Bad Framber + Bad Bats = Bad Astros Loss In St. Louis

On today's epsiode of The A-Team, the guys talk about Bad Framber, a bad overall offensive showing, why it's amazing to be in Houston instead of Nico Harrison's office, what the Texans will do at No. 25 come draft night and more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised, my Earl.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Nolan Multipot.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
The magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston Sports Chill
lates down for the only homegrown afternoon team. Is talking
your teams? Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
A M.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
It's a Tuesday edition of the A Team.

Speaker 5 (00:56):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety, It's wex It's a See,
it's Cole Thompson. We are taking you into another award
winning edition of Astros on Deck coming up.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
At five thirty. I hope it ends a.

Speaker 5 (01:08):
Lot better than the one that we led you into
last night, the opener of that game between the Astros
and the Cardinals.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
That was.

Speaker 5 (01:17):
That was over before it began. By the way, Cole
is not aware of the recurring theme on our show
during Astro season, at least during this latest era of
Astros baseball, but he is about to become stunningly aware
of it here in the first segment today, because that
last night wex that was bad fromber.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
And he does exist.

Speaker 6 (01:36):
Yeah, too bad he didn't have his ace level stuff
because the definitely would have won after scoring no runs
at the first eight innings.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
That's beside the point. Yeah, you have argued for the
whole bad fromber thing.

Speaker 6 (01:47):
You know, give me a season's worth of this, Give
me five starts like this over a ten start span.
Find an ace and baseball, and then show me the
starts like this that that person doesn't have.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
They all have them, and they're still ass as is he. Yeah,
that's I feel like that's oversimplifying it, But it's a fact.

Speaker 6 (02:04):
Why do you think he's near the top of the
er lead every single year? Why do you think he's
the most innings pitched guy in the league for four
years running. Why do they always have a chance to win?
When you say always in sports, it's relative when he's
out there on the mountain because he has so few
outings like that. His worst year was just a couple
of years ago, the year of course he threw the

(02:24):
no hitter. He had so many games like this and
we're like, what's going on?

Speaker 4 (02:29):
He was good farmer for that night. He just wasn't.

Speaker 6 (02:32):
He was so inconsistent, which would have been a good
year to say, well, there definitely is a little bit
of Jeckyll and Hyde. He actually was very consistent. He
was consistently not an ace for too much of that season,
and we're on the front side of the year. He's
had two good starts to two bad starts, because it's
at some point it is only about the results, and
that's fair here in twenty twenty five and two of

(02:52):
his results were not good, even though in the first
of his two what would be considered some par starts,
he went out there and gave him the addition innings
needed to not kill the team. But I think there's
also a little bit of balance to give him a
little bit of additional credit for his two good starts.
How many runs is he allowed in his two good starts?

Speaker 4 (03:10):
Zero? None.

Speaker 6 (03:12):
Yeah, he's you're gonna win, like he's not helping start winning.

Speaker 4 (03:16):
But good is relative. He's great in the good fromber starts.
You're not gonna lose. If he gives up zero runs,
you're gonna win. Ninety five percent of those starts. You
weren't even guaranteed to lose. Yesterday's start well but not wanting.
You're started to give up seven runs and four innings.
It's clearly the goal. It's not great cop horrible cop,
it's good cop bad cop. Thus, good from or bad Frommer.

(03:37):
That's yeah. I mean, it's gonna be a long long time.

Speaker 6 (03:40):
I'm way way deeper into his season for me to
come on to jump on board that train.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
And you're right, I just don't believe it.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
You're right the offense again, if you don't want us
to think it's and I'm listen, I'm not expecting them
to put up thirteen fourteen runs every single night. But
I'm also you know, I don't It's okay to not
get shut out until the very way moments of the game.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
It's okay.

Speaker 6 (04:01):
Yeah, Sunny Gray is not an ace, although he has
the ace level stuff.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
He pitched like an ace in yesterday's game.

Speaker 6 (04:07):
But some of that is because who's throwing against, because
we've seen it too many times through their first sixteen games.
Whoever is throwing against the Astros, they usually look pretty good.
Because the Astros have one of the worst offenses in
baseball this year, It's going to happen. It could happen
tonight against Eric Fetti, it could happen tomorrow afternoon against Matts.
It's who the Astros are currently. I do not anticipate

(04:28):
this lasting too much longer, and certainly the longer it lasts,
the more difficult it's gonna be the stomach. Because last
night's game was one sided. It was one of those
all right. They didn't do anything well. They didn't field
the ball well either, so they weren't gonna win, no problem.
It's the games they should be winning with one of
the best pitching staffs. It's the games where they've pitched

(04:48):
themselves in due position to win, but their offense can't
do anything. Their bullpen overall has been exceptional. They're pitching
staff overall. Because it's a bad start from Ronelle, a
couple of bad starts from fromber. That's three games, four
games maybe out of your sixteen. The other twelve games,

(05:09):
your era is not going to look very good. And
it doesn't their middle of the pack barely, but their
other numbers are awesome. They're blowing hitters away. They're number
one in baseball in strikeouts. Nobody's getting hits off them.
Till last night, they're in the top five in the
categories you would look at most me to dictate are
you pitching well? Top five, and they're seven and nine

(05:30):
because they don't score, and yesterday is not the example
of it, but that's the overall big picture through sixteen.

Speaker 5 (05:35):
Yeah, it was just it was one of those nauseating
nights where it felt like it was over before it began,
and nauseating.

Speaker 6 (05:42):
It was baseball, No baseball is and did not almost
gets sick during the game last night.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
I was fine, that's fine.

Speaker 5 (05:48):
But I think I speak for several astros fan to
get a barf bag.

Speaker 4 (05:52):
I didn't have to, you know, get some get someone
to bring me a cold compress. Some of us have emotions,
some of us don't. Well, it can be emotional, but
oh you can't to up chuck. Well, look, I didn't
say I threw up. I said it was nauseating.

Speaker 5 (06:04):
Does nausea and actually have well, it can create a
vomit that step away. Sometimes you can hold your cookies
in instead of tecatically.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
You felt like throwing up, but you just didn't. You
create indigestion. It was a it was a heartburn kind
of evening in Saint Louis.

Speaker 6 (06:20):
Saint Louis, Saint Louis, tonight and tomorrow, the off day
on Thursday, the best team in baseball Friday, Saturday, Sunday
with the San Diego Padres. So you know what is
in store for a team that's kind of just muddling
their way through the season. They're seven to nine through
sixteen games. They've yet to win two consecutive games the
entire season. They've lost three in a row, actually with

(06:41):
the sweep at the hands of the San Francisco Giants, which, again,
as we head into this second consecutive National League series,
they're not any good against the National League this year.
They're two and five and they're playing the best of
the National League teams this weekend.

Speaker 5 (06:58):
So did you just say that there was an NL
West team that was the best team in baseball and you.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
Were not referring to the Dodgers. Is that you just
did on the Astros schedule this weekend? No, I know that.

Speaker 6 (07:09):
So if I say they're playing the best team in
baseball this weekend, it can't be the Dodgers. So you
really believe that the current best team in baseball without
a shadow of a doubt, debateless. We would have the
worst talk show ever if we were debating it, because
it's stupid. They're absolutely not playing like the best team
in baseball. The Padres are. It's not even close. It's

(07:30):
not worth discussing the Padres are the best team in
baseball today on April fifteen.

Speaker 5 (07:34):
Well, allow me to use your own words against you here.
Over the course of an entire season, wex. I don't
think they'll be the best team in baseball. I do
think the Dodgers will be.

Speaker 6 (07:44):
I wish the Astros weren't playing the current best team
in baseball this week.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
It always feels like they catch teams like that. They're
not catching them.

Speaker 6 (07:52):
The Padres probably are at least the second best team
in the National League.

Speaker 4 (07:56):
They're awesome.

Speaker 6 (07:57):
And when everybody's healthy and they're hitting, and no nobody's
pitching like them, nobody's pitching like them, they're incredible.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
They can do this.

Speaker 6 (08:05):
What they haven't done is get it all lined up
together the last several years. But they've been a thorn
in the Dodger's side without necessarily being better than them.
They beat them once in the postseason. This team's great,
really really good. And with Jackson Merrill turning into the
next great Padres star, they're even better.

Speaker 4 (08:24):
Well, I'm glad we're catching them.

Speaker 6 (08:25):
Then May they're only five hundred away from home. Okay,
they're eleven and zero, and their home ballpark this year
Peco is beautiful, by the way it is.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Have you been there. I've been to the park. I've
not seen a game at the park. Well, how did
that happen?

Speaker 6 (08:39):
I've been to the Oracle also, but I have not
seen a game there the same trip. We were there,
but just did not purchase tickets and go see a game.
Out of the things on the slate of the itinerary.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
Oracle Arena Oracle Park where they call it now three
M Park, I don't know with Candlestick the one in
San Francisco. Isn't it called or Point? So I said
it right? You did well.

Speaker 5 (09:03):
When you say Oracle, I just think of, you know,
bad memories for the Rockets had a diglapidated NBA arena
next to a dilapidated I think.

Speaker 6 (09:09):
You were asking me if I had seen a Golden
State Warriors game years ago.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
I figured you were talking Padres, you've probably been to
a Warriors game.

Speaker 6 (09:15):
I've been to a bunch of Warriors Rockets playoff games
in California.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
Sounds terrible. It was, as expected, a bunch of douchebags.

Speaker 6 (09:24):
The reason I really actually didn't like it is because
where they put the additional media. Because I was doing
TV at the time. So I sat in my seat
for maybe five minutes of the game, and the rest
of the game, I was using my video camera equipment
and they had a stationed in a walkway behind the

(09:45):
top deck or the bottom deck, but people were walking
both behind me and in front of me, not in
front of the camera. But I was basically sitting in
a Warriors section of fans.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
Obviously that was an idea. Absolutely, I got done what
I needed to get done. It sounds like I would
have gotten arrested if I were in your shoes.

Speaker 6 (10:02):
You got to have that, you know, video that you
shoot yourselves, you're allowed to do it.

Speaker 4 (10:05):
So I did it.

Speaker 6 (10:06):
Well, wait, a typical solo trip for the MMJ that
I was.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
Multimedia journalism.

Speaker 5 (10:13):
That is fancy speak for we are too pay a photographer,
That's what that.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
Is, right, Well, we don't.

Speaker 6 (10:19):
They just don't have the money for it. It's not
they're too cheap, there's no there's no fund.

Speaker 4 (10:23):
Well maybe you'd have them if you put out a
better primect. Just don't have it.

Speaker 5 (10:27):
Yeah, we've heard that before, all right. Speaking of the Warriors,
they've got a big game to a.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
Big game tonight.

Speaker 6 (10:32):
Never won one before, never been in one before. Now
they've been in one before three times.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
They've never won. This is their third playing game. They
must be No, this is their fourth playing game. They
must suck now. They're the worst team in NBA Playing
tournament history.

Speaker 5 (10:45):
Imagine having to even be in a playing game, Rockets
could never.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
They have been in the playing tournament twice. This is
the third time.

Speaker 6 (10:52):
One year they lost both games good and the other
year they lost their first game as a nine to
ten game and that was it. They've played three times,
they've lost all three times. It's during the Steph Curry era,
but different eras of his health. They host the Grizzlies.
They're roughly a touchdown favorite, and amazing to me, why

(11:13):
that's just a lot I think. I mean, they just
beat him one thirty four in Memphis this month and
Steph had fifty two.

Speaker 4 (11:22):
Yeah, that's.

Speaker 6 (11:24):
It wasn't well, that's what's so great about Houston.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
That's still missed me by national media. I said this,
I don't I don't know. I've been on so many
different venues and platforms. I'm not puring out there.

Speaker 6 (11:38):
I said it, but I made the point that you're
you're writing up, you're devising and you're displaying the formula
to slow down, to stop. It was on TV we
it was on Space City Home Network that night with
Calvin and we're this is the formula to stop Steph Curry.
To put your best foot forward and try to slow
him down and force him into an uncomfortable game.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
Which worked.

Speaker 6 (12:00):
He shot one of ten, made one three, which was
a basically heave right before halftime, and you held them
to three points. But no other team can follow your
game plan because they don't have the same personnel. They
don't even have close to the same personnel. There's teams
that don't have a defender on the wing as good
as Dylan Brooks. There's teams that don't have a defender
on the wing as good as Tarry Easton. And every

(12:21):
team doesn't have a defender on the wing as good
as a men Thompson.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
And the Rockets have all three. And the Rockets have
all three.

Speaker 6 (12:26):
It matters Adams well. Adams on Curry is a mismatch, Yeah,
in your.

Speaker 5 (12:31):
Favors the Wiverriors is a very very big mismatch for them.

Speaker 6 (12:35):
Yeah, I'm just talking specific to Curry. If you stop
Curry like the Rockets. Their game plan worked. I wasn't
a big fan of it because it's very unfun to
watch layup drills for Gary Payton, the second and bucket
festivals for Brandon Pajemski and this guy can't miss from
Buddy Healed.

Speaker 4 (12:53):
But that's what they wanted.

Speaker 6 (12:54):
Let the other guys shoot the ball, score the points,
and don't let Steph do it. And they won because
it worked. They were able to execute that. I don't
think any other team can, and I'm not sure that
they'll continue to do that. One thing I do know,
the Grizzlies cannot. The Grizzlies will try to outscore them.
If the Grizzlies advance to play the Rockets by winning

(13:15):
this playing game tonight.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
It's gonna be a similar score to that one.

Speaker 7 (13:18):
You just.

Speaker 5 (13:20):
I agree, and that's fine. I would I would laugh
my ass off if the Warriors didn't even win to
get to the Rockets.

Speaker 6 (13:27):
They yes, if they don't, there's no other way to
meet Houston in this round.

Speaker 4 (13:31):
This is it winter places.

Speaker 6 (13:32):
Houston losers not eliminated, but they fall into Now you
have to win or you're out of the playoffs. But
your gift for winning is playing Oklahoma City.

Speaker 4 (13:43):
Now you're in dead place. Just that's this game. You
would think.

Speaker 6 (13:47):
It's not a I'm not anti Rockets, I'm not dogging them.
I would think both the interim coach and the multi
time champion coach that are coaching their respective squads tonight
are making sure they realize, do you want advance to
play Houston or do you want to lose? Be put
in a losing you're done with the entire season situation,

(14:08):
with the reward being playing Oklahoma City, which would you prefer?
It's pretty clear and it's not an anti rocket stance.
It's common sense.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
Sounds like drowning or death by fire to me. But hey,
what do I know.

Speaker 5 (14:20):
I'm just a guy in Houston hosting a sports talk
show that slanted towards your Houston Rockets. All right, we
are your home for Rockets basketball, we are your home
for Astros baseball. And in that vein, over the course
of the afternoon before we get you to Astros on deck,
you will hear from a lot of Astros. Hayden was
Nesky will we'll have a replay of that interview that
you and Ross conducted a little while ago. We'll also

(14:41):
hear from Joe Aspata for his weekly visit with the station.
All that and more coming up on a Tuesday edition
play in edition of the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety Hello, darkness, smile friend,
I've come to.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
Talk with you. All right, Seriously, Cole, take it easy.
It's not Thomas show with Ross. Why is it so quiet?
I mean, I know it's a quiet song, but why
is he playing it solo?

Speaker 5 (15:17):
Because he probably knows nobody wants to hear it? Did
you dislike Simon or Garfunkle?

Speaker 4 (15:22):
More? Not a show topic?

Speaker 8 (15:25):
It is now exactly tell me one thing about Garfunkle,
one thing about either of hair d Carl married Carly Simon.
There probably way to go like that thing, he said. One,
look at what you're doing. I don't want this.

Speaker 6 (15:44):
How you're not talking about the bump music, especially when
it sucks?

Speaker 4 (15:47):
How is that a good thing? Though? What? What about?
What does Carly Simon have to do with Paul Simon?
He was married to her?

Speaker 6 (15:57):
Yeah, but you like her because she wrote one James
Bond theme?

Speaker 4 (16:04):
Or is there some other reason we like her because
she's so vain?

Speaker 6 (16:07):
No, we don't. Again, this is Matt Thomas show's stuff.
Hey what you're is she popular? Not anytime soon or recently?
I guess a better way to say.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
Can we talk about you being a wet blanket? We
talk about seeing it right now and it's not even
sopping out the topic. It's still happening.

Speaker 8 (16:22):
Ac over here is mister doom and Gloom about bad frombers.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
So Hello Darkness, my old friend. At least I keep
it relevant. He's honestly.

Speaker 6 (16:32):
With no music and just say the lines of the
song that makes sense, Hello Darkness, my old friend.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
I like that. Can you do that?

Speaker 7 (16:40):
No?

Speaker 4 (16:40):
No, he's this segment's over.

Speaker 6 (16:42):
He has two more to go before we get to
the television portion of our day, and we've already run
the next segment. He can't do because I sing the
bump music for the next segment.

Speaker 5 (16:51):
That's why I can You know us how it's okay
if Wex is wanting to do something musical, it's pre
produced material.

Speaker 4 (16:57):
The other two of us we are not allowed.

Speaker 6 (16:59):
Well, he's just reacting to the show topics, which is
an ideal trait for someone who's a part of this show,
which he is.

Speaker 4 (17:04):
We like that. Uh, just you know, but we don't
like this, and me meaning you don't like it, I
mean we like that. We don't like that like you've
not And hello dark Dissa, my old friend for a
random one game losing streak, I'll tell you what lost

(17:24):
one game in a row, I'll give you. Okay, So
fantasy something deeper to it all.

Speaker 5 (17:30):
If you're playing fantasy baseball as another separate set of issues,
that's that's therapy in and of itself.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
But it's cheaper than therapy. Ac it is.

Speaker 5 (17:39):
It tells me that you need more therapy because I
fantasy football is bad enough.

Speaker 4 (17:44):
I can't imagine doing that.

Speaker 6 (17:46):
I've played them all and the reasons you're describing are
why I'm only playing football and have for many many years.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
You need a break.

Speaker 6 (17:52):
Yeah, Fantasy baseball is every single day. It's it's exceptional
for what we do, what Cole does, because you're gonna
know everything that happened with everything player and every single game.

Speaker 4 (18:01):
People childless people is more like it.

