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Let the Offseason Begin
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The latest episode of Born on the Bayou Sports kicks off with Tim and Scott breaking down the Houston Texans' loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. They analyze the game and highlight how questionable officiating decisions influenced the outcome.
The discussion transitions to the Texans' upcoming offseason, where the hosts outline critical moves the team needs to make to remain competitive.
Finally, Tim and Scott examine the growing trend of overspending in MLB, focusing on the Los Angeles Dodgers. They compare the Dodgers' current strategy to the Yankees' spending habits in the 2000s and debate its long-term sustainability.
The episode concludes with the signature segments: Horses Ass of the Week, Tips of the Cap, and Scumbag of the Week awards.
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Transcript
Introduction to Born on the Bayou Sports
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome to Born on the Bayou Sports, a Houston sports show made for Houstonians by Houstonians. Join Tim Costello and Scott Barzilla every week as they break down the latest in Houston Astros, Rockets and Texans news. Tim's a former minor league broadcaster and Scott has written two books on the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bobby Eric's Cy Young Performance
00:00:32
Speaker
Yeah, if Bobby Eric could get it figured out, it would make things a lot easier because he was that guy everybody was counting on this year to be a Cy Young candidate, take that big step forward, and and help anchor this rotation with Pomer.
00:00:44
Speaker
Since he's come to Houston, you can look at the development of guys like Carlos Correa defensively, Jeremy Pena defensively. You can know Alex Bregman. Certainly I think I'm better than average third baseman. And now you're putting teams in third and eight, third and seven, third and nine. Now he'll come to Will Anderson. Pin back your ears, let's go. So if you're by you, born and bred, or just like spending time in the age, sit down, relax, and stay Houston strong.
Houston's Rare Snowfall and Reactions
00:01:23
Speaker
Welcome all my friends to the show that's a little bit chilly right now. Houston got a little bit of snow. I got some last week. We got the temperatures up here. Scott, you thawed out yet? we Yeah, I just started today. We got up to 42. I bought me 42. So key thing, I was able to make a run to the to the liquor store to stock up on beer. So we have the provisions to make it through another couple of weeks.
00:01:52
Speaker
So let me ask you this for our starting question today. What was the most dumb ass Houston redneck thing you saw being done in the snow? um We have a green belt in our neighborhood. And so in that green belt, you have a slight slope that's about maybe four feet. So we had some people sledding off the slope. i I saw some people sledding off the second green there at Bay Oaks.
00:02:22
Speaker
So, you know. ah I mean, that's not as much redneck as I thought. We had people breaking out like four by fours and like dirt bikes and stuff like that up here when it snowed. So I've seen some good videos of people like with golf carts, like off road golf carts, towing kids behind them through the streets on the snow. It's pretty fun looking. No, I didn't see any of that. So. That's a real shame. Is this the most snow you've ever seen in Houston, Scott?
Texans' Playoff Challenges
00:02:49
Speaker
The most, yes.
00:02:51
Speaker
I would that say so. All right. That's a lot of, a lot of Houston history you're covering there and your, and your time in the Bayou city. But speaking of Houston history, Scott, it seems like the Texans history of failing to win more than one playoff game and failing to win a playoff game on the road continued on Saturday. It was kind of what you and I worried about. I think going into that game, we we talked at the, in that show of who's going to cover Travis Kelsey.
00:03:20
Speaker
Um, and at the end of the day, that's the one guy that Texans couldn't account for. Well, I was going to go two things. Uh, first a bit of news. I'm sure that made it up your way. Uh, Chris Drowser, the offensive line coach is no longer the offensive line coach. So what was your favorite memory from the Chris Drowser Texan era? Um,
00:03:46
Speaker
I don't know. I don't have. A lot. ah I mean, I don't know. The first game of the season was fun. Yeah, I was going to say. But the other thing too, two stats I think are important from this game.
Officiating Controversies and Repercussions
00:04:04
Speaker
I think ah Travis Kelsey accounted for well over a hundred yards. The Chiefs themselves gained only a little over 200 yards.
00:04:15
Speaker
So it seemed like the D'Amico Ryan strategy all along was shut everybody else down, stick a linebacker or safety one-on-one on Kelsey and hope for the best. I mean, I think, yeah, that was the plan, right? And I think, I mean, it's tough to say the defense did enough to win when you didn't win, but I mean, they're you had two missed field goals, a missed extra point, that's seven points right there. um You had three points added to the drive on the Phantom Will Anderson pass, uh, roughing the passer call. And then they added a touchdown on the Phantom, um, late hit call where two Texans ran into each other. So that's 10 points taken off the board for the cheese and seven points added for the Texans just through making your kicks and, you know, getting the calls right. Um, I mean, I, I left a pretty heated message for the NFL, uh, office today.
00:05:16
Speaker
Well, i want I'm going to stop you right there. Number one, I'm going to say expecting any kicker in the NFL that hit a 55 yard field goal and, you know, at 20 degree temperature is a big ask. I expected to not shank it. Well, he didn't shake it as much as we. did would I've always, I've had this debate. It's a duck hook. So what do you call slice?
00:05:44
Speaker
Is it a goose slice? is it what What do you call it? I don't know. Either way, that that that ball had no chance of going in and it went 90 degrees right, Scott. That's a shank. That's a fucking shank. It was like Judge Smales at the first tee in Caddyshack. I mean, at the end of the day, okay, take that one off, right?
00:06:06
Speaker
The most extra point on the mix and touchdown was a backbreaker. but oh yeah back yeah but Let's think back to the first time we played the cheese. He misses the extra point after what would have been the Tank Del tying touchdown when Tank Del gets injured. That changes the whole momentum of the game. And it happens again this week. He misses what should be a game tying extra point. And now, instead of the mental hurdle of we just tied this game late in the third quarter, we're still down one. Well, if you're still going to go with the offense and you're going to start you know looking at points given up,
00:06:36
Speaker
That first field goal wasn't on the defense. That was that was a great. The fact that we only gave up three points oh yeah was great. chris And after Chris Boyd pushed Frank Ross, I thought he was going to get shipped. i study Have you heard the explanation on that yet? I mean, he's come out and talked about it. He was amped and didn't realize what was going on. right like The guy thought he you know got a turnover in his first ever, you know, big opportunity like that. And he's taking his helmet off and celebrating. Well, then he got a penalty for taking his helmet off. And it was just a, it seemed like it was a giant miscommunication. Yeah. So I'm going to go with the chief's offense scored 20 points and not 23. And I'm going to go with the Texans left four points on the board because I'm not going to give them that second field goal. So that's what a 20 to 18.
00:07:32
Speaker
So you're almost there. And then, of course, you mentioned the two phantom penalties, which i'm I'm just going to sit there and say, I don't know where the NFL goes from here because I remember as a kid and this is before you were born. I'm pretty sure I watched an Oilers Redskins game where we had two pick six stem to that were called back on bogus penalties.
00:08:00
Speaker
And so we ended up, we lost the game something like 21 to 14 and we would have won by like at least 10 points. And the NFL sends an apology letter to Houston saying, oh, sorry, we fucked up. So the NFL, let's say they send an apology letter to the Texans and their fans. What does that give us?
00:08:25
Speaker
It gives us nothing except I would like, I would love to see it, at least to have them admit it, right? Because right now, what I don't like seeing is the national storyline that people who think that the Chiefs just get calls are just whiny little babies, right? Because if you look at the history of time the great teams always felt like they got the calls the Bulls always got the calls the Patriots always got the calls it's like you're making my point you're making the point the fact that the league guarantees that the best teams get the best calls right like that is why we're frustrated because the Chiefs are already a very very good football team
00:09:01
Speaker
And when you on third down twice, make a stop to get them off the field and you give them an extra set of downs, that's damn near impossible to overcome over an entire 60 minute game, right? Like if you make the basketball analogy, what's more defeating in basketball than playing 24 seconds of great defense and then failing to secure the defensive rebound, right? And giving them another possession. That's exactly the same thing here.
00:09:27
Speaker
Well, the other what the what I would say, though, is what the NFL needs to do. And you can't do this on every flag. You can't do this on every play. But on these roughing the passer calls, on these unnecessary roughness calls, you have an eye in the sky. OK, I get it. you know It looks like Will Anderson hits him in the head. I could sit there and see, OK, real time reaction, that looks bad.
00:09:56
Speaker
I'm throwing the flag.
