Astros Lose Their Momentum As They Sit 3rd In AL West, Rockets Post Season Trade Talk

Astros Lose Their Momentum As They Sit 3rd In AL West, Rockets Post Season Trade Talk

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ten oh two in Nhtown. Good morning, everyone, and welcome
to a Tuesday edisue of the Matt Thomas Show with
Ross This is Sports Talk seven ninety where. Well, I'm
just gonna say that we are your Proughd home of
the Astros. I was an Astro buddy in nineteen seventy

(00:23):
nine and nineteen eighty, and I look forward to this
team continuing to do what they've done for a better
part of almost ten years now. I did the tenth
Inning show last night, Rossie, thank you, Matt, You're welcome.
I'll do it again tonight. Very glad to do so.
Dan Matthews says, thank you for that. Yeah, that's fine.
I mean, look, we all we all scratch the others back.

(00:44):
I mean, lord knows WEXW and Clinton haven't done much
of that event. It's fine. They're very busy. That's fine.
This is a boring baseball team right now, and I
haven't said that very much lately. I've said in years past,

(01:06):
like when I got back here in twenty ten, this
is a bad baseball team, and then I've watched them
in you know, sixteen, seventeen, eight ten, eighteen, twenty twenty
one to a good baseball team. They're not horrible. But
I was doing the postgame show last night, which no
one called. I mean, I'm just gonna call it out here. Zero.
I should have called you. No, no, no no. And so

(01:26):
my rule is this, we do four hours of radio.
We we all collectively help out. Minus is the Adams
on the tenth inning shows. And so if there's a
vibe and there's calls and people are talking, I'm more
than welcome to engage an astrosk conversation. Yes, but if
it ain't there, I'm going to bed. If it's broke,

(01:47):
you ain't gonna fix it. If there's a tree in
the forest, no one's there to listen. Oh okay, somebody's
always listening, Matt. I mean you know that in radio
is always listening. But you have the part of that
what we call the call in shows. You have to
have the call in. If there's no call into the
call in show, Matt Thomas monologue show. We did it
for four hours a day during that while you know so,

(02:11):
and Joe spot was going to join us at twelve thirty,
and Joe was obviously as optimistic about the bats going on,
and yesterday had eight they had nine hits, eight of
which were singles. One double didn't get a guy a
second base until that double. I mean they left eight
men on base. They were only two for six winners
in scoring position meeting, they weren't for him, and they
had a baseloaded situation in the six ending and the
other score one run. I mean, Renel Blanco gave you

(02:36):
three runs over six. That typically is good enough. And
that was a quote unquote quality start according to what
the folks at Major League Baseball say. But to steal
a line from the Dusty Baker, Damn dude, they're in
a lot of sizzle right now. No, and I and
I spent and the time I was monologuing because I've

(02:58):
learned the best monologuing from you on a call in shows.
Thank you, Matt. As I ran through the OPS numbers,
I hope you didn't go person by person, player by
player well in order to fill a few minutes of
my time, I absolutely did. Is Rake Myers still leading
the team? Rake Myers at seven ninety four, still leading

(03:18):
the team. I love Rake Myers, but he should not
be leading any team in OP because you're a part
of the order line. I granted nor you're on but
having a great season. I mean, yeah, yeah, I wonder
we'll last We'll talk to Joe about it later on
the show. I wonder how long this has been an
issue for him or if it really truly was just
batting practice on Saturday. As I use air quotes, I
was gonna say, you're air quoting. We're not on television yet,

(03:40):
but you know this is the emphasis. You can hear it.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Matt.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
By the way, speaking of the ordon, I h or ip.
It's a hand issue. This doesn't have to do with
creaky knees. People hurt their hands all the time. I
think he's actually had hand issues before. He has had
handed issues before. Ye did he play like one hundred
and forty games last year? What are you let me
look for a major leaguer that doesn't go through an

(04:04):
injury when he's forty seven. That's a you know what,
fifteen off days. I'm more than happy with that. Give
me give me one forty five a year. And you
can't use iah or ip. We got bad weather? Can
what's going on with our chie our weather? You're warning
take action? Now? What is this? This this is the
Channel thirteen app What are they doing to us. They's

(04:24):
trying to scare us here. They got the Natos. Oh,
he got shark. NATO's blowing Inlet be careful at their folks.
Check my radar over here on my phone. Okay, you
do that while I'll go through the games played by
Jordan and Alvarez. Twenty three it was one hundred and fourteen.
Is that when he had the big oblique issue. Yeah,
twenty twenty two, one hundred and thirty five, and then
one hundred and forty four before that, and then a

(04:45):
twenty twenty two. Of course he only played two he
had the big knee issues. Right, so over one hundred
and thirty five games for three of the last four years.
We'll see how much time he misses with this hand
issue as far. I mean, look, I hey, detail they've
given on it, I'll say, look, and history people have
injury histories. Yeah. I don't know if guys except you

(05:05):
know a handful of NBA players that you know, or
Cat Repkin that plays thousands of games in a row.
You got athletes pushing their their bodies to the limit.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Matt.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, there's sometimes they are going to break down. Yeah,
and there's fluky things that happen like, for instance, all
those years of Jeff bag Will kept getting hit in
the hand of the Oh gosh at the plate and yeah,
threw no fault of his own. But you know, time
was out. Time was out. So by the way, I
was just looking. I was just curious about jose L
Tuvay's game played. It's his birthday. How old is he today?

(05:33):
He is thirty five? On the decline? Can I wish
something first? Plays on decline style? He is not. No,
he's handling his business in left field. He's still getting hits.
He's hitting two fifty nine with an ops of six
eighty one. All right, well, it's been a little bit
of a downturn. Oh who's this weather cast on the
right over here? She's cute, looks tall too. We focus up. Okay, sorry,

(05:56):
God is on Twitter. I don't know Matt. He's not
interested in you. Okay, it's fair, and you're happily married,
and I'm happily married. But I want to introduce myself.
You ever get in trouble like I just want to know.
Never she doesn't listen to the show, And she doesn't
listen to the show. She doesn't listen to the show,
probably just because of comments like that. She knows the bit,
so just relax. You stay out of us byway, Jonathan,

(06:18):
don't worry. I'll get you in trouble for the years
of war. Don't you already have?

Speaker 3 (06:21):
What did I do?

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Made fun of her of her sauces? Man, Well, that's ridiculous.
Five ranch dressings on a sounds too much. She thought
it was funny. That's ridiculous. Yeah, I mean that is
ranch soup. That is gross. Yeah, I don't even soaggy.
Let us over my addressing. Okay, back to it. Uh yeah,
So I did OPS run yesterday? Okay? Uh Paina seven
fifty nine good. I mean, we'll take that for a

(06:45):
lead off guy. But then you started to give a
heart of the order. I'l two a six eighty one,
Peretta seven fifty two, uh Walker six nineteen, yan Air
Dias six eleven, Zach Descendo has been playing a lot,
frankly six eighty two. And then your boy or Rake
is at seven ninety four. Woo. Cam Smith's rookie campaign
not gonna win the Rookie of the Year. The ops

(07:06):
is he's got time. He's also got some in bats
to a home run game, he'd be up to the
ops like seven to fifty. Yes, early his ops is
six fifty five and the Mauricio Dubons ops is five
twenty four, five twenty four, five twenty four. Well, I
thought he was going to be the savior for the Astros,
and he needed to be, you know, L two need
to be traded away because he's the secondar. Talking about

(07:28):
Cam Smith being the future and that how he doesn't
make the team out of spring training is is absolutely Travis. Yeah, okay,
back to my initial point, go ahead, uh dere Is
Derrett five hundred. Their pitching has been I would say
if you gave a great B right, uh U B plus? Okay, sure,

(07:52):
I don't know where I'm gonna go. Put the old
team ranks. Okay, I'll take B plus. You are a
they're fifth, are six? Excuse me, okay, no fifth? Okay,
I can't read. So let's give me my a B
plus then, yeah, top five, you got a quality star
on the road. Top five Era is a B plus,
maybe even an A. Yeah, okay, so it works out.

