Astros Still Maintain A 2 Game Lead In AL West After Weekend Series vs Orioles, Texans/Lions Recap.

Astros Still Maintain A 2 Game Lead In AL West After Weekend Series vs Orioles, Texans/Lions Recap.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Teal one of h Town.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good Morning, Ed, Welcome to a Monday edition of The
Bat Thomas Show with Ross. This is Sports Talk seven ninety.
Well they are still the same. They still hold a
two game lead in the American League West, your beloved

(00:30):
astros do. Good morning everyone, ten o three. It is
a Monday edition of The Mat Thomas Show with Ross.
Ross with a couple of more days offing back with
this on Thursday. Chris Gordy's going to jump in here
momentarily hang out with me for a couple of hours,
and we want you to hang out with us for
the full four hours of this radio show. How do
you do that? Well, first of all, you keep your

(00:51):
ears on your iHeartRadio app or the down that zon
a seven ninety. Then you put together a couple of
verbs and conjugate properly. And you got a couple of
that It makes somewhat complete sense, and you down into seven
one three two one two five seven nine is zero
seven one three two one two five seven ninety is
how you reach the show. If you want to reach

(01:11):
out to us to via Twitter, you may do that
as well. It's at Sports empty at Chris Gordy and
at Sports Talk seven nineties. So the Astros do win
three out of four, do show some signs of offense,
especially not so much yesterday, but the first three games
in the series. The Mariners do do what they're supposed

(01:32):
to do, take two out of three against the A's,
but the Astros played on Thursday. The Mariners did not,
so the Astros game to half game and so yes,
we are still the same at two games above the
Mariners in the West. The Astros at seventy two and
fifty nine and gang they have a very winnable week.

(01:55):
And I feel like I've been telling you all this
and I think many of you will probably share the
same sentiments with your buddy of years past. It always
feels like there's always one week at season during this
amazing run the Astros have had where they were supposed
to beat up on somebody. I think it was one
year was the A's in Kansas City or something like that,
when a back to back home stand and the Astros

(02:17):
were like, oh, this is where they can get fat
and happy, this is where they can expand their lead,
this is where they can really you know, separate themselves
from the rest of the teams in the American League,
and no, doesn't happen. The Astros struggle, the Astros don't
win the series, or they get swept, or there's something

(02:38):
going on that makes absolutely no sense. It feels like
this year, more so than ever, they're going to have
to do some damage this week because Colorado is woeful.
The Angels have been long checked out, and the Astros
have a rigorous schedule after that with the Yankees. They'll

(02:59):
have Rangers. They now the Braves aren't a big deal anymore,
but Toronto's in, you know, fighting for Detroit, for the
supremacy in the American League West, or just an American
League when it comes to home field throughout. So needless
to say, you gotta get fat and habit. You gotta
beat these teams that are coming up, and you might
do it with Jordan Alvarez. Gordy's with me here, will

(03:21):
hang out with us for a couple hours. He'll be
with us today and Wednesday. Gordion Hall, the hell are you?

Speaker 3 (03:25):
What's up?

Speaker 4 (03:25):
Matt?

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah, it was. It was an interesting postgame show yesterday
the Astros.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
It was a close one.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Could have you know, a couple of breaks here and there,
maybe you could have won it. But anytime you come
out of a four game series winning three out of four,
that's a win. I can't mat. I got three calls
and people wanting to know where eastac Paratus is gonna
play next year. I'm like, guys, can we please wait
till December, January, and February. We have all off season
to talk about that. It's just wild, So I don't

(03:53):
know we will Uh, well, we'll see here. I think
the the good news is you got the low Colorado
Rockies coming in Lowly, You got the Angels who stink. Yeah,
take care of business because Seattle. I was watching that
game on the post post game and I'm watching Big
Dumper go home run number forty eight, home run number

(04:14):
forty nine. I mean, it is ridiculous. Uh And and
they have a chance. They played the Padres tonight while
the Astros have a by so they cut this thing.
You lost, they won, They cut it to what two games, right,
they have a chance to win tonight against the Padres
to get this thing to one and a half before
you even play a game again.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Oh, we gotta stay up this late and watch this game.
Thing at eight forty tonight. Okay, all right, so uh
and we do welcome you again. At seven one three,
you had a caller on the tenth Inning Show suggesting
they wanted to see jord On Alvarez traded. Is that correct? Yes?
And you told them that made no sense, correct and
the most play what you could have?

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (04:54):
And then that guy got mad.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
They said it was a stupid tick. He got very angry.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Was the guy from Huffman Binding champ. I don't know, okay,
I just know this. It's it's like I do my best.
I think you do your best. We try to educate
fans a little bit, and that's not our job, but
it comes to the territory.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
But to a point of we have a lot of
people in this town who are football fans that bring
the football mentality to baseball, and you just can't do that.
It's too long of a season. In football. If the
Texans lose three in a row, we're going, oh my god,
the season's over. In baseball, you can lose three in
a row and win the World Series. So it's it's
one hundred and sixty two.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
You can lose three in a row of the absolute
worst team in baseball.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Yes, yeah, and it's and it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
So why why is this? And maybe this is a
little self diagnosis. We're having a really rough year on
the tenth Inning Show. I don't want to.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Discourage people from calling.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
And I don't either, because that's the whole point of
doing the show is because it gives us an opportunity
to have immediate reaction to something. And I listened a
little bit to your show yesterday and it sounded pretty
good for the most part in terms of who you
were getting on. And we do get for the most part.
I mean, it's not like we have every ten astro callers.
We get. Seven of them are perfectly logical. It's the
three this year have just been way out of whack.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
Just ask yourself, if you're gonna call into a radio
show and have a question, just run it through your
own head and ask it to yourself before you do it.
And if you go, yeah, I guess that is kind
of dumb, then it is kind of dumb. Don't ask it.
It's just and again, like so many people were fired
up about what are they gonna do about Paradus next year,

(06:31):
I'm like, why don't we carry about that?

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Right now you got two paratus calls three?

Speaker 3 (06:35):
Oh why do we care about that?

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Right now? You only got three? You just made you embellishing.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
No, I'm serious, because I said, these things always work
itself out. What if we get to spring trading, Matt,
and suddenly Carlos Kray has a backstrain and he's not
ready to go, But you already traded ESOC paratus because
you were like, oh, well, we don't have enough infield spots.
It'll work itself out.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
You will. Don't worry about it, you will, all right.
So if you are one of those seven of ten
that I liked talking to, come on, and now if
you're one of the three online talking to you, I mean,
just know that we may have we may have to
throw hands and ready to me. And again we're just
we're a friendly group generally speaking, but sometimes we just
our triggers are a little short when we have crazy, whacked
out calls. And unfortunately you had the trade Yorn and

(07:17):
Alvarez call that came in. By the way, you're done
a couple of more hits yesterday for double a corpus Christy.
He's ready. Well, I mean I always think of it
as this how do you wake up to this morning?
Or his hands tender? Come on? Oh please, that's That's
not the craziest thought in the world. I'm gonna choose
to be half glass full. He's gonna be in alive tomorrow.

(07:39):
My glasses half full of May nineteenth? Would that get me?

Speaker 3 (07:41):
He's gonna be in a lineup tomorrow. He's gonna be
ripping doubles off the wall and left. We're always go
an oppo power. Okay, yeah, you're going with that? Yeah,
all right.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
We are with you today until two o'clock. Uh ROSSI
is not with us today? A getting off for a
few days. You and God knows what and what part
of the world. I don't even know. He's out, he's alive.
I hope I got lions on eating him or chew
him up. He goes camping by himself. My wife asked
me the day, would you mind if I went on
a vacation by myself? I said, well, are you going
an all inclusive place? So you go into a singles hangout?

(08:11):
I guess it's all relative, I said you, I said,
the only plays I would actually go by myself, and
this is on a true vacation. Will be Vegas because
I don't because the casino is there. That's my entertainment.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, Ross takes pictures like he sits on the high
top of mountaintop and just looks out and thinks that's what.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, that sucks.

Speaker 5 (08:28):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
I knew that. At night before I go to bed,
I'd rather.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Be on a beach another Mike type police.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Thank you? Have you gone on a solo vacation since
you and Laurena been married?

Speaker 3 (08:36):
Just to like football games? That's not really vacation.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
That's it was fun though, right, I guess, Okay, bachelor
party stuff like that, But that means but you didn't
go I'm talking about when you go on a vacation
by yourself. You went somewhere. Well, I mean he likes it.
That's his that's his jam, which all four you know,
you gotta get you need your compress down to him.
I don't get enough downtime, frankly, because I'm always involved
in something else going on. But when he goes, you.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
Get many VK's all year with the Rockets.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
I don't get mad. And I'm in LA and I'm
in Salt Lake City, but I'm working and calling the game.
See some days you.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Have an off day, a travel day.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, it's true, all right, Uh, to tell the truth
has come up at eleven thirty today. Have you played
in a while? Tell the truth? Oh?

Speaker 3 (09:19):
This is where you tell? Is it three lies?

Speaker 6 (09:22):
Truth?

Speaker 1 (09:22):
It depends on how I feel. Sometimes I tell one
truth and three lives rules. And we we mixed up
a little bit o os that Jonathan doesn't do very well. Yeah,
like what three guys you're like you're you're like, you're
like Cam Smith these days. I mean, once in a while,
you know, you'll you'll not you'll find yourself getting into one.
But for the most spread, it's not been great. By

(09:43):
the way you were bringing up Cam Smith getting sent down,
it's kind of almost too late for that, honestly.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Well, but Dana, if you heard what Dana said pregame,
he kind of it sounded like, especially with Jake on
his way back, Jake's about to get back. Yeah, I
think with Jake's back, with Jesu Sanchez, if there's some
games they choose to put your on.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
The left, I mean you're crowded, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
And this is if this is if Cam has another
oh four to two strikeouts. Oh, for five to three
strike out, Like if he keeps on this path, Yeah,
I think you have no choice but to send him
down for a couple of.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Problems, amount of seasons, running out of time, that's my point.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
Are But I mean I think just a little a
little break for him might do him some good.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
All right, we'll start with Dan on the west side.
Wants to get into some conversation with the Astros if
you want to do so as well. Seven one three
two one two five seven, Honey, Gordy's gonna give us
a complete breakdown of the Texans Lions preseason game on Saturday.
I mean quarter by quarter, play by play. Also, I
didn't particularly care about the Iowa State Kansas State game

(10:41):
in Dublin until I found out awesome, until I found
out who the quarterback of Kandas State's dad was and
his older brother. You can't have a fight outside of
stadium without getting in trouble, but when you're fighting with
members of your own family, not a great look. Ten
thirteen Sports Talk seven to ninety Ross is that Gordy's

(11:05):
gonna hang with us until twelve noon to tell the
truth is coming up today at either eleven thirty believe
it or not, is half Avery Johnson, the former San
Antonio Spurs, an NBA player, half the Kansas State quarterback.
Oh that's funny because I couldn't do eight Avery Johnson
Kandas states. I mean, I can talk about his hair
and what he uses for shampoo.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
But that way, I'll tell you what I improved. I
moved him up on my draft board.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
You have a draft, but I didn't really have a
draft board.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
Well, you know, just for future draft prospect.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
If he's got the bloodlines of a fiery fall, I
mean his dad's got fire and passion.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
The brother's got fire and passion. I like that. It's
a gamer, you know.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
I think the Cougars would like to go play a
game overseas. My guess is doublin Ireland would be about
the perfect spot, right. I mean, well, first of all,
they're just not gonna have a whole lot of alcohol issues.
Not get if you're going to a game and want
to be sober, that's fine too, But I would presume
that most people that are available to drink responsible you
would like to have five or six or fourteen at

(12:03):
a game.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
Well, there's been a rumor Brian Kelly wants to go
play there because Notre Dame had played there when he
when he had coached. And the problem is the LSU
fan base. I don't think you can't afford that. Dublin
is the one city that they might run out of
alcohol if LSU fans.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, but you guys are afraid to fly on planes.
You want to go, you want to go in your Winnebagos.
No you can't. Well, you can't go to Winnebagos to Ireland.
Now we'll take their Cajun boats the little across God,
you would be in an air boat all the way
to Dublin. I could you imagine the Irish accent mixing
with the Cajun xcent.

Speaker 5 (12:37):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, they would not understand a thing. I gotta listen
to LSU football broadcast. Are we carry in the games again?
We are all right?

Speaker 3 (12:45):
I think Sunday night those or Saturday night will be
on nine point fifty because we'll have astros here.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Okay, is LSU? Can you do the broadcasters kind of
get their verbs properly on that broadcast? Yeah? Chris Blair
was over and he's from like I think he did
Georgia State before, so he chular part of the country.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
Very much normal broadcast.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Okay, next the next voice of LSU. I wanted to
be a herald of Jubideaux or or Marquez Tibadeaux.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
So here's what we got on Saturday. So make sure
you're set you hearing all right this Saturday morning? Yes, sir,
we've got Doug Pike. Is he doing the Texas pregame show?
He is, Well, he's off at nine am because we
got our handicap our guys bag. Oh, he'll be nine
to ten all right, at ten am on these airwaves.
Craig Way will be live from Columbus, Ohio. Perfect, get
you're ready with the pregame show at eleven am. Kickoff

(13:35):
arch Mania begins against Ohio State right here at seven
ninety and then Astros later in the.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Evening, which I'll be doing the pre and post and.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
LSU will be over on our sister station nine fifty.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Man, you just want to keep your ready if you're
gonna go onto the boat this weekend. It's Labor Day weekend.
You're gonna be growing outside by the pool. Get the
radio and just get flipping back and forth. You begun
to go.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Kook's play Thursday night. We'll have that game for you
right here or on our Assis station nine to fifteen.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
That's right, And Willie for to be on the show tomorrow.
And I'm gonna say, give or take, I got it
at fifty seven to nine. You of VJ or over SF.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
That's probably right. They stink it's not good.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
You know our producer here so proudest. If you said
he's Western Kentucky, well he's both. He don't know what
he wants. He's confused. He's mister transfer portal. I can yeah,
I can be if for both teams. I get the
read both okay. And he really believes his Lumberjacks is
gonna win. Even the Lumberjacks don't think they're gonna win.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
I think he should claim Western Kentucky. They were dominant
over Sam Houston on Saturday.

Speaker 7 (14:35):
I told they have a really a program, but they
are dominated early season. His way till gets five games in,
it's gonna be no.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
That's quick no for Kook fans. So I was on
campus Saturday night. We went to see a show at
Colin Hall. They are there's a lot of construction going
on there on campus. You gotta like walk around all
these walls and they're tearing the street up and all this,
and just be diligent.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
I don't think Thursday's game is gonna be huge draw,
although is else going on? What do you do? Jonathan
says there's gonna be six to eight thousand SFA people there,
which I don't believe. Seven and fifty. That's it. Let's
talk to Dan on seven twenty three. Dan, good morning,
Good morning, Matt.

Speaker 4 (15:19):
I've got a couple of optimistic points about the Astro. Sure,
But first the question, do you know what their record
is now in one run games?

