way the Acers ever
get talked about.

Speaker 4 (27:02):
If I'm not mistaken, Cam Whitmore is a Villanova guy, right,
Cam Whitmore is a Villanova, So maybe we need to
keep kimde One just gets four or five more.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
They all got to be friends.

Speaker 5 (27:10):
I don't think I can name random villanova guys on
the Cam Whitmore team because they're they're past their era.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
I was gonna say, maybe if you want to, you know,
have a reunion with Kyle Lowry, I mean, you know,
I mean he's he's a little on the back nine
of his career, but you know, there's probably gonna be
a couple of other guys out there that you can
get the Pope Leo blessings.

Speaker 8 (27:26):
You know.

Speaker 5 (27:26):
He's that point guard that was that was in college
for fourteen years, that was part of the Arizona FBI scandal.
That's like a very specific to me thing because I
worked in Tucson. But they had a kid at point guard.
He was part of that FBI scandal.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
And I don't think it was Gillespie, was it artid Acno, No,
it was the he went to Alabama too. He was
the kid who invented the jelly fam like a little
trick layup thing, huh, and ended up being all that good.
I think he ended up retiring from basketball, but he was.
He went to like nine schools because that's what college
basketball is now, especially, and he was initially part of

(28:00):
Arizona recruiting class that got the FBI involved. Yeah, I
mean it was pretty much them Will Wade, you know,
the wire taps. That's a strong ass, strong ass, that's it. Yeah,
well now you can give him out and he's not
getting in trouble for him.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
So that's who. I'm happy you've heard that name in years. Yeah, no,
no one has.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
That's always funny too, Like whenever you like you have
like random hey, I wonder like what these people are doing.
Like there was a website a couple of years ago
that did a good job of finding like where players
are now, and like, uh, it tracked down where Kevin
Pittsnagle was. Remember him from Western Cindy Right, Yeah, Yeah,
he's like a principal and like I think like athletic

(28:40):
director at a school or something like that. So that's
that's one of those like we had when I was
at Saint Thomas our basketball coach played at Notre Dames.
Name was Matt Gotch, big seven foot tall guy, and
somehow somebody got a hold of an Alan Iverson rookie
card from when he was at Georgetown dunking on him.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
That's great. And it was part a the senior prank.

Speaker 4 (29:01):
That they blew it up, putting in front of his
door to be able to get to his computer lab,
which he was a teacher of. And he had to
kind of like a football team going through like you know,
the the butcher paper to run onto the field. That's
what he pretty much had to do. He had to like,
you know, tear it down and then get in and
of course everybody's right there.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
God got dunked on.

Speaker 5 (29:19):
Yeah by Allen ivers said. If I was that, yeah,
if I was him, man, whatever.

Speaker 4 (29:23):
I was gonna say, at least I was in position
to get dunked on by Alan Iverson.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
What the hell were you ever able to do?

Speaker 5 (29:28):
Put up the pull up the clips, man, He's probably
dunking on people himself out there in the old schools.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Guy's Notre Dame in the Big East twenty thirty years ago.

Speaker 5 (29:35):
Probably yeah, back when Luke Herengodi and who's the other
the fake Luke Herengodi after him walking the earth? Oh god,
there was a second Luke or a second Luke Harra Godi.

Speaker 4 (29:47):
Notre Dame and Notre Notre Dames had plenty of guys
that you're just like, oh yeah, like those those guys
now are are the ones that like up in New
York City or like you know, Philly or somewhere like that.
Like you're out in La Fitness and it's like, who's
this guy like maybe balding a little bit and they're
able to cross somebody over step back on him, and
you're just like, man, this guy can hoop.

Speaker 5 (30:07):
Yeah, hey he played it. Notre Dame, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (30:12):
That's always like it's like it's like a guy like
Matt Bonner, Like if you were just dropped on the
planet and you saw Matt Bonner just walk out on
the courts, like you know, they're like one of the
gyms like playing you know, pick up at the met
or something like that, and you just be like, Okay,
I got this guy, like you know, he's a little pudgy,
you know, he probably doesn't have much and then he's
just spotting you up and you're just like, who is

(30:32):
this guy? It's like, hey, that's Matt Bonner. Matt Bonner
is like six or eleven. Well, I guess it'd be
hard to miss him a little bit. But I mean
it is funny though, Like you know where you go
to like some of these like pickup games, and you
got guys out there who are trying to like get
a ten day, and then you got other guys who
you know, they're like, oh man, this guy doesn't have game.
Oh they got game. They're good, they're going five percent.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
We I used to play pick up in college with
the guy who played it like Touson or whatever the
in Maryland, and he would just up from thirty five
feet and just bang in threes. And then you go
op and look at his stats and he averaged one
point three minutes a game. And the difference between guys
who are you know, what's the thing that Scalabrini said,
I'm closer to Lebron than you are to me. I've
seen Tony Allen make like twenty five threes in a

(31:15):
row in practice and warm ups and then not make
a three in a game. Like Dwight Howard could just
sit there and shoot threes for twenty minutes and not
miss Like they're these guys are ridiculous. You don't want
to get You don't want to get a pickup game
with Matt Bonner. If you have the opportunity in a
pick up game with Matt Bonner, don't.

Speaker 4 (31:32):
Yeah, it's uh. Brian Scalabrini rip NBA memes. They loved
Brian Scalabrini, Like they would show like where it was
garbage time him getting off the bench because now, I mean,
you know, nobody wears the full on like jumpsuit. I
don't even know if they have them in the NBA anymore,
but you always knew the guys the end of the
bench that we're wearing those. And then you know, the

(31:52):
guys who might have a chance to get in, they've
got you know, the the long sleeve top, but then
they've got the shorts on, so they're like, hey, I
got a somewhat stay ready. He he was a full
on jumpsuit guy like he was, you know, he he
had to still go to the table and do the
you know, ripping off the pants and you know, unzip
the jacket, throw it off really quick to check into
the game. Then you even had like the scores table,
people being like, hey, Brian, you're sure like you going in,

(32:16):
Yeah you got we got you taken on decent gutta yop,
all right, Like just relax, man, it's fine. You can
you can keep the you can keep the pants on.
Jordan Petro wants to say some things to you. I
remember that was another guy a buddy of mine was
like so convinced. He was like, I think that guy's
really better than you know. Then people are giving him
credit for him like I don't know. He usually usually

(32:37):
teams want to play guys that can help him win games,
and if this guy's not playing a ton you know,
it's like we would love to have seen Bobon get
on the floor more.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
But I mean there's a reason why Boban didn't play
very much. Yeah, I mean he Boban was fun though.

Speaker 5 (32:49):
That was I think he was a big part of
helping build some of the the the roster and Steven Adams.
You always needed like a big, goofy guy that could
kill you, but he's he's like a told giant.

Speaker 6 (33:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (33:00):
I think they had that toy like Boban was in
a John Wick movie, right, like Steven Adams. If if
we made a bracket of all the NBA players in
like a cage fight, Steven Adams is probably a one
seed for me.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
I was gonna say he'd be a good John Wick character.
I like maybe like as like one of those that
you think is gonna be a heavy but then he
ends up on Keanu Reeves's side. Yeah, right there, Like
I almost could kind of see that, Like, uh, what
was the the John Clad Jean Claude van Dam movie
that everybody uses and you have the really big guy
like they're like walking through a chinatown. It's used as

(33:37):
a as a gift all the time. I can't remember
what movie it was, But anyway, like that, that would
be something that Steven Adams would be Like, it'd be
like you know which shows up somewhere, Oh hey, there's
that guy with that tribal tattoo.

Speaker 5 (33:48):
Yeah, you need to put him in Ballerina two and
just have Steven Adams and uh Aquaman in there next
to each other, and which will be hilarious because I
guarantee Steven Adams is fourteen inches taller and Kyle drog
over there. But yeah, it's uh, he's one of those guys.
James Johnson, the guy I used to cover, you don't
want to mess with. They called him Bloodsport because he

(34:09):
is a like an MMA fighter, and I don't think
he's ever lost from what I remember correctly, but like
he was really cool to deal with, but like you
do not, you don't want to mess with James jo.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Zack Randolph another guy that is.

Speaker 5 (34:21):
I ran into Zach Randolph at Easter lunch a few
weeks ago. I was having lunch with my my wife,
my mother in law. This big dude walks in and
I covered Zach Randolph for several years in Memphis, and
I know what Zach Randolph looks like. And I see
this this big dude walk in. I go to my
wife and I go, that's ze Bo. She's like, what,

(34:43):
who is why? She's not a sports fan, So like,
that's Zach Randall explained to her the whole story or whatever.
So after a lunch I went over and chatted with
him a little bit. He lives here, He has a
house in the Houston area, splits his time between l
A and UH here in Houston, and I I could
not believe it. I'm like, how have I never seen you?
You have a house in Katie. Why have I never

(35:05):
run into you until until now? It's you know, I've
been here for six years. I've never had a single
ze Bo sighting until Easter Brunch the other day, and
it was wonderful to see Zach Randall. Absolutely one of
my favorite guys. Zach, if you're listening, because you do
live in the area and it is conceivable be out
and about more.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
We love you.

Speaker 4 (35:24):
I was gonna say, we got a spot here open
in the studio if you ever want to stop by. Yeah,
love to have you. He He definitely was one of
the good guys in the league. I remember I had
a chance to run into him during the lockout in
eleven and they did. I think it was a John
Lucas charity game that Derek Rose took part in a
few other guys right there at del Mar Field House,
and I remembered a buddy of mine who same deal

(35:47):
had worked in Uh actually I think it was in
Portland is where he knew Randolph and he was like, oh,
great guy, great guy, go talk to him, and sure
enough I did, and I was like, yeah, lived up,
lived up to the expectations. So that's awesome. So yeah,
you're always welcoming here, especially too. You know, once we
get back in the Rocket season, we want to talk
some talk, some hoops. We got a spot for you,

(36:07):
so please feel free, all right, Brandon Walter, what's the
dossier on this guy? Ari Alexander's got it crafty.

Speaker 5 (36:14):
Lefty again, So he doesn't throw very hard ninety one
mile an hour fastball. He's a sinker guy. So cutter
sinker the only stats you can find on him, really
because minor league baseball, and if they did this heavily,
I would make fun of people who looked at it.
There's not a lot of information if you're pitching in
the minor leagues, but there is a wealth of information

(36:35):
if you're in the majors. So the only time he's
pitching the big league twenty twenty three with the Red Sox,
so we don't have a huge sample size. But he
throws a cutter thirty one percent of the time, he
throws a sinker twenty six percent of the time, throws
a big lefty sweeper twenty two percent of the time,
and a change up sixteen percent of the time.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
So sinker sweeper guy. He's got a cutter.

Speaker 5 (36:54):
He throws a ton ninety one mile an hour, sinker
cutters at eighty seven, sweepers at eighty and he's got
the change up that I imagine he'll use a bunch
against right handers going away from them, so similar to
what we saw last night with Colton Gordon.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Sweeper doesn't throw that hard.

Speaker 5 (37:13):
But he uh, he's been really good in in PCL
like that is the hardest league to pitch in. He's
got a sub one whip. I think it's zero point seven.
He's got two two seventy ra. He's a guy who's
earned it. He's started and relieved. If you can get
four innings out of Brandon Walter, I think the Astros
are happy with this, this spot start.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
And the reason they're using.

Speaker 5 (37:34):
Him and not a aj Blue Baw Miguel Yule uh
is because the Rays are atrocious against left handers. Five
eighty oh ps, there're seven h five against righties, and
so who do you have in the system that's a
left hander. You got Brandon Walter, and you know that
he can give you three or four innings. So I

(37:55):
think if you can get four, three or four from
Brandon Waltter and you got bennett'son who's in there. They
can give you some time, Steven Okert, you can get
their six with those three lefts and make them play
against their weakness.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
I think you're good. There we go.

Speaker 4 (38:09):
We can talk a little bit more about this if
you want to get in on the Astros conversation seven
one three two one two five seven ninety against seven
one three, two one two five seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
He's Ari Alexander.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
He's in for Sean Salisbury, Dan Matthews, Tripley, Emanuel Elmore.
This is the Shawn Salisbury Show. Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
You're back, This is the Sean Salisbury Show.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Get back at it that you were talking about.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Guy.

Speaker 4 (38:34):
It's not gonna blow you away with the hard stuff.
He's gonna have to spot up. He's gonna have to,
you know, try to be able to rely on being
able to probably ground balls would be my guest here
as you know, a way that he is able to
be effective. But I mean we talked about it. You know,
no major league starting experience. I think you said nine
games in twenty three and I think I was reading

(38:54):
that too about him when he was with the Red
Sox all in relief. So he's a guy that has
both that experience, at least the starting experience in the
minor league level, but you know, having relieving experience here
at the major league level. But I mean, this is
kind of a pseudo bullpen game to night.

Speaker 5 (39:10):
Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't go with an opener and
then have maybe Walter is the bulk guy, but the
Rays have such stark splits, the horrendous sub six hundred
ops against lefties, that it's just all a huge strategy move.
Walter isn't necessarily the next guy in line the way
a Colton Gordon was, or the way that blue Ball
was when he came up for his one start. But

(39:31):
these guys can't hit lefties. They're sort of the astro.
The Astros have too many righties. The Rays have too
many lefties. They're horrible against left handed pitching. And so
you got a number. It's like Dusty's dream man, like
all these lefties in the bullpen, and then you're bringing
a guy to be your bulk guy as a lefty,
Like I was saying, Walter, give me Okret, gimme Suza,
get through like six innings of all left handers, and

(39:52):
Stimy those guys who can't hit lefties, and I think
you're in a good position to win this game.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yeah, no doubt about it.

Speaker 4 (39:58):
So the Astros again trying to make it three straight
wins tonight and also clinch a series with Hunter Brown
going tomorrow, so you like your chances of being able
to do that.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
And then you get.

Speaker 4 (40:09):
The Mariners for four games here taking on the White Sox.
They won last night, so you didn't gain any ground.
But again, like we said, don't start looking at the
at the standings until Monday. After Monday, then you can
start looking at them a little bit more. So that's
what we have. But we'll continue the Astros conversation because
a move was made when it comes to Jose Altuve,
but the initial results not quite there. We'll start seven

(40:32):
o'clock hour talking about that. Ari Alexander in for Sean
this morning. It is the Shawn Salisbury Show, Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
KD Houston ATVHD two Houston, an iHeart radio station, and
the Rocket Sports Talk seven ninety your home for your home.

Speaker 9 (40:53):
Teams from the Parsons that match next Studios Salsbury.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
Okay, let's do this, Sewn Salisbury, USC troupe, longtime friend
Shawn Salisbury, Dan Matthews. This is the Sewn Salsbury Show.

Speaker 4 (41:21):
They're gonna get back at it again this evening is
Brandon Walter gonna make his Astros debut going against Zach
Lttel Game one, Western Conference Finals, NBA Playoffs getting back
in action tonight. The Thunder and Timberwolves going to be
playing there in ok See to get things started.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
Did a little bit of NBA earlier.

Speaker 4 (41:43):
No surprise here is we're we're entering into the final
series in the existence of the NBA on TNT. And
guess who's joining the inside the NBA crew for the
Eastern Conference Finals.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
Draymond. Of course he is.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
Yeah, Ramon, He's so good though, Like he's a thing
I can't take from him. He's so good at that job.
Like I'm like, he's going to be really good at it.
And it's like I can already see it as clear
as day, Like we're gonna end up, you know, if
he catches on when his playing career is done with
NBC or with Prime or somebody like that, we'll end
up having him on here. And I guarantee you it's

(42:17):
gonna be man that was great like he was, he
was great to talk with.

Speaker 5 (42:21):
Yeah, he's one of those guys that I mean, he's
got the personality, but yeah, there you hate him as
a player. And what we saw in this series and
some of the times about the things with Draymond is
that he'll he'll sort of show off the flaws that
your team has. I think that he he did punk
Jalen Green a little bit. And obviously, naturally, you know,

(42:42):
Houston wants to defend their guy, but you gotta be
tougher against Draymond. And Draymond gets away with so much stuff.
But there there's a way to beat him. There are teams,
there are players that can beat the guy, that can
beat him at his own game. And Dylan Brooks came
pretty close. Like Dylan Brooks does a lot of the
same stuff, and he did. He was not far off

(43:03):
from out draymonding Draymond. But yeah, Draymond's you know, he
knows what he's doing. Which is funny is before he
was It's so crazy. We were talking about Tony Allen too,
like before he was who he was, Like, Draymond was
really good at Michigan State as like a scorer, as

(43:24):
a facilitator, and now he's this really specific role player,
is one of the best defenders over a course of
time in the NBA and does all these different things.
But the transition between guy's number one scorer on a
good college team to specific role player in the NBA
is like it's crazy to think about. You go back
and you watch a Draymond college ball. He's dropping like

(43:47):
eighteen a game. He's the best scorer, and now you're like,
don't shoot that Draymond. What he like his jump shot
looks so broken, And back in college, like that was
the guy and so crazy NBA is you could have
your ninth guy and like that dude was cold. Dropping
twenty points in college was like the guy you got

(44:07):
a guard. And then he gets out on an NBA
floor against you know, these six foot eight with a
seven ten wing span guys, and you're like, don't please,
don't shoot the ball. Like back at back of the
day at University at Georgia, like that was their their guy.
And now you're like, if you shoot this by Parlay
is cooked.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yeah, I mean it.

