The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
11/06 Hour 2 - Do We Believe Astros Will Bring Back Verlander and Kikuchi?
The all-electric Chevy Equinox EV combines everything you need when you're ready to go EV. Starting at $34,995, the 2025 Equinox EVLT gives you an impressive balance of all electric range, safety features for peace of mind, and effortless technology, including the 17.7-inch diagonal display screen, all at a price you'll love. The Chevy Equinox EV is the fun to drive all electric SUV that gives you what you need to do exactly what you want. The manufacturer suggested retail price excludes tax, title license, dealer fees, and optional equipment, dealer sets final price. To learn more, visit chevy.com/equinoxev. Don't sweat the technique! Coming to you live in the Veritex Community Bank Studios, it's the Killer V's. On ESPN 97.5 and 92.5. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. He's not going to give you anything that gives anything away with the current crop of players, free agents, draft picks, that sort of thing, whereas Dana Brown's going to be really nilly with whatever he says. He's just throwing it all out there and then hoping something sticks, and if he hits a date for a return on a guy with an injury, hopefully it comes close. Yeah, I would go Nick on that one as well. Todd, the show. Breggman is more to the team than your stats. He probably has the best work ethic. I remember when everybody said that out Correa too. Oh, the Astros are going to have this leadership problem now that Correa is gone. They won the World Series the next year. Yeah, look, I think that everybody's trying to put a value on everything. Like, you know, people the other day on social media, we're saying gold glove pay the man more. No, because everybody already knows he was an above average defender. There's no one saying that he's not, but at the end of the day, he's still 31 years old and he's not the defender. He used to be, doesn't have the range he used to be, doesn't have the army he used to have, and he never had a great arm to begin with. So everything's going to factor in and the market's still going to be the market at a 31 year old third baseman. The best case scenario is what Chapman got for the most part. Oh, I don't think it's best case. Maybe he gets more. I think that might be worst case. I think for the maybe best case in his mind is a lot more, but I think that's the going rate. I would take the over. You think he's going to get, I think he's going to get greater than 151 million. Yes. For for how many years does it matter? If it's, I mean, that's the money, right? I mean, I could see the AAV being around 30. If I don't think it's going to be higher than then I don't think it's going to be like 35. I don't think it's going to be like, because of his age, if he's going to want the higher AAV, it's going to be a lot less years than he's looking for if he's looking for six. I mean, Matt Chapman is the same agent. Chapman might even be a year older. Chapman, yeah, he's a little bit older than Bergman. I think that I think that's why I believe that the market is what Chapman got. Okay. If he wants more than that, he's going to have to take less years because I don't think that he's in this. I just don't think he's you think you think Bergman's total is above is over or under 151. I think that I think that he can get 30 a year for for five for five years. So you think under? Yeah. I'll take the over. You want a little drink bet on that? I don't care. Come on, put your put your put your coffee gift car where your mouth's at. Sure. Do you want a coffee bet on it or a vending machine drink out on it? Either one. All right. We'll do that. Not mark it down, Brian. Mark it down. 4952 postseason success for me. Tucker is a bum. I wouldn't call Tucker a bum. But he has disappeared in the post season. The free agent list is not robust. I take a look at Rizzo. Absolutely not. Yankies will get a Lonzo and replace Soto. That'd be interesting if a Lonzo goes to Yankee Stadium. I think Soto is gone though. I don't think Soto will be back with it. I think Soto's a Matt. I think he's gonna be a Dodger. I how do they afford this? The Dodger because of the Otani deal? It's the Dodgers. I don't think he's a Dodger. I think he's a Matt. I think that this is the revisit of Cohen just going all in. I think the Mets are going to spend a mad amount of money again this offseason trying to compete with the Yankees. And I think that I think a Lonzo could be a yank. I just don't think a Lonzo is going to be worth what a lot of teams are going to throw at him. But I think that Soto is a hell of a baseball player and I'd love to see him go to the Mets get him out of the American League and get him away from the Yankees. If those are the three options, Mets Dodgers Yankees, I would go Mets Dodgers Yankees of my where I want one Soto 21 year old one Soto 6 6 0 2 Tucker equals hard. And that's not a bad comp regular season success postseason. Not so much 4 9 5 2. Go ahead. Tucker's a killer be. Yeah. I mean, he doesn't have a B in his name. But I see what you did there. No, but I'm saying he's like bag one bigio. He's going to have great regular seasons. And so far the track record is he's not great in the play. He's got a title though. Like I know that his individual numbers aren't great. But he's got a title. He's had some big hits. I think he's greater in the postseason than bag one bigio. Like he's had his pinnacle has been higher. He was part of a title. It wasn't him that drove them to the title. No, you're you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. 4 9 5 2. It's just time to get younger to sustain success. That's where I'm at. I'm I'm there. Now, I don't know what they think of De Zinzo as a third baseman. But I don't hate that idea. Like people all the Astros don't have this heir apparent for Bragman. And you're probably right. They don't have this era pregnant heir apparent for Bragman. But if you're comfortable with him defensively at third De Zinzo, which I'm not sure they are. He didn't play third base in the bigs last year. And I did in the minors and was a shortstop. Was it in college? You know how state that he was a shortstop? Maybe maybe not. Um, he's had better minor league numbers than Jeremy Peña did whenever they handed the shortstop job to Jeremy Peña. People lose that. Like people forget that people were they wanted Angelton Simmons. Like Jeremy Peña's minor league numbers were lesser than Zach De Zinzo. So if they think that De Zinzo's defense is good enough to play third, the idea that there's not this heir apparent, well, you never thought that would Jeremy Peña either. And there's the other guy, Bryce Matthew. So I think it's probably the more likely of the two to be the third base. There was a blast in the past. Andrelton Simmons. I remember that when he wanted to. And he was the Angel shortstop where everybody thought he was a really, really good defender. He was. I think De Zinzo can hit. I think De Zinzo's bat is good. And I think it's major. It's major league good. He can be a good major league hitter. He can be a decent major league hitter. I don't know where his defensive position is. I don't know that I feel comfortable with him next year at third base because you're right. Matthews is the long-term solution at either shortstop or third base or somewhere in the infield. And I think that he will be up sooner rather than later. But do I think that any either of those guys is the right guy next year to play third base? I just don't. I'm not feeling it. De Zinzo better offensively than Peña was whenever he got his chance. Just yeah. And I think he's a good offense. I guess that I believe in him offense. And I'm with you about. I don't know what they think of him at third base. And I haven't seen him play third base. I have I don't watch minor league baseball. I listened to it every single time that they're on 92 five. But I don't I don't watch it. I don't know what De Zinzo looks like a third base. Now the fact that he didn't play there a single like he I think he played there once is like late game. They had no choice but never started there. Like, Okay, maybe they don't