To the Space City. Oh great, great, great, Welcome to another
Space City Saturday. On Sports Talk seven nineties Michael Cutters live in local h
town, breakdown on the world that matters to you, the Houston's world,
all these great Houston fans here. We love it all. So finish up
on that to do list, loot up the cooler, because you can't drink
in talk sports all day if you don't start now. This is Space City
Saturday. Here's seven nineties Astros insider Michael Cunnter, and we have a lot
to discuss. So if you do want to drink all day and talk all
day, you do need to start now. As the intro said, here
on Sports Talk seven ninety is a Space City Saturday on Michael Connor with you
until noon. You can join us at seven one three two one two five
seven seven one three two one two five seveninety another working Saturday for me.
You got a lot of me in your life. Today here on the radio
is we'll get the astros coverage this evening starting at five o'clock for the on
Deck show and then the tenth Inning show afterwards. Did not have a tenth
inning show last night, and that was a good thing is we're gonna start
off with the Astros this morning. Of course, we have a lot to
get to. Big week for the Rockets this past week. You heard our
coverage here on seven ninety Thursday night down at Post Houston. We will talk
NBA Draft, the summer ahead, the predictions of where the Rockets will end
up next year, because it's a little bit trickier next year when it comes
to the draft and where they couldn't land. But hopefully we're not talking about
a team that is, of course as bad as they've been next season.
So we'll get into them in just a bit. But because it's the freshest
thing that's come off since last night, which was late night West Coast Baseball,
And you know, I love a little late with late night games,
especially on a Friday night when you don't have to necessarily be up early the
next morning. Now, I still got up at seven am this morning because
I went and worked out before we did the show, came home because breakfast
did the whole thing. But I do like to stay up and watch those
games when they're on Friday nights, and we'll do now tonight. I watch
I don't know why am I watch that m I watch sits here and just
picks up things I say. But last night they and tonight, by the
way, is a national broadcast. They are on Fox Tonight on TV,
So I would go ahead and suggest tuning your radio up to the television,
syncing that up and listening to Robert and Steve tonight. Same goes with Tomorrow
night Sunday Night Baseball to wrap up the series. But last night, kicking
it off, they're in Los Angeles against the Dodgers team that's I look for
their level of expectation a lot like the Astros. They're not where they expect
to be this season. Now. They took a different approach to their off
season than the Astros necessarily did. They did not spend big money or give
out really any contracts of any length because they were trying to reset their tax
number because they're definitely going to be after Shoheotani last year. But they're still
a good baseball team. They still have really good players on it. You
saw it last night, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Bett's absolute problems going to be
problems for the rest of this series. JP France kind of all night walked
the tight rope doing his thing, but got through it gave the Astros a
chance to win the baseball game. It came back to the same thing we've
been talking about all season long for this club. Now, look, you
tip your cap to the other side every single time when the pitcher goes out
there and dominates, and early on his career, she and there for the
Dodgers has been exceptional. I mean, they basically forced this kid to skip
Triple A because of their need. They got so desperate with injuries. He
was actually promoted to Triple I didn't even go there to make a start,
and before he got promoted to the majors because they had another injury in their
rotation, they had to do it. He was awesome last night. He's
got stuff. He's a big time prospect. You see that. He's gonna
be good for them. Right for a long time, he was good.
The Astros hadn't seen him before. Advantage always goes pitcher in most cases when
the team hasn't seen the pitcher. But three hits across the ballgame for the
Astros last night. The offensive struggles continue to be the storyline of this season.
It cannot continue to be that bad, and it is frustrating in this
period of time to watch them go out there and play like this offensively when
your Don Alvarez is out. Now, the nugget from last night is that
they don't play Jose Abrey you again. He says before the game last night
that he and Dusty Baker plan this so he can, as they put it,
quote reset himself hopefully. I think that's just a desperation move there,
of course, that it's what you do when you're struggling this badly. They
put Mauricio Dubon over their first base again last night. He of course hits
a home run and then the Astros almost feel like they're gonna pull something off
when Dubon Tucker go back to back there. But it's just the same thing
over and over for this club. Unfortunately, that the offense is not good.
And I think the further along we get into this, they're forty one
and thirty five now, the likelihood of them being a wildcard team is still
very good. The deadline approaches, it will be here August first. We
are sitting here in June twenty fourth, so there's still a lot of time
between then and now to see how teams look Jordan Alvarez is expected back from
what it sounds like after the All Star break. Just the presence in the
lineup alone for Jordan Alvarez matters so much for this team. On how other
guys are pitched with him in there, we're seeing some of the results of
that of late, we're also seeing guys not stepping up and performing to the
levels that they're expected to perform at to help carry the load while he's out.
But the Astros last night lose. Texas wins in ten in New York
against the Yankees thanks to an a Dallas Garcia temphinning home run. And I
have come to you this morning and I tweeted it before the show at MC
seven ninety And if you want to share your opinion on me, that's fine
either there or here, and we can talk about the Astros throughout the morning.
And this is what I'm about to give you right now. We are
sitting with the club at forty one and thirty five. They're not a bad
baseball team by any means. There's no reason to believe that they are.
They are a good baseball team. Seventy six games in, they have a
winning record. They are currently a postseason team by a half a game in
the American League for the wild card spot. Part of me, I will
admit to you right now, is going to say this because I want to
try and put it into the atmosphere and jinx myself to where it becomes wrong.
But now that we're seventy six games into this, we're creeping towards a
hundred. I'm gonna say it right now. They're not winning the American League
West this year. I've tried to hold onto my hope as long as I
can for that Texas is real. Unless they have a bunch of guys that
just have season ending injuries, They're not going away this year now. Could
it be a one and done type of thing, I do believe that,
But they'll definitely improve their team again after the season is over and they probably
won't be going away necessarily. But as we sit here today, I'm down
in the dumps. I'm not going to lie to you. At six and
a half games back the Furthest, back the Furthest, they're the biggest lead
that the Rangers have had in the division. And this is before the Astros
and Rangers even play on this road trip. They have that four game series
to close this thing out. I don't feel good about it. They're so
up and down as a baseball team right now. Now, though they can
come right back when two out of the next three they're in Los Angeles and
we're all singing a different tune on Monday, go to Saint Louis kicks a
mass who knows. But if they screw around here and they keep putting up
offensive performances like they did last night, and they lose two of three in
Los Angeles and they don't perform the way they need to perform in Saint Louis
against a bad team, I mean, what's to say that the Astros don't
go into Arlington and aren't seven and a half excuse me, eight and a
half nine and a half games back, and then god forbid, they go
and lose three or four there. Now. No, I know, I'm
playing worst case scenario here, but that you can ride away the division this
week for the Astros if they don't get it together and figure it out on
this road trip. Texas, by the way, has two more games there
in New York, and then they played Detroit at home for four before the
Astros get there. News flash, they're gonna have a good week, They're
gonna win a lot of ball games. You have a three gamer there in
St. Louis, where, to be perfectly honest with you, you need
to go in there and sweep that bad team, because that's what that team
is. They're bad. You can't afford to go into that Texas series limping
in again, potentially with Texas winning a bunch of baseball games right before and
extending their leading the division, and you stole the Angels right there on your
heels. Hell, even for his disappointing as the Mariners have been, they're
only three games behind you. This is the first time in a long time
that the pressure feels real, and I think that they will find their way
to where they're supposed to be because they they're the Astros. Their mentality is
always right. They know how to win. They do a lot of things
better than others. But against seventy six games into the season, as we're
sitting here, I don't feel good about it, and I want to be
completely wrong. I want this statement that I've made this morning that the Astros
are not going to win the American League West this year to come back and
you guys all call me in a few months and say, remember when you
said in June that they're not going to win the division? And I have
to say, yes, I do remember that because I've always been the guy
that said here and fought with people to say the Yeah, they're gonna be
fine. And they might be fine from the standpoint of getting to the postseason.
But even if they get there, based on the way the roster is
constructed right now, I just don't feel that they have a chance to even
win the World Series this year in a league that's pretty damn open. In
my opinion, Tampa's the juggernaut. It's gonna be disappointing to them if they
don't win at all. Baltimore behind them in that division. That Al East
is a beast. The Central is an absolute laughing stock. The West is
very tough. But in that East, Tampa's a juggernaut. They're for real.
Baltimore they're a monster this season, but they're super young. Still,
just never know. The Yankees are a postseason team right now. Toronto is
lurking as well. They're a half game back of the Astros. Boston is
a game and a half back. Though all those teams in the East are
over five hundred, and then you have four of the five in the West
that are at five hundred or better. He could look at the Central.
The Central has got one team over five hundred. It's embarrassing. That's a
just god awful division. I think it speaks to those cities, though players
don't want to play in those cities. Minnesota, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Detroit.
Chicago's not bad, but it's the white soxs ra to play for the
Cubs and then Kansas City. Who wants to live in any of those dumps?
