The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Arms, Marlins Season On Pause & Lance Mccullers

Episode Date: July 28, 2020

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Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:01 It's larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12-0-1 in H-Town. What's happening in lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you. And welcome to a rainy Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790 alongside Rossville, Raleigh.
Starting point is 00:00:35 Brendan Riley. I'm Matt Thomas. Nice to have you guys with us today and gals as well. Where today we will celebrate an Astros win. We will celebrate Alex Spragman hitting his 100th home run of the season. If his season, that'd be really good. 100th home run of his career in a very short period of time. But unfortunately, we're not going to be celebrating the tremendous depth that is the Houston Astros bullpen or, for that matter, pitching staff.
Starting point is 00:01:05 First of all, Josh James. We bragged on Josh. lost weight, looked good. Silk shirts. Fancy dresser. And he was the same exact Josh James last night that he has been throughout his very brief major league career.
Starting point is 00:01:27 Ball one, ball two. Yeah. Ball nine. And look, I'm hoping it's going to, he can shake this, right? He's a young pitcher.
Starting point is 00:01:38 He's 27. He's got flames. He's 27. Matt. It's not like he's 21 trying to figure it out out there. 75 pitches, 39 strikes. So 36 balls. Three of positive ratio. Three of them resulting in walks, including one after the other after the other.
Starting point is 00:02:05 And then someone that we had really never heard of under great circumstances, Brandon Beelick, Belak comes out there. And Belak was B. Dillon, right? he was doing pretty good, yeah, when he first came out of there. He goes three and a third. He's not even with the team earlier in the day. He comes from Corpus Christi where he's on the taxi squad, and he gives up a run on four hits with four Ks.
Starting point is 00:02:33 And the first time he takes them out as a Houston Astro as a major league. He gets the victory. It's a real Cinderella story, Matt. He got the call in the morning. He's crying. Apparently he's crying his eyes out that he made. to Major League Squad. Is this true?
Starting point is 00:02:49 Yeah, I think he cried his eyes on? I don't know if he cried his eyes on. You say he did cry. He'll, yeah. Okay, that's good. He's very natural. Hey, this is his life's dream. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:57 To get the call to the major leagues. Like when you got the call to come work with me, you cried as well. Well, it was different kind of tears there. Yeah, okay. But you cried. Yes. And you thought, I've only got maybe six months, nine months of this guy. I'll have my own show by then.
Starting point is 00:03:13 Tears of hopelessness. Yeah. And here's the thing. Just like we, in that, like we did this exclusively. But we said the Astros are going to have to win a bunch of eight, five games. Yeah, we did. And tonight, they're going to have to win probably an 11 to 10 game. Because if you had little faith in Josh Flames James yesterday,
Starting point is 00:03:35 I got terrible news for you. Framber Valdez is throwing tonight. We've got some Framber alerts tonight. That's an. 8-10 first pitch, by the way. So you better get yourself a nap in because this bad boy ain't going to be done for like four hours.
Starting point is 00:03:51 What are you saying? There's going to be some traffic on the base paths with Framber on the hill? What's the over under? Hashtag traffic on the base paths. Hashtag bullpen use. Hashtag pitching changes. Oh, Walker Bueller's throwing for the Dodgers.
Starting point is 00:04:06 And then that redhead you like pitching tomorrow. Oh, geez. The guy throwing a hundred mile an hour two seamers with movement. I like that. I like Dustin, babe. Yeah, you like him because of the hair.
Starting point is 00:04:18 Well, that too. And he got a high leg. What's not to like? High leg kick, 100 mile an hour heat, and flowing thick red curly locks. He needs arm trouble, eventually. Speaking of arm trouble. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:31 By the way, everybody's getting it. Everybody. The Astros are not the team exclusive to arm issues. In fact, I saw a note this morning that nobody that started a game yesterday. You ready for this, Ross? How often does this happen? Nobody that. started at a game, went five innings.
Starting point is 00:04:47 Zero. Yeah. Wow. Including Josh Flames James. We had the over under four and a third yesterday and we grossly overestimated that. We all said under and then you were like, okay, three and a third and then we're like, over? Brendan, have you learned your lesson on this? I mean, original ticket cashed at the window. I was still, yeah, I was going to say. This is not horse racing where the line just changes on you, man.
Starting point is 00:05:12 Trying to jump between three and four is a tough bet to ask. All right, I got one for y'all. This is what they call a, what's a bet that you make for the, a prop bet for the future. Okay. A futures. A futures bet. Josh James over under a number of innings he will pitch in a game this year,
Starting point is 00:05:29 six in one third. Will he ever go over to six and a third? Under. I'm going to be optimistic. I hope you're right. And I'm going to say at some point he will go over six and a third. You know what? You know, sometimes you go to Vegas, you put bets down,
Starting point is 00:05:42 because you think they're going to pay out, but you want them to because you're rude for them? I am in that category. I'm at the window right now, bending me over on a 6th and 3rd, Josh James. Do I think it's going to pay out? It's like Lions fans going to put money on them to win the Super Bowl this year.
Starting point is 00:05:58 Yeah, at least they're getting long odds on that. Well, you know, we're getting even money on this? If it's over under, over under is generally a round even. You're right. This is not good. All right. So let's, here's a thing, Ross, as I was preparing for the show, because we prepped like a mud on here. Yes, that's right.
Starting point is 00:06:17 And by the way, if we can read our chicken scratch. That's true. If you'd like to join us today, 713212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-790. So do you see how deep this list is of injured arms? I thought we're going through the whole montage. We can't. Let's go. Okay.
Starting point is 00:06:34 We got Justin Verlander, forearm strain. Oh, geez. Ryan Presley, Elbow Austin Pruitt shut down because of Elmo Sorness Elmo and elbow soreness Brad Peacock
Starting point is 00:06:56 right shoulder strain Chris Davinsky elbow tightness You cannot be serious Back to Justin Verlilander for that forearm strain so we can play a sound effect And another one
Starting point is 00:07:15 Roelho Armenteros I forgot to see what his problem is, but my guess is it's arm related. It's going down to tubers. And that's it. Dang, I didn't get to play this one. Sucky, sucky, sucky. You just like that one. How long has that been in the archives?
