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Charles Barkley
It's Charles Barkley here with Wayfair and let me tell you, game day is serious business at my house. If I'm grilling, chilling and watching hoops, my outdoor setup better be ready to play. That's where Wayfair wins. From patio seating and umbrellas to grills and grill accessories, Wayfair's got it all and it shows up fast. I'm talking fast and easy delivery. So level up your grill game and your outdoor chill game and head to Wayfarer.com to get your outdoor space ready for the season.
Wayfair/Lego Advertiser
Wayfair Every Style, Every Home
Lowe's Advertiser
Messy Fans Lowe's Messy halftime event hits July 19th that's coming up fast. So now's a really good time to become a Mylo's Rewards or a My Lo's Pro Rewards member. Join for free and get access to exclusive messy moments and epic surprises. Let's just say halftime's looking different this year. Make sure to follow Lowes on TikTok and tune in to the Lowes Messy halftime event on July 19. Members get more at Lowe's loyalty programs subject to terms and conditions. Visit lowe's.com terms for details.
Wayfair/Lego Advertiser
Subject to check it's always amazing to see how quickly your child grows and I'm not just talking about their height. From those early babbles to full on storytelling. Getting to watch how their ideas, creativity and confidence develop over the years is honestly pretty incredible. Sometimes they surprise you with what they come up with and Lego bricks can be right there with them through all of those stages. It's not just a toy, it's a full creative building journey that keeps evolving as they do. Lego sets play starts as early as one and a half where with Lego Duplo the bigger bricks designed for little hands that are just starting to explore and build. Then around age 4, kids transition to the smaller LEGO bricks and suddenly you're watching real structures take shape, real ideas form and their imagination really take off. They begin with simple stacking, but over time they grow into full on creators, building worlds, stories and things you never would have expected. That's the kind of magic of LEGO bricks. You're not buying a phase, you're starting a journey. Learn more and start building today with Lego bricks.
Sports Radio 610 Announcer
Sports Radio 610 presents Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast.
Charles Barkley
We coming to eighth time. Let's get the work in man.
Sports Radio 610 Announcer
Let go.
Seth Payne
Great day. Great day. Oh give me some juice. Play by oh yeah, let's do it.
Luke Morrow
That's right. Happy Friday. Let's start the weekend. Appreciate you Joining us, beginning the day with us here, Payne and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow, in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. Seth, good morning. How are you?
Seth Payne
Morning. I just, you know what? I had to remind myself when the trade deadline was in baseball. And because I'm reading so many articles about how the, you know, the trade deadline is looming and everything, I'm like, wait, isn't it, like, August this year?
Luke Morrow
Yeah.
Seth Payne
What's. It's July 10th. Are we tired of World cup talk so quickly, or are we just. Are we so unsatisfied, dissatisfied with a almost 500 baseball team? People don't seem to realize almost 500 means that you're almost winning more than you're losing. But you're. But you're not going. Why get all agitated about something that's not going to happen? The trade deadline stuff, what is the official date this year?
Luke Morrow
August 3rd, I believe.
Seth Payne
August 3rd. Okay. The trade deadline stuff is always, yeah, it's August 3rd. It's very intriguing, especially when the Astros are in the situation they're in. And yet the real stuff usually doesn't happen until you start to get right down to the wire in those last few days, and teams start to realize where the market, like, where the market is what. Especially nowadays, because so many teams are. They're still in it. Every damn team in the AL is in it.
Luke Morrow
Right.
Seth Payne
And, you know, might as well be that a lot of the stuff that we're talking about for the next three or four weeks isn't going to materialize until that last 48 hours. It's frustrating.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, it is. We got, what, 24 days to wait on and see what happens. But, like, you know, to your point, it probably won't happen until we actually get to August. And as you also alluded to, I think there's only nine teams that are currently more than five games out of a playoff spot. So. And a couple of those teams, like five and a half games. So there's really only, like, seven teams that are six games or more out of a playoff spot. And we still have, you know, two and a half months to go. So, yeah, I don't know how many sellers they'll really be unless you have some teams that might be a little more realistic and think, like, yeah, we're only four games out of a playoff spot, but we're also like, five games under.500.