Texans' Player Analysis and Offensive Struggles
00:09:58
Speaker
Can we get somebody up in the booth, sit there and say, you know, Hey, Jack, Jeff, Bartholomew, whatever the rest name is. That's not a roughing the pastor call. That's not unnecessary roughness. Wave it off. If you would have done that twice, it's only on two occasions. Now I will say the first one was third down. So the drive was going to end. They were going to punt.
00:10:24
Speaker
The second one was not third down. The second one, I think, came on second down. So I could sit there and see like, OK, maybe the Chiefs continue that drive going. But if you take off those three points, like I said, especially in that moment when it's now three to three and you're getting the ball back, that's ah that's a different football game. Absolutely. It would have every bit of this game is down to a razor's edge, right? When you're at this point of the season, right? Theoretically, and I think most people would agree, these were the four best teams in the AFC, right? Like going into the year, if I would have asked you to pick the four division winners, that's probably who everybody's picking, right? Like everybody would have picked the cheese, everybody would have picked the, um,
00:11:16
Speaker
the Texans going into the year, they would have picked the Ravens and they would have picked the Bills, right? Like that, that was the consensus. So we're on a razor's edge of difference between what makes each one of these teams great, right? With the with the Texans, it's an outside pass for us. It's locked down cornerbacks that you have to take that extra second to get rid of it. Otherwise those pass rushers are going to get home and hey, theoretically a quarterback who doesn't turn the ball over a rock,
00:11:44
Speaker
a Good running back and unfortunately at this point one right receiver and a bunch of fucking scrubs. That's what the Texans are Well on the other side, you know, the Chiefs are a team that doesn't turn over a lot has a good internal pass rush And they're supposed to be you know Good on the back end as well So this is a team that it was a tough matchup, but the Texans were in a good position they had a great game plan and hey if those two penalties don't get called and That's 10 points. Now, do the Chiefs get ah another possession later in the game because the difference in time and do something? Maybe, right? Like, I don't know what would happen there, but I'm saying those specific 10 points don't go on at the time that they went on. Well, and so here I want it to shift our conversation a bit. Here's a stat. I can't remember who produced this on social media, but
00:12:38
Speaker
In games, in playoff games, where teams have outgained their opponent by 100 or more yards and committed zero turnovers, those teams were 49 and 1 in the playoffs. You know who the one is, Tim? The Texans this week. Yeah. So here is my question. So if we take the NFL out of this discussion, because I'm going to have more on them later,
00:13:07
Speaker
um
00:13:10
Speaker
Who do you see getting the blame for this one?
00:13:16
Speaker
I think a lot of blame should fall on the offense in general, right? I thought CJ played good, but at the end of the day, the defense kind of did. It's kept you in that game for a long time and you just couldn't ever take advantage. You had your opportunities and now personnel is a part of it, right? Like you have one leg legitimate NFL wide receiver on the roster at this point.
00:13:40
Speaker
Like, say what you want, like Robert Woods was playing hurt and he's not that good anymore. John Metche is sadly, like, just a guy on an NFL level. Like, I'm, I'm happy he's been through what he's been through and he made it and everything that went with that. But as far as the NFL wide receiver, this isn't the person you thought you drafted Xavier Hutchinson.
00:13:59
Speaker
was a seventh round pick and is playing like a seventh on pick. Like he gets no separation whatsoever. And Dalton Schultz is literally afraid of contact. Like he is in eight, unable to block, unable to do anything at the line of scrimmage or slow anybody down before he goes out there and then like may or may not make a catch. Like outside of Nico Collins and Joe Mixon, you had no weapons on offense and you were unable to put together any kind of game plan.
00:14:27
Speaker
to To do anything out there right like CJ was running for his life all fucking day like This is all on the offense Scott Yeah, and and so another stat of course that he attended did not mention eight sacks by the Kansas City Chiefs in this game eight now I'm gonna I'm gonna say that some of those sacks are on CJ and four four came on that last drive So as some of those s sacks are on CJ. He's holding the ball way too long Uh, he needs to dump it off to a back. He needs, he's got to check it down to somebody where he needs to hit the popcorn vendor in the third row. I mean, he needs, you know, there's, or take mom sooner, right? Be willing to take off and pick up seven, eight run says that seven, eight yards with your feet. Yeah. There there's, there's things that he can do, but he's not being coached up to do it. And I think that's, that's where I'm, I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated that the play calls are not there.
00:15:27
Speaker
to get him to check down. Maybe those those check down targets are not there. Maybe he has, you know, made to feel like he needs to put the and team on his shoulders, play hero ball and completed 20 yards down the field way too often. But that's where where we are. If you you look at this game, the one thing I will say that I think is encouraging. Who are the stars on this team to on both sides of the ball?
00:15:57
Speaker
your two cornerbacks. Yeah. Bullock. Yeah. Anderson. Yeah. Hunter. Yeah. ah sunday Defense on on offense, Niko, TJ, Joe. I would say that out of that group Bullock probably missed a couple of those on Kelsey. He definitely missed a tackle on that huge. scale But he's not attacking. He is. he is Be ready to go ahead and read, right? He's your center fielder. He's not there to tackle. That was going to make the point. Will Anderson, two sacks, plus a huge tackle for loss. The wide receivers in this game did absolutely nothing. So Lasseter and Stingley were great. Hunter got consistent pressure, was probably held. Who's held all-farted game? and At least two or three occasions that weren't called. And then on offense, Nico Collins had four key catches being double-covered most of the night.
00:16:57
Speaker
Probably triple covered, right? Because everybody in the stadium knew you had one legitimate offensive threat out there and his name was Nico Collins. Mixon makes your only offensive touchdown, has a great, I don't know if he's a great day running the football, but I think ah very a very good one. And I think CJ played well for the most part. I think, you know, there's opportunities for him to get it rid of the football sooner and not take some of those sacks.
00:17:23
Speaker
There might be some opportunities for him to run more, but he he used his legs more than he probably had in any other game other than the wildcard game. And is it fair to say other than the crazy Mahomes touchdown throw to Kelsey, CJ outplayed Patrick Mahomes on Saturday, right? Like the stats are better, no turnovers, rent you know, accounted for more yards, like other than the sacks.
00:17:48
Speaker
CJ played for the most part better than Mahomes did in that game, guy to guy. But if you're if if you can sit there and say that our star players played well in January, I think you're a lot further along than you think. I think i agree with that i think you need probably two additional offensive linemen and you probably need two wide receivers in that receiver room on offense.
00:18:19
Speaker
maybe a complimentary tight end that can block a little bit. I think Stover, if you were healthy, he showed more propensity to block. And Brevin Jordan will be back. He's a good blocker. Yeah, Brevin Jordan definitely, and he signed that extension, so he's definitely under contract. So assuming he's healthy in 100% of what he was, that might be enough. You just, but you need, a you know I don't want to get too down on Mechie and Hutchinson. I think the problem is those guys are good third and fourth wide receivers. none Neither of them are good number two wide receivers. And without Tank Dell, without Stephon Diggs, you didn't have a number two wide receiver. And I don't know that Dell's going to be back next year. Dell's not going to be back next year. I'll tell you that right now. and And I don't know if Diggs is going to come back. He's a free agent.
00:19:16
Speaker
I think that's our best chance. I think there's a likelihood digs come back, but you're not getting the step on digs
Offseason Strategies and Team Improvements
00:19:22
Speaker
of old. You're getting a mid thirties guy. He's coming off an ACL injury. Um, and you get enough to be a number two. That's the question. I think he's a three at that point, Scott. I think, I think we're looking at the problem is this roster without tank, without not Stefan Diggs it was it was like the days of fucking Gary Kubiak or Kevin Walter is your starting number two wide receiver because he's a great run blocker and Owen Daniels was really your number two target outside of Andre because it was Andre then either Owen or Arian Foster and that's basically where we were right and we saw that Kubiak ah offense was fucking predictable and so is Bobby Slovak's but what's crazy to me Scott is you talked about the checkdowns if you go watch like a Shanahan called game and
00:20:09
Speaker
Where's the running back? Because he's typically out in front of the quarterback, 5, 10 yards out, in the direction that the quarterback's moving. I don't see that with Joe Mixon, right? Like, I don't see that quick, easy, 5-yard little out route that you can hit and maybe turn into 10 or 15 with the ball in the running back's hand in space. Like, I just don't see that out there schematically for the Houston Texans. Well, and that goes back to who your offensive coordinator is.