Speaker 4 (44:28):
It gets kind of to a point where I think
the Rockets kind of like goaded him into like feeling like, oh, hey,
I'm feeling it, I can start shooting it. And then
you started to see him and you were just kind
of like, Okay, let him keep shooting, like let like
let him, let him keep doing that, that that'll work
for us. And well, clearly it didn't work enough times
because you found yourself out early and they found themselves
moving on even without Steph Curry.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
But still that's their problem. They can deal with that.

Speaker 4 (44:52):
And I like where the Rockets are as opposed to
where they are as a team, and we'll talk about
that a little bit later on in the show. But
I did want to get into jose L two here
for a couple of minutes, as the month of May
has not been kind to two of one sixty four
no homers, no runs batted in in this month. And oh,
by the way, he did not have a very good series.

(45:13):
I remembered yesterday we were talking with Steve Sparks here
for his Monday visit. I mentioned two for his last
twenty two. Well, now I'll make it two for his
last twenty six because he wears an zero for four
last night batting in the three spot.

Speaker 5 (45:25):
Yeah, he's just not the same hitter this year. I
think some of that is adjusting to the new position.
And he's thirty five years old. I mean age catches
up to every single guy. But you look at the
difference in his numbers between last year and this year.
He's never a guy that really hit the ball necessarily
super hard. But we'll get at his Baseball Savant page.

(45:46):
He is bottom five percentile in x wOBA. I know
I'm gonna have to explain that. Expected to wait it
on bass average he is bottom five and expected batting average.
He is bottom ten and expected slugging. He is bottom
two in average ex of velocity, bottom sixteen in barrel percentage,
bottom ten and hard hit percentage, bottom one in sweet

(46:07):
spot launch angle percentage, bottom ten and bad speed, bottom
five and chase. But he's not whiffing or striking out,
so that's good. But he's just not making the type
of contact that he has. And everything about Josel tuob ever,
since he's changed what he was because he used to
be contact over power and then he turned into one
of the greatest power hitters in playoff history. He's got

(46:29):
so much leverage off of that front side with how
much strength he has in the bottom half of his
body and it's just not showing this year, and it's different,
and it hasn't been good. And you're in year one
of a five year extension where he's getting twenty five
million dollars a year obviously weighted different numbers. But he

(46:50):
he can't look like this. And jord On, before he
got hurt, he was not looking nearly like the player
that we all know him to be. And because Al
two has been so good for so long, you want
to give him the benefit of doubt. But right now
it is a little scary where you look at that
page and there's a whole lot of blue for a
guy that you're used to seeing a whole lot of red. Yeah,
I mean, and you mentioned the age, but also too,

(47:11):
I mean something else that kind of you know, crept
into my mind as you were talking there, which, by
the way, for ex wOBA and all of that, if
Ross Villareale was awake right now, Ross Villareal would be
doing backflips because Ross will throw that at the audience
quite a bit, and most of our audience I think
is pretty adept to everything you're talking about now, I mean,
especially you know, you follow baseball a little bit closer

(47:32):
you start to kind of dig into those things, like,
you know, winds above replacement. I've been you know, I've
been familiar with that term for over fifteen years now,
and I still have no idea what the hell it means,
Like how do you even calculate that?

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Like? What even is it the formula? I'm going to
pull the formula up? Is it quick?

Speaker 5 (47:49):
I don't know, I've never thought about it. I just
sort of look at it from a thousand foot view.

Speaker 4 (47:54):
But there is uh, it's almost like Pro Football focus,
Like how everybody, Oh, they're Pro Football Focus? Great is this?
I'm like, okay, that's cool, But what does that mean?
Like like what how are they grading these guys? Like
how like what what is what is their formula? What
is their rubric for it? Like that's that's kind of
like for me whenever I hear, oh, this guy was
a plus five war whatever, you know, just just throwing

(48:16):
out a number. But that that's the one for me
that whenever I hear that, I'm just kind of like, okay,
Like it's just I just I don't have a frame
of reference. I don't know, Yeah, this is so B war,
which is the baseball reference of war is uh P
runs minus A runs in parenthesized plus A runs minus
R runs.

Speaker 5 (48:36):
I don't know what any of that means. We have
there's a math formula here. I used to be good
at math until I stopped trying, so I don't I
don't necessarily understand.

Speaker 4 (48:47):
In algebra class, are they told us that we were
gonna have to use that the rest of our lives.
This is beyond algebra. This is like, this is calculus. Yeah,
I haven't had to use pim dos in years. That's
that's going way back there. But yeah, that's that's the
one that you know you're thinking about at the time,
you're just like, God, this is hard as hell. But
then it's like, yeah, hey, we're not going to use
some ancient Arabic form of math the rest of our lives.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
Who knew? Yeah this is I mean, you're using weighted
on bas average.

Speaker 5 (49:13):
But then there's a certain way to calculate the weighted
on bas average. The easiest way to think about this
basically from the hitting side is there are different park factors,
there are different pitching factors, and everything is weighted, and
so your different hits are weighted in a certain way
and So my favorite hitting stat is ops plus.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
All right, that is the easiest thing. League average is
one hundred.

Speaker 5 (49:36):
Whatever above a hundred you are is, however percentage better
than average you are, whatever below is, whatever percentage below
average you are. That one's the easiest one because war
calculates defense and all sorts of stuff, and guys can
be horrendous on defense and then their war is not
good and you're like, oh, it's he useful, Like well,
if he didn't play defense, he would just be crushing
it because he's a hitter. But OPS plus is the
easiest thing to calculate. If you are one hundred, you

(49:58):
are the league average hitter, and it's weighted, so it's
not like if Lee averages six ninety eight or seven hundred,
like everyone at seven hundred. If you play at a
tiny ballpark, it's gonna be weighed differently. So like ops
plus to me, is the simplest way to look at
like is this guy good hitter or not?

Speaker 10 (50:14):
Well?

Speaker 4 (50:14):
And speaking of the OPS plus, looking at Baseball Reference
here seventy nine. Yeah, he's a career one twenty seven.
So it just shows you how things are going right
now for Jose at the plates, but you know something
else to considers. Last night, you play him at second base,
and you've seen them play a little bit more second
base here in the recent going. I almost wonder, I

(50:35):
don't know if it's them punting on left field, because
I don't think they're gonna completely pun on left field,
especially once you get jord On back, because you want
to be able to have that option for him out there.
But you almost wonder if you're gonna start to see
a little bit more second base and DH out of
jose Al Twov For that very reason, I think that
he should play more second base, and I've been kind
of a proponent of it, and not necessarily because like, oh,

(50:57):
he shouldn't play left field or whatever. Part of the
reas in that he was playing left field is because
you didn't know who you had in the outfield going
into the season. Jake Myers was not hitting like he
is now. Chas McCormick was coming off the worst year
of his career. Camp Smith is a rookie who'd almost
never played the outfield. Zach Dezenzo is a rookie who's
barely played the outfield. Turns out those guys are all

(51:17):
sort of useful in their own way, and now you
can put jose Al tuo Bay at second base, and
Brendan Rodgers hasn't necessarily stepped up, and you like Dubond
in the utility role, and so you're going into the
season not knowing what you have for outfielders, and now
kind of clear it up and all of your guys
are sort of useful in some way, and you can
put jose Al two Bay back in second base because
you want to have Dezenzo and camp Smith and Jake

(51:39):
Myers in the lineup.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
Well.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
And then last night too, you mentioned it, even though
he gets picked off a couple of times, you got
Chas McCormick able to get a couple of hits for you.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
That was nice to see.

Speaker 4 (51:49):
So the Astros hoping that they can start to get
some more production out of some of the other guys
while you wait on jose Al tuo Va to hopefully
pick up that part of his game. All right, coming up,
If I do this, then don't do that. I'm gonna
leave it right there. We'll discuss. I'll make it all
make sense here. On the other side, it is a

(52:09):
Sean Salisbury show. Ari Alexander in for Sean Triple, Emmanuel Elmore,
Dan Matthews. Here hanging out with you six until ten
every single weekday morning right here, Sports Talk seven ninety.

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Speaker 1 (53:30):
Why isn't the rat race more racy?

Speaker 4 (53:33):
Re construction completely shutting down the Southwest Streetway bas anyway?

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Enjoy your time crawling through Houston Road construction with more shown.
Salisbury on Sports Talk seven ninety All right, Sean, what
are you hearing out there now? The Salsbury's takeout? Salsbury
takeout on the Shawn Salisbury Show.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
We do it this time every single morning here on
the Sean Salisbury Show Sports Talk seven ninety is the
Astros went at four to three last night over the Rays,
trying to clench a series tonight against them. Brandon Walter
gonna get the start Game one at Western Conference Finals
in the NBA in OK. See, the Timberwolves and Thunder
are gonna get things going there, all right, Texting we

(54:25):
all do it. I mean texting you this morning make
sure number one, that you were awake ready to go,
you know, cause like I said, you TV guys, you
work late, you do all those different types of things.
But you know, just wanted to make sure, like, hey,
you know you're gonna be here, good to go, and
you said, yeah, yeah, well I'm good. But the one
thing you didn't do, and I appreciate this very much,
is call back.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
That is the one for me.

Speaker 4 (54:48):
If I'm texting you and you call me, I'm screening you.
I'm not answering that call. It's not it is principal alone,
but it's just also too. You're breaking the number one
premise that I'm setting here is we're keeping the conversation.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
Short, we're getting right to the point, and there's no
need for you to call me back. I just texted you.

Speaker 4 (55:09):
Just pick the phone back up and instead of hitting
send on a call, it's send on a text back.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
That's all I need tell you. It depends depends on
the situation.

Speaker 4 (55:19):
I'm glad you said that because I understand you don't
want to, you know, write back the novel, do all
those different things, which equally is appreciated. Then the response
back in a text is hey, you know, too long
to text. You got a couple of minutes. When you
set that ground rule for me, then I'm good. Then

(55:40):
I'm like, yeah, okay, fine, you know, like I get it,
and I appreciate you doing that because you at least
have the presence of mind to know, like I'm gonna
be sitting here, You're gonna have the ellipses going for
quite some time. So it's like, you know, oh man,
either they're really scrutinizing this text or I'm going to
be just absolutely Facebook commented on right here. And that's
something that we all want to avoid.

Speaker 5 (56:02):
Depends because if I so I do this with league sources,
we'll put it that way. If I'm not getting the
information that I want off of a text, I'm calling
you okay, because I need to know right now.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
If I need to know something right now, I need
to know something right now.

Speaker 4 (56:16):
So I'm a big rule as an exception guy, and
that that absolutely I think we'd fall into the category
of exception because it's professional. You know, it's one of
those that you know that if you're able to have
the spoken word part of it, well then you know
there's a little bit less wiggle room right there.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
Yeah, But if it's like.

Speaker 4 (56:32):
Between friends like I there is there is one buddy
of mine that I have that is a repeat offender
of this, And I think now he probably does this
more just because he knows it annoys me. But it's
not only that he'll call me back like it was
once we were texting. And this is when I first
moved back. So this is a couple of years ago, August,

(56:53):
and you know, we hadn't caught up, and I was
driving home and I had a little bit of a
long drive. Once I saw his call came across, I'm
in the car car play. I'm like, yeah, sure, go ahead,
And they're like in the middle of like his daughter
was having like a softball tournament or something, and he's
at a convenience store getting stuff. And I finally got

(57:15):
to a point where I was like, hey, man, like,
can you just call me back like in a few
like I just I don't know, like distracted talking to
me is just more or less like be respectful of
my time. I'll be respectful of yours, like if you're
doing that, like you know, like we've had people who
call in before. Like one guy called in once was
getting like his coffee order, and I was like, hey,
do me a favorite, get your latte figured out, and

(57:36):
then give us a shot back.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
That's that's actually worse.

Speaker 5 (57:39):
I'll tell you I hate distracted talking, so I would
rather take the call when I'm trying to text. Then
you're on the phone and the guy's over there being like,
all right, I'll have two pumps a half calf with
the vanilla and the grande or whatever.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Yeah, don't do that.

Speaker 5 (57:55):
Or like when the TV's allowed, I call my grandma
and it's just like screaming Russian news, which by the way,
this is only an experience that I have, but I
can just hear in the background they're like, oh GI
meet a point in see one. I'm like, Grandma, why
is the volume said it's sixty Turn this down. Yeah,
that's the worst because you can't you're trying to talk,
you're trying to listen. You can't hear yourself think because

(58:17):
you're getting screamed at about the war in another language. Also,
call your grandmothers by the way, and call your mom's call. Yeah,
uh yeah, my mom doesn't do that. I don't hear
you know, Lifetime blaring in the background, but everything, you know,
it's it's obviously the older people, the hearing gets worse.
But yeah, every time I call my grandma, she got
to turn the TV down from eighty to twenty because

(58:38):
I'm just getting screamed at.

Speaker 4 (58:40):
This thing goes to eleven. That's that's pretty much. That's
probably a reference that that goes over your head a
little bit. Come all right, all right, they're a little
more credit than that.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
That's it. Look at you, man, there's a reason why
we have you sitting there. Yeah, there are a multitude
I contain multitudes.

Speaker 6 (58:55):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
I like it.

Speaker 4 (58:56):
But yes, I mean it is like you know, last night,
the reason why this conversation comes up is because somebody
who will remain nameless in this building last night. I
was asking them about one of the COMERX units we use,
which is if we do posts are pre and it's
one of those Like for me, I live up in

(59:16):
the Woodlands area, so if I can and there's one available,
I take one home. Well, this person was going to
need one for a remote coming up. So I texted
them last night and I said, hey, we've got another
one that's going to be out because we've got a
couple of guys that are going to be doing something.
Is it cool if because I'm supposed to do post

(59:37):
game to night, Adam and Adam are going to have
on deck coming your way.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
At five o'clock? Is it cool if I use the other.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
One and then just bring it back in the morning,
Just put it at your desk whatever it might be,
you know, would that work for you? They proceed the
call after that, and it's just like, why is there
really an explanation needed here? Like how about like yeah, hey,
that's cool, or now's going to go straight to the venue,
you know, can you maybe drop it off as soon
as you're finished your show any of the multitude of

(01:00:06):
ways that you could have possibly responded a call.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
I screened them.

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
Yeah, I mean listen, they're probably listening right now, and
God love you, and I didn't say any names, so
we're protecting the innocent. But yeah, I was like, I'm
watching the astros. I'm sure prepping. Like the text was
sent for a reason. If I wanted to have the conversation,
I would have just called.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
I'll give you that.

Speaker 5 (01:00:27):
If it's if this is if I don't want to
call and I get called, I'm not happy about it.
It's like, all right, this this could have been a text. Big,
this could have been a text.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Guy.

Speaker 4 (01:00:36):
It's it's the you know, the professional side of it too.
Of this meeting could have been an email. Yeah, this
this meeting could have been an email. In this case,
a text. Call could have been a text. A lot
of the times that call can be a text. Oh god, dude,
there's nothing worse than that. And it's and it's also
too where it's certain people, you know how they are

(01:00:56):
on the phone, Like there are some people who they're grand,
they're they're they're made, if you will, in terms of
the phone mafia, if it even exists, is that if
I do see their call come across, I'm like, they're
usually quick to the point ill I answer it sure,
because I mean, I'm not going to be in for
a five minute conversation. For a conversation, I could have

(01:01:17):
been thirty seconds. It's gonna be about thirty seconds and
we both go about our ways.

Speaker 5 (01:01:21):
Yeah, I'm a big yet to the point So there's
there's a phrase in Russian cut of watch it means
like quicker. So I'll drop that on some people who
do not speak the language, and then they're like, uh
huh yeah, like kind of what you get to the
point you have fifteen seconds? Who tell me what you
want or I'm going to get frustrated?

