The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Are Creeping Up To The #1 Spot In AL West, After Going 2-1 vs Kansas City Royals

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

Astros Are Creeping Up To The #1 Spot In AL West,  After Going 2-1 vs Kansas City Royals  

H-town. Good morning and welcome to a Thursday edition of The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. And they did for the second consecutive night. How about two comebacks? And since you dropped the first game and won the next two, you came back in the series as well. And a four and two homestown, baby. Hey.

Everyone minute made, excuse me, Dyken Park was known as a place with the Astros can't win. Well, they win now. They don't win so much on the road, but they win at home. I think they won 46 games there last year. It's good. It's better than the year before. Yeah. I mean, it's cyclical.

It doesn't make any sense. Oh, no. And we should not read into it. No. But I remember everybody was searching for reasons. Like, well, they all just had babies. Are they just staying up all night with crying babies? Yeah, the batterer's eye was an issue for a while. You had the 710 first pitch.

Maybe Justin Verlander staying up all night, FaceTiming Kate Upton. He's tired. He can't pitch at home. I'd FaceTime with Kate Upton quite a bit if I could. Well, she would hit decline. Quite quickly. New video, who'd is?

Exactly. Hey, it is nice to have all of you with us today on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We will stay with the baseball theme for much of the show today, including a visit with Brian McTaggart, who will be driving. Matter of fact, he might be in his car listening to the show right now as we speak. How many Buckeys has he hit by now? Well, realistically, you hit one on each side of 45, right? Well, there's one in Madisonville. Madisonville.

and is there another one beyond after Dallas, but Fort Dallas? Not Elgin, L, Innes. Is that on the left side of 45 or the right side? I don't remember. The Innes one is newer. Madisonville's E.O.G.

Oh, my God, Madisonville. I had one, it got into a minor, I would say it was more than minor argument. It wasn't a full-blown one, but my wife and my daughter went to that Madisonville one, and we have to talk about this before in the show.

She spent like $66, on non-gas. And I'm like, what are you doing? Oh, that's easy-peasy. And she's like, it happens very quickly. Oh, yeah. So then I'm like, nobody, it never does that. And then I let people say, of course they do.

And then I went one time. Uh-huh. I was going to San Antonio to and from because I was going to do a Cougar game and back to the Rockets. And I went to Buckies and I got a couple of things for some of the broadcasters, going back to San Antonio. And then my bill was like $70. I'm like, you could spend $65, $70.

in a blink of an eye at Ruckies. Yeah, it didn't used to be like that back in a day. Back in a day. But then they started jacking out of the prices. Yeah, by the time you get a brisket sandwich, some bucky nuggets, and maybe a T-shirt and a coffee mug, you're out 100 bucks. You know what? We always talk about leaving this business to go be manager.

I have a friend of mine went to college with who was a manager of a Ruckies. That's great. In Florida. And he's making good money. Now, his chef work is terrible. And there's intense pressure on him because it's such a large operation. But he does quite, I mean, he never finished and never got his degree. It stands pressure.

At least in Texas, you open the doors. People flock in. He works in Florida. I don't know how the Ruckies does in Florida compared to the rest of the spots. Problem is I'm guessing in Florida, people live at the Ruckies. You know how Florida people are. Grifters. A little bit.

Yeah. Hiding in behind the icy machine. Yeah, that happens. I think we had a non-Florita story about somebody living in a Walmart before. Yeah, above the next of the sign, I think. Yeah. So there you go. Congratulations of the Astros.

Four and two, the homestand. on their way. Well, they're already there, probably taking a nap. Getting ready for a series with the Arlington Rangers who are smacking the ball quite well. As a matter of fact, they beat the Rockies. Well, who doesn't beat the Rockies? Yeah, that's true. Rockies are now 7 and 36 after the Rangers won 8 to 3. The Rangers and Astros are tied for second place in American League West. The Mariners have cooled off a little bit. And the Astros, I believe, waking up today one game out of first place, am I correct on that? Yes. They are one game out as are the Rangers. A's must have lost last night. They're one and a half back.

Okay, so it's a tight fit in the American League West. I think not knowing the A's overly well, but knowing they're better, obviously, but they're not going to be able to hang. They're certainly not going to make any trades at the deadline to get better. I don't think Seattle shows much of a history of doing that. Does it come down to the Astros and Rangers when the dust settles about who will win in the American League West or do you think it's

going to be the Astro of Seattle or it could be Texas Seattle? Could be all three. I mean, that happened in 2023, right? Didn't it come down to the three of them and the Mariners were the odd man out? So the reality is, these games will carry some, not probably, will carry some extra importance because you could be dealing with some tiebreaker situations. You're saying we could have some must-win games coming up this weekend?

Must win games for the Astros, four of them, this weekend in Arlington. I feel like you just goat me into these things. I go do you into a lot of things. And I feel like I take the brunt of this from the audience because of frankly your issues. You're so devious. You really are, and I hate you for it, but I get it. I do the same thing if I were you.

So you take advantage of my weaknesses because you know that must win, which is the must win is certainly a weakness of mine. And so yeah, the Astros against the Rangers tonight, it'll be a 705, 7.05 or 7.05. Okay, so there you go. It's a good night to be on the pregame.

Are you doing that tonight? Back to back days, let's go. I was at the ballpark yesterday. Getting audio. You did? Who'd you talk to? Joe Spada. Yeah, but that's easy.

So what? Did you go in the clubhouse, build a relationship? No, I didn't have time. You certainly had plenty of time. It's 20, 25. Nobody's building a relationship. That's true. It is awful.

And I will, you know what we can do here? Because I love you so, we can peel the curtain back. It's, uh, and it would record, to build a relationships with any athlete today, And that's not necessarily significantly different that it was 25 or 30 years ago. But they're way, first of all, they're way more guarded than they were 25 or 30 years ago. Mm-hmm. But you have to almost literally go every single day. Yeah, like Chandlerone, Brian McTagger, those guys are building relationships.

Matt Kawakara of the... Kawa-Hara. Kawa Hara. Who covers the asteros. I accidentally called him Mark yesterday. Sorry, Matt. Did he... It slipped out.

I corrected myself immediately. I was like, I'm sorry. I know your name. No, I felt that. Okay. No, he was just like, it's all right. If there's anybody's name you couldn't forget, it would have to be whose. It was a bit of a blank stare, but that's also, you know, sometimes you get that when you talk to Matt, no matter what.

Yeah, he's a nice kid. He's just very quiet. Oh, yeah, he's just a quiet guy. Love does a good, Matt. We really have three really good, yes. First of all, excellent writers, second of all, good information seekers and finders. And third, they're not decent people. Now, Chandler is spicy A.F, and I love him for that. I never want Chandler. Chandler is the devious of the three by far, and I live for that.

Okay. He's also a fantastic texter. Hmm. What does that mean, Matt? Looking at you. What is fantastic text? Meaning, I sent a text to him and use it within three to five minutes.

It's just the truth. Okay. I didn't say he was hot. He's a beat reporter. Those guys are always on their phone. Well, I mean, that's what I'm saying. Built into his job. You, I sent you a text.

I put my phone down, Matt, because I'm locked in. I'm not picking up my phone scrolling the whole, the whole segment. I send a text to you and I get a response to them in 36 hours. Sometimes it's quick. Sometimes. If it's pressing. Okay.

Astros win. McTagrant will with us, one of our good buddies. He'll be with us at 11 o'clock and we'll talk with him. At 1130, we have I just don't get it. And I have one involving somebody eating at Minutemade Park. Dijk Park. I know. You didn't do it all year?

And I've got in a bad run. I'm the same way too. Maybe it's because we've been going to the ballpark. Right, right, right, right. So I just don't get it 11th. about somebody eating at Duncan Park. I just don't get. I want to hit this person. Not like angrily, but just like,

what are you doing? Okay. We have the news at noon, and we have, believe it or not, today at 150. And coming up in just 18 short minutes, Rossi, the first breakdown of the NFL Texan schedule for the season. Well, you also teased something at the end of yesterday's show. I'm saving it for, I just don't get it. Okay. Yeah. Good. Because I've got the Texan schedule. I want to break down.

I have had a chance to look at it. I spent all night. I did my YouTube show with a complete breakdown of the Texan schedule. And I'm going to tell you how they're going to do at 1030 today. Okay. I mean, if that's not a way you want to listen to this show, I don't know what it could be. But this is what you need to do. Sit back, relax, be a part of the program as well.

713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. I need a ruling on a gut feeling involving the Texan schedule. return 1013 sports talk 790 1019 on sports talk 790 it is the matt thomas show with ross we were with you today until 2 o'clock today ryan mctaggar do 40 minutes so just don't get it and the first um i want to say i don't know if anybody in the marketplace is actually breaking the tex and schedule down so thankfully you found us to do that today the first show in the market to break down the schedule yeah we'll do it and i'll give you my predictions of okay based off of the schedule of what

the Texas is doing that. We'll do that about 10 minutes from now. All right. So to my ruling, we talked about on gut feelings how many stand-alone games. Now, standalone games, easily the answer is four. That's a gut-feeling L for Matt Thomas. It is a gut-feeling L. But I think I could buy an argument for three and a half. Nope. And I'll explain why.

First of all, it's 9 o'clock. night, 10 o'clock in the east, no one in America is going to stay up late to watch the Texans and the Seahawks. That's not true. I'm watching it. I said America, not Houston. I know America's part of, Houston's part of America. Yeah. But generally speaking, no one in Raleigh, no one in Duluth, no one in Boston. Oh yeah. Nobody. Oh, you mean all those places you named with legal gambling? Oh, they're watching, Matthew. Secondly, it's on ESPN Plus. I mean, come on.

A 9 o'clock game that can only be seen through your computer or your tablet or if your television is. Smart TV. Smart TV. Yeah. It's 2025, baby. Have you met America? Are you getting out the bunny ears? Now, the ESPN Plus game they did last year did have really low ratings.

Yes. A lot lower than they were expecting. USA Today put out a story yesterday about the five worst nationally televised games. The Texans Seahawks game came in at number three. Okay, they're hating. The reality is, if you want to claim your victory in the fourth one, I'll give it to you. But ESPN Plus is like being on Roku this Sunday for the Astros Rangers. I'm sorry.

Okay, stop. No, it's not like being on Roku. ESPN Plus, Disney and ESPN, and a huge streaming service, and Monday night football. And 9 o'clock at night? Why did they put it on at 7? Because I imagine it's a doubleheader night. Yeah. They're like, yeah, we'll put a game on that people care about, and then we'll put the Texan Seahawks game on. They didn't have to put the Texas Seahawks on. They could have to, yeah, the CBS said, I'll take it.

But they were looking for a little ratings and some cachet. Oh, is that right. Texas Trail. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Let's all right. Let's do. That is what week number seven of the NFL.

I don't even answer this because I want to find out for myself. Okay. I'm going to go to week seven of the NFL. Let's see what game is opposite, the one that's going to be on the real channel. Monday night football on the same night the Texans put Buccaneers Lions. Um, um, the Bucks don't have a lot of national cashier. The Lions clearly do. I think so with Baker Mayfield being there and their division champs, I think, back to back years.

Now, they did the smart thing. They did start, they're going to start that Buccaneers Lions game at 6 o'clock. So they're going to basically give you guys, give all of America three hours to say, hey, when we're done with our game, flip over to ESPN Plus. Or click on to ESPN. There's no more flipping anymore, but, you know, you get my... Well, you flip it on the remote. If you have your smart TV, Matt.

Okay. Why don't we have a watch party that night? You want to? You got your Zenith 25-inch at home, or what are you doing? I'm going to be watching it on my phone. Probably as the family's asleep. Hmm. 9 o'clock?

Yeah. Is there a chance? Is that after your tapioca pudding? In your hot sponge bath? Come on, man. It's games in Seattle. So what? It's,

Texans after dark. Yeah. By the way, that game will not start to probably 950, because they're not going to want to wait for that first one to get done. They're going to have a pregame

in between all that stuff. Yep. But yeah, the ESP, I'm trying to remember what the ESPN Plus game they had this year. It was, I think they was like the lowest rated game in years. But obviously they're not going to give up

on ESPN Plus. they just launched this big streaming service, so they're going to want games on ESPN Plus. Yeah. So they've chose, of all the games they said, let's put on an inter-conference matchup with two teams that play each other once every, what, six years or something like that?

Mm-hmm. All right. So, yeah, the first Monday night game of the year, second Monday night game is going to be the Texans first home game, which is cool. You have a prime, the Buffalo Texans game will be on prime. That's a good one.

By the way, and I didn't watch very little of the NFL network's schedule coverage because I was watching the end. Astros. I didn't watch any. I was at the game and doing the post game. I think we talked about him yesterday. Al Michaels is an extraordinarily good mood. He loves

his schedule. Oh, because they finally got him some good games. Buffalo Houston for a Thursday night prime game? They're feeling really good about themselves. Did Jeff Bezos up the ante? It's kind of a bigger check. He basically is like, look, we've spent all this money. You can't keep giving us Cardinals versus Jaguars. We need some

stuff with some teeth in it. So that's a good one. And then you've got the NBC game, which will be at Kansas City. Oh, geez. October 7th at Kansas City at night at Arrowhead. What's the problem? Can the Texans go to Kansas City on a Sunday night

with it being about 25 degrees there? December 7th, by the way. December 7th is 25 degrees? What do you think? What do you mean? Why not? I don't, have you met the Texans? Yeah. Well, you know what? I'm going to save the rest of this

for my prediction segment. Oh, yeah, baby. And just a little bit. Can't wait. All right. I forgot to look. Is the Cardinals game at, oh, no, no, it wasn't the Cardinals game. Who are they on the road against?

And we were like, that's got 3 o'clock. I think we did say Cardinals, but that's a home game, so never mind. The Texans Rams is at 325, but it's not the main double-header game that day. The main game is Detroit Green Bay. So basically Houston and L.A. will watch that game. Everybody else will watch Detroit Green Bay. And then the 325 Sunday December game, they have a 325 home game against a Raiders.

How about that? So, many of you, thirsting for NFL schedule breakdown and we gave it to you. You had only to wait 10 hours for that to happen. And I'm sorry that other stations in town do not address the Texas schedule like we do. Full breakdown will be coming in the next segment, correct? The next segment I will run down

the exact run. By the way, real quick, the home game themes for the Texans this year. Well, Saturday, August 16th is a preseason game against Carolina. It's a play football game. The home game against Buccaneers to open up on Monday night football

is a Liberty White game. The Tennessee game is International Day. What does that mean? What does that even mean? I don't even know what that means. The game against the Niners on Sunday, October 26th, is Repin H-H-Town. Oh, great. You're going to throw up your H-Matt? No chance. Sunday, November the 2nd against Denver is Legends Homecoming.

So basically, Andre Johnson. Okay. November the 9th, Jacksonville is Salute to Service game. November the 20th, the Thursday night game against Buffalo is the Battle Red game, meaning I'm guessing they're going to wear all red, top and bottoms. Okay. December 14th against Arizona. Kids Day, December 21st is a holiday game, and the 28th game is the Space City game against the home game against Indianapolis, whatever that means.

Okay. And I was looking at some schedule release video rankings, Texans, generally in the bottom third. It was terrible. First of all, I would say collectively top to bottom, they sucked. Let me ask you all this. If any of you saw a schedule release that you thought was really good, let me know what it was. I've only seen about three or four of them. There was one.

You didn't like the Chargers Minecraft one? I didn't see that one. Oh. I did see the Buffalo Bills one. Did you see Buffalo Bills one? No. Where I think it was Josh Allen was shooting hoops. And he says, why don't you get AI to do the scheduling?

You know, artificial intelligence. So the Buffalo Bills guy says, okay, I'll go get AI. So basically they went and got Alan Iverson to do it. They all suck. But was that? The Budweiser commercial from the late 90s. From 26 years ago? Was it?

And Dennis Quaid? Yeah. Is Cal McNair on the social team? I didn't even recognize the rest of people. I saw Bun, obviously. Dennis Quaid, and I just, well, they started doing the, where's that? It was just like, God, my late 90s life just kind of showed right before my eyes. It was, yeah.

You didn't recognize the Mexican OT? Who's that? The Mexican OT? I don't know. No idea. He's a rapper from Bay City. Okay, good for him. Was there anybody else celebrity-wise that we would recognize?

I mean, Paul Wall, do you recognize him? You know my daughter doesn't know who Paul Wall is? Well, yeah, she's like 16. 17 now, thanks. Okay. Well, he was making his hay in 2020-20-20-20-40. Who were they trying to get to? What was the point of going and was, ah, I don't know, Matt.

Talk to the social team. Interview them. Well, they should be fired. That seems extreme. Okay, demoted. Okay. So let me ask you this. If you guys can tell me

one of the schedule releases that you thought was, usually the Atlanta Falcons are pretty good. Is you know the one that's always funny to me is the one they go to the quote-unquote man on the street and they show logos of teams? Oh, yeah. That's the always one that always makes me chuckle a little bit.

