Look to the city. Oh can you pay set? Great, grated great,
Welcome to another Space City Saturday. On Sports Talk seven ninety Michael Kunners
live in local h town. Breakdown of the world that matters to you,
Houston Sports World, all these great Houston fans here. We love you all.
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This is Space City Saturday, and here's seven nineties Astros insider Michael Kunner.
And as you heard, the man is Space City Saturday. Right here on
Sports Talk seven ninety Michael Connor here with you this morning until twelve o'clock.
You can join us to seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seven ninety on Twitter at MC seven ninety as
well as today is a celebration, a celebration for one man having a moment
of a lifetime. Last night there's two old and at his hammer day till
right failed and you can't kiss that one gut bye and in the second deck
by fifteen rows. Welcome back to the Astros. John Singleton a three run
shot three to one Astros. Well, it doesn't get any more explosive than
that. When his first homer as a Big leaguer since two thousand and fifteen,
and you know that one was also against the Angels, and you know
what, he did not wait very long to hit his second home run in
his return to the big leagues one oh from Debt Mers and another drive right
field. If it's fair, do it sing game further than the last one?
John Singleton two homers and five RBIs and he's putting on a show.
I mean, what a night at Minimde Park for John Singleton, for the
Astros as a whole. Of course, Justin Verlander makes his return to Minimate
Park as an Astro for the first time since the World Series last year,
which was very cool to have him back out there as always, But the
night was about Singleton overall because of those two home runs that you heard right
there. The Astros have found themselves in a spot now where you don't know
how deep, and there's no you know update as of yet. The Astros
are back in action tonight, by the way, late or late, and
I shouldn't say late, not a afternoon game today six fifteen for pitch I'll
have you for the on deck show starting at five five, five five for
that this evening. But the Astros find themselves in a spot where jose A
Brayu underwent an MRI. Of course, he missed the game in Baltimore,
the finale, the day game on Thursday, with the lower back discomfort or
issue, whatever it might be. They're hoping, I guess, to not
have him go on the i L. But at this point, how long
do you go with it? Here's the here's the truth for the Astros right
now, and this is where, like the other day, I saw a
lot of overreaction when Singleton popped out at the end of the end of the
game in Baltimore on Thursday, with the base slowly and two outs in.
The Astros just needed a base hit to go ahead and tie or take the
lead in that ballgame. You can't overreact to one game last night, as
great as it was, two home runs for him. I mean, first
of all, just before we get to the baseball side of it, for
what it means for the team and what they do, what a moment for
that guy, his story. I can remember going to spring training all those
years ago and this was still in the midst of him having a lot of
expectation, and you know, there was a year where he showed up really
fat and out of shape, and you saw it the moment he went out
there on the field. I was there for the very first practices that day.
It was in twenty sixteen. Now I know there was a little bit
in but like he still was in the system and everything, but that was
kind of like where I think the fall from grace happened for him. But
to get out of baseball to get his life together like he has is an
awesome, awesome story. You're so happy for a person when they can figure
things out because life is hard at the end of the day for everybody,
including people that have expectations that are put on them. And he got a
lot of expectation put on him when he was like the Astros took a gamble,
gave him ten million bucks, did not work out, and was out
of baseball and was probably felt like he was done with it. Got himself
back into the game and you know, played well at the minor league level.
Of course, was with the Brewers earlier this season, got a very
small cup of coffee, just eleven games with them. Did not have any
result there, and luckily for the Astros, clearly he was available to get
back to the spot where you're playing in that same uniform that you made your
debut and did in the email of the very little, the few things that
you did at the big league level. To be able to do that again
last night hitting two home runs has to be just this absolutely unbelievably freeing feeling.
I can't imagine that. You know, the smiles and the happiness for
him and his wife and his family watching him go out there and do that
last night, and it sparks your human interest in it, because you know
that's the human side of it to where you're rooting for the guy even more.
And then there's the baseball side of it as well. For the Astros,
which we all know, the first base position this year has been gone
awful, absolutely got awful. Josea Bray he was signed to a massive deal
and his level of production has been atrocious. He had a stretch of time
where he was an abovely gaveraged player there he got his numbers in check for
a period of time. Now, not his overall numbers, but his numbers
for about a two month span were pretty good and you can live with those.
If he played like that the rest of the season, he's gone back
into a tailspin. Now there's this back issue. He is going to become
victim, in my opinion, of losing your playing time to injury if John
Singleton continues to hit. And from everything that I've seen since Singleton's come back
here, the back quality is great. He was always a guy that had
the ability to take walks. Has a very good eye. You can just
see it he has. He knows the strike zone. I mean, there's
a couple of years I'm looking back on his last year in the minor leagues.
He walked one hundred seventeen times. This year he had walked a total
of sixty three times in the minor leagues. I mean, hell, when
he was in the big leagues with the Astros, even when he was terrible,
ninety five games, he had fifty walks one year. He knows the
strike zone. He doesn't look like he's afraid of the moment. Now.
Now, look, of course, you're probably not that when you get a
second chance and you're thirty one years old, gonna be thirty two here next
month. Oh, he and I are actually two days apart on our birthday.
Almost a happy birthday to John Singleton. It's his second chance on life,
and the window on it's not very long. He probably knows that,
but this was a heralded prospect for a very long time. He crushed the
baseball this year. Once he got to sugar Land, he was pretty good.
He was okay overall. He had a really good ops number when he
was in Nashville with the Brewers Triple A club, hit home runs, batting
average a little bit like. He's never gonna be a big batting average guy.
Just fine if he can play for the like Let's just go to the
unbelievable best case scenario. Let's say he has to become the astros every day
first base when the rest of the stretch, if he hits two forty five
and matches a bunch of home runs and walks, the Astros are going to
have a first baseman that's productive. Now, that's a huge large leap to
go and make to assume that he could do any of that or be the
every day first baseman. But they're put into this spot that again, if
a bray is not healthy and not right, you can't run him out there
every day. I would imagine that an Ai'll stint is a possibility for him
at this point. And then you do wonder of what happens if this player
in Singleton comes out and continues to hit and hits home runs like he did
last night, does all the little things that you would like to see.
You're at that part of the season where you're chasing the division ray still,
you are chasing the best record in the American League if you could get it,
which is not out of the you know, it's not like it's impossible
to go get It's not there for them at the at the moment for the
taking. But the number one thing is to go and get the division title.
That's what they want. They want to avoid playing in the first round
of the playoffs, that wild card round. They're two and a half games
back a Texas still, who did get the victory last night out there in
San Francisco against the Giants. Thanks Giants for the help. You guys need
to win as much as anybody else too, because the Giants are in the
wild dry walk card team currently in the National League, So the Giants need
to step up this weekend. If the A's can step up the other day
and get a win over the Giant over the Rangers, the Giants can get
one too, so figure it out, Giants. But the Astros are chasing
this division title. If they're able to get there, they have a chance
chance to catch Baltimore of Baltimore went and hit the skids at all, And
who knows what the rest of the season holds. It is still August the
twelfth. There is a lot of time here. There are a lot of
games left. But if the Astros find themselves gifted a first baseman suddenly that
is hitting in John Singleton, you can't go back to jose A Brey you
at that point. Now, again, this is a complete overreaction. I
get that to one game last night. He's going to have games whereast like
every baseball player. But it's not too wild to go ahead and get in
your thought process that, hey, look at the production that he gave you,
even if it was at the Triple A level. We'll see what kind
of adjustments pictures make to him. But he still has a lot of the
qualities to his game at the plate that made him basically a top one hundred
prospect in terms of the rankings. For four years. A lot of that
stuff is still in there, even for a thirty one year old. You
can see it at the plate. What a story would be if this guy
came back and found his way into a role where you can't kick him out
of the lineup. And from the astro standpoint, we heard a lot about
it at the trade deadline, how they wanted to get into the left handed
bat. They do need another left handed bat. And if they are to
walk into this and be gifted a left handed bat in John Singleton, it's
even better. That doesn't make you sit back and go, God, can
Michael Brantley come back? Can Michael Brantley come back? Can Michael Brantley come
back? He was always silly, in my opinion, to worry about Michael
Brantley coming back or think that Michael Brantley was coming back. But you're always
hopeful of something. Maybe they're gonna get the gift of John Singleton coming out
here and crushing the baseball for a while and saying, you know what,
maybe you don't need to play Jose Brey good week, and for him to
do it, this Angels team is obviously falling apart right now. The schedule
ahead the Marlins this week in Miami. They have not been playing good baseball
of late, and they'll play Seattle Boston for four at home, Detroit for
three, Boston for three. They're gonna be playing a lot of teams between
now and the end of this month that have some pitching matchups that will be
favorable to you. We'll see if he can take advantage of the opportunity.
He's gonna get forever long it might be, but I will tell you this,
V hits and Josea. Bray You is available and ready. At some
point, you don't take the bad out of lineup that's hitting. That would
be a mistake on the part of the manager. In Dusty Baker seven one
three two one two five seven nineties our number to join us here on a
Space City Saturday with you until noon in the In the next segment, we're
gonna hear from John Singleton last night, get his thoughts on what happened.
I want to hear from you guys this morning on how you're feeling about what
he did last night. We've got the Texans to get into after their first
preseason game the other night, and some other things in the world of sports,
including the college world of course, still doing its thing, which is
being wild as always said. One three, two, one two five,
seven ninety. It is Space City Saturday right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Space City Saturday continues on Sports Talk seven nineties. May or may not
be dancing right now. John Single didn't staying alive for his big league career.