Nobody. I think we gotta puck her up. We gotta be ready
to puck her up and deal with it. This season, it is going
to be a fight just to get in for this club. And that leads
to the question, if it continues this way and they are so far out
in the division and they're fighting for a wild card spot, how hard do
you want to go at the deadline? I think it's an interesting proposition for
this franchise. Seven one three two one two five seven ninety. Do you
feel the same unfortunate bad vibes that I've been feeling. How do you feel
about how this is going to play out for this team. A lot of
baseball still to go, but you can join us this morning again seven one
three two one two five seven ninety. We'll take a quick time out.
When we return, we'll discuss just how far you want to go with this
club when it comes to that deadline. Next here on seven ninety. It's
Space City Senturday on Sports Talk seven ninety. Space City Saturday here on Sports
Talk seven ninety until noon. Michael Connor here with you where you can get
in and within the conversation at seven one three two one two five seven ninety
seven one three two on two five seven ninety. Can also send me a
tweet at MC seven ninety discussing your Houston Astros to start the show this morning.
After another loss last night three to two to the Dodgers, we will
get back or we'll get into i should say. The Rockets here in just
a bit after the day. Of course, had their NBA Draft this week
and a lot of people liked what they did, which is always a good
thing, and we'll see what the future holds for that basketball team. Of
course, we are your home for the Rockets and the Astros. You're on
Sports Talk seven ninety to speak of the Stros this evening. They will play
again six fifteen. First pitch. I'll have you starting at five o'clock for
the Astros on deck show than Robert Ford and Steve Sparks. We'll take over
at five forty five. Let's go to the phone line seven three two on
two five seven ninety and talk to Izzy. Hello, Izzy, look yere
go ahead? Okay, yeah, Sorr. I just had her doing that
in here. So just a couple of things. Expectations, right, So
last year I kind of like I probably speak to a lot of fans,
but last year, all our expectations are met, right, Like it was
a dream season. We were healthy, it was more than like what we
could ask for. So it was like it was perfect because it was retribution.
It was like we got back at the MLB last year. And I
think with all the struggles this year, it's kind of like, I don't
know, last year made this year. Okay, We've had all these injuries
and we you know, there's a little bit of luck, you know,
we all know that, and this year it's just not falling our way.
With that said, you know a lot of our younger guys are getting experience.
If they add a bat, you know, we can improve with some
wins, especially with the big guy coming back and everybody getting healthy. We'll
see what happens. I'll draw this analogy and then I'll sit back and listen.
I'm old enough to remember the Rockets winning as a sixty. I'm not
saying we're gonna win the World Series. But there's a quote that sampa Cell
had in which he says, you know, we struggled all season when the
playoffs, when knew in the playoffs began we were going to turn it around.
That you know, this team thrives for pressure. That to just to
summarize this quote, so I kind of feel like the shows are like that.
I don't need them to make the series. That would be awesome.
I just want them to piss people off and just get there and kind of,
you know, just irritate people and we'll see what happens. Right,
it's baseball, but you know it's we play a long game here. I
want it to be good for a little while longer. We're gonna have season
like this. So I'll sit back at thank you for the phone call?
Is he seven one three two one two five seven ninety. I think you
know you're sentiment on a lot of the things, so it's accurate to an
extent. Out for me, I'm I'm never gonna be okay necessarily with you
know, having a year where they don't go to the postseason. I'm spoiled
like everybody else. And look, okay, I'm gonna be honest with you.
When they go to the postseason. It helps my helps me with money.
I mean, like there's more advertising and everything in the radio world.
When they're in the postseason, they go far, like, so I'm always
them to go far in the postseason. I love it. But and selfishly
too, I do love getting to go on the road when they're in the
postseason and go to those of the cities and see those of the ballparks and
be in the atmosphere and all that and then be all the postseason games.
So I mean, I want them to be there. I just don't feel
great about it at this moment. I know that there's an element of bad
luck in terms of the health situation in a lot of spots this season,
but overall, the biggest reason why they've struggled has not been the health.
It's been the underperformance of so many key players. That's it. That's the
storyline here. Because they have enough talent on this roster to still go out
and be ten, twelve, fifteen games over five hundred, they're not because
they've underperformed. And there's just no other way to put it. Like if
that ruffles feathers somewhere, I don't care, it's just the truth. They
have a lineup that's filled with guys they're you know, barely above seven hundred
ops all over the place. It's not good enough. One of the barometers
that we keep in baseball now is for you know, really where a player
is is ops plus and one hundred or better is tipped. I mean,
a hundred is like average, and you want to be, you know,
one hundred or more. They have. These are the guys that are over
one hundred. Ricio du Bond's at one oh one, Alex Bregman's at one
oh five. For Alex Bregman, one oh five is not good enough,
Kyle Tucker's at one eighteen. It's it's good, but it needs to be
better. Even your Don could probably be a little bit bit. I shouldn't
say he can't be too much better. I mean, he's in one nineteen.
He's got all the numbers in the world. This is batting average that's
probably a little a little bit lower when he's played than he would like.
Then you go to the bench. These guys don't have a lot of it
bats. But here's the ops. Guys that are over one hundred, Chas
mccormicks at one seventeen, Yin Ardias at one fourteen, and then Jose al
two at one oh eight. They have guys in this regular lineup that are
at fifty five in Martine mild Nato, Jose Abrey, you at sixty three.
Paint is just below at ninety six, but he has to be better.
Corey Jokes is at eighty nine. I don't have a lot of expectation
for him. He either hits a home run ocasionally or hits ground balls that's
just who he's been so far, or strikes out. Jake Myers has gone
in the tank. He's at eighty eight now. And then on the bench.
The guys that have played here. Hensley was brief fourteen. Csar Salazar
in his thirteen or thirteen games that he appeared in was negative twenty three.
Great Kessinger thirty two. Ryland Bannon, he doesn't count. He had six
at bats, he was negative one hundred. They're not good enough offensively.
That's just as simple as it gets. They have been one of the poorest
offensive teams in baseball all season long. And it gets back to again underperforming
across the roster. Josea. Brayu, we've gone over it to were blew
in the face. Absolute disaster of assigning so far. Nobody could have seen
this coming. This was not on the radar. Everybody was excited for this
signing, myself included Jeremy Pinney. Like I mentioned, he's been okay at
times, but overall not slugging enough. A guy that you thought would elevate
in year two to a different level, maybe mature a little bit more.
He has been a little bit better at getting on base in terms of the
walks, but there's not been any less strikeout. There's not been more powers,
there's not been any more batting average for him so far. Alex Bregman
has been one of the biggest disappointments of this season. I know that he's
had his little tears and everything, and he's always a hometown hero and he
always will be but the facts of the facts, for the expectation level that
he has based on the way that his career has been and the money that
he has paid, he is not performing to the level that he has to.
And he knows that. I know that he knows that, and he
doesn't want to be this guy. But he has not been good enough.
Kyle Tucker has been okay, that's it. He's been okay. He hasn't
been great. And they need these guys, those big boys. And al
Twove is still coming back. He's not even out one hundred at bats yet.
I'm going to give him till he gets to about one fifty one seventy
five. If he's under performing where you say, okay, he's got a
really kick it into gear. You need him be kicking into gear now.
But that's when I'm saying, you really got to kick it into gear.
It's gonna take a minute. Still coming off of that injury. It's a
very easy story to write, unfortunately, and I don't know what it is
that they do to get themselves back. This could just be one of those
years for a lot of these players where they have a down years, simple
as that. It happens in baseball. You go look across the sport,
guys just have bad years, and this year it's like it all came together.
Is it because they've played so much baseball throughout the whatever it might be
the World Baseball? I don't know, but I'm not enjoying watching them consistently
like I did last season. I can tell you that right now. I
still want to be helpful. I still think that we can get there in
terms of our enjoyment of watching them, But it's gonna take a minute.
Let's go to Parlin next and talk to Brian here on Space City Saturday.
Hello, Brian, what's up? Mc ginger? Brother from another mother?
Oh, not too much. Congrats first of all, but on the wedding.
I don't think I've talked to you since then, So congentulations real quick.
You know, I think he just comes down to last year. It
seems like everything that could have gone right went it right. You got all
the breaks, you wasn't the overtime, you know, overtime, the extra
ending games, you know, just the pitching was there. It was all
sharp. You didn't have to worry about this reliever coming in and who is
it going to be? Is it gonna be dicey. It. Basically everything
came together in this year. It just seems like you're not getting that.
You're having all these sloppy games, which is very unusual for these guys,
and you know, obviously then people aren't hitting. You don't have a deep
bench, you half of your rosters basically a triple A roster, and you
can't sustain up for too long. I mean, you can patch work it
together, but my biggest here is the Allstar break. Well three weeks away.
