Speaker 1: Welcomeboard, Welcome to another Space City Saturday on Sports Talk
Speaker 1: seven ninety Dan Matthews Live and local h town breakdown
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Speaker 4: We go here for Space City Saturday. Now until noon
Speaker 4: right here on your home of the Astros and the Rockets,
Speaker 4: Sports Talk seven ninety Dan Matthews here with you as
Speaker 4: there's a lot to get into with the Astros. Obviously
Speaker 4: the season coming to a what we thought was a
Speaker 4: premature end, but it is a conclusion. Nonetheless, we're not
Speaker 4: used to that at this time of the year. I mean,
Speaker 4: right now, you know, we should have Gordy and Ross
Speaker 4: up in Cleveland. We should be getting you ready for
Speaker 4: Game one of the Alds today. But in the words
Speaker 4: Justin Verlander just was not in the cards this year
Speaker 4: for the Stros. So some uncertainty, some things that we
Speaker 4: know everything kind of in between there with the Astros
Speaker 4: this year. We'll get into it here on the show today.
Speaker 4: If you want to weigh in, you can do so.
Speaker 4: Sub one three two one two five seven ninety. Once again,
Speaker 4: that's Sebone three two one two.
Speaker 2: Five seven nine zero.
Speaker 4: As the Astros falling to the red hot Detroit Tigers
Speaker 4: in the wild Card round not exactly what we wanted
Speaker 4: to see. Three to one in the first one, five
Speaker 4: to two in the second one. I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: you just kind of do the autopsy off the wild
Speaker 4: Card series. It's pretty simple to point to what did
Speaker 4: not work for the Astros, and unfortunately, I think it
Speaker 4: was kind of the sum of all fears with this team.
Speaker 4: I mean I think that you know, we saw a
Speaker 4: team all season long that seemingly with runners in scoring position, bases,
Speaker 4: loaded situations, pretty much anything that was not a two
Speaker 4: out RBI opportunity. The Astros just were not that team
Speaker 4: this season, and it came to fruition. I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: Game one, you faced a really tough one in Trek Scoogle.
Speaker 4: You were really unable to get to him, and through
Speaker 4: eighteen inting as of baseball, that was just the case
Speaker 4: with this Astros team one extra base hit, this entire
Speaker 4: two game postseason run for the Astros one for them,
Speaker 4: everything else singles. And I talked about it all season
Speaker 4: long that the unfortunate truth was with this team is
Speaker 4: that they were a team of solo home runs and
Speaker 4: singles all season long. And you know, kind of just
Speaker 4: the go ahead and just you know, kind of do
Speaker 4: the inventory of why they lost. I mean, let's just
Speaker 4: take a look at the Astros huge run scoring opportunity
Speaker 4: there in the seventh inning, they loaded the bases, they
Speaker 4: scored two runs. They scored two runs in Game two
Speaker 4: on a fielder's choice that was not handled at home
Speaker 4: plate by Jake Rogers. So you get the run to
Speaker 4: tie the ball game up. And then you get a
Speaker 4: risky sacrifice fly that Jeremy Pania able to slide across
Speaker 4: home plate. Darniar slid off the home plate dirt right
Speaker 4: there and almost at a backstop there with the momentum
Speaker 4: he had carrying him across home plate.
Speaker 2: But he gets that run. And then you get the.
Speaker 4: Double play right there by Kyle Tucker to get out
Speaker 4: of the inning, and the flip side of it, because
Speaker 4: you get the bases loaded after the while pitch to
Speaker 4: tie the ball game up. Andy Ibanya's as a pinch hitter,
Speaker 4: and what does he do, Well, he does what you're
Speaker 4: supposed to do in that situation. He clears the bases
Speaker 4: with a RBI double right there. Three runs coming in
Speaker 4: on that double, and that was again right there where
Speaker 4: you just kind of look at it at that point
Speaker 4: and say, Yep, not your year. If that team is
Speaker 4: doing that to you and you're not able to do
Speaker 4: that to them, then that's kind of what you get.
Speaker 4: And I mean, the unfortunate truth is with this Astros team,
Speaker 4: it was just a tale of what we saw all
Speaker 4: season long. I mean, you know, I understand that people
Speaker 4: are upset with Kyle Tucker, as I've talked about numerous
Speaker 4: times the week long that I've been on with Ross
Speaker 4: Villa Reale. I mean, I know, it's the Matt Thomas
Speaker 4: Show with Ross, but I think at this point, you know,
Speaker 4: it's kind of becoming the Dan and Ross Show in
Speaker 4: some sort of incarnation, either on the Nightcap slash tenth
Speaker 4: Inning show like we did on Tuesday and Wednesday from
Speaker 4: Minute Made Park, or even to the Nightcaps that we
Speaker 4: did this.
Speaker 2: But you know, with Kyle Tucker. You know, it's kind
Speaker 2: of tough to.
Speaker 4: Say in a two game series like we saw, it's
Speaker 4: such a small sample size. And I understand that people
Speaker 4: are going to throw his postseason record at him from
Speaker 4: last year where it was a little bit longer, obviously
Speaker 4: getting all the way to seven games in the ALCS,
Speaker 4: and he just was not good in that postseason. But
Speaker 4: he's been good in the past. I mean, as Ross
Speaker 4: and Matt pointed out yesterday, I believe in twenty twenty
Speaker 4: one he hit two seventy nine, So I mean, that's
Speaker 4: nothing necessarily to be upset about in terms of what
Speaker 4: he was able to do in that postseason run or
Speaker 4: actually I believe that was twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: It was one of the two.
Speaker 4: But regardless, he still swung the bat pretty well in
Speaker 4: that postseason. And not only that, I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: I think we can probably agree. I mean, you even
Speaker 4: saw it if you were watching him run down the
Speaker 4: first base line on that double play, he looked like
Speaker 4: he was trying to run full speed, but he was
Speaker 4: not able to run full speed. And in Game one,
Speaker 4: remember he comes in, he was trying to get the
Speaker 4: ball in the corner there on that double down, the
Speaker 4: right field line off of I believe Parker Meadows hit it.
Speaker 4: If I'm not mistaken, I was either him or Riley Green.
Speaker 4: I can't remember who hit it off Josh Hater in
Speaker 4: that spot. But still, I mean, you know, I saw that,
Speaker 4: and I saw that ball getting down, and I saw
Speaker 4: him trying to run after it, and I remembered where
Speaker 4: I was sitting there at minute, made park saying he's
Speaker 4: not going to get there, and sure enough he didn't.
Speaker 4: Jumped over the wall for a ground roll double ended
Speaker 4: up not hurting you really in the long run. But still,
Speaker 4: I mean, I think you saw a guy that just
Speaker 4: again was unable to really get to that full sprint
Speaker 4: that we're accustomed to seeing Kyle Tucker get to. So
Speaker 4: I think he's a guy that obviously benefits from an
Speaker 4: off season. And you're on Alvarez as well. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, he pretty much said as much the other day.
Speaker 4: I believe it was Christy Reekan of the AP that
Speaker 4: asked him, if this were a regular.
Speaker 2: Season game, would you have played?
Speaker 4: And his response, after a slight pause through translator Jen
Speaker 4: Looy Herrera, was that's a good question. I don't know,
Speaker 4: and I think we can probably agree. The answer would
Speaker 4: have been no, he would not have played, so you'd
Speaker 4: on Alvarez banged up as well.
Speaker 2: And look, I.
Speaker 4: Mean you don't want to use injuries as an excuse,
Speaker 4: but I mean it is what it is when it
Speaker 4: comes to the Astros. You had a less than one
Speaker 4: hundred percent Kyle Tucker, you had a less than a
Speaker 4: hundred percent. You were on Alvarez, And I get to
Speaker 4: what some of you out there might be saying as
Speaker 4: you're driving around listening to this right now, Well, Dan,
Speaker 4: nobody's at one hundred percent. I get that, but I
Speaker 4: mean you also want those guys to be as close
Speaker 4: to it as possible, and they weren't. And I mean
Speaker 4: it was pretty evident, and they're at bats I think
Speaker 4: even showed as much as well. I know that Kyle
Speaker 4: Tucker when he came back from the injury, was swinging
Speaker 4: the bat pretty well, I think, probably better than any
Speaker 4: of us could have really hoped that he would have
Speaker 4: at that point. But he just was unable to really
Speaker 4: be in every day one hundred percent guy for you,
Speaker 4: and that kind of hurt this team. And not only that,
Speaker 4: but also Jordon Alvarez not necessarily being able to put
Speaker 4: one hundred percent into his swings. I know he had
Speaker 4: a couple of really hard hit balls in that first game,
Speaker 4: and he had the double there in the ninth inning,
Speaker 4: which was again the only extra base hit the Astros
Speaker 4: had in this short series. But still, you know, I
Speaker 4: don't think that we were seeing the full swings, the
Speaker 4: full legs underneath that swing that we could have seen
Speaker 4: from Jordon Alvarez. And I mean, as I mentioned, singles,
Speaker 4: that's pretty much all you got in this series, and
Speaker 4: that's what it was for the Astros this season. I
Speaker 4: know that she and Laromee brought this up during the
Speaker 4: end of season press conference with both Jospoda and Dana
Speaker 4: Brown of talking about the swing rate was up for
Speaker 4: this team this year, the chase rate was up, and
Speaker 4: also too, slugging percentage across the board was down for
Speaker 4: this team this season as well. And if there's one
Speaker 4: thing we've known about the Astros during this eight plus
Speaker 4: year run that they've been on in the postseason, that
Speaker 4: that's a huge part of their game. The long ball
Speaker 4: is a huge part, and it is what is predicated
Speaker 4: and needed for this offense, and they really just at
Speaker 4: times did not have it this season. And that is
Speaker 4: why I think across the board you saw the offensive struggles,
Speaker 4: so a bad combination of not a ton of extra
Speaker 4: base hits, more strikeouts. That's not a winning formula and
Speaker 4: that is a huge reason why the Astros are back home.
Speaker 2: So, like I said, it ended the way that we
Speaker 2: all feared.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know when it came down to it
Speaker 4: this season, and it was talked about a little bit
Speaker 4: both with Dana and Joe on Thursday, and we'll let
Speaker 4: you hear a little bit of that as the show
Speaker 4: goes along. But not only that, also to channel of
Speaker 4: Rome's visit with us on the A team earlier this week,
Speaker 4: might let you hear a little bit of that too
Speaker 4: as the show goes along. But this is a lineup
Speaker 4: that I think this offseason, as Dana Brown goes through
Speaker 4: and tries to build up this roster to be ready
Speaker 4: for another postseason run in twenty twenty five, that is
Speaker 4: going to be looked at and highly scrutinized by Dana
Speaker 4: and his group and maybe even Jospota and his coaching
Speaker 4: staff as well as they meet and try to evaluate
Speaker 4: the season and also try to identify where they need
Speaker 4: to be able to make improvements to this roster going forward,
Speaker 4: because you were playing the season for the most part
Speaker 4: without a true first baseman, at least somebody that you
Speaker 4: could count on there at first base.
Speaker 2: And what do you need from first base?
Speaker 4: I mean, let's be honest here, I think first and foremost,
Speaker 4: you want to be able to have some sort of
Speaker 4: offensive threat at first base. That is a huge part
Speaker 4: of what you're looking for out of that position. It
Speaker 4: is a position that defensively, I think you're looking more
Speaker 4: for adequate defense over there.
Speaker 2: You don't need a goal glover.
Speaker 4: You don't need somebody that is going to be just
Speaker 4: an absolute dynamite fielder over there. That's not the position
Speaker 4: that you're looking for that out of. You're looking for
Speaker 4: somebody that can provide a little bit of power and
Speaker 4: also can be a good bat at the plate. And
Speaker 4: that is something that I think is going to be
Speaker 4: one of the priorities this offseason for this team. I
Speaker 4: don't know if that is through trade. I don't know
Speaker 4: if that is through a off season move. I really
Speaker 4: am just trying to rack my brain about how Dana
Speaker 4: Brown is going to go about doing that. But I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, I think we can all agree what off
Speaker 4: season priority Number one is, it's go ahead and reach
Speaker 4: a conclusion either knowing he is here or knowing he
Speaker 4: is not here with Alex Brugman. And of course we
Speaker 4: will talk about that as the show goes along, but
Speaker 4: just to kind of get us going here in the
Speaker 4: first segment, I mean, the question is, was this season
Speaker 4: of success?
Speaker 2: Yes? I mean the Astros are what.
Speaker 4: The Patriots were during their run in the NFL, what
Speaker 4: the Spurs were during their run in the NBA Alabama,
Speaker 4: what I guess they continue to, you know, aspire to
Speaker 4: be on the college love. That's you know, they are
Speaker 4: those teams of Major League Baseball. Anything short of long
Speaker 4: postseason runs and championships is deemed a failure by many.
Speaker 4: But I would also venture to say that this season
Speaker 4: was different.
Speaker 2: It was a.
Speaker 4: Sprint in the middle. You fell way behind at the
Speaker 4: beginning of the season.
Speaker 3: I mean, you.
Speaker 4: Started off the season zero to four, after losing those
Speaker 4: first four games to the Yankees, and then you get
Speaker 4: the no hitter right there from Renel Blanco. You take
Speaker 4: two out of three from the Blue Jays. But then
Speaker 4: you found yourself seven and nineteen twelve and twenty four,
Speaker 4: and you had some crucial injuries in the middle of
Speaker 4: the season. You lost Kyle Tucker for three months of
Speaker 4: this season. You lost Justin Verlander for a couple of
Speaker 4: months of this season, and when he came back, he
Speaker 4: was a shell of what we expect Justin Verlander to be.
