Astros Trade Deadline, Pitchers Target, Dodgers Talk

City, Oh call Bay created great, great Welcome to another Space City Saturday. I'm Sports Talk seven ninety Michael Cutters Live and local h Town breakdown at the world that matters to you, Dog, Houston Sports World, all these great Houston fans. Chair, We love you all, so Finnish. Up on that to do list, blot up the cooler because you can't drink and talk sports all day if you don't start now. This is Space City Saturday,

and here's seven nineties Astros insider Michael Cunner. All right, let's go on a Saturday morning here on Sports Talk seven ninety as you heard the man

there at a Space City Saturday, and I'm Michael Connor. With you until noon today and you can join us along the way for this journey at seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven one three two one two five seven ninety Plenty to get into today more than anything else, the Houston Astros who are back in action, some off the beaten path stuff that I want to get too later as well, including the latest in the football world,

which is not much, but I'm talking about the Netflix show that has come out this week. I wanted to do a segment on that because I've watched most of it so far and I wanted to discuss it before we get out of here. But the Houston Astros is where we, of course do most of our talking when we are in the middle of the summer, and you can do that again with me today seven one three two one two five seven ninety on Twitter at MC seven ninety seven goes for all the other social media

platforms Instagram, Facebook threads. Are we still doing threads? By the way, I don't even know if we're doing threads anymore. I haven't threaded it in a while. I think the instant craze for it probably went away a little bit as I'm pulling the app up. Yeah, people are still doing it. Looks like I don't know how serious it's gonna be. But I am there and I will make more of an effort to put some of the stuff up there. I put on Twitter as well, So but go to

Twitter. That's the number one place. Even if they want to make things weird and you know, not as enjoyable as it used to be on that app, just go and use it. Follow me there and we'll talk Astros. We're not here on the air. But they win last night seven to five over the Angels to kick off the three game series. And I know that you guys were really pumped up about it because a lot of you joined me last night on the tenth inning, showed about twelve fifteen in the morning

that b zero of you where to go, you slackers? Tonight back in action, eight oh seven, first pitch from ber Valdez making his first start post All Star Break against Red Debtmer's The Astros continuing their dominance against the Angels so far this season, now six and two on the year against them. They are of course going to look for the series win against them on the Sea's but last night doing it. It was a weird baseball game, a

lot of hits for both sides. JP France wasn't very good for the Astros overall, excuse me, did not get a lot of help from his defense. Same could be said for the other side of Tani didn't get help from his defense last night, but he leaves the game with the assume it's the

blister that was the issue there for him once again. But Astro's side of things, France four runs came across in his outing, did not get as deep as he has been, and I think it was another night where it's a reminder that as we near the trade deadline, a starting pitcher is a priority for the Astros. We've heard Dana Brown say as much as of late. We're going to dive more into the trade stuff here in the next segment of the show, and we're gonna put something to bed that needs to be

put to bed. In terms of the discussion that people are having, that's not realistic. What is realistic is what this ball club has in front of them right now. Is they sit at fifty fifty one and forty one excuse me in the American League West, two games behind the Rangers. And by the way, thank you Cleveland Guardians. Last night I want to dumpster for having to rely on the city of Cleveland for anything. Is a tough existence,

Like you just want to kick things when you do that. Last night, I'm sitting there doing the on deck show at what was it We run from seven thirty to eight oh five, and it's the fourth inning. As I'm doing the on deck show, Cleveland's up for nothing. They're putting it

on John Gray. They have a fourth spot. I think in the fourth inning or the third inning, and it's like, okay, looking good, they went they went ahead and allowed them the Rangers to score twelve unanswered runs the rest of the ball game, and most of them at the end of the game. And the Rangers end up winning last night. So the Astros don't get to one game back as they should have if the if those damn

if, those damn Guardians would have taken care of their business. And they're in the fight for it too, because they are in that al centro that is an absolute abomination of baseball. And they are five hundred and they're the division leader, just ahead of the Twins who are one game back. I think about this, the ten games under five hundred, Detroit Tigers are five games out of a division lead five They have a run differential in the season

of negative eighty five. Astros. Though, like I said, two games back, they are a wild card team. At the moment. You want to see them track down the Rangers because you want to see them have the first round of the wildcard round off. You don't want to play in the wildcard round. And you look ahead and I said this yesterday, and it's gonna be something I'm gonna repeat here over the next few days because this is

a vital period of time for the Astros. You look at the schedule right now, the way that it's going, and they want to get back to the top of the aost. This is where you have to make hey here out of the break of course, getting the body reset everything that's great. Hopefully fromber tonight looks like fromber he gets his being, you know, irritated about not pitching in the All Star Game out of the way. He didn't like the decision. Clearly it is what it is. But hopefully he looks

like Fromber than tomorrow is a vital game six ten tomorrow night. By the way, Sunday Night Baseball, I'll have you for on deck, contempting for that one on a Sunday evening, but that one is Christian Javier and last night, again, as I mentioned, JP, France, not exceptional, doesn't get deep. And that's the danger of what you're doing, relying on so many young arms that don't have big league experience. And when you do that and things start to go awry and they start to hit a wall.

Because all these young guys are going to hit a wall, you're gonna be in trouble, especially when you go and look at the schedule that is ahead for the Astros. Again, this stretch here, this road trip out of the break, is one that they have to absolutely crush. They started off properly last night with the victory. Two more they're in Los Angeles or in Anaheim against the Angels, day off on Monday, two games quickly in Colorado

against the Rockies, who are bad. They did beat the Yankees last night, but they're bad. And then you're gonna go to Oakland for four next Thursday through Sunday, another series against a team that you have not lost to this season. Not saying that you're gonna go in there and sweep them in four games. They've played better baseball overall since the Astros last played them, but you should at minimum minimum take three out of four in that one.

But you're still hoping, honestly to sweep them because they are that bad. And that's why it's important to do that, because they are awful. And you turn right back around after that Oakland series and you play three against the Rangers. The last three against them here had been a made park this season. The Astros will then get a day off between that series and playing Tampa in town for three one of the best teams, the best team probably in

the American League this season overall. And then those Cleveland Guardians, who even if they're just at five hundred right now, they have played better baseball. They had been really bad early. They have some young guys that are talented. They will be pesky to do that, and then they turn right back around. And I'm not gonna go a whole schedule talk, but this is just a real emphasis on why it's so important to get these wins and really

eat in this next week of this road trip. After that Cleveland series is back to the road and they play four New York against the Yankees. Yankees aren't very good this year. They're okay, same kind of flaws that they've had for all these years. They've just hired a new hitting coach and Sean Casey thinking that that's going to ignite their offense, like it's gonna change a lot. You're not gonna change the same lineup you've been rolling out there for

years. There's a reason why they have not been as good as they expect to be because they keep rolling out the same thing. And expecting a different result. But they have four in New York day off Monday the seventh, and then they have three in Baltimore before they head back home to play the Angels again, which will be a nice easy one you would expect, before heading back on the road to play very tough now Miami Marlins team in Miami

for three. Then you look at the rest of that month, three against Seattle at home, four against Boston, three in Detroit, and then three more against Boston. But this stretch again from the end of the series against Oakland through the tenth of August. So you're talking about a period we're gonna play a total of six nine, thirteen set or sixteen games against really really tough teams and teams that are fighting for playoff contention in the American League.

And that's why it's so vital. Now, look the Astros, and I know that. I look at it, and that's the easy thing. I oh my god, how are you gonna get wins in this period of time. It's not going to be easy necessarily, But the Astros are also gonna be going into those games. They're gonna beat teams, they beat good teams. That's what they do. They've always done that. You look at their record this year now against teams that are five hundred better. It's not been

what they wanted to be. It's twenty and twenty eight. So again I'm putting the emphasis on this period of time to get those back. Now. The good news, hopefully if you missed that news yesterday you're don Alvarez had his reap assignment delayed. They say that he's ill. The inconsistencies of the messaging from the astros continue to be a real issue that I do not understand. You get them telling you that he's ill and he's not gonna do anything.

Then Dusty Baker gets up there and it's like he's clueless. Is nobody telling him anything? I don't know, but he didn't have an answer, and then he makes like I don't know when he's gonn come back or when he's gonna start his rehab assignment. How do you not have an idea that leads to the worry for people, that leads to the panic, and again the mistrust for the way that the situations with injuries are spoke about. But it sounds like, again I'm not gonna go over the top end of the

world. Something's wrong. You're gonna hope that it truly is an illness and Jordan gets his rehab assignment going here shortly hopefully today for sugar Land. Jose Er Katy last night throws two innings for the Sugarland Space Cowboys. Gave up a one run or two runs, but they were unearned thanks to his defense screwing up behind him. But good start to get him back on the mountain.