Starting point is 00:07:33 Way too long. What do you mean? I don't remember saying that. You don't remember saying any of these things like Clips? No, I don't. My guess is every, there's a lot of other teams not name the Astros that are going to to the same exact thing. Not this bad.
Starting point is 00:07:48 I don't say. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not going to comb the injury report. Well, I'm sure the Miami Marlins injury report is looking a little worse than the Astros. I'm not going to go team to team, but this is pretty bad. This is not good. And these are a lot of guys who are who are, it's not just, you know, if it were the guys we hadn't heard of,
Starting point is 00:08:06 they were on the back end of the bullpen and stuff. These are some guys that are expected to contribute this season in a big way. It's not good. By the way, Will I am on Twitter just said that Brandon Beelak is the guy Miami Bride's been talking about. That's actually not... I thought he was talking about Brandon McCurry was his guy. Brendan McCurry was his guy, but he, I mean, he mentions every minor league
Starting point is 00:08:28 pitcher in the system, and then when one of them's decent, or has a decent outing, then he's ready to call. You think Belak was a guy that was on Brighton Miami's radar? Probably. He reads... Now, he was good between AA and AAA last year. He reads the AA box scores and then says, who needs to be up and who's going to
Starting point is 00:08:44 take over the squad and all that type of stuff. Wow. Okay. Well, yeah, Brennan McCurry was one of the guys. He, McCurry's always been one of the guys. So if Brad and Miami, if you're listening today, you want to go ahead and brag on Brandon B-like, you're more than welcome to do so. He also had Tim Tebow in the MLB. No, and remember what our bet was for that. I will give tickets and airfare and hotel to Braden in Miami for once Tim Tebow gets to 100 Major League hits. At this point, and he's been stuck at this number for basically two or three years, the number is zero.
Starting point is 00:09:20 Speaking of zero How tone deaf is Rob Manfred? Oh, we ain't worried about any of this. Four, is it four more Miami-Morlands? Yeah, I think they're up to 17 total. 17 total, the traveling roster with coaches and managers and equipment is probably 40. So you're approaching 50% of one particular team has the COVID. 50.
Starting point is 00:09:46 Oh, let's be honest. It's more like 42.5. So today, the Nationals, excuse me, the Yankees, Phillies game got postponed again. The Orioles, Miami Marlins game was already canceled yesterday. Wonderful. And now the Washington Nationals take a team vote and said, we don't want to go to Miami this weekend. I would think it would be just the opposite.
Starting point is 00:10:16 You mean to tell me we get to take on the Class A of Miami Marlins? That's true. We get fat and happy off that squad. just don't touch anything in there. Make sure it's all sanitized. Yeah. First of all, they're already a taxi squad. First of all, all the problems took place in Philadelphia.
Starting point is 00:10:32 It didn't take place in Miami. Yeah. And here's the bit. Even if you guys don't go and play, three days in Miami? It's not bad. I mean, there's worse things. Well, they're probably not going to be, if they're being responsible, man. It's not, it's just be like three days anywhere in Des Moines.
Starting point is 00:10:48 But if they're going to bring women to their room, they're going to, it's going to be a higher class of women in, say, South Beach, and it would be in, say, Washington. Hmm. Right? What women are they bringing to their room? Friends. Friends of the team. They're supposed to be quarantining and self-isolating and social distancing.
Starting point is 00:11:06 Okay. Not fornicating. Everybody needs a lot of this time of year, especially during these, quote-unquote, trying times. Yeah, everybody needs to stay away from each other. This is how outbreaks start. So basically... One trip to Magic City, and then it's all over. Yeah, by the way, you...
Starting point is 00:11:22 You can send me wing pictures from Magic City all you want to. They look good. He never should have gone. Do the wings look good? They look amazing. But there's, Atlanta's a metropolitan city, correct? Maybe. There's going to be some amazing wing places all over the greater metro area, right?
Starting point is 00:11:39 Going to the strip club. Including Magic City. Going to strip club probably isn't on the list. But you and I will fight to a death on that one. All right, 713, 212, 5, 790. How nervous are you guys? not like an alley cat. Are you nervous like a Nelly
Starting point is 00:11:55 about the Astros and the fact that they've got, they're running out of pitchers. Ross, they are literally running out of pitchers. 713212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. One o'clock we'll visit with Dodgers' boys, Tim Nebert, from Los Angeles.
Starting point is 00:12:18 2.30 Lance freaking McCullors on this radio show. That's a program. It's a Matt Thomas show, 1213 on 790. Load up on those napkins, straws, ketchup, hot sauce, mustard. Oh, and don't forget duck sauce. It's the Matt Thomas show for lunch on Sports Talk 790. A hundred home runs for Alex Bregman.
Starting point is 00:13:01 On the money, first pitch swinging and got every single bit of it. And this is where you miss the crowd, right? Two things you miss. Big home runs, crap. And I thought Kevin Ashenfeld had brought this up on the TV broadcast yesterday and it was accurate. Ninth inning.
Starting point is 00:13:21 Ninth inning crowd is always good. Roberto soon is in the mound. Needs one more out. Get the strike out, ground ball, whatever, to get the save to finish it off. Everybody on their feet, that's gone too. The rest of it, you kind of just, you're adjusting to.
Starting point is 00:13:34 Hair cascading from his hat. Yeah, what is, does he, what is up with Major League hair in 2020? There's been, barbershops were closed for months, Matt. The long hair is. is in in 2020, baby. I was two years early on this.
Starting point is 00:13:49 I hadn't had a haircut in like three years. But doesn't it feel like the average major pitcher's got a bigger main? Hell, reporters, like Brian McTaggart's main is uncomfortably large. Brian McTaggart's hair, it's interesting. Yeah, he looks like somebody... He needs a leather jacket and he needs a motorcycle
Starting point is 00:14:08 and he'd be all set. He's going full James Dean on us. Yeah. Brian McTaggart is trying to be James Dean. I think it looks good. I think it's an improvement. But describe Roberto Osunis. It's long. And there's like a,
Starting point is 00:14:27 not a bead, but a, it looks like jungle vines. Yeah, vine, vines is the word I was looking for, yeah. I don't care what the hair is.