Who did that last couple years with the Panthers or somebody? So shoot me a tweet or give us a shot. Tell us who did a good job on the schedule releases because I would say by and large, America just like these things are boring and terrible and uninteresting and not funny. And in the Texans case, 26 years old references. You talk about me trying to get old. I'm trying to get younger than the hipper.

Yeah, you are, Matt. You're so hip. You haven't made a Sanford Sun reference in two years. You're welcome on that. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you very much. Fewer mentions of Thelma from Good Times. She's still hot.

How old is she is. All right. When we return, we're going to tell you. how the Texans are going to do this year. Okay. There's no one in the marketplace that is going to tell you how the Texans are going to do this year except me.

I'm surprised. Nobody else. Did the morning show even predict what the Texas schedule was going to be? No. They run it down. They didn't bother. I doubt it.

They were too busy talking about Arch Manning. I don't know. I didn't listen. You should have. It was very interesting. I'm sure it was great. No, I'm not usually up. But you will be shortly because you love the Sean Salsbury's show.

Yeah, I do, but I love Sleepmore. Yeah, that's fair. 1034 Sports Talk 790. It is a Matt Thomas show with Ross. Are we ready, Ross? Jonathan, are you ready? It's my fault. Oh, it's not, Jonathan, can't be ready.

I was supposed to tell Jonathan to play some NFL music. Give me five seconds, Matt. You know, let's take a phone call real quick. How about that? We'll take a phone call before we do. Let's talk to our friend Johnny in San Diego. Hello, Johnny. Hey, Jay there, Matt.

How you doing? Good friend. Thank you for dialing in. What's up? Hey, so the Titans were the ones that did the thing two years ago where they had the people guess the logos. A buddy of mine just sent me the cliff this morning because he ran across and thought it was hilarious. But I wanted to talk about the, you said November 9th was the salute to service. Yeah.

Yeah, so that coincides with Houston hosting Fleet Week for the Navy for the first time. ever. It's going to be that same week. It's from the fifth to the 12th. What is Fleet Week? That's where you have a bunch of ships from the United States Navy pull into a port that they don't typically work out of, and they have a bunch of festivities and, you know, outreach stuff and big events. Sailors get invited to go to professional games and do things. There's a lot of community outreach, you know, kind of just also a lot of drinking and partying by the sailors.

Drinking and horn do they hand out condoms during this weekend? Before you leave the ship typically, yeah. That's a good idea. Stay safe out there, folks. Yeah, no, I realized that it was a home game that weekend, thought it was pretty cool. I'll be retired by that point. Oh, congratulations. I'm driving in town for that.

What are you going to do after your retirement? Are you going to go in the private sector or just chill out? Probably the private sector. I got a little bit of a sugar mama situation going on. Oh, hell yeah. You're living the dream, Johnny. All right. So, Johnny, how old are you?

I am 41. And how old's the sugar mama? She's 43. Okay. She makes good money. Okay. Yeah, we're moving to Texas and she's going to continue making San Diego-based salary. Oh, good for you.

Seriously. want to. Congratulations in your life. You worked well for our country. I'm assuming she's an attractive woman, right? And you're going to be doing very well financially. I definitely married up. You know how you always say that, you know, your wife settled and you married up? Yeah, same situation over here. Exactly. I don't know what my wife was thinking. Actually, I do. Thank you, Johnny for the phone call. She's like, so are you going to have a good career on radio and then do some broadcasting, huh? Okay. God love her. God love Kim. She's been decades of happiness. By the way, the Indianapolis Colts deleted their 2025 schedule release because they deleted it because they had the Coast Guard arresting Dolphins wide receiver Tyree Kill in the video.

And apparently Microsoft licensing issues with using spoofing Minecraft without appropriate legal clearance. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm, these young and sometimes take, take some wrist, don't they, Rossi? Yeah, you're not always getting proper trademark clearance, Matt. No, you're not. No, you're not. All right, ladies and gentlemen, 1038 on Sports Talk 790, I present to you. Literally, there's no duffecee YouTube show doing it.

There's no duffacy wannabe radio host doing it. There's a duffacy radio host doing it. It's me, and I present to you, my predictions of the 2025. Houston Texans. Hit the music. Ross. Matt. Sunday, September the 7th. The Texans will be in Los Angeles, take out the Rams England, actually in Englewood.

And Rossi? Matthew Stafford, I know he's staying in Los Angeles, but he only can throw it 40%. His arm strength is significantly down. Donate Adams is so old, he'll be out there in a wheelchair. Christian Kirk is going to make his L.A. debut a success. Seven catches.

84 yards in a touchdown. Wow. Texans beat the Rams 21 to 10. 21 to 10, okay. Matthew Stafford throws multiple picks in the game. Texans are 1 and 0. Monday night,

September 15th, the Liberty Whiteout game. The Buccaneers are coming in. The Buccaneers don't ever play well in the first half of the season. They always get better just like Baker Mayfield does. But guess what? The Texans will catch them at the right time. Will Anderson will sack

Buddy, I'm not buddy, Baker Mayfield three times in a 27-17 Texans went over with the Buccaneers. Okay. Two and oh, baby, LFG. Week three, Sunday, September 21st, Texans go to Jacksonville for a noon game. The Jaguars don't even know where they're playing because they're hardly playing in Jacksonville anymore. They're always going overseas for one reason or the other. They're lost. Trevor Lawrence gets a haircut before the game.

Really? Shaves his head? No, it's a trim. It's a crew cut, if you will. Okay. He's obviously disjointed by that. He misses his free flowing locks. Wow. He actually tries a run for a first down and gives up the football.

It is scooped up by... Aziz Alshay here. Give him a forearm shiver. By Jalen Petrie. Runs to the house. Texans, two defensive touchdowns. Win it. 28.

16. Okay. Three and O. Sunday, September the 28th, the Tennessee Titans are in. Wow. The number one pick in this draft? Cam Ward. Not playing in the game.

What happened? He gets concussed the week before. Oh, man. So Will Levis. He's still a Titan, right? Yeah, I think so. Thomas Sports Enterprises, no longer bullish on him. Because he will throw three amazing interceptions.

One will be returned for a pickstick, six by Derek Stingley. Kami Fairbairn hits four field goals in the game, one of which is at least 55 yards. These are wildly specific predictions. Well, that's what I'm here for. Again, nobody else in the marketplace is doing this, so I got to do it. Texans beat the Titans. 31-11. It's really an odd score. They get a safety late in the next.

Late safety. Run out of the clock. Then Sunday, October the 5th, we go week, because of course I'm the two of the Texans, in Baltimore to take on the radio. Ravens. Lamar Jackson, mm-mm, mm-mm. Two costly fumbles, one in the red zone late as they try to drive.

Texans hold on for dear life. 26, 23. Wow. In a rainstorm, by the way. It'll be raining in Baltimore. You're predicting weather as well? Yes, I am. Nobody in the marketplace is doing this.

Monday, October the 20th. Texans get a week off. 15 days later, they'll be going to Seattle to take on the Seahawks. Who's the Seahawks quarterback now? Sam Darnold. Oh my God. He will be sacked five times. There will be the 12th man up there,

and we won't hear a peep from them. This will be the most dominant road victory for the Texans this season. The Seahawks may only score two field goals in the game. Meanwhile, a pair of rushing touchdowns from who would be the backup to the backup? You know what? We'll give me the Joe Mixon. Okay. Joe Mixon rushes for 114 yards and two touchdowns. That you're going to go Dari Ogunbo-Walli.

27 to 6, they beat Seattle. 80% of the crowd leaves by the fourth quarter because it's too late. They've got to go to work the next day. Hmm. Then Sunday, October 26th. The San Francisco four-d-eaters are going to air in. Who's their big expensive tight end? George Kittle.

George Kittle. How many weeks are we? Too many. We're going to hurry here quickly. You know what? George Kitto cracks an ankle in the game. Oh, my gosh. Texans win by two scores. Finally, Denver Broncos are in town. Denver, Sean Payton is grumpy the entire time.

Really? Yes. Okay. Bo Knicks? Bo Nicks throws for, Bo doesn't know football. Bo throws for 114 yards and two I-N-T's. Wow. Texans get another four field goal game from Kami Fairbair.

He's very busy this year. I think I've counted 47 interceptions for the Texans. defense so far. It's going to be never one in the NFL. Texans win that one over the Denver Broncos. Who cares? Jacksonville Jaguars at home, easy peasy win. At Tennessee, there'll be 35,000

people there. Easy, crux, drunk, one of having relations with their husband in the private suite and halftime. Really? Yeah, it's going to be ugly. It'll be video of it. It's very becoming of an NFL owner. Josh Allen hates playing in Buffalo in Houston. We saw that last year. That's true. History will repeat itself. Texans beat the Buffalo Bills. They will be

at that point 11 and 0. It's the game so boring how Michaels falls asleep in the fourth quarter. And he wants more pictures of himself during the course of the presentation. Then you go to Indianapolis. Texans, what are they doing in Indianapolis every year? They win. So history repeat itself there. That's got to be at least a two touchdown win.

Sunday December the 7th, prime time, Sunday night football at Kansas City. It's a tough one. Not tough. Are you kidding me? The Texans love playing in Kansas City. First halves, they will not blow a 23-point lead. They will win the game by three. on a last second touchdown reception.

Nico Collins back left corner. The end zone 14 seconds left. Texans come from behind and win the game. That puts them at 14 and 0. Arizona at home, can you even name five Cardinals? I can't. 15 and 0. The Las Vegas readers.

Former Seahawk quarterback now running things there. He doesn't know what city he's in. He can't believe it's in Las Vegas. They're throwing dice on the sideline. Texans win by two touchdowns. Gino Smith doesn't even finish the game because of boredom. Then the 17th week, back to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers. The crowd will be 80% Texans fans anyway. 60,000 Texans fans will make their way to Los Angeles.

They'll go to 16 and 0 when they beat the Chargers at so five. Yeah, suck it, Jonathan Allen. And then the Colts and the Texans, as the Texans try to go for a 17 and 0 season yet again, they will do so. Wow. Prime time. NBC's like, we got to put this team game on because we want to see the Texans go to 17 and 0. They don't rest their starters, having clinched the number one seat at this point? They taste 17 and O. They taste home field throughout the AFC playoffs. Richardson will rush for 64 yards in the first half.

At running back? Is he still playing QB at this point? He's running for his life. And Aziz Aisharir will forearm shiver him to the face. He won't play in the second half. Texans beat the Colts by three touchdown. So Jonathan and Ross, I present to you a 7. and O Texan season.

Unbelievable. That's what I'm talking about. Unbelievable. Nobody else in the marketplace will do that? I just did it. Wow. Your thoughts and the Texans going 17 and 0. 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-7-90. I'm floored. You should be. Time is 1052. Good morning. Man, Ross with you. I'm going to choked up. Is everything okay?

Are you still emotional from Pete Rose today? Oh, the scumbag who bet on baseball and was committing statutory rape was reinstated, guys. This is a great day. By the way, I just put out a tweet. I said the Texans are going 17 and 0 this year. And let me see what the excitement level is on this. Hey, can you thumbs down on Twitter? I have no likes, no comments, no reasons.

tweets. I like this tweet from DPP 1980. Looking forward to the game against the Titans, 31 to 11. Texans score four field goals. Not sure how they scored 19 from there, but I can guarantee that will be entertaining. Yes, you hear that?

You hear that? Don't out me on my numbers. That's great. Oh, man. That's good stuff. By the way, Aaron Wilson reporting, let's make sure I get this right. I don't like to aggregate of an Aaron Wilson. Let's see if Aaron Wilson actually has this on his tweet.

Aaron Wilson, yeah, he does great reporting here in Houston. I need to look at his running out through his tweets here. So I'm not going to say it. Okay. There's somebody aggregating an Aaron Wilson report. I want to make sure I'm right about this. So you don't want to get faked out by, yeah, ball sack sports or something. Is that what's called, really?

People will retweet that thinking it's real. I'm like, did you not read what the outlet was called? I've muted and blocked all those so I don't get caught. up in that mess, but... Like NBA Centail. You kids and liking spreading misinformation. Look at you laughing, Jonathan. Yeah, you think it's hilarious.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to be a serious media professional. I don't need all this fake news crossing my timeline. All right. So this is... I love it, though. This guy doesn't follow me, someone

and give him the time of day. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I'm never going to respond to you. If you can't at least take the time to follow, me. You're not getting a response to me or like or any of that stuff. Two can play at that game. You want to follow doofuses who have no living and make no money because they're failed radio people that, John? Hey, you're going to call me out for everybody.

No, you're, I got news. You're a successful radio host. You went on Channel 2 Sports Sunday. That's true. You've made it now, Ross. Looks like we made it. See, you do like me a little more than you want to say you do. I love that. A couple kid man is a jam.

Looks like we made it. He's got jams. He's okay. He didn't even write. I write the songs. It's a great song though, too. It's okay. It's fantastic. Jeff and Richmond at 1054 on 790. Hello, Jeff. Hey, Ross. Great show. Thank you. Avid listener. Appreciate it. Thank you, Jeff. Do you know the top MLB sources of the

farm system rankings? And then do you happen to know where the Astros fall on that? Oh, Ross. You have the answer to that? Ross. I don't have the exact answer But yeah, you go to Baseball America, of course, MLB Pipeline, baseball prospectus, generally they're in the 25 and below at most rankings. I haven't looked at the latest ones. And a lot of times I do re-rankings.

Right. Okay, cool. Awesome. I appreciate it, man. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff.

Thanks for calling Ross. Yeah, have a great day. Bye-bye. Yeah, whatever. All right. 713-212. Wow, great stuff, Jeff. Yeah, Jeff.

Thanks for calling Ross. He appreciates it. Astros by MLB. pipeline 29th in the latest rankings from last week. I got news for ads. I mentioned this to somebody at the game yesterday. I'm going to go ahead and call BS on these rankings. Because guess what the Astros do over here?

They bring somebody up. Like who? Colton Gordon yesterday. Four and a third, three earned runs. Yeah, great stuff, Colton. It's fine. Blue ball got shelled. Logan Van Wy.

Kim Smith. Because he's hitting 204. They're all here. And they just got it. Cam Smith is their top hunter guy. Jake Myers? Okay. Stop.

Even the president of the Jake Myers fankel. He's doing well. He's 29. He's not a prospect. Okay. Help me out here. Who else has been young and been called up? Hmm.

I mean... My point is this. They have gone... Hunter was the top Hunter prospect type guy. They have gone to the bullpen for... The bullpen. They've gone to the minor league system for five consecutive years, it feels like. Every team goes to their minor league system.

And the Astros, since Luno has left, has had a quote-unquote garbage monoling system. But they keep going to it. They've made trades with it. And they've gone to it. And it's helped them. Yeah, Joey Lopheito. I wouldn't bring up Jake Blas, but that's it, you know. Yeah, Jake Bloss.

Oh, Hayden, Wuzniewski. That doesn't count. Well, they traded for him and he blew his elbow. Hmm. It felt personal. It's not personal. It's a fact. I'm fortunate.

Scott and River Oaks. Good morning. Matt, Ross. What's going on? guys. Oh, Scott, it's great to hear from you, unlike the previous caller. Go ahead. All right.

So I don't know if you remember. I called in on Tuesday when we were doing gut feelings, and I would like to apply for partial credit. Because I predicted that week one would be Monday night football at home versus the bill. Now, obviously it's week two, not week one. But our home opener is on Monday night. And we also do have a different opponent. And they're playing the bucks, Scott? Not the bills.

Oh, good. No, you want more credit because they both start with B now. Huh, Scott? Well, we also do get the bills in prime time. So I was correct about that. Bills, Buccaneers. Biles, Bancar, Galactica. All right.

Okay. So, I mean, at least maybe half a point. All right, we'll give you that half a point. Okay. The other thing is, I was at the Astros game last night. A lot of fun. Jeremy Pena, you know, playing very, very well. But the one observation, I don't know if you guys have,

or how many, whether for a weird, but the attendance took low last night. The lowest I've noticed since I can remember since, you know, this recent era has started. Do you guys have any data on what the attendance members are so far this year? Oh, yeah. It was good last week, but I'm with you. I thought I actually texted a, well, another media member saying, man, it's dead in here.

And it was dead in the press box, too. It was like Wednesday against the Royals. And Colton Gordon making his major league debut, and nobody was in the building. Nobody was kicking it. Nobody was kicking it. What you can do is we can go back on attendance based off of what the attendance was a year ago at this point, right? That's a lot of work.

You're making me dig that up? No, you don't have to. Okay. My simple answer to this and life's not simple, it's a midweek. Schools aren't out yet. Wednesday against the Royals. Wednesday against the Royals who have zero cachet. I mean, zero cachet.

And frankly, if you had a bobblehead giveaway, you'd probably have 40,000 people. Yeah, there was also no gift. away. You should say, and that's another reason the press box was so empty. Oh, by the way, so I got a bobblehead yesterday. You did? Yeah. Can I have it? No. Oh.