Here it is a Space City Saturday. Michael Connor back here with you
on a glorious Saturday. By the way, it's a big weekend and I'm
gonna I am going to dedicate a segment at the end of the show today.
I'm sorry to those of you that don't want to hear it. I'm
just gonna do it. The Premier League is back this weekend. I'm currently
watching Everton and Fulham play. I am a very very happy man at the
moment. My heart is full. I have baseball with the Astros doing their
thing. My club Chelsea will be back in action tomorrow morning. All is
good in the world right now for my sporting ventures that I love to watch.
So there's my real quick update on what's going on in the world sports.
Big big weekend. I will be watching a ton of soccer between now
and tomorrow and then every weekend moving forward before college football and then NFL football,
and they, of course the Astros still playing and hopefully playing deep into
the month of October and early November, because the schedule the other day for
the postseason did come out and I don't remember the exact it's into November.
Again. The World Series would be if the Astros were to play all the
way to Game seven. So you know, it's not the October you know,
October Classic or whatever anymore, it's the November whatever you want to call
it. Let's go to the phone line, said one three two one two
five seven ninety. First up this morning, let's talk to Jake. What's
up, Jake Man. Hey, that's why you're the Astraal insider. Everything
that like just said is right. I mean, that's exactly how everybody would
want to picture John Sileton coming back. I mean, for sure, I
know it's sad that HOSTI bring you with the injury and all that, but
John Sileton is not gonna lie. He's getting he's getting this position headed to
him on a platter. If he could perform like he did last night,
I would I would not mind saying that John Singleton's are starting first basement.
He's doing a real I mean, I know it's a short sample size,
but he's doing real good and like what you say, over the years,
his plate discipline, drawing the walks. If we can get somebody in line
up, given up that production we don't know, can get that first base
starting position and do what he has to do. That's all I have to
say. Thank you so much, go ass Rows, Thank you Jake.
Seven one three, two, one two five seven ninety is the number of
join us who would like to get in here like Jake did. And look
again, like I said in the first segment, it's one game last night.
It is a little bit of the football mentality where you overreact to we
all do it, but I just I go through all the pros of it
now. First of all, none of this happens unless John Singleton produces,
and he has never produced consistently at the big league level, so that is
on him. And he knows that this is this is like his last chance
at doing anything probably at the big league level. Do you even get this
chance? Again? Is incredible enough and he's gotten it. And look through
three games back with the Astros. He's taken advantage of the moment. I
like certain things about his game, and I think the at bat qualities there.
I saw a quote from the Sugarland Space Cowboys manager the other day,
Mickey's story that I think tells you a lot about Singleton, and he said
that no matter what the at bat is, the count, whatever it is,
Singleton always gets his a swing off when he swings the bat. And
that's something that when I watch Josea Breve, I don't think that. I
don't think that the player gets his best swing. He's His timing this year
has been got awful. Whether that's because he's just not confident at the plate,
or he has lost a massive step and he can't catch up the pitches
anymore. Just all that and sometimes he just looks lost. He's swimming three
games, limited sample size, but every single time I'm watching Singleton swing the
bat so far, and even in that bat where the bases are loaded with
two outs in the ninth and the Astros and get need a hit to tie
the game or win it, Singleton, even though he pops out, got
an a swing off. He gets everything out of every swing that he's gonna
take. But it's not like he's up there. He's not pulling an iron
ideas and flailing and everything that's outside the zone or swinging in a bunch of
stuff that's you know, three feet off the plate. He's disciplined and I
like that. It is intriguing about what he brings to the table there.
He will strike out. He always struck out. He's struck out in the
minor league. Still like he's going to strike out again at the end of
the day. There is no guarantee that he is going to one, continue
to play, two perform like he needs to do it. But for again
the small sample size that we've seen, you have to be very intrigued.
And it would be a huge boon for the Astros to be able to get
a player on at that position and from that side of the plate to do
something. And if he forces them to not playing jose A Brayu, that
means things have gone just unbelievable. You well for him, and that will
result in the Astros having a better lineup because you know, I know that
he has been the easiest person to pick at all season and it's deserving.
And this is what happens when you get paid the kind of contract he does.
He did at the age of thirty six, with the kind of career
that he's had, with the consistency that he's had, the expectation level was
insanely high. Now I'm sure he's gonna have a chance to fix it next
year or get another opportunity maybe with how the team views him. But I
don't know how long his leash will be. For all that and the facts
of the facts of late jose A bray you before this back stuff, which
again we don't know what exactly it is. We don't know how long it
might keep him out. We don't know anything at this point. If he's
going to be out for an extended period of time, the Astros have to
hope and pray that John Singleton goes out and does something like this consistently and
gives them reason to continue to play him. As I mentioned, if you
want to share your thoughts seven one three two on two five seven ninety MC
seven ninety on twitters, where you find me here is John Singleton for a
couple of moments after the game last night, on his return to the Astros,
Astros eleven to three winners over the Angels were joined now and the Astros
dug out by John Singleton two homers part of a three hit game, five
runs batted in, And I mean, what was going through your mind as
you were circling the bases after that first home run, your first big league
home run in eight years? You know, because moments of the data for
me coming almost glade, I can spoort vall up and help you to win.
And they were both wall scrapers. Did you think they were going to
get out? That was about a doubt? Hey man, are you allowing
yourself to have fun? I mean you've talked about how your perspective it's a
little different this time around. Definitely definitely know what's at the end of the
days, still the game, So you know, you have to enjoy the
moments that you were willing. You know, when you think about where you
are right now, was there ever a moment when you thought this was this
was never possible again? I mean a long time ago, you know,
it wasn't a thought, but you know, as as things changed, you
know, it definitely became a thought. And then you know every other Pea
and John, when you were in Sugarland, you probably had an inkling with
as well as you were playing that you were gonna be able to join this
team once again. It's a lot different team from the last time you were
here. What's special about this clubhouse to you? Uh, you know,
it's a great it's a great bunch of guys. You know, they're all
they're all in it to win, so you know it's I'm glad I could
just be a piece of the public, all right and certainly a big piece
of the puzzle the night. John Singleton, thanks for joining us. So
glad you're back in the big league. Thank you. And that was John
Singleton last night after the game with Robert and Steve right here that you heard
on Sports Talk seven ninety. Of course, big big night for him on
a night where we didn't even talked about it. He had Verlander back with
the Astros. Good stuff for him. But you know, I'm just you
can't sit here and ignore the story. And again, what a cool and
you hear that there, you feel like it's a guy that's got, you
know, the level head. First of all, this comes with being a
little bit older now and having gone through what he's gone through to get back
to this point. And that's where you have some confidence that maybe, just
maybe you can strike lightning in a bottle with this player and think that he's
going to be a productive player for you for whatever period of time that he's
with you, and look if he wants to fart around and turn himself into
a big league regular for a little bit. You know, I don't think
you're gonna get the Astros to complain about it one bit, you know.
It's it's just it's such a cool story for a team that at the time
when he was here before, was so bad and he was supposed to be
part of that next wave of guys and it just did not necessarily work out
for him to again get back to this point wearing that same uniform. I
had to be just completely surreal last night. And to go that long between
hitting big league home runs and hitting two as he said, he heard Steve
mess around there and tell him, hey, wall scrapers there, huh.
To hit two bombs the way that he did in front of that home crowd
had to be just an absolutely unbelievable feeling. And you know, that feeling
of floating as you're running around the base pass, I would imagine that that's
exactly what John Singleton felt like last night when he was running around out there
at Minute Made Park. Seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
That is our fun number. To join us here this morning on a Space
City Saturday. We're here with you until twelve o'clock today. We'll continue some
of the astro's discussion next as we will talk at justin Verlander and get to
your phone calls right here on your home with the astro Sports Talk seven ninety.
It's Space City Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety. Here the game you
say you wake, Space City Saturday here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Might
counter back here with you until noon. You can join us at seven one
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Sports Talk seven ninety talking about your astros. Of course, last night slapping
around the Los Angeles Angels by a final of eleven to three. They're back
in action tonight six fifteen. First pitch. It is a national TV game
tonight on Fox, so of course I would suggest to you to listen to
it as always right here on seven ninety with Robert Ford and Steve Sparks on
the Call of the Action as the Astros look to secure the season or the
excuse me these series winning this when they did secure the excuse me these series
win quite a while ago against these Angels the last time you're seeing the Angels
this season. By the way, the Astros now eight and three against them
on the year, which is up. That's pretty good. You kind of
enjoyed beating up on this team. They've beat up on them for a very
long time. That did continue last night. We'll get the Verlander. We'll
talk Verlin here here in just a second. But here is let's go to
the phone lines real quick. Tom is up next. What's up? Tom?
Hey, thanks for taking my call. Good to be with you.
Hey, I'm certainly happy for singing two. You know, it's nice to
see you guys come up like he has and come back, so to speak.
But I think it's a classic example of the law of diminishing returns.
Sooner or later, they're gonna have to figure out his hole. If he's
got him, if he could give us a month, get us some w
is great, But again he is what he is. Well, I mean,
like I don't think that that's completely fair to the player at this point
because we haven't seen Hi play at the big league level on a long time,
and you know, he's matured and he's in a different state of his
life, and I think it's just the only way that you can truly judge
him is to watch him go out there and play. I mean, so,
I mean, he might have the same flaws, and yes, teams
will figure them out, but I'm not going to sit here and write the
book on him one way or the other until I see a good sample size
on from where he's at. Yeah, I don't blame you for saying that.