Starting point is 00:14:35 Like if you're going through a swamp and a scary movie and there's just vines. Just get outs. Yeah, it's fine. Well, yeah,
Starting point is 00:14:42 if he's got jungle vines and he's getting outs, what do you care? Yeah, and make sure, and make sure his arm doesn't fall. off. Because it feels like six other astro pictures have had serious arm slash elbow trouble.
Starting point is 00:14:52 The velocity wasn't exactly there. But other than that, Roberto was looking good. Yeah, I don't. I'm not nearly as worried about him as I am about everybody else. By the way, I'm going to say this at 2.30 this afternoon when, when Lance McCuller joins us, we got to put him in bubble wrap. I'm going to flat out say that to him. Okay.
Starting point is 00:15:12 Because if he can get, if you can get six innings, him Lance McCullors every single time he throws. You got a really, really good chance of one of the baseball game. Because as we mentioned, the very top of the segment of the show, there wasn't a single pitcher that went five yesterday. This is, don't you think this is where the, let's quicken this thing up as fast as possible,
Starting point is 00:15:32 have summer camp? This really destroyed the pitching. I'm not talking about just the asteros. I'm talking about in general. You got guys that were unsupervised. That might have been throwing too hard. Maybe he didn't throw enough. You're then putting them in situations
Starting point is 00:15:46 where they're having to get to 86, 88, 91, 92 on the gun when they should have been. I mean, that's the reason why spring training for pitchers and catchers is like seven, eight weeks. They go like five or six or seven days early just to get their arms going a little bit more. Did you guys see how many runs were scored in the league yesterday? I did not. You mean like count them?
Starting point is 00:16:05 It was ridiculous. The Rays won 14 to 5. The Royals won 14 to 6. The Mets won 7 to 4. Obviously the Astros 8 to 5. A's 1 3 to 0. But outside of the... Oh, look at you. Just raining on his parade. No, there were two games. There were two games that were most going.
Starting point is 00:16:22 Most of them are pretty high, yes. Everything else, it was just tons of runs yesterday. Is that where we're going to see? Should we just be playing the overs on all these games? Nine and a half tonight with Framber alert on the hill. Has been for the Astros. Nine and a half. Now, for those of you that don't know that go to Vegas,
Starting point is 00:16:37 and I guess you can do this on the offline stuff too. You can bet the first five endings of a game. That's true. And then you can bet the last four, or you can bet the whole thing. or you can do all three if you wanted to. While Frambers in, gets that Dodgers lineup? I got to be honest.
Starting point is 00:16:51 I don't bet on sports when I'm not in Houston. I got to be in Vegas for this to happen. But if I was to put a wager on tonight's game, what is the overrunner in the first five, Ross? Can you look at up? I can try to find that. It's almost an automatic, right? I mean, there are very few guarantees in life,
Starting point is 00:17:11 and certainly betting on sports is not a guarantee. But if Josh James does what Josh James did, and we knew that was going to happen because we've seen Josh pitch before in the past, what would make us think? Because Framberg got crushed Ross in the inner squad games. First five over four and a half. Oh, the four and a half is the overrunner. Mm-hmm. And the first five. Rossi.
Starting point is 00:17:37 Maddie. How much can we put on this? How much what? Are you putting on it? Can we put on this? As much as you like. Does anybody have a bookie I can use? How many thousand MT bucks do you want to put on?
Starting point is 00:17:51 I've never said this before in the history of this radio show. Screw the MT bucks. Let's go right to the real ones. Okay. Four and a half on the over under in the first five? Yes. You got to lay 117, but that's not that bad. Okay, so you're going to spend 117 to 100.
Starting point is 00:18:10 If you're a bookie, 713, 21, 2, 5, 790. I've never taken a live over-the-air bed before. I don't know what. might just have to do it here. We might have to check with the legality of this as well. Yeah. Matter of fact, call us and then we'll talk to you after the show. Yeah, that's it.
Starting point is 00:18:26 Ross, how is Framberg out there's not going to give up that many runs of that? By himself. By that Dodger lineup? Say what you all about the pitching staff. They're also beat up too. Noah, Clinton, Kershaw. There's somebody else in that line up in their rotation that's also banged up a little bit. But point being is their lineup is still filthy, Bellinger and the like.
Starting point is 00:18:46 but come on. Walker Bueller's really good though. So they were basically relying on the Dodgers to get out to a quick 5-0 leading the a Astros scoring 6. I mean, it's two of the best lineups in baseball. I think over four and a half, so it sounds pretty sweet to me too.
Starting point is 00:19:07 I could pay for Cameron's College. Oh, boy. Or you could be in massive amounts of debt. You'll be at the check cash loan place or whatever. What do they have the paycheck loan place? Could I set up a GoFundMe account? No. And then I'll give you all the money back off the win.
Starting point is 00:19:24 GoFundMe is for charitable acts, Matt. It is a charitable. The Thomas Texas Tech Foundation. Not you betting the over on the first four or the first five. Seriously, as y'all watch the game tonight, you're going to be thinking about this conversation we had. Either we were geniuses in doing this or we were fools to think that we're. Are you locking this in as a Noster Thomas prediction?
Starting point is 00:19:48 It's 12, 25. I'm giving myself 30 seconds. All right, here it is. A 250 star Nostra Thomas Locktober in late July pick. Take the over four and a half
Starting point is 00:20:08 in the first five of the Astros and Dodgers. I'm writing this down. Now, if I'm right, will you please give me credit tomorrow? I'm not going to mention it at all. It's going to be on you to bring it up. So if I'm wrong, you'll mention it. If I'm right, you'll just erase it. Yeah, if you're wrong. If you're right, it will not be mentioned, at least but not by me.