There are members of the media who have never met that flood my row. You had to kick somebody to your seat. I had to push aside politely. I kick somebody out of the seat 75% of the time I go there. I don't want to be rude. You don't.

But there is a group of media people. How do I do this very? very tenderly here. I'll just go ahead and do it. It's my people's. It's my brown people's. When there's a bobblehead, 45,000 of us show up with credentials. I don't know why. I don't know how. All right. I'm going to say this. Jonathan, please make sure I'm okay with this.

I'm just saying it. The Hispanic media in Houston only comes to Astro games when there's Bumblehead giveaways. It's true. And this is a bunch of them. A bunch would be a slow to a wrong term. You mean a plethora. Yeah, then you've got to kick him out of your seat. Disculpe,

uh, for favor. Brian McTaggart is up next as Telemundo's pissed at us But the truth hurts Shut up my univision dogs But they're in our seats all the time McTaggart next 11 o'clock 7-9 Come back in a minute

All right 1103 Sports Talk 790 Brian McTaggart is with us for his weekly visit Now Brian leaves in League City He covered the game last night night. We're going to try to guess where he is. He's on his way to Arlington right now. Closest without going over wins, Ross.

We don't know where he left when he left? We're just guessing. No, we're just pure guess. So let's say he got home and say midnight. Okay, yeah, he's an established career man. Probably gets up early. He slept till 7.30. He didn't pack. So we packed quickly for this. He's about a 50 minute pack. He's, I'll say it's on 3rd. He's 2 and a half hours. And I'm going to say he is. I'm going buffing. Texas. I was going to say Buffalo. Are you serious? Are you serious? I was really going to say Buffalo. What's the place we're saying? Oh, I'm going to go Fairfield.

Okay. I'm going to say. Corsicana? Nope, too far. Brian, where are you? I just posted a picture on my Twitter. It tells you exactly where I'm at. Okay, here we go. So he's in Madisonville then. If he posted it, it's got to be Buckeys. Yeah, you got to be at Buckees. Let me see. I just pulled in the Buckees. Oh, Madisonville. Damn! Damn. That is a chalk picket. You know, we went off chalk, Brian.

That's, we messed up. You did. You did. That was a layup for you guys. So what time did you leave League City this morning? I left about 9.10. Okay. Hit a little traffic around downtown when 45 goes to two lanes for some unknown reason.

And then, yeah, but otherwise, yeah, otherwise fine. Okay, good. All right, good. Hey, the comeback kids are back in action. This is not a bad little serious performance for the local nine, especially with two back-to-backers. I thought yesterday was even more impressive because of the fact that it felt like Kansas City was on cruise control for much of the game. Yeah, I agree to take two or three with the pitch and matchups that the Royals were throwing out there

and, you know, come from behind win. I think what, only their second win this year when trailing after seven innings. So that was, you know, probably one of the most impressive wins of the season. I mean, I was just thinking that they're squeezing every ounce they can out of this offense. I mean, two solo homers get it done a couple of days ago. go, you know, yesterday Dubom drops a couple of doubles. I mean, the offense is still

scuffling really badly, and they're making the most of it, but the pitching has been so good for the most part, especially the bullpen that they're in every game pretty much, with the exception of a couple of those on the homestand that we're all aware of. But, yeah, I mean, I think Joe said it a few

times. The fact that they have this record and their offense is as poor as it's been, I think it's pretty promising, if you think, once they get back to full strength and everyone starts hitting up to their level. I think you have to make an exception to your rule about everybody is struggling offensively, except the leadoff man. Jeremy Payne, my God, is this OPS gone up like 500 points in the last two weeks? Yeah, he's done a nice job in that leadoff spot.

And, you know, he had that great spring and made a few changes to his swing and got off to a little bit of a slow start. But he looks like now he's developing into everything they had hoped he would be. I mean, this was his fourth year now. It's not like this is an overnight thing, but man, good for him. I mean, he's put in a lot of work to get to this point. And anytime you put someone in the leadoff spot, you know, you wonder how they're going to do. It comes with a lot of pressure. And he's done a very nice job, you know, just sort of like when you move somebody to close it.

You don't know if they're built for it or not. Guys, you know, Will Harris couldn't do it. And, you know, Ken Giles really couldn't do it. But, you know, other guys can. And they move Pena's a leadoff spot. And he certainly is, you know, a quarter through the season is probably the Astros. as MVP at this point. Yeah, we've seen hot streaks from him before, Brian.

And of course, you always mentioned Memorial Day is kind of where you shake things out. We're only a couple of weeks out from that, and he is still sustaining this. Yeah, and that leaves me to believe it's real. I mean, he's, you know, not striking out as much, walking a little more, and it just looks more confident at the plate.

His swing just seems to be, you know, the word he's used as quieter. There's just not not going, you know, a lot going on. A little toe tap, and he's got those quick hands. You know, yesterday they tried to, you know, sneak a ball by him. And, you know, he was able to get those hands in and just turn on it. And so, yeah, he's got a chance to make the All-Star game in the American League at Shortstop.

Add that to his resume, which already includes World Series, a World Series MVP, ALCS MVP. There was really only one poor reliever in the Middle Relief Corps. And Taylor Scott obviously got DFAed yesterday. But, I mean, Dubin, Ord, King. and then you, Brayu, who felt like the appearances have gone down. Where would this team be without this bullpen? Because not only are they successful, but man, Brian, they're being used in the fifth any more than perhaps any other bullpen in baseball right now.

Yeah, I'd be interested to see where they rank as far as inning's pitch. That's something I'll look up after I finish my icy here at Buckees. But even the two games where they had the short starts in the colors game and the gusto game, The bullpen came in and shut the door. And both games, they had a chance. You know, I think both games maybe had the time run at the plate at some point. So, yeah, and, you know, I've said it before. I thought the bullpen was the one area where they, going into the season,

I thought they were really thin. But so far, it's been their strengths so far. And Dubin's the guy we saw yesterday who can come in and, you know, sneak 96, 97 by you before you know it. He's very durable, a guy that can pitch two innings. if you need to start him and get forward in so he can do that as well. So, you know, it stinks for Taylor Scott

who did a really nice job last year. But, yeah, Dubin, I think, can be even a bigger weapon out of that bullpen. So, you know, props to all those guys for getting it done. But got to do it over the next four months as well because some of those guys are pitching a lot. You know, Brayu's pitching a lot again. So we'll see how they do here as we continue through the season.

Brian McTaggart, continuing with us here on Sports Talk, and 90. Back to the lineup real quick. Continuing struggles for Christian Walker 0 for four, a couple of strikeouts. Talked about Pena and hoping that's real and we hope it's not real with the way that Walker's performing. Well, I went to Christian Walker Monday before the game and did an interview with him on how well he was hitting. And if you talk to him, I know Matt interviewed him after I did. Very stand-up guy. I mean, very honest, very candid. you know, he came as advertised, just one of the best, you know, interviews you can have.

And he was great about his swing. And I think at that time he was hitting 225. He was coming around. And then I think he had a hitless series against the Royals. So he may never want to talk to me or Matt again. But just when I think that he's coming around and then he'll have a stretch where he looks like, you know, he's a little bit lost at the plate. So, yeah, the deeper you get into this, you more, you start to scratch your head. but man, I still think there's got to be better days ahead for me.

I just don't, I'll be shocked if Christian Walker's hitting 211 at Dall Starbreaker, 215 or even 220. We all know full well how Astros fans can be, Brian. There has been a lot of talk about hitting coaches all year, especially now with the Jeff Pass and Alex Bregman article, talking about adjustments he made. Just your opinion on that whole narrative and any underlying possibility of a change being made there. Yeah, I don't see it. I mean, the same hitting coaches that, you know, in 20, 22 when they won the World Series, the same pitching coaches when they won the World Series.

To me, I'm always going to put the blame on the player. I mean, bottom line, yeah, if you read the Patson article, one of the things that stood out to me was that one of the things that clicked for Bregman that he said was that he was getting the knob past the ball. He said the same thing last year. When he was struggling here, he had a big game, and he's like, gnaw past the ball. That's what clicked. This isn't anything new. I don't think I don't think Breggman's gone there and just reinvented his swing. I think maybe he's made a couple of changes here and there. He was a guy that was constantly tinkering with his swing, always trying different things, always looking at video. I think he likes hitting at Fenway Park. That's one of the reasons he signed there is he thought he really liked the backdrop and the idea of the green monster.

So I think it's just low-hanging fruit to say blame the hitting coaches, blame the hitting coaches. And I saw your tweet yesterday, Ross, that, you know, Where's the praise for the hitting coaches for helping him? Yes. You know, have a guy that looks like he'd be an all-star now. The responsibilities on the players, and yes, I mean, at some point, if there's a team-wide failure and hitting philosophy, then, yeah, maybe you make some changes.

But you have some very accomplished hitters in the Astros lineup, not carrying the weight, and the onus is on them more than it is the coaches. To wrap up our conversation, Brian, what's going through the mind of Lance McCullors? obviously the last start was far from what he wanted, only one third of an inning, struggled in terms of pitch count that first one. And look, Arlington is a place. The Rangers are hitting well.

It's an easy ballpark for hitting offensively. I'm not going to say how important is it, so I don't want you to read into that. But start number three, he wants to see some tangible improvement, I'm assuming, yes? Oh, yeah. I mean, it's got to be a case where, hey, if Lance, after that start, you want to say, hey, that was a one-start thing. I'm back on track. Get some quick innings. Get some swing and miss, which he wasn't able to do.

Maybe even build the velocity just a little bit. I mean, the Rangers are on a great lineup. They just beat up on the Rockies who are just awful. Corey Seeger's on the IL again. He's, you know, by far their best hitter and someone who's really been a thorn in their side. But, you know, they have Jack Peterson hitting third last night. His OPS is under 500. So this is a lineup that I think he could have.

some success against, but if he does go out there, have another short start gets knocked around, then maybe, you know, you have to have some, you know, real discussions about, you know, where do you go from here with Lance McCullors Jr.? But if he has a good start on Friday, then you try to build on it. But, you know, we'll see. It's going to be a very interesting start for him on Friday for sure. And lastly, any thought of maybe seeing Yordon on this road trip at some point? I would think we will.

I mean, I know that Joe said we're close, and we've heard that over and over. I guess until maybe he's taking some batting practice on the field. I think they really want him in the lineup for this series. Maybe they get him back for the last couple of games. Maybe he's in there tonight. Who knows? But I certainly would be surprised if he is not in the lineup at some point during this road trip. And maybe we'll have more clarity on that when we get to Arlington and a few hours

and we're able to talk to Joe. All right. Last question. Ross, you and I will guess. What flavor I see did Brian McTagher choose at Buckees? Now, the two leaders in the clubhouse are cola and cherry. Blueberry also sometimes gets in there. And I believe Dr. Pepper can be a flavor.

Now, that Buckees I've gone to has multiple machines. I'm going to go, you went cola. What do you say, Ross? I'm going to go cotton candy. Cotton candy. Well, I actually haven't gotten it yet. I'm about to go in. But, yeah, I'm definitely a cola guy.

That's what I'm talking about. Go coogs. Very good, man. You are no scur-doll. You are, what do you say, Nostra Thomas? That is correct. It's Nostorongus. And by the way, thanks for throwing me into the bus with the Christian Walker interview.

People are like, oh, that sports empty curse is back in a play. I'm going to start calling the McTaggart curse. That's what, because you got to him before I did. So, well, I think if you wouldn't have talked to him, he probably would have been doing okay. He's been there for two World Series wins, Matt, so I don't think there's a Brian McTaggart curse. That feels fair. Tags, really, really, really safe travels. We'll talk to you again next week.

All right, guys. See it. McTaggart. Cola icy. I haven't had an icy in the longest time. I can't tell you the last one.

God, it's delicious. I think. Years ago? Yeah. A couple years ago? And then when I was a kid, every time I'd go to a convenience store to get an icy,

the machine never worked. Hmm. It sucked. Things have changed. And thank you to Ruckies for having multiple icy machines available for our quenching of our thirst. Thank you. I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour.

I got a great story for you on this one. Okay. 1121, Sports Talk 790. It is a Matt Thomas show with Ross. We've got, I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour. For those of me, the new to the show, and first of all, I wish,

look, my birthday is coming up on June 5th. Can you go tell 10 people about the show? Each one of you that consider me, at least an acquaintance, some of you friends, some of you really close friends. I think if you listen to the show, we're friends. Yes.

Except for that idiot, that fake cougar fan, Christian. He can go to hell. Yeah, we recently got some shocking data that people will say, oh, did you hear this on the Rod Ryan show, or did you hear this on the whatever show, but they don't do it as much in sports for some reason. Yeah. So if you could tell a friend about the show, we would appreciate it.

So tell 10 people. I'm asking for one. I guess, you know what? You know, I'm asking for 10, but I'll say, I'll be happy with one. That gets us like 14 new listeners. That's true, Matt. You overask. Yeah. Like at Christmas time. Dad, can I have this new high-end video game?

Well, I'll give you the video game from five years ago. Yeah. Can you loan me $500? And really, I probably just need $100. I'll give me some money. Oh, thanks. We're going to, like, Charles next to you here.

I got to give you some money. We've got to take it a week and try to take some off the Tillman. I'm not to invest you in the poker game. Oh, no, that's fine. I mean, I'll be willing to do it. It's just so time-consuming. You're a stock. You got to put like eight hours in there.

Okay. I'd rather be at the sports book getting hammered. We may do that, too. Hey! Just saying. Valk and cranberries got my name on it. Back to my point. Oh, where we're going with this?

I don't know. I don't know why. Oh, so if you're new to the show every Wednesday, every Thursday we do, I just don't get it. And that's where you have... I just don't get it. Something in your life that you don't understand. We are, the three of us with our experience. Well, Jonathan's not experiencing anything.

But Ross and I are experiencing things. He's an experienced NCAA athlete. That's true. Yeah. Experience and trying to understand why his girl puts five runs. ranch dressings on her salad. Yeah. Not even paying attention.

He's listening to music. Look at him. He doesn't even pay attention to the show. We're watching him on the camera. It's all right. He's busy. He's watching YouTube. He probably is.

It's playing Minecraft. 713-212-579 if you want to join in the conversation. Astros with a nice win. Come from behind. Candison is a mid-team, but you've got to beat the mid-team. They're mid. It's a good. America League Central is good. Okay.

If they're mid, what are the Astros? Mid-plus? They have a better record, do the Royals. For only so long. They're 25 and 20. Astros are 22 and 20. So the only reason why they're not at 25 is because they've played three less games so far. Oh, okay. So, well, they got an opportunity this weekend.

All right. So predict how the Astros are going to do in this seven game road. You've got four in Arlington and three in Tampa. Do you want my Homer pick or my real pick? I would like both, please. Homer pick would be three out of four. My realistic pick is, they probably split it. I think they're going to go four and three on the next trip.

Oh, on the trip. I'm sorry. I was thinking about this week. in Arlington. Four and three on the trip. I could see that. Ooh, de Grom Avaldi. By the way, MLB.

And by the way, first of all... Is it a must-win game with Hunter Brown going in this series? Because then it's McCullors Blanco Gusto against Evaldi, Mali, and lighter. I'm going to ask you this right now. I don't want you to utter the rotation the rest of the weekend after what you just did. Unless, of course, Lance gives you six frames. Well, no. Jack Lighter started the season hot,

but he's been giving up some runs now. Yeah. By the way, really, really, really irritating about these social, these, not social, these streaming services. What's wrong? Tomorrow night's an Apple TV game.

Yeah. Put on some Ted Lasso and then flip on the game. Sunday is a Roku game. Yeah. Put on some practical jokers. reruns full house channel and then go to the asteros game yeah exactly baseball's got that's why i said baseball and espion have to kiss and make up they have to they have to figure out a way to keep them on that network somehow some way as long as the revenues keep coming owners keep making

more but i can't ross the check for roku can't be that now apple apple i could see but the rocou dollars can't be crazy i there's got to be a what do you call it ross when you buy when you buy something and you take the money but you know there's you're not getting a great rate return on i mean it's just a it's a i guess it's a bad investment a quick fix the quick fix they took some cash over a sunday slate of games look i'm pretty savvy on the streaming stuff is till takes me 15 minutes to find roku what's the matter nothing um i'm with you as far as they they have to balance apple is apple i can get because it's a mega mega super popular

streaming service with original TV shows and they're trying to get into the Netflix crowd. They're trying to get in the Amazon Prime. I get Apple. Roku, I don't get. Yeah, the quick fix money weighed against growing the sport. We talk about this in the NBA. It's similar, not with the streaming stuff, but like to where they always put LeBron and Steph on and LeBron and Steph and LeBron and Steph and LeBron and Steph.

Well, those guys are going to retire soon or just not be very good. You've got to build up the other young stars. So you've got to build up your audience. somehow. Rather than saying, all right, we're going to get, rather than getting 5 million viewers on ESPN or Fox, we're going to get 1 million viewers on Roku, but we're going to take the money. Yep. So you're losing out on 4 million people watching your show. These are numbers I'm making up. I know. I think it's very accurate. Yeah. So you're losing out on millions of people watching the game that you want to grow 10 years down the road, 20 years down the road.