Speaker 6 (18:03):
It's a bit much, and there aren't true You may
you might have a league where it's my team against
your team for the week Sunday or Monday through Sunday,
and that's fun and there's some matchup fun to it.
In the NBA, you can do it similarly, but you're
really all you're figuring out, well, is this guy playing
three games this week or is this guy playing four
games this week? And how many minutes? And does he
have an ankle injury? And it's a honor minish restriction,

(18:25):
and is this the game he's sitting out this week
because they're playing it back to back. You have those
elements at football, but you got a week to figure
them out. And they tell you ninety minutes before the game, dummy,
take this receiver out of your lineup. He's an active,
don't play him, and guess what somebody's gonna be playing
in his place. And you probably knew that that player

(18:47):
was already hurt, so maybe you have the player playing
in his place. It's it's just different, and you're I
hope everybody's playing in a fantasy football league where it's
my roster against your roster. Not ever scores most points
by the end of the season.

Speaker 4 (19:02):
Lame.

Speaker 5 (19:03):
Yeah, Well again, it's it's too much of a commitment
for somebody like me. I can barely get here on
time every day. There's no sense in.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
Rats you're two for two this week.

Speaker 5 (19:12):
Yeah, well, I haven't been late to the actual show yet.
That is the only when I did morning show.

Speaker 6 (19:17):
Yeah, well that's how could you be late to yesterday's show? Well,
I told you we were on the air an hour
before we were. Well, challenge me tomorrow when we have
a late start to our show. Man, I thought the
Astros game, I thought first pitch was at one fifteen.

Speaker 4 (19:30):
I thought there was a rain delay. I'll bet I'll
be there soon.

Speaker 5 (19:33):
By the way, this is a little inside baseball peak
behind the curtain, the fact that the Saint Louis Cardinals
decided to randomly start two games in a row at
six forty five instead of any time after seven o'clock. Therefore,
it's during our show that the pregame falls and we
have to do.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
It, get to do it, have to do it.

Speaker 5 (19:52):
Is the dumbest thing ever, absolutely who starts a baseball
game at a quarter to seven?

Speaker 6 (19:59):
Honestly, Tonight, Tuesday, April fifteenth, Major League Baseball, we have
the following start times Astros game.

Speaker 4 (20:06):
Like you said, six.

Speaker 6 (20:07):
Forty five in Saint Louis, we have three games starting
at five forty. We have one game starting at five
forty five.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
These the local times that they're starting this.

Speaker 6 (20:16):
When as we sit and breathe here in Houston, these
are the times these games will be starting. So you're
starting at five to forty the Philadelphia Phillies in Philadelphia
in Philadelphia, Well, for what purpose?

Speaker 4 (20:26):
To get the people off the streets earlier.

Speaker 5 (20:30):
You can't get the people off the streets unless you
get the fentanyl off the streets.

Speaker 4 (20:33):
We've got you. We've got six oh five starts.

Speaker 6 (20:35):
We have a six zh seven start, multiple six forties.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
It's not even about hour, it's about the time of hour.

Speaker 6 (20:44):
Different games starting at the forty five, and you're freaking
out of it.

Speaker 5 (20:48):
I'm not freaking out. I'm saying it's stupid. It's pretty right.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
There's a difference.

Speaker 5 (20:52):
I'm freaking out about certain things. I'm saying this is
stupid because I'm right it is. It's very important.

Speaker 4 (20:59):
Why is it import though?

Speaker 5 (21:00):
It isn't like if you're honestly, if you're trying to
get people into your like for example, if the Rockets
did this all right.

Speaker 4 (21:08):
Off a phone call to Cardinals pr and ask them,
why don't you do it? Because it's not important that
that's your opinion. It's very important to me.

Speaker 6 (21:17):
I for you guys that don't know, we are meticulous
with our record keeping for the program and in an
effort to recognize, well, this segment was a hit, this
interview was great, This maybe wasn't you know?

Speaker 4 (21:28):
When are we gonna do things?

Speaker 6 (21:29):
We have things planned out and so we have a
little rundown for the program and it indicates what we've
talked about or what we intend to talk about. For
segments that we have not gotten to yet. What is
this one has X comes up at two thirty, three
thirty with Haygen was Nesky. Four o'clock the ongoing the
Texans with the twenty fifth pick in the draft will select.
We'll do that at four o'clock. We'll hear from Joe A.

(21:50):
Spotta in the segment that follows. We've got our signature
segment at four thirty.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
As a segment.

Speaker 6 (21:55):
Yeah, astros on Deck begins at five thirty because of
the ridiculous start time that we've wasted our time talking
about and at two seventeen this particular segment, I'm sure
it will say wasted time talking about Carly Simon's husband
and his partner. And then wasted time with stupid baseball
start times cheers. Luckily, we still have forty seconds left

(22:16):
in the segment to write the ship. You can salvage
this segment for your standards. It's unsalvagable in your opinion.

Speaker 8 (22:23):
Yes, here's the best conversation I've had on this show.

Speaker 4 (22:26):
Cool.

Speaker 6 (22:27):
This is here's how it's gonna get a Segment of
the Day material.

Speaker 4 (22:30):
It's this segment of the day is the show man.
We had all day to think about all these greats. Man,
I can't wait to talk about this. I wish I
was on right now. We should go live. This has
just happened. We need to get this off our chest.

Speaker 6 (22:42):
Fire off some phone calls, find me on social media,
come to my house, meet me at the bar, let's talk.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
About it in the streets. But we chose to talk
about it.

Speaker 5 (22:50):
It is my goal to make my co host breakout
in hives at least once per week, if not once
per show.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
On that because we yes, you had high. Right now,
I don't have high. People don't know that. You're just
absolutely just broken out.

Speaker 5 (23:05):
Yeah you got he's got his mouth is dry, he's
gotta go.

Speaker 4 (23:09):
He's gonna get something to drink. When we come back.

Speaker 5 (23:13):
Oh, WEX is gonna love this because it is our
best of X and I have got at least one item,
at least one item that is completely non sports related
and it's gonna be your favorite part of the segment,
and I would venture to guess it'll be Cole's favorite
part of the segment.

Speaker 4 (23:29):
That is straight ahead.

Speaker 5 (23:30):
You will not want to miss it.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 3 (23:42):
We should be putting out between five and fifteen posts
a day.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media. History repeats itself type, Ben, You'll succeed.
Never doubt that you're the one who pust no one building.
You're the best. Nothing's gonna every top.

Speaker 9 (24:03):
You know, you're the.

Speaker 8 (24:04):
Best posting ever single day.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
You're the best of it, breaking the entire internet.

Speaker 5 (24:19):
All right, WEX got a beverage and some uh, what
do you get penicillin for hives?

Speaker 4 (24:24):
What helps that?

Speaker 6 (24:26):
So on the old X platform we find one of
the talking heads for the NBA on ESPN. It's a
very simple post, but I'm only here for the comments.
I know you have another item that has much more
life to it than this, but it wasn't even that
long ago. Less than two hours ago, Kendrick Perkins rolled

(24:49):
through his thoughts on the awards for this upcoming awards circuit,
which will take place during the postseason. First Team All
NBA includes one interesting name. We don't really care about
that right here, but he has Kay Cunningham there, he wrote,
poots his MVP SGA Most Improved Player.

Speaker 4 (25:12):
He eats the Zubots.

Speaker 6 (25:13):
Nothing there but one selection brings us back to the
H or to the H for himself as well. Coach
of the Year Email Udoka posted that just before one
o'clock earlier today. No comments from him other than the
fact Coach of the Year Email Udok I figured there'd
be some comments worthwhile here on Best of X. That's
what we're here for. I'm here for the comments, Pierre says.

(25:35):
So no, JJ, the Lakers hate need to stop perk
A couple of laughing emojis. Stop it. It's Kenny Atkinson. Nope,
it should be mass as in Joe Missoula. That was
sent in by at Missoula underscore mewse, but a lot
of people from the H were also following along, and
it should be unanimous. The Rockets went from eleventh in

(25:58):
the West last year to second, and they did it
with the same core guys. Dave says, actually, not a
bad pick. Coach of the Year on the other side
of things should be JJ. He had no coaching experience
but managed to get the Lakers the third seed.

Speaker 4 (26:12):
In the West. You've got to be kidding me.

Speaker 6 (26:14):
No, I don't think he's a bad suggestion. I would
not vote for him, but I'm sure a lot of
other people will. But some of it is for those
reasons that were described, and that's a problem. I don't
really have a problem saying JJ Reddick earned my vote.
I think I could probably see some people determining that.
But if those are your reasons, those are really really bad, bad,

(26:36):
bad reasons. What you did before this year I don't
think has any bearing. Just like all the other awards
in history of sports, it shouldn't matter. It shouldn't matter
if USC was number one in two thousand and four
and they won the national title on the football field.
They are not extending the season the next year. When
you put your preseason vote together and you keep it

(26:56):
there all year, oh they're gonna be the number one team.
All year until somebody beats them. They're the reigning champs.
That's stupid. So is this So he wasn't coaching before,
so that makes him better than the guys who were
coaching before. I only care what you did this year.
It's a this year award. You want to vote for
JJ this year, great, tell me what he did this year.
It's the only thing you should consider, truly and honestly,
that's all that matters.

Speaker 4 (27:17):
It's a yearly award. It doesn't matter what you It's
not an a most Improved Coach award. It's not coming
out of nowhere to coach really well award and managed
to get Lebron James and Luka Doncic into the second seed.
I don't know how any coach could manage to do that. Well, you,
that's the thing.

Speaker 5 (27:35):
If you want to give the Executive of the Year
award to the guy who convinced another guy to go
absolutely brain dead and give you one of the greatest
players in the NBA currently, then fine that give Rob Low.

Speaker 6 (27:47):
Look alike he got. You gotta change the award. Then
that's not the Executive of the Year. That's the Jedi
mind trick of the Year. Person who decided to answer
his Phone of the Year award.

Speaker 5 (27:56):
Which there's plenty of people that did that, but like JJ,
and by the way, who didn't make a trade at
the deadline, the guy who finished with a better record
and has been coaching there a lot longer. Giving JJ
Reddick the Coach of the Year award because he happens
to be the hand chosen podcast co host of Lebron

(28:19):
James and so then got the gig and then got
Luca hand delivered to him on a silver platter midway
through the season. Not even that is probably like three
of the dumbest criteria anyone's ever made up for an
award I've ever seen. And you know, Ramona Shelbourne's going
to vote for him because well, Genie.

Speaker 6 (28:37):
Yeah, I don't really I'm not really on board with
that part of it either. Like, whatever the reasons are,
was there somebody that you think would have out.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
Coached JJ in the same scenario? You mean, yeah, should
they be better? Should they have won more games? Couldn't
even get a top two seed with Luca and Lebron?
Did he did coach? Well?

Speaker 6 (28:57):
Like, the answer to where we got here is they
they hired the right guy. They hired a good coach.
They hired a better coach that they had before. Phoenix
might want to try that at some point. They went
from Monti Williams to firing back to back coaches after
a year. Genius, really good stuff there. But I don't
think JJ Reddick's even next in line. I could be
wrong and the voting might turn out that way. You

(29:18):
heard me read one comment for Kenny Atkinson and it
brings the other to two of the other prime candidates,
because at some point you also probably have to consider
the coach of the best team. Granted their talent is great,
and you might say, well, anybody could do that. I
don't believe that, but part Daniel did adit has done
an incredible job getting them to a sixty eight win
in the West in the last.

Speaker 5 (29:39):
Way, because we're going to try and give them to
Cleveland these votes, Well, who did they beat other than
the Celtics.

Speaker 6 (29:46):
Well, the Celtics are the defending champs and the odds
on favorite to win the East, and they did not
outplay the Caves during the regular season.

Speaker 5 (29:53):
Yeah, but what I'm saying is the rest of the
Eastern Conference is absolute garbage in relation to the West,
and what.

Speaker 6 (29:59):
I say, the job you did and what you did
previously doesn't matter. Well, the team you have does matter.
How the Lakers were last year matters a little. It
matters less for the Lakers as opposed to any other
team because they changed their roster after he became the
head coach. They added Luka Doncic while substracting Anthony Davis.
That is more material to his team this year than

(30:22):
the team he inherited or the team that they played
as a year ago. Different The two candidates in the
Eastern Conference, either of whom could win, are tied together.
Kenny Atkinson won sixty four games with JB. Bickerstaff's team. Yeah,
he won sixteen more games than JB won last year

(30:43):
in Cleveland. He did an awesome job. I thought it
was foolish to fire JB. And I think this season
showed that maybe it was, except Cleveland made the right choice,
and so did Detroit.

Speaker 4 (30:56):
JB.

Speaker 6 (30:57):
Bickerstaff absolutely has a great case for Coach of the Year.
Do you know how many games they won this year?

Speaker 4 (31:05):
No? Forty four?

Speaker 6 (31:06):
Do you know how many games they won last year
before he got there with roughly the same roster, although
they were healthier this year sixteen eighteen fourteen thirty win
improvement with your best players remaining the same best player,
didn't go out and get a second best players play again?
Who's on his staff in Detroit? Yeah, and you're asking
for someone in particular, but I don't know the answer.

Speaker 5 (31:29):
Is not the last head coach of the Rockets on
his staff? Oh Steve, isn't he up there?

Speaker 4 (31:34):
Yeah? That's interesting to.

Speaker 5 (31:36):
Me because the guy that's currently the head coach of
the Rockets improved with Silas's roster and a couple of
Marquis created signings.

Speaker 6 (31:43):
That's what that's kind of Lakers like the enormous amount
of additional talent and lead.

Speaker 5 (31:48):
If you equate Fred van vliet Old and Dylan Brooks
to Luca.

Speaker 4 (31:54):
No, I'm not saying that, but they he did not.

Speaker 5 (31:57):
The roster though, is very very much the same as
far as the people who are in your rotation.

Speaker 6 (32:03):
I just that's not fair at all in my opinion.
Why e May's first year was with a legitimate roster.
Stephen Silas's years all of them were not got all
of the rookie seasons from all the players we're talking about,
except for a men and Cam and.

Speaker 4 (32:20):
It's in A. E.

Speaker 6 (32:21):
May's case, he's getting the third and fourth years for
Jalen and Alpi, second and third years for Tari and Jabari.
Tari played fully healthy with Steven. He missed almost the
entire first season for Ema.

Speaker 4 (32:33):
No, why'd you fire Steven if he was so great?

Speaker 6 (32:36):
You're not, that's nobody thinks that, And of course I
don't think that. But if you think their rosters were comparable,
that's absolutely red the.

Speaker 4 (32:42):
Two best players on those rosters all throughout.

Speaker 6 (32:45):
So the credit for Jalen getting better from year two
to year three is only because he may became the
head coach, and that's I'm not good discrediting for him
for that. And they clearly did get better and then
they did it again, so it lends even more credence
that he probably did have a lot to do with
him getting better from year two to year three. But
you're playing Fred van Vliet thirty seven minutes a night,

(33:07):
Stephen Silas was playing Kevin Porter junior, well, probably nineteen
minutes a night because he wasn't there for the second half. Well,
I mean, it's not fair, it's totally ridiculous. You had
a healthy Dylan Brooks and a healthy Fred van Vliet
starting almost an entire season for you, plus Jeff Green
plus Jock Landelle plus Aaron Holiday. To tell these guys
what you did for the last two or three years

(33:27):
was an absolute waste of your time. You weren't learning
a thing, You weren't getting any better. What the word
toxic fit with the Rockets for those several seasons with
Steven Silas, not because of him, but because of everything
that took place while he happened to be a head coach.
And they also didn't keep any of his coaches on
staff for a reason.

Speaker 4 (33:46):
You know who.

Speaker 5 (33:46):
I had a bad coaching staff and he was a
bad head coach. You know I felt the most sorry
for during that whole stretch. Eric Gordon didn't deserve that.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
I mean, he was getting paid quite handsome.

Speaker 5 (33:56):
He wanted to come back here, right. They could have
used him this year. That guy would have a lot
more wide open shots. But defensively, I'm not.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
So sure about they could have used him this year.
He did not any good anymore.

Speaker 5 (34:07):
I think if he got wide open threes the way
the Rockets would have created, he would have hit a
lot more than than most of the guys did on
that team.

Speaker 4 (34:13):
What about the rest of his game. I didn't say
anything about the rest of his game.

Speaker 6 (34:17):
I don't think Silas is on this year's staff. Really,
he's not on this year staff. He was coaching a
team USA during the season. This year he was on
his staff. Lot he was on the Pistons staff last year.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
Okay, then As, once again another example of time rushing
by and me just sitting still. All right, when we
come back, I'm gonna do my best to make WEX
breakout in hives one more time. But i gotta tell you,
this was a fantastic exchange on social media. So it's
a little bit of a carryover to the best of
X from this segment to the next. As we wind

(34:52):
down one more segment of the two o'clock hour, we
get ready to be televised at the top of the hour.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
The a Orts Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
Well, I'm enjoying this new wrinkle in the show.

Speaker 5 (35:14):
WEX is not it is the eighteen Sports Talks seven
ninety WEX and ac Cole Thomas with you here on
the I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
Cold Thomas, I'd like to try that again. Sorry, I'm
looking I'm multi year looking at the very very famous
though deceased Dave, I believe, would you like to know
something funny? Ac? Yes, that's my middle name. Stop. What's
your real first name? Terry, Terry Thomas Thompson, Cole Thomas Thompson.
What did your what?

Speaker 5 (35:44):
Why can you get your parents on the phone to
talk about this?

Speaker 4 (35:48):
I mean I could, and I could call my dad
and ask him why was there a particular reason?

Speaker 8 (35:52):
I mean, I don't know why Tommy Thompson want to
have his namesake followed in in his footsteps. But you
know I was the firstborn of a twin.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
That interesting. Yeah, you know, I'm a twin too.

Speaker 8 (36:01):
He's also got the good looks and the olive skin,
and I look like a lepper con that should be
on the sidelines in South Bend, Indiana, but neither.

Speaker 4 (36:07):
Here nor there. Wow, we learned new things about me
every single day.

Speaker 5 (36:11):
We're just gonna start a guy seriously, all right, Well,
let's dive into more scintillating sports talk here or more redheads?

Speaker 4 (36:20):
Yeah? Well, okay, look, here's the deal.