think he's great defensively there. Maybe they don't view him as a third baseman. So that kind of changes things a little bit. Dana Brown did mention De Zinzo yesterday when he was talking to the media. He said if he comes into camp and plays well, maybe first base will be his everyday job. We're very open to getting production from some of these young guys. I'm not afraid to go with young players. That's from Chandler Rome. So that tells me that they're not going to sign a first baseman. Right? Yeah, that tells you well, at least that's one of the options is that they're not going to go out to the market for a first baseman. But it also tells me that yiner Diaz is probably not going to be an alternative for you at first base either. I think there would be a better chance of yiner at first base with this quote than a free agent at first base agreed. But I think that what it sounds like is they're going to give De Zinzo every opportunity to play first base. And that means yiner is going to be your catcher and that means carotini is going to be your your backup catcher and or, you know, pinch hitter kind of thing. And I'm not sure that that's the best option for this team. McTaggart, who I think just plugged in, is anybody with the Astros? He had a newsletter two, three weeks ago, where he says that he thinks that yiner could eventually move to first but not next season. So with McTaggart saying that it gives me a pretty good idea that he will not be the first baseman next year. But with this quote, and again, how much are you putting stock in what Dana Brown has to say? But if he's saying that that Zach De Zinzo has a chance to win the first base job out of spring training, that tells me that they're not interested in signing a free agent at first base. And it also tells me that they're probably going to roll out at least their plan right now is to roll out with a platoon of John Singleton against righties and Zach De Zinzo against lefties. Yeah, that's what I read out of it. That I would say that I completely 100% agree that it tells me they're not going out into the free agency market looking for a first baseman that then the interesting question to me is, are you looking for an outfielder? Because is your Don going to be your DH or is your Don going to be a guy that's going to platoon in the outfield as well? Because bet aside, I don't want your Don playing anything but DH next year. And I think that's the best position for him. And I think if you could find if you're not looking at first base, but you could find a bat in the outfield so that he could be healthy and play that and be in the lineup all the time at designated hitter. I'm fine with that because offensively, I think they would be okay. The bear quit. And then the other spinoff of that is Caratini going to get a lot less at bats in last year. Yeah, that's a good point. Like I don't unless they're using yiner as a DH from time to time, which I don't like because I don't want you on a plate left field. Dana Brown was talking about like priorities and he talks about pregnant being a priority. But he also mentioned some of the other things on the to-do list for the Astros this offseason. Yeah, so the biggest priority is third base. You know, we've got it down. You know, we would love to have Alex Breggman back. It's our biggest priority. So I mean, and if we could do something with firm up, you know, production at first base and, you know, get some help in the outfield. Maybe with a nice right hand, I mean, like my left hand bat, sorry, you know, to work out with Myers and McCormick. I mean, that would be good as well. And then maybe add some more depth to the bullpen. And as I've always told you guys, I'm always in the market for starters. So we have any opportunity to require starters, you know, to trade, or whatever, what have you. Interesting there. That's a lot of money for my production at first base. Now, maybe he's doing that with singleton into Zenzo, starting pitching relief pitching. He talked about trading for a starting pitcher. It makes me think he's not in the market for a free agent starting pitcher. Caught my ear that he would be looking to deal to try and add a starting pitcher in a trade. And that's interesting to me because I think, I think that they have some guys that he would probably throw into a deal. I think that's more just keeping the eye open. I don't think that he's going to be shopping for a starting pitcher. I think if somebody comes to helm with like an offer, he wouldn't refuse it. Now, I do think that they signed one reliever just to kind of, you know, bridge the gap a little bit. He mentioned also that they will tender, Chasmic, McCormick, and Jake Myers. Some people are like, Oh, are they going to get rid of them to save a little bit of money? No, that would be silly. It'd be foolish. Both of them are making peanuts, bring both of them back. Now, I think they could trade Jake. I think they're going to trade Jake. That's what I was leaning towards. As part of a deal, he's making trades. I think Jake's going to be in a trade. This is the off season that I wanted a year ago, firm up first base production, sign a starter, bringing a left handed bat. I wanted this in off season ago. So Dana Brown's acting a year later. Now I do think a left handed bat makes sense in the outfield. I think that Jock Peterson kind of catches my attention. He's just so bad defensively. He's bad. But he also mentions the outfield part. Like it makes me wonder if the Jordan Alvarez just full time DH. I hope so. I hope that this is the realization they've come to because they know how less than they are if he's not in the lineup as an offensive weapon. And I think that should be the number one priority. As much as we have always kitted and joked and had the Jordan rules, it's time to just make him your full time designated hitter and roll with somebody else. I hope that they legitimately go out and get an outfield possibility as a left fielder so that he doesn't have to play. And you upgrade your offense with a guy that can actually swing the bat from the left side. See, I think you can get away with a bad outfielder and left field at minute make park. I think that I think that Jock is doable because minute made park is an easy. That's not an easy left field of play. It's just not very rangy. It's not very big. Exactly. I was going to say it's not about it's not about how much ground you cover. It's about just playing the idiosyncrasies of the scoreboard and the crevices and the the different, you know, ways the walls turn. But basically all you got to do is turn around and figure out how to play the wall. Be careful who you call an idiosyncrasy now. Why not move your on to first says three five nine zero. That experiment felled in the minor leagues. It's just not going to happen. I know that it would be awesome because, hey, the yard on is going to play the field and he's going to occupy first base and you can have a slugger at first base. That experiment failed. It's not going to happen. You know what could happen to his hamstring if he stretches. I know everything that can happen to your on rolling out of bed. He goes to make a stretch and dig a ball out of the dirt. Look out. He didn't make his city in Tampa because he aggravated his neck with the hotel pillow. So like smoke bomb in Atlanta, he can get injured anywhere. Here is Dana Brown on you say Kakuchi, the idea of potentially bringing him back. Kakuchi's time in Houston was really, really good. And so, you know, we would be excited to have him back as well. That would be a nice piece to add to our rotation. And so, you know, talking with Scott, you know, we're going to try. That sounds like he's gone. It does. It sounds like his time when he said Kakuchi's time in Houston was good. That basically is a thanks for the memories and good luck on your next venture. That was a goodbye. Yep. That was a goodbye. And then listen to this one for Dana on Justin Verlater because we saw yesterday's report. She's going to talk to his angel on this. After listening to it, I have a totally different reaction. I'm talking to Mark Peepa today. So, you know, we'll know a little bit more about that. But again, JB's