There is not an 11-year-old going, Dad, put Roku on because the Astros and Rangers are playing today at noon. All you're doing is pissing off the people that would watch the game, and that's Astro fans and Ranger fans on their respective networks. I just don't get it. I came up with the phrase. The cutting off your nose to spite your face? Or what's the reverse of that?

You're saying you're coming up with that original phrase, cutting off your nose. I'm trying to, the phrase you were trying to think of, the quick fix phrase. Yeah, yeah. I will accept that. Well, they're not cutting off their nose because they're taking money. never mind, doesn't worry. They're adding their nose to spite their grandma.

What does grandma have to do with this? We'll workshop it. I like that. Jonathan, that is the best piece of sound you have played in the history of this show, with you being on it. Oh, now he's paying attention. Jerk. I'm getting y'all's close.

Oh, he's working on tomorrow. Somebody's got two. All right, what don't you get? I don't get the last 30 seconds of Ross's, little siliqui over there. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. If you don't get something,

we're here to answer it for you next on 7-9. 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. All right, here we go.

What don't you get in your life? I present to you an example of this story is so bizarre that I could actually, honestly, probably do a shut-your-bom-ass-up or anybody got time for that. Okay. Houston Chronicle Story. This is on May 13th. Oh, now I got to sign in. Oh, Jesus. This is terrible. Here we go. Okay. We call you the show prepper. All right, here we go.

A baseball season ticket holder named Wynn Lee. he went to Dyken Park on May the 12th just a couple days ago he posted on social media about bringing three pounds of crawfish into Monday night's game against the Royals Lee posed with his ballpark meal in delight of the post holding it up from his season ticket seats in left

field foul territory others were not so amused Facebook commenters called Lee quote inconsiderate of those around him because of the mess and smell the mud bugs can create. One commented sarcastically, Bet your neighbors love you. Lee, however, said he was insured.

He was mindful of his seatmates. He said he ate the crawfish at the picnic tables in front of Dyken Park's team store in the left field concourse pregame to not make a miss. He confirmed that with another social media post of him digging into his meal, and he shows photos of that.

Lee said bringing in food as a regular practice for him, he takes advantage of the stadium's policy that guests can bring food contained in a clear plastic bag, no bigger than one gallon in size for every home game. But he said that this was the first time he brought crawfish to the ballpark. He says, it's crawfish season, you know. I'm sorry, Mr. Lee.

And maybe you're listening to Shown for that. We thank you for it. You cannot bring crawfish in a plastic container to a ballpark. Or a paper or a plastic bag. Crawfish needs to be eaten in a crawfish-esque type situation at a restaurant, at a boil. Don't they do a boil the Astros? I've never seen it.

They have before. I'm sure they have. I would say bringing crawfish to a game in a plastic bag, I would say, gentlemen, I just don't get it. That's so gross. Need to bring potatoes and corn in there too? Sausage. Yeah?

Was it spice properly? You know what's underrated? The mushrooms. I love it all. The boiled mushrooms are the crawfish? Very good. I will come to your crawfish bowl. I just won't eat the crawfish.

I'll eat everything else. Oh, I thought you said you were going to have somebody peel them for you and then you eat it. My daughter does. Let me tell you something. I've spent thousands of dollars on her in volleyball. The least you can do is peel my crawfish. Let's go through this step by step. Please.

So you're sitting at a restaurant? Or a crawfish ball. We went to a crawfish bowl a couple weeks ago. Okay, like one where you proper, proper crawfish bowl, they put the paper down and just dump a bunch of crawfish on there? Big, big little circular plates. Okay, so she sits next to you. Yes. grabs a crawfish

tail and it peels the tail and then what she's saying feeds it to you or what she throws it into my little concircular thing I don't

I didn't have to know she puts just the tail in there and then you grab the tail dip it in butter seasoning or whatever yes and then you eat it

I eat the meat every single time oh Lord that good that's an easy one that's a cheese god my point is this she knows I don't like doing it

she's really good at doing it so thus she doesn't for me and I eat it. Voluntarily. What I mean? Yeah, I don't ask her to do it. I can go to a crawfish.

You never once in your whole life asked her to do it. No, she tried to show me. She tried to show me. She's a huge crawfish connoisseur. I mean, she can eat crawfish eight every day of the week. She's like, Dad, it's so easy. And I like, I don't want to do this. And so I like, I have my potatoes, my mushrooms, my sausage.

The shrimp sometimes is in a crawfish boil. But you know, Dad, I'll do it for you. So it's nice. I got something for you, Matt. Yes. I just don't get that. I spend I don't want to

pocket watch anybody but you're going to you don't have to I spend $25,000 a year in her volleyball okay that isn't yeah

so if she so she's got to peel your crawfish exactly I get that huh she is amazing I don't even know

that I'd want to eat a crawfish somebody's hands have been all over it it's my daughter it's fine come on all right

so back to my original point do you get bringing crawfish the entrails? What if there's like a little entrail on there? It's fine. You wash it off. Do you spray it down with a hose? No. Go back to my original point. Do you get bringing crawfish to Minutemate Park? Or to Dyken Park? No.

Jonathan, you? That's filthy. I mean, I can see bringing, what would be the, what's the length? I mean, can you bring sandwiches in? Yes. Can you bring in a burger that you made at home? Yeah. I mean, burger. Sure, why not? Are you, nobody's bringing a burger? But you're not bringing spaghetti.

meatballs put it that way. You could. You could. It'd be messy. But crawfish, I just don't get it. Ross, what do you got? I got a lot. I know you do. I'm going to go, well, actually, a couple things. I have,

I'm just going to say it, Xfinity cable. I'm just going to say it because I'm unsatisfied with them right now. I don't spend money with us, I don't think. Maybe they do. Love you, Xfinity. So I have to get a new cable box because, unfortunately, the 4K ones I have keep shortened out on me. And every time I get a new remote, there is a button on the remote that is a 30 second jump,

but when you get the new remote, it's a five-minute jump. And you have to go through a little code, you have to put in zeros and all this stuff to change it to a 30-second jump. Why is the default, and I've done this with five different Xfinity remotes, why is the default a five-minute jump? Who is sitting there watching a game or a TV? show and needs a five-minute jump as opposed to a 30-second jump. I just don't get it.

Can somebody please tweet me if they've dealt with this as well? Is this just me? See, I've been a Rarek Rui-I-Ri guy for 25 years. They have a 30-second jump. And then you can jump back, 15 seconds, whatever. I think it's 34 and 15 back or something. I'm okay with that. That makes perfect sense, especially in the day.

So now NFL offenses are a little quick, but the 30-second jump is clutch and you're trying to catch up on an NFL game. Why is there a five-minute jump on the remote? I just don't get it. Can someone make sense out of that for me? You need a technician, don't you, to call the show? No, I don't need a technician to fix it. It's Google.com, but I don't get it because I don't live in it.

Live that world. So every time I get a new box, because they keep short and out on me because their technology is crap, I have to get a new remote, and then I have to, and I hit forward, I'm like, oh, crap, I just jump five minutes. So sometimes the box is good and sometimes it's not. Yeah. Sometimes it works, and it shorts out. and Peter's out and I got to get a new one.

So the key is having good box. A good box. Well, yeah, you want HD or you want 4K? Jonathan, any thoughts on this? I don't have cable, so I don't know. I use these rookos. And I just get my games off of streamies. Illegal streams.

They see the kids these days. Look at them how soft talking is on there. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, then these checks and gold coins, the girl on the chat pop-ups. I got to get it. rid of the 50 porn sites that I look at. Well, I look at one of those porn sites. I got like three ad blockings. A couple viruses. Jonathan, um, slowly and succinctly, would you tell us what you don't get?

I actually have a good one today because I don't understand. I was at the game yesterday. And there was this long royals fan with his girlfriend, right? And in the midst of all. And it was just booming. When they got those two run runs, you know, live by himself, his girlfriend's loving it. And then he goes, I think Altuva stroke out or got, you know, easy out. starts cussing him out saying how bad he sucks and the whole entire part all it was empty seats around him

all gathered and got him like right behind him and started messing with him like and then when they came back I'm talking like grabbed his cab through his cap and then the ball was coming back they were bullying in front of this is his girlfriend and I just don't understand why you would do that to yourself like I don't know why you put yourself in that position

I don't get that there's never need to be antagonistic or argumentative at a ballpark. It's a place of joy. Well, generally, you get angry... Because now Altuve at the dome, though? That's crazy. You get angry drunks as well. Okay.

Hmm. Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you. Did you have a second one? Did you have a second one by the? I'll give you another one. Yeah, we talked about this story yesterday at news at noon. HBO Max, which HBO is a heritage brand television-wise and some of the greatest television

shows ever, pound for pound, the most, the best television shows ever. And then they went to Max. And then now they're going back to HBO Max. I just don't get it. What are they doing? What is happening with you folks? They never should have gone to it in the first place. Everyone said that

and now they're going back. I don't get what they're doing over there. Do I have to download a new app again? Do you know what? Today on NBC, Savannah Guthrie said, it's like Coke going to New Coke, going back to Old Coke. Yeah, but you said that

yesterday. She bit stole me. I just don't get Savannah Guthrie. $8 million a year. Dumbie? Let's go. Stop stealing my bit. Yeah, but they did that to compete with Pepsi.

Yeah, it's also different, too. They also changed her formula, which was the dumbest thing ever. I remember having new Coke on a plane one time ago, and this is garbage. It was no good. It was terrible. But you love Pepsi. I love it all. Pepsi, R.C.

All right. Rankin order. Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper. Oh, you hate Dr. Pepper. I don't like that pepper. I forgot about it. Never mind. Geez.

We mean, never mind. Don't shoot me. No, it's fine. Dr. Pepper is gross. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you, Jonathan. Get you a raise.

Jonathan, what are you making? $11 and I'll get you $11.15. Let's go. That would be greatly appreciated. I give you 15 cents more. Not to $15. And not an hour. He just means lump sum.

Yeah, lump sum. All right, let's get to the calls next. Alan and Keith wanted some things they don't get. What's what we're here for? We are the best advice you can find in the Houston sports marketplace. Is that not right, Karasi? I'm just curious how many people are on your side. putting a Twitter poll up at SportsRV.

Jonathan, you and I are heavy, heavy minority on this. It's two out of three on this show. It's a not liking Dr. Pepper, really? I bet you'll get less than 10, it'll be 10% or less. Think so? Yes. Now, I'm going to vote on your poll. It's got to be simple.

Like it or don't like it? Don't give multiple thoughts. I'm going to go to my burner and vote. All right, 713, 2.1. My burner at Sports Talk 790. Yeah, no. 713, 212, 5, 790. More of I just don't get it next.

All right, the early poll results are quite, It's stunning, Rossi. On the Dr. Pepper, like it, don't like it. Right now, it's 70 to 30. I thought it was going to be 90-10. And they very well could be at the end of the day. And we'll see. I'm just curious.

You and I love root beer. Yeah. There are members of our family. My family that does my wife despises root beer. Really? I think it's delicious. What's your favorite root beer? A&W.

They used to be A&DX. places where they would go, and they still have them in the Midwest, where you get the root beer and you pour it into a frozen, to like a frosted mug. Oh my gosh, delicious. I'm going to go barks mug, then A&W. Huh. Yeah. But I like them all. I love A&W.

To my top five soda list, really quick. IBC underrated. Good old-fashioned Coke, number one. I don't drink that anymore. I drink the Coke zero. That's good. Number two, Sprite. Three.

Really? Three. would be root beer. Four would be squirt. Excuse me? Squirt. You like squirt. Graefu soda, yes.

I like it. Yeah, I like it. Where do you find squirt? At any scorcher store? I haven't seen squirt in years. I'll get you a squirt. I'll bring you a squirt tomorrow. I got some at the house. I'm good.

Keep it at home. You won't drink a squirt with me? No, I think you should keep that at home. All right. Keith on 7 on a Keith. What don't you get? I got four things. Man, I hope you.

Man, well, let's keep it quick. Get it out. Okay, first, I don't understand how Papa those who has mid food like y'all say mid still makes a whole bunch of money. Number two, I don't understand how food truck drivers make any money because I can drive by there and I might see one person or five people out of a whole day. I can't understand how they make money. Number three, I wonder, I know how we live in a sick-ass world, but I'm wondering who cares that much about the Astros that they threaten Lance McCuller's family if he pitched, if his pitching sucks.

Number four, I wonder how Donald J. Trump gets away with letting Putin punk him on a regular basis and takes gifts from terrorist organizations and gets away with it. That's four things. Thank you. Thank you, Yankees, Keith. I'll let you address that last one, Matt. I'm skipping number four. Sorry.

Not talking politics. Wrong show. Call Michael Berry. Michael will help you with that one. Yeah. Number three on the color stuff. Ross, I got news for you. A lot of me.

Major League Baseball players get those threatening types of things. They just do. I think honestly, Jose Al-Tube has probably gotten to 10 times worse. And they've handled it their own way. So, yeah. Okay. Unfortunately, I think athlete, social media violence is very real. And it just hurt that Lance happened to get it on the night where he did not perform well.

I would also say, I mean, look, obviously it's wrong and it's people have a screw loose. you know and actually I'm just going to leave it at that yeah just say that people have screw loosens loose yeah screws loose it's like a new show I don't know Putin don't do it don't do it

I don't know Putin I'm not listening to this I'm going another room okay what about food yeah food well first of all food trucks they spin I'm anti food trucks oh boy

I mean I want to go sit down I don't want to have to stand on a curve You got a picnic table. It's fine. Fancy Matt would be anti-food truck. That is zero shock. Yeah, I'm just him. I understand.

If I have a choice of sitting in a restaurant, wait on your hand and foot. Yes, and I'll give them gratuity. With white glove service. And I'll get them 22% tip. How about that? So shut your bum ass up. 22%?

I've seen you in action. I don't know about that. Oh, I've given a 40 before. You know that. $40? Yeah, it was a $500 bill. Stop. Get out of here.

Let's get some more folks in here. Well, he also said... By the way, Papano food is not mid. It's good. I think it's good. It's really good. I don't think it's good.

I don't think it's better in New Orleans, obviously, that type of food. But I think for being in Houston, I will say this, it's overpriced. I think that whole conglomerate is overpriced. Everybody, look, the Rappas family, y'all are nice people. You've been around Houston forever,

but every one of your restaurants is overpriced. Yeah, Mappacitos, I'm like, brother. I just spent $75. Listen to me, Mappacitos. If you were to reduce your prices, is 15%. I'm not asking for 25. I'm asking for 20. If you could knock it, I would go to your place once a week.

Because your fajitas are amazing. Your chips are light and crispy. The garlic sauce you have with the salsa is good. The chicken fajitas with the butter, garlic is top freaking shelf. Just lower your prices. A little bit. He's got to take out of payday loan to go there.

I can't do it. Barbecue's okay. The Cajun food's good. The burger. is good. The steak is excellent. We went to the burger once. Remember, it's right over here. We had a sheriff. It was so damn expensive. Well, you had a gift card. We were like, never again. The reality is you're just too expensive. I just

don't get it. I mean, I know. You want profits. Bob and Sugarlight, what don't you get? Hey, Matt, Ross. Yo. Hey, Tad was going to be disappointed shortly after y'all's call earlier because Ruckies no longer

has cola icies. What? I just don't get that. I just don't get that, Ruckies. Right, right. And it's been replaced by D.P. Oh, gross. Nasty.

It makes me consider stopping at Ruckies now. Yeah. Well, I'm still going to Ruckies. I mean, I can give me a 42-ounce tea with no problem. And the Beaver Nuggets, they give me a brisket sandwich and a sausage on a stick. Sausage on a stick. Actually, you have a sausage wrapped up in a tortilla, which is very, very, underrated. Also on a stick.

One packet of mustard, you're good. I love things on a stick. Yeah, I know you do. A clean restroom. You can put a stick on it, Thomas. And the best restrooms. You can even do number two of those rookies. See you later.

All right. What are you looking at me for? I'm not looking at me for. Something is wrong with y'all. Something's wrong with Matt. Are you hungry? Huh? Are you hungry?

I am starving, actually. I'm doing fine. Matt is literally eating in the middle of this second. I'm not. You're such a liar. You're a liar. You're a liar. I don't get you.

I'm talking to you right now. I can't be eating right now. My biggest pet peeve. And you just do it daily now. Geo, what's the matter with? This show lends itself to eating in mid-segment. Hello, Gio. Hello, guys.

Now, hopefully your phones don't mess up on me like they did yesterday. Oh, yeah. You sound good now. Go ahead. Sorry about that. But anyway, Matt, did I hear you right? You don't do food trucks. No, no, no, no, no.

I didn't say don't do them. I don't prefer them. I would rather go to a restaurant than go to a food truck. I got you. Okay, okay. Well, I was going to say, I just don't get that, man, because some of the best tacos in your life will be bought from a food trip off of an Aude email route.

