The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Anything Goes Friday With Brian Bogusevic! Astros Start Their Series vs Orioles Tonight

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

Anything Goes Friday With Brian Bogusevic! Astros Start Their Series vs Orioles Tonight 

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10.1 in H-Town. Hello. And welcome to a Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. A record, a whopping seven final fours without a championship victory. Can they do it again? Look, if we let Ross go today, it won't be a huge lot. That was mean. I shouldn't have called out the Cougars for years of futility in the final four.

Brian Bogusavik is here. You know, we do a segment at 1130. I haven't prepared you for this at all. It's called I'm Saurys. And where you have to apologize for something you've done this week, perhaps some misgivings or something like that? Oh, boy. I'm going to have to apologize. I feel like I apologize to the Cougars fan base about every week.

So I'm going to have to do that again coming up at 1130. 1004 here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas is out. Brian Bogus Evick is in until noon. Bogie, thanks for hanging out. Thanks for having me. You like to name Bogie? Yeah. You don't have any problem with it? Okay. No, I mean, that's... You've been called worse. I've been called a lot worse. I've also been called Bogie since I was probably about first grade. Okay. Okay, good. All right. So, bogey is here until noon. Matt Thomas is out. Jonathan Allen is in the building. We'll have Adam Wexer coming up at 1 o'clock. We have I'm sorry's at 1130. And we have you at 7.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. We have a lot of stuff to get to, of course. We will build a lot of Astros focus in the first couple of hours. But you're a connoisseur of all sports in America, correct? Correct. Okay. And I heard you're a big Premier League fan, so that's great.

We can break down the opening weekend, I think, for the people. Okay, we don't want to lose all of our listeners at the start of the show. But college football, as you said, you're kind of, of, I mean, you're a two-lane guy, but you're not that much into Tulane football, especially now this is the Cougar stole your coach. I am a two-lane fan about as much as all Tulane fans. We follow the team. We enjoy them when they are good. Uh-huh. You're not breaking down croutin? It doesn't ruin my Saturday if they don't win. But also, the game day experience when I was in college, they were still playing at the dome.

There was no on-campus Saturday feel. We didn't get that. We didn't get the experience that a lot of people get. So it's just not built into what it was when we went to school. When you go to Tulane, you're tailgating six days a week anyways. Yeah. There's not a whole lot of people ready to go at 9 a.m. on a Saturday in New Orleans. Well, it could be if you stay up late enough.

It'd be all right. You could just roll right into it. Bars don't close. That has happened. We usually save that for Mardi Gras week. Oh, okay. That's smart. That's smart.

That's where we're thinking. What about like as are do you really, really root for the for the Astros? Are you more invested in those outcomes or do you feel like it's kind of more of a professional angle for you? It's kind of in between. You know, when I was when I was playing, obviously teams that are outside of who you're playing for, it's kind of whatever. And when I first got out of playing, I felt that same way about kind of everybody. but being able to follow a team as closely as we do, being able to see the day-to-day and kind of,

it gets you back to feeling the way I did as a player, right, where you're invested in the day-to-day and where guys are at in terms of the ups and downs of the season. So, yeah, I really do root for the team, but it's not the die-hard, blind faith of, you know, nine-year-old me cheering for the White Sox. Okay. All right, well, so it's a little bit different.

You guys don't get to do, or no, y'all were doing pre and post game for playoffs last year right we do yeah yeah okay there's no there's no all two games of the playoffs yeah let's hope for more than two games this year yeah it uh it helps us from a viewership standpoint and that was unexpected hey guess what we here at sports talk 790 we're big astros fans as well okay we've seen the numbers we like more than two playoff games here too yeah all of a sudden we're sitting there's like what do what do people do with free time in october exactly no it's it's funny because we'll talk about it with guys like you or beat writers and stuff like that.

And it's like, October's are normally booked up here in Houston. We'll see how booked up they're going to be. Right now, the Astros, a game and a half ahead of the Seattle Mariners. Let's all say it. Thank you, Orioles. We appreciate the Orioles.

Now go back to being the Orioles, please. Exactly. It's like, you love the Orioles for a couple of days. Now we hate the Orioles this weekend. They're in town for a three-game set, taking on the Astros. Now, a game and a half against the Seattle Mariners. and the Astros, of course,

we have to talk about the big news from this week. At least I haven't seen yet any sort of diagnosis, but we know that Josh Hater has a shoulder strain in air quotes, and then he's getting a second opinion, which generally means the first opinion wasn't very good. Sounds like it's going to be an extended amount of time for him. Does that mean the rest of the regular season and all the playoffs? We'll have to wait on that.

But next man up, bogey, of course, is Brian O'Brien. And if I say the Astros closer is Brian Abraeu, we're okay with that, but it's about losing the depth after that. Yeah, it's everything that comes after that. The thing that, you know, you're talking about replacing Josh Hader, almost impossible to do, certainly not possible with just one person. But the thing that I'm least worried about is what's going to happen in the ninth inning. You know, assuming that's Brian Bray's spot and it's locked into that.

It's how do you get to the ninth inning? And I think we're going to see a combination of things. I think we're going to see a willingness to maybe push starters a little bit further. You know, every out that you get close. closer to getting to Brian Abraeu is important. I think there's going to be some guys pushed, obviously, into higher leverage situations. Some of the guys that have been sixth and seventh inning

are going to move back deeper into the game. And I think really what it's going to be, too, is a lot of mixing and matching, a lot of matchups. I don't think that anybody's really locked into any one inning or role. It's who's best suited to get these next couple of outs, and then we'll figure it out after that. Yeah, and I would even say, I mean, in theory, with, of course,

Susa being the lefty and Abrae being the righty. I don't know if we're going to see both kind of a hybrid ninth inning role, but also you want to find pockets of the lineup. But what is that like for a manager practically because you don't necessarily know who's going to be coming up in any particular time

depending on getting guys ready at certain times as well. Yeah, I think what you have to do is, first of all, it's an imperfect science, trying to figure out what is the best spot for everybody because, you know, you don't know what's going to happen in the next inning or two after that. But if you're getting close, you know, if you're two innings away and you're in the middle of the order in the eighth inning, maybe that's where you want Brian Abraeu, and then you let

the other guys pitch the ninth inning against the bottom third of the order. And, you know, having an Abraeu go into that closer ninth inning role, being a guy who's pitched, you know, in the eighth inning mostly, but he's also come in and gotten you four or five out. It's like he can get up in a hurry and he can get ready to go in short-nobes. notice type of situations. He doesn't have to have everything building towards that ninth inning. It does give you a little bit of flexibility to say, okay, he's maybe not our closer. What he is is he's our best guy against their best guys.

Yeah. And both of those guys have been really good. I mean, those, those, you, Benet Tusa was throwing friggin Frizzbies last time out there. He is, he's a tough matchup. He's, he's funky. They were, they were doing PFP drills one day out on the field early. I was walking down on the field. And it was starting with The pitcher's just kind of going through like a phantom throw on the mound before they got their ground ball. And I walked by home plate as he was doing his little dry throw. Yeah. And it was like glove goes out this way and then it flies at you and you can't see the arm.

And all of a sudden he's standing there waiting for a ground ball. And I'm like, when did his arm come through? I never saw it. And I can't imagine trying to hit, you know, 95 plus a slider, but you don't know where it's coming from. So yeah, he's tough. Yeah, he's been good. Brian Brayy's been good. So they're going to have to continue to do that.

as you mentioned, it will be about bridging the in-between. We'll talk about how the Astros are going to do that. We'll talk about the weekend series with the Orioles, the Seattle Mariners, how the Astros are going to hold them off and anything that Bogie wants to get to. You don't know if anything goes Friday on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. I don't know if you knew that. I'll start thinking. We can get real deep into some stuff.

Absolutely. Let's see. You said your kids are going into school. We can talk about that. No, thanks. Let's see. Okay, fine. We're not going to talk about that.

We'll talk about Texas versus Ohio State. We can get deep into that. And also, bogey's full breakdown of the joint practices between the Carolina Panthers and the Houston, Texas. Probably going to be some fights. There's usually fights at those joint practices. Yeah, there's always fights.

It's fine. I mean, whatever. I think they should let them fight in NFL games. Put them at the 50-yard line. First guy down is out for two series like in hockey. You get a penalty and let's move on. But if you actually let people fight, it would stop a lot of the nonsense.

Exactly. Exactly. And you can do a three-minute pause of those so we can get a live bet down on the fight. The important thing. See, exactly. You get the sponsorship, you get the gambling angle. I think it's a brilliant idea.

Okay, we're going to take a quick break here on the bad time of show with Ross. Brian Bogussevka is hanging out. You guys want to get in 713-213-5-790 is the phone number. 7-1-3-12-5-7-90. Back in a minute with you until 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. 1018 in the a.m. here on Sports Talk 790.

Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas. He is out in Austin doing volleyball dad stuff. He'll be back on Monday. Brian Bogussevick is hanging out. You can as well. It's 713. 212.5. 790.

713. 2125.790 on an anything goes Friday. We'll have I'm sorry. He's at 1130. Start thinking. Get your gears turning on something you're sorry about. I will at the very least. be apologizing to the Houston Cougars fan base, although I felt like that was pretty funny. You know, Ross, you need to because I had an angry, angry collar over here talking about this isn't Austin.

Whoever that guy is speaking, is that Ross? I'm going to stop listening to 790, man. Just blow me for a whole minute. Really? Well, get on air. Let's go. We can talk. Don't be scared.

I don't bite. It's going to be all right. Look, I will just let most of you Cougars fans know. First of all, I wouldn't be hating on the Cougars so much. if Matt wouldn't bring them up and talk about how they're the greatest athletic program in history when they haven't won a championship in anything except like golf in the 1970s. So it's not my fault. I'm a victim here.

Brian Bogosophic disagrees. Yeah. This radio, you're supposed to talk. No. No. It's, um, okay. It's mostly a bit, first of all. And also, I didn't say anything that wasn't factually correct.

Seven final fours without a championship is the most in college basketball history. True. But they also have seven. Final fours. That's great. And they've been arguably the best program in college basketball over the last... Absolutely. Four years? Five years. They've been great and I'm wishing them the best. I'm sorry if you want to scream at me and get all mad. All right. Look, you can make fun of Longhorn basketball. They basically went to one real Final Four. The other ones are in like 1946 when they're... I think there was literally like eight teams in the tournament and they're like, we made a Final Four. We won one game.

Yeah, we won one game. We're good, man. So, all right. I'm sorry, Cougars. I'm going to apologize to y'all even more fully coming up at 1130 here on the program all right we've been talking to some astros baseball of course baltimore orioles beat the seattle mariners why didn't why didn't they why didn't they just call that game when it went to the rain delay in the sixth inning like come on man let's all go home this time of year you get some strange situations when you're talking about calling games making up games travel schedules you know early on in the year. There's so much weather, but there's so much schedule left that they'll

just cancel it real quick and we'll figure it out later in the season. But at this point with West Coast teams not going back to the East Coast anymore, you're just going to have to sit there with it. It was like the sixth inning though. It was a 5-0 and the 6th. I'm like, let's go home. But at least the Orioles still were able to win

that game. So we're all good there. But we were talking about the bullpen. What do you think as far as we were talking about options? Good thing is Caleb Orts been pretty good the last seven times he's been out. But you have Luis Garcia. I don't know, Brandon Walter, I think is throwing side so that it means at least he might be

kind of getting build up. Lance McCullors Jr. is a big question mark. We can get to that in a second. Who do you think are the prime candidates for guys who are starters to come to the bullpen? A lot of people have been saying Lance McCuller's Jr., but I just don't think he has the velocity and he walks too many guys. Yeah, if you're talking about, you know, there's basically two tight.

of roles in the bullpen, right? You're either going to be a long guy who has to be pretty efficient, and when you get into the game, it's your job to finish the game, right? One way or the other, you know, you've got to give us three innings, say. Or there's the high leverage type situation where it's like, hey, you've got to go in there and you've got to win this matchup. And I don't know, you got to be able to count on somebody one way or the other. And, you know, he hasn't been efficient enough with pitches to think that he can go out there and just get you through three innings in a long relief type situation. So I don't know because you don't want to put yourself in a situation where there's a guy in your bullpen that is getting you further behind it in the bullpen.

I feel like he is the hardest to kind of figure out where you go from here because of, well, how ineffective he has been. the amount of money that he makes. And honestly, the history, I don't know how much of it is a factor of the history and all that type of stuff, but I feel like it matters. And I feel like Joe Espott is a guy who puts stock. And we talk about how Hector Nerris was basically here

to get 10 years of service time. Like there is the human element of what Lance McCullors is the embodiment, a part of it, along with Altuva, the only guys left from 2017, and how important he is to kind of the history of this frame. franchise and maybe to the guys in that clubhouse, or does that not matter at all as far as trying to give him more of a leash? Well, it does matter, right?

You want to take care of your guys. And the organization has historically done that, especially somebody who's a huge part of turning everything around for the Astros. You know, you're going to try to do right by them. But there's a certain point to where you've got to go out there and put your best 26 guys out there. and, you know, Lance is kind of caught in the middle right now of a guy who at one point in his career was very much a power pitcher. He was very much, I'm going to go out there, my stuff is better than you.

My fastball movement and velocity is going to blow you away. My curve ball, you're not going to be able to touch it. And he's now moved into a point in his career because of injuries where he's more of a finesse type of pitcher, and he's trying to figure out how to pitch that way. And, you know, when you're 40 games left in a season and you're a game and a half up on a hot Seattle team, you don't have a lot of leeway for guys to go out there and try to figure it out. You've got to go out there and win. Yeah, that seems like the hard thing for Joe Espada. I would say it was kind of the hard thing from a lineup standpoint when all the position players were hurt.

And it's like, okay, are we going to go to Cooper Hummel? Are we going to go to whoever else that we have? and luckily Taylor Tremel has been pretty good, but kind of figuring out where we don't have time, almost don't have time for guys to figure things out because you're in the middle of these races. No, absolutely. I mean, when you're either banged up

and trying to scrap together whatever you can to put together a good lineup, or when you're trying to fight to stay in a division race or hold a lead or whatever it is, there's a lot more chances that you're going to take. You're going to put guys in and out of the lineup. You're going to try to find matchups. It's not just the approach of we're going to put guys out there because we know what they are eventually.

We know that they'll get to a certain place and just trust the process of, you know, a long-term season. We're playing in the short term right now, and you need results now. Yeah, it's just interesting. I think it kind of makes it even tougher for Joe, especially when all these pitchers start coming back. Because, I mean, okay, of course you're starting with Framber and Hunter. Erigetti and Javier are back. Luis Garcia makes five. if Brandon Walter makes six, Lance McCullors Jr.

makes seven. And, I mean, Jason Alexander's been throwing well as well. You're talking about eight now. Isn't it crazy how the pendulum has swung for this team to where you had no starting pitchers? Now you might have eight and you had no position players and now the lineup is as deep as it's ever been. You know, I'll take this problem, you know, over the other. Right. And the funny thing is, is that these things typically have a way of working themselves out.

