Altuve Taking Fly Balls In Left Field, Bregman In a Red Sox Uniform, Alpy Reps Rockets As NBA All-Star

Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross," Brian LaLima of "The Sean Salisbury Show" and Adam Wexler of "The A-Team" break down the last happenings from Astros spring training. Jose Altuve reported to camp and took fly balls in left field. Full squad workouts begin Tuesday. Ross, Brian and Adam also:

• review the expected lineup for the 2025 Astros.
• react to Alex Bregman arriving at spring training for the Boston Red Sox
• recap Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson representing the Rockets in the NBA All-Star game
• play "To Tell the Truth" and more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Launch Timers. This is the Matt Thomas Show ten oh
one and age down. Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
It's not what happened to lunch Scheimers, It's brunch Timers
here on Sports.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Talk seven nighty. It is a Monday edition of.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
The Matt Thomas Show here on Sports Talk seven ninety
without Matt Thomas rossby real and for the first time
ever really on any regular show, I believe, Yeah myself.
Brian Alima look with the cat drug in right, because
looks he's been hanging out since six o'clock.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Leima hanging out. I'm excited for this one. Yeah, thank you.
I know it's only for an hour. I'm sorry. I
got minsty clinic minsty clinic dot com.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Sorry now, I'm more of a Synergenics Help dot com
kind of guy myself. Are we having a street war
right now? Two minutes into the show, we might be
all right? So Brian Lima is hanging out, Matt Thomas
is out. You're saying he can't be traveling with the Rockets.
They're in the middle of the freaking All Star break.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
What is he doing?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, he was at the Rising Stars Challenged last night. Actually,
I'm sorry. On Saturday yeah, wait was it really uh huh?
Yeah he was playing for Team International right on the
All Stars.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah he was.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I think you could work on the jumper a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Handles weren't as good as clean as I thought they
could have been, But overall, I thought a pretty good
performance by Matt Thomas.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, not bad man, not bad. I saw we read
the celebrity roster. Did you watch Friday night?

Speaker 1 (01:22):
No? I didn't. I didn't watch. I didn't watch Saturday.
Did you watch Sunday night? No? Okay, did you I
watched more than I thought I would, But that's kind
of just because nothing else is on. Yeah, I watched
no on football.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
There's no spring training, Baseball, there's no I mean hockey.
Canada and USA weren't punching each other in the face
on Sunday night.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Saturday night.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
That was on Saturday, which I heard more about that
on Twitter than anywhere else. So literally, if you're a
sports fan, there was nothing else on and I click,
We'll get to that in a little bit. But yeah,
I watched it for a little bit. I watched what
was the celebrity for how many time?

Speaker 5 (01:54):
Me?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
You know what, you seem like a non trudge kind
of how many times you've gone through that one, like fifty.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
I'm like, yeah, I love the show. I could literally
start it from the beginning and go all the way
through in like a day.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
There's just so much nuance and symbolism and things you
pick up on.

Speaker 6 (02:08):
I know.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
It's yeah, different little cinematography is just it's unmatched, isn't
It's great? I miss those.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Days, man, Yeah, I uh no, I didn't watch it, man.
I I literally watched Entourage, but uh, the celebrity roster
I knew me and Sean knew like two names. It
was just even a celebrity roster sucked. Or maybe we're
just getting too old, Brian that I actually, you know what,
that's probably a better I actually don't even know how
old you are.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Let me guess.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Oh day you started with a three, So I'm already
older than you. That's upset. That's upsetting. I just turned
for forty, right.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah. Yeah, so I'm gonna say you're thirty one. No,
say I'm trying to be nice. Yeah, No, I'm pretty
sure you know how old I am.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
I don't thirty seven eight, No, I'm about to be
thirty six in March. Okay, yeah, yeah, I'm thirty five. Yeah,
well congratulations, thank you man. That's touch your youth in
the next five years. Well, you probably already feel you're
you're in your thirties. You know your body's hot. I
shot some hoops on Saturday morning after my workout, and
I'm not kidding you. I can feel in my like
my ribs because I was jumping to try to dunk
to see if I could still do.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
I still can, by the way, you.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Know how I knew when I was getting old. I
threw my back out getting out of the car to
get gas.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
It's like when I I've sneezed before and I feel something.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
I was like, ooh, I can't even I can't even
fill up my car anymore. This is not good. It's
not good for anyone, all right. So Brian Lilima is here.
Matt Thomas is and wasn't at the All Star competition.
I think he's doing volleyball dad stuff. She's committed to
Rhode Island his daughter. Congratulations to her. By the way,
Division one scholarship. Shouldn't he be putting her on ice now, Yeah,

(03:32):
you don't want to getting hurt.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
They have I'm assuming he's at a club tournament. Yes,
I think and there in Washington, DC that that sounds.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Like a money pit.

Speaker 4 (03:40):
By the way, it is, Well, the coach Select Baseball,
So that's why I was figuring they're still during their season.
That's basically the same thing, right, it's all yeah, but
it's all money driven.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
It's all about the dollar, dude.

Speaker 4 (03:50):
It's it's a money You want to talk about a
money pit like it's it's in these I don't know
what the I don't know the equivalent.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
You know what perfect Game is and Select Baseball. Yeah,
when you throw twenty seven out to I don't give
up a base that's true.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
That is true. The Perfect Game organization is like just
pretty much. Is it like the mafia? Yes, like to
run the game.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
It is if you try to start up your own operation,
like you get a visit for some weird guy who's
telling a make sure you make this thing goal like
your kneecaps.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's seriously like that. It's they make
really good money and it's like all these a racket.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
It is a raget. We got a Rico case on
her hair.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
I can only imagine what the mom's and dad I
wonder what I wonder if Matt Thomas was that dad
with his daughter in club volleyball. I can only imagine
what is that dad, the one that say my daughter
needs to play more? Yeah, yeah, yeah, hey coach, can
I talk to you? Uh Matt, we have a twenty
four hour old. Yeah yeah, it'll be real quick. And
then why is my daughter not playing?

Speaker 2 (04:42):
I think that the actually i've heard the mom is
more the more like really like Matt's more chill, and
then the mom's like yelling at the referees. She's but
I think Carl is good enough that she's been starting since.
I mean she's like six foot tall. Yeah, she's tall.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
It's a volleyball you're all do you want to commit?

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Man?

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Good for her? I know absolutely. So Matt's out in DC.
I want to hear more about these money these uh mafia,
so the mafia that they're So you're a coach, I
am after fourteen years? Now, fourteen years you've been coaching?
What what age is your teams?

Speaker 4 (05:14):
So I have my high school guy, My team now
is fifteen years, so they're freshmen in high school. But
I'm also coaching a ten you team this spring. You're
doing two teams. Yeah, yeah, because my high must be
making some cash too. High schools don't don't overlapped, and yes,
I am high schools don't overlap.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
That's another thing.

Speaker 4 (05:28):
If you coach select baseball and you do lessons and stuff,
you can make some really good money. Okay, Like I know,
I know a coach that makes like one hundred and
fifty grand just doing lessons, and I'm not that's not
hyperbole either, like he makes money and it's all cash too.
But anyway, yeah, the high ninety minute, you're gonna find you,
He's gonna find you. High school guys won't overlap with
my with my ten you guys, so it's it's easier

(05:51):
to balance. But then you also have the patience level
of a ten year old baseball player. Okay I have,
and they're really good too. Like that, and the ten
under moms are hotter than the fifteen under Mine's correct?

Speaker 7 (06:00):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Is it a mix?

Speaker 6 (06:02):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, I'd say it's a mixy, it's a mix.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
But you go out go out to a select baseball
park on a weekend, legging season is like wow, okay,
so it's always yoga.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Pants season at the at the U ten tournament times
are good, but it's not bad.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
Yeah, you're out there when it's wearing sunglasses. You sneak
a little man. I'm just, you know, try, I'm out
there to coach. I'm out there for the kids, man,
even though I don't even really like kids. You're out
there for the cash, right, would you?

Speaker 8 (06:30):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Who would you quit your coaching style too? If you
could bring like any coach, are you like, uh, the
the hard ass? I would Oh wait, so you're the
young cool guy. Yeah, I'm like Sean McVay. I would say,
I feel like I relate to kids really well. Spike
the hair up, Come on, man, tis Sean McVay, frosted tips,
Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
I'll do it. If you do it. You got plenty
of hair that you could do it with. Not so much.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
I'm a little thin on top these days. Yeah, i'd
probably say Sean McVay. Maybe maybe young passionate enern jetache,
got ripstones when you need it. But other than that,
it's like I'm gonna you know, I played baseball too,
so like you're gonna screw up, You're gonna fail.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Stop crying, let's go. So you're not going full bill
Belichick curmudgeon. You're more like trying to try to not
buddy buddy. But yeah, just I just try to relate
to the Okay, yeah for sure.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, the kids are.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
Listening to like Taylor Swift and stuff and whatever else is.
I don't even know what young people music these days.
What's the guy's name is? Sings Broccoli? What's that guy's name,
Ray Strumming? Who Race schmurdered?

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah? Yeah, nob what is the kids?

Speaker 4 (07:37):
Little yachty, little yachty, Kendrick Lamar maybe? Uh, yeah, I
don't know. I like Kendrick Lamar. I do too, Okay,
I do to.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
I don't know. I listened to I listened to. Uh,
how do you well?

Speaker 2 (07:50):
I guess you're off at ten am, so you kind
of got a best basically the rest of your day
I worked. I was gonna say, aren't you tired at
the end of the day. If you're working with how
many practices do you run a week? Two one days
and thursdays one to each for each team? No high school.

Speaker 4 (08:03):
So high school guys are with their high schools right now,
so they can't play select baseball, so they won't get
going until June. So I'll be so okay. So if
you're never running two teams at once, no okay, oh no, no,
I wouldn't be able to do it. No, I wasn't
going to say so I take like a three hour
and app every day.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Really, so you were doing it? You were, I know
you would do I did the morning shift for a
long time. So how long have you been on the
morning show?

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Now?

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Three years and you still have not adjusted to the
morning No, I never will, it's not I know. You
know the time I was in bed last night?

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Uh eight pm?

Speaker 4 (08:31):
Yeah, no time I want to sleep, like midnight eleven.
I couldn't sleep. I couldn't fall asleep last night. So yeah,
I'm tired, man, like I'm tired.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Sounds like we had a lot of issues to work
out here. But you'll be all right.

Speaker 4 (08:43):
I see my therapist every Thursday, so I'll tell care
about it's good. Tell I said, hello, I will yeah, yeah,
put in some good work tomorrow. Come on, Sandra, Yeah,
we'll go land on, get to work. Say hello, let's
get this, let's get let's get this guy. Uh, you
know meditating? Do we have any like do we have
any segments in the ten o'clock hour, like, uh like
this show, like Non Florida Story, You're gonna be.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Gone at eleven thirty. We can move up, we can
move it up. I guess the truth. To tell the truth, Okay,
what is that? To tell the truth? Well, thanks for listening.
We really appreciate you. Actually listen, guys for like the
first two hours. Let them out out about Yeah. To
Tell the Truth is a segment where Matt comes up
with four topics and only one of them he believes,

(09:25):
and then he gives us the four topics and it's
up to myself and connorm our government to figure out
which one is true. Although sometimes he flips it and
he believes three of the topics and one is a lie. Okay,
so you always have to either find out what the
lie or what the truth is, whichever one is the
one that's standing alone.

Speaker 4 (09:40):
I'm gonna let y'all hang with that. Eleven thirty, Well
we can't do it without two people, okay, and be solo.
So let's do it at eleven fifty.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Fifty. You're gonna make it up?

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, okay, time to make something. I I just gotta
spot the lie. Yeah, although I might do I might
do three truths in a line?

Speaker 4 (09:57):
Is it sports related or anything related, like anything about
it normally sports sports? Okay, yeah, we're not normally talking like,
you know, geopolitics or anything like that.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Y'all did your SNL draft on Friday? Yes, Sean or not?
Sean Matt's team sucked? Yeah, it was bad. That tried
to be very nice diplomatic. I know yours was. It
was so good. I know, this is what happens on
the Fantasy five. What are we doing?

Speaker 9 (10:20):
Like?

Speaker 1 (10:20):
I know, I know it's mad. I'm bad and I
don't even I'm not even an.

Speaker 4 (10:24):
I don't even really like SNL. It's not very funny
to me. It never has been. There's good, good little
you know hits here and there. Eighty eight to ninety
eight was my wheelhouse of it. It was really good, dude.
We had Whenever Will Ferrell left, it went downhill. We
had a guy call in. His name was Martin.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
He was so mad.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
Apparently during the SNL fifty on Saturday night or Sunday night,
KPRC two broke in with their Sunday night news at
ten fifteen and it cut off cut off the SNL fifty.
He was wow, dude, he's damn near dropped an F
bomb on the shops.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
It's been mad. We'll go to YouTube, Martin, you'd be fine.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
He was like seventy three to eighty Wow, eighty five
for the best years on sn l Okay, you know,
of course, Shawn Boomer himself, he's like, yeah, yeah, I
got that was better fifty.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Years ago than it is now now.

Speaker 4 (11:08):
Everybody, I don't know why I'm talking to like this,
that Colin jos and that Michael Chay.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, I don't like them. It ain't right. No Chevy
Chase back.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
And then you know these these these people on Twitter, man,
like they made this such a big deal. You saw
Tom Hanks had his little thing with the make yeah, with.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
The well so they they did that bit a long time.
That's my whole point.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
It was it was a callback, correct, They did the callback,
and people on Twitter were like, how dare they?

Speaker 1 (11:34):
What do you mean this is from six years ago?

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, it was funny back then the way they did
like six years ago, because they were like they were
talking about how they both like big women and some
other stuff or whatever, and they're like, hey, I think
we have a little a lot more in common than
we think, and then they're like, all right, coming up next,
these lives matter.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Like Tom Hanks was like, oh yeah, like I thought
it was funny.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
Yeah, and these people were like, oh, of course, everybody
makes everything political their of course they're gonna do this.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Three weeks in it Trule's president. I'm like, dude, this
is literally like six years old. Man, they did this.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
They did it back well I guess uh yeah, donnay
T was in office then, so all right anyways, anyway,
but on the SNL, yeah, man, I didn't care. We
can talk about that. Look, we're gonna be honest, guys.
Anything goes Monday, anything goes Monday there. We got to
be honest with the people, Brian, because that's what I am.
Matt likes to lie to you people. I'm gonna be
honest with you. The two slowest weeks in sports radio calendar, yea,

(12:27):
they are the Major League Baseball All Star Week. Because
you're in the middle of July, everybody's on vacation. There's
literally no sports happening. And this week right now, Super
Bowl's done. Not that the Houston is catching and latching
onto the NBA anyways, there's no NBA there's no spring training,
so we're gonna make do with what we got. It's
basically anything you guys want to talk about. We can

(12:48):
talk about the All Star Game. Did you catch it
over the weekend or any of it? Do you like
the format? You completely tuned out? Mac McClung is the
greatest dunker of all time. We'll talk about that as well.
You have Shingoon in the All Star Game. We get
a lot of spring training storylines that we can get to.
I do want to get to those with Brian Lima
as he is, he's our resident baseball expert as a
coach of two different teams. Uh, he's absolutely going to

(13:11):
be locked in on that. So we had a lot
of stuff to get to. Anything you want to. Seven
one three two one two five seven ninety is the
phone number seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
You can also send tweets to me at sports r
v be Lima seven nineties go Look, why don't.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
You follow them? Oh, you're good. Your numbers are getting up.
They're not bad. They're getting there good. We're proud of
you are getting there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
The engagement farming with the Dana Brown stuff is working great. Man,
we're probably get Assis. Be a youna call me out
like that. Be Lima seven ninety, be Lima seven ninety.
He's here untill large to the game seven one three,
two one two five seven ninety.

Speaker 10 (13:47):
Back in a minute, back to Matt Thomas and Ross
via Real on on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Ten, twenty in the am.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
Here on Sports Talk seven ninety hour, number five for
Brian Lilima. We appreciate him hanging out with me.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
You're doing great. Thank We're proud of you. Ross Virea
with you.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Brian Lima is here Matt Thomas show with Ross, but
without Matt Thomas as he is out traveling doing volleyball
dad stuff. As we will be into spring training mode.
Well we're already into spring training mode. But Matt Thomas
and I are going to be out at West Palm Beach.
I fly out literally after this show. I'm gonna be
you file out today, four forty five flight. This should

(14:50):
be comfortable. I should make it out there from here
are the bush? Yes, I am going deep into the bush.
Good and we are going to check a bag. That's
how long we're going to be there?

Speaker 1 (15:01):
How long? All week? No I got a lot of
radio equipment. Oh yeah, so I mean access unit it's
for yeah, Okay, I'm not like Matt.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Matt with like a four day trip, he brings like
three suitcases and he's got his own personal bell hop.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
It's a whole ordeal. It's just out of control. You're like, dude,
what are you doing?

Speaker 2 (15:16):
You're just gonna be out here in khaki shorts with
your pasty white legs. So yeah, I got to bring
some equipment. So I will be checking a bag and
then we'll be flying. I'm actually flying into Fort Lauderdale
and then driving down to West Palm in a in
a rental car, which I believe is a compact. Matt
really really went all out your six three? How are
you gonna Budget's a little low, So we'll figure it out.

(15:37):
We'll put that bad boy all the way to back. Look,
I don't need I don't need much. And no, I'm
not fancy ross.

Speaker 7 (15:42):
No right.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
My first car was a ninety three hundred Cord. Okay,
we got it done. Where are you guys staying or not?

Speaker 5 (15:48):
Not?

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Okay? Yeah? In a hotel, a mid level I would
say two and a half star. Okay.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
With last year, we were in the We were in
the Motel six studio and there were literally people like
on drugs in shaking.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
There was a guy.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
We We've told this story on air a couple of times,
and I know you don't listen to all till one
more time.

Speaker 4 (16:05):
It's not the blood dry blood or something. No, no, Matt, Yeah,
Matt jokes that there was there's no blood in the
in the well. There were some weird brown stains in
the in the shower, which we assume could either be
blood or feces.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
So anyways, yeah, we there was the one time there
were all a lot of shady characters in the parking lot.
I'm gonna be honest, but we were never in danger.
Matt's all whining about it. I'm like, come on, dude,
this is okay. Yeah, but you got none that big
of it. He's from Kingwood. He went to where you know,
I'm sorry, where did you go to high school?

Speaker 3 (16:34):
Creek?

Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, where I grew up in Green's Point, right, I
went to Spring on the east side of Spring. Okay,
that's normal. F They don't even call it.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
The name got so bad with guns Point they changed
the name. It's called the North City District.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Or something like that. I've seen the signs out there.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yeah, they're like we got a rebrand so bad out there,
they rebranded so right, Yeah, I know Matt's uh, it's
it's different and that's fine. We were never really in danger,
but there there was one time this guy was shivering
and he was at on the mention in front of
the office and he was like, hey, guy, you know
where the office is. We're like, uh, you're sitting in
front of the office. That was like that was we

(17:10):
were like, oh, it's bad. We can't stay here anymore.
We're a decent place.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
So I went with I went with Matt and Gordie
uh to Astro spring training in twenty nineteen when I
was here part time. Dude, we stayedd I forgot about that.
We stayed on Singer Island. Have you ever seen Singer Island?
Singer Island? No, I don't know, like Alcatraz. No, It's
like like it's very, very very bougie. Just look it up,
Singer Island. We stayed at a resort. It's like a

(17:36):
house was over there or something. Epstein, Yeah, yeah, probably
didn't you have a house in West Palm Probably, I think.
So this was like Northwest Palm. I think, okay, it
was in I forgot what hotel was. No, we stayed
at this resort. We had no business being there. It
was a two bedroom suite, yeah, overlooking the ocean. It

(17:57):
was insane, and I was.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
Like, how some you guys are traveling like that. Well,
budgets are different these days. I guess it was. I mean,
I just I gotta find it. I'll look at it.

Speaker 4 (18:06):
But anyway, when I figured out, hey, Jeff Bagwell just
arrived at Astro spring training.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Thank god, I know, thank god, the best coach of
all time is that everyone's going to be hitting five
hundred now now that he's there, really appreciate it. Anyways,
what was I talking about? I don't know.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
We're going to spring training. We're gonna be that there
for a few days. I'm flying out today. Matt Thomas
will meet me out there, so great interviews. I'm sure
we're gonna have Dana Brown, Joe Espada and then some
of the players as well. Coming up in the next
few days here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross
Live from spring training. We'll also have Chrisy Gordy joining us.
He was at spring training over the weekend thanks to
our good friends over at Carbuck Brewing. So we're going

(18:42):
basically into full spring training mode here pretty soon. But
I did want to ask you, Brian Lilama, you didn't
even you didn't watch any of the All Star weekend.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
It's an All Star game on Sunday. I didn't watch
the All Star Game.

Speaker 5 (18:53):
No.

Speaker 4 (18:53):
I watched Mac McClung do his dunks on Saturday night. Yeah,
were those good? I tell him dunk over the car.
That's the only one I saw. I was locked into it.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, Unfortunately, I.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Was watching the I was watching the Texas Longhorns defeat
the Kentucky Wildcats as.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
They cling to their tournament hopes.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
So I was watching basketball because the baseball team got
going and they beat the Brakes off of Old Miss. Yeah,
they had Old Miss in for a three games. They
beat UH Oklahoma State as well. They were playing up
in Arlington.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
Did you ever you ever cross pass with schloss uh
baseball circles.