Speaker 1 (15:30):
We could look it up, but you keep talking and
I can look it up.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
Sure.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
So one point is that optimistically, if Alvarez is most
of what he usually is, he makes the whole lineup better.
That we got nobody scary in that lineup, And when
Alvarez comes in, I think he's gonna make Sanchez better.
I think he's gonna make career better. I think he's
gonna make out to be better, and he's just gonna

(15:56):
put a little bit of fear into the opposing The
other point I wanted to make is non offensive. But
Mauricio Dubon, even though he doesn't really scare you too much.
He gets the clutch hits on occasion. But I think

(16:17):
that whatever position he plays was a possible exception of
when Jake Myers is available at center. Whatever position he plays,
he's better than the starter. You see him make great
plays in left and right, at third, at short, and

(16:37):
even that one day he substituted for Chris Walker at first.
He really brings it, and I think he makes a
big difference.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
All right, few things, Dan, The Astros in one run
games are twenty three and fourteen, all right. To answer
your question on that number two, it's too late in
the season for all of a sudden Jordon Alvarez to
step in here and then make the guys around him
more polltent. The Astros are who they are. Christian Walker

(17:09):
has batted significantly better in the last thirty days than
he did in the first ninety days of the season,
and a lot of that none of that was with
krit was with Jordon Alvarez in the lineup. Jose al
Tubay wakes up with two hits per game. I don't
think all of a sudden his batting average is gonna
go up fifteen to twenty points. If Cam Smith in
a struggle. Uh, the only reason why Cam Smith wouldn't
be struggling any further is because Jordon Alvroz is taking

(17:30):
his spot. So I think it's a little overrated on
my part. Just my opinion about adding a bat. Now,
does it make the team better? You hope in theory? Dan,
You're absolutely right. Does it length in the lineup? It
certainly does. Does it mean that there are less guys
that shouldn't be playing, like Jacob Melton will be playing
very much. If Taylor Tremille wasn't hurt, he wouldn't be
out there as much. So I would just say that

(17:52):
lengthening the lineup is the biggest asset that Jordon can do.
Not necessarily all the guys that ron him are like,
oh now Jordon's here, I'm gonna have bat fifteen or
twenty points higher. And your last point. Mauricio Dubon is
the prototypical perfect utility guy. You love him where whenever
he plays and moving him around. But I don't know

(18:13):
if Mauricio Dubon needs to play seven days a week
and he doesn't play seven days a week. He plays
a lot, and he does move around. He does give
guys days off, and because of all the injuries the
Astros have had, he's had to play a lot more.
But the utility is where he is suited best. And
the thing about him is his flexibility makes him a
very valuable asset to this baseball team. So I'm not
trying to downgrade him. In fact, I'm trying to love

(18:34):
on him a lot here. But I don't know if
Mauricio Dubon replacing jose L Tuvey two days a week,
or replacing Carlos Carrea or anybody else, is all of
a sudden a dramatic improvement over the guy that's previously
been there, except maybe with Jacob Meltin or so you know,
Chas McCormick, some of those guys like that.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
Well, he does give people a rest. And I agree
with you that seven days a week isn't his thing,
but if he got in there four days a week
at different positions, what I really admire about him is
that he's able to switch so ly. You know, his
mind goes from short to right field, you know, without
him as if he's been playing it every day.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
You know what, And that's what and that's what the
the definition is. And thank you for the phone call, Dan,
I appreciate that in itself is the definition of a
fine utility player. You need to play a couple of
innings at first base and the good you need to
spell Carlos Korea day and you to spell Jeremy Panna day.
It works. But this Astros team, when its very best,
we'll have Korea at third, Pain at shortstop. The left

(19:42):
field spot, Gordy, to me, is the one that's going
to be the trickiest one because again, uh, I don't
we've not seen jose al Tuova play much sleift field
all the last two months.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Yeah, he's trying to think of the last time he's
played there.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
It's been a while.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
Well actually yeah, yeah, the injury, with the injuries, uh well,
with the end injury to painya, he was having to
play a lot of second there, and you know, and
then to your point, yeah, when he's not played second now,
he's usually deaching. But when Jordun's back, I got to think,
ideally they want your on dhing every day.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah. Either thought of Jordan playing any more outfield than
once a week would be to me a stretch. I
think he's once a week if that, If that at all.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
But it wasn't his knees or his feet.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
They're just I think at some point in a person's
professional career, they just say, hey, what can we do
to minimize any sort of injuries? And if he was
a goal glove s type player out there, you would
you'd take that risk. But since he's just, I mean,
he's average, not blow average. In fact, he's probably played
better left field than I ever thought he was ever

(20:48):
going to play. But he doesn't make you a plus
defensive team. And that's the reason why I think when
a guy's out there who you're worried about making sure
all parts of his body are one hundred percent taking
any liberties playing defense when you're really there for offenses
or I think with the astros will go. But again
that's the same to be said for Olzel Tube. Joseel
tubs ditch more this year than he has probably in

(21:10):
the previous five years combined. He's been a stable at
second base. They try to put him in left field,
and I think that he's kind of grown into the
role of being a guy that's been DH three four
times a week.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah, I uh, look, it's it's gonna be a good
problem to have having your dot back. But I think ideally,
I mean, this camp Smith thing needs to work itself
out in the right field because Haesu Sanche is playing
a lot of right field for the certainly for the
Miami Marlins. You can you have a stretch here. Again,
it's it's up to Dana Brown, the front offices decide

(21:42):
what to do. They could They could say camp Smith
has a oh he has a elbow stream is it.
We're gonna put him on the il. We're gonna send
him down to sugar Land and then after, you know,
after ten days, he'll start rehabbing, get a couple of
starts down there, and in the meantime, you could plug
Asy Sanchez and right Jake Myers again, for those who

(22:03):
missed it sounds like he is going to Dana Brown
said he is going to make some rehab starts later
this week. So I think Jake is probably about a
week from being back. So you plug him in center
and then you do whatever the hell you want left field.
Put Chas McCormick out there. Put you're not out there
for a game a week.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
You know, how do you have a lineup that doesn't
have Altuve? Altuve and alvare is in a lineup with
one of them having to play defense. We'll get to
more of that coming back in a minute. Ten thirty
is our time seven one three two one two five
seven ninety seven to one three two one two five
seven ninety if you want to join us. Also, Dimiko
Ryans is going to speak today at eleven o'client. Is

(22:42):
he going to tell us that Joe Mixon's not ready
for the start of the season. That's my prediction. Ten
thirty one on Sports Talk seven anyway, ten thirty six,
it is uh, Matt and Gordy here today. It'll be
with us for a couple of hours and then he'll
go off and nine radio appearances. You can hear him
on a chapalay as one O three point six.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
Taked a good interview this morning with Holly Rowe.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
She will be on the sidelines for LSU Clemson on
Saturday night and then she goes over to Chapel Hill.
She will be on the sidelines for Bill Belichick's first
game as a college football head coach.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
What your gut feeling on his success rate in North Carolina?

Speaker 3 (23:25):
I mean my initial well, when they first hired him,
My initial reaction was, this is going to be an
abject disaster. But go look at their football schedule. I
mean it is as forgiving as any schedule out there.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Well, the ACC is no juggernaut. I mean, when you
have wake Forest and Duke every year, it's gonna help.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
They open with TCU on Monday Night, who they were
Okay last year they would not beat him, but you're welcome.
Then there're Charlotte Richmond UCF, and then they're into the
whole you know, ACC. But they're the toughest ACC game
they get is Clemson. They played one ranked team all year,
So I look at that and go, if they're good,

(24:01):
he could go ten and two, and they are gonna
make every excuse possible to get him into the playoff.
How old is TV ratings? He's like seventy or something, right, I.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Was gonna say he's older than that. Hell we gotta
I'm encouraged. How many three? I'm encouraged. All these seven
year olds keeping jobs means you got you and I
got a chance to stay in this business for a while.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
What's his girlfriend's age.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
I think she's in her late twenties. Oh that's horrible, right, Well,
for whom it's not horrible for him, just as horrible
for her.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Stuff she's gotta do.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
I know. Well hmm, you're saying it's additional work for her.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
Yeah, like go and get them coffee and stuff.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Oh is that what you were thinking? Okay, that makes
a lot of sense. All right, Texans Lions truth be told.
Nobody watched it.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
How many minutes did you watch?

Speaker 1 (24:59):
I tell you right, he this team's awesome. Baby.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
I was getting text from a buddy who was He's like,
Graham Mertz looks good. I'm like, seriously, if you Graham
Mertz is gonna be on the practice squad.

Speaker 8 (25:08):
Bro.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
And this is with all due disrespect. If you are
getting excited about Graham Merch, you need to go get laid.
You really do. It's a good story and it is
not a good story. It's a story that means nothing.
He literally he broke his what his leg or his
acl I don't care. Last season, I'm sure I'm glad

(25:29):
he's able to walk. Seriously, the amount of Graham Merch
tweets on my four you tab, I was like, you
people need a life.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
So think about this. We used to have four preseason
games by the way, it was stupid. We didn't need
four preseason games. We cut it down to three, which
I think is fine. But now we're to the point
where the third preseason game we don't give a damn bout.
So can we cut this back to two? I think
we're gonna go to two?

Speaker 1 (25:54):
You know what I mean? Seriously, I have one In
the three Texans preseason games I have watched combined about
fifteen minutes.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
I watched the CJ possessions.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
That's all. That's what I'm saying. CJ and I. I
think I watched the first possession of the of the
day of the game against the Vikings, so it was
the first time that there were the Texas on the fields.
I want to get you. You kind of get the
I mean, it's like spring training openers for US. Spring
training games are on. Oh good, I'll watch two innings
and I'll be done. Trust me, I have never in
my life oversold you on spring training games, and I'm
not going to overseell you on on preseason games.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
Like they didn't even play Davis Mills in this one.
It was exclusively Graham Mertz.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
Keten Slovas, who Keton Slovas, who is that you don't
remember him me, No, nobody knows who that is. He
was at a bunch of different schools. If you and
I went to a bar and said Hi, I'm Chris, Hi,
I'm Matt. This is my what is his name again,
Keiden Slope Keton Slovis, you and I would have much
more popularity than that guy with three.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
Years at USC following in Shohn Salisbury's footsteps, a year
at Pitt and a year at b Yu.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
I I didn't even know his name. Notice, somebody should
he'll be cut. I think what they'll do is there.
It'll be CJ's your starter, Davis smells your backup. Graham
Mertz is your practice squatter. Keaton Slows will be working
at Staples first. So again, if you are running into
if you're thinking to yourself, I'm getting really excited about

(27:14):
Graham Mertz. You must find a girl or boy. I mean,
it depends on what your sexuality preference is. I don't
really care each his own, but you cannot. You must
be friendless. My guess is your cholesterol level is very
high and you're not giving sex on a regular basis.
Now that maybe all of those things are your choice,
but Graham Mertz on your tweets.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Come on, people, Can I tell you I had a
fantasy draft last night, and it is like what some
of the fantasy experts are saying. Now, if they think
Joe Mixon, it's gonna be a while before he's back,
and even when he's back, if Nick Chubb has performed, well,
this is Nick Chubb season. Uh, Woody Marx was going
way higher than I thought, because I mean it was

(27:57):
like Damian Pierce and Woody Marks because they don't really
know who is gonna be the backup to Chubb yet, So.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
You're gonna put your what you're gonna do, You're gonna
have to put makes it on the injured list, right, Yeah,
he's gonna start on the pup or pup as the
kids would say.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
But it yeah, I mean like it's just it becomes
hard because I think we've seen all these great tweets
and videos of Nick Chubb, Like I think he's the guy.
Like we're going in the season, is Nick Chubb is
the starting running back and whenever Joe Mixon gets back,
we'll see. But I think it's if.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
Chubb is rocking and rolling, it's a hundred yard games.
Why mess with a good thing like you're ready for?
You're ready for a crazy hot take of mind. I
was gonna think about using for to tell the truth,
but I'm not gonna do it there. The Texans might
have to wait a while to get a hundred yard
running back in one game.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
The Chubb Chubb is capable.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Chubb can't carry a carre at the ball twenty times.
You Nick Chubb, with all the injuries and the wear
and tear that that the guys that have been the
league as long as he's been in, He's not carry
the ball to time he had.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
He had a twenty carry game last year against.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Pitt And how many yards did he have? Fifty nine?
Okay average three years? There you go, I but.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
Cleveland wasn't good. He is twenty nine, okay, so.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
In that once you had thirty, you probably should call
your issue. You follow your retirement papers. No, I'm must
saying this right now. The Texans will not have a
one hundred yard rusher until Joe mack Mixing is hopefully
back in one hundred.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
Percent twenty twenty two. He had six one hundred yard.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Games twenty twenty two. We're in twenty twenty five, twenty
twenty three, three dog years. That is it for running backs.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
Twenty twenty three he played in two games, had one
hundred yard game, and then last year it was kind
of platoon right, like he wasn't the workhorse.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Well, the only way honestly that any Texan running back
gets to one hundred yards at least probably until mixing
is we would perceived to be clear and ready to
go is if one of them breaks off for an
eighty yard run. Right you just you you shit? You
thought you got me. Oh, he carried the ball twenty times,
A nice on me yard, it's fifty nine. I could
see twenty for fifty nine for him.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
I might be with you Mixon. Mixon had one, two, three,
four five. Mixon had six hundred yard games last year.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Seven.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
If you cut the playoffs, yeah, I'll count it for sure.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
I'll count it.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
So there you go. So maybe it's not, you know,
for you to think he Mixon will take back over
the job when he's back.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Just please call me Texans Insider.

Speaker 3 (30:26):
All these fantasy people are selling us on chop chop chop.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Who who are these people? Is Yahoo Inside? I don't know, Ron,
I don't buy it.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
What did Roto say about Mixon.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Uh, he doesn't think he's going to be back anytime soon.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, Well that's what they that's what it's saying. But
that's a drafting stash. If he's back in like week
six and he's awesome, Okay.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
I'm not nearly as bullish on the running game of
the Texans. I think it's gonna have to be First
of all, it's going to be the defense, right, I mean,
we're gonna if a tech they're gonna win some games
this year, They're gonna have to win some nineteen twelve
time games, nineteen fourteen times. The strength of the team
is the defense. Yes, And how about the fact that
we're missing John Weeks. Did you see the high lights
of the low lights of this whoever the deep snaper

(31:13):
is for the Texans? Terrible? Great? Not great?

Speaker 3 (31:17):
Well, I mean John Weeks is a milli year. You
could have kept him.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
John Joe Wings should have his name in the Hall
of Ring of Honor. If there's anybody that's been through
enough of this crap of this organization, John freaking Weeks
ten forty four, Sports Talk seven pouty seven one three two,
one two five seven ninety if you want to chime
in seven one three two one two five seven nine zero.

(31:42):
So we kind of talked about this very briefly. Aaron
Avery Johnson, excuse me, is a quarterback at Kansas State
and been very good, uh a little inconsistent the last
couple of years, and kind of wearing it for the
team's lost to Iowa's. Again. I didn't watch any of
the game because neither one of those schools do much

(32:03):
for me. I've seen international games. It's sexy for those
schools that are there. Just start a college football please,
the week starting college football starts.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
I'm an sec guy throwing through it.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
I was locked in because your goofball when it comes
to college football.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
All I did bet on Iowa State in the straight
up upset and I won.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
So yeah, week zero means nothing. Week zero means these
games we just throw on there just to get some
sort of attention.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
Well, but it wouldn't are wouldn't you be smart to
do it though? Like we've been in this desert craving
for any kind of taste of college football all offseason.
I mean, everybody I know was tuned into this game.
I was satady because it was like, oh it's and
it was right down right game. It's not like it was.
It was you know what were the other crappy teams?
Fresno State?

Speaker 1 (32:48):
First, let me give you the week zero lineup. Okay,
this is why this is a week zero case. State,
Ioways State two top twenty five teams, Big twelve. I
don't state UNLV wasn't on TV around here, State Kansas.
I don't know how Kurt Warner's son continues to be
a college quarterback. He sucks. He sucked at his temple,
he sucked at Rice, and now he sucks at Fresno State.

(33:11):
Sam Houston lost at Western Kentucky and then Hawaii beat Stanford.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
Do you know who Iowa State's quarterback was? No, rock
O Beck, son of Anthony Beck, who you had on
the show not too long ht Beck? Yeah, okay, I
got you. Okay, good for him?

Speaker 1 (33:27):
All right. So if you watched Iowa State Kansas State,
come in here right now.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
You want people to call it if you watch, I
want I want to.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
I want to know what your life is like. When
you said I must sit down to watch Iowa State
versus Kansas, well it was again it was the I
mean it was that in the Texans preseason game. Might
go outside and spend spend, go to the pool, good cookout, Gordy. Look,
you know my pasty white skin could have used it.
I mean you can bring you can bring a tablet

(33:57):
to the pool. Now you can't.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
You don't have to like choose just out.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Well, yeah, but then your tablet burns and then he
overheats and then you lose your feed.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
And it was a good game. It came down to
the wire.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
It was a it was a good game, all right.
So far, no one's called. If you watched Iowa State
Kansas State and you have no ties to Aims or
to Manhattan, you just need to call in right now
and say, yeah, Matt, I love college football so much.
I wanted to watch a lot of the game. Now,
if it was on and you were in the background,

(34:29):
you know, maybe you're doing some work at the office
or making a you know, cleaning your garage or something
that doesn't count. I'm talking about palling a Gordy sitting
down on your couch with a cold beverage.

Speaker 6 (34:41):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
You have a suggestion of someone, I don't know if
you have one or not. Yeah, cruff for ball, and
you had popcorn. You may be cooked out a burger.
You said, I'm gonna sit down because I love college
football so much. I want to watch Iowa State Kansas
State seven five seven on eighty. I'm waiting.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
It was Hella good.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
It was not Hella Good. Now, wow, this week is
a much different story, my friends. Let me give you
the top twenty five matchups.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
Oh yeah, this weekend's loaded, all.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Right, Boise States, South Florida. Nobody cares four thirty on Thursday.
That game kicks off four thirty, four thirty. Well you
get to ask. I mean, here's the problem. You don't.
You don't bet these are all better special I don't
want to bet on these. I don't to bet on it.
I bet I bet on sports when I'm in the
like if I'm be in Lake Charles or in Las Vegas.
But I'm not betting on games just to bet on games.

(35:27):
All right? Then Friday, you got wet from Illinois versus Illinois,
Oh ILLINOI you got'd be a shamed of yourself playing
that Texas Ohio State's awesome.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
Oh wait, you didn't mention it. They're not ranked, but
it's Auburn at Baylor Friday night.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
Hmm on Fox.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
That's a good one.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
That's not bad. It's two brands, David randas can be.
They always have pressure on him and Baylor. I don't
think well, Hugh Freeze is on the hot seat too
at Auburn. So that's a that's a good game there
by the way Florida is playing this week, Okay, yeah,
Long Island. I didn't even realize Long Island ahead a
football team. I'm I'm being all serious on this. How
did I not know that Long On had a football team?

