Speaker 1: Welcomeboard, Welcome to another Space City Saturday on Sports Talk
Speaker 1: seven ninety Dad Matthews Live and local h town breakdown
Speaker 1: of the world that matters to you, the Houston sports world.
Speaker 2: All these great Houston fans here.
Speaker 3: We love you all.
Speaker 1: So finish up on that to do list, flute up
Speaker 1: the cooler, because you can't drink in talk sports all
Speaker 1: day if you don't start.
Speaker 4: Now bear me the eight. This is Space City Saturday.
Speaker 4: That's insane.
Speaker 1: Here's seven nineties Dad Matthews, and away we go.
Speaker 5: Here for Space City Saturday Live here at Cedar Creek Cafe,
Speaker 5: West twentieth Street in the Heights at the corner of
Speaker 5: twentieth and Beetle. So come on out one o'clock today
Speaker 5: we are gonna get going for the sixth annual Gumbo
Speaker 5: cook Off. You heard me just a couple of minutes
Speaker 5: ago talking about it with Doug as they're getting set
Speaker 5: up out there, and I mean, I'll repeat myself, which
Speaker 5: I ought to do, even though it's one of my
Speaker 5: pet peeves, Like my dad used to repeat himself to
Speaker 5: me all the time, and I used to just be
Speaker 5: like I heard you the first time. Thanks, But in
Speaker 5: this case, I think it's a good thing.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 5: The smells are amazing already, the tents are being set up,
Speaker 5: the teams have the pots on the boilers.
Speaker 3: They're getting going.
Speaker 5: They got the Trinity going, they're making the roo they're
Speaker 5: gonna start. So you know, maybe you're the chicken and
Speaker 5: sausage variety. Okay, they're gonna have that out here. Maybe
Speaker 5: you want a little bit of shrimp and crab in there.
Speaker 5: There you go. Maybe even some people are gonna shuck
Speaker 5: some oysters, throw some of those in there. Maybe that
Speaker 5: will be part of it as well, if you want
Speaker 5: that for you. But either way, we're gonna have plenty, plenty,
Speaker 5: plenty of gumbo out here.
Speaker 3: So there it.
Speaker 5: Is, again repeating myself, but again it's for a really
Speaker 5: good reason. So I know that Melbourne's going to be
Speaker 5: out here after the show, looking forward to seeing him.
Speaker 5: Gordy's going to be coming out here, Connor d McGovern
Speaker 5: and his lady, they're going to stop on by, and
Speaker 5: of course the fiance, Megan, she's.
Speaker 3: Going to join us out here. So why don't you
Speaker 3: join the cool kids group today? Huh?
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm inviting once you come on out here
Speaker 5: and join us. And I mean I've talked about it
Speaker 5: numerous times. We were out here before the Texans and
Speaker 5: Chiefs played each other in the regular season, and it's
Speaker 5: never a bad time to be out here. But I mean,
Speaker 5: what a difference just a few weeks makes because that
Speaker 5: was right around Christmas time, and of course wintertime. Even
Speaker 5: we're here in Houston, it can still get cold every
Speaker 5: once in a while, and it was pretty chilly. But
Speaker 5: I mean, as I sit here talking with you right now,
Speaker 5: the sun is bright and shining up in the sky,
Speaker 5: little to no cloud cover whatsoever. I mean, as a
Speaker 5: matter of fact, i'm looking up, I don't even think
Speaker 5: I see a single cloud anywhere in the sky. And
Speaker 5: it's a natural air conditioning out here. So the patio,
Speaker 5: if you've ever been out here to Cedar Creek, you
Speaker 5: know that it is elite. For my money, it's one
Speaker 5: of the best in the city of Houston, and it
Speaker 5: is a great spot. The brunch is amazing, so maybe
Speaker 5: you want to go ahead get that base layer in
Speaker 5: before you start trying some of the gumbo, and you
Speaker 5: cannot go wrong here. Chicken and waffles are fantastic. Everything
Speaker 5: here is amazing, So come on out here. And for
Speaker 5: my money, I feel like the Creek Group does a
Speaker 5: fantastic job. You know about Canyon, you know about Onion,
Speaker 5: some of the other spots they have here in the
Speaker 5: Heights in Houston area. So it is going to be
Speaker 5: a lot of fun. And one thing too, I know
Speaker 5: that we're going to have traffic for you here during
Speaker 5: the breaks, but a lot of our audience comes in
Speaker 5: from the spring Woodlands Conroe area.
Speaker 3: We'd love to have you come on in today.
Speaker 5: But also to pay close attention to those traffic reports.
Speaker 5: A really bad accident on forty five South right around
Speaker 5: West Road that believe the sign said that they had
Speaker 5: the freeway closed.
Speaker 3: So if you've got the easy.
Speaker 5: Tag, hop on over to the Hardy Toll Road or
Speaker 5: even to fifty nine South to get on down here.
Speaker 5: But of course, uh prayers to those involved in that
Speaker 5: accident and hopefully everything is okay when it's all said
Speaker 5: and done. But anyway, we are out here for the
Speaker 5: sixth annual Gumbo Cookoff. It's gonna be a lot of
Speaker 5: fun looking forward to it. I mean the food, the drinks,
Speaker 5: the live music. They're gonna have games and prizes going on,
Speaker 5: and of course, as I've been telling you all week
Speaker 5: in the promos, the gumbo it's gonna be amazing. So
Speaker 5: it's gonna be tons and tons of fun. If you
Speaker 5: want to weigh in on the conversation this morning, you
Speaker 5: can do so at seven one, three, two, one two
Speaker 5: five seven ninety. Once again, that's Sebon one three, two,
Speaker 5: one two five seven nine zero. As we'll get into,
Speaker 5: of course, as we are very close, very close to
Speaker 5: the Astros report to West Palm Beach for spring training,
Speaker 5: and there is still the question of are you going
Speaker 5: to have Esak Perettas playing third base this year or
Speaker 5: are you going to have Alex Bregman manning the hot
Speaker 5: corner for the Astros this season? And as we sit
Speaker 5: here at ten oh five in the morning, that question
Speaker 5: is still one that has a massive question mark on
Speaker 5: it because he's still a free agent and there's still
Speaker 5: the possibility that he could have.
Speaker 3: A reunion with the Astros.
Speaker 5: And if you've been listening to us all week, I
Speaker 5: mean I think that you kind of have a little
Speaker 5: bit of a mixed bag of people who are optimistic
Speaker 5: about his return, which will let you hear somebody who
Speaker 5: is part of our lineup during baseball season Jeff Blum
Speaker 5: his thoughts on Alex Bregman in a possible return here
Speaker 5: to the Astros a little bit later on in the show,
Speaker 5: But you know, it's him being a free agent. There's
Speaker 5: still a lot of people kicking the tires on him.
Speaker 5: I mean, there's a possibility that the Cubs could make
Speaker 5: a run at him. It sounds like, at least if
Speaker 5: you listen to Jeff Passon, the Red Sox are not
Speaker 5: going to be one of those teams, as they just
Speaker 5: signed Abraham Toro to believe, a minor league deal with
Speaker 5: a spring training invite, so a chance for him to
Speaker 5: make the club there in Boston, and I'm guessing that
Speaker 5: they looked at what they had and kind of like
Speaker 5: the Astros a little bit of a similar situation where
Speaker 5: they're first and third base spots are pretty much already filled.
Speaker 5: I know that they're pretty high on Tristan Kazis over
Speaker 5: there at first base, and obviously Rafael Dever is one
Speaker 5: of the best offensive third basemen in all of baseball.
Speaker 5: So sounds like that Craig Breslow and the front office
Speaker 5: crew there in Boston are winning out over Alex Cora
Speaker 5: in terms of trying to add Bregman. But if you
Speaker 5: were listening last night to us on the Nightcap, you
Speaker 5: knew that Jim Bowden, the former Major League GM thrown
Speaker 5: out that Bregman has a good offer into him from
Speaker 5: the Detroit Tigers, and there's also two report it's out
Speaker 5: there that well, that's nice. And while you would think
Speaker 5: that a reunion would be possible, it doesn't sound like
Speaker 5: Bregman's too keen on going to Detroit, which offensively, I
Speaker 5: can absolutely understand, because that seemingly is one of those spots.
Speaker 5: I mean, usually it's the West Coast teams where offense
Speaker 5: goes to die. I mean, not so much Dodger Stadium anymore,
Speaker 5: but I mean that was remember back in about twenty ten,
Speaker 5: twenty eleven when Albert Poohle signed with them, and people
Speaker 5: were kind of looking at Pooholes saying, all right, you.
Speaker 3: Got the bag.
Speaker 5: We understand that, but man, a lot of those balls
Speaker 5: that you hit at Bush Stadium are not going to
Speaker 5: go out at Angels Stadium, so you know, those numbers
Speaker 5: are going to kind of go down a little bit.
Speaker 5: Anthony Rendon hadn't worked out for him since he's gone
Speaker 5: out there, so Detroit is kind of considered to be
Speaker 5: one of those places, not one of the best hitters
Speaker 5: parks in all at baseball.
Speaker 3: And of course you know that they're an organization. When
Speaker 3: they're the.
Speaker 5: Most successful, it seemingly is predicated on how strong they're
Speaker 5: pitching is and last year it was outstanding. I mean,
Speaker 5: don't we know we been there before, haven't we as
Speaker 5: Astro fans seeing how good that Tiger's pitching staff was.
Speaker 5: But anyway, that's where things stand at the moment. With
Speaker 5: Alex Bregman. I threw out an invite to Ari Alexander
Speaker 5: of KPRC two to hop on with us this morning.
Speaker 5: Haven't heard back from him, but if he gets back
Speaker 5: to me and can, I think we're gonna try to
Speaker 5: get him in in the second hour of the show.
Speaker 5: But I mean, yeah, it's exciting, nonetheless for Astro season
Speaker 5: to be fired up. We're ready to go and here
Speaker 5: in just a few short weeks we're gonna start having
Speaker 5: spring training games for you here on Sports Talk seven
Speaker 5: to ninety. And I mean there's still questions with the
Speaker 5: Astros two outside of Bregman. Number one, first and foremost
Speaker 5: is who's playing left field for you. I mean, that's
Speaker 5: gonna be a question that's continued to be asked the
Speaker 5: last time before we start heading out to spring training.
Speaker 5: And know that Gordy and the Matt Thomas Show with Ross,
Speaker 5: they're gonna be out there this year for us. The
Speaker 5: last time we're gonna be chance to talk with Dana
Speaker 5: Brown is on Tuesday when the Astros have their media
Speaker 5: function and he and Joe A. Spada will meet with
Speaker 5: us one last time before they get in their cars,
Speaker 5: hop on a plane, whatever way possible to get down
Speaker 5: the West Palm Beach for the start of spring training.
Speaker 5: And you've got to believe that, you know, Dana Brown
Speaker 5: has been vocal about trying to add a left handed
Speaker 5: bat to this lineup, and I mean, you know, I
Speaker 5: can understand on the surface where he's going with this
Speaker 5: in terms of you want to balance off the lineup,
Speaker 5: but I mean, I just, for the life of me,
Speaker 5: I can't really understand why it's been for the last
Speaker 5: couple of years such a huge emphasis on, oh, left
Speaker 5: handed bat, left handed bat.
Speaker 3: We got to add a left handed bat.
Speaker 5: Play to your ballpark, man, like that short porch out
Speaker 5: there and right excuse me out there in left field.
Speaker 3: The Crawford boxes play to it.
Speaker 5: And I mean that's why I think, if you know,
Speaker 5: you don't necessarily need to be specific about either a
Speaker 5: right handed or a left handed bat. In this case,
Speaker 5: I would think that if you have a good option
Speaker 5: for a right handed bat, you know, have that in
Speaker 5: your lineup and have that at your disposals. So we'll
Speaker 5: see what they end up doing. But that's when we're
Speaker 5: gonna have a chance to catch up with Dana Brown.
Speaker 5: And I've got some thoughts too on Bregman. I've already
Speaker 5: shared some of them with you, will recycle some of
Speaker 5: those here on today's show. But one other thing that
Speaker 5: I was thinking on my way in that we'll get
Speaker 5: into here as the show goes along. Also to the
Speaker 5: Rockets in action tonight taking on the Brooklyn Nets over
Speaker 5: there at the Toyota Center. Seven o'clock tip, six o'clock
Speaker 5: Rockets launchpad coming your way, Rossville, Reale.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be with you to get you set up.
Speaker 5: For the Rockets, which I mean a return home a
Speaker 5: place that's funny. You know how much a year makes
Speaker 5: a difference, right, and you know the Rockets last year
Speaker 5: on the road. I mean it was about to this
Speaker 5: time of the season before, they got their first road
Speaker 5: win and they are road warriors this year. And the
Speaker 5: other night, notwithstanding, it was a frustrating finish there at Memphis.
Speaker 5: Who's definitely wanted to see it go a different direction,
Speaker 5: but ended up not going at your direction as the
Speaker 5: Rockets losing that one nineteen. So now they're trying to
Speaker 5: be able to have a bounce back win tonight against
Speaker 5: the Nets, and the NBA trade deadline coming up later
Speaker 5: on this week, so I'm gonna have a chance to
Speaker 5: see if rafel Stone is going to be one of
Speaker 5: the more active gms out there, or if he's going
Speaker 5: to stay true to his word and say now we're
Speaker 5: going to run with this group. And it sounds like
Speaker 5: at least a lot of NBA insiders out there aren't
Speaker 5: mentioning the Rockets for that very reason, because rafel Stone
Speaker 5: has been pretty vocal from the beginning, I mean even
Speaker 5: before the season, talking about they really like this group.
Speaker 3: I want to see what this group can do.
Speaker 5: And this group is thirty two and fifteen, so that's
Speaker 5: hard to argue with the results of what they've been
Speaker 5: able to put together so far, even without Jabari Smith
Speaker 5: Junior being in the lineup. Amen Thompson obviously has played
Speaker 5: himself into one of the right you know, a chance
Speaker 5: to be one of the rising stars in this league.