time here in Houston has been outstanding. Been a big part of the winning tradition here. And so, we're going to talk with Mark and probably know a little bit more later about that. So, he's going to talk to his agent. He got yet. He'll know a little bit more, a little bit more after talking to him. Meanwhile, with Bergman, he's already had back and forth with Boris. Like, whenever I saw the headline yesterday, we're always going to talk to JB's agent. Oh, he's going to be back, you know, 10, 12 million dollars for one year after listening to it. It doesn't sound like they're in on Justin Verlander. He got my takeaway. Yeah. My takeaway is we're going to talk to his agent just to verify what he's looking for, knowing full well. We're not going to pay what he's looking for. Yeah. And we saw enough that. And again, he started it out with kind of like a thanks for the memories. He was great while he was here. And when he was an Astro, but he's going to be somewhere else next year. And if he hasn't talked to his agent yet, he's not a priority. Right. Because what do we know about Bergman and Boris? He's already talked to them and has had back and forths with them. This also tells me, Jim Crane decided this is the year that I don't get involved and say go get JB again. Well, he didn't. He didn't hear he went to the Mets. But he went, but he told to go get him back. That was more of Verlander breaking up with Crane versus Crane breaking up earlier, though. But he went told him get him back and he gave up two prospects to get him back. I don't think I have to cost though. Nonetheless, though, I think that this is the year that Crane says, I don't, I don't need JB back anymore. I think that, but you're right. But on the flip side, he did say I want Alex bring him back with the Astros. Yeah. I think that's exactly what he did. 4975 bring back Jason Hayward. I don't, I don't hate the idea. I just don't view Jason Hayward as an everyday starter in left field against right handed pitching. Like, I think you need to do better than that. I think Hayward's more of a binge out builder. And I think that you need it. If you're going to sign it left, left handed out filter, he needs to be able to play left field every day against right handed pitching. If he is, and again, if you get, she's been, she's been, his whole motto is going to be, I'm going to get, we have to get creative. If you get creative and you move Jake and you create an opportunity in your outfield, whether you go get somebody else to be your everyday left fielder or not, I don't mind Jason Hayward as my fourth outfielder, the way the Dodgers used him a year ago, left handed bat, good arm, steady defender, if you need him to be. But when you put him in the lineup, he's experienced, he's got a good eye at the plate. I have no problem with that. It just can't be your only left handed out there. No, no, no. And you probably have to trade Myers. I think you're gonna, but I don't really don't want to trade Myers. I want Myers to be your fourth out fielder that only plays against lefties. And he comes in late in games and plays center field. I don't need that's how I need to use. I'm good moving on from Jake Myers. And I don't need them to be the Jake Mariznik. Why not? Because I've just seen enough of Jake Myers. I think you can find someone else to play defensively for a couple innings. I'd be a trammel for me. But I'm ready to give someone else a try. Yeah, I don't want it to be my everyday center fielder. I think he's a fourth out fielder that plays against lefties. And he's your defensive reserve for Jock Peterson, whenever Peterson has to come out of a game late with a lead. All right. 713 780 ESPN college football rankings. The committee ranked them for the first time this year. What is the committee telling you 713 7803776? It's the B's on ESPN 97 5 ESPN 95. Guys, before we go to the break a word for Vanderford air, you can go to Vanderford air.com right now and see all the services they offer. You want to put a humidifying system right into your AC units. They can do that. You want to repipe your house. They can do that. You got issues when it comes to getting cold in the wintertime and you need to work on your heating units. They can help you with that too. But the main thing that I'm focused on telling you about is the way they handle air conditioning problems, whether it's your entire HVAC system or it's just a part that's needed to fix your AC or you want to put in a new AC unit. They are the people to call because they take care of you every step of the way. And I mean that sincerely because of the fact that they put everything in writing and they back up everything with a guarantee. It's phenomenal. And with a service company, that's all you can ask for and why so many other companies don't do what Vanderford does because they don't want to be on the hook to make sure you're happy when it caught possibly could cost them more money. Vanderford make sure they back up and they guarantee everything they do. That means you know they're going to do quality work the first time. They're going to use quality parts and they're going to do a quality job for you because your satisfaction is guaranteed. From the time you call them they guarantee within 24 hours they will be back at your door to check out what you got going on. Most companies aren't going to give you any kind of guarantee. It's going to be based on all the other people that they have to deal with. Vanderford says you call them within 24 hours they're out to see you and then it gets better because everything that's going on with your AC unit they're going to put it in writing. If it's a part that needs to be replaced or the whole system so you have it in writing and you have something you can go back to and say this is what you said was going to be done. This is the price you quoted me to finish the job and from that point everything is all about guarantees as well from the work that their people do to the actual way that the part and or the system works to the temperature it achieves. It is all 100% satisfaction guarantee or your money back. That's all you could ever ask for with any kind of service company specifically in Houston Texas when you're dealing with AC problems that's what you want. Knock their number in your phone right now use it whenever you need it or maybe call them before it gets too late and have them check out and see what your system is up to these days. Two eight one five five seven cool put that in your phone two eight one five five seven two six six five that's the number to get to Vanderford air that's the number you save in your phone. That's the number the minute something goes wrong or you hear something that doesn't sound right with your AC unit you call they come out to see you and the job gets done right the first time. I believe in Vanderford air and I love their guarantees you will too check out today go to Vanderford air.com. Live in the Veritex community bank studios it's the killer bees now back to Joel and Jeremy. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcast. Is that true? You can find us on Spotify. Can you find us on Apple Podcast? I don't know. Daniel you assume me like I'm going to fact check this. You have the better chance of knowing than us. Why is that? Because you work in production and you fill in for Michael every now and then. What does that mean as far as being setting or how the podcast you help me in terms of load the podcast you would have a far greater chance to know than us. Yeah well the what we're talent. We want to submit the podcast though isn't through each individual place that you download the podcast from it's submitted through once citing it gets sent out everywhere. There you go. You know it's more than we just figured it. We just found out why we didn't know Brian. Thank you for proving my point. I rest my case. Your podcast. Do you ever listen to a podcast? I'll throw on Rogan every now and then if there's a guest that interests me. I like to look. I like a little true crime podcast for road trips but I haven't had a good one in a while. The baseball podcast are good. Yeah I try not to listen to much sports on podcasts or I get away from it a little bit but uh I like a little true crime. Yeah I love small town murder. Small town murder. I would recommend that one. So it's called small town murder? Yeah it's called small town murder. What's that one about? It's well like the title will suggest it's about uh crimes and murders that happen in small towns but it's actually done by two comedians so you have to uh I like a separation of church and state between my murder and my comedy. I think that's seriously literally. Yeah. Well it trust me in the description you'll find out right away. It's it's I know it sounds like it's something that would be maybe offensive but they don't joke about the actual murder itself. They joke about all the things going around at the small town. Bumbling police force things like that. It's it's really funny and it's it gives you the true crime fix as well. I never try. You know when I'm watching my drama or my true crimes I'm not trying to laugh. You know what I mean? Yeah like I like the straight lines and yeah and the the those kind of shows are great if you just record them so you can get through with all the commercials. Any time there's a spin coming they always go we'll be right back. Yeah. And you're like okay so you fast forward to that. Yeah but I don't need any comedy involved. I'm with you. I'm like the seriousness of it. There is one about a murder at a furniture store that was really good. I forget the name of it but it was really good uh to live to live or die or to live and die in LA was a pretty good one and then you had the amin one was it. Oh that was serial. Serial. Like that was like one of the first ones. Yeah that was one of the sort of the craze. That one was really good. Like yeah but I haven't I haven't like fallen in love with one recently but I'm always in the I'm always up still put out a new season about uh six months ago it was it was about Guantanamo Bay so not great true crime but it was still pretty good. Yeah that one sounds pretty good. Yeah if you have any good uh podcast recommendations 713723776 uh college football playoff committee yesterday they unveiled their top they did 25 but we know it's a 12 team playoff a one through 12 Oregon Ohio State Georgia Miami Texas Penn State Tennessee Indiana BYU Notre Dame 10 Alabama 11 Boise State 12. Now BYU at nine would be the fourth seed because the top four conference champions get a buy in the first round of the college football playoffs. What do you think that the college football playoff rankings told us? What do you think the committee told us through their rankings? I think the first thing that stands out to me is that as good as Indiana has been that they know that the there's a couple of Michigan and Ohio State are coming up on their schedule and that they have I thought they were they had them lower because there's still some stuff for them to prove. Who would you have them ahead of though? I mean there are eight I mean you have to see. I would drop them behind BYU for sure. What the committee told me is I think that they have a thing for big names. I think they have a thing for cache. I think they have a thing for bluebloods because I thought BYU was kind of I know that they get the four seed because top four conference champions. I thought BYU at nine was was not really fair. BYU you look at their full body of work eight no strength a schedule of 41 to top 25 wins then you compare it to Miami who's at four. They have cam Ward. Hi. That's why I think that they are they're looking at cache here. They're seeing the stars. Miami's nine and oh they have a strength a schedule of 54 13 spots lower than BYU. They have one top 25 win. Why is Miami had a BYU? I think the committee sees the stardom in Miami plus it's Miami versus BYU. Look at Texas Texas seven in one strength a schedule 49. How many top 25 wins in Texas have Brian? Well teams currently are just at the time right now. I don't care about the time. I hate when people do that. Actually I won. They have none. They have zero top 20. It's a pet peeve of mine that you bring up to by the oh we beat the number five team in week one that's now 0 and 8 and is the worst team in college football. Who cares? Where are they now? SMU eight and one they're strength a schedule 60. Texas is 49. But SMU has two top 25 wins. I'm not saying that SMU should be a Texas two BYU and I'm not saying that SMU should be a Texas but Texas at five SMU is 13 pretty big there they absolutely that to me is my biggest takeaway is that the committee is looking at the name brand when it comes to the their top 25. That means that whether that's just something they're doing now it seems like it's going to be a theme throughout because of the fact that they're going to be driven by TV they're going to be driven by the the sexiness of the matchups the teams and the players they'll be looking at that throughout that should probably be a message that you should get used to seeing from week to week with these rankings that Notre Dame is still Notre Dame no matter if they haven't played anybody and they're not a great football team Notre Dame is going to get some cash a because they're Notre Dame but more so than that your Heisman Trophy candidates your big name programs your big name coaches they're going to carry some weight yeah I mean you said this yesterday too about Colorado like I like whenever I was thinking about those ass kind of speaks to what Blankers was saying yesterday about the Colorado buffs a BYU has more top 25 wins from teams that are in the college football playoff they have two then four teams ahead of them combined four teams ahead of them combined get BYU's nine Indiana Tennessee Pitt state Texas have one combined top 25 win and then BYU who has two yeah I jump BYU look I'm going to have some bias here I'm not jumping I've had a Texas Texas only losses to arguably the best team in the nation at least talented on on paper but I knew BYU all the way up to six I jump them over Indiana Tennessee and Penn State Penn State's barely played anybody their best win is against Illinois Tennessee's lost Arkansas's had to go to overtime against Florida they're very shaky in Indiana strength the schedule is that like a hundred a hundred and something I can't read the exact number like a hundred four hundred five something like that so BYU with their two top 25 wins over SMU in Kansas state I yeah I would jump them all the way to six yeah that'd be why you get the raw deal now it doesn't really matter because if they win the big 12 they're no lower than four but right and that's the greatness about the 12 team playoff is that we don't like these debates here it's like okay we're seating well go win a football game like if you're so ticked off about your seating you're not missing the playoff you just gonna be seated in a way that you don't think it's appropriate all right we'll win a game prove us wrong now the argument here would be Alabama like the last at large team if the season did today and we're looking at their committee rankings the argument today would be Alabama or SMU for the final at large spot SMU is never gonna win that and you're right but also like okay well SMU lost a game like so you can't really you know blame a whole lot of people you can't have an argument but you'll go win it go win all your games there's not going to be an undefeated team in my opinion that ever misses the playoff which is great because we saw in the old system last year that an undefeated team did miss the playoff I like that we're not arguing about four and five anymore now we're arguing about eleven and thirteen that's a much better place to be um so I do like that I do like that aspect of it now what looking at the actual brackets you know how they incidentally turn them in basketball they avoid conference versus conference first and second round if they can they'll avoid second round potential matchups if they can possibly do it do you think we see that with the college football playoff committee where they like this week it wouldn't matter they they seeded it how they they seeded it but do you think whenever it's the real deal of Andrew Holyfield do you think they'll avoid conference versus conference matchups in round