Seth Payne
Yeah.
Luke Morrow
In a terrible Al, so we might as well try to kind of. The point I was making yesterday of. And we can't take this season too seriously. We're actually not that competitive. It's just a bad al. Let's try to improve for the future. But in general, I don't know how many sellers there's going to be because everyone feels like they have a shot.
Seth Payne
They have a shot in your own. Yeah, even six games back, when you're in a mediocre league the way it is this year, there's plenty of those teams that are six games or more bad, you know, could the Tigers all of a sudden make a push? Certainly. And are they even? Are they even six games below.500 right now? Tigers, they're only four and a half games back in the AL Central with a record of 43 and 50. So they could easily be winning the AL Central by the time the trade deadline comes around.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, look, the Red Sox are another team. I remember saying on the air a couple of weeks ago they were tied with the Angels for the worst record in the American League. They've gone something like 14 5, I think recently. And now they're only, let me check here, two and a half games out of a playoff spot. So it just takes like two to three hot weeks in the AL and you're back in this thing. So I could see a lot of GMs convincing themselves of like, oh, we're right there. We, you know, let's go make some moves and improve this team. We can actually make something happen.
Seth Payne
I think my one disappointing thing looking at the Yankees is that for the longest time when you look at the standings and you see what the record is over the last 10, it felt like they were on 2 and 8 for the longest time. They just managed to hover around and I know every time I checked it they happen to be on 2 and 8. So I'm a little depressed this morning when I see that they're 3 and 7 in their last 10. So need a loss tonight and I'll check the standings again tomorrow.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, they finally exploded for some offense yesterday against the Rays. Scored last I saw, I think they had 12 runs in that game.
Seth Payne
Yeah.
Luke Morrow
So yeah, they got a rare win but they're still like 6 and 15 in the last three weeks.
Seth Payne
But it's funny because, you know, you linked a couple articles on MLB trade rumors and these are, you know, Jeff Passon and everybody else is writing these comprehensive all 30 team who are some options for him. And just in the last 72 hours there's been a big shift from, well, you know, Dana Brown keeps saying they need a left handed outfielder so it's probably going to be a left handed outfielder to now almost every article in the last 48 hours is, man, they need a pitcher.
Luke Morrow
Wow.
Seth Payne
Yeah. Yeah. We can't. You know what? I would criticize you for not paying enough attention. Not you, Luke, but people outside. But I've, I've succumbed to this myself. Every, every time they get three good pitching appearances in a row, I. I delude myself into thinking, oh, of course. Okay, Eric. Eddie's back on track. Imai. It's just a matter of time until he's basically performing at a Cy Young level. And. And hey, you got all the guys coming back from the il and then I get that I get chopped off at the knees and plummet back down to earth.
Luke Morrow
Yeah.
Seth Payne
And so tonight, long shins. It's a hard fall.
Luke Morrow
Yeah. Taller they are. Hey, you know, at least tonight you get Hunter Brown going. So the one thing you feel good about, you get tonight. And we'll see how well he does pitch against the Rangers because even Hunter Brown's been a little shaky since coming back from the il, so we would love to see a good start. You know, this is almost like going into the bi week. And obviously, Seth, you can speak more to this, having actually gone through it, but when you have this all star break, I imagine for an NFL team like you would love to head into the bye week on a positive, if you lose that game, you have an extra week to kind of sit on it.
Seth Payne
Yeah.
Luke Morrow
And it might be. I'm sure it's the same idea here at baseball where they don't play again after this weekend till Friday. Maybe this is more for the fans and the actual team, but say Hunter Brown doesn't pitch well tonight, say they do struggle against the Rangers, and then as an Astros fan, you have to sit on that all the way till Friday. Like, man, even Hunter Brown struggling. This whole pitching staff stinks. We don't get to see them again for a week to try to feel better. You better hope that Brown pitches well and this team has a good weekend because otherwise it could be a long week next week.
