Anything Goes Friday With Brian Bogusevic! Astros Start Their Series vs Orioles Tonight

Anything Goes Friday With Brian Bogusevic! Astros Start Their Series vs Orioles Tonight 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross ten.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Oh one in h Town. Hello and welcome to a
Friday edition of The Matt Thomas Show with Ross without
Matt Thomas.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
A record, a whopping seven final fours without a championship victory.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Can they do it again? Look? If we let Ross
go today, it won't be a usual. Do you know
what that was mean? I shouldn't have called out the
Cougars for years of futility in the final four. Brian
bogus seven is here. You know we do a segment
at eleven thirty. I haven't prepared you for this at all.

(00:52):
It's called I'm sorries, where you have to apologize for
something you've done this week, perhaps some misgivings or something
like that. Oh boy, I'm gonna have to apologize. I
feel like I apologize to the Cougars fan base about
every week, so I'm gonna have to do that again.
Coming up at eleven thirty ten oh four. Here on
Sports Talk seven ninety it is The Matt Thomas Show
with Ross. Matt Thomas is out, Brian Bogosvic is in

(01:15):
until noon, Bogey, Thanks for hanging out. Thanks, would you
like to name Bogie. Yeah, you don't have any problem
with it. Okay, No, you've been called worse. I've been
called a lot worse. I've also been called bogie since
I was probably about first grade. Okay, okay, good, all right,
So Bogy is here until noon. Matt Thomas is out,
Jonathan Allen is in the building. We'll have Adam Wexer

(01:35):
coming up at one o'clock. We have I'm Sorry's at
eleven thirty, and we have you at seven one three
two one two five seven ninety seven one three two,
one two five seven ninety. We have a lot of
stuff to get to. Of course, we will build a
lot of Astro's focus in the first couple of hours.
But uh, you're a connoisseur of all all sports in America. Correct, correct? Okay,

(01:57):
and I know I heard you're a big Premier League fan.
So that's great. We got we can we can break
down the opening weekend, I think for the people. Okay,
we don't want to lose all of our listeners at
the at the at the start of the show. But
college football, how as you said, you're kind of I mean,
you're a two lane guy, but you're not that much
into two lane football, especially now as the Cougar stole

(02:17):
your coach.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
I am a two lane fan about as much as
all two lane fans.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
We we we follow the team, We enjoy them when
they are good. Uh huh, you're not breaking down Cruton.
It doesn't ruin my Saturday if they don't win. But
also the game day experience. When I was in college,
they were still playing at the Dome. There was no
on campus Saturday feel. We didn't get that. We didn't

(02:43):
get the experience that a lot of people get. So
it's just not built into Yeah, when you go to Tulane,
you're retailgating six days a week. Anyways. Yeah, so it doesn't.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
There's not a whole lot of people ready to go
at nine am on a Saturday in New Orleans. Well
they could be if you stay up late enough, could
just roll right in. That has happened that We usually
save that for Marty Graw. Wee, oh okay, that's smart,
that's smart. That's where we're thinking.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
What about like as are do you really really root
for the for the astros? Are you more invested in
those outcomes or do you feel like it's kind of
more of a professional angle for you.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
It's kind of in between, you know when when I
was when I was playing, obviously teams that are outside
of of who you're playing for, it's kind of whatever.
And when I first got out of playing, I felt
that same way about kind of everybody. But being able
to follow a team as closely as we do, being

(03:40):
able to see the day to day and kind of
it gets you back to feeling the way I did
as a player, right where you're invested in the day
to day and where guys are at in terms of
the ups and downs of the season. So yeah, I
really do root for the team, but it's not the
die hard, blind faith of you know, nine year old
me cheering for the White Sox.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Okay, all right, well so it's a little bit different.
You guys don't get to do or no, you know
what y'all were doing pre and post game for playoffs
last year? Right we do? Yeah? Okay, there's no games,
well all two games of the playoffs. Let's home for
more than two games this year.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
Yeah, and it helps us from a viewership standpoint, and
that was unexpected.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Hey, guess what we here at Sports Talk seven ninety
we're big Astros fans as well, okay, we've seen the numbers.
We like more than two playoff games here too.

Speaker 4 (04:28):
Yeah, all of a sudden, we're sitting there like, what
do what do people do with free time in October?

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Exactly? No, It's it's funny because we talk about it
with guys like you or beat writers and stuff like that,
and it's like October's are normally booked up here in Houston.
We'll see how booked up they're going to be. Right now,
the Astros a game and a half ahead of the
Seattle Mariners. Let's all say it. Thank you, Orioles. We
appreciate the Orioles. Now go back to being the Orioles place. Exactly.

(04:53):
It's like you love the Orioles for a couple of days,
now we hate the Orioles. This weekend, they're in town
for a three game set, taking on the as now
a game and a half against the Seattle Mariners and
the Astros. Of course, we have to talk about the
big news from this week. I at least I haven't
seen yet any sort of diagnosis, but we know that
Josh Hater has a shoulder strain in air quotes and

(05:16):
then he's getting a second opinion, which generally means the
first opinion was it very good. Sounds like it's going
to be an extended amount of time for him. Does
that mean the rest of the regular season and all
the playoffs will have to wait on that? But next
man up, Bogie, of course, is Brian a bray you.
And if I say the astros closer is Brian a
bray you, We're okay with that. But it's about losing
the depth after that. Yeah, it's everything that comes after that.

Speaker 4 (05:37):
The thing that you know, you're talking about replacing Josh
Hater almost impossible to do, certainly not possible with just
one person. But the thing that I'm least worried about
is what's going to happen in the ninth inning? You know,
assuming that's Brian a Bray's spot and it's locked into that,
it's how do you get to the ninth inning? And
I think we're going to see a combination of things.
I think we're going to see a willingness to maybe

(05:58):
push starters a little bit further. You know, every out
that you get closer to getting to Brian Abradew is important.
I think there's gonna be some guys pushed obviously into
higher leverage situations. You know, some of the guys that
have been sixth and seventh inning are going to move
back deeper into the game. And I think really what
it's going to be, too, is a lot of mixing
and matching, a lot of matchups. I don't think that

(06:19):
anybody's really locked into any one inning or role. It's
who's best suited to get these next couple of outs
and then we'll figure it out after that.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, and I would even say, I mean in theory
with of course Susan being the lefty in a Brallo
being the righty, I don't know if we're going to
see both kind of a hybrid ninth inning role. But
also you want to find pockets of the lineup. But
what is that like like for a manager practically, because
you don't necessarily know who's going to be coming up
in any particular time, depending on getting guys ready at

(06:50):
certain times as well.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
Yeah, I think what you have to do is, first
of all, it's an imperfect science trying to figure out
what is the best spot for everybody, because you know,
you don't know what's going to happen and in the
next inning or two after that. But if you're getting close.
You know, if you if you're two innings away and
you're in the middle of the order in the eighth inning,
maybe that's where you want Brian to bray you. And
then you let the other guys pitch the ninth inning

(07:12):
against the bottom third of the order, and you know,
having a a bray you go into that closer ninth
inning role being a guy who's pitched, you know, in
the eighth inning mostly, but he's also come in and
gotten you four or five outs. Like he can get
up in a hurry, and he can get ready to
go in short notice type of situations. He doesn't have
to have everything building towards that ninth inning. It does

(07:35):
give you a little bit of flexibility to say, Okay,
he's he's maybe not our closer. What he is is
he's our best guy against their best guys.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, and both of those guys been really good. I
mean those those Minutuoza was throwing free in frisbees last
time out there. He is, he's a tough matchup. He's
he's funky.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
They were they were doing PfP drills one day out
on the field.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Early.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
I was walking down on the field and it was
starting with the pitchers just kind of going through like
a phantom throw on the mound before they got their
ground ball.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
And I walked by home plate as.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
He was doing his little dry throw and it was like,
glove goes out this way and then it flies at
you and you can't see the arm, and all of
a sudden he's standing there waiting for a ground ball,
and I'm like, when did his arm come through? I
never saw it, And I can't imagine trying to hit
you know, ninety five plus a slider, but you don't
know where it's coming from.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
So, Yeah, he's tough. Yeah he's been good. Brian and
Brady's been good, So they're gonna have to continue to
do that. As you mentioned, it will be about bridging
the in between. We'll talk about how the Ashros are
going to do that. We'll talk about the weekend series
with the Orioles, the Seattle Mariners, how the Astros are
going to hold them off, and anything that Bogie wants
to get to. It's an you know, anything goes Friday

(08:45):
on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. I don't know
if you knew that. I'll start thinking we can get
Ryleep into some stuff. Oh absolutely, we got let's see,
you got your you said your kids are going into school.
We can talk about that. No, thanks, let's see. Okay, fine,
we're not going to talk about that. We'll talk about
Texas versus Ohio State. We can get deep into that
and uh. Also Bogie's full breakdown of the joint practices

(09:06):
between the Carolina Panthers and the Houston Texans.

Speaker 4 (09:09):
Probably gonna be some fights. There's usually fights at those joints. Yeah,
there's always fights. It's fine, I mean whatever. I think
they should let them fight in NFL games. Put them
at the fifty yard line. First guy down is out
for two series. Like in hockey, you get a penalty
and let's move on.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
But if you actually let people fight, it would stop
a lot of the nonsense. Exactly exactly, and you can
do a three minute pause those too. We can get
a live bet down on the fight, the important see exactly.
You get the sponsorship, you get the gambling angle. I
think it's a brilliant idea. Okay, we're gonna take a
quick break here on the Bad Tapa Show with Ross
Brian BOGASVC is hanging out. You guys want to get

(09:44):
in seven to one three two one two five seven
ninety is the phone number seven one three two one
two five seven ninety Back in a minute with you
until two o'clock here on Sports Talk seven ninety set
eighteen in the am. You're on Sports Talk seven. Welcome
back to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas,

(10:05):
he is out in Austin doing volleyball dad stuff. He'll
be back on Monday. Brian Bogosvic is hanging out. You
can as well at seven one three two one two
five A seven ninety seven one three two one two
five seven ninety on Anything goes Friday, we'll have I'm
Sorry's at eleven thirty. Start thinking, get your gears turning

(10:26):
on something you're sorry about. I will, at the very
least be apologizing to the Houston Cougars fan base. Although
I felt like that was pretty funny. You know, Ross,
you need to because I had an angry oh oh
talking about it. This is in Austin, hoverd guy speaking
to that Ross. I'm a seven ninety man. Just blow
me for a whole minute. He really, We'll get on air.

(10:47):
Let's go do talk. Don't be scared. I don't bite,
it's gonna be all right. Uh. Look, I will just
let most of you Cougar's fans know. First of all,
I wouldn't be hating on the Cougars so much if
Matt wouldn't bring them up and talk about how they're
the greatest athletic program in history when they haven't won
a championship in anything except like golf in the nineteen seventies.
So it's not my fault. I'm a victim here. Brian

(11:13):
Bogocevic disagrees. Yeah, because radio you're supposed to talk. No, No,
it's okay. It's mostly a bit, first of all. And
also I didn't say anything that wasn't factually correct. Seven
final fours without a championship is the most in college
basketball history. True, but they also have seven final fours.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
That's great, and they've been arguably the best program in
college basketball over the last.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Absolutely four years. They've been great, and I'm wishing them
the best. I'm sorry if you want to scream at
me and get all mad, all right, Look, you can
make fun of Longhorn basketball. They basically went to one
real final four. The other ones are in like nineteen
forty six, when they're I think there was literally like
eight teams in the tournament, and they're like, we made
a final four. We won one game. Yeah, we won
one game. We're good. Man. So all right, I'm sorry, cougar.

(12:01):
So I'm gonna apologize to y'all even more fully. Coming
up at eleven thirty here on the program. All right,
we've been talking to Astros baseball. Of course, Baltimore Orioles
beat the Seattle Mariners. Why didn't they Why didn't they
just call that game when it went to the rain
delay in the sixth inning, Like, come on, man, let's
all go home.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
This time of year, you get some strange situations when
you're talking about calling games, making up games, travel schedules.
You know, early on in the year there's so much weather,
but there's so much schedule left that they'll just you know,
cancel it real quick and we'll figure it out later
in the season. But at this point, with West Coast

(12:42):
teams not going back to the East Coast anymore, you're
just gonna have to say that it.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Is sixth inning though it was a five five nothing
in the sixth and like, let's go home. But at
least the Orioles still were able to win that game.
So we're all good there. But we were talking about
the bullpen. What do you think as far as we
were talking about options. Good thing is Caleb or It's
been pretty good the last seven times he's been out,
But you have Luis Garcia. I don't know. Brandon Walter

(13:08):
I think is throwing side, so that it means at
least he might be kind of getting built up. Lance
mccullor's junior is a big question mark. We can get
to that in a second. What do you who do
you think are the prime candidates for uh, for guys
who are starters to come to the bullpen. A lot
of people have been saying Lance mccullor's junior, but I
just don't think he has the velocity and he walks
too many guys.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yeah, if you're talking about you know, there's basically two
types of roles in the bullpen, right You're either going
to be a long guy who has to be pretty
efficient and when you get into the game, it's your
job to finish the game right one way or the other.
You know, you've got to give us three innings, say,
or there's the high leverage type situation where it's like, Hey,
you've got to go in there and you've got to

(13:49):
win this matchup, and I don't, I don't know. You
got you got to be able to count on somebody
one way or the other. And you know, he hasn't
been efficient enough with pitches to think that he can
go out there and just get you through three innings
in a long relief type situation. So I don't know,
because you don't want to put yourself in a situation
where there's a guy in your bullpen that is getting

(14:10):
you further behind it in the bullpen.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
I feel like he is the hardest to kind of
figure out where you go from here because of well
how ineffective he has been, the amount of money that
he makes, and honestly, the history. I don't know how
much of it is a factor of the history and
all that type of stuff, but I feel like it matters,

(14:34):
and I feel like Joe spot is a guy who
puts stock. And we talked about how Hector Nrris was
basically here to get ten years of service time, like
there is the human element of what Lance mccullors is.
The embodiment a part of it. Along with Altuve, the
only guys left from twenty seventeen and how important he
is to kind of the history of this franchise and

(14:55):
maybe to the guys in that clubhouse or does that
not matter at all as far as trying to give
him more more of a leash, Well, it does matter.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
Right, you want to take care of your guys, and
the organization has historically done that, especially somebody who's a
huge part of turning everything around for the Astros. You know,
you're going to try to do right by them, but
there's a certain point to where you've got to go
out there and put your best twenty six guys out there.
And you know, Lance is kind of caught in the

(15:23):
middle right now of a guy who at one point
in his career was very much a power pitcher. He
was very much I'm going to go out there. My
stuff is better than you. My fastball movement and velocity
is going to blow you away. My curveball, you're not
going to be able to touch it. And he's now
moved into a point in his career because of injuries
where he's more of a finesse type of pitcher and

(15:44):
he's trying to figure out how to pitch that way.
And you know, when you're forty games left in a
season and you're a game and a half up on
a hot Seattle team. You don't have a lot of
leeway for guys to go out there and try to
figure it out. You've got to go out there and win.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, that's that seems like the hard thing for Joe Aspota.
I would say from a it was kind of the
hard thing from a lineup standpoint, when all the position
players were hurt and it's like, Okay, are we gonna
go to Cooper Hummel, Are we're gonna go to whoever
else that we have? And the luckily Taylor Tremil has
been pretty good, but kind of figuring out where we
don't have time Almost don't have time for guys to

(16:23):
figure things out because you're in the middle of these races.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
No, absolutely, I mean when you're when you're either banged
up and trying to scrap together whatever you can to
to put together a good lineup, or when you're you know,
trying to fight to stay in a division race or
hold the lead or whatever it is, there's a lot
more chances that you're going to take. You're gonna you're
gonna put guys in and out of the lineup, you're

(16:45):
you're gonna try to find matchups. It's not just the
approach of we're gonna put guys out there because we
know what they are. Eventually, we know that they'll get
to a certain place and just trust the process of
you know, a long term season. We're playing in the
short term right now, and you need reasons daults now.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, it's just interesting. I think it kind of makes
it even tougher for Joe, especially when all these pitchers
start coming back, because I mean, okay, of course you're
starting with Fromber and Hunter Arraghaddion Javey are back. Luis
Garcia makes five, Brandon Walter makes six, Lancema Colors Junior
makes seven, and I mean Jason Alexander's been throwing well
as well. You're talking about eight now. Isn't it crazy

(17:22):
how the pendulum has swung for this team to where
you had no starting pitchers. Now you might have eight,
and you had no position players, and now the lineup
is as deep as it's ever been.

Speaker 4 (17:30):
You know, I I'll take this problem, you know, over
the other right. And the funny thing is is that
these things typically have a way of working themselves out
you know it. Typically you go and you think about, man,
how are we going to get innings for all these guys?
And then you certainly find a way. A lot of
the guys, you know, you look at Javier Garcia coming
off of the injuries that they're coming off of, They're

(17:52):
still going to.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Need to get protected a little bit.

Speaker 4 (17:54):
They might have a short start every once in a
while where the pitchcown gets run up in the first
or second inning and and you got to get him
out of there. They might have to skip a start,
So you're going to need this bulk of starting pitching.
But how to sort of maneuver the roster if all
these guys are healthy at once. I mean, I mean
that's a manager's job. The manager's job isn't x'es and o's.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
It's this.

Speaker 4 (18:15):
You know, it's different than being a head football coach
or a coordinator where you're drawing up plays. Their job
is to manage the people and manage the roster. And
you know, you got to figure out whose stuff at
this given point is best suited for the starting role,
whose stuff can play in the bullpen? You know it
is one guy. I mean, you look at a Luis Garcia,

(18:36):
who's really good with the off speed stuff. Might that
be a good fit in a bullpen roll just because
he can match up with a right handed hitter or something.
So you've got to take all that into account. But
I'll certainly take the problem of trying to figure out
how to use eight versus do we have more than two?

Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah, and Luis Garcia, I think it feels like they
kind of like him to go to the bullpen because
he's done it before, he's comfortable with.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah, it's it's not something that's totally foreign to him. Obviously,
it would be much easier to keep him on regular
work and therefore managing that work in a starting role.
But repertoire plays something into it. You know, if you
can go out there and you know, blow guys away
in a certain part of the lineup because your stuff

(19:22):
matches up with them, that is a much more useful
thing than you know, a guy like you look at
a Jason Alexander, as good as he's been in the
starting rotation, what would he offer you in the bullpen.
He's not a big swing and miss guy. Yeah, you
don't want somebody pitching to contact necessarily in a one
run game, would.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Like two guys on coming in with two guys on
and one out or something like that. Yeah, all right,
well something that the Astros and Joe Aspada are going
to have to figure out. I know that Luis Garcia
on the road in a playoff game, he can give
you five out of the bullpen. I've heard he can.
We have seen that. All right. Brian bogus Sevic is here.
We're gonna take quick break here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Those you and old I see. I promise you are next.

