The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Altuve Taking Fly Balls In Left Field, Bregman In a Red Sox Uniform, Alpy Reps Rockets As NBA All-Star

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross," Brian LaLima of "The Sean Salisbury Show" and Adam Wexler of "The A-Team" break down the last happenings from Astros spring training. Jose Altuve reported to camp and took fly balls in left field. Full squad workouts begin Tuesday. Ross, Brian and Adam also:review the expected lineup for the 2025 Astros.react to Alex Bregman arriving at spring training for the Boston Red Soxrecap Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson representing the Rockets in the NBA All-Star gameplay "To Tell the Truth" and more.

Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 10-1 in H-down. Good morning? It's not what happened to lunch timers. It's brunch timers here on Sports Talk 790. It is a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 790 without Matt Thomas Ross v. Real. And for the first time ever, really on any regular show, I believe.

Yeah. Myself, Brian LeLima, look with a cat drug interrupt. looks we've been hanging out since 6 o'clock. Brian Leema hanging out. I appreciate you. I'm excited for this one. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, no problem.

I know it's only for an hour. I'm sorry. I got the Midsteadiclinic, Menstee Clinic.com. Sorry, I'll leave it there. I'm more of a synergenics help.com kind of guy myself. Are we having a street war right now?

Two minutes into the show? That's right. All right. So Brian Leema is hanging out. Matt Thomas is out. You're saying he can't be traveling with the rockets. They're in the middle of the freaking all-star break. What is he doing?

Well, he was at the Rising Stars Challenge last night, actually. I'm sorry, on Saturday, yeah. Wait, was it really? Uh-huh. Yeah, he was playing for team international. Oh, that's right. On the All-Stars, yeah. I think he could work on the jumper a little bit. Handles weren't as good as clean as I thought they could have been, but overall, I thought a pretty good performance by Matt Thomas.

Yeah, not bad, man, not bad. I saw, we read the celebrity roster. Did you watch Friday night? No, I didn't. I didn't watch Saturday. Did you watch Sunday night? No. Okay. Did you? I watched more than I thought I would, but that's kind of just because nothing else is Yeah, I watched on. There's no football. There's no spring training baseball.

There's no, I mean, hockey. Canada and USA weren't punching each other in the face on Sunday night. That was on Saturday, which I heard more about that on Twitter than anywhere else. Yeah. So literally, if you're a sports fan, there was nothing else on. And I click, we'll get to that in a little bit. Yeah, I watched it for a little bit. I watched Entourage.

What was the celebrity for how many times? You know what? You seem like an Entourage kind of guy, right? How many times you've gone through that one? Like 50. I'm like, yeah, I love the show. I could literally start it from the beginning and go all the way through in like a day. There's just so much nuance and symbolism and things you pick up on.

I know, it's different little... The cinematography is just, it's unmatched, isn't it? It's great. I miss those things, man. Yeah, I, no, I didn't watch it, man. I literally watched Entourage, but the celebrity roster, I knew, me and Sean knew like two names. It was just even a celebrity roster sucked. Or maybe we're just getting too old, Brian.

Actually, you know what, that's probably a better point. I actually don't even know how old you are. Let me guess. Oh, dang, you started with a three, so I'm already older than you. That's upset. That's upsetting. I just turned 40, right. Yeah.

Yeah. So I'm going to say you're 31. No. See, I'm trying to be nice. Yeah, no. I'm pretty sure you know how old I am? I don't. You know, 37, 8?

No, I'm about to be 36 in March. Okay. Yeah, so I'm 35, yeah. Well, congratulations. Yeah, thank you, man. That's good, man. You've got your youth in the next five years. You probably already feel you're in your 30s.

You know your body's falling apart. I shot some hoops on Saturday morning after my workout, and I'm not kidding you, I can feel it in my, like, my ribs. Because I was jumping to try to dunk to see if I could still do. I still can, by the way. You know how I knew when I was getting old? I threw my back out, getting out of the car to get gas. It's like when I've sneezed before and I can feel something. I was like, ooh, I can't even fill up my car anymore.

This is not good. This is not good for anyone. All right. So Brian Le Lima is here. Matt Thomas wasn't at the All-Star competition. I think he's doing volleyball dad stuff. She's committed to Rhode Island, his daughter. Congratulations to her, by the way.

Division I won scholarship. Shouldn't he be putting her on ice now? Yeah. You don't want her getting hurt. They have, I'm assuming he's at a club tournament, I think. And in a club season. And in Washington, D.C. That sounds like a money pit, by the way.

It is. Well, I coach select baseball, so that's why I was figuring they're still during their season. That's basically the same thing, right? Yeah, but it's all money driven. It's all about the dollar, dude. It's a money. You want to talk about a money pit? Like, it's, it's in these, I don't know what,

I don't know the equivalent. You know what perfect game is in select baseball? Yeah, that's when you throw 27 outs and you don't give up a bass runner. That's true. That is true. The perfect game organization is like just printing money. Is it like the mafia? Yes.

They're like a run the game? It is. If you try to start up your own operation, like you get a visit for some weird guy who's telling you, make sure you make this thing go away. You like your kneecaps? Yeah. Yeah. It's seriously like that.

It's, they make really good money. And it's like all these. It's a racket. It is a racket. 100% is a racket. We got a RICO case on her hair. I can only imagine what the mom's and dad. I wonder what,

I wonder if Matt Thomas was that dad with his daughter in club volleyball. I can only imagine. What is that dad? The one like, say, my daughter needs to play more. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. Hey, coach, can I talk to you? Matt, we have a 24-hour role. Yeah, yeah, it'll be real quick.

And then why is my daughter not playing? I think that's, actually, I've heard the mom is more, the more, like, like, Matt's more chill and then the mom's like yelling at the referees.

She's, but I think Carly's good enough that she's been starting since. I mean, she's like six foot tall. Yeah, she's tall. So volleyball, you're all good. Hey, D-Won, commit, man. Good for her. I know. That's pretty sweet. So Matt's out in D.C. I want to hear more about these money, these,

the mafia that they're running. So you're a coach. I am, yeah, 14 years now. 14 years you've been coaching. What age is your teams? So I have my high school guy, my, my team now is 15 U, so they're freshmen in high school, but I'm also coaching a 10-U team this spring. You're doing two teams? Yeah, yeah, because my high school. You must be making some cash. too. High schools don't overlap and yes I am. High schools don't overlap. That's another thing.

If you coach select baseball and you do lessons and stuff, you can make some really good money. Okay. I know a coach that makes like 150 grand just doing lessons. And I'm not, that's not hyperbole either. That's good cash. And it's all cash too. But anyway, yeah, the high school. 99. I'm going to find you. He's going to find you. High school guys won't overlap with my with my 10 you guys. So it's easier to balance. but then you also have the patience level of a 10-year-old baseball player. Okay. And they're really good, too. And the 10-under moms are hotter than the 15-under moms, correct?

Is it a mix? Yeah, I'd say it's a mix. It's a mix. But you go out to a select baseball park on a weekend. Legging season is like 24-7. Well, okay. It's always yoga pants season at the U-10 tournament. Times are good.

I mean, it's not bad. Yeah, you're out there when it's wearing. sunglasses? You sneak a look? Yeah, man. I'm just, you know, I'm out there to coach. I'm out there for the kids, man, even though I don't even really like kids. You're out there for the cash. What would you, uh, what would you equate your coaching style to? If you could bring like any

coach, are you like, uh, the hard ass? The hard ass? Oh, wait, so you're the young cool guy. Yeah, I'm like Sean McVeigh, I would say. I feel like I relate to kids really well. You got to spike the hair up. Come on, man. We need frosted tips. Sean McVe Frosted tips. Let's do it. I'll do it

if you do it. You got plenty of hair that you. could do it with. Not so much. I'm a little thin on top these days. Yeah, I'd probably say Sean McVeigh. Maybe, maybe young, passionate, energetic, got to rip someone's ass when you need it. But other than that, it's like, I'm, you know, I played baseball too. So, like, you're going to screw up, you're going to fail. Stop crying, let's go. So you're not going full Bill Belichick cramudgeon. You're more like trying to, you know, not buddy buddy, but. Yeah, just, I just try to relate to the kids. Tough love. Yeah, tough love for sure. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So you know the kids are listening to like Taylor Swift and stuff and stuff.

and whatever else is. I don't even know what young people music is there these days. What's that guy's name? It sings Broccoli. What's that guy's name? Ray Strumman? Who? Ray Schmerter?

Yeah. Bobby Schmerter? Bobby Shmurda? God, what is? Are the kids listening about? Little Yachty. That's right. I don't.

Kendrick Lamar, maybe? Yeah. I don't know. I like Kendrick Lamar. I do too. I do too. I don't know. I listen to...

So how do you have... Well, I guess you're off at 10 a. so you kind of got a best basically the rest of your day. I work all day, Ross. I was going to say, aren't you tired at the end of the day? If you're working with two. How many practices do you run a week? Two.

Wednesdays and Thursdays. One for each team? No. Okay, if you're doing both teams. So high school guys are with their high schools right now, so they can't play select baseball. So they won't get going until June. So that'll be summer ball. Okay.

So if you're never running two teams at once. No. No, no, no, no. I wouldn't be able to do it. No. Plus, I'd take like a three hour nap every day. Wow. Really?

So you were doing it. I know. You would do it too. I did the morning shift for a long time. So how many have you been on the morning show now? Three years. And you still have not adjusted to the morning. Hell no.

I never will. It's not easy. I know. You know what time I was in bed last night? 8 p.m. Yeah. You know the time I went to sleep? Like midnight.

11.30. I couldn't fall asleep last night. So yeah, I'm tired, man. Like, I'm tired. Sounds like we had a lot of issues to work out here. You'll be all right. I see my therapist every Thursday, so I'll tell her about it. That's good.

Tell her said hello. I will. Yeah, yeah. Tell us to put in some good work. Come on, Sandra. Yeah, we'll go laying on the couch. Let's get to work. Say hello.

Let's get this, let's get this guy, you know, meditating. Hey, do we have any, like, uh, relaxing? Do we have any segments in the 10 o'clock hour? Like, uh, like, uh, like non-Florida stories? Well, you're going to be gone at 1130. We can move up. We can move it up, I guess. Is that on Wednesdays?

To tell the truth? To tell the truth. Well, thanks for listening. We really appreciate you. I actually listen to you guys for like the first two hours. Because you're out about, yeah. To tell the truth. truth is a segment where Matt comes up with four topics and only one of them he believes.

And then he gives us the four topics and it's up to myself and Connemar governor to figure out which one is true. Although sometimes he flips it. Yeah. And he believes three of the topics and one is a lie. Okay. So you always have to either find out what the lie or what the truth is, whichever one is the one that's standing alone. I'm going to let you all hang with that at 1130. Well, we can't do it without two people.

Okay. I'm going to be so low. So let's do it at 1150. 1050. Sorry, 1050. So you're going to make it up? Yeah. Okay. I give me enough time to make something.

I just got to spot the lie. Yeah. Although I might do three truce in a lie. Is it sports related or anything related? Like anything? Normally sports. Yeah, we're not normally talking like, you know, geopolitics or anything like that.

You all did your S&L draft on Friday? Yes. Sean, or not Sean, Matt's team sucked. Yeah, it was bad. What was he doing? I try to be very nice and diplomatic. No, yours was in, it was so, good. I know. This is what happens

on the Fantasy 5, dude. But what are we doing? I know. I know. It's Matt. It was bad. And I'm not even, I'm not even really like SNL. It's not very funny to me. It never has been. There's good good little, you know, hits here and there. I don't say like 88 to 98 was my wheelhouse of it. It was really good. Whenever Will Ferrell left, it went downhill. We had a guy

call in. His name was Martin. He was so mad. Apparently during the SNL 50 on Saturday night, or Sunday night. KPRC2 broke in with their Sunday night news at 1015 and it cut off to SNL 50. He was, dude, he just damn near dropped an F-bomb on the show. I'm so effing mad. We'll go to YouTube,

Martin. It'd be fine. He was like 73 to 80. Wow. 85 are the best years on SNL. Okay. And, you know, of course, Sean, boomer himself, he's like, yeah, I agree with you. It was better 50 years ago than it is now. It is now. Everybody know. I don't know why I'm talking like this. That Colin Jost and

that Michael Chee? Yeah. I don't like them. It ain't right. need Chevy Chase back. And then, you know, these people on Twitter, man, like, they made this such a big deal. You saw Tom Hanks had his little thing with the Make America Great Hat again? Well, so they did that bit a long time ago. That's my whole point.

It was a callback. Correct. They did the callback. And people on Twitter were like, how dare they? What do you mean? This is from six years ago. Yeah. It was funny back there.

The one that they did like six years ago? Yes. They were talking about how they both like big women and some other stuff or whatever. And they're like, hey, I think we have a little. a lot more in common than we think. And then they're like, all right, coming up next, these lives matter. And Tom Hanks was like, uh-oh. Yeah, like, I thought it was funny.

Yeah. And these people were like, oh, of course, everybody makes everything political. Oh, their course are going to do this three weeks into Trump's president. I'm like, dude, this is literally like six years old, man. They did this way back. Well, I guess, yeah, Donny T was in office then. So, all right. Anyway, on that note.

On the SNL, yeah, man. I didn't care. We can talk about that. Look, we're going to be honest, guys. Was this and anything goes Monday? Anything goes Monday. There we go. Nice. We got to be honest with the people, Brian, because that's what I am.

Matt likes to lie to you, people. I'm going to be honest with you. The two slowest weeks in sports radio calendar. They are the Major League Baseball All-Star Week because you're in the middle of July. Everybody's on vacation. There's literally no sports happening. And this week right now, Super Bowl's done. Not that Houston is catching and latching on to the NBA anyways.

There's no NBA. There's no spring training. So we're going to make do with what we got. it's basically anything you guys want to talk about. We can talk about the All-Star game. Did you catch it over the weekend or any of it? Do you like the format? You completely tuned out.

Mack McClung is the greatest dunker of all time. We'll talk about that as well. You have Alperin Shingoon in the All-Star game. We got a lot of spring training storylines that we can get to. I do want to get to those with Brian Lima as he is. He's our resident baseball expert as a coach of two different teams. He's absolutely going to be locked in on that. So we got a lot of stuff to get to.

Anything you want to, 7-1-3-2-1. 1-125-790 is the phone number 7-13-2125-790. You can also send tweets to me at SportsRV. B-Lima 790. Let's go. Look, why don't you follow the man? Fired up. Oh, your numbers are getting up.

They're not bad. They're getting there. We're doing good. We're proud of you. They're getting there. Yeah, the engagement farming with the Dana Brown stuff is working great, man. It's great. Is it.

Why are you to call me out like that? B-Lima 790. B-Lima 790. He's here until Lover Club. Charge you to the game. 713-2-125-790 back in a minute. Back to Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal. On Sports Talk 790.

10.20 in the a.m. here on Sports Talk 790. Hour number five for Brian LeLima. We appreciate him hanging out. You're doing great. Thank you. We're proud of you. Ross Villarreal with you. Brian Lelema is here.

Matt Thomas show with Ross, but without Matt Thomas, as he is out traveling, doing volleyball dad stuff. as we will be into spring training mode. Well, we're already into spring training mode, but Matt Thomas and I are going to be out at West Palm Beach. I fly out literally after this show. Oh, you fly out today?

445 flight. That should be comfortable. I should make it out there from here. You want a bush? Yes, I am going deep into the bush. Good. And we are going to check a bag. That's how long we're going to be there.

How long? All week? No, I got a lot of radio equipment. Oh, yeah. So, I mean, yeah. Access units. It's four, yeah. I'm not like Matt. Matt, like a four-day trip. He brings like three suitcases and he's got his own personal bellhop. It's a whole ordeal. It's just out of control. You're like, dude, what are you doing? You're just going to be out here in khaki shorts with your pasty white legs. So, yeah, I got to bring some equipment. So I will be checking a bag and then we'll be flying. I'm actually flying into Fort Lauderdale and then driving down to West Palm in a rental car, which I believe is a compact. Matt really, really went all out.

Your six three. How are you going to? Budget's a little low. We'll figure it out. We'll put that bad boy all the way to back. Look, I don't need, I don't need any much. No, I'm not fancy Ross. All right? My first car was a 93 Honda Accord, okay? We got it done. Where are you guys staying? Or not, okay. It's a mid-level. I would say two and a half star. Okay. With last year, we were in the, we were in the Motel 6 studio, and there were literally people like on drugs in shaking. Oh, good. There was a guy, we've told the story on air a couple of times. I don't know you don't listen, so I'll tell it one more time.

Oh, is this with the dry blood or something? No, no. Matt, yeah, Matt jokes that there was no blood in the, well, there were some weird brown stains in the shower. Okay. Which we assume could either be blood or feces. Right, yeah, yeah. So anyways, yeah, we, there was the one time, there were all a lot of shady characters in the parking lot, I'm going to be honest. But we were never in danger. Right.

Matt's all whining about it. I'm like, come on, dude, this is okay. Yeah, but you got. He's from Kingwood. He went to, where did you go to? No, I'm sorry. Where did you go to high school? May Creek.

Yeah, I know. Where'd you go? Nimitz or Aldeen? I grew up in Greenspoint. Right. I went to spring on the east side of spring. Okay, that's normal for us. They don't even call it green.

The name got so bad with Guns Point. They changed the name. It's called the North City District or something like that. I know. I've seen the signs out there. Yeah. They're like, we got to rebrand. Yeah.

It's so bad out there, they rebranded. Yeah. So right. Yeah, I know. Matt's, it's different and that's fine. We were never really in danger. But there was one time this guy was shivering and he was on the bench in front of the office. and he was like, hey guys, you know where the office is?