Aby point, you can be ten games uple and you could be four
games out of the wild card. Now under the wild card, you can
still get in and make it, but they gotta do obviously, they have
to do something at the deadline. But you know, it's just I think
the injuries are piling up. People haven't done here. It's just the way
they're playing with the defensive mistakes, and you know that game they had in
Toronto or is just sloppy and guys getting thrown out. I'm not going to
the right base, and all the just kind of coming together. It's just
just been frustrating. Like you, I mean, I was there. I
was still there in twenty thirteen and twenty twelve and twenty eleven, for all
those cractacular years, and this isn't to that level. But it's just one
of those you know how good they can be, and when you don't see
it, it's just frustrating and activating and you know, you're just you're hoping
something will turn and go your way. But I mean, the reinforcements are
coming, but at what point and how far out are you going to be
at that point? That's my biggest concern is there's no help. There's there's
no help in it. Where coming. I mean, you're not on this
coming, but that's three weeks away. I mean, what will you be
that Biden and just you don't have that other guy stepping up, or you
don't have that good bat off the bench in a pinch situation where it's like,
I know, I can bring in the as or somebody like that,
at least put the battle on the ball, keep it in play, stay
out of double play, something like that. So I think it's just an
old microcoss the book, everything and all of that. We expect so much
from these guys to see it just kind of um. So I'm trying to
talk to you and you hard work, which you want a lot of breath.
But I promise I didn't run a fly the stairs. But I think
it's just we expect so much and we've been there so many years that to
see it this and the struggles, and it didn't help the fact that the
Rangers are playing out of their minds. So, you know, not giving
up hope. I'm hoping maybe they can still grab two or three in uh
here in La. Yeah, I think that you got to go in and
at we're split with the Rangers. If you don't try to have to win
three of those, I think to even maintain yourself in not only the division
race walk already, So MC, I'll let you go on on. Actually,
you got a boatload of calls, but good to hear from I'll keep
listening. Thank you for the phone called Brian. It's always good to hear
from you. And good luck with the yardwork, man, Get it done
because it is going to be another this stupid heat. Man, I gotta
cut my yard and I'm waiting probably till tomorrow night, like like eight o'clock.
You know, I'm with you on a lot of the things, you
know, the whole it didn't it just nothing's come together. And I do
think you talk about depth, and that's one of the most frustrating things about
this team. And I think this is where they've made some mistakes in the
past. They've let unfortunately too many guys go, and eventually it's going to
catch up to you. And I think we're seeing some of those some of
those things come back and haunt them. Now as we've moved along. We'll
get more into that here in a moment seven two and two five seven ninety,
and we'll discuss just how far how deep you're willing to go when it
comes to that deadline to get reinforcements for this ball club. It is Space
City Saturday, next here or right here, Haunt seven ninety, Space City
Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety, Space City Saturday, right here on Sports
Talk seven. You were here until noon. You can join us seven one
three two one two five at seven ninety is the phone number we've been discussing
your astros. An hour two we're gonna give into the Rockets and the NBA
as a whole, because well, summer is here. And one of my
favorite things in the world of sports is always the player movement, the drama
of the NBA. I think it's just about as much fun as the play
on the floor. Now. I'd love for that to change here in the
city of Houston, of course, And it felt like another another step towards
that, um, you know, with the draft that they had the other
night, with what they went out there and did, getting a couple of
guys that I know everybody's excited about. We'll get into them again an hour
or two. Let's continue the discussion though, on the astros. I want
to talk about the depth and how far they want to go here in just
a second, but John's on hold, wants to talk to see three two
and two five. Sonny, Hey, John, Hey, Mike, how
you being. I'm good? How are you? I'm good? Man.
Look, you know that I absolutely losing three to two last night. I
ain't even concerned about that actually now, I mean, I'm all about the
big picture. You know that they just made the playoffs. But yeah,
man, you know, I love I love him a barb Bregman. But
you know, when you you look at his career ever since they brought him
up, he to me personally, he just ain't never really yet lived up
to the building. The you know, the chosen one, that type of
thing you think when you know, you look at George Spring a gone and
uh career a gone. Well, when they were all here, you know,
nobody worried out Alas too much because he had cover, you know,
everybody else was hitting. But now that some of these guys are gone,
that cover is pulled off. And frankly, he really he doesn't really need
to do more than what he's doing. A home run every four, five,
six games and stuff. That's fine, but that's not enough, man
for you to be the so called superstar, you know. Um, you
know, so, I mean, that's all I got to say about Breg.
He's really been disappointed, but I still love him anyway, uh a
tube as you say, you know, like like Dusty Baker said, he
hadn't even had his uh his uh he got hurt his early his early practice
and all that. But we know how Tubey gonna be okay. He may
not be the great uh hit a home run hitter he was a few years
ago, but he'll be okay because he's a pretty good hitter. But it
really does show how, you know, we really do miss uh Avarez,
you know, and honestly, man, you know, I Bregman. I
think they moved him down to fourth. Now, Man, I would have
moved him on down down there to six though seven, you know, putting
little fire in him and see if he can do better than what he's doing.
You know. And the thing that really kills me is when I look
at these teams that Dass shows play player for player on both teams. Man,
then everybody got a better average than out he's Bregman. Man. You
know that's twitty kind of embarrassing right there. But hey, Mike, have
a good day, man, and let's see if we win this series.
Man, Thank you, John, appreciate it. Seven one, three,
two on two five seven is the number to join us here. And now,
look, I I'm not gonna go all the way to where you went
on Alex Bregman, because Alex Bregman's first four years in the league were pretty
damn good. I mean they he almost want an MVP. One year he
finished second, the year before he finished fifth. He was an All Star
both those years. Of course, his biggest years, those two All Stars
years twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, hit thirty one home runs, then forty one
home runs. It was seventy two home runs in a period of two seasons,
and since then now there was a COVID shortened season in there, which
I think you know you don't use his evaluation for any player. Twenty twenty
one, we did find out after the season ended that he played basically the
entire year with a wrist injury. They only played ninety one games, but
he had a legit rist injury that had to have surgery the day the season
ended, and didn't say a word to anybody about it during the year.
Twenty twenty two came back very rough start, but ended up I mean,
respectable numbers last year over twenty home runs, over ninety runs bad and then
ops over eight hundred just completely fine. There's nothing wrong with that season.
But in his four years basically since those two monster years that he had,
he's hit just fifty one home runs and he's hit just two fifty seven and
his ops in that period of time is just seven ninety. Again, I
know that the players beloved here, and I personally like Alex Bregman a lot.
He's always been great to us. We always are able to talk to
him when we're around things, and he's a cool guy. And he's had
We've done events with him in the past as good as it gets, like
a legituinely good person. He and his family. You root for him,
you want him to be successful. He's just not been good enough. But
it's not all on him, and I don't ever want to always make it
all on him again. I will I will go through the rest of this
lineup and say, hey, Jeremy Pania need more out of you. Hey,
Kyle Tucker, need more out of you. Those are the guys and
I'm staring at that they need to step up the most, and Bregman's included
in that group. You know, I think again, this gets back to
a lot of the issue, and it pains me as I was sitting there
this morning. I was driving back from the gym after I got my workout
him before the show, and we were running, you know, during some
of our commercials during the weekends, there will be like the classic moments in
Houston Sports that we run and there's a lot of Astro stuff, obviously as
the home of the Asters for all these years. And it was twenty seventeen
and it was you know, going through the list of players, it was
George Springer havn't highlights. It was Carlos Korea talking and like, you know,
I think that's to me, the most disappointing thing is we've gotten here
now, They've won two World Series, They've been to four in a six
year period. It's been unbelievable, unbelievable. They didn't win last year by
fluke. They were that damn dominant. But I will say when I hear
all these names, I think back on all these names that have been here,
and I watch how other teams now. Look, there's a danger part
to this, and it can wreck your franchise. I get it. I
find it disappointing still to this day that they weren't able to hold on to
any of them. Basically, they decided not to hold on to any of
those players that matter, and any of those players that are of consequence.
You know, they probably were never going to be able to keep Garrett Cold,
but you know, the effort probably wasn't good enough to even try.
Justin Verlander they did keep twice this year looks fine to not having, but
they they'd be better off. Honestly, they still had that version of Justin
Verland are compared to probably some of the other stuff that they've been going through
because he at least eight innings. Carlos Carea is having a bad season for
the Twins. That one doesn't hurt as much right now because he's dealing with
some injuries. The George Springer one still hurts to me, like that's one
of those players I would have never let go. There's just been a lot
of Okay, we'll just move on and the next guy will come in and
do his thing, and it's finally reached that point where it's just not happening.
