Astros Win 10-2 In Game 2 vs White Sox’s, Is Christian Walker Waking Up? Pacers Take Down OKC In Game 3 In NBA Finals.

Astros Win 10-2 In Game 2 vs White Sox’s, Is Christian Walker Waking Up? Pacers Take Down OKC In Game 3 In NBA Finals.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ten oh one in the am here on Sports Talk
seven ninety Hello and welcome into a Thursday edition of
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. However, it is without
Matt Thomas. He is in Las Vegas with his son.
I believe this is the celebratory trip for his son's

(00:22):
graduation for at Texas A and m for the Fighting
Texa Shaggies. I love how you throw that out there
for his son. Yes, this is this is Homer buying
the bowling ball from Marge. When Marj realized that she
that he just bought it from himself, He's like, hey, son,
I got a dream. I got a dream trip for

(00:43):
my twenty year twenty one. However, twenty two year old son,
Peyton Thomas, this is your dream trip.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Son.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
We're gonna go to Las Vegas. We're gonna gamble which
now I think this he said, this is his fortieth trip.
We're gonna go to Barry Manilo and Carrot Top. This
is your dream graduation trip, son, And well that's what
tripped they're on. Dan. Dad is hanging out you. Hear
his voice already appreciate you, Dan. Nothing says happy graduation
like being a fanelo or going to see ripped carrot

(01:12):
top because he is that the man knows the weight room.
I mean, when would this trip actually be something you
would normally hear from someone nineteen ninety seven, I was
gonna say, I mean, you're gonna mix in Blue Man
group in there is that could be part of it?
Even know, I mean, God rest his soul. But Danny
Gans when he was firing it up out there in Vegas?
Was that gonna be part of it too? So Matthew
is out. He is out today and tomorrow Dan up.

(01:35):
In return of Sigfried and roy H, I don't know, okay,
I think one of them is. Maybe it'll be Ai
Sigfried or or whichever one you go. Which one got
bit by the lion it nearly died. I mean, it
doesn't matter fifty fifty, it doesn't matter which one of
them got bit by the lion. Well, they say, oh no,
that wasn't the The Chris Rock quote was that tiger

(01:55):
went tiger, but that lion didn't go crazy, That lion
went lion. What happened with sick Free? I mean, it's
just it's it's the sheer, you know, nature of wildlife
is even if they seem domesticated, although remind themselves they're
still wild, and that's exactly what happened at that point.
But the animal rights people were saying that the tiger
was actually protecting him, trying to do like what they

(02:19):
do with their young carrying. Okay, so he's carrying. He
was carrying him by the head of stage. Thought that
it was helping you out. But then well, you know,
there's year was wrong. Who are proactive? Our rip rambe?
Uh yeah, well rip HARAMBEI as well. Okay, we've already
got one show reference. It wasn't a movie reference from you, Dan,
but it was a movie reference two minutes into this show.
He's gonna be hanging out for the first hour. We

(02:40):
got Brian McTaggart at eleven o'clock. We have I just
don't get it at eleven thirty later on, I'm gonna
be honest again. It's one of the atoms. I think
it's Wexler, could be Clinton, who knows. Coming up at
one o'clock, you will find out. We have a lot
of stuff to get to. You guys can always get
in on the phone line. The I'm gonna be honest
with you. Early in the show first couple of hours.
Phone lines wide open seven one three two one two

(03:01):
five seven ninety. If you want to get in seven
to one three two one two five seven ninety. You
can also send tweets to at Sports RV two at
Dan Matthews Hou with one t as well. You know what,
shameless plug for my Instagram. You can follow me at
Sports RV. I'm trying to build it up. I gotta
I'm gonna at least by the weekend. I'm trying to

(03:22):
drop a new video about something that I think the
city of Houston needs to embrace and also something that the
city of Houston needs to let go. That's coming up
on the instagram at Sports RV East. Yeah, nobody's ever
teased their Instagram here on the show. That's what we're doing.
We're breaking new ground here on the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross without Matt Thomas. So I have to start

(03:44):
off the show, of course with our Houston Astros ten
to two victory over the Chicago White Sox. The rumors
are true, man, the White Sox can be beaten. They're
not the indomitable force that the Astros have made them
so far this season. Coming into last night. What they
were three to one in three against them. Well now
they're two and three, so that's a step in the
right direction and they'll go for a series when today

(04:06):
with from Ravaldez on the hill. But let's start with
Ryan Gusto. Needed a little bit of link out of him.
Hadn't given you five innings in a while, and he
did it. He gave you six with seven strikeouts and
only two earned runs given up. Quality start from Ryan Gusto.
That's huge, especially on this stretch of thirteen straight games
in thirteen straight days. Yeah, massive. I mean what's gotten

(04:26):
him in Dutch. A lot of his starts this year
has been the walks and even you know, just the
general ineffectiveness to be able to find the strike zone
on a regular basis, general ineffectiveness, the cousin who generals
general soreness. Yeah, they're in the neighborhood. They're in the neighborhood,
a couple of houses down. But one walk last night
out of Gusto. Ninety one pitches. I think that's a

(04:46):
season high, career high for him in terms of pitches
in a game. But he strikes out seven, gives up
a couple of runs there, But still, I mean, that's
what you want out of your five starter. I guess
in this case six in the hierarchy of guys going
right now for you. And I'd mentioned this all throughout
the Sean Salisbury Show today that the start before last

(05:07):
he had gone three and two thirds against the Pirates.
You have Chandler Rome the postgame asking Joe a Spota, Hey,
how much longer can you keep doing this? Like you
can't keep you can't keep running this guy out there
and maybe he gives you four innings because this seems
like the results that you're getting. And Joe said, no,
we trust him. We're going to continue run him out there.
Same deal the following week, and I mean last night
it paid off and hopefully it's a jumping off point.

(05:29):
And translation, we don't really have much of another choice,
so that was the translation. Sure, but yeah, fastball looked good.
He was getting some swing and miss with it, he
was locating it well. He got seven strikeouts. So good
stuff from Ryan Gusto. That was exactly what you needed,
especially to bounce back from Lanso. Colors. Wasn't a disaster
start in game one, five innings, four earned runs, not good.

(05:50):
Four walks a little bit of the mccullor's experience that
we've seen throughout the years, running up a little bit
too much traffic on the base pass and getting those
guys on base and then allowing some to score. And
I mean, the only home running you think he gave
up was just the solo shot to Luis Robert, right,
So it wasn't like he was giving up two three
run bombs and a bunch of hits. It was just
kind of his his own self being his own worst enemy,

(06:13):
which we've seen from Lansow Colors Junior as well. So
much needed from Ryan Gusto after mccullors is so so
start well, I mean, and it's also you hope that
this is a jumping off point for him because if
it is, you know, Chandler Rome comes out with the
athletic piece yesterday of what the Astros priority list could be,
that knocks that down where unless you're just completely blown

(06:33):
away for an end of the rotation guy, maybe you
don't have to look for that guy. Maybe now you
can look for that left handed outfield bat. You can
kind of, you know, situate your priorities because if Gusto
is able to be a guy that you can count
on to at least give you five the back end
of the rotation. That's pretty much the benchmark that I
need for a starter. Get me five innings. Yeah, it
gets you five. I mean what you got yesterday was great. Also,

(06:55):
of course we should say who qualify? It's against the
White Sox exactly, the the twenty seven yankee there. But hey,
lionspe Collers Junior struggled with him the day before. You
take what you get and then now, of course we
have to get to the bats. Let me take you
back Dan to May twenty fourth and May twenty fifth. No,
you're playing Doc Brown. I like it when Christian Walker

(07:18):
had a couple of hits on a Saturday, and then
on that Sunday he followed it up with a three
run walk off shot. He had three hits that day
with three runs batted in. And we're sitting there saying, uh,
oh is it time? Is Christian Walker back?

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Now?

Speaker 1 (07:35):
That was about eleven twelve days ago, And now I
ask you again, uh, oh is it time? Is Christian
Walker back? Three hits for him yesterday? Now, one of
them was a check swing to right field. It was
I think like fifty three miles an hour off the
bat or something like that. The most weekly hit ball

(07:55):
of the game yesterday, but still he had a couple
of hard hit balls, including a four had and twelve
foot blocks and three hits for him average now up
to two seventeen, four runs batted in Christian Walker can
So you're speaking about jumping off points. That's what you
need for him in his bat? Well, you hope so,
I mean, because that's been the frustration with him this

(08:16):
year is Yeah, he's had those fits and starts where
you're like, all right, this is where the guy finally
gets going. He's not a three hundred hitter. He's not
somebody that's gonna be a massive average guy for you.
Probably when it's all said and done this year, he's
gonna be in the two thirties. Two forties is probably
average wise what he's going to be. But clearly he's
got some ground the makeup to even reach that point,

(08:36):
because now with that performance last night, he's up to
two seventeen on the season. He was two eight heading
into this game. In the first two at bats that
you saw last night, that was confidence, Like those were
swings that I had not seen many of that home run.
It was, Oh, that's the guy that you signed, the double.
Oh that's the guy that you signed. You talked about

(08:56):
the check swing. Hell, when you're going through it the
way that he is, you will absolutely take that because
then you say, maybe things are going my way. I'm
not going to hit it directly at somebody. Yeah. So,
now after last night, I don't know how much do
you hate XBA. Are you okay with it? I know
my normal partner, Matt Thomas hates it. His that's because

(09:16):
Matt he wrote the Bible of sports talk radio, and
we just we just all have to sit in the
pew and read it. That's true. That's that's pretty funny.
All right. So last year XBA for Christian Walker to
forty six. This year XBA, after yesterday's performance, for Christian
Walker to forty six. So maybe there's just a little

(09:36):
bit of bad luck in there. The K percentages are up,
walk percentages are still down. That has to improve. But
at least if you go by that, maybe you can
convince yourself that it's been a lot of bad luck
and this thing's gonna turn eventually for Christian Walker. I mean,
and you know the exit Villo it's been there, he's
he's been able to make that happen. And it's also
you know the hard contact that goes with the exit

(09:57):
Vello average last year ninety one point two average this
year ninety one point one. Okay, So I mean it's
not a precipitous drop. I mean it's it's literally one tick.
So I mean it's it's that and it's you know,
the questions. And that's why I liked yesterday when you
guys had bogie on and one of the things he
talked about there could be long swings in there. Absolutely,

(10:17):
there could be long swings because long swings, shoulder coming
out of the swing, all of those those happen when
you're struggling because you're trying too hard to be able
to make things happen. Yeah, so Christian Walker, could he
be turning things around or do you need to see
a little bit more. Also, haven't even talked about the
guy who had the two hard hit balls of the
game yesterday. That would be Einer Diaz. We'll talk about

(10:39):
him feeling good about the Astros, and I want to
hear from fire Joe, a spot a guy. Everything the
Astros have been through multiple guys with Tommy John surgery,
Spencer arraghetti freak fracture on his thumb. He's been out
and I know the AO West isn't strong, but still
the Bats haven't turned your on. Alvarez has been out

(11:01):
for a month plus. Jose l two Vay's numbers aren't
what they wants were, and the Astros are four games
up in a cushy spot in the American League West
Fire Joe Spotta, guy, how you feeling? Seven one three
two one two five seven ninety is the phone number
seven one three two one two five seven ninety. It
is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross a lot of
stuff to get to with you until two o'clock. We

(11:23):
got Brian mcdaggert coming up at eleven o'clock. Don't go anywhere,
stick with us here on The Matt Thomas Show with
Ross ten eighteen in the Am. Here on Sports Talk
seven ninety Ros Viria with you Dan Matthews as well.
It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Matt Thomas
is out in Las Vegas. I presume sleeping at this point.

(11:43):
It is eight am over there, but who knows. You
can get in if you'd like it. Seven one three
two one two five seven ninety seven one three two
one two five seven ninety talking some astros. They get
the win over the Chicago White Sox yesterday, much needed.
I mean, flating would have been if they lost that
game and then lost another series to the Chicago White Socks.

(12:05):
But thankfully they won the game. Yeah, I mean it
avoids a lot of disasters for you, and I mean
still a win the night you split the season series
with the twenty three wins Chic, which I mean, it's
better than losing this season series two to four. So
I mean that's that's definitely. You hope that you get
the great Fromber that we've been getting lately. And if

(12:26):
you do, and you get enough of the offense, well
then there's no reason you can't. Yeah, he's been locked
in lately. He has just been turning in the quality starts.
I think it's let me see seven or six six
quality starts in a row last time out. Okay, we
always have to say it's the Pirates. But seven innings,
eleven strikeouts, he was looking really good. He was very

(12:48):
sharp from the start with I think it was always
the first inning. He had three strikeouts on three curve
balls or something like that. But he's he's been in
a Frober form to where we've seen it before where
he gets locked in nobody's hitting him. So yeah, was
the Pirates last time out, But tonight it's shy White Sox.
Not like it's gonna be the most difficult line up
except for Luis Rock. Why is Louise Robert like a
huge Astros killer? What's his deal? I mean he's hitting

(13:11):
like I looked up, but I'm like, he's hitting one
eighty what he's hidden in the one eighties and he's
just crushing the Astros and he seems to do it
all the time. I mean, it's it's ty France on
steroids almost. I mean remember how ty France, even without
being on the Mariners when he was with the Reds
last year, he was getting after the Astros and you're like, yeah,
this guy got DFA. What the hell's like? What is
going on here? Like? Why? Why?

Speaker 3 (13:32):
Why is it?

Speaker 1 (13:32):
You?

Speaker 4 (13:33):
Like?

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Why are you the one doing this to us? But
Luis Robert, it does seem like if he just played
the Astros, then he wouldn't be batting sub two hundred,
like he'd be in the Hall of fame. I think
if he was going up against the Astros every game,
it's ridiculous. So yeah, well I guess, uh, who else
is like that? Like not a great player? That was?
Was it like the last couple of years? What's a

(13:54):
Keel Bado up to these days? Is he still on
the Tigers? Was an Abraham Toro? That guy Abraham Toro?
He's he's hitting hot with the Red Sox right now,
by the way, So when the Astros play the Red Sox,
we can count on Abraham Torro probably, Yeah, I think
you could. Uh twenty eighteen ALCS Stephen Pierce. The hell

(14:14):
is this guy?

Speaker 2 (14:15):
M Yeah, I remember that? Now?

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Who was the U? Was the Yankee guy that was
crushing the Astro? Was it at Harwalda Cabrera? Cabrera? Wasn't
Harrison Bader with his mouthpiece?

Speaker 5 (14:30):
Wasn't he?

Speaker 1 (14:31):
The Astros fits here and there too when he was
at the Yankees for that one year or something a
couple of years ago, a couple of decent hits, But
like I never really necessarily remembered it where I was
just like, God, that damn Harrison Bader. I do remember
that personally, but maybe that was just like one a
game or a couple of games in a row or
something like that. Anyways, uh Luis Robert notwithstanding from Berveldez
should be able to get the win, but didn't mention

(14:52):
or kind of just talked about it. At the end
of the last segment, Dan, we have mentioned Christian Walker
in his big day two hits for you in Diaz
didn't drive, run and did work a walk on a
four pitch walk for yaner Diez. I don't know how
many he's had that, how many of those he's had
this season, but the two hardest hit balls last night
off of his bat I think it was one hundred

(15:13):
and eleven. I'm trying to pull it back up and
then like one o nine point seven or something like that.
So the two hardest hit balls off the bat of
one janer Diez, a couple of singles and a walk
for him as well. That's another guy. I mean, we
talk about this team scuffling. If he can turn it around,
and Walker can do it too, and you get yord
On back, I mean, already four games in first place.

(15:34):
We're not talking about al Wes. We're talking about Al
Pennant hopefully. Yeah, and he gave you kudos because I
was listening to you and Matt on the way home
yesterday and I heard you mention that where if Christian
Walker wasn't having the struggles that he was having, our
focus would be on Yiner right now, because I mean,
he's been a guy that's been a two seventy two
to eighty close to three hundred guy throughout his career,

(15:54):
and he's beat in two thirty nine right now. I mean,
it just looks like you just kind of same deal
with Walker, where you think that he's going to get
it going. He has the walk off home run against
the Rays, and you're like, Okay, that's good, That's that's
the turning point for him. But then you're still getting
the outside slider being thrown at him and his butt
goes to the outside of the batter's box and he
has a feeble swing over it and he strikes out.

(16:16):
You're just like, how does this continue with this guy?
But he's the next one, and it's it's been a
middle of the order symptomatic thing as his because I mean,
pretty much three through five, you've gotten good things at times,
but Jose Altuve has been kind of by his standards
just kind of pedestrian at this point. Yeah, And I'm

(16:37):
gonna be honest, like I expect more from Raner Diaz.
I want him to be better. I expect more for
Christian Walker. I want him to be better. And al
Tuove is gonna be good. And he got a couple
of hits. He's up to two seventy right now. But
he declined a little bit last year. It was like
his worst OTHPS since like twenty fifteen or something like that.
And he's thirty five years old. They're putting him in

(16:57):
left field. I mean he's been playing a lot of
second base lately, especially with yourd I'm out, But I'm
not saying like he's done and he's washed and it's over.
I'm just gonna say I'm not expecting him to get
on a heater and get up to like nine hundred ops.
I would like to see it. It'd be cool. And
if anybody's gonna do it, if anybody's defied the odds
their entire life, it's been Jose al Tuve. But I

(17:20):
want him to be at a good, useful level. But
as far as me expecting him to kind of resurrect
to being back one of the best hitters in baseball.
I'm not putting that expectation on him right now. There's
going to be a decline. Yeah, it's going to happen,
and I mean he's thirty five years old. It's to
be expected that it's going to happen. But I mean,

(17:42):
I would like to have a down year per se
of two seventy with a seven to twenty ops. That's
fine by me. It's just it's also it was the
prolonged struggles where he had one, then he went on
a heater, then he had a little bit of one,
and he gets a couple of hits last night. So
you're hoping that maybe he gets back into that rhythm
where he can raise it up to two eighty. For Yiner,

(18:03):
it's a thing of dude, you're not a good defensive catcher.
So if you're not giving me that, then I've got
to put Victor Kartini in there a lot more. Uh,
what would you say you do here if you're not
hitting and you're not being a good defensive cat I
mean he's been he hasn't been throwing anybody out, but
it's not like to me, it's if you have better

(18:24):
for He's in the lineup every day because of not
because of his glove, but because of his bingo bingo.
I mean, the same deal. Y Jose al Tuba has
been playing left field. Same deal. Yes, also a lot
of bad luck for Janer Diaz, though when you look
it up. We talked about XBA. He's hitting two thirty
nine on the season. He's at two eighty one expected
batting average, so there has been some bad luck batting average,

(18:47):
balls in play. Kind of talked about this like I said,
you you got to let me know if I'm getting
too far in the weeds for the people. It's not
that complicated to me, but his when a ball is
in play, you have a certain batting average. Most players can.
There can be many factor speed, et cetera. But for
his career at Yanners at three h nine, when he
puts the ball in play, his average right now it's
two sixty two. So generally that regresses to the mean.