I mean, I'm happy for him. I'd like to take as much
as we can out of him, squeeze them like a sponge. I'd like
to say one more thing about the Astros. Well, I'm hoping that they
can make a big, a big jump and maybe win the division because if
they have to go to Tampa Bay in the playoffs. Bye, by thanks
for taking my call. Yeah, thank you for the phone call. I
hope you find some optimism today, because you're not very optimistic for an Astros
fan about John Singleton or the fact that they could win. I'm not going
to sit here and say it's bye bye if they go to Tampa Bay.
Now do I do think that Tampa Bay is great? Now? They've been
dealt a massive blow with Shane McClanahan being done for the season, but they
still pitch their asses off. They can hit the ball out of the ballpark
as well. They're going to be a very difficult team. But I'm not
going to sit here today on August the twelfth until you it's bye bye.
If the Astros have to face them in the wild card round, you never
know. It's baseball. This team is. This is the Astros who have
given us no reason to really honestly sit here and say anything other than,
well, they're probably gonna make a deep playoff run at the very least because
they've done this now for such an extended period of time. So I'll give
him the benefit of the doubt and be hopeful of it. And again on
the John Singleton thing, I mean, it's just you know it, you
just have to wait and see. I think it's the only fair way to
do it. He might not even get the playing time. I mean,
jose A Brey, you could be okay in a couple of days and the
Astros just keep playing jose bray You and he's back to a bench roll or
whatever. But I'm just saying, if they do find something, and again
we're watching a player that went out there and at the triple A level,
I get it was doing things that were incredible. If they could find that
out of him, and I'm not even saying to that level where he's hitting
over three hundred, but just power bat, gets on base and does the
things that a bray You was not doing. And look, the bars not
very high, like to pass up what Josea bray You was given in the
Astros, Like John Singleton doesn't have to do godly stuff to make you think,
hey, we should play this guy every day over jose A brew You.
Honestly, like if he went out there, and I said it earlier,
he hit two forty to two forty five and got on base at a
three Like, let's just say a three twenty clip to a three thirty clip
and hit six or seven home runs or maybe eight home runs between now and
the regular sea into the regular season, Like that's a better player than what
they've had out of jose Hip brey You. He just is, so the
bar is not extremely high. So I'm just gonna wait and see how he
performs, how he handles the situation. I think it's the fairest way to
go about it, because again, this is a player that's at a different
stage of his life. Yes, again the league will make adjustments, but
I don't think that there's And that's one of the things that makes me optimistic
about certain things is that you're not going to get me to be down on
his chances of being okay based on his strike zone discipline. There is the
eye there that makes you intrigued what he can do. One of the other
things that, of course has been intriguing for the Astros has been the fact
that Justin Verlander is back back. Last night were in that Astro's uniform at
Minnie Made Park for the first time since last season. God is just still
so weird. Last night was his five hundredth career start at the big league
level, by the way, and the Astro there should say the two hundred
and fifty first big league win four Verlander. He now has three hundred eighty
of his starts with the Tigers, where he went one eighty three and one
fourteen three forty nine era as an Astro. Now one hundred four starts,
sixty two and twenty two twenty nine is his career ra with the Astros.
That actually went up a little bit last night with the three runs. Then
of course he had sixteen starts with the Met's gonna be the most forgetful sixteen
games probably of any big leaguer's career. And when we look back at it
and he's getting his Hall of Fame blaque one day and going into Cooper's town.
But it was great to see him back out there. It just like
like when he was pitching last week up there in New York against the Yankees.
Having him out there in an astro's uniform was awesome. And you know,
here until I collapse, which is what he comes out to the plate
with, or comes out to the mound with, excuse me when he when
he warms up to start a ball game, was something that was really cool
as well. It just it just felt right. It felt like it's the
place that he belongs. And you know, I think life kind of works
that way. It works in circles to where you know, you kind of
end up where you're supposed to be and New York was a pit stop that
wasn't where he was probably supposed to be. Had the opportunity to come back
here to the city of Houston and obviously accepted that trade. And here he
is. He's back. You know, you you forget about all. It's
just a it's a good time and it's exactly what the Astros need. Of
course, with the fact that they're starting pitching. We know about the struggles
for Christian Javier of late, we know about the struggles for from borva Aldez
as well. They've had some issues at times with guys getting deep into baseball
games. And the fact that he was able to go out there again now
in two starts since he's been back with the Astros, and he's given him
exactly what you need. Is it perfect? No. We talked to Josh
Miller earlier this week, the Astros pitching coach Matt Thomas, and I did.
I was in for Ross a couple of days ago, and I asked
him the question about Verlander and they're being a little bit less swing and miss
and everything, and he just basically said that, you know, a lot
of the things still look the same. He's still the same guy. Obviously
they want to work on a few things with his fastball to probably get a
little bit of that back. His fastball numbers have been down to tick this
season overall in terms of average velocity and all that, So you know,
it is what it is there with that, but I think usage and how
they do it is going to really tell the story on if he's going to
have more success with it. He gives him a solo home run last night,
which what you give up a solo home run? But I think that
and again, this is an Angels team that's not great. I get that
they've fallen apart of late. They're definitely gonna be out of the wildcard race
when September gets here. They're now below five hundred again. They got red
hot right after all those trades, and they've fallen back apart again. They're
fifty eight and fifty nine. They're six and a half games out of the
wildcard. Now are the Angels, but the Astros, you know, are
facing a team last night that might not be as good. I get that.
Verlander, though, I think showed you a lot of the things that
you want to continue to see and what this team got him back for he
went out there and he got this club exactly what they needed through the ball
game and with the chance to win the baseball game. And I'm just going
back and looking at his fastest velocity last night on his pitches fast as he
threw ninety five point eight through a total of four pitches over ninety five miles
an hour. He threw a total of du twenty three pitches over ninety four
And that's intriguing and that's encouraging to me that he was able to have that
kind of velocity back last night in overall ninety three miles an hour or above
forty four of the fifty one fastballs that he threw were over ninety three.
He was not doing that with the Mets's. That's a sign of whether it's
the juices get flowing last night and hees you're back at Mini Made Park,
the crowds behind him, people were excited to see him, of course,
or is it the fact that the Astros already found something and said which they've
been known to do for a long period of time with pitchers, and said
justin you need to do this, you need to do that. You feel
like you're gonna get more of the Justin Verlander than maybe the Mets got earlier
this season, Anna Fresher Justin Verlander. But seven innings three runs are two
runs, six innings three runs last night. If he's giving you that consistently,
it is going to be a different player than it's ever been. I
think you know you're gonna see more hits scattered. He had hits scattered again
last night, but had seven strikeouts and no walks for a guy that's had
a little bit of control issues this year. Overall encouraging start. Thirteen innings
for him so far with the Astros. He's won on one three forty six
r A. The e r A will bump back down, of course,
but he has eleven strikeouts and two walks so far through his first two starts.
In those thirteen innings with the Astros, I think it had to be
very very pleased. One with having the player back, of course, what
he means, the boost that he gives to the clubhouse, to the pitching
staff, to all of it. And then two the results so far in
terms of what he has done out there on the field. Real quick,
before we grab a time out, we're gonna get into the Texans here.
And just a bit, but I want to get our astros phone calls in
before we get to this time out. Martin is up next. What's going
on? Martin? Hey? Yeah, I'm so happy for John Singleton,
you know, he he had you know, I remember those days in twenty
fourteen, twenty thirteen, you know, with him and and Brett Wallace another
first baseman, left hander who you know who was He didn't work out either,
Brett Wallace and Singleton didn't work out. And and Singleton had his uh
personal situations you know, will not get into it, but he, you
know, getting married and having a kid or two like Singleton has gone through,
seems to maybe, uh you know who knows, it may be brought
out the best in him, you know, and John and I'm we're all
rooting for him, and I'm glad to see Justin burr Lander. You know
Singleton. I like his plate, like you say, like his plate discipline.
He walks. You know, it's kind of like that movie and Moneyball,
you know when Brad Pitt's character a general manager, isn't that isn't that
meeting room? And any points and it says, what does he do?
He walked? He gets on base. But anyway, that's that's my point.
And uh and I'm so happy that. But we need to catch that.
We need to win this division. You stay out of the wild card,
man, So so let's go astros man. That's all I have.
Thank you, Yeah, thank you Martin. Always good to hear from you
appreciate it. Seven one, three two or two five seven ninety. I
would agree. You need to win the division. You don't want to play
in that wild card ren just the standpoint of rest. You want to be
able to set your your rotation up how you want to set it up,
and have a few days off. And it mattered last year when they played
the Mariners, and you know it would matter again this year playing whoever they
would play if they were to get up there instead of having to play Tampa
for three games and then having to go to Baltimore right after that. So
that's an important thing. And you know you're right about Singleton and all those
things from the standpoint of the life getting it together, it was. It
was one of those guys. It was part of that era that just did
not, you know, go out there and do anything. So we'll see
what happens for him again. I think I'm intrigued about a lot of things
out of him and moving forward, Hopefully he can give the Astros and look
going into a clubhouse like this, a team with the expectation level, you
know, you gotta you gotta keep up or you're gonna get shipped out basically
when you get an opportunity here. So maybe he's one of those guys it's
finally gonna thrive in one of those kind of situations. We'll see. It'll
be very cool again if he is able to pull that off for this Astros
club seven one three two one two five seven ninety again, that's our number.