Speaker 4 (19:23):
No, but the guy Pierce, David Pierce, Yes here cross
passed with him a couple of times. UH got to
meet Augil Gurito. No, he was due me and him.
He died on my birthday. Which is pretty sad. But
you're talking about Au I mean, I meant Pierce Pierce. No, Pierce,
I'm not the biggest fan of I think he's I

(19:45):
think he's a dick. Okay, yeah, yeah, Well a lot
of people feel that way about Schloss as well.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
I've heard that a lot of Aggie fans. Yeah, a
lot of Yeah, we've heard that. I've heard that's okay. Yeah, No,
I never came across a Schlasnagel. But I'm telling you
what he's gonna turn. He's gonna get the Texas Longhorns
back to where they need to be. As far as baseball,
I'm telling you, the dude wins everywhere he goes.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
That's what I like to hear. So, yeah, how championships
is oh five? Uh yeah, I think so.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
It's been a while.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
Mac McClung was really good though, the back to THEE
three three straight years he's won it. He doesn't the
greatest dunker of all time arguably, yeah he did now
Michael Jordan, but he make it.

Speaker 5 (20:22):
Me.

Speaker 4 (20:23):
The thing that makes him makes him really good is
he it's just one dunk and that's it. That's all
he needs. He makes all of his first dunks. Yeah,
I'll take your word for yeah, it was really good.
That was the only time. That's only And then I
went back over to the Nation's face off and watched
USA b Canada, which was it was awesome.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
I'm not a big hockey guy, but it was an
awesome me either.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
But I heard that they got into three fights in
the first nine second did Yeah, that's pretty cool. Do
you have a full report of the game for US
Connor McGovern did you watch the game? This is our
hockey correspondent, o Connor McGovern nice here on Sports Talk
seven ninety the Matt Thomas Show.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
I did watch. I did watch most of it. Now,
why are they fighting?

Speaker 8 (20:54):
It?

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Was it geopolitical just because they did hate each other
in the first place? Is it because there is it
because what's his name? Because Donald's trying to annex them
or what?

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Well, that is part of it.

Speaker 11 (21:03):
Because during the national anthem, it was in the games
in Montreal during the American national anthem.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
A lot of booze. They booed the hell out of
the national anthem.

Speaker 11 (21:09):
So Canadian national pride is a little bit higher than
these days, and for a lot of these players, it's
the biggest game, uh, they've ever played in because they're
representing their country in NHL professionals haven't been able to
play international play since twenty and ten years, since twenty sixteen,
I believe. So okay, they put on a little extra
juice for their when they fight, for when they're when

(21:32):
they're and.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Then they get their ass kicked in their own home.
Well it was it was a close game, one goal,
it was three to one.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
It was three at the end.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah, come on, man, you're a cockey correspondent,
can get me a score.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Wrong Canada.

Speaker 4 (21:45):
Canada had had uh Sydney Crosby and who's the other
bad at McDavid David on the same team and they lost.

Speaker 11 (21:54):
They put them on the same line. Yeah, yeah, they
play again today versus.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
So they went into their house in the sport that
they basically invented and beat them.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Why they bowed the him in national anthem, Yeah against
us A.

Speaker 4 (22:07):
Us A also had what's the guy's name, the political guy,
the the what was his name? He was like the
president there what do they call him in Canada as
the prime minister? Yeah, Justin Trudeau, Justin Trudeau, whatever you say.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
It yeah. Yeah, he was running his mouth on Twitter
and they got their ask his.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Mouth on Twitter. Oh yeah, there's hockey smack. I'm a
prime minister. Yeah, and then they got their ass kicked.
That's a shame, wouldn't be US Canada. All right, we're
gonna take quick break. Eric, we see on hold, we'll
get to you.

Speaker 8 (22:35):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
We haven't gotten to anything I was supposed to, but
this is great. Brian Lilima is hanging out. We're having
a good time. You guys can get in seven one
three two one two five seven ninety seven one three
two one two five seven ninety We'll get into some
astros spring training stuff coming up here in just a second.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Ten thirty three in the am.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
You're in a sunny, beautiful Monday morning on Sports Talk
seven ninety ros Viria with you. Brian Lima is here
as well, hanging out for the first time ever. I
don't even know, maybe on a weekend or something. We've
we've been on the wheel.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
We've been uh fan Fest done fan Fest kind of.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
So but yeah, as O no no, no, no, me
and you did a back in twenty nineteen, twenty eighteen
or twenty nineteen. You hosted I produced okay back in
the old building. It was on Black Friday. Yeah, I'll
take your word for it. I've produced twice in my
life and I'll never want to do it again. You
taught me the board at the old at the Olday

(23:57):
my first week, Yeah, my first week part time because
because we laid.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
You off, right, Yeah, I got laid off. Yeah, it
was a part time. We got lad off is the
late inside radio for you?

Speaker 1 (24:05):
And then you came back. I came back, yeah, yeah,
I was just part time.

Speaker 4 (24:07):
I came back for more. Yeah, and we appreciate you
for that guy. Yeah, my first week twenty eighteen, I
came in and did uh you know a bunch of
christ It happens. He does a great job. I've alway,
I appreciate it. You taught me on the board when
for whatever reason, Matt wouldn't let you co host with him.
It was just a Matt Thomas show.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah, I know. Then Ross was behind the boy.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Let me tell you tooth and nail, buddy, I finally
least I got may gonna get your name on the
morning show too, like I got mine finally. Maybe, man,
it took me sixteen years, So hold my breath you
might want. I'm waiting another ten years, so yeah, we
got fifteen years. They have to give it to you.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Correct contract. I just heard this in the contract.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
Seven three two two five seven ninety is the phone
number here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Eric in Bay
City wants to talk about the Billy Wagner jersey retirement.

Speaker 6 (24:47):
What's up, Eric, Well, Ross, you said it's a slow week.
I got a lot of meat to put on the.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Bone hole year ago. How many exact grinky bones are
we talking about?

Speaker 6 (24:56):
Okay, involve that if you'll let me.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
I'm proud of you.

Speaker 6 (25:00):
This one is thank you. I'm growing you. And Matt
talked about Billy Wagner last week and not being sure
his jersey should be retired. When that backgate opened at
the Astrodome and he walked out there to close out
a game, you could see the look on the player's faces.
It's about to be a quiet plane ride home. He
is a legend.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
He's going into the Hall.

Speaker 6 (25:17):
Of Fame, not the Hall of Man where Alex Bregman
will end up. Alex Bregman shouldn't have a cup holder
named after him at dyke In Park, Okay, much less ever,
have his jersey retired. The guy hit below two hundred
and two consecutive World Series in twenty one and twenty two.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Yeah, in the playoffs he he hit that what the
game winner in Game five in twenty seventeen.

Speaker 6 (25:39):
Twenty seventeen, Yes he did.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
But let's talk twenty playoffs home runs?

Speaker 6 (25:44):
No he has. I think he has six World Series
home runs.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
But here let me worlds hit hold on, hold on,
hold on, Eric only six home runs in the World Series?
What a bum?

Speaker 6 (25:56):
Okay, well, come on, dud, finish what I'm saying here.
He's in the lineup full of studs, Lance Berkman on
that two thousand and five team, hitting a lineup with
Jason Lane, Morgan Ensburg and Craig Bidge. Adam Everett was
the number two hitter. If I recall, Adam Ever's the
most trash Astro of all time next to Alex Bregman.
Oh boy, yeah, So let me put it to you

(26:17):
this way. Alex Bregman is one of a few former
astros now that, in my opinion, has put eternal damage
unfortunately on Jose Altuve. That does not belong there. All
those guys, Springer, Correa, Marling, Gonzales, Carlos Beltron, and Bregman
that immensely were tied into the trash can banging. Al
Tuvey was not the guy gets accused of wearing a

(26:39):
buzzer and all this other conspiracy nonsense and he has
to wear that batch. He might not be a first
ballot Hall of Famer because of that garbage that those
guys were associated with. And that's the thing is Bregman
needs to be looked upon as that group. Springer's out
in Toronto stealing money from the Blue Jays, Correa is
in the trainer's office every day in Minnesota. Evan's gonna

(27:00):
be the next bust out of that group. And Jose
al Tuve is still going to be here doing great
things getting accused of what they all did.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Eric, have you been drinking this morning?

Speaker 6 (27:09):
Let me no, sir, and let me circle it back. No, sir,
let me circle it back to this last point and
I'll hang up and listen.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Thank you.

Speaker 6 (27:17):
The last point is this what you see out of
right now with the Astros is we're in the demise.
We're in the late nineteen nineties Dallas cowboy era of
what was greatness. We've already seen our Barry Switzer, which
was Dusty Baker. Now we're seeing our Chan Gaily days.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
With a coach.

Speaker 6 (27:31):
Now that's why Presley.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
Alright, Eric, you know what, I'm sorry after the first
two three crazy things you said, I gotta let you go.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
Nobody wants to play for Joe Espada. You're ridiculed. You're
not even paying attention. You're not even listening. You're not
even watching the games. You're not to anybody talking in
the py in the propost game. That's absurd.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Eric, I love you like I don't know the weird
cousin that we see at the reunion, But come on, man,
that's too much. Do you even leave what you're saying
at this point? Eric, Alex Bregman the two worst astros
in history. Adam Everett won, Alex Bregman two. He's got
nineteen postseason home runs.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yeah, ops of almost eight hundred in the postseason. That's
pretty good going up against the best pictures on the planet.
Fifty four. RBIs fifty three. Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
At least he didn't say he wants Zach grink back.
That's the guy who always calls and he wants Zach
Grinky back.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
On the team. Why, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
He thinks he still got gas in the tank, even
though thirty other Major League franchises have said no for.

Speaker 4 (28:34):
An entire year plus. Do you know how many bad
players have played for the Astros? And you want to
say Adam Everett was one of the worst. Yea, Come on,
Adam Everett gold glove caliber. I don't think he ever
won one but gold glove caliber. And actually, if you
go back and look at his number, isn't that bad
he thought?

Speaker 8 (28:49):
No?

Speaker 4 (28:50):
No, there's plenty of other Astros that have come through
here that have been pretty damn bad. You ever heard
of Miles Straw?

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Hey, you ever heard of You? Ever heard of Jake Myers? Yeah,
gotta get that because you're Ja Myers.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
There he is.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
I'm sorry, finalist that I'm talking offensively?

Speaker 2 (29:07):
You No, No, we're talking No, We're not talking about
off It's called a team game, bro, you gott it.
It's a complete game. Can't wait for our nine holder
and just hit like on all right, you gotta go
play with field. Hopefully Chas McCormick can figure it out
this year premium defensive position.

Speaker 4 (29:22):
Put it to you this way, Jake Myers is so
bad that they're that they're they're gonna put Jose and
Altuve in left field a bolster that at outfield.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Hey, he's so bad that he's starting two years back
to back at centerfield.

Speaker 4 (29:32):
I don't under dude, why are we Why are we,
as Astros fans, putting up with Jake Myers as your
starting center fielder. I went on a nice little rant
this morning, and then Gordi texted me and he said, Hey,
Jake Myers is a nice kid? Is Jake Myers is
about to be twenty nine? He's a grown ass man.
He may be a nice kid. Maybe he should be
more of an ass Maybe that make him better water.

(29:55):
If you fell out of a boat.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
That's not true.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
He got thirteen bombs last year, Bro, Thanks thanks, thanks
you Now like most of those were before July.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Yeah, we get the last three months of the season.
We're pretty rough. But that's okay. That's what we're doing.
Eric and Bay City? What is in the water out
there in base Hey?

Speaker 4 (30:15):
And by the way, Al is gonna be a first
ballot Hall of Famer, regardless he may not get votes
from some people here, right, He's going to be a
first bow I think you can get to seventy five,
but I think it'll be close, and any it'll be
In any case, it'll be closer than it should be.
What's the guy's name, what's the what's the writer in Boston?
What's the real popular one? Older guy?

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Come on, you know how? I'm talking about Bill with
the with the curly hair?

Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yes, yes, what's his name? Talking about?

Speaker 3 (30:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (30:43):
What's his name? Remember his name? He's not worth remembering.
I'll just put Boston sports writers.

Speaker 4 (30:48):
He He has been very vocal that he has already
said he will not Dan shaughnessy. Look, I put curly hair,
Boston sports writer, and it's the first thing that popped up.
Dan Shaughnessy has said that he's not going to vote
for Hosal too because of the trash crash crash stuff.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
That's fine, whatever, he's still gonna get in it. There's
gonna be a couple couple guys that won't vote for you.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
You cannot vote as much as you want, but I
still think he's gonna I haven't talked to you about this.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Brian Lean, because we haven't talked on air since twenty nineteen.
Black Friday. Yeah, what was your opinion on the Billy
Wagner Jersey retirement.

Speaker 4 (31:23):
I'm indifferent. I really don't care to be honest with you,
like to be honest with you. No, hey man, this
is radio business, buddy radio.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
You have to yell. You have to have number one
have an opinion, and number two scream it from the mountaintops.
Haven't you learned? Don't come on, man, I don't care.
It's fine.

Speaker 4 (31:37):
He's a Hall of Famer. Cool, he's going in with
an Astros hat and they're going to retire his number.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
This is the thing to me, when Tyler White was
on the team and wearing number thirteen, was there any
Was there a single Astro fan going, you can't wear
number thirteen, that's Billy Wagner's number.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, no, No, nobody said that.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
I don't care to me exactly to me, you can
put him in the Astros Hall of Fame. That's the
same as retiring as now. You can honor him. But
in my opinion, and I know it's not like this
in twenty twenty five, but Hall of Fames should be
reserved for the greatest of the greatest of the great
and Jersey number retirement should be reserved for people who
that number is tied to their career. If I went

(32:18):
to one hundred Astros fans and ask them what jersey
number Craig Bigio wears, a lot of them would come
back and know that it's seven. Seven needs to be gone.
Some needs to be retired. If I said, what does
Billy Wagner wear, I don't think we get anywhere near.
It's not a number that is that is just like.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
That guy.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
Is that number? Billy Wager's number? Thirteen? We've got to retire.
Nobody else can.

Speaker 4 (32:45):
One percent? Yeah, one hundred percent. Wait, so hold on,
did I miss something? Are they retiring his jersey? Yeah,
they retired, So his number is gonna go up in
the rafters Billy Wagner, Yes they are.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
How did I miss that? I don't know your sleep
half today.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
I thought you were talking about like the Astros Hall
of Fame, like in Hall of Fame or whatever. No,
they're gonna put a number up there.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yeah, okay, that's what I'm saying, Like I don't know
about that. I mean, look, look, I don't look. I'm
not gonna be like screaming from the mountaintop. This is
a Travis Field.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
This shall never happened. He's a Hall of Famer. I
get it. I guess I'm in different. I really don't
care the neck.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
The next for me, The next number that should be retired,
and probably one of the only few that should be retired,
is twenty seven. And that's for Josel Tuvey. I remember
mis shor Don stays here for the rest of his career,
but he's eventually going to price himself out.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
So you think they'll do it? Were like a Royals,
well like tandem because I was a little surprised when
I'll tell you, I said this the Billy Wagner thing.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
When forty four was given out, I was like, ooh,
isn't that kind of Royals Walt's number? See, I didn't
even remember that. Yeah, And I remember Royo yeah, like
I like he was. But it's actually, you know what,
I remember Shane Reynolds more than I remember Royo.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Thirty nine? Was he thirty nine? I thought he was
thirty seven? Thirty seven? Was he? I don't know.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
I'm telling you, Shane Reynolds, Yeah, you're right, thirty seven?

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Was it thirty seven? I was close? Yeah, that was
too off. Well that's not bad. Partial break, give me
partial credit. I don't know. Man, Shane Reynolds got an
orange jacket. He's in the Ashles Hall as he should be.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
I think let's get Pat nieshakat there. But yeah, why
not if you were thirty seven? What about the Greg Lucerson?
Can we get that guy?

Speaker 11 (34:16):
No?

Speaker 1 (34:16):
No, okay, fine? What about Luke Gregorson?

Speaker 3 (34:19):
Is that what you mean?

Speaker 1 (34:19):
Say? Who'd I say? Greg Lucerson?

Speaker 12 (34:22):
Dude?

Speaker 1 (34:22):
You want to talk about what is it called when
you switch up numbers? Dyslexic? Is that the same?

Speaker 12 (34:27):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (34:28):
Kind of yeah, you get the dyslexia. Yeah, So for
Luke Gregor, you've been here since six, it's Gregorson. All right,
we're gonna take a break on that. Lugerson sounds like
an astro.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
Uh, you know what.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
We're gonna play to tell the truth when we come back.
Because Brian Olma is hanging out, we got to get
that in with him. We'll also have Chris Gordy with
a spring training report coming up at eleven thirty, News
at noon, Adam Weser joining at some point. A lot
of good stuff here on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
You can get in at seven one, three, two, one, two, five,
seven ninety.

Speaker 10 (34:55):
Matt Thomas, Ross Viel It's the Matt Thomas Show with
Ross on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
I don't know why, but I can, as Matt Thomas
would say, hello and welcome into one of the signature
segments of the Matt Thomas Show with Ross Without Matt Thomas.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
He is traveling doing volleyball dad stuff. He'll join me
in West Palm Beach tomorrow as we'll be there for
spring training coverage here on Sports Talk seven ninety right now,
hanging out for a little bit. I do appreciate you. Brianlalima. Yeah,
now do we got jingles still? Something called production value, buddy.
Let's go get your game up. That's how we roll

(35:57):
here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas,
who's not here. That's okay anyways, all right, So this
segment is a fun one that we do on Mondays,
where usually it's probably collecting takes from over the weekend,
the things that we saw, things that are going on,
and we throw four takes okay at you this time

(36:18):
it's me.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
Normally it's a map. I only believe one of these takes.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Okay, here we go, Okay, ready, you understand it. I
think so you're ready to go. Yeah, you look a
little confused. I'm a little confused.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
But we're gonna rote.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Okay, only one of these I believe. Okay, you gotta
sniff out the one I believe. All right, take number one?
All right, you might wanna write this down, I got it.
That's fine, all right. Also, our game format is trash.
Nobody cares. Nobody really wants to watch. The only way
that they're gonna get these players to care is the

(36:53):
almighty dollar. The NBA needs to have big We're talking
big money and saves for the All Star Game right now,
the winning team gets like twenty five thousand apiece. I'm
talking at least a quarter mile apiece. Find a sponsor whoever, Kia,
I don't know. The NBA has got a billion sponsors.

(37:14):
They fund this NBA Cup with like Immirates Air. Somebody
can do it. The NBA needs big money incentives and
it's the only way to improve the All Star Game.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
You don't believe that.

Speaker 4 (37:25):
That's take number one? Oh wait, so I don't do
it each one? I gotta wait. You get a wait
to these, Okay, right, that's okay. You take it take
a mental inventory, all right, right, yeah, I'm gonna write
the stone number two.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
As I just outlined in the last segment, only the
greatest of the greatest of the great need to have
their numbers retired for organizations.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Greatest of great Alex.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
Bregman step on backpal only nine years as an astro.
We do appreciate you. We're gonna put you into the
Astros Hall of Fame. You are one of the all
time greats. But number two stays. You didn't even put
in ten years. I need to see a little bit
more than that. I do appreciate him in his career.
I'm not going with Eric in Bay City calling him
the second worst astro of all time. I think is

(38:10):
an all time great. He's getting his orange jacket. But
number two stays. Okay, number three. This hurts me to say,
oh because thankfully Matt Thomas isn't here so I can
say it out loud. The University of Houston Cougars are

(38:31):
winning the national championship.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
It's finally here. They've had all these years.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
As long as I'll put this caveat in there, barring health,
barring health, seems like it's one at Arizona. They won
with the Kansas Jayhawks. They're destroying the Big Twelve. They're
gonna win that conference, which is well now, the SEC
is the toughest basketball conference in basketball.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
But everything is aligning.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
They actually have good three point shooting, go along with
the defense and rebounding and play hard that they normally do.
University of Houston Cougar's are winning the NCAA National Championship.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Take number four. We're going back to the NBA.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Well over the weekend, in the middle of the game,
like the final game, the NBA honored Chuck, Shack, Ernie
and Kenny for the NBA tn T Show. They've done
for so many years and they've done a great job,
and they're going to bring them to ESPN and give

(39:35):
them a bunch of money. You know what I say,
bad idea. They need to get rid of Chuck and Shack.
Most look, all they do is go out there and argue.
They try to fight each other. They make up a
bunch of dumb topics. There's zero basketball analysis, and most
of it is negative. I think the NBA, more than
any other sport, has a negative fandom culture where everybody

(39:56):
talks about how everybody sucks more than the other major sports,
and I think a lot of it has to do
with Chuck and Shack telling everyone else that they suck
because they have no other analysis. NBA needs to get rid.
It needs to be their call to get rid of
Chuck and Shaq. Kenny and Ernie are fine, but they
got to get rid of that show. Inject some new life,

(40:17):
get some young people. Throw Steven A on there. I
don't even care, but Chuck and Shack gotta go. Okay,
all right, you don't believe that one. To recap the
four takes, now, I put big eck, I wrote down
my list. I'm going to show it to you before
I touch anything, so you know which one I actually chose,
because we think that Matt switches it up, probably.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
Like he and I pick one. Yeah, Matt, you don't
believe that. Yeah, And then he's like, oh no, it
was this one, and we're like, you're a liar, you're
a fraud. Yeah. So I'm going to show it to you,
so hands free, all right.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
Take Number one, big money incentives are needed for the
All Star Game in order to make it interesting. Number two,
Alex Bregman's jersey should not be retired, but he can
still be in the Astros Hall of Fame. The QH
Cougars are winning them NCAA National Championship, and the NBA
needs to move on from at the very least Chuck
and Shack.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
All right, and now you discuss it with Connor.

