May 3, 2025 • 41 mins
On this episode we discuss our thoughts on the NFL draft from Shedeur Sanders’ fall and prank, to the Dallas Cowboys picks. The LA Lakers have a quick exit from the NBA Finals, we talk about why and if LeBron James needs to retire. The Texas Rangers are in a slide, we give our thoughts as to what needs to be done to get the team back in the win column. And we give our way too early top four for the upcoming college football season.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into another conversation with the chriss. I'm Scott Miller,
joined as always by it Chris Byram and Chris Shirley,
and We're going to kind of rapid fire different things
going on in the world of sports and gentlemen. I'm
going to start with what took place last weekend the
NFL Draft, and Byram's starting with you this morning. The
(00:24):
biggest story of the twenty twenty five draft came from
an athlete that did not get drafted in the first round,
or the second round or the third round, Sodora Sanders.
I mean, there's so much to unpack with this story,
but I want to kind of start with what has
been the most current topic that everyone's talking about, and
(00:46):
that's this prank call that took place. What are your
thoughts when you saw that story of the prank call?
Did you find it funny? Did you find it crimsworthy?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
What was you know?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Is this just a kid being a kid.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I think think there are several parts of this story
that are not well known yet. For instance, the NFL
sent out that number to the wrong people and it
shouldn't have The number should have never been sent to
this kid's dad. At Atlanta, but it was, and so
(01:21):
the NFL has a convenient scapegoat for a little bit
of what their mistake.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Is that the deep insive coordinators that why he should
have received that number.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Is that what you're saying, Yeah, it should have gone
strictly to general managers and then used, you know, for
and then used from their point of view. Instead it
got sent out to a very large group of people.
But I think the other thing, Do I find it funny?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
No?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And I don't think I find it funny because I
teach seventh graders, and when I have a seventh grader
do this, it's highly irritating. And I think it's just
why would you do this? Because the kid, even if
that slide is, you know, in many ways his fault,
(02:10):
why would you add to his spade? And I just
thought it was kind of a cruel trick, And it's
just kind of a statement of where our society's at
because many people are laughing thinking that was awesome, and
it really was just kind of sad.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Surely you got, you know, your dad of two boys
that are getting older, getting ready to go off to college,
all the fun things in the life stage you're in,
so you know, you see firsthand kind of some of
the silly pranks and things that boys do. As a dad.
What what do you think? I mean, because you know
the father got you know, he got hit with one
(02:50):
hundred thousand dollars fine, which to put in perspective, when
you're dealing with NFL money, you know, one hundred thousand
is not going to fill the same as it would
to you and I. But let's say you know, you
had a situation where you got fined twenty thousand for
something one of your sons did. What would be the
conversation at home?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
What are you thinking, you knucklehead? No, I mean there,
you know, there's there's shared responsibility here. Obviously, I absolutely
agree with byrum that, you know, there's no reason at
all that the decent defensive coordinator should have that number.
(03:30):
And that was one of the first thoughts I had
when I first heard about this. It's like, why in
the world does that guy have his number? You know,
it should just be the gms around the league that
have the numbers of you know, potential draft picks. But
you know so, so I think he's a little bit
at fault for even having that, you know, on his device.
(03:56):
But I mean, gosh, I mean, how how how cruel
do you have to be? You know that to play
a play a prank, a joke on somebody's potentially one
of the biggest moments of their lives, you know, so
(04:18):
there would certainly be some some grounding involved, probably from
from all things technology and you're stuck in the house,
in your room for a month or you know whatever.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I was in Atlanta this
week for business, so I met with a group and
of course there's some Falcon fans in the room, and
their general consensus was, yeah, my kid, would you know,
be paying at least half of that fine. Of course
a kid can't come up with fifty thousand, but yeah,
a lot of feelings about it. Now, if that prank
(04:56):
cannot happen, that would not be the big story we're
talking about. But the bigger story in the weekend was
the fact that Sanders fell in the first place. And so,
you know, Byron, what have you read about this? You know,
there's a lot of rumors out there that the NFL
owners kind of collectively agreed to let this kid slip.
(05:17):
You know, Sadora Sanders does have talent, I don't think
he's retire your number without dad being the coach talent,
But what happened? I mean, why were so many teams
passing on a quarterback like Sidora Sanders and frankly picking
up other quarterbacks that were not as well known.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Well, I don't think there's any collusion here. I think
anybody who tries to prove collusion has a very very
excuse me, very very long case to try to prove, basically,
because you have an African American quarterback who's drafted first,
and the league has shown they don't have issues with
(06:00):
that anymore. I think the reason why he fell is
what we're beginning to hear from a lot of NFL
talent scouts and from GM saying that he went into
these meetings and whether or not he was trying to
turn off teams he didn't want to go to. He
seemed disinterested. They would ask him questions about offensive theory.
(06:22):
He couldn't answer them. As they watched the film, he
tends the hold onto the ball too long. His arm
strength that's not all that great. His dad went with
him everywhere. It was kind of like a circus whenever
he would show up and they just decided we don't
want to deal with this, and he may not be
as good as is everybody thinks he is. And I
(06:45):
think he hurt himself greatly by his attitudes in some
of these meetings, and I think that's why he dropped.
It's really sad, but I also think it's it's not uncommon.
I mean, everybody thought Tim Tebow was the greatest quarterback
who ever lived at Florida, and we saw what happened
(07:06):
with him, so, I you know, I just quarterbacks drop
all the time. This just happened to be one of
the worst. But I think it's because of his own attitude.
From what we're hearing people said, he was extremely confident,
extremely condescending in all of these meetings, and they just decided,
(07:27):
we're not going to deal with this.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Well to that point, surely, you know. I mean, he's
what was the term he had in his draft room
legacy or legendary or something like that. I mean, he
spent more in his draft room. I've never heard of
someone building a draft room. Let me just start there.
Maybe I've missed it. I mean it's a trend I've missed.
But I mean his dad is dionn but he builds
(07:52):
this massive draft room, and you know, you've heard it
on the internet. X has talked about this, that he
will have spent more in his draft room than his
first contract will be playing for Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, I don't recall someone building their own draft room
previously either, you know. I I absolutely agree with Bayrum.
There was number one zero collusion. The league wasn't against
uh Schador Sanders or or Dion Sanders per se had
(08:26):
absolutely nothing to do with you know, race and whatever,
you know. And so I think that's that's just a
bunch of bunch of garbage for anybody who's who's saying that.
You know, I think I think it was I think
it was arrogance more than anything else, you know. And
(08:47):
some people will argue, well, there's a you know, I
think there is a fine line between arrogance and confidence,
and I think what we see, you know from Shadur
Sanders consistently is confidence. It's arrogance. And you know, I
think that did turn a lot of teams off. You know, again,
(09:08):
it sounded like that uh, you know, a story coming
out of the Giants that he was completely unprepared could
obviously had not taken a look at the at the playbook,
and I guess that was part of their draft process
with players that they were talking to that they brought in,
and so he wasn't willing to put forth the effort there,
(09:32):
you know. And I think there was some some deon
Sanders baggage, you know. I don't think that there were
teams out there that wanted to deal with with Dion,
you know. Uh, And so I think I think it
was all of those things, you know. But you know,
now that we've we're removed from it, you know, a week,
(09:53):
it certainly sounds like that a lot of people did
not have him as a first, second, third round draft
pick on their boards as far as quarterbacks were concerned. So,
you know, I think it's just I think it's just
all of those things, all those factors together.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
So a quote has reportedly been credited to Dion Sanders,
and I'm want to read this quote and get you
guys to react to it, and then we're going to
talk about how we feel the Cowboys did in the draft.