To join us here this morning, we will take a time out.
We return, Let's get into some of the Texans the reaction to what went
on with them this week. Plenty aheads. We're with you until noon right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety, Space City. Saturday on Sports Talk seven
ninety, Space City is Saturday, right here on Sports Talks seven ninety.
My Conner back here with you and we're with you until noon. If you'd
like to join us on Twitter at MC seven nineties, where you find me.
You can find the station at Sports Talks seven ninety. You of course,
can find me on all the social media Instagram, Facebook, threads,
whatever it is, MC seven nineties where you find me there, and again
you can join us on the phone lines and seven one, three, two
and two five seveninety we'll talk more astros. Of course, we won't ever
stop talking astros because they're playing right now and they're good, and we are
happy with the storylines that are going on with the ball club. We will
discuss the Texans as well, because they found their way to a preseason victory
the night CJ. Stroud makes his preseason debut. There's really no reason to
have any sort of evaluation or any deep thoughts on what went on out there.
It's his first taste of the NFL. It is what it is.
He threw an interception, You move on from it. He is the starting
quarterback. That is as simple as it gets. Let's go back to the
phones at seven one, three, two and two five at seven ninety,
we'll talk to Wood next. What's going on? Would hey, I'm just
gonna pick it back on your astro talk right before I get to my texting.
I've been going to quite a few games this year. At matter of
fact, I went to my first World Series in nineteen seventeen. I didn't
make it to the World Series. We won. In nineteen I went we
lost twenty one when we played Atlanta, we lost. I went to that
game last year. I say, well, maybe I'm the jam said.
I didn't go to that World Series and we won. So I did my
part for the team to make sure we're gonna get that World Series victory.
Now coming into this year, I think Barry Lana coming back here, I
think it's great for the pitches because it's going to put a take a lot
of pressure off of them where they realize, you know what, we got
another age back here. We got someone we're comfortable with. He can he
can continue to help us with our game. You know, as a player,
you know that knows the game as well. And so it's gonna kind
of take a lot of that off of Frans, off of ground, off
a ked off of is. It's gonna put everybody in a position where,
you know what, we're getting back on track going into the end of the
season, going into the playoffs. Our battles are going to our battles are
coming along. I mean, now we got John Singleton coming in here.
Look like he's ready to really show what he's capable of and try to make
make some noise for this world. The playoffs along we're going into. So
it's good to see him in here. Now gett into my texting. Oh
man, I'm a big textan fan. Now this is what I see with
us, and I see us going ten and seven. Now, good god.
I mean, I'm free to break it down to you now, just
to break it down real quick on how we got the easiest schedule that's out
there. I mean Tampa Bay, I think New Orleans. I don't.
I'm they don't. I'm not afraid of Then Carolina calling us like I said
that that Comforence over there is weak. Then we play h devil Buckos.
We should walk through there. Russell Wilson is old. He don't have it
anymore. Now when you come to our divisions Tennessee, we should whoop them
up. I mean, I don't care who they roll out there, hopfense
up. Don't have nobody to really throw the ball that I'm worried about,
you know, for us, Henry still along in the truth. You know,
things like this the coach. We should sweep them. Now we may
split with Jacksonville. Now we're coming into now the rest of the uh Now,
Cincinnati Baltimore goes somebody. But the first game of the year, and
that's the game we're gonna get whooped off. That's the one. But after
that we're gonna go on a chair with this defense. This defense is magnificent.
What I mean what Demko Ryan has put together. These boys are gonna
come out there and be ranked in the top five in defense this year.
Now when it comes to our office, King Dale as a receiver, he's
showing he's something special. I mean a running game with the three head running
backs that I see it, we're gonna have. We're gonna have a good
running games. Should be in the top ten fars running. Now far as
quarterback, Jake is not ready yet. The game is too fast for him
for what I see right now. He needs to do jaylight Patrick Mahomes did
with Alex Smith was important. They was in Kansas City. Let him see
what I love you. But you're making your decided. The games too fast
for him. After two series against the Patriots, Hey, hey, this
is this is preseason. I'm like Ivan and Ivans in practice, I ain't
what avery about what he's doing practics. I'm watching the real bullets by now,
I'm watching what he's doing in preseason. Now. Granted, I'm gonna
continue to monitor what he's doing in preseason, but Demiko then need to understay.
He need more than two series. He need to play at Lisa had.
This young man needs some reps out there. He needs to know what
it's like to go with these live bullets and go against the inner failed players.
Because right now he's showing me he's not The speed is too fast on
him, that he's standing down the tiever. He needs to get a little
tilish on him now running this offense. And what I'm trying to say here,
we got a team that's ready to win. I mean they have to
be going nicssary though. They have put a team together right now that's ready
to win, and right now the best chance of winning is going with Chase.
I mean, you you let him come in there and run what what
what? What? What what are you saying? You're saying play case Keenum,
Yeah, Case Keenom can run that offense. Letting him let game You're
You're don't do this, You're putting your You're putting yourself on a sound bite
somewhere when I'm doing and letting you know right now he's not ready for the
NFL speed of the game. He's gonna hold the offense up because right now
we have weapons on this offense that we can take advantage of weapons. And
what weapons? They don't have any receivers that they have a if John Mets,
who's not played the NFL, they got take Dell that you said it's
not playing. I got washed up. They got washed up, Robert Woods
like, they don't have a weapon. Wise what we have a number two
receiving the number three, but we do have some discussion. Do they have
a number one? No, they don't have a number more. But real
quick, real quick, real quick. I just want to go through your
logic real quick, because I a prey, I do. I really want
to understand it. So the first pick, the second overall pick they took
in the draft, is not ready for the NFL. They have a defense
that's top five, even though it's barely changed from last year. There are
a few key additions, but for the most part, all these guys are
coming back. I will give you this. The scheme is different that I
feel is going to be a lot better. But you want them to play
case Keenum and they're somehow gonna find a way to win ten games without on
a wide receiver that's a number one, with a bunch of guys that are
probably number twos or number three's, and that's going to be the answer with
this one game. And if you put case Keenum in there, who knows
how to run this offense, he can and with Tank Dale stretching the field
and with them number two receivers, like you say, we don't have a
number one, but with their numbers two receivers and the tight end and the
running game that we're gonna put together and the defense that we're gonna have because
that defense gonna get turned over. That defense gonna put us this position with
good field position where we're gonna get some point. So with that, and
you need a quarterback that can go in and control this offense and know what
he's doing and not try to learn on the job. Right away, we
go to Davis Mills. Why wouldn't you go to Davis Mills who actually had
If we're just gonna go off of what you've seen so far, Davis Mills
had a better game than Case Keenum. No, we didn't. We didn't
have the Davis Mills experiment. We didn't did two years of that. I
don't even know you had the Case Keenum experiment. The Case Keenum experiments going
on in multiple places. He's not a starting quarterback in the NFL. He's
gonna be the third string quarterback on this team. No, he's sure be
the starter and then go back to the seventh string and after after four or
five games, then you can bring see Day in if he's ready to roll
with that offense. But right now, he's not ready to roll with that
offense. It's still we got the preseason, so everybody's gonna see what I'm
talking about to realize that I'm right, and Demiko hoping that he listening to
this conversation today and gonna realize that right now, the best option to win
and go ten and seven and win this division and makes him more and we're
ready to do this is to go with Case Keenum. Let's let meals be
your third string quarterback, and then he theres your Bacca. And once we
four or five games in and he said it's ready to take over, then
we can put him in there. But right now he's gonna be that weekly
that's gonna stop us. Well, he's not gonna be able to pick up
the first down, he's not gonna be able to move the teams the way
we need to. Case can read that defense. He's he has that knowledge.
That's things why he's a good gentleman where he can come in here and
what this offend and help us win until DJ is riddy, And that's what
we can do right now with this deepest, with the running backs we have
with there, we are ready to roll. Would I appreciate you listening.
I gotta get to my top of the hour break here. I appreciate you
listening. I appreciate you being optimistic. I think that your phone call,
unfortunately is a little bit on the out there side of things, because Case
Keenum is not the answer for this football team. And I don't want to
be the Debbie downer. He Look, if they go and win ten games,
I'll come on here and eat every single word of They're not winning ten
football games. They're not ready for that. They could be an improved team
this year, and I think the schedule early on in the season is incredibly
favorable to win some football games. But CJ. Stroud is going to start
from week one. They've made it very obvious the way they've handled the reps
in practice and the way that it's going that they're gonna play him. And
there's no better way overall to groom a quarterback than to go through it like
you gotta play. Sitting on the bench isn't going to do anything for you.
And he's not going to sit on the bench. He's going to play,
and that's the right decision case. Keenum's not the answer at all.
Seven one, three, two on two five, seven ninety. There's a
bunch of a bunch of you guys on hold. I'm gonna get to every
single one of year. As we come back, we'll continue some of the
discussion on well the Texans and some of the optimism there after one preseason game,
and of course the Astros as well. It is Space City Saturday right
here on Sports Talk seven ninety odd. Welcome to another Space City Saturday on
Sports Talk seven ninety Michael Cunners Live and local h Town breakdown of the world
that matters to you, Houston forms. Were all these great Houston fans here.