Speaker 5 (36:23):
There was a little incident the other day, and I'm
gonna call it that because that's what it was. A
publicity stunt. Basically, Jeff Bezos looked, he's the owner of
Amazon in case you want to wear. He looked around,
and he said to himselfself, I do not like the
fact that Elon Musk is getting all the press when
it comes to rockets and whatnot and some other things
he's doing. And I need I need to do a

(36:45):
little stunt of my own. So I'm gonna send up
like four or five or six or however many it was,
of the most annoying people on the planet into space,
and uh and just that's gonna be it.

Speaker 4 (36:56):
That's it. That's the tweet of these women.

Speaker 5 (37:01):
I know that one of them is Katie Perry. I
know that one of them is Laurence Sanchez, who's Jeff's
girlfriend fiance. I know that Gail King is probably the
most annoying of the bunch. She went up there and
didn't stay.

Speaker 4 (37:15):
Didn't stay what she left mid flight? No, I mean
they didn't leave her up there in space or anybody else. Right,
they all came back. I would have been fine. Six
six women, six yeah, six women. Did Besos go on
that trip or no? No?

Speaker 10 (37:32):
But wasn't he walking? Didn't I see him in the cliffs?
In the cliff and he's in a space suit. Right,
That's the reason I thought he went up with them.
Thought I was just on the the meet and greet
after if he would.

Speaker 8 (37:42):
Have got up, because if he would have went up,
and that would have been great because then he wouldn't
have came back down and I would have been very happy.

Speaker 5 (37:49):
Well, listen, this is this is about the actual act
of responding on the ex platform.

Speaker 4 (37:57):
That's how it qualifies as Best of X.

Speaker 6 (38:00):
You know, we can talk about anything on social media
at any point during the show. It's not exclusive to
two thirty I know.

Speaker 5 (38:06):
That's why I'm doing it now at two point fifty two, right,
So it's just stuff.

Speaker 4 (38:11):
So in this carryover segment from the Best of X,
kind of like the carryover segment yesterday, good about an
ugly y Yes, pop Crave. I don't know if you
follow it.

Speaker 5 (38:20):
I don't actually happen to follow this account, but I
saw this actually on Instagram, of all places. They put
a picture up, very very serious shot of Katy Perry
in her very very official I went up into space
for like two minutes spacesuit and it's got her last
name on it, like she's a real Live Astronaut and

(38:41):
it says Katy Perry has returned from space. And there
is another account that responded to this tweet X post whatever,
which got eighty two thousand likes. By the way, this
original post of Katy Perry has returned from space.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
It's at Wendy's. You may have heard of it.

Speaker 5 (39:00):
It's a fast food restaurant to chain the aforementioned Dave
Thomas used to be the frontman. I guess for all
its spots on TV.

Speaker 4 (39:09):
The King of Value Deals. If we want to go
that far.

Speaker 5 (39:11):
Yeah, yeah, it just responded and said can we send
her back? And that got a lot of traction, not
as many as the original, but thirty six thousand likes
among them at Adam Clanton, I just my thing about
this whole day. If you want to do a stunt,
pr stunt whatever, that's fine. But for people like Katy
Perry and Gail King to come back from this, you know,

(39:34):
long trip into space where they did all of this
training to be able to do this, I just some
of their sound bites afterwards were really really laughable. Katy
Perry being among them, like she talked about believing in
herself the way that you needed to to go up
in space like this and.

Speaker 6 (39:54):
Talk to me about this as if I don't know
anything about it.

Speaker 4 (39:58):
So they were up in space for a few minutes.
I think there are whole things from start to finish with.

Speaker 5 (40:03):
Eleven minutes okaynut so, but they only went like, is
it sixty four miles above the Earth is officially in space?

Speaker 8 (40:09):
So they were in the second level of the mesisphere.

Speaker 6 (40:13):
I believe it was okay, And you were saying about
what they needed to prepare for this in the training
and whatnot.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
There there wasn't any right, I don't know.

Speaker 6 (40:21):
They're literally just we can put anybody inside this aircraft
and they can manage their way through an eleven minute
flight by doing nothing.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
Is that pretty much close to the story. That's how
it looks to me. I'm saying they weren't. You know,
we need you to press this.

Speaker 6 (40:35):
We went through We've been in the simulator for hours,
and we got to make sure that you know what
you're doing. You're actually I know they're not astronauts. Everybody
knows they're not astronauts. They're people, well known people, not astronauts.
So I have to assume there was not a lot
of technical needs, skill wise, you know, mental capacity, flying practice.
They literally it could have picked the six people that

(40:57):
walk by our window will be the same thing.

Speaker 5 (40:59):
Does it not feel like that these days, with like
some of these these launches.

Speaker 6 (41:03):
I'm actually impressed that they we have the ability to
make something like that successfully.

Speaker 4 (41:10):
Absolutely, but I recognize and it's not NaSTA that's doing it.

Speaker 6 (41:13):
Let's just it's I'm not impressed by the amount of
money some people have that they don't care about.

Speaker 5 (41:20):
That's a very good way of putting it. I enjoy
that a great deal. So see, Wes had some fun
with it. All right, We're gonna have some fun. Three
o'clock hour. Coming up next, The A Team.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
On Sports Talk seven ninety two. Lifelong Houston sports guys
named Adam Talking Your Team. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler
are the A Team.

Speaker 4 (41:54):
It's a Tuesday edition of the program.

Speaker 5 (41:56):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety and
Space City Home Network. We are getting you ready in
a matter of hours for Game two of this all
important series between the Houston Astros and the Saint Louis Cardinals.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
Round one did not go so well last night.

Speaker 5 (42:12):
Home team taking one on the chin actually nearly getting
getting shut out into the very tail end of that
affair when Jeremy Pania hit a three run home run.
But other than that, not a lot to write home
about offensively, which has been the theme here in twenty
twenty five. I feel like we knew the Astros offense
might take a step back. I don't think we thought

(42:33):
it might be this pronounced. And I know I'm saying
that coming off a weekend in which they won two
out of three at home, in which they scored Was
it fourteen runs in the first game and then seven
in the finale?

Speaker 4 (42:44):
I mean.

Speaker 5 (42:46):
That's why I said yesterday was it fools gold? And
I'm not saying it is. Baseball is fools gold. It's true,
that is true, But I hate I just I don't
feel like everyone else is dealing with that kind of
fools gold right now.

Speaker 6 (42:58):
I mean, they are a lot of bad offenses, heck,
three of them in the Astros Division. Nobody's gotten off
to some incredible start, partially because they're not scoring runs either.
But I think the Rangers and Astros would be similar
in that they brought back the guys that they should
be hitting the ball well. Garcia Seger Simeon. They added
Jock Peterson, and Berger felt like, maybe we'll have a

(43:22):
healthy and good Evan Carter did not work out that way.
Maybe we'll have a healthy Josh Young did not work
out that way. But the first guys I mentioned, they're
all out there, and two of those, well, three of
those five guys, Marcus Simeon among them. They've been awful.
They're not hitting at all, and their offense is suffering.
They've pitched well enough to win a pair of one
nothing games. It's probably the biggest reason why they're on

(43:43):
the plus side win loss, and the Astros are not.
But the Astros, the Mariners, and the Rangers they don't score.
They certainly have gotten off to very poor offensive starts.
None of the three teams have even hit a twentieth homer,
yet the Astros are down at thirteen. None of them
have scored more than sixty three runs, and the Astros
are among those three teams. The Rangers have only scored
fifty one runs in sixteen games. That's barely over three

(44:06):
per game. Their roster, like the Astros roster, did not
look like a roster that would be quite this bad offensively.
I'm sure they think it'll get turned around. I definitely
think the Astros will also. I just don't think we
should be expecting them to ever be great. They were
great last year after their start, you know, thirty six

(44:27):
games of the season, you'd won twelve times in Your
offense was bad and your pitching was bad. Pitching turned
it around when Hunter Brown became one of the best
pitchers in baseball. You got two unbelievably good months from
Spence Araghetty. You had a long, almost full season's worth
of Josh Hater closing out all of his save opportunities.
And the offense, clearly, even without Kyle Tucker, was great.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
They really were producing.

Speaker 6 (44:49):
They were scoring runs, they were getting key hits, they
were driving runners in. We just haven't seen any of
that this year, and clearly their roster is different. The
Rangers put a roster together that actually should be better
than what they were last year, and they've been significantly worse.
The Astros did not put a roster that should have
been significantly better this year. They put a worse roster
on the field offensively, but they also shouldn't have had

(45:10):
this kind of falloff, which is why I think it's
not reality You've got ways to go before I look
at what they're doing for me to say that that's
who they are, that's just what I expect from them.
I expect them to need unbelievable best in the league pitching.
If they can even hope to win half their games,
that to me is not yet reality.

Speaker 5 (45:28):
Well, and I don't think it's reality what we're seeing
from yard on Alvarez either.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
I mean that's is he not the is he? Is?

Speaker 5 (45:35):
He not the biggest culprit relative to what you expect
from him. Like I know he's not the biggest culprit
because he's literally driven in more runs than anybody on
the team, or at least he had he was going into.

Speaker 4 (45:44):
Everybody at the top of the order.

Speaker 6 (45:46):
You got four guys at the top of the order
that are proven players, and you got five guys behind
them that are either three years into their career like
Jeremy is, two years into their starting career like Yiner is,
and then a bunch of we don't even know who's
going to be in there on any given day, a
rookie and Cam Smith, a guy you benched last year
in Chaz, a guy who you know probably won't hit

(46:06):
that well in Jake but belongs in the lineup because
of his glove, or Mauricio or Brendan Rodgers. It's the
top four, and it's all of them. That's including Jose Altuve.
If they hit like they're currently hitting, this team will
struggle mightily. If that's the twenty twenty five astros, you
need more, a lot more from those four. Guys three

(46:28):
and four are by far the biggest culprits of those four,
and that's the heart of your order. Who's gonna drive
in a hundred runs this year? The guy hitting third
and the guy hitting fourth, and maybe the guy hitting fifth.
The guy hitting first isn't gonna drive in a hundred runs.
The guy hitting second isn't gonna drive in a hundred runs.
It's both Alvarez and Walker, and I mentioned it the
other day, and I'll probably have to keep doing it

(46:49):
until it's no longer true. Walker's been in every game
this year. They play game number seventeen today. He's looking
to drive in a teammate for only the second time.
He's driven in a teammate one time this year. He
has one RBI that isn't himself hit a homer drove
himself in has one RBI, one run pushed across of
a teammate. That's it the whole year. You're gonna be

(47:12):
awful if that continues, or I'll fix it.

Speaker 5 (47:17):
No, it's already done. It's fine. No, the offense has
been the major culprit. And we've talked about this a
lot this year. The fact that the pitching has been fantastic,
probably even better than maybe even we expected going into
this season. The offense just hasn't matched it, except for
on the rare occasions like we got on Friday Night,
which that was a ton of fun. But even that's

(47:38):
not expectations either. That's well above and beyond what you
were expecting for this offense. You got somewhere in between.
That'd be nice, maybe even below that Mendoza because fourteen
runs is a lot. But I mean also when you
do get a five to zero lead, for example, maybe
hang on to it.

Speaker 4 (47:56):
It's kind of like last year in a.

Speaker 6 (47:57):
Lot of way to attend to nothing lead. We all
know that that particular day, the reference that's a ten
nothing game. That's that's on the offense just as much
as it's on the pitching. Yeah, I mean, that's fair
I can't put that much traffic on the bases and
consistently fail to get them home and say, come on, pitchers,
only both both their culprits true, Okay, thank you now

(48:17):
that you kind of gave it that caveat goa you
could throw when you're put in Luis Contrere, Sir Bennett SUSI.
It barely even matters if you walk guys. But you're
also not gonna walk them because you're up ten to nothing.
You're gonna throw it over the heart of the plate.
Let him hit it, go ahead, hit eight home runs
to come back. Well, they were only up five, so
they weren't willing to do that. So Susa was missing,
and Contresh got out of his trouble, and that he

(48:39):
was missing, and then Abra couldn't get up. It's just
it's not a way to try to win baseball games.
The days you should score fifteen runs, score fifteen runs.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
That was one of those days.

Speaker 6 (48:47):
But they scored five, and then they got the insurance
run in the ninth to make the ninth inning in
the bottom of the inning even worse.

Speaker 5 (48:55):
I forgot about the insurance run which did make that
See now was does that if you were listening in
the first hour. Does that qualify as nauseating for Adam
Wexler or just no baseball games ever make you sick
to your stomach.

Speaker 6 (49:08):
Oh, the regular season ones that you go back at
the end of the year and say, Man, that one,
that one's gonna hurt. Losing yesterday not like that. Most
of the other seven losses, not like that. Yesterday you'll
remember because at the beginning of the game you didn't
have it. It wasn't chucked up as a win in
the seventh inning. It was with only six outs to
go in the eighth inning.

Speaker 4 (49:29):
That's a win. The game is over. Put it in
the win, gave it away.

Speaker 5 (49:32):
Because this happened a lot last year during the aforementioned
rough start for the Astros.

Speaker 4 (49:36):
That was different because the roster was vastly different.

Speaker 5 (49:39):
I mean, I'm not saying I expected the Astros to
be maybe this anemic on offense going into this year,
but I certainly didn't last year when Bregman and Tucker
were still park and by the way, Tucker was scalding
the ball before he got he was the only guy
doing anything last year at the beginning of the season.
We come in here I would do my typical thing
where I was wailing and gnashing of teeth, and you

(50:00):
would say, it's just one game. There's one hundred and
sixty two more. But then at the end of the season,
we're talking about, you know, literally half games within winning
the division or not. At times. I mean, don't you
have to look back at those games?

Speaker 6 (50:16):
Yes, one so far, maybe maybe a second one if
you wanted to point one of the other games out.

Speaker 4 (50:20):
No, yesterday's game they got beat. It happens. No, no, no,
I'm saying it's you.

Speaker 5 (50:25):
You were of the opinion that you shouldn't get all
upset about these games.

Speaker 6 (50:30):
Well, you got to separate those teams I was talking
about in this team.

Speaker 4 (50:34):
Yeah, no, I get that.

Speaker 6 (50:35):
I don't care if Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman and
yord On Alvarez and Jose Al Twove's team lost a
game in the regular season because I'm worried about them
winning one hundred more the rest of the season.

Speaker 4 (50:44):
Yeah, this team's different. No, I know worse.

Speaker 5 (50:46):
I am living in the past for a second here.
What I'm protesting the fact that I was told it's
one game, don't worry about it, and then at the
end of the season, all of a sudden, when you're
watching the standings and you're watching you know, half game
leads and all that kind of stuff, then it's all
of a sudden, Okay to be upset about those games
way back in April and May I haven't both.

Speaker 6 (51:06):
I assure you I will never fake being upset about
losing yesterday's game to Sonny Gray when you didn't do
anything against him for seven innings.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
But again, I'm not upset about it at all. I'm
not nauseous. My teeth have not been gnashed. I'm not
talking about yesterday's game. I'm saying I'm living in the
past about last year because that's what was happening. That's
all I mean.

Speaker 6 (51:27):
It really wasn't though, like this awful twenty twenty five
Astros team also hasn't lost two games in a row
in two weeks. That's actually a very we're acting like
they're five and eleven, but they haven't won to either.
I know, but that means they're going through what I
believe is their worst offensive stretch of the season. Okay,

(51:48):
as basically a five hundred team. It's just fine if
what I think is true ends up happening. Now you
are wasting a little bit of the good pitching. You're
already in the who's gonna stay healthy part of your
season because you've already lost a starter. You still don't
know what you're getting from Lance mccullors, even though it
looks like he will return. Returning is awesome for the individual,

(52:10):
that's like the greatest story ever. But once he returns,
guess what the news story is the results? Is he
helping you win games? And he'll tell you the same thing.
Getting back is a monster accomplishment for what he's gone
through over his whole career, not just the last two years.
But when they give them the ball, even in the
first game and every game that follows, he's out there

(52:31):
to pitch them into a winning position, and we don't
know that that's gonna happen, or whoever else gets the ball,
Ryan Gusto, for that matter, he's supposed to pitch them
into a winning position. To give up four runs in
four innings, and then Fromber was even worse in their
game yesterday, giving up seven runs in four innings. But
for the most part, they've pitched well enough to not
be seven and nine. They should be nine and seven,

(52:52):
I think at the worst.

Speaker 5 (52:53):
And Lance could come back and pitch in his first
major League games since the World Series in twenty twenty two.
And if he doesn't get runs support or he's gonna
be in the same boat as everybody else. Yeah, but
he'll be helping the team. Yeah, he'll be helping the
team keep runs off the board. But he's got to
have his offense help him.

Speaker 6 (53:08):
Right, helping the team keep runs off the board, helping
the team not dive into their bullpen too much each
of those days. If he's giving you the opportunity to win,
then he'll be doing a really good job for him
and for the team, And I think that has a
pretty good chance of happening. Well, we're gonna hear from
Hayden Wiznsky coming up in just a few minutes. But
next we will once again remind you it's always nothing

(53:31):
but live in local sports talk here on Sports Talk
seven ninety or one of our other favorite teams that
doesn't play here.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (53:48):
It is the A Team.

Speaker 5 (53:49):
It's Sports Talk seven to ninety, Space City Home Network,
large red packages in the studio with us. We'll get
to those in just a second, as we're going to
get to one of the local teams here and talk
about the Dallas Mavericks. Much to the chagrin of my
co host, this is a story that will not go away.

Speaker 4 (54:10):
And by its yet, why would it they play tomorrow?

Speaker 5 (54:13):
Well, yeah, but if we're going to talk about, you know,
Coach of the Year votes for JJ Reddick, who got
I mean this this was the This was the Dallas Mavericks.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
They took a nice, shiny package.

Speaker 5 (54:25):
And they just hear here you go, Lakers have at it,
have another superstar. Now I realized that Anthony Davis came back,
but it is what it is like nobody is. Nobody's
confusing Luca for Anthony Davis. I know that a lot
of people in LA's sphere would have you believe that

(54:45):
they are equals. And that's why this was a perfectly
fine trade.

Speaker 4 (54:48):
It wasn't nobody thinks that nobody in any city in
the average are trying to submit that to their fan base.

Speaker 6 (54:55):
Yeah, but they don't think that. They're just saying it.
We know they're so that place that A plays here then, right,
But the Lakers aren't acting like they didn't win and
Laker fans aren't acting like they didn't win.

Speaker 5 (55:06):
Seriously, what do you think I want you to do?
An impression of Rob Loow. I can't not call him
Rob blow. He looks just like him. Rob Polenka answers
the phone, and this is Rob Go go for Rob Okay.

