What's Happening With Alex Bregman? Stefon Diggs's Possible Future In H-Town, Brian Bogusevic IN-STUDIO

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Lunchtimers, this is the Matt Thomas Show, and oh one.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
In the am, you're on Sports Talk seven. Euty, what's
happening brunch timers, Hello, and welcome into a Tuesday edition
of the program. It is The Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
Without Matt Thomas, he continues to be on vacation, and
today we have a very very special guest taking time
out of his busy schedule for US, Brian boga Sevic

(00:30):
of not AT and T sports Net. I was just
about to say Space City Home Network pre and post
games coverage. He was a regular guest here on Sports
Talk seven. Honey, I'm hoping we can keep him as
a regular guest. Officially, I'm hoping we can poach him
and keep him on the Matt Thomas Show around the
teenth same time slot. But Brian, thanks for hanging out.
I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
This is a this is a good time of year.
This is when I usually start getting the edge a
little bit. It's been a while, Okay, getting the itch
of the talk. Okay, so we're gonna start bothering you.
We're gona have your luck on every week or something.
It's not like there's any baseball to talk about or
anything happening in Houston right now. I have nothing on
the field. There's plenty to talk about. If you want
to talk about contracts and trades. Yes, the hot stove
heating up, we'll get to that with Brian. He will
be with us until noon. We'll have some gut feelings

(01:09):
coming up. I'll explain that to you. It's very easy.
You have a gut feeling, you say it. That's coming
up at eleven o'clock. We'll have Adam Wesler at one o'clock.
We got news at noon. We got all kinds of
stuff coming up here on the show. We also have
you if you want to get in at seven one
three two one two five seven ninety. Is the phone
number seven one three two one two five seven ninety

(01:30):
to get in that way. So we're gonna be talking
a ton of stuff, but obviously we're gonna start.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Off talking baseball. But I just want to ask you,
you know what, I don't really know you that well, Brian,
so I'm gonna get to know you a little bit
on the air. How did Houston become home for you
after your career? Well kind of not really by choice.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
I got drafted by the Astro, so I started obviously
spent a lot of my early career here and around
the city and with the organization. But I also am
married to a girl who's from Houston. My wife and
I met in college. She's from Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Okay, at two lane and I don't want to say
tulane or anything. I want to say tu lane is correct, correct,
tu lane, tu lane. Yeah, So Houston just it just
kind of happened. That was never really the planned.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
But I spent all my off seasons here while I
was playing, and by the time my playing career was over,
it was just home.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
And now you know, I wouldn't want to leave. Now
you're here and you've been around on well it was
at and T sports and at the time since twenty nineteen,
I believe.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, So my last year playing was seventeen, twenty eighteen.
I did nothing at all that involved the ball. Was
that like, uh, strange but nice, nice, but it got
boring there. There are very few people who walk away
from their sport and are just completely done with it.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Right. It might be the right time.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
You might see the writing on the wall and everything,
but but you still have that urge to play. You
still feel like you should, so not being there, like
spring training started and that wasn't there. I was like, man,
what is going on? Why are they playing baseball?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
But uh, yeah, that has to be in you, right,
I mean, to make it to the major league level
like you did, I mean you have to have that
kind of passion, that kind of innate feeling of the baseball.
Is that that much of your life intertwined?

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Well, absolutely, and just being a creature of habit in
the cycle of your life and how your year progresses
once you get past the holidays and you start ramping
up and all of a sudden it's January February. To
not be getting ready for a season was just a
really weird thing.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, all right, Well, so you ended up in the
biz and now you're here and we're talking astros and well,
as Sean Salisbury was saying, when we're handing off the shows,
you got any eligibility left? How do you feel there's
some openings in the outfield for the Astros if you're looking,
if you're ready.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Yeah, there are, but not any that I could fill properly.
So what was your first reaction first hearing about Kyle
Tucker possibly being traded.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
There was the stories. I think it was what channel
Rome Ken Rosenthal talking about it with the Cubs and
the possible pieces, and then it happened. Was it at
all a surprise to you that those conversations started and
then heated up as quick as they did when the
trade got made, or where you were like, yeah, this
is kind of something I saw coming.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
Well.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
I think when it's by the time it is all
said and done and you can lay out all the
mechanics of it and all the pieces that came back,
it starts to make sense. But as it was happening
in real time, it was one of those things where
as a former player, you see your team in a
very short term window.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
You don't see very much past.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
This season, and there's no doubt that having Kyle Tucker
on your team for this given season gives you a
better chance to win. But when you start looking at
the state of the organization and payroll things and farm
system rankings and everything and trying to build for a longer,
big term picture, which is what a front office does,
it does start to make sense. And the fact that

(04:51):
it progressed so quickly, you know when you hear those
first rumblings and Fromber might be available, Kyle Tucker might
be available. You just say, Okay, that's just the GM meetings,
that's just guys having conversations. That's just due diligence. And
then all of a sudden, once there's a team, another
team attached to it, then it's like, oh boy, this
might be real. And then all of a sudden, a
couple of days later, boom pops up.

Speaker 5 (05:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
That's what it kind of felt like to me, is
once once I saw the article, I think, like I said,
it was Channel of Rome and they're mentioning the possible
pieces coming back, and Essek Paratus and and Cam Smith
and et cetera. I think it was. I don't remember
if somebody else as well. I was like, okay, this
is That's when it kind of felt imminent in a way.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah, get you get a team attached to it, you
start getting names put out there, because I mean, these
guys who are reporting on trade rumors, they're not just
making things up. They're not talking in theory. There are
some of them are well, the good ones are not right.
And when you know so, they're hearing that from somebody
and that means that names are being exchanged on by

(05:49):
the two sides, and when that's happening, that means the thing,
the thing is starting to get real.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, I feel like, at least to me for a
one year, not necessarily rental if you would call it rental,
is more at the trade deadline, and I guess in
the last day. But for what the Astros got back,
obviously hurts not to have Kyle Tucker, but it seems
like the writing was on the wall with the Astros
and Dana Brown and Jim Crane. He wasn't going to
be back on a major deal. The Wan Soto deal,
I mean's just astronomical. I feel like they got a

(06:16):
pretty good return. What is your opinion on what they
got back now? I initially I like it.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Time will tell, Right when you're talking about being on
the prospect side of the trade, the only way to
determine whether or not it was successful is when you're
three four years out, and really the camp Smith piece
of it is going to determine whether it is a
good deal or a great deal. And eastoc Parides is
a guy that the Astros have liked. He was in

(06:43):
you know, rumors to be attached to the Astros at
the trade deadline last year.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Hunter was a nesky.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
He's got a good arm, he's got big time stuff,
the kind of guy that profiles as somebody that you know,
maybe the Astros can get the most out of. But
the camp Smith piece of it is going to determine
if you got a future star and another building block
type of player, or if you just kind of got
something back instead of losing a guy in free agency.

Speaker 6 (07:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
That's the thing about too, about Hayden w was Aneski
coming back, is we kind of feel like whatever pitcher
the Astros sign, you almost he can have like an
ERA of six from the Colombian League and we'd be like, yeah,
maybe the Astros can turn this guy around. Maybe they
see something like it's almost in Astros we trust, especially
when it comes to pitching, they can just turn I

(07:32):
mean anything into goal. You're absolutely right.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
And the way that I've learned to look at pitchers
coming into the Astros organization isn't to look at numbers
because they're often irrelevant. What it is is you look
for attributes. You look for big velocity, or you look
for a breaking ball with a ton of spin, or
you look for one pitch that has good peripheral numbers

(07:55):
that maybe wasn't used as highly as some of the
other pitches, because these are the things that they find
and tinker with, and Kikuchi was a great example of it.
Let's just start throwing more off speed pitches and all
of a sudden you've got a completely different pitcher.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
So the firestorm, when you say Kakuchi was was came
over here and everybody looking at era Er Like the
last thing the Astros and they're pitching people are looking
at is Eer when when a pitcher comes over.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, as you mentioned that, that was the perfect example.
That was a guy who had underperformed his stuff, and
the Astros get the most out of guys with good stuff.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
What do you think about esok Paratus.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
You know, if you look at his numbers, they are
strikingly similar to Alex Bregman's numbers. Now he doesn't have
to be a one for one replacement for Alex Bregman.
He can slide over to first base if that deal
gets done. So I like that addition there. And there's
a reason that they were looking at him at the
trade deadline last year. There's a reason that they were

(08:53):
looking at him when they're searching for trade partners.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
It's because they like what he brings.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
He's a good, good plate discipline, he hits for a
little bit of average. He's got some power that you know,
knocked on wood could play a little bit better in
home games.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
In the Crawford boxes. Let's go.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
But we've seen that before, right That was that was
a part of the Trey Mancini deal was this guy
hits a lot of balls in the air and the
pull side, and it never never Materializ can't just count
on that. But it is a guy who you think
can overperform what he's done in the past. I mean,
the guy wasn't All Star in the past, so it's
not like he's this undervalued player and you've got a

(09:29):
couple of years of team control with him.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah, that's when I think, especially under Jim Crane, it
seems to be the philosophy as I keep bringing up
when it comes to Garrett Cole getting signed away and
now Alex Bregman likely being signed away, Kyle Tucker was
going to be signed away to where you look at
these big deals that get signed, these players can only
live up to those deals, Like Juan Soto can live

(09:53):
up to making fifty million dollars a year, but he's
not going to exceed that. He can only underperform or
live up to it. That's what I think the Astros
and Jim Crane kind of do is try to do,
is they kind of find people who will outperform their contracts. Well,
I'll perform their value at the bottom line of the
other payroll.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
They're looking for excess value in anything they do. That's
why they like young players who are still playing on
the minimum. That's why they like to sign players to
deals early in their career that our teams got.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
One can explain twenty six million I think the last
three years of his deal or something like that.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Look at that contract compared to some of these free
agent contracts.

Speaker 2 (10:30):
That about that.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
But like you said, when when you're paying the top
of the market, best case scenario is you get a
fair deal, they're going to be the excess. And if
you want to put together a full team that is
able to compete year in, year out and have the
depth that you need to do that, you can't be
paying a ton of players at the top of the
market unless you just want to blow through and have

(10:51):
a three four five hundred million.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Dollars payroll, well, which it seems like Jim Crane does
not want to do. All right, we got a lot
to discuss. We are going to take a quick break
here on the mattomic Show with Ross. It is without
Matt Thomas. Brian Bogosevic is here. We're gonna take your calls.
You want to talk some strokes, we can do that.
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety is
the phone number anything you want to get to. Seven
one three two one two five seven ninety. Much to

(11:14):
discuss with Brian and you as we go along. He'll
be with us until noon. We got got feelings coming
up at eleven o'clock. Here on Sports Talk.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Seven ninety, Matt Thomas, Ross Viel It's the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Not following instructions, Connor, come on, man, what did I
tell you to do with Matt out? What did I
tell you doing scrooges out this week? I didn't know
you wanted the whole week? Yeah, baby, come on, tis
the season before we get Until we get our season
desists from Sunday ninety nine point one for playing too
much Christmas music every break? Let's go, how do you

(12:01):
feel about Christmas music? Brian bogus Evich.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
With us here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross's
I'm a fan of Christmas music. I love it, but
small doses, small doses.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Okay, well let's see we're on the seventeenth that where
it's times. Okay, okay, okay, all right, we're good. Do
you don't want to now? I think, Sonny, they flip over.
I believe September first is when they no, I'm just kidding.
Uh they Yeah, here we go. Gets the people going, Now,
how do you Also, while we're here, how do you
feel about Wham? Again? Small doses? You know what? I'm

(12:33):
with you on both. I used to hate this song
and now I feel like it's a jam. Gets some
people going. This comes in on the mall, or at
the mall, or at the grocery store.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
It's a toe tapper, and whoever he's singing about is
just a terrible person.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
That's what it sounds like. I'm somebody right after Christmas. Also,
it sounds like he could be being dramatic. I'm not sure.
You never know, you don't know. George Michael.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
All right, anyways, walk come back.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
To the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Matt Thomas is
al Brian Bogasvic graciously has chosen to hang out with
us until noon. You can get in if you'd like.
It's seven to one three two one two five seven ninety.
If you have any request for Connor along the way,
just let him know. He'll play whatever you want. We're
going into full Christmas music mode here because I'm off
Thursday and Friday. Matt only likes to play Christmas music

(13:21):
on Christmas Eve and that's it. Oh no, I'm after Thanksgiving.
It's a fair game in my house.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
My daughter who's eight, did try to start shortly after
they went back to school this summer.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
It was like the beginning of September August. So we're
back in school. It's Christmas times. Back to go. Mean, hey,
when you're eight years old, you're always counting down the
day it's a Christmas day. That's just that's just how
you roll. All right, seven one three two one two
five seven ninety. The phone number if you'd like to
get in, obviously with a professional baseball player in the fold,
we're talking some baseball here talking some about the Kyle

(13:55):
Tucker deal that was made, and then it just begs
the question where do you go from here? What mode
are the Astros in? Because I felt like, this was
my feeling before the deal got made, that if Bregman
is going to get signed away, which still hasn't happened
but still seems extremely likely likely, then I'm like, you
know what, maybe trade away Tucker and fromber you get

(14:17):
a little bit, you try to get some prospects back
that are maybe in a couple of years they're going
to be ready kind of a soft reset, a retooling,
not necessarily a rebuild, and then maybe be ready to
contend in a couple of years. But if they're going
to sign Anthony Santander, which has been floated, if they're
going to trade for Nolan Arnatto, it seems like Jim
Crane is ready to try to keep this train rolling,

(14:39):
which is what he said would always happen.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Well, I think the situation that the Astros are in
right now is they're trying to do both. They're trying
to play the long game while also continuing to try
to compete on a year and year out basis. And
what has become obvious is that they recognize that the
farm system needs to be addressed, and after years of

(15:01):
you know, losing out on draft picks, of being buyers
at the trade deadline and trading away prospects, they need
to stockpile that farm system, particularly at the high minor leagues,
because there's two ways that you compete over a long
period of time. You either restock with young, cheap talent
or you go out on the market and you buy talent.

(15:22):
And they've shown that they are not going to go
out there and bring in a ton of these high contract,
high salary type of players, so you've got to restock
from within, and it's just not there at this point.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, they're in a tough spot because you can't if
you're Jim Currane feasibly, even though the fans are going
to want it, you can't spend like the Dodgers and
the Yankees. You can't pay everyone. But also both of
those teams have top ten organizations in terms of farm systems,
So you're behind the eight ball in both ways.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
No, absolutely, and everybody knows the path to success that
the Astros want to take, and they want to have
long term they want to be competitive long term, but
they want to do so within the confines of reasonable salary.
And they've done it for so many years on having
these waves of talent come through when you know, it
started with guys like Carlos Carre and George Springer and

(16:15):
then then Alex Bragman, and then we saw all a sudden,
this wave of young pitching come in, which was a
little bit unforeseen but gave them that second boost to
have that second iteration of this competitive organization. But now
it's got to be done a different way. They don't
have the top tier draft picks. You know, they're not
picking first second overall every year like they were ten

(16:38):
twelve years ago. So these prospects have to come from somewhere.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah, and the prospects did come from the Kyle Tucker deal,
But then on the flip side with the Arnado I'm
just trying to figure out what's going on, I guess,
And as you said, it seems like they're trying to
do both, and I guess that's where we're going with this.
But if Nolan Arnatta were to come here, that means
you were trading away something. And also if the second
piece of that, which was was a channel of Rome
that said that they would have or whoever floating out

(17:03):
that if Arnado came to the Astros, they would have
the Cardinals pay some of the salary down. Now, if
that's happening, they're probably gonna want even more or better
crop of prospects on the way back.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
Absolutely, and the Aeronaudo situation is complicated. He was traded
from Colorado to Saint Louis. Colorado is already paying a
portion of his salary. Saint Louis a trickle down effect,
so you could end up getting a guy at a
number that is more palatable. But it just speaks to
the sort of duality of where the Astros are at.

(17:35):
They make the Kyle Tucker move, which is more of
a long term play, But when you have Jose al
Twove currently on the roster, when you have Jordan Alvarez
currently on the roster Fromber one year away from free agency,
they are still in when now compete now, So you
have to try to do both, and it's a it's

(17:55):
a tough situation that Dana Brown is in. But I'm
sure that when he was given this job, in his
meetings with Jim Crane that was what he has been
tasked with.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure he probably said, yeah, I
could do that. You know, when you're in you're the interview,
you can tell him you can do everything.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
I'll sell you the world win World Series and build
a farm system.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
Of course I can. I got no problem, man, and
we'll be good in five years. I can do that,
that's no problem. I could definitely see Dana Brown saying that.
But I mean he's been it's a tough task, but
he's been given in the first place. In the first place,
it was we've got no farm system, and now we
need you to make deadline deals to improve the team,
which he did, trading away unfortunately some key pieces for
Justin Verlander, which I contend still right move at the time,

(18:36):
almost got them to a World Series. You don't know,
you can never guarantee a World Series. Win one freaking
home game against the Rangers, please, can you win one
home game? And they would have won, and that deal
would have been great. Well, and I still think the deal.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
Just because they didn't win the World Series doesn't mean
the deal wasn't the right move. Now, obviously, that's that's
the trump card, that's the one you can say, hey,
you win a World Series, it doesn't matter what we did.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Everything is justified.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
But the fact that they got to where they were,
that that he was the piece that they needed at
that time, because it's just about putting yourself in the situation,
in the position to have a chance without him. They
weren't going to be good enough to make a run
out of World Series with him. They were even though
it didn't work out.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Yeah, and then the same thing, unfortunately with the Yusa
Kakuchi deal. I mean, they very well. I think at
one point, what would they nine to zero with use Kakuchi?
And then I think like five hundred and other in
games down that stretch that he didn't pitch it well.
And and you know, when you're talking about those two deals,
we're on the other side of it of what we
just talked about with the Kyle Tucker deal. Time will tell, Right,

(19:39):
even though we didn't win a World Series with with
Yusay Kakuchi, if Joey Lo Perfido doesn't end up being
an everyday outfielder, if Will Wagner isn't anything more, he
might if he does that, we lost the trade.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
But you know, you have to look a couple of
years down the line, which we're not in that situ yet,
even with the Justin Verlander Mets trade that happened, We're
not going to.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Know for a couple of years if Ryan Clifford turns
out to be a star or not. Yeah, But also
I would just say, like in a vacuum, if the
move needed to get made to try to improve the
tune the team, which is what Dana Brown was tasked with,
is unfortunately, do both build the farm system and keep
the team contended. And oh, by the way, you don't
have much of a farm system. It's tough for me

(20:25):
to crush him for both of those deals because I
understand that his marching orders first and foremost before even
building a farm system, is to win a World Series.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
Absolutely, this situation that the Astros are in, have been
in and will continue to be in for the next
you know, a couple of years at least, is win now.
There are going to be moves that are made for
the future. This Kyle Tucker one is a good example.
But the focus first and foremost is on this season,
which makes me think that they are not done operating yet.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah, I think definitely moves to be made. There's one
big I want to ask Brian if it will be made,
if this person will still be on the roster come
opening day. We'll ask him that when we come back.
It's called a professional radio teas for you there, Brian.
That's how we roll in these parts. We have phone
lines open if you want to get in. You've got
questions for Brian. How do you feel about the Tucker deal?
You want to talk some stros, you can do it,

(21:16):
Brian Bogusvik with us here on the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross. Matt Thomas is out on vacation until Thursday,
and you can get in at seven one three two
one two five seven ninety seven one three two one
two five seven.

Speaker 7 (21:28):
Ninety timing stop by Neuba Fantastic Playboy, Marrisio du Bomb.

