The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Are the Astros Alright? C.J. Stroud’s Body Language & Holly Rowe Talk

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

Are the Astros Alright? C.J. Stroud’s Body Language & Holly Rowe Talk

This is Matt and Ross in the morning. Six o'clock at H-Town. Good morning and welcome. It's Matt and Ross in the morning on Sports Talk 790. Royals even up the series at a game of peace as they defeat the Astros 5 to 2. Astros have lost four of their last five and are now tied with the Texas Rangers for first place in the American League West. You know, we can play depressing down-on-the-dump song. make us feel bad, but sometimes she's a little Stevie Wonder on a Thursday morning.

So we got it. Everything's going to be all right? I think so. Are we sure? Well, they're still in first place. Now they're sharing it with somebody, but via tiebreaker, yes. This is true. Good.

gracious. You know, I'm sure you go through this as well when you take a few days. And again, I was in New York for some NBA broadcast meetings and then was gone for a couple days with the daughter's volleyball. You were hanging out with Tim Legler? He was there. You guys go get your eyebrows done or anything? No. Wow, you are out of the gate quick with Tim Legler hate.

I hate. Tim Legler. What's the hate? A friend of the show, by the way. Absolutely. What's the problem? Yeah, I mean, I saw all of your friends. You're on TV, you go get your eyebrows done.

I'm just, I get my eyebrows done on my name on TV. Yeah, exactly. How's that hate? I don't see what the problem is. I just asked. All right, I'm going back to the core of what I was going to start with before the Legler hate came into. play. I feel like, and we all go through this when you're at work or you just a couple days,

there's so much stuff that you just want to yell at and scream at. A lot of really weird sports things. We got the AI Holly Row slap. Oh yeah, we can get in on that if you want. We spend enough time on that, I feel like. No, no, you don't have to. Very brief. Folks, it's AI. There was nothing legit to it. That was, that was. That was. silly in itself. Then we have Andre Johnson's little podcast with Kendrick Perkins.

Again, I would not have put those two guys together. That was weird. And that video was by the way from February. I don't think so. That's what somebody was saying. I've heard variety of things. I've heard this thing dropped in the last, I mean, it doesn't really, really even matter. Okay. But that's weird. And then my sounds at 630, we're playing a bonus edition of The Tell the Truth. Okay.

Okay. So, uh, we'll have it for you today on the show. But it just feels weird. And then the Astros, I get home last night after being, uh, on a flight home and I'm sitting in and I'm getting my, I'm packing my clothes and I'm going to Lubbock today's side of pack another suitcase. And so, uh, watching Camp Smith hurts me. Like, it hurts me when Brian King pitches. It hurts me now that Cam Smith is hitting. Because he doesn't hit anymore. It was an over 14. Well, I paid attention.

He's not on a good run. And he got pulled in the seventh. No, Christian Walker is, he's looking lost out there for basically like three months at this point, unfortunately. I mean, you know what? The way that he started this season. Now, he's still got 25 bombs. That's good. And James Smith got 20 bombs.

That's good. But. I'm not a batting average guy, Ross, but sometimes you do have to look at batting average. Mm-hmm. For the pure quick, it's a math problem. Well, I'd rather look at on-base. It's not good. I'd rather look at slugging.

It's okay. But the reality is, when you look strictly at the simplest fraction percentage possible, you look at batting average. And the batting average is number of times you go to the plate and the number of times you hit the ball successfully into play. Cam Smith gets to the plate and he gets base hits 20. 31% of the time. Well, even worse, that's fine if you're like, I don't know, Aaron Dunn or something like that, because you're going to work a lot of walks.

He's got a 278 on base. That's just not acceptable. 278 on base for him, $2.95 on base for Christian Walker, who started off the season like gangbusters and we're like, oh my God, this is a bounce back season from him. Yeah. I don't, this lineup is literally, with below average

should not be in a major league roster hitting. Listen to this. Strictly batting average. Again, very small. Don't be batting average guy. Come on. No, I'm not. But it's sobering. Strictly batting average.

Your three hitters, 257. Your cleanup hitters 243. D.S. O.K. 277. Walker 222. Smith, 213. Lamont Wade, who pinch it 202.

Velasquez 196. Lopofito, who's back up after spending, it feels like 80% of the year at Sugar Land, 214. Dalton Varsho, your, I wouldn't say heralded acquisition of the trade deadline, but it was the trade deadline acquisition, 224.

And then whatever this Barrosa person is. Jorge Barrosa? Jorge Barrosa needs to Jorge himself down to Sugar Land, $199, his betting average. Yeah, I mean, that's basically what his career. Rear average was when he's picked up off of waivers, and he's bouncing throws from right field. Woo! I mean, I am an Astros fan.

You are an Astros fan. Yes. We have seen a lot of good times, and we have frankly seen quite a bit of bad, just like every franchise has gone through. Went to the game on Tuesday. Going on Sunday. Oh, you guys said it was 799. Oh, man, it was beautiful. Yeah?

Every single 790 host was there. Except me. Because I was out of town. And every, well, every producer right now that's on the payroll. Uh-oh, what was that mean? Nothing. Every current working producer was there as well. Oh, so there are other people that used to work with us?

I got to meet Jonathan Allen's young lady. Oh, yeah? I told her to take care of him. Keep a good eye on him. Yeah? I like that. She was nice. I like that.

We love that. I mean, the Gordy's were there. Adam Klan even waived his appearance fee and he showed up. He didn't say very long though. No. Three innings, Max. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm just kidding.

He was there longer than I was. Was Teresa there? I was conking out about the sixth inning, so I walked out of there. Then Wexler got back from Texas practice in time to get over there? Adam Wexer was there. All right, nice. Just not me. Dan Matthews was there?

Yeah. Yeah. Everyone but you. Everybody but me. Because I was busy hobnobbing with New York. Yeah, with NBA elite. That's cool. Hung out with Charles Barkley for a little bit.

Yeah, you were doing pickle shots with Mike Breen. It's all cool. I'll say this. And we've got a lot to get to over the show today. New York, from a sports perspective, is completely rejuvated. Because of the Knicks? Because of the Knicks. That's good.

You couldn't go Rossi five feet without someone wearing a Knicks shirt. The Giants are not looking terrible too, week one. Yeah, but I mean, to compare the Giants who have had Super Bowl success for an NBA team that has gone 50 years without winning a championship. That team loves the Knicks. Are the Nets buried in second place further than the Clippers? It's funny because we were in Brooklyn. Not that the Nets fans exclusively, but it's just a happy where they play. I'll tell you what.

What's further back? Clippers, when they were good, we're drawn. I mean, it's got a beautiful arena. The Nets is a different vibe than the Knicks games. As in, I got comp tickets. It's the only reason I'm here. Like $11 for the Charlotte Hornets game? Yeah.

Yeah, I would probably say if there is, I would say the two biggest discrepancies in sports would be, one next to the Nets and number two would be the Dodgers to the Angels because the Dodgers are our national brand too and obviously own L.A. L.A., no matter what anybody tells you, is a Dodger in Laker Town.

Even the two football teams are a distant third. All right. So now that we're going to spend a lot of time chewing on this one last night, but gee, many Christmas. They're 76 and 76. They're middling baseball team. I mean, this is what we've been talking about.

You got swept against Tampa Bay. You went on Tuesday. It's cool. And then now you wanted to get the series win yesterday. So you could just feel like, all right, this one's found money today. Yep. But now it's a, as who is calling it a must win? Every game is a must win.

Jeff Blum, our friend of the show is saying a lot of that. Every game is a must win. Well, they lost. I do agree. It's everything. It's a must win. So they lose. So if they lose and the Rangers win, the Astros will be in second place.

They lost. They're still in first place. Go win today. Let's go. All right. I don't even want to look at the playoff odds. I'm scared now. You can even feel the vibe. So many empty seats.

I mean, this is, I mean, we had about the section to ourselves on Tuesday. You catch your foul? Crushing dollar dogs. You catch a foul ball? No. And in close? No.

Well, did you call 25 rows close? No. Okay, then no. Then one came out of 25 rows. Was anybody knows 25 rows that the ball dropped? Yes. Okay. Thank God.

Not that I'm worried about the attendance, but it's a little sobering. People are checked out. You could tell. I mean, it's also Tuesday, and it's the Royals in school. Oh, yeah, let's go with the school card. I love the school card. Yeah, sure, why not? I use the school card constantly.

Sure, people are going to other people's baseball games with schools, but that's fine. Yeah, I'm sure Phillies games was 40,000. They're just not good. 76 and 76. Playoff odds still 77.67.6. beat the Royals. They're just not good. Let's go.

And then finish the season, beating the crappy Mariners and the even crappier athletics. Tassoeemai got an inning last night. He did? Where's he at now? That's good. Look at his innings watch. Incentive watch at 790.

Okay. He's at 73 and two thirds. Oh, he's not getting that. He's not getting it. They pumped the brakes on him so hard. Yeah, that's not going to happen. Oh, my God. He's done with 5.13.

Yeah, they dropped the aim. on Tatsu Yi-I-Mai. Okay, so let's... I'm gonna save that Millie. Let's play behind the curtain. And the beers are gonna be 20 bucks. Let's play behind the curtain. Go ahead.

Go ahead. Hey, we've been paying Tatsu Emi $18 million. Oh, God, what the hell are we thinking? Okay. And oh, by the way, he's got a chance to make an extra 2-milly if we get him to 80. That's not going to happen. I thought it was 1 of 80 and it's two for 100 or something or no. I've heard variety of things.

But ultimately, there's going to be some bonus. I'm just a minute. Yeah. If you're, it's, I mean, I'm going to be honest with you. You could say, It's another million, but it is another million. Yeah, what's another million between friends for more crappy pitching? He sucks.

I mean, I'm paying $8 for peanuts. I want to see Tatsu EMI. Let's go. There is no one among those in the crowd the last two nights that have said that exact sentence. You're the only person among 7 million metropolitan people in Houston's ever that said that sentence. Jimmy C, he can slop that off. One million. It's fine. Not with that crowd last night.

He can't. Yeah, probably not. All right. A lot to get to today. We got the sounds at 630 this morning. we have this morning at 820, the season premiere of Ross's Rotten 5. Yeah. Excited about that.

You can guess who's going to be the last. Ooh. Is it revolving, does it involve a former Houston quarterback? Is something we're going to rhyme with Madonna Dotson? Yeah, yeah, probably. Got to do that. We'll have 830. I just don't get it, which is a half an hour of just things you are confused about in life, Rossi.

Okay. So we'll have that for 830. Brian McTagher for his Thursday visit with us at 9 o'clock. Willie Fritz at 930. Willie and I will be flying together to Lubbock later today to see the Cougars beat the Red Raiders tomorrow night. You see America loves the Cougars. There was a map on Twitter yesterday.

It said people are rooting for Houston against Cic. The map was all red. It was all red. And it might have been from Cougain Nation. But it was definitely a large majority of America loves the Houston Cougars. That's great. I'm rooting for them.

Go, Cooke. You're not going to hear me say this a lot? You should, but go coogs. And also you're not going to hear a lot in the stadium because there's only like 28,000 people in there. No, no, no. Go Coogs. The game's in Lubbock.

I'm just saying, you know, in general. We're trying. Better start times coming out. Yeah. And did you see the athletic report with all the NIL money? I know you're going to be intrigued in that. I did on that. Boy, it's still a case of haves and have-nots, right?

Of course. Yeah. And LHU's got a big game with Old Miss this weekend. Mm-hmm. And Sam Levitt is listed as doubtful. The last two days, we got a lot of analysis on that from Chris Gordy. You're going to guess who he's picking in the game. He definitely is an objective locked on SEC reporter.

He would never not pick. Not bias at all. Just ask him. Yeah. I do think LSU. I think it'd be kind of funny if LXU waxen. So Leavitt is listed as doubtful. And there are some in the college football streets, Rossi,

that believe that that is a little gamesmanship that maybe Leavitt is not hurt. Wow. Not hurt at all, but listen is doubtful? Yes. Can't that get you... I know it in the NFL, they would come after you. I don't know about college football, though. Well, I'll put it this way. Is there anything that the NCAA will do to go after

Lane Kiffin? Yeah, he'll just get a temporary restraining order. He'll be fine. Or he'll call a Billy Joe Rubberdow and say, man, I need you to cut me this check for $25,000. Yeah, district judge from La Fouche Parish. I've been to Lafouche. Yeah.

The Crosby family. I'm more of a south of the Fush guy. Are you? Yeah. We don't get... We don't usually get breaking news at 622 in the morning. I've been doing morning radio quite a bit of my life as well. I actually miss this.

This is from 529 in the morning. I don't even know what it is, but may I guess? Okay, go ahead. You've only played one sounder. Is that all you want? Give me one more! Does it involve the Texans? That's two!

Yes, it does. It's Adam Schaefter. Nico Collins out this week. You're such a fraud. I'm sure you saw this somewhere. You're not going to make this up out of nowhere. No. Jonathan, I'm calling BS on this whole thing.

No, no, no. Nico Collins injured his hamstring at Wednesday's practice and met with doctors and they quote, don't believe it's serious per source, yet Collins' status for Sunday's game versus the Bengals is in jeopardy.

Now, he was on the injury report yesterday. So this is nothing new. I mean, he had... Well, then, it's not that grain of a guess on my part. Hamstring injury for Nico Collins. He's had a couple of these, feels like. So you're... Let's go stretch it out.

Now, read that again. Jonathan, can we get you over there to Texans and getting everybody stretching their hamstrings properly? Come on, man. Now, see, you... I thought you would have said he was out. It doesn't say he's out, does it? Yeah, so I won't two. I mean, if he was out, it'd be like three.

if he was out for several weeks probably. Okay. But it says is Collins' status for Sunday's game? I don't think he's going to play. If you're coming out, you're talking about this is, we're Thursday this is getting reported, that his status is in doubt. To me, he's not going to play.

That's what I'm taking it as. So I wonder, you know, you know what? Casero's been up since 4.30 this morning. You know what they need now? This weekend? More booty. Who does? Everybody needs more booty.

Let's go. Everybody does. But yeah, that is, that is, and let me just peel the curtain back. That is Adam Schaefter waking up this morning after not sleeping at all last night. He's like, what general manager can I text at 5 o'clock in the morning? Oh, I know, Nick Asario. There you go. And Ian Rappaport's already up as well.

He says something to monitor or something to watch or whatever that he's at. So there you go. Ian Rapport, Adam Schaefter, all over it. Nico Collins status and doubt this weekend So that means What does he list

I know the Texans Put their injury report yesterday What do they have him Officially as I know It was limited participant yesterday Is what they said Okay

So I don't know How much that It's funny I don't think I even got The injury report From the Texans Usually they send it to me Maybe they're mad at me

Nico Collins Yeah limited practice For the hamstring Now they have that Non-injury related rest All right Will Anderson's already Getting rest

That's good Yep Trent Brown's got a wrist injury. He's full practice though. Yep. As was Wade Woodaz, who has the broken thumb. Yeah. J.D. Clowney has a knee injury, D&P.

Jake Hummel has a groin injury in D&P. They're saying that Clowney's going to practice today. Okay, good. Dalton Schultz didn't play either. Yeah, but it's just his rest. These are rest days for these guys. That's good. Rest in week one.