Speaker 4 (55:15):
I'm gonna be Nico.

Speaker 5 (55:16):
I'm going to offer you Luka Doncic, and I don't
even know, like, I'm not even telling you the parameters
of the deal. How fast do you say yes to
giving up Anthony Davis?

Speaker 6 (55:25):
What do you have in mind I'd like to give
you if you're asking, if we're interested, if you're serious, Yeah,
we're interested. We think what we could maybe find a
deal that would work. I mean, do you have the
parameters already in mind that get us started on this conversation?

Speaker 4 (55:38):
Can we get Anthony Davis? Uh? And you're in the.

Speaker 6 (55:41):
Return, Luka Doncic some sort of package coming to us?

Speaker 4 (55:43):
Yeah? I think we can probably figure something out. Like
how fast did he say yes to that?

Speaker 6 (55:47):
I'm trying to be literal, I mean literal, not oh
that you must have been drinking, Nico.

Speaker 4 (55:52):
Or is this the prank call? Or is this the
right number or new number?

Speaker 2 (55:56):
Who's this?

Speaker 6 (55:57):
I mean right literally, if I were trying to land
Luca after it was presented to me, I would treat
it very seriously. I would not joke around about it.
I wouldn't pretend, hey, buddy, what do you Oh, you
can't be serious, or come on, man, there's no way
the Leagu's gonna let I would say, what do you
have in mind? I would say yes to I mean,

(56:18):
I'm being ted dead serious. If the offer request was
can we have Lebron? I would have said yes to
that too.

Speaker 5 (56:29):
So they're offering Luca to pair with Anthony Davis, and
you're giving up Lebron James.

Speaker 4 (56:33):
Yes, Lakers wouldn't have done that.

Speaker 6 (56:35):
No, but if that was what it took to get Luca,
you have to consider it.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
Why is this deal so good for the Lakers to
begin with?

Speaker 6 (56:43):
Because Anthony Davis's greatness is gonna end sooner than Luca's.
Lebron's is gonna end way sooner than either of them. Yeah,
I got a I got a hot take for you
right now. If that had been the deal, the Lakers
have been far more dangerous right now.

Speaker 4 (56:58):
I don't think so. Why I'm not as afraid to
find out how because Anthony Daavis isn't there.

Speaker 5 (57:06):
But with Anthony Davis and Luca as a tandem, you
actually play on both ends with one of those players.

Speaker 4 (57:12):
I mean winning in the playoffs.

Speaker 6 (57:14):
If you're telling me Lebron can't help them win as
much in the playoffs with the team around him as
they could have if with Anthony Day, I'm not on
board with that yet.

Speaker 4 (57:22):
I Mean, Lebron's still too good for me to believe
in that. On one end.

Speaker 6 (57:26):
Yeah, he's awful on one end. So what, They're not
a bad defensive team. It's just like James Hardy was
here in Houston. He didn't even try on one end
unless he was in the post, and they were fine.

Speaker 4 (57:34):
Yeah, but he never played with somebody like Anthony Davis
in the post.

Speaker 6 (57:37):
Their defense is about two months worth of non Davis defense.
And again, they're roughly the same defensive team as they
were with Anthony Davis.

Speaker 5 (57:45):
Yeah, but Anthony Davis win healthy is he is very
much a game changer.

Speaker 4 (57:50):
But that's the problem. He's never healthy.

Speaker 6 (57:52):
He's not as big of a game changer. And it's
a perfect way to say because you're only talking about
the whole game. He's less of a game changer than Luca.
The Lakers have a better player. The Lakers are better
than they would be if Anthony Davis was still there.

Speaker 5 (58:06):
Yeah, but they got saying I'm saying Anthony Davis and
Luca Anthony Davis being a very recent defensive Player of
the Year that means something.

Speaker 4 (58:14):
Yeah, it meant they.

Speaker 6 (58:15):
Were not being to the playoffs last year with Davis
and Lebron and the year before too.

Speaker 5 (58:20):
That's a better championship contender in my opinion than this
version of Lebron and Luca.

Speaker 6 (58:25):
Yeah, we just don't see it the same way. I
totally disagree. It's okay for us because I think there
are people that probably believe that too, But I just
I'm not one of them.

Speaker 5 (58:33):
They got better, Okay, Well, all of that is to
stay that Nico Harrison does not regret this trade, not
even in the least, at least according to what he
said to and I love this a select group of
Dallas based media, What does that even mean?

Speaker 4 (58:49):
Can we hear any of it? Can we see any
of it? I wouldn't be able to tell you that
right about now.

Speaker 6 (58:54):
Well, I believe the answer is no, because I believe
this information. This back and forth is Q and A.
That's let's chat it up. Was done without recording devices
or cameras intentionally.

Speaker 5 (59:05):
But but but go back to the very beginning, though,
how do you get to a point where you make
this kind of deal which is wildly unpopular with one
team's fan base, and then that team, headed up by
the man who made this deal, is then going to
get a quote select group of Dallas based media to

(59:26):
talk about this who even like I, I can't every
time I think this is done, the Dallas Mavericks do
something else that is a pr nightmare. They cannot stop
stepping on their own junk every turn. This is like
sideshow Bob. No, it's great for the Rockets and people
that are in the the West who like the Dallas
Mavericks may or may not have been a team in

(59:47):
your way, but like, this is like sideshow Bob stepping
on all the Rakes and the Simpsons.

Speaker 6 (59:51):
That's them and and but it's to me, it's all
window dressing. This is the defense. Currently the champions are
the and by design, intentionally they got significantly worse. They
have less of a chance to win a title because
you can among the things he said.

Speaker 4 (01:00:11):
Defense. You know, defense first. Defense wins champions.

Speaker 6 (01:00:14):
That's great, and you totally built your roster to win
with defense with players that aren't gonna be healthy. It
doesn't matter how much defense you have in players that
are watching the game. Kyrie's gonna watch maybe every game
next year. Anthony Davis watches too many games every year,
and this year was no different. The players themselves, the

(01:00:35):
talent they possess, the Hall of Fame that's going to
welcome them.

Speaker 4 (01:00:39):
We get it.

Speaker 6 (01:00:40):
They're good, but they're old and injured in this case now.
And he didn't know Kyrie was gonna get hurt, So
I'll afford it. But you made your chances of winning
the title go down on purpose. That's bad way to
run your team. How he's defending himself as more of
the what else is he gonna do? I'm sure in

(01:01:01):
ten years, when he's been out of the league for
nine and a half, he'll acknowledge this wasn't very smart.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
In hindsight.

Speaker 6 (01:01:08):
This in the book that Tim mcmahonry writes about him,
he'll say it, what else if Nico could hide?

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
But that's speaking with the media to re emphasize I
don't hate this.

Speaker 5 (01:01:19):
All of that is fine, but you can't say what
he said then if that's really your plan, you can't
say there's no regrets on the trade. And part of
my job is to do the best thing for the Mavericks,
not only today but also in the future. And some
of the decisions I'm going to make are going to
be unpopular. That's my job, and I have to stand
by it. Some of your decisions are going to be unpopular.

(01:01:39):
That's like changing the uniforms to a design that they
don't like. That's like, I don't know, not having twenty
five dollars tickets in the upper sections. That's not trading
the franchise player for a bag of beans.

Speaker 6 (01:01:49):
Yeah, everything that you said from his comments were pretty
much what I said, except for that part you isolated
brilliantly because he's standing by your decisions.

Speaker 4 (01:01:59):
That's that's what you do.

Speaker 6 (01:02:00):
You're the GM. You got to stand by it, you know.
I believe in this is the way to do the
best thing I can do for the Mavericks. I think
he probably truly believes that, but he's under selling the
magnitude of the words he's using. He's calling it unpopular
and it's true, but multiply that by seventy seven million,
it's not unpopular. They hate your team, they don't want

(01:02:24):
to come to games, they don't want to buy your jerseys,
they want to boo you. They want you fired, at
least based on what we hear at every game. You
just had your entire arena on their feet every time
one of your opponents had the basketball, and when he
finished the play with a basket, they cheered even more loudly.
The guy on the other team, Luca, who made his

(01:02:46):
first visit back when as you put it, as he
said it, some decisions are gonna be unpopular, like you
can't sell it any less when it's such a great magnitude.

Speaker 4 (01:03:00):
These are the lines.

Speaker 6 (01:03:01):
I don't mind standing by your decision and talking about
I don't mind long term. Here's what that's all great,
that's all he can do. But you gotta I would agree,
those are the things you do need to eliminate because
you're still not out of the we hate you woulds.
You keep saying it, and at some point, probably winning

(01:03:21):
is the only thing that will finish these thoughts. But
they're not gonna win, like Kyrie's gonna come back with
fifteen games to go next year maybe.

Speaker 4 (01:03:31):
And then what is he right? Like, it's not an
agent now also saddled with both of their long term contracts,
because what else are you gonna do? Because you could
either believe you could have both of them gone soon,
then what are you gonna do? Or you can.

Speaker 6 (01:03:46):
Be locked in with them long term or longer term.
It's a bad place to be. And it was his decision.
Like with this whole role playing, we did it. Can
you imagine if we tried it from the other angle, Hey,
this is Rob Low, would you be interested in trading
us Luca click?

Speaker 4 (01:04:03):
Except for in this case, he didn't even have to
make It's unreal. It's crazy.

Speaker 5 (01:04:10):
It's absolutely crazy, as was him talking about the passionate
fan base of the Dallas Mavericks and that's why he's
getting so many strays right now. We will continue here
on a Tuesday edition of The A Team with a
little Astro's conversation, a replay of Hayden weis Nesky's conversation
with Wex and Ross viral.

Speaker 4 (01:04:28):
When we come back.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:04:41):
It is the A Team Sports Talks seven ninety. It's
tax day wex who handles that in your household? Since
you're both smart numbers people, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:04:53):
Come on, dude, no answer, no comment.

Speaker 5 (01:04:56):
Anyway, That's not what she said to Hayden was nesky
earlier his no comment, no, no conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:05:02):
You don't want to have to talk with him. I
wanted to talk to him. It was a pleasure to
be joined by him.

Speaker 6 (01:05:05):
Had a chance to catch up with him during FanFest
not long after he had become an astro, one of
the three players acquired by Houston and the Kyle Tucker
trade with the Chicago Cubs, and now I have a
chance to catch up with him following his third start.
In advance of his fourth start, he joined the Matt
Thommys Show with Ross. I was in for Matt today,
so we wanted to give you a little bit of
that conversation. You can catch it in full via the

(01:05:27):
iHeartRadio app where Sports Talk seven ninety should be your
number one preset, or via our website at sports Talk
seven ninety dot com. I questioned him on something I
think a lot of pitchers benefit from. When he is
not pitching and he's enjoying the baseball game, who's he
sitting with, who's he learning from, who's he watching the
game with, and how's he becoming an astro in that manner?

(01:05:49):
And here's what he had to say, among other things.

Speaker 11 (01:05:52):
Well, I havn't had this question before. This is a
this is a big one. You don't realize. I mean,
I spend a lot of time on the bench watching games,
and so yeah, the hunter hunters, one of them, Ryan Gustau,
Who's who's starting right now, who who's moved to the
starting rotation. I hang out with him sometimes a lot
of times the starters. Hanging out to the starters. But

(01:06:13):
like you you have, the astros are a different team
and they're very comfortable, so I kind of move around
and try to talk to guys like Jack Myers. Uh,
the guys that are playing, I necessarily try to I
don't try to talk to them unless they're talking to
me kind of thing, because they take it more serious
and they're doing they're doing their job right, so I
don't want to get in the way.

Speaker 4 (01:06:33):
Ultimately, but.

Speaker 11 (01:06:37):
Al Tuve does a really good job of going around
the bench and kind of talking to everybody. I know
that's kind of a weird thing, but he has to perform,
and then he's not only doing that, he's also coming
and talking to the starting pitchers and then other other
guys and talking about hitting to the guys that are playing,
and he's just he's just facilitating and it's a it's
a cool.

Speaker 4 (01:06:57):
Thing to watch.

Speaker 11 (01:06:58):
But yeah, for the most part of the starting pit
stay with the starting pitchers. But I try to move
around and talk to different guys. But at the end
of the day, I don't want to get in their way.
I know they're trying to they're trying to perform. So
I'm still trying to figure out who who wants to
talk and be distracted while they're playing, and who wants
to take you very very serious and just don't talk
to me while I'm playing and I'll talk to you

(01:07:18):
after the game kind of thing.

Speaker 12 (01:07:19):
Hayden wasn'tsky with us here on Sports Talk seven ninety
so three starts into the season, how would you assess
the way that you've been pitching. Of course, we know
the ten strikeouts there on Sunday, also the three solo
shots overall, and you mentioned about adding the curve ball.

Speaker 4 (01:07:35):
How have you been feeling about that as well?

Speaker 11 (01:07:37):
It starts have been feeling good. I feel good about
them really giving up a few homers, I mean that
that happens, but I really need to limit that a
little bit. But other than that, I feel like it's
the ball's coming out good. I'm putting the ball. I'm
throwing a bunch of strikes, which I really I really like.
The punch outs are a byproduct of just me throwing well,
I don't really necessarily I'm not I'm not shooting for

(01:07:59):
ten punchouts fifteen punch outs, but they're not to have
at the end of the day, right, and it makes
it easier on everybody. But not the assessment of how
I'm pitching. I mean, other than the first start, like
an inning or two in the first start, everything's gone
pretty well. I mean, I wish, I mean, we can
always want to take a few pitches away during each start,

(01:08:20):
but overall, I mean and giving our chance to our
team a chance to win. And that's ultimately the reason
the like, that's ultimately the goal as the starting pitcher
is to keep your team in it and give them
a chance to win every day. And just again, quality starts.
You can't you can't go wrong with the quality start.

Speaker 6 (01:08:38):
I gave you a big, big compliment yesterday on our program,
although as I explained it to it might not sound
this way. Justin Erlander was here and a lot of
people thought he and Hunter Brown throw the ball the
same way, same way they release the ball, their mechanics
and things like that. So it's already a comparison to
that from a physical nature and his process, but from

(01:08:58):
an actual results stand point is where I made the
comparison between Justin Verlander and you, especially off of this
last start. Your stuff clearly was very good again as
it has been throughout much of this season, and you
were punching guys out and you had them off balance,
and you weren't in trouble during really any of your innings.
You gave up a couple of what turned out to
be meaningless solo homers, which was basically a hallmark of

(01:09:21):
his career, certainly here in Houston. He was near the
league lead and homers allowed most of his time here,
but he was crushing it, winning Cy Young's and helping
this team be great. Is there something that you take
out of any starts where you pitch the way you did.
You obviously don't want to give up the homers, but
you didn't put your team in a bad spot and
you were able to give them six innings and you
clearly had good stuff.

Speaker 11 (01:09:42):
Yeah, oh yeah, there's the homers. I'm they are what
they are. You know, they get paid too, they win,
they're good. Right, there's I'm always there's like saying a
couple saying, like there's a saying in baseball where solo
homers don't kill you unless you give up six of them.
So it's like we just keep it is what it is, right,

(01:10:04):
I think with the solo homers, yeah, they suck, but
it's one of those things where they score, they get
their run, and it's not really a whole lot of
like stressful endings.

Speaker 4 (01:10:14):
You know.

Speaker 11 (01:10:15):
It's where you have a homer and you face the
next three guys and you're done. So there's not a
whole lot of stress on you. There's one it's one
pitch that you missed, you messed up on and yeah,
I've seen Verlanders do that. I don't know if I
would compare myself to him, but uh he yeah, that's.

Speaker 4 (01:10:34):
What it's part of it.

Speaker 11 (01:10:35):
Garrett Cole does it too, right, It's just it's the
nature of the business. As a starting pitcher, you're gonna
give up a little bit of homers and a little
bit of runs, and so, yeah, I don't think I
punched as many guys out as Verlander. More. I feel
like I pitched more to contact than he does. But
it just so happened the other day that, Yeah, it
was a Verlander like performance when it comes to just
how they scored runs and the amount of punchouts that

(01:10:57):
I had. But I wouldn't say that's just I don't
know if that's gonna half in the rest of the year.

Speaker 4 (01:11:01):
If it does, great, but.

Speaker 11 (01:11:04):
Yeah, the last three outings, I mean, I have given
up a homer, so so that kind of I don't
love that.

Speaker 4 (01:11:08):
But we're working on either.

Speaker 11 (01:11:10):
It will clean it up a little bit and hopefully
we'll limit the damage.

Speaker 6 (01:11:13):
Twenty nineteen Justin Verlander twenty one wins, Cy Young Award,
thirty six home runs allowed. Twenty twenty two Garrett Cole
it's pretty good, not in this uniform, but he's still
a pretty good pitcher. Thirty three home runs, league leading,
thirty three home runs allowed. Hayden Wiznsky twenty twenty five

(01:11:36):
five home runs allowed, league leading.

Speaker 4 (01:11:41):
Yeah, but extrapolate that what's on pace, Go ahead, give
up another billion. Homers keep pitching.

Speaker 6 (01:11:47):
The astrosk into opportunities to win, guys, right, It's why
I brought it up. It's why I brought it up
on the show, and that's why I brought it up
with him. It does take some, I think, perception of getting.

Speaker 4 (01:11:58):
Used to it. It's a so Homer right, you talk
about that with you four guys the whole inning. You
might throw ten pitches in the inning.

Speaker 6 (01:12:06):
It's it's no good to fall behind one nothing or
having it lead extended from one nothing to two nothing,
which is what happened in his last start. But you're
not taxing your arm, not taxing your defense. You're not
shortening your outing, You're you're changing the scoreboard by one run.

Speaker 4 (01:12:18):
You're not pitching from the stretch. You're not trying to
hold runners on. You're not probably because of that having
a twenty five or thirty pitch inning. It's it is
really different.

Speaker 6 (01:12:26):
If you're not getting in trouble and your stuff's good,
you're also challenging hitters. That's what Verlander and Cold their
stuff is amazing. They can throw up in the zone,
they can throw they can throw where they want.

Speaker 4 (01:12:36):
If he hits it out, he hits it out, I'll
get the next guy out. I'll strike the next guy out.
Hayden was Nesky. Probably not, and he acknowledged the next
in line. But that's the way it's gone for him
so far this season. Absolutely like what they've seen from him,
and that stands for each of the two other players
they added in the deal. Didn't know all three would

(01:12:56):
be Astros immediately, but they have been.