Speaker 4: He was not the same guy. And you had numerous
Speaker 4: injuries to the pitching staff, either guys that you did
Speaker 4: not get to see throw this season or guys that
Speaker 4: you hoped we would get to see, and you eventually
Speaker 4: lost in terms of hose Aikidi and also Christian Hovier
Speaker 4: and what can be expected from them going forward, and
Speaker 4: then a sprint at the end. You were down ten
Speaker 4: games to the Mariners in the middle part of this season,
Speaker 4: it looked like you had no chance at being able
Speaker 4: to come back and win the American League West. You
Speaker 4: were able to overtake them, you were able to win
Speaker 4: the American League West, and I think when it was
Speaker 4: all sudden done, all that kind of got to this
Speaker 4: team and the holes that you had in this lineup
Speaker 4: and just this team not being as deep as teams
Speaker 4: that we've seen in the past. That's eventually what got
Speaker 4: to this Astros team and is a reason why here
Speaker 4: in early October. We're talking about twenty twenty four in
Speaker 4: the past, not twenty twenty four in the present, and
Speaker 4: that is again a huge reason why we are doing
Speaker 4: and speaking of.
Speaker 2: This team the way that we are.
Speaker 4: But it also too I heard some of the calls
Speaker 4: yesterday on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross the run
Speaker 4: is over. You're meaning to tell me that you still
Speaker 4: have Jose al two A, Kyle Tucker, Jordan Alvarez, JANR.
Speaker 4: Diaz from ber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Brian Obray, you Josh
Speaker 4: Hater on this roster and that that's it.
Speaker 2: You know, we're just gonna go ahead and pack it up.
Speaker 4: I mean, I heard somebody else yesterday say it's gonna
Speaker 4: be a triple A roster in twenty twenty five. Again,
Speaker 4: like I said last night on the night Cap, I'll
Speaker 4: say it again right now. I don't know if it's alcohol.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's chemically induced. I don't even
Speaker 4: know if there is a gas leak where you are
Speaker 4: right now. But if it's either of those three, either
Speaker 4: put the other two down or get away from the
Speaker 4: last one because it is unbelievable. Where if nothing else,
Speaker 4: you're being ruled by emotion right now, and take the
Speaker 4: emotion out of it. Again, this was a good season
Speaker 4: for this team. This was a season that was definitely different.
Speaker 4: I get it, But also though too, it was not
Speaker 4: a complete failure. And I think you're doing yourself a
Speaker 4: huge disservice. And I think also too, you're being a
Speaker 4: prisoner of the moment. If you're going to go ahead
Speaker 4: and say, oh it's over, go ahead.
Speaker 2: And pack it up.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know some people acting like you're going
Speaker 4: to go back to being the twenty tens early twenty
Speaker 4: tens astros. That's not happening. There's way too much talent
Speaker 4: still on this roster. There's way too much talent that
Speaker 4: they can still add to this roster. It is a
Speaker 4: chance for them to be able to recalibrate and given
Speaker 4: another go next season. Now, again, like I've said, and
Speaker 4: I did say on the final one that we did,
Speaker 4: the nightcap ten ending on Wednesday, is it going to
Speaker 4: be different? Can you expect alcs's every single year? No?
Speaker 4: And this is case in point that you can't expect
Speaker 4: that to be the case every single year. And that's
Speaker 4: why I think that run is one that you should
Speaker 4: look back on incredibly fondly. But does it mean that
Speaker 4: the Astros say next year the year after can't get
Speaker 4: back to that point. No, there is zero reasona believe
Speaker 4: that they cannot get back to that point. So they
Speaker 4: can absolutely get back into deep postseason runs. And that
Speaker 4: is going to be the goal of Dana Brown and
Speaker 4: his staff this offseason. And Dana Brown's going to be
Speaker 4: at work this offseason. He told us as much on Thursday,
Speaker 4: and I believe him because we saw a guy that
Speaker 4: did some serious work this year to put this team
Speaker 4: in position to even be able to win the American
Speaker 4: League West. And I think we can all agree for
Speaker 4: the most part, his moves that he made were incredibly
Speaker 4: valuable to accomplishing that goal.
Speaker 2: So I don't think that.
Speaker 4: He is going to sit on his hands this offseason, obviously.
Speaker 4: I think priority number one, like I said, is Alex
Speaker 4: Bregman get some sort of conclusion either he's back here
Speaker 4: or he's somewhere else, and you try to find a
Speaker 4: third baseman. I don't believe that it is in your
Speaker 4: system right now. I've heard people bring up Shae Whitcomb,
Speaker 4: and I'm not saying because of the game he had
Speaker 4: in that final one against the Mariners. But that is
Speaker 4: not a third baseman for a championship team, not right now.
Speaker 2: I don't believe that he is.
Speaker 4: I think he's a guy that can contribute, but he's
Speaker 4: not in every day third baseman that you can count on.
Speaker 4: That needs to be a veteran option over there. If
Speaker 4: it's not Alex Bregman at third base, and I think
Speaker 4: that that player will be here. Who it is TBD
Speaker 4: will have to try to find out. But like I said,
Speaker 4: like he did last season, this was a postseason team
Speaker 4: because of his work, and he will continue to try
Speaker 4: to make it a postseason team going forward. We're gonna
Speaker 4: have a live guest here on the show. We don't
Speaker 4: have too many live guests that join us here on
Speaker 4: Space City Saturday, but my good buddy Ari Alexander from
Speaker 4: KPRC two here in Houston, gonna join us at ten thirty.
Speaker 4: We'll also get into some Texans as the show goes
Speaker 4: along today. Huge one tomorrow against the Bills, and we also,
Speaker 4: speaking of that game against the Bills, had a great
Speaker 4: guest with us yesterday on the A Team, Jeremy White
Speaker 4: from the morning show on at WGR. The Bills flagship
Speaker 4: station in Buffalo joined us. We're gonna hear from him
Speaker 4: at eleven thirty you of h Football. Nice win last
Speaker 4: night for Willie Fritz and the crew, thirty to nineteen
Speaker 4: at TCU. Big win for them up there in Fort Worth,
Speaker 4: first one since nineteen eighty nine. So it was fitting
Speaker 4: that Andre Ware was on the broadcast last night too.
Speaker 4: I'm sure he enjoyed that one the Nie Shroff. I
Speaker 4: know they were showing some of his highlights from games
Speaker 4: that he played there at Amon Carter Stadium, So we
Speaker 4: will maybe even have a mention of that game as
Speaker 4: the show goes along as well, and coming up in
Speaker 4: the eleven o'clock cour NFL players are bringing up something
Speaker 4: that I think on its merit sounds like a good idea,
Speaker 4: but I really think that it could be far from that,
Speaker 4: So we'll get into that a little bit later on
Speaker 4: as well as is I'm way over for a break
Speaker 4: because coming up next, consider the source when it comes
Speaker 4: to Alex Bregman's future. This guy speaking up, it should
Speaker 4: mean a lot, and I'll explain next as we continue
Speaker 4: along here on Space City Saturday, Dan Matthews, here in
Speaker 4: your home of the Astros, and the Rockets. Sports Talk
Speaker 4: seven ninety Space.
Speaker 1: City Saturday continues fine Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 2: In your home to the Astros and the Rockets.
Speaker 4: As we are looking back on the season that was
Speaker 4: for the Astros twenty twenty four and with us looking
Speaker 4: you got to look forward to as well, what will
Speaker 4: happen with Alex Bregman. And we'll talk about this a
Speaker 4: little bit more in less than ten minutes when my
Speaker 4: good buddy Ari Alexander from KPRC two joins us. If
Speaker 4: you follow Ari, you know that he is on top
Speaker 4: of all things Astros, and not only Astros, he usually
Speaker 4: too whenever you find out someone's coming up from Corpus
Speaker 4: Christy Sugarland, Ari is usually the guy that is breaking
Speaker 4: that news. So he's pretty connected when it comes to
Speaker 4: the baseball community here. So we will talk with him
Speaker 4: here in just a.
Speaker 2: Few all right.
Speaker 4: Like I said, consider the source when it comes to
Speaker 4: the Astros and their attempt to keep Alex Bregman here
Speaker 4: in Houston. So this started a few weeks ago from
Speaker 4: Chandler Rome, who again, by the way, we had in
Speaker 4: studio with us on the A team. If you missed
Speaker 4: any that download the iHeartRadio app. You can go check
Speaker 4: out that visit. But he kind of did a little
Speaker 4: bit of a you know, timeline sequenial timeline here for
Speaker 4: you know, just in terms of Jose Altuve speaking up
Speaker 4: about Alex Bregman and why it carries weight when it
Speaker 4: comes to Jose Altuve speaking about Alex Bregman. A few
Speaker 4: weeks ago, they were in Anaheim and Chandler Rome had
Speaker 4: a chance to catch up with al Tuove and he
Speaker 4: talked about I don't think he's going anywhere, and you know,
Speaker 4: just talking about everything he's going to try to do
Speaker 4: to be able to keep Bregman here, and he'd continued
Speaker 4: to speak along those same lines. I know that we
Speaker 4: had a chance to talk with him, I believe before
Speaker 4: Game one. I think it was the workout day is
Speaker 4: when al Tuove asked again about Bregman and and he
Speaker 4: even went even further after their season came to an
Speaker 4: end on Wednesday, as they lost that second game to
Speaker 4: Detroit and al Touve going as far as to say
Speaker 4: after the loss that this club needs Bregman to stick around.
Speaker 5: I don't want to get to the idea of thinking
Speaker 5: about last game with Breggy, like I said two weeks ago,
Speaker 5: and I'm pretty confidence that he's going to be our
Speaker 5: third baseman next year. We have to is you know,
Speaker 5: we're not going to be the same organization without him,
Speaker 5: So in my mind, there's not a chance that this
Speaker 5: is the last game.
Speaker 4: All right, So not a chance this is the last game.
Speaker 4: There's more from al two B because I actually had
Speaker 4: the follow up question to him of I think the
Speaker 4: question that I think a lot of people want to know.
Speaker 2: You are pretty confident that he is not going to
Speaker 2: be gone.
Speaker 4: Why are you so confident when it sounds like everybody
Speaker 4: out there is saying it's a foregone conclusion that Alex
Speaker 4: Bregmant isn't here.
Speaker 2: Al Tuove gave me his reason.
Speaker 5: The guy he is, you know, he means a lot.
Speaker 5: He gave a lot to this organization. So now it's
Speaker 5: time for us to assertin this organization to pay him
Speaker 5: back and make him stay here.
Speaker 6: Is that something that you will tell Jim Crane.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, there you go. And you know that's
Speaker 2: the other part as well.
Speaker 4: As I mentioned the Chandler ro visit with us on
Speaker 4: the A team, he talked about how al Tuvey never
Speaker 4: talks like this, and I know that some people were
Speaker 4: floating this around on Twitter that he said the same
Speaker 4: thing about Carlos Korea. Again, I wasn't here for that,
Speaker 4: But I've also seen evidence to the contrary where he
Speaker 4: wasn't direct in terms of, you know, saying, oh, we
Speaker 4: have to have him here. There's no way we can
Speaker 4: lose this guy. I'm going to do everything I can
Speaker 4: to make sure that he stays here. Any of those things.
Speaker 4: But I also think that you need to remember who
Speaker 4: Altuve and Brugman are both represented by. They're represented by
Speaker 4: Scott Boris, and Scott Boris was here this last offseason
Speaker 4: when al Tuove signed his extension with the team, and
Speaker 4: also too as well. I mean, pretty much, for all
Speaker 4: intents and purposes, al Tuove probably took less than he
Speaker 4: really could have if he had stretched this out and
Speaker 4: even gone to free agency and gone through some negotiations
Speaker 4: everything of the sort and decided to stay with the Astros.
Speaker 4: And you have to wonder at that point too, if
Speaker 4: al Touve didn't as he signed his contract, looked at
Speaker 4: Jim Crane, looked at Dana Brown and say, hey, look,
Speaker 4: I'm doing this kind of like what we saw Tom
Speaker 4: Brady do with the New England Patriots, all those years
Speaker 4: of taking less money to make sure that he had
Speaker 4: enough players around him to be able to stay a
Speaker 4: competitive and high functioning offense for them to be able
Speaker 4: to win Super Bowls.
Speaker 2: And you wonder if he kind of even.
Speaker 4: Said as much of, look, if I'm doing this, stay
Speaker 4: committed to us keeping this thing going, and stay committed
Speaker 4: to us being able to win.
Speaker 2: So I think that all of that carries weight.
Speaker 4: I mean, al Tuve again is a guy that does
Speaker 4: not speak like this very often, and if he is adamant,
Speaker 4: then you need to listen for that very reason. It's
Speaker 4: like the quiet guy that you have as part of
Speaker 4: your friend group or in your locker room or whatever
Speaker 4: it is.
Speaker 2: If they get up and speak, you.
Speaker 4: Kind of straighten up because you're like, oh, man, they're
Speaker 4: compelled to talk. Like we heard this all the time
Speaker 4: from Andre Johnson when he was a player with Texans,
Speaker 4: that you'd hear about team meetings on Friday nights before
Speaker 4: games that if Andre got up to speak, everybody listened
Speaker 4: because they knew, Oh, if he's hell the talk, then
Speaker 4: there's a reason for it, because he doesn't do this
Speaker 4: very often. Now with Bregman, when it comes to it all,
Speaker 4: you know, again, having a chance to ask him personally,
Speaker 4: does he want to come back?
Speaker 2: And Bregman says, yeah, I want to be back here.
Speaker 3: I hope.
Speaker 7: So I hope we'll see what happens. I mean, I'm
Speaker 7: gonna let Scott and the team handle that. Obviously, it's
Speaker 7: free agency and I don't really have never experienced that before,
Speaker 7: and I'll let I'll let him and all the teams
Speaker 7: handle that name.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 4: So, I mean, we'll get into this a little bit
Speaker 4: more with Ari Alexander as as said coming up next here.