Yep. Get them rested up. All right. Ready for the Bengals. So, yeah, I would, uh, Yeah, I'm not reading anything more into the fact that breaking news would have been something that he was definitely going to be out. This was something that's more of a, let's just make a follow-up call after seeing him

with the injury report this morning. Oh, there it is. I see the injury report right now. Yeah. Yeah. Limited participation. So who knows, the problem is, are you hamstrings? Man, hamstrings, backs, knees, necks, right?

Basically, the four things you just want to always have you have. you have worry about in life. I guess the only new bit of information would be that he's got tests from doctors and they don't think it's serious. Right. So that's a good good idea. All right. On the phones we come back, our time is 627. It's Matt and Ross in the morning. We have the sounds of 630 so don't go anywhere, Jason. We're going to get to you

plus my sounds will come from Texanville. That'll be all straight ahead. Oh really? Matt and Ross continues here on 790. Well, that sounds very inviting. Well, it all sounds exciting. That sounds like a threat. That sounds stupid. No, let's be. Matt and Ross

bring you sounds at 630. All right, so while I was gone, Ross, you did endless hours of body language talk, right? I'm assuming you did. You want to be honest, or am I to like you to be honest? We brought it up for like five minutes. Yeah. You didn't cuss, discuss what old C.J. Strauss, got him good body language.

You didn't cusses because of us. What's the same shoe? What are doing on there? Doesn't you want to agree to go? You expect this for me, right? All right. Let's go. We know we didn't cuss and discuss Matthew.

All right. Here is, okay, so everything was the last. Maybe that's on us. Maybe we should have went wall-to-wall, body-language talk. We brought it up for like one segment. An underrated game show in the mid-80s, by the way. Body language?

Yeah, it was a show, basically about, it was a charades game. A game show, yeah. Wasn't bad. Okay, well, couldn't have been that good. It was on two years. Yeah. All right.

So here is, so, It's the elephant in the room, I guess, antarpound gorilla, whatever you want to call it. Okay. Somebody asked DeBico Ryans about Andre Johnson's podcast appearance about C.J. Stroud's

body language, and here is what DJ, here's what DeMico had to say about it. I don't know what comments you're talking about. I've been studying Cincinnati and going to sleep. Talk to Andre. Talk to Andre about it. What do I always tell you, folks? General managers lie,

owners lie, players lie. We're getting ready for Cincinnati. He dropped a Bill Belichick. We're getting ready for Cincinnati. Broadcasters lie. O'Brien did it too. We're moving on to Cincinnati.

Everybody's going on to Cincinnati. We're moving on to Cincinnati. D'emiko, don't lie. You know exactly what was said. You've watched it probably at least five times. And if in the smallest chance, Ross, that he didn't see it, bad job by Texans PR, not to give him a little heads out that's coming. I'm sure he saw it.

He saw it. I don't know that he watched it five times. Maybe not five times. I don't think you need to watch it five times to get the gist of Andre Johnson, saying he just doesn't like CJ's body language. Oh, what I heard. He saw it. When I heard that, I was like, you are such a liar.

But he's right in that it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. I don't think Nick Casario is putting a body language clause in the potential extension for C.J. Stroud. Can I give you a small reason why it does matter? Okay. Because how many times does Andre Johnson talk a year once? I don't know. How many podcasts is he on?

Apparently he's on. And apparently it was a very lengthy like two-hour podcast or something like that. And this was just one little blurb. And that's how podcasts work. We run with like the 30 seconds that are most sensational. Yeah. So the reality is this, when Andre speaks, because he doesn't speak a lot, your eyes go a little wider, right? You know, your brows are up a little bit.

Okay. So that's the reason why it became a story is because it's not J.J. Watt saying it who's on 19 TV appearances a week. It's Andre Johnson who does five days a year, if that. I don't know. I don't know. Is he on the Legend Talk podcast every week? You catch it, Matt? I've never heard of it.

Kendrick Perkins and a little kiki. There are two things that are terrible. First of all, national radio. My God, I was listening this morning coming in. What fan base is the most long-suffering for a championship because of Detroit and Buffalo are playing today? Okay. And that's what ESPN radio did.

It was embarrassing. Whatever that morning show is, it's atrocious. And I don't like to bag on another radio host because... It seems like you do, actually. Yeah, I do, but all fair. On air, I don't. But it was embarrassing. Okay.

I mean, I could not imagine putting that show on and going, let's put this on it for the audience. Hey, Cleveland fan, give us the cold toes. How sad you are the good of the brown didn't one. Come on, Buffalo, let's hear from you. Come on, Carolina. Houston, where you at? God, it was bad.

I think he's got a lot of pent-up energy or something, Jonathan. Hey, I've been gone for two days. That's what I'm saying. He's ready to go. Let your anger out, Matt. Yeah, let it out. Not anger. Let your heart sing.

It's fire and brink. Crimstone. Yeah, whatever you want to call it. All right, that was my son at 630. What are you got today? Thank you. I'm going to go with, oh gosh, here we go. We've been, I think we've been using Deshaun Watson sound.

Oh, no. Maybe much more than we should have the last couple of weeks. Of course, he was terrible for the Browns this past week. Had a horrible interception through for like 200 yards. Overall, the Browns are the worst team in football. You're going to hear that in Rotten 5. And Deshawn Watson says, you know what? These fans' expectations for,

for me, you're just out of control. I think the 9th year has this expectation that I'm supposed to throw 400 dollars and five touchdowns every week. Until that happens, I guess it's going to be the same situation. So again, my job is to make sure I'm operating well so we can try to get a win and keep moving forward from that. So Deshaun Watson says the fans are expecting him to throw 400 yards and five touchdowns every week. And that's just not realistic because, you know, he's getting close. He threw for 499 and four touchdowns this last week. right? No, it was 201 touchdown. He's thrown five touchdowns in his last five games against

Cleveland Browns. I don't think they're asking for 405 tuddies. They should be a lot that money's paying. They're asking for competency. They're asking for completed passes. They're asking for not getting camp reports that you're turning the ball over every five plays and then in your first game you turn it over on your third throw. That's what they're asking for. Deshawn. Cleveland is not being unrealistic. Well, yeah, they have no expectations. He said the fans have never gotten that. Who's the best Cleveland Brown's quarterback ever?

Bernie Kosar? Bernie Kozar, Brian Seipp. Okay, who's number two? Yeah. Who's number three? Oh. Tim Couch? Vinnie Tester Verdi?

Colt McCoy? Who is? Baker Mayfield? Oh, yeah. It's not good. It's got me something like the 40s or 50s, right? Yeah, probably. Some guy.

We'd never heard of. Yeah. I would assume it's Khosar, right? It would be the best of the group. Oh, auto gram, we forgot. Oh, damn. All right. Come on, man.

There's your sounds at 6.30. Let's talk to Jason and Conroe. Hi, Jason. Man, I tell you what. I get in the car this morning to make this hour and a half drive back home from work. And I hear y'all mention a pair of some from, man. That is like sober and cool, man. Not very many people know about the fork, which is what we call that down there

in Lafouche down there in southeast Louisiana, Tibito area. But man, I thought that was pretty cool. Y'all showed us in love down there, man. Not very many people. No problem, Jason. We're, we're, uh, Lafouche is number one in our heart. Jason, listen, it's a, it's a great parish. I know you guys only go up to ninth grade, which is fine.

Uh, I know you have, uh, roads made of, uh, of, uh, hayseed. And, uh, there's no dentist in the metro area. But other than that, it's a great little, little, little parish. Damn, sorry, Jason. I was, I was born there. I actually moved to Lake Charles, which goes up to 12th grade, but I appreciate that, man. I'm going to have to remember that, but I think this is going to be the one time this weekend. I don't focus on LSU football because I grew up watching the Braves, and my wife is an Astros fan,

so that's going to be freaking fun. We're going to go to all three games, and I've got to be honest. I got to be honest. I love the Astros because that was the first ML. Here it comes. That was the first MLB game I ever went to with the December. Here it comes. Here it comes.

Just saying it's getting it out of the way. Let's go. I can't turn against my boys, man. I can't do it. All right. Thank you, Jason. Be safe going home. Thank you.

Hey, look. Hey, it's not bad because both of us are in first place. So you got to enjoy that, right? Now, if the Astros lose the Braves, they're probably going to be in first place. Thank you, Jason, for the phone call. Safe Travels back home. Must win games down the stretch. If Jeff Blum says it, I believe it.

Well, they lost. So they must continue to play the games. Red Sox. How do they think Red Sox got up 2-0 in the first inning? Yeah, and the Rangers came back. And then do Jack. We're down to 10 games left. Isn't that crazy?

This is the saddest, like, down-the-stretch race. ever seen. It's like every horse in the race has broken their leg, and we're just like watching them hobble to the finish line. It's embarrassing. May name drop for a moment? Oh, here we go. I mean, if you don't want me to try it won't do it.

Go ahead. Seattle slew? What are you name dropping? Adam Amin, who's the voice of Chicago Bulls. I see him at our NBA broadcast meetings because he goes, this is how it goes wrong. He goes, I'm coming to your city on Thursday. I said, for what?

Because we're doing a Fox, Kansas City, Astros. I said, Fox couldn't find a better game? I said, are you serious? It's a name drop, moo. For the OG people. OGs, you know exactly what we're talking about that.

And if Lance, you're listening, good morning to you. But yeah, he's like, I said, wait a minute, aren't there like, even Red Sox Rangers would seem a little more appetizing, right? Yeah. Kansas City, Houston on Thursday night baseball? They already, like, accidentally leave their equipment in Houston,

so they're coming back? I was going to say, maybe if Fox is here do the game on Sunday but it's a CBS game. We've got to pick the stuff up. We might as well to go ahead and do the game. That's, now I don't think it's the main game, but it's one of the games. Oh, it's on FS2.

Could you imagine if like... It's like dirt racing and then it's Astros and Royals? Could you imagine New York City's like, hey, I want to sit down and watch some Thursday night baseball. We got the, I want to, we're on like five televisions. We got, we got Detroit Buffalo here. We got a little college football here. I want to what the big Thursday night baseball game is leading into the

Pentate race. We're down the 10 games. to go in the season. And it's, let me say what the other choices are here. Let's take a look. Okay. Kansas City, Houston,

or Philadelphia and Mets. Now, Philadelphia's going to playoffice of Mets or not, but New York's New York, right? Mm-hmm. So, that seems way sexier than Asheros Royals. You don't know that. I think the fans agree. I see the crowds the last two days.

The red is the first game and the aster's of the blue game. Yeah, we got Missouri. Missouri. We got Oklahoma. All Texas are going to watch it. I guess. Lake Charles KLCH going to watch the game. There we go.

And Shreepo, KSHR, going to watch them Astros and Springfield, Missouri, ironically enough. Good for them. There you go. All right. It is 643. It is Matt and Ross in the morning here on Sports Talk 790. We have a busy show for you today, especially busy towards the back half of the show. At 820, we've got the season debut for Rotten 5.

Looking forward to that. Oh, man. A timeless tradition. Unbelievable stuff. Just don't get it at a 30. 9 o'clock, we'll have Brian McTagra, and I am in charge of believe it or not today.

I don't want to do it on. We ever done Kansas City Royal, believe it or not over the years? Probably not. Just do all things, George Brett? He ate questions about George Brett. Best thing George Brett ever personally told me. Here's going to the name drop.

Go ahead and fire it off. Geez. Wow, you're on fire. He says, don't get married. Do your professional career is over with. his professional career, not mine. I was going to say. You didn't listen to him at all.

No, I did not. I got married early. But he's also not run around the country with friends. Go to break? In 30 cities. 644. We're going to break. Good morning. Six o'clock maniacs. I didn't realize Nico Collins

was on Twitter until I went to the four UTAB, Rossi. So, something called Sleeper NFL says Texans wide receiver, Nico Collins, is having tested done to determine the severity of his hamstring per Aaron Wilson. Yes. There's this dude named Glenn N. Every year with this F-N-S-M-H, and I'll let you guys figure out what F and N is.

Nico responds, because obviously Nico was looking for his name because I didn't tag him. Watch your mouth, my N, hell you, T-A-L-L-M-B-E-L-E-L-M-B. Talk about. Talk about. Tell him about. Say it again, Matt.

Tom about. Hooh. Tal about. Tom about. Glenn says, Dish your problem now. You worry about the wrong S. Dominique? You can call some Dominique?

I didn't realize that's the real name. It's Dominique. Dominico. Dominique Estefan Nico Collins. From Pinson, Alabama. Salvador. He's saying you're hurt every year, and to be frank with you, it's kind of true, bro.

Did Nico Collins say anything further? No, but everybody else has. William says Nico is nice, but he's fragile. Easy G4T says, dog, you're injury prone. Why take offense to the blank, get off X gang. I love this. Somebody says Captain Caleb says

Oh no Texan Texan Nico says Get his ass king Captain Caleb says You've never played a full season in your career Ron says Bro you get hurt every year We're tired of this S

QTec Sports says Need to hit the weight room and stay off X See you can't win Unfortunately if you're Nico Collins. Your best bet is just completely stay off. And this looks like he's his first tweet since like 2021. Or first reply, I should say.

We were, I was at this NBA broadcasting meetings, and Charles Barkley was a feature guest, and Michael Wilbon was out there. And he says, well, what do you, when you communicate with today's young players, what do you, number one, tell them, they say, get off social. That's fair.

And my wife got a picture with him, too. Go ahead and add that in there to the mix. Nico Collins, injury history. I'm sorry. You need to tell them to get off of... They said, don't, don't, you're loot. When you get into social media fights, you always lose. Go and promote your stuff.

But, I mean, yeah, don't get into fights. Because it's helpful for you to build a brand. Yep. And have followers. And that'll help you with sponsorship. Follow Sports RV on Instagram, by the way. By the way, yeah. I don't disagree.

So he has the hamstring thing here. Of course, he had the concussion during the playoffs. In 2024, he had the hamstring strain. he missed five games with a hamstring strain. 23, he had a calf strain, but only missed the one game that he left. And 22, it was five games with a foot injury. And also a couple games with a groin pull. If you're him and someone calls you injury prone, you just have to hit mute and block.

Because the evidence does not back you up. You have missed games. And everybody misses games. Yeah, I mean, nothing's been a major. It's been a bumper of bruise every single year. Games played in his career 14, 10, 15, 12, 15 last year. But he was held out of a game. He was held out of last week because, I mean, he was fine, yeah.

And then he did miss time in the playoffs with a concussion. So, I mean, it's also life in the NFL. That's right. You're going to get a hamstring pull. You're going to get a shoulder injury. You're going to get a concussion. But it would be in his best interest to have a 17 game season at some point. Yeah, especially if you're going to go, if you're going to go, if you're going

go ahead and dispute, if you're going to come after somebody on social media, you're going to lose. And say WTF you talk about, then you need to be having a bit of a healthier record. Imagine, imagine boys, if you could not swear on Twitter. You didn't have anybody left. But he's never missed a full season. He hasn't torn an ACL. He hasn't, I mean, I don't know. I'm not sure.

I'd be curious, his perspective on what he's, his pushback is because I just listed basically an injury every year. Yeah. Speaking of injuries, Henry Toa Toa going on the injured list. Yeah. That's a bigger concern to me than maybe missing Nico Collins for a week. Is it? I would say missing, I mean, I like Henry Toeottoe, but I'd rather have Nico Collins. But there's not a lot of linebacker depth at this point.