Speaker 5: And that's what he's hoping to be able to build
Speaker 5: on this season and beyond.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: On the offensive end, Jalen Green has been able to
Speaker 5: take a step forward this year. Alprin Shingoon I think
Speaker 5: has shown a lot of defensive improvement and that has taken.
Speaker 3: His game to the next level.
Speaker 5: And earlier this week we found out with Alpi he's
Speaker 5: an NBA All Star. So looking forward to seeing him
Speaker 5: as part of that NBA All Star Game tournament that
Speaker 5: they're going to have here in a few weeks.
Speaker 3: But we're winding down.
Speaker 5: Get to the trade not only the trade deadline, but
Speaker 5: also too to the All Star break. So the Rockets
Speaker 5: trying to be able to hold serve where they are
Speaker 5: as the second seed in the Western Conference at the moment.
Speaker 5: And I mean, it's really to this point and hopefully
Speaker 5: let's see, is there any wood.
Speaker 3: Around here that I can knock on?
Speaker 5: Yeah, there we go, knock on wood that the Rockets
Speaker 5: look like they are in prime position to be one
Speaker 5: of the top six seeds in the Western Conference and
Speaker 5: keep themselves out of the play in tournament.
Speaker 3: That would be nice.
Speaker 5: You'd like to be able to stay inside the top
Speaker 5: four and at least host an opening round series at
Speaker 5: Toyota Center and be able to have playoff basketball back
Speaker 5: in there. I mean, I was even thinking about that
Speaker 5: last night, you know, just thinking how fun that would
Speaker 5: be late spring. I mean, we know how the vibes
Speaker 5: are inside Toyota Center that time of the year, and
Speaker 5: hoping that we can see that again. You know, you
Speaker 5: go there, you get a T shirt right there on
Speaker 5: your seat, throw the T shirt on and start cheering
Speaker 5: along with other Rocket fans to pull their team through
Speaker 5: and hopefully see them make a deep playoff run.
Speaker 3: So that is something.
Speaker 5: That we are hoping is in the cards this year
Speaker 5: for the Rockets. As well as going to get into
Speaker 5: a little bit of Texans conversation here later on in
Speaker 5: the hour, we're gonna have a chance to let you
Speaker 5: hear a visit that we had a couple of days
Speaker 5: Excuse me, you know, get me all choked up thinking
Speaker 5: about it a couple of days ago with Ross Tucker
Speaker 5: of Westwood One and also with CBS Sports as he
Speaker 5: joined us on the a team, and he had some
Speaker 5: interesting thoughts twofold number one on the Texans offensive coordinator
Speaker 5: opening with Bobby Slowak being shown the door, and also
Speaker 5: too with the offensive line. I mean, he had some
Speaker 5: really sharp opinions of one guy who I think there
Speaker 5: was a little bit of a love hate relationship with
Speaker 5: this Texans offensive lineman, and I think you know who
Speaker 5: I'm going with that. But it was as soon as
Speaker 5: you said it, we all kind of looked at each other,
Speaker 5: Adam and Adam and me me looking at him through
Speaker 5: the camera in my little studio. But still as soon
Speaker 5: as he said it, we were just like, wow, man,
Speaker 5: that is an indictment if there ever was one on
Speaker 5: the play of a guy. But anyway, we'll let you
Speaker 5: hear from Ross Tucker here in about fifteen minutes or so,
Speaker 5: we're going to replay that interview for you.
Speaker 3: But all of that is a fair game.
Speaker 5: Everything else of the sort is going to be fair
Speaker 5: game here on the show today. If you want to
Speaker 5: hop a board, you can do so. Subon one three
Speaker 5: two one two five seven ninety once again that's seven
Speaker 5: one three two one two five seven nine zero and
Speaker 5: coming up next. While optimism is still there, for the Astros.
Speaker 5: Some question that needs to be some questions need to
Speaker 5: be answered before you decide to go down the road
Speaker 5: of a reunion with Alex Bregman. We'll discuss that on
Speaker 5: the other side. And like I said, if you want
Speaker 5: to hop a board on the phone lines, you are
Speaker 5: willing and able and they are available. It's Sebone three
Speaker 5: two one two five seven ninety. Once again, that's Sebon
Speaker 5: one three two one two five seven nine zero. It's
Speaker 5: San Matthews here live at Cedar Creek Cafe, West twentieth
Speaker 5: Street and Beal Street. Why don't you come on out
Speaker 5: and see us, as we'll be here on the show
Speaker 5: from ten until noon, and then starting at one o'clock
Speaker 5: we're gonna be getting things fired up for the sixth
Speaker 5: annual Gumbo Cookoff. So come on out, swing through and
Speaker 5: enjoy this beautiful Saturday afternoon as we'll continue here on
Speaker 5: Space City Saturday, on your home of the Astros and
Speaker 5: the Rockets.
Speaker 3: Sports Talk seven.
Speaker 1: Ninety Space City Saturday continues fine Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5: Sports Talk seven ninety Ian Matthews here with you. I
Speaker 5: gotta tell you, you know set in tone, I don't
Speaker 5: think anybody does it better for my money than Melvin Brown.
Speaker 5: My guy knows how to set the mood every single time.
Speaker 5: And of course, get the washports going right there, get
Speaker 5: the zydecode going. I think we're gonna have a little
Speaker 5: bit of that out here at the sixth Annual Gumbo Cookoff.
Speaker 5: As if you missed the first segment, We're live here
Speaker 5: at Cedar Creek Cafe at the corner of West twentieth
Speaker 5: Street and beal here in the Heights. It's an absolutely
Speaker 5: beautiful day out here already, and it's supposed to get
Speaker 5: even better as the day goes long. I mean, I
Speaker 5: mentioned it. There is not a single cloud in the sky.
Speaker 5: The sun is high up in the sky, it is shining,
Speaker 5: and I mean it is just perfect, perfect outside. Maybe
Speaker 5: like a nice little quarter zip pullover or something like that,
Speaker 5: if you want to come out here and enjoy a
Speaker 5: little bit of brunch before the gumbo starts getting served.
Speaker 5: But then you know, I think a little bit later
Speaker 5: on you're gonna be able to take that quarter zip off,
Speaker 5: throw it in the car and be able to just
Speaker 5: enjoy some beautiful weather out here. I mean, you can't
Speaker 5: dial up a better day than it's gonna be here
Speaker 5: for the six to annual Gumbo Cookoff. Last year when
Speaker 5: we were out here a little chili, a little cloudy,
Speaker 5: a little bit of a dreary day, but that is
Speaker 5: not the case today. I mean, spring is right around
Speaker 5: the corner, and we know that spring gets going and
Speaker 5: we get a little hint of spring, because I mean,
Speaker 5: I think we can agree we've got really pretty much
Speaker 5: two seasons weatherwise here in Houston. I mean, you know,
Speaker 5: pushback if you disagree, but we've got a hint of fall,
Speaker 5: and I would say that probably the two categories that
Speaker 5: you can throw. Weather here in the city of Houston
Speaker 5: is not quite as hot and then summer blazing hot,
Speaker 5: whereas Clanton calls it the blowtorch, and we know that
Speaker 5: feels it is not like that right now. So it
Speaker 5: is an amazing day. So you know, when we get
Speaker 5: to June, July, August, you're gonna be begging for days
Speaker 5: like this of saying, man, you know, what'd be nice
Speaker 5: to be in the sixties seventies, feel to be outside.
Speaker 5: So that is at your disposal today wants you to
Speaker 5: swing on through and see us again. We are here
Speaker 5: at Cedar Creek. The Fund's gonna get started at one
Speaker 5: o'clock already see them setting up the live music stage.
Speaker 3: And I mentioned it too.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, if you could smell through your
Speaker 5: speakers right now, the smells that I have hitting me
Speaker 5: in the nose at this moment. I mean, you've got
Speaker 5: the Holy Trinity going, You've got the root starting to
Speaker 5: be made.
Speaker 3: They're gonna start really.
Speaker 5: Boiling up that gumbo and start having fun out here,
Speaker 5: and the drinks are gonna be good, all of those things.
Speaker 5: It's it's an elite Saturday, what can we say? And
Speaker 5: I know that we have the open to the show
Speaker 5: of talking about you can't drink all day if you
Speaker 5: don't start now. I don't know of a better open
Speaker 5: the show, in a better hitting open to the show
Speaker 5: today than that one. Because it's gonna be awesome. It's
Speaker 5: gonna be a ton of fun. So I've drowned on
Speaker 5: long enough about that. It is going to be a
Speaker 5: fun time. So swing on through and see us as again.
Speaker 5: The fun will start at one o'clock again. Someone three
Speaker 5: two one two five seven ninety is the number to
Speaker 5: get in on the phone line seven one three two
Speaker 5: one two five seven nine zero.
Speaker 3: And uh, you know wanted.
Speaker 5: To be able to get into a little bit of
Speaker 5: Astro's discussion here with Alex Bregman as the Astros and
Speaker 5: Bregman still on the holding pattern, still waiting.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's kind of at that point.
Speaker 5: I brought this up last night, and Melvin, of course,
Speaker 5: was with me on the Nightcap where it's the gif
Speaker 5: that's on Twitter of the stick figure that's holding a
Speaker 5: literal stick poking at something and saying, hey, do something, Mike.
Speaker 5: I feel like that's Astro fans right now with this situation.
Speaker 5: And it's not even a Dana Brown thing, it's not
Speaker 5: even necessarily an Alex Bregman thing. I think that pretty
Speaker 5: much everyone is in the same category as me of
Speaker 5: just come to a decision one way or another.
Speaker 3: Man like, are you coming back cool? We'll be happy.
Speaker 5: We'll you know, all be wearing our Bregman number two
Speaker 5: jerseys and it will be exciting to see you coming
Speaker 5: out to the plate to either Boosy or to Little Troy,
Speaker 5: either of those songs. Is you know, we're we're eagerly anticipating.
Speaker 5: And of course, you know public address announcer Bob Ford,
Speaker 5: you know the dirt Basement Number two I've had a
Speaker 5: better Bob Ford before.
Speaker 3: But anyway, is there optimism to believe that Bregman is
Speaker 3: going to come back.
Speaker 5: We'll get to that here in just a second. But
Speaker 5: reality is that there is a chance that he could be. Hey,
Speaker 5: I don't know, Chicago cub a Detroit Tiger.
Speaker 3: He who knows.
Speaker 5: Maybe even the Mets decide that Pete Alonzo is not
Speaker 5: for them and they want Alex Bregman to be part
Speaker 5: of the Mets this season. That's in the cards as well.
Speaker 5: That could be a possibility. We'll all see. But Jeff Blum,
Speaker 5: of course, we know him. He joins us on the
Speaker 5: A team every single week, we see him in TK
Speaker 5: and Julia on Space City Home Network during the season.
Speaker 3: Does a tremendous job there. We love Blumber.
Speaker 5: I mean, we cannot talk about the mutual admiration society
Speaker 5: for Jeff Blum enough. The man is an absolute treasure
Speaker 5: and we love seeing and hearing him on Space City
Speaker 5: Saturday and with us on.
Speaker 3: The A team.
Speaker 5: But he joined majorly MLB Network earlier this week and
Speaker 5: he talked about at least the pessimistic view of Okay,
Speaker 5: Alex Bregman's not here, What does this team look like
Speaker 5: at the corners without Alex.
Speaker 6: Bregman, if you actually took last year's corner positions and
Speaker 6: added up their total in stats, I think going into
Speaker 6: twenty twenty five, the combination, I'm not saying the individuals,
Speaker 6: but the combination might actually be better in twenty twenty
Speaker 6: five for the Astros. And I've been just looking at
Speaker 6: the American League West. I think the Astros are still
Speaker 6: in pretty good shape and to contend.
Speaker 5: And look, it's not necessarily an indictment of Bregman what
Speaker 5: he's saying right there.
Speaker 3: It is more of just the situation.
Speaker 5: And I don't think anybody's going to push back on
Speaker 5: Blumber with what he just said, because first base it
Speaker 5: was very much a revolving door last year of you
Speaker 5: got a couple of really good weeks out of John Singleton,
Speaker 5: and then John Singleton became probably what he is in
Speaker 5: his career, a guy that's a good bat off the
Speaker 5: bench when you need him.
Speaker 3: But to be able to count on him.
Speaker 5: For long term production, that's just not necessarily something that
Speaker 5: I think you can realistically expect. And I mean you've
Speaker 5: worked other guys over there, you know, Victor Carratini, Zach
Speaker 5: de Zenzo, whoever you've thrown over there at first base.
Speaker 5: The moral of the story is, since you hoisted up
Speaker 5: the Commissioner's Trophy in twenty twelve, excuse me twenty twenty two,
Speaker 5: getting my years mixed up here.
Speaker 3: Twenty twelve was not a good year for the Astros.
Speaker 5: Twenty twenty two for the Astros when Julie Guriel was
Speaker 5: your everyday first baseman, you've not necessarily had any stability
Speaker 5: over there, you thought, and at least you hoped that
Speaker 5: you were going to get that when you signed Jose
Speaker 5: Bray you to a three year deal, and he started
Speaker 5: off slow but then picked it up and had some
Speaker 5: good moments in his first season. Last year, obviously we
Speaker 5: saw that he was a guy that was a complete
Speaker 5: shell of what he used to be as a player,
Speaker 5: and the Astros decided it was bad enough that even
Speaker 5: with sending him out to West Palm Beach, this just
Speaker 5: isn't gonna get any better. So let's eat the money
Speaker 5: and let's send him on his way. It's not about
Speaker 5: the guy, it's just he's just not the player he
Speaker 5: was anymore. And with both Christian Walker and Essak Perettis
Speaker 5: combined Blumber's not wrong, especially on the offensive end. While
Speaker 5: Perettis over at third base, maybe you do take a
Speaker 5: little bit of a step back with the glove because
Speaker 5: Breugman is elite with the glove over.
Speaker 3: At third base.