We love you all, so finish up on that to do list,
loot up the cooler, because you can't drinking talk sports all day if you
don't start now. This is face City Saturday. If here are seven nineties
Astros insider Michael Kunner, our second and final hour of the show here on
Sports Talk seven ninety Conner back here with us you if you would like to
get into a seven one three two one two five at seven ninety seven one
three, two one two five seven ninety. I have a feeling that some
of you want to react to the phone call we had to the end of
the last hour. If you missed it, We've been talking some Texans.
We're gonna talk Texans and Astros as we go along in this final hour of
the show, because well we have both going on at the moment. Of
course, the Astro's back in action at a kicking some butt last nine eleven
three final which you heard here on seven night, and you'll hear again this
evening at six fifteen is the first pitch to night. I'll have you for
the on Deck show starting at five o'clock from five o'clock until five forty five,
ahead of Robert Ford and Steve Sparks as the Astros look to beat the
Angels once again. John Singleton two home runs last night, the Astros also
getting a quality start at adjustin Verlander at his first start back at Mini Made
Park as a member of the Astros. Overall, great night for the Stros.
They do remain two and a half games back of the Rangers in the
American League West, and of course the Texans getting the victory the other night
twenty three twenty two three over the Patriots in the preseason opener. The overreaction
has begun for a lot of things, and it's completely silly. It is
two series of CJ. Stroud. There are going to be rookie growing pains.
They're going to be moments of brilliance for him as well, because he
was a great college player and there's a reason why he was taking second overall
in the draft. But you can't write the book on anything about him or
make any really any any sort of assumptions on what they're gonna do based off
of the small sample size of preseason that they've seen so far, And it
is completely silly to go over the top. You can be optimistic and everything,
and I want to be optimistic because for the first time in a very
long time with this franchise. There's reason to watch and to be hopeful,
but we're gonna have to pump the brakes a little bit based off the last
phone call. Let's go back to the phone lines and talk to Lamont up
next. What's going on, Lamont? Hey, how's you doing? Him?
Kind of? Michael, I'm sorry, I'm gonna go a little different
direction. Your last call almost und like he had the Texans in the super
Bowl or something. Man. But yeah, man, I'll rewatch that.
I'll rewatch that game. And you know, I'm not gonna shroud is Shroud
is a nun story. But I'm gonna go a little different direction. I'm
gonna go at Miko man because uh and I'm not going hard at Miko.
But here's my perspective, and hear me out. You got your young quarterback
out there. You got your young quarterback out there, and you didn't put
him in the most optable position. In other words, Windhill was a Tonsol
not out there. You're gonna put him out there with a paper mache offensive
line. I know we got I know we have injuries, but if if
Tonsil is available, Tonso needs to be out put your number one investment out
there on the football field. Didn't mean. When I rewatched the game,
I was like, it just don't make any sense. Why would they you
know, lead a young and I know other two quarterbacks went out there behind
him, but man, let's be real, the other two quarterbacks are not
your top investment. That's your top investment. Not only is your tonsil been
out there. Robert Wood should have been out there, your whole full peers
should have been out there, your whole full compliments should have been out there.
YEA. Now later I heard Demiko, and this is why I give
it back up to Demiko. He said, the way he comes from,
if you can play football, you play football under any circumstance. And I
get that, man, But if that's the case, why the other guys
wouldn't playing football? I just don't get. I really don't get putting your
top investment out there for him to get, for him to get Cats the
way he did. Uh. And you know, uh, you know Bill
Belichick blitz like six percent at a time with the Ricky. Uh you should
have expected that's to happen. But that's it's it's minor. But I hope
he would never play his young quarterback out there with his full a couple of
minute UH players, and what I mean by that, if he wouldn't have
played Uh Stroud yesterday, I would have been just as satisfied. At least
you're not throwing him to the Wolves with no backup. That's all I have,
man, Thank you, la lot. I appreciate it now. Look,
I get the the curiosity of not having tons of out there. I
think that's just where we're at based on how teams operate in the preseason.
You know, I think you just wanted to get Stroud's feet wet and they
haven't had the joint practice as yet. You know, a team's now clearly
value joint practicing more than they value preseason games. And there's the of course,
opportunity for injury in any of those situations, and it is a scary
proposition. I think that teams prefer now the whole joint practice situation because they
have the ability to control what they're doing. They will line up, the
coaches will talk about what they want to do against each other, and then
they'll go out there and do that and they feel better about it and there's
no tackle into the ground. Whatever it might be. I just think that
these practices coming up against the Dolphins and against the Saints over the next couple
of weeks, and the joint practices ahead of the games or what matters now.
I think in this next preseason game, you probably see them play straight
out the most of that he's gonna play. I would imagine that Tonsil and
those guys get out there. But at the end of the day, they're
just trying to protect the players that matter the most. And like, if
they don't have Tonsil this year during the regular season, dat's got no chance.
We know that they're already without tight is hired for extended period of time,
hopefully it's not too long into the into the regular season. But to
have their line be what it's expected to be, which is something that can
protect him and help their running game, go and do something this year.
Like I get why they're going to be protective of them in the preseason.
They just want to get to that regular season and go get it. Now,
this gets back to the old debate of do you build any kind of
chemistry when you do this? And I understand that, Like I would always
prefer to see guys go and play. You play the sport to play the
sport. Injuries are gonna happen no matter what. Again, if it's gonna
happen, you want to avoid it happening in the preseason. I get it.
It's the life of football. So it's a battle that unfortunately, I
think for those of us that would like to see guys play or you're never
gonna win. The players have gotten so much out of the CBA's over the
last few years to where you know they have so much power and good good
on them to protect them and to try and lengthen their careers as long as
possible in a sport that we've always said it in NFL not for long.
So that's something that I can get how difficult it is. But I would
prefer, like you that they don't go out there and throw their rookie quarterback
in the thick of it without his best options around him. But this is
just got to get your feet wet somewhere. This week is important for him.
I'm interested to see what all the reports are and how he looks they
look at all that in these next few days against the Miami Dolphins, which
will be intriguing to see exactly what goes on and how he handles that,
and then how much maybe a half maybe a quarter against the Dolphins in the
preseason game, and then I would imagine he doesn't even play much, if
any, in that game against the Saints as well. Let's go to Gilbert
next on the phone lines, what's going on? Gilbert? Hey, what's
going on? You can't go buy a first game? And because he wasn't
even opting with the first team, So that's what Demiko said, so to
believe, I mean, it's okay. Do you remember correctly when we got
DeShawn Watson. He wasn't all that when in preseason game either, but look
how he tried has to be the same thing. When he first started in
the season, he wasn't staying like like he was, but guess what,
he became a little good quarterback. And that's the same thing with these shrugs.
See the shrub is gonna be okay. Demiko knows what he's doing.
And as far as the defense goes, I think it's a lot better,
as a whole lot better than last year. And as far as Ashall's go,
I think they're gonna be doing great. I think it'll be just fine.
Berlander d good here supposed to a matter of fact, my brother,
his wife, my sister in law station and in Baltimore and that DC because
she's the commander in the post guard. And he take me a picture of
him at the ball game when they won. Okay, thank you. I
think you have somebody trying to get your attention back there. Yeah, okay,
I just called. I'm just lifting all right. I appreciate the phone
call. That's yeah. Cool to have that moment at the ballpark. Great
for them to go and do that. I'm with you on the you know
that you don't look too much. It's one preseason game. It's not against
the starters, it's not with your starters. It doesn't matter overall. You
cannot and I know that we live in this world where we have to have
a reaction to everything and we want to create content with everything and have something
to talk about constantly. We could just go back and be simple with it
and use our logical brains. You know, it's one preseason game and it
does not matter at the end of the day, and you're hopeful that things
continue to go in the right direction for the football team. And I think
again, there's a reason for optimism, and we'll see exactly what builds throughout
the rest of this preseason and how they look in the regular season. That's
where you make, of course, your first determination on where this football team
will go. Let's go to Kevin next here on the phone lines. What's
going on, Kevin, Hey, Michael, just a few quick things about
the three major sports teams. I won't try to dominate your your show.
I wanted to ask you or tell you, Yeah, Cougar High a few
callers ago, he may have a point about Keeno if he was, like,
you know, playing against the first stringers and you know, uh,
and he had maybe his own first string I mean, it's similar to Mahomes
waiting with Alex Smith, although Keiman has never been at the level of Alex
Smith. Wanted to just put that in there. Secondly, I noticed that,
uh, some players, or at least one player, Montero, was
not at the White House. Uh in the picture I didn't see. I
was wondering if you knew what other players that were on the team last year
that are not on other teams this year, did not, you know,
go to the White House. I was just wondering about that. And lastly,
I wanted to ask you about Mona Heyns real quick. Montero was there,
Oh he was he. I just didn't see him in the in the
photograph. He looks like he walked behind somebody. Oh really, okay,
all right, well yeah, I guess he is only about six one.
That's possible that he could be behind, you know, somebody like Stanic or
somebody. I don't know anyways, Yeah, but any of anybody else.
I think everybody. I think everybody that was on the team that was last
that was here last year. Okay, all right, Well anyways, I
was just wondering they said, of course the players that are on their team
this year, that we're not on last year's. You know, they were
not really invited. I don't think, and I don't know if any of
them are on there. Who knows. There's a lot of staff that I
don't recognize in the picture also, But whatever, No one to ask you
about Patty Mills. It seems like when he was acquired, briefly they kind
of said that he would be like a veteran presence off the bench or something.