(20:01):
Y'all want to get in. Seven to one three two
one two five seven ninety is the phone number seven
to one three two one two five seven ninety. It
is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas
with you until two o'clock back in a flash here
on Sports Talk seven ninety Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

(20:22):
Brian Bogosevic here with us hanging out un till noon.
Appreciate him for that. You guys want to get in,
you can seven one three two one two five seven
ninety seven one three two one two five seven ninety
and a ton of stuff to get to here on
the Astros. UH also some breaking News College football wise,
Michigan getting a major fine, but looks like they're not

(20:45):
going to have any other major infractions. The NCAA was
talking about coming down with some with a ruling on
what was happening then with this whole sign stealing scandal,
but sounds like they're gonna be able to keep their
national championship, which that didn't feel like that was ever
in danger. Doesn't look like much penalties other than a
major fine for Michigan football.

Speaker 4 (21:02):
Is there a more empty punishment than retroactively taking an
award or championship away?

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Like they gave Reggie Bush his Heutsman back, right, Okay,
I think they gave it back. But we all remember
Reggie Bush exactly and he and how the Texas Longhorns
defense bottled them up in the Rose on January fourth,
and hey, one moment of glory, folks. Let me have

(21:29):
the one moment of glory?

Speaker 5 (21:31):
All right?

Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, I'm sorry. Uh, let's see vacated championships, vacated wins.
I guess it kind of it matters for the counting stats, right, Like,
but what did you do with those counting stats? Nothing? Right,
nothing at the end of the day. So uh, there
you go, Michigan getting off with it looks like, uh,

(21:53):
a one game suspension for Sharon Moore and okay, now
he was expected to serve a two game suspension, but
it's a three game suspension. So the coach is suspended
for three games whatever, and they got a big fine.
But Michigan keeps everything else intact. It looks like frich, Hey,
ch I signed stealing cheating scandal. I never heard of

(22:13):
that before. I don't even want to start the conversation
on all of that. We spent like we spent like,
well two years. You know what makes makes it even
funnier to me is that the boss the Boston that
I like. How the further we go along after this,
the more the hypocrisy shows reveals itself, like Boston Red
Sox fans screaming cheater at ose L Tuvey and then

(22:35):
applauding Alex Bregman, like what are we doing? And oh,
by the way, your manager, what are we doing here? Folks?
And it's getting mentioned on Apple TV when he's hitting,
when L two A Is hitting that home run.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
Against the Yankees, that that's that's the kind of thing
that But I don't care what fans do. Fans are
fans and they're gonna they're going to cheer for their guys.
They're going to boo the other guys, and they don't
have to be rational. That's why they're fans. That's the
beauty of being a fan. But when it starts getting
picked up mainstream, it's just lazy, cringey.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
Lazy and cringe worthy. All right, Brian Bogusvic with us here.
Johnny is next up on the phone lines. What's up, Johnny.

Speaker 5 (23:12):
Yeah, we should let Mculors go a long time ago.
At this point, he's not even a proven pitcher. The
last time, even Edition OAL Series, he lost the game.
After coming off of being hurt for a while, he
had a couple of good games where he pitched and
they gave him his spot back in the rotation. And historically,
I mean, he's no more significant and you know, he

(23:32):
can't be more significant than Korea and Bragman and Springer
and who were let go. So this guy just needs
to be cut loose. And you know, tunn our losses
on that one.

Speaker 4 (23:46):
Thank you, Johnny, Thank you, Jack. Go ahead, completely different scenarios.
I mean, the guys that you mentioned who were allowed
to walk they walked in free agency. Lance is paid
in under contract, so letting him walk is just eating
the back end of that contract. And as long as
you have somebody signed and you're paying them, you're gonna

(24:07):
keep them around to try to get what you can
out of them. I don't like the diminishment of what
Lance has meant to this organization though, Like, yes, I
understand he's been hurt, but look at what he was
doing when he got hurt. He got hurt pitching this
team two championships, and you know, I think a lot

(24:28):
of people forget about was it twenty twenty one season
where he was he was the greast guy and ran
out of gas and got hurt at the very in
the right But he was, you know, the reason that
the team was in that situation, and then came back
in twenty twenty two and you know, was pretty good
the last month or so of the season, trying to

(24:48):
make a run at it. But you know, I just
I understand that it hasn't been you know, great the
last couple of years, but I just don't. I just
don't like when people people when people frame it as
the guy got his money and then we didn't get
anything out of him. It's like, well he got hurt
pitching you to World Series. Yeah, so I was pulling.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
Also, we've seen the flashes like and I understand where
people are coming from and like Johnny that that want
him off the team and all that type of stuff.
But as you mentioned, it's the money. It's not only
what he's the rest of what he's making this year,
he's making like seventeen point seventy five million next year
or something like that. You completely light that on fire.
Although I wonder if if you did DFA him, if

(25:31):
it would be a scenario where kind of what happened
to Jose Bray, you where he nobody's obviously going to
pick him up, and then you end up assigning him
to Triple A and figuring it out from there. That
would be his decision.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
Yeah, and that would conversation that would have to be happen.
But really, you know, the fact of the matter is,
look at how the last couple of seasons had played
out for the Astros in terms of injuries. In the
starting rotation. You're going to need eight, ten and twelve
guys throughout the course of the season, and if you
have a guy under contract and you're paying him anyways,

(26:06):
and you haven't run into a situation yet where you
need a forty man roster spot that he's taking up.
Why would you let somebody go when at some point,
if he's healthy, you're probably going to need him eventually.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, and man, it's man, it's so weird for him too,
because it felt like he was kind of getting in
a rhythm, and then the whole the whole locker and
not the locker, the weight room incident happened, and he's
got a footsprain, and then he's kind of out rhythm again.
And then he has that good start on the road
in Dodger Stadium where he looked really good. He walked

(26:43):
a lot of guys, but for the most part he
looked pretty good. And then now he then he had
a couple of bad starts. It's it's just been weird.
It's been weird. He's got three quality starts this year. Yeah,
he's had eleven.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
There, and for a guy who's had that long of
a layoff, you know, how could you expect it to
not be inconsistent?

Speaker 2 (26:59):
But we have. I've seen signs of it looking good.
We've also seen signs of it not looking so good.
So again it comes down to do you have the
leeway to give the guy a leash to figure it out?
And you know, early on in the season, when there's
one hundred games left and you're kind of hurting for
starting pitching, you can run a guy out there all

(27:19):
the time. But you know, when it's forty games left
and you've got guys coming back healthy and now you're
looking at seven eight deep in that rotation gets a
lot harder. I'm really I'm just really fascinated to see
how this all plays out with all the moving parts,
with the guys coming back with I mean even Fromer
on the Hill tonight, which we can talk about, but

(27:40):
like Brandon Walter, Cavier, Araghetti, mccullor's mixing in somehow, I
am really interested to see how they let this play out,
let this unfold. Well.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
I think what you're hoping for if you're Joe a
spot it is that one Ideally two guys go and
take it right. You know, maybe Christian Xavier comes out
here and looks like vintage Christian Javier and that's an
easy decision, right he gets slotted in. Spencer Araghedty if
he comes out and looks like the guy we saw
the last month of the season last year.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
That makes it an easy decision, so hopefully it plays
itself out.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
The problem you run into is if nobody separates themselves,
that's when the get hard.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
It's easy, exactly. It's easy if somebody comes up here
and they're getting shelled, it's easy to figure it out
from there. If somebody comes up here and they're dominated,
it's easy when the ind between murky waters. And that's
kind of what Lancewick colors Junior has been mostly bad
when you add it all up, but you have seen
the flashes of good.

Speaker 4 (28:42):
Yeah, and if you can get a consistent run from
a couple of these guys, it makes your decision easy.
The work will come in figuring out what you do
with the other guys. But it's very unlikely that six
guys come in off of injury and just look great
and then you're sitting there saying, oh, man, we've got
to You're not going to be in a scenario where
you're saying saying, oh, we've got too many guys.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
And also, I maybe I shouldn't say this out loud,
but we're assuming full health, which what makes me think
what makes us think that we can assume full health
at this point? Dude, we finally got to a place
where we thought, Okay, we're on the right side of
these injuries that lasted twenty four hours. Hey, something like that. Now, Oh,
Josh Hater, we pray for thee Do you think now

(29:26):
we'll see what happens with Josh Hater and where it
goes from there. But do you think they kind of
back off going forward with using him for two innings.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
If it's a major injury that takes, you know, quite
a while to come back from. I think you have
to look at managing workload. You know, it's something that
he's been really good at since he's been here, is
picking up extra slack, you know, going out there for
the tenth inning, when he closed down the ninth inning
and kept it at a tie game. It's got to

(29:59):
be something, you know. There's so many things that you
can point to for arm injuries that factor into it,
and it's probably a mix of all of them. But
one thing that you can control is workload, and if
and if he comes back from this whenever that is,
workload's got to be something that you look at.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, but yeah, I get the they wanted to do that,
and he even talked about that how he would refuse
to do it in San Diego because you know, he
didn't have a long term deal. Then he said, they
talking about the Astros, they committed to me, so I'm
going to commit to them, and that's good. But and
I guess also there's no way to definite really say
this happened because of his his workload, no right or

(30:38):
no no.

Speaker 4 (30:39):
I mean, it could have been one pitch that did it.
It could have been you know, you slept on it
funny and it put it in a weird situation and
then you got hurt in your next cent. There's it's
almost impossible to specifically diagnose what went wrong and in
you know, an arm injury scenario. But you know, you
change what you can change, You control what you control.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
And at some point you just got to say, hey,
these are guys who are going out there. Pitching is
a violent movement.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
It is an explosive, violent movement, and it puts a
lot of stress on small parts of the body. The
elbow is not a huge joint, the shoulder's not a
huge joint, and when you're throwing ninety eight miles an hour,
things break well.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Unfortunately, things are broken right now for Josh Hater. We
await the official word on what is happening with him,
but until then, well, they're just gonna keep kind of
like what we've been saying with all these injuries, they're
gonna just keep playing the games. We're gonna see who
they roll out there, and we're gonna root for the
Astros and hope for the best.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
And like has happened in the past week, the first
game with no Josh Hater, you see Briana Bray, you
lock down the ninth inning and Bennett Susanas four outs and
it was easy.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yeah. Hey, you just throwing a brown out there. Have
him give you six and two thirds at least hopefully seven,
and then go to your eighth and ninth gate and
call it a day. Joe Spott would love that makes
it much easier when the starters go into the seventh inning.

Speaker 5 (31:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Absolutely, all right, we're gonna take quick break here. We
got a lot of stuff to cover with the Astros
and anything you guys want to get to. Seven one
three two one two five seven ninety is the phone number.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety. We
got I'm Sorry coming up at eleven thirty, and we're
with you all the way until two o'clock here on
Sports Talk seven ninety ten forty nine in the Am.

(32:17):
Here on Sports Talk seven ninety Matt Thomas Show with
Ross Matt Thomas is out. He is volleyball dadding in Austin, Texas,
our state capitol. As Matt calls himself mister Texas. I
think I thought he was trolling when he was continuing
to say that, but I think he's dead serious. He
doesn't like enchiladas or Tomali's or doctor Pepper. He can't

(32:39):
be mister Texas. That doesn't help the rest of those
are all very disqualifying. Anyways, Matt'll be back on Monday.
Brian Bogus Eevica is hanging out, Chris just getting word,
Chris goad it. We will come in and pop in
for a segment coming up at twelve twenty as he
will talk some astros with us, and we also have

(33:00):
I'm sorry. Do you have something in mind yet for
I'm sorry? Coming up at eleven thirty. I've got something
to Okay, good, That's what I like to hear. That's
coming up at eleven thirty and you guys can get
in whenever you want seven one three two one two
five seven ninety seven one three two one two five
seven ninety. So we know that it's a tight race
in the American League West right now, game and a

(33:20):
half up are the Astros on the Seattle Mariners. They
do have a slight advantage in terms of the remaining
schedule strength. I know, yes, I know some of you
are saying, well, they don't do so well against bad teams,
but still you'd rather play bad teams and good Let's
see twentieth in baseball four ninety four opponents win percentage

(33:41):
for the Mariners, twenty seventh for the Astros, but percentage
points for eighty one.

Speaker 4 (33:46):
Well, and also if you look at the the upcoming schedule,
not not thet totality of the season, but just what's
in the next you know, two weeks, week and a half,
the Astros have a chance to do some stuff here. Right,
You've got two series against Baltimore, a last place team.
You've got a series against Colorado, they're historically bad, and
at over that same period of time, the Mariners have

(34:08):
the Mets, the Phillies, who are fighting each other for
the National League East top spot. And they also they
play San Diego as well, So the Astro's got a
stretch of you know, some bottom feeders while the Mariners
are playing some good teams. So on paper, it looks like,
you know, this one and a half could maybe get
built up a little bit. But you know, we've seen

(34:29):
on paper matchups not work out.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Yeah, on paper, the Mariners probably didn't factor and that
they were gonna lose too straight to the Orioles. And
now the Orioles are coming in town, so hopefully they
get there. Are all their wins for the week out of
the way.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
Yeah, well, especially some of the ways that they won
those games, they were not typical of how the Mariners
lose games.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
So maybe maybe it's a little bit of luck. That's baseball,
as they say, do the Mariners have the most complete
roster in American league.

Speaker 4 (34:54):
You can make the case Toronto when they are hitting
is a is a very good, well rounded roster the Mariners.
That's the scary thing is that they are where they
are and they have not been completely healthy on the
pitching side. The pitching side has obviously been their strength
of the course of the last few years. They've got

(35:16):
as much starting pitching as anybody in Major League Baseball.
They just got a couple of guys back. They've got
one more and Bryce Miller, who looks like next time
through the rotation they'll finally be at full strength. So
a better version of their offense, which is what we've
seen all throughout the course of the year, which has
kind of buoyed them through some of these injuries. They
can go on a run with this starting pitching. They

(35:37):
did it last year where they had you know, like
twenty quality starts in a row or something. And if
you do that with with the offense that they have now,
they can be They're a very good team. And it's
not you know, they underachieved the last couple of years
the Mariners did. It wasn't that they just weren't ready.
They didn't play up to their capabilities. And this isn't

(35:58):
a fluky result that they're getting and how they've been playing.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Yeah, au heney O sores has been terrible for them.

Speaker 5 (36:04):
Now.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
I mean there was gonna be some regression because he
hit what like thirty six home runs with and the
ball flies out in Arizona, right, Oh yeah, yeah, So
there was gonna be some regression going from Arizona up
to Seattle. But he hasn't done anything for them.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
No, And it's he's a scary guy because you know,
he can get hot and he can take over a
game or a series. But really what's scary about that
is that they didn't need Suarez to come in and
be a savior. Right last year at the straight deadline,
what the Mariners were doing, they were going out. They
went out and they got a Rosarina, and they went
out and got Justin Turby because they needed anything, They
needed help. They could not score runs. Now they're just

(36:41):
looking to add and bolster and cal Raley's turned into,
you know, arguably the MVP of the American League. Crawford
has had a bounce back here. There are much more
steady offense, and even Suarez not hitting yet, hasn't really,
you know, done much to slow them down. So if
he does get hot, it's it's a different story.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah. And I just felt all season long, I've felt
like fairly confident that the Astros were gonna win the
Al West, and even when the Mariners made their moves,
I was still feeling pretty good about it because You're like,
you're getting this guy back, You're getting that guy back.
But for whatever reason, man, this and I know, like
I said, they still have a good closer and Brian
a Bray you now with Josh Hater out, But this

(37:20):
this Hater thing, man, it's it's kind of shaken me
more than more than some of the other injuries have.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
Yeah, you know, there's there's a lot of there are
injuries that can be managed and covered up with depth,
and we've certainly seen the astros be able to navigate
some of those. I think there were four guys on
this roster throughout the course of the season who were,
you know, the most important in terms of we can't
afford to lose these guys, and it was Hater and

(37:48):
a Bray you in the back, and it was Hunter
and Fromber on the front side, those guys who have
the ability to shrink the game from the outsides in
and now losing Hater it changed the math. It changes
the formula of how you get to victory. It was
always we're going to get strong starting pitching, hold us
in the game long enough to give the offense an

(38:09):
opportunity to take advantage of something and scratch some runs across,
and once we get the lead, bang bang bang, that
game is over. You're gonna have to win a different
style of game now. You also have the best version
of your offense that we've seen throughout the course of
the season. So maybe you can go out there and
have some games where you can just outslug some teams
and beat somebody eight to seven, something that they weren't

(38:31):
able to do earlier. But no, you're right, the loss
of hater at the back end, it hurts more because
it changes the style of play.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
And good news is the Rangers. I thought they coming
around the deadline, I thought they kind of looked like
they were going to charge up, and you've had they
had the good starting pitching, but for whatever it just
hadn't been put together for them.

Speaker 4 (38:51):
For whatever reason, they're a very difficult team to figure out.
You know, for a couple of seasons they were big
offense and couldn't figure out the pitching side. They've had
great pitching this year, they haven't been able to put
together anything offensively. I still would not want to see
them under any scenario in the playoffs. Oh no, you

(39:12):
can go, especially if they're you know, they're going to
be in a wild card series where it's a short
series and it's just going to be one two. I
think if you're anybody in the American League, you've got
to be hoping that the Rangers don't get in, because
if they get in, they're dangerous.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
Yeah, that's the only one too. I think that they
can compete to me with with Fromber and Hunter Brown,
whatever order you want to put them in.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
Absolutely that that is the kind of team. That is
the kind of rotation where you know, it doesn't matter.
They neutralize your best starting pitching because you can go
out there and have a great game, but they can
go out there and you might not score a run
for two three games.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
And of course Fromber and Hunter Brown started both playoff
games for them last year and they lost both. So
no guarantees, no, And that's why you know, looking at
down the stretch, I obviously the most important thing is
win the division, stay at the top of the division,
but you guys start looking at those top two spots.
That's so important, especially for a team built the way

(40:11):
the Astros are. If you can bypass that three game
series where you know a hot starting pitcher really puts
you behind it and put yourself in a situation where
you can keep those guys lined up. Uh.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
To start a division series like that, second spot on
the top of the American League is huge.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
Hopefully it can happen. All right, A lot of games left,
a lot of baseball to talk about, a lot of
show left here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Our number
one is gone, our number two is coming up. We've
got I'm sorry, he's coming up at eleven thirty. Anything
you guys want to get to, we can. It's seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven one
three two, one two five seven ninety. We're talking a

(40:52):
lot of pitching. We're gonna talk some hitting as well.
There's college football stuff going on. Anything you guys want
to get to, it is and anything goes. Friday at
seven one three two one two five seven.

Speaker 6 (41:02):
Ninety, hour number two of the Matt Thomas Show with
Ross Without Matt Thomas, he is out in Austin, Texas.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
Ros Viyal Brian bogas Sevic with you for the next hour.
Chris Gordy will drop by sometime in the twelve o'clock hour,
and we have Adam Weser joining at one o'clock. As
we're with you until two here on anything goes Friday.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety is
the phone number to get in seven to one three
two one two five seven ninety. Obviously with Bogey in

(41:38):
the fold, we've been talking a whole lot of Houston
Astros baseball. Guess what, We're gonna keep doing it because
that's how we roll here on your home for the
Houston Astros Sports Talk seven ninety. Gotta stay in your
lane exactly now, I'm gonna try. Yeah. Well, I swear
I swearve out of my lane from time to time.
But that's a different story for a different time. Okay,
we've been talking a lot about the pitching. Uh, I
do have Uh what's going on in front? Can you

(42:00):
tell us what's going on if you want an overs see? Okay?
How should I? How should we feel about this? This?
The whole situation is so bizarre. We've talked about you know,
I always talk about how and as you know, every
season is kind of its own story. It's it's almost
like every season it's its own book. And the twenty
twenty five book is a crazy one. There are so
many different things and the and the yord On saga

(42:21):
is its own chapter.

