- 14 hours ago
Seth and Sean talk about the Astros losing 3-6 to the Twins after a rain delay, them being encouraged by Tatsuya Imai's performance, and Wemby dominating against OKC to give the Spurs a 1-0 series lead in the Western Conference FInals.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Emai is the big story for me last night, and that, okay, all right, serviceable outing by Emai.
00:06His velo was up a tick.
00:08He mixed in his change-up, which made his slider more effective.
00:12Instead of that one little moment where he felt like after one of his minor league games,
00:19it sounded like he didn't want to be bothered with throwing anything other than his favorite pitch, the slider,
00:25that he realized, oh, okay, if I mix it up a little bit, it'll make the slider that much more
00:30effective.
00:30Right, well, yeah, his first start back in the big leagues, he threw two pitches.
00:34He threw 80 pitches, but they were of two varieties, fastball and slider.
00:38And I felt like when he gave up that first home run to Josh Bell, and they show the replay
00:43of it,
00:43so they show where the pitch was in the zone, whether it's green or red as to where it was,
00:49what the velo was, and then what the pitch was.
00:51And I'm like, oh, a change-up.
00:53I'm like, oh, now he's not going to want to throw it anymore.
00:55He just put it up in the zone, and Josh Bell jacked it out of the park.
00:58And he was the only one that got to Ima, was Josh Bell.
01:01He hit the two home runs against him.
01:03The words I wrote down in the rundown, Seth, this is right as soon as the rain delay started last
01:08night.
01:08For those who missed it, if you went to bed with the rain delay, they played the rest of this
01:13game.
01:13The Astros went on to lose 6-3.
01:16Had some chances in the ninth inning.
01:17Yordan came up with two on in the ninth inning and struck out.
01:20But the words I wrote, I'm encouraged by Tatsuya Ima.
01:24I was encouraged by that.
01:25And the biggest thing to me, no walks.
01:27That's the biggest thing.
01:28The biggest problem he's had among a litany of problems is the same as the rest of this staff,
01:35which is just giving free passes to the other team and putting guys on base because you can't locate.
01:40He had no walks last night.
01:41And if we're looking just for progress, I'm not looking for him to be an ace yet or anything like
01:45that.
01:45If we're just looking for progress, I can live with an outing.
01:48Because you're stuck with this guy.
01:49If he once stopped into his deal, you're stuck for the next couple of years with Tatsuya Ima.
01:54I can live, given what it's looked like for the first six starts, I can live with four-plus innings
02:00where he gives up three runs,
02:02but it's on two home runs.
02:05Like, batter to batter.
02:06Like, if you just take each batter as its own sort of round in a boxing match, he had a
02:10good boxing match last night.
02:12He had a lot of good quality at-bats.
02:14Let's do this.
02:15Let's make May 18th the start day for when we start evaluating Ima.
02:21Okay.
02:21Let's just figure that the first quarter of the season was just kind of an initiation,
02:28and we're going to wipe the slate clean, and let's evaluate him, his ERA and everything, just from May 18th
02:36forward.
02:36I like that.
02:36And then instead of you saying, we're stuck with Ima, maybe at some point it gets to be a little
02:41bit more like the old Band-Aid commercial.
02:43You know, like, we're stuck with Ima, and Ima's stuck on us.
02:47And Ima's stuck on me.
02:47Yeah.
02:47A joyful way of using the word stuck.
02:50Is it okay that I'm not there yet?
02:52Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:53Okay, gotcha, gotcha.
02:53No, no, no.
02:54Right now it's like he's like a thrice-used Band-Aid that you're kind of like hoping to stick them
03:00last.
03:00It's on the hairiest part of your arm, and you're just like, oh, I've got to rip this thing off.
03:06You're like putting it off for days.
03:08Like, oh, God.
03:09It's going to hurt so bad.
03:12That's Ima right now.
03:13So, yeah, I think you're spot on.
03:15That was going to be the big story regardless of the outcome of the game last night.
03:20I think he's earned another start.
03:21I think Ima is, and I don't know that they have much choice at this point either.
03:25Ima was born on May 18th, 2026.
03:29Yep, yep.
03:29And we'll chart his growth and all the milestones he achieves along the way.
03:33Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:35Yeah, we'll flag it as B-E and A-E, before excuses and after excuses.