(19:08):
So I think we could be seeing some good luck
at least coming for Jiner Diaz, even more so than
Christian Walker. And I mean you talked about some of
the exit velos off the bat yesterday too, where I
mean he was amongst the top of the team. And
I mean he's he's running some bad luck too. I
mean the same thing we've talked about with Christian Walker,
the same deal with Yaner. He's put good swings on

(19:29):
the ball. It's just it's the lasting image that you have.
Is again that swing that he has over that slider
where about a week ago I threw it out on
Twitter where he had a bad strikeout like that, and
I go, why would you throw him anything remotely in
the zone at this point, just all the sliders, Yeah,
you wouldn't. And that's kind of how he's been in
his old career, and I think that's is what kind
of leads to these ups and downs to where he

(19:51):
can have the these big runs where either A he's
swinging at everything and missing everything, or B he's swinging
at everything and when he does make contact he can
run into some bad luck. So just to me, it's he's, uh,
he is going to be a peaks and valleys guy
because of that. That's his approach. Like if we start

(20:11):
asking him to, hey, start drawing walks and and go, uh,
you know, Alex Bregman or yord On whoever, on us
where you're gonna try to get your walk percentage up
to like twelve or fifteen. That's not gonna happen for him.
So this is who he is right now, and he
clearly a lot of times pitch recognition isn't his best trait,
but swinging your everything with with good back to ball

(20:33):
skills is. And he's having some bad luck and I
think it will turn. He goes Leroy Jenkins sometimes at
the plate, is what you're saying. I mean, that's that's
pretty much what it is. I mean, you know in
football for a quarterback, he's own a lot of yolo balls.
I mean that's pretty much what it is. Yeah, you're
he's the Brett Farv of catching hitters hitting catchers. Yeah,
I mean it's he's sometimes gonna throw four picks, sometimes

(20:56):
gonna get you four touchdowns. Maybe even Jameis Winston when
like that a little bit more than Gamus. I don't
know if I want him to be the Jamis thirty
for thirty, but yeah, I get what you're saying. Yeah,
he's going to swing at everything. And then when he's
swinging at everything and he has i mean pretty good
contact rates and doesn't have crazy uh strikeout percentages. He
makes a lot of contact and unfortunately he's been having

(21:17):
a lot of bad luck on uh said contact, And
I mean, you know, like I said last night, with
Christian Walker being able to have that check swing single,
I mean, it's exactly what Joe spought it, funny Enough
said before the game they were playing it on Space
City Home Network. Those are the ones that can get
you going because you're like, oh, I can have an
awful swing and I can be rewarded for it, just

(21:37):
as much as I can have a great swing and
not be rewarded for especially when you're in these funks.
And it kind of seems like Christian Walker has been
pressing in the irdeaz as well. It's about the mental
battle just as much as anything, and hopefully that can
turn for those guys. All Right, we've been talking to mashtros.
You want to get in seven one three two one
two five seven ninety is the phone number seven one

(21:59):
three to two h one two five seven ninety. Haven't
even mentioned the arrest made by a Houston, Texan. We'll
get to that. We got Brian McTaggert coming up at
eleven o'clock and you if you'd like to get in
at seven one three, two, one two five, seven ninety.
This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt
Thomas with you until two pm. Houston Texans safety Jimmy

(22:21):
Ward is facing a felony assault family violence charge in
Montgomery County following incident at his home in Magnolia early Thursday.
This according to The Houston Chronicle, Catherine Dominguez and Jonathan
m Alexander. According to information from the Montgomery County jail,

(22:42):
Ward was accused of strangulation and arrested on the scene
around five thirty am. He is held without bond. No
other information immediately available Thursday morning. These are always rough situations,
I mean, just because you have to let it play
out out, and I mean you hope that there was

(23:03):
nothing that was too bad that happened here, because I mean,
it's not good for anybody, you know. I understand the
situations like this. It gets people emotionally charged for a
good reason, but it's also too I mean, it's it's
important to be able to let it all play out.
Omark Majub, the senior director of Communications for the Texan
saying in a statement quote, we are aware of the

(23:24):
report involving Jimmy Ward. We are gathering more information and
have no further comment at this time. That's the way
it goes. You ever hear somebody was arrested at five
point thirty in the morning, generally things did not go well. Well,
what's the old saying. I mean, you know things that
happened after midnight. So usually it's it's you're getting a call,
it's not a good call. That's the Devil's hour, Dan,

(23:45):
That's when bad things are happening, and that's when Jimmy
Ward's getting into trouble. So yeah, I mean, just wanted
to mention it. No further details at this time, will
see what happens. But doesn't sound good. And when you're
talking about felony assault, family violence, which that could be anybody.
It could be a wife, it could be a girlfriend,
it could be that's I mean, I'm not a legal
mind or anything like that, but that doesn't necessarily mean

(24:07):
it was you know, a son or a mother or whatever.
Family violence could also be a partner. And then strangulation
does not sound good. That's not a word you want
to hear. That's definitely concerning with what's going on with
Jimmy Ward.

Speaker 5 (24:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
I mean and again, you know you mentioned the statement
from the team, and that's that's the way that you
handle it, because I mean, there is nothing else you
can say. It's going to be an investigation, it's going
to be a court case, it's going to be all
of those different types of things that I mean, there's
a reason why there's nothing that annoys me more than
people playing attorney on Twitter when they didn't they didn't
spend the time to be an attorney. Oh, law school,

(24:41):
everybody's an attorney. They're an attorney. They are examining what
do you call it, political pundits and political the political strategy.
I mean, it's it's top notch. It doesn't get any
better than on Twitter. The political strategists on there are incredible.
The epidemiologists are incredible, those guys. I mean, it's unbelievable

(25:02):
the amount of genius that is just out there on Twitter. Well,
I mean political punditry. Look, you can say whatever you want.
I can either ignore it or I can nod my
head in agreement or whatever it might be. But it's
gonna stay there. It's not gonna affect my life. Uh.
The epidemiology part of it. Like I always love like
for people. Oh, I can't believe they're saying this. Okay,
don't take it like it's really that simple. Oh, but

(25:23):
other people don't worry about other people, worry about your
own life. That's the whole point. Well, yeah, we can
spend a whole show on Twitter and the ocean of
stupidity that's out there. But yeah, I just wanted to
make mention of that that Jimmy Ward unfortunately arrested it
in his Magnolia area home earlier today, and I guess

(25:44):
we'll get some more details as they come out. We
have been talking some astros if you want to get
in seven one three two one two five seven ninety
seven one three, two, one two five seven ninety haven't
even mentioned the Indiana Pacers taking a stunning a two
to one lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the
NBA Finals. We can get to that as well. But
we've been talking some astros. Of course, the win ten

(26:06):
to two yesterday, and we were talking about Christian Walker
mentioned you and your Diaz in the hard hit contact.
It's almost becoming old hat at this point. A couple
of hits run betted in for Jeremy Penia average up
to three twenty two. Yeah, that's who he is. And
then what was it? Was it b war or was
it just regular war? Bab baseball reference war, which doesn't
factor in as much defense, which is why I don't

(26:27):
really care for baseball, even though it helps the cause
here in Houston to say, hey, Jeremy Penya and what
Dan is referencing. For those of you who don't know Win's
above replacement, Jeremy Peney is the second best player in baseball.
In baseball, behind only Aaron Judge. He's a tick down
I think from Bobby Witt, maybe because of defensive stuff,
which when you look at fangrafts or maybe some other

(26:48):
I haven't looked at baseball prospectuses either, but at least
he's in the conversation one of the best players in baseball,
and then a couple of more hits last night. Dude's
doing it all. He's doing it all, and it's also
too in a time after one of your players said
straight up to management through the media, hey extend this
guy find a way. Yeah, the only bad news is

(27:10):
now Listen. Two months ago, I was going to say,
because the price continues to go up. And I mean,
if he's going to be an All Star starter, that's
up to you, the fans, that's up to us, the
people who can vote, to be able to try to
get him there. I just think that most of the
nation is going to focus on Bobby Witt Junior because
he's done it a lot more. But if this can
be the Jeremy Pania that we see going forward, then

(27:32):
there's no reason to believe that he can't be known
as being one of the best shortstops all around in
all baseball. Yeah, and he should and he should rightfully
be there.

Speaker 5 (27:40):
Now.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
We'll see if if this can keep up. But we're
talking about the same way we're talking about it's not
a nothing sample with guys who were doing poorly. It's
not a nothing sample for guys who were doing well,
and that being Jeremy Panna, who's hitting three twenty two
opsa eight sixty five, playing great shortstop. I mean, he
is everything. He is All Star personified for the Astros.

(28:01):
Where would they be right now without him? We talked
about the underperformance of those guys missing yord On Alvarez,
Jose l Tuove taking a slide I mean, the guy
who has been carrying the torch for the squad all
season long has been Jeremy Pania. It's not an accident
that the Astros are where they are, and he's one
of the leaders in baseball in wins above replacement, and

(28:22):
they've been getting wins. Well, it's not only him. I mean,
it's a guy that took an oh for four last night,
but has been a pleasant surprise for you, Jake Myers,
I mean, you're one hundred percent right. You don't have
either of those guys doing what you're doing right now.
You're not seven games above five hundred. You're not four
games in front of Seattle and the Angels for first
place in the American League West. You've pitched well, but

(28:43):
that'd be the rest of the team is being pedestrian
at best. Those guys have been able to carry some
of the flaws that you've had there in the middle
of your batting order, and some of the guys at
the bottom of the order have picked up at times.
But you know you're only going to go as far
as the guys that are in the middle of the
Also want to give full credit to Alex Centron and
Troyce Nicker, where's my fighting bath fire? The batting coaches guys, well,

(29:08):
how are we feeling? Three twenty two? He's hitting. But
if you're gonna blame them when people are underperforming, they
gotta give some credit. When Jeremy Pan is having a
breakout season, Ross, I mean, you know, Alex Bregman was
looking like a third basement for the Red Sox. Well,
the Harker has improved as a hitter in Chicago, Well,
he was for like a month. Kyle Tucker has fallen

(29:30):
back to the back flat to the face of the earth.
He's not to the face of the earth, but his
numbers have gone down significantly across the board. Kyle Tucker's
numbers worse than they were here in Houston last year,
just saying, where's my fire? Hitting coaches guys seven one, three, two, two, five, seven,
nine of the phone number, gonna take quick break here.

(29:50):
It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas,
Dan Matthews graciously sitting in appreciate him. We got, uh
what is it called? I just don't get it. It's
coming up at eleven thirty. I can't keep track. It's
your show. I thought it was Wednesday for a second,
so I was gonna say, shut your bum mess up.
I'm getting days, and guy, yes, I mean you can.
You can do that every single long days. Man, I

(30:11):
was doing that. You know what, you'd say, whatever you
want coming up at eleven thirty, as long as you
call in, we'd appreciate it. We also have Brian mctagger
breaking down the Astros coming up at eleven o'clock and
you at seven one three two one two five seven
ninety seven one three two one two five seven ninety

(30:31):
all right, I finally was able to pull up, hmmm,
our friends from baseball pro saspectus they don't have Jeremy
Pania near the top of the war leader boards. Well
that that already kills him now in contract negotiations, because

(30:54):
I mean that's immediately what the Astros are gonna print
up like, you know, you're not near the top of
the baseball reference And yeah, I've been a War reference
this year. He's up there on farbitration. Here we go.
Baseball perspectives disagree, but they still have him ahead of
Bobby wit Junior. But they have him thirty fifth in
baseball and this is just among position players, But if

(31:16):
you look elsewhere, Jeremy Penia one of the best players
in baseball. He's been huge for the Astros. I mean,
if we're talking like team MVPs at this point, as
we're nearing closer and closer, what is it, sixty seven
games they've played now, closer and closer to the midway
point of the season, you start with Jeremy Pana. Then
you go probably Hunter Brown, and then I would say,

(31:38):
Josh Hater, what say you? I mean, it's going to
be one of the two between Hunter or Fromber. I
mean Fromber continue Bomber and there I should have mentioned
Fromber continues doing this. And look what I'm about to
say is going to sound like it's a ding against Hunter.
It's not. But the recent starts, you've kind of started
to see a tick up of the walks again, and
that started to knock him out of starts a little

(31:59):
bit earlier. Whereas Romber has been quality all the way
through Hell quality is the base level. I don't think
he's pitched less than six innings in his last six starts,
and he continues that, and the e r A is
now down to three point oh seven, and probably the
brand name for him with Aaron Boone's gonna help him
if he gets below three and he continues on this
path that he is fromber is gonna get the nod

(32:20):
over Hunter. As much as it sucks to say, I
got sneeze coming. Hold on, now it's gone. Dan, all right,
Sorry about the light. Next time it helps, it does it? Yeah?
It helps when you do it that way.

Speaker 5 (32:32):
Light.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Yeah, well in this case, in this case due because
there's there's nothing like that is like one of the
top five worst feelings right there. Like we were like,
it's right there waiting. I was like, he's gonna stop
talking and then I'm gonna have to talk, but I
gotta sneeze. But it's coming. Oh now it's gone. Oh
my god, Now it's time for me to talk. But
here's the thing. As soon as we go to break,
you're you're gonna sneeze. Okay, yeah, yeah, like it just

(32:54):
it pops back up on this microphone basis. I mean,
that's you know, a lot better than some of the
other things that have been on there at times. Good God.
I came in here the other day, I said, what
did somebody eat an entire ruben in here? Uh? Matt
has usually eats a rachel you know what, it might
have been my fault. I've been getting here late, getting
here later on accident. I remember, I remember one time.
I remember one time I did a show with Matt

(33:16):
and it was before we hopped on and he was
eating an egg salad sandwich and I go, oh, egg
salad before you go on the air ahead and put
the eating here. He was eating jumbley a mid segment yesterday,
mid segment. I mean, look, it's different. I'm just saying,
I understand ten to two is a different animal than

(33:37):
twelve to three we had. There's no good time for
us to eat, and like you got, even if you
eat breakfast like at eight nine o'clock, you're hungry by two.
So we're a tough spot here, Okay, folks. He scarved
down and he started hiccupping. Would you cry for us? Yeah,
it happened. I just had to take down a sandwich. Well,

(33:58):
it's it's hard out there for a pimp like Matt Thomas,
where I understand as the ammunition is thrown out and
we we've got it, and especially too, I mean with
you guys, I've said it numerous times when you guys
were three hours. I said it was a three hour
of a roast. Now it's four hours, four hours exhausted.
So it's a roast for you guys, and then it's
a roast for the afternoon guys. Usually we're spared. I

(34:21):
hear strays from time to time, but I don't mind.
That's okay, that's how we roll. Or that's actually how
Matt Thomas the roles. I just follow his lead. I'm
gonna blame him for everything. But we're talking about Hunter
Brown and fromber Valdez and and Hunter Brown's been having
a spectacular season. He's been great. But what Fromber has
the capability to give you that you mentioned that kind
of Hunter hasn't had is going deep into games. He

(34:44):
had that one complete game where they lost on the Roads.
It was only eight in incomplete game, but that was
his first clear complete game of his career. Generally, he's
going out there and giving you six and that's okay.
That's good, especially when he's not giving up any runs
and his ERA is under two. But you love that
extra value from Fromber to where he can throw a
nine in complete game. He's thrown nine hitters. He can

(35:06):
be when he's on out there, just going eight pitch inning,
nine pitch inning, ten pitch inning, and then all of
a sudden by the end of it, how many pitches
was that complete? It was? It like eighty eighty three
pitches in a complete game. I mean, that's insane. And
we asked Joe a spot of the following day, Hey,
if it had gone to the tenth, would you have
run him back out there? And he goes no, His

(35:28):
logic was sound where he said, you know, haters used
to having the runner on second or is not? So
he just felt like that would have been a tough spot.
It would have been cool. When's the last time a
starting pitcher in baseball pitch the tenth inning? I'd be
curious to find that out. It probably have to be like,
has everything did Pedro Martinez lose a perfect game in
the tenth or something like that? Might have I don't know.

(35:53):
All right, Yeah, what, We've got Dan on the case
and he'll figure that out for us. Google AI, it's searching.
It was Cliff Lee in April of twenty twelve. In
a while in April, okay, yeah, Cliff game played uh
Giants in San Francisco. Wow, that's interesting. That's now Google

(36:13):
AI lie was I don't think so Google AI lies
all the time. Well see that's ross seeing that. So
when when you guys take over the world like sky nets,
I'm not the one saying that about you. I am
saying it.

Speaker 6 (36:24):
Ai.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
You get stuff wrong all the time. I have to
fact check because I right, believe it or not, almost
every day when MAT's not here, and and I've gotten
stuff from them numerous times that has been in factually inaccurate,
and I normally have time to fact check all my questions,
and and it's been a lot of stuff inaccurate from
from Google as didn't thanks for nothing in the old
incarnation of The Night the Nightcap, didn't we do a

(36:49):
chat GPT of what the astro should do in the
off season? I think so? Yeah, factored in Carlos Korea
and Miles Strong, so oh yeah, maybe this is this
bit needs to die. That's right. We try to do
ask AI bit and then it got completely ruined because
AI suck it, said Carlos Career. I was like, well,
if this were twenty twenty one heading into twenty two,

(37:11):
then yes, yeah, terrible. All right, time for another break
here The hour flew by mister Matthews. I appreciate you
hanging out. How about it? Man? Thank you? Uh see
you tomorrow. Yeah, all right, and tell him I still
home a couple of beers. Taxs. Oh, you can hang
out taxs you want, but you got somewhere to be.
That's okay too. Appreciate Dan Matthews hanging out. Brian McTaggart

(37:31):
MLB dot com. Yes, he is coming up next eleven thirty.
We'll have I just don't get it news at noon.
Adam Wexer coming up at one or jam packed until
two o'clock. You guys want to get into you can
at seven one three, two, one, two, five, seven ninety.
But the slam In Stros it got ten runs yesterday.
We're gonna talk about it with Brian McTaggart of MLB

(37:52):
dot com. Next here on your home for the shows,
Sports Talk seven ninety eleven o'clock straight up here on
Sports Talk seven. It is our number two of the
Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is
with his son, celebrating his son's college graduation and his

(38:13):
young son's dream trip for his vacation, going with dad
to see Barry Manilow and Carrot Tops. So he is
in Vegas. Brian McTaggart is here with us. Brian, your
thoughts on Carrot Top, Boy, that sounds like we're really
missing out on that. Yeah, I don't carrot Carrott Top
was okay, like twenty years ago or something.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
But I don't know.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
No, you don't know. I know what you do know about?
You know about the Astros, Brian mctagger covering the Astros
for MLB dot com and all these storylines, Brian, and
honestly a lot of complaining from myself fan bases all that,
like the injuries, jord On handstuff and underperformances from Yiner
and Walker. Until last night and here we are four

(38:56):
games up in the American League West.

Speaker 7 (39:00):
Well, I mean, you tip your hat to the Astros.
But also the division is really bad. I mean, yes,
this everybody's below five hundred except the Astros. I mean,
the Angels are tied with the Mariners for second. I
mean the Angels are not good. I know some Angels
fans were getting excited about, you know now that they're
in second place. Well, it's because the Mariners are just
as bad as you are. And Rangers aren't good. I mean,

(39:22):
but yeah, you know, props to the Astros. You gotta
you know, you got to take out the trash when
you play them, and so you got to take advantage
of those situations. But yeah, I mean, if they had
been if they had been more healthy and those guys
you talked about had hit better, I mean, they would
have like a ten game lead right now. But still
they have to be thrilled before they're at because a
four game leads a four game lead, and uh, you know,

(39:44):
and you have a chance to build on it.

Speaker 6 (39:46):
Here.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
I don't know how much Mariners baseball you've been catching,
but they have lost eight of their last nine games.
I mean, what is going on over there? Is this
something like are the Astros just gonna run away with
this division?