But then it seems like they may have just changed, of course on
that to maybe make him available, like to complete the sign and trade for
the guy from me meant this Dylan Brooks, I guess because he went to
Atlanta and then he went to Oklahoma City, you know anything about what happened
there. I guess it's just more of a means to an end with Patty
Mills ultimately, but I think first he was going to be you know,
used, maybe as a veteran off the bench. I don't know, just
your thoughts on those those three things. Thank you, Michael, appreciate your
show. Thank you for the phone call. I think the original reporting simply
got out there that the eight Rockets were acquiring for acquiring him for that reason.
But I think the reporting was just wrong on the Patty Mills thing,
and he was just being shipped out as part of another trade. And if
like you mentioned, he was traded as part as a part of the five
team trade where the Rockets design and trade to get Dylan Brooks, and then
he was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. So I mean, he's a
thirty five year old who doesn't play much anymore and isn't very good when he
does play. So I don't I don't know, it didn't It's not something
I'm too bothered by, obviously. I just think that the reporting is probably
what was wrong out there when people initially reported it in terms of what they
were going to do with him. Before we grab a time out, let's
go to Christian up NeXT's going on? Christian? Hey, how you doing
today? Good? Got so just real quick wanting to chime in on the
Texans and briefly, you know, talk about I know you said last segment
that dealing with of the groom a quarterback doesn't put him through it, right,
Yeah, Well, I mean obviously, I just kind of think that
the Chiefs maybe disagree with that. I'm not comparing my homes is this strout.
But let me ask you this. If the Texans go out and win
twelve games this year, where do we draft in the first round next year?
Well, they'll they'll have then it doesn't matter, right right, correct,
It doesn't matter if we win twelve, it doesn't matter if we winn't
want our performance is not going to determine where we drafted in the first round
because it depends on where the Browns, how the Browns do. So that
being said, I'm just in that what's gonna happen is I think that stroud
will fit. I think that Mills will start. I think Case will be
nothing more than a third stringer. And I think that the first game that
we would see c. J. Strouds start will be after the bye Week
seven, verst Sprice Young against Carolina. Honest question, honest question, Why
do you think that when they've already started him game one and he's beginning all
the number one reps in the prese in the in the training camp, like
they're gonna suddenly stop giving him the one reps and say, okay, we're
gonna go Davis Mills. They're not doing that. Okay, but that's only
one Okay, Okay, that was one game. Okay, let's just say
it's not even the game's not even that important. He literally for the entire
last week took all the reps with the ones, and he had been taking
them for over a week at that point. And you're and what you're what
you think or what you what you think is is that Mills will never will
not start from this point on. It's week one. Yeah, okay,
they're not twenty. If they've done I think that done. The Davis Mills
experience he's not a he's not a starting quarterback in this league. Okay,
I mean yeah, I mean obviously that's an opinion. I just think that
it could change, right, I mean, if the Stroud goes out there,
and you know, if it does look like the game is two pass
world. Yes, it's a couple of series. Yes, I get it,
it's a week on one of the preseasons, but it is what it
is. And if he continues to do this, I just got a feeling
that maybe they will him and let him groom him and watch him and let
Mills take the end up being a starter week one. That's just an opinion,
Okay. Well, I appreciate the phone call and you listening this morning
seven three two one two five seven ninety, I will I want to get
my time out in because I don't want to just rush this thought. I
appreciate the phone call. I just think that you are completely wrong on all
of it, and based on everything that we've seen. We'll discuss it next.
Do you want to get in here join us. We're with you until
noon right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. We now return to face City
Saturday. Sports Talk seven ninety Welcome back to Space City Saturday, right here
on Sports Talk seven. I need my Connor back here with you. I'm
gonna get back to your phone calls A seven one three, two one two
five seven ninety here in just a bit. If you want to join us,
of course you can find me on Twitter as well. At MC seven
ninety is the place to do that. But I want to go back to
the last phone call. And here's something that I just I don't understand why
we constantly do it. If you miss the last phone call, and then
again is everybody's opinion, and it's this is my opinion. But and you
could hear it and think I'm completely wrong. That's fine, That's that is
what it is. I just I don't I always go in and try to
analyze situations and any team in this city, whether it's the Astros, the
Texans of the Rockets, and look at it logically and for what it is.
And I think we've had two phone calls this morning, one that wants
case Keenom to play and another that says that CJ. Stroud is gonna sit
and or that they're not gonna Playhi and they're gonna play Davis Mills. They've
given you zero indication, first of all, that either of those guys has
any chance to play as the starter in Week one over CJ. Stroud.
First of all, I personally, now this is my feel on it.
For what I want to see happen. I'm not interested in watching other quarterbacks
play. We all have been, for the most part in this city as
football fans, starved for years for the football franchise to have a quarterback that
we can rally behind. We all thought we had it into Shaun Watson until
he turned into a well creep and they got rid of him, thank god.
But the fact that we keep jumping through these hoops do not want to
play the quarterback that they drafted, it blows my mind. They used the
second pick in the draft on him for a reason. They've invested all this
money and time into him already for a reason. I know the easy thing
and we do this all the time, and we have to stop doing it.
Everybody loves to do it is We'll look what the chief did with Patrick
Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes was not the first quarterback taking in the draft. The
Chiefs were one of the few teams that was smart enough to realize that what
he did in college was going to translate to the NFL level and he was
gonna be an absolute monster. But they also sat him because they had an
established Pro Bowl quarterback on a team that could go and win at that very
moment, so they gave him a year. The Texans aren't an established football
team that's that's known to win. They don't have an established quarterback that's a
Pro Bowl or year after year, and there's no obvious reason to sit him.
This thought process because we've seen like two quarterbacks in recent history of Rogers
and and Mahomes sitting for a year that oh, this is the this is
the Matt this is the secret sauce to having a quarterback going play. Most
of them go play immediately. So I don't understand this jumping through hoops as
fans for all these other things that just aren't realistic. And again, when
the team is literally giving you every single sign of they're not going to sit
the player, They're going to play the player from week one, they've talked
about it. The only thing that they have left to do is name him
the starting quarterback officially, and guess what they're gonna do that after this next
week? Would be my guess, I want to see and I think you
should all want to see CJ. Stroud to play their best chance to win
this year's With CJ Stroud, you know exactly what you're gonna get out of
Davis Mills bad in the good moments of the game and the most of the
game that are winning time moments, and then in garbage time of gal put
up numbers and stats. That's Davis Mills. Case Keenum, unbelievable journeyman,
great mentor great guy to have in your locker room, has a pre massive,
a massive love from people in the city because he was great at the
University of Houston. But I think you guys got to quit it with the
trying to find reasons to not play CJ. Stroud. And again it gets
back to me looking at it logically, they're telling you who's playing quarterback by
who is getting the reps in practice as the one, it's CJ. Stroud
getting all of them. And they've transitioned that early on. They split in
the first week and since then it's been nothing but CJ. Stroud. They're
not playing Davis Mills, they're not playing case Keenum. CJ. Stroud.
Week one in Baltimore is starting, and that is the right decision. There's
no point in sitting around and waiting. Let him play. If he's good,
he's gonna figure it out. He's not well, then they're gonna have
to analyze that and then eventually move on to somebody else. And it's not
gonna be high there with those guys. And they're not gonna pull CJ.
Stro out in the middle of the year unless he goes out there and like
goes and throws like two touchdowns and fourteen picks or something. This is a
year of growth and I personally have zero interest in watching anybody else play quarterback
for this team. Let's go to Statman next on the phone line. What's
up? Statman? Hey there, Michael, what's up? Two things?
Okay, So first I just want to say that nice to see al Tuobates
come right back and just be done to fire. Can't wait until Albarez really
starts, you know, going on getting on fire. I'm originally from Detroit,
Michigan. I would love to see AJ make the Tigers viable again.
They had signs of it just recently, but it doesn't look it's gonna happen.
But there's there are things I want to talk about about the Texas.
Number one. I'm glad that Jackie's gone. I'm glad that Bob has gone.
But I have a feel on this, Dicky c Uh it's pushing for
the Stroud because I think he's sweating bullets. And obviously, uh, the
head coach is on a five year plan. But Nicky c he he you
know, all lost all that draft cloud to get number two and number three,
you know, crazy great move. But you know, I want to
say, my brother in law said that they shouldn't they should do what they
did with Steve mcneer. You know, let this guy sit back and watch.
Let you know, let us give us another year to get the offensive
line and defensive line you know, stronger, and and let this guy just
you know, melded to the job. I mean. And another thing is
is this is this is my biggest point today. I can't believe, you
know, Cal and Hannah. Obviously Hannah is now you know, in charge,
I guess, But I cannot believe that they didn't bring back Hopkins.
That was a chance to save face because you know, Bob was given all
that power by Cal and he totally just completely screwed us over and to get
Hopkins back would have been such a fan favorite. And that's all I've got.