Speaker 8 (21:34):
This is Marisa Davon supports Stock seven ninety and the iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
You're home for the Astray. That's what I'm talking about.
Let its well, Dean Martin here on the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
You like the old rat Pack stuff, Brian, Yeah, it's good. Okay,
reminds me of being a kid. My grandparents used to
play it.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
So he was listening that's what we're bringing it back.
Baby is it's coming back. Dean Martin's coming back. If
you've heard coming back from what, I don't know. I'm
just kidding.

Speaker 9 (22:02):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety is
the phone number. Brian Bugus seven is here until noon
on Sports Talk seven ninety. It is the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross. Matt Thomas is on vacation until Thursday.
We got some gut feelings coming up at eleven o'clock
and you can get in if you'd like as well
at seven one three two one two five seven ninety.

(22:24):
So we have had, of course the moves that we
do know. Kyle Tucker is gone. Alex Bregman will wait, which,
by the way, real quick is the market cooling off
on him. I thought it sounded like something was imminent
in the winter meetings, and I would have guessed if
if we did gut feelings, which I think maybe I
even said this last week, I would have figured he'd
be signed by now.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
It's typically how it works when there's one big piece
like Soto. After that down though falls, everything typically falls
into place. But I would imagine that after such a
large contract gets done, right, this resets everything. This his deal,
Sodo's deal resets the entire industry. So Bregman's numbers go
up is what I think everybody's numbers goes up.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Tuckers did.

Speaker 3 (23:03):
I absolutely. I mean, if if you are going to
pay Wan Soto seven hundred and fifty million dollars, is
it that crazy for Alex Bregman to ask for say,
three hundred million dollars.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
It's not even half the contract.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
And I know it's not an apples to apples comparison,
but I think it's just going to take a little
bit longer for things to shake out because of that
market reset that that happened with the Sodo deal.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Well, at least one of them can actually played defense
when it comes to Bragman and Soto.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
That's a lot of money for a guy who does
one thing, he does it really well, so he hits
really well, it's gonna get on base.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
And run the bases very much either Well, seven hundred
what was it, sixty five million dollars fifteen years? That's
well okay, Well, speaking of the first segment, I asked
you what was your reaction to the talk? What was
your reaction to that number? When you first saw it,
I was abed to take all the sun down to
the batting page and started getting some mork in is

(23:56):
what my reaction was, How old is your son? Six?
We had time? Oh, you got plenty of time.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
No, Soto is a generational talent as a hitter. It's
a unique situation that you have a guy entering free
agency when theoretically he hasn't even hit his prime age years.
So when you're talking length of contract, but just that number,
it's just so big. It's so much bigger than anything else.

(24:24):
You know, you start comparing it to a guy the
extension that Mookie Bets signed or the free agent deal
that Bryce Harper signed, is Wan Soto twice the player
that Bryce Harper is.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
I don't believe. I don't believe.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
So it's just it's it's weird when you see that
number because I don't think things are going to fall
in line behind it like they typically would. Every time
you get that big time free agent deal, the next
deal always kind of parallels it. I think this is
just going to kind of be a one off for
quite some time.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
And it's interesting because you just brought the we're gonna
go off track of where I was going to go.
But you're talking about your son and how you would
get him in the cages. Do you think, like maybe
when you were coming up and now we're seeing the
way that baseball is, what was the emphasis on plate discipline,
because it seems like that is so much more important

(25:18):
now than maybe it was twenty years ago.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Well, you've seen sort of an evolution of what teams value.
If you remember when analytics and moneyball first really took
over the industry, it was all about walks and home runs,
these kind of known quantity plate appearances, and we know
what's going to happen, and we value the on base

(25:40):
and we value the power. But what you ended up
getting were a lot of guys who hit in the
low two hundreds, got on base at a decent clip,
hit some home runs, but didn't drive in a lot
of runs. And now you're seeing teams waking up and
valuing guys who, yes, have good play discipline and walk
a lot, but also have really good back to ball
skins and can hit for some power, but also we'll

(26:02):
put the ball in play because those are the type
of skills that produce a lot more runs for your team.
Versus just what is a productive play to pearance. So
it's sort of the industry catching up to what the
players can do.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Adam Done was ahead of its time.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
Adam Done, Adam Done when it got paid a lot
of money in like the twenty twelve twenty Look.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
At his numbers. It's like, we used to make fun
of this guy for striking out something, but his ops
was how he was hitting like forty bombs a year.
He got on base, he walked a lot. And I remember, like,
you know, as a as a dumb punk kid making
fun of Adam Done. It's like, you go back, this
guy should have been making like, oh not want Soto money,
but he could have been a star, big way bigger star.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
A guy with a close to four hundred on base
percentage of forty home runs. That's that's your that's your
high end free agent. At this point, that's all we
looked at was batting verg Oh. I looked at I guess,
was batting Averag. It's like, what come on, man, should
we Adam Done? We need to like introactively, I don't know,
do something for him, give him some kind of a war. Yeah, double, yeah,

(27:04):
there you go, double up his pension. That'll probably make
him feel a lot better. Also a Houston area with
New Caney legend, I believe. But yeah, so if let's
say you like you with your son, are you getting
him into baseball or is he interested?

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Or are you trying to let him do his own thing?
Or if he comes to you and says, I want
to play baseball, you're letting it come to him. He
plays t ball, Okay. If anybody who's stood on.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
A t ball field for two hours in the in
the heat of the Houston spring knows that it's not
very close to baseball.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
But yeah, we'll just go to winter ball now.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
He's like like like every other kid, he plays a
million different sports. He loves one and then it's the
next season he loves the other.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Okay, but how would you even coach or like, let's
say you were coaching high school or you were instructing.
I don't know, do you do it any instructing or
anything like that? Nothing for just you, for your six
year old, which is probably not a lot. Just stay
on the base pass, let's go first base.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
Go to your right, don't go to the left.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
This is all. Yeah, I don't even know would you
try to drill that into as far as those types
of because in twenty years from now the game could
be changed in what people are looking for or stick
to fundamentals what I have found because I have friends
with older kids and they play travel ball and stuff, and.

Speaker 3 (28:15):
You see the way players are being developed, the way
specifically hitters are being developed, and there's so much focus
on swing building, right we want to have certain batpaths
and create exit velocities and get these kinds of launch angles,
all of which are valuable metrics and can tell you
a lot about the kind of hitter you are. But
what isn't taught very much is putting together and at

(28:39):
bat the philosophy behind hitting. What pitches am I looking
for at certain parts of an at bat? What does
the pitcher do well that I want to stay away from?
What do we do well that I want to attack?
Those things aren't certainly taught in a batting cage. Those
are things that need to be talked about around at bats,

(29:00):
sitting in a dugout, digesting what just happened in that bat,
And there isn't a lot of that going on right
now because it's so easy to flood kids with information,
Flood kids with data and put a track man in
a batting cage and show an eleven year old how
hard he hit the ball. And it's like that, that's
good and that's useful, but that doesn't do anything when
all of a sudden you get a two to zero

(29:20):
change up and you're wondering, why the heck didn't that
guy throw me a fastball?

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yeah hmm interesting, Okay, A lot to think about, all right,
Steven one three two one two five seven ninety Brian
and Parland is holding one to talk to Brian. What's up,
Brian and Brian, let's go.

Speaker 10 (29:36):
Yeah, Bo, you.

Speaker 11 (29:38):
Gotta got kind of an injury related question for you guys,
and then a question for both of you guys just
to kick around in terms of free agency and bragman
and all that.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
In terms of injury. I know we have a lot
of guys out.

Speaker 11 (29:50):
When you got Garcia and mccullars, I guess who are
the too closest to coming back? And really kind of
we saw Garcia and those guys last year get ramped
up to our they're kind of throwing off a mound
and getting ready to go. What is that kind of
next step that at this point in the offseason, you
would think their arms would be fully rested, where they
should be fully ramped up and ready to go, and

(30:13):
all of that to where they're basically chomping at the
bit to get to spring training.

Speaker 10 (30:17):
What should be that.

Speaker 11 (30:18):
Next step as a player we should be looking for
or the fan that we should be looking for that
that player to be doing where it's like, Okay, he's
on the right path, we can see it. Obviously, you
can always have stepbacks like Arkidi did when he went
on his rehab assignment, but kind of you know, it's
just getting frustrating now with mccolors, it now being going
on over two seasons where he's been completely out. I

(30:40):
think his last pitch was what the twenty two World Series.
You know, he's missed all of two seasons. So what
is that next progression from a player's standpoint to like
that we can look at.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Or that you can see.

Speaker 11 (30:54):
And then when it comes to Bregman, do you all
think maybe the decision isn't being made right now because
the offers maybe aren't there like they weren't with Korea.
They were expecting that two hundred million and those dollars
just aren't there, So he's maybe waiting to see if
the astros are going to come up a little bit,
or is it just kind of due diligence, waiting till

(31:16):
maybe after the holidays, and then could you all see
Paul gold is a thirty seven year old first basement
free agents. We've we've been down this road before, but
on a one year deal putting Paradis at third if
other you know, if you're not able to get the
right package for Aeronaudo, is something like that, you guys
could see.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
In gold Schmidt coming back home. All right, let's start
with the injuries. When's lines with Colors Junior coming back?
That's a heck of a question.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
No I want to date right now, Brian, Come on, man,
you know it's it's been that, that's been a really
long road. There have been obviously multiple setbacks, multiple re injuries.
For a guy who's been through that much. Until he's
back out on the mound throwing competitive pitches, you just
don't know. And he's gonna, you know, continue to rehab

(32:06):
and continue to try to get himself into that kind
of shape and condition. But the question doesn't become when
it becomes if if he can get to a point
to where he can sustain a major league workload, then
we'll see him.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
But we just don't know if that's going to happen. Yeah,
and then part two, I think, is the market slowed
for Bregman or do you expect something to happen soon?

Speaker 3 (32:28):
I think something. If it doesn't happen in the next
few days, it probably isn't going to happen. Nobody's going
to be sitting there taking calls on Christmas Day, I
wouldn't imagine. So it's like Scott Boris might. With Scott Boris,
he'll be wheeling and delan on those days. Sure, I
think I think the market has changed. You know, we
talked about the implications of the Sodo deal and how

(32:49):
that changes everything. But yeah, the fact that there hasn't
been a deal done means that the perfect scenario hasn't
presented itself yet. If the team that Bregman wanted to
go to came to him with the offer that he
was looking for, it would have been done. So is
it not materializing at all? I'm sure that's not the case,
but probably maybe not the dollars, maybe not the team,

(33:11):
maybe not one or the other, but there's certainly still
variables in play.

Speaker 6 (33:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
I wonder if the way that you mentioned it is
is just the price of poker gone up. Is Scott
Bora saying, hey, I got fifty million dollars a year
for Soto, and maybe we were talking about twenty seven
to twenty eight a year for Pregnant, but now that's
going to be thirty two million dollars a year or whatever.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
I would imagine that whatever offers were being fielded, whatever
numbers were being thrown out, as the Sodo deal became imminent,
everybody kind of cleared the table and said, okay, let's
start from scratch. Once that deal gets done, then we
will restart our negotiations. And once that deal was done,
the numbers all change.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yeah, and then I think the last part of Brian's
question one year deal for gold Smith, I think he
was talking about.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
As a contingency plan to a contingency sure backup.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
It sounds good to the backup to the backup plan.
It's not going to be your first priority.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
It's not going to be something that's gonna get done
you would want to do early in the offseason, but
if you end up in a situation where you have
a former MVP gold Glove first baseman on a short
term deal late in his career.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
That's not a terrible place to be.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
So I'm sure it's something that the ashhos will continue
to check in on, but it's not going to be
Plan A or B.

Speaker 5 (34:26):
All right.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
Brian Bogacevic with us here on the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross without Matt Thomas. He is on vacation. You
guys want to get in you can at seven one
three two one two five seven ninety seven one three
two one two five seven ninety We also got gut
feelings coming up at eleven o'clock here on Sports Talk
seven ninety where I need to talk to you about
your health and well being. How do you feel it
when you woke up this morning? Did you feel full

(34:47):
of energy? Did you feel like you were ready to
tackle the day when the alarm went off? That's cool
if that's you. If not, you feel like you've been
slowing down. The motivation hasn't been there as much. Maybe
the lipido hasn't been there either, and you know, like,
how do I turn this around? Center Genicshealth dot Com
is where you need to go to get your help.
There's a lot of options you have with testosterone clinics.
I'm gonna tell you why you choose Centergenics. You get

(35:09):
the personalized TRT plan. You have different types of testosterones
in your body. They tailor treatment specifically to you at Centergenics.
And also the professionals at Centergenics are experts with g
LP one weight loss. You can be evaluated for prescription
weight loss medications there as well, and they also have
clinics all over town. That's why you choose Centergenics by
going to Center Genics Health dot com. Get the ball rolling,

(35:32):
don't even wait till the New Year's s y n
E R gen Xhealth dot com at Centergenics Health dot com.

Speaker 1 (35:39):
Back to Matt Thomas and Ross Viareal Fine Fine Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
Welcome back to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross Without
Matt Thomas. He's on vacation. He'll be back on the Thursday.
Brian Bogasevic here with us. We got gut feelings coming
up at eleven o'clock. We got you if you'd like
to get in seven two one two five seven ninety
is the phone number seven to one three two one,

(36:05):
two five, seven, ninety. So I've been operating with this
as basically in my head the last I don't know,
probably year and change. Brigman's gone, right. I mean, even
though it feels like the market's cool, do you think
there's any sort if you if you had to put
a percent chance on him being back in Houston Astro's uniform,
it's probably pretty low point one point zero zero zero one.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
I think it's higher than that, okay, because I think
all things being equal, he genuinely wants to be back here.
I don't think that he sees the grass as being
greener on the other side. And and he's a player
who winning is important. It's the guy who's been in
deep playoff runs every year of his career, and and

(36:50):
that's something that goes along with his identity as a player.
And he's not going to just chase dollars to go
somewhere else unless there's just not competitive offers where.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
He feels like he can go and win. I think
it's no accident that Alex Korra in the Red Sox,
or at least Alex Cora's side of the Red Sox
pushing for him. The Tigers have been mentioned of course
aj hanch over there. These guys know the value of
Alex Bregman, I think not just on the field and
off the field. And that's my question to you is
what does that matter to Where we've seen guys like

(37:23):
Taylor Scott go on interviews other pictures talk about how
there were things like Alex Bregman's writing his own scouting
reports that aren't in the astros regular scouting reports like
things for these pictures to keep an eye on. He's
been in this year he took over as far as
like he was in a lot of mound visits where
he wasn't as much before. What does that bring to

(37:44):
a team? And maybe Jim Crane and you know, Brian
Cashman and whoever else aren't necessarily putting a number on that.
What do you as a player, how much how much
of a difference does that make to where if you
take Alex Bregman off the team impact that it.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
Has well, culture matters, leadership matters, and to get through
a Major League Baseball season, which you know it's been
set over and over, how much of a grind it
is you need to have guys who know how to
get through that grind. You need to have guys who
can set the tone in a locker room of showing

(38:21):
up every day doing everything that they possibly can to
compete on that given day, and then also make players
around them better, set a tone of how things are
going to work in our organization, on our team. And
if you are a very good team, that can make
you a great team, that can make you a contending team.
If you are a young team, that can push you

(38:43):
into that contender type of team. And I think those
things are very valuable obviously to any team, but if
you are an organization that is maybe lacking those things
otherwise it becomes even more valuable. And those are the
situations where somebody could potentially overpay what you would see
as being value for just you know, on field production.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
And as far as like the I guess the scouting
reports and talking with the pitchers and the mound visits
and all that type of stuff.

Speaker 3 (39:14):
You know, that's that's a real thing. And there have
been stories in the past. You've you've heard stories Cal
Ripken used to call pitches from shortstop, Derek Jeter used
to have input with you know, defensive alignments and things
that were going on on the mound, and it takes
a special type of player not just to understand those

(39:34):
different facets of the game, but also how to communicate
them in a way that doesn't seem like you're overstepping boundaries.
You have to have a certain level of respect that
players have to look at you and know not only
does that guy know what he's doing, yeah, but he
is aware of everything that is going on on this field.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
He's seeing things that I'm not seeing. Okay, So Shae
Wick and can't just show up in the mound visit
and start calling pitches.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
Probably wouldn't go well. He goes up, tell Justin Berlander
and how about a slider right there?

Speaker 2 (40:06):
That would be great. I would actually love to see it.
It'd be very entertaining to watch what happened. Yeah, Sam
and Alvin go ahead.

Speaker 7 (40:14):
Hey guys, it's going on. I get a quick story first,
and then I want to get to Alex Begman. But
first off, Brian, good to see you man. How did
it have you on this morning? And it's great to
hear you.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
So I want to tell a quick story.

Speaker 7 (40:26):
So the neighbor of Marvin and Dolls in twenty sixteen
and twenty seventeen and Marrow and I used to talk,
and we had a late night conversation one time in
twenty sixteen, and I said, Marlon, Wow, why can't we win?
We could win. Why can't look at those town We
could win? And Marlin told me the ownership doesn't want
to spend the money. And I said, no, no, no, Look

(40:46):
at all of our young guys. Just it's coming right.
We're gonna get all these guys. We're gonna lock them up.
We're gonna have a great time till twenty twenty eight.
So now the Alex Bregman thing, and it's like, you know, Brian,
I heard you say like he could could Alice command
three hundred million after the Soto deal.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
It sounds like a stretch to me, right, but.

Speaker 7 (41:04):
Couldn't command two hundred Why can't we pay Alex Begman
a little more than two hundred million? And from a
fans perspective, right, we didn't get Korea, we didn't get Springer.
I guess we got Berlander, But I don't know if
he's gonna put on an Astros out in the Hall
of Fame. I believe that at the end of Alex
Begman's career with us. In eight, nine, ten years, he's

(41:27):
going to be in the Hall of Fame. And that's
another statue that we could put outside the park. From
a fans perspective, all I want to see is one
of these kids that came through in fourteen fifteen sixteen.
I know we got two day, but man, I want
another statue. And it's like, I would love to get
jose Al tor statue in Alex Begman's statue. So why
can't we just pay the money to keep him around.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
Well, they do pay money to keep guys around, it's
just they do it on their own terms. And they've
paid jose Al two Day a couple of times. They've
paid ord On now and it's not about.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
Paid the first time.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
And when you're operating in the financial constructs in which
the astros operate, and you know, make no mistake about it,
they they their payroll gets right up to about that
luxury tax threshold every year. It's not like they're not
spending money, they're just not doing crazy things. Every individual

(42:28):
deal that you make will affect subsequent deal. So could
they go out there and give Alex Bragman the two
hundred and fifty three hundred million dollar deal. Sure they
probably could. And but does that mean maybe they don't
lock up Hunter Brown long term? Or do they not
lock up Jiner Diaz long term? Do they have other
things on their shopping list that they can no longer.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Do because of a deal?

Speaker 3 (42:50):
Right Steve, Steve Cohen can go out and sign mon
Soto to a seven hundred and fifty million dollar deal,
and then he can turn right around and give pet
A Lonzo two hundred and fifty million dollars because Steve
Cohen is the richest owner in all of baseball. And
if you're not going to operate that way financially, where
you were just going to throw money at all of
the issues. If you are looking for value, you've got

(43:12):
to be disciplined. And when you start looking at some
of the other guys who the Astros have lost in
free agency, tell me which one of those contracts you
would want to have right now?

