City, Oh call Bay created great, great Welcome to another Space City Saturday.
I'm Sports Talk seven ninety Michael Cutters Live and local h Town breakdown at
the world that matters to you, Dog, Houston Sports World, all these
great Houston fans. Chair, We love you all, so Finnish. Up
on that to do list, blot up the cooler because you can't drink and
talk sports all day if you don't start now. This is Space City Saturday,
and here's seven nineties Astros insider Michael Cunner. All right, let's go
on a Saturday morning here on Sports Talk seven ninety as you heard the man
there at a Space City Saturday, and I'm Michael Connor. With you until
noon today and you can join us along the way for this journey at seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven one three two one two five
seven ninety Plenty to get into today more than anything else, the Houston Astros
who are back in action, some off the beaten path stuff that I want
to get too later as well, including the latest in the football world,
which is not much, but I'm talking about the Netflix show that has come
out this week. I wanted to do a segment on that because I've watched
most of it so far and I wanted to discuss it before we get out
of here. But the Houston Astros is where we, of course do most
of our talking when we are in the middle of the summer, and you
can do that again with me today seven one three two one two five seven
ninety on Twitter at MC seven ninety seven goes for all the other social media
platforms Instagram, Facebook threads. Are we still doing threads? By the way,
I don't even know if we're doing threads anymore. I haven't threaded it
in a while. I think the instant craze for it probably went away a
little bit as I'm pulling the app up. Yeah, people are still doing
it. Looks like I don't know how serious it's gonna be. But I
am there and I will make more of an effort to put some of the
stuff up there. I put on Twitter as well, So but go to
Twitter. That's the number one place. Even if they want to make things
weird and you know, not as enjoyable as it used to be on that
app, just go and use it. Follow me there and we'll talk Astros.
We're not here on the air. But they win last night seven to
five over the Angels to kick off the three game series. And I know
that you guys were really pumped up about it because a lot of you joined
me last night on the tenth inning, showed about twelve fifteen in the morning
that b zero of you where to go, you slackers? Tonight back in
action, eight oh seven, first pitch from ber Valdez making his first start
post All Star Break against Red Debtmer's The Astros continuing their dominance against the Angels
so far this season, now six and two on the year against them.
They are of course going to look for the series win against them on the
Sea's but last night doing it. It was a weird baseball game, a
lot of hits for both sides. JP France wasn't very good for the Astros
overall, excuse me, did not get a lot of help from his defense.
Same could be said for the other side of Tani didn't get help from
his defense last night, but he leaves the game with the assume it's the
blister that was the issue there for him once again. But Astro's side of
things, France four runs came across in his outing, did not get as
deep as he has been, and I think it was another night where it's
a reminder that as we near the trade deadline, a starting pitcher is a
priority for the Astros. We've heard Dana Brown say as much as of late.
We're going to dive more into the trade stuff here in the next segment
of the show, and we're gonna put something to bed that needs to be
put to bed. In terms of the discussion that people are having, that's
not realistic. What is realistic is what this ball club has in front of
them right now. Is they sit at fifty fifty one and forty one excuse
me in the American League West, two games behind the Rangers. And by
the way, thank you Cleveland Guardians. Last night I want to dumpster for
having to rely on the city of Cleveland for anything. Is a tough existence,
Like you just want to kick things when you do that. Last night,
I'm sitting there doing the on deck show at what was it We run
from seven thirty to eight oh five, and it's the fourth inning. As
I'm doing the on deck show, Cleveland's up for nothing. They're putting it
on John Gray. They have a fourth spot. I think in the fourth
inning or the third inning, and it's like, okay, looking good,
they went they went ahead and allowed them the Rangers to score twelve unanswered runs
the rest of the ball game, and most of them at the end of
the game. And the Rangers end up winning last night. So the Astros
don't get to one game back as they should have if the if those damn
if, those damn Guardians would have taken care of their business. And they're
in the fight for it too, because they are in that al centro that
is an absolute abomination of baseball. And they are five hundred and they're the
division leader, just ahead of the Twins who are one game back. I
think about this, the ten games under five hundred, Detroit Tigers are five
games out of a division lead five They have a run differential in the season
of negative eighty five. Astros. Though, like I said, two games
back, they are a wild card team. At the moment. You want
to see them track down the Rangers because you want to see them have the
first round of the wildcard round off. You don't want to play in the
wildcard round. And you look ahead and I said this yesterday, and it's
gonna be something I'm gonna repeat here over the next few days because this is
a vital period of time for the Astros. You look at the schedule right
now, the way that it's going, and they want to get back to
the top of the aost. This is where you have to make hey here
out of the break of course, getting the body reset everything that's great.
Hopefully fromber tonight looks like fromber he gets his being, you know, irritated
about not pitching in the All Star Game out of the way. He didn't
like the decision. Clearly it is what it is. But hopefully he looks
like Fromber than tomorrow is a vital game six ten tomorrow night. By the
way, Sunday Night Baseball, I'll have you for on deck, contempting for
that one on a Sunday evening, but that one is Christian Javier and last
night, again, as I mentioned, JP, France, not exceptional,
doesn't get deep. And that's the danger of what you're doing, relying on
so many young arms that don't have big league experience. And when you do
that and things start to go awry and they start to hit a wall.
Because all these young guys are going to hit a wall, you're gonna be
in trouble, especially when you go and look at the schedule that is ahead
for the Astros. Again, this stretch here, this road trip out of
the break, is one that they have to absolutely crush. They started off
properly last night with the victory. Two more they're in Los Angeles or in
Anaheim against the Angels, day off on Monday, two games quickly in Colorado
against the Rockies, who are bad. They did beat the Yankees last night,
but they're bad. And then you're gonna go to Oakland for four next
Thursday through Sunday, another series against a team that you have not lost to
this season. Not saying that you're gonna go in there and sweep them in
four games. They've played better baseball overall since the Astros last played them,
but you should at minimum minimum take three out of four in that one.
But you're still hoping, honestly to sweep them because they are that bad.
And that's why it's important to do that, because they are awful. And
you turn right back around after that Oakland series and you play three against the
Rangers. The last three against them here had been a made park this season.
The Astros will then get a day off between that series and playing Tampa
in town for three one of the best teams, the best team probably in
the American League this season overall. And then those Cleveland Guardians, who even
if they're just at five hundred right now, they have played better baseball.
They had been really bad early. They have some young guys that are talented.
They will be pesky to do that, and then they turn right back
around. And I'm not gonna go a whole schedule talk, but this is
just a real emphasis on why it's so important to get these wins and really
eat in this next week of this road trip. After that Cleveland series is
back to the road and they play four New York against the Yankees. Yankees
aren't very good this year. They're okay, same kind of flaws that they've
had for all these years. They've just hired a new hitting coach and Sean
Casey thinking that that's going to ignite their offense, like it's gonna change a
lot. You're not gonna change the same lineup you've been rolling out there for
years. There's a reason why they have not been as good as they expect
to be because they keep rolling out the same thing. And expecting a different
result. But they have four in New York day off Monday the seventh,
and then they have three in Baltimore before they head back home to play the
Angels again, which will be a nice easy one you would expect, before
heading back on the road to play very tough now Miami Marlins team in Miami
for three. Then you look at the rest of that month, three against
Seattle at home, four against Boston, three in Detroit, and then three
more against Boston. But this stretch again from the end of the series against
Oakland through the tenth of August. So you're talking about a period we're gonna
play a total of six nine, thirteen set or sixteen games against really really
tough teams and teams that are fighting for playoff contention in the American League.
And that's why it's so vital. Now, look the Astros, and I
know that. I look at it, and that's the easy thing. I
oh my god, how are you gonna get wins in this period of time.
It's not going to be easy necessarily, But the Astros are also gonna
be going into those games. They're gonna beat teams, they beat good teams.
That's what they do. They've always done that. You look at their
record this year now against teams that are five hundred better. It's not been
what they wanted to be. It's twenty and twenty eight. So again I'm
putting the emphasis on this period of time to get those back. Now.
The good news, hopefully if you missed that news yesterday you're don Alvarez had
his reap assignment delayed. They say that he's ill. The inconsistencies of the
messaging from the astros continue to be a real issue that I do not understand.
You get them telling you that he's ill and he's not gonna do anything.
Then Dusty Baker gets up there and it's like he's clueless. Is nobody
telling him anything? I don't know, but he didn't have an answer,
and then he makes like I don't know when he's gonn come back or when
he's gonna start his rehab assignment. How do you not have an idea that
leads to the worry for people, that leads to the panic, and again
the mistrust for the way that the situations with injuries are spoke about. But
it sounds like, again I'm not gonna go over the top end of the
world. Something's wrong. You're gonna hope that it truly is an illness and
Jordan gets his rehab assignment going here shortly hopefully today for sugar Land. Jose
Er Katy last night throws two innings for the Sugarland Space Cowboys. Gave up
a one run or two runs, but they were unearned thanks to his defense
screwing up behind him. But good start to get him back on the mountain.
Everything from the report is that everything was good. He's gonna make three
more rehab starts, so it's gonna be a minute before they get him.
You want to get Jordan back on the field, hopefully again today because that
way you can. I would imagine the per world scenario is to have him
play next weekend in Oakland. It's a great landing spot for him, a
ballpark that he always hits very well in against a team that he typically just
absolutely launches against. Come back in, get some good major league at bats
against them before you have to play Texas and you have the bopper back in
the lineup that you have been missing. Jose Al Tube continues to progress.