You know, it typically you go and you think about, man, how are we going to get innings for all these guys? and then you certainly find a way. A lot of the guys, you know, you look at Javier Garcia coming off of the injuries that they're coming off of, they're still going to need to get protected a little bit. They might have a short start every once in a while where their pitch count gets run up in the first or second inning and you've got to get them out of there. They might have to skip a start. So you're going to need this bulk of starting pitching, but how to sort of maneuver the roster

if all these guys are healthy at once? I mean, that's a manager's job. The manager's job isn't X's and O's. It's not this, you know, it's different than being a head football coach or a coordinator where you're drawing up plays. Their job is to manage the people and manage the roster. And, you know, you got to figure out whose stuff at this given point is best suited for the starting role. Whose stuff can play in the bullpen, you know, is one guy, I mean, you look at a Luis Garcia who's really good with the off speed stuff. Might that be a good fit in a bullpen role just because he can match up with a right-handed hit?

or something. So you've got to take all that into account, but I'll certainly take the problem of trying to figure out how to use eight versus do we have more than two. Yeah. And Luis Garcia, I think it feels like they kind of like him to go to the bullpen because he's done it before. He's comfortable with it. Yeah, it's not something that's totally foreign to him. Obviously, it would be much easier to keep him on regular work and therefore managing that work in a starting role, but repertoire plays something into it. If you can go out there and

blow guys away in a certain part of the lineup, because your stuff matches up with them, that is a much more useful thing than, you know, a guy, like, you look at a Jason Alexander, as good as he's been in the starting rotation, what would he offer you in the bullpen? He's not a big swing and miss

guy, and you don't want somebody pitching to contact necessarily in a one-run game. With like two guys on, coming in with two guys on and one out or something like that. Yeah. All right. Well, something that the Astros and Joe Espada are going to have to figure out. I know that Luis Garcia

on the road in a playoff game, he can give you five out of the bullpen, I've heard. He can. We have seen that. All right. Brian Bogussevik is here. We're going to take a quick break here on Sports Talk 790. Those are on hold, I see, I promise you are next. You all want to get in. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-1-3-2-125-7-90. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross, without

Matt Thomas with you until 2 o'clock. Back in a flash here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas show with Ross. Brian Bogusevich here with us. Hanging out until noon. Appreciate him for that. You guys want to get in. You can 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. A ton of stuff to get to here on the Astros. Also some breaking news, college football-wise. getting a major fine, but looks like they're not going to have any other major infractions. The NCAA was talking about coming down with a ruling on what was happening then with this whole sign stealing scandal,

but it sounds like they're going to be able to keep their national championship, which that didn't feel like that was ever in danger. It doesn't look like much penalties other than a major fine for Michigan football. Is there a more empty punishment than retroactively taking an award or championship away? Like, do people just forgetting about it? They gave Reggie Bush's Heisman back, right? I think he took it. Okay.

I think they gave it back. But we all remember Reggie Bush. Exactly. And how the Texas Longhorns defense bottled them up in the Rose Bowl on January 4th. Hey, one moment of glory, folks. Let me have the one moment of glory. All right. Yeah, I'm sorry.

Let's see. Vacated championships, vacated wins. I guess it kind of, it matters for the counting. stats, right? Like, but what did you do with those counting stats? Nothing. Right. Nothing at the end of the day.

So, there you go. Michigan, getting off with, it looks like a one game suspension for Sharon Moore. And, okay, no, he was expected to serve a two game suspension, but it's a three game suspension. So the coach is suspended for three games, whatever, and they got a big fine. but Michigan keeps everything else intact, it looks like. Fritch, a sign stealing cheating scandal. Never heard of that before. I don't even want to start the conversation on all of that.

We spent like two years. You know what makes it even funnier to me is that the boss, I like how the further we go along after this, the more the hypocrisy shows reveals itself. Like Boston Red Sox fans screaming cheater at Jose Altuve and then applauding Alex Breggman. Like, what are we doing? Oh, by the way, Alex Cor is your manager? What are we doing here, folks? And it's getting mentioned on Apple TV when he's hitting,

when Al-Tube is hitting that home run against the Yankees. That's the kind of thing that, I don't care what fans do. Fans are fans, and they're going to cheer for their guys. They're going to boo the other guys, and they don't have to be rational. That's why they're fans. That's the beauty of being a fan. But when it starts getting picked up mainstream, it's just lazy. Cringy, lazy and cringe-worthy.

All right. Brian Bogus-Sever with us here. Johnny is next up on the phone lines. What's up, Johnny? Yeah, we should let McCullors go a long time ago. At this point, he's not even a proven pitcher. The last time he pitched in a World Series, he lost the game after coming off of being hurt for a while.

He had a couple good games where he pitched, and they gave him his spot back in the rotation. And historically, I mean, he's no more significant than, you know, he can't be more significant than Karea and Bregman and Springer, who were let go. So this guy just needs to be cut loose and, you know, on our losses on that one. Thank you, Johnny. Thank you, Jack.

Go ahead. Completely different scenarios. I mean, the guys that you mentioned who were allowed to walk, they walked in free agency, right? Lance is paid and under contract. So letting him walk is just eating the back end of that contract. And as long as you have somebody signed and you're paying them, you're going to keep them around to try to get what you can out of them. I don't like the diminishment of what Lance has meant to this organization, though.

Yes, I understand he's been hurt. But look at what he was doing when he got hurt. He got hurt pitching this team to championships. And I think a lot of people forget about, was it, 20-21 season where he was the best guy and ran out of gas and got hurt at the very end. In the ALDS, right? But he was, you know, the reason that the team was in that situation and then came back in 2022 and, you know, was pretty good at the last month or so of the season trying to make a run at it. But, you know, I just, I understand that it hasn't been, you know, great the last couple of years. But I just don't like when people, when people frame it as, oh, the guy got his money and then we didn't get anything out of him.

It's like, well, he got hurt pitching you to World Series. Yeah, so I was pulling, also we've seen the flashes. Like I and I understand where people are coming from and like Johnny that won him off the team and all that type of stuff. But as you mentioned, it's the money. It's not only what he's the rest of what he's making this year. He's making like $17.75 million next year or something like that. You completely light that on fire. Although I wonder if you did DFA him, if it would be a scenario where kind of what happened to Jose Abraeu,

where nobody's obviously going to pick him up and then you end up assigning him to AAA and figuring it out from there. That would be his decision. Yeah, that would be a conversation. That would be conversations. That would be a conversation. But really, you know, the fact of the matter is

look at how the last couple of seasons had played out for the Astros in terms of injuries in the starting rotation. You're going to need 8, 10, 12 guys throughout the course of the season. And if you have a guy under contract and you're paying him anyways, and you haven't run into a situation yet

where you need a 40-man roster spot that he's taking up, why would you let somebody go when at some point, if he's healthy, you're probably going to need him eventually. Yeah. And, man, it's so weird for him, too, because it felt like he was kind of getting in a rhythm, and then the whole locker,

not the locker, the weight room incident happened, and he's got a foot sprain, And then he's kind of out of rhythm again. And then he has that good start on the road in Dodger Stadium where he looked really good. He walked a lot of guys. But for the most part, he looked pretty good. And then now he, then he had a couple of bad starts. It's just been weird.

It's been weird. He's got three quality starts this year. But he's had 11, though. And for a guy who's had that long of a layoff, you know, how could you expect it to not be inconsistent? But we have seen signs of it looking good. We've also seen signs of it not looking so good. So again, it comes down to do you have the leeway to give the guy a leash to figure it out? And, you know, early on in the season when there's 100 games left and you're kind of hurting for starting pitching, you can run a guy out there all the time.

But, you know, when it's 40 games left and you've got guys coming back healthy and now you're looking at 7, 8 deep in that rotation, it gets a lot harder. I'm really, I am just really fascinated to see how this all plays out with all the moving parts, with the guys coming back, with I mean, even Frammer on the Hill tonight, which we can talk about, but like Brandon Walter, Javier, Aragetti, McCullors mixing in somehow. I am really interested to see how they let this play out, let this unfold. Well, I think what you're hoping for, if you're Joe Spada, is that one, ideally two guys, go and take it, right? Maybe Christian Javier comes out here and looks like vintage Christian Javier and that's an easy decision, right?

He gets slotted in. Spencer Arredetti, if he comes out and looks like the guy we saw the last month of the season last year, that makes it an easy decision. So hopefully it plays itself out. The problem you run into is if nobody separates themselves, that's when the decisions get hard. It's easy. Exactly. It's easy. If somebody comes up here and they're getting shelled, it's easy to figure it out from there.

somebody comes up here and they're dominant. It's easy. When the in-between murky waters, and that's kind of what Lance McCullors Jr. has been, mostly bad when you add it all up, but you have seen the flashes of good. Yeah, and if you can get a consistent run from a couple of these guys, it makes your decision easy. The

work will come and figuring out what you do with the other guys, but it's very unlikely that six guys come in off of injury and just look great, and then you're sitting there saying, oh, man, we've got, you're not going to be in a scenario where you're saying, oh, we've got too many guys. And also, maybe I shouldn't say this out loud, but we're assuming full health, which

what makes we think, what makes us think that we can assume full health at this point, too? We finally got to a place where we thought, okay, we're on the right side of these injuries. That lasted 24 hours? Something like that. Oh, Josh Hater, we pray for thee. Do you think, now we'll see what happens with Josh Hater and where it goes from there. But do you think they kind of back off? going forward with using him for two innings?

If it's a major injury that takes, you know, quite a while to come back from, I think you have to look at managing workload. You know, it's something that he's been really good at since he's been here is picking up extra slack, you know, going out there for the 10th inning when he closed down the 9th inning and kept it at a tie game. It's got to be something. You know, there's so many things that you can point to. for arm injuries that factor into it and it's probably a mix of all of them. But one thing that you can control is workload. And if he comes back from this, whenever that is,

workload's got to be something that you look at. Yeah, but yeah, I get the, they wanted to do that. And he even talked about that, how he would refuse to do it in San Diego because, you know, he didn't have a long-term deal. Then he said, talking about the Astros, they committed to me, so I'm going to commit to them. And that's good. but and I guess also there's no way to definitively say this happened because of his his workload.

No, no, no. I mean, it could have been one pitch that did it. It could have been, you know, you slept on it funny and it put it in a weird situation and then you got hurt in your next down. There's, it's almost impossible to specifically diagnose what went wrong in an, you know, an arm injury scenario. But, you know, you change what you can change. You control. you control and at some point you just got to say hey these are guys who are going out there pitching is a violent movement it is an explosive violent movement and it puts a lot of stress on small parts of the body the elbow is not a huge joint the shoulder's not a huge joint and when you're throwing 98 miles an hour things break well unfortunately things are broken right now for josh hater we await the official word on what is happening with him but until then

well uh they're just going to keep kind of like what we've been saying with all these injuries. They're going to just keep playing the games. We're going to see who they roll out there and we're going to root for the Astros and hope for the best. And like has happened in the past, the first game with no Josh Hader. You see Brian Abray, you lock down the ninth inning and Bennett Suisse and get your four outs and it was easy. Yeah, hey, you just

throw Hunter Brown out there, have them give you six and two-thirds at least, hopefully seven, and then go to your eighth and ninth gate, and call it a day. Joe Spada would love that. Makes it much easier when the starters go into the seventh inning. Yeah, absolutely. All right, we're going to take a quick break here. We've got a lot of stuff to cover with the Astros and anything you guys want to get to. 713,

212.5.790 is the phone number. 713, 212.5.790. We got I'm sorry coming up at 1130 and we're with you all the way until 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. 1049 in the a.m. here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas is out. He is volleyball dating in Austin, Texas. Our state capital as Matt calls himself

Mr. Texas. I think I thought he was trolling when he was continuing to say that, but I think he's dead serious. He doesn't like enchiladas or tamales or Dr. Pepper. He can't be Mr. Texas. That doesn't help the rest of the rest of the day. Those are all very disqualifying. Anyways, Matt will be back on Monday. Brian Bogus Effic is hanging out. Chris, I'm just getting word. Chris Gordy will be come in, pop in for a segment coming up at 1220 as he will talk some Astros with us. and we also have, I'm sorry, do you have something in mind yet for I'm sorry coming up at 1130? I've got something. Okay, good.

That's what I like to hear. That's coming up at 1130. And you guys can get in whenever you want. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. So we know that it's a tight race in the American League West right now. Game and a half up are the Astros on the Seattle Mariners. They do have a slight advantage in terms of the remaining schedule strength.

I know. Yes, I know some of you are saying, well, they don't do so well against bad teams, but still you'd rather play bad teams and good. Let's see, 20th in baseball, 494 opponents, win percentage for the Mariners, 27th for the Astros, but percentage points, 481. Well, and also, if you look at the upcoming schedule, not the totality of the season, but just what's in the next two weeks, week and a half, the Astros have a chance to do some stuff here, right? You've got two series against Baltimore. They're a last place team. You've got a series against Colorado.

They're historically bad. And over that same period of time, the Mariners have the Mets, the Phillies, who are fighting each other for the National League East top spot. And they also play San Diego as well. So Diastro's got a stretch of some bottom feeders while the Mariners are playing some good teams. So on paper, it looks like, you know, this one and a half could maybe get built up a little bit, but we've seen on paper matchups not work out. Yeah, on paper

the Mariners probably didn't factor in that they were going to lose too straight to the Orioles and now the Orioles are coming in town. So hopefully they get all their wins for the week out of the way. Yeah, especially some of the ways that they won those games. They were not typical of how the Mariners lose games.

Maybe there's a little bit of luck. That's baseball, as they say. Do the Mariners have the most complete roster in American League? You can make the case. Toronto when they are hitting is a very good, well-rounded roster. The Mariners, that's the scary thing, is that they are where they are, and they have not been completely healthy on the pitching side.

The pitching side has obviously been their strength over the course of the last few years. They've got as much starting pitching as anybody in Major League Baseball. They just got a couple of guys back. They've got one more in Bryce Miller, who looks like next time through the rotation. They'll finally be at full strength. So a better version of their offense, which is what we've seen all throughout the course of the year, which has kind of buoyed them through some of these injuries. They can go on a run with this starting pitching. They did it last year where they had, you know, like 20 quality starts in a row or something.

And if you do that with the offense that they have now, they can be. They're a very good team. And it's not, you know, they underachieved the last couple of years, the Mariners did. It wasn't that they just weren't ready. they didn't play up to their capabilities, and this isn't a fluky result that they're getting in how they've been playing. Yeah, and E. E. E. E. Hini Osoras has been terrible for them.

Now, I mean, there was going to be some regression because he hit, what, like 36 home runs? And the ball flies out in Arizona, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So there was going to be some regression going from Arizona up to Seattle, but he hasn't done anything for them. No, and he's a scary guy because, you know,

he can get hot and he can take over a game or a series, But really what's scary about that is that they didn't need Suarez to come in and be a savior. Right? Last year at the trade deadline, what the Mariners were doing, they were going out, they went out and they got a Rosarena and they went out and got Justin Turner because they needed anything. They needed help. They could not score runs. Now they're just looking to add and bolster. And Cal Raleigh has turned into, you know, arguably the MVP of the American League. Crawford has had a bounce back year.

They're a much more steady offense. And even Suarez not hitting yet hasn't really. really, you know, done much to slow them down. So if he does get hot, it's, it's a different story. Yeah. And I just felt all season long, I felt like fairly confident that the Astros were going to win the AOL West. And even when the Mariners made their moves, I was still feeling pretty good about it because you're like, you're getting this guy back, you're getting that guy back.

But for whatever reason, man, this, and I know, like, they still have a good closer in Brian Abray you now with Josh Hater out. But this Hater thing, man, it's kind of shaking me more than, more than some of the other injuries have. Yeah, you know, there's a lot of, there are injuries that can be managed and covered up with depth. And we've certainly seen the Astros be able to navigate some of those. I think there were four guys on this roster throughout the course of the season

who were the most important in terms of we can't afford to lose these guys. And it was Hater and Abraeu in the back, and it was Hunter and Fromber on the front side. Those guys who have the ability to shrink, the game from the outsides in and now losing Hater, it changes the math. It changes the formula of how you get to victory. It was always, we're going to get strong starting pitching, hold this in the game long enough to give the offense an opportunity to take advantage of something and scratch some runs across. And once we get the lead, bang, bang, bang,

that game is over. You're going to have to win a different style of game. Now, you also have the best version of your offense that we've seen throughout the course of the season. So maybe you can go out there and have some games where you can just outslug some teams and beat somebody eight to seven, something that they weren't able to do earlier. But no, you're right. The loss of Hater at the back end, it hurts more because it changes the style of play. The good news is the Rangers, I thought they're coming around the deadline, I thought they kind of looked like they were going to charge up and they've had the good starting pitching,

but for whatever, it just hasn't been put together for them for whatever reason. They are a very difficult team to figure out. You know, for a couple of seasons, they were big offense and couldn't figure out the pitching side. They've had great pitching this year. They haven't been able to put together anything offensively. I still would not want to see them under any scenario in the playoffs. Oh, no. When you can go Evaldi-Di-Grom.

Especially if they're, you know, they're going to be in a wild card series where it's a short series and it's just going to be one, one, two. I think if you're anybody in the American League, you've got to be hoping that the Rangers don't get in. Because if they get in, they're dangerous. Yeah, that's the only one too, I think, that they can compete to me with Fromber and Hunter Brown, whatever order you want to put them in. Absolutely. That is the kind of team. That is the kind of rotation where, you know, it doesn't matter. They neutralize your best starting pitching because you can go out there and have a great game, but they can go out there.