Speaker 2 (43:23):
I mean, I guess you could argue Garrett Cole's been
pretty good, That's about it. That's the one that you
would say has been Korea Springer has been hurt the
entire time. Who else.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
Would you have as to do the Verlander to the
Mets and be paying the full forty million.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
No, he wasn't worth the money that they traded back for,
at least not last year. You know what, I think
they I would have liked them signed the same deal
that Charlie Morton signed to Tampa Bay. But that's also smaller,
and that in and of itself was a fairly palatable deal.
It was only a couple of years. It was under
twenty million, I think somewhere around there. All Right, we
got to take a break. We are well passed a
break here on Sports Talk seven ninety. When we come

(44:02):
back gut feelings with Brian boga Sevic. That is a
first here on Sports Talk seven ninety. You got a
gut feeling something that you want to make a prediction
on seven one three two one two five seven ninety
is the phone number seven one three two one two
five seven ninety. Back with gut feelings after this quick.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
Break, lunchtimers, this is the Matt Thomas Show.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
All right, I made a mistake. I fudged up guys.

Speaker 5 (44:31):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
We used to do and we're still getting used to
this ten to two slot here on Sports Talk seven
niney Okay, I'm still getting used to this ten to
slot here because well a number of reasons we used
to do when we first started on this time slot.
Gut feelings at eleven now I remember we moved them
to eleven thirty. So all the dozens of you that
called in to get on you can go ahead and

(44:52):
hang up. We will do a gut feelings coming up
at eleven thirty here on Sports Talk seven ninety and
the Matt Thomas Show. And this is how bad I'm
mailing in with Matt out. We're gonna do it with
Adam wex Or. I want to hear some gut feelings
from him, so we'll do it with him as well
at one thirty. So Brian Bogasvic hanging out until noon.
Really appreciate you hanging out, Brian. We'll get to your

(45:13):
gut feelings. I know you were ready to go, you
had all your gut feelings, but you're gonna have to
wait till eleven thirty. I'm bursting. I hear gut feelings
bursting with cut feelings, all right. Seven on three two
one two five seven ninety is the phone number you
can still get in talks of baseball. We can make
some gut feelings coming up at one thirty the phone
number again seven one three two one two five seven ninety.

(45:34):
So yes, as far as the spending, uh, And we
were kind of talking about that. We had the caller like,
why don't they just pay everybody? But why don't they
just pay everybody? And and two things as you mentioned,
and we kind of talked about, they're not going to
be able to spend like Steve Cohen. They're not gonna
be able to spend like the Dodgers and the Yankees
and those types of teams. And I understand we want

(45:57):
to get mad, not we, but some fans want to
get mad at Jim. And first of all, if you
call him cheap, you're an idiot. You haven't been paying attention.
The payrolls have been high, they've been top five in baseball,
top ten in baseball basically since he's been here. He
is not a cheap owner. Talk about the Tampa Bay Race,
talk about the Oakland A's, talk about I don't know
the Pittsburgh Pirates or what those are the teams that

(46:17):
are cheap. I think I saw I guess I need
to fact check this, but I saw graphic. Is it true?
The biggest, the biggest contract, like is it on their
roster of all time signed by the A's was a
three years, sixty seven million to seven Reno. That's like
the biggest free agent contract they've given, or of anybody
on their team. It wouldn't surprise me if it was.

Speaker 3 (46:36):
I don't know that for sure, but certainly you know,
the biggest contracts in his franchise history are going to
come in the last fifteen to twenty years, I would imagine,
and they have him.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Who have they signed. I can't think of anybody, I said.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
I can't believe that they're out there spending at this point,
moving to a minor league park for the next couple
of years, and although there are collective bargaining implications of
spending no money, so they've got to sign some players.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Okay, I found it. Yeah, the biggest extension that. Yeah,
it's the biggest contract they've ever signed, the biggest free
agent contract in A's history. I just fact checked Louis Severino.
Louis Severino three years, sixty seven million dollars ever in
their history. So no, I understand. You want Jim Crane

(47:26):
to run with the big dogs, and they have on
the field. But come on, it could be worse. No,
it could be a lot worse.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
When you have that kind of history of not spending money,
of not keeping your players around, I would imagine as
a fan, you you almost have to feel like you're
essentially a farm club for the rest of Major League Baseball.
Not not that, because there have been some very good
Oakland teams in the last maybe not five years, but
in the last ten fifteen years, but they just constantly

(47:54):
turn over and are constantly losing guys to bigger markets.
That's gonna be your windows gonna be so limited to
a year or two of being good, and then you're
gonna have to turn that over, flip those guys for prospects,
and then hope some of those prospects hit.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
It's now. Of course, that's also an extreme, and we're
talking about to extremes basically what the Mets are doing
and then what the A's are doing, and the Astros
are closer to the to the farthest extreme as far
as expenditures. So I understand we want Jim Crane to
just pay everyone, but he has to be fiscally responsible.
And oh, by the way, I understand that we want

(48:29):
to look at numbers as far as revenue and spending.
Jim Crane didn't buy this team to lose money or
to be a net zero. He bought this team to
make money and contend, and so far they've done that.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
There's a reason that owners put themselves in a situation
to become the owner of a sports franchise. It's because
they are very smart business people, and they make a
lot of money, and they don't like to lose money,
and they don't like to waste money. So to say
that somebody is just going to go out there and
do whatever they have to do, spend whatever amount of money,

(49:02):
it's unreasonable to think that. But I do think there
is a shift in ownership behavior these last couple of
off seasons, and I think that it's going to be
interesting to watch. In the last couple of collective bargaining agreements,
when these luxury tax thresholds have been put in, they've
essentially acted as salary caps. Teams have not wanted to

(49:26):
exceed them. If they do, they do so minimally and
then try to reset the next year and get underneath
so that they don't have to pay taxes. Steve Cohen
has blown through that the Dodgers have blown through that
San Diego doesn't seem to be concerned with that. There
are these handful of teams, these likely suspects who have.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
Broken the wink wink.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
It's not a salary cap, right, and so it's going
to be interesting to find out where that next tier
of teams goes. Do they still try to operate in
that one hundred and eighty to two hundred million dollar
payroll world or do they say, Okay, we're going to
have to change our spending habits to compete because the
gap between haves and have nots is widening, and if

(50:09):
you feel like you're going to be left behind as
an organization, you've got to change your plan.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
Yeah, that's what I'm wondering about that because of what
you mentioned, and it's something we've kind of been talking
about on this show and these shows and on this station.
It is could you see a change coming with maybe
harsher luxury tax penalties A and B, some sort of
loophole closing with all this deferred money that the Dodgers

(50:35):
are doing. Something is going to have to change.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
I can't imagine that the majority of owners are happy
with the way A handful of owners have operated, and
I'm sure the players and the Players Association is happy
that there are guys who are now willing to blow
through those numbers and give them and get all of
this money, regardless of its now or deferred down the line.
But that was not the vision that owners had when

(51:00):
they put these luxury tax numbers into the last collective
bargaining agreement. So there's going to be some significant changes,
and we know that anytime there needs to be significant
changes in the collective bargaining agreement, it makes for a
difficult negotiation because the players are going to be sitting
there in a position of power saying, Okay, you guys
want to change that, well, here's X, Y and z

(51:21):
of what we want in return. So it's going to
be a bumpy ride, but it's something that there has
definitely been a shift in the spending habits of.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
A handful of teams. Yeah, it just feels like, as
you mentioned, the pendulum swinging a little bit too much
between the haves and the haves not I don't know
exactly what's going to correct it, or are we saying
Otani's once in a generation. So that's a one off
Soto is once in a duration generation, so that's another
one off, and maybe this will kind of cool down

(51:51):
in the next couple of years and won't be as
talked about as much.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
I think there is some merit to the uniqueness of
the Otani and Sodo situation. But all of a sudden,
you see the same couple of teams popping up in
all of the negotiations for all of these top tier
free agents. The Dodgers are scooping up every big time
free agent that comes out of Japan. The Mets are
in play for everybody at the top end of free agency.

(52:16):
So in order to kind of disperse that a little
bit more, something's gonna have.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
To get Yeah, all right, there you go. Brian bogas
Sevic here on Sports Talk seven ninety getting some good
stuff on baseball. You want to get in seven one
three two one two five seven ninety is the phone
number seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
We had gut feelings coming up at eleven thirty. Couple
on hold, We'll get you next. Here on Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
The incomparable uh Aretha Franklin here on Sports Talk seven
ninety and The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. How can
you tell Matt Thomas is out? It is Christmas music
that you're hearing and it's not Christmas Eve, If that's
how you can tell. He'll be back on Thursday. I
am here with you. We'll have I think Chris Gordian tomorrow.
Thanks to Dan for hanging out yesterday. Adam Wexler will

(53:06):
be here at one o'clock. In the meantime, Brian Bogus
segment has been hanging out doing a great job. I
appreciate you again, Brian for talking some baseball with us.
Phone lines open at seven one three two one two
five seven ninety. The phone number seven one three two
one two five seven ninety. Gut feelings coming up in
the next segment, Steve and Huffman has been waiting, So Steve,

(53:27):
the floor is yours.

Speaker 5 (53:29):
Well, thank you, and uh, good uh, good morning to
everybody there. Okay, I want to get into Gregman. Uh,
there's a reason that things aren't going the way his agent,
Scott Boris wants him to go. And here's my gut
feeling on that. Didn't he have bone ships removed from
his elbow this offseason.

Speaker 12 (53:50):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (53:50):
I believe he missed some time last year here and
there with nagging injuries things, you know, where he had
to sit. And that's understandable. The guy is turning while
he's thirty, I think right now. So you know, I
know Boris likes to do these ten to fifteen year contracts,
and you know, and I respect Jim this way. I

(54:12):
think Jim is probably going to give him the best
deal that any of those guys out there. Is going
to give him six years at thirty years of age
with one hundred and sixty million. If I was pregnant,
I'd take it and kissing behind both ears.

Speaker 6 (54:25):
I'll tell you why.

Speaker 5 (54:27):
Who's going to want to give somebody ten years when
things are starting to go a different direction. And also
Boris is telling the other teams, well, he could play
second base. I think that was a mistake floating that
out there, not like it's a secret, but I mean
to the baseball guys, but you know, to shorten the throws.

(54:48):
I really think his best deal is, you know, because
of all these things that I just mentioned, is going
to be staying here. You know, Tucker was a whole
different situation. But I just I think teams are hesitant
on giving him a ten year deal because when he
hits forty, you know who's he going to be. I mean,

(55:09):
we can look at history, look at Mike Trout. What
is he in the fourth year of a big contract
and he's played only thirty to forty percent of the games.
If you're the owner of the Angels, you can't be
feeling good about writing those checks. Ran Don is another
guy that they thought they were going to get a
lot of time out of, and he's he's been hurt
more than he's I think, probably even more than that.

(55:31):
So I think long term, I think right now I
would be shocked if if Bregman and the Astros didn't
come together and get this deal done.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
I like your optimism, Steve, Yeah, I think first of all,
but a lot to cover there. The idea of Alex.

Speaker 3 (55:49):
Bregman playing second base isn't a response to an injury.
That is a response to don't feel like you need
to be locked into him playing third. If you have
a third basement, you can still sign my client.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
That's what that is. That's what that is. But it
isn't the market wouldn't it be less. I mean, on
average annual value for a second basement than a third basement.
Third base more of a premium defensive position, possibly, I
would say. But then you make the counter argument of this,
the numbers that he puts up offensively add more value
as a second basement than as the true basement. That

(56:23):
that's really the positional versatility part of it. Isn't what
is holding anything up or isn't necessarily a significant aspect.
It's it's money. It's money in years.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
And and if you know the deal that has been
reported the Astros put out there, which was six years,
one hundred and fifty six or whatever that is. If that,
if that has been presented to him, then the question is, well,
what's he waiting for it? Well, he's waiting for somebody
to go seven years, and he's going to wait for
somebody to go to eight years and see what shakes out.

(56:56):
I mean, you're in contact with all of these different
teams and getting all of these different numbers. At some
point it's going to be all right, everybody, give me
your best offer.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Best number, and then you make the decision.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
I don't think he's not in a position right now
where he has to jump at everything because he is.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
The top available player. At this point, he mentioned the
deals for Trout and Rendon and you kind of mentioned this.
We were talking about the players that got signed away
for the Astros, and outside of Garrett Cole, it's been
kind of a mixed bag at best. Do you think
there ends up in a time And I guess it's

(57:35):
gonna take years and years and years to where teams
like the Yankees, Dodgers, Mets at the end of these
deals where they feel like they've got burned because it
happened like at the end of Alex Rodriguez's deal that
was a horrible deal for the Yankees, at the end
of Derek Jeter when he was at the end of
his career, Albert Pool holes as well, And it feels
like owners would maybe try to learn them from those deals.

(57:56):
But it kind of hasn't happened. No, it hasn't.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
An the reason it hasn't is because as big as
some of these yearly salaries are twenty million, thirty million,
fifty million dollars, if you get a guy we'll use
We'll use Sodo as the example, right, if he has
the kind of season that he's capable of having where
he heads close to three hundred, he hits forty.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Home runs, he's on bay.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
The value that he adds is in excess of fifty
million dollars, and that doesn't that's just on field, what
one war is worth versus the kind of season that
he has. It's comparable, and that doesn't even take take
into account your bump.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
In season ticket sales.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
As soon as you sign a guy like that, Jersey sales, merchandise,
all of those things, advertising, they're getting value for these contracts.
So yeah, is there gonna be some dead money at
the end, maybe, but it's kind of just cost of
doing business.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
Yeah, that's what it seems like, I guess. I mean,
unless it's like an absolute disaster, like yeah, trout the
last few years, the Rendon deal is a terrible disaster. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
Yeah, there are certainly a lot of those, and general
rule of thumb, most of those long term deals anything
over eight years really hasn't worked out all that well
for anybody, but they keep doing it because if somebody's
offering you five, the next guy will do six to
make the deal happen, and the guy next to him
will do seven.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
So it's gonna keep happening. Yeah, I didn't realize it
was this bad. I just pulled up Mike Trout last
five years, fifty three games played, thirty six one, nineteen
and twenty two. Congratulations, although also twenty two. He played
fifty three in the COVID year, so that was only
sixty but was the max. But eighty two games and
then twenty nine games last year. Yeah, it's it's bad.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
I mean, he's gone from a guy who the first
whatever it was, six seven years of his career was
on this generational track of if he retired today, is
he a Hall of Famer already to now where you're
looking at, you know, four plus years of sort of
pedestrian production. He's great when he's out there, he's just
never out there.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
Well, career three hundred and seventy eight home nine to
ninety one oh ps, three m vps. He's probably still
in if he retires today, he would be.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
And because you take into account that he's done it
all as a center fielder, and he's stolen bases, and
he he is the epitome of the war baby, right.
He accumulates so much war that anybody who uses that
as their metric.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
He's the guy but a five time war leader. Yeah,
that's pretty crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
It's just it has not been good lately, and and
it's and it's changed the course of that franchise.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
All right, seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
The phone number Louis next up? What's up? Luis?

Speaker 6 (01:00:36):
Hey, Ronnie Heny, guys, direct to know how you doing.
I want to I wanted to check with you and Brian.
There is a guy called Santan. There's a from Venezuela.
He's a switcheater, is for the Baltimore oils heel for
a free agent. He's younger than tell Usta for the Dodgers,
and and with that right field fence, he could really
put a lot of homers in and for the ass

(01:00:58):
he's not bad. Uh why, I mean why the Astros
taking a look at him? And also, uh, do you
see hi might be a possibility. All right, guys, So
I'm gonna hang up at least thank you, Thank you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
I didn't catch the last part, but Santander has been
kind of mentioned with the Astros.

Speaker 3 (01:01:17):
Yeah, I can't imagine that they haven't been in contact
with him at the very least if not, you know,
hopefully pursuing him. He's the guy that fits. He fits
the mold of what the Astros look for. He can
play multiple you know, he can play either corner position
in the outfield. He is a switch hitter, He makes contact,
he hits for power. He's a guy the question is

(01:01:39):
going to be to become is is he too desirable
a free agent? He's a guy that fits a lot
of needs for a lot of different teams. And you know,
going into this season, this is his age thirty season.
So if you're talking about a five year deal, a
six year deal, it's the same conversation that we just
had with Alex Bregman. What would would the Astros want
to have Santander on their team next year? Absolutely? But

(01:02:02):
is it going to take a seven year deal to
get that done? It very well might.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Yeah, I imagine that there have been conversations and his
name has been floated with the Astros. But yeah, if
you're not going to pay Alex Bragman, it's like to
long terms, extra years deal, Like you're saying, I'd be
surprised they're going to do it for Santander, especially considering
all the value that that Alex Bregman has brought over
the years.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
Well absolutely, and until the Alex Bragman situation sort of
remedies itself, I don't know that you're going to see
the Astros too hot really on any of these other
position player free agents he's got. He's got to still
be plan A until he's off the board. There's always
a chance that he returns, and we know that the

(01:02:46):
Astros would prefer it that way. So I don't know
that going out and signing a guy like santander and
completely closing the door on bringing back Bregman would be
the course of action that they would want to undertake.
But no, you're absolutely right in at Anthony Santandera is
a guy who would fit very well onto this team,
especially now with Kyle Sucker being on all right.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Time for another break here on the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross. Brian Bogosvik is here. He's gonna give us
his gut feelings coming next up. You can get in
with your gut feelings as well. Seven one three two
one two five seven ninety seven one three two one
two five seven ninety A prediction You'll want to make
something that you're feeling in your gut you want to
put it on record, you can do it next segment

(01:03:28):
at seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
Listen up the boys segment so appealing, wasn't that toommit?

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
You'll they got a gut feeling. This is their gut
feeling on the Matt Thomas Show.

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
Eleven thirty in the am. Here on Sports Talk seven ninety,
it's time for some gut feelings. You want to get in.
You got some gut feelings for us? You can it's
seven one three two one two five seven ninety. The
phone number again, seven one three two one two five
seven ninety. A prediction. You want to make something you
feel in your gut, you can do it at seven

(01:04:11):
one three two one two five seven ninety. So the
way this segment works as we make our predictions. But first, Brian,
we will go ahead and look back at the predictions
from last week. And I'm honestly just stalling as I
pull up my document. Okay, I've got it. Let's see.
Matt Thomas made a prediction. He said Alex Bregman will
sign with the Boston Red Sox. That has not happened yet,

(01:04:33):
so we'll see if that is going to be a value.
Is that's going to be valid or not? My prediction
last week Alex Bregman gonna be a New York Yankee.
Do you have a prediction? Let me just in case.
Do you have a prediction yet? Do you want to
do that for this segment or you want me to wait?
I don't want to put you on the spot just immediately. No,
I've got one. Okay, I've got one, and it's in
line with yours and matts as well because it has

(01:04:54):
to do with Alex Bregman. So I'm gonna go here.

Speaker 3 (01:04:57):
My gut tells me that Alex Bregman is going to
end up being a Detroit Tiger.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
Woo aj Hinch reunited and it feels so good.

Speaker 3 (01:05:05):
So when you look past just the production on the field,
you know there's gonna be a lot of people who
are in the market for a third baseman who plays
gold Glove caliber third base and puts up good offensive numbers.
But there are going to be a handful of organizations
who really need to bring in a culture center, a

(01:05:28):
guy who can take a young team and bring legitimacy,
much like Justin Verlander did when he was traded here.
In twenty seventeen. Now all of a sudden, Hey, we're
bringing in the big boys and we're playing big boy baseball.
I think Alex Bregman can be that for a young
Tigers team who probably surprised themselves a little bit last year.
Maybe we're a little bit ahead of schedule and saw

(01:05:49):
AJ Hinch go pretty hard after Carlos Korea, very similar situation.
A guy who could come in and change the course
of the franchise. They missed on Korea. They ended up
with Hovey Bayaz that did not work. So I think, right,
I think AJ will really try to convince their front
office and their ownership that Alex Bregman is the guy

(01:06:10):
who can go in there and take a good young
team and bring some some real contending legitimacy to them.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
Yeah. Sometimes I'm about to make a fantasy football analogy here.
So here we're going to go. Sometimes, let's say there's
like a hot running back on the waiver wire and
I don't really need a running back, but I'll pick
up that running back. That way nobody else gets them.
What about the value of the Tigers picking up Alex Bregman,
keeping him away from the Astros Red Sox Yankees not

(01:06:39):
only making themselves stronger, but preventing those other teams from
getting strong in the interim.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
You know, there's certainly some value to doing that. You know,
all the teams that we've heard tied to Alex Bregman
have all been American League teams. There hasn't been a
whole lot outside of the American League. So if the
Tigers think they're going to be legitimate contenders here moving forward,
off that, I don't know that you necessarily overpay the
market to do that, Yeah, but it's certainly something worth

(01:07:07):
taking into account. But the fact that he is a
proven winner, the fact that he has helped so many
of his teammates become better versions of themselves, I think
that is worth overpaying what just the production numbers say.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
And that's really I mean those stories. The last couple
of years of the Minnesota Twins, as far as especially
when they were in the playoffs last year and then
facing off against the Astros is a Carlos Kai did
a good job of setting the culture there, teaching them
how to win. They had a younger team, they hadn't
had a whole lot of playoff success. Well, really, as
a franchise in the last decade plus or whatever it is,
and him being somebody who who has has set.