00:20:36
Speaker
So then let's, let's shift that conversation in the Scott. Cause now the Texans do have some off season decisions to make. You mentioned, you know, Strasser is not going to be back as the offensive line codes. It's looking like Gerard Johnson might be gone to the jets to be offensive coordinator under Aaron Glenn. And now you're trying to decide, do you want to bring Bobby Sloak back? Now, without Johnson as a guy, you look to promote to offensive coordinator. Is that changing your views on Bobby Sloak?
00:21:04
Speaker
Um, no, because I don't want Bobby's look back and either in any sense, I'm, I would be great if you wanted to make an offer to case Keenum to be a quarterback coach. I think he's already been working with, uh, with CJ and that capacity. And if you want to talk about a guy that could get in his ear and tell them you need these checkdowns. I mean, I think case is as cerebral as a quarterback is there's ever been in the NFL. He got by on less.
00:21:34
Speaker
than just about any quarterback that you know if I've ever seen. Here's the thing, though. um I mean, social media, and this and this is why I want a new offensive coordinator. Social media has been all over the fact of Joe Mixon is trying to recruit T Higgins to come to Houston. Where's the money going to come from to pay him? This is what I you know have to convince people. We're already up against a cap.
00:22:02
Speaker
There's been a mention on pro football trade rumors that they're already going to be talking extension with Derek Stingly. That's not going to be cheap, folks. We're one year away from a CJ Stroud extension. That's not going to be cheap, folks. You want to get a new center? You want to get a new left guard? Where are you going to get that from? And and I think you know you you have a first drunk pick.
00:22:32
Speaker
So that first-round pick can be a lineman, or it can be a receiver, and you could go out and get veteran linemen. But you only have one first-round pick. So I don't know, Tim. I don't know if you go in the direction of a young for a wide receiver, or I don't know if you go in the direction of a veteran wide receiver and young for offensive line. But I think one of those two is going to be your option. Yeah, I don't know, man. With offensive line,
00:23:03
Speaker
It's tough when you go young like that, right? Because the schemes in the NFL are just vastly more complicated than what you do in college for the most part, both offensively and defensively. So you're going to be seeing some shit that you've never seen before. So the type of.
00:23:19
Speaker
Lineman prospect that's gonna step right in and start at left guard or right guard or center Center, especially it's a pretty special guy, right? Like say what you want about Jason Kelsey, you know his corniness or whatever But like I'm gonna talk about cerebral play leaders that guy was a late so day three pick fourth fifth round Possibly headed to the Hall of Fame based on his ability to recognize things That's a special guy who stepped in day one and started that doesn't happen everywhere. I Versus I think we're seeing a trend in the NFL These receivers are coming in ready to play if you get the right guy Scott You look at what Malik neighbors did on a bad fucking Giants team. He still put up good numbers you look at Jordan Addison and um In Minnesota you look at you know Jefferson came in ready to play out in the gate You look at even Harrison what was considered a down year was still a pretty good year if that's your number two wide receiver um Jackson Smith and jigba like there's plenty of guys out there that
00:24:17
Speaker
hit the ground running in the NFL at the wide receiver position. Maybe it's more recognized because they're a skilled position, but I just think there's so much more going on on the offensive line that it's tough to say, hey, protect my franchise quarterback on your first day of work. But this is where a new offensive coordinator, I think is a must because what you need, and and and I don't want to, there's so many Bill O'Brienisms that get ruined for me.
00:24:45
Speaker
The whole idea of a game plan offense, that concept is just ruined for me. um it It gets me physically ill. What you need though is, I don't know if you need a game plan offense, what you need is an offense designed around the players that you actually have. This isn't college where you can go out and recruit the guys for your system. This is where you have to design a system around your guys.
00:25:14
Speaker
You have to look at CJ Stroud. What does he do well? does What does he not do well? And to me, if you're gonna get a, I think we have the 25th pick in the draft, you aren't getting Malik Nabors with the 25th pick in the draft. Jordan Addison, maybe, you could get a a receiver on that level, but to me, you have to have a system designed around a Jordan Addison. A ah Jordan Addison, if you put him on the Panthers,
00:25:45
Speaker
What do you get? What, 20, 30 catches? I mean, he'd suck. But the thing is that he, since he's on the Vikings and you could design a system where it's like you have the best wide receiver in the NFL on the other side. All you have to do is go one on one. You have a system like that here. You look, you've got Nico Collins on the other side. All you have to do is beat a guy one on one.
00:26:08
Speaker
But to me, you have to have a guy that recognizes that. And you need a guy that looks at the at the blockers that he has. What's the system? There's so many times where, yes, there are times when these blockers are getting beat, but there's times when they're blocking air. So whose fault is that, Bobby? Why are these guys not blocking? There's guys that are left untouched that, you know, they're just kind of looking at going by.
00:26:37
Speaker
Whose fault is that? No, you're you're absolutely right. this and that's Part of that's an offensive line coach who maybe he didn't have his heart in it this year. right like This is a guy who wanted to retire last year and was talked into coming back for another year, which I don't i don't understand that decision in the first place, but maybe ah you know some fresh blood in that coach's office, some somebody looking to make a name for themselves a little bit more than someone one on the way out the door, Scott, you could maybe have just some better coaching and some better schemes on the offensive line. But again, if you've got a young coach looking for that, are you going to want a rookie center, right? Or are you going to want maybe a ah veteran
00:27:21
Speaker
Who can help you be the coach on the field have eyes out there and let you know what he's seeing So that way you can do what you need to do and on
Texans' Free Agent Market Challenges
00:27:28
Speaker
a coaching side of things. I don't know, right? But like we we do know there's gonna be a different voice leading that group and that can't be bad at this point, right? It can only be better and financially it makes perfect sense Yeah, T Higgins. He is getting minimum 25 million a year 25 million a year now is he worth it? We can have that debate I mean, that's around Nico Collins's number. So is T Higgins as good as Nico Collins? I don't think so. But you know, you could you can have that debate. But a top-notch free agent center is what, $78 million? I mean, it's a lot cheaper to go out there and get yourself a stud center or a stud guard. A guard is going to cost you what, $10 million? I feel like better would be more than guard.
00:28:17
Speaker
Um, I think guards tend to get more, I don't know why, but even if even so, you get two guys that cost you between five and $10 million dollars a piece. That, you know, if you were to sign two guys like that for a combined $15 million, dollars your offensive line goes from being the worst in football to being, I would say at least average, if not above average.
00:28:45
Speaker
and then you draft a guy with the number 25 overall pick, that could be a Jordan Addison type. See, I think a guy like you know former University of Houston wide receiver then moved to that other Texas school, Matthew Golden, right? A guy like that who would be a perfect number two wide receiver next to Nico Collins. I think he would fit in wonderfully. And if you get those veterans on the offensive line, you can do something like that. I think that's the way to go. I think also, Scott,
00:29:13
Speaker
Someone's got to work with CJ this offseason on his drop. The guy works almost exclusively out of a three-step drop and he just doesn't get deep enough. If you look, a lot of the the best quarterbacks are 5-7, but Holmes is getting deep, man, and and CJ is right behind the center. He does not give his tackles an opportunity to kind of deflect the pressure around him because he doesn't get deep enough. yeah I think there's something to that also, was looking up stats for my quarterback article that I ran to today for battle red block. He is in the top 10 in the NFL and air yards per attempt. And he's also in the top 10 or bottom 10, actually bottom five in the time that it takes him to get rid of the football on average. And he's doing that three steps back, right? Right. Well, it's a, it's, it's a combination of everything.
00:30:10
Speaker
You're giving the rushers if you you just want to talk about just you know distance to the target You're giving those defensive ends less distance to get to the quarterback it's like like Game of angles right like tackles are taught To like guide to guide those guys a certain depth right like get them back here Well now the depth that they're fucking guiding them to was right in the CJ Well, even if it's a turnstile town if I'm eight yards away from you versus five, that's one step. How long does it take to take one step? A second? Yeah, extra second. So if you go from 2.5 seconds to throw the football at 3.5, I guarantee your opportunity for success increases tenfold.