But this is in reference to Dion Sanders. I'm going
with Sodora reportedly going to go with Sodora to his
(10:32):
first meeting with Cleveland. Now I think Dion is his
unofficial agent. Maybe that's the logic there. But here's a quote.
I have a few theories about why this happened, referring
to the draft fall, but I'm not going to give
y'all a headline. I'll address the current situation and correct
it as needed. I promise it'll be handled accordingly. Sodora,
(10:59):
don't take no back seat to any QB. So Sidor
Sanders is now officially employed by the Cleveland Browns, and
his daddy is going to show up with that first
meeting to make sure his new employer understands that his
son does not quote take no back seat to any QB.
(11:20):
Y'all's reaction to.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
That, Okay, what the crap is he going to do?
I'm sorry that irritates me beyond belief. And he says
that I'm not going to give you guys a headline.
Well you just did because you just said that. So
you accomplished your goal. And you know what, if I
were the head coach of where he's going, I'm tell
(11:43):
him get your rear end out of the room. You're
not on the team. You don't need to be here.
There is nothing he can correct. There is nothing he
can do. This is a done deal. And if he
thinks that he is Dion Sanders and people are going
to look at me and go, well, we got to
make this right, he is dead wrong and it's not.
(12:08):
I guarantee you every NFL team knew this is not
worth our time and effort, and I think people are
going to be regretting they even drafted him if this
comes to fruition and it once again, as a teacher,
I deal with parents that are kind of like this,
not to this extreme, but my gosh, it is a
(12:29):
royal pain and you just sit there and go, what
are you thinking?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah, I again, yeah, well what power does he have
to influence the coaching playing decisions at the Cleveland Browns.
The answer to that is zero. So yeah, I don't
know what he thinks he's gonna do. And I would
just say, I mean, that's that's the kind of attitude
(12:57):
from Dion that I think a lot of teams did
not want to have to deal with, you know, And
so Cleveland picked him, so I guess they were they
were willing to to go down that road and deal
with him, But you know, I kind of scratched my
head at at why Cleveland even picked him to begin with,
(13:18):
because they had picked Dylan Gabriel earlier. So why in
the world, what do they have like five or six
quarterbacks in their room right now? You know. It's so
it's like, why why would you draft too, you know, players,
uh at the at the same at the quarterback position.
You know, in the same draft guys who are you know,
(13:42):
potentially you know, gonna be starters. I don't know, I
don't know what they're thinking, you know, even doing that,
I was a head scratcher.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
To me.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
It's Cleveland and and there are two NFL franchises that
always seem to do this, and it's the Cleveland Browns
and the New York Jets. It's like they always overdraft.
They're always in the searts for that franchise quarterback. Bless
their hearts, they never can't seem to defind it. I mean,
I you know, remember Baker Mayfield was going to be
(14:14):
you know, he was going to be the man in Cleveland,
and then what did they do? They traded him away.
You know, he's now in Tampa and I think having
some success in Tampa. So I'm not surprised that that
you know happened. And by the way, when we talk
about you know, teams colluding it, I didn't necessarily you know,
feel like anything or you know, involving race. But what
(14:39):
I did here one theory that I can buy into
is NFL owners are concerned about this next generation of
college athletes that are coming out of the NIL I
mean getting paid some of them, you know, millions of
dollars to just sit on the bench, as we've seen
in the University of Texas, you know, waiting for Manning
(15:01):
to be the starting quarterback. And so there's some concern
of these I'll just say it entitled athletes. It's next
generation of athlete that you know, they didn't have to
fight hard and work hard and only get a college
scholarship like they're coming out in many cases getting paid
more money because there is no salary cap in college
sports or there hasn't been, and that they wanted to
(15:23):
send a signal to the college athletes that, look, you're
coming to the NFL. You don't control the narrative in
the NFL. Yes, there's a players union, but it very
much is controlled. You know, it's an owner's league. So
do you guys think that has any merit that the owner.
You know, if there is any kind of collusion, that's
(15:45):
the owners wanting to send a message to college athletes
that you know, we're in charge here.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
You know, I don't think so because of the reason
that you're in effect about if this house settlement goes down,
you're going to have a salary cap in college level two.
And they're smart enough to know that. And I think
owners also their primary goal is to win football games,
(16:13):
and if the guy had talent, they would have drafted. So,
you know, I fair point athletes, especially in basketball, have
been coming out with a sense of entitlement for years,
and so I just don't buy into that a whole lot.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
All right, Shirley, Let's talk about the Cowboys and look
at their draft. Overall, their number one draft pick, they
picked someone from the offensive side of the ball, on
the line, Tyler Booker. In round two, they picked up
a defensive end from Boston College. Then they got a quarner,
a cornerback in round three. They finally drafted a running
(16:55):
back out of Texas in the fifth round. I'm not
going to go through the whole list here, but how
do you great? I mean, the Cowboys have a lot
of needs coming. You know, they had a lot of
needs coming in. Running back was probably their biggest need.
Wide receiver was a need. They needed some help on
the defensive side. How do you rate the Cowboys draft
that just happened?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I would I would give them an A with an asterisk,
and that asterisk is that they have a plan and
they follow through with that plan on getting a number
two wide receiver through free agency. So with that out
there that they did, they have they have a ton
(17:38):
of needs. They're not one or two players away when
we've we've talked about that at nauseum, right, So I
think they did a great job of not reaching, you know,
or going and getting somebody, uh you know, too too soon,
(18:00):
and just letting the players kind of come to them.
I think they let the draft board come to them,
and you know, I think especially the first three, uh
maybe even you know, their fourth pick and Jayden Blue
running back out of Texas, but certainly their first three,
you know, just hearing people talk about them, uh, you know,
(18:22):
I think I think these are certainly three potential starters,
like even this year, you know, certainly Booker I think
is going to be a plug and play guard. We
just lost obviously, Zach Martin, one of the one of
the greatest to ever play that position, especially for the Cowboys,
(18:42):
future Hall of Famer, And so I think we're gonna
we're gonna plug Booker in and he's gonna be able
to start, you know, day one and and do a
good you know, do a good job there. I think
that was an important position to fill because Dak Prescott
is not mobile anymore. Uh, and so that offensive line
(19:06):
has got to keep pressure off of him because he's
not going to be able to take off and run,
not be able to move like he used to. So
I think that's important. You know, Edge rusher, Uh, this
this kid sounds like he's a He has a phenomenal
you know engine uh and uh just never stops. And
so you know, if he can, he can pick up
(19:27):
the NFL game pretty quickly. It'd be nice to have
him opposite of Parsons, especially with with Sam Sam Williams
coming coming back off of uh what a knee injury
from from last year that kept him out all of
last year. So and we just lost d Laws, So
I think that I think that was a definitely a
(19:50):
position to need. This cornerback from East Carolina. He's coming
back off of an injury, but without the injury, a
lot of people said he was a first round draft pick.
So yeah, I love those those first three picks. And
I think Jayden Blue Man, he's he's got a ton
of speed. I know that, you know, he had some
(20:12):
problems this last year with putting the ball on the turf,
so hopefully that's something that you know, can can get addressed.