And you might not score a run for two, three games. And of course, Frumber and Hunter Brown started both playoff games for them last year, and they lost both. So no guarantees. No, and that's why, you know, looking at down the stretch, obviously the most important thing is win the division, stay at the top of the division. But you got to start looking at those top two spots. That's so important, especially for a team built the way the Astros are. If you can bypass that three-game series where, you know, a hot starting pitcher really puts you behind it and put yourself in a situation where you can keep those guys line. up to start a division series.

That second spot on the top of the American League is huge. Hopefully it can happen. All right. A lot of games left, a lot of baseball to talk about, a lot of show left here on Sports Talk 790. Hour number one is gone. Hour number two is coming up. We've got I'm Sari's coming up at 1130.

Anything you guys want to get to. We can at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We're going to talk about a lot of pitching. We're going to talk some hitting as well. There's college football stuff going on. Anything you guys want to get to. It is.

And anything goes Friday at 713-212-5-790. Number two of the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. He is out in Austin, Texas. Ross Villarreal, Brian Bogussevick, with you for the next hour. Chris Gordial will drop by sometime in the 12 o'clock hour. And we have Adam Wexler joining at 1 o'clock. as we're with you until 2. Here on anything goes Friday.

713-212-5-790 is the phone number to get in. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Obviously, with bogey in the fold, we've been talking a whole lot of Houston Astros baseball. Guess what? We're going to keep doing it because that's how we roll here on your home for the Houston Astros Sports Talk 790. You've got to stay in your lane.

Yeah, exactly. You're going to try out of my lane from time to time, but that's a different story for a different time. Okay, we've been talking a lot about the pitch. pitching. I do have, what's going on with, can you tell us what's going on with Yorda and Alvarez? Is he okay? How should I, how should we feel about this? This, the whole situation is so bizarre. We've talked about, you know, I always talk about how, and as you know, every season is kind of its own story. It's, it's almost like every season is its own book. And the 2025 book

is a crazy one. There are so many different things. And the, and the Yordan saga is its own chapter. I'll start off by saying I don't have any information that you don't have it's not like I'm sitting there No I'm not trying to ask you that No but but it is weird And you have to understand that Hitting is different

From a lot of things in sports It's very different It's such a refined skill thing You know people sit there and be like Oh You see a football player They play with a broken hand all the time It's like well they don't have to hit

100 mile an hour fastball. Right. And any compromise of your hand, wrist, finger will greatly affect hitting. So the idea of, you know, suck it up and go out there anyways, it's a little bit different when you're talking about hitting. Well, he did that and that's how we're where we are, right? Right. And also, you know, you have to look at it from a big picture standpoint.

Like you can't rush a guy back because we need you in the lineup today. it's like, you know, we need you in the lineup from the day you get back through the end of the season. And if you, you know, luckily afforded yourself of a little bit of leeway by playing well and building a bit of a lead, a lead that has since evaporated. But they gave themselves a luxury of not having to force things, of not having to make rash, rush decisions. but the frustration from from a fan standpoint and certainly from a player standpoint is the ups and downs, right? When you get injured, you want to know what is my injury, how long am I going to be out, and what is my path to coming back? And going forward and back, going forward and back, getting through the process to a certain degree and then having setbacks, you know, having things that are kind of ambiguously diagnosed because we just can't really figure it out,

that's a really difficult pill to swallow because, you know, we want control over our situations and we want to know that I have to do X, Y, and Z to get back. But, you know, sometimes it's not that way. Okay, so he's been taking BP. That means just some dude is like throwing him soft toss and then he's going to go to live BP, which means live pitching this weekend at the Florida complex. The whole thing has been a progression. And you think of it in terms of ramping up the degree of impact on your hand, right? So you start off dry swings, just a bat in your hand, just swinging, no ball. Then you hit off a tee.

It's not moving. Then it's soft toss, and then it comes to a little bit of short toss. And my understanding is that he's at to the point to where he's hitting a thrown baseball, right, a batting practice. Yes. And the next step after that is hitting live, right? hitting off of a real pitcher, maybe in a controlled environment, but it's still a pitcher throwing with some real velocity. The more you ramp it up, the more impact you have, the less control you have over how

perfect you hit it. And that's really when you feel. Like, you're not going to feel a ball when you are squaring up soft toss every swing, every swing. It's when you get a little bit of movement on a two seamer and you catch it off the end, or you get a ball off your hands a little bit with some velocity behind it. That's when you'll really see, you know, how well, that hand is feeling. So, you know, they wrap up the intensity. And then, of course, after every step, you got to take a minute and sit back and say, now how do you feel? Is it sore? Does it feel like it's

getting better? So it is a long, tedious process. And we've seen the tedious process two, three times now. Yeah, it's, it's just been weird to continue to watch this. And now, I mean, we talk about there not being that much time left, but August 15, there's a little bit time for him to build up. From how long do you, let's just say, let's pretend he didn't suffer three setbacks or a couple of setbacks or whatever. If I'd have just told you that he's doing this live BP this weekend, what would you normally say where that goes to progress to possibly getting back on the active roster? And do you, and also factoring in the possibility of a rehab start, but also, I mean, for a DH, does DH need rehab starts?

You need at bats. Yeah. You need to see live pitching. you need to get timing, right? You can work on mechanics in a cage environment. You need to get your timing. You need to see some live at bats. Typically, guys, think of it in a spring training scenario, right?

Guys will want anywhere between 20 to 25 on the low end and some guys like 50, 60 at bats. Historically, Yordon's been a guy who doesn't need all that much. We've seen him have short spring trainings. We've seen him come back from injuries in the past. And the good thing is, is, you know, while he's down. at the complex, they've got other guys down there. He can go into a backfield game and get 10 at bats in one day. So, you know, if you clear all the hurdles of ramping up and then it becomes a,

we've got to get you X number of that bats, that can happen in a very short period of time a couple of days. It's getting over those last couple hurdles is what's really thrown a wrench in this rehab, you know, stint a couple of times now. Yeah. So, I mean, I guess he's going to hit over the weekend. We don't know how they're going to necessarily dose the rest. And do you think he would go to a rehab stint?

I would think so. I mean, it's not guaranteed. You know, he might not need it. He might be able to get everything he needs down at the complex. The thing is, is that you're not going to see the quality of arm down at the complex games that you would see out at AAA. You know, so. How much of a difference does that matter for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, you know, him getting back. It's big for a couple

of reasons. It's big because you want to see consistently, you know, quality pitch. You don't want to get into a situation where he's just getting fed 90-mount-hour fast balls down the middle. That's not really going to gauge anything. It's also, you know, you get down there, there's some 18-year-old kids there trying to make a name for themselves against your... You don't want him to get

hit. You know, you want to be an environment where guys have a little bit of control in double A, AAA, AAA. So, is it 100% necessary? No. I think you would probably want to see him, you know, just for his own sake, to be able to go out there and get, you know, a game or two against a higher quality competition.

Yeah. All right. Well, we'll see what happens. And when he comes back, and the thing is, too, I mean, it feels like it can go any number of ways of not only is he back, but how good is he going to be? Obviously, there's the track record, right? I mean, he's got the highest OPS plus in Astros history. That's pretty good. but he wasn't very good at the beginning of the season.

How much of that do you think was the injury? How much of that was just, I mean, bad luck, small sample size, that kind of stuff. I think it was almost entirely dealing with injury and just not enough time for him to be fully healthy for an extended period of time. If he comes back 100% healthy, I think we see the version of Yorna that we've seen his entire career. Yeah. Man, it's just been so crazy. We're talking about May 3rd, I think.

May 3rd he went on the IL. But if he does come back and you've got like, I mean, I don't know how you would exactly configure. I like him batting second. And Joe Spada has liked that, but it doesn't seem like he liked that that Yordon likes that. But if you do like Pena, Altuve, Alvarez, Karea, then Diaz, Walker, whatever,

or do you want to put those in? I mean, this is a dangerous lineup. It's dangerous. It's deep. It also, you know, you have Sanchez in the mix now. And if you bring Yordon back, now you have two lefties. You have the ability to maybe not go right, left, right, right, left, but maybe right, right, left. So you've got some platoon splits that you can deal with.

It's certainly the best version of the offense, and it just gives you options. It gives you options to mix and match. You can put Victor Keratini in and out of the lineup in good situations for him. So, yeah, it's a nice thing to kind of dream about at this point, and hopefully, you know, these last couple hurdles, they've been big hurdles, so there's still a little ways to go. Yeah, but also in

different situations, if we're dreaming about this fully healthy Astros lineup, if you're putting Yordon at DH, then do you think there will, let's just speculate for playoffs sake or down the stretch

sake. Do you think Cam Smith has done enough to be every day? Do you think we could see some platoon with him and Hazo Sanchez in right field? I think you're certainly going to see some scenarios where Cam is in and out of the lineup down the stretch from, first of all,

from a workload standpoint. I think if you get the roster fully healthy and Yordon's back into the mix, now you're talking about less D.H at bats for Jose Altovae, so he's going to be more into the mix and left field. So yeah, I think there's going to be some times when Sanchez

and Cam are in and out of right field. But that's a good thing. That's optimizing, right? That's giving yourself the best chance on any given day. So, you know, it's again, it's similar to the pitching. It's something that Joe Spada

has to figure out, but it's a much better problem to be trying to figure it out because you have all of your guys back than trying to figure out the way he was for a couple months where he was just trying to find guys. Yeah. Man, this team fully healthy,

we were talking about or I asked you the question about the Mariners having the most complete roster top to bottom or in the American league. If the Astros are fully healthy. They'd be right there, if not ahead. It just hasn't been that way at any point this season. Well, absolutely. And, and, you know, that's the beauty, though, of moving from the regular season into the postseason is who's the best version of themselves, which means who's the healthiest and who's playing well, who has a couple of guys who are hot. And you can take

all of these different teams throughout the league who at different times have been hot. cold, hurt, healthy, and start to kind of dream on what it can be like. Because nobody, there aren't many teams that have made a run to the World Series where it's like, oh, they've done all of this despite X, Y, and Z. It's everything coming together at the same time. And, you know, that is not out of the realm of the possibilities. Yeah. And you could configure Cam and right, Sanchez, and the left, and then Al-2 at second base, but they, I mean, they've made it pretty clear. They don't, that's not their ideal spot for having L-2. If you have like a ground ball pitcher, like a Frombers out there, they're not going to want El Tuva at second.

No, there's a lot of things that you have to take into account when you're talking about who's getting moved around into what spot. And it's also, defense has been a huge weapon for this team throughout the course of the season. That's been the most consistent part of their game throughout the course of the entirety. And to, you know, you're going to have to be in situations coming down the stretch where, do you want the best offensive version of the team? Do you want the best defensive version of the team? Some of that's going to be dictated by who's starting for the Astros, who's starting for the opposing team. What do we see as potential in-game moves to where we can trade out offense for defense? So, you know, that's where your money is made as a manager.

Yeah, and it seems to me that there's been pretty clear the way a spotter does things that he does have put a high priority on defense. Well, absolutely. And that was, that started. in the offseason. I mean, they started talking about Al Tuve moving into left field and how do we optimize the defense, especially in the infield, and they bring in Tony

Paris Chica to work with all these guys. Christian Walker, you know, a huge part of him coming, you know, being brought in was not just the bat, but the defense that he brings that first base, which makes all your other infielers better. So that's not something that they would lightly just kind of walk away from

because, you know, all of a sudden we got a bunch best that we're trying to stick in. All right. We're talking some Astros baseball here on Sports Talk 790. Brian Bogus-Evick is in the fold until noon. You guys want to get in, ask him a question, talk anything about Astros baseball. You can. 7-13-212-5-790 is the phone number 7-1-3-212-5-790.

We've got the news at noon coming up at noon. We also have I'm sorry coming up at 1130 here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Sports Talk 790. 1118 in the PM here on a sports talk 790 Ross Villarayette with you, Brian Bogussevick, with you, the Matt Thomas show until 2 o'clock. Let's see, we got Wexler joining at 1 o'clock. We have Gordy at 1220. We got Bogie right now.

We got I'm sorry's at 1130. We got you at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90 if you'd like. to get in. So talking, of course, a lot about the Houston Astros and what is going on with them. How much scoreboard watching do you think?

Now, of course, everybody's going to go in front of the meeting like, you know what, we're taking it one again at the time. We're focusing on ourselves. But, you know, if you're in a clubhouse and guys are talking, you can keep an eye on the Mariners and still be focusing on what you're doing, right? Yeah, everybody has an idea of what's going on around the league. You know, I would

imagine guys aren't, you know, turned around checking out the scoreboard during the games. But there are other games on in the clubhouse post-game. You know, everybody checks scores. And yeah, it's a little bit early for, you know, really, really following what's going on. But yeah, everybody knows the deal. That's what I figure. Well, it is close.

Game and a half. Astros at the weekend set against the Baltimore Orioles. The Seattle Mariners are taking on the Mets. But the Mets have been terrible lately, right? Yeah, they've been. up and down this year. Yeah, they're down. They're currently down.

Oh, my God. I just pulled up their schedule. They have lost, let's see, hold on. Oh, my God. It's something like, it looks like 15 of the last 17 or something like that. I'm going to actually add this up. You stall, Brian, you talk, I don't know, about something you got in your personal life.

Four, six, seven, 11, 12, 13. Okay, they've lost 13 of their last 15. Holy smokes. That's not good. No, and they were, you know. I thought Juan Soto started hitting, too, didn't he? He's fine. I guess he's not a whole team.

You know, Lindor hasn't been great. Pete Alonzo is made. Are they regretting that deal? Would they sign him to $330 million or something like that? I think he was second in the NL in war last year. Well, he still plays a very good shortstop. He's still a positive base runner, and he hits home runs. It's not that he's not that he's not good.

It's just, you know, when you're talking about Lindel, you're thinking a guy who's potentially in the MVP conversation, but that's not. 249 with OPS plus a 115 for Lindor. You know what? They're similar to what we saw with the Yankees, where there's a lot of talent, there's a lot of high-end ability, but just the whole of the team. It's just, you know, you watch it and you can just see it. It's maybe just not there.

I kind of like, though, though. I like when the Mets and the Yankees lose so they can just say, yeah, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin doesn't always translate to wins. No, and, you know, you look at, I mean, it was a perfect example. You saw this last series when the Astros were in New York, you know, you can see what Aaron Judge is. That's an incredible talent. You can see that there's a lot of power in that lineup and they can hit some home runs. But you just watch them play, you know, you see them play full nine innings for three days in a row.

And it's like, okay, that doesn't. look like the crisp, clean version of baseball that we've seen from what we know can be a world series type of team. Yeah. It feels like they've had bad defense over this run forever. Absolutely. And it's bad defense. And it's a roster that's oddly constructed.

You have a lot of guys playing maybe not necessarily out of position, but not in optimal positions. Yeah. Jim Carlos Stanton was playing in right field. You know, you've had long stretches of Aaron Judge playing center field for you. It's just, you know, when you're talking about being the best of the best, the beating elite teams, everybody can hit. Everybody can pitch.

You've got to be able to do small things to give yourself an advantage. And we've seen, you know, we've seen what those types of teams look like. And, you know, when you see the Yankees play, when we just saw the Yankees play in, you know, in New York last weekend, that just wasn't it. Yeah. 713-212-5-790. The phone number if you want to get in, 7-1-3. 212 5790. We were talking about this lineup and how the assholes would possibly configure it if they were fully healthy. We have seen more signs of life from Christian Walker. We have seen more signs of life from Yiner Diaz. Let's start there. The home runs have been coming. He's got 17 of them. What exactly do you think it is that's working for him? And it seems like they've kind of made a concerted effort, especially early on in counts for him to take pitch.

pitches. Well, pitch selection is the number one most important thing for Yiner. His swing doesn't often get in bad places. His ability to put the bat on the ball is, you know, almost as good as Altuve from a, you know, I can hit any pitch in any spot type of swing. But he's got to get himself good pitches to hit in order to do the most damage, right? He's not a guy who, you know, I want him to go out there and just spray the ball over. I want him to go, hunt pitches that he can drive. He's incredibly strong. We saw that home run.