Oh, I'm not going to all the email route. There's no chance to be going to all the email route. Yeah, it gives a little CD over there. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I don't want a fajita taco. Don't start none, won't be fine. Hey, hey, I don't want. As long as you go with Ross, Matt,

you'll be bribling right in. Let me tell you, I don't want a fajita taco with piqued a guy on a Gunshot wound. I just don't want those things. You're going to be fine. All right, guys. I mean, don't start none. It won't be none, Matt. That's how you, that's how you conduct yourself. You start acting crazy in the hood. They're going to start acting crazy on you. You've got to be one of them. How do I do that? Now, of course, sometimes you might catch a stray. That's a different story. But, yeah, I, look, yeah, if I've been to food trucks, yes. Well, I go again, absolutely. But I would prefer to go to a sit-down restaurant. I'm never calling to the family and said,

Hey, everybody. All right, fancy man, we get it. Jeez. Now, there is a food truck place in Kingwood that has, that's crawfish. That's where all the family goes eat their crawfish. Okay. And you don't like it. I'm not a huge crawfish guy, so.

Unless your daughter. Someone's peels there and peels all your crawfish tails. And that's why she maybe is my favorite cat of the three. Oh, my goodness. Cameron and Payton have not done that. Oh, baby girl. Daddy. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. There's no. There's no maybe. How does Rachel feel about this situation? Oh, exactly. Daddy's a little princess, because we're two boys with a baby girl. I understand. I'm not hating.

I'm just saying. There's no maybe about it. The funny thing is she's such a fraud. She goes, well, dad, I'm getting my college paid for. I'm like, girl, I paid for your college starting when you part playing volleyball in the fifth grade. They'll stop. Well, it's all part of being a dad. That's fine.

All right. 11.50. We have the news at noon coming up in a matter of moments. The Texas schedule is out. The Astros with a nice win. and we have not mentioned a certain team is out of the playoffs in the NBA. Yes, we have got a chance on their green. Can I get a hell yeah.

Are you okay? No, I'm fine. You got that right. All that. All that. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah for big city wings.

Hour number three of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. am the Ross part of it. God knows what Matt's doing. I think he's wandering the hallways, but that's okay. We got a number of things to get to. We had Brian McTaggart on earlier in the show. If you missed that, we'll have that conversation coming up for you at 130. Phone lines are open at 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-7-90. And, well, I guess we're going to do it without Matt. We will just go to the news at noon. No, you're not here. We've been back for two minutes. What are you doing? People around the company want to value my opinion. So you're eating in the middle of the last segment,

and now you're not coming back in time. You're schmoozing with people. Smoosing. I'm trying to build the brand of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. It's built. I know. We are who we are. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the Peter Jennings of sports journalism.

Thank you, Matt. Well, there's a lot going on in Houston sports and in the sports world in general. But we start with the Houston Astros. Back-to-back comebacks for a comebacks. back series victory. Here's the O2. Pena lifts this one over the head of Garcia and then the left field.

DuBahn racing around third. Waters double clutches throws to second. It's an RBI single for Pena and the Astros have come back to take a four three lead. Payne, four for four. Jeremy Pena goes four for four. You've just heard, as you just heard Robert Ford say, a couple of runs batted in. Season average up to 3.15. Season OPS up to 840.

Matt Thomas is the Jeremy Pena breakout season for real. You know, it's funny, we've talked about this before. He's actually hitting sliders too. His percentage, everything has improved. Do you think this, not necessarily the light bulb turned on, but as players get older, work on their mechanics,

grow into being professional hitters. He's obviously worked on his game, and I'm happy to see the positive results because frankly, you need to figure out what to do with him long term. And I think he's building a case to say, hey, sign me up, give me that big long-term contract. Jose Al-Tubei said, get this guy long-term contract, let's go. That was a week ago. Problem is, he's only got two years left of arbitration.

Usually you sign those guys. With like three left and give him or four. And then tack on three. Yeah. I don't know it too. If you're Jeremy Pena, are you a quote-unquote betting? on yourself. Underbounds like, I'm betting on myself.

Yeah, he probably will. We'll see how that plays out. Also, last night, Colton Gordon, Matt, the fourth pitcher for the Astros to make their major league debut. Colton Gordon, four in a third inning's pitched, seven hits, three earned runs, a couple of walks,

three strikeouts, all looking, by the way, and 41 swings, only two whiffs. He tops, at 92. So let's just put this in perspective. He's going to have to mix his pitches up, have incredible control, and because he doesn't overpower people, at least what we've seen so far,

he's going to be pitching to contact. Yeah, he was sticking with Sinker Slider. He said after the game, he throws up to six pitches. So maybe that will mix that in, but that's what they were trying to go with. That was the game plan to get started. As you said, pitching to contact, seven hits. Only the three earned runs, not a great start,

but not a disaster did enough. And this bullpen has been great. Sean Dubin getting you five outs, even though he gave up the run that was charged to Colton Gordon. But Caleb Oort, very efficient. And then Brian King and Josh Hater, how about the Astros with 22 wins?

Josh Hader with 10 saves and a win. So that's half of your wins he's factored into. And he will be going to the All-Star game. It is a no doubt, no if-ans or butts. He's headed to the midsummer. Classic. 150 ERA. a 0.89

Whip. By way, Brian King guest to the show a couple days ago with a scoreless frame yesterday. Yes, that is true. That is Ms. McNeese State Legend. That is a sports RV blessing. You know what? I'm going to take full credit for that. You're right. All right, man.

Also, you had the Houston Texans schedule released yesterday for standalone games. Three and a half. No, it's not three and a half. It's called Monday night football. Seriously, you get the ESPN Plus game. That means we had to throw you on there. Monday night football.

No, they didn't. They got them on Monday night football twice. And Thursday night football and a Sunday night football. Suck it. No, there's two. That's one and a half Monday night game. One of them is nine o'clock in night. No one's going to be, looking at their computers.

I'm going to be up watching it. You're the only one. I'm going to be watching on my smart TV. You and Darlene have been having relations while the game's going on. It's 2025, pal. You and Darlene. Wake up. I know you're going to be watching.

to wheel out your buddy ears. Guess what? Guess what? Darling's going to want to with you. Can you wear my bleeding after we're finished? You got it on your

phone, your tablet, your laptop, and your TV. You got a smart TV. Grown-ass, man. Grown-ass teams put their games on TV. You got your 19-inch Montgomery Ward TV, and that's fine. It's not going to be on there.

Guess what? It's 20-25, pal. Kansas City Chiefs don't have to worry about being on ESPN Plus. The Dallas Cowboys don't have to worry about ESPN plus. Well, the Texans are at the Cowboys. they're technically better.

At what? Wins? Technically. They got the same amount of Super Bowl appearances that franchise is formed. ESPN Plus. They have three and a half national broadcast. I'm standing by it.

Four. Continue on. By the way. I'll have my... I'm going to have my schedule prediction of the Texans coming up at the bottom of the hour. Okay. I got it a lot quicker than the first one.

That's true. When are you doing that? 12.30? Okay. 12.30. schedule release or schedule run through, rundown? Our predictions. Sure, why not?

All right, Matt, elsewhere in the news, we mentioned this with Brian McTaggart. Jeff Passon with a big expose. Okay, it wasn't an expose. A profile? What are you going to call it? Dush. Of Alex Bregman. Dork.

And how he's doing so well with the Red Sox. What? You said Breggman's a douche? No, I love... I literally love Alex Breggen. He's one of my friends. Well, in the long article, talks about him fitting in with the Red Sox also talks about him and how he loves talking baseball

and also talked about the Red Sox working with him to address a flaw in his swing. Poor setup and load rather than exclusively focusing on bat speed. He committed to loading earlier and rebuilt his swing in a place that's heaven to baseball rats like him, the batting cage. This has got to cause a lot of Astros fans to be upset with the Astro's Batting Coaches. Because Jeff Passon is a slow. a selective, first of it was an astro hater. Second of all, he writes all these little puff pieces when these guys leave, but he doesn't have the stones to do it when there weren't astro gear.

So shut you bum ass up, Jeff Passon. You're a dork and I hate you. Thank you, Matt. And stop playing air guitar with Rage Against the Machine songs. Air drums. Whatever. You're not cool. You're not fun. You're not interesting. You're a dork. People at ESPN make fun of you. And you're generally speaking a douche. Elsewhere, Matt, speaking of dukees. Speaking of doches. Warriors, Draymond Green, was fined $50,000 by the NBA yesterday for making an inappropriate comment

that questions the integrity of game officials. He fouled out with 438 remaining in the game, I guess, a couple of days ago, and his comments post-game, the NBA took umbrage with those, and he was fined $50,000. Matt, your thoughts on Draymond Green saying that basically, the Warriors aren't getting a fair whistle. I can't possibly comment because there's nothing ESA that I believe in.

And by the way, the Warriors lost yesterday. Bye. Minnesota versus Oklahoma City, who you got? Oklahoma City holds on. Okay. Oklahoma City, I think we'll hold on. He said five and a half. I know what y'all doing.

Talking about the spread was Draymond Green. He's going to be a fantastic analyst. But right now he's just a mid-basketball player. who actually curtailed in the final game of the series. Yes, you got the Thunder and Nuggets battling out. Also, one more note from the Warriors, Matt. Steve Kerr said, hey, if Steph Curry were healthy,

they go to the distance. He thinks they could have won the NBA championship if Steph Curry had been healthy in this series. He's supposed to say that. I don't necessarily agree with him, but why wouldn't he say that? And that's your news at noon. All right. Thank you very much.

excellent job as always. Bottom of the hour, I will make my predictions in the Texan schedule. Yes. Again, I don't know why nobody in Houston sports is talking about the Texan schedule. It's crazy. I haven't mentioned it. Not a single time. Can't wait. And we here at Sports Talk 790, we'll do something that no other show in the marketplace has done, and that will give you a complete schedule breakdown. Can't wait. Thank you, Bart, Scott. 713212-5-790. Let me ask you all a question on the Astros. Are you starting to steal a line from the Jackson's? Can you feel it? I pause for a moment there to let you reflect.

Two out of three against Kansas City. Two out of three earlier against Detroit. You know what they are? They're the meatloaf of Major League Baseball. And meatloaf is good. Get a little ketchup crust behind it. Mashed potatoes. Green beans?

Corn? Southern style with bacon? Yeah. Corn bread? Or perhaps a yeast roll? I don't take one of each. As compared to a non-heast roll. Are there such things in non-heast rolls?

Yes, Matt. They're called rolls. What are they made of then? Bread? Well, yeast makes things rise, right? Just regular. Oh, just regular non-Hawaiian roll? I don't know.

I don't know. So, that's your bum-ass up, man. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-9. We're watching sports in here because that's what we are. We're a sports show. And Minnesota's up on Baltimore 3-0. You know the twins have won 10 consecutive games? Really?

Yeah. And they're still in fourth place in the division. Isn't that odd? That's very odd. They're 23 and 20 now. They were 13 and 20. They've won 10 consecutive games, and they are still 5.5 out of first place

because the Tigers are 29 and 15. Thank God. The Astros are in the mid-A-L-West. Astros, conversely, are two above 500 and a game out. Tie with the Rangers, starting a four-game series tonight. We'll have it for you on deck at 6 o'clock, pitch 705 and tonight it'll be up

to Hunter Brown. Friday it will be Lance McCullers fingers crossed, small prayer. I'm worried. I told you on to tell the truth on Monday that I was afraid we're going to have to have a difficult conversation. I hope you're wrong. I hope I'm wrong too because

honestly, pitchers have blowups. They have off nights and sometimes they get rattled and hit. Hey, his arms should be fresh. You always try to find positives. So to my point earlier, can I tell you,

and look, I am an Astros fan, so it's easy for me to do this. But the Astros are two games above 500. If you were to grade their overall hitting, it's probably a C-minus to a D-plus, right? Body-a-org.

Uh-huh. Starting pitching's been probably a C-minus to a B-plus at very best. maybe closer to a C? I'm going to B plus. Starting pitching? No. I'll go back to B plus.

Keep going. Over the balance of the season. Keep going. Frumber was good. Hunter's been great. I'll say B minus. Bullpen A. Mm-hmm. And guys and gals, they're a game out of first place. We, because we are the followers of the Astros,

are tremendously lucky to see where they are. We are lucky, is your point, that they're only, they're in the American. League West. There would be six games back. They are six games back of the Tigers. Yeah. And that's not, you know, honestly, you're six games away from having the best

record in the American League. That's not even that, that doesn't sound that even that terrible. It's not terrible. It's, it's, it's, the Astros are really lucky to be where they are right now. Yeah. But, I mean, they have seven more wins than you and it's, there's, there's, your 42 games end of the season. So six games back doesn't sound terrible, but it also is still early.

Yeah. If we did on-paced guy, you're pacing to be 24 games back, but that's not going to happen. No, and you're also on-pacing to be about an 87-win team, give or take? Yeah, that's about what we, I don't remember what our predictions were. Believe this or not. Okay. The winner of the American League West will not win 90 games. Big collision with the twins.

Is that Correa running? Is that Correa? In Buxton? Oh, no. They went head to head. Oh, no. They're both made out of glass. Two of the most often injured players for the twins are

hurt. They're both down and getting attention from trainers. Oh my gosh. If you're a twins fan, you usually want to rip your hair out. You're on a 10-game winning streak. The team is finally battling back. Byron Bucksman and Carlos Corrie are much maligned by injuries

and they just collided with each other and they're both being seen by trainers. You know what? They might have gotten double concussed in this point. Oh my God. If there were actually twin fans, I would feel sorry for them. Oh, God! No, God!

Please, no! No! No! Their heads knock? It's the back of Correa's head and the side of Byron Buxton's head. And actually, Buckson held onto it, I think. Yeah, it's what I called out. And by the way, there are Twins fans.

They just haven't been rewarded with much. They've cut payroll. They're trying to sell the team. It's a great baseball market. I lived there for three years, I can say it. It's a great baseball stadium when it's not October or April or May. Or parts of June and January. July.

They're still down. This is terrible. Oh, my gosh. Well, we'll get that. What were we talking about? The Astros. Okay. So do you, I find myself very encouraging. Now, granted, if you drop three or four of the Rangers, I'll come back with clinical depression on Monday. But point being is that things could be significantly worse. You have a bottom five offense in baseball. Right? No. They out? Team OPS. 13th. See, this is why, and this is what a lot of fans are missing,

and it's not your fault. Because they've been losing some of these games. Lance McCullors Jr. gave up all those runs. They scored nine runs in that game. They did score that runs. There was that other one where so Ryan Gusto was getting shelled.

Yeah, they lost those games, so we kind of washed those away in our mind that they scored those nine runs. If they had a 1-9-2, we'd like... It was a 7-0 game, it was 7-5 ultimately. Yeah, they scored five runs in that game. They, you know, so the offense, now the last two days, it's been shut down for sure. but last several games,

nine runs three, nine, six, five, two, and four. It's not horrible. It's been mid. They were bottom five, but now they're 13th in Team OPS. I don't have to look at runs scored and, you know, WRC and stuff. And there's, and let's be brutally honest about this. You lose Kyle, you lose Alex. You weren't just going to replace them with two.

I mean, I know that Cam Smith was supposed to be the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, right away and he's struggling. Let's face it. You have an OPS under 700. You're struggling. He's not playing every day. That's interesting. We didn't have time to get to a McTaggart, but what is the future for him? It's DeZenzo. It's been taking a lot of

the time. I think the future is, as I said before, I think if Cam Smith continues to play sparingly and doesn't work his way somehow in the lineup, maybe a demotion wouldn't be the worst thing. I made this analogy last time. I don't want him to be.

I don't anticipate it to be. but you can't carry Desenzo and McCormick and Smith. You can't have two outfielders that are not playing every single day. I made an infielder. I made this analogy last night on the 10th inning show. Tell me what you think. Do you know when you went to college and they did what was work study, where you get some college credit, but you also get paid?

So can it be like that to where he's game planning? He's hitting the cage with major leaguers. He's up with major leaguers. He's working with major league hitting coaches. And he's not playing every day, but he's playing three. four times a week and there's value in that maybe more so than just playing every day at AA or AAA ball and where he's kind of like on a work study. May I give you another example?

Okay. Well, tell me what you think of my analogy. Not bad. Okay. Not ridiculous. I might have a better one. Okay. Go ahead.

Jonathan, you feel free to jump in on this. There are people, you're young people in this world that apply to Texas. A&M every single year. Okay. And don't get in. They get to go to Blynn. Uh-huh. But they get to take some classes.

Or Prairie View. No, this is Blin in particular, because Brennam and a coalition are close. That live maybe close to A&M, that take some classes at Blynn, but they also get an opportunity to take one or two classes at Texas A&M because Blynn feeds right into A&M. What if he's a Blynn student but gets a Linn? little bit of taste of life in college station. Well, no, because he's with the major league team the whole time. So that doesn't work.