As Brian mentioned in the last segment what he called in they're running out
of roster for the most part, that these guys were the sugar Land Space
Cowboys last year, and some of them do have some serious talent. And
I'm talking mainly about I mean, I think the guy with the biggest potentials
gian ideas. But this is this is what is the fallout for all the
years of bad not bad drafting, but drafting later and then not having draft
picks, and the COVID shortened year and all the all those things have kind
of come together to where their organizational depth right now it's just not good and
it's going to test them in it's testing them and it's going to continue to
test them for a few years. Let's grab Lamont here on a Space City
Saturday. Hit Lamont. Hey, man, I know the season is not
going away. We would like it to go, but I'm kind of enjoying
it right now, man, because so we need some adversity around here.
But six or seven years, this division has been crap and we've been like
like deboing it a strong woman that uh, And I do think I think
that the Astros are gonna pick it up. And I think that they,
unlike you, I believe that they're gonna win a division and I think it's
gonna be that much greater if and this is I'm drinking a kool aid right
now, if the Astros want to make it to the seven aclds or we're
in another World Series, it's gonna be that much greater. And I would
like to end on this. Uh. We two things. Do you think
that Tucker Uh? I wasn't gonna ask this question? Another one if we
would have gained Tucking the amount of money he requested and looking at what he's
doing right now, how we feel? And my last uh thing is uh
uh the Rangers. The Rangers, and I'm wondering if the Rangers is gonna
be like a situation like uh, the New York Key's last h Remember when
the New York Link Yankees was staring to cover off the ball. Uh,
everybody thought that they was gonna win like one hundred and seventeen hundred and eighteen
games. And when when when the Astros put the SmackDown on them up after
the was it after or before the the All Star Game? They came down
the earth? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, they came down to Earth.
And I just really wonder if it's that. But ultimately, man, I
just think that as a fan base, we're real small right now. We're
not used to this. Feels like the walls are closing in on us.
We never had to deal with adversity like this. Uh pretty much had the
uh pretty much had the season sold up around July August. So now it's
a little at the burstit in the mix. I think the Boys are gonna
be Okay. That's all I have. Thank you. I appreciated lam.
Good to hear from you. Aerospace City Saturday. On the Rangers thing,
I mean, I do think we've seen a little bit of it recently,
there will be a regression towards the mean they're not gonna play as well as
they have. You already seen some of the guys throughout their lineup. Simeon's
come down a little bit. You know. They've got a rookie in there,
Josh Jung who's uh, you know, I don't know how long he'll
be able to continue those things. A Dallas Garcia has basically been a Dallas
Garcia that he always is. But you just go up and down and look,
look up and down their order. I'm just staring at it right now.
They've got here's their ops for all their ghost Starter by starter, their
catcher jonah Heim seven ninety two, their first baseman, Nathaniel Low seven ninety
five, Marcus Simmy in the second baseman seven eighty two. As I mentioned,
he's come down a little bit. Corey Seeger ten fifty six, Josh
Jung at eight eighteen, Travis Janikowski seven eighty one, Leoti Taveris eight twenty
seven, A Dallas Garcia eight twenty six, Robbie Grossman six eighty off their
bench. They have Ezekiel Duran who plays quite a bit. He is at
an eight eighty one. They're loaded in terms of guys that are just having
great years. Some of them will come down. Corey Seeger's not gonna hit
three fifty six all season. He started late. He's only had one hundred
and seventy seven at bats in forty four games. But he's not gonna hit
three fifty six all year. That's just not gonna happen. He'll come back
down at some point. Can they sustain it? Here's the thing. They're
building themselves and we've seen this with the Astros throughout all these years. They're
building themselves a lead. Now, that's what they're doing. And if they're
able to execute the next week where they played Detroit this week before they play
the Astros, and they're looking at and saying, hey, if we take
care of the Astros three out of four in our building, we can kind
of start to put this division away. Now. Now, look, a
lot can change. I still question, you have a huge question for Texas
with their pitching. Native Aldi has been great this year. They ride him
like crazy. I do wonder, like when does it hit a wall for
him because he's always been a guy that's had health issues. Martine Perez's blah.
John Gray's having a career year. Does he ever hit the wall as
well? Andrew Heeney's been very up and down, but probably Andrew Heeney is
She's very hittable. Dane Dunning has been a guy that's been having a career
year as well. Like you have to have those things. Then you go
look at their bullpen. Their bullpen is not very good. If you remember
Latting. Now, look his numbers this season have been good. You remember
Will Smith last year who was god awful when the Astro's got him and basically
gave up rockets every time he came in. He's their closer. So like
they're not unhittable at the end of the day, they're not unhittable. I
know that some of their numbers are all their numbers are pretty damn good,
I should say, in terms of their pitching. That's why part of the
reason why they are good in terms of the overall numbers. But I do
think that they can come back down to earth some I just think that they've
they've racked up enough wins already, forty seven of them before we've even reached
the month of July, to where I think it's gonna be hard though to
completely say hey they I mean, they would have to go in the tank
tank to really screw that thing up. And I do hope that I'm wrong.
I don't want to be wrong about sitting here and saying, hey,
they're not gonna win the division this year year and you know, yeah,
we've had it easy at times. I'd personally rather have it easy. I'd
rather cake walk through the regular season, because you saw what happened last year.
They cake walked through the regular season in terms of not having the pressure
on. They were able to rest guys. Like for an ideal standpoint of
winning the whole thing, doing what they've done basically every year, of winning
the division by a ton of games is the perfect scenario because you can take
your guys and rest them all season long. They're gonna have to ride this
thing out. The most important thing is going to continue being this and it
happens every single year. It's about who's playing best at the end of the
month of September going into October, and that team typically. We saw the
Phillies last year get to the World Series against the Astros. They were not
the best team in the National League going in to the month of September.
They got to that point where September came and they started playing great baseball.
They got hot at the end, and then they rode that hotness all the
way to Game six of the World Series. It's possible. It's always doable.
There's enough talent here, and there's enough belief end up being there before
everybody else that will matter. They're gonna have to have reinforcements though, to
it to go ahead and achieve that. Seven one three two one two five
seven nineties and a number to join us here on Space City Saturday looking at
some of that trade deadline. We'll do that next here on seven ninety.
Welcome back to Space City Saturday on scort s Talk seven ninety. It is
Space City Saturday right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Michael Connor back here
with you can join us this morning at seven one three two one two five
seven ninety seven one three two one two five seven ninety which by the way,
coming up, I think, I mean, I know there's I'm one
of these people that I have the I have the MLB TV package. Now
we'll tell you my mobile provider provides it for you for free every year,
so I don't actually I pay for I guess I may technically pay for it
with my thing. But there's a there's baseball early on now. This one's
on Fox today. But the London in series today starts Cardinals and Cups.
When you think of teams that you want to send over to London to promote
your game of baseball, it's Cardinals and Cubs this year. So the Astrals
will be getting the Cardinals after a trip over the pond this weekend. It's
just a two game series, which doesn't make any sense to Manna that you
want to give the extra travel days or whatever. But why wouldn't you just
play a three game series? Again? This is baseball doing baseball. It
is what it is. And by the way, in the second hour of
the show upter we get through some of our rocket stuff, we'll get back
into into some baseball discussion. I haven't gotten to him yet, but we
will go ahead and blast the ding dong again. That is Rob Manfred and
what he had to say this week, because that guy's an absolute moron,
but he's also at the leading charge of baseball sending the Cubs and the Cardinals.
Now, look, I know that they're big brands across the sports.
The rivalry is very big. They were we're talking about they send a team
it's thirty six and thirty eight to play a team it's thirty one and forty
four, and one of those teams, the Cardinals, can't get pitches over
the plate and they just get wobbed all the time. Next year they're going
to send the Mets and the phillis over there. I just I don't understand.
I don't understand who does these things, like how they market these things.
Who comes up with these decisions. Why wouldn't you send your best teams
in the sport. And this isn't even me stumping for the Astros. I'm
talking about anybody, like Send Atlanta, they're great. Send Send the Astros,
Send Tampa. Say. I know that there's not the cache necessarily,
but I mean, are people going to the baseball game in London because they
are fans of the Cubs and Cardinals. No, they're going because it's a
baseball game and they don't have baseball there. Like that's it. It's a
novelty thing. It's just like when the NFL goes over there. So again,
the decision makers in Major League Baseball always make me scratch my head because
I just don't get it. I would love if the Astros, though,
one day, do go to London. Now that's a complete selfish thing,
because I would try to go back over there. I've been there twice and
I I just personally absolutely love the city of London. If you gave me
a list of places, like you told me I had to live outside the
United States, it would be on the very short list of places that I
could live in because it was it was a It's a great place to visit.
I love the atmosphere. I also love the sports over there. I
love I love the soccer as we call but the football. I've mentioned that
just how much I've enjoyed that. But a cool, cool, cool place.
You ever get the chance to do it, and I do hope the
one day the Astros can go, because also the Astros fans travel very well.