But I again, I love this draft for the Cowboys
with the caveat that they're going to go and get
a number two wide receiver because we desperately, desperately need
(20:33):
that because we don't have that on our team right now.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, I totally agree with that. This is not a
team that is going to go to the super Bowl
this year. This is a team that is just hoping,
hoping they have a shot to get to the playoffs,
and to do that, they have got to get a
second wide receiver. And so we'll see what happens. I
(20:58):
don't have faith that they will do it, just because
of the way they act in free agency, but you know,
we'll see what happens. I do think that their attitude
on a running back is the same as the Browns
on a quarterback. You know, let's just get eighteen guys
in the room and hopefully want to work out, so
(21:18):
we'll see.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Has it there been some kind of shift in the
NFL as a whole on how we draft running backs,
because it seemed like running backs used to be, you know,
your top top picks coming out, you know, in round one,
and now there seems to be in this league a
lot more focus on getting you know, getting that offensive line.
You know, left guard is a very very important position
(21:42):
in the current NFL style of play.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Now I completely agree. However, I think there might be
a slight trend going back to running backs, but I
don't think I'll ever reach what it had reached what
it was before. But yeah, I totally there seems to
be a The idea is that we need wide receivers
(22:06):
and a guy who can throw the ball more than
a running back.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
This could be a whole nother podcast, so I'll just
mention and we can talk about this one day.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
But it's.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
My theory on that is it's the influence of Texas
high school play in the seven on seven that really
has changed the college game and changed the NFL game
from what it was like when we were kids. I
do want to move over to the NBA playoffs and
not really dive deep into the NBA playoffs. Obviously, the
Mavericks had a quick exit, but I want to talk
(22:36):
about the Lakers. Does the Lakers quick exit in the
playoffs does it give any kind of credence to Nico
and trading Luca or is this just a fluke and
the Lakers will be back next season.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Okay, it wasn't a fluke, and it doesn't give credits
to Nico trading Luca. The Lakers are a very flawed team.
They have no inside presence and their coach did nothing
to adjust to that in that series. It's like, you know,
we're going to roll out the ball, do the same
(23:13):
thing we do, and we hope for a different result.
But the Lakers basically traded away the only inside presence
they had to the Mavericks, which is kind of ironic
when you think about it. And but no, I still
think what Nico did to the fans of Dallas in
what in his attitude after the trade gives zero credence
(23:39):
to that trade at all.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yeah, I don't think this legitimizes the trade at all,
you know, I certainly, Look, we've been watching Luka Doncics
for years and we know what a liability he is
on the defensive end of the court. That's not a
shock or a surprise to anyone. You know, He's he's
(24:01):
never gonna be a you know, a top defender. I certainly,
I certainly believe that, you know, were he to, you know,
get in a little better shape, lose a little bit
of weight, and put a little bit more effort into
the defensive end, he could be an average which I think,
which I think is all he needs to be because
(24:23):
of what he brings on the offensive side of the corps.
But he could be an average defender, you know, if
he if he did that, I think I think the
Lakers going out in the first round was more of
a result of you know, they they they just got
dominated on the inside. They don't have an inside game
(24:45):
anymore because a D is not there and Ad wasn't.
He's not a true five either, I mean he's a four,
you know, so they don't really have an inside presence anymore.
And even more than that, I think JJ Redd they're
head coach, their young head coach is the is the
main reason that they lost that first round series.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
It's a little bit ironic though, that there's so many
Maverick fans, rightly so upset on on this trade and
like why the Lakers. So what I'm hearing both of
you say is a contributing factor was a result of
the trade, Not so much Luca not contributing, but taking
(25:30):
away that inside game. I find that interesting. And then
there's other calls now on social media on is it
time for Lebron to retire? Your thought on that?
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yes, that's my thought. Yes, you got to play one
year with his son. That's what he wanted to do.
Now just ride off into the sunset and.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Look at the bright side for the Lakers. That will
open up two roster slots. There's a son who probably
doesn't need to be there, will leave too. They can't,
they don't have any reason to hold on to it.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Okay, no hesitation on that one. Let's talk major League Baseball.
What is going on with our Texas Rangers started off
the season hot, at one point really off and on
had the best record in the American League overall, certainly
leading in the West. But they've been on this slide.
They are only two to eight over their last ten games.
(26:28):
They've slidden down I think the third place in the
AL West now behind their new rival. I say new,
you know, since the Astros have joined the American League.
So I'm going to kick it to you first, Byron,
who just recently saw such a lovely game with the
Rangers losing thirteen to one. So what's going on with
(26:49):
the Rangers? Is it an offensive problem? Is it pitching?
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Well, last night everything was wrong, even there wasn't a
single thing. Even the barbecue last night was off. But uh,
it's an offensive issue. Their bats are just dead right now.
And when you demote one of your key offseason acquisitions
to the miners because he can't hit, that's a major
(27:16):
that's a major issue. And I think they realize they
have got massive offensive issues right now. They looked absolutely
clueless at the plate last night, and Seattle carried a
no hitter into the fifth inning, and I was shocked
when they got a hit because they look that bad.
(27:36):
But they've got to figure out what's going on, and
they've got to they've got to come out of the
slump because it is very bad and it is so
bad it makes you wonder can they recover from it?
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Yeah, it's this is in my mind. I can't remember
a Rangers team struggling as a whole to h to
hit the ball, and not just to hit the ball,
but to you know, get get runners in. You know,
there's there's been some games recently where they've actually gotten
(28:05):
a lot of hits, but they just can't get any
They couldn't get anybody home, you know. And so I
think I think what happened last night, and Corse Byron
was there in person, you know, to watch it, But man,
I think after they lost the previous series to the A's,
after I mean they had a their largest out you know,
(28:26):
run output of the season by far in game two
of that series, and you're thinking, Okay, maybe, you know,
maybe this will get them going, maybe this will give
them some confidence. And then immediately the next game they
get shut out, you know. And so I just I
think that that Oakland series just like took took it
out of them. I think I think the struggling just mentally,
(28:51):
you know, just to to have any kind of confidence
at the plate at all, And sounds like there their
body language last night, it was just it was just terrible,
you know. And so you know, for for one of
the first times in history that I can remember, you know,
we had this. We have an incredible starting pitching staff
(29:17):
as far as e r A right now, and this
was higher until you know, Jack Lyder got lit up
like a Christmas tree last night. But their their team,
their team pitching, uh, their eighth in Major League Baseball
with a three five six e r A. I mean
as about a week ago, we were we were like
(29:38):
third third in all of Major League Baseball in our
starting rotation. Like that's that's incredible. I think I read
a stat that that hadn't happened since for the Rangers
since nineteen eighty three, I think it was. And so
you know, we've we've had this incredible start to the
season as far as our starting rotation has concerned. And
(30:01):
yet the team batting like we're twenty sixth right now
in the league out of thirty teams, and two of
the teams that are you know, right below us or
the Colorado Rockies, who just narrowly avoided history this week,
and uh, you know, setting a record for the worst
start in Major League Baseball history, and the Chicago White Sox,
(30:26):
who were absolutely terrible last year and are terrible eg
in this year. So you know, you know, it's we
have a huge problem on offense. And I saw this,
I saw the staff that Jared Sandler posted earlier this
week that I think really describes why our offense is
struggling so much. So our chase rate and our swing rate.
(30:50):
Our chase rate this season is thirty point nine percent,
which is second highest in Major League Baseball, so it's
chasing pitches out of the zone. But the major League
Baseball average is twenty seven point seven, so we're you know,
we're three percentage points, almost four percentage points above the
major league average on chase rate. The swing rate season,
(31:13):
our season percentage is fifty one percent, which is the
highest uh the major league averages forty seven point one.