Yeah, that would be like him being Aggie. Yeah, if he was like splitting time between Sugar Land and Houston, then that would make more sense. So you're shooting my example down. I'm sorry. That feels fair. I think about it as more like in high school with the J.B, like cross over the varsity in practice and then plays the J.B. And then when a bunch of injuries happen, you're a varsity, baby.

Time to get crushed. Time to be over your skis. All right. Your example was the best. No, mine's not that great. It's flawed. I fully accept it. There's no perfect analogy.

You still made sense. Or like, how about you like an apprentice? He's apprenticing right now to where he's learning. He's getting to do some things. He's not playing every day. And he's not on full-time salary. Getting no benefits. He's on full-time salary.

Is he any benefits? Yeah, good benefits. Major League salary. He's up with the Major League Club. And service time. Yeah. You know what? All of our examples suck.

Well, the thing is, is that because this is a unique situation for him who has not gone to the minors and gotten all that seasoning, is it beneficial for him? Even if he's not playing, what I'm saying is, are they weighing, is it more beneficial for him to play every day at AAA or AA or is it more beneficial for him to play half the time and still learn on the job how to carry himself and prepare as a professional? I don't know. That's something they have to decide. I just don't know if it's going to be this. I can't imagine this being long term, especially. when you get Yarnan Alvarez back. Now, Sal's all you're going to drop, which something's got to give.

Something that has up to give you. I don't think you want to keep as many outfitters that aren't playing right now. Let me tell you right now, we've got the NFL schedule prediction coming up. How are the Texans going to do in 2025? I have the answer for you. After I tell you about what's happening, since no one in Houston, Ross, is talking about the Texans' NFL schedule and the predictions, we hear at Sports Talk 790 do it for you 1235

Ross you ready No quickly I can do this a lot faster So let me to speed up when I need to do time actually All right Matthew Stafford 309 and two scores Rams beat the Texans in week one Oh God It's a ram victory I will say 2717 Rams

Tough Number two Texans home for the Monday night game against Tampa Bay They get out to a fast lead But Baker Mayfield throws three touchdowns in the second half. He is the comeback kid. 27-24 bucks beat the Texans. That's a tough start. Texans open up the year at 0-2.

Jacksonville, week three, Trevor Lawrence hasn't cut his hair since training camp. Really? He's got a main goal. He's part of the uniform. You can grab that. He's got a huge main going. He also runs for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Al-Ziz-A-Shahir gets called for a personal foul

for a horse collar, setting up a first-in-goal at the one. quarterback sneaks it in. They also win 2724. Oh, wow. Jeez. Texans are a O and three. That's a heartbreaker. Cam Ward comes in in week four. Dang.

Rushes for 100, throws for 117, 20 to 17. Titans beat the Texans or O'N 4. That's a tight one there. Ross, what always happens to the Texans when they go to Baltimore? We don't even need to talk about this. Derek Henry just got a new deal.

Derek Henry, two-touched. Lamar Jackson, four passing touchdowns. Four? 40 to 14. Blowout in Baltimore. Oh, come on. Texans go to Seattle in week number seven. Cal can't find ESPN Plus under any circumstance.

Yes, he can. It's on his Xbox. No, he can't find it. Hannah's yelling at him saying, come with me to the game. He goes, no, I want to watch it on the Microsoft. He's got the ESPN app on his PS5. There's no doubt in my mind. Big Day for Seattle.

Five field goals. 18 to 6. The game's got nothing but field goals in it. Seven field goals between the two teams. By the way, constant rain in Seattle for that Monday night game. Well, of course. So the Texans are 0 and 6. Then you've got Kittle.

George Kittles is going to catch... You know the Texans can't cover tight ends. Never. Three touchdowns by himself. Three? We'll play them on your fantasy team that week. DFS. Brock Purdy, 249.

Rock, purdy. And those three touchdowns all to George Kittle, it's a 2420 win. What was this faster rating? 106.2. Niners win. Texans are 0.7. Gino Smith comes in, not eloquent. throws a couple of picks.

They're actually thinking about replacing him late in the game, but he put together a massive drive with 149 on the clock and no timeouts, 85-yard drive. Philgoe wins it for Denver, 30 to 27. Texans still looking for their first win. What is Gino Smith doing on Denver? There's a trade?

Who's the quarterback at Denver now? Bo Nix. Bo Nix. Joe Smith is... In Vegas. I'm getting my teams mixed up. And who's in Seattle? Who's Seattle's quarterback now?

Oh, it's... I said it to you. Darnold. There we go. I got at least mixed up. I didn't mention Darnal's name by the name, did I? Not yet. Well, then shut up.

Owen eight of the Texans. Jacksonville comes in. Every time the Jaguars and Texans play, it's a coin flipper. CJ Stroud throws a pick six late in the game. 21-14. Come on, man. Jacksonville with the win. This is Hater Matt Thomas stuff.

Owen nine. Not good. Texans always go to Nashville when the orders, when the Tennessee Titans are running the older uniforms. Oh, no. The Titans have given that up. It will make a difference. Okay. Derek Henry, not there.

but who's the running back for the Titans now? Tony Pollard. Two scores late. Within the last five minutes, a fumble. Nico Collins tries again an extra yard to keep a drive alive and coughs the football up. Tennessee's short position in the red zone. Tennessee wins 2720. That's tough scenes.

Josh Allen was embarrassed for the last time he was in Houston. You won't be embarrassed this time. 368 and four scores. Oh my gosh. on a Thursday? 31 13, Buffalo with the win. Man, he's lighting them up on a Thursday.

That puts the Texans at 0 and 11. That's, is there heat on Domingo Ryan's at this point? Anthony Richardson throws for 209. Okay, now you're lying. Throws two scores, runs for two. 28, 17, Texans lose at Indianapolis or 0. He throws for 2.

He goes four for 20 throwing and he throws for 20 9 four big bombs. Rossi, what did the? the Texans do when they go to Kansas City each and every year. They get their ass whooped. So go ahead and give the final score to that one for us. 23 to 16. 0 and 13.

Kyler Murray is playing for his next contract. He's running around like a toddler. Ran off with your food. CJ Stroud gets food poisoning before the game and cannot play. Really? Money Mills? Is he still on the roster? Money Mills throws for 175 and two picks.

Arizona with the upset 2110. Oh, and 14. Gosh, this is rough. Gino Smith and the Raiders. It's a 325 game. Cal doesn't know that. He's been there since 10 o'clock because he thinks it's a noon game.

Okay. So the coaching staff, they're way too early. Fatigue sets in. Big comeback for the Raiders in the second half. They score 14 in the fourth quarter and win 2117. Wow. Oh, and 15. That is a big comeback.

Chargers make up for last year's wild card. loss in Los Angeles. Herbert. The truth. The truth. It's a truth that he threw four interceptions in that playoff game. And now go charges, go. Arnold Schwarzenegger

bangs the drum before kickoff. Herbert throws for 309 and three scores. Does throw a pick. 309, I said it and stutter. 309. Chargers win it. Oh, oh, I can't believe this. 317? Wow, that's a massive beatdown.

I would love to kind of work that day. All right. Indianapolis week number 17. Money Mills gets to start again because C.J. wants to rest to get ready for next season. That's kind of an odd one. No, I get it. I mean, they're o' and 16. Nico Collins also suffering with a hamstring injury.

This team is beset by injuries. The Colts and Texans have nothing to play for. Anthony Richardson starts the game, doesn't fin. initiate, but still runs for two scores in a 17-7 Colts win at NRG. Hannah then says, we're moving out of the stadiums because we can't win here anymore. We need a new facility in Fort Bend County. Texans end the year. Zero and 17.

There are, there are issues about the new offensive coordinator. Yeah, Casario's got to be gone. Casario's in trouble. D'emico's in trouble. and Hannah can't get her stadium in Fort Paine County. It is a miserable, downtrodden year for the Houston Texans NFL franchise. Jeez.

So there you have it. Owen 17. And my deepest sympathies to those of you that are decent, normal NFL Texans fans, not Darlene. Not Battle Red Bob. Not Deep Steel Dan.

What about Battle Red Ross? I've long forgotten about him. Let's go Texans. I got 11 and 6. First glance. Over Under, by the way, Vegas. is 9.5. Okay.

That's a slight under from last year, correct? I think it was a 9.5. Was it 10.5 last year? I thought it was 10. I thought it was 9. No, it was 9.5. Because you lost a bet. Yeah, that's fine. All right, fans.

I just told you your squad's going 0-1-17 this year. Any reaction whatsoever? No. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. If you want to react to what I think is going to be a downtrotten year for the local football team, 0-17. Are you willing to come to grips with that?

713-212-5-790 1250 on Sports Talk 790 it is the Matt Thomas show with Ross we are with you today until 2 o'clock we've got McTaggart replay if you didn't catch him earlier in the show which first full shame shame shame shame but we'll get some good baseball insights from the Astros beatwriter on his way to

Arlington my guess is probably very close getting there right now starting of a four-game series with the Rangers we'll have the on-deck show at 6 o'clock first pitch at 705 from Arlington. And you and I have not gone there yet. I want to talk about this yesterday. I just be stadiums. I've been there.

Oh, I've not got 23 playoffs. You did all. And Gordy, covering courtesy of Carbuck Brewing. So you're one that said that how high the press box was. It is ridiculous. I've heard from credible sources. It's one of the worst in baseball. If not the worst in baseball.

You're way high up there. You can't judge where a fly ball is going yourself. high. And where did you sit during this games? In the press box, yeah. It was terrible. It was awful. How's the food? Food's good. They got a nice soft serve. Better than any soft serve from in the media dining in this town. Hmm. What's up? I'll let you address that with the media folks. I mean, I appreciate a good soft serve. Both the Ashore. Well, I don't know. I had the Texans have soft serve. I haven't been in a Texans game. No. I don't. No, they have, they have, no, apparently the Texans had quite a good media spread. I know they used to back when I was going, but I haven't been in. years. You can go back. They're welcome me. I like to watch Reds though. I'm, you know what? Sunday's at my off day in my life. I need

to just, I feel like, yeah, you go to an Astros game and you're watching the Astros, but there's not 10 other games going on that you want to watch with your fall with your fantasy teams. Plus, they allow more fake media in Houston than any other sports team in town. Who is that? The Texans do. I'll take your word for it. I don't know. Yeah. All right.

713-213-212-790. 7-19 if you want to get in. We've kind of glossed over this a little bit, The Warriors are done. Mm-hmm. Yes, it feels good. Get them out of here. And look, they beat the rockets, and you have to give them that.

But they had no chance with no, Steph Curry. They had to have Steph and Jimmy Butler playing out of their mind every single game of that series against Minnesota, and it simply did not happen. And the Minnesota Timberwolves knocked them out in five games. And covered the 10 and a half. Good for them. Do you think some of the charm of...

of playoff Jimmy has been hurt by the fact that he was so mid in this series? I don't think so. By the way, let me give me his numbers. He had that hip injury. Four of 11 from the floor he finished with 17.6 rebound, six assist in 42 minutes. I mean, he, yes, but he's 35 years old. He's a maid man as far as playoff wars that he went in carrying that Miami Scott was in 2020, where he was just absolutely carrying that squad to an NBA final.

So no. 35 years old with a hip injury. I'm not crushing him personally, but I know people will, and that's very prisoner of the moment. And people are like, what does this exit mean for LeBron James' legacy? He's 40 years old,

and the team is not good outside of Luca Donchich, who doesn't play defense. Doesn't mean anything. Doesn't mean a hill of beans. So I don't think this means a whole lot for Jimmy Butler's legacy or Draymond Greens or Steph Curry's. They're old.

Yeah, I mean, at some point, You're just not good as you were. I mean, Kim, Eliza won. Last three years of Rocket. One great. Toronto, Rob. Keem was frankly poor. Yeah, they were getting roughed up by the jazz and whatnot. And, well, 97 was that the sixth game?

That was the Stockton game winner? Yep. But 98 was worse, right? Yeah, I mean, Dream, everybody, everybody. Who left literally as good as he started? We could have said Michael Jordan, but then he came back. Even Colby, when he scored those incredible points down the stretch of his career, he had taken a step back in his career.

I mean, guys don't retire when they're as good as they were seven or eight years ago. Yeah, does anybody in the NBA have that kind of John Elway moment, win it all and right off into the sunset? Could John have play more? Absolutely, he could have. That's a great example. Who would have left? Barry Sanders left still on top of the game. Yeah, but he was thinking of winning a championship.

Oh, yeah, yeah. No, I'm not even talking about championship game. Yeah, I'm not even talking about championship. team. I'm talking about individual performance. Jordan did it in 98, but then he came back. That's because he was told to go away. No, I'm talking about 98. Oh. I know. He quit so many times. It's hard to keep

track of all his retirement. Yeah. The old time great competitor, he quit basketball three times. One of them because the NBA told him to. Allegedly. There's nothing to back that up except for conspiracy theories. That's a conspiracy that I rationalize. That's okay. I'm not rationalized. I just believe it. I don't need to rationalize it.

Okay. You don't think, you really don't think that the most recognizable greatest player in earth when told of some off-the-field discretions, the NBA said, you know what, it would be good for you to go away for a little while and come back? What is it, he believed?

No, I'm saying, that's not a question of rules. It's a question of, are there some illegal gambling activities and are some debts that you don't want publicly out there? I absolutely believe that. I mean, the last dance, he talked about being exhausted. He was sick of the limelight, and then his fathered passed. Athletes lie.

Athletes lie. People cover up. All right, Mr. Conspiracy theory. I don't believe that. you, I don't believe ever a conspiracy theory. Okay. I believe that one. Okay.

Cool. There's millions of people behind you. That means it's still not the greatest. I still believe. That's good, too. Quitter. If he's so great, how come the team won 55 games the next year? I got LeBron James Villarreal.

No, I'm not. I didn't say a name. I didn't bring anything up. We know what you're going on. No, I'm not going with anything. I'm asking you a question. If he's so great, how come they still won 55 games next year? They had a great team.

Oh, okay. interesting. But Michael's the greatest. For some. For most. I'm a Kareem guy. You are not. Six MVP, six championships.

Who's matching that? Nobody lately. I mean, if you're a Kareem guy, you might be a Wilt guy, too. There's an argument for Wilt. When he averaged 50 points a game, second best in the league was like 32. Yeah, but the problem is you and I never saw. So right now, the championship, yeah, we never saw it.

We never saw it. We got those numbers. So this year, I don't know who won the season. I don't even know who won the scoring championship this year. It's probably around 30 to 32 points. So what if there was some guy out there scoring 50? Did SGA win the scoring title? I'll take your word for it.

I don't recall. Okay. We'll start the 1 o'clock hour with Michael and the Williams wants to get some Astro baseball, chatter going. We always love that. Brian McTaggart replay coming up at 130. Ross, what is today's edition, I believe it or not, at 150? It's all things Michael Jordan retirement.

We're going to sort them out. He did it so many different times. I know it gets confusing. He's such a big quitter. can't believe you drink a big gulp of Michael Jordan Haterate every broadcast. I don't actually. You do. You hate him.

I, yeah, you do. Go ahead. Just say it. That's fine. Just because you're not by yourself on this. You're not going to be on an island. I'm not on any island. I'm not doing anything.

You got a bunch of pimply-eyed people, and Nick Wright think that the LeBron's the greatest. Nick Wright does it. He's doing schick. By the way, Nick's, why is Nick on Dan Patrick's show? What? Did anybody go, God, I want to listen to Dan Patrick Show to hear what Nick, right? I mean, oh, God, it's just. Yeah, points for game was.

Shea Gilgis Alexander. Good job. 31.4? 32.7. I wasn't bad. I guess. I guessed. I guessed.

Second was Janice. Third, Nikola Yokic. By the way, do you see that Bovada, and I don't usually give them plugs? Bovada's got the Janus of the Rockas is the favorite. I don't think it's happening. I would welcome it. But you know why they're doing that?

It's because they have the most trade ships. They do have a lot of assets. I think we've got to start thinking about keeping players keeping draft picks. Because look at all the teams that people are bullish on. Houston, San Antonio, Oklahoma City. Keep their draft picks. They don't go get them for Bradley Beale.

They don't go get them for Jimmy Butler. They don't go get them for Cavs were great in the regular season. They made a big trade for Donovan Mitchell, but they also built around with some draft picks. Yeah. All right. Astro conversation starts the 1 o'clock hour. They did win two out of three against Kansas.

City and they have a chance to maybe sneak up to the top spot in the American League West that things turn out right tonight Astros and Rangers you'll hear it right here on sports talk 790 all right those two of you that were on hole want to talk some Astros we're here for you to do that final hour of the show Ross and Matt with you on 790 719 713 212 5790 is high reach the show Astros getting three was in the eighth inning they scored those runs Rossi eighth inning to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win four to three it's funny the Josh Haterhate is gone away very quickly. Didn't take very long for that.

He's got to pitch well. And be given an opportunity to save games, not coming in ties, because his record with tie games is not so sweet because he was given up home runs. But he has been perfect so far as on save opportunities. Am I correct on that? Yes, 10 out of 10. Low ERA, Brian King, front of the show. Low ERA. Caleb Bort, lower the ERA.

