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Goodbye my Astros
34 Plays1 year ago
Tim Costello and Scott Barzilla begin this episode with a heartfelt remembrance of basketball legend Dikembe Mutombo and baseball great Pete Rose, reflecting on their impact on sports.
They then turn to the Astros' disappointing exit from the playoffs, losing the Wild Card Round to the Tigers in two heartbreaking games. The hosts break down what went wrong for the Astros and the missed opportunities that cost them the series.
Next, the conversation shifts to the Texans' victory over the Jaguars. Despite the win, the Texans' offense struggled with penalties, and Tim and Scott analyze how these issues could affect the team moving forward.
The episode wraps up with the show's regular segments: "Horses Ass of the Week," "Tips of the Cap," and "Scumbag of the Week," providing their takes on notable blunders, achievements, and controversies in the sports world.
This episode offers a blend of emotional tributes, in-depth analysis, and Houston sports fandom.
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Find the guys on Twitter:
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Tim Contributes for:
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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.
00:00:32
Speaker
Yeah, if probably 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. Since he's come to Houston, we can look at the development of guys like Carlos Correa defensively, Jeremy Pena defensively, you know, balance fragments, you know, certainly I think I'm better than average third baseman.
00:00:56
Speaker
And now you're putting teams in 3rd and 8th, 3rd and 7th, 3rd and 9th. Now Hill comes 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 Astros' Playoff Analysis
00:01:23
Speaker
Welcome all my friends to a somber edition here of born on the bayou sports Tim Costello Scott Barzilla coming to you on the eve of I'm sorry, I thought sorry the night of the ah Astros being um Knocked out of the a our playoffs in the wild card round and and Scott you and I are Essentially and in mourning here right now Yeah, and i was yeah I was going to say, even before you know the events in the last two days, it was going to be a fairly somber episode. And one guy one name that we're not going to mention tonight, at least and at length, John Amos also passed away. Yeah. What's your famous what's your favorite John Amos role, I guess I should say?
00:02:13
Speaker
I am a West Wing guy. I was going to say the West Wing too. I loved them in the West Wing. I like them in the West Wing. But to me, as Mr. McDowell in Coming to America, that movie, I'm almost sad that they produced a sequel. I mean, they should have just stood alone. It's just an absolute work of art. Yeah, I love Coming to America. I haven't seen the second one yet, so I can't tell you whether I like it or not.
00:02:40
Speaker
I love him in the West Wing, Joint Chief of Staff. um Yeah, man, he he kills it. He absolutely kills it as as the head of the, all of the military of the United States. Did do you ever ever see any good times? I've never seen good times. I mean, he plays a very different role than that one. He's kind of more, no I mean, he's obviously no nonsense and um in West Wing.
00:03:08
Speaker
But I mean, he's like a hard ass. He's going to, you know, he's going to whip your butt in in good times. And they, you know, obviously deserve that more than once. Well, you mentioned this is going to be a somber episode. There were a couple, you know, athlete deaths. And, you know, the first one I wanted to talk about and you, you, and you did as well was, um, to Kim Bemutombo.
00:03:32
Speaker
a man who at times seemed larger than life who all you had to do was was go like this or for those of you just listening you know the finger wag and everybody knew who you were talking about all you had to do is go no no no everybody knew who you were talking about um one of the top 20 defensive centers to ever play the NBA and I still feel like saying all of that you're leaving out the most important part of his legacy, which is the humanitarian work that he did in in the Congo. Yeah, absolutely. And the thing is, is if you compare him to the other famous African center in the NBA, I mean, the fact that a Kim Elijah one can come and suck it as a humanitarian tells you exactly what you need to know about the Tombo.
00:04:28
Speaker
meanre We're talking hospitals, we are talking regular doctor's offices, we are talking homes, houses, churches, everything and anything, infrastructure, ways to get food in. Dikembe Mutombo spent so much time, so much money and really you know wanted to make his home country proud and then bring the fruits of that his labor back home and make life better for everybody else around him.
00:04:59
Speaker
I think the comments his son made you know after his dad's passing very much echoed that sentiment of, hey, my dad was a great guy, basically. And he was. like he was ah He's a Hall of Fame talent in the NBA, but he went so far beyond that in life. And um I don't know if it would be a stretch, Scott, you know you have the Roberto Clemente award, you know for the guy who does the most humanitarian work and in Major League Baseball I don't think it would be outrageous to have a de Kimbe Mutombo award for someone who does the most um amount of humanitarian that work I'm sorry the most amount of human humanitarian work of that year in the NBA Well, yeah, and you already have the Walter Payton award on the NFL So I mean it's high time for the NBA to get on board and pick this up
00:05:54
Speaker
You know, to me, if you if we shift to the playing portion of his career, what i what remarkable was remarkable about the Kembe is that, yeah you know, you're doing this whole finger-wagging thing. He managed to, I think, find that fine line between having a personality on the court and not being an asshole.
00:06:18
Speaker
Um, and, and that's hard, and that's hard to do because, you know, so many of today's players, you know, just, they can't seem to toe that line. And then the other part of it too, is that the modern NBA demands so many skills of their big men, which seems to include three point shooting and outside shooting. That wasn't the Kim A. Mutombo. Kim A. Mutombo was a defensive specialist, but he played nearly 20 years in the league, being able to do that.
00:06:47
Speaker
and succeed at a high level. I mean, that's also something you don't see very often. It came into the league in 1991, played all the way through 2009, the last one, two, three, four, five seasons in Houston when he was there primarily to back up Yow, but most times got way more run because Yow got hurt.
00:07:08
Speaker
His career, he had, you know, 9.8 points a game, 10 rebounds a game. ah At his height or his prime, you could say, he was a little bit more of a scorer, would bring in, you know, 15, 16.6 was as high when he came in second for rookie of the year voting. He never scored that many per game again, though. His best season after that, 13.4.
00:07:34
Speaker
um But again, this is a guy that was there to rock the paint. He was bringing in 14, 13 rebounds a game. He was blocking for you know three to four shots a game at his best. He was four and a half blocks a game. Again, he he was a defensive game changer. You had to change the angles at which you brought the ball to the rim. you you know He was not going to let you push him around.
00:08:02
Speaker
he He was a guy that owned the middle of the paint and he did it for a lot of teams too, right? Like he was really he was on some good Denver teams on some good Atlanta teams played for the jet the nets the Knicks the Sixers and then finishing up in Houston so um a lot of cities across America probably mourning the loss of the Kim Bantam book so I'm trying to remember and and I think you know, this kind of falls into my next question of your favorite Matumbo memory moment. And I'm trying to remember, maybe you can help me out here. You remember that yeah awesome winning streak the Rockets went on without me out, 20 games. Was he a Rocket at that point? That would have been 2007,
00:08:49
Speaker
seven eight. Yeah, he was a Rocket at that point, gave you 39 games, played 15, 16 minutes a game.
00:09:00
Speaker
Making a field goal a game. So average it about two or three points um One point start three points a game for him he was averaging a block a game and Bringing in five rebounds a game. So this is definitely a part of that. Yeah, and you're looking at that team and that's a team that had you know, Louise Scola Shane Batier that was a Tracy on our test Tracy and Uh, but a very, very flawed basketball team. Well, it's not when we were healthy to start the season. And then by the time that streak happened, yeah, cause Aaron Brooks, Aaron Brooks was playing point guard who was undersized. So, you know, you needed somebody like Mutombo to be on that last line of defense. Cause Aaron Brooks was not even six foot playing the point guard. My favorite Mutombo moment though, non rockets related was that year that
00:09:55
Speaker
He and the Denver Nuggets as the eighth seed beat the seaters Seattle Supersonics, the number one seed. And you knew that Denver team wasn't gonna go much further than that, but that was still a terrific moment because it was is basically saying, here's this guy, this flawed basketball player, which he was, but had one absolute skill defense that was just off the you know off the charts.
00:10:24
Speaker
And it kind of shows you that, you know, you can make it far if you have one thing that you do and you do it really savagely well. I mean, Dikembe Mutombo in Houston never played more than 17 minutes a game. I can't tell you how many Dikembe fingerwax signs were in the crowd, though. For a guy who was strictly a backup at the end of his career,
00:10:47
Speaker
He was still so beloved that people were making signs to bring to the game for a guy who played barely a third of it. Did not even play a third of the game. I mean, that says something about it. Right. And in the fact that he's only playing a third of the game when Yow is out for much of it. So, I mean, for the rest of the game, they're just kind of throwing crap at the wall at the center position. It kind of looks like... Scola played a lot of center. Carl Landry played a lot of center at that point. Yeah, they were going undersized.
00:11:14
Speaker
Yeah, that was a great run, man. That was a great run. Took the Lakers to seven games. Um, man, that was that right i was at the game when, uh, when Rana test was, you know, we, I think, I can't remember if it was game four, game five, the one we won in Houston. When I think it was, um, definitely yeah. I'd been injured at, and during that middle of that series. Yeah. And so it was no, yeah. It was Shane Battee knocking down like something ridiculous, like seven threes or something like that.
00:11:44
Speaker
It was just one of those, it's like, you know, this team's not winning this series, but, you know, oh, the joy of winning this game today is just, you know, off the charts. Absolutely. Well, I think let's transition it because we go from a guy who I say, you know, with Dikembe his legend, his his legacy is unquestionable, right? There's really not much negative you could say about him. And then we shift to Pete Rose. Pete Rose, a guy who is very much a questionable legacy. On one hand, one of the greatest ball players ever, on the other hand, bet on his own team, bet on baseball, has been to prison for tax fraud, um you know, not necessarily a great person at all times based on some of the interactions people have had with him. Basically, the kind of the complete opposite of what we're dealing with with the Kim Bae. You know, Scott, how do you quantify
00:12:44
Speaker
the legacy of a guy like Pete Rose? Well, there's the player side, which I would say the index takes a middle ground with him. Because when you hear people describe Pete Rose, you either hear people scribe, he's one of the five best baseball players of all time, or somebody, well, he's just a glorified single sitter that hung around for a long time. I don't think either of those views is correct. I think he's somewhere in between. I think In terms of his playing career, he's definitely a Hall of Fame level player. I don't think there's any question about that, but obviously a guy who's had demons. I think ah he's a guy that you could credibly claim was kind of screwed over by the process because, you know, he agreed to the Lifetime band before the Hall of Fame changed the rules and said that you couldn't be in if you were a part of the band list.