Everything from the report is that everything was good. He's gonna make three more rehab starts, so it's gonna be a minute before they get him. You want to get Jordan back on the field, hopefully again today because that way you can. I would imagine the per world scenario is to have him play next weekend in Oakland. It's a great landing spot for him, a ballpark that he always hits very well in against a team that he typically just

absolutely launches against. Come back in, get some good major league at bats against them before you have to play Texas and you have the bopper back in the lineup that you have been missing. Jose Al Tube continues to progress. He's hitting soft toss and everything, so we're probably still a few weeks away from him getting into baseball game action. You know, I know that Michael Brantley was mentioned as hitting off the TI or whatever. I'm not too interested

in hearing about Michael Brantley updates. To be perfectly honest with you, when we see him play baseball again, if that's ever again, that's when I'll believe that he can play baseball again. So I'm just personally not interested in. But they have reinforcements coming clearly in some of these spots that they need them, and then they can go to that trade deadline, and it is

seventeen days away now. August first is the trade deadline in Major League Baseball where Dana Brown has to go out there and the obvious obvious need for this team more than any other spot. They could still use a bat. I still think that they could. They could. You know that it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to go and find a bat. The question is where do you slot the bat into. Somewhere in the outfield to me is the spot to do it if you're doing it. But they absolutely have

to have a starting pitcher. And this morning we will go through some of the names that I like some of the names that you think will probably be out there as the picture becomes a little bit clearer in the majors in terms of who's going to sell, who's going to buy, of course, and what the market might look like for a team that does not necessarily have the kind of ammunition that you would like to have in terms of trades to make,

to make those trades on this trade market when that August first deadline gets here. Seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven one three two one two five seven ninety is the fun number to join us this morning. You want to talk about your strokes, you want to talk about that trade deadline that is coming up. Who you want to see the Astros possibly go

chase at the trade deadline. Your comments are welcome throughout the show this morning, of course again on Twitter at MC seven nineties, where you can find me as well. But we will put to bed one of the things that's talked about. It's not realistic people. It's time to end the thought of it even being in your mind. We'll do that next here on Space City Saturday. This is Space City Saturday on Stort's Talk seven nineties. Pick at

it because I don't have a crystal ball. I would like to have a million million dollars though, so when he wants to give me a million dollars here on Space City Saturday, Michael Connor back here with you, and I say that I don't have a crystal ball because I don't have a crystal ball. For exactly how the trade deadline is going to go for the Astros,

I can make my best guesses like everybody else. And by the way, if you want to get in here and join us this morning until noon on Space City Saturday, eight is seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven one three two on two five seven nineties. We're talking Astros here to start things off. Some other things to get into before we get out of here at twelve. Astro's back in action tonight eight o seven. First Pitch

Ross has you for the on Deck show tonight starting at seven o'clock. I'll be back with you for the Astros coverage again tomorrow evening for Sunday Night Baseball, where they hopefully we'd be looking to finish off a sweep. I'm gonna go ahead and say it. They're gonna be working to a finish off of sweep tomorrow night at a three game series against a Angels team that, by the way, is definitely going down the tank. And that's where we get

to here. They are about two as they've been without Mike Trout. They played really good baseball there for a minute where they beat a bunch of bad teams, and I know that that's you know, it sounds like you're knocking them, and it's not a knock. You still have to go out there and beat bad baseball teams. Any team in the sport has to do that. Then the Angels went through a stretch there, excuse me, where they got to about ten games or around ten games over five hundred. I don't

remember the exact number. I'll pull it up here in a second, but it looked like, hey, you know, this are the Angel team. They're gonna be. They're gonna be around, They're gonna be a pesky team down the stretch. Trout gets hurt, they start playing better teams. Right before the break, they play bad baseball, and they are back really where you expect them to be, a below five hundred team, a team that's not going to have a chance to make the posts. Excuse me, The

postseason this year, as I just for some reason can't. I can't seem to clear my throat today, So I'm sorry if that happens a couple of times. It just it just keeps getting me for whatever reason. The Angels, though, falling back to where they were Otani pitches last night. He's not been as great throwing the baseball over the last month. Now, I know that he has the best batting average against in all of Major League Baseball

below two hundred for the opposing hitters this season, which is incredible. He's got He's a guy that throws up to ninety something miles an hour. You saw the difference the last thing he's been dealing with, the the blister issue. And you know when it's a problem is when he's just throwing nothing but fastballs and he's hitable. I mean, every every big league pitcher that even throws one hundred miles an hour is hitable for a major league hitter at one

hundred miles an hour because they're also used to seeing it. The question, of course, has been Angels, do what's smart and trade best player in baseball. And I don't know if there's an argument necessarily that there is a better player in the entire sport. He hits, he can, He's gonna win. He could win the MVP as a hitter. He can win the Cy Young as a pitcher every single year. That's how good, that's how freakish this guy is, and every single team in the league would want him.

That being Shoheo Tani. I will say, I keep seeing it on Twitter, I hear it places, and people keep going, oh, when the Astros go get Shohio Tani. They why don't they go off or something for Shohio Tani. Why can't they? You know, they should go get Shohio Tani. I know that we have a lot of time and space to fill, and we'd love to do hypotheticals and dream scenarios and whatnot, But it is a complete waste of energy saying the name Shoheio Tani to the Astros.

First of all, they don't have any of the prospects that it would take to get him. Even if he is a rental, he is going to cost more than any rental in the history of the sport. Think about when the Astros traded for Randy Johnson back in the day for a couple of months of Randy Johnson, who was elite as a pitcher when he came over.

They gave up a ton to get him back there. Now, I know it was the nineties, but you just go look at rental cost throughout the years, and when you get these guys at this level, and there's been nobody before that's available at this level, the Angels are going to get somebody's top prospect and I would be shocked if they don't one The Astros like

Drew Gilbert. They don't want to trade him. I get that. I know that he struggled since he's been a double A, but there is still a high belief in the player that he is going to be their future center fielder. And I get it, and I'm fine with it. But they don't even have the ability to go to the table and offer the Angels what they'd want. I just I'm a person that prefers to live in reality with

a lot of situations. It would be awesome, of course, if the Astros could have the ability to go get a player of his quality that can do two things that would really honestly be perfect for them because they need a left handed bat and they need a picture he would fit two things in one play. If this was the Astros back in twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen, where they had the prospect capital and they had Jeff Luno pulling the trigger,

they'd be in the mix. They don't have the prospect capital anymore. I don't know necessarily how Dana Brown is going to operate at the deadline, but I get the sense based off the way that he talks is that he's going to value the hell out of his farm system and developing of players, which they should. I saw a graphic I think yesterday on Twitter that's in the last ten years of all the players that teams have drafted, the percentage of

them that have made it to the major leagues. The Astros, of course lead Baseball in that percentage. Twenty three percent of their draft picks since in the last ten years have reached the major league level, the best number of any franchise in baseball. And that's why they've been this damn good. They've developed better than anybody else. They drafted with Luno's crew for a long period

of time, better than anybody else. And now it's onto the Dana Brown era and his people to figure it out and to get this farm system back where it needs to be. So I just don't see a scenario where they are playing themselves to the level of going crazy again. I understand wanting to have this pie in the sky thought process that you're going to go out and get this amazing, freakish talent and you want that for your team. It also goes to how the team has performed this year and what the team looks

like. If you got him, does that make you a World Series contender? I mean it helps the baseball team is gonna be in the postseason, of course, yes, but it still doesn't fix the issues of everybody else pitching behind him, and he's not pitched all that well Right now, the conversation should have ended at the Astros don't have what it takes. It's never going to happen. We have to not do this. I don't know why,

again people even flirt with the idea of it. I would imagine if he's getting dealt between now and the first of August, he's going to land with a team that he's going to try to keep him in the off season, and if that team doesn't, that's on them. He's going to be a Dodger next year. I we just had to live in that reality. It is what it is, not in an American league anymore than it bug the Astros all that much. That's fine with me. But we'll get into

the realistic names for the Astros, because I'm sorry about that. For some reason had an alarm on for ten thirty this morning or twenty seven. I don't know why. But the realistic possibilities for the Astros, we'll get in some of those. We'll also take your phone calls against seven one, three, two and two five seven. I do want to grab one real quick before with the brake. Let's get to John. Hey, John, Hey see man, I hope you get that drain nage out of you. Man.