Speaker 3 (01:07:44):
That culture absolutely and look no further than the World
Series this year. There was a lot of stuff that
came out from the Dodgers' side talking about how they
felt they matched up with the Yankees, and how the
Dodgers players felt that they played a win brand of
baseball that would eventually allow them to prevail in that

(01:08:04):
World Series. And now, all of a sudden, you bring
in a guy who has spent his entire career playing
a winning brand of baseball and bring that to a
good young team, but still a young team that hasn't
really won a whole lot.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
All right, Keeping with the gut feelings from last week,
Connor McGovern, you also said Alex Bregman is going to
be a New York Yankee, and well, we will see
on that. I'm gonna stick with the Yankees.

Speaker 5 (01:08:27):
I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Well, it's a gut feeling. I can't change it. Connor,
you got anything that you would like to predict is
going to happen next up for any of the Houston
teams or anything else in sports?

Speaker 13 (01:08:36):
Yeah, the Rockets have the Pelicans Raptors and Hornets coming up.
I see the Rockets winning.

Speaker 2 (01:08:40):
All three of those oh three and oh yeah, let's
go baby, and then West playoffs. I say, Mahomes doesn't
play against the Texans, but the Chiefs still win because
their defense is Oh man, come on, we haven't talked
about the Texans a lot. You follow NFL much?

Speaker 14 (01:08:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
Are you a Whoshia? You got a squad? Are you well?
I know you're from Illinois.

Speaker 3 (01:08:59):
I grew up a Bears fan, but it's been twenty
years since I've been able to watch it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
You didn't watch that game last night.

Speaker 3 (01:09:04):
There's nothing worth But I have become a de facto
Houston Texas.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
That's what I'm talking about, Houston Texans fan. I'm with you, Connor.
I think that Pat Mahomes is not going to play,
so I will lock that in as a as a
gut feeling for me. He will not play. It doesn't
make sense to rush him when they have They have
a game on Christmas Day.

Speaker 3 (01:09:27):
As well as do the Texans, and there has been
a lot of money spent putting together that Christmas Day package,
which means they need pay.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
They need Pat Mahomes play. I don't know if he'll
even play that one. I guess we'll see that. But yeah,
if he's gonna play, he's gonna play one of them.
But I'm gonna say that Texans win Connor. You Texans hater,
I hope it's right. I suck at Carson Wentz. I
hope you're right. It's just what I'm feeling in my gut.
I don't know Andy Reid and Carson Wentz. It feels
like there could be some some like black magic happening
to where Carson Wentz throws for like three hundred yards

(01:09:56):
and three touchdowns.

Speaker 3 (01:09:57):
Andy Reid, I feel like that's that is his MO.
Everybody sits out, they're not gonna do it. Oh yeah
watch this.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
Yeah they won with Alex Smith. They didn't. Did Chad Henny,
who was the backup that came in before in the
playoffs or something like there close to the end of
the season. They won with him too, one of the
old Michigan quarterback. Yeah, it was a Chad Henny. I
don't remember, but yeah, it feels like I could definitely
see I'm gonna say I could see a scenario where
Carson Wentz starts this game and the Texans lose. I
choose to be positive though, Connor, I'm gonna say the Texans,

(01:10:24):
Texans beat the Chiefs. I don't know if they're gonna
cover that two and a half. Look, even with Pat Mahomes,
every game they plays a field goal game, you're gonna
have a chance. Yeah, they're gonna have a chance. So
or at least you're gonna delude yourself into thinking you
have a chance. You want to get a gut feeling
in seven one three two one two five seven ninety
seven one three two one two five seven ninety I

(01:10:44):
will also predict that the Astros do not Now this
is probably the heavy favorite, but Astros do not end
up with Nolan Arenado. I understand why is mentioned that
that he will be here, but it just doesn't jibe.
It just doesn't make sense to me. They would give
away Bragman, giveaway Tucker, and then trade away prospects, which
you would have to do. I would imagine at least

(01:11:06):
a decent stock of prospects if you're also going to
have the cardinal sin cash back with Nolan Arnato.

Speaker 3 (01:11:11):
Now that it makes sense, don't I don't foresee the
Astros if they do lose out on Bregman going back
into the third base market. They've already done that. They
have Estoc Parades. He can fill in at third base.
I think what they do in that situation is they
pivot off a third base and start looking at first
base or another outfit.

Speaker 2 (01:11:26):
Christian Walker or do we know what kind of market
he's As far as years in value, it's it's less,
it's less years.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
The guys who can provide a little bit of thump
in the lineup at the corner at first base or
right field aren't commanding the length of contract that some
of the other guys are looking at.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
Yeah, I just I don't know. It kind of doesn't
make a whole lot of sense with me. I understand
why the Ashhros would be mixed up into that market,
but also the report from Chandler Rome says nothing imminent.
So that's why gut feeling Nolan or not not a
Houston astro. I think that's a good gut feeling. Okay,
anything else any other gut feelings you want to predict?

(01:12:06):
How's too Late going to do in the in the
gas Parilla Bowl.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
I have no idea, you know, my my radar for
two lane football goes on when they sneak into the
top twenty five midway head of season. Yes, and as
soon as I started watching, they started losing, So I
probably will not your fault.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
Oh man, Come on market value. This is what spot
Track has market value for Christian Walker three years, sixty
six million dollars. He's thirty three years old right now.
I think we've played in that three year deal, four
year first base and what's the worst it could happen?

(01:12:43):
I know exactly what the worst that could happen is. Yeah,
I guess we do all right. Time for another break
here on The Mad Thomas Show with Ross, Brian bogosvcas here.
If you want to get into gut feeling, you can
Connomer govern here as well. We got news at noon
coming up at twelve. We also will have an NFL rewind.
We got Adam Wexer coming up at one o'clock and

(01:13:03):
you if you'd like to get in at seven one, three, two,
one two, five seven ninety back after this.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
Quick break, The Matt Tamas Show with Ross continues so
on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
Final segment with Brian bogasvic here on The Matt Thomas
Show without Matt Thomas with me Ross and some Christmas music,
Yes linked HiT's the people going.

Speaker 5 (01:13:34):
With you?

Speaker 4 (01:13:35):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
Welcome back, Final segment to go here on the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross. I've been talking a lot of baseball.
Anything else you want, anything you want to get off
your chest? Not baseball related, Brian, you got something we
want to talk to do some Texans talk? How we
feeling about our Texans? Since you said you're a de
facto Texans fan.

Speaker 3 (01:13:51):
Well, I like where they're at, just general direction of
the organization in terms of, you know, are they super
Bowl contenders this year?

Speaker 2 (01:13:59):
I don't know, there are some holes. Doesn't feel like it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
No, But if you have the coach and you have
the quarterback, you're in a pretty good situation. And they've
got the coach and they've got the quarterbacks. So the
next you know, five, ten, whatever year, however many years
it's going to be, it's a good time to be
a Texas.

Speaker 2 (01:14:16):
Yeah. See that's what I say as well. And we
were talking about this yesterday because they beat the Dolphins
and I put it on Twitter, like how are you
guys feeling? And everybody's like upset, everybody's mad, I'm like,
you can't be pissed off. Okay, they're nine and five,
they clinched the division with three weeks to go. Are
they Tier one Super Bowl contenders. No, we were hoping
that they were going to make that leap. But there's

(01:14:37):
I feel like I can poke holes in any team
in the NFL. The Bills defense is terrible, the Lions
defense is terrible. The Chiefs have been in a bunch
of close games. The Ravens have lost five games. I mean,
I feel like any team that you look around, nobody's perfect. No,
absolutely not.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
I mean the parody across the league is such that
you can make an argument for again, pretty much any team.
But as somebody who spent a large part of his
life cheering for an organization that was not relevant in
the Chicago Bears. To be in a situation where your
team is relevant, where you're competitive on a weekend, week
out basis, where you can sit there and dream about, hey,

(01:15:15):
if some stuff lines up, you know, maybe we go
on to run here through the playoffs, it's a pretty
good situation to be in.

Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
I feel like the Texans fan now Astros fans are spoiled.
We are teemy terribly spoiled, Like I can't, like, they
won eighty eight games in the division last year and
everybody's upset and mad and talking about how Jim Crane
sucks and Dana Brown needs to be punted off of
the earth and all this other stuff like, but that
took years. Texans fans got spoiled in one year. One year.

Speaker 3 (01:15:42):
Well again, I'll draw the comparison to the Chicago Bears,
where they're in a situation where they're drafting at the
top of the draft and they take a franchise type
of quarterback and you know, it isn't any different this
year than last year. Is watching them play football and
for the Texans to have herned it around almost immediately
when when they draft CJ. It's it's pretty remarkable. And

(01:16:07):
you know, you get a couple of pieces around, and
you've got some payroll flexibility. It's gonna make They're gonna
go on a run at some point.

Speaker 2 (01:16:13):
Yeah, I hope so, and it could be this year.

Speaker 15 (01:16:15):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:16:15):
I don't think it's going to be this year because
they have issues with the offensive line, but they've also
been shuffling that around because of a lot of injuries
and stuff like that. So I I choose most times
in life, I choose to be optimistic. I choose to
be optimistic with the Texans.

Speaker 3 (01:16:28):
Yeah, it's it's a good time to be a fan
of the team because they're always going to be significant
and relevant.

Speaker 2 (01:16:35):
There aren't going to be many wasted years. All right.
And then how about you, Are you a bunch of
a basketball guy? Yeah, a little chu lan college basketball? No,
do they have a team? I'm sure they do. No,
I irockets. I grew up in you're a Bulls fan.

Speaker 3 (01:16:54):
Basketball was my favorite sport growing up, as it was
pretty much every kid my age in the city of Chico.

Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
Here in Houston too, because this we let you guys
have a couple of chances. Yay, hey, now, hey, hey, now.
Michael Jordan was playing in ninety five. I saw him
drop fifty in the garden when he came back.

Speaker 3 (01:17:10):
All right, but you know, it's just I'm so far
removed from that fandom. My following of basketball is casual
at best. Okay, all right, but this weekend of college
football you talk about, like, as being a fan of
college football, you just wait for these sort of like
event type games or these big late weekends. Well, we're

(01:17:31):
about to get into this weekend. Like I am beyond
excited for this weekend of college football. All right, let's
do some college football talk. Would you think about the
way that the bracket shook out with the top twelve
teams and being choose Alabama left out I think was
the marquee one. I think the committee sort of put
themselves in a position where they had to make the

(01:17:52):
decisions that they made. The way teams were ranks coming
into it. You don't want to devalue playing in the
conference championship games and all of that, and so you
end up with with SMU. I think the most predictable
thing that has come is that instead of arguing over
who the fourth versus fifth best team in the country is,
we're arguing over who's the twelfth versus thirteenth? Like every

(01:18:14):
is there anybody that didn't see that coming? So we're
never gonna give them credit for getting it right. Everybody's
gonna always have a gripe. But to have these next
you know, three weeks in a row of awesome college
football is just it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
It's the best. Yeah, it's gonna be cool. I love
the twelfth team playoff, but somebody I think I saw
it on Twitter somewhere was talking about how if we
went back to the old BCS system, what would it
just been Oregon, Georgia, Let's get this thing done. Those
teams earned it, and that's a championships would have had
very little to discuss after that. But no, but it
even have argued probably not.

Speaker 3 (01:18:47):
And there are certainly some things that need to be tweaked,
some things that you know, I don't know if they
didn't see it happening with conference champions having to get
the buys and everything, but there are tweaks to be made.
But all in all, the extra games, I mean, it's
it's a huge win for US.

Speaker 2 (01:19:03):
I said it when it was announced though, And now
every year we have to remember every year in college
football is different. Now next year you might not have
as this is a wonky year. You had Georgia with
crazy losses, Bama with crazy losses, other crazy like Indiana
out of nowhere. Every year is going to be different.
So complaining about one year and saying we need to
make material big time change off a one year I

(01:19:24):
think is an overreaction. But even before the twelve teams
were announced, I felt like automatic bids for the top
four conferences was ridiculous, and that is born out this
year where you have a team that is the nine
seed in Boise State gets the top four in the
buy and a team that is the is should be
is ranked twelve also gets shot up and it is

(01:19:47):
to the three and four seeds in the College Football
Playoff for all the marbles are Boise State in Arizona State.
Something's not right.

Speaker 3 (01:19:54):
Who We're not sure how good either of those teams
actually are. And I think just you know, general rule
of some having absolutes, having automatic anything is probably a
bad idea. Yeah, but I mean we're sitting there and
the committee is ranking these teams one through twelve on
a weekly basis, So why not when you put them
into the bracket, why not just take the top four
teams and give them the buy.

Speaker 2 (01:20:14):
Yeah, that's that's the way I think they should do it.
And at the very least we talked about this a
little bit off air. They have to reseed because Oregon
right now they have the number one seed, probably has
the toughest path to the championship. Is tartar far as
the top four, well, I think without a doubt.

Speaker 3 (01:20:28):
I mean probably they're Oregon's first game against either Tennessee
or Ohio State. That's probably the toughest opponent that anybody's
going to face in that round. And then looking ahead
to you know, potentially facing the Longhorns in Dallas for
the semi final game. It's a tough path for a
team that I think is unquestionably the number one team
in the country.

Speaker 2 (01:20:48):
Yeah. I wasn't too happy to have the Longhorns lose
the SEC championship to Georgia, but Clemson at home winnable,
and then Arizona State after that winnable, and then we're
talking about semi finals in Dallas against Oregon. As a
Longhorn fan, I can't be too upset.

Speaker 3 (01:21:03):
No, I think that's a heck of a consolation prize
for not getting the SEC championship.

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
Hey, they're undefeated against teams not named George just saying
just saying, all right, well that's gonna do it. Brian,
Thank you so much for hanging out, man. I appreciate you.
I appreciate it. Flew a couple hours flew by. It's
fun to be here. All right. We'll maybe bother you
down the road in the off season. Getting ready. You'll
be back, of course with Space City Home Network come
spring training start of the season.

Speaker 4 (01:21:26):
Ish.

Speaker 2 (01:21:27):
Yeah, no, we'll be we'll be on air.

Speaker 3 (01:21:28):
We usually get some of those first weekend of games on,
so we'll probably be putting Nastros games on early February.

Speaker 2 (01:21:35):
All right, Any big plans between now and February. No,
I'm just hanging out, Okay, just hanging out, chilling.

Speaker 15 (01:21:40):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:21:40):
Appreciate you coming by, and thanks for hanging out. We'll
bother you down the road, no problem, thank you. Right
there you go. That is Brian Bogasvik. Thanks to him
for hanging out for a couple of hours. My name
is Ross v Real be flying solo in the next hour.
We'll get Adam Wesler at one o'clock when also you
at seven one three two one two five seven ninety
if you'd like to get in seven one three two
one two five seven Nights News at noon coming up next.

Speaker 1 (01:22:04):
Lunchtimers. This is the Matt Thomas Show, twelve oh two
in h Town. What's happening in lunch timers?

Speaker 2 (01:22:12):
Hello, and welcome in to the third hour of The
Matt Thomas Show with Ross Without Matt Thomas. Brian Bogas
Evic much many thanks to him for hanging out to
really appreciate him. For the first couple of hours, I'll
be flying solo, but really I'm just making Connor McGovern
do all the heavy work. We'll get to that. He's
gonna bring us the NFL rewind coming up at twelve thirty.

(01:22:35):
We'll also have Adam Wexler coming in at one o'clock
and I will also be hanging out with him for
a couple hours. It's the holidays, we're shorthanded. You got
these divas like Matt Thomas and Adam Clanton taking time off,
so we got to fill in somewhere. So that's what
we're gonna do. I'll be hanging out with him later on.
But right now, all the top sports news items of
the day. What is happening in the world of sports.

(01:22:57):
It's time for the news at, dude to hear old
sports talks of any Let's hear it. Let's hear your
news anchor voice, Connor. This is the sports Soox seven
ninety news desk. I'm Connor mc governor. This is the
news at. That's what I'm talking about. All right, what

(01:23:18):
do we got, Connor?

Speaker 13 (01:23:19):
The Houston Texans are your AFC South champions. With the
win over the Miami Dolphins, plus the Denver Broncos defeating
the Colts, the Texans are back to back division champs.
This marks the third time in franchise history that the
Texans have won back to back division titles. Houston has
now captured the AFC South eight times in total.

Speaker 2 (01:23:36):
C J.

Speaker 13 (01:23:36):
Stroud and Dimico Ryans are the first quarterback head coach
duo at NFL history to win their division in their
first two seasons. Demiko Ryans spoke yesterday to the media
about clinching the division.

Speaker 14 (01:23:49):
In the AFC South is huge for us, A great
accomplishment by all of our guys is always our goal,
right you want to make it in the postseason, you
have to win your division there and so we're just
thankful for everyone who played a part in us, you know,
reaching the first step of our goal, and that's getting
in credit to all of our guys and the work

(01:24:11):
that they put in the way they played and yesterday
it was just I was standing to see them play
that way, play complimentary football, to find a way to
win games, and so very proud of our guys and
proud to win the AFC.