(08:14):
We'll give him. We'll give him a B plus then.
But the offense has been a D twenty first in
t ops D is about right C minus D yeah, tomato, potato.
So what I'd like. What I would like is I
would like the offense to match the what is perceived
to be a very good start for this pitch. They

(08:35):
were never going to be a top five, top ten
off one. Okay, top ten ish would would be the goal.
They were never going to be. I mean, this is
the thing, Like I said, we get in our Houston bubble,
We're like, hey, Christian Walker and you're an now for
They're not getting close to the Yankees offense. Look at
what the Dodgers have up and down their line up,
the Cubs right now as well. Thankfully, the Astros Division
is meant at best it's final. However, the Seattle Mariners

(08:58):
are three in front of the Astros. The Seattle Mariners
have a better record than the New York Yankees. Wow,
they've been hitting. If you are three games above five
hundred in the American League East, you are in first place.
The Boston Red Sox wered second place, are five hundred
in the American League East. What I mean, it has
been frankly and of all years for the Astros to

(09:19):
get off of this kind of mid start. Which is
five hundred. Yeah, it hadn't killed them. And that's why
part of me is like, man, if you guys wake up,
you can not only take over this division, but you
can you know, really make you know, think about what
you may want to come trade deadline and really get
yourself in a spot because maybe the Yankees are more
vulnerable than the past. You beat Detroit two out of

(09:42):
three when they were here last week, and there that
they've got the best rock in the American League. There's
no reason why you can't amongst this miss, this group
of mediocrity, be the best of the of the middle. Yeah,
if you can just be middle of the pack well
as far as offensively and then the pitching holds, this
is going to be a good team and there they
can win the division. I think cal Raley and Jorge

(10:04):
Polonka have gotten off to white hot starts for the Mariners.
I think a cal Rally's really good and he's just
signed a big deal, But I don't think he's going
to hit forty home runs. I think he's going to
cool off at some point. That's right, all right. On
the radio program that We've got gut feelings at eleven
thirty this morning. Anything in your gut today. I want
to make a little gut about the Rockets offseason. If
you're not ready to do it, I don't want to

(10:25):
force it to Yeah, unless you've got something no, because
I don't mean, I mean, I'll be burnally honest with you.
I don't gut. I have a gut feeling. I say
it for a long We've got the news fluctuating. It's
a fluctuating gut. Well, maybe an inn ascid could help
with that. I'm looking forward to it, or regular botble movement.
Whatever you need to do. Huh h. I think I'm

(10:46):
okay in that department. But thank you for your concern.
When I go on these year on these Facebook rolls,
I go signs of a bad gut, I'm like, well,
you know what, eating free dos and fries in the
same meal probably is a reason for you have a
bad gut. Oh, I shouldn't do that. I don't think so.
It was on the Freedoms and FRI's diet. It feels
kind of startchy. Yeah. We have the news at noon
and then at one o'clock today we're going to run

(11:08):
the press conference between Imaadoka and Rafel Stone, the Rocket
Wonder coach and general manager. They're over at Tota Center
today kind of an off season thing. Now, I guess
I shouldn't guess. I feel very confident. And they're not
going to be bentioning players by name in terms of
other players out there. They really can't do that. But
we'll do some context clue evaluation. How about that? Uh, yeah,

(11:29):
we're looking at everything. We'll hear conversations and we have
to do some evaluations. And we haven't made a decision
and this is a long process that we've gone through.
And we like the players that we have and then talent,
and I think we can grow. And people have to
remember we were ahead of schedule when you talk about
where we are right now. So I think the organization
is in a really good spot. You just gave the
ten o'clock audience a preview what we're gonna be running

(11:50):
a live at one o'clock today, and for that we
thank you. Seven one three, two one two five seven
nine eight. If I tell you, as a diehard Astro
fan like I am and have been for forty plus years,
I'm bored with them, Not with them generally, but just
bored right now. Are you with me on this? Are

(12:12):
you like no, Matt, You're you're missing You're missing something here.
I mean it's a high flying bet cracking Houston Astros.
Matt Defense seventeen and seventeen. Good defensively, you good pitching wise.
But if I'm bored, are you with me? Or are
you like no? I see more than you're seeing. Let
me know. Seven one three, two one two five seven
ninety With the things you learn on iHeartRadio. So renowned

(12:37):
actor John I thought it was Lithgal called himself John Lithgow.
You know what. That's why you listen to the iHeart
podcast to get anyway I heard paining him the big bucks,
to get the to get the uh information on proper pronunciations.
Is there anybody else in your life that you've butchered
their name for all these years? And you go, my god,

(12:57):
I went all this time. M Yeah, you're putting me
on the spot. There'll be something. It'll it'll come up
to mind, like, oh, I can't believe I've been calling
that guy that for all these years. Uh. Yes, there's
a couple of baseball players that I always get wrong
and go back and forth on I can't remember first
of all, was calling Logan is Logan Van Way? I

(13:21):
was calling him Logan Van Why no, that's wrong. Ooh,
sorry about that. M U give you okay, I'm sure.
Well Logan's that he's probably listening. He's in Sugarland right now,
you think he is. I mean, there's a chance I
appreciate him. Thanks for the support. Well, I mean he
did pitch over the weekend. Uh huh so all right?
Uh yeah, just think about that. Is there a name

(13:42):
that you in your life you have butchered that you're like,
oh my god, I went years and years and years
of that. So just just think about that in the
back of your mind or somebody you knew. It could
be somebody you know too, could be yours, you know,
like cousin Elma. There was somebody up here who called
me Russ for like ten years. Why do you out
in shawn Salisbury like that? That's not true. He called
me Ross and Roscoe. You know that. I've never called

(14:06):
you Roscoe. Well, okay, that's fine. He always calls me Maddie. Ballgame. Well,
he was the only one that called me Roscoe. And
then I had an economics teacher that would call me Roscoe. Bosco.
No way. Yeah, and you're like, you don't miss Dragon.
I think she's alive. Her name was miss Dragon economics
high school. In high school, well, she was a bet

(14:28):
on the on the net last n and she married
in that name. Uh yeah, she married a dragon Matt Yes,
most famous person named Dragon. Can you can you go
for you get one guest and one guess only for
Dragon like dones. Nope, from Martin Darryl Dragon. Now you're
just making that up. Her husband, his wife, the great
Tony Tanil. They were the Captain Intil. I'll take your

(14:49):
word for it. No, you should. You should take my
word for Do you think I was anybody in this
market that knows Captain in Tanil? It's me, that's true.
You're the official bureau of Captain Inton Neil information. I
had a crush on Tony Taneil for a long time. Okay,
I was a kid, very much alive.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
Good.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Darryl Dragon is dead, Oh may he rests man. And
they basically had a loveless marriage. They based. She basically
admitted that happens. It's gonna happen. Why because it was
it a beard situation? What is a beard situation? That's
when somebody who especially back in the day when it
was less acceptable to be out a no no, no no.