That sucks. What's going on? I feel fine, I feel fine, but like I just you know, like some days you just wake up you feel like you've just gotten crap in your throat. Just one of those days. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, I'm one hundred percent behind you, man. That's that's that, going in from AC to AC, from this acetown heat into juditional buildings and back out again and back into your car with AC and messing you up. But real quick. I'll run through

these questions pretty quickly. And I've been seeing it, I guess a couple more times this year than not since when uh dude, catchers need to throw the first base to complete strikeout, I seem like I don't remember that being a thing, like only only when it's only when it is only when it is dropped, if it's a drop ball that hits the ground and the runner to Oh, okay, that's okay. That's my first question. Second question, are we sour on daily all? Like? I feel like his name

was brought up a lot. Uh In was side with Jeremy Pinion when they were both like hide and triple A and both might get caught up. Now I feel like they've soured on him and we keep bringing up people like Hensley and Bliss Madrids or whatever that guy's name is. Like, it's just really weird where he's falling in the pecking order. Can you give me some insight as to you know, where they are with him, because I feel like he's like the number eight guy, but they just don't want to bring him

up. And then my last two aren't I haven't heard for us Whittley in a long time. Is he on the eyel or something, because I feel, yeah, he's heard again. Should he heard his shoulder about a month ago? They're thinking he'll be back by like September. Okay, okay. And then my last one is is uh Brantley? Have we heard any any updates on him since all of the talk of of two BA and our big

guy coming back up the break? Where is he and his progress? But I'd really like to hear your answer on that on that daily on thing too, And yeah, thank you, Hey, I appreciate, and I appreciate. I feel great. I don't I just have one of those again, one those days where I'm gonna have to clear my throat and I'm sorry when I have to do it with a microphone on because I don't have the button

to hit it off. But first off, Michael Brantley. The latest on him, as Dusty Baker said yesterday, is that m Brantley is hitting off of a t and this is the second time we've heard this. Now he's weeks away from playing a rehab assignment. If he's playing again, I personally I'm done hearing updates on Michael Brantley. I'm not gonna believe that he's gonna

play major League baseball again until I see him play major League baseball. And I'm gonna put my hand up and I'm gonna bet right now for me that he doesn't play again. That's just me. I hope I'm wrong. I really do. The Astros could use getting a left handed bat into this lineup to give them a little bit more balance that they've missed, and you know, and get a better performer maybe in there occasionally for them with some of

the roster spots you mentioned. You're talking about pedro Leone there, of course, the prospect they signed out a Cuba a few years ago. He's now twenty five years old. He is in his second full year now with the Sugarland Space Cowboys. And look, unfortunately, and this is the world of prospects and signing these guys. He got good money. I think it's like four million dollars in the Astros signed him. Highly touted, big time tools guy, speed, pop, good arm, plays all over the place in

the outfield, can play in the infield as well. Not a big guy. I think he's like five eight, five nine in that range, but has all the tools. Dusty Baker raved about him ahead of or during spring training last year. This year he didn't get to get into camp and play

because he was hurt. But last season he was not good overall. I know that you go look at like the ops number seven ninety six for during his time with Sugarland last year, but he only hit two twenty eight hit seventeen home runs, did get on base at a good clip, walks seventy one times last year. This year not getting on base nearly as much, sly hitting two forty five, twelve home runs, forty three runs, bat at in seven seventy three ops with like the blind Madriss of the world.

They bring him up because he could play first base. I'm gonna be completely honest with you. They're wasting their time with him being on this roster. That guy stinks. There's a reason why he's not been in the big leagues, and you saw it in last night, like wasting at bats on him and then putting him high in the batting order. I know that you wanted a lefty and needed a lefty. I would have rather seen them bring back

jj Metjevic to the big league roster than put blind Madriss up there. I don't think that his stay is going to be very long with this Astro's ball

club. But I mean, look, unfortunately for page on lyone well, and you know, he could be a possible name that's thrown into a trade, but just because you know your teams are gonna want bodies and whatnot, I don't think that he has a lot of value anymore as a prospect at twenty five years old, and he's been in the minor leagues now for two fulls is is two full seasons plus part of another where he did get to

Sugarland in twenty twenty one for seventeen games. But look at it, he's played two hundred and sixty two games at the minor league level and he's a two thirty one hitter. I mean, it's just not very good. It's just the reality of it. He's not performed. I don't know if you're ever going to see him get that I mean, i'd like to see him get that chance. I mean, is could he do what great kessengers doing, sit on the bench and play occasionally and probably give you a better at

bat. I don't know. I just I don't know if we're gonna ever see him get here, and more than anything, it's because he's not performed at the APLA level to get himself a chance, give himself a chance at the big league level. Seven one three two one two five seven nineties our fun number to join us here on Space City a Saturday. You want to get in here and discuss your Houston Astros. Will continue some of that discussion next because I do have a name in mind for me that I would love

to see the Astros make a run at. We'll see if they have the ability to do that and if they're willing to go down this road, I'll give that to you next here on Space City Saturday. Space City Saturday continues Sports Talk seven nineties. Scott that willis you captain Cities Saturday. Right here on Sports Talk seven counterback here with you. You can join us at seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven one three two one two five

seven ninety we're talking about your Stros. You are back in action again to night here on seven ninety you will hear the on Deck show starting at seven o'clock with Ross via Reality ten Thinning Show afterwards as well, and of course the first pitch eight o seven A night from Bervaldez against read Debt versus. The Astros look to secure the series victory tonight, and they need Fromber of course, to go out there and be Fromber to do it. After a

night where they had to use a lot of bullpen last night. Even if they have the day off on Monday, you'd still like to not overuse your bullpen in this first weekend. But we've been talking about the trade deadline there. Got it out of my system because I'm just it's not a realistic possibility show that Tony's not going to be an Astro. I just I think that it's a waste of time to do it, and it's time to look at

realistic names for the Astros across across everything else. But the Astros last night get the victory. They've got seventeen days to go out and find whatever it is that they're looking for in the trade market. It's going to be it's going to be interesting to see how far they can go. And I bring this up because I am sitting here trying to I think, like everybody else, looks through realistic names that are going to be available for the Astros and

you have to you almost do this on a daily basis. Now at this point, determine who is going to buy and who is who going to sell, and we can just run through them real quick. In the AL East, you know the teams that are going to buy our Tampa, Baltimore, Toronto, New York, and Boston very well, both could sell or could could buy, I should say, but they're both eight and a half games out of the division, but they're both only two games out of a wild

card last place. They're tied right now, both at forty nine and forty three. That division is absolutely stacked, so there's no sellers in that division. Maybe maybe Boston sell something. I don't know. The AL Central Minnesota's not selling necessarily, you wouldn't think unless somebody blows them away in an offer for maybe Sonny Gray that way and recoup something before losing him. I guess

Cleveland has sounded like they're going to sell things off. One of the guys that's been mentioned a lot in the trade market from their team has been Shane Bieber, whose you know, numbers hadn't been as good this year in terms of velocity and strikeouts and everything, but he, by the way, is having an MRI on his forearm, so you hear forearm with a picture that always makes you think elbow. He might not be a player that is going

to be available here at the trade deadline anymore. For the Cleveland Guardians, who by the way, again screwed up last night and lost to the Rangers, that they're leading them for nothing. So again in that division, two teams for sure that are probably gonna be in buymode you think, and not in huge bimode Minnesota and Cleveland. How far do you want to go with those teams. They're not winning the World Series either one either one of them.

The teams that are selling in that al Central or Detroit, the Chicago White Sox and the Kansas City Royals Al West Astro's Rangers for sure buying. I'd imagine that Seattle's gonna buy as well. Even if they sit at forty five and forty five and they're completely underwhelming, Angels are going to end up selling. They're now two games under. Then the Oakland A's of course are selling, but they have nothing to sell. In the NL East Braves buyers

big buyers if they need it, which they really don't need it. The Marlins should be buyers. But to a Marlin's level, of course, Philadelphia probably buys. They're only a game and a half out of the wild Card. The Mets are heading towards selling. There's no reason for them to hold on. They're not very good. I'll tell you about something that happened with them in the next segment there. Yeah, in the next segment of the show here for the top of the hour. The Nationals will sell as well

in the Central Cincinnati. Milwaukee probably holds and buys because they're tied for the division lead with Cincinnati. The Cubs in all likelihoods selling because they're seven out of the division, seven and a half games back of the wild Card. Pittsburgh's now going to pivot after being a team that's surprised early. They're going to sell the older players. They're not going to sell any of their young core. They're trying to win next year. Saint Louis has a lot of

guys and they're open for business. The question is do they trade their big big boys, that being Goldschmidt or Aeronauta. Then the NL West you have Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Giants, all for sure buyers, and then the Padres and the Rockies Padres, it'd probably be smart to sell. And I'll get more into that here in a second, than the Rockies for sure sellers,

but they don't have a lot that are going through it. So I mean, just to me right now, as I look at the teams that I that I, in my view say are going to sell, its Colorado San Diegos, they give you two Saint Louis for three, Pittsburgh for four, the Mets and the Nationals for five and six, Oakland and the Angels for six, seven and eight, Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit. So that puts you at eleven and that's it. Eleven of the thirty teams in the

league for sure sellers. That is a very limited pool of teams that are going to sell. And then when you just go again look at the teams, Detroit doesn't have a lot that you'd want necessarily. The White Sox have guys that everybody's gonna be gunning for. Kansas City virtually has nothing that anybody's gonna be interested in. Same can be said for Oakland. The Angels have some middle tier role player type of pieces outside of Otani that people will be

interested in. The Mets have big names, but not big time performers that they'll move. The Nationals really don't have a lot. That's all that intriguing Pittsburgh. Everything that they're going to sell, as I mentioned, are older players that I don't think make a huge difference for a team like the Astros. The Cardinals have names, but they don't have names necessarily in a spot that the Astros might be targeting outside of one. And then you go to

the NL West again, San Diego is extremely intriguing. If they do decide to sell, which I think they're going to do, why wouldn't you? And then Colorado doesn't necessarily have anything that makes you go, oh my god, I gotta go make a trade with Colorado. So to those names, and really I'm looking at San Diego and Saint Louis, two names off those teams that I think the Astros should go chase. And I'll give those to you and we'll continue the discussion with you at seven one three, two,