03:40Yeah, let's do it that way.
03:41B-E and A-E.
03:42So we're in E-My-A-E.
03:45Yeah, we're in day one A-E.
03:47It doesn't really roll off the tone.
03:48It doesn't.
03:49I was thinking of that, but I was like, all right, I'll go with it.
03:52Yeah.
03:53Okay, text message early here in the show.
03:55You get paid to watch sports.
03:56Calm down, sensitive Sean.
03:58That's the joke.
03:59That was the joke.
04:01I love that.
04:02Thanks.
04:03Thanks.
04:04I love that you're getting all the hatred for my angry old man take.
04:09Yeah.
04:11I think you're talking about me complaining staying up to 11 to watch sports.
04:16Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:17No, the rush hour at 2 p.m. on a Friday is just there.
04:21You hate that.
04:22Well, I full well recognize that I'm just out bopping about.
04:26I've got actually nothing real to do.
04:28No, no, no.
04:29Especially on a Friday.
04:30I'm complaining about people who stop their work day at noon on a Friday after I've already
04:35been off work for two hours on a Friday.
04:37But you, see, our job doesn't fit into the same category.
04:40I'm not.
04:41No, no, no.
04:41Look, I'm not trying to make this a either or us and them.
04:46Yeah.
04:46I'm completely outside of it.
04:48Yeah.
04:48But I'm siding on the them, those who actually work all the way until 5 o'clock on a Friday.
04:54Yeah, man.
04:54If you're...
04:55I choose to pretend I'm one of those people.
04:57Yes.
04:58Okay?
04:58Yeah.
04:58So that I can enjoy the fruits of a job where my strict have to be there duties are over
05:05at 10 a.m.
05:06I'm the easiest person to find at 2 o'clock on a Friday in town.
05:10I joke about this all the time.
05:12Like, if I ever got sideways with the mob, I would be the easiest person to whack in the
05:17world.
05:17I am at one of, like, five places within walking distance of our building.
05:22That's where I am.
05:23The boss is telling one of his little collectors there.
05:27Yes.
05:27He's like, where do I find this?
05:29Where do I find this mick?
05:31He's in Vex.
05:31Yeah, he's in Vex.
05:32Vex Prime, Avalon Diner, Lizards.
05:35Yeah.
05:36Original Carrabbas.
05:37Abuzi.
05:38Started going to Abuzi quite a bit there on Westheimer.
05:40If you're not back in an hour, I'm going to assume you're dead.
05:43This should be the easiest guy in the world.
05:45We need to go get some wine on OTA week, Seth.
05:47Me and you over at Abuzi.
05:49It's inexpensive good wine over there.
05:51It's just to ponder life and put the show together one day.
05:55I can't sit with you in a wine bar.
05:56Oh, come on.
05:57It's a restaurant that has wine.
06:00That's all it is.
06:02That would be a little weird.
06:05Text message, I'm blue collar.
06:07I leave the refineries early on Friday.
06:10Happy hour, baby.
06:12That's fine, but you probably get paid by the hour.
06:14I mean, you're probably having to punch out to go do, if I'm guessing.
06:17Am I overgeneralizing that the refineries that everybody's punching in over at the refineries?
06:22I don't know what the situation is at a refineries.
06:24I don't either.
06:24I don't either.
06:25It's been a long time since I watched Urban Cowboy.
06:29Yeah.
06:30That's where I get most of my information about what it's like to work in the refineries.
06:33It's been a long time since I worked in a refinery.
06:3557 years to be exact.
06:37Yeah.
06:38So, the Astros, they lose last night, but Emai, you know, the other thing about this
06:44is with Emai is like, oh, well, this is encouraging as they lose another game and the season slips
06:49further into the toilet.
06:50I know, I know, I know.
06:51Oh, awesome.
06:52You know, I always know it's a bad sign when it's a rain delay and when they say, well,
06:57it is an official game, and you're like, all right, all right, come on, let's just be
07:02done with this.
07:03Yeah, I know.
07:03I was thinking that.
07:04Let's just go ahead and keep raining, okay?
07:05It was.
07:06Let's rest these guys up as much as possible and let's start anew.
07:10I thought the same thing.