All right, let's get the set. And that's true. Xavier Hedgedy. Who's your number one this weekend? Booty. You mean in general or in football? 655. We need a jar.

We need a booty pun jar. I'm guilty too. Yeah, you started it. You're the first one. JT and Ryan hang out with us. Come on and be with us. 7 o'clock hour begins after this on Sports Talk 790.

This is Matt and Ross in the morning. That's my favorite. By far. Catchy. Okay. It's people fired up. John think it's mentioned in this as well. The Javier one's my favorite.

Can we get... This is by real human being number one. I'll take 10 more. AI songs. Number two, I was going into my driveway yesterday and I was singing it. It's Madden Ross or Man Ross? In the morning.

Shut your bummed us up. Yeah, I like it. It's got those elements of it too. I mean, we could use a Jonathan mention, of course. It's part of the show. So we need all y'all to get busy, send us 10 AI songs. 10? Yeah, we'll rotate. Okay. Mad and Ross, Sports Talk 7-90, Matt and Ross in the morning. Jonathan gets a plug in there as well.

If Jonathan gets a plug, you'd probably get played more, honestly. He'd probably not delete it immediately. Yeah, that's right. I haven't deleted one yet. All right. You thought about it. Real quick, before you go ahead. So we were talking about AI,

and we have some commercials that you hear in our station that are AI. Clearly what it's dragging by nuts, but that's either here nor there. Remember the Alamo? And then we've got, I believe, 10 different Sark and Holly Row. A.I.I. is going on. Okay. A new one has popped up where,

he hits her no she hits him and he floats away yeah you know what I just don't like that violence against men is not something that we should joke about you know it made me uncomfortable and I really think whoever made that that needs to apologize so much

we as a collective society have got to chill just a little bit and realize this is AI and that nobody ever would condone Sark hitting Holly Row. I mean, we have got to. And I'm going to say this very slowly. We have got to have some common sense. Not everything has to be, oh, and it gotcha moment to catch an athlete or catch a coach off guard or to have to have apologies and run to so, I mean, oh, so damn exhausting.

AI stupid. Yeah. Period. Oh, it's dumb. AI is stupid. Yeah, stop sending me AI videos, Matt. I do like to do that. And I was, of course, I was joking. I feel like there's some people probably thought I was serious. Like idiots who are out there. Like guys who go after you and crush you on Twitter and get mad at you.

But anyways. And they're muted. Are they? Okay. It's fine. Then there's one. Then there's one that are kissing each other. There's one they're kissing.

Oh yeah. What is it going on with you and your algorithm? I didn't see any of this. I can send them to you. No. No, please don't. Jonathan, you want it to say Miles 17? No, because you start sending these things, and then I click on them,

and then they end up in my algorithm. I was on Facebook the other day, and I'm just getting all these Elmo videos. Oh, I got some new ones. No, I'm good. The last one wasn't that bad, though. The last one was at least it was a soft single. But the problem is I get so many of them. I'm always worried about which ones I send you to see if you really are going to enjoy them.

Yeah, usually they're Christian Walker strikeouts, but you got a, it was a single one of them. Segway into that. I don't want to look at Brian McTaggart's tweets anymore. Why not? Because all he tells him about who's not doing what. Dalton, 10 hours ago, Dalton Varsho on a 1 for 19. 10 hours ago, Cam Smith and 0 for 15. You know what?

It's time to look at the hitting coaches. Where's hitting coach guy? Let's go! You change a hitting coach. It didn't solve all your problems. All of a sudden, Chris Walker's not hitting 40 bombs with an OPS of 1,000 once you change the hitting coaches. I would love to hear from changing coach guy. And then coach not doing much with

Volta Dalton Varsho. He's doing pretty good with Yorna Alvarez. Victor Rodriguez and the boys. What are we going to do for next year? They did lose that offensive coordinator awake and the offense has tanks and sent. I'm just saying, don't even put that into play. I mean, I'm not saying that's why.

Yeah, you are saying it. I didn't say it. You just said it. It's causation and correlation or two different things, Matt, as we learned. Yeah. In high school. Even though people still have difficulty figuring that out, it's okay. But there we go.

All right. So Pena hits and nobody else is hitting at this point. How many hits in the series does Pena have? Relative to everyone else? He's got basically every hit in the series. Now yesterday, Alvarez got one, Altuve got one. Diaz got two. Eventually he got a couple late.

But there was a tweet from Rick Taggert earlier in the day. We're giving him a lot of run here. You're good. That's good. Ten hours ago, this is obviously prior to the Astros scoring late. Penae was six for seven against the Royals. else was one for 41 at one point at one point

and that one was a Yordon Alvarez home run. Yeah. It's mid is what it is. Is Yordon going to win any of the triple crown categories? No. And there, is there a push for him not to win the MVP?

Opposed to who? Well, I know MLB Network did a list of four players this morning I was watching him. We're getting ready for work. Okay. So I just in terms of war, looked yesterday. It was Bobby Witts won. Yordons two, Cam Schlittler.

Say it carefully. The pitcher for the Yankees is having an excellent season, but I mean, are you going to give it to a starting pitcher? Just give him the Siong. Unless they're like just having a crazy season. Like, I don't know, Verlander when he won the MVP. I still think it's Yorda Navaris. It'd be nice if they won the division.

Oh, yeah. If they don't win, what if they have a losing record? That's going to hurt his case. Yep. Then you might go to junior Camerrero's got 41 home runs, 96 runs batted in, 279, only an OPS of 897. I'd say only, but that's relative to Yordons, which is still over 1,000. But does the raise general success help Camerro's pursuit in one of this thing? It shouldn't.

I mean, Mike Trout continued. We were talking about this with Gordy yesterday. Mike Trout continued to win MVP, and he was on a losing team. Shohi Otani, when he won MVP with the Angels, he was on a terrible thing. The history shows you don't have to have team success in order to win an individual. But if we're going purely best player, I mean, because he doesn't play the field at all. But the Royals are 67 and 85. They're a horrible baseball team.

Not good. Very bad. Looked good yesterday. Beating the Astros. And the Fox regional game of the week tonight. Yes. Early start time if you're going to the game, by the way. 76 and 7. It is?

615, yeah. Oh, I love that. I think I do too. But you know what? Same for our morning. schedule. I like six o'clock. Let's get a little five. I like those five-forties in Philly. I think every game should start at 410. I'm, I was thinking 310. Every day at 1 10. Yeah, Dan's like, what am I working here? Yeah, put him the Cubs schedule.

There you go. Cubs play day game every other day. Well, they used to. They play more night games than everyone before. JT. joins us at 709 on 790. J.T. Good morning to you. Good morning. Hey, I come to the realization and I'm defaulting to, you know, we've said it all season This team is a 500 team, so I'm saying 81-81, so the Rangers are going to have to finish 80-80. But here's, my point today is this, and maybe this is like a dumb comment I'm going to make. But don't you think we've come to the point now that there has to be something crazy done to this lineup because there's only basically maybe three chances a game. The score runs, because after you get maybe past El-Tube, no chance.

and I don't know if you spread, you know, this is just like a really dumb comment. If you spread the outs out, I don't know how you do that. I don't know if you, you know, I was thinking about you throw somebody like Varsho in the Lear's spot. I don't know.

I mean, you just, to me, you have to spread some, am I being, I don't know. Completely ridiculous, JT. Oh, okay. They should lead off with Lamont Wade, I think. No, but I mean, what, I just,

like I said, there's just so, like the, what was the inning last night? was that the seventh. They get the first two runners on, first two second, nobody out. And that inning ended like 30 seconds later. And it's like you're playing the Royals. And I mean, you just get past that lineup. There's just you don't have any chances.

And I'm discouraged. And as I say that, they'll probably win two of three against the Braves. Just like, what did we think last week after they won two of three from the Phillies? Most people said, this race is over. and no it's not because it's an 81 and 81 team. So finish 81, 81, and make the Rangers have to finish 8280. Please don't blow it, Astros. Yeah, you're not spreading outs out.

That's not a line of thinking. No, you get your best hitters the most played appearances. Now, the problem is you don't have a great list of best hitters. I mean, Altuvae, frankly, would be a seventh place hitter on a good baseball team. Yeah, what he's talking about, though. I mean, you're four or five guys who are the guys that got first and second and nobody out. And so, I mean, was it El Tuvene and Diaz, wasn't it? Yeah.

So after that, yeah, it all went downhill, but that's the back end of most lineups, number one. And obviously, you're just not, you're not scared of anybody after Paredes. And it's been like that far too long. We've been waiting too long for Christian Walker gave us false hope at the beginning of the season. K.M. Smith will hit three home runs and three games against Philly, and we're wondering if he's waking up and he's got 20 home runs. But then he goes on the 014 like you're talking about. Lamont Wade, Jr., Nelson Velasquez, Joey Lopez,

Joel Varsha, Jorge Barrosa. These are just guys. These are guys that frankly will irritate me if they're on the 2027 roster. They're going to be trivia questions in five years. Nelson Velasquez played for the Astros, believe it or not. Oh, I don't remember that guy. Maybe it was Nelson

Varsho. Jorge Barrosa? Oh, yeah, I guess I remember that name. That guy with the, that was throwing, making little league arms throws from right with the hoop earring? And the worst part of all this is, is there's nobody on the horizon. The Astros fired their scouting director a couple days ago.

I mean, go. Nobody's knocking on the door. Yeah. Nobody. I mean, I guess Zach Colgan on her chance. Your boy, Jake Myers, me. Hey, he had a kneecap injury. My guess he'll be out of the organization.

He's got an injury, okay? He's hurt. He had a lower OPS than Chirkyl and he did him with the Astros. Yeah, he's been battling through injuries, man. Battling? Paddling? He's battling out there. You know what?

What? You need to close the club down. I'm not closing the club. Look, every restaurant... Not until he announces a retirement. Every club has its time. It's just time to shut down. I understand.

Michael Barry shut down the Redneck Country Club. He did? Yes, he did. What happened? He said, I can't pay these breaks. I thought they were having Hank Williams III this weekend. No, no. My point is there to Hank Williams III?

I just made that out. That's not terrible. Thank you. My point is, you. I don't want my point is. I've lost my point. I don't know. Who cares. Hank Williams III and his rowdy friends.

Yeah. I don't know your point, but look, Jake Myers fan club, we had a good run. Oh, that's what it was. It's time to get run the club. Everything's got, what would you, I mean, honestly, the general manager that takes over this job, whatever geek is going to be, I mean, I'm sure be a great geek is to be with us weekly. We'll look forward to. Hopefully it'll be. Look forward to me to me to it.

I mean, it'll be. somebody getting their first GM job. But my guarantee just about at this point. What? You don't have a nucleus here. This is, well, you start with Yoron and, well, Payneya, drink. No, no, no, no, no, no. The first thing you're going to do is you're going to have a nice heart to heart with

Jeremy Payne and say, here's what we're ready to offer you. And hopefully it's fair market value. I'm going to go ahead and say, on the record, pay the man. If he says no, you must trade him. Unless you're, unless you're completely blowing this up. Because all your prospects are like 17 years old. They can't, none of your prospects can drink for three more years. Can't run a car.

Can't do any of that stuff. It's terrible. 714. It's Matt and Ross in the morning here on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790. By the way, all things are not great on the injury front. You don't think for the Texans? The Bengals may have themselves a little bit of an issue too.

We'll discuss that coming back. Matt and Ross in the morning, please join us at 7-1-3-2-1. 125.790. So the injury report again yesterday, Jadabian Clonning, did not participate because of a knee. Jake Hummel, Gron, Dalton Schultz, Rest, Will Anderson Rest, Nico Collins hamstring,

was further evaluated. It's a wait-and-see mode, but hamstrings can be tricky. They're not going to heal themselves overnight. Good feeling he doesn't play. Yeah, feels about right. I mentioned that the Bengals are not in great shape, at least at the most important position

because that would include Joe Burrow, who was a limited participant in practice yesterday with a bad back. He's fine. I imagine. Now, does Gordy go to the game and his LSU jersey were in Burrow? Yeah, with like his Joe Burrow,

his eye black that says Joe Cool on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think he might. Yeah, that's exactly. With his credential. Oh, yeah. There's pom-pom wearers in the Texans press box. It would be one more.

That's true. I remember, never mind. Go ahead, say it. I like it. I know you always. I always say, never mind when I'm telling you. I'm fine. I just remember that was that lady who would,

who would like openly cheering for them. And she was like from the Galveston paper back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She would be, they would have to come over. This is a work press box. No cheering in the press box. And she's like, yes. The Texans press allowance of people.

From like the ball of her times or something like that. The people they allow in is the worst. of the three teams in the city, by far. I feel like college is worse, though, right? You mean, you have more experience in this. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Like, we're going to Lubbock tomorrow. Texas, I mean, the stadium, they named their new stadium.

I don't know what it's called. Some corporate sponsor. Okay. But it's a huge press box. But, like, there's like, the Lubbock Abilence Journal is there. Galaxy Stadium? Samsung? Yeah, yeah.

Galaxy something. They didn't get Samsung, did they? But, like, Red Raider Nation.com is there. And gunsup.com is there. There's some guy ringing a bell the whole time. It's weird. The Matador. Yeah.

Tortillastersers.net. Yes. Yeah. A college press box is goofy. Yeah. A pro press box is just unprofessional. You know. Just Toro Times gets a credential.

What? What the hell's the Toro Times? You don't read the Toro Times? I don't read the Toro Times. I get it to my doorstep every morning. You really? Yeah. You don't get anything at your doorstep.

Amazon packages? That's true. By the way, I got back last night. Ooh, he got a stat. So I got, my son was home watching the house. And there was like 40 packages in the house. I said, you've been here all week. Yeah, but dad, I was busy.

Busy doing what? Yeah, exactly. Bring the package inside. Bring the package inside. First of all. Is he paying any kind of rent? No. Okay, get the packages.

Get the packages. Like, if he's at least playing a, you know, I don't know, the light bill. What is this paying thing you can speak of? Seven. No, no, and I was staying with my mom. I paid for internet and cable. that was nice of you to do that well she demanded it

okay 713 212 5790 713 yeah they can pick up a bill come on when you text the boy I will no he's sleeping

that's all right he takes care of the dogs 713 212 5790 713 212 570 7122 1790 so we got an injury front now again the Tuesday injury or the Wednesday injury report is minor

Thursday you start to lean a little more into it and then if you're not cleared by Friday that means you're probably not playing on Sunday. Again, everything is up. DNP on Friday usually means you're out. LP means you're 50-50. That's just general rules of thumb.

Yeah. So what do you on the importance of this? Because you know, you think about these things when you're traveling and whatnot. And Sunday's game's big. I mean, since that he's a AFC title contender, just like the Texans are. Uh-huh. Is it a coin flip game at this point?

It's Texans minus three. Okay. It's basically a coin flip. Yeah. Don't you usually get two and a half points at all? For home in the NFL, yes. That's coin, yeah? Yes.

I mean, let's... Some are already calling it a must win. I believe Jonathan called it a must win for the Texas. You did not. Yes, he did. Did you really? That's not what I said. What?

That is not what I said. I'm going to check the tape. I'm going to find the tape. You said it was a must win. I said some people could see this as a must win. Hold on now. No, no. Because no.