one I want to say that they won't but I think that if the two teams have played already and it's wasn't a marquee type matchup I think they're going to try to avoid it until the very end but I would hope that they don't but they probably will because if we've already seen it once they probably want to spice it up a little bit yeah I think that I don't think they'll ever admit it but I think that they're going to try to avoid them I really do if it's a sexy matchup though to me like their ultimate goal here is sexy matchups for tv and especially since these first round games shouldn't be well I know but that's what is good okay well beyond the actual ranking I'm saying building if you get the right 12 teams in to me the rankings after that I can live with a little bit here and there if it's to get better matchups I think there I think especially with these games being on on home sites potentially where the games have been played before I think they want the drama of a potential conference rivalry in that first first round to give some extra juice versus some sort of mismatch that no one wants to see so I don't think they're gonna want to wait for them I don't think they're gonna run away from I don't think it's a run away I think it's more trying to be fair to a conference that might be loaded versus a conference that is not like you only have one conference versus conference matchup if we used yesterday's bracket as the final bracket it'd be six seed Texas 11 seed Alabama would they jumped six seed Texas over five seed Ohio State that way Texas plays Boise State Ohio State plays Alabama to avoid the conference matchup you're still getting a sexy matchup with Alabama they want that I think they want that no I don't think they run away from it I think I think it adds actually something to the appeal for TV so I think they're not gonna go crazy and just completely mess up the rankings to get that but if they can do it within a margin like a reasonable margin of error I think they're gonna try to do that they should just rank them how they rank them and let the chips fall where they make sure that's the way it should be that's the way it should be they should thought I had but people would love to see Texas Georgia rematch people would love to see I don't want to see the text or three match let's talk about the outcome we're just talking about the rematch people would love to see Ohio State Oregon rematch because that was a hell of a football game like there the networks are going to want to see those kind of like replays if Indiana doesn't hold up well against you know Ohio State's or Oregon types if they end up playing them in the in the big 10 championship game whatever they're not going to want to see that again yeah yeah it's gonna be uh it's gonna be fun though I am looking forward to it Corey on the text line asks us how does big 12 tiebreaker work head-to-head competition is the first tiebreaker if there's two teams or even three teams if they're two and oh against the other two teams win percentage against all common conference opponents among the tied teams win percentage against the next highest placed common opponent in the standings so that's how it's done that's straight from the top of my head too that's how knowledgeable I am seven one three seven eight zero esp and are you blessing or are you stressing our guy Garrett joins us next it's the bees on espn 975 and espn 925 we are in the thick of basketball season already the pro game underway college game is underway you're jones in for a little bit of basketball if you are you need a goal for pro dunk hoops they had the highest quality basketball goals you'll ever find greatest goals on the planet temper glass backboard gives you that true authentic feel stainless steel hardware rust proof you have to have that in Houston also height adjustable that's right you can lower it down to five feet raise it up to ten feet if you want to work on your shot oh raise it up to regulation what they're down some jams or all the way down to five feet their new goal four you can raise and lower the goals with a drill lightning adjust feature five to ten feet in a matter of seconds it's easy to do it's fun to do it's idiot proof for people like me and their accessories are next level led like kids for night play gets dark earlier you might have noticed that a backstop nets pole pad lettering and lots lots more and you can order all of this including professional installation online you don't want to install it i understand you don't want to box to show up on your driveway with a thousand pieces and you have to assemble them let the pros from pro dunk do all of that hard work for you you don't install let the pros of pro dunk do that for you call right now two eight one three five one nine eight two two eight one three five one nine eight two and visit pro dunk dot com that's pro dunk dot com broadcasting live for the Veritex community bank studios it's the killer beans with joe blank and charamee brad on esp at ninety seven five and ninety two five brian thinks he's clever uh bless inner stress and care used to stressons dot com i g here's some stresson's text and commoner on tiktok and splitter what are we blessing or stressing today well as always we got a lot that we are blessing and stressing about uh the first one off the rip is going to be are we blessing or stressing the notion that the jet's loss wasn't as bad as we think um i am stressing that it wasn't as bad as we think i know a lot of us saw that game before the game two and six jets team this should be an automatic win uh i was cautious of this before the game um i felt this was a team that was better than their record uh you know them getting devonta adam's for them was huge and you know obviously he had been on the team for a couple weeks but i feel like they hadn't really had a chance to get that going uh and then the last part of that is too i mean this was a team that was desperate their backs were against the wall i thought it was imperative in this game if we didn't get out to an early lead let them hang around and we were playing with fire obviously we didn't play our best o-line was terrible uh like it has been the past three or four weeks um but even then there were still several plays throughout the game where they go the other way and you know we still have a shot to win so i'm still blessing that i think that i wasn't as bad as what we think i'm the opposite i am stressing it i thought they were gonna lose i felt like short week against it like you mentioned a desperate team which was another thing that i was harping on but the way that they lost the way we came out of who played badly in the way that we lost made me feel even worse than just losing itself the fact that i thought that it might be a hard fought game i thought it might be it might be a back and forth game i thought that it you know there was a lot that you could probably have positively go your way before you lose the game when i came out of that game with the way canyon green played with the way the offensive line played with the way the mistakes were happening and the injuries were piling up and everything that happened on top of it i couldn't it was worse it was far worse for me and it's it's not i don't know everybody's stressing it's a wake-up call it's a punch in the mouth it's a wake-up call and it's a kick in the groin and it needs to be something that changes immediately because it could be a bigger factor in this season than we think i think it's uh i'm gonna get profound here for a second i think it's relative what exactly are we talking about are we talking about for like a championship contender or are we talking about a team who's sealing is the division around because of a team that's the ceilings the division around no i'm not really stressing this uh they're gonna win their division still at ease to game lead virtually three because you had the tiebreaker over the cult which means you're probably gonna get a home game like same situation as last year but if you're talking about like being a true contender and the closing the gap between Kansas City and Baltimore certainly from a you know court of public perception then