Now. We see it at the games there in Los Angeles. We've
seen it throughout the regular seasons when they play in other cities. There's always
a lot of orange in these places. I expect there'll be a lot of
orange up in Arlington next weekend when they do that four game series against the
Rangers. But if you went overseas of the Astros, I think that they
would they would do very well there in terms of the travel as well.
But as I've been talking about this morning, in terms of the deadline,
real quip. Before we get to our top of the hour break, it's
coming up before you know it. Now, it's still a while away.
It's the twenty fourth of June today, it's August first. I do think
the further along the Astros get into this thing. I have convinced myself this
that you know, you want reinforcements, you want to give yourself a chance
to win. This team. I know that Jim Crane wants to win and
all that. I'm not saying that they're not going to try and win,
but I do wonder how far you want to go in terms of getting deep
into the deadline, giving up a bunch of assets to go out there and
get players for a team that I mean, do we think, honestly,
Do we feel like, honestly right now that they can win a World Series?
If you do, that's fine, I'm asking for your genuine feel on
it, how you feel. I don't feel that way at this moment.
I hope to be wrong. Like I said, I don't want to be
correct on this. I hope that everything that I've said today comes back and
completely bites me in the ass in terms of them not winning the division and
everything else. I just don't have the vibe of it. With everything that's
going on in the health situations, everything, they underperforming all of it.
And I do wonder how far again you want to go into making a bunch
of crazy trades in this in this in this trade deadline season that will be
coming up seven one three two one two five, seven ninety again, that's
the phone number to join us here on a space steady Saturday. We will
grab a top of the hour time out. When we return, we'll get
into the Rockets, what they did in the draft, what others did around
them, and what the summer holds for the basketball team. We'll discuss that
next year on seven ninety City Created, Degraded, Degraded, Welcome to Another
a City Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety, Michael Cunnter's live and local h
Town breakdown on the World that matters to You? Does Houston's four World?
All these great Houston fans here We love you all, so finish up on
that to do list, loot up the cooler, because you can't drink in
talk sports all day if you don't start now. This is Face City Saturday.
Here's seven nineties Astro's insider Michael Cunner Hour two, final hour of the
show here this morning, Space City Saturday. Michael Connor with you. You
can join us at seven three two one two five, seven ninety. We've
been talking about your Astros quite a bit this morning. We'll continue that discussion.
We'll get into the Rockets and their draft from this week. What is
ahead this summer for them players. They're targeting a lot of things going on
here on a Saturday. Of course. Astros tonight game two of three against
the Dodgers. They fall last night three to two. They will start a
little bit earlier tonight, six fifteen. First pitch here on seven ninety.
I will have you for the Astros on Deck show starting at five o'clock excuse
me, five o'clock to five forty five before we hand it off to Robert
Ford and Steve Sparks for the Astros need to bounce back tough one last night,
only three hits in the ball game. We'll see exactly what they can
get done on that one. But let's go back to the phone lines,
because you guys are as you typically do here on Saturday. I always appreciate
the interaction. At the end of the day, we're just talking sports.
It's what we do. It's guys being dues and ladies. If you want
to get into the mix, of course, we can always wait. Everybody's
allowed to. Everybody's welcome to call the show and talk sports because it's just
just a weekend of talking sports. Let's go out to Crosby next and talk
to Nick. Hey, Nick, Hey, what's going on? Man?
Not much. I was listening, you know a little bit you were talking
about, you know, all that throws, you know, a World Series
team right now as of right now, man, with we were we're not
Man and then especially when you got reports out, you know, with with
the you know, manager Dusty Baker talking about you know, he don't like
certain players and Chas McCormick. I just feel like, man, honestly,
I feel like Dusty's time here. It needs to be done. To be
honest, Uh, We're we're not there, and I feel like it's kind
of because of him, you know, picking and choosing, you know,
when to play. Chas mccormer chests. McCormick has easily been our best center
fielder this season. Ja Jake Myers. Don't get me wrong, Jake Myers
has you know, he's held it down out there. But I'd rather I'd
rather Chas McCormick in center field all day over Jake Myers. Uh. That's
just a little bit of what I wanted to say, though. Man.
Uh, you know, have a good rest of your day. Thank you
for the uh phone call. And look, I get um and we've gone
over this quite a bit with the Dusty Bakers situation. Now. Look,
I think it's it's blown up a little bit. I was in the dugout
not too long ago. I think it was the not this past home stand
by the one before, and Dusty and Chaz McCormick are over there messing with
each other and hugging each other. They don't hate each other. I know
that they there's probably a feeling of, you know, of this guy doesn't
like me because they'll play chat Jake Myers too much. Now. Look,
early on in the season, Jake Myers got himself going and he was on
a good hot streak there, he's completely fallen off the face of the earth
based off of performance. And it's and you're speaking of what you're saying there
in the in terms of Baker not liking this from Chandler of Rumes articles this
there's no secret insights clubhouse. The Baker is not a fan of McCormick's and
hasn't been since early last season, which was which somewhat impacted his playing time.
Trading Jose Serial last July and the mismanagement of Myers injury recovery all but
forced Baker to use McCormick in center field towards the end of the season.
Even then, Dubon still got occasional starts there. I don't think that he
doesn't like him personally. I just think that he prefers the game and the
defenses. And this is where you know, I will disagree with the manager,
and I think the manager is making a mistake on his evaluation of what
this team needs. And that's look, that's Dusty's job as the manager.
He's been put in charge. No manager is going to make every decision that
you and I love. I don't think that they're where they're at this season
because of Dusty Baker. I mean, where they're at this season again gets
back to one simple thing, the underperformance of so many key players in this
lineup. And you could put this lineup in any way you wont you and
I could write it up in any fashion. I know every single day there's
a bunch of people on Twitter and social media in general that have all the
answers in terms of what the lineup should look like. It's not gonna matter.
They don't hit well enough. That's why they don't have a record that's
well above them. And the manager can't change the way that players are hitting.
You know, I don't know how long dust he wants to do this.
I don't know if you know, is the message gone stale? I
doubt it. You know that I think when things aren't going well that you
hear these stories, you hear this crap overall, I don't believe it typically
when it comes out, because I know how tight they've been, how good
they've been. But again, there's always things that a manager is going to
do that we won't just that we won't agree on. And I do not
agree with anybody playing center field right now. Over Chaz McCormick. Now,
Chazz isn't a perfect player by any means. It's a player that has deficiencies
in his game. Whether it's the fact that he's not much of a you
know, he's not a big batting average guy. It never has been,
never will be. But he'll hit around two fifty probably. I do like
his ability to take pitches and to work some walks. I think that matters.
He's typically great against left handed pitching. Right handed pitching he has to
get better at, and he's just never been a great hitter against right handed
pitching. But look the results of the results. He's been better than Jake
Myers this season. And I know that the metrics say Jake Myers is great
out there in center field, and he's very good at jumps, getting good
jumps on balls and tracking stuff down and whatnot. Doesn't have the greatest arm
in the world. But what this team needs his offense more than anything else.
Now, Lord, they need some defense. They've played some bad defense,
which is not typical of them in the last month or so. I
think a lot of that gets back to concentration and frustration and all those things.
But Chas mccormers should be the every day centerfielder and there shouldn't really even
be a question mark about it. He's well well well above what Jake Myers
is giving them. Right now, let's go to Robert next here on Space
City Saturday. Hey Robert, Hey, good morning, Michael. What's up?
Hey man? I just wanted to say, you know, it's fun
to ask her was the way that season it bought? Now and I know
it doesn't seem like uh red championship team right now, I just go and
I now I'm gonna sound like a hoopeful homework, but uh an overall scheme
was like, um, a dynasty theybe. It's gonna be one of those
years. But we have to come from that from behind like wild cart and
win a few series as an underdog to make it to the championship, and
then we end up winning the championship. And now I think if that happens,
that to just be a a pretty feather in our cap, so to
speak, to say, hey, we want it. We wanted to do.
We want a championship by leading the league the whole year, and this
time we want it having to come from behind. And I just that's just
me being hopeful, but I think it could happen. We still put well
in the middle of a guidost here. And one other thing I wanted to
ask you is, I know you're talking about the trade deadline coming up,
and I know we're not there yet, and you you asked the question is
as the should we draw and waste a bunch of draft picks and give up
a bunch of capital to get comparers here but only to a point where we're
not there yet, but something out there that we can get here now at
the trade deadline to get us to the point well where we end up being
a championship team again. And thank you Robers. Yeah, appreciate your listening,
Appreciate you making the phone call. Seven three two one two five seven.
I mean, look, yeah, there's definitely gonna be players out there
that you could go and get that can help you get back to, you
know, playing to that kind of level. Um, I don't think that
those players are gettable at the moment with a trade deadline, Um, you
know, you're still a month out before teams are realistically starting to push all
the chips, and teams are knowing that they're gonna sell. And look,
that's part of the that's part of the storyline again with the expansion of the
postseason and eventually, and they really do need to get this worked out,
does the league. They need to get the league expanded to thirty two teams.