Whoa. The whole topic was, look, the defense is kind of scary. It's kind of a must win. must win if you want to show us to the offense to show that they can make it down to the playoffs because you can't show out and defend Allen or Burroughs I mean

and Ben DuBose is always showing me people calling must win across the country Clarence Hill covers the Cowboys said is a must win game for the Cowboys this week as well so we already got must wins must wins all over the place a lot of places

when you go 0 and 2 people go start flipping out I understand we flipped out here last year when they went old three. Yes, we did. Because the Jaguars game was the most wins. Well, then they won 12 games and went to the playoffs. That's what I was saying. So it's kind of us.

It's fine. It's fine. You're three, we went to the schedule yesterday, Matthew, your three most difficult quarterback matchups. You get two of them in the first two weeks. I was going to say, the schedule at some point is going to soften up here. Yeah, it does. So you got Josh Allen, who torched you. Joe Burrow, hopefully, he doesn't have, of course, as much

of a running element, so hopefully you can bear down on him, but obviously he's very good at pre-staffed reads, getting the ball out quick, to guys like Jamar Chase, who can get in space and stuff like that. Checkdowns Chase Brown are going to be dangerous. And then, of course, Lamar Jackson has just been the Texans killer. But that's much later in the season. Those are your three really difficult quarterback matchups.

I looked at it multiple times when you and I made our predictions last week. I really said 10 and 7 because I think the schedule in the front end of the back end is extraordinarily difficult. I think you can get fat and happy in the middle part of the season. The question is going to be, will 10 and 7 be good enough? what will Jacksonville be? Now, Jacksonville is, I mean, if we were listening to Jaguar Radio right now, they're losing their mind, they're so excited. But they play Cleveland.

It has a preseason matchup, basically. It was they played... Todd Monkin's probably not even going to last the season, and Deshawn Watson will be gone by the end of the year, too. Yeah. So I wouldn't be beating my chess if I was Jaguar fan over that. No, you shouldn't be. But, man, if Carmari Lasseter could just come up with that interception,

now how much does the narrative flip? A hundred percent of that. Or if C.J. Shrellis. gets that touchdown and then he ends up with close to 300 yards and three touchdowns on the last drive. You're talking about how great he is. His agent David Mulligata completely agrees with you. Yeah. And he's sending Show Me the Money Cuba Gooding Jr. Clips.

No, he actually just, he would have sent a text, and it was in the drafts of his phone. Mm-hmm. We need to talk. Mm-hmm. Or maybe just the cash emoji. Or told you? Or a picture of Randy Moss. Straight cash, homie.

Who's Malagana's big agents, clients? Does Deshawn one of them? I believe Deshawn is one of them. Mm-hmm. That's why Mulligado is looking to get the big deal with CJ. He's already good. That's fully guaranteed. That is true.

That is true. But I guess does that make other teams leery of negotiating with Mulletta? Because Malageta has that big money for Deshaun. He's been so bad? I mean, the clients are going to love it. I'm trying to just look at his clients. I see Jalen Ramsey. Jordan Love.

Michael Parsons. Who. Yeah, he's doing fine. Derek Stingley. Kyle Pitts, I think, got it. Did he get a deal from the Falcons? Yeah, he sure did. Derwin James.

Oh, David's doing fine. Is he the number one power agent? Is he over at Drew Rosenhouse now? Absolutely. Now, Rosenhouse has more players. Because Rosenhouse will also go deep down to the backup noseguard guys. Yeah. But now he's not talking to them.

He's got his people with him that are walking to me. He's got like Bubba Gump's center on the practice squad. Yeah, if you're like on the practice squad for the Panthers, you're not speaking to the Rosenhouse. Now, you may be speaking to Chris Rosenhouse, his second cousin. Okay. That's as far as it goes. Yeah, Malagata, I'm guaranteeing you, Molligata is watching every Texans game with those. You know how sometimes you send text that you want to send, but you don't, or that email or that tweet?

You type out an angry email and don't send it. Yes, yes. we need to talk was on was at two fifty six no it wasn't they weren't going to talk it was just going to be that you know that little emoji the stock going up oh yeah he's going to send that one with like four dollar signs after that there you go because sarah's like new phone who this mm-hmm exactly 730 on sports talk 790 it is mad and ross and we are in the morning here on sports talk 790 coming up at 820 in less than an hour rossi again this is verbal cue less than an hour for the rotten 5 at 820.

Oh, okay. That was directly to you. Uh-huh. I mean, it's not that it's gross. No, I'm locked in on the Rodin 5. Okay, good. So good. 830.

Cam Ward will be used. He's going to keep it a buck with us. If Cam Ward is 71 years old and long retire, we're still using it. Of course, I'd have put us in the hundreds, but that's fine. Or there. 730 on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790 if you want to come in. and discuss the Astru's offensive utility yet again.

If you would like to discuss the Texans game with the Bengals coming up, if you have not gotten your two cents in on Andre Johnson's body language comments, we'll certainly discuss that. And matter of fact, we'll hear from what CJ Stride had to say about the body language comments. Matt and Ross in the morning, 736. Hope you guys are in a good mood. I always appreciate the ladies to listen to show. Shout out to you all.

What's up, ladies. and realize you were going to the infellas infill yeah there you go much better 713-212-570 so last hour we played Domingo Rines and he lied to you folks when he said he had not heard of the video

no, no video I don't know no video I'm just on Cincinnati man since they always catching strays I didn't notice that between Bill Belichick and Bill O'Brien It was like Frank Pantangeli on See I can make Godfather's references now

I don't know no godfather Yeah. Oh. Godfather? What's what? Andre said, huh? I talked to Andre about it. I don't know. So while Damiko lied to you, this to me for CJ was rather truthful and honest and appreciative. Yeah, I mean, I don't really have a comment for it. I would say, you know, like I respect Dre as a person. You know, I appreciate his critiques. I'm focused on this week, you know, trying to, you know, go on and no against the bangles.

But, you know, I respect Dre and, you know, if that conversation needs to be had, it'll be had. Perfect. Yeah. Talk to Gray about it. So whatever. Body language is bad when you throw four picks. I mean, what do you want him to do? You want to get his pom-poms out and start doing cartwheels?

If he was doing flips after throwing that fourth picks, you'd have been like, is he okay? They'd be like, okay, was he, is this an inside job? And people thought he was point shaving in the first place. And if he started fist pumping, then you really thought he was point shaving. You can't win. Because what happens, Matt, we know this happens. when guys are on the sideline and a team's down 21-0 and they crack a joke and somebody laughs or whatever

then everybody's oh they don't care they don't care look at this body language they're just checked out okay and then when they hit there and sat all the bad body language is bad they're not they're not confident out there so you can't win so I guess the question unless you win the football games everybody's body language everybody's great great body language you know Kevin Durant we talk about this with the rockets people were talking about his body language

because he's one of those guys who's just he's just a muted type of person for the most part I mean he's on the court he's obviously talking trash and stuff like that but he he's somebody who people he can be reserved in press availability and stuff like that and people like say oh they're when they're losing his body language is bad

and then nobody cares like he's come after people on his Twitter shockingly about people complaining about his body language so taking this a responsible thought about this as compared to talking about C.J. in particular, do quarterbacks just have to act differently? And I'll give you a, and this is a terrible analogy that's coming up. Here it comes.

If your company is suffering, sales are down, or you've had a mechanical issue or something, do you not need your leader always to have the glass half full approach to it, that maybe there is one player on a field of athletic, competition that you can never let them see a sweat? I'd... But, I mean, unless somebody's hurt, it's not like C.J. Stroud's crying

out there normally. No. Or really... I've noticed. I guess I'm not locked in on him on the sidelines, and I can only watch what they put on the TV. On TV. So I don't know. Maybe Andre Johnson has been at games, and he's got the binoculars out, and he's

locked in on the field, too. CJ Stroud is doing? Yeah. So maybe. Yeah. I'm not going to... I don't want to completely dismiss his perspective. He's a Hall of Fame NFL play. and he's played with a lot of quarterbacks. I mean, what was Matt Schaub's body language when he would throw him pick sixes every other throw? I believe he was in the fetal position.

Yeah. So he would know. I don't know. When I heard the comments, it made me not indict C.J. It made me think, man, you as a quarterback's, you can never, ever show that

you're not completely confident in your ability. And I think that's what Andre was saying, is that if there's a particular player on the field, like if you're left tackles pissed that there's another holding call or you give up a sack, I kind of get it. Horderbacks are on camera constantly that everybody is watching every single thing you do. And even if you are not feeling it,

you have to give across the thought of, I can get past this. I just threw another pick, but we're going to be fine. I'm going to shake some hands. I'm going to clap my hands. I'm going to do whatever I can to pump myself up. because I'm the most important person on the field. I guess I just would want more specifics from Andre of what he isn't seeing that he does want to see.

Oh, I think it's easy. I think he's seen the same things we've seen. See, he gets his dober down. But he's human. He's human. I don't think it's anything out of crazy or out of sorts. Even when he was, let's go back to the last year and Davis Mills was playing. And, you know, we saw those locker room conversations and, you know, game balls getting thrown.

and C.J. Stroud's in his workout clothes, you know, with a horrible attitude, just sitting there not clapping, not doing anything. If you're trying to be a leader and you're showing your distaste with everybody else. When he had a concussion? Yeah, when he was sitting there. Maybe he didn't know where he was.

Or his name. But do you see how athlete, like Johnson is saying? I guess I'll have to look at the specific video you're talking about. Davis Mills getting a game ball. But yes, but even. Oh, I don't, I wouldn't sit, when, when, Andre said what he said, I wasn't stunned by it. I've seen it. All of us have seen it.

And I don't, let me tell you something. People are trying to say, well, Andre should have kept that in house. What do I mean? Andre Johnson question asked and answered. Yeah, he's on a podcast. He's on a podcast. And he went viral. They're happy. Kendrick Perkins and Lil Kiki are happy their podcast is getting mentioned everywhere. Which I didn't even know existed until two days ago.

Legends talk, Matt. Really? But let's move this. Download Legends Talk. Let's move this to NBA, though. I mean, everybody says is the same. thing about who? James Harden. Yeah. That is the main one you can go to and everybody says he can't lead. He cannot win because he's not a good

teammate. That can go right to NFL C.J. Straud. You're not going to be a leader. You're not going to show that you're in it fully and you're so upset with the small mistakes and not in the game. That can definitely trickle down to everybody else. I guess. That's a real thing though. I know you're saying that because we had this argument when they were on the sidelines and the rockets, it were

I don't know, it was like Alper and Shingoon was down or whatever, and then they won like five of the next six games. So, I mean, to me, it goes to when you're losing and you're playing bad, we focus more on the body language. I'll just say to wrap this up, I don't think it's nothing, but I think the way that CJ handled the question asked to him yesterday was very professional. He can't worry about what Andre Johnson thinks about him.

He has got two things on his mind, win football games and get paid. I mean, his body language wasn't a problem, his rookie season. You're throwing a bunch of not interceptions and throwing a bunch of touchdowns and getting game-winning drives. I just think would you've had to learn more about this and anything else if you're a professional athlete, especially if you are as high-profile as an NFL quarterback is, you've got to hide it. You absolutely, you have to hide it. It may internally be killing you, but you cannot let them see the head dropping.

I feel Tom Brady was getting into fights with Bill O'Brien on the sideline, and he's screaming at people and Wes Welker and whoever else. I mean, nobody seemed to have a problem with that. Screaming and being passionate about the game and being... Is different? It's completely different. But you could say, oh, we're losing and he's throwing picks and now he's screaming at the offensive coordinator.

He's not a good leader. You can spin it however you want. I can spin it this way. I think Tom Brady was pissed off the way of the direction of the team. I don't think he was complaining about his performance or somebody else's. I think he was upset. 7.50 on Matt and Ross in the morning. The Athletic did an interesting story yesterday.

Maybe the day before, but I just happened to see it. And we're going to discuss it now about they did some dude. This is what they did. It's called journalism. They went and found out some things compared to speculating. This is the estimated roster budgets of teams in the Power 4 conferences and Notre Dame. And I believe every one of them is in there, if I'm not mistaken. is that there's 60 69 i think schools altogether i okay i'll take your word for it yeah um

few people inside a college football program know their school's exact number so this is all best speculations yeah and i think with the athletic does they went directly to the a d's now the 80s may not know every single dollar either even if they do talk to reporters some coaches will often undersell their own budgets school administrators and the other hand have the opposite incentive they want to expand their budgets to make it. So you have to take everything in relative. So whether the athletic talk to ADs or talk to coaches, this is what the approximate budget is for salaries for players at particular schools. It ranges from $8 to $13 million in the low end to as high as $49 to $54 million for the top end.

Now, I'm not going through all 68, but we'll just run through a few to keep you that you'd be interested in. At the very, very lowest end is Bill O'Brien's Boston College Eagles between $8 and $13 million. Oh, come on, Bill. We can't do that. Then a whole rash of big 12 schools in play. Cincinnati, Iowa State, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Houston, Houston, U.S. are all in the $15 to $20 million range. That's just on player salaries.

Moving up, and I'm going to go way up here because I want to go with the most important ones, at the top five of what they think is list of player salaries, coming in at number five, fighting Texas A&M Aggies, $45 to $50 million. LSU is between 47 and 50. Texas between 45 and 55. It's a big, one of the bigger ranges.

Yeah, for some reason. And again, these are all just, that's like calling a variety of people. What do you think you got? Estimates, yeah. Oregon at number two between 48 and $54 million and the number one school, in terms of estimated budget for rosters, is the Ohio state between $49 and $54 million. So when I saw this list yesterday,

you know what you were saying? saying that a couple of years ago that now that we're paying these athletes, it gives the other schools a chance to kind of get back in there. And obviously, Indiana is a great example of that. Yes. But if you still look at the top 10 programs, the ones that are getting the most money, it's schools that are very recognizable to the national championship chase. It's Ohio State. It's Oregon. It's Texas. It's LSU. It's Texas A&M. Well, Texas A&M hasn't won a championship since 1939. But they've always been a half. Has Oregon ever won? a football championship? But I mean, if you were to take a look at the programs, maybe A&M is not the great example of this, but Oregon certainly is. Miami, Notre Dame,

Ole Miss, Tennessee, Alabama. Now, the first school that pops up that has not been known, recognized as a national power, is Texas Tech, and they spend between 38 and $42 million. Michigan is a couple spots below them between $36 and $40 million. And then

I'm going down, down, down, down. Again, middle-the-pack schools, money-wise, have been generally speaking, Ross, middle-the-pack when it comes to their powerful rankings in national championship aspirations. So as much as it was interesting to see, Indiana, I don't know if they're raining champs. I don't have some one-off or not. Oh, they're undefeated, but they also haven't played anybody, so we'll see. Oh, they don't play anybody.

They're very proud of that. Yeah. I mean, they're going to have some tough games on their schedule. I can't remember who it is, like three or four ranked teams. Yeah. So I'm first of all blown away by the numbers. And I'm also blown away by the fact that if you are in the SEC or you are in the Big Ten, you have, because of your television contract being so much bigger and better than everybody else's,

you are going to be in that upper echelon group. The only school that's not, I mean, Notre Dame has his own deal with NBC. Miami is in the ACC, so their television deal is not nearly as. lucrative as the SEC and the Big Ten is, but they're up there. They must have somebody, Miami's got some very powerful alums, especially in South Florida.