one two five seven ninety next here on Space City Saturday. It's Space City Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety here. You can't take a slow ride now for the Astros Space City Saturday. As they near the trade deadline. It's amazing, like we've been sitting here talking about this for a while. Michael connorback here with you, by the way, on Space City Saturday, you can get in here seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven one

three two on two five seven oney. But it feels like we have been talking about trade deadline, this trade deadline, that it's been a slow market. Of course, it typically is teams wait until the deadline to really address their needs. Teams aren't going to sell early on unless you blow them away

with an offer. We've already seen the Rangers do that with the Kansas City Royals to pick up a Raldus Chapman to add to their bullpen, which was a good get for the Rangers for a guy's rebounded this year's pitched really well. I don't last time I checked, I don't think he's given up any runs since he's joined the Rangers, unfortunately, and you're hoping that he hangs some sliders at some point, especially when the Astros face him. But so far as a Ranger for innings, no runs, just one hit, five

strikeouts, no walks, So he's been good so far for Texas. They're probably liking that trade to this point of the season when they've gotten him. But the Astros, like so many teams, going to be looking for help, and specifically in the starting rotation. And I went through the teams that you think are gonna sell, what teams are gonna buy, You go and you look at the teams that will definitely need and we'll be in the market

for starting pitching. It's basically everybody. You look again, the NL West will start their Dodgers and Diamondbacks or two teams that you think will do that. Cincinnati will definitely be in for starting pitching. Miami will be a team it's in for starting pitching, Philadelia probably as well. The Rangers will be for sure. You think the Minnesota Twins would be Tampa, I don't know about them, but everybody else in the division could be gunning for starting pitching.

So with the market not having a ton of names that are going to be available to you, their question is who is really gettable. The White Sox have one guy that's for sure going to be moved in Lucas Giolito. There's been a lot of stuff about Dylan Cease. We'll see if they move off of him, but he does have two and a half years of control left. It's probably not likely in my mind that they trade him in the middle of the season. They probably trade him in the offseason, but you

know, look, maybe they will that you blow them away. You could. They do have other names in their rotation, whether it's Lancelin, you know, he's a possibility for teams. Mike Clevenger's there. I don't think he'd be a possibility here. But that's a team that has multiple starters that will probably be moved in that rotation, and a team that everybody's gonna be

calling. The teams that I brought up ahead of the break, the Chicago or the San Diego Padres and the Saint Louis Cardinals have names that again, people are going to be gunning for. I like one name more than I like the other. Here they're both left handed pitchers. But the Padres stink. I think we can all agree on that. For a team that has spent as much money as they have, they have been one of the biggest disappointments in the sport. Those two teams, them and the Mets, who

have spent as much money as they have. Now, of course, the Padres did go to the NLCS last year. We see this so often with teams that do so well the year before they come back and they're just flat the next year. The Astros, to an extent, had been flat this year, but not to this level. They're never going to play to that level. But you just go up and down that Padres team for a roster

in a lineup that has Xander Bogarts. They just paid the money, a bunch of money to Manny Machado who they just extended for a ton of money, wants Odo who they just traded four last year, Fernando Tatis Junior. They should be awesome, and they're below five hundred and they've been that way throughout the majority of the season. They don't. It's not like they have

a bad rotation either. I mean they have a very capable rotation for mu Darvish, who's not having a gray year, to Joe Musgrove, the former astro has been very good since he's been there. And then the other name that I'm gonna mention here that I like, if you're going to go out there and push is Blake Snell, former Cy Young winner, having a great season overall for the San Diego Padres, but the record is only six and

seven because the team's not very good. But he has a two eighty five r and eighteen starts this year, one hundred thirty two strikeouts and ninety eight innings. And he's a true rental. He is a get him for two months and this guy's gone. Somebody's gonna pay him a ton of money this offseason. Maybe the Seattle Mariners. He is a Washington I think he's a Seattle native. I wouldn't be shocked if the Mariners are in on him, come this winner when the time is right, to go out there and do

that. But the that's the name of all the names that I think are gonna be talked about. And look, there's no guarantee that the pod or yeah, that the Padres go out there and decide, hey, they're gonna trade everything. I mean, look, they could very well say we're gonna go in on this thing. We've spent all this money, we don't want to go and trade something else, and he's not available. But I think

given that he is a rental that's a free agent after this season. He's making just ten million dollars this year, so it's not like he'd be picking up a player that's making or I shouldn't say that he's making sixteen points, six and caps this year the way that they was structured. But again, most of that's already done. You're not gonna have to pay him a ton. His deal was five years, fifty million when he signed it with the Tampa Bay Rays. He's done well against the Astros in the past. He's

been really, really good for a very long time. As I mentioned, he won the cy Young back in twenty eighteen beat Justin Verlander. Out this year has not received cy Young votes since first or that year after that was not great for him. But since then, outside of his first year in San Diego last year, he's pretty solid when he did pitch. That's always been his limitation is he's never been a guy that stays consistent, consistently healthy.

We all know how that goes with Lance mcclors. But he's been healthy this season. He's pitched well. One concerning number is that he leads to the majors and walks this year forty nine of them so far. But again, all the strikeouts in the ninety eight innings. If I'm the Astros, and I feel that I am going to go and give up some of my top prospects. I think that that's the name that I would go and target

first. The other one is Jordan Montgomery, who's gonna have a lot of suitors from the Saint Louis Cardinals. He's pitched very well this year six and seven three twenty three R but he's just a ninety six strikeout guy in one hundred three inning, so he's not the strikeout guy that Blake Snell is. Either one of them would be great additions to this ball club. Can give you innings, can really eat it up and keep teams down. But I'm

just gonna keep putting that one out there for me. In a perfect world scenario, and I don't know that they would necessarily have enough. I think that they would because the player is a true rental and he's not the top of the market necessarily for everybody else. But if Blake Snell is available, that is the player that I would be hopeful if I were all of you, that the Astros can go out there and try and pick up. I

think he'd make a big difference. Slotting him behind from Bervaldez of course, all this kind of hinges on Christian Javier getting it together in this second half of the season, But you pick up an arm and allow you to go to the six man more getting guys more rest than you're already giving them.

But if you could get to a post season series where you had from ber Valdez, Blake Snell, Christian Javier won two three, and then Jose Rakeaty probably your fourth, you're gonna go into a postseason series again where you're gonna feel like you can win the first three games of each of those series with those guys out there on the mount. If again, Javier is pitching like Christian Javier and not this just jankety version that he's been for the last however

many weeks it's been. Is it likely they can get Blake Snow No, of course not. It's like the Otani thing. It's gonna be difficult given their prospect amount of prospects that they do have. But in my belief is that if you internally, as the Astros, Dana Brown and that crew and Jim Crane, they say, hey, we know it's not been the perfect season. The offense has been insanely inconsistent, but we still think that this team is good enough to go and win it again for a second straight year

and a third time in the last seven or whatever. We can go a little bit further in this trade to get this player than we expected to. I think Blake Snell is a guy that is worthy of it. And then you add on top of it, he has pitched in the postseason, he has pitched in the World Series, and he's done pretty well when he's pitched. I know that his numbers last year in the postseason weren't unbelievable overall. But before that that you mean we saw We all witnessed it, that twenty

twenty run. He pitched against the Astros in the ALCS. He pitched really well in the World Series against the Dodgers, got twelve games in the postseason, ten career starts, three thirty three r shoot for the moon. I guess that's my strategy here. I don't really see a reason why the Astros shouldn't at this point. Seven one three, two, one two five seven ninety is the number to join us here on the Space City Saturday, one

hour to go. We'll kick off our number two of the show with one of the funniest things you're going to hear uh this weekend, and it comes from the City of Los Angeles. That is next Charan, Sports Talk seven ninety to the State City Home pay City, Grated, Grated, Grated, Welcome to another Space City. Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety Michael Cutter's live in local h Town breakdown on the world that matters to you, Houston four World, All these great Houston fans here, We love you all, So

finish up on that to do list. Luda for cooler, because you can't drink and talk sports all day if you don't start now. This is Space City Saturday, and here are seven nineties as drows insider Michael Kunner. Second and final hour of Space City Saturday here on Sports Talk seven ninety on Michael Connor here with you. You can join me at seven one three, two

one two five, seven ninety. We're talking You're Houston Astros. We're gonna get into some NFL stuff here before the end of this hour, trade deadline continuing to creep closer. I have a very very funny story out of the City of Los Angeles, and it is Astro's related that I'm gonna give to you here in a second, But the Astros back in action tonight. They are in the Los Angeles area over in Anaheim. They will play the Angels tonight in game two of the three game series, which you're here here on

seven ninety with an eight o seven first pitch on deck. Show starts at seven o'clock rossoby real. HAIs you for that. I'll be back on the covers tomorrow, say look to wrap up the series, hopefully with a sweet tomorrow night, six o'clock first bare, six ten first pitch Tomorrow night for Sunday Night Baseball Astros and Angels. Sorry to the rest of the country that's getting subjected to having to watch the Angels tomorrow, that just sounds terrible.