So again there's we're four points higher percentage points higher
there than major League Baseball. And that means we're not
taking pitches. We're not We're not we're we're not trying
to get walks. We're we're not trying to take pitches.
We're not you know, seeing what the pitchers there, We're
(31:36):
just going to there hacking and it's not just one
person or two people, it's it's the whole team. The
whole team's doing that. So to me, you know that
that tells me, I don't know who are I don't
know who are hitting coaches right now, but he may
be the fall guy for this, and maybe he needs
to be the fall guy for this. But you know,
as a team, like we've got to we have to
change our approach at the plate otherwise, you know, this
(32:01):
is this is gonna be a rough a rough season.
And man Berger getting sent down, Yeah he was a
key off season acquisition, but so is Jack Peterson and
he's hitting worse than Burger. So like you could have
taken your pick who you sent down yesterday. So you know,
it's this is problems everywhere.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Jack Peterson is lighting up the batting average at one
oh four. I almost guarantee I think I could do that.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Well, you would probably have more patients at the plate.
You'd play moneyball and take your take your you know,
hopes that just getting to walk and making it to base.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
I would have to have more patients at the play
because what Filder could throw me out at first base
the way I run?
Speaker 1 (32:48):
But yeah, no, I it's it's interesting that I was
thinking the same thing. Surely, like is this a hitting
coach problem? You know, certainly there's something that has to happen.
I don't know if it's a team meeting where we
you know, talk about it. I mean, clearly the season
is still young. Rangers are not that far out from
(33:09):
first place because it's still young. Uh they you know,
this is the you know, baseball does have its ebban
flows throughout the season. You know, there's always that inevitable
slump you go through where you're like the sky's falling.
I think the season is like gonna just be horrible
and then the bats start waking up and then you
feel good again. So you know, if we're going to
(33:30):
have a slump, a much rather have it, you know,
in April going into May, then in September, going in
October for obvious reasons. But it's gonna be interesting.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Now.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
I'll say this about Seattle. Seattle, they have put some
some big runs on the on the boards.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Uh this season.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Saw last Saturday, I caught a little bit, you know,
watching the thinking of Seattle versus the Marlins, and you know,
they scored eight in one inning. You know, they're there
toward the first top of the game, so I think
Seattle does have that. So you have the kind of
the perfect combination here. We do have good pitching, but
(34:10):
you're you're playing a team that's proven that they can
put some runs on the board, and then you got
the Rangers that are struggling. So we'll see what happens
in game two. But I'm not panicking yet, but this
is definitely something the Rangers have to figure out and
figure out rather quickly. Let's move over to college sports,
and I want to talk about Baylor football as we're
(34:33):
kind of going through or kind of finishing or wrapping
up this period of you know, where athletes are switching teams.
It looks like Baylor's got a pretty solid team. They've
lost a couple of players. But I want to talk
about this one story that I really laughed when I
saw this Byron, because I swear that you must have
opened up a new account called Brownie C F B
(34:56):
because this I think the C and B really stands
for byrom right, because this only has this account on
x only has two hundred and twenty three followers, is
why I joke about this. But they pushed out something
this week that Baylor Nation got excited. Like one account
picked it up and the next thing I saw like
five accounts talking about this the way too early Top thirty.
(35:20):
Did you guys see this, by the way, yes, okay,
did you see it? Shirley?
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Yeah, I think I did.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
So it's the top thirty And they ranked the top
thirty teams and number four on the list was our
Baylor Bears was number four. It was Penn State, Clemson, Texas,
and then Baylor. And you go to the comments and
people are like, Baylor number four, and he's like Big
twelve champs. So at least one random fan out there
(35:48):
that we really know is Chris Byram is picking Baylor
to win the Big twelve. So let's do r and
the spirit of that crazy tweet, let's do our own
way too early the top four. I'm not gonna make
you guys give me the top thirty because frankly, we
probably couldn't think of thirty teams this morning. But Birom,
(36:09):
I'll start with you. And really what we're saying is
who is gonna win each conference?
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Right?
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Because the top four is going to be the conference champions,
So who do you think who do you have as
your top four sitting here in May for the upcoming
football season?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
This is tough and let me apologize if you can't tell.
The mowers are here, Okay, Ohio State, Miami, Georgia. Because
I don't think Texas is gonna be as good as
people think they are, and I'm gonna go in the
(36:49):
Big Twelve. It's just pick a team. I'm gonna go
Texas Tech.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
A lot of people are saying Tech is going to win,
which is very interesting because I didn't expect you to
say that. So, Shirley, who is your way too early?
Top four?
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Boy? I gotta be honest with you, as I haven't
even really thought study this, so I got I've got
nothing to go on but the normal names. So I
but I will say I'll say this about about Baylor football.
I think I think we have the potential to absolutely
(37:27):
compete for the Big Twelve championship this year. Like I'm
I'm I'm kind of scared that I'm getting this excited
about this upcoming football season because we're Baylor fans and
you know, we we know what what always happens. But
you know, I really do believe that we're gonna We're
(37:47):
gonna pick up where we left off and continue to build,
you know, the momentum that we gained second half of
last season, and I think we've gotten better, uh this
off season with you know, transfer portal pickups and incoming freshmen.
So I am I'm super excited about you know what
(38:10):
what this season holds for for Baylor football. And so
I'm just I'll be the Baylor Homer. I'll pick Baylor
to win the Big Twelve. So there's one of your four.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Yeah, No, it's interesting. I think I think Baylors schedule
a little dicey to start off with at home against Auburn.
I think we're gonna learn a lot about the team
right off the bat, and then they travel to SMU.
SMU has improved, They've used the n AL portal pretty
smartly in Dallas. Those are your first two games. I'm
(38:40):
not worried about Sandford because it's you know Sandford.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Then you got Arizona State at home. You know, Oklahoma
State's just not that great lately, and that's there. You know,
your first conference road game, you got Kansas State at home.
TCU a winnable game in Fort Worth Cincinnati. I think
a winnable game on the road. Got UCF at home,
Utah at home at Arizona, you know, is also winnable game.
(39:07):
So I think the schedule and then you got Houston home.
I think the schedule certainly helps Baylor football to get
into the conference you know, championship game. So I'm with you.
It's it's definitely possible. Notice I didn't mention Texas Tech
on that list, So it's possible that the first time
Baylor sees Tech on the football field would be for
the Big Twelve championship. I think when you look at
(39:29):
the SEC, I think Georgia is a safe pick. I
think Texas is going to be better than what you're
thinking there byrom so I can I would pick Texas
to be in my top four. When I look at
what's going on in the in the Big Ten Conference,
Ohio State's the the easy pick because they always seem
(39:51):
to kind of compete with it. You know, Penn State
certainly had a great year, they had a great run,
you know, last year, you know, didn't make it all
the way, of course, but the fact that they were
in the conversation as you kind of you know, looking
at Penn State as well, and then in the ACC.
I mean, you know who's going to compete again. I mean,
(40:12):
ACC just is that conference. If you're going to survive,
that's a whole nother, you know, kind of question as
it relates to that. So anyway, it'll be fun to see.
All Right, it's that time of the podcast where we
do one more thing, and the one more thing is
a lot more in the background.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
So one more thing a random sound of the background.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
And I have no idea why he's hanging out by
this window so much. There's not that much grass there.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
He just he loves the podcast. He wants to listen.
So do you guys have any one more thing for
us today? Any nuggets?