I mean, Miami may not have a great fan base in terms of who their fans are, but the corporate community loves Miami University football. Yeah, they've been out of it for a while. I don't know, when's the last time they won a championship? Was it 2001? No, but I would think of a mission.

And the Longhorns have won one since 2006. Yeah. But, I mean, in terms of at least being in the competition for it. Right. I feel like Miami still remains a very much of national-reman. Texas is, but the money is lifting up some of these programs, including Texas. And that's why when you complain about your particular favorite school's television time, you have to, with all due respect, be quiet.

Because if you push back on television, the conferences will say, shut up, we're getting checks in these people. These schools would not be able to thrive like they are, if not for the large amount of television dollars. I mean, I guess I don't know. Does it break down these budgets and how much is coming from the school? How much is inside and outside of the program in terms of NIL budget? Because we know that there's money that's allotted from the schools to the players.

Yeah, I don't know. That's a great question. Obviously, you cannot give student athletes $50 million just from the school. You have to get it from outside sources. So I guess I'm just curious what each individual mix is. But yeah, Texas Tech is in the mix. and they would have no chance previously without money.

Well, it should be, it should be Texas Tech with an asterisk in the upper right hand corner is C.C for Cody Campbell. Well, I mean, he's there. He's ponying up. So let's go. Indiana for 100 years had no chance. Who is, is Mark Cuban helping on Indiana?

They said Mark Cuban is helping this year, but I think he, I think he upped his commitment. So I don't know who previously. I don't know who there. There's some Indiana billionaires, I think. either that or what's his face is Kirk Cignetti is a psychopath and a great coach. Yeah. I guess he's good in the border room too. Yeah.

Getting these dollars. That's what it is. You have to have coaches that will take time out of their lives in season and out of season to go shake hands and kiss babies and ask for money. You flat out half that if that's not part of your job. And that's what I think Diablo Sweeney's running into at Clemson right now. He doesn't want that to be part of his job during football season. And Notre Dame has been up in these Spennings and I don't think they've won a championships in the 90s. No, but NBC's

TV deal is still very lucrative. So they're very good. I'm just saying the spending also doesn't guarantee championships. It does not. We talk about the four. There's so many schools spend all this money. And the only one wins. All right, let's get it. What the hell's burning money? I like money on fire at South Carolina. They're in the upper. They're spending

more than Auburn, Georgia, Oklahoma, Penn State. Look at Nebraska two wins Nebraska has been relevant in over a decade Maybe Jake Myers is writing them big checks I would if I'm Jake I'd be holding on to his money Bryce Matthews too Nebraska Legends

All right I'm sorry All right for further depression On the Astros coming up in a matter moments I hate the depressing on the Astros But why? Because it was depressing last night I want to talk about depression They're not good

I know They're mid 76 and 76, the quintessence of mid, with 10 little games remaining, Ross, tied for first place. This is Matt and Ross in the morning. Royals even up the series at a game of peace as they defeat the Astros 5 to 2. Astros have lost four of their last five and are now tied with the Texas Rangers for first place in the American League West. All right. That's the highlight for some percentage of them. They're going to win the West.

Okay. They're going to win by two games. Okay. I keep speaking it into existence. Sure, why not? You can say whatever you want in front of this microphone. They've got to go and hit the baseball. Well, they know I know they're listening.

Crystal Walker's in a huge slump. Yeah. Cam Smith's in a huge slump. Yes. Dulton Varshow. All of them. Al-Tuvay's been sliding. into the abyss.

Yes. Jeremy Pena thankfully woke up. I mean, he was on a really bad run. Yeah. And then he's been good in this series so far in two games. Got his OPS up to 799. It was 904 in the beginning of August. And it went down to

768. So he's bouncing back. He was yesterday, it was at 790, which we love. Well, we don't love, I mean, we love the call the numbers, but we don't love that. And Alvarez's OPS has probably dropped 100 points in the last six weeks or so. Probably not that much because he's still over a thousand. 1,022.

He'd get a home run on Tuesday. Yep. Still should win the MVP. Well, he's tied with Chandler Simpson now. Yeah, remember everybody was like, he's like minus 20,000 to win the MVP. And now everyone's like, well, you know, we checked yesterday with our friends Kalshi. He was trading at 88%. So he's still the big favorite.

Well, put it this way. If he slumps the rest of the way, there's two things that are going to happen. happen. He may not win it, and the Astros will not be in the playoffs. If you don't, if you, if you, if you've got somebody in your life that's carrying your company, because they're the big sellers, they've been an off month, you are trying to rally them. You are trying to pump them up. Because you can say all the right things you want to to Lamont Wade and you can say all the right things to Camas Smith. You can say all the right things to Nick Allen. Well, let's get some sales, Jorge Barrosa. Come on. Dude, Jorge Barone's Al. Horace Barossa has never sold anything for this company before. Well, he's new. He's still in training. He fell out of community college.

And Jose Altuve is the guy that used to get a lot of sales back of the day. He's like Jack Lemon and Glengarry Glen Ross. There you go for a reference for you. I didn't see the movie. How about falling down Michael Douglas? All right. I'm going to have to watch Hallmark movies so I can make references you can get. First of all, I despise Hallmart movies.

Oh, I'm sorry, Lifetime Movie Network. Those I can live with, but I'm watching either one of those In the while later. Which soap operas are you watching? I'm watching Young and the Restless and the Bold and Beautiful. Okay. I'll have to get into those so we can make some references for you. I wish I could give you

five minutes on the Bold and the Beautiful, but I can't. Because I would lose I would lose the audience. Let me, let's just say there was a relationship between two people that were married. Okay. And she's pregnant. Okay. So you're saying, what's a

big? about that, right? What's the big deal with that? Well, the guy she was with is black. And her husband's white. So what? Put two and two together. Okay. If we know it's his, that's the thing. That's a big question. You're going to do Plinko's, power bombs, and backstabs? No. We're going to talk about your podcast. I'd like to talk about the Astros. Okay. What do you want to talk about? Cam Smith, bad. Jose Al-Tuve. Oh, I went to go look up his war. It was negative yesterday. I saw on Twitter yesterday. His batting average is under 300 for the first time since 2014. Negative.1 war. He's been below replacement level this year. How much you guys get into the Carlsacres is not going to play this year movement?

Well, I learned from the best on that one. I pat myself on the back for getting my to tell the truth correct. It just felt far-fetched. I don't know if he had some. He didn't want to say the words, they didn't want to say the word setback, but flare-up, I believe, the word used and the soreness after working every day. You just tried to rush it.

Yeah, of course. And I commend him for trying to do so, but the reality is most players that suffer the type of ankle injury he suffered are done for six, eight months. It was a major ankle surgery, like he had ligament damage or something like that. Yeah. It's not going to work. But also, it was also weird where he was going to fit in.

There was the report over the weekend, of course, from Chandler Rome, that they might try to work him at second base and D.H. Jose Al-Tuvae. So it was... And Yordaum playing a lot of left field, I guess. Yeah, and then Yordon misses the weekend with an ankle injury. So how are you going to put him in left field? Go ahead and say it. I wouldn't want to bench Al-Tuve.

Don't. Because you can't. Altupe is hitting in this lineup. I'm sorry. Hitting what? I mean, he'd be obviously if Correa was playing, he'd be further down the lineup for sure, but not that much further. I know.

695 0.97 OPS plus. So, I mean, that's honestly better than a lot. of Astros. Unfortunately, a below average hitter has been one of your better hitters. What happened to Christian Walker? I mean, I don't know. I felt like I've said this for three months now. I think he's tired and old.

I bet the bat speed is down. The strikeouts remain high. I would unload him and look, Christian's a good dude. Go find somebody that just has to spend a couple of bucks on players to fill him up and fill a roster. Pay some of the

salary. I mean, this is the first, after watching yesterday, and maybe yesterday was not a fair indication of why I thought this. But I thought a lot about 2027. When I say 2027, I think when the next time they play baseball. So hopefully it is 2027, but there's a chance it might not be. The next time they play, this can't come out. I mean, either you're going to spend a lot of money and really reinvigorate this team, or you're going to take a step back. and probably not think about any sort of title contention in 2027, because you can't keep, this can't keep going. You can't spend crazy money on Hunter Brown in theory,

or Jeremy Paineo or Yarnan Alvarez, and then tried out six or seven or eight and nine guys that just aren't major league players. They have to be done trying to thread the needle of, we're going to stay under the tax, and we're not going to spend any money on free agency, and, oh, by the way, we're going to contend. That's over.

You can't have it both ways. Either you're going to have to overspend or be more aggressive in trades as compared to what this is. Trading what, though. You want to keep all your guys, all your prospects, because you finally just have a couple of top hundred guys. And they're, I mean, they're teenagers, your best guys, your Nionses and your Fremens and those guys.

Could you look, could we as a Houston, baseball community live with two years of suck to get back. I mean, that's what Atlanta did. Remember when Atlanta was going to the playoffs year after year after year? We'd get mad and we're not going to be happy about it. No, because you don't want to ever think about it. Well, oh, here we go in 2028.

This team may win 75 games tops. That's not fun to discuss. Not fun to run to the ballpark to. Three or top four guys by MLB Popline. Alvarez, Nien, are 18, 19, and 17. Unless they all of a sudden move skyrocket up the minor league charts, they're not

ready. They will not be ready for two years. And you've got no one at AAA that you're going, man, I can't wait to say what Miguel Uliola will do for this Astros team in 2020. Yeah. Logan Hughes, I believe he's been hitting pretty well for the

for the Woodpeckers. That's your recent draft pick. He's your number three guy right now. I just think it's easier said than done, but it's a responsible thought. Will the Astros front office shut the door, lock it, and say let's move Walker, just to get off some payroll.

Let's move Paredes. Let's Pena. And move Pena. It's really Yordon and the Pips then. I mean, at that point, do you, do you, what do you do with Yordon? And then Yordon, if that's two more years for him, how will he be, say, 20, 29? He's 29 right now. He can still be a great dead.

He could be a great designated hitter for the next 10 years. Yes. Yeah, I wouldn't be worried about his age. Bat swing, yes, but not his age. And the bat swing is certainly still very, very elite. Bat speed? Bad speed, contact, all the good stuff. Yeah, I would try to keep Yordon.

Yordon can be here the next time you're contending. You're not content. I mean, you're barely contenders as a function of your division right now. With your record, you wouldn't even be in the playoffs in National League anywhere close to sniffing the playoffs in the National League. Thankfully, the American League is terrible. and you are in the worst division in baseball. You know what? I can live with Yordon on the Pips for a couple of years.

Which, by the way, you're, yeah, that's what is what is going to have to be? And you're, what now, a game and a half behind the Guardians overtook first place in the Central. And you are a game and a half behind them, which the pipe dream of the two seed is still kind of alive just as a function of how bad those two divisions are. That's true. All right, ladies and gentlemen,

it takes nobody special to tell you who the five best teams are in the NFL. It takes somebody of special football acumen to give you the five worst teams in the NFL. Ross's Rotten Five is up next, and then after that we have, I just don't get it at 8.30 here. So we've got a lot to get to between now and 10 o'clock. They've gone bad. Hey, they draw flies. Ooh, it's Ross's Rotten Five. This don't smell quite right.

We do not cuss and discuss the five best teams in the NFL. Again, a lot of stations do wacky Florida stories. We bucked that trend. We give you the absolute worst NFL teams from five all the way down the number one. We present to you this season premiere of Ross's Rotten Five. Thank you, Matt. It is an honor and a pleasure to be back giving you the absolute worst teams in the NFL.

And well, you could probably guess who's going to be close to the end of this list, but let's go with what might be a surprise to some of you. I'm going to go with the New Orleans Saints as the fifth worst team in the NFL. Now, credit to them, they did get down 21 points in this game. They fought back. They forced overtime. They went for two to try to get a victory. Tyler Shuck threw 400 yards and three touchdowns as well in the game.

But still, they felt short. It feels more like a one-week wonder type of game from them. I don't expect them to be that good. Maybe Travis Etienne Jr. is going to be good with them at running back. But overall, not a believer in the Saints. They are the fifth worst team in the NFL. Believers, yeah.

Got to set the head up the crawfish there. And, of course, I always like to make sure we get that in. So when in doubt, go with the Saints. All right, let's go next to the Atlanta Falcons. They lost 20 to 13 to 2. The Pittsburgh Steelers. It's kind of not their fault, I guess. They had to go with Cooper Rush at quarterback,

but still when your offseason plan was Michael Pennix and Tuatung of Aloha, two terrible lefties as a leftie. It's their embarrassment to all of us around the world. And then basically reinvesting in Bejan Robinson, you did make him your entire offense. 238 yards the Falcons gained on Sunday. 173 of those were by Bejan Robinson.

So he is your offense, but Cooper Rush and the Atlanta, Falcons hardly scoring anything. I mean, the Steelers even aren't very good as they're trotting of 90-year-old Aaron Rogers out there. But you lost that game. You're the fourth worst team in the NFL. Oh, no, it's bad. It's real bad.

All right, and a matchup of a clash of Titans this past weekend. I imagine the Raiders are going to appear on this list at some point, but we're going to give them a break since they were able to get the win over the Dolphins. But, man, what is going on? Malik Willis was not very good in week one. Devon A. Chan got nothing going. Willis was your leading rusher. Defense wasn't even good. I mean, you're getting carved up by

Kirk Cousins. Ashton Genties running for over 100 on you. They've got maybe the worst defense in the league. They might also may have the worst offense in the league. They're going to probably wiggle on down the list as the season goes along. But Miami Dolphins right now, third worst

team in the NFL. No, they're not number one. Who ripped off who on that, by the way? It was the artist sent the song out to every team and only certain teams purchased that. So nobody ripped anybody off.

Just that guy. Maybe she was smart. I guess he got them to pay for it. I don't know how that worked out. But I believe the artist made a bunch of those songs and sent them out to a bunch of NFL teams and some picked them up. And some didn't. Let's move on down the list to the AFC South. You start off your season

scoring 10 points against the New York Jets and you're getting carved up. Okay, not necessarily carved up, but I mean, Gino Smith and the jets come into your house and put 23 on you and you can only muster 10?

Cam Ward just 140 yards. 4.4 yards per attempt for Cam Ward. That is an embarrassment. The Tennessee Titans are terrible. Amy Adam Strunk must be really upset because, well, Cam Ward, how's the state

of the team? We're keeping a bulk right now. We ask. The number two worst team in the NFL, the Tennessee Titans, and we all know who is going to be on the bottom. They got absolutely torched by Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence. He threw four touchdowns against you. The Cleveland Browns are bad on defense. They're bad on offense. Todd Munkin keeps having to make excuses.

Deshaun Watson keeps putting his foot in his mouth. They are absolutely horrible. I saw there is another sports entity that's stealing our bit, Matt. They put the Browns at 31 and 32 worst teams in the NFL. I'm just going to make them the absolute worst team in the NFL. But Deshaun Watson says, everybody makes bad plays. No, I mean, bad plays are going to happen all the time. Yeah, they are, especially when you're at quarterback Deshaun.

And that's you're out in five, and here's your bonus drop. You are a factory of sadness. That's a Browns fan from a long time ago, and it hasn't gotten any better. It sounded like John McIro there for a minute, didn't it? Browns, the absolute worst team in the NFL. And yet they're getting a new stadium. Good for them. Outside of downtown.