Speaker 5: You know that there's a ball hit to him over
Speaker 5: there more than likely, if it is a tougher variety
Speaker 5: of a play, he's gonna make it. If it's one
Speaker 5: that's a routine play, he's gonna make it. And he's
Speaker 5: not perfect by any means. He'll have his throwing years,
Speaker 5: he'll have his mishaps over there. There's every single player,
Speaker 5: even the best fielders in all of baseball, that's going
Speaker 5: to be the case. But power wise, probably across the
Speaker 5: board offensively, Peretis is a guy that there is a
Speaker 5: little bit of an upgrade there, at least from the
Speaker 5: offensive perspective at third base. And then of course with
Speaker 5: Christian Walker it's twofold, it's number one. You're getting a
Speaker 5: three time goal glove winner over there at first base,
Speaker 5: and you're also getting a guy that can be able
Speaker 5: to put the ball over the wall out in left field,
Speaker 5: and with that right handed bat, that short porch Crawford
Speaker 5: boxes out there and left. You really like the possibility
Speaker 5: that he can kind of take that part of his
Speaker 5: game to the next level. So Blumber's not wrong right there,
Speaker 5: all right, the optimistic view of it.
Speaker 3: Now, I understand when you hear this, you're.
Speaker 5: Gonna say, well, of course Blummer would say that he's
Speaker 5: part of the TV crew. He's Astros through and through
Speaker 5: two times during his career, part of this team. Really
Speaker 5: loved his time with this organization. Of course he's going
Speaker 5: to feel this way. But just listen to why Jeff
Speaker 5: Blum believes there is a reason if you're an Astros
Speaker 5: fan who wants a reunion with Alex Bregman to believe
Speaker 5: it can happen.
Speaker 6: My gut as he comes back, I just think man
Speaker 6: for me personally. And you know this two case. When
Speaker 6: you're in a ballpark where you've had a lot of
Speaker 6: success and you've got a ballpark that's built for your swing,
Speaker 6: I think Alex Bregman is the absolute prototype to put
Speaker 6: in a place like Minute Made Park. And he's also
Speaker 6: the guy that kind of is He's the stick that
Speaker 6: stirs their drink inside that clubhouse. Losing him wouldn't be
Speaker 6: just losing production at third base or a gold Glove
Speaker 6: at third base. It would be losing a guy who's
Speaker 6: your pitching coach, hitting coach, infield coach on the field
Speaker 6: in the middle of the game. He really proved to
Speaker 6: be a value for these guys emotionally and mentally.
Speaker 7: Everything that he.
Speaker 3: Said is true.
Speaker 5: I mean, we've heard it numerous times now from jose
Speaker 5: Al Tuove that he wants Alex Bregman back. I mean,
Speaker 5: just this last week at this time, we were inside
Speaker 5: Minute Made Park for FanFest and jose A L. Two
Speaker 5: Vay speaking with orders, saying, yeah, I'll move to the
Speaker 5: left field if he's back, because I want that guy
Speaker 5: back here that badly. Like I'm willing to move off
Speaker 5: of second base if that means that we have him
Speaker 5: in the lineup. And I mean you've heard all of
Speaker 5: the countless examples of how great of a teammate he
Speaker 5: is both position players and even pitchers too. I mean,
Speaker 5: he's the guy whenever there's a meeting at the mound,
Speaker 5: he's the one that's the most vocal. And you know,
Speaker 5: ever since Carlos Correa was here, it seemed like somebody
Speaker 5: needed to pick up that void that was left when
Speaker 5: he went up to Minnesota. And Bregman is a guy
Speaker 5: that absolutely carried that Mantle and Hunter Brown, I mean
Speaker 5: giving him direct credit for last year's resurgence and turnaround
Speaker 5: mid season that he had to be one of the
Speaker 5: better pitchers in all of baseball. That Alex Bregman was
Speaker 5: the guy that told him, Hey, run that two seam
Speaker 5: run that sinker in on right handed hitters. You do
Speaker 5: that with your electric fastball, you're gonna start getting outs,
Speaker 5: and you're gonna start finding the zone and you're gonna
Speaker 5: start missing barrels. And that's exactly what Hunter Brown was
Speaker 5: able to do. And he became a real bright spot
Speaker 5: for you in twenty twenty four, and you're hoping he
Speaker 5: can carry that over into twenty five. And then if
Speaker 5: you were listening to Jeremy Pania on with Sean Salisbury
Speaker 5: and Brian Lima, and he talked about how you know
Speaker 5: Bregman is such a baseball lifer. At two o'clock in
Speaker 5: the morning, he'll feel his phone vibrating, see that it's a.
Speaker 3: FaceTime.
Speaker 5: Then I would probably imagine that Jeremy Pania has him
Speaker 5: as Breggy in his phone, So I'm sure that probably
Speaker 5: you know he's got that you know maybe the picture
Speaker 5: if he's got it on his iPhone, pops up there
Speaker 5: and he swipes it to open up the FaceTime call
Speaker 5: and it's Bregman telling them, Hey, this is how these
Speaker 5: guys are going to attack you tomorrow, Like you need
Speaker 5: to be able to look for this pitch and if
Speaker 5: you get it here in this count then that's where
Speaker 5: you need to try to be able to attack the
Speaker 5: picture in that situation. So all of those things, I mean,
Speaker 5: you know, again the countless examples of what Alex Bregman
Speaker 5: brings to the field, and then also too in the clubhouse.
Speaker 5: So he's definitely somebody that has a lot of people,
Speaker 5: you know in Dana rounds Ears saying hey, Dana, like,
Speaker 5: let's make this happen.
Speaker 3: Let's bring this guy back. He belongs here.
Speaker 5: He's an Astro, and you want to be able to
Speaker 5: try to see it through. And of course, if he
Speaker 5: did sign a six year deal with the Astros, that
Speaker 5: probably would be towards the back end of his career
Speaker 5: where I think you could probably make the announcement and
Speaker 5: say he's an Astro for life. So we'll see if
Speaker 5: indeed that is the case when it's all said and done,
Speaker 5: The Texans are looking for a new offensive coordinator and
Speaker 5: Ross Tucker CBS Sports and west Wood One.
Speaker 3: He joined us earlier this week on the A team.
Speaker 5: He had some interesting thoughts about the Texans vacancy on
Speaker 5: the coaching staff and also too about the offensive line
Speaker 5: as a whole.
Speaker 3: We will hear.
Speaker 5: From Ross who joined us on the A team on
Speaker 5: a Thursday, so we'll have that for you here on
Speaker 5: the other side as we continue to roll along here
Speaker 5: again from Cedar Creek Cafe, corner of West twentieth and
Speaker 5: beal here in the heights.
Speaker 3: Come on out, check us out.
Speaker 5: We'll be here until noon and then the fun with
Speaker 5: the six annual Gumbo Cookoff gonna get going at one o'clock.
Speaker 5: As we'll continue to roll along here on at Space
Speaker 5: City Saturday on You're Home with the Astros and the Rockets.
Speaker 3: Sports Talk seven.
Speaker 1: Ninety Welcome back to Space City Saturday Fine Sports Talk
Speaker 1: Saturday ninety.
Speaker 5: There we go and Matthews here live from Cedar Creek Cafe,
Speaker 5: Zydecoe setting the mood sixth annual Gumbo Cookoff happening out
Speaker 5: here at Cedar Creek Cafe again at the corner of
Speaker 5: West twentieth and beal swing on through the drinks. I mean,
Speaker 5: you know, I've told you about the brunch too that
Speaker 5: they have here at Cedar Creek Cafe. It's elite, it's fantastic,
Speaker 5: and I already see people enjoying some of that brunch
Speaker 5: out here. I mean, even Saul look like a runners
Speaker 5: group of people. I mean, I know we just had
Speaker 5: the Houston Marathon, but still people wanting to get their
Speaker 5: miles in this morning. Melvin Brown, I know you're a
Speaker 5: big guy that likes to throw on the jogging shoes
Speaker 5: and get out there on the road and get some
Speaker 5: of your miles in. So people burning off the calories
Speaker 5: this morning and then getting in here and saying, hey,
Speaker 5: let's put some of those calories back on, and this
Speaker 5: is a good place to be able to do that
Speaker 5: with some great food, great drink, and of course, later
Speaker 5: on this afternoon, starting at one o'clock, great Gumbo, the
Speaker 5: Great Gumbo Cookoff happening out here at Cedar Creek Cafe.
Speaker 5: We did have a caller who brought up a good
Speaker 5: point and wanted to shout out the Koogs and Texas
Speaker 5: tech Red Raiders taking on each other a little bit
Speaker 5: later on today over at Fertida Center. Of course you're
Speaker 5: going to have that call on the u of H
Speaker 5: radio network over on KPRC nine fifty as the Coogs.
Speaker 5: They are rolling, man, they are playing some really good basketball.
Speaker 5: Of course, the Thriller in Lawrence, Kansas last week against
Speaker 5: the Jayhawks as they were able to take down KU.
Speaker 3: That was fun.
Speaker 5: And before we get to Ross Tucker here, I mean,
Speaker 5: I do want to be able to talk about that
Speaker 5: a little bit since we didn't have a chance to
Speaker 5: talk about it because the show had happened before that game.
Speaker 3: But what a wild ending.
Speaker 5: I mean where I was watching the game, twenty eight
Speaker 5: point three seconds left to go in the game and
Speaker 5: the Kougs are down by six there in overtime, and
Speaker 5: the place I was at we paid our tab and
Speaker 5: I told Megan, my fiance, I was like, I was like,
Speaker 5: let's go.
Speaker 3: It's it's done.
Speaker 5: And we had to make a stop on our way
Speaker 5: home and we make the stop and I see on
Speaker 5: my Apple car play my mom had texted me, so
Speaker 5: make the stop. Open up my phone see what the
Speaker 5: text is and it was, oh my goodness, and I'm
Speaker 5: like what. So then I opened up an app to
Speaker 5: get the score. And I saw there in the second
Speaker 5: overtime and the Kugs are up by five at that point,
Speaker 5: and I'm like, the hell just happened? And of course
Speaker 5: later able to go watch the highlights and see that
Speaker 5: the Kougs get the quick three pointer and then the
Speaker 5: inbound for KU the steal, the scoop over to the
Speaker 5: open man to shoot the three and make the three
Speaker 5: and then send them to the second ot, and I
Speaker 5: think at that point it was completely momentum on U
Speaker 5: of HS side, and they pretty much dominated there in
Speaker 5: that second overtime. So Kelvin Sampson and the crew doing
Speaker 5: a great job. A little bit of a sluggish start
Speaker 5: out of the gate, as you lose at Toyota Center
Speaker 5: to Auburn, then you lose a couple of games out
Speaker 5: there in Vegas around Thanksgiving time to Alabama and San
Speaker 5: Diego State. But ever since that San Diego State game,
Speaker 5: this team has looked almost unbeatable, and that's exactly what
Speaker 5: they've been. So again, five o'clock today, Koog's and Red
Speaker 5: Raiders over on KPRC nine at fifty. I was gonna
Speaker 5: do Ross Tucker right here. We'll actually do that on
Speaker 5: the other side, and I do want to before we,
Speaker 5: you know, close up shop here today, share some thoughts
Speaker 5: on the Texans OC opening because I think that probably
Speaker 5: a lot of you have similar thoughts to what I have.
Speaker 5: Maybe you're a little bit different. That's the that's the
Speaker 5: beauty of sports radio. So if you feel different so
Speaker 5: or even if you agree, doesn't matter. I don't have
Speaker 5: to have everybody that agrees with me. I'm good with that.
Speaker 3: I'm a grown I'm a grown boy. I can handle it.
Speaker 5: If you think that I'm off on my assessment of
Speaker 5: the situation, please some one three, two, one two five
Speaker 5: seven ninet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got no problem with it. I got no
Speaker 3: gripe with you.
Speaker 5: But anyway, the Texans trying to figure out who is
Speaker 5: going to replace Bobby Slowik and also Chris Strausser as well.
Speaker 5: I mean, it sounds like that they're pretty full speed
Speaker 5: ahead at the moment of trying to replace slow x
Speaker 5: opening and after that, I'm assuming that once they have
Speaker 5: their OC hired, that coach will be consulted pretty heavily
Speaker 5: on Okay, you know, who do you think fits your
Speaker 5: scheme from a blocking perspective on the offensive line, And
Speaker 5: that's when they'll replace Chris Strausser there, so we'll see
Speaker 5: if that's the case. But I mean the names are
Speaker 5: coming in a plenty. I mean, I don't have the
Speaker 5: Adam Wexler spreadsheet in front of me, but we can
Speaker 5: go through some of those possibilities, and it does sound
Speaker 5: like chip Kelly is out.
Speaker 3: I mean, at least, you.
Speaker 5: Know, the Texans were not the only ones who were
Speaker 5: connected to possibly being interested in him. But as we've
Speaker 5: found out with Bill Belichick in the college game, recruiting
Speaker 5: season is kind of winding down before they hit the
Speaker 5: dead period, and chip Kelly was out on the road
Speaker 5: recruiting and doing that. So you know, I also wonder
Speaker 5: if maybe with Ohio State losing Jim Knowles to Penn State,
Speaker 5: if they want to be able to keep him around
Speaker 5: and try to run it back for another season. As
Speaker 5: you know, they lose Will Howard and mechag Buca as
Speaker 5: well on the offensive end, two really good running backs,
Speaker 5: and Trevion Henderson and quin Shawn Judkins. So having chip
Speaker 5: Kelly around with Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Carnell Tate and
Speaker 5: just a really good offensive group. And they feel pretty
Speaker 5: good about Julian saying too, the quarterback that's going to
Speaker 5: be replacing Will Howard this year. So it sounds like
Speaker 5: Chip Kelly is gonna want to stay up there in
Speaker 5: Columbus and try to make a run at a repeat
Speaker 5: with Ryan Day and the Cruise. So we'll see if
Speaker 5: they're able to do that. But we'll get in some
Speaker 5: of the Texans. Oh see conversation. We'll do that in
Speaker 5: earnest next because I know I promised Ross Tucker right here,
Speaker 5: we just ran out of time. We'll have Ross Tucker
Speaker 5: on the other side, as he joined us a couple
Speaker 5: of days ago on the A team. If you missed
Speaker 5: that visit, you can also catch it on our free,
Speaker 5: new and improved iHeartRadio app for free. Can't say that enough,
Speaker 5: So that's where you can check that out. Seven one
Speaker 5: three two one two five seven ninety is the number
Speaker 5: to get in on the phone lines once again. That's
Speaker 5: seven one three two one two five seven nine zero.