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
Yeah, I mean it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:39):
And it's I mean because I fall into it too,
where I'm easily distracted, you know, shocking, I know, but
that that can happen, and you know, I'll even catch
myself from like I'm droning im, I'm not getting there.
I mean, it happens a lot too with Like when
I first started doing radio hits, I was like, eh,
I need a shorten my answers, need need to be

(01:02:01):
better at this. But obviously, I mean, you know, you
can't text radio hits. I mean, that'd be an interesting
one right there. Oh hey, Dan just wrote us back.
You know the astros three through five, Yeah, they've they've
been struggling, you know, I mean, information that I'm sure
you probably could have deduced on your own. But the
moral of the story is more often than not, and
I'm a big again rules an exceptions guy. But the

(01:02:22):
rule is if you're texted, do not call back. But
if you do, then set the precedent of hey, a
little bit more on this.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
I'm just gonna call you. There you go, Yeah, I'm
calling you. Fair enough, Yeah, fair enough. I get it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:39):
So now that you know that, I'm guessing that probably
my texts are going to be received with calls. Now
come back just to just tovester the I'm not a
bit I'm not a big caller. Unless I need something
absolutely immediately, I'm fine to text. But like, if I
need to know that Brandon Walter is starting today, I
will call you. Okay, what's going on this year?

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
This is a guy like.

Speaker 5 (01:02:58):
But if it's an immediacy, if I need some of
the media, I'm calling you. If I'm not, which most
of the time texas fine.

Speaker 6 (01:03:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
It's funny too, because you know, when I was on
the production side of things, a guy I used to
work with was big on hey, call the guests, like
like called him and asked him to come on. I said,
first of all, if I have a relationship with them,
then I will. But if I don't, I'm not cold
calling someone. And then it's a like that I've never
told the Jim Nance story, have I Tripoli? So years

(01:03:26):
ago project that I was working on, we were supposed
to try to get a tribute video from Jim Nantz.

Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
So I got his number. It turns out it was
his personal number.

Speaker 4 (01:03:34):
He was incredibly nice about it, but it was one
of those that, like, my first big assignments in this industry,
and it was immediately met with you know, hey, mister Nance,
and I'm sure I'm probably nervous, I'm probably speaking fast,
doing all those different things. And he finally, in his
calm way with his voice, goes, hey, Dan, thanks for calling.
By the way, how did you get this number? And

(01:03:55):
I was like, oh god, I have pissed off Jim Nance.
He respond hello, friend, Yeah he might have, but again,
like I was just in like such like I almost
blacked out during the call. But I do remember that part.
But he couldn't have been nicer about it. Of all, right, hey,
like he understood, Yeah, like he got it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
This is a young kid calling like he doesn't know
any better. That's fine.

Speaker 4 (01:04:16):
But every time I see him after that, I go,
I'm not calling that personal line anymore. He goes, It's
much appreciated too. Yeah, I'm not a big fan, Like
I get how did you get this number? But I
always have the same response to it if if I
get that, which is like, I'm a reporter, how do
you think I got that number? I figured it out,
like I found a way, right, Like, I'm not gonna

(01:04:38):
tell you how come on, Yeah, I don't give away
my sources. I know that better than anybody.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Come on, Jim.

Speaker 4 (01:04:43):
Yeah, but uh no, it was it was a funny moment.
We ended up getting the video too, so it worked
out all the way around. And when when we were
able to get the video, I did not call the
personal line. So now you gotta just blow him up
with texts about just whatever. Man, you're watching white loads? Yeah,
how about that in the right just Jim Stones? Huh yeah, yeah,
maybe maybe he is a huge Jim Stones guy. Speaking

(01:05:06):
of Jim Nance, I think Sean's gonna be out near
him here pretty soon. Hopefully I'm not letting too much
out of the bag there, Sean, if you're listening, but
I think Sean's going to play pebble here pretty soon.

Speaker 5 (01:05:16):
Yeah, can you do the So if we did the
big TikTok trend, who's the most famous person in your
phone FaceTime them, would jim Nance be your guy.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Of all the ones that I have now, I mean,
I know that sound, I really do.

Speaker 4 (01:05:32):
She was saying, I just think about throwing it out there,
probably just you know, since like you know, that part happened,
and he's got a hell of a memory too, so
he'd probably remember that that happened. Yeah, I wouldn't try him,
but there are a couple of others that I would
maybe try. And I and I almost think like too,
like you have to and maybe we can carry this
over on the other side. I almost think you have

(01:05:53):
to play it off of oh my hey, I apologize,
I meant to call somebody else, I'm sorry, and then
hang up. But you know it's funny. Jordan Cornette, the
guy that's on Golf Channel now, he used to be
at ACC Network and he used to have this random
Russian lady who would FaceTime all the time because I
think she was trying to get in touch with like
her grandson or somebody else. And he just got to

(01:06:14):
the point where he said, I just answer him every
time he's like, and I try somewhat to have a conversation,
but you know, it was just like, hey, try number five,
I'm still not your grandson facetiming. Yeah, she'd FaceTime, but
she saw Jordan Cornett, I know, but I mean, true
to her persistence, she soon enough thought like, hey, this

(01:06:35):
will finally be whoever I'm trying to get in touch
with number and they're going to answer.

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
The face you're English in this situation.

Speaker 4 (01:06:42):
I don't think it was very good because like I
think like she would try to respond in Russian, and
of course, like he didn't speak Russian, so.

Speaker 5 (01:06:47):
If it was you, he'd be yeah, no FaceTime for
a random Russian lady, we'd be good. But yeah, so
she's just college facetimeing Jordan Cornett being like that us
with you, yeah, moy, you know, and then.

Speaker 4 (01:06:59):
He's just like Hi, Yeah, it's just like dost bidonia.
That's that's about. That's about it. That's that's all I know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
Yeah, I could have taught him some Russian phrases to
use with.

Speaker 4 (01:07:08):
Her next time you see him if he's here with
you know, golf channel, and be like, hey, you still
getting that random Russian lady facetiming you? Because every time,
like I would, I would see him or you know,
comment on you know, like a tweet or something like that.
With them, I'd be like, hey, say hi the Russian
lady shit, and uh it is obviously we got it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
HadAM Marina? Yeah, yeah, how how's she doing?

Speaker 7 (01:07:30):
You know?

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
Everything?

Speaker 6 (01:07:31):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Over there is the borsched good. You know I had
some good borsh last week. Okay, there you go. Yeah,
there you go, a little bit of Russian talk here
on the That's it. That's it.

Speaker 4 (01:07:42):
If you if if you did not have that on
your bingo card today, well then guess what you're in luck?
All right, So let's get back into the Astros conversation.
As uh, this guy starting to turn a corner. It's
nice to see. We'll talk about him here. It is
Sean Salisbury Show, Sports Talk seven ninety The Shawn Salisbury
Show continued.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Starting to come on as of late.

Speaker 4 (01:08:06):
It's been a nice change of pace for him last
four games that he has played. He's got a four
game hitting streak. He's hitting five of his last six games,
make that six of his last seven games. As he's
been getting things, going two for four on the first
game he played against the Rangers, one for one in

(01:08:27):
the next one and then one for four and then
a two for four last night, hitting three oh six
here in the month of May, and up in that
average here with his most recent string of play.

Speaker 5 (01:08:37):
So these are things that are good to see out
of cam Smith. Yeah, and he's been doing it quietly
like he was the storyline. The two storylines the Astros
had going into the season was jose Al two Bay
playing left field and whatever it is that Cam Smith does.
And he's kind of quieted down. We haven't heard a
whole lot of cam Smith hype. We haven't heard of
a lot of anger about Cam Smith, other than you know,
when he wasn't playing well, it was I send him

(01:08:59):
down to triple eight. He gets some more seasoning and whatever.
But he has been doing his job. As we talked
about his War zero point nine not bad. He's an
above replacement level players at twenty two year old rookie
who's had thirty two minor league games like this is
a guy that could be in college right now, and
he is playing at the big league level. He's barely

(01:09:20):
played any minor league ball. He's playing in totally new
position that he was a third baseman forever and ever
and ever, and he's a short stop growing up, and
then he moved to third base, and now he's playing
right field and barely has any idea what he's doing.
And he's been a positive right fielder, and he's hitting.
His range right now in right field is a plus
three outs above average, which is like excellent. He's playing

(01:09:41):
a good right field one oh five ops plus, so
he's five percent better than the league average. Is a hitter,
his walk rate eleven percent, which is seventy fourth percentile,
so he's amongst the better eyes in baseball. He's striking
out a little bit too much still, and he's not
quite barreling up the ball for a twenty two year

(01:10:01):
old rookie. And the way that he carries himself obviously
has been a really big positive in the clubhouse.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
He's doing his job.

Speaker 5 (01:10:08):
This is what you want when you trade one of
the best players in baseball for however many years of
team control. You got six on camp Smith, you got
Wesnsky for a few, you got Esak Brettis for three.
This is what you want out of camp Smith knowing
that year one of your six year control is an
above average hitter.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
And it's interesting too, I mean, you talked about his
past I mean, you know, profiling is being a shortstop.
Play him over at third base. Now you've got him
out in the right field. If you look at the
way that Dana Brown drafts, and of course you know
I had experience with it in Atlanta and the way
that he, you know, would put those draft classes together
with the Braves, it's all up the middle, and it's catchers,

(01:10:49):
it's pitchers, it's shortstops, it's center fielders. And people look
at it and say, well, you can't build an entire
minor league system of that. My response to them is like, hell,
you can't. Because a catcher, you can move them the
first base. You can maybe you know, make them into
a corner outfield, or same deal with a shortstop. You
can kick them over to third base, or maybe even
make them a second basement if you know, maybe the

(01:11:11):
size isn't quite there, or same deal out in the outfield.
So I mean, these are ways that you can take
athletic guys at most of those positions and you can
make them non athletic as opposed to you take a
first baseman pretty much you're pigeonhole to either playing them
at first, maybe they're at DH who knows.

Speaker 5 (01:11:28):
Maybe you can stick them out in left field. Look
at the Padres. How many shortstops do the Padres have? Right,
good point, Xander Bogart's shortstop can play some second Fernando
Tatist you and your shortstop, he plays the right field
Manny Machado shortstop plays third base. Jackson Merril shortstop plays
center field. Phenomenal center fielder.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
You can build. There's a reason.

Speaker 5 (01:11:49):
Shortstops or shortstops, right, they're the best player on your
little league team. There's a reason teams draft a million
shortstops then build their team around them. And Dana Brown's
big thing. You're right up the middle defense, shortstop, second basement,
center fielder. You draft enough shortstops, you put him somewhere.
Those guys can play. Like half the dudes in baseball
probably more played shortstop at some point, almost like all

(01:12:12):
the outfielders, like O'Neil cruises in the outfield right now,
shortstop growing up. But you just put your most athletic,
your best guy there at shortstop or center field. But
also like if you're in the outfield as a kid,
you're not getting any action. That's why you gotta have
the shortstop there and He's drafted a bunch of those
guys cam Smith High School shortstop, clearly not gonna be

(01:12:32):
a shortstop. Moved him to third base. Clearly he can
play left and right field, and he is a plus
three in range in right field. He barely has any
idea to play the position. The system works.

Speaker 4 (01:12:44):
Yeah, I mean Zach Decenzo, he falls into that category
at shortstop. Yeah, there you go, short stop Alex Bregman.
When he was here, you had a guy named Carlos
Correa there, and then you had a guy named Jeremy Pania.
So it said, okay, well, I think third base is
your spot, and then lo and behold a gold glover
over there. But one more quick thing that when we
had danall On a couple of weeks ago, he I

(01:13:04):
think was at eighty five at bats at the time,
and he said, one hundred and fifty is usually when
you feel like, all right, is this guy a stick
and stay or is there maybe a little bit of
fine tuning that's needed elsewhere? And he's had one hundred
and eleven right now on the season, and as I mentioned,
I mean the last few games, starting to raise that
average a little bit, starting to raise the ops all

(01:13:25):
of those things to help himself out.

Speaker 5 (01:13:27):
He's not far off. I mean, like to see a
little bit more pop. But he had his hardest hit
ball of the year last year on that RBI double
at one to twelve. He's got among and this is where,
like Facebook commenters get really mad about these type of things.
He's got among the best bat speeds in the league.
That was a big another dusty thing, right, Like, I
don't care about exit velocity. I care about exit hits. Well, no,

(01:13:49):
the predictive stuff matters, Like you can tell if a
guy is going to be good. You can flesh this
out later. He has among the best bat speeds in
the league, and if he didn't, And I've talked about
this with players before and they're like, who's leading the
league average elsa eyes, what's his bat speed worst in
the league. Well, yeah, that's a specific guy. But as
soon as he's the start not dropping, like that's a
bad thing. And if you're smoking the ball all the time,

(01:14:11):
eventually those will fall for hits. Cam Smith ninety second
percentile bat speed, seventy five velocity average on his bat speed.
That's like up in the Vlad Guerrero Pete Alonzo show. Hey,
like those guys, they hit the ball hard, and his
average exit velocity is eighty six, which is tenth worst percentile,
ninth percentile in the league. Something's gonna shift there. He

(01:14:35):
swings the ball his bat so hard, he has a
good eye. Eventually those will start falling, just like they
did yesterday.

Speaker 4 (01:14:40):
Well, I mean, you just would like to see a
few more jets on that aircraft carrier. I mean, that
was the one too. And it's funny when Dana said that,
and I remember I brought it up with somebody in
the Astros organization. They were like, that is a saying
in baseball like that, like they thought like that it
was more widely used. But you know, I've also said
that you're missing a golden merchandising opportunity right here, that
maybe if he starts hitting a few more home runs

(01:15:01):
at center field, store starts to have like kind of
like the aircraft carrier hats, you know, with the wings
on kind of stuff, fry hat.

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
Yeah, yeah, they can do that like a CAM. Yeah,
he's got to start.

Speaker 5 (01:15:12):
I think that Cam has pretty unlimited marketing opportunities and
potential to be the face of the franchise. For a
long time to come. Maybe Paynya is past the Alto days.
If you extend Payna as Altuve would like to happen.
Cam is from a personality standpoint, He's phenomenal and so
I think you do have some of that. But yeah,
I getting like the the aviators the top gun with

(01:15:35):
the hat for Cam as the aircraft carrier. I'd never
heard that. As much as you know, I deal with
baseball people, I love that. I love the aircraft carrier.
That's such a better nickname than sweet Pickle, which is
which is his nickname? Well, hey, you haven't lived until
you've heard Todd Kallis bring up that's the nickname.

Speaker 2 (01:15:53):
I remembered. There was an aftro line on here. Is
it true your nickname is sweet Pickle? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:15:59):
That is uh.

Speaker 6 (01:16:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:16:00):
If I'm Cam Smith and I'm choosing between sweet Pickle
and the aircraft Carrier, I think I'm going to the aircraft.

Speaker 6 (01:16:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:16:06):
I think that one's the one that wins too. seOne three, two,
one two five seven ninety. See a couple of you
up there. We'll get you involved in the conversation and
also to expand at least one more points on the
Camp Smith conversation here. If you want to get in
on that again, someone three two one two five, seven ninety.
As we're continuing roll along here on the Sean Salisbury Show.

(01:16:28):
Ari Alexander in for Sean Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
This is the Sean Salisbury Show, sales show.

Speaker 6 (01:16:37):
That's good.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
Looked in doing whatever, and I was like super excited
about something. I forgot what it was. He was making
fun of me, and I was like, all right, come on.

Speaker 5 (01:16:47):
You're at a concert, you're at a game, you're at
something an entertainment event, and you see someone who you're
excited to talk, talk to, get a picture with or whatever, right, Like,
I know you want to play it cool, but like,
is there someone that you would, you know, get excited about.

(01:17:08):
And his answer was kind of like, look, I grew
up being a fan of the Houston teams, but I've
been around Hakim Olaijahan in a professional setting so much
now that it wears off. It's like he's probably the guy,
but like, you know, I've run into him eighty five
times and at that point it's like whatever, right, And
then silence for like ten minutes, and then I see

(01:17:29):
him pop up on the computer and take his headphone
off and he goes, you know, I've seen Russian concert
a few times. I think I'd be pretty excited if
I got to meet them, And I was like, there
we go, he's human, we got it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:39):
It's Rush.

Speaker 2 (01:17:40):
Rush is the thing. If you got to meet Gedty Lee.

Speaker 5 (01:17:43):
I don't know the guys in Rush, I'm gonna I
think it's I think it's only Getty. And then I
know Neil Pert's the drummer. I could not name anyone
else guy, right, I'm assuming I do.

Speaker 4 (01:17:54):
Yeah, Chester Cho probably Neil is the greatest drummer of
all time.

Speaker 2 (01:17:58):
Yeah, that must be it. There's no reason for me
to know anyone in Rush other than that's why.

Speaker 4 (01:18:03):
It ain't easy being cheesy. There you go, little family guy,
a little Rush. We got it all here on the
Sean Salisbury Show. He's our Alexandre's in for Sean. The
Astros winning last night four to three. Back in action
again later on this evening, as Brandon Walter going to
be starting tonight for the Astros, talked about him a

(01:18:25):
little bit earlier and he's gonna go against Zach Lettel.
But with the camp Smith conversation that we were having
told you about, like what Dana told us one hundred
and fifty at bats, that's pretty much when you know.
But I mean it's, you know, another thing that we've
noticed with him. And I don't know if I mentioned
this in the last segment. Forgive me if I did.
The strikeouts are going down. That's good to see. Yeah,

(01:18:47):
he's a guy that struggled a little bit with that,
and it's not rare. He's a rookie.