Speaker 4 (41:06):
Okay, Connor, I gotta I think I got a pretty
pretty good hold on this right here.

Speaker 10 (41:11):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (41:13):
He does not believe that the NBA needs to get
rid of Chuck and Shack. They are phenomenal for TV. Yeah, entertainment.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
I agree.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
He doesn't believe that the Cougars are gonna win the
national Championship because it's too much of a crap shoot
in March madness.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
I'm a little I'm with you on that one, but
go ahead.

Speaker 4 (41:29):
And he doesn't believe that the All Star Game needs
more money for it to be entertaining. I think he
believes that the greatest of greats need their numbers retired.
Number two stays m I had it's either that or you,
of h I'm gonna go with the greatest of greats,
the retiring, because we literally just talked about it.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
We did talk about it. But maybe he maybe he's
doing that to the throw us off.

Speaker 11 (41:49):
Maybe he threw it us off a little bit, because
I mean, yeah, two World Series here in Houston. Uh
and I he would say this only when Matt snot
here is Kusha National champ because they are really good.
So you're gonna go too. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say,
sound the shoot about three? Okay, So I'm going with
number two. It's neither of the drama. It's either the
WNBA one. So let's see.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
Okay, number one. You are correct, Yeah, you don't believe.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
That there's nothing that's gonna get anybody interested. I think
maybe they could go to USA and the world as
million dollars apiece. Not really gonna do much for anybody.
Nothing's gonna change it. You guys are very right to
throw that one out. Next one, I'm gonna throw out.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Alex Bregman's number two is getting retired. Okay. I mean, look,
World Series, as y'all said, it's gone. He is number two.
I know it's only nine years. He to me is
on the CUSP. But you gotta retire Alex Bregman's number two.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (42:48):
And next last, but not least, Oh wow, you're right.
It's a crapshoot. I think the Cougars could be one
of the favorites. I think Auburn is actually the favorite championship.
Chuck and Shack, you gotta go. It's too negative. They're passally,
you're prime. Chuck is sixty one years old, Shaq is
fifty two. Chuck and hardly talk. He doesn't care. He

(43:11):
doesn't know anybody who's on these teams. They can't even
say Alprin, Shinggun or Men Thompson or any of these
Rockets players. They are so bad, they're so toxic. They
had their run. They're past their prime. They gotta go.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
You don't believe that. I know, I know by the thing,
but you really don't believe I do. I'm telling you
everything I just laid out. They're pass their prime.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
It's over.

Speaker 4 (43:32):
They're hilarious though there they just tried. They entertainment. Why
are they what's the entertainment argue? Chuck went out, that's
pretty good. That's I'm gonna come over and slip a
pretty good impress.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
That's it. And Chuck makes fun of the fat women
in San Antonio. Fat women in San Antonio, and then
they're almost you, Chuck, that's it. It's the same thing
over and over and over and over. Actually, you know,
you know, if it was to me, only.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
See the viral moments. When's the last time you you
sat there and watched twenty minutes.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Of the show. I'm not a big NBA guy. You
don't even watch it? Yeah, nobody. I see the clips.
I see the viral clips too, and it's the same
old thing.

Speaker 4 (44:04):
Actually, you know what I would rather than get rid
of Kenny the Smith. He doesn't do anything, is not foul.
Kenny doesn't really add anything any value. He doesn't know
the players anyways. I I know it's hard to do,
but I have. I have just basically two things to
ask of these people. Funny absolutely, comedy matters, know your league.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Yeah he's on these teams. Yeah, yes, that's it. But
Steven A. Smith does that too.

Speaker 4 (44:27):
Yeah he the hell too. Yeah, this is absolutely preposterous,
and and and and yeah. I just think the NBA
product overall sucks right now, it's not good. At least
the Rockets are well coming to the break rocket three
of their last they won three.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
All right, we're for a break. Oh yeah, it's top
of the out My bad. Gotta get you up. No,
it's okay, don't. We don't follow. We don't follow the
clock on it. That's one. Who do you have coming
up at eleven fifteen, eleven thirty? Nobody?

Speaker 2 (44:51):
Oh, we have a Chris Gordy coming up at eleven
thirty thirty. Okay, Brian Liama, thank you for having up
problem and you lose.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
Good day, sir. We'll see you later.

Speaker 5 (45:00):
See letter.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Lunchtimers.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
This is the Matt Thomas Show, our number two, the
Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is
out traveling doing volleyball dad's stuff as his daughter was
in Washington, DC for a tournament.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
He'll be back tomorrow, as will I. As soon as
the show is over.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
I am heading to the International Airport some known as well,
I'm sorry Intercontinental Bush Intercontinental Airport as I will be
heading into Fort Lauderdale, then driving down on to West
Palm Beach and I'll be with you as long along
Matt Thomas. Alongside Matt Thomas for three straight days of
some spring training coverage. We'll bring you all the heavy

(45:50):
hitters that we can here. I hope we get Jose
al Tuove this year.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Hose.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
I'm not gonna be honest, just between you and me.
Hoseel two has been big time in US for like
a year, so hopefully we can get him. We know
we won't be getting Alex Bregman because he's gone, which
is unfortunate because he's tight with Matt Thomas so he
would normally come on with us there. But we're definitely
gonna get Joe a Spot, and we'll get Dana Brown,
We'll get some other big astros name. So make sure
you stay tuned to Astro spring training coverage here on

(46:15):
Sports Talk seven ninety for the next three days. We're
also with you today until two o'clock. Adam Wexer will
be joining me in a little bit. We'll have Chris
Gordy with a spring training report coming up at eleven thirty.
We also have you at seven one three two one
two five seven ninety seven one three two one two
five seven ninety And this is the big story. You know,

(46:37):
every spring training there's some kind of something's going on.
Where's the camp battles, what's happening with this guy getting
an extension, which pretty much in the first couple of
days from Ervald is the only one up as far
as a big name astro who's important, who's gonna be
a free agent after the season, and Ky Boshers pretty

(46:58):
much put on that over the weekend Fromber says, nobody's
approached him about an extension, and if we're on February
seventeenth and there's not been any approaches, doesn't sound like
it's happening. Sounds like he's gone, sound like he's at
the very least going to hit the market and then
the Astros are going to make a decision from there
give him some kind of offer. I don't know how
competitive it's going to be, but we've seen that, at

(47:20):
least from the Alex Bregman standpoint, from Carlos Carey and others,
that the Astros normally not willing to hand out big money,
long term contracts. Now, I imagine it's not going to
happen with from Erval does certainly if they have concerns
about him as far as long term stability, as far
as I don't want to say mental health, like he's
a crazy person, and you know, I mean he goes

(47:41):
out there and sometimes he gives up three home runs
in and anything. It's not like he's out there committing
a bunch of crimes and hasn't showed up for workouts
and no shows and.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
He's just been a complete head case.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
He's not like that at all, which I think a
lot of fans characterize from merveld Is in that way.
He goes out there and well, he's finished like top
ten in the cy Young for three straight years, so
he's pretty darnk good.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
He is their ace right now. They need him.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
As far as like players that are most important to
the Astro success this upcoming season, he's probably number two
behind yord On Alparez, So that's where we are with him.
He's still really important to the Astro success. But at
age thirty one coming up, be coming up as a
free agent, how long term of a deal do you

(48:27):
want to sign him to.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
That's what the Astros will have to decide. So that's
been one of storylines.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
Is not necessarily going to be top of mind for
everyone throughout spring training. I would say right now, the
prevailing storyline is jose al Tuvey in center field.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
It was talked about a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Remember at Fanfast we had people on and everybody was
laughing it off. He was like, oh yeah, if Alex
Fredman comes back and put him in the left field.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
A little Jose l Tuove out there in left field?

Speaker 13 (48:58):
Sure?

Speaker 10 (48:59):
Why not?

Speaker 1 (48:59):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (49:01):
And then it started to get a little bit more
serious and a little bit more serious. And it looks
like this thing is gonna happen, and it might happen
a lot. Joe a spotter reiterating today this is from
Chandler Rome. Altuve will play both left field and a
second base this spring. The team is not committing to
anything permanent. A spot called it an everyday thing in

(49:22):
terms of how it will evolve, contingent on the feedback
he gets from al two vey. But Jose al Tuove
has been working out with jord On Alvarez's outfield glove.
Alvarez asked about it too, said quote, I don't think
I'm necessarily the best person to be giving defensive outfield tips. Really,
I thought jord unliked himself out there in left field.
That kind of surprises me a little bit. But this

(49:43):
al Twove to left field thing is gonna happen. The
question is how many games is it going to happen.
You're gonna have a sprinkling of yord On out there
You're gonna get some Dubon out there because he played
left field for you. But if there's an injury on
the infield. The great thing, then, the beauty of of
Dubon is you don't want to pencil him in anywhere
on a given day, because he can play everywhere except

(50:05):
catcher and has pretty much for the Houston Astros. And then,
I mean, how much is that Dozenzo gonna factor over there?
And how many games would Jose Al Tuve play out
there in left field?

Speaker 1 (50:17):
That is the question. We're talking twenty, were talking fifty,
we're talking eighty or more.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
I don't know. Definitely doesn't feel like the latter. If
I had to pick out a number, feels like forty five.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Somewhere in that range would be the number.

Speaker 2 (50:36):
And then the question is how many of those are
at Minima Park. How well does he do out there?
I mean, he's pretty athletic, dude. He's thirty five years
old now, so he obviously isn't moving around as he
did when he was younger, and that's been part of
the problem at second base. I know some of us
like to remember him as a gold Glove caliber guy,
which he was. He literally has a gold Glove on
his resume, but he's not that at second base anymore.

(50:58):
And if you go look at stack cast out above average,
you go look at Fielding Bible, which does a lot
of the analytics and zoning stuff with range and all
that type of stuff. He's been one of the worst
second basemen in baseball, and that's a much more premium
defensive position than left field. Really, at the end of
the day, you'd probably say first base or left field,

(51:21):
but there's a lot of nuances to first base, and
you're not putting somebody who's five foot six at first base.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
You're just not doing that.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
You want a big target at first so left field
becomes the only other option if you are looking to
move him and make a transition defensively. So he's out
there taking fly balls. We'll see how the arm plays,
because it just looks like it's gonna happen. It's been
talked about too much. He's actually getting work out there.

(51:48):
How much will jose l Twova be out in left field?
That remains to be seen, and we'll talk about it
with Chris Gordy coming up at eleven thirty here on
a Sports Talk seven ninety and the Matt Thomas Show
along in that last segment. So we're gonna go ahead
and get to a break here.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (52:04):
How many games do you think we're gonna see jose
Al Twove in left field? How worried are you about it?
Or do you think he's gonna be fine?

Speaker 1 (52:11):
This dude's the one of the greatest astros of all time,
gold Glover. He can still move a little bit.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
You don't have to be the greatest fielder in history
to play left field, certainly not at dyke In Park.

Speaker 1 (52:23):
Did I say min in Main Park earlier? We'll figure
that out.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
We'll transition as we go along at dyke In Park
jose A L. Twove in left field?

Speaker 3 (52:31):
I say that? What say you?

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety is
the phone number if you'd like to get in seven
one three two one two five seven nine. You can
also send tweets to at Sports r V and Conna
Dee McGovern. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross
and we'll be back after the short break.

Speaker 5 (52:48):
This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Spours
Talk seven ninety. Continuing along here on.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Conor
McGovern is here. Ron s Viria with you as well.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
Phone lines open at seven one three two one two
five seven ninety seven one three two one two five
seven ninety. You guys can tweet in at sports RV
as well if you'd like. Some of y'all had been
getting in hadn't been a you know, I'd been falling
off on reading these, and you know what, that's my fault,
and I would like to extend my deepest apologies to

(53:34):
you folks. We got Chris Gordy coming up with some
spring training talk at eleven thirty, got the news at
noon as well, Adam Weser going to join at one o'clock,
and you at seven one three two one two five
seven ninety Kyle w tweeting in talking about we had
a caller.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Look our friend Eric in Bay City. You're welcome to
call just as much as you will like.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
At least he's not going with the Zach Grinky takes anymore,
because that guy's been out of baseball for a year plus.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
Nobody's picking it up. Has he even announced his retirement.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
I mean he should if he has it, But also
that's not a very exact, grinky like thing to do,
kind of a different cat marches to the beat of
his own drum. But anyways, he said Alex Pregman was
the second worst astro of all time, behind Adam Everett,
Kyle tweeting in, Bregman, Waywurs and Brett Wallace, Jbi Schuck,
Brendon Barnes, Mac Demingez.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
Hey donate on Zekastasio and or Tim Redding.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Tim Redding. I remember, like, oh, Astro is one of
the top prospects in baseball. Tim Redding's gonna come and
tear things up for the shows. Well he didn't, and
that's okay.

Speaker 1 (54:38):
Jill also says I'm wrong.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
Now.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
Earlier we were talking about this, I said Billy Wagner
wearing number thirteen. Were people upset about that? Because Ar'm
sorry upset when other people wore number thirteen, because not
only did Tyler White wear number thirteen. Look, these are
the guys that all wore the number thirteen after Billy Wagner.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
And for the most part, I don't remember, oh not
even for the most part.

Speaker 2 (55:03):
I'm gonna say for me, in my observation, in my
time of living in this city and being around this
team for as long as I had. I don't remember
anybody bringing up that number thirteen should be reserved for
Billy Wagner. I really don't. Maybe it did, and I'm forgetting,
but let's go through the list. Eric Munson, Thomas Bettez,
Jose Castillo, Brandon Lair, Steve Pierce, Ronie Sadaniel Domingo, Santana,

(55:27):
Tyler White, Dustin Garneau, that Abraham Toro. Were people upset,
were people up in arms and then throwing a fit
when Abraham Toro wore number thirteen because you can't take
Billy Wagner's number. I really don't remember that. Jacob Wilson,
I remember that, brother huh jj, mattichewk and Cooper Hummel

(55:49):
like a lot of people wore thirteen after and again
I'm not up in arms about it. It's just if
it were up to me, which is not. You save
the most hallowed numbers like this. This guy is tied
into this number for this team for all time. You
saved those for retirement. Clearly the Astros disagree. Dudes in

(56:09):
the freaking Hall of Fame. I'm not gonna argue that
much Billy Wagner getting his number thirteen, retired, Jill tweets
in wrong, of course, we thought Tyler White should not
wear thirteen. Kids growing up during that time know and care.
My kids are all men now, are all Rabbit Wagner fans. Okay,

(56:29):
maybe in the Parsons family it was a topic of discussion,
but I just don't remember. I don't recall it being
that big of a deal for people when that number
was given out.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
All right, keeping it going with some tweets.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
A joan talking about Billy Wagner since he was elected
to the Hall of Fame. Yeah, it's okay with me.
It's okay with me too. I'm just saying I wouldn't
have done it, giving my opinion. That's what I'm paid
to do. Justin also says should have blown up that
last caller. With the Breggi postseason stats. In ninety nine
career games, he is number two and hits for a
third baseman. Breggy has eighty eight, Chipper Jones has eighty nine,

(57:06):
most runs, most run batted in, most home runs for
third baseman. I think he's like third on the list
for all time postseason home runs? Was it Al Twove
and Manny Ramirez and then it's Bregman. I think I'll
go look that up.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
But calling Bregman a dog in the postseason in saying
he doesn't he's the second worst astro since Adam Everett,
that's insane.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
That doesn't make any sense. Let's see.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
Oh no, I'm sorry, No, he isn't second, he's like
fifth or something like that. And Manny Ramirez still has
twenty nine. Al two A's two behind at twenty seven.
Then Bernie Williams, Kyle Schwarber, Derek Jeita, and then al
tuove Is tied at nineteen with Springer, Albert Pooholz.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
Corey seekers up this list already. My god.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
All right, so breg still top ten old time in
postseason home runs. I know it's been a lot of games,
a lot of played appearances, and it is the the
you know this, this this age of the wild Card
Games and then the DS and the CS and the
World Series where you don't see Babe Ruth on this
list because they just went straight to the World Series.
That was that there's not as many postseason games, not

(58:20):
as many opportunities for played appearances. That's why it's all
modern guys on the top of this list. But bottom
line is Alex Bregman seven eighty nine oh ps in
the postseason, nineteen home runs, walk offs, big time hits
and home runs and all that stuff. He's been really
good in the playoffs. Calling a playoff dog is you're inaccurate.

(58:43):
You should make yourself sound stupid. You don't know what
you're talking about. It, Eric, I don't want to call
you stupid. We're friends. Like I said, you're like the
weird cousin I never want to see again. But we
and we appreciate you calling in. But come on, come
on all right. Seven one three two one two five
A seven ninety the phone number if you'd like to
get in. Seven one three two one two five seven ninety.

(59:03):
Back to Altuve and left field Chandler Rome, saying the
Astros approached him after the season about possibly moving to
the outfield. He said it will evolve throughout the spring.
Asked if he had a preference where he plays, he said, no,
I want to play. I want to be in the lineup.
I want to help this team win. So there you
go from the horse's mouth. Apparently al Tube was approached

(59:25):
about it this offseason, regardless of Bregmann being involved. Because
I think the Astros plan and the way they went
throughout this offseason was that he was not going to
be here. It seems very clear that once six one
fifty six was scoffed at by Alex Bregman, that they
moved on. And well, as I kind of been talking
about the last couple of years, you look at a

(59:46):
lot of the metrics and all that stuff, al Tuve
has not been anywhere close to a good second basement.
He's been one of the worst. But he's going to
go out to left field. It looks like how how
much how much at second base?

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
I don't know. Mauricio Dubon says, Josel two Ve can
handle left field.

Speaker 14 (01:00:07):
People don't realize how so good he moves and everything.
I and he out of all these people, he's the
only one that like, he's the one that I can
go from from shore to know, from second to the outfield.
I mean, sometimes it's easy, make it look EASi is.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
Not that easy.

Speaker 14 (01:00:25):
It is hard, you know, catching ground balls, and then
the next the next one is.

Speaker 7 (01:00:28):
Not to go to the outfield.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
But out of all people, hope he can do it,
and it's already gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
If josel Twov is out in left field, he's gonna
miss a play a ball. Everyone does it, everyone, Maricio Dubon,
Jordan Alvarez out to to whoever is out in left field.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
Somebody's gonna misjudge a ball.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
You're gonna have a miscommunication with your center fielder and
the ball is gonna land in between them.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
It happens. It happens a handful of times a year.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
So unfortunately, the first time it happens to Jose al Twove,
he's gonna be up against the microscope.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
Write this down.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
The second l two A misplays a ball in left field,
it's gonna go viral. It's gonna go on every MLB
account or every Astros count or Astros hater account, and
then there's gonna be a bunch of retweets and comments
and likes and like, why did the Astros do this
unbelievable stupid move. But it's just about being consistent enough
to be out there and being good enough. He doesn't

(01:01:23):
have to be plus, he doesn't have to be a
Gold Glove finalist. He's got to be good enough out there,
and I think he can do it. You just heard
Mariso Dubon say it. He's gonna move out there. He
can move much more than any of these other guys
out there. He doesn't have to cover a whole lot
of ground, thankfully, on days he's out there with Jake Myers.
Jake Myers covers everything. Have you seen Jake Myers on

(01:01:44):
center He tries to get everything.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
No matter what I think.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
He knows that a lot of his value comes from
his range metrics and stuff like that. It looks like
he he calls off, everyone got I.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
Got, I gotta gott I gotta gotta gotta gotta That's
Jet's Jake Myers out in center field, no matter who's
over there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
He used to get these sideways looks from from Kyle Tucker,
like dude, I'm right here, Like I'm like Kyle Tucker
is standing under the fly ball and Jake Myers is
over there trying to run and call for it. Jake
Myers can cover a lot of ground. He knows that's
where his value is. He knows how That's how he
stays in the lineup, because the guy's gonna not gonna
be confused for prime Mike.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Trout, who by the way, is moving to right field so.

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
On days especially he's in at dyke In Park and
or out there with Jake Myers, I think he's gonna
be fine out there in left field.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
Jeremy Paignette seems to think the same. So I still
haven't seen it.

Speaker 15 (01:02:41):
I don't know if he's been taking reps in left field,
but I do know he's gonna be different for sure.

Speaker 16 (01:02:45):
I've never seen out.

Speaker 15 (01:02:46):
Too at any position outside of second base, but I
know he's willing to do whatever it takes to out
the team. So once he gets here, we'll kind of
dive into that a little bit more. But as for now,
I know he's gonna do what he has to do
with outside.

Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
There you go, he is.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
Jeremy Peney says he hadn't seen it, but he thinks
he's gonna be fine. Maybe not as much of a
ringing endorsement as for Maurs to Dubon, who thinks that
jose Al Twove is gonna be just fine out there.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
So we're gonna see it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
The question is how much how well will he play
and at the end of the day, is he going
to be hurting the team? Because right now, as I said,
if you're putting Mariso Dubon in second base. I don't
think it's gonna be every day. They're gonna want to
move him around as well. And Dubon's value is not
being pigeonholed into one spot in the lineup every single
day because he just doesn't have the bat to be

(01:03:35):
an everyday.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
Type of guy.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
But whoever's out there and whatever kind of mix they're
going with, you're gonna be better defensively with Joseel twove
to me in the left field than at second base.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety is
the phone number. Uh, all right, couple all got in
real quick, so let's do that ahead of ahead of
Chris Gordy joining us. So I don't want you guys

(01:03:59):
to have to hang through interview. So let's get long
Horn Scott real quick. What's up, Longhorn?