He's hitting soft toss and everything, so we're probably still a few weeks away
from him getting into baseball game action. You know, I know that Michael
Brantley was mentioned as hitting off the TI or whatever. I'm not too interested
in hearing about Michael Brantley updates. To be perfectly honest with you, when
we see him play baseball again, if that's ever again, that's when I'll
believe that he can play baseball again. So I'm just personally not interested in.
But they have reinforcements coming clearly in some of these spots that they need
them, and then they can go to that trade deadline, and it is
seventeen days away now. August first is the trade deadline in Major League Baseball
where Dana Brown has to go out there and the obvious obvious need for this
team more than any other spot. They could still use a bat. I
still think that they could. They could. You know that it wouldn't be
the worst thing in the world to go and find a bat. The question
is where do you slot the bat into. Somewhere in the outfield to me
is the spot to do it if you're doing it. But they absolutely have
to have a starting pitcher. And this morning we will go through some of
the names that I like some of the names that you think will probably be
out there as the picture becomes a little bit clearer in the majors in terms
of who's going to sell, who's going to buy, of course, and
what the market might look like for a team that does not necessarily have the
kind of ammunition that you would like to have in terms of trades to make,
to make those trades on this trade market when that August first deadline gets
here. Seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven one three two
one two five seven ninety is the fun number to join us this morning.
You want to talk about your strokes, you want to talk about that trade
deadline that is coming up. Who you want to see the Astros possibly go
chase at the trade deadline. Your comments are welcome throughout the show this morning,
of course again on Twitter at MC seven nineties, where you can find
me as well. But we will put to bed one of the things that's
talked about. It's not realistic people. It's time to end the thought of
it even being in your mind. We'll do that next here on Space City
Saturday. This is Space City Saturday on Stort's Talk seven nineties. Pick at
it because I don't have a crystal ball. I would like to have a
million million dollars though, so when he wants to give me a million dollars
here on Space City Saturday, Michael Connor back here with you, and I
say that I don't have a crystal ball because I don't have a crystal ball.
For exactly how the trade deadline is going to go for the Astros,
I can make my best guesses like everybody else. And by the way,
if you want to get in here and join us this morning until noon on
Space City Saturday, eight is seven one three two one two five seven ninety
seven one three two on two five seven nineties. We're talking Astros here to
start things off. Some other things to get into before we get out of
here at twelve. Astro's back in action tonight eight o seven. First Pitch
Ross has you for the on Deck show tonight starting at seven o'clock. I'll
be back with you for the Astros coverage again tomorrow evening for Sunday Night Baseball,
where they hopefully we'd be looking to finish off a sweep. I'm gonna
go ahead and say it. They're gonna be working to a finish off of
sweep tomorrow night at a three game series against a Angels team that, by
the way, is definitely going down the tank. And that's where we get
to here. They are about two as they've been without Mike Trout. They
played really good baseball there for a minute where they beat a bunch of bad
teams, and I know that that's you know, it sounds like you're knocking
them, and it's not a knock. You still have to go out there
and beat bad baseball teams. Any team in the sport has to do that.
Then the Angels went through a stretch there, excuse me, where they
got to about ten games or around ten games over five hundred. I don't
remember the exact number. I'll pull it up here in a second, but
it looked like, hey, you know, this are the Angel team.
They're gonna be. They're gonna be around, They're gonna be a pesky team
down the stretch. Trout gets hurt, they start playing better teams. Right
before the break, they play bad baseball, and they are back really where
you expect them to be, a below five hundred team, a team that's
not going to have a chance to make the posts. Excuse me, The
postseason this year, as I just for some reason can't. I can't seem
to clear my throat today, So I'm sorry if that happens a couple of
times. It just it just keeps getting me for whatever reason. The Angels,
though, falling back to where they were Otani pitches last night. He's
not been as great throwing the baseball over the last month. Now, I
know that he has the best batting average against in all of Major League Baseball
below two hundred for the opposing hitters this season, which is incredible. He's
got He's a guy that throws up to ninety something miles an hour. You
saw the difference the last thing he's been dealing with, the the blister issue.
And you know when it's a problem is when he's just throwing nothing but
fastballs and he's hitable. I mean, every every big league pitcher that even
throws one hundred miles an hour is hitable for a major league hitter at one
hundred miles an hour because they're also used to seeing it. The question,
of course, has been Angels, do what's smart and trade best player in
baseball. And I don't know if there's an argument necessarily that there is a
better player in the entire sport. He hits, he can, He's gonna
win. He could win the MVP as a hitter. He can win the
Cy Young as a pitcher every single year. That's how good, that's how
freakish this guy is, and every single team in the league would want him.
That being Shoheo Tani. I will say, I keep seeing it on
Twitter, I hear it places, and people keep going, oh, when
the Astros go get Shohio Tani. They why don't they go off or something
for Shohio Tani. Why can't they? You know, they should go get
Shohio Tani. I know that we have a lot of time and space to
fill, and we'd love to do hypotheticals and dream scenarios and whatnot, But
it is a complete waste of energy saying the name Shoheio Tani to the Astros.
First of all, they don't have any of the prospects that it would
take to get him. Even if he is a rental, he is going
to cost more than any rental in the history of the sport. Think about
when the Astros traded for Randy Johnson back in the day for a couple of
months of Randy Johnson, who was elite as a pitcher when he came over.
They gave up a ton to get him back there. Now, I
know it was the nineties, but you just go look at rental cost throughout
the years, and when you get these guys at this level, and there's
been nobody before that's available at this level, the Angels are going to get
somebody's top prospect and I would be shocked if they don't one The Astros like
Drew Gilbert. They don't want to trade him. I get that. I
know that he struggled since he's been a double A, but there is still
a high belief in the player that he is going to be their future center
fielder. And I get it, and I'm fine with it. But they
don't even have the ability to go to the table and offer the Angels what
they'd want. I just I'm a person that prefers to live in reality with
a lot of situations. It would be awesome, of course, if the
Astros could have the ability to go get a player of his quality that can
do two things that would really honestly be perfect for them because they need a
left handed bat and they need a picture he would fit two things in one
play. If this was the Astros back in twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen,
where they had the prospect capital and they had Jeff Luno pulling the trigger,
they'd be in the mix. They don't have the prospect capital anymore. I
don't know necessarily how Dana Brown is going to operate at the deadline, but
I get the sense based off the way that he talks is that he's going
to value the hell out of his farm system and developing of players, which
they should. I saw a graphic I think yesterday on Twitter that's in the
last ten years of all the players that teams have drafted, the percentage of
them that have made it to the major leagues. The Astros, of course
lead Baseball in that percentage. Twenty three percent of their draft picks since in
the last ten years have reached the major league level, the best number of
any franchise in baseball. And that's why they've been this damn good. They've
developed better than anybody else. They drafted with Luno's crew for a long period
of time, better than anybody else. And now it's onto the Dana Brown
era and his people to figure it out and to get this farm system back
where it needs to be. So I just don't see a scenario where they
are playing themselves to the level of going crazy again. I understand wanting to
have this pie in the sky thought process that you're going to go out and
get this amazing, freakish talent and you want that for your team. It
also goes to how the team has performed this year and what the team looks
like. If you got him, does that make you a World Series contender?
I mean it helps the baseball team is gonna be in the postseason,
of course, yes, but it still doesn't fix the issues of everybody else
pitching behind him, and he's not pitched all that well Right now, the
conversation should have ended at the Astros don't have what it takes. It's never
going to happen. We have to not do this. I don't know why,
again people even flirt with the idea of it. I would imagine if
he's getting dealt between now and the first of August, he's going to land
with a team that he's going to try to keep him in the off season,
and if that team doesn't, that's on them. He's going to be
a Dodger next year. I we just had to live in that reality.
It is what it is, not in an American league anymore than it bug
the Astros all that much. That's fine with me. But we'll get into
the realistic names for the Astros, because I'm sorry about that. For some
reason had an alarm on for ten thirty this morning or twenty seven. I
don't know why. But the realistic possibilities for the Astros, we'll get in
some of those. We'll also take your phone calls against seven one, three,
two and two five seven. I do want to grab one real quick
before with the brake. Let's get to John. Hey, John, Hey
see man, I hope you get that drain nage out of you. Man.
That sucks. What's going on? I feel fine, I feel fine,
but like I just you know, like some days you just wake up
you feel like you've just gotten crap in your throat. Just one of those
days. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, I'm one hundred percent behind
you, man. That's that's that, going in from AC to AC,
from this acetown heat into juditional buildings and back out again and back into your
car with AC and messing you up. But real quick. I'll run through
these questions pretty quickly. And I've been seeing it, I guess a couple
more times this year than not since when uh dude, catchers need to throw
the first base to complete strikeout, I seem like I don't remember that being
a thing, like only only when it's only when it is only when it
is dropped, if it's a drop ball that hits the ground and the runner
to Oh, okay, that's okay. That's my first question. Second question,
are we sour on daily all? Like? I feel like his name
was brought up a lot. Uh In was side with Jeremy Pinion when they
were both like hide and triple A and both might get caught up. Now
I feel like they've soured on him and we keep bringing up people like Hensley
and Bliss Madrids or whatever that guy's name is. Like, it's just really
weird where he's falling in the pecking order. Can you give me some insight
as to you know, where they are with him, because I feel like
he's like the number eight guy, but they just don't want to bring him
up. And then my last two aren't I haven't heard for us Whittley in
a long time. Is he on the eyel or something, because I feel,
yeah, he's heard again. Should he heard his shoulder about a month
ago? They're thinking he'll be back by like September. Okay, okay.