Speaker 2 (01:24:23):
So battle Red Ross. Your Texans are division Yes, yes,
and I'm happy, and you know what, I'm optimistic about
the Texans. I'm not going to be whining and talking
about how they're not contenders and they're mid and they're
the worst nine to five team. Ever, if you're telling
me that they're nine to five, they're champions of the
division with three weeks ago. They are not mid. They
just aren't elite. Unfortunately. I don't think that the Texans

(01:24:47):
are a Tier one Super Bowl contender. I think they're
probably the fourth or fifth most likely team to come
out of the AFC. But I think they've got a shot.
And I am the same person that sat well, maybe
not in this chair. We might have been in different
studios and talked about Bill O'Brien when they would go
nine and seven and win the division and talk about

(01:25:08):
how terrible it was and how there just really wasn't
much to look forward to. Oh, hold on, Tod Connor.
I mean, all right up, good, Okay. During those times,
it was Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brian Hoyer, Brock Osweiler, those were

(01:25:29):
your quarterbacks in those years. This time, yes, you have
offensive line issues, Yes, if Joe Mixon goes down, you
ain't going anywhere in the playoffs. I'll say the same
thing for Nico Collins and CJ. Strout, But this defense
has lost Jalen Petrie. Azizashai here has been has been
suspended for his dirty play against the against Trevor Lawrence

(01:25:51):
and the Jacksonville Jaguars, but at least he's going to
come back. And this defense a team in the Miami Dolphins,
which had scored thirty plus points in three out of
their labs four games. They held them to twelve. They
made two a tongue of ALOI look completely pedestrian. So
I get why we're not happy that they're not amongst
the elite, But can you really be a spoiled fan

(01:26:12):
base one year into this basically one plus year, and
you're not even having the second year of the playoffs.
You guys need to get some pep in your step
when it comes to the Texans and all the complaining
that you're doing. You're nine to five. We'll see what
happens against the Chiefs. I understand you can kind of
lack enthusiasm when the team steps up and plays the

(01:26:34):
big dogs, But the big dogs that they have played
this year. Vikings, okay, blowout loss Bills which are looking
like world beaters and everyone's talking about them in Super
Bowl favorites. The Texans look beat the Bills, and that
wasn't like the first week of the season. That was
like Week five ish, so we were still into the
year and things have changed since the of course, and
Josh Allen is playing lights out. But the Bills have

(01:26:56):
a horrible defense, and you've done really well against Josh
Allen before. You literally beat them on the field, and
if Kynie Fairburn could make field goals, you probably beat
the Detroit Lions. And also if they don't play to
lose at the end of that game and collapse, holding
that team to twenty six points is an accomplishment. Talking
about the Detroit Lions and they have a horrible defense.
There's no perfect team in the NFL. Yes, you are

(01:27:19):
a Tier two rather than a Tier one contender. But
all the hemming and hang and whining and crying about
the Texans, get over yourself and remember what we had
in that Bill O'Brien era, when when the team was
being led by the likes of Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brian
Hoyer and brockhos Wiler and the money mills. Two years

(01:27:40):
of money Mills. You're winding and crying. You got CJ. Stroud,
your back to back division champions. Act like it, Texans fans.
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get in my soapbox.
There go ahead, Connor, that's all right, We're gonna stay
with the Texans. Actually wide receiver stuff On.

Speaker 13 (01:27:54):
Diggs made an appearance on Good Morning Football and talked
about his recovery efforts after tearing his acl during the
Texans Week eighth game against the Colts. But Diggs also
talked about how he landed in Houston, his connection with
his teammates, and alluded to a possible future.

Speaker 16 (01:28:08):
It was crazy, like going in, you know, not being
even apprehensive. I spent some time with the guys on
the off season, and I kind of like it was
kind of weird because it was like then like I
feel like I knew him before. Like even though I
had somewhat of a relationship with Tanks, it was like I
knew him before, Like they were relatives of my like family.
So going into that season that was it was so
it was just so much fun. I woke up every
day with a smile.

Speaker 2 (01:28:28):
It was a little hot.

Speaker 16 (01:28:29):
I will say, if anybody's going to Houston, it's a
little hot or in the summertime, so be careful. But
definitely something to be excited about, you know, moving forward.
You know, I know what the future holds, but I
definitely got a home in Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:28:40):
I'm saying, I love those guys over there. They're good people.

Speaker 13 (01:28:43):
Mmm doesn't know what the future holds, but knows he
has a home in Houston. Diggs also said that he
would be on the Texans sideline for the Christmas Day
game against the Ravens.

Speaker 2 (01:28:52):
He was also very diplomatic, calling it a little hot.
It is scorching hot. It's freaking eight agrees in a
metal December. Can we please? Can we please? I'm not
asking for it to be fifteen degrees. I don't like snow.
I don't want to get into the negatives. But when
you live in Houston, you sign up for mild winters.

(01:29:13):
You don't sign up for hot winters. And that's what
we're getting right now in Houston. Stefan Digs it's a
little hot. That's very you know. There's the nicest thing
Stephan Digs has ever, probably anybody's said about the city
of Houston calling it a little hot. It is scorchingly,
unbearingly hot, unbearably whatever, all of that. It's terrible, barely hot.

(01:29:36):
Ugh eighty freaking degrees the last couple of days at
least it hasn't been super sticky and humid like it
was maybe over the weekend. But this is embarrassing. I
don't want this winter though, is pretty mile. It's it's
hot out. Yeah, it's hot. Like I said, I want mile,
I want mild. I want like sixty five seventy, that's mild.
This is hot, like you get up to eighty. You

(01:29:57):
shouldn't be sticky in sweating and shorts in this on
December seventeenth. It's not right, Connor, It's just not right,
all right. Well, but mentioning that he felt like family
in Houston, I don't know if that's lip service or
if he really is thinking about coming back here in Houston.
I would love for him to come back, because I
would mean a certain host who put their name on

(01:30:17):
the fact that he would be only here for one
year would be wrong. So that would be cool. That
would put a smile on my face. But We'll see
what happens with Stefan Diggs. I think actually him getting
hurt opened the window of possibility for him basically being
here on a one year proved deal to other teams.
Maybe you put that back one more year and do
one more proven deal and sign another one year deal

(01:30:38):
with the Houston Texans. That certainly is within the remo
possibility in my opinion. What else you got, Connor? Speaking
of veterans, we've got a ex rocket. James Harden was
deciding where to sign following the twenty twenty two twenty
twenty three season, and according to Sam Amick of the
Athletic head coach I Medoka helped influence Harden's decision, with
Udoka saying quote, my main thing for us was what

(01:31:00):
fits best with our young guys to continue to grow.
But also out of respect for James, I told him,
you're at the stage where you want to win and
we're not there yet. And it wasn't just James.

Speaker 13 (01:31:08):
I had five six veteran guys who went to championship
level teams who wanted to come that summer, and I
said the same thing to all of them. They all
went to other places, but they had Golden State, Milwaukee,
Phoenix and all these teams wanting them to come, but
I told them we're not there. Go try to win
a championship. And so it's just about fit and where
we're at. Our young guys needed the reps. Harden went

(01:31:28):
on to sign with the Clippers. So Imo Doka turning
away some interested veterans ahead of last season.

Speaker 2 (01:31:33):
MM. Interesting. Now, the way it was reported previously was
that Ime Adoka told the Rockets don't sign James Harden,
as in, like, we don't want him here, and the
thought being is a culture fit. So maybe it's both.
Maybe at one side he was like Rockets, yeah, don't
do this. We don't need James Harden. He's not going

(01:31:54):
to help us. That's not something we want to do.
And then on the same time telling James Harden, we're
not ready to win yet. That's what you want to do.
Although it's not like James Harden has been winning a
ton with the Clippers, although they made the playoffs last year,
right and if everybody could stay healthy, which they didn't,
maybe they would have had more of a shot. So
that is interesting. Coach Udoka telling everybody to stay away,
maybe that means he will still be an attractive target

(01:32:17):
coming up for the Rockets, depending on how things move
and shake with guys like Fred van Viet Vliet possibly
coming off the books. But they did make the big
signings to both alber And Shagoon and Jalen Green, so
I don't know how much wiggle room they have with
the CAP in the next couple of years.

Speaker 13 (01:32:32):
You want an offbeat story, yeah, let's do it, okay.
So I know you follow the combat sports a little bit.
Did you see that Conor McGregor has agreed to fight
influencer Logan Paul, the older brother of Jake Paul.

Speaker 2 (01:32:42):
Are you serious boxing exhibition in India?

Speaker 5 (01:32:45):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:32:45):
I didn't.

Speaker 13 (01:32:46):
McGregor said he would make his return to the octagon
after this boxing exhibition. So McGregor, he's thirty six, was
once the biggest star in the UFC, hasn't fought since
he injured his leg with about with Dustin Poier in
July twenty twenty one. He pulled out of UFC three
ZHO three with a Michael Chandler last June because of
a broken toe. So Logan Paul younger are just like

(01:33:08):
his younger brother Jake. He's a YouTuber turned boxer, and
he previously fought Floyd Mayweather.

Speaker 2 (01:33:13):
So who you got ross? What's the weight different? What
does Logan Paul fight at? Because he's got to be way.
I know that Jake Paul is like, well, he was
well over two hundred pounds and Connor McGregor doesn't fight
he fights well under two hundred pounds. Logan Paul, according
to Google, is six two and two oh five six

(01:33:33):
two and two oh five. Yeah, so he's gonna be
bigger than Connor McGregor, But I don't know if he's
gonna bigger enough. I'll I'll go with Connor McGregor by decision.
I don't know. I don't know. Whatever I told you
all on air, by the way, that Mike Tyxon was
gonna lose by decision because he's fifty eight years old
and he's I mean, he had been recently hospitalized and

(01:33:54):
even talked about after the fight how he had lost
all his blood and had to have a bunch of transfusions.
I didn't know that, but it seems like a dire
situation for Mike Tyson that they tried to cover up.
Connor McGregor or is at least only thirty six years old.
But he's also not a boxer. Can I just say
I don't care who wins? Sure, I'm sick of it.

(01:34:14):
I'm sick of the Pauls. I'm sick of them being
in boxing and making a bunch of money off of it. All. Right,
time for a quick break here on the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross without Matt Thomas. My name is Ross
v Real. I am with you until two o'clock. I'll
actually be with with you after that, hanging out of
the A team, but Adam Wuser will be driving the show.
Then he's going to join me at one. We've got

(01:34:34):
the NFL rewind coming up at twelve thirty. We also
have anything you want to talk about? We did some
heavy baseball talk with Brian Bogo Sevik talking about Kyle
Tucker going away. How we feeling about that, Alex Bregman.
Has the market slowed? Will it continue to slow? Have
the numbers changed after the Sodo deal? I do not know.
How would we feel about Arnatto? We're talking about Anthony

(01:34:54):
santan dare anything Astros related, rockets related? Anything you want
to get to? Seven to one three, two, one two, five,
seven ninety is the phone number seven one three, two
one two five seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:35:05):
More Matt Thomas Show with Ross now on Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 13 (01:35:11):
All right, how many Jonas brothers are there there? Well,
there's only three in the band, but there's four in
the family. Oh, some of them aren't talking to each other. Correct, No,
they're together. Okay, is everybody good?

Speaker 5 (01:35:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 13 (01:35:22):
They were, they had they would be for a little bit.
Dan Matthews speak Jonas Brothers fans. Yes, yeah, we've talked
about it before.

Speaker 2 (01:35:28):
Guys. You guys got a deep dive if they're coming
to town, him and I are going. Okay, that's cool.
You guys starting a podcast. What's the no on the
Joe Bros Jonas and the Whales? No way, that seems
mean not appropriate? Um, Jonas Brothers. No, you might get
sued for that one. That's a bad idea. Anyways, Welcome

(01:35:51):
back to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross, without Matt
Thomas and without Brian Bogas Evic, and we will have
Adam Wak's coming up at one o'clock. We've got the
NFL rewind coming up at twelve thirty, So a couple
of minutes here if you want to get in. We've
been talking all things sports with Brian boga Sevic. I
mean he was dropping knowledge on the college football playoff.

(01:36:14):
That was fun there in the last segment. And we'd
also been talking about, of course you were Houston Rockets
and the Houston Texans. As I said, I mean, I
guess I understand where we want to feel maybe less
than enthused about the Texans to where they scored twenty
points against the Dolphins, who don't have a very good defense.

(01:36:36):
A lot of it the production did come on short fields.
You look at the overall stats of the game, and
what's the one thing that I like to do because turnovers,
I think, don't always tell you the whole story if
a team is turning the ball over, and fumbles happen
all the time, and sometimes they get recovered, sometimes they don't.
But interceptions, of course, do matter. Derek Stingley ripping away

(01:36:58):
that ball from Tyreek Hill that was a plus plus
play that a lot of dbs don't make on the field.
That's an earned turnover for the Texans. But if you
look independent of the turnover battle, which I like to
do to say, okay, who had more yards, who had
more first downs, who controlled the clock? Who really was

(01:37:19):
better than in this game? There's some guy followed that
also does. He looks at those types of metrics and
way more in depth than I am. I think EPA
is a metric that he looks at and like, how
bad did your team really lose?

Speaker 1 (01:37:31):
That?

Speaker 2 (01:37:32):
I believe what he calls it. So if we look
at just like the regular numbers, eighteen first downs for
the Dolphins to twelve, not good. You lost comfortably by
that metric, two hundred and twenty four yards to one
hundred and eighty one yards for the Texans. I'm sorry,
advantage Dolphins there not good. Not what you want to see.

(01:37:52):
Overall team passing yards one hundred and four passing yards
for the Texans, seventy seven rushing yards as well, not good.
You also got some gifts from the other team in
turn of terms of penalties, eight penalties for sixty four yards,
you yourself had seven for seventy. I mean, the penalties

(01:38:14):
weren't great by the Texans, and the Miami Dolphins won
the time of possession thirty three minutes to twenty six minutes.
But the thing that really has me excited about this
team is that it kind of doesn't seem to matter.
You lost Aziz al Shaier, Christian Harris had been gone
for the majority of the year. You've had guys like

(01:38:34):
Henry Tote go out for times. Al Shaier was hurt
and now he's been suspended and Mario Edwards got suspended
and all like. And for the most part, this defense
has really stayed intact and really played well to where
I mean, Okay, a bad game against the Titans where
they scored thirty two points against you, there were some
busted plays and big production given up in those moments.

(01:38:58):
Outside of that, defense has been rock solid. They've been
one of the best units in all of football. And
if you have CJ. Stroud at the helm, who also
has not looked as spectacular as he has in years past,
but still a couple of times a week makes you
go wow, oh my gosh, to where Davis Mills wouldn't
have made that play. We can go back to, Okay,

(01:39:19):
maybe maybe Deshaun Watson would have made that play as
far as like two thousand and nineteen Deshaun Watson, but
not twenty twenty four. De Deshaun Watson because he's been
terrible and then he ripped his achilles. But you have
a special quarterback who can go out there and win
you games. He proved it last year and I still
think he has that capability within him. And then you

(01:39:41):
have a really solid defense. Yes, you aren't, as I say,
a Tier one contender, but you're in the mix. You're
in the mix if you're in the Houston Texans and
three weeks Togo, you've already clinched your division. And we'll
see how much they have to play for, how hard
they go for top seeds and all that type of stuff.
But uh, I mean, at the end of the day,

(01:40:03):
you were in and I believe guaranteed the top four
spot as a division leader are the Houston Texans Yankees.
Keith holding alongest to the phone lines. What's up, Keith?

Speaker 15 (01:40:12):
Hey, how you doing man?

Speaker 2 (01:40:14):
I'm doing great? What's up? Well?

Speaker 15 (01:40:16):
I was wrong about the Yankees getting Tucker?

Speaker 2 (01:40:19):
Yes you were.

Speaker 15 (01:40:21):
I'm calling now because.

Speaker 2 (01:40:23):
And Sodo did you have him getting Soto too?

Speaker 15 (01:40:27):
I don't want to talk about Toto, not at all.
So I'm calling about the Rocket. I know, I know
that you're a big Rocket fan like me. Yes, get
that's gonna help with our shooting. Who's out there available
that we can actually get.

Speaker 2 (01:40:49):
Uh, I don't know, man, I'd have to look at
who's all in the trademarket. The only name that I've
really heard mentioned with the the Rockets has been Jimmy Butler,
and that's something that Raphael Stone has kind of dismissed publicly.
And although he has been a better three point shooter
in the last three years, he hasn't for his career.

(01:41:09):
The balance of his career has not been great, but
he has improved. And as far as other guys moving around.
As far as the market, I'm honestly not really sure.
With the trade deadline a couple of months away, I know.

Speaker 15 (01:41:22):
They've been talking about on ESPN. He was talking about
the Rockets involving Jabari Smith in a trade, which I
said a long time ago, that that we probably need
to trade Jabari Smith and get somebody that can actually shoot.
But if you're saying it, I mean, I don't. I
don't think we've won Jimmy Butler, but he just don't.

(01:41:44):
I don't see what he asks to the team for real.

Speaker 2 (01:41:47):
I would say toughness. He definitely would be philosophically aligned
with Imadoka and plays good defense, he's a scoremaker. He's
a scorer, he's a playmaker. He's one of those guys
which right now, the Rockets don't have fun two minutes.
Where's the ball going, where's the offense getting created from?
What can we do where the team kind of has
us figured out? But we're gonna have somebody who can

(01:42:07):
impress their will on the other team's defense and score
no matter what. And Jimmy Butler is a guy who's
has a track record of doing that. How you feel
about it, I think he's too old. I don't think
it makes a whole lot of sense. I think he
makes this team better. Bottom line. If you give away
Jimmy Butler, I mean, I'm sorry, JABARTI Smith Jr. And
I don't know if it's gonna cost you picks and

(01:42:28):
stuff like that. I wouldn't be super enthused about trading
for a thirty five year old, but I think for
the immediate impact he would be good. But does he
make them a championship contender? Probably not. In long term,
I think it would be end up being a move
the Rockets might live to regret.

Speaker 15 (01:42:46):
I feel the same way. I'm just trying to figure
out you know and I both know that they can't shoot.
They need a shooter. There's gotta be somebody out there
that they can actually a Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:42:58):
I mean there's rumors that the Pelicans are to be
blowing everything up. I don't know if brandon Ingram interest you, Yeah,
let's do it. He's a decent shooter, but he's not
like a knockdown guy. But somebody that could be available
on the market. Feels like Jimmy Butler needs to go
on like a win now situation for a team whoever
they may be.

Speaker 15 (01:43:20):
All Right, that's all I got. All Right, Ross, I
hope you have a good day.

Speaker 4 (01:43:23):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:43:23):
Thank you, Keith. I appreciate you getting in and thank
you for making the call. All right, time for a
quick break here on Sports Talk seven ninety it is
the Matt Thomas Show without Matt Thomas with Ross yet
Adam Luxer coming up, and also next up, we're going
to take a look around the NFL as we take
an NFL rewind here next on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:43:46):
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross continue. So on Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:44:08):
Yeah, we just don't have instrumental hits at the top
of the charts anymore. Maybe it was the discos, maybe
it was the heavy drug use. I don't know what
it is. We got to bring back instrumentals being at
the top of the charts. I believe Fifth of Beethoven
might even have been a number one hit back in
nineteen seventy six. Okay, I made the year up. I'm
not exactly sure what year it is.

Speaker 15 (01:44:29):
But.

Speaker 2 (01:44:31):
It's a jam. And we always use this song because
Matt complains about NFL cliched music, So for some reason
we go to something from the seventies, very Matt Thomas
of him and that's okay. We use this song when
we go to the NFL rewind. What happened this weekend
and yesterday? In the NFL, normally it's me, but when
Matt is out, I make Connor do all the grunt work.

(01:44:52):
Connor McGovern, what do we got for the NFL Rewind?

Speaker 13 (01:44:56):
Week fifteen in the NFL kicked off with kind of
an underwhelming game offensive Lea with the Los Angeles Rams
defeating the San Francisco forty nine Ers twelve to six
in Clement weather was definitely a factor, But thanks for
making me lose in Fantasy Brock Party from midfield pressure,
coming party.

Speaker 2 (01:45:11):
Hit, Party, Shacked, game over.

Speaker 17 (01:45:15):
Christian Rose Boom clinches it. The Rams have a three
game winning streak and they sweep San Francisco twelve six
to the final. LA has won three to zero three
in a row against the Niners for the first time
in twenty three years.

Speaker 13 (01:45:33):
The forty nine ers are definitely struggling, might be in
their best interest to rest star veterans with only three
games left in the season, but with the win, ESPN
Analytics gives the Rams a fifty two percent chance to
make the playoffs and a forty nine percent chance to
win the division, while they are just a half game
back of first in the NFC West.

Speaker 2 (01:45:51):
Huh, how is it a half game back?