07:11Now, the good news was I was way more dialed in and focused on the Western Conference Finals
07:20last night with the Thunder and the Spurs, and that was one of the best playoff games
07:25I've ever seen, a double overtime game, Wembayama in this game.
07:29Rocket fans can appreciate the dynamic of this game, and it's why I went more than on my Wemby
07:35points on prize picks and less than Shea Gilgis-Alexander points on my prize picks.
07:40It was the same dynamic as in 1995, Seth, where Hakeem Olajuwon, the reigning MVP, had
07:47to watch David Robinson get the MVP trophy handed to him.
07:50I forget if it was game one or two of the Western Conference Finals, but it was in San
07:53Antonio, and I've interviewed Hakeem about this for a piece that I wrote about that Rockets
07:58team for the Houston Press about a decade ago.
08:00I sat down with Hakeem and asked him about that, that whole dynamic of watching.
08:05He was the reigning MVP, so he's watching David Robinson get handed his MVP trophy, and he
08:10said that Kenny Smith and Sam Cassell and all these guys are walking up to him while David
08:17Robinson's getting the MVP before the game, and they're gassing Hakeem up.
08:21They're like, man, that's your trophy.
08:23He's holding your trophy right now, and Hakeem said to me in the most calm, like Hakeem
08:28voice, he's like, so I went on the attack.
08:32And people, longtime Rocket fans will remember, he destroyed David Robinson in that series.
08:37That was the biggest evisceration of one great player against another great player, maybe
08:42in the history of sports.
08:44Hakeem averaged like 35 a game.
08:47David Robinson not only averaged only about 17 a game, but got memed multiple times with
08:52all the pump fakes and the ball fakes by Hakeem, and the Rockets obviously would go on to win
08:56the title.
08:56It was actually the first meme in history.
08:58It was a fan.
08:59That's true.
09:00They invented the meme.
09:00People were Xeroxing those and sending them by a postage, by a snail mail.
09:08They still use it today.
09:10That's my point.
09:11Hold on.
09:11I got a fax coming in.
09:14Oh, it's one of those memes.
09:16Yes, that I've seen so much.
09:18No, but that's what last night was like.
09:20Shea Gilgis-Alexander, credit OKC, who trailed most of the night.
09:24They came back and obviously forced two overtimes.
09:27But Shea Gilgis-Alexander was not good in this game.
09:29He was 7-23.
09:30He was turning the ball over in crucial times.
09:33He kind of disappeared.
09:35Wemba Yama had 41 points on 14 of 25 shooting and 24 rebounds.
09:42He had one three-pointer, and it was from 35 feet to help force a second overtime in that game.
09:49He was incredible.
09:52And so the two dynamics of that game last night, Seth, that hit me, one was the Hakeem-David Robinson
09:57thing.
09:58Watching that was a really cool kind of hearkening back.
10:01It's kind of ironic that it's a spur doing it to somebody else, whereas 31 years ago it was the
10:06spur getting disemboweled.
10:08The other thing was, as a Rockets fan, this was incredibly dispiriting and depressing to watch last night.
10:15If Victor Wemba Yama is indeed an alien, then we need his family to come back and get him like
10:20E.T. at the end of E.T.
10:21and take him back to whatever planet he lives on.
10:24This is going to be miserable over the next 10 years.
10:26You know, you go back a couple years, and it was, you know, people were irate that, oh, Wemba Yama's
10:33acting like, oh, he's happy at the lottery that he's not going to have to go to the Rockets.
10:37And you hated Wemba Yama for it.
10:39And slowly over time, that's transitioned into more anger at the Rockets for something they couldn't control whatsoever.
10:49And even they ended up with a fourth pick and still got Amon Thompson, who's a great player also.
10:54Yeah, yeah, exactly.
10:55It still ended up pretty well for the Rockets, but I'm less inclined to, like right now, I'm not in
10:59a position to act snarky towards Wemba Yama.
11:02No.
11:02Because he did exactly what you would hope he was going to do if he goes in and reinvigorates an
11:08annoyingly durable organization.
11:10Yes.
11:10That's what I'm going to call it, okay?
11:12Yep, yep.
11:12They're annoyingly and durable.
11:13They are, man.
11:14They are.
11:15And they started, this is the even more depressing part.
11:18They didn't have De'Aaron Fox last night, their point guard.