Speaker 4: But I mean there's a lot to consider in terms
Speaker 4: of what the Astros want to do to keep this
Speaker 4: team as intact as possible, but also too, I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, is it something that you do that could
Speaker 4: maybe be a detriment to this team in the few
Speaker 4: I mean, we'd seen it of what precipitated to lead
Speaker 4: up to the early twenty tens struggles with this team.
Speaker 4: You spent emotional money during those times, and you made
Speaker 4: unsound decisions in terms of contracts to be able to
Speaker 4: try to get back to reaching the postseason, and not
Speaker 4: only the postseason, but the World Series. After getting a
Speaker 4: taste of it in two thousand and five, and those
Speaker 4: moves are what spent sent the astros into a tail
Speaker 4: spend where they had to completely hit demolition and build
Speaker 4: this thing back up from the ground and be in
Speaker 4: position for what they are right now. So I think
Speaker 4: all those things have to be answered, and we'll try
Speaker 4: to get as many answers as we can. Coming up
Speaker 4: next with Ari Alexander from KPRC two. He joins us
Speaker 4: right here on Space City Saturday.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Space City Saturday. On Sports Talk seven.
Speaker 8: Ninety seven ninety Space City Saturday, Dan Matthews here with
Speaker 8: you and until noon college football games about to get going,
Speaker 8: and our next guest gonna have his eyes on what's
Speaker 8: happening in college station.
Speaker 4: Because he's a Miszoo man. He's from KPRC too. You
Speaker 4: see him on your TV. He is Ari alec Xander.
Speaker 4: Not gonna talk Tigers and Aggie's with you today. Ari,
Speaker 4: A lot of Astros to be discussed here, but I
Speaker 4: gotta believe as soon as you get off the phone
Speaker 4: with me, than the final preparation to be able to
Speaker 4: be in front of that TV from now until about
Speaker 4: two two thirty is gonna be in full effect.
Speaker 9: Right, Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see what how
Speaker 9: for real are the Missoo Tigers? How for real is
Speaker 9: Texas A and M? And this is a good matchup
Speaker 9: between these two teams. And you know in Miszoom moved
Speaker 9: to the SEC with Texas A and M when I
Speaker 9: was a senior in college. Right, it's not just Kyle
Speaker 9: Field that they've had to get ready for for that atmosphere, man,
Speaker 9: it's all over the SEC.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no doubt about it. So it'll be a fun
Speaker 4: one to watch. All right, let's talk some baseball. You
Speaker 4: were in the clubhouse with me on Wednesday, when you know,
Speaker 4: we saw the hugs, we saw the hand and shakes,
Speaker 4: everything that happens at the end of a season. Usually
Speaker 4: we're used to that happening in late October early November,
Speaker 4: and in some cases the ultimate champagne celebration, but not
Speaker 4: the case this year with the shows, so a little
Speaker 4: bit of a different tenor this year. And obviously the
Speaker 4: theme was Alex Brugman. What happens is the last time
Speaker 4: we see his name plate over his locker with the
Speaker 4: number two next to it.
Speaker 2: Just I mean, we'll start there.
Speaker 4: What did you think in terms of not only what
Speaker 4: Jose Al Tuve said, but every single player that we
Speaker 4: spoke with there inside the clubhouse after that loss.
Speaker 9: Well, none of it's surprising. I mean, you know, I've
Speaker 9: been here for five and a half years. Bregman has
Speaker 9: been in the Astros organization for you know, nine years
Speaker 9: now and been a key cornerstone of an organization that
Speaker 9: has gone to seven straight out. So, yes, is he
Speaker 9: is beloved in this city. And I think as much
Speaker 9: as fans love him for what he does on the
Speaker 9: field and off the field, his teammates love him more
Speaker 9: because they get to see the competitive fire every day.
Speaker 9: You know, I've done some events and stuff with Alex
Speaker 9: and then got to know him a little bit, and
Speaker 9: I think the way best way to describe him, can
Speaker 9: I say this in a good way. He's insane. He's
Speaker 9: insane about baseball. He has just an unreal passion for baseball,
Speaker 9: for the little mechanical tweaks that he has to do
Speaker 9: to get better. Because of the competitive fire he has.
Speaker 9: I've never seen a player more into details than he
Speaker 9: is in any sport, and I think Justin Verlander said
Speaker 9: something along those lines that he's never seen a guy
Speaker 9: that works as hard as bregmant and I think that's true,
Speaker 9: that there's no one more interested in the minutia of
Speaker 9: getting better at baseball because he loves it so much
Speaker 9: than Alex Bregman. And then that all also goes with
Speaker 9: his teammates in the clubhouse, because not only does he
Speaker 9: try to get better for himself, he makes all these subjections,
Speaker 9: he does all this extra work. I had an Astros
Speaker 9: pitcher tell me that Bregman does his own reports on
Speaker 9: other team's hitters. Right, Like Bregman's job is to hit,
Speaker 9: his job is not to do reports on other team's hitters,
Speaker 9: but he does. He does reports on other team's hitters,
Speaker 9: and he'll share them with pictures. That's also what a
Speaker 9: catcher does, right. Everyone talked about how how incredible was
Speaker 9: that Martimo Moldonado did his own reports on hitters on
Speaker 9: top of what the Astros give pictures for scouting reports.
Speaker 9: Bregman does the same thing. He's not even a catcher,
Speaker 9: he's not a pitcher. He's just doing it because he's
Speaker 9: interested in it. And so I think that's kind of
Speaker 9: the type of guy he is. That he was one
Speaker 9: of the guys that made the main suggestion to Hunter
Speaker 9: Brown to go to the Sinker. Then Hunter Brown turned
Speaker 9: into an all star level pitcher.
Speaker 10: He's just one of these guys.
Speaker 9: That loves bass and just the competitive fire more than anything.
Speaker 9: I think it would be really, really bad to lose him.
Speaker 9: I understand why the Astros maybe wouldn't go to an
Speaker 9: absurd giant money deal like he deserves. But you heard
Speaker 9: what Osel Tube said and the way he said it,
Speaker 9: which is very out of character for a very quiet
Speaker 9: guy in Al Tube.
Speaker 10: And there's a reason for it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean you know it all started back when
Speaker 4: he was at LSU too, I mean where they gave
Speaker 4: him his own key cards so he could get into
Speaker 4: the batting cage after hours so the equipment guy didn't
Speaker 4: have to come up there and let him back in.
Speaker 4: So again to the point you just brought up there, Ari,
Speaker 4: I think most fans knew that. But a workhorse, no
Speaker 4: doubt about it, is Alex Bregman. You could follow Ari
Speaker 4: Alexander on Twitter at Ari Alexander. The L in Alexander
Speaker 4: though is a number one, so that is how you
Speaker 4: know it is him. Plus he's verified, so you know
Speaker 4: it's him as well. But Ari, I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: along those same lines in terms of what Bregman's looking for.
Speaker 4: You talk with representatives out there. I mean I don't
Speaker 4: know if directly with anyone at the Boris Corp. But
Speaker 4: I mean you know, people talk people, you know, get
Speaker 4: an idea of what others clients are going to be
Speaker 4: looking for, and some people that you've talked with, I mean,
Speaker 4: what is it that Bregman wants from this? Does he
Speaker 4: want the huge payday or does he want to try
Speaker 4: to get as close to that but find a situation
Speaker 4: where he can continue playing for world championships.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 9: So, I mean as of right now, there's really no
Speaker 9: information out there about specifically what Alex Bregman wants, but
Speaker 9: I can sort of talk to the comp of what,
Speaker 9: you know, what he could get based on similar players
Speaker 9: and in terms of age and just kind of like
Speaker 9: the production. So most agents are going to tell their players,
Speaker 9: especially when they're thirty like Alex Bregman is and going
Speaker 9: into the free agency where they can get their one
Speaker 9: big contract, is to get that one big, big, long contract.
Speaker 9: So most agents, Scott Boris included, will be advising Alex
Speaker 9: Bregman to ask for an eight nine year deal seven
Speaker 9: eight nine year deal, and the average value of that
Speaker 9: deal is probably going to be similar to what Alex
Speaker 9: Bregman is already making. He made thirty one million this
Speaker 9: season for the Astros.
Speaker 10: His deal was five years, one hundred million.
Speaker 2: Is the deal.
Speaker 9: He's coming off the extension he signed with the Astros
Speaker 9: and it escalated up and so this year was in
Speaker 9: that twenty nine to thirty one million. So that's what
Speaker 9: we're looking at, roughly thirty million a year. And if
Speaker 9: you're going to treat Bregman the way that most players
Speaker 9: when they hit their one big free agent year at age,
Speaker 9: you know, twenty nine to thirty, that's.
Speaker 10: We're looking at about eight years.
Speaker 9: So eight years, two hundred and forty million, I think
Speaker 9: would be a decent guess. Seven years, two hundred and
Speaker 9: ten million, I think would be a decent guess. And
Speaker 9: a big number that we're working off of is what
Speaker 9: Matt Chapman got.
Speaker 10: They have the same magent and Scott Boris.
Speaker 9: Chapman got a six year, one hundred and fifty one
Speaker 9: million dollar extension. Chapman is a slightly better defender than Bregman,
Speaker 9: but I mean, we know Alex is no slouch. He's
Speaker 9: a gold glove caliber's third baseman, and one of the
Speaker 9: reasons he hasn't gotten that gold glove is because he's
Speaker 9: had to deal with Matt Chapman being the American League.
Speaker 9: But I don't think he's very far behind Chapman. Defensively,
Speaker 9: Alex is excellent on defense. As a hitter, Bregman is
Speaker 9: a much better hitter than Matt Chapman, and I think
Speaker 9: that would drive his value up past that six one
Speaker 9: fifty one. So I think you're looking at six one
Speaker 9: fifty one as a starting point and you're going higher
Speaker 9: than that, maybe one or two years, and definitely financially
Speaker 9: going higher. So if I had to guess, a reasonable
Speaker 9: ask for Alex Bregman is about seven years, two hundred
Speaker 9: and ten million dollars.
Speaker 4: And in your mind, I mean, if the Astros do
Speaker 4: meet him at that and do bring him back for
Speaker 4: the numbers that you just threw out right there, I mean,
Speaker 4: does that necessarily hamstring them from let's call it what
Speaker 4: it is ari. I mean they need to find to
Speaker 4: first baseman. I don't know if that's through trade. I
Speaker 4: don't know if that option is out there via free agency.
Speaker 4: It's not in this organization. I think we can agree
Speaker 4: on that, and also too, I mean, you like what
Speaker 4: Jake Myers did out in center field, you don't like
Speaker 4: what he did at the plate for you this year.
Speaker 4: So I got to believe that's another area that this
Speaker 4: team needs to upgrade, right.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean center field in first base.
Speaker 9: If Kat McCormick can get back to twenty twenty three
Speaker 9: Chas McCormick.
Speaker 10: Then you're fixed.
Speaker 9: But that's obviously not a guarantee. He had a tough
Speaker 9: year at the plate this year. He's focused Steve Sparks
Speaker 9: the other day, and his theory on it was that
Speaker 9: Chaz was sort of trying to pull the ball a
Speaker 9: little bit and it messed with its swing mechanically because
Speaker 9: he's a guy that natural tendency is to go the
Speaker 9: other way. And then when he sort of was something
Speaker 9: and realized, all right, maybe let me just get back
Speaker 9: to my normal going the other way type of swing mechanics,
Speaker 9: it just took him a while to get there. And
Speaker 9: then you obviously have to add the human element of it,
Speaker 9: where you're trying to make swing changes, you're outing a
Speaker 9: rough season, you're playing inconsistently, and it becomes a factor
Speaker 9: then he got hurt, broke the finger was out for
Speaker 9: a little bit, and actually I'd better at bats toward
Speaker 9: the end of the year. But by that point, like
Speaker 9: the numbers are going to look ugly, and so you know,
Speaker 9: it doesn't look good. I think that right now, it's
Speaker 9: it wouldn't be smart to trade Chaz because his value
Speaker 9: is at his lowest and we've seen what the ceiling
Speaker 9: sort of looks like for that type of player, and
Speaker 9: he's a good player, and we know that he can
Speaker 9: play well defensively. For Jake Myers, I just don't think
Speaker 9: that Myers has really ever proven that he can hit
Speaker 9: at a consistent level.
Speaker 10: He started so hot this.
Speaker 9: Year, and I think most people Astros fans, in the
Speaker 9: front office and everyone was hoping that, all right, maybe
Speaker 9: he's turned that corner and this is what we're getting,
Speaker 9: this plus offensive player. We know he's plus plus on defense,
Speaker 9: we know the arm is not the best, and so
Speaker 9: I think if there is someone that you're going to
Speaker 9: trade that has some value right now, it is Jake Myers.
Speaker 10: So there was rumors.
Speaker 9: Last off season that maybe he was could be shopped
Speaker 9: or teams were checking in on him. I did not
Speaker 9: hear anything of that sort myself. But I can see
Speaker 9: where his value lies on a team that has a
Speaker 9: deep lineup that can use a defense only sort of
Speaker 9: player because he's really really good on defense. I do
Speaker 9: think that that's sort of become the norm and center
Speaker 9: fields around all of baseball. There just aren't a lot
Speaker 9: of guys like I remember, you know, we were growing
Speaker 9: up in an arrow where center field was like Andrew Jones,
Speaker 9: where it was like this guy's awesome on defense, and
Speaker 9: this guy crushes at the plate, and there's.
Speaker 10: All these guys that could hit.