He hit the other night. That ball went a long way and got out in a hurry. And when he gets good pitches to hit, he's going to be a run producer. So, yeah, it's all about dialing it back just a bit. You're never going to get, he's not going to go out there and be East Sock Parades. He's not going to go out there and have an approach like Alex Breggman. But especially early in the count, not taking yourself out of that bats, not putting a first pitch in play that's a sinker down. in a way. Not, you know, putting yourself behind in the count because you chase the slider

and the other batterers back. Do do things early to try to, you know, flip the advantage to yourself. Yeah. And it's funny you said he's not going to be an East Sok Paratus. I kind of talked about that. I remember when we had you when he went down talking about how the Astros, especially with him out, they're one of the worst teams in terms of seeing pitches in baseball, which, you know, if you're doing things correctly, it's not necessarily a bad thing. But I had also heard, I think it was Todd Callis on a broadcast talking about

how Yiner sees the fewest amount of strikes of like any batter in baseball or something like that? Why would you throw on a strike? Yeah, it sounds like

Yeah, it's, so how does he improve that? Well, it's, first of all, you have to be yourself and you can't go up there and try to be something that you're not and get overly patient. But you have to

prove to opposing pitchers that you are not going to chase what they're throwing up there. And it's amazing how quickly it will shift the other way because pitchers, they don't want to get behind in the count either. And we saw this turn in a hurry with Jeremy Pena. Remember when Jeremy Panyi just used to get slider to death down in a way? They don't even try it anymore because they know that he's not going to chase it and they're not going to waste pitches. If you can prove that you can hit a pitch or lay off a pitch, pitchers just won't go to it anymore. So really that's what, you know, trying to prove to those pitchers that wildly outside

the zone breaking balls are not going to get offered at, so don't even bother with it. And then it won't even be a factor. Yeah. How did Jeremy Payne and prove that? Is it just, I mean, what did he do? Getting to a place to where he really trusted his swing. he's got a very short swing, which means he can easily get to fastballs,

even a high-velocity fastball inside, a pitch that a lot of hitter struggled to get to, he can get to it very easily. His hands stay really tight to his body, and he can get the barrel inside those pitches. And once he trusted that he was going to be able to do that, he no longer has to try to speed up to get to that pitch. And if you're not speeding up to get to the fastball,

that means you have more time to see the pitch. breaking ball. And if you have more time to see the breaking ball, you just don't swing at it. All right. Well, it's working for him. He continues his breakout season. I was wondering how it was going to be when he came back from injury, but he still continues to hit at the top of the lineup for your

Houston Astros. All right, we are going to take another break here. Bogey, you're ready to say you're sorry? You ready to apologize? I've got my list. Okay, you've got a long list, a laundry list. I appreciate that. All right. You want to apologize. You've done something wrong this week. I know Jonathan's done something wrong this week for sure.

You're always blowing up and getting angry at McDonald's workers and stuff like that. This day was only twice. You got to watch your temper, Jonathan. All right. So Jonathan's got some apologizing to do. I've got some apologizing to do. We've got some apologizing to do. 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-790. Say you're sorry next here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. What are you now? I'm sorry 713 212 5790 is the phone number

you know what Jonathan I should have told you this earlier can you find that clip of me trash talking the University of Houston Cougar fan base I know you're going to use it at noon or you don't have to but I don't have it right here okay okay oh you're locked and loaded

all right folks yeah I got it look to the University of Cougars I know you guys haven't won any National Championships and basketball, but seven final fours, wow. That's a very impressive feat. So I would like to apologize,

especially to the guy who apparently called extremely angry with me, very upset. I would like to apologize for this. Another disappointment for the Houston Cougars. As they fail yet again, the final four. A record, a whopping seven final fours without a championship victory. Can they do it again?

Look. You know what? That was rude and I'm sorry. There was more to that, guys. He also said, um, he went on to say how they choked. He couldn't fail the ball. I just cut it out for the comedic sake, but just know there was more.

It's Matt's fault. I don't do it when Matt's not here. We don't talk. It's his fault. Okay, you know what? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for that too. I'm not taking responsibility for my actions.

I'm sorry. Sorry to Cougars fans, but not sorry to Matt. You see, that's what I mean. Thank you. That's why we pay you the big bucks, Brian Bogusevic. We bring you in for those types of things. That's exactly what I would say. Like, I don't talk Cougars Mac with literally anyone else in my life.

Okay, that's not true. For the most part, 94% of it is just because of Matt Thomas So it's kind of his fault But I will take responsibility I'm sorry Brian Bogusovic What are you sorry for I got two things I'm going with

I'm using your good What's your middle I'm using your whole full government name I'm not going to do that Brian Thomas Brian Thomas Bogusavik now I'm sorry go ahead I'm sorry for that

You want the Astros related one Or the non-Astros related? Let's go non-astro's first Non-Astros really Okay so I I have two little kids I am very I am neck deep in youth sports.

And I enjoy it. I enjoy getting out there with kids. I am involved with the teams. Nine and seven, you said? Nine and seven. I was the pitcher and coach pitch this fall. All right. You snapping curves or what?

Hey, I had a lot of strikeouts. I'll start by saying, I enjoy it. I like working with the kids. I like hanging out with the kids. It's good stuff. But to the parents who are in, sane with youth sports. I'm sorry, but I don't care.

I don't care if your 10-year-old went eight for nine this weekend. And if they're throwing 57 miles an hour, I don't know if that's good or bad compared to other kids their age. It doesn't matter. And I don't care, but I'm sorry that I don't care. It doesn't, he seems like you're not that sorry, though. He put a Matt-Tones. Yeah. No, I am.

No, I am. I am sorry that I stop listening when you start talking. You're tuning out. But, hey, great. Cool. Okay. So you have nine and seven. Is that daughters or sons? My daughter is nine.

She's in fourth grade. My son is seven. Okay. So son's playing baseball, daughter two, a softball or what? She does not. She is soccer, field hockey, gymnastics. God. You're busy.

Yeah. You're telling me. Do you ever sleep? No. Especially not this time of year when we still have baseball games. They got you on post games. I'm running carpools. You go to practice. You go to car pools.

Putting miles in the car. You're driving a big three-row van? I got the three-row SUV. Yep. We're loaded up all the equipment in the bag. That's right. Loading up the equipment. That is right.

All that stuff. All right. All that stuff. I was on Sam Houston South yesterday Uh-oh You know where they're building that bridge No Well that's over there

Where is it? Sam Houston Tollway Like the Beltway? Yeah the Beltway On the south side On the south side you were in Pearland or something? Yeah like you know going Going on the east side of town Going over the factories and all that's all the pollution

Yeah you're going to bring in to breathe in some chemicals That's good Yeah yeah yeah um What happened? I'm the type of guy If one lane was, no, no, no, if one lane was slow. Oh, no. If one lane is slow, and I like to calculate, I'm just going to, you know, slightly swear ahead, you know, just very calm, very classy.

I don't do too much. But at this particular time, I was in the zone. And I, uh, what does that mean you were in the zone? I don't, you think you're a NASCAR, you don't look at the mirrors or anything. Okay. And I almost, just slightly almost ran this guy off the road. I didn't know he was going to pass. Because I thought it was a clear lane.

I didn't think he was going to take it either. He got there inside. He had a bunch of glass and everything on the back of his truck too. He was hauling some stuff. And I got the double bird. He just cussed me out because they were stopped right next to each other in traffic. Oh, my God. So he just cussing me out through the window.

And I'm just trying to look forward. And I, he roll his window down? Yes. He was, no. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I just, I couldn't come here and not say sorry to him. I felt real bad.

I was in my zone. I apologize. I'm sorry. Sorry. I learned my lesson. Man, you're out here cutting people off, Jonathan. You better watch out, man. This is Houston, Texas.

You can get shot. That's where I learned how to drive. I thought everybody was in the same page. I hate people like you. I'm in the slow lane. It's mine in my business. I'm putting in my time. I'm investing in my time.

and then you come in there swerving and cutting people off. And I'm on your, I'm right behind you with the brights. You know what I do? I get real spiteful with it. I go, I don't even look. Like you said, you lock in and you don't look at the mirrors. I just look at the person's bumper in front of me. Make sure I don't hit that.

I stay as tight on that bumper as I can because ain't nobody cut me off. Because that's what I was doing yesterday. Yeah. Just lock in on the bumper because I'm not trying to get cut off. I can be very spiteful like that. I don't try to. let anybody. And then of course, like the guy in front of me lets four people in. You're the traffic regulator.

Yes. You're going to be in charge of who can and can't change lines. Yes, exactly. I got a sash on and everything. All right? Throwing down cones. I'm doing everything that I can. It's ridiculous. I swear we're good people, but I said we're going to throw those red lights that they put when they're trying to regulate traffic when you're on the on-ramp too. Let me clarify. You know what, I'm sorry. I just don't get it.

You know what? I'm sorry for calling you out. And Matt agree with me. We just went. Okay, that's the last guy you want agreeing with you. Come on, man. That's no point. Sometimes there's no point now. This is a guy who steals sodas from the grocery store and said it's all part of the H.E.B. tax. I'm sorry, Rachry.

You don't? You don't? I'm just asking them. No, I don't. I mean, when I was a kid, I would steal grapes. Boisevic, you still sodas? I do not. Okay. I didn't.

Is anybody? Yeah. See? Jonathan does it apparently. Yeah. You know what? I'm asking a question. You know what? I'm learning more about you. You would have every day, Jonathan.

I'm asking the question. You would matter two peas in a pod. I'm learning more and more every day. All right. You said you had a, this is an Astros related, sorry? Yeah. Okay, go ahead. So, gosh, this is my seventh year, six, seventh year covering the team.

Is that true? Congratulations, first of all. It's a really easy situation, right? You've got a team that's good. You've got interesting players. There's always stuff happening. But, you know, every once in a while, We run into a stretch where there's not a whole lot happening and our job's difficult, right?

Yes. If you lose one nothing a couple times, there's not a whole lot of talk about postgame. And I often ask Kevin Eshenfelder, like, what were you guys talking about in 2010 and 11 and 12 when we stunk? Yes. So I would like to apologize as somebody who was a part of those teams to everybody that had to cover us and try to get content out of those teams. God, we didn't make it easy on you guys. I'm so sorry. I apologize.

The silver lining is that that resulted in some pretty good draft picks. Carlos Correa. But, but, um, Alex Breggman, Kyle Tucker. That had to be rough. It was,

I'm sorry. We used to have a bit on the show. It was called obligatory Astros call. Like, nobody would call and talk about the Astros. We were, now, of course, course we became the home of the Astros somewhere around then they were on 740 then they wanted to kick them off of 740 because they were making so much money with their talk radio and I'm going to try to find if I have do I have the original obligatory Astros call no I don't have it

never mind all right we'll find it yes we used to play a bit no all right guys we're going to play a obligatory Astros call and then we would want one person the whole show to talk Astros. One person was all we had asked for. I'm surprised you got that one. And we would. And yeah, they'd be breaking down, you know, Brian Bogusevic, mashing homers in Colorado. There was literally nothing interesting to talk about with some of those teams.

It was pretty bad. It was a lot of, what was it at that time? Should they trade? Should they trade by Norris? Some Seasel Cooper, some bull porter, some Brad Mills mixed in there. Probably just a lot of complaining, I would imagine. I think I've I think I've got some Millsy in here somewhere.

Here we go. That was special. That was special. That was special. These guys battled. He would always say, yeah, Brad Mills, you guys are losing like 111 games. Yeah, we're battling out there. These guys battled.

Gave it our best. Our best. Are you sure? Nothing feels like it. You know what? We accept your apology, Foggy. Thank you. Thank you very much.

All right. If you still want to get in with a SAR, you can. 713, 212, 5, 790 is the phone number. 713-212-5-790 Jonathan Allen is bringing us news at noon coming up at noon Jonathan Allen is bringing us news at noon Then we'll have Chris Gordy coming up

We've got Adam Wexer at 1 o'clock We've got another segment with Brian Bogussevik Anything you guys want to get to or if you want to say you're sorry you can 713-212-5-790 All right I found it This is from the era Well I don't want to call it the Brian Bogusovic era of the out shows That'd be rude

but the era of early struggles 2010-ish of the show we weren't getting a whole lot of Astros calls and we had to play this Obligatory Astros call That doesn't make me feel very good I'm sorry I'm sorry we won't play that again

I understand that we had we did obligatory Rockets calls over the years I mean they were winning 1920 games a year for like good solid three four years there and never got a number one pick out of the deal. At least the Astros did. They got the number one, Carlos Correa. Bregman, of course, was two.

Was Tucker three or she was top five, right? Tucker was the top five pick. He was, because it was the same year as Bregman, because Bregman was the comp pick from the year before. So those guys were, it was like two and five. The Brady Aiken saga. Yeah. I forgot about the Brady Haken saga.

Yeah. What's that guy doing these days? I don't know, but I think they were right. He had a mini-UCL or whatever the issue was. All right. Well, you know, now we don't have to have the obligatory Astros call. We actually talk some Astros baseball, and we feel good about it. They're back in action tonight against the Baltimore Orioles.

We thank them for taking care of business, winning a couple of games against the Mariners. It's a one and a half game lead for the Stroes right now. Frumber Valdez back on the hill. Now, I always defend him on our air because people are like, oh, Fromber's blowing up and Frommber, you know, And I just don't feel like he's that guy anymore with the consistency that he's shown. But the starting boss, and first of all, he's just a butcher in the field. I mean, it kind of is what it is. And he's also the nature of a groundball pitcher is that when you look locked in

and everybody's grounding it to second and short, you look like the best pitcher on the planet. But when ground balls are bleeding through and you're getting some infield hits and they pile up on you, that's when things can kind of go haywire for him. You got to have some real mental toughness to be a heavy sinker ball pitcher because just by the nature of guys putting the ball in play, sometimes you're going to win and the ball's going to find some holes. And you just have to, you know, he's gotten so good at trusting the fact that if you just get another one and get another one, eventually it's going to be a double play and you'll get out of the situation. Every once in a while, you know, you'll have a blowup inning where a bunch of them find holes or a play doesn't get made, you know, and you just end up in a tough situation. but no, the difference in consistency from a guy who in whatever, 2019, 2020 was really struggling to find a foothold in the big leagues not because the stuff wasn't good enough, because he couldn't be consistent enough to a guy who now is one of the most reliable starters in all of baseball is.

It is a stark contrast, even though, you know, there'll be an inning here or there, but it just is what it is. Yeah, and last time in New York, it just seemed like, he couldn't find his curveball. He couldn't throw it for a strike. That was a fluke. Yeah, and you're absolutely right. I mean, if you go back two starts to Washington at home, he got 17 swings and misses on his curveball that game.

Just the curveball. Yeah. The start in New York, he got one. And I think it was the last batter that he faced. Yeah. He struck him out. So it was just one of those games where you just didn't have it. And when you don't have your best swing and miss pitch,

and he didn't even get that many ground. balls in New York. It was just a weird game where he didn't have his best stuff. And if you're talking about a guy, I can go out there and still, you know, keep you in a game when he doesn't have anywhere near his best stuff, you know, not a terrible result. But that, I cannot imagine that will happen again because we haven't seen him not have the curveball at all for an entire outing, maybe ever. Yeah. And that's where I have to ask you, like, how does that happen? It's just about finding the. release point or what exactly is going on when for that for the entire outing he made it to the sixth inning and the whole outing he could not find it release point is important for any pitcher but but a consistent release point for a guy who pitches in the way fromber does where everything is based off of movement right it's the movement of the sinker it's the shape of the curveball you've got to be starting those pitches from the same spot to know where they're going to end up and when you see the different

kinds of misses that we saw, right? There were times when he'd lose it in the back and it would miss high and on his arm's side. We'd see him yank the curveball. We'd see the fastball take off straight sideways. It just wasn't coming out of the same spot every time. And usually it'll take him an inning or two and he'll eventually find it in dial in. It just never happened in New York. But, you know, we've seen it consistently enough to think that it's not going to be an issue going start to start. Well, I hope it's not. It's been back-to-back starts.