Speaker 5 (01:45:53):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:45:54):
Now they're tied. They're tied for the lead because of
the Seahawks lost yesterday. Uh, a couple of days ago. Sorry,
Do the Rams have the tiebreaker over the Seahawks? Oh?
Maybe that could be. I don't know. I'm looking at
the standings and it has the Rams in first. Let
me see, Seahawks, the Rams beat them the first time
and they played them the last week of the season,

(01:46:15):
so right now the Rams do have the tiebreaker. So yeah,
maybe you just maybe those standings you were reading from
before Sunday Night Football, or the Seahawks just got trashed
by the Green Bay Packers. But speaking of the forty
nine Ers, I mean we're just talking up to injuries.
I mean they've had guys hurt. Tran Williams has been
hurt here and there. I think maybe did Fred Warner

(01:46:35):
miss some time. Of course, Christian McCaffrey has been out
all season. The second he came back for a couple
of weeks, he was out again, and then they lost
Jordan Mason. They've been playing Isaac Grendo, who also had
a foot injury. Are we writing off the forty nine ers.
I guess if they can win out, maybe they can
sneak in. You mentioned the playoff odds. Let me pull

(01:46:55):
up what ESPN has.

Speaker 13 (01:46:58):
I mean, I think star player is getting hurt is
kind of exposing I mean brock Party himself was hurt,
but kind of exposing the fact that he's just a guy.

Speaker 2 (01:47:04):
Yeah, Brandon Aiyuk's been out all basically for the uh
the entire season. I think he tore his ACL so
they've been missing some pieces. But yeah, brock Party supposed
to be that dude hasn't really been that way, all right?
Who's better right now? Brock Party? C J Stroud, CJ Stroud, Yes,

(01:47:24):
fifteen touchdowns, nine interceptions on the season for one Brocklyn
Garrison Party. I made that up. Dolphins on the road,
Lions at home at the Cardinals. Niners aren't making the playoffs.
I don't think. What do you think about those rumors?

(01:47:45):
I've heard as well that Kyle Shanahan could be traded,
possibly to the Bears or another team. Why would the
Niners do that? I have not heard those rumors bad.
I'm kind of crazy. That would be wild, all right?
What else you got on the NFL?

Speaker 13 (01:47:56):
Rewind The Ravens stomped the struggling Giants, but they thirty
five to fourteen win. The Ravens struggled earlier in the season,
playing down to lesser opponents with losses to the Raiders
and the Browns, but that was not the case on Sunday,
with Lamar Jackson tying a career high with five touchdown passes.

Speaker 2 (01:48:12):
Shot Baitman splits to the left inside the numbers. Lamar
stands in the shotgun on second down, likely comes in
motion to the left Lamar takes the snap looking to
the left, firing man zone. He's got a man touchdown.
We're shot Bateman his second of the day.

Speaker 13 (01:48:27):
Lamar Jackson putting himself back in the MVP conversation alongside
Josh Allen at Saquon Barkley. But the Ravens have a
tough test in front of them, facing the Steelers on Saturday.
The Ravens have lost eight of their past nine games
to their biggest rival, and the Steelers can clinch the
AFC North title with a win.

Speaker 2 (01:48:43):
Thirty four touchdowns, three interceptions for Lamar Jackson.

Speaker 13 (01:48:52):
Lamar Jackson had more touchdowns than incompletions in that game.

Speaker 2 (01:48:56):
And it feels like that's not the first time he's
done that in the NFL. Also has run for seven
hundred and forty three yards and three touchdowns. He has
lost four fumbles, so still overall though, seven turnovers, thirty
seven touchdowns and he might not win MVP. Josh Allen
very deserving. I mean, I'd have to look at the

(01:49:16):
numbers between the both of them. Baltimore has lost more games.
Both teams have bad defenses who haven't been playing well
all season long, and Lamar did get bottled up by
the Steelers and the Eagles, who have good defenses. So
we'll see what happens is they play the Steelers again
this year. But man, if you're Lamar Jackson, I mean

(01:49:39):
his numbers right now are eclipsing what he got last
year when he won. He threw twenty four touchdowns seven
picks last year and won the MVP. But the team
was better. That's usually what factors in. So we'll see
how it shakes out. A lot of season left. If
they went out and he plays well and Josh Allen
and the Bills went out, Josh Allen could of course
plays well, It's gonna be a tight MVP race, to

(01:49:59):
be sure. What else you got Conna mcgoven and probably the.

Speaker 13 (01:50:03):
Best game of the week because the Buffalo Bills handed
the Detroit Lions their second loss of the season and
a forty eight to forty two win. Quarterback Josh Allen
extended his own win streak with a sixth career game
of multiple passing touchdowns and multiple rushing touchdowns.

Speaker 2 (01:50:16):
Gonna roll out to is right, Allen's gonna throw it
to Davis and he's into.

Speaker 18 (01:50:20):
The end zone for a five yard touchdown. Reception Allen
with his second passing touchdown or the game. And with
that passing touchdown, Allen has become the first quarterback in
the NFL to have twenty five passing touchdowns and five
rushing touchdowns in five consecutive seasons.

Speaker 2 (01:50:41):
He is a touchdown machine.

Speaker 13 (01:50:45):
The Lions have their eleven game win streak snapped, and
even though Jared Goff threw for nearly five hundred yards
and five touchdowns, they still lost Dan Campbell. Dan Campbell
made some questionable coaching decisions, especially with the on side
kick with ten minutes left in the game. With the
loss of the Lions fall to twelve and two, and
yet the NFC's top seed is now shared but the
Philadelphia Eagles, who won their game against the Steelers.

Speaker 2 (01:51:06):
Yeah. Interesting, did the Lions in the Lions and Eagles
play this year or do they play this year?

Speaker 5 (01:51:15):
Do we know that?

Speaker 2 (01:51:16):
Can you look that up for me real quick?

Speaker 13 (01:51:17):
I'm not sure if they played, but I believe the
Lions are still ahead because.

Speaker 2 (01:51:21):
Of in conference record conference record. Okay, so then yeah,
it's the ever head before that that mus mean there's
no head to head, so I couldn't remember. I don't
think they've played, at least off the top of my head,
I don't think they're scheduled to play either. But yeah,
Josh Allen, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson. I mean that it's
a choose your fighter type of situation. I know that
Sequon Barkley has been talked about and maybe he'll get

(01:51:43):
in the mix, but we know when it comes to MVP,
it's a best Quarterback award and it is what it is.
That's what it's come down to. I think the last
what last non quarterback I think was Adrian Peterson. Dude
had to run for two thousand yards in order to
win that award, so that ain't happened. I don't think
well though Sekwan could get to two thousand yards. I
don't know what his latest pace is. But coming down

(01:52:04):
to those two guys, both of them have bad defenses,
and honestly, that looks lets them rack up as many
yards as they've had to. Mark Jackson's not gonna have
to get six touchdowns or throw for five, and Josh
Allen's not gonna have to get six touchdowns if their
defense were any good. But that all factors in it
just says what it is It'll be interesting to see
how that race comes down to the wire. Anything else,

(01:52:25):
Conde mcgvin.

Speaker 13 (01:52:26):
I mean, speaking of the Eagles, they just won the
Pennsylvania State championship, defeating the Steelers twenty seven to thirteen.
Much was said about the relationship between Aj Brown and
quarterback Jalen Hurts, but they seem to have cleared the
air after the Eagles picked up their tenth straight win.

Speaker 4 (01:52:39):
It'll be second then goal. I'll spot the ball up
the five Hurts of the gun. Barklett was left Aj
Brown out to the far side. Players Loasomehurst this time
backs up look Fires.

Speaker 2 (01:52:50):
To play hey Jem Brown in the back of the zone.

Speaker 13 (01:52:55):
The Eagles are a win away from clinching the NFC
East and at least a top two seed. Despite a loss,
The Steelers clinched a playoff berth after the Colts and
Dolphins both lost.

Speaker 2 (01:53:06):
Yeah, Steelers, who are the Texans are chasing as far
as the seeding in the AFC. We'll see how that goes.
But as you mentioned, Aj Brown, the Squeaky Wheel gets
eight receptions one hundred and ten yards and a touchdown.
DeVante Smith with eleven catches one hundred and nine yards
and a touchdown. Some production for the Eagles there, who've
really been coming on strong. NFC shaping up to feel

(01:53:27):
like it's the Eagles or the Lions. But of course
anything can happen to the playoffs and we shall see
all right, time for quick break here on the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas. He is out
on vacation. I am here with you, Adam Wexer. Rumors
are he is in the building here at Sports Talk
seven ninety. He'll be joining me at one o'clock. You

(01:53:48):
can get in as well. Anything NFL you want to
talk about. We've been covering Kyle Tucker stuff, Alex pregnant,
anything you want to get to. Seven one three two
one two five. Seven ninety is the phone number, seven
to one three, two one two five. Haven't I.

Speaker 1 (01:54:03):
The Rockets had Red Nation? Matt tas Mattie Nation.

Speaker 2 (01:54:08):
Things are going to start happening to me now.

Speaker 1 (01:54:12):
You made it. I'm not funny now more, Matt Thomas.

Speaker 2 (01:54:16):
Now should I just let this whole thing play? Thinking
about it, I guess I won't. Welcome back to The
Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas, Adam Weser
joining whenever he sees fit. Uh Mconnor McGovern is here.
Thanks to Brian bog Sevic for hanging out. Bogeye was great.

(01:54:39):
Bogey was awesome. He's really good. I actually have already talked.
I started talking to Brian and Gordy about getting Matt replaced.
That would be fun. I'd like to see how that would.
Hopefully those conversations can bear fruit. We'll see what we're doing.
I mean, we're trying to make some negotiations here, see
what we can do.

Speaker 12 (01:54:55):
Well, if he's going to be you know, as you
said with Man, who'd you say it about availabilities? Is
rather important? You were talking about a football player, I believe,
or Breman maybe somewhere. Oh on, Mike Trout, Mike Trout,
that was it. Well, Bogie's available, that's right, empty sight person.

Speaker 2 (01:55:12):
But I'm this, of course tongue chee, because I'm going
to be out the last two days of this week,
so and I just came back from like a two
and a half week vacation, So obviously I'm joking talking
about Matt. But what wex to hanging out getting on
a little bit early. By the way, I don't know,
if I give you fair warning, come out of a
one thirty new gut feelings. We're doing it twice. We're
double dipping. So I want to hear your gut feelings.
So we're going to do that that again coming up

(01:55:35):
at one thirty. I mean, I mean, I don't even
know where to start a lot of stuff that we
have covered and to cover. We're talking some NFL in
the last segment, so let's keep it going with that. Uh,
just you're feeling with the Texans to where I put
out my my signature how you feeling tweet over the weekend.

(01:55:55):
And I can't say I was surprised, but I would
say for a team that two years ago was led
by Davis Mills and David Cully and was in the
conversation it had literally the number two overall pick that
how fast this has to be? Lightning speed?

Speaker 9 (01:56:13):
Is this the.

Speaker 2 (01:56:14):
Fastest fan base to ever get spoiled in sports history?
Because it seems like it's got to be close. Yeah, spoiled?

Speaker 12 (01:56:19):
This is something you could call them or isn't it
nice to I can see for both sides, but isn't
it nice that they think this isn't enough?

Speaker 2 (01:56:26):
We want more, we're not satisfied.

Speaker 12 (01:56:28):
Like same thing on Sunday afternoon, I was at the game,
and obviously anybody who's been to a game since their
last division championship can see there's a clear spot for
the eighth AFC South Division title banner. And so I
took a little video scrolling across the top of NRG
Stadium and saying, time to hang a banner. They've clinched

(01:56:49):
a division. Now it's met with the same kind of
we need to quit caring about that, we need to
only hang other banners. Well, there aren't any other banners
to hang because they haven't done anything yet. So clearly,
winning a division we definitely the point where no, that's
not what we're after, that's not the goal, but it
is a step you guarantee a playoff spot. There's three
games to go, there's three games left. They've already clinched

(01:57:11):
a off spot. And there's nobody that has a worse
record than him. There's no one has a better record
than them that has clinched at playoff spot.

Speaker 2 (01:57:19):
They're right where they're supposed to be.

Speaker 12 (01:57:20):
If they were nine and five and they were in
another division, they'd bet Baltimore would that be so bad.
A second place team at nine and five, that's what
Baltimore is. A second place team at nine and five,
that's what the Broncos are. They're acting like the Texans
are six and nine, and yep, they clinch though, So
I'm all for wanting more and saying this is not

(01:57:41):
the bar. But you know, you win football games, you
get to nine and five. There are a whole three
teams in the AFC with a better record, you know what.
I hate to say, the only one they've played, they've beaten.
And I don't want to do this to you Texans fans,
and of course i'm Battlered Ross. I'm a Texans fan myself.
It feels almost like Seattle Mariner fan.

Speaker 2 (01:58:02):
Seattle Mariner fan acts like they've ripped off fifteen World
Series in the last twenty five years and they're so
like entitled to all this greatness and all this like
it's like, what you're the Seattle Mariners like this? Houston
Texas have never been to a Super Bowl and as
you mentioned, never been to an AFC championship game? What
to what standard do we feel like they owe the

(01:58:23):
organization owes it to all of us to be extremely
elite within two years of one of the worst seasons
in the history of the franchise with the worst coach
in the history of the franchise, David.

Speaker 12 (01:58:33):
Cully, and thinking about like the Mariners and how they
were puffing their chests out.

Speaker 2 (01:58:41):
That was to the Astros.

Speaker 12 (01:58:43):
That was directed specifically at the team that they can't
beat and haven't beaten and probably will never beat.

Speaker 2 (01:58:50):
The Texans.

Speaker 12 (01:58:50):
Fans aren't directing it anybody. They're just saying, you know, here,
we do feel a little spoiled. We heard everything that
the people here on this station said, because I'm gonna
include myself. Yeah, this team has a chance to go
big this year, advance in the playoffs. Dare I say
super Bowl? And all they've done is win nine games
and every even this week. I mean, you got four

(01:59:11):
turnovers and you still had to get the fourth turnover
on the last possession to ensure that we weren't headed
to overtime after a touchdown and a two point It's yeah,
that is what the twenty twenty four Texans are. The
same thing could happen in a playoff game Baltimore comes
to town. It's twenty three to sixteen, last minute Lamar
Jackson has the ball. I mean, any of those things
are absolutely could happen here. Big game this weekend between

(01:59:34):
the Ravens and the Steelers, the other Saturday game because
the Steelers.

Speaker 2 (01:59:39):
Beat them already this year.

Speaker 12 (01:59:40):
Yes, the Steelers clinch the division if they win, which
means Baltimore's playing on the road opening weekend, and the
Texans play Baltimore on Christmas Day, so the Texans will
if that happens Saturday. If the Steelers lose or excuse me,
beat the Ravens, then they win the division. The Texans
will remain shape sing the Steelers for a seed, yes,

(02:00:02):
but the top four seeds will be locked in who
they are. Ravens will be a wild card team if
they make the playoffs, which they still would be heavily
favored to do so. But that means they're going to
play somewhere on the road, and the Texans, so to speak,
would have a say in that in that they play
them the following game.

Speaker 2 (02:00:21):
I got a hot take, I'm more scared of Lamar
Jackson than Russell Wilson, but I am about the same
amount of scared of the Steelers and T J. Watt,
who was who did miss some time but should be healthy.
And that Steelers defense as a team, I'm about the
same amount of scared because you can score on the Ravens.

Speaker 12 (02:00:35):
Well, let's just say you have to play both of
them on your way. Would you prefer to play Baltimore
here in Pittsburgh there, because that's the setup most likely
if the Steelers went on Saturday, I would say yes,
I would too, hmm, So we'll see. You might get
even luckier and you know play. Oh, here's what we want.
Here's what we want, which is always the worst thing
to do exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:00:55):
For now, the Steelers have been looking a little bit
shaky though their offense is gettable. But I think Russell
Wilson can make some plays. And that defense against this
Texans offensive line, who I think there'd be some major issues,
major issues. All right, we're gonna take a break here.
Adam Wexer is here, thanks for we'll pay him overtime
for coming in for that extra segment. And well you're

(02:01:16):
here as well if you'd like to get in on
the phone line soother of you and hold will get
to you as well. Our number four of the Matt
Thomas Show is next. We got gut Feelings Part due
coming up at one thirty and you at seven one
three two one two five seven ninety seven one three
two one two five seven.

Speaker 1 (02:01:31):
Ninety lunchtimers, this is the Matt Thomas Show, our number
four of the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas.

Speaker 2 (02:01:47):
Ross very out with you. Adam Wexer graciously hanging out
for an hour with me. I do appreciate him. Brian
Bogosevic was in earlier talking a lot of stuff. We've
been talking some Texans. We've been talking some I mean
and uh Bocusvik dropping the college football playoff knowledge on us.
Sounds like he's a fan of that stuff. That was fun.
Of course, we've been talking to Ashtros and Texans and

(02:02:08):
anything you guys want to get to. Seven to one
three two one two five, seven to ninety is the
phone number. Seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
One of the reasons that I love having other hosts
on this station on and we can kind of talk
and freshen things up. And I don't think I've talked
to you much and maybe haven't gotten much of the
show wex but uh, the Kyle Tucker trade happened last week.

(02:02:33):
First of all, what was your shock level? At least
when it was first talked about. It felt imminent at
some point, especially when the article dropped from Chandler Rome
and Ken Rosenthal about the pieces and the Cubs, and
then when it finally happened that that wasn't a shock there,
but the fact that they moved in that direction and
the and we'll start with the return that they got back.
Your feelings on.

Speaker 12 (02:02:52):
That, Yeah, I'm thinking about some of the players' names
that were mentioned, specifically Saya Suzuki. I thought that made
a lot of sense for the type of offensive player
he is and what he does to help a team win,
get on base, can slug a little bit. He's probably
going to be a really, really helpful offensive player along
with Perettis. That had the makings of what I thought
seemed like a reasonable beginning to the return. Was also

(02:03:14):
aware of how much money he makes and wondered why
they would be interested in that yard. So that's quite
obviously why I'm sure he's not a part of the deal.
So you lock in on those three players, you'd like
to hope that you figure something out with a pitcher
that another team didn't The Astros do have a history
with that. Counting on that is probably a little much,
but maybe there's something there. He certainly needs to be

(02:03:35):
a major leaguer all year and for all of the
years they have of control. Talking about the sci Fair
native was Nesky, Perettis is pretty clear what kind of.

Speaker 2 (02:03:45):
Player he is. He's going to pull the ball a lot.

Speaker 12 (02:03:48):
If he homers, it's going to be to left field,
whether it's here or in any other ballpark. Interesting that
some of his home numbers in Tampa and then briefly
in Chicago at Wrigley were really bad. His road numbers
basically as long as he wasn't playing in those two places,
they were really really good. Last year, he did have
some distance between his splits that has widened over his career.

(02:04:10):
But you've probably got a guy if he's out there
for one hundred and fifty games, he's going to hit
twenty five home runs, he can drive in eighty five
plus and fits into a lineup where he's probably in
the top five. Obviously that depends on Bregman and then
bottom line, pretty simple, Cam Smith has to be a star.
I mean, it's as simple as that. You traded a star,

(02:04:30):
even in the last year of his deal, So your
return might be.

Speaker 2 (02:04:33):
Skewed a little bit.

Speaker 12 (02:04:34):
One year deal, but one year from Juan Soto getting
moved for incredible talent, really incredible talent. We already know
because everyone's put out all the graphics, all the comps.
Wan Soto versus Kyle Tucker is not the massive gap
that many would have portrayed it prior to this deal.

Speaker 2 (02:04:52):
Well, for one year. For the balance of their careers,
it's a huge no, no no.

Speaker 12 (02:04:55):
But I'm saying Won Soto got traded with one year
left on his deal and Kyle Tucker just got traded
with one year left on his deal. I mean Wan
Soto for his entire career, Like the second he walked
onto the stage, the big stage, he's been incredible.

Speaker 2 (02:05:07):
How old was he?

Speaker 12 (02:05:08):
Yeah, I forget so I understand all that. But yeah,
that's that's the simplest way to put it. Cam Smith
needs to be a major league star for the Astros,
just like all of the other first round picks before
him that they made. Now it's somebody else's pick you've
added right after the draft. He's had half a season
of pro baseball. Now it's whether he's your third basement
of the future. You're right fielder of the future, but

(02:05:30):
it's probably one of those two spots.