Starting point is 00:20:27 God Almighty. I don't want to do that. I don't want to root against the Astros on this. In fact, I hope it's the Astros 7 and the Dodgers 3. I don't care. That's the beauty of overrunners is you don't care how they get to the number. Just get to the number, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:41 But, man, we're going to have to really do our homework on these bullpen guys because we're going to see a lot of them. A lot of Blake's and Brendan's and Brandons. Yeah, you can tell these people were born in like 1999. Any Kyle's out there? Taylor's. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Taylors.
Starting point is 00:21:03 What else we got out there? Anoli. Is Anoli a new, uh, catchy name? Apparently. Surprised there's not a bunch of Christians out there. Uh, what else? Um, now, yeah, yeah, there's got to be some names up there. When we get to meet these members of the Astros Taxi Squad, because Ross, they're all getting hurt, the ones that we do know.
Starting point is 00:21:25 Yes. They're all going to be eventually up here at some point. They've all got to be better options than Joe B. Eugenie long term, right? I'm going to stay away from Joe B.ijini bashing. Okay. Because we're going to need him for comedy and for outs. I don't know if I want him for either. What does he provide better?
Starting point is 00:21:50 Oh, no. The ability to get an out or the ability to make you chuckle. I mean, look, we love Joe B. Eugenie. We do it. We want him to succeed. We're rooting for me. I'm rooting hard.
Starting point is 00:22:00 It's a great last name. It's like Taccucci. To not be a gas can. It's like Kikuchi. You're not rooting for Kikuchi. I'm rooting for Kikuchi. Why? Because the Astros can light them up.
Starting point is 00:22:13 Well, he'll be pitching because the Astros of Mariners play again next week. Wonderful. I'm looking for a Kikuchi to play. So you think we'll see the, the Astrosse is. The Astros can't. We'll see more of Kikuchi. Well, if they stay in their rooms, no.
Starting point is 00:22:24 But if they go out, they may have it. They're going to get another look at Kikuchi next week. That's right. All right. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. If you'd like to visit it with us on the phones again, 7-1-3-2-5-7-90 on Twitter at SportsMT,
Starting point is 00:22:43 at Brendan Riley underscore. We go to Los Angeles and talk with Tim Neveritt. One of the voices of Dodger Base... I just feel like I'm talking. talking about Ben Scully. Dodger baseball. Tim Neverert joins us in one half hour. We'll visit with Lance McCullors in two hours, at 2.30 right here on 790 with a message for Coors Light, the world's most refreshing beer. Tomorrow night, Ross and I are going to go to Big City Wings.
Starting point is 00:23:08 It's National Wing Day. And guess we're going to have? We're going to have a bunch of wings, and we're going to drink a bunch of Coors Lights because they are, it's a terrific one-to combo. If you're barbecueing, you might as well get yourself, the hamburgers out and the sausages and the grit and the, and the meat and the chicken and Corr's line. If you're going to hang out with us tomorrow at Big City Wings, say, ma'am, I'd like 10 wings, and I'd like a picture of Cora's Lai
Starting point is 00:23:28 because it is absolutely made to chill. It's the coldest, most refreshing beer out there, and you know when you're going to the liquor store or the grocery store, and you see the cans of the Blue Mountains on top, you know what it's at its peak refreshment and its peak cold. So I'm just telling you, enjoy the experience
Starting point is 00:23:44 of whatever you're doing, whether you're hanging with us tomorrow at Big City Wings, whatever the case may be, enjoy the most delicious. refreshing beer you'll find out there. Light as well. That's Cordeslight. Coreslight made to chill.
Starting point is 00:23:56 Hey, it's Craig Ackerman. Four three. Yeah! Listen to the home of the Rockets on your smart speaker. Just ask. Hey, Google, play Sports Talk 790 on IHartRadio. Rob Manfred said, if we have a team or two that's really decimated with a number of people who have the virus who can't play for any significant amount of time,
Starting point is 00:24:22 that's the only way we shut a season down. Well, guess what? your one down and 29 more to go. This is the Matt Thomas show. We're talking about the fact that the Marlins now have basically half their team with the virus. Could you imagine if half of 790 got lost by this? Be a lot of Chris Gordy on the air. Lots.
Starting point is 00:24:47 Could be. It could be Brennan Riley's time to shine. Brendan, would you like to host a six-hour, eight-hour show based on the fact that members of the 7-90 staff have the virus? You know what? I might regret it. But I'd absolutely take the opportunity to eight hours a day. Brendan Riley tonight, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. right here on Sports Talk 7. I'm in.
Starting point is 00:25:04 And wait a second. The 8 team starts, it goes till 6. He's taking it over how early? Okay. I think We'll have them on. We'll put him on a cough going or something. We'll put it on a two-hour post game for the rocket scrimmage. Why don't you do five out?
Starting point is 00:25:18 Like, we do a 10th inning show tonight. Yeah. And then why don't you do the 11th inning? 11th through 15th. Where we just keep talking about the game over and over again until Sean starts the next morning at 6. Let's do it. Yes. I like that.
Starting point is 00:25:28 we could also do a show where the Texans play and we just do hours and hours of post-game show even as the game is going on. Run through stats and all that type of stuff. Yeah, run through, yeah, just do everything human league, you know, just over, just give the people what they want. More and more post-game. Okay.
Starting point is 00:25:47 That's what I'm thinking. Post-game 70. That's what you should change. 100 a.m. Any game it's on post-game. Like somebody, this PAR versus ATA is playing right now. We will post-game this show. That's Parma versus Atta.
Starting point is 00:25:58 Kalanta, Matt. Seriously, what are you doing with your life? What do you mean? Me? What league is this? This is the Italian league. Known as CDI. What would intrigue you about this?
Starting point is 00:26:10 It's, ESPN was on. Whatever was on, and I didn't turn it on this, but I'll watch it. No score in the fourth minute to no one's surprise. Too should give them time. All right. 713, 21, 2,5. And it's not all about scoring, Matt. Yeah, it is.