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Baylor baseball picked up a big win last night. Scored
six in the bottom of the seventh. I believe to
beat a good Arizona State team to get the first
few victory of that series. So kind of hanging out
in the middle of the pack. So we'll see how
they end up the rest of the season.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Very good for Chris Shirley and Chris Byram. I'm Scott
Miller until next time, So long, everybody,
Welcome into another conversation with the chriss. I'm Scott Miller,
joined as always by it Chris Byram and Chris Shirley,
and We're going to kind of rapid fire different things
going on in the world of sports and gentlemen. I'm
going to start with what took place last weekend the
NFL Draft, and Byram's starting with you this morning. The
(00:24):
biggest story of the twenty twenty five draft came from
an athlete that did not get drafted in the first round,
or the second round or the third round, Sodora Sanders.
I mean, there's so much to unpack with this story,
but I want to kind of start with what has
been the most current topic that everyone's talking about, and
(00:46):
that's this prank call that took place. What are your
thoughts when you saw that story of the prank call?
Did you find it funny? Did you find it crimsworthy?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
What was you know?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Is this just a kid being a kid.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I think think there are several parts of this story
that are not well known yet. For instance, the NFL
sent out that number to the wrong people and it
shouldn't have The number should have never been sent to
this kid's dad. At Atlanta, but it was, and so
(01:21):
the NFL has a convenient scapegoat for a little bit
of what their mistake.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Is that the deep insive coordinators that why he should
have received that number.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Is that what you're saying, Yeah, it should have gone
strictly to general managers and then used, you know, for
and then used from their point of view. Instead it
got sent out to a very large group of people.
But I think the other thing, Do I find it funny?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
No?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And I don't think I find it funny because I
teach seventh graders, and when I have a seventh grader
do this, it's highly irritating. And I think it's just
why would you do this? Because the kid, even if
that slide is, you know, in many ways his fault,
(02:10):
why would you add to his spade? And I just
thought it was kind of a cruel trick, And it's
just kind of a statement of where our society's at
because many people are laughing thinking that was awesome, and
it really was just kind of sad.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Surely you got, you know, your dad of two boys
that are getting older, getting ready to go off to college,
all the fun things in the life stage you're in,
so you know, you see firsthand kind of some of
the silly pranks and things that boys do. As a dad.
What what do you think? I mean, because you know
the father got you know, he got hit with one
(02:50):
hundred thousand dollars fine, which to put in perspective, when
you're dealing with NFL money, you know, one hundred thousand
is not going to fill the same as it would
to you and I. But let's say you know, you
had a situation where you got fined twenty thousand for
something one of your sons did. What would be the
conversation at home?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
What are you thinking, you knucklehead? No, I mean there,
you know, there's there's shared responsibility here. Obviously, I absolutely
agree with byrum that, you know, there's no reason at
all that the decent defensive coordinator should have that number.
(03:30):
And that was one of the first thoughts I had
when I first heard about this. It's like, why in
the world does that guy have his number? You know,
it should just be the gms around the league that
have the numbers of you know, potential draft picks. But
you know so, so I think he's a little bit
at fault for even having that, you know, on his device.
(03:56):
But I mean, gosh, I mean, how how how cruel
do you have to be? You know that to play
a play a prank, a joke on somebody's potentially one
of the biggest moments of their lives, you know, so
(04:18):
there would certainly be some some grounding involved, probably from
from all things technology and you're stuck in the house,
in your room for a month or you know whatever.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I was in Atlanta this
week for business, so I met with a group and
of course there's some Falcon fans in the room, and
their general consensus was, yeah, my kid, would you know,
be paying at least half of that fine. Of course
a kid can't come up with fifty thousand, but yeah,
a lot of feelings about it. Now, if that prank
(04:56):
cannot happen, that would not be the big story we're
talking about. But the bigger story in the weekend was
the fact that Sanders fell in the first place. And so,
you know, Byron, what have you read about this? You know,
there's a lot of rumors out there that the NFL
owners kind of collectively agreed to let this kid slip.
(05:17):
You know, Sadora Sanders does have talent, I don't think
he's retire your number without dad being the coach talent,
But what happened? I mean, why were so many teams
passing on a quarterback like Sidora Sanders and frankly picking
up other quarterbacks that were not as well known.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Well, I don't think there's any collusion here. I think
anybody who tries to prove collusion has a very very
excuse me, very very long case to try to prove, basically,
because you have an African American quarterback who's drafted first,
and the league has shown they don't have issues with
(06:00):
that anymore. I think the reason why he fell is
what we're beginning to hear from a lot of NFL
talent scouts and from GM saying that he went into
these meetings and whether or not he was trying to
turn off teams he didn't want to go to. He
seemed disinterested. They would ask him questions about offensive theory.
(06:22):
He couldn't answer them. As they watched the film, he
tends the hold onto the ball too long. His arm
strength that's not all that great. His dad went with
him everywhere. It was kind of like a circus whenever
he would show up and they just decided we don't
want to deal with this, and he may not be
as good as is everybody thinks he is. And I
(06:45):
think he hurt himself greatly by his attitudes in some
of these meetings, and I think that's why he dropped.
It's really sad, but I also think it's it's not uncommon.
I mean, everybody thought Tim Tebow was the greatest quarterback
who ever lived at Florida, and we saw what happened
(07:06):
with him, so, I you know, I just quarterbacks drop
all the time. This just happened to be one of
the worst. But I think it's because of his own attitude.
From what we're hearing people said, he was extremely confident,
extremely condescending in all of these meetings, and they just decided,
(07:27):
we're not going to deal with this.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Well to that point, surely, you know. I mean, he's
what was the term he had in his draft room
legacy or legendary or something like that. I mean, he
spent more in his draft room. I've never heard of
someone building a draft room. Let me just start there.
Maybe I've missed it. I mean it's a trend I've missed.
But I mean his dad is dionn but he builds
(07:52):
this massive draft room, and you know, you've heard it
on the internet. X has talked about this, that he
will have spent more in his draft room than his
first contract will be playing for Cleveland.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, I don't recall someone building their own draft room
previously either, you know. I I absolutely agree with Bayrum.
There was number one zero collusion. The league wasn't against
uh Schador Sanders or or Dion Sanders per se had
(08:26):
absolutely nothing to do with you know, race and whatever,
you know. And so I think that's that's just a
bunch of bunch of garbage for anybody who's who's saying that.
You know, I think I think it was I think
it was arrogance more than anything else, you know. And
(08:47):
some people will argue, well, there's a you know, I
think there is a fine line between arrogance and confidence,
and I think what we see, you know from Shadur
Sanders consistently is confidence. It's arrogance. And you know, I
think that did turn a lot of teams off. You know, again,
(09:08):
it sounded like that uh, you know, a story coming
out of the Giants that he was completely unprepared could
obviously had not taken a look at the at the playbook,
and I guess that was part of their draft process
with players that they were talking to that they brought in,
and so he wasn't willing to put forth the effort there,
(09:32):
you know. And I think there was some some deon
Sanders baggage, you know. I don't think that there were
teams out there that wanted to deal with with Dion,
you know. Uh, And so I think I think it
was all of those things, you know. But you know,
now that we've we're removed from it, you know, a week,
(09:53):
it certainly sounds like that a lot of people did
not have him as a first, second, third round draft
pick on their boards as far as quarterbacks were concerned. So,
you know, I think it's just I think it's just
all of those things, all those factors together.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
So a quote has reportedly been credited to Dion Sanders,
and I'm want to read this quote and get you
guys to react to it, and then we're going to
talk about how we feel the Cowboys did in the draft.