00:31:05
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, And this goes back to, let's see if you have a running back chip and then go out for a little something in the flat. There's an extra half second. Now you've got another second and a half just to kick it out to to Joe Mixon in the flat. And what would have been a sack is now a four yard game. yeah and Those are the things that keep offensive moving. And the reason CJ has to take these deep shots is because he's constantly getting sacked on first and second down and it's third and 17, third and 12, third and 14, right? like He picks up a lot more third downs than you think, based on his not like based on ah the distance to go. But, I mean, at at the end of the day, Scott, it's just a a huge mountain that the Texans set themselves up for. And then you don't put yourself in a position to succeed. I think, you know, that's the Ohio State style, right? Was the spread offense, short distance from the quarterback, quick hitting throws.
00:31:56
Speaker
But you're in the NFL now and and there's guys that can get to you a hell of a lot faster. You got to get deep, man. The best quarterbacks in the league are taking five, seven, nine step drops. Look at where Mahomes operates from and look at where Stroud operates from. There's five yards in between them. Yeah. And that's where I think a Case Keenum would be huge because Case Keenum has played in the system, has played with Stroud, knows Stroud, so he has a relationship with him.
00:32:22
Speaker
And he's a guy that relied on less physical talent than just about anybody I've ever seen that played that long in the NFL. Yeah. For Case to win, Case had to be fundamentally perfect, right? Like Case had to do all the little things to win. CJ doesn't have to. CJ's got the tools, but if he can start picking up some more of those fundamentals and be more fundamentally sound, he's only going to get better. You can only get better if you do things the right way instead of, you know, your way.
00:32:52
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Let's transition Scott.
Dodgers' Spending and MLB Competition
00:32:55
Speaker
There's a lot of discussion right now around the defending world series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the open spending spree that has gone on last two to three free agencies where they're just fucking spending whatever they want. The tax doesn't matter. And you and I started having a conversation. Is this any different than say prime George Steinbrenner, New York Yankees when he just didn't care or is this worse?
00:33:27
Speaker
um
00:33:30
Speaker
ah This is recency bias, but I think it's worse. Cause let me give you, let me give you a roster. Um, I pulled up the, I think it was the 19, uh, the 2003 New York Yankees. Okay. This is a team that lost to the Marlins of the world series, but they want 101 games.
00:33:50
Speaker
Posada, Giambi, Soriano, Jeter, Robin Ventura, Hideki Matsui, Bernie Williams, Raul Mondesi, and then, you know, either Nick Johnson, Todd Ziel, Ruben Sierra, Kareem Garcia, where you're DH. That's a pretty stacked lineup right there. However, I do think I have to agree with you that the Dodgers is even somehow more stacked. Well, the Dodgers are more stacked on the mound. I mean, it I think if you look at They're moving on now. Mike Lucina, David Wells, Roger Clement, Andy Pettit, and then the mistake that was Jeff Weaver. Well, I would say that, did you, well, I'll put. Jose Contreras in there as well for that. Did you ever, did you ever consider Andy Pettit or David Wells to be a number one pitcher? Pettit, yes. Was Wells ever an ace?
00:34:49
Speaker
You know, I, honestly, I can't give you an honest answer there, Scott. Like I'm seven, eight years old for Wells' best seasons, right? Like I thought he was the best pitcher on his team on numerous times from based on what I remember. I mean, I put up 4.3 war in 93.1. I mean, 4.8 98, 4.8 in 2000. So coming into, I don't know. I mean, he put up 3.7 war, 4.3 war in 2003.
00:35:18
Speaker
I don't know, but yet, I mean, I would say that the Dodgers though, as compared to those Yankees, they had Rivera. Uh, so, you know, the best reliever in baseball history. Most people would agree. Uh, but this team has spent big money on Blake trinen this off season. They spent money on Tanner Scott, big money, and they're about to sign Kirby Yates. It was the right.
00:35:46
Speaker
They were supposedly in agreement, but I haven't, haven't seen any financial, you know, uh, situations there. So number one, who's the closer of that team? I don't know. Um, I would say that you're probably looking at if I were to set an over under, would you take over 110 wins or under?
00:36:12
Speaker
What's the record 121? Oh, well, no, it's the Mariners. One 16. I'm thinking.
00:36:22
Speaker
I might say under just because I think they're probably chilling at the end of the season and they probably don't need to, to push it. They might rest some guys, but it'll be close to that but more than 105. I think. Yeah. I was going to say, if I set the line at one Oh five, would you take the over? Yeah. And and to me, if you look at, um,
00:36:43
Speaker
the best teams in recent history. Like let's say if you, if we bring this closer to home, the 2019 Astros, what did they win a hundred eight games? Uh, I think close to that though. Let's see. Think about this. We knew they had Verlander seven. We knew they had Verlander and Cole. Uh, they, they trade for drinking during the season.
00:37:11
Speaker
Also during the season, Yordan shows up in the big leagues and becomes the rookie of the year. So there are a lot of things that had to go right for that team to 107 ball games. I mean, I can't even count the number of things that went right that before the season, you're like, this guy named Yordan is going to be rookie of the year. Okay. We're going to trade for Zach Greinke. He's one of the best pitchers in baseball to pair with Verlander and Cole, who are going to be one and two in the Cy Young voting. um Okay. So I guess my point is, is that we're, we're saying one Oh five as an, as a over under, and that's not, that's assuming that everything's normal. That's assuming that things don't go extremely well for them. I mean, I, you know, what happens if,
00:38:08
Speaker
All of a sudden, you know, Otani comes back and is a Cy Young level pitcher. Cause I don't think anybody's expecting that. Yeah. I mean, I am. I think Otani comes back and has a three and a half ERA. Like I don't think he's going to be maybe Cy Young, but I think he's going to rack up 15 wins, probably throw you 150 innings. Um, and he's probably going to match too. So.
00:38:33
Speaker
I don't know, like there's always, like it seems I've constantly had good lineups, but I think you're right when it comes to the pitching specifically. Um, and let's not forget they added Blake Snell. Yeah. I've seen that as well. Um, Yamamoto from last year. And they just got, uh, another Japanese pitcher. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah, I guess my question then Scott is.
00:38:58
Speaker
Like obviously the penalty is paying the luxury tax, right? But if, if you don't give a fuck about the luxury tax, cause you're just, you're in LA and you're printing money. How, how can you stop this? Like other than asking other teams to to get some of these free agents themselves, but, but because of the way baseball is right now, right? Like I can't afford anybody else without going into the luxury tax, right? You're, you're telling the Astros, Hey, go spend more money. Don't let the Dodgers get these people. However.
00:39:28
Speaker
I'm already at the cap threshold and, you know, what do you, does that mean we need to raise that so other teams can go out and make some of these or that just make the situation worse for the Dodgers? I don't know, but I was going to say, I saw this stat today. Did you know that the Dodgers sold more tickets than Taylor Swift in concerts this last year?
00:39:52
Speaker
It's interesting. I'd like to know who had more shows like who did more. It's 81 versus how many Swiss? Yeah, I don't know, but over which she was also doing NFL stadiums too. Yeah. 4.4 million fans for the Dodgers. I mean, I'm sure that's counting the playoffs, but I mean, that's, that's just a ridiculous sum. And that's not even including their TV contract. That's not even including endorsements now. I mean, they're going to own.
00:40:18
Speaker
Japan. I mean, they've got three of the biggest stars in Japan. And that's why the tax doesn't matter, right? Like the moment you shot you signed Otani, the tax is irrelevant because every Japanese company that matters will come to you with sponsorship dollars because you have the most recognizable Japanese person since Ichiro Suzuki. And that's the biggest issue that I have is that so you look at a team like the Astros,
00:40:43
Speaker
I think the only team that can compete with them right now in mindset is the Mets. They're the only team that has an owner that said, I don't give a shit. But to see the thing is the Astros are slated to be 3 million above the tax threshold. And they're looking to sign a left-handed outfielder, but she noticed they haven't gone out and done it. They've been guys they've been linked to. They've been linked to Alex Verdugo. They've been linked to Chirks and Profar.
00:41:09
Speaker
but they're not doing it because they're thinking, okay, we need to trade Ryan Presley first. So they're looking to dump salary so they can add salary. Whereas the Dodgers say like, fuck it, we'll sign like both those guys, you know, we'll sign Verdugo and Profar, you know, fuck you. I mean, that's, it's just a whole different game. And you've made this comment and I absolutely agree with you. You you were like, well, that doesn't guarantee playoff success.
00:41:38
Speaker
And I agree with you 100%.
MLB Team Spending Disparity
00:41:40
Speaker
I mean, the 2019 Astros are ah proof of that. But if you're in the ALS, do you have any prayer?
