The Rockets Are Viable & Astros Spring Training Talk

Oh yeah, away we go. How are we doing out there, everybody? Ten to one here on your home of the Astros and the Rockets Sports Taka seven ninety. Great to be with you all here this morning, as we'll have pretty much a full show today. And you know, I say pretty much because it's not going to be a full on full show because Astros Baseball coming your way at eleven fifty five right here on your home with the

Shros Sports Talk seven ninety. But the Astros obviously going to be a huge topic of conversation today because now, I mean we are in the single digits to opening day. I mean, aren't we pumped? Aren't we excited? I mean, hasn't this just seemed like this process ever since just that disaster

in Game seven of the ALCS that it seems like it's taken forever. Like that's where me and Rossvillo Reale kind of differentiate on this is that Ross said, oh, man, you know, it seemed like the offseason went so quick, And I said, man, I gotta go the opposite direction. It seemed like this offseason more than any other off season for me, like obviously out of twenty twenty two, for sure, I wasn't here yet. But I mean when your team wins the world title, it seems like that

offseason, Hey, where'd it go? Because I mean the entire offseason, that's what you're doing. You get the parade, you get the other things that come with being a champion, and then soon enough it's oh, wait, it's New Year's Okay, Oh we got the college football playoff everything like that. Well, that means we're close. Oh the Super Bowl, Oh, that means we're even closer. And then all of a sudden, wait a minute, we're in West Palm Beach. We're ready to go, like

the season's here. But when you are on the losing side, well, it seems like the clock is not ticking at sixty seconds in a minute just as fast. I mean, it's one of those things that you ever noticed, Like during the day, you're at work, right and it's kind of one of those that you're looking up the clock and you're like, God, come on, man, hit five o'clock, and it seems like, you

know, just the minutes are going so slow. That's the way it feels, because in the morning, I mean, we all feel this right in the morning, whenever we're trying to rush around, brush the teeth, finish off the coffee, do all those things. It seriously seems like five minutes is a minute, because I mean you look down at your phone and you're just like, wait a minute, it was like eight twenty three just a few seconds ago. Where did the time just go? So that's kind of

how all of that goes. But we are finally almost here. As of course, we will have Opening Day leading up to it, and on the day of leading up to it, all covered for you right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Of course, Stan and Ross gonna be doing a mold of the Matt Thomas Show. And next up for you, I believe they're

gonna be over at Big City Wings. They're in an Edo to get you ready for Opening Day, and then from the street festival right there at Minute Made Park, we will have the A team coming your ways, so we will have that and then of course pre game everything of the sort to get you fired up and ready to go for that mid afternoon game against the Yankees on Opening Day. So coming up on Thursday, I mean, we got a ton happening this week. I mean, I know that Doug Pike's the

golf guy, but got the Houston Open coming up. That's fun looking forward to that. I mean, you know, I know that not everybody's a huge golf fan, but I'm a huge golfer, and I know many of you out there in the audience you're huge golfers at as well, So I'm sure you will all be over at Memorial Park for that one. Looking forward to seeing it. I gotta be honest. I mean, I've not been over to Memorial Park golf course since they did the renovation and everything to get

it ready for tour specifications. So I am excited about getting over there this week. So we'll be doing that. But back to the Astros here set

to break spring camp here tomorrow. Talking a little bit last night as a matter of fact, while the Kougs were playing with our good buddy Brian McTaggart and asking him, Hey, when do you make the escape there from Southeast Florida, he said Sunday, And I think that pretty much it's going to be play that spring training game, and it's going to be a mad rush to get to the airports there and get out of there and get back here

to Houston. Of course, the show is going to take on the Sugarlands based Cowboys here on Monday and Tuesday, both of those games right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. But you know, I mean, it just even just shows you that we are that much closer, and you even know that we're that much closer too. With Joe Aspada talking yesterday with the media saying that even with the rain out yesterday that allowed for them to have meetings,

I know that. For example, I loved Chandler Romes tweets to fans out there of yeah, the game has been canceled today, go watch the tournament and from er Valdez through his five innings on a backfield there before the rain got really bad in Southeast Florida and West Palm Beach, but he was able to get his work in. But they did not play the game yesterday. They are playing this afternoon, as I said, and the lineup party out

the Astros going with that opening day lineup. So we are to that part of spring training as well, where you do want to get as much of a routine as possible to get you ready for the star of the season, and that's what you're seeing with the lineups of having it be the everyday guys that you're going to be seeing and the lineup has constructed as is right now, so it is going to be a good primer to get you ready for the season. So look forward to being able to get Astros baseball going in

earnest here pretty soon. But of all the questions too, to ask an answer about the Astros, I mean, I think number one, remember a few weeks ago, if you were listening to Sean Salisbury show when I did my call in with the guys, when I was there in West Palm Beach with Ross and we were talking about, you know, what's kind of your main concern with this team and at the time, and it still holds,

I said, probably it's got to be the starting pitching. Even though you got justin Verlander, you feel pretty good about Fromber Valdez, I would say, to a certain point, you feel pretty good about Christian Hobvier. But I feel like Javier and Fromber are pretty much in the same category where it is you just don't know who you're gonna get, and when you get the really good version of them, well then it's awesome. I mean, in

Fromber's case, it's a no hitter two times over. In Christian Hobvier's case, it's the same deal, but then it's also to the other side. Is there a broken bat single or an error or something like that that kind of throws Fromber's game off and does not make him as affective on the mound.

Or is it a really rough first inning and not being able to find the strike zone you're just really working up that pitch count and not finding himself being able to get out of the fifth inning in the case of Christian Hobby here. So those questions are there. Then you get to Hunter Brown. I mean, is Hunter Brown the guy that we saw in the first half last year. He's the guy we saw in the first half last year.

That's really good. If he's the guy that we saw when the pitch counts started to get up there and you could probably see a little bit of fatigue starting to settle in with him later on in the season, well then yeah, that was a little bit of a concern. So that's another part of it as well. JP frant I don't know, again, if many of you follow Chandler Rome out there, if you don't do so, and look, here's the thing to kind of, you know, stay on topic,

but get off topic. Here to a second. I guess we're just going to kind of pull off to the side of the road here in this discussion. But as I make my way over to the shoulder on the freeway here to bring up this point, I understand, you know, how people view Chandler at a certain point, and I understand, you know, it's one of those things that he will go back and forth with people on social media, and that rubs some people the wrong way. But when it comes to

the information, you can't beat it. And the man is on top of this team and he is incredibly good at his job. And I understand too some of the interactions not so great at times with some of you out there, But it also too, you know, whenever you get things from him, you can absolutely know for certain that they are true, because I mean,

his track record covering this team has been pretty darn good. But one of the things he talked about was the pitching setup for the two games against the Sugarland Space Cowboys, which I think that we probably will see what is going to be the twenty six man roster, or in the case of the first two games of the season, the twenty five man roster, of course, with Brian A. Bray you not being in the fold, but JP Frantz will be the fit starter for this team and he is going to throw

one of those games to get himself even more ready for the season. And Renault Blanco as well is going to be part of the fold as well. Breaking up from camp, it sounds like that Brandon Beilack will also be part of this as well because of no more options, and he is a guy that can get outs. He is a guy that can throw strikes and he can get you some innings too as well. And there is a role to be carved out on this team because middle relief is still kind of a moving

target for the Astros at this point. I mean, we've seen good things out of Rafael Montero this spring, we've also seen some really rough outings out of him. Taylor Scott is somebody that has been a pleasant surprise for the Astros through spring training to this point, and he is somebody that looks like he might have carved himself an opportunity on this team and also too as well. The other part that we haven't even touched on it with the Astros so

far is what is next for Justin Berlander. Well, we know that we heard from Chandler Rome, who, by the way, you will hear from in about twenty minutes from his weekly visit that he had with us over on the A Team earlier this week, So we'll have that for you coming up