And then my last one is is uh Brantley? Have we heard any any
updates on him since all of the talk of of two BA and our big
guy coming back up the break? Where is he and his progress? But
I'd really like to hear your answer on that on that daily on thing too,
And yeah, thank you, Hey, I appreciate, and I appreciate.
I feel great. I don't I just have one of those again,
one those days where I'm gonna have to clear my throat and I'm sorry when
I have to do it with a microphone on because I don't have the button
to hit it off. But first off, Michael Brantley. The latest on
him, as Dusty Baker said yesterday, is that m Brantley is hitting off
of a t and this is the second time we've heard this. Now he's
weeks away from playing a rehab assignment. If he's playing again, I personally
I'm done hearing updates on Michael Brantley. I'm not gonna believe that he's gonna
play major League baseball again until I see him play major League baseball. And
I'm gonna put my hand up and I'm gonna bet right now for me that
he doesn't play again. That's just me. I hope I'm wrong. I
really do. The Astros could use getting a left handed bat into this lineup
to give them a little bit more balance that they've missed, and you know,
and get a better performer maybe in there occasionally for them with some of
the roster spots you mentioned. You're talking about pedro Leone there, of course,
the prospect they signed out a Cuba a few years ago. He's now
twenty five years old. He is in his second full year now with the
Sugarland Space Cowboys. And look, unfortunately, and this is the world of
prospects and signing these guys. He got good money. I think it's like
four million dollars in the Astros signed him. Highly touted, big time tools
guy, speed, pop, good arm, plays all over the place in
the outfield, can play in the infield as well. Not a big guy.
I think he's like five eight, five nine in that range, but
has all the tools. Dusty Baker raved about him ahead of or during spring
training last year. This year he didn't get to get into camp and play
because he was hurt. But last season he was not good overall. I
know that you go look at like the ops number seven ninety six for during
his time with Sugarland last year, but he only hit two twenty eight hit
seventeen home runs, did get on base at a good clip, walks seventy
one times last year. This year not getting on base nearly as much,
sly hitting two forty five, twelve home runs, forty three runs, bat
at in seven seventy three ops with like the blind Madriss of the world.
They bring him up because he could play first base. I'm gonna be completely
honest with you. They're wasting their time with him being on this roster.
That guy stinks. There's a reason why he's not been in the big leagues,
and you saw it in last night, like wasting at bats on him
and then putting him high in the batting order. I know that you wanted
a lefty and needed a lefty. I would have rather seen them bring back
jj Metjevic to the big league roster than put blind Madriss up there. I
don't think that his stay is going to be very long with this Astro's ball
club. But I mean, look, unfortunately for page on lyone well,
and you know, he could be a possible name that's thrown into a trade,
but just because you know your teams are gonna want bodies and whatnot,
I don't think that he has a lot of value anymore as a prospect at
twenty five years old, and he's been in the minor leagues now for two
fulls is is two full seasons plus part of another where he did get to
Sugarland in twenty twenty one for seventeen games. But look at it, he's
played two hundred and sixty two games at the minor league level and he's a
two thirty one hitter. I mean, it's just not very good. It's
just the reality of it. He's not performed. I don't know if you're
ever going to see him get that I mean, i'd like to see him
get that chance. I mean, is could he do what great kessengers doing,
sit on the bench and play occasionally and probably give you a better at
bat. I don't know. I just I don't know if we're gonna ever
see him get here, and more than anything, it's because he's not performed
at the APLA level to get himself a chance, give himself a chance at
the big league level. Seven one three two one two five seven nineties our
fun number to join us here on Space City a Saturday. You want to
get in here and discuss your Houston Astros. Will continue some of that discussion
next because I do have a name in mind for me that I would love
to see the Astros make a run at. We'll see if they have the
ability to do that and if they're willing to go down this road, I'll
give that to you next here on Space City Saturday. Space City Saturday continues
Sports Talk seven nineties. Scott that willis you captain Cities Saturday. Right here
on Sports Talk seven counterback here with you. You can join us at seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven one three two one two five
seven ninety we're talking about your Stros. You are back in action again to
night here on seven ninety you will hear the on Deck show starting at seven
o'clock with Ross via Reality ten Thinning Show afterwards as well, and of course
the first pitch eight o seven A night from Bervaldez against read Debt versus.
The Astros look to secure the series victory tonight, and they need Fromber of
course, to go out there and be Fromber to do it. After a
night where they had to use a lot of bullpen last night. Even if
they have the day off on Monday, you'd still like to not overuse your
bullpen in this first weekend. But we've been talking about the trade deadline there.
Got it out of my system because I'm just it's not a realistic possibility
show that Tony's not going to be an Astro. I just I think that
it's a waste of time to do it, and it's time to look at
realistic names for the Astros across across everything else. But the Astros last night
get the victory. They've got seventeen days to go out and find whatever it
is that they're looking for in the trade market. It's going to be it's
going to be interesting to see how far they can go. And I bring
this up because I am sitting here trying to I think, like everybody else,
looks through realistic names that are going to be available for the Astros and
you have to you almost do this on a daily basis. Now at this
point, determine who is going to buy and who is who going to sell,
and we can just run through them real quick. In the AL East,
you know the teams that are going to buy our Tampa, Baltimore,
Toronto, New York, and Boston very well, both could sell or could
could buy, I should say, but they're both eight and a half games
out of the division, but they're both only two games out of a wild
card last place. They're tied right now, both at forty nine and forty
three. That division is absolutely stacked, so there's no sellers in that division.
Maybe maybe Boston sell something. I don't know. The AL Central Minnesota's
not selling necessarily, you wouldn't think unless somebody blows them away in an offer
for maybe Sonny Gray that way and recoup something before losing him. I guess
Cleveland has sounded like they're going to sell things off. One of the guys
that's been mentioned a lot in the trade market from their team has been Shane
Bieber, whose you know, numbers hadn't been as good this year in terms
of velocity and strikeouts and everything, but he, by the way, is
having an MRI on his forearm, so you hear forearm with a picture that
always makes you think elbow. He might not be a player that is going
to be available here at the trade deadline anymore. For the Cleveland Guardians,
who by the way, again screwed up last night and lost to the Rangers,
that they're leading them for nothing. So again in that division, two
teams for sure that are probably gonna be in buymode you think, and not
in huge bimode Minnesota and Cleveland. How far do you want to go with
those teams. They're not winning the World Series either one either one of them.
The teams that are selling in that al Central or Detroit, the Chicago
White Sox and the Kansas City Royals Al West Astro's Rangers for sure buying.
I'd imagine that Seattle's gonna buy as well. Even if they sit at forty
five and forty five and they're completely underwhelming, Angels are going to end up
selling. They're now two games under. Then the Oakland A's of course are
selling, but they have nothing to sell. In the NL East Braves buyers
big buyers if they need it, which they really don't need it. The
Marlins should be buyers. But to a Marlin's level, of course, Philadelphia
probably buys. They're only a game and a half out of the wild Card.
The Mets are heading towards selling. There's no reason for them to hold
on. They're not very good. I'll tell you about something that happened with
them in the next segment there. Yeah, in the next segment of the
show here for the top of the hour. The Nationals will sell as well
in the Central Cincinnati. Milwaukee probably holds and buys because they're tied for the
division lead with Cincinnati. The Cubs in all likelihoods selling because they're seven out
of the division, seven and a half games back of the wild Card.
Pittsburgh's now going to pivot after being a team that's surprised early. They're going
to sell the older players. They're not going to sell any of their young
core. They're trying to win next year. Saint Louis has a lot of
guys and they're open for business. The question is do they trade their big
big boys, that being Goldschmidt or Aeronauta. Then the NL West you have
Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Giants, all for sure buyers, and then the Padres
and the Rockies Padres, it'd probably be smart to sell. And I'll get
more into that here in a second, than the Rockies for sure sellers,
but they don't have a lot that are going through it. So I mean,
just to me right now, as I look at the teams that I
that I, in my view say are going to sell, its Colorado San
Diegos, they give you two Saint Louis for three, Pittsburgh for four,
the Mets and the Nationals for five and six, Oakland and the Angels for
six, seven and eight, Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit. So that
puts you at eleven and that's it. Eleven of the thirty teams in the
league for sure sellers. That is a very limited pool of teams that are
going to sell. And then when you just go again look at the teams,
Detroit doesn't have a lot that you'd want necessarily. The White Sox have
guys that everybody's gonna be gunning for. Kansas City virtually has nothing that anybody's
gonna be interested in. Same can be said for Oakland. The Angels have
some middle tier role player type of pieces outside of Otani that people will be
interested in. The Mets have big names, but not big time performers that
they'll move. The Nationals really don't have a lot. That's all that intriguing
Pittsburgh. Everything that they're going to sell, as I mentioned, are older
players that I don't think make a huge difference for a team like the Astros.
The Cardinals have names, but they don't have names necessarily in a spot
that the Astros might be targeting outside of one. And then you go to
the NL West again, San Diego is extremely intriguing. If they do decide
to sell, which I think they're going to do, why wouldn't you?