They can't do that until there's resolution with the Oakland situation, which continues
to get closer. They have not applied for a relocation yet, but everything
is getting close to that point to where they will do that and leave for
Las Vegas. They have to get the situation with Tampa and their stadium situation
figured out as well before they're going to expand, and I think for the
health of the league, they need to do that sooner rather than later,
because they do need to expand. Nashville will get a team. Somebody else
will get a team, whether it's Charlotte, Portland, Austin, whatever it
might be. One of those of the cities is going to get a team
as well, and that will less than this, you know, being this
crazy amount of teams that are going to the postseason compared to the thirty team
that you have in there. Because right now you just go look at it
again, the teams that we know are going to sell. You can go
through the al East, Tampa's not selling, Baltimore is not selling. The
Yankees aren't selling. Toronto's not selling. Boston's questionable. They are three games
over five hundred, the only game and a half out of the wild Card
right now. They wouldn't sell. You go to the Central. The Twins
won't sell. The Guardians are probably gonna sell some, but they're not going
to completely sell because they're also two games out of their division in four and
a half back in the wild card. Detroit will sell off. They don't
have much to sell. The White Socks are a team that everybody's gonna be
gunning for. Their players will see what happens there. That the Royals would
sell, but they don't have anybody that anybody wants. You come to the
AOST of course, Rangers aren't selling, Astros aren't selling. Angels will not
sell unless they went in the tank between now and the deadline. Seattle probably
won't sell anything. Even if they went in the tank as well. Oakland
they could sell. They don't have anything that anybody wants. You go to
the NL East. Atlanta is not selling, Miami's not selling, Philadelphia is
not selling. The Mets probably won't sell because they spent all this money.
They did sell a guy off yesterday at Wardo Escobar in a trade, but
you know, it might be small things like that. They're eight games out
of the wild card in the NL. On the NL side, then the
Nationals will sell, but again, there's not a lot there that you won.
Cincinnati in the Central will not sell. Milwaukee could shuffle off a few
pieces, but they're only a game and a half out in the division.
They're only three games out in a wild card. Not guarantee that they're gonna
sell anything. The Cubs, they'll sell some pieces, but they're in the
thick of it. They're four games out at the moment. Pittsburgh's five and
a half games out even at five games under five hundred, and they're not
selling their young pieces. They're building towards the future. Saint Louis could shuffle
pieces off. Their seasons done, but they don't have a lot that teams
are gonna want outside of Paul Goldschmidt, honestly, and he will cost quite
a pretty penny for teams to get. In the West Arizona, they won't
be selling anything off. The Giants won't be selling anything off. The Dodgers
won't be selling anything off. San Diego could because they've been in a just
complete, under underwhelming team with all the money they've spent, and then Colorado
will sell, but they don't have anything anybody wants as well. So it's
a tough trade market, very tough. There will be fewer players out there
to get than you're hopeful that are available for the Astros to go and do
just that. But they they have to weigh that do they want to go
big and splash versus smaller deals. You don't want to mortgage too much in
terms of you know, you don't want to over risk or overdo too much
in terms of going for rentals and whatnot and blowing out prospect capital that you
don't have a lot of right now. And that's just that's just where this
franchise that last year would have made a lot of sense. That did make
sense to go make some of those trades that they did make and give up
some players because well, they wouldn't won a World Series as simple as that.
But just this year, I think that based on the way that they're
playing, I don't think that you go all in on anything. But they
will definitely add seven one three two on two five, seven nineties our phone
number to join us here on a Space City Saturday. The commissioner the sport
had some things to say about the Astros this week. Let's go ahead and
get it off our chest about ding dong Manfred next here on Sports Talk seven
ninety. We now return to Space City Saturday, Sports Talk seven ninety.
There are some people in this world that just do not know how to get
their foot out of their mouths, and that man, of course, in
Major League Baseball, has been Rob Manford sometime. Welcome back to Space City
Saturday. Here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Michael Connor with you. You
can join us at seven one three two one two five at seven ninety.
But Manford this past week, if you want to discuss or want to get
into what he had to say, of course you can. You can join
us here on this topic of conversation because he's kind of a ding dong if
he missed it. This week, he did an interview with Time magazine and
basically said that he admitted in the interview that granting immunity to the Astros players
was maybe, in his quote unquote, maybe not my best decision. MLB,
of course, did not punish any of the players in that investigation.
They punished A. J Hench Jeff Luno. The Astros organization was find money
and lost draft picks for it. But he also said in this in terms
of the players immunity, drawing widespread criticism, he said, there are some
decisions that I like to have back. He says, I'm not sure that
I would. I would have approached it with giving players immunity, he told
Time Magazine in this report or in this story, once we gave players in
unity, it puts you in a box as to what exactly you were going
to do in terms of punishment. I might have gone about the investigative process
without the grant of immunity and see where it takes us. Starting with I'm
not going to punish anybody. Maybe not my best decision ever. There are
some decisions I would like to have back. They're absolutely there's absolutely no question
about that. Some of the decisions surrounding the Houston situation. Would like to
have those back. I mean, if I could take back the rather flip
comment I made that I made about the World Series Trophy at one time,
I'd take that one back. There have been times, particularly in times of
pressure, when I look back, talk or taking a little more time might
have led to a different outcome. So, first of all, there's a
lot of layers of this to go through. The Number one, Rob Mainford
is a moron, and I genuinely mean that he might be the dumbest person
alive and how and this is just kind of how life goes right. There's
people that get to some sort of position in life and it's amazing that they
do. He has a complete lack of feel. You are the commissioner of
a sport. You're doing a sit down interview. You're going to do nothing
but create more headlines when you talk about this, which, by the way,
it is twenty twenty three. When are we gonna stop? This isn't
even the Astros fan in me for my entire life, Like when in general
are we gonna stop with this storyline? It was two thousand and seventeen,
it's twenty twenty three. Move on with you live with your lives, you
absolute idiots, because that's what everybody that keeps talking about this is a straight
up idiot. They have nothing better to do than to talk about this.
Over It's done. Move on the Astros hoisted the champion, the trophy that
they are the champions, they will forever be the champions inside of a sport
that had a problem of science stealing. So let's just roll through the layers
of that real quick. The talk of immunity and not giving him. If
you go back and say, hey, we're not gonna give immunity to the
players, what do you think the first thing's gonna happen when the players sit
down. Mike Fires put his name on it, of course, and said
what he said, But there's not a single player that sits down with you
and admits to anything. If you say punishment is on the table. Also,
you're gonna get a fight from the players and the players Association, because
if I'm an Astros player, knowing what's going on in other cities, I
would have gone into that process and said, well, if you're gonna punish
me, you're gonna punish the people in New York who got caught with Apple
Watches, the Red Sox who got caught with So you're gonna punish all these
players. You can't punish some and not punish the rest. And this gets
back to how stupid but Rob Manford is you, as a commissioner of the
sport, got the scapegoat thrown into your hands. You were able to sweep
the big, massive problem your sport had when terms of regulating the use of
technology to get an advantage inside of games. You were able to sweep it
under the rug and just pin it all the one team and have the public
outrage b to one team. You were given the ultimate gift, and you
are sitting here being an ass clown and completely forgetting about that. There have
been too many players, there have been too many stories that tell everybody in
this world that this stuff was going on across the sport. You can go
to the stories about the Colorado Rockies who were using a massage gun to hit
a metal workout bench to make noise to alert hitters what was coming. You
can go to the Ends with their video room and the people with cameras in
the in the stands and whatnot that have been caught on multiple occasions. You
can go to the Apple Watch situation. You can go to the Red Sox
and their replay room that's been caught on things. There's been stories of the
Texas Rangers back in the Adrian Beltray days that had somebody that would sit in
the stands in the center field, it would move a certain way for the
hitter to know what was coming. The sport was littered with signstealing. It
is not an excuse for the Astros. It's never been an excuse for the
Astros. It's always been about, Oh, I don't even mention the Dodgers
and the stuff they've been linked to. But it has always been about pointing
out the blatant, just stupidity of all of it. It was a scandal
era of baseball. There have been scandal eras or eras of baseball that the
public doesn't want anything to know about. There's probably stuff going on in every
single sport in terms of maybe drug use, whatever it might be that the
public in the leagues don't want people to know about. And you had this
all wrapped up into one thing, and we should be done with this.
It shouldn't be a thing. Instead, you live a man that is running
the sport, that's opening his mouth and bringing it back up like a buffoon.