a little bit later on in the show. Bottom of this hour, as a matter of fact, is when you will hear our conversation from the A Team earlier this week, and also too along with the astros, going to be getting into many other topics today, like yes, we will cover the O tany stuff. I mean, I have opinions on it. If you follow me on Twitter, it's much appreciated. If you don't, please do

it'd be nice. I'd appreciate you catching up on the conversation, being able to interact with you there as well at Dan Matthews hou is how you can find me on Twitter at Dan Matthews h oh. You if you see a guy wearing a Shaquille O'Neill LSU jersey with the O'Neill thirty three on the back, pointing to the back of the jersey, well then you know that's me. So you found me. I don't have a blue check mark any of

those things. Not paying for Twitter, not gonna do it. But anyway, I have shared some of my thoughts on the Otani situation, so we will get into that a little bit later on in the show as well as the Rockets. Yes, we can actually talk the Rockets because guess what, they're viable and they became even more viable last night when they weren't even on

the floor. I think they were over at the Posto Hotel having a nice little formal event over there, and while they were doing that, well, the Golden State Warriors were playing, and the Golden State Warriors lost last night. So what does that mean? Your Houston Rockets are now two games out of a play in tournament spot. Of course, Golden State's right now with the tie breaker against the Rockets, so still some work to be done in

that regard. But I mean a week and a half, two weeks ago, when we were talking about the Rockets, Alprin Shingoon goes down in Sacramento. Cam Whitmore hurts in that game as well. You're probably thinking that's the death knell that is going to signify the end of the twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four Houston Rockets. But NI that has not been the case. Rockets have been able to continue playing some great basketball. Seven straight in the

win column. They're going to try to make that even more tonight. Eight is better than seven. I mean, it's one of those things. I remember when HBO used to do the twenty four to seven series with the NHL teams leading up to the Winter Classic and Dan Balsma disco Dan and I like that. Sean Salisbury calls me that, by the way, on the Sewn

Salisbury Show. I appreciate that. But Dan Balsma, who was the coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins at the time, they were on a winning streak, and I remembered after they would win a game, he would say to his guys, hey, this number is greater than the other, like kind of like, hey, let's keep this thing going. So I think that Emai Udoka kind of doing the same thing with the Rockets right now. Hey, eight's better than seven. So Rockets trying to make it eight straight wins.

Tonight, Utah Jazz in Town Rockets launch pack gonna be coming your way at six o'clock right here on your Home of the Rockets Sports Talk at seven ninety. So yes, we could get into some rockets as well. And the conversation. I said it last week. I kind of laid out the ground rules for the show. Look, here's the deal. I don't really like to belabor topics. And if you missed kind of my little preamble about it last week, I'll go ahead and lay it out for you again here.

I like to be able to keep the conversation moving and I like to be able to, you know, bring something up, talk about it, and at the time you want to weigh in, please feel free if you want to weigh in a little bit later, if you feel like I'm kind of in the same neighborhood, then we can do that as well. But you always know the number is seven one three two one two five seven ninety once again seven one three two one two five seven ninety. And I will always

continue to entertain your thoughts out there. And you know sometimes too, it's one of those if you call up and you say, hey, I want to talk Astros, and the guy on the other end answering the phone says, well, we're talking rockets right now. That's fine. Hey, when I get back to Astros, then let's talk to Mastros or even two. When we get into some Texans conversation, please feel free jump on in because we will do that as well. Uh huh. We will talk about the

jerseys and yep, more signings to this team. So we will do all of those things. But guest whise today one recorded one live in about fifteen minutes, we're gonna hear from Chandler Rome of the Athletic again. That's the recorded he was on with the A team earlier this week, So we will have that discussion there speaking to the A team. Adam Clanton, good buddy,

My good buddy, your good buddy. Everybody's good out there, well, at least some of you out there, because I know some of you have even told me, well, you know Clinton, Clinton, you know, but he's the best. Seriously, I love that guy like nobody's business. You know. I'm not just saying that because I work with him on a daily basis. I mean, I don't know if I've ever told you guys this, I'm not in this chair right now if it's not for Adam

Clanton. He gave me my shot in terms of being able to come up to the building of the place he was working at at the time, and that was kind of my first really you know, introduction into sports radio of actually, you know, for years of listening to it, but then finally getting to be able to sit in on a show and kind of see how everything went, and I was like, yeah, hey, I kind of want to do this thing. So that doesn't happen if it's not for Clanton.

So he's the best. But he's got a cool little event happening today in Itedo. We were over there yesterday with Vernon Maxwell at the Matt Thomas

Show. Well, Clanton gets his shot today, So Mad Max is going to be over at Woodrows there in Edo, the renovated Little Woodrows, which if you follow Clanton's wife on Twitter, of course, Teresa Rockface over on ninety four to five The Buzz. She was over there last week for the Saint Patrick's Day festivities that were happening there, and you know, some of the stuff I saw of the Little Woodrows there, I was like, man, that is a prime spot. I mean, that is going to be

just an amazing spot over there for Astros game days. To be able to get over there in that Edo area right there near Minute Made Park, remember how for years we had said, Man, I wish there was just something, you know, to be able to you know, a place to be able to hang out at and you know, be able to go to before and after Astro games and maybe when they're on the road be able to go to well, places like Little Woodrows. They fit that scheme. So it

is an awesome spot over there. I can't wait to be able to get over there and check out the new look of the place over there. But he's gonna be over there three to four, so we'll talk that talk a little bit of Rockets because he will be back on the call tonight with Matt Thomas for the Rockets and the Jazz. So bottom of next hour, eleven thirty is when we're gonna catch up with Clanton, So we'll talk to the event, talk a little bit about the Rockets, what's been making them go

right now. So we will do all of that as the show goes along. But coming up next, continue the Astros conversation because there was something that Dana Brown said this week on Astroline that I want you to hear because I think it shows your team is in a great spot. We'll let you hear that and we'll discuss coming up next right here on Space City Saturday. I'm Dan Matthews on your home of the Astros and the Rockets Sports Talk seven ninety,

Sports Talk seven ninety, Space City Saturday. As we continue to roll along here on your home of the Astros in the Rockets Sports Talk seven ninety. Coming up here in a little less than ten minutes, Chandler rome our visit with him on the A team as he gets us up to date on what is happening with Justin Verlander as well as what the roster could look like as they are set to break camps. So we'll have all of those things with Chandler, and Chandler like many of us too, watching the tournaments,

and you know, he was talking about the brackets out there. It's always too that's always the fun part of this time of the year as everybody, Hey, here's my bracket, here's who I have. Oh, my bracket's dead. All of these things, which, by the way, United Airlines with a funny little social media posts that I was like, that's that's good social media right there. That's understanding the situation. That's understanding you know, just how you know what is timely is what is all of the things that

we're talking about. And if you didn't see it on at least Instagram, they had it where if you've been on a flight, you know how a flight goes. Drink and food service there, snack service, I guess if you will a little bitsc off cookies. But they'll come through, and then of course the fly attenant will come through with the trash bag of here, throw away your trash is we're about to land. And in this one it was the fly Tenant coming through the aisle with the trash bag and people were

crumpling up their brackets and throwing them away. So I love that. That was good. That was pretty funny stuff. But Dana Brown on Astro Line talking about the roster construction that the Astros are going to face here in the coming hours, because yes it's not days, it's hours now because tomorrow, effectively Spring Training, the Florida edition ends, it's done. Astros will play, they will probably get on a team charter and come here to Houston,

or if everybody is just able to find their way back. I don't necessarily know how the dynamics go. It doesn't matter, but in this case, right now. We knew that coming into this season there would be some spots to be won on the roster and in some cases some tough decisions to be made. Dana Brown was on astral Line that you heard last night and you will hear it coming up a little bit later on today this week in West Palm Beach, and he talked about some of the tough decisions that are to

be made, and he says, hey, that's a good thing. Let's face it, the more tough decisions that you have to make, the better the team is. So I like when we have to make tough decisions because that means that means the team is pretty much in sync and playing really well, and it's a good it's a good team. And so having options it's a good thing. Particularly over one hundred and sixty two games. If you