Speaker 3 (36:05):
I mean the the.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
The entrees are Clemson l s U and Texas Ohio State.
Those are the two monsters. And my middle son UTSA,
A and M is a big game for him. Way,
if anybody's got one extra ticket, I would take it
from you for that game.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
For UTSA, A and M. Yeah, I'm sure you could
walk up.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
You know. The secondary market's ridiculous. Really, Oh we spent
yesterday looking at it. So if everybody has one spare ticket,
I'll buy it for you. I just want to pay crazy.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
You also get there's there's a two games on Sunday,
Virginia Tech, South Carolina is in the afternoon and then
at night Notre Dame Miami. So those are two good
because it's a holiday weekend right Labor Day, Yes, and
then Monday night with the NFL off. You know they
haven't started their season yet. You get the Bill Belichick
TCU North Carolina.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
You get your beloved LSU Tigers ticket on another side
of Tigers and Clemson. Yeah, the real Death Valley in
Batan is not Clemson South Carolina. Why manut is that?
Because you're just being biased towards Why is your death
Valley greater than their Death Valley? Okay, when when you've
talked to people and they're like, oh god, we gotta
go play a night game at l s U. Have
you ever heard anyone go, oh god, we gotta play

(37:17):
a night in Clemson. You don't know that South Carolina.
That's that is a completely biased take.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
You know, you of h damn well and good what
it's like going to play a night game in Death Valley.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
I do know this, but let me tell you, you
don't think Atlanta Sports Radio is going, oh, I know
what Death Valley is, going to South Carolina and playing
Clemson's more of than Death Valley than playing bad that nobody.
You cannot you cannot bias. You have such bias.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
Clembson played three SEC teams last year.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
They went on in three, So I'm just telling you
their death valley is just as good as yours is not.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
What's death about it?

Speaker 1 (37:53):
You played? You know your death valley games or runs down?
Play sectional Louisiana schools, Dabo runs down a hill and
go all shucks. Oh god, such a cis Oh. No,
one of your locked onw SEC should be called locked
on SEC slash. I hate a CC Texas has says
gonna be good though arch Mania Catch It. Eleven o'clock

(38:15):
is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. We are your
exclusive home of decent sports talk. Sports Talk seven ninty
in the city of Houston, Texas. Eleven and three is
our time. Gordy's in hanging out with us another hour
and we got to tell the truth coming up at
the bottom of the hour. You may join us right

(38:37):
now at seven one three two one two five seven
ninety seven one three two one two five seven ninety
And if you want to follow us on Twitter, you
may do that as well at sports MT, at sports RV,
at Chris Gordy and at our Sports Talk seven ninety address, Uh,
Astros drop one, three two yesterday. Poor John Rooney, I

(38:58):
shouldn't say poories. I made leaguer now he's got service time.
But he was put into a tough spot, didn't get
the job done. Probably nervous as all get out. He's
a major leaguer for the first time after being a
minor leaguer for eight years and gives up the winning run. Well,
he can't get a strikeout. Yeah, he relieved Arraghetti and
he got out of the sixth, so that was good,

(39:20):
kept it at two to one, and then yeah, in
the bottom of the seventh, gives up the home run
and makes it three to one. Astros battle back in
a sack fly in the eighth. But yeah, it did
prove to be.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
The difference maker because if he keeps it at two
to one and they tied, we're probably going extra innings.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
So we have a bigger fish to fry. Beyond the
fact that the positive signs where the Astro bats were
largely very ambitious and very aggressive of the week.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
Yeah, I give him a pass. Yesterday that Taylor Rodgers
has been a have you seen his numbers he's good.
Really the whole month. He's gone seven innings of one
run ball against the Cubs, the Phillies, the Mariners, the Astro.
So I didn't have a problem with that. Like Dasher's
bats were awesome all series. They just got shut down
by a really good picture yesterday.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Yeah. I mean again, I I am not the king
of you must sweep a series. It's hard to do that.
I'll take four games. I'll take three out of four
in Baltimore and be very happy with that. Sure, uh,
but the reality is this team is in I shouldn't
say mass if I'm Joe, I'm really worried about my

(40:28):
starting rotation right now. Javier looks like he can't throw
a strike five walks for Lance mccullors on Friday night,
Fromber completely melted down in Detroit.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
He's the one that has to bounce back. I look
at mccolors, Arraghetti and Javier is basically they're it's almost
like they're coming out of spring training again, Like that's
kind of what they're building back. Frober needs to get
his crap together because it's got to be Hunter Brown
Fromber has to be the one two punch going in
the post, and you know what that is.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
That's a lot of pressure on two guys because they're
the only two that haven't gotten hurt. But if you're
gonna be front end rotation guys, Gordy, and you're going
to be a guy you've been here long enough, it's
not like Fromber's in his first year in the league.
It's your responsibility. And ever it's literally ever since the
game he got pissed off because of the defensive alignment,

(41:26):
he has cracked like an egg. Yes, and that's why
he's never going to be an Astro again after this year.
They've known this mental stability is in his strong suit.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
Remember these moments when we get into the off season
and every team and their brother is given offering jord
On these big fat contracts, and everybody MLB Network's going, hey,
how could you let let him walk? If you're the Astros.
This is one of the best pitchers in baseball. Just
to remember these moments of jord On because he's had
a lot of these little role from yeah, a lot

(41:56):
of these little roller coaster moments.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
No, the numbers out a guy that should be getting
a five year deal, you know, twenty twenty five million
dollars or whatever the number may is. But we've seen
enough of it. When Frober is good and throw strike
one and the twelve six curveball is hooking and he's
inducing ground balls, he's fantastic and wonderful, but there are
these stretches.

Speaker 9 (42:18):
Now.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
It doesn't mean he can't get out of this, but man,
it has been a month of bad defense, heavy pitch count,
giving up these fluky little hits. And again that's that's
part of the business. But Hunter Brown in that Detroit

(42:38):
series went up against Tarrek Schouobel and said, I can
match you mono formano mono formano, and he did so,
and I was very happy that And that's why there
is no one on one anymore Hunter Brown, Draise. And
the last month has again probably given the Astros examples
number fifteen and sixteen of why they're not going to
put a lot of money in this piggy bank. Well,

(42:58):
they make it qualifying off. From my guess is yes,
because they don't want to lose draft picks. Because when
he eventually goes somewhere else, the Astros can get a
draft pick because they did make a qualifying offer. Whether
they make a serious offer beyond that. I don't know
what the Astros thinking is, but when you have not
even offered fromber Valdez a contract before the start of
the season, the steins are that the Astros know that

(43:18):
the best days of fromber as an Astro are not
ahead of them.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
I'll say this, Jason Alexander is hands down your third
best picture right now. He has been awesome and this
is a big enough sample size. Now four starts in
the month of August, he has in the are of
one fifty four six shoutout innings, six shot out innings,
six innings, two runs, five and a third innings two runs.
He has been great.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
If he's your third best. If he's your third best,
you're in trouble. And that's no denigration to Jayson Alexander.
That means the guys are in and around Whimo are
being highly compensated right or have had the experience, aren't
doing it, which.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Starts with McCullers and Javier. They're both getting paid big,
big money to perform. They both have to continue to
get arragedty. I'm encouraged by he pitched the most pitches
he's thrown, what he hit ninety seven or something. Yesterday,
he's getting closer to looking like old arraghedtty, Like he
gives up the home run in the first, but then

(44:16):
he settled down. What do you retire like ten or
twelve in a row? Five and two thirds of two
run ball. That's good, that's his that's one of his
best outings he's had back. I'm encouraged by that. But
the Javier and mccullors, it's the control. It's the walks.
You can't you can't give up that many walks.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
It's the high.

Speaker 3 (44:34):
You're like twenty pitches in the first inning like that
just cannot happen. So I'm still gonna chalk it up. Look,
that was Lance's what first start back after another prolonged
apt absence, right, yeah, Friddy, and then Javier, you know
he's still building back. So I said that this thing
was a twofold Matt earlier in the year when the Astros,
the Astros first step was get healthy. You want to

(44:56):
get everybody back healthy. Phase two is get right. You're
healthy right now from a pitching standpoint, with arrogeting back,
mccollors back, and and Javier back. But they're not right yet.
So you got them healthy. Now it's about getting them right.
When you get them right, yes, this team will be
very deep.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
And it feels like to me Jp Frantz and Luis
Garcia if they help you at all at bullpen, but
they don't know what.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
To do with them well, I mean, to be honest,
they just they need guys to eat up innings. I mean,
that's that's the whole reason. I mean they brought a
blue ball. He was a godsend on Saturday. Blue ball,
what do you go for innings?

Speaker 1 (45:34):
And then reward was he got sent back to Triple.

Speaker 3 (45:36):
A because they need fresh arms. Yeah, I mean this
is where you are. John Rooney has no business being
on this team, but they need somebody to eat up innings.
The Bennett Sussa injury hurts more than we may want
to admit.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
Bennett Sussa, in my mind, was your eighth inning guy.
He was pitching a lot, he was extra innings. Who'd
they go to? It was Bennett seuss Almost every time
you watch why Craig Kimber was signed, and that's why
John Rooney was brought up here. That's why those guys
pitched yesterday and kim berwl is shut out inning I'll
give him credit that you know, I don't want to
overuse him.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
Yeah, not bad, not a bad debut.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Seven one three two, one two five seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seven nine zero. Bill
is with us on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross Bill.
Good morning, How are you good?

Speaker 8 (46:23):
I want to talk about Yrd on I. Uh, I
know this is not good feeling time, but I'm gonna
give you a good feeling anyway.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
That's okay.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (46:36):
You know how the.

Speaker 10 (46:36):
Pitchers have come back with high expectations and everybody got excited,
and then of course reality set in and we realized
that they have to work theirselves back into major League Baseball.

Speaker 5 (46:50):
Four.

Speaker 8 (46:51):
Well, I'm going to say the same thing about your
don He's done nothing but face double A pitching, and
when he comes back, I think we need to understand
that it's going to take him. I think, you know,
a week or two, maybe even three to look like
that Jordana were.

Speaker 10 (47:11):
Accustomed to seeing.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
And uh, I'll hang up and let's go do your
thoughts on that.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
I don't necessarily disagree. I mean I don't even if
Gordy if he had to smack three home runs at
double A I would have been you know, double A
is is a significant drop off. Yeah, it's no one
should you know he came He went down there to
get swings in live action. He went in there to
be in the intensity of a professional baseball game. That's

(47:39):
something that you can't get at the West Palm Beach Complex.
You just want, I mean, you almost want a little
bit of intimidation factor in him coming back where where
the opposing picture has to go. Okay, you're as a
man on basin, you're on alps. I mean like you
almost want that. And look, yes, temper your expectations. I
would not expect him to come back and wine up
tomorrow and hit two home runs. But it is the

(48:01):
Colorado Rockies. It is a team that gives up a
ton of runs. So if you were going to bring
back you're not on for any series. This one might
be the one, so we'll see. But yes, you know,
temper your expectations. If he goes one for four but
has good contact on two, you know, liners that are
right out of the outfielder, Okay, fine, I'll take that,
But you just you want the danger of what you're

(48:22):
not bring it because the biggest problem at that this
seems at the last couple weeks, what is the pop ever,
since he's got Paradius left for the season, there's no poppers.
Marks got a little bit of it. He got a
little bit of a heater. But you know, tu Vel
hit the occasional home run. Pain you'll hit the occasional
home run. But like, ain't many home run hitters Taylor
Tremmeell was not slugging him out of the out of
the ballpark. No, no, there isn't a whole lot. And

(48:44):
you know what, you don't necessarily have to win a
bunch of baseball games, but a bunch of home runs.
I'm more of the crooking number of guys on base.
What your numbers of Martins and scoring pach They also
can't play small ball either. They can't bunt. They don't bunt,
so like nobody's butting. But yeah, but the ability there
have been a lot of men left on base and
watching Chas McCormick hid is just painful to me. I mean,

(49:06):
he left us a bunch of guys on base yesterday,
oh the whole weekend. He did.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
One guy say, he's like, what is he even bringing
your table? I said, defense he's still pretty good defensively.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
But there's an outfield logjam if you get Jake Myers
back and you're bringing your on back two well, because
even if a playoff field, you're gonna probably have to
use Jose and the outfield Tramell out.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
You know, you need a little bit of depth there.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
And Jacob Melton's probably shouldn't be getting any in real
estate here. He should be in Sugar Lab. All right.
I'll love in fourteen on Sports Talk seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven one
three two one two five seven, And I think it'll
be easy for you all to temper the enthusiasm. You'll
be happy that you'red On's back. But I also think
you understand that playing double a baseball for the last

(49:49):
four or five days is not necessarily going to be
the precursor for him coming up here and crushing the baseball.
May take a while get to be ready in time
for the Seattle Series in a couple of weeks, I
certainly hope so, or for that matter, before that, the
Yankee seven one three two one two five seven. Donty

(50:09):
Jamaiko Ryans having a zoom call with some members of
the media that are legit, most of them not saying
that he bloggers, bloggers, people that think they're members of
the media with the YouTube page that have thirty subscribers,
that kind of thing, that he is not ready to
announce the roster moves to finalize the fifty three man.

(50:30):
I saw that.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
That's so It's so weird because all day yesterday on Twitter,
what do I keep seeing, Matt Oh, the rams cut
this guy, This team cut this guy, forty irons cut
this s Every team was making cuts and trims and
all this, And at eleven am on Monday morning, the
pexans still don't know one move they they're gonna make them.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
They do know what they moves on. I can't get
heated about this. I don't care. I just want to
know what's gonna be odd? Like, why do you do
things so well? What they should have done is they
should have said, we'll have the presscott, we'll have our
media availability tomorrow. Is you said, Dimiko up there on
Monday saying I don't know what we're doing here. They're
they're trying to figure out a polite way to say
that Joe Maxon's not ready for the start of the

(51:08):
season and how that impacts their roster and how many
extra running backs they carry. Yeah, what did he say?

Speaker 3 (51:14):
He said he declined to give an update on the
health of running back to you because he was.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
Declined because all people want to know about his injury.
They don't care about him as a person.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
What was the injury?

Speaker 1 (51:24):
It didn't happen foot And then it's apparently he was
also wrapped in a sort of ankle bracelet as well.
So and that was in the spring. Yeah, that was
like not even a in season injury. Yeah, that's correct.
He's all this stuff that's going on right now was
involving things that did not involve a play during the
twenty twenty four season.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
Yeah, Adam Schefter says their silence on the injury is deafening.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
Yeah, because I told you all that. It was like, oh, man,
don't get don't jump with conclusions. Have you ready to
start de seas? No you won't. I won't. I Ron Gordy,
you're our LSU insider. I am of Texans inside are
on the station, and I want to be starting treaming
like that. I like to go to Aaron Wilson for
some stuff. Well, but you can also go to meet
for some stuff. I told you Joe Mexon gonna be
ready for the start of the year. I told you

(52:10):
just Deefon Diggs is gonna be a one and done.
I told you the lambry Tonsil was a turd. I mean,
it all works out perfectly, three for three.

Speaker 3 (52:15):
If they keep him on the pup list, he will
not he will miss a minimum of the first four games. Yeah, okay,
I would say that's basically a lock right now. I
don't think he's gonna come back before that, that's right.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
And again, at the at the end of the day,
the average fan that's bumping around town here is like,
we don't care, just get ready for Game one against
the Rams.

Speaker 3 (52:35):
Well, but it is. I mean, it's it's gonna be
like I think when they signed Nick Chubb, we were
all excited because it was like, oh, that's a hell
of a one to two punch.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
We were not all excited. We were like John then
you were on this show, what were Ross and I going, Yeah,
when you heard Nick Chubb, you guys are existing. Come on,
I mean, Nick jobb way passed his prime. That wasn't
a one two punch. He looked good.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
I got out there a couple of practices. He looked
like old, looks healthy. But if it's just Nick Chubb,
this version of Nick Chubb with no Joe Mixon a compliment,
I'm that worris me a little.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Marks. He's gonna get cut right. They're not keeping Damian Pierce.
I didn't keep four running backs?

Speaker 3 (53:18):
Well yeah, but like if you keep four then Ogan
is the h back slash, you know, full back kind
of guy.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
They have to keep them. Oh, it's interesting. Damian Pierce
after the game. I saw some audio of him, the
amount of I'm surprised that Bobby Slowan can walk. He's
been thrown under the bus, I mean by everybody, and
there's the mother.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
He was the problem. Nobody else was the problem.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
He was the problem. Have you noticed that though? In
this training camp and there have been subtle and Pierce
of the exact same thing it with Demiko. It started
started with the offensive line, It started with receivers, and
then even Damon Pierce was kind of like, man, we
didn't know what we were doing. We now that we've
got a new offensive coordinator, Nick Kayley, this is we

(54:12):
know what the game plan should be. On a third
and one who should be in there. Blah blah blah.
I'm like, and you know what, sometimes that does present
a problem. I just don't know, and maybe things can change.
But Bobby's look was two years ago, please don't go
anywhere else, stay here. We need you to gutter trash.