00:13:39
Speaker
So I think he made that agreement thinking, well, okay, I'll be out of baseball, but I'll get in the Hall of Fame. But the problem is with Pete is he was his own worst enemy. He was given, I don't know how many opportunities after being on the band list to do a full Mia Copa and admit his wrongdoing. And he never managed to be able to do it. He always had half hearted apologies. Yeah, I did it, but kind of stuff.
00:14:09
Speaker
If he had just come out and said, I screwed up, it was my fault. I'm sure all would have been, I don't know if all would have been forgiven, but they would have probably done enough to get him at least on the ballot to be in the Hall of Fame. I tend to agree with you.
00:14:26
Speaker
um I think you definitely have to separate the player from the person with a guy like Pete Rose. And and that says something, that alone to me says something about your legacy.
00:14:39
Speaker
right where i've got it where I've got to make a caveat or I've got to say, well, it this or that. I've read his book. like I truly think a lot of the demons that he has later on in life come from you know the prison he put himself in, as you know the book was called My Prison Without Bars. But again, the guy went to prison for tax fraud.
00:15:03
Speaker
right like this is not Just like, oh, you know, I like to drink. I like to do this, you know, it's a federal prison for tax fraud. So again, like you do have to put that in it into all of this. Now you look at a guy who has some of the best bat control to ever play the game, right? Less than a hundred strikeouts in every single season of his career and only walked Well hundred times once and is a career 300 hitter Has as you all know that the all-time hits record for Major League Baseball Was unbelievably versatile will play, you know, wherever he asked him to first base third base, you know infield outfield Charlie hustle famous for blowing up the catcher and
00:15:56
Speaker
and a rest star game race bob I would actually posit makes you more of a fucking douchebag than some great hustle player, but whatever. you know is His playing career is the stuff of of of legends, of heroes. Everything else outside of it is not. you know It honestly reminds me of like a Billy Martin with a better career.
00:16:21
Speaker
Yeah, I was thinking, I sent you, do you remember the H.L. Minkin quote I sent you? I don't know. No, basically the whole idea, and and this was um as it pertained to, you know, probably a lot of the political stuff we've been hearing, but basically the whole idea was no complex problem has been, you know, made, you know, made simpler, solved better and wrong.
00:16:49
Speaker
You know, that basically, you know, that simple solutions are never the answer. And so there's a lot of people that come out, I'll just put them in the Hall of Fame, or no, you can never put them in the Hall of Fame. And to me, it's not that simple. To me, number one, you can't tell the history of baseball without Pete Rose. You can't tell the history of baseball without Barry Bonds or Roger Clemmons. You just can't. But at the same time, it's hard to reward somebody like that, which thought was what Hall of Fame is.
00:17:19
Speaker
We argue wouldn't you argue that the reward is taken away if it's done posthumously if you could never truly enjoy The fruits of your labor by being at that induction. I agree I mean, I think we're in agreement here what I'm saying though is that I think the the people who argue either so firm it fervently for or against them are not seeing the nuance and the nuance is that Orlando Cepeda went to federal prison for drug trafficking. I don't know if you remember that. I didn't know. Um, and so he went there before he went in the hall of fame. So obviously serving prison time is not a, it is not a necessarily a deal breaker. So then the question is, i mean and there's, there's a so-called moral clause in, you know, for people who are voting in, but I mean, come on,
00:18:16
Speaker
Ty Cobb was a damn racist scumbag. Cap Anson is probably personally responsible for the color barrier taking 50 years to be broken. So what exactly you know are we holding on to when we're holding on to, well, he was an amoral or an immoral scumbag. Yeah, he was. But you can tell that story in the Hall of Fame. You can include that as part of the plaque. Absolutely.
00:18:45
Speaker
I mean, and you can even have the scandal or whatever it is, be to be his display, right? Like every bit of it. He doesn't maybe even have to have the full plaque, right? But we can have a Pete Rose section and it's going to say, hey, here's all the stuff. You want to tell the story? Here's the story. Hey, here's the black socks. You want to tell the story? Here's the story. Here is the people who would be Sheila Shoe Jackson, Hall of Fame worthy, Eddie Seacott, Hall of Fame worthy, Lefty Williams,
00:19:15
Speaker
Maybe, right? Who knows? The index would tell us, Scott, would would Lefty Williams be a Hall of Famer? No. No. Anything Scott would have been, at the at least at the time. Yeah, well, you know, he's kind of a, that's one of those that's like, if he had been able to get another year or two, which you would assume he would, probably so.
00:19:36
Speaker
He's at that oh at the early class time, right? Like, yeah, when they're not now's worth of players that you're going against, when you're going against that number, Eddie Seacott was the ace of the league for quite some time. Yeah, he's border he's a borderline guy as it stands now. Joe Jackson absolutely is a player should be in. So maybe you have a gamblers anonymous section. That's no longer anonymous.
00:20:02
Speaker
a scumbag's wing you haven't like set up like a gamblers anonymous meeting and they're all just like max figures of all the people could you imagine you walking into New York and saying here's the scumbag's wing you can move Orlando Cepeda and Ty Cobb in there you know maybe Babe Ruth Mickey Mantle you know who knows ah yeah well now we have to transition Scott and I have to add just a tiny little musical performance goodbye my Astros Goodbye, my friend. You have been the one. You have been the one for me. Bye, my Astros. I thought you were going to go Sarah McLaughlin on me here. I will remember you.
00:20:52
Speaker
That's how I'm feeling right now, Scott. Look, a bunch of beaten puppies on TV late at night type of commercials, how I feel. OK, so let me let me leave this off with a little bit of. a Kind of just sober us up a bit, kind of level us up. I did a little bit of number crunching but before I get into my critique of the Astros. Our record in the playoffs since 2017. 58 39. I'd say that's pretty good. When you say that's pretty good, yeah.
00:21:29
Speaker
And the whole thing into the Orioles, we saw them a better team than the Astros, a considerably better team than the Royals who they faced just went down meekly in the two game series. Um, I would say if you looked at the Astros and Tigers records, they're fairly similar, you know, going into the playoff line. And obviously the Tigers came on strong in August and September.
00:21:59
Speaker
So would that be, do you think, I don't know, would this have been different had we played the Royals? Absolutely. I truly feel like the Tigers, going into it, I didn't want the Tigers because they were the team that was just red hot. The Tigers remind me of the Rangers last year where they just were hot, right? Like the Rangers got hot. They played great baseball throughout the whole playoffs. They swept the Orioles to start things off or maybe it was the Rays either way. They swept up the number one seed and they go in and they um Play great baseball against Who is the DS team that they played then they go play the Astro? I mean, it's just a team. They beat the Orioles. They beat the Orioles. Okay, so right so they beat the Rays and the Orioles and the Astros and And it was just you know a team that got hot. and And the Tigers were that team. They were unbelievably hot coming in. I would have taken any other team other than the Tigers. you know And and but who knows? Maybe if we play game 162 and it doesn't get rained out. so I don't know. But at the end of the day, Scott, um it doesn't matter.
00:23:05
Speaker
that this is how it ended this season, right? like Because these two games were an exact fucking microcosm of the 2024 season. A village of fucking base runners, opportunities galore, and the inability to take advantage of those opportunities. there The Astros offensive numbers do not tell the story of this team because they score in bunches. They'll have, as we pointed out, a game where they score 10 runs.
00:23:35
Speaker
But then they go six, seven games where they score one run, no runs over and over and over again. And here we are in the biggest series of the year and through 15 innings, they had one run. You teed this sucker up. Give me, give me my eight degree drive. I tailor made driver and let me whack at this thing for you. Okay. So let me give you it. So let me give you some numbers here, Tim. The Astros lost 73 regular season games this year.
00:24:05
Speaker
In 55 of those 73 games that they lost, they scored three or fewer runs. Now I went the other way and I said, okay, let's see how many times they they gave up a bunch of runs. So six or more runs. You would agree, I think that if you surrender six runs or more, you're probably going to lose, right? Yeah. They did that 32 times.
00:24:30
Speaker
But see, here's what I remembered and I did, and I went back and looked at this because I knew this was going to be the case. In 17 of those 73 games, both of those things happened where they gave up six or more runs and scored three or fewer. Because this is what, and and to me, 2019 game seven is this kind of game.
00:24:57
Speaker
And we've seen this game happen. and This kind of game happened the same thing. you know It sort of happens today, but it's happened throughout the year. The offense goes out there, can't score a lick. And so the the starting pitching is holding it close. The bullpen's kind of holding it close, but then Joe Espada says, fuck it. We can't touch this team. I'm going to send out the B team relievers, and they they shit the bed. And so they scored the other team scores a bunch of runs late in the game. And so you're looking at it like the numbers I'm looking at.
00:25:27
Speaker
going like, well, the pitching sucked. No, it didn't. You gave up on the game because your offense couldn't score. OK, playoffs, going back to 2017, 58 39, right? In 30 of those 39 games that we lost, we so we scored three or fewer runs. So what does that tell me, Tim? It tells me that when this team loses, it loses because it can't hit, period.
00:25:59
Speaker
So when we start talking about the off season, if we want to invest in re-signing, you say Kikuchi, I think that wouldn't be a bad move. I think that would be a good move. But if you come out and you pull the whole Jerry Hunsicker, Ed Wade, um you know, Jeff Lunell and, you know, James Click, Dana Brown, it seems like every, every off season, since I've been a kid, we need more pitching.
00:26:28
Speaker
Fuck you! We don't need more pitching. We got plenty of fucking pitching. Hunter Brown there pitched his ass off today. Pitched his ass off. Gives up one run in five and two-thirds innings. He loses the damn game. Well, he didn't take the loss, but he lost. He didn't take the loss, but yeah. it So what do we do it? What do we do it?