Speaker 6 (01:12:59):
We'll continue with something we've not yet discussed in the
first two hours of the show about your Houston Rockets
and what they'll be watching for tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:13:19):
It is the eight team, It's Sports Sox seven to ninety.
Rockets will know their playoff opponent very very shortly. You've
got the Warriors and the grizz tonight. Whoever loses that
game will go on to the wood Chipper that is
the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Speaker 4 (01:13:37):
Not necessarily, maybe I gotta finish my sentence.

Speaker 5 (01:13:40):
The winner of that game, though likely the Warriors since
they are, as you mentioned, a touchdown favorite. I still
can't believe that I know it's in San Francisco, I
know what they just got done doing. I just I
guess I'm giving the Grizzlies more credit than they deserve.

Speaker 6 (01:13:56):
Grizzlies weren't particularly good down the stretch, No.

Speaker 4 (01:13:59):
They weren't.

Speaker 5 (01:14:00):
In fact, Gordie was talking to a buddy of his
who covers the Grizzlies, and he basically said, if the
Grizzlies somehow managed to win this game against the Warriors,
the Rockets would kill them like maybe a sweep. I
vehemently disagree with that, just because when these two get together,
it's always a war.

Speaker 6 (01:14:20):
Yes, either the Rockets aren't a pick to sweep anybody, no,
and vice versa, right.

Speaker 5 (01:14:26):
And I think, you know, equally just as important. If
the Rockets end up playing the Warriors, I think it's
going to be a grinded out affair. But I'm look,
I don't pay attention. Whatever is less than nothing when
it comes to the New Orleans Pelicans is how much
I pay attention to that organization. They've never once made

(01:14:48):
me think they're serious about winning. In fact, they've done
several things that are the opposite of it. And oh,
by the way, it's one of the worst names in
all of professional sports. The Wizards and the Pelicans just
happen to both be in the end, and they're both
terrible names. I know there's Pelicans in New Orleans. You
could have named it anything, and you went with that.
It's just lame, absolutely lame. The logo's lame, the building's lame.

(01:15:10):
It's just that they could fold tomorrow and nobody would
even bat an eyelash. But anyway, that might not be
the case for much longer. And since they're in the
Rockets division. I know divisions don't mean as much in
the NBA anymore, But I do think that them hiring
Joe Dumars that got my attention today, if for no
other reason, then he put together the team that dethrown
the Lakers back in the early two thousands. I realized

(01:15:32):
that's over twenty years ago now. But job Dumars is not,
in my opinion, a bad executive, and them hiring him
he's coming home that kind of thing. It could be
a sneaky, decent move. But I don't know what they
do with that roster. Yeah, that's both. I'm not a
fan of either things you bring up. If you're looking
at the Pelicans, the rosters, if healthy, it's fine, and

(01:15:53):
at the beginning of the year, that's what they were
hoping for. Didn't stay that way, and you have multiple
players that are injury prone, most notably Zion and Joe.
Dumars was working in the league office, in my opinion
for a pretty significant reason, because nobody wanted him as
their GM anymore. Nobody wanted him in charge of their
basketball department anymore. I can't imagine this is the first

(01:16:15):
I know, it's not the first time he's been interested
in getting back on that side of things.

Speaker 6 (01:16:20):
I thought David Griffin was fine. Like I said yesterday,
their roster remarkably is good. They just never played any
basketball together. I mean, you're telling me they're going to
go hit the court with Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum, Jean Day, Murray,
Herb Jones, Trey Murphy the third. It's not a bad roster.

(01:16:41):
And that's what they had. In addition to the best
player on the Raptors, Brandon Ingram. They were all there.
This year's team had all those players on it. They
just didn't play any games together. Somebody was hurt or
someboddies were hurt almost the entire year. They probably felt
forced to commit to Zion law term. So not only

(01:17:01):
did he make a ton of money and not play
at all for all of his years so far, he's
now in line to do that for three more years
at roughly forty forty two million each time through. They're
under contract with McCollum for another year at thirty mil.
They're under contract with Murray for at least two more
years at better than thirty mil. And they extended Murphy,

(01:17:22):
which I think is smart because I think he's a
really good player and can be a part of an
exceptional team. But he's already set to make twenty five
million next year. Their payroll is insane for a team
that was one of the worst in basketball.

Speaker 5 (01:17:37):
How about this just as it pertains to this conversation,
because I would my first question for them if I
was like a let's say I'm an outside consultant, is
Joe Dumars's first move to figure out who to spin
off Zion to?

Speaker 4 (01:17:51):
Because you're trying to you could have put anybody's name
in there.

Speaker 6 (01:17:54):
Every single player is somebody you should be looking to move,
and it don't have to move them all, but you
should be getting intel.

Speaker 4 (01:18:00):
What can I get for every player on this team.

Speaker 5 (01:18:01):
And because that leads just perfectly into the Rockets.

Speaker 4 (01:18:06):
Have you been paying attention to the chatter about the Suns?
I know you have. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:18:11):
One thing that I found just at least a little
bit interesting. It's good for us to wonder what's happening,
and that Kevin Durant loves the X platform, always adding
comments to posts, whether they're about him or not, whether
he's tagged or not. And one of the reporters that
covers the team wanted to kind of, in his words,

(01:18:34):
kind of explain the situation, what's going on there and
how he sees it. And he said, you know, if
Kevin Durant finds himself this is just a reporter that
covers the Suns nationally. If he finds himself on another
team next year, I have to say it was a
great experience covering him over the last couple of Season's
always a pleasure to talk to after games, even in
tough losses. No telling how many times there's a moment

(01:18:56):
where you talk at length about topics that other guys
usually aren't in the mood for. And we saw it
all the time with bites that we used on the
show because he would go into detail about stuff that
mattered to analyzing what's going wrong with their team and him.
He answered him it wasn't even directed to him and
he was not tagged in it. But he said, I
appreciate your approach to your work. You make conversations about

(01:19:17):
basketball fun great working with you, and I appreciate the
kind words. I don't think it sounds like it it
was great working with you, But I can't help but
thinking it sounded like it was great working with you.

Speaker 7 (01:19:29):
Ly.

Speaker 5 (01:19:29):
Look, he's been saying as goodbyes for months. We saw
it here in Houston. I said this, Listen, there are
certain things that happen in sports where and I'm not
this is not like me being braggadocious here, but you're
gonna know what I'm talking about. We have done what
we do for so long that we know how to
recognize things that maybe other people now this doesn't happen

(01:19:50):
to be one of those things. I think if anybody
was at that first Rockets game against the Suns earlier
this year, the one in Toyota Center, I mean the
one where Kevin Durant went fifteen of twenty three for
his thirty seven points against the rockets, efficient as bleep,
just absolutely amazing performance.

Speaker 4 (01:20:09):
An audition, some would say, but after the game, doesn't
need it.

Speaker 5 (01:20:13):
He's been auditioning for everybody even though nobody needs an audition, right, well,
yes and no, he is thirty seven. When the season
starts next year, you might want to prove to people
that you're still you know, like if you come in
and you have a terrible shooting performance, it's going to
be very easy for a team to say, mother, you know,
father times catching up with him.

Speaker 4 (01:20:33):
He's long in the two blah blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 5 (01:20:35):
He's not doing that though, Like he is hurt though, yeah,
I know that is the one caveat the reason I'm
getting all of this though.

Speaker 4 (01:20:42):
Do you see his interaction with em after the.

Speaker 5 (01:20:45):
Game, with Jalen, who he trains with in the offseason,
Like there's all these little whispers connecting the dots. But
what's more important is that, like it's not going to
take that much to get him because of what some
that follow the league are saying now and I think
Brian Windhorse was one of the ones that said this,
They're having a fire sale this offseason.

Speaker 4 (01:21:03):
They just don't know it yet.

Speaker 6 (01:21:04):
It's still a little bit of a yes and no
to that. It's not going to take a whole lot.
I think you're right. They're not gonna get taken for
trading for Kevin Durant. There's only so much they can
ask for with a lack of leverage. But there's still
the financial side of pulling off a trade in the NBA.
You've got to send them a valuable.

Speaker 4 (01:21:22):
Contract matching contract, and you only have so many players
that make that kind of money. With Danny Ainge is four. Still,
it's not as easy as the Lakers, Jazz and Mavericks
made it look. But Anthony Davis and Luca both make
a lot of money that made it very easy. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:21:39):
Yeah, I don't know what's going towards the Suns, but
I would bet the house Kevin Durant more likely than
not could wind up in Houston.

Speaker 1 (01:21:48):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong Houston
sports guys named at him talking Your Team, Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler for the A Team.

Speaker 5 (01:22:10):
Four o'clock hour is underway here on Sports Talks seven
ninety It is the A Team on a Tuesday edition
of the program, also simulcast on Space City home network.
Later on tonight, you're gonna hear from the Houston Astros
and the Saint Louis Cardinals will be game two of
that three game set.

Speaker 4 (01:22:26):
You'll see it on Space City.

Speaker 5 (01:22:28):
You'll hear it right here on Sports Talk seven, ninety
year home for Astros baseball and Rockets basketball. There is
another team in town. They are the Houston Texans. They
have a draft pick coming up. This is I know
it's this is not gonna be the same for Wex
because he's just always locked in and honestly is probably
counting the minutes down to the NFL Draft. It's not

(01:22:49):
that I'm not excited about the draft or what the
Texans might do. I'm just ready for it to happen.
And uh, I don't know which way, which direction they're
gonna go.

Speaker 4 (01:22:59):
I have a good idea. I hope they have the
same idea.

Speaker 5 (01:23:03):
But until that happens a week from Thursday, we're gonna
have a long time for conjecture and projections and predictions
and all that kind of stuff. And that's where Wex
comes in here, along with our good producer Carl Thompson,
not Thomas's of cooling my.

Speaker 4 (01:23:23):
Vest and a room full of scouts, got the fording, bitch.
If you're pasted as hell, if you're thinking be all
bick age, you got us go wander leak.

Speaker 6 (01:23:47):
It is time to give you some more information that
we think could come true on Thursday night of next
week during the opening round of the NFL Draft. Mocks
of plenty coming out on a pretty regular basis each
and every every day, and more versions to come from
those that we often listen to and learn from or
dismissed completely. One such mock, Toddy Mack former Foe Foyle

(01:24:11):
of mel Kiper Junior, suggests that Texans take an offensive lineman,
not the offensive lineman that has been said a whole
lot here on the show, but we'll save that for
our commentary after the A team vehicle tells you, with
the twenty fifth pick in the twenty twenty five NFL Draft,

(01:24:32):
the Houston Texans could select.

Speaker 8 (01:24:35):
Wide receiver Luther Burden, the third out of Missouri. And
I'm really excited to talk about him today, boys, because he,
to me is the Brian Thomas junior of this year's draft.
Last year, if you remember, wait to Brian to Brian
Thomas junior land.

Speaker 6 (01:24:50):
He landed in the division at the pick originally owned
by Nick Casario's Texans number twenty three.

Speaker 8 (01:24:56):
Very good, and I thought that he should have been
a top fifteen pick. I thought he was that talented
of a wide receiver. I thought that his route tree
was phenomenal, great catch radius, surefire hands and to be
able to share the spotlight with Jaden Daniels and Elik Neighbors.
Down in Baton, Rouge carried his own, but he fell
down draft boards. People were starting to say there was
a clear separation at that wide receiver spot. Well, what

(01:25:17):
are we doing this year? The exact same thing. We're
watching as two receivers and Mecca and Buka and Matthew
Golden are moving up draft boards. Meanwhile Luthor Burdon is
moving down draft boards. And so I look at a
guy like Luther Burdon all as you see wide receiver,
phenomenal route runner, offers you incredible value on special teams.

(01:25:39):
This is somebody who can come on in and be
just like Brian Thomas Junior fly the wall, who flows
and drops down draft boards, lands in the right situation
and immediately hits. He has a great route runner, good accelerator,
surefire hands. One scout compared him as a combination of
Aman Ross Saint Brown when it comes to his route

(01:25:59):
running with the hands of a guy like Garrett Wilson.
So if I'm going to a one thousand yard playmaker at
pick number twenty five, I'm also getting a dude that
can offer me value on the outside in the slot
and be.

Speaker 4 (01:26:09):
Here for the next five years. I get hear that'll win.

Speaker 8 (01:26:12):
Some of his best strengths I think that he has
is his ability to win throughout the catch window. I
think the fact that he also has a great change
of direction. You throw that into an offense that's missing
that dude on the outside, and maybe when you get
back at healthy Tank Dell, knowing that Christian Kirk is
only here on a one year contract, shift him inside.
It ends up working out for you and it allows
you to add that other element, which we need to

(01:26:33):
talk about a little bit more special teams. This was
a guy that was a punt returner, a kick returner.
He offers that in so many different ways for the Texans.
Not my favorite receiver to land at NRG Stadium in
twenty twenty five, but certainly if we're going for a
day one selection and you watch Za Mecca book is
off the board, Gime ma out.

Speaker 4 (01:26:50):
The Golden's off the board. Ted McMillan is long gone.

Speaker 8 (01:26:53):
You could do worse than landing a dude like Luther
Burnon at picked twenty five?

Speaker 5 (01:26:56):
Who is your favorite or be wide receiver if they
were going to take one.

Speaker 4 (01:27:02):
If it's not him, it would be Matthew Golden, and
we're gonna get to him on another DAG.

Speaker 6 (01:27:06):
So I know it's fun if on the day you
decide the Texans are trading up, because I am going
to introduce it the same way I introduced it today
with the twenty fifth pick in the twenty twenty five
NFL Draft, the Houston Texans select. You'll have to stop
me at some point there or ask me to say
something differently, and I might even listen to you. Because

(01:27:26):
Matthew Golden's not gonna be on the board at twenty five.

Speaker 4 (01:27:29):
I think you know that.

Speaker 6 (01:27:30):
I think we know that Luther Burden also might not
be on the board. I'm not sure that it's quite
like last year. I think there was probably a mistake
made in evaluations because it seemed like every single team
was totally on board with what you just described, there
is a clear cut top three receivers in this class.

(01:27:50):
I was fine with a clear cut top two. I
don't know why they thought Roma Doonsa was part of
the well Heast clearly much better than Brian Thomas Junior
and everybody else that followed, But Neighbors and Harrison were
top six picks. Harrison was fourth and Neighbors was sixth.
And while Neighbors was ridiculously productive this year and Harrison
Junior had a couple of more issues and less production,

(01:28:13):
they both give every indication they're going to be unbelievable
and were well worth their high draft prospect status.

Speaker 4 (01:28:19):
And then where they got drafted.

Speaker 6 (01:28:20):
A Dune's a a little bit different situation, pretty productive
all things considered, a horrible situation with their offensive line
and their quarterback that had a tough time nailing down
when he should go ahead and call it on any
particular play because he likes twenty five second long plays
all year. And you can see that the team recognized
that they've overhauled everything on offense, their offensive line, their

(01:28:41):
new head coach, their new OC and on down the line.
But the best pick value at the position anywhere in
the draft was probably Brian Thomas Junior. If the Texans
draft a player like that from a production standpoint, they
could absolutely be the answer to the question this year.

Speaker 4 (01:29:00):
And I think certainly Burden could be that player. I
love the fit on any team because I think he's
a lot more than probably how he was used at Missouri.
But what he showed is I think what Tank Dell
showed to the nation at practice at the Senior Bowl
after the season, because nobody was paying attention during the year.
His ability to shake people.

Speaker 6 (01:29:20):
At the line, after the catch and anywhere on the
football field is elite in my opinion, and it plays
at the NFL level usually, and I'm sure it will
for him. So I think that would do wonders for
kind of the comments we made yesterday.

Speaker 4 (01:29:34):
The defense is going to do this. They added CJ.

Speaker 6 (01:29:36):
Gardner Johnson, they brought back Sheldon Rankins, They've re upped
with three different players, They've got competition at linebacker. We're
getting the third year of Will Anderson Junior. This incredible
defense is a really good chance to be even better
if healthy. Oh, they also have an offense. I mean,
there was nothing. What are you excited about next year?
Other than they have a new OC their OC last year.

(01:29:57):
Quite honestly, he's not a bad offensive play call and
he's not a bad offense, doesn't have a bad offensive playbook.
He did a terrible job of adapting to a terrible situation,
and I think because of it, he was let go,
and I think he was also. I doubt he had
much say in who they hired as their ow line
coach and how long they kept him for all thirty
four games plus playoffs. Just a bad situation and he

(01:30:18):
was one of the people that they needed to let go.
And I think in their mind to move ahead, he's
gonna be an OC again. I think he's going to
be fine there, just like he was fine here, much
better in year one with a much better offensive line.
But the excitement factor about the offense needs to come
from some personnel. How disappointed are you AC if they
the name of the player is a wide receiver at

(01:30:40):
twenty five, knowing they still have three more picks before
they get to Saturday, A pair of twos and a three,
fifty eight, seventy nine and eighty nine ten threes in
in a second up. The seventy nine is in the
third round.

Speaker 5 (01:30:54):
Are they picking said wide receiver at twenty five.

Speaker 4 (01:30:57):
Or have thess what I was saying.

Speaker 6 (01:30:58):
I just said, if the first round pick is a
y receiver, knowing they have three more picks before Saturday,
one to two and two threes, fifty eight, seventy nine,
and eighty nine, is it a huge deal to you?

Speaker 4 (01:31:09):
No, well you didn't let me finish.

Speaker 5 (01:31:11):
Have they traded up to take a wide receiver, because
in that case, they've they're pretty sure they're getting whatever
they're getting. I still don't like that because that means
you've traded up.

Speaker 4 (01:31:22):
Like what you're saying you would.

Speaker 6 (01:31:23):
If it's Matthew Golden, that's fine, But it's not if
they stay at twenty five and take burn.

Speaker 4 (01:31:27):
It's if it's a bill and it's fine.

Speaker 6 (01:31:29):
Like, well, I'm just like trying to make it blank
if a wide receiver is the first player they draft wherever,
because if they trade.

Speaker 5 (01:31:35):
Up for him, then you've even in my more, that's
even worse. It is that's that none of that, none
of those scenarios is good for me.

Speaker 4 (01:31:41):
I like great players.