Starting point is 00:26:27 Everything in life's about scoring. everything. You score well on an ACT test. You score well with sales at work. You score well with people that have like this show. You don't have a girlfriend in order not to score. What if Justin Verlander was healthy? And he threw a nine-inning shutout gym in the Astros 1-1-0.
Starting point is 00:26:50 I'd be happy. You're going to tell me that was completely boring? There was no entertainment. There was nothing to watch because it was a 1-0 game. I'm saying that I wouldn't want to watch 20 of those. Or would you appreciate the little things? Would you appreciate the pitches that he made, the approach, and how he got hitters out and how he ends in and dazzling defensive plays that were made?
Starting point is 00:27:08 But I'm telling you, if there were so many, if there were hundreds of 1-0 baseball games every year in baseball, people would be like, this is boring AF, get me something else to watch. Well, they would need to appreciate the nuance. I'm saying that, so in that game, in that scenario, you would appreciate the nuance, correct? That's what you have to do when you watch soccer. But that would be a rarity. If you want to be simple-minded about it, then you can...
Starting point is 00:27:28 I'm tired of sing zero-zero. It's five minutes. That's what soccer is. Who cares? Soccer is zero-zero. Okay. It just is. And it's always going to be.
Starting point is 00:27:38 Like I said, there's other things to appreciate. If you're just looking at the score, you're watching it wrong. If I was not looking at the score, I'd probably fall asleep. Okay. That's your opinion. Yeah. Basically, the entire rest of the world disagrees. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:53 I've never really particularly care what you're going to thought about, Matt. opinion. Okay. You don't have to. Yeah. I'm just telling you that I don't know why ESPN's putting it up there. ESPN last week put MLS games on 8 o'clock in the morning. Well, MLS games are a waste of time.
Starting point is 00:28:06 You cannot turn them. We cannot turn it off fast enough. Because the skill level's not there. Yes. Be like, I mean, have they stopped playing the KBO games? No, uh, they, as of last week, they still had them. How the Dusan Bears looking? Uh, that wasn't my team, though.
Starting point is 00:28:22 No, you were the KT. Wizz and they were terrible. Yeah, I gave up on the Wills. as early. Oh, Dusan Bears are 40 and 29 second place. All right. So the KTWes rally, they're 34 and 33. Oh, that's not bad. They're like the Memphis Grizzlies. They're on the outside looking in. Oh, 500. Yeah. So what do you think about Manfred? Do you think he's, he had to say what he said, basically, we ain't worried about it, that we thought this would happen? I mean, I guess if he would have put up any sort of panic commentary, he was interviewed yesterday by the MLB Network, that it would have been a lot worse, right? That, that if the, if the commissioner,
Starting point is 00:28:55 of your sport is in panic mode after three days, that's not a good sign for the rest of the season. So he had, whether he really believes what he said or not yesterday, he had to say, we're good. Yeah, he has to come out and say that. Look, he's basically a puppet for the owners at this point, right? I mean, the owners don't want this shut down. The owners, it would be a PR disaster. It would be a financial disaster, and it would just be, I mean, it's not a good look. If you, four days in, you're like, all right, we're shutting it down.
Starting point is 00:29:24 This is it. everybody, we're out. They can't do that. They're in too deep. They have to continue to go with this. And we'll see what happens if this is this an outlier? All right. Three days in or is this going to keep happening?
Starting point is 00:29:37 So I'm going to put the commissioner's hat on you. Okay. The Washington Nationals, apparently through group texts, everybody's group texts in these days, took a vote and said, we don't want to go to Miami this weekend to take on the Marlins. Mm-hmm. What are my options as commissioner? I don't even know. Like what can Rob Man?
Starting point is 00:29:54 He can't force them to play. Because as I told you before we started the show today, you effective leaders make these decisions quickly. You can't let the inmates run the asylum. Come on, Robert C. Be careful there. That's why we had to be very slow when we said that. Inmates running the asylum. Yes.
Starting point is 00:30:22 That's the proper way of using that term. So if you're Rob Manfred, you can't say, oh, you nationales don't want to play? Okay, that sounds about right. But really, if you don't have the players, you don't play the game. Yeah, you can't put a gun to Max Scherzer's head and make them go out on the mound. So what do you do, honestly? You know what? I'm not giving you. I'm not giving you options.
Starting point is 00:30:48 You tell them to play. You tell them to play. If they don't play, they're on the whatever lift. Restricted lists or what do you put on somebody that doesn't show up? that's 24 people. You put them all on the restricted list. What if that group tax is 30 deep? Meaning every player you do,
Starting point is 00:31:05 you cancel the game? You can't cancel that game. And give Miami the win? Ooh, make them forfeit. One nothing wins. Is that what forfeits are in baseball? It doesn't really matter what it is. But, you know, if the Marlins are like,
Starting point is 00:31:17 we're here, we're ready to go, we'll play. That's a little hard line. Then you're going to have other teams getting mad too. But again, here's my thought on this. they're not taking on the 14 players that have COVID or the 18 and whatever the number may be. They're taking on the AA Marlins. And they caught it in Philly.
Starting point is 00:31:35 Had to be Philly where there'd be an outbreak. Well, yeah, the dirtiest city in America. Filth, gross. I know you hate Philly. Oh, God, I hate Philly. Good casino, but I hate Philly, generally speaking. And great cheese sticks. Manfred's got to wrap this quick.
Starting point is 00:31:51 Because guess what? This is going to be happening with any city with any team that has any sort of outbreak, you're going to get these same sort of things. These player reps, these guys that want to get in cahoots with a meteor, are going to say, hey, I heard the Padres don't want to go to Seattle. I heard the Astros don't want to go to Texas. What you're really going to have to do,
Starting point is 00:32:12 the first thing that has to happen is a conversation. Rob Manfred and whoever and representatives need to, MLB representatives, need to talk to whoever the player rep is for the Washington Nationals and the players, and they need to communicate them to that it's safe. it's going to be okay. This happened in Philly. The guys are gone. This is, you know, maybe even explain to them.