Speaker 7 (39:59):
Well, unless Aaroners make changes, then probably yes, I mean,
they're they They didn't make any offensive improvements in the offseason.
Jerry Depoto thought, you know, it was kind of banking
on getting healthy and having some guys had bounced back seasons. Now,
you know, cal rallies cal Rally has been really good.
JP Crawford's been good, but Julio Rodriguez doesn't play like

(40:19):
a star.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Anymore.

Speaker 7 (40:20):
And you know, they went out and brought back Placo,
who got off to a really hot start, but he's
cooled off. You know, they signed Donovan Solana, who's terrible.
Mitch Garver hasn't been good. I mean, they just can't score.
Their bullpen hasn't been great. I mean, you know, they
have a pretty good closer. But and then they've had
injuries to the rotation, which they didn't have last year.
So they're they're just not a good team right now.

(40:42):
So the Astros will play them after the All Star
break in Seattle, uh, you know, with the chance to
put more distance.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
Between them and and the Mariners.

Speaker 7 (40:52):
And they get next week to get the Angels on
the roads, so they're gonna start facing some of these teams.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
Had the head Brian McTaggert with us here on Sports
Talk seven to ninety qualities stuff from Ryan Gusto last night.
Where do you think his leash was before that started?
Obviously it's longer now.

Speaker 7 (41:08):
As in terms of staying in the rotation, Yes, yes,
well I think it was long because they don't really
have anybody else and now they're in this six man rotation,
so they really had nowhere else to turn. I think
unless he just went out there and you know, pitched
one or two innings, then he would really have to reassess.
But the fact he had career highs and innings pitched

(41:29):
and pitches and strikeouts, you know, fastball hit ninety seven,
he was a lot more aggressive. You know, it helped
when he had a three year lead in the first inning,
but it's definitely something for him to build on. That's
sort of the pitcher that we heard when they put
him in the rotation, that he was capable of pitching
like that hadn't done it yet. But you know, like
I said all along, there's sort of at the tail
end of their starting pitching depth here, so there's not

(41:50):
a lot of places for them to turn right now.
You know, maybe that'll change if they if they get
an arm at the deadline Righetti back in July.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Maybe we'll see.

Speaker 7 (41:58):
But you know, I didn't think Gusto was in real
danger to go anywhere because there were no other options.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
Christian Walker and Yanner Diez with good Knights. Walker the headliner,
of course, but the two hard hit hardest hit balls
were off the bat of jan Or Diez, and feels
like we've been here a couple of times with both
of them saying, Hey, is this the jumping off point
for a turnaround to their seasons? What are you feeling
on both of those guys?

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah, you're right.

Speaker 7 (42:25):
I mean this happens like once every week where one
of these guys has a good game or hits the
ball hard and you're like, Okay, maybe this is it.
But you know, Jonner hit a couple of balls hard
the night before as well. You know, Walker really crushed
his homer. I think it was almost one away off
the bat. And then I think one of the things
that Joe Spotted brought this up too, was his third

(42:46):
hit was a little bloop single to right field, and
he had just been not getting those. He'd really been
not getting the brakes on balls that weren't hit hard,
or pop ups or things like that. So I think
for him that was probably as encouraging as the whole
home ron, like, hey, I'm finally starting to get some
breaks here in the three hit game. But yeah, if
you're the Astors, you can only hope it's, uh, you know,

(43:07):
this is the one they turn it around and start
building on, because man, if you get those two guys
going you know, in the five six spots of the order,
where wherever they're at. And you get Jordan back healthy
and playing like jord On, then you got a real
chance to run away with the division.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Yeah. On Jiner Diaz, I was kind of a little
surprised just looking it up earlier today. X his his
batting average two thirty nine, but his xba's two eighty one,
and he's had pretty bad luck with batted balls. So
I think I'm feeling confident that if he can keep
this up here, he'll be he'll be looking better.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Yeah, I believe that.

Speaker 7 (43:40):
I mean he drew a four pitch walk yesterday too,
which was, you know, pretty strange as well. So but yeah,
I mean you can tell that he's hit some balls
hard at people, and I know fans don't like hearing that.
I mean, either get a hit or you don't, or
you drive the ball over the fence or you don't.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
But it's not like Jan's hitting one ninety.

Speaker 7 (43:56):
I mean, he's probably hitting like two forty is I'm
guessing the ops is around seven hundred, I'm not sure.
So it's not like he's he's been terrible. It's certainly
below I think what everybody expected of him, but certainly
swinging the bat well lately.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Brian mctagger continuing with us here on a Sports Talk
seven to ninety, Jeremy Pane a couple of hits again,
hitting three twenty two and just keeps on doing it.
Should be an All star at the short stop position.
What do you think is the biggest reason for his breakout,
whether it be changing approach or maturity or I mean
just a little bit of luck, or what do you

(44:32):
think is happening with Jeremy Penia that's leading to this?

Speaker 7 (44:35):
Well, I think you hit on the two biggest things.
I mean maturity. This is his fourth year now, and
you know, he came up and had a pretty good
rookie year and then we all know what he did
in the playoffs, and he sort of had similar years
the next two years. You know a couple of years
ago that the power went away in the second half.
So he came to camp last year in twenty four
and changed his stance. Seemed to work pretty well for him,

(44:56):
but I think he made have you know, he kind
of worked on that a little bit more, just try
to uh just try to refine his stance and his
approach to where you could see the ball better, and
that's worked out for him. I think once he starts
getting confidence, then he realizes that, hey, this is the
player that I know.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
I can be.

Speaker 7 (45:12):
But you know, props to him, because you know, he's
really worked hard the last couple of years to try
to get to that next level, and it looks like
he's gonna be there. I mean certainly seems like him,
Bobby Witt or Jacob Wilson of A's or probably your
three best shortstops in the American League at this point.
So I don't know if they'll take three short stops on.
I mean, I'm guessing they probably will. But certainly Paenya

(45:33):
deserves a shot to be in the All Star Game.
And who knows, maybe he starts, maybe he gets enough
fan votes to start, and.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
Know the Royals vote pretty well.

Speaker 7 (45:40):
Sure, it'll be interesting to see what kind of voting
support A's players get, not that they have that many
All Star caliber players, but just I mean, is are
people in Sacramento are gonna rush and punch punch the
ballots online?

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Who knows? But yeah, Penya certainly deserves to be in
the All Star Game.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
I'd say one of the reasons the Astros have been
so successful is they've had these guys that kind of
just live and breathe and love baseball. Born ball players,
I would say, you know, like Carls Kray, Alex Bregman,
Josel Tuve. Would you put Jeremy Payne in that category?

Speaker 7 (46:10):
Oh yeah, he's definitely a ballplayer. I mean, he grew
up around in ballparks. His dad played in the big
leagues for seven or eight years, So this is you know,
this is what he wanted to do all along, this
is what he was born to do. And from day
one he's carried himself like a like a big league player,
and now he's performing like an elite big league player.
So yeah, he's he's definitely cut from that same cloth.

(46:32):
You know, Bregman was a it was a Jim Rat,
so to speak, as far as baseball players go. You
know the story of him turning on the lights at
LSU in the middle of the night so they could
go up and feel some ground balls. And you know,
Karrey is a guy who was drafted at seventeen years
old and you know, realized his dream at an early age.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
So there are there aren't many of those guys.

Speaker 7 (46:51):
But you know, Penya certainly is you know, took advantage
of of you know, the opportunity has been given to him.
He's he's a very talented player. Defensively too, He's been
terrific this year.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
Continuing with Brian McTaggart astros dot com here on Sports
Talk seven ninety A couple of hits for jose Al
Tuove yesterday? Where are you at on him? In general?
To me, it's kind of harder to get a beat
on him rather than others, like Walker's been bad, Painia
has been good. It's been a little bit of up
and down with L two A. And you factor in
the left field stuff, the fact that he is getting older.

(47:24):
What are what are do you what are your expectations
I should say for him going forward?

Speaker 7 (47:31):
Yeah, you know, he's hit the ball a lot better
here the last couple of weeks, I know that he
was trying to hit the ball in the air moar.
You know, he had he had a pretty prolonged slump
there for a couple of weeks I think in May,
and he came out of it and one of the
things he said was that he just he was needing
to hit the ball in the air more he was.
He was hitting the ball on the ground too much,

(47:53):
and once you started driving the ball a bit more,
you know, the home run started to come back again.
But I'm just never going to count him out with age.
I mean, he still gets down the line when he
when he can an elite you know, thirty feet per second.
You know, he can still put the bat on the
ball and hit it, you know, as far as almost anybody. Defensively,

(48:13):
he has played more second lately, but I think some
of that in the last week or so has been
because they have Jacob Melton, and I think Spota wants
to put him in the outfield to get a longer
look at him. Also gives him that other left handed
bat in the lineup, but you know, he's still going
to play left field. So it's been an interesting season
for Jose. But overall, his numbers are probably a little

(48:33):
below where I would expect they would be. But it
wouldn't surprise me if at the end of the year
he's put up a season, you know, similar than that
he had last year. So at some point there's going
to be a big decline coming coming. And you know,
but I just really haven't seen it yet. I mean
I still think I still think, you know, you feel
good about him when he's hitting near the top of

(48:54):
that lineup.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Trade deadline seven weeks from today. Of course, we talked
about the cushion right now in the American League West
and how bad the division is. That Does that affect
Dana Brown's thinking at all? Or do you think he's
more focused on trying to win a pennant? And I mean,
do you do you still think they will be in
the market for a bat and an arm come deadline time?

Speaker 8 (49:16):
Yeah? I do.

Speaker 7 (49:17):
I mean I don't think where they're at in the
standings is gonna have much effect. I mean, they want
to get better, and they have, you know, a couple
of glaring there, a couple a couple of glaring areas
where they can get better starting pitching, of course. I
mean there's a lot of teams that need starting pitching,
so that you know, that's that's not a shock there,
and it's not like they're gonna go out and I
think get you know, justin Berlander in twenty eighteen or

(49:39):
anybody like that. I mean, they need a guy that
they can plug in the rotation. Just give them a
little bit more depth, and they could use a left
handed bat. I mean, you know, maybe Melton ends up
being that guy and they you know, they feel comfortable
riding with him. But maybe another guy they can put
they can play, you know, maybe some second base. It's
all two days in the left field because you know,
I'm not sure, you know, Brendan Rodgers is it's going

(50:00):
to be long term plans on this team. But yeah,
I think if you have a four game lead, you
want a ten game lead. You have a ten game lead,
you want a fifteen game lead. And then you know,
you think, you know, you get Alvarez back, and you
get Eric Getty back, and who knows, maybe you see
you back at the end of the year and and
now you're in really good shape. But you know, everyone's
gonna want starting pitching. It's going to be interesting to see,

(50:21):
you know, who makes the first trade, because then we'll
start to see these things start flying off the board.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
I have a dumb question, Uh, Now, the Astros need
a left handed bat, and they could use a second basement.
Are there any left handed second basement in baseball? Right now?

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Lieutenant hitting second basement.

Speaker 7 (50:39):
Pretty rare, right, Yeah, Brandon Lowe, maybe with race, I
mean might not be a bad yeah, go ahead, but
yeah it is.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
It is pretty rare.

Speaker 7 (50:49):
I mean, it doesn't have to be a second basement.
It could be somebody that can play multiple positions in
DH here and there. But uh so, uh, you know,
you're not gonna put somebody at first, You're not gonna
put somebody at third. You're not gonna put somebody at
shortstop or catch or there's no room. So you kind
of limited your roster construction where you could bring in
a left handed bat. But if you could have somebody
vers holed up to maybe you know, play him outfield

(51:11):
in DH. You know that's also something I look at all.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
Right, there you go. Brian McTaggart, great stuff with him.
Is always appreciate the time. What you got going on
the old Astros dot com?

Speaker 7 (51:20):
Brian, Yeah, well I had a there's a story on
the website tonight sort of breaking down three of the
key reasons the Astros won yesterday. One of them all
to day getting his twenty third hundred hit dived into
Ryan Gusto in his performance a little bit. But I
have a really nice Father's Day story coming up on

(51:41):
a on an Astro who's a first time father and
he's gonna he's got the cleats and the belt to
celebrate it on Sunday. So if he's just got to
get in the lineup, but look for that this weekend
as well.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
All right, and I like you giving the nod to
Brian to bray you is a guy we're not talking about,
but is all star worthy. So appreciate the good work
as always, Brian McTaggart of astros dot com, talk to
you uh down the road.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
All right, thanks bros.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
All right, there you go. Brian McTaggart astros dot com,
MLB dot com does great work covering your Houston Astros.
You want to react to anything he has to say
seven weeks away from the deadline, if you had to guess,
more likely a bat or an arm that they would
trade for? And will they be making some deals? So
are they gonna feel a little bit more comfortable with

(52:23):
this American League West lead that they have? Astros went
into two yesterday against the White Sox. We'll talk about
that and anything else you want to get to in sports.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety is
the phone number seven one three two one two five
seven ninety. Thanks to Brian McTaggart for joining the show

(52:43):
here on Sports Talk seven ninety as he does Thursdays
at one o'clock. Also does Fridays on the Astros on
Deck show that will be hosted Bye. I don't know
it won't be me, so I'm not too worried about it.
You might hear a little bit of that Brian McTaggart
conversation later on today. Hey, as we continue along on
the Matt Thomas Show with Ross No, Matt Thomas, he

(53:04):
is out in Las Vegas. I am here with you
at seven one three two one two five seven ninety
seven one three two one two five seven ninety You
can also send tweets to at sports RV if you'd
like to get in that way. We have Adam Wexler
coming up at one o'clock. We have The News at
noon with Jonathan Allen, The News at Noon with Jonathan

(53:29):
Allen coming up at noon, and we have I Just
don't get It coming up at eleven thirty. Is there
something in your life, something that's happening, something that you
see on a day to day basis, and you're like,
I don't understand this. What is happening. I don't get it.
That's coming up at eleven thirty. In the meantime, you
can get in talk some sports talk, some stros talk,
some NBA finals. Your time is coming, Jonathan. We'll get

(53:52):
We'll let you, uh how about coming up at eleven fifty.
We'll let you brag all you want about the NBA Finals.
So ain't in to brag about job. Oh that's true,
job not finished. Job's not finished, said Kobe Bryant. Anyways,
seven one three two one two five, seven ninety is
the phone number. As I know, the ratings haven't been great,
but the series has been good if you ask me.

(54:14):
But we'll talk to some NBA finals coming up later.
And as I said, I just don't get it coming
up at eleven thirty. So we've been doing a lot
of talking Houston Astros. You know, I've been I've been
calling for all these fire Joe Spotty guys for people, Hey,
what's going on? And I'm I'm joking when I say this,
because if the Astros lose five out of six or

(54:35):
if they win five out of six. To me, for
the most part, the onus falls on the players, especially
in baseball, more than others. Joe Spotted does have a
very difficult and important job. He's there to be there
for the players to converse with them, see how they're feeling,
to set lineups, and to pull guys and put other

(54:57):
guys in the bullpen. But a lot of that stuff
is matchup stuff that has been put into place pregame.
He is there to kind of be a manager of
a baseball team, not necessarily managing what's happening on the field,
but almost like your manager at work.

Speaker 6 (55:13):
Right.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
You don't want some task master who's gonna make you
upset and put a cloud over your head every time
you go into work and just make it not a
good work environment. He's there to be a people person,
which he is, and he's great. I remember in spring
training last year when Joe's Botta was first going to
be the Astros manager, him every day going into the

(55:35):
clubhouse and going up to every single player and talking
about not being fake about it, not just not caring,
being genuine and caring and being there for his guys
and talking to all of them and just kind of
being that kind of a guy that the people can
bounce off of and feel light and be honest with
and then as the season goes along, when you're in struggles,

(55:59):
he's going to be there for you. When you're having
a good season, he's going to be there for you.
And talking to guys and building relationships and all that
type of stuff. That's what Joe Espada is there for, and
he does a great job of it from all accounts.
Just ask all the players listen to the postgame comments
and just see how things go. And I know a
lot of you, of course don't have clubhouse access, but

(56:20):
listening to read the reporting of guys like Chandler Rome
and Brian McTaggart and people met Kyle O'Hara of the
Houston Chronicle who are covering the team there every day
and reporting on the team and talking about these types
of things. When it comes to oh no, he put
this guy into the bullpen and it was terrible. Unless

(56:40):
he's going to the guy at the very end of
the bullpen, he's probably putting somebody out there who needs
to go get outs, whether it be Steven Okert or
Brian King or whoever else, Bennett Susa. I mean, none
of these guys were making fifteen twenty million dollars a
year and He's been pulling all the right strings for
the most part with these guys. I mean, I wonder
what the bull the bullpennyra At least when I looked

(57:02):
up yesterday, it was like seventh in baseball. It was
second for a lot of the time. Then they had
that bad weekend series against Tampa Bay Rays and it
blew up. But a lot of that was Forest Whitley,
who was designated for assignment and not on the team anymore.
So I'd be curious if you just pluck out Forest
Whitley what this bullpen era has been. And you have

(57:24):
to put guys in positions to succeed, but then they
kind of have to go out there and do it
for you. That's what the manager's job is. And I
know there's a lot of you to think this. There's
just just gross incompetence and and Joe a spot us
holding the team back. Well, I'd like to hear from you.
They have one. Let's see, I think it's seven of

(57:47):
their last ten games have the Houston Astros. I'm uh,
you know what I'm wrong. I light on that six
of their last nine. Six of their last nine games
the Astros have won. They're four games up in the
American League West seasons go on pretty well, considering all
the things we've been talking about and himming and hawing
and getting upset and complaining and just worried about with

(58:11):
Jordan's hand and Arraghetty's hand and multiple Tommy Johns and
Christian Walker and yan A Diaz having bad luck this
entire time. They are four games up in a first
and yeah, it's a weak division, but they have the
fourth best record in the American League. They're behind the Tigers, Yankees,

(58:31):
Blue Jays by a half game everyone else. They're ahead
of an the American League. And the way and I'm
gonna tell you, I'm guilty of this as well, just
because worried about especially the pitching, and it's just somehow
the glue is held together there. They're still fourth in
the American League. And the way that a lot of
some of you talk about this team, you would think

(58:53):
they're the Baltimore Orioles where they have these aspirations of
winning the Al Pennant and they're twelve games of low
five hundred. I say all that's say this. We're spoiled
here in Houston. We are absolutely spoiled with what the
Astros have done eight straight seasons into the postseason, seven

(59:13):
American League West championships in every season that was a
full season. Of course, the shortened sixty game Mickey Mouse
that's right, Dodger fan Mickey Mouse twenty twenty season that
doesn't count, that was bizarre, No fans in the stands.
Just a weird throwaway season to me. Even though the
Astros did get down three in that ALCS and then

(59:37):
battle back to force a Game seven, that was fun.
But no, it's been a great run for the Astros
to where we've gotten so spoiled that we expect this
team to win every single day, and then when they don't,
we're ripping our hairs out, hair out, and then talking
about how this guy needs to be fired and that

(59:57):
guy and so. Haven't heard much from fire Joe Spott
guy lately, and I'd be curious to hear from fire
the hitting coaches guy where I mean Josee L. Tuvey
has talked about Alex Sintrone and helping him turn things
around at the plate. Other guys like Christian Walker have
talked about the hitting coaches and how things and they're
trying to get things going for him as well. He

(01:00:19):
had a three hit day yesterday with a home run,
couple of very very hard hit balls. Jeremy Panya having
a career year, Jacob Myers having a career year. Esack
Parade has hadn't even really I don't think I mentioned
his name much of at all in this in this show.
He had three hits yesterday, He's got an ops of
eight eighteen. Well let's go. Where's your praise for the

(01:00:42):
hitting coaches? I'm all ears and I haven't heard much
from you. So things going pretty well for the Astros,
and I know it's easier to call in and complain
when things are going bad, and well, they kind of
were even yesterday. It's a day to day thing with
a baseball season, losing to the Chicago White Sox, but
a big bounce back when yesterday Astros going first win today,
seven to ten. First pitch here on Sports Talk seven ninety,

(01:01:05):
your home for the Houston Astros. I'll be with you
from dyk In Park for the Astros on Deck show
coming up at six o'clock. All right, time for a
quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
Is there something that you just don't get something you
don't understand. You could say I just don't get it
when you call in at seven one three two one

(01:01:26):
two five seven ninety seven one three two one two
five seven nine. You can also send tweets at sports RV.
We got the news at noon coming up at noon,
and then we have I just don't get it coming
up next here on Sports Talk seven nighty. Do you
have something in your life just don't get No need

(01:01:50):
to worry, no need to press. We will discuss the something.
Just see if we comprehend the things that may can
use our friends. It's time to say there it is

(01:02:13):
all right. Seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
The phone number to get in if there's something you
just don't understand, you just don't get it. Seven one
three two one two five seven ninety. I will start Jonathan.