Seth Payne
It's a good. You know, I always struggle with it when I try to draw the comparison between the NFL and baseball, because baseball puts such a premium on being even keeled emotionally.
Charles Barkley
Right.
Seth Payne
They're like, the perfect baseball player is the guy that would also be the perfect stepfather. You know, he'd just come in and just be kind of like, hey, not get too worked up over everything. We'll work through this bustle, buddy. You know, all this stuff. Whereas, like, football players were notoriously bipolar. You run very hot and cold, and you try to. You've got a coach that tries to tell you to act the same after losses as you do after win. Wins. The problem is most of those guys are super bipolar too. And Tom Coughlin was the worst at this. He would tell you, like, after. After Monday, you wipe the slate clean, and you're. You just. You're back to doing. You operate the same way every Wednesday. And he would try to abide by that, but then all of a sudden, at 8am on a Saturday morning, the week after a loss, you know, the day before a new game, he starts tearing into you about how crappy you were the week before. Like, hey, whoa, bro. What's all this clean slate stuff? You know, short memory and everything? I feel like d' Amico's more. D' Amico's got more of a baseball mentality when it comes to just keeping the same attitude all the time. So with it. But, yeah, the players themselves. Yeah. I wonder psychologically how much it really does help from a team perspective. Individually. Obviously, it's good for those guys to get a break, and physically it's good for them to get a break. I think that for the Astros right now, it's more about the fans and how we feel about. All right, what is the actual ceiling or what's the potential for this team? It would be awesome to have a really good series versus a team, one of the many, many teams. There's currently eight teams in contention for the AL west title. That if you. If you could pull off a good one versus the Rangers, that. That would feel a lot better, obviously.
Luke Morrow
Yeah. First place on the line this weekend, by the way. When football coaches, when they would say, let's wipe the slate clean or like, you know, let's. Let's forget about this. We'll move past it. Can they. Doesn't that, like. Can they then bring up criticism later in the season when you have that message as a coach, don't you always have to be looking forward? You can't criticize a guy and be like, hey, you haven't been blocking well the last three weeks. And you're like, well, you told me, wipe the slate clean. We're just looking ahead. We can't talk about the past anymore. Don't criticize what I did the first six weeks of the season.
Seth Payne
It's like you're like a bad girlfriend or something. Every time something happens, you're bringing up old stuff. Let's move on. That was three affairs ago, honey. Yeah. Why you got it? Why you got to keep bringing. With every new affair? It's like you want to bring up all the old ones. My God. By the way, did I say AL Central instead of AL West?
Luke Morrow
No, I think you said AL West.
Seth Payne
Oh, okay. I think once I expanded the number of teams I, like, I got out. Yeah, yeah.
Luke Morrow
It's like back in the day when they only had two divisions in each league. And so you really did have, you know, eight teams in the division.
Seth Payne
No, there's a. I get a weird dyslexia, as you know, sometimes between different athletes in sports and everything. And I just. The old AFC Central somehow creeped into my brain. And because it was at our. At our peak, we had six teams in the AFC Central, right? Yeah. When the Browns, it was a. It was bunch of expansion teams and translocated teams and the Browns for a couple of glorious years there back in the early 2000s.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, the Central. Yeah. I always, I always like that where it's just like obviously the central portion of the country, I guess, but it was like the north and the South. Right. You had at one point, like the Houston Oilers and the Cleveland Browns, like in the nfc. You had the Tampa Bay Bucks in Florida and then the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay packers, like, up north. It was just, it was just, obviously, I get it, the central part of the country, but you have these teams that are also like cross country in the same division, are playing each other.
Seth Payne
2001 NFL Division standings the last glorious year of the old AFC Central. It was the Steelers, the Ravens, the Browns, the Titans, the Jaguars, and then the Bengals. That was the final standings for those of you who wanted to go relive
Luke Morrow
that glorious flashback Friday.