(54:35):
One year later, I think he was in over sad.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
I think they caught the league by surprise because they
didn't really know what Stroud was, and last year they
figured him out. There was film on them, and I
think slow It got exposed as you're not ready to
be a full time.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Play caller in the NFL. Okay, Nick Kelly's got a
little bit of a mor a track record and it
is beloved by a lot of people. Rob Graankowski and
speak a highly enough of the guy. But it's good.
I mean, if I give Demico credit because obviously he
and Slowan knew each other. When you when you put
together your first ever staff, you're going to be putting
people behind around you that are like minded, right, You're

(55:13):
putting you know, And you got rid of him after
after two years. I had a bit that'd be tough
for him, but good for him to do that.

Speaker 3 (55:20):
The reality is is last season went along, we realized
this offensive line sucks, so you got to do something
different from an offensive philosophy to like, you can't have
CJ keep dropping back because the uh, you know, the
it's not working, so he's just getting sacked and running
for his life back there.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
So their inability to adapt. I think Nick Cayley will adapt.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
He gets this is not this is not the greatest
offensive line ever, So you're gonna have to do somethings,
some motion things, get you know, to still drop throw,
get the ball out quick.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Different set of eyes can help that. And I think
that's exactly what because again, everything I've heard about Nick
Keley has been fantastic, but ultimately it's gonna be about
what this team does when the games really count.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
Here was the quote from Adam Schefter. The silence from
Houston is deafening regarding Jill Mixon's injury. There's been zero update.
There are a lot of questions about when or if
he will even be back. Will continue to await an update.
They're required to provide one by tomorrow. If he hasn't
practiced all year, hasn't seen much, hasn't been heard from
at all. There's a lot going on with Joe Mixon's

(56:25):
ankle that hasn't been addressed, and it hangs over this franchise,
leaving a major question mark at the running back position.
And then what do we get the update ten minutes
ago from Demico declines to give an update on the
health of Joe Mixon. So there is a there is
a chance we don't see Joe Mixon at all this year.
I mean, but like an ankle, an ankle doesn't sideline
you for a year, like.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Unless it's like torn I also had a shouldn't that
cost the astro player three months? Yeah, that's the asterisk though,
But I mean Nolan, Nolan says, rubbed some dirt on it.
If you don't say anything, that's the worst thing, right,
Like if I said, Gordon, how are you feeling fine?
What I do immediately? What's what's wrong with you?

Speaker 8 (57:11):
Well?

Speaker 3 (57:12):
This has been my gripe with the with the the Texans.
Here is like, the longer you ignore that and don't
give it update, the worst it gets.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
And like, and the Astros could give you the greatest
advice about that. Yes, silence is deafening. And and if
and here's the thing about what what Dimiko could have done.
If he could have said the worst thing today, we're
really concerned. We'd have been like, oh hell, that's terrible news.
But it's not gonna make us sleep any later, not

(57:43):
gonna make us it's not You can't change things at
this point. Yeah, you just are just giving the information.
I don't I don't know what's.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
The gamesmanship to just to hiding it, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
There's nothing unless it's roster construction. But to not give
an update on Joe Mixon to me, says everything about
what he's not of it, what he is, and that's
not gonna be available. Let's talk to kJ on seven
out of eleven twenty six, kJ, what do you got today?

Speaker 4 (58:06):
What up?

Speaker 5 (58:06):
What up? What up?

Speaker 2 (58:07):
Fellas at the show as usual? Man, I got a
Texas comment I want to see what you guys' opinion
is on it, and I also got a astro's question.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
In regard to the Texans, I heard a lot this preseason,
and I know they they absolved themselves to some degree
in the one time that CJ played the offense look decent.
But I heard a lot of back and forth this
offseason about how bad the defense was doing the offense
in practice, and I equate that to this. Uh, everybody's

(58:37):
projecting the Texans defense to be a top five defense.
I've even heard some go as far as to say
it could potentially be an all the time Great. I'm
not going to go that far yet until I see it,
but top five I easily can comprehend. My question is,
could it when you're when you're going with, when you're
going against on the day in the day out, basically
against the defense that's that elite. You have pro bowlers

(58:59):
that all three on your defense. And I don't mean
there's borderline promoters. I mean studs at all three levels.
You're gonna struggle consistently at an offense. I don't care
if it's the Texans offense or whoever you're plan. You're
gonna struggle against that defense. The the positive spin I
put on it is, could this be preparing them to
face inferior, much more inferior defenses in a regular season

(59:21):
because you're not gonna have success consistently but all against
that defense like that, But you're not gonna see a
Will Anderson and the Neil Hunter and Camari laughing and
all those guys day in and day out. So I
think it's a positive in regards to benefit the defense,
although you would like to see more success and on
the astros. I could be wrong, but I think we

(59:42):
have con team control from Tinya for two more years.
Could you guys it years?

Speaker 1 (59:49):
Yes? After this year?

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Okay? Could do you guys foresee with Jim Irramns Scott
boards as the fact that I know on the surface
Correa saying he's okay with third, but that could to
be him, you know, being a team player and not
wanting to rock the boat. Could you guys four seas
since they got Correa back, Coria going back to shortstop
when Baradis comes back, and them putting another Kyle Tucker

(01:00:11):
and trading Pinya at some point, not now obviously, but
at some point to recoup something for him since they
have a propensity to not overpaid playoffs and again love
the show man. It's one of what you guys got
to say.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
Thank you. We'll answer both those questions. He wants to
know about Jerry and Page's future and does playing the
superior Texans defense in training camp help you for the
regular season. We'll discuss those things plus to tell the truth.
It's eleven twenty nine on Sports Talk seven ninety eleven
thirty three here on seven. I'm will do to tell
the truth. Coming up in just a minute. Uh, let's

(01:00:45):
answer kj' his questions. First, Well, only we know, We
only know so much. Does the Texans defense go full
throttle every day and every day of practice? Is there
any difference in their intensity playing against the Texans offense?

(01:01:07):
Then there would be during a regular season game. I
think the answers, yes, right, there's They're just they're not
gonna go try to sack CJ. They're not gonna try
to take down see Nico Collins. But they bring intensity
to Miko.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
The one thing he has brought to this team is
is an attitude, and that defense plays with their hair
on fire. They were the strength last year. I think that,
you know, as fine as they were. It was an
interviewed last night with Patrick Mahomes on on a sports
center and they were showing highlights last year and some
of the highlights the shows from that playoff game. Texans

(01:01:45):
were hitting hard, man, I mean they were coming. I
mean we got flagged for the stupid hits on Mahomes.
You know, light hit all that but they they they
play hard and look, it's it's just the preseason. I
get it, but they were flying around throughout this preseason.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
It's I would say, this kJ into the others. Yeah.
Does Does the Texans offense benefit from playing against such
a good defense? Yeah, because I think in the face
is good. I mean, now, now the Rams may be
posing a problem in Week one, but I would say,
of course it helps. But I don't think they're thinking, whew,

(01:02:21):
we just got finished playing our defense. It's gonna be
a piece of cake going against you know, all of
our opponents coming the season. So the most simplicit view is, yeah,
it does help, But is it is it guarantee of success?

Speaker 5 (01:02:33):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
You still they execute. There are still NFL players on
every team on defensive sides that are excellent, that are
gonna be hard to stop. So uh yeah, I don't.
I don't think it hurts. Put it that way, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:46):
I mean, look, I'm a believer, and I think I
think this is really a really good I mean, Will
Anderson Junior. I think it's still scratching the surface on
what he could be. Denial Hunter is still at the
peak of his prowess.

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
Secondary is fantastic.

Speaker 3 (01:02:59):
Secondaryry Stingley, Kamari Lassers coming along, Petrie Bullock, you know,
and then and then the linebackers. Getting Christian Harris back
is huge. You know, they missed him a lot last year.
So yeah, look I'll put this on Matt. There's gonna
be a lot of twenty to thirteen type games this year.
I'm okay with that. Just and look is he jam

(01:03:19):
The offense can do something more this year. They can
take one step and a lot of this is on
the development of those the young the Iowa State receivers,
what Higgins and Noel. If they continue to take steps,
Christian Kirk shows a little something. Well know how good
Nico is the top five receiver in the league. He
just is. But some of those other guys emerged, maybe

(01:03:40):
this offense could take another step. I would know Joe
Mixon and it's all Nick Chubb in the backfield.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
How good is he? We'll see, all right. Second question
was about Jeremy Pina and his future. The Astros is
an organization. You're gonna have to have a really deep
conversation about making a deal to buy arbitration years for
Painia if they wanted to be his their full time shortstop.

(01:04:06):
I'm not saying they're going to go to that eight
to nine you know year deal, but they're gonna have
to make it worth his while. And if it does,
if there aren't signs in this offseason Gordy that Jeremy
Pania is interested in any of the astros are thinking about.
With a year left to go, I would move Painia.

Speaker 3 (01:04:26):
I just I he just made an All Star game.
He's at the peak of his game. I just wouldn't.
I would almost rather if you're not going to sign
him long term, I'd rather just play it out, let
him play this year, next year and the year after
and then be a free agent and go elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
Just the whole trading guy still with a year left.
Trading guy is still in his prime.

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):
I just don't. I don't like that because the key
is prospects.

Speaker 9 (01:04:51):
Now.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
Look, the Kyle Tucker trade is looking good so far.
Cam Smith, you know again, start off awesome. I think
the future looks super bright for him. And he saw
Pratis became an All Star when he got here, so
that trade and Hayden was Eski. Whenever he gets back
from Tommy John, I think he'll be good that's a
good trade so far, But the key word there is
what are you getting back and return prospects? Now, if

(01:05:13):
you want to flip Jeremy, pay you for one or
two established stars in the league. Okay, I'll listen to that,
But it just I don't Why are you trading a
guy who just made the All Star Game in his prime?

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
Why do you want to get rid? No, that's not
what they want to do. I think they do want
to keep Jeremy here. I think they I believe the
Astros will make a concerned effort to have a deep
conversation with him. But I'll also say it's not the
end of the world. If he just plays it out here,
then he leads two years from now. I don't know.
I think this. I think this Kyle Trucker trade got
the Astros thinking in a mindset that they didn't maybe

(01:05:48):
think about three or four years ago. They didn't ever
think about this with Carlos and an't think about this
with George Springer. They didn't think about this with Alex Spragman.
So the Astros have gone to this mentality that you're
speaking of, and I have done it plenty of times.
I'm thinking they think once cam Smith gets through the
bumps and bruises of him being a everyday right fielder
and gets to calm down and establish his confidence level

(01:06:10):
again like it was early on, we got ourselves a
future right fielder. East sac part is even if even Gordy,
if he's not a long term member of this team
and gets moved again, at least she got something back
in return. And he was playing to an all star
level and was your leading slugger in terms of home
runs well and played your solid their base.

Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
And we know they liked him a lot lot They
tried to give it to trade Dell at last year, so.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
I think the mentality for the team changed a little
bit and I don't see that being a one off.
I think they would do that again again. I don't think.
I don't want them to do that. I don't think
it's their intention to do that. But the Boris factor
Gordy is a strong one. And if Gordy, if Boris

(01:06:51):
is your client and he has given you no indication
that they are going to work it way all the
way up to the very last second, I think you
do kick the tire on it. But hopefully that's a
conversation we don't have to have, but I'm afraid we might.

Speaker 3 (01:07:05):
I just think I wish teams would start pushing back
on Boris and being like, I'm sorry, we're not gonna
be handcuffed by you because you want top dout ridiculous
contracts that, oh, by the way, ninety percent of your
players are not even living up to. These are terrible contracts.
We're hurting.

Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
At what point did the team step up and take
a stand and say we're not doing this anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:07:24):
We kind of saw it last year.

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
I got news for you, twenty six of the team
to do that. But yeah, but we thirty don't do it.
Four four will play the Boris game because they can financially.

Speaker 3 (01:07:33):
Who was two of his pitchers They waited and waited
and waited and the deal never came. I mean, look
at Pregnant, he waited and waited.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
Jarn Montgomery being the one classic. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
I mean, so I'm hoping there's more pushback here and
maybe that we'll get back to the Astros going, look,
we'll give Penya a reasonable deal, but we're not gonna
handcuff ourselves for the next decade.

Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
But Scott Boris, Gord he doesn't want to hear reasonable.
That's not what his job is. His job is to
get the best deal.

Speaker 3 (01:07:58):
How reasonable team starts saying with you, we're out.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
Okay, Well, the Red Sox of Dodgers, the Yankees, the
Mets will disagree with you. Every single didn't get like
a super gonna tear up that deal and get a
super big deal after all, Well, he rebound, he had
a great year this year. Yeah. Well, the question is
gonna be was Kyle Tuck are gonna get in? And
Ross and I have a huge bet on that. So
I'm hoping for seven years and less time for us

(01:08:22):
to ask you to figure out which one of the
following takes I about to give you is the truth.
We played to tell the truth. I well, but this

(01:08:47):
audience knows that I do tell the truth. Gordy and Jonathan, gentlemen,
I'm gonna give you four takes. You are to believe
three of them. One of them I am not telling
the truth. Understand, everybody. One of the four is a lie.

(01:09:09):
One of the lies. Which one of the four am
I lying about? Number one? If the Texans are gonna
beat the Rams in Los Angeles a week from Sunday.
Guess what they're gonna have to get.

Speaker 4 (01:09:22):
C J.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
Stroud's gonna have to throw for two hundred and fifty yards.
This team is going to have to pass their way
to beating the Rams. It may not be the way
that Demico wants to do it, but because of all
the ailments in the running back corps, namely Joe Mixon,
CJ is gonna have to throw at least for two
hundred and fifty yards in order for the Texans to
beat the Rams in Los Angeles. Just just my thought.

(01:09:44):
That's take number one. Number two. I do believe when
the dust settles in the Rocket season will not be
still two months away. They will have a contract extension
with Kevin Durant signed and sealed before the start of
the season. So Kevin will get his extension before the
start of the season.

Speaker 8 (01:10:05):
Number three.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
If the Astros Wild Card series against whomever, probably Seattle,
started today, my three man rotation for the Astros playoff
would be Brown, Valdez, and Arraghetty. I would take Arraghetty
as my third starter and fourth and least maybe last,
but not least. I have zero problem with offshore gambling

(01:10:32):
betting sites taking bets on Little League World Series games.
We are in a world of sports betting. One of
that's WNBA, college football, NFL, tennis, golf. If you want
to bet a Little League World Series, go have fun
with it. So my four takes are as follows. C J.
Stroud's gonna have to throw at least for two to

(01:10:53):
fifty to Boner to beat the Rams. The Rockets will
get an extension done with Kevin Durant before the start
of the season. The Astros Wildcard Series, in my opinion,
would be at this point Brown from ber Valdez and Spence,
Araghetty and number four. I've got no problem with offshore
gambling betting sites taking bets on the Little League World Series,
which one of the four? Am I not telling the truth? Gentlemen,

(01:11:16):
You guys may discuss. Jonathan, you want to give your pick,
I'm I'm gonna just stay. I'm just my gut. There's
no way man.

Speaker 7 (01:11:23):
Believes you can bet on Little League Both Series because
that can just turn into a snowball.

Speaker 3 (01:11:28):
It's a whole ordeal. Yeah, I was gonna talk this out.
We just got done talking about how good the Texans
defense is. But with the lack of the running game,
Nick Chubb, that doesn't believe in So I think he
does believe Strout is.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
Gonna need thir for two fifty in week one. He's
got to contract extension with Durant before the start of
the season. Yes, I mean you could.

Speaker 8 (01:11:50):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
If there's urgency there, you could get it done in season.
It's not to me it does is not a ton
of urgency there Astra's Wildcard series. I would go water
Brown from Rivaldez and Jason Alexander right now, But Matt's
going with arrag Getty. Okay, he's coming off as one
of his better starts. I can, I can at least

(01:12:11):
hear that one out. But I think I'm with you, Jonathan.
I Matt's Matt's a little conservative when it comes to
sports betting takes. I think he does think people are
more runs for betting on little Leak World Series in.

Speaker 1 (01:12:26):
A twelve year old's like, like, what are we doing?

Speaker 4 (01:12:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (01:12:29):
Chinese Taipei?

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
Like and how many?

Speaker 7 (01:12:32):
How how much money are we spending on these bets? Anyway,
this is it's not gonna be gig.

Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
I think he thinks you're an idiot. If you're betting
on a little leak World Series, so I'll say that
one is the line. All right, here we go. Stroud's
gotta throw for two fifty. There's no running in to
be Speaking of number two. I do believe that they
will get attentionion done. And the long card series, I
do believe Spence Raghetty you can use Jason, Alexander Gordy
as your long leader if any of those three guys

(01:13:00):
get into trouble. If you need a spout for two innings,
you need a long you need to aning guy, and
Alexander could do that. That's the reason why I would
start Arraghetty over Alexander for that point. In that point only,
if you are betting on literally World Series games, you're
a moron.

Speaker 3 (01:13:14):
Wow, he got it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
Congratulations both of you.

Speaker 3 (01:13:17):
We know you too well.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
All right, I think you're spilling water everywhere. Tom, who
is we gotta spill water in the studio it was empty,
the lid didn't complete. If you or managin't Gordon before
he goes, and he's the program directory is of this
radio station.

Speaker 3 (01:13:33):
By the way, quick programming note, Steve Spark's gonna have
the series off against the Rockies, Space Cowboys broadcaster Garrett
Green will join Robert Ford in the booth for this series.
So see, I see if Garrett can bring some good
luck to.

Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
Your not he would know that team is as good
as anybody Space Cowboys anyway. So you know, I'm always
curious and I'm gonna have to ask somebody in the
Asters Areganization if they were willing to tell me what
kind of money do they budget? You know, when you
when you have you have to have a budget of
players going on rehab appearances and you gonna fly him

(01:14:09):
to Palm Beach, or you have to fly him to
rehab appearance in I don't know, you know, Austin, or
in Corpus or a round Rock or in Oklahombus. You
know what I mean. There's could you imagine whoever's the
traveling secretary his budget screwed for the year, right, I mean,
You've sent jord On to Palm Beach twice, You've sent

(01:14:31):
him to Corpus and you know he's not driving himself
down there, you know what I mean. You gotta put
him up in hotels. You got in a Yeah, it
was a little bit easier.

Speaker 3 (01:14:41):
Though having the Triple A team here in town and
the Double A team not far away in Corpus. Yeah,
I mean when they were okay, see and the worst
was Fresno, California. I mean, now, I remember we talked
to Tyler White. Tyler White was he had just gotten
the Fresno and then somebody got hurt and he had
to come back, and so he's on a plane the
next day coming back to the big league club. Like, yeah,
that's a nightmare.

Speaker 1 (01:15:01):
Yeah, I just I'm just curious what that is. How
much money is spent? Do you travel them? I mean,
does Jordan if it's like Corpus to Houston, you can't
fly on a regular jet. Does crane scent his plane
down there? Does he fly on you know, dark breast
airlines are schmided? And did they fly in first class?

(01:15:21):
I mean it's only a forty five minute flight, right?
There is some flight I saw there's some random city
in like Middle Texas that Southwest flies from Houston there
every day, And I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:15:32):
Like, who was on those flights? But I guess there's
not a whole lot of flights. Like if you want
to get to Lubbock, you can fly Lubbock, but you
fly you can fly. You gotta go, you gotta you
can fly NonStop. Enschmided, you have to change planes if
you're flying on dark breast. Yeah, there was some they fly,
I think, like Brownsville too, like.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
Some of the of those places. But those are all
they're not doing it because people are flying to Brownsville.
There are people that are flying to Brownsville because they're
going somewhere else and they're changing planes. Midland Midlands got I.

Speaker 3 (01:16:02):
Mean, there's a lot of going to Houston and Midlands.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
But people are going from Cincinnati to Midland. You gotta
change planes.

Speaker 3 (01:16:09):
Who's doing that?

Speaker 1 (01:16:10):
You don't know? Going in Gas City, people are not
I would say, I would say of the people that
are flying from because you're you're talking to the travel
god here. You know this man Gordy Sports.

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
Travels past the terminal. There's two people sitting there. I'm like, no,
it's no.

Speaker 1 (01:16:28):
It's people that are flying from Orlando to a Middleland,
Odessa or Atlanta. I gotta change planes in Houston. People
that are not just going. Although one of our great
friends has a lot of business in Midland Odessa, he
flies there all the time. Farast place Midland, West Texas.

Speaker 3 (01:16:42):
What's the other Southwest hubs.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
It's Dallas, Dallas, Baltimore'ston Baltimore, Chicago, Midway, Phoenix, Denver. There's
a bunch of hubs.

Speaker 3 (01:16:52):
I'm just thinking, when you're connecting through Southwest, there's a
few cities that you almost have to go through.

Speaker 1 (01:16:56):
If you're in the East coast. Usually it's Baltimore, Chicago.
In the West, it's there, La or Denver, Phoenix. Houston's
a big hub. Dallas begome, they have a been Todd.
West is dark, breast is everywhere.

Speaker 3 (01:17:08):
I don't think I'm ever gonna fly to Dallas again
for it, Like, it's so driveable it is.

Speaker 1 (01:17:11):
Why would you ever from my house It's I'm three
hours and forty five minutes and that's even stopping at Rookies.
I just look at too. By the way, the Texans
or the Astors play in Arlington in two weeks, it's here.

Speaker 5 (01:17:25):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:17:25):
September fifth, sixth, and seventh, it's in Arlington.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
I thought it was here. It's at Texas. Oh, hell,
that's Sunday. It'll be Texas, right, it is. They have
three in Houston, that's true. They have six with the
Rangers stopped Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:17:38):
That's Sunday. We get Texans Rams three twenty five. Kick,
we're gonna be about the sixth inning of Astis Rangers.

Speaker 1 (01:17:47):
You're gonna work that game. I'm do every Sunday. Okay,
just it just sucks. I would have rather them a
little bit more staggered. Well, the NFL doesn't care about you,
or care about the Astro or Major League.

Speaker 3 (01:17:58):
Baseball one thirty five, first pitch at Arlington. We couldn't
get that a Roku game. Move it up to twelve.
Maybe there's a chance. I don't know why you, why you?
Why are you bagging on Roku? They're fine, but get ready, folks,
if you don't, if you only have one or two
streaming services, you're gonna need about eight to watch sports
next year.

Speaker 1 (01:18:17):
I think MLB is gonna be heavy streaming next year
on more mainstream stuff. Like I think it looks like
Netflix is gonna get is gonna really get into sports.
But you know what, as long as my as long
as my Internet, it's okay. Netflix, it's a great job.
How's your peacock Excuse me? Do you have your peacock account?
Because you're gonna need it for NBA and MLB. Well,
I watch eighty two games a year. That's plenty for me.

Speaker 3 (01:18:40):
Peacock's not bad. They've got some good. They get all
the housewives crop My wife watches.

Speaker 1 (01:18:46):
Oh you're not watching it.

Speaker 3 (01:18:48):
I don't. I don't want it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:49):
I watched. Let me tell you about Beverly Hills. What's up, Gretchen? No, Orangecuese,
Orange County. The rest of I don't watch. But I've
had a mad love for Gretchen for a long time.
I don't know who any of those people are. Yeah,
you do? You know? Everly, you know every single one
of them, and every single one of them. She talks
to you about them all the time. Yeah, that's right.

(01:19:11):
The Astros and the Mariners are still the same. Big
fan of Bob Seeker still for me. Maybe the loudest
concert I've ever been to in my entire life in
terms of my ears ringing. It was the Old Summit

(01:19:31):
now Lakewood Church this time guys blowing. It was so loud.
Do you know the do you know other Bob Seeker songs?
Jonathan Bider Chance, I've heard his voice. I couldn't sell
you the name. I don't know what the song though,
old time rock and roll night moves, Uh, Hollywood nights

(01:19:57):
like a rock. Oh you could, let me tell you
can get Tom Klenner and our engineer back there. He's
always fixing our problems because we have a lot of
problems here. He's he's going, man, I'm a secret guy.
You gotta be a cigarette out here. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. Listen,
you know you get you know, give him a song.
Time to play for the next break, Little Bob, secret
bump coming back. Let's get to the news at noon

(01:20:18):
at twelve oh seven, all right, as you heard, the
Astros drop game number four of the series. Could not
get the sweep against the Orioles, losing three to two.
The Mariners did win yesterday two more home runs for
cal Raley and they gain a game on the local nine.
So the Astros will be playing tomorrow night with at

(01:20:39):
least either a one and a half game lead or
a two and a half game lead in the American
League West. Because the Mariners do play the San Diego
Padres in Seattle tonight start a series there, So Astros
off today. Jordan Alvarez could be available. Matter of fact,
here's Dana Brown on his Sunday conversation Robert Ford talking

(01:21:01):
about him and Jake Myers potential return. Yeah, good chance.

Speaker 11 (01:21:05):
Let's see, you know, how he does today, how he
feels on Monday, and if all goes well, there's a
chance that we could see him in that Colorado series
for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:21:15):
And then you know with Myers.

Speaker 3 (01:21:17):
You know, look, Myers has got a chance to get
on that.

Speaker 11 (01:21:19):
We have assignment sometimes toward the end of this upcoming week,
you know, in the sugar Land. So he's coming along
nicely as well. So it looks like we're starting to
get all of our guys back. You know, we lost
a couple guys out of the bullpen, and you know,
so that hurts a little bit. But it looks like
we're starting to get our hitters back. So hopefully we

(01:21:39):
can get on all cylinders, keep swinging the bats and
go on a little run here. That's what we're expected
to do, and that's what we're excited about.

Speaker 1 (01:21:48):
Thank you, dand for that from the Texans Damiico Ryans quote.
Most of our decision roster wise will be made tomorrow,
so no updates on those decisions. He had a zoom
call today with some legitimate members of the media, some
probably not that think they're legit because they get on
the YouTube page. He also says that includes players like
Joe Mixon, who's nursing a bad ankle, is on the

(01:22:08):
non non football injury list and did not practice during
training camp. Again, no update from Demico on that. Congratulations,
by the way, going out to a PGA Tour pro.
This is a man who has been competing for years
and years and years. Tommy Fleetwood wins his first PGA

(01:22:32):
Tour victory Sunday, two hunder sixty eight. He finishes the
Tour championship at eighteen under par. It was his one
one hundred and sixty fourth career start on the PGA
Tour and he finally won one. He collected the FedEx
Cup and for winning his first tournament, he wins ten

(01:22:55):
million dollars. By the way, he wins a lot of
money despite not winning tournaments, but he got a big
paycheck yesterday. Congratulations to Tommy Fleetwood. And that, my friends,
is the news at noon, by the way, and that's
the news. Indeed, that is the news. Dude. There you go.

(01:23:17):
H A lot of you are like, man, leave our
small market flighting flights loan. I look, you know, I'm
a Travel whore. I know these things. I know that
the flights of midlen, Odessa and Lubbock are full. I
know the flights are Brownsville or full and McAllen and
Corpus and Harlingen. We're gonna be shaming me. Tell Gordy

(01:23:37):
Thomas Sports Travel knows exactly where all these all these
flights are full. Sports Travel Okay, yeah, I have I
have several. Let me tell you I got three side companies.
Jonathan Thomas Sports Travel. If you want to go anywhere,
I can book you a lower flight. Thomas Sports Enterprises,
which evaluates NFL players for drafting and signing players. Dak
Prescott is my first one, and of course the number one,

(01:23:59):
the O G would be remote for you dot biz
for those who don't know, are remote for you dot
business Where I get to go to your restaurant and
set your program, your remote controls up so people can
go there and watch sports. Because imagine going to uh
rac a Ral they don't have TVs in Racarel Wow,
Wing Wow, Ruffalo Row Rings terrible place for Wings by

(01:24:21):
the way, and saying hey, I'm gonna watch the Astras game.
They're like, I don't tell you want some nibblers. No,
I don't want nibblers. I don't want to go to
rapple Bees going to rapple Bees. I want to have
a beer and watch the game. Can you put on
the Monday night football?

Speaker 4 (01:24:39):
Get what?

Speaker 1 (01:24:44):
That's why? Remote for you? Dot biz is available. Your
company out there that wants me to come to your
restaurant before the day starts and program your TV properly
remote for you, dot biz can do it. Publicly traded company,
by the way, all right, twelve twelve on The Matt
Thomas Show with Ross Ross is uh On in West
Texas Fighting Snakes seven one three two one two five

(01:25:05):
seven ninty seven one three two one two five seven
NINTI believe it or not? Today is all things about
the two Avery Johnson's. Avery Johnson, the Kansas state quarterback
who lost on Saturday in Dublin and his parents, his
dad and his older brother got in a fight fist
fight in Dublin. You can see the videos that I'm
sure in any of your favorite socials or you can
will be get any questions about the former longtime NBA

(01:25:28):
guard and coach Avery Johnson. Twelve thirteen, Sports Talk seven
ninety seven one three, two, one two five seven.

Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
NINTI make off time.

Speaker 1 (01:25:43):
This is a jam. I want to go with us
in my second song, but teach his own. I'm liking this.
Bob Seger and a Siller Silver Bullet band who saw
the tomback here? Seriously stop now he's he's retired, he's
not performing anymore, but damn he could. I mean my

(01:26:04):
ears were ringing. Everybody in the arena was high as
a kite too. I mean everybody was everybody. Oh, I
mean would you have? Uh that cope? I cannot confirm

(01:26:24):
und deny my preferences that night. Good choice, good choice,
Thank you very much. Uh Ross is out. He probably
thinks Bob Seeker's mid that's his fault. Is that right?

Speaker 3 (01:26:39):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:26:39):
We'll find we'll ask him on Thursday when he's back. Uh,
it's me by myself, you know what. It's me, It's
me and you. It's our quality time together. No, Jonathan's
here too, But Jonathan's getting his playbook ready for the
SFA game because they're gonna need his four four forty
ass out there eventually. After getting whooped up for three quarters,
I have I have to get a little kick comvertime
you might, Hey, I would I would pay to watch
you kick return. Yeah, come with two Brokennes, poor kid.

(01:27:04):
All right, So if you ever said, hey, I want
to spend some quality time with Matt on the phones,
you may do that right now at seven one three
two one two five seven ninety seven one three two
one two five seven ninety and again.

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:27:16):
Avery Johnson's the former Spur Warrior Maverick Rocket Uh is
part of the Believe It or Not Today, as is
the current quarterback of Kansas State who his dad and
his older brother had a knockdown, drag out fight after
that bout. I was going to ask you about that.
I don't even know what it's about. But they both apologized.

(01:27:37):
But if you're Avery Johnson, the k State quarterback, are
you you're beyond humiliated? Right, First of all, your team lost, right,
and then your parent and then you remember your your
older bro and your dad are fighting.

Speaker 7 (01:27:48):
Almost like the Halliburton situation, Uh with the pacers in
his dad well, but he was just yeah, he was
going after the other guys. They had a family feud
out there. I desperately want to be a fly on
the walls and know, like you know what I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:28:02):
I have not run enough about it. I wonder if
how much of that was my son, son, you suck
and maybe older bros said, don't be backing on board
like that, and who knows, maybe they were just drunk
and just had stupid crap. I don't know if you're
getting that. Are you fighting with your sons? Though?

Speaker 6 (01:28:18):
Like?

Speaker 4 (01:28:19):
Are you?

Speaker 1 (01:28:19):
They were like brawl, like choke hold. They were brawling.
You saw the video, right, they're brawling. Let me see
if I can google this reason why Avery Johnson's family fought.
Am I gonna trust AI on this one? I doubt

(01:28:40):
they have a story. I mean they might, they probably,
but here it is. It says uh senseless bickering. They're
just a rough house family. I guess yes. I don't
know what to tell you. Family of Kansas State quarterback
Avery Johnson apologizes for fight. Let me said. They did
a written release to uh sensels bickering escalated an unnecessary fight.

(01:29:02):
We have resolved our differences and take full responsibility for
our actions, the two said in a joint statement. We've
apologized to our media and extended family, and now extend
our apologies at Kansas State University. It's alumni and fans.
We regret the incident, have learned from it, and are
committed to ensuring it doesn't happen again. Please accept our
deepest apologies. That's really embarrassing.

Speaker 4 (01:29:26):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:29:29):
They apparently got enough into the fight at the stadium
then it got physical. I mean the younger Johnson two
hundred and seventy three yards and two touchdowns. Hmm. I've
never laid a hand on my kids, and I would never.
One of them is significantly bigger than I am, and
one is significantly significant but smaller than I. But no,

(01:29:52):
you don't do you know what you are? You're trash.
If you're fighting with your family member like that, you're
If you want to scraw, you want to throw hands
with your with your dad or your or your sibling,
you got trouble.

Speaker 7 (01:30:05):
And now all the other oppositions of fans. When this
quarterback goes to play, is going to be get me
huckled to oh the signs?

Speaker 1 (01:30:14):
Yeah? Absolutely. Let's talk to Phil and Ireland in twelve
twenty three. Hi Phil, what's going on?

Speaker 4 (01:30:21):
Matt?

Speaker 5 (01:30:21):
I'm calling I'm not a fan and calling you forever,
but I stopped calling because I can't talk so much.
In my office. But I've been a fan. I'm to
show you how I go back. You were doing a
remoted Pat Bones over on the south of West Giving,
and you get away tickets to the basketball game. Nice

(01:30:42):
my name to my name, and soon as I sit
down and ordered my wings, you call my name the winging.

Speaker 1 (01:30:47):
How about that? It's very nice. Good to hear your
voice again, Phil. What's on your mind today?

Speaker 5 (01:30:52):
Well no, but I'm calling it playing Bob Seeker and
you talking about the song. The best one of all
to me is against the Wing?

Speaker 1 (01:31:00):
So hey, I can you know what for you feel
anything for you? Against the Wind?

Speaker 4 (01:31:05):
You hear that?

Speaker 1 (01:31:05):
All right? Thanks Phil for the phone call. Now we're
getting request on a sports radio show for music. When
I think of Against the Wind, I think of a movie. No,
actually I don't think of a movie, you know, Jonathan.
I think of a friend of mine. Oh, here we go,
here we go. I can't tell you with my friend,
I'll go. I'm listening to I'm All yours, I'm all yours.

(01:31:28):
I had this friend of mine and he was from Alabama, and.

Speaker 4 (01:31:34):
He was.