00:26:54
Speaker
It's it's it's unbelievably frustrating because you're absolutely right. i'm I'm looking at this team next year, right? and When you look at the starting rotation Without Kukuchi You still got Fromber hunter Brown Spencer Aragetti and Renault Blanco all had I think you would agree that good seasons and there was Spencer and Getty great signs towards the end of the season and and I would even say it was a good rookie year for Aaron Getty, yeah right? Absolutely. If you bring Kukuchi back, that's your five right there, right? That doesn't even include Luis Garcia, that doesn't include the ghost that is Lance McCullers, that doesn't include Erkiti, that doesn't include Christian Javier, right? for
00:27:44
Speaker
JP France, that that that doesn't include any of those guys. So let's, if you decide to bring Kukuchi back, there's your starting five. Now let's look at the lineup next year. Left field, giant hole. I think you would agree with that. Yep. Center field, giant fucking hole. Jake Myers ain't it. Right field, Kyle Tucker. Okay. Third base as of right now, giant fucking hole. No solution internally. Short stop, Pena. Eh.
00:28:13
Speaker
at best, average. I think Peรฑa is an average MLB shortstop at this point. Second base, Altuve, okay. First base, giant fucking hole. Catcher, probably our best position between Diaz and Caratini. So I'm looking at one, two, three, four giant fucking holes in a lineup. And we do have Jordana DH, obviously. Great.
00:28:38
Speaker
But outside of that, you've got four giant question marks offensively and one small question mark for the fifth starter. Yeah. And and and so here's the deal walking into this series, right? Because and I have um have a chat, you know, since I'm in Crawford spots because I saw, you know, some of the writers commenting like if I, you know, if I never see Jeremy Pena again, it'll be, you know, it'll be a day too soon. Yeah. Jeremy Pena.
00:29:07
Speaker
He had a rough couple of games. I'm not, I'm not even gonna, I'm not even going to defend it. But the point is, is that on any good baseball team, Jerry Pena is a seventh or eighth hitter. Period. He's hitting seventh for the Astros or sixth. He's hitting sixth for the Astros. well they're you Most of the year, he's hitting like fourth or fifth because you're, you're running, you know, or second.
00:29:30
Speaker
But that's also part of the problem is this lineup that we used in the playoffs should have been used more in the season. Caratini and Diaz both should have been in there playing first base and catcher more often. Well, I would say this team very clearly had coming into this series had 2.5 holes in this lineup. OK, you mentioned left field and center field absolute holes. There's there's no getting around that.
00:29:56
Speaker
You know, Jason Hayward unfortunately didn't play game one because he's left-handed and Scooble's left-handed. Okay, I could sit there and see, you know, I want to play DuPont. Okay, fine. I probably would have thrown Hayward in there because I think Hayward's still better than DuPont, even lefty on lefty, but, you know, whatever, right? Look at Victor Caritini's career numbers and compare that with any first baseman in the league.
00:30:26
Speaker
And you're, and you're looking at it and you're going like, when you're looking at for Victor carotene, you're looking at that as a part-time catcher. Yeah. Those are pretty damn good offensive numbers. As a first baseman, you're going like, that's all we got. And singleton did some good things for you this year, but that's not good enough.
00:30:49
Speaker
So basically you're walking into a series with two and a half holes in your lineup. So you're telling the other six guys, damn it, guys show up or we're going to get our asses kicked. And how many of those six guys didn't show up? Uh, I'll survey.
00:31:07
Speaker
I think he did not show up in this series. I mean he had RBI you RBI today. But again this game today was lost in the eighth inning both offensively and obviously we blew it in the bottom of the eighth. But you had bases loaded with nobody out.
00:31:20
Speaker
and you get a fielder's choice of the throwing error that scores a run and then you get a Altuve first pitch swinging pop it up in foul territory and Jeremy paint makes an amazing play to score your second run and then that's it that's all you fucking get with bases loaded and nobody out you get two runs when you could have stepped on their fucking throats and said I'll see you tomorrow we're gonna drop a five spot here but instead you didn't do that so Altuve I think had a big miss I thought Bregman Yeah, worried at well, I is ah think considering you didn't play for the week beforehand. Yeah. Alvarez had a great series. Tucker continues to be a no show of the playoffs for three seasons in a row. Realistically. Um, I thought the decision to start Chas today was interesting. Uh, that you can use that word. It is what it is. I mean, Jake Myers is not good, but I would have put me bond out there. um I would have been fine with that.
00:32:18
Speaker
But at the end of the day, let's go back and look at this, like this team offensively was not built to be a championship team this year. You came into the year making a huge bet that Chaz McCormick would be an 850 OPS guy again, right? that You were betting on that, playing him in left field and playing Jake Meyers in center, hoping that he would replicate the season that he had last year, and he didn't come anywhere close to it.
00:32:46
Speaker
You're betting on Jake Meyers being a quality Major League center fielder. And while he's fine defensively, the guy's a 225 hitter realistically at the end of the day. He's Jake Moriznik, part two. You were banking on Jeremy Pena, making a comeback to what he was his rookie year and not what he was last year. And while he showed flashes, he is what he is at this point, Scott, which is like a 260 hitter with little to no pop.
00:33:13
Speaker
Yeah. And if you're into me, if, if Jeremy Payne is your shortstop moving forward, I don't have an issue with that no because you called him average. Well, average means that you have as many short stops above you as you have below you. And so I think that's fair for him. If you're 15th, 16th, 14th rated shortstop in major league baseball, that's not terrible. And you can't have, you can't afford to put a top five player at every position. You just can't.
00:33:43
Speaker
um So there's going to be some positions that you're just going to sit there and say, we're going to have to accept what this guy brings. To me, though, Jeremy Pena needs to be hitting seventh or eighth consistently. Agree. And that's and you need to have six or seven guys above him in the order that are better, more disciplined hitters. and I couldn't agree more. not and And so to me, I think the key spots going forward,
00:34:12
Speaker
i Chad McCormick, I would have bet on him being a mid 700s guy, OPS. I think that would have been a reasonable bet. um And obviously, he shit the bed this year. I don't think there's any other way of putting it. Jake Myers is the exact same offensive player he was in 2023, almost exactly the same. So you got to start looking around. You got to start you know when you're in this offseason, you have to sit there and say,
00:34:43
Speaker
This lineup needs to be deeper. And it needs to be more patient. So my second question is, in addition to those open holes, we really need to start talking about Alex Centron. Is this the hitting coach that we need right now? Because as there there are so many guys who, in terms of plate discipline, regressed this year, regressed.
00:35:11
Speaker
Alex Bregman had the lowest walk rate of his career. Jeremy Peรฑa has never been in a walk guy. I mean, I guess Diaz walked more than he did in his rookie year, but i mean that's because you can't walk less than he did during his rookie year. um and And the other guys, i mean Alvarez went healthy, he walks a lot. Tucker went healthy, he walks a lot. Altuve has never been a walk guy.
00:35:35
Speaker
a singleton when he plays, walks a lot, but he also kays a lot. So you're looking at a team that is set up to where you don't have a lot of patient guys. But in those games when you're play facing a scubal, you need to get his ass out in the sixth inning by working counts, fouling off pitches, making that pitch count go up. Because I agree. If you're going to sit there and say, scubal had our number, you know what, he's going to have 95 percent of the teams he's going to have their number because he's a Cy Young winner and deservedly so. But the point is is that you've got to get to that middle relief somehow. You can't sit in there looking up at the sixth inning and have a guy with 70 pitches. I mean that's just that that's insane. He's got to be up to that 90 100 pitch mark. You got to be chasing his ass. That's how you win games like that. I couldn't agree more and if you look back to when
00:36:33
Speaker
this dynasty was truly beginning and and we were at our height that's what the Astro did so well they were a patient team they took their walk they they knew the next guy behind them had their back and they chased starters early and then they beat the shit out of your bullpen right and if you think back to 2015 this team is young they've got a lot of You know, three true outcome style players, Colby Rasmus is having a career year hitting bombs. It's a fun team to watch, but they struck out a lot. And then that bit him in the ass in 2016, where they could not do what you're asking them to do right now, right? Well, what did they do? They made changes. They got guys in here that were more consistent hitters.
00:37:13
Speaker
And when they had those issues again in 2018, what did they do? They went and got Michael Brantley, who is the epitome of a fucking professional hitter, who knows how to work a count, who knows how to do the things that this team was missing. Well, that's what it's time to do, right? It's time to bring in those free agents and get rid of Alex Sintron. Let's get Michael motherfucking Brantley on the phone and say, hey, guy,
00:37:38
Speaker
I got a job for you, and it's to take that professional hitter mentality and take it to everybody. Because let me let me give you something here, Scott. Here's some of the free agents that are available right now that I think are realistic targets for the Houston Astros. First base, Christian Walker, would be an unbelievably good signing for the Houston Astros. Third base, you obviously want to try and bring back Bregman.
00:38:01
Speaker
would be the ideal situation. I think Altube made it pretty clear today that he is going to make his case to Jim c Crane. We'll see if it actually happens or not. Then in the outfield, I want you to pick one of these three guys. Knowing that you're spending theoretically on Christian Walker and Alex Bregman, Lourdes Gouriel has an opt out. Yerkes and Profar or Jock Peterson?
00:38:26
Speaker
um Between those three, I'd go Jock Peterson. as a more patient hitter. But you mentioned, you know, you mentioned L2V with Bregman, that's going to cost you. um Christian Walker, I might, you know, if they sign him, I might strip down naked and run down my street, you know, screaming. and and But, you know, you could get a guy, you know, if you wanted to go cheaper, you could go Paul Goldschmidt if he's willing to come cheaper. I know he's on the downside, but again, you got to be smart.
00:39:00
Speaker
And you got to sign these guys to a one year deal. I'll give you another name. If he could play left field, um, or, you know, share with, um, you're done. I think JD Martinez is a free agent. Um, that's tough because, but Jack Pearson's also a DH type. So that's how to play the outfield for you. The outfield to me between those three guys you mentioned, I like Peterson because at least he'll take a walk.