00:41:51
Speaker
No, I wouldn't think so. Because normally like, Hey, I can't get to your ace. Okay. You got Verlander, you've got Cole, but there's three other guys, right? Like 60% of the time I may have a better shot to beat you than when your top two guys are on the mound.
00:42:07
Speaker
But now you're, you're seven deep with like legitimate stack starting pitching. Like it's definitely demoralizing, right? Like you've got to, you've got to play your best game every single night to have a chance to beat the Dodgers. And the Dodgers don't quite frankly, right? Like they can lolly gag through and and who knows it might, it might blow up in their face, but the only difference is this isn't basketball. This isn't a football where there's only one ball to go around. Right? Like.
00:42:36
Speaker
there's everyone's going to get it at bat and the ball's hit where it's hit right at the end of the day. So it's not like you have to keep your three headed monster wide receivers happy. You don't have to keep Dwayne Wade and LeBron James happy with touches like you you start every fifth or sixth day you're hit when it's your turn and you'll catch it when it comes to you. Right. So I feel like maybe there's baseball is kind of a perfect sport to load up like that because you don't have to deal with those egos on that level other than where you're hitting in the lineup maybe.
00:43:05
Speaker
Yeah, and this is where I hate it for those other teams. I mean, Arizona has made some interesting moves. They went out and got Corbin Burns. I mean, you could put Corbin Burns up against any of those Dodger starters, and I would say you got a fair chance of winning that game. I mean, Corbin Burns is a damn good pitcher. They let Christian Walker go, but they brought in um Josh Naylor from the Guardians.
00:43:30
Speaker
If you see, that's a team that's working under old-fashioned constraints. Yes, they went out and spent big money, but they let Jock Peterson go. They let Christian Walker go because they can't afford to overspend. The Giants, they go out and get Wooly Damas. They signed Matt Chapman to an extension. They've been rumored to go out and get Jerks and Profar. They got Justin Verlander, but let's say they go out and get Jerks and Profar. Does that change the Giants?
00:43:59
Speaker
real chances of competing in this division at all? No. and And I think the saving grace for those teams is that there's multiple wild card spots available. There's three wild card spots. And, hey, try and go get one, right? Like, that's that's literally what you're telling them. The NOS is locked up, guys. um But feel free to fight it out for a wild card. And at the end of the day, wild cards have had success and the in the playoff system, the way it's set up right now.
00:44:30
Speaker
So who knows, but, um, I know people said, well, life's not fair and all that other bullshit, but at the end of the day, um, it's the same thing that comes back to, to watching chief's games. It's not fun to watch, right? Like it's not fun to watch when Patrick Mahomes gets every call. It's not fun to watch when one team loads up on every single quality player that's on the free agent market, just because their owner doesn't give a shit, right? Like at this point I'm dying.
00:44:59
Speaker
for Mark Cuban to come in as an owner and say, fuck it, let's spend. Right? Because that's, that's what's going to save this. You need, you need billionaire fans. And and right now, most of these teams are owned by businessmen and I get it. You don't get a billion dollars without being a good businessman. But at the end of the day,
00:45:17
Speaker
You know, the Mets have a fan for an owner who has billions of dollars he's willing to spend on his team. The Dodgers have an ownership group that are fans of their team and they're willing to say, fuck it, let's spend. All I want to do is win. Those are the kind of owners you have to have that buying a sports team isn't an investment. It's a hobby. And I want to be the best at my hobby of being an owner, right? Like that's got to be the mentality. If you want to beat what the Dodgers are doing.
00:45:42
Speaker
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. And unfortunately, you know, Cuban Cubans tried to get into baseball. They won't let them. I know. I think he tried to buy the pirates if I, if I'm not mistaken. If I'm, if I'm Jim crane, I'd reach out to Cuban and be like, Hey, like you want to get in and we'll like, just go fucking rec shop and buy a bunch of players. Let's do it. Right. Like why not? At this point, like you've got a guy with a bankroll who wants to be a part of this thing. Get him involved. Yeah, absolutely.
00:46:10
Speaker
Alright Scott time to start giving out some awards for the week horses ass of the week Who do you have for us? I mentioned them before it's the NFL and there's There's so many things that are transparently bad that we've gone over before and so they might as well list them Excuse me. I had a friend there joined the podcast for those of y'all that were watching here live um but number one The joke was is that, you know, if the Texans had somehow made the AFC Championship game that Houston fans would just at 330 on Saturdays, which reflexively turn on their TV and go like, wait a minute, where are the Texans? I thought that 330 Saturday was our slot. Um, but I think, and and this is what I, and, and Adam Kingsinger said this, I don't want to get into politics too much, but he said this, and I absolutely agree with him. If you.
00:47:09
Speaker
disbelieve every conspiracy theory, you'll be right 99% of the time. If you believe in a conspiracy theory, you'll be right 1% of the time. I don't think the NFL is purposely taking calls for the Chiefs. I just don't think that's happening. I think that superstars get the benefit of the doubt. Patrick Mahomes is a superstar. Superstars get calls and CJ Stroud is just not a superstar.
00:47:40
Speaker
I think the NFL does look at, you know, the Taylor Swift. And I think that, you know, they're going to lean into that Texans. Let's show a little bit more Beyonce. Maybe we can, you maybe we can compete with that on a certain level. But I think that the NFL has the technology to stop this from happening.
Criticism of NFL Officiating and Fine System
00:47:59
Speaker
And I think if you reverse those two calls, I think the chiefs probably win the football game town. I think they do. I think that, you know,
00:48:08
Speaker
ah Patrick Mahomes is too good. If you gave him upper opportunities, I think he would have, you know, been perfectly okay. I don't think the Texans get that safety at the end because the Chiefs wouldn't been playing that, you know, kind of football. I think, you know, um we're going to get to another scumbag here when i when I actually get the scumbags. But I think the Texans lose that football game. But I sure would have liked to have seen it on the level. And the fact that the Texans knew it. I mean, D'Amico Ryan just sat there and said, you know, you got to take on everybody.
00:48:38
Speaker
Everybody knows it going in and that's just a demoralizing way to play the game. It's like playing Jordan when Jordan's on top. It's like playing, you know, LeBron on the bronze on top. It's like playing, you know, you can't tell me Otani doesn't get corner calls, you know, when he's at the plate.
00:49:00
Speaker
You can't tell me that Trout wasn't getting corner calls when he was, you know, at his place. And, you know, Topper Jeter wasn't getting calls. We all know. You know, Maddox and Glavin were getting those calls. Um, so the idea of a superstar getting calls to me is nothing new. And it's not a conspiracy. It's just something that happens, but The NFL, instead of finding two of your Texans for commenting on it, they fired Joe Mick, uh, find Joe Mixon. I can't remember who the other guy would, they find, uh, it wasn't to be because of play as another player. Will Anderson. Yeah, I think it was Will Anderson. You're right. So Will Anderson and Joe Mixon, they find say like, you know what? Those calls suck. We're going to try to do better next time.
00:49:51
Speaker
And that's why Scott, they're my horse's ass as well, but for specifically the Joe Mixon fine. I don't know if you've seen what transpired there, but in the fine, they, they put what his quote was on the referees, but that wasn't what he said. That was something TJ Hushman Zada said. Then when Joe Mixon tweets out like, yo, I'm being fined for something I didn't even say. They didn't do anything to change the fine. They just updated the quote to Joe Mixon's quote.
00:50:18
Speaker
like not even a hey I'm so sorry what you said wasn't as egregious or anything like that like oh nope let me just copy and paste a different set of words in here and you're still fine $25,000 like I I cannot stand the policy of you're not allowed to criticize the official Scott like it's it's ridiculous like I understand you don't want people up there just talking about the rest for hours and hours and hours but at the end of the day if they played a part of the game you're allowed to say that right like Matt the mag of people all over the fucking America are talking about freedom of speech And here we are Restricting the freedom of speech of people to say like wow the refs had a bad fucking day today Like any like any other profession you could say like hey the checkers at Walmart suck today It took them 20 minutes to check me out Walmart's not gonna come and find you for criticizing their checkers like no They'll probably like yeah, we hire the cheapest fucking people we could find they do suck That's why they work at Walmart like no like
00:51:18
Speaker
it's It's just insane that it's it's honestly like God King level status. Like how dare, how dare you criticize the NFL's referee off with your head. Yeah, that's pretty bad. and and And like I said, you know, a letter is not going to change anything. You know, we lost the football game and i and and I know you probably agree with me that the Texans probably lose the football game even without those calls, but It would have been a different game. Yeah. I think most likely like if the calls don't go that way, the Texans probably take a lead with like four minutes left in the fourth quarter. And then we watch it slip right down the stretch. Right. Like I feel like that's probably how that game plays out without the extra stuff. It's like, I could see it playing out of the Texans give my homes too much time. And, uh, or the Texans like lineup for a game winning field ball field goal and Fairbairn shanks it again. One of those two. Yeah. Speaking of which though.