Speaker 1 (01:31:36):
He wasn't special needs, but he was different and people
kids made fun of him. But he was always overachieving.
And he had a girl that he loved a lot,
but she didn't treat him very well. And he went
off to war and he played college football, and he

(01:31:56):
did a lot of great things.

Speaker 7 (01:31:57):
And he met he met a food. This might be
your horse. One is this porest gump? This is is
definitely your hands down your horse. You tried, you know
what what the problem was. I said, I was thinking
about a movie. I should never said that.

Speaker 1 (01:32:12):
And then you said Alabama, And that's unless that's what
needs when not special?

Speaker 7 (01:32:15):
Oh gave it away. And Jenny's a horror. By the way, yes, no,
everybody can tell you that.

Speaker 1 (01:32:20):
Everybody knows that Jenny was a whore. But when remember
when he went running around the country. He against the
Wind was one of the songs he raan with. Really
the soundtrack is really good, by the way, I should
listen to the soundtrack. Get the soundtrack. Damn it. I've
been getting you less and less. I got you when
you first started with me. You you always like, oh,

(01:32:41):
that's a great story about you. A friend of yours
that had two female roommates. Yeah, I remember that one better.
I know that segue is it's my fault. I gotta
I gotta get better. All right, there you go, So
we'll give you a little against the wind. What what
would be? We gotta put some highlights behind it? We
have any Uh, we don't many textanschemes me anything yet,

(01:33:02):
m you could you don't go to the Astros SA
theres anything? Uh you play? You'r you already played everything
from yesterday?

Speaker 5 (01:33:11):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:33:11):
So did you did you miss anything? I got some
air geddy in there, I mean most of everything I got?
All right, Play one, I don't care what it is.
Play play one positive Astro sound bite. We'll get back
to the Astros conversation with against the Win, which is
a great great Bob Seeker song. Uh twelve twenty seven
uh seven one three two one two five seven ninety
seven one three two one two five seven ninety We

(01:33:33):
are talking about the Astros off day today three with Colorado,
three with the Los Angeles Angels, and then three with
the Tech with the New York Yankees next week, very
very important nine game homestand coming up with the local nine. Also, Uh,
we've got uh the Texans being rather silent about Joe Mixon.

(01:33:59):
You see, you don't miss the first four Games of
the Year. I wouldn't be surprised. I'll be ready for
I think c J. Strod having to throw a lot
more than he wanted to, especially in Week one against
the Los Angeles Rams. Seven one three, two one two,
five seventy. Come on and join us here. It's just
me hellong with Jonathan and we're with you till two
o'clock on Sports Talk seven to eighty Control. That was

(01:34:19):
nothing left to burn and nothing left to I need
to host a show on a classic rock station. She said,
I'm not busy enough as it is, but you know
I needed one more to think to my plate. Sier
good song Ember. When he was running around the country
as all depressed as Jenny left, I didn't know, oh, okay,

(01:34:43):
okay against he was just ran and rain ran and
he ran against. That was inspirational. I'm trying to think
did he did she sleep with him before he took
off or was that after remember they saw each other
at what at uh what's thought in Washington right at
the Capitol or the Yeah, I can't no.

Speaker 7 (01:35:07):
I think that's when he started running because he had
no purpose after he came back.

Speaker 1 (01:35:10):
From the water. In turn, we're gonna we need to
like watch that movie over again. And buden h hissed
the hell out of her. Jenny bitch just makes my
blood boil every time. Oh God, Jenny Forrest loved her
so much every single time, and he forgave her every
single time. And then when she was sick, took over
for Little Forest and she didn't even know Forest Little

(01:35:32):
Forest was around. Pissed off all right? Back to sports. Sorry,
the movie pissed me off, all right. Twelve thirty four
on the Sports Talk somebody you play that Carlos carea
SoundBite you know to me and I want to give
you a little peek behind the trade deadline by the Astros.

(01:35:59):
And obviously when Jordan comes back, the lineup is gonna
get even fuller than it is today. But when Carlos
was traded here was there a little part was there
a little part of you that was thinking what Cardinals
are we getting? Are we getting the guy who's had

(01:36:20):
decent numbers in Minnesota, but he's just a little past
his prime, a lot of money spent, not a real
great investment. And are we trying to catch lightning in
a bottle for a guy that may be in the
bottom third of his major league career, because I'm gonna

(01:36:41):
tell you all the truth. I was kind of thinking that.
I didn't want to say it publicly because I wasn't
for sure, But in the back of my mind, I
was thinking, Man, what Carlo's career are we getting back? Well,
the Carlinals Craye work we got back as a guy
who's got an ops above eight hundred, had a big

(01:37:03):
home run this weekend in Baltimore, has played third base beautifully,
and damn he's trying his best to keep Fromber and
Christian Javier under some sort of coolness on the mound,
even though they've imploded the last couple of times they've
taken the hill. I don't want to say I'm stunned,

(01:37:25):
but I'm going to say I'm pleasantly surprised at how
well he's done here, and that maybe the early forecast
of his better days of gone are Gone may not
necessarily be in played right now. Maybe there's still a
lot left in Carlos career's tank before we start to
see that eventual decline. And the best part is, as

(01:37:49):
long as he's here for this in two more years
at least, what the Astros are paying him, not a
whole lot. Remember, the Minesota Twins are paying a pretty
good chunk of his remaining So not only do you
get a guy who has been a huge asset and
effortlessly replaced Estoch Praides at their base after he went

(01:38:09):
down with that bad hamstring, but you got a guy
who is got some stones and maybe you need that,
especially for some guys in this pitching staff. Folks, are
you all as wigged out as I am about the
how fromber is just cracking like a bad egg right now,

(01:38:30):
and how Christian Javier has struggled the last two times.
We're talking about veteran guys who have been there and
done that in won huge games for this franchise. This
last thirty five game stretch for the Astros is going
to be a pain gang. This is going to be

(01:38:52):
torturesome because after these winnable games against Colorado and the Angels,
you have the Yankees, you have six with the Texas Rangers,
you have three more with Seattle, you have three games
in Toronto. It's gonna be nice and easy, at least

(01:39:14):
on paper of the next week, and then it's gonna
be a little bit of a troublesome spot for the
next couple weeks in terms of talent, competition and the
improved players in front of them. You need your veteran
guys to be able to say I got this, and
for Jordan to be whatever the hell you did? Is

(01:39:34):
yordn that mentally week that a bad defensive situation is
causing to suck for a better part of a month.
As even Brian bogas Evik said on the show last week,
it looked like he was pissed off before the game
even started. And honestly, when it comes to fromber to me,

(01:39:58):
I still think there's plenty left for him to be
successful with this team. I'm hoping the Astros need him
to it, because again, if if Arragetty's not gonna be
able to give you a six or seven on a
regular basis, which hopefully isn't the case, but at least
he showed some signs of getting closer to it, and
if Lance mccutters is just who Lance mccutters is going

(01:40:21):
to be the rest of the way, you need three
guys that absolutely, without a doubt, can get you deeper
into games and say give me the damn ball. I'm
gonna win some games for this baseball team. I think
Hunter Brown's mox. He says, I can do that. If
you're don excuse me for if Fromber can't, this Astro

(01:40:42):
team is screwed. And even if he's not coming back
here next year, he's playing for a contract. And while
the numbers on the stat card look good, you look
at the website record wise wins losses relatively low. Era

(01:41:04):
baseball team scout players, baseball front offices are full of
guys fifteen twenty deep. They know who from ber Valdes is.
They know this is a guy in the month of
August has been terrible. They know this is a guy
that if not everything goes along his way, he gets
irritable and he can't shake it off. Not to use

(01:41:24):
this a Taylor Swift line, but you know what I mean.
So even if he's not doing this for the team,
at least do it for yourself. So if you go
somewhere else next year for the foreseeable future and get
a new contract with good money, you able to prove
that your daughters that you were a guy that can

(01:41:45):
win games when things don't always go your way. And
that's how I kind of feel about fromber right now
is that Rombery hasn't been the same for a month.
And it's whether it's I didn't defend my position, whether
I didn't back up a ball behind home plate, whether
I wasn't happy with an outfield it field positioning the straw.

(01:42:08):
You gotta get past all that. Things are slowly coming together.
Arraghetti performing yesterday after a sluggish first inning was a
positive start. Getting Jordan back and swinging the ball and
hitting it for good, slug down in Corpus and Grant's
double a. So it is what it is, but at

(01:42:30):
least to get him back and whatever combination he does
come back, whether he plays three days a week, four
days a week, or he can play five or six
days in a row, I think that's gonna be the case.
Al Tube has been remarkably consistent, especially back half of
the year. Christian Walker has played better for a better
part of a month. Yanna, looks like his numbers are
getting there, and you're getting a little bit of heroes

(01:42:51):
here and there, whether it's Sanchez a five hit day
or a seven game, a seven hit series. Because as
much as we bitched him and complain about the team's
lack of offense and starting pitching hasn't been great, and
the bullpens have been used, and all the injuries that
have just swallowed up this team this year. As as
much as we've talked about that almost since the injured

(01:43:14):
list became a list this year in twenty twenty five,
your squad is to use the Bob Seeger term, still
the same. Still with a two game lead, it needs
to get bigger, though, especially because of what you got
coming in front of you. Colorado sucks, Angels suck. You

(01:43:34):
have got to do some damage this week because things
get more difficult, and the last thing you want to
do is playing basically five hundred baseball until the Mariners
get here in about three or four weeks, because you
know they're gonna be focused. It might be one of
the most highly charged regular season series the Astros have
had in a long time. Those three games of Seattle

(01:43:54):
are on the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first sold By
the way, they'll be the last three home games of
the year because the Astros do close out the season
on the road at Sacramento for three, at Anaheim for three.
So you had those someone on your big in your
back pocket. But We've talked about this earlier in the show. Today,
hasn't it felt like the last three or four years

(01:44:17):
the Astros had a week where they were supposed to
really get fat and happy off of subparp competition, and
they wind up squandering it like when they're when like
last year, two years ago, they had a series of
Oakland and then Kansas City where they like went one
in six or something like that, one and five or
maybe oh to six, and then all of us were like, Oh,
this team's doomed. I don't think now again. History maybe

(01:44:42):
repeat itself here. I don't think you can do that
again and survive the American League West and win it
if you don't take care of business this week. Colorado
professional Baseball players, Yes, are they good? Major leaguers?

Speaker 6 (01:44:58):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:44:58):
Angels are they full of madague players?

Speaker 3 (01:45:00):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:45:01):
Are they good?

Speaker 5 (01:45:01):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:45:03):
This kind of feels like it's got to be a
five to one week done it friends seven one three,
two one two five seven nine zero seven one three
two one two five seven ninety two. Main topics we've
discussed today over the first two hours and forty three
minutes of the show. A lot of astro conversation, which
we always a lot love and the fact that today
the Demiko Ryans did not speak about Joe Mixon's injury status.

(01:45:28):
Nehi'll give us more details tomorrow. He has to by
the NFL rules. For you Texans fans, listen to me
right now with Joe Mixon probably not ready, how nervous
are you being honest? If you could be not nervous
at all, or maybe you are ridiculously nervous about the
Texans running game for the first month of the twenty

(01:45:51):
twenty five season seven one three, two, one two five
seven ninety if you want to join us on those
topics and then you want to get into seven one
three two one two five seven ninety. So, just how
bad do the Rocky suck? They're thirty seven and ninety four.

(01:46:17):
They are the only team in the National League that's
technically eliminated from playoff consideration. We are not even in
September yet and you've been eliminated. That's how bad the
Rocky suck. Damn. They are sixteen and forty nine on

(01:46:41):
the road. They have a negative run differential of three
hundred and forty nine. You're like, Matt, what is a
negative run differential that means the other teams have scored
three hundred and forty nine more runs than the Astros have.
You know what, I'm gonna ahead and say it because
I've got hot takes in my twelve fifty Astros. Don't

(01:47:04):
sweep the series, this will be This will be a
disappointing performance weekend. I will be mad as hell. I
won't take it anymore if the Astros don't sweep the
Colorado Rockies. Seriously, they got a minus three forty nine.
What's their staffy? Are about seven? Jesus, they suck all right,

(01:47:27):
So go to the games, rude hard, eat your dollar
hot dog business fans special on Thursday, Astros will sweep
the Colorado Rockies. I guess the better question is how
bad will they sleep the Caldara Rockies? Not if, but
how bad are they gonna do it? Three bloods, three

(01:47:48):
close games, and let's get some mojo back, and let's
make sure you're on and Alvaretz does not to feel
the way of the world on his shoulders by trying
to hit home runs just to help the Astros win
A couple of ball games wouldn't be a bad thing, though,
all right, seven one, three, two one two five, seven ninety.
I'm watching the highlights right now. Pittsburgh's playing Pittsburgh and

(01:48:08):
Colorado played yesterday. Well, Paul Skean's throwing for the Pirates.
There's no chance you think Paul Skans whatever allow will
run of the Pirates under any circumstance. Well, he was
just mowing him down left and right. Man, I'm watching this,
and by way, Lawrence sha Hotti's on here to How can.

Speaker 5 (01:48:25):
I do it?

Speaker 1 (01:48:25):
I need somebody in here with me. Yeah, exactly. I
gotta turn this. I gotta turn that direction. This is bad.
This is bad. I never wanted Ross back so badly,
But I mean, I guess I can wait till Thursday.
I told you last week, wait till Monday. You are
gonna missing a little bit. Well, you know what, I
gotta put something on. Besides, this is laurenceitycause this is
just not acceptable. Uh. The US opens going all right now,

(01:48:47):
I'm gonna pass on that too. I mean, tennis is fine.
I'm just turning the TV off. I just can't do it.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seven ninety. We do
have college football starting this week. We talked a little
bit about that with Gordy earlier. Willie Fritz gonna be
on tomorrow, looking forward to that. Hit me with us
every week prior to games, usually probably two to three,

(01:49:09):
usually two days ahead of time, and the Cougar's open
things up with Steven F. Austin. Now Steven F. Willie
knows because he used to be the coaches Sam Houston,
I want to say back in the day, so he
knows what the SFA Lumberjacks are all about. It's I mean,

(01:49:31):
it's pretty close to open enrollment, but I'm not one
hundred percent there. I can't I can't even do it
with a straight face with you being in there. I
can't even I can't even do it. Look, if you
underestimate SFA, you might not win by four touchdowns about that? Look,
you know what we gotta ask him he comes tomorrow, right, Yes,
you can't interrupt me, but I'll ask what do you man?

Speaker 7 (01:49:50):
You got to ask him what he thinks the prediction
the game, the score is gonna be. No, he's not
going to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:49:56):
Coaches don't do that.

Speaker 7 (01:49:58):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:49:58):
You know what I'll do, though, I'll be nigh. I
will say you know what, what is sneaky good about
s FA football? Okay, yeah's se let's see what he says.
I will make First of all, Willie is such a
good dude. He would never saything bad about him. He'll
let me handle all the heavy lifting on that. But
it is interesting, uh, that the college football season kind
of starts, I think where there's like, there's only a

(01:50:19):
handful of games on Thursday, and the Cougars, of course,
being the national powerhouse that we are, decided they need
to put the game on Thursday, right right, right right,
exactly what it was seven one three two one two
five seven ninety seven one three two one two five
seven nine zer. This is kind of the most wonderful
time of the year. You've got the baseball Pennant races going,

(01:50:40):
you have the call before the NFL storm because the
Texans will start a week from Sunday against the Rams.
Remember a week from Thursday, we'll have the Eagles and
the Cowboys opening up the NFL season. Yeah, you see,
are you Why are you paying attention to this Micah
Parson stuff at all?

Speaker 7 (01:50:58):
No, I've been keeping a double ever since because I
grew up around on DFW, So yeah, saying about this
Jerry Jones stuff is just like every other year you hear,
did you.

Speaker 1 (01:51:06):
See Micah Parsons laying on a table in the last
preseason game? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:51:11):
And I saw him walking into the last p sason
game with the nachos and hoodie and like like he
doesn't want to be a part of team.

Speaker 1 (01:51:17):
Well, I mean he's he's got to be there because
he wants to get paid. But Jerry Jones about the
defensive about this, I mean, it feels like to me
that Mike is like, We've gone through this over and
over and over again. I know what I'm I'm worth.
You don't think I'm worth that, And if you can
help me with the trade, I wanted to make that happen. Meanwhile,
Jerry's like, no, I'm the boss, and I think I've

(01:51:40):
given you the richest offer that I've ever given a
defensive player in Dallas Cowboys history as long as I've
been the general manager slash owner, and this is what
you're gonna get. It's, frankly, and I'm not really close
to it because I don't particularly care about the Dallas Cowboys,
But I don't think either side looks particularly good.

Speaker 4 (01:51:58):
On this.

Speaker 1 (01:52:00):
Both look very selfish and not wanting to be a
part of the team. Well, if you're not happy with
your contract and a lot of and that's your right
as an NFL player, But laying on the table looking
like you are any you would rather be anywhere else,
it's a bad look. It's like when Dante Robinson, a
cornerback for the Texans many moons ago, put the pay

(01:52:22):
me rick on his shoes. You're never going to win.

Speaker 5 (01:52:29):
The war.