And then Colorado doesn't necessarily have anything that makes you go, oh my god,
I gotta go make a trade with Colorado. So to those names,
and really I'm looking at San Diego and Saint Louis, two names off those
teams that I think the Astros should go chase. And I'll give those to
you and we'll continue the discussion with you at seven one three, two,
one two five seven ninety next here on Space City Saturday. It's Space City
Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety here. You can't take a slow ride now
for the Astros Space City Saturday. As they near the trade deadline. It's
amazing, like we've been sitting here talking about this for a while. Michael
connorback here with you, by the way, on Space City Saturday, you
can get in here seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven one
three two on two five seven oney. But it feels like we have been
talking about trade deadline, this trade deadline, that it's been a slow market.
Of course, it typically is teams wait until the deadline to really address
their needs. Teams aren't going to sell early on unless you blow them away
with an offer. We've already seen the Rangers do that with the Kansas City
Royals to pick up a Raldus Chapman to add to their bullpen, which was
a good get for the Rangers for a guy's rebounded this year's pitched really well.
I don't last time I checked, I don't think he's given up any
runs since he's joined the Rangers, unfortunately, and you're hoping that he hangs
some sliders at some point, especially when the Astros face him. But so
far as a Ranger for innings, no runs, just one hit, five
strikeouts, no walks, So he's been good so far for Texas. They're
probably liking that trade to this point of the season when they've gotten him.
But the Astros, like so many teams, going to be looking for help,
and specifically in the starting rotation. And I went through the teams that
you think are gonna sell, what teams are gonna buy, You go and
you look at the teams that will definitely need and we'll be in the market
for starting pitching. It's basically everybody. You look again, the NL West
will start their Dodgers and Diamondbacks or two teams that you think will do that.
Cincinnati will definitely be in for starting pitching. Miami will be a team
it's in for starting pitching, Philadelia probably as well. The Rangers will be
for sure. You think the Minnesota Twins would be Tampa, I don't know
about them, but everybody else in the division could be gunning for starting pitching.
So with the market not having a ton of names that are going to
be available to you, their question is who is really gettable. The White
Sox have one guy that's for sure going to be moved in Lucas Giolito.
There's been a lot of stuff about Dylan Cease. We'll see if they move
off of him, but he does have two and a half years of control
left. It's probably not likely in my mind that they trade him in the
middle of the season. They probably trade him in the offseason, but you
know, look, maybe they will that you blow them away. You could.
They do have other names in their rotation, whether it's Lancelin, you
know, he's a possibility for teams. Mike Clevenger's there. I don't think
he'd be a possibility here. But that's a team that has multiple starters that
will probably be moved in that rotation, and a team that everybody's gonna be
calling. The teams that I brought up ahead of the break, the Chicago
or the San Diego Padres and the Saint Louis Cardinals have names that again,
people are going to be gunning for. I like one name more than I
like the other. Here they're both left handed pitchers. But the Padres stink.
I think we can all agree on that. For a team that has
spent as much money as they have, they have been one of the biggest
disappointments in the sport. Those two teams, them and the Mets, who
have spent as much money as they have. Now, of course, the
Padres did go to the NLCS last year. We see this so often with
teams that do so well the year before they come back and they're just flat
the next year. The Astros, to an extent, had been flat this
year, but not to this level. They're never going to play to that
level. But you just go up and down that Padres team for a roster
in a lineup that has Xander Bogarts. They just paid the money, a
bunch of money to Manny Machado who they just extended for a ton of money,
wants Odo who they just traded four last year, Fernando Tatis Junior.
They should be awesome, and they're below five hundred and they've been that way
throughout the majority of the season. They don't. It's not like they have
a bad rotation either. I mean they have a very capable rotation for mu
Darvish, who's not having a gray year, to Joe Musgrove, the former
astro has been very good since he's been there. And then the other name
that I'm gonna mention here that I like, if you're going to go out
there and push is Blake Snell, former Cy Young winner, having a great
season overall for the San Diego Padres, but the record is only six and
seven because the team's not very good. But he has a two eighty five
r and eighteen starts this year, one hundred thirty two strikeouts and ninety eight
innings. And he's a true rental. He is a get him for two
months and this guy's gone. Somebody's gonna pay him a ton of money this
offseason. Maybe the Seattle Mariners. He is a Washington I think he's a
Seattle native. I wouldn't be shocked if the Mariners are in on him,
come this winner when the time is right, to go out there and do
that. But the that's the name of all the names that I think are
gonna be talked about. And look, there's no guarantee that the pod or
yeah, that the Padres go out there and decide, hey, they're gonna
trade everything. I mean, look, they could very well say we're gonna
go in on this thing. We've spent all this money, we don't want
to go and trade something else, and he's not available. But I think
given that he is a rental that's a free agent after this season. He's
making just ten million dollars this year, so it's not like he'd be picking
up a player that's making or I shouldn't say that he's making sixteen points,
six and caps this year the way that they was structured. But again,
most of that's already done. You're not gonna have to pay him a ton.
His deal was five years, fifty million when he signed it with the
Tampa Bay Rays. He's done well against the Astros in the past. He's
been really, really good for a very long time. As I mentioned,
he won the cy Young back in twenty eighteen beat Justin Verlander. Out this
year has not received cy Young votes since first or that year after that was
not great for him. But since then, outside of his first year in
San Diego last year, he's pretty solid when he did pitch. That's always
been his limitation is he's never been a guy that stays consistent, consistently healthy.
We all know how that goes with Lance mcclors. But he's been healthy
this season. He's pitched well. One concerning number is that he leads to
the majors and walks this year forty nine of them so far. But again,
all the strikeouts in the ninety eight innings. If I'm the Astros,
and I feel that I am going to go and give up some of my
top prospects. I think that that's the name that I would go and target
first. The other one is Jordan Montgomery, who's gonna have a lot of
suitors from the Saint Louis Cardinals. He's pitched very well this year six and
seven three twenty three R but he's just a ninety six strikeout guy in one
hundred three inning, so he's not the strikeout guy that Blake Snell is.
Either one of them would be great additions to this ball club. Can give
you innings, can really eat it up and keep teams down. But I'm
just gonna keep putting that one out there for me. In a perfect world
scenario, and I don't know that they would necessarily have enough. I think
that they would because the player is a true rental and he's not the top
of the market necessarily for everybody else. But if Blake Snell is available,
that is the player that I would be hopeful if I were all of you,
that the Astros can go out there and try and pick up. I
think he'd make a big difference. Slotting him behind from Bervaldez of course,
all this kind of hinges on Christian Javier getting it together in this second half
of the season, But you pick up an arm and allow you to go
to the six man more getting guys more rest than you're already giving them.
But if you could get to a post season series where you had from ber
Valdez, Blake Snell, Christian Javier won two three, and then Jose Rakeaty
probably your fourth, you're gonna go into a postseason series again where you're gonna
feel like you can win the first three games of each of those series with
those guys out there on the mount. If again, Javier is pitching like
Christian Javier and not this just jankety version that he's been for the last however
many weeks it's been. Is it likely they can get Blake Snow No,
of course not. It's like the Otani thing. It's gonna be difficult given
their prospect amount of prospects that they do have. But in my belief is
that if you internally, as the Astros, Dana Brown and that crew and
Jim Crane, they say, hey, we know it's not been the perfect
season. The offense has been insanely inconsistent, but we still think that this
team is good enough to go and win it again for a second straight year
and a third time in the last seven or whatever. We can go a
little bit further in this trade to get this player than we expected to.
I think Blake Snell is a guy that is worthy of it. And then
you add on top of it, he has pitched in the postseason, he
has pitched in the World Series, and he's done pretty well when he's pitched.
I know that his numbers last year in the postseason weren't unbelievable overall.
But before that that you mean we saw We all witnessed it, that twenty
twenty run. He pitched against the Astros in the ALCS. He pitched really
well in the World Series against the Dodgers, got twelve games in the postseason,
ten career starts, three thirty three r shoot for the moon. I
guess that's my strategy here. I don't really see a reason why the Astros
shouldn't at this point. Seven one three, two, one two five seven
ninety is the number to join us here on the Space City Saturday, one
hour to go. We'll kick off our number two of the show with one
of the funniest things you're going to hear uh this weekend, and it comes
from the City of Los Angeles. That is next Charan, Sports Talk seven
ninety to the State City Home pay City, Grated, Grated, Grated,
Welcome to another Space City. Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety Michael Cutter's live
in local h Town breakdown on the world that matters to you, Houston four
World, All these great Houston fans here, We love you all, So
finish up on that to do list. Luda for cooler, because you can't
drink and talk sports all day if you don't start now. This is Space
City Saturday, and here are seven nineties as drows insider Michael Kunner. Second
and final hour of Space City Saturday here on Sports Talk seven ninety on Michael
Connor here with you. You can join me at seven one three, two
one two five, seven ninety. We're talking You're Houston Astros. We're gonna
get into some NFL stuff here before the end of this hour, trade deadline
continuing to creep closer. I have a very very funny story out of the
City of Los Angeles, and it is Astro's related that I'm gonna give to
you here in a second, But the Astros back in action tonight. They
are in the Los Angeles area over in Anaheim. They will play the Angels
tonight in game two of the three game series, which you're here here on
seven ninety with an eight o seven first pitch on deck. Show starts at
seven o'clock rossoby real. HAIs you for that. I'll be back on the
covers tomorrow, say look to wrap up the series, hopefully with a sweet
tomorrow night, six o'clock first bare, six ten first pitch Tomorrow night for
Sunday Night Baseball Astros and Angels. Sorry to the rest of the country that's
getting subjected to having to watch the Angels tomorrow, that just sounds terrible.