00:52:18
Speaker
Like ah another horses actually go to Fairbairn like he's got to go. I'm overcoming Fairbairn. I stuck up for him Way too much this year and I'm over the Fairbairn experience But I'll say that that was not his best effort I mean that game was not one of his better games, but I think he's He's in the top third I think of NFL kickers He reminds me Scott right now of like grave men when I was telling you like grave men's leaking oil and he hasn't, I feel like that's kind of the tight time he's not bad, but I feel like he's been leaking oil here for the second half of the season and he's missed more kicks than he normally would for the first three or four years of his career. I would say that 55 yarders not really on him. It looked ugly as sin, but Andrew's and all sides penalty. I didn't get called. Yeah, that that too. But we're going to, we're going to set that one aside.
00:53:15
Speaker
All right, let's ah let's tip some caps because I actually have a dual hat tip this week here Scott i'm going to go first, if you don't mind. You go ready.
Enhancing Fan Experience in MLB
00:53:25
Speaker
My first hat tip and this could be one I know you're not going to be involved in. um that's what i'm gonna do it first the Orioles have.
00:53:32
Speaker
revealed a new bird land value menu. 11 different items are $5 or less. You've got hot dog, pretzel bites, cinnamon pretzel bites, nachos, popcorn, peanuts, packaged desserts, soda, refillable soda, bottled water, 12 ounce beer, and 12 ounce non-alcoholic beer will all be offered for $5 or less.
00:53:52
Speaker
at the Baltimore Orioles home games this year. So I am tipping my cap to the fan friendly pricing that the Orioles are putting out there, right? Like at the end of the day, baseball is a game for families to enjoy together and the way that things were trending, it made it damn impossible for a family to go to a baseball game. I took Sawyer to the Astros versus the Yankees early in the season. Her to have a soda and ah in a pretzel and me to have a soda was like $37.
00:54:21
Speaker
Hit me for 80 bucks to park and then whatever. we're going to get Yeah. The dynamic pricing for the tickets, I'm sure. Right. And so, you know, if you've already got me for parking, you've already got me for the expensive ticket. God forbid I get a cheap hot dog, right? So I tip my cap, um, to the Baltimore Orioles for for offering that for their fans. Cause I, I, I wish more teams would do it, Scott. I really do. You'll get more fans in the stands if you had better price concessions. We went to an Orioles game, actually, when we went to Washington DC.
00:54:52
Speaker
God, this has been, I want to say five years ago. And um and Anne was I think 12, 13 at the time. And there was a very nice usher who was peppering her with questions like, what do you do if you get separated from your parents? Like he wanted her to be safe. Like here's, you know, here's how you get out of it. And he would hand her like a, like a football or baseball card when she got the answer right.
00:55:19
Speaker
And she ended up being a nominee for the Oriel fan of the game on the jumbotron. Uh, cause she had on a Oriel headband and, um, and one of like maybe 3000 fans in attendance in that particular game. Cause this is when they suck. But what I was going to say though, is the Orioles are still emailing me saying, Hey, you want to buy tickets to the game. They're, they're, they're more aggressive than the Astros. And I live in Houston. I know for a fact, because I work.
00:55:46
Speaker
for a company that does marketing for the Houston Astros, like how little they, like, for example, spring training. I asked like, can we email the people who bought Astros tickets last year to see if they're interested in buying spring training tickets? Like you should do it ahead of time. So they have like plans to buy plane tickets and stuff. They're like, no, we just want to reach out to the people that live in Florida. So what? I'm sorry. You're trying to.
00:56:10
Speaker
Boost ticket sales by only reaching out to locals for spring training. No, you reach out to the fucking city that these people live in and get them to travel for spring break to your town. That's how spring training works. Yeah. It's but the Orioles. I think they're a top notch organization. Agree. As far as that is concerned. Fan experience, right? Like that's at the end of the day, what happens on the field kind of is irrelevant to the fan experience, right? You can.
00:56:37
Speaker
lay out a wonderful time for your for your guests. And if they lose, they lose. But you can still have a great time at a baseball game. And that's what it's all about. So that's my first hat tip. Scott, do you want to take yours? Do you want me to lay the second one down? I'll take mine. And and I'll say this. So this happened yesterday.
00:56:52
Speaker
um Anne wanted to make some specialty. We did not have the ingredients for the specialty. So she wanted to go to HEB.
00:57:03
Speaker
And so we went to H-E-B and it got to use my four wheel drive and my SUV to drive on the ice to get to H-E-B. Part of it involved her having to buy some spices and they didn't have one of the spice and the in the in the regular spice aisle. So we had to go where they had the specialty spice. And this is where she had to pour it out herself. And so there were two checkers, Tim, two.
00:57:32
Speaker
working that entire shift. And so I had to go to one of the checkers to get the printer to work. And so she goes over there and she gets the printer to work. And this poor girl, I'm not gonna identify her by name because she might be ah yeah might be a minor and I don't wanna identify minors, but she was doing her fair level best to have a nice attitude because as soon as we started checking out, there were about 20 customers They came for two lines and two checkers. And you could see the look on her face was like, oh my God, I'm going to have to check out like 10 different people here in the span of 10, 15 minutes. But yeah I give her credit. you know She tried to keep a nice attitude, tried to do friendly customer service. She was even yeah joking with me that our order cost exactly $17. So you know able to get exactly $3 a change.
00:58:29
Speaker
And spice cost exactly 30 cents that she ended up getting in the in the spice aisle that I Had to hand it to her hat tip, you know for keeping a you know an attitude You know, I don't think they were getting overtime even though they were there in 20 degrees So, you know good on her for good customer service.
00:58:51
Speaker
HEB is typically a a good judge of of how bad the weather is, right? Like if HEB is open, the yeah, we'll be okay. If HEB is closed, batten the hatches down. Um, I'm gonna give my second hat tip. This is a tough one because I'm going to go the other way in the scumbags, but the baseball writers of America got it right with Billy Wagner.
Hall of Fame Induction Debates
00:59:13
Speaker
Um, it's taken way too long.
00:59:16
Speaker
but I will tip my my my cap for specifically finally um getting one of the best left-hand relievers the game has ever seen into the Hall of Fame. And since we have, I know we have a little bit of time because we went through you know the schedule a little bit earlier. I wanted to get a little bit more attention to this because this is what I find interesting. Do you know and know what percentage Wagner got in his first year on the ballot? It was pretty low, wasn't it?
00:59:45
Speaker
10%. Yeah. So did his numbers change in intervening nine years? No. So how do you go from 10% to 82%?
00:59:59
Speaker
the The best marketing job possible, right? Or better candidates fall off. So now you have a chance to get votes or whatever it is, but, um, you know, they push your way up the ballot if you're worth it.
01:00:10
Speaker
And congratulations to CC, sabbathia. I think he absolutely is a Hall of Famer. Everybody knows each row is a Hall of Famer. I know that's where you're going to go with your next award. So I'm going to leave you, I'm going to leave you some room for that one. Um, I was disappointed to see Carlos Beltran not get in because I know that he gets a lot of grief for the scandal, but he's a Hall of Famer. He's a top 10 center fielder of all time.
01:00:38
Speaker
And he gets close, so but I so i think he's going to get in eventually. So I'm I'm not upset that, you know, people, you know, made him wait, you know, because, you know, maybe they're punishing him for that scandal. But I think they got it right in general. I think, so that he is a Hall of Famer. I think he throws definitely a Hall of Famer. And I think if closer is a special position that you want to honor, Wagner is one of the best that there ever was.
01:01:09
Speaker
Even if it's just reliever, he's still one of the best left-handed relievers, right? Like even if it's not closer, reliever is a position and it's become an integral one in the game. So, um, at the end of the day, the hall should represent the best players from that era, right? Like it should be a collection of the best players who played during that time period. And I don't think you can say Billy Wagner was not one of the best players of that time period. Billy Wagner made all-star teams. Billy Wagner was clutch. Billy Wagner compiled the stats like,
01:01:37
Speaker
The guy was a top three closer at a time period where becoming a closer actually meant something, right? Like you had guys like Trevor Hoffman, you had Mariano Rivera, you had John Smoltz, you had Billy Wagner, you had John Franco, you had everyday Eddie, right? There were a lot of good closers and he was still a step above everybody that wasn't Mariano Rivera. And I'd put him right there with Hoffman. i I don't know who I'd trust more to close out a game between Billy or Trevor Hoffman.