then i am stressing it now there's a lot of ifs right you know you didn't have niko collins you're gonna have a different left guard by default because kenyan green is done uh first time you know playing without step-on digs like that's a factor will Anderson played what seven snaps like that is something that you know you're not at your best and eco-otchery only his second game so that wasn't the best texans team we'll see knock on wood injuries play a part of that but that's not the best texans team we'll see from this point going forward so i guess i'm blessing it from that point of view but i guess i'm stressing it from the other point of view that i i don't think that the texans are closing the in fact i think it's gotten greater i think the divide between the texans and kansas city and baltimore is larger now than it was at the start of the year and we've yet to take that next step to have a dominant road win against a good team which if we want to be a contender like you're talking about now it's basically if we don't get home field advantage uh a deep playoff run is out of the picture but my biggest thing is i think the jets aren't nearly as bad as people think i see them making a run right now so that's kind of like my uh basis behind that their their personnel offensively too is i think problematic for the texans especially if you don't have will Anderson because you you are losing the ability to get pressure on rogers although rogers does get rid of the ball quick but they're lining up either garret wilson davante atoms in the slot texans are playing man good luck like you're not going to win those matchups and i don't think that the there's other teams around they're gonna fail certainly not many that can do what the jets were able to do offensively against you defensively and as anybody and the bigger thing is is that is a lot a lot of the people in the league that thought this team was a lesser than not many lesser than teams in this league have the kind of skill skill position uh players that they have they've got two solid running backs one that's really really uh you know good uh in breeze hall uh you've got the receivers that have all the star power and cache in the world and if you didn't believe in garret wilson you saw the catch that he made to believe that he is unbelievable and then you got a quarterback that even though he's on the far downside of his career to jeremy's point he gets it out quickly he gets it out accurately he makes the right reads most of the time to where most of the lesser than teams don't have that kind of star power and talent and a top 10 defense right and their defense can play and they and they got redic back and redic mate was a factor in the game and so redic and davante atoms well people go they've been back but like now that was redic second game i believe and that was davante's third game so just because they didn't beat you know weren't world beaters the first couple games we kind of caught him at a bad time is what i was saying but in quite a time will tell quin and william versus uh can get that alone we saw that match up on paper and it's like good luck you know yeah yeah that was a bad matchup yeah but um but yeah so next up this is probably something you all been talking about all week um are we blessing or stressing the fact that we did not trade for an offensive lineman and or a wide receiver um i'm probably the minority i'm mildly blessing this um i know there's been a couple sound bites that have come out from pressers uh with damiko and cusario and their approach and for one i'm not surprised to be honest i mean the way the two of them have operated and talked they kind of seem to be conservative cusario uh specifically he comes off as the gm who will never have a knee jerk reaction and be overly aggressive he'll never get taken advantage of in a trade he kind of you know when it comes to him and if he feels like he gets a good deal he does it and then to double with that damiko is the kind of guy that believes in his guys maybe to his own fault at times um but you know i would have liked to get an alignment was my big thing but there are some in-house options and you know so it's i'm a mild bless stressing it i'm pissed off about it i made no bones about it i said it was not something they should explore doing they had to do and the fact that they didn't do it and you could have done multiple moves and we saw multiple teams make multiple moves that are in the category that you want to put yourself in in the AFC regardless of where you think they should be top fourish type pittsburgh top fiveish type but at the same time you knew you were losing a starting guard for the year no matter what on top of the fact that he was playing terribly before you got into this situation you knew there was something you could do to start trying to get out even if it's just depth because you also found out what we talked about last week and i was hell bent on was when you took kenyan green out of the game benched him and then when patterson got hurt put him back into the game instead of putting kenya green into the game it basically told you kenya green probably can't play so now you know that you got that when he came into the jets game he showed you he can't play kenyan green's out for the year whether you add depth or you're trying to actually add a guy that could possibly start at some point for you the fact that you did nothing there alone is stressing beyond belief and if you could have added a receiver for a six or seven or a pick like a thiellen like a slighting like guys like that that could have helped you be better in your three receiver sets than with meccian hutchinson who were not very good then you should have done that too and other teams were able to do what you didn't or wouldn't do and that's stressing yeah i don't know how you couldn't be stressing it even if you're like not that upset about it like what's where's the bless here what is the win where is the positive that you save like a six or seventh round draft pick so i just don't understand the the victory of it now i'm okay with them trying really hard and then falling short like i i did to me go today made it sound like they try and they fail short if we don't know it takes two to tango so like i can i understand that like you aren't able to get something done you didn't want to overpay cool what bothered me and i know that you were posting about this earlier was it was nichocario and john harris and rockin rolls kind of reaction like mocking the idea of you know helping the team at the deadline is some like you know great idea like we're above the idea of needing to improve our team at the playoffs like talking about popcorn farts and nichocario like oh this is you know these are just players that really aren't that significant we're okay well that means you're insulting dionry hopkins the second greatest receiver in Houston Texans history if you said these are just players in the final year of their deal and it's transactional all the stuff well you're insulting some pretty dang good players that were traded at the trade deadline so i didn't love their attitude i thought that uh kisteria is very flippant about it yeah so i didn't like that so i'm stressing mostly the attitude uh but also every single AFC team with a winning record that's at least six or three and better made a trade can't say he made multiple trades uh buffalo traded for a mari baltimore made multiple trades even the pitch berg steelers who are not a contender made multiple trades the only winning teams in the AFC that didn't make trades or at least helping your team because the Texans traded away davis you the chargers and the broncos so you're telling everybody we're in the class of the broncos and the chargers and not with the chiefs the ravens the bills and even the steelers and i stress that part of it so i think like we have to remember too like art we can't just look at those teams and then say we have the exact same scenario so the reason i'm mildly blessing is because the position we needed was guard and it's for one it's hard to trade for a guard and then two to trade for an elite guard uh i could imagine the draft capital