If I'm an owner, if I'm Jim Crane, I would have been
on the phone the next day chewing this guy out and saying we pay your
salary, idiot, move on with it. You and Joe Kelly and Kenya
Middleton and all these dumbs that are out there, just keep living in this
world. Stop. You shouldn't want this if you're baseball to be a topic
of conversation constantly. You want to promote your sport for the good, to
make it a better game, to make it grow, and living in this
world where you're constantly mucking it up doesn't do that. It makes the topic
of conversation about something that is a black eye on your sport. And if
you went through this process where you didn't give the player's immunity, they would
have fought it. It would have probably ended up in the court system.
It would have been a mess that would have dragged out for years like the
steroids steroid era did. It wouldn't have gone away so quickly and it never
really went but you know what I mean, Like it wouldn't have There wouldn't
have been a quick resolution to it. Dumbfounded. I'm absolutely dumbfounded that somebody
in that position of power can be that stupid. And I guess it shouldn't
be dumbfounded by it, because again, there are so many examples of it
across the world. If people in important jobs and roles that just they come
off as idiots, and consistently this man has done that. I think about
and I love the sport of baseball and I wanted to grow and everything we
have gone in this sport, from Bud Selig to Rob Manfred, both terrible
commissioners, terrible. You think it's at some point your sport would get it
right. We can talk all we want about Roger Goodell and Adam Silver and
everything. What's the one thing that those commissioners consistently do. Their sports are
in a good spot. They get great TV deals, and really the sports
are growing. And you can look at both of those commissioners and say,
you're not growing the sport anymore. It's declined. Rob Manford's probably screwed up
some television deals. Whatever's going on? If I obviously he might stay out
of the city of Houston when it comes to going to baseball games. Let's
go to the phone lines and talk to John and Fresno. Hey, John,
Hey, what's going on? Everything? Everything you said I agree with,
But I just want to mention one thing about Dust Baker, real quick
Dust as well loved in the city. Why because he'd come to a city
with no credibility. He took the job no other imagine wanted, and he
turned the city back into credible, credible baseball town. And he done it
with less plus than most teams have. Dusty is a great, great manager,
And that might be one of the reason this idiot made that statement,
because shust was so good. He in you out, you're in it and
yeah, and and without Dusty about in credibility back to this city and this
town, people should be grateful and thankful that we got amagin like that they
could bring incredibility around baseball world to this city. So I'm all in for
Dusty, and that other person is the idiot. He don't even need to
be in baseball. I'm hanging up with a listen, thank you for the
phone call. I mean, look, Dusty didn't inherit nothing. He inherited
a mess, but he didn't inherit nothing. He inherited an incredibly talented team
um that was ready to win, that had already won. So he's he's
done a good job of maintaining the level of what they had in terms of
the expectation. Let's go to Martin were quick before our time out. Hello
Martin, Hey Michael, you know, um, be prepared. This is
not gonna go away with the Astros. It's gonna last for twenty five thirty
more years at least. It may go beyond that. When I'm dead and
gone, it will probably still be going on. I saw a video Michael
on YouTube of a couple of years ago. This happened at Dodgers Stadium.
An Astro's fan was walking through Dodgers Stadium and recording it and the video and
everything. It's on YouTube, and the fans were giving him the finger and
cursing at him, and and the cleanest thing that they called him was a
cheater. I mean, it was bad. He was walking through the Dodgers
Stadium through where he was sitting at and you know, going to get something
to eat, and they were giving him the finger and it was bad.
But that was on YouTube. But anyway, hey, man, be prepared.
It's not gonna go away for many years. That's all I have to
say. Thank you, Martin. Good to hear from. Yeah, I
know it's not going away, but it's just the fact that you have the
commissioner the sport who should want to not have this be a topic of conversation
coming out there and bring me back up unprovoked by the way, they didn't
ask him about the astro scanal. They asked him what the Biggers already brought
that up? I mean, like, could you be any dumber? Clearly
not. Rob Manford is as stupid as stupid does, as four or stupid
is as stupid does as Forrest Gump would like to tell you. Seven one
three, two one two five seven nineties are number to join us here on
Space City Saturday. Thirty minutes, just under thirty minutes to go. We'll
get into the rockets and the draft and some other Astros things before we get
out of here. Right here on seven ninety. Space City Saturday continues.
Find Sports Talk seven ninety in the home stretch of Space City Saturday. Here
on the Sports Talk for seven ninety. But I'm not going anywhere today,
so just be prepared for more with me on your radio. Michael Connor,
here it with you, of course five o'clock I'll have the Astros on Deck
show this evening ahead of Game two of three against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
These stro's looking to bounce back from the three two loss last night, as
they will hand the ball today to Ronell Blanco, hopefully a little bit better
than his last start, and they can get a victory because they need it.
That was a tough one last night. They dropped to six and a
half games back of the Texas Rangers in the American League West. Of course,
this week it was not just about the Astros. Now. Look,
we are in the middle of the summer and we are continuing to slowly create
towards that trade deadline where they're gonna dominate the conversation. We'll have a football
back in our lives to an extent in about a month when the Texans are
out on the field for a training camp, which will be fun to have.
We will also, of course, creep towards the NBA season before you
know it, because the Rockets had the draft this week. If you were
able to listen or come out to Post Houston this week on Thursday when we
were out there for our draft covers, thank you first of all to all
of you that stopped buying said hello, and then those of you that listened
to us that night. You got all of us. You had the Adams,
you had Ross, you had stand you had me been to bowstop,
but we had plenty of covered Matt Thomas as well. It was a good
night. It was a very good night on a night where it was difficult.
I still think going in from the standpoint of you know, there was
and this is just me speaking for myself personally, it was it was disappointing
as hell to land the fourth pick. Now, look, I'm excited.
I'm very excited about how it played out for them in the draft. I'm
in Thompson. Now, Look, I know that there's been a lot of
people that have written a lot and said a lot about you know, his
shooting ability and whatnot and if he's going to be a guy that can shoot
consistently at the NBA level. Here's what I know. There's been so many
people that have said so many good things about here is athletic ability, which
is so intriguing to me, of course, and his playmaking ability for this
basketball team because this team has absolutely been missing a you know, I think
a guy that can can run the offense, and if I'm in Thompson can
be that for this basketball team, I think that's gonna be a good thing.
And you know, I think that the selection of him at number four
kind of puts you out of the business of being in the James Harden business.
And you know, I know it's something that I've We've talked about a
lot here on this show since I started doing the Saturday Show, and I
said it multiple times. I thought it was inevitable that he's coming back,
and I'm glad that it appears right now at least that it's not inevitable that
he comes back to the city of Houston. And you know, I think
that you've gone down that road with him obviously for eight years here and it
was went into a ninth year when you're trading him, of course, but
you've gone down that road. There's no real reason to me to go back
at this point. You know. I know that you want to add a
veteran, but why add a veteran? And that will truly stunt the growth
of young players continuing to do what they need to go and do and go
out there and win or should say, develop their basketball games at a higher
level to go and you know, grow as young point guards, young scores,
whatever it might be. In this league. The Rockets need to take
that next step and they want to take that next step of this rebuilt process.
Now they are gonna go have to go out and they do know that
they are flushed with cap space more than any more cash space than any other
team in basketball this summer. So that will help them have the ability to
go out there and do just that, go out there and add to this
basketball team, which I think is a very exciting thing to see happen.
Now the question is what are they going to go and add. And of
course they're gonna go and add a big man. We assume There's been a
lot of links for them to Brook Lopez. There has also been some links
for Fred van Vleet, the point guard who would kind of help you Eastman
Thompson into things and doesn't necessarily have to be a ball dominant guard all the
time. So that's an intriguing option to me. But they need to add
some veterans to the mix. They're going to add some veterans to the mix.
The questions still becomes do they get involved at all in any sort of
big trades. You know, there's been the names that have been out there.
I'm not gonna assume that they're even gonna flirt with the idea of Damian
Lillard if he was available. I mean, there's really no point. He's
older in his career and he makes too much sense for a team like Miami
to go and get if he was truly available in trade. The name and
Diane Williamson has been linked a little bit, which to me still does make
some sense to consider for yourself, even with the concerns that you have for
the player and the fact that he has been off the court more than on
the court. And then again, it's been a very interesting off season so
far for Zion Williamson, I think is the best way to put it.
If you were on Twitter, that woman that uh exposed a lot of him,
I don't think is on Twitter anymore. Her account's been suspended. The
porn star, I say, but that's a that's a name that still I
think you have to have a deep discussion about if you're the Rockets, if
he's truly available, if you can go get him, you gotta consider it.
But they came out of that draft and I think they did two things
that are going to help this basketball team quite a bit. The question with
Amen Thomps is what does it mean for Kevin Porter junior in his role.
Is he still a point guard? I don't necessarily think he should be the
point guard. I said that a lot last year. I you like his
scoring ability, He's a he's a good player. I think he can be
a really important piece for this team and continue to grow. But I've never
been on board with the point guard scenario. I'm in and Jalen Green together
in the same backcourt is very athletic, which is very intriguing. Of course,
you're expected another year of growth for Jabari Smith junior. You're hoping alt
be Shane Goon just can get more consistent in terms of his defensive effort.