Speaker 5 (01:18:52):
He's barely played any minor league baseball. The stuff when
you get to this level is just insane. He's getting
better at it. And his strikeout rate it's twenty eight,
which is not great, but the league average is like
twenty four, so you gotta you know he's getting there.
He's getting closer to a spot where you can be
a little bit more comfortable with what you're seeing out

(01:19:13):
of him. The walk rate has always been phenomenal. Here
we go, league average is twenty two. He's at twenty eight.
But here's the other side of it. League average walk
rate is eight. He's at eleven. The eye is good.
He just gets gets a little too excited sometimes and
you get it. He's twenty two years old, man, and
he's out here five percent above league average. Is a
hitter as a rookie, is a twenty two year old

(01:19:34):
playing out of position. He just needs a little bit
more Tony Gwinn in them. Yeah, God, Tony Gwinn Code
of five Baseball is a great account most of the time.
But it feels like there's a mafia behind them, where
every three weeks they get a text They're like, if
you don't talk about Tony Gwynn and how great he
was it not striking out with two strikes, we're gonna
kill you family, right, Like it's Tony gwyn and Greg Maddox,

(01:19:58):
we're talking about the soft air. It seems like the
solution that all of these old school baseball fans for
making your kid a great player is there either a
Tony gwyn or at Greg Maddox tho is the only
two guys that matter. Oh, your kid throws hard, Maybe
he should tone it down a bit and spot it
up like Greg Maddox, Oh, your kid hits the ball hard, eye,
I just hit that five and a half holl like
Tony Gwinn Like, stop it.

Speaker 4 (01:20:20):
Yeah, it's it's the new school of baseball. Like you know,
you go out to a travel baseball tournament. Now and
you know where you used to see it, it was
just you know, your bat bag, your glove, everything. Now
you've got like every single like sliding mit and every
single like you know, piece of equipment that's out there.
And I mean that's one of those where you get
the old heads coming out. You know, Oh well I

(01:20:41):
just needed my bat and my glove at Tony Gwyn
never had a sliding mitt Tony Gwyn at three thirty eight.
Come on, notice the comparisons. We're not to Pete Rose
too much.

Speaker 5 (01:20:50):
Yeah, you know, well, so here I the era adjusted
stuff is great because Pete Rose is a career one
to eighteen ops plus. This is where I love ops plus.
It is adjusted for league, it is adjusted for ballpark,
It adjusted for era. The steroid era guys can have
an insane ops but their ops plus is a lower
because there's an averagleague average four eighty e ra A.

(01:21:12):
Pete Rose's ops plus career was one eighteen, which is
not that good. So all these guys are like, oh,
Pete Rose on their guy hits like for his everybody
got hits. In that era, the fatting average was higher.
It was different same with like Tony Gwinn. So Tony
Gwinn's career ops plus is the same as Alex Brigman
and JD Martinez. Everyone like Tony Gwinn's the greatest hitter

(01:21:32):
of Tony Gwinn is as good of a hitter as
Alex Bregman and JD. Martinez when it comes to ops plus,
he stop it. Stop trying to make every kid Tony
gwyn like, stop telling me like, oh, everyone struck out
against Greg Maddox except Tony gwyn Like, Tony gwyn was excellent.
He's clearly All of Famer and it's nothing personally against him.
I love Tony Gwynn growing up, but every baseball argument
ultimately devolves to Tony Gwynn and Greg Maddox.

Speaker 4 (01:21:56):
Yeah, I always love that. You know, people like almost
like thinking like it's just like a carbon copy. You
can replicate it, and it's just like well number one, no,
but it's also two to your point, like the game changes,
like it's it's it's nice to be able to do that,
but then it's also too Let's be honest, you look
like Tony gwyn You should probably start putting some balls
over the.

Speaker 5 (01:22:13):
Wall and stop telling every kid to be Greg Maddox
on the mound, Like I swear these people didn't watch
Greg Maddox or didn't understand what league averages were in
his time, because they're like, yeah, just you know, you
don't have to throw ninety nine, Just throw ninety one
in there. The league average was ninety one when Greg
Maddox was throwing ninety one. If you throw ninety one,
now that's a problem. That's called a dead zone fastball,

(01:22:36):
and you're gonna get lit up unless you're a lefty
with specific movement and Greg Maddox they're like, I just
spot it right at the corner, Like, you don't think
he had outlier movement on his two seam fastball. You
don't think Greg Maddox had better movement on his fastball
than every other guy that threw ninety one, Like yeah,
just got to every like twelve year old, like, oh,
you're not throwing strikes out there.

Speaker 2 (01:22:57):
Timmy, Just go other and be Greg maddicks.

Speaker 5 (01:22:59):
Oh you want me to go out and throw a
two seam fastball that has better movement than everyone else
in the history of baseball, All right, I'll just do that.

Speaker 4 (01:23:06):
Yeah, it's easier said than done for sure. But anyway,
we'll continue the Astros conversation here as we get into
the eight o'clock hour again, see a couple of you
in on the phone lines.

Speaker 2 (01:23:16):
Get you involved, you can join them.

Speaker 4 (01:23:17):
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety against
seven one three, two one two five seven nine zero.
Just how good is this Astros pitching?

Speaker 8 (01:23:25):
Ben?

Speaker 4 (01:23:26):
We can discuss that here as we continue on the
Sean Salisbury Show. Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 9 (01:23:32):
KB Houston ATVs E HD two Houston, an iHeartRadio station.

Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
The Astross, the Rockets, Rockets East befall your home for
your home teams. This is Sports Talk seven ninety from
the Parsons that match in next studios. Saul Old Berylsbury, Houston. Okay,

(01:23:57):
let's do this. Sean Salisbury, so USC True's longtime friend,
Shawn Salisbury, Dan matthewscuesus. This is the Sean sALS Very Show.

Speaker 4 (01:24:13):
They'll continue the series tonight their second game of that
Rhodes Roads series. Jordan Alvarez still not swinging without pain
in his right hand, taking swings off the tee in
the cage. Still kind of wait and see with that.
In NBA Playoffs game one Western Conference Finals and ok
see between the Timberwolves and the Thunder the Astros pitching,

(01:24:35):
how good it's been. We'll get into that conversation, but
you know, it's the Sewn Salisbury Show. You know, you
can always count on this guy. Brandon, Morning Brandon, how
you doing man?

Speaker 12 (01:24:45):
Good morning Dan.

Speaker 2 (01:24:48):
What's the good news?

Speaker 12 (01:24:50):
Our heads coming to Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:24:53):
Cool?

Speaker 2 (01:24:54):
You'll gonna go to the game.

Speaker 4 (01:24:56):
No, oh, okay, that's all good. You're still gonna watch
you know, the Astros. It's big series, Brandon after they
get home for the Mariners. Yep, cool, Well that game okay,
so so yeah, so you are gonna go check it out.
That's that's cool man, that's awesome. That's awesome. How about

(01:25:16):
those Astros last night?

Speaker 12 (01:25:18):
Hey, we scored first we see.

Speaker 4 (01:25:21):
There you go, Brandon. That that is something that they
haven't done a ton of at times this year. But
now when you play with the lead, it's much easier
to win with the lead as opposed to having the comeback,
which they've had to do quite a bit.

Speaker 12 (01:25:35):
Yeah, we did.

Speaker 2 (01:25:36):
There you go. What do you think of Colton Gordon?

Speaker 12 (01:25:41):
Hey, pitch very good?

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
Yes, he did for.

Speaker 4 (01:25:43):
Sure, Bullpen able to back him up too. So yeah,
you got you got the ant coming into town. I'm
gonna have a nice little weekend. So, you know, a
lot of Astros baseball in there, lots to be excited
about for you, Brandon.

Speaker 12 (01:25:56):
She hasn't seen the Astros TV network.

Speaker 4 (01:26:00):
Oh okay, so you're gonna get her to get to
know T. K. Blummer and Julia a little bit. Yeah, okay,
there you go. Well, you got three really good friends
there to be able to introduce her to. And I
think she's gonna become a fan afterwards, especially a Blumber
in Julia Anti Kah.

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (01:26:22):
Awesome, buddy. Well, hey, we'll catch up with you again soon.
Pull them through tonight. Make sure that you have Brandon
Walter pitch Well on MLB the show.

Speaker 12 (01:26:31):
Hey, I have a Hey Pad. You know I'm gonna
be playing it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:35):
I had a hunch, I had a guess.

Speaker 4 (01:26:38):
I figured, you know, you get the morning coffee in there,
and then you know, you fire up the sticks.

Speaker 12 (01:26:43):
Hey, singing a witch. I'm gonna be playing it here
in a little bit. I'm gonna get dressed playing it
here in right now.

Speaker 2 (01:26:51):
There you go. There you go, well, good playing man.

Speaker 12 (01:26:53):
Pull him through Okay, Hey, who's pitching tomorrow?

Speaker 2 (01:26:58):
Tomorrow's gonna be Hunter on.

Speaker 1 (01:27:02):
Against TODJ.

Speaker 2 (01:27:04):
Gibson.

Speaker 4 (01:27:05):
I believe is who's going for the Rays tomorrow? Tod
Bradley to Bradley, I'm sure, yeah that that would be.

Speaker 12 (01:27:15):
Yeah, Oh, got you back?

Speaker 6 (01:27:17):
There you go?

Speaker 2 (01:27:18):
There you go?

Speaker 6 (01:27:19):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:27:19):
Well, hey, appreciate it, Brandon. We'll catch up with you
again tomorrow.

Speaker 12 (01:27:22):
Okay, see you guys in the morning.

Speaker 1 (01:27:25):
Hey, Cole, how are you all?

Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
Le's going? I'm doing well, man, Thank you.

Speaker 12 (01:27:32):
For seven for Sean today.

Speaker 5 (01:27:36):
Appreciate it. I got a quick question on MLB The
Show for you. Do you feel like pitching is too
easy and hitting is too hard on the game?

Speaker 12 (01:27:46):
No, no, there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:27:48):
I think you're just a novice.

Speaker 12 (01:27:51):
I'm not like like leg players does there you go?

Speaker 2 (01:27:56):
Yeah, okay, I'm not very good at hitting on MLB
The Show. It's been a while since I played.

Speaker 1 (01:28:03):
Show last year.

Speaker 5 (01:28:05):
I haven't gotten this year's but the past two. I've
gotten only the past two years, and hitting is difficult
for me. But pitching is too easy, even at the
hardest level.

Speaker 12 (01:28:14):
Hey, if you get MLB The Show twenty five, hit
a home one for me, please, I'll do my best.

Speaker 2 (01:28:23):
There you go, you're the best Brandon my team. There
you go, there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:28:29):
We'll talk to you soon, all right, man, alright, all right,
there you go. Brandon always can count on Brandon. So yeah, Brandon,
Brandon basically just called you a novice right there. That's
that's pretty much what you just did. I'm sure I am.
I don't have that much time to get good at hitting.
But the pitching is way too easy.

Speaker 6 (01:28:44):
Man.

Speaker 5 (01:28:45):
You can put it up to the highest level, and
I'll use pitch sequencing that like you know, you find
out from maybe I'll ask guys like how you would
sequence whoever in real life, the game's really realistic. To
their credit at San Diego Studios who make MLB the show,
it's super realistic because if you sequence a guy like
you would in real life, it works in the game.

Speaker 4 (01:29:04):
I mean, like I see some of the videos because
I mean clearly I haven't played. I don't think the
last time I played an actual video game and had
a game system was when NCAA Football was around. The
first time I told myself that I was going to
go out by a system and buy that last year,
I didn't ended up doing either of those things. So

(01:29:25):
I think that if I played any of these games
right now, I'd have zero clue.

Speaker 5 (01:29:28):
Yeah, I used to be I remember I always I
thought I was good, Like when I was a kid
or whatever in college and I got the new NCA
Football game.

Speaker 4 (01:29:36):
And I got bored of it in like three weeks.
It was not It was not the same doesn't hit
the same now? Well, I mean it was also too.
It was always fun whenever you know, hey, I'm playing
as Johnny Manziel, even though it's not really Johnny Manziel
quarterback number two. Well it's like what was it was
supposed to be the sophomore season of Maurice Clarette at
Ohio State. He was like unstoppable, Like it was almost

(01:29:57):
kind of like Brian Finneran, like Michael Level like during
those years of Madden, Like if you played as those guys, it.

Speaker 5 (01:30:03):
Was a cheat code. Yeah, there are some of those
guys in that game, the fast quarterbacks. Always man you
play as like Pat White back in the day and
Pat White West Virginia, You're you're not gonna be beaten.

Speaker 4 (01:30:13):
See those are some names again too, Like we were
talking about Kevin Pittsnaggle earlier, like you know, like like
Steve Slayton's like a chef now.

Speaker 2 (01:30:21):
Really yeah, good for Steve Slayton. That's impressive.

Speaker 8 (01:30:24):
I know.

Speaker 2 (01:30:25):
Yeah I saw that and I was like, he's a chef.
That was awesome. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:30:29):
I was gonna say, like it's it's also too like
it's funny, like you remember Ron Gant like when he
played Yeah, so I mean it's one of those that
now he does morning TV like morning TV news like
Owen and Sophia with with y'all, like that's what he
does for a Fox there in Atlanta. And it's one
of those that I just remembered. Happened to be around
a friend of mine's younger son who was like ten,

(01:30:49):
and I go, do you know who that is? And
he goes the TV guy. I go, nope, he was
somebody else before he was a TV guy as your
dad not told you and he and then his dad goes, yeah,
I've told him, And then I'm like yeah, like it's
just like you see him in this life now and
you're kind of like, you know, because you will run
into this with with athletes, like once they're done, some
of them will be fine with like still living off

(01:31:10):
of it and like you know, the autographs everything else
that go with it. But then you'll have like another
subset that are like I'm leaving that life completely behind.
And you know, I'm not saying like that's the case
with Steve, but it'd be interesting to like run into
him like at you know, his restaurant or something like that,
and then be like, you know, hey, that dude, that
that guy when he used to carry the football.

Speaker 2 (01:31:30):
It's like, yeah, I'm a chef now, that's I love that.

Speaker 5 (01:31:33):
I love when when guys are like multi talented like that,
when they have hey, I'm really good at football, but
also I love to cook. Or Calvin Johnson designed space toilets.

Speaker 2 (01:31:43):
You remember that really?

Speaker 5 (01:31:44):
Yeah, he was like an engineering major and his one
of his projects in college at Georgia Tech was like
designing bathrooms for space travel, and so he's like brilliant.
And then he's also this obviously unbelievable Hall of Fame
wide receiver and he knows his way around to space toilet.

Speaker 4 (01:32:01):
There are certain guys and ladies too, that like they're
so good at everything that like you just tell me that,
and it's like that's not surprising.

Speaker 2 (01:32:09):
Yeah, Like that's one of them.

Speaker 4 (01:32:11):
I mean, you know Patrick Willis now he's like a big,
like Silicon Valley guy. And then the other one that
always cracks me up is offensive lineman. And you see
them years later and you're like, that's not an offensive lineman.
They're like, oh, no, he was, and it's like, dude,
he's like one hundred and fifty pounds, Like how could
he have been an offensive lineman?

Speaker 5 (01:32:29):
Those guys lose weight so quick they'll immediately get into
half marathons or whatever, right, and then they're like, yeah,
I'm what eighty five now?

Speaker 2 (01:32:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:32:36):
Well, I think like a big thing of that too,
is like if you were younger and you were a
bigger guy, and then like you got into working out
doing all of that, Like there's kind of like a
fear of like I don't want to look that way
ever again, so then like you just like go the
complete opposite direction of it. I should probably have that
trip in my brain. I should probably somewhere along the
lines have that because like I remember, we went and

(01:32:56):
watched my cousin run Boston a few years ago. My
mom goes, you know, you you could do this, And
I looked at my mom I said, this will never
happen for me. Yeah, I will not be running Boston.
I will not be running six miles. Yeah, I will
not be running a marathon. Mom, I love you, but
like that's not gonna happen. Maybe if there's like a
bike involved or something like that, then maybe I could
kind of meet you there. But you know, sounds awful

(01:33:17):
running for four hours. Well, it's just not only that,
it's just also too like the knee pain and like
all of that, and we're kind of getting into the weeds.

Speaker 2 (01:33:24):
But you get my point.

Speaker 4 (01:33:24):
Yeah, all right, let's get into a little bit of
rockets room mill that's out there because this guy it's
a possibility, would you do it? And what would it entail?
We'll talk about it here. It is a Sean Salisbury show,
Sports Talk seven ninety.