(01:02:34):
A couple of weeks ago, myself and Matthew and my
brother we went to Lake Charles, who went to the casino,
and we were playing and gambling and things like that,
and everywhere on the floor there were people that were smoking,

(01:02:55):
except for one table. There was one table where there
was no smoking. What do you mean like straight, It's
like Noah, like cigars, cigarettes, you could light up at
the table, And for some reason I thought, I think
a lot of Vegas casinos there's no smoking indoors. I
don't know if it's a leg a Las Vegas thing
or what, and I thought this had happened in Lake Charles.
I literally asked a dealer. I was like, you can
smoke at this table, and they're like, yeah, you can

(01:03:16):
smoke at every table except for this one. And they
pointed to one in the corner that nobody was at,
and there wasn't a dealer on the table sitting there,
Like I look, I understand. Look, if you want to smoke,
if you enjoy a good cigar, that's cool. But this
is the problem, and this is a problem that we
have Basically in society today. You can do whatever you

(01:03:36):
want as long as it doesn't infringe upon others. And
then when I have tears streaming down my face and
my whole face is getting irritated and I'm coughing because
you're just straight up lighting up at the at the
blackjack table, I don't get how in twenty twenty five
that's allowed. Do we not have enough studies on secondhand

(01:03:56):
smoke and the tie ins with cancer. I mean, what
are we doing here? How is it twenty twenty five.
It's like when you randomly accidentally go to a bar
in like Webster, Texas, and they're like, you can smoke
in here. This is allowed in twenty twenty five. Have
I hopped into a time machine? How is it that
you're still allowed in some places to smoke in public?

(01:04:19):
I just don't get it.

Speaker 8 (01:04:21):
It's almost like how they have like spots in the
amusement parks where you have like the smoking sections and
they still passing that second smell around.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
Yeah, and they're still doing that, and that's fine. Look,
I'll all be in the garage or whatever here and
occasionally there'll be some degenerate who's uh who has to
go down and smoke a heater every five seconds for
whatever reason, And that's fine. Look, you should have quit.
I'm gonna be honest, folks, If you're still smoking cigarettes
in twenty twenty five, what's the deal? I mean, I
get it looks cool and like in photos and stuff

(01:04:50):
like that, but that's about it. Have I got their advice? Ross?
Everybody does, but it's nicotine. What? First of all, Okay,
you saw some people drink, oh, do it out broader.
I just don't get it. Smoking cigarettes, yeah, look, if
you all right, I agree with you. I mean I
had a stray cigarette here and there in my time,
but it's I just don't get it. But also that's

(01:05:12):
fine if you want to do it, and that's your vice.
Like I said, that's okay, as long as you're not
blowing smoke in my face. So I don't get why
these casinos still allow this doesn't make any sense to me.
All right, Jonathan, go ahead.

Speaker 8 (01:05:25):
You know, recently I've been to the dentist's office and
I realized I.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
Don't understand something.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
Okay.

Speaker 8 (01:05:31):
You go there and the assistant walks you down, you
sit down right, okay, and then you sit there and
they get that little plastic thing putting them out to
the X rays or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
And then I'm looking there and.

Speaker 8 (01:05:41):
I'm sitting there, I'm wondering, okay, and I'm asking her
questions like, hey, what's going on?

Speaker 1 (01:05:47):
I have this in my mouth? Da da da da.

Speaker 8 (01:05:48):
She looks at me dead in the face and goes, oh,
I don't know, let me go get to the doctor.
And I'm like, all right, that's fine. You don't know
what you're doing. You know, you just got an assistant.
The doctor comes and I'm asking her and she's looking
in my mouth checking me up, and I got some
like some I got something in my mouth and I
get get checked out.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
Uh huh.

Speaker 8 (01:06:07):
I asked her questions, like three questions. Hey, what's this
what I need to do? She goes, well, uh, I
don't know. I got a referral. Give you a referral
to a specialist. Aren't you the doctor here too? And
this happens in a lot of like uh.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
Help, yeah, yeah, you go to your doctor, and then
they'll refer to the specialist. Get that.

Speaker 8 (01:06:26):
Why don't why why isn't just the specialist and everything
and every practice they should be one specialist.

Speaker 1 (01:06:32):
Yeah, I don't know, man, maybe you're what do you
got going on in there?

Speaker 5 (01:06:37):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
Is everything okay? You gotta get a tooth yanked?

Speaker 2 (01:06:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:06:40):
Yeah, everybody I was young trying to avoid this. Wisdom
too is coming in and just you know, throw the
gums and then uh just why words don't do that?
Everybody should go get the chief regularly cleaned and checked out.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
Yeah, don't be like me, Okay, thank you, Yeah, take
care of your teeth. I'm trying to do the same, Jonathan.
I appreciate you, but I don't know. I don't have
the medical expertise to to break down what specialists they're
sending you to and where you are.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
You weren't in an alleyway in a vent at this
dentist office.

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
Correct?

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
Oh ah, did this office look urs kind of sketchy?
I was, I was. I was off Wesheimer, So yes,
I guess. Okay, so you're in a good spot. All right. Well,
I don't get it, Jonathan. But I also maybe I'm
dealing with incoplete information, so maybe that's on me. All right,
seven one three two one two five A seven ninety
the phone number. What don't you get? Tom and downtown?

(01:07:33):
What's up?

Speaker 5 (01:07:34):
Not much?

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
Always good to hear from me.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
Ross, Thank you, uh.

Speaker 4 (01:07:38):
And uh you're holding up the show well, Jonathan for
the absence of empty.

Speaker 5 (01:07:42):
So what I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:07:43):
Get is I drive a lot in the city, and
it doesn't matter if suburbs are inside the city. But
you know there's always stopping go red lights, right, But
these idiot people will always drive like way below the
limit and then because they're driving so slow, they run

(01:08:04):
the red light. I mean to me, like, you're not
safe driver if you're running the red light, So go
ahead and at least at the speed limit.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
You know what it is, I think, Tom, I think
it's people on their phones. They're not paying attention. They
look up, they realize it's an old it's a yellow light,
and they're like, oh, bleep, I gotta hurry up, and
then they speed up. I think it's people on their phones.
I'm really not one for infringing liberties of the American people,
and there's no practical way to enforce this, but I

(01:08:35):
wish we could live in a time where people just
weren't on their phones on the road. I mean, it
happens to me every day, and it's every single day
when I come to work, and I don't come on
a major highway. I live a couple of streets away,
so mostly it's just lights. Every single day I'm honking

(01:08:57):
at people who are not paying attention at light. It's
too much pay attention to people. Get off your phones.
Show some courtesy to the others on the road, all right,
you don't need to be watching cat videos right now.
You've even paying attention to the things are going on
around you. Sorry, Tom, I didn't even take over your call,
go ahead, not the right.

Speaker 4 (01:09:16):
And one other one, this one's a big one I have.
I'm a client of length of in America and pretty
much you have to use the ATM and really charge
you a ton of fees.

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
So that place sucks. But you know what I'll say,
Bank of America, you suck. I've had Bank of America
since two thousand and three. Tom, I'm switching this year.
I'm not even kidding.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
Okay, well, I probably should as well have had it.
I've had it. I go bay back to one.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
Yeah, you get old. Yeah, I think it was, Uh,
it might have been when I was there. Was it
a bank you? And they bought Bank United. They brought
up all these banks and became Bank of America. Maybe
it was Bank of America in two thousand and three
when I opened it. But either way, Yeah, and like
you said, Tom, there again, I'm taking over. I'm sorry, dude.
They've been tearing down all these ATMs. Two of the

(01:10:02):
three nearest ATMs to me, they got rid of the
banks and I can't use them now.

Speaker 4 (01:10:07):
Right, And what's irritating about it is, Okay, they force
you to use these ATMs, and then they they shut
down the drive through. The drive through will have four lanes,
and they'll put two ATMs in the same lane. So
and inevitably you always get stuck behind someone who has
no clue what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
So you're stuck there trying to get through the ATM.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
Yeah, like, come ready, come with your check filled out,
come knowing what you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
Want to pull, get it done, ridiculous. Yeah, I don't
get it, Tom, I'm with you. I appreciate you. Thank
you for chiming in seven one, three, two, two five,
seven ninety. Let's get cameraon real quick ahead of a break.

Speaker 4 (01:10:47):
What's up camera, Hey guys, good morning or good almost afternoon, Jonathan,
I look at healthcare.

Speaker 9 (01:10:53):
I can tell you right now it's a racket. So
that's why you're getting ping pong around especially. Yeah, I
don't get AI man I. You know, the art looks demonic,
and when you go to the actual text, AI like
asking you prompts some questions, it looks like a glory
right spell check.

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
Yeah, Well, I'll tell you why AI is here, Cameron,
what did you say? The ping pong is? It's a racket.
AI is a racket. There are eliminating jobs. It like
entry level jobs. For it, you're getting eliminated. AI is
a way for these big corporations to save a couple
of bucks, keep the keep the revenues up, keep the

(01:11:31):
shareholders happy, let's go, and who cares about the working man?

Speaker 9 (01:11:37):
Exactly? Well, Hey, guys, love the show.

Speaker 2 (01:11:38):
I'll see it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you, Cameron. I'm pretty sure this
will be AI Matt, Thomas and Ross Show from ten
am to two pm coming up. It's it's a way
to make things easier for people. AI art sucks. I'm
totally with you. I like when Rock first came out
or grow whatever it's called. I was making a couple
of the AI pictures because I thought or funny. I'm

(01:12:00):
not gonna do it anymore. I'm not supporting any of
this AI clap trap. It's ridiculous, and it's here for
what they're calling efficiency, which efficiency means hey, how can
we how can we eliminate a few more jobs that's
happening in every boardroom in a corporation in America, including

(01:12:21):
some very close to home. All Right, anyways, we're gonna
say quick break here on Sports Talk seven ninety Will
Jonathan and I have jobs when we come back for
this break. Let's hope. So you want to get in.
Those of you on hold, I promise you are next. You
just don't get it, neither could we. We'll find out.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety. Seven
one three two one two five seven ninety. All right,

(01:12:41):
continuing along with I just don't get it. Seven one
three two one two five seven ninety. Is the phone number.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety. We
have Adam Wexer joining at one o'clock. We have news
at noon coming up at noon here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. And if you just don't get it, you

(01:13:02):
can get in quickly at seven one three two one
two five seven ninety. Roberts and Katie has called in. Robert,
what don't you get, man?

Speaker 5 (01:13:12):
I'm telling you stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
What I don't get is these people.

Speaker 1 (01:13:15):
On scooters, Okay, oh man.

Speaker 6 (01:13:18):
They they don't pay attention, they don't abide by the law.

Speaker 5 (01:13:22):
I don't know if they're supposed to be on the
street or the sidewalk.

Speaker 6 (01:13:26):
I mean, it's just getting ridiculous because it seems like
summers to hear more kids and adults are just.

Speaker 5 (01:13:34):
Driving all over the place, over the road.

Speaker 6 (01:13:36):
You know, it's just I don't get it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:39):
I'm with you, and you know what, this maybe is
a question for the young kids like Jonathan Allen. What
what's with you young kids today? You're all around down
this happens? Have you been seeing this downtown, Robert? You
been seeing this everywhere everywhere.

Speaker 6 (01:13:52):
They're too lazy to ride bicycles or walking, you know.

Speaker 8 (01:13:55):
You know, Robert, I was just going to have this
as my I just don't get it. They're all on
these electric scooters and I used to walk to school,
so I can't. I wasn't even that type of guy,
and now are all just going on the street. I
almost hit one the other day actually two weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
Yeah, anytime, if you go spend any time downtown Houston
now and appreciate you. Robert, I don't get it either.
Like you go downtown and I'm often going to Astros
Rockets games, covering them and doing whatever in downtown Houston
as well. It's it's packs packs of people, like dozens.

(01:14:29):
Sometimes they're like they're in scooter gangs. And I rode
like back when Bird and Line first came out, I
was like all right, let me get on a scooter.
And I'm risk averse in the first place. I don't
like riding these types of things. I don't want to
be skydiving or in hot air balloons or any of
that type of stuff. What were we talking about roller coasters?
Was it last week? Jonathan? Yeah, I'm out on all

(01:14:51):
of that. So I understand I am risk averse. And
then maybe there are some people who are thrill seekers
and stuff like that. But the level of danger that
you're in, you're gonna tell me that you trust. It's
not about trusting yourself, it's about trusting the other drivers
on the road. You're gonna be around eleven o'clock midnight
at night, riding around in scooters in low visibility, in

(01:15:15):
low light in downtown Houston with these people who a
aren't paying attention to what's going on the road in
the first place. Be they're probably drunk at this point
as well. I mean, you're putting your life in the
hands of these people. I just don't get it. I'm
with Robert.

Speaker 8 (01:15:32):
Rob made a good question. He's like, are they supposed
to be on the road? I suppose to been to Siloak.
He doesn't even know and we don't even know what's
the rules on regulation.

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
I think the rules are they're supposed to be on
the road, but a lot of people feel like they're
gonna be safer on the sidewalk. And that's another thing.
If you're just walking on the sidewalk, if you're going
from like one bar to another, and there's people zooming
by you and all that type of stuff. Is this
tell me if I'm a bad person, Jonathan, I don't
get out of the way.

Speaker 8 (01:15:56):
You are a bad person because I fell on Seattle
on my trips off Scoo and this dude just didn't move.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
And well, guess what. Guess what, he's right he has
he's right to his space. Jonathan, see me coming though,
you see yeah, I see you coming. That's fine. But
you're not supposed to be on the sidewalk anyways. You're
supposed to be on the street. So no, I don't
stand there menacingly. I just stand there with a straight face.
I don't make a minute. I don't I don't scowl

(01:16:22):
you like the hall monitor in school, like, yeah, yeah,
what's up? This is my space. I'm entitled to my space.
How come I have to move out of the way
because you're flying down the sidewalk like a madman and
endangering your life. You fell down. What happened? You were
in Seattle?

Speaker 8 (01:16:37):
Yeah, I was on a trip for conference in a
track back in college, and we went to Seattle over
there with Washington you and they had all those like
the green and white scooters, the line ones I guess
they're called, yeah, and you know, it was like two
three of us on like or two of us on one,
and like we were trying to like double.

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
Are you and we were just are you supposed to
get two on one? Or was it one of those
big ones? It was like no, no, no, we just you
we're kind of small, skinny, you know. So we get
there and he packed in there like sardines and I'll
never forget this guy was big, this big white ball dude.
And we would come back. We were like, and they
have little bell, said, we're ringing the bell here.

Speaker 2 (01:17:13):
Ringing the bell.

Speaker 1 (01:17:14):
You think this is gonna make you think this big
guy is gonna move just because he hears. And it's
like he and you didn't say, okay, did he nudge you? Okay?
If he threw out an elbow or something, he was like.

Speaker 8 (01:17:27):
So, so he's walking right and say, we're coming the
horizontal way.

Speaker 1 (01:17:30):
Uh huh. My pictures. I'm going on the sidewalk and
he's walking towards the street.

Speaker 6 (01:17:33):
Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (01:17:34):
And I'm trying to tell him to move faster because
we'rebo to run into him. Huh. Don't you hit the brakes, Jonathan,
You know, screw that guy. You know what he said,
Screw you, he said, screw these kids. But I understand
now I'm older, two years older, but you know I'm older.

Speaker 4 (01:17:51):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:17:51):
I won't get I won't get in the way. I'm
not chucking an elbow at anybody, but I'm not getting
out of the way. And I have my right to
this sidewalk. Just because you're out here blazing by on
a scooter endangering your life doesn't mean that I got
to move out of the way. The scooters are ridiculous,
and sure, I'm okay if I sound like old man
and get off of eye lawn and all that type
of stuff. Whatever, Just gotta stop. It's ridiculous. It's getting ridiculous.

(01:18:17):
Everybody sees what's going on. To quote booky cousins are okay,
It's it's everywhere now and it feels like I don't
know if there was there a band lifted. Can somebody
educate me on this? Tweet me at sports harv if
you'd like, like, was there some kind of band, because
they just feels like in the last couple of years
it's really really blown up. I know in Austin they

(01:18:38):
banned them. I don't know if they if that band
is still in place, but it's endangering people. By the way,
I had some friends in Austin who would take the
scooters Jonathan and then they would hack them and then
take the governor off so that they could drive him
faster and then take off the MIT. Oh that's kind
of cool, so they like, that's kind of cool, but
also again seems very dangerous. I don't trust Houston motorists

(01:19:01):
for anything, nor should you. And I understand you're young
and you're invincible. It's a lot of kids that are
doing this. He's dang kids today. I would have done
it if I was like twenty two years old, So
I mean, I guess I do kind of get it,
but it's got to stop. Somebody's gotta step in. It's
just ridiculous and people are gonna get hurt. People are

(01:19:21):
gonna get hurt in downtown, in the streets of Houston.
It's just gone. It has gotten ridiculous. All right, We're
gonna take quick break here on The Matt Thomas Show
with Ross. Two hours in the books. We've got Adam
Wexer coming up at one o'clock. We've got the news
at noon. We got you. We've been talking to astros.
Did you hear that Jimmy Ward got arrested in the
middle of the night out in Magnolia, Texas. Haven't really

(01:19:42):
talked about that much. There's not much to break down,
but still anything Texans you want to get to Rockets
related as well as he Kevin Durant, I should say
was listing, not necessarily listening, but sham Sharani talking about
teams interested in Kevin Durant services, listing Houston, the Houston
Rockets among them. We can talk about that. Anything you

(01:20:02):
guys want to get to. Seven one three two one
two five seven ninety is the phone number. Seven one
three two one two five seven ninety. Back with the
news at noon on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
Our number three of The Matt Thomas Show with Ross
without Matt Thomas. He is out in Las Vegas, ros
Viria with you. Adam Wexer will be joining at one o'clock.

(01:20:25):
You guys can get in and co host with me.
I'm flying solo for this hour. Seven one three two
one two five seven ninety is the phone number seven
one three two one two five seven ninety. Number of
things to get to, including all the top sports news
items of the day. We call it the News at

(01:20:45):
noon with the slower talking Jonathan Hour.