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Scott? Hook them? How about them lady Longhorns?

Speaker 9 (01:04:06):
I mean, how about all the longhorns right now? The
baseball teams like wrecking shop. The softball team is wrecking shop,
the women's basketball team football. I mean, all we need
is more more chances to play A and M so
we can crush their spirits even further. But By the way,
Cooper High is not gonna win at all until they

(01:04:27):
do it. They have squandered the last two years outstanding
talent in the NCAA tournament. And they had a guy
get hurt a couple of years. Oh but he got hurt, Dude,
that whole team was loaded. I mean, can they yeah,
but they haven't. Until they do, nobody ought to be
counting on them. So that's not why I called.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
Though, love you Longhorn Scott or what you got on
l TV.

Speaker 9 (01:04:49):
So from where I sit, like, and I don't know
if anyone else feels this way, but to me, the
idea that all of a sudden, in the context of
like keeping Bregman, I thought it was still pretty ridiculous.
But but even still that was the least quasi legit.
But the idea that they're they're putting, they're thinking about

(01:05:09):
putting out Tuv in the outfield, I think it should
be a major red flag to Astros fans.

Speaker 3 (01:05:16):
I mean, obviously, you've already seen a.

Speaker 9 (01:05:18):
Major talent depletion from the roster, and now you're talking
about putting this guy who's been pretty freaking awesome in
the infield. You're gonna put him in the outfield. I
mean that should be a major red flag about the
way the talent development is going in the farm system.
The idea that you don't have somebody that you go, hey,

(01:05:39):
that guy can play left field, let's keep our gold
glove second basement and you know a second, that's I
think that's I mean, there's one.

Speaker 3 (01:05:48):
Thing to talk about. Kenny Dowell. Would he do? How
would he do? How about? Why are they even talking
about it? Yeah, because that's how bad it is.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
Cotton Well, uh, Scott, I know he is a gold
Glover and has one one, but if you look, I
don't know how much you care about fielding Bible or
stackass or any of those other defensive metrics types of websites.
The last two years he's been the worst second basement
in baseball defensively by those types of those metrics. He
just doesn't have the range and he doesn't move as

(01:06:17):
well as he did he was a gold Glover, but
that was like ten years ago.

Speaker 9 (01:06:21):
Well, okay, fair enough, right, however, so you know what
you need in left field. You need range, you need
a good arm, like I don't know, I mean, I
guess the idea is if they think there's a lesson.
I don't know, man, I mean to me, it's a
thing where you go a guy like that's got a
lot of muscle memory, and in.

Speaker 3 (01:06:41):
The last two years, has that happened?

Speaker 7 (01:06:45):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (01:06:45):
And I don't read any of those Bible this or
War that, or I don't. I don't, I'm not I'm
not that guy. But I'll just say this.

Speaker 9 (01:06:54):
You know, the guy's got a ton of licks out
there at second and I think him there is the
best place for him.

Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
And I don't know. I mean, I don't know. It
just strikes me as being odd that that's the go
to position for him. I don't know.

Speaker 9 (01:07:11):
I mean, the guy's five foot five. It doesn't matter
when the guy's crushing it at home plate.

Speaker 3 (01:07:15):
But when you got to cover a lot of ground
really quickly, I mean, just you're tried.

Speaker 9 (01:07:20):
I mean, yeah, you can be fast and not tall,
but generally you want a guy with a lot of length,
right height, long arms, long legs that can huss I mean,
obviously the legs.

Speaker 3 (01:07:31):
Are the thing that matter, but the arm, long arms
usually come with it.

Speaker 9 (01:07:35):
I don't know, man, I guess my point is it's
more of a subplot to the idea of what we've
we've known for a while. But like you're trying to
straight together a way to put a team together, and
you're going right out to the out on the left field.

Speaker 3 (01:07:49):
I mean, I don't know, I make them a DH
then or something like. But fine, you don't have a
left fielder. I don't know, dude, I'll I'll go rep
it saying this.

Speaker 9 (01:08:01):
The beginning of the end started about two years ago,
and we had a little fools gold because.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
They made it to the what in l twenty three?

Speaker 9 (01:08:10):
Hey, I mean, I'm sorry, I'm sorry alcs and uh
and then last year they start off abysmally, they resurrect,
they get in could put that was I think two
years ago was fools fools gold. Last year was more indicative.
We'll see, but that's what happens when you get rid
of the guy who built the best farm system in
Major League Baseball. Hey, hasn't that like maybe dust them off?

(01:08:32):
Hasn't that like settled out? They got nothing?

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
Dude. It's if you're a dieard Astros fan, the end
is nine.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
That's all, thank you, Longhorn. Scott.

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
Yeah, look, twenty twenty three very well could have been
the last Dance and they should have won that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
They can win one freaking home game.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
They win that series, and then they crushed the Diamondbacks
in four or five games in the World Series. Then
last year, yes, they scuffled. They only won eighty eight games.
And it's onto a new era. I mean, I think
who is even left from that twenty nineteen starting lineup.
I think it's Jordan in al Tuove that's it. So
it is a different air for the Astros. Yeah, the

(01:09:12):
batting line, yeah, this could be. I mean, I mean
it's not doomsday.

Speaker 12 (01:09:18):
I was just out there like this team, I'm sorry,
did Hoseel two Vay and Jordon Alvarez retire like they did?

Speaker 5 (01:09:24):
Not?

Speaker 2 (01:09:25):
Thankful here they're still here. But Kyle Tucker isn't. Alex
Bregman isn't just.

Speaker 12 (01:09:28):
A big was somebody about Bregman And they were telling
me though, and this is a Red Sox fan. He
goes bro He don't have the protection he had in Houston.
He had al tuo Vey in front of Jordon behind
it like he's gonna be fine. But like they have
a good time of the line. I act like there's
an al tuo Van Jordan on Boston.

Speaker 1 (01:09:45):
Protection is overblown in twenty twenty five. Though they all
have scouting reports. They're all trying to get out the point.

Speaker 12 (01:09:50):
Would Boston take that? Would you take any Boston player
right now? Over Altu Vair, Jordon.

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
Raphael Davers, He's fine. Uh, Johanna Doron, Yeah, I'll I'll
stick with our two. Okay, Well, there's a go Chris Gordy.
There's a little taste of Chris Gordy. He'll be back
in just a second. Here, we'll get some spring training reports.
He was out there this weekend. Those of you on hold,
you can stay on as well. Back in a second
here on the Matt Thomas Show with some more astros talk.

(01:10:18):
All right, now, welcome back on the mat to the
Matt Thomas Show with Ross Without Matt Thomas. He is
out and he'll be back tomorrow with us with you
from West Palm Beach. I will be heading there after
the show, so we're gonna meet up there and be
with you there for the next few days.

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
Somebody who was there for a few days. His name
is Chris Gordy.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
And really, you know, as I said, we always have
these pet storylines when it comes to spring training this
guy gain weight, this guy lost weight, this guy added
a pitch, this guy's doing that. Feels like one of
the storylines this spring training is gonna be jose al
Tuove in left field, and feels like it's very real,
even though Alex Bregman did not sign back Cordy.

Speaker 12 (01:10:59):
Yeah, in fact, al Twove I got he was supposed
to get there yesterday. One person had said, but I
think he got in there late yesterday, so that he
was in camp for the first time today. But here
was Josel Tuova a few minutes ago talking with the
media about playing left field.

Speaker 17 (01:11:15):
I think springs chaining will tell us a lot about it,
and uh, you know, pretty late and we can give
you a better answer. But you know, like I said,
for now on, I just want to prepare, get ready
everywhere you know I play, and just focus to.

Speaker 1 (01:11:30):
Get ready for the season.

Speaker 12 (01:11:32):
So before you're one of those fans who starts starts
just spouting us the dumbest.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Idea, what are we thinking? This team stupid? What are
we doing?

Speaker 12 (01:11:39):
Altuve has declined defensively, Yes, yes, he's not the player
he once was, and the numbers saying ross he cost
you runs last year at second pace.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
Yes, that's so.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
According to look, defensive tracking is is kind of difficult
and can be much debated. But if they have you
as the worst in baseball, it's second base. You're probably
not a Gold Glover. Yeah, you're probably not one of
the best in baseball. Now correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 12 (01:12:05):
We go back two years ago when Jose al Tuvy
was injured and Mauricio Dubon plugged in at second base.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
He was an award winner that year. He was great.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
He's a Gold Glove caliber type of second baseman. Yeah,
Mauricio Dubon wants to play second. The Astros want him
to play second.

Speaker 12 (01:12:20):
He is a good defensive infielder, and so they're looking
at those numbers and saying, we gotta have a two
Vay's bat. However, they are resign, resigned to the fact
Jordan Alvarez is not gonna play outfield very much, if
at all, this year. Like he's I think he played

(01:12:41):
like forty games there last year. Yes, And Joe spotted
yesterday at camp was like, we are not doing that.
That is not and Matt Carhar kind of pushed him
on it. He goes so like maybe half he goes
I'm not putting a number on it. I'm just telling
you we have to his health, we have to have
him off his feet. Yeah, and hitting as the d H.

Speaker 6 (01:13:00):
So there you have it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
Like yourn is going to be your full time DH
all year.

Speaker 12 (01:13:04):
But but if Dubon is a second because you're better
defensive second baseman, you still got to have l two
based bat in the lineup.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
So where do you put him?

Speaker 12 (01:13:13):
Play first? Got Christian Walker? There probably not a great
third base man here.

Speaker 1 (01:13:16):
You're not playing a five and six guys first. You know,
I'm just running through position. Makes sense, easiest one.

Speaker 3 (01:13:23):
I'm with you.

Speaker 1 (01:13:23):
Took a minute, me, I mean it's a big Bacon
dyke it. So yeah, no, I'm with you. And and
look our last color long horn Scott brought it up,
is like this is the this is kind of the
things are winding down for the golden air of the
Astros unless you think.

Speaker 12 (01:13:38):
Jacob making the playoffs every year should be the target now,
like winning World Series, Yeah, that's the dream. But like
if you could just keep this playoff run going and
they make deep runs, you know, like that's that's a
golden error. Still, it's not like Bregman you know what
he was beating his chest about of this press conference yesterday.
But in the playoffs every year up in the league's

(01:14:00):
it's been the league. Like he counts last year as
a player, you looks appointment, he was, I made the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
No, he thinks of it as a disappointment too, and
it was. But it was a two series thing.

Speaker 12 (01:14:14):
Is a positive going I've made the playoff every year,
yet here in Houston were going, oh my gosh, the
first time we didn't get past the first round, it's
we must be declining.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
They are declining. I mean yeah, I mean, like I said,
go back to that twenty nineteen team.

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
The only two people left from that lineup are ord
On Alvarez and josel two and the greatest Astros teams ever. Absolutely.
Will the twenty twenty five team be the greatest Asters
team ever?

Speaker 3 (01:14:35):
Probably not.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
They may be really good and make a playoff run. Yeah,
then that should be hopeful.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
Yeah, they can make the playoff run, but they're they're
probably not as they're certainly not as good as the Yankees.
They're Red Sox is debatable.

Speaker 12 (01:14:45):
Orioles probably not, though, like the twenty two rotation wasn't
won't go down as the greatest rotation history of baseball.
Yet they threw no hitters in won a World Series.
He's about getting hot at the right tuck.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
Yeah, well, Christian Havier being part of that hitter and
the dude's got Tommy John right now.

Speaker 1 (01:15:01):
And by the way, that was good.

Speaker 2 (01:15:03):
By the end of it was an incredible and all
time literally historic run from the bullpen.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
And I don't know if you have those arms right now,
might you know? No till you get in games.

Speaker 12 (01:15:12):
I just I'm just saying, like I'm in what's today's date,
February seventeenth, I write off the twenty twenty five hours.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
Writing them off. They should be division favorites. But that's
also because your division is so weak. If because you're
still pretty good. If they were in any other division,
they wouldn't have been any other division in baseball. They
would not have been division champs.

Speaker 1 (01:15:30):
So we have to also be really I'm not saying
it's over, but I'm saying like they're they're They're not
one of the heavy favorites like they have been in
years past.

Speaker 12 (01:15:39):
I think it's just we have a lot of unknown
and if guys play up to their potential or some
guys play above what we think this thing could could
reboot very quickly, Cam Smith, Zach de Zenza. I mean,
these are talented gids. You're gonna need that. You're gonna
need that because yeah, l twov is going to be
thirty five. His birthdays May sixth, Happy early birthday to
jose al Tuova. He's turning thirty five. Jordan is Jordan,

(01:16:02):
and he needs to be up to the par that
we know that he can be. He needs to not
be a thirty home run guy. He needs to think
he needs to be a forty home run guy. I
think at least what I got was the lack of
the dip in power and stuff like the dipping in
clutch hitting and all that like, was a result of
him being on his legs too much.

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
Yeah, and that's that's very possible. So if he can
be there, Christian Walker, hopefully, hopefully signing a thirty four
year old first basement doesn't turn out bad like it
did when you sign a thirty what six year old
first basement or whatever it was with Osea Bray.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
Yeah, he's gonna be great. Show a dip in so yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:39):
Jeremy Payne is probably in what your six' seventh spot
in the lineup.

Speaker 12 (01:16:43):
You'd love to see him take a step forward this
year and get back, just get the power numbers back.
Remember how many home runs he was hitting as a
rookie and the twenty two or so twenty one, but
like we didn't expect that from them, and then like
those power numbers of dip, Like where's those home runs?

Speaker 18 (01:16:58):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
He talked about it him self, which we can play
go as we go forward about not thinking as much
as the plate you're gonna neat chas McCormick to bounce back.

Speaker 1 (01:17:06):
It can happen. It's it's it's a lot of ifs.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
If Hunter Brown can be the pitcher he was in
the second half, same thing for Spencer Arraghetty, If Renel
Blanco can can follow up a career year with a
good year, If you can get something out of the
left field spot, whether it be Dezenzo or Jacob Melton
or whoever, if you can you.

Speaker 1 (01:17:23):
Can get there. But it's a lot.

Speaker 12 (01:17:25):
You got to hit on a lot to me, I mean,
but but like if Blanco's era goes zup point five,
would you take that?

Speaker 3 (01:17:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
Take that?

Speaker 12 (01:17:32):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
I mean like he was. He was top five in
ERA last year. Like, he's not gonna do that again.

Speaker 2 (01:17:38):
Yeah, but what if JOSEO Twova declines in his age
thirty five season, that wouldn't be.

Speaker 1 (01:17:41):
Crazy declines average wise, hitting?

Speaker 2 (01:17:44):
Yeah, I mean he did decline last last year was
his worst offensive season hitter.

Speaker 1 (01:17:49):
I mean it's just he falls out of bed.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
Yeah, but the but the power in the slug wasn't
there anywhere near where it has been in years past.
He hit twenty Yeah, take that again, Furman. He had
ops a seven ninety. We love that number here.

Speaker 12 (01:18:03):
Maybe he has less uh less to think about out
there who he's playing left field.

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
His seven to ninety oh ps was his first in
a full season since twenty thirteen.

Speaker 12 (01:18:17):
Yeah, well maybe again, maybe taking him out of playing
defense every play, Hey is gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
I was saying, like, if you're not expecting to climb
from JOSEE Twov, that's great, but you could get work.
Guys don't normally bounce back after a career worse season.
At thirty four, his average His average was two ninety five. Yeah,
I expect him to hit. Just give me singles and
doubles and I'll take.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
That he would like more, because who's the second best
hitter in this lineup is probably.

Speaker 12 (01:18:42):
Yeah, you're Christian Walker. Christian Walker two has three okay.

Speaker 1 (01:18:49):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (01:18:49):
And then here's the thing with the outfield, Saltuve, you're
sacrificing defense in left field, but gaining plus offense you're
hoping center field. The vibe I get from what they've
said Russ they don't give a damn about Jake's bat.
They don't, well they shouldn't. They think they're not gonna
get a defense from him, and that's it. So Joe
spots like, I'm gonna bat him ninth whatever and whatever

(01:19:12):
you gives you what he gives you.

Speaker 1 (01:19:13):
Absolutely.

Speaker 12 (01:19:14):
What they do want is Chazz to find Chazz that
we've seen glimpses of where you can be a really
consistent hit, like be consistent and be you know, and
give you some home runs.

Speaker 1 (01:19:26):
Then you'll be fine that I'll feel. I'll take that.
But Chaz has to step up this year. All right.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
We got to take a break here. We're way over
here on the clock. Chris Gordy with his Spring of
training report. Ros Viria with you talking about center genics,
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Speaker 10 (01:20:19):
Matten Ross return return on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:20:30):
Chris Gordy hanging out talking some shows here on Sports
Talk seven niney.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
Ross viria with you. Matt Thomas is out.

Speaker 2 (01:20:39):
He'll be back tomorrow as we'll be joining you from
West Palm Beach.

Speaker 1 (01:20:43):
Gordy was there this weekend courtesy of our good friends
over at Carbock Brewing. Yeah, it's good back to good
to be back in Houston.

Speaker 12 (01:20:50):
I couldn't find a Crawford Bock down there and what
Palm So had to crack up on a nice cold
one last night when I got home.

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
You got to get their distribution up. What's going on.
Let's get on to West Palm. Uh Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:21:01):
So we've been talking about Al Tuvey and going to
left field. I think that's one of the big storylines.
What is some of the other storylines that you noticed
that we'll be talking about coming up this year as
we head into the season at twenty twenty five.

Speaker 12 (01:21:13):
Yeah, I think like the rotation sets up pretty well. Like,
I mean, you're gonna have Fromber, who is in a
contract year, so he's gonna want to prove it. Like
here's the thing Fromber, Yeah, stinks it all that he's
only shooting himself at the foot. So he's not gonna
do that. He's gonna go out have his best year.
Hunter Brown is locked in, man like talking with him,

(01:21:34):
he's just whatever it was that he figured out mid
middle of last year, He's ready to get after it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
He's got at edge to him.

Speaker 12 (01:21:42):
He does Spencer Arraghetti. This is the biggest thing that
stands out to me. You'll see it when you're down there,
that dude is way more confident, outspoken, like you talk
about being a leader.

Speaker 1 (01:21:52):
Spencer's that dude.

Speaker 12 (01:21:53):
He talked, he was chatty, cathy, like he was talking
to arm off of the media, and like you know
so much that he figured out last year and you know,
like again another guy. I think arrag Getty, all you're
asking for is can you be the number three year?

Speaker 1 (01:22:07):
Number four? Like he's really smart. Yeah, he really articulates
his thoughts about what like he he does a good
job of putting what he's thinking and just in front
of a microphone. Honestly, I was thinking that during fanfast.
I was like, this dude could be in media set.

Speaker 12 (01:22:21):
Uh says he learned a lot from Verlander too, and
Verlander spent a lot of time with him last year
kind of talking about stuff they need to work on
and fix.

Speaker 1 (01:22:28):
And so so him is your three or ronew Blanco
as your three?

Speaker 12 (01:22:32):
Well, yeah, I mean like three or four for it,
probably put Arraghedy at four. You probably would put Blanco
at three.

Speaker 1 (01:22:39):
And then Wesneski is the fine.

Speaker 12 (01:22:40):
Now Blanco, I don't know, like I just don't know
what you're gonna get from, but I think I think
he'll be fine. I don't think he's gonna go out
there and get shelled like I think he. I think
he'll just be fine. And then was was Nesky is
really the one that people are very high on him.
And again he's another dude who's ecstatic to be He's
a Houston native. He's ecstatic to be back home with
the home team, the home field team. Like his family

(01:23:02):
and friends are all buying season tickets. They're they're super
jack to see him. And yeah, you're basically asking him
to be the five. And then there's all these other
dudes like AJ blue Ball. I watched AJ Blueball thoroughpen
the other the other day. He's got good stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:23:17):
Man.

Speaker 12 (01:23:18):
When the when the ball hits the mit like that pop,
You're just like, yes, now he lost control a little
bit on the back end. He was he was a
little bit, you know, thrown outside the zone and all.
But again it's like first first pen in a spring
training But I like his stuff. Ryan Gusto, is it Gusta?
I think it is okay.

Speaker 1 (01:23:38):
He he's a guy.

Speaker 12 (01:23:39):
Remember he was going to make the last start of
last year one game, won sixty two and then they
got scratched for weather. So he didn't get to make
his debut. But he's another one that's that's you know,
knocking on the door and ready, and then I'll tell
you his lance look good.

Speaker 1 (01:23:54):
Yes, I'm ready. It's gonna be a few weeks into
the season. I'm so ready for the mccollor's redemption to him,
he's dude.

Speaker 12 (01:24:02):
When he broke it all down, he talked about the
surgery and how literally the muscle was off the bone
and all this stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
I mean, it was.

Speaker 12 (01:24:08):
It was pretty intense. So yeah, anybody who is like, oh,
screw him and all this, go back and listen to
him explain it. It's not you know, it's it's the stuff.
And what happened was it was a fifteen month recovery,
and he admitted he kind of pushed it. The doctor
told him it was fifteen to seventeen, and at fifteen
he was like, let's go. I'm ready to go, and

(01:24:30):
they had a little minor setback, and so that's what happened.

Speaker 1 (01:24:32):
And so and he it's the same injury from twenty one, right,
they said.