Real quick, before I get to this story from Los Angeles, I do want to get to those of you that are on hold. We'll talk to dos Ecks next. What's up? Dos Ekeys, Michael, Good morning works since I call on the show, but taking m any of the Saturdays and listen Dana Brown. I just have you know this is my own take. My own guests got feeling. I don't think Dana Brown is gonna trade for

any hitters. I think that you mentioned a couple of times. Is gonna go after pitching the two names that you mentioned a few minutes ago, the excellent either one would be great addition to the staff. But let me tell let me throw you a couple of names that do play for the Angels that are up fillers, and see if it makes sense. None, none of those two guys are lefty hitters. But one of them can play a real good right field. He's got one of the strongest arms in the league.

And you saw him last night Hunter Remfro, Hunter Remfro complete the corner. Maybe Tucker can move to the center. And and the other one is the one that win yard last night, Taylor Award. I don't know if you have a lot of history on him. Can he also play the infant Taylor Award? And I don't know what kind of context they have. And just throwing a couple of those names and would let you take And also if you had any other auditions from pitching that you can throw and maybe relievers have any

idea on those, I'm Michael, yeah, they could. You know, they could be in the mix for one of those. You know, those two guys that you mentioned, I know that it would be nice to get a bat. I just don't know necessarily that they're going to be looking for right handed hitters Renfroze. I mean, first off, he had a total

blunder last night in the game on that sacrifice bun. He's a swinging miss home run hitter, but has the pop. I just don't think that the Astros are ever gonna push Kyle Tucker to play in center field, so like that realistically probably isn't much of an option to me. Taylor Wards, the guy that's played the outfield. I know that in the past placed third base as well. You know, they're okay players. You know it'd be nice to have big league depth in certain spots. They've been missing a little bit

of that. And you know they probably wouldn't cost you much either of those players. So maybe there are a possibility for the Astros to get into the deadline. I just don't see them being necessarily likely. But the Angels will probably move on from from those guys for sure before the trade deadline gets here, because there's really no reason for them to hold on to them based on the way that this team is playing overall, and you expect them to continue

to play moving forward when they start to get rid of pieces. So we'll see in terms of relievers, we'll get to some of those names in just a bit. But I do think I don't think that they're gonna trade a lot. I don't think that they're necessarily going to add a bat. I know that that was something that they talked about a lot real quick. By the way, news little news nugget on the Astros from Shannon the Rome,

who covers the Astros for The Athletic. The Astros this morning have signed their first round pick from this year's draft, Bryce Matthews has agreed to a deal with the Astros, so he will be heading out to the Gulf Coast League. The Astros, by the way, have signed ten others from their draft class that they have announced they take twenty players in that draft, but the Astros have just sent that out. They signed first round pick Bryce Matthews,

and eleven total draft picks have now been signed by the ball club. That includes Bryce Matthews, as I mentioned there, in the first round, third round pick, Jake Bloss, sixth round pick Evan Ethan Peco, seventh round pick Joey Dixon, eighth round pick Ryan Johnson, ninth round pick, Jaron Williams, tenth round pick, Austin Demming, Naiomar o'choa he signs in the eleventh round, thirteenth round pick, James Hicks fourteenth round Jackson at Nizou Kolby

Lane for the seventeenth round pick, and then the non drafted two non drafted free agents signed as well. So the Astros again have made some signings, including their first round pick twenty eighth overall, that being Bryce Matthews who has signed with the Houston Astros. That is a done deal. He can get into the farm system and get going on his big league career. You always love to hear those deals getting done quickly so these guys can go play in

baseball before this season does come to an end. But the trade deadline continuing to creep closer. Will continue to get into all that with what is going on with this ball club here over the next few weeks as they look to again bolster a team that's playing better baseball. And at the end of the deadline was you know, not very good or the end of the first half was not very good of course, because of the way that they the way

that they played overall in s Seattle series. But you're hopeful that they'll they'll get that back together, and they started that last night with a win. I did want to bring to you now something that I find hilarious. Now, look, two seventeen is something that is always going to be a special place in my heart. I know a special place in most of you listening's

heart. It was an incredible, incredible season for an astro team that was insanely talented, went out there and took care of their business on a nightly basis, kicked people's asses, and they were just a very, very fun team to watch. The postseason run put us through the ringer. Whether it was the Boston Series, even if it ended a game early, still had

plenty of stress to it. The Yankee Series was a total nightmare to get through, and then the series against the Dodgers was the same way as they've defeated them in seven games to win the World Series. But the Dodgers recently, I have made an addition to their major league roster now. Jake Murisnick started the year with the Chicago White Sox, was let go. Was recently with the Detroit Tigers. Was let go the Dodgers signed him to a major

league contract. He is the first player that played for the twenty seventeen Astros that has ended up with the Los Angeles Dodgers. There's a story in the Los Angeles Times today that is quite hilarious and it is Jake Mrisnick involved. And the headline here is why Dodgers are embracing Jake Morisnick despite his involvement in Astros scandal. It's gonna run through some of the paragraphs of this year for

you and then I'm going to comment on him. There are some members of the two and this is, by the way, is written by Jack Harris, who is a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times. There are some members of the twenty seventeen Houston Astros who would vehemently be unwanted by the Dodgers

clubhouse. Jake Murrisnick is apparently not one of them. A thirty two year old journeyman outfielder who had his best season while playing for the astros infamous science stealing team, Murisnick was welcomed into the Dodgers clubhouse with open arms Friday after signing with a team this week. His backstory was well known as one of

the mainstays from that Houston squad still in the majors the Dodgers. The Dodgers feelings about that scandal, about the scandal, which culminated in the Astro's defeat of the team in the twenty seventeen World Series, remained largely unchanged, even if their anger is faded with time. Yet, Murisneck's arrival was endorsed by Austin Barnes, Murisnek's high school teammate, Chris Taylor, who briefly played travel ball with him growing up, and even Clayton k Kershaw, who has vacation

with him in the off season. I do, like Jake Kershaw said, I think he's had to deal with it for a long time. I think he has some remorse for it as well, which is probably all you can ask for at this point. He's a good guy. He'll help our clubhouse for sure, As the veteran pitcher noted, at least it's not one of those other guys. Indeed, other members of the Astros team would have found a different reception with the Dodgers, whose three remaining members of the twenty seventeen

World Series are Kershaw, Barnes, and Taylor. Last offseason, the team didn't seriously pursue shortstop Carlos Corea, in part because of the concerns about how he received by the clubhouse and fan base. Mursnick, however, is seen differently. He was more of a part time player on that Astro's team, a bottom of the order bat who, despite setting career highs and home runs and on base ops, was valued more for his defense in center field.

He really was. He wasn't really leading the ship over there, Barnes said. Murrisnick didn't play in the World Series against the Dodgers in that World Series either, missing, of course, the entire postseason with a hand injury. I don't get as mad at him because he wasn't in the lineup, said Kershaw, whose six runs start in Game five has long been speculated as being impact by the astros trash can banging system. Selfishly, he didn't really affect

me. Marisnick's reputation extends beyond his time in Houston as well, and it goes into his high school career and blah blah blah blah blah. There's a bunch of junk in the rest of it. Because once again, the Astros sign stealing thing is something that these idiots out in Los Angeles cannot stop talking about. Now. Look, I know that it's the first player that again has signed with the Dodgers and maybe the only player ever that played on the

twenty seventeen Astros that signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. But there is so much of this article that is absolutely hilarious. They are all such fake, tough guys when it comes to we're gonna be mad if we get another one of these guys in the clubhouse and it's gonna be a problem. No, you're not. Shut the hell up, you bums. It is sad this existence that these people out in California live in. A first off. From the writer's perspective, all of this is insanely lazy. It's click bait crap,

which, look, you won I clicked it. But this whole oh Kershall's five runouting in game five? How many times do you have to go over it? It was investigated. You can go back and listen and watch the broadcasts on television like you did in the regular season. There wasn't trash can banging that you can hear on the broadcast in the world series. They weren't using it. It didn't work, and even if they were, they

were better than you. They beat you. Get over it. Your organization, for as great as it's been, has been a giant flop because all you consistently do is choke in the postseason and not win World Series. The Astros continue to go to more than you and win more than you. You're a sad organization, a sad fan base, a sad writing core that you have there in Los Angeles with these idiots that keep writing this over and over and over again. Move on, you got beat. You can sit here

and play this fake. We would be so outraged if somebody else came into this clubhouse, if Carlo's corea had walked into that Dodgers clubhouse, it all would have been fake, fake, fake, fake, fake, and they would have greeted him with opening arms. But to be sitting here still all these years later and talking about it and blaming it and acting like it was a thing that decided the World Series is so idiotic. I mean, just go look at these games. Go look at this. The Astro didn't even

get to the World Series based off of their damn hitting that year. Go look at their ALCS. They couldn't hit the baseball. They hit below two hundred as a team in the ALCS just to get to that series where they beat the Dodgers in seven, George Springer went torched earth. The Astros also won two games in that series in Dodger Stadium on the road, where they couldn't use the trash can system that they'd been using during the regular season,

but they hit two thirty in that series. The Astros won that series because the Astro's pitching more than anything else. And now look, there were crazy offensive games, of course, but the Astros pitching held the Dodgers to a two oh five batting average. They won games by a final of seven, six, five, three, thirteen twelve was the wild one in five one. All these silly, dumb excuses in constant having to say something about it.