Speaker 9: And now it feels like center field has become a
Speaker 9: lot of guys that are really good on defense and
Speaker 9: no hitters. And so I think that the Asters can
Speaker 9: get away with having a defense only type of player there,
Speaker 9: but it would be nice to see them get someone
Speaker 9: who's a little bit more flexible on both sides of
Speaker 9: the ball. So I think, yeah, you can upgrade from
Speaker 9: Jake Myers. I'm not sure what that looks like. Maybe
Speaker 9: it's Jacob Melton. Joey Lo Brafito obviously played a lot
Speaker 9: of center field in Triple A before he was traded,
Speaker 9: so I think that they had some internal options and
Speaker 9: from the outfield to Brown, and previous regimes have done
Speaker 9: a good job of drafting outfielders who are good on defense,
Speaker 9: and then obviously you got to work on the bat
Speaker 9: and then at first base. Right now, it feels like
Speaker 9: we're looking at Zach Dezenzo and we're looking at John
Speaker 9: Singleton and hoping that that can get the Astros through.
Speaker 9: And Dana Brown's comments about how they won a World
Speaker 9: Series with Juli Uriel having a down year in twenty
Speaker 9: twenty two that didn't hamper them, does not lead me
Speaker 9: to believe that they're going to be in the market
Speaker 9: for Pete Alonzo. We're going to be in the market
Speaker 9: for Christian Walker or Paul Goldschmidt is someone who made sense.
Speaker 9: But if you're the Astros whose last deal with a
Speaker 9: first baseman was getting an ex MVP old guy who's
Speaker 9: on the back end of his career and it went horribly,
Speaker 9: getting Paul Goldschmidt, who is an x MVP on the
Speaker 9: back end of his career is not going to look
Speaker 9: good to the fan base, even if it comes on,
Speaker 9: you know, on a cheaper deal.
Speaker 10: So I think that they're in a pretty tight spot.
Speaker 9: Where you're either going to have to pay way up
Speaker 9: for Pete Alonzo or Walker, or you might have to
Speaker 9: just go with what you got or try to, you know,
Speaker 9: scrounge up something.
Speaker 10: I think that if.
Speaker 2: You're spending the money that you.
Speaker 9: Have left to go into the salary into the tax
Speaker 9: that get it. Resigning Alex Fragman and resigning Usaka Kuchi
Speaker 9: or one of the two, I think is more important
Speaker 9: than first base because it just right now, it does
Speaker 9: not look like this this is a good market for them,
Speaker 9: because you're either shopping at the very top of the
Speaker 9: market or you're shopping at the bottom.
Speaker 10: And there's no real in between options.
Speaker 4: You've got about a minute left with Ari Alexander again.
Speaker 4: You can find them on tv kPr C two. Find
Speaker 4: him on Twitter at Ari Alexander. The L in Alexander
Speaker 4: is a number one, so that is where you can
Speaker 4: find him. The final one is kind of a two
Speaker 4: parter here, Ari number one. I don't think Astros fans
Speaker 4: were too happy to hear that Ryan Presley will be
Speaker 4: part of the the the roster in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 4: but along with that as well Dana Brown mentioning possibly
Speaker 4: looking into adding it to the high leverage guys there
Speaker 4: at the end.
Speaker 2: I mean, is that kind of signal to you. Probably
Speaker 2: as we.
Speaker 4: Come out of spring training next year, we see Brian
Speaker 4: abrayhu is the eighth inning guy, and Ryan Presley as hey,
Speaker 4: maybe the seventh inning, or you might be even a
Speaker 4: middle relief.
Speaker 2: Guy for this team.
Speaker 9: Now, yeah, I mean it's they had to do it
Speaker 9: with Raphael Montero. Raffael Montaro is still back next year,
Speaker 9: by the way, with that eleven million on the books
Speaker 9: from Montero, and they had to keep moving him down
Speaker 9: and leverage until they had to get to the point
Speaker 9: where they had to get rid of you know, get
Speaker 9: rid of him. There's a name for assignment still not released.
Speaker 9: He's still with the team and he's going to try
Speaker 9: to work his way back. But I wouldn't imagine that
Speaker 9: drastic of a case is going to happen with Ryan Presley.
Speaker 9: But you know that's something could happen in terms of demotion.
Speaker 9: You're already paying the guy. You're trying to get the
Speaker 9: most out out of him that you can. And if
Speaker 9: Brian Abray is more effective, I think they gave him.
Speaker 9: The Astros have done right by Ryan Presley other than
Speaker 9: you maybe given his closer role to Josh Hader.
Speaker 10: They gave him the whole.
Speaker 9: Season to work his way into a form that they
Speaker 9: believe that he can be as an eighth inning guy,
Speaker 9: which he was for the Astros previously and was really
Speaker 9: really good, and they gave him up until the final
Speaker 9: game of the year. And I think now, given the
Speaker 9: last result that we saw was him giving up a
Speaker 9: game tying run, I don't think that they owe him
Speaker 9: the eighth inning right now. And it's whoever the best
Speaker 9: coming out of spring training, and maybe he starts in
Speaker 9: the eighth inning role, but if we get two three
Speaker 9: weeks into the season and Brian Obray.
Speaker 10: Who is out pitching him, I don't think the.
Speaker 9: Astros necessarily owe it to Ryan Presley to keep.
Speaker 2: Him in that role the way that maybe they did
Speaker 2: this year.
Speaker 4: Gonna be an exciting offseason, no doubt about it. And
Speaker 4: if you want to keep up with what is happening
Speaker 4: with the Astros this offseason, for my money, I don't
Speaker 4: think there is a better follow on Twitter than this man.
Speaker 4: And you also see him on TV on KPRC two.
Speaker 4: He's Ari Alexander. All Right, appreciate the time, buddy, We'll
Speaker 4: catch up soon, all right. Thanks Dan, Thanks buddy. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, when it comes to Ryan Presley,
Speaker 4: I mean I talked about it the other night with
Speaker 4: Ross for my Money. You know, you come out of
Speaker 4: spring training next year. I understand there was a lot
Speaker 4: made about going to get Josh Hater and the demotion
Speaker 4: at the time for.
Speaker 2: Ryan Presley, But the fact of the matter.
Speaker 4: Is, I've said it, the setup man needs to be
Speaker 4: an extension of your closer.
Speaker 2: Neither of them were really that good this season.
Speaker 4: I get that, But also though, too, you've got to
Speaker 4: have stability in those two spots, and I think that
Speaker 4: Hater will probably have to work on some adjustments with
Speaker 4: that slider this offseason.
Speaker 2: We heard Dana Brown say it the other day, but.
Speaker 4: Also too as well, that you need to be able
Speaker 4: to have as close to a lockdown option there in
Speaker 4: the eighth inning as possible. And I feel like the
Speaker 4: closest of those options is already here. Brian a Bray,
Speaker 4: You from my money, Brian Abray, You's your eighth inning
Speaker 4: setup man next year. And where Ryan Presley fits in
Speaker 4: after that, I don't know, but you know, I understand
Speaker 4: that some people might wonder, oh, was he kind of
Speaker 4: bummed with the demotion now of the closers role this year.
Speaker 2: Look, you got to get out of that.
Speaker 4: You've got to get past that if that's the case,
Speaker 4: and you've got to go out there and get out
Speaker 4: and for the better part of the season.
Speaker 2: This year, Ryan Presley did not do that.
Speaker 4: So that is another reason why the Astros find themselves
Speaker 4: in the situation they are in right now.
Speaker 2: All Right.
Speaker 4: We talked a lot about Dana Brown in that conversation
Speaker 4: with Ari Alexander coming out next. I've talked about the
Speaker 4: trends of what to look for in regards to the
Speaker 4: Astros GM in the past. When he says certain things
Speaker 4: like he did on Thursday, I'd say, we need to
Speaker 4: believe him. We'll talk about that as we close out
Speaker 4: the ten o'clock hour here on Space City Saturday. Dan
Speaker 4: Matthews here with you on your home with the Astros
Speaker 4: and the Rockets at Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 1: This is Space City Saturday. I'm Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 10: Oh.
Speaker 4: This is no probably just get slipped off while they're
Speaker 4: later tracks. They had got cold when this came out
Speaker 4: when I graduated high school twenty years ago. It's crazy anyway,
Speaker 4: Space City Saturday, Dan Matthews here with you on your
Speaker 4: home of the Astros and the Rockets Sports Talk seven
Speaker 4: to ninety In terms of you know, the Stros obviously
Speaker 4: Game one Alds today, which is supposed to be the
Speaker 4: series they were going to be in up in Cleveland,
Speaker 4: but instead we're watching an old friend, aj Hinch. The
Speaker 4: American League postseason, by the way, littered it with former Astros.
Speaker 4: So if you are inclined to still pay attention to
Speaker 4: what's happening in the postseason, I mean, for me, honestly,
Speaker 4: it's going to be if it's on where I'm at,
Speaker 4: I'll peek up at it. But to say that I'm
Speaker 4: going to be following closely, I don't think I will be.
Speaker 4: I mean, baseball is very much a who do you
Speaker 4: care about? Necessarily? I mean, I understand, you know, and
Speaker 4: I've got MLB dot TV. I'll watch games, you know,
Speaker 4: the Dodgers, Padres, whoever it is, you know, during the season,
Speaker 4: just if you know it's one of those I'm going
Speaker 4: to bed and watching and you know, just want to
Speaker 4: see good baseball being played.
Speaker 2: That's pretty much it.
Speaker 4: But to say that I'm going to be paying close attention, no,
Speaker 4: I will not. But I mean, we do have some
Speaker 4: pretty good matchups. I mean, you know, I think all
Speaker 4: four of them are compelling. I mean the National League
Speaker 4: side is I think must see TV in certain cases.
Speaker 4: I mean, Dodgers and Padres. That's gonna be fun to watch.
Speaker 4: Also too, you want to talk about another matchup of
Speaker 4: fan bases that hate each other, our good buddy Ari Alexander,
Speaker 4: big Mets guy, the Mets and Phillies taking.
Speaker 2: On each other.
Speaker 4: Kind of that Interstate ninety five rivalry right there. I guess,
Speaker 4: if you will, is that the interstate that runs between
Speaker 4: New York and Philly.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Somebody out there can probably tell me, but anyway, it's
Speaker 4: going to be exciting to pay attention to on that
Speaker 4: side as well, and of course the Yankees and Royals
Speaker 4: on the American League side.
Speaker 2: Go Yuli Guriel. I love that.
Speaker 4: I saw it on Twitter the other day, and for
Speaker 4: attribution purposes, I apologize for not remembering who threw this
Speaker 4: out there, but they said, you know, Yuli Guriel has
Speaker 4: a chance to do the funniest thing possible, and he's
Speaker 4: not wrong or she whoever threw that out there, they
Speaker 4: are not wrong in terms of what Yulie could do.
Speaker 4: He continued to be an Astros legend at that point.
Speaker 4: Dana Brown and what we can expect from him this
Speaker 4: off season. We had a chance to catch up with
Speaker 4: he and Joe Aspada after the season came to an
Speaker 4: end and they met with us on Thursday. One of
Speaker 4: the things that Dana Brown talked about was off season
Speaker 4: priorities and what to expect from this team as he
Speaker 4: and his staff go to work trying to build up
Speaker 4: the roster for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 11: Well, first of all, you know, one of the things
Speaker 11: we want to make sure we do is get back
Speaker 11: deep into the postseason. I mean, that's going to be
Speaker 11: our vision, that's going to be our focus. And we're
Speaker 11: not taking anything off the table in terms of what
Speaker 11: we would do, whether it's making trades or you know,
Speaker 11: signing a free agent, we're not taking anything off the table. So,
Speaker 11: but the main focus would be to get back to
Speaker 11: the postseason again and to go as deep as we
Speaker 11: can go and get back to the World Series.
Speaker 4: There you go, nothing off the table, according to Dana Brown,
Speaker 4: and I believe him when it comes to that, because
Speaker 4: I've talked about this before with the Astros GM that
Speaker 4: it was going to be interesting to see how he
Speaker 4: handled his business, and I think that he's handled it
Speaker 4: pretty much the same way that his boss in Atlanta did.
Speaker 4: Remember I talked about it in the past, and if
Speaker 4: you don't, I'll try to lay it out as quickly
Speaker 4: as possible.
Speaker 2: But Alex Anthopolis was.
Speaker 4: A guy that is the GM of the Braves, and
Speaker 4: he does his business in a very particular way. Number One,
Speaker 4: I remember when he was hired, he told us not
Speaker 4: an arrogance and annoying and you know, obnoxious way like
Speaker 4: the former Texans head coach did of trying to tell
Speaker 4: the media how things were going to be when he
Speaker 4: took over. Yeah, first off, Bill, win ball games and
Speaker 4: actually set a culture of winning before you gravy train
Speaker 4: off where you just came from and expect people to
Speaker 4: believe that that's just going to translate here. Because you
Speaker 4: were part of the same staff as Bill Belichick, you
Speaker 4: learned pretty quickly that's not the case. But regardless, you know,
Speaker 4: he just kind of said, hey, look, you know, I'll
Speaker 4: give you my number. You can text me whenever you want,
Speaker 4: you can do whatever. I'm just telling you right now,
Speaker 4: I don't do rumors. If you ask me about a rumor,
Speaker 4: I'm just not going to comment on it, and sure
Speaker 4: enough he didn't. And if nothing else too, if you
Speaker 4: ever did text him about certain things, he would, you know, say,
Speaker 4: for example, hey, you know, rumors are that you guys
Speaker 4: are in on show heyo Tani, Yeah, he'd look pretty
Speaker 4: good in the Braves uniform something jokingly like that. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, nothing too serious, but I mean he just,
Speaker 4: you know, more often and it's not more often than not,
Speaker 4: he would never delve into that. And I think Dana
Speaker 4: Brown is kind of a similar type of guy that
Speaker 4: he's going to keep it a pretty tight circle in
Speaker 4: terms of how they're going to build up this roster.