have more options, you have a chance to win more games. And as you guys know, sometimes it goes down to the wire and to win the division, all right, And you know, of course, what he's talking about is at the end of there is last year, because that was what the Astros faced. I mean, it literally came down to the wire. They won, and then they had to go back into the clubhouse and watch the TVs and see if the Mariners could hold on for the Rangers to lose

and for the Astros to be Al West champions. That's eventually what happened. But in the case of what he's talking about is mostly the forty man roster where people look at it, and I think mostly fans hear the forty man roster and they're just kind of like, Okay, yeah, that's cool. I mean, you can only have twenty six on the active roster, so what does it necessarily matter with the rest of the guys. It's depth,

it's people that you can count on. It's the fact that, yes, there is going to be a conversations being had there in West Palm Beach with Joe Aspota and Dana Brown of probably even after as soon as today's game of they'll play the game, and I'm sure it's going to be somebody in the clubhouse, Hey, Skip wants to see you going to Joe Aspota's office and you're either being told, Hey, you're coming to Houston with us or not right now. And I understand that as a player, when you're hearing not

right now, you're kind of crushed. You're kind of like, damn, I really felt like that this was the year. I thought that this was

the chance that I was going to have to bring. But also part of that conversation too, as well, as you've heard from Dana Brown, is that it is a well, it's not right now, but stay ready, because that is something that a lot of the guys that are being sent to Mior League camp are being told when they're being given that news, is that yes, it's going to be a no for now, but it's not a

permanent no. Go down there, get your work. If you're a pitcher, get your outings, get your innings, get your pitches in, find the zone, have the command, make sure everything's working, because there is going to be a time this year that we will need you. I mean, let's talk about it. At least from the starting rotation perspective. At this moment, the Astros are looking for guys that can step in and be

able to get outs and throw innings. And as we've also seen as well, kind of this incarnation of the baseball season has been seen over the recent years where at the beginning of the season, you're not going to push somebody past one hundred pitches, you're not going to really have them go until fatigue.

At this point, you're going to set a limit. And if it's the fourth inning that they are at eighty pitches, well then you're probably gonna say, all right, well, we need to get somebody loose because I don't want him going that much further, because we don't want to be able to burn somebody out here in the early going. And then that's an issue for the rest of the season. I mean, we just saw it. If you watch the early morning games there in Seoul, South Korea, between

the Dodgers and Padres, you saw that happening in Moss. I mean, I think that the pitcher who went the longest there was Tyler Glasnaw and he went five innings. But you're not seeing guys getting quality outings out of the

gate. You're probably seeing them get to the fifth inning, and then you need to see the long relief guy getting loose and they're in the game and then somebody else from the middle of relief core and you're just kind of hoping to be able to bridge the gap to get to the end of the game. And yes, in the astro's case, at least for the first couple

of games. You want to be able to get it to the guys that are going to be getting some serious outs for you in the later inning of right now, Ryan Presley and Josh Hater, and then starting Saturday you'll have Brian to break you back in the fold. But that is how you see the beginning of the season go. And along with that as well, we know over the course of the season we get the unfortunate news so and so has been placed on the IL. All right, well, that means that

somebody has to come up. If it's an outfield spot. For example, say Jake Myers has to go on the IL he's got a hamstring issue. Well, then Trey Cabris needs to be ready. Joey lil Berfdo needs to be ready. Even to a certain point, Jacob Melton needs to be ready. So you get my point here is those are the conversations that are being had at this moment in West Palm Beach, is that some guys are being given bad news of you're not coming to Houston with us. Well, at

least you're not coming too minute may Park with us. You'll be over in Shureland and you'll be getting at bats every single day. And that's the other part of it as well, is that I think the Astros are trying to massage the situation as best they can. Of anybody that pretty much had options at this point to go to minor league camp and go to shug Land, they were more than likely going to end up there, just with some of

the tough rosters decisions they had to have made. But it's also to the point that he talked about, is the competition that just shows you that when you're a World Series contending team, you have pretty much your entire roster already

set. And the Astros have been fortunate over this now eight year run that they've been on to be in that position of you know who's going to be at second base, you know who's gonna be at first, you know he's gonna be a short third base, and now you know who's gonna behind the

plate on an everyday basis. Same in the outfield and the pitching rotation without Verlander, without now Jose Rachidi, and also too, we knew coming in that that was going to be the case with Lance McCullers and also with Luis Garcia as well, but we'll see those guys a little bit later on in

this season. But again, it just shows you that this is, as Dana Brown said, it's a good problem to have because there are the teams that are in a situation where they're breaking camp and they're just hoping to be able to make themselves into a playoff roster. The Astros are a playoff roster. We know that. We know that they are a team that, as constructed, has the ability to be able to not only reach the postseason,

but to be able to advance in the postseason. Not every team in Major League Baseball can say that, and a huge part of that is the depth that they have in the minor league development that they've been able to have and also to the major league development that they've had. The Astros are renowned around baseball. Even with all the changes that we've seen over the years, that culture has stuck in that building over at Minute Made Park, and it's why

they've been able to sustain this thing as long as they've had. So we knew that there were only going to be so many spots open on this roster. But you've heard from Dana Brown right there again to bear repeating myself. That's a good thing to have for the Astros at this moment, but also too, I mean, for say a guy like Spencer Arraghetty, you probably will see him at some time this year. Hopefully Forest Whitley can be able to find his way to the major league roster at some time this year,

that would be nice as well. And for some of the other names that I just mentioned, is going to be the possibility that those guys will be counted on at some time this season to come up and be able to if you're a pitcher, get out and if you're a hitter, be able to put together good at bats at the plate, and also to be able to

put together solid defense in the field. So those are all the things that the Astros are trying to count on to be able to traverse the regular season and hopefully get us having more October baseball here on your home of the Astros Sports Talk seven to ninety and for us to also be able to hopefully see another playoff run. So that's all of the ingredients that go into making a

meal that is the major league roster all right. Coming up next, As I mentioned here in the bottom of this hour, we're gonna hear from our good buddy chan Ler ermee, because we know what's next for Justin Verlander. But just how close we're thet Rose to finding someone who was close to his equal. We learned some of those things from our good buddy Chandler Rome of the Athletic. He was on the a team that is next. Right here on Space City Saturday, I'm Dan Matthews here on your home of the Astros

and the Rockets Sports Talk seven ninety. We've got our good buddy Chandler Rome of the Athletic to talk to us about all things. Show Hey Otani, or as Wex has now started to call him, Las calling show Hay Rose. He's there of Big Hollabelo Amos, reporters, media, and the ball clubs there in Florida. Did you get on baseball, Chandler, That's what we're asking you. I'm gonna plead the fifth on that question. But I mean, I wouldn't say that there's I mean, I think everyone's just sort

of like, I mean, I'm not gonna lie like that. I talked to some people about it, but in no capacity of like I'm gonna write about it or I'm gonna say what they said. I mean, yeah, I mean, it's certainly intriguing, and there's a lot of questions. Quite frankly, they just aren't answered. And I think until Otani talks, or until the league releases some sort of a statement or something. I mean,

it's it's just very odd. Like the ESPN story, God, that just it created so many questions and it raised so many kind of red flags. And you know, I do think one thing, you know, it's kind of been noted and it's out there that like he Otani is just a fiercely private person, like we don't know anything about him, and I think because of that, it just opens up two more questions, like we don't know what this guy is like, we don't know what this guy does, We

don't know what this guy like. I mean, all we know is that he's a he's an otherworldly baseball player, and everything that's been written about him and reported about him is that he doesn't do much else but baseball is his life, and Epe pretty much get everything else for him, like when grocery shopping for him basically was his I mean, was his right hand man and everything. So I'm going to refrain from saying much other than that, but

yeah, there's a lot of questions that have to be answered. It's a fascinating, fascinating story that certainly has a lot of legs, and you know, if if there aren't answers or the answers aren't satisfactory, I think it could be one of these stories that this I don't think this is just like a week long or a month long story. I think this is something that