(15:23):
They just he just didn't feel like the need for intimacy.
And she's like, come on, yeah I could. So was
it a beard situation? I mean, I guess I said
she was hot. I thought she was. I wouldn't say hot,
I would say I was just trying to crush on her.
I did. Yeah, there's emotional. I can have a singing
crush on somebody, but you had a crush on her
singing voice rather than like a del I saw. I

(15:46):
still listen to level keep us together at least once
a day. Once a day you wake up, your brushing
your teeth, We'll keep us still gather. You know the song, Yeah,
I mean I've heard it. It's kind of cheesy, not cheesy.
It's terrific. That's okay, cheesy and pterrific is kind of
the Vin diagram. You stick, you stick right in there,

(16:07):
I mean A plus be eagles Matt. So there you go, exactly.
Let's talk to Kyle and Cyprus at ten twenty three
on seven. I Kyle, good morning to you, thanks for calling.

Speaker 5 (16:16):
Hey, good morning, thank you.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
H yeah, real quick I had a guy I worked
with for a long time. I called him Ahole, but
I think his name was Paul.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
So was that Was that a characteristic of him or
just pronounce a name wrong?

Speaker 3 (16:33):
I guess characteristic?

Speaker 1 (16:36):
Okay, I got you, I got you.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah, And Tonyl is awesome by the way, But hey,
real quick, John Litsgo. The best performance I've ever seen
is on the that movie The Twighlight Zone when he
was a scared guy in the airplane. It's worth watching.

Speaker 5 (16:50):
The movies or that nice.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
I think William Shatner played the original on the TV show.

Speaker 5 (16:55):
But Liftgo was just incredible TV.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Show that it was on the that had French Steward
on it, and he was on Dexter. He was in uh.
I believe he was in terms of endearment as the
like the side piece of Devil Winger's character. Don't help
me do that, Okay, continue on.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, he's on something with some big It was.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
Some big creatures.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
I don't know he.

Speaker 6 (17:25):
Was here was the uh but yeah, so hey, not
to get on a down or subject, but man, you
hit it right on the head.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
I didn't know what was going on. I just hadn't
been excited strows and can't really get hyped up for it.
I don't know something's missing. I just uh, I don't
feel real good about this season. And uh, you know,
I know I didn't have the expectation to sign him
Bregnant and Tucker, but you know, hindsight's twenty twenty. But

(17:59):
was there a chance we could have signed Tucker because
he's just just lighting it up?

Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, Kyle, the reality is this, there was a one
percent chance you could have signed Alex Bregman. There was
a zero percent chance you're gonna sign Kyle Tucker. Kyle
Tucker never in his mind ever thought, hey, the Astros
are part of my future. First of all, he wants
a mega contract. Secondly, uh, and probably the most importantly,
I think the damage with the arbitration deal when he

(18:25):
lost it and you get resentment really stung. And I
think it was a I'll forget, but I will not forget.
And I think he was thinking, at the end of
the day, I want to go see what else is
out there, and oh, by the way, you take me
to arbitration after what I've done for this organization, No thanks,
And I think that did some damage.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
Yeah all right, Yeah, well so we have to move on.
But yeah, we gotta do something, man, we gotta make
a we gotta make a move something there. There's just
not that spark. I don't know if it sound too
big out there and left, you know, I don't know
what it is, but there's something.

Speaker 5 (18:55):
And I know.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Brandon Rodgers didn't really pulling his weight and first base
we still have those issues, but I don't know, it's just, uh,
I'm kind of bummed down. I'm ready for the Texans already.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Well, thank you, kaf focal. And again, the byproduct of this, honestly,
guys and gals, is the fact they're five hundred. There
is no one unless you're a super underperforming team that
gets excited about five hundred. Like if you're the Colorado Rockies,
you're expected to lose one hundred games before the start
of the season. If they're five hundred at this point,
you're like, man, this has been fun watching this team. Now,

(19:28):
granted they're not five hundred, they're gonna they have the
worst marketing in baseball six and twenty eight. Now, if
you're the Athletics and you're hanging around America League West,
if you're around five hundred, you're like, Okay, this is
pretty cool. I mean, we've got a new stadium in
New City. We're not in our own base watching our
base watches our game. Nobody goes to our games to
drawing nine thousand a game. We're playing five hundred baseball.

(19:48):
This is kind of fun. But I think for a
and that's I don't think it's we're wrong in our emotions,
but there is a point in in every franchise where
you take that slight dip or sometimes significant dip. And thankfully,
at this point the dip has been minimal, but it's

(20:08):
still now, granted, compared to where this team was last year.
That's the thing we have to kind of keep in
perspective here, is that this bast Ros baseball team was
a hot mess last years. Yeah. I mean, if they're
gonna put together this like this June charge like they
normally do well, if they're hanging around five hundred through
the month of April and May, you gotta be feeling
pretty good about things. So I don't know, it's just

(20:30):
five hundred, and that could be about a football team,
that could be about your basketball team. I mean, look
look at the Rockets last year. Forty one and forty one.
I mean, that was great, it was fun, but it
didn't necessarily rejuvenate basketball in our town. But I've got
rejuvenation was fifty two wins and a number two seed
in the playoffs. In a playoffs here, I'll step towards rejuvenation.
You know what I'm saying. By my point is that
you if you're just mediocre or average, that means your

(20:53):
restaurant's not overly busy. You can have a few people
in it. Huh. You could have a TV show that
you know, settles in the forties and fifties. It's still
on the air, but nobody's like running to make sure
I got to watch it. And if you're a baseball
team or a sports team and you're five hundred, you're like, yeah,
I'll catch you when I can. But last night, nine heads,
eight singles, bases loaded, got one run out of it. It

(21:14):
was because of a fielder's choice. Air. They want a
lot of drama to it, went a lot of energy
to it. And oh, by the way, they were they
lost to a Milwaukee team who won the game yesterday,
and they're five hundred on the air just mid Nobody
wants to be mid in life, mired in mediocre, not good.
But as I say all these things again, Glass have

(21:34):
full on this for me. You're mid and you're right
in the thick of America League West race. For that, Manu,
you're right in the thick of the America League race.
It's Detroit and everybody else. Honestly, yay, yeah, yeah, you
can say yay, Okay, you see you know what you say.
You seventeen and seventeen ya saying okay, okay, I got you.

(21:58):
It can get better, it will get better.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
I can't imagine getting significantly.

Speaker 4 (22:02):
Work.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Keep saying it's gonna turn. We keep saying the bats
are gonna wake up, and well it's it's early. We
keep saying that too. Joe Spott will be with us
at twelve thirty two. You know, we're gon we're gonna
get We're gonna get him fired up. I don't think
he's gonna be that fired up. No, we're gonna get
him fired up for what updusted to talk to him
about it. Look at him. Oh, you're gonna get him angry.
I'm just gonna say, hey, let's let's start pounding and

(22:23):
start the table and start throwing things. I'm gonna have
him go. But the boys put a movie on, one
of the greatest base on movies of all time, Samlot, No,
I'm not putting salt in the Astros clubhouse. Why not because,
first of all, overrated. He hasn't seen it. You haven't
seen it yet, but it's overrated. Probably have not seen Jonathan,
donnot me like that. I don't care. I knew you were.