But this is in reference to Dion Sanders. I'm going
with Sodora reportedly going to go with Sodora to his
(10:32):
first meeting with Cleveland. Now I think Dion is his
unofficial agent. Maybe that's the logic there. But here's a quote.
I have a few theories about why this happened, referring
to the draft fall, but I'm not going to give
y'all a headline. I'll address the current situation and correct
it as needed. I promise it'll be handled accordingly. Sodora,
(10:59):
don't take no back seat to any QB. So Sidor
Sanders is now officially employed by the Cleveland Browns, and
his daddy is going to show up with that first
meeting to make sure his new employer understands that his
son does not quote take no back seat to any QB.
(11:20):
Y'all's reaction to.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
That, Okay, what the crap is he going to do?
I'm sorry that irritates me beyond belief. And he says
that I'm not going to give you guys a headline.
Well you just did because you just said that. So
you accomplished your goal. And you know what, if I
were the head coach of where he's going, I'm tell
(11:43):
him get your rear end out of the room. You're
not on the team. You don't need to be here.
There is nothing he can correct. There is nothing he
can do. This is a done deal. And if he
thinks that he is Dion Sanders and people are going
to look at me and go, well, we got to
make this right, he is dead wrong and it's not.
(12:08):
I guarantee you every NFL team knew this is not
worth our time and effort, and I think people are
going to be regretting they even drafted him if this
comes to fruition and it once again, as a teacher,
I deal with parents that are kind of like this,
not to this extreme, but my gosh, it is a
(12:29):
royal pain and you just sit there and go, what
are you thinking?
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah, I again, yeah, well what power does he have
to influence the coaching playing decisions at the Cleveland Browns.
The answer to that is zero. So yeah, I don't
know what he thinks he's gonna do. And I would
just say, I mean, that's that's the kind of attitude
(12:57):
from Dion that I think a lot of teams did
not want to have to deal with, you know, And
so Cleveland picked him, so I guess they were they
were willing to to go down that road and deal
with him, But you know, I kind of scratched my
head at at why Cleveland even picked him to begin with,
(13:18):
because they had picked Dylan Gabriel earlier. So why in
the world, what do they have like five or six
quarterbacks in their room right now? You know. It's so
it's like, why why would you draft too, you know, players,
uh at the at the same at the quarterback position.
You know, in the same draft guys who are you know,
(13:42):
potentially you know, gonna be starters. I don't know, I
don't know what they're thinking, you know, even doing that,
I was a head scratcher.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
To me.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
It's Cleveland and and there are two NFL franchises that
always seem to do this, and it's the Cleveland Browns
and the New York Jets. It's like they always overdraft.
They're always in the searts for that franchise quarterback. Bless
their hearts, they never can't seem to defind it. I mean,
I you know, remember Baker Mayfield was going to be
(14:14):
you know, he was going to be the man in Cleveland,
and then what did they do? They traded him away.
You know, he's now in Tampa and I think having
some success in Tampa. So I'm not surprised that that
you know happened. And by the way, when we talk
about you know, teams colluding it, I didn't necessarily you know,
feel like anything or you know, involving race. But what
(14:39):
I did here one theory that I can buy into
is NFL owners are concerned about this next generation of
college athletes that are coming out of the NIL I
mean getting paid some of them, you know, millions of
dollars to just sit on the bench, as we've seen
in the University of Texas, you know, waiting for Manning
(15:01):
to be the starting quarterback. And so there's some concern
of these I'll just say it entitled athletes. It's next
generation of athlete that you know, they didn't have to
fight hard and work hard and only get a college
scholarship like they're coming out in many cases getting paid
more money because there is no salary cap in college
sports or there hasn't been, and that they wanted to
(15:23):
send a signal to the college athletes that, look, you're
coming to the NFL. You don't control the narrative in
the NFL. Yes, there's a players union, but it very
much is controlled. You know, it's an owner's league. So
do you guys think that has any merit that the owner.
You know, if there is any kind of collusion, that's
(15:45):
the owners wanting to send a message to college athletes
that you know, we're in charge here.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
You know, I don't think so because of the reason
that you're in effect about if this house settlement goes down,
you're going to have a salary cap in college level two.
And they're smart enough to know that. And I think
owners also their primary goal is to win football games,
(16:13):
and if the guy had talent, they would have drafted. So,
you know, I fair point athletes, especially in basketball, have
been coming out with a sense of entitlement for years,
and so I just don't buy into that a whole lot.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
All right, Shirley, Let's talk about the Cowboys and look
at their draft. Overall, their number one draft pick, they
picked someone from the offensive side of the ball, on
the line, Tyler Booker. In round two, they picked up
a defensive end from Boston College. Then they got a quarner,
a cornerback in round three. They finally drafted a running
(16:55):
back out of Texas in the fifth round. I'm not
going to go through the whole list here, but how
do you great? I mean, the Cowboys have a lot
of needs coming. You know, they had a lot of
needs coming in. Running back was probably their biggest need.
Wide receiver was a need. They needed some help on
the defensive side. How do you rate the Cowboys draft
that just happened?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I would I would give them an A with an asterisk,
and that asterisk is that they have a plan and
they follow through with that plan on getting a number
two wide receiver through free agency. So with that out
there that they did, they have they have a ton
(17:38):
of needs. They're not one or two players away when
we've we've talked about that at nauseum, right, So I
think they did a great job of not reaching, you know,
or going and getting somebody, uh you know, too too soon,
(18:00):
and just letting the players kind of come to them.
I think they let the draft board come to them,
and you know, I think especially the first three, uh
maybe even you know, their fourth pick and Jayden Blue
running back out of Texas, but certainly their first three,
you know, just hearing people talk about them, uh, you know,
(18:22):
I think I think these are certainly three potential starters,
like even this year, you know, certainly Booker I think
is going to be a plug and play guard. We
just lost obviously, Zach Martin, one of the one of
the greatest to ever play that position, especially for the Cowboys,
(18:42):
future Hall of Famer, And so I think we're gonna
we're gonna plug Booker in and he's gonna be able
to start, you know, day one and and do a
good you know, do a good job there. I think
that was an important position to fill because Dak Prescott
is not mobile anymore. Uh, and so that offensive line
(19:06):
has got to keep pressure off of him because he's
not going to be able to take off and run,
not be able to move like he used to. So
I think that's important. You know, Edge rusher, Uh, this
this kid sounds like he's a He has a phenomenal
you know engine uh and uh just never stops. And
so you know, if he can, he can pick up
(19:27):
the NFL game pretty quickly. It'd be nice to have
him opposite of Parsons, especially with with Sam Sam Williams
coming coming back off of uh what a knee injury
from from last year that kept him out all of
last year. So and we just lost d Laws, So
I think that I think that was a definitely a
(19:50):
position to need. This cornerback from East Carolina. He's coming
back off of an injury, but without the injury, a
lot of people said he was a first round draft pick.
So yeah, I love those those first three picks. And
I think Jayden Blue Man, he's he's got a ton
of speed. I know that, you know, he had some
(20:12):
problems this last year with putting the ball on the turf,
so hopefully that's something that you know, can can get addressed.
But I again, I love this draft for the Cowboys
with the caveat that they're going to go and get
a number two wide receiver because we desperately, desperately need
(20:33):
that because we don't have that on our team right now.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, I totally agree with that. This is not a
team that is going to go to the super Bowl
this year. This is a team that is just hoping,
hoping they have a shot to get to the playoffs,
and to do that, they have got to get a
second wide receiver. And so we'll see what happens. I
(20:58):
don't have faith that they will do it, just because
of the way they act in free agency, but you know,
we'll see what happens. I do think that their attitude
on a running back is the same as the Browns
on a quarterback. You know, let's just get eighteen guys
in the room and hopefully want to work out, so
(21:18):
we'll see.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Has it there been some kind of shift in the
NFL as a whole on how we draft running backs,
because it seemed like running backs used to be, you know,
your top top picks coming out, you know, in round one,
and now there seems to be in this league a
lot more focus on getting you know, getting that offensive line.