isn't going to be what we're seeing for a six seventh round pick so there's that i also don't know i i assume this isn't the case but maybe it's harder to trade for a guard and acclimatum into your scheme with your zone scheme who knows if that's the case or maybe they just had that much more confidence in their in-house options with jared patterson um so that's why i'm mildly blessed the fact that we didn't overreact to it only time will tell if this worked out um but it is important to realize in my opinion that our situation was different uh the receiver to me was not a necessity but could have been nice um obviously from the jets game the third wide receiver did not step up but again i think we didn't even get a chance to see what they could do because the past protection was so bad so it's kind of hard to get a full picture on that um so it's tough i mean i'm definitely not happy right i'm just it's mostly the attitude for me because i'm with you i'm offensive line like i don't think that you can trade for an offensive lineman that's starting caliber at this point of the year only one offensive lineman was traded he was a tackle minnesota had a great need because they lost a guy for the entire year and they traded a fifth they traded a fifth and got robinson and a seventh rounder back so it wasn't so much that they didn't get something done although it made me a little disappointed but it was more the attitude was almost just like at the very least a signal to the fan base like we're trying to win i feel like that's what fans feel like is hey you're just sitting here with your hands yeah and that's why demicos answer is fine like it takes two to tango okay well that means that you tried whereas casserio's like oh we're above that okay all right well i don't like that but i still even if you're not trying to get a started caliber guard i still wanted to get someone that has offensive line experience in the nfl that'd be better than kendrick green that could be better you know across the line regardless of where they play so you have depth because if you're telling me patterson's gonna play there well then he's also your backup center and you know and and then kendrick green can't play so you're gonna need at least another guy there as well regardless of patterson's starting or however you reconvine your offensive line and you didn't even try and get more depth in the in the building that you really needed regardless because you were losing a starter and because your third string guy can't play and their option was to sign the two guys i forget their names but they signed one i believe two uh guards yeah and that's or guard tackles and that's when i saw those news pieces coming i was like okay they're not gonna trade and you know that's that's into what happening so they claimed a guy a minute ago just off the Patriots correct sakari tom has played linebacker back in the day these transition now to an offensive tackle ballplay and jesse sounds like a nikka serio guy yeah yeah it sounds like a tight end from while house date they drafted yeah okay it's over to play over the field he's a tackle is this a sign this is a side note but this is one thing i would like to see them do is pass pro why don't they put an extra alignment in there with a heavy set like we'll see it with the the lions they do it the most on first and second down and they've had a lot of success out of it yeah you're having issues wide trot two three tight ends that are undersized out there why not put an extra tackle out there have they i know that the texans have tried that in the past i'm certainly not this year i might even sure it was under damico it might have been even billo brian i know that they've done it in the past but yeah i haven't seen it in a while yeah they do it last year uh the jets do it sometimes too we did it this year with kendrick green but that was more so full back yeah yeah but i mean you know when worse comes to worse if you got to try different options that's a side note that's just something i've thought about so i don't hate that idea um i don't hate but sakari tom is tackle off of waivers which means he's taking a spot on the 53 so he took the one that was vacant so maybe that's not good for nico i mean that's the whole another conversation yeah we've had already today movements yes is this tackle death because you're moving tight is hard to guard i for one and for that and uh we can kind of get into that here um on my last topic but the next one i got is are we blessing or stressing the belief that the texans can beat the lions this sunday night i am blessing this i know i'm an optimistic guy again i'm optimistic i briefly dove in today but at the surface uh the reason i'm intrigued by this is i think the lion's defense is not as good as we think uh primarily and i know we've all heard this and it may not mean much to y'all but as far as pressure rate from the lion's defensive line they are 25th in the league with around like 32 percent uh juxtaposed to the texans d line for comparison they're like number two with like 40 plus percent um so that projects to be a good matchup for a struggling o-line um and then they run more man covers than any team in the league and c-day-strout is known to uh do great against man obviously there's been some games this year where it hasn't happened that good because of protection but from that aspect alone i think this is a get right game for our offense uh i'm stressing it i'm going to tell you that having seen the lion's play last week and watched it pretty closely their secondary is really good they're adding zideria smith who can get after the quarterback and and not that he's aden hudgenson but he can give you a little bit more that that pressure that they're looking for from the edge uh and the fact that from the standpoint of offensively everything that they're going to do they're indoors which last week was their first in outdoor game of the year and now they're back indoors this year on on sunday night football the only thing you can hope for is that they're coming off that big win and that there might be a little bit of a let down but sunday night football's probably not going to let that happen they're extremely talented on both sides of the football their offensive line is huge they have weapons galore and gophis playing his best football i'm stressing this game yeah i'm going to stress it too because i'm an internal optimist but uh look texans play better at home like they're a better home team than they are road team obviously most teams are but they're their splits are outrageous like what they do at home versus what they do on the road they're two different teams so can they be a team that loses on the road against new york and then beats detroit yeah they can but i'm not sure nico colin's gonna play like i don't really have an idea like if he doesn't play then i don't feel great i i think higher detroit's defense than you do uh yeah you lose touch and i don't think that you're gonna see smith right that he's not gonna play he's gonna play but i don't think he's gonna play a ton the dairiest man yeah i think he is no they say he's gonna play but i don't think he's gonna play a ton i think how many snaps he gets yeah that's a question mark for me 80 like i think it's closer to 50 than 80 but i i do think he'll play now second game without digs you know you're still you're gonna have a new offensive line like you might have seen it before pattersons in left guard but this will be the first time that you're starting a new offensive line so i'm i'm stressing this one i don't feel great about it well i mean to your point too i mean how much better we're at home the biggest thing is our defense is absolutely elite at home i mean look look what we did to josh allen nine for 30 anthony richardson twice or not twice but once at home and then uh kyla Williams is also looking terrible out there too so i think golf uh for me the key is you know their run game is dominant their o-line is dominant and we're pretty good at stopping the run so if we can kind of settle that down and then be force goth into third and longs we can really get some pressure on him and because goth is