Speaker 2 (02:05:31):
Yeah, I mean, I feel like we're mostly on the
same page. But the thing that kind of confused me is, Okay,
you got the Tucker deal done, and then you're, in
all likelihood ninety nine point nine percent whatever you want
to put on it, you're you're in all likelihood not
going to have Alex Bregman back. But I would also
would have figured that a deal would have been signed
somewhere by now, and it hasn't been. But if those

(02:05:51):
two things are happening, then why would it make sense
to trade for Nolan Arnatto in that way?

Speaker 12 (02:05:56):
Prospect it makes no sense whatsoever. I'm totally if you
think it makes those st I totally agree. Adding twenty
five million a year in salary roughly, we don't know
what the Cardinals would pick up.

Speaker 2 (02:06:05):
Keep in mind, when really the Rockies picked up some
of it, so it would be still trickling down from that.
But whatever the Cardinals do pick up. What happens when
a team decides to pay in a trade to make
you take their player, would you give them better players
better in return? So that He makes it even worse
because the Astros have to have some players ready to
play Major League baseball at some point.

Speaker 12 (02:06:24):
We can clearly they have clear holes on this year's team.
They will have more holes on future teams quite possibly. So,
uh yeah, that one doesn't make much sense to me.
If you're going to commit twenty five million over three
years to Aeronauto and losing, you know, why wouldn't you
just commit a little more for many more years, twice
as many years potentially, and keep all your prospects, keep
all your players in the system, and have Bregman play

(02:06:45):
third base for another five to six years.

Speaker 5 (02:06:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:06:48):
So, I guess I'm trying to figure out exactly where
the Astros are and is this it's not a rebuild
obviously they're not stripping it down. You still have plus
players who are good value to I mean, starting with
your Alvarez, Juiner Diz, and then we'll see about Hunter Brown,
Renel Blanco, Spencer Arraghetty. I mean, are all three of
those guys going to continue to be stars our well,

(02:07:09):
Arraghedty to the probably the least extent, but I don't
know it's possible. And then that also belies a question
of what what happens with is is your opening day starter?
If I say it's from Rivaldez, you say what, Yes,
it is.

Speaker 12 (02:07:24):
Brom Arvalde that that's a clear sign to me you're
gonna take a team that won zero playoff games last
year and say goodbye to Tucker, Bregman and Valdez and
think this is the direction you want to take.

Speaker 5 (02:07:34):
Now.

Speaker 12 (02:07:34):
Some might view it as a Okay, let's take one
year away, let's take a step back, yes, and see
if we can compete in the division. If we don't,
we don't, okay, but we're primed to start winning again
big in twenty twenty six. Then who did you get
for fromber Where did you spend the money that you
saved by not paying Bregman, Tucker or Valdez? And admit, again,
it doesn't have to be this offseason if that's the

(02:07:56):
way you're playing it. But you can't go into twenty
twenty six without have spent a lot of that money
and seeing return on Cam Smith and whatever the top prospect,
top player you got from the Valdez deal, but competing
without those guys this year, So who's you just think
about your second the second day of the season. You're
facing Juan Soto for the second time. Who's pitching right now?

(02:08:18):
Hunter Brown, who's pitching the first day.

Speaker 2 (02:08:21):
Oh, you're saying if it's not.

Speaker 12 (02:08:24):
Okay, and then you're gonna close out the series with
Spencer Spencerragetty, Luis Carcio. That's your one three five. We're
already in the question territory, and this is with you're
presuming they're healthy. You're not gonna have a whole season
of health.

Speaker 2 (02:08:40):
Charlie Morden Three.

Speaker 12 (02:08:41):
No pitching depth to begin with. They needed to add
pitchers to them go away. We don't know the return
for fromber so. I recognize that as we have this
hypothetical discussion, but it will be it would be hard
to stomach, I think for fans, probably for Jim Crane too.
But as if he's gonna tell us the windows always open,
then when he is it for twenty twenty five, he

(02:09:02):
better be blasting it wide open in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (02:09:05):
I guess it depends on what we mean by window,
but I mean it's trading away Kyle Tucker, and then
if Bregman gets signed away, it's it's a different kind
of word. But if you landed a star in each
of the deal.

Speaker 12 (02:09:13):
In the Tucker deal with cam Smith, and in the
Valdez deal you land a second star. You got Pradus Alvarez,
Diez al Tuve. That's you know, five or six hitters
in your line.

Speaker 2 (02:09:24):
Very unlikely.

Speaker 12 (02:09:26):
I can't imagine you're moving fromber then you can't unless
that's what's.

Speaker 2 (02:09:32):
Going unless yeah, but I mean there's no such thing
as a as a guaranteed star and a pharmcism anyways,
and then if there is, you're probably not getting traded
away for from er Valdez for one year of him,
for one year of a guy who's been prone to
blow ups, and then you would have question marks about
signing long term.

Speaker 12 (02:09:46):
Somehow, even amidst those blow ups, he's been great. He's
been like over the course of any season for the
last three years, and compared with an he's been great.

Speaker 2 (02:09:55):
I'm with you, I'm with you. I think he gets
a lot more heat than he deserves. Same thing with
what would happened with Ryan Presley. It sticks more in
our mind than negatives and the positives. You look at
the balance of it, and really, since giving up those
three home runs against what was the Angels at the
beginning of the season, like he was one of the
best pitchers in baseball for months, for months.

Speaker 12 (02:10:14):
Okay, I believe they make t shirts about a streak
he once had.

Speaker 2 (02:10:18):
Yes, that is true about a qual like he's been on.
He's been. Yes, a few blow ups here and there,
and yes he makes this nervous. And yes, playoff start
wasn't very good. We do have to mention that as well.

Speaker 12 (02:10:29):
Yes, the recent postseason history for him a little bit
of a downturn, but prior to that last postseason, not
this year, but the year before, he was incredible in
twenty four year run of very strong post See he's
a disaster.

Speaker 2 (02:10:40):
In twenty one because everybody was a disaster at that point.
The COVID season, the one when they made the World
Series and the and they lost to the Braves in
six games. I don't believe disaster would quite fit. But yeah,
we get with people on that. Yeah, can we can
get some people on that. While you do that, let's
get James who wanted to talk some astros quick? What's up, James?

(02:11:02):
Thank you, gentlemen for accepting my call.

Speaker 9 (02:11:04):
I would just wanted to laborate on I think the
Astros kind of pull a trigger on the Tucker trade
too soon. They still had least ninety days to go
before they can actually you know, they just took the
first thing off. But I think they panic when they
seen Soto get that kind of contract. And if my opinion,
Tucker is a better all around ballplayer than Soto, so

(02:11:27):
they kind of panic and say, no, we can't deal
with this here financially.

Speaker 2 (02:11:30):
So let's move it.

Speaker 9 (02:11:31):
Let's move the player Kyle Tucker. And I think they
just as far as I'm concerned, they didn't get nothing
that would guarantee them of equal value close to forgetting
trading Kyle Tucker for the three prospects that they got.

(02:11:54):
And my question is this here, who gonna play third base?

Speaker 2 (02:11:57):
Who gonna play right field?

Speaker 9 (02:11:59):
And we're looking basically everybody keeps saying, uh, we should
win the division.

Speaker 6 (02:12:06):
We barely won the division last year with.

Speaker 9 (02:12:10):
Half a season of Kyle Tucker and a whole season
of Bregman. So I just wanted to know with everybody
getting this, you know, perception that the hash CROs is
a shoe in to win the division again. And thank
you guys for accepting my call.

Speaker 2 (02:12:26):
Thank you James. It probably has more to do with
the other four teams.

Speaker 12 (02:12:29):
First of all, nobody I think is looking at the
Rangers or Mariners specifically as well, Look how much better
they are, Look what they could be doing. It might
happen without them making any significant moves. And they've made
some moves of all, the being back and adding a
catcher for the Rangers. But beyond that, they're probably very
similar to what they were last year, and for good reason,
especially the merrit they should have been. It seemed like

(02:12:51):
they should have been much better. The Astros aren't better.
I don't think anybody's sitting here saying that. And if
they barely won the division last year, then telling everybody
I'm sure they're win it this year, that does sound
foolish to say.

Speaker 2 (02:13:02):
I'm not saying that.

Speaker 12 (02:13:03):
I hope others that are watching this situation closely aren't
echoing that because they aren't. They're in the mix and
the off season's not over. I don't know about panicked
and took the first deal that they saw.

Speaker 2 (02:13:15):
I don't think so.

Speaker 12 (02:13:16):
I think the public gets a well, Dana Brown just
said they're listening. I don't think that was the first
time other GMS knew that, or that the Astros were
doing that privately. This deal didn't come together in five seconds.
These are players that they would have long since had
in mind. Clearly, Peretis they already tried to trade for.
Cam Smith happened to be a prospect probably out of

(02:13:37):
their reach in twenty twenty four with where they picked.
But as cam Smith acknowledged in a nice article written
by Chandler Rome on The Athletic, Dana Brown told Cam
this is you know, the first time I saw you,
I could see how good you were, and so I
don't think they panicked. I think they knew this offseason.
This is probably something I have to strongly consider. They
talked to Excel and Kyle Tucker his agency past year

(02:14:01):
and years prior.

Speaker 2 (02:14:02):
They knew where this was headed.

Speaker 12 (02:14:03):
Before One Soda got Mega millions, it was headed to
all right, if he leaves after this year, then that's
that because he's not going to sign here. I mean
it's a two way street. Dana can yell it on
our radio station as all as as often as he wants.
Kyle Tucker's going to be an Astro for life. It's
great to hear, but he can't make the other side
agree to their terms. He can only offer them what
they feel is right, and he knows that offer from

(02:14:25):
Houston was not going to be in the range they
were going to accept.

Speaker 2 (02:14:28):
Yeah. Absolutely, It's just not a surprise, and I think
does indicate that it decides we're not going to be
close once Kyle Tucker became a free agent, so get
what you can now. It was the right move for
the organization going forward, no matter what else happens to me.
If I don't think Bregman sign him back anyways, we'll
see what happens with the Arnatto stuff. But no matter
what happens, for the health of the organization long term,

(02:14:49):
it was it was the right move.

Speaker 12 (02:14:51):
Probably fair to use the word disastrous by the way,
a seven to seventy eight era in those five games
in twenty twenty one for Frombers Okay, his two games
in the World Series were awful. His three games prior
to that were fine, especially when he went eight innings
and allowed just that one run in Game five in
the ALCS.

Speaker 2 (02:15:07):
Yeah, that was awesome.

Speaker 12 (02:15:08):
That was like at Finway, right, But yes, three of
his five starts he did not finish.

Speaker 2 (02:15:14):
The third inning disaster I'll stick with it all right.
We're gonna take a quick break here on the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross. But it's with Adam, Wexer and Ross.
You want to get in, you'ren't to talk some strows.
We're doing that. We're talking Texans. Anything you want to
get to. We got some gut feelings coming up at
one thirty as well. Seven one three, two one two five,
seven ninety is the phone number if you'd like to
get in. Seven one three two one two five seven Nighty.

Speaker 15 (02:15:38):
Back to Matt.

Speaker 1 (02:15:38):
Thomas and Ross via real fine Fine Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:15:43):
What do you mean?

Speaker 2 (02:15:44):
What have I done? Stop preaching me, John Lennon, You
don't know what I've done. Welcome back to the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is out
on vacation. It's Wexer Talk seven ninety. At least what
I'm gathering for the next couple of weeks. We appreciate you,
Adam walksa the backbone of Sports Talk seven ninety. We

(02:16:06):
couldn't do it without you.

Speaker 12 (02:16:07):
Yeah, back end of the day, Brian and Sean to
start the day, Ross and Matt take you Middays and
ac and I are.

Speaker 2 (02:16:12):
With you to the end. Well whenever he whenever they
decided to show up. Okay, I'm taking time off saw too,
so I can't I can't even complain. We'll figure it out.
We'll be with you here at seven one three two
one two five seven ninety on a sports talk seven
ninety talking a number of different things at seven one
three two one two five seven ninety. We'll get some
more gut feelings coming up here in just a moment.

(02:16:35):
But I just saw this article. I think it came
out this morning. MLB Free Agency Reset predictions from David
Schoenfeld of ESPN. As he had has listed some of
the top free agents and they're projected contracts and their

(02:16:56):
landing places. First up on the list Alex Bregman first
on the list because he started with best hitters. He
has him as the number five overall free agent. Projected
contract six years, one hundred and eighty seven million dollars
for the Alex Bregman Services. I'm a little surprised he

(02:17:19):
doesn't think anybody's going to be willing to go seven
years or more. I would say said probably seven to
me is seven to eight. Max.

Speaker 12 (02:17:25):
Do you think it's pretty pretty good assumption in every
player wants more years, Like, if they're willing to give seven,
he'll want seven. If some team's willing to give eight,
he wants eight. I kind of feel that way too.
We've seen a few players go the opposite direction, but
the vast majority go there. That's thirty one million dollars
in total, above what the astros reported initial first offer was,

(02:17:49):
and so thirty one million over six years, basically five
point two million years. Additionally each of those years. That's
about where I thought he would be when the offseason began,
at one hundred and eighty seven million.

Speaker 2 (02:18:01):
I don't think it's too big of a gap.

Speaker 12 (02:18:03):
It does kind of point out where the Astro's initial
offer was, but that seems like a pretty reasonable spot.
I'm sure Boris is still going to try to figure
out a way. How can I turn that into a two?
Is there a we can opt out here? But if
you do that, then it goes here and if you
got like he's going to want that there, but this.

Speaker 2 (02:18:19):
Is just two numbers, just somewhere.

Speaker 12 (02:18:21):
I mean, we were at the beginning of the off
season and the athletic Tim Britton had it at one
seventy nine. This is at one eighty seven. The Boris
numbers always got a two in front of it. Maybe
that's unrealistic. Yeah, I mean I think if it were realistic,
it feels like kind of something would be done. What
do we make of We were talking about what Brian
bogasvic earlier. So does this mean the market has cool?

Speaker 2 (02:18:42):
Does this mean Scott Boris has said, Hey, if Wan
Soto is worth fifty one million dollars a year, Alex
Bregman's worth at least thirty x million dollars a year,
you guys need to get with the program. And the
price of poker is going on, the price of Alex
Bregman services have gone up because of his value that
he shows to a team relative to that of one

(02:19:04):
Sodo and the deal that he got.

Speaker 12 (02:19:05):
Yeah, there's one way, like one Sodo is gonna roll
in and out of teams, and he's gonna help the
other players on the team simply because I'm batting two.
So if you're batting one, I'm gonna help you. And
if you're batting three, I'm gonna pump up your numbers
because I'm already on base. He's not gonna help them
with how to hit this pitcher, how to attack this pitcher,
how to attack this hitter at all the things that
we know quite clearly, both Carlos Korea for a short

(02:19:27):
time here as he became one of the veteran leaders
of this team, and then Alex Bregman similarly, this is
something that has extremely high value. It's not a coincidence
that those two players, even in Minnesota and Carlos's care case,
the winning is there for them for a reason. It's
not just their own individual attributes. It's what they can

(02:19:48):
do to help the other players. It sounds like something
you'd say in football or basketball, but in their case,
I do believe it is true on a baseball field,
in that clubhouse and preparation for how you're going to
make these guys better because you got more information than
they do, and he shares it with him in a
way that allows them to get better. Hunter Brown's a
great example of taking some of that information, I believe,
in becoming a better pitcher someone they're now clearly counting on.

Speaker 2 (02:20:13):
You ask what do you make of him not signing yet?

Speaker 12 (02:20:15):
And I think the other question, similarly is what do
you make of the Astros still constantly being or we're
being told they're still in it.

Speaker 5 (02:20:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:20:24):
I think it's funny that little, that intangible. It feels
like Jeff Luno did a good job of building this
team with baseball psychopaths, like people who are sick in
the head in love with baseball. The Carlos Kuray, Alex Bragman,
Jose al two of a trading for Justin Verlander, even
George Springer. I mean, he's crazy, like he's crashing. Everyone's like,

(02:20:47):
slow down, man, don't. He's out there running full like,
face first into the center field wall because he's a
psycho and he loves baseball so much and he wants
to make every single play. And I think that's one
of the things. It's very unquantifiable, but I think had
tangible results on the field for this as for the
Astros during this run, and it certainly helps the player themselves.

Speaker 12 (02:21:10):
We heard a bunch of Korea interviews during his later
years here when he's talking about all the stats that
Matt hates, and he knows them all, he can recite
them all. He really knows how they impact the way
things work for.

Speaker 2 (02:21:20):
Players in front offices are using in every single front office,
in every field, in every clubhouse, and every report.

Speaker 12 (02:21:27):
Yes, would you limit the teams that we think Alex
Bregman is going to end up with to four? The Yankees,
the Red Sox, the Tigers, and the Astros. Are you
still holding a little bit of a Is it possible
the Phillies are there? Is it possible the Cubs or
d Bags are there?

Speaker 5 (02:21:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:21:43):
Back to the article that I was reading off of,
he has Yankees, Mets, which is a little surprising, Red Sox, Tigers,
not surprising Astros. I would be surprised, quite frankly, and
then Phillies and Nationals.

Speaker 12 (02:21:55):
So from the Astros angle, how much of what the
Astros just did Tucker's not teammate anymore if he comes
back here, how much does that dissuade Alex. Alex is
going somewhere to wine all these teams we mentioned, other
than the Nationals, they are going to win immediately immediately
upon his arrival. The Astros probably will do the same.
But he now knows it's me Altuve and Alvarez, Yiner

(02:22:19):
and I don't know. I don't know where Perettis fits in.
I don't know if they're going to spend more money
next offseason, because I'm the splash this year, they didn't
even if he's back, they did not make their team better.

Speaker 2 (02:22:30):
If Bregman re signs.

Speaker 12 (02:22:32):
Falling the trade of Tucker, I don't think they got better,
but they might be able to hold to where they are.
He's got to be looking at all six of those
years he signed for. Are we headed in the other direction?
Are we getting worse?

Speaker 2 (02:22:41):
Can I tell you? I think it's already. I think
the Tucker deal happened because the Astros are out on Brigman.
I think it's the other way. I think it's done.

Speaker 12 (02:22:49):
Yeah, Baseball side says, yeah, of course he fits here.
You save this money, go spend it on him. That
might be the Astros viewpoint, but I think what you're
saying is kind of what I'm alluding to. His viewpoint
had already changed changed. Thus they made the move they
felt necessary to try to compete sometime in the future,
very soon, but maybe not in I think they're saying all.

Speaker 2 (02:23:07):
The right things. Skyt Bores doesn't want to embarrass anybody,
doesn't want to burn any bridges. He's like, yeah, we're
talking to Dana Brown, We're talking to the Astros, Dana
Brown saying, yeah, well, you know, we're doing everything we can,
but I think he's already he was already. The market
is already surpassed what the astros are willing to do.
And that's one of the reasons that Tucker would deal with.
Make just my gut feeling, which we will give some

(02:23:30):
more of when we come back. You want to get
in with some gut feelings, We're gonna do it with
Adam Wexer. Seven three two one two five seven ninety
is the phone number seven one three two one two
five seven ninety. But before we get to that, I
have to ask you an important question. How'd you feel
when you woke up this morning that alarm went off?
Did you jump out of bed? You're tackling today? You
can't wait. You got all this there waiting. They can't

(02:23:52):
champion at the bit to cross off your to do list. Well,
that's you, that's awesome. But if you're somebody who's like,
you know what I'm not feeling today down in workouts,
in my daily life. My diet hasn't changed, Libido's not there.
What's going on? Maybe your testosterone levels are dropping. The
new year is coming up. Get the ball rolling now
as you can book an appointment with Centergenics, who's known

(02:24:15):
for the TRT treatment, the Personalized TRT plan, more Dvance
and basic standard therapy. It's not stuff out of a bottle.
They're gonna give you stuff and send you on your
way like some of these other clinics. They're gonna tailor
treatment specifically to you at Centergenics. That's why you go
to Centergenics Health dot com, s y N E R
gen xhealth dot com and they're also experts with g
LP one weight loss. You can be evaluated for prescription

(02:24:36):
weight loss medications. They've got clinics all over town. You
can get your life back and realize all your New
Year's resolutions by going to Centergenics Health dot com Centergenics
Health dot com.