Starting point is 00:32:31 The Marlins are not putting players out there that have COVID. They're not putting them on the uniform saying tough enough. Exactly. Everybody's getting tested. It should be, it should, you have to assure them that it's going to be okay. Now, can you guarantee it? Of course not. That's the first step.
Starting point is 00:32:46 And if they are a hard line, they say we're not playing, then I think you have to postpone the games. And then have them do double headers at some point. So you've already got four pole, postponements. Yeah. And we're not even six days into the season. Correct.
Starting point is 00:33:03 What if you just do standings by winning percentage? I know it's what you're not ideal. Yeah, if you can't make games up, that's what they're going to have to do. That's what the NBA is doing, right? Yeah. Because not everybody's going to play the same amount of games. Yep. It's just how it's going to have to be.
Starting point is 00:33:16 It's 2020, baby. Man, if I'm Washington, this is how cruel this is. I'm taking on, in theory, the double A Marlins. Why would I want to give up the chance of winning the, those games and get myself fat and happy off the standings. Because there's no way in the world that the Washington Nationals, the world champions are going to lose a handful of games to the Miami Marlins that are
Starting point is 00:33:43 really not even the Miami Marlins, right? You see what I'm going with this? Yeah. Why wouldn't you be like, yeah, we'll play them and we'll play a bunch of extra games against them. Give them rest. Give us five more games against the Marlins. We'll play a 65 game schedule as long as five of them against the Marlins.
Starting point is 00:34:01 why wouldn't you want to play them? For your own health, you're concerned about your health and safety. But those guys aren't there. Unless you think there are other Marlins that are wearing uniforms that are going to get further positive testing, which actually isn't true.
Starting point is 00:34:14 This is a question for them, not me. Ashley says, Miami Marlins will make it to the World Series because no one will play them. They'll just keep getting COVID and then everybody will have to forfeit. Miami Marlins is 55 and 5 this season. Yeah, how did the Marlins get the number one
Starting point is 00:34:33 seen in the American National League. Well, they won 47 in their games by forfeit. I never thought about it that way. That'd be awesome. There is a Texan defensive tackle that will not play in 2020. How will it affect the Texans? That's a good Texans tease right there. There are people that will do Lazy Texan teas in this town. This showing will be one of them. 713-212-5-790. We've got Tim Nebred, the voice of the Dodgers, and join us in 17 minutes here on Sports Talk.
Starting point is 00:35:03 790 with a message for hoops, basketball goals, and sporting equipment. Get with hoops today by going to pro dunkhoops.com. Take a look at their website. Take a look at the four different goals they have for you to purchase. If you want your kids shooting baskets, maybe not on a day like this, but certainly when the weather gets better, and away from their computers and cell phones, and they're just, if they've been stuck inside,
Starting point is 00:35:23 because they don't want to go outside because they're afraid of everything, have them on your front lawn or, you know, on your driveway, whatever. Keep them close to home, learning the game of basketball with a good, basketball and a perfect hoop. And you get that today from Hoops Basketball Goals. 281-351-9822 is the number that's 281-351-9822. Take a look at their website, too. Please call Keith Tate. Tell them what your pal Matt Thomas sent you over to him. 281-351-9822. The website is ProDunkhoops.com. Produnkhoops.com.
Starting point is 00:36:03 I have a tremendous amount of respect for Matt Thomas. In his career here in Houston. Of sorts. The Matt Thomas Show. You know, some people will force Texans news down your throat when there isn't any. But we have some here on the show. John McLean? We are your relevant Texans news source.
Starting point is 00:36:30 Gentlemen, are you okay? Eddie Vanderdose. has opted out because of the pandemic. He played in three games for the Texans last year. You're okay? I'm trying to get past this. That's why I didn't want to give this a long segment on this.
Starting point is 00:36:55 Rossi, the loss of an Eddie Vanderdose, first of all, just how do you think mentally affects the team? I think they're going to be okay, Matt. I'm more concerned about the loss of Iris Savage Lewis. We had to bring up Iris. Savage Lewis. If Ira's dad's listening to us right now. Clarence.
Starting point is 00:37:18 Clarence. You'd like to call in and give us a final farewell to your son who got cut by the team yesterday. Apparently Clarence had called and said that he was going to take J.J. Watt's or Whitney Merciless? Or maybe both. No, I think it was Angel of Blackmun And then Ross Blackman
Starting point is 00:37:49 Ross Blackman And then Black's and Angel of Black's son It's very confusing By the way Ross Blackman Yeah You see how much are you going to play this year In all honesty
Starting point is 00:38:00 How do you get time When there are no exhibition games And a very very Off-kiltered training camp coming up If they even have a training camp That's going to be difficult How does any draft pick really How didn't Joe Burrell's going to
Starting point is 00:38:14 doing Cincinnati this year. Is he going to be hoping that he doesn't break multiple arms and legs during the season? And no preseason. First of all, if there are games, let's say that. Second of all, it's going to be difficult for rookies. And
Starting point is 00:38:28 maybe this is one of the reasons that the Texans didn't invest a whole lot in the draft. Because they want guys who are veterans. They want guys who have been through camps and you don't have to teach a whole lot because of the softsies. But you're not going to be that short-sighted and say, oh, we got a pandemic make this year, screw the draft. I mean, nobody else thought that way.
Starting point is 00:38:47 Well, that's because Bill O'Brien is always a step ahead, Matt. Okay. So, like a chess master against a checkers child. If anybody would like to call in with their favorite Eddie Vanderdow story, 713, 212, 5, 790. Do you even think Bill O'Brien knows who Eddie Vanderdose is? Yes, he's, Bill O'Brien knows who Eddie Van der Do you know is the, he's the GM? Do you think that Will Fuller knows who Andy Vanderdoz is?
Starting point is 00:39:15 Yes. Do you think Kymie Fairbairn thinks that he knows who Eddie Van derido's? Kemi Fairbairn might be on the golf course. How many? How many offensive players texted Eddie? Sorry things didn't work out, Brock. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:39:27 Offensive? Yeah, offensive players. What's the over under? Did, uh, what's Martin, the center's name? Not Zach. No. Nick Martin. Did Nick Martin tweet?