Seth Payne
Yeah.
Luke Morrow
Think back 25 years to 2001.
Lowe's Advertiser
Yeah.
Luke Morrow
It was looking, in hindsight, like. It feels strange. I like how the NFL and Major League Baseball are currently set up now. Even like when the Astros were in the NL, that took some adjusting to. To move to the AL. But I do kind of like an even 15 teams in the AL, 15 teams in the NL.
Seth Payne
It's. No, I love it. I would just. I would prefer that the Astros not have all these ridiculous west coast games that, that feel like when watching Pac 12. The old Pac 12. Now, let's go down memory lane on college football conferences.
Luke Morrow
Well, the Astros didn't play last night. This is what we got to do. But they do play tonight. They get underway with the. The Rangers. And the Rangers have suddenly taken over first place, even though they're only one game over.500. So the Astros are two games behind the Rangers with three games to play this weekend. Here's the chance you sweep this weekend, the Astros head into the All Star break not only over.500 or actually, no, that would make them exactly 500. So they'd head into the All Star break at 549 and 49 and also, I guess would be in first place over the Rangers.
Seth Payne
Yeah. And you know Hunter Brown, it's strange. Is it like if obviously if Imai came out and pitched four innings and allowed six earned runs, it just, it, it puts you right back down into that funk and depression. I don't worry as much about Hunter Brown's last performance where he pitched four innings and allowed six earned runs, as he's still obviously working his way back through some things because he's had some good performances before that. I But it would be like an emphatic, an emphatically stud performance tonight would make me feel a lot better about a lot of the things. A lot of things.
Wayfair/Lego Advertiser
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Charles Barkley
It's Charles Barkley here with Wayfair, and let me tell you, game day is serious business at my house. If I'm grilling, chilling and watching hoops, my outdoor setup better be ready to play. That's where Wayfair wins. From patio seating and umbrellas to grills and grill accessories, Wayfair's got it and it shows up fast. I'm talking fast and easy delivery. So level up your grill game and your outdoor chill game and head to Wayfair.com to get your outdoor space ready for the season.
Wayfair/Lego Advertiser
Wayfair Every style, Every Home
Lowe's Advertiser
Messi fans Lowe's Messy halftime event hits July 19th. That's coming up fast, so now's a really good time to become a Milos Rewards or Milos Pro Rewards member. Join for free and get access to exclusive messy moments and epic surprises. Let's just say halftime's looking different this year. Make sure to follow Lowe's on TikTok and tune in to the Lowe's Messy halftime event on July 19th. Members get more at Lowe's loyalty programs subject to terms and conditions. Visit lowe's.com terms for details. Subject to change.
Luke Morrow
And then we have to figure out who's pitching Sunday as well. And that's a big question mark for the Outros. Will it be Javier? Will it be Blanco. Will it be somebody else?
Seth Payne
If it's, if it's Javier. If it's Javier. Any deals like how much, how much do you allow yourself to believe in that? Given that Javier hasn't really looked like the 2022 version of Javier since 2022? I actually, he's in this weird boat for me where I'm actually more optimistic about the fact that he only has to pitch half a season because that's what the recipe, the recipe in 2022 was that they slowly worked him into being a starter and it wasn't a super heavy workload. It was the transition into being a full time starter right from the get go that seemed to have, you know, brought out a lesser version of Javier. So these, the, the, the half season dynamic of it actually makes me feel optimistic about Javier.
Luke Morrow
That's fair. And yeah, you know, it's just, it's, it's. You just need the burst from him here down the stretch to try to fill in these last two and a half months. We talked about it. Right off the top though, pitching still seems to be the top need at the deadline. And so to your point, I hope these national people are just lagging behind and I hope it's not a case of like stubbornness from Dana Brown because CBS Sports had the story just yesterday of what they're hearing about the trade deadline and for the Astros. They said, you know, they're seeking a left handed hitting outfielder. And then secondly they said a right handed reliever and made no mention of the starting rotation. I'm afraid with how often we've heard about the left handed hitter that that has just become like the, the white whale at this point for Dana Brown or the, you know, we've been talking about that for like at least two years now that I feel like he's maybe this is just me projecting. Dana Brown is so set on finally finding a left hitting outfielder that that's still like a top priority over any starting pitching.