Yes. Anybody else I'm forgetting about? I don't know, probably. Bullpen's been great. Bullpen has been outstanding. Astros and Jeremy Pena's transition to the lead-off spot's been fantastic. If you can just get everybody

to get on some sort of hot streak, Ross. Christian Walker since Monday. He was a hero on Sunday. Yeah. And done squat since. Hitting coaches are ruining them in his 11th year. You roll your eyes on that.

I couldn't have that. You know what I'll shut up. I saw what you did on Twitter too. Was anybody snark you back at you? Were they all put? Probably. I usually, I generally kind of like a throw a stone and turn the other way.

Did you mute the conversation and move on? Yeah, you know what you are? You are throw the rock at the kid to the playground and run away and make sure you don't get caught. That's different. I didn't say anything. I just made a joke. Like, hey, if the hitting coaches are ruining Jose Altuve,

35 years old, 15 years in the game, and ruining Christian Walker, 34 years old, 11 years in the game, if they're ruining those guys, then we have to give credit to giving Jeremy Pena. Oh, by the way, who were the, the hitting coaches when Jose Altuva was having some of the best runs of his life. All right, you got 15,000 views on that.

Okay. That's terrible. Why? Because it's too many for your tweets. Why is it too many? Why would you say that? Why does that sentence come out of your mouth? Because it feels like 14,000 too many, but that's a different issue for different.

It sounds like jealousy, Matt. You get 374 likes. Really? Yeah. No, you're kidding. No. For that, the one with the weekend on it, looking around? Yeah, you said looking for tweets, giving the Astros hitting coaches,

credit for Jeremy Payne's 4-4-4-8. That's hilarious. Yeah, I didn't even know. It must have been a lot overnight. I wasn't paying attention. 19 comments. 22 retweets. Okay. Now, let's take a look first at the comments.

At Sports RV. But I'm also trying to focus on my Instagram, Matt. If you could follow me on Instagram, at SportsRV, I'd appreciate it. Influencer initiative. Go ahead. Robert Nolan says, now let's work. Is that Paul Nolan? No, Robert Nolan.

Now, let's work out on Walker now. We haven't had the top of the order hitting at the same time all year. Okay, that seems fair. Stacey says But I was told Alex Breggman was a terrible hitter Until he joined the Red Sox, so it has to be the hitting coaches Dome Skeller 2 says

They scored four runs last night They're also responsible for the other 12 position players Most of whom have stunk at the plate this year So he's so Dom Sculler is not a fan of the news You know these people that's fine Uh 2017 and 22 champs says Ask Breggman That's in that's with the ESPN article

Should a DFAid Walker says none will be given Gordo B. Staff says it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way? So when hitters are hitting poor, it's all the hitting coaches when they hit well. None of they get none of the credit. At WK underscore Rodriguez, it's one game, relax. Okay. Craig W. Land.

He's hitting 315 on the season with an OPS over 800. We are 42 games in. See, this guy follows us. He does follow me on Twitter. Shout out to you, well. At Craig W. Lant, I don't think pointing out that one guy on the season. the team is hitting is really doing what you think it is.

Contrary in there. And Craig does not follow me, so that's screw you. He lives in Reno, Nevada, too, so we really don't care about him. Let's see. I think that's it. Thank you, Matt. Oh, here we go. I'm passionate about the stroves, but some of you all treat this like it's your job to watch. Just enjoy it. Your happiness should not be hinging on the WL columns. It's kind of weird.

Yeah, that guy's making a lot of good points. Oh, what about two-thirds of the order not getting a single? single head, a lot of work to be done, says Mike. Mike also doesn't follow us, so screw him. And, oh, Pena is now HLP. MLB's don't. Wait, no, is this guy talking to me? Some of you all act like it's your job to watch? It is your job to watch.

That's what I'm saying. Is he talking to me? That's why it's not weird. So this guy, D-Wod, I can't say the first part. Pena is now HLP. MLB's teams don't reach HLP. Why are you stupid? That's why you were stupid. Oh, me?

Yeah. I don't know. He follows one person. Like I said, I mute the conversation. He's four followers. I muted this conversation. Like I said, I knew it was going to. Once I knew it gets into the, I don't even know what you would call it.

Just like into the void. Into the ocean of stupidity. I just mute the conversation. It's lovely. I didn't see any of this you're talking about. Okay. So I tweet for my followers and people will follow me and follow this show. Yeah.

But when it gets out of that. Yeah. If you don't follow, I'll shut your bum ass out. If it gets out of that sphere, then that's when it's time. to meet the conversation because that's when you get into the ocean of stupidity. That's like my political when I was talking about having no Ted Cruz at the Rockets game. People that are sports fans know that Ted Cruz goes to sporting events and he winds up watching losing events. Case and point by Cougars, he was there in San Antonio.

It wasn't meant as a political sline. It was saying, get out of my building. And all these people from all over the country, pro-Trump, anti-Trump, Republican Democrat, were crushing me. And I hurt my feelings. Well, you should have muted the conversation, Matt. I should have not even, again, and then I said, I don't do politics because I really don't do politics. As you all know, we don't do politics. And I go, what do you, how do you mean you don't do politics? I'm saying, you don't do weather.

Well, if it rains, guess what, Ross? What can I do them to adjust the rain? Not a damn thing. I can't get in the clouds. I can't change the forecast, Ross. Just can't do it. Have you ever seen the rain? I know, I have.

Have you ever had laughter in the rain? I have laughing in the rain all the time. It's one of the most romantic songs out there. But yeah. I'll tell you put a, you put Neil Sedaka's laughter in the rain on after a night of romance. After? Well, during, if you want to. John, the next time with your girl and you ought to get romantic, I want you to put some little Neil Sadac on.

Things as she. Yeah, Sadaka. Put a little laughter in the rain on. See, I thought this is a woman, though. No, this is a guy. This Neil is a guy. Listen to this, Jonathan. Tell me what it sounds like to you.

You want to make love to this? Yes. A little retro love. I'm mortified. It's basically talking about having sex without a condom. What? Yeah. I'm listening to this on the way home to that.

Screw the 18. What do you think about this? She will cuddle with you for the rest of her life. You're a different type of romantic. I don't know about it. Hey, I got 30 years of around. romance on you my man. I would never let you down.

And you can go and take her out for a salad with a bunch of extra ranch dressings on the side. Do the waitresses get mad at your girl when you all are hot eating? And she was like, I want three extra ranches, please. It's the fast food workers that look at me like, really? You need six extra ones? And I'm like, well, if you're going to get, you're going to get your fast food salads, even when you go to

Rick Verlet and you ask for like extra packets of dressing, they say it's their pleasure. There's no chance. They are, there. They're a foul mouth. you like you wouldn't believe. All right. So embarrassing.

By the way, you can't put that much dressing on your salad because the whole point of eating salad is to be a little leaner. To be healthy. The caloric intake off of those dressings are just terrible. Keep going so I can click this. What's your girl's name again? Ivana. Ivana.

A little hard to heart, Ivana. You and I have not met. We'll become best friends when we do. You better watch out. I heard she's from the valley. She'd come mess you up, bro. I'm worried about her parents, more about her. So, Ivana's parents, if you're listening, know what?

no harm here but you cannot put six ranch dressing on your salad. You go from my 300 calorie lunch to a 2,000 calories lunch. About 1,000 yeah. The fat grams. You might as well have an Oreo shake. Yeah. Look at him. He's writing it down. He's like, he's going to write this down. He's right the time down. This is great. So when she cuts them off, it's like it's not my fault. It's Matt's fault. Yeah, come for

Matt Thomas on this, by the way. I had nothing to do with any of this. We'll go out and have dinner. We'll straighten it all out. Matter of fact, if we ever go as a teamed dinner, I will hold her to a one dressing. Okay. And she'd get all surl. You're going to pick up the bill, right? Then she'll leave me.

She's like, it's time for us to leave Jonathan. John's like, my salad is got here. We're leaving, Jonathan. And then you'll pick up the bill. And then she'll pick up the bill. But then she'll mention you, she'll drop your middle name on you too. What's your middle name, Jonathan? Keith.

Keith. Let's go. Jonathan Keith. Let's go. He disrespected me. I can't have five oil and vinegars on my saladin. Let's go. Get out of here.

No, she acts right. She wouldn't do that. All right. She would curse me when we left, though. Wouldn't you? She might get your ugly stare at the whole dinner, you know. Ugly stares happened. She'd be polite during dinner and wouldn't get in the car. That bald MF her. More with the Astros coming up in a few minutes.

We have a chance to catch up with the one and only. Brian McTaggart. There's only one. All right. So our buddy Nate Davis at USA Today, I mean, just is the provider of great commentary. He has put together the five. worst games in the NFL this year. This is

surprising. He opens up with Dallas against Philadelphia at number five. This is the very first game of the season. What's so bad about that? C.D. Lamb, George Pickens, Dak Prescott, back healthy in the reigning Super Bowl champs. I'm not...

Let's see. Does he say? Well, it's really long-winded here. Basically saying that Philadelphia is significantly better than Dallas. This game will not be close. I'm just trying to paraphrase. Seven-point spread, I think it opened up as. Yeah.

Rookie head coach playing his first game on the road. Just not a great game. The fourth worst game of the year, Browns at the Detroit Lions. Yeah, Browns is bad. Anything involving the Browns is bad. It's going to be horrible. So that could, in theory, be a Detroit blowout of, say, 42 to 7,

something like that. I mean, maybe that's the reason why. I mean, you could put Cleveland versus anybody it would be one of the worst games of the year, right? They are so uncertain with their quarterback situation. So this is regardless of national standing? Yeah, apparently. Oh, okay.

What? Why isn't Jaguars Titans on here twice? We got to call Nate. Number three, Texans at Seahawks. Not only is this game in the dreaded 10 p.m. Eastern time slot that will be regrettably returned twice by Monday night this season. You'll also have to hope the NFL, the Wi-Fi doesn't blink. This showdown is in the Pacific Northwest, exclusively to ESPN Plus, or you can miss the next time Sam Darnal or C.J. Straug gets sacked.

Hey, oh. What's you doing, Dave. Dave. Nate. You know, off the top rope of that one. CJ's not going to get sacked. Cam Robbins is the second worst game of the year is the Falcons against the cults. If you want to watch this, you've got to get up by 8.30 Eastern Central time to watch the first

regular season game ever in Berlin, Germany. Didn't the NFL Foist Daniel Jones off on the Germans last year? Perhaps it's an unexpected barn burner between teams that could be playoff dark horses. Maybe Atlanta running back Bijan Robinson is even anchoring my fantasy lineup.

And perhaps it's a battle of franchise that have typically been also rants for the past decade in a game where the ball could quite realistically hit the ground half the time. It's put in the air. Sorry, Deutsche Land. So he's apologizing. And the number one worst game of the year.

December 1st, the New York Giants play at the New England Patriots. That does sound like a snoozer. It would very likely wind up as a showdown between three win teams of Drake May and Jackson Dart, who might as well be making their prime time debut by that point of the season at the controls.

High degree of skepticism for a tasty meal here, even if leftovers sometimes tastes better. That's the game's December the first. Is that a black, Is that Black Friday? When is that? No, it can't be that late, early. December 1st, what is that?

Are those all... That's a Monday. Those must have been all in prime time games. It's a Monday after Thanksgiving. Hmm. So, the Texans have the third worst game scheduled for 9 o'clock central, 10 o'clock in the east. Texans, V.C. Hawks, unless you're... I would say seriously, if 80% of the country will not even bother to even find this game,

unless you've got serious... Those both teams are super, super good, which they could be. I mean, tell me, who's the definitive leader in the West? Niners. Are you sure? No. That's what I'm saying. I'll go to Niners.

Yeah, they're the favorite. Rams. I'm going to bounce back. They're going to bed. Arizona? May. Why can't it be Seattle? I'm going with the Rams.

I mean, Sam Donald had a great season last year from Minnesota, except for the last couple weeks. The Niners finished last place last year. So maybe they're going to benefit off of the last place schedule. Look at this guy. That's what I do. I break things down. This is an NFL analysis unmatched.

You are peerless, Matthew. One other, I'm not peerless price. One other NFL note. The NFL is contemplating allowing athletes from the NFL to compete in the summer Olympics. Yes. In the sport you may ask? Track and field? No.

Team handball? No. Basketball? No. Ross. You're spoiling my NFL rewind for next week. Flag football is going to become an Olympic sport. Yes. That is utterly ridiculous.

I think it's awesome. Lamar Jackson versus Lamar Jackson and like Tyreek Hill and Siquon Barkley, a bunch of dudes from Latvia. This is going to be amazing. They're going to score 200 points. You thought the dream team basketball was bad. Tell me what Uruguay is going to do when it comes to flag football. They got no shot.

I want to see it. Dude, does Team Canada have a shot? Are there Canadian NFL players? Yes. Can't be many. I don't think there's a lot. Is Team Germany going to be able to put something together? Probably not.

How is that France flag football team going to be? Not good. put Wimby on there and just toss it up to him. A limit of one player per NFL team on each national team participating. Oh, so only one player per NFL team. That's fine. So if the Texans had a player that played for a particular country, nobody else could play. Oh, okay.

Derek Stingley? See you later. Who would be the Texas representative? Ross, come on. Let's have a common sense here for just a minute. Would? Okay. Flag football in the Olympics.

What's the problem? Why are you mad about it? I'm not mad. It's just stupid. I'm going to watch it. You're telling me I can't. I'm going to watch Lamar Jackson's done on a bunch of Paraguans. Let me, let me say.

There are sports that are meant for the Summer Olympics. Basketball. Track and field. Swimming. Beach volleyball. I mean, it didn't used to be beach. See, nah, look at you. Beach volleyball wasn't there 20 years ago.

It wasn't when they had it. It should have been at it a lot sooner. Oh, my God. indoor volleyball handball swimming and diving events the javelin toss the high jump if you will

let's get some football flag football broad flag football let's go what's the problem now will I watch it yes shut your bum ass up then what's the issue but there's a lot of things I watch a lot of bad times

television. Yeah, well, yeah, you do. Yeah, it's the Olympics. It's once every four years. But aren't you just, just mimicking a bunch of goofy things that are out there that really should not be worth of gold medals and ceremonies and years and years? Isn't there any party that says training for this is something to be something special? You don't want to watch Derek Henry truck a bunch of dudes from Spain. That'd be hilarious. You can't truck in flag football. Why not? You grab the flag, you throw it down, it's over with. You can't truck that. Yeah, you get the flag from his stiff arm. I'd like to see you try. Can you even make contact like that?

I don't know. I don't know if fly football rules. Somebody's getting trucked. Now what if you can't make contact? That's fine. It's still fun. Okay, well then, yeah, like I said, give me Lamar Jackson and Tyreek Hill.

And I don't know. Here's the thing. You can take any mid-N-N-FL player. I guarantee you Sam Donald could Money Mills can make Fly-Fitball look good. Are you putting Money Mills at cornerback or what? Well, let me ask you this. Do you really want,

if you're an NFL team, do you want your flag footballers out there playing football with the chance to hurt themselves? Yeah, apparently with this voting, they're giving, it would be, they would get some kind of injury protection. Like if somebody got hurt, they would get some money or stocking or something like that. Let's go, it's called insurance. I don't care about the insurance. If C.J. Straub plays flag football and tears a rotator cuff. He's not the best quarterback in America. And you need some flag football, you need somebody squid more. Who's the best quarterback in the NFL? Pat Mahomes? Lamar Jackson. You think you know what is playing? I'll talk about for flag football.

because you've got to be moving. Got to dodge the flag grabbers. And then what if you break your hip doing these things? It should be fine. You know what? I'm going to make a gut feeling right now. Nothing but mid players playing this. Okay.

Nothing about like Alan Lazard will be the wide receiver. I would send, I would send Lamar Jackson first and then Josh Allen second. If I'm Baltimore, I send none of the above. I send no Josh Allen. I send, I send, you know, I send, I send, um, Jalen Hertz. No, I wouldn't send Jalen Hertz. I would send...

Who would I send? I don't know. Let's send... Aaron Rogers is available. No, he's old. Joe Flacco? You know what? I would send...

Who would be... Who's just a good... Now, do you have to 1-2-3 Mississippi? How does it go with the Russian in this flag football? The big flag football? And we used to play. We used to get really mad when people...

Oh, Fron. I'm from France. One Mississippi. Two Mesape. I come get you, Le Moll... When you're playing football. song you're mine. One Quebec. Two Quebec.

One Montpellier. Two Montpellier. One NASA Bahamas. Yeah. Here's a thing. We used to play football as a kid. You used to go one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi.

If you're playing, Jonathan, you're saying Mississippi like ten times faster. You get one blitz for four downs, right? Do y'all play like that? Absolutely. Yeah. Do you have to call the blitz out? I can't remember where do we use for blitz.

We did. or something like that. What'd you say? We went to 10. We got to 10. Oh, 10 Mississippi. Man, we got to get home. That's what was that coverage sack? Yeah. What is that all about?