01:02:05
Speaker
Well, here's the difference that I think for me, that puts wags over the top. He was bad in 2000. I think he was hurt. If I, if I recall correctly, that's the only bad year I ever remember him having. You see, like you compare them to the best in baseball. Would you say that Josh Hader in general is a top three closer in baseball? Probably top five, at least late last year was not a good year for him. No.
01:02:35
Speaker
And so the thing is with closers and this is the reason why nobody wants to pay them long-term contracts because Their performance is so fickle You know, they'll have two or three good years and then they'll you know They'll turn into shit you look at guys who are the tops of their games right now or tops over the last decade Kenley Jansen probably over the last 15 years one of the top closers and last Last few years have been shit. Oh, you would say, Ken Krembrel over the last 15 years, the top closer, the top five closer, you would agree? Yeah. Last few years have been shit. I mean, he was on vegetable last year. and invite you now I though. I mean, it was, and I just never liked him. Well, but the point is, is that all these guys that are good, they're, they're good for like maybe two, three, four years. And then they'll have a down year.
01:03:34
Speaker
Mariano Rivera and Wagner are the only two closers I can think of that were consistently good throughout their careers. That's to me, the bigger story is that, you know, 2000 is the only season that Wagner was bad. And it's almost like Jose Altuve's 2020 season. It's so uncharacteristically bad, you're like, something must have been going on. You know, physically something, right?
01:04:05
Speaker
Whereas even Trevor Hoffman had years are like, man, he hasn't been that good this year. But he would usually come back and he would have a better year. And so he's just saying that was a down season. And haters season wasn't terrible unbalanced, but it wasn't good. And that's you know and and that's just you know for a guy that's in the middle of his prime. Yeah, I agree, Scott. I agree. I think they got this one right.
01:04:35
Speaker
This time but let's take a trip on down the scumbag lane and we could talk about what they did not get right Scott. All right. I want to know who you think the best just pure hitter was from the year like 2000 to 2015 just best all around hitter can handle the bat better than anybody. Don't worry about power.
01:05:00
Speaker
Oh yeah, Ichiro's on top of that. Oh, Ichiro, right? Ichiro fucking Suzuki. 3,000 hits in America, enough hits in Japan to surpass Pete fucking Gross, and one sports writer, anonymously, does not vote for that motherfucker.
01:05:16
Speaker
And do you want to know why Scott because I guarantee you he's gonna write an article next week and it's gonna be titled why I didn't vote for Ichiro and it's gonna be his fucking swan song so he can get a ton of likes and views and whatever because that's all that this is about you're using somebody else's career as a Platform for yourself and it's fucking disgusting Well, you know what it is. Tell it's gonna be you know what his excuse is gonna be Well, Jeter wasn't in the was it wasn't unanimous. I you're right, because some idiot didn't vote for Jeter. And to me, and and I don't like the Yankees. The Yankees are not my most hated team. My most hated team now is the Dodgers. But as a Hall of Fame person who studies the Hall of Fame, there's no way in hell I can mount an argument against each row or Jeter. There's no way in hell. I will mount arguments
01:06:09
Speaker
that Jeter did not deserve some of the gold gloves that he won, right? I will have that argument with you. But yeah, you can't look at the totality of what Jared Jeter did and not say, yes, I vote yes on the Hall of Fame, right? Like you can't you can't fucking do it. Same for Ken Griffey Jr. You can't have watched that man's career and say, but you know, wait, he's got to wait. He can't wait to get my vote. It's a Bill Conlin type of argument. no Do you know who Bill Conlin was?
01:06:38
Speaker
I don't know. Uh, so he, well, let me tell you a little story, go down, you know, memory slash amnesia lane here. Did you ever watch a show called the sports reporters? Do you remember that? So Bill Conlin was a regular on that program. He was one of the fat, he was a fat guy from Philadelphia. Okay. So he did not vote for Nolan Ryan for the hall of fame because some people didn't vote for Steve Carlton. He actually said that. And so it's like, um,
01:07:08
Speaker
I could sit there, I could see you sit there and in shape in your mouth that you think Steve Carlton was a better pitcher than Nolan Ryan. I could buy that argument. I can't buy the argument that Nolan Ryan is not Hall of Famer. Exactly. I don't know then. And Bill Conlin, you know, he got caught in a a child born scene, a child pronoun pornography, child sex abuse.
01:07:36
Speaker
which I just saw in my ticker that they, unfortunately, it looks like Mariano Rivera and his wife have been caught up in something similar, which is not going to be good. I hope for his sake that there's nothing to it. But it's the same kind of bullshit for years. Oh, I didn't vote for him because this guy wasn't unanimous. You vote for the guys on the list that you think are Hall of Famers. And we can have honest disagreements about guys.
01:08:06
Speaker
Like, I think Chase Utley is a Hall of Famer. You don't. That's a fair argument to have. um I mean, there are guys that you think were Hall of Famers, and I'm like, no, that guy. You mentioned that you thought Tory Hunter was a Hall of Famer. I don't think Tory Hunter is a Hall of Famer. But that's a borderline one, right? like i'm all here and argue with you over each euro I'm not going to argue with you over you over Roger Clements, even though he's not in I'm not gonna sit here and argue with you over Nolan Ryan I'm not gonna argue with you over Craig Bezio, right who I literally that guy had to wait three years I had ah a drag-out argument on a radio show that I hosted I invited someone to come on because this guy posted that he would never vote for Craig Bezio because he wore an armpath and stuck his arm out That's why he won't vote for him
01:08:54
Speaker
I looked up this guy, he got his credentials drawing cartoons of Pete Rose during his hit chase. So this guy has not covered baseball since Pete Rose was fucking playing. And this is who's getting a vote to decide if you're enshrined immortally. That's part of the problem. Part of the problem is you don't get enough votes. If if there's 10 legitimate Hall of Famers on the ballot,
01:09:17
Speaker
Vote for 10. If there's only one, vote for one. But I shouldn't be told you can only pick five when you've got 12, 13 guys on there. Because that's also how this happens, Scott. Like, why does it matter how many that you vote for? If you think that 12 guys on this ballot a worthy of Hall of Fame enstridement, you should be able to vote for 12. Because at the end of the day, I'm entrusting you, the baseball writers of America, to determine what is Hall of Fame worthy or not. It didn't matter how many you can vote for, it matters, is this guy worthy of being in the Hall of Fame? Period. So there are three changes I would make to the Hall of Fame process. That's the first one. there's no There's no cap on the number of people you can vote for. No more anonymity either. That's number two.
01:10:02
Speaker
All ballots are made public. and And so, you know, if people want to sit there and carpet bomb you or, you know, you know, just flame you and and I guarantee it. The ones that, you know, we've actually seen a a vast improvement, I would say, in general. And that's because more than half of them do make their votes public. And number two and number three, I would say. You have to cover the sport.
01:10:31
Speaker
You have to cover the sport in some capacity. Now, I don't know if anybody thinks that I'm a good hot enough Hall of Fame expert, but I would say I know more than probably 90% of the guys voting for the Hall of Fame. I'm going to come out and say that right now. Do I write for a national newspaper? Am I a member of the BBWA? No. But I've been a baseball blogger for probably 20 years. So I think I should get a ballot.
01:11:02
Speaker
Why shouldn't Bill James get a ballot? You know, Jay Jaffee just got a ballot, I think, three years ago. So maybe, you know, we open that process up. I don't know how you do that exactly. But I think I'll give you a name too. Like, as much as I hate his shtick, I think John Boy should get a vote.
01:11:21
Speaker
That guy knows more about fucking baseball than half the guys who still have votes. like These YouTube guys, the people like... I can't remember the name of the Astros group because we don't like Barstool and Houston. um But there's a group there that does ah stuff like that, right? like you We live in a different age of media and just because you were a beat writer doesn't mean you get a fucking vote anymore, right? like There are great content creators who know this game inside and out.