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Speaker 1 (01:35:05):
This is Ellen Green, Jalen Green for a.

Speaker 5 (01:35:11):
Very continues now a sports Talk seven ninety huh for
your Rockets.

Speaker 2 (01:35:17):
Broach a little bit of Rockets here.

Speaker 4 (01:35:19):
As you know, you've got the Bill Simmons podcast that
is still widely regarded out there, and on a recent
episode of it, Simmons suggested an idea that on the
surface makes a lot of sense. The Celtics and the
Rockets pull off a trade. You get Jalen Brown and
Drew Holiday from the Celtics for Fred van Vlietz who

(01:35:39):
obviously you'd have to work out the contract situation with him,
Jabari Smith, Junior, Tarry Easton and a number ten pick
in the draft.

Speaker 2 (01:35:48):
I don't hate it.

Speaker 5 (01:35:50):
I don't hate it because Drew Holliday is really good,
Jalen Brown is obviously can be your lead guys the
finals MVP and you're only losing. And I don't want
to discount Tari and Jabbariks. I really like especially Tari.
I think he's just such a perfect player for what
the league is right now because he does a little
bit of everything. But Tari's had some leg stuff the

(01:36:11):
past couple of years where he hasn't been healthy for
big chunks of the season and you can't necessarily always
to rely on him to be healthy, and his rehab
has taken a while. It's almost like an Astros rehab
for Tari Easton the past couple of years. And Jabbari
I like him, but I think that he's one of
the more tradable guys that they have. Obviously a men,

(01:36:33):
even though they said he's not untouchable, is untouchable Shngoon
I think should be untouchable except for a Yannis. Otherwise
everyone else to me is fair game, making Jabari fair game.
And if that's the deal where you not only get
Jalen Brown, you get Drew Hollidays an excellent defender, it's
a really good point guarden and from what I've heard of,

(01:36:55):
phenomenal locker room guy. They can fill that Fred van
Vliet leadership role with some of the younger guys. Those
two guys for Fred, I kind of like that. And
the number ten, like, what is the number ten pick
this year going to get you y Shepperd didn't even
play last year, so you're going to throw in another
guy to develop a few years down the line that

(01:37:16):
in twenty twenty eight your number ten pick that you
you know, maybe you took the Russian kid out of
Byu Demon or whoever, and you know, Malik out of
Duke or whatever, that drops to ten and he plays
two years from now. I don't think you need this
number ten pick this year.

Speaker 4 (01:37:30):
I think you can use that pick to get a
player that you were missing in this playoff series and
what they're missing as a scorer. Well, and that's one
of the biggest things, is a couple of things, you know,
just to kind of build off what you were saying
there is I think that there is going to be
a real kind of a deep breath before saying, okay, fine,
we'll do it with Jalen Green, because I think that

(01:37:52):
it's the opposite of James Harden here where you were
able to get hardened from OKC because they were like,
all right, we've still at the time, still got Katie,
still got Russ. Those are guys that were going to
count on. He's our sixth man off the bench, and
you don't feel like that you're gonna be able to
sign him to the money that you would like to
sign him to, So go ahead, get something for him
while you can trade him to Houston and you saw

(01:38:14):
him become the offensive scorer that he became. Obviously the
defense never really showed up. But I think that the
Rockets kind of look at it as we believe that
Jalen is close to becoming that guy and we don't
want it to be somewhere else. I get that sense
from them right now when it comes to him. My
problem with Jalen is the floor because some of the

(01:38:35):
guys that he's compared to. Devin Booker, for instance, is
one comparison that comes up a lot. And by year four,
like the Suns were still terrible with Devin Booker when
he was in his fourth year, but he wasn't going
out there and I know he had a lot of
scoring responsibilities, but at the same time, you can't discount
that Jalen is your leading scorer. He's the guy who
is going to and should take the most shots in

(01:38:56):
every game for the Rockets, and this is his fourth
year and he still has games where he just randomly
will have eight nine like, and he did it almost
the whole playoff series against the Warriors, and then he'll
have the thirty eight game where he tantalizes you and
you know that he's capable of this, and I just
don't like his floor. I don't like that he can

(01:39:19):
go out and go three for eight because by that time,
even though the sun sucked, Devin Booker was not going
out there and randomly dropping nine. A bad Devin Booker
game for a bad Son's team was like sixteen seventeen
and he'd go, you know, four for fourteen or whatever.
You just can't have single digits as you're as the
main guy, and Jalen did it a lot during the

(01:39:41):
regular season, and clearly they focused on stopping him in
that playoff series and it worked. And if you're the
guy who's everything twenty one a game leading the Rockets,
you cannot have You can do it once maybe in
a playoff series, but you can't go nine, eight eleven,
like come on, man. And that's the thing is I mean,
that's what the frustration lies with with Green is just

(01:40:03):
it's it's the drop off, because then you get the
thirty five forty point game and you're like, okay, Like
there's the guy, Like that's somebody that we can count on.
But then if you watch enough Rockets games, you're like, okay,
but that's short lived because in the following game, he's
going to go for about ten maybe.

Speaker 5 (01:40:18):
And that's the problem. You can't have that floor, like
you gotta be able to some a bad jail and
green game. If you're the leading scorer on the second
best team in the West, which is what they were
last year, your bad game has got to be fourteen
to fifteen points.

Speaker 2 (01:40:32):
It can't be eight. Well, and it's you know, of
all of the things.

Speaker 4 (01:40:35):
I mean, you know, when I was on with you
guys over there at Channel two, you know me Ross,
we did a segment with Randy just about him, a'm
and Thompson everybody else, and you guys played the cut
from from rafel Stone about you know, nobody's untouchable all
of those different types of things. I get that, But
then it's also to the line that everybody held on

(01:40:55):
to was if I were a betting man, I would
count on continuity with this team. And on the surface,
you hear that and you're just kind of like, dude,
did you not see what this team was offensively, because
you're not touching the number two seed in the West
next year with this team currently intact, they're not going
to take that jump forward and be able to be
just all of a sudden, a much improved offensive basketball team.

(01:41:16):
And where I'm going with this is when it comes
to if Boston comes to you with this, or if
who knows Milwaukee comes to you with Giannis or anybody else,
don't be desperate, but damn man, at least listen, at
least hear what they're throwing at you, because you might
get the Nico Johnson package thrown back at you where
they're asking for this guy, and you can go back

(01:41:37):
to your crew and be like, that's all they're asking for.

Speaker 2 (01:41:40):
Everybody in Unison is going to say, well, then do it.

Speaker 5 (01:41:43):
Yeah, you have enough young players that these picks are
tradable at this point, Like, especially if you don't get
rid of all these guys. Cam Whitmore is probably expendable
at this point. You got other you know, you got
other guys you can move. Read Shepherd. We still don't
know what reed Shepherd is. Read Shepherd could eat play
and you give him a chance, and you give him minutes,
or you can trade him because he was the number

(01:42:04):
three pick last year. Like this guy has trade value.
Cam Whitmore has trade value to someone. Jabari Smith and
Tarry Easton clearly have trade value. You can package some
of those guys, obviously not all of those guys, and
then you have all of these picks a pick you
don't really need this year. You have the son's picks
moving him forward. Like you got all this stuff that

(01:42:25):
you can trade for someone. I know Giannis is gonna
take an outrageous amount to get because he's freaking Yannis, right,
Kevin Durant. I don't think it's gonna take that much
to get this Jalen Brown trade. That's just like a
Bill Simmons fantasy or whatever kind of sounds good. And
so if that's what people are coming up with, yeah,
rafel Stone should be listening. And if they want to

(01:42:46):
run it back and that's the continuity and they add
a vet or whatever, then that's fine. But if it
doesn't work, I think you give the benefit of the
doubt of one more year. If you run it back
and it doesn't work next year and you get knocked out,
let's say even in the second round, So you win
playoff series and you have the same issues where the
spacing doesn't quite work with Shingoon all the time, Jalen
Green's floor is still not as good as it should be.

(01:43:09):
A mentom since obviously still growing is super young and
you can't really score because we know the defense of
the effort's gonna be there. Emi Udoka has done a
tremendous job to that end. But if you do it,
run it back and it happens again. Now you're in
a mode where you are desperate for that kind of trait.
Now everyone around the league knows that you need an alpha.
You don't have an alpha because right now they kind

(01:43:29):
of know that you need an alpha. But what if
Jalen Green turned on What if a mentom? So what
if you're still in that range where you can be
proactive about it and get it now when the price
isn't what it's gonna be. And what if you lose out?
What if someone else goes gets Yiannis and Yannis is
there for four years? Do you understand how good Yannis is,
like how much of an outlier player that guy is

(01:43:50):
and you have the opportunity to get him. This is
a once in a lifetime franchise player already won a championship.
Incredible at everything league MVP that you can get and
he's oh, he's aged, he's thirty, he's fine, he's in
great physical condition. And your windows four years anyways, you're
getting Yiannis with thirty one to thirty four good like
Giannies do not come along. It was an insane pick

(01:44:11):
by the Bucks to get some Greek kid who can pass,
and he turned into an MVP and an NBA Finals champion.

Speaker 2 (01:44:18):
Yeah, I mean it's it's again.

Speaker 4 (01:44:21):
I mean, where I understand, you know, wanting to kind
of to your point right there, run it back, you know,
keep the continuity together, do all of that. But the
greatest sin that can happen in this game, in any
professional sport, is thinking that success the previous year is
going to translate to the following year. We see it
all the time in the NBA. I mean, I think
it was Draymond that brought it up where it was like,

(01:44:42):
you know, hey, everybody thought that the Sacramento Kings were
trending upwards.

Speaker 2 (01:44:45):
Now where are they? They started to trade away guys.

Speaker 4 (01:44:47):
I mean like it's just it's one of those that
you have a chance to improve your team, take every
single advantage of that and try to find every single
way to do that. And the way that you do
that this offseason is by finding ways to improve offensive scoring.

Speaker 5 (01:45:01):
When's the last time that a team won the championship
without like a legit Hall of Fame future star, and
I think Chouncey Billups even I'm gonna'd say the two
other four Pistons, and even then, like Chauncey Bhillips is
in the Hall of Fame, right, every other team that
has won the championship for years and years and years
had that guy. And if you look at the Rockets

(01:45:22):
right now, do you have that guy? No?

Speaker 2 (01:45:24):
No is Jannis?

Speaker 5 (01:45:25):
That guy, yeah, yeah, is the ceiling of what Alpura
and Shngoon could become at his absolute peak better than
current Jannis. No is the ceiling of what a men
Thompson could become at his absolute peak better than current Yiannis.

Speaker 2 (01:45:41):
Same answer. Okay, so what are we doing here? Go
get Yannis?

Speaker 4 (01:45:45):
Yeah, I mean, you're not gonna find me disagreeing with
you on I mean, at least at least the phone
call comes in then you talk about it. I mean,
that's That's the thing that for me, like, if it,
you know, comes out that he goes to San Antonio
or goes to Dallas or any of these other places,
and you're just like, did you at least even you know,
kick the tires on him just a little bit. No,
we really liked our guys. Okay, well they just got

(01:46:06):
better than you. If the ask is ridiculous, I get it.

Speaker 5 (01:46:09):
Like, you're not going to give up everything and gut
your roster the way because the Suns did that last
year or two years ago, and it's Kevin Durant and
Bradley Beal and Devin Booker and it was a miserable failure.
So you don't gut your roster. But if you have
the opportunity to get him and have a window, I mean,
you gotta do it. I mean, if it's not because

(01:46:30):
you have so many picks, they have what to trade.
I think they're in a better position than the Suns
were because they're they're probably in the best position of
anybody else. Yeah, they have this real opportunity that they've
done a great job drafting, they got the right coach,
the GM Stone has done a wonderful job getting these
guys in and we've all been like, eh, you know
these picks and these guys turn out like you didn't

(01:46:51):
know a whole lot about him. Men Thompson because he
was in the ote elite and all that stuff, and
he's your guy now he's the untouchable guy. Shngoon was
not a lottery pick. And then he's your number two guy.
And then Jalen Green was the guy and you can't
say they missed on it because they didn't. But you're
looking at is the peak Jalen Green going to be
your leading scorer on a championship team?

Speaker 2 (01:47:12):
Probably not?

Speaker 4 (01:47:13):
Well, the answer right now is definitely no. But I
mean what he can become still a young enough player.
Sure it's a possibility.

Speaker 2 (01:47:19):
John. See you're right there, both John's. Both you guys
want to get in there.

Speaker 4 (01:47:23):
So two John's you want to join the John even
if your name is not John seven one three two
one two five seven ninety against seven one three two
one two five seven ninety. As we'll get you guys involved,
also get back into some of the astros discussion here
is this still remains a sticking point with them. We'll
discuss that here as we continue along here on the
Sewn Salisbury Show, Sports Talk seven ninety and.

Speaker 1 (01:47:46):
Live out there for the Shawn Salisbury Show, continued.

Speaker 4 (01:47:51):
John, Since we were just talking the Rockets, you'll go
first get in on the conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:47:55):
Me and Ari, we're just having what's going on? Yeah, hey, man,
what's up?

Speaker 6 (01:47:59):
Man? Know what I called them? When the Rockets lost
to Golden State all I was screaming my lungs off
about trading Jayalen Green and all that. But the reason
I did that I heard somebody on a sports show
say that Jalen Green had been in the league five seasons. Yeah,
I got pissed off. But I've recently googled and found

(01:48:21):
out Jane Green on again in the league three years. Man,
it's a known fact in NBA basketball history. Most players,
most Hall of Fame players, I'm not calling him that,
but most players in the NBA do not really get
good till their fourth or fifth year. This is way

(01:48:42):
too too soon to be running a playoff that been
in the NBA three seasons? I mean, what, we draft
another player in three seasons? Let's trade him off too.
Then were talking about what's the kid junior up? I
think what he been in the league two seasons. Listen,
I love Giannis, but I'm not gut my team for
y'all and s especially with such young talent that only

(01:49:04):
been in the league two three seasons. My opinion, the
Rockets been drafting good last season. They won quite a
few games this season that made the playoffs. I think
they they on the right track, man. I mean they're
getting there, man, But General Green to suit them to
be trying to trade this kid man see Francis allows one.
I can name many a players that did not really

(01:49:27):
get great or have the cancer to be great talent
fourth up this season, man, the guy getting in the
three seasons. I'm gonna listen to y'all have a good day.

Speaker 2 (01:49:36):
I appreciate John.

Speaker 4 (01:49:37):
I mean, and that's part of you know what we
were talking about in the last segment too, ari of
not giving up on him too soon. But here is
the however, and it's not even the butts, it's you
know the other side of it too. I just feel
like being able to have him be the number two
would unlock something for him because I feel like that
pressure kind of gets to him a little bit of

(01:49:58):
you know, if it's not me, then it's not going
to be our team because it became very evident this year.
I mean, what were the stats when he scored over
thirty points? They were like thirteen and one or whatever
they were. I mean, that's that was a part that
unlocked this offense that you're just like, okay, look you
get that a little bit more. Then we're talking about
really being able to believe in this team as being

(01:50:18):
a contender. But he didn't get it enough. That was
the problem. And I just felt like that if that
part of his game wasn't there, he improved on not
letting it leak into the defensive side, because we'd seen
that in previous seasons where that happened and then or
at least two years now that we've seen it, but
at least his first season where emy Udoko was finally like, yeah,
I can't use you if you're not on that end
because it's taking away from the other.

Speaker 5 (01:50:40):
That's where it's helped having emy Udoko because he doesn't
let those guys leak their bad offensive night onto defense,
like if you're not guarding your man. And I remember
former Rocket, former Memphis Grizzly he used to cover back
in the day. Courtney Lee once told me seventy five
percent of defense's effort. Everybody in the NBA is incredible athletic.

(01:51:00):
They're all good except for you know, four guys that
can't jump. Everyone is long, everyone is athletic, everyone can
guard everyone. You mentioned James Harden not playing defense, when
James Harden wanted to play defense, James Harden could play defense.
I've seen him like shut down Zebo in the post
because when he wants it, he can do it seventy
five percent of defense's effort. And I think you ask
a number of NBA players coaches about that. The difference

(01:51:24):
between the most athletic guy and the tenth percent athletic
guy is not that much.

Speaker 2 (01:51:29):
In this league.

Speaker 5 (01:51:29):
They're all crazy mutants. But it's all about trying, and
it's about recognition. It's about communication and knowing where to
be and how hard to play defense. And so Jalen
has improved. My biggest thing with him is the floor. Again,
you just can't have those those lower games. And you're right, John,
I don't want to gut the roster for Yannis, but

(01:51:52):
how often does a Yannis come along like him? Specifically,
if it was any other starling, you don't see me
beating down the door for Kevin Durant because he's at
an age right now that I don't care or even
we're talking about Jalen Brown. You don't see me beating
down the door for Jalen Brown. There are very few
guys in this league that have ever been as good

(01:52:12):
as Yannis and Teda Kumpo. And everyone's like, oh, his
spacing's off, and he doesn't shoot. He averages a triple
double with thirty points a game like and he's an
excellent passer.