And, you know, would you defend somebody? And I guess you probably run this into this as well, Bogie. You make a point on air, and you're like, no, it's a guy. Stop worrying about Framer. And then he goes out there and has another bad start. You're like, hey, man, come on. Give me some help here. Yeah, but, you know, you can take any player over the course of a season and find a game or two games

or a stretch of starts where it's like, oh, what's going on here? It's just the way to, if somebody was completely locked in 35 stars throughout the course of the season, they would run away and be a unanimous Cy Young winner. And that doesn't happen. So, you know, you work through things and you trust the fact that a guy who's been, you know, the most consistent guy over the course of the last four seasons will continue to be so. If you, yeah, three seasons, top 10 in the Say Young voting, I don't know where he's going to finish this year, but probably top 10 again. If you finish top 10

Sy Young for four years, that's, I would say that's consistent. No, absolutely. And, you know, there are a lot of guys, if you look at baseball reference pages of players,

you'll see guys who kind of float in and out of that top tier of hitter or pitcher or whatever it is. Guys who will be, they'll have a top three MVP finish and then you won't kind of see it pop up for another couple of years

and then they'll be in and out and they have some down. When you consistently are in that mix, When you don't have down years, to me, that's really what makes the best of the best, is who can be that good the most consistently? And that brings us to actually just reminding me, I have a bet with one Matthew Thomas. I won't tell you what side I'm on. We have the over, under of Frumber years of his contract at five.

What do you think he is? I will say over because I think he is going to be in very high demand. Obviously he has the high-end production. He's got eight, right? But he's a year younger? He's a little bit young. One or two years younger, I can't remember. But Framber has no injury history. He's a guy who eats innings, which, you know, there aren't a lot of those guys anymore.

You know, the style of pitching, the groundball heavy nature of his pitching, that tends to age well. You know, even if he loses a couple of miles an hour, he's still got that sinker. I think there are going to be a lot of teams. in the bidding and that will always drive it up. And while we're here, we also have a bet on Kyle Tucker seven and a half. I do have the over when I was feeling super confident at the start of the season. I'm feeling a little less confident now. No, I think he'll get it.

I think just, you know, there's few guys left who fall into that category of being able to get those really long-term deals. You know, you've got to get up at a certain age to be eligible for free agency that early. And Tucker falls into that to where he's still young enough to where. where the first five years of any contract are going to be what are considered primers of your career. And then you tack on a couple on the backside. I don't think he'll struggle to find eight years anymore.

And last thing, before we get you out, appreciate you hanging out. Christian Javier starting this weekend. Would you see from him his first start was he need to continue to do? I think that the thing that I was most encouraged by was he looked more comfortable and he looked stronger at the end than the beginning. You know, that's typically the thing you're most worried about with somebody who's had a long layoff hasn't been built back is, are they going to come out here and look really good for an inning or two?

And then the stuff falls off. And then you have to worry about, okay, this is going to take some time for him to get back to it. His struggles came just getting his feet underneath him the first couple hitters. And once he did, the velocity held throughout the course of the outing. He got a better feel for his breaking balls as it went on. So I think that was a really encouraging thing. And, you know, like we've seen over the years with Javier, if he can go out there and throw his fastball in the strike zone,

in predictable situations, and win with it, get miss hits, get foul balls, get swings and misses. When hitters are looking for fastballs, he's going to be fine. All right. I'm feeling encouraged. That is Brian Bogussevik. Bogi, thanks for hanging out for a couple of hours. We appreciate you.

Thanks for having me. I'm always right. Matt Thomas gets a lot of. vacation, so I'll continue to bother you, get you in here. Yeah. Matt's got a busy schedule. That's okay. We appreciate it. So thanks for hanging out. Thanks to him.

We are going to take a quick top of the hour break here on Sports Talk 790. Hour number three is coming your way. We're going to have the news at noon. Chris Gordy is going to join as well. Adam Wexler at 1 o'clock. And you guys on the phones if you want to get in, 713 2125-790 is the phone number. 713-212-5-790.

This is the Matt Thomas show. with Ross. Without a championship victory. Can they do it again? Look, if we let Ross go today, it won't be a huge way. See, you're trying to get me in trouble with the Coops fans again.

I see you working. I don't know. They had so much fight for you this morning. Oh, man. It's just a big. bit folks. I literally don't look. I haven't brought up the Cougars once outside of well playing those bits. Anyways, it is our number three of the Mad Thomas show with Ross.

No Matt Thomas. He will be back Monday. He is volleyball dadding in Austin. Chris Gordy will join us in the next segment. We got Adam Wexer coming up at 1 o'clock. We got you at 713-212-75. 90 and now we have Jonathan Allen with the news at noon. All right, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. Oh, I don't know. I just hear this music. It's like a Pavlovian response. I start doing with this voice.

Sorry, go ahead. That's your job to do the reporter voice. Sounds like, uh, Kerman, but I want to start off. Well, we're going to bring you the news at noon. Miss Piggy, what do you have on the sidelines? Sorry, go ahead. Uh, yeah, I just want to start off. And a lot of people might be confused about what's going down over there in Michigan and with the NCAA loss of the views.

So what I have right here is that NCAA imposed a significant fine exceeding $20 million. $20 million for the loss of prices and football revenue of the next two seasons. This comes as a part of its sanctions following an investigation into alleged sign stealing scheme involving former Wolverine Stafford, Connor Stallons. Jim Harbault, who served as the head coach at the time, will receive a show. show cause for 10 years. Thalinds will have him for eight years show calls. Penalties for the coach Sharon Moore include a

two-year show cause order during which he is suspended for three games that includes a self-imposed two-game suspension in addition for the first game of the 2026 season. More will miss Michigan's week three matchup against Central Michigan and a week

four Big Ten opener against Nebraska but we'll be able to coach in week two against Oklahoma. Like the Sevek said, it sounds like a slap on the wrist. I mean, well, $20 million is, I guess, significant. Or it says the report I'm reading says it could be at least $30 million. But, man, it's not much. And honestly, I kind of, I don't know how much I care about this.

How much of an advantage was gained? Do you think it was a ton? I don't think it was. I mean, yeah, they won. but and it's almost like how we talk about the Astros and how that all went down with Astros. Everybody else is doing it.

Michigan had the flow of the end. You know what? I'm just going to plead ignorance on this actually. Maybe I'm honestly not remembering the whole details of the Connor Stallions thing. But at the end of the day. It's not a issue down here, over here, Big 12 SEC.

You know what I mean? Hey, we're not worried about those, these Michigan grifters. All right, well, $30 million, at least, or $20 to $30 million, it sounds like for Michigan. No significant ban, although Jim Harbaugh cannot go back to coaching the NCAA. Well, show cause means what do you have to, let's say program X wants to sign Jim Harbaugh as their head coach. They have to like prove to the NCAA why it's okay for them to do that or something like that.

What exactly does show cause mean? Something like that, right? That is, that's what I had under the assumption, but as well as it's a ban. Here's what Google says. It requires an institution to explain why it should not be penalized for employing a coach who has been found to have committed major recruiting violations. So almost like a court case just for him to get behind it. Well, it's not recruiting violations. This would be a show cause penalty for obviously this whole cheating scandal thing.

Huh. Interesting. Jim Harbaugh has got a coach. Two things. Jim Harbaugh loves to coach, but Jim Harbaugh's act wears thin wherever he. he is. It happened in San Francisco. It happened in Michigan. I wonder how long it's going to take for it to happen with the Los Angeles Chargers. All right. What else you have? Mr. Allen. I just found this right now earlier today. Houston Tessons has a fourth player to make the top 100 list being

wide receiver, right receiver, excuse me, Nico Collins being number 32 over certain athletes such as Ced Lamb, Tyler Hill, and Mike Evans. Wow. Now, head of Evans, I would put him there now. Tyreek Hill for sure, ahead of Cid Lamb. Big Doc Tennis now. Wow. And this is, of course, voted on by his peers, fellow NFL players. Do you think that means more or less if it's brought up by the players or the coaches?

Now, I don't know how the voting does. Now, this is the thing. Everybody's like, no players should vote. They know more. Yeah, but the players, have you heard some of these players talk? Have you heard, have you heard Kendrick Perkins on ESPN? you think that guy's really breaking down basketball and like nobody's business?

That's number one. There's no guarantee that the players are going to give you great analysis. And number two, the players have their own biases. Right? Like I think it was into the player voting last year. What was it? It was like all these bit players were getting like first team all NBA votes or all-star votes or something like that.

I think it's the all-star game that the players have a portion of the vote. I think it's fan vote, media vote, and player vote. And there were like guys that had no business being all-stars getting voted as all-stars by their players. So either A, not taking it seriously or B, showing a lot of bias. So in theory, it should mean more to get this respect from your peers for sure. Yeah, and just sticking on the Texans right now, going to ESPN and looking at it, they have all the teams ranked at their ceiling and floor. Sealing and floor, okay.

So they have Houston, Texas, their ceiling as what they have right now, 11 and 6, and the floor being 6 and 11. Biggest X factor, obviously, we know, is the offensive line. There's no way they're going 6 and 11 unless literally C.J. Shroud goes down. That's why I wanted to bring this up. I was like, that's, I want to say disrespectful without any biasness. Yeah, but, I mean, it is a first place schedule that is going to be tougher for them. but I, hmm, yeah, okay. And what would they say for a ceiling?

11 and 6. I can see them winning like 12 games as they go crazy and get lucky. And the offensive line gels and Ariante Ursari establishes himself as a true great tackle. And depending on what happens of him getting moved to the left side or something like that. Nah, maybe 11, 12, probably max. So I guess that's a quibble more than anything. Okay. I'll buy with ESPN selling there.

You got anything from us? I don't have anything for you, actually. We're going to take quick break because we have to get to Chris Gordy for his Friday hit on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We've got Adam Wexer coming up at 1 o'clock. You guys want to get in and talk about anything you can. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number 7-13-212-5-790. 1220, the PM here on Sports Talk 790. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas.

Appreciate Brian Bogussevich hanging out for the first couple of hours. We got Adam Wexer coming in at 1 o'clock. And right now for our weekly Friday hit, Mr. Chris Gordy, actually we are going to talk some Astros in a second. But can you explain this whole Michigan thing to me like I'm five? Sounds like is a slap on the wrist? Can you say a $20 to $30 million fine is a slap on the wrist? Yeah, it's pretty much.

I mean, this is the whole, remember, they even did a Netflix documentary on it, the Conner Stallions, cheating scandal, sign stealing and all that. And, see, I forget the ins and outs of it. What exactly, he was going to... He was getting on the sideline. Okay. Well, like, they had video of him on the sideline, like, for future opponents of Michigan, like, on their sideline with a headset in, like, trying to relay the sign, or, you know, like,

Learn? I guess learn. And then, yeah, he'd buy a ticket to a game, go sit in the stands and have his camera out recording them relaying signs. You know, so it's just like, and it just so happens. That's the one year Michigan won the national championship, all the other years of mediocrity. And yeah, I mean, most everybody's looking at going slap on the wrist. The weird thing is, so I didn't know, there's Michigan self-imposed a two-game system. suspension for Sharon Moore, their head coach this season. They're going to do it week three and week four. Now week three, I think, as they play Central Michigan or something, week four is at Nebraska. So that's a tough game.

But conveniently, they skip over the game at Oklahoma week two, which is one of their big non-conference games. But then they come out and say that they're going to, that Sharon Moore has accepted an additional one-game suspension. So I'm thinking, okay, maybe that's their opener against. I don't know. New Mexico. New Mexico.

I just pulled it up. No, they said that will be in full. in 2026. What? Next year? It's just this whole thing. And then the $20 million. That's very farcial. $20 million fine. It's a lot of money for anybody else. But for

a school, I mean, look, they just had the CEO of Oracle paid Bryce Underwood, the top recruit, you know, whatever it is, 17 million to come play football there. So everybody's like, no harm, no foul. Like what other college program out there would go, you know what? I'll pay $20 million to get away with

cheating if it costs if it got us a championship. So if he's videotaping signals, like with his phone, I get that sounds bad, but you're saying he was plugging into like opposing teams headset somehow? And listening? No, no, no.

But they had video of him on the sideline with like a headset and like it was like just conveniently like standing behind. I don't know, like Ohio State. And it's like, how do you even get on the field? And nobody sees that that guy doesn't belong here? Interesting. Okay. I guess I'd have to dig in more to this to figure out how much an advantage we thought was gained.

What do people like other coaches and stuff say about how much of an advantage was gained by this whole cheating thing with Connorsalions? Well, one of the coaches came out. I forgot who it was. Remember at the time and said, we knew they were doing it so we changed up our signs. Again, kind of like the Astros thing, if you just changed up your signs, there was no advantage there. But yes. The Dodgers did. And I don't know. I mean, you go back to that season.

Michigan played absolutely nobody in the in the in the in the non-conference that year. So basically what happened was Texas beat Alabama and then Alabama beat Georgia in the SEC championship game. I still thought Georgia deserved to be in because that was their lone loss of the season. But they were like, no, Bamma beat Georgia so they have to be in. And then they're like, oh, but we have to put Texas in too because Texas beat Alabama. so it knocked Georgia out. But Michigan, I mean, they didn't even have a ranked, they didn't even play a ranked opponent until November.

Yeah, I forgot about that. They beat Penn State, they beat Ohio State, and then they beat Iowa in the Big Ten title game. And then they beat Alabama in overtime, and then they beat an overrated Washington team in the championship. Hey, Washington was tough, man. Here in Houston. Michael Pinnock's, Roma Dunzee, whatever other wide receivers they had.

Were you at that game? Yes, I was. thanks for bringing it up what happened Quinn you were couldn't Quinn yours couldn't throw it out to A.D. Mitchell. I'm talking about the championship game here. I remember.

Oh, no, I wasn't at the championship game. I was at the Sugar Bowl when Texas lost to Washington. I was there too. Oh. I was on the field. Oh, that's right. Did I see you that weekend?

I think we tried to. I think we tried to, but you were busy and I was busy. We were just, it didn't work out. That's okay. All right, anyways. You were a party and I was working. That's fairly,

accurate. Astros taking on the Orioles. We all like to tip our cap to the Orioles for winning the the last two games of their series against the Mariners. So now they're a game and a half up. They are in town this weekend. Frumber Valdez on the hill we were talking about with Bogey. Feels like just couldn't

find his curbst ball in his last start. Before that, he was getting a lot of bleeders and some soft contact. So hopefully a bounce back start for Frumber on the Hill tonight against the Baltimore Orioles. Well, related across town, one Lance McCullors Jr. will be on the mound tonight in Sugarland.

That's true. You'll be watching that with baited breath. Lance McCullors beginning a rehab assignment with Space Cowboys tonight. That was man, that must have been one of the nastiest blisters you've ever seen. Now, come on. Guys have had blister issues before.

Of course, we had never heard about it. Normally, I get a blister. I put a band-aid on it two days later. You're not a pitcher, okay? You're not a pitcher spinning a baseball with the seams. off of your finger. So hopefully he's all right. And look, even if

they made it up and he needed a breather, I'm okay with that too. Yeah. If they made it up and he just needs a couple of extra starts to try to get himself right, I'm okay with that. Because he started to round into form a little bit. He had back-to-back quality starts and then he had like a five-inning two or three-run ball or something like that.

And then he had the mishap and the weight room. And then he came back and he was out of rhythm again. I think in full rhythm, he can at least be a four-five guy. Did you see a J.P. France did last night? I did not. Seven strikeouts.

And I'm like four innings of work. That's good. I gave up a couple runs, but still, like, his swing and miss stuff is there. Again, I'd like to see him come back in some kind of long reliever roll. You and your Louisiana boys are your JP France fan number one. No, I just want him and Luis Garcia back to give you so, I mean, you have so many options at that point. Yeah, somebody's going to have to go to the bullpen. Luis Garcia makes sense because he's been out of the bullpen before.

I think you put both of them in the bullpen. And he has good swing and miss. The way Jason Alexander's pitching right now, and then if Brandon Walter comes back. Jason Alexander does have options. I feel like it's been a couple of good starts, but we have to be realistic that he was DFAed from the A's, so I don't know how long he's going to keep this up.

You ride that wave. Yeah, you ride the wave as long as you can. The Colton Gordon one hit a wall, though. He was doing okay, and then the wheels came off. And then Brandon Walter, of the Gordon Gusto Walter Triumvirate Walter looked the best

He was getting like legit Swing and Miss Yeah Like all of his like you know Field Independent pitching numbers were really good Well strike out to walk ratio was good Like he was like you were looking like Man we might have found something with Brandon Walter

Where did he goes down with the inflammation And then now he's He's throwing sides I think is the latest from Brandon Walter So at least he's throwing Where did Gusto go? Which trade? Was he a partner? He was the Sanchez trade of the Monks, right?