00:39:28
Speaker
275 hitter this year 23 homers You know with a platoon ish type player 101 hits and 367 at bats. I mean the guy has pop his OPS was 908 this year. He's been above 750 for the last three straight seasons and not going to be terribly expensive. I would take Jock Peterson in a heartbeat and left field because here's the thing, Scott, we were fucking excited that Dana Brown brought in Jason Hayward at one point this season. I tipped my cap to Dana Brown for getting Jason Hayward in here. You know what? Jason Hayward had a big hit and a big catch and he helped win the division. But at the end of the day, that's the guy that we were excited about because that's how bad left field had been. Yeah, and I wouldn't mind him being back in some capacity either.
00:40:16
Speaker
If that's my fifth outfielder, okay. Well, as a fourth outfielder, as a guy that can play right and left, you know, maybe some center, but you know, the, another name I throw out is Jesse Winkler. Um, as a, a kind of a lower budget guy, if you're going to be committing major dollars to Christian Walker, and if you did commit major dollars, to Christian Walker, I think that would be a smarter move than committing major dollars. So is he a brave, I think Walker, I want to say is like, what, 32 33. I think so.
00:40:45
Speaker
So, I mean, that's, you you sign into like a three-year deal. I think that would be reasonable. um I think bringing in somebody like a Jack Peterson on a one-year deal would be reasonable. um And if you brought back a Hayward as a guy of, hey, we're just gonna keep you on the bench just in case, you know, something shitty happens and we lose somebody, or is Jack Peterson left or right-handed? Lefty. Shit. Well, nevermind.
00:41:14
Speaker
I was going to say platoon them. But obviously, Tucker's also left-handed. So that's that's unfortunately. But if you could scour, I don't know if Winkler is right-handed. you know Maybe you could bring in both of those guys yeah for the cost of one bonafide, everyday player. I don't know. I mean, Jock doesn't hit right doesn't hit lefties while he pretty much only plays against righties. Because if you brought in Winkler maybe to play the lefties,
00:41:44
Speaker
who could also play right field and also DH. Maybe you could give him a first baseman's glove and say, let's hit some ground balls to you. You know, let's see what happens. Yeah, I mean, he's an interesting guy. There's a lot out there. But again, I think you have to change the approach. Altuve, when he won his MVP, realized that If I, in certain counts, am only looking for the ball over this portion of the plate, I'm able to drive it. I'm able to do a little bit more with the baseball. He's back to the free swinging Altuve that came up as a rookie, right? Like the approach the last two years have has really not been good. Sintron is fun to watch. He's fiery.
00:42:34
Speaker
Good for a few ejections a year, yells from the dugout. But at the end of the day, I think you and I both agree, and we've bemoaned this for the entire season, the boomer bust shit gets old.
00:42:45
Speaker
Like I feel like the Astros have a certain allotment of runs per week And they like to save them all for like two total games and the other days it's like we can do one it's It's like one of those grids where it's like build your team for a total number of dollars And you can choose to spend high on the quarterback or you can go three dollars on everyone I'd rather score four or five runs every game than 12 and one one in another eight in one zero in another That's not Consistent right that's not good winning baseball, and it's tough. It's tough right because if you look at From 2017 to where we are now right like you've lost Correa you've lost Mike you've lost Springer you've lost Michael Brantley you've lost your Gabrielle you've lost um McCann who whatever I think yiner's better and
00:43:40
Speaker
But at the end of the day, you lost a collection of pretty good professional hitters who worked counts. Correa very rarely got cheated in that bat. Whether he's the same player or not now, you didn't replace that player on this roster. No, and and I think what we're looking at with Alex and Trone is nobody knows what he's telling the guys. But obviously, whatever he's telling them,
00:44:08
Speaker
I don't know. Do you think he's telling him to do this? Because if he is, I got a question to sanity. So what I'm thinking is is that you've got a mix of veterans who are probably thinking like, fuck you, I'm going to do what I want. And you've got these young players who don't necessarily know any better. So you mentioned the name Michael Brantley. That's a guy with cachet. That's a guy who has pelts on the wall.
00:44:36
Speaker
That's a guy who you could sit he could sit there and say, listen, I was a fucking all star. I knew how to hit. You're going to fucking listen to me. That's a guy that can do that. Now, the only other guy that could come anywhere close to that who actually did it is Jeff Bagwell, who did it for maybe like a year. But that's a bit that's, you know, to me, there's no other guy. You can't be hiring these guys like you know the fact that this team once hired Harry Spillman as a hitting coach.
00:45:06
Speaker
i still find hilarious and i think there's a few guys like like let's be realistic if you wanted to go through asho's royalty right I think if Lance Berkman walked in the room and said, I'm your new hitting coach. Listen up. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't know. Yeah. I think if Craig Bijio walked in the room and said, I got three thousand and sixty of these motherfucking hits right here. Listen up, bitches. Everybody's listening. Or like when when the Miami Marlins hired Barry Bonds, right? Like who the fuck is going to argue with Barry Bonds when it comes to hitting? And if you do, you're wrong because you're arguing with Barry Bonds. Yeah, I don't know if those two guys would want to do it.
00:45:44
Speaker
I don't know. Lance would be one of it. Lance is a manager for HBU, like clearly he's interested in being in the club. Yeah. Big Gio was a manager, St. Thomas high school, but, uh, that was what his son was playing. Yeah. Like Lance legitimately ah looked like he wanted to get into coaching and building a program. I mean, we're looking at one of the the best switch hitters to ever play the game. Uh, at least from a power perspective. Right. And that you can coach both sides of the plate. If you've never understood that I've never understood. So you don't, you're not young. You're not old enough to remember Harry Spillman as a player. I don't.
00:46:21
Speaker
Harry Spillman was a utility guy in the 80s. Before this team was good. he would he He could not break the regular lineup when this team sucked. He was like a 220 hitter with no power. I'm not listening to that motherfucker tell me how to hit. and so let me give you Let me give you a list that if we're going to go that way. let's Let me give you a list of some of the worst possible candidates from Astros history.
00:46:50
Speaker
that we can go with as hitting candidates. Let's go back and forth and see here. I will start with one Adam Everett as your as your hitting coach. I'll see your Adam Everett. I'm going to go. I'll go Brett Osnes as a hitting coach. It's a great choice. Chris Carter. Oh, oh, you're hurting me now. I'll go back in the past. I'll go John Mayberry.
00:47:20
Speaker
Brett Wallace.
00:47:25
Speaker
I just remember we were watching him drink a Red Bull in in the clubhouse, you know, during a rain delay and you're showing the, you know, showing him on camera and I'm like, Oh God. Remember Brett Wallace as a shortstop. Yeah. He tried. He tried it out. We can give you a Chris Coast if you really want to get crazy with it. Maybe Ricky Gutierrez could come in. Maybe Tim Bogar could help us out a little bit. Andrew Harsadania.
00:47:50
Speaker
maybe Ronnie Cedeno, we'll get the whole Cedeno family in here. Maybe, maybe if we want someone who's actually got some hitter talent, but would have a little trouble getting people to pay attention to him because he's fucking batshit crazy, Carl Everett, you know, I think could be a fun, could be a fun guy as a coach. Okay, here we go. Spaceman. Here we go. Mitch Milosky. I was thinking that one. He had a good year though. Mitch Milosky could s swing the stick a little bit. He's a crazy, nobody would respect him.
00:48:21
Speaker
right So if you really want to go that direction, let's just go Aubrey Hoff and just fucking take the four heel turn. I'm coming, his motherfucking red hat. Hey Aubrey, actually we did a uniform change. We don't wear the brick red anymore. I know you were here a long time ago. These fucking colors don't run baby. I'm going to wear my bag of hat on the diamond. It just says like, make Houston hit again.
00:48:47
Speaker
is
00:48:52
Speaker
Mhha All right, Scott, let's let's switch it up a little bit Some good news the HECS Houston Texans back on the winning ways. It was ugly it was the opposite of ah Clean it was dirty not dirty as far as you know playing dirty But there was a ton of penalties a lot of laundry on the field but yet when winning time happened CJ Stroud found a way to drive this team down the field and hit our backup kicker with a wonderful pass to put us into the Promised Land. So I'm going to give a little mini hat tip. We were taking the trip to TCU this Sunday and Monday for a college visit. I'm not hat tipping them because their price tag went up to $81,000. That doesn't deserve a hat tip.
Houston Texans' Performance and Strategy
00:49:44
Speaker
But to XM, I listened to the Texans game on XM the whole way up. So, you know, didn't lose signal. um And I listened to the Detroit and Seattle Monday Night Football game on the way back, you know, just kept me awake, kept me engaged. So we gained about 430 yards total offense. How many points did we score, Tim? Twenty-four? Was it 24-20 was the final score? Twenty-four-twenty, right?
00:50:14
Speaker
The Lions gained about 420 yard total offense. How many points did they score on Monday night?
00:50:22
Speaker
42, I think it was. 45. 45. So what does that tell you? It tells me a combination of things. The Lions forced more turnovers than we did or had better field position to start. And um they didn't shoot themselves in the foot because they played cleaner football. Yeah, we're running out of toes.
00:50:43
Speaker
That's what it is telling me. But I will give a hat tip to the defense. They basically, we won the game 24-13 if you're just looking at the defense. I mean, a muff punt recovered on our two. I mean, that's that's a touchdown. I mean, that's, you know, effectively a touchdown. So goal line stands in the second half, absolutely huge. Two three and outs in the fourth quarter, absolutely huge. That gives Strad the opportunity to win the game.
00:51:13
Speaker
So I'm going to give the defense a hat tip on that one. ah The defense is has continued to be good. um and i the off The offense has not done enough, right? Even when the defense gets torched a little bit, it's because the offense goes three and out because you get so many fucking penalties that it's third and 20 all the time. I'd like to know, I know we don't have it in front of us, but realistically, I'd like to know how many times have the Texans faced third and 15 or longer this season? Because it seems like all the time.