Speaker 4 (42:25):
I'll start off by saying, I don't have any information
that you don't have. It's not like I'm sitting there. No,
I'm not trying to ask you that you no. But
but but it is weird. And you have to understand
that hitting is different from a lot of things in sports.
It's very different. It's it's such a refined skill thing.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
You know, people sit.

Speaker 4 (42:47):
There and be like, oh, you see a football player
they play with a broken hand all the time. It's like, well,
they don't have to hit one hundred mile an hour fastball, right,
and and any compromise of your hand, wrist, finger will
greatly affect hitting. So so the the idea of you know,
suck it up and go out there. Anyways, it's a
little bit different when you're talking about hitting.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
Well, he did that, and that's how we're we're where
we are right right.

Speaker 4 (43:12):
And and also you know, you have to you have
to look at it from a big picture standpoint, like
you you can't rush a guy back because we need
you in the lineup today. It's like, you know, we
need you in the lineup from the day you get
back through the end of the season and if you,
you know, luckily afforded yourself of a little bit of

(43:33):
leeway by playing well and building a bit of a lead,
a lead that has since evaporated. But but they gave
themselves a luxury of not having to force things, of
not having to make rash rush decisions.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
But the the the.

Speaker 4 (43:49):
Frustration from from a fan standpoint and certainly from a
player standpoint, is the ups and downs. Right when you
when you get injured, you want to know what is
my injury, how long am I going to be out,
and what is my path to coming back? And going
forward and back, going forward and back. It's getting through

(44:10):
the process to a certain degree and then having sat backs,
you know, having things that are kind of ambiguously diagnosed
because we just can't really figure it out. That's a
really difficult pill to swallow, because you know, we want
control over our situations and we want to know that
I have to do X, Y and Z to get back,
but you know, sometimes it's not that way.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Okay, so he's been taking BP. That means just some
dude is like throwing him soft toss and then he's
going to go to live BP, which means live pitching
this weekend at the Florida Complex.

Speaker 4 (44:39):
The whole thing has been a progression, and you think
of it in terms of ramping up the degree of
impact on your hand.

Speaker 5 (44:49):
Right.

Speaker 4 (44:49):
So you start off dry swings, just a bat in
your hand, just swinging, no ball. Then you hit off
a te it's not moving. Then it's soft toss, and
then it comes to a little bit short toss. And
my understanding is that he's at to the to the
point to where he's hitting a throne baseball right a
batting practice, yes, And the next step after that is
hitting live right, hitting off of a real pitcher, maybe

(45:11):
in a controlled environment, but it's still a picture throwing
with some real velocity. The more you ramp it up,
the more impact you have, the less control you have
over how perfect you hit it. And that's really when
you feel like you're not going to feel a ball
when you are squaring up soft toss every swing, every swing.
It's when you get a little bit of movement on
a two seamer and you catch it off the end,

(45:32):
or you get a ball off your hands a little
bit with some velocity behind it, that's when you'll really see,
you know, how well that hand is feeling, so you know,
they wrap up the intensity and then of course after
every step you got to take a minute and sit
back and say, now, how do you feel? Is it sore?
Does it feel like it's getting better? So it is
a long, tedious process. And we've seen the tedious process

(45:55):
two three times now. But yeah, it's it's just been
weird to continue to watch this.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
And now, I mean we talk about there not being
that much time left, but August fifteen, there's a little
bit time for him to build up from how long
do you let's just say, let's pretend he didn't suffer
three setbacks or what a couple of setbacks or whatever.
If I'd have just told you and that he's doing
this live BP this weekend, what would you normally say

(46:21):
where that goes to progress to possibly getting back on
the active roster, and do you and also factoring in
the possibility of a rehab start. But also I mean
for a DH, does DH need rehab starts? You need
at bats? Yeah, you need to see live pitching.

Speaker 4 (46:37):
You need to get timing right, you can work on
mechanics in a cage environment.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
You need to get your time. You need to see
some live at bats.

Speaker 4 (46:44):
Typically, guys think of it in a spring training scenario, right,
guys will want anywhere between twenty to twenty five on
the low end, and some guys like fifty sixty at bats.
You know, historically Jordan's been a guy who doesn't need
all that much. We've seen him have short spring trainings.
We've seen him come back from injuries in the past.

(47:04):
And the good thing is is, you know, while he's
down at the complex, they've got other guys down there.
He can go into a backfield game and get ten
at bats in one day.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
So you know, if you clear all the hurdles of
ramping up and then it becomes a we've got to
get you x number of at bats that can happen
in a very short period of time a couple of days.
It's getting over those last couple of hurdles is what's
really thrown a wrench in this rehab. You know Stint
a couple of times now, Yeah, So, I mean, I

(47:34):
guess he's going to hit over the weekend. We don't
know how they're going to necessarily dose the rest. And
do you think he would go to to a rehab stint?

Speaker 2 (47:44):
I would think so I mean, it's not it's it's
not guaranteed he you know, he might not needed, he
might be able to get everything he needs down at
the complex. The thing is is that you're not going
to see the quality of arm down at the complex
games that you would see out at Triple A. You know,
so how much of a difference does that matter for

(48:05):
for him getting back? It's big for a couple of reasons.

Speaker 4 (48:08):
It's big because you want to see consistently, you know,
quality pitts.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
You.

Speaker 4 (48:12):
You don't want to get into a situation where he's
just getting fed ninety mint our fastballs down the middle.
That's not really going to gauge anything. It's also, you know,
you get down there and there's some eighteen year old
kids there trying to make a name for themselves.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
Against your You don't want him to get hit. You know,
you want to be in an environment, right, guys have
a little bit of control in double A Triple A,
So you no, is it one hundred percent necessarily No.
I think you would probably want to see him, you know,
just for his own sake, to be able to go
out there and get you know, a game or two

(48:43):
against a higher quality competition. Yeah, all right, Well, well
we'll see what happens and when he comes back. And
the thing is too I mean, it feels like it
can go any number of ways of not only is
he back, but how good is he going to be?
Obviously there's the track record, right, I mean, he's got
the highest OPS plus an Astros history. That's pretty good.

(49:05):
But he wasn't very good at the beginning of the season.
How much of that do you think was the injury?
How much of that was just I mean, bad luck,
small sample size, that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4 (49:13):
I think it was almost entirely dealing with injury. Yeah,
and just not enough time for him to be fully
healthy for an extended perioder. If he comes back one
hundred percent healthy, I think we see the version of
Jordan on that we've seen his entire career.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
Yeah, I just man, it's just been so crazy. We're
talking about May third. I think May thirty went on
the il. But if he does come back and you've got, like,
I mean, I don't know how you would exactly configure.
I like him batting second, and Joe spot has liked that,
but it doesn't seem like he like that. Jordan likes that,
but if you do like Pana Altuve, Alvarez Korea, then

(49:52):
Diaz Walker, whatever, or do you want to put those in.
I mean, this is a dangerous lineup.

Speaker 4 (49:57):
It's dangerous, it's deep. And also you know you have
Sanchez in the mix now is if you bring ord
On back, now you have two lefties, you have the
ability to maybe not go right left, right left, but
maybe right right, left, right, right left. So you've got,
you know, some some platoon splits that you can deal with.
It's certainly the best version of the offense, and it
just gives you options. It gives you options to mix

(50:19):
and match. You can put Victor Karrottini in and out
of the lineup in good situations for him. So yeah,
it's it's a nice thing to kind of dream about
at this point. And hopefully you know, these last couple
hurdles they've been big hurdles, so it's there's still a
little ways to go.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
Yeah, but also in different situations, if we're we're dreaming
about this, this fully healthy Astros lineup, if you're putting
yord On at d H, then do you think there
will let's just speculate for playoffs sake or down the
stretch sick. Do you think Cam Smith has done enough
to be every day Do you think we could see

(50:54):
some platoon with him in Hazo Sanchez in in right field.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
I think you're certainly going to see some scenarios where
Cam is in and out of the lineup down the stretch.
From first of all, from a workload standpoint, I think
if if you get the roster fully healthy and Yourdan's
back into the mix, now you're talking about less DH
at bats for jose L Twove, so he's going to
be more into the mix and left field. So yeah,

(51:20):
I think there's going to be some times when when
Sanchez and Cam are in and out of right field.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
But that's a good thing.

Speaker 4 (51:27):
That's that's optimizing, right, that's giving yourself the best chance
on any given day. So you know, it's it's again,
it's similar to the pitching. It's something that Joe Spot
has to figure out, but it's much it's a much
better problem to be trying to figure it out because
you have all of your guys back than trying to
figure out the way he was for a couple months
where he was just trying to find guys.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
Yeah, it's a man this team fully healthy. We're talking
about or I asked you the question about the Mariners
having the most complete roster top to bottom or more
uh in the American League. If the Astros are fully healthy,
they'd be right there, if not ahead, it's just hasn't
been that way at any point this season.

Speaker 4 (52:06):
Well, absolutely, and and you know that's that's the beauty though,
of moving from the regular season into the postseason, is
who's who's the best version of themselves, which means who's
the healthiest, and who's playing well, who has a couple
of guys who are hot and and you can take
all of these different teams throughout the league who at

(52:28):
different times have been hot, cold, hurt, healthy, and start
to kind of dream on what it can be like
because nobody there there aren't many teams that have made
a run to the World Series where it's like, oh,
they've done all of this despite X, Y and Z.
It's it's everything coming together at the same time. And
you know that is not out of the realm of
the possi of possibilities.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
Yeah, and you could configure Cam and right Sanchez and
the left and then L two V at second base.
But they I mean they've made it pretty clear they don't.
That's not their ideal spot for having L two A
at second And if you have like a ground ball
pitcher like a Fromber's out there, they are not going
to want L two eight second.

Speaker 4 (53:06):
No, there's a lot of things that you have to
take into account when you're talking about who's getting moved
around into what spot. And it's also defense has been
a huge weapon for this team throughout the course of
the season. That's that's been the most consistent part of
their game through throughout the course of the entirety. And
to you know, you're gonna have to be in situations

(53:28):
coming down the stretch where do you want the best
offensive version of the team do you want the best
defensive version of the team. Some of that's going to
be dictated by who's starting for the Astros, who's starting
for the opposing team. What do we see as potential
in game moves to where we can trade out offense
for defense. So you know, that's where your money is
made as a manager.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Again, it seems to me that there's been a pretty
pretty clear the way a Spot does things that he
does have a put a high priority on defense.

Speaker 4 (53:57):
Well, absolutely, and that was that started in the offseason.
I mean they they started talking about al Twove moving
into left field and how do we optimize the defense,
especially in the infield, and they bring in Tony Paris
Chica to work with all these guys. Christian Walker, you know,
a huge part of him coming, you know, being brought
in was not just the bat, but the defense that

(54:19):
he brings at first base, which makes all your other
infielders better. So that's not something that they would lightly
just kind of walk away from because, you know, all
of a sudden, we got a bunch of bats that
we're trying to stick in.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Yeah, all right, we're talking to Astros Baseball here on
Sports Talk seven ninety. Brian Bogostevic is in the fold
until noon. You guys want to get in ask him
a question, talk anything about Astros Baseball, you can seven
one three two one two five seven ninety. Is the
phone number. Seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
We got the news at noon coming up at noon.

(54:51):
We also have I'm Sorry coming up at eleven thirty
here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Sports
Talk seven ninety eleven at eighteen in the PM here
on a sports talk seven ninety rosby Rail Brian Bogosevic
with you the Matt Thomas Show until two o'clock. Let's see,
we got Wexler joining at one o'clock. We have Gordy

(55:14):
at twelve twenty. We got Bogie right now, we got
I'm Sorri's at eleven thirty. We got you at seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven one
three two, one two five seven ninety if you'd like
to get in So talking, of course a lot about
the Houston Astros and what is going on with them.
How much scoreboard watching do you think now? Of course,

(55:37):
everybody's gonna go from the media, like, you know what,
we're taking it one again in the time, we're focusing
on ourselves. But you know, if you're in a clubhouse
and guys are talking, you can you can keep an
eye on the Mariners and still be focusing on what
you're doing.

Speaker 5 (55:48):
Right.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Yeah, everybody has an idea of what's going on around
the league.

Speaker 4 (55:51):
You know, I would I would imagine guys aren't you know,
turned around checking out the scoreboard during the games, but
there are other games on in the club house house postgame,
you know, everybody checks scores, and yeah, it's it's a
little bit early for you know, really really following what's
going on.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
But yeah, everybody knows. Deal. That's what I figure. Well,
it is close game and a half Astros at the
weekend set against the Baltimore Orioles. The Seattle Mariners are
taking on the Mets. But the Mets have been terrible lately, right, Yeah,
they've been up and down this year, and they had
a hot start current down. Oh my god, I just

(56:31):
pulled up their schedule. They have lost Uh, let's see,
hold on, Oh my god, it's something like it looks
like fifteen at the last seventeen or something like that.
I'm gonna add actually add this up. You stall, Brian,
you talk. I don't know about something you got in
your personal life for six, seven, eleven, twelve, thirteen. Okay,
they've lost thirteen of their last fifteen. Holy smokes, that's

(56:54):
not good. No, and they were you know, I thought
once started once Poo started hitting too, didn't he He's
he's just a team.

Speaker 4 (57:03):
But you know, Lindor hasn't been Yeah, great, Peter Linza,
are they regretting that deal?

Speaker 2 (57:08):
What did they sign him to? Three hundred and thirty
million or something like that. I think he was second
in the inn l and war last year.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
Well, he's still he still plays a very great He's
still he's still a positive base runner and he hits
home runs. It's not that it's not that he's not good,
it's just you know, when you're talking about Lindor, you're
thinking a guy who's potentially in the MVP conversation.

Speaker 2 (57:29):
But that's that's not the fort with a ops plus
a one to fifteen for Lindor. You know what they're
they're they're similar to.

Speaker 4 (57:39):
They're similar to what we saw with the Yankees, where
there's a lot of talent, there's a lot of high
end ability, but just the whole of the team, it's
just it's just you know, you you watch it and
you can just see it. It's maybe just not there.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
I kind of like though, though, I like when the
Mets and the Yankees lose, so they can just say yeah,
spin spin spin, spin, spend doesn't always translate to wins.

Speaker 4 (57:59):
No oh, and you know you look at I mean
it was a perfect example. You saw this last series
when the Astros were in New York. You know, you
can see what Aaron Judge is that's an incredible talent.
You can see that there's a lot of power in
that lineup and they can hit some home runs. But
you just watch them play, you know, you see them
play full nine innings for three days in a row,

(58:21):
and it's like, okay, that that doesn't look like the crisp,
clean version of baseball that we've seen from what we
know can be a World Series type of team.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Yeah, it feels like they've had bad defense over this
run forever.

Speaker 4 (58:35):
Absolutely, and it's bad defense, and it's a it's a
roster that's oddly constructed. You have a lot of guys
playing maybe maybe not necessarily out of position, but but
not in optimal position.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
Carl was playing in ride field.

Speaker 4 (58:50):
You know, you've had long stretches of Aaron Judge playing
center field.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
For you.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
It's just, you know, when when you're talking about being
the best of the best, that the beating elite teams.
Everybody can hit, everybody can pitch. You've got to be
able to do small things to give yourself an advantage.
And we've seen, you know, we we've seen what those
types of teams look like. And you know, when you
see the Yankees play when we just saw the Yankees
play in you know, in New York last weekend.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
That just wasn't it. Yeah, seven one three two one
two five seven ninety The phone number if you want
to get in seven one three two one two five
seven ninety. We were talking about this lineup and how
the Ash Shows would possibly configure it if they were
fully healthy. We have seen more signs of life from
Christian Walker. We have seen more signs of life from

(59:39):
Jiner Diaz. Let's start there. The home runs have been coming.
He's got seventeen of them. Uh, what exactly do you
think it is that's working for him? And it's it
seems like they they've kind of made a concerted effort,
especially early on accounts for him to take pitches well.

Speaker 4 (59:55):
Pitch selection is the number one most important thing for you.
His swing doesn't often get in bad places. His ability
to put the bat on the ball is, you know,
almost as good as al Tuba from a you know,
I can hit any pitch in any spot type of swing.
But he's got to get himself good pitches to hit

(01:00:17):
in order to do the most damaged right. He's not
a guy who, you know, I want him to go
out there and just spray the ball over. I want
him to go hunt pitches that he can drive. He
is incredibly strong. We saw that home run he hit
the other night. That ball went a long way and
got out in a hurry. And when he gets good
pitches to hit, he's going to be a run producer.
So yeah, it's all about dialing it back just a bit.

(01:00:39):
You're never gonna get He's not going to go out
there and be Eastoc Parades. He's not going to go
out there and have an approach like Alex Bregman, but
especially early in the count, not taking yourself out of
that bats not putting a first pitch in play. That's
a sinker down in a way, not you know, putting
yourself behind in the count because you chase the slider
in the other batter's back. Do thing early to try to,

(01:01:01):
you know, flip the advantage to yourself.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
Yeah, and it's funny you said he's not gonna be
an estock paratus on kind of talked about that. I
remember when we had you when he went down talking
about how the Astros, especially with him out, they're one
of the worst teams in terms of seeing pitches in baseball,
which you know, if you're doing things correctly, it's not
necessarily a bad thing. But I had also heard I
think it was Todd Kallis on a on a broadcast

(01:01:25):
talking about how Yaner sees the fewest amount of strikes
of like any pitcher, any any batter in baseball or
something like that, why would you throw shot? Yeah, it's like, yeah,
it's it's so, how does he improve that? Well, it's it's.

Speaker 4 (01:01:42):
First of all, you have to be yourself, and you
can't go up there and try to be something that
you're not and get overly patient. But you have to
prove to opposing pitchers that you are not going to
chase what they're throwing up there. And it's amazing how
quickly it will shift the other way because pitchers they

(01:02:02):
don't want to get behind in the count either. And
we saw that, we saw this turn in a hurry
with Jeremy Pagne. Remember when Jeremy Paine, you just used
to get slider to death down in a way, they
don't even try it anymore because they know that he's
not going to chase it and they're not going to
waste pitches. If you can prove that you can hit
a pitch or lay off a pitch, pitchers just won't

(01:02:23):
go to it anymore. So really, that's what you know,
trying trying to prove to those pittures that wildly outside
the zone breaking balls are not going to get offered at,
so don't even bother with it, and then it won't
even be a factor.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
Yeah, how did how did Jeremy Penia improve? That? Is it? Just?

Speaker 4 (01:02:42):
I mean, what did you do getting to a place
to where he really trusted his swing. He's got a
very short swing, which means he can easily get to fastballs,
even a high velocity fastball inside a pitch that you
know a lot of hitters struggle to get to.

Speaker 2 (01:02:59):
He can get to it very easily.

Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
His hands stay really tight to his body, and he
can get the barrel inside those pitches. And once he
trusted that he was going to be able to do that,
he no longer has to try to speed up to
get to that pitch. And if you're not speeding up
to get to the fastball, that means you have more
time to see the breaking ball, and if you have
more time to see the breaking ball, you just don't
swing at it all.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Right, Well, it's working for him. He continues his breakout season.
I was wondering how it was going to be when
he came back from injury, but he still continues to
hit at the top of the lineup for your Houston astros.
All right, we are going to take another break here,
bo Get you ready to say you're sorry? You ready
to apologize? Got my list? Okay, you've got a long list,
a laundry list. I appreciate that. All right, you want

(01:03:41):
to apologize, you've done something wrong this week. I know
Jonathan's done something wrong this week, for sure. He's always
You're always blowing up and getting angry at McDonald's workers
and stuff like that. Gotta watch your temper, Jonathan. All right,
So Jonathan's got some apologizing to do. I've got some
apologizing to do. We've got some apologizing to do. Seven

(01:04:02):
one three two one two five seven ninety seven one
three two one two five seven ninety Say you're sorry
next here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Go
ahead and say it. What are you now? I'm sorry?

(01:04:27):
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety is
the phone number. You know what, Jonathan, I should have
told you this earlier can you find that clip of
me trash talking the University of Houston Cougar fan base.
I know you're gonna use it at noon or you
don't have to, but I don't have it right here. Okay, okay,
Oh you're locked and loaded, all right, folks, Right, yeah,

(01:04:48):
I got it. Look to the University of Cougar's fans.
I know you guys haven't won any national championships in basketball,
but seven fours, wow, has a very impressive feat. So
I would like to apologize, especially to the guy who
apparently called extremely angry with me, very upset. I would

(01:05:13):
like to apologize for this. I'm disappointment. But they used
in Cougars.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
As they fail yet again as a final four a
record a whopping seven final fours without.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
A championship victory. Can they do it again?

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
Look?

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
You know if that was rude, and I'm sorry, there
was more.

Speaker 7 (01:05:39):
To that, guys, I said. I want to say how
they choked he getting filed the ball. I just cut
it off with the comedic sake, but just know there
was more.

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
It's Matt's fault. I don't do it. When Matt's not here,
we don't talk. It's his fault. Okay, you know what,
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not I'm sorry for that too.
I'm not taking responsibility for my I'm sorry. Sorry to
Cougar's fans, but not sorry to Matt Shame. That's what
I mean. I thank you. That's why, that's why we
pay you the big bucks. Brian Bogasvic. We bring you

(01:06:11):
in for those types of this type of things. That's
exactly what I would say, like, I don't talk Cougar
smack with literally anyone else in my life. Okay, that's
not true. For the most part, ninety four percent of
it is just because of Matt Thomas, so it's kind
of his fault. But I will take responsibility. I'm sorry,

(01:06:32):
Brian Bogosovic. What are you sorry for? I got I
got two things I'm going with. What's your middle use
your whole full government? Am No, I'm not gonna do that,
Brian Thomas. Brian Thomas, Now, I'm sorry. Go ahead, I'm
sorry for that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:44):
You want you want to you want the Astros related
one or the non ash Let's go non Astros first,
non ass Okay, So I I have two little kids.
I am very I am neck deep in youth sports,
and I enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
I enjoy getting out there with kids. I am with
the teams nine and seven. You said nine and seven,
I was. I was the pitcher and coach pitch this fall, right,
you snapping curves or what? Hey? I had I had
a lot of strikeouts to tell you that.

Speaker 4 (01:07:12):
So so I I'll say, I'll start by saying, I
enjoy it. I like working with the kids. I like
hanging out with the kids. It's good stuff. But to
the parents who are insane, yes, with youth sports, I'm sorry,
but I don't care. I don't care if your ten
year old went eight for nine this weekend, and if

(01:07:33):
they're throwing fifty seven miles an hour. I don't know
if that's good or bad compared to other kids their age.
It doesn't matter, and I don't care. But I'm sorry
that I don't care.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
It isn't It seems like you're not that sorry, though, Yeah,
I'm sorry, No, I am, I am. I am sorry
that I stop listening when you start talking. But hey, great, cool. Okay,
so you have nine and seven is a daughters or

(01:08:05):
my daughter is nine, she's in fourth grade, my son
is seven. Okay, So son's playing baseball, daughter two or
softball or what she does not she is soccer, field, hockey, gym. God,
you're busy. Yeah, you're telling me. Do you ever sleep? No,
especially not this time of year when guys you had

(01:08:28):
post games to go to car pools, putting miles in
the car you're driving. You're driving a big three row van.
I got the three year three row s u V. Yep.
We're loaded on the gallon. That's right, loading up the equipment,
all that stuff. All right, Jonathan, what do you got?

(01:08:51):
I was on sam Houston South yesterday.

Speaker 5 (01:08:54):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:08:54):
Oh, you know where they're building that bridge.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
No, well, that'sought. We were where is it Sam Houston Tollway?
Like the beltway? Yeah, the beltway or on the south side,
on the.

Speaker 7 (01:09:04):
South side weand or something. Yeah, like you know, going
go on to the east side of town, going to
the factories and jazz the Ok. Yeah you're going to
you're going to bring in breathing some chemicals.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, what happened.

Speaker 7 (01:09:17):
I'm the type of guy if you're if one lame
is no, no, no, if one lame is slow, and
I like to calculate, I'm just gonna you know, slightly swervehead,
you know, just very calm, very classy. I don't do
too much. But this particular time, I was in the zone,

(01:09:37):
and I what does that mean?

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
You're in the zone.

Speaker 7 (01:09:42):
You don't you think you're a NASCAR You don't look
at the mirror or anything.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
And I almost, just slightly, almost ran this guy off
the road. I didn't know he was gonna pass because
I thought it was the clear lane. I didn't think
he was gonna take it either. He got there in
the side.

Speaker 7 (01:09:58):
He had a bunch of like glass and everything on
the back of his truck too. He was hauling some
stuff and I got the double bird. He just cussed
me out because they were stopped right next to each
other end traffic. My god, just cussing me out through
the window, and I'm just saying, I look forward and.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
I he roll his window down. Yes he was not
oh wow. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:10:15):
And I just I couldn't come here and not say
sorry to him. I felt really bad. I was in
my zong and I apologized.

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
I learned my lesson. Man, you're right here cutting people off, Jonathan.
You better watch out, man. This is this is Houston, Texas.
You can get shot That's why I learn how to drive.
I thought everybody was in the same page. I hate
people like you. I'm in the slow lane's minding my business.
I'm putting, I'm putting in my time. I'm investing my

(01:10:44):
time in the slow lane. And then you come in
there swerving and cutting people off, and I'm longing to Uh,
I'm gonna come right behind you with the brights. You
know what I do. I get real spiteful with it.
I go, I don't even look like you said you
lock in and you don't look at the mirrors. I
just look at the person's bumper in front of me.
Make sure I don't that. I stay as tight on
that bumper as I can, because ain't nobody cut me off.

(01:11:06):
I'm laughing, aday, Yeah, just lock in on the bumper
because I'm not trying to get cut off. It's I
can be very spiteful like that. I don't try to
let anybody. And then, of course, like the guy in
front of me, let's four people in.

Speaker 4 (01:11:21):
You're you're the traffic regulator. Yes, you're gonna be in
charge of who.

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
Can and can't change. Yes, exactly, I got a sash
on and everything all right, bring up, throwing down cones.
I'm doing everything that I can. It's ridiculous. I swear
we're good people. Both say no, you're not. You said
you blow through those red lights they put when they're
trying to regulate traffic when you're in the on run two.
You know what, I'm sorry. I just don't get you

(01:11:44):
know what. I'm sorry for calling you out and Matt
agree with me. We just went Okay, that's the last
guy you want to agree with you come on man's point.
Sometimes it's the guy in this steals sodas from the
grocery store and said it's all part of the HB TEX.
I'm sorry, rachee Ree, you don't what you do. I'm
just asking them now. I don't. I mean when I

(01:12:05):
was a kid, I would steal grapes. You still I
do not? Yeah, Johnathan does it apparently? Yeah, I'm asking
more about you. You and every day, Jonathan, you wouldn't
matter two peas in a pod. I'm learning more and
more every day. All right, Uh, you said you had

(01:12:27):
a this is an astros related Sorry, yeah, okay, go ahead.
So gosh, this is my seventh year, sixth seventh year covering.

Speaker 4 (01:12:35):
This is that true. Congratulations. First of all, it's it's
a really easy situation, right. You've got a team that's good,
you've got interesting players, there's always stuff happening.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
But you know, every once in a while we run into.

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
A stretch where there's not a whole lot happening, and
our job's difficult. Right, you lose one nothing a couple
of times, there's not a whole lot to talk about
post game, And I often ask Kevin Eschenfelder, like, what
were you guys talking about out in twenty ten and
eleven and twelve when we stunck?

Speaker 2 (01:13:03):
Yes, So I.

Speaker 4 (01:13:05):
Would like to apologize, as somebody who was a part
of those teams to everybody that had to cover us
and try to.

Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
Get content content out of those teams. God we didn't
make Yeah, sorry, that's we I apologize. Yeah. The silver
lining is that that resulted in some pretty good draft picks. Carlos, Yes,
but that had to be rough. We used to have

(01:13:33):
a bit on the show. It was called obligatory Astros
call because nobody would call it and talk about the
Astros we were now, of course, we became the home
of the Astros. Somewhere around then. They were on seven forty.
Then they wanted to kick them off of seven forty
because they were making so much money with their talk radio.
And I'm going to try to find if I have

(01:13:55):
Do I have the original obligatory astros call? Though I
don't have it? Uh, never mind, all right, we'll find it. Yes,
we used to play a bit. All right, guys, we're
gonna play amplicatory astros call, and then we would want
one person the whole show to talk astros. One person
was all we had asked for. I'm surprised you got

(01:14:17):
that one. We would and yeah, they'd be breaking down,
you know, Brian Bogusvik mashing Homers in Colorado.

Speaker 4 (01:14:23):
There was there was literally nothing interesting to talk about
with some.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
Of those teams. It was pretty bad. It was a
lot of what was it at that time, Cooper, some Bullporter,
some Brad Mills mixed in there. Probably just a lot
of complaining. I would imagine, I think I've got I
think I've got some Millsy in here somewhere here we
go that was special. That was special. That was special.

(01:14:48):
These guys battled. He would always say, uh, yeah, Brad Mills,
you guys are losing like one hundred and eleven games. Yeah,
there were battling out there, these guys battles our best.
Are you sure? I doesn't feel like it? You know what?
We accept your apologies. Okay, thank you very much. All right,
if you still want to get into a sorry you
can seven one three two one two five seven ninety.

(01:15:11):
Is the phone number. Seven one three two one two
five seven ninety. Jonathan Allen is bringing us news at noon,
coming up at noon. Jonathan Allen is bringing us news
at noon. Then we'll have Chris Gordy coming up. We've
got Adam Wexer at one o'clock. We got another segment
with Brian bogus Sevic. Anything you guys want to get
to or if you want to say you're sorry, you
can seven one three two one two five seven ninety.

(01:15:35):
All Right, I found it. This is from the era,
well I don't want to call it the Brian bogo
Sevic era. Yeah, shows, that'd be rude, but the era
of early Struggles two thousand and ten ish of the show.
We weren't getting a whole lot of astros calls and
we had to play this. That does make me feel

(01:16:00):
very good. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We won't play that again.
I understand that we had. We've we did obligatory Rockets
calls over the years. I mean they were winning nineteen
twenty games a year for like good solid three four
years there and never got a number one pick out
of the deal. At least the Astros did. They got
the number one Carlos Korea, Bregman of course was two.

(01:16:20):
Was Tucker three or he was top five right after
it was a top five pick. He was because it
was the same year as Bregman, because Bregman was the
comp pick from the year before. So those oh yeah,
Brady Acin saga, Yeah, I forgot about the Brady Agin saga.
What's that guy doing these days? I don't know, but
I think they were right. He had a mini UCL
or whatever. The issue was. All right, well, you know

(01:16:43):
now we don't have to have the obligatory Astros call.
We actually talked some Astros Baseball and we feel good
about it. They're back at action tonight against the Baltimore Orioles. Orioles,
we thank them for taking care of business, winning a
couple of games against the Mariners. It's a one and
a half game lead for the Stros right now. Fromber
Valdez back on the hill. Now, I always defend him

(01:17:05):
on our air because people are like, oh, Fromber's blowing
up and Fromber, you know, and I just don't feel
like he's that guy anymore with the consistency that he's shown.
But the start in Boston. First of all, he's he's
just a butcher in the field. I mean, it kind
of is what it is. And he's also the nature
of a ground ball picture is that when you look

(01:17:26):
locked in and everybody's grounding it to second, in short,
you look like the best picture on the planet. But
when ground balls are bleeding through, when you're getting some
infield hits and they pile up on you, that's that's
when things can kind of go haywire.

Speaker 4 (01:17:40):
For him, you got to have some some real mental
toughness to be a heavy sinker ball pitcher, because just
by the nature of guys putting the ball in play,
sometimes you're going to win and the ball is going
to find some holes and you just have to you know,
He's gotten so good at trusting the fact that if
you just get another one and get another one, eventually
it's going to be a double play. Get out of

(01:18:00):
the situation. Every once in a while, you know, you'll
have a blow up any where, a bunch of them
find holes, or a play doesn't get made, you know,
and you just end up in a tough situation. But no,
the the difference in consistency from a guy who in
whatever twenty nineteen, twenty twenty was really struggling to find

(01:18:20):
a foothold in the big leagues because not because the
stuff wasn't good enough, because he couldn't be consistent enough,
to a guy who now is one of the most
reliable starters in all of baseball. Is it is a
stark contrast, even though you know there'll be an inning
here or there, but it just is what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
Yeah, And last time in New York, it just seemed
like he couldn't find his curve ball.

Speaker 4 (01:18:42):
He couldn't throw it for a strike. That was a fluke. Yeah,
and you're absolutely right. I mean, if you go back
two starts to Washington at home, he got seventeen swings
and misses on his curveball that game.

Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
Just the curveball. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:18:56):
The start in New York, he got one, and I
think it was the last batter that he faced.

Speaker 2 (01:19:01):
Yeah, he struck him out.

Speaker 4 (01:19:02):
So it was just one of those games where you
just didn't have it and when you just when you
don't have your best swing and miss pitch. And he
didn't even get that many ground balls in New York.
It was just a weird game where he didn't have
his best stuff. And if you're talking about a guy
can go out there and still you know, keep you
in a game when he doesn't have anywhere near his
best stuff, you know, not not a terrible result, but

(01:19:24):
that I cannot imagine that will happen again because we haven't.
We haven't seen him not have the curveball at all
for an entire outing.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
Maybe ever. Yeah, And that's that's where I have to
ask you, like, how does that happens just about finding
the release point or what exactly is going on when?
For for that for the entire outing he made it
to the sixth inning and the whole outing he could
not find it. Release point is important for any pitcher,
but but a consistent release point for a guy who

(01:19:55):
pitches in the way fromber does, where everything is based
off of movement, right, It's the movement of the sinker,
it's the shape of the curveball. You've got to be
starting those pitches from the same spot to know where
they're going to end up. And when you see.

Speaker 4 (01:20:09):
The different kinds of misses that we saw, right there
were times when he'd lose it in the back and
it would miss high in on his arm side. We'd
see him yank the curveball. We'd see the fastball take
off straight sideways. It just wasn't coming out of the
same spot every time, and usually it'll take him an
inning or two and he'll eventually find it and dial in.

Speaker 2 (01:20:26):
It just never happened in New York. But you know, we've.

Speaker 4 (01:20:30):
Seen it consistently enough to think that it's not going
to be an issue going start to start.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
Well, I hope it's not. It's been back to back starts,
and you know, would you defend somebody, and I guess
you probably run this into this as well. Bogey. You
make a point on air and you're like, no, it's
a guy, stop worrying about from er And then he
goes out there and has another bad start. You're like, hey, man,
come on, give me some help here.

Speaker 4 (01:20:54):
Yeah, but you know, you can take any player over
the course of his and find a game or two games,
or a start or a stretch of starts where it's like, oh,
what's going on here. It's just the way that if
if somebody was completely locked in thirty five stars to
the course of the season, they would run away and

(01:21:14):
be a unanimous sy Young winner. And that doesn't happen.
So you know, you work through things and you trust
the fact that a guy who's been, you know, the
most consistent guy over the course of the last four
seasons will continue to be.

Speaker 2 (01:21:27):
So if you, yeah, three seasons top ten in the
Cy Young voting, I don't know where he's going to
finish this year, but probably top ten again. If you
finish top ten cy Young for four years, that's uh,
that's I would say that's consistent.

Speaker 4 (01:21:41):
No, absolutely, And you know there are a lot of guys.
If you look at Baseball reference pages of players, you'll
see guys who kind of float in and out of
that top tier of hitter or pitcher or whatever it is.
Guy who guys who will be they'll have a top
three MVP finish and then you won't kind of see
it pop up for another couple of years, and then
they'll be in and out and they have some down

(01:22:01):
when when you consistently are in that mix when you
don't have down years. To me, that's really what makes
the best of the best is who who can be
that good the most consistently.

Speaker 2 (01:22:12):
And that brings us to actually just reminded me. I
have a bet with one Matthew Thomas. I won't tell
you what side him on. We have the over under
of Fromber years of his contract at five.

Speaker 4 (01:22:30):
I will say over because I think he is going
to be in very high demand. Obviously he has the
high end production.

Speaker 2 (01:22:39):
He's right, but he was. He's a year a little
bit young, yea one or two years younger. And but
Fromber has no injury history. He's a guy who eats innings,
which you know, there aren't a lot of those guys anymore.
You know, the style of pitching, the groundball heavy nature
of his pitching, that ten to age, well, you know,

(01:23:01):
even if he loses a couple of miles an hour,
he's still got that sinker. I think there are going
to be a lot of teams in the bidding and
that will always drive it out. And while we're here,
we also have a bet on Kyle Tucker seven and
a half. I do have the over when I was
feeling super confident at start of the season. I'm feeling
a little less confident now. No, I think he'll get it.
I think just you know, there's there's few guys left

(01:23:23):
who fall into that category of being able to get
those really long term deals. You know, you've got to
get up at a certain age to be eligible for
free agency that early, and Tucker falls into that to
where he's still young enough to where you know, the
first five years of any contract are going to be
what are considered prime years of your career, and then
you tack on a couple on the backside. I don't

(01:23:46):
think he'll I don't think he'll struggle to find eight
years litlemore and last thing before we get you out,
appreciate you hanging out. Christian Havier are starting this weekend.
Would you see from him his first start was he
he need to continue to do?

Speaker 4 (01:24:01):
I think that the thing that I was most encouraged
by was he looked more comfortable and he looked stronger
at the end than the beginning. You know, that's typically
the thing you're most worried about with somebody who's had
a long layoff hasn't been built back, is are they
gonna come out here and look really good for an
inning or two and then the stuff falls off and

(01:24:21):
then then you have to worry about Okay, this is
going to take some time for him to get back
to it. His struggles came just getting its feet underneath
him the first couple hitters, and once he did, the
velocity held throughout the course of the outing. He got
a better feel for his breaking balls as it went on.
So I think that was a really encouraging thing. And
you know, like we've seen over the years with Javier,

(01:24:42):
if he can go out there and throw his fastball
in the strike zone in predictable situations and win with it,
get mishits, get foul balls, get swings and misses when
hitters are looking for fastballs, he's gonna be fine.