Right? I think. Probably. You're probably right. Yeah. But you're right about Framber. In May, I mean, this is what Framber's done. In May, he had an ERA of 236.

In June, he had an ERA of 174. In July, he had an ERA of 216. And through two starts so far in August, and he array of 694. The last two outings have not been good for Frumber. Yeah. So he has got to, he has got to, got to find a way to

to bounce back tonight. I think he does. It's an Orioles team that's not very good. You heard it here first. Now, they've had some good hitters, but yeah, you heard it here first. Quality Start from Framer. What's up? Ryan Gusto, one start for Miami.

On August 9th, six innings, three earned runs. Solid. Four hits, a couple of walks. Eight strikeouts. Ooh, I'm just looking at seeing Hunter Brown Slating to go Tuesday in Detroit. Hunter Brown back in his hometown? Hunter Brown in Detroit?

Yeah, I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good about that. That's a TBS game, by the way. All right. What are these 540 first pitches? Ooh, I like that. What do you mean? Well, you like it for post game.

Yes, sir. I'm on Monday and Tuesday post game. What's up? I'll let you boy. I envision people you're sitting in traffic on I-10, getting out of work, and it's like, here we go, first pitch. Yeah. I'm Detroit.

Exactly. All right. So, big weekend set for the Astros. We mentioned Frommberg, Jason Alexander on Sunday. Christian Javier. on Saturday for Jason Alexander, Christian Javier on Sunday. Gordy, how are we feeling about the series?

And what are we pairing with the series this weekend? Well, that's the best part of being at home and continuing this homestead. As you get to drink the Crawford Bach from our friends at Carbock, Perring, but right here in Houston, Texas, served all over the ballpark there at Dikin Park. Grab you a Crawford Bach.

I was at the game. Was it last week or week before? Last homestand I was there. And I saw some people guzzling down some Crawford box. and it made me feel all tingling inside. The Astros won that game, by the way. So most of the time, when I see people drink your Crawford-Bogg, at Leicesterner, Astros win. So grab yourself for Crawford-Bock tonight,

ice-cold refreshment there at Duyken Park. And let's throw it on the Astros. All right, there you go. Chris Cordy, appreciate the time. We got Adam Wexler coming up at 1 o'clock. Anything you guys want to get to talk about what we're talking about, how are we feeling about this weekend. I say the Astros are a game and a half ahead of the Mariners.

How confident are we? especially with the latest hit coming that Josh Hader sounds like he's going to miss extended time. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you want to get in. 7-13-212-5-7-90. All right, we're back with you on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is out in Austin, Texas. Flying solo for a couple segments till Adam Wexler gets here, so you can get in if you'd like at 7-13-212.

5797-97-13-212-1-2-5-7-90 of course we've been talking some astros baseball you have the Texans and some joint practices with the with the Carolina Panthers or at least they were yesterday and also let's see Jonathan Allen excuse me Jonathan Alexander Allen is the producer Jonathan Alexander is the Texans reporter interesting from him he put out a list of the Texans running backs in the way that he has the hierarchy right now. He has automatic guys. Of course, this is with Joe Mixing on the non-football injury list.

Dario Gumbawali and Woody Marks he has as in automatic bids. He did this like basically NCAA tournament style. Automatic bids, marks in Aguombo Wale. He's got Pierce and Chubb in

and that'll be four running back. So what happens when Joe Mixing comes back? I think one of Pearson Chubb, it feels like, might be gone. And you can just do a toss-up and figure out which one of those it's going to be. So that'll be interesting to watch for the Houston Texans as they figure out what's going on with their running back situation. They will be taking on the Carolina Panthers in a preseason game coming up here tomorrow at noon at NRG Stadium

and the Texans and the next week we'll close things out from a preseason perspective against the Lions and then we're getting closer and closer folks training camps, joint practices, preseason, Houston Texans getting ready to get the season going here

and gonna be honest, it feels kind of like right now 10 and 7 divisional round-ish which has been the last couple of years but hey, beats having the route for Davis Mills every single week and the fan base buying into that guy being a good quarterback. All right, 713, 212, 5, 790 is the phone number if you want to get in.

7132-1-2-5-790. Christian, go ahead. Ross Miller, Rie and Johnton Allen. Hey, I apologize. I apologize for calling on back-to-back days. I forgive you. I understand. Yeah, I understand.

But still, though, I got a couple of things to talk about when it comes down to the fact that, well, actually, no, actually really got one thing to talk about because we all know we're going to talk about the Astros confidence level or the Orioles. They're going to crush them. But when it comes down to Major League Baseball and the fact that they got, you know, a possible television deal coming up at the end of this season because ESPN's done after this year. does the 7.7 billion, seven-year deal that the UFC just signed with Paramount and CVS should be, I mean, make any indication that Major League Baseball should have a big-time deal in that same vein? Or will it be a little bit different because nobody cares about baseball except for those who actually follow it? Yeah, I don't know how much that factors in, Christian. I appreciate you getting in

But things that I read and I'm not the hugest UFC fan So if you want to correct me on anything I say at sports RV or call in or whatever But things that I read Were basically this is a huge gamble of a deal from Paramount Plus and CBS To make this $7.7 billion dollar deal Over seven years because I think somebody posted like the Paramount Company like itself is worth like $7 billion.

So this is a big gamble from them. A surprise, like a lot of articles I read calling it a bombshell deal, a surprise deal like out of left field and a lot of money. I don't know how much that's going to reset the market for other entities. We know that ESPN and Major League Baseball were at odds, but then they said they were going to renegotiate. so I don't know what's happening with that. Big things are happening with the NBA right now.

If you had not heard, the Rocket's schedule coming out, I think it's 28 nationally broadcast games. See, I can't call them national TV games when a lot of them are just on streaming services. But, or I guess I could, but it doesn't matter. It just feels a little bit differently with when something's just on peacock or just on Amazon Prime or whatever. So what's going to happen with,

Major League Baseball, I don't know, but it seems like revenues continue to go up and up and up. I think they've done a pretty good job with the interests of the league. I think ticket sales are up. A lot of the tinkering that Rob Manford has done that people hated with the extra man on base and the 10th, with the pitch clock and stuff like that. Things are progressing in a right direction for baseball. And I think it's going to be cool when they add the challenge system next year as well. So I don't know exactly what bearing that will have

Because baseball can You know, demand like, hey, UFC got this amount of money Can we get anywhere close to that? And it also is a bit of apples and oranges You're talking about a singular in-house fight card entity That's putting on cards. I don't know what do they have pay-per-view maybe once a month Fight nights every couple of weeks, stuff like that.

It's different from baseball And whatever kind of package they're going to try to sell to whatever streaming services. So I'm not sure what bearing it is, but most everything I read was that that UFC deal was a massive overpay by Paramount and really a huge gamble. I don't know. It did feel like

there was a bit of a UFC explosion for a few years there, and it's tempered off somewhat. But again, I will tell you, I haven't been combing through pay-per-view buy numbers. I don't know exactly what it is. It's something that I'm casually interested in. You know, my brother's

big UFC fan. I'll be like, hey, fight tonight. Okay, yeah. I'll go watch some guys beat the hell out of each other. It's good stuff. But it's not something that I very, very much am in tune with. But it was a huge deal. Great for them. And Dana White for getting all this money. And I guess we'll see how it pans out. Seven years, $7.7 billion deal. That is pretty huge for the MMA. conglomerate that is the UFC. All right, we're going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross,

without Matt Thomas. You guys want to get in. We've been talking some Stroes. You've got the series at the Orioles this weekend. Anything you'll want to get to. It isn't anything goes Friday, as you just heard from Christian in Lamarck. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-750.

Adam We're coming up at 1 o'clock. We are with you until 2 o'clock here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. 1247 p.m. here on Sports Talk 790. Rosvia Ria with you. Adam Wexer coming up at 1 o'clock. Appreciate our previous guests or helpers.

Brian Bogusovic hanging out for a couple hours. Chris Gordy joining. Jonathan Allen's been helping the entire show. Appreciate him. You guys who have got in, I appreciate you. Anybody that wants to get in, you can. It's 713-21-2-5-79. 7-13-2-1-2-9-7-9.

25790. So we've been talking with a lot of Astros, little Texans, some other stuff going on. Saw this story and we kind of mentioned this earlier this week talking about, was a Michael Porter Jr. Who was on a podcast talking about how it makes sense to get your boys the bag and have them tell them you're going to go under on a prop bed and have them bet $10,000. But we're like, there's guardrails in place.

if draft kings sees that a bunch of people who have never bet in the either a never bet in their lives or B normally bet like five, ten bucks are betting $10,000 on a Michael Porter Jr. under at going to set off alarm bells. They literally have software that monitors irregular activity like that. and of course Michael Porter Jr.'s younger brother, Jonte Porter, was banned for life for the NBA for being involved in a scheme like that. At the time playing for the Toronto Raptors on a two-way contract. So we know what the problem is. Apparently NBA and the players union are looking for solutions.

they are wanting to limit the amount that people can bet on pro bets. You were talking about this. Was it yesterday we were talking about this? Yeah, I was just asking why don't they do that? Yeah. So they do limit to a certain extent. Like you can't go and bet a million dollars on, you know, Jonte Porter's unders or something like that.

They're not going to accept that bet. That's going to raise some red flags as well. I'm sure a guy who normally shows up and bets that kind of money. You know, they have what they call beards. actually. So like really good, great sharp betters. A lot of times they get cut off by sports books in Vegas. So what they do

and famously Billy Walter did this. There was another guy named Horalibus Volgaris who was working who was a famous NBA better. He would pay celebrities or people who bet a lot or famous

to go to the window and bet $10,000. Like for example, this guy Horalibus Volgaris who now owns a he made a bunch of, he made millions and millions of dollars betting NBA. Everybody cut them off so he had to find what you call beards, guys that'll make your bets for you. And then he was in the front office with Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks for a little while. Now he owns a soccer team.

He told a story about how he used to give Floyd Mayweather the bets. And Floyd Mayweather would be like, I want to bet the other side. Then he would be like, okay, well, okay, I'll bet the other side with you. And Floyd's like, no, I don't want to bet you. You never lose. anyways so he would give guy like Phil Mickelson was a beard for a guy named Billy Walter that got them involved in a whole thing with a

with a I think it was like a stock malic a stock manipulation scheme as well but Phil Mickelson known as a big gambler the sports books knows that he's a big better and he would go and make bets on behalf of Billy Walter without the book knowing so the Billy Walter could go make his money

anyways that the the point is these casinos and these sports books, they limit people. They don't like winners. And they keep an eye on all this type of stuff. But apparently now, the

NBA is asking its partner sportsbooks to stop allowing betters to wager on the under on prop bets involving players on two-way contracts. At the time, Jonte Porter was on a two-way contract. And they're trying to protect the

integrity of the game. Players Association says that the Porter situation was an outwired. They do not believe widespread manipulation exists in the league. And I tend to believe them too. Like I said, unless it's like 10 of your friends making like 50 bucks, anything else is going to be, it's going to set off alarm bells at these sports books. Ohio and New Jersey are also trying to prohibit certain sports bets.

We talked about what was it? What was the Manuel Claise? And then there was another, who was it Luis Ortiz or something like that? pitcher with the Guardians where they call the micro bet where only thing you're betting is first pitch strike or ball which these these books are the ones that want to take your money and everything and put it out there and then if you win oh now of course protecting the integrity of the league is important and paramount but i i just think limiting limiting people who actually win is a farce but i digress so they're trying to limit making these micro bets

So betting like first pitch ball, which players can control or first pitch strike, stuff like that that's happened in baseball. And there are obviously issues across leagues. NFL has had a couple of problems. Major League Baseball, NBA. I don't know if there's been any sort of NHL scandal because I don't really pay attention to that. But I really didn't think this was going to be an issue. And I guess it's been kind of a smaller issue. some guy on a two-way contract.

Terry Rosier, Malik Beasley were investigated, but I don't think either of them have been charged with a crime. But I just figured these players would be smart enough to not think that they could get away with this. So I wonder if this is enough of an example is being made from these players

and these lifetime bans that have been put against them and these investigations getting launched to kind of deter this type of behavior. or if more measures need to be put in place, which apparently the NBA and the NBA Players Union has recommended that they put some more limits on these bets and they do away with some of the smaller bets. I mean, but I feel like it's such a big,

makes so much money now for the league and just for the sports books in general. Why should they do that? Why should they just listen? I don't understand that. Why should the sports books listen to the recommendations of the NBA? Because it's make, like, why would we listen to you? Yeah, I guess it'd be interesting if they want to end partnerships or something like that. I mean, the NBA, it's funny, especially the NFL, really makes me laugh.

10, 12 years ago, there was Tony Romo, Cowboys quarterback, was hosting like a fantasy football thing in Vegas. And that got shut down because anything involving gambling was completely radioactive at the NFL. Now, once these sports books got legalized across the country, they're taking every draft kings, Every fan duel, every MGM. Can you watch five seconds of one NFL game or one spot break without seeing something about gambling? It's everywhere. By the way, call 1-800 gambler if you have a gambling problem. But anyways, if you have a – but guess what?

If you have a gambling problem, these books don't – they don't cut you off. If you have somebody that's losing bed after bed after bed and they're going thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in debt, they don't cut you off. But if you're winning thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, guess what they do? Oh, we've limited in the honor you can bet. And then you've got to make accounts. And there's guys who have to do like open up VPNs. There's a whole other, that's a whole other ball of wax. But anyways, it's just kind of funny to me, the hypocrisy of wanting to keep the integrity of the game.

And I guess as I said, because the players make so much money, I did not think that this would be that big of a problem. But also, you got guys like on two-week contracts who aren't huge stars who also want to make some money for their friends. but they're learning and they're learning quick. It's a little bit more difficult than you would expect to get away with because these books don't play with their money. There's a reason they keep building these casinos.

There's a reason these sports books can't afford to advertise with basically every major sports league and more on draft Kings pick six coming up in a couple of weeks here on Sports Talk 790. Anyways, all right, we're going to take quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. It is time for the top of the hour.

Adam Wexer is here for hour number four. You guys can get in and talk about anything you want to. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Back with hour number four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross after this quick break. Hour number four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas. It's Ross and a cast of characters.

today. We've had Brian Bogussevik hang out. We've had Chris Gordy hanging out for a little bit. And now I do appreciate you coming in a little bit early. Adam Wex are hanging out for hour number four of the program. Wex, how are things on this wonderful, beautiful, beautiful Friday in Houston, Texas? So good. I don't even mind

looking at it like, yep, hour number one of five. Let's go. Don't even do that. It's a great day. We're going to make this one breeze by for you, get things started off. And now I'll worry about you being tired of five o'clock while I probably won't be listening. I'm not really that worried about it. All right. So, Astre Of course, we can talk about the Texans.

You get the preseason game coming up this weekend. The Michigan NCAA stuff, I think, is interesting. And, of course, Astros get a little help from their friends in the Baltimore Orioles, but now we need them to shut down for a weekend. That would be nice. Yeah, the Orioles are, you know, they fell out of the race so quick. I think everybody just assumed this is a terrible baseball team. They've been an average team since they fired their manager.

They're a little over 500 for the majority of the season. That's really who the Astros, and obviously just before that, the Mariners were playing. so they're not a pushover, and clearly that showed with how they handled the Mariners. So it's not automatic that a team near the bottom of the standings you can handle. I hope they can handle them, considering seven of their next 10 games are against them. The three-game series here, a four-game series there. Clearly they helped out. Game and a half advantage as they begin play today.

Got two days off for Carlos Correa the last two days, presumably back in the lineup today. But we will see that. Fresh and ready to go. He's going to be ready to go. He was ready to go. It was inevitable. You had Brian Bogusevic in here for a couple of hours, and it's just the story of the season.