Speaker 12 (01:24:36):
So, yeah, he broke it all down. He did the
whole timeline of it. We got it at Sports seven
night dot com. But like he broke it all down.
But the dude wants to pitch. He's not one of these.
He's not who's the dip bleep over the Angels Rendon,
who's just collected night Jacks no colors, wants to be
out there more than anything. He's a thrust. He's like,
I'm even past the frustration, park I was frustrated for year,

(01:24:59):
Like I've been so angry and just everything about not
being able to get back out there. He's in a
good headspace mentally physically.

Speaker 1 (01:25:07):
He wants to go.

Speaker 12 (01:25:08):
So you're gonna get him back at some point. Christian Haavier,
We'll be back at some point that now, this later.

Speaker 2 (01:25:15):
In the year, this year maybe, yeah, I would say,
I would say twenty five is gonna be.

Speaker 12 (01:25:18):
Luis Garcia is one. He's out there taking grounders and
stuff like that. He's gonna be later in the year.
Uh huh, and then uh and then JP France, so
it can like probably all Stars.

Speaker 1 (01:25:32):
All Star Break. I think that was a re report
of that, hmm okay, And then you get some of
these guys back. You got a surplustre in the ninth Brad,
you in the eighth and then what are we looking
at to kind of fill that press.

Speaker 12 (01:25:45):
I think Taylor Scott in the seventh they like it.
I mean like he's Caleb Ort I would put in
there right now. But Brian King's in the mix, Caleb
or they like.

Speaker 1 (01:25:56):
No Whitley.

Speaker 12 (01:25:57):
Whitley and Dubin are your too long relief swing wrong?
Like I think I think there's a chance both of
them make the club. Now, Dubin was a little he
was a little banged up, so they had him not
throwing for what's Bennet's shuoso.

Speaker 1 (01:26:10):
He's back, He's got to take like he's gonna He's healthy, I.

Speaker 12 (01:26:13):
Think, so okay, he looks healthy, he's throwing normal, okay, good,
all right. He's kind of a forgotten because he was
last year.

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
But well, Gordy, thanks for the spring training report. We'll
get out there tomorrow, myself and Matt Thomas.

Speaker 3 (01:26:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:26:26):
Now here's the thing. I want y'all out there first
thing when the clubhouse opens. I want y'all grabbing as
many guys you can. There's never any aggressive You got
to be aggressive. You got to go up and say hey,
can we get you for a couple of minutes, we'll
see nobody will be out there, but we're waiting.

Speaker 2 (01:26:39):
Looking forward to get us the skinny, get us the Yeah,
we'll get you the dirt inside dirt coming up.

Speaker 1 (01:26:44):
Thank you. I appreciate Carbog Brewing and the Crawford Bock
and the Crawford. It's a home run every time. It's
always in season. Get you one. This is why I
brought you back, all right, a home run every time,
the Crawford Bock. There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
You can also catch up catch the Crawford box cast
for free on the iheartdo app all right, that's Chris Gordy.
Appreciate him hanging out. We're hanging out. We're gonna have
the News at noon coming up. We'll have Adam Wexler
as well. We're talking some jose Al Tuvay and left field.
Anything you guys want to get into the season is
coming upon us here twenty twenty five, Houston, Ashurils. We'll

(01:27:16):
have full coverage here on Sports Talk seven ninety back
with the News at noon.

Speaker 1 (01:27:19):
In a second launchtimers, this is the Matt Thomas Show.
Our number three of four of The Matt Thomas Show
with Ross Without Matt Thomas.

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
Ron's virial with you. It's been a fun show. Been
hanging out with Brian Lilima. I've been hanging out with
Chris Gordy. Adam Wexer is coming up.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
But right now, all the top sports news items of
the day with Connor mcgovernor.

Speaker 2 (01:27:45):
We simply call it the news at noon. All right, Connor,
how you doing back there? You have a good weekend?

Speaker 1 (01:27:55):
H had a good weekend. How was your Valentine's Day
with your lady?

Speaker 3 (01:27:57):
I was kid.

Speaker 1 (01:27:57):
We went to a nice dinner and some drink Soper.
Oh wow, good time, just wonderful. How much you set
you back a few?

Speaker 15 (01:28:04):
Oh?

Speaker 8 (01:28:04):
Butt?

Speaker 1 (01:28:04):
You set your back if you now as I'm sorry,
I don't make enough here for that.

Speaker 2 (01:28:11):
You know what will give you a We'll give you
Valentine's bonus and then whatever you guys anniversary is, we'll
give you another anniversary bonus if we can really Yeah, yeah,
We'll see what I can do.

Speaker 1 (01:28:19):
All right, Well, maybe I'm just lying. What do we
have the news today?

Speaker 11 (01:28:22):
Connor Astro Spring training continued today with Rafael Montero, Christal Walker,
Isaac Predis and others reporting to camp. The biggest headline
Sock East Soak preatus, excuse me. The biggest headline from
spring training today, though, comes from Jose Al too by
taking fly balls and left field during his first day
in camp. We also saw Jimmy Pennett his usual shorts opposition,
and Maricio Dubon at second base. Dubon says he's ready

(01:28:45):
for the opportunity if Jose is in left fields.

Speaker 1 (01:28:48):
He goes to left. Like I said, I would love
that opportunity.

Speaker 14 (01:28:51):
I mean I was able to do it in twenty
three and added up. I think I did a pretty
good job, you know, and that and that's creation. I'm
gonna say, I want a playoffs. I'm gonna play anywhere
as long a time. I'm out there every day, I'm
I'm happy.

Speaker 1 (01:29:07):
Yeah, you didn't carry, Let's play wherever. Go ahead.

Speaker 11 (01:29:11):
I was just gonna say, I'll two taking the fly
balls in left field. Yeah, you're seeing from those first
glimpses ross break it.

Speaker 2 (01:29:18):
I mean, I mean it's beautiful ball tracking, unbelievable positioning.
I mean it's just fleet to foot speed, out of control. Look,
I think he's gonna be fine out there, And I
understand a lot of us have it in our mind
that Jose Al Tuovay is this gold Glove left hand,
I mean a second baseman. He won the Gold Glove
in twenty fifteen at the age of twenty five.

Speaker 1 (01:29:41):
This will be his age thirty five season. He's thirty
four now, but he's gonna turn thirty five at the
beginning of May.

Speaker 2 (01:29:46):
He does not move like he used to. I understand
analytics numbers, they don't mean anything. Every team in baseball
is looking at these numbers. Every team in baseball is
looking at these analytics. And I know you want to
use your eye tests and talk about how great arrange
he has at second base. These teams aren't using your
eye test, They're using these numbers. And these numbers say
he doesn't have the range that he used to.

Speaker 1 (01:30:07):
He just doesn't.

Speaker 2 (01:30:08):
And so if you can make a defensive minus, which
these numbers have him as the worst defensive base a
second basement in baseball the last two years, you can
turn a minus into a average overall.

Speaker 1 (01:30:21):
That helps. I understand it's in our heads that he's
a second baseman. But he's got to get out of there.
You gotta put him somewhere else where he can not
hurt the team as much. Dubon is a plus second baseman.
So if he can be average in left you're using Dubon.

Speaker 2 (01:30:35):
More maybe, and he's at second base as a plus,
it's gonna help the team overall. Jose al Tuve has
set himself he doesn't care where he plays. He just
wants to help the team. What else you got, Cone mcgevin.

Speaker 11 (01:30:47):
Speaking of baseball, we got our first glimpse of Alex
Bregman in a Red Sox jersey after reporting camp over
the weekend. The former astro's third basement said it was
difficult to decide to leave Houston.

Speaker 1 (01:30:58):
Definitely difficult.

Speaker 2 (01:30:59):
They have so much respect for the organization, top to bottom,
all the players.

Speaker 11 (01:31:05):
Okay, Also, who was the biggest advocate for Bregman's return
to Houston, said this about losing Bregman to the Red Sox.

Speaker 17 (01:31:13):
Yeah, we lost a big player obviously, but you know,
we gotta focus on the guys that we have here.
He's obviously, uh, one of the best Aready Plague in Houston.
We're all gonna remember him. He's gonna miss him, but
we're also happy for him. He's had a great deal.
Man who's the forty million dollars? You know, not a

(01:31:34):
lot of players can get to that, and he got it,
so we all know happy for him, and same thing.
We got to move on and focus about you know,
the players we have here, kid movie. We have great
talent here, good players, but definitely gonna do everything to win.
And we see alis down the road. When we played
in posta History.

Speaker 11 (01:31:55):
How did you feel to see Bregman in the wed red,
white and blay.

Speaker 2 (01:32:01):
First of all, who's who's playing the jams back there
in the clubhouse behind Osee L.

Speaker 1 (01:32:05):
Tuvey? It can can, I be honest. Maybe it's gonna
hurt later, but it kind of felt nothing. I don't
know why I didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:32:18):
I think maybe Yankee pin stripes would have hurt the
most Tigers would have been fine red socks. It's I'm
somewhat ambivalent. They gave him so much money. It looks
similar in a way, the Navy blue with the red.
Maybe maybe because like optically it's somewhat similar, like maybe

(01:32:39):
if he was in I don't even know, like crazy
royal blue with the Dodgers or something else. The red
on the Navy isn't that different than the orange on
the Navy, So maybe that's why.

Speaker 1 (01:32:52):
But I'll say it didn't. I expect it to be
like disgusted by it, and I'm really not.

Speaker 2 (01:32:59):
Maybe it'll be when he finally hits the field or
I see him, which I kind of did see some
of him out there on the field, like pictures of
him out with the Red Sox and wearing Red Sox gear.
And maybe it just hasn't hit me yet. It didn't
bother me that much. I don't know why. Maybe it
should have. How about you, Connor McGovern, how did it
look to you?

Speaker 1 (01:33:19):
Maybe it'll be a little difference we see once we
see him play.

Speaker 8 (01:33:22):
You know.

Speaker 11 (01:33:23):
It's just h Yeah, I mean, yeah, it definitely looks weird,
but I'm not. I wasn't upset or didn't make any emotions.

Speaker 2 (01:33:29):
I think I would have wanted to throw up if
I saw him in Yankee pin stripes, red Sox.

Speaker 7 (01:33:34):
Eh.

Speaker 1 (01:33:35):
Whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:33:36):
Also, they signed up a forty million dollars a freaking year.
I'm not upset at Alex Bregman. And maybe it'll be
harder to stomach once he's like Correa and Minnesota twin
stuff just weird. He just looks like he's like wearing
a Halloween costume, like it didn't fit at all. Red
Sox stuff for Bregman. I don't know, it didn't hit
me as hard. Maybe it will as the season comes along.

(01:33:58):
What else you got for the news Comgvin.

Speaker 11 (01:34:01):
The NBA All Star Game took place last night and
a pair of Rockets were represented. Alpera and Shangoun made
his All Star debut for Team Chuck, recording four points
in one rebound in four minutes in the first semi
final game, but had no stats in at least nineteen
seconds of playing time in the final, making all.

Speaker 1 (01:34:21):
This circus playmaker is the offensive kind of here's the
Rockets in album? Oh my God?

Speaker 3 (01:34:30):
What did the.

Speaker 1 (01:34:32):
Setting up his team? Turkish Terminator? Yeah that was Albarrans
albaron San Yeah what did he say? That was better
than Shanguine but oh my god. And Men Thompson was
also there.

Speaker 11 (01:34:49):
Had a strong showing in Friday's Rising Stars Skills Challenge,
and then was a member of the Rising Stars team
of rookie and Sophomores, Prospects and Sunday Nights, recording four points,
four assists and three reeve ten minutes during the second
semifinal game. So a pair of Rockets representing Houston and
the All star festivities, and.

Speaker 2 (01:35:08):
They can't even pronounce their names right. This is why
I said, like NBA coverage has to change. I understand
alprin Shingoon. It's especially the the last name is not
the way that it's spelled it's shoon or not the
way sorry, and not the way that we see it
as the American spelling.

Speaker 1 (01:35:24):
Of course with the special s, I can't remember what
it was called.

Speaker 2 (01:35:28):
It indicates s h sound. It's not that hard man.
He's been in the league for four years now. At
this point, somebody, somebody has to have picked up on this.
He's a freaking he's a freaking All Star. He's been
in the league as long as he has. I understand
the Rockets haven't been in the forefront, but come on, man,

(01:35:49):
that's embarrassing.

Speaker 1 (01:35:51):
So everybody and everybody involved needs to be embarrassed of that.

Speaker 11 (01:35:53):
And themselves and all an All TNT did in pregame
with Tramon Green is just like hate on the form
and how it needs to change.

Speaker 2 (01:36:01):
I know it's going away from TNT. Straymond's a hater
number one in his heart, and that's okay. The format
I didn't like it. I watched it more than I
thought I would, just because it was something to put on.
But the players still didn't play hard even in the
finals and it was a complete blowout. Alprin Shingun completely
lost Jason Tatum on a basketcut. Who was it Tatum

(01:36:21):
that scored the last bucket? Whoever it was Shingooon like
just wasn't paying attention and lost him on a basket cuts.
Not me if you heard that before, but it just
it wasn't good and there's really no way to save
it money. Maybe USA versus the World, they'll be a
little bit of pride.

Speaker 11 (01:36:39):
Yeah, I mean Draymond Green was praising the NHL for
a nation's thing, you such a suggesting maybe the NBA
could do.

Speaker 2 (01:36:44):
Something with that, yeah, or maybe you I don't even
know Europe versus No, it had to be USA versus
the World.

Speaker 1 (01:36:52):
I mean, how many I would even have to go
through the rosters?

Speaker 2 (01:36:56):
What is the split between American All Stars versus foreign
born All Stars?

Speaker 1 (01:37:03):
And would you go North America.

Speaker 2 (01:37:04):
Versus the World so we can get Canada and shake
Guilgis Alexander.

Speaker 11 (01:37:08):
That's true. They could just do the top four fever.
But teams like in the Canadian four nations, there's more teams.
There's more nations that could make good teams. These are
just the best for the best four rosters they could make.

Speaker 1 (01:37:19):
Yeah, I have something I'll have to look into that.
How many how many foreign born versus American born All
Star players? You got a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:37:27):
It feels like it might even be more foreign is
what I'm saying. So I don't know, all right, anything else.
At the News at noon, Conn of mcg evan, we
got to get to a break here.

Speaker 11 (01:37:36):
But the Cougars, they had a big weekend on Saturday,
feeding the Arizona Wildcat sixty two at fifty eight and
earn a two game lead in the Big Twelve conference standings.

Speaker 1 (01:37:46):
Wow, Cougars looking good. I would say.

Speaker 2 (01:37:48):
Still Auburn is a freaking juggernaut and it was a
close game when the Cougar's played Auburn early on in
the season. But the Cougars, I mean, look, Calvin Sampson
has always preached he's a great, fantastic, perfect college coach.
You get your team to play hard every single night,
you're gonna see good things happen. And then you get
the players and the shooters as well. Then some really
good things are gonna happen. So Cougar's rolling right now.

(01:38:11):
Congratulations with them to them with a big win at
Era Zona. All right, we're gonna go ahead and take
a break on that note here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:38:19):
Thank you to kind McGovern for the news at noon.
You guys want to get in.

Speaker 2 (01:38:22):
We had a couple on hold when we were talking
to Chris Gordy, so you can get back in the
fold if you'd like. We're talking about all two v
playing left field, talking about the Ashros rotation. We're feeling
good about the one through five, but what about the
depth after Lance mccullors Junior. You got any expectations on that.
We're also talking about the All Star Game, the Rockets.
Anything you want to get to seven one three two

(01:38:43):
one two five seven ninety is the phone number seven
to one three two one two five seven ninety.

Speaker 10 (01:38:49):
The Matt Tamas Show with Ross continues so on Sports
Talk seven ninety, Welcome back to.

Speaker 1 (01:39:10):
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Matt Thomas remains out.
He'll be back tomorrow as will.

Speaker 2 (01:39:17):
I from West Palm Beach flying out today will be
joining you there. Full workouts are happening, full team workouts,
we had pictures and catchers reporting over the weekend, a
lot of players showing up early.

Speaker 1 (01:39:30):
Anyway, so it's been fun.

Speaker 2 (01:39:32):
It's kind of you know, as the calendar moves along,
you hit the off season, then it's hot stove season.
Then to me, it really starts getting going with Astros
fan Fest, which we had a couple of weeks ago.
Now into pictures and catchers reporting and then everybody going
to be in there and myself and Matt Thomas will
be there covering it for you folks. Bring you some

(01:39:53):
great interviews coming up in the next few days, and
the meantime you can get in if you'd like on
the phone lines seven one three two one two five
seven ninety is the phone number seven one three two
one two five seven ninety. Also can send tweets too
at sports RV if you'd like to get in that way.
We've been talking a lot of Astros and well, we

(01:40:14):
are the home for you Houston Astros, also home for
the Houston Rockets, but we know a lot of you
tune into us for Astros coverage because they've been so
great over the last several years. So we've been really
happy about that partnership, and of course talking up to
Houston Astros. So I was talking, we were talking about
the Astros and where they're going to be next year,
and Jesse had tweeted in with the ZIPS projections. That's

(01:40:35):
I don't even know who it's what exactly ZIPS is,
but it's one of the projections that shows up on fangrafts.
They have the Astros at ninety and seventy two and
winning the American League West. But if you go to
the Pakoda standings from baseball perspective, they have the Astros
at eighty seven wins and then the regular fangrass projections

(01:40:56):
have them at eighty four wins in at third place
the ALE West. So we'll see if the Astros hit
on a lot of the question marks. If a lot
of those get answered and answered in a big way,
this team can still be pretty good. That is, if

(01:41:17):
you get the guys who had career years basically or
career second halves in the case of Arragedy and Hunter Brown,
Renel Blanco with a career year, If all those guys
can be up to part of there were last year,
and then you had in fromber and what he does,
You're gonna be nails one through four.

Speaker 1 (01:41:33):
You're gonna have like.

Speaker 2 (01:41:33):
Four ACE caliber type of guys. That's what Hunter Brown
was down the stretch. Arraghedty in the second half of
the season had an er Round three like, if you've
got an Era A Round three for a full season,
you should be finishing top five ish in the say
Young depending on what's going around that year. So if
Fromber can be Fromber and then those guys can do

(01:41:55):
their thing, and then Hayden Wiseneski comes here and you
tinker with this pitch and Mix talked about it fan
Fest about possibly adding a pitch as well. He's gonna
be lockdown one through five and that alone is going
to win you eighty five ninety games. Then if the
offense can produce up to where you want, if jose
Al Tuove can stave off Father Time again, I brought

(01:42:17):
it up, and I didn't even realize that until I
was talking with Gordy about in the last segment. I
knew his OPS numbers were down seven to ninety, ha ha.
We loved seven ninety here, but that was his worst
OPS season. Now twenty twenty doesn't count. He was terrible
that year. If you remember plus, he only played forty
eight games. I'm not counting that as a full season,
but in a full season of production, seven ninety is

(01:42:39):
his first his worst OPS number since twenty thirteen. That's concerning.
And then after that year in twenty thirteen, he won
three of the next four batting titles, so he was
pretty good and won an MVP in twenty seventeen. He's
turning thirty five this year. We have to be honest
with ourselves. Numbers and OPS plus has gone down from

(01:43:02):
one sixty one to one twenty six in the last
three years.

Speaker 1 (01:43:05):
Does that mean another big decline is coming. I don't know.
I hope not, but it's something to keep an eye on.
Christian Walker is here. That's good.

Speaker 2 (01:43:14):
Jordan's going to carry the offense and it's gonna be Chris,
Christian Walker and the ideas at two three and whatever
order you want to put him in. The al Tuove
needs to get in the mix and produce. Same thing
for Estoc Paratus, Jeremy Pinyon. You need some some some
good offensive production from them. So there is a a
lens that we can look through if we want to
be super optimistic, not even the glass half full, but

(01:43:35):
spilling over to where a couple of those guys produce
offensively Chas McCormick bounces back, and you're one of the
top ten offenses in baseball with a top five pitching staff.
It could happen, and that's good enough for ninety plus wins.
But it's all those things have to happen, and you

(01:43:57):
have to assume full health, which you.

Speaker 1 (01:43:58):
Just cannot do.

Speaker 2 (01:44:00):
My problem with this team going into the next year
into this year is going to be the depth. What
if let's say whoever, let's say a pitcher goes down
with some shoulder stiffness, needs to miss two weeks, who's
making those starts?

Speaker 3 (01:44:14):
Who?

Speaker 2 (01:44:16):
Javier is not ready, France isn't ready, Garcia mccullor's not ready.
Maybe one of those guys, Maybe the cavalry will come
and they can stave off any sort of major injury,
but or any minor injury. Then it's into Ryan Gusta
and aj blueball territory. How ready are those guys? I
like them, The Astros organization likes those guys, but they're

(01:44:38):
not in anybody's top one hundred list. Now, of course,
you can say, neither was Luis Garcia, neither was Spencer Raghetti,
Neither were these other guys. And the Astros always seem
to whip up something with pitching. So I'm less worried,
i would say, about the pitching long term, but the
the lineup we'll see there certainly are a number of
question marks coming into this season, and then you have

(01:45:01):
to ask yourself, where, where does where do they fall?
Not only within themselves but within the the playoff picture
of the American League. As I ran through the projections,
eighty four wins, eighty seven wins, ZIPS is more optimistic
with having them.

Speaker 1 (01:45:17):
At ninety wins. That sounds good. I'm a Zips guy.
Let's go Zips projections. Ninety win sounds pretty darn good
for the Astros. But where will they be? And of course,
as always, barring health, because we've we've.