Speaker 5: And as promised, we'll hear from Ross Tucker next as
Speaker 5: we continue to roll along here until noon on Space
Speaker 5: City Saturday. From Cedar Creek Cafe, I'm Dan Matthews here
Speaker 5: on your home of the Astros and the Rockets Sports
Speaker 5: Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: This is Space City Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5: Space City set Dan Matthews here with you. Yeah, got
Speaker 5: the accordion going. Hear the spoons on the washboard right there.
Speaker 5: That's in play, all of those things. And you know
Speaker 5: it's also too before we get to Ross Tucker here
Speaker 5: in a second, looking around and seeing that they've got
Speaker 5: the crawfish flags up.
Speaker 3: I gave this psa out last night. Fight the urge
Speaker 3: when it comes to the mudbugs right now, fight the urge.
Speaker 8: Now.
Speaker 5: I know that the crop this year, all the experts
Speaker 5: out there, and I saw there was a professor that's
Speaker 5: an expert on crawfish population, a professor at LSU throwing
Speaker 5: out that the recent freeze or people were wondering, oh man,
Speaker 5: what's that going to do to the crawfish this year?
Speaker 5: And he said, yeah, it wasn't enough. They were burrowed
Speaker 5: down on the ground. They were good.
Speaker 3: We've had enough rain this year that we're gonna have
Speaker 3: a really, really good crops.
Speaker 5: So that's to look forward to. But I brought this
Speaker 5: up last night. Melbourn could back me up on this.
Speaker 5: This is Gumbo's season at this point, we're still we're
Speaker 5: still in winter time, crawfish season, boil season, all those
Speaker 5: different types of things.
Speaker 3: March April, early May, that's when that gets going.
Speaker 5: So again, you know, wait the twenty eight days now
Speaker 5: and then once we get to March in that time,
Speaker 5: then start cracking them open, start pouring on the cayenne pepper,
Speaker 5: do all that kind of stuff and get.
Speaker 3: It going for crawfish season.
Speaker 5: So it's one throw out that quick little PSA is
Speaker 5: again we're here at Cedar Creek Cafe one o'clock. We're
Speaker 5: gonna get going with the six and annual Gumbo Cookoff
Speaker 5: as they're getting set up.
Speaker 3: Out there right now.
Speaker 5: So looking forward to getting going with that a little
Speaker 5: bit later on as promised. Though a couple of days ago,
Speaker 5: we had a chance to catch up with Ross Tucker,
Speaker 5: CBS Sports and also Westwood One as he joined us
Speaker 5: as part of my front page story dot com.
Speaker 3: As he'll tell you about that at the end.
Speaker 5: You're looking for a Valentine's Anniversary idea, any of those things,
Speaker 5: listening to Ross for that, but a great conversation that
Speaker 5: he had with Ac and WEX, So let's enjoy that
Speaker 5: right now.
Speaker 9: As promised, Lear, we are joined by our good Buddy
Speaker 9: Ross Tucker, It's Adam Wesler, It's Adam Clanton here on
Speaker 9: a Wednesday edition of The A Team. And you know,
Speaker 9: ross this time of year, this lull that comes between
Speaker 9: the Championship weekend and the Super Bowl, some people look
Speaker 9: on it as man, this is just such a long,
Speaker 9: two week, unnecessary period and then got the ramp up
Speaker 9: next week. But here in Houston we have been We've
Speaker 9: gotten a gift bestowed upon us. We are in search
Speaker 9: of an offensive coordinator that will be able to make CJ.
Speaker 9: Stroud comfortable. As we read in an article earlier today,
Speaker 9: what do you think about that situation? Is that not
Speaker 9: one of the most attractive jobs in the NFL that
Speaker 9: awaits a would be new offensive coordinator for the Texans.
Speaker 8: That's interesting because I would say yes and no. Yes,
Speaker 8: because they have talent and you have the ability to
Speaker 8: work with CJ. No in the sense that you know,
Speaker 8: the guy that just got fired was a guy that
Speaker 8: was able to get them to win double digit games
Speaker 8: back to back years, win playoff games, help CJ. Shroud
Speaker 8: have the best rookie season we've ever seen for a quarterback,
Speaker 8: at least until Jade and Daniels this year. So I
Speaker 8: think that's a mixed bag a little bit in that sense,
Speaker 8: because you know, the expectations for whoever they bring in
Speaker 8: are really high. I mean, you're gonna see, you know,
Speaker 8: what happened to the guy before you, and so you know,
Speaker 8: you better really come in and produce or you'll be
Speaker 8: gone too. I mean that's the president that they said
Speaker 8: by moving on from Bobby Flowick.
Speaker 10: That's an interesting way to present it.
Speaker 11: I wouldn't think and you know what, do I know
Speaker 11: an NFL coach would look that, look at that, and
Speaker 11: I don't know Bock at that opportunity because of the
Speaker 11: risk of not success. Isn't that you certainly have more
Speaker 11: time to succeed with a lesser talented team and then
Speaker 11: they don't have to win immediately, which this Texans team
Speaker 11: fired and oc after back to back winning divisions winning
Speaker 11: a playoff game.
Speaker 10: I totally get that.
Speaker 11: Do you think that would actually be a turn off
Speaker 11: for a perspective candidate.
Speaker 8: I think it's a factor. Yeah, I think you know,
Speaker 8: there's pros and cons of every job, and there's certainly
Speaker 8: a lot of pros as it relates to the Texans job,
Speaker 8: and you laid them out and we know what they are.
Speaker 8: But I think if you're an OC with options, I
Speaker 8: think you gotta consider, Okay, well, why did they fire
Speaker 8: Bobby Slowick And what do I need to get done
Speaker 8: to keep my job and not get fired after a year.
Speaker 8: Whereas there's probably other places you can go where the
Speaker 8: expectations are to high and you'd have a little bit
Speaker 8: more time to try to build something. You know that's
Speaker 8: not easy. Ways to just come in and be a
Speaker 8: quick fix, you know. I mean, you're going to be
Speaker 8: teaching Stroud a new offense, something that he hasn't done before,
Speaker 8: and so it better worked because if it doesn't work,
Speaker 8: DJ Stroud is not going anywhere, You're going somewhere. So
Speaker 8: I think that the next coordinator could very easily be
Speaker 8: one and done if they don't take a step forward
Speaker 8: on that side of the ball. I mean, that's the
Speaker 8: only reason why they fired Slowik is because they didn't
Speaker 8: feel like they were productive enough on that side of
Speaker 8: the ball. You know, maybe he needs a scapegoat for
Speaker 8: Stroud taking a step back.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 8: I kind of understood and thought that they would move
Speaker 8: on from the offensive line coach. I did not think
Speaker 8: that they would move on from slowick. But they did,
Speaker 8: so now you better get somebody better, right, I mean,
Speaker 8: that's that's that's the only reason why you do something
Speaker 8: like this.
Speaker 11: I'm curious from your vantage point. You're in the booth
Speaker 11: all season long, college or post side. You do a
Speaker 11: lot of these games. We hear from a lot of
Speaker 11: the analysts, and not very often are they offensive linemen
Speaker 11: like yourself. How did you see what was going wrong
Speaker 11: with the offense that you think is fixable and what
Speaker 11: did you see upfront that may need to be fixed
Speaker 11: through a talent acquisition.
Speaker 8: Yeah, so that that to me is really interesting. I
Speaker 8: think clearly the guys they were rotating through at left
Speaker 8: guard were not good enough, right, I mean, I think
Speaker 8: those guys all struggled. The guys they were putting it
Speaker 8: left guard, it seemed like that, you know, Tita Toward
Speaker 8: probably did it the best when they put him in,
Speaker 8: but the guy before him, Kendrick Green and Kenyan Green
Speaker 8: and Juice Scrubs. You know, those guys really struggled when
Speaker 8: they were in one on one situations.
Speaker 4: But I don't know.
Speaker 8: I also look at like Lermie Tunsel, Okay, I mean
Speaker 8: to guy seventeen, you know, I mean, I think he
Speaker 8: had seventeen penalties, so many false starts. I guess I
Speaker 8: look at it like this. I know, if it's a
Speaker 8: false start that the down doesn't count. But what would
Speaker 8: we think of a left tackle that gave up twelve sacks.
Speaker 8: I mean, they're losing five yards and they're not losing
Speaker 8: the down, but you're still losing five yards. I think
Speaker 8: when your best players lack that attention to detail, it
Speaker 8: kind of rubs off on the rest of the group.
Speaker 8: They clearly had a bunch of mental errors and they
Speaker 8: were not a disciplined, well coached group.
Speaker 4: They just weren't see.
Speaker 9: I can't and I agree with everything you just said,
Speaker 9: and I of the two of us, I'm way harder
Speaker 9: on Laramie Tonsel for that.
Speaker 4: Exactly.
Speaker 11: There's two guys in here, Ross, and one of us
Speaker 11: is thinking right now, and it's not me, it's him,
Speaker 11: He's saying one of us. Ross is talking about what
Speaker 11: I've been saying all year about.
Speaker 9: But the thing is the second part that you talked about,
Speaker 9: the attention to detail, and mainly the last thing you said,
Speaker 9: which is that that team and specifically that position group
Speaker 9: did not look and you use the word that I
Speaker 9: always use discipline. Doesn't that like shock you when you
Speaker 9: consider who the head coach of this team is, because
Speaker 9: I never would think that any part of a Demico
Speaker 9: Ryans led team would be considered undisciplined.
Speaker 10: And yet I one hundred percent agree with you.
Speaker 8: Yeah, Dimigo can only do so much, right. I mean,
Speaker 8: he's the head coach and he's calling the defense. He
Speaker 8: has to have a coordinator that he gives autonomy to
Speaker 8: on the other side of the ball, and it's his show.
Speaker 8: It's his showing you in the side of the ball,
Speaker 8: and you have to delegate at some point, and you
Speaker 8: have to hire better people, and in particular offensive line.
Speaker 8: You know, that's really where they thought the issue was.
Speaker 8: Dimico recognized it, and that's why they're making the change
Speaker 8: that they're making. You know, they realized it was not
Speaker 8: good enough up front, in particular on the offensive side
Speaker 8: of the ball.
Speaker 9: Talking to Russ Tucker here on a Sports Talk seven
Speaker 9: ninety Space City Home Network, and so, okay, my next
Speaker 9: question would be in that vein, talk me out of
Speaker 9: Chip Kelly, because he's at the top of my list.
Speaker 10: I don't know how you feel about him.
Speaker 9: I don't know how much experience you have or interaction
Speaker 9: you have with him, would he be at the top
Speaker 9: of your list? And if not, you know, give me
Speaker 9: some names you think would go well, not just here
Speaker 9: in Houston, but was specifically with CJ. Stroud and assuming
Speaker 9: they're going to address the offensive line we just talked about.
Speaker 8: Yeah, the Chip Kelly ones interesting. I think there'd be
Speaker 8: some positives there, But I don't know. There were a
Speaker 8: bunch of games this year when Ohio State didn't score
Speaker 8: that many points, and I thought that, I mean, they
Speaker 8: have two running backs that are like top fifty picks,
Speaker 8: they have the best receiver in college football, they have
Speaker 8: another receiver is going to be a first round pick.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 8: I wasn't like blown away by what I saw from
Speaker 8: Chip Kelly this year. I thought they had the best player,
Speaker 8: you know, in terms of other candidate, I really don't know.
Speaker 8: I really haven't gone you guys have to throw names
Speaker 8: at me. I haven't really gone through and looked at
Speaker 8: who's out there, who's not out there. I thought Alex
Speaker 8: Van Pelt did a pre darn good job with you know,
Speaker 8: Drake May as a rookie with the Patriots up there
Speaker 8: in New England. I thought Van Pelt, you know, really
Speaker 8: brought him along. Well, former NFL quarterback, so he've got
Speaker 8: that background. He knows what it's like for those guys.
Speaker 8: But again, I think you have to you have to
Speaker 8: tell me some other names that are even out there.
Speaker 8: I haven't really thought about it that much.
Speaker 11: Is an interesting question that it certainly will be answered
Speaker 11: here in Houston and elsewhere where they're looking for ocs
Speaker 11: with a front page story. Well a front page story,
Speaker 11: my front page story dot com. As a matter of facts,
Speaker 11: one of the reasons why you're here Ross, we talked
Speaker 11: to you about this product before, and I call it
Speaker 11: that as we approach the super Bowl, well five days
Speaker 11: after the super Bowl it's Valentine's I think that's a
Speaker 11: little bit too late then to be thinking about a
Speaker 11: very unique gift that you can offer for Valentine's Day.
Speaker 8: You know, it's by far the best Valentine's Day gift
Speaker 8: I've ever seen.
Speaker 4: It really is.
Speaker 8: I mean to talk to a writer for ten minutes
Speaker 8: about how awesome your wife is or is s'gniving another,
Speaker 8: they write this incredible story. It looks like it's on
Speaker 8: the cover of the newspaper. It's framed beautiful pictures of you,
Speaker 8: and I looks at it on the cover of the
Speaker 8: Houston Chronicle. It's awesome to be able to say, Honey,
Speaker 8: I want to do something special for you, so I
Speaker 8: had a story written about you. That just sounds awesome.
Speaker 8: Then she reads the quotes about how I never thank
Speaker 8: her enough. Well, a little thing she does for me
Speaker 8: and the kids. I'm just telling you, guys, they cry
Speaker 8: almost every time, which is awesome and happy tears, by
Speaker 8: the way, and it's hanging up in the house forever.
Speaker 8: It's at the gift that keeps on giving. My front
Speaker 8: page story dot com. My front page story dot com.
Speaker 10: Ross Tucker is the gift that keeps on giving.
Speaker 9: We always appreciate the time you give us and catching
Speaker 9: up with you. Good conversation, and we'll have to do
Speaker 9: it again soon. Thanks so much, Ross.
Speaker 8: That was great you guys.
Speaker 3: All right, So there you go.
Speaker 5: Ross Tucker joining us earlier this week on the A Team.
Speaker 5: Go check it out if you missed any of that
Speaker 5: on the free and new and improved iHeart Radio app.