Speaker 2 (01:24:55):
All right, I'm feeling encouraged, that is Brian Bogus Sevic Bogie,
thanks for hanging out for a couple hours. We appreciate you.
Thanks for having me on. Matt Thomas gets a lot
of vacation, so well, I'll continue to bother you. Get
you in here, yeah, matsco. Matt's got a busy schedule.
That's okay. We appreciate it. So thanks for hanging out.
Thanks to him, we are going to take a quick
Top of the Hour break here on Sports Talk seven

(01:25:17):
ninety hour Number three is coming your way. We're gonna
have the news at noon. Chris Corey is going to
join as well Adam Wexer at one o'clock. And you
guys on the phones if you want to get in.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety is
the phone number seven one three two one two five
seven nights The Matt.

Speaker 1 (01:25:32):
Thomas Show with Ross. But that up hippion ship victory?
Can they do it again?

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
Look? If we let Ross go today, it won't be
a huge See you're trying to get me in trouble
with the coops fans again. I see you work. I
don't know how to have some much spite for you
at it this morning. Oh man, it's just a bit

(01:26:10):
folks like I literally don't. Look. I haven't brought up
to cougars once outside of well playing those bits. Anyways.
It is our number three of the Mad Thomas Show
with Ross. No Mad Thomas. He will be back Monday.
He is volleyball dadding in Austin. Chris Gordy will join
us in the next segment, we got Adam Wexer coming

(01:26:31):
up at one o'clock. We got you at seven one three,
two one two, five, seven ninety and now we have
Jonathan Allen with the News at noon. All Right, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, Jonathan.
I don't know, hey, just hear this music. It's like
a path Lollian response. I started do with this voice. Sorry,

(01:26:52):
go ahead, that's uh, that's your job to do the
reporter voice. We're gonna bring you the news at NOWS.
Miss Speakeey, what do you have on the sidelines? Sorry,
go ahead. Yeah, I just want to start off, and
a lot of people might be confused about what's going
down over there in Michigan and with the instable, I'm

(01:27:12):
very confused. So what I have right here is that
INSTABA imposed a significant fine exceeding twenty million dollars twenty
million dollars.

Speaker 7 (01:27:21):
For the lost preseason football revenue of the next two seasons.

Speaker 2 (01:27:24):
This comes as a.

Speaker 7 (01:27:25):
Part of its sanctions following an investigation into alleged sigin
stealing scheme involving former Wolverine stafford Connor Stalins. Jim Harbaugh,
who said as the head coach at the time will
receive a show cause for ten years.

Speaker 2 (01:27:38):
Thalands will have for eight years. Show cause.

Speaker 7 (01:27:41):
Penalties for the coach sharing More include a two year
show cause order during which he.

Speaker 2 (01:27:47):
Is suspended for three games.

Speaker 7 (01:27:49):
That includes a self imposed two games suspension in addition
for the first game of the twenty twenty six season.
More Michigan's Week three matchup against Central Michigan and the
Week four Big Ten opener against Nebraska. But we'll be
able to coach in Week two against Oklahoma said it

(01:28:09):
sounds like a stop on the risk.

Speaker 2 (01:28:11):
I mean, well, twenty million dollars is I guess significant?
Or it says the report I'm reading said it could
be at least thirty million dollars. But man, I uh,
it's not much. And honestly, I kind of I don't
know how much I care about this. How much of

(01:28:31):
an advantage was gained? Do you think it was a ton?
I don't think it will.

Speaker 7 (01:28:35):
I mean, yeah, they won, but and it's almost like
how we talk about the Astros and how that all
went down with the Ashros.

Speaker 2 (01:28:42):
Everybody else is doing that Michigan had the flow up. Yeah,
you know what, I'm just gonna plead ignorance on this. Actually,
maybe I'm honestly not remembering hold the whole details of
the Connor Stallions thing.

Speaker 7 (01:28:54):
But at the end of the day, it's not our
show down here over here, big twelve sec you know
what I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
Heay, We're not worried about those these uh Michigan grifters,
all right, Well, thirty million dollars at least or twenty
to thirty million dollars. It sounds like for Michigan, no
significant ban. Although Jim Harbaugh cannot go back to coach
in the NC DOUBLEA will show cause means what do
you you You have to Let's say program X wants

(01:29:21):
to sign Jim Harbaugh as their head coach, they have
to like prove to the NC DOUBLEA why it's okay
for them to do that or something like that. What
exactly does show cause mean something like that? Right?

Speaker 7 (01:29:34):
That is That's what I had under assumption. But as
well as it's a.

Speaker 2 (01:29:38):
BA is what Google says, it requires an institution to
explain why it should not be penalized for employing a
coach who has been found to have committed major recruiting
of violations. It's almost like a court case this for him, Well,
it's not recruiting violations. This would be a show cause
penalty for obviously this this whole cheating scandal thing. Huh interesting.
Jim Harball's got a coach. Two things. Jim Harball loves

(01:30:01):
to coach. But Jim Harball's act where's thin wherever he is?
It happened in San Francisco, it happened in Michigan. I
wonder how long it's going to take for it to
happen with the Los Angeles Chargers. All right, what else
do you have, mister Allen? I just found this right now.
Earlier today, Houston Texans has a fourth player to make

(01:30:22):
the top one hundred list, being wide receiver, wide receiver,
excuse me, Nico Collins being number thirty two over certain
athletes such as Ceedee Lamb, Tyersfield and Mike Evans. Wow
now head of Evans. I would put him there now,
Tyreek Hill for sure, ahead of Cede Lamb, big doctatus.
Now that's wow as And this is of course voted

(01:30:44):
on by his peers fellow NFL players.

Speaker 7 (01:30:49):
Do you think that means more or less if it's
voted by the players or the coaches?

Speaker 2 (01:30:53):
Now, I don't know how the voting does. Now, this
is the thing everybody's like, no players should vote, they
know more. Yeah, but the players have you heard some
of these players talk? Have you have you heard Kendrick
Perkins on ESPN? Do you think that guy's really breaking
down basketball? And like, nobody's business. That's number one, there's
no guarantee that the players are going to give you
great analysis. And number two, the players have their own biases, right,

(01:31:17):
Like I think it was into the player voting last year.
What was it. It was like all these bit players
were getting like first team All NBA votes or All
Star votes or something like that. I think it's the
All Star game that the players have a portion of
the vote. I think it's fan vote, media vote, and
player vote. And they were like guys that had no

(01:31:39):
business being All Stars getting voted as All Stars by
their players. So they either A not taking it seriously
or B showing a lot of bias. So in theory,
it should mean more to get this respect from your
peers for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:31:54):
Just sticking on the Texans right now, going to ESPN
and looking at it, they have all the team's ranked
at their ceiling and floor.

Speaker 2 (01:32:02):
Ceiling and floor.

Speaker 7 (01:32:03):
Okay, so they have Houston Texas their ceiling as what
they have right now eleven and six and the floor
being six and eleven. The biggest X factor, obviously we know,
is the offensive line.

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
There's no way they're going six and eleven unless literally
CJ shrouded. That's what I was.

Speaker 7 (01:32:20):
That's why I wanted to bring this up. I was like,
that's I want to say, a dispectful.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
Yeah, but I mean it is a first place schedule
that is going to be tougher for them. But hmm yeah, okay,
And what they say for a ceiling eleven and six,
I could see them winning like twelve games as they
go crazy and get lucky and the offensive line gels

(01:32:47):
and Arianta Ursery establishes himself as a true great tackle
and depending on what happens of him getting moved to
the left side or something like that, Nah, maybe it's
eleven twelve, probably Max. So I guess that's that's a
quibble more than anything. Okay, Ah, buy with ESPN. Sound there.
Yeah you got anything from us? I know I don't
have anything for you. Actually, we're gonna take a quick

(01:33:07):
break because we have to get to we have to
get to Chris Gordy for his Friday hit on The
Matt Thomas Show with Ross. We've got Adam Wexer coming
up one o'clock. You guys want to get in talk
about anything you can. Seven one three two one two
five seven ninety is the phone number seven one three
two one two five seven nine twelve twenty the PM
here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Welcome back to The

(01:33:30):
Matt Thomas Show with Ross Without Matt Thomas. Appreciate Brian
bogus Sevic hanging out for the first couple of hours.
We got Adam Wexer coming in at one oh clock
and right now for our weekly Friday hit. Uh, mister
Chris Gordy. Actually we are going to talk some astros
in a second, But can you explain this whole Michigan

(01:33:52):
thing to me? Like I'm five, sounds like a slapping
on the risk. Can you say a twenty to thirty
million dollars fine is a slap on the wrist. Yeah,
it's It's pretty much.

Speaker 8 (01:34:01):
I mean, this is the whole Remember they even did
a Netflix documentary on at the Connor Stallions teaving scandal,
sign stealing and all that, and Nancy.

Speaker 2 (01:34:11):
And I forget the ins and outs of it. What
exactly he was going to He was getting a videotaping
line sign.

Speaker 8 (01:34:18):
Okay, well, like they had video of him on the sideline,
like for future opponents of Michigan, like on their sideline
with a head headset in like trying to relay the
sign or you know, like learn, I guess learn. And
then yeah, he'd buy a ticket to a game, go
sit in the stands and have his camera out recording

(01:34:40):
them really signs, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:34:42):
So it's just like and it just so happens.

Speaker 8 (01:34:45):
That's the one year Michigan won the national championship.

Speaker 2 (01:34:49):
All the other years of mediocrity.

Speaker 8 (01:34:51):
So and yeah, I mean most everybody's looking at it,
going slap on the wrist. The weird thing is, so
I didn't know there's Michigan's self imp posed a two
game suspension for Sharon Moore, their.

Speaker 2 (01:35:03):
Head coach this season.

Speaker 8 (01:35:04):
They're going to do it week three and week four. Now,
Week three, I think as they play Central Michigan or something.
Week four is at Nebraska, so that's a tough game.
But conveniently they skip over the game at Oklahoma week two,
which is one of their big non conference games. But
then they come out and say that they're gonna say
that Sharon Moore is expect has accepted an additional one

(01:35:25):
game suspension. So I'm thinking, okay, maybe that's their opener
against that New Mexico New Mexico. No, they said that
will be enforced in twenty twenty six. What so next
year it's just this whole thing and then the twenty
million dollars very partial.

Speaker 2 (01:35:38):
Twenty million dollars.

Speaker 8 (01:35:39):
Fine, it's a lot of money for any for anybody else,
but for a school. I mean, look, they just had
the CEO of Oracle paid Bryce Underwood, the top recruit,
you know whatever, it is, seventeen million to come play
football there. So everybody's like, no harm, no fault, Like
what what other college program out there would go? You
know what, I'll pick twenty million dollars to get away

(01:36:01):
with cheating if it costs, if it got us a championship.

Speaker 2 (01:36:05):
So if he's videotaping signals like with his phone, I
get that sounds bad, but you're you're saying he was
plugging into like opposing team's headsets somehow and listen.

Speaker 8 (01:36:16):
No, no, no, But they had video of him on
on the sideline with like a headset and like like
just conveniently like standing behind.

Speaker 2 (01:36:24):
I don't like I was doing this.

Speaker 8 (01:36:25):
It's like, how do you even get on the field
and nobody sees that guy doesn't belong here?

Speaker 2 (01:36:30):
Interesting? Okay, well I guess I'd have to dig in
more than this to figure out how much we an
advantage we thought was gained. What do people like other
coaches and stuff say about how much of an advantage
was gained by this whole cheating thing with with Connor Stallions.

Speaker 8 (01:36:44):
Uh well, one of the coaches came out I forgot
who it was remember at the time, and said, we
knew they were doing it, so we changed up our
signs again, kind of like the Astros thing, like you
just change up your signs.

Speaker 2 (01:36:55):
There was no advantage there, but but yes, the Dodgers did,
and I don't know.

Speaker 8 (01:37:00):
I mean, you go back to that season, Michigan played
Michigan played absolutely nobody in the in the in the
non conference that year. So basically what happened was Texas
beat Alabama and then Alabama beat Georgia in the SEC
championship game. I still thought Georgia deserved to be in
because that was their lone loss of the season, but

(01:37:22):
they were like, no, Bama beat beat Georgia, so they
have to be in. And then they're like, oh, but
we have to put Texas in too, because Texas beat Alabama.
So not Georgia out, but Michigan. I mean, they didn't
even have a rank. They didn't even play a ranked
opponent until November.

Speaker 2 (01:37:37):
Yeah, I forgot about that. They beat penn State.

Speaker 8 (01:37:40):
They beat Ohio State, and then they beat Iowa in
the Big Ten title game, and then they beat Alabama
in overtime, and then they beat an overrated Washington.

Speaker 2 (01:37:50):
Team in the kay Washington was tough, man. You're in Houston,
Michael Pennix, Ramadonsay, whatever other wide receivers they had. Were
you at that game? Yes?

Speaker 5 (01:38:00):
I was.

Speaker 2 (01:38:01):
Thanks for bringing it up. What happened?

Speaker 5 (01:38:04):
Quen?

Speaker 2 (01:38:04):
You weers couldn't Quinn? You weers couldn't throw Mitchell.

Speaker 8 (01:38:07):
I'm talking about the championship game here I remember. Oh No,
I wasn't at the championship game.

Speaker 2 (01:38:11):
I was at the I was at the Sugar Bowl
when Texas lost to Washington. I was on the field.
That's right. Did we did I see you that weekend?
I think we tried. I think we tried to, but
you were busy and I was busy. We were We
just it didn't work out. That's okay, all right. Anyway,
that's fairly accurate Astros taking on the Orioles. We all

(01:38:34):
like to tip our cap to the Orioles for winning
the last two games of their series against the Mariners.
So now they're a game and a half up. They
are in town this weekend. From er Valdez on the
Hill we were talking about with Bogie, feels like I
just couldn't find his curve ball in his last start.
Before that, he was getting a lot of bleeders in
some soft contact. So hopefully a bounce back start for
Frommer on the Hill tonight against the Baltimore Orioles.

Speaker 8 (01:38:57):
Well, and related across town, Lance mccullars Junior will be
on the Mountain tonight and sugar Land.

Speaker 2 (01:39:03):
That's true, he'll be watching that with baited breath.

Speaker 8 (01:39:06):
Hence mccullars beginning a rehabit silent with the Space Cowboys tonight.
That was a man that would have must have been
one of the nastiest blisters you've ever seen.

Speaker 2 (01:39:14):
No, come on, guys have had blister issues before. Of course,
we had never heard about it. I get a blister.
You're not a pitcher, Okay, you're not a pitcher spinning
a baseball with the seams off of your finger. So
hopefully he's all right. And look, even if they made

(01:39:35):
it up and he needed a breather, I'm okay with
that too. Yeah, if they made it up and he
just needs a couple of extra starts to try to
get himself right, I'm okay with that. Because he started
to round into form a little bit. He had back
to back quality starts and then he had like a
five inning, two or three run ball or something like that,
and then he had the mishap in the weight room,
and then he came back and he was out of

(01:39:55):
a rhythm again. I think in full rhythm he can
at least be a four or five guy.

Speaker 8 (01:40:00):
Did you see what JP France did last night? I
did not seven strikeouts, like four innings of work.

Speaker 2 (01:40:06):
That's good.

Speaker 8 (01:40:07):
I gave up a couple of runs, but still like
his swing and miss stuff is there again. I'd like
to see him come back in some kind of.

Speaker 2 (01:40:17):
You and your Louisiana boys, are your your JP Franz
fan number one?

Speaker 8 (01:40:21):
No, I just want him and Luis Garcia back to
give you some I mean, you get you have so
many options at that point.

Speaker 2 (01:40:26):
Yeah, somebody's gonna have to go to the bullpen. Luis
Garcia makes sense because he's been out of the bullpen before.
I think you put both of them in there, and
he has good swing and miss.

Speaker 8 (01:40:34):
The way Jason Alexander's pitcher right now, and then if
Brandon Walter comes.

Speaker 2 (01:40:37):
Back, Jason Alexander does have options. I feel like it's
been a couple of good starts, but we have to
be realistic that he was dfaed from the AS so
I don't know how long he's going to keep this up.
But you ride that wave. Yeah, you ride the wave
as long as you can.

Speaker 8 (01:40:49):
The Colton Gordon one hit a wall though he was
he was doing okay, and then it like the wheels
came off.

Speaker 2 (01:40:56):
And then Brandon Walter of the the Gordon Gusto Walter Triumvirate.
He Walter looked the best. He was getting like legit
swing and miss. Yeah, like all of his like you know,
field independed pitching numbers are really good. Well, striking out
to walk ratio was good, like he was like you
were looking like man who might have found something with
Brandon Walter. Then he goes down with the inflammation, and

(01:41:18):
then now he's, uh, he's throwing sides. I think as
the latest from Brandon Walter. So at least he's throwing.
Where did Gusto go? Which trade was he? He was
the Sanchez trade of the Monitami? Right?

Speaker 8 (01:41:31):
I think probably you're probably right. Yeah, but you're right
about Fromber in May. I mean, this is what Frombert's done.
In May he had an ERA of two thirty six.
In June he had in the area of one seventy four.
In July he had an the ARA of two sixteen,
and through two starts so far in August in the
area of six ninety four.

Speaker 2 (01:41:51):
The last two outings have not been good for Fromber.

Speaker 8 (01:41:54):
Yeah, so he has got to he's got to find
a way to uh to bounce back tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:42:00):
I think that's not very good. You heard it here.
For now they've had some good hitters, but yeah, you
heard it here. First quality start from Fromber? What's up
Ryan Gusto? One start from Miami on August ninth, Six innings,
three earned runs, solid, four hits, a couple of walks,
eight strikeouts.

Speaker 8 (01:42:17):
Oh, I'm just looking at seeing Hunter Brown slated to
go Tuesday in Detroit. Hunter Brown back in Detroit. Yeah,
I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good about that's on TV
game by the way. All right, so these five forty
first pitches?

Speaker 2 (01:42:33):
Oh I like that? What do you mean? Well? You
like it for post gaming? Yes, I'm on Monday and
Tuesday postgame. What's up? I'll let you boy, like I
just I envisioned people.

Speaker 8 (01:42:41):
You're sitting in traffic on I ten getting out of
work and it's like, here we go, first pitch.

Speaker 2 (01:42:47):
Yeah, from Detroit, exactly. All right, So, uh, big weekend
set for the as shows we mentioned fromber Jason Alexander
on Sunday, Christian Javier, excuse me on Saturday for Jason Alexander.
Christian here on Sunday, Gordy, how we feeling about the
series and what are we pairing with the series this weekend?

Speaker 8 (01:43:06):
Well, that's the best part of being at home, continuous
homestand as you get to drink.

Speaker 2 (01:43:10):
The Crawford box from our friends at Carbock Burning but.