Speaker 8 (01:20:52):
All Right, you guys, my name is Jonathon Allen and
my friends call me JK. And today, of course, we're
going to start off with Ashtros coming back within flows
if ten or two win, and someone who's been on
the hot seat with us for a long time shut
us something that we didn't really think you could do.

Speaker 1 (01:21:07):
One oh, and that's hammer day till I fail. You
can't guess that.

Speaker 4 (01:21:12):
Good bye.

Speaker 1 (01:21:14):
One of the train tracks a two run jack for Christian.

Speaker 6 (01:21:17):
Walker had a three nothing laid for the.

Speaker 3 (01:21:19):
Astros, a slider that spun at the top of the
zone and Christian Walker absolutely pounded that.

Speaker 1 (01:21:32):
And I don't know, rossill even talking a lot of
mess mon I've been talking mess okay, I was gonna say.
I've been saying I've been steady handed. I've been saying
that they're gonna turn it around. And I said, even yesterday,
I said they would have three and two hits a piece, respectively. Okay,
maybe I didn't say that, but we did say yesterday. Now,
I kind of, you know, I always like to look

(01:21:53):
at numbers, and I know not everybody's like that, but
that's okay. Trust me when I tell you, these teams,
these players, these general managers, the people running these organizations
are looking at numbers. So if you want to say, oh,
it's a bunch of hogwash, that's fine. You could say it.
It's simply not true. But anyways, the expected batting average
for Christian Walker not up to where I mean, it's

(01:22:16):
it's ahead of where he is right. He's hitting two seventeen. Now,
I think his XBA is like at two forty six,
which is what it was last year. So hopefully some
bad luck that he's had will turn around. Same thing
for youaner Diez. He's he's got an XBO two eighty one.
He's only hitting two thirty nine. So I just kind
of seeing those numbers makes me feel more and more
confident that they're going to be able to turn it around.
Get a little bit more batted ball luck which uh,

(01:22:38):
which Christian Walker did, especially with that third hit that
he had literally a check swing off the bat to
the right fit blooped into right field to get him
a single. So what's that. It's like hear the haters. Yeah,
he's shaking them haters off. And I appreciate Christian Walker
for doing that. So good to see him with some
hard hit contact, I mean, smoking the ball for him

(01:23:00):
and twelve feet with that home run. Also had a
very hard hit double dissenter that scored the Ander Diez
and Jose al Tuove. Four runs batted in just like that,
raising his average to two seventeen. Hopefully he can keep
this up. We saw even what like ten twelve days ago,
it was a couple of hits and then three hits

(01:23:20):
with the walk off three run shot, we were hoping
he's gonna turn it around. Can you finally kick the
door down and really get things rolling for Christian Walker? Hopefully,
because historically in his career he's been a slow starter,
maybe not this slow. It's been one of the worst
stretches of his entire career. But if he can start
heating up, that'll be huge for the Astros. Jonathan, go ahead,

(01:23:42):
all right.

Speaker 8 (01:23:42):
Moving on to another local sports here on what not
the news of noon on Noon I probably does for that,
but and not so great of news as we just discussed.
But Texan safety Jimmy Ward facing funny assault charges. I
know Ross and you and Dan I had spoke about
it earlier, but I wanted to address it and get
the audience will more refresh. He was arrested at five

(01:24:03):
thirty eight a m. In Montgrammy sexas and it's spacic
seeing billions chargers.

Speaker 1 (01:24:07):
I just said, but.

Speaker 8 (01:24:09):
They're not really giving so much details about what would
be happen, which kind of wearies me. And the fact
is it's a lot worse than what they're given out
with charges if they're not giving out right now and
saying like, okay, is this parton?

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
She said, this is what happened?

Speaker 8 (01:24:23):
Can my details, especially from the organization themselves seeming like
they're gonna have to keep this under wraps until season
starts and seeing if he can get out of it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:30):
M Yeah, I think normally they won't have a whole
lot of details and We'll get the reporting as it comes.
A police report will have to be filed, and then
I don't know exactly if somebody's gonna have to request
that from Montgomery County or what. Probably I would guess
in the next couple of days something will come out.
But as you said, doesn't sound good. It just says

(01:24:51):
accused of strangulation, choking, someone doesn't say who, felony assault,
family violence, doesn't say who in the family. Vague, But uh,
doesn't sound good for our old friend Jimmy Ward. This
could be a scenario. This happens in the NFL where
too often, yeah, where the charges eventually get dropped. Will

(01:25:15):
there be a suspension? Who knows? This would definitely be
a violation of the Code of Conduct policy for the NFL,
So not sure. Unfortunate Jimmy Ward, like him as a player,
don't know what went down. Uh, he's he's innocent until
proven guilty. But five point thirty in the morning, strangulation,

(01:25:37):
family violence in Montgomery County and Magnolia apparently doesn't sound
good for Jimmy Ward. Not where you want to be.

Speaker 8 (01:25:44):
Yeah, well, let's move out to better news onto the
NBA Finals. Pacers win game three, and I'm gonna use
this little minute.

Speaker 1 (01:25:52):
To tell what happened. Six.

Speaker 8 (01:25:56):
Yes you're saying, okay, see in five what you guys
should just listen to me. Your part lays have been better.
You're right, everything would have been I told you, guys,
you're better than knows ball.

Speaker 1 (01:26:05):
Now I'm just letting you know. A lot of me
left on the bone. Just let you know, but a
lot of me left on the bone. They went in
a big three.

Speaker 8 (01:26:16):
One more game in Indianapolis and another move on to topics.

Speaker 1 (01:26:22):
The US Open starts today for golf.

Speaker 8 (01:26:25):
Yes, Open Tea times are up and pairing and schedules
all around groups for round one or out right now
on CBS Sports as well.

Speaker 1 (01:26:32):
You've already got some guys completing their round. I think
out of the old Oakmont Country Club. Oh, yes, live
right now, yes right. I know JJ Spawn atop the
leader board. He's at minus four with his round done.
You also have Kim c Wu in second place, he's

(01:26:54):
a minus three, and then Blake Griffin No, okay, maybe
it's Benjamin Griffin is also in the running. He's out
of minus two in the US Open. And you have
some others basically hovering around even, but JJ spond leading
the way at a minus one at the US Open.
But back to the NBA Finals real quick, which we
can talk to talk about in a little bit. Yeah,

(01:27:17):
Oklahoma City didn't look good. Who was it? Was it
who came off the bench for twenty seven points? Was
it Benedict? Benedict freaking Matherin came off the bench for
twenty seven points? Exactly? Tigers Halliburton had a good game,
Oklahoma City thunder Backs against the wall a little bit.
They have to win three out of four games, and

(01:27:37):
they looked exhausted last night to win this World to
World Series, to win this NBA Finals, not looking good
one of their worst games of the postseason. I think
we have to knock them down a peg now is
we're you know, people were talking about them as being
one of the all time great teams up there with
like the eighty six Celtics and the early two thousands
Lakers and blah blah blah blah blah. Because they did it.

(01:28:00):
It is a fact they had the best point differential
in NBA history. But getting pushed to seven by the
thunder excusable because I mean by the Nuggets, because I
mean Niko le Okich is a freaking nature, one of
the greatest basketball players of all time. But the Pacers
are good too. But I think the Thunder getting down

(01:28:22):
a peck. I still think they're gonna win the series. See, guys,
you heard it here. First, I'll think they're gonna win
the series.

Speaker 8 (01:28:28):
You know, I don't know after last, chet Holden Green
is very under experienced and gets in his head way too,
way too much when this clutch time. As I know,
you saw the Miles Turner block on that three pointer,
and then he went and tried to go driving the
paint by himself with four of the kickbacks, and he
still didn't do anything. And he's even It's almost like
another jailing Green situation.

Speaker 1 (01:28:48):
Oh hey, come on now. At least chet Holmgren had
twenty points. I don't know how many times I.

Speaker 8 (01:28:54):
Said in the NBA Finals it's different, but it's the
same situation going on, at least in my opinion.

Speaker 1 (01:28:59):
All right, all right, well, shake Gil, just Alexander is
still doing his thing. I still think that Thunder are
the better team. But we shall see, we shall see
as the finals go along. What else is on the
news at noon? Jonathan Allen, you want to say, that's
all you got.

Speaker 8 (01:29:16):
That's fine, That's all I got. Guys, Dude, I appreciate you. Guys,
Shawn get better every time I'll get on here.

Speaker 1 (01:29:22):
We appreciate you. Uh yeah, there's another couple of stuff,
but I mean, it's that slow time of year as
you're learning. Jonathan's like, man, there's not been a lot
of talk to talk about. Yeah, it's that time of year,
so it's been pretty slow. So you know what we
talk about. We play the hits, we talk about what
you want to talk about. It's seven one three, two
one two five, seven ninety here on the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross Without Matt Thomas, he is out in

(01:29:43):
Las Vegas. You can get in at seven one three
two one two five seven ninety. Astros bounce back after
losing the series opener to the White Sox. They get
a resounding tend to victory over the White Sox, going
for a series victory today seven to ten, first pitch
at Dyke Park and also when we come back. Kevin

(01:30:06):
Durant to the Houston Rockets. How would you feel about it,
because now we've talked about rumors, but Sham Sharania mentioning
the Rockets as one of the five potential suitors for
Kevin Durant. We'll get into that next. You want to
get in talk about anything. Seven one three two one
two five seven ninety is the phone number. Seven one
three two one two five seven ninety. Continuing along on

(01:30:29):
the Matt Tom Show with Ross Adam Wexer joining coming
up at one o'clock. Phone lines open if you'd like
to get in. Seven one three two one two five
seven ninety. Seven one three two one two five seven
ninety uh Sham Sharania reporting the Phoenix Suns and Kevin

(01:30:51):
Durant's business partner Rich Kleimban sorting through trade options with
interested teams, mainly featuring Houston, San Antonio, Minnesota, Miami, and
New York. So what do we make of this report?
We know normally that when things come out like this,
especially when it's through shams, this is the nature of
the business these days. Guys are trying to put something

(01:31:14):
out normally for a reason. And if you ask me,
not knowing anything, when you put five teams out there,
that sounds like trying to drum up a market for
Kevin Durant. Perhaps all these teams are genuinely interested, but
putting out that that out and reporting it, while it's
good news, it's good fodder, it's good for ESPN, it's
good for shams. It's also good for the Phoenix Suns

(01:31:39):
to have this put out so other teams say, hey,
oh wow, we're not the only ones interested. Wow, Spurs, Heat, Timberwolves,
New York Nicks. So I've said, I don't think that
the Rockets are gonna land Kevin Durant because I think
they could possibly get into a bidding war, and I
don't think that is going to I just don't think
that's going to be something that rafel Stone is going
to want to get into. But they're There have been

(01:32:00):
a couple of trade proposals that I saw across the
Internet that I wanted to bring to you guys and
ask what you think. This first one is from a
Sun's SB Nation blog. It is called bright Side of
the Sun. They put Jalen Green and Jabbari Smith Junior
together with the number ten overall pick, with the Rockets

(01:32:25):
getting the Sun's first round pick back, which is number
twenty nine, and then well it's not their their pick.
They have the Son's pick, of course, but a pick
that the Sons have and Kevin Durant. So would you
give up Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Junior for basically
one year of Kevin Durant? I mean, on its face,

(01:32:45):
it sounds like giving a lot. And I've talked about
Jalen Green and if you haven't seen, you can go.
It's one of the last posts that I had on
my Instagram, kind of breaking down where he is as
far as his progression, and it's in relative to other
guys who have made all in BA and he's just
not up to that level. Unfortunately, you draft a number
two overall and you're hoping to get a star. But

(01:33:06):
if you get a solid, good NBA contributor, which Jalen
Green is, who is a plus player, who is your
leading scorer on a fifty two game, fifty two win team,
that's pretty good. That has value. But he also got
shut out in the playoffs except for one game where
he got hot from three, and I have serious, serious

(01:33:29):
question marks of him being that star player who can
be the best team on a championship team. I think
he's probably more suited to be a number two or
number three, just judging from the first four years of
his career where the shooting numbers have been, where he's
gotten better, but he hasn't gotten better to the same
rate of say and Anthony Edwards, a John Moran, a

(01:33:51):
Devin Booker, whoever else, those types of guys that we
would think of and hopeful to be his contemporaries. So
given away Jalen to me, that hurts. That's a lot.
Jabari Smith Jr. I'm less worried about giving up because
he he was a bench player. He's got good value.

(01:34:11):
He can score a little bit, he can knock down
the occasional three. He's a good stretch forced last five
switchable defender. He's got value for sure. But you got
to give up value in order to get Kevin Durant back.
So is that too much or is that about just right?
It feels like you're definitely giving up a lot. And

(01:34:33):
I wanted to pose this question to you guys, like,
would you do that Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr.
For Kevin Durant and basically a first round swap too much?

Speaker 8 (01:34:44):
You think Jonathan for Jabarsmith and Jalen Green. I think
that's what I know for Kevin Durant. I really feel
like that's like a really good value trade if you think, ask.

Speaker 1 (01:34:53):
Me good value for the Rockets or good value for
the Suns.

Speaker 8 (01:34:57):
If the Rockets are going for a potential, all right,
we're gonna go go or a championship.

Speaker 1 (01:35:00):
We've got got number two seed. Right.

Speaker 8 (01:35:03):
I feel like if you're gonna only take away Jailing Green,
and the only thing is if you take you away your
Jaillen Green, you have to risk him doing really well
against you at the different place that goes right.

Speaker 1 (01:35:11):
Yeah, and Jayalen Green has value. He's played eighty two games,
He's been healthier than Kevin Durant. He's younger, he could
still grow and get better, but he's not Kevin Durant.
Kevin Durant to me at this stage of his career,
he's a one trick pony. But it's a trick. That's
the whole crux of basketball. He puts the ball in
the hoop and then we keep playing. That's what basketball is,

(01:35:32):
you put the ball in the hoop.

Speaker 5 (01:35:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:35:34):
But then I feel this is good because you keep
Thompson as well as Singoon. Right, But it's gonna be
hard for any team to just let only Jabari Smith
and trade or in picks for Kevin Durant.

Speaker 1 (01:35:45):
And he's thirty seven years old, he played sixty two
games last year, had a little bit of injuries. He
played seventy five before that. But even before that, forty
seven games, fifty five games, thirty five games achilles injury.
There's no guarantee that he's gonna be healthy. There's no
guarantee that's gonna be healthy for the playoffs. But that's
every player but Jalen Green younger, and it has shown

(01:36:06):
a lot of durability. And I'm gonna say, no, ooh,
that's tough. I think that's a good deal. I think
that's a good mock trade from from this website that
that put that together. Another one that I saw on
the internet. This is from a guy named David Wiener.

(01:36:29):
He's at Beam a thug has done some stuff for
Clutch fans kind of as someone I think that's good
to follow for Rockets and capology type of stuff he
has or the Rockets getting the getting Kevin Durant in
the twenty ninth pick for Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks
and the tenth pick. That to me, I would I

(01:36:50):
would do that more. I would be more apt to
do that deal rather than the other. What do you think?
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seven ninety holding longest
Heidi in a conro. What's up? Heidi? Hi Ross, Hi,

(01:37:12):
how are you? I'm calling about you and Brian were
talking about, uh, why Jeremy Penia.

Speaker 7 (01:37:17):
Is so much better this year than he has been
in the past year.

Speaker 1 (01:37:21):
Okay, and it's you guys don't know, because you're guys.

Speaker 7 (01:37:25):
But it's because he's got a girlfriend.

Speaker 1 (01:37:29):
Oh now, see, I thought it was the other way around.
I thought the girlfriend's distracting you and keeping you from
your work and then and then that's why you would struggle.

Speaker 6 (01:37:37):
Well, they say that.

Speaker 8 (01:37:38):
But I think it's really just the love of a
good woman.

Speaker 5 (01:37:40):
Behind every every great baseball player, there's there's a good woman.

Speaker 1 (01:37:45):
Hmm. Okay that he may or may not be cheating on.
I got you here, Heidi, all right, U Uh, that's
something that I'll have to consider. I appreciate that he's
going public. Huh. Is it like that? Is Jeremy Payne.
He has the support of a good woman, and that's
why he's locked in on the plate. He's not running

(01:38:05):
around town chasing women. Not like I'm saying that he
was doing that, but I'm just saying, you know, I mean, look,
Jerry Penney got a lot of fans from when he
first burst onto the scene. What better watch out, bro,
She can't go to the astros anymore. He's smoking for
so you're good. You don't have anything to worry about.
Baseball player, famous athletes, billionaire athletes would never ever do

(01:38:29):
anything like that anyways. Uh okay, huh, we're going with
the girlfriend card where he doesn't have to be, like
I said, running around town. If you ever just went
anything like, weren't there women like lying down the street
in raising canes when he was appearing there for their
middling chicken tenders but good sauce. But anyways, okay, I

(01:38:55):
guess we can buy that. We'll see if it keeps up,
and we'll get we'll get more as it goes along. Sometimes,
let's see, that's Carlos Correa got married and things got
worse for him. Alex Frigman had a couple of kids.
It's been up and down, that's true. Okay, So when
it's a wife, when things get really locked down. That's

(01:39:15):
what you're saying. That's what you're saying. Okay, well, thank you, Heidi.
The wife appreciate you making the call. Seven on seven
ninety is the phone number. Let's keep it going with
Mac and Parland holding along. It's what's up, Mac.

Speaker 10 (01:39:30):
There's guys that do better with stability and there's guys
that don't.

Speaker 1 (01:39:33):
So whatever that's true, it's up to the individual.

Speaker 2 (01:39:36):
Mac.

Speaker 10 (01:39:39):
I like the second trade for Kevin Durant better than
the first one.

Speaker 5 (01:39:45):
Two things.

Speaker 10 (01:39:47):
One until we get a better, more accomplished three point shooter.
I think we have to hold on to Jafari Smith
because he's sunk a lot of them. His percentage is
spotted higher as anybody on the team. Also, a couple
of months ago, there was in the Western Conference there
was a bunch of teams scrambling for the last positions,
as you know, one through six, and then the play

(01:40:10):
in people.

Speaker 1 (01:40:11):
And during that.

Speaker 10 (01:40:12):
Team, one of those teams was Phoenix, And where was
Kevin Durant while that was going on? On the injured list?
If we're going to give away a bunch of people
and draft picks and this and that and the other,
we need to get somebody back that we can count
on to be there playing when the chips are down.

Speaker 1 (01:40:30):
Yeah. Absolutely, I appreciate you, Mack, and thank you for
making the call. That's That's the thing that kind of
kind of swings my favor into kind of not doing
the trade is because while Jalen Green, yes, sometimes he
can struggle against better defensive teams, guys with good low

(01:40:51):
block defenders, and a lot of his success can be
predicated on whether or not his three point shot is
falling on a night. He's given you eighty two games
in the past two years. That's got a lot of value,
it really does. And not to say that he couldn't
go injured in twisted ankle and be out a couple
of weeks or something else could happen. It could happen

(01:41:13):
to anybody, But you have to play the numbers game.
Who is it more likely to happen to a thirty
seven year old who's had an achilles injury who's missed
games in the last several years, or a twenty three
year old who's battled and played through injury in giving
you eighty two and back to back seasons. But also

(01:41:34):
this twenty three year old in Jalen Green. He can
improve and get better. It's just a question of how
much will he improve and get better. Because his point
totals have gone up, down, up in the last three years.
You're hoping for a more steady upward trajectory trajectory for

(01:41:54):
his career and getting better. But he is coming off
of the season where he had one of his most
efficient shooting seasons, where he had his best three point
shooting season, and he had his best free throw shooting season,
and he averaged twenty one points per game, which led
the team on a fifty two win fifty. But he's

(01:42:16):
not Kevin Durant. But is he giving you more value
long term than thirty seven year old Kevin Durant. That
would be something that the Rockets would have to weigh
and rofel Stone would have to weigh. I think again,
even this type of deal would be rejected by the Suns.
I think you're gonna have somebody else who's gonna be
in this mix, is going to get a little bit
more desperate. I think the Knicks could be a team

(01:42:39):
that got desperate. I think the Spurs have a lot
of assets and would be attractive landing spot.