We're like, you're sitting in front of the office. That was like, that was, we were like, oh, that's bad. We can't stay here anymore. So we're in a decent place. So I went with, I went with Matt and Gordy to Astro Spring Training in 2019 when I was here part-time. Dude, we stayed at this. I forgot about that. We stayed on Singer Island.

Have you ever seen Singer Island? Singer Island, no, I don't know. Is it like Alcatraz? No, it's like, like, it's very, very. very, very boogie. Just look it up. Singer Island. We stayed at a resort. It's like Epstein's house was over there or something. Who? Epstein? Yeah, yeah, probably. Didn't he have a house in West Palm? Probably. I think so. This was like north of West Palm, I think. Okay. It was inside. I forgot what hotel it was. You got to stay at the Epstein house.

No, we stayed at this resort, we had no business being there. Okay. It was a two-bedroom suite. Yeah, overlooking the ocean. It was insane. Wait a minute. How come you guys are traveling like that? Well, budgets are different these days, I guess. It was, I got to find it. I'll look it up. But anyway, when I figured out, hey, Jeff Bagwell just arrived at Astro's spring training. Oh, thank God.

I know. Thank God. The best coach of all time is there. Everyone's going to be hitting 500 now, now that he's there. Really appreciate it. Anyways, what was I talking about? I don't know. We're going to spring training.

We're going to be out there for a few days. I'm flying out today. Matt Thomas will meet me out there. So great interviews. I'm sure we're going to have Dana Brown, Joe Espada, and some of the players as well coming up in the next few. days here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross live from spring training.

We'll also have Chris Gordy joining us. He was at spring training over the weekend. Thanks to our good friends over at Carbach Brewing. So we're going basically into full spring training mode here. Pretty soon. But I did want to ask you, Brian, Lilliam, you didn't even, you didn't watch any of the All-Star weekend? All-Star game on Sunday? I didn't watch the All-Star game.

No, I watched Mack-McCloon do his dunks on Saturday night. Yeah, were those good? I saw him dumped over the car. That's the only one I saw. They were really good. I wasn't locked into it. Unfortunately. I was watching the Texas Longhorns defeat the Kentucky Wildcats as they cling to their tournament hopes.

I watched basketball. Because the baseball team got going and they beat the brakes off of Ole Miss. Yeah, they had Ole Miss in for a three game. They beat Oklahoma State as well. They were playing up in Arlington. Did you ever cross pass with Schloss? In your baseball circles?

No, but the guy, Pierce, David Pierce. Yes. Who's before that? Yeah, I cross pass with them a couple times. Got to meet Augie Grito when he was there. Did he say he to you to lay down a bun when you met him? No, he was, dude, me and him, he died on my birthday, which is pretty sad.

Oh, you're talking about Augie Garido. No, I meant Pierce, but yeah. No, Pierce, I'm not the biggest fan of. I think he's, um, I think he's a dick. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, a lot of people feel that way about Schloss as well.

Yeah, I've heard that. A lot of Aggie fans. Yeah, I've heard that. I've heard that. That's okay. Yeah, no, I never came across a Schlossesnagle. But I'm telling you what, he's going to turn, he's going to get the Texas long Horn's back to where they need to be as far as baseball.

I'm telling you, the dude wins everywhere he goes. That's what I like to hear. How one of the championships is 05? Yeah, I think so. It's been a while. Yeah, MacKloan was really good, though. Back to the point. Three straight years he's won it.

He does everything. Greatest dunker of all time? Arguably. Yeah. Sit out, Michael Jordan. But he makes, the thing that makes him really good is it's just one dunk and that's it. That's all he needs. He makes all of his first dunks.

Yeah. I'll take your word for it. Yeah, it was really good. That was the only time. And then I went back over to the nation's face off and watched USAB Canada, which was, it was awesome. I was awesome. Me either. But I heard that they got into three fights in the first nine seconds.

They did. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Do you have a full report of the game for us? Connor McGovern. Did you watch the game? This is our hockey correspondent. Connor McGovern.

Nice. You're on Sports Talk 790 of the Matt Thomas show. I did watch most of it. Now, why are they fighting? Was it geopolitical or just because they just because they just hate each other in the first place? Is it because what's his name? Because Donald's trying to annex them or what? Well, that is part of it because during the national anthem,

the game was in Montreal and during the American National Anthem, there's a lot of booze. They booed the hell out of the national anthem. So, yeah, Canadian national pride is a little bit higher these days. And for a lot of these players, it's the biggest game they've ever played in because they're representing their country. And NHL professionals haven't been able to play international play since 20, and 10 years since 2016, I believe.

Oh, okay. They put on a little extra juice for, when they fight for the, when they're, when they're, and then they get their ass kicked in their own home. Well, it was a good, it was close game, one goal. No, it was three to one. Oh, it was three, oh, go empty-in at the end. Yeah, empty-at the end, yeah, yeah.

Come on, man. You're a cocky correspondent. He can't give the score wrong. Canada, Canada had, had, uh, Sydney Crosby and, um, who's the other bad at? McDavid, McDavid on the same team and they lost. Wow. Yeah, they put them on the same line.

Yeah. Yeah. So they play again today versus. So they went into their house. in the sport that they basically invented and beat them. Yeah. Why they booed the national anthem.

Yeah. You could play each other again in the final. USA! U.S.A! And they also had, what's the guy's name? The political guy? What was his name? He was like the president there? What do they call him in Canada?

What is it? Prime Minister? Yeah. Justin Trudeau? Whatever you say it? Yeah. Yeah, he was running his mouth on Twitter and they got their ass kicked. He was running his mouth on Twitter. Oh, yeah.

There's hockey smack? I'm a prime minister? Yeah. And then they got their ass kicked? Yeah. That's a shame. Yeah, man. Wouldn't be us, Canada.

All right, we're going to take a quick break, Eric. We see you on hold. We'll get to you. We haven't got to anything I was supposed to, but this is great. Brian La Lima is hanging out. We're having a good time. You guys can get in at 713-213-21-5-7-90. 7-13-21-25-7-90.

We'll get into some Astro Spring Training stuff coming up here in just a sec. here on a sunny, beautiful Monday morning on Sports Talk 7.90, Rosvi, Ria with you. Brian LeLima is here as well hanging out for the first time ever. I don't even know, maybe on a weekend or something. We've done some weekend stuff. We've been fan fest. Done fan fest. Kind of, so, but yeah.

Oh, no, no, no, no. Me and you did a back in 2019, 2018 or 2019, you hosted I produced. Okay. Back in the old building, it was on Black Friday. Yeah. I'll take your word for it. I've produced twice in my life and I'll never want to do it again. You taught me the board at the old, at the old, my first week.

Yeah, my first week part time. Because there was two air because we laid you off, right? Yeah, I got laid off. Yeah, I was a part time. It got laid off. It was a little inside radio for you and then you came back. And I came back, yeah, yeah. I was part time.

You came back for more. Yeah, we appreciate you for that, Brian. Yeah, my first week, 2018, I came in and did, I produced with you. You know, budget cuts it happens. He does a great job. You always appreciate him. You taught me on the board when for whatever reason Matt wouldn't let you co-host with him. It was just the Matt Thomas show.

Yeah, I know. And then Ross was behind the board. Let me tell you, tooth and nail, buddy. I finally at least I got, maybe it's your name on the morning show too. Like I got mine finally. Maybe, maybe. But it took me 16 years. I won't hold my breath.

You might want to wait another 10 years. I think at 15 years, they have to give it to you. Right. I heard that's in the contract. 713, 23, 1,2, 5, 790 is the phone number here on Sports Talk 790. Eric in Bay City wants to talk about the Billy Wagner jersey retirement. What's up, Eric? Well, Ross, you said it's a slow week.

I got a lot of meat to put on the bone for you. Oh, here we go. How many Zach Grinky bones are we talking about? None of it will involve Jack Grinky if you'll let me. I'm proud of you. The first one is, thank you. I'm growing. You and Matt talked about Billy Wagner last week and not being sure his jersey should

be retired. When that back gate opened at the Astrodome and he walked out there to close out a game, you can see the look on the player's faces. It's about to be a quiet plane ride home. He is a legend. He's going into the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Mets, where Alex Bregman will end up. Alex Bregman shouldn't have a cup holder named after him at Dikin Park. Much less ever have his jersey retired.

The guy hit below 200 and two consecutive World Series in 21 and 22. Yeah, but he was great in the playoffs. He had that, what, the game winner in Game 5 in 2017 is almost enough. 2017. Yes, he did. But let's talk about it. 20 playoff home runs. No, I think he has six

World Series home runs. But let me just say this. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on, hold on, Eric. Only six home runs in the World Series? What a bum. Okay. Come on, dude.

What I'm saying here. He hit in a lineup full of stunts. Lance Berkman on that 2005 team hitting a lineup with Jason Lane, Morgan Insberg, and Craig Bidja. Adam Everett was the number two hitter, if I recall. Hey, don't be hating on Adam Everett.

Adam Everett. it's the most trash astro of all time next Alex Bregman. Oh, boy. So let me put it to you this way. Alex Bregman is one of a few former Astros now that, in my opinion, has put eternal damage, unfortunately, on Jose Altuve that does not belong there. All those guys, Springer, Correa, Marwin Gonzalez, Carlos, Beltron, and Bregman that immensely were tied into the trash can banging.

Altube was not. The guy gets accused to wear in a buzzer and all this other conspiracy nonsense. sense and he has to wear that badge. He might not be a first ballot Hall of Famer because of that garbage that those guys were associated with. And that's the thing is, Bregman needs to be looked upon as that group. Springer's out in Toronto stealing money from the Blue Jays. Correa's in the trainer's office every day in Minnesota.

Breggman's going to be the next bust out of that group. And Jose Al-Tube is still going to be here doing great things getting accused of what they all did. Eric, have you been drinking this morning? No, sir. And let me circle it back to the last thing. No, sir. Let me circle it back to this last point, and I'll hang up and listen. Thank you.

The last point is this. What you see out of right now with the Astros is we're in the demise. We're in the late 1990s Dallas Cowboy era of what was greatness. We've already seen our Barry Switzer, which was Dusty Baker. Now we're seeing our Chan Galey days with a coach nobody wants to play for. That's why Presley. All right. Eric, you know what? I'm sorry.

After the first two, three crazy things you said, I got to let you go. Nobody wants to play for Joe Espada. You're not even paying attention. You're not even listening. You're not even watching the games. You're not to anybody talking in the post game. That's absurd, Eric. I love you like, I don't know, the weird cousin that we see at the reunion.

But come on, man. That's too much. Do you even believe what you're saying at this point, Eric? Alex Bregman, the two worst Astros in history. Adam Everett won, Alex Bregman, too. He's got 19 postseason home. runs. Yeah.

OPS of almost 800 in the postseason. That's pretty good. Going up against best pitchers on the planet. 54 RBIs, 53 walks. Oh, my God. At least he didn't say he wants Zach Grinky back. That's the guy he always calls and he wants Zach Grinky back on the team. Why?

I don't know. He thinks he still got gas in the tank, even though 30 other Major League franchises have said no for an entire year plus. Do you know how many bad players have played for the Astros? and you want to say Adam Everett was one of the worst. Yeah, come on. Adam Everett, gold glove caliber. I don't think he ever won one. But Gold Glove caliber. And actually, if you go back and look at his numbers,

is that a bad you thought? No, no. There's plenty of other Astros that have come through here that have been pretty damn bad. You ever heard of Miles Straw? Hey, whoa. You ever heard of Jake Myers? Oh, wow.

Yeah, we got to get into that because you're a Jake Myers. We don't have to go there. He is terrible. I'm sorry, gold glove finalist. I'm talking offensively. No, no, we're talking. No, we're not talking about office. It's called a team game, bro.

You got to, it's a complete game. Can't wait for our nine hold. Can't they go out there and just hit like Yord on, all right? You got to go play the field. Hopefully Chas McCormick can figure it out this year. Premium defensive position. Put it to you this way. Jake Myers is so bad that they're going to put Jose and Altuve in left field to bolster that

outfield. Hey, he's so bad that he's starting two years back to back in center field. Yeah, I don't understand this, dude. Why are we, why are we as Astros fans putting up with Jake Myers as your starting center fielder. I went on a nice little rant this morning. Jake is a rake. And then Gordy texted me and he said, hey, Jake Myers is a nice kid.

He is nice. Jake Myers is about to be 29. He's a grown ass man. He may be a nice kid. Maybe he should be more of an ass. Maybe that make him better. He couldn't get water if you fell out of a boat. That's not true.

He got 13 bombs last year, bro. Thanks. Thanks. Thank you. Now, like, most of those were before July. Yeah. The last three months of the season, pretty rough.

But that's okay. That's what we're doing? Eric in Bay City, what is in the water out there in Bay City? Hey, and by the way, Al Tuveh is going to be a first ballot hall of fame or regardless. He may not get votes from some people. I think you're right. He's going to be a first

back. How can you not? I think he can get to 75, but I think it'll be close. And in any it'll be, in any case, it'll be closer than it should be. What's the guy's name? What's the, what's the writer in Boston? What's the real popular one? older guy. Come on, you know what I'm talking about. Bill, not Bill. With the curly hair?

Yes, yes, yes. What's his name? I don't know you're talking about. Yeah, what's his name? I can't remember his name. He's not worth remembering. I'll just put Boston sports writers. He has been very vocal that he has already said he will not. Dan Shaughnessy. Look, I put curly hair Boston sports writer. And it's the first thing that popped up. Dan Shaughnessy has said that he's not going to vote for hoseout to because of the trash crash can stuff. That's fine. Whatever. he's still going to get in eventually.

There's going to be a couple guys that won't vote for it. You cannot vote as much as you want. But I still think he's going to be first. I haven't talked to you about this, Brian Lehm, because we haven't talked on air since 2019 Black Friday. What was your opinion on the Billy Wagner jersey retirement? I'm indifferent. I really don't care.

To be honest with you. To be honest with you, no, hey man, this is radio business, buddy. Radio, you have to yell. You have to have, number one, have an opinion, and number two, scream it from the mountaintops. Haven't you learned? Come on, man. I don't care.

It's fine. He's a Hall of Fame or cool. He's going in with an Astro's hat and they're going to retire his number. This is the thing to me. When Tyler White was on the team and wearing number 13, was there any, was there a single Astro fan going, you can't wear number 13? That's Billy Wagner's number. Yeah, no. No.

Nobody said that. No one cared. Exactly. To me, you can put him in the Astros Hall of Fame. That's the same as retiring as there. You can honor him. Yeah. But in my opinion, and I know it's not like this in 2025,

but Hall of Fame should be reserved for the greatest of the greatest of the great. And jersey number retirement should be reserved for people who that number is tied to their career. If I went to 100 Astros fans and asked them what jersey number Craig Bigio wears, a lot of them would come back and know that it's seven. Seven needs to be gone. So it needs to be retired. If I said, what does Billy Wagner wear? I don't think we get anywhere near.

It's not a number that is just like, etched in everyone's memory. That guy is that number. Billy Wagner's number 13. We've got to retire it. Nobody else can wear this. 27 will be that way. 27?

100%. 100%. Wait, so hold on. Did I miss something? Are they retiring his jersey? Yes. So his number's going to go up in the rafters? Billy Wagner, yes.

They are? How did I miss that? I don't know. You don't know either. You sleep half today. I thought you were talking about like the Astros's Hall of Fame, like in Hall of Fame Adler or whatever. No, they're going to put a number up there?

Yeah. Okay. That's what I'm saying. I don't know about that. I mean, look. Look, I don't, look, I'm not going to be like screaming from the mountaintops. This is it Travis. He should never happen.

He's a Hall of Famer. I get it. I guess I'm in different. I really don't care. The next, for me, the next number that should be retired and probably one of the only few that should be retired is 27. And that's for Jose Al Tuvei. I remember. Unless Jordan stays here for the rest of his career, but he's eventually going to price himself out.

So I wonder if they'll do. Do you think they'll do it for like a royals, like tandem? Because I was a little surprised When I'll tell you I said this the Billy Wagner thing When 44 was given out I was like ooh Isn't that kind of Royals Walt's number?

See I didn't even remember that Yeah And I remember Royo Yeah Like he was Put it to you actually you know what I remember Shane Reynolds more than I remember Royo 39?

Was he 39? I thought he was 37 37? Was he? I don't know I'm telling you Shane Reynolds Yeah you're right

37 Was it 37? I was close Yeah I was too off Well, that's not bad. Give me partial credit. I don't know, man.

Shane Reynolds has got an orange jacket. He's in the Astros Hall of Fame. Yeah, he should be. I think, you know what? Let's get Pat Nyshak out there. But yeah, why not, man? You were 37. What about Greg Lukerson?

Can we get that guy? No. No, okay, fine. What about Luke? What about Luke? Who do I say? Greg Lugarston? Dude, you want to talk about.

That's pretty great. What is it called when you switch up numbers? Dyslexic? Is that the same? Yeah, you got the dyslexia. Yeah, so. for Luke Gregor. You've been here since six. It's fine. All right. We're going to take a break on that note.

Greg Lukerson? Sounds like an astro. You know what? We're going to play to tell the truth when we come back because Brian Leema is hanging out. We've got to get that in with him. We'll also have Chris Gordy with a spring training report coming up at 1130. News at noon. Adam Wexler joining at some point. A lot of good stuff here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. You can get in at 713. 2.12. 5.790. Matt Thomas. Ross via Real. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. As Matt Thomas would say,

hello and welcome into one of the signature segments of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is traveling, doing volleyball dad stuff. He'll join me in West Palm Beach tomorrow, as we'll be there for spring training coverage here on Sports Talk 790. Right now hanging out for a little bit, I do appreciate you. Brian LaLima.