He's got a lot of offensive game that you like. And then again you
see what kind of additions you have to put around these guys to help them
grow and for this team to take the next step in this rebuilt process.
To me, this is the year that you go from bad. You want
to be like Oklahoma City was last year. You want to be pushing for
that play and stuff. You want to be a team that's winning, you
know, hopefully in the in the mid to up or thirties and games that's
a big league from low twenties each of the last few years. But that's
at the stage for me where I'm at, where I think they should be.
And I think that there's probably a lot of people in the organization,
specially the head coach that they've hired animate Oka, that feels the exact same
way. So we'll see exactly how it plays out. But to get Amen
Thompson and then to get Cam whitmore to fall and I don't know if there's
been a lot of discussion about why he was available there at twenty for the
Rockets. I mean, you and I and everybody else will probably never know
the complete answer. We weren't in the interviews that he had. You know,
they might have been terrible. I know that this is a at the
time, he's an eighteen year old kid that will be nineteen and in a
couple of weeks play a year at Villanova on a Villanova team that a lot
of up and down, probably not to the level that they expected out of
themselves consistently this year, and he was, without a doubt to me,
the most talented player on that team. I think that they got lucky as
hell to get there. You've heard and I think it's basically been confirmed It
wasn't just from murfel Stone that the Rockets did try to get up higher in
the draft to go and get him. That was always their thought process.
The Pacers GM yesterday basically confirmed that his team was trying to get back up
into the draft, hired to go and get Cam Whitmore as well as he
was falling, and they couldn't do it. Teams weren't willing to trade their
picks. That Rockets got lucky as hell that he was there. The more
I've read and listened to some people that are connected to certain things and whatever
it might be, the more I'm intrigued by the more I think that the
Rockets got a chance that they got themselves the steal of the draft at twenty.
Now the player is going to have to do the things to get there,
of course, because the concerns are definitely there. I think it's pretty
clear there's some lack of there's concerns about maturity, things that taking certain things
seriously, like he's going to have to grow up and it's it's not easy
to do when you're nineteen years old in the NBA. But we've seen this,
like there's been a lot of it's been a lot of youths on this
basketball team over the last few years. Hopefully he can come in and he's
in an environment where the coach is somebody that is hard on players, expects
a lot out of them, and I think that it's the right spot for
him as well. The athletic ability is freakish. Size for an eighteen now
about to be nineteen year old is silly. I think that they're gonna walk
away at the end of the day and a couple of years in this draft
and go. We got two really good players. The question for this team
is going to continue to be where do they find shooting? Consistent great shooting.
Jalen Green hasn't been that he regrets last year. Jabari Smith has to
take that next leap as a guy that we thought was going to be a
better shooter as a rookie. He's got to go and be a really good
shooter next year. A lot of things have to happen for this basketball team.
But future is bright. I feel great about it. I think everybody
else should feel great about it. And I think for the first time in
quite some time now I'm geared up. I'm ready to go. I can't
wait to see Rockets basketball out there on the floor, which again you can
hear right here of course on Sports Talk seven nine seven one three two on
two five, seven nineties. The phone nable to join us. We will
take our final time out. We return, we'll wrap up our final thoughts
of us Saturday right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. This is Space City's
Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety. Our final segment of Space City Saturday.
Here on Sports Talk seven ninety, Michael Connor here with you. You can
get in for a couple of minutes real quick if you want too, at
seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven one three two one two
five seven nineties and the number to join us. UM. I don't pay
attention to the a lot of the other world, the things that go on,
and yeah, I'm not saying I don't pay attention of things that don't
go in the world, but I'm just on Twitter, and again you can
find me on Twitter at MC seven ninety. UM, I didn't realize that
there's like basically a like there's a big like basically war going on in Fresher
today, which is crazy. Um So watch the news. I guess today
it's it seems a little wild. What's going on? They think goodness is
not going on over here. Um, we're gonna be watching sports today,
We're gonna be watching the Astros tonight, and then they take on the Los
Angeles Dodgers, of course, in game two of the three games series.
I kind of wanted to wrap up the show with the thoughts on the Dodgers
in general, and I wanted to take a look back. Of course,
it's always exciting and fun when you reminisce about a championship that you had.
And we had the discussion today of course about the Astros in twenty seventeen,
because Ding Dong Manfred and what he had to say to Time Magazine a couple
of days ago. But I just want to look back on that twenty seventeen
team here for a couple of minutes and what it will always mean to this
city, to the fans of this organization, the organization that they've had forever.
It's still crazy to think that it has been that long since it's happened
twenty seventeen. I mean, it still feels to an extent like it was
yesterday. But I mean it's been a lot of years now, they've won
another World Series since last year, which felt so damn good for them to
go out there and get they that team that year, and I can remember
that was like my for I'd been doing some pre and postgame shows in twenty
six team really the back half of that season where it was my first opportunity
to start doing them. Thing goodness, I waited a long time and wanted
to do those and started to do them that season, and I can remember
kind of going through that year, and you know, I that was a
younger version of me twenty seventeen. I was still twenty six years old that
year for the most of the season, and I fight with people a lot.
We did a lot of yelling during the year because I was a big
believer and maybe there's a bit of the Homerism in me, of course,
because I wanted them to win. And I grew up an Astros fan,
and I'm always going to be an Astros fan at the end of the day,
no matter what goes on. But we went through a season where I
told a lot of people that year that this team is good enough to win
it all. They're gonna win it all, and it happened, and Look,
I've mentioned it before. I get to do a lot of very cool
things in this job that we have, and one of those has been since
that twenty seventeen season. We get to Gordian I. I basically pack up
every time they're on the road and we follow them wherever they go. And
we were at all the home games in the postseason as well, so that
a mouth of October is always a quick sprint slash marathon for me. Like
by the end of it, I'm usually pretty damn exhausted. I will say
this past year that was the freshest I ever I've ever been after a postseason
run because it's late, it's early days at the ballpark, it's long late
nights. I know that all of you listening, Oh, it's not that
bad. I know it's not that bad, trust me. I'm just you
get you do get tired, and you get a little road weary after a
while from being gone from home so much in that one month. But I
was there that night at Dodger Stadium in twenty seventeen. I know that there's
people listening out there that have been to ballparks throughout the country and everything,
and I always get asked this from people when when I'm talking to people about
it and they're, hey, what's your favorite ballpark that's not minimated park?
Of course, and I will say to this day, I've done. I
think I've done. I think we're up to like fourteen of the thirties.
I saw a lot of work to do in terms of seeing ballparks, but
we've been to quite a few throughout my and even before you know I was
doing this job, I went to a few Dodger Stadium and you know,
part of it, it's because what happened. And I loved Dodger Stadium,
absolutely loved it. I love the nineteen fifties, sixties, feel like it
just old school, nostalgic baseball. The I just built into the hill there.
I know some people don't like. Gordy and I go back and forth
on it. He doesn't like it. I just loved it. I thought
it was a wonderful ballpark. I think the backdrop to it is just so
beautiful. Everything about it's just great. And if you're gonna go see ballparks,
I would put it up there on the list pretty high up of ballparks
to go see. But that night, I'm telling you I was like a
blower. We got out there. Gordy did the first two games. I
did not go to the first two games of that series, and I was
there for the rest of them. I was there at all the home games,
but for the last two back there, we both went for those and
it was I mean, I'd say it was just it was a great night
when it got started off so quickly. They shut the noise down there very
quickly and kind of cruised, which I think was a very It was good
to not stress that game at all to win their first title. I think
that was kind of important for all of our health after the way that we
went through Game five. But every time that they go back to Los Angeles
and I know that's going to be that way for a lot of you,
it brings back a lot of great memories. You think about where you were
and what you did. And we did not leave. Gordon and I were
the last people in terms of media out of that ballpark. They had a
media a lot which was down the hill from the stadium. You'd have to
take a bus up and down two It was two or three o'clock in the
morning at that point when we left, And remember two hours behind. When
we finally left Dodger Stadium and got off the air, they were leaf blowing
all the trash all over the place. That was only people left from the
ball with us, and I'll never forget having to walk down that hill and
go get to our rental car to get out of there. What a great
night, What a great great night it was, and what a fun night
it was. Hopefully tonight some more good stuff for the Astros out there again.
I'll be back with you tonight at five o'clock for the Astros on Deck
Show than of course the tenth Inning show afterwards as well. Thank you to
all of you that listen this morning and called. Thanks to Adam in the
studio as he always does a great job back there. I'll talk to you
guys again this evening five o'clock for the Astros on Deck show at a game
two or three against the Dodgers right here on your home for the Stros,
Hey the Rockets. Sports Talk seven nine