That's all I've got. Thank you for the phone call. Look,
I get the thought process behind wanting to have a fan favorite back and everything
in the whole Hopkins mess when it was gone was it was a disaster and
it is embarrassing. Look, I don't want to disrespect DeAndre Hopkins, but
since he's left Houston, he's had one great year, was suspended, has
been hurt. It was good last year before you know, the same thing
happened. He's in his thirties now, he probably lost a step. I
think that I think that, without a doubt, he would help this football
team. But I just don't know that it was necessarily something that you have
to go and do. You go get it DeAndre Hopkins, and you pay
him money that he's looking for, which is more than your pro probably willing
to pay. At this point. They didn't have a ton of cast so
they could have made it work. You can always make it work on your
cap, but it's it's something that did they need it. Probably not let
your young guys work. Even if I'm not intrigued by the by the wide
receiving corps that they have, and I do think it's gonna make life difficult
at times for the Texans to have a consistent all but they're gonna be a
run heavy team this year. They're just trying to get c J. Stroud's
feet wet at the NFL level. And again, you know this whole thought
process behind let him sit for you bring up the line and everything. The
line is that in their view of their offensive line, they're at their peak
right now, like they are at their spot where they're ready to go forward.
They've got tons of lockdown. They've got tight as Harard lockdown. They
feel good about both players. They wouldn't have done that if they did not
feel good about it. They've got Shack Mason. They obviously lose Question Bearer
the other day. Juice Scrugs is gonna have to go ahead and pull his
weight now as a rookie at the center, and Kenyan Green is in a
massive year this year. But like if everything is right and their evaluation process
is correct, the line is a strength of this team and helps the quarterback,
It helps the run game and does all those things. So you don't
draft a guy. And that's that's the other part of this, like they
I just can't get over, Like why again we jump through these all these
hoops to try and fit some some silly narrative that doesn't exist, that you
need to sit a quarterback, let him sit for a year in developed and
develop the other part of the team. You draft a player number two to
play them. They don't draft players number two in the NFL to sit them
for a year. And if you think that that's what's gonna happen, I'm
telling you you are wrong. You will eat those words come week one.
You will eat them every week this season. He's playing as he should.
If you drafted a guy's second overall and you have to and you're going into
this process of going on, I'm gonna put kid gloves on him and protect
him and do all these things, then you should have drafted into number two.
There's no pressure from the GM to play him. If you think the
head coach didn't want the player or isn't ready to have the player player every
day, you're wrong there. They drafted him because they evaluated him and thought
that this is the best player at number two for us to take, and
then they traded up and took the other best player that they wanted to take
in Will Anderson. So we gotta quit trying to find things here and there
and everywhere else. Look at what's in front of you. Live in reality
and understand what the situation is. That's where they're at. Seven one two
two five seven nineties our phone number again to join us. We got thirty
minutes to go. Some of you on hold, don't go anywhere, a
quick short time out. We will again continue the discussion with you guys next
year on Sports Talk seven ninety. Space City Saturday continues. Find Sports Talk
seven ninety. It is Space City Saturday and you're home of the Astros and
the Rockets. Sports Talk seven ninety. Mcconnor here with you. We've got
just under thirty minutes if you would like to join us at seven one three
two on two five, seven ninety. We've had a lot of Astro's discussion
today. We've had a lot of Texans discussion today. So we're going to
continue with you guys because you guys want to talk today and I want to
talk to you guys because we got good things to talk about in sports and
thing we just have sports in general. We'll talk about right now with two
teams getting going, are with two teams going, one team going in the
thick of it, the other teams starting their twenty twenty three season off and
the Texans, And we'll continue that discussion now with Bonnie Joe on hold.
What's going on? Bonnie Joe? Hey, Michael, First, thank you
for taking my call. I want to thank you for a great show.
As always. I especially appreciate your baseball acumen. It's it's really always on
point. But I'm calling about c. J. Stroud and I've heard this
morning and you kind of stolen my thunder in your last two little commentaries.
But I'm going to say anyway, I agree with what you've been saying.
First, they wouldn't have drafted him that high to have him sit, not
where this team is or has been the previous seasons. Secondly, Demiko is
different from the other coaches. I feel that, and I don't know.
I'm not a Texan fan at all. It matters not to me who they
play, but he Demko is a much stronger, meaning like mentally stronger coach
I feel, and I think the whole going into the c j Stroud thing
he is in on him unless something terribly terribly goes wrong, like an injury
or just massive, massive failings. I don't think there's any doubt that Stroud
is the starting quarterback that they're going to pull him after one or two games
because he throws an interception. It just makes no sense to me that these
people think that, after everything that the Texans have been through the past several
seasons, and the type of coaches that they've had, that this is now
the direction they're going we we or the Texans, not we. The Texans,
you know, draft someone second overall and they're gonna having sit and watch
that. That's not the thinking at all in my mind of what the Texans
plan is for Stroud. Bonnie Joe, I think you are spot on there.
I appreciate, first of all, which says very kind of you to
say what she said about the Astros everything. I just I like to,
uh, you know, as I said earlier, I like to try and
look at it the big picture of a situation and everything. And I just
think that as sports fans and I get it. In this world where you
know, there are there's a lot of content that's put out there, there's
a lot of voices, there's a lot of opinions. It's a saturated world
in terms of people that haven't an opinion out there, and I'm one of
those people. I'm part of that crowd. But sometimes we try to create
storylines that just aren't always there, and I think there have been a small
faction of people that have tried to create this storyline. And I do think
that one of those groups of people is a station that may or may not
air the Texans And I think that that kind of gets people trying to stir
stuff up. And then you know, I don't do it on Facebook.
I know that Facebook's home of the crazies. I think that you get on
Facebook and there's probably a billion people out there doing the same thing on that,
and you try to convince yourself that there's this actual storyline of how it's
going when it's just not accurate, when you can't look at what's right there
in front of your face. And what's right there in front of your face
is the fact that they've used the rookie quarterback with the ones. In practice,
they don't do that without the intention of playing him as the starting quarterback.
Like if Davis Mills. Yeah, Davis Mills is meant to be the
starting quarterback, he'd be getting all those opportunities. Sure. Cashing one more
quick thing about preseason, Yeah, I'm so sired of people judging things on
the first preseason game. It has always driven me in saying, I've been
a football fan for like five decades. I mean, I don't understand judging
on the very first preseason game. It makes no sense to me to meet.
In my opinion, preseason does not mean too much. It's more for
the coaches, not for the fans. That's just my feeling. I'm right
there with you again, thank you for the phone call this morning here on
Space City Saturday. It is as an evaluation process in certainly they know what
their football team is going to be, they know who they're going to play.
For the most part, like they have all that stuff in order.
There are small battles here and there that matter, and they're gonna be looking
for those certain things. Of course, they want to see teams build chemistry,
jail do the things they need to do to progress in the systems that
they're trying to put in place to help them win football games this year.
But overall. Yes, we do this whole song and dance every year where
people and I get it, we've not been as locked in on Texans in
recent years as we've been in the past, and I think that this is
kind of the thing that you see with that the Astros at times is and
I'm not trying to be rude about it, there's a lot of people that
don't pay attention to a lot of things. They're casual and then they get
back into it, and you know, you just when you're not invested in
everything every single day, there's things that you miss, there's things that you
don't see, there's a there's a there's a thought process that goes through your
head. That's just something that's not always accurate. And I think that we
see a little bit of that when it comes to the opinions that you get
in those scenarios. And that's happening right now. After one preseason game that
means absolutely nothing. Let's go to Eddie next. What's going on, Eddie?
Hey there, good morning. I'd actually like to see Mills start against
Miami. And here's why. In the first game against the Pats, Stroud
was playing with no Titus Howard no Laramie Tounsil, no Shack Mason juice drugs
in his first game ever, and ken Yon Green the worst line we hey
actually might not even be a starter by the end of the year. So
Stroud really had no possibility to implement anything he learned in the preseason. He
couldn't go through any progressions or anything. He literally ran around for his life
and it was the most pointless outing for a quarterback I'd ever seen. I'd
rather have middles start against the Dolphins starters on defense. Let's Stroud come in,
work the whole second quarter, the whole third quarter, and then let
Case work the fourth. The reason why, I mean, we're trying to
groom a rookie quarterback and Case Keenham gets the most physic quarterback. It's stupid.
I am a I think Stroud should start from day one against Baltimore.
I agree with you there, but I want him to actually be able to
learn and use what he's learned. If he's running for his life like he
was against Miami, totally pointless. I want him against the team, the
B team of Miami, where he can actually implement what he's learned, and
he won't be doing that against the Dolphins first stringer. I'm just because I
appreciate the phone call. I don't understand that logic. To be perfectly honest
with you, I want the guy that's going to be the starter to play
against starters. I don't think they can do it. Playing him against backups
does anything for you in those scenarios, So and it's not a real possibility.
Thank you again for the phone call. You need to grab one more
before the time out. Let's go to Robert. Let's going on, Robert,
Mike, hey man. I want to say one thing is that I
think a lot of people that have called in people, especially the guys obviously,
people that's never played football, and then maybe they played in a lower
level like Pony League, coat whatever it is when you like five, six
of eight, nine, But I don't think they played in high school,
our college. And you can tell by the reasoning behind their comments about what
the Texans should do, and they getting all worked up, have some like
these scenarios about playing people that shouldn't be playing Beside CJ. It's just it's
just ridiculous. I'm glad the woman the ladies just hung up. She made
more sense than all these guys. That's called in. Come on, guys,
we need to get get this act together. With your phone call,
Michael, you should be having a headache by now with all these crazy calls,
crazy scenario. I'm I'm gonna have a beer after this show. You
need one. Man. I feel sorry player. I was coming in and
give you a release and said, man, let me take some of these
crazy calls for you for a few minutes and give you a break. My
head would explode from all this craziness. So we need to stop all this
crazy talk. Man. Let let the people that run this team that they
know what they're doing. They can't pay for a reason. We was all
high on Demiko. Okay, we may not agree with Demiko in the decision
that was made about these lineman's and not playing, but that still don't mean
c J. Strout can't go out there and play. He give this guy,
this young guy a chance. He understand what's going on, so you
can ask you understand too, and then we and that The thing I will
say though, is that I was what we should We're talking about as a
positive and the positive that I'm taking from this game is man Tank deal like
he's a gamer. Tandale looked like he could be somebody that we can We
always were complained about not having a receiver worth as a number one. We
don't know. I take there I maybe being a one, but we could
see he has the potential maybe being a number one. And I so Menchi,
I hope I'm pronounced this right, John mention from uh the wide receiver.