Yeah. Now, do we got to. Jingles? It's a little something called production value, buddy. Let's go. Get your game up. Yeah. That's how we roll here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Without Matt Thomas. Who's not here? That's okay. Anyways, all right, so this segment is a fun one that we do on Mondays. Okay. Where usually it's probably collecting takes from over the weekend, the things that we saw, things that are going on. And we throw four takes at you.

This time it's me. Normally it's Matt. Okay. I only believe one of these takes. Okay. Here we go. You ready?

You understand it? I think so. You're ready to go? Yeah. You look a little confused. I am a little confused, but we're going to rock with it. That's okay. Only one of these, I believe.

Okay. You got to sniff out the one, I believe. Okay. All right. Take number one. All right. You might want to write this down. I got it.

That's fine. All-Star game format is trash. Nobody cares. Nobody really wants to watch. The only one, way that they're going to get these players to care is the almighty dollar. The NBA

needs to have big talking big money incentives for the All-Star game. Right now the winning team gets like $25,000 a piece. I'm talking at least a quarter mill a piece. Find a sponsor whoever, Kia, I don't know.

The NBA has got a billion sponsors. They fund this NBA cup with like Emirates Air. Somebody can do it. The NBA needs big money incentives and it's the only way to improve the all-star game you don't believe that that's take number one oh wait so I don't do it at each one

I gotta wait you gotta wait to the okay alright that's okay you take a mental inventory alright alright right yeah I'm gonna write this down number two as I just outlined in the last segment only the greatest of the greatest of the great

need to have their numbers retired for organizations greatest of great Alex Breggman, step on back, pal. Only nine years is an astro. We do appreciate you. We're going to put you into the Astros Hall of Fame. You are one of the all-time greats, but number two stays.

You didn't even put in 10 years. I need to see a little bit more than that. I do appreciate him in his career. I'm not going with Eric in Bay City calling him the second worst Astro of all-time. I think he's an all-time great. He's getting his orange jacket, but number two stays. Okay. Number three.

This hurts me to say Because thankfully Matt Thomas isn't here So I can say it out loud The University of Houston Cougars are winning the national championship It's finally here They've had all these years As long as they're, I'll put this caveat in there Barring health

Barring health They've won at Arizona They won with the Kansas Jayhawks They're destroying the Big 12 they're going to win that conference, which is, well, now the SEC is the toughest basketball conference in basketball. But everything is aligning. They actually have good three-point shooting,

go along with the defense and rebounding and playing hard that they normally do. University of Houston Cougars are winning the NCAA. Okay. National Championship. Take number four. We're going back to the NBA well. Over the weekend, in the middle of the game, like the final game, The NBA honored Chuck, Shaq, Ernie, and Kenny for the NBA TNT show.

They've done for so many years. They've done a great job. Yeah. And they're going to bring them to ESPN and give them a bunch of money. You know what I say? Bad idea. They need to get rid of Chuck and Shaq. Look, all they do is go out there and argue.

They try to fight each other. They make up a bunch of dumb topics. There's zero basketball analysis. And most of it is negative. I think the NBA more than any other sport has a negative fandom culture where everybody talks about how everybody sucks more than the other major sports and I think a lot of it has to do with Chuck and Shaq telling everyone else that they suck because they have no other analysis.

NBA needs to get rid. It needs to be their call. Okay. To get rid of Chuck and Shaq. Kenny and Ernie are fine, but they got to get rid of that show, inject some new life, get some young people, throw Stephen A on there. I don't even care. But Chuck and Shaq got to go.

Okay. All right. You don't believe that one. To recap, the four takes. Now, I put a big, I wrote it down my list. I'm going to show it to you before I touch anything. So you know which one I actually chose. Because we think that Matt switches it up.

He probably does. He and I pick one. Yeah. They're like, Matt, you don't believe that. Yeah. And then he's like, oh, no, it was this one. And we're like, you're a liar. You're a fraud.

Yeah. So I'm going to show it to you. Okay. So hands free. Okay. All right. Take number one. Big money incentives are needed for the All-Star game in order to make an

interesting. Number two, Alex Bregman's jersey should not be retired, but he can still be in the Astros Hall of Fame. The QH Cougars are winning the NCAA National Championship, and the NBA needs to move on from, at the very least, Chuck and Shaq. And now you discuss it with Connor. Okay, Connor, I think I got a pretty good hold on this right here. He does not believe that the NBA needs to get rid of Chuck and Shaq. They are phenomenal for TV and entertainment. I agree. He doesn't believe that the Cougars are going to win the national championship because it's too much of a crap shoot in March Madness. I'm a little, I'm a few on that one, but go ahead.

And he doesn't believe that the All-Star game needs more money for it to be entertaining. I think he believes that the greatest of greats need their numbers retired, number two stays. It's either that or U of H. I'm going to go with the greatest of grace, the retiring, because we literally just talked about it. We did talk about it, but maybe he... Maybe he's doing that to throw us off. Maybe he threw it us off a little bit because, I mean, yeah, two, World Series here in Houston.

And he would say this only when Matt's not here is Coor's been in the National Champion because they are really good. They are good. You're going to go to, I'm going to tell the truth about three. Okay. I'm going with number two. This is fun. Wow, the drama.

It's neither of the WMBA one, so let's see. Okay. Number one, you are correct. Yeah, you don't believe that. There's nothing that's going to get anybody interested. I think maybe they could go to USA and the world. Quarter million dollars apiece, not really going to do. much for anybody. Nothing's going to change it. You guys

are very right to throw that one out. Next one I'm going to throw out. Alex Breggman's number two is getting retired. Damn it. I mean, look, World Series, as y'all said, it's gone. He is number two. I know it's only nine years. He, to me, is on the cusp, but you got to retire Alex Bregman's number two.

Okay. And next, last but not least, oh, wow. You're right. It's a crapshoot. I think the Cougars could be one of the favorites. I think Auburn is actually the favorite. Check that out. Chuck and Shaq, you got to go. It's too negative. Really?

Really? Chuck is 61 years old. Shack is 52. Chuck can hardly talk. He doesn't care. He doesn't know anybody who's on these teams. They can't even say Alpern Shingoon or Amin Thompson or any of these Rockets players. They are so bad.

They're so toxic. They had their run. They're past their prime. They've got to go. You don't believe that. I know I know by the thing, but you really don't believe that. I do. I'm telling you, everything I just laid out.

They're past their prime. It's over. They're hilarious, though. They're, they just try. I just want the entertainment value. What's the entertainment? Chuck. I'm going to get you in a head, Chuck.

When, uh, that's pretty good. I'm going to come over there and slap you, Chuck. That's a pretty good impression. And that's it. And Chuck makes fun of the fat women in San Antonio. Yeah, they're fat women in San Antonio. And then they're, I'm going to slap you, Chuck. That's it.

It's the same thing. I know, over and over and over and over. Actually, you know, if it were up to me... But you only see the viral moments. When's the last time you sat there and watched 20 minutes of the show? I'm not a big NBA guy anymore, man. You don't even watch it. I see the clips.

I see the viral clips, too, and it's the same old thing. Actually, you know what? I would rather them get rid of Kenny the Smith. He doesn't do anything. It doesn't get any value. Kenny doesn't really add anything. He doesn't have any value. He doesn't know the players anyways.

I know it's hard to do, but I have just basically two things to ask of these people. Funny? Absolutely. Comedy matters? Know your league. I grew that. Yeah, yeah, that's it. But Stephen A. Smith does that, too.

Yeah, he does it. He bouchers the hell out of it. He gets loud, too. Yeah. This is absolutely preposterous. And, yeah. I just think the NBA product overall sucks right now. It's not good. Well, coming to the break, there are three of their last, they've won three.

All right, we're way over for a break. Oh, yeah, it's top of the hour. My bad. Got to get you up. No, it's okay. We don't follow. We don't follow the clock. That's fine.

Who do you have coming up at 1115 or 1130? Nobody? Oh, we have Chris Gordy. coming up at 11.30. Okay. Brian William, thank you for hanging out. And you lose. Good day, sir.

I tried. We're late. See you later. See you later. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. Our number two, the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas,

he is out traveling, doing volleyball dead stuff. His daughter was in Washington, D.C. for a tournament. He'll be back. tomorrow as will I as soon as the show is over I am heading to the international airport some known as well I'm sorry intercontinental Bush Intercontinental Airport as I will be heading into Fort Lauderdale then driving down on to west Palm Beach and I'll be with you as along

Matt Thomas alongside Matt Thomas for three straight days of some spring training coverage will bring you all the heavy hitters that we can here I hope we get Jose Altuva this year Jose Al-Tuva. I'm going to be honest, just between you and me. Joseo Tube has been big time in us for like a year. So hopefully we can get him. We know we won't be getting Alex Bregman because he's gone, which is unfortunate because he's tight with Matt Thomas, so he would normally come on with us there.

But we're definitely going to get Joe Espado. We'll get Dana Brown. We'll get some other big Astros name. So make sure you stay tuned to Astro's spring training coverage here on Sports Talk 790 for the next three days. We're also with you today until 2 o'clock. Adam Wexler will be joining me in a little bit. We'll have Chris Gordy with a spring training report coming up at 1130.

We also have you at 713-213-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. And this is the big story. You know, every spring training, there's some kind of something's going on. Where's the camp battles? What's happening with this guy getting an extension, which pretty much in the first couple of days? Frambervalde is the only one up as far as a big name.

who's important, who's going to be a free agent after the season. And Kaibosh was pretty much put on that over the weekend. Framber says nobody's approached him about an extension. And if we're on February 17th and there's not been any approaches, doesn't sound like it's happening. Sounds like he's gone. Sound like he's at the very least going to hit the market. And then the Astros are going to make a decision from there,

give him some kind of offer. I don't know how competitive it's going to be. But we've seen that at least from the Alex Breggman standpoint, from Carlos Coray and others. Diastros normally not willing to hand out big money long-term contracts. Now, imagine it's not going to happen with Framber Valdez. Certainly if they have concerns about him as far as long-term stability, as far as, I don't want to say mental health, like he's a crazy person.

And, you know, I mean, he goes out there and sometimes he gives up three home runs in an inning. It's not like he's out there committing a bunch of crimes and hasn't showed up for workouts and no shows. And he's just been a complete headcase. He's not like that at all. which I think a lot of fans characterize Frumber Valdez in that way. He goes out there and well he's finished like top 10 in the Sai Young for three straight years.

So he's pretty darn good. He is their ace right now. They need him as far as like players that are most important to the Astro's success this upcoming season, he's probably number two behind Yordon Alvarez. So that's where we are with him. He's still really important to the Astro's success.

But at age, 31 coming up becoming up as a free agent how long term of a deal do you want to sign him to that's what the astros will have to decide so that's been one of the the storylines is not necessarily going to be top of mind for everyone throughout spring training I would say right now the prevailing storyline is Jose al tuvei in center field it was talked about a couple of weeks ago remember at fan fest we had people on and everybody was laughing it off he was like Oh, yeah. If Alex Breggman comes back and put him in left field,

a little Jose Altuve out there in left field, sure, why not? Okay, buddy. And then it started to get a little bit more serious and a little bit more serious. And it looks like this thing is going to happen. And it might happen a lot. Joe Espada reiterating today, this is from Chandler Rome, Altuvae will play both left field and a second base this spring. The team is not committing to anything permanent.

Espada called it an everyday thing in terms of how it will evolve contingent on the feedback he gets from Altuve. But Jose Al-Tuvae has been working out with Yordon Alvarez's outfield glove. Alvarez asked about it too, said, quote, I don't think I'm necessarily the best person to be giving defensive outfield tips. Really, I thought Yorda liked himself out there in left field. That kind of surprises me a little bit. But this Al-Tuvre the left field thing is going to happen. The question is, how many games is it going to have? happen. You're going to have a sprinkling

of Yordon out there. You're going to get some Dubon out there because he played left field for you. But if there's an injury on the infield, the great thing, then the beauty of Dubon is you don't want to pencil him in anywhere on any given day because he can play everywhere except catcher and has pretty much

for the Houston Astros. And then, I mean, how much is Zach Desenzo going to factor over there? And how many games would Jose Altuve play out there in left field? That is the question. we talking 20 we're talking 50 we talking 80 or more i don't know definitely doesn't feel like the latter if i had to pick out a number feels like 45 somewhere in that range would be the number

and then the question is how many of those are at minnie park how well does he do out there i mean he's pretty athletic dude he's 35 years old now so he obviously isn't moving around as he did when he was younger and that's been part of the problem it's second base. I know some of us like to remember him as a gold glove caliber guy, which he was. He literally has a gold glove on his resume, but he's not that at second base anymore. And if you go look at stat cast out above average, you go look at fielding Bible, which does a lot of the analytics and zoning stuff with range and all that type of stuff. He's been one of the worst second baseman in baseball. And that's a much more premium defensive position than left field.

really at the end of the day you'd probably say first base or left field but there's a lot of nuances to first base and you're not putting somebody who's five foot six at first base you're just not doing that

you want a big target at first so left field becomes the only other option if you are looking to move him and make a transition defensively so he's out there taking fly balls we'll see how the arm plays because it just looks like it's going to happen it's been talked about too much

he's actually getting work out there. How much will Jose Al Tuvee be out in left field? That remains to be seen. And we'll talk about it with Chris Gordy coming up at 1130 here on a Sports Talk 790 and the Matt Thomas show. Went a little long in that last segment, so we're going to go ahead and get to a break here. What do you think?

How many games do you think we're going to see Jose Altuvei and left field? How worried are you about it? Or do you think he's going to be fine? This dude's one of the greatest astros of all time. Gold Glover. He can still move a little bit. You don't have to be the greatest fielder in history to play left field. Certainly not at Diken Park.

Did I say Minuton Park? We'll figure that out. We'll transition as we go along. At Diken Park, Jose Altuve in left field. I say that. What say you? 713-212-790 is the phone number if you'd like to get in. 713-212-5790.

You can also send tweets to at Sports RV and Kana D. McGovern. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. We'll be back after this short break. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. Continuing along here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross, without Matt Thomas. Connor McGovern is here. Ross v. We're out with you as well. Phone lines open at 713, 212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-790. You guys can tweet in at SportsRV. as well. If you'd like, some of y'all had been getting in, hadn't been, you know, I'd been falling off on reading these. And you know what, that's my fault. And I would like to extend my deepest apologies to you folks. We got Chris Gordy coming up with some spring training talk at 1130.

Got the news at noon as well. Adam Wex are going to join at 1 o'clock. And you at 713-212-5-790. Kyle W. tweeting in talking about we had a caller. Look, our friend Eric in Bay City, you're welcome to call just as much as you will like. at least he's not going with the

Zach Grinky takes anymore because that guy's been out of baseball for a year plus nobody's picking it up has he even announces retirement I mean he should if he has it but also that's not a very exact grinky like thing to do kind of a different cat

marches to the beat of his own drum but anyways he said Alex Breggman was the second worst astro of all time behind Adam Everett Kyle tweeting in Bregman Wayworth and Brett Wallace J.B. Shuck

Brendan Barnes, Mac Dominguez. hey, don't hate on Zika Stasio and or Tim Redding. Tim Redding, I remember like, oh, Astro is one of the top prospects in baseball. Tim Redding's going to come and tear things up for the show. Well, he didn't, and that's okay. Jill also says, I'm wrong. Now, earlier we were talking about this, I said, Billy Wagner wearing number 13 were people upset about that?

Because, I'm sorry, upset when other people wore number 13. Because not only did Tyler White wear number 13, look, these are the guys that all wore the number 13 after Billy Wagner. And for the most part, I don't remember, oh, not even for the most part. I'm going to say for me, in my observation, in my time of living in this city and being around this team for as long as I had, I don't remember anybody bringing up that number 13 should be reserved for Billy Wagner. I really don't. Maybe it did.

And I'm forgetting. But let's go through the list. Eric Munson, Thomas Perez, Jose Castillo, Brandon, Lillian. Steve Pierce, Ronnie Sidenio, Domingo Santana, Tyler White, Dustin Garneau, did Abraham Toro? Were people upset? Were people up in arms and then throwing a fit

when Abraham Toro wore number 13? Because you can't take Billy Wagner's number? I really don't remember that. Jacob Wilson. I don't remember that, brother. Huh. J.J. Matachevick and Cooper Hummel.

A lot of people wore 13 after. And again, I'm not up in arms about it. It's just if it were up to me, which is not, you save the most hallowed numbers, like this guy is tied into this number for this team for all time. You save those for retirement. Clearly, the Astros disagree. Dude's in the freaking Hall of Fame.

I'm not going to argue that much. Billy Wagner getting his number 13 retired. Jill tweets in, wrong. Of course, we thought Tyler White should not wear 13. Kids growing up during that time, no and care. my kids are all men now are all rabbit Wagner fans. Okay, maybe in the Parsons family, it was a topic of discussion. But I just don't remember, I don't recall it being that big of a deal for people when that number was given out.

All right, keeping it going with some tweets, Joan talking about Billy Wagner since he was elected to Hall of Fame. Yeah, it's okay with me. Yeah, it's okay with me too. I'm just saying, I wouldn't have done it. Giving my opinion, that's what I'm paid to do. Justin also says should have blown up that last caller with the Breggie postseason stats. In 99 career games, he is number two and hits for a third baseman. Breggie has 88.

Chipper Jones has 89. Most runs, most run batted in, most home runs for third baseman. I think he's like third on the list for all-time postseason home runs. What is it, Altuve and Manny Ramirez? And then it's Breggman, I think. I'll go look that up. But calling Breggman a... a dog in the postseason

in saying he doesn't he's the second worst astro since Adam Everett? That's insane. That doesn't make any sense. Let's see. Oh no, I'm sorry. No, he isn't second. He's like fifth or something like that. Mani Ramirez still has 29. Altuve is two behind at 27.