(22:44):
I was gonna do it first, Yeah, I was seein
then beat me to the punch seven to one three.
He's learning about how fraudulent you are. Not fraudulent. I'm
brutally honest. Seven one three two one two five seven
ninety seven one three two one two five seven one.
If you want to join our conversation baton Ross with
you here on Sports Talk seven and we have got
feelings at eleven thirty today, you ready for that? I

(23:08):
got a lot of good feelings. Actually, by the way,
A to tell the truth, yesterday did not more Orc.
The Celtics lost game one of their series of the Knicks. Yeah,
what was your I think the sweat Celtics sweeping them. Yeah, well,
every one of the juggernauts of the team the three
teams I would say the most chance to win the

(23:28):
championship all lost and home and had home. It's crazy.
That's the semifinals to me is the sweet spot. First
round you get the riff raff out Atlanta, Orlando, Houston.
That's kidding, they're not riff raff. You know what I'm saying, right, yeah,
you get some of the riff raff out, and then
the semifinals is where it really heats up. Nikolae Joki,

(23:49):
you have forty four twenty two rebound, six assists something
like that. He's just excuse my French. He's a sick bitch.
He's the best player on the planet. Should have won
MVP this year. But Shake gilg is Alexander's gonna win it.
That's okay. You a seven foot or average of triple
double under one fifty games and not gonna win the MVP.
That's crazy. Shake Gildes's axenter wakes up scoring thirty five. Um,

(24:11):
well yeah you no, he only had thirty three last night.
Oh okay, well, rebound date assists, he's great. Chet Holmgren
missed a couple of clutch free throws. I know, well, Matt,
are we losing everybody already. Yeah, forget what good Okay,
five more seconds. Two great games last night. That's it.
That's what I'll say, all right. To Hannah and Cal.
They went to the country club to have their golf
tournament to raise money. Good for them, man, I didn't

(24:33):
have to do that, Yeah, Matt raising money for charity.
She is the president of the Texans Foundation, right or
vice president or who the president is? If she's the
vice president, maybe it's Cal. I know it's not Kerry McNair.
He carries a lot on the plate president a lot
of things. Janice is still she's out of everything, right,
But she's alive. Oh, she is alive. Okay. I'm sorry.

(24:55):
I wasn't trying to be. I just couldn't remember. Yeah,
she's alive. Okay. But Cal and Hannah we're speaking a
lot of cow. Until Hannah had to jump in to rescue.
Should have grabbed his hand, col we talked about this before.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Cow.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Let me, let me let me through this cow. Obviously.
I have a relationship with Tillman for Tita, and I
had a relationship with Tilman before Italy. Yeah, but I
had a relationship with him before the Rockets own it. Huh.
I've known Jim Crane for a long time now. I
don't know if he knows my name anymore, but that's okay.
I've been with Jim multiple times in a non press

(25:33):
conferencing atmosphere, so I have I mean, if he saw me,
he would have recognize me and say you lost. That's
a great story, Matt. Okay. My point is this, I
have no relationship with Cal, but if Col was to
come in here and sit down, I think we'd find
Col engaging. I don't. I don't think there's really a
me engaging. Excuse me? Pleasant? Oh, I'm sure he'd be nice. Yeah,

(25:56):
talk about barbecue ribs, and I mean, I don't think
there's a case. I don't think there's a mean bone
in his body. And I don't think I think he
generally wants the team to win. I think he generally
appreciates the relationship he now has with the fans. I
think generally genuinely. Excuse me. It's like every other person
owns a multi bay in our industry. They want to

(26:17):
make more money, and so you have to mix all
that in. Be friendly, throw out the ages. Got this
hot wife who does most of your heavy lifting, four appearances. Yeah,
but it's very difficult for me as a talk show
host to have to discuss ownership of the of the
sports franchise in our town with one guy that it's

(26:43):
the elevator and all way to the top there. It
just doesn't. And it's and it's hard because you don't
because first of all, you never want to make fun
of people. It's not fun to make fun of people.
I get made fun of all the time, and I
take it personally and I and so it's not enjoyable.
I'm sorry, Matt, I'll stop making funny. Well, I mean,
you know, I don't care who does. I just it's
not it's not nobody wants to be made fun of.

(27:08):
But I mean, imagine Colt in front of a microphone.
If Hannah wasn't at his side. Yeah, he wouldn't be
owning the team, and he wouldn't be in this leadership
role if he didn't. He didn't even do anything to
own it, didn't raise the funds. Now, he was next
to Dad the whole time, Smart moved by him. Yes,

(27:29):
obviously he isn't very shading, much more than Carrie's brother was.
But it's tough because he does carry such clout for
a guy that was gifted a what is it? What
are the Texans worth four billion dollars? Five? Maybe five?
Who give her tank? So here's just went for six.
So here's there. So here's some comments yesterday when they

(27:50):
were at the golf uram and again kudos to them
for having a golf turment that tries rain money for
their foundation.

Speaker 5 (27:57):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
Uh, here is tol McNair on the update on the
lease with NRG Stadium.

Speaker 7 (28:05):
We're working with some really good partners with the Rodeo
and also the county and it's a it's a complicated
kind of a mixture. But with the practice facility, we're
working on that almost every day.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
And the lease.

Speaker 5 (28:19):
Overall lease, we're working on that.

Speaker 7 (28:20):
And where we wind up with practice facility, I'm not
really quite sure yet. We have a lot of great
options and we'll sort of sort through that, you know,
sooner rather than later.

Speaker 5 (28:31):
But we're in a good spot and we'll keep working
out of complex long.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Okay, that's thank you for that that update. First of all,
the general public doesn't care about the practice facility, no, no,
I mean as awesome as the rockets facility is, nobody
was around, going, man, we got this new practice facility
of which ninety nine point percent of Houston will not
will never walk into. No, it's cool because it helps

(28:56):
with free agency, it helps with facilities that helped with
the grind of a season, whether it's football, baseball. I mean,
you want to have you want to have nice facilities.
So the players that are thinking about coming to your
respective teams. But in terms of the general overall landscape,
there's no there's no Rocket fan or no future Texan
fan beating their chest. Go man. We got this great

(29:18):
practice facility. Thank God for that. So that's all relative.
The general public only cares about one thing right now
when you're talking about facilities, and that is the future
of where they're going to be playing after the least expires.
I think it was a twenty thirty one, I think
is what it is. Is that right, I'll take continue
for Yes, here is cal mcnaran and potential relocation.

Speaker 7 (29:39):
What's great is we're we're okay where we all okay,
and so that's that's our starting point.

Speaker 5 (29:44):
And then would we move out, you know, we would
move out and do a pray.

Speaker 7 (29:49):
They want somewhere, but in greater Houston area Trada.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
And see that's where Hannah had to come in in
the gradationary greader Houcenaria cow. We told we went over
this cal greater use in an area because if he would,
if he wouldn't have said that, or if hannahouldn't have
jumped in the next question, you would hope by the
the real media that's there, it's compared to some of

(30:14):
the fake that were there yesterday would have been are
you exploring outside of Houston? And so thankfully Hannah came
in like she's done for the best the last three years.
Uh huh, he's coming in scooped in and kind of
fixed the slight audio full paw that the CAL had. Yeah,
so they He also said beginning, I think it was

(30:35):
key he said we're okay where we are is what
he said at the beginning. Now we love where we are.
Where couldn't be happier with the facility. The very beginning
he says we're okay. No, he's lying, well he's at
least I think he's not lying and saying we're okay,
like we're okay, like okay, if we have to, if
if worst comes to worst and we can't get anything
passed through. We can't find a spot. We're okay where

(30:57):
we are. The big, the big question is going to
be like, how's that going with that new girlfriend of yours.
We're okay where we are. M that doesn't mean that
doesn't sound like there's a wedding bells in the future,
That's right. So the question is going to be, ultimately,
do they want Stanton Harris County? Does Fort Bend, Montgomery?