00:51:44
Speaker
Yeah, I was, if I had more time and I was going to think about it, I was going to run through the one drive where I want to say we committed four penalties and overcame like two third and longs only to have Laramie Tunsel, who we'll get to later, kill the drive with yet another head and ah holding penalty. And so we started the drive from our own one, went down to as far as the Jacksonville 32 with I think 30 yards of penalty penalties on that one. So the Texans gained like I think 97 yards on the drive and come away with zero points. It's outrageous.
00:52:32
Speaker
like i Feel like for the longest time we've given tons of a pass like he gets a false start here or there But he keeps our quarterback upright right like he keeps him clean. He's the best left tackle in the league Yeah, he jumps, but it's not that big a deal But now it's becoming a pretty huge deal because at the end of the day you're impeding drives you are continually wiping big plays out with holes with illegal formations, with false starts, with whatever it is that you're doing, you're bringing the ball back further and further every single time we we get a big chunk gained on the field. And you look at this team and you look at the offensive line and you're looking at, you know, you have two young guys, you have Kenyan green, you've got juice grugs. I think they've committed between them, committed maybe two penalties all year.
00:53:26
Speaker
In that game, you've got Tussle committing penalties. You got Shaq Mason committing like two penalties. That's a guy with multiple Super Bowl rigs. These are your veterans. These are the guys that are supposed to set the tone. I just don't get it. I don't understand it as well. But you know thank goodness, like you said, for the defense. Thank goodness for CJ Stroud. And I saw a tweet and it pissed people off, but they're idiots.
00:53:55
Speaker
Nico Collins is underpaid, right? Like when you look at how much these top wide receivers are making right now, that deal looks even better. Oh yeah. I mean, he, did I mean, the fact that teams have to know he's the guy and they still can't stop him. Um, digs played well. I thought, you know, Diggs had a really good game. Uh, he, he's not, you know, peak Buffalo digs, but I don't think anybody expected that.
00:54:20
Speaker
But I think becoming clear, we don't need him to be that guy, right? yeah we we He is exactly the kind of receiver, he is a better Robert Woods, right? He's a great possession receiver who can do more than just get five yards on third down, but he's not the over the top burner that he once was. Right. And then of course you you didn't have Tank Dell in this game. You didn't have Joe Mixon or Damian Pierce in this game, but you still found a way to move the football.
00:54:49
Speaker
So i mean I think mostly it's promising if we can find just a way to clean up this crap. No, I completely agree with you. And you know you've got a team, as as we move on, ah waiting for us in the bills write that um can put some points on the board. And they can do it in a hurry. We saw them embarrass the same Jacksonville team that the Texans kind of struggled with. I'm not necessarily worried about the the bill scoring a ton of points, but I am worried about the Texans having enough clean drives to keep up with the points the bills do score. Yeah. What worries me about our three wins versus our one loss. And then what's coming up with this opponent is that you can look at points in that, in those three games where the quarterbacks just absolutely missed open guys. Like to me, if I were in Jacksonville right now,
00:55:48
Speaker
There would be a very open conversation about what the hell's up with Trevor Lawrence. So that, you know, that's number one. Of course, you know, I don't know if we're going to have that conversation, but basically.
00:56:04
Speaker
the The concern is with Josh Allen moving forward is that Josh Allen legitimately I think is one of the top three or four quarterbacks in football. and I don't think it's really a particular debate at this point. I think the only people that would debate it would be people who would say to say he's not won the big game. He's not been able to get by Patrick Mahomes. But I think if you look at the performances, particularly last year and then that, you know, one year that they did make it to the AOC Championship game, you know, he balled out.
00:56:33
Speaker
He absolutely balled out and there's no, you know, and and the problem is, is that you're looking at a quarterback who, number one, is not going to miss wide open targets. Like these are the three quarterbacks that the the Texans have beat so far on the year. And number two is a guy that definitely can beat you with his legs. And I think as a runner, you know, I don't know if it'd be an interesting debate, you know, when Tim gets back, but you know, is he a better runner than Anthony Richardson, you know, we beat in week one. um I mean, there's there's definitely, especially around the goal line, you can make that argument that, you know, Josh Allen is, you know, the single best threat, you know, throwing or or rushing the football. I mean, the Mark Jackson fans obviously are going to have a lot to say about that as well. But I think what is basically is happened with that team is you've got an OC and Joe Brady who's figured out that
00:57:34
Speaker
Josh Allen is the focal point of the offense. And so if we put the ball in Josh Allen's hands, that if we set up enough of a run game with James Jackson, that we can basically move the ball at will because now Josh Allen is not having to throw the ball to Stefan Diggs. He's got a good tight end that he could throw the ball to. He's got a couple of young wide receivers you know who are not you know household names that he could throw the ball to.
00:58:03
Speaker
He's got backs out of the back field he can go ball to. He can pull it down and he can run with it. And so what they basically done is they basically said, you know, we're going to let Josh Allen lead the way. Now, Ravens have a better defense than most teams. And so the Ravens were able to to shut that down. But basically what they did is they, they took away the run game. And so they said, okay, Josh Allen, you're going to have to put on your Superman cape and you're going to have to do it by yourself. I don't know if.
00:58:33
Speaker
anybody in the NFL is capable of doing that. Maybe Patrick Mahomes, but, you know, maybe that's the only guy. So if the Texans are going to win on Sunday, at least defensively. The only way they're going to be able to do it is they got to make them one dimensional. They're going to have to have, you know, the rest all on Josh Allen's arm. And then, and hope that, you know, Kamari Laster, hoping that Derek Stingley Jr., they show up, ball out.
00:59:01
Speaker
and cover those wide receivers and lock them down. And then hoping that maybe a jail in Petrie, for instance, can get on Dalton Kincaid and can shut him down or at least slow him down to the point where the only thing you really would have to worry about at that point is Josh Allen running the football. Now on defense, I don't know if Tim saw this, but I'll get to when he gets back. Von Miller has been suspended by the NFL for personal conduct for four games.
00:59:31
Speaker
I think that comes at a really nice time. It's taken away a key pass rusher away from the Buffalo defense. And so the key is, is that, you know, we got to keep Stroud upright. Hopefully Joe Mixon and or Damian Pierce can come back and give this team a little bit more of a running attack. But also, you know, maybe Tank Dell can come back, you know, maybe he can you know, come back and give this team that third wide receiver that it just becomes really difficult for, you know, the opposing teams to guard because I think, you know, what, what Stroud has shown is that if he's given time to throw, he's going to find one of those guys. I think the teams that have beaten him, which is right now the Vikings and the Bears defense, I think as well, I think they did so because they were able to apply pressure. They were able to take away the running game and they were able to apply pressure and Stroud.
01:00:24
Speaker
and hurry them into you know some bad throws. Some of those, you know particularly in the Vikings game, turned into picks. um they These things are going to happen to every quarterback in the NFL, no matter what your name is. If you've got particularly pressure coming at you up the middle, you know through your center and through your guards, there's very little the quarterback's going to be able to do. You know you can flush them out. you You can make some occasional plays. but You know, those defenses have also been able to swallow up Strad and sack them more than occasionally. I mean, right now the Texans, even after ah two allowing just two sacks are on pace to allow the second most sacks that they've allowed in franchise history. After that 2002 squad that had David Carr being sacked 73 times. And I think, you know, everybody in Houston who's been alive for that long knows what happened to David Carr's career.
01:01:20
Speaker
Um, I think he's still seen the ghost of pass rushers and he's in the NFL's film studio. So, or an NFL network studio. So I, you know, I think the key is the, it's going to be the offensive line. And so, you know, we're going to have to clean up some of those penalties and we're just going to have to make sure that, you know, we're at least slowing down the pass rush just enough to give Stroud some time to connect with some of those targets.
01:01:47
Speaker
I think, you know, we saw, you know, I think we still got two good tight ends. I think Dalton Schultz had a couple of catches, but, you know, he, he hasn't really been heard from much this year. Uh, Kate Stover is a good looking tight end. I think is going to have, you know, a future in this offense, you know, after probably a year to adjust, but he's made a few good plays here on the season. Uh, Dario Gubalwe, he obviously had a big game, had a couple of, he had to touch it out at the end, but also had,
01:02:15
Speaker
a key third down when we were backed up because of those penalties, where you know he was able to run you know from a short catch for a first down. So I think there are plenty of targets coming back and forth. um So as as I was telling the the the listeners to him, I don't know if you saw this, but Von Miller has been suspended for four games.
01:02:41
Speaker
Disney that on that policy. So hopefully that's going to take a little bit of luster off of the buffaloes pashrops And just before we move on Scott, there's been some Scuttle bud or you know and Reporters specifically asked Doug Peterson if he lost their locker room And of course the answer no, but I do want to ask you do you think Doug Peterson has has lost the locker room in Jacksonville? Did he have it I mean, they were a playoff team two years ago. Yeah. Uh, you know, fell off last year and now this year I've started on four and and Trevor Lawrence looks awful. He's lost his last nine stars. Yeah. Um, I think the problem with Trevor Lawrence and and I didn't really talk much about him while you were gone. So this is kind of new conversation is that I think he is somewhere probably in the 15 to 20 rank as a quarterback.
01:03:39
Speaker
I think he's a guy that if you surrounded him with a lot of talent and you put a ah good system in place, he can succeed. so But let me let me put it to you this way, Tim. Would you rather have him or Sam Darnold?
01:03:59
Speaker
Right now, Sam Darnold. But i mean doesn't that the fact that you have to hesitate kind of tell you you know where we are at this point? No, absolutely. He's one of the five highest-paid quarterbacks in football. and Number one overall pick. Well, and if you listen to the game, i I didn't watch the game, but to listen to the game, I could count probably on more than one hand, listening to va Mark Van De Beer talk about, oh, that wide receiver was wide open. but Lawrence just couldn't get on the ball. How many times do you think that happens to Stroud? One to two a game, maybe? Yeah. Yeah. How many times does that happen to Josh Allen?