Then Bernie Williams, Kyle Schwerber, Derek Jita. And then Altuve is tied at 19 with Springer. Albert Poo-Holes, Corey Seeger's up this list already? Oh, my God. All right. So, Bregman still, top 10 all-time in postseason home runs. I know it's been a lot of games, a lot of played appearances,

and it is the, you know, this age of the wildcard games, and then the DS and the CS and the World Series, where you don't see Babe Ruth on this list because they just went straight to the World Series. That was that. There was not as many post-season games, not as many opportunities for played appearances. That's why it's all modern guys on the top of this list.

But bottom line is Alex Breggman's 789 OPS in the postseason, 19 home runs, walkoffs, big time hits and home runs and all that stuff. He's been really good in the playoffs. Calling a playoff dog is just inaccurate. You just make yourself sound stupid. You don't know what you're talking about. Eric, I don't want to call you stupid. We're friends. Like I said, you're like the weird cousin I never want to see again.

But we have, and we appreciate you calling in. but come on. Come on. All right. 713-2125, a 790. The phone number, if you'd like to get in, 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. Back to Altovae in left field. Chandler Rome, saying the Astros approached him after the season about possibly moving to the outfield.

He said it will evolve throughout the spring. Asked if he had a preference where he plays. He said, no, I want to play. I want to be in the lineup. I want to help this team win. So there you go. From the horse's mouth. Apparently Al-Tube was approached about it this off-season,

regardless of Breggman being involved. Because I think the Astros' plan in the way they went throughout this off-season was that he was not going to be here. It seems very clear that once 6156 was scoffed at by Alex Breggman, that they moved on. And, well, as I've kind of been talking about the last couple of years, you look at a lot of the metrics and all that stuff, Al-Tuve has not been anywhere close to a good,

second basement. He's been one of the worst. But he's going to go out to left field. It looks like how much, how much at second base? I don't know. Maricio Dubon says Jose L. Tuve can handle left field. People don't realize how

he good he moves and everything. I mean, he, out of all these people, he's the only one that I'm, like, he's the one that I can go from from shore to, no, from second to the out field. I mean, sometimes make it look easy

it's not that easy. It's hard, you know, catching ground balls and the next one is not to go to the outfield. But overall people, Jose can do it. And it's already going to happen, right? If Jose Altuve is out in left field, he's going to miss a play a ball. Everyone does it. Everyone.

Marisu Dubon, Yorda and Alvarez, out to whoever is out in left field. Somebody's going to misjudge a ball. You're going to have a miscommunication with your centerfielder, and the ball is going to land in between, them. That happens. It happens

a handful of times a year. So unfortunately, the first time it happens to Jose Altuve, he's going to be up against a microscope. Write this down. The second Altuve misplays a ball in left field. It's going to go viral. It's going to go on every MLB account or every Astros count or Astros Hater

account. And then there's going to be a bunch of retweets and comments and likes and like, why did the Astros do this? Unbelievable. Stupid move. But it's just about being consistent enough to be out there and being good enough. He doesn't have to be plus. He doesn't have to be a gold glove finalist.

He's got to be good enough out there. And I think he can do it. You just heard Miceau-Dubon say it. He's going to move out there. He can move much more than any of these other guys out there. He doesn't have to cover a whole lot of ground. Thankfully, on days he's out there with Jake Myers.

Jake Myers covers everything. Have you seen Jake Myers out in the center? He tries to get everything no matter what. I think he knows that a lot of his value comes from his range metrics and stuff like that. It looks like he, He calls off everyone. Got it, got, got, got, got, got it, got it, got it, got it. That's Jake Myers out in center field no matter who's over there.

It used to get these sideways looks from Kyle Tucker. Like, dude, I'm right here. Like, Kyle Tucker is standing under the fly ball. And Jake Myers is over there trying to run and call for it. Jake Myers can cover a lot of ground. He knows that's where his value is. He knows how that's how he stays in the lineup because, oh, the guy's not going to be confused for Prime Mike Trout.

who, by the way, is moving to right field. So, on days especially, he's in at Dyken Park and or out there with Jake Myers, I think he's going to be fine out there in left field. Jeremy Payne yet seems to think the same. So I still haven't seen it. I don't know if he's been taking reps in left field, but I know it's going to be different for sure.

I've never seen out too late at any position outside of second base, but I know he's willing to do whatever it takes to help. team. So once he gets here, we'll kind of dive into that a little bit more, but for now, I know he's going to do what he has to do as a team. There you go. Jeremy Payne says he hadn't seen it, but he thinks he's going to be fine. Maybe not as much of a ringing endorsement as for Marisoubaud.

Who thinks that Jose Altoouvae is going to be just fine out there? So we're going to see it. The question is, how much, how well will he play? And at the end of the day, is he going to be hurting the team? Because right now, as I said, if you're putting Marisu Dubon in second base, I don't think it's going to be every day. They're going to want to move him around as well. And Dubon's value is not being pigeonholed into one spot in the lineup every single day because he just doesn't have the bat to be an everyday type of guy. But whoever's out there and whatever kind of mix they're going with, you're going to be better defensively with Jose Altuve to me in left field than at second base.

713-212-5-790 is the phone number. All right, couple of you all got in real quick, so let's do that ahead of Chris Gordy joining us. So I don't want you guys to have to hang through the interview. So let's get Longhorn Scott real quick. What's up? Longhorn, Scott, hook them. How about them lady longhorns? I mean, how about all the Longhorns right now?

The baseball team's like wrecking shop, the softball team is wrecking shop, the women's basketball team, football. I mean, all we need is more chances to play A&M so we can crush their spirits even further. but by the way Cooper High is not going to win at all until they do it they have squandered the last two years outstanding talent in the NCAA tournament and they had a guy get hurt a couple of years

oh but he got hurt dude that whole team was loaded I mean can they yeah but they haven't until they do nobody ought to be counting on them so that's not why I called though um love you Lockhart Scott what do you got on El Tuvee? So from where I sit

And I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but to me the idea that all of a sudden, in the context of like keeping Bregman, I thought it was still pretty ridiculous, but even still, that was at least quasi-legit, but the idea that they're putting, they're thinking about putting Al-Tuvai in the outfield, I think it should be a major red flag to Astros fans. I mean, obviously, you've already seen a major talent depletion from the roster. And now you're talking about putting this guy who's been pretty freaking awesome in the infield. You're going to put him in the outfield?

I mean, that should be a major red flag about the way the talent development is going in the farm system. The idea that you don't have somebody that you go, hey, that guy can play left field. Let's keep our gold glove second basement in, you know, a second. I think that's, I mean, there's one thing to talk about can he do well, would he do? would he do? How about why are they even talking about it? Yeah. Because that's how bad it's gotten. Well, Scott, I know he is a gold glover and has one one, but if you look, I don't know

how much you care about Fielding Bible or Stackass or any of those other defensive metrics types of websites. The last two years, he's been the worst second baseman in baseball defensively by those types of those metrics. He just doesn't have the range and he doesn't move as well as he did. He was a gold glover, but that was like 10 years ago. Well, okay, fair enough, right? However, so you know what you need in left field?

You need range. You need a good arm. Like, I don't know. I mean, I guess the idea is if they think there's less of it. I don't know, man. I mean, to me, it's a thing where you go, a guy like that's got a lot of muscle memory. And in the last two years, has that happened? Sure.

And I don't read any of those Bible this or war that or swath. I don't, I'm not, I'm not that guy, but I'll just say this. You know, the guy's got a ton of licks out there at second, and I think him there is the best place for him. And I don't know, I mean, I don't know. It just strikes me as being odd that that's the go-to position for him. I don't know, I mean, the guy's five foot five. It doesn't matter when the guy's crushing it at home plate. But when you got to cover a lot of ground really quickly, I mean,

just you're tried. I mean, yeah, you can be fast and not tall, but generally you want a guy with a lot of length, right? High, long arms, long legs that can hustle. I mean, obviously the legs are the feet to matter, but the long arms usually come with it. I don't know, man. I guess my point is it's more of a subplot to the idea of what we've known for a while.

But like, you're trying to scrape together a way to put a team together and you're going, I'll run it out too many out in left field I mean I don't know I'm making a DH then or something like But fine you don't have a left fielder I don't know dude Yeah I think it's part of it

I'll wrap I'll wrap it by saying this The beginning of the end started about two years ago And we had a little fools gold Because they made it to the What? NLCS ALCS in 23 I'm sorry I'm sorry ALCS and then last year

They start off abysmally they resurrect they get in, kaput. That was, I think, two years ago was Fool's Gold. Last year was more indicative. We'll see. But that's what happens when you get rid of the guy who built the best farm system in Major League Baseball. Hey, hasn't that

like, maybe dust him off? Hasn't that, like, settled out? They got nothing, dude. If you're a diehard Astros fan, the end is nigh. That's all I say. Thank you, Longhorn, Scott. Yeah, look, 2023 very well could have been the last dance.

And they should have won that. They could win one freaking home game. They win that series. And then they crushed the diamondbacks in four or five games in the World Series. Then last year, yes, they scuffled. They only won 88 games. And it's on to a new era. I mean, I think who is even left from that 2019 starting lineup?

I think it's Jordan and L-2. That's it. So it is a different era for the Astros. From the batting lineup? Yeah, the batting lineup. Yeah. This could be, I mean, we're more than, I mean, it's not doomsday.

I was just out there. Like, this team, I'm sorry. Did Jose El Tuve and Yoran Alvarez retire? Like, they did not. They're still here. They're still here, but Kyle Tucker isn't. Alex Bregman isn't. I was debating with somebody about Bregman, and they were telling me, and this is a Red Sox fan.

He goes, bro, he don't have the protection he had in Houston. In Houston, he had Altuvae in front of him, Yorda, behind it. Like, he's going to be fine, but like, let's not act like there's an Altuv and Yorda on Boston. Protection is overblown in 20, though. They all have scouting reports. They're all trying to get out. What the point being? Would Boston take that? Would you take any Boston player right now over Altuva or Yoran?

Rafael Davers. He's fine. Do you all hand a Doron? Yeah. I'll stick with Art 2. Okay. Well, there's a go. Chris Gordy. There's a little taste of Chris Gordy. He'll be back in just a second here. We'll get some spring training reports. He was out there this weekend. Those are on hold, you can stay on as well.

Back in a second here on the Matt Thomas show with some more Astros talk. All right now. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is out. And he'll be back tomorrow with us with you from West Palm Beach. I will be heading there after the show. So we're going to meet up there and be with you there for the next few days. Somebody who was there for a few days.

His name is Chris Gordi. And really, you know, as I said, we always have these pets. storylines when it comes to spring training. This guy gain weight, this guy lost weight, this guy added a pitch, this guy's doing that. Feels like one of the storylines of spring training is going to be Jose Altuve in left field and feels like it's very

real, even though Alex Breggman did not sign back, Courtney. Yeah, in fact, El Tuvee, he was supposed to get there yesterday, one person had said, but I think he got in there late yesterday so that he was in camp for the first time today. But here was Jose Altuvee a few minutes ago talking with

the media about playing left field. I think Springchaining will tell us a lot about it and, you know, really later than we can give you a better answer. But, you know, like I said, for now on, I just want to prepare, get ready everywhere, you know, I play and just focus to be 100% and be ready for the season.

So before you're one of those fans who starts just spouting, this is the dumbest idea. What are we thinking? This team's stupid. What are we doing? Altuve has declined defensively. Yes, he has. He's not the player.

he once was. And the numbers say, Ross, he cost you runs last year at second base. Yes, that's according to, look, defensive tracking is kind of difficult and can be much debated, but if they have you as the worst

in baseball at second base, you're probably not a gold glover. Yeah. You're probably not one of the best in baseball. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, we go back two years ago when Jose Al Tuvae was injured and Maricio Dubon plugged in at second base,

he was an award winner that year, correct? Yeah, he was great. He's a gold glove caliber type of second basement, yeah. Maricio DuBone wants to play second. The Astros want him to play second. He is a good defensive infielder. And so they're looking at those numbers and saying,

we've got to have a little two-based bat. However, they are resigned to the fact Jordan Alvarez is not going to play outfield very much, if at all this year. Like, I think he played like 40 games there last year. Yes. And Joe Espato, yesterday at camp was like, we are not doing that.

That is not. And Matt Carhart kind of pushed him on it. He goes, so like maybe half. He goes, I'm not putting a number on it. I'm just telling you, we have to, his health, we have to have him off his feet. Yeah. And hitting as a DH. So there you have it. Like, Yoron is going to be your full-time DH all year.

But if Dubon is at second, because you're better defensive second baseman, you still got to have L2-Vat's bat in the lineup. So where do you put him? can't play first. You got Christian Walker there. Probably not a great third base. You're not playing a 5 foot 6 guy at first. You're not just running through positions.

Not putting the third. You're not putting the left field. It makes sense. It's the easiest one. I'm with you. It's a minute of me. I mean, it's a big wall. Dikin.

So, yeah. No, I'm with you. And look, our last caller, Longhorn Scott brought it up. It's like this is the, this is kind of the, things are winding down for the golden air of the Astros. Unless you think Jacob Melton and Bryce Matthews. Making the playoffs every year should be the target. Now, like, winning World Series, yeah, that's the dream. But like, if you could just keep

this playoff run going and they make deep runs, you know, like, that's a golden error still. It's not like, Bregman, you know, he was beating his chest about it in this press conference yesterday. Been in the playoffs every year. I've been in the leagues. It's been in the league. Like, he counts last year as a play. You look at last year as a disappointment. He was. He was. As a mental armor going, I made the playoffs. No, he thinks of it as a disappointment, too. And it was. But it was a two-game series of the fluke thing. He's spinning that as a positive going, I've made the playoff every year.

Yet here in Houston we're going, oh, my God, it's the first time we didn't get past the first round. It's, we must be declining. They are declining. I mean, yeah. I mean, like I said, go back to that 2019 team. The only two people left from that lineup are Yorda-Alvarez and Jose Al-Tubei and Yorda-Nelva was the rookie. Greatest Astros teams ever. Absolutely.

Will the 20-25 team be the greatest Astros team ever? Probably not. No, they won't. But can they be really good and make a playoff run? Yeah. Then that should be the whole. Hopefully. Yeah, they can make the playoff run, but they're probably not, they're certainly not as good as the Yankees.

Their Red Sox is debatable. Orioles probably not. In it above getting hot, though, like the 22 rotation wasn't, won't go down as the greatest rotation, the history of baseball yet. They threw no hitters in one of the World Series. It's just about getting hot at the right time. Yeah. Christian Javier being part of that no hitter and the dude's got Tommy John right now. And by the way, that was the-at-by-backed by the end of the season.

It was an incredible and all-time literally historic run from the bullpen. And I don't know if you have those on. right now. You might. You don't know until you get in games. I'm just saying like in what's today's date? February 17th, I'm right off the 2025 asteros. I'm not writing them off.

They should be division favorites, but that's also because your division is so weak. And because you're still pretty good. If they were in any other division, they wouldn't have been any other division in baseball. They would not have been division champs. So we have to also be really weak. I'm not saying it's over, but I'm saying like they're not one of the heavy favorites like they have been in years past. I think it's just we have a lot of unknown and if guys play up to their potential

or some guys play above what we think this thing could reboot very quickly Cam Smith, Zach Dezenzo I mean these are talented kids You're gonna need that You're gonna need that

Because yeah Altuvai is gonna be 35 His birthday's May 6th Happy early birthday to Jose Altuva He's turning 35 Yordon is Jordan And he needs to be up to the part that we know that he can be

He needs to not be a 30 home run guy He needs to be a 40 home run guy. They think at least what I got was the lack of the dip in power and stuff, like the dip in clutch hitting and all that, like was a result of him being on his legs too much. Yeah, and that's very possible. So if he can be there, Christian Walker, hopefully, hopefully signing a 34-year-old first baseman doesn't turn out bad

like it did when you signed a 30, what, six-year-old first baseman or whatever it was with Jose Abraeu. Yeah. The guy is going to be great. And he'd dip in power. Jeremy Pena's probably in what, your 6-7 spot in the lineup. You'd love to see him take a step forward this year and get back. Just get the power numbers back.

Remember how many home runs he was hitting as a rookie? It's 22 or so, 21 or... But like, we didn't expect that from. And then, like, those power numbers have dipped. Like, where's those home runs? He talked about it himself, which we can play as we go forward, about not thinking as much as the plate. You're going to need Chas McCormick to bounce back.

It can happen. It's a lot of ifs. If Hunter Brown can be the pitcher he was in the second half, same thing for Spencer Arrigetti. If Renel Blanco can follow up a career year with a good year. If you can get something out of the left field spot, whether it be DeZenzo or Jacob Meltonner, whoever, you can get there, but it's a lot.

You got to hit on a lot to me. I mean, but like if Blanco's ERA goes up 0.5, would you take that? Yeah, we'll take that. You know what I mean? Like, he was top five in ERA last year. Like, he's not going to do that. again? Yeah, but what if Jose L. Tuve declines

in his age 35 season? That wouldn't be crazy. Declines average-wise hitting? Yeah. I mean, he did decline last year was his worst offensive season. But he's always a 300 hitter. I mean, it's just he falls out of bed. Yeah, but the power and the slug wasn't there anywhere near where it has been in years past. How many homers he

hit? He hit 20. Yeah. Take that again, Furman. He had OPS a 790. We love that number here. Maybe he has less less to think about out there. He's played left field. His 790 OPS was his first in a full season since 2013.