(31:19):
I don't think water is way too far Brazoria it
is somebody does an outside Southeast Texas county. Nope, I
mean I guess, I guess you there is you could
get to get the pleasure pier. No, not just a mark,
but Galveson County starts what right past friends would I think?
I mean, you could do that, but that would be
really I think far away. Yeah. The question is going

(31:39):
to be will there be an outside county that will say,
you know what, we have a chance to help build
this taj Mahal to bring in this quote unquote business stadium, facility, hotel,
restaurant and just like these little sports communities that have
been popping up around the country. M hmm. If no
one steps up, then they have to ultimately say, all right,
what do we have to contribute to fix the renovation

(32:00):
that has energy? And from what? I Again I don't
I'm not in their business, but everybody keeps telling me.
At least the reports is that the county or whoever
is in charge of the stadium has done a woeful
job of keeping it up to date. Now, keeping up
to date to me would mean is electricity on? Do this?
Are the seats in good shape or are they keeping

(32:20):
up to date compared to what every other stadium is
getting with the brand new rebuilds and the hundreds of
million dollars in improvements and the better club seats. I mean,
So the finding is whether or not they've done their
job and year to your improvements, I think is up
for conjecture. Seems like they're well behind the Joneses. I
think compared to what was singing on the NFL that
that's kind of obvious. Ten forty four on Sports Talk

(32:42):
seven Udy, it is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
So ROSSI, you've been in this business for ten to
fifteen years. You're about to get stadium texteen sixteen years.
You're about to get some serious stadium talk. Come up
in next three to four. I will see it, will
aid you. I'm not worried about it. It aged me.
Young Matt Thomas had haul of hair when we explained

(33:03):
a lot. Actually, yeah, had lots of hair until we
got stadium talking. Then we lost all the left. Yeah,
that wasn't fun. Seven one three two one two five
seven ninety seven one three two one two five seven
ninety Matt ross with you. We've got feelings coming up
in forty minutes. A few things I want to clean
up here. First of all, is that something on Twitter

(33:24):
that said this Ricky Steamboat his nickname is the Dragon.
I was going with the last name dragon, and so
I'm still right, Darrel, Dragon's the most famous last name
of dragon. Uh yeah, Mike Matta, Mike Matta, that's not
true to your boy, Matt. The most famous dragon is
Ricky the steamboat Dragon. But he put a laughing crying emoji.
Perhaps could be a was yeah, you know, sarcasms tough
sometimes tough to catch on the Twitter street, it can

(33:44):
be okay. Number two, Joanes says a name she still
butchers is a men Thompson. It's not Amen Thompson, it's
a men h and uh, number three to television little
tidbits for you. You know, I amost curious about TV stuff.
That's what. Yeah, that's what we call you, mister tidbits.
Now that's actually that's actually Brian McTaggart and it's his

(34:09):
time for tidbits. Uh. The Warriors Rockets game average six
and a half million viewers on Sunday to rank as
cables most watched game one Round seven since two thousand
and nine. That's sixteen years. Wow. TNT has a four
percent viewership bonus in viewership over last year three point

(34:33):
three million viewers, ranking his table the top cable net
in prime through the first two weeks among people under
the age of thirty five. That fits the scenario. I
get lots of people that will comment on my Facebook
and Twitter and Instagram is saying I don't want NBA
it's two woke, or I don't like jump shots and no, no, no,
it's usually thirty five plus the thirty five under crowd

(34:56):
forty five plus okay, forty five plus the thirty five
under tn T just pointed out loves the NBA and
they and Adam Silver knows that. So again to teach
his own I mean if you don't like it and
ratings bumps are not gonna say, well I should go
track it again. You should go check it out. Either
you like something you don't like it, like, for instance,

(35:18):
you love Kendrick Lamar. Yeah, I find no value in him.
I don't just I don't just disagree with your love
for him. I respect it, but that's fine, it's just
not me. I don't like it. Yeah, so I don't
I choose how to listen to it. Yeah, right, Like
if you, uh, you like wrestling, Matt and so I
actually tweet about things that happen in wrestling, I don't
go reply to your tweet and go wrestling sucks. This

(35:39):
is the worst. Well, it's funny because Twitter people do that.
No people mind, You're like, I watching that, then don't Yeah,
I know, I don't know. You comment the Rockets and
they're like I checked out of the NBA in nineteen
ninety seven or nineteen ninety eight when basketball died with
Michael Jordan. Okay, that's cool, man, guy, you don't even
tell me. Yeah, I mean, welcome to mute Landela seal later.

(36:04):
I mean I'm older, I'm in the old group. I
mean I am I'm fifty plus that it's what it is.
I just don't need to tell you how I feel
about everything, Thank you, Matt. And I had this radio
show to tell you that I think soccer and Kendrick
Lamar suck. But that's a different issue for a different time.
You think Kendrick Lamar sucks. No, I just it's just
not my cup of tea, alright, one thing on the
televenty two Grammies says otherwise. Yeah, but then he was

(36:26):
buying votes, all right. MLB media chief Kenny Gersh never
heard of the guy, but I'm gonna beat taste them.
Kenny Gersh, that's not a great Gersh. And that sounds
like the lame neighbor of the next the lame next
door neighbor in a sitcom. Hey, there's there's mister Gersh.
He was my high school pe teacher, mister Gersh. Okay,

(36:49):
back to the way. I'm sorry that was. That was
my fault, says in twenty twenty eight, yes, which is
three years from now. Three years from now, he would
like either in Nash little stream streaming package, which is suicide. Frankly,
I mean, I know we're all streaming, but We're ain't
streaming to go watch the Cardinals against a Phillies. It's sorry,
it ain't happening. I thought they had They don't have

(37:11):
like a league pass. Don't they have MLB TV. I
think it's a week it's a game of the week
kind of things. Well, or MLB network becomes the home
of local baseball, like they'll have ten affiliates, like they
have the alternate channel, like they'll have you'll have team,
you alternate channels for the team, which would essentially destroy

(37:36):
every regional sports network, which would mean baseball would be
paying thirty play by play man, thirty color guys staff, sideline. Well,
maybe the team would be paying for yeah, the Houston version. Yeah,
and then they have to get thirty sales staff to
make money on all of them. Does sem plausible? The

(37:57):
reality is this, you are losing regional sports networks by
the year Colorado, San Diego, Minnesota. There's probably a three
in baseball more than basketball. I guess NFL's obviously its
own animal. Uh, you know, I don't know. I don't
have an answer to you because the Rangers, by the way,
are no longer on They were a fanuel. Okay, they

(38:21):
have their own network now they do. Yeah, it's like
Rangers Tech Day Ranger Network. Yeah, uh, now don't they
don't supply commentary and programmy twenty four US today. They
just put games on and they replay them and stuff.
But it's on my direct TV. It's a channel. When
are the Rockets and Astro is going to do that?
Nineteen bucks a month Space City Home Network, let's go.

(38:43):
I don't know. With the Matt Thomas Show on ten
to two, maybe they want to keep people going to
Direct TV or to AT and T, the the cable devices.
Maybe that you know, you offer the streaming because you
want to get people an alternative to what is currently on,
and maybe they are long you know, and if you
want us that, damn you will go to those networks,
you know. And people that are YouTube TV people, they

(39:06):
can't get it. No, they can't what they what what
what certain teams want to do? And obviously the Rockets
are an astras in this group. They don't want you
to be a YouTuber. They want you to go to
Direct TV or do cable or Infinity or whatever else
you know carries a channel. They're saying, if you want
us that bad, then you know, where to find us,
and we're not going to give you all the card service.
Some teams do that. The Rockets and Astros have chosen

(39:28):
not to do that. So far, so far, so far.
All right, let's get to the top of the hour,
which ruin and I'll pass. I wants to talk about
the Astros' rotation and the Hunter Brown question. We'll get
to that. As the Astros did fall yesterday to the
Milwaukee Brewers five to one. We've got gut feelings coming
up in a half an hour and in two hours
the Rockets, Emaodoka and rafel Stone will have a press

(39:49):
availability and we will carry that for you live here
on Sports Talk seven ninety seven one three two one
two five seven ninety is how you reach the show
if you want to get in one on Sports Talk
seven ninety Good morning, it is Matt and Ross and
we thank you for being a part of the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross on Sports Talk seven eighty's seven
one three. You're welcome. Well, I mean we pay you

(40:11):
to be here. Oh wow, that's true. Seven one three
is like I'm working for free because I love working
with you every day. Man. That's what I'm saying. Our
number two of this show. Yeah, I don't think I
believe it's talk seven ninety seven. Can just give you
a hug you don't rather be? And Grand Rapids, Minnesota
around in Michigan right now? Grand Rapids. What's isn't that

(40:32):
place of dump?