01:04:37
Speaker
I think every quarterback has one or two a game, but that's, that's a good quarterbacks. That's not happening a half dozen times. Um, but you you look at this team and this defense, the only thing that concerns me is that if you put Caleb Williams, Anthony Richardson and Trevor Lawrence into a same box, the box is that those guys miss some wide open throats that probably build this defense out. No, I agree.
01:05:07
Speaker
There's some coverage issues and I think that they've gotten a little bit better. But yeah, last week, some some throws were missed. So we'll see what what Josh Allen does. But let's move this thing on as we talk about our horses ass of the week. Scott, who do you got of course? Okay, I brought him up. Larry Mutunsel is absolutely a horse's ass. And so the the character, i'm goingnna I'm going to compare him to a character, Tim.
01:05:36
Speaker
And I'm going to think of a scene, a movie. I'm not going to list it, but you tell me, I'm going to just give you the name of the character and you tell me the scene. I'm thinking Roger Dorn. Uh, is it the one where he pisses all over the contract? Yeah. like No, my contract says I don't have to do any calisthenics that I deem unnecessary. What do you think of that? This is a son of a bitch. Tunsel.
01:06:06
Speaker
who takes two days off a week minimum. He ah he didn't practice today. Didn't practice at all. Now, you could sit there and say, is he nursing an injury? Maybe, but this guy never practices. like He's taking at least one day off a week that the team is practicing. It's normal customary in the NFL that you're taking Monday off. So there everybody's getting Monday off. But this guy's taking additional, and in camp he's taking days off,
01:06:35
Speaker
After you know the the penalties in the Vikings game, he's sitting there blaming it on the center. He's blaming it on the officials. He's blaming it on everybody but himself. I haven't heard in his comments after this week, but I imagine it's maybe pretty much the same. and And I have to sit there and say, I openly question whether Laramie Tencel gives a shit. Maybe he does. Maybe. But to me, and and I've coached teams, I've coached volleyball teams, granted, not football.
01:07:06
Speaker
But I coach volleyball teams. My teams that were the best teams that I coached, the best player on that team was also the hardest worker on that team, because that's how you have to get it done. My teams that sucked, the teams that I hated coaching, were the teams where the best player knew they were the best player and said, what, I'm not going to practice. What the hell are you going to do about it? Those are the teams that have were the worst teams. When I was in high school on the golf team,
01:07:33
Speaker
Uh, my sophomore year, our, our best player was a, I don't want to call anybody out, but our, our best player was a a guy who was that way knew he was the best player. You know, his family was members at Bay Oaks had been playing golf his whole life really didn't have to grind that hard. Well, you know what, by the time district rolled around sophomore year, he got caught by a kid who was my age, who was a sophomore who went out and shot two or three under.
01:08:01
Speaker
For district and won the whole damn thing because he grinded his ass off because he was out there Every single day trying to get better while our guy who went in ranked number one um Skip practice to go get drunk and smoke weed like it is what it is, right? Like live life have fun, but don't expect to be the best person on your team for long Or don't expect your team to win If you're not willing to put the work in well, there's that but also What would it have done for you if this guy would have been out there in front of everybody crying his ass off? What kind of example would that have set for you? It definitely would drive us crazy too as a team. and We're like, why does this guy get to skip practice? Why does he get to do, you know, whatever it was? And hey, it is what it is, right? We had, we had a golf coach who half the team went to Casa Ole during last period of day. I would say seventh period, but back we had a sixth period day.
01:09:01
Speaker
So at 1 30, they were like deuces and they hung out at Casa life for like two and a half hours because our coach didn't go out to the course. How good was our team? Not that good. Yeah. Same. Our, our worst year was my junior year where, where all you had to do was tell coach Tucker that you were going to tutorials and he did not like ask for any other follow-up and then couldn't figure out why three of his top five players were failing classes, even though they were in, as he said, tutorials three days a week. It's like,
01:09:30
Speaker
My mom's driving down the street, and she's like, hey, that's three of your teammates drinking beer on the front stoop. Those classes are hard, Tim. You've got to cut them some slack. i I've got a two-headed scumbag here, Scott. Let me do a minor one first. Horses ass. Horse, I'm sorry. Two-headed horses ass here. Let me do a minor one first, and then we'll move to the main one. My minor one is going to be the owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, um Ken Kendrick.
01:09:59
Speaker
who blasts the signing of Jordan Montgomery for his $47.5 million dollar contracts, blaming himself for making the recommendation to the front office late in spring training. He said, looking back, in hindsight, a horrible decision to have invested that money in a guy that performed as poorly as he did. It was or is the biggest mistake this season from a talent standpoint, and I'm the perpetrator of that.
01:10:23
Speaker
um Montgomery's got a player option for next year with that team. I gotta think he's he's gonna take his his talent though Well, it's for 22 and a half million dollars. I might say fuck you and take it who knows who knows Scott but for me my my main horse's ass is the Houston Astros offense you Completely shit the bed these two games what literally were the two biggest games of the season you scored one run and and it came in the ninth inning on on in game one and i get it as we talked about school ball's gonna win a slight young he's fantastic you you went up there and swung freely and wildly and allowed him to get seven innings of of shot up baseball then today you did the same shit and a bullpen day and you finally work it in your favor and get the bases loaded and nobody out and and and you get two runs out of it and then your bullpen goes and blows the your most expensive bullpen pieces go and blow the lead in the eighth inning and it's just
01:11:22
Speaker
It's so frustrating because this team has got the arms, but the bats just never never materialized the way the back of the baseball card numbers should have this season, Scott. For a team to add back of the card numbers the way they do, it just never worked out. And we sang Dana Brown's praises last week, and you know he deserves praise for you know cobbling together a pitching staff on the year.
01:11:49
Speaker
but I think the one big whiff was a deadline not picking up a bat. Looking back on it now, absolutely. How did you not get a bat, especially knowing what they knew about Kyle Tucker being out as long as he did? I mean, we were rolling out Ben Gamel five days a week at one point this season. That was the state of this team. And then when Ben Gamel got hurt, you felt the need to go get Jason Hayward. Yeah, both simultaneously for a while. That is true. That is true.
01:12:18
Speaker
But and I mean, the point being, um, this offense just never clicked. And, you know, I don't know if it's syndrome. I don't know if it's just the collection of losses over this year, right? Like how many, how many key pieces walking away can you sustain before the finally tilts the other direction? I don't know.
01:12:42
Speaker
But the offensive mentality, you mentioned it earlier, it's been it's it's not a championship mentality. you You have to be more comfortable hitting with two strikes than they have been. You have to be more comfortable hitting from behind an account. You have to be comfortable working account. And you can't be up there thinking, I'm only going to get one pitch to hit. If it comes with the first pitch, that's it. I got to swing. Because that to me, you mentioned you don't know what Cintron's approach is. I don't think we know that.
01:13:10
Speaker
But I it it seems to me like he's one of those guys who truly believes like you get a pitch to hit in a bat Don't miss it. And if it comes with the first pitch, that's fine. So we get the first pitch. Whereas I'd love to go a whole game We're like, hey, nobody's gonna get the first pitch tonight. and Let's see what happens Yeah, absolutely. and And like I said, we don't know what his message is we know that They're probably not listening And if that's the case, you still got a fire and if this is his message you have to fire it I think, you know, a spot to be in a first year manager, he wanted some sort of like institutional awareness of you don't want to rock the boat overnight. But Hey, like, this is your staff. You, you need to make the changes. And at the end of the day, this offense was just never good enough all season. They didn't score runs early in the year. They had some high points, but this team got to where it was because you're, you're, you're starting pitching went to an elite level.
01:14:10
Speaker
That is why you made the playoffs. It is nothing to do with any bat on this roster. You know, yiner had a good month. You're gone. Had a good mom, things of that nature. But again, you never had a truly fluid offensive team at any point this year, but I would go back and this is where, you know, go back to your memory banks, Tom. Let's go back to when this team was this most successful 2022 playoff run. Why did this team?
01:14:39
Speaker
Roll through the playoffs The bullpen or the pitching in general thisings in general, right? I mean we're talking about it. No fucking hitter in the world series I Mean that don't have to score at least one run to win that game. Yeah, but that hasn't happened since 1956 So no, you had to score enough though to give the bullpen elite and this team can might even do that But the point is you look at the moments that you're thinking of this team, right? And i'm thinking of the mariner series Your offense does shit for eight innings And then Yordan puts on the Superman cape and wins game one for you. Okay. Thank you, Yordan. Then you go into Seattle and you're playing to a zero, zero tie for what was it? 47 innings. I lost count after a while. Um, and you win one nothing on a, on a Peรฑa Bob. Your office did not win you that world series. There's no way you would ever convince me of that.
01:15:37
Speaker
So even when this team was at its very best, it wasn't the offense. Alex Centrone has never been a good hitting coach.
01:15:48
Speaker
You're right. I mean, you're right. But if you look at the 2017 team. Oh, sure. That was a good one. That was an offensive win, right? You had a 13 to 12 as a final one of those games. Oh, yeah.
01:15:59
Speaker
so I don't know. I feel like there's got to be some sort of happy medium because if you look on on paper at least, the pitching staff for this team coming back next year should be damn close to elite again, right? like I think Hader probably is maybe a little better next year. he He was one of those guys who had a shortened um spring training, joining the team a little late, maybe late in this process in February. and It took him a little bit to get settled into his new home where I feel like he's going to have a full offseason in Houston.
01:16:29
Speaker
it'll probably go better next year. oppos ah bre you I got think he's he kind of goes every other year, so I'm expecting to bounce back for Breu. I'd like to see Ortt back again next year. um you know We saw some good some good young arms, Ferguson maybe, King. um Even that guy, Sean Dubin. Dubin. Long story short, right like the pitching staff's OK.