Speaker 4: But another thing is too is the way that they
Speaker 4: handled free agents. Free Agents for the most part that
Speaker 4: were not part of their organization already were signed two
Speaker 4: short term deals, even guys that were brought back. I mean,
Speaker 4: Charlie Morton kind of in the same you know, mold
Speaker 4: as you say Kakuchi is with the Astros, I think
Speaker 4: if you say Kakuchi is back with the Astros next
Speaker 4: year and beyond, it's probably looking like a two year
Speaker 4: deal with a third for an option if he can
Speaker 4: get something better.
Speaker 2: Out elsewhere.
Speaker 4: I don't think the Astros will be too torn up
Speaker 4: to let him pursue that option. But also though too,
Speaker 4: I mean, you heard him the other day talk about
Speaker 4: how he really has enjoyed his time here, the brief
Speaker 4: time that he was here, and he'd like to come
Speaker 4: back because some of the adjustments that they made for
Speaker 4: him have probably helped him become a even more effective
Speaker 4: pitcher going forward. So you know, I think that's something
Speaker 4: to keep an eye on. But that's probably the mold
Speaker 4: that you're going to be looking for trades. You heard
Speaker 4: him mention the possibility of trades. Alexanthopolis loved trades. As
Speaker 4: a matter of fact, most of his moves were not
Speaker 4: on the free agents side, they were on the trade side.
Speaker 4: And what does Dana Brown have to trade? Well, Number one,
Speaker 4: with some of the guys we saw come up and
Speaker 4: pitch this year for this team, he's got a little
Speaker 4: bit more pitching depth than they had probably coming into
Speaker 4: last season.
Speaker 2: So that's one.
Speaker 4: Two, what can happen with does somebody out there covert
Speaker 4: Jake Myers? Does somebody out there say, hey, we can
Speaker 4: improve Jake Myers as a hitter here? We already know
Speaker 4: what he is defensively, let's go that route, or even
Speaker 4: some of the guys down in the minor leagues. Does
Speaker 4: the Shay Whitcomb interest? Somebody out there does Zach Desenzo interest,
Speaker 4: somebody out there. All those different types of things we'll
Speaker 4: have to pick up and carry over to the other side.
Speaker 4: James and Kline, I see you right there as well
Speaker 4: as Al on the west side. Get to all of
Speaker 4: y'all on the other side as well. You want to
Speaker 4: join them, we'll continue the astros conversation. That's someone three
Speaker 4: two one two five seven ninety. Once again, that's someone
Speaker 4: three two one two five seven ninety. As we continue
Speaker 4: to roll along here on Space City Saturday.
Speaker 1: Welcome aboard, 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 2: All these great Houston fans here. We love you all.
Speaker 3: 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: in the eight.
Speaker 3: This is Space City Saturday. That's insane. Here's seven nineties
Speaker 3: Dad Matthews.
Speaker 4: And it's a good time to start right now because
Speaker 4: college football, the eleven o'clock hour games have kicked off
Speaker 4: or about to kick off. I think here in about
Speaker 4: a minute or two, they're gonna go in there in
Speaker 4: college station between MISSOO and Texas A and m NO
Speaker 4: Texas this week the Longhorns off as next week of
Speaker 4: course red River they're in DFW there at the Cotton Bowl,
Speaker 4: so we'll be paying close attention to that as well
Speaker 4: as the UH Cougars.
Speaker 2: Last night, nice win.
Speaker 4: On my way home from dinner, shout it out to
Speaker 4: Kevin Ashenfelder and Ted party over there on KPRC nine
Speaker 4: to fifty, our sister station as part of us here
Speaker 4: at iHeartRadio Houston doing a great job on the call,
Speaker 4: and made a joke with them on a text. I said,
Speaker 4: you know, hey, you know, you guys are sounding great.
Speaker 4: I guess it helps to have good actual offense on
Speaker 4: the field, right, doesn't that help a little bit?
Speaker 2: So?
Speaker 4: Xeon Chris last night's a great option for Willie Fritz's
Speaker 4: team as they went up there and beat a three
Speaker 4: and two TCU team and really kind of controlled the
Speaker 4: game all the way through. But able to win for
Speaker 4: the first time there since nineteen eighty nine. So great
Speaker 4: win for Willy Fritz and the staff there at u
Speaker 4: of H first Big twelve win of the Willy Fritz era.
Speaker 4: So I think, if nothing else, it kind of showed
Speaker 4: you that the future is bright over there. He is
Speaker 4: a heck of a coach, and that looked like a
Speaker 4: much improved football team in that game.
Speaker 2: And you know, their.
Speaker 4: Defense has been pretty salty all season long. I think
Speaker 4: that's been kind of the most consistent part of that
Speaker 4: UH team. But we'll see how it all goes going forward.
Speaker 4: So not a ton of college football on today's show,
Speaker 4: much more than just a mention. A lot of astros
Speaker 4: conversation is part of the discussion. Was talking about Dana
Speaker 4: Brown in the last segment. A couple more things on that.
Speaker 4: But James and Klein wants away in here on Space
Speaker 4: City Saturday.
Speaker 2: James, what's going on?
Speaker 12: Yeah, this Hayward and Gamble. I know they had him
Speaker 12: for the rest of the season. They do they have
Speaker 12: him for the following season. I mean, they're gonna be
Speaker 12: back next year.
Speaker 4: I don't know their contract situations, but as far as
Speaker 4: I believe, I think they are both free agents. But
Speaker 4: now that you mentioned that, I will look that up.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm assuming you probably were huge fans of
Speaker 4: what they added to this roster this year.
Speaker 12: Well about Gamble, he brought spark as far as hitting,
Speaker 12: and Hayward as well.
Speaker 13: I mean, he had some power and he doesn't strike
Speaker 13: out a whole lot.
Speaker 12: So I kind of like both the guys, and you know,
Speaker 12: I'm just wondering if they're glad to just spring training
Speaker 12: or they're just okay, thanks guys, well you know, good luck.
Speaker 13: How they're going to handle that situation.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I think right now, you know, as
Speaker 4: we talked about, I mean, in terms of the overall,
Speaker 4: you know, priorities for the Astros this offseason, I mean,
Speaker 4: I think we know who number one is, James. It's
Speaker 4: to try to bring back Alex Bregman, and they are
Speaker 4: going to try everything they can to be able to
Speaker 4: make sure that happens. Both players, as I'm talking with
Speaker 4: you right now, both free agents, but both players who
Speaker 4: I know for a fact really enjoyed their time here
Speaker 4: with the Astros.
Speaker 2: Hayward really did. Gamble did as well.
Speaker 4: Obviously, his season came to a premature end with him
Speaker 4: running into the wall there in Anaheim. But I mean
Speaker 4: I think there are probably players they will keep an
Speaker 4: eye on, and if the situation is right for them,
Speaker 4: for either one or both of them to come back,
Speaker 4: then yeah, I'm sure that Dana Brown will entertain doing that,
Speaker 4: either as you said, as a spring training invite or
Speaker 4: even just you know, straight up as a major league
Speaker 4: signee and you're part of the roster, You're you're going
Speaker 4: to be breaking camp with us, and you're part of
Speaker 4: this team.
Speaker 13: All right, Well, thank you. That's all. I just thought
Speaker 13: maybe had some more insight on that, But that was good.
Speaker 2: Thank you, awesome, Thank you so much. Appreciate the call.
Speaker 4: No, I mean, look, you know I talked about it
Speaker 4: with Jason Hayward of I mean, you heard how glowingly
Speaker 4: players talked about him, you know, Mauricio Dumont in the
Speaker 4: clubhouse after that game, you know, talking about you know,
Speaker 4: growing up in Non Duras and watching him, you know,
Speaker 4: in his major league debut and just following his career
Speaker 4: all the way through and getting to share a clubhouse
Speaker 4: with him, and you know, just you know how guys
Speaker 4: talked about really sort of a leadership role that he
Speaker 4: stepped into.
Speaker 2: Immediately.
Speaker 4: I mean, you're talking about someone who again has been
Speaker 4: a pros pro ever since day one as a major leaguer,
Speaker 4: and he came up as a young twenty year old kid.
Speaker 4: They're in the early twenty tens with the Atlanta Braves
Speaker 4: alongside Freddie Freeman, and they were part of kind of
Speaker 4: the rejuvenation of that organization. I mean, remember that was
Speaker 4: an organization that had won fourteen straight in l E's
Speaker 4: titles and had kind of hit a little bit of
Speaker 4: a snag and made the postseason here and there. But
Speaker 4: those were supposed to be the guys who kind of
Speaker 4: carry the torch from Chipper Jones and the crew and
Speaker 4: be able to put them in position to, you know,
Speaker 4: get into the postseason, get deep into the postseason for
Speaker 4: some time. And as he's gotten older, i mean he's
Speaker 4: become a family man. He has, you know, had his
Speaker 4: priorities change in that regard, but he's always been a
Speaker 4: pros pro when it comes down to how he handles himself.
Speaker 4: He was a popular guy in the clubhouse there with
Speaker 4: the Cubs. Remember when the Cubs won the World Series
Speaker 4: in twenty sixteen, Jason Hayward as they were going through
Speaker 4: that rain delay there in Cleveland was the guy that
Speaker 4: got up and spoke to the team about stay focused,
Speaker 4: be ready to go. This is ours to win, and
Speaker 4: we can go out there and make it happen. And
Speaker 4: he helped make it happen because the Cubs were able
Speaker 4: to win the World Series that year. And then he
Speaker 4: went out to LA played with the Dodgers. Same deal,
Speaker 4: I mean kind of you know, I think in certain ways,
Speaker 4: like when Tony Kemp was DF eight here with the
Speaker 4: Astros that you know, it was the same kind of
Speaker 4: feeling there in the clubhouse there in La of wait
Speaker 4: this guy. I mean, we love this guy, we want
Speaker 4: to have this guy around, and the Dodgers felt like
Speaker 4: it was time for him to move on, and so
Speaker 4: he did and he found a home here with the Astros.
Speaker 4: So I would be probably shocked, Jeames, if both of
Speaker 4: them are back, but I would not be shocked if
Speaker 4: either one of them are back. And again, I mean,
Speaker 4: you know where Hayward is in his career at this point.
Speaker 4: He is now let me see how old Jason Hayward is.
Speaker 4: He is thirty five and will turn thirty six next August.
Speaker 4: So he's on the later stages of his career. I mean,
Speaker 4: I think if you offer him a decent enough deal
Speaker 4: for a year, maybe an option for a second, then yeah,
Speaker 4: you could possibly have him back. And that provides you
Speaker 4: some outfield depth. I mean, you saw what he could
Speaker 4: do out in left field, you saw what he could
Speaker 4: do out in right field. And again, I mean a
Speaker 4: veteran presence in that clubhouse. And we talked about this
Speaker 4: the other day with Chandler Rome that if you lose
Speaker 4: Alex Bregman, that's gonna be something you're going to be
Speaker 4: looking to try to replace. Is somebody that is a
Speaker 4: good veteran leader in that room. And one of the
Speaker 4: guys that he mentioned too over at first base was
Speaker 4: a possibility of you don't bring back Bregman, that money
Speaker 4: can be spent elsewhere. A guy like Anthony Rizzo and
Speaker 4: what he means to teams in terms of, you know,
Speaker 4: how he handles himself. He puts together good at bats.
Speaker 4: The average is a little down. I get that he
Speaker 4: gives you good defense over there at first base, but
Speaker 4: he's sood that would be widely respected in that clubhouse.
Speaker 4: I mean, if that's somebody, that's a possibility also to
Speaker 4: another name. Again, the average down but the power way
Speaker 4: up forty plus home runs this year. Anthony Santander, who
Speaker 4: is a fellow countryman with Jose Altuve, and as Chandler
Speaker 4: Roma pointed out, very close with Jose Altuve. So that's
Speaker 4: somebody else that could be a possibility to be looked
Speaker 4: at as offseason moves. So the chances are a plenty
Speaker 4: out there for the Astros to be able to add
Speaker 4: and you know, just to kind of build off of
Speaker 4: what I was talking about with Dana Brown in terms of,
Speaker 4: you know, what to look for in terms of building
Speaker 4: this roster going forward. I mean, you know, he obviously
Speaker 4: is trying to find good players that can come in
Speaker 4: here and sure up this this lineup, because this is
Speaker 4: an offense that is going to need to improve in
Speaker 4: twenty twenty five if this team is going to have
Speaker 4: a chance to not only win the American League West again,
Speaker 4: but you have to suspect that the Mariners are going
Speaker 4: to make moves. You have to suspect that the Rangers
Speaker 4: are going to try to be in position to be
Speaker 4: able to get back into the postseason next year after
Speaker 4: missing out this year, coming off the World Series last year.
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't think there's any doubt about it,
Speaker 4: And I know that some people were pretty annoyed with
Speaker 4: me responding to a Rangers fan that shouted out the
Speaker 4: Astros saying, hey, look, you know I don't like you guys,
Speaker 4: but respect for what you just accomplished. I said, hey, look,
Speaker 4: you know this is a team that's incredibly talented there
Speaker 4: in Arlington. They'll be back in the fold next year.
Speaker 4: I don't have any doubts about that. So that's somebody
Speaker 4: else to concern yourself with as well. And you know
Speaker 4: that's that's something that the Astros have been, you know,
Speaker 4: looking at. But if it comes to trades for a
Speaker 4: possibility for Dana Brown this offseason, I think you need
Speaker 4: to look at who is available. And I understand that
Speaker 4: the farm system is not what it used to be,
Speaker 4: but let's also to keep an eye on some of
Speaker 4: the trades that Dana Brown has already made. The most
Speaker 4: recent one I'll use for an example, who was traded away.