Starting point is 00:39:40 Eddie, many prayers of you and the fam. See you in 2021. Let me check his tweets. Because Van der Doze is not playing, not because he got cut, it's because he is fearing of the pandemic. He is opting out. Yeah. Well, we don't know what, was there a reason?
Starting point is 00:39:53 Do we have a story? Does he have any kind of issues or somebody in his family? Can I be brutally honest with you? Yes. I hope it's not the things you just said. But in all reality, I've never, I've never heard of Andy Van Dose until about 9 o'clock this morning. He could have had the biggest sack in the game against.
Starting point is 00:40:10 Buffalo, and I would have already forgotten his name. Yeah, I don't think he has any career sacks. Look at his career numbers as a Texan. He played three games last year. Okay. What was his stat line, if you will? Let's see. Well, he played in 13 games for Oakland in 2017.
Starting point is 00:40:27 Okay. Last year for the Texans in three games, he recorded five solo tackles, three assisted tackles, and I'm done. Those are those on special teams or just in the games itself? Does it say? It does not say. So Mark Vandermere said Eddie Vanderdow's name five times. Yes.
Starting point is 00:40:53 At least. As long as the spotter got it right. Do you think any point in the game, Mark said, coming in the lineup is Eddie Vanderdose? Because I can tell you, I've done a lot of college football in my life. They'll sneak in people that you don't see. and you will never worry about saying their name unless they make a tackle, a sack or interception, or a football recovery.
Starting point is 00:41:15 Well, do you think if he got called for an off-sides, he called him Eddie Vanderdome? These are things I wish I could ask Mark right now. So Banderdose is Vanderdowt. And apparently he's getting a pretty nice little chunk of change, part of his salary. Oh, really? Yeah, I think he's getting like a cash advance on this season. Really?
Starting point is 00:41:36 I'm not kidding you. Cash advance? Yes. That's great. I don't know what it is, but I think they're getting a chunk of their salary. to say. I don't think any Vanderdose is on a big contract.
Starting point is 00:41:47 We looked at it in the trenches. Was Andy emotional about Vanderdose half long? More than you, but I don't know if emotional is the word I would use. If a player has basically played all of last year or as a rookie and is not a not on the list of exempt players. So players with health concerns, they get $150,000. If they have health concerns, it's, I believe, 350,000. we should have it here at Iheart.
Starting point is 00:42:18 What's that? It's 350K? No, just like a cash advance. Oh, opt out? To take, to not work. Hmm. So you're telling me that any Vanderdose is going to get $150,000 not to play? Well, I mean, it comes out of his money.
Starting point is 00:42:33 Yeah, but yes. I think it's a genius move. Matt, perhaps he has concerns about the pandemic. Perhaps he has concerned about the fact he wasn't going to play. Well, he got in three games last year. And that taking the one-fitting without having to go through a single practice was, what does he make about that? What does he make? What does he make?
Starting point is 00:42:54 $500,000 somewhere in that range? Probably. I don't know if they even have a spot track page for any Vander Dodes. So let's put the scenarios in play. You can make a half million dollars a year to not play, to work out every day, to practice, and to maybe get the virus. Because NFL, you're just going to be so close with each other. or you can take 150 to sit in your couch for an entire season and never have to worry about taking us a hit
Starting point is 00:43:24 or having to go through a workout unless you want to go to the gym yourself. It's not a bad option. It's not the worst thing in the world. I'm not on a spot track page. He didn't have him making money this year, probably because he just opted out, I guess. He's supposed to make 825 next year.
Starting point is 00:43:39 Ooh, now that makes things a little more confusing. 825 to play or 150 to sit? I would have guys, I'd have to go 825 and gut it out, right? Well, I'm sure he loves football, Matt. Maybe there's high-risk people in his family, and it is painting him to be away from his teammates, his brothers in arms, and to play the game that he's passionate about playing,
Starting point is 00:44:06 and he's going to miss out, and he's very sad about it. In all sincerity, I hope you're right. I hope what you just said is 100% accurate. So Eddie, take care of that. family and maybe we'll see you in 2021. We'll see it. We'll see it.
Starting point is 00:44:24 Eddie Norman Vanderdose the fourth. Is he got enough stuff to make him a believe it or not today? Hell no. 1257. See, you got to make your life
Starting point is 00:44:33 worthy of a belief or not, Dave. You've not done enough in your life if you can't, if Ross can't come up with any questions about you. Let me scan the Wikipedia page
Starting point is 00:44:44 some more. All right. Where is ACL at UCLA? 713212-2-5-790. Tim. Never at Dodger Broadcaster next on 790. Is the Matt Thomas show. Time is 102.
Starting point is 00:45:05 Tonight, we got both the rockets and the Astros on our airwaves. Over here on 790, it'll be the final scrimmage for the rockets to take on the Boston Celtics. Craig will have that game for you, and then I'll join you Friday for the Rockets and the Mavericks as they get ready to start the seating play. It'll be Friday night. And then over on 740 this evening, it'll be the Astros against the Los Angeles Dodgers and a repeat or a rematch of the 2017 World Series. Coverage over there begins with the On Deck Show at 7 with an 810 first pitch. And joining us that will be a part of it somehow calling and he has been doing the Dodgers.
Starting point is 00:45:41 This will be a second season was a longtime Boston Red Sox. And then before that, a Pittsburgh pirate broadcaster and a good friend of the show, Tim Neveritt here on the Matt Thomas show. Tim, long time, no talk. How's Callie treating you these days? The weather is beautiful, but I'm kind of in my own bubble where you don't go out very much. You just kind of stay in and then go to the ballpark and then come back and stay in. Just trying to avoid as many people as possible, I guess, which I'm sure.