Speaker 6 (40:34):
Um?

Speaker 1 (40:35):
It sounds a lot cooler than it is. It's actually
not got it does. It's got a pretty decent downtown
vibe to it. Okay, In fact, Grand Rapids downtown greater
than Houston downtown. All right, saying when's the last time
you were in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. Well, I was
doing arena football, So yeah, son, it's been a while
all those buildings have been condemned that you were partying at.

(41:00):
Okay seven one three, two, one two five, seven ninety
We got got Phillis coming up at the bottom of
the hour. We have the EMAILO could get together at
one o'clock with Raphael Stone. We had the Astros falling.
We got Joe a spot of the join us and
I've not gotten confirmation Joe, but I'm assuming twelve thirty right, Oh,
I guess I think it was one thirty last week,
so maybe we should check in. Well, usually when it's

(41:21):
later than that. Let us let us know. Okay, that
is I mean Meiwauk. It's the same same time zone,
the same time zone. Yeap. By the way, the Astros
have lost three or four in this Midwest road trip.
It is what it is, right, and they're being mid
in the Midwest. Yeah. Is that the headline of the
Chronicle today? I don't think so. It was the last

(41:42):
time you touched the Chronicle, a phil It felt it
in my fingers. I don't know. It is, honestly, probably
probably like eight oh nine.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
So.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
I was going to get coffee one morning in San
francisc Go last week, and uh, there were copies of
the Wall Street Journal, which I'm not bothering that. There
was some of other uh newspaper, and there was the
San Francisco Chronicle. I thought to myself, well, I'll go
pick that up. So I grabbed a copy because I
want to see what the uh San Francisco media was

(42:19):
saying about the series. I took two minutes. I'm like,
I don't have time for this. There's just ads all
over the place. It's just faster for me to go
to the website, which is SFGate dot com. As the chronicle.
You didn't get a paywall for a couple of things
I did not know. But my point is that if
you think there's paywall and ads all over those spots
on your on your internet newspaper addresses, go get it.

(42:41):
Go get a hard copy. Today eighty percent of the
page is an ad. Well, advertising dollars make the world
go around, Matt, speaking of what you'd like to thank
all our great sponsors, Oh, we have huge, great sponsors.
But at least we give you value. That's true, that's true.
You don't think quality home products is happy that I'm
gonna send people over there to get you guys a
generation stand by generator. Of course, if that's the right

(43:02):
thing to do. Weather sucks around here. You need a generator.
Thank you, Matt, Thank you, thanks for the help. Seven
one three. I've been providing a service, frankly, seven one
three quality. Let's talk to Dwayne and el Paso at
eleven o four. Dwayne, how's the hurricane season out there
in West Texas?

Speaker 2 (43:19):
We ain't have we don't have them. Are we have
some hard winds blow? But that's about it.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
You know what I'm telling you. What I've been ol
Passo a handful of times. You don't have crappy weather, do.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
You, no, sir? Sunshines twenty four and then we might
have rain every once in a while. But now, uh.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
Uh, you're blessed because I think we were trying to
find a part of the country that doesn't have severe
weather of some sort. Like you go to California, you
get the mud slide, you get the earthquakes, you get
their hurricanes. Here you've got oppressive heat in the south,
and then you have like the snow and the blizzards,
and maybe maybe El Paso's a spot ROSSI could be
just thrown it out there. What do you doe? As
long as you're not in the cartel.

Speaker 4 (43:59):
If you guys are are okay with uh uh the
shifting of the ground, then hey, it happens here, so yes, sir,
twice a year.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
I was uh it was the other day that I
felt one and I was in the room, my room
and stuff.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
But the walls.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Didn't shape, nothing shook except the floor itself shifted and
then the bed moved quite a bit. But other than that,
that was it.

Speaker 4 (44:28):
Man.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
But it can be scary sometimes.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
I get you, all right, get to those sports. Now, man,
what do you got there?

Speaker 4 (44:36):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Uh, I don't get bored with with any baseball, even
with the Astros. They're they're they're going up and down
and now and we don't know when it's going to happen,
when they'll be able to start, you know, playing good
ball again. But my question is is after the depletions
of the farm club that they have over there, and
then also the trades that they've made stuff and the

(45:00):
team that they have out there now, uh so, what
what do you think would it be a good time
for the Astros to uh uh pay Hunter Brown some
money before the the trade deadline comes up because he's

(45:21):
a very good pitcher. He's done some great things there
in Houston as far as pitching and you know, coming
to practices during the off season and stuff, and he's
just a real good picture. I just want to know time.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Okay, wouldn't nice not have to be It wouldn't be better.
Thank you for the phone call, Draing and say I
hope you are say earthquake free out there in the
West Texas. Nothing new with the trade deadline, it's about
you've got he's got arbitration years coming up, so you
could you could you could write him a contract tomorrow.
The reality is Dwayne into those of it that are
Hunter Brown fans. It was a chandler that reported a

(45:57):
little while ago that the Astros had that Hunter Brown
said hey, let's talk, and the Astros said, we're good
for now. Somebody legitimate said that. I can't recall. I
think it was channlering like a mailbag, is what it was.
I thought it was what it was. You know that
I might tack. I'm pretty sure it was Channel Rome.
Oh yeah, it was channling because I was looking at
his mail bag. I got too long ago. So if

(46:20):
you're a Hunter Brown, now, unless the Astros make a
really really sweetheart deal when it comes to buying out
the arbitration years, he's gonna say, you know what, we'll
just go year by year by year, and then when
I become a free agent, what would be four years
from now, then we'll test the free agent waters. Mm hmm.

(46:41):
I don't want to say that chip has passed because
obviously things can change. And again, if you when you
buy out arbitration years, you're buying for over the what
the market says your value is. But then you also
want to do that and extend beyond those years, Like
for instance, you don't just buy arbitration years and that's it.
You buy arbitration plus two more or two or thre
three years typically after that when you're supposed to be

(47:02):
a true street free agency. Yeah, so you try to
save money on the back end, like say, for example,
yourdon's making what twenty nine million dollars, if he had
hit free agency after his or would hit arbitration, he'd
be making who knows, probably forty million dollars or whatever.
But you lose on the front. So that's that's more
money up front, more money up front, but the team

(47:24):
gets extra years of you where you can after six
years of having major league service time, you can then
become your own free agent and you can go see
what you want what you want out there. Yeah, you
can lose on the deal on both sides, or you
can win on Connor Brown could lose on the deal.
But if he say, has Tommy John surgery and then
you know he's or just is never the same after

(47:45):
that or something like that, he would he would be
having a lot, He would have a lot more financial
and the Astros buy out some Lance mccollor's years I
don't recall. I think he was close. But yeah, the
Astros lost on that deal, signing Lance mccullor's junior for
as long as they did because they haven't gotten anything
out of in the last couple of years. It's been
a sunk cost. So there's risk on both sides. Yeah,