Real quick, before I get to this story from Los Angeles, I do
want to get to those of you that are on hold. We'll talk to
dos Ecks next. What's up? Dos Ekeys, Michael, Good morning works
since I call on the show, but taking m any of the Saturdays and
listen Dana Brown. I just have you know this is my own take.
My own guests got feeling. I don't think Dana Brown is gonna trade for
any hitters. I think that you mentioned a couple of times. Is gonna
go after pitching the two names that you mentioned a few minutes ago, the
excellent either one would be great addition to the staff. But let me tell
let me throw you a couple of names that do play for the Angels that
are up fillers, and see if it makes sense. None, none of
those two guys are lefty hitters. But one of them can play a real
good right field. He's got one of the strongest arms in the league.
And you saw him last night Hunter Remfro, Hunter Remfro complete the corner.
Maybe Tucker can move to the center. And and the other one is the
one that win yard last night, Taylor Award. I don't know if you
have a lot of history on him. Can he also play the infant Taylor
Award? And I don't know what kind of context they have. And just
throwing a couple of those names and would let you take And also if you
had any other auditions from pitching that you can throw and maybe relievers have any
idea on those, I'm Michael, yeah, they could. You know,
they could be in the mix for one of those. You know, those
two guys that you mentioned, I know that it would be nice to get
a bat. I just don't know necessarily that they're going to be looking for
right handed hitters Renfroze. I mean, first off, he had a total
blunder last night in the game on that sacrifice bun. He's a swinging miss
home run hitter, but has the pop. I just don't think that the
Astros are ever gonna push Kyle Tucker to play in center field, so like
that realistically probably isn't much of an option to me. Taylor Wards, the
guy that's played the outfield. I know that in the past placed third base
as well. You know, they're okay players. You know it'd be nice
to have big league depth in certain spots. They've been missing a little bit
of that. And you know they probably wouldn't cost you much either of those
players. So maybe there are a possibility for the Astros to get into the
deadline. I just don't see them being necessarily likely. But the Angels will
probably move on from from those guys for sure before the trade deadline gets here,
because there's really no reason for them to hold on to them based on
the way that this team is playing overall, and you expect them to continue
to play moving forward when they start to get rid of pieces. So we'll
see in terms of relievers, we'll get to some of those names in just
a bit. But I do think I don't think that they're gonna trade a
lot. I don't think that they're necessarily going to add a bat. I
know that that was something that they talked about a lot real quick. By
the way, news little news nugget on the Astros from Shannon the Rome,
who covers the Astros for The Athletic. The Astros this morning have signed their
first round pick from this year's draft, Bryce Matthews has agreed to a deal
with the Astros, so he will be heading out to the Gulf Coast League.
The Astros, by the way, have signed ten others from their draft
class that they have announced they take twenty players in that draft, but the
Astros have just sent that out. They signed first round pick Bryce Matthews,
and eleven total draft picks have now been signed by the ball club. That
includes Bryce Matthews, as I mentioned there, in the first round, third
round pick, Jake Bloss, sixth round pick Evan Ethan Peco, seventh round
pick Joey Dixon, eighth round pick Ryan Johnson, ninth round pick, Jaron
Williams, tenth round pick, Austin Demming, Naiomar o'choa he signs in the
eleventh round, thirteenth round pick, James Hicks fourteenth round Jackson at Nizou Kolby
Lane for the seventeenth round pick, and then the non drafted two non drafted
free agents signed as well. So the Astros again have made some signings,
including their first round pick twenty eighth overall, that being Bryce Matthews who has
signed with the Houston Astros. That is a done deal. He can get
into the farm system and get going on his big league career. You always
love to hear those deals getting done quickly so these guys can go play in
baseball before this season does come to an end. But the trade deadline continuing
to creep closer. Will continue to get into all that with what is going
on with this ball club here over the next few weeks as they look to
again bolster a team that's playing better baseball. And at the end of the
deadline was you know, not very good or the end of the first half
was not very good of course, because of the way that they the way
that they played overall in s Seattle series. But you're hopeful that they'll they'll
get that back together, and they started that last night with a win.
I did want to bring to you now something that I find hilarious. Now,
look, two seventeen is something that is always going to be a special
place in my heart. I know a special place in most of you listening's
heart. It was an incredible, incredible season for an astro team that was
insanely talented, went out there and took care of their business on a nightly
basis, kicked people's asses, and they were just a very, very fun
team to watch. The postseason run put us through the ringer. Whether it
was the Boston Series, even if it ended a game early, still had
plenty of stress to it. The Yankee Series was a total nightmare to get
through, and then the series against the Dodgers was the same way as they've
defeated them in seven games to win the World Series. But the Dodgers recently,
I have made an addition to their major league roster now. Jake Murisnick
started the year with the Chicago White Sox, was let go. Was recently
with the Detroit Tigers. Was let go the Dodgers signed him to a major
league contract. He is the first player that played for the twenty seventeen Astros
that has ended up with the Los Angeles Dodgers. There's a story in the
Los Angeles Times today that is quite hilarious and it is Jake Mrisnick involved.
And the headline here is why Dodgers are embracing Jake Morisnick despite his involvement in
Astros scandal. It's gonna run through some of the paragraphs of this year for
you and then I'm going to comment on him. There are some members of
the two and this is, by the way, is written by Jack Harris,
who is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. There are some
members of the twenty seventeen Houston Astros who would vehemently be unwanted by the Dodgers
clubhouse. Jake Murrisnick is apparently not one of them. A thirty two year
old journeyman outfielder who had his best season while playing for the astros infamous science
stealing team, Murisnick was welcomed into the Dodgers clubhouse with open arms Friday after
signing with a team this week. His backstory was well known as one of
the mainstays from that Houston squad still in the majors the Dodgers. The Dodgers
feelings about that scandal, about the scandal, which culminated in the Astro's defeat
of the team in the twenty seventeen World Series, remained largely unchanged, even
if their anger is faded with time. Yet, Murisneck's arrival was endorsed by
Austin Barnes, Murisnek's high school teammate, Chris Taylor, who briefly played travel
ball with him growing up, and even Clayton k Kershaw, who has vacation
with him in the off season. I do, like Jake Kershaw said,
I think he's had to deal with it for a long time. I think
he has some remorse for it as well, which is probably all you can
ask for at this point. He's a good guy. He'll help our clubhouse
for sure, As the veteran pitcher noted, at least it's not one of
those other guys. Indeed, other members of the Astros team would have found
a different reception with the Dodgers, whose three remaining members of the twenty seventeen
World Series are Kershaw, Barnes, and Taylor. Last offseason, the team
didn't seriously pursue shortstop Carlos Corea, in part because of the concerns about how
he received by the clubhouse and fan base. Mursnick, however, is seen
differently. He was more of a part time player on that Astro's team,
a bottom of the order bat who, despite setting career highs and home runs
and on base ops, was valued more for his defense in center field.
He really was. He wasn't really leading the ship over there, Barnes said.
Murrisnick didn't play in the World Series against the Dodgers in that World Series
either, missing, of course, the entire postseason with a hand injury.
I don't get as mad at him because he wasn't in the lineup, said
Kershaw, whose six runs start in Game five has long been speculated as being
impact by the astros trash can banging system. Selfishly, he didn't really affect
me. Marisnick's reputation extends beyond his time in Houston as well, and it
goes into his high school career and blah blah blah blah blah. There's a
bunch of junk in the rest of it. Because once again, the Astros
sign stealing thing is something that these idiots out in Los Angeles cannot stop talking
about. Now. Look, I know that it's the first player that again
has signed with the Dodgers and maybe the only player ever that played on the
twenty seventeen Astros that signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. But there is so
much of this article that is absolutely hilarious. They are all such fake,
tough guys when it comes to we're gonna be mad if we get another one
of these guys in the clubhouse and it's gonna be a problem. No,
you're not. Shut the hell up, you bums. It is sad this
existence that these people out in California live in. A first off. From
the writer's perspective, all of this is insanely lazy. It's click bait crap,
which, look, you won I clicked it. But this whole oh
Kershall's five runouting in game five? How many times do you have to go
over it? It was investigated. You can go back and listen and watch
the broadcasts on television like you did in the regular season. There wasn't trash
can banging that you can hear on the broadcast in the world series. They
weren't using it. It didn't work, and even if they were, they
were better than you. They beat you. Get over it. Your organization,
for as great as it's been, has been a giant flop because all
you consistently do is choke in the postseason and not win World Series. The
Astros continue to go to more than you and win more than you. You're
a sad organization, a sad fan base, a sad writing core that you
have there in Los Angeles with these idiots that keep writing this over and over
and over again. Move on, you got beat. You can sit here
and play this fake. We would be so outraged if somebody else came into
this clubhouse, if Carlo's corea had walked into that Dodgers clubhouse, it all
would have been fake, fake, fake, fake, fake, and they
would have greeted him with opening arms. But to be sitting here still all
these years later and talking about it and blaming it and acting like it was
a thing that decided the World Series is so idiotic. I mean, just
go look at these games. Go look at this. The Astro didn't even
get to the World Series based off of their damn hitting that year. Go
look at their ALCS. They couldn't hit the baseball. They hit below two
hundred as a team in the ALCS just to get to that series where they
beat the Dodgers in seven, George Springer went torched earth. The Astros also
won two games in that series in Dodger Stadium on the road, where they
couldn't use the trash can system that they'd been using during the regular season,
but they hit two thirty in that series. The Astros won that series because
the Astro's pitching more than anything else. And now look, there were crazy
offensive games, of course, but the Astros pitching held the Dodgers to a
two oh five batting average. They won games by a final of seven,
six, five, three, thirteen twelve was the wild one in five one.