Speaker 5 (01:42:43):
As well.

Speaker 1 (01:42:45):
Timberwolves intriguing, but not so. I don't think that's gonna happen.
And I would say the same thing for the Miami Heat.
And those are the five teams, including the Rockets, that
were mentioned by Sham Sharania, as potential targets for k D.
All right, quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross. What do you guys think? Seven one three
two one two five seven ninety. The phone number to

(01:43:05):
get in seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
You can also send tweets to at sports RV. And
is Jeremy Panya having his breakout season because he's got
a lady. We can discuss that as well as you
go along on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross with
the until two o'clock twelve thirty four and the PM

(01:43:27):
Rosviria with you phone lines open at seven one three
two one two five seven ninety. Adam Wexler joining us
in just a little bit, and you can get in
again at seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
Talking some about some Jalen Green trade proposals that I
saw on the interwebs in the last couple of days,

(01:43:50):
one of them from a Phoenix Suns blog saying Jalen
Green Jabari Smith Junior in effectively a pick swap for
the Astros and Rockets, excuse me for the Rockets and Suns,
the Rockets tenth pick for the Sun's twenty ninth pick.

(01:44:13):
And then another one that I saw from at Beam
a thug on Twitter, like I said, the sometimes contributor
to ClutchFans dot Net locally here has Kevin Durant coming
to Houston with the twenty ninth pick for Jalen Green
and Dylan Brooks and the tenth pick, which I think
most everyone in Houston would be more on board with.

(01:44:34):
And as I've said sometimes on this on these airwaves,
you know they teach you in sports broadcasting, and I
think it's a lot of what has led to bad
sports broadcasting. Have a strong opinion. So if I can
come out here and I can go and tell you
this is the dumbest trade I've ever had heard and
Jalen Green needs to stay here, Raphael Stone would hang

(01:44:58):
on a hang up in a second. I don't really
feel that way. I think it hurts, I think it stings,
but I think you get value back. I think Kevin
Durant certainly fills a hole on this team, and that
is clutch scoring when it matters most basically at an
unguardable level. But you factor in the youth, you factor

(01:45:18):
in what you're going to have to give up. You're
factoring in the potential health of Kevin Durant, who did
play seventy five games two years ago, but before that
thirty nine games and excuse me, forty seven games, and
before that fifty five and thirty five games also, of course,
was recovering from an achilles injury at that point, and

(01:45:42):
also in this stage of career. You know, when Kevin
Durant was was prime, was in his prime. He's one
of the best players in basketball rifle MVP. Not only
could he drop thirty a night, he was doing it efficiently.
He is, i think in the argument for second greatest
shooter of all time, which of course Steph Curry is
number one, And those Hampton Five's line of Hampton's five

(01:46:06):
lineups that we talked about in the in the heyday
of the Golden State Warriors, where it was Draymond Green
at the five and Kevin Durant, like he was basically
their rim protector. Very underrated defensively. I don't think he
ever ended up on an All defense team. He did
finish top ten in the Defensive Player of the Year
voting in twenty eighteen. But I think in his prime,

(01:46:27):
in his prime, underrated as a defender because I mean,
dude's got co Go Gadget arms. He can just block anything.
You go buy him, and he's still gonna block you goet. Yeah,
oh you know who Inspector Gadget is. That's good, Jonathan,
that makes me happy.

Speaker 2 (01:46:41):
I did.

Speaker 1 (01:46:41):
I guess they made a couple of movies. Yes, okay, good.
I used to watch the cartoon. I'm old enough for that.
But yeah, he's got co Go Gadget arms. So he
was a great defender in his prime. And oh, by
the way, four or five time scoring champion puts the
ball in the hoop. His game isn't what it once was.

(01:47:03):
Can't get to the basket as easily as he once did,
but still he can start driving and that pull up
midbee it's about as automatic as it gets. And he's
still an excellent three point shooter, which the Rockets need
all of that. They need a careator, they need a
guy who can go out there and score twenty six
points per game. But do you need that guy to
be a thirty seven year old who possibly has health
question marks and could break down, and who isn't the

(01:47:27):
defensive player that he once was and never has been,
like an elite ball distributor. Pretty good passer, but never
somebody who's you're gonna confuse one of the best passers
on the planet can pass out of double teams.

Speaker 5 (01:47:41):
Did do it?

Speaker 1 (01:47:42):
I mean when he played the Rockets earlier this year.
But Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Junior some young pieces
you got to give to get to me. It's like
a it's a close fifty five to forty five type deal.
I don't think I would do the one that is Kevin,
that is Jalen Green and Jabar Smith Junior. I think

(01:48:03):
I do do the deal that is Jalen Green and
Dylan Brooks. Seven seven ninety is the phone number Eric
in Bay City against my better judgment, what do you
got Eric?

Speaker 6 (01:48:18):
Hey, Ross, listen, you're gonna be surprised by this. I'm
a lot more ageous when it comes yes, sir, where
I'm a lot more ageous when it comes to basketball.
I don't want to give up anybody in the Jalen
a'm in and alp category. When it comes to any
NBA player over the age of thirty five, Kevin Durant
has averaged forty five games a year the last six seasons.

(01:48:39):
If I mean, you're not talking about a forty year
old pitcher that plays every five days. You're talking about
a guy that you're counting on to carry you through
an eighty two game season and then several rounds of playoffs.

Speaker 11 (01:48:50):
He didn't have it anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:48:52):
This would be a horrible.

Speaker 11 (01:48:54):
Decision in my book, to give up anything more than
just I mean, maybe if they wanted to do Jalen
Green for Kevin Durant swap, you consider it. But I
mean Halliburton wasn't in the finals in his first playoffs.
Sometimes it takes a guy time to adjust to that
pressure in that spotlight. I say, give Jalen time rather
than go down to Kevin Durant rabbit hole.

Speaker 1 (01:49:13):
Yeah, all right, thank you, Eric.

Speaker 5 (01:49:15):
And And.

Speaker 1 (01:49:18):
This is the thing, everything that we say when we're
talking about Jalen Green, how he's young, and it was
his first playoffs and all that type of stuff, and
comparing to him to Halliburton and others as well. It's
all well and good, but the I guess I'm gonna

(01:49:38):
have to go back and look. Was it four single
digit performances or was it? I think it was four
for Jalen Green in that series? Was four or five? Okay?
And he had the one big he had the one
big game, of course, where he had thirty eight points,
but he had I'm gonna go I'm pulling it up

(01:49:59):
right now. Actually, yeah, four single digit performances all five games,
excuse me, six games out of seven he was twelve
points or fewer. Tyrese Haliburton has played thirty four playoff games.

(01:50:22):
Jalen Green has four single digit performances. Tyrese Halliburton has four.
They're tied.

Speaker 8 (01:50:33):
It's a rough comparison, though. At least you're putting Jayleen
Green at Halliburton's caliber, are you?

Speaker 1 (01:50:40):
Four is four out of thirty four and four out
of seven. That's pretty bad odds. Uh, yeah, I can't
defend you, guys. I don't know. Anthony Edwards has had
forty two playoff games. You know how many single digit performances?

Speaker 2 (01:50:55):
He has four?

Speaker 1 (01:50:57):
Zero? Okay, Now let me pull up my friend Devin
Booker We've done this before. Devin Booker, Let's bring up
his career playoffs because we keep making this first playoffs excuse,
first playoffs, excuse. Devin Booker has played forty seven playoff games,

(01:51:17):
single digit performances zero, So Kay Cunningham, that'd be gad
I believe he had zero. Now, he also was a
high volume shooter. He had a bad playoffs, but in
a different way. He had a bad playoffs in a
way that I wish Jalen Green did. Kate Cunningham had
a lot of bad games, but he was scoring points

(01:51:39):
because he was getting up like twenty shots a game. Yeah. Look,
he only shot eighteen percent from three and forty two
percent from the field. Yeah, he didn't have a game
under twenty under twenty, and Jalen Green had six under twenty.
That's where I get worried. Now, everybody's on a different plane,
right They tell you this in school. Everybody's on a
different path of growth, and everybody body can get You

(01:52:00):
can all reach your full potential, and you can and
he can. I'm gonna tell you this, he's in remedial
playoff basketball right now. Because he had four single digit
performances and I pulled up the numbers between the but
before other guys and where they are as far as
true shooting percentages and box plus minus and all these

(01:52:21):
other things, and he's lagging behind star players. That's why
I have a big red flags for him being a
superstar player. And if he's not, If you get a
number two overall pick and he has a ten year
NBA career, makes one or two All Star games, and
averages around twenty two to twenty five points per game,
that is value. That doesn't mean Jalen Green is a
bad player. It is he is a bit of a

(01:52:43):
victim of NBA discourse where it's all like rings rings, drings, rings, rings, drings, rings, rings, playoffs, playoffs,
playoff fifty point games. Jalen Green has value twenty one
points per game, somewhat efficiently leading the team on a
fifty two win campaign. That's got value. But as it
is in this in the sports world, we want more.

(01:53:06):
And when you look at his peers, when you look
at just what he did for the Rockets, that all
sounds pretty good. Well, like I said, when you look
at his peers and some guys who have had four
or five years, and some guys even from his own
draft class. He's lagging behind a bit. But that doesn't
mean he's a bad player. It just means the clock

(01:53:27):
continues to tick on him possibly being a mega star player,
which I feel like he has the talent to do.
Does that mean his career is over after four years
and twenty three years old. No, but he certainly is,
uh in my opinion, well, and by the numbers, lagging
behind some of his peers. All right, seven one three

(01:53:48):
two one two five seven nine. He is the phone
number if you want to get in seven one three
two one two five seven nine. You can also send
tweets to at sports RV ros VI real with you
until two o'clock. Matt Thomas is out, Adam Wexer joining
at one o'clock, and you can get in at seven five,
seven ninety. All Right, the excuses for Jalen Green, I

(01:54:12):
thought we were done with this. I guess it's going
to continue to happen, and that's okay. Uh, Timothy, appreciate
you listening. Uh, this guy always is listening and then
responds to whatever my pin tweet happens to be, which
is my appearance on Channel two. So I mean at
least he finds me at Sports RV, which I appreciate,
but talking a little bit about Jalen Green and possibly

(01:54:34):
giving him up. Look like, like I said, I want
to be clear, he's twenty three years old. His career
is not over. He's improved every year, but that also
doesn't mean that he's not lagging behind some guys who
I think level whose level he's not going to to
be able to hit. So actually, oh man, you know

(01:55:00):
I gave him some bad numbers. So I'm gonna shut up,
but I'm gonna have to redo these numbers. I'm gonna
delete these tweets. Yeah, no, I'm fact checking myself. Actually,
but anyways, I already mentioned Tyre's Halliburton has four single
digit playoff performances in his entire No wait, actually I
did I did do this right, didn't I four playoff performances?

(01:55:24):
I mean four single digit plaoff performances in his entire
playoff career. That's in thirty four games, and Jalen Green
has four in his first seven and six twelve or under.
Also this excuse that he he was I'm throwing out
the first two years he was he was under Steven
Silas like what Steven stylis is a great offensive coach.

(01:55:45):
You can talk about whatever you want about the the uh.
You know, his ability to not really corral and h
and gains garner enough respect from these players, kind of
like substitute teacher vibes where everybody's walking all over them
or whatever. But he's a good coach. He's a good
offensive coach. And by the way, the most efficient season

(01:56:06):
that Jalen Green or the had were his highest points
per game scored was in the first season with Steven
Silas as his coach. And then the highest true shooting
percentage numbers that he's had now this factor is in
three points, free throws two points. His highest true shooting

(01:56:27):
percentage he had in his career was in his first
year with Steven Silas as coach. Since then it's been
down up and then up incrementally, but still worse than
his first year. And oh, by the way, Alprinchingoun was
here in the Steven Silas years in the playoffs. While
he wasn't hyper efficient scoring, he still led the team

(01:56:50):
in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. So I don't want
to hear any of that. I'm in Thompson. Oh, you
want to you want to blame j Green flagging and
development men. Thompson is younger than Jalen Green. He had
fewer single digit games, and he was taking over games
offensively and defensively for stretches. Jalen Green didn't do that. So,

(01:57:13):
like I said, I'm a Jalen Green fan. I want
him to be to be good. I want him to
continue to blossom into a star. His career is not over.
He's only twenty three years old. He's only four years
into his career. I'm a Rockets fan. I don't care
what the name is on the back. The name on
the front says Rockets. I want you to succeed. I
know that's not how a lot of people fan these days.

(01:57:33):
You got Shingoon fans and Green fans and whoever fans
and then it goes from there. But I mean, we
have to stop making up these excuses. Steven Siles's two
years don't count. What things in Jalen Green's favor. Like
I said, the youth he has improved. Also, his development

(01:57:56):
in a year between high school and college was a wash.
He only played like fifteen games in the G League
because of the COVID shortened season. So if you want
to tell me he's lagging in development because of that,
I'll buy that. You want to tell me he's only
twenty three year olds so old and players don't normally
hit their peak at twenty three, I'm buying that, But
I'm not buying that. The first two years don't count.
When he had his most points per game and then

(01:58:17):
he also had his best shooting season under Steven Silas,
and that was in his first year. Since then, it's
been up and down. Bradley on the phones, what's up?

Speaker 5 (01:58:27):
Hi, Hi Ross? I just wanted to give you my
idea of a trade, and the only one I would
do for Durant God would be with more and the
tenth pick.

Speaker 1 (01:58:40):
Well, if you're in a bidding more with five teams,
somebody's gonna give you a give the Phoenix Suns better
than that, So I don't think that would net you
can I don't think that would met you.

Speaker 5 (01:58:47):
Kevin Durant, Well, I'm alright with that. I just I
want to give our guys another year and good. I
also want to say that I think Jabari is gonna
be special next year.

Speaker 1 (01:59:01):
I hope. So what do you mean special? Like twenty
and ten type of season.

Speaker 5 (01:59:05):
I think. I think they're gonna start running plays for him,
I think, and I think he's gonna bring his average
up and keep his rebounds in his defense twenty points.
Let's let's say around there.

Speaker 1 (01:59:17):
Yeah, well, what type of plays are gonna I mean,
they're not he's not a ball handler. You're not gonna
run picking roles for him. I mean, I guess they
can run him around a bunch of screens and curls
and get him some open shots that way, which they
do out of time out sometimes. But he's not that
good of an offensive creator on his own, and I
think that's one of his big problems.

Speaker 5 (01:59:33):
Yeah, but I understand he's working really hard somewhere to
work on these things.

Speaker 2 (01:59:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:59:40):
That's good. He's young. He can get better too. Thank you, Bradley.
Appreciate making the call. Appreciate you making the call. We
do have to hit the top of the hour. But
uh yeah, his offensive game is catch and shoot or
I'm gonna back somebody down for a dribble or two
and go turn around, pull up. That's that's basically the
whole bag of Jabari Smith Junior. And it's good and

(02:00:02):
he's you know, six foot ten with some link so
he can shoot over just about everybody. But he needs
a little bit more of a game inside the restricted
area if he's gonna continue to grow or just grow
as a shooter, which he can do as well. All right,
time for a top of the hour break here on
Sports Talk seven ninety. That's three hours of the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross. We got another one coming. Still

(02:00:25):
know Matt Thomas, but Adam Wexler is warming up in
the bully. He'll be with us and you can get
in as well. At seven one three two one two
five seven ninety seven one three two one two five
seven ninety Adam Wexler joins next Don't go anywhere here
on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross one two pm.

(02:00:45):
Here on Sports Talk seven ninety it is the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Adam Wexler in
the fold. Now we'll have some conversation with Brian McTaggert
coming up at the bottom of the hour. That's radio
speaker for around one thirty. We also have you at
seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven

(02:01:06):
one three two, one two five seven ninety. A lot
of things to get to with you, mister Wexler, but
I'm gonna start with where we were going the last
couple of segments with the Kevin Durant thing. Of course,
the news coming yesterday from Shamsharania, well the Rockets among
the five teams in who have expressed interest in Kevin Durant.

(02:01:27):
My initial philosophy yesterday was I think Rothhailstone will answer
any phone call. But I also think that he will
not be one of the teams to engage in a
bidding war for Kevin Durant. He'll have some sort of
semblance of an offer. We've seen some some some different
trades floated out. We can get to those in a moment,
but I don't the more teams that are involved, the

(02:01:49):
less likely. I feel like that Kevin Durant would be
a Houston Rocket.

Speaker 12 (02:01:52):
Yeah, there's probably other teams that would do what you
said the Rockets won't, and that is get into a
bidding war. Maybe a little bit more desperate to feel
more compelled from a timing standpoint of where their teams
are that, yeah, we'll go above and beyond. I think
the Rockets have a pretty clear plan and probably have
a here's the five or six players we'd be interested in.
This is what we're willing to give up for that one.
This is what and they're you know, maybe not going

(02:02:13):
to go all in in that regard for well, we
have to go do this. I think they feel good
enough about their team that you're probably right in assessing
it that way. This is what we're willing to do,
kind of take it or leave it in situation, and
you know, if it doesn't work out for this player,
we'll move on to another one or just move right
back into the same locker room we've been cultivating for
several seasons.

Speaker 1 (02:02:35):
I've pulled this up from there's an eSPI Nation Suns
blog that they put it into the trade machine. Spit
it out. Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Junior for Kevin Durant.
Also with the Rockets tenth pick going to Phoenix, with
the twenty ninth pick from Phoenix coming back, So.

Speaker 12 (02:02:52):
Two of your top six per se Jabari and Jalen
and I don't know negligible on all the other peace
what ten is for this year versus I mean, we
know what twenty nine and his twenty nine is a
crapshoot anything outside of the fifteenth pick twentieth pick in
any given draft.

Speaker 1 (02:03:09):
It's against the.

Speaker 12 (02:03:10):
Top three at this point. This draft in particular, maybe
it is a little bit lighter. I think that's reasonable.
I'm not sure that I'm going to sit here and
say I pull the trigger on it.

Speaker 2 (02:03:18):
For sure.

Speaker 12 (02:03:19):
You're taking out a guy that takes a lot of
your offense's shots by design, by you want him to
Jalen and you're replacing him with a guy that does
the same thing. You're not bringing Kevin Durant here to
not be a humongous part of your offense. We were
talking about it quite a bit yesterday. Kevin Durant was
one A in Phoenix with Devin Booker. If he were

(02:03:43):
to go to Minnesota, one of the other five teams there,
he's a two. He's definitely not the one. He's a two,
which is great for Minnesota because they lean on him
a little bit less. The Heat does not require our discussion.
One of the five teams mentioned, he's not gonna play
for the Miami Heat. You know, the Spurs in interesting situation,
would he truly be their number one option? I tend

(02:04:03):
to believe he would I don't know if he's so
called their best player, certainly not for too much longer.
And here I'm a hard time saying, how would he
not be the one? You know, I do respect that
they run the offense through opera Shangun, and I'm not
saying they should discontinue that. But he's gonna he would
be looked at quite heavily here if that's what he
thinks he can still do, If that's what they think

(02:04:24):
he can still do, if that's what they want him
to do, it starts to make more sense. It's just
a much shorter term situation. There's a ceiling to the
two players you're talking about, Jalen and Jabari. I think,
you know, we question how close to the ceiling is
Jalen already as he enters year five next year, and
I think we're further away from answering that with Jabbari.