Speaker 8 (01:43:12):
Right here in Houston, Texas, served all over the ballpark
there at dyke In Park. Grab you a Crawford Bock.
I was at the game. Was it last week or
week before last? Last home stand? I was there and
I saw some people guzzling down some Crawford Box and
it made me made me feel all tingly inside. And
the Astros won that game, by the way, So most
of the time when when I see people drink your
Crawford bok at leads started Astros win. So grab yourself

(01:43:35):
at Crawford Box tonight, ice cold refreshment there at Dyke
and Park and let's ride on the Astros.

Speaker 2 (01:43:41):
All right, there you go, Chris Gordy, appreciate the time.
We got Adam Wexer coming up at one o'clock. Anything
you guys want to get to talk about what we're
talking about? How we feeling about this weekend? I say
the Astros are a game and a half ahead of
the Mariners. How confident are we? Especially with the latest
hit coming that Josh Hater sounds like he's going to
miss extended time. Seven one three two one two five

(01:44:03):
seven ninety is the phone number if you want to
get in. Seven one three two one two five seven nighty.
All right, swear back with you. Welcome Matt Thomas Show
with Ross without Matt Thomas. He is out in Austin, Texas,
flying solo for a couple segments till Adam Weser gets here,

(01:44:24):
so you can get in if you'd like it. Seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven one
three two one two five seven ninety. Of course we've
been talking some astros baseball. You have the Texans and
some joint practices with the UH with the Carolina Panthers,
or at least they were yesterday. And also let's see

(01:44:47):
Jonathan Allen. Ascuse me. Jonathan Alexander. Allen is the producer.
Jonathan Alexander is the Texans reporter. Interesting from him, he
put out a list of the Texans running BA and
the way that he has the hierarchy right now, he
has automatic guys. Of course, this is with Joe Mixon

(01:45:09):
on the non football injury list, Dario Ogumbowale and what
he marks he has as in so automatic bids. He
did this like basically NCAA tournament style automatic bids. Marx
and a Goombawale. He's got Pierce and Chubb in and
that'll be four running backs. So what happens when Joe

(01:45:32):
Mixon comes back? I think one of Pierce and Chubb,
it feels like might be gone and you can just
do a toss up and figure out which one of
those it's going to be. So that'll be interesting to
watch for the Houston Texans as they figure out what's
going on with their running back situation. They will be
taking on the Carolina Panthers in a preseason game coming

(01:45:56):
up here tomorrow at noon at in RG Stadium and
the Texans, and the next week we'll close things out
from a preseason perspective against the Lions, and then we're
getting closer and closer, folks, training camps, joint practices, preseason,
Houston Texans getting ready to get the season going here.
And I'm gonna be honest, it feels kind of like

(01:46:19):
right now ten and seven Division round ish, which has
been the last couple of years. But hey, beats having
the root for Davis Mills every single week and and
the fan base buying into that guy being a good quarterback.
All right, Seven one three two one two five seven
ninety is the phone number if you want to get in.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety. Christian
go ahead now, hurry.

Speaker 9 (01:46:46):
And Jonathan Allen, Hey, I apologize. I apologize for calling
on back to that day. I forgive you when it
comes Hey, yeah, I understand. But still though, I got
a couple of things to talk about when it comes
down to the fact that well, actually, no, actually really

(01:47:07):
got one thing to talk about, because we all know
we're gonna talk about the Astros confidence level over the Orioles.
They're gonna crush them. But when it comes down to
Major League Baseball and the fact that they got, you know,
a possible television deal coming up at the end of
the season because ESPN's done after this year, does the

(01:47:28):
seven point seven billion, seven year deal that the UFC
just signed with Paramount and CBS to be I mean,
make any indication that major League Baseball should have a
big time deal in that same vein or will it
be a little bit different because nobody cares about baseball

(01:47:49):
except for those who actually follow it.

Speaker 2 (01:47:52):
Yeah, I don't know how much that factors in. Christian
I appreciate you you getting in, but I thing I read,
and I'm not the hugest UFC fan, So if you
want to correct me on anything I say at Sports
RV or call in or whatever, But things that I
read were Basically, this is a huge gamble of a

(01:48:14):
deal from Paramount Plus and CBS to make this seven
point seven billion dollar deal over seven years, because I
think somebody posted like the Paramount company like itself is
worth like seven billion dollars, So this is a big
gamble from them, a surprise like you know, a lot

(01:48:37):
of articles I read calling it a bombshale deal, a
surprise deal like out of left field, and a lot
of money. I don't know how much that's going to
reset the market for other entities. We know that ESPN
and Major League Baseball were at odds, but then they
said they were going to renegotiate, So I don't know
what's happening with that. Big things are happening with the
NBA right now. If you had not heard the right

(01:49:00):
schedule coming out, I think it's twenty eight nationally broadcast games.
See I can't call them national TV games when a
lot of them are just on streaming services, but or
I guess I could, but it doesn't matter. It just
feels a little bit differently with when something's just on
Peacock or just on Amazon Prime or whatever. So what's

(01:49:23):
going to happen with Major League Baseball. I don't know,
but it seems like revenues continue to go up and
up and up. I think they've done a pretty good
job with the interest of the league. I think ticket
sales are up a lot of the tinkering that Rob
Manford has done that people hated with the extra man
on base and the tenth with the pitch clock and
stuff like that. Like, things are progressing in a right

(01:49:45):
direction for baseball, and I think it's gonna be cool
when they add the challenge to them next year as well.
So I don't know exactly what bearing that will have,
because baseball can you know, demand, Like, hey, UFC got
this amount of money, can we get to anywhere close
to that? It also is a bit of apples and oranges.
You're talking about a singular in house fight card entity

(01:50:07):
that's putting on cards. I don't know what do they
have pay per view, maybe once a month, fight nights
every couple of weeks, stuff like that. It's different from
from baseball and whatever kind of package they're going to
try to sell to to whatever streaming services. So I'm
not sure what bearing it is. But most everything I
read was that that UFC deal was a massive overpay

(01:50:28):
by paramount and really a huge gamble because I don't know.
It did feel like there was a bit of a
UFC explosion for a few years. The year's there and
it's tempered off somewhat. But again, I will tell you,
I haven't been combing through pay per view by numbers.
I don't know exactly what it is. It's something that
I'm casually interested in. You know, my brother's a big

(01:50:49):
UFC fan and be like, hey, fight to night. Okay, yeah,
I'll go watch some guys beat the hell out of
each other. It's good stuff, but it's not something that
I very very much am in tune with. But it
was a huge deal. Great for them and Dana White
for getting all this money, and I guess we'll we'll

(01:51:09):
see how pans out. Seven years, seven point seven billion
dollar deal. That is pretty huge for for the MMA
conglomerate that is the UFC. All right, we're gonna take
quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross
without Matt Thomas. You guys want to get in. We've
been talking some strows. You got the series The Orioles

(01:51:30):
this weekend. Anything you'll want to get to it is
and anything goes Friday. As you just heard from Christian
and Lamark. Seven one three two one two five seven
ninety is the phone number. Seven one three two one
two five seven ninety. Adam Weuck's are coming up at
one o'clock. We are with you until two o'clock here
on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas,

(01:51:51):
twelve forty seven pm. Here on Sports Talk seven ninety
Ross vi Aria with you. Adam Weks are coming up
one o'clock. Appreciate our previous guests or helpers. Brian Bogosvic
hanging out for a couple hours, Chris Gordy joining, Jonathan
Allen's been helping the entire show. Appreciate him. You guys
who have got in, I appreciate you. Anybody that wants

(01:52:13):
to get in you can at seven to one three
two one two five seven ninety seven one three two
one two five seven ninety. So we've been talking what
a lot of astros, little Texans, some other stuff going on.
Saw this story and we kind of mentioned this earlier
this week talking about was it Michael Porter Junior who

(01:52:35):
was on a podcast talking about how it makes sense
to get your boys the bag and have them tell
them you're gonna go under on a prop bed and
have them bet ten thousand dollars. But we're like, there's
guardrails in place if if if a DraftKings sees that
a bunch of people who have never bet in the
either a never bet in their lives or be normally

(01:52:56):
bet like five ten bucks are betting ten thousand dollars
on a Michael Porter Junior under at going to set
off alarm bells. They literally have software that monitors irregular
activity like that. And of course, Michael Porter Junior's younger brother,
Johntay Porter was banned for life for the NBA for

(01:53:22):
being involved in a scheme like that at the time
playing for the Toronto Raptors on a two way contract.
So we know what the problem is. Apparently the NBA
and the Players Union are looking for solutions. They are
wanting to limit the amount that people can bet on

(01:53:45):
prop bets. You were talking about this, yes was it
was it yesterday? We were talking about this, Yeah, Johnathan,
I was just asking why don't they do that? Yeah,
so they do limit to a certain extent, like you
can't go and bet a million dollars on you know,
Johntay Porter's unders or something like that. They're not going
to accept that bat. That's gonna raise some red flags
as well, unless sure, a guy who normally shows up
and bets that kind of money. Do you know they

(01:54:06):
have what they call beards actually, so like really good,
great sharp betters. A lot of times they get caught
off by sports books in Vegas. So what they do,
and famously Billy Walter did this. There was another guy
named Horolus Valgaras who was working who was a famous
NBA better. He would pay celebrities or people who bet

(01:54:29):
a lot or famous to go to the window and
bet ten thousand dollars like for example, this guy Horlabus Valgaras,
who now owns he made a bunch of He made
millions and millions of dollars betting NBA. Everybody cut him off,
so we had to find what you call beards, guys
that'll make your bets for you. And then he was
in the front office with Mark Cuban and the Dallas

(01:54:51):
Mavericks for a little while. Now he owns a soccer team.
He told a story about how he used to give
Floyd Mayweather the bets and Floyd Mayweather'd be like, I
want to bet the other side. Then he'd be like, okay, well, okay,
I'll bet the other side with you, and Floyd's like, no,
I don't want to bet you. You never lose anyways,
so he would give guy like Phil Micholson was a

(01:55:11):
beard for a guy named Billy Walter that got them
involved in a whole thing with a I think it
was like a stock malake, a stock manipulation scheme as well.
But Phil Micholson known as a big gambler, the sports
books knows that he's a big better and he would
go and make bets on behalf of Billy Walter without

(01:55:31):
the book knowing, so that Billy Walter could go make
his money. Anyways. The point is these casinos, in these
sports books, they limit people, they don't like winners, and
they keep an eye on all this type of stuff.
But apparently now the NBA is asking its partner sports

(01:55:51):
books to stop allowing betters to wager on the under
on prop bets involving players on two wave contracts. At
the time, Jeante Porter was on a two way contract,
and they're trying to protect the integrity of the Game
Players Association says that the Porter situation was an outlier.
They do not believe widespread manipulation exists in the league,

(01:56:14):
and I tend to believe them too. Like I said,
unless it's like ten of your friends making like fifty bucks,
anything else is going to be it's going to set
off alarm bells at these sports books. Ohio and New
Jersey are also trying to prohibit certain sports bets. We
talked about what was the Manuel clause, and then there
was another Luis Ortiz or something like that. Another picture

(01:56:36):
with the Guardians where they called the micro bet where
only thing you're betting is first pitch strike or ball,
which these books are the ones that want to take
your money and everything and put it out there and
then if you win. Oh now, of course, protecting the
integrity of the league is important in paramount, but I
just thinking limiting people who actually win is a far

(01:57:00):
But I digress. So they're trying to limit making these
micro bets, so betting like first pitch ball which players
can control, or first pitch strike. Stuff like that. That's
happened in baseball, and there are obviously issues across leagues.

(01:57:21):
NFL has had a couple of problems Major League Baseball NBA.
I don't know if there's been any sort of NHL
scandal because I don't really pay attention to that, but
I really didn't think this was going to be an issue,
and I guess it's been kind of a smaller issue
some guy on a two way contract, Terry Rozier, Malik
Beasley where they were investigated, but I don't think either
of them have been charged with a crime. But I

(01:57:44):
just figured these players would be smart enough to not
think that they could get away with this. So I
wonder if this is enough of an example is being
made from these players and these lifetime bands have been
put against some of these investigations getting launched to kind
of deter this type of behavior, or if more more

(01:58:06):
measures need to be put in place, which apparently the
NBA and the NBA Players Union has recommended that they
put some more limits on these bets and they do
away with some of the smaller bets.

Speaker 7 (01:58:17):
I mean, but I feel like it's such a big
makes so much money now for the league and just
for the sports books in general.

Speaker 2 (01:58:24):
Why should they do that? Like why should they just listen?
Like I don't understand that, Why should he explain why
should why should the sports books listen to the recommendations
of the NBA, because it's like, why would we? I
guess it'd be interesting if they want to in partnerships
or something like that. I mean the NBA, it's funny.
Especially the NFL really makes me laugh. Ten twelve years ago,

(01:58:45):
there was Tony Romo, Cowboys quarterback, was hosting like a
fantasy football thing in Vegas and that got shut down
because anything involving gambling was completely radioactive with the NFL. Now,
once the sports books got lead lies across the country.

Speaker 10 (01:59:01):
They're taking every DraftKings, every FanDuel, every MGM. Can you
watch five seconds of one NFL game or or one
spot break without seeing something about gambling and eph everywhere?

Speaker 3 (01:59:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:59:15):
By the way, I call one eight hundred gambler if
you have a gambling problem. But anyways, if you have it.
But guess what, if you have a gambling problem, these
books don't They don't cut you off. If you have
somebody that's losing bet after bet after better bet and
they're going thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in debt,
they don't cut you off. But if you're winning thousands
and thousands and thousands of dollars. Guess what they do.
We've limited anor you can bet, and then you've got

(01:59:36):
to make accounts, and there's guys who have to do
like open up VPNs. There's a whole other that's a
whole nother ball of wax. But anyways, it's just kind
of funny to me, the hypocrisy of wanting to keep
the integrity of the game. And I guess, as I said,
because the players make so much money, I did not
think that this would be that big of a problem.
But also you got guys like on two week contracts

(01:59:58):
who aren't huge stars, who also want to make some
money for their friends. But they're they're learning, they're learning quick.
It's a little bit more difficult than you would expect
to get away with because these books don't play with
their money. There's a reason they keep building these casinos.
There's a reason these sportsbooks I can't afford to advertise

(02:00:20):
with basically every major sports league and more on Draft Pinks,
DraftKings Pick six coming up in a couple of weeks
here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Anyways, all right, we're
gonna take quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross. It is time for the top of the hour.
Adam Wexer is here for our number four. You guys
can get in talk about anything you want to. Seven
one three two one two five seven ninety is the

(02:00:43):
phone number. Seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
Back with our number four, The Matt Thomas Show with
Ross after this quick break, our number four of The
Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas. It's Ross
and a cast of characters. Today we've had Brian Boga
Sevic hang out. We've had Chris Gordy hanging out for

(02:01:05):
a little bit, and now I do appreciate you coming
in a little bit early. Adam wex are hanging out
for our number four of the program wex How are
things on this wonderful, beautiful Friday in Houston, Texas? So good?

Speaker 11 (02:01:16):
I don't even mind looking at it like yep, our
number one of five.

Speaker 2 (02:01:19):
That's good. Don't even do that, don't even dot. We're
gonna make this one breeze buy for you. I get
things started off, and now I'll worry about you being
tired at five o'clock. Well, I probably won't be listening.
I'm not really that worried about it, all right, So Astros,
of course we can talk about the Texans. You get
the preseason game coming up this weekend, the Michigan NCAA.
Stuff I think is interesting, and of course Astros get

(02:01:40):
a little help from their friends in the Baltimore Orioles.
But now we need them to shut down for a weekend.
That'd be nice.

Speaker 11 (02:01:45):
Yeah, the Orioles are you know, they fell out of
the race so quickly, I think everybody just assumed this
is a terrible baseball team. They've been an average team
since they fired their manager, the little over five hundred
for the majority of the season. That's really who the Astros.
And obviously just before that the Mariners were playing. So
they're not a pushover, and clearly that showed with how
they handled the Mariners. So it's not automatic that a

(02:02:07):
team near the bottom of the standings you can handle.
I hope they can handle them, considering seven of their
next ten games are against them, the three game series here,
a four game series there, and clearly they helped out
game and a half advantage as they begin played today.
Got two days off for Carlos Korea. The last two days,
presumably back in the lineup today, but we will see

(02:02:28):
that he be ready to go.

Speaker 2 (02:02:30):
He's ready to go. It was inevitable.

Speaker 11 (02:02:31):
You had Brian Boga sec in here for a couple
of hours, and it's just the story of the season.
They keep finding a way to overcome the latest set
of injuries. And obviously you guys talked quite a bit
about that, and I'm sure Joe and the rest of
the guys will have to continue to at least address
it until we have some sort of answer on it.
Regarding their closer.

Speaker 2 (02:02:51):
Yeah, well, i'll see if we get a little bit
more clarity, or maybe he's gonna get a third opinion
or a fourth opinion. Who knows how many opinions he's
gonna get to before we finally hear something with Josh Hayter.
I mean it doesn't matter. I mean, the writing's on
the wall. It's second opinion. It's the comment from Joe
saying we're gonna give him some space. That kind of
freaked me out. It's calding it a gut punch. I mean,

(02:03:12):
every basically everything we hear sounds like at the very
least missing the regular season, if not into the postseason
as well, which seems like the most likely outcome.

Speaker 11 (02:03:21):
Yeah, giving him space and second opinion. It kind of
sounded like it's not good, but we're uncertain what path
we're gonna end up taking. He's gonna say, get a
second opinion. Maybe this is the surgery that's necessary, or
he's gonna get this second opinion, and maybe they'll say
that's the surgery that's necessary, and they'll have different timelines
associated with it, not only short term, but long term.

(02:03:42):
Josh Hater's next big contract Robley doesn't exist. He signed
a big contract with the Astros. He'll push well past thirty.
When that one expires. He'll be halfway through the contract
next year when the Astros play their eighty second game
of the year next year, they'll be halfway through the
five year deal. I don't know if he'll have pitched

(02:04:02):
a game again when they play that eighty second game
next year. We just don't know anything yet, and so
we can focus in on the Astros and this year
they have enough arms to get through the end of
the season in the bullpen. I don't really doubt that.
It's just you're not likely to get through it with
quite as much success. Bryan Obray is probably not going
to close games at quite the clip that hater was

(02:04:23):
this year, maybe more like the clip that hater was
last year, where he was good but not great and
clearly had a bunch of struggles early in the season.
The other guys probably won't be quite as sharp as
a Bray you and Presley have been in the past,
but it's not I don't think it's going to quite
derail them. They need to play better offensively, which has
not changed all season, and they actually are playing better offensively.