Speaker 3: That is where you can.
Speaker 5: Find that discussion. All right, coming up next, some of
Speaker 5: the things that Ross just talked about. I do want
Speaker 5: to react to on the other side. But when it
Speaker 5: comes to the Texans OC opening, this is the one
Speaker 5: thing that I think needs to be answered about finding
Speaker 5: the right guy. We'll discuss that as we open up
Speaker 5: the eleven o'clock hour here from Cedar Creek Cafe right
Speaker 5: here West twentieth Street at the corner of West twentieth
Speaker 5: and Beale here in the heights. Come on out join
Speaker 5: us as we'll be on with you for another hour
Speaker 5: and then one o'clock we're gonna get going for the
Speaker 5: sixth annual Gumbo Cookoff from out here. Dan Matthews here
Speaker 5: with you on your home of the Astros and the Rockets.
Speaker 3: Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: Welcome board, Welcome to another Space City Saturday on Sports
Speaker 1: Talk seven ninety Dad Matthews Live and local h town
Speaker 1: breakdown of the world that matters to you, the Houston
Speaker 1: sports world.
Speaker 3: All these great Houston fans here. We love you all.
Speaker 4: So finish up on that to do list.
Speaker 1: Flute up the cooler, because you can't drink in talk
Speaker 1: sports all day if you don't start. Now bear me
Speaker 1: the eight. This is Space City Saturday.
Speaker 4: It's insane. Here's seven nineties Dad Matthews.
Speaker 5: And I can't think of a better open to an
Speaker 5: hour than what you just heard right there, because I
Speaker 5: mean you heard the beers.
Speaker 3: Being put on the ice. Well, here's the good news.
Speaker 5: When you come out here to Cedar Creek Cafe, you
Speaker 5: don't have to worry about lugging around coolers or anything
Speaker 5: like that.
Speaker 3: The coolers are here.
Speaker 5: They're all here, So just walk up to the bar,
Speaker 5: order you a nice cold beverage and be able to
Speaker 5: enjoy this just picture perfect day. It's amazing out here
Speaker 5: as I sit here on at the patio here at
Speaker 5: Cedar Creek Cafe, And in a couple of hours we're
Speaker 5: gonna get going with the sixth annual Gumbo cook Off.
Speaker 5: And I can't tell you, I mean, I can't tell
Speaker 5: you enough how good it smells out here right now.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm smelling the cayenne pepper.
Speaker 5: I'm smelling everything that's going into the gumbo that's being
Speaker 5: cooked up out here. And I mean, you know, there's
Speaker 5: many different ways to enjoy your gumbo too. I mean
Speaker 5: there's chicken and sausage you can have that you can
Speaker 5: go with seafood variety. I mean, when it comes to
Speaker 5: seafood for me, tripping crab that suffices enough. I'm a
Speaker 5: thick grew guy myself. I like it to be a
Speaker 5: little thicker and be able to, you know, have it
Speaker 5: really stick to your bones whenever you enjoy some gumbo.
Speaker 5: But also too you want to throw it over a
Speaker 5: bed of rice, you can do that. Some people also too,
Speaker 5: which I didn't find this out until a few years ago.
Speaker 5: Potato salad with gumbo is a huge thing, and i'd
Speaker 5: finally tried it.
Speaker 3: I'm a big potato salad guy.
Speaker 5: I know not everybody is, because I know mustard mayonnaise
Speaker 5: it kind of weird some people out. But throwing some
Speaker 5: good potato salad in there and be able to enjoy
Speaker 5: it that way, it's pretty darn good. So if you
Speaker 5: never tried it and you're a potato salad fan, I
Speaker 5: suggest it.
Speaker 3: It'll change your life.
Speaker 5: But anyway, we're gonna be out here for the sixth
Speaker 5: annual Gumbo Cookoff. I mean, you've been hearing me, you've
Speaker 5: been hearing other promos for the event. As they're gonna
Speaker 5: have live music, they're gonna have face painting. Maybe you
Speaker 5: have a couple of the beverages and you decide you
Speaker 5: want to try your luck at the Mechanical Bowl. That's
Speaker 5: gonna be here, that's gonna be there, and of course
Speaker 5: the gumbo gonna be out here, So come on out
Speaker 5: join us. And I mean, you have no excuses today.
Speaker 5: If you're looking for something to do and you want
Speaker 5: to be able to enjoy some beautiful weather and some
Speaker 5: good vibes, this is your spot because it's gonna be
Speaker 5: able to have all of those goals accomplished for you.
Speaker 5: So we'll be out here today starting one o'clock with
Speaker 5: the sixth Annual Gumbo Cookoff. So why don't you roll
Speaker 5: on through the phone number again someone three two one
Speaker 5: two five seven ninety. Once again, that's Sebon one three
Speaker 5: two one two five seven nine zero. And you just
Speaker 5: heard Ross Tucker from Sirius x SEM. That's another, you know,
Speaker 5: attribution that you can throw to Ross in terms of
Speaker 5: where the paychecks come from. Does some work with Sirius XM.
Speaker 5: Does some work with Westwood One. I note that he's
Speaker 5: been on the call all season with Believe Tom McCarthy,
Speaker 5: the guy who's the TV play by play voice for
Speaker 5: the Phillies up there in Philadelphia. But they did some
Speaker 5: Westwood one games together, and know that he and Kevin Harland.
Speaker 3: We love Kevin Harlan.
Speaker 5: You know that if you listen to the A Team,
Speaker 5: And of course Kevin has similar feelings about both the
Speaker 5: Texans and the Rockets. He told us as much before
Speaker 5: they called the Texans and Chiefs in the divisional round
Speaker 5: of the AFC playoffs.
Speaker 3: But you know, Ross does a ton of.
Speaker 5: Great things covering the NFL and his analysis is second
Speaker 5: to nine, so great to be able to talk with him.
Speaker 5: But you heard what he said about this Texans opening
Speaker 5: and why he thinks that there needs to be a
Speaker 5: little bit of a buyer beware tag next to it.
Speaker 5: And we talked about it a little bit yesterday on
Speaker 5: the A Team, and I liked Wex's point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course there's pressure.
Speaker 5: There's only thirty two of these jobs, so you do
Speaker 5: need to come in and be able to show.
Speaker 3: You know what you're doing.
Speaker 5: You do need to produce, and that's what the Texans
Speaker 5: are looking for out of their next offensive coordinator.
Speaker 3: Higher here's where I go with.
Speaker 5: It is that you fired Bobby Slowick, a guy who
Speaker 5: I think the fears of CJ. Stroud's rookie season were
Speaker 5: realized last year. We thought that the way the offense
Speaker 5: looked last year, that was the way it was going
Speaker 5: to look in CJ's rookie season. But his rookie season
Speaker 5: not the case, and Bobby Slowick able to kind of
Speaker 5: catch the NFL flat footed a little bit. And over
Speaker 5: the off season as teams started to prepare and started
Speaker 5: to scheme against the Texans, there were defensive coordinators out
Speaker 5: there that's okay, well, if they do this, this is
Speaker 5: how we responded them. And seemingly SLOWK was not able
Speaker 5: to make those adjustments in season against some of the
Speaker 5: twists and stunts they were doing upfront against them, and
Speaker 5: how they were playing CJ. Stroud coverage wise, and trying
Speaker 5: to be able to block up the run game, and
Speaker 5: you know, sometimes you were able to have this offense
Speaker 5: run full, you know, full throttle and be able to
Speaker 5: be incredibly productive and racking up the yards, racking up
Speaker 5: the points, doing all those things. And then there were also,
Speaker 5: I mean, what about month and a half or so
Speaker 5: that the Texans went without scoring an offensive touchdown in
Speaker 5: the second half, and seemingly SLOWK was a guy that
Speaker 5: didn't have the answers.
Speaker 3: I mean, I said it numerous times that.
Speaker 5: I, for one, am usually annoyed by the word salad,
Speaker 5: and we seemingly got that every single week from Bobby
Speaker 5: slowik And I told you what my translation was, he
Speaker 5: doesn't know the answer, like that's that's what the word
Speaker 5: salad is. He's giving you two and a half minutes
Speaker 5: of an answer because he doesn't know what the answer is.
Speaker 5: If you know what the answer is, I understand that.
Speaker 5: You know, game plan wise, you can't give away all
Speaker 5: the pearls, but at least give us something to say, Okay, this.
Speaker 3: Guy's got it. He can figure it out. And it
Speaker 3: sounds like I.
Speaker 5: You know, I and many of us here in the
Speaker 5: media market here were not the only ones that felt
Speaker 5: that way.
Speaker 3: Clearly, Demiko Ryans felt that way because I talked about
Speaker 3: it last night that you would have to believe that
Speaker 3: this was brought up behind closed doors with Slow numerous times.
Speaker 5: Hey man, make these adjustments. Let's let's start doing some
Speaker 5: check with me. Let's start doing a little bit more motion.
Speaker 5: Let's do some things that kind of, you know, switch
Speaker 5: things up from the same run of the mill game
Speaker 5: that you've been running. And I'm sure Slow probably smiled
Speaker 5: and nodded and said okay, yeah, absolutely, and probably did
Speaker 5: throw some wrinkles in there, but they weren't enough to
Speaker 5: be able to turn this thing around and have this
Speaker 5: offense be the way it was supposed to be. And
Speaker 5: I get that there were injuries all of those different
Speaker 5: types of things, but clearly it got to a point
Speaker 5: that Demiko Ryance.
Speaker 3: He lived up to his word when he met with
Speaker 3: us the Monday after the season where he.
Speaker 5: Said he was going to take the week to do
Speaker 5: some evaluating of his coaching staff before making and announcing
Speaker 5: any moves, and he lived up to it. It took him
Speaker 5: less than a week because by Friday we found out
Speaker 5: that Bobby Slowik was out.
Speaker 3: We found out even before that that Chris Strausser was out.
Speaker 5: So now the vacancy needs to be filled and the
Speaker 5: Texans have now interviewed eight different candidates for the job.
Speaker 5: Because Aaron Wilson, of course right here he's our insider
Speaker 5: on Sports Talk seven ninety but also does great work
Speaker 5: with KPRC two throwing out that Green Bay Packers OC
Speaker 5: Adam Stenovich is the next coach that is going to
Speaker 5: be interviewed, as he was expected to interview with Tamiko
Speaker 5: Ryans to fill the offensive coordinator position. And while you
Speaker 5: know you're kind of looking at it and saying, okay,
Speaker 5: lateral move, would he necessarily want to do that? Well,
Speaker 5: it's the opposite end of the spectrum here in terms
Speaker 5: of Tamiko Ryans. Even though you have Matt Burke on
Speaker 5: staff and he is your defensive coordinator, he's not the
Speaker 5: one calling plays. It's the same deal with Stenovich up
Speaker 5: there in Green Bay with Matt Lafloor. Matt Lafloor is
Speaker 5: the guy with the play sheet. Matt will Floor is
Speaker 5: the guy who is calling plays. Stenovich does not have
Speaker 5: that part of his resume. But he had also interviewed
Speaker 5: with the Seahawks, who decided to go with Gary Kubiak's son,
Speaker 5: Clint Kubiak, to fill that job. And he had also
Speaker 5: interviewed with the Green excuse me, with the Chicago Bears,
Speaker 5: who of course just hired Ben Johnson, and it would
Speaker 5: have been probably a similar situation there. I gotta believe
Speaker 5: that Johnson is going to be calling the plays this
Speaker 5: year up in Chicago with Caleb Williams. But Senovich, like
Speaker 5: I said, the eighth different candidate that has interviewed with
Speaker 5: the job as Jerad Johnson, an internal candidate. He has
Speaker 5: also talked with Damiko Ryans in the brass Texans senior
Speaker 5: offensive assistant Bill Laser, who a lot of people have
Speaker 5: talked about him in how instrumental he's been in terms
Speaker 5: of putting together the offensive game plans every single week,
Speaker 5: and he has experience in the past with both the
Speaker 5: Cincinnati Bengals and the Miami Dolphins. Syrah Q Socie and
Speaker 5: running backs coach Jeff Nixon, La Rams tight ends coach
Speaker 5: and passing game coordinator Nick Cayley, and uh Tampa Bay
Speaker 5: Buccaneers quarterbacks coach Dat Lewis, who obviously did a really
Speaker 5: good job with Baker Mayfield and with Liam.
Speaker 3: Cohen this past season.
Speaker 5: And one that also intrigues me is former Baytown lead
Speaker 5: product and current Washington Commander's assistant head coach and offensive
Speaker 5: passing game coordinator Brian Johnson. Johnson has been in oc
Speaker 5: before with the Philadelphia Eagles did some really good things
Speaker 5: in the passing game, sounds like they took a little
Speaker 5: bit of a step back in the run game, and
Speaker 5: that's why Nick Sirianni decided to move on from him
Speaker 5: last year and he caught on with dan Quinn and staff.
Speaker 3: But where I go with all of this and we.
Speaker 5: Can continue this on the other side too as well,
Speaker 5: And if you want to weigh in do so seven
Speaker 5: one three, two one two five seven ninety is this
Speaker 5: is not a job for on the job training. You
Speaker 5: just fired the guy that you gave that too, Like
Speaker 5: Bobby Slowick. Was that guy coming into last season while
Speaker 5: young coach, you know, coaching background in terms of his
Speaker 5: family ties with his dad, and a guy that you
Speaker 5: know clearly was worthy of getting a shot to finally
Speaker 5: be an offensive play caller, and you gave him that chance.
Speaker 3: And last year he was fantastic.
Speaker 5: This year he took a step back and he didn't
Speaker 5: have enough of the answers to be able to make
Speaker 5: you believe that this thing was going to improve in
Speaker 5: twenty twenty five, so you decided to move on from him.
Speaker 5: So my question to Demiko Ryans, and my thought on
Speaker 5: this is why would you necessarily go down that road again?