Speaker 2 (01:52:22):
He's insane. There are a few guys that are all timer's.
He is an Alzheimer in his prime. He is a
top three.

Speaker 5 (01:52:31):
MVP candidate every single year, probably for the next five years.
And if you have an opportunity to get that guy.
I'm not saying trade Jalen for anything or whatever, get
rid of. I don't want to run him out of town.
I like Jalen. But if you have the opportunity to
specifically get Yannis, you try and get Yannis.

Speaker 2 (01:52:48):
Just listen. I mean it's it's to repeat the point
that I had in the last segment. Just listen.

Speaker 4 (01:52:53):
I mean it's you do yourself. No, you know, you
do yourself no favors by not listening. I mean, if
you're just you know, we're good. We're just going to
you know, continue on the path we're on. Okay, Fine, Well,
somebody else has a chance to get better than you,
and you were already in a tightly contested Western Conference
last year, and especially if that team is in the
Western Conference, well then they have a chance to be

(01:53:14):
able to hop you right there for that two spot.
I mean, that's something that I think you will look
at next season and you feel like if you're not
back in that too, then you're kind of like maybe
a little bit of a step back this year, and
that's something that I don't think you want to have
in the year three of Vime.

Speaker 5 (01:53:27):
Well, you're in a conference right that has Shake Gildas,
Alexander Nikola Jokic, and then the Spurs are coming. I'm
not sure when it happens and how healthy Victor Wemanyama's
going to be. He's eventually at some point going to
be the best player in basketball, and it's coming. And
so you have all this competition and at some point
you're gonna need to match up your best player against

(01:53:47):
Victor Wembnyama and Amen Thompson, as great as he is
and is going to be, is not going to match
up with Victor Wembnyama. The only guy really in the league,
The only guys in the league that can do that,
they can go band for band with him are Jay Gildus,
Alexander Nikoa Jokicchen probably Jannis and Teta Koombon. If you
don't have one of those guys, I think in a
few years, it's gonna be Victor's world.

Speaker 6 (01:54:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:54:09):
I mean, you know, it's an organization that's definitely been
waiting their turn, and hopefully you don't have to be
in line when they are there to wait their turn.

Speaker 2 (01:54:17):
So we will see.

Speaker 4 (01:54:18):
You want to continue with the Rockets conversation, it's available
to you seven one three two one two five seven
ninety against seven one three two one two five seven
ninety the other John. So you want to get into
some astros because again, the sticking point with this team
continues to be exactly that. We'll discuss that here as
we close out at the eight o'clock hour, it is
the Shawn Salisbury Show, Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 11 (01:54:38):
Well, you don't need a reason to go to j
bar M Barbecue other than you like, great food and
great customer service. How many of you have gone over
there on the weekend, sat out there, brought your dog
out and had some little breakfast tacos, or grab some
of those drink or food specials to set out in
the back man yesterday was a phenomenal day. Or when
the sun starts to set and say I'm go go

(01:54:59):
to have me some barbecue and some of the great sides. Ever, well,
you got it. You got the Hall of Fame menu.
You can order with Joe spot Orders. You can order it,
you know with Kelvin Sampson or Clyde drex or they
got all that Hall of Fame menu and the menu
is Hall of Fame ish, great food. Whether I don't
care if it's cheddarsauce, it's a jalapeno, I don't care.
If it's the sides and the potatoes, ald macacheese. They

(01:55:20):
got everything you want. So you do not have to
have an event nearby to want to go to Jbarm Barbecue.
There is no reservations needed. It's a twenty two oh
one Leland. People are coming from far and wide to
go there. It is the best barbecue and customer service
in this state. So if you're traveling somewhere else for barbecue,
stop going into Jbarn Barbecue, whether it's the weekend or

(01:55:42):
during the week and realize, man, it's not only efficient,
the food's off the charts. And if you're coming from
two miles or two hours away, I would suggest you
make Jbarn Barbecue the reason it's Jbarn Barbecue dot com.
Jbarn Barbecue dot com. With the food and the customer service,
you're not gonna find it any better anywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:56:02):
J barr m Barbecue dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:56:07):
Sean Salisbury Show continues to.

Speaker 4 (01:56:09):
Continue top for conversation. Get back into here as we
close out the eight o'clock hour. John and Fresno, you've
been patient. Good morning, John, Hey.

Speaker 2 (01:56:19):
Whats gun on?

Speaker 6 (01:56:20):
Guys?

Speaker 10 (01:56:20):
Hey, look here if out day as though I feel
a pretty dog no good by now?

Speaker 2 (01:56:24):
Hey, you team, your team, don't have you done?

Speaker 10 (01:56:27):
We know that a two big struggling a little bit
and you on that game game in half out of
the first base. Hey, but they found out something. They
found out a couple of things. One of the things
they found out is that, hey, they got to rise
and start and uh, a diamond in the Rough and
O cam Smith and them young players. They coming to
get the Miles and Pinion and all them bosses playing.

(01:56:48):
Another thing they found out is that the trade they
made for Bergman and h. Tucker are playing a big
part of what they're trying to do. They got pictures,
They got a bud pending the lights out. They got
a closer that we know what he do. All I'm
saying is that all they gotta do is keep the
When two ways start hitting the ball and you're gonna

(01:57:09):
come back, it's just gonna make them that much better.
But what they found out is that they've got mature
they got players. They got young players that call smith man.
Look here, he to me like Amen Thompson. He gonna
take his job. He's determined not to go to the desk.
He gonna make y'all play him because you know he
got the skills.

Speaker 7 (01:57:27):
Man.

Speaker 10 (01:57:28):
Just they got to play him every day. Every day
they play them, it's time to get better.

Speaker 2 (01:57:32):
He drives in. He hates he got but what thirteen
fourteen fifteen one's driven in, and I mean yeah, driven in.
He got speed.

Speaker 10 (01:57:40):
He learned how to play right field. The boy, the
boy's only twenty two and he got that kind of talent,
so they astrugs, really feel good about what's going on.

Speaker 2 (01:57:50):
And then they know You've done is coming back and
he gonna bring that pop to the back.

Speaker 10 (01:57:54):
But rud right now to what they doing right now?
Who would have told him they would be without You're done?

Speaker 2 (01:58:01):
And who would have told him that too would be.

Speaker 10 (01:58:03):
Struggling and it'd be a game and somehow play to
play with the ricas with the young playoffs they got,
but Miles count, Smidt and pin and the playoffs get
brought in the draft, I mean after trade.

Speaker 2 (01:58:17):
Hey be all right. I like watching them plate be fun. Hall, Hey,
appreciate the call. John.

Speaker 4 (01:58:23):
You know one of the things that he just brought
up there about Jake Myers, that's like of all the
good things we've talked about at the bottom of the
order hitting right now, like you're getting more consistent at
bats for Victor Carrattini. He's shown you that he can
be a consistent bat for you. I just worry about
with Myers, like when does that expiration date come to?
Like when when does the fall off with him at
the plate happen? Because it seems like that's right around

(01:58:46):
the corner for him. It could be he's taken some
better at bats though, like his walk rate. His way up,
he's at a ten percent walk rate. He's at a
seventeen percent strikeout right last year, walk grate seven year
before that walk grate, seven year before that walk rate,
four year before that walk grat six.

Speaker 5 (01:59:02):
So he's seeing the ball better. So that's something on
the positive for him. He's gonna be in the lineup
no matter what. He's a Gold Glove level center fielder.
And I've argued for Jake before, and I've argued against
Jake before because I want, I want you to be
able to hit. But at the same time, if you're
not hitting, but the rest of the league in center
field isn't hitting, you're fine. And so that's what he's

(01:59:25):
run into where it's okay for the Astros to have
a non hitting center fielder because so does everyone else.
There's like four guys in the league, like Jackson Merrill
and like three other guys who can really hit. Even
look at Julio Rodriguez seven to twenty four ops right now,
he's getting paid two hundred million dollars. He's good, plays,
excellent defense, and he can hit a little bit, and
obviously he will probably get to a level where he's excellent.

(01:59:49):
But if you're supposed to be a winning team and
you're running Jake Myers out there, you're fine because no
one else is hitting at center field. And so yeah,
it's the one to twenty seven ops plus is gonna
go down, but there's some underlying stuff there.

Speaker 2 (02:00:01):
Dan.

Speaker 5 (02:00:02):
The walk rate is up. I like that he's getting
on base more. He stole his eighth base yesterday. He's
obviously got a little bit of pop. He's playing the defense.
He has cemented himself the way that I thought Chaz
did in twenty twenty three is this needs to be
a starting outfielder every day because he's hitting well enough.
Myers has cemented himself as a guy. And even if
it goes down, if you can get even league average

(02:00:24):
one hundred even ops plus from Jake Myers, that's a
win because you have a Gold Glove level centerfielder and
he's carrying his weight because no one else other than
four guys in centerfield and the league hit.

Speaker 4 (02:00:35):
And that's a good point by you, and I mean
it's also that's when you hope that you start to
get more offensively out of Altuve and out of Christian
Walker and out of you know, Janer Diaz and soon
enough jordn too. I mean, you know, getting those guys
going to But as it stands right now, I mean,
I know that I'm gonna break my own role here.
You're two and a half games back of the Mariners
for first in the West. You're also half a game

(02:00:57):
out of a wildcard spot. At this point, even without
the line wind up really hitting for you, you're doing fine.
I mean, they're They're not the dominant hundred and six
win team that twenty twenty two was, and they might
never be again, or at least not for this era
of Astros baseball. And what you're doing is you're competing
in a fairly weak division with flawed teams, and all
you got to do is beat those weak, flawed teams

(02:01:19):
and get your sub to the playoffs. And then the
playoffs are a crapshoot. And the Astros have been really
good in the playoffs over the past seven eight years.

Speaker 2 (02:01:27):
But it's not that easy.

Speaker 5 (02:01:28):
Look at how many different times the Dodgers have gotten
knocked out earlier than expected. They're clearly the best organization
in the National League and they'll get knocked out because
of the randomness of playoff baseball. They have the best players,
they have the best you know everything, development and prospects,
and they'll still get knocked out in a DS or

(02:01:50):
a CS and they go home and they're sad.

Speaker 2 (02:01:53):
Baseball. Playoff baseball is hard.

Speaker 5 (02:01:56):
It's hard to win consistently, and so what the Astros
have done winning consistently is very impressive. But you can't
necessarily rely on that. All you gotta do is get
there and then you figure it out from there and
you hope that the pitching is good enough to carry
you through.

Speaker 2 (02:02:09):
And so far this year it has well. Good news.

Speaker 4 (02:02:11):
You get a visit from the Gorda Tron coming up
here in the top of the nine o'clock hour, because
every Tuesdays and Thursdays nine o'clock we catch up with
Chris Gordy. So we're gonna do that next right here,
Curtsey at Carbock Brewing. We'll do that on the Sean
Salisbury Show. He is Ari Alexander in for Shawn Dan Matthews,
Triple Emmanuel Elmore.

Speaker 2 (02:02:29):
Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (02:02:30):
Ninety kd E Houston, KTDHD two Houston n iHeart radio station.

Speaker 2 (02:02:36):
Yeah, that's a rocket.

Speaker 1 (02:02:41):
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 9 (02:02:43):
Your home for your home teams from the Parsons that
match in next studios.

Speaker 6 (02:02:51):
Hey, y'all, let's bun beat the official trill og and
a Houston ash show.

Speaker 7 (02:02:55):
You're shot in one thousand dollars is happening right now.

Speaker 1 (02:02:58):
Just enter this nationwide keyword at Sports seven nighty dot
com Bills b I L L S Bills. Enter it
now at Sports seven nighty dot com.

Speaker 2 (02:03:11):
Salsbury. Okay, let's do this.

Speaker 1 (02:03:18):
Sewn Salisbury usc TRUP, longtime friend Shawn Salisbury, Dan Matthew, excuse,
this is the Sean Salisbury Show.

Speaker 2 (02:03:33):
Hops on with us.

Speaker 4 (02:03:34):
Uh, Gordy, you know we got Ari in here with
us Alexander and first three hours of the show. Don't
know how much you've listened before, what you have listened to?

Speaker 5 (02:03:44):
What?

Speaker 2 (02:03:44):
What grades are we given here?

Speaker 11 (02:03:47):
Uh?

Speaker 7 (02:03:47):
You all sounded great. Uh Ari is one of my
favorite travel buddies when I'm on the road. Get to
get to hang out with Ari. Ari enjoys the firings
of life.

Speaker 2 (02:03:55):
If you have h well, I mean we've already.

Speaker 7 (02:03:59):
The most expensive steakhouse in town.

Speaker 2 (02:04:03):
Fair enough, fair.

Speaker 4 (02:04:04):
Enough, I'll have to take some pointers if I'm ever
on any of these road trips. And we got a
Russian lesson earlier, so we had that going for us.

Speaker 2 (02:04:13):
I'm a man of the people, I promise I'm getting
out of here. I don't like it, but uh, I don't.

Speaker 7 (02:04:17):
Think Congrussian has helped a very much in the Houston
sports No.

Speaker 4 (02:04:23):
I think it was more or less like, you know,
just like, hey, just let you guys know I have it.
But he hasn't used it as his go to pitch,
so I think that's probably best served had a hockey team. Yeah,
I was gonna say, mate, sure you could throw that
out there. So tilman ever you know, meets you on that,
then you know, then then you can go with it.
But uh, a lot of cam Smith conversation, Gordy, because

(02:04:46):
you know, for a lot of the things we've you know,
talked about with this lineup this year and things that
have frustrated us at times. I mean, he's kind of
fit into a little bit of that frustration. But I mean,
as of late, hitting the ball well six of his
last thirteen six in the month of May, seems like
those days off are starting to pay off for him.

Speaker 7 (02:05:05):
Yeah, it's it's been nice to see he's he's coming around.
And somebody brought this up to me yesterday that literally
a year ago this week he was playing in the
ACC tournament in college at Florida State. I mean, that's
that's how wild this thing is. That that how quickly
he's gotten up here. And so yeah, look he's he's
gone through a couple of struggles here and there at

(02:05:26):
the play trying to figure things out, but he seems
to be starting to put it together here these last
couple of games. So you know, let's let's see, you know,
how he does. But again, remember it's it's his rookie season.
Expectations were high when we found out, you know, he
was going to make the club, he was so good
in spring training. But this is your potential superstar. I mean,
this is the guy that you're that you're banking that.

(02:05:49):
You know, I can already see his face being plastered
around I can park on all the walls in the future,
and you know, could be one of the faces of
baseball if it all pans out. So now, he's very nice.
It's been great to see, but yeah, you got to
keep it all in perspective that you know, a week ago,
a year ago, this week he's playing in the a
SEC tournament now here he is playing at well, a

(02:06:10):
minor league ballpark out there at Tampa.

Speaker 5 (02:06:12):
Chris, we've been talking about Jake Myers and how impressive
he's been at the plate in the field, Dan saying, here,
when is it going to end? When is the Jake
Myers renaissance going to come to an end? Do you
see an end to the Jake Myers renaissance or do
you believe that maybe this is who Jake Myers is now?

Speaker 7 (02:06:33):
Well, it will it will come back down. He'll have
a bad month. I mean, that's just how the ebbs
and flows into the base Paul go. You know, he's
had times like this before where you know, I think
it was last season he had an early month of
the season where it was like whoa look at Jake
Myers and then he resorted back.

Speaker 2 (02:06:50):
To you know, kind of what he was.

Speaker 7 (02:06:52):
But no, I mean this has been you know, even
under the gates, it's pretty decent, you know, coming up
with some hits. But he's been in flego this month,
in the month of May, so I don't know, is
he you know, he's been in three seventy five this month.
Is he gonna keep that up all season?

Speaker 2 (02:07:05):
No, obviously not.

Speaker 7 (02:07:06):
But can he sustain some leveled success and be somewhere
between a two ninety and three hundred hitter all season?

Speaker 1 (02:07:14):
Sure he could.

Speaker 7 (02:07:15):
And if he does that, that'll be fantastic because this
is a guy that's, you know, gonna turn twenty nine
years old in a couple of weeks, a guy that
a lot of the fans had kind of checked out on.
H I remember talking with Joe Spotted down at spring
training and he said, basically, more or less, we don't
care what Jakes is with his bat. He's he's in
the lineup for his defense. That's why he's bet. You know,

(02:07:36):
he's like, we're gonna put him in the NYE hole
and if he gives us something to play, great, But
he's out there to play phenomenal defense, and he certainly
has done that so far this season. But he's bringing
the bat as well, and it's much needed because you
look around this lineup and so many guys not pulling
their weight. They've needed a Jake Myers to kind of
step up and do his thing. So now look, you
enjoy it while it's here. You know it's not gonna

(02:07:57):
be forever, but you certainly take the good big buyers
right now.