Speaker 1 (01:52:32):
Of public opinion when you do things that look. I
don't know if the word childish is the word I
want to use, but it looks about this. It looks unprofessional.

Speaker 9 (01:52:45):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:52:46):
The average human being struggles to pay the bills. The
average human being, the average fan, has to pay for
a mortgage, has to feed the family, has to take
care of insurance, has to work in eight to five. Now,
that average Dallas Cowboy fan also loves Micah Parsons very much.

(01:53:07):
He wants him on that team as soon as possible.
The average fan also doesn't control the salary cap and
doesn't worry about what Jerry has to spend and what
for next year the year of that. The average Dallas
Cowboy fan wants Micah Parsons on the field. So what
I would do is, if I'm looking at that and

(01:53:29):
I was on team Micah, and Mike has been one
of the best players in the NFL at his position
for many many years, he might be mad and look,
Jerry's record as a general manager hasn't been great. Plus
Jerry of the last ten years is overpaid guys Ezekiel Elliott,
you know what I mean. They're a great example. He
ridiculously overpaid for Dak Prescott. So he has a history

(01:53:54):
of paying guys crazy money that maybe other teams wouldn't.
And Mike's like, wait, man, I backed this up. I've
played to being at the position I should be as
one of the highest paid players in the NFL. But
when you lay there and you have social media and
you have television cameras staring at you like this, I

(01:54:16):
just think I think the optics don't look great on
it that if it looks like I'm a selfish player,
I'm not going to play by anybody else's rules except
the ones I create. And I think it probably hurts
him when in the court of public opinion. Now, remember
the court of public opinion doesn't sign the Deels. The
contract has to be agreed upon between two people, Jerry

(01:54:38):
Jones and Micah Parsons. Okay, forgeting about the agent, but
if you are doing what he's doing and just looking
like he's forced to be somewhere and hanging out and
eating nachos and laying on tables and looking completely disinterested,
is there anybody that thinks that if you're that you

(01:55:00):
are a neutral observer of this at Micah Parsons, man,
this is how you're supposed to act the way that
if you're mad about a contract situation. I think I
think it hurt him from a from a pr standpoint.
Now it doesn't really matter, but it just gives the
approach of he's only there for himself, is not there
to rout his teammates on, not there vested to be
a Dallas cowboy and not looking for the overall good. Now,

(01:55:23):
all this could be fixed in a matter of days
if one if one of the two sides come to
the table and says, okay, let's put the difference. But
I just thought the I thought, Micah's look to me
and believe me, I'm not going to side with Jerry
Jones on much because I don't think he's been a
good general manager for a long period of time, but
it just looked like he was the spoiled brat. If

(01:55:45):
he didn't get his way, he's going to act out
like we used to act down we were kids, And
he did act out by his lackadaisical, half assed approach,
even being at the stadium over the weekend. All right,
final hour of the Matt Thomas Show, Ross is coming up.
If you want to chime in on the Dallas Cowboys situation,
you want to chime in on the fact that Damiko

(01:56:08):
Ryans wouldn't say a word one about Joe Mixon and
how concerned are you Texans fans if you're bumping around
town on this Monday. But where this running game is
going to be? And of course the Astros maybe welcoming
back Jorn and Alvarez. All these things will get to plus,
believe it or not, Today is all things about Avery Johnson,
the former NBA player and the current Kansas Stink quarterback.

(01:56:30):
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety. If
you want to chime in seven one three two one
two five seven ninety, Matt without Ross with you till
two here on seven ninety What oh five Sports Talk

(01:56:51):
seven ninety We take you till two o'clock. Astros win
three or four against the Baltimore Orioles off today. Three
game series of the Colorado and their negative three forty
nine run differential await the Astros. We played to tell

(01:57:14):
the Truth about an hour and a half ago, and
I said the three starters I would like to see
in the Astros because I don't think they're gonna unless
they play like eight hundred baseball the rest of the way,
They're probably going to have to go and play the
wild card series, which will not be fun. Remember that
the Astros did that last year, lost too straight to Detroit. Now,
if you win the division, you do get to host
the wild card game. If the season ended today, the

(01:57:39):
Astros would be the American League West champions. Who would
they face? They would be facing the team with the
worst wild card, and the worst wild card is the
Seattle Mariners. I got some you ready for this. The
Astros will be definitely facing the Mariners in September nineteenth, twentieth,

(01:58:04):
and twenty first. Then they have a week off to play,
not off, but they have a week to play the
A's and the Angels. If things hold up and the
Astros hold on to win the West, chances are they're
gonna be playing the Seattle Mariners and the wild card series. Now,

(01:58:27):
let's say the Astros implode and don't win that series
or get swept by the Mariners, and the Astros don't
win the American League West but hold on to a
wild card spot. Guess who they could be playing the
Seattle Mariners. There's a significant I wouldn't say singing be
there is a chance the Astros could be playing their

(01:58:51):
last home series of the season against the Seattle Mariners
and their first playoff series against the Seattle Mariners. Now, again,
if both teams are super hot, one wins the division,
one wins the World Card, and they both move up
to wild card. But if things were a status quo
and things don't change a whole lot between now and

(01:59:12):
the end of the season, still with a month left
to go, you could be seeing Seattle a lot in
the next couple of weeks. And that's where the big
difference makes. I think the Astros would much rather have
to win a two out of three series against the
Mariners in the playoffs in Houston, Texas as compared to
going up to Seattle, where the Mariners have been excellent

(01:59:34):
so far this year on their home field. Case in point,
the Seattle Mariners are thirty nine and twenty six at home.
They're thirty one and thirty five on the road. So
they are kind of two different baseball teams, they really are.
In case you know, they did drop seven their last ten.

(01:59:56):
They did beat Seattle, the Oakland whatever, Las Vegas A's
too to three this past weekend, and they've got San
Diego tonight starting a series there in Seattle. But clearly
the Mariners are a much better team, a much more
fluid team when they're on their home field than they
are on the road. So getting the Astros and not
only to win the division is number one, and number

(02:00:18):
two maybe trying to avoid any thought of having to
play Seattle, especially if that lineup continues to hit the
way they have hit so far. But again, having the
games in Houston may make a big difference, all right,
So the Astros are off. Jordon was in Corpus again yesterday, So, man,
I don't want to put too much pressure on the situation.

(02:00:42):
I don't want to put too much situation pressure on
the situation. But Jordon, you are needed badly because, with
the exception of what happened in this past weekend against
the Baltimore Oriols, who are obviously competitive but not anything
of a contender, your team struggled against good pitching. Case
in point, the Baltimore series before that, and the trip

(02:01:04):
in Seattle, all right in Detroit, And how much is
he supposed to play? Is it gonna be game? Is
it gonna be plays a game Monday, takes Tuesday off,
plays a game Wednesday, takes Thursday off. And that's one
of the things we're gonna talk to Joe a spot
when he joins us on the show tomorrow, is that, uh,

(02:01:30):
you know, is he gonna need a date off in between?
Just because Jordon is activated? How much playing time does
he get? And we can't control that. Jordon can't, I mean,
Joe can't control that. I mean, if it was if
it was Joe's thought, he'd probably play him six days
a week if he could. And we had a caller

(02:01:51):
brought this up earlier today. We thought that all these
pitchers coming back from injury would just step on the
mound and start throwing naughty have a mile prior heat
and would start throwing and giving you eighty five ninety
ninety five pitches. It just doesn't work that way. Guys
have got to get back into the mode. Will mccullors

(02:02:12):
ever get to that point, I don't know. It looked
like Arraghetti turned the corner. Javier has yet to turn
the corner. So while I'm excited and I know a
lot of you will be excited as well to hear
your Don's name in the ballpark tomorrow and see him
on the lineup card, I think we gotta temper our

(02:02:33):
expectations just a little bit. For me Christian Walker hitting,
Hey Sue Sanchez, if Cam Smith can't is no longer
able to hit much anymore this year, Hey Sue Sanchez
fills up that the Keratini slash DS combination works out well.

(02:02:53):
Behind the dish, Panya continues to be the good leadoff guy,
and Carl's Korea has a month of September like you
had a month in August when he was top three
in American League in hits. So I would just say selfishly,
as an astro observer and fan, join me in not

(02:03:16):
trying to put the way of the world on Jordan's
shoulders guy in plain since May, and we're supposed to
expecting to come up here and slug over eleven hundred
with an ops. That's just that's not possible. If it is,
and we don't need to worry about the World Card,
we don't need to worry about the Seattle veritors. But

(02:03:39):
I don't think that's realistic. And that's why I said,
and God, I hope I'm wrong about this when I
put the over under on Jordon Alberz, but this way
my over my number of home runs that I thought
Jordon was going to hit the rest of this year.
When when Ross and I talked about it a month ago,
was remember what I said?

Speaker 2 (02:03:58):
Zero?

Speaker 1 (02:03:59):
I said zero. If I'm right, we're in big trouble.
Not we, you and me, the Astros are in big trouble.

Speaker 12 (02:04:10):
Now.

Speaker 1 (02:04:10):
He doesn't need to hit ten to be productive. If
he wants to hit gap doubles and you know, and
get key base hits and draw walks, I'm all for that.

Speaker 5 (02:04:19):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (02:04:19):
I'm not gonna be something that's gonna be obsessed by
hit the number of home runs he hits. But this,
this lineup needs lengthening, and it needs some slug and
those are two things I think Jordan and Alvaretz can
bring as long as those hands are able to withstand
the pressure of going against major link pitching and the
pressure and the ability to be able to play six

(02:04:43):
or seven days in an inner nine game span. You know,
the Astros, this is their last off day until the eighth.
They have one more on the eighteenth, and they have
one more in the twenty second. The Astros have three
days off the rest of the season. Three they place

(02:05:06):
consecutively between August twenty sixth and September the seventh. To
expect you're on a plane ninety percent of those games
would be foolish. But if you can play seventy five,
Local nine might be in pretty good shape. Seven one
three two one two five seven ninety. If you want
to chime in, get in on the Astros conversation about

(02:05:26):
to be a should be a very fat and happy week,
and if not, it will be really, really nervous, especially
if San Diego has not helped the Astros out by
winning some games and settle up in the Pacific Northwest.
Believe it or not, today is about Avery Johnson, the
quarterback at Kansas State and the former NBA player. If

(02:05:47):
you didn't see the video, you gotta go check it out.
Avery's dad and his older brother got in a fight
in Dublin, Ireland, after the game against Ohio Iowa State.
I'm trying to think that if we ever had any
other parental fights that got physical like that, I've never
even seen it before until this video. I mean, there

(02:06:08):
are there are famous fathers and sons all over the place, right,
but it's not like Serena and Venus were pushing dad around,
you know.

Speaker 8 (02:06:15):
What I mean?

Speaker 1 (02:06:16):
You know who else? I couldn't tell you? You tell me, Oh,
I got one. Did did LeVar Ball ever fight with
with Lonzo? Yeah? I mean, did LaMelo ever get mad?
I mean LaVar was nuts still late is probably, but

(02:06:38):
at least he wouldn't be fighting with his kid.

Speaker 7 (02:06:41):
Yeah, his kids respect them like I think they do.
They come out all was saying they love their dad still.
You know, well, I would hope. So that's what most
dads and sons are supposed to do. And then you
got but then you got but then you're.

Speaker 1 (02:06:51):
Throwing hands in Ireland. I mean that's like, that's like
Jerry Springer type bit.

Speaker 12 (02:06:59):
Right.

Speaker 1 (02:07:00):
I'm trying to think of any other father sons have
fought that we would know in the world of sports,
hell for that matter, in life. I think about these things.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seven ninety You want
to follow us on Twitter, it's at sports Empty and
I'm on Instagram as well at sports empty as well.
Follow me there. If you follow me, you will not

(02:07:21):
see pictures of snakes out in West Texas at sports
empt on Instagram one sixteen on seven ninety. You know,
advertising makes the world go round, and if not for advertising,
we would not be on the air. And we thank
those great advertisers on this show. Uh. It's interesting though

(02:07:43):
that there are levels that people are putting advertising on
that either are going this is too much or man,
I didn't think of this. First big deal. Today at
the University of Texas, there is a company that handles
cardiovascular health for student athletes and fans. They're going to

(02:08:07):
have their logo on the field at Darryl K. Royal Stadium,
and it's got quite a bit of conversation going about
why this is happening in college athletics, And you know
what I'm thinking I'm so used to corporate sponsorships on
all my fields, in my outfields and my basketball courts,

(02:08:32):
it doesn't necessarily wig me out. Well, I mean, isn't
that a good thing? Isn't it?

Speaker 4 (02:08:35):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (02:08:36):
Well, it's not a good it's not. Also, I don't
know if it's a good thing, but it's it pays bills,
so in some respects it does. Yeah, if you don't
have advertising, you can't pay bills. And if this helps
schools fund programs and scholarships and help pay for the
twenty million dollars a year that and in noon Yas
was talking about to pay student athletes their money. If

(02:08:56):
they got to figure out way to do, they gotta
do it. I mean, there are there were things that
were sacred than are no longer sacred. I mean, you know,
if you've looked at regular field watching games over the
last twenty five years, they didn't have a scoreboard out
there in left field. Well, they had the scoreboard out
there because they wanted you to show video replay, but
also they wanted to put some more ads on there.
So apparently this new company, I'm not giving plug because

(02:09:19):
they don't spend any money with us, but they have
their name at a certain yard line, and I'm not
bothered by it. I've told this, Johnathan, I've told this
the audience a hundred times, and I'll say this over
and over again. As long as you don't makes a
rule change for the sake of a for a dollar,
I'm okay with it. I agree with you. Case in point,

(02:09:42):
if you were to land in the If you land
in the back left corner of the end zone and
there was a golden arches over there, you know, for
the whatever, that place is right right right, and that
touchdown was worth more because you land in that area,
then I'm done with sports. Then this is It's not
even then it begins. It's a pinball video game, is

(02:10:03):
what it is. You know what I mean. I mean,
that's what it is, as long as you don't fundamentally
change things like if you are if you were watching
on a basketball court and there was an M and
m's a commercials sponsored at the NBA, and a Kevin
Durant had a three pointer in the M and M circle,
it was worth four points done. I'm just I'm being stupid,

(02:10:26):
but you get my point. Yeah, No, I'm trying to
imagine that's just crazy to think about. Well, you know
you see that all the time in those stupid mb
you know, those those celebrity games they play and those
MTV stuff they do. Eh where if you if you
do something in this certain area, it's worth bonus points
or something like that. That's all I'm saying. It's just
don't don't change the rules of the sport. If you
want to put logos on the court, you want to

(02:10:47):
put logos on the field, that's y'all's deal. And if
your fan base gets mad about it, then you can
talk to them about it. I don't know. Again, I
don't want. I don't know if I want a football
field or a basketball court littered like a NASCAR truck
or car looks or a guy's uniform. But the NBA
has patches on their shoulder blade, not on their on

(02:11:08):
their uniform top. The Astros have logos on their side.
It hasn't affected the way I've watched the game. And
I'm telling you, if someone works in media, advertising makes
the world go round. So within you know, you wouldn't
want me doing commercials every five seconds in between a comment. No,
I would, But you don't think you want me doing that,

(02:11:31):
and I just I just don't want the I don't
want the essence of sports to change because you're putting
a logo on the field. Maybe one thing you notice
when Texas has a homekin, there'll be some corporate logos
on there. And I think a lot of colleges do
the exact same things, especially if somebody's willing to pay
for it. Let's talk to Jerry on seven six. Jerry,
what do you got going today?

Speaker 9 (02:11:52):
Oh man? Another beautiful day in the Space City, another great.

Speaker 2 (02:11:56):
Show on your behalf.

Speaker 9 (02:11:57):
I want to ask you, why is no one mentioning Myers?

Speaker 2 (02:12:01):
You know you know what?

Speaker 1 (02:12:02):
Uh m t I.

Speaker 9 (02:12:04):
I'd rather see Myers come back and be that first
that guy we saw in the first half of the year.
I'd rather him than Alvarez because it adds that consistency.
In my opinion, Alvarez is kind of a streak. He'll
get on a huge streak and and and the numbers
are run up so good that that when he gets
in that slump, by the time he gets all the slump,

(02:12:25):
the numbers are still good.

Speaker 1 (02:12:27):
Uh.

Speaker 9 (02:12:28):
And so what what's up with Myers? Why why isn't
anybody talking about getting him back. That's who I want
to see come back. Uh you know, for one question
to you, what what do you think?

Speaker 1 (02:12:39):
Well, I'll say this, the more feared hitter of the two,
by far is you're on Alpharez. You wouldn't argue with
me about that, right, No, no, no, never With that
number two, Jake's offensive production this year is the best
he's had in his major league career. He doesn't have
a long history of being a productive all offensive player.

(02:13:00):
You would also agree with me on that, right, Oh yeah,
oh yeah. So I'm going to take the body of
work of both those players, and the more feared hitter,
the more that guy can hit doubles and hit home
runs and strike. The fear and lineups is way more
on jord On Alvarez than it is on Jake Myers.
But with that being said, Jake's defense is really good.