You know, left guard is a very very important position
(21:42):
in the current NFL style of play.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Now I completely agree. However, I think there might be
a slight trend going back to running backs, but I
don't think I'll ever reach what it had reached what
it was before. But yeah, I totally there seems to
be a The idea is that we need wide receivers
(22:06):
and a guy who can throw the ball more than
a running back.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
This could be a whole nother podcast, so I'll just
mention and we can talk about this one day.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
But it's.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
My theory on that is it's the influence of Texas
high school play in the seven on seven that really
has changed the college game and changed the NFL game
from what it was like when we were kids. I
do want to move over to the NBA playoffs and
not really dive deep into the NBA playoffs. Obviously, the
Mavericks had a quick exit, but I want to talk
(22:36):
about the Lakers. Does the Lakers quick exit in the
playoffs does it give any kind of credence to Nico
and trading Luca or is this just a fluke and
the Lakers will be back next season.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Okay, it wasn't a fluke, and it doesn't give credits
to Nico trading Luca. The Lakers are a very flawed team.
They have no inside presence and their coach did nothing
to adjust to that in that series. It's like, you know,
we're going to roll out the ball, do the same
(23:13):
thing we do, and we hope for a different result.
But the Lakers basically traded away the only inside presence
they had to the Mavericks, which is kind of ironic
when you think about it. And but no, I still
think what Nico did to the fans of Dallas in
what in his attitude after the trade gives zero credence
(23:39):
to that trade at all.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Yeah, I don't think this legitimizes the trade at all,
you know, I certainly, Look, we've been watching Luka Doncics
for years and we know what a liability he is
on the defensive end of the court. That's not a
shock or a surprise to anyone. You know, He's he's
(24:01):
never gonna be a you know, a top defender. I certainly,
I certainly believe that, you know, were he to, you know,
get in a little better shape, lose a little bit
of weight, and put a little bit more effort into
the defensive end, he could be an average which I think,
which I think is all he needs to be because
(24:23):
of what he brings on the offensive side of the corps.
But he could be an average defender, you know, if
he if he did that, I think I think the
Lakers going out in the first round was more of
a result of you know, they they they just got
dominated on the inside. They don't have an inside game
(24:45):
anymore because a D is not there and Ad wasn't.
He's not a true five either, I mean he's a four,
you know, so they don't really have an inside presence anymore.
And even more than that, I think JJ Redd they're
head coach, their young head coach is the is the
main reason that they lost that first round series.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
It's a little bit ironic though, that there's so many
Maverick fans, rightly so upset on on this trade and
like why the Lakers. So what I'm hearing both of
you say is a contributing factor was a result of
the trade, Not so much Luca not contributing, but taking
(25:30):
away that inside game. I find that interesting. And then
there's other calls now on social media on is it
time for Lebron to retire? Your thought on that?
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Yes, that's my thought. Yes, you got to play one
year with his son. That's what he wanted to do.
Now just ride off into the sunset and.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Look at the bright side for the Lakers. That will
open up two roster slots. There's a son who probably
doesn't need to be there, will leave too. They can't,
they don't have any reason to hold on to it.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Okay, no hesitation on that one. Let's talk major League Baseball.
What is going on with our Texas Rangers started off
the season hot, at one point really off and on
had the best record in the American League overall, certainly
leading in the West. But they've been on this slide.
They are only two to eight over their last ten games.
(26:28):
They've slidden down I think the third place in the
AL West now behind their new rival. I say new,
you know, since the Astros have joined the American League.
So I'm going to kick it to you first, Byron,
who just recently saw such a lovely game with the
Rangers losing thirteen to one. So what's going on with
(26:49):
the Rangers? Is it an offensive problem? Is it pitching?
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Well, last night everything was wrong, even there wasn't a
single thing. Even the barbecue last night was off. But uh,
it's an offensive issue. Their bats are just dead right now.
And when you demote one of your key offseason acquisitions
to the miners because he can't hit, that's a major
(27:16):
that's a major issue. And I think they realize they
have got massive offensive issues right now. They looked absolutely
clueless at the plate last night, and Seattle carried a
no hitter into the fifth inning, and I was shocked
when they got a hit because they look that bad.
(27:36):
But they've got to figure out what's going on, and
they've got to they've got to come out of the
slump because it is very bad and it is so
bad it makes you wonder can they recover from it?
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Yeah, it's this is in my mind. I can't remember
a Rangers team struggling as a whole to h to
hit the ball, and not just to hit the ball,
but to you know, get get runners in. You know,
there's there's been some games recently where they've actually gotten
(28:05):
a lot of hits, but they just can't get any
They couldn't get anybody home, you know. And so I
think I think what happened last night, and Corse Byron
was there in person, you know, to watch it, But man,
I think after they lost the previous series to the A's,
after I mean they had a their largest out you know,
(28:26):
run output of the season by far in game two
of that series, and you're thinking, Okay, maybe, you know,
maybe this will get them going, maybe this will give
them some confidence. And then immediately the next game they
get shut out, you know. And so I just I
think that that Oakland series just like took took it
out of them. I think I think the struggling just mentally,
(28:51):
you know, just to to have any kind of confidence
at the plate at all, And sounds like there their
body language last night, it was just it was just terrible,
you know. And so you know, for for one of
the first times in history that I can remember, you know,
we had this. We have an incredible starting pitching staff
(29:17):
as far as e r A right now, and this
was higher until you know, Jack Lyder got lit up
like a Christmas tree last night. But their their team,
their team pitching, uh, their eighth in Major League Baseball
with a three five six e r A. I mean
as about a week ago, we were we were like
(29:38):
third third in all of Major League Baseball in our
starting rotation. Like that's that's incredible. I think I read
a stat that that hadn't happened since for the Rangers
since nineteen eighty three, I think it was. And so
you know, we've we've had this incredible start to the
season as far as our starting rotation has concerned. And
(30:01):
yet the team batting like we're twenty sixth right now
in the league out of thirty teams, and two of
the teams that are you know, right below us or
the Colorado Rockies, who just narrowly avoided history this week,
and uh, you know, setting a record for the worst
start in Major League Baseball history, and the Chicago White Sox,
(30:26):
who were absolutely terrible last year and are terrible eg
in this year. So you know, you know, it's we
have a huge problem on offense. And I saw this,
I saw the staff that Jared Sandler posted earlier this
week that I think really describes why our offense is
struggling so much. So our chase rate and our swing rate.
(30:50):
Our chase rate this season is thirty point nine percent,
which is second highest in Major League Baseball, so it's
chasing pitches out of the zone. But the major League
Baseball average is twenty seven point seven, so we're you know,
we're three percentage points, almost four percentage points above the
major league average on chase rate. The swing rate season,
(31:13):
our season percentage is fifty one percent, which is the
highest uh the major league averages forty seven point one.
So again there's we're four points higher percentage points higher
there than major League Baseball. And that means we're not
taking pitches. We're not We're not we're we're not trying
to get walks. We're we're not trying to take pitches.