It is a sad, sad existence for those people. I cannot believe that we still have to sit here and read these things and hear these things all these years later. And let me show you my shocked face. That's somebody from the twenty seventeen asters, even if it wasn't a main guy you mentioned in the article as well, if there was a guy that benefited from the banging system, Jake Morrisdick was one of them, more than anybody else.

And I know it was the regular season, but he hit sixteen home runs that year in a limited period of time and was awesome, blatantly clear that the system helped him, probably about as much as anybody. He and Marmon Gonzalez massive benefactors of it. But again, we live in this world where facts or can be alternate alternative facts. I just don't get it. They didn't use in the postseason. It didn't work, they gave it up. They said this ain't working, weren't done. I'm just tired of the

lazy man. That's it. I'm tired of all the lazy talk, the excuse making. He got beat own it, live with it, expecting them to apologize for the rest of their life. As silarly, then why aren't you banging on the doors of the steroid users for years and asking them to apologize for all the stuff they did for years and years and years. You're not because you're outrageous fake. Everything about it is fake. And all those people out in Los Angeles and all the Dodgers, you constantly sound dumb,

especially when we know the sport was littered in it. There's been enough that has also linked the Dodgers to doing things that were very similar. There's been enough stories out there, There's been enough rumblings from other players across the league throughout the years that tell us you were doing it too. Dumbs. That's what they are out there in California. Seven one three, two one two five seven nineties are number you want to react to that you want to get

back in on the Astro's discussion. Plenty to get to between now and noon. We're with you here on Space City Saturday, Space City Saturday on scorn Stalk seven nineties. It is Space City Saturday here on Sports Song seven. I need mic counter back here with you. You can join me, said one three sorry, he's two one two five seven. I he had to

take a sip of my water. I had to run out of here, out of the room in the commercial break, and one of my dogs decided that they didn't want to go ahead and go crazy and try to play with me. As I'm walking out of the door. I don't know what it is like. So when I'm doing the show sometimes, I mean typically we're here. We're always here at the house when we do the show because I'm

gonna do Astros or something later. But the dogs just they when they think you're when you stopped talking for two seconds, they think that you're you're done with the show, and it's like, no, I'm not double with the show. I still got Houston sports to talk about. But you can join us against said one, three, two and two five seveniney. By the way, the Astros, if you missed it again, they signed their first round draft pick, Bryce Matthews, the Taska Set, a kid who went

to Nebraska shortstop. He was signed today. The slot value was two point eight eight million. He signed below slot at two point four seven million, but it's a great payday for him to go ahead and get that. The Astros also signing their third round pick. They signed a total of eleven guys

today, which is nice. Bryce Matthews will be able to get out to Minimate Park soon and do the whole what they do with their draft picks, take batting practice, that whole thing here when the team gets back into town. Then he will head out like all the other rookies, to the Rookie League the Gulf Coast League down there in Florida to the Complex Leagues, basically get himself going and for a few games and then probably head out to La

Fayetteville to join the Woodpeckers. I guess yeah, the Woodpeckers in that one in that league, and the Astros hopefully will have another top prospect that people will be watching here for the next few years before he is able to make his way to the big league level and be an impact player. He's got a lot of things that you look at and you say, oh, that's

a guy that that can absolutely play with his team moving forward. I did want to do something here in the next segment when talk some NFL stuff and it's nothing really too hot and terms of what's going on because the training camps will get kicked off here in a couple of weeks. Texans will be back out there. We'll get plenty into them as training camp gets rolling, of course across the station, but here on this here on this show as well.

But the Astros last night with the win over the Los Angeles Angels. One of the guys that contributed to it and has contributed of course to a lot of their victories this year, and a World Series title last year and has really developed into one of the better players across Major League Baseball has been Kyle Tucker. And I know that this is something that you know, we've said a lot, and I've said it a lot, and I'm just going to continue to say it because i think we continue to get a real example

of it on a nightly basis from Kyle Tucker. He is, I mean, he's an exceptional player. He does everything that you want out of a player. He hits for power, He's hitting for average this season once again for the second time in the last three years. He looks like he's gonna hit probably over two ninety this season. He's getting on base at a record high clip this year. Three seventy one is ops is back, getting closer to the eight fifty number now as his slugging number is ticked up with the

power going back up. But he's hit thirty home runs each the last two seasons. Probably gonna be a little tough to get there this year at thirteen, so he'll probably end up in the in the mid twenties, which is completely acceptable. He's gonna be right there at the top in terms of runs driven in for this team. But as I mentioned, two straight years now as an All Star, he'll receive MVP vote. You'd imagine again this season it'll be down there in the fifteen to twenty range like he's been before.

Probably not gonna win the Gold Glove this year like he did last year. His defensive metrics were down early in the season. I think a lot of that gets back to the fact that the player wasn't happy with how the off season was handled in terms of his arbitration process. Probably hearing the things I think it bugged him clearly, and you get around enough people you hear that too, is that it lingered a little bit. He did not enjoy that

necessarily. And I think that the player truly did want to get a real offer from the Astros. That was something that he would think about signing, and I just don't think he got that. They did have discussions, but

it never got anywhere to where they could realistic could get anything done. And he, like everybody else, saw the market last offseason, what was being thrown around, the kind of contracts, the years, the money, and probably wanted that and he should because when Kyle Tucker gets to the market two more seasons with the Astros after this one, before he becomes a free agent,

which you look for the Astros. It's a great thing. I mean, you couldn't ask for anything better to have this guy for a couple more seasons after this one, and there's really not the urgency necessarily that you would have at this moment, but you know the more that I watched him every

single night and knowing the importance. And again this is coming off of talking about the draft there where the Astros take a lot of college guys and they take a lot of outfield bats, and they take or they take a lot of infield beats, they take a lot of depth that they're hoping to build up in this farm system is just not I've been very good now for some

time. As we've talked about, Drew Gilbert is the top rated prospect in this system, a guy that they expect to be there everyday center fielder. And this is what the Astros have done throughout the years, is when one guy leaves, they have another guy come in and plays immediately, and it's great almost immediately. You can't keep doing that though, and expecting it to

continue to work. It is a very dangerous game. We're seeing the difference as we're into year two, and I know that he won the ALCS MVP last year. In the World Series MVP, there's a stark difference between Carlos Correa and Jeremy Paenia. I mean, look, Carlos Karea is an elite hitter in this league when he's going right. Jeremy Paenia is not that, and he's not ever going to be. He's a guy that has good power and can get hot, and we saw him get hot. But there's a

lot to his game that I don't think is going to change. He's gonna be a league average hitter in terms of ops for the most part. He's gonna do a lot of things you know that you don't like at the plate, strike out too much, chase a lot of breaking balls, and I just don't think that a lot of that is going to change for me.

I'm hopeful that it does. He's still young enough and he works so damn hard that you think that this player can advance and become more disciplined and chase less outside of the zone and get better at certain in certain areas and whatnot. So we'll see exactly if he's able to do that. But there's a stark difference again between Carlos Correa and Jeremy Pagnia as the overall quality of hitter in the middle of the lineup type of bat that Correa was, Painia can

be more productive. I think when he is hitting in a two hole where he's protected by Jordan Alvarez and has Jose al Tuva in front him, that's going to help him get more pitches to where numbers will go up. But I just don't know if he's going to be a two whole hitter forever. And I'm saying all this too. And Carlos care has not been good this year for the Twins at all. As part of the story of why the Twins haven't been very consistent this year. He's been deal with a lot of

banged up stuff, plan or fasciitis and whatnot. But again, I just think you're seeing the major difference there. And again Drew Gilbert, everybody has a high expectation for him, but there's no guarantee that that player comes the big league level and goes out there and crushes it. There's just not He's

not playing well at the Double A level this year. My belief is that there's probably more to the elbow issue than they're letting on letting on with that, and it's bothering him a lot, and then there's the struggles of it

when you go through it as a hitter and whatnot. So he's gonna have to go back to Double A next year, probably to start the season, because I don't see him getting out of Double A this year at this point and start the year there and really play well before you can have a realistic

thought that he's going to be a big leagueer next year. But I just can't keep watching Kyle Tucker on a nightly basis and everything he does, his quality and everything about him in terms of the example he sets for teammates and being young and being one of the best players in baseball against right he's and lefties as a left handed hitter. It is so hard to find guys that are this talented and this consistent, and I think every day that goes by

not having him signed to a long term extension is a mistake. You have to secure your window at times, and they've let so much talent throughout the year's walk and I know that you can go through and look at it each, each individual guy and say, hey, well, I mean this worked out here, this worked out there. This guy's not as good here, this guy's not as good there. And I get it, but they have

again reached a point where there's not a lot coming. You're hopeful that this draft has guys that will graduate through it quickly, can get up here, can play and do all that. But I will say, of all the things in this air of Astro's baseball that are lacking, or of the few things that are lacking, some of it is the consistency of keeping the stars.