11:20Shout out De'Aaron Fox from H-Town.
11:22They started a lineup, Seth, the Spurs did, that was the youngest lineup in the history of the conference finals
11:29in the NBA.
11:31They averaged not even 23 years old between Champaign and Wembe and Vassell and Castle and Dylan Harper.
11:41That lineup, I mean, I feel like I just recited the lottery, you know, the top of the lottery from
11:45three or four years in a row right there.
11:47That lineup averaged not even 23 years old.
11:50They go into Oklahoma City against the defending champs, a 64-win team that hasn't lost a playoff game since
11:57game six of the finals last year to Indiana.
12:01And they beat them.
12:02And they led most of the game.
12:04They got punched in the face.
12:05And then they win in double overtime for a young lineup like that without their point guard.
12:10I mean, that is just both A, impressive, and B, just a, I don't know, man.
12:16I'm watching those two teams play last night.
12:17I'm like, God, they are on just such a different planet than the Rockets right now.
12:20And the Rockets are not a bad team.
12:22But they don't play like that, like those two teams.
12:25Well, I mean, we saw that.
12:25I mean, the classic, the Lakers go in and just don't put up a bit of a fight versus OKC.
12:33You knew then that, all right, the Rockets, as constructed this year without Van Vliet, et cetera, et cetera, that
12:41it just wasn't going to happen.
12:42No, no.
12:42So that's why I was glad.
12:44Usually I like the team that beat my team to at least put up a really good fight.
12:49Maybe it's because it makes you feel better about your loss.
12:52That's the only reason.
12:52That was a little bit more of a, OK, yep, the Rockets really got to face reality here.
12:58You guys were nowhere in the class of anything close to these teams.
13:02That's got to factor into how they're attacking these next several weeks, you know, heading into the draft and then
13:08into, I say heading into the draft because, you know, they might move some picks.
13:13Who knows, whatever.
13:15But, yeah, this might be an offseason that requires another big swing just to give yourself a ceiling that matches
13:23those guys.
13:23They might do something, Seth, that gives them a, theoretically, a lesser percentage chance of winning an NBA championship, but
13:32a higher potential of reaching their ceiling.
13:35You know, that's what a Giannis move would be.
13:36Like a Giannis move, there's a chance if you trade for Giannis, he gets hurt and you win 42 games
13:41this year.
13:42There's also the chance that you are competing with either of those teams if he stays healthy at the end
13:47of the year.
13:47I just think it's more likely, it's probably more likely that you get the 42 wins, but at least 60
13:53wins enters the chat.
13:54You know what I mean?
13:55So what are you saying?
13:56It's more likely that they do get?
13:58I think it's likely they make a big swing.
14:01A big swing.
14:01A big swing that heightens what their ceiling is.
14:05Yeah.
14:06And at the same time, probably is very, very risky.
14:08Makes it more volatile.
14:09More volatile, yes.
14:11Yep, yep.
14:11More, no risk it, no biscuit.
14:13Yeah, I'd go for that.
14:14I'll go with that because that was Bruce Arian's motto, and it worked for him once in his career when
14:19he finally got Tom Brady.
14:21He did.
14:21Actually, yeah.
14:22Yes, that's right.
14:23It'd be a little bit less risk it, no biscuit.
14:24Yeah, I don't know how you can be Raphael Stone and Emeo Doca and Tillman Fertitta and watch those two
14:31teams play last night and say to yourself,
14:33well, if the young core just improves a little bit, then we'll just run.
14:37And I know you get Fred back.
14:39Look, you can talk your way into it, except that it all revolves.
14:43You've got to step back and say, wait a second, am I really saying that Fred Van Vliet is the
14:47difference between what we were and then what these two teams are?
14:51Yes.
14:51Because I can make a lot of arguments for why, yeah, it is, because then you get the better version
14:55of the young core, et cetera, et cetera.
14:58But just, man, the sum total of it all is in the NBA, look at the actual players and the
15:03quality of the players you have on the floor.
15:04Dude.
15:05And is Fred Van Vliet the missing element between what the Rockets are now and what the Rockets were in
15:10the playoffs and a team like OKC or the San Antonio Spurs?
15:13That's what you've got to ask yourself, and I don't think that's the case right now.
15:16That's what you've got to ask yourself.
Comments