Seth Payne
That's. Yeah, that almost like he becomes fixated on his inability to even he tried to trade away parades. It didn't work out and thankfully it didn't because they just seemed desperate. It felt like the Rocket, remember the Rockets were trying to trade for Ryan Anderson forever and they couldn't pull it off. And then the one year when the cap expanded, when the luxury tax expanded so aggressively, they went ahead and plunked down a bunch of. They got Ryan Anderson and gave him a huge contract. And like, man, I feel like Daryl Morey was just, that was his White whale.
Wayfair/Lego Advertiser
Yeah.
Seth Payne
You just. You had your opportunity, and you spent all your resources or a bunch of your resources on this thing, that it really. It had passed the prime window. I don't think. I don't think you have to worry about that with Dana Brown, because if there's anything that he's shown that he's incapable of actually making a good move in the outfield, so whether it's his white whale or not, he's going to be forced to accept a trade for an awesome pitcher or something.
Luke Morrow
It will continue to be that white whale. I saw this. Chandler Rome had the story on. On Jordan yesterday, and I guess in there, Jordan said that when there was. As we. As we talk about the trade deadline, when there were trade rumors swirling earlier this year about Jordan, and really, I think it was just kind of media members. I know it was a conversation on these airwaves of like, should the Astros just. Should they just trade Jordan at this point, get a king's ransom? But he went to the Astros to see what the deal was, and as Jordan said, they told him they were not going to trade him no matter what. They were never going to trade him. And Jordan wanted to stay here with Houston. He didn't want to be traded. So I was kind of going to that con or going to the front office figuring out what's going on, because I don't want to be moved. But I do like that idea of Jordan going to the front office, hearing those rumors and sort of, I guess, kind of putting the foot down. But also the Astros acknowledging. And as I said at the time, I think it would be ridiculous to ever trade you. I don't care how bad you are. I'll have you be Steve Carlton on that Phillies team in the 70s where they, like, lost 100 games, but he won 25 games on the mound. Like, I'll have you be the prize possession of even the worst team in the league. You don't move on from a guy like, you're on.
Seth Payne
Yeah.
Luke Morrow
So I like that little tidbit from Chandler Rome.
Seth Payne
Yeah. You know what? It's. It's interesting, too, because, like, how. How exactly does it get to the point where he feels like, oh, crap, like, this is something that I have to worry about, whether it's just personal relations telling him that we're hearing all this stuff or if he's just happening to see it, or he's being asked questions about it, that. That everybody, no matter how good you are, can get a little bit insecure about this stuff. I like that also that he just given his personality where he seems to be one of the most even keeled people on earth. And you know that profile that Chandler, Chandler Rome wrote about him in the Athletic, he just does also seem to be very simple in a good way. Like he just doesn't seem to really have a desire for extreme fame or anything like that. That it's he will be a stable presence here for a while and that when it comes to, you know, he's got a little bit of a precedent in Altuve who took below market contracts and renegotiations a couple times while he was here or he's obviously still here but since he's been here that, that they might be able to come to some kind of reasonable situation with him where with every other guy it feels like, okay, well Kyle Tucker's going to be gone, George Springer is going to be gone, Carlos Cray is going to be gone, then he'll come back, but then he'll get injured again. That maybe there is a long term relationship with Jordan Alvarez above and beyond the current contract.