(02:04:44):
And I heard the end of the last segment. For
all the reasons you suggested, there's things that look like
he might not ever be able to do, and there's
other things that look like he's already so good at them,
what if they get even better? He does have a
tremendous turnaround game from you know, six to twelve feet
out and over nearly every player who will defend him.

(02:05:04):
He's it's indefensible. He's just gonna turn around a shoot
it over him and it's gonna go in getting to
the spot, and you know, beating guys off the dribble
and creating on his own. Those are areas of development
still needed and maybe development will never come.

Speaker 1 (02:05:18):
Yeah, and I mean this this whole. I mean, we've
we talked about the Kevin Durant and possibly going I
want to make an analogy. You can tell me how
bad it is. Remember when the when Bob McNair was like, hey,
we need somebody to beat the Patriots in the playoffs,
and they went and got Ed Reid and so you forget,
Oh you have to get to the playoffs first. Jalen

(02:05:39):
Green's value of being there for all eighty two games
and yes a lot of times when he's going off
for forty it's against the Wizards, but hey, somebody's got
to go off for forty against the Wizards, and he's
there for you. Almost I almost want to compare it
even to like an innings eater pitcher, like, hey, somebody's
got to go out there and score some points and
twenty one points per night over eighty two games. While
that's not going to get you when when he comes

(02:06:01):
to the playoffs and then there's gonna be some shortcomings there.
You gotta get to the playoffs. You gotta get to
that number two seed. And Jalen Green pride provided a
lot of value for the Rockets in that regular season.

Speaker 12 (02:06:13):
Probably worth noting those points that he scored thirty points
or more, for instance, thirteen times against a variety of
teams the Lakers, the Thunder, the Grizzlies, also the Sixers
and Pelicans and the like. They didn't lose a single
game thirteen and oh last year of the Rockets when
he scored thirty or more points. That seems pretty good,
all right, So definitely something to be said for that,

(02:06:35):
and the fact that he's out there. Just put Kevin
Durant on the Rockets twenty five twenty six roster maximum.
He's playing seventy two games, seventy four games, because they're
gonna be even if he's healthy the whole season. They're
gonna be nice where they just say we got a
rescue it. We want to rest you because we hope
they are, you know, ten to sixteen more games later
this year in the postseason in April, May and June.

Speaker 1 (02:06:56):
So that's something you wouldn't have.

Speaker 12 (02:06:57):
The idea that he's gonna stay healthy is a bit
of a stretch because that hasn't happened for multiple seasons.
He's had no catastrophic recent injuries, but injuries nonetheless that
have kept him off the floor for certain nights. And clearly,
if Jalen were to miss a game, just like if
Kevin Durant were a miss game, that's a big part
of what you do.

Speaker 1 (02:07:14):
That's a big part of what you like to do.

Speaker 12 (02:07:16):
And I'm curious where people think the rest of Kevin
Durant's game is.

Speaker 1 (02:07:20):
We know where his offense is. It's very high.

Speaker 12 (02:07:21):
He's an elite offensive player, top ten offensive talent, top
ten score. Will still be that next year. I believe
how much does the Rockets mo of how they win
games with defense? How much does that change if you
turn Jalen into Durant, which also turns your two guard
into somebody else, or your lineup basically into somebody else.

(02:07:42):
How effective of a defensive team are they? And we've
added Jabari Smith junior to this hypothetical deal. They changed
pretty dramatically, more minutes for a men, you know, more
minutes for others that weren't as big of a Hopefully
a healthy Tari East and all these things can maybe
combat that, but it would be a probably close to
the top of the list for me that the reason
you won fifty two games, the reason you gave Golden

(02:08:04):
State fits in most of the series, was because of
your ability to go out and stop people.

Speaker 1 (02:08:08):
Yeah, it feels it's correct, but it feels like I'm
trying to diminish his skills by calling Kevin around a
one trick pony, because that one trick is putting the
ball into the basket, which is kind of the whole
point of the game, and but he doesn't do much else.

Speaker 12 (02:08:23):
Well, we have that last statement is the first time
we've even gotten to the other side. I just said,
we know what he can do. Do we feel like
he can't play defense. I don't feel like he can't.
I don't think. I don't think he plays the defense
that the Rockets have played, and I don't I question
whether you want him to. It's the same thing with
Lebron and all the other aging stars. There's something to

(02:08:44):
be said for we need to get out of him
what he gives us. On the other end, I mean,
Lebron hasn't played top level defense in almost half a decade,
probably at least, and it's look at why he's able
to produce the numbers and say, can you believe what
he's still doing? Yeah, because that's the only side of
the court he plays anymore. And I get it, but
it's you have to be live in reality. I don't

(02:09:05):
think Kevin's quite at that point. But my gosh, Phoenix
played him a lot of minutes. You certainly, I just
don't think that's what you want. I do think that's
a reason that they weren't as successful.

Speaker 1 (02:09:14):
Yeah, And the other trade I saw from uh Beama Thug,
who was contributed to clutch fans. I'm sure you've seen
around the twitter's fears. He had basically the same uh
basically the same trade, but with Jabari says and Dylan
Brooks swapped out. I would say Phoenix probably says no,

(02:09:35):
like I said, if there's gonna be some kind of
bidding war.

Speaker 12 (02:09:37):
And the big factor to all of these proposed deals
is there's some interesting things that usually have to be
done because Kevin Durant' that's such a high salary and
meant you know, Jalen Green and Jabbari obviously because of
Jalen's extension. Get you there, Dylan. That's why Fred van
Vliet's involved in many of the proposals. I think we
probably would be more likely to see another team deal.

(02:10:00):
I think for that very reason, which makes it very
difficult to tell here's the three team proposal, because they're
so ridiculous even when you see the actual deal that
we're not gonna sit here and put that out there.
The Rockets I talk to people all the time. I'm
sure you do as well outside of the show and
on the show. Everything is on the table. Do nothing, Yeah,
go after Kevin Durant, go after one of the you

(02:10:20):
know Yiannis. There are other players we don't mention at all,
could very very easily end up in Houston because of
what they do, what they can do to make the
Rockets better.

Speaker 1 (02:10:29):
We know what areas they're missing.

Speaker 12 (02:10:30):
Kevin Durant provides that they need offense, they need a shooter,
they need someone who can get his There are a
lot of other players who can shoot and maybe that's all.
They think they need someone who can hit the wide
open three at a thirty eight, thirty nine, forty percent
clip or better. There are more players in the NBA
now than you think that can do that.

Speaker 1 (02:10:50):
I think if rafel Stone gets the Rob Polinka Nico Harrison,
one line of communication, no bidding war, I'm trying to
do this in secret and for whatever reason, I'm not
negotiating with any other teams, then something can happen. But
it's just not gonna happen that way this offseason. So
whatever kind of Jedi mind tricking that Rob Polinka did,
if he could do that with the Phoenix Suns Brass,

(02:11:12):
I think something could happen. But other than that, I
just it doesn't seem likely to me.

Speaker 12 (02:11:16):
It's it's interesting that the MAVs weren't desperate, I don't
think to move Luca. They were compelled to, but they're
not in a terrible situation. Kevin Durant is one hundred
percent not a Sun next year. Everybody knows that, right.
They're desperate to move him. It's it's a totally different situation,
and that's why I think he is a has a
much bigger hand in the deal.

Speaker 1 (02:11:35):
He and his rich climb and his agent.

Speaker 12 (02:11:37):
They are going to orchestrate a deal that quite honestly
they probably could have at the break or at the
deadline and just weren't as involved at Phoenix's foolishness.

Speaker 1 (02:11:46):
That's Adam Wexler. I'm Ross Virreal. You're listening to the
Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Phone lines open at seven
one three two, one two five seven ninety seven one
three two one two five seven nine. Able to quick
break anything you guys want to get to. So got
to talk about the Stros. They're ten to two victory
over the White Sox Ryan Gusto with a quality start
Rockets and their possible trades. And we will have the

(02:12:09):
legal mind of Adam Weser breaking down the entire Jimmy
Wart scenario as we go along as well with you
until two o'clock The Matt Thomas Show with Ross one
nineteen in the PM. You are on Sports Talk seven
nineties Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas. He
is out in Vegas and his dream trip for his

(02:12:31):
young son. You know, when you graduate college, you go
to Vegas, you're really ready to let loose. You go
for Barry Manilow one night and then Carrot Top the next.
Hard to beat that. I mean, it's just unbelievable stories.
He'll have this on return. The stories that they will
tell about, I don't know, icy hot and unfunny comedians
should be amazing for Matt Thomas. He'll be back on Monday.

Speaker 12 (02:12:54):
How much money do you think was generated by the
plastic surgeons that worked on those to all those guys?

Speaker 1 (02:13:01):
Who do you?

Speaker 8 (02:13:01):
We know?

Speaker 1 (02:13:02):
Somebody mentioned that yesterday. Who's had more surgeries? Ah, that's
a that's close call. I'm gonna say, Becuz Manilow's in
his eighties, we'll give it to the guest and give
it to him. But clearly Cara Top's got some sort
of uh what do they call it? An addiction? Right,
you can get addicted to plastic surgery.

Speaker 12 (02:13:17):
I've heard about that, some people who've tried to look
like other people or dolls.

Speaker 1 (02:13:22):
Yes, he's gonna be featured on a TLC episode of
something Well will carrat Top. Anyways, we're back here on
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross Adam Wexer graciously hanging
out with me. You guys can get in if you'd
like it. Seven one, three, two, one two five seven ninety.
We'll have Brian mctagger coming up in the next segment,
so let's go ahead and talk a little bit of

(02:13:42):
astros step in the right direction for a number of people.
Of course, Ryan Gusta with the quality start, that was
nice to see. And I think we were here maybe
two weeks ago about Adam Wexler is Christian Walker turning
it around at the plate. Four runs batted in, three hits.
One was a check swing to right field, but hey,

(02:14:05):
counts all the same, but two really hard hit balls,
including one that went four and twelve feet.

Speaker 12 (02:14:10):
Yeah, some pointing to the last fifteen games for Christian
Walker seems like a reasonable endeavor when the numbers that's
a you know, one little over, you know, a fourth,
a little less than a fourth of a season, they're
reasonable to look at. You know, four homers, thirteen RBIs
and those fifteen games an ops of eight sixty six
still strikes out way, way, way too much, even mixed

(02:14:32):
one in last night during his best night of the year.
Swings and misses are I'm I felt like I knew
a little bit about Christian Walker before he arrived.

Speaker 1 (02:14:40):
I did not expect that.

Speaker 12 (02:14:41):
The amount of swings and misses at strikes is alarming now,
swinging it pitches out of the zone. Everybody falls to
that at some point, but he swings and misses. It's
so many pitches in the zone. Still, I'm amazed by it.
But I do respect what he's done over the last
you know, like I said, a little less than a
quarter of the season, fifteen games. Hopeful that that is
something of consequence. I feel like we've seen it before,

(02:15:04):
maybe and not quite as long of a stretch. It's
definitely mandatory for the Astros to really do anything great
this year that you know, there's only so many players
that can have down years. If he's gonna have a
year the rest of the year in the below seven
hundred ops, the only way they can manage through that
is if Yer Diaz doesn't or if jord On Alvarez
comes back and all of a sudden he's himself and

(02:15:25):
sitting at nine p fifty. You know, if Christian Walker
goes up, then maybe you can withstand Yan or Diaz
still being where he is. The swings were good, you know,
the barrels are good. He actually leads the team in
barrels per plate appearance for the season. That's Christian Walker, Yeah,
which is pretty remarkable. So some of the he hits
into bad luck. You have to give it a little bit,
and we've seen it. He hits a ton of line

(02:15:47):
drive outs to all fields, infielders, outfielders, guys that don't
have to move, guys that have to make great catches.

Speaker 1 (02:15:53):
It has been a part of his season.

Speaker 12 (02:15:55):
That's why some of those other you know, balls in play,
batting averages, balls and player and some other things. His
bat speed's almost unchanged, seventy five miles an hour the
last two years, seventy four point two before yesterday.

Speaker 1 (02:16:07):
It's slower, it is slower, but it's it's.

Speaker 12 (02:16:10):
Marginal, even though the you know, one to two miles
an hour can be considered something We were actually looking
at that yesterday on the show in comparison to the
player he replaced, and there's no comparison into where some
of the peripherals went down for the previous twenty million
dollar a year or thereabouts first basemen. Those were catastrophic
drops and hard hit percentage and pole percentage and all

(02:16:32):
sorts of things. It's not it's down across the board
for Christian Walker just last year to this year, no
question about it. But yeah, I've been very hesitant to
say I'm seeing the signs. I'm seeing it a turn
he's I really don't want to say that. It's because
for two months, if he does this, he's still only
gonna have a seven to twenty five ops.

Speaker 1 (02:16:53):
Well, I mean he can hit like that like Cooseel
Tuve did in that Seattle series where he had like
eight hits in one series. Pull that together. He can
really pull up his numbers. I mean he went from
two of eights two seventeen in one day and then
I was you were mentioning some of the numbers. Last year,
his XBA was two forty six. This year it's two
forty six. So hopefully there is still some average exivelocity

(02:17:16):
ninety one point two one. You don't get a chance
for joy much on this show.

Speaker 12 (02:17:20):
I'm gonna get shut down. But XBA, which is a
big one. A lot of people look at it's for
every single at bat. Oh there was a nine to
forty Oh, pia I expected batting average. The more I
look at it and the more we watch it, the
less I want to put credence in it because these
balls that go four hundred and twelve feet.

Speaker 1 (02:17:38):
Okay, so it's a thousand XBA, isn't it.

Speaker 12 (02:17:41):
No, not to say, because there's some wind that wasn't
there in the yea, and there's there's so many other things,
and I just it's it almost seems made up, almost.

Speaker 1 (02:17:51):
Almost, but it's not. It's not. It's real, but it
can't hurt you.

Speaker 12 (02:17:55):
So if his XBA is unchanged last year to this year,
are you calling it bad luck?

Speaker 1 (02:18:01):
I'm calling it some bad luck. Yes, Okay, I mean
his yeah, bad You mentioned the batting average balls and
play is a little bit down, not as far as
bad as Jiners. Yiners is way worse. I can't remember
I pulled it up earlier. But he was also over
his head last year and then probably a little bit.

Speaker 12 (02:18:14):
My favorite thing about Jiner this year is if I'm
watching the game with somebody, usually my daughter, and he
comes to the plate, I'll say, I guarantee you he's
swinging at this pitch. Yeah, and I'm pretty much right
here right now, the first pitch of the second pitch,
or the fourth pich, all of the pitches.

Speaker 1 (02:18:27):
That's just also kind of the nature of who he
is and hasn't changed, and I don't really expect it
to change, but hopefully some luck for him can change.
But overall for the Astros, who it seems like, I mean,
we talked about it this whole season long, it seems
like it's been bad luck with the injuries and with
the underperformances of the guys we just talked about. Well,
your four games up in a very bad American League West, and.

Speaker 12 (02:18:48):
The injuries that I guess at least have almost exclusively
been confined to the pitching staff. Clearly, Jordan Alvaz is
the worst one to get hurt, and he's been hurting
now for a significant period of time, during which the
Astros have been well over five hundred, which is outrageous,
but it is true. They were one game over five
hundred prior to the games that he's missed in succession,

(02:19:10):
and now they're donate them many more games over five.
But nobody else has really been hurting. You had a
game here, a game there. Walker's been out there all year.
Pain has played in every I mean, the most of
what you wanted. I know, Chaz and Zach Descenzo are
hurt currently, but I don't believe that's relevant to the discussion.

Speaker 1 (02:19:25):
No offense to the two Kenya was pulled from the game. Now,
it was a laugher at that point. He got an
ab he stayed in the game when he got hurt.
He was pulled in just something to monitor. He looked
like at the time, looked like he might have tweaked
his back a little bit. You're saying, I'm not saying anything.

Speaker 12 (02:19:40):
You're saying the double play machine that is from ber
Valdez is going to have to make do with Mauricio
Dubon at shortstop tonight.

Speaker 1 (02:19:47):
That's what you're forecasting. No, that's not what I'm forecasting.

Speaker 12 (02:19:50):
Yeah, Jeremy Payne is going to being off and starting
at shortstop. That's what your forecast.

Speaker 1 (02:19:54):
I'm not forecasting that either. I can't something. I'll have
it for you on the Astros on Deck show coming
up at six o'clock and it'll be of course, the
lineup will be announced before that. I'm sure it will
be discussed on the A team with Adam Wexer and
Adam Clinton, who is everybody in.

Speaker 12 (02:20:09):
Everybody's in today and all these things, Thomas, all these
things we get into with you know, obviously you need
to go out and beat teams that you you know,
can't normally compete with you. I still think the White
Sox are way better than people think they are this year,
and their record is so awful that it's hard to
believe that. But the run differential, they're starting pitching much
much better than people think. What they did yesterday was outstanding.

(02:20:32):
They haven't always done that. The pitcher they faced in
Game one, that's their best starter, and it looked like it.
He gave up a hit and worked around it, gave
up another hit, and he worked around it.

Speaker 1 (02:20:39):
All night long.

Speaker 12 (02:20:40):
They hit into three double plays. The Astros, while they
have the fourth best record in the American League, aren't
Clearly they're not invincible. Clearly they're not what I think
we'd call a great team. But as they continue to
win series, which is what they'll do when they win
today and it'll be three consecutive series, winning two out
of three, you're just getting further and further away from
five hundred. You're also getting further and further away from

(02:21:00):
the Angels and Mariners, and that's gonna put them in
the usual Astros ready for the playoff stratosphere.

Speaker 1 (02:21:06):
That's what we're hoping for. And they still have the
weakest schedule remaining as terms of opponents win percentage thirtieth
out of thirty.

Speaker 12 (02:21:15):
Am like enough of the games against the teams that
you can't stand losing to. I'm okay losing to the
better teams because they're good. Yeah, the Astros clearly have
fared well against the very good teams.

Speaker 1 (02:21:26):
So all the bad teams are gonna play, gonna beat them,
and then we're gonna be really frustrated or hopefully they
just run away with the American League West. That's that's
what I'm hoping for at this point. All right, quick
break here on the Amount of Thomas Show with Ross,
Adam Wexler hanging out. When we come back, conversation with
Brian mctagger, talking about many of the things we just discussed.
What is going on with your Houston Astros. We'll bring

(02:21:47):
that to you next here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Continuing along here on Sports Talk seven ninety, Bros, Viria,
Adam Wexer with you, Matt Thomas out. He'll be back
on Monday, and right now, I want to bring some
good conversation for you guys. Every Thursday, we were joined

(02:22:08):
by Brian McTaggart, but that was a long time ago,
so I wanted to get you guys some of this
great conversation. You can find it in full. Isn't the
full conversation, but you can find it at Sports Talk
seven ninety dot com in the podcast page. Brian McTaggart
of MLB dot com and astros dot Com covering the
Astros like Nobody's Business. Here's what he had to say
about a number of Astros topics, starting off with Christian

(02:22:31):
Walker and ianer Diaz and they're good nights. It feels
like we've said it before. Are these guys back in business?
Here's what Brian McTaggart had to say.