We're not you know, seeing what the pitchers there, We're
(31:36):
just going to there hacking and it's not just one
person or two people, it's it's the whole team. The
whole team's doing that. So to me, you know that
that tells me, I don't know who are I don't
know who are hitting coaches right now, but he may
be the fall guy for this, and maybe he needs
to be the fall guy for this. But you know,
as a team, like we've got to we have to
change our approach at the plate otherwise, you know, this
(32:01):
is this is gonna be a rough a rough season.
And man Berger getting sent down, Yeah he was a
key off season acquisition, but so is Jack Peterson and
he's hitting worse than Burger. So like you could have
taken your pick who you sent down yesterday. So you know,
it's this is problems everywhere.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
Jack Peterson is lighting up the batting average at one
oh four. I almost guarantee I think I could do that.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Well, you would probably have more patients at the plate.
You'd play moneyball and take your take your you know,
hopes that just getting to walk and making it to base.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
I would have to have more patients at the play
because what Filder could throw me out at first base
the way I run?
Speaker 1 (32:48):
But yeah, no, I it's it's interesting that I was
thinking the same thing. Surely, like is this a hitting
coach problem? You know, certainly there's something that has to happen.
I don't know if it's a team meeting where we
you know, talk about it. I mean, clearly the season
is still young. Rangers are not that far out from
(33:09):
first place because it's still young. Uh they you know,
this is the you know, baseball does have its ebban
flows throughout the season. You know, there's always that inevitable
slump you go through where you're like the sky's falling.
I think the season is like gonna just be horrible
and then the bats start waking up and then you
feel good again. So you know, if we're going to
(33:30):
have a slump, a much rather have it, you know,
in April going into May, then in September, going in
October for obvious reasons. But it's gonna be interesting.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Now.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
I'll say this about Seattle. Seattle, they have put some
some big runs on the on the boards.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
Uh this season.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Saw last Saturday, I caught a little bit, you know,
watching the thinking of Seattle versus the Marlins, and you know,
they scored eight in one inning. You know, they're there
toward the first top of the game, so I think
Seattle does have that. So you have the kind of
the perfect combination here. We do have good pitching, but
(34:10):
you're you're playing a team that's proven that they can
put some runs on the board, and then you got
the Rangers that are struggling. So we'll see what happens
in game two. But I'm not panicking yet, but this
is definitely something the Rangers have to figure out and
figure out rather quickly. Let's move over to college sports,
and I want to talk about Baylor football as we're
(34:33):
kind of going through or kind of finishing or wrapping
up this period of you know, where athletes are switching teams.
It looks like Baylor's got a pretty solid team. They've
lost a couple of players. But I want to talk
about this one story that I really laughed when I
saw this Byron, because I swear that you must have
opened up a new account called Brownie C F B
(34:56):
because this I think the C and B really stands
for byrom right, because this only has this account on
x only has two hundred and twenty three followers, is
why I joke about this. But they pushed out something
this week that Baylor Nation got excited. Like one account
picked it up and the next thing I saw like
five accounts talking about this the way too early Top thirty.
(35:20):
Did you guys see this, by the way, yes, okay,
did you see it? Shirley?
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Yeah, I think I did.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
So it's the top thirty And they ranked the top
thirty teams and number four on the list was our
Baylor Bears was number four. It was Penn State, Clemson, Texas,
and then Baylor. And you go to the comments and
people are like, Baylor number four, and he's like Big
twelve champs. So at least one random fan out there
(35:48):
that we really know is Chris Byram is picking Baylor
to win the Big twelve. So let's do r and
the spirit of that crazy tweet, let's do our own
way too early the top four. I'm not gonna make
you guys give me the top thirty because frankly, we
probably couldn't think of thirty teams this morning. But Birom,
(36:09):
I'll start with you. And really what we're saying is
who is gonna win each conference?
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Right?
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Because the top four is going to be the conference champions,
So who do you think who do you have as
your top four sitting here in May for the upcoming
football season?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
This is tough and let me apologize if you can't tell.
The mowers are here, Okay, Ohio State, Miami, Georgia. Because
I don't think Texas is gonna be as good as
people think they are, and I'm gonna go in the
(36:49):
Big Twelve. It's just pick a team. I'm gonna go
Texas Tech.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
A lot of people are saying Tech is going to win,
which is very interesting because I didn't expect you to
say that. So, Shirley, who is your way too early?
Top four?
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Boy? I gotta be honest with you, as I haven't
even really thought study this, so I got I've got
nothing to go on but the normal names. So I
but I will say I'll say this about about Baylor football.
I think I think we have the potential to absolutely
(37:27):
compete for the Big Twelve championship this year. Like I'm
I'm I'm kind of scared that I'm getting this excited
about this upcoming football season because we're Baylor fans and
you know, we we know what what always happens. But
you know, I really do believe that we're gonna We're
(37:47):
gonna pick up where we left off and continue to build,
you know, the momentum that we gained second half of
last season, and I think we've gotten better, uh this
off season with you know, transfer portal pickups and incoming freshmen.
So I am I'm super excited about you know what
(38:10):
what this season holds for for Baylor football. And so
I'm just I'll be the Baylor Homer. I'll pick Baylor
to win the Big Twelve. So there's one of your four.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Yeah, No, it's interesting. I think I think Baylors schedule
a little dicey to start off with at home against Auburn.
I think we're gonna learn a lot about the team
right off the bat, and then they travel to SMU.
SMU has improved, They've used the n AL portal pretty
smartly in Dallas. Those are your first two games. I'm
(38:40):
not worried about Sandford because it's you know Sandford.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Then you got Arizona State at home. You know, Oklahoma
State's just not that great lately, and that's there. You know,
your first conference road game, you got Kansas State at home.
TCU a winnable game in Fort Worth Cincinnati. I think
a winnable game on the road. Got UCF at home,
Utah at home at Arizona, you know, is also winnable game.
(39:07):
So I think the schedule and then you got Houston home.
I think the schedule certainly helps Baylor football to get
into the conference you know, championship game. So I'm with you.
It's it's definitely possible. Notice I didn't mention Texas Tech
on that list, So it's possible that the first time
Baylor sees Tech on the football field would be for
the Big Twelve championship. I think when you look at
(39:29):
the SEC, I think Georgia is a safe pick. I
think Texas is going to be better than what you're
thinking there byrom so I can I would pick Texas
to be in my top four. When I look at
what's going on in the in the Big Ten Conference,
Ohio State's the the easy pick because they always seem
(39:51):
to kind of compete with it. You know, Penn State
certainly had a great year, they had a great run,
you know, last year, you know, didn't make it all
the way, of course, but the fact that they were
in the conversation as you kind of you know, looking
at Penn State as well, and then in the ACC.
I mean, you know who's going to compete again. I mean,
(40:12):
ACC just is that conference. If you're going to survive,
that's a whole nother, you know, kind of question as
it relates to that. So anyway, it'll be fun to see.
All Right, it's that time of the podcast where we
do one more thing, and the one more thing is
a lot more in the background.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
So one more thing a random sound of the background.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
And I have no idea why he's hanging out by
this window so much. There's not that much grass there.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
He just he loves the podcast. He wants to listen.
So do you guys have any one more thing for
us today? Any nuggets?
Speaker 3 (40:49):
Baylor baseball picked up a big win last night. Scored
six in the bottom of the seventh. I believe to
beat a good Arizona State team to get the first
few victory of that series. So kind of hanging out
in the middle of the pack. So we'll see how
they end up the rest of the season.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Very good for Chris Shirley and Chris Byram. I'm Scott
Miller until next time, So long, everybody,
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