And I'm sure they're printing money still. Poor Browns fans. I mean, the Lions fans at least have had some success. And they have like, you could watch Javier Gibbs and Dave Montgomery back. Well, not now, of course. But I mean, Barry Sanders, my favorite running back at all the time. Calvin Johnson was cool. Matt Stafford would throw like a 5,000 yards.

They've had some stuff to happen that's fun. And by the way, indoors for the last. last 40 years. The Brown's best run was like Vinnie Testiverty and Bill Belichick. And Ernest Biner's fumble. And the drive for John Elway. That's what I'm saying. Absolute worst. Y'all is Houston sports fans. You think we got it bad? Which we do. Yes, we do. Every city's got it bad. Cleveland's got it bad. First of all, you live in Cleveland.

They're also first ballot rotten five hall of famers, the Cleveland Browns. And along with Jacksonville, right? And Jacksonville's they're up there? They're up for nomination. We've got to take them to the Veterans Committee. You see John McLean is off the Pro Football Hall of Fame committee. I believe Tony Dungey is off. Bill Polian is off. They cut down the list

big time. It's funny. I don't know if the general public cares how people get voted in, but everybody's got it differently. The NBA, the pro basketball Hall of Fame, it lets everybody in their mother in. I feel like the more voters you have, the better to me.

Because you get more perspectives, especially more nationwide, coast to coast, you'll get more West Coast guys, get more centrally located guys. The crazy part of it was when you were in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, you were basically assigned an athlete because you covered him. Now you've got to push for him. This is not marketing 101.

It's either a guy gets in or a guy doesn't get in. Meanwhile, Major League Baseball requires you to get 75% of the vote in. They're going from 50 voters to 28. I just, I don't get it. I guess somebody can explain. Those 28 feel pretty good. feel pretty good about themselves right now. I guess Paul Kaharski

was a voter cut and he's been making a list. A lot of these guys I have not heard of. Yeah, they're just probably old stodgett. Mary Kay Cabot from... She got cut? Yeah. Matt Mayoko from San Francisco, Tony Dungey cut, Bill Pullian, Lisa Salters,

Rich Samini. So how do you make that phone call? Hey, we really appreciate all your efforts here and covering the NFL. You know ball, but no, you don't. You're out. Now, Jones's a situation is a little different. And I would say this to John if he was here. John's been technically retired for a while. Yeah.

So, I mean, I would think you'd want to have active writers that are covering the beat every single day. Rick Gosselin's been a voter for 31 years in Dallas. I was a voter for six. No, you weren't. Okay. Sounded good, though. Tony Grosie in Cleveland?

Yep. 31 years. Now, all these guys, are they active still right reporting for these teams? I don't know. I mean, let them do the Veterans Committee stuff. And here's the problem. It's probably, my guess is the Shepter still have a vote. Rapid Port still has a vote.

Oh, yeah. And they're probably having those agents do that and say, you're going to vote from our guy that was in there because I need you to do that and I'll give you some stories. The world of journalism just going out and getting stories without having to rely on an agent or you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, is long gone. It's unfortunate, but it's part of the journalism business now. I still think you should have more voters

and more markets represented. I don't see who... Or how about just people that just follow the teams every single week? Okay. Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? No need to worry.

No need to fret. We will discuss the topics to see if we comprehend the things that may confuse our friends. It's time to say I just don't get it. And here we go. On Things in Life, you just don't get. 713.

212.5-790. Something confuse you? Something you disagree with. You need a ruling? 7-13-21-21-5-7-90. 7-13-21-2-5-7-90. Now, Ross, we let Jonathan go first this week. I like that.

Jonathan getting some more publicity. There's another new song coming to the show tomorrow that's got John's name on it. Oh, wow. So we're making a big part. When are we going to debut this song? tomorrow at seven o'clock. 7 a.m. New song with John is forcing it.

Okay. John, then what don't you get? So I was thinking about the other day. And my entire life, I don't know when Haynes, like, you know, the ketchup about, you know, the company or whatever, started making these, you know, the one size tear, one side's peel. They never work. I think the normal package is so much better. I don't get why they, I don't, who they made this for? because I don't know if that's just me.

But every time I get them, they never open. All right, I want to do the pill side of dip. You know what I'm talking about? I, first of all, I exactly know what you're talking about. Rick Relay uses those, the Heinz dippers. They're the ketchup thing. And I don't get it either because I have the same problem you do. I can never open it.

I can't open it. I can't ever get the ketchup. You can't open them? No. No. The ketchup pack is so much easier just to, you know, like, Now, are the catcher packet's not nearly as environmentally friendly? Maybe.

I don't know why you would have gone away from that. The catcher packet where you just tear, use your teeth or your index finger, tear those bad boys up, pour it, let's go. But the little containers that Rick Relay has, nope. I just, I don't, every time I get one, I'm like, I don't understand this. I don't know how they make profit from this. I don't get it. I don't get it. I mean, I haven't had really many issues.

with them, but I guess I don't use them a lot. I don't use them a lot because I'm like, oh for three and I'm like, screw this. I'll go without ketchup. It's pretty easy to dip. Maybe it's been more difficult. Maybe you guys got someone to the batch from a manufacturing error. Was this recent? The peel ever comes off the side of the, they can't get a little, you know, the adhesive

always is not there. I don't know, man. I just don't get that. I don't get it. I'm right there with you, Jonathan. Thank you for having the same problems that I go through. Okay. Mine is sports related.

The University of Houston is going to be leaving today for Lubbock. Okay. Take on Texas Tech. By the way, today's edition of Believer and I was all things about Lubbock. You hopping on that plane? I am. Such a whore. Why am I a whore?

I'm sorry. Did I say that out loud? Yeah, you did. Oh. Tens of people heard it. Folks, Ross has called me a whore. You're here for one day. I'll be on with you tomorrow from Lubbock.

Don't worry. That's great. I think Gorey's done more of these morning shows than you have at this point. That's ridiculous. I'm not taking any more time off. to the middle of basketball season. So back off, Bugaloo. All right.

What does that even mean? That's a Ringo Starr song. Do you want to hear it? No. Are you sure? No. Okay. No.

No more. So. Ringo Star solo? Oh. It has some hits. Oh. Not great a songwriter. I don't got a song about an octopus.

Nogptopuses garden. Yeah, thanks, Ringo. Good stuff. So, my, back to sports. Ross, sorry, go ahead.

There are people in the state of Texas in particular that are not happy that Texas Tech and the University of Houston are playing football tomorrow night

because Friday nights in Texas are the gospel. And we would hate for all these people that are high school football fans to miss Texas Tech

versus Houston on a Friday night. the reality is this I mean my daughter went to Kingwood High School my sons went to two private high schools St. Thomas and and I've had hell I forgot the other one was called

oh wow I'm still small in athletics but that's my own here know there they got that direct deposit they certainly did they remember my name I don't remember theirs oh Coven I remember the world was now okay but if I don't care I don't care I don't care

I can clear click or plunge and clear click you're playing this week. I don't care that Bel Air is playing Lamar. It does. If high school football is not intimately involved in your life because your son plays or your daughter is in the drill team or your son

is in the band or daughter, you're not worried about missing out on college football or high school football because a college football game is on. Joey McGuire wore a Texas high school hat Friday in his press conference to and he says he's going to wear it before the game

tomorrow night is a way to say, well, I'm saluting you Texas high school football that we should be playing on Friday night. The big, I thought of director, Kirby Holcutt told Texas Big 12 conference, don't put our game on on a Friday night. You know what the Big 12 and Fox said, shut your ball mess up? Who cares? College football is way more important than a measly old little high school football game. You don't get it?

I don't get it. Well, this is in 1976. High school football is still a huge deal in Texas number one. But it's a huge deal only to the people of those schools. Well, okay, there's only hundreds of schools that people get invested in. I mean, it's all the way from single-lay up to whatever they have seven. What was the last time you were invested in a high school game? I'm not invested in a high school game.

But I understand that there are people who do it and there are coaches and there are fans. There are, I mean, people who have children who are on these teams. And by the way, what you're also doing if you're Joey McGuire is your advertising. and you're trying to gain yourself in a positive light with these high school coaches as well. I feel for your high school coaches. It's PR as well. You don't understand that that's public relations 101.

Thanks, Joe McGuire. Our Texas High School. Yeah. I mean so much to us. Thanks, coach. It puts them in a positive light. For example, if you hear an advertisement for a certain something, you're not necessarily going to get up, run over there,

and go to the store and buy it. But if you're browsing the aisles, If your kid gets an offer from Texas Tech might put it in a little bit You know what? Yeah, you know, I like that Joey McGuire. He stood up for us. It could be your subconscious.

It's advertising. And advertising works. Advertising works. You know that's right, big city wings. Cal shoot. All right, that's enough. I don't, I still don't get it. I don't see why there's outrage for one Friday night college football game.

Because people are very passionate about high school football. Just because you're not. I know Maid Creek has been a dormant. If we won 20. And we won 25 state titles, I wouldn't care. It's high school football. I mean, I think you would have come up in a completely different culture in high school. I'm not saying I did.

Nimitz certainly wasn't big time football, nor has it ever been. I just, I win the fights in the stands. I think for Houston, if I'm a Houston or a Texas Tech fan, I'm enjoying the fact that my teams are playing on the national landscape more than anywhere else. How many people collectively on a Friday night do you think, in Texas are at a high school football game from A all the way to, is it 7A now or what do they do now? There's two different six A's. Okay, there's two different six A's, right?

There's like a high one and a low one. Right. Why didn't they go to seven? Because every year fluctuates. It depends on the district and what you're in. Okay, well, instead of two six A's, why can't you make a seven A? Because there's not enough schools that are seven. And it's with UIL.

Well, how many are in, how many are in six A, the high one? No, if you, three teams are in the playoffs. from a particular district. I don't get this. I think the highest one is the 6A Division 1, the next two are the 6A Division 2. It spends on enrollment size. They don't intermix, though, right? Yeah, they're in the same district, yeah.

Oh. So like Shadow Creek, Summer Creek used to be 5A, and they would go out of it, but, you know, like schools like mine, Forbent Travis, you would burst some of the playoffs. Why don't they just redistrict them? Okay, we're moving. All right, anyways. I think having University Houston and Texas Tech on a national landscape on our front of

How many people in Texas at High school game Friday nights. Oh, you're rolling on Google. Chat GBT for this? Attendance at a single game can range from 10,000 to 23,000. I want total. Have you ever been to Friday night high school football game? I have, absolutely. When's the last time?

Okay, so statewide capacity, 4.4 million seats. 1,400 high school programs playing games every week. They play on Thursday. They play on Saturday, too. I don't hear college is getting upset because high schools play games on Saturday night. So you've got hundreds of thousands of people at games every week who aren't going to be able to catch the game. So I did it. I don't think it's like a huge deal.

They want the Fox check and that's all good. He's not going to complain when that Fox check comes in. But I get it. And again, as I said, he wants to, you know, be to reach out to the high school. You're not, if your son or your daughter or your band member is playing on a. Friday night, you're going to that game regardless what's on television. That's my point. You're not sitting at home going, man, Houston, people in Cincinnati, Ohio,

who are going to a high school football game or going to the high school football game, they're not going to, man, that Texas Tech Houston game should be a showdown. I can guarantee. I can figure out which I'm going to go to. I could guarantee there are conflicts. There are people who want to catch the game, but they're going to go to the high school game. There'll be zero conflicts in Lubbock, Texas, out of way West Texas will be 50,000 people at the game tomorrow night. Not enough clock.

None of conflict. I'm sure there's people across the state conflicted. All right, we're going to go to a break, and we're going to get what you don't get. Okay, good. Stop arguing by my bet. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. There's something in life you just don't get.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Let's argue. And by the way, watch Texas Tech Houston at a bar tomorrow. All right, if something you don't get, let us know. We'll be here to help you. By the way, I found out Willie Fritz also wore that Texas cap, too. I just, oh, that's fine. I mean, I just, I still don't get it.

I'm not bemoaning Fox and I'm not bemoaning us. I think it's a great opportunity. Okay. That's all I'm saying. It's not bad. What's that? Yeah, it's not bad. No, it's good.

It's good for national, especially outside of Texas. Yeah, that's what I'm, I mean, I'm more concerned. Again, my, my only point is that I'll wrap it up with this is that I think if I have a son or a daughter who is competing in a Friday night football event, drill team, band, playing in the game, you could. put on Notre Dame versus Michigan and I'm not going to watch it. I'm not going to sit at home to watch a college football game

if my daughter or son is competing on a Friday night. You don't think there's anybody who is a Houston Cougar fan who would love to catch the game but who also has to go, not has to, but wants to go watch their son or daughter perform. Okay. There is. That's all. So yeah, it just creates more conflicts than it would on a Saturday. You bring your phone or you put the Fox app on and you listen to

950K here. You're going to figure it out. Yeah, you'll figure figure it out. What if the Wi-Fi spotty? 4G works. 5G? I don't know. What's the Wi-Fi situation at old WW-Thorn? I don't know.

They even have Wi-Fi there? I don't think so. No, you have to rely on the 5G. All right, Ross, what don't you get? Why do we have to get outraged about everything? Huh. What a week to discuss that. I mean, look, I understand that there are,

there's nuances to every discussion. But I'm talking about specifically especially, the people who want to go on social media and either A I mean crush Archmanning or I don't even know whoever Sark or Holly Roe

there was Longhorn fans and I'm sorry this is embarrassing as a Longhorn fan who are like attacking Holly Roe for standing there waiting to ask a question and then yeah she rolled her eyes when Steve when Sarkeesian went away which we didn't get your perspective on that either man to me it was just unprofessional

I'll just stump for the University of Texas for 30 seconds and move on with your life. Sark. You know, just go, hook them and I'm out of here. But, like, people who are, like, attacking Holly Row like she did anything wrong. Even if you want to attack Sark, it was a movie he shouldn't have done. But getting all outrage and whipping yourself in a tizzy, and it's, like, affecting your, throughout your day.

There are people who are, like, sending five, six, seven hate messages on social media to people. Go on, move on with your life. I don't get it. Why are you letting a post-game interview and in the comments from Arch Manning, like, affect your day? I don't get it. Here's the problem with AI is you have to do a double-take to make sure things are accurate in general life. I didn't have to do a double-take when Sark slapped Holly Roe. Or when she hit him and he fell, she threw him into the moon.

Yeah, he was on his way out of the stadium. I mean, I didn't see any of that until Arch talked about it. So I guess it's not in my algorithm. There are people out there who love AI. And I'm not going to, I almost thought about using that from I. I don't get it, but people love AI. I mean, for whatever reason. They think it's hilarious.

Ha, ha, you know, Bob Barker said something ridiculous to C.J. Stroud or whatever. It's a real knee slapper. It's lowbrow shock comedy. But see, that's the thing is what you said is right. It is lowbrow shot comedy. But I take it for what it is. and I move on. Yes.

And the fact that Arch had to ask a question about it, and he giggled about it because it's a giggle thing. It's not, there was nobody in there. It's not to be taken seriously. Nobody with an IQ of, I don't know, what is a decent IQ, right? Average is 100. Okay. Less than 100.