will probably unfold throughout the season and well involved in Major League Baseball. I mean, the FEDS are involved in this, and the Feds could get involved, and that that's way out of MLB's jurisdiction. So it'll be fascinating to see how it unfolds. Well, it's like I said when I was looking at all this kind of blow up last night on social media. If anybody can get a handle on this and handle things the right way from an MLB perspective, it's Rob Manford Chandler. Well will he be able? I mean,

will he even have the authority to? Like true, Like the FEDS are gonna get involved, like the government and they're always involved. This is like Rob Manford is like, this is this Rob Manford. I mean, I'm sure it'll come across his desk at some point, but I mean this, this far far exceeds Rob Manford or any jurisdiction he has. No it's it is like you said, it's it's a much bigger deal than that. And and this is it's not a baseball thing. It's not that you you

know, steal signs. It's not as this wrong. He's not a union issue either. And you had an extensive piece today at Q and A with Lance mccullor's junior, who is extremely and has been extremely involved in lots of negotiations over the last handful of years with the union and now the player involvement with what's been reported the last couple of days about the potential new structure of

the union. From from what you wrote in your conversation with Lance, what's what's your understanding about where things are about to head with the with the union? Yeah, I mean I'd refer more to the reporting that Evandrelic has done because I mean that's that this is what Evan does for his living. I mean, he covers the union, he covers labor, he covers all the labor issues there within with the Union. But I mean certainly reading Evans reporting

and reading kind of everyone else. You know, Jeff Passon had a really long, comprehensive story for the ESPN. Like, I mean, it sounds like there's a lot of friction, and you know, Lance pushed back on the on the notion that there is friction. It just sounds like, I mean, to hear Lance describe it, it sounds like there are more players that want their voices heard, and it sounds like there are more players that

want to get involved. You know. I thought it was interesting that he said, you know, this is good because most of the time, all these players don't speak up until bargaining starts, Like they show up once every five years when the CBA starts, when they have another round of CDA negotiations. Uh. And it sounds like that players want to get involved a little bit more. Obviously, there is some discontent with Bruce Meyer, the deputy director of the of the of the PA, the guy that negotiated the last

CBA. I thought it was interesting that, you know, when I asked Lance whether he believes, you know, Bruce Meyer continue in his role, he didn't really answer the question. He did say that he has ultimate faith in Tony Clark, who's the head of the PA. But you know, he didn't really answer one way or the other whether he thought Bruce Meyer should continue in that role. But he obviously is no fan of Harry Marino, the guy that by all of the reporting is angling for Bruce Meyer's job.

So there's a lot of like just fascinating subplots, you know, a lot, and you kind of have to have it an astro's pampoint. Like the onfield product is you know, pretty much settled. You know, there's not many battles going on, and we've talked about the injuries from the pitching staff. You know, it's it's fun to have some other kind of storylines other than just like rehashing who's going to get the last spot in the bold there

they have. They asked against what was your take on how they'll progress with justin to dive right back into what you said was, you know, the minutia of all of it. But is he likely going to be staying in Florida extended spring training or is a Space Cowboys visit in his future. It

sounds like he's gonna go back to Minute May. He's gonna go back to Houston when the team goes back, and it sounds like he's gonna throw a live VP before one of those two exhibition games against the Space Cowboys, just so they can, I mean a to get some guys in the bats. They'll they'll have the hitters down there to do that, and just to like, I'm sure they want to get some more eyes on them. They want to get their machines at home on him and just get some eyes on them.

And then you know, from there he's gonna have to go on a rehabit Signent. I don't know if it's gonna be the sugar Land. I don't if it's gonna be a Corpus. I haven't looked at their schedules to see who's home. But yeah, I mean for me, you know, I think it's progressing a little bit slower than I anticipated. I don't think that means he's had a set back. I just think they're taking it slower than I thought they would. I thought he would have faced hitters, you

know, well before now. But and you know, yesterday he only threw twenty pitches in that live VP, so he's gonna have to throw at least two more live VPS. I think that's usually how they go. And then you know, you look at how many starts frombers made down here, how many starts Hunter Brown's made, how many starts to the traditional and traditional spring training that they make four or five starts, So you could be looking at maybe four or five rehab starts for him, and then you know that may

take him to the end of April. I you know, if you'd have asked me early on, I would probably said he comes back mid April. But now you're looking at it, you know, maybe not till late April, maybe even in the May. I'm sure that Astros fans are gonna love hearing you say that. Chandler, It's it's not I don't think it's as diers as you make. It's a timeline and it's again with no setback. I don't think it's a it's a huge issue anything that you thought beyond let's,

you know, give it a try. To the new lineup that he tried it out there at least in the top four, going back to back lefties jord On and Tuck in front of Reregman. Well, I thought it was interesting that he did it against the left handed starter today, the Cardinals started a left handed pitcher and he still did that. And you know, I think that's a that's a configuration that you could definitely see. I think you look at how well Alex Bregman hits with runners in scoring position just throughout

his career. I looked it up today, since twenty twenty one, I think he's got the seventh highest wrc plus in baseball with runners in scoring position, And the only astro that has a better one than him is you on on Albaros. So he's really good at I mean, you know he's going to swing it strikes, you know, he's not going to swing it balls. You know he's gonna put the ball in play. And he's just really good situational hitting at shrinking the strike zone. And if he's got to get

a ground ball through the sixth hole, he can do that. If he's got to hit a fly ball to score runner from third base, he can do that. So I think it's an interesting move. And you know, I even asked Joe A. Spotted today whether you know there could be some fluctuation in the middle and then the back end of his order depending on which hand the starter throws with and he said, yeah, there will be different configurations. So maybe against the left handed pitcher, you see Chas McCormick hit

a little bit higher up in the lineup. He's killed lefties his whole career, and he's had he's had some issues against right handed pitching, but he solved those last year. So maybe Chaz hits a little bit higher in the lineup against lefties than he does against righty's. You know, maybe against righty so the a bray you gets a little bit up in the order. But yeah, I thought it was I think it's interesting to see and certainly a

departure from what has been going on. And you know, I think certainly I don't know that he's set into this. I don't know that Tucker, that Alvarez and Tucker are gonna hit second and third every day, but I think it gives them, certainly flexibility, gives them some options. And look, let's basically like those top four in the order, like al Tuove, Tucker, Alvarez and Bregman, like you really can't screw up if you put them in, Like they're that good and they're that just kind of interchangeable.

So mixing and matching you know, just seeing what looks good, seeing what seeing what they like. I think that's a proudent way to do things. Chandler, Is Renelle Blanco one of the reasons that because we haven't had a chance to talk to you since the whole Blake Snell stuff, is he one of the biggest reasons why maybe the Astros aren't panicking or however you want to phrase how they're handling the rotation. I mean, maybe you know more than

we do about them looking into somebody else. I know that it was written they're not pivoting to Jordan Montgomery. But is Renel Blanco and his not just his spring but what he showed last season a big reason why maybe they're not as concerned as some I don't think. I don't think he's the main reason. I think certainly he gives them some comfort. But you know, I think I may have said this last time we talked about Renal Balca, like

he's done this before, Like he's thrown really well in spring training. You know, he's a winter ball legend. He's gone to winter ball in the Dominican and like Kno giving up a run in three years. And then when we get to the big league season. It just a little different. So I mean, I'm cautiously optimistic. I'd say that you know, he's thrown the ball well and they see him the translate that. But no, I mean I think it's more of kind of where they may be Hayroll wise.