01:11:51
Speaker
That deserve an opportunity. There's there's the guy Chris. I can't remember his name. He works with John Boy and stuff too. And he does the Whippleball League. He was on the and MLB Network. That's a guy that should have a vote, right? Like there's just like get some fresh blood in there, right? Get people who watch these guys play. Get people who were affected by their careers, right? Like how many kids out there were doing the Ichiro batting stance?
01:12:15
Speaker
Playing wiffle ball, trying to slap one and run out of the box at the same time. That changed the game. Like kids played baseball differently because of Ichiro Suzuki. You, you saw the first ever time of a Japanese player that wasn't a pitcher come over here and not have success, but fucking dominate. Was it 10 straight years of 200 hit seasons? It was yeah so unbelievable. It was ridiculous. The most hits in a season.
01:12:41
Speaker
Which I thought that was a record that was ah George Sisler had that one at 257 hits and each row breaks it with I think 263 I Mean, that's that's just outrageous. I I truly feel blessed to have watched that man play baseball, right? Like you saw a guy that played the game with a passion and and a tenacity, but also respected it at the highest level, right? Like you can, even now, as he's around it, you can still tell how much the guy reveres and respects the game. And he's coming back to piss me off more that one guy would choose Ichiro Suzuki as the one to try and make his name off of. And have you ever seen him pitch? Yeah, in a celebrity game in Japan, I saw some video of him. He's not bad. Yeah, he was told like 90. Yeah, it was pretty fun.
01:13:31
Speaker
All right, Scott, do you have a scumbag? I do. And I am praying that this is the last time I have to mention this guy's name in this category. But Bobby Slowick, you are a scumbag. So let me throw you some numbers out here, Tim. um Number one, so you think about you know when is the most important time for your offense to be good?
01:14:02
Speaker
Fourth quarter. So other than the fourth quarter, then what situations do you want your team to be good? Third downs. Yeah. Or red zone. Two-minute drills. Red zone. Yeah. This team was 28th in the NFL in converting red zone trips into touchdowns. 28th. Not good. This team was like bottom half in points.
01:14:31
Speaker
This team was middle of the pack in yards. We were told coming into this season that this was going to be the best offense in Texans history. We were told that. We believe that. Now, I grant you, we had Tank Dell healthy at that point. We had Stephon Diggs healthy at that point. We thought that Dalton Schultz was going to be a good tight end at that point. But a lot of things turned out to be, you know, maybe even better than what we thought we, you know, Joe Mixon, did you think Joe Mixon was going to be this good? Honestly, yeah. Like I thought he'd be a four and a half yard, a carry guy, get you over a thousand, you know, double the touchdowns. I thought over a thousand, but I thought over a thousand and spanned like 16 or 17 games and not like 12 or 13. I mean, I, I felt like we were dying for a quality running back, right? Like i I knew that, um,
01:15:27
Speaker
I don't know, like part of my frustration too is like we had, like we had Cody students on this show in training camp, right? And we were sold on how good Kenyan green looked. Looked like the first round or we've always thought he was going to be right. That's the, that's the fucking cell job that pisses me off more than anything. And I think Cody specifically, I'm thinking that was what everybody was saying. The coaching staff was talking up that offensive line and we all bought it.
01:15:55
Speaker
Hook, line and sinker. When looking back, Scott, what did we do in the offseason to make you and I feel like this offensive line was going to take any kind of step forward? Well, and I think the problem that I have with Sloak is that it was pretty clear that two things were happening at the same time. Number one, whatever scheme they were doing with this offensive line was not working. It was confusing them.
01:16:24
Speaker
it were They were missing assignments constantly and they weren't making changes in the personnel. Kenyon Green sucked for half the season and it took an injury to get him out of the lineup. I mean, there was that one game where they had to take him out in the first quarter because he was just, he was that bad. And so my question is, yeah, maybe you missed on some of those guys.
01:16:50
Speaker
Maybe, you know, Shaq Mason was getting physically beat towards the end of the season, but there were just times when they were just flat out missing assignments. And then the second thing is, what are you doing with your quarterback? I don't get it. If you know your offensive line sucks, you are teaching this guy, you're running plays where you give him a safety valve receiver on every play.
01:17:19
Speaker
It could be mixing out of the backfield. It could be Dari Uginbowale. It could be Andrew Beck. i I don't care. It could be Dalton Scholz. But it's got to be somebody five or 60 yards down the field that this guy can throw the ball quickly to.
Texans' Offensive Strategy and Play Calling
01:17:35
Speaker
You have to do a quick passing game when your offensive line sucks. And it took way too long for them to try running these plays. You would sit there and run these damn wide receiver screens.
01:17:47
Speaker
where you had a wide receiver trying to block to you know a corner of safety, and it wasn't working. It was getting blown up. We're trying again. what What are we doing? I mean, so at some point, you have to look at what's there.
01:18:05
Speaker
And we can point the finger at Nicosario and say, why in the hell did you is Kenyon Green your only option at guard? And that's an absolutely important question to ask. But the second question has to be, if you know Kenyon Green sucks, if you know your center is not doing the job, if you know Shaq Mason needs to be sent out to pasture, then why are you running these slow developing passing plays? Why are we doing this?
01:18:35
Speaker
And why are we driving the ball 60 yards down the field, getting to the 15 yard line and then doing a, let's do like a half back option pass. half that Let's throw it three yards behind the line of scrimmage to the sideline and see if that works. No, you've been moving the football, playing old fashioned football.
01:18:59
Speaker
You keep moving the football. You've been handing it to Joe Mixon who's gaining four, or five, six yards a pop. You've been running a quick passing game where CJ Stroud is making crisp decisions. Why do we stop doing these things? I don't get it. I just don't. I truly feel like Bobby Sloger is trying to put some shit on tape, right? Like I coming into the year, he was a him and Ben Johnson up in Detroit where the two guys, right? Like these are the guys to watch for next year for, um, for coaching hires, right? Ben Johnson ran a lot of trick plays too. The difference is his worked and he put that shit on tape and a couple of me did to the bears against the bears and games that they were up. It was almost just like, look what I can do.
01:19:46
Speaker
And I feel like Bobby was probably trying to do the same thing, right? Like he's trying to put his offense on tape will to go into interviews and say, I set this play up by doing this all drive. And then I hit him with this trip play. The problem is they never fucking worked. He never realized during the season that like, my, the only way I'm going to get a job interview is if my offense is good. Right? Like the offense was good last year. So I got interviews.
01:20:12
Speaker
The offense is not good this year. I'm not going to get interviews and I'm going to lose my fucking job.
Team Loyalty and Financial Decisions
01:20:18
Speaker
Here's what kills me, Tim. He interviewed with the Jets. He's got an interview coming up with the Jaguars for their head job, but also the Jaguars blew it.
01:20:28
Speaker
and got turned down by all the top coaching candidates because they decided to hold on to Trent Balke. And then once all the Jaguars top coaching candidates turned him down, they fired Trent Balke. So now they've turned through their best options and you're kind of left with like Bobby Sloey, come on down. Yeah. I mean, and and I just, I want to, you know, if they hire him, I might send Trevor Lawrence an apology letter. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
01:20:59
Speaker
All right, Scott, I think that's going to do it this week. I want to end with one fun. Um, CC, sabbathia Hall of Fame story. CC's last start with the New York Yankees, right? He needs seven innings to get an extra $500,000 bonus. One of his players gets hit.
01:21:21
Speaker
You know what he does? He comes back and fucking nails the guy at the very next inning, gets ejected, does not get the bonus, but he remained the CC-Sebathia to the fucking end that we all knew and love. Well, and for that, at that point, what was $500,000 for CC-Sebathia? And I think the Yankees gave it to him anyway, because they liked what he did, right? Like he protected our guy, they threw it at Andrew Romine, you go get their guy. But that's who he was the whole time, right? Like CC-Sebathia,
01:21:47
Speaker
was that bulldog ah out there who like understood the unwritten rules of the game. And if you fuck with my bench, you're going to catch a two-seaver in the back. and that' And he stayed that way till the very end. As opposed to the the Cowboys who bench Cooper Rush, so they could not pay him a 500,000 bonus that he would have gotten had he played week 18. Is that why? Yeah. that Oh, my God. I didn't even put that together. All right. jerrys Jerry wins.
01:22:15
Speaker
Jerry wins again, but we appreciate everybody who
Conclusion and Listener Appreciation
01:22:18
Speaker
joined us. Thank you so much for making us a part of your week. We will see you next week. I'm born on the body sports.