Nobody is condoning AI version of Sark hitting Holly Row. Nobody came out and said Sark should have slapped Holly Row. And violence against women is excellent in A great time. Nobody with an average, average IQ sat there and went, man, that's what Sark should have done. Glad for that. I'm glad that's out there. They're there to push their own agendas too. And that's why Matt, I had kind of made up the connection with some of these other, like, especially men attacking Holly Royal. This is why that Diana Rossini stuff really set back women in sports and they're using it and Joy Taylor, all this to further push this massage, you know, this narrative. they're going to use this no matter what.

And it's just weird. Like, Ross, I don't get it either, Ross. I'm not going on. Move on with your life. I will never send Holly Row a hate message on Twitter. I've had very limited dealings with Holly Row over the years. That's good. So I cannot even speak to if she's a cool person or a heat.

She and Arch talked on the phone and everything's good between them. Well, then we're moving on there. They hugged it out. That's good. It makes me happy. Not literally. What didn't make me happy was the Astros performance. performance yesterday. And reading Brian McTagger

tweets. Oh, why are you doing that? This is coming up next. This is Matt and Ross in the morning. What on Sports Sox 7-0. It is Matt and Ross in the morning. We're going to be joined here shortly by Brian McTaggart of MLB.com on the Astros beat. Astros fall last night, 5 to 2 to the hated Kansas City Royals. The Rangers fell behind early to the Red Sox,

but the Rangers came back to beat the Bow Sox 7 to 3, so the Astros and the Red Sox, the Astros and Rangers are also with 10 games left to go in the season. Have identical records. They have played... Oh, man. What a race. They have played 152 times this year.

76 victories. 76 defeats. Nip and tuck back and forth race. I'm on the edge of my seat. We're seeing great baseball down the stretch. I can't wait to see how this finishes for the Astros and the Rangers. All right. we're going to have

I'm going to need to call text and we're having phone issues okay so I'm going to have you talk for just a second yeah we'll just have Brian McTaggart call us we may be having some phone issues but obviously I'm being sarcastic they've won four I should say lost four of their last five games it's been the up and down season it's what they are

and we keep waiting and waiting and we talked about it like even for the last couple of months maybe this pitcher is going to turn around maybe this hitter is going to turn around and they show you a little something and Cam Smith hits three home runs for three straight games and then he goes one for 17. So you get these little slivers of hope

where somebody gets hot, even Jose Al Tuvei was swinging a hot bat a couple of times here and there. But now he's hitting 243 with an OPS to 695. So why is Cam, and we don't have an answer to this and we'll throw this question to Brian when he joins us here in a minute.

How does Cam go through these? I mean, it's a roller coaster Ross. It's a triple. It's a big home run. It's a big big RBI double late in the games. And then he follows him up with multiple 0 for 15s.

I don't know and the good news is at least it's not like on this lump. I'd have to go look at like ex and velos and stuff like that because he's been hitting hard, you know, getting some hard hit contact. But it just seems like he's getting in a lot of bad counts

and he's just not enough getting solid contact. Because when he does, obviously, we've seen the power. I mean, if you get 20 home runs, you've got some power. But it's just not consistently enough. And I do think I still like him long term as a guy who can maybe creep to around 750 OPS play gold glove caliber right field. That's somebody who has tons of value.

So why do you, and I'm not saying I disagree with you, but what makes you see that when we've watched two years of essentially the same type of professional unless you're just saying maturity kicks in? Yeah, he's 23 years old. old and he didn't get, did he even get in it bad in AAA? No. He got 20 played appearances in double A, I believe. So yeah, he's learning on the job. He's 23 years old. I think, I think absolutely he has the room to put it together. And then if you look relative to last year, he has gotten better in terms of, I want to go back and make sure I'm

right on it. I believe the walk, at least at one point of the season, so it could have gone worse. But the walk rate had ticked up, the strikeout rate had ticked down. So he's got some things that you can see where the bat speed is still elite as well. And

barrel percentages are up, hard hit percentages are up. I still think he can be a little bit better. What's his actual batting average? So 213. XBA's 239. which is not world beating,

but shows maybe he's having a little bit of bad luck there too. So that's why. I think he's been underperforming. I think he's young. He didn't get a lot of plate appearances. He's almost 1,000 plate appearances now in a major leagues, which is crazy. Thrown into the fires,

body failed him especially at the end of the last year. 20 home runs. He went from 9 to 20 home runs. So he jumped up there. He's just got to pull everything else up. So here is, we're in the room with Jim Crow. and the front office executives without a general manager right now.

And we don't give out long-term contracts. We like to buy out arbitration years for a handful of players. Bregman did it. We did it with also Jose Altuve, Jordan Alvarez, Christian Javier. Those are just names that come to mind right at the top.

How deep of a conversation did the Astros have about Kim Smith and trying to catch him on the cheap. I would do that. I mean, it's something reasonable. You wouldn't give him some kind of crazy Yordon Alvarez type of deal, because Yordaun Alvarez hit the scene

like gangbusters, and he had over 30, didn't he or was it like 27 home runs his rookie year? In short, it only like 90-something games, and he was rookie of the year. So Cam Smith isn't necessarily there, but you would, you could possibly, I mean, you could convince me to put him on some kind of deal

where I think you could win long term. That wouldn't be crazy at all to me. Because what I think when he is at his best, we go, man, I can see this guy being a middle of the order. Maybe not a 300 hitter, but a 250 with a high OPS of about 800 or higher. You could see signs of that. He's had, I mean, his barrel percentage went from 7 to 11%. League average is 7.6%. So he made a big leap there.

He obviously hit the ball a mile. his strikeout percentage went down and actually his walk percentage went down as well. So it's certainly something that's a work in progress. But I'll say this. It's still, to me, it's just as much of a gamble. And if you want to do something, say something negative about him, the challenges do reflect a poor judge of the strike zone.

If he's been so, I mean, is it all been, some of these have been way off and he's challenging. And it hasn't really gotten any better. Yeah. Even though we've begged and pleaded for him to stop doing it. So I could buy that as an argument of like, I don't know, if he can't even judge the strikes on, how good is he going to be long term? Yeah. I can buy that. Let's talk to our good friend Brian McTaggart, who's on a nice stroll throughout the league city area.

Tags, good morning. Do you what's going on? Morning, guys. How you doing? I'm good. We were having a little conversation about Cam Smith. How deep do you think the front office of the Astros will have in terms of thinking about Cam Smith's contract for the foreseeable future in this off season coming up? Well, I mean, they have him under contract for four more seasons, so I don't think he's going anywhere.

It's weird because, you know, he has a series like he did in Philly, and you think he's turning the corner, and then he goes a week without a hit. I mean, he's sort of done this all season. So, you know, I don't think they're ready to give up on him yet, certainly. He's only 23, and he's a great defender. So he'll be back. He'll be back in the mix, and, you know, maybe he can find it, make some adjustments. investments and see if he can get it together. But I don't think it's a case where they're going to cut him in the offseason or anything

just because he's not making any money and he's got a lot of tools. Well, the reason why I brought that up is because the Astros have had history in a few cases of actually buying some arbitrationeers out and extending him thinking, you know what, let's get him on the cheap right now. That's the reason why we brought that up. Yeah, I don't see. Yeah, I don't really, I don't think we'll see that yet. I mean, I think you'd have to have a better season

than maybe you have those conversations. I got you. All right. Yesterday was, as I was listening to the game and watching it and reading your tweets, it was sobering watching you run through the various stats of players. It's been feaster famine, obviously, for 152 games. But man, oh man, the last couple of games in particular,

if not for Jeremy Pena, and I'm talking about the part of the game that mattered, like all of game won and some of last night, when this team goes in, slumps. It's prolific. It's, it's Cam. Well, the other guys are, you know, I think are four A players, but it's

Christian Walker. I mean, we're seeing some prolonged slumps right now from some of the guys that at some point had some hotter parts of the season. Yeah, Christian Walker's an O for 19. I think Cam's an O for 15 or 16. It's tough to watch. I mean,

what was the inning that had the first two guys got on with singles? And you had the Walker the can came up. I mean, it was boom, boom, boom, three cookouts, and that was it. I mean, it's just, this offense has been bad since the beginning of August. If you look at the numbers since August 3rd, they have one of the lowest OPSs in baseball. And that's also the time that Pena and Alvarez sort of have went into the tank a little bit offensively.

You know, Pena looks like he's coming out of it, hitting the ball all over the field last night, last couple of nights. but he has six other 12 hits the last two games. And like you said, a couple of those hits were guys, you know, came off the bench late. You know, Varsal got a hit after it was too late. That's just not going to get it done. I mean, that just did not look like a playoff team last night. Offensally, they have to find a way to get going. And I think Joe's in a tough spot because you look at this roster and some of the guys he's running out there.

It's just not a good roster. The bench isn't good. They got to have Alvarez and Tanya carry this offense and hope a couple other guys step up. But if they're not doing it consistently night in and night out, this is what you get. I jokingly made a reference earlier in the show, Brian, to Dan Hinnigan leaving for Wake Forest and then the offense going into a tank. I mean, how much of that, I guess if it matters even at all, but also just kind of a weird, even as it is. is even it has zero impact, kind of a bizarre move to have your offensive coordinator who a lot of people like leaving for a college job in the middle of the season.

Yeah, you have to wonder if that has an impact. I can't sit here and tell you how tangible that is. I know loosely what Ann did on a day-to-day basis, but the players seem to really respect the information he got. But there's also a part of the coaching. staff that thinks, you know, we get too much information. We need to simplify things. You've heard that from Joe Spott of the last couple of days when we were talking about Pena and Alvarez taking BP, just trying to make things more simple. And so sometimes you can just overwhelm yourself with

stats and, you know, Dan was a very, very smart guy. But yeah, as soon as he left, the offense has gone downhill, just sort of like as soon as Strom got here, the starting pitching's been a lot better. So I guess you can't say there's nothing to it. There probably is something to it. Brian McTaggart with us here on a sports talk 790 covering the Astros for MLB.com. How safe is Yordon Alvarez's MVP case? I think it's slipping. I mean, you have

Caminero hitting back-to-back walk-offs on a team that's probably going to finish with the best record in the American League. It means, it means. his overall numbers are really, really good as well. So I think he's lost a grip on it here. I think it's probably 50-50 at this point with, you know, with Cam and Arrow having a lot of momentum. So, you know, he sort of lost his grip on the Triple Crown as well.

That's hard to imagine a month ago that would be saying that because both those things seemed like a lock. He had a huge lead and at average, homers and RBIs. And now he's, you know, I think he's still ahead in average maybe, but barely. So, yeah, unless he has a strong couple of weeks here, I think he might end up losing both of those things.

Brian McTaggart, MLB with us here on Matt and Ross in the morning on 790. All right. So Atlanta comes in, Kansas City, you hopefully get the series victory today. The Braves are coming in, and then you have this vaunted trip. What a, I don't want to say tumultuous, but a lot of drama coming up for the next 10 days. and you've been in the stadium the last couple days is the building feels kind of dead

and I don't know if that's the demeanor of the players if the players feel that. I know you feel that you just said it. I want them to win the division. I want them to go to the plows because this American League is a hot mess right now as we've talked about Brian, but after the third spot in the lineup,

I don't have a lot of confidence. Left on base category is another thing that just drives me crazy right now. Yeah, 0 for 9 last night. It just seems like it's pop up, pop-up, strikeout, strike-out, pop-up. It's just not a good lineup. And yeah, the crowds have been light.

I think they're announcing about $28,000, but the lower bowl has, you know, I've got tons of empty seats and it's just not a lot to get excited about. Frankly, it's not really fun to watch. I mean, when they're struggling to score two runs, against the Royals. So, you know, they're tied now. So luckily for them, they have the tiebreaker, but any wiggle room was gone. And this is starting to feel like last year when they were just really scuffling. Alvarez was out of the lineup, you know, the last couple of weeks. And at the end of

year, they had to go to Sacramento and went to the Angels. And I can't remember that, you know, they had to win, I think, both those series. And everyone said, well, those two teams are bad. They'll do that and they didn't. It's starting to feel that way now and you got the Braves this weekend who are really good. They're going to be throwing good pitching and they're playing for, you know, seating and home field advantage. So they got to hope they go on the road next week and if they're still in the lead over the Rangers or at least tied and have this tiebreaker,

they'll give them a good shot. But I think these next four games at home are pretty crucial. They have to try to win a couple or three of these and I'm not so sure that that's going to be the case. Painting with a Rod Brush here. Give me the state in your mind about the pitching staff right now in terms of starting pitching, still a lot of holes in trying to figure out who's playing whom. And then more importantly, in terms of our guys getting some rest, a little downtime. It's, you have it a couple of Monday off days, but still a lot of usage among those guys in the bullpen. Yeah, the Monday off days help with the

bullpen. I mean, you know, Hayter and a brave who didn't pitch last night. And both of them were pretty efficient the night before. So, I mean, I think they could come back and pitch the next couple of days if they had to. So I don't think you're in terrible shape there. You know, the rotation is what it is. You got a Oola going tonight as the opener. Then you'll get peckle. And that worked out pretty good last time. So, and the rotation is pitched pretty well for the most part. But yeah, I mean, as far as the bullpen goes, they could use a game where they, you know, they go out and they win 10 to 1 and, you know, they throw Blanco for a couple innings and email for a couple and give these guys rest. Because I, I, I,

I think going into that last six games, just with the way the offense isn't scoring runs, they're going to have to use their bullpen a lot. They're going to have to use their high leverage guys a lot because every out is going to matter more than it did in the first 150 games. All right, Brian, we'll leave it at that. Safe travels. We'll talk to you next week from the West Coast. We appreciate the time as always. All right.

Thanks a lot, guys. You've got Brian McTaggart, MLB.com, with us here on Sports Talk 790. Playoff baseball. Hopefully two weeks away. the playoffs now, Matt. That's true. Every game a must win. Yeah.

Well, they lost yesterday. But they'll bounce back. See what happens today. I mean, it'd be nice. I don't want to talk about a two out of three series lost the Royals. I feel Houston checking out. I can't, they're going to,

they're going to check out if they lose tonight's game. Miguel Uyola's got us. For how long? I don't know, two innings. Hopefully high strikeout low walks. That'd be nice. That's not what he does in AAA. It'd be nice to see here.

Why are you looking at me like that? You know what you always do? It's not my fault. He's only issued one walk as a major leaker. I give you the sentence, and I put a period in the end of my sentence. And then you add like an extra phrase to it. It's always fact, not always, most of the time factual. For instance, Jonathan, say this sounds familiar.

Astros got a, are playing in first place. Yeah, but they're in a sucky division. You know, you are the extra. You're the extra guy, sentence guy. We were getting Brian McTaggart a little bit later, so we're a little bit behind here. We may get a short segment because we've got Wolley Fritz coming up in a couple of minutes. Our Cougars are going to take on Texas Tech. All things about Billy Lubbock today.

Today's edition, believe it or not. You've been in Lubbock? No. This will be about my seventh or eighth time. Not on my bucket list. I like it. Yeah. I heard the new Walmart's nice.

That's enough from you. Saying again, I like it, period. I hear the Walmart's nice. Meanie? What's mean? What's mean? What's mean about that? It's a nice Walmart.

I like Walmart. Who told you the Walmart was nice? That's what I was reading on the Lubbock Reddit. Subreddit. Lubbockers. Really quick. I forgot one more thing from the last hour. I just don't get it.

Congratulations to Joe Buck. It's that I just don't get it. Okay. Six-year extension to work for ESPN to do Monday Night Football. And that's it. I mean, he'll do some podcasts. He'll maybe do a couple of best. Baseball games.