You know. Also, there's not a ton left out there. I mean, I thought Michael Lorenza made sense for them, especially given the deal he got with the Rangers. Like I thought he made sense for them just to get him in here as an insurance policy. I mean, that way, you can even go to a six man rotation start year. Renald Blanca can still be in the vocation if I mean, you spot him in and you know, you can still have a six man rotation. So I don't think

Renell. But I don't think they're watching Ronel Blanco in spring training and thinking, oh, okay, we're good. They don't need anyone else, like I think if I think if there were more peaches available, and look, there could still be because you're going to see the next couple of days,

they're going to start trimming their spring training rosters. Some veterans with on n our eyes and on minor league deal they may opt out looking for a major league time, and you know the Ashers are gonna they have some avenues to open spots in their full demand roster. So I know everyone's kind of thing about Montgomery and Lorenzen, but pay attention to some of these teams that maybe cut loose guys that they don't have room for, or guys that maybe haven't

pitched well in spring training. You know, I think that told me an avenue the Astros go too, because the added benefit with those guys is that they've been pitching. They've been built up, and they've been throwing for the last five weeks. So you drop them in the ash, you drop them in the Astros system. They're built up, they're ready to go. Maybe they tweak some pitch usage, maybe they tweak some you know how they how

they're pitching a little bit, and maybe they go from there. So I don't think they're totally dead set this is the pitching staff we're going to carry. I think they're keeping their options open and they're listening. But you know, look, their interesting smell was serious. They they heavily pursue him. I had reported that even they were pursuing him before uh pose, Erkidi strained with four arms, so they were interested in him well before the Archidia,

and here he happened. And you know, as AINTA. Brown told me on the record, the Giants just did more. They were able to do more, they were able to pay more, they got outbid, and that's kind of how it ended. So and you know, Dana in that same story did say, you know, I'm looking at who we have depth wise, and you know I'm paraphrasing here, but he basically said, there's no

one out there that's better than the depths that we have. I'd probably counter him a little bit on that because Lorenzo and Montgomery were both available when he said that. But I get the rationale there, Like, I don't think they want to go sink money, a bunch of money into you know, either a fringe guy guy that you know, a veteran guy that can maybe they see the same value as a guy like the last or blancer. Like I get where he's coming from, but maybe not the best way to articulate

it. Always money talks when talking about the snell sitch, and most others in Major League Baseball appreciate you joining us again encourage those who haven't already check out the latest piece you have, the Q and A with last McCullers junior on the situation with the Union. Then soon enough you'll be back here in the h ready to talk. Valdez Cortes Yankees Astros were one week out channel Yeah it almost made it. Yeah, all right, well thanks guys.

All right, Chandler rome with us on the A team. If you missed that, head on over to Sports Talk seven ninety dot com and pull that

up and listen to that conversation. One thing though, that Chandler mentioned at the end is the Astros could possibly be looking into players who were released from somebody else's camp, primarily pitchers and Ari Alexander Yesterday of KPRC Channel two does a good job covering the Astros, has good sources around the team talking about right handed pitcher Chase Anderson, who triggered his opt out with the Pirates and became a free agent. Now he's with the Pirates this spring two forty five

eleven innings. Pitch started in seventeen games last year with the Rockies, two relief appearances with the Rays, and as of an hour ago, Pirates have granted Anderson his release, he will become a free agent, and Alexander pointing out teams that he has heard that are interested in Anderson, the Mets, the Yankees, Orioles Rangers, and of course Houston Astros. So we will see if Chase Anderson fits and is an Astro as they get towards opening Day.

But we will continue the conversation here around baseball because well we're gonna break away from the Astros for a second YEP show. Hey o Tani, We're going to talk that situation because this thing is playing out, but one thing in particular I just can't get out of my head. We'll discuss as we close out our one of this edition of Space City Saturday on your home of the Astros and the Rockets, Sports Talk seven ninety Dan Matthews. Everything that

you just heard right there is true. We love true things, right, that's reliable. We know we can count on it. But yes, it is Space City Saturday. Hopefully everybody enjoying their Saturday. Mean weatherwise, could we ask for a better day? A little chilly this morning, but starting to warm up a little bit. And also to speaking of warming up,

that is the NCAA tournament action getting going today. Coog's taking care of business last night, so they continue on Texas Longhorns trying to continue on as well. They will be on a little bit later on today taking on a familiar face, Rick Barnes and the Tennessee Volunteers, and that will be over on KPRC nine fifty. Tonight is where you can hear that game. If you're looking for the Longhorns and the Volunteers, that is where you can hear that

one. Because the Rocket's gonna be coming your way six o'cross, six o'clock Rockets launch pad here on your Home of the Rockets Sports Talks seven to ninety, so we will get you set up for the Rockets and the Jazz tonight from over at Toyota Center. Again, Rockets trying to make it eight straight wins, so hopefully the can be able to make that happen. And if they do get the win tonight, well that would mean they are back to five hundred on the season. So that is the hope. That is everything

that we believe the Rockets can do. It's just now about making sure they can do that. So that's coming up a little bit later on today here

on your Home of the Rockets Sports Talk at seven ninety. We'll talk some Rockets here in a little over twenty minutes, a little under thirty minutes, so about twenty five minutes from now, we'll talk with Adam Clanton, our good buddy from the A team doing a cool event today, but also to part of the Rockets broadcast, So we'll get into what's been working and why they have been able to get on this run they are on, and I

mean the Jazz are kind of right there as well. They have been kind of in that same position all throughout this season of trying to get into the play in round But the Jazz have I've kind of fallen back a little bit. They're twenty nine and forty one overall, they have lost four straight. So the Rockets, while they are streaking in the right direction, the Jazz

are going in the wrong direction. And as I mentioned at the top of the show, Rockets now find themselves just two games back of the Golden State Warriors for the tenth spot to make the NBA Play in rounds. So we'll see if they are able to do that. All right, show, Heyotani again, one thing that I just cannot get out of my mind about this entire situation. So I set it up a little bit in the last segment

where Tisha Thompson of ESPN was the one who broke this story. And on ESPN dot com they have a really good timeline where it is straight up show Heyotani his interpreter and the wire transfer is a timeline, and I will go through them as quickly as I can. But what we do know at this point is that there was the report that we saw a couple of days ago

that the Dodgers have fired his interpreter, he Pei Misuhara. They have fired him up for you know, the conduct of you know, the reports and at least allegations that he had been swindling show he Otani out of four and a half million dollars. And of course you see that and you're like, whoa man, that's that's something. I mean, that's crazy, and you

know it's something that's not necessarily unheard of. I mean, we saw the Jaguars employee that swindled them over out of like what twenty million dollars or something like that, and he's going to prison. Well, in this case right

here, we saw that, and that's oh man, that's serious. But then the questions started to arise, because whenever you hear something like that, and whenever you're dealing with that amount of money, you're kind of like, Okay, let's start to kind of unravel this thing as best we can.

Well, I will try to do that right now. So, uh, the termination of Misujara was only the latest part of this entire as they even say in the story forty eight hours, that we've seen play out both here and also in Seoul, South Korea, because it happened while the Dodgers and Padres were over there opening the Major League Baseball season, and questions were being asked and people were being requested to be talked to, all of these different

types of things. So we've seen all these things kind of play out ever since that initial first report where the public started to kind of get wind of all of this. Well, we've got the four and a half million dollars and wire transfers, everything, and you know, calling it it is, you know, fraud, it is, you know, just a complete just burglary. I guess if you will, if that's even the right word.