Speaker 2 (02:08:00):
He's been outstanding again.

Speaker 4 (02:08:02):
Chris, Chris Myers, Chris Gordy join us every single Tuesday
and Thursday here on the Sean Salisbury Show courtesy of
Carbach Brewing. And while it's been the good of Jake Myers,
it has not been so good for Jose Altuve at
the play. They move him down to the three spot
last night. When does when does the button need to

(02:08:23):
be pushed for Hey, it's start to worry about if
this has starting to be the decline of Jose al Tuovey.

Speaker 2 (02:08:31):
Well, I don't think.

Speaker 7 (02:08:32):
I mean, the guy's a career three hundred hitter, so
I don't think that, you know, I think he'll still
be a singles hitter till the end of the road
when his career starts to dwindle.

Speaker 2 (02:08:42):
But he is only I mean, he just turned thirty five.
It's not like he's forty, you know.

Speaker 7 (02:08:46):
And I think when we watched Al two by throught
his career, I think the thought was thirty seven, thirty eight,
thirty nine. This guy can still play at a high level.
So I think he's just going through a funk. And honestly,
I'm surprised they've not given him a day off here.
I mean, it feels like he has played every single
day in this lineup, and I get it. Some people say,
you know, the only way you can work out of
the funk is by by playing, you know, But I

(02:09:09):
do think he could probably use the day off. But
maybe a spot is looking at it and going, well,
you know, with with no Jordan in there and playing
so many of these young guys, you know, can we
afford not to have an L two V in there?
But yeah, when he has another zero for four night,
you start to look around and go, God, maybe just
give him a day off just to clear his head,
because I think he played almost every He played literally

(02:09:29):
every game last week.

Speaker 2 (02:09:30):
They've had no rest here on this long.

Speaker 7 (02:09:32):
I think it's a seventeen game streak of consecutive days
with games.

Speaker 2 (02:09:36):
So I don't know.

Speaker 7 (02:09:37):
If I'm Joe, I would consider just giving him a
night off tonight, just let him clear his head, let
him get right and h and then throw him back
out there. But yeah, seeing the number two thirty six
next to al Tuve, uh, not used to seeing that,
because this guy's, you know, been one of the best
hitters in baseball the last decade.

Speaker 5 (02:09:55):
Now too, May doesn't speak up a whole lot, but
he has recently about the Astros potentially signing Jeremy Pagna
to a contract extension. You mentioned Cam Smith is a
guy who could be having his face plastered up on
dyk and Park in a face of baseball. Do you
listen to jose L Tuvey and lock up Payna or
does he go the way of Carlos Korea and you

(02:10:17):
let him play out this year, in the two more
years that he has and find a different shortstop.

Speaker 2 (02:10:23):
And what price makes sense to you for a Paynia extension?

Speaker 7 (02:10:29):
I mean to me, I got to see more of
a sample size of Jeremy Payne. It's no offense to him.
He came up that rookie season was fantastic, helped you
win a World Series, was outstanding. But these last couple
of seasons have been inconsistent. And he's having a nice
season so far, and this is what you hope he is.
But if I'm Jim craning Astros, I'm in no rush
to run and sign Payna to a long term deal

(02:10:51):
because I don't have to.

Speaker 8 (02:10:53):
You know.

Speaker 7 (02:10:54):
Again, it's one of those things where maybe they might
give him one of those kind of friendly deals that
they've get and other guys buy him out of arbitration.
They here, take take a couple extra million. I don't
know if he'd be willing to do that, but I would.
I would maybe push something like that, But none of
these like big fat, long term you know, ten year
deals or anything. I got to see more of a

(02:11:14):
sample size from paying you again, no offense to him.

Speaker 1 (02:11:17):
Keep doing what you're doing.

Speaker 7 (02:11:18):
And if he does, if he keeps doing what he's
doing and does this into next year, then yeah, we
can talk big fat contract down the road.

Speaker 2 (02:11:24):
But I just to to me, I'm in no rush
to do.

Speaker 7 (02:11:28):
Look, the whole reason you have arbitration is to you know,
keep teams together and have you know, cheap labor and
not have a million guys that you're paying you know,
huge fat long term contract songs.

Speaker 2 (02:11:40):
So to me, I I two.

Speaker 7 (02:11:43):
They could say all he wants.

Speaker 2 (02:11:44):
He said that about every guy that's been in the.

Speaker 7 (02:11:46):
System at this point, But Jim cran in the front
office has showed they're gonna do what they're gonna do
that's best for the organization. Uh, you know, And honestly,
if all two po were to say something, man, I
would almost edge him behind the scenes to go. And
then why don't you worry about getting yourself right at
the place before we worry about other people's pocketbooks.

Speaker 4 (02:12:02):
Chris Gordy again joined us every Tuesday and Thursday here
on the Sean Salisbury Show courtesy of Carbach Brewing. Jordon
Alvarez first time we had a chance to hear him
speak yesterday, Gordy, since he went on the IL. Last
time he played was May the second, So this Friday
will be three straight weeks without having at Jordon Alvarez
in the lineup. I mean, we're entering into a territory

(02:12:24):
right where. I mean, when you do get him back,
you got to build him back up and then what
are we talking? You know, a few rehab assignments for him.

Speaker 7 (02:12:34):
See I don't know. I mean, that's the thing is
in the past they you know, in recent years, when
he when he's had injuries, unless he's missed significant amount
of time, they don't send him to the miners. He
just jumps right back into the into the big league lineup.
So I think that's kind of what we thought here.
You know, it does sound like it's just been the

(02:12:54):
issue of the inflammation that he's been you know, he's
been taking swings, hitting in the cage, still having pain
in the right hand. But you know that if he
pushes himself that the hand gets inflamed and he's got
to and he's got a rest and that sort of thing.
So I don't know, man, I think there's a fine
balance here between pain tolerance and you know, we need

(02:13:15):
you in the line up, like let's let's go. So uh,
I would expect just base on what I heard from
him yesterday, it sounds like to me that that we
may see.

Speaker 2 (02:13:24):
Him before this week is over.

Speaker 7 (02:13:25):
But again, we'll we'll see. They keep creating the inflammation,
We'll we'll see.

Speaker 4 (02:13:30):
Well, I mean, you got afternoon baseball tomorrow, you got
evening baseball tonight, and then you come right back home
for four straight games over at tyke And Park for
the Mariners. Gordy, I think you know where I'm going
with this. This is setting up to be prime Crawford
box season, Am I wrong?

Speaker 6 (02:13:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (02:13:48):
This is a great time you here to load up
on plenty of Crawford box stock your fridge with it
at home. I've got a little mini fridge upstairs and
it's loaded with Crawford bock from Carbock Brewing and pairs
perfectly with Astro's baseball whether you're watch at home or
of course, later this week we're back at dik In
Park with the Seattle Mariners down huge important series. Make
sure you're joining an ice cool Crawford bock from our

(02:14:08):
friends at Carbock Brewing. Whether you're eating peanuts or popcorner
Dollar dog night, whatever it is over there at dyke
In Park, do so with an ice cool Crawford boch.
Cheer on your Astros and hey, be honest, guys, before
this week, did you know who the hell Brandon Walter is?
This is gonna be a fun one tonight. We'll sneap
with this Guy's on the map today.

Speaker 4 (02:14:28):
For sure, for sure, Ari he's been giving us the
scouting report on him all morning, so we'll probably pick
up that conversation a little bit. But Gordy always the best,
and we'll do it again on Thursday.

Speaker 2 (02:14:41):
All right, fellas, see you all right there you go.

Speaker 4 (02:14:42):
Chris Cordy Curtsey at Carbock Brewin joining us every single
Tuesday and Thursday here on at the Sean Salisbury Show.
A little bit of optimism when it comes to your
on there. I mean, I didn't take that to mean
that that is a possibility yesterday, but I mean maybe
it's to the point where he's like, Okay, give it
a go.

Speaker 5 (02:15:01):
Yeah, he's balancing out our pessimism on it that it
didn't feel like to me. Jordon wants to come back
until the pain in the hand goes away, and he's
saying that he doesn't want it to be an excuse
for the performance that he's had, which is he wants
to be healthy. He wants to feel like he's good,
that he can be go back and be the yord

(02:15:21):
On that he is, and the quicker they get him
back into the lineup obviously the better. But at the
same time, this is a guy in a long term contract.
This is a guy who you want healthy. You miss him,
but you're not really missing him right now. They're doing
okay without him, and if he needs to take a
little bit of time, they're not in panic mode. They're
playing all right. I know it's a big series against
the Mariners this weekend, but as you mentioned we're not

(02:15:43):
of a moral day yet, they're nowhere near being scared
of anything in the standings. If Jordon wants to wait
until he comes back, I think they're going to be
able to survive that.

Speaker 1 (02:15:52):
Well.

Speaker 4 (02:15:52):
There's a lesson to be learned too, and I think
they learned that last year. We'll talk about that here
as we can continue the Astros conversation again. Ari Alexander
in for Sean this morning here on the Sean Salisbury Show.
We'll continue here Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:16:09):
Barrel's his way to the basket.

Speaker 8 (02:16:10):
I'm the window in Hey is Jay Shan Back to
the Sean Salisbury Show on Sports Talk seven ninety Black
Ship Station of your rockets.

Speaker 4 (02:16:24):
But it's just again, like you know, Ari, by the way,
Ari Alexander in for Sean, is that it just kind
of leads to that. Okay, you're telling me that he's close,
but I don't believe you because it's the oh he's
hitting in the cage.

Speaker 2 (02:16:38):
We can't see it. We don't know.

Speaker 4 (02:16:41):
I mean, it's it's not like we can go in
there and see him taking swings in the cage and
be like, yeah, hey, you know, he looks fine. Not
a doctor by any means. But it's just it's stuff
like that that you're just like, okay, like I believe you.
But you can also hear me hedging my bets a
little bit on that.

Speaker 5 (02:16:56):
When he says he's hitting off the tee too, Like
that doesn't really give you a whole lot of confidence
that tomorrow, like he's in the lineup, hitting the third.
So I don't know how quick that it's going to
be for Jordon Alvarez. But the good thing is they're
not really missing him.

Speaker 2 (02:17:10):
One.

Speaker 5 (02:17:10):
He hadn't been playing very well, like the worst stretch
of his career basically to open a season, because this
is one of the best and most feared hitters in
all of baseball, and he just hasn't been himself. And
I imagine part of that is due to his hand hurting,
which is something that has popped up here and there
with Jordan, and the knee stuff is popped up. And
he's a guy that everyone talks about how much of

(02:17:32):
a steal of a contract it is, which it is
for as good of a hitter as he is an
MVP candidate every year. Six' onein fifteen is really good.
Deal but the reason The astros were able to get
that deal With jordon is because of the medical.

Speaker 2 (02:17:45):
Stuff is knowing, that like we're going to.

Speaker 5 (02:17:48):
Invest one hundred and fifteen million in, you you could
probably get three hundred if you were, healthy but you're
not always. Healthy and so this is the. Midpoint and
so it all worked out for. Everyone jordon got a
signific amount of money in a contract and his. Deal
isn't that limiting for them in going after other Guys

(02:18:08):
and so you have one of the best hitters in.
Baseball but the trade off there is that you never
know when something like this.

Speaker 2 (02:18:14):
Is going to pop. Up, Yeah AND i mean you
mentioned it.

Speaker 4 (02:18:16):
Earlier it's been the, hands it's been, Knees AND i think,
that you, know one of the lessons THAT i brought
up to lead into this segment with is that last,
year at this, time you would have needed to kind of, say,
hey you know when if you're almost, there like we
kind of need you here because we got to find
our way back into this. Thing but it's for everything

(02:18:37):
we talked, about they're right there in the thick of this.
Thing they're a half game out of a wild card.
Spot they're two and a half games, back three games
about five, hundred which they were not anywhere close to
sniffing this time last. Year all of those things that
kind of led you to maybe you're not in a
full on sprint all the way to the, end but
you definitely are picking up the pace a little bit
to try to catch up to the rest of the.

Speaker 2 (02:18:58):
Pack they're.

Speaker 5 (02:18:59):
FINE i mean They're they're right where they need to,
be and they haven't played particularly well all season.

Speaker 2 (02:19:05):
Long the pitching has been.

Speaker 5 (02:19:06):
Good but has there ever been a week or even
a series where you look at The astros and, go
that's A World series winning team this. Year, No so
they haven't even played that well and they're. Fine like
they're not in a position where anyone needs to be
worried about. Anything the lineup should. Hit all the guys
that aren't really hitting have a track record of being.

(02:19:27):
Hitters Christian walker will be. Fine is he going to
put up the type of numbers that he has the
past few years In? Arizona maybe, not and that's not,
good but he's not. Terrible Yaner diaz at a really
slow start of the year and then he heated, up
And yiner should be. Fine Jose L tube has this
long track record of being an excellent. Hitter he should be.
Fine When jordanka does come, back he should be. Fine

(02:19:50):
and then you have all these other guys that are
playing a little bit above what their weight has. BEEN
i think there's a really good chance That Jeremy paana
is this. Permanently and Obviously i'm the Biggest Jeremy paignia
defender of all, time but his underlying stats are so
much better than they ever have. Been he is walking,
more he is striking out. Less and what everyone talks about, is,

(02:20:12):
OH i can't chase the slider. Away he's not doing that.
Anymore he's crushing sliders and sweepers this, year so and
he's he's hitting the highest sex of velocity he ever
has in his. Career everything is. Up he's finally everything
is starting to. Click and the one thing THAT i
want to see from him IS i want him to
run a little, more because he's one of the fastest
guys in all of baseball and he's starting to finally

(02:20:34):
pick up pitcher tells and things like. That but what
If i'm not saying he's gonna hit like three, fifteen
but what if eight hundred Ops Jeremy paanna is who he,
is and why isn't that?

Speaker 2 (02:20:45):
Possible you know WHAT i? Mean love in that? Speed,
yeah that's one hundred million dollar.

Speaker 5 (02:20:49):
Player and that's WHY i bring up the extension BECAUSE
i disagree With gordy in the sense of you wait
one more year to see if it's, doable because the
inconsistent two years that you just had from pay twenty
three and twenty, four that's still a twenty million dollars.
Shortstop what we've talked about with center fielders not being
able to. Hit there's a handful of really good shortstops

(02:21:10):
that can, hit but there's a lot of guys that can't.
Hit and if you have a guy that you know
the floor is going to be good glove league average,
hitter that's a twenty million dollar a year.

Speaker 2 (02:21:20):
Player it just is.

Speaker 5 (02:21:21):
Right do not get priced out of an extension because
you want to wait and. See it's the same. Thing
you want to be, proactive not, reactive the same REASON
i want them to go and look At giannis this
year instead of waiting one more.

Speaker 2 (02:21:33):
Year, right don't miss your.

Speaker 5 (02:21:35):
Window and if you go and lock up pinion now
where there's this little hint of what he could be
you have a much better chance of getting a good
price because if you let him get free, agency or
you let him have this huge year this year and
now he's going off of an all star season and he's, playing,
well you're gonna get priced out and he's going to
get a hundred.

Speaker 4 (02:21:53):
Million, well and that's the thing IS i, mean you,
know you're getting to the point where the price goes
up every single, day AND i, mean you let this
thing wrong all the way until the. Offseason THEN i
think that finally for, him it's, hey let's just wait this,
out let's go through the, Arbitration let's get money that
way to at least get this thing jump, started and
then go from there where you could avoid going through

(02:22:14):
that process and just, say, hey you're our guy for
the next six. Years and he's done everything right his worst,
seasons the bad, seasons quote, unquote is still a three
to four win, player a four three to four war.
Player and so that's the, Baseline like you're you're talking
about how he's been, inconsistent which he. Has he's had
all these things at the plate where all, right the

(02:22:35):
average started to go up and then the power went,
away and then the power came back a little, bit
but he's still striking out. Some and then the glove
went away a, bit and then now the glove is
back and everything's kind of clicking this. Year but his
baseline is still a three to four win, player and
in free, agency a war one win costs about eight million.
Dollars he was a ninety nine ops plus hitter first

(02:22:58):
three years of his, career so he's essentially actelye average
one percent Below Willia damas just got a.

Speaker 2 (02:23:04):
Hundred and eighty two million dollars.