All these silly, dumb excuses in constant having to say something about it.
It is a sad, sad existence for those people. I cannot believe
that we still have to sit here and read these things and hear these things
all these years later. And let me show you my shocked face. That's
somebody from the twenty seventeen asters, even if it wasn't a main guy you
mentioned in the article as well, if there was a guy that benefited from
the banging system, Jake Morrisdick was one of them, more than anybody else.
And I know it was the regular season, but he hit sixteen home
runs that year in a limited period of time and was awesome, blatantly clear
that the system helped him, probably about as much as anybody. He and
Marmon Gonzalez massive benefactors of it. But again, we live in this world
where facts or can be alternate alternative facts. I just don't get it.
They didn't use in the postseason. It didn't work, they gave it up.
They said this ain't working, weren't done. I'm just tired of the
lazy man. That's it. I'm tired of all the lazy talk, the
excuse making. He got beat own it, live with it, expecting them
to apologize for the rest of their life. As silarly, then why aren't
you banging on the doors of the steroid users for years and asking them to
apologize for all the stuff they did for years and years and years. You're
not because you're outrageous fake. Everything about it is fake. And all those
people out in Los Angeles and all the Dodgers, you constantly sound dumb,
especially when we know the sport was littered in it. There's been enough that
has also linked the Dodgers to doing things that were very similar. There's been
enough stories out there, There's been enough rumblings from other players across the league
throughout the years that tell us you were doing it too. Dumbs. That's
what they are out there in California. Seven one three, two one two
five seven nineties are number you want to react to that you want to get
back in on the Astro's discussion. Plenty to get to between now and noon.
We're with you here on Space City Saturday, Space City Saturday on scorn
Stalk seven nineties. It is Space City Saturday here on Sports Song seven.
I need mic counter back here with you. You can join me, said
one three sorry, he's two one two five seven. I he had to
take a sip of my water. I had to run out of here,
out of the room in the commercial break, and one of my dogs decided
that they didn't want to go ahead and go crazy and try to play with
me. As I'm walking out of the door. I don't know what it
is like. So when I'm doing the show sometimes, I mean typically we're
here. We're always here at the house when we do the show because I'm
gonna do Astros or something later. But the dogs just they when they think
you're when you stopped talking for two seconds, they think that you're you're done
with the show, and it's like, no, I'm not double with the
show. I still got Houston sports to talk about. But you can join
us against said one, three, two and two five seveniney. By the
way, the Astros, if you missed it again, they signed their first
round draft pick, Bryce Matthews, the Taska Set, a kid who went
to Nebraska shortstop. He was signed today. The slot value was two point
eight eight million. He signed below slot at two point four seven million,
but it's a great payday for him to go ahead and get that. The
Astros also signing their third round pick. They signed a total of eleven guys
today, which is nice. Bryce Matthews will be able to get out to
Minimate Park soon and do the whole what they do with their draft picks,
take batting practice, that whole thing here when the team gets back into town.
Then he will head out like all the other rookies, to the Rookie
League the Gulf Coast League down there in Florida to the Complex Leagues, basically
get himself going and for a few games and then probably head out to La
Fayetteville to join the Woodpeckers. I guess yeah, the Woodpeckers in that one
in that league, and the Astros hopefully will have another top prospect that people
will be watching here for the next few years before he is able to make
his way to the big league level and be an impact player. He's got
a lot of things that you look at and you say, oh, that's
a guy that that can absolutely play with his team moving forward. I did
want to do something here in the next segment when talk some NFL stuff and
it's nothing really too hot and terms of what's going on because the training camps
will get kicked off here in a couple of weeks. Texans will be back
out there. We'll get plenty into them as training camp gets rolling, of
course across the station, but here on this here on this show as well.
But the Astros last night with the win over the Los Angeles Angels.
One of the guys that contributed to it and has contributed of course to a
lot of their victories this year, and a World Series title last year and
has really developed into one of the better players across Major League Baseball has been
Kyle Tucker. And I know that this is something that you know, we've
said a lot, and I've said it a lot, and I'm just going
to continue to say it because i think we continue to get a real example
of it on a nightly basis from Kyle Tucker. He is, I mean,
he's an exceptional player. He does everything that you want out of a
player. He hits for power, He's hitting for average this season once again
for the second time in the last three years. He looks like he's gonna
hit probably over two ninety this season. He's getting on base at a record
high clip this year. Three seventy one is ops is back, getting closer
to the eight fifty number now as his slugging number is ticked up with the
power going back up. But he's hit thirty home runs each the last two
seasons. Probably gonna be a little tough to get there this year at thirteen,
so he'll probably end up in the in the mid twenties, which is
completely acceptable. He's gonna be right there at the top in terms of runs
driven in for this team. But as I mentioned, two straight years now
as an All Star, he'll receive MVP vote. You'd imagine again this season
it'll be down there in the fifteen to twenty range like he's been before.
Probably not gonna win the Gold Glove this year like he did last year.
His defensive metrics were down early in the season. I think a lot of
that gets back to the fact that the player wasn't happy with how the off
season was handled in terms of his arbitration process. Probably hearing the things I
think it bugged him clearly, and you get around enough people you hear that
too, is that it lingered a little bit. He did not enjoy that
necessarily. And I think that the player truly did want to get a real
offer from the Astros. That was something that he would think about signing,
and I just don't think he got that. They did have discussions, but
it never got anywhere to where they could realistic could get anything done. And
he, like everybody else, saw the market last offseason, what was being
thrown around, the kind of contracts, the years, the money, and
probably wanted that and he should because when Kyle Tucker gets to the market two
more seasons with the Astros after this one, before he becomes a free agent,
which you look for the Astros. It's a great thing. I mean,
you couldn't ask for anything better to have this guy for a couple more
seasons after this one, and there's really not the urgency necessarily that you would
have at this moment, but you know the more that I watched him every
single night and knowing the importance. And again this is coming off of talking
about the draft there where the Astros take a lot of college guys and they
take a lot of outfield bats, and they take or they take a lot
of infield beats, they take a lot of depth that they're hoping to build
up in this farm system is just not I've been very good now for some
time. As we've talked about, Drew Gilbert is the top rated prospect in
this system, a guy that they expect to be there everyday center fielder.
And this is what the Astros have done throughout the years, is when one
guy leaves, they have another guy come in and plays immediately, and it's
great almost immediately. You can't keep doing that though, and expecting it to
continue to work. It is a very dangerous game. We're seeing the difference
as we're into year two, and I know that he won the ALCS MVP
last year. In the World Series MVP, there's a stark difference between Carlos
Correa and Jeremy Paenia. I mean, look, Carlos Karea is an elite
hitter in this league when he's going right. Jeremy Paenia is not that,
and he's not ever going to be. He's a guy that has good power
and can get hot, and we saw him get hot. But there's a
lot to his game that I don't think is going to change. He's gonna
be a league average hitter in terms of ops for the most part. He's
gonna do a lot of things you know that you don't like at the plate,
strike out too much, chase a lot of breaking balls, and I
just don't think that a lot of that is going to change for me.
I'm hopeful that it does. He's still young enough and he works so damn
hard that you think that this player can advance and become more disciplined and chase
less outside of the zone and get better at certain in certain areas and whatnot.
So we'll see exactly if he's able to do that. But there's a
stark difference again between Carlos Correa and Jeremy Pagnia as the overall quality of hitter
in the middle of the lineup type of bat that Correa was, Painia can
be more productive. I think when he is hitting in a two hole where
he's protected by Jordan Alvarez and has Jose al Tuva in front him, that's
going to help him get more pitches to where numbers will go up. But
I just don't know if he's going to be a two whole hitter forever.
And I'm saying all this too. And Carlos care has not been good this
year for the Twins at all. As part of the story of why the
Twins haven't been very consistent this year. He's been deal with a lot of
banged up stuff, plan or fasciitis and whatnot. But again, I just
think you're seeing the major difference there. And again Drew Gilbert, everybody has
a high expectation for him, but there's no guarantee that that player comes the
big league level and goes out there and crushes it. There's just not He's
not playing well at the Double A level this year. My belief is that
there's probably more to the elbow issue than they're letting on letting on with that,
and it's bothering him a lot, and then there's the struggles of it
when you go through it as a hitter and whatnot. So he's gonna have
to go back to Double A next year, probably to start the season,
because I don't see him getting out of Double A this year at this point
and start the year there and really play well before you can have a realistic
thought that he's going to be a big leagueer next year. But I just
can't keep watching Kyle Tucker on a nightly basis and everything he does, his
quality and everything about him in terms of the example he sets for teammates and
being young and being one of the best players in baseball against right he's and
lefties as a left handed hitter. It is so hard to find guys that
are this talented and this consistent, and I think every day that goes by
not having him signed to a long term extension is a mistake. You have
to secure your window at times, and they've let so much talent throughout the
year's walk and I know that you can go through and look at it each,
each individual guy and say, hey, well, I mean this worked
out here, this worked out there. This guy's not as good here,
this guy's not as good there. And I get it, but they have
again reached a point where there's not a lot coming. You're hopeful that this
draft has guys that will graduate through it quickly, can get up here,
can play and do all that. But I will say, of all the
things in this air of Astro's baseball that are lacking, or of the few
things that are lacking, some of it is the consistency of keeping the stars.