But two days after that, Otani's handlers evolved from the Superstar bailing out his friend to the They, as they called it massive theft and also too you know, even into investigating the theft, and Otani's representatives said on Thursday that they had submitted the allegation to law enforcement, but did not say which authorities. Well, ESPN has reached out to California Bureau of Investigations and the FBI,

and they say nobody's talked to us. Nobody's reached out to us, and the same deal with the LAPD and the District Attorney's office there in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. They said they were not investigating, and they also pointed to it's probably a federal matter at that point in The US Attorney's Office for the Central District of California declined commons, So maybe they're involved. Who

knows. This is all continuing to play out, but sources, including Misuhara, have told ESPN that Otani does not gamble and that the funds were transferred to cover Misujara's losses. That's where I'm getting to the thing that I just can't get out of my head. Multiple sources said none of it was on baseball. Okay, fine, this is where we get to the timeline, and this is where I finally get to kind of my question about all of

this. So we start back on Sunday, seven thirty Eastern times, so six thirty hour time, that's eight thirty in Soul, South Korea, Cornelia. Major League Baseball source MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, while in South Korea preparing for the season opening series between the Dodgers and the Padres, learns something's happening concerning Otani. A source would later say that MLB started seeking answers from federal authorities in California early Monday, but received no response. To the next part

of it. It is two o'clock our time on Monday. ESPN contacts Otani's agent to ask about information it is found, including Otani's name appearing on two wire transfers that total a million dollars of transfers had been sent in September and October to the southern California bookmaking operation of Matthew Boyer. ESPN receives no immediate response, but about two and a half hours later, a crisis communications spokesperson

for Otani, who had just been hired, reaches out to ESPN. Over the next several hours, he and Tisha Thompson talk at various times, as the spokesperson says, they are getting up to speed on information from Otani's camp. Then we get to Monday night, about seven thirty our time. Spokesperson for the first time says Otani paid the debts on behalf of Misuhara. His agent went to Mizuhara, who quote finally came clean to him and said that

this was the truth. And Otani told the agent he had covered Misihara's debts in five hundred thousand dollars increments. It's not clear whether the spokesperson is saying Otani communicated with the agent through Misuhara spokesperson saying that Otani is saying, quote, yeah, I sent several large payments. That's the maximum amount I could send. Thompson knowing the spokesperson who works for Otani wants you hear it from Mizuhara, So the spokesperson says, okay, I'll arrange it. You can

talk to Mizuhara on Tuesday night. The spokesperson confirms to ESPN that the gambling debt, which amounted to at least four and a half million, which ESPN had previously learned from other sources. A little bit later on in the night, Misuhara speaks with Thompson by phone for ninety minutes from South Korea. Interview

has been arranged and is attended by the spokesperson for Otani. Now, this is where things kind of start to come into play, and this is where then the one part that I just can't get out of my mind starts to really come into play. Misuhara tells ESPN that he met Boyer at a poker

game in San Diego back in twenty twenty one. Former Angel now Atlanta Brave David Fletcher, who was friends with Otani when they both played for the Angels, had previously told ESPN that he was present at said poker game, but he did not introduce the bookie and Misuhara to each other. Fletcher and a source with knowledge of Boyer's operation told ESPN that Boyer gained admittance to the poker

game at the Team hotel through an acquaintance of Fletcher's. Fletcher told ESPN he had met Boyer once before while playing golf, but he had never placed a bet with his bookmaking operation. Missuhara says that he started betting with Boyer on credit shortly after they met, placing wagers on several sports but not baseball. Says that he had previously bet on DraftKings and didn't know Boyer's operation was illegal.

Okay, this is where the questions start to come in, and especially the one question that I have, which number one, if you are gambling, you are aware if you're in that space of where it's legal and where it's not legal, like here in the state of Texas. Even though a lot of us probably do it, it's not legal here in the state of Texas. You probably have to do it on an offshore account, or you have to go over to Louisiana, where it is legal now in sports betting

is legal because they do have books there at Louisiana casinos. Or of course, you know, we know it's legal in Vegas, and we know it's legal in certain other states. It's not here either online or in person. It's just not legal. So that's the part of it right there. Where in California, card gaming, if I'm not mistaken, is legal. I

know for a fact that they do have card rooms there in California. As a matter of fact, when I went to a Dodger game with a couple of friends of mine a few years ago, we went to a card room after the game where it was at a casino not too far from Dodger Stadium, and they had poker and they had black We played poker that night. But they do have those. They do not have sports gambling in California.

So that's the part of it as well. So now the question that I have with all of this is when you are dealing with a book making operation like the one that Boyer is, you have to believe that you're dealing with people who have a ton of money, probably some people who are of a certain notoriety either in the Hollywood space or anything else where. I mean,

they're incredibly wealthy. They're incredibly rich people who are usually that want to be two things A sure that their money is going to a reputable spot where if indeed they wanted to get out, they could be able to do that, and you wouldn't have to jump through a bunch of hoops to be able to do that. That's number one. Number two, you would probably with this being not legal both federally and in state, that you would want to keep

this as tight as possible. And if you're going to take on new players. You I want to know who you're taking on because in this case, right here on credit, you want to know, Hey, if it goes the wrong way, I want to know that you can pay this off. And that's the part to me that just really doesn't compute to me, because I don't know what Misuhara takes in for his yearly salary of being Otani's close

friend and interpreter. But I can't believe that it amounts to the point where you can rack up a four hundred or a four point five million dollar tab in terms of what you need to pay back on your gambling losses, because

I would have to believe that soon enough. Boyer would say, all right, at the very least, at the very least, and this is being very nice, I'm not taking your action anymore because I know that you're not gonna be able to pay this back, and if it goes the other way, then I'm having to pay out a ton of money, because the house never wants to be in the business of paying out a ton of money, you know, the old saying that's the reason why the buildings in Vegas are

so huge is because for the most part, the house always wins, and that's why they're able to build these huge resorts, that's why they're able to have all those attractions out in Vegas, because more often than not, even though we're feeling really good, when we go through the doors there at the Mirage or anywhere else in Vegas, we're probably going to be leaving there looking at our wallets and saying, Yep, they got me. And that is the way that the system is built up, is that it's built up for

them to win. It's built up for you to lose. And the part that I want to circle back to that I'm just not buying with this is the whole poker game thing. The way that a lot of these bookmakers will take someone on is if they have somebody who is already with them that is

willing to vouch for you. And in that case, right there you can understand if somebody is able to vouch for somebody else that they know has liquid worth and that they know has the money to be able to cover if they indeed do lose, or also to if they're placing these huge wagers, that they're good for it, and for somebody like Misuhara, I would have to think if I'm running the operation, I'm not taking that action. I don't know you. I don't know anything about you. I don't know where you've

gotten your money, how you've gotten your money, or anything. I mean, if you've gotten your money through dirty means, and I'm not saying that's the case here, but then that implicates me in something else. I'm not going to be a part of that. And that's where it's just all of this in reason why I think people are just not buying the story from the jump is that it just kind of leads to everything that I've just laid out for you. Why would somebody take on at somebody just kind of sight unseen.

Oh we met at a poker game. Oh yeah, you know what. I like that guy. He was great. Yeah, I'll take your action. Oh you want two you want two hundred thousand on Arizona against un C. Yeah, I got you, absolutely, I know you're good for it. No, that's not how this works, that's not how they do business. And it's just again, you know the way that the story has continued to turn, where it's going from him covering the laws for a friend to then going to oh no, you know, as a matter of fact,

he was swindling him. It was massive theft. It just seems like something that as this continues on. And oh, by the way, too for Boyer, I mean under federal investigation, so obviously they have a paper trail on him. And if you're running an operation like this, you're not just writing something down on a piece of paper and then once you're done with it, throwing it away. He's got extensive records, trust me, he

has extensive records. So in time this will continue to unravel through either means of investigation, either through Major League Baseball or through the FBI or anybody else that's going to be involved in this, that they will be able to see if indeed he is telling the truth that it was just him, which again I'm not buying, but also too that he indeed did not bet on baseball, which the other part of it as well, if you're really willing to

go that far, are we really willing to trust that you're telling the truth on that as well. I just think this story is not over with by a long shot. And whether Otani is implicated in this or not, I mean I've shared my thoughts, I mean, my whole thing on this is if this was just the interpreter, then I think that probably it would have been dealt with in other means, because if you're dealing with that type of money, soon enough, the people who you owe that money to are going

to come collecting it. They can't make somebody like show Hey Otani disappear. They can make somebody else disappear. But I just think that, you know, and I'm getting into a part that and that's just an opinion on that front. And I'm not saying that you know, would want that to happen to anybody, or that it could happen to anybody, But I'm just saying

that you've heard stories. I mean, of course, you know there was the Boston College point shaving scandal years ago that Henry Hill was involved in. So you know that people in that space they're serious when they say, hey, you better pay me my money. That we know for a fact.