Speaker 4: You know, you traded away Will Wagner for Yusa Ka Kouchi,
Speaker 4: along with Joey lo Berfido and also with Jake Bloss.
Speaker 4: But we'll start with Wagner first, pretty blocked wherever he
Speaker 4: was going to try to play anywhere on the field.
Speaker 4: Second base, we know that that's that place was blocked.
Speaker 4: Third base, likely blocked at least in the immediate with
Speaker 4: Alex Bregman, and still likely blocked in the future because
Speaker 4: I don't think that you wanted to go with him.
Speaker 2: As your everyday third baseman.
Speaker 4: That's number one, Jake bloss Where does he fit in
Speaker 4: in terms of the pitching rotation. You've still got Luis
Speaker 4: Garcia coming back sometime this next season, You're gonna have
Speaker 4: Christian Javier, You're gonna have Jose Orkeaty coming back. Lance McCullers,
Speaker 4: what becomes of him going forward? Does he make a
Speaker 4: move to the bullpen. I know that that's something he
Speaker 4: doesn't like to talk about or even have brought up
Speaker 4: to him, but I think it's something at this stage
Speaker 4: because when it comes to McCullers, I think if you're
Speaker 4: expecting Lance McCullers to be what he's been in the past,
Speaker 4: I really think you're gonna be disappointed. He's been almost
Speaker 4: away for the last two years, being away for you know,
Speaker 4: two times three sixty five however many days that is,
Speaker 4: that is a really long time to come back and
Speaker 4: still be as effective as you were in the past.
Speaker 4: I think that you're probably going to be looking at
Speaker 4: a guy that's going to be playing a lot of
Speaker 4: catch up next year in terms of trying to get
Speaker 4: back to being that pitcher again. And that's why I
Speaker 4: think a bullpen option could be a good one for him,
Speaker 4: or even a spot start here and there.
Speaker 2: But let's call it what it is.
Speaker 4: What has he not proven during his career that he
Speaker 4: can stay healthy as a starter. What is a chance
Speaker 4: for him to be able to add longevity to his career?
Speaker 4: The bullpen as a possibility for him. So I think
Speaker 4: that you know, you look at players, and you know
Speaker 4: any of the guys that could possibly be traded. As
Speaker 4: I mention the three for you say Kakuchi, that kind
Speaker 4: of to me signaled from Dana Brown of can we
Speaker 4: lose these guys and continue sustaining what we've done so
Speaker 4: far to this point, And the answer was yes, because
Speaker 4: do you necessarily have long term goals and aspirations for
Speaker 4: those guys. I think the answer to that was no.
Speaker 4: And that's why you saw those guys going to Toronto
Speaker 4: and you saw you, say, Kakuchi coming back here.
Speaker 2: So any of the trades made this offseason.
Speaker 4: I think that's going to be something that you look
Speaker 4: at of do the Astros have long term plans for
Speaker 4: Shay Whitcomb, DoD they have long term plans for Zach Desnzo,
Speaker 4: even for some of the other guys. I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: there were possibilities. I mean some people thought that Bryce
Speaker 4: Matthews was going to be gone for Yandy Diaz. I mean,
Speaker 4: that's something to keep an eye on. Even though that
Speaker 4: you heard Dana Brown mentioned Matthews by name the other day,
Speaker 4: is somebody that they have an eye on. And also
Speaker 4: Jacob Melton as well, So it doesn't sound like those
Speaker 4: guys will be available on the trade market. But that
Speaker 4: usually kind of in the same mold of his boss
Speaker 4: that he had in Atlanta. That's kind of the way
Speaker 4: that they did business. And it'll be interesting to see
Speaker 4: if Dana carries that over here to Houston as well.
Speaker 4: All right, coming up next, we'll continue the Astros conversation.
Speaker 4: I see some of you want to weigh in on
Speaker 4: the phone lines. I see Dave, I see Bill right there.
Speaker 4: If you want to join them there on the phone lines,
Speaker 4: you can do so. Sebon one three, two one two
Speaker 4: five seven ninety. Once again, that's seb one three two
Speaker 4: one two five, seven ninety. Because the final thing we'll
Speaker 4: talk about with the Astros is this was once a weakness,
Speaker 4: but it soon became a strength.
Speaker 2: How strong is it for the Astros.
Speaker 4: We'll talk about that on the other side as we
Speaker 4: continue to roll along here on Space City Saturday. Dan
Speaker 4: Matthews here with you on your home with the Astros
Speaker 4: and the Rockets.
Speaker 1: Space City Saturday continues Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 4: Sports Talk seven ninety, Man Matthews here with you. We're
Speaker 4: gonna do a little bit of Texans in the next
Speaker 4: segment as we had a chance to catch up with
Speaker 4: Jeremy White of Joe and Jeremy in the mornings. They're
Speaker 4: up in Buffalo on the Bill's flagship station, WGR, so
Speaker 4: we will get into some of that conversation. He was
Speaker 4: on with us on the A team yesterday. So good stuff,
Speaker 4: especially on the Bills. How they stack up right now
Speaker 4: coming in. I mean Von Miller suspended, he won't play.
Speaker 4: Do you have some other injuries to on that Bill's team.
Speaker 4: We're uage product at Oliver not going to be playing
Speaker 4: in this one. He's out with injury as well as
Speaker 4: they are dealing it with some injury issues there, but
Speaker 4: also too, I mean, something we've talked about all off
Speaker 4: season here, and you know, as you pay attention to
Speaker 4: the press conferences this week up there in Buffalo, you
Speaker 4: still see Josh Allen being asked about his relationship with
Speaker 4: Stefan Diggs, and he was not very shy in terms
Speaker 4: of saying there is no issue there. We're all good,
Speaker 4: so you know, stop trying to kind of make this
Speaker 4: a thing. So that is something that continues to be
Speaker 4: talked about, and I'm sure tomorrow all the cameras will
Speaker 4: be Josh Allen comes out for his warm ups, you know,
Speaker 4: Steffan Diggs comes out for his warm ups. Do they
Speaker 4: acknowledge each other, do they talk to each other for
Speaker 4: a few minutes, all those different types of things. I'm
Speaker 4: sure that's all going to be part of it. But
Speaker 4: that's just the way it goes. We're all looking for
Speaker 4: storylines all the time, right, so probably going to be
Speaker 4: the case. So, yeah, we had a good conversation with
Speaker 4: Jeremy White. We will hear that here coming up in
Speaker 4: the bottom of this hour.
Speaker 2: But one final one on the astros.
Speaker 4: If you want to weigh in you can do so
Speaker 4: Semon one three two one two five seven ninety. Once again,
Speaker 4: that's Sebon one three two one two five seven ninety.
Speaker 4: I want to take us all back to last February
Speaker 4: and it was me and Ross in West Palm Beach
Speaker 4: for spring training and I joined the Shawn Salisbury Show
Speaker 4: and one of the questions that saw you know, Sean
Speaker 4: had asked me at the time was what you perceive
Speaker 4: to be a weakness for this team right now? And
Speaker 4: at the time, we pretty much knew that Justin Verlander
Speaker 4: was not gonna be ready to go for the season.
Speaker 4: Same deal with Lance Pacolor, same deal with uh with
Speaker 4: Luis Garcia. We didn't know at the time that you
Speaker 4: were going to have injuries pop up for both Jose
Speaker 4: Archidi and Christian Hobber. But the starting rotation was a
Speaker 4: little bit of a question mark, and for much of
Speaker 4: the beginning part of the season it.
Speaker 2: Remained that way because I've said at.
Speaker 4: Numerous times you didn't, in an ideal world want to
Speaker 4: have to use Spencer Arraghetti this year, but you ended
Speaker 4: up having to use him because you just had really
Speaker 4: nobody else to go with in the starting rotation. You
Speaker 4: had some inconsistent performances at the beginning of the year
Speaker 4: from Fromber Valdez, but then Fromber got back to being
Speaker 4: twenty twenty two Fromber all over again, and you're like, Okay,
Speaker 4: here's that guy again.
Speaker 2: We like that guy.
Speaker 4: We love hashtag good Fromber. That's great to see early
Speaker 4: on in the season. We talked about a little bit
Speaker 4: earlier with Ari Alexander and how much Alex Bregman helped him.
Speaker 4: But Hunter Brown probably if you could go back the
Speaker 4: Doc Brown DeLorean and go to the clubhouse there in
Speaker 4: Kansas City after that start where he couldn't even get
Speaker 4: out of the first inning and tell him, hey, let
Speaker 4: me show you what you're gonna look like in June
Speaker 4: and July and August for this team this year, and
Speaker 4: what he looked like in that start the other night.
Speaker 4: I mean, Hunter Brown was outstanding in that start against
Speaker 4: the Tigers, and if he got any type of capable
Speaker 4: offense whatsoever in that game, then we're talking about it
Speaker 4: going to a winner take all game three there for
Speaker 4: a chance to move on to the Alds. And with
Speaker 4: you being at home, I understand what it's been for
Speaker 4: the Astros on the home field, which I mean, the
Speaker 4: haters have kind of let you know what the Astros
Speaker 4: record has been in the postseason at Minute Made Park
Speaker 4: for the last couple of years, especially most recently. But
Speaker 4: it was a chance for you to be able to
Speaker 4: win that game, and Hunter Brown was a huge reason
Speaker 4: for you being in that position. And we'll see what
Speaker 4: happens with Usay Kakuchi. But I say all of that
Speaker 4: to say that the Astros are in position now to
Speaker 4: have a ton of options at their avail when they
Speaker 4: go to spring training next year.
Speaker 2: And I mean I almost think that you're going to be.
Speaker 4: Looking at spring training starters plural during that time of
Speaker 4: about rolling seven or eight deep at that point, and
Speaker 4: maybe even more than that, maybe even nine or ten
Speaker 4: in terms of trying to whittle that down and see
Speaker 4: who fits.
Speaker 2: And also too as.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean I talked about it with trades as
Speaker 4: a possibility. I mean, does Dana Brown feel comfortable packaging
Speaker 4: a couple of those guys to be able to go
Speaker 4: out and get somebody that can be a meaningful bat
Speaker 4: for this team. I mean we talked about it again
Speaker 4: the other day. I can't tell you enough to go
Speaker 4: listen to the conversation we have with Chandler Rome on
Speaker 4: the iHeartRadio app on the eighteen page to go find
Speaker 4: that in studio visit that we had with Chandler.
Speaker 2: But some of the stuff he brought up was outstanding.
Speaker 4: And one of the things he did bring up is, look,
Speaker 4: we're trying to figure out what's going to be the
Speaker 4: future of Alex Bregman here in an Astro's uniform, and
Speaker 4: the Saint Louis Cardinals are one of the teams out
Speaker 4: there that are entering into a full rebuild. One of
Speaker 4: the guys that could be available that would probably be
Speaker 4: the same amount of money that you'd be looking to
Speaker 4: pay Alex Bregman. He's taking a step back a little
Speaker 4: bit offensively, but you also don't lose anything defensively over
Speaker 4: at third base. And Nolan Aeronato, he's thirty three now,
Speaker 4: and I understand, you know, people's thoughts about aging players,
Speaker 4: but you know that's somebody out there that maybe Dana Brown,
Speaker 4: could you package a couple of those pitchers, and you
Speaker 4: know one of your higher end prospects or even position
Speaker 4: player is a Chas McCormick, somebody that would fit into
Speaker 4: the plans of what the Cardinals are looking for. Or
Speaker 4: even you know, a Jake Myers fit into that as well.
Speaker 4: Along with a couple of those guys, be enough to
Speaker 4: be able to get Nolan Aeronato.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I.
Speaker 4: Think that that's something that this team will be looking at.
Speaker 4: I think that priority number one again, could you bring
Speaker 4: back Alex Bregman. And if you can do that, then
Speaker 4: I think that other chances to be able to upgrade
Speaker 4: this roster are going to be done either through hey,
Speaker 4: let's give this guy a shot as a you know,
Speaker 4: a spring training invite, or even to as well. More
Speaker 4: than anything, I think a couple of those ways that
Speaker 4: you're able to bring in players is going to be
Speaker 4: through trade. And I think that if I had to
Speaker 4: predict what is going to be a theme of this
Speaker 4: Astros twenty twenty four into twenty twenty five offseason, It's
Speaker 4: going to be trades of plenty.
Speaker 2: I think Dana Brown's gonna be wheeling a dealing.
Speaker 4: I think that's what he is going to be looking
Speaker 4: to do in term of improving it not only the lineup,
Speaker 4: but also too. He did not seem like he was
Speaker 4: opposed to improving the back end of the rotation. Do
Speaker 4: you go a veteran guy there in the back end
Speaker 4: of the rotation as a four or five starter for you,
Speaker 4: or even too as well to help out in the
Speaker 4: bullpen as well. I mean, you know, we talked about
Speaker 4: it with Ari Alexander that I think next year your
Speaker 4: setup man is Brian A bray You. In my mind,
Speaker 4: I think that he has the stuff to be the
Speaker 4: setup man for you, and I also think that he's
Speaker 4: a more effective pitcher at this point in his career
Speaker 4: than Ryan Presley is. I would feel a lot better
Speaker 4: heading into Josh Hater with Brian A bray You than
Speaker 4: I would Ryan Presley, and I think we saw that
Speaker 4: play out a lot this season. So all of those
Speaker 4: options again on the table. I mean, you heard Dana
Speaker 4: Brown say it's in that segment. You know, nothing is
Speaker 4: off the table at this point for the Astros in
Speaker 4: terms of trying to get back deeper into the postseason
Speaker 4: next season and beyond. All right, let's look into some
Speaker 4: Texans talk. Jeremy White from WGR in Buffalo joined us
Speaker 4: yesterday on the A Team We Come Back. I want
Speaker 4: to give you a chance to hear from him as
Speaker 4: we continue along here in the eleven o'clock hour, on
Speaker 4: your home of the Astros and the Rockets on Dan Matthews,
Speaker 4: this is Space City Saturday.