01:16:55
Speaker
You don't have to go resign Kukuchi, but I would like to because of what you gave up theoretically with with the starting the young starting pitching to go get him and maybe Will Wagner because now you don't have a third baseman next year if you don't go get pregnant Whatever. I think Kukuchi has had his if I'm and this is where you and I have talked before too about being a good agent for a player if I'm Kukuchi's agent I look at him and say I'm going to try and get us back here. We may take a little bit less money, but you literally, even if it's only a one-year deal, you pitch better here than you have anywhere else in your tire crew ever. I think we need to be here another year at least. That's what I'm telling mike my client. I'll take a little bit less to keep you in Houston because you pitch better here. Yeah, absolutely. ah The only question is going to be is that you mentioned some names. Can you afford Christian Walker, Alex Bregman,
01:17:50
Speaker
um jock peterson and kakuchi i mean that's a jim crane question we we can afford it right is he willing to open the book is he will are any of these players willing to maybe accept some of those delayed money deals that the that the los angeles dodgers have found ways to make work through the last year and a half can we defer some money down the line i don't know maybe kyle tucker can take like a a big time deferred money deal. I don't know. i made We can get some, most fun this podcast will sponsor Kyle Tucker for a dollar a year to help. Could you imagine 2,100 and here comes Tucker's like aging grandchildren to collect the Tucker check? That'd be hilarious. Kyle Tucker the sixth is now here to pick up the the next million dollar check. like yeah like At some point, right like
01:18:46
Speaker
Denise Bonio, whoever his daughter is gonna go picking up that check. So like yeah be hilarious of like Jackson Tucker with an X is the one who goes and gets it All right, Scott, let's switch it up. Let's talk some positive things here this You know, it's been a frustrating week, but we can we can talk positive stuff to we got for a hat tip of the tip of the cap this week I think you and I agreed on two guys. So I'll take one, you take the other. I think that's you know i think both of us agreed that both of these guys deserve absolute hat tips. Mine will go willll go local, Justin Verlander. I think that there's a 99% chance he's thrown his last pitch as an Astro. I think you'd agree with me on that one. I think there's probably a better than 50% chance he may have thrown his last pitch period.
01:19:42
Speaker
I think he may hang it up. Maybe not. We'll see. But what does this guy do? He comes back. He admits that maybe I come back a little bit too early. And so he really struggled down the stretch. He fought hard. I remember, um, I can't remember who we got the victory against where he got to four and two thirds innings and just couldn't get out of the fifth so they couldn't get him the win. But in his last outing,
01:20:11
Speaker
He looked shaky in the early going. He certainly did give up three runs fairly early on. But that guy gutted it out. He goes six innings, three runs, wins his last at outing as Nastro. I got to tip my cap to you because as Tim has stated on past episodes, he absolutely changed the trajectory of this organization. You don't win the 2017 World Series without him. No, you don't. And you probably don't win any other ones.
01:20:42
Speaker
And so, you can thank him for two trophies, because I certainly think in 2022, he's coming back from Tommy John with a 175 ERA, 175 ERA. That's just ridiculously, it's a stupid good. I mean, that's like Bob Gibson, like, you know, like good. Coming back from Tommy John surgery. I mean, it's it's just three Cy Youngs,
01:21:10
Speaker
and the American League MVP to boot. Not one of the better World Series pitching resumes in history, only one World Series victory, but overall post-season resume is pretty damn good. I think he's second all-time to Andy Pettit in post-season wins. So all-around good guy, and and to put the cherry on this ice cream sundae, he told Joe Espada, he told Dana Brown, you don't have to put me on the post-season roster.
Justin Verlander's Legacy: Best Astros Pitcher?
01:21:41
Speaker
I haven't earned it. You don't have to put me there. And that's a guy who at 40 could have said, I'm the best pitcher alive right now, active in the game. You put me on the but you give me the ball in game one. He could have been that guy, but he wasn't. And that's because you know JV's a good guy. Yeah, I will forever love Justin Verlander. I think, I don't know if it's the correct,
01:22:09
Speaker
but I think the argument can be made that he is, for his time in, as an Astro, the best Astros pitcher we've ever had. I'm not saying he is, I think it's between him and Nolan, but I i i wouldn't disrespect you if you told me that Justin Verlander's time in Houston is the greatest run a Houston pitcher has ever had. Because up until this year,
01:22:36
Speaker
like You pretty much guarantee a win if Justin Verlet was pitching, at least during the regular season, right? Like it was JV day, it was on, let's go. Guy's going to give us six or seven innings of one or two run baseball and it was awesome. And as I as ive mentioned numerous times on this on this show, change the trajectory of the Houston Astros twice, right? You wouldn't trade it for him in 2022. You brought him back.
01:23:00
Speaker
and He was I'm sorry 2023 and again He took a team that needed that little boost and and brought us to the ALCS last year um and I think the final is the fire if this is the final moment his career sucks with the Astros at least but again, just to show who Justin Verlander was or is Hunter Brown grew up idolizing this guy and what is at this point the biggest start and Hunter Brown's career is Who does he go sit next to in between innings and talk and and make sure that he's doing everything right? Justin Verlander. Six innings and one run, six plus innings and one run baseball for for Hunter Brown today. And he was sitting next to his guy the whole way getting coached through it. So another guy that I think you and I talked a couple of weeks ago and I didn't think he was maybe a candidate for a coaching kind of role.
01:23:54
Speaker
But after seeing this side of Berlander over the last two weeks, especially going back to the on-air interviews they had of him after they clinched the AO West, I maybe wonder if he does get into a pitching coach type role at some point in his life. I think so. And I think if he were willing to go down the minor leagues, could you imagine being a minor league pitcher and having Justin Berlander tell you things? Could you imagine how good and how prepared these guys would be when they came up?
01:24:23
Speaker
I mean you wouldn't nobody's telling that gotta fuck off. Yeah, I mean he's's and he's going in the hall thing three no hitters for JV Obviously the one in Houston where the fuck is Toro? Cy young here two World Series JV I love you man, and if if this was it fuck you were awesome man, and and I I would take him back on a ah cheap deal next year, but I Gotta think a team like the Tigers who's desperate for starting pitching and needs a veteran could could throw a lot more money on them than we could Yeah, I mean the Tigers have one starter and then everything else is all bullpen stuff. Yeah. All right Taylor I left you a big a big tip of the cap open for you Yeah, and I'm gonna tip my tap to a guy that let's be honest Scott you and I should have been talking about more this year we are So, you know
01:25:19
Speaker
Students of the game, like, yes, we love the Houston Astros, but something historic happened
Shohei Otani's Historic Season
01:25:24
Speaker
this year. You know, Otani completed the 50-50 season with um home runs as the 50 and not doubles as Craig Beggio once did. This was a 50 home run, 50 stolen base season, which has never been done before. And I think it was a big miss on our part to to not comment as it was going on. We really didn't hat tip Otani. I don't think at any point during the year,
01:25:48
Speaker
But I'm going to do it now, because he signed the huge deal this offseason. He is not going to pitch. He then gets the whole gambling thing happen all before the season even starts. And he still is able to respond and and come back with what is arguably one of the top five offensive seasons of all time. Yeah. Well, and into and always take these cheapies like when you you go 40-40, because like when Jose Conseco was the first guy to do it,
01:26:19
Speaker
He did it with like 41 home runs and 40 steals. This is a guy that hit like 54, is it 54 or 55 home runs? Yeah. And 59 steals, which actually broke each row's record for the most, uh, steals by a Japanese player in the, in the, um, uh, born player in the major leagues. So you could make an argument that Aaron judge is a better overall hitter. Uh, you know, Aaron judges for a higher average gets on base more often.
01:26:49
Speaker
hit more dingers, drove in more runs. You can make that argument. But the fact that this guy got paid, again, one of those delayed deals, $700 million dollars over 10 years and absolutely delivered every dime, every dime. I don't know that you could say that he's overpaid based on you know what he did on the field. You can't say he's overpaid probably based on the merchandising that yeah the the Dodgers were able to do off of him. So, I mean, it's rare for somebody with that exorbitant in a contract to live up to it. And again, only did half of what he normally does, right? Because he's also a Cy Young level starter who can throw 100 miles an hour. So this isn't even final formotonic, right? Like next year, he could hit like this and and and start every fifth day. so
01:27:48
Speaker
Um, man, great, great season show. Hey, not, not that you're going to hear this, but I tip my cap to you, man. Absolutely. Well, you don't ever know. He may have listened to it. Maybe, maybe his interpreter will listen in and just kind of pass it along. Could you imagine how.
01:28:08
Speaker
Intense the background check was for interpreter number two like after Like after everything that's happened like obviously he still needs an interpreter, right? So they're like we got to find somebody but we're gonna bring the FBI in we're gonna You know seeing your friends DNA. Give me a bit of your blood spit this tube. Oh Man, okay All right, Scott, let's take a look somebody somewhere has pissed us off and they need to be recognized as scumbags of the week. Who do you got for us, Scott? Well, I would go based on last night's performance. I would normally go JD Vance, but basically in nothing he did surprise me. Um, he's a smooth talking bullshit artist. That's what he is. And to me, you know, the three things I learned last night was that, uh, number one, his mom was a drug hope, you know, had and maybe a few problems with the crack pipe.
01:29:06
Speaker
ah Maybe more than a few we learned that because he mentioned it about maybe four or five times um Number two that you know Kamala Harris and her administration hasn't accomplished nearly enough And she's had you know three and a half years to do it as vice president and number three um He seems to remember the the Trump four years a little bit differently than I would say most of us remember it but you know, I wouldn't expect anything different and so my scumbag is going to be a basically mainstream media and everything we're doing with debates because They set it up to where and I looked at the poll numbers it was about 50-50 split as to who won the debate last night because my Particularly your undecided voters. They don't know shit They don't know that JD Vance is lying his ass off mainly because they had an agreement beforehand that we're gonna fact-check them
01:30:02
Speaker
And then in JD Vance, in his moment when he was fact-checked, you know, just in a very minimal way, we agreed there would be no fact-checking. I mean, what kind of dipshit says that? I mean, that I don't know if that makes them a scumbag as much as it makes them just dumbass. But we've been doing debates like this for years. We've been allowing politicians to lie their asses off without anybody saying like, ba nope, that's not it.