Yeah. Well, again, maybe taking him out of playing defense every play. Okay. It's going to. I was saying, like, if you're not expecting to climb from Jose Al-Tuvae, that's great. But it could get worse. Guys don't normally bounce back after a career worse season at 35. What was his average?

His average was $2.95. Yeah. I expect him to hit. Just give me singles and doubles. And I'll take that. You would like more. Because who's the second best hitter in this lineup? Yonair Diaz probably.

Your honor is one. Christian Walker 2. Probably Yonair Diaz 3. Okay. And then here's the thing with the outfield. Sal Tuvae, you're sacrificing defense in left field but getting plus offense. You're hoping. In center field, the vibe I get from what they've said, Ross, they don't give a damn about Jake's bat.

They don't. They shouldn't. They think they're getting plus defense from him. that's it. So Joe Spott is like, I'm going to bat him ninth, whatever. And whatever he gives you fun. And what he ever gives you fine. Absolutely. What they do want is Chaz to find Chaz that we've seen glimpses of where you can be a really consistent hit. Like, be consistent and be, you know, and give you some home runs, then you'll be fine. That I'll feel, I'll take that. But Chaz has to step up this year. All right. We've got to take a break here.

We're way over here on the clock. Chris Gordy with his spring a training report. v. Ria with you talking about Centigenics. Why have you been dragging through the days with that low energy, potentially caused by low testosterone? You've been trying to hit your New Year's resolutions. You said you're going to hit the gym. You haven't felt motivated. Maybe your levels are low. Get them checked by going to

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GLP1 plans. Stop waiting. Clinics all over town. Book an appointment at centergenicshealth.com. That's S-Y-N-E-R-GenXhealth.com. CinergenicsHealth.com. Matt and Ross return. Return on Sports Talk 790. Chris Gordy hanging out, talking some Shros here on Sports Talk 790.

Ross, Viori out with you. Matt Thomas is out. back tomorrow as we'll be joining you from West Palm Beach. Gordy was there this weekend, courtesy of our good friends over at Carbock Bruin. Yeah, it's good to be back in Houston. I couldn't find a Crawford Bach down there in West Palm. So I had to crack up on a nice cold one last time when I got home. You got to get their distribution up. What's going on? Let's get out in West Palm. Okay, so we've been talking about Altovae and going to left field. I think that's one of the big storylines. What are some of the other storylines that you noticed that we'll be talking about

coming up this year as we head into the season at 2025. Yeah, I think, like, the rotation sets up pretty well. Like, I mean, you're going to have Fromber who is in a contract year, so he's going to want to prove it. Like, here's the thing. Frumber stinks at all? That, he's only shooting himself in the foot. So he's not going to do that.

He's going to go out to have his best year. Hunter Brown is locked in, man. Like, talking with him, he's just, whatever it was that he figured out mid, middle of last year, he's ready to get after it. He's got a little edge to him. He does. Spencer Arredgeti, this is the biggest thing that stands out to me. You'll see it when you're down there. That dude is way more confident, outspoken. Like, you talk about being a leader, Spencer's that dude. He talked, he was chatty Kathy. Like, he was talking to arm off the media and like, you know, so much that he figured out last year. And, you know, like, again, another guy,

I think Erigetti, all you're asking for is can you be the number three or number four. he's really smart and he really articulates his thoughts about what he does a good job of putting what he's thinking and just in front of a microphone honestly I was thinking that during fan fest I was like this dude could be in media said a lot from Verlander too

so Verlander spent a lot of time with him last year kind of talking about stuff they need to work on and fix and so him is your three or Ronnell Blanco is your three well yeah I mean like three or four for probably put Arrogatee at four you probably would put Blanco at three. And then Wesnesek is the five?

Now, Blanco, I don't know, like, I just don't know what you're going to get from. But I think he'll be fine. I don't think he's going to go out there and get shelled. Like, I think he'll just be fine. And then Wisniewski is really the one that people are very high on him. And again, he's another dude who's ecstatic to be, he's a Houston native. He's ecstatic to be back home with the home field team. Like his family and friends are all buying season tickets.

They're super jacked to see him. And yeah, you're basically asking him to be the five. And then there's all these other dudes. Like, AJ Blue Ball. I watched AJ Blue Ball throw a pen the other day. He's got good stuff, man. When the ball hits the mitt, like that pop, you're just like, yes. Now, he lost control a little bit on the back end.

He was a little bit, you know, throwing outside the zone and all. But again, it's like first pin in spring training. But I like his stuff. Ryan Gusto. Is it Guesto? I think it is. Okay. He's a guy, remember, he was going to make the last start of last year, one game 162, and then it got scratched for weather.

So he didn't get to make his debut, but he's another one that's knocking on the door and ready. And then, I'll tell you, this, Lance looked good. Lans McCullochler's Jr., let's go, baby! I'm ready. It's going to be a few weeks into the season. I'm so ready for the McCuller's redemption tour.

He broke it all down. He talked about the surgery and how literally the muscle was off the bone and all this stuff. I mean, it was pretty intense. So yeah, anybody who is like, oh, screw him and all this, go back and listen to him, explain it. It's not, you know, it's the stuff. And what happened was it was a 15-month recovery, and he admitted he kind of pushed it.

Because the doctor told him it was 15 to 17, and at 15, he was like, let's go, I'm ready to go. And they had a little minor setback. And so that's what happened. And so. Yeah. And it's the same injury from 21, right? I think so.

Yeah, he broke it all down. He did the whole timeline of it. We got it at Sports79.com. But like, he broke it all down, but the dude wants to pitch. He's not one of these. He's not, who's the dip leap over the Angels, Rendon, who's just collected paychecks? No, McCullors wants to be out there. He wants to be out there more than anything.

He's a thrust. He's like, I'm even past the frustration park. I was frustrated for year. Like, I've been so angry and just everything about, not being able to get back out there. He's in a good headspace, mentally, physically. He wants to go. So you're going to get him back at some point.

Christian Javier will be back at some point. Now, this is later in the year. Maybe not this year. Maybe. Yeah, I would say, I would say 25 is going to be a washroom. Luis Garcia is one. Yeah, we'll see. He's out there taking grounders and stuff like that.

He's going to be later in the year. Uh-huh. And then, and then JP France. It's looking like probably All-Star Break. He said pass. Yeah, All-Star Break. I think that was a review report of that. Hmm, okay.

And then black in the bullpen. You get some of these guys back. You got a surplus. Hater in the ninth. Abreu in the eighth. And then what are we looking at? To kind of fill that press later role. I think Taylor Scott in the seventh, they like it.

I mean, like he's who. Caleb Orte, Brian King. He's who I would put in there right now. But Brian King's in the mix. Foss Whitley? Caleb Ort they like. No, Whitley. Whitley and Dubin are your two long relievers.

Swing wrong. Like I think, I think, I think there's a chance of both of them make the club. Now, Dubin was a little he was a little banged up so they had him not throwing for a couple days. What's he did with Ben-Suzza? He's back, he's got a chance. Does he like he's going to, he's so healthy?

I think so. He looks healthy. He's throwing normal. Okay. Good. All right. He's kind of a forgotten because he was hurt last year. Well, Gordy, thanks for the spring training report. We'll get out there tomorrow, myself and Matt Thomas. Yeah, now here's the thing. I want you all out there first thing when the clubhouse opens. I want you all

grabbing as many guys you can. There's never anybody. You got to be aggressive. You got to go up and say, hey, can we get you for a couple minutes? We'll see. Nobody will be out there. But we're with him. Looking forward to it.

Get us the skinny. Get us the... Yeah. We'll get you the dirt. Inside dirt coming up. Thank you. Appreciate Karbock brewing. And the Crawford Bock.

And the Crawford. It's a home run every time. It's always in season. Get you on. This is why I brought you back. All right. A home run every time, the Crawford box. There you go.

You can also catch out, catch the Crawford Boxcast for free on the Iheart Radio app. All right. That's Chris Gordy. We appreciate him hanging out. We're hanging out. We're going to have the news at noon coming up. We'll have Adam Lexler as well. We're talking some Jose Altovae in left field.

Anything you guys want to get into the season is coming upon us here. 2025 Houston Nashvilles. We'll have full coverage here on Sports Talk 790. Back with the news at noon in a sec. Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. Hour number three of four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. without Matt Thomas.

Roth Vireal with you. It's been a fun show. Been hanging out with Brian Lillima. Been hanging out with Chris Gordy. Adam Wexler is coming up. But right now, the top sports news items of the day with Connor McGovern. We simply call it the news at noon.

All right, Connor. How are you doing back there? You have a good weekend. Yeah, had a good weekend. How was your Valentine's Day with your lady? It was good. We went to a nice dinner and had some drinks afterwards. Oh, wow.

It was a good time. It was wonderful. How much you set you back a few? but you set you back a few down I'm sorry I don't make enough here for that You know what? We'll give you a We'll give you a Valentine's bonus

And then whatever you guys's anniversary is We'll give you another anniversary bonus if we can Really? Yeah, we'll see what I can do All right, well maybe I'm just lying What do we have in the news today, Connor? Astro Spring Training continued today with Raphael Montero, Christian Walker, Isaac Paredes And others reporting to camp

The biggest headline Isak Pradesh, excuse me The biggest headline from Spring training today, though, comes from Jose Altuve, taking fly balls in left field during his first day in camp. We also saw Jimmy Pena at his usual shortstop position in Maricio Dubon at second base. DuBahn says he's ready for the opportunity if Jose is in left field. Jose goes to left. Like I said, I would love the opportunity.

I mean, I was able to do it in 23. And I did a pretty good job, you know, in that situation. I want to play. I want to play anywhere. one time. I'm out there. Every day, I'm happy. Yeah. He doesn't care. He wants to play wherever. Go ahead. I was just going to say

Al-Tuvee taking fly balls in left field. Yeah. What are you seeing from those first glimpses, Ross? I mean, it's beautiful ball tracking, unbelievable positioning. I mean, just fleet of foot, speed out of control. Look, I think he's going to be fine out there.

And I understand a lot of us have it in our mind that Jose Altuve is his gold glove left hand, I mean a second baseman. He won the gold glove in 2015 at the age of 25. This will be his age 35 season. He's 34 now, but he's going to turn 35 at the beginning of May. He does not move like he used to. I understand analytics numbers.

They don't mean anything. Every team in baseball is looking at these numbers. Every team in baseball is looking at these analytics. And I know you want to use your eye test and talk about how great a range he has at second base. these teams aren't using your eye test. They're using these numbers, and these numbers say he doesn't have the range that he used to. He just doesn't.

And so if you can make a defensive minus, which these numbers have him as the worst defensive second baseman in baseball the last two years, you can turn a minus into a average overall that helps. I understand it's in our heads that he's a second baseman, but he's got to get out of there. You've got to put him somewhere else where he can not hurt the team as much. Dubon is a plus second baseman.

So if he can be average in left, you're using Dubon more maybe, and he's at second base as a plus. It's going to help the team overall. Jose Altova has said himself, he doesn't care where he plays. He just wants to help the team. What else you got, Connemaghan? Speaking of baseball, we got our first glimpse of Alex Bregman in a Red Sox jersey after reporting camp over the weekend.

The former Astros' third baseman said it was difficult to decide to leave Houston. Definitely difficult there. I have so much respect for the organization top to bottom, all the players. Altuvae, who was the biggest advocate for Bregman's return to Houston, said this about losing Bregman to the Red Sox. Yeah, we lost a big player, obviously, but, you know, we've got to focus on the guys that we have here. He's obviously one of the best that I've ever played in Houston. We're all going to remember him and going to miss him.

but we also happy for him. He's not a great deal, man. The $40 million is, you know, not a lot of players can get to that. And he got it. So we all, you know, happy for him. Same thing. We got to move on and focus about, you know, the players we have here. Keep moving.

We have great talent here, good players. They're definitely going to do everything to win. And we see Alistanderville when we play in Austin, Houston. How did it feel to see Bregman in the red, white, and black? First of all, who's playing the jams back there in the clubhouse behind Jose Altuve? Can I be honest? Maybe it's going to hurt later, but I kind of felt nothing. I don't know why.

I think maybe Yankee pinstripes would have hurt the most. Tigers would have been fine. Red Sox, it's... I'm somewhat ambivalent. They gave him so much money. It looks similar in a way. The Navy blue with the red. Maybe because, like, optically, it's somewhat similar.

Like, maybe if he was in, I don't even know, like crazy royal blue with the Dodgers or something else. The red on the Navy isn't that different than the orange on the Navy, so maybe that's why. But I'll say, I expected it to be, like disgusted by it and I'm really not. Maybe it'll be when he finally hits the field or I see him, which I kind of did see some of him out there on the field like pictures of him out with the Red Sox and wearing Red Sox gear. And maybe it just hasn't hit me yet. It didn't bother me that much. I don't

know why. Maybe it should have. How about you, Connor McGovern? How did it look to you? Maybe it'll be a little different once we see him play. You know, it's just, yeah. I mean, It definitely looked weird, but I'm not, I wasn't upset or didn't make the emotion. I think I wouldn't want to throw up if I'd saw him in Yankee pinstripes. Red Sox, me, whatever. Also, they signed up a $40 million a freaking year. I'm not upset at Alex Bregman. And maybe it'll be harder to stomach once he's like,

Correa and Minnesota twin stuff, it's just weird. It just looks like he's like wearing a Halloween costume. Like it didn't fit at all. Red Sox stuff for Bregman. I don't know. It didn't hit me as hard. Maybe it will as the season comes along. What else you got for the news at noon? Connemogh.

The NBA All-Star game took place last night and a pair of rockets were represented. Alper and Shangun made his All-Star debut for Team Chuck, recording four points and one rebound in four minutes in the first semi-final game, but had no stats in only 19 seconds of playing time in the final. All-star game debut. This target's playmaker is the offensive catalyst from the Houston Rockets. Al Barrage. Oh my God.

What did he... The other inch of Yov. Setting up his teammates Timakins. The Turkish Terminator. Yeah, that was... Alperan Sangoon? What did he say?

That was better than Shangweeni, but... Oh, my God. I meant Thompson was also there. Had a strong showing in Friday's Rising Stars Skills Challenge and then was a member of the Rising Stars Prospects. And Sunday night, recording four points, four assists, and three rebounds in 10 minutes during the second semifinal game.

So a pair of rockets representing Houston and the All-Star festivities. And they can't even pronounce their names, right? This is why I said like NBA coverage has to change. I understand Alpern-Shingon, it's especially the last name is not the way that it's spelled. It's Shingoon. Sorry, not the way that we see it as the American spelling. Of course, with the special S, I can't remember what it was called. It indicates S-H sound.

It's not that hard, man. He's been in the league for four years now at this point. Somebody has to have picked up on this. He's a freaking all-star. He's been in the league as long as he has. I understand the Rockets haven't been in the forefront. But come on, man. That's embarrassing.

Everybody involved needs to be embarrassed of that and themselves. And all TNT did in pre-game with, on green is just like hate on the format and how it needs to change. I know. It's going away from T&T. Shremon's a hater number one in his heart and that's okay. The format, I didn't like it. I watched it more than I thought I would just because it was something to put on.

But the players still didn't play hard. Even in the finals, I mean, it was a complete blowout? Alper and Shingun completely lost Jason Tatum on a basket. Was it Tatum that scored the last bucket? Whoever it was. Shingoon just wasn't paying attention and lost him on a basket cut. me if you heard that before. But it just,

it wasn't good. And there's really no way to save it. Maybe USA versus the world, there'll be a little bit of pride. Yeah, I mean, Jamie Greene was praising the NHL Four Nations thing. He was suggesting maybe the NBA

could do something with that. Yeah. Or maybe you would, I don't even know. Europe versus, no. It had to be USA versus the world. I mean, how many, I would even have to go through the rosters. What is the split between,

American All-Stars versus foreign-born All-Stars? And would you go North America versus the world? So we can get Canada and Shaggildos-Alexander? That's true.

They could just do the top four Fibba teams. In the Canadian four nations, there's more teams, there's more nations that could make good teams. These are just the best four, the best four rosters they could make. Yeah.

I'll have to look into that. How many foreign-born versus American-born all-star players? You've got a lot. It feels like it might even be more foreign, is what I'm saying. So I don't know. All right, anything else? And the news at noon, kind of McGovern.

We got to get to a break here. But the Cougars, they had a big weekend on Saturday defeating the Arizona Wildcats, 62 to 58 and earning a two-game lead in the Big 12 coffin standings. Wow. Cougars looking good. I would say still Auburn is a freaking juggernaut. And it was a close game when the Cougars played Auburn early on the season. But the Cougars, I mean, look, Calvin Samson has always pretty.

he's a great, fantastic, perfect college coach. You get your team to play hard every single night. You're going to see good things happen. And then you get the players and the shooters as well. Then some really good things are going to happen. So Cougars rolling right now. Congratulations to them to them for the big win at Arizona. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a break on that note here on Sports Talk 790.

Thank you to Kind of McGuver for the news at noon. You guys want to get in. We had a couple of hold when we were talking to Chris Gordy. So you can get back in the fold if you'd like. We're talking about Altuva. playing left field. Talking about the Astros rotation. We're feeling good about the 1-5,

but what about the depth after? Lance McCullors, Jr. You got any expectations on that. We're also talking about the All-Star game, the Rockets, anything you want to get to. 7-13-21-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-21-5-7-90. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross

continues on Sports Talk 790. Welcome back. to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas remains out. He'll be back tomorrow. As will I from West Palm Beach flying out today. We'll be joining you there. Full workouts are happening. Full team workouts. We had pitchers and catchers reporting over the weekend. A lot of players showing up early anyway. So it's been fun.