Speaker 6 (01:31:42):
They like great players trading out for players that turn
into great players. It's it is hard to be negative
about that, especially when this team currently is super super
super talented. So losing a future second or one of
the second or thirds this year in.

Speaker 4 (01:31:56):
Order to do that is not team killing.

Speaker 6 (01:32:00):
Because let's say they draft seven players on Thursday, Friday,
and Saturday. If they drafted twenty five, that player will
see significant field time.

Speaker 4 (01:32:08):
Will any of the others without injury? It depends. It
depends on I mean, and it's only for one year.
They'll definitely see the field if they were correct. You
know what I think of talent in twenty six, twenty seven,
and twenty eight.

Speaker 5 (01:32:21):
You know what I think of when I think of
trading up for a wide receiver. And this is not
It's not a shot at Nick Cassario because he's had
several picks, some of which he has made trades for
then they have worked out. He also traded up to
take Kenyon Green. He also traded back, traded back to
I'm sorry. He also traded up, I believe to take
John Metchi. Did he didn't. That's I mean, I know

(01:32:44):
it was a later round pick, but if you're trading
up to take a skill position like that, I want
it to pay off, and I just don't think you
can say it has.

Speaker 4 (01:32:52):
Yeah, it's a perfect balance.

Speaker 6 (01:32:54):
That was a deal at at the time, especially when
I heard the name of the player they were taking,
I didn't like.

Speaker 4 (01:32:58):
But just are you not liking it? It's just a
part of that.

Speaker 6 (01:33:01):
To be fair to Nick, He's traded up to eighty
nine to draft Nico Collins. I mean, to find a
player of that caliber middle of the draft is incredible.
He saw it coming, so he made the aggressive I
think this player can really be somebody and he's Is
he the best wide receiver that doesn't play in Cincinnati
in the AFC?

Speaker 4 (01:33:21):
Easily? Easily? Right, definitely has a case for it.

Speaker 5 (01:33:26):
No, I'm gonna say it easily since you said the
Cincinnati caveat put that on there, all right. The A
Team continues here on Sports Talks seven ninety. It's a
Tuesday edition of the program. We are gonna hear from
Astro's manager Joe Espada when we come back.

Speaker 1 (01:33:43):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:33:56):
It is the A Team.

Speaker 5 (01:33:56):
It's Sports Talks seven ninety, Space City Home Network. Oh
A Spata making his weekly visit on the mighty Sports
Talk seven ninety conglomerate we have here, He joins Sean
Salisbury and company each and every I'm sorry, the Matt
Thomas Show each and every week here on the program,
and started today as we play a little bit of

(01:34:19):
that conversation with his thoughts on what went wrong with
as I.

Speaker 4 (01:34:23):
Like to call him bad fromber last night.

Speaker 7 (01:34:26):
You know what I think, you know, yes yesterday. It's
something that we you know, it's we don't get to
see Valdez have nights like die very often. You know,
I just foun him these pitches were up in the zone,
thinker not really down in inducing the ground balls early
in the game. He did, but you know, kind of
third fourth inning stuff starting to stay up. He's breaking

(01:34:47):
ball usually he varies that pitch with two strikes, get swinging, missus.
He wasn't getting the wits that he normally I normally
are the normally gets. So you know he'll he'll get,
he'll put this behind him and get We'll get ready
for the next one.

Speaker 4 (01:35:00):
Skin up.

Speaker 13 (01:35:00):
Talk about your your pitching, and you know how good
it's been, particularly in the in the bullpen as well
so far this year. But you look at the opponents
your face, I mean the Angels, Uh, coming out of
this weekend, I think we're leading baseball in home runs
hit and then you go to this series with the Cardinals,
who lead all of baseball in batting average, And I
just watched that team last night for the first time
this year. Like they just put up such good hard

(01:35:22):
at bats.

Speaker 4 (01:35:23):
It's hard to get out to that.

Speaker 13 (01:35:24):
Yeah, in that lineup, Well, you know, is that what
we can expect more of that these next couple of games.

Speaker 7 (01:35:28):
Yeah, and you know, they have a pretty good balanced lineup.
They got some lefty's, righty steak and platoon. You know,
they have some guys with the bench that do come
in and give your quality at bats, and they got
back to both skills. They do have some speed. So
it's not an easy lineup to navigate. So we need
to make our adjustments and and win this one with
this with.

Speaker 13 (01:35:46):
Today, I was out, you know, it was out spring training,
early in camp, and that you know when pitchers and
catchers report, and I know and I saw you guys
work on it every day. The catch the catchers with
Victor and Yan Air, you know, throwing balls to first,
throw balls a second, throw balls a third. It seems
like this year those teams are being a little bit
more aggressive on you guys and taking bass is that

(01:36:07):
I mean obviously you guys see it. What can you
do to counterbalance that other than just continue to work
with your catchers on timing and being red you know,
the recognition of guys on base and when they're you know,
looking like they're going to steal.

Speaker 7 (01:36:19):
Yeah, but you know what, it will take more than
just a catchers throwing guys out. We need we need
an opportunity our pitchers need to give us you know
a little better more more time for those guys to
throw people out. We need to do a better job
interrupting the running game, you know, not asking for us
to lead the league and stealing, but we need to,
you know, reduce the amount of stolen based attempts that

(01:36:41):
we are getting early this year, and we we are
highlighting that we were trying to make some adjustments. I
think the last couple of games have been better packing
the guys, you know that we know they're going to run.
The council are going to run. Asking our pitchers to
hold the ball some sly steps, you know, they're also
the element of the clock is also something that teams
are using. We need to do a better job of

(01:37:03):
using the clock to time our pits to first or
inside moves and such such such as things.

Speaker 13 (01:37:08):
Talking with manager Joe Spot and skip all. You know,
one of the biggest storylines throughout spring training of courses.
Oh my gosh, al tuove and left and you know
what's that going to look like? Small sample size for
the first few weeks, but man, i'd see you guys
are one of the better teams defensively and in those
defensive metrics. And so far, so good with al two
a left and camp Smith and right. I feel like
both those guys have been doing their job.

Speaker 7 (01:37:29):
Credit to them, you know, I think we you know,
we we work really hard these off season to consider
making these moves and and you know, we did it
thinking about the sacrifices that some of these players we're
going to have to make moving positions and and Alto
has been such a pro and and you know, it's
only been two weeks. We've got a lot of room,
a lot of room to grow as at a club.

(01:37:52):
But you know, so far we're finding ourselves in the
top five in the defensive matrix. And credit goes to
our players and our coaches that are going to getting
these players better to.

Speaker 12 (01:37:59):
Play Yeah, and Joe, I think we've talked about this before.
I am the president of the Jake Myers fan Club.
I think he also deserves some credit. I mean, what
makes him so good to you out there in center field?
Is it just the reads, the jumps and just everything, the.

Speaker 7 (01:38:11):
Speed everything, you know, he gets good jumps. He's perception
up the ball off the bat is excellent. Something that
we also seen of Jake this year. He's been actually
more of a leader on the outfield, having two inexperienced
outfielders next to him to he's left and right, So
he's been taking more charge moving those guys, you know,
be more vocal, you know, moving those guys. We counts

(01:38:34):
and and we we you know, we need to give
Jake Myers some credit of the development of both All
two way and Ken Smith in the sense also in
the outfield, a lot of credit goes to Jake. He's
really taking charge out there in the outfield.

Speaker 4 (01:38:47):
Skip.

Speaker 13 (01:38:47):
I saw the obviously, the torpedo bats became a big
topic a couple of weeks ago across the league. I
saw Mauricio Dubond pregame on Sunday in the clubhouse, and
he was showing us a torpedo batt He was all
excited about it, and sure enough I hit on Sunday,
two hits last night.

Speaker 4 (01:39:03):
Is there is it?

Speaker 13 (01:39:04):
Is it just happenstance or is this thing maybe working
for Doobie?

Speaker 7 (01:39:08):
I think he's working for Dewbey. But let's not take
you know, anything away from his ability.

Speaker 4 (01:39:11):
To get the barrel to the ball.

Speaker 7 (01:39:12):
You know, he's he knows how to do that, so
you know, maybe some credit. He really likes the bat,
so maybe some credit to the bat he sees. He
feels like he's getting you know, the right part of
the bar, the barrel on the ball, and he feels
like the boy's jumping a little bit more off his bat.
And anything that you can that you can use to uh,
you know, build confidence. These guys are filling to use that.

(01:39:35):
And so far this is working out for for the bond.

Speaker 12 (01:39:38):
In state of the rotation as it is right now,
Ryan Gusta with a pretty solid start for you on
Saturday and is tab to start again.

Speaker 4 (01:39:46):
How you feeling about where you are there?

Speaker 12 (01:39:48):
And also Lance mccullor's junior, where we're feeling about his progress.

Speaker 7 (01:39:52):
Lance McCulloch junior feeling really good about his progress. He'll
make it start this weekend with our Double A club
and if that goes well, he's not, you know, on
the door. He's making his first major league starting a
couple of years. So I'm really happy for him, thrilled
about where he's at right now. He's level of confidence,
it's over the roof right now, so I feel really
good about that. And we still gave us a pretty

(01:40:12):
good start. You know, right now we are talking, we're
talking things through. I also like the way he has
to come and solidify our pen. He's that arm that
can be used in a hybrid role where he can
give you starts. He can come in and give you
some multiple innings out of the bullpen. But he did
a really nice shot and he's first start with us.

Speaker 6 (01:40:30):
I can see it in about ten days. Astro's back
at minute May Park. Joe needs a little time to himself,
closes the manager's off his door, and then Lance is
knocking on it.

Speaker 4 (01:40:41):
Who is it, Hey, it's starting pitcher.

Speaker 6 (01:40:43):
Lance mccollor is knocking on the door, just like you
said on Sports Talk seven ninety one. More rehab appearance
and if he's healthy coming out of it, feels good
the next day. Sounds like from both Dana Brown and
from Joe Espada they intend to strongly consider again. Timing

(01:41:06):
is also part of it because of the rehab assignment
length of thirty days, that though ready to make that move,
they're ready to have him take a start, be a
part of the rotation and then kind of work off
of that.

Speaker 4 (01:41:16):
How many innings can he go?

Speaker 6 (01:41:18):
Do we need another person like Ryan Gusto available that day?
Is there a possibility that they go six man at
that point, because there's probably three weeks maybe till Spencer
Araghetti could potentially be making his return from his thumb injury.
And we also got some clarification. If you didn't hear
that earlier from Hayden was nesky. We had described it

(01:41:40):
because Spencer told the media this weekend that he hurt
himself when he put his hands on his head to
protect his head from the oncoming baseball. But Hayden mentioned
that the right hand that was on his head was
holding a baseball at the time, so the baseball crunched
his finger in between the baseball he was holding in

(01:42:00):
the baseball that hit him, like when you get hit
when you're holding the bat. You know, you might break it,
you might not, But when you there's nowhere for the
finger to go because it's crushed against the bat from
the oncoming ninety mile an hour pitch. Granted, it seems
like it'd be crushed against your skull. Similarly, bit, I
think the manner in which he was holding his thumb
around a baseball is a little bit different than the

(01:42:22):
manner he would have been holding his empty hand on
his head.

Speaker 5 (01:42:26):
You know what my immediate response to that is his
head is larger than a baseball. Why are we getting
this information from Hayden Wiznewsky for the first time.

Speaker 6 (01:42:33):
So, Hayden, we asked him about this during the interview,
and he was the day he started, if you recall.
So he said, I really didn't know what was going on,
but right before I was getting ready to go out there,
I saw that Spencer was in street clothes. Well, players
on the team, on the active roster are not in
street clothes when the game is about to start. And

(01:42:54):
so he knew something was up, but he did not
know what. And then he pitched, and then he came
out of the game and he I heard someone bring
his name up, and it kind of jogged his memory
to I don't know what he's like. So what happened
to him, I don't know, and so whoever it was
told him, And I think by now he has talked
to Spencer and talked to people who were aware of it,
but he didn't see it and he was totally unaware

(01:43:15):
of it. And remember when Joe Spottam met with the media,
he was unaware of what actually had happened. He knew
that Spencer had gotten hurt, and that was essentially all
because you know, you've been out there, Ross and I
have been out there. Everybody that covers the team has
been out there during VP. It's totally normal to have
you know, twenty six people from the other team on
the field, usually in the outfield, the deep outfield, while

(01:43:36):
your team is going through you know, six or seven
guys in the cage through their session of BP, and
additional personnel, whether it's a teammate or somebody that's also
in a costume, pregame costume. They're out there to protect you,
hold up their glove, run into the line of fire,
make sure you know that the ball is coming, hopefully
early enough that instead of throwing your hand up on

(01:43:56):
your head. You can throw your glove up on your
head and catch it or knock it away, run.

Speaker 4 (01:44:01):
For a cover. Total fluke thing. That the other thing
that Hayden said he can't recall ever seeing it. He
talked to players who've been in the league longer than him.
You can't recall ever seeing it.

Speaker 5 (01:44:10):
Altove getting hit on the thumb in a World Baseball
Classic game happens every day basically in the in the majors.
This is I mean, I'm sure it happens, but the
way it happened and the result of what happened, Yeah,
that's that's pretty brutal.

Speaker 4 (01:44:24):
All right.

Speaker 5 (01:44:24):
We will get to our signature segment next. It is
say what that is?

Speaker 4 (01:44:29):
Right around the corner.

Speaker 2 (01:44:31):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:44:38):
This is Adam and Adam sweekly chowned through mind buckling
moments that make you.

Speaker 4 (01:44:43):
Go, Hey, what what what?

Speaker 7 (01:44:48):
What?

Speaker 4 (01:44:49):
Tagare? What are you talking about on a Tuesday?

Speaker 3 (01:44:54):
Hey what?

Speaker 4 (01:44:55):
Oh Dad?

Speaker 2 (01:44:56):
I dare now say what?

Speaker 1 (01:45:04):
You know?

Speaker 5 (01:45:04):
What I find hilarious is when teams will come out
and say, whether directly or indirectly, after the fact, yeah
we screwed up. But it's like the most obvious thing
to everybody but them when they finally say it. That's
where the Phoenix Suns are right now. I don't know
if you guys saw the article that Brian Windhorst wrote

(01:45:26):
about the whole situation, not just Kevin Durant, but everything
involving what will be. If nothing else, it'll still be
a major off season of change for the Phoenix Suns.
And we've long thought that just because of the draft picks,
for no other reason, that the Rockets possess, you know,
the Sun's draft picks, all of them that they would

(01:45:46):
want in a situation like this, that Durant coming to
Houston is almost I don't want to call it a formality,
but it feels that way. Just when you see articles
like this that they are like, yeah, we probably should
have put him out there a little bit more during
the trade deadline this last year.

Speaker 4 (01:46:07):
I mean I saw that.

Speaker 5 (01:46:07):
I'm like really no kidding, Like we heard little like
whispers that they were maybe like seeing if if And
what they found out was, Yeah, a lot of people
are interested in him, a lot of teams, not just
the Rockets. And in this article he talks about the Timberwolves,
the Heat, the Knicks, and the Spurs are the other

(01:46:28):
teams besides the Rockets that he calls robust interest in
Kevin Durant. My question is, hey, why didn't they trade
him at the deadline? And b why are you admitting
this now?

Speaker 4 (01:46:39):
So who's saying this? The Sun's basically like he was
reporting that close to the team indicated.

Speaker 5 (01:46:47):
That kind of fo Yeah, privately, this is the paragraph. Privately,
the Sons admit they made a mistake by not involving
Durant earlier in the process. In other words, they were
about to trade him to the Warriors, and he was
like no. And he went on of all people, Draymond
Green's podcast, and the reason he said he gave for
that was, I want to end my career on my terms,

(01:47:09):
which I guess every athlete does, but very few of
them usually get to me.

Speaker 6 (01:47:14):
And little quality of player usually helps to dictate that.
He's pretty high quality, and he's obviously at that still
at that level. I don't think it's a foregone conclusion
until we see what happens. If the Rockets are not
an advancing team, if they don't reach the Western Conference semis,
then I think it's more likely that whatever they've seen

(01:47:35):
over the four or five, six or seven games that
were played. It'll give them the information necessary to make
that decision for next year, because while they are a
young core, you don't have forever. They've already kind of
gotten to that point. They got to the point where
at least decision number one had to be made, and
it was twofold, are we extending Jalen Green and Alprin
shan Gun And it was yes to both. Well, that

(01:47:57):
same thing is going to come up next year with
the those two first round picks respective Leja Bari Smith's
junior and Tari Easton, And then the same question comes
up the year after that with Amen Thompson and Cam Witmore.
And you're the number two seed, at least you have
to be among the next group of If there's two tiers,
and I think there are, if you put the Calves, Celtics,

(01:48:21):
Thunder and one tier teams most likely to win the title,
they probably have the you know, they should, in my opinion,
have the three best odds because the Calves should make
the conference finals, and it playing the Vegas way of it,
I'm not saying necessarily that the third best team, but
they would have the third most likeliest chance to reach
the finals and then obviously win it. So that would
be where I placed them from a wagering standpoint, okay,

(01:48:41):
And then there's the next tier. Every team in the
West that isn't Memphis, and maybe maybe the Knicks.

Speaker 4 (01:48:50):
But maybe not. Maybe they'd be the beginning of the
following tier. Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:48:53):
So you're in that tier two already. You're in the
tier two that might be the fourth best team. Your
window wide freaking open today, and it's going to remain
that way if you do things well and you stay
healthy for five years minimum. How many of those years
do you let what you have develop percolate. You've done

(01:49:15):
it for the first four years, because you were talking
about players that were in year one and then two, three, four,
and year one and two and three and then year
one in year two with your whole young core, and
in the middle of that, for Jalen and Alpi, you
brought in veteran players to do both behind the scenes work,
leadership work, understanding out to be a pro work, and
clearly basketball work. They're a better team because Dylan Brooks

(01:49:36):
is on their basketball team and playing basketball and shooting
basketballs and defending the other team and the same could
be said about these other veterans, so varying degrees. What
do you have in order to trade to keep what
you want to develop together is the other part of
the question. You don't have to get only Kevin Durant,
and you have more assets than only the Phoenix Sun's

(01:49:57):
future picks twenty five twenty nine. With Phoenix, it makes
sense to say, well, can't we just keep our core together.

Speaker 4 (01:50:06):
You can have your picks back and we'll work with that.