So we'll see how this all plays out as it goes forward. All right, Coming up next, we'll get into the Texans, because what they've been doing in the player movement portion of building the roster what's been interesting enough. But they did something else this week that was textbook a great thing in pr even if some of you didn't necessarily like it. We'll talk about that before

we get to Adam Clanton here at the bottom of the hour. We'll continue along here on Space City Saturday on Dan Matthews here in your home of the Astros and the Rockets, Sports Talk seven ninety again, running another audible here because somebody does want to weigh in here on the Otani situation, so we'll do the Texans after we talked to Clanton to close out the show. Dwayne listening to us in El Paso on the irradio app, wants to weigh in. Dwayne, what's going on? Dwayne? What's going on? Hey,

mister Matthews, what's going on with you? Man? I was send into your report right now on the Towny situation, and you know what you've came. You come out with a lot of good information. I was listening to the Tricia Thompson podcast today for ESPN and she was basically saying that pretty much

the same thing you were saying. She was saying that this O'Hara had admitted to her this week that he lied about what he did, but they found out that he did send quite a bit of amount of money, uh, to whoever, Matt Boyer, whoever, who is taking this money in, but that he said that he bet on the soccer, football, basketball, but not baseball. You're talking about horr correct, yes, sir, exactly,

miss horr R right. And then so they said that Miss Thompson said that right now to this point, which I heard the podcast today, she said that it's turned into a criminal investigation and he's going to be arrested, but they're not They don't know whether it's going to be a federal or a state investigation that's going to go through with this thing. But he's not working for tany anymore, and he's they don't know, you know, if he's

still in the state of California or he's gone back. But you know, I did your reporting because you filled out quite a bit of information that needed to be told because you know, I'm not I mean, I'm a Dodger fan. And when I heard this report, man, I said, oh man, now what And then you know, I'm finally glad that the truth is finally coming out. And she said it's going to take about two years before this investigation is completed. Yeah, I appreciate the call, Duane.

Sorry, we're up against it here because do you want to get to Adam Clanton. I appreciate it, buddy, thank you. But you know, I mean, of all of the things, yes, I mean we all know how I guess we have an idea of how investigations work. And yes, I mean there's tons of information they have to comb through. I mean, this is involving investigators themselves. This is involving when you're dealing with something

like this that needs some sort of auditing process to it. Then you get people from the IRS involved, which of course I mean illegal bookmaking operations. That's what gets them into trouble is because it's illegal and you're dealing with large sums of money that you're not paying taxes on, and that's where that part of the process starts to come in as well. So there's a lot of

different legs to this. It sounds like this is going to be on the federal level, But in terms of what Major League Baseball's interest is in this, they want to know if indeed truly Otani had nothing to do with this, because that's the part that they have to be able to get to the bottom of because if indeed they do find out that he was involved, and indeed it is, you know, involved, that it was involving baseball, in action on baseball, then that's the territory that we've seen play out in

the past. That's not good for the sport. We've seen it to some degree with the NFL with Calvin Ridley and a couple of other players dealing with it at this point. But when you deal with players and people who are involved in the sport, that's why leagues have explicit rules. You cannot bet on our action. You cannot bet on our league. Because you're involved, you can prejudice the action, you can be able to make sure that it goes a certain way. So, yes, that is something that they do

have to get to the bottom of. And like I said, you know, the of all of this, this isn't over with by a long shot. It's now just beginning in terms of what we're going to find out from this and who's involved and who's not and all of those different things. It is going to be a story that we will be talking about for a quiet amount of time, all right. So, wanted to be able to get into the Texans, Like I said, we'll do that here to close out

the show. But coming up next, our good buddy Adam Clanton gonna be over at a little Woodrows today talk about what he is doing with Vernon Maxwell

over there, as well as talk a little bit of rockets. We'll do that right here on your Home of the Rockets, Sports Talk seven ninety Rockets and jazz coming your way seven o'clock tonight here on your Home of the Rockets, Sports Talk seven to ninety Rockets launch pad coming your way at six and a man who's going to be part of the call tonight with Matt Thomas of course, part of the A team. My good buddy, your good buddy, everybody's good buddy, Adam Clanton doing a cool little event here in a

little for three hours over at Little Woodrows in Edo. Vernon Maxwell gonna be hanging out with him. Ac. All right, we'll get Ac settled here in just a second. As turns out we're having a little bit of phone issues, so Evan will be working on that here for just a second. But yes, gonna be having Adam Clanton out there at Little Woodrows in Edo with Vernon Maxwell from three until four. So if you're going to the Rockets

game tonight. I mean that's one of those things too, you know, for you in the audience right now, I mean, you're out there in spring, You're out there in the woodlands, You're out there in wherever Katie doesn't matter, and you're saying to yourself, Hey, you know, want to be able to go have a few drinks, watch some of the tournament action, you know, be able to have a good time and a good atmosphere, and also to be able to meet a world champion, Vernon Maxwell,

two time world champion with the Rockets. Well you can do all of that a little bit later on this afternoon again, three until four, three until four over at the Little Woodrows and Ito and now I think we got ac acu there, buddy. We never have technical issues, do we And we don't. I mean, you know, I try my best. It happens, but it's live radio. What can we do? How you doing,

buddy? Oh good man? No, What I was trying to say is that, yeah, it's it's really a cool weekend of nostalgia because you know, Max and all of the entire first championship team were over at the Rockets Charity gala last night. And then you know Max was there the other night the Rockets beat the Bulls, which everybody knows about his matchups with Michael Jordan back in the day. And then you take on the Utah Jazz today and we know about we know about Vernon Vicinity for Salt Lake City and he's

no, he's not shy about showing that. So yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun tonight and today over at Little Woodrows. I'm just every time I hang out with the guy, the thirteen year old me has to pinch him. But he's he's really down to earth. And if you were able to meet him over with Matt Thomas at Big City Wings, you know, you know what I'm talking about. But if he didn't, good chance

for you to catch up with him again today before the game tonight. And also too, I mean, wasn't he just like a perfect depiction of what a championship team needs like the Rockets right now, you've got a guy with an edge in Dylan Brooks, like Max was that guy. Matt, Max was that guy for the Rockets, like everybody knew that Hakeem ninety four was the star. And also too, you add Clyde Drexeler in ninety five. But I mean, you had to have guys like Max. Yeah, he

was a guy that wasn't afraid to do the dirty work. Mario Elliott was a lot like that, and kind of as the team evolved. It's this crazy thing to think about how those two teams back to back championships won in such different ways, but they really never lost their ability to defend. And

that started with Vernon Maxwell. Because when you're a guy that's going up against Michael Jordan and his prime and that first three peat that the Bulls had, the Rockets were five and won against them in the regular season, and I know regular season doesn't translate to the playoffs, but part of the reason they were able to win five out five out of six games is because that lunatic

had no problems jawing with Jordan going up against them. And if you've seen you know, clips of him talking about just anticipating the games against the Bulls, like he said he was almost crying because he just wanted to get Mike so bad. You got a guy that had that mentality and brings that kind of mentality and let's face it, a little bit of a loose Cannon situation

there. But you need that, You need guys like that on your roster, and I think every championship team you could probably point to at least one role player type that had that kind But the thing is Dan. You know, when the Rockets won that first championship, they were playing Phoenix in the second round and they had home court advantage and they blew two twenty plus point

leads in games one and two, and that's when choke City happened. You know, like the Chronicle called them choke City on the front page of the sports section. For those younger types, there used to be an actual news paper you would read, and it was a big deal. At the front of that paper that morning said choke City, and Vernon Maxwell said, to hell with our fans because they didn't show up and sell out the summit.

And then they go to Phoenix and I think it was game three in which he scored like, I don't know, thirty points in the first half and he was just on fire. And that's the kind of guy Max was. You could call him streaky, but he was certainly not going to there wasn't going to be any drama lacking, and he had a pension for hitting the

big shot at the biggest moment. He's the reason that they clinched Game seven because the team found him outside after the double team and he hit that shot and effectively ended it because it was just too much of a deficit for the Knicks to overcome in the final minute. Again, Adam Clinton on with us here on Space City Saturday. He's going to be over at Little Woodrow's Ino with Vernon Maxwall three to four today leading up to the Rockets and Jazz Tonight's

over at Toyota Center. And of course seven straight wins for the Rockets say seem we've seen the way they've been playing, but also too kind of in the same vein we're talking about with Mad Max right now. Hadn't that kind of been the formula of the Rockets have been tapping into a little bit of all right, if you want to scrap, we'll scrap with you. Yeah.