Speaker 5: Would you not want to go ahead and say, hey,
Speaker 5: this thing is plug and play. We've got the franchise quarterback,
Speaker 5: you've got the top receiver and Nico Collins, You've got
Speaker 5: a really good running back locked up for a couple
Speaker 5: more years in Joe Mixon. Probably not gonna have Tank
Speaker 5: Dell this year, but we'll see what happens with Stefan
Speaker 5: Diggs and any other skill position improvements that you make
Speaker 5: to this offense this year that I feel like you
Speaker 5: would want to have somebody that you know has tangible
Speaker 5: results in calling plays and putting together game plans and
Speaker 5: feeling like that every single week you go into a game.
Speaker 5: We like our guy. We like what he can bring
Speaker 5: in terms of us being able to get a win.
Speaker 5: Because I mean, if you thought that this year's schedule
Speaker 5: was tough, next year is going to be equally as
Speaker 5: tough because most of the first place teams you saw
Speaker 5: the beauty of you winning a division and being in
Speaker 5: first place. Guess what you get to play other division winners.
Speaker 3: And that's what the.
Speaker 5: Texans are going to have again in twenty five and
Speaker 5: twenty six, And the same challenges are going to be there.
Speaker 5: And while it is going to be different in terms
Speaker 5: of what you're running, I mean, you've got to be
Speaker 5: able to have that cohesion with CJ. Stroud in the offense,
Speaker 5: and that sounds like at least according to reports. That's
Speaker 5: another reason why Bobby Slowik is not here anymore, because
Speaker 5: it just seemed like it was he and the quarterback
Speaker 5: just could not see eye to eye, and finally it
Speaker 5: got to a point where Demiko Ryans just said, my
Speaker 5: quarterback went out on that, So we're not getting rid
Speaker 5: of him, We're gonna get rid of you, and that's
Speaker 5: exactly what they did. So it's not to say that
Speaker 5: the relationship has to be smooth sailing at all times.
Speaker 3: Because OC and quarterback is the.
Speaker 5: Same working relationship that any office working relationship is. You're
Speaker 5: going to have times where there is contention, there is disagreement,
Speaker 5: there is some confrontation there, and that happens because, I mean,
Speaker 5: you both want the same things, you just maybe have
Speaker 5: a different view on how to accomplish those things. So
Speaker 5: it's not to say that that's going to go out
Speaker 5: the window. But I do maintain that I want somebody
Speaker 5: that you can look at with tangible results, that has
Speaker 5: called plays before and maybe has been looking for their
Speaker 5: next opportunity. Because I don't't have any doubts that Bobby
Speaker 5: Slowick is and can be a good offensive coordinator in
Speaker 5: this league, and I think that probably with him losing
Speaker 5: this job, he's doing some evaluation.
Speaker 3: Of, all right, what did I do wrong?
Speaker 5: What can I do if I get this opportunity again,
Speaker 5: be better at my second time around as opposed to
Speaker 5: the lessons I didn't learn the first time. And I
Speaker 5: think that he will have that, and I think that
Speaker 5: you could probably have that in.
Speaker 3: A laser or Brian Johnson. Those would be the two
Speaker 3: guys that I'd look at and be the most excited
Speaker 3: about in terms of this OC opening. I mean any
Speaker 3: of the other guys.
Speaker 5: I don't know anything about Nick Kayley other than he
Speaker 5: coaches with a really good coach and they have a
Speaker 5: good offense there in LA with Sean McVay. Okay, great
Speaker 5: that Lewis as I mentioned, I mean, you know kind
Speaker 5: of it's the same thing. If you're going to hire him,
Speaker 5: then why would you not hire Jerrod Johnson to fill
Speaker 5: that spot. So all those things I think can be discussed,
Speaker 5: and we'll do that on the other side as give
Speaker 5: you a chance to weigh in as well if you
Speaker 5: want to do so. Seon one three, two, one two
Speaker 5: five seven ninety. Once again, that's seven one three, two,
Speaker 5: one two five seven nine Zeros will continue the Texans
Speaker 5: offensive coordinator Vacan see here on the other side, and
Speaker 5: if you want to weigh in, you can do so
Speaker 5: as we'll continue here from a Cedar Creek Cafe. Matthews
Speaker 5: here with you Space City Saturday until noon right here
Speaker 5: on your home for your home teams.
Speaker 3: Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: Space City Saturday continues my Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5: Sports Talk seven ninety Dan Matthews here live from Cedar
Speaker 5: Creek Cafe at the corner of the.
Speaker 3: Last twentieth and Beadle Street in the Heights.
Speaker 5: The weather, it is amazing where we're sitting right now
Speaker 5: here on the patio at Cedar Creek Cafe.
Speaker 3: And in about an hour and a half.
Speaker 5: We're gonna get going here for the sixty annual Gumbo Cookoff.
Speaker 5: And a good point brought up by Rob Logan of
Speaker 5: our sales staff of throwing this out to me, of
Speaker 5: encouraging you to go ahead and head on over to
Speaker 5: Cedar Creek Cafes the Creek Group's website and buy your tickets.
Speaker 3: Ahead of time.
Speaker 5: I mean, because you know how these festivals go, you
Speaker 5: know these cookoffs go. You get to the tent where
Speaker 5: you got to buy your wristband and be able to
Speaker 5: go in that the lines are long, well skip the lines.
Speaker 5: I mean, that's a way that you can do it
Speaker 5: of being able to go ahead and buy your tickets
Speaker 5: ahead of time, and then you know, so as soon
Speaker 5: as you get here you can just show them your
Speaker 5: phone and be able to hop on in and grab
Speaker 5: you some bowls of gumbo and be able to enjoy
Speaker 5: the afternoon here. So it's gonna be a beautiful day.
Speaker 5: It's amazing. I mean where I sit right now, got
Speaker 5: some trees with some shade cover over me, so enjoying
Speaker 5: the great weather, the sun shining out here.
Speaker 3: So it's an amazing day.
Speaker 5: So swing on through and come join us for some
Speaker 5: great time, some good gumbo and just some great vibes
Speaker 5: against someone. Three two one, two five seven ninety is
Speaker 5: the number to get in on the phone line if
Speaker 5: you want to do that. And Ray in fifth Ward
Speaker 5: wants to do exactly that.
Speaker 3: He joins us here on Space City Saturday. Ray, what's
Speaker 3: going on?
Speaker 4: Not too much? How are you man?
Speaker 3: Awesome man, it's beautiful day. Can't beat it.
Speaker 7: I agree with that because I don't like what we've had.
Speaker 3: No, I am not a cold weather guy. I definitely.
Speaker 5: You know, when people complean about, oh, it's never cold
Speaker 5: enough here, I'm like, okay, fine, go live in Chicago.
Speaker 5: Go live somewhere else where you can enjoy that. I
Speaker 5: live here because I want to enjoy warm weather almost
Speaker 5: year round.
Speaker 8: You got that right.
Speaker 7: I'll tell you what. If I went and livey, I'd
Speaker 7: be somewhere hot every day.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 5: Man shorts and T shirts, that's my vibe. What do
Speaker 5: you got for us?
Speaker 7: Hey, hey, I don't listen to you guys every day.
Speaker 7: But I haven't heard anyone talk about the offensive coordinator
Speaker 7: play call of that Kansas City had been made my
Speaker 7: home so good.
Speaker 3: Eric B Enemy?
Speaker 7: Okay, why aren't we talking about him down here?
Speaker 8: Now?
Speaker 3: That's a great question.
Speaker 5: And you know I had somebody that threw out his
Speaker 5: name on Twitter ray appreciate the call.
Speaker 3: I mean, I would not be opposed to Eric B. Enemy.
Speaker 5: I think think that he's somebody to your point that
Speaker 5: even though Andy Reid was the primary play caller, I mean,
Speaker 5: he was still a guy on game days that you know.
Speaker 5: I heard that used against the enemy of Oh he
Speaker 5: doesn't call plays, he doesn't call plays.
Speaker 3: There are plenty of footage.
Speaker 5: I've seen him speaking into his headset, reading off of
Speaker 5: a play sheet, So clearly he had enough input and
Speaker 5: enough trust from Andy Reid to be counted on on
Speaker 5: that offense. And just this last year with UCLA, I thought,
Speaker 5: with a team that was incredibly talent deficient, he did
Speaker 5: really good work there. So I'm with you Ray and
Speaker 5: Joe who threw that out on Twitter. I mean, I
Speaker 5: think if you're the Texans, bring him in for a look.
Speaker 5: And a guy that did outstanding stuff in the run
Speaker 5: game too during his time in Kansas City with Kareem Hunt,
Speaker 5: Isaiah Pacheco and being able to have that part of
Speaker 5: the Kansas City offense. I mean, you know, what's the
Speaker 5: one thing that I think Demiico Ryans and defensive coaches
Speaker 5: usually want. They want ball control. They want you to
Speaker 5: be able to control the line of scrimmage, i e.
Speaker 5: They want you to run the football. And if that's
Speaker 5: something you want to be able to accomplish this next
Speaker 5: season with Joe Mixon, Damian Pierce, Daria Goombalal, whoever you're
Speaker 5: going to be counting on in that part of your offense,
Speaker 5: then you could definitely do a lot worse. So I'm
Speaker 5: with you, Ray and Joe. I'm kind of perplexed. While
Speaker 5: we haven't heard Eric Bienemy's name, I know that there
Speaker 5: was a report out earlier this week that some teams
Speaker 5: are kicking the tires on Andy R excuse me, on
Speaker 5: Eric b Enemy. I think Jordan Schultz was the one
Speaker 5: who had that. I definitely think that he is worth
Speaker 5: a mention and worth a look if you are the Texans,
Speaker 5: no doubt about it. And we'll see if maybe he
Speaker 5: is candidate number nine ten, whatever it is. As I
Speaker 5: talked with Aaron Wilson about it's a little bit off
Speaker 5: the air earlier this week.
Speaker 3: And I agree.
Speaker 5: I mean, it sounds like they are going to take
Speaker 5: their time with this and.
Speaker 3: There is really no rush.
Speaker 5: I mean maybe even there's a coach or two that
Speaker 5: you want to talk with part of the Philadelphia or
Speaker 5: even the Kansas City staff of being able to give
Speaker 5: them an opportunity at the job. And it sounds like
Speaker 5: the Texans are kind of exhausting all of their options
Speaker 5: at that. So we'll see if indeed that is another
Speaker 5: route they go in terms of vetting out candidates and
Speaker 5: seeing who they want to fill that vacancy and then
Speaker 5: after that, and I think that probably you want to
Speaker 5: be able to see who you bring on as the
Speaker 5: offensive line coach too as well. So all of those
Speaker 5: things in play. Let's continue the conversation. Let's head up
Speaker 5: to the Woodlands. Buck wants to join in here on
Speaker 5: Sports Talk seven ninety Buck, what's going on?
Speaker 2: Well, I just wanted to call in Rebut the guy
Speaker 2: trying to bring up the name of Eric Enemy, he's
Speaker 2: got to be kidding, because I remember the show What's
Speaker 2: his Name in the afternoon At one point we're saying, Oh,
Speaker 2: Eric Viennemy's going to do the next head coach. He
Speaker 2: was a disaster as soon as he left Kansas City.
Speaker 2: He's had three more jobs, he's been fired. He's been
Speaker 2: unbelieve aievably unsuccessful. His only success in Kansas City was
Speaker 2: because Reid was called in the plays on game day,
Speaker 2: and since that time, the Enemy has been has been
Speaker 2: absolutely reported to be hated by the players underneath him
Speaker 2: because of his attitude and a WAYE engaged as players.
Speaker 2: So I hope no one, including yourself, wants to endorse
Speaker 2: Eric B.
Speaker 8: Enemy.
Speaker 3: All Right, I appreciate the call. Buck.
Speaker 5: As far as his work after Kansas City, he was
Speaker 5: with the Commanders for a season, and then when Dan
Speaker 5: Quinn came aboard, he decided to head down to the
Speaker 5: college level and coach on at UCLA.
Speaker 3: I mean, look again, I talked.
Speaker 5: About it last segment, Buck, and you know, it's a
Speaker 5: working relationship, just like any working relationship out there. I mean,
Speaker 5: pro sports is no different than our everyday lives.
Speaker 3: There is going to be contention.
Speaker 5: There is going to be times where you know, maybe
Speaker 5: there is a report of hey, you know the quarterback
Speaker 5: in the OC are butting heads. Well, that happens. I mean,
Speaker 5: look at the Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 3: For example.
Speaker 5: It's not a quarterback in OC situation, but they had
Speaker 5: a little bit of a controversy with Jalen Hurts and
Speaker 5: AJ Brown this year, and seemingly they've been able to
Speaker 5: work through that despite AJ Brown reading self help books
Speaker 5: on the sidelines because he's not getting the football. But
Speaker 5: obviously it worked out well enough for them to be
Speaker 5: able to win the NFC and get.
Speaker 3: To the Super Bowl.
Speaker 5: So it's not to say that it's going to be
Speaker 5: a smooth relationship all the way through. But the enemy
Speaker 5: is somebody that has been considered for jobs for a reason.
Speaker 3: He's a good coach.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think that despite what you think, Buck,
Speaker 5: there's a reason why he continues to get these opportunities
Speaker 5: because there's not a ton of good coaches out there,
Speaker 5: So when you find one, try to bring him aboard
Speaker 5: and try to have them lead your offense.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I've heard that.
Speaker 5: I've heard that his bedside manner with players is one
Speaker 5: that it's just pretty much matter of fact, and some
Speaker 5: guys can handle that and some guys can't.
Speaker 3: I mean, CJ.
Speaker 5: I guess the book is still kind of out on him,
Speaker 5: and he handled that type of coaching again. I mean,
Speaker 5: you know what's the old saying that that coaches will
Speaker 5: tell you got to be able to treat the individual
Speaker 5: differently than everyone else. Some guys they can have a
Speaker 5: boot to the backside, some guys need an arm around
Speaker 5: the shoulder, any of those different types of things.
Speaker 3: So we'll see.
Speaker 5: I mean, look in an interview doesn't necessarily mean strong consideration.
Speaker 3: An interview is exactly that.
Speaker 5: I mean, you can have somebody that you don't necessarily
Speaker 5: have high expectations for and they come in and you
Speaker 5: put them through a discussion, you put them on the
Speaker 5: white board, you take them through film, study all those
Speaker 5: different things, and maybe everybody in the room kind of
Speaker 5: looks around and says.