Speaker 2 (01:45:32):
Wanted great health the last couple of years and they've
had a number of a rash of of pitching injuries.
So where you're you're going out of Sean Duban season
and Blair Henley and guys like that, and you don't
want to have to pitch those guys. No disrespect to
Sean Duban. You don't want him starting any games this year.
They had to go to like twelve options different options
for starting pitching last year. Hopefully they go well under

(01:45:54):
that this year. Seven one three two two five seven
ninety is the phone number here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:46:01):
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Matt Thomas is out.

Speaker 2 (01:46:03):
Adam Wexler joins me at one o'clock and you at
seven one three two one two five seven ninety.

Speaker 10 (01:46:09):
Lunchtimers, lunch timers, It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross
on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:46:30):
Welcome back to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without
Matt Thomas. Ros Viria with you. Phone lines open at
seven one three.

Speaker 2 (01:46:43):
Two one two five seven ninety seven one three two
one two five seven ninety. You can also send a
tweets to at sports r V or at Connor Dee McGovern.
As I mentioned, we'll have Adam Wexler coming in in
about thirty minutes, but as of right now, the phone
lines are open and available if you'd like to get in.

(01:47:05):
We had Brian Lima hanging out for a little bit,
Chris Gordy hanging out as well, it's been the prevailing
topics of the day have been the Astros and where
they are and where they're going to be in twenty
twenty five. So mentioned the projected win total by different websites.
You look at different places, you're going to get different answers,

(01:47:27):
and that's okay.

Speaker 10 (01:47:29):
And then the.

Speaker 2 (01:47:31):
Over under totals have also come out as far as
the gambling and as far as the gambling, sports books
put those out, and I was trying to pull those
out real quick, but I'm wait, what excuse me? I
was trying to pull the odds up real quick. Yeah,
eighty six and a half right now for the Astro.
So depending on where you look, Ashtro is going to surpass.

(01:47:53):
That feels like, honestly, it's a decent enough number. If
you were gonna be way better at first base than
you were last year, that's certainly a big plus. What
does that mean at third base, second base, the outfield,
the question marks? And then I really feel like the
Astros are towing the lawn as far as starting pitching health.

(01:48:14):
If somebody goes down, I'm a little bit worried about
the depth of the guys. Maybe Luais Garcia is ready
by May. Maybe on some colors, junior is ready by
May and then you're all good. You got like seven
guys and then if you really need to dip into
the end of the minor leagues, you can figure something
out and get a warm body from there. But just
early season, a little bit concerned. Maybe I shouldn't be,

(01:48:38):
but a big part of the rotation is going to
be Spencer Aarraghetty. He also spoke to the media out
there at to Bring training in West Palm Beach. Chris
Gordy was talking about it as well, how he kind
of sounds like that dude. We had him on an
Astros fan fest and really we interviewed him last year
myself and Dan Matthews before the season, and he is
not necessarily so spoken, but you can just tell he's

(01:49:00):
a really smart guy, really articulate, really thinks about the game.

Speaker 1 (01:49:04):
Cerebral is the way I think I would describe him.

Speaker 2 (01:49:08):
And kind of just asking around at spring training last year, like, Hey,
a couple of guys I asked off the record, like Hey,
is this Spencer Ragedy the real deal?

Speaker 1 (01:49:17):
What's going on? And They're like, Yeah, he's the real deal.

Speaker 2 (01:49:19):
He's got to get his control a little bit, and
but the stuff is going to play at the major
league level. And he had had some walk issues here
and there and got those numbers up and can get
into some problems in the base pass, but he can
get out of there with the way that his ability
to pitch and make pitches and the confidence that he
has now. And he's just been much more talkative and

(01:49:44):
was it fan fast. Like I said, I was like,
this dude needs to be in media whenever he decides
he wants to hang him up, because he is just
that good and and is that well spoken. Here is
Spencer Aarraghetty talking about being more confident going into this
season and being able to get guys out.

Speaker 13 (01:50:00):
You can tell by the way I'm talking right now
my demeanors a little bit these days. I've been a
little looser, you know, I'm messing around a little bit more,
a little more vocal, still listening, obviously, still picking brains
where I can. I think last year I really tried
to not open my mouth too much. To be completely honest,
I kind of wanted to just soak it all in.
I mean, I had a titan sitting in my locker
next to me, I'm trying to pick his brain constantly

(01:50:22):
and just kind of listen more than I talk. And
this year, I feel like I've been a little more
open with some of the younger guys, trying to set
a good example for how we get our work done
day in and day out, and it's been really fun.

Speaker 1 (01:50:31):
I feel like the energy is great right now. Yeah,
and you can kind of just tell that.

Speaker 2 (01:50:34):
I think that that can be an indicator of somebody
who's going to be really good out there on the mound.
Is that when they can talk the way that he
does and articulate his thoughts the way that he does
it just it just shows a high level of intelligence
and a lot of pitching out there. Of course, you
got to go out there and you gotta be physical,

(01:50:55):
and you got to spin it, and you gotta throw
velocity and all those things, but there's guys with velocity
who aren't successful pitchers.

Speaker 1 (01:51:01):
It's a mental game more than anything.

Speaker 2 (01:51:03):
So I really like where Spencer Arraghedy's head is at,
talking about taking on a leadership role, being more vocal
with guys and just just sitting there chatting him, not
even necessarily about baseball, but anything you can tell man,
I'm really excited for what Spencer Arraghetty is going to
bring and hopefully he can just continue to pitch well

(01:51:24):
and climb up the ranks for the Astros and be
a plus plus positive pitcher. As I mentioned in the
second half of the season, I can go back and
pull it up. But he was like around three eer
after the All Star break, like three flat. Now like
three seventy five, now like close three ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (01:51:43):
He was good.

Speaker 2 (01:51:44):
He was really good last year after the All Star
break when he kind of settled in, got more confident
and was just being himself and making pitches, and it
was it was excellent. And I'm really excited to see
what Spencer Arraghedy can do in this season. And it
doesn't matter where he is in the pecking order. You
got really good guys in front of him. If he

(01:52:05):
is behind Renel Blanco, if he's third or fourth guy
or whatever. If he can pitch like he did in
the second half of the last season, guys are gonna
go down. And it's just the fact of life that
your opening day starter isn't just you just don't go
one through five and they all stay there throughout the season.
Except for what was that twenty eighteen. I think it
was into September, the ti Astrosse had only used five

(01:52:28):
starting pitchers. That's the outlier. That is the exception, that
is not the rule. So especially if guys go down
and you have to lean onto minor leaguers or whoever else.
Having Arrogetty to be that stopper if you've lost a
couple of games in a row and he needs someone
to salvage a series, you need someone to stop a
losing streak and go out there and deal. Arrogetty can

(01:52:50):
be that guy. And he's more confident this season, and
he says he's learned a lot from this season. And
another question is how is he feeling physical. Here's what
he had to say about the way he was feeling
by the end of last year.

Speaker 13 (01:53:03):
I was still throwing hard. I felt like I had
another good fifteen twenty in the tank. Honestly, like I
feel like I'm a realist with that.

Speaker 1 (01:53:09):
Like Triple A.

Speaker 13 (01:53:10):
The year before, I got tired at the end. I
was throwing slow. I felt the fatigue. This year, I
was ready. I was I mean, I was gassed up
sitting in the bullpen for that Detroit series. Like waiting
to go blow it out and show everybody I heard
I could really throw, you know, But yeah, I felt
like I weathered it well.

Speaker 1 (01:53:24):
I feel like I kind of I made my routine
a lot better last year.

Speaker 13 (01:53:27):
I think again, you're kind of hearing me talk about it,
building on it in the offseason, just being a little
bit more mature as a pitcher and treating it more
like a marathon than a spritin.

Speaker 1 (01:53:35):
I think that's been the biggest growth piece.

Speaker 2 (01:53:37):
Yeah, and he kind of talked about that as far
as maintaining his strength and resting and learning to rest.
And that's one of the questions I almost always throw
at fan Fest. It's kind of a go to of mine,
is like, hey, what are you doing physically? What are
you doing physically now that you may be weren't doing
and learning your body and all that type of stuff.
That's almost always an answer that we get, especially from
young players going into their second or third season or whatever,

(01:54:01):
that the rest for them is just as important as
the work, And it just makes logical sense. You're a
young player trying to make the team, you're trying to
make a name for yourself, you're trying to prove yourself
that you can handle it.

Speaker 1 (01:54:14):
You're going to go out there and.

Speaker 2 (01:54:15):
Throw as hard as you can and work out as
hard as you can and push your body to the
limit and all that type of stuff. And once you
kind of get over that and the adrenaline passes and
you get more years on you, you realize, you know what,
I was dumb. I need to kind of take it
a little bit more easy. But it makes sense that
you want to push yourself and prove yourself, especially when
your major league career is starting. So Spencer Raghetty last

(01:54:37):
year was hoping to be called up at some point,
probably a little earlier than you wanted. But his you know,
you go buy the MLB pipeline stuff. As Eta was
twenty twenty four, so he was supposed to hit the
majors last year, maybe because of injury not as quickly
as he did, but now physically ready to go and

(01:54:58):
ready to be a big contributor because the Astros are
gonna need him.

Speaker 1 (01:55:03):
You don't have the Justin Verlinder.

Speaker 2 (01:55:04):
This this rotation has guys that had big years last year,
but as far as sustained Major league track records, it's
from Raveldez and then there's question marks right now. I
think that Hunter Brown's the real deal. I think that
Spencer Aragedy and Ronell Blanco are the real deal, but
you got to prove it for several years and hoping

(01:55:26):
the twenty twenty five can be a part of them
doing that when it comes to the starting rotation.

Speaker 1 (01:55:32):
All right, time for.

Speaker 2 (01:55:33):
Another quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
You want to get in, you can seven to one
three two one two five seven ninety. Is the phone
number seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
We've got Adam Wexler coming up at the top of
the hour and you on the phone lines.

Speaker 1 (01:55:48):
If you'd like to get in.

Speaker 2 (01:55:48):
You can also send tweets at sports RV. It is
the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas, and
we'll be back after the short break Houston Sports Talk
for lunch. Matt Thomas return on Sports Talk seven ninety.

(01:56:21):
I'm getting the feeling that we're just getting started on
this Jose Altuve left field thing. It was kind of, uh,
it felt like everyone was laughing it off when it
was first floated out with by Bob Nightingale a few
weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (01:56:37):
When they were talking about, well, Bregman.

Speaker 2 (01:56:39):
Could be coming back to Houston, and then if that case,
if that were the case, then Al two A would
be going to left field with east ok Paradus going
to second.

Speaker 1 (01:56:50):
We were all just like, oh, man, can you imagine
little jose L Tuv out there and left And now
it's like, wait, this is serious. Wait, this is happening.

Speaker 2 (01:57:02):
Wait this we're gonna see. It's getting talked about by everyone.
It's been one of the big storylines of spring training
and I don't think it's going away, and I think
it's very real. And after you stop kind of laughing
at it and scoffing at it, it makes sense if
he's that bad.

Speaker 1 (01:57:20):
Look.

Speaker 2 (01:57:21):
I don't work for Fieldingbible dot com. I don't work
for statcasts from the outs above average, but there's their numbers,
and unfortunately, you know, if they had jose al Tuve
is the best second baseman in baseball with back those numbers.
So unfortunately I have to do it when it says
that he's one of the worst or the worst, and
it's not even particularly close the last couple of years.

(01:57:44):
So the solution being if you have a guy who
can play second base. His name is Mauriso Dumont, and
he's gonna be in the lineup, who knows, one hundred
plus games this year, depending on injuries and all that
type of stuff as your utility guy.

Speaker 1 (01:57:58):
Not a great bat and ended up man.

Speaker 2 (01:58:02):
He ended up as a big time negative bat last
year twenty twenty four, six fifty seven ops yikes to
sixty nine batting average yikes.

Speaker 1 (01:58:12):
But he played one hundred and thirty seven games.

Speaker 2 (01:58:14):
So if you're gonna have him out there a bunch,
some of that's gonna be second base, but you're also
gonna put your on and left. You're gonna some games.
Although they don't want to do that as much anymore.
We'll see what happens with Zach Dezenzo and when and
or win Jacob Melton is available, he's gonna be out there.
Joe Spotta continues to be asked about it. He continues
to talk about it, so, uh, he will go ahead

(01:58:38):
and play some of that for you. Jose L Tuvey
earlier returns how's he looking out there?

Speaker 16 (01:58:42):
And left Joe he went, well, you know, he's excited,
of course, and so he went, will well, it was
a good day one, you know, some light work. He
seen some balls off the bat. You know, you know
it looks it looks pretty good. But again, so early
and we'll see willis makes us here.

Speaker 1 (01:59:01):
It's early, and we'll see where this takes us.

Speaker 2 (01:59:03):
Doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement, but he did say
he looks good and well, Joe's gonna have to roll
with whatever punches are thrown at him. I don't know
exactly what his feelings are on this, or you know,
he's not gonna he's.

Speaker 1 (01:59:14):
Gonna Let's just let me put it this way.

Speaker 2 (01:59:17):
If he's upset, he doesn't think that's a good idea.
If he think this is the dumbest thing he's ever heard,
and it's been talked about by maybe management or whoever,
or or the numbers guys who.

Speaker 1 (01:59:25):
Say this needs needs, this needs to happen, then he's
gonna play ball.

Speaker 2 (01:59:29):
Or if he's fully on board with it, then he's
gonna be okay, that's the way that he's going to
talk about it.

Speaker 1 (01:59:36):
But he doesn't seem like he is.

Speaker 2 (01:59:38):
So the plan with jose L Tuve in left field?
How many games? What would be happening? Can we put
a number on it? I don't know, Joe Spotta says,
it's changing.

Speaker 16 (01:59:49):
I'm not going to share the plan with you yet.
This is going on is an everyday thing. But he
will play some second base. But right now it's just one,
one day at a time. I want to get some
feedback from him before we we discuss where we're going
to go next. But he will play some second.

Speaker 2 (02:00:04):
Base here, So he's gonna play some second there you go.
That's from from Joe spot of himself. Just how much
second base? How much left field that remains to be seen?
Seven to one three two one two five seven ninety
is the phone number seven one three two one two
five seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:00:23):
Uh, yeah, we got this is you.

Speaker 2 (02:00:25):
Formally Titans Keith, then he became Texans Keith and Rockets Keith,
and I believe also Yankees Keith.

Speaker 1 (02:00:31):
What's up? Yankees Keith?

Speaker 7 (02:00:34):
Hey man, how are you?

Speaker 1 (02:00:35):
I'm doing great? What do you got?

Speaker 7 (02:00:38):
I got some baseball comment uh commentary about some of
these contracts, like Brankman got that forty million, uh for
three forty million in a year for three years, y'all
have still the Ashhots are still paying Lacema Colors seventeen million,

(02:00:58):
and and we an't know if he'll ever pitch again.

Speaker 6 (02:01:01):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (02:01:02):
And then he got.

Speaker 1 (02:01:04):
He did a bullpen.

Speaker 7 (02:01:06):
We ain't talking about we're talking about real pitching ross.
And now you got Mike Trout who signed a half
a billion dollar contract and he's probably played played three
hundred dollars three hundred.

Speaker 6 (02:01:17):
Games since he signed that contract.

Speaker 1 (02:01:19):
Who's that.

Speaker 7 (02:01:20):
I can't imagine how the LA Angels feel about that contract.

Speaker 1 (02:01:27):
Well, and what about Rendon? Anthony Rendon's contract.

Speaker 7 (02:01:31):
Yeah, he's got He's the same thing. He's a He's
the same big, big time bust. That's unbelievable. Anyway. I
think I think uh o'se. L. Twovey has no shot
at their left field man. He's got a he's shortest
hell and he's got to scatter arm. People are going
to run on him. Uh soon as they get the

(02:01:51):
they're gonna singles in the doubles on a regular basis
on him. A regular fly ball, a regular fly ball
to a six footer, just be. He's only got two
plays that he can play left field at, and that's
at uh Stinaway.

Speaker 6 (02:02:07):
Park in the in the dyking park that he playing.

Speaker 2 (02:02:10):
I think, I think I think dyke In Park from
ber Valdez starts. I wonder if it would even be
opening Day when that's that's normally if you remember, they
would throw yord On out and left for fromber starts
because he's such a ground ball pitcher.

Speaker 1 (02:02:22):
That that we might be seeing that. Keith, Oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker 7 (02:02:28):
I thought you go ahead saying. You're saying you think
he's gonna play any other place other than dyk In
Park and Finaway Park.

Speaker 2 (02:02:36):
Yeah, I think he might. We'll see. I mean, Joe
Spot has just said, you know, I just played it.
He doesn't the plan is ever changing. He's not gonna
get a number of the games. They're just gonna see
how it looks and then they're gonna go from there.
I think if they think he looks really good and
he feels what do I think? I think if it
were up to me, I wouldn't even be putting him
in left.

Speaker 1 (02:02:52):
Field at all.

Speaker 2 (02:02:52):
But I guess they feel like they have to do
something with Dubond being much better. Look, if you're playing
Dubon and left and jose Al tuve In at second,
you're doing yourself a disservice. Defensively. The team would be
better with Dubon at second, and jose Al Tuve in
the left. No matter how bad he's gonna be, you
know he could he could play a whole game and
not to get a ball on left.

Speaker 1 (02:03:13):
It could happen.

Speaker 7 (02:03:17):
I'll see that happening. But what I wish to ask,
I don't wish to ask thro the look. I'm wishing
they get up to about five hundred. Thought that might
happen a fjord on and they may not even make
it to five hundred.

Speaker 2 (02:03:30):
That's all I got, all right, Thank you Yankees, Keith,
appreciate you getting in here on the show. Seven one
three two one two five seven ninety is the phone
number if you'd like to get in seven one three
two one two five seven nine. We're gonna go ahead
and take a top of the hour break hour number
four of the Matt Thomas Show with Ross Without Matt Thomas.

(02:03:51):
We've been joined by an all star cast here and
it's gonna get even better. Brian Alima has joined, Chris
Gordy has joined, Adam Wexer is here, and next up
here on the program, Don't go Anywhere, lunchtimers.

Speaker 1 (02:04:05):
This is the Matt Thomas Show. Hour number four of
the Matt Thomas Show with Ross commencing it now without
Matt Thomas with Ross Viria with Kanama Government.

Speaker 2 (02:04:18):
Now joined by one Adam Wexler. You can get in
on the phone lines if you'd like it. Seven one
three two one two five seven ninety seven one three
two one two five seven ninety So really, I guess
we got to get right into the prevailing topic. Everyone
has been talking about wex Yeah, my weekend was great. Yeah,
I don't care. It's the NBA All Star Game. We

(02:04:40):
were all thrilled. I mean, the effort level was so huge,
it was great. I mean, we couldn't get America can't
get enough of the NBA All Star Game.

Speaker 8 (02:04:49):
I think we meant to say, our first weekend without
football in months?

Speaker 1 (02:04:53):
How did we manage?

Speaker 3 (02:04:55):
Man?

Speaker 2 (02:04:55):
I watched a lot of college basketball, hook him horn
Saturday was quite a schedule.

Speaker 1 (02:04:59):
Yeah, it was great.

Speaker 2 (02:05:01):
Alabama beating I mean, Auburn beating up on Alabama. You're
the Cougar's game, You're the long Horns beating Kentucky thankfully.

Speaker 1 (02:05:07):
Yeah, now hanging on Tucky was without this three don't care,
don't care, put it on the resume.

Speaker 2 (02:05:12):
Quad one win Alfred Kaluma wasn't playing for the Longhorns.

Speaker 8 (02:05:16):
Put it on their postseason non NCAA tournament resumes. Oh no, no, ahead,
Leonardo's got them on the bubble.

Speaker 2 (02:05:24):
Baby, can we get Okay, I really don't want to
talk Longhorn basketball because nobody cares.

Speaker 1 (02:05:29):
I'm gonna do it anyways. I'm gonna do it anyways.
I want Trey Johnson.

Speaker 2 (02:05:32):
If for those of you who don't know, he scores
like thirty points a game for the Longhorns. He was
a five star recruit. He should just should have never
gone to Texas because the rest of the team is crap.

Speaker 1 (02:05:40):
I want for him. I want them to make the turn.
That'd be nice.

Speaker 8 (02:05:43):
It's probably just a one game visit, but nonetheless, you.

Speaker 1 (02:05:45):
Can get to two.

Speaker 2 (02:05:46):
Get to two as long as if he will go
as far as he takes him. If he wants to
drop forty every game, he's gonna be a lottery pick.
Keep an eye out for Trey Johnson. Okay, that's enough
of your college basketball talk. How much of the if
I say, the All Star Game weekend.

Speaker 1 (02:06:00):
How much did you watch?

Speaker 8 (02:06:02):
Maybe twenty to thirty percent Friday Saturday? Wow?

Speaker 1 (02:06:07):
Pretty good? Actually, Saturday night was the most the least
viewed night. Yeah, for me, just because what I was doing.
Mac mclung's got this is that what you felt. I
just didn't find it.

Speaker 8 (02:06:17):
And as we know now that the dunks that Stefan
Castle had and the dunks that mclung had, they were entertaining,
they were if any if we weren't so down on it,
we probably wouldn't be down on these dunks. But I
just don't think it brings anybody to the table. And
I paid no attention to the skills competition, just like Chris,
Paul and Victor, and.

Speaker 1 (02:06:34):
They paid some attention.

Speaker 8 (02:06:35):
Cheaters well, they played by the rules, some would say,
and then obviously the three point contests. I again feel
like it's just unfortunate what that has become. It's obviously
unfortunate for the other I was more interested in Friday
just to see how they'd play, but I think it
gave us an idea of what we'd end up seeing
on Sunday, which was also unfortunate.