It's kind of, you know, as the calendar moves along, you hit the off season, then it's hot stove season. then to me it really starts getting going with Astros fan fest, which we had a couple of weeks ago, now into pitchers and catchers reporting, and then everybody going to be in there, and myself and Matt Thomas will be there covering it for you, folks, bringing you some great interviews coming up in the next few days. And meantime, you can get in, if you'd like, on the phone lines,

713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Also can send tweets to, to at SportsRV if you'd like to get in. That way. We've been talking a lot of Astros, and well, we are the home for your Houston Astros. Also home for the Houston Rockets, but we know.

A lot of you tune into us for Astros coverage because they've been so great over the last several years. So we've been really happy about that partnership. And, of course, talking up to Houston Astros. So I was talking, we were talking about the Astros and where they're going to be next year. And Jesse had tweeted in with the Zips projections. I don't even know what exactly.

Zips is, but it's one of the projections that shows up on fan graphs. They have the Astros at 90 and 72 in winning the American League West. But if you go to the Pocoda standings from baseball perspective, they have the Astros at 87 wins, and then the regular fan graphs projections

have them at 84 wins and at third place in the AL West. So we'll see. If the Astros hit on a lot of the question marks, if a lot of those get answered and answered in a big way, this team can still be pretty good. And as if you get the guys who had career years basically or career second halves in the case of Araggeti and Hunter Brown, Renele Blanco with a career year, if all those guys can be up to part of their were last year,

and then you add in Frumber and what he does, you're going to be nails, one through four. You're going to have like four ace caliber type of guys. That's what Hunter Brown was down the stretch. Eriety in the second half of the season had an ERA around three. If you got an ERA around three for a full season, you should be finishing top five-ish in the Siam. Depending on what's going around that year. So if Framber can be Frumber,

and then those guys can do their thing, and then Hayden Wessoniske comes here and you tinker with this pitch mix, he talked about at Fan Fest, about possibly adding a pitch as well. You're going to be locked down one through five. and that alone is going to win you 85-90 games. Then if the offense can produce up to where you want,

if Jose Al Tuve can stave off father time, again, I brought it up, and I didn't even realize that until I was talking with Gordy about it in the last segment. I knew his OPS numbers were down. 790. We love 790 here. But that was his worst OPS season. Now, 2020 doesn't count.

He was terrible that year if you remember. Plus, he only played 48 games. I'm not counting that as a full season. but in a full season of production, 790 is his first, his worst OPS number since 2013. That's concerning. And then after that year in 2013,

he won three of the next four batting titles. So he was pretty good and won an MVP in 2017. He's turning 35 this year. We have to be honest with ourselves. OPS numbers and OPS Plus has gone down from 161, 151 to 126 in the last three years. Does that mean another big decline? is coming? I don't know. I hope not.

But it's something to keep an eye on. Christian Walker is here. That's good. Yordon's going to carry the offense. Then it's going to be Christian Walker and Yiner Diaz at 2-3 in whatever order you want to put them in. Dan Al-Tuvae needs to get in the mix and produce. Same thing for ESAC Paredes, Jeremy Payne.

You need some good offensive production from them. So there is a lens that we can look through if we want to be super optimistic, not even the glass half full, but spilling over. to where a couple of those guys produce offensively, Chas McCormick bounces back,

and you're one of the top 10 offenses in baseball with the top five pitching staff. It could happen. And that's good enough for 90 plus wins. But it's all those things have to happen. And you have to assume full health, which you just cannot do. My problem with this team going into this year, is going to be the depth.

What if, let's say, whoever. Let's say a pitcher goes down with some shoulder stiffness, needs to miss two weeks. Who's making those starts? Who? Javier's not ready. France isn't ready. Garcia McCuller's not ready. Maybe one of those guys. Maybe the cavalry will come

and they can stave off any sort of major injury or any minor injury. Then it's into Ryan Gusto and A.J. Blueball territory. How ready are those guys? I like them. The Astros organization likes those guys. but they're not in anybody's top 100 list. Now, of course, you can say neither was Luis Garcia, neither was Spencer Argetti, neither were these other guys,

and the Astros always seem to whip up something with pitching. So I'm less worried, I would say, about the pitching long term, but the lineup will see. There certainly are a number of question marks coming into this season, and then you have to ask yourself, where do they fall not only within themselves, but within the playoff picture? of the American League.

As I ran through the projections, 84 wins, 87 wins, Zips is more optimistic with having them at 90 wins. Sounds good. I'm a Zips guy. Let's go Zips. Projections. 90 wins sounds pretty darn good for the Astros.

But where will they be? And of course, as always, barring health. Because we've wanted great health the last couple of years, and they've had a number of rash of pitching injuries. So where you're going out of Sean Dubin season and Blair Henley and guys like that. And you don't want to have to pitch those guys. No disrespect to Sean Dubin.

You don't want him starting any games this year. They had to go to like 12 different options for starting pitching last year. Hopefully they go well under that this year. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number here on Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Matt Thomas is out. Adam Wexer joins me at 1 o'clock and you at 713-21-5-790. Lunch timers

It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790 Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross Without Matt Thomas Ross v. Real with you. Phone lines open at 713 212 5-9797-1-3-212-790

2-1-2-5-7-90 You can also send tweets to at SportsRV or at Cona D. McGovern. As I mentioned, we'll have Adam Wexler coming in in about 30 minutes. But as of right now, the phone lines are open and available if you'd like to get in. We had Brian Leema hanging out for a little bit. Chris Gordy hanging out as well. It's been the prevailing topics of the day, have been the Astros and where they are

and where are they going to be in 2025. So mentioned the projected win total by different websites. You look at different places. You're going to get different answers, and that's okay. And then the over-under totals have also come out as far as the gambling. And as far as the gambling sports books put those out. And I was trying to pull those out real quick. But I'm having, wait, what?

Excuse me? I was trying to pull the odds up real quick. Yeah, 86 and a half. right now for the Astro. So depending on where you look, Astro is going to surpass that. Feels like, honestly, is a decent enough number.

If you were going to be way better at first base than you were last year, that's certainly a big plus. What does that mean? Third base, second base, the outfield of question marks. And then I really feel like the Astros are towing the line as far as starting pitching health.

If somebody goes down, I'm a little bit worried about the depth of the guys. maybe Luis Garcia is ready by May maybe Lance McCullors Jr. is ready by May and then you're all good. You got like seven guys and then if you really need to dip into the minor leagues you can figure something out and get a warm body from there.

But just early season, a little bit concerned. Maybe I shouldn't be. But a big part of the rotation is going to be Spencer Erigetti. He also spoke to the media out there at spring training in West Palm Beach. Chris Gordy was talking about it as well. kind of sounds like that dude and we had him on an Astros fan fest and really we interviewed him

last year myself and dan matthews before the season and he is not necessarily soft spoken but you can just tell he's really smart guy really articulate really thinks about the game cerebral is the way I think I would describe him and kind of just asking around at spring training last year like hey a couple guys i asked off the record like hey is Spencer ergetty the real deal what's going on And they're like, yeah, he's the real deal. He's got to get his control a little bit. But the stuff is going to play at the major league level. And he had had some walk issues here and there

and got those numbers up and can get into some problems in the base paths, but he can get out of there with the way that his ability to pitch and make pitches and the confidence that he has now. And he's just been much more talkative. And was it fan fest? Like I said, I was like, this dude needs to be in media. whenever he decides he wants to hang him up because he is just that good and is that well spoken here is spencer arigetti talking about being more confident going into this season and being able

to get guys out you can tell by the way i'm talking right now my demeanor's a little bit different these days uh i feel a little looser you know i'm messing around a little bit more a little more vocal still listening obviously still picking brains where i can i think last year i really tried to not open my mouth too much to be completely honest i kind of wanted to just soak it all in i mean I got a titan sitting in my locker next to me. I'm trying to pick his brain constantly and just kind of listen more than I talk. And this year I feel like I've been a little more open with some of the younger guys, like trying to set a good example for how we get our work done day in and day out.

And it's been really fun. I feel like the energy's great right now. Yeah, and you can kind of just tell that. I think that can be an indicator of somebody who's going to be really good out there on the mound is that when they can talk the way that he does and articulate his thoughts. the way that he does. It just shows a high level of intelligence. And a lot of pitching out there. Of course, you got to go out there and you got to be physical and you got to spin it. You got to throw velocity and all those things.

But there's guys with velocity who aren't successful pitchers. It's a mental game more than anything. So I really like where Spencer Erigetti's head is at, talking about taking on a leadership role, being more vocal with guys. And just sitting there chatting him, not even necessarily about baseball, but anything. You can tell, man. I'm really excited for what Spencer Arrogati is going to bring, and hopefully he can just continue to pitch well and climb up the ranks for the Astros

and be a plus plus positive pitcher. As I mentioned in that second half of the season, I can go back and pull it up, but he was like around three ERA after the All-Star break, like three flat. Not like 375, now like close 399. He was good. He was really good last year.

after the All-Star break when he kind of settled in, got more confident, and was just being himself, and making pitches. And it was excellent. And I'm really excited to see what Spencer Arrogati can do in this season.

And it doesn't matter where he is in the pecking order. You got really good guys in front of him. If he is behind Renel Blanco, if he's third or fourth guy or whatever, if he can pitch like he did in the second half of the last season, guys are going to go down. And it's just the, The fact of life that your opening day starter isn't just,

you just don't go one through five and they all stay there throughout the season, except for what was that? 2018, I think. It was into September that the Astros had only used five starting pitchers. That's the outlier. That is the exception. That is not the rule. So especially if guys go down and you have to lean on to minor leaguers or whoever else,

having Erigetti to be that stopper, or if you've lost a couple of games in a row, and you need someone to salvage a series, you need someone to stop a losing streak and go out there and deal. Erigetti can be that guy. And he's more confident this season. And he says he's learned a lot from this season. And another question is, how is he feeling physically?

Here's what he had to say about the way he was feeling by the end of the last year. I was still throwing hard. I felt like I had another good 1520 in the tank, honestly. I feel like I'm a realist with that. Like AAA the year before, I got tired at the end. I was throwing slow. I felt a fatigue. this year I was ready.

I mean, I was gasped up sitting in the bullpen for that Detroit series, like, waiting to go blow it out and show everybody how hard I could really throw, you know. But yeah, I felt like I weathered it well. I feel like I kind of, I made my routine a lot better last year. I think, again, you're kind of hearing me talk about it, building on it in the off season, just being a little bit more mature as a pitcher and treating it more like a marathon than a sprint. I think that's been the biggest growth piece.

Yeah, and he kind of talked about that as far as maintaining his strength and resting and learning to rest. And that's one of the questions I almost always throw at Fan Fest. It's kind of a go-to of mine. It's like, hey, what are you doing physically? What are you doing physically now that you maybe weren't doing and learning your body and all that type of stuff? That's almost always an answer that we get, especially from young players going into their second or third season or whatever, that the rest for them is just as important as the work. And it just makes logical sense.

You're a young player trying to make the team. You're trying to make a name for yourself. you're trying to prove yourself that you can handle it. You're going to go out there and throw as hard as you can and work out as hard as you can and push your body to the limit and all that type of stuff. And then once you kind of get over that and the adrenaline passes and you get more years on you, you realize, you know what, I was dumb.

I need to kind of take it a little bit more easy. But it makes sense that you want to push yourself and prove yourself, especially when your major league career is starting. So Spencer Arredegeti last year was hoping to be called up at some point, probably a little earlier than you wanted but his you know you go by the MLB pipeline stuff his ETA was 24 so he was supposed to

hit the majors last year maybe because of injury not as quickly as he did but now physically ready to go and ready to be a big contributor because the Astros are going to need them you don't have the Justin Verlander

this rotation has guys that had big years last year but as far as sustained major league track records. It's from Rivaldez, and then there's question marks right now. I think that Hunter Brown's the real deal. I think that Spencererogetti and Ronnell Blanco are the real deal, but you've got to prove it for several years

and hoping the 2025 can be a part of them doing that when it comes to the starting rotation. All right, time for another quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. You want to get in. You can. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number, 713-212-5-790. We've got Adam Wexler coming up at the top of the hour. And you, on the phone lines, if you'd like to get in, you can also send tweets at SportsRV. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas, and we'll be back after this short break. Houston Sports Talk for lunch.

Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790. I'm getting the feeling that we're just getting started on this Jose Altuve left field thing. it felt like everyone's laughing it off when it was first floated out by Bob Nightingale a few weeks ago when they were talking about well, Bregman could be coming back to Houston and then if that case, if that were the case

then Altuve would be going to left field with Issoc Paredes going to second we were all just like ha ha ha ha ha ha! Oh man, can you imagine little Jose Altuve out there and left and now it's like, wait, this is serious. This is happening. Wait, this, we're going to see, it's getting talked about by everyone.

It's been one of the big storylines of spring training, and I don't think it's going away, and I think it's very real. And after you stop kind of laughing at it and scoffing at it, it makes sense. If he's that bad, look, I don't work for fieldingbibble.com. I don't work for statcast with the outs above average, but there's their number. and unfortunately, you know, if they had Jose Altuva as the best second baseman in baseball, would back those numbers. So unfortunately, I have to do it when it says that he's one of the worst or the worst.

And it's not even particularly close the last couple of years. So the solution being, if you have a guy who can play second base, his name is Mariso DuBahn, and he's going to be in the lineup, who knows, 100 plus games this year, depending on injuries and all that type of stuff, as your utility. guy, not a great bat, and ended up, man, he ended up as a big time negative bat last year 2004, 657 OPS, yikes, 269 batting average, yikes, but he played 137 games. So if you're going to have him out there a bunch, some of that's going to be second base, but you're also going to put Yord on and left, you're going to put some games, although they

don't want to do that as much anymore. We'll see what happens with Zach DeZenzo and or win Jacob Melton is available. He's going to be out there. Joe Spada continues to be asked about it. He continues to talk about it. So we'll go ahead and play some of that for you. Jose Al-Tuvei, early returns. How's he looking out there and left, Joe?

It went well. He's excited, of course. And so he went really well. It was a good day won. Some light work. He seen some balls off to bat. You know, it looks pretty good. But again, it's early, and we'll see where this takes us here.

It's early and we'll see where this takes us. Doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement. But he did say he looks good. And well, Joe's going to have to roll with whatever punches they're thrown at him. I don't know exactly what his feelings are on this. Or, you know, he's not going to, he's going to, let me put it this way. If he's upset, he doesn't think this is a good idea, if he thinks this is the dumbest thing he's ever heard and it's been talked about

by maybe management or whoever or the numbers guys who say this needs to happen, then he's going to play a ball. Or if he's fully on board with it, then he's going to be okay. That's the way that he's going to talk about it, but he doesn't seem like he is. So the plan with Jose Altuve in left field, how many games, what would be happening?

Can we put a number on it? I don't know. Joe Spada says it's changing. I'm not going to share the plan with you yet. This is going on, is an everyday thing, but he will play some second base. But right now it's just one day at a time. I want to get some feedback from him before we discuss what we're going to go next.

But he will play some second base. So he's going to play some second. There you go. That's from Joe Spott to himself. Just how much second base? How much left field? That remains to be seen. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number.

7-13-21-5-790. Yeah, we got this is you formally tightened Keith. Then he became Texans Keith and Rockets Keith, and I believe also Yankees Keith. What's up, Yankees, Keith? Hey, man, how are you? I'm doing great. What do you got? I got some baseball commentary about some of these contracts.

Like, Brickman got that $40 million a year for three years. Y'all are still, the Astros are still paying Lance McCullors, 17 million and we don't know if he'll ever pitch again and then he got Michelle he did a bullpen

he pitched in spring training we ain't talking about we're talking about real pitching Ross and then you got Mike Trout who signed a half a billion dollar contract and he's probably played $300

or 300 games since he signed that contract who's that? I can't imagine how the L.A. Angels feel about that contract. What about Rendon? Anthony Rendon's contract.

Yeah, he's the same thing. He's the same big, big time bust. That's unbelievable. Anyway, I think, Jose Al-Tuvé has no shot at the left field, man. He's short as hell, and he's got to scatter arms. People are going to run on him.

So when they get the, they're going to have singles and the doubles on a regular basis on him. a regular fly ball, a regular fly ball to a six-footer is going to be over his head. He's only got two places he can play left field at that at Spineway Park and the Diken Park that he plays in.

I think Diken Park, Framber Valdez starts. Ooh, I wonder if it would even be opening day. When that's normally, if you remember, they would throw Jordan out and left for Fromber starts because he's such a ground ball pitcher that we might be seeing that. Keith? Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

You're saying you're going to you think he's going to play any other place other than Diken Park and Fenway Park? Yeah, I think he might. We'll see. I mean, Joe Spott has just said, I just played it. The plan is ever changing. He's not going to go to the number of the games. They're just going to see how it looks, and then they're going to go from there. I think if they think he looks really good and he feels something, what do I think?

I think if it were up to me, I wouldn't even be putting him in left field at all. but I guess they feel like they have to do something with Dubon being much better. Look, if you're playing Dubon and left and Jose Altuve at second, you're doing yourself a disservice defensively. The team would be better with Dubon at second and Jose Altuve in left,

no matter how bad he's going to be. You know, he can play a whole game and not to get a ball on the left. It could happen. I hope that happened. But I wish the Astros, no, I don't wish the Astros left. I'm wishing they get to about 500.

Something might happen to Jordan, and they may not even make it to 500. That's all I got. All right. Thank you, Yankees, Keith. Appreciate you getting in here on the show. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. If you'd like to get in,

7-13-212-5-7-90. We're going to go ahead and take a top-of-the-hour break. Hour number four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. We've been joined by an all-starcast. here and it's going to get even better. Brian Le Lima has joined, Chris Gordy has joined, Adam Wexler is here and next up here on the program.