Wex and I were talking about this on the show yesterday. It's been several incidents over the course of this season where I don't know if it's anybody's fault or if it's just the course of the game, but the Rockets don't back down from anybody, and they're not. You know, nobody is confusing them with a championship contender right now, but nobody is confusing them with the team that won twenty games a season basically over the course of the last three

or so seasons. And part of that is the mentality of their head coach. And Ema Yudoka was there last night. I make it a point to shake his hand every time I see him, because thank God for him. It's nothing against Steven Silas, But I mean, no one is confusing Silas's teams with the intensity of this Rockets team. Do they make boneheaded plays? Do they turn the ball over? Are they young? Still? Is it a perfect night every night? No? But they've got the mentality and they

kind of represent the embodiment of what their coach brings to the table. And if you've noticed, Ima Udoka is not afraid to take anybody to task at any given time. And he's done that not only in the form of what he has said to the media publicly, but also in the form of benching one guy or several guys if he doesn't think they're getting the job done.

So I think that that's part of what you're talking about with that reputation of this Rockets club and with Golden State losing last night, them making the play in is very much in play right now. It's no longer a situation where, oh there's just too much ground to make up with too few games. No, this is You're going head to head with Golden State in the coming weeks, and if you win that game, you're talking about making things very

uncomfortable for the Warriors. And you already have the tiebreaker against the Lakers, so this could get very interesting and the Rockets could be playing postseason basketball, believe it or not, your lips of God's ears, Ac I said it last night on Twitter. Win and everything else takes care of itself. But I know you got a lot on your plate right now. And also two three o'clock again over at Little Woodrow's Edo, you're gonna be over there with

Vernon Maxwell. You'll be on the call tonight with Matt Thomas, so we will continue the conversation with the Rockets then. But appreciate you coming on a little bit talk a little bit of Rockets ball, and also too telling everybody to get out there and come see you this afternoon. Yeah, come on, buye say hello. Neither one of us bite, we promise, and then yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun tonight on the call. Hopefully the Rockets can get an eight eight consecutive victory. Crazy to say it.

I said it earlier. It's better than seven. Appreciate it, buddy. All right, man, we'll talk to you soon, buddy again. Adam Clanton out there this afternoon at Little Woodrow's in Edo. All right, coming up next, close up Texans conversation A good thing. Pr wise, they did that. Not everybody liked, but again it shows you the right decisions are being made on Kirby. We'll do that to close it out. Send you into Astros Baseball just before the top of the hour right here on

your home of the Astros and the Rockets. Sports Talk seven ninety Sports Talks seven ninety Space City Saturday, Dan Matthews here for another few minutes in CAA tournament action tipping off already, So you got that this afternoon again. If you want to hear the Texas game tonight, that's gonna be over on KPRC nine to fifty. Rockets coming your way. Rockets launch pad six o'clock right here, on your home of the Rockets Sports Talk seven ninety and about five

minutes Astros and Mets from Port Saint Lucy that is coming your way. The team I haven't mentioned just yet, but I did tease the Texans. So there was the photo that made its rounds on at Twitter the other day of a guy in the Texans white jersey top blue pants, he's got the helmet on, and immediately people started to wonder, is that it is that the new jerseys that we've heard about that's at least one of them, because we

do know that there are four that the Texans are going to have. They're going to have, of course probably deep steel blue, the Liberty white as we saw in the photo, and then of course the next part which i'll get to here in just a second, the battle red, and I guess also to another one that is going to be part of this, which that's the one that is supposed to have I guess an accent of something that is to resemble Columbia blue of the oilers. So those are what we have to

look forward to. But we got the white tops the other day and it came out, and then of course cal McNair decided that you know what, I'll have some fun I like playing around on Reddit, and he decided, you know what, I'll share this cool photo that we did, which, of course, teams we'll always do photo shoots with their players normally, like for example, the Rockets when they had their media day and Matt Thomas and Ross were there doing the Matt Thomas Show and they had players and Ima Udoka

and rafel Stone coming through that day. They would also be doing different things. I mean, you'll have the sit down with Vanessa Richardson with Space City Home Network, and also too you'll have team photos. You know, a lot of the promo things like you know, you've seen it on the video board there at Toyota center of the player where they have a bunch of people around them where it looks like they have a crowd kind of hyping them up

doing all those different types of things, and they'll do that. Then. I know that when me and Ross were in West Palm Beach, the Astros were doing a similar thing of having a cool little setup, videos, photo, all those different types of things. And the Texans have already done it with their new jerseys, and that was the one that Cal shared of Nico Collins and Tank Dell in the white top jerseys, of confirming the photo that was out there, of saying, yeah, hey, these are one of

our new jerseys. What do you think? And of course it was met with people saying that whatever, they're fine, which believe it or not, that was going to be the predictable response no matter what they had put out.

They could have put out the new one that supposedly has an accent of something that looks like Columbia blue on it, and people would have been like, ah, still expecting more, because rarely when it comes to hey we're gonna have new jerseys, Hey we're gonna have a new logo, we're gonna have a new something with the organization, for the most part, people usually when it finally comes time to the revelation of it, it doesn't meet what

you were in your mind, at least hoping for, because really you didn't have anything to compare it to. You didn't know anything different. The logo itself of Toro is going to stay the same. We know that, but just you know, it's one of those that we want to see what the new ones look like, because in our minds, if indeed the hype does meet, then you're excited to be able to get to the team store or wherever you buy your Texans gear and be able to go ahead and get your

new CJ. Stroud jersey or Will Anderson jersey, or Tank Dell or whoever you want to rep whenever you go to games at NRG Stadium this coming fall. But the Texans, of course, with cal McNair putting that out, that was less than number one of pr of No publicity is bad publicity, and in this case right here, it was an opportunity for them to say, Okay, you know, I know that we said we're going to do the reveal at the draft, but we'll go ahead and give people a taste

right now. Why not get them talking about it, get them excited, get some opinions out there, even if it is not necessarily what we would like for the response to be, because of course, what's the response you want it to be? You want the response to be. Man, these are awesome. These are so cool. I can't wait to go buy one when they're on the shelves at my favorite sporting goods store. Yes, I am so pumped for these, But for the most part, that was not

the response across the board. I mean, for me, I think I'm probably in the same group with a lot of you. I don't really care. As long as the player is winning it are making meaningful plays to help you win games, That's the part that I care about the most. But in terms of you know, is this going to necessarily help them do that? No. But at the same time, though, too, I also

go against the people who say, oh, the gear doesn't matter. To young people, the gear matters, and to most athletes the gear matters. Yes it does. And is it a reason that you lose games? No, it's not. Is it a reason you win games? It's not either. But it's also too. Like for example, when I worked in Atlanta for a time, Georgia Tech had Russell Athletic. Russell Athletic is not Nike, they're not Adidas, they're not under Armor even it's not even a cool

brand. So yeah, it hurt them in recruiting, and that was why they moved over to Adidas, because they knew nobody wants to come play for a school that has Russell Athletic as their apparel sponsor and of their jerseys and their workout gear everything else. Of the sort. So yes, all of those things do matter, and yes, in due time will either be underwhelmed or so excited when the new Texans uniforms come out. But for them, good on them for doing that, having a little fun with it, and

also to lean into that publicity. I want to thank Evan Ray on the other side of the glass. Great job by him this morning. I also want to thank Adam Clanton again. Go see him three to four Little Woodrow's in Edo. This has been Space City Saturday. I'm Dan Matthews on your home of the Astros and the Rockets Sports Talks seven to ninety coming up here in just a few seconds. Enjoy the Astros against the Mets.