Speaker 1 (02:06:53):
But for a lot of different reasons. It's unfixable, right
do you think versus the world?

Speaker 8 (02:06:59):
I think there are are unfixable might end up being
the ultimate answer, but there's more things to try than
what they put on time at all. I don't really
think so at all. This is the first time they've
tried anything. All they've been doing is playing basketball with
guys who don't care that.

Speaker 2 (02:07:13):
They went with the ending, they changed it, got charged up,
they won with the The draft was something that they
changed up. They didn't just change the game, they just
were East West. They went from a draft and guys,
like the first year of the draft, guys played a
little bit harder.

Speaker 8 (02:07:24):
We got to recognize it's the product. It's not how
they get to Sunday night. It's what they're doing. And
when these players, who are absolutely to blame, that's why
we are where we are now.

Speaker 1 (02:07:33):
The league did not.

Speaker 8 (02:07:35):
I think they were tinkering so much that they didn't
realize how silly one thing was. I mean, you're sitting
here leading up to this, you know, Thursday or Friday.
For the one second you thought about it, you're putting
the best players in the world against each other in
a race to forty I mean, who's coming to pay
to see them play ten minutes of basketball?

Speaker 1 (02:07:54):
Oh well, so silly.

Speaker 2 (02:07:55):
The number is so ridiculously low. And they all they
had a bunch of huge breaks in between. Ah, well, Eve,
it was like twenty percent basketball.

Speaker 8 (02:08:04):
That's the other part of If you watched Sunday Night,
I can't imagine you didn't have the same feeling everybody,
this should be an overwhelming majority of people thought the
broadcasting angle of the event was an absolute disaster, horrific
idea from start to finish and exceptionally poorly executed. Just
from a broadcast standpoint. The people they put on the air,
how much time they put them on the air. You know,

(02:08:25):
they played a basketball game, three different basketball games Sunday night.
I don't know if you know that, because if you
were listening to what the television broadcasters were telling you,
they ran a horribly unentertaining talk show during the games.

Speaker 1 (02:08:39):
They couldn't have told you any louder.

Speaker 8 (02:08:42):
Please stop paying attention, because we're not paying attention at all.
You got player, Hey, this guy's doing this this year,
this guy's done this, this team's doing that.

Speaker 1 (02:08:51):
Hey, look who has the ball now.

Speaker 8 (02:08:53):
None of it completely ignored the actual games themselves. Which
that's that's TV people's people making decision. That's hiring Kevin Hard,
that's having him talk so much. That's mister beast. That's
all the stuff. They just one bad idea after the other.

Speaker 1 (02:09:08):
Yeah, it was. It was pretty horrible the weekend. And
then the players just don't care.

Speaker 2 (02:09:12):
I don't know, look outside of giving them like ten
million dollars a piece to win it, it's it's just
there's no reason and I don't blame them. There's no
reason for them to care to put their bodies on
the line for an exhibition.

Speaker 8 (02:09:24):
That I understand, but you're you know, you're playing basketball.
Any injury can happen. If you don't play, you're not
gonna get hurt. I do understand that part of it.
They probably that they could probably do without players accepting
their invitations and then informing everybody on Sunday night they're
not going to play.

Speaker 1 (02:09:40):
Maybe they'll play dodgeball, maybe they'll go Pro Bowl style.
They should go dodgeball.

Speaker 8 (02:09:43):
I mean, even NFL players don't do what Lebron did.
They they don't go to the event. And then too
he didn't. I mean it was not very well handled.
And Lebron after their during his media availability, he said,
this is an injury I've been dealing with for years.
So just today when you didn't wake up the way

(02:10:04):
you wanted to. You realized you couldn't play. If you're
really dealing with it, If that's fine. You're being paid
to play for the Lakers, win games, make the playoffs,
and as he said, the wild wild West with these
thirty games to go. So that's fine, focus your energy there.
You have one entire week off. Their last game was Wednesday,
their next game is Wednesday. Go ahead, take it off.
That's fine. Why are you waiting? Like you really really

(02:10:26):
wanted to play and you just didn't realize till that day.
An injury you're dealing, you've been dealing with four years,
wasn't being well enough for you to take you I mean,
if they're trying to promote other players, well let's put
other players in the game besides the ones who are
gonna attend late and not play.

Speaker 3 (02:10:42):
Well.

Speaker 1 (02:10:42):
You know, he's forty years old. Maybe he just woke up.
Sometimes just when you're forty.

Speaker 8 (02:10:46):
If you're dealing with it for years, as absolutely said
out loud expressive, it deal with my anchel injury for
six years, and sometimes I wake up and it's just
not feeling good. Yeah, I mean we've probably already gone
through it a little bit more than most would would
he because I don't think there was a tremendous amount
of attention paid to it. It was nice for you know,
Reed Shepherd and men Thompson and Alprin for the thirteen

(02:11:08):
seconds he played in his last game.

Speaker 1 (02:11:10):
Great to be there.

Speaker 8 (02:11:10):
I mean, I'm sure they enjoyed the experience, and I
do think the league did something that is pretty notable.
From the Rocket standpoint. Uh, they can't get enough of
the Thompson's. They really put them to, Hey, we want
them here, we want to interview them there, we want
to do this, we want to do that. And if
the Pistons ascend to the top six in the West
for the next couple of years, which looks like is

(02:11:32):
a real possibility, and the Rockets do the same, we
know a man's a huge part of what Houston's doing.
We'll see if Asar is a huge part of what
they're doing. And granted they don't play each other very much,
but I think they really I was a little surprised,
didn't please They took them in as these are guys
we want to feature, and it was cool.

Speaker 2 (02:11:50):
Yeah, so you're saying the the Thompson twins, I know
you've avoided saying, Thomas, the Thompson Twin Finals Pistons versus.

Speaker 8 (02:11:58):
I don't know if that's ever gonna happen, but heck,
look at who these teams do actually have now, and
sitting at the top of the East. It's not a
young Boston team. It's a crazy, super talented Boston team.
I don't think the Pistons are anywhere near ready to,
you know, to take anybody any spot over. But the
Rockets have been on the top four for the majority
of the season, and the Pistons are definitely going to

(02:12:20):
the postseason this year. And they're on the same kind
of We've been drafting at the top of the draft
for way too many years. They're on the same kind
of path now finally that each of them also have
a coach I think they can win with.

Speaker 1 (02:12:31):
So you're telling me there's a chance there's a Pistons
Rockets Finals. Sign me up, baby.

Speaker 2 (02:12:36):
Seven one three seven ninety is the phone number. Adam
Wesler hanging out here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Well,
we have to get to the topic, Dajoor, the real topic,
Dajure Jose Altuve in the left field. I was talking
about it earlier WEX and really throughout the show. It
was one of those things we all kind of laughed
at when it was first brought up. Now it's feeling,

(02:12:56):
it's real. It's gonna happen. We just don't know how much.

Speaker 8 (02:12:59):
Yeah, the question asked of Jose from a timing standpoint,
when did you bring this up? When did they bring
it up? How much of it was Bregman based? And
he kind of acknowledged, you know, this kind of came
about because it was for Bregman. It was for him,
and then we just decided to continue on with it. Obviously,
it's been several months of discussion internally, and only recently
was it obvious that Bregman wasn't going to be here.

(02:13:21):
It tells you something about his long term future. He's
got a long term contract. He's going to play for
the Astros till he retires from the game, and they
don't envision him playing another five to seven hundred games
over at second base. They might not envision him playing
fifty games over its second base, and so I think
they felt like this was something that eventually had to happen.
I think they are also looking at if Jeremy Payins

(02:13:44):
our shortstop of the future, and Perettis cam Smith is
our third basement of the future, and Bryce Matthews is
our second basement of the future. Like this, well, al
Tuvey is in our future because we have him, so
he's got to have somewhere to play, because the designated
hitter is already in their future. He's Jordon Alvarez. You

(02:14:04):
don't get two of them. You can't petition the link
for a second d H spot unless maybe they want
you to. All right, fine, just play eight fielders. But
they have to find a place they feel he can
hurt the team less. And I did hear your comments
on that, And I'm curious how other people feel and
how much you dig in on the numbers and how
you feel, Like, really, the where the game is today

(02:14:25):
is second base no longer a place you can hide
a defensive weakness versus left field where you need to
hide that defensive weakness. Like, do they lose more by
playing him at second and getting elite level left field
play for Mauriciu Dubon or as you said I think
last segment, the reverse in your mind is true. They
need Dubon's elite level defense at second, Yeah, more than

(02:14:48):
they need his elite level defense and left.

Speaker 2 (02:14:51):
That's what I would think at all. I wonder I
was also trying to think about the shift angle. Is
it I guess more difficult to hide alt two V
if there is no shift.

Speaker 8 (02:15:00):
Well, the idea that you're gonna need him like his
range is obviously poor. His throwing arm at least what
we've seen. If you percentage, he was had his best
year of his career last year. The balls that hit
him in the glove he fielded and threw to first right.

Speaker 2 (02:15:14):
But when you're five foot six and not as range
as you used to be, you're gonna have a high
fielding percentage. Not the highest as a career, so sorry,
but the one of the highest, the highest in the league.

Speaker 1 (02:15:22):
Yeah, but they have. I mean, you and I know this.

Speaker 8 (02:15:25):
It's not every day between ten and two that both
people are aware of this or like this.

Speaker 1 (02:15:29):
But there are other numbers to look at.

Speaker 8 (02:15:30):
There's some rating, there's some other things out there that
indicate to the quality you're actually getting your value.

Speaker 3 (02:15:36):
He does.

Speaker 8 (02:15:37):
I still feel like he turns the double play certainly
well enough, very well, and and he does sometimes show
off the arm doing that, But of course, you know,
do bonds equally as a dept at making that happens
just you know, the days you feel like there are
there so many more plays to be made on the
infield a Fromber day or even now a Hunter Brown day,
as he's elevated his game into producing ground balls and

(02:15:57):
needing to get those outs. Just are you giving up
more by playing him at second or are playing him
in the outfield? And we're using our guests with that's
all we all we don't know what he's like as
a left fielder. We're making assumptions. I think they're reasonable assumptions.
That is not gonna be great. We don't know that
for a fact. And there are still you know, dyk
in parks. One thing, I mean, there's there's eighty one
other games at eighty you know, thirty other twenty nine

(02:16:18):
other ballparks.

Speaker 2 (02:16:21):
How good is he gonna be? We will find out.
We're gonna see, We're gonna get a look at it.
Just a question of how many games it will be.
That is Adam Wexler, I am ross via real. Those
of you are on hold that we'll get you in
just a second. You want to get in you can
seven one three two one two five seven ninety Ol
Tuve in left field? How are we feeling? Sounds like
it's gonna happen? It is real, will it be spectacular? Well,

(02:16:44):
we'll find out seven one three two one two five
seven ninety shows with you until two o'clock here on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 10 (02:16:51):
More Man Thomas Show with Ross Now on Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:17:13):
Welcome back to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without
Matt Thomas. He is traveling from Washington, DC watching his
daughter play some football.

Speaker 1 (02:17:24):
I mean, I'll wait volleyball. Why didn't I say football? Volleyball?
Dadding harder than anyone has ever volleyball? Dadded? That would
be one Matt Thomas.

Speaker 2 (02:17:32):
He will be joining me as we're both flying out
today to check out spring training West Palm Beach. Will
be there for the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday shows of this week.
In the meantime, Adam Wexler is hanging out and you
can get in at seven one three two one two
five seven ninety seven one three two one two five

(02:17:53):
seven ninety. Altuve in left field has been the prevailing
conversation all day. We played some of the Joe's bought
earlier for you. Here's a little bit more, Joe, what
are you looking for from jose L two? Ve out
in left field?

Speaker 16 (02:18:07):
Perception, first step, direction, he has the makeup speed to
get there. How easy he catches the ball. You know,
he's not struggling through you know, in that field one
it could be challenging because of the win. So that's
why we intentionally are doing that, just to have him
there on that field one so he could kind of

(02:18:28):
play around with the elements and it's just it comes
natural to him. And I'm not surprised, you just hotel
two is just an elite athlete. So again, day one
and it looked pretty good.

Speaker 1 (02:18:40):
Day one look pretty good now.

Speaker 2 (02:18:42):
I mean, look, he's tracked fly balls at second base,
high flyballs now, maybe not screaming one hundred and ten
mile an hour line drives as much at second base.
So I think, what is our biggest concern? The throwing arm,
the accuracy of the throwing arm. It feels like he
can get out there, and okay, the fact that he's

(02:19:03):
five to six.

Speaker 8 (02:19:03):
I mean, I can appreciate you phrasing it, what's our
biggest concern? But if you just take all the parts
of what it takes to be an outfielder. They're all concerns.
This is an older player, much older player, yea. So
now he's going to be on his feet all day
running after fly balls in the outfield. I doubt that
enhances his ability to hit doubles, triples and homers. As

(02:19:24):
he said today, Uh huh. His throwing arm, which will
have to be retrained to see if he even can
be a adequate thrower. From the place, you hide your
outfield arms. And if they had their druthers, they would
pick any of their outfielders to play there to hide
their arms, because they'll be the worst throwing outfield in baseball.
Very good fielding outfield, and there's a difference. I hope

(02:19:45):
people like to point out how good or bad as glovesman,
can you run down a ball and catch it. Jake
Myers is elite, chas McCormick is great, and wherever you
put them, I think they will be that. But none
of them have a good throwing arm. So now you've
added a third to those two, and that's poor. And
then every time a player who we've had in this

(02:20:06):
organization who's flexible enough to play infield and outfield, and
we've had quite a few because they've been doing the
utility role for a long time, whether it was Diaz
or Gonzalez or Dubon. You know, catching the ball off
the bat and making the immediate correct first step to
it is the key to catching a baseball in the outfield.
And it's not easy, and you don't recognize the spin

(02:20:27):
that well, and you work and you work and you work,
and years later you get really good at it. He's
in the infancy stages of years and years later because
not only is not that he's literally never been out there.
He wasn't playing there three years ago or ten years
ago or fourteen years ago.

Speaker 1 (02:20:41):
He hasn't been out there for never.

Speaker 8 (02:20:42):
He's never been out there, And tracking quarters is more
difficult than Vigio tracking in center field, man, I think,
isn't it?

Speaker 18 (02:20:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (02:20:53):
Probably, I don't know spin off the bat and where's
it actually going?

Speaker 2 (02:20:57):
Yeah, the background before as far as the the colors
of the background, is it more dark in center field
than lining up Visio?

Speaker 8 (02:21:03):
I think we were also concerned about his throwing arm
when he went out there deep into his career, and
it was poor.

Speaker 1 (02:21:09):
It wasn't killing the team.

Speaker 8 (02:21:10):
It wasn't the worst throwing arm situation they had on
the team at the time see first base.

Speaker 1 (02:21:14):
But it's all right.

Speaker 8 (02:21:17):
Bagwells in camp. By the way, since I alluded to him,
he's right.

Speaker 1 (02:21:20):
He's gonna coach everybody up. He's not making signings, He's no.

Speaker 8 (02:21:25):
I don't believe he's in the circle of trust of
signings and should shouldn't have been then. But it's their
own I mean again, we a lot of blame falls
at his shoulders when that's a management problem. They didn't say, here,
we're getting rid of this GM, so you can be GM.
They just said, well, we're not gonna hire one. We're
gonna listen to whoever that's that's above his pay grade.

(02:21:45):
And then they just asked him to do it. That's
that's silliness.

Speaker 2 (02:21:48):
Well, the good news Montero's in camp. Rafael Montera living
up to his contract. But he's at least he's at
least not what's Jose? Has anybody heard a word out
of Jose Brayu?

Speaker 1 (02:21:58):
He's what is he doing?

Speaker 8 (02:21:59):
He's played baseball, but not at the major league played
a little bit. Okay, good for him, But Montero is
as weird as it may sound, they have so little
proven in the bullpen after well before the end, before
a Bray and Josh Hater. Yes, who's a proven commodity
they have? I would say, literally, I'm being dead serious.

Speaker 1 (02:22:19):
They have none.

Speaker 8 (02:22:20):
Taylor Scott, Yeah, that's you know, that's silly. He's had
a good season. Of major league pitchers, Kings less than
a good season. Bennett Susa a month, Forrest Whodley, same thing.
I'm not saying they can't be a good bullpen. I
like who they have, but there's nothing proven there. This
is my dog, cayleb Art still here, Caleb Board. You know,

(02:22:41):
his stuff was obviously very very impressive. Gordy was that
was one of the players he was able to catch
up to during the over the weekend, and he talked
about when he got here one of the biggest reasons
why he was successful and was able to be so consistent,
it's because he was really healthy and hadn't been that
on his way out the door with the previous organization.
And if he's healthy this year, he has excellent stuff.

(02:23:03):
They need guys to throw hard. That's that's major league
bullpen work.

Speaker 11 (02:23:06):
Now.

Speaker 8 (02:23:06):
If you don't throw hard. Have a lot of guys
who can throw hard. I do think it is a struggle,
and I think he helps them in that regard a
great deal to be able to get somebody to come
out of the pen to get you to the end
that can pump it up there at ninety seven, ninety eight,
ninety nine or more. They need, they need more arms
like that. I think he is a lock, but I'm
not gonna say they can count on him for year's
worth of two point seven eighty ra.

Speaker 1 (02:23:28):
I don't know what FIP you like, but no, simple that.

Speaker 2 (02:23:31):
Yeah, go with the X FIP personally. All right, Well
now I'm even worried than it was before. Thanks so
appreciate you. Adam huh on all the bad things first two, one, two,
we can get to those. Jordan's still here. Hopefully he's healthy.
He's going to be off his feet, He's going to
be playing less in the field, which clearly Joe Spotta
wants to keep him healthier, even though he got hurt

(02:23:52):
on the base pass at the end of the season,
didn't require knee surgery, been healed up, ready to go.
Christian Walker, Hey, what's the worst gonna happen? When you
hire a when you have signed a first basement deep
into his thirties.

Speaker 8 (02:24:04):
I mean, if again, jose A Brew in the conversation
with Christian Walker, it's just unfortunate, but it's going to happen.
I don't think there's really anything from a comparison standpoint
other than what you just pointed out.

Speaker 1 (02:24:17):
Very different players, very different skills.

Speaker 8 (02:24:19):
One of them's really really good. Yes, different ages and
there's a lot different there. I mean, how about again
the positive, what do you think the chances are that
they get more home runs, more RBIs from Eastac Perettis
and Christian Walker versus what they got last year from
Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 1 (02:24:36):
H very good, sounds very positive. Well wait, not very
wait from Walker.

Speaker 8 (02:24:42):
Played half a season and Bregman had a okay to
down season for him. You're gonna get fifty home runs
from Peretison, Walker.

Speaker 1 (02:24:49):
Twenty six, Bregman got twenty six. I don't remember twenty three.

Speaker 8 (02:24:52):
They had forty nine between them, okay last year. So
I'm just saying you're getting fifty homers from Perettis and
Walker and those and fifty homers that matter that said
could bring two runs home, bring three runs home. That
really helped the case with I assume these are your
If Jordan's batting second, which I think is a strong possibility,
then that's the heart of your order.

Speaker 2 (02:25:13):
Along with Gynar Diez has uh has Jordan addressed I know,
I know. He said he wants to stay wherever he is.
He wants to stay. He addressed as Joe Spot has said.

Speaker 8 (02:25:23):
He addressed it also today in a little more unclear way. Again,
there have been zero full squad workouts. They start tomorrow,
but pretty much everybody that's going to be a part
of the full squad workouts, which is the full squad,
arrives the day before.

Speaker 1 (02:25:35):
That's why I too.

Speaker 8 (02:25:36):
It spoke today and Walker and Jordan as well.

Speaker 1 (02:25:39):
All Right, we've been making Brian a whole the while.
We'll get you in real quick. What's up, Brian?

Speaker 3 (02:25:43):
Hey, what's going on? Guys? Like, Yeah, I didn't watch
any of the NBA All Star Game.

Speaker 19 (02:25:48):
I saw enough on X tour. You got a yellow
and blue floor, and just watching that, my eyeballs were
burned permanently, So I was I'm glad I didn't watch this,
but I'm curious to get y'all's thoughts. I know at
one point when Michael Brantley was still here, I know
he said he typically tended to feel better at the
plate and have more confidence, and I think his numbers

(02:26:11):
even baunced out when he played in the field as
the post to the days when he just DH. Is
there a way you guys can actually look it up
and rushing merrity have from what I called in earlier
with Connor of what Jordan's numbers are when he's actually
in the field, playing left as opposed to when he's
just hing. Is there a market drop off there?

Speaker 3 (02:26:33):
Is it something that guys tend.

Speaker 2 (02:26:34):
To It's pretty much the same. Last year was pretty
much the same. I had it, but I'll pull it
back up. But his his heariot ops last year left
field nine fifty four last year two.

Speaker 1 (02:26:49):
Okay, Okay.

Speaker 19 (02:26:51):
Maybe maybe Brantley was just different because he always said
I just feel better and I tended to hit better
when I'm out in the field as opposed to coming
off the bench, which every three.

Speaker 1 (02:27:00):
Innings I appreciate.

Speaker 2 (02:27:02):
Yeah, thank you, Brian. Yeah, I look, it depends we
have to contextualize this. Maybe he had more games and
left against better pitching or against worse pitching or whatever.
He has talked about wanting to play the field, and
he wants to do that, but the Astros feel like
he's best as a DH and the career numbers are
much better with him in left field.