they're so good right now but when goth when goth looks bad he looks bad they're so good he hasn't looked bad much this year like go look at his completion percentage nuts and they stay out of them i'm thinking of the third and long so well they look so like they don't get in third and long they don't and that's the whole key yeah they're not afraid to take to take fourth down on and go for it exactly he saint brown is basically his security blanket but he's got la porta he's got guys all over the field he's he's got so many weapons that's a thing that he knows back yeah he can do whatever the hell he wants they're running games good with the two-headed monster at running back just makes it all so scary time for one more yeah so this one is uh blessing or stretching the confidence on our in-house options uh for the o-line to get the pass bro straightened out i'm neutral on this i'll wait and see but uh as right now as it projects it seems like i assume what they're going to do is roll back out there with with what they did when they bench kingdom green we just put patterson at left guard um there's definitely some options like you alluded to put in titas at guard uh in patterson at center that's kind of what i would prefer and then blake fissure at right tackle um but i think that's too much of rock in the boat but that's because i think scruggs hasn't been playing that well and he might be a cause of more of the issues with communication but hopefully you know just plugging in patterson at left guard better play there helps him at center yeah i'm still i'm stressing it because the other thing that you didn't mention is the fact that patterson coming off a concussion if he goes down now what the hell are you going to do right because you know that kendrick green can't play dead and you know that uh kengan green is out for the year so you need to have other solutions there and that's when you might have to get into the musical chairs of putting moving hower down the line i don't like any of it because the depth wasn't improved i don't like it because of the fact that patterson's coming off a concussion but i'm going to trust that he could possibly do it i think jeremy broom made the suggestion and to your point if scruggs is struggling at all maybe it's something that i can see down the line but not this game to where you could put patterson back at center to try something there and even maybe try juice at guard but i don't like the fact that the options you have against a team that's this good is patterson just moving to guard i'm blessed that your offensive lines can get better you just can't avoid you can't have another injury like if you're if you're without jeremy patterson okay now you're you're toast i think that the move is jeremy patterson to one of the interior offensive line spots i i kind of want to get a look at center to see if the like the coverage calls and the protection calls look different like if that's the answer it's like oh okay we found something here so i kind of want to get a look at patterson at center to see if it helps in that regard uh my guess is he'll just play left guard though and juice will stay at center that's plan a for me you patterson scrubs left guard center scrubs patterson left guard center plan a and plan b the my plan c is the tightest at guard thing like that's the last resort that's the final thing that you can turn to other than playing guys that you're picking up from other people's practice squads and off of waivers as we talked about i don't want Blake fisher playing right tackle for me is he one of your best five though i think he might be the problem is the limited sample size so we really don't i mean he's a second rounder it's kind of a gamble he's supposed to be that doesn't mean he he was he was so he struggled early on but like he's supposed to be one of your best five is what i'm saying yeah and yeah i don't know that he is yet yeah i'm not sure my logic to back that up is the o-line last year was somehow light years better than this line o-line and that was with tightus howard who's terrible at guard at left guard and patterson at center yeah with fan at tackle so now you have fisher over fan and that's basically the same as i'd push back on that i think i was pretty dang good i think he was too yeah no he was good but like can fisher be at that same level like any be eventually yes now no i haven't yeah i haven't loved his reps yeah well he he struggled to begin and he's shown some promise i mean that would be a little bit of a gamble i doubt they do that but regardless we got options you know yeah yeah not maybe not great options but options what are you working on houston stressons.com this week uh same stuff i got a shirt on today it's a cj shroud hope shirt if you want to check it out why did you wear that today i don't know just you know just first thing i grabbed with a closet it's coincidence you know i got you um but uh but yeah i mean you know same old stuff just uh i got a show tonight and you know same old same old houston stressons.com instagram houston stressons you can find them on texan's comment or on tick tock in twitter look forward to doing it again next week i appreciate it. Gary houston stressons.com what is the biggest most unexpected landslide in sports and houston sports history seven one three seven eight zero three seven seven six it's the bees on espn nine seven five and espn nine two five all right guys before we go to break uh b mac back here with you and i've been telling you guys a lot about underdog fantasy's pickum games but that's not the only way they have for you to maximize your fun watching games you gotta try streaks on underdog fantasy where you select two players from different teams to start your entry and if your first two picks are both correct you'll continue your streak one pick at a time if you get up to 11 picks right in a row you'll win until 1 000 times your money and achieve greatness right now for tonight i'm starting a streak entry on the rockets versus first game with higher on both 9.5 rebounds for shungoon and 19 and a half points for winbie so join me and let's go streaking and don't forget while playing pickum that you can cash out a winning entry early by just tapping the win now button to cash out your entry whenever you want and with that type of flexibility why would you play anywhere else other than with underdog fantasy so download the app sign up sign up with promo code b mac this b m a c and deposit now to get up to one thousand dollars in bonus cash instantly that's promo code b mac b m a c must be 18 plus and present in state where underdog fantasy operates terms apply concerned with your play call 1 800 gambler or visit one or visit ncp gambling org welcome to the financial quarterback podcast i'm josh jilinski and every week i'm diving into the world of retirement investing and financial planning from understanding market moves to protecting your future we covered all i bring on expert guests and have a little fun with games and real world insights with nearly two decades of experience and a Forbes recognized track record i'm here to guide you through the biggest questions about your money subscribe to the financial quarterback podcast on apple spotify or wherever you get your podcasts if you wish you could easily find the best area for your hunting goals and contact directly with landowners to lease their land then check out hlrbo because you can do all that and much more create your free hlrbo account today and find your hunting lease at the click of a button hlrbo has thousands of listings all over the country short and long-term leases hunting guides and game farms find your hunting lease today at hlrbo.com that's hlrbo.com what's up it's me Don Taliver if i could describe the open hair but i would describe it it's very seamless it's like you clipping on your hair and then sometimes you can forget it's there but it's not going anywhere because it's like clipped it's kind of crazy if i could bring my music with me wherever i go it just make life easier and seamless without interruption to be able to have the music on hand like that without any interruptions would be great check out boz.com for