(02:04:45):
A little of that is Coorea, more of that is Altuve,
Walker and Diaz all being good for about six to
eight weeks now. If that continues, I still will keep
saying what I've been saying for about two months. Are
not only going to the playoffs, they're going to win
the division well. And also you're saying something that you
never thought you'd say, Thank God for Bennett Susa. He

(02:05:08):
I mean, if you watch him enough and now that
he's been healthy this entire season, yes, swing and miss stuff. Yeah,
guys miss his pitches. He throws the same pitch to
them over and over and over in the same at bat,
and they miss it. Every time he's had it's just
like anybody in the bullpen. There's days where he didn't
have it. You know, he goes out there and four
guys get on base and they take him out. But
for the most part, when you look at the numbers

(02:05:29):
that really indicate what kind of season he's having, you know,
the strikeout rate, the whiffs, the ability to keep guys up,
guys don't get hits off of them. He doesn't walk batters.
That's what I'm most impressed with with their bullpen as
a whole. You know, on Bray, who is now the closer,
and he's the least successful in not walking batters. King
doesn't walk batters. Okre doesn't walk batters. Susai doesn't walk batters,

(02:05:51):
and even Hater this year, they make them earn it,
and as a reliever, to me, that's the first thing
you have to do. Once you do that, I think
you're almost automatically successful, giving up free passes, putting tying
runs on base, you know, making it dramatic when it
doesn't need to be. That's probably the biggest area of
why as a group they've been so successful this year,

(02:06:12):
and all but Hater are still healthy, right now.

Speaker 2 (02:06:15):
Yeah, and especially when you're get to do I feel
more confident, especially when you get into a playoff scenario
where you don't need as many starters and you the Astros.
It's looking like pretty closer. They're going to have a
lot of the options. That's kind of I'm a number
of the storylines that I'm intrigued. There are a number
of storylines I've beentrigued about about how they're going to
play out. And one of them is going to be

(02:06:38):
who is going to stick in this rotation and who
is not? And then who is going to possibly be
converted into a bullpen roll and how effective are they
going to be. That's that's something they have basically at
this point, six weeks to figure out.

Speaker 11 (02:06:53):
Yeah, Christian Javiers lined up for start number two during
this series, Alexander start number five in this series. They'll
go Javier Sunday, Alexander Saturday. They'll already have won the
opening game because Frommer's pitching tonight, it's a given. He's
it's just an animal. Of course they'll win.

Speaker 2 (02:07:11):
I think. So he's gonna he's gonna bounce back and
we'll see he's gonna be all right. You heard it
here first quality start, so you still have.

Speaker 11 (02:07:17):
I mean, we're we're forty games till the end of
the season, and when the Astros are playing the deciding
game of the wild card series or they're trying to
take us, you know, sweep the divisional series. We don't
know who's getting the ball after Brown and Valdez neither today.
I don't know who's gonna be healthy, and they don't
know how any of these question marks will be Pitching,
you know, you give the ball to Jason Alexander every

(02:07:38):
single time until he tells you otherwise. With his pitching,
I I've never been more surprised by a pitcher's performance.
I can't even think of another pitcher where I thought, yeah,
he throws hitable stuff, he's gonna get crushed today. And
then I watch him the next day and I think
the same thing, And I think the next time he
goes out there the same thing, and he keeps not
getting crushed. I cannot figure it out. And I know
it's movement. I know he's changing speeds. I know the

(02:08:00):
sink on his sinker is beyond belief. But man, until
he shows you otherwise, or a team gets to him
and the Orioles are the next one with an opportunity.
He's been your next most successful pitcher. You know, the
rotation of the sugar Land Space Cowboys again.

Speaker 2 (02:08:15):
This week.

Speaker 11 (02:08:16):
You had Garcia two days ago, you had France yesterday,
you got Lance McCullers junior today. And mccullor is trying
to recover from that blister. I don't know what they
have in store for him from a pitch count standpoint,
but I wouldn't think there's another rehab start in his future.
I would think that this is the only one necessary
if he's healthy out of this. But their question was

(02:08:36):
who throws out of the bullpen? Who gets asked to
start getting loose in the middle of the game. Who
are they counting on to you know, are they piggybacking guys?
And how does that hamper your bullpen? By few arms available,
you can't count every guy named. I don't think you
can count on any of them to even remotely consistently
give you more than fifteen outs at a game. Javier,

(02:09:00):
you know, Arraghetty, maybe Lance. No, Alexander's giving you six
so many times. I'm almost tar two.

Speaker 2 (02:09:07):
Of those guys get you twelve apiece, well, four and
four and adds up to eight. Bring in Brian and Bray.
You were all good. I mean, are you?

Speaker 11 (02:09:13):
Are you in a position where you can go you know,
Morton and mccullors, Peacock and Morton, and you can get
all nine innings.

Speaker 2 (02:09:18):
Out of two guys. I mean it worked.

Speaker 11 (02:09:22):
Keep in mind, this entire conversation is centered around they're
going to be good at the major league level.

Speaker 2 (02:09:27):
Yeah, exactly, so some of it will take care of itself. Honestly, fully,
assuming full health for everybody down the stretch is foolish
at this point. But you mentioned Valdez, Brown and Javier
and Garcia and mccullars. That's five. Then there's Arraghetty, Walter, France, Alexander.
That's nine starting pitching candidates.

Speaker 11 (02:09:47):
They hit the trade deadline with six starting pitchers awaiting
their arrival back from the injured list, which is just insane.
And they still have others that wanted to be back
until next year and Blanco and w wasz Nesky. But
I I've said it this way. I thought it was
a risky play, but all things considered, I don't think
Dana Brown made a mistake not adding any pitching bullpen

(02:10:08):
or starting pitcher.

Speaker 2 (02:10:09):
I thought it was a big.

Speaker 11 (02:10:10):
Risk, but I thought the pay out in order to
get somebody who you weren't even sure like Dylan Ceese
was probably the name most everybody here was so focused on,
and they weren't focused on the kind of season he
was having. They were just focused on what they thought
he had been in the past. He's been a pretty
average pitcher this year. He doesn't pitch deep in the game.
You wave the magic astro castro's to get a hold

(02:10:31):
of him, and for what you would have been giving up. Yeah,
I don't blame Dana one bit, And you're right, this
is this. You know, if you have a sixth and
a seventh and an eighth healthy arm, I mean, how
many guys can you even push off of the roster
in the bullpen. Caleb Ortz actually pitched really, really well
over the last twenty one thirty days.

Speaker 2 (02:10:48):
You know, seant the show.

Speaker 11 (02:10:50):
Yeah, a little unfortunate that Duban was put in the
other day in that situation.

Speaker 2 (02:10:54):
Forgetting about Dubie.

Speaker 11 (02:10:55):
He was great and start season was fantastic and he
provided some balance, Crazy Dusty, I know this sounds nuts,
but some balance in the bullpen, hey man, because he
has a right handed, right handed pitcher in the bullpen.
These hopefully of health are good problems to have. But
you're also now counting on guys who've been starters to
get it figured out how they can be comfortable in
their first inning of work and the two or three

(02:11:17):
to follow as a as a bullpen arm pitching, who
knows when on which days, and then you're running how
many guys are available every day means Joe Spot of
looking at a bullpen of only four or five guys
two three days a week, it's that's probably not a
tenable situation.

Speaker 2 (02:11:31):
A lot to sift through, a lot to figure out,
and the astros will do that and as we said,
some of it will figure itself out if guys are
just under performing or unfortunately get re injured. Okay, we're
gonna talk about that and more. You want to get
in Phone lines open seven one three two one two
five seven ninety seven one three two one two five
seven ninety It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross

(02:11:54):
without Matt Thomas with Adam Weser with you until two
o'clock here on Sports Talk seven hinety wasn't the official
theme song of the NBA one year. That sounds right.
It feels like welcome to House.

Speaker 11 (02:12:11):
Okay, I'm sorry, I think how many theme songs for
the NBA they're going to be this year?

Speaker 2 (02:12:15):
Okay, NBC, Peacock, Prime, ABC, ESPN, anything else. No, but
NBC and Peacock I assume will have the same Yeah,
that's true. Network's Oh, Space City Home Network, Well, of
course they do have the majority of the games national broadcasts,

(02:12:35):
of course, yeah, they so I know that tn T
games normally weren't on Space unless they'd hit a certain
threshold or whatever. What about with all of these new
streaming deals, there are a bunch of games, especially Lady
who has exclusives? Does NBC have exclusives?

Speaker 11 (02:12:53):
NBC has exclusives, ABC has exclusives, But the rest of
the networks, it's not, and even NBC, to be honest
with you, not every single game that that network carries
as exclusive. ABC is the only one that I would
say that about, because there's a bunch of games, especially
the second half of the season. There's a Tuesday night
NBC game that is also carried by Space City Home Network.

(02:13:13):
Peacock games carried by both there's even prime games in
the second half of the season carried by both Space
City Home Network will still have sixty five of the games.
At a minimum, we don't know two of the games
still because of the n season tournament NBA Cup. I
know where you can find every game, Sports Talks every
nine and your exclusive home right here on the radio
for Houston Rockets basketball, along with news radios some forty.

Speaker 2 (02:13:36):
Kach mostly exclusive ktrih or Sports Talk seven ninety. Matt
Thomas gonna do a great job on the call, as
he always does.

Speaker 11 (02:13:44):
That's my tagline on even when he's not here.

Speaker 2 (02:13:47):
Yeah, even when he's not here. That's what I say.
On Rockets launch pads? Is that what we call the show?
Excited for the first Rocket launch pad coming up Tuesday,
October twenty first. Will it inflict with a Houston Astros
playoff game?

Speaker 11 (02:14:04):
I think there's a pretty good chance it will not.
I think that the timing of their open well, why
would they have to be playing on Tuesday night at
six thirty.

Speaker 2 (02:14:12):
Okay, that's good, all right, you're right.

Speaker 11 (02:14:15):
Tuesday night means they're in the wildcard game the twenty first. Oh,
that's further on in the players. Excuse me, I'm sorry. Uh, well,
the World Series starts on the twenty fourth, right, yes,
so the only way they'd be playing on the twenty
first is they were late stages of the ALCS. I
feel like it's going to happen like that's Game seven.
I believe in the ALCS the twenty first, or maybe
Game six, I know.

Speaker 2 (02:14:35):
Somewhere around that.

Speaker 11 (02:14:36):
But I didn't pay that much. Yeah me either, I
think the I mean, I know, worry about you when
they play. I don't need to know the exact dates
this far out. I only need to know the Rockets
dates now and now football games, and so I just
start coordinating schedules. Yes, a lot of work to be done,
a lot of fun to be had. Who's doing Christmas?
Have you coordinated yet? I think we're actually both available,

(02:14:58):
so it will make it work.

Speaker 2 (02:15:00):
Okay, I didn't even actually see. I didn't fully dive in.
What time do they play on Christmas Day?

Speaker 11 (02:15:06):
They have the I mean I do on primetime whatever
you want to call it. It's seven o'clock Houston time.

Speaker 2 (02:15:10):
Okay, h yeah, you can be done with Santa Claus
to leave by then. It's the Los Angeles Lakers I
would rather not be on that postgame show, but we'll
see what happens with that.

Speaker 11 (02:15:20):
We also realized a lot and it doesn't happen to
Houston often, but there are a couple of games this
year where it's a double header night on one of
the other networks, and the tip time they've actually listed
this year is ten o'clock locally Houston time. They have
ten o'clock tip offs this year because last year they
would say, yeah, tip off at nine thirty, but there

(02:15:42):
could be a slide, so it's gonna end up tipping
off at nine forty six or nine to fifty one.
Now they just said, look, we're gonna tip off at
ten o'clock with no slide, don't worry about it.

Speaker 2 (02:15:49):
Yeah, unless generally there's even even like when there's like
a thirty point blowout, they slided at least a few minutes.

Speaker 11 (02:15:54):
Yeah, there's no reason there won't be any with those
particular games during the season, like for the for instance,
the the game before their Christmas Day game, ten o'clock
tip at the Clippers. It's the second game of a
national doubleheader, so.

Speaker 2 (02:16:08):
They do okay Christmas, and then they have they're also
new Year's Eve again.

Speaker 11 (02:16:14):
Okay, no New Year's Eve game, New Year's Day.

Speaker 2 (02:16:18):
I'm sorry, new for the Rockets. Am I looking at
the wrong schedule?

Speaker 3 (02:16:21):
Ye?

Speaker 11 (02:16:21):
January first at Brooklyn?

Speaker 2 (02:16:23):
What Why do I see January? Oh I'm stupid. I
was doing January first, December thirty first. Good God. All right,
on that note, let's just go to the phone line.
Steven and Los Angeles has been holding.

Speaker 12 (02:16:34):
What's up, Hey, guys, how are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (02:16:37):
Awesome? Excellent, it's good to hear.

Speaker 5 (02:16:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (02:16:42):
I was just listening to that last segment and you
guys were talking about all these potential pictures that are
coming back, and I just wanted to get your thoughts
on Lance College Junior because he's the one guy, in
my opinion, where I just don't know what his goal
to see and everybody keeps saying, oh, he can go
to the bullten.

Speaker 2 (02:17:00):
I think it was weck.

Speaker 12 (02:17:01):
I think you were saying, you got to make these
hitters earn it when you're a reliever. And that's the
one thing that even when he's quote unquote right, he's
he's got he's like a putting players on base machine.
So I just don't see him being effective as a reliever,
and it he comes back as a starter, Like we're
kind of at that point in the season where there

(02:17:21):
you can't give a guy two or three additional games
to figure his stump out, you know, and then making
him a starter also shortens your bullpens. So I mean
that could have an underlying effect for a couple of
games that we get shelled again, you know, in a
in a two or three inning outing, you know. So
I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

(02:17:42):
I'll hang up and listen, and I appreciate you guys.

Speaker 5 (02:17:43):
Thank you.

Speaker 11 (02:17:44):
Yeah, I think you pretty much nailed it. And it
is what I said. It's a successful reliever doesn't have
the walk rate that he has, So I just don't
First of all, I perfeably were more velo. He was
not going to be a reliever, no matter how effective
he was coming back.

Speaker 2 (02:17:58):
This was never the plan.

Speaker 11 (02:17:58):
This is not an idea situation for a pitcher whose
arm is as his is, and how long on the
shelf he had been, and the unquestioned nature about well
when is he pitching again? Well, he's in the bullpen.
He could be pitching today and then he could pitch
in two days it just was that's not where he
was headed, and that's not where he's headed now either,
for both reasons, because now you add the effectiveness to it.

(02:18:19):
In effectiveness, he gives up more hits than innings pitched.
His whip is over one point seven. He's walked twenty
nine batters in forty four and a third innings. He's
not going to the bullpen.

Speaker 2 (02:18:30):
He's got a one point seven whip. Yeah, I'm with you.
There are a lot of people suggesting he will go
to the bullpen. I just don't think it's gonna happen,
certainly not earlier in the season as well, with the
amount of money that he was making. Now, with the
season compressed, the money thing is less of a factor.
But the fact of the matter is he just hasn't

(02:18:50):
been very good. And if he wasn't under contract for
as much money as he is now and next year,
I'm not sure that he would even still be on
this team.

Speaker 11 (02:18:59):
Yeah, I think he has the situation of let's they're
in the race, so it's all magnified. If he was
pitching for a team that didn't need him to go
out there, then people would understand what is still true.
He's This is part of the coming back from injury process,
and in his case, so far away from the last
time he pitched competitively, the expectations for him to pitch

(02:19:22):
extremely well they shouldn't have existed. Pitch better than he has, Yes,
be more effective than he has, for sure, give the
Astros a chance to win after five innings of Lance McCullers,
for sure, But that's not the situation he's in, and
that's not the situation the team is in. They can't
afford it. They're not in a position to, Hey, let's
see if he can figure it out. It's no different

(02:19:43):
now though for JP France if he ever makes it
to the roster, it's no different for Luis Garcia if
he makes it to the roster.

Speaker 2 (02:19:49):
It's the same for all of these guys.

Speaker 5 (02:19:50):
Now.

Speaker 11 (02:19:51):
I think Javier and Aarraghetty are in a little bit
different situation. Araghetty's in a much different situation. He actually
did pitch this year, and his injury was not surgical
in nature and no elbow and no shoulder issue. And Javier,
unlike France, unlike mccullors, unlike Garcia, had a typical surgery
and recovery period with no setbacks. He had the procedure,

(02:20:14):
he went on a normal timeline, went through a normal rehab,
and returned as a normal timeline. None of those other
guys did. And so I do think the expectation that
maybe Arragatti and Javier and giving them a little more
rope if necessary, is in place. I just don't think
it will be for the other three. And Brandon Walter
is a total wild card because I would not want
to put him in the bullpen because.

Speaker 2 (02:20:35):
He's been so good as a starter.

Speaker 11 (02:20:36):
As soon as he comes back and can give you
sixty five pitches, maybe you want to go go with
the opener again. But I would put him in the
rotation for sure over just about everybody else.

Speaker 2 (02:20:47):
Yeah, Brandon Walter is a wild card. And on the
Lance mccullor's junior thing, yes, it doesn't make sense to
put him in the bullpen. And we do have more
I guess data we could say not on where he's
going to be from before, but from this year he's
got eleven starts, three quality starts, four disasters where you

(02:21:08):
have basically no shot of winning the game if he
does that, or very little chance of winning a game
that he does that. And then the other four kind
of somewhere in between. Yeah, that's what we've seen from him.

Speaker 11 (02:21:20):
Eleven starts. He's gotten an out after the fifth inning
three times. He's gotten an out in the fifth inning
four times. It's hard to do. It's hard to manage
your way through that spot in the rotation every fifth
day or every sixth day, just the ability to get
deep into game. So lanswe collusion give up four runs
if he gets you into the sixth inning. Yeah, but

(02:21:41):
if he's giving up four runs and you got to
go to the bullpen and the third inning, it's a
little tough. And the reason you have to do it
in his case is because you have to do something.
You have to do a little bit for him. And
when he's throwing his twenty eighth pitch in an inning
or he's about to go into the he can't stay
out there. That's not realistic, fair or nice to his
arm and his elbow and his shoulder and his future.

Speaker 2 (02:22:02):
Yeah. And seven of the times he started, he's walked
three or more. That's another issue as well. But that's
even Lance mccullor is at his brilliant best. He was
walking guys, getting traffic on the base pass and then
somehow getting out of it with a bunch of swinging miss.
That's kind of who's who. That was his even when
he was at his best.

Speaker 11 (02:22:23):
His stuff then and his stuff now still has more
movement than I think anybody in this rotation.

Speaker 2 (02:22:29):
It is all over the place.

Speaker 11 (02:22:30):
It's coming right down the middle, and guys still take
it because it tails off the plate by three feet
and it's a ball. They're not swinging it as many
of his offerings. There's just so much movement on it still.

Speaker 2 (02:22:42):
It's it's crazy, and that's kind of what he's done,
and a really kind of arrighetty ish, like it's mccollor's
ish is arrogetty. I suppose kind of spin it down
there and see what happens, and sometimes you can rack
up walks and sometimes you rack up a ton of
swing and miss, and a lot of times both. So
I am just very intrigued to see how that all
kind of kind of plays out eventually for Lance Pecullors

(02:23:04):
Junior and for the Ash Shows a lot of question
marks as we continue down the stretch here of the
twenty twenty five campaign. Quick break here on the Matt
Thomas Show, with Ross. Adam Wexler is hanging out. I
do appreciate him. We got a couple of segments left
in the program. You guys can get in if you
have some questions or you want to give your thoughts
on what should happen with Lance mccullor's junior or the
rest of the rotation slash Bullpen as well. Seven one

(02:23:25):
three two one two five seven ninety is the phone number?
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety. Thanks, coach.
We're supposed to get more liners involving me. What's going on,
Coach Sark? That's fine, no pressure, just number one in

(02:23:46):
both preseason polls for the first time in school history
on the road at Ohio State at the shoe week,
number one soft landing spot. After that, what is its
San Jose State UTEP in Sam Houston correct running the.