He looked pretty good, even though I know he called this for his
catch. We don't know what this guy may end up being. And then
we got a lot of these young guys and the defense look awesome. Let's
talk about the positives. And that's he talking homering and talking about these negative
things, and uh, Mike, you hang in there, man. That's
all I got, Robert. I appreciate it. I'm good overall. At
the end of the day, you know, we are just talking sports,
and I might think and a caller's opinions wrong, and I think a lot
of colors opinions that we've had today are wrong. And I, like I
said, I I try to look at this situation logically in big picture and
look at the evidence that teams are giving me on certain things. And that's
why I just keep going back to like we're doing all this jumping around and
trying to find this and that and these different scenarios, and I want this.
I want that they're telling you what they're gonna do. They're telling you
they're gonna play CJ. Strout from week one, as they should. They
told you that when they drafted him with a second pick in the draft.
It was never going in any other way. So finding all these different scenarios,
jumping through all these hoops, it just it's a waste of time.
It's like a lot of the things that I go through when we talk astros
too, whether it be like the Maldonado catching or anything, or you know,
lineups and those things, like you're wasting your energy. They're gonna play
CJ. Stroud, you should, honestly, Like I don't. Again,
I don't understand the thought process of not wanting to see him play because we've
watched crap quarterback play here in this city for so long, Like you've watched
Davis Mills for two years, be hot garbage, And if you're a Davis
Mills guy, I'm sorry. There's nothing he's done at the NFL level that
makes you think he's a starting quarterback, and there's a reason he's not gonna
be one. So that's where I keep going back to. We need to
grab our final time out of the morning. When we come back, we'll
wrap up this show. Final thoughts Astros Texans right here on Sports Talk seven
ninety. Welcome back to Space City Saturday one Sports Talks seven ninety. It's
our final few minutes of Space City Saturday here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
But you won't get rid of me today. I'll be back with you to
this evening at five o'clock to get you ready for Astros and Angels. With
the Astros on Deck Show right here on seven nineties, these Stros like to
secure the series victory today in game two of the three game weekend series.
The Astros will give the ball to JP France today. Thank goodness, he's
back getting at Arthur in the six man rotation against six fifteen. First pitch
on Deck Show at five o'clock with me, the Astros will face Tyler Anderson
today. For the Angels, I want to grab those of you that are
on whole before we get on out of here in a few minutes. And
up next we have Roberts. What's going on Robert all right, I just
wanted to say a couple of positive things. You know, when do you
take baby steps? You know, I'm looking at our coaching staff, and
I believe there are This staff is a lot more organized than the previous staff.
I didn't see the whole game, but from what I saw, we
didn't make stupid kilties. I didn't see any around the goal, Eric the
red zough like what you normally do. So I don't know, I'm looking
at a positive thing. I think we look at a lot more organized at
the team. I would agree with you there, Robert, apreciate the phone
call here this morning on Space City Saturday. I think that's been something that's
kind of plagued this football team now for the last couple of years. I
mean, look, we can go back and rehash it if we want,
but we know that the last two coaching hires were disasters. I mean,
you know, David Culley was not a real candidate, and they farted around,
farted around, farted around, ended up on him. They never really
thought that he was going to be a head coach for long. And then
they did the whole song and dance again last year and completely screwed up the
coaching hire process for the second consecutive year and ended up with Lovey Smith,
and we all knew that that was not a long term option. He had
been a head coach multiple times now in the NFL. He played an old,
antiquated defense. His thought process on a lot of things is night and
now, look, either coach had any sort of level of talent. The
Texans were putting out teams on purpose to not win football games as they should
have. I mean like they were just signing one year deals for average players
at best. They were playing young guys in other spots, they were coming
off years and not having draft capital. It was a complete teardown rebuild that
had to absolutely do this, and I get it, but they just completely
botched two head coaches that stunted maybe some of year development. Now Demiko Ryans
was able to go and get his seasoning with the forty nine ers, do
his thing and to be perfectly honestly, at a lot like the Rockets landing
in Medoko. I was shocked that the Texans were able to pull off Demiko
Ryan's I just I wondered, and again this is you know, you have
to wonder how the interviews went and everything. I think that clearly Demko's probably
got a good, good, strong stance in this organization that they believe in
him, and they're going to give him every resource and the amount of years
needed to go out and truly develop this thing. And he probably has quite
a bit of power and he should based off of things. But you know,
I was surprised that they were able to get him because of the market
that was out there for other teams, that there were some better situations maybe
that you know, you could have said, hey, this team might win
faster, this team could win. Now he was basically, you know of
one of, if not the hottest name out there for teams to go and
chase, and I was pleasantly surprised that the Texans were able to get him.
I think he's gonna be a great dynamic head coach. I think that
based off of everybody that you talked to and listen to, the leadership is
there. And now, look, I've said it before, I was out
there a lot when Demiko was a player. Still. I used to go
to text and stuff daily. I'd go to practice way back when I started
in this business and would go to all the games and everything. And you
know, even as a young twenty year old who was honestly terrified of talking
to athletes in the locker rooms and everything, he was one of the guys
you could always go to and even for me, like I would go and
try to talk to him and he would give you time, and you could
just always tell that he was a guy that was a leader. And you
know a guy that we used to work with who was on the game coverage
night on television. It was good to hear Yendy Kalu if you're out there,
is good to hear you on the on the game, even though we
miss you of course. But indeed has always you know, raved about Damiko
Ryan's I mean just absolutely raved about him. And I get why. You
know it's it's gonna be I think a home run of a hire. I
think that there's, like you said, organization, there's just a lot of
things to be excited about with what they're doing, where they're going. And
then they've given him some talent. They've given him some absolute real talent to
go out there and to perform this year. And that starts within my belief
I said it going into the draft process, I was always number one.
Bryce Young. I know that you can have your detractors out there about the
size and everything. In part, I will always admit it's because I watched
every single Bryce Young game, basically at the college level, because my wife
went to Alabama and she loves her Crimson Tide, so we watch Alabama games,
and I absolutely became infatuated. Hey, my my, dude, INDI's
listening. Good to hear that you're out there. Indeed, he sounded seriously,
he sounded great. The other night. I was was just absolutely infatuated
with Bryce Young. But I always said it too. I did not mind
for one second landing CJ. Stroud. I think that there's a lot of
room that he has to go to grow. That his offense at the Ohio
and Ohio State was a little bit different probably than they're gonna run, you
know, whether it's getting into huddles, getting under center. Sometimes they're gonna
run an offensive system that I think we all know it's different. It has
changed, but the core of it is a lot of what we liked in
the Kubiag days. Like there's gonna be a lot of stretch, there's gonna
be a lot of zone there's gonna be a lot of you know, the
run game is gonna be effective for this football team. It's gonna be it's
gonna be refreshing. And I think that, you know, if he's worth
his weight, which he should be when you're taking second, overall, he's
going to succeed at this level. So I am extremely happy with having him.
And I just think that overall, having the the foundation in place that
they have matters. And it starts with Demiko, it starts with the entire
coaching staff. And again, I've only been out a couple of times out
there, and it's different. The vibe feels different from all the years ago.
When I went there, I stayed away during the Bill O'Brien air.
I was, you know, not doing that at that point, but it
was nice to see. It feels like there's a joy in the air.
It feels like there's real excitement that's probably been lacking for a very long time.
And I'm ready for the season to get here. We'll see what happens.
Of course, this week when they have the joint practices against the Miami
Dolphins. These are the things that coaches like having this environment and you know,
hopefully there can be some growth and certain whatever it might be, but
we'll be paying attention to a lot of that throughout the upcoming week. Thank
you to every single one of you that joined us this morning on the phone
lines, even if you were a little bit out there on the phone calls.
I do appreciate you calling and listening. I mean, it's Saturday show.
You could be spending your weekend doing something else, so of course I
appreciate you guys chiming in and making the two hours fly by like you always
do. Again, you won't get rid of me. I'll be back with
you this evening for Astro's coverage starting at five o'clock five to five forty five
ahead of Game two of this three game series against the Los Angeles Angels JP
France against Tyler Anderson and that one Stro's looking to secure the series victory and
hopefully John Singleton staying in that lineup and why why not hit two more home
runs tonight? John? I think the city of Houston can get by with
that and all the crazy reaction will have to that after the game as well
with the tent any show. Again, thank you for listening this morning.
Thank you to Adam back in the studio doing what he always does. It's
always a great time talking with you guys, all the Houston sports that we
do every single Saturday. I'll talk to you this even at five right here
on Sports Talk seven ninety