(48:09):
Christiana Javier took the deal, Jordan Alvarez took the deal.
Kyle Tucker did not. Kyle Tucker said, I'm going to
bet on myself. It's funny. Don't you think it's the
Latin players that typically take it more because I think
they're in their byproduct of thinking, you know what, more
money for my me, more money for my family, more
money for uh. They they want to guarantee. It feels
like to me, the Latin players, at least for the Astros,

(48:31):
have all been way more accommodating in terms of the
buying out of the arbitration years than I mean from
the Dominican No, that's Alex Bregman from New Mexico. Okay, sorry,
Jewish guy from New Mexico. Yeah, so there you go.
There's your example. It's not I don't think it's Maybe
there is this something er al Tuve Jordan Bregman, Bragman,

(48:57):
that's four who else's girls? Kore is in Puerto Rico
and he didn't take a deal. I mean no, I
think Carlos gram maybe from the time he signed his
first professional contracts like I'm six years away. Probably well,
he's been toiling Minnesota. Maybe Kyle Tucker felt the exact
same way. They're going to mix bag for him betting
on himself. He hasn't lost that much. I mean he's

(49:19):
he's very well financial financial compets. There are players who
bet on themselves. Jared Kellenick was one of the top
prospects in baseball in the Mariners system, and he just
got a DFAD by the Braves. He was offered a
big deal by the Mariners to buy out arbitration. He said, no,
I'm going to bet on himself, and now he's he
just got DFAD by the Braves. So there are players
who bet on themselves. Took arbitration years from the Royals

(49:41):
and got then's and got then some. I mean they
really something ten year contract, right. Julio Rodriguez took a
big deal as well. You knew he's already wigging out
right now? Is Juan Soto's fan club in New York. Oh,
what's going is? I saw? I think or we were here,
we were with one so so one so so that's rude.

(50:07):
Do you know this? And we gotta get your break
on this? I would probably not. Probably. I respect the
hell out of Jim Crane's stance of I just can't
pay long term deals. Yeah, on the you know what, Jeale,
if I just don't get it, I get it. You
might miss once in a while, like, for instance, if
Kyle Tucker signs an eight year deal with Chicago and

(50:29):
continues to be an excellent player for the long term
whatever you know, mind point, Yeah, then that's going to
be a miss. But by and large, most of these
super mega deals don't pan out, And so if Jim's
gonna stay on that frame of mind, I think the Astros,
as long as Jim's running things, are keeping a responsible payroll,

(50:55):
and I think it gives them flexibility to go get
guys once in a while. It gives them flexibility to
go get it. Josh Hayter at the very last second.
It gives him an opportunity to go, uh, you know,
pick up you know who else have they gotten? Verd
Leander's maybe a bad example. But my point is that
I would if I wasn't, you know, not that I
would excuse you the freedom to sign Rafael Montero to

(51:16):
a big deal and Jose Chris Walker now that I
wouldn't do. But I don't think the Yankees are upset
with the Judge deal right now. I don't think. Let's
see Phillies and Bryce Harper, they're probably pretty happy with
that deal. Trout deal's not working out, Lynn Jones not
working out for him, Yeah, because of injury. Yeah, that's
part of it. When you sign a ten year deal,

(51:38):
you hope that your ten year guy. Francisco Indoor has
been bawling for the for the Mets. He was one
of the best plays. He had the He had more
war than Showhil Tani last year. And Bobby's been good
for Kansas City, Bobby Whit's been good. Uh Shoho Tani,
it's been good, especially with all that money that's deferred. Yeah,
Jeff Passon loves a deal. Yeah, let's see, I'm trying
to pull up the biggest contracts in baseball. Fernando Tatis, well,

(52:02):
he got suspended for a while, but he's been good.
Manny Machado, that deal's probably been good. Mookie Betts. I
think the Dodgers are happy with that, very happy with
that one. And flag Leero Junior. We'll see on that,
but that just happened. These are the biggest deals in baseball,
right and then one soda one, so so as they're
calling them all right seven one three, two, one two
five seven ninety seven one three two one two five

(52:25):
seven ninety If you want to join our program, we're
with you till two o'clock today, Bottom of the hours,
got feelings and if you're new to the show, first
four the hell have you been? Second? Dang glad to
heavy here. We make sports predictions. If you get them right,
we brang about them. If you get them we get
them wrong. We just usually pass them away. Yeah, like
if you said rockets and seven, let me just move on.
I mean, if you talk about this still like this,
so we really don't even bring it up. Rocket. See.

(52:50):
Most people had gart Warriors in seven though two No
the national pre pre series. Oh yeah, okay, oh yeah.
I was supposed to be motivation for the team. Nobody
thought we were gonna win it. I went to seven
seven one three two one two five, seven ninety seven
one three two one two five. It's eleven fourteen. It's
a Matt Thomas show. Ross, come in join us. We're

(53:12):
with you till two o'clock today here on Sports Talk
seven ninety friend Rossfield Riale is in morning today and
one of his all time favorite players is looking for
working now in the NFL. Who's that, Matt? I'm I'm

(53:34):
actually so you have been so in uh ingrained in
Rockets coverage that you don't know that Justin Tucker really
got released by the Braveness to know that he's not
one of my favorite all time players. You've only got
three jerseys of his That's not true. I've got zero jerseys.
He didn't make the game winner. That was at one
point the last game against an M. Now the last
game against A and M. They won it in College station,

(53:56):
stuffing them in a fourth and goal to go with situation. Hmmm,
questionable call at the end. I don't know. So the
Ravens are calling it a football decision now now to
be trying to be fair on this. He had his

(54:17):
worst season in the NFL ever last year. Yes, was
it horrific by general kicker standards. Or is it horrific
by Justin Tucker's standards. And I would have to say
probably closer to the Justin Tucker everything from sixty yards
in he makes. That wasn't the case last year. Ravens announced,

(54:39):
thank you very much for your contribution. Blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah. This is a football decision.
You folks have to understand. The average person lies four
times per day. Some are more than others. The Baltimore
Ravens is an organization lied. They're cutting him because they
know there is fire with smoke, with all the messuses.

(55:03):
I would agree with that, But I also will say
I was just bringing up field goal percentages from last year.
He was thirtieth out of thirty six kickers. I'm gonna say, yeah,
not every team's gonna have a couple of kickers here
and there. Yeah, Okay, one bad year and you're getting

(55:29):
rid of your greatest offensive threat not named Lamar Jackson.
I'm not trying to oversell this, but I'm gonna properly
it's a combination. I think would he still be on
the team if he had the highest field goal kicking
percentage in the league, I would say probably yes, And
if he didn't have the issues with the massage therapist,
then maybe they could chalk it up to an off year.

(55:51):
How old is justin Ticker? It's thirty five, Okay, so
that's not out of the ordinary for a thirty five
year old kicker who probably making great money to be released.
He's still got the highest field goal percentage in league history,
but he has been declining for a couple of years now, Okay,
So if you took away the massage stuff at its

(56:15):
value for the money that he is making, presuming he
was the highest PAI kicker, Romara, what was the cap hit?
How much guaranteed money do you have left? It's always
this with the NFL too, But if you have an
intangible you have a coin flip moment. Do I keep him?
Do I release? The off the field stuff clearly put
him over the top. Yeah, if I had to guess,

(56:37):
the off the field stuff being the alleged assaulting of
massage therapists. So everyone's trying to put the why is
does Sean getting away with it? In? Justin is not?
Can you connect the parallels to this at all?

Speaker 4 (56:55):
Or no?