Speaker 1: It's Space City Saturday, one Sports Talk seven night here.
Speaker 4: Sort of a fitting song, Melvin, But also though too,
Speaker 4: it's early on in the NFL season, so the Texans
Speaker 4: in this case have more than one shot, but they
Speaker 4: got one shot tomorrow, So Eminem is correct about that.
Speaker 4: Melvin Brown, by the way behind the glass there in
Speaker 4: our uptown at Galleria Studios.
Speaker 2: The Texans taking on the.
Speaker 4: Bills tomorrow over there at NRG Stadium should be a
Speaker 4: fun atmosphere for this one. The Texans like the Bills
Speaker 4: a little banged up, still know Joe Mixon for this one.
Speaker 4: Gonna be interesting to see what Damian Pierce. It probably
Speaker 4: sounds like he's not going to be going another week,
Speaker 4: So it looks like Cam Akers and Daria Goomba Walle
Speaker 4: going to be your running backs tomorrow for that one.
Speaker 4: And the Texans also to dealing with some injury issues elsewhere.
Speaker 4: We'll see what happens with Titus Howard if he's able
Speaker 4: to give it a go tomorrow or if Blake Fisher
Speaker 4: is playing at right tackle. So that is all on
Speaker 4: the Texans side. As for the Bill side, yesterday on
Speaker 4: the A team, we had a chance to catch up
Speaker 4: with Jeremy White, part of Jeremy or Joe and Jeremy,
Speaker 4: the Joe and Jeremy Morning Show there on WGR in Buffalo,
Speaker 4: and they are the Bill's flagship station. As we had
Speaker 4: a chance to catch up with him about the Bill
Speaker 4: side of tomorrow's matchup.
Speaker 14: Jeremy White from radio there in Buffalo, the same thing
Speaker 14: we brought up as the show began. Even though it
Speaker 14: sounds silly, they've been to the postseason so many times
Speaker 14: it sounds less silly. But yeah, this is a tiebreaker game,
Speaker 14: five games into the season, and there's a quarterback matchup
Speaker 14: that I think the rest of the country should be
Speaker 14: interested in.
Speaker 15: Between C. J.
Speaker 14: Stroud and Josh Allen different stages of their careers, certainly
Speaker 14: the two most likely probably three along with Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 14: If somebody's going to upend the Chiefs and Mahomes, it's
Speaker 14: going to be one of these three guys in the AFC,
Speaker 14: if they can prevent them from again dominating here. I
Speaker 14: was looking back at Josh Allen's career. He's gone four
Speaker 14: straight games to open this season without an interception. He's
Speaker 14: only gone four straight games without an interception one other
Speaker 14: time in his career, and that was all the way
Speaker 14: back in twenty nineteen. What is it about this year's team,
Speaker 14: this full season? I assume with Joe Brady's offense that
Speaker 14: you think has had him clicking so well, well.
Speaker 3: That's the thing.
Speaker 6: Like the passing game for Josh Allen and these Bills
Speaker 6: is a shorter air yards passing game with more yards
Speaker 6: after catch by design. This has been like a two
Speaker 6: to three year transition from Brian Dable as the offensive
Speaker 6: coordinator a few years back. Then they go to Ken
Speaker 6: Dorsey and it seemed to want yards and there were
Speaker 6: thirty second in the NFL in the yak yards. With
Speaker 6: Ken Dorsey in a full season one they were the
Speaker 6: thirty first, and then Dorsey got a second season, got
Speaker 6: fired half way through. I kind of think it's a
Speaker 6: bit of chasing something they didn't really have to chase.
Speaker 6: But nevertheless, they are here now and now they are
Speaker 6: a yak yard team. So what's different about Alan? Why
Speaker 6: are the fewer interceptions? I think it's because the ball
Speaker 6: isn't traveling as far, so safer throws easy button throws.
Speaker 6: You know, he says zero interceptions through four games. I
Speaker 6: don't necessarily think that's the best thing. You know, he's
Speaker 6: a guy that throws down the field. He's a guy
Speaker 6: that can rip it pretty much anywhere. And to this
Speaker 6: point in his career, you know, you'll see the stats
Speaker 6: that he leads the league in interceptions since his time
Speaker 6: in the league. A lot of Bills fans kind of
Speaker 6: don't care because he's such an exciting player. He's such
Speaker 6: a good player that take a bogey birdie golf. For sure,
Speaker 6: there's some bogey, there's more birdies, and this guy is
Speaker 6: worth letting him off the leash, even he uses that
Speaker 6: phrase sometimes. So they've got him under control and that
Speaker 6: can be good. But there are going to be times
Speaker 6: that they got a lot of loose and hopefully those
Speaker 6: aren't too few and far between them.
Speaker 16: Talking to Jeremy White of w g R in Buffalo,
Speaker 16: Texans and Bills this Sunday here in Houston with a
Speaker 16: new and kickoff. All right, So the elephant in the room,
Speaker 16: I guess would be Stefan Diggs.
Speaker 15: What the elephant in our room? Right in huge right
Speaker 15: clearly did a couple I guess this is probably a
Speaker 15: two parter.
Speaker 16: Did were you amused at how much was made about
Speaker 16: Stefan Diggs being a bad locker room guy by maybe
Speaker 16: some members of the national media, or maybe you agree
Speaker 16: with that.
Speaker 15: That's the first part of the question. The second part
Speaker 15: is where.
Speaker 16: You did you think that the Bills offense would drop
Speaker 16: off when that transaction was made?
Speaker 10: And you know, are you surprised that it really hasn't.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, you won't find a bigger Digs fan than me, period.
Speaker 6: Like I liked him before the Bills went and got him,
Speaker 6: and when he forced his way out of Minnesota, as
Speaker 6: it said, I was thrilled. He had great success here.
Speaker 6: He was a huge part of what they did. I
Speaker 6: am amused, among other things, I some Bills fans like
Speaker 6: to rewrite the history of his time here. He was dominant,
Speaker 6: he was amazing, He was cool. Like I said, you
Speaker 6: won't find a bigger fan. Thing got tense, and you
Speaker 6: know it pumps to find anybody to tell you really
Speaker 6: what happened. Jeremy Fowler wrote a big piece on the
Speaker 6: divorce between Digs and the Bills and quoted a bunch
Speaker 6: of team sources, and there wasn't any team source in
Speaker 6: there saying that he demanded targets. My impression at Diggs
Speaker 6: has always been he is manic about winning. He's insane
Speaker 6: about wanting to win. And when they went from AFC
Speaker 6: championship team to divisional round exit, divisional round exit, divisional
Speaker 6: round exit, he started to ask questions, why are we
Speaker 6: plateauing here? Why aren't we moving forward? And the Cincinnati
Speaker 6: game two years ago, the Bills losing the playoffs by
Speaker 6: seventeen at home to Cincinnati. That's the game that happens
Speaker 6: in the DeMar Hamlin season. So it's kind of be
Speaker 6: like the haze of post Hamlin and the team was
Speaker 6: a shell of itself, and you could say that guys
Speaker 6: weren't focused and guys really had trouble focusing, and that
Speaker 6: is a reasonable case to make. But Diggs laser focused
Speaker 6: on the sideline. Diggs is raising his arms at Alan
Speaker 6: and we don't know what said. No one ever has
Speaker 6: heard what was said. Was it get your head in
Speaker 6: the game? Was it what are we doing out here?
Speaker 6: Was it wake up? The point is I'd ever had
Speaker 6: a problem with that on any level. You know, you're
Speaker 6: in a big game and someone's upset that you're losing.
Speaker 6: That's what it's supposed to look like to me. So Digs,
Speaker 6: to me, is a guy that's always been able to
Speaker 6: go between the lines and put anything that's on the
Speaker 6: outside to the side during the hambling game. Some of
Speaker 6: those reporting on this from Tyler Dunn, who writes about
Speaker 6: the Bills at length of other NFL stuff. He reported
Speaker 6: that Digs are one of the guys that when they
Speaker 6: thought they were going to go out and have to
Speaker 6: play again, he started to move people to do it.
Speaker 6: So I've always got the impression that Digs is someone
Speaker 6: that's very good at compartmentalizing and focusing everything there can
Speaker 6: be on the field, and some players aren't good at that,
Speaker 6: and some players can't take someone that intense all the time. So,
Speaker 6: you know, the expiration date on the relationship between Digs
Speaker 6: and the Bills came. I'm not happy about it. I
Speaker 6: do think they will continue to miss him. I still
Speaker 6: think they do miss him now, or a player of
Speaker 6: his caliber. In this offense, you know, it's got it success,
Speaker 6: it's got Josh Allen. But he's a great player. He's
Speaker 6: one of the bills best players of all time. And
Speaker 6: I am not one to rewrite history. And act like
Speaker 6: I'm glad he's gone.
Speaker 15: That's an opinion.
Speaker 14: A lot of people here share all the things about
Speaker 14: he wants to win again.
Speaker 15: It's new here. He's on a one year deal here, so.
Speaker 14: Granted there's some differences, but I think a lot of
Speaker 14: people see it here in Houston similarly for about who
Speaker 14: the person is and the leader that he is and
Speaker 14: how helpful he's been. Curious from a how do you
Speaker 14: rationalize this standpoint only in that they're still running the
Speaker 14: Brady offense this year quite obviously not Tom Joe. When
Speaker 14: they made that switch last year, it was their intention
Speaker 14: and it played out to limit how much Diggs was
Speaker 14: a focus of their offense.
Speaker 15: He was a lot less of a focus.
Speaker 14: He got the ball less, they targeted less, they did
Speaker 14: other things, and they won a bunch of football games
Speaker 14: to close out the year. They won six out of
Speaker 14: seven and basically stole the division. He can still play.
Speaker 14: He's going to be a bigger part of the offense
Speaker 14: here than he was in the latest ages of their
Speaker 14: offense there. Why did that, I guess work for the
Speaker 14: Bills last year, which they're continuing this year.
Speaker 6: Part of the reason that it worked is that their
Speaker 6: defense came around. I mean, if you go look at
Speaker 6: the games that they won, they did score a bunch
Speaker 6: of points in a loss to Philadelphia, and then they
Speaker 6: got some wins late in the season. They beat the Chiefs,
Speaker 6: which was big. They beat Dallas by running the football,
Speaker 6: and that's great. I mean, everybody runs on Dallas.
Speaker 3: We've seen that, right, And then they got.
Speaker 6: To win over San Diego on a last minute kick
Speaker 6: over Ethan Stick. Like it's a little bit of rewriting
Speaker 6: that stretch of Bill's football to say Joe Brady fixed things.
Speaker 6: What happened was the Bill stopped turning the ball over
Speaker 6: and they got their defense to play healthy. Matt Milano
Speaker 6: missed most of the season last year. It took the
Speaker 6: Bills a long time to find answers at linebacker and
Speaker 6: to kind of bring things together defensively, because early in
Speaker 6: the season their losses were a loss to Denver where
Speaker 6: they had twelve men on the field for the game
Speaker 6: winning kick. That's not on Stefan Diggs. The game, they
Speaker 6: give up game winning drives to Mac Jones, not on Diggs,
Speaker 6: an overtime kick return, touchdown, turn touchdown, not on Digs.
Speaker 6: So it was one of these things where all of
Speaker 6: a sudden, the win loss, even though it's not related
Speaker 6: to one wide receiver, became a talking point. So you know,
Speaker 6: if the Bills use that as a bit of a
Speaker 6: lever to pull, that's fine. They got out from under
Speaker 6: his money. They are going to clear their cap. They're
Speaker 6: going to be sixty two million dollars clear next year,
Speaker 6: taken on the dead eat dead money. When you have
Speaker 6: Josh Allen, you kind of have that buffer. You can
Speaker 6: have a transition year and still win eleven games. So
Speaker 6: no matter what with Josh Allen, it's going to look good.
Speaker 6: Right now. At receiver, it looks eh. They've got Khalil Shakir,
Speaker 6: who's a nice player. He's broken out quite a bit.
Speaker 6: He is out for this game.
Speaker 3: That's bad news.
Speaker 6: They've got Dalton Kincaid, a talented tight end that really
Speaker 6: has not yet broken out the way that people thought
Speaker 6: they would pass that. I mean, these are prayers. Curtis
Speaker 6: Samuel eight million dollars a year they brought in and
Speaker 6: he has not really been a big part of their
Speaker 6: offense just yet. We might see some of that this week.
Speaker 6: Marquez Valdez, Scantling and Max Hollins keon Coleman. These are
Speaker 6: receivers that you're kind of hoping turn into something. But
Speaker 6: it's long been my opinion that Bill's fans, these Bills
Speaker 6: fans that rewrite the Digs era, they don't really understand
Speaker 6: just how good and how important he was. He's a
Speaker 6: star with gravity that polls defenses and made everything easy
Speaker 6: for people behind him. And the sin for the Bills
Speaker 6: during the Digs era was they let it drift. Their
Speaker 6: receiver room went from Diggs and Beasley and Emmanuel Sanders
Speaker 6: and gave Davis to just Digs and Davis and then
Speaker 6: guys that couldn't really get on the field. So I
Speaker 6: think they do miss him. Their offense is still good,
Speaker 6: It's always going to be good with Josh Allen. But
Speaker 6: the worst it should really ever be is like ten.
Speaker 6: So if it's eight, I don't necessarily think that's going great.
Speaker 6: I think that's near the floor of what you should be.
Speaker 6: We'll see where Joe Brady goes. I think he's got
Speaker 6: some good ideas, some good concepts, but I am not thinking, oh,
Speaker 6: Diggs is gone and they'll never miss them again.