Luke Morrow
Last thing, Jordan, the Athletic also had this and it's pretty remarkable they had Jordan stats compared to the rest of the Astros. Jordan OPS is 1.030. The rest of the Astros team is.688, which is pretty well below league average. So when you take away your don like this is a bad lineup and yet the Astros are still, I think it's 13th and run scored, third in homers. He is a one man team. It's pretty remarkable when you get the context of truly what he's doing this year and he's actually on pace to put together a season that when it comes to left handed hitters, only Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Barry Bonds and Shohei Ohtani have ever reached certain markers that he's on pace for. It's remarkable what he's been able to do as like a one man show here this year offensively if you think
Seth Payne
about just yeah, where they are where they are in terms of OPS. His OPS is so high and yet they are 15th in the league right now and OPS or 14, 13th or 14th in the league and in OPS. And so much of that is just lifted up by him.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, it's wild. So he's, he's on his way to an MVP season this year. As we head into the final series of the first half, first place essentially on the line. We'll see what the Mariners also do this weekend. But Astros Rangers, they get underway tonight. 7:15, I think in Arlington with Hunter Brown this evening. Hey Baseball Talk On Sports Radio 610 is presented by Xfinity. Score the most reliable Wi Fi 1 price 5 years guaranteed Xfinity. Imagine that. Coming up, a former Rocket said that they were the worst organization he has ever played for. We gotta talk about that next Pain and Pendergast
Lowe's Advertiser
Messi Fans Lowe's Messy halftime event hits July 19th. That's coming up fast. So now's a really good time to become a Milo's Rewards or Milo's Pro Rewards member. Join for free and get access to exclusive messy moments and epic surprises. Let's just say halftime's looking different this year. Make sure to follow Lowes on TikTok and tune in to the Lowe's Messy halftime event on July 19. Members get more at Lowe's loyalty programs subject to terms and conditions. Visit lowe's.com terms for details.
Wayfair/Lego Advertiser
Subject to change it's always amazing to see how quickly your child grows. And I'm not just talking about their height. From those early babbles to full on storytelling. Getting to watch how their ideas, creativity and confidence develop over the years is honestly pretty incredible. Sometimes they surprise you with what they come up with and LEGO bricks can be right there with them through all of those stages. It's not just a toy, it's a full creative building journey that keeps evolving as they do. Lego sets play starts as early as one and a half with Lego Duplo, the bigger bricks designed for little hands that are just starting to explore and build. Then around age 4, kids transition to the smaller Lego bricks and suddenly you're watching real structures take shape, real ideas form and their imagination really take off. They begin with simple stacking, but over time they grow into full on creators, building worlds, stories and things you never would have expected. That's the kind of magic of Lego bricks. You're not buying a phase, you're starting a journey. Learn more and start building today with Lego bricks.
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Yep.
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Payne & Pendergast
Episode: Astros Trimming Down Deadline Targets + 1st Place on the Line this Weekend
Date: July 10, 2026
Hosts: Seth Payne & (Guest host) Luke Morrow (in for Sean Pendergast)
In this episode, Seth Payne and guest host Luke Morrow break down the Houston Astros’ current standing as the MLB trade deadline approaches. They analyze the AL playoff landscape, shift their focus to the Astros’ evolving trade needs (pitcher vs. left-handed outfielder), and preview the upcoming critical series against the Texas Rangers, which has first place implications heading into the All-Star break. The hosts also discuss the psychological dynamics of a baseball team and fanbase, touch on deadline rumors around Yordan Alvarez, and reflect on both fan anxieties and player mentality with equal parts stats and banter.
Timestamps: 02:34 – 05:27
Timestamps: 06:34 – 07:38, 16:44 – 18:42
Timestamps: 08:09 – 14:31
Timestamps: 15:46 – 16:44
Timestamps: 18:42 – 21:26
Seth Payne and Luke Morrow provide an engaging and substantive look at the Astros’ reality heading into the All-Star break and trade deadline frenzy. They illuminate how fluid the playoff race remains, how pitching may truly be the Astros’ top need despite talk of outfielders, and how much hinges on a few key players—both for Houston’s fortunes and for the fans’ emotional wellbeing during the break. Through stats, banter, and candid insight, this episode clues listeners into both the hard truths and hope surrounding the Astros’ 2026 midseason trajectory.