Speaker 6 (01:50:09):
We'll take whatever star we've been able to get, We'll
couple them with the group that's already at this level,
or do they talk to another team with a different
top level player, probably not as good as Kevin Durant,
but maybe close. And now you're trading away players minutes
that he's gonna take away, but you're also keeping some
of these future assets to either use or find somebody else.

(01:50:30):
Because Cooper Flag's great and all, you don't have to
have that particular player, and you don't have to have
the player you draft in twenty six or twenty seven
or twenty eight. But at some point you're not gonna
keep everybody, so you do want to keep developing some
young talent and drafting some young talent, but they're less
tied to having to go get Kevin Durant.

Speaker 4 (01:50:51):
Then Phoenix is tied to needing to move Kevin.

Speaker 5 (01:50:54):
Durant, and for the very same reason in both of
those scenarios you just laid out. It's the money they
want to get rid of that contract as much as
anything else, and the Rockets have to figure out a
way if they want to get him, to make that
happen without giving like it's one thing if the price

(01:51:14):
for Kevin Durant has dropped because of a variety of
scenarios here, but you still have to make it work.

Speaker 4 (01:51:20):
Numbers wise, the.

Speaker 6 (01:51:21):
Rockets have in twenty five starting in twenty five, two
players that make thirty three million, Jylen and Alpi with
their extensions, and one player that makes a lot more
than that. Maybe because Fred's financial commitment in twenty twenty
five twenty six is not definitive because of the option

(01:51:41):
that they hold, they could simply pick it up and
there's your forty five million, or they could extend his contract,
which may fiddle the annual numbers. And they love Fred
inside the organization ship happen here, but he makes the
kind of money that helps facilitate a deal. Dylan makes
twenty one, You got a couple other guys making eight figures,
but not a ton. Jock Landell's money would add up.

(01:52:03):
Jay shn Tate's money would add up, but you've got
a lot to add up to get to what it
would take to make a Durant deal. And you're giving
him a Jimmy Butler contract. Golden State traded for Jimmy
Butler last year of his deal. The option was to
have him making the decision for you about what your
future was like, which no team wants to do. Because

(01:52:24):
they gave up assets to get him or give him
one hundred and twenty million over two years. They gave
him one hundred and twenty million to extend him over
two years. The Rockets or whomever Kevin Durant goes to,
will be in the exact same position, and they will
do it. If you're trading for Kevin Durant, you're committing
to him, and you're committing to him being a sixty
million dollar player for two additional seasons.

Speaker 5 (01:52:42):
But at one point, at what point, if you're the Rockets,
do you say, well, these are valuable picks to everybody,
not just the Suns. Why don't we get go to
somebody else who's not gonna be thirty seven when campigins, That's.

Speaker 4 (01:52:56):
Exactly what I mentioned.

Speaker 6 (01:52:57):
I think the Rockets are less tied to being focused
on only easy money sniper and they can focus on
whichever other team. Phoenix isn't the only team that's like, man,
we really screwed this up.

Speaker 4 (01:53:11):
Yeah, that's that's true.

Speaker 5 (01:53:13):
It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out
all summer long.

Speaker 1 (01:53:19):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:53:34):
It is the a team Sports SOX seven ninety Space
City home network.

Speaker 4 (01:53:39):
At least for a few more minutes.

Speaker 5 (01:53:40):
We will get you to Rockets or should I say
Astros on deck coming up at the bottom of next hour.

Speaker 4 (01:53:47):
They'll be in Saint Louis.

Speaker 5 (01:53:48):
While they remain in Saint Louis, they'll have a game
two of a three game set day game tomorrow, which
will pre empt the beginning of our show.

Speaker 4 (01:53:56):
We'll be here a little bit later on.

Speaker 5 (01:53:58):
But as it pertains tonight, Hunter Brown going to the
bump for the Astros, hoping to do what Fromburn Company
could not, which is get a win in this series.

Speaker 6 (01:54:08):
I had a couple of changes to the group, with
Luis Contreras getting two innings of work yesterday, even though
they have a day off Thursday, if they need somebody
today won't be him. He was optioned to the Space Cowboys.
Nick Hernandez added to the active twenty six man roster
for today, likely through I would guess through the weekend,

(01:54:29):
but the timing of it is interesting, and that Forrest
Whitley made his necessary appearances and back to back games
Saturday and Sunday, He's made three appearances. I'm not aware
of any reason why he wouldn't be pretty much ready
to be added to the major league roster, so that
probably is something that's forthcoming in the next handful of days.

(01:54:49):
Again just guessing, but it feels like that's where they
are with him. But for the time being, it will
be Nick Hernandez. And obviously as we've drawn closer to
game time, we'll give you all this information during the
Astros on deck show. But the lineup looks like this
for Houston as they face Eric Fetti. Al twoves back
in the left field Perettis Alvarez Walker the typical one

(01:55:11):
through four with Alvarez at d H Jeremy Pania gets
another time to hit in the five hole behind Walker.
I mean it's last at bat. I guess they're only
as good as your last at bat. Hit a three
run homer, He's tied for the team, leaving homers with
three Yanners doing the catching again behind the plate. Jake's
back in center field where he finished last night's game,
but Chazz got the start. Cam Smith, this is the

(01:55:34):
right thing to do for the time being. Play him
every single day and Mauricio Dubon will trot out to
the dish at some point in tonight's game with his
torpedo bat once again.

Speaker 4 (01:55:44):
Is that done? Finally? Now the Yankees the torpedo bats talk. Well,
the Yankees do yesterday? Are they Are you sure they're dead? Yeah?
I'm sure. So what they do yesterday, I don't know.
They scored, They scored four runs and won a game.
They are nine and seven. They're awesome.

Speaker 6 (01:55:59):
Yeah, the torpedo talk is done, but their use is
clearly not. The Astros were one of many teams to
await their arrival at their next home stand when they
could get them in their hands. This last homestand was it,
And now clearly one player if not more are using them,
and I think that the rest of the league is

(01:56:20):
doing similar. There is still no I don't even think
there's a single team that has even the majority of
their position players using it, which would be seven players.
I don't think there's any team that has seven players
on their roster using a torpedo bat. There's probably thirty teams,
less than one hundred guys, maybe less than fifty currently

(01:56:42):
going up to the plate because I don't think enough
of them are comfortable with it yet. That's just a
little bit of a front side head start that the
Yankees did. Guys aren't going to go up to the
play with a bat they don't like ever. In less,
they're stuck because they broke ten of them.

Speaker 4 (01:56:56):
They got it. They have to get ass to it,
or they have to like it.

Speaker 6 (01:57:00):
They might order a shipment, head into the cage, head
out to BP and say, not down with this. This
isn't working for me. I don't like what it does.
I don't like swinging it yet, so I'm not using it.
I don't think the results are still that overwhelming. They
just happened to blindside everybody because nobody knew what they
were looking at. Nobody thought, where did this come from?

(01:57:20):
Remember when we were trying to pretend that this isn't legal,
which of course it is, But the Yankees just happen
to be in front of everybody, and it was coupled
with a ridiculous weekend they're not likely to repeat. Keep
in mind, since we just the Astros just finished playing
the Angels, so we were just talking about this. The
Yankees don't lead the majors in home runs. They just

(01:57:42):
had a bunch of home runs at the beginning of
the season. They lead the majors and home runs now again,
but they're just one of three teams with thirty or
more homers.

Speaker 4 (01:57:49):
They've got thirty two.

Speaker 6 (01:57:51):
The show Heo Tani led team has thirty one, and
the Shohani tests less Showhani Shoho Tani less team.

Speaker 4 (01:57:57):
The Angels have thirty. Say it's five times fast, have
said it once clearly, but I couldn't even do that.
And the Astros don't have anywhere near thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:58:06):
And they wouldn't if they were striking out with torpedo
bats either. Like, you can't home run when you can't
hit a homer when you don't make the right contact
to begin with, and they haven't been like, they're not
hitting balls two hundred and ninety feet down the line
that are getting caught. They're not hitting balls three hundred
and seventy five feet to the power alleys that are

(01:58:26):
getting caught.

Speaker 4 (01:58:27):
Not a lot of them. There's obviously been a few.
We've played sixteen times.

Speaker 5 (01:58:31):
I just don't want to have it on a night
like last week, And that was admittedly a little bit
more extreme, where you have Hunter Brown go out there
and just pitch his butt off as per usual, and
you end up having an Elda show for it for
a variety of reason. That last one was a little bit.
That's an outlier. You know, he was fantastic, and then

(01:58:52):
you have a walk off walk under the scenario that
we mentioned a few times earlier in the show. But
he's he's as good a chance as any. I mean,
you keep talking about the pitching for the Astros this year,
it's been spectacular, and he's been one of the biggest,
if not the biggest reason.

Speaker 6 (01:59:09):
Three starts, six innings, all three times, two earned runs
or less all three times. That's awesome, elite, and it's
probably only going to get better. He's only only thrown
six innings in each of those starts. His pitch count
has been in the nineties for each of those three starts.
Maybe that's something that gets a little bit cleaner. There
are a bunch of it bats in this last game,

(01:59:30):
even though they were way up, that were foul ball,
foul ball, foul ball. That's why a two hitter with
no walks, He's still got to ninety eight pitches through
only six innings. It's normally not like that. Normally that's
a seven inning outing pretty easily. But that's one other
aspect of his game this year that maybe is even
better than last year is his control. He's walked three
batters all in his first start. He hasn't walked a

(01:59:54):
batter in either of his last two starts of six innings.
That's not normal for most.

Speaker 5 (02:00:01):
No And honestly, whether it was the walks or whether
it was fluky unlucky fielding, whatever you want to call
it behind him, I felt like more often than not
he would have traffic on the bases that was, if
not not directly his fault. He just I never felt
like it was like legit, like they were they earned

(02:00:21):
their way there. In a lot of senses, there was
always something unlucky going on. Especially, I think it was
a combination of that happening mixed with before he kind
of adjusted some of the mechanics that he did. I
guess it was the end of May last year that
really turned his season around after both of those things
stopped happening as much.

Speaker 4 (02:00:38):
I guess, well, he was.

Speaker 6 (02:00:39):
Just what happened at the beginning of the season. He
didn't know how to put guys away. He didn't know
how to throw strikes without getting clobbered. He was throwing
strikes and they were crushing them. And he was having
games where he gave up eight hits and eleven hits
and just not that's not Ace level stuff. I mean,
the guy was trying to hold his spot in the
rotation one year ago at this time. Today's the fifteenth
YEP start on the sixteenth, the start right before that,

(02:01:02):
which would basically be within this three hundred and sixty
five day window on April eleventh, that was his two
out start where he gave up nine runs and eleven hits,
and it was got one year AGO's worth of starts.

Speaker 5 (02:01:14):
Who got hurt. That basically saved him from being sent
down again. I feel like that's what happened, and that's
why he got an additional start, and then they.

Speaker 6 (02:01:23):
Brought him out of the bullpen. Over a course of
time there kind of I felt like, kind of set
him back the right way. That was three appearances later
when they faced Detroit and he was right back in
the rotation, never to leave again. Literally ever, was it,
JP Frantz. Somebody got hurt France. I think was hurt

(02:01:43):
a little bit earlier than that. Okay, I felt like
somebody got hurt and that that contributed to it. But
you're right now, he's the important thing is he's pitching
like the Hunter Brown. We know now five o'clock hour
means football at five. That is coming up next.

Speaker 1 (02:02:00):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety. Adam Clinton
and Adam Weckler are the A team.

Speaker 5 (02:02:22):
It's football at five. It is the A team Sports
Talk seven ninety. We will, uh, well, we're gonna clip
things a little bit early today to get you into
Astros baseball at the bottom of the hour. But before
we get into that, and we've already talked about, like
you know, today today's edition of basically Cole predicting who

(02:02:44):
the Texan's going to take in the draft has already
come and go gone, but we can always talk about
series and again tomorrow. Are you attending this, Nick Cassario, Non,
I don't even know how to address.

Speaker 4 (02:03:00):
It's called a press conference where the general manager answers
questions from the media and the answer is yes, I
will be there same okay, time out answers questions from
the media. I he's literally no.

Speaker 6 (02:03:12):
Like, there's maybe five gms that are awesome with the media.
Name them in these situations. Well, there's a couple of
new ones that might be awesome for sound bites, like
James Gladstone Jaguars Land. I actually think he's gonna say
more than most, but they they're will anybody say less

(02:03:33):
than him?

Speaker 4 (02:03:33):
Is what I'm saying. I know what you're getting. I
know what you're getting at if we single him out
like man, we are saddled with a GM that just
won't tell us anything on the air live when he's
being grilled, hard, grilled by us at a press conference.

Speaker 6 (02:03:48):
And that's what they're all like. It's you're right before
the draft, who are you taking? What position do you like?
What position is strong?

Speaker 4 (02:03:55):
What are your needs? After free agency? Where do things stand?

Speaker 6 (02:03:58):
We'll probably get reasonable answers to that, but we also
know some of the canned answers he loves to deliver.

Speaker 4 (02:04:05):
You know, Debiko and I are working together.

Speaker 6 (02:04:07):
It's my job to give him the you know, the
best talent, to best use of his ability to take
well what I can do, my job means so he.

Speaker 4 (02:04:14):
Can do his job.

Speaker 6 (02:04:15):
And you know we've done this and the Scouts have
done a great job. You know, before your questions, just
we want to give a shout out to Lip and
everybody else in the Scout and he'll do that to
open them. I mean, it's it's standard stuff. But my
expectations aren't. Looks like the Texans are leaning heavily towards
Kelvin Banks.

Speaker 5 (02:04:34):
Well, no, I'm not expecting I just maybe it's in
his delivery.

Speaker 6 (02:04:39):
Maybe it's that's much of it. Because he talks in
a way the well, nobody talks like he talks.

Speaker 4 (02:04:46):
Give me an example. We'll just crank up a sound
bite and you'll hear it. For there's tons of them.

Speaker 6 (02:04:53):
It's just the way he describes his football team, the
way he describes the way that they play, just as
and I've talked to him a couple of times at
a less formal setting, you know, off to the side,
non interview, or in a more casual just a couple
of us there conversation. He's even in those conversations, he's
he doesn't speak the way other people do, just not

(02:05:16):
even gms, I mean people, regular people. He talks differently humans,
he uses different words like you name it. He's just
not liking everybody else. I'm just waiting for I'm not
playing any sound. There's no sound to play. Why I don't,
I don't know. I just there isn't any I thought
there'd be something flowing around on there.

Speaker 4 (02:05:36):
There probably is, but I'm not looking for it currently.

Speaker 5 (02:05:40):
Clearly, but you are. Maybe he's something. How okay, how
about this? How long does it take you guys are
in and out of there from the time he starts
talking to the time he leaves ten minutes, fifteen.

Speaker 4 (02:05:56):
Tops twenty five.

Speaker 5 (02:05:58):
You think it's gonna go twenty five minutes with Nick Cassario, Yeah,
I do.

Speaker 6 (02:06:03):
He gives long answers and talks in a way that
allows him to speak for a long time but not
really divulge a lot of information we might like to have.

Speaker 4 (02:06:13):
Means that good enough for you.

Speaker 9 (02:06:15):
Bobby did a lot of really great things for the organization, health,
the number of players. I think as we went through it,
Dimiko felt in the end that was the right thing
for our team. So it wasn't easy. I mean, Demiko
and Bobby essentially grew up in the NFL together, so.

Speaker 4 (02:06:29):
To be able to make a decisions like that was hard.
It was taxing.

Speaker 9 (02:06:31):
So but you know, that was a decision we felt
made the most sense for us. So we got to
turn the page. So it's a good opportunity for Nick
has experienced kind of a multitude of systems, so we'll
kind of see how it goes. But you know, Nick's
highly respected coacher in this league. So again, it's going
to be a collective effort. It's not going to be
specifically about Nick Hayley. It's going to be about the

(02:06:52):
offensive staff, the offensive players, how we play, how do
we handle things in games.

Speaker 4 (02:06:56):
So all of it kind of fits together in the end.
It actually literally is going to be all about Nick k.

Speaker 6 (02:07:03):
Like, nobody's gonna say, do you really think that the
Texans improvement this year is because they elevated Kole Popovich
from assistant offensive line coach to offensive line coach. Do
you think the Texans improved this year because Ben mcdanields,
while carrying the exact same offensive title, got light years
better at making his group play better. Actually, it literally
is exactly the opposite of that. That's that's why you

(02:07:24):
change your coach, your leader of the offense. The leader
of the offense is new, You're running a new offense.
The vast majority of your offensive staff was retained to
run his new offense.

Speaker 4 (02:07:37):
That's the change. That's the difference. Personnel differences aside.

Speaker 5 (02:07:42):
But actually, if the offensive line sans Laramie Tonsil, shows
marked improvement, then you will get a lot of credit
going the way of the offensive line coach.

Speaker 4 (02:07:57):
You have to this the offense of line coach that
was in the offensive line room last year. Yes, you will.

Speaker 5 (02:08:04):
What's wrong with you today? Honestly nothing. You've got like
something up your ass. It's crazy.

Speaker 4 (02:08:09):
It's Tuesday. What's the difference every day is the same? Like?

Speaker 6 (02:08:13):
Literally, that's what's shange like. I don't understand why they
did what they did. I still can't believe Chris Strosser
spent five seconds there, let alone two full seasons there.
The offensive line coach they have now has been there
for three years. Why wasn't the offensive line coach to
begin with? How much change could of course, it's about it.
It's about the talent they've They didn't change the line

(02:08:34):
coach and keep the talent. They changed the talent. There
might not be a single guy starting the same spot
a year from now. I doubt it because I think
Jared Patterson's gonna end up being their starting center. But
literally after that, look at last year's opening lineup versus
what will likely be there this year.

Speaker 4 (02:08:52):
They got brand new guys.

Speaker 6 (02:08:54):
We barely even talk about Trent Brown because we talked
about Lake and Tomlinson, and we talked about Cam Robinson.
We've talked about each of the other kind of starter
level players. But I don't I really don't even have
any doubt because of the bar being so low, they're
gonna be better on the offensive line. There's there's like
zero doubt. It's a matter of how much better to wear.

(02:09:16):
I mean, what if went aut Laramie Tunsel.

Speaker 4 (02:09:17):
Though as a unit, yes.