Speaker 5 (02:23:07):
Deal what Was williadamas's ops plus going into this season
ninety eight one oh, eight so ten percent. Better so
you take ten percent off of one hundred eighty two.
Million that's one hundred and sixty two million or eleven percent. Whatever,
Right so you're looking At Jeremy panna potentially getting one
hundred and sixty. Million you could lock him up for
maybe one hundred instead of letting him get to free.

(02:23:28):
Agency and then now he is crushing the ball and
there's a chance that this is what he could, be
and you know that he's got enough. Power hit twenty
six home runs combined postseason regular season in twenty twenty.
Two you saw what he did in that playoff, run
and then there's obviously the. GLOVE i think you got
to be proactive and get it done as quickly as.

Speaker 4 (02:23:48):
Possible we can continue this conversation because something that you
know you were hinting at is something THAT i believe
is a little bit of a leaf turn for this.

Speaker 2 (02:23:56):
Organization so we.

Speaker 4 (02:23:58):
Can talk about it on the other side if you
want to get in on some of the astros seven
one three two one two five seven ninety against seven
one three two one two five seven. Ninety He's Ari
alexander in For Sean. Salisbury here it is still A
Sean salisbury Show Sports talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:24:13):
AND i had lived The Sewn Salisbury show continued.

Speaker 4 (02:24:19):
As, So, ari you, know you're talking about it with
the possible extension For Jeremy, pania and it doesn't seem
like much happens during the.

Speaker 2 (02:24:26):
Season that's.

Speaker 4 (02:24:27):
FINE i, mean we've seen it before where you've Had,
hey they've just re upped Yourn, Alvarez, hey they just
re Upped Christian, hovier and then you, know you get
to ask the, questions do all that kind of. Stuff
but this, OFFSEASON i think kind of signaled a little
bit of a different way of doing, business because in
the past few years you would not have seen the

(02:24:47):
trade rumors even out there For Kyle. TUCKER i, MEAN
i think like when you saw, that it was just
kind of, Like, okay these are national heads that are
making this. Up this is agents floating this out, there
all these other. Things The astros won't they won't even
sniff doing. This and then a day later you get
The Kyle tucker trade, made and it worked out incredibly
well for The astros BECAUSE i think that finally he

(02:25:08):
got to a point Where Dana brown met With Jim,
crane met with the brass, everybody and just, said you
want to continue to. Win this method of doing this
is going to ensure that we're going to be in
a position where we're not. Winning so you make this
move right, now give ourselves a little bit more, runway
kind of build on this, thing and then you can
go from. There it was kind of surprising That fromber

(02:25:29):
was not dealt this. OFFSEASON i think that a little
bit of the start of this season probably led creedence
to teams looking at him and, saying, well we don't
need to unload a lot for him right, Now maybe
a little bit later on we can revisit, this because,
HONESTLY i think that the league looked at The astros
this year of thinking The rangers are, coming The mariners are,
coming maybe they're gonna be in position where we can

(02:25:49):
pounce at the. Deadline doesn't seem like that's going to
be the case, now hopefully. Not but when it comes
to guys Like Jeremy pania is you know we've mentioned
Jose al Two bay speaking up for him. Before you
almost wonder if he kind of starts to turn the
heat up on that a little bit of, saying, hey
LOOK i spoke up For, bregman and you guys ended
up letting them. Walk this, Continues i'm going to start

(02:26:12):
to wonder why DID i re up here and play
the final years of my Career if you're not going
to put me in position to still be, competitive and
a guy Like Jeremy pania helps you do, That that's
WHY i think this time it's going to be a
little bit.

Speaker 5 (02:26:24):
Different, yeah, well and it's more of a market price potential.
Deal Right Like Kyle tucker that was very very real
for a very big chunk of that week that winter
meetings week when when it first got brought, up AND
i remember coming back and talking to a bunch of
different people At winter meetings and believing that it was

(02:26:45):
going to, happen and there was The cubs and The
yankees or the two teams that had the most, interest
and it felt like The cubs had the better, package
or at least we're willing to put together a better,
package and that The astros were definitely interested In Essak,
perettis who they had coveted for a long time, time
and it could. HAPPEN a big reason why you Trade
Kyle tucker is not only like do you have a

(02:27:07):
struggle in bringing him. Back there was no chance they
were not going to compete with the amount of money
That Kyle tucker was going to, command and the price
has now gone up even more so it would have
had to have been a three hundred plus million dollar
extension last year at the time where he's out with
a shin, injury he still would have commanded three hundred plus.
Million now it's four hundred plus and if he has

(02:27:27):
The All STAR mvp candidate year that he is on
track to have right now with The, cubs and he's
turned the cubs. Around The cubs are good, now they
have been underwhelming for the past couple of. Years he
could maybe get to five hundred. MILLION i, Know New
york is all unhappy with One sodo and he's got
the seven hundred and sixty five million dollar deal and
he's not running out ground balls and. Whatever But sodo's
seven hundred and sixty five million did raise the market

(02:27:49):
for the top level. Guys And Vlad Guerrero, junior who's
not a phenomenal defender who only can play one position
OR dh he's getting five hundred. Million So Kyle, Tucker
i'm telling you right now, now at twenty nine year
old free, Agent Kyle tucker is very very possibly getting
five hundred. Million so you knew there's no chance With,
payna there's a chance because you can afford one hundred,

(02:28:11):
something you're not going to be able to afford three hundred.

Speaker 2 (02:28:13):
Something, YEAH i, mean and that feeds into all of,
it and for everything that you brought up. Too you
know the.

Speaker 4 (02:28:18):
Metrics we know what he is with the. Glove we're
seeing what he can be with the, bat and we
saw that a his rookie year he kind of tapered
off a little bit the last couple of, years BUT i,
mean you're a believer that this is kind of like
a corner turn for him in a good. Way there
is and there's all these underlying things that he's, doing
and it's always been in pieces like he's always had
and shown flashes of all the things that he's good.

(02:28:41):
At the first, year he showed flashes with the glove
and the, power but the average wasn't super, high and
he would not he's just refused to. Walk then in
the second year his launch angle. Cratered but then he
had the month In august in twenty three where he
walked like twelve times and it was, like, hey like,
okay so you can you can see pitches and you
can do this and you can. Walk and then the
defense tapered off a little, bit but he was still

(02:29:03):
really good. Defender and then last year the power came
back a little, bit and then the defense wasn't quite
wasn't quite as, good and he just was you, know
these little, things and it's like you see this piece
and then it drops, off and then this other piece
and then it drops. Off and this year all the
pieces have come, together and so that's the thing that
you're waiting for is he has all these, abilities and
if he can ever just use all those abilities at

(02:29:25):
the same, time this is a, really really good.

Speaker 5 (02:29:28):
Player and right now that's what we're. Seeing he, had
like got quiet three for four. YESTERDAY i didn't even
realize he was three for four until you look at
the box score and he's three for. Four and he's
had games where he's allowed three for four and he's
playing the excellent defense at the diving catch the other.
Day like he just does everything a bit at a,
time and now it's starting to come together where it's
all happening all at. Once and the longer you, wait

(02:29:50):
this is All i'm all about being, proactive because let's
say you sign him to a deal and he goes
back to what he was in twenty, three twenty, four
that's still a three to four win. Player that's still
a twenty million dollar your a year. Shortstop it just
is so What i'm looking. For sign him to a
six year. Extension we Know Jim crane's not going past.
Six let's say a little bit over twenty million per
year for the four free agent, years and then you're

(02:30:11):
buying out two years of. Arbitration this, year he's making
four point one million in. Arbitration one he's likely to
go six' nine. Seven ten so you're looking at fifteen to.
Seventeen million give, them bump give, them eighteen and then
let's say twenty one a year for. Four years it's
one oh two six one.

Speaker 8 (02:30:26):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (02:30:26):
Two see and that's the thing is we talked about
this a little bit, last week and that's something, that again,
you know talking about turning. Over leaves resolve to turn
over a new leaf as, an organization stop giving free
agent deals to guys over thirty and start going seven
to eight with guys that are in.

Speaker 2 (02:30:43):
Their, TWENTIES yeah i just don't think it's.

Speaker 5 (02:30:45):
Gonna happen And the astros somehow have watched all these
other teams give these, long Deals And jim crane has
stood steadfast And saying i'm not going past six years.
For anyone i'm not Going Given kyle tucker. Ten years
i'm Not Giving alex bregman past. Six years i'm not
doing it with anyone because our, system works and, you

(02:31:05):
see sometimes it works out and sometimes. It Doesn't xander
bogarts has an eleven year two hundred and eighty million dollars,
a deal and it's a. Weird fit but then there's
sometimes where you're seeing these, huge contracts like if You
Had Bobby, witt junior You're Extending Bobby witt junior for ten,
eleven years like, you know you want. That guy and,
in essence they did that With, al tuove where they

(02:31:26):
gave him a six year extension and then a five,
year extension and essentially it's an eleven the course of,
that contract he's making eleven years Two hundred i'm trying
to think of it in my head, of things two
hundred and seventy, six million which is Nearly the. Bowguard's
seal it's almost the same thing but split. Into two,
and you're, you know they're lucky That al tuove is
the kind of guy that, he is that he'll work

(02:31:47):
with you and he wants to. Stay there, but, eventually
yeah the price of doing business is these. Long deals
And For, jim crane, you know you gotta love that
he's gonna hold off as long, as possible and so far,
it's worked but at some point there might be a
guy that you might need to go past your.

Speaker 2 (02:32:05):
Break point and when you put it.

Speaker 4 (02:32:07):
THAT way, I mean i get, the flexibility but it's
just also too again rules. AND exceptions, i mean there's
certain guys you make an, exception FOR and I mean
I just i think that a little bit of, you
know you hear about all the time of making adjustments and,
you know adapt, or die all of those different terms
that are thrown. Out there you don't have the scene
guys coming up from behind these guys that you had in.

(02:32:28):
Those years like you Could Let george springer walk because
oh Hey Here's. Kyle tucker you Could Let carlos korea
walk because Hey There's, Jeremy pina like who are those
guys that are behind. THESE guys, i mean It's Not,
jacob melton no disrespect, to him it's not any of
the other guys that you have in your system at
the moment that you, can, say hey we'll be. Just
fine and that's the thing is why You Get dana

(02:32:49):
brown AS a gm because he is, a scout he
is a draft and. Developed guy but you're. Still waiting
this is still one of the worst rated farm systems
in all, of baseball and the guys that they're calling
up have not made the type of impact that the
previous guys had chas McCormick was not, a prospect like
not a. Big prospect he, was fine he was, a
guy he was a late round pick who had a

(02:33:10):
nice minor league career and he turned. Into something and
then you got three out of four seasons where he's
an abovely average hitter and he was phenomenal his. Third
year that doesn't happen a, whole lot and you can't necessarily.
Replicate That zach dezenzo is a good example where he's a,
decent prospect but he's not a super high. Round pick
those are those are, Filler guys but a few years
ago that guy would have been a, little better would

(02:33:32):
have been a little bit.

Speaker 5 (02:33:33):
More useful and they've done it more on the, pitching
side but they're running out of that depth because right
now this is still a lowly rated minor league system
and you can look in, and, go well we'll bring
up our number eighteen prospect and he'll.

Speaker 2 (02:33:46):
Do, amazing, well no these. Guys haven't they've.

Speaker 5 (02:33:48):
Been filler they've been help and they've been useful to,
some degree but you're not getting the same type of
guys coming up out of nowhere that you had three four.

Speaker 4 (02:33:56):
Years ago, All right I'm gonna i'm gonna tease us
into our finals segment, with this are?

Speaker 8 (02:34:00):
You?

Speaker 4 (02:34:00):
Superstitious, sometimes, okay well there. You go we might have
an example of superstition playing out. Yet again we'll break
that down here as we close out this Edition Of
The Sean, Salisbury Show The Matt, thomas Show with ross coming.
Up next, right Here He's ori alexander In. For sean
it Is The Sean, Salisbury Show sports talk.

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Speaker 1 (02:35:56):
We want, To Wait sean salisbury Continues On.

Speaker 2 (02:35:59):
Seven night, you know are you a? Little stitches are
you so you're a Little, stitcht okay you're aware Of the? Drake?

Speaker 4 (02:36:06):
Curse, Correct yes So The Toronto maple leaves got eliminated the,
other night and people immediately with It being toronto and Of.
COURSE drake i mean we kind of seen it here
with you Of, H, basketball like did you have any
belief last, year's tournament not the one that they just
most the most recent run they went on the, year
before did you have any belief that they would be

(02:36:29):
having a chance to get to the final four or
anywhere close once you Saw that drake was at their.
TOURNAMENT party i don't believe In the. DRAKE curse i.
Just don't didn't They the raptors want? A, championship okay,
All right so again exceptions, AND rules i mean that
was that. Was one They Had kawhi, Leonard too so
that Was Prime kawhi leonard who was not taking every

(02:36:51):
fourth game off and you, know it it was a
little bit more healthy.

Speaker 2 (02:36:55):
Back then, but yeah the curse didn't Extend To.

Speaker 5 (02:36:58):
KAWHI leonard i don't necessarily even that kind of the,
you Know The billy, goat Curse the curse Of, the
bambino all that kind. Of stuff there's all these explainable
away reasons as to why these teams are not winning.

Speaker 2 (02:37:11):
A r University of houston had like eight guys hurt.
Last year that's.

Speaker 5 (02:37:15):
Zero depth that made perfect sense why they didn't make
a Run and duke And The austin duke Because of
jamal sh you're telling Me that Drake Voodooed jamal shed's.

Speaker 2 (02:37:24):
He, might have he.

Speaker 4 (02:37:25):
MIGHT have, i mean you Wonder why kendrick is so
hard after him right Now And Jamal, shed yeah and
now he Might Have justin bieber coming. After Him because
That's where i'm going, with this is that people Were
after drake because he had let it be known that
he had a one million dollar bet On The maple
leaves to Beat The florida Panthers in game seven OF
their nhl playoff series the. Other, night Well the panthers

(02:37:48):
quickly turned that one around it because they beat him six.
To one so people, were like, Damn, you drake you did.
It again all these different things and on an instant
story after, the game He said bieber Curse because Justin
And hailey bieber were both at the game behind the maple,
leafs binch so he was trying then to deflect and

(02:38:08):
projecting here, and, saying, hey guys look it wasn't me,
this time it was. That, guy yeah it's not not
been a good year or Two for, drake here, And
uh bieber's been sort of like off the radar for,
a while. HASN'T he i haven't heard anything. OF them,
i mean you know it's he he had an album
a few. Years ago and to say other than like

(02:38:29):
hearing songs come on the radio every once in a
While that i'm A massive, BIEBER guy i.

Speaker 2 (02:38:33):
GET it. A believer.

Speaker 4 (02:38:36):
I dabble i dabble would probably be the best WAY
that i. COULD say, i mean it's it's not my.

Speaker 5 (02:38:41):
Go, to hey he came back with the pan, flute
music and then he just disappeared off the face of the.

Speaker 2 (02:38:45):
Earth again that's the.

Speaker 4 (02:38:46):
Problem is like whenever like some of these artists like
start to like kind of like you ever See, walk
Hard The dewey, cock story, you know like The Ten, Thousand,
digits folks can.

Speaker 2 (02:38:57):
We have a Moment.

Speaker 4 (02:38:58):
With dewey, you know why don't we just lay it
down the way we used to unless you can play. The,
pheromone yeah that's like when some of these artists go into.
That category i'm, just, like dude that movie was.

Speaker 2 (02:39:09):
So good.

Speaker 5 (02:39:09):
It's awesome that movie made fun of this great era
of music just, so effectively the way That Like austin
Powers Nailed. James bond and now you Can't Do james
bond movies the way he used to because all you
see Is.

Speaker 4 (02:39:21):
Awesome, powers, Yeah, dang elvis you didn't have to rile
him up. Like That what now, watch out there's only
two people who know That. THE king i gotta love
A Little jack white playing A Little elvis. Presley Fan,
jack white he Is huge. Cubs, guy, yeah yeah that is.
For sure and another guy that actually Loves The dewey.

(02:39:42):
Cox story he's coming in Next With, Matt Thomas, rossville
Reale massive John c. Riley fan so maybe you get
four Hours of John c riley Talk With matt thomas.
COMING up i just volunteered it for, you guys so
now you have to live up.

Speaker 2 (02:39:55):
To it pay off for.

Speaker 4 (02:39:56):
THE audience kya know. Your audience that's the number. ONE
rule a good, stuff, today man really. Appreciate it you're.
Back tomorrow i'm. Back tomorrow let's go have. Me today
i'll see. You tomorrow you know it's. All RIGHT alexander
kprc two hanging out with us for the last few
Hours FOR. Triple E I'm dan Matthews Again The Matt
thomas Show with ross coming. Up next astros on deck five.
O'clock tonight get you ready For the astros In. The

(02:40:17):
rays we'll talk to you in twenty hours, Right Here
sports talk seven ninety