Speaker 3: Huh, I might have something here this guy. This guy
Speaker 3: might be on something.
Speaker 5: So I mean, I don't think that you're wrong in
Speaker 5: at least kicking the tires on him and seeing if
Speaker 5: he's a fit here. So that's something that I think
Speaker 5: you could have at your disposal, Morgan. I see you
Speaker 5: want to get into some Alex Bregman discussion. We'll do
Speaker 5: that on the other side. As so, we'll get back
Speaker 5: into a little bit of Astro's discussion. But coming up
Speaker 5: next to I know that the message necessarily didn't really
Speaker 5: resonate with some people out there, but this national personality
Speaker 5: said something that as a whole I gotta say I
Speaker 5: really agree with, and we'll discuss that. Let you hear
Speaker 5: from them on the other side. As again, we continue
Speaker 5: here from Cedar Creek Cafe for the sixth and annual
Speaker 5: Gumbo Cookoff that's going to be happening starting at one o'clock.
Speaker 5: As come on out here to Cedar Creek as we
Speaker 5: are at the corner of West twentieth Street and Beal
Speaker 5: Street here in the Heights. As so, We'll continue to
Speaker 5: roll along here on Space City Saturday. Dan Matthews here
Speaker 5: with you until noon on your Home with the Astros
Speaker 5: and the Rockets, Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 4: It's Space City Saturday. On Sports Talk seven Nightty.
Speaker 5: We continued to roll along here from Cedar Creek Cafe,
Speaker 5: Dan Matthews here with you. Chris Gorny dropping in. He's
Speaker 5: got the bucket of beers going. We're having a good time.
Speaker 5: We're enjoying ourselves. This idacho music right there, we're feeling it.
Speaker 5: The vibes are good as the sixty annual Gumbo Cookoff
Speaker 5: happening out here at Cedar Creek Cafe.
Speaker 3: So mention Melbourne's gonna roll through.
Speaker 5: Connor d McGovern and his lady, they're gonna roll through
Speaker 5: a little bit later.
Speaker 3: So why don't you join us out here.
Speaker 5: We're gonna be having a good time starting at one
Speaker 5: o'clock here at Cedar Creek Cafe. Can if you want
Speaker 5: to get in on the phone lines, you can do so.
Speaker 5: SEB one three two one two five seven ninety one's
Speaker 5: gonna SEB one three two one two five seven ninety
Speaker 5: And look, I've given you.
Speaker 3: The ground rules for the show.
Speaker 5: Numerous times before, as the guy with the double mufflers
Speaker 5: right there decides he wants to let everybody know he's
Speaker 5: got quite an exhaust system on his car. But I've
Speaker 5: told you, look, if we've covered it, it's fair game.
Speaker 5: So even if we're talking Texans, we're talking rockets, we're
Speaker 5: talking Astros, it's there. And Morgan wants to weigh in
Speaker 5: on some Astros, primarily Alex Bregman here on Space City Saturday.
Speaker 3: Morgan, what's up, Hey?
Speaker 12: Dan just written or read a note of article that
Speaker 12: said Alex Rigman is.
Speaker 4: Going to opt out.
Speaker 7: Whatever he does, he's going to opt out.
Speaker 12: So what's your good feeling, Dan?
Speaker 3: What does all of this mean?
Speaker 12: Does it mean that all of these teams maybe that
Speaker 12: they've lost their interest. Does it mean it's a possibility
Speaker 12: he might come back to the Astros? It seems to
Speaker 12: I get to feel in that it seems that things
Speaker 12: maybe with him and his manager didn't go as planned.
Speaker 3: What's your good.
Speaker 8: Feeling about all of that? Dan?
Speaker 12: And I'll hang up and listen.
Speaker 5: Hey appreciate the call, Morgan. I think there's a variance
Speaker 5: of factors here when it comes to Bregmant. I mean
Speaker 5: I'll start with the last part. I definitely think he
Speaker 5: and Scott Boris woefully overestimated what the market value was
Speaker 5: going to be for him out there, and he's finding
Speaker 5: that out. I mean, if the market value was what
Speaker 5: Bregman and his representation hoped, well, then he'd be somewhere,
Speaker 5: whether it's with the Astros or somewhere else at this point,
Speaker 5: because I mean there's a lot of different teams that
Speaker 5: have supposedly been checking in on him. I mean, you know,
Speaker 5: you've heard Alex Cora be very vocal about, yeah, we'd
Speaker 5: like to have that guy here. I mean, even Brian
Speaker 5: Cashman with the Yankees even saying as much of talking about,
Speaker 5: you know, his winning attitude, everything that he's got in
Speaker 5: terms of opt outs in the deal, it seems like
Speaker 5: at this stage of the game, I mean, because I
Speaker 5: think that the precedent that we have for that is
Speaker 5: Carlos Korea.
Speaker 3: I mean, Correa was a guy.
Speaker 5: I mean, we were in Florida already for spring training
Speaker 5: when we got the news that Korea had signed with
Speaker 5: the Minnesota Twins. I mean, I still remember James Klick
Speaker 5: talking with reporters out there at West Palm Beach being
Speaker 5: asked about Korea, if Korea was the possibility to even
Speaker 5: be a late signing for the Astros, and he decided
Speaker 5: to take a deal that had an opt out in
Speaker 5: his contract, and maybe that's the sticking point, would say,
Speaker 5: I don't know a Toronto or a Detroit or somebody else.
Speaker 5: You know, it sounds like, at least from what we've
Speaker 5: heard from reports with the Tigers, is that's more on Bregman,
Speaker 5: that he's not too keen on playing in that spacious
Speaker 5: Kamerica Park. That's he wants to be at a park
Speaker 5: where he could see his offensive numbers kind of get
Speaker 5: back to that twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen level that he
Speaker 5: was hitting the baseball at that really ever since then,
Speaker 5: he's not been able to do that. So I think
Speaker 5: that's all part of it, you know, just when it
Speaker 5: comes to Bregman, I mean, I think that first and foremost,
Speaker 5: if there's one thing we know about him, he wants
Speaker 5: to win, and he wants to be in a place
Speaker 5: where he can win. And I think that a lot
Speaker 5: of us here believe if he's back with the Astros,
Speaker 5: then they're definitely in position to be able to do that.
Speaker 5: If he goes somewhere, and I'll say the Chicago Cubs.
Speaker 5: I mean, they're trying to get back to being a
Speaker 5: winning organization. They've gone through a rebuild of sorts themselves,
Speaker 5: and I mean, you know, now on this side, after
Speaker 5: adding players like Dansby Swanson and you know, clearly making
Speaker 5: the trade for Kyle Tucker, they feel like they can
Speaker 5: make a strong run at the National League Central this year.
Speaker 5: And you had a guy like Alex Bregman that definitely
Speaker 5: could help you. I mean, I think the Cubs are
Speaker 5: kind of in the same situation the Astros are right
Speaker 5: now feeling like one more guy can really put them
Speaker 5: in position to be a really good team this year.
Speaker 5: And I think that that's another part of it.
Speaker 3: It sounds like with Bregman.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, when it comes to the Astros,
Speaker 5: they look at it as, yeah, we want him back,
Speaker 5: but we want him back for the right price. We're
Speaker 5: not going to mortgage the future in terms of your
Speaker 5: spending power going forward. I mean, I know that next
Speaker 5: year you have Montero off the books, you have Josea
Speaker 5: Brahu's deal off the books, so that kind of frees
Speaker 5: you up financially a little bit.
Speaker 3: But this year.
Speaker 5: I mean, you're up against it with a competitive balance tax.
Speaker 5: I mean a lot of people believing that the r
Speaker 5: of Ryan Presley automatically opens up the door for a
Speaker 5: deal to be made with Alex Bregman. We'll see if
Speaker 5: indeed that is the case. But I mean, you know,
Speaker 5: it's also a question of really right now with the Astros,
Speaker 5: it's coming down to does Jim Crane want to do this?
Speaker 5: And we'll see if indeed he does want to do it,
Speaker 5: because that's really what it comes down to. Dana Brown
Speaker 5: can present any type of offer to not only Bregmant,
Speaker 5: but then also to Jim Crane of saying, hey, you
Speaker 5: comfortable with us doing this, and he gives them the
Speaker 5: thumbs up to say go ahead and do it.
Speaker 3: Then okay, go ahead and make the deal.
Speaker 5: But if not, then I mean you need to go,
Speaker 5: you know, try to figure out what is another way
Speaker 5: that you can go with improving this roster. And I
Speaker 5: think all of those things are ahead of the Astros
Speaker 5: and trying to be able to make this into the
Speaker 5: most competitive ball club they can in twenty twenty five
Speaker 5: and beyond too.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think we like winning around here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think I see a show of hands and
Speaker 5: people wearing Astros hats who say, yeah, no, I definitely
Speaker 5: like postseason baseball. I definitely like making it to the
Speaker 5: Alcs and to the World Series. Well, the Astros are
Speaker 5: trying to continue that here in twenty five and beyond,
Speaker 5: so we'll see if they're able to do that again.
Speaker 5: The National Voice who had a message that a lot
Speaker 5: of people did not agree with. But also though I
Speaker 5: think that his messaging is something that he hit right
Speaker 5: on the head. We'll discuss that on the other side
Speaker 5: also too. Err on me, I was supposed to bring
Speaker 5: in Ari Alexander right here and I got sidetracks, So
Speaker 5: going to try to see if we can get Ari
Speaker 5: here for the final segment of the show. As we'll
Speaker 5: continue here from Cedar Creek Cafe again at the corner
Speaker 5: of West twentieth Street and Beal Street here in the Heights.
Speaker 5: Sixth Annual Gumbo Cookoff coming your way here at one o'clock,
Speaker 5: so we'll be having fun and again can't tell you enough.
Speaker 5: Go ahead and buy your tickets on line and beat
Speaker 5: the lines before you come on in and have some
Speaker 5: fun this afternoon, some great drinks, some great gumbo, live music,
Speaker 5: Anikal Bowl.
Speaker 3: You can't beat it.
Speaker 5: Beautiful day outside again, same deal, So come on out
Speaker 5: here and join us, says, So we'll continue along here
Speaker 5: on Space City Saturday. Dan Matthews here with you for
Speaker 5: about another twenty minutes on your home of the Astros
Speaker 5: and the Rockets, Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: Exactly Space City Saturday, on Sports Talk seven nineteen, Sports.
Speaker 5: Talk seven ninety, Dan Matthews here live Cedar Creek Cafe,
Speaker 5: West twentieth Street, Field Street at the corner of those
Speaker 5: two streets here in the Heights. We've been talking Astros,
Speaker 5: Alex Bregman, everything else of the sort. Is the off
Speaker 5: season coming to a close, and a man who's been
Speaker 5: dialed in all off season from KPRC two he is
Speaker 5: Ari Alexander.
Speaker 3: He joins us now on the phone lines. Ari, appreciate
Speaker 3: the time, buddy, Even with all.
Speaker 5: The insider work you're doing now, I gotta believe you
Speaker 5: still get a chance to get out and enjoy this
Speaker 5: nice day, don't you.
Speaker 13: Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of basketball today. I'm
Speaker 13: gonna head to TSU here later at two o'clock, and
Speaker 13: then we got the Houston Cougars taking on.
Speaker 4: Texas ticket five.
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 5: Man's always working, whether it's the Astros, Texans, Rockets, TSU,
Speaker 5: U of H, he is on the job. Let's just
Speaker 5: start with just the broad view right at the beginning.
Speaker 5: Where do things stand with the Astros and Alex Bregman.
Speaker 13: I think they stand similar as to what they were
Speaker 13: earlier this week. I'm just not sure there's a lot
Speaker 13: of movement.
Speaker 4: I've been texting.
Speaker 13: Sources related to that, and everything I'm hearing back is
Speaker 13: this really no update. The Astros are sort of dug
Speaker 13: into their position of what they want to offer. Alex Bregman,
Speaker 13: Alex Bregman and Scott Boris are dug into their position
Speaker 13: of this is how much annual value we believe we deserve.
Speaker 13: And then you have another number of teams circling in
Speaker 13: different ways. I just don't believe the Cubs or the
Speaker 13: Red Sox are going to be there in terms of
Speaker 13: a long term deal, but they're going to be a
Speaker 13: fallback option.
Speaker 4: More so for Bregman.
Speaker 13: I think the Red Sox maybe longer than the cub
Speaker 13: would go, but both those teams like him. And then
Speaker 13: you have the Blue Jays and the Tigers that are
Speaker 13: I think a little bit more motivated to give him
Speaker 13: a longer term deal. We know that the Tigers have
Speaker 13: a long term offer out there for Bregman as well.
Speaker 13: I know some of the other National reporters have said
Speaker 13: that the Blue Jays also have a long term offer
Speaker 13: for him. And then for Bregman, you have to decide
Speaker 13: what matters most to you. Do you want to stay
Speaker 13: home with the Astros and try to make something work.
Speaker 13: This is the most comfortable place for him. It's a
Speaker 13: place where everyone knows him and loves him. But he
Speaker 13: just doesn't feel like that offer is high enough. Or
Speaker 13: do you want to chase you know, the little bit
Speaker 13: of extra money, go to Detroit maybe. We don't know
Speaker 13: what the number is that their offer is. Go to
Speaker 13: Toronto maybe? Or do you want to go and play
Speaker 13: for what is considered to be an iconic franchise like
Speaker 13: the Red Sox or Cubs. And so he's got options.
Speaker 13: None of them are really perfect for him, just the
Speaker 13: way that they're approaching the free agent here. But at
Speaker 13: some point, Spring training is coming in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 13: Pitchers and catchers are reporting in two weeks, and he's
Speaker 13: a guy that is he's a planner, He's an analytical
Speaker 13: person from what I know about him, and you got
Speaker 13: to think it's going to get to a point where
Speaker 13: the lack of direction in terms of the specifics of
Speaker 13: what a team, whatever team it is he plays for,
Speaker 13: wants him to work on, is going to drive him
Speaker 13: crazy because he's a person that likes specific direction. He
Speaker 13: is an insane person when it comes to baseball and
Speaker 13: just the minute little details of everything he does, and
Speaker 13: without that direction, I think he's going to get driven
Speaker 13: crazy a little bit.