Don't go anywhere. Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. Hour number four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross, commencing it now, without Matt Thomas,

with Ross Virio, with Connemagherin, and now joined by one Adam Wexler. You can get out on the phone lines if you'd like. It's 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. So really, I guess we've got to get right into the prevailing topic. Everyone has been talking about Wex.

Yeah, my weekend was great. Yeah, I don't care. It's the NBA All-Star game. We were all thrilled. I mean, the effort level was so huge. It was great. I mean, we couldn't get... America can't get enough of the NBA All-Star game.

I think we meant to say our first weekend without foot football in months. How did we manage? Man, I watched a lot of college basketball. Huck him horns. Saturday was quite a schedule. Yeah, it was great. Alabama, I mean, Auburn beating up on Alabama, you had the Cougars game, you had the Longhorns beating Kentucky, thankfully.

Now hanging on. Kentucky was without the three players. Don't care. Don't care. Put it on the resume. Quad one win. Alfred Columa wasn't playing for the Longhorns. Put it on their postseason non-NCA tournament resume. Oh, no, no, no.

ahead. Lenardi's got them on the bubble, baby. Can we get... Okay, I really don't want to talk Longhorn basketball because nobody cares. No, I'm going to do it anyways. I'm going to do it anyways. I want Trey Johnson, for those of you don't know, he scores like 30 points a game for the Longhorns.

He was a five-star recruit. He should have never gone to Texas because the rest of the team is crap. For him, I want them to make the turn. That'd be nice. It's probably just a one game visit, but nonetheless. You can get to two. Get to two. It'll go as far as he takes him if he wants to drop 40 every game.

He's going to be a lottery pick. keep an eye out for Trey Johnson. Okay, that's enough of your college basketball talk. How much of the, if I say the All-Star game weekend, how much did you watch? Maybe 20 to 30 percent, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, maybe. That's pretty good, actually. Saturday night was the least viewed night for me. Okay, because maybe what I was doing was going on.

Matt McClung's got this. Is that what you felt? I just didn't find it. And as we know now, the dunks that Stefan Castle had and the dunks that McClellan had they were entertaining they were if any if we weren't so down on it we probably wouldn't be down on these dunks but i just don't think it brings anybody to the table and i paid no attention to the skills competition just like chris paul and victor and they paid some attention cheaters uh well they played by the rule some would say um and then obviously the three point contest i again feel

like it's just unfortunate what that has become it's obviously unfortunate for the other i was more interested in friday just to see how they'd play but i think it gave us an idea of what we'd end up seeing on Sunday, which was also unfortunate, but for a lot of different reasons. It's unfixable, right? I mean, do you think the USA versus the world? I think there are unfixable might end up being the ultimate answer, but there's more things to try than what they put on that. They've tried it all. I don't really think so at all. This is the first time they've tried anything. All they've been doing is playing basketball with guys who don't care. They went with the Elam ending. They changed that got charged up. They went with the

draft was something that they changed up. They didn't just changed the game. They just went from a draft and guys played the first year of the draft guys played a little bit harder. We got to recognize it's the product. It's not how they get to Sunday night. It's what they're doing. And when these players who are absolutely to blame, that's why we are where we are.

Now, the league did not, I think they were tinkering so much that they didn't realize how silly one thing was. I mean, you're sitting here leading up to this Thursday or Friday for the one second you thought about it. You're putting the best players in the world against each other in a race to

40? I mean, who's coming to pay to see them play 10 minutes of basketball? That's so silly. The number is so ridiculously low. And they had a bunch of huge breaks in between. It was like 20% basketball. That's the other part of

if you watched Sunday night, I can't imagine you didn't have the same feeling everybody. This should be an overwhelming majority of people thought the broadcasting angle of the event was an absolute disaster, horrific idea from start to finish, an exceptional poorly executed. Just from a broadcast standpoint, the people they put on the air, how much time

they put them on the air, you know, they played a basketball game, three different basketball games Sunday night. I don't know if you know that, because if you are listening to what the television broadcasters were telling you, they ran a horribly uninterdaining talk show during the games. They couldn't have told you any louder. Please stop paying attention, because we're not paying attention at all. You got player, hey, this guy's doing this this year. This guy's done this, this team's doing that. Hey, look who has the ball now. None of it completely ignored the actual games themselves, which that's, that's TV people, that's people making decision, that's hiring Kevin Hart, that's having him talk so much, that's Mr. Beast, that's all the stuff

they, just one bad idea after the other. Yeah, it was pretty horrible the weekend. And the players just don't care. I don't know, look, outside of giving them like $10 million a piece to win it, it's just, there's no reason. And I don't blame them. There's no reason. There's no reason for them to care to put their bodies on the line for an exhibition. That I understand, but you're, you know, you're playing basketball. Any injury can happen. If you don't play, you're not going to get hurt. I do understand that part of it. They probably could do without players accepting their invitations and then informing everybody on Sunday night.

They're not going to play. Maybe they'll play dodge ball. Maybe they'll go pro bowl style. They should go dodgeball. I mean, even NFL players don't do what LeBron did. They don't go to the event. and then meet with the media. He didn't, I mean, it was not very well handled.

LeBron, after the, or during his media availability, he said this is an injury I've been dealing with for years. So just today when you didn't wake up the way you wanted to, you realized you couldn't play. If you're really dealing with it, that's fine. You're being paid to play for the Lakers, win games, make the playoffs. And as he said, the Wild Wild West with these 30 games to go. So that's fine. Focus your energy there.

you have one entire week off. Their last game was Wednesday. Their next game is Wednesday. Go ahead. Take it off. That's fine. Why are you waiting? Like, you really, really wanted to play, and you just didn't realize until that day,

an injury you're dealing, you've been dealing with for years. Wasn't going to be well enough for you to take... I mean, if they're trying to promote other players, well, let's put other players in the game besides the ones who are going to attend late and not play. Well, you know, he's 40 years old. Maybe he just woke up.

Sometimes when you're 40, you just wake up with a... You're dealing with it for years as he said out loud at his press availability. I've been dealing my ankle injury for six years, and sometimes I wake up and it's just not feeling good. Yeah, I mean, we've probably already gone through it a little bit more than most would hear, because I don't think there was a tremendous amount of intention paid to it. It was nice for, you know, Reed Shepard and Matt Thompson and Alperin for the 13 seconds he played in his last game to be there. I mean, I'm sure they enjoyed the experience. And I do think the league did something that is pretty non.

notable from the rocket standpoint, they can't get enough of the Thompson's. They really put them to, hey, we want them here, we want to interview them there, we want to do this, we want to do that. And if the pistons ascend to the top six in the West for the next couple of years, which looks like is a real possibility, and the rockets do the same, we know a man's a huge part of what Houston's doing. We'll see if ASAR is a huge part of what they're doing. And granted, they don't play each other very much, but I think they really, I was a little surprised and pleased. took them in as these are guys we want to feature and it was cool yeah so you're saying the the thompson twins i know you avoided saying thompson twins i know you did intentionally tom the thompson twin finals pistons versus rockets i don't know if that's ever going to happen but heck look at who these teams do

actually have now and sitting at the top of the east it's not a young boston team it's a crazy super talented boston team i don't think the pistons are anywhere near ready to you know to take anybody's any spot over, but the Rockets have been on the top four for the majority of the season, and the Pistons are definitely going to the postseason this year, and they're on the same kind of, we've been drafting at the top of the draft for way too many years, they're on the same kind of path.

Now, finally, that each of them also have a coach I think they can win with. So you're telling me, there's a chance. Pistons Rockets Final. Sign me up, baby. 713-212-790 is the phone number. Adam Wexler hanging out here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Well, we have to get to the topic, DeJure.

real topic de jure. Jose Altuve in the left field. I was talking about it earlier, Wex, and really throughout the show, it was one of those things we all kind of laughed at when it was first brought up. Now it's feeling it's real. It's going to happen. We just don't know how much. Yeah, the question asked

of Jose from a timing standpoint, when did you bring this up, when did they bring it up, how much of it was Bregman based? And he kind of acknowledged, you know, this kind of came about because it was for Bregman. It was for him, and then we just decided to continue on with it. Obviously, it's been several months of discussion internally and only recently was it obvious that Bregman wasn't

going to be here. It tells you something about his long-term future. He's got a long-term contract. He's going to play for the Astros until he retires from the game. And they don't envision him playing another five to 700 games over at second base. They might not envision him playing 50 games over at second base. And so I think they felt like this was something that eventually had to happen. I think they are also looking at if Jeremy Pena's are short- stop of the future. And Paredes, Cam Smith is our third basement of the future. And Bryce Matthews is our second basement of the future. I like this. Well, Altuve is in our future because we have him. So he's got to have somewhere to play because the designated hitter is already in their future. He's Yordaun

Alvarez. You don't get two of them. You can't petition the league for a second D.H spot unless maybe they want you to, all right, fine, just play eight fielders. But they have to find a place. They feel he can hurt the team less. And I did hear your comments on that. And I'm curious how other people feel and how much you dig in on the numbers and how you feel like really where the game is today is second base, no longer a place you can hide a defensive weakness versus left field where you need to hide that defensive weakness. Like do they lose more by playing them at second and getting elite level left field play from Marisa DuBahn? Or as you said, I think last segment, the reverse in your mind is true.

They need Dubon's elite level defense at second more than they need his elite level defense and left. That's what I would think. I was also trying to think about the shift angle. Is it, I guess, more difficult to hide El Tuvei if there is no shift? Well, the idea that you're going to need him for, like his range is obviously poor. His throwing arm, at least what we've seen from second is poor. If you just go by fielding percentage, he had his best year of his career last year. The balls that hit him in the glove, he fielded and threw to first.

Right, but when you're 5'5 foot 6 and not as range as you used to be, you're going to have a high fielding percentage. Not the highest is a career, sorry, but one of the highest in the league. Yeah, but they have, I mean, you and I know this. It's not every day between 10 and 2 that both people are aware of this or like this, but there are other numbers to look at. There's some zone rating. There's some other things out there that indicate you, the quality you're actually getting, your value.

He does, I still feel like he turns the double play certainly well enough very well. And he does sometimes show off the arm doing that. But of course, Dubon's equally as adept at making that happen. It's just, you know, the days you feel like are there so many more plays to be made on the infield, a Fromber day, or even now a Hunter Brown day, as he's elevated his game into producing ground balls and needing to get those outs? Are you giving up more by playing him at second or are playing him in the outfield? And we're using our guess with, that's all we are. We don't know what he's like as a left fielder.

We're making assumptions. I think they're reasonable assumptions that it's not going to be great. We don't know that for a fact. And there are still, you know, Diken Parks, one thing. I mean, there's 81 other games at 80, you know, 30 other, 29 other ballparks. How good is it going to be? We will find out.

We're going to see. We're going to get a look at it. Just a question of how many games it will be. That is Adam Wexler. I am Ross Villariel. Those of you are on hold that we'll get you in just a second. You want to get in. You can 713-212-5-790.

Al Tuve in left field. How are we feeling? Sounds like it's going to happen. It is real. Will it be spectacular? Well, we'll find out. 713-212-5-790 shows with you until 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790.

Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is traveling from Washington, D.C., watching his daughter play some football. I mean, oh, wait, volleyball. Why don't I say football? Volleyball dadding harder than anyone has ever volleyball dadded. That would be one Matt Thomas. He will be joining me as we're both flying out today to check out spring training. West Palm Beach will be there for the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday shows of this week.

In the meantime, Adam Wexler is hanging out and you can get in at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Altouvae in left field. has been the prevailing conversation all day. We played some of the Joe Espada earlier for you. Here's a little bit more. Joe, what are you looking for from Jose Altuve out in left field? Perception, first step, direction.

He has the make-up speed to get there. How easy he catches the ball. You know, he's not struggling through, you know, in that field, one, it could be challenging because of the win. So that's what we intentionally are doing that, just to have him there on that field one so he could kind of play around with the elements. And it just becomes natural to him. And I'm not surprised because Hoselle, too, he's just an elite athlete.

So again, day one, and it looked pretty good. Day one, look pretty good. Now, I mean, look, he's tracked fly balls at second base. High fly balls. Pop-ups. Now, maybe not screaming 110-mile-an-hour line drives as much at second base. So I think What is our biggest concern?

The throwing arm, the accuracy of the throwing arm, it feels like he can get out there. And okay, the fact that he's 5'5 foot 6 and he's not going to be able to... I can appreciate you phrasing it what's our biggest concern. But if you just take all the parts of what it takes to be an outfielder, they're all concerns. This is an older player, much older player. Yeah, we're 35 in May.

So now he's going to be on his feet all day running after fly balls in the outfield. I doubt that enhances his ability to hit doubles, triples, and Homer. as he said today. His throwing arm, which will have to be retrained to see if he even can be an adequate thrower from the place you hide your outfield arms. And if they had their druthers, they would pick any of their outfielers to play there to hide their arms because it'll be the worst throwing outfield in baseball. Very good fielding outfield.

And there's a difference. I know people like to point out how good or bad. As glovesman, can you run down a ball and catch it? Jake Myers is elite. Chas McCormick is great. And wherever you put them, I think they will be that. But none of them have a good throwing arm. So now you've added a third to those two, and that's poor.

And then every time a player who we've had in this organization, who's flexible enough to play infield and outfield, and we've had quite a few because they've been doing the utility role for a long time, whether it was Diaz or Gonzalez or Dubon, you know, catching the ball off the bat and making the immediate, correct first step to it is the key to catching a baseball in the outfield. And it's not easy. And you don't recognize the spin that well.

And you work and you work and you work. And years later, you get really good at it. He's in the infancy stages of years and years later. Because not only is he not, but he's literally never been out there. He wasn't playing there three years ago or 10 years ago or 14 years ago. He hasn't been out there for never. He's never been out there. And tracking in the corners is more difficult than Bizio tracking in center field.

Man. I think, isn't it? yeah probably i don't know spin off the bad and where is it actually going yeah what's the background as far as the like the colors of the background is it more dark in centerville than left to bring up bisho i think we were also concerned about his throwing arm

when he went out there deep into his career and it was poor it wasn't killing the team it wasn't the worst throwing arm situation they had on the team at the time see first base but it's all right bagwell is in camp by the way since i alluded to him he's arrived he's gonna coach everybody up He's going to...

He's not making signings. He's, no, I don't believe he's in the circle of trust of signings anymore. Nor should he be. Shouldn't have been then, but it's their own... I mean, again, a lot of blame falls at his shoulders when that's a management problem. They didn't say here, we're getting rid of this GM, so you can be GM. They just said, well, we're not going to hire one. We're going to listen to whoever.

That's above his pay grade. And then they just asked him to do it. That's silliness. Well, the good news is Raphael Montero's in camp. Raphael Montero has arrived. He's not living up to his contract, but he's at leasing, he's least not, what's Jose Abrae? Has anybody heard a word out of Jose Abraeu? He's, what is he doing?

He's played some baseball, but not at the major league level. Some winner league? He played a little bit of that. Okay, good for him. But Montero is, as weird as it may sound, they have so little proven in the bullpen after, well, before the end, before Abraeu and Josh Hader. Yes. Who's a proven commodity they have?

I would say literally, I'm being dead serious. They have none. Taylor Scott. Yeah, you know that's silly. He's had a good season of Major League pitching. Ryan Kings. Less than a good season. Bennett Souza?

A month. Forrest Whitley. Same thing. I'm not saying they can't be a good bullpen. I like who they have, but there's nothing proven there. This is my dog, Caleb Orte, still here. Caleb Ward, you know, his stuff was obviously very, very impressive. Gordy, that was one of the players he was able to catch up to during the over the weekend.

And he talked about when he got here, one of the biggest reasons why he was successful and was able to be so consistent is because he was really healthy and hadn't been that on his way out the door with the previous organization. And if he's healthy this year, he has excellent stuff. They need guys to throw hard. That's that's major league bullpen work now. If you don't throw hard or have a lot of guys who can throw hard, I do think it is a struggle. And I think he helps them in that regard a great deal to be able to get somebody to come out of the pen to get you to the end that can pump it up there at 97. 99 or more. They need more arms like that. I think he's

a lock, but I'm not going to say they can count on him for a year's worth of 2.780 ERA. I don't know what FIP you like, but I'll stick with that. Yeah, I'll go over the X-FIP personally. All right, well, now I'm even worried than I was before. Thanks. So, I appreciate you, Adam. You're getting on all the bad things first. 7-13-2-1-2-1-2. Well, we can get to those. Yordon's still here.

Hopefully he's healthy. He's going to be off his feet. He's going to be playing less in the field, which clearly Joe Espato wants to keep him healthier, even though he got hurt on the base paths at the end of the season, didn't require knee surgery, been healed up, ready to go. Christian Walker,

hey, what's the worst going to happen when you hire a, when you have signed up first basement deep into his 30s? I mean, again, Jose Abraeu in the conversation with Christian Walker, it's just unfortunate, but it's going to happen. I know. I don't think there's really anything from a

comparison standpoint other than what you just pointed out. Very different players, very different skills. One of them is really, really good defensively. Yes, different ages. And there's a lot different there. I mean, how about, again, the positive? What do you think the chances are that they get more home runs and more RBIs from Issoc Paredes and Christian Walker versus what they got last year from Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker? Very good. Sounds very positive. Well, wait, not wait, from Walker. Tucker played half a season and Bregman had a okay to down season for him. You're going to get 50 home runs from Paredes and Walker?