And it's not always about keeping star players. I get it, but
you're never going to convince me if you signed Kyle Tucker this offseason ahead of
his age twenty seven season and he wants it the kind of money to where
you have to do a ten year deal, that he's gonna be got awful
by the age of thirty seven. Again, you sign a thirty six year
old third first baseman this past year to a three year contract that pays nearly
twenty million a year, you are not that concerned about paying guys deep into
their thirties. I don't care what you say. This guy's not going to
fall off the face of the earth and stop hitting anytime soon. He will
be productive for more than half of that contract at the bare minimum. I
really really hope they can do some self evaluation and some contemplating and say we
can't keep doing the same thing we've always done and expect it to continue to
go well. Sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone. That's
part of the reason why they got to this place in the first and got
to this spot in the first place. They got outside the comfort zone in
a certain areas and did certain things that they probably didn't want to do and
to help them get other players and get to this spot where they've won multiple
World Series titles. To keep that window open, you have to keep a
certain amount of that core intact you have yours on for the long term.
You're gonna have to figure out the situations between Bregman and Al two Bay after
next season. Al two Bay is going to be here. I don't think
it's a guarantee that Bregman will. And that's part of the caveat here.
If you're gonna be walking away from Alex Bregman after next season, you can't
also lose Kyle Tucker, it's time to come to your senses. And I'm
speaking specifically to Jim Crane and to everybody else in my mind. In my
opinion only, I'm spending your money. It's time to just get it done
and recognize that this is a cornerstone type of player for your franchise for years
to come. The Astros have had these kind of guys before. They've had
Bertman forever, They've had Bagwell forever. I've had Bizio forever. They had
these guys well into their thirties. I know that after thirties a scary,
scary thing, but most players don't just forget how to play baseball at the
age of thirty. It's okay to buck your trend. And I'm saying do
it this winner. Go out and sign the player to the extension that he
is always going to get when he hits the free agent market. From somebody,
you'd rather be with you seven one three two one two five seven nineties
our phone number to join us here on a Space City Saturday, some football,
some discussion about the football show that's been out. Have you seen it?
I want to go through some of that next here on Sports Talk seven
ninety. We now return to Space City Saturday, Sports Talk seven ninety Space
City Saturday, right here on Sports Talking seven niney. Michael Connor back here
with you. I've been talking a lot about your Houston Astros this morning,
which again you will hear back in action tonight here on seven ninety with an
eight oh seven first pitch seven o'clock on Deck show. Ross vie Real has
you for that tenth to inning show afterwards, and again I will be back
with you tomorrow for the on Deck and tenth Inning show. We'll get to
that NFL stuff actually in the next segment of the New Quarterback Show. I
wanted to go through some of that here before we ended the show. But
something that happened at last night in baseball that I wanted to mention real quick.
Justin Verlander pitched again for the New York Mets last night to kick off
their second half of the season, and he was booed as he walked off
the field and following the top half of the fifth inning. He pitched just
five innings last night, only gave up three runs on two hits, struck
out six, but walked six as the Mets lost again. The look the
grass and now now that the Astros were never going to go to that level,
the grass is not always greener. The Astros are smart not to go
to that level with him. He has not been very good this season.
As I talked a lot of the trade deadline options, there's been some talk
that the Mets are likely to go ahead and try and shop him and Max
Scherzer and try to get out of having those two guys. Now they're gonna
have to pay down a lot of that money. But I mean, look,
this is a guy that had an unbelievable season last year, won the
Cy Young as he came back from Tommy John. But again, Father Time
is always undefeated to an extent, and he is not horrible, but he
has not been good enough and probably not enjoying his experience there in New York
and is probably longing for his days of being back with the Houston Astros that
they're winning a World Series here just last season. Let's go to John next
on the phone lines here on Space City Saturday. What's going on? John?
Yeah, Man, I'd be a bad for Justin Man. You know,
he he kind of got caught in that spiderwab that others starting pitcher that
a they signed, I could get that sports or something like that. That's
pitching hard. And he got busted with cell phone, his club and everything.
You know, Justin Justin when he was over here. You know,
he had a few floppy games with us too, you know, but the
situation over there with the Mets, all the pressure there under you know,
Justin he's gonna get He's really getting it right now because he's caught up in
all that thing. And as you say, you know, Justin, you
know he's up in age and Crane. I thought Crane did the right thing
too, you know, we just you know, he could have paid him.
I do believe that Crane can pay anybody if you want to, and
he can give him a ten year contract, but that's just not the way
he operate. And you know, I don't. I'm fine with it because
you know, I'm kind of like, man, whatever he's playing is and
seemed to be working just fine for me. But look what I wanted to
say, Michael, I definitely agree with you because one thing I do know
listening to you, you know more about baseball than some people that call it
it. May we got it. I know, bron our general manager.
I know we've looked in plus started. We gotta get a started. We
got to stop this leading because alto France pitch okay and Blanco doing okay and
be like the youse guy has been, gonna be be handed if we get
to the playoffs and guys and you guys can knock them out the park man,
we got. We need it to start. I don't I don't necessarily
think we need a hitter in the trade deadline. I think the guys we
have is kenny enough and nigh. But man, we need a starting I
agree with you on that one, Bail Yeah, John, always great to
hear from you. You know I'm right there with you. They they absolutely
need to get a starting pitcher for this team. And it's been a great
story of the season as how many of these young guys that you didn't necessarily
expect to come up here and pitch to this level have done this and kept
the Astros in a spot where they can go out and win baseball games consistently
like they have overall with one of the most inconsistent offenses that we've seen out
of this franchise in some years. But I think unfortunately throughout the one hundred
and sixty two game marathon, and this is why they're going to be looking
to get a starting pitcher. You can't count on this, you just can't.
These guys are gonna hit walls and pitched this much before and after a
period of time as well, where the league makes adjustments to you, I
think you're gonna see numbers come back down and see performances deep and we've seen
that at times from some of these you see last night from Brandon Black and
not Brandon Black, I'm sorry. I had him on the mind for some
reason from JP France and I thought one of the interesting nuggets last night,
and maybe it's just a command thing. He just at times was not willing
to throw us fastball and that's a problem. It's part of the reason why
he struggled last night. Now, look again, his defense behind him did
not help him in that ball game last night. But I think banking on
these kind of performances out of these guys consistently moving forward and hoping that you
get that into the postseason, I don't think it's a smart strategy. I
mean, look, you're gonna get Josea Kety back, which is massive.
You hope that he stays healthy the rest of this season. But what this
team needs more than anything else is of course, from here to continue to
be the ace that he's been, Christian Javier, to refine his form,
get another starter and have her key, and then you don't have to rely
on those guys. Once you get into the dance and you'll feel like you
can win any of those ball games and those guys out there on the mount.
Let's go to Martin up next. What's up Martin? Hey, I
man, man, I like your music that you play that. I noticed
you've been playing a lot of class at Rotten, like Cream and bog Hat.
I think you play That's not me. That is Adam back in the
studio, and he is. Yes, I enjoy his music selections as well.
Those are all good songs. Hey man, I just called about to
Astro's draft. I was just just wondering. I'm too lazy to turn on
my computer and check. I could do that, but I was wondering,
out of all the sunny just today or any of them high school kids,
that's it. I'm done, thank you, Martin. Of the picks that
they had, and they didn't take a lot of high schoo guys. But
yes, they were able to sign the eleventh round pick at a Galena Park
High school, the local kid, Naiomara choa junior, he signs, and
then the rest of them from these signings today are all college players. I
mean, like I said, most of their players college players. They're looking
to restock that system. I think with you know guys, they are a
little bit They took the fifth round pick is where and then you see again
they today the Astros were able to get Bryce Matthews for a little bit under
slot. A lot of these guys that they've signed today signed for a little
bit under slot compared to um Win and good guy. This will make you
sick. I'm sitting here looking at this list of players they signed. Speaking
of the guy, the kid from Galena Park, local kid, congratulations to
him. You always like to see the local guys get drafted by a local
team. He's seventeen years old. He was born in two thousand and five.
He was a literal infant when the Astros were playing in the World Series
for the first time. I was a fifteen year old kid when the Astros
were playing in their first World Series and I was busting up trash cans and
Albert Poolholes hitting a home runoff Brad Lidge and then the White Sox shutting them
down. I was going outside of hitting a baseball bat into a wood beam.
His kid was an infant. He has no idea what that team was
at all. And look at all the just real quick the day, the
years of birth for all the guys they signed today, two thousand and two
O one, O two O two, two thousand and two thousand and nine,
one of them from ninety nine, and they's twenty three years old.
That's he's old. O five O one O two O two two O one.
Oh man, where's time going? I mean, I know I'm not
that old. I'm thirty two, but I'm old. Listen to that.