Speaker 1 (02:27:21):
But also, again, what's the context of that. He's been
totally fine.

Speaker 2 (02:27:24):
He's still been one of the best hitters on the
planet when he is just a DH, and maybe it
does get him into more rhythm or whatever, But bottom
line is that's something he's gonna have to just to
because clearly Astros Brass don't want him out in the
field as much as he has been the last couple
of years because he's running less run risk of an injury.

Speaker 8 (02:27:41):
His numbers and left have been better the two years
prior twenty twenty three and twenty twenty two, But to
contextualize that a little bit, as a DH in twenty
twenty three, uh, he's got a nine to sixty eight
ops as a DH. In twenty twenty two it was
over one thousand. Now it was a little bit better
in left both of those years. But if you're saying

(02:28:03):
he's not gonna play any left field and he's gonna
give you a nine to eighty nine to ninety ops.
I think that's still probably the decision you make if
you're trying to eliminate the additional chances of him getting hurt.

Speaker 2 (02:28:13):
Yeah, to me, looks like it's been mostly negligible, and
they're gonna play him some and left and we'll see
how it goes from there. But they want him at
d H, so somebody's got to play left, and that's
somebody's gonna be.

Speaker 8 (02:28:26):
Something to His games in left field are going to
be extremely small. I'm gonna I'd said it at twenty.
I think it's gonna be an over under of twenty.

Speaker 2 (02:28:33):
It seems to be pretty clearly just from what Joe
Spot has been saying publicly that he doesn't like him
out there. I think mostly it is because I would guess,
keeping him off his legs, keeping him healthy and fresh
at the place.

Speaker 8 (02:28:46):
Yeah, ten starts to ten to fifteen home starts for
from ber Veldez, those are ten to fifteen, Yeah, Jordan starts,
and then you got five the rest of the year.
I just don't think he's gonna be those starts and
left too. I just don't think they're gonna put him
out there. I never thought it was a huge, huge
issue because I thought he's pretty good out there, better
than people think.

Speaker 1 (02:29:03):
But you know, the risk versus the reward.

Speaker 8 (02:29:06):
You know, if he's not running around, if he's not
on his legs, they know, they feel pretty confident he's
gonna deliver at the plate.

Speaker 1 (02:29:12):
So let's just have him deliver at that.

Speaker 2 (02:29:14):
You mentioned the outfield arms of being weak, He's got
this probably their strongest out there at arms.

Speaker 1 (02:29:17):
He definitely is. He can throw.

Speaker 2 (02:29:20):
He's got a cannon out there, not necessarily the most
accurate cannon, but still he can gun some people down.
All Right, we're gonna take a quick break here on
the Mat of Thomas Show with Ross, Adam Wexer is
hanging out. You guys can get in if you'd like.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety. The
phone number seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
It is the Mat of Thomas Show with Ross with
you until two o'clock lunchtimers.

Speaker 10 (02:29:42):
Lunch timers, It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:30:07):
One of the PM.

Speaker 2 (02:30:08):
Here on Sports Talk seven ninety Matt Thomas Show with
Ross rolls along without Matt Thomas he'll be back tomorrow
from beautiful Sonny West Palm Beach.

Speaker 1 (02:30:20):
It's like it's all it's supposed to get. I'm gonna,
I think, be avoiding the freeze.

Speaker 8 (02:30:25):
Well, how about Zach Decenzo saying over the weekend it
was nice to get down there because he really can't
hadn't been able to work outside because oh come on, Zach,
well he was he was in the north of our country.
Hunter Brown had talked about us fan fit. Yeah, he's
just saying all the work we do has to be inside,
and there's there's snow falling in parts of our country today.

Speaker 2 (02:30:45):
Let's see, uh Thursday, it's oh, it's gonna it looks
like it's not gonna get too creep into freezing too
much on Thursday, right, thirty two thirty three. Those are
the lows I'm seeing here in Houston coming up this week.
So no major freeze, You're gonna be all right.

Speaker 1 (02:30:58):
Major freeze what you never know?

Speaker 2 (02:31:00):
Man, We have a freaking win till pretty compree inches
of snow a few weeks ago.

Speaker 8 (02:31:05):
Feel pretty confident I'll be coming in to work those days.

Speaker 1 (02:31:08):
Well, we'll see. What about Adam Clinton, I can only
speak for myself. Yeah, that's all right.

Speaker 2 (02:31:14):
Anyways, well, it's it'd be much warmer in West Palm Beach.
That's where Matt Thomas and I will be Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday bringing you guys some great interviews out from spring training.
We've hit on to some of the storylines. Of course,
we're worried about while starting pitching depth, bullpen depth as well.
How are some of these other guys who are new

(02:31:35):
into the fold est Oc Paratus and Christian Walker going
to hit? But also where will they hit? We kind
of talked about it. I don't know, well, I'll get
your opinion on it in a sec mister Wexler. Jord
On Alvarez in the two spot, joe A. Spottas says, possibly,
I want.

Speaker 16 (02:31:54):
Jord On Alvarez to be healthy, healthful yord On Olveras.
He doesn't mind hating any but a healthy Jordan. It's
it's it's all I want right now, you know, Paradis.
He's also someone who has shown ability to get on base.
He can walk, so he's another guy that I can
been thinking about hitting in that second spot. So we'll

(02:32:15):
see what We'll see where it goes.

Speaker 1 (02:32:17):
See where it goes.

Speaker 2 (02:32:18):
He doesn't matter where. It doesn't matter to him. He says,
it doesn't matter to him where he hits, but he
just wants him to be in the two spot. Here
is Joe a spot at making the case for Jordan
to in the two spot.

Speaker 16 (02:32:28):
I want your done to go to the plate as
much as possible, so you know, if he gets twenty
thirty up bats in that second spot comparing the third spot,
I won those twenty thirty extra up bats, you go
to Jordan and instead of you know, anyone else. So
those are those are all the things that I look
at when we'll put a line up together.

Speaker 7 (02:32:46):
We talked.

Speaker 8 (02:32:46):
I think we got into that a little bit the
last couple of years from a major league standpoint, with
other teams taking advantage of this, Mike Trout batting much
higher in the order than he used to show. Heo
Tani batting lead off, Aaron Judge moving into the two
hole a lot, and I think that's something that I mean,
it's clear's day from the numbers, and what Joe said
is the simplest way to put it. If you bat

(02:33:07):
higher in the lineup, you're going to bat more often.
If you care about the first spot in the line
or your first go round in the lineup. Does it
matter to you that you're batting second? Does it matter
to you that you're batting third when you probably increase
the number of times you're gonna be at the plate
over a course of a season where nobody's on and
there are two outs and your best hitter can do
the least damage. Those it bats could come at any

(02:33:30):
point during the game, but they do come up in
the first inning quite often.

Speaker 2 (02:33:33):
Yeah, we're on the same page. Jake Myers is gonna
be turning this line up over. Baby, he's gonna be
on base machine in that ninth spot.

Speaker 1 (02:33:41):
M I could see him batting. Okay, maybe, Yeah, he's
gonna be batting now, I can see that. Nobody.

Speaker 2 (02:33:47):
I think it's gonna people fixate a little bit too
much on the first inning. As you said, we're on
the same page. You know, I always said you're a
really smart guy.

Speaker 8 (02:33:53):
Is it fixating on or is this saying, well, I
don't I don't want him batting then, I don't want
him to see that situation as often as he likely
will because he's batting there already.

Speaker 1 (02:34:00):
You say, Look, that's just one time through. We maybe
it's not every day.

Speaker 8 (02:34:03):
And if if you have more faith in one and two,
then it changes what you think about three. So it
depends what Altuve and and or partis or whoever else
that's one two we'll be doing.

Speaker 2 (02:34:12):
Yeah, I'm down with you or on in the two spot.
He's talked about just wanting to be stable, just being
wherever he wants, wherever he is, to stay there and
not be moving around. A ton seven one three two
one two five seven ninety is the phone number?

Speaker 1 (02:34:26):
Easy back on the phone lines? What's up? Easy?

Speaker 7 (02:34:30):
Hey?

Speaker 18 (02:34:30):
It was going on RV.

Speaker 7 (02:34:32):
Quick question.

Speaker 18 (02:34:34):
When Greig Vigio moved to center field, was it the
same age as A two?

Speaker 1 (02:34:41):
I think he was thirty five or something like that.
He was in his well into his thirties.

Speaker 18 (02:34:46):
Who had a better arm though at that point? Where
where Al two B is now or or Craig Vidgeo
at that point?

Speaker 1 (02:34:53):
I would say probably Craig.

Speaker 8 (02:34:57):
One hundred and fifty games in center field for at
age thirty seven, his first year of being the regular area.

Speaker 1 (02:35:04):
But right, he hadn't been in an outfielder really at
all prior to that.

Speaker 18 (02:35:11):
What's the over under on errors this year? And I
mean he's going to commit him because he's that's not
his natural position.

Speaker 1 (02:35:18):
But with the over under E Pink, the over.

Speaker 8 (02:35:22):
Under for an outfielder making errors, it's probably in the
neighborhood of I'm sure it's much higher than that for
Altuve because you know, we've brought a couple of callers
have already brought up earlier today easy there there are
instances where he's going to run back into the scoreboard
and the ball's going to tip off his glove. He's
not going to be able to reach quite as high
as a six to one outfielder, right or you're done,
who's much bigger than that. He's not even his biggest

(02:35:42):
more Eco Dubon. We'll find out if he has the
leaping and athletic ability of some of these players, because
he just hasn't. He's shown it off a little bit
at second base trying to leap for line drives, but
you know, lining up something and the other ballpark's stealing
home runs. There's a few ballparks where even Altuve could
steal a home run and it Made Park is not
one of them. Nor is dyk In Park, which it's
currently called. But I don't I wouldn't expect a particularly

(02:36:04):
strong defensive season from him. I don't really usually measure
it by errors, but that's one way to do it.

Speaker 18 (02:36:10):
And the last thing, guys that I'll hang up. Listen,
what do you think Bregman is going to do out there?
I mean, is it gonna be He's dead April in
May and wake up in July. And I mean I
don't waste no ill will because I mean, he was
a legend here. He's still going to be a legend here.
But what do you think of what kind of season
he's gonna have out there?

Speaker 8 (02:36:29):
Thank you, guys, I can't believe it's going to be
much different than his recent seasons. From a production standpoint,
I do recognize, and I tried to figure out more
ways to not give it too much credit his work
at Fenway, But the last two seasons at Fenway Park,
over the seven games he's played, he's thirteen for twenty six.
He scored thirteen runs in those seven games. He's mashing

(02:36:51):
balls for extra bases there. Probably as we might have learned,
he's the Yeah, he's the second best hitter ever Fenway Park,
behind only Ted Williams. That was really numbers that the
Red Sox were putting out, but he's spent the last
four years doing the exact same thing roughly as a
major league hitter. I can't imagine that's going to change
dramatically unless you want to go conspiracy theory, and I'm
happy to reinvestigate that.

Speaker 2 (02:37:13):
Yeah, but he's not going to be able to be
facing crappy Red Sox pitching as well.

Speaker 8 (02:37:17):
That's an important part of it. It is an important
part of the Fenway work. But the guy's a high
seven hundred ops guy for five consecutive years. When you
combine the work he's done since he was a second
place finisher for MVP, which by the way, wasn't he
was twenty five, which was twenty nineteen, which was five
baseball seasons ago, he has not even remotely been close

(02:37:40):
to that ballplayer. Since he's an above average player, I
think he's elite everywhere else. However, you want to measure
how he helps your team in the clubhouse and in
the field, I think he's beyond belief great at all
those things, but quantifying that is probably difficult. We'll find
out a little here with what he's not able to
do to help the pitchers. The catchers, the.

Speaker 1 (02:38:00):
Hitters, the pit.

Speaker 4 (02:38:01):
But we'll find out a report to be able to
help some of the guys in Boston with that. While
he gives them twenty six homers, eighty seven RBIs and
an ops of seven to seventy seven.

Speaker 1 (02:38:11):
And a steady handed glove at second base. If if
you want to know more on that.

Speaker 8 (02:38:17):
Uh, somebody in Red Sox camp had an opinion on
where some of the infielders might play this year, and
it was not I did not expect to hear it
from Raphael Devers was asked if he'll be dhing this
year and he said no. And he said, well, isn't
it the Red Sox decision on where you're gonna where
you're gonna be, and where you're gonna go. I'm a

(02:38:38):
third baseman. Mmmm, interpreter, see you.

Speaker 2 (02:38:41):
At second Alex Bregman and there are at forty million
dollars second baseman.

Speaker 1 (02:38:46):
What a time to be alive. All right, we gotta
take quick break here.

Speaker 2 (02:38:48):
On the Man Thomas Show with Ros's final segment is
next coming up at two o'clock. It is Adam Wexler
who is joining me now and Adam Clinton, who is
in the building. You can get in real quick if
you'd like at seven, one, three, two, one to five,
seven ninety. But the final segment of the show is
next don't go anywhere.

Speaker 12 (02:39:05):
This is Craig Ackerman, no log if for certainly hop
from the p I know Matt Thomas all too well.

Speaker 1 (02:39:11):
Hey, by the way, this is my new catchphrase, nothing
but nylon.

Speaker 2 (02:39:28):
Welcome back to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross here
on Sports Talk seven ninety. Now, I just saw this
come across my timeline. On the four you tab, we
were talking about Dever saying, well, I'm gonna play third base.
Maybe I should send this to Connor and try to
get this turned around.

Speaker 1 (02:39:45):
Alex Cora basically saying Rafeo Devers shouldn't expect to play
third base just because he was promised to it by
there the ex general manager Heim Bloom.

Speaker 8 (02:39:56):
Like we we can sense there's a little bit of
drama there Boston. But good players are good players. I'm
sure they'll figure it out. There's other issues that are
much more important to deal with and figuring out where
to put good players all the time. I'm not really
that concerned. It is a little alarming to hear that.
I'm sure if your management, but he very well might

(02:40:18):
be the third basement because Alex Bregman is the second
basement until their prospects arrive.

Speaker 2 (02:40:24):
Well, yeah, they have some some good young prospects. But
even you pay a forty guy forty million dollars and
you figured to put him in a more the more
premium defensive position.

Speaker 8 (02:40:34):
I've said it from the jump, even when it came
out during the off season, at Alex's own Alex Bregman's
own suggestion, I've been willing to play anywhere, and I
do think that was a negotiating ploy.

Speaker 1 (02:40:43):
But I also think it's true. But that's great that
he's willing to do it.

Speaker 8 (02:40:48):
It's partially I would think, because well, sure, I'll say it,
but I'm the best there is.

Speaker 1 (02:40:53):
Why would you put somebody else there?

Speaker 8 (02:40:55):
I mean, it's not quite the same discussion as should
do Bombie in second or left? And should I'll too
had left or second? But I already know Alex Bregmant's
better than any third baseman any team in the American
League has defensively, So what scenarios suggests I should put
him at second? So he's learning a new position and
may or may not be as valuable there, And now
I know my third base position is also worse because

(02:41:16):
I have him, but I'm not playing him there. I
don't see how that makes any sense, Like it's dever
so brutal at second, we can't use them there. Okay, great,
he's the DH, but somebody else at second that isn't brutal.

Speaker 2 (02:41:27):
Well, he said he's not dhing, so I guess we'll
figure it out. That's a that's a Red Sox problem.
We got our own problems here in Houston, and then
that among those figuring out how many games if you
hadn't just if we did, if this was a Matt
Thomas show on a Tuesday and we did gut feelings
and I had to put you on the spot and say,
gut feeling, how many games.

Speaker 1 (02:41:46):
At left field? Barring health? Of course, does Hell's ALTV
playing left this year? What would you say?

Speaker 2 (02:41:52):
Forty five? Oh, that's the number I mentioned earlier, And
it feels about right. That's the exact number I mentioned earlier.

Speaker 8 (02:42:00):
So if I say forty five out there, do you
assume he's got one hundred at second? You know, basically
calling it a full season, one hundred hundred five win ten,
whatever it is.

Speaker 1 (02:42:07):
How much you do you DH him at thirty five
years old.

Speaker 8 (02:42:10):
Well, again, you can't. You can't d h him if
Jordon's playing that day. I don't think very often. Now
you can do it a carey often. You can mix
and match a little bit Jordon.

Speaker 2 (02:42:18):
It feels like, okay, it was it like forty something
games last year, maybe fifty to fifty year, fifty fifty
ish games in left and clearly clearly Joe Spotta wants
that number to go down significantly.

Speaker 1 (02:42:30):
He was pretty clear like twenty five.

Speaker 2 (02:42:32):
Yeah, so those twenty five games, you're mixing some dh between.

Speaker 1 (02:42:38):
Jianer Diz maybe Jose l two v maybe.

Speaker 8 (02:42:42):
I mean, I think you're gonna see ninety percent of
your dh at bats go to the three players you
just said, Jose and Jordan. Hmmm, because jiners bats should
be in the lineup pretty much every day.

Speaker 1 (02:42:55):
Is healthy.

Speaker 8 (02:42:56):
Well, he's not going to catch one hundred and fifty games,
so better know. So that's the other thing you deal with.
If Altuve and Jordan are both playing and Karattini is catching,
are you okay with YANR. Diaz just watching that day?
I would think you'd want to.

Speaker 1 (02:43:11):
Have that day.

Speaker 8 (02:43:11):
Yeah, you got to figure out who's playing left and
who's sitting or who's playing second.

Speaker 2 (02:43:15):
You know, because now with Christian Walker here, you kind
of had that first base as a flex block down.
You put Karatini there, you put your Das there. But now, yeah,
that's what I'm saying, had had, So now you kind
of lose that with signing Christian Walker as your every
day Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:43:27):
Which is kind of the normal way to have a
good thing.

Speaker 2 (02:43:29):
No, they're not flexing out at first base, so maybe
that becomes the left field becomes how's you let's put
Daz in left field? How's he looking out there tracking
fly balls? Okay, maybe we're not gonna do that.

Speaker 8 (02:43:39):
I honestly, I bet you he could do it. I
bet you he couldn't, and I'm sure his arm would
play out there. I just don't want my catcher running
around it that much unnecessarily. No, I don't want him
squatting as much as they make them do.

Speaker 1 (02:43:50):
But that's just the way it is.

Speaker 2 (02:43:51):
You don't wants climbing, I mean, jord On Alvarez climbing
up that wall.

Speaker 1 (02:43:54):
You don't want your das climbing up that wall either. No,
we're good.

Speaker 2 (02:43:58):
Just stay as stable as possible playing DH. So that
I mean that kind of does beg the question if
you can't PLoP any of those guys at first, how
many games at catcher, how much of a mixer is that?
Because you needed Victor Karattini you needed is unfortunately not
like he was. I mean, he was really playing above
his head offensively, and he was good, but it's not
like he was one of the you know, can't no

(02:44:18):
doubt about it, best on the planet. You just were
so anemic offensively at at spots.

Speaker 8 (02:44:23):
You needed him last year in order to overcome your
other offensive weaknesses throughout much of the season, Tucker's absence
being a part of it. Your lineup was just better
with Diaz and Karattini both batting. And that's how you
do it. You've got to utilize the DH handful of games.
Kartini can play some first base, but like you said,
it's it's not likely you're going to ask him to
very often unless Walker for some reason is unavailable.

Speaker 1 (02:44:45):
Come on, Jazz, we need you, Chess, We need a
big He told.

Speaker 8 (02:44:48):
Us it's gonna be He's gonna surprise Hotfield's going to surprise.

Speaker 1 (02:44:51):
He did say that, but does that mean a good way?
I heard he was looking good in the cage.

Speaker 2 (02:44:56):
Dan told, oh, well, well, if data said it, it
must be the gospel. He's never optimistic about a guy
and it just doesn't come to pass. Didn't he didn't
He stay the Jose of Brady in the Florida complexing
there was gonna be good for him, it was gonna
come back stronger than ever, or something like that.

Speaker 1 (02:45:12):
Maybe not those exact words. But he didn't, did he
He didn't, No, he didn't. He also said he was
gonna get Kyle Tucker locked up. He didn't do that.

Speaker 8 (02:45:21):
Yes, that's true. That would have been That would have
been quite a coup. Can we get to here for
one hundred and eighty two hundred and twenty million, even
though you could make three to four hundred in a
year if you wait.

Speaker 1 (02:45:31):
That would have been something.

Speaker 8 (02:45:32):
And I don't think anybody expected that to happen, So
I wouldn't even have taken aback that he set it publicly.

Speaker 4 (02:45:38):
I think that was a goal. It just wasn't really likely.
He came out a little stronger than he he had to. Though, Well,
there's a difference with saying well, we're gonna try. We're
gonna do everything in within our power to keep him,
rather than saying we're gonna get it done.

Speaker 1 (02:45:49):
It's a little bit different. They did not get it done. No,
they didn't, Adam Wexer.

Speaker 2 (02:45:54):
But I know you're gonna get it done with Adam
Clinton for the next four hours.

Speaker 1 (02:45:58):
Appreciate you hanging out. Thank you always. Thanks to Adam
Weaxer for hanging out for a little bit.

Speaker 2 (02:46:03):
Thanks to Brian Lima, thanks to Chris Gordy, thanks to
Connor McGovern for producing, and most importantly, thanks to you
for listening.

Speaker 1 (02:46:12):
To the show. I really do appreciate it. I am gone.

Speaker 2 (02:46:14):
I am on the way to West Palm Beach. I'll
join you there tomorrow with Matt Thomas. But right now
it's two Adams. They call themselves the eighteen, and they're
coming up next. Don't go anywhere here on Sports Talk
seven n