Speaker 1 (02:24:47):
This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on fourtox
seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:24:54):
Listen up the.

Speaker 10 (02:24:58):
Tomman Yo.

Speaker 11 (02:24:59):
They got it good.

Speaker 1 (02:25:01):
This is their gut feeling on the Matt Thomas Show.

Speaker 2 (02:25:11):
That's right, twice in one day. That's how we're rolling
here with Matt Thomas out and well two different co hosts.
So I wanted to get two different sets of gut
feelings from the folks, and well from you guys as well,
if you'd like to get in at seven one three
two one two five seven ninety seven one three two,
one two five seven ninety so within the last couple
of weeks, well last weekend then today, I said Alex

(02:25:33):
Bregman on my prediction New York Yankee, I'm gonna stick
with that. I also have Pat mahomes not playing this weekend.
Texans will beat the Chiefs, suck at Carson Wentz and
the Astros not trading for Nolan Arenado. Connor McGovern also
has Alex Brigman as a Yankee. And you had just

(02:25:54):
two right Rockets winning their next three games. Pat mahomesh
doesn't play well. This is two and one. You had
the Texans losing to the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday. Correct,
very rude. Brian Bogosvik says Detroit Tigers for Alex Brigman
he had earlier Today your thoughts, mister Wexer, I'm.

Speaker 12 (02:26:13):
Not left with many options, considering those are very popular ones,
but my gut feeling you can pick those. I my
gut feeling has always been the same two teams. Never
thought the Tigers. I just don't think that's where he
and his wife and there soon to be two kids
want to live.

Speaker 2 (02:26:31):
She's pregnant again. He's gonna get even more dad strength. Oh,
maybe the Astros do need to sign him. He's getting
double dad strength.

Speaker 12 (02:26:38):
Double dad strength. It's pretty far away from Houston home
base or New Mexico home base. They spend all this
time in Arizona, but I'm gonna push them even further east.
It's always been Boston or New York for me, and
not the Mets, don't. I don't think the Mets are
a ridiculous team to include because Cohen will spend there's
no limit to it. There's no number that he cares about,

(02:26:58):
there's no cap, there's no CBT that worries him. He
smartly dumped out of the twenty twenty three season almost
as quickly as he went all in, yes, and that
allowed him to just go right back all in again
just two years later. But I don't think the Mets
are really truly the landing spot for Alex Bragmant. So
since it's gut feelings, my gut feeling is he's going

(02:27:21):
to be playing home games at Funway Park.

Speaker 2 (02:27:25):
Boston Red Sox. Well, you and David Schoenfeld are in
the same ballpark literally, as he did. I mention in
the last segment. He has his predictions. As he put on,
we were talking about the article and who's in on it,
and he projected the six year, one hundred and eighty
seven million dollar contract. His prediction is the Red Sox.
He also says, don't discount the Mets here, So justinto's

(02:27:49):
moving to first. He's saying, totally reasonable.

Speaker 12 (02:27:52):
And that's kind of why I said all along, why
these positional flexibility nonsense with Alex Which team is he
getting traded to where they prefer to play somebody else
at third base? That made no sense to me at
some point later in his career. Fine, he's the best
third baseman in baseball. That's not Matt Chapman defensively. What
team wants somebody else playing third? That made no sense. Anyway,

(02:28:15):
This is a good to me what the Red Sox
have done this whole off season is why. That's my
gut feeling. They're gearing up to outplay the Yankees and
the Orioles and everybody else in their division. And this
is to me, like the last we have to step
in order to make getting Crochet worth it, so to speak,
and hoping Duran is as awesome as he was last year.
If they need to save a little money by moving

(02:28:38):
on from somebody, they probably get something in return. I
think they can be outstanding if Alex Bregman is on
their team, and thus it fits into Bregman as well.
He wants to go out there and win, and that's
winning an American League East, you know, being the champs
and being better than the Yankees without having to be
Garrett Cole's teammate and being the Yankees. That seems appealing.
And I certainly think Boston will treat him like, Yeah,

(02:29:02):
this is our guy. This is face of the franchise
type person. This is key to the city type person.
I don't know that he gets that in New York,
for instance. He's just another Yankee.

Speaker 2 (02:29:12):
All right. There you go, Adam Wexer with a gut feeling.
Connor McGovern, would you like to add anything to your
gut feelings from earlier today?

Speaker 13 (02:29:19):
Yeah, I'll go with the Texans. I'll say Tank Dell
gets a touchdown. Okay, I like this.

Speaker 12 (02:29:23):
Now, if you are familiar with the walking in with
wex phenomenon that takes place just before I enter and
our desk. I did see somebody say, hey, Matt, hey
Ross this guy who was doing this before she was.

Speaker 2 (02:29:37):
And it's not the same thing as stealer her bit.
She stole her bit from someone else too.

Speaker 12 (02:29:41):
Anyways, I got her in trouble for like the first
of ten times. He's got a couple more talents than you.
I do not shoot the video from in front of
me and nothing on my chest to jiggles in that manner.
So it is not a it's not a proprietary issue.

Speaker 5 (02:29:54):
You think.

Speaker 12 (02:29:56):
Much much lower, and I'm not even encouraging you to
make bets. But in that Connor just said, Tank Dell,
one of my thoughts going into the game is how
about a TD for TD against the Dolphins. I thought
he lined up well to find his way to the
end zone. He was barely a part of their passing game,
but he was a part of the punt return game.

Speaker 2 (02:30:14):
But it would be nice.

Speaker 12 (02:30:15):
He has not visited there much this season, and I
think that the overall Texans offense slow down this year,
and that's pretty good evidence of it. Football wise, Pat Mahomes,
they can't sit him until the playoffs in my opinion, okay,
and in order to make sure they can sit him
as soon as possible, he's playing this weekend. Pat Mahomes

(02:30:37):
plays this weekend, play and beat the Texans, and go
ahead and put yourselves in the position you want to
be in to be the number one the number one seed.
It's just a little I know. They want to say, look,
we can win anywhere. We just did it last year.
As long as Pat's healthy, We're fine.

Speaker 2 (02:30:52):
We don't care.

Speaker 12 (02:30:54):
Hard for me to believe you don't care about an
extra off weekend home games the whole postseason.

Speaker 2 (02:30:59):
Mobile Eye against Danil Hunter and Will and Anderson and
Denico Autry and Tim Suttle.

Speaker 10 (02:31:03):
I like this.

Speaker 12 (02:31:04):
I mean, do you think did you think the Texans
pass rush was awesome against Tua? Do you think that, Look,
it was pretty good. It was definitely very good. And
it pretty much has been all week there, you know,
all year. Yeah, they've been incredible. So but I think
this they'll put him out there because they don't play
him this Saturday game, Well then he's probably not playing
on Wednesday either. And now are you heading in a

(02:31:24):
week eighteen needing to win to ensure that you're the
number one seed and that now you have to bring
him back.

Speaker 2 (02:31:31):
Very very interesting. I'll do one more quick one, and
I also say Anthony Santander not a Houston Astro along
with Nolan Arnoto. Philip has a got feeling, Philip. Go ahead?

Speaker 6 (02:31:42):
Why three?

Speaker 2 (02:31:44):
Okay? Go ahead?

Speaker 10 (02:31:46):
Ross? I know you know like this first one Texan
name's gonna make the fun of four?

Speaker 6 (02:31:52):
Of what.

Speaker 10 (02:31:54):
Of basketball? What other final four? Is there?

Speaker 2 (02:31:56):
All right?

Speaker 10 (02:31:57):
Next one? Astros? All right, No, No, we're gonna go
to Asher's last. Texans are gonna win the AFC. Not
because of their offense prowess, because there is none right now.

Speaker 4 (02:32:12):
But c J.

Speaker 10 (02:32:12):
Strauss he's the guy, dude, He's the guy that over
comes at versity. Where is he at? He's he is
getting ready right now, just pumping himself up, pumping tank up,
pumping Nico Collins, pumping all those guys up, just getting
ready to go. We're gonna win two games in a
row against the Kansas City Chiefs and then on Christmas Day,
on Christmas Day against Lamar Jackson the Ravens. We're getting

(02:32:35):
that back from last year, That's what I'm saying. And
we're gonna go on a winning streak. Maybe not the
last game.

Speaker 4 (02:32:41):
I don't know.

Speaker 10 (02:32:41):
Maybe we'll kill the last game of the season, but
then we're gonna go on to the AFC and we're
gonna win that. Telling you right now, next one, last one,
Astros are gonna get first in the division. Doesn't matter
who cares. Who's that third Nolan Ornando doesn't doesn't mean anything.

Speaker 18 (02:32:59):
He'd be to have.

Speaker 10 (02:33:00):
And actually, Adam Nolan Arnaudo was better at third base
than Alex Regman was last year. I'm pretty sure. Don't
quote me on that, but I feel like he always is.
But anyway, any AnyWho, that's one guy. Kyle Tucker trade
was great. I feel like that's what we should have done.

(02:33:21):
We gotta get you know, the Kakuchie trade last year.
What do we have from it now? Nothing? We lost?
We lost love Braffito, I love that guy. Where's he
at now? He's on another team and now we have nothing. So,
you know what, I'm good with everything at AHAs first
in the West. Maybe we'll get to the ALCS again.

(02:33:43):
He's just going to the Super Bowl and AM's going
the Final Four.

Speaker 12 (02:33:47):
Yeah, thank you, Philip Nolan Arnaudo, Matt Chapman, Alex Bregman,
the three best defensive third base win in baseball.

Speaker 2 (02:33:55):
If you want to pick one over the other two,
that's that's fine. So A and M not only gonna
make their first Final four ever, their first Elite eight
ever in the history of the basketball.

Speaker 12 (02:34:04):
Program, and the SEC has really lined up a lot
of great non conference games. It's considering that only one
team even has three losses at this point in the season,
Alabama and Auburn.

Speaker 2 (02:34:13):
Little credit for both of them. They've both played U
of H. Hey, he's played Yukon and Syracuse and NC State.
I mean, those are programs that exist.

Speaker 12 (02:34:23):
No, Texas, A and M is a reasonable bet. We
probably get really good odds on it at this point
in the year.

Speaker 2 (02:34:30):
Yeah, lock it up.

Speaker 12 (02:34:30):
They're one of the top fifteen teams in the country.
Putting them in the Final four is not outrageous.

Speaker 2 (02:34:34):
Yeah, I'm not gonna say it's outrageous either. But I
also I'm gonna say I haven't been following college basketball.

Speaker 12 (02:34:39):
Texans win the AFC and the Astros win the Division.
We're also to gut feelings from Philip or from our it.

Speaker 2 (02:34:46):
Seems a little strong. It was Philip all right, we're
gonna say quick break those you on hold. We'll get
to you just one segment to go here, but we
will be sticking around as it'll be. Adam Wexer. I'm tired,
so I'm gonna make him. He's going to be taking
care of the show and curating things coming up. Two
to six. That is the A Team final segment of
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas'.

Speaker 4 (02:35:03):
Next.

Speaker 2 (02:35:05):
This is Ricky Williams. I may have worn a wedding
dress on a magazine cover, but it still looks better
than any outfit Matt can put together. Let your wife
dress you man. Texas fine, Texas Fine. Back to Matt
Thomas on Sports Talk seven to ninety. All right, sorry,
no disrespect to you and the Eagles. We got a
couple of calls to get to. Only a few minutes
left on the show, The Matt Thomas Show with Ross

(02:35:28):
without Matt Thomas. Adam wex Er here, we've been talking
to baseball. We were doing some gut feelings. So let's
get Geo in a task ASDA real quick with some
gut feelings, and all of you on hold will get
to you real quick. Go ahead, Jill Okay, So, I.

Speaker 8 (02:35:41):
Think Gregman will end up in New York's whether it
be the Mets or the Yankees. But I do think
he's gonna end up in New York somewhere just because
they don't want the Red Sox to get him. So
I think he'll end up in New York somewhere. Second,
I think the Rockets are going to end up in
the Western Conference Finals playing against the Oklahoma City Thunder Yep.
I think I think he may will make the necessary adjustments,

(02:36:04):
and I think they'll ad the right pieces, and I
think they'll end up in the Western Conference finally gets it, Thunder.
And Third, but not least, I think, uh the game
against Kansas City, Daniel Hunter will have two sacks, Stingley
will have an interception, and Stingdale will run a punt
return back.

Speaker 2 (02:36:23):
That sounds like a victor to me.

Speaker 12 (02:36:25):
If those things take, I mean, maybe there's a turnover
as a result of some of those sacks.

Speaker 2 (02:36:31):
For Daniel Hunter.

Speaker 12 (02:36:32):
You just got a touchdown on the Tank Dell punt return,
So that's one or two touchdowns without the offense.

Speaker 2 (02:36:38):
Even doing anything. Fumble sacks, I mean, goodness, Hey, if
Pat Mahomes is in as one Adam Wexer has predicted,
he's not going to be super mobile, and that's one
of his best attributes is making plays in the fly,
extending plays with his legs, finding guys down field. And well,
and also, I guess is what there was that last

(02:36:59):
year when he had the higher was brain and they
won the Super Bowl.

Speaker 12 (02:37:02):
Dang it all right, Fine, four quarterbacks in the AFC
have been sacked thirty five times or more. Both if
Mahomes plays will be on the field on Saturday. Cejay's
at the top of the list, Mahlmes at thirty five. Well,
at least he's not coming for Derek Carr's record. They
were showing Caleb Williams was I think last night on
Monday Night Football. As of three years ago, the Bears

(02:37:24):
all time record for most times sacked as a quarterback
on their team obviously was Jay Cutler. I was going
to say Jake Justin Fields almost surpassed him, and then
he did surpass him. And now Williams has passed both
of them, and he's the worst. Wow, just in the
last three years. Well, records being set by the Chicago Bears.
Maybe not in the direction that they wanted to you
want to quick believe it or not.

Speaker 2 (02:37:44):
Yes.

Speaker 12 (02:37:45):
Someone at my house this morning, when sports was on
in the background, said, I thought the Bears got off
to a pretty good start this year.

Speaker 2 (02:37:52):
What happened? Believe it or not? I would guess I'll
say believe it, yeah, But.

Speaker 12 (02:37:56):
My response was it was was a believe it. My
wife asked me about that, and I said, yeah. They
were four and two and then they decided winning football
games was dumb, so they stopped doing that completely.

Speaker 2 (02:38:05):
And I've lost eight in a row, four and ten.
The Chicago Bears.

Speaker 12 (02:38:11):
Caylen Williams is doing things we've never seen before in
the NFL. Eight if I'm not mistaken, consecutive games without
an interception and they've lost them all.

Speaker 2 (02:38:22):
That's that's that's a record. Straight game's got to be
some kind of a record. He threw. Maybe somebody did that,
like in nineteen thirty two with when they didn't.

Speaker 12 (02:38:31):
Throw the fall with a certain number of pass attempts.
He's not thrown an interception since October thirteenth, the last
time they won a game.

Speaker 2 (02:38:42):
They've won.

Speaker 12 (02:38:43):
They've lost eight consecutive games despite him not throwing to
the ball. To the other team even one time.

Speaker 2 (02:38:49):
We're proud of you, Caleb, We're proud of you, appreciate
setting records on the other side in a good way.
Is Josh Allen? Is he your MVP right now?

Speaker 12 (02:38:58):
You might find this hard to believe, but I did
some research on this earlier today. Statistically speaking like, I
guess because the answer is yes, because of Lamar Jackson,
fatigue and overall.

Speaker 2 (02:39:11):
I think if the if the Ravens were eleven and
three and fighting for a one seed and the Bills
were nine and five and everything else was equal, I
think we will be talking more about Lamar Jackson as well.

Speaker 12 (02:39:21):
Keep in mind, Buffalo would be twelve and two if
they didn't lose to Lamar Jackson.

Speaker 2 (02:39:26):
That's true. No, I'm I'm with you, I'm with you.

Speaker 12 (02:39:30):
I did you know there were UH was looking up
their games overall this year and I was like, Oh,
Lamar Jackson's led their offense to.

Speaker 2 (02:39:35):
Thirty four touchdowns and three picks. He's just it's insane
over these four games.

Speaker 12 (02:39:41):
So Josh Allen's running for this and doing that while
he's throwing, He's run for eight more yards than Lamar Jackson.
I'll give you a hint. I think you already know
the answer we're talking about. I mean, where's number eight
for the Ravens. Guess who leads the NFL in yards
per carry.

Speaker 2 (02:39:52):
Lamar Jackson. I mean it's dud.

Speaker 12 (02:39:55):
Please pay attention to Allen does have more touchdowns, he
has a lot. Guess who he doesn't have behind him,
Derrick Henry, Derek Henry taking touchdowns? Yes, but see but
that I guess the accounter argument is that makes him
most valuable.

Speaker 2 (02:40:06):
He's more valuable to his team. I guess it's always
the best Quarterback award, and it's always a narrative award,
and it's also about team success. It will allow me.
Has a team with a five hundred record ever have
a quarterback with a five hundred record?

Speaker 1 (02:40:17):
Ever?

Speaker 12 (02:40:17):
One MVP probably not or is very rare. There's probably
a number you need to get to or within. If
Baltimore finishes fourteen and three and the Ravens have ten wins,
you're four apart. That's probably too far. But if they're
a little closer to that, If Buffalo has four more
wins than Baltimore, that's probably too big of a gap
to spend it. I'll probably enjoy it. When the votes
are announced and somebody didn't vote for either one of.

Speaker 2 (02:40:38):
Them, did they change the vote where you can only
it's tiered voting now? Right in the NFLVMVV. It used
to be you, that's your vote, and that's it, which
is stupid. I think it was awesome. No, because nobody
else does it. And what are you going to complain about.
We're going to complain about it not being tiered? Like
look at the huns first Heist trophy voting.

Speaker 12 (02:40:57):
Yes, like one person in the the entire country thought
should Ur Sanders should win the Heisman.

Speaker 2 (02:41:04):
Just one more people thought Curtis Rourke. Yeah, that person's
an idiot. You should be just give us your vote.
What doesn't. All the other stuff is just for points
and for incentives and things like that. I think you
should teer vote. I think you should tier vote in
un presidential elections too. What's up?

Speaker 12 (02:41:18):
Okay, you can your third place vote. You can go
ahead and give it to Saque if you want. But
these two guys are the only people you should be
voting for Forember one.

Speaker 2 (02:41:25):
Well, and that was the same way for the Heisman.
There's only two guys you should have been voting for
all right. Well, with that being said, Adam Wexer, you
are going to be on the A team. I'm gonna
be with you for a little bit of that as well.
Thanks for hanging out though on this program. Thanks to
Brian Bogasvik for hanging out for a couple of hours,
says Economic Governor producer and doing a great job as
he always does. I'll talk to your folks next in

(02:41:46):
like five minutes here on Sports Talk seven ninety eight.
Team is up next. Don't go anywhere

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}What's Happening With Alex Bregman? Stefon Diggs's Possible Future In H-Town, Brian Bogusevic IN-STUDIO

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

All Episodes

What's Happening With Alex Bregman? Stefon Diggs's Possible Future In H-Town, Brian Bogusevic IN-STUDIO

Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club