What kind of double and triple move routes? We played 12 on 12. You got triple move routes? Take 10 seconds to develop. Okay. So let me ask you this. If flight football is coming to Olympics, and I mean it's in all sincerity,

when is Dodgeball coming? I'm ready. I would watch it. You're over here whining and complaining about everything. Okay. See, tell us, you're shaking your feet football. You're shaking your feet.

at a cloud telling us to get off your lawn. I'm like, let's do it. Bring it home. I'll watch it. Okay. I will watch my beach volleyball because I believe in true essence of real. I heard Spain's got a strong squad for this upcoming Olympics. In Brazil. Spain and Brazil never let us down.

Very strong. Very strong squads. All right. Brian McTagger joins us next 129 on Sports Talk 790. 132 Sports Talk 790. We get a chance to talk to Brian McTaggart on a weekly basis. Normally with us live at 11 o'clock. And if you miss the conversation. Well, it's so good

and so rewarding, we decided to let you hear some of it right here. And we talked to Brian about a variety of things from the outfield to the starting rotation to the bullpen to Jeremy Pena, and the conversation today opened up with the Astros doing their job for a second consecutive night. Come from behind

fashion, a win against Kansas City. Yeah, I agree to take two or three with the pitch and matchups that the Royals were throwing out there and, you know, come from behind win. I think what, only their second win this year when trailing after seven innings. So that was, you know, probably one of the most impressive wins of the season. I mean, I was just thinking that they're squeezing every ounce they can out of this offense.

I mean, two solo homers get it done a couple of days ago. You know, yesterday, Dubom drops a couple of doubles. I mean, the offense is still scuffling really badly, and they're making the most of it. But the pitching's been so good for the most part, especially the bullpen that they're in every game, pretty much, with the exception of, you know, a couple of those on the homestand that we're all aware of. Yeah, I mean, I think Joe said it a few times. The fact that they have this record and their offense is as poor as it's been, I think it's pretty promising if you think once they get back to full strength and everyone starts hitting up to their level.

I think you have to make an exception to your rule about everybody is struggling offensively, except the lead-off man. Jeremy Payne, my God, is this OPS gone up like 500 points in the last two weeks? Yeah, he's done a nice job in that lead-off spot. And, you know, he had that great spring and made a few changes to his swing and got off to a little bit of a slow start. But he looks like now he's developing into everything they had hoped he would be. I mean, this is his fourth year now, so it's not like this is an overnight thing. But, man, good for him. I mean, he's putting a lot of work to get to this point.

And anytime you put someone in the leadoff spot, you know, you wonder how they're going to do. It comes with a lot of pressure. And he's done a very nice job, you know, just sort of like when you move somebody to close or you don't know if they're built for it or not. guys, you know, Will Harris couldn't do it. And, you know, Ken Giles really couldn't do it. But, you know, other guys can. And they move Pena's leadoff spot. And he certainly is, you know, a quarter through the season is probably the Astros MVP at this point.

Yeah, we've seen hot streaks from him before, Brian. And, of course, you always mentioned Memorial Day is kind of where you shake things out. We're only a couple of weeks out from that. And he is still sustaining this. Yeah, and that leaves me to believe it's real. I mean, he's, you know, not striking out as much, walking a little more. and it just looks more confident at the plate. His swing just seems to be, you know, the word he's used as quieter.

There's just not, you know, a lot going on, a little toe tap, and he's got those quick hands. You know, yesterday they tried to, you know, sneak a ball by him, and, you know, he's able to get those hands in and just turn on it. And so, yeah, he's got a chance to make the All-Star game in the American League at Shortstop. Add that to his resume, which already includes World Series, a World Series MVP, ALCS MVP. There was really only one

poor reliever in the middle relief Corps and Taylor Scott obviously got DFA'd yesterday, but I mean Dubin, Ord, King and then you, who felt like the appearances have gone down. Where would this team be without this bullpen? Because not only

are they successful, but man, Brian, they're being used in the fifth any more than perhaps any other bullpen in baseball right now. Yeah, I'd be interested to see where they rank as far as as innings pitch. That's something I'll look up after I finish my icy here

at Buckees. But even the two games where they had the short starts in the colors game and the gusto game, the bullpen came in and shut the door. And both games, they had a chance. You know, I think both games maybe had the time run at the plate at some point. So,

yeah, and I've said it before. I thought the bullpen was the one area where they, going into the season, I thought they were really thin. But so far it's been it's been their strength so far and doobin's the guy we saw yesterday who can come in and you know sneak 96 97 by you before you know it he's uh he's very durable a guy that can pitch two innings if you if you need to start him and get four innings he can do that as well so um you know it stinks for taylor scott who did a really nice job last year but um yeah

dupin i think can be even a bigger weapon out of that bullpen so uh you know props to all those guys for for getting it done but uh got to do it over the next uh four months as well because Some of those guys are pitching a lot. You know, Brayu's pitching a lot again. So we'll see how they do here as we continue through the season. Brian McTaggart continuing with us here on Sports Talk 790. Back to the lineup real quick. Continuing struggles for Christian Walker, 0 for four, a couple of strikeouts.

Talked about Pena and hoping that's real. And we hope it's not real with the way that Walker's performing. Well, I went to Christian Walker Monday before the game and did an interview with him on how well he was hitting. And if you talk to him, I know Matt interviewed him after I did. A very stand-up guy. I mean, very honest, very candid. You know, he came as advertised.

Just one of the best, you know, interviews you can have. And he was great about a swing. And I think at that time he was hitting 225. He was coming around. And then I think he had a hitless series against the Royals. So he may never want to talk to me or Matt again. But just when I think that he's coming around and then he'll have a stretch where he looks like, you know, he's a little bit lost at the plate. So, yeah,

the deeper you get into this, you more you start to scratch your head. But, man, I still think there's got to be better days ahead for him. I just don't, I'll be shocked if Christian Walker's hitting 211 and at All-Starbreaker, 215 or even 220. We all know full well how Astros fans can be, Brian. There has been a lot of talk about hitting coaches all year, especially now with the Jeff Pass and Alex Bregman article talking about adjustments he made. Just your opinion on that whole narrative and any underlying possibility of a change being made there. Yeah, I don't see it. I mean, the same hitting coaches that, you know, in 2022 when they won the World Series,

the same pitching coaches when they won the World Series, to me, I'm always going to put the blame on the player. I mean, bottom line, yeah, if you read the Patson article, one of the things that stood out to me was that one of the things, it clicked for Bregman that he said was that he was getting the knob past the ball. He said the same thing last year. When he was struggling here, he had a big game and he's like, gnaw past the ball. That's what clicked. So this isn't anything new.

I don't think I don't think Breggman's gone there and just reinvented his swing. I think maybe he's made a couple of changes here and there. He was a guy that was constantly tinkering with his swing, always trying different things, always looking at video. I think he likes hitting at Fenway Park. That's one of the reasons he signed there is he thought he really liked the back. backdrop and the idea of the green monster. So I think it's just low-hanging fruit to say, blame the hitting coaches, blame the hitting coaches.

And I saw your tweet yesterday, Ross, that, you know, where's the praise for the hitting coaches for helping pay? Yes. You know, have a guy that looks like he'd be an all-star now. The responsibilities on the players, and yes, I mean, at some point, if there's a team-wide failure in hitting philosophy, then, yeah, maybe you make some changes. But you have some very accomplished hitters in the Astros lineup, not careful. carrying the weight and the onus is on them more than it is the coaches.

To wrap up our conversation, Brian, what's going through the mind of Lance McCullors? Obviously, the last start was far from what he wanted. Only one third of an inning struggled in terms of pitch count. The first one. And look, Arlington is a place. The Rangers are hitting well. It's an easy ballpark for hitting offensively. Not going to say how important is it.

So I don't want you to read into that. But start number three, he wants to see some tangible. improvement, I'm assuming, yes? Oh, yeah. I mean, it's got to be a case where, hey, if you, Lance, after that start, you want to say, hey, that was a one-start thing. I'm back on track. Get some quick

innings, get some swing and miss, what he wasn't able to do, maybe even build the velocity just a little bit. I mean, the Rangers on a great lineup. They just beat up on the Rockies who are just awful. Corey Seeger's on the IL again. He's, you know, by far their best hitter and someone who's really been a thorn in their side.

but, you know, they have Jock Peterson hitting third last night. His OPS is under 500. So this is a lineup that I think he could have some success against. But if he does go out there, have another short start gets knocked around, then maybe, you know, you have to have some, you know, real discussions about, you know, where do you go from here with Lance McCullors Jr.? But if he has a good start on Friday, then you try to build on it. But, you know, we'll see it's going to be a very interesting start for him on Friday for sure.

And lastly, any thought of maybe seeing him, yard on on this road trip at some point. I would think we will. I mean, I know that Joe said we're close and we've heard that over and over. Had Brian McTaggart earlier today. Hello, Brian. On the Matt Thomas show. With Ross. By the way, he wanted to go, he was going to go get a Coke icy at the Ruckies and is only Dr. Pepper now available to you there. According to sources.

By the way, how is your Dr. Pepper poll coming away? I don't know. We'll recap it when we come back. All right. We also believe it or not next. We're playing for amazing prizes. I believe we're playing for autograph Adam Clanton photos. We'll try to find something better in the next segment. 713-212-5-790. What is today's edition of Believe or not? Is it all things, Tony Kemp?

We'll figure it out. Okay, we've got about six minutes to do so. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Believe it or not, is next. Well, Adam Clinton telling this he's not doing the on-deck show tonight. Or the 10th inning. How many 10th in the last couple of years? Adam?

Two? I got my second in two days tonight. I got my second this week. I did one last night. I got one on Saturday. Come out up at 6 o'clock. Brought to you by Daily and Black. It's the Ash Rose on deck show.

Good. Can't wait. Thank you, Matt. You're doing one tonight? I literally just said that. The last words out of my mouth said that, yes, I am working on the show tonight. Okay, good. Thanks for paying attention.

I'll be listening. Thanks for being locked in, Matt. You're going to be listening on Saturday when I do it? No. All right. Adam, when are you going to be doing? When's your next 10th inning show? I don't know.

Well, his mic's going to turn a microphone. Well, it's on. No, it is. His your producer not working back there? He's back there. He's back there. He can't see you. He doesn't have a video of you.

He's texting his girl right now. What? He texts his girl during the show? They get three o'clockers in. Don't feel bad about that, Ross. What's the three o'clocker? It's when he gets home at three. Is that an afternoon delight reference?

Pretty much. Is he going to find his woman? He's going to hold her tight? sky rockets in a flight All right anyways What were we talking to Clinton about? The number of 10th inning shows he does Well I was going to tell Ross not to feel bad

That Matt was blatantly ignoring you there Or not paying attention To it. I do it to him too though So I do it all the time on my show But I'm the only one that doesn't on my show I zone out on Matt all the time Especially if he's on the road

Yeah It's a terrible problem he's got You need to stop traveling so much Yeah it's not my fault Tell the NBA schedule It's not my fault You're getting a second income And you're not here

You know what we should do we should do a compare and contrast. We'll do a list on one side and a list on the other. One side will be how many 10th inning shows I've done. The other side will be how many times Ross has had me or Wex fill in for you because you couldn't do your whole show. I'll just leave on that note. That's fair.

By the way, he's taking some time off. I'll be calling in for you. I'm taking a lot of time. I've had one vacation day. We are into May. You only see a whole lot of me in these quarter, three, quarters, four, man. All right. That's fine.

We just do dead air. See, you stop doing that. You never go sets, fires, hits. You never go nothing but nylon. Now you're going to make it about you. That doesn't make any sense. Oh, yeah, I'm going on vacation. Sets, fires, hits.

What is that? That sounds like I'm going to, on an assassination plot. That's what a good vacation sounds like. Yeah. That doesn't make any sense. That sounds like I'm going to be a mercenary in Afghanistan. What don't you say?

Adios, amigos. What does you say a ayesis? Amigos? Say these things? And you will just watch me go. What do you want to sleep with Robert? Come on now. What?

I mean, you get so much, you got so much Robert in you. Excuse me? All your sayings. We're the Astros station. Okay. It's a great catchphrase. And you can also say it when you're going on vacation.

I can't say nothing but nigh- Hey, guys, I'm going to Kankoon for the weekend. Nothing but nylon. You say good gracious? That sounds like I'm going to go crab catching. You say good gracious? All right. You're out of control.

You are a P. real peach, Matthew. And my computer system's down. So it's what? You're going to have to handle the, believe it or not. All right. It's the equipment around here, not me? It's probably user.

I'm 75% sure. All right, five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show. We simply call it B. Believe it or not. And here's how it works. You'll call 713-2-790.

7-1-3-212-2-1-7-1-7-7. 90. Today's edition of Believe or not, all things about former Astro, Tony Kemp, who just announced his retirement today. I'll read your statement about Tony. The statement's completely not really accurate. You'll say this. Believe it.

If the statement's erroneous full of Mankham in a minute, you will say this. Two, believe or not, in a row on all things Tony Kemp win your prize. Jonathan, what we're playing for today? Go see a concert by Chris Isaac live on July 29th on the House of Blues. Bill and Katie,

hey, Bill, I got a quick question for you. What is your favorite Chris Isaac? Isaac's song? Billy Jane. The Astros selected Tony Kemp in the fifth round of the 2013 MLB draft. Believe it or not. Hey, believe you that. Believe it.

Statement number two for unfortunately a win for you. Tony Kemp's favorite. Tony Kemp's favorite baseball player growing up was Curtis Granderson. Believe it or not. Like my wife and said, hush. I believe it. Believe it. No, I always put gimmies at the top.

Don't take Bill first. Brian and Alvin, line two. Brian on 790, what was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? Always the back and forth with you in RV. According to Tony Kim's Vanderbilt biography, his favorite movies are the Sandlot and Remember the Titans. Believe it or not? Not.

Oh, how do you not know his favorite movies? By way, Ross, I have seen Remember the Titans. Outstanding Flick. Let's go to line number four. Paul on 790. Paul, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Tony Kemp is a big European soccer fan.

He cites Ronaldo as his favorite football. Ronaldino. What? Ronaldino. Nobody's ever heard of him. Are you serious? Ronaldinho. Have you heard of Ronaldino?

Matt, you got to the bag. And cites Ronaldino as his favorite footballer. Believe it or not. Matt. Yeah, he is. I've said it once at a thousand times. You've got to know who Rodolidino is. George in Cyprus, George on 790.

George, good afternoon. You ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. When Tony Kemp was DFAed by the Astros in 2019, it was so they could call up Kyle Tucker and add into the roster. Believe it or not? Not. That's right.

It was when Carlos Krey was hurt. Statement number two for the win. Tony Kemp married his high school sweetheart in 2015, and the two went island hopping and Thailand for their first. honeymoon. Believe it or not? Not. That is also right. They went to Croatian Europe, of course. Congratulations.

Line number six, John in downtown, John on 790 John, were your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show. All of it. Tony Kemp was the player that the aster has traded to the Cubs from Martine Maldonado. Believe it or not? Not. It was.

Beliefa then traded. What you can do under being DFA. All right, we need one more contestant. These Isaac tickets are not going like hotcakes, are they? No, I guess not. One more silly little

contestant. Great listener. We're killing time. We've got our 45 second dollar. By the way, Ross, tomorrow, we've gotten out of Florida stories. Really? We have I'm Saurys. Is it Friday already? We have maybe the longest Friday, 10 o'clock intro, maybe in the history of the show tomorrow because we've given you

so much material. It's kind of frankly embarrassing. for those lean weeks when you're out like three days in a week. I'm saving a few. You should. Save them for, yeah, because Ross is going to be gone like most of September, October, November. So. And nobody else wants these Isaac tickets. Okay.

That's all right. We can give them to you. We got two minutes to kill. You can't check out early. You got to hang with me. I checked out about 1035. You did check out. So we never had a really firm conversation about the crawfish.

What do you think about the crawfish going to the ballpark? Yes or no? That's a no-no. Thank you. What else is a no-no? Spaghetti, meatballs? You couldn't do it. You had to bring your daughter there to peel them for you. Stephen on 790, you're the last one. You got one to win here. You ready to go? Let's go. During his MLB career, Tony Kemp played the most games for the Oakland days. Believe it or not? Believe it.

Yay! We got a winner. Congratulations. Three winners today. Nicely done, everybody. All right. So tomorrow, I'm sorry at 11. Tomorrow on the show, we are going to have, what else we got? News at noon, non-Florida stories, hell yeah or not, and an astro victory against Texas Rangers. Hopefully. I'm calling a shot.

Hunter Brown, seven innings, two runs, seven hits, one walk, five Ks. Boom. Rangers slight favorites minus 135 with the Grom on the mountain. He spells his name with a little D, right? No, it's a little E. Oh, that was a little D. Is it D little two? I think it's a little D.

Imagine I have a name with a little D in your name. You love a little D. I don't. It's like regular size D. Up next. Wexler. That's another one. Stop it.

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