Speaker 14: All right, Ten seconds for you, Jeremy on the way
Speaker 14: out the door, who is four and one after.
Speaker 15: The game.
Speaker 3: Houston because of the injuries.
Speaker 6: Really, I mean, Shakira is big, Taylor rap is out,
Speaker 6: that's big. At Oliver is out, that's big. The Bills
Speaker 6: ruled out a bunch of guys today and they don't
Speaker 6: have anybody who Shakir so Shakier not in the slot.
Speaker 6: It's a big problem.
Speaker 15: Agreed, We'll see what happens.
Speaker 14: Jeremy really appreciate the time, and we'll talk to you
Speaker 14: against soon.
Speaker 4: Thanks guys, all right, good stuff there from Jeremy White
Speaker 4: from WGR there in Buffalo. I mean, you know, talked
Speaker 4: about it from the Bill's side. A lot of guys
Speaker 4: that are out. Still haven't had Christian Harris for this year.
Speaker 4: That's been a huge part of this Texans team that
Speaker 4: you would like to have in the fold. The good
Speaker 4: news though, I mean Tank Dell with our very own
Speaker 4: Aaron Wilson in the Texans locker room yesterday saying good
Speaker 4: to go. He'll be out there tomorrow against the Bills.
Speaker 4: So looking forward to it. Gonna be a fun atmosphere.
Speaker 4: I think we can all agree on that, Bills. I
Speaker 4: threw it out there on Twitter too as well. I
Speaker 4: want to see a table jump like, I think I'm
Speaker 4: gonna be making my way a little slower into the stadium,
Speaker 4: go through some of the tailgate lots there at NRG,
Speaker 4: and I want to see if any of Bill's mafia
Speaker 4: is ready to perform for the crowd. I will not
Speaker 4: be jumping onto any tables. That will not be happening.
Speaker 4: I think if I did that, I would probably be
Speaker 4: in a chair, and not for good reasons. So not
Speaker 4: gonna be doing that, but definitely be willing to watch
Speaker 4: people who want to make themselves part of their own
Speaker 4: unaired episode of Jackass.
Speaker 2: So that'll be fun to be able to watch.
Speaker 4: So hopefully I can be able to put eyes upon
Speaker 4: that tomorrow. College football ongoing right now, Aggie's out to
Speaker 4: an early lead, noted missou alum Bindubo's who of course
Speaker 4: you hear here on social media, seeming to believe that
Speaker 4: the Zebras are calling it pretty heavily in the A
Speaker 4: and M favor right now. But the Aggie's out to
Speaker 4: a ten to nothing lead in that one. They're at
Speaker 4: Kyle Field, so pretty fun. I did just throw this
Speaker 4: out though, because I'm watching it on ABC right now
Speaker 4: and they showed the Cora cadets, and of course you
Speaker 4: know they've got the twelve mantals, they're waving them, doing
Speaker 4: all of that. One of the guys with horns down,
Speaker 4: you're playing Miszoo, stop doing the horns down like Texas
Speaker 4: should be the furthest thing from your mind right now.
Speaker 4: And I know that it's a rivalry all that kind
Speaker 4: of stuff, but can we stop doing this when you're
Speaker 4: not playing Texas the horns down thing? Come on, Ags, Seriously,
Speaker 4: you get made fun of for enough things, no need
Speaker 4: to add to it. So let's try to help help
Speaker 4: yourself help yourself in that case. So anyway, that's what's
Speaker 4: happening right now, all right. Coming up next, something brought
Speaker 4: up on the NFL players side that I wanted to
Speaker 4: get into before we got out of here today. As
Speaker 4: the players don't want to do this anymore. We'll discuss
Speaker 4: that on the other side as we wrap up this
Speaker 4: edition of Space City Saturday. Still time for you to
Speaker 4: get in and if you want to want any of
Speaker 4: the astro stuff we talked about earlier, that's on the
Speaker 4: table if you want to.
Speaker 2: It's fair game.
Speaker 4: Hop on a board at seven one three, two, one, two, five,
Speaker 4: seven ninety. Once again, that's seven one, three two on
Speaker 4: two five, seven ninety. Dan Matthews, Space City Saturday. We'll
Speaker 4: wrap it up here next on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 2: Exactly what.
Speaker 1: Space City Saturday? On Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 2: We've had enough for it this week.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, I would say, you know, you
Speaker 4: don't want the Texans to hurt us tomorrow, but we've
Speaker 4: already been hurt enough by the Astros. So hopefully it's
Speaker 4: one of those you can get a strong end to
Speaker 4: the week to propel us forward in this Texan season.
Speaker 4: They're three and one Buffalo coming in after a tough
Speaker 4: loss last week to the Baltimore Ravens, So even though
Speaker 4: they're a little banged up, you got to believe that,
Speaker 4: you know, Doug mcdug McDermott's team is going to be
Speaker 4: looking for a strong bounce back in their efforts inside
Speaker 4: NRG Stadium tomorrow, So we'll see how it all goes
Speaker 4: for that game. Someone three two one two five seven
Speaker 4: ninety is the number to get in on the phone lines.
Speaker 4: I know, I said, Doug McDermott, Sean McDermott. See sometimes
Speaker 4: I mix up my name. Doug McDermott is a basketball player,
Speaker 4: was a basketball player.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter anyway.
Speaker 4: So the nfl PA coming out with something interesting yesterday
Speaker 4: in terms of how you postgame interviews and how interviews
Speaker 4: in the.
Speaker 2: Locker room are conducted.
Speaker 4: And when I brought this up yesterday on the A Team,
Speaker 4: WEX was mentioning that this would not be in regards
Speaker 4: to game days, This would be more towards the practice weeks.
Speaker 4: But I think it's one of those It starts there
Speaker 4: and it doesn't necessarily end there. Once you open the
Speaker 4: door of this, then it's a possibility of it being
Speaker 4: the case going forward. But the NFLPA on Friday issue
Speaker 4: to statement urging the NFL to make quote immediate changes
Speaker 4: to its current, quote outdated media policy in regards to
Speaker 4: locker room interviews. The statement reads like this quote. Over
Speaker 4: the past three years, the NFLPA has tried to work
Speaker 4: with the NFL and Pro Football Writers Association of America
Speaker 4: to move media interviews out of locker rooms. However, there's
Speaker 4: been a little willingness to collaborate on a new solution.
Speaker 4: Players field at locker room interviews invade their privacy and
Speaker 4: are uncomfortable this isn't about limiting media access, but about
Speaker 4: respecting players privacy and dignity. The statement continues, quote the
Speaker 4: NFL's current policy is outdated. We the nfl PA Executive Committee,
Speaker 4: urged the NFL to make immediate changes to foster a
Speaker 4: more respectful and safer working place for our players. In
Speaker 4: the meantime, we encourage each player to ask for interviews
Speaker 4: outside the locker room during the week. I understand sort
Speaker 4: of to a point where the players are coming from,
Speaker 4: but I mean a respectful and safer working place. What
Speaker 4: does people holding microphones make unsafe in the locker room? Like,
Speaker 4: I understand it from the standpoint of, you know, you know,
Speaker 4: that's where players get dressed. That's where players want to
Speaker 4: be able to, you know, speak freely in that place,
Speaker 4: because I mean, it is a safe space. The locker room,
Speaker 4: the clubhouse in baseball, it's supposed to be a safe place,
Speaker 4: but it's also too At the same time, I think,
Speaker 4: what from the media perspective allows for interviews in locker
Speaker 4: rooms and clubhouses to be better than in more sterilized environments.
Speaker 4: From the standpoint of, you know, scrums outside the outside
Speaker 4: of the locker room, where everybody's standing around, you kind
Speaker 4: of get canned answers, you get canned responses. Same deal
Speaker 4: with press conferences as well. You just really if you're
Speaker 4: trying for a one on one, you don't get the
Speaker 4: same type of you know, just cant did responses that
Speaker 4: I think you could get from having those types of situations.
Speaker 2: And you know it's also too as well.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, I've heard it from both the
Speaker 4: player's side, but also to the media side as well.
Speaker 4: Here's where I think it could go sideways. I've covered
Speaker 4: college football for a long time, and in college football,
Speaker 4: aside from championship games for conferences and bowl games, you
Speaker 4: do not get locker room access. You get a certain
Speaker 4: amount of players brought out, and more often than not,
Speaker 4: it's the same guys that are brought out every single week,
Speaker 4: and they're told the party line to be able to
Speaker 4: toe and the talking points to throw out there. So
Speaker 4: you really just don't get any good responses. It's college
Speaker 4: I get that, but at the same time, you just
Speaker 4: don't really get the chance to be able to build
Speaker 4: up that relationship and a huge part of this business
Speaker 4: that people don't necessarily think about, because it is what
Speaker 4: makes those who are really good at this job, good
Speaker 4: at their jobs, is building up that relationship, that trust
Speaker 4: of being able to have that where soon enough the
Speaker 4: player or the coach they trust you, you get better
Speaker 4: answers out of them because they know, Hey, if I
Speaker 4: say this to this guy or this lady, they're not
Speaker 4: going to twist my words, they're not going to put
Speaker 4: me in a bad light. And I can trust that
Speaker 4: they're going to do me right if indeed I'm speaking
Speaker 4: my mind a little bit more freely.
Speaker 2: I think the other part of it as well.
Speaker 4: This could kind of lend to a chance to be
Speaker 4: taken advantage of by organizations because you have media relations
Speaker 4: people who are doing their job, and their job is
Speaker 4: to be able to protect the franchise. How do you
Speaker 4: protect the franchise? You protect players in certain cases from
Speaker 4: themselves or you know, anybody inside the building from themselves.
Speaker 4: And it could be say you have an agreed upon
Speaker 4: interview with a player, Oh so and so can't do it.
Speaker 4: He's got to go to training, he's got to go
Speaker 4: do all of this, whatever it might be. The convenient
Speaker 4: excuses could arise as opposed to you haven't agreed upon interview,
Speaker 4: you go that player's locker. Hey, you ready to go?
Speaker 4: You want to talk about this right now? Yeah, let's
Speaker 4: do this right now. All those different types of things,
Speaker 4: that's what I think kind of allows for that to
Speaker 4: be the case. I think the other part of this
Speaker 4: as well, I'll just go ahead and say it. In
Speaker 4: some cases there's people who are credentialed for games that
Speaker 4: honestly should not be. This is a job that you
Speaker 4: have to pay your dues in order to be able
Speaker 4: to get to a certain point and gain that trust
Speaker 4: of not only the people that I've talked about, but
Speaker 4: also to you the audience as well. I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: I understand in the age of podcasting and everything else
Speaker 4: of the sort that people think, oh, anybody can just
Speaker 4: do this like I love you know of people all
Speaker 4: the time. You know, oh you know I want to
Speaker 4: host a radio show. All right, Well you know how
Speaker 4: much do you prepare what? Yes, there's preparation that goes
Speaker 4: into this. There's you know, preparation of forming your argument
Speaker 4: and you know, being able to craft how and when
Speaker 4: you want to bring things up on your show. It's
Speaker 4: not just turning on a microphone and winging it and
Speaker 4: just going That's not how this job is done at
Speaker 4: least not well so in that case right there. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, getting to a major market in this business,
Speaker 4: for example.
Speaker 2: You've got to pay your dues.
Speaker 4: You've got to be able to have not only the
Speaker 4: trust of the audience but also to the trust of
Speaker 4: people who may be hiring you to know that you
Speaker 4: can go on and be able to be two things
Speaker 4: informative and entertaining. And I think in certain cases, you know,
Speaker 4: this would be just another step that they can try
Speaker 4: to say that it's not about limiting media access, but
Speaker 4: eventually that's what it would become, because then you would
Speaker 4: have you know, a player, Hey, so and so wants
Speaker 4: to talk to you outside. Oh, tell them, you know,
Speaker 4: tell them I've got this. I you know, I don't
Speaker 4: want to do it. I mean, then you've got the
Speaker 4: middleman or middle lady in the media relations person who
Speaker 4: then has to go and deliver the bad news of
Speaker 4: you know, oh, well, you know, hey, they can't do it,
Speaker 4: they've got this, they've got whatever, and then you're screwed.
Speaker 4: You're standing with yourself in terms of being in a
Speaker 4: tough spot of you had a story that you were
Speaker 4: planning on being able to run with and now you
Speaker 4: can run with it. So, I mean to a certain point,
Speaker 4: like I said, I understand it is their safe place.
Speaker 4: It is, you know, where they're supposed to be able
Speaker 4: to be themselves, but also to at the same time,
Speaker 4: I mean, let's not act like it's completely invasive all
Speaker 4: the time. We're in there for forty five minutes at
Speaker 4: a time. You know when we're coming in, you know
Speaker 4: we'll be there. And if you want to avoid the
Speaker 4: cameras and people in there, then make that your time
Speaker 4: to go to the cafeteria, make that your time to
Speaker 4: go to the weight room, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: I mean, you can do that. That's that's not a problem.
Speaker 4: You know when the media relations you know department is
Speaker 4: going to be coming in with the media. So if
Speaker 4: you want to avoid it, then avoid him that way.
Speaker 4: But I mean, you know, to say that this is invasive,
Speaker 4: I'm sorry. I just I can't ride with you on that.
Speaker 4: That's going to do it for us here on Space
Speaker 4: City Saturday. I want to think Melvin Brown for his
Speaker 4: great work as always behind the glass, Aria Alexander joining
Speaker 4: us earlier, appreciate his time also too great to hear
Speaker 4: from Jeremy White from WGR There in Buffalo. I'm Dan Matthews,
Speaker 4: spent Space City Saturday on You're Home with the Astros
Speaker 4: and the Rockets. Sports Talk seven ninety. We'll talk to
Speaker 4: you next week.
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