We're all old, everybody, one of them but one. And the one
kid that was signed that was that was born in ninety nine was in December
of an nine. Jesus Man. Absolutely crazy. But yeah, only one
of the to your question, Martin, only one of those guys they signed
today. They didn't take a lot of high school players. Was a high
school players set one three two on two five seven nineties our phone umber to
join us. Final segment of the show. Next, I want to discuss
the new Netflix show, The NFL Show. If you've not seen that yet,
We'll get to that next year on Space City Saturday. Space City Saturday
continues find Sports Talk seven ninety Now Adams just hid me Too close to Home
with this one, one of my favorite songs ever, you know, on
Space City Saturday. It was actually all my playlists, all my playlists were
working out. I listened to it this morning twice. Actually, um,
sometimes you just you hear a song, you gotta hear it twice, and
that was one of those ones I had to had to hear this morning.
Jimmy Hendry, Hey, Joe, great one. It's been a fun show
this morning. Thank oh, thank you to all of you that have hung
out with us and called and listened and everything. Again. The Astros back
in action tonight. I'm not going to be back for that one tonight,
Ross will have you. I got some afternoon plans with my wife, so
we're going to get out and do those. But I'll be watching tonight.
I'll be back into the Astros covers tomorrow night with the on Deck show for
the Sunday night baseball game. I'll be on starting at five o'clock tomorrow night,
so join me for that is the Astros will hopefully be looking for a
sweep of the three game series against the Angels. Tonight, Frober Valdez against
re Debtmer's again eight oh seven, first pitch, seven o'clock on deck here
on Sports Talk seven nine. If you missed the news again, the Astros
announced that they as signed eleven of their draft picks today, including first round
pick Bryce Matthews. So those guys will get to get their professional careers going
officially here very soon, which is always a great thing for these guys and
for the club to get that going and get some big league time here before
the end of this season, and then of course a full spring training ahead
and then next year at whatever level that they will be at to start probably
high a ball for some of them, low a ball for others, and
of course hopefully going through the system very very quickly. I wanted to mention
it and before the end of the show if you've not watched it yet,
I think it's worthy of watching. Netflix of course, has gotten further and
further into the sports game, and you know, speaking of like sports shows,
they are a big fascination. Hard Knocks this season has been announced the
New York Jets will be on that. Aaron Rodgers was absolutely thrilled about that.
Um, I think it's going to be interesting this year to see it.
I know that Aaron Rodgers is a little bit of a He's a little
bit of a diva and a guy that likes the attention. Even if he
acts like he doesn't like the attention. He won thousand percent loves people talking
about him and being a guy that's on the front and front of the camera.
So I mean, like, I actually I haven't watched a ton of
Hard Knocks throughout the years since really since the Texans were on it back in
Good Lord. I don't remember what year that was now it's been a while,
but that one was. I thought it was a pretty good one that
year, you know, because Bill O'Brien was a total d bag and a
total a hole, and it made it intriguing. The Texans were on it
back Good Lord, two thousand and fifties. Has been ten years. That's
crazy, two thousand and fifteen when the Texans were on it. But Jets
will be on it this year. I watched a little bit of the Lions
last year. I thought it was Dan Campbell's great Um. I didn't watch,
really honestly, any of the Cowboys the year before, or the Rams
and Chargers the year before that, or the Raiders the year before that.
And I didn't watch the Browns in twenty eighteen, or the Buccaneers in twenty
seventeen, or the Rams in twenty sixteen, so like seriously had been since
the Texans. I'll tune in for some of them for some of the Jets
episodes this year, but the Netflix shows out it's called The Quarterback. And
of course the fascination from all these comes with and I've been one of these
people that is Finally my wife and I've gotten into it. We've watched all
the episodes now we're caught up. It really started with that F one show
Drive to Survive, which I think is so well done. It's just a
great I think, look into the personalities and all that stuff, and honestly
it's it's made me become a guy that's I'm not sitting down and like actively
watching. And again it's a tough sport to like watch, I think,
and to really get excited about because it's being dominated by one guy that being
Max for stapping. But I find myself intrigued by the sport of F one.
I watched the qualifying is great. That's really where the race it's.
It's sad, and they're trying to change things and make it more competitive to
where it won't be like that. But like the race is so determined by
how you finishing qualifying, and I'll watch the qualifyings when they come up on
TV. So I've been I've enjoyed the hell out of it. And it's
really because of that show, watching all five seasons that we've watched, that's
made me intrigued by F one and I watch I mean, in a minute,
I watch F one now. Um, same can be said for the
tennis one. By the way, Wimbledon was one earlier today. I actually
watched almost every second of that as I was working out and then I got
back to the house. Of the women's final today, I don't know how
to say her name. She's from Czechoslovakia. She won, she beat the
girl from Tunisia. Um, I got my wife's gonna kill me. I
can't remember name off the top of my head. We watched Wimbledon, well,
she and I just went to Wimbledon back before our wedding in April.
We were in London before we went to Italy, and um we went over
and did the tour of Wimbledon, which I would I would recommend to anybody
that is considering going over there. Actually, our very own who does the
does our runs the astros games for us here on the station. Josh C,
who runs pre impost for us as well. He's does the god.
He does the Lord's work when it comes to our astro's coverag chair on the
station. He was just there and I told him about it. If you
ever go to Wimbledon and you're there when Wimbledon's going on, we found out
on this tour, go late in the afternoon, like it has to be
before the finals obviously and before the semifinals, but go late in the afternoon
and people that are there all day, they you turn your tickets back and
then you get some money back, and then Wimbledon resells the tickets at a
very discounted rate, like more than half off, and you can get in
for nothing. Our buddy Josh C was just there the other day. He
went to the damn quarterfinals. He sent me a picture of it. He
was like, man, your your tip was great. He paid like twenty
five pounds to get in, which is I don't know what the dollars converted
to right now. It's obviously gonna be more than twenty five dollars, but
it's it was really really cool to see. Um So that that show.
I've liked that. I have liked that show, the Breakpoint one, the
Golf one, the PGA Tour one was fantastic as well. Full Swing.
They're in the next season's gonna be really really spicy with that one. What's
been going on the world of golf. But I've watched I'm into episode seven
of eight of The Quarterback and it's they followed Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins,
and Marcus Mariota. I will say, of all the sports shows that they've
done on Netflix, I think this one is by far the worst. Because
it is an NFL Films production. It's a little buttoned up in some areas
to meum they they include the media portions or like you know, you'll they'll
they'll show something they have like a media highlight where they're talking about this.
They're clearly like not what was actually on TV or on the radio or whatever.
It's it's just completely made up and it's blatant, blatant when you hear
it, Like you can tell it was not something that was like recorded live.
They had those people go back and do it for the purpose of this
TV show, But I think it was it was a cool look at what
some of these guys go through. Overall. Patrick Mahomes is just a monster,
and he's so damn good um, and you get to see kind of
the curtain peeled back, and that makes you long for what the Texans can
do hopefully moving forward, and you know with Demiko Ryans and you hope it's
a lot like that. I think that the coolest peeling back the curtain for
the Patrick Mahomes things. You find out that, I mean, how awesome
it clearly is to play for Andy Reid and how open he is to letting
his players. I mean, Patrick Mahomes gets to come to him and design
plays and call plays and like do all these things, and like that's why
they're so damn successful. And that guy also on top of it, takes
it so damn seriously from the standpoint all the work that goes in and he's
smarter than everybody else. That's part of the reason. And he can make
all those throws, those crazy throws, everything, But he's truly smarter than
everybody else at that position. That's part of the reason why he's so damn
good. The Kirk Cousins stuff was I think, you know, everybody's got
this perception of Kirk Cousins that he's this stat padding guy that just puts him
up, and you know, he definitely isn't mean he has. He has
put up incredible stats for a long long time in the NFL. But I
think he came off on the show way more likable and more you know,
personable, and you see the hard work that that guy puts into to his
craft and how seriously he takes it like he is he's putting everything he can
into it. So I really enjoyed watching those two. The Mariota stuff,
he's kind of a dud to watch. No offense to him. Um,
you know, it was his comeback and then he that you go through the
whole him being benched there in Atlanta as well, So I would still watch
it again. I think that some of it isn't necessarily feel real all the
time, but the perspective in the access that the quarterbacks gave im. We'll
see who they follow in the next you know, this next season coming up.
I wonder if they'll announced it or if they have. I haven't seen
if they've announced it or anything. But they picked three pretty good ones,
Patrick mahonmes being one of them. It's always nice to see a Red Raider
too. Even they even part of the show they featured him going back to
Lubbock and getting put into the to the Ring of Honor there in Lubbock,
which was very cool to watch that and see that as as somebody that's spent
some time they're in Lubbick and of course still roots on for the old Red
Raiders to this day. I want them to have a good season, which
was, by the way, Big Twelve Media Days where this past week the
Cougs were introduced officially in the as a member of the Big Twelve. But
I'm thinking this year. I know that the Longhorns has been PI picked to
finish twelve out of fourteen. It's probably going to be a bit of a
tough season in their first year, and but I'm hopeful that it's not.
I hope I'm not like Ross Ross. If you listen to Matt and Ross,
he wants the Cougs to genuinely lose all the time, just because he
likes to need all a Matt. But I think he genuinely wants the Cougars
to lose. I don't. We are also your home of the Coops.
You can hear them over on nine at fifty KPRC when they're back in action.
Longhorns will be here on seven ninety most of the time, as well
as some LSU football, But busy, busy times ahead as football gets back
into our world before you know it. Basketball will be here as well with
the Rockets as they are wrapping up the summer league. But again, thank
you to every single one of you that joined us today here on Space City
Saturday. Don't go anywhere on terms of your radio dials. Later today again,
Astro's back in action a seven o'clock on Deck show with Ross. Talk
to you guys tomorrow right here on seven ninety