They keep finding a way to overcome the latest set of injuries. And obviously, you guys talk quite a bit about that. And I'm sure, Joe, and the rest of the guys, we'll have to at least address it until we have some sort of answer on it regarding their closer. Yeah, well, see if we get a little bit more clarity, or maybe he's going to get a third opinion or a fourth opinion. Who knows how many opinions he's going to get to

before we finally hear something with Josh Hader. I mean, it doesn't matter. I mean, the writing's on the wall. It's second opinion. It's the comment from Joe saying we're going to give him some space. That kind of freaked me out. It's calling it a gut punch. I mean, basically everything we hear sounds like at the very least,

missing the regular season, if not into the postseason as well, which seems like the most likely outcome. Yeah, giving him space and second opinion kind of sounded like it's not good, but we're uncertain what path we're going to. end up taking. He's going to say get a second opinion. Maybe this is the surgery that's necessary. He's going to get this second opinion. And maybe they'll say that's the surgery that's necessary. And they'll have different timelines associated with it. Not only short term, but long term. Josh Hayter's next big contract probably doesn't exist. He signed a big contract with the Astros.

He'll push well past 30 when that one expires. He'll be halfway through the contract next year when the Astros play their 80-second game of the year next year. they'll be halfway through the five-year deal. I don't know if he'll have pitched a game again when they play that 80-second game next year. We just don't know anything yet, so we can focus it on the Astros and this year. They have enough arms to get through the end of the season in the bullpen. I don't really doubt that.

It's just you're not likely to get through it with quite as much success. Brian O'Bray is probably not going to close games at quite the clip that Hater was this year, maybe more like the clip that Hater was last year, where he was good but not great. clearly had a bunch of struggles early in the season. The other guys probably won't be quite as sharp as Abraeu and Presley have been in the past, but I don't think it's going to quite derail them. They need to play better offensively, which has not changed all season,

and they actually are playing better offensively. A little of that is Correa. More of that is Altuve, Walker, and Diaz, all being good for about six to eight weeks now. If that continues, I still will keep saying what I've been saying for, about two months. The Astros are not only going to the playoffs, they're going to win the division. Well, and also you're saying something that you never thought you'd say, thank God for Ben-at-Suzza. I mean, if you watch him enough and now that he's been healthy this entire season, yes, swing and miss stuff. Yeah. Guys miss his pitches. He throws the same pitch to them

over and over and over and the same at bat, and they miss it every time. He's had, just like anybody in the bullpen, there's days where he didn't have it. You know, he goes out there and four guys get on base and they take him out. But for the most part, when you look at the numbers that really indicate what kind of season he's having, you know, the strikeout rate, the whiffs, the ability to keep guys off, guys don't

get hits off him. He doesn't walk batters. That's what I'm most impressed with their bullpen as a whole. You know, Arbrew is now the closer and he's the least successful in not walking batters. King doesn't walk batters. Ocurt doesn't walk batters, and even hate her this year. They make

them earn it. And as a release, To me, that's the first thing you have to do. Once you do that, I think you're almost automatically successful. Giving up free passes, putting tying runs on base, you know, making it dramatic when it doesn't need to be. That's probably the biggest area of why, as a group, they've been so successful this year, and All But Hader are still healthy right now. Yeah, and especially when you get into, I feel more confident, especially when you get into a playoff scenario where you don't need as many starters and the Astros.

it's looking like pretty close here. They're going to have a lot of the options. That's kind of, I'm a number of the storylines that I'm intrigued. There are a number of storylines I'm intrigued about how they're going to play out. And one of them is going to be who is going to stick in this rotation and who is not, and then who is going to possibly be converted into a bullpen role and how effective are they going to be? That's something they have basically at this point six weeks to figure out. Yeah, Christian Javier is lined up for start number two during this series, Alexander, start number five in this series.

They'll go Javier Sunday, Alexander Saturday. They'll already have won the opening game because Framber's pitching tonight. That's a given. He's an animal. Of course they'll win. I agree. I think so. He's going to bounce back. He's going to be all right.

You heard of here first. Quality start. So you still have, I mean, we're 40 games until the end of the season. And when the Astros are playing the deciding game of the. the wild card series or they're trying to take a, you know, sweep the divisional series. We don't know who's getting the ball after Brown and Valdez. Neither do they. I don't know who's going to be healthy.

They don't know how any of these question marks will be pitching. You know, you give the ball to Jason Alexander every single time until he tells you otherwise with his pitching. I've never been more surprised by a pitcher's performance. I can't even think of another pitcher where I thought, yeah, he throws hitable stuff. He's going to get crushed today. And then I watch him the next day. And I think the same thing. And I think the next time he goes out there, the same thing.

And he keeps not getting crushed. I cannot figure it out. I know it's movement. I know he's changing speeds. I know the sink on his sinker is beyond belief. But, man, until he shows you otherwise or a team gets to him and the Orioles are the next one with an opportunity, he's been your next most successful pitcher. You know, the rotation of the Sugarland Space Cowboys again this week. You had Garcia two days ago.

You had France yesterday. You got Lance McCullors Jr. today and McCuller's trying to recover from that blister, I don't know what they have in store for him from a pitch count standpoint, but I wouldn't think there's another rehab start in his future. I would think that this is the only one necessary

if he's healthy out of this. But their question was, who throws out of the bullpen? Who gets asked to start getting loose in the middle of a game? Who are they counting on to, you know, are they piggybacking guys and how does that hamper your bullpen by having fewer arms available?

You can't count. Every guy I named, I don't think you can count on any of them to even remotely, consistently give you more than 15 outs at a game. Javier, you know, Aragetti, maybe. Lance, no. Alexander's giving you six so many times. I'm almost turning into that. If you use two of those guys, get you 12 apiece. Four and four, that adds up to eight.

Bring in Brian and Bray, you were all good. I mean, are you in a position where you can go, you know, Morton and McCullors, Peacock and Morton, and you can get all nine innings out of two guys? I mean, it worked. If they're successful, keep in mind, this entire conversation is centered around they're going to be good at the major league level. Yeah, exactly. So some of it will take care of itself. Honestly, assuming full health for everybody down the stretch is foolish at this point. But you mentioned Valdez Brown and Javier and Garcia and McCullors.

That's five. Then there's Arrogatti, Walter, France, Alexander. That's nine starting pitching candidates. They hit the trade deadline. with six starting pitchers awaiting their arrival back from the injured list, which is just insane. And they still have others that won't even be back

until next year in Blanco and Wuzneseke, but I've said it this way. I thought it was a risky play, but all things considered, I don't think Dana Brown made a mistake not adding any pitching bullpen or starting pitch. I thought it was a big risk, but I thought the pay out in order to get somebody

who you weren't even sure. Dylan Seas was probably the name most everybody here was so focused on. They weren't focused on the kind of season he was having. They were just focused on what they thought he had been in the past. He's been a pretty average pitcher this year. He doesn't pitch deep in the games. Yeah, but you wave the magic wand.

I know. I know. You wave the magic Astros pitching one and he's good. Until the Astros get a hold of him. And for what you would have been giving up, I don't blame Dana one bit. And you're right. This is this, you know, if you have a sixth and a seventh and an eighth, healthy arm, I mean, how many guys can you even push off of the roster in the bullpen?

Caleb Orts actually pitched really, really well over the last 21, 30 days. you know, Sean Dubin. Yeah, a little unfortunate that Dubin was put in the other day in that situation. I keep forgetting about Duby. He was great to start the season. It was fantastic. And he provided some balance, crazy, dusty. I know this sounds nuts, but some balance in the bullpen.

Hey, man. Because he has a right-handed, right-handed pitcher in the bullpen. These hopefully of health are good problems to have, but you're also now counting on guys who've been starters to get it figured out how they can be comfortable in their first inning of work in the two or three to follow as a bullpen arm pitching who knows when on which days and then you're running how many guys are available every day. I mean, is Joe Spotted looking at a bullpen of only four or five guys

two, three days a week? It's probably not a tenable situation. A lot to sift through, a lot to figure out, and the Astros will do that. And as we said, some of it will figure itself out. If guys are just underperforming or, unfortunately, get re-injured. Okay, we're going to talk about that. And more you want to get in.

Phone lines open. 713, 212-790, 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross, without Matt Thomas, with Adam Wexler, with you until 2 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. Wasn't this the official theme song of the NBA one year? That sounds right. Feels like, welcome to my house. Okay, I'm sorry. I think how many theme songs for the NBA they're going to be this year.

Okay. NBC, Peacock, Prime, ABC, ESPN? Anything else? No, but NBC and Peacock, I assume, we'll have the same. Yeah, that's true. John Tesh. What's up? Oh, Space City Home Network.

Well, of course. They do have the majority of the games. National broadcasts, of course. Yeah, they... So I know that T&T games normally weren't on Space. Unless they'd hit a certain threshold or whatever. What about with... all of these new streaming deals.

There are a bunch of games, especially later. Who has exclusives? Does NBC have exclusives? NBC has exclusives. ABC has exclusives, but the rest of the networks, it's not, and even NBC, to be honest with you, not every single game that that network carries is exclusive. ABC is the only one that I would say that about.

Because there's a bunch of games, especially the second half of the season. There's a Tuesday night NBC game that is also carried by Space City Home Network, Peacot games, carried by both. There's even prime games in the second half of the season carried by both. Space City Home Network will still have 65 of the games at a minimum. We don't know two of the games still because of the in-season tournament, the NBA Cup. I know where you can find every game.

Sports Talk 790, your exclusive home right here on the radio for Houston Rockets basketball, along with News Radio 740. Here we go. Mostly exclusive. KTRH or Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas is going to do a great job on the call, as he always does. That's my tagline. on... Even when he's not here?

Yeah, even when he's not here. That's what I say on Rockets launch pads. Is that what we call the show? Excited for the first Rocket launch pad coming up Tuesday, October 21st. Will it conflict with a Houston Astros playoff game? I think there's a pretty good chance it will not. I think that the timing of their... Well, why would they have to be playing on Tuesday night at 6.30? Okay, that's good. All right. Like Tuesday night means they're on the wildcar game. The 21st?

Oh, that's further on to the playoffs. Excuse me. I'm sorry. Well, the World Series starts on the 24th, right? Yes. So the only way they'd be playing on the 21st is they were in late stages of the ALCS. I feel like it's going to happen. Like that's game 7, I believe, in the ALCS, the 21st, or maybe game 6?

I know the schedule is out, but I didn't pay that much attention to. I think the, there's a real sick chance that they'll be in on that. I mean, I don't worry about you. when they play. I don't need to know the exact dates this far out. I only need to know the Rockets dates now and now football games and start coordinating schedules. A lot of work to be done, a lot of fun to be had. Who's doing Christmas? Have you coordinated yet? I think we're actually both available, so we'll make it work.

Okay. I didn't even actually see, I didn't fully dive in. What time do they play on Christmas Day? They have the, I mean, prime time, whatever you want to call it, it's 7 o'clock, Houston time. Okay. Hmm. You can be done with Santa Claus. leave by then. It's the Los Angeles Lakers. I would rather not be on that post-game show, but we'll see what happens with that. Well, you also realize a lot,

and it doesn't happen to Houston often, but there are a couple of games this year where it's a double-header night on one of the other networks. And the tip time they've actually listed this year is 10 o'clock, locally, Houston time. They have 10 o'clock tip-offs this year. Because last year, they would say,

yeah, tip-off at 9.30. But there could be a slide. Yeah. So it's going to end up tipping off at 946 or 951. Now they just said, look, we're going to tip off the 10 o'clock with no slide. Don't worry about it. Yeah, unless generally, there's even a, even like when there's like a 30-point blowout, they slide at least a few minutes.

Yeah, there's no reason there won't be any, with those particular games during the season. Like for the, for instance, the game before their Christmas day game, 10 o'clock tip at the Clippers. It's the second game of a national double header. So they do, okay, Christmas. And then they have, they're also New Year's, Eve again. Okay. No New Year's Eve, Gave.

New Year's Day. I'm sorry, for the Rockets? Am I looking at the wrong schedule? Yeah, January 1st at Brooklyn. What? Why do I see January... Oh, I'm stupid. I was doing January 1st, not December 31st. Good God. All right, on that note, let's just go to the phone line. Stephen

in Los Angeles has been holding. What's up? Hey guys, how are you doing today? Awesome. Excellent. Good to hear. I was just listening to that last segment and you guys were talking about all these potential pictures that are coming back and I just wanted to get your thoughts on Lance McCullough Jr.

Because he's the one guy in my opinion where I just don't know what this goal would be and everybody keeps saying, oh, he can go to the bullpen but I think it was WEC. I think you were saying you've got to make these hitters earn it when you're a reliever and that's the one thing that even when he's quote and quote right he's like putting players on base machine.

So I just don't see him being effective as a reliever. And if he comes back as a starter, like we're kind of at that point in the season where you can't give a guy a two or three additional games to figure his stuff out. You know, and then making him a starter also shortens your bullpen. So, I mean, that could have an underlying effect for a couple of games because he gets shelled again,

you know, in a two or three, outing, you know, so I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. I'll hang up a list, and I appreciate you guys. Thank you. Yeah, I think you pretty much nailed it, and it is what I said. It's a successful reliever doesn't have the walk rate that he has. So I just don't, first of all

It preferably more Velo. He was not going to be a reliever no matter how effective he was coming back. This was never the plan. This is not an ideal situation for a pitcher whose arm is as his is and how long on the shelf he had been and the unquestioned nature about, well, when is he pitching again?

Well, he's in the bullpen. He could be pitching today. And then he could pitch in two days. It just was net. That's not where he was headed. And that's not where he's headed now either for both reasons. Because now you add the effectiveness to it. Ineffectiveness.

He gives up more hits than innings pitched. His whip is over 1.7. It's not, he's walked 29 batters in 44 and a third innings. He's not going to the bullpen. He's got a 1.7 whip. Yeah, I'm with you. There are a lot of people suggesting he'll go to the bullpen. I just don't think it's going to happen.

Certainly not earlier in the season. well with the amount of money that he was making. Now with the season compressed, the money thing is less of a factor, but the fact of the matter is he just hasn't been very good. And if he wasn't under contract for as much money as he is now and next year, I'm not sure that he would even still be on this team. Yeah, I think he has the situation of,

they're in the race, so it's all magnified. If he was pitching for a team that didn't need him to go out there, then people would understand what is still true. This is part of the coming back from injury process. And in his case, so far away from the last time he pitched competitively. The expectations for him to pitch extremely well, they shouldn't have existed. Pitch better than he has? Yes. Be more effective than he has, for sure.

Give the Astros a chance to win after five innings of Lance McCullors, for sure. But that's not the situation he's in, and that's not the situation the team is in. they can't afford, they're not in a position to, hey, let's see if he can figure it out. It's no different now, though, for JP France if he ever makes it to the roster. It's no different for Luis Garcia if he makes it to the roster. It's the same for all of these guys now. I think Javier and Araggetti are in a little bit different situation. Erichetti's in a much different situation.

He actually did pitch this year, and his injury was not surgical in nature and no elbow and no shoulder issue. And Javier, unlike France, unlike McCullors, unlike Garcia, had a, typical surgery and recovery period with no setbacks. He had the procedure. He went on a normal timeline, went through a normal rehab, and returned as a normal timeline. None of those other guys did. And so I do think the expectation that maybe Erigeti and Javier and giving them a little more rope, if necessary, is in place. I just don't think it will be for the other three. And Brandon Walters is a total wild card because I would not want to put him in the bullpen because he's been so good as a starter. As soon as he comes back and can give you

65 pitches, maybe you want to go with the opener again, but I would put him in the rotation for sure over just about everybody else. Yeah, Brandon Walter is a wild card and on the Lance McCuller's Jr. thing, yes, it doesn't make sense to put him in the bullpen, and we do

have more I guess data we could say, not on where he's going to be from before, but from this year. He's got 11 starts, three quality starts, four disasters where you have basically no shot of winning the game if he does that, a very little chance of winning a game and he does that.

And then the other four are kind of somewhere in between. That's what we've seen from him. 11 starts, he's gotten an out after the fifth inning three times. He's gotten an out in the fifth inning four times. It's hard to do. It's hard to manage your way through that spot in the rotation every fifth day or every sixth day, just the ability to get deep into game.

So Lance McCullochian give up four runs if he gets you into the sixth inning. But if he's giving up four runs and you've got to go to the bullpen in the third inning, it's a little tough. And the reason you have to do it in his case is because you have to do something. You have to do a little bit for him. And when he's throwing his 28th pitch in an inning or he's about to go into the, he can't stay out there. That's not realistic, fair, or nice to his arm and his elbow and his shoulder and his future. Yeah, and seven of the times he started, he's walked three or more. That's another issue as well.