Starting point is 00:46:08 But there's a lot of that going on down where you are. Yeah, no question about that. How peculiar was it calling a game with no fans? And have you done a game off of a TV set yet? I'll do Saturday's game on television from the Dodger Stadium TV booth will be in Arizona, so I'll see the TV then. I've done it before at the Olympics a few times off of TV screens, but as far as calling it with no fans, it was a little weird at first,
Starting point is 00:46:41 but I think the piped-in crowd noise hits because it, After a while, you just sort of forgot. I mean, it's hard not to forget because you look up in the upper deck, which is usually full at Dodger Stadium. Right. It was over there. But just from the – when you really focus on the game calling on the radio side, it's like, well, just call the game because you can hear the – you can hear the organists.
Starting point is 00:47:08 You can hear with a PA announcer. You can hear the calls for charge, you know, different things like that. they've tried to make the fan or the experience more realistic involving the cardboard cutouts. But at the same time, as the game is progressing and as the game is being played between the lines, you sort of have to tune out the fact that there aren't actual human beings in the seats. It is a very strange scenario, that is for sure. Tim Neverde. Donger broadcaster with us here on the Matt Thomas show.
Starting point is 00:47:42 Tim, you bring terrific perspective to our show, because let's be really brutally honest. If there are two teams that have been closely associated with the cheating scandal of the Astros, it's the two teams you have called between the Red Sox and the Dodgers. I just want to get it from your perspective because we feel like that there was a lot of talk in the off season before the pandemic and when people could go to the clubhouses and whatnot about how the Dodgers were going to treat any future series with the Astros. And now that with the schedule and everything turned out, do you have any sense of what's going through most of the players' minds as they go against the Astros
Starting point is 00:48:18 for the first time since the suspensions and all that went down? I talked to the manager just a little while ago, probably about half an hour ago, Dave Robertson. Basically, it obviously is an open wound. However, they're trying to win a baseball game, and he said he's, not using the past, anything in the past as motivation to try to win tonight's game. So he, you know, probably would expect a clean baseball, hard baseball effort. And he said, you know, there'll be no intent on the part of his guys to do anything untoward. So I just think that if there were, for example, when the Astros come to Dodgers Stadium,
Starting point is 00:49:08 if it was a 50,000 seat situation where fans would be there. it would be a little different atmosphere than when they come without fans. But I do think it's going to be a hard baseball game tonight and tomorrow night. I don't think you're going to see anything in terms of retaliation. I would highly doubt it, actually. You know what? And we're all being very open and honest down here. The fact there are no fans, the fact there isn't going to be much talking with media members before games and whatnot.
Starting point is 00:49:39 There's not a whole lot of Baltimore material, which probably helps. the Astros out a little bit. I mean, honestly, if I'm seeing it from your perspective a little bit. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, what the Astros, from what I understand, from what they had to endure during spring training when there were fans there, I mean, the comments that came from the stands everywhere they were, that's what it would have been like all year, except magnified, anytime that they traveled away from Minutemade Park. So, you know, they can concentrate on baseball and they're not going to hear that. Who's to say what's going to to happen next year, assuming fans are allowed back in the ballpark in full force.
Starting point is 00:50:18 But at the same time, they got a little bit of a taste of it, I think, around the East coast of Florida and spring training. But, you know, it was disappointing. And, you know, I remember from the Red Sox side of things, when I heard the news, I went back and looked at the division series when the Red Sox played the Astros and how Altuve and Bregman had back-to-back homers to start the game off of Chris Sale, who had been dynamite heading into that series. And he had, I think, his worst game of the entire year.
Starting point is 00:50:51 They laid off a slider. It just looked a little fishy after we knew the news. And so it was, you know, those folks are a little sour over there on the East Coast about it. But I think they're more sour on the West Coast because the Dodgers hadn't won since 88. They had a representative team that could have won it. and, you know, based on the findings, you just don't know what the outcome might have been, what it had been different? You know, I guess we really don't know. Yeah, and that's why I think this will be good, you know, while I've been calling this season largely gimmicky,
Starting point is 00:51:23 and unfortunately it just is because of the schedule, and we just got word a minute ago that the Marlin season has been officially paused because of their pandemic and what's going on. The only thing that will be good about this is that I think we will stay away from that sort of controversy, at least for the foreseeable future. So you mentioned you were obviously in Boston and that's where you went from Pittsburgh to the Red Sox. And I'm not going to put you in a position of what did you know, what you didn't know. But what was your take when you had heard that Alex was involved in some things and videos and what I mean. I guess it just goes to the bigger point, Tim, that we're just trying to find out which teams are trying to gain in competitive advantages.
Starting point is 00:52:02 And maybe there are more teams that are doing it than are not and that sometimes you just get caught and sometimes you don't. I mean, I don't know. What is your overall take on the team that used to call hearing about, you know, what had happened with them and how the video coordinator really took the crux of the punishment? It's strange because, you know, I was there during that season, but there was no way of knowing anything from, you know, even when you're in the clubhouse. For sure. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:30 When you're on the plane and you know these guys. And there was just no way of telling how that was going to happen. or what they did or didn't do or that they distract the monitor that was hired by MLB so that he would not be there when they came out to look at film. I don't know. I don't know if Alex had ordered that, or I doubt it. I think this was probably just a situation with the video coordinator who, you know, was involved, as I know, I guess I have to say allegedly involved.
Starting point is 00:53:08 Right. He was reportedly involved in the situation two years earlier, or a year or two earlier. I think a year before Alex got there when they had the smartwatch situation because they would see the signs. They would relay it out via a smart watch to somebody in the dugout who would then have a player relayed a sign to the hitter. And, you know, the inside on that was that they learned that from another team.
Starting point is 00:53:34 So who knows? What a hot mess. It just really is. It is. Yeah. You know, and they caught teams using cameras where they weren't supposed to and different things like that. The one thing I do remember, though, was when we came into Houston for the American League Championship Series in 2018, I was in Alex's office waiting to do the pregame radio show. And I said, I said, you know, how does it help you against this team?
Starting point is 00:54:04 you were there last year. And again, I didn't know anything that was going on. It's about trash cans or anything. I had no idea, no way of knowing at that time. And when the news came out this past fall about the story, the light bulb went off on Alex's response. He said, he said, I'm not too worried because they know, I know what they do over there. And I didn't think anything of it other