01:30:29
Speaker
Or bet that wasn't my question, douchebag. Okay. This was my question. Answer it. What? It's just political theater at this point. And if you're an undecided voter on October 2nd, God help you. I don't know. I don't know what to say about you if you're really truly undecided because you know, if you've lived in this country in the last nine years, you have to know what's going on. I mean, yeah. yeah And,
01:30:57
Speaker
To me, the the Trump voters don't piss me off nearly as much as people who say they're undecided. It's like, what what the fuck? I mean, at least if you want to sit there and say, I'm a douchebag asshole, at least own it. I mean, I get it. You know, some people are assholes. That's that's what their brand. Jay Vance is an asshole. That's his b brand. He's a smooth talking asshole, but he's an asshole.
01:31:22
Speaker
And so I would call it a scumbag, but I've already done that, was it well was it three weeks in a row or two weeks in a row? I think it was three. He nearly avoided the the Golden Sombrero last week. I'm not giving it to JD Vance. JD Vance came out with the performance I thought he would. He didn't surprise me. So I'm giving it to mainstream media for just the way we set these debates up. Yeah, I agree with you on that one. now Some people are assholes, and I realized I got one living down the street from me, okay? This person proudly has the Trump Vance sign out front in the yard. And like li you said, at this point, if you're a Trumper, I get it. I think you're a fucking asshole, but I get it. But you want to know what makes him a real asshole, Scott, in my opinion? The fact that yesterday, they added a Ted Cruz for Texas sign to their front yard. Who the fuck is putting up Ted Cruz signs?
01:32:18
Speaker
like i i don't Mentally understand the trumpers, but like I get it right you're in you made your decision But no one's fucking putting out signs in the yard for Ted Cruz. I Saw the commercial last night for the first time where they had a guy dressed as Colin all red tackling a girl in a soccer field and I'm 50 years old Tim my capacity to be shocked and appalled It is pretty high
01:32:51
Speaker
But I saw that ad, I was like, what the fuck was that? How is that not slander or how is that not like libelous material? You are showing this man tackling women. I just don't know. I mean, I guess maybe maybe they could come back and say, well, we did not say it was called all red. We're saying it was the guy that had his jersey that liked him. Maybe they're that's where they're going with that with the fence. But to call that high minded debate,
01:33:19
Speaker
It's just, I mean, it's, I talked about Ted Cruz last week. I can't get on the Ted Ted Cruz thing again. Cause is get off bull get up I was just saying you're an asshole is all I'm saying. But my scumbag this week, Scott, um, I also was appalled by JD Vance last night, but I also am like you. I don't want to give him the credit.
01:33:47
Speaker
So my scumbag this week is going to be the man responsible for why we're having to even watch JD Vance in a vice president presidential
Political Influences and Ideologies
01:33:59
Speaker
debate. And that's Peter Thiel.
01:34:01
Speaker
Peter Teo is the former CEO of PayPal who cashed out and he is one of those guys who thinks because he was good at one thing, creating PayPal, he should rule the fucking world. And he met JD Vance, a very young law student, and he has funded every bit of JD Vance's life alongside with the um political theorems of of another crazy person who has been writing secretly on on blogs for the longest time under the name Mencius Mulbug, his his real name actually being Curtis Yarrvit. Insane stuff that was completely funded by Peter Thiel because he truly thinks the rich people of Silicon Valley should rule the world. So he has spent millions and millions of millions of dollars to make JD Vance somehow somewhat the tiniest little bit palatable
01:34:56
Speaker
so we can get him in office. This guy is a piece of shit. Peter Thiel controls way too much of the world. He's also a fucking idiot. He loves to name things after a Lord of the Rings when I guarantee you J.R. Tolkien would fucking hate him. Like, he's a fascist. The whole purpose of Lord of the Rings was fighting fascism. And this dude names his company after the the crystal ball in Lord of the Rings, Palantir, not understanding the fucking point of Lord of the Rings. Come on, Peter. You're a fucking scumbag.
01:35:27
Speaker
I want to go back to your other guy. Curtis Jarvan? Yes. I introduced you to his theories the other day. Yeah. And um I listened to Rachel Maddow. And she she did a pretty long segment on him. And my favorite quote, i can't I'm not going to get it exactly right. But basically, the American people's got to get over their anti-dictorial bent.
01:35:53
Speaker
I don't know if you remember if you remember that quote, maybe you can clean that up. He truly wants the American public to move towards like a dictatorial state. like He truly believes that like there should be one person just in charge of everything, and that like that person should be more of like a CEO of a company. You should have companies that control... Basically, he wants to bring back city states that are run by companies, and the CEO of that company runs the city that you live in.
01:36:20
Speaker
Oh, sure. And then basically, and also, and this is what J.D. Vance signed off on. um he He made a comment on a podcast of removing out the ruling, you know, the leadership class like a tumor is what he said. Well, actually, he's also a big he's a big proponent of what's called rage, which is remove all government employees. Yeah. And and and but also getting to the point where he wants to remove all university employees and basically sell off the land.
01:36:49
Speaker
and Because it's at on prime real estate, that's what he says. Universities are on prime real estate. And so, because I guess you know when you're educated, you're too liberal, I guess. i yeah The thing is is that we used to have, and this is what kills me, we used to have high-minded conservatives in this country. I'm sure you've heard of William F. Buckley Jr.
01:37:15
Speaker
um He was you know a big proponent of intellectual you know conservative thought. We don't have that anymore. I mean, when when you're when Epstein is the pinnacle of your intellectual thought on the right, a guy who I guess sounds articulate, so we're going to say he's intellectual. I mean, that that's that's the brain rot in the right right now.
01:37:46
Speaker
The right is is controlled at this point by a series of people who are worried about nothing more than their personal interests and they truly feel that people who have made a lot of money are smart and they feel like they can help sustain that money and that's really all that matters. They are willing to break down personal freedoms for every single citizen in the United States as long as they get to keep the money that they have and make it grow.
01:38:13
Speaker
And the best way that they know how to make it grow is to treat America like a fortune 500 company or anytime you have a profitable quarter fire an extra 200 people and make it even more profitable quarter and that's how they want to treat us. Did you see my my piece on heresy? I did not yet. No And so basically the the thing that scares me And you know what a heretic is because you you grew up Catholic But to me a modern-day heretic is somebody that believes in nothing And that is what we call a nihilist. And so nihilism, for those of y'all who don't know, is basically the belief that nothing matters. And so that's what that's what we're putting ah if up on the right. They used to be principled people that you know believed in family values and all this, that, and the other. They don't believe in any of that shit. um They basically believe they're transactional, as you've described. Whatever's gonna be best for me in the moment. And to me,
01:39:14
Speaker
As somebody who's fought conservatism in academia for my entire life, the the cry used to be that against liberals was that liberals were moral relativists, which is basically the idea is that what's morally right for you may not be morally right for me. They've replaced this moral absolutism with no morality whatsoever. Truth exists.
01:39:45
Speaker
Your truth and my truth might be different, but there is truth and it exists. And to me, a vote for the right now is a vote against truth. It's a vote for nihilism, which is, to me, you can complain about any ism that you want to in your life. You can play communism, socialism, fascism. The worst ism is nihilism.
01:40:10
Speaker
yeah because i have knight r scott I'd argue it's not nihilism because nihilism means you truly have zero beliefs and you put you there's also a Don't care as much with it right where I feel like these people have No moral belief, but they're willing to go in whatever direction that the money will flow I think I've talked a lot before but like I Again, I listen to ah a podcast that studies Alex Jones, and I feel like he's a perfect microcosm for the far right.
01:40:43
Speaker
where Alex doesn't have any true political beliefs. Alex will say whatever he wants to say that will get people to his website to buy his products. Trump doesn't have any political beliefs. Trump will say whatever he needs to say to get you to buy his fake watch or his sneakers or to donate to his campaign. or to And now we're at the point where all these Republicans will literally just say whatever they think that you want to hear, which will lead to you donating.
01:41:09
Speaker
I don't know if it's nihilism as much as it's more just flat fucking con-man-ism. Yeah, I mean, I guess we need to come up with a new term. Because, like, to me, nihilism means, like, you don't believe in anything, but you also don't fucking care, right? Like, there is a there is a nonchalance to nihilism that the Republican Party doesn't have. They care, but they care about getting your vote, and they care... they They care about self. I mean, to me, if if in the absence, to me, when when I think of nihilism in the absence of anything else mattering, then you have to matter. I mean, that's how I interpret it. I mean, it's it's like nihilistic libertarianism is really it's like it's really where it is, like nihilistic libertarianism, where, like, I don't want to be governed, but I also want everything to go in the in my favor. It's a weird combination. They've they've taken
01:42:04
Speaker
Being a libertarian to a to a whole other level. I I really don't but we need to we need to be in your bedroom though Yeah, like I think literally when you think about it, like the republican party is essentially um Like that south park episode the toilet safety administration is like I needs to check your asshole, sir You better not read that book either Hey burn books they put hey according to jd. Vance censorship is a huge huge problem in america But that's going to be all we have for you here this week on this show. If you want to hear more about Scott and I's thoughts on JD Vance and the litany of these topics, be sure to check out the thoughts of a native text and sub stack. I had one come out earlier this week. I'll have another one come out tonight. Scott is pretty much daily on the platform. So a lot of a lot of good content to read there if you just can't get enough of either one of us. Yeah. And it comes to the show page on Facebook.
01:43:00
Speaker
ah Tim and I are really pretty diligent about making sure we're cross posting Under our Facebook page, so if you don't want to go to sub stack you can you find us on the Facebook page? But hey if you want to subscribe to the sub stack that would be appreciated as well, but like the Facebook page subscribe to the sub stacks subscribe to the YouTube page join the following, but we appreciate everybody who joined us here as we um Eulgize the Astro season and hey, we're shifting. We're shifting focus Scott onward and upwards to to Houston Texans and Houston Rockets basketball Alright, we appreciate everybody and we will see y'all next week