And it's not always about keeping star players. I get it, but you're never going to convince me if you signed Kyle Tucker this offseason ahead of his age twenty seven season and he wants it the kind of money to where you have to do a ten year deal, that he's gonna be got awful by the age of thirty seven. Again, you sign a thirty six year old third first baseman this past year to a three year contract that pays nearly twenty million a year, you are not that concerned about paying guys deep into

their thirties. I don't care what you say. This guy's not going to fall off the face of the earth and stop hitting anytime soon. He will be productive for more than half of that contract at the bare minimum. I really really hope they can do some self evaluation and some contemplating and say we can't keep doing the same thing we've always done and expect it to continue to

go well. Sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone. That's part of the reason why they got to this place in the first and got to this spot in the first place. They got outside the comfort zone in a certain areas and did certain things that they probably didn't want to do and to help them get other players and get to this spot where they've won multiple

World Series titles. To keep that window open, you have to keep a certain amount of that core intact you have yours on for the long term. You're gonna have to figure out the situations between Bregman and Al two Bay after next season. Al two Bay is going to be here. I don't think it's a guarantee that Bregman will. And that's part of the caveat here. If you're gonna be walking away from Alex Bregman after next season, you can't also lose Kyle Tucker, it's time to come to your senses. And I'm

speaking specifically to Jim Crane and to everybody else in my mind. In my opinion only, I'm spending your money. It's time to just get it done and recognize that this is a cornerstone type of player for your franchise for years to come. The Astros have had these kind of guys before. They've had Bertman forever, They've had Bagwell forever. I've had Bizio forever. They had

these guys well into their thirties. I know that after thirties a scary, scary thing, but most players don't just forget how to play baseball at the age of thirty. It's okay to buck your trend. And I'm saying do it this winner. Go out and sign the player to the extension that he is always going to get when he hits the free agent market. From somebody, you'd rather be with you seven one three two one two five seven nineties our phone number to join us here on a Space City Saturday, some football,

some discussion about the football show that's been out. Have you seen it? I want to go through some of that next here on Sports Talk seven ninety. We now return to Space City Saturday, Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Saturday, right here on Sports Talking seven niney. Michael Connor back here with you. I've been talking a lot about your Houston Astros this morning, which again you will hear back in action tonight here on seven ninety with an

eight oh seven first pitch seven o'clock on Deck show. Ross vie Real has you for that tenth to inning show afterwards, and again I will be back with you tomorrow for the on Deck and tenth Inning show. We'll get to that NFL stuff actually in the next segment of the New Quarterback Show. I wanted to go through some of that here before we ended the show. But something that happened at last night in baseball that I wanted to mention real quick.

Justin Verlander pitched again for the New York Mets last night to kick off their second half of the season, and he was booed as he walked off the field and following the top half of the fifth inning. He pitched just five innings last night, only gave up three runs on two hits, struck out six, but walked six as the Mets lost again. The look the grass and now now that the Astros were never going to go to that level, the grass is not always greener. The Astros are smart not to go

to that level with him. He has not been very good this season. As I talked a lot of the trade deadline options, there's been some talk that the Mets are likely to go ahead and try and shop him and Max Scherzer and try to get out of having those two guys. Now they're gonna have to pay down a lot of that money. But I mean, look, this is a guy that had an unbelievable season last year, won the

Cy Young as he came back from Tommy John. But again, Father Time is always undefeated to an extent, and he is not horrible, but he has not been good enough and probably not enjoying his experience there in New York and is probably longing for his days of being back with the Houston Astros that they're winning a World Series here just last season. Let's go to John next on the phone lines here on Space City Saturday. What's going on? John?

Yeah, Man, I'd be a bad for Justin Man. You know, he he kind of got caught in that spiderwab that others starting pitcher that a they signed, I could get that sports or something like that. That's pitching hard. And he got busted with cell phone, his club and everything.

You know, Justin Justin when he was over here. You know, he had a few floppy games with us too, you know, but the situation over there with the Mets, all the pressure there under you know, Justin he's gonna get He's really getting it right now because he's caught up in all that thing. And as you say, you know, Justin, you know he's up in age and Crane. I thought Crane did the right thing too, you know, we just you know, he could have paid him.

I do believe that Crane can pay anybody if you want to, and he can give him a ten year contract, but that's just not the way he operate. And you know, I don't. I'm fine with it because you know, I'm kind of like, man, whatever he's playing is and seemed to be working just fine for me. But look what I wanted to say, Michael, I definitely agree with you because one thing I do know listening to you, you know more about baseball than some people that call it

it. May we got it. I know, bron our general manager. I know we've looked in plus started. We gotta get a started. We got to stop this leading because alto France pitch okay and Blanco doing okay and be like the youse guy has been, gonna be be handed if we get to the playoffs and guys and you guys can knock them out the park man, we got. We need it to start. I don't I don't necessarily think we need a hitter in the trade deadline. I think the guys we

have is kenny enough and nigh. But man, we need a starting I agree with you on that one, Bail Yeah, John, always great to hear from you. You know I'm right there with you. They they absolutely

need to get a starting pitcher for this team. And it's been a great story of the season as how many of these young guys that you didn't necessarily expect to come up here and pitch to this level have done this and kept the Astros in a spot where they can go out and win baseball games consistently like they have overall with one of the most inconsistent offenses that we've seen out

of this franchise in some years. But I think unfortunately throughout the one hundred and sixty two game marathon, and this is why they're going to be looking to get a starting pitcher. You can't count on this, you just can't.

These guys are gonna hit walls and pitched this much before and after a period of time as well, where the league makes adjustments to you, I think you're gonna see numbers come back down and see performances deep and we've seen that at times from some of these you see last night from Brandon Black and not Brandon Black, I'm sorry. I had him on the mind for some reason from JP France and I thought one of the interesting nuggets last night,

and maybe it's just a command thing. He just at times was not willing to throw us fastball and that's a problem. It's part of the reason why he struggled last night. Now, look again, his defense behind him did not help him in that ball game last night. But I think banking on these kind of performances out of these guys consistently moving forward and hoping that you

get that into the postseason, I don't think it's a smart strategy. I mean, look, you're gonna get Josea Kety back, which is massive. You hope that he stays healthy the rest of this season. But what this team needs more than anything else is of course, from here to continue to be the ace that he's been, Christian Javier, to refine his form, get another starter and have her key, and then you don't have to rely

on those guys. Once you get into the dance and you'll feel like you can win any of those ball games and those guys out there on the mount. Let's go to Martin up next. What's up Martin? Hey, I man, man, I like your music that you play that. I noticed you've been playing a lot of class at Rotten, like Cream and bog Hat. I think you play That's not me. That is Adam back in the studio, and he is. Yes, I enjoy his music selections as well. Those are all good songs. Hey man, I just called about to

Astro's draft. I was just just wondering. I'm too lazy to turn on my computer and check. I could do that, but I was wondering, out of all the sunny just today or any of them high school kids, that's it. I'm done, thank you, Martin. Of the picks that they had, and they didn't take a lot of high schoo guys. But yes, they were able to sign the eleventh round pick at a Galena Park High school, the local kid, Naiomara choa junior, he signs, and

then the rest of them from these signings today are all college players. I mean, like I said, most of their players college players. They're looking to restock that system. I think with you know guys, they are a little bit They took the fifth round pick is where and then you see again they today the Astros were able to get Bryce Matthews for a little bit under slot. A lot of these guys that they've signed today signed for a little

bit under slot compared to um Win and good guy. This will make you sick. I'm sitting here looking at this list of players they signed. Speaking of the guy, the kid from Galena Park, local kid, congratulations to him. You always like to see the local guys get drafted by a local team. He's seventeen years old. He was born in two thousand and five. He was a literal infant when the Astros were playing in the World Series

for the first time. I was a fifteen year old kid when the Astros were playing in their first World Series and I was busting up trash cans and Albert Poolholes hitting a home runoff Brad Lidge and then the White Sox shutting them down. I was going outside of hitting a baseball bat into a wood beam. His kid was an infant. He has no idea what that team was

at all. And look at all the just real quick the day, the years of birth for all the guys they signed today, two thousand and two O one, O two O two, two thousand and two thousand and nine, one of them from ninety nine, and they's twenty three years old. That's he's old. O five O one O two O two two O one. Oh man, where's time going? I mean, I know I'm not that old. I'm thirty two, but I'm old. Listen to that.