(02:13:22):
Jake can play six or seven days in a row
and not think twice about it. But there's also a
scared I mean, I don't know what Jake's gonna Jake
is gonna get some rehab games in here very shortly,
so he may be coming back in the next week
or so. Hopefully he's going to He's going to be
an additional part. But I don't think it's going to
be in either or situation because there are two different

(02:13:42):
types of ball players.

Speaker 9 (02:13:44):
Well, I just, I just and to everyone's surprised, I
sure would like to see that first half Myers out
there that that we saw.

Speaker 1 (02:13:55):
I know, you know why, because you know why you
want him Jerry's because every day you put him out
in center field, he was gonna make a great catch
and he was gonna get on base once or twice
a game.

Speaker 4 (02:14:03):
And so.

Speaker 9 (02:14:05):
Oh yeah, I saw a play the other day that
Melton didn't make that I'm sure Myers would have made.
Uh going deep towards the warning track, he slowed down
for that wall. You know, Myers would have cautiously slowed down,
but he would have still been on that on that ball.

Speaker 1 (02:14:21):
You know, yeah, I felt bad. Tramiell is a good
defensive player. I just felt bad that he he he
ran to that wall. And know what, I'm getting hurt
on that was a tough spot. And again that's that's
because Myers has just been playing more than Tremail has
the last couple of years.

Speaker 9 (02:14:33):
Yeah, that's right. What that wall that gets you though?
Why didn't Myers. Why didn't Alberz go to tripa A.

Speaker 1 (02:14:41):
Why Why did they just because they were I think
I think they were on the road last week and
they want to keep the guys close to Houston.

Speaker 9 (02:14:50):
What I'm going to answer this last question, is this
the best defensive infield in the history of the organization.
I mean, they that guy at first base. He he's
the best fielding first baseman in the history of the
franchise in my opinion. I've seen a lot of them that.
I mean, you know, you can go down the list,
watch some Glenn Davis, you know, bregman Bergman, you know

(02:15:12):
all those guys.

Speaker 1 (02:15:13):
Don't forget Guryel. Don't forget Guryel too. He was good.

Speaker 9 (02:15:17):
I thought, yeah, but man, this guy is something that
I think I think everybody's looking at hitting.

Speaker 4 (02:15:23):
But boy, he.

Speaker 9 (02:15:24):
Makes some phenomenal plays over there at at first base.

Speaker 2 (02:15:28):
Uh.

Speaker 9 (02:15:29):
And then I know you probably saw a game yesterday.
I mean to say, it was just showtime on defense
between Correll and Panya. It was some astonishing plays. I
sense mt that that we're getting a certain amount of
synergy between that third basement and that shortstop.

Speaker 1 (02:15:47):
Uh.

Speaker 9 (02:15:47):
You know that's gonna be real valuable in the future.

Speaker 1 (02:15:50):
Jerry, you're right, you know what he's got three talking
about Christian Walker, he's got three straight goal gloves. Thanks
for the phone call.

Speaker 3 (02:15:56):
You really good.

Speaker 1 (02:15:57):
He filled his position beautifully Offen not what we want
him to see, but he's getting closer to his yearly average.
Is honestly we are. I mean, you'd like it to
have a good month of September, because certainly it's month
of August is good. But from a deficent defensive standpoint,
Christian Walker a is durable in be He fields his
position very well and as far as all time asters infield,

(02:16:22):
Bregman at third, Korea short, Altwove at second, Guriel at first,
probably is better. But this one's not bad either. Part
of the reason why they've been able to stay in
games they have not thrown away in a lot of
games this year, or for that matter, any of the
last seven or eight years because of their defense have
been bad. Altuove was, you know, a minus defensive player now,

(02:16:45):
but he wasn't five years ago. Yeah, I would say
the previous run with Bregman, Korea, Altuve, Guriel greater than
what this is now. But this isn't bad. One thirty
one Sports Talk seven to ninety If you'd like to
join us seven to one read two one, two five,
seven ninety one, thirty six seven ninety mat with you

(02:17:07):
tomorrow on the show. Joe Aspatta, Willie Fritz and our
buddy Cole Thompson's gonna hang out for a couple hours
from eleven o'clock and two one, so we got that
gut feelings. Wednesday, we've got uh, Brian Bogus seven shut
your ball ass up. Gordy'll be in for a little
bit and then rosso back on Thursday as the Astros.

(02:17:28):
Hopefully we'll be talking about a sweep of the Colorado
ROCKI Series again Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for the Rockies, Friday,
Saturday Sunday. Anaheimer's are in town. Let's talk to Darryl
on seven ninety one thirty six high.

Speaker 13 (02:17:40):
Darryl, Hey, guys, thanks for taking my callow. Thank you
for the discussion on the ass bro. I have a
have a question, maybe a suggession. What would it make
sense to improve the offensive productivity if al too they
would put back into one hole and I and I
asked that question because I don't know the stats. Maybe

(02:18:01):
you guys have it. What are his stats with one
or two out and runners and scoring position versus Titania
or Korea. I'll hang up and listen, but I really
would like to know.

Speaker 1 (02:18:13):
Well, I'm by myself right now. It's like I can't
get you those specific numbers. I'm not changing the lineup.
I am very happy with Jeremy Penia leading off. I'm
very happy with wherever L two A is in the lineup,
which has primarily been third. I mean, Carlos Korea, you could,

(02:18:38):
you know, look, gang, let's be brutally honest here for
a second. You add your out of the mix. You
could go Paynya, Korea, al Tuove, Alvarez, Walker, Diaz. It's
pretty good. I don't want to over sell something, but

(02:19:03):
I'm gonna say it again. Painya ops well above eight hundred.
Korea ops way above eight hundred. Al Tuove over eight hundred.
Actually he's a little shy of eight hundred. He went
over for yesterday. Walker, you boop. You bumped down from

(02:19:24):
four to five, so you'd have your top three guys
all at eight hundred are above. Then you go Walk,
then you go Alvarez, Walker, Diez. It's pretty good. Top
six right, am I right?

Speaker 8 (02:19:42):
Sort of?

Speaker 1 (02:19:44):
Mike gon seven at a huddle.

Speaker 4 (02:19:45):
Mike, Hey, how you doing good? I still be talking
to how you been doing?

Speaker 1 (02:19:51):
I'm friend, I'm very good friend. Thank you for calling
us on your mind.

Speaker 4 (02:19:55):
McCormick, what is the deal with he?

Speaker 13 (02:19:59):
He looks like a in headlights when it gets up
to bat, and then when he knows, he's like an
instant out and when.

Speaker 4 (02:20:05):
He strikes out, he's just talking to him. So I'll
hang up and listen and listen to you.

Speaker 1 (02:20:09):
I don't but Mike, you know you know you know
the answer. You You're not calling for a surprise, are you, sir?
All right? So well to make sure you knew that.
I don't know. It's it's tough. It's tough watching you now.
He can he bunts just for those of you that
are pro bunters love that kind of stuff. But I'm

(02:20:34):
I'm not overly encouraged about him playing a lot between
now and the end of the year, especially if Jake
Myers comes back and Jordan plays outfield occasionally. Because here's
the here's the thing that that Joe's you're really gonna
have to mess with. He's been playing L two v
A lot of d H and a lot of second base,
very little left field work. You can't d H two

(02:20:56):
people in one game. Now. The decision for Joe will
be easy if Yorda needs a day off, and you
can give Jose a day off now and then if
you need to before the end of the year. But
he's not a guy that needs a lot. Somebody's playing
the left field that you don't want playing left field,

(02:21:18):
which is gonna squeeze McCormick's playing team even more. And
then you have if Jake Myers comes back. My presumption
is Myers comes back, Melton gets sent back down, and
then you're rotating between hayesus Sanchez and Cam Smith and rightfield.
That's all I kind of see the rest of the way.

(02:21:39):
But Chaz been not given a super large amount of opportunity.
But you can only give somebody somebody looks before you say,
you know what, it's just not a thing. I'm actually
frankly surprised the Chads still with the team, not necessarily
being released. I would have thought the Astros could have
gotten something in return in the trade, maybe an extra

(02:22:02):
right handed reliever, something I don't know, but I was
a little surprised. He's study on the squad, and I
think he probably if Jake Myers was healthy, I think
it had been no doubt in our mind that Chaz
would have been traded. But the Myers in situation did
change things a little bit. Alan is with us at
one forty one. Alan, what do you have this afternoon?
Good afternoon to you?

Speaker 6 (02:22:22):
Good after I got something I just don't understand blue ball.
He pitches a couple of weeks ago and probably had
as good a control and as good as stuff as
as anybody h So they send him down for I
think it's a minimum of fifteen days. Well, rolls around again,
he pitches good his next outing, which was yesterday or

(02:22:44):
the day before. Surely they won't send him down again
for another fifteen days. God, I just don't get it.

Speaker 1 (02:22:51):
Well, he can come back if somebody gets hurt, so
and unfortunately, Alan, a lot of people have been getting hurt,
so he's he's able to come back. Yeah, they're just
they're running out of bodies, unfortunately. And he was used
in a situation where his arm was okay to go.
But yeah, he's And when you get option one time
per year that you can go up and back as

(02:23:11):
many times as you want, and it only considered one option,
So he's a flexible guy. Jason Alexander was that guy
for a while too, until he started really pitching really well.
The fact is I wouldn't be surprised the blue ball
gets called up one more time from the end of
the year, especially if some tired guys getting there, and
if guys get DF eight, he can obviously come back
after the fifteen days, or if somebody gets hurt, which

(02:23:33):
hopefully isn't the case because Alan the astro has been
hurt way too much that he'll be back before the
end of the year.

Speaker 6 (02:23:40):
My problem is hurt or not. I see more control
and better stuff than not all, but most all of
his release pictures. I just don't get it. But anyway,
thanks for Kyle, you got it.

Speaker 1 (02:23:52):
Yeah, I know it's he's been okay, he is, he's
not been you know, lights out, but he helped the
cause that to day four and a third in Now
you did blow the safe because he'd wine up getting
the win. So one leg is far from perfect. But
he said okay, But I don't think he's the missing
ingredient in what has happened so far. For this team's
pitching staff. He's just been a right place, right time,

(02:24:15):
and a guy's been available to help them out because
of all the different injuries and Bennett's sussa going down.
Oh so you're losing your seventh inning guy, who's going
to be your eighth inning guy because your ninth inning
guy has gone. Now that your eighth inning guys, you're
now your ninth inning guy. Brian King need beginnings from

(02:24:35):
your friend Willie before we play. Believe it or not? Hi, Willie, Hi, Hi,
this time.

Speaker 12 (02:24:41):
I was kidding with your friend over there, Jonathan. The
last time I called, I told him. When he answered,
I said, now you know I'm not a man, right.

Speaker 1 (02:24:50):
Oh, well, he knows better now, I said.

Speaker 12 (02:24:55):
I said, I thought it was funny, But I said,
y'all kept going on about it. I said, God, enough
is enough. Anyways. What irritates me is when you have
a pitcher that has thrown a lot of pictures pitches,
he finally gets out of the inning and sits in
a dugout to collect himself and rest. Why do the

(02:25:16):
next three batters insist on three up and three down?
Why can't they just stand there and take a few
pitches and give this guy a break. I see it
all the time.

Speaker 1 (02:25:26):
It happened twice this week. It happened twice this weekend.
You notice that once for Arraghatty and once for was
I can't remember who it was it was in the
Saturday game. I forgot who it was. But that happened twice.
That the opposing pitcher for the Orioles hardly had to
work because his pitch count was low me while the
other Astro starter had to pitch like twenty or twenty

(02:25:46):
five pitch I think was Javier on Saturday in the Arraguda.

Speaker 12 (02:25:49):
Yesterday, Yeah, Javier when he went back to the dougout.
This was a game covered by Fox and even the
guy AJ said, now Correa's coming to that. He's taking
his one step back at the playoff to give himself
more time. And he mentioned, well he knows that Jabber
needs a few more minutes and he's walking out. So

(02:26:13):
Correa seems the only one to get it. I mean,
I don't understand what they don't get. They need to
take some pitches to let this picture rest, and Javier
wasn't given an adequate rest.

Speaker 1 (02:26:25):
Well, the best thing was that just makes Carlos Krea
a smart guy, Willie. He took the time out or
before he even took the bat, and then he waited
for a couple of pitches to go by, and I
want to say even drew a walk, which was even better. Yeah,
that's just a savvy baseball move. So it's sometimes easier

(02:26:47):
something done the taking pitching, especially if the pitches will
strike one, strike two. But Korea did all he could
to at least give his picture a little bit of rest.
Very good, A stute point in your part there for
noticing that. All right, let's play Believe It or Not.
It's up next. It's all things about Avery Johnson, the
former basketball player and coach, and Avery Johnson the quarterback

(02:27:09):
at Kansas State. That's what we're doing today on today's
edition and Believe It or Not. Seven one three two
one two five seven ninety. If you want to play
five minutes up to go on the show, what should
we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio

(02:27:29):
game show. We simply call it be leaving it on it.
Here's how it works. You call seven one three two
one two five seven ninety seven one three two one
two five seven ninety today's edition to believe it or not,
it's all things about Avery Johnson, the Kansas State quarterback
and Avery Johnson, a former NBA player. I'll read your
statement about one of those two gentlemen. Statement completely and
utterly accurate. You'll say this, I believe it. If same

(02:27:49):
with tironis football commit up. You'll see this NA two
but every nots in a row will win you one
of these prizes. A seven ninety T shirt. Oh look
at this, Jonathan. A pair of tickets to see the
Cougars take on SFA in the lone Star Stampede Thursday
night at TDCU Stadium. Let's go. Five pair of tickets
to see The Weekend live this Sunday, August thirty first

(02:28:12):
at NRG Stadium. And a pair of tickets to see
The Fix on September the third at the House of Blues.
Prize we got pride Galow. Let's go win these prizes
from us, The Fix, the Weekend, the Cougars, or a
seven ninety T shirt. You first gotta believe it or not?

(02:28:34):
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seven Ninetie Alfred on
seven ninety run into play Believe it or not. Believe
it Alfred, good luck to you. Kansas State to Avery Johnson.
Spent his freshman season at Oklahoma State, where he was
a backup. He transferred to Kansas State after being told
he'd be the starting quarterback. Believe it or not, that

(02:28:59):
is correct. A CA State guy all the way through
statement number two for the whim. As part of his
nil deal with Kansas Date, Avery Johnson owns a lavender Corvette.
Believe it or not, he does. Believe it's nice too.
There seen a lavender Corvett in your life? Folks. Rick

(02:29:20):
on Sevenintie Rick, what was your favorite part of today's
radio show?

Speaker 2 (02:29:25):
The part where you were going off on Rod?

Speaker 1 (02:29:28):
That's every day here we go. Avery's Avery's dad who
got in the fight with his other son this weekend,
is a part owner of a bail bonds company. In
what you talk Kansas Believe it or not not? He
is of' I said it one set a thousand times.
You don't know what Avery Johns's dad does for a living.
Greg on seven, Nintie, Greg, You're ready to play believe

(02:29:49):
it or not?

Speaker 2 (02:29:50):
Believe it.

Speaker 1 (02:29:51):
Avery Johnson to Kansas State quarterback is the very particular
on what he eats on game day. He likes his
last meal before kickoff to be oatmeal and a large
Anna strawberry smoothie. Believe it or not, that's so bizarre.
I'll believe it. No, I made that up. God bless it, folks.
God we get Chatha, We got all these prizes. We

(02:30:13):
got to give these away here, Kelsey on seven or
are you ready to play? Believe it or not?

Speaker 4 (02:30:20):
So?

Speaker 2 (02:30:20):
Are you talking to me to l F l C?

Speaker 1 (02:30:23):
Now you put Kelsey on the screen? What is wrong
with you?

Speaker 4 (02:30:28):
L C?

Speaker 1 (02:30:29):
The NBA's the NBA's Avery Johnson once sent an NBA
record by missing twenty seven straight three point attempts in
one month during the nineteen ninety two season. Believe it
or not, that's correct. I made that up. Statement number
two for the way and Avery Johnson, during his NBA career,
played for six different NBA teams. Believe it or not, not,

(02:30:51):
you did believe it. You know we're gonna do tomorrow.
We're going to give away for one correct answer tomorrow
because we have so many nice rises. But today it's two.
Colin on seven ninety Colin, you're ready to play?

Speaker 2 (02:31:04):
Believe it?

Speaker 1 (02:31:04):
Or not.

Speaker 2 (02:31:06):
Believe it.

Speaker 1 (02:31:06):
Last season, the NBA's Avery Johnson was accidentally sent a
custom football by a prominent alumna Kansas State. The NBA's
Avery Johns let me finish. The NBA's Avery Johnson laughed
it off and had it shipped to the right Avery Johnson.
Believe it or not?

Speaker 12 (02:31:22):
Not?

Speaker 1 (02:31:23):
Yeah, that was hard to believe. I get that. What
I understand? State of number two for the win. The
NBA's Avery Johnson stands only five foot eleven and was
nicknamed the Little General during his NBA career. Believe it
or not, believe it. There you go, finally a winner. Finally,
all right, up next, it's Clinton, It's Wexler, it's team.

(02:31:48):
I'll talk to you folks tomorrow at ten am on
these airwaves that we call Sports Talk seven ninety eighty