Speaker 2 (02:22:39):
Yeah, you're right.

Speaker 7 (02:22:40):
I mean this happens like once every week where one
of these guys has a good game or hits the
ball hard. You're like, okay, maybe this is it. But
you know Yonner hit a couple of balls hard the
night before as well. You know, Walker really crushed his homer.
I think it was almost one of waid off the
bat and then I think one of the things in
Joe spotted brought this up to his third hit was

(02:23:01):
a little bloop single to the right field, and he
had just been not getting those. He'd really been not
getting the brakes on balls that weren't hit hard, or
pop ups or things like that. So I think for
him that was probably as encouraging as the home run, Like, hey,
I'm finally starting to get some breaks here in the
three hit game. But yeah, if you're the Astors, you
can only hope it's you know, this is the one

(02:23:23):
they turn it around and start building on, because man,
if you get those two guys going, you know, in
the five six spots of the order where wherever they're at,
and you get Jordan back healthy and playing like Jorda on,
then you got a real chance to run away with
the division.

Speaker 2 (02:23:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:23:36):
On Jiner Diaz, I was kind of a little surprised
just looking it up earlier today. X his his batting
average two thirty nine, but his xba's two eighty one,
and he's had pretty bad luck with batted balls. So
I think I'm feeling confident that if he can keep
this up here, he'll be he'll be looking better. Yeah,
I believe that.

Speaker 7 (02:23:54):
I mean, he drew a four pitch walk yesterday too,
which was, you know, pretty strange as well. But yeah,
I mean you can tell that he's hit some balls
hard at people, and I know fans don't like hearing that.
I mean, either get a hit or you don't, or
you drive the ball over the fence or you don't.
But it's not like Jahiter's hitting one ninety. I mean
he's probably hitting like two forty. I'm guessing his ops

(02:24:15):
is around seven hundred.

Speaker 2 (02:24:16):
I'm not sure. So it's not like he's he's been terrible.

Speaker 7 (02:24:18):
It's certainly below I think what everybody expected of him,
but certainly swinging the bat well lately.

Speaker 1 (02:24:24):
Brian mctagger continuing with us here on a Sports Talk
seven ninety, Jeremy Pane a couple of hits again, hitting
three twenty two and just keeps on doing it. Should
be an All star at the short stop position. What
do you think is the biggest reason for his breakout,
whether it be changing approach or maturity or I mean
just a little bit of luck, or what do you

(02:24:46):
think is happening with Jeremy Penia that's leading to this.

Speaker 7 (02:24:50):
Well, I think you hit on the two biggest things,
I mean maturity. This is his fourth year now, and
you know he came up and had a pretty good
rookie year and then we all know what he did
in the playoffs, and he I had similar years the
next two years. You know, a couple of years ago
that the power went away in the second half. So
he came to camp last year in twenty four and
changed his stance. Seemed to work pretty well for him.

(02:25:10):
But I think he made have you know, he kind
of worked on that a little bit more and just
tried to just try to refine his stance and his
approach to where he could see the ball better, and
that's worked out for him. I think once he starts
getting confidence, then he realizes that, hey, this is the
player that I know I can be. But you know,
props to him, because you know, he's really worked hard
the last couple of years to try to get to

(02:25:31):
that next level, and it looks like he's gonna be there.
I mean, certainly seems like him Bobby Witt or Jacob
Wilson of the A's or probably your three best shortstops
in the American League at this point. So I don't
know if they'll take three short stops. I mean, I'm
guessing they probably will, but certainly Peyon deserves a shot
to be in the All Star Game, and who knows,
maybe he starts, maybe he gets enough fan votes to start,

(02:25:52):
and know the Royals vote pretty well.

Speaker 2 (02:25:54):
Not sure.

Speaker 7 (02:25:55):
It'll be interesting to see what kind of voting support
A's players get, Not that they have that many all
start caliber players, but just I mean is are people
in Sacramento going to rush and and and punch punch
the ballots online?

Speaker 2 (02:26:06):
Who knows? But yeah, Penya certainly deserves to be in
the All Star Game, I'd say.

Speaker 1 (02:26:09):
Continuing with Brian McTaggart astros dot com here on Sports
Talk seven ninety a couple of hits for jose Al
Tuove yesterday, where are you at on him? In general?
To me, it's kind of harder to get a beat
on him rather than others, like Walker has been bad,
Pinya has been good. It's been a little bit of
up and down with L two A. And you factor
in the left field stuff, the fact that he is

(02:26:30):
getting older. What are what are do you? What are
your expectations? I should say for him going forward?

Speaker 7 (02:26:38):
Yeah, you know, he's hit the ball a lot better
here the last couple of weeks. I know that he
was trying to hit the ball in the air.

Speaker 1 (02:26:45):
Moar.

Speaker 2 (02:26:46):
You know, he had.

Speaker 7 (02:26:46):
He had a pretty prolonged slump there for a couple
of weeks, I think in May, and he came out
of it, and one of the things he said was
that he just he was needing to hit the ball
in the air more. He was he was hitting the
ball on the ground too much. And once he started
driving the ball a bit more, you know, the home
runs started to come back again. But I'm just never

(02:27:07):
gonna count him out with age. I mean, he still
gets down the line when he when he can an
elite you know, thirty feet per second. You know, he
can still put the bat on the ball and hit it,
you know, as far as almost anybody. Defensively, he has
played more second lately, but I think some of that
in the last week or so has been because they
have Jacob Melton, and I think Spota wants to put

(02:27:28):
him in the outfield to get a longer look at him.
Also gives him that other left handed bat in the lineup.
But you know, he's still gonna play left field. So
it's been an interesting season for Jose, But overall, his
numbers are probably a little below where I would expect
they would be, but it wouldn't surprise me if at
the end of the year he's put up a season,
you know, similar than that he had last year. So

(02:27:50):
at some point there's gonna be a big decline coming coming.
And you know, I just really haven't seen it seen
it yet. I mean I still think I still think,
you know, you feel good about him when he's hitting
near the top of that lineup.

Speaker 1 (02:28:02):
Trade deadline seven weeks from today. Of course, we talked
about the cushion right now in the American League West
and how bad the division is. That Does that affect
Dana Brown's thinking at all? Or do you think He's
more focused on trying to win a pennant? And I mean,
do you do you still think they will be in
the market for a bat and an arm come deadline time? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:28:24):
I do. I mean, I don't think where they're at
in the standings is going to have much effect.

Speaker 7 (02:28:27):
I mean, they want to get better, and they have,
you know, a couple of glaring era a couple a
couple of glaring areas where they can get better starting pitching,
of course. I mean there's a lot of teams that
need starting pitching so that you know, that's that's not
a shock there, and it's not like they're going to
go out and I think get you know, Justin Berlander
in twenty eighteen or anybody like that. I mean, they

(02:28:48):
need a guy that they can plug in the rotation,
just give them a little bit more depth, and they
could use a left handed bat. I mean, you know,
maybe Melton ends up being that guy and they you know,
they feel comfortable riding with him, but maybe another guy
they can put but they can play. You know, maybe
some second base fell two days in the left field
because you know, I'm not sure you know, Brendan Rodgers
is gonna be long term plans on this team. But yeah,

(02:29:11):
I think if you have a four game lead, you
want a ten game lead. You have a ten game lead,
you want a fifteen game lead. And then you know,
you think, you know, you get Alvarez back, and you
get Eric Getty back, and who knows, maybe you see
you back at the end of the year and and
now you're in really good shape. But you know, if
everyone's gonna want starting pitching, it's gonna be interesting to see,
you know, who makes the first trade, because then we'll
start to see these things start flying off the board.

Speaker 1 (02:29:33):
There you go. Brian McTaggart MLB dot com talking some
Astros earlier today on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
You can find the full conversation sports Talk seven ninety
dot com. Gotta go ahead and take a break here
on the show. Adam Wexer still here, Ros Virial steal
with you and we'll talk a little bit more Astros

(02:29:53):
or whatever comes into mind as well. Coming up at
two o'clock it will be of course the A Team
with Adam Clanton at Adam Weser. I'll be with you
after that from the ballpark for the Astros on Deck
show as they take on the White Sox in another
rubber game. It feels like every three game series all
season long, the Astros have been in a rubber game

(02:30:13):
because it's been a lot of wins and losses. But
you pile it all up there, thirty seven and thirty
four games ahead of the Mariners in the American League West,
and we'll talk about them when we come back, and
you can get in quickly if you'd like. A few
minutes left, no believe it or not. With Matt Thomas
out seven to one, three two one two five seven ninety.
Is your phone number there? Seven to one three two
one two five seven ninety Back in a minute on

(02:30:35):
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross Don't go anywhere. Thanks, Mike,
appreciate you. One of my favorite running things about this
show is that Matt has been asking for that to
be removed from the system.

Speaker 2 (02:30:48):
For like eight years.

Speaker 1 (02:30:50):
Okay, maybe not eight years. Let's see, I guess four
years at this point, four to five years, and it
just hasn't been. It's still in there and it still
runs and it still makes me chuckle. All right. Anyways,
last segment of The Matt to Show with Ross Ross
Viriale with you, Matt Thomas out until Monday. Adam Wexer
hanging out conversation from Brian McTaggart in the last segment,

(02:31:12):
and you know what, I'm going to ask you a
question that I asked Brian, and it's about Josel two
of twenty three hundred hits, now second among active players,
behind only Freddie Freeman, but seven hundred away from getting
three thousand. Where are you at on him? I'm not
going to talk about three thousand, which we can talk

(02:31:33):
about in a second, but as far as the expectation level,
he had to decline a little bit last year. Two
years ago he was still one of the best and
most productive hitters on the planet. Has gone more to
swinging for power and hitting home runs rather than being
the contact hit king, which he was batting titleist earlier
on his career. But I would say with the two

(02:31:54):
hits last night, especially declining gracefully, but where do you
peg him? We know we're we peg yord On, We
know where we want Christian Walker, we know where we
want some other guys.

Speaker 12 (02:32:04):
Where are we putting Al Tuve for twenty twenty five
and five only? Yeah, I think he's probably gonna be
about what he is. I think maybe the ops ends
in the mid seven hundreds, So that would mean he's
going to have a better last three months than first
three months, but not anything overwhelming, Probably twice as many
homers as he has now somewhere between eighteen and twenty,

(02:32:26):
so a drop off for sure. I think that's at
this point it seems very obvious because you mentioned two
years ago in twenty twenty three, he just had finished
a second consecutive unbelievably productive offensive season at age thirty
four or at age thirty three. He was awesome both
of those two years. Last year there's an undeniable drop off.
Still a very good player. You throw a seven ninety

(02:32:48):
oh ps one twenty four right number, that's great, that's awesome.
I'd love to have that guy on my lineup every
single day at second base. There's another drop off this year,
and I think we've played enough baseball this year to
probably assume it's it's real and it's not. He just
needs to get going. So I think he's he is
probably at least for this year, probably in that range.

(02:33:10):
And I don't think we're headed for another big drop
off again next year as the contract continues, but it'll
it'll be not the same guy you're used to. This
is the guy you're probably gonna.

Speaker 2 (02:33:20):
Need to get used to it.

Speaker 1 (02:33:21):
I don't want to hear you say that. It's hard
to disagree, but uh ops plus for those who are No.
One hundred is average one sixty one one fifty one
one twenty four one oh one.

Speaker 12 (02:33:31):
That's the last four years, so last four full seasons. Again,
one of them was the partially missseason because it's broken hand.
He had six hundred and twenty two hits. Do you
have an oblique injury that season two?

Speaker 1 (02:33:42):
Or is that some other year?

Speaker 12 (02:33:43):
Uh, it might have been. Whatever it was, it was
not a long stay away from the lineup. So he
had six hundred and twenty two hits and in four
seasons that is what he has after this contract, and
he had over six hundred hits. Whatever he finishes to
this year, if he's a healthy player, I think there's
a really good chance he's definitely he's going to get
to that number of three thousand. And he's actually had

(02:34:04):
one other full season in his career that matches this
year's ops plus his very first full season as a
major leaguer six hundred and thirty played appearances. At year
he had one hundred and sixty seven hits. So if
he plays just around average baseball offensively for the remainder
of his contract, one hundred and sixty five hits for

(02:34:24):
four more years, he's going to be right. He should
get that as the during the final year of his contract.

Speaker 1 (02:34:30):
And imagine from the organization he will get the grace
and love as an all time great astro to be
put out in the lineup every day. If he's just
average and not good in the field.

Speaker 12 (02:34:41):
The Astros, we talk about why they've made all these
other moves with players not getting much of a chance,
and how come you don't play him every day? He's
one of your top young players, and well, because they're
trying to win if they're still trying to win, and
they should be trying to win if they're a division
title caliber team through the final four years of his contract,
all of which you are on. Alvarez is under contract
for three, of which Josh Hater is under contract for

(02:35:04):
Hunter Brown's going to be here for Like, they should
still be playing to win. How do you not play
him every day though, because you're clearly trying to get
him there.

Speaker 1 (02:35:12):
You're trying to get him there. But it's funny because
I think it was yet did the Astros put this
out or somebody. It's been talked about about the Baseball
References war metric, which is different than some others WARS
metrics where Jeremy Payne is second best player in baseball,
b WAR is the greatest. Love this metric. Well, if
you look at b WAR, the worst Astro is jose

(02:35:35):
L Twove, tied with Christian Walker. He's at a minus
point six as in he has been worse than a
replacement level player according to that same metric that has
Jeremy Payne to the second best player in baseball, and
it includes everything offense defense. Yes, but I think I
would have to look at a baseball's they use. I
think more they don't use as much like zone metrics

(02:35:58):
and stuff like that as fans and other outlets do,
and baseball perspectives. I think so I haven't looked at
where Joseel Tuovy. I'm scared to look where Joseel Tuve
would be as far as defense baseball perspectives were.

Speaker 12 (02:36:10):
He's been as limited a part of the twenty twenty
five Astros as possible. That's why he's playing left field.
They have pitchers that don't give up a lot of
fly balls, especially with Renel Blanco gone or even hits
out to left field, and he doesn't get very many plays,
so they're trying to do their best. In year one
of the five year extension, defensively played a lot more

(02:36:31):
second base recently. Obviously, the Alvarez absence is among the
reasons why they can make a better defensive outfield, and
he can still be in the lineup. Take their chances
at what he can and can't do at second base. Heck,
they double play they turned last night against Luis Robert.
Peana flipped it to Altuve, who hopped off second base
to make the throw. I think he's trying to avoid
the runner, but it was. They should have beaten it,

(02:36:53):
had Luis Robert out by a mile and it they
just barely got him.

Speaker 1 (02:36:58):
Yeah, I was just looking up the Fangrafts war is better.
They have him at a half win above replacement, so
that's something at least that's a little bit better than
the Baseball Reference war, which has I was a little
surprised just I mean, I was just looking it up
just now to see that they have him as basically
the worst player on the team, along with Christian Walker

(02:37:20):
and Jordan How about this for your worst the worst
Houston Astros according to Baseball Office, al Tuo, Vate, Walker,
and Alvarez. I mean Alvarez's number stink. We can't deny that, No,
we can't. I mean he's a designated hitter. When you're
designated hitter doesn't hit, He's not providing a whole lot
of value.

Speaker 12 (02:37:38):
How do you like getting this extra bat in your
lineup every day, Joe. I mean that the idea is
to put a good one in there, and Jordan strikes
you is a good choice. Oh yeah, thats a good
choice this year normally.

Speaker 1 (02:37:49):
So hopefully he'll come back and he'll turn things around.
But yeah, that's just I mean one of the kind
of storylines I always say, I like kind of keeping
and seeing how things play out because we love being
on these talk shows. We talked for four hours a day.
If you have someone who is gracious and giving, they'll
come on for five hours a day, which I appreciate,

(02:38:09):
and we talk what's this going to be? Like, what's
this gonna happen? But at some point the talking stops
and then they go in between the lines and we'll see.
So that's that's I am just interested for somebody like
al tu A, who we love all time, great astro.
He's getting a statue at dyke In Park. I don't
know where they're putting it. Well, doesn't it need to
go where Bigio and Bagwell are in that they got

(02:38:31):
a second basement there where they gonna put him at
third Well, they don't have to make an infield.

Speaker 12 (02:38:35):
Even though those two guys kind of I know they
can put a wallet, they can put a manual scoreboard
out there and put oh jose right in front of
I think.

Speaker 1 (02:38:42):
The jose Al twove. I think the statue of him
should be him shaking his finger and pointing to his
jersey that he doesn't want ripped off, just to make
Yankees fans upset. If not, what else? What is the
most iconic? Will you have a piece of confetti floating
down right above his shoulder, yes, of course, and then
authentication sticker on his bat for jam boy can come
and look at it, and well, Countess MILLIENI okay.

Speaker 12 (02:39:05):
So if it's not going in the plaza, if he's
not part of the infield, where are you putting?

Speaker 1 (02:39:10):
Are you putting? Between the rings? Would be good, though,
I mean he was somewhere near those dik In Park
clock even though he was terrible in the twenty twenty
playoffs twenty twenty two playoffs, we're gonna talk about that.
But anyways, inside, would it be his dancing to the
Backstreet poise?

Speaker 12 (02:39:27):
No?

Speaker 1 (02:39:27):
I think would be what would be the jose Al two?
A statue standing in the box waiting for a rollis
Chapman to serve one out getting thrown out on the
base pass so many flamming his helmet into the ground
as he's getting thrown out of the bases again.

Speaker 12 (02:39:41):
Man, he's just standing there. He let the first baseman
run him down.

Speaker 1 (02:39:44):
That should be it. Yeah, him standing there with his
hands on his hips rather than getting plays.

Speaker 12 (02:39:49):
Don't you remember when he scored from from ye first
on Correa's double when they threw the second against the Yankees.

Speaker 1 (02:39:55):
Generally, the the Josel two ve curse is also the
jose al To a blessing that we don't You're right,
we don't talk about it as much. He gets a
lot of first and third, second home, being aggressive and
running on pass balls and stuff like that, where when
he gets thrown out, we're like, what a bonehead, And
then when he makes a play, Wow, what a gamer
and gamer. Yeah, that's that's basically the jose al To
the experience. For sure, we'll have to put that to thought.

(02:40:18):
We had four years to make a decision. Can we
do it or do they unveil the statue while he's
active knowing that.

Speaker 12 (02:40:25):
Is there a lot of precedent for that? I guess no,
there isn't. The Tom Brady statue is just a couple
of months away of being unveiled.

Speaker 1 (02:40:31):
They might wait for copper prices to go down.

Speaker 8 (02:40:33):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:40:34):
We'll see how Jim Cray wants to play that. I
don't know. Just don't get the guy that did Dwayne
Wade's statue. That's all mass sounds like idea. All right, Well,
on that note, that's gonna do it for the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas, wex appreciate you
hanging out. You got it, Thank you very much. Dan
Matthews hung out in the first hour. I appreciate him.
Thanks to Brian mctagger for joining. Thanks to all of

(02:40:56):
you listened extra special. Thanks to those you called and
tweeted so certainly couldn't get around those solo hours without you.
I appreciate you. And Jonathan Allen producing rip to his
wisdom tooth. He's getting that one out tomorrow. He'll be
out tomorrow, so it'll be just me. But that's okay,
all right. The coming up now, it is Adam Weser,
it is Adam Clinton. They call themselves the A Team.

(02:41:16):
They're gonna bring you great coverage talking all things Houston
sports from two to six, Don't go Anywhere. They're coming
up next here on Sports Talk seven nine,