Speaker 6 (02:09:19):
Because I've said it so many times, I still think
people miss it. He's there's two how many plays do
you call in a game? Sixty five seventy somewhere in
that neighborhood.

Speaker 4 (02:09:30):
Between fifty five and sixty five.

Speaker 6 (02:09:31):
Yet, and how many times are you dropping back to
pass if things are going well? It's roughly half, maybe
a little bit less. But you're not gonna run much
more than maybe thirty thirty five running plays in a game.
If you're winning the game, you're gonna run as many
as you can. You're gonna run the clock out, and
you're gonna go home. So for those thirty plays or so,
their left tackle was average at best. Laramie Tunssel is

(02:09:53):
an average at best and has always been an average
at best. And I'm being nice run blocking tackle, He's
just an awesome pass blocking tackle.

Speaker 5 (02:10:02):
And they decided that that just wasn't gonna work for
what they're trying to accomplish. But I and I admit
because I missed anti Laramie Tunzel, But like I struggle
when I see him go out the door because of
what you just got done, saying that he does in
the passing game, I recognize the elite level once the
ball is snapped and he hasn't rocked back and got

(02:10:23):
an pale and all that other kind of stuff. And
if he doesn't hold, which you know, but like they
clearly were done with what I mean because again, and
I think I said this at the time, they were
never gonna get more for him, Like if he played
one more year here or whatever.

Speaker 6 (02:10:40):
Yeah, you wanted to trade him with a year left
on his deal so you could see what cam Smith
and Perettis and was Nesky could do for your line.

Speaker 4 (02:10:47):
I'm like astros Tyl Sucker, if I may check, actually
a really good analogy. If I may urged Jack, It's
silly season. I mean, there's so much misinformation out there
that sound kiss me off. And that's why playing.

Speaker 9 (02:11:00):
Visits, what pro days I've been to, what players we've
worked out that we haven't worked out, So you try
to put that all aside.

Speaker 5 (02:11:08):
Cole, you weren't here that day. That's the day that
the trade deadline came and went with absolutely no help
for an offensive line that was getting CJ killed. And
that's what the GM had to say.

Speaker 9 (02:11:19):
Sure, maybe he says, you know what, I'm more comfortable here, Like,
I mean, we sort of care what the players think,
but we don't care. But you know, you want to
keep that in mind.

Speaker 4 (02:11:28):
I wanted to I wanted to fracture somebody's skull that day.

Speaker 9 (02:11:32):
This draft, generally speaking, it's a little bit of crapshoot.
I think there's players that are all over the place.
I don't think there's a consensus on any player. I
think if you talk to different teams, you talk to
different people, who's the top player at this position? There's
six players, you get six different answers.

Speaker 5 (02:11:46):
See, you're doing what I wanted you to do five
minutes ago. Why would you wait till now?

Speaker 4 (02:11:49):
I wasn't ready? Clearly no preparation.

Speaker 9 (02:11:52):
I mean, I'd say there's roughly roughly eighty to one
hundred players that we would actually draft. It doesn't mean
that draft them all in the first round, but at
some point I would say that is about the number.

Speaker 4 (02:12:06):
Okay, that's it.

Speaker 6 (02:12:07):
I want know what, no more, Let's not do anymore,
no more, n we don't want to hear for a moment.

Speaker 4 (02:12:13):
Flexible, open minded, adaptable.

Speaker 9 (02:12:16):
I would say those are probably some adjectives that you know,
I would use to describe that process.

Speaker 5 (02:12:21):
Seriously, is he talking about like his wife?

Speaker 4 (02:12:24):
He's the same.

Speaker 6 (02:12:25):
Exact thing, very very clearly talking about one very specific topic.

Speaker 9 (02:12:29):
You're looking at kind of groups of players or clusters
of players across different positions. And then I would say
what that probably fact where that factor is the most
is trades.

Speaker 4 (02:12:37):
So if you're moving up, moving down, what are you
moving away from? All right?

Speaker 9 (02:12:41):
If you move back ten spots, there's eight, you know,
six eight players you like? All right, there's a good
chance to move back ten spots, maybe that same player
would be there or within that cluster. You're comfortable taking
said two or three players within that group. So I
would say, you don't want to be too cute.

Speaker 4 (02:12:57):
Okay, definitely don't want to be too cute.

Speaker 9 (02:12:59):
Col We bring the players in here for a visit.
It's pretty comprehensive. It's not just his wide fall. Let's
go have a steak and then come back and shake
his hands and tell them like, hey, you know what,
if you're there thirteen, we're going to draft you.

Speaker 4 (02:13:10):
Like, we're not doing that. This is NI.

Speaker 6 (02:13:13):
Prior to the Texans crushing it in the twenty twenty
two draft.

Speaker 4 (02:13:20):
No no more, Nick Cassario. Okay, I think we're good
with that. That's what he said before. Wait twenty twenty
two or twenty twenty three, says twenty twenty two here,
I mean I can get you to twenty twenty three
if you want. No, no, no, no, no, no no, that's
not what I was saying. I got a better idea.
Let's I mean I can. Let's see from somebody else.

Speaker 14 (02:13:37):
Receivers under one hundred and seventy pounds just need to
be fast, so a guy like myself can't hit you.
So what speed is the redeeming quality? Think for smaller receivers,
you having that speed, the quickness, especially those guys who
are in in that slot receiver position, like them being
matched up on a lesser cover player the nickel position,

(02:13:58):
they can really make a ton of plays in the
game just by utilizing their quickness.

Speaker 6 (02:14:03):
So like no availability with Damiko Ryans tomorrow and no
availability for us to talk anymore.

Speaker 4 (02:14:08):
This segment.

Speaker 1 (02:14:11):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:14:24):
We are minutes away from getting you ready for I
hope it's an Astros win Astros and Cardinals game two
tonight in Saint Louis six forty five ish first pitch,
and then the day game tomorrow in the finale, which
we hope will be a rubber matchup.

Speaker 4 (02:14:42):
Astros bats gotta wake up.

Speaker 5 (02:14:45):
They absolutely have to wake up this season, And again
I keep going back to Jordon Alvarez. I know he's
not the only problem. I know, he's probably the least
of their worries in this lineup. If it's like top
to bottom, who's gonna be the guy that can end
up producing the most, It's probably going to be him.
It just seems more pronounced when he's not and when
the rest of the lineup isn't as well.

Speaker 4 (02:15:06):
It's very very pronounced.

Speaker 5 (02:15:08):
But I keep asking myself about the Astros, did they
know they're in a I'm gonna call it a soft
rebuild because clearly the moves they made to bring guys
in this offseason are not indicative of that. But I
think I've told you about this conversation I had with

(02:15:29):
someone who I respect their opinion, and they said this
about the Astros and really championship winning teams in general,
that I mean, I guess kind of have a similar
philosophy of how they go about things. Do You can
either have a soft landing, if you will, coming down

(02:15:50):
from a championship team, or you can have a crash landing,
And it just all depends on what you're doing personnel wise,
and every team's different. But this person felt like the
Astros were headed for that crash landing simply because Major
League Baseball is full of teams that, like the Astros,
win a championship and then keep trying to kind of

(02:16:13):
churn through lesser moves or lateral moves to keep getting
back to that spot when they're never probably really gonna
get there.

Speaker 6 (02:16:20):
I mean, I think what maybe they're pointing to is
twenty twenty two to now, because otherwise there couldn't be
more wrong. Nobody's doing what the Astros are doing. Nobody
was winning every year for seven straight years. Yeah, not
in the last thirty year. Nobody does that. What they
were doing is dominating over and over and over and
over and over again. And now we're maybe at the
side where many other teams, after a year or two

(02:16:41):
of being great, they're already at this point. Okay, well
we spent this money, we put this team together, and
we won a title. Well, now we're quickly headed to
a crash landing. I actually don't think the Astros are
gonna be there, and part of the reason is because
they started it sooner.

Speaker 4 (02:16:56):
The Kyle Tucker trade. Yeah, they started their.

Speaker 6 (02:16:59):
Decline soon and I don't mean you can look at
this team however you want at any point in this season,
but you're never gonna look at him and say, yeah,
they're better, They have more talent. They added the right
kind of players to this year's team. The deal for
Kyle Tucker might turn out to be great. It'll probably
be great if Esach Perettis is the worst player you got.
He's the best current player you added. The day you

(02:17:22):
made the deal, he was the best major leaguer in
the trade. But the sooner he's the worst player you
got in the deal, the better off your team's going
to be. And Hayden was nesky as doing his part,
and cam Smith didn't think he would ever be in
the discussion. I thought maybe Perettis wouldn't even be an
astro by the time Cam Smith became an astro. And
it's not to say that Perettis is a bad player

(02:17:43):
or a bad player to add not at all, or
that he's even played badly.

Speaker 4 (02:17:47):
He hasn't. It's been quite the opposite.

Speaker 6 (02:17:49):
He's been their most consistent offensive player, and I think
he's made enough of the plays we didn't expect him
to make to offset some of the plays you probably
would have seen made last year.

Speaker 4 (02:17:58):
Last night's game was great.

Speaker 6 (02:17:59):
Exams made a great diving stop to his right, ball
went right into his glove and then right back out
of his glove, and there was no throat first, and
then somebody absolutely hit a screamer at him. He feeled
it cleanly, fired a second they fired to first, turned
the double play. I mean, he's been he's been very
good this year, and he is in a perfect spot
in their lineup.

Speaker 4 (02:18:20):
But they're worse.

Speaker 6 (02:18:21):
I mean, I'm not trying to be mean or blunt
or obvious. I think watching well, they were worse the
day the season started. It's not based on results. How
are you going to get better when Kyle Tucker and
out and there's a plan. It's not like they they're not.
They didn't put this team together and look at it.
David didn't go to Joe and say, I know you're
gonna win more than eighty eight games with this roster

(02:18:42):
than he needed with last year's roster because I gave
you better players. They don't think that either. But they're
trying not to win seventy games in twenty twenty seven,
you know, trying not to win seventy five games in
twenty twenty, whatever you want, because Jordan Alvarez is still
going to be here, Jose al Tuve is under contract,
Josh Hater is under contract, and enough of these players

(02:19:03):
are under team control that there's no way you should
dip to that level. But you're gonna have to figure
out a way to find stars offensively. Because I gave
you one star. Jordan will be a star during all
the years of his contract. I can't tell you anybody
else that had in the off season or have now
will be except the hope is Cam Smith's an answer? Now,

(02:19:24):
is there somebody else in the system. There's somebody else
you draft between now and then, because that's what they're
actually missing to become great again.

Speaker 5 (02:19:31):
Because of who he is and what he was brought
here to do and what position he plays and all
that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 (02:19:36):
What about Christian Walker, I mean, he's not over the
hill yet, no, but he's he's just a fit in guy.
He's gonna do his job. He's not.

Speaker 6 (02:19:45):
He's He was one of the best players in Arizona,
for sure, but it quickly went from him to Corbyn Carroll,
to Marte and maybe to others.

Speaker 4 (02:19:55):
Super solid.

Speaker 6 (02:19:56):
I mean, and I thought a thirty homer season with
ninety yard eyes is probably what they could expect this year,
and then you hope for no drop off in the
years that followed. But he's also an A plus defender.
But he shouldn't be your second best offensive player.

Speaker 4 (02:20:11):
I don't. He certainly isn't that right now, either, But
is nobody. It's an unfair to I just try to
do who was their best nobody that nobody's having. I
wouldn't look at anybody's sees and say I like what
they're doing this year, and that includes Al two.

Speaker 5 (02:20:26):
Yeah, even Al two A's numbers are kind of meh, It's.

Speaker 4 (02:20:29):
Okay, it's not he's not having an awful so down season.
But the pitching is not met.

Speaker 6 (02:20:35):
Yeah, the offense, we're only talking about the way that
they're hitting the baseball just not not quite well enough.

Speaker 4 (02:20:41):
The bats.

Speaker 6 (02:20:42):
I think you can see the difference when you see
what Christian Walker did over that four game span, and
it's it's more. Players are also having better at bats.
They are striking out a little bit less. They had
several low strikeout games, which you thought would coincide with
more traffic and or guys on base. It wasn't necessarily

(02:21:03):
the case, certainly not yesterday. They weren't overwhelmed, they weren't
running back to the dugout not knowing what you know,
Gray and their relievers did. But they just haven't seen
a situation where it's a it's a week long stretch
where there's eight runs, six runs, seven runs, three wins
in a row, I mean, shoot, win two games in
a row. They've not been able to do that. They've
managed to not lose two games in a row since

(02:21:24):
the second of the month.

Speaker 4 (02:21:26):
But you're just kind of sitting there.

Speaker 6 (02:21:27):
You're sitting there in no man's land, You're seven to nine,
You're where there's nothing there yet.

Speaker 5 (02:21:33):
It's it's it's been a I don't want to say
it's been a long season already because it hasn't.

Speaker 6 (02:21:39):
But how are you supposed to get up? Like the
roller coaster isn't really going up or down? Like are
the most boring ride out you just going in a circle?

Speaker 5 (02:21:46):
You have even started the ride? Are you just sitting
there with your little like lap thing on? But they
haven't even.

Speaker 6 (02:21:51):
This was more like traffic where you can't see around
everybody on the freeway and you're wondering, why isn't anybody moving?

Speaker 5 (02:21:57):
So it's the beginning of office space. During the credits,
when Michael Bolton is listening to Gangster Around, I don't
have to turn the radio down.

Speaker 4 (02:22:03):
Well, no one's selling flowers. But every time and.

Speaker 6 (02:22:06):
He's singing along with the song, he pulls up next
to somebody, he turns the radio.

Speaker 5 (02:22:10):
Gave But every time Peter gets in another lane, then
they stop in front of him.

Speaker 4 (02:22:14):
That's the astros right now.

Speaker 6 (02:22:16):
The scenes in the car, there aren't many of them
in this movie, quite obviously.

Speaker 4 (02:22:20):
But they're the best.

Speaker 6 (02:22:21):
The ones at the beginning those scenes are They're okay, man.
I thought the discussion about the pennies for everybody.

Speaker 4 (02:22:27):
Was pretty good with Jennifer Aniston.

Speaker 6 (02:22:29):
Yeah, you know, the discussion of the other Lomberg confusion conversation,
that was pretty good too.

Speaker 5 (02:22:36):
What about when the three guys are in the car
and Peter goes oh, and then like thirty seconds later
goes all right, guys, let's just calm down.

Speaker 4 (02:22:48):
It's a pretty big mistake. I always mess up some
mundane detail. It's like Superman three.

Speaker 5 (02:22:53):
The fact that Superman three keeps getting referenced in that
movie repeatedly is just genius.

Speaker 6 (02:22:59):
And the super Man factory of movies doesn't get brought
up enough for how bad Superman three as the sequel was.

Speaker 5 (02:23:07):
Until you realize that four was even worse because it
was a money grab for Christopher Reeve.

Speaker 4 (02:23:12):
Now there's no Top Gun three in the works, is there.

Speaker 5 (02:23:17):
I don't know if it's real. I don't know if
it's real or not. I think they will do it
because he can't ignore the the opportunity.

Speaker 4 (02:23:25):
To make that kind of money.

Speaker 6 (02:23:27):
They made two, not expecting to make three. They made one,
not expecting to make two, but it took him decades
to get to it. Eight six twenty Holief somewhat open
ended storylines were closed in Maverick. He's with the girl,
he's reconciled with Goose's kid. Ice is not going to

(02:23:47):
be in the third movie.

Speaker 4 (02:23:49):
Well, he died in the second one, and then he died.
Is he?

Speaker 6 (02:23:53):
You know, like in the beginning of the of two
of Maverick, when Caine's telling him, you should be at
least a two star Adam by now or a senator, like,
is that where we're gonna see him?

Speaker 4 (02:24:03):
Is he not even going to be in the air.
He's gonna be in.

Speaker 5 (02:24:06):
Washington thinking is regardless of what happens in a third
would be sequel, he's going to bite the bullet.

Speaker 4 (02:24:14):
I mean by kick the bucket, I mean push up daisies.
Is he gonna get shot down? Well, that would he
got shot down and got shot at while he was dead. Well,
he's always getting shot at, but Rooster saved him.

Speaker 5 (02:24:28):
Yeah, I would think that that is a that's a
lock for the third sequel if they come out with one.

Speaker 4 (02:24:34):
He's got to do. Isn't it also a lock? It's
going to be the worst one. Yes, I don't know. Man.

Speaker 5 (02:24:39):
The more eighty six we further we get away from it,
the more it really just.

Speaker 4 (02:24:43):
Does not age really that way. So now you're gonna
tell me.

Speaker 6 (02:24:47):
They also can't wait very waiting When Tom Cruise was
what twenty seven or eight on the first one, they
can't wait for the next one like he was younger
than that.

Speaker 8 (02:24:57):
To be fair, he is making his final old mission impossible,
so it's not like that's completely out the wrong.

Speaker 6 (02:25:03):
Now he's the star, he's the first name on the poster,
but all the mission impossibles have had how many other
stars with him? Like he doesn't have to carry the movie.
He doesn't have to do everything in the movie.

Speaker 4 (02:25:18):
You don't even have to do all the stunts in
the movie.

Speaker 8 (02:25:19):
Disagree completely when you look at who he is, when
you look at his character.

Speaker 6 (02:25:23):
Now, well, I know he's the character, but like even
the last one, well, I don't even know what to
order there. And the last one that I saw on
cable that had commercials, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:25:31):
Well they're closing the chapter on this one. He's gonna
bite the bolden this what's his name anyway, Ethan Yeah,
Ethan Chase, I believe it is. I don't know, like
Renner was in it, which.

Speaker 8 (02:25:43):
Who Yeah, like the double Punch and that was it?

Speaker 6 (02:25:46):
Was there some Paula person in that last one too,
I don't know, miss Peyton maybe something or other.

Speaker 5 (02:25:52):
Pat And by the way, I'm not gonna just let
you skate on what you said earlier when you were
talking about the sequel. He gets the girl, it was
Jennifer Connolly. He didn't get the girl. He got Jennifer Connelly.

Speaker 4 (02:26:04):
He got an upgraded with Kelly McGillis now and then
Kelly McGillis.

Speaker 6 (02:26:11):
No need for an instaple. But nobody nobody thinks Penny
Benjamin was less good looking and desirable than Charlie push Well,
might as well go into the on deck show after that.

Speaker 4 (02:26:26):
Okay, sounds good, let's do that.