But that's even Lance McCullors at his brilliant best, he was walking guys, getting traffic on the base pass, and then somehow getting out of it with a bunch of swing and miss. That's kind of who, that's who, that was his ammo even when he was at his best. His stuff then and his stuff now still has more movement than I think anybody in this rotation. It is all over the place. It's coming right down the middle. and guys still take it because it tails off the plate by three feet, and it's a ball. They're not swinging it as many of his offerings.

There's just so much movement on it still. It's crazy, and that's kind of what he's done, and really kind of ergetty-ish, or like it's McCullors-ish is aergetty, I suppose. Just spin it down there and see what happens. And sometimes you can rack up walks, and sometimes you rack up a ton of swing and miss, and a lot of times both. So I am just very intrigued to see how that all kind of play.

out eventually for Lance McCullough Jr. and for the Asher. There's a lot of question marks as we continue down the stretch here of the 2025 campaign. Quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Adam Wexler is hanging out. I do appreciate him. We've got a couple of segments left in the program. You guys can get in. If you have some questions or you want to give your thoughts on what should happen with Lance McCullors, Jr.

Or the rest of the rotation slash bullpen as well. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-790. Thanks, coach. We were supposed to get more liners involving me. What's going on, Coach Sark? That's fine. No pressure.

Just number one in both preseason polls for the first time in school history. On the road at Ohio State, at the shoe, week number one. Soft landing spot after that. What is it? San Jose State, U-TEP, and Sam Houston. Correct. Who, running the gauntlet, folks. There's a decent shot.

chance if they're 1 and 0, they'll be 4 and 0. I will say yes. 3 and 1's not a bad start either. I mean, I'm all in for how important or how fun the opening game of the year is at Ohio State, but it doesn't matter, unfortunately. I mean, the magnitude of college football games with the playoff system, and obviously the conference games still matter to a certain extent more than any others. It's not by any means.

It's not do or die anymore. It's not something that's going to prevent anything you want to have happened later in the season from happening. It doesn't matter for getting into the playoff, but it definitely matters for seating. Sure. Now, looking back at last year's seating, you know, the teams that had to play the opening weekend. They weren't one of the top four, as Boise State was and whoever number three was. Well, they changed that already, right, for this year? So who played opening weekend at home?

The winners? Texas. Yeah, the teams that were. at home went on and moved on and landing in that spot was actually kind of a sweet spot for getting going in the postseason. I would still rather not have to be exposed to the risk for the additional games, not only to the risk of losing a game, but to the injury risk as well. If they beat Ohio State and run the table, they'll be a top four seed. If they lose to Ohio State and then run the table, they'll be a top four seed. That's true. Right. But you also get

more of, you have to play at Georgia. I don't know that they're going to run the table there. I know. I mean, Gunner Stockton, you're not beating that guy again. Hey, man, it's going to be tough, tough, tough season. The funny thing to me is, Gunner Stockton, the way I saw it last year, and what could be this year, could easily be better than Carson Beck. Yeah. He was a nice little quarterback, loved making mistakes, ended up playing in some wild comeback games, and certainly made some plays, but was never like, oh, my God, this guy's so good.

Is he ready for his going to, is Carson, that going to be ready, week one? I believe he is for the canes. He had Tommy John, right? He had very significant. Or some kind of elbow surgery. I mean. And now he's in a, he's an extremely important conference. Do you think they should, what do you

feel about the one, basically every SEC team has to do one power for opponent and then after that it's three cupcakes? Or do you think they should do the nine team schedule? And then get rid of that rule? Do you think they would do both? I mean, they're looking out for

themselves. Why would they make it harder on themselves when they get to regulate themselves? For more money from networks. So the ninth conference game is where they can get an additional bump versus can they just get the additional bump by having more teams in the playoff?

Maybe they do both. Because without the ninth game, I think they perceive that as well look at, that's one less loss. A bunch of our fringe playoff teams are going to suffer because they didn't buy a conference team that's really good. They played a cupcake that's really bad. I think it happens with a bump and a TV deal. That's what I think. Just gut feeling on that one.

Yeah, the amount of money there is outrageous. Same thing with the NIL stuff. I can't believe how close we are to the season. I know everyone's focused on the 30th and the very good slate of games. There are games before then. No, not the ones that matter. There's, well, I mean, I don't know if you consider this big 12 country or not. I guess it is. Well, there's kind of a big game a week before. Not in the States, but a big game nonetheless. Mm-hmm. I'm more focused on the 30th. But you're talking about Iowa State versus Kansas State in Dublin, Ireland. Because when I think Irish, I think cyclones and wildcats.

Well, some early scouting on Sam as well. They play that night, Sam Houston. Sam Houston State, the Bearcats, go Bearcats. Who are they playing? They got Western Kentucky. Huge. And you realize Sam Houston State is Houston's team. Jonathan, are you all hilltoppers or are you all lumbered? Jacks, are you both? I'm both. I read both. Okay. What if they played each other?

I'm going, I'm going Hilltoppers. Really? Actually, I went to probably the most football football games when I was at Hilltoppers. Okay. With Bailey Zapping all them. What's the environment at the Lumberjacks games? Like you went to the middle of the woods

and you got some hillbillies out there. You go to Hilltoppers, though. You got some real football atmosphere. What's the tailgating scene like? You're outside next to a little pond. Okay. Some people might jump in a little drunk. Yeah. Have you seen people jump into the lake?

Yeah. At Lumberjacks games? Yeah. It's not pretty. Just keep this in mind on Sam Houston State. Five of their games are right here in Houston this year because their renovated stadium is sending them to Shell Energy Stadium for their home games this year. I didn't know that.

So they're playing in downtown Houston. Well, let's go. Just one more option for you. Bear Cats. Prairie View, Rice, US, U of H. Sam Houston State, all playing here in the age U of H Clear Lake. Okay, I'm making that up.

I don't think they have a football program. I don't know where their home stadium is. San Jacino College, they play football or are they only baseball? I'm not going to look into that for you. Okay, well, and then of course all the great high school football scene. It is great. I haven't been to a high school football game, like over a decade. There's a 100% chance I will attend more than one high school football game this year.

Are you covering games? Are you just going? Just going. I mean, I have a high school. What is your alma mater? My alma mater is. No, there's no saints. There's no privates.

I'm a public school. Memorial High School. Spring Branch. Why did I think it was some, who am I thinking of? Did somebody we work with went to St. Pius? Your previous producer was a saint, McGovern. Thomas, I know. I know that.

I don't know why I was getting you confused with somebody. But anyways, it doesn't matter. Memorial High School. Shout out to the whatever they are. The Mustangs. The Mustangs? Why do I not remember that? Because when I was at Nimitz back in the day, we were in district with Memorial, Stratford.

Yep. There were only four spring branch, Northbrook. Northbrook, okay. And Springwoods. And Springwoods, yeah. They were all terrible. Memorial was good. Northbrook and Springwoods notoriously.

And those were the ones you stomp on. Very not competitive. Yeah, those were easy dubs. We have easy dubs every year back in my day, Northbrook, Springwoods, and MacArthur. Where were your contributions coming from? Where were you on the field? Back in my day? Okay, I quit in 10th grade.

I was defensive in and left guard. Okay. Did everybody play both ways? Well, back in my day, yeah, they did. Back in your day. Yes, sir. Back on the Nimitz's 10th grade B team. What's up?

Yesterday. I was La Tullet. I was like one of the, I was the star of the B team. What does that make me? I don't know. That's what I was in basketball. I was the star of the B team. Hike literally.

You know what? I don't know if you were listening, but I was telling people how you, you dropped. Remember Jonathan? You didn't believe me? No, Matt didn't believe you. You're right. Matt is. I said, Wes has some game. Like, we were playing three on three. You were dropping some dimes out there. That was, I wish we, that needs to come back again. Even though we're way, way older. Exactly.

I was getting hurt 10 years ago doing that. What was the squad? Obviously, you and I were on the team. It was you and I. We had some Mighty Gwyn out there. We had some Jason Braddock. Nice. You were, you had to really handle the post for us. Yes, I did. Well, we had the ringer that one year.

We had that guy that played at, what was his name? Lamar, something, Lamar, or Lamar something, who played for Houston Christian. Well, at the time, it was HBO. He was our intern. We brought him in. He's like six foot seven, but he showed up to the tournament hung over. So we only won a couple of games.

Love it. And then he ran out of gas. He was out of it. We just kept feeding him in the post, and they were fouling him every time. And then we didn't win. we didn't win the tournament with our ringer. I blame myself. I think that might have been the, I can't remember.

One of the years I had a bad hurt ankle. We had Craig Ackerman who liked to hoop too. He was literally getting treatment from the Rockets' like training staff on his ankle. His entire ankle was like black and blue. There were some injuries out there over the years. I couldn't walk. And here's a good story. I couldn't walk, Jonathan.

And so one of the times they put me out there because everybody was gas. and I'm literally limping on the floor. I fall to the ground and in frustration, I like throw the ball in the air. I hit some dude square in the back of the head. And so he's like squaring up and I thought we were going to fight. I was like, oh God, now I got to fight this guy.

I'm like, I accidentally threw it. I didn't want to look like a total wuss, but I had to be like, I'm like squaring up. Like, hey, I was an accident. I'm sorry. I didn't want to do that. Please don't throw a punch because I can't, I can't get in a fight right now because I can't walk.

There was a fight out there, not involving you. Oh, I didn't see that. There was a Fox Photog and an ABC on-air personality. Got a little bit of a dust up. Yeah, you're getting scraps on the black top. It happens. I mean, I was ready to, like, I guess I was going to have to throw some hands with the dude, but I was just, I couldn't walk, and it was an accident.

You weren't fired up for the fight. Yeah, exactly. And you knew you had some shortcomings. So I was like, please don't throw a punch at me. Please don't throw. We, like, squared up, and everybody broke it up. And I was like, oh, thank God. That's not the place for a fight.

This is supposed to be a little very friendly competition. We're all good. All right, time for a break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Final segment. You can get in real quick if you want to at 713-212-5-790 or not. We'll handle it. We're with you until 2 o'clock. Actually, Wex is with you until 6 o'clock.

And we'll be right back here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Texans have a pre-season game tomorrow against the Carolina Panthers. I'm going to ask you, Wex. I actually don't even know. Who's supposed to be playing? What's the starter situation? What's going on? I wish I knew. And I don't think anybody knows at this point. Going out there the last couple of days and trying to get a handle on what they plan on doing has been very difficult. It does seem like a few more starters may play.

Maybe you'll see the running back group other than Damien Pierce, I imagine, will not play, but could see Nick Chubb for the first time in a preseason game. You're obviously going to see the rookies, same as you did before. There was no definitive word on defensively. like Will Anderson yesterday was kind of, you know, playing in the preseason. Would you like to be out there? He says, yeah. But he kind of went into an answer. It didn't sound like he was saying yes.

But he did say yes. I don't know that he's, I really don't know. I mean, that's the honest answer because they don't really indicate what their plans are. You know, Tay Urstor, he's going to be out there hopefully for more than one series. He played a series last week like he's the starter, as did the other starters on the offensive line. And if he's going to be a starter and he is, probably needs a little bit more work, just simple NFL football. They got a ton of work in yesterday, and that's why

answering that question becomes so difficult. Texans are smart. A joint practice is a preseason game. You dictate everything you want. You take all the snaps that you want. You're going up against another team. Just like in the preseason, you're not scouting that team, so you're just reacting to what you see, both sides of the ball.

And all of those players get to do it concurrently. You got all your defensive players playing at the same time your offensive players are because you've got two fields. So all the work you would want out of a preseason game has already been. handled. So the need, I would always answer the need as no. C.J. Stroud doesn't need to play in my opinion. Will Anderson, Deniel

Hunter, etc. They don't need to play in this game or the next week's game. They have another joint practice a week from Thursday against the Lions. As you know, Jonathan Alexander covering the Texans for the Houston Chronicle. He put up basically, he's been putting like bubble watch, basically

in bracketology style. The running back one I found especially interesting now, Joe Mixen off his list because he's still on the NFI list, which by the way, is you know, what's your gut feeling on what's happening with that? Is he going to just be ready to week one? I think somebody else will be the number one running back in week one. Okay.

Well, let's say when Joe Mixing comes back, because I do find this interesting. If you add in Woody Marks, who just was drafted, you don't think he's going to be off. We know that they love Dario Gumbawali and the role that he's in. How much more, I mean, it feels. feels like one of Damian Pierce or Nick Chubb is not long for this roster. Yeah, I thought that, you know, the opportunity for Damian Pierce to be pushed off the team was pretty loud and clear when Nick Chub was signed. And then Nick Chub got to camp and everyone's been telling me, even though I've been out there, man, he looks terribly. I don't know if this guy

has it anymore. I don't believe that personally. I think he needs to go out there and prove it. He still needs to go out there and show that he can hit a hole instead of trying to run people over because he still can do that. But if you can't hit the hole and if there's no explosive nature to it, especially behind what we're not sure of offensive line, then I do think that Jonathan sees it is realistic that he could have been brought here, he could have been signed, he could have gotten a nice bonus, and he's not necessarily going to be out there, even if Joe Mixon's situation is still cloudy, or certainly after it becomes less cloudy. But everybody other than Woody Marks and Daray, in my opinion, is fighting to make this team.

Yeah. I mean, but what does that put us confidence-wise then? Not only with the running game, but I think the three most vital Texans offensively at this point are going to be Stroud, Collins, and Mixon, probably in that order. But Joe Mixin being very, very important with this team because, I mean, unless Woody Marx is going to be some kind of revelation. He's not. You need Joe Mixing to be, yeah, I'm just not feeling great about this offense right now. No, the running game is probably going to be the short passing game. Now, unless the offensive line, all of a sudden is just this unbelievable run blocking unit because of all the changes they've made coaching-wise.

And I don't think that's the case. Nice start against Minnesota. I'll give them that. You just, you need something there. And I think they will probably be looking at other veteran players when those cuts are made around the league. you know, Jawar Jordan is only interesting in that he's not like anybody else they have. I don't think they're too high on him, and I'm not too high on him, but he runs like none of them. He actually is explosive, and I think he does a nice job of seeing a hole and making his cuts and, you know, trying to dart through through like you'd want from your running back.

Woody doesn't really do that. Obviously, Nick Chubb doesn't do that. Damien Pierce bounces around a little bit more than darts through holes, and he just hasn't seen the field a whole lot yet. We know what he can do, and I think that plays well for him, and I think he's actually a pretty decent fit for how Kaylee wants to run his offense. But that's where the Thursday of this week and next week, and Saturday, it actually matters to those guys. The people I said that don't need to play, well, it doesn't clue this group. That group needs to play. What were you able to see when you were out there at the joint practices, especially offensively,

and what do you think Nick Kayla is going to do, especially different in a different than years past? Yeah, one thing that I saw was echoed by CJ when he spoke with us afterwards, C.J. Stroud, and that Nick did a, he said Nick did a good job of moving the pocket. And I think that's what they were, one of the things that were missing last year. I don't think Bobby Sloak did a good job of moving the pocket. Hey, your offensive line is going to block anybody. So you just want to drop back and stand there every play? Yes, that's what I want to do. Well, you're fired. And I think Nick Cayley is a little bit more cognizant of that. I don't think he expects his offensive line to give C.J. Stroud the time to go through all those progressions every snap. So we're going to make it easier on our offense. You've got to have quicker plays. And I think I saw a little bit of that. There's not too much there, but I think that's one thing that they do. The other part is motion. There's so much more motion on offense.

Guys, you know, giving tells to the quarterback of how they're being defended, giving yourselves an opportunity to succeed on offense. The numbers have been there for years. And it just, I thought it was embarrassing for the teams that don't run motion. Like, here are the teams that have pre-stombs. that motion and here are their results as it relates to EPA. Well, the ones that do it are up here and the ones that don't are down there. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, also doing it and doing it effectively, which hopefully the Texans can do. Wex, thanks for hanging out. Enjoy your weekend. I appreciate it. I will. Wexler, Adam Wexler, is hanging out with his good personal friend, Adam McClanton. They call themselves the A-Team.

Thanks to Brian Bogus Epo for hanging out. Thanks to Chris Gordy. Thanks to Jonathan Allen. Producing. Thanks to all of you for listening, calling, tweeting, getting involved. I appreciate you. Talk to you on Monday, Matt Thomas. We'll be back, but now don't go anywhere.

It's the A-A team here on Sports Talk 7-night.