Brighman got 26, I don't remember. 23. They had 49 between him. Okay. Last year. So I'm just saying, you get 50 homers from Paredes and Walker and those, and 50 homers that matter, that could be close. Bring two runs home, bring three runs home that really helped the case with, I assume,

these are your, if Yordon's batting second, which I think is a strong possibility, then that's the heart of your order along with Giner Diaz. Has Yordan addressed? I know he said he wants to stay wherever he is he wants to stay there he addressed it today as joe has spotted said he

addressed it also today in a little more unclear way again there have been zero full squad workouts they start tomorrow but pretty much everybody that's going to be a part of the full squad workouts which is the full squad arrives the day before that's why i'll two eight spoke today and walker and yorda and yorda as well all right we've been making brian hold a while we'll get you in real quick what's up brian hey what's going on guys uh yeah i didn't watch any of the NBA all-star game i saw up on X tour, you got a yellow and blue floor and just watching that. My eyeballs were burned permanently, so I was, I'm glad I didn't watch this. But I'm curious to get y'all's thoughts.

I know at one point when Michael Brantley was still here, I know he said he typically tended to feel better at the plate and have more confidence. And I think his numbers even balanced out when he played in the field as opposed to the days when he just DH. Is there a way you guys can actually look at it? up and Roshy already have from what I called in earlier with Connor of what Yordon's numbers are when he's actually in the field playing left as opposed to when he's just deaching. Is there a market drop off there?

Is it something that guys tend to... It's pretty much the same. Last year was pretty much the same. I had it, but I'll pull it back up. But his, oh, here, OPS last year, left field, 954, last year, DH-962. Okay, okay. Maybe Brantley was just different because he always said,

I just feel better and I tend to hit better when I'm out in the field as opposed to coming off the bench every three innings. I agree. Yeah, thank you, Brian. Yeah, look, it depends. We have to contextualize this. Maybe he had more games in left against better pitching or against worse pitching or whatever.

He has talked about wanting to play the field, and he wants to do that. But the Astros feel like he's best as a DH. and the career numbers are much better with him in left field, but also, again, what's the context of that? He's been totally fine. He's still been one of the best hitters on the planet when he is just a DH,

and maybe it does get him into more rhythm or whatever. But bottom line, is that something he's going to have to adjust to because clearly Astro's brass don't want him out in the field as much as he has been the last couple of years because he's running less risk of an injury. His numbers in the left have been better the two years prior,

2023 and 22, but to contextualize that a little bit as a DH in 2023, it's got a 968 OPS, as a DH in 2022, it was over 1,000. Now, it was a little bit better in left both of those years. But if you're saying he's not going to play any left field and he's going to give you a 980, 990 OPS, I think that's still probably the decision you should make if you're trying to eliminate the additional chances of him getting hurt. Yeah, to me looks like it's been mostly negligent. negligible, and they're going to play him some and left,

and we'll see how it goes from there. But they want him at DH. So somebody's got to play left, and that somebody's going to be some Jose L too. His games in left field are going to be extremely small. I'd set it at 20. I think it's going to be an over under of 20. It seems to me pretty clearly,

just from what Joe Spott has been saying publicly, that he doesn't like him out there. I think mostly it is because I would guess, keeping him off his legs, keeping him healthy and fresh at the plate. 10 starts to 10 to 15 home starts for Framber Valdez. Those are 10 to 15 Yordon starts, and then you've got five the rest of the year. I just don't think he's going to be out there.

I just don't think they're going to put him out there. I never thought it was a huge, huge issue because I thought he's pretty good out there, better than people think. But, you know, the risk versus the reward, you know, if he's not running around, if he's not on his legs, they know. They feel pretty confident he's going to deliver at the plate. So let's just have him deliver at the plate. You mentioned the outfield arms being weak.

He's got this probably their shirt. strong as out there. He definitely does. He can throw, he's got a cannon out there. Not necessarily the most accurate canon, but still, he can gun some people down. All right, we're going to take quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Adam Wexler is hanging out. You guys can get in if you'd like. 713-212579. The phone number, 7-13-212579. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross with you until 2 o'clock.

Lunch timers. It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Sports Talk 790. 136 of the PM here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas show with Ross rolls along without Matt Thomas. He'll be back tomorrow from beautiful, sunny, West Palm Beach. It's like, it's all, it's supposed to get, I'm going to, I think, be avoiding the freeze. Well, how about Zach Desenzo saying over the weekend it was nice to get down there because he really can't, hadn't been able to work outside.

Oh, come on, Zach. Well, he was in the north of our country. Hunter Brown had talked about us with a fan. Yeah, he's just saying all the work we do has to be inside. And there's snow falling in parts of our country today. Let's see. Thursday, it looks like it's not going to get too creep into freezing too much on Thursday, right? 32, 33, those are the lows I'm seeing here in Houston coming up this week.

So no major freeze. You going to be all right? Major freeze. What? You never know, man. We have a freaking winter. We had three inches of snow a few weeks ago. I feel pretty confident I'll be coming in to work those days.

Well, we'll see. What about Adam Clinton? I can only speak for myself. Yeah, that's all right. Anyways, well, it's going to be much warmer in West Palm Beach. That's where Matt Thomas and I will be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, bringing you guys some great interviews out from spring training. We've hit on some of the storylines, of course. We're worried about, while starting pitching depth, bullpen depth as well.

how are some of these other guys who are new into the fold, Esauk Parades and Christian Walker, going to hit, but also where will they hit? We kind of talked about it. I don't know. Well, I'll get your opinion on it in a sec,

Mr. Wexler. Yordon Alvarez in the two spot. Joe Espada says, possibly. I want Yordaan Alvarez to be healthy. Health of Yordon Alvarez. He doesn't mind hitting any spot. A healthy Yordon. it's all I want right now.

You know, Paredes, he's also someone who has shown ability to get on base. He can walk. So he's another guy that I can, thinking about hitting him in that second spot. So we'll see where it goes. See where it goes. He doesn't matter where it doesn't matter to him. He says it doesn't matter to him where he hits, but he just wants him to be in the two spot. Here is Joe Espott making the case for Yordaunt in the two spot.

I want Yoran to go to the plate as much as possible. So, you know, if he gets 20, 30 at bats in that second spot, comparing a third spot, I want those 20, 30 extra upbats. You go to Jordan instead of, you know, anyone else. So those are all the things that I look at when we put a lineup together. I think we got into that a little bit the last couple of years, from a major league standpoint, with other teams taking advantage of this. Mike Trout, batting much higher in the order than he used to show Hayotani,

batting leadoff, Aaron Judge, moving into the two-hole a lot. And I think that's something that, I mean, it's clear as day from the numbers. And what Joe said is the simplest way to put it. If you bat higher in the lineup, you're going to bat more often. If you care about the first spot in the lineup or your first go-round in the lineup, does it matter to you that you're batting second? Does it matter to you that you're batting third? When you probably increase the number of times,

you're going to be at the plate over a course of a season where nobody's on and there are two outs and your best hitter can do the least damage. those that bats could come at any point during the game, but they do come up in the first inning quite often. Yeah. We're on the same page. Jake Myers is going to be turning this line up over, baby. He's going to be on-based machine in that nine spot.

I could see him batting. Okay, maybe, yeah. He's going to be batting night. I can see that. I don't get on base. No, but, yeah, I think it's good people fixate a little bit too much on the first inning. As you said, we're on the same page. You know, I always said you're a really smart guy.

Is it fixating on or is he saying, well, I don't want him batting then. I don't want him to see that situation as often as he likely will. because he's batting there. Or do you say, look, that's just one time through. Maybe it's not every day. And if you have more faith in one and two, then it changes what you think about three. So it depends what Altuvae and or Paredes or whoever else

bats one, two will be doing. Yeah, I'm down with Yordon and the two spot. He's talked about just wanting to be stable, just being wherever he wants, wherever he is to stay there and not be moving around a ton. 713, 212, 5, 790 is the phone number. Easy.

Back on the phone lines. up easy. Hey, what's going on, RV? Quick question. When Craig Vigio moved to center field, was it the same age as

Altova? I think he was 35 or something like that. He was in his, well into his 30s. Who had a better arm, though, at that point, where Altube is now, or Craig Vigio at that point?

I would say probably Craig. 150 games. in center field for Craig at age 37, his first year of being the regular area. But he left at 35, right? He hadn't been an outfielder really at all prior to that. What's the over-under on errors this year? And I mean, he's going to commit him because that's not his natural position,

but what's the over-under do you think? The over-under for an outfielder making errors. It's probably in the neighborhood of, I'm sure it's much higher than that for Altova, because, you know, we've brought a couple of callers, have already brought it up earlier today, EZ. There are instances where he's going to run back into the scoreboard, and the ball's going to tip off his glove. He's not going to be able to reach quite as high as a 6-1 outfielder, right?

Or Yordon, who's much bigger than that. He's not even as big as Mauricio DuBahn. We'll find out if he has the leaping and athletic ability of some of these players because he just hasn't, he's shown it off a little bit at second base, trying to leap for line drives, but, you know, lining up something in other ballparks stealing home runs. There's a few ballparks where even Altuve could steal, the home run. And it made Park is not one of them, nor is Dyken Park, which it's currently

called. But I don't, I wouldn't expect a particularly strong defensive season from him. I don't really usually measure it by errors, but that's one way to do it. And the last thing, guys, then I'll hang up, listen, what do you think Breggman's going to do out there? I mean, is it going to be he's dead April and May and wake up in July? And I mean, I don't wish no ill will because, I mean, he was a legend here. He's still going to be a lesson here. But what do you think what kind of seasons he's going to have out there? Thank you guys.

I can't believe it's going to be much different than his recent seasons from a production standpoint. I do recognize, and I try to figure out more ways to not give it too much credit, his work at Fenway, but the last two seasons at Fenway Park, over the seven games he's played, he's

13 for 26. He scored 13 runs in those seven games. He's mashing balls for extra bases there. Probably, as we might have learned, He's the second best hitter ever at Fenway Park behind only Ted Williams. Those were the numbers that the Red Sox were putting out. But he spent the last four years doing the exact same thing roughly as a Major League hitter. I can't imagine that's going to change dramatically unless you want to go conspiracy theory.

And I'm happy to reinvestigate that. Yeah, but he's not going to be able to be facing crappy Red Sox pitching as well. That's an important part of it. It is an important part of the Fenway work. But the guy's a high 700 OPS guy for five. consecutive years when you combine the work he's done since he was a second place finisher for MVP which by the way when he was 25 which was 2019 which was five baseball seasons ago he has not even remotely been close to that ball player since he's an above average player i think he's elite

everywhere else however you want to measure how he helps your team in the clubhouse and in the field i think he's beyond belief great at all those things but quantifying that is is probably we'll find out a little here with what he's not able to do to help the pitchers, the catchers, the hitters, the pit... But we'll find out is he able to help some of the guys in Boston with that while he gives them 26 homers, 87 RBIs, and an OPS of 777. And a steady-handed glove at second base. If you want to know more on that, somebody in Red Sox camp had an opinion on where some of the infielders might play this year. and I did not expect to hear it from Raphael Devers. I was asked if he'll be D-Hing this year, and he said, no.

And he said, well, isn't it the Red Sox decision on where you're going to be and where are you going to go? I'm a third basement. All right. See you at second, Alex Bregman. And there are a $40 million second baseman. What a time to be alive. All right. We've got to take a quick break here on The Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Final segment is next. coming up at 2 o'clock it is Adam Wexler who is joining me now and Adam Clanton who is in the building you can get in real quick if you'd like at 713 2125790 but the final segment of the show is next Don't go anywhere

This is Craig Ackerman The rockets are certainly popping the polypropylene I know Matt Thomas all too well Hey by the way this is my new catchphrase Nothing but nylon Welcome back To the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. Now, I just saw this.

Come across my timeline on the 4U tab. We were talking about Devers saying, well, I'm going to play third base. Maybe I should send this to Connor and try to get this turned around. Alex Cora basically saying Raphael Devers shouldn't expect to play third base just because he was promised to it by there, the ex-general manager, Haim Bloom. Like we can sense, there's a little bit of drama there. Boston, but good players are good players. I'm sure they'll figure it out. There's other issues that are much more important to deal with and figuring out where to put good players on the

diamond. I'm not really that concerned. It is a little alarming to hear that. I'm sure if your management, but he very well might be the third basement because Alex Bregman is the second basement until their prospects arrive. Well, yeah, they have some good young prospects, but you pay a guy $40 million. And you figured you put him in a more, the more premium defensive position. I've said it from the jump, even when it came out during the offseason at Alex's own, Alex Breggman's own suggestion, I'd be willing to play anywhere. I do think that was a negotiating ploy.

But I also think it's true. But that's great that he's willing to do it. It's partially, I would think, because, well, sure, I'll say it, but I'm the best there is. Why would you put somebody else there? I mean, it's not quite the same discussion as should Dubon be in second or left, and should Altuvae be at left or second. But I already know Alex Bregman's better than any third baseman, any team in the American League has defensively. So what scenario suggests I should put him at second? So he's learning a new position and may or may not be as valuable there.

And now I know my third base position is also worse because I have him, but I'm not playing him there. I don't see how that makes any sense. Like, is Devers so brutal at second we can't use in there? Okay, great. He's the DH. but somebody else at second that isn't brutal. Well, he said he's not de-aging. So I guess we'll figure it.

That's a Red Sox problem. We've got our own problems here in Houston. And then that, among those, figuring out how many games, if you had to just, if we did a, this was a Matt Thomas show on a Tuesday. And we did gut feelings. And I had to put you on the spot and say gut feeling how many games at left field, barring health, of course. Does Jose Altovae play and left this year?

What would you say? 45. Oh. That's the number I mentioned earlier, and it feels about right. That's the exact number I mentioned earlier. So if I say 45 out there, do you assume he's got 100 at second? You know, basically calling it a full season, 100, 100, 105, 110, whatever it is. How much do you deach him at 35 years old?

Well, again, you can't deach him if Yordawn's playing that day. I don't think very often. Now, you can do it occasionally. You can mix and match a little bit. Yordon, it feels like, okay, what was it, like 40-something games last year, maybe 50-ish-50-ish games in the last? and clearly, clearly, Joe Espada wants that number

to go down significantly. He was pretty clear about that. Maybe in like 25. Yeah. So those 25 games, you're mixing some DH between Yainer Diaz maybe,

Jose Altuve maybe. I mean, I think you're going to see 90% of your D.H. at bats go to the three players you just said. Yiner, Jose, and Yordan. Because Yiner's bat

should be in the lineup pretty much every day is healthy. Well, he's not going to catch 150 games. No, he's not. He better not. So that's the other thing you deal with. If Altovae and Yordon are both playing and Keratini is catching, are you okay with Yonerdias just watching that day? I would think you'd want him to hit that day. So now you've got to figure out who's playing

left and who's sitting or who's playing second, you know? Because now with Christian Walker here, you kind of had that first base as a flex block. You put Keratini there, you put Yonard Diaz there. But now, yes, I'm saying had. Yeah. Had. So now you kind of lose that. with signing Christian Walker as your everyday get. Which is kind of the normal way to do things. Kind of a good thing.

Normally they're not flexing out at first base, so maybe that becomes the left field becomes... Let's put Yainer Diaz in left field. How's he looking out there, tracking fly balls? Okay, maybe we're not going to do that. Honestly, I bet you he could do it. I bet you he could. And I'm sure his arm would play out there.

I just don't want my catcher running around that much. No, you don't want him squatting as much as they make them do, but that's just the way it is. You don't want Yainer Diaz climbing, I mean, Jordan Alvarez climbing up that wall. you don't even want Yonair Dia's climbing up that wall either. No, we're good. Just stay as stable as possible playing D.H.

I mean, that kind of does beg the question. If you can't plop any of those guys at first, how many games at catcher, how much of a mix are? Because you needed Victor Keratini. You needed his, unfortunately, not like he was, I mean, he was really playing above his head offensively, and he was good, but it's not like he was one of the, you know, can't no doubt about it best on the planet.

You just were so anemic offensively at spots. you needed him last year. Yeah, in order to overcome your other offensive weaknesses throughout much of the season, Tucker's absence being a part of it, your lineup was just better with Diaz and Caratini both batting, and that's how you do it. You've got to utilize the DH, a handful of games. Carrotini can play some first base, but like you said, it's not likely you're going to ask him to very often, unless Walker for some reason is unavailable.

Come on, Chas. We need you, Chas. We need a big... He told us it's going to be... He's going to surprise. Outfield's going to surprise. He did say that, but does that mean a... a good way. I heard he was looking good in the cage.

Dana told us that. Oh, well, well, if Dana said it and it must be the gospel, he's never optimistic about a guy and it just doesn't come to pass. Didn't he, what, didn't he say the Jose Abraeu and the Florida Complex League that was going to be good for him? He was going to come back stronger than ever or

something like that? Maybe not those exact words. But he didn't, did he? He didn't. No, he didn't. He also said he was going to get Kyle Tucker locked up. He didn't do that. Yes, that's true. That would have been, that would have been quite a Can we get you in here for 180, $220 million, even though you could make 3 to 400 in a year if you wait?

That would have been something. I don't think anybody expected that to happen. I wouldn't even have taken aback that he said it publicly. I think that was a goal. It just wasn't really likely. He came out a little stronger than he had to, though. There's a difference with saying, well, we're going to try, we're going to do everything within our power to keep them,

rather than saying we're going to get it done. It's a little bit different. They did not get it done. No, they didn't. Adam Wexer, but I know you're going to get it done with Adam Clinton for the next four hours. Appreciate you hanging out. Thank you. Always. Thanks to Adam Wexer for hanging out for a little bit.

Thanks to Brian Lelima. Thanks to Chris Gordy. Thanks to Connor McGovern for producing. And most importantly, thanks to you for listening to the show. I really do appreciate it. I am gone. I am on the way to West Palm Beach. I'll join you there tomorrow with Matt Thomas.

But right now, it's two Adams. They call themselves the A-Team. And they're coming up next. don't go anywhere here on Sports Talk 7-9.