Speaker 11 (02:24:00):
Gauntlet, folks, there's a decent chance if they're one to zero,
they'll be foeig and oh.

Speaker 2 (02:24:07):
Will say yes, three and one's not a bad start either.

Speaker 11 (02:24:11):
I mean, I'm all in for how important or how
fun The opening game of the year is at Ohio State,
but it doesn't matter unfortunately. I mean the magnitude of
college football games with the playoff system, and obviously the
conference games still matter to a certain extent more than
any others. It's not a by any means, It's not

(02:24:32):
do or die anymore. It's not something that's going to
prevent anything you want to have happened later in the
season from happening.

Speaker 2 (02:24:38):
It doesn't matter for getting into the playoff, but it
definitely matters for seeding. Sure.

Speaker 11 (02:24:45):
Now, looking back at last year's seating, you know, the
teams that had to play the opening weekend, they weren't
one of the top four as Boise State was, and
whoever number three for this year? So who played opening
weekend at home? Winners Texas. Yeah, the teams that were
at home went on and moved on, and landing in

(02:25:06):
that spot was actually kind of a sweet spot for
getting going in the postseason.

Speaker 2 (02:25:11):
I would still rather or not have to be added
to the risk for the additional games, not only to
the risk of losing a game, but to the injury
risk as well.

Speaker 11 (02:25:20):
If they beat Ohio State and run the table, they'll
be a top four seed. If they lose to Ohio
State and then run the table, they'll be a top
four seed.

Speaker 2 (02:25:26):
That's true. Right, but you also get more of you
have to play at Georgia. I don't know if they're
gonna run the table there.

Speaker 11 (02:25:32):
I know, I mean Gunner stock If you're not beating
that guy again.

Speaker 2 (02:25:35):
Hey man, it's gonna be tough, tough, tough season.

Speaker 11 (02:25:39):
The funny thing to me is Gunner Stockton the way
I saw it last year and what could be this
year could easily be better than Carson Beck.

Speaker 5 (02:25:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (02:25:50):
He was a nice little quarterback, loved making mistakes, ended
up playing in some wild comeback games, and certainly made
some plays, but was never like, oh my god, this
guy's so good.

Speaker 2 (02:26:00):
Is he ready for is gonna is? Uh? Carson be
gonna be ready week one? I believe he is. For
the case he had Tommy John right, he had very
signal or some kind of signific some kind of helbow surgery,
I mean, and now he's in a he's in an
extremely important conference. Do you think they should what? What
do you feel about the one? Basically every SEC team
has to do one power for opponent and then after

(02:26:23):
that it's three cupcakes like or do do you think
they should do the nine the nine team schedule and
then get rid.

Speaker 9 (02:26:29):
Of that rule?

Speaker 2 (02:26:29):
Do you think they would do both?

Speaker 11 (02:26:31):
I mean, they're they're looking out for themselves. Why would
they make it harder on themselves when they get to
regulate themselves.

Speaker 2 (02:26:37):
For more money from networks.

Speaker 11 (02:26:39):
To the ninth game is where they can get an
additional bump versus Can they get the additional bump by
having more teams.

Speaker 2 (02:26:46):
Than the playoffs? Maybe?

Speaker 11 (02:26:48):
Hmm, maybe they do because without the ninth game. I
think they perceive that as well. Look at that's one
less loss. A bunch of our fringe playoff teams are
gonna suffer because they didn't. They didn't buy conference team
that's really good. They played a cupcake that's really bad.

Speaker 2 (02:27:01):
I think it happens with a bump and a TV deal.
That's what I think, just gut feeling on that one.

Speaker 11 (02:27:07):
Yeah, the amount of money there is is outrageous. Same
thing with the nil stuff. I can't believe how close
we are to the season. I know everyone's focused on
the thirtieth and the very good slate of games.

Speaker 2 (02:27:17):
There are games before then, No, not the ones that matter.

Speaker 11 (02:27:21):
There's well, I mean, I don't know if you consider
this big twelve country or I guess it is. Well,
there's a kind of a big game a week before,
not in the States, but a big game nonetheless.

Speaker 2 (02:27:32):
Mm hmm. I'm more focused on the thirtieth. But you're
talking about Iowa State versus Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland.
Because when I think Irish, I think Cyclones and Wildcats.

Speaker 11 (02:27:46):
Well, some early scouting on Sam as well. They play
that night, Sam Houston.

Speaker 2 (02:27:50):
Sam Houston State, The Bearcats go, Bearcats. Who are they playing?

Speaker 11 (02:27:53):
They got Western Kentucky huge, and you realize, oh, Sam
Houston State is Houston's team.

Speaker 2 (02:27:59):
HTA. But are you all Hilltoppers or you you all Lumberjacks?
Are you both? I'm both all right both? Okay? What
if they played each other? Going I'm going Hilltoppers?

Speaker 5 (02:28:10):
Really?

Speaker 2 (02:28:12):
Actually, I went to the probably the most football basketball
games that when I was the Hilltoppers. Okay, with Bailey's
having all them. It's just what's the environment at the
Lumberjacks games?

Speaker 7 (02:28:22):
Like you went to the middle of the woods and
you got somelies out there. You go to Hilltoppers though
you got some real football abus what's the tailgating scene?
Like you're outside next to a little pond. Okay, some
people might jump in a little drunk.

Speaker 2 (02:28:35):
Yeah. Have you seen people jumping jump into the lake.
Yeah at Lumberjacks games. It's it's not pretty. Just keep
this in mind.

Speaker 11 (02:28:43):
On Sam Houston State and five of their games are
right here in Houston this year because their renovated stadium
is sending them to Shell Energy Stadium for their home
games this year.

Speaker 2 (02:28:53):
I didn't know that.

Speaker 11 (02:28:54):
So they're playing in downtown Houston. Well, it's just one
more option for you Bearcats, ray View Rice. Yes, you
you of h SAM Houston State here in.

Speaker 2 (02:29:04):
The h U of h Clear Lake. Okay, making that up.
I don't think that. I don't know where their home
stadium is, Sandra Cento College. They play football or they
only baseball?

Speaker 5 (02:29:13):
Uh not?

Speaker 11 (02:29:14):
I'm not going to look into that.

Speaker 2 (02:29:15):
Okay. Well, and then of course all the the the
great high school football scene, that is great. I haven't
been to a high school football game like over a decade.

Speaker 11 (02:29:26):
There's one chance I will attend more than one high
school football.

Speaker 2 (02:29:30):
Are you covering? You covering games? Are you just going going?
I mean.

Speaker 11 (02:29:35):
My Alma Maters Saints, there's no probably that's I'm a
public schooler, Memorial High School.

Speaker 2 (02:29:41):
Why did I think it was? Who am I thinking
of did somebody we work with went to Saint Pias.

Speaker 11 (02:29:47):
Uh, your previous producer was a Saint McGovern Thomas.

Speaker 2 (02:29:51):
I know, I know that. I don't know why I
was getting you confused with somebody, but anyways, it doesn't matter.
Memorial High School shout out to the what they are. Yeah,
why do I not remember?

Speaker 8 (02:30:03):
That?

Speaker 2 (02:30:04):
Was because when I was at Nimt's back in the day,
we were in district with Memorial Stratford.

Speaker 11 (02:30:11):
There were only four spring Branch Northbrook.

Speaker 2 (02:30:13):
Northbrook, Okay, in spring and spring Woods. Yeah, they were
all terrible Memorials good nor in spring Woods, stop on
very Yeah, those were easy dubs. We have easy dubs
every year back in my day, north Brook, spring Woods
and MacArthur.

Speaker 11 (02:30:31):
Where were your contributions coming from. Where were you on
the field.

Speaker 2 (02:30:34):
Back in my day? Okay? I quit in tenth grade.

Speaker 9 (02:30:37):
I was.

Speaker 2 (02:30:37):
I was defensive end and left guard. Okay.

Speaker 11 (02:30:39):
Did everybody play both ways?

Speaker 2 (02:30:41):
Well? Back in my day? Yeah? I did back in
your day, yes, sir, Back on the back on the
NIMS tenth grade B team yesterday, I was, I was
tall and I was like one of the I was
the star of the B team. What does that make me?
I don't know. That's what I was in basketball. It
was the star of the B team, you know what.
I don't know if you were listening, but I was

(02:31:02):
telling people how you you dropped? Remember, Jonathan, you didn't
believe me. No, Mad didn't believe You're right? Mad, I said,
wet has some game like we were playing three on three.
You were dropping some dimes out there.

Speaker 11 (02:31:12):
That was I wish we that needs to come back again,
even though we were old, exactly getting hurt ten years ago.

Speaker 2 (02:31:19):
Do it the squad.

Speaker 11 (02:31:19):
Obviously you and I were on the team.

Speaker 9 (02:31:21):
It was you and I.

Speaker 2 (02:31:22):
We had some mighty gwyn out there. We had some
Jason Braddock you were you had to really handle the
post for us, Yes, I did. And well we had
the ringer that one year. We had that guy that
played it what was his name, Lamar something Lamar or
Lamar something, who played for Houston Christian Well at the
time was the it was HPU. He was our intern.

(02:31:43):
We brought him in. He's like six foot seven, but
he showed up to the tournament hungover, so we only
won a couple of games and then he ran out
of gas. He was out of it. We just kept
feeding him in the post and they were fouling him
every time, and then we did. We didn't win the
tournament with our ringer. I blame myself. I think that

(02:32:04):
might have been the I can't remember. One of the
years I had a bad hurt ankle. We had Craig
Ackerman who liked to hoop too. He was literally getting
treatment from the rockets like training staff on his ankle.
It looked his entire ankle was like black and blue.
I couldn't walk, and I was and here's a good story.

(02:32:25):
I couldn't walk, Jonathan, and so one of the times
they put me out there because everybody was gas and
I'm literally limping on the floor. I fall to the
ground and in frustration, I like throw the ball in
the air. I hit some dude square in the back
of the head, and so he's like squaring up, and
I thought we were gonna fight. I was like, oh God,
now I gotta fight this guy. Accident. I'm like, I

(02:32:46):
accidentally threw it. I didn't want to look like a
total who was but I had to be like, I'm
like squaring up, like, hey, I was an accident. I'm sorry.
I didn't want to do that. Please don't throw a
punch because I can't. I can't get in a fight
right now because I can't walk.

Speaker 11 (02:32:57):
There was a fight out there, not involving Oh I
didn't see that. Who there's a fox, folks. And then
ABC on air personality got a little bit of a
dust up.

Speaker 2 (02:33:06):
Yeah, you getting scraped of the black on the black top,
it happens. I mean I was ready to like, I
guess I was gonna have to throw some hands with
the dude, but I was just I couldn't walk, and
it was an accident, so.

Speaker 11 (02:33:16):
You weren't fired up for the fight, and you knew
you had some shortcuttings.

Speaker 2 (02:33:22):
Sounds like, please don't throw a punch at me, Please
don't throw We like squared up, and everybody broke it up,
and I was like, oh, thank god.

Speaker 11 (02:33:27):
That's not the place for a fight. This is supposed
to be a little very friendly competition.

Speaker 2 (02:33:32):
We're all good, all right, Time for a break here
on the battop of his show with Ross final segment,
Get in real quick if you want to at seven one, three,
seven ninety or not, we'll handle it or with you
until two o'clock. Actually, wex is with you until six
o'clock and we'll be right back here on the Mattima
Show with Ross. Texans have a preseason game tomorrow against

(02:33:54):
the Carolina Panthers. I'm gonna ask you X, I actually
don't even know who's supposed to be playing. What's the
starter situation? What's going on?

Speaker 11 (02:34:04):
I wish I knew, and I don't think anybody knows
at this point, and going out there the last couple
of days and trying to get a handle on what
they plan on doing, it's been very difficult. It does
seem like a few more starters may play. Maybe you'll
see the running back group other than Damian Pierce, I
imagine will not play, but you could see Nick Chubb
for the first time in a preseason game. You're obviously

(02:34:24):
going to see the rookies same as you did before.
There was no definitive word on defensively, like Will Anderson
yesterday was kind of you know, playing in the preseas.

Speaker 2 (02:34:32):
Would you like to be out there?

Speaker 11 (02:34:33):
He says yeah, and but he kind of went into
an answer that didn't sound like he was saying yes,
but he did say yes. I don't know that he's
I really don't know. I mean, that's the honest answer,
because they don't really indicate what their plans are. You know,
tay Ersery's going to be out there, hopefully for more
than one series. He played a series last week like
he's the starter, as did the other starters on the

(02:34:54):
offensive line. And if he's going to be a starter,
and he is, probably needs a little bit more work,
just simple NFL football. They got a ton of work
in yesterday and that's why the answering that question becomes
so difficult. Technans are smart. A joint practice is a
preseason game. You dictate everything you want, you take all
the snaps that you want. You're going up against another team,

(02:35:15):
just like in the preseason. You're not scouting that team,
so you're just reacting to what you see both sides
of the ball, and all of those players get to
do it concurrently. You got all your defensive players playing
at the same time your offensive players are because you've
got two fields. So all the work you would want
out of a preseason game has already been handled. So
the need I would always answer the need as no.

Speaker 2 (02:35:34):
CJ.

Speaker 11 (02:35:34):
Stroud doesn't need to play. In my opinion, Will Anderson,
Daniel Hunter et.

Speaker 2 (02:35:38):
Cetera.

Speaker 11 (02:35:38):
They don't need to play in this game or the
next week's game. They have another joint practice a week
from Thursday against the Lions.

Speaker 2 (02:35:46):
As you know, Jonathan Alexander covering the Texans for the
Houston Chronicle, he put up basically he's been putting like
bubble Watch, basically in bracketology style. The running back one
I found especially in interesting. Now Joe Mixon off his
list because he's still on the NFI list, which by
the way, is suit. Now what's your cut feeling on

(02:36:07):
what's happening with that? So you gonna just be ready
to Week one and I think.

Speaker 11 (02:36:11):
Somebody else will be the number one running back in
week one.

Speaker 2 (02:36:14):
Okay, well, let's say when Joe Mixon comes back, because
I do find this interesting. If you if you add
in Woody Marx who just was drafted, you don't think
he's going to be off there. We know that they
love Dario gumbowally in the role that he's in, how
much more I mean it feels like one of Damian
Piers or Nick Chubb is not long for this roster.

Speaker 11 (02:36:33):
Yeah, I thought that, you know, the opportunity for Damian
Pierce to be pushed off the team was pretty loud
and clear when Nick Chubb was signed. And then Nick
Chubb got to camp, and everyone's been telling me, even
though I've been out there, man, he looks terrible. So
I don't know if this guy has it anymore. I
don't believe that personally. I think he needs to go
out there and prove it. He still needs to go
out there and show that he can hit a hole

(02:36:54):
instead of trying to run people over, because he still
can do that. But if you can't hit the hole,
and if there's no explosive nature to it, especially behind
what we're not sure of offensive line, then I do
think that Jonathan sees it as realistic that he could
have been brought here, he could have been signed, he
could have got a nice bonus, and he's not necessarily
going to be out there even if Joe Mixon's situation

(02:37:14):
is still cloudy or certainly after it becomes less cloudy.
But everybody other than Woody, Marx and Dare, in my opinion,
is fighting to make this team.

Speaker 2 (02:37:25):
Yeah, I mean, but what does that put us confidence wise?

Speaker 5 (02:37:30):
Then?

Speaker 2 (02:37:31):
With this not only with the running it, but I
think the three most vital Texans offensively at this point
are going to be Stroud, Collins, and Mixon probably in
that order. But Joe Mixon being very very important with
this team, because I mean, unless Woody Mark, Woody Marks
is going to be some kind of revelation. He's not

(02:37:54):
what you mean, Joe Mixing. Yeah, I'm it's just not
feeling great about this offense right now.

Speaker 11 (02:38:01):
No, the running game is probably going to be the
short passing game now unless the offensive line all of
a sudden, is just this unbelievable run blocking unit because
of all the changes they've made coaching wise, and I
don't think that's the case. Nice start against Minnesota, I'll
give them that you need something there, and I think
they will probably be looking at other veteran players when
those cuts are made around the league. You know, Juwar

(02:38:23):
Jordan is only interesting in that he's not like anybody
else they have. I don't think they're too high on him,
and I'm not too high on him, but he runs
like none of them. He actually is explosive, and I
think he does a nice job of seeing a hole
and making his cuts and you know, trying to dart
through like you'd want from your running back. Wood He
doesn't really do that. Obviously, Nick Chubb doesn't do that.

(02:38:44):
Damian Pierce bounces around a little bit more than darts
through holes, and he just hasn't seen the field a
hole lot yet. We know what he can do, and
I think that plays well for him, and I think
he's actually a pretty decent fit for how Cayley wants
to run his offense. But that's where the third day
of this week and next week and Saturday, it actually
matters to those guys. You know, the people I said
that don't need to play well does include this group.

(02:39:06):
That group needs to play.

Speaker 2 (02:39:07):
What were you able to see when you were out
there at the joint practices, especially offensively, and what do
you think Nick Kaylee is going to do especially different, different,
in a different than year's past.

Speaker 11 (02:39:18):
No one thing that I saw was echoed by CJ
when he spoke with us afterwards, c J Stroud and
that Nick did it. He said, Nick did a good
job of moving the pocket, and I think that's what
they were one of the things that were missing last year.
I don't think Bobby Slowank did a good job of
moving the pocket. Hey, your offensive line is going to
block anybody, so you just want to drop back and
stand there every play. Yes, that's what I want to do. Well,
you're fired. And I think Nick Kayley is a little

(02:39:40):
bit more cognizant of that.

Speaker 2 (02:39:42):
You can't.

Speaker 11 (02:39:42):
I don't think he expects his offensive line to give C. J.
Stroud the time to go through all his progressions every snap.
So we're going to make it easier on our offense.
Got to have quicker plays and I think I saw
a little bit of that. There's not too much there,
but I think that's one thing that they do that
they other part of motion. There's so much more motion
on offense, guys, you know, giving tells to the quarterback

(02:40:06):
of how they're being defended, giving yourselves an opportunity to
succeed on offense. The numbers have been there for years,
and it's just I thought it was embarrassing for the
teams that don't run motion. Like here, here are the
teams that have a prestat motion, and here are their
results as it relates to EPA. Well, the ones that
do it are up here and the ones that don't
are down there.

Speaker 2 (02:40:24):
Yeah yeah, Well, also doing it and doing it effectively,
which hopefully the Texans can do. WEX thanks for hanging
out and show your weekend. I appreciate it. I Will Wexler,
Adam Wexler is hanging out with his good personal friend
Adam mcclanton. They call themselves the A Team. Thanks to
Brian Boga seven for hanging out. Thanks to Chris Gordy,
Thanks to Jonathan Allen producing. Thanks to all of you

(02:40:45):
for listening, calling, tweeting, getting involved. I appreciate you. I'll
talk to you on Monday. Matt Thomas will be back.
But now don't go anywhere. It's the A Team here
on Sports Talk seven night