Speaker 5: Again, Aria, Alexander KPRC two join us here on Space
Speaker 5: City Saturday and to some of the things you just
Speaker 5: talked about right there. I mean, it does sound like
Speaker 5: there's a lot of different factors at play. It sounds
Speaker 5: like that Bregmant and boris really kind of overshot what
Speaker 5: teams truly thought of them, both years and money wise.
Speaker 5: But from the Astros perspective, do you kind of feel
Speaker 5: like Dana Brown's position of how he's answering these questions is, Hey, look.
Speaker 3: We gave him an offer. We've made our run.
Speaker 5: If it's good enough for him, then sure, but if
Speaker 5: it's not, then we've got a ball club to build.
Speaker 13: Yeah, they've made the moves to be able to put
Speaker 13: themselves in that position and have that leverage. You have
Speaker 13: a starting first baseman who's been one of the best
Speaker 13: first basemen in the league over the past few years,
Speaker 13: both offensively and defensively.
Speaker 4: You have a starting third.
Speaker 13: Baseman who has I think a wide range of outcomes,
Speaker 13: but everyone believes that he's going to do well in
Speaker 13: this ballpark. He's had good years and they specifically like him.
Speaker 13: Whatever it is that astro scouting has seen from esoch
Speaker 13: Parentis the past few years is a very strong positive
Speaker 13: and so they're very comfortable with him at third base
Speaker 13: or moving him to second. For Bregman, you have Josel
Speaker 13: Tuba that'll mix between second and left field because the
Speaker 13: defensive metrics at second have been kind of a nightmare
Speaker 13: these past couple of years, especially last year. And then
Speaker 13: really your only weak spot in the lineup is the outfield,
Speaker 13: and there are some guys still left on the board.
Speaker 4: There could maybe be some trade opportunities there and you.
Speaker 13: Could make a move to get a guy, and maybe
Speaker 13: not necessarily with minor league pieces because they don't have
Speaker 13: a whole lot to move, but something, you know, find
Speaker 13: a way to get creative, or you just hope you
Speaker 13: come into spring training and a guy does something, a
Speaker 13: Jacob Melton comes out, you know, and has a big
Speaker 13: spring training and is able to make a move. Or
Speaker 13: you still have Zach Dezenzo, who's one of their better prospects,
Speaker 13: and he had a great winner in Puerto Rico and
Speaker 13: he's a big guy and can probably play a sort
Speaker 13: of adequate left for a little bit to try to keep.
Speaker 4: Jordan Alvarez off of his legs. So you have some options.
Speaker 13: You're trying to you know, Salvage Taylor Tremmeel who was
Speaker 13: a first round.
Speaker 4: Pick for a reason nine years ago.
Speaker 13: And hope that he's something and if he's not, then
Speaker 13: it was, you know, a cheap deal anyway. And so
Speaker 13: there are a number of options, and none of them
Speaker 13: are super sexy, even the ones that are left on free.
Speaker 4: Agenc Is like alex Ford Dugo, David faralta Tommy fan,
Speaker 4: like Randall Gritschek.
Speaker 13: Nothing is super sexy, but you feel like you're in
Speaker 13: an okay spot, especially given how the American League looks.
Speaker 13: Nobody is that scary. The Yankees aren't that scary. The Rangers.
Speaker 13: Wide range of outcomes Seattle, great rotation, no hitters, and
Speaker 13: so you think you have a chance to make a
Speaker 13: run in the at least the al side of the playoffs,
Speaker 13: and then whatever happens when you run into the four
Speaker 13: or five really good teams in the NL is whatever happens.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, you know, And in terms of the
Speaker 5: left field spot, I mean, I think that's the focus
Speaker 5: that a lot of people have because you know, early
Speaker 5: on the offseason, when Dana Brown kind of laid out
Speaker 5: the scenarios of the outfield, people were like, whoo, man,
Speaker 5: that does not sound like that as a very potent
Speaker 5: offensive outfield. But I think that you didn't mention him
Speaker 5: when you were talking. I know that Dana Brown has
Speaker 5: been very high on Jacob Milton. I mean, jobs can
Speaker 5: be one in spring training. I mean, do you do
Speaker 5: you kind of look at it ari as we're about
Speaker 5: to head out to West Palm Beach that he goes
Speaker 5: out there. He has a pretty good spring that opening day,
Speaker 5: we could very easily see Jacob Milton out in left field.
Speaker 13: I think he's got a chance, but I would put
Speaker 13: him sort of on the Joey Loperfido track where I
Speaker 13: think they're gonna need to see more at the Triple
Speaker 13: A level.
Speaker 4: Melton was okay in Triple A.
Speaker 13: He didn't crush last year in Triple A, and he's
Speaker 13: gonna have a chance to make a move. And look
Speaker 13: what happened with Flopper Fido last year. He was awesome
Speaker 13: in spring training. He was both on the field and
Speaker 13: off the field. Kind of the media darling, right. Everyone
Speaker 13: likes slow Perfido because he's super friendly and charming, and
Speaker 13: he cooks and he's this interesting guy. But he still
Speaker 13: had to prove himself at the minor league level for
Speaker 13: a month while Joseah Brady was languishing it first, and
Speaker 13: you know, all these things were happening, and Jeff McCormick,
Speaker 13: who had had this unbelievable twenty twenty three, was really
Speaker 13: struggling in twenty four. I think that they're going to
Speaker 13: hope that they can get nearly a league average bat
Speaker 13: out of Jake Myers. Whatever fixes Chas McCormick can make
Speaker 13: can bring him back to the above league average bat
Speaker 13: that he was for three years. And by the way,
Speaker 13: a lot of people like to rag on Chas McCormick.
Speaker 13: He has played four major league seasons. He had one
Speaker 13: really bad year and the other three seasons he was
Speaker 13: an above major league level hitter and an above major
Speaker 13: league level defender, which makes him an above average player
Speaker 13: seventy five percent of the years that he's been a
Speaker 13: major league player. I don't think you should give up
Speaker 13: on Chas McCormick. And then you have whatever it is
Speaker 13: you have out of Zach Dezenzo, and then you have
Speaker 13: Jacob Melton there, and you know with Dubon obviously as
Speaker 13: the utility guy.
Speaker 4: So there are a number of options. Even if they don't.
Speaker 13: I know fans are clamoring for go, get Alex Radugo.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure that.
Speaker 13: Alex Verdugo really fixes your problem as much as the
Speaker 13: internal options do. Alex Bregman obviously fixes a big piece
Speaker 13: of the lineup and a big piece of the clubhouse
Speaker 13: leadership and all these things that Alex Bregman is really
Speaker 13: really good at. But the smaller signing I don't think does.
Speaker 4: As much for me.
Speaker 13: And right now, the way that the contracts are calculated,
Speaker 13: they're under the tax, which leads them a little bit
Speaker 13: of room to.
Speaker 4: Maybe make a move at the deadline or make a
Speaker 4: move in season. And I think if Jim Crane needs
Speaker 4: to go over the tax to pay.
Speaker 13: Like last year they went significantly over and the total
Speaker 13: tax bill for Jim Crane was six point four million dollars,
Speaker 13: So they go over a little bit and his tax
Speaker 13: bills an extra million.
Speaker 4: I think that he'd be comfortable with doing that.
Speaker 5: Can't put a price tag on winning, and obviously Jim Crane,
Speaker 5: despite what some people think, has definitely tried to not
Speaker 5: do that. Ari Alexander again, KPRC two, join us here
Speaker 5: on a Space City Saturday.
Speaker 3: Ari, appreciate the time.
Speaker 5: What ten o'clock tonight you anchoring or is this a
Speaker 5: chance production to night?
Speaker 4: This is a chance production tonight.
Speaker 13: But come say hi if you've seen me at the
Speaker 13: Houston Cougar game or the Texas Southern Game or anywhere.
Speaker 3: Else there you go.
Speaker 5: And I mean, look, as Ari just said right there,
Speaker 5: I know from experience you see him, say at the
Speaker 5: Texas Bowl and you want to talk a little bit
Speaker 5: about Stros baseball with them, He'll indulge you, He'll talk
Speaker 5: it with you. So take him up on that. Ari,
Speaker 5: you're the best, buddy. Appreciate your time today. All right,
Speaker 5: Thanks Dan, all right, see you buddy. Ari Alexander again,
Speaker 5: KPRC two. You can find him on Twitter and it
Speaker 5: is Ari Alexander, but the L in Alexander a number one,
Speaker 5: so you can find him right there. He's got that
Speaker 5: blue check mark and he does a great job with
Speaker 5: Randy McAvoy and the crew over there at KPRC two.
Speaker 5: Just a couple more minutes left here on Space City
Speaker 5: Saturday again, we are live here at Cedar Creek Cafe
Speaker 5: for the sixth annual Gumbo Cookoff. As smell it boiling
Speaker 5: over there. We'll be enjoying some good gumbo in no time.
Speaker 5: Gets started here at one o'clock again at the corner
Speaker 5: of West twentieth Street and Beale here in the Heights,
Speaker 5: So swing on through. It's a picture perfect day to
Speaker 5: enjoy a patio. And I've said it numerous times. I
Speaker 5: think this is the best patio in the city of Houston.
Speaker 5: And as Ari just told you too, a lot of
Speaker 5: good college basketball going to get fired up here. Some
Speaker 5: already underway. I see Florida, Tennessee underway. See that Pitt
Speaker 5: Wake Forest. I know five o'clock you're going to get
Speaker 5: the Koog's wearing those h Town blue jerseys against Texas
Speaker 5: Tech at five o'clock and you can listen to it
Speaker 5: on KPRC nine to fifty. So that's where you can
Speaker 5: check that out.
Speaker 3: All right, I want to close this out today with
Speaker 3: a piece of audio, so I know how a lot
Speaker 3: of people feel about the talking head shows. You know,
Speaker 3: first take what is it? Get Up?
Speaker 5: Some of those other shows. I don't know what they
Speaker 5: have on FS one. I think it's what I called
Speaker 5: the breakfast ball, I think, But you get my point here.
Speaker 3: I've said it before. Those shows are usually the shallow
Speaker 3: end of the pool. I mean, you know, you go there, Oh,
Speaker 3: you know, can the Cowboys win the Super Bowl this year?
Speaker 3: Is Lebron still an elite player?
Speaker 5: And that word right there that I just threw out,
Speaker 5: it's going to come up here in this audio. So
Speaker 5: yesterday on Get Up, former Giants defensive star Chris Canty,
Speaker 5: of course so does radio work with ESPN here talking
Speaker 5: about Joe Burrow and whether or not he is an
Speaker 5: elite quarterback and Chris Canty with some interesting thoughts on
Speaker 5: the Bengals star quarterback of whether.
Speaker 3: Or not he fits into that category. Take a listen,
Speaker 3: when you.
Speaker 14: Look at what Patrick Mahomes has done, when you look
Speaker 14: at what Lamar Jackson has done.
Speaker 4: When you look at Josh Allen's body.
Speaker 14: Of work, those guys have done more in this league
Speaker 14: in terms of being able to validate their abilities as
Speaker 14: a quarterback. When it comes to being able to acknowledge
Speaker 14: the level of player that you are. We got a
Speaker 14: couple of ways we measured that in the league. It's
Speaker 14: Super Bowl rings, it's mbps, and it's all pros.
Speaker 4: Joe Burrow ain't got none of those.
Speaker 14: Joe Burrow's claim to fame is once upon a time
Speaker 14: four years ago beating Matt Patrick Mahomes in a playoff
Speaker 14: game on his way to losing the Super Bowl. I'm sorry,
Speaker 14: that doesn't give you elite status.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 5: So I know that a lot of people were drawn
Speaker 5: off sides by what he said in terms of you
Speaker 5: got to be kidd me. You don't think that Joe
Speaker 5: Burrow fits into that category, and you can leave that
Speaker 5: up for interpretation if you think he is or he
Speaker 5: is not. I agree with Kanty with what he says,
Speaker 5: because I threw this out last night on Twitter and
Speaker 5: some of you pushed back, some of you agreed. We
Speaker 5: use the words elite and goat greatest of all time.
Speaker 5: We use those way too much, because let's just start
Speaker 5: with the second one. I throughout, Oh he's the goat,
Speaker 5: Oh he's the goat. How many do we have at
Speaker 5: this point? Like, seriously, how many do we have?
Speaker 3: The word? The acronym itself means there's only one, because
Speaker 3: if you are the quote unquote goat the greatest of
Speaker 3: all time, then you're it. You're the one.
Speaker 5: I mean, in the NBA, it's up for interpretation. Some
Speaker 5: people think the goat is lebron some people think it's
Speaker 5: Michael Jordan. People will throw out other names, but I
Speaker 5: mean that's where I think we've kind of gone with that.
Speaker 5: And elite at quarterback kind of reminds me of a
Speaker 5: few years ago. I can't remember who it was on
Speaker 5: this Saints, but they were talking with them about facing
Speaker 5: a future Hall of Famer in Ben Roethlisberger. And he
Speaker 5: stops for a second and he goes, is that true?
Speaker 5: It was Cam Jordan? That was who it was. And
Speaker 5: he started to go through some of the names and
Speaker 5: he's like, look, you gotta be like, you know, the
Speaker 5: top in the league to be considered that. Do you
Speaker 5: necessarily think he's better than Aaron Rodgers? And some of
Speaker 5: the other guys out there, I don't believe so, but anyway,
Speaker 5: I agree with Chris Canty on that we got to
Speaker 5: stop going that word around quite a bit, because look,
Speaker 5: not everybody fits into that category. I was gonna do
Speaker 5: it for us here from Cedar Creek Cafe, but the
Speaker 5: fund does not stop.
Speaker 3: One o'clock.
Speaker 5: We're gonna get going with a six tony gumbo cookoff
Speaker 5: coming out. Join us, live music, great gumbo, games, prizes,
Speaker 5: mechanical bulls, great drinks, all those things gonna be there.
Speaker 5: From Melvin Brown. I'm Dan Matthews. Thanks for joining us
Speaker 5: here on at Space City Saturday. Talk to y'all next week.