Speaker 1 (56:56):
I mean it was a different the Texans did get
rid of him, the Browns didn't care. Justin Tucker will
probably will get signed somewhere. I don't think Justin Tucker's
out of football now unless it's really bad, right right,
unless we're hearing something really bad happening. I think Justin
Tucker is gonna get signed by somebody. I'm trying to

(57:18):
And maybe it's just because it's just you know, you
run with sports outrage to your social media accounts. Yeah,
I don't think Justin's done. Do I think he's on
a roster in two weeks?

Speaker 2 (57:31):
No.

Speaker 1 (57:31):
Could it be a situation where a player gets a kicker,
gets hurt in training camp or during the course of
the year, and he signs in the middle of the
season and comes in. Yep, happens all the time with you, you
know what, Oh the gut feeling for this coming up
in ten minutes, right, we'll say the rest of the
conversation then. But I I I don't think it's because
Deshaun's a quarterback and Justin's a kicker. I think there's frankly,

(57:57):
to me, probably a greater financial implication to whacking Deshaun
Watson from a team and the salary cap pit you
would have from that as compared to the salary cap
pit you would have for Justin Tucker. Does that make
more sense to you that it would hurt more to say,
we're not giving this guy chance, We're not giving an

(58:19):
opportunity to make amends. It's easier to do that with
a kicker. I'm granted, I'm guessing that Justin's very well compensated,
But the cap pit for a kicker, in theory, based
off of the position and how much money that position makes,
is significantly less of a hit a sting than if
you all of a sudden getting rid of a quarterback
he was making forty five to fifty million dollars a year.
It's it's all a matter of how good you can

(58:41):
be on the field. The NFL will take you wife beaters, criminals, assaulters,
you know, I mean even vehicular manslaughter literally multiple times.
If you can play on the field, the NFL will
find a way. And honestly, I don't really have a
big problem with that. If you're a free man, you're
free to walk, and you're free to, I don't know,

(59:02):
be a grocery bagger at Kroger. Why can't you kick
a football. I don't have a problem with that. So
that's what it's gonna boil down to is if a
team thinks that he can help them, then justin Tucker
will be on a team. But especially especially now that
he'll be at a discount, you can have the highest

(59:23):
percentage of field goal makes in the history of football
on your team at a discount. Now does he have
it left? Did Maybe the off season stuff, off the
field stuff affect is on the field play. That's not
crazy to think that we'd have to dig into the number.
I feel like, especially with NFL kickers and field goal percentages,

(59:45):
it can be flukey because you'll have one guy he
gets cut from a team and then he goes to
another team and he's like one of the best kickers
on the planet. It happens all the time. And maybe
it's a mental edge, maybe it's bad luck, maybe the
holder had something off, maybe the weather was bad that day.
You never know. With kickers, to me, you could also
just lose it on the field literally over a two
year span, you could. But I do that a look

(01:00:07):
if you are if if you don't think you're off,
this is in life. If you're a school teacher and
you got something going out the house, it can affect
your work. Yeah, I'll give you an example. Nick Folk
was horrible with the Buccaneers five six years ago and
he was released. Then he was really good with New
England and then the last two years with Tennessee. At

(01:00:27):
the age of thirty nine and forty, he's had the
highest field goal kicking making percentage in football for two
straight years. So it feels like it just goes up
and down with kickers. Yeah, and they move around. That's
why I would never pay one to a huge deal
for a long term. But oh, I think they were.
They are and I don't mean to be rude about it,
but I think they're literally a dime a dozen. Now
you have a good one like fair. Baron has had

(01:00:49):
a really good run here for the Texans. Yes, but
he's been up. There have been times where people want
him off the team.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
Well, he got that huge deal many years ago, and
I'm like, you're paying this guy who's making about sixty
percent of the field goals like the fourth highest kicker. Now,
he obviously played to that contract because he bailed out
to Miko Ryans on numerous occasions. The last couple of
years seven one three, two, one two five, seven ninety.
We need your sports predictions. You can do it right now.

(01:01:14):
You've got something you told your buddies at the office
yesterday or this morning. It's trying to put your name
on it and make it a part of a gut feeling.
Seven one three, two one two five seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seven ninety listen ups
and by seven So appeal. Wasn't that Toma?

Speaker 6 (01:01:34):
Yo?

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
They got a gut dealer. This is their gut feeling
on the Matt Thomas Show. All right, now, last Tuesday,
I was off because I was traveling. I think it was straight. Yeah,
because we were coming back from San Francisco. So Ross
you and the assembled cast of sports talks that I
came up with gut feelings. How did you do? Oh yeah,

(01:01:59):
I forgot you were being dead beat last week and
you weren't here. That feels rude. My gut feeling last week.
I forgot about this. I said the Rockets win Game five.
They did, and then they lose game six. Oh you
had the Warriors winning in six? Huh Okay, I was wrong.

(01:02:19):
They lost in seven. Yeah, I know. I also don't
know if I want to stand by this gut feeling
I made last week, which was still on the Rockets
roster game one of next season Jalen Green. Since I

(01:02:40):
made that, he's had three duds, three more duds in
any playoffs. If you were honestly I could stick with it.
If you were a forecaster. Mm hmm, I'm gon put
you in the spot right now. Okay, what are the
percentages that Jalen Green is on the Rockets roster next year?
That feels incredibly fair. So yeah, I'm gonna stick with it.

(01:03:06):
I think they it just from the just good feeling,
and this is actually gonna lead into what well I'll
have in a second. But just got it just for
the comments. I think Jalen Green will be here. Jonathan said,
what is exploit? I wrote this down, Jonathan, I said,
out you said albrinching Gun is not a superstar. That's
not a good feel that it's an opinion. He yeah,

(01:03:27):
I guess blossom in the super Maybe I wrote it
down wrong. That's why I'm asking for I said that
alfrinsting Gun is not a supicide and he will be
in a trade in a trade package for Jalen with
Jalen Green or Fred Van Vliet. Yeah, rather, and you
had Rockets winning game five by four. Yeah, well, I
mean it's fine, okay, So look, I mean alprinching gun

(01:03:47):
we must say led the Rockets and points, rebounds, assists, steals,
and he played very good defense for for what's asked
him for and for what his physical capabilities are still
right now because considering an average defender, but does block
some shots. Positioning's well improved. Yeah, I think he's IQ's

(01:04:07):
well improved. Yeah, I think he knows where to be,
just sometimes physical limitations getting the way. He also still
gets hunted by the other team. It is what it is.
But yeah, just like we hunted Quenton Post for basically
five games, yes, and well in game one they hunted
Steph Curry and they said we're done with that. Jalen
Green doesn't seem interested in going at him. Stop hurt.

(01:04:29):
I know, hurt. It hurts me too, Matt. You know
why I love the Rockets. We should be getting ready
for game one. My here in town, not even minne
Appoles here. My favorite professional sports team on the planet
is your Houston Rockets, Matt. So it hurts me. Too.
Oh no, all right, Calvin Murphy waving at me. I'm
nine years old in the parade Rockets Championship rates. I

(01:04:51):
love the Rockets. Calvin Murphy waved at you. Yes, how
nice is that? Did you see me at the ast?
My brother got a shirt signed by Robert Reid. I
was je was so ellis Joe r I p Yeah,
my first of a radio partner on a Cougar broadcast. Yeah,
we ran into him at a parade, but he got
he signed my brother's shirt, Love the Rockets. Jalen Green

(01:05:13):
didn't show what all right? Now out of this week,
Scott Felix by way, Brad is trying to call in,
So we're gonna let him get in. Oh God, and
remember everybody, everybody in front of Brad