We're all old, everybody, one of them but one. And the one kid that was signed that was that was born in ninety nine was in December of an nine. Jesus Man. Absolutely crazy. But yeah, only one of the to your question, Martin, only one of those guys they signed today. They didn't take a lot of high school players. Was a high school players set one three two on two five seven nineties our phone umber to join us. Final segment of the show. Next, I want to discuss

the new Netflix show, The NFL Show. If you've not seen that yet, We'll get to that next year on Space City Saturday. Space City Saturday continues find Sports Talk seven ninety Now Adams just hid me Too close to Home with this one, one of my favorite songs ever, you know, on Space City Saturday. It was actually all my playlists, all my playlists were

working out. I listened to it this morning twice. Actually, um, sometimes you just you hear a song, you gotta hear it twice, and that was one of those ones I had to had to hear this morning. Jimmy Hendry, Hey, Joe, great one. It's been a fun show this morning. Thank oh, thank you to all of you that have hung out with us and called and listened and everything. Again. The Astros back in action tonight. I'm not going to be back for that one tonight,

Ross will have you. I got some afternoon plans with my wife, so we're going to get out and do those. But I'll be watching tonight. I'll be back into the Astros covers tomorrow night with the on Deck show for the Sunday night baseball game. I'll be on starting at five o'clock tomorrow night, so join me for that is the Astros will hopefully be looking for a

sweep of the three game series against the Angels. Tonight, Frober Valdez against re Debtmer's again eight oh seven, first pitch, seven o'clock on deck here on Sports Talk seven nine. If you missed the news again, the Astros announced that they as signed eleven of their draft picks today, including first round

pick Bryce Matthews. So those guys will get to get their professional careers going officially here very soon, which is always a great thing for these guys and for the club to get that going and get some big league time here before the end of this season, and then of course a full spring training ahead and then next year at whatever level that they will be at to start probably high a ball for some of them, low a ball for others, and

of course hopefully going through the system very very quickly. I wanted to mention it and before the end of the show if you've not watched it yet, I think it's worthy of watching. Netflix of course, has gotten further and further into the sports game, and you know, speaking of like sports shows, they are a big fascination. Hard Knocks this season has been announced the New York Jets will be on that. Aaron Rodgers was absolutely thrilled about that.

Um, I think it's going to be interesting this year to see it. I know that Aaron Rodgers is a little bit of a He's a little bit of a diva and a guy that likes the attention. Even if he acts like he doesn't like the attention. He won thousand percent loves people talking about him and being a guy that's on the front and front of the camera. So I mean, like, I actually I haven't watched a ton of Hard Knocks throughout the years since really since the Texans were on it back in

Good Lord. I don't remember what year that was now it's been a while, but that one was. I thought it was a pretty good one that year, you know, because Bill O'Brien was a total d bag and a total a hole, and it made it intriguing. The Texans were on it back Good Lord, two thousand and fifties. Has been ten years. That's crazy, two thousand and fifteen when the Texans were on it. But Jets will be on it this year. I watched a little bit of the Lions

last year. I thought it was Dan Campbell's great Um. I didn't watch, really honestly, any of the Cowboys the year before, or the Rams and Chargers the year before that, or the Raiders the year before that. And I didn't watch the Browns in twenty eighteen, or the Buccaneers in twenty seventeen, or the Rams in twenty sixteen, so like seriously had been since the Texans. I'll tune in for some of them for some of the Jets

episodes this year, but the Netflix shows out it's called The Quarterback. And of course the fascination from all these comes with and I've been one of these people that is Finally my wife and I've gotten into it. We've watched all the episodes now we're caught up. It really started with that F one show

Drive to Survive, which I think is so well done. It's just a great I think, look into the personalities and all that stuff, and honestly it's it's made me become a guy that's I'm not sitting down and like actively watching. And again it's a tough sport to like watch, I think, and to really get excited about because it's being dominated by one guy that being Max for stapping. But I find myself intrigued by the sport of F one. I watched the qualifying is great. That's really where the race it's.

It's sad, and they're trying to change things and make it more competitive to where it won't be like that. But like the race is so determined by how you finishing qualifying, and I'll watch the qualifyings when they come up on TV. So I've been I've enjoyed the hell out of it. And it's really because of that show, watching all five seasons that we've watched, that's made me intrigued by F one and I watch I mean, in a minute, I watch F one now. Um, same can be said for the

tennis one. By the way, Wimbledon was one earlier today. I actually watched almost every second of that as I was working out and then I got back to the house. Of the women's final today, I don't know how to say her name. She's from Czechoslovakia. She won, she beat the girl from Tunisia. Um, I got my wife's gonna kill me. I can't remember name off the top of my head. We watched Wimbledon, well, she and I just went to Wimbledon back before our wedding in April.

We were in London before we went to Italy, and um we went over and did the tour of Wimbledon, which I would I would recommend to anybody that is considering going over there. Actually, our very own who does the does our runs the astros games for us here on the station. Josh C, who runs pre impost for us as well. He's does the god. He does the Lord's work when it comes to our astro's coverag chair on the

station. He was just there and I told him about it. If you ever go to Wimbledon and you're there when Wimbledon's going on, we found out on this tour, go late in the afternoon, like it has to be before the finals obviously and before the semifinals, but go late in the afternoon and people that are there all day, they you turn your tickets back and then you get some money back, and then Wimbledon resells the tickets at a very discounted rate, like more than half off, and you can get in

for nothing. Our buddy Josh C was just there the other day. He went to the damn quarterfinals. He sent me a picture of it. He was like, man, your your tip was great. He paid like twenty five pounds to get in, which is I don't know what the dollars converted to right now. It's obviously gonna be more than twenty five dollars, but it's it was really really cool to see. Um So that that show. I've liked that. I have liked that show, the Breakpoint one, the

Golf one, the PGA Tour one was fantastic as well. Full Swing. They're in the next season's gonna be really really spicy with that one. What's been going on the world of golf. But I've watched I'm into episode seven of eight of The Quarterback and it's they followed Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota. I will say, of all the sports shows that they've done on Netflix, I think this one is by far the worst. Because

it is an NFL Films production. It's a little buttoned up in some areas to meum they they include the media portions or like you know, you'll they'll they'll show something they have like a media highlight where they're talking about this. They're clearly like not what was actually on TV or on the radio or whatever. It's it's just completely made up and it's blatant, blatant when you hear it, Like you can tell it was not something that was like recorded live.

They had those people go back and do it for the purpose of this TV show, But I think it was it was a cool look at what some of these guys go through. Overall. Patrick Mahomes is just a monster, and he's so damn good um, and you get to see kind of the curtain peeled back, and that makes you long for what the Texans can do hopefully moving forward, and you know with Demiko Ryans and you hope it's a lot like that. I think that the coolest peeling back the curtain for

the Patrick Mahomes things. You find out that, I mean, how awesome it clearly is to play for Andy Reid and how open he is to letting his players. I mean, Patrick Mahomes gets to come to him and design plays and call plays and like do all these things, and like that's why they're so damn successful. And that guy also on top of it, takes it so damn seriously from the standpoint all the work that goes in and he's

smarter than everybody else. That's part of the reason. And he can make all those throws, those crazy throws, everything, But he's truly smarter than everybody else at that position. That's part of the reason why he's so damn good. The Kirk Cousins stuff was I think, you know, everybody's got this perception of Kirk Cousins that he's this stat padding guy that just puts him up, and you know, he definitely isn't mean he has. He has

put up incredible stats for a long long time in the NFL. But I think he came off on the show way more likable and more you know, personable, and you see the hard work that that guy puts into to his craft and how seriously he takes it like he is he's putting everything he can into it. So I really enjoyed watching those two. The Mariota stuff,

he's kind of a dud to watch. No offense to him. Um, you know, it was his comeback and then he that you go through the whole him being benched there in Atlanta as well, So I would still watch it again. I think that some of it isn't necessarily feel real all the time, but the perspective in the access that the quarterbacks gave im. We'll see who they follow in the next you know, this next season coming up. I wonder if they'll announced it or if they have. I haven't seen

if they've announced it or anything. But they picked three pretty good ones, Patrick mahonmes being one of them. It's always nice to see a Red Raider too. Even they even part of the show they featured him going back to Lubbock and getting put into the to the Ring of Honor there in Lubbock, which was very cool to watch that and see that as as somebody that's spent some time they're in Lubbick and of course still roots on for the old Red

Raiders to this day. I want them to have a good season, which was, by the way, Big Twelve Media Days where this past week the Cougs were introduced officially in the as a member of the Big Twelve. But I'm thinking this year. I know that the Longhorns has been PI picked to finish twelve out of fourteen. It's probably going to be a bit of a tough season in their first year, and but I'm hopeful that it's not.

I hope I'm not like Ross Ross. If you listen to Matt and Ross, he wants the Cougs to genuinely lose all the time, just because he likes to need all a Matt. But I think he genuinely wants the Cougars to lose. I don't. We are also your home of the Coops. You can hear them over on nine at fifty KPRC when they're back in action. Longhorns will be here on seven ninety most of the time, as well as some LSU football, But busy, busy times ahead as football gets back

into our world before you know it. Basketball will be here as well with the Rockets as they are wrapping up the summer league. But again, thank you to every single one of you that joined us today here on Space City Saturday. Don't go anywhere on terms of your radio dials. Later today again, Astro's back in action a seven o'clock on Deck show with Ross. Talk to you guys tomorrow right here on seven ninety