What's a Joe Buck podcast? I don't know. But he's been on him before. Are you checking out the new IHeart Cameron Dicker podcast? No. Oh, we promote the worst podcast ever. We just do, but that's neither here nor there. Wait, Joe Buck is on a podcast.

Yeah, I told you. It's called Daddy Issues. Okay. So, what? Six-year deal. I didn't name it. A couple of podcasts, about 20 NFL games, a couple of baseball games. That's it.

Uh-huh. six-year deal, $108 million. I just don't get it. I mean, good for him. $18 million a year. It's pretty good. Like, if you are the... The easy thing is,

movies are made by George Clooney and Brad Pitt. They're making $25, $30 million a picture. You would think, well, why would you pay all that money for that? There's a direct correlation there, though. if certain movie stars get millions and millions and receipts. They see box office receipts. There's a direct you can see. This guy is a box office star, so we're going to go with this guy.

Monday night football this year was the opener was Denver, Kansas City. I was intrigued. I wasn't intrigued about Joe Buckman, Trayman calling the game. I was intrigued about the game. It was like Dan Shulman and whoever I would have watched. Yeah, I like Joe Buck. I like Tritman. They have absolutely solidified the broadcast.

Uh-huh. but somebody said you could put on I know Sean McDonough did before people didn't seem to like it which I don't understand it's a great game caller Yeah, maybe a little vanilla for people But that's what people say about Joe Buck

I think Joe Buck does a good job But $18 million It's been good for him But good gracious I don't know Media rights fees you can justify SEC get you crazy ratings They don't get crazy ratings because Chris Fowler and Herbster's calling the game.

They're doing it. LSU Ole Miss is sexy for a reason. They have to have some kind of debt. They have to have some reason. That's right. They have to have some kind of, if this guy's out, we're going to be doing. This is going to be going to go in a lot about it. All right.

Willie Fritz is up after Ross is watching Texas Tech in Houston tomorrow night. With some day-a-dips in his pocket. It's not his pocket in front of you. Well, it's in my fridge. 932. It is Man and Ross in the morning. Sports Talk, Severnati. We'll be visiting with Willie Fritz here momentarily.

Believe it or not, again, all things about Lovic. How'd you guys do unbeliefer not the last couple of days? You give away some prizes? Oh, man, unbelievable questions. What are they about? Stuff? Mm-hmm. See?

You don't... All right. We're trying to get a hold of Willie. And it's going right to voice me. That's not good. So we can kill some more time. Coach is a busy man. Is he think it said a hotline or do you think it's a regular,

you're trying on a regular line too? Yeah, no, he was here. I think he had to go. Oh. Oh, he's, wait, me, he's calling my phone. Call him back. Okay. He's calling me.

Pick it up. No, my kid. Why not? It'd be funny. Yeah, just talk to him. It's just, hey, Hey, coach, we're going to call him on the long show line. Oh, he hung up.

I think so. We're calling him the show line. Yeah, he hung up. That's good stuff. live radio. It's a crazy world we live in. So Friday night, tomorrow night will be on the, I'll be doing the show from Lubbock as a matter of looking forward to that. And they're going to have, they're wearing all black.

What's the game, I want the game time temperatures going to be. The Cougars are wearing all white for the game, so I'm very excited about that. That's good. Because we're going to go up there and we're going to win. Willie, I'm going to put a lot of responsibility on you. I've been to Lubbock multiple times to see my Cougars play. I've never seen a victory in that stadium. Can you help me out tomorrow night? we sure would like to that's

it's always the plan every single week playing a good squad obviously they've had a lot of success over the last few years and very very talented but we're looking forward to the challenge without question let's get to the game last

Saturday it feels like to me and again just watching a little bit here and there of the contest you got what you needed out of it you got a lot of players that were able to get some a lot of plays

were you able to get some a lot of plays were you able to to try some things schematically that you want to see if it worked, but then have to risk putting it on tape for other teams? You know, we kind of ran our base stuff. You know, the thing we were

most happy about is we were able to play 99 guys in the game, which is difficult to do. So really the only guys who didn't play were guys who were banged up injured or we didn't get a chance to play our punters, which was good. We didn't have to punt during the ball game, but

you know a lot of guys got to play they're rewarded for all the hard work that they do and then we saw some guys that you know it was their chance to show us what they could do and they're they're going to parlay this and do a little bit more playing time for us you know there's always a philosophy about how do you schedule and this is your first league game in week three of the season do you like playing a big 12 opponent early on or would you rather get all the non-conference games other way and then start focusing on your league schedule Oh, I don't know if it matters or not. You know, I think we had this game scheduled before.

Houston was actually in the Big 12 few years back. And so we just kept it on this week, so neither team had to change it. So, yeah, I think it's a great opportunity. We're going to play them at some point in time during a year, so why not play them early? And this Texas Tech team played Oregon State, and you guys obviously did in week one as well. When you turned the tape on, were there things that surprised what Texas Tech did?

Were there things about how Oregon State prepare for that game against the Red Raiders? I think Oregon State's got a good team. I'll be surprised when it won quite a few games. We'll see as a season progresses. But, you know, every team right now, the beginning of the year, is kind of figuring themselves out. You know, I know we are at certain spots. I think Texas Tech is, Oregon State is.

So the more you get into the season, the more you, you know, this is what you do, this is your identity on offense, defense, kicking game, you know, based on what you've seen in the first few ball games. So I'm sure there's going to be a lot of things they'll do differently in this game that they did last week and the week before against Adeline Christian. But, you know, for the most part, you know, it's going to be what they do schematically office. defense defense kicking game because they got the same coordinators they had last year and it was going to be carry over to this season as well.

You mentioned playing a lot of your base stuff against Southern and let me ask you this. Are there tricks in the bag that you obviously will not tell us about right this moment, but are there things you work out in practice that you kind of want to see when you're going against a better opponent to say, yeah, we've worked on this during the course of the week,

we want to execute this, make this play work, and hopefully help us win a football game. Yeah, you work on things, you know, and see if it works in practice and, you know, prepares you for when you're going to need it later on down the year. You know, my philosophy is, you know, you need to concentrate on a game in hand

and not be looking forward or backwards. The only time I've ever prepared for another team, you know, prior to the week that we play was when we played under center, triple-option teams, you know, Army, Navy, teams like that that are going to run something that just is really, really difficult to prepare for in, you know, four days. So, yeah, you'll look at a little bit of stuff,

but for the most part, you're wanting to prepare for the team that you're getting ready to play that week. You mentioned you played 99 games of players against Southern, and the five-for-five makes your life a lot easier. You're not worried about Redshirt, you're not worried about a number of games. I mean, you get guys out there, they're in uniform, they're clock's already started. Yeah, exactly right.

Now, you know, before it used to be, you know, they had the four games. So this would have fallen under that, the old rule. But, you know, now I've told these guys, man, you need to compete to play in the kicking game, offense, defense, one play equals a season, you know, 500 plays equals a season. So I think we're seeing a little bit more competition, particularly in the kicking game with some of these young guys because they're wanting to get out there and play because They know it counts as a season for him. Does that alter your travel roster, too, about a number of players,

players that you think can help you on a particular week, not worried about red shirts? Do you size up that travel roster a little differently than maybe in years past? Yeah, you know, you start getting into the year, and the guy hasn't played in week eight. You know, you start thinking, I don't know if I'm going to play this guy, or maybe he's played four games, you know, last year. And, you know, he's probably not going to play much or one or two plays.

and you decide to redshirt the guy and you don't continue to keep playing them. Now it's the best guys you're going to play. You know, it doesn't matter, it's 12th week of the season or the sixth week of the season. They played four games or they played eight games or they played no games. You know, you're looking to, you know, play the very best guy. So I do think it's a good rule. You know, I had those difficult conversations where guys would come in my office after four weeks, coach, I want to be redshirted.

Now, wait a second, you're playing for us. We want to keep playing with you. And I don't have a crystal ball to know whether or not we're going to need you more in two, three weeks. So I think that's good that they did make this five-for-five rule. 225 plus rushing yards in back-to-back weeks. I know you want to keep that streak alive at week three, but I'm presuming that Texas Tech's defense will be perhaps a little bit more of a challenge for you on coming up here against the Red Raiders. They've got a very, very good defense.

Do an excellent job. You know, they're real big, fast, quick. lot of guys coming back. They had to replace a lot of guys. They actually had six guys drafted from the NFL on just their defense last year. So they went ahead and went out in the portal and grabbed a bunch of guys to take those guys play. So really, really talented team.

Yeah, we're going to, hopefully we can match out better against them up front than we did last season. We had some difficulties moving the ball last year. So it's going to be a game in the trenches, you know, on both. sides of the ball. Tell me a thought or two about Will Hammond, their single caller. Yeah, you know, he played some against us last year. You know, he tore his ACL late in the season last year, got himself healthy. You don't really see the ill effects of it at all in our first two ball games. And then they've also got a guy Tommy, Thomas Castellanos, who started at Florida

State last year. He was their other quarterback, and they're starting to find some ways to utilize him. He had a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown last week, so I assume we're going to see him, you know, 20, 30 steps on Friday night also. Willie, I've seen your pregame motivational

before you guys get on the bus to go on the road. I'm assuming you do that at home as well when the kids are at TDCU Stadium, but is there a little extra juice because this is a nationally televised game? This is one of the few matchups on Friday night in college football. You've got an opportunity for a lot of people that think the

of this game could have an early lead towards making it towards a Big 12 championship game. Well, you know, obviously the kids are going to get out there and be pumped up about it on a Friday night. I'm sure there'll be a packed house out there and love it calls. So, you know, but I try to keep our approach the same week after week after week.

As I tell the kids all the time, every one of these games counts is one. There's not one of the counts as two and there's not one of the counts as a half. So you need to put everything into it. you possibly can. And, you know, when this game gets over, we'll be 25% done with our season. You know, so you need to really do a great job

with the final couple days of preparation. And I think our guys understand that. Willie, thank you for the visit. As always, we'll see you later this afternoon. And the very best of luck in Lubbock tomorrow night. Thank you. Go, Coog. You got it.

That is Willie Fritz with us here on a sports talk seminar. And he's presented to you by the joint chiropractor, the official chiropractor of your Houston Cougars. All right, Ross, believe it or not, all things about the city of Lubbock. We are playing for today. Now, I'm assuming Jonathan, since you guys played, believe it or not, the last couple of days, you're running a little on

prizes. Is that correct? Oh, they're real tough questions, so nobody won. I think we have an abundance. So it must have been very difficult playing, believe it or not. Yeah. The last couple days. Yeah, people couldn't get those questions about Azerbaijan. Jonathan Alexander of the Texans

of the Chronicle. I just said the Texans. of The Chronicle has a story out about Hannah today Hannah McNair and her upbringing and her background she is one of 14 kids grew up in Greenspoint

shout out 5-6 I did not know she was a 5-6er yeah let's go we gotta stick together 14 that's pretty uh she's what Hannah's not even 50 probably right

so I mean what's her mate What's her maiden name? O'Brien? Heartland. Oh. I just assumed Irish Catholic. That was maybe.

She played point guard. What? She's dropping dimes? What high school would she go to? Providence Classical School in spring. Oh. To the same Houston state. Providence.

What are they? She attended you. Vivaldi there? She attended Sam Houston before transferring to the University of Houston. And in graduate school at Rice, she helped start an innemeral flag football team. played against undergraduates. Oh, really? Yeah.

So he's an athlete. Oh, for sure. I didn't know she was a Rice grad. She met Cal at a wealth management firm when she was there and he was a client. I would like to date you. Hi, Mr. McNair. This is Hannah Hartland. It's at the same of this company.

It's something I can help you with. She asked. Cal responded, yes, will you go on a date with me? She quickly picked up the phone and took it off speaker. Yikes. 14. 14. I want to go.

with you to get a triple dipper. Ross, apologize. It's rude. He doesn't sound like Forrest Gump. Would you like to tour Italy with me? They went to Olive Garden? We're going to call on that one. Five minutes up to go on the show. What should we do?

Probably leave. I'll see you later. Get out of here. We'll play, believe it or not, because you didn't do it the last couple days. I just have a feeling. have a sneaky little feeling about this. Why would I ever do it when you're not here? Because I thought we decided you were going to do it while I was not here. We decided I wasn't going to. No, we decided. We said we needed to do it. Who was we? I don't know. I said we need to say consistent with every segment.

No, John, you were there. John, you were there. You know. No, I didn't but the other segments. Not believe it or not. Mm-hmm. Okay. All right, I'm reading you by Lubbock. You already heard the prizes. Let's play, believe it or not. 7.1.3, 212.5. 7. Nani. Larry, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. As of 2025, the metro population of Lubbock is estimated to be about 472,000. Believe it or not?

Believe it. No, it's only 368. Duh. Gary on 790, Gary, your favorite part of today's 6 to 10 radio show. Ross being a wet blanket. There you go. Lubbock's three-letter airport code is L-U-B. Believe it or not.

Leave it. No, it's L-B-B-B. Come on, now. What? You did L-U-B over L-B-B? I did L-U-B. It's my nucia. No, L-U-B.

No, if I did that question, Jonathan, he'd be like, oh, that's minutia. It's either H-O-U or H-C-X. It's for hobby. It's hobby. It's H-O-U. Bryce on 790, Bryce, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir. Believe it. Due to its sunny, climate, and rich soils,

the Lubbock area has the highest continuous cotton growth in the world. Believe it. or not? Believe it. There you go. We've got a winner finally. Chris on 790. Chris, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. There are no high schools in the Lubbock area that are classified as 6A. Believe it or not. Believe it. That's correct. Believe it. No, all the 5A, but no 6A. Matt on 790.

Matt, your favorite part of today's 6 to 10 radio show. The whole show, Matt, top to bottom. U.S. Route 82. is named the Marsha Sharp Freeway for the former Texas Tech Women's Basketball Coach. Believe it or not. Believe it. There you go.

Believe it. Now we're getting some winners. Makes me happy. Philip on 790. Philip, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. I mean, my thought, though. Loving not.

Thank you, sir. From TDECU Stadium to Galaxy Stadium in Lubbock is 447 drivable miles. Believe it or not? Believe it. Nope, 538. Come on now. How do you not have that out there? What do you mean? What are you looking at me for? Look at you judging me judge over there. Yeah, you're looking at me that way.

Eddie on 790, Eddie, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Eddie, Lubbock native buddy Holly's first public appearance was at the Fair Park Coliseum in Lubbock back in 1955 when he opened up for Elvis Presley. Believe it or not? Believe it. There you go. Believe it. Believe it.

Yes. And Ryan on 790, Ryan, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Lubbock is home to the big Texan steakhouse and the free 72-ounce steak if you eat it in an hour. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, it's an Amarillo. Come on.

Yeah, yeah. Ross, you tried to have that big steak, didn't you one time? I had two of them, actually. Did you in one sitting? Yeah. Big city wings doesn't have 72-ounce steaks, but they have delicious wings. Buy one, get one free in the boneless wings today at Big City Wings. Find a location near you by going to big citywings.com to watch Astros, to watch NFL football,

and to get buy one, get one free on the boneless wings. 12 locations. Find the one near you. Go to Big City Wings.com. Dan is up next. Then the A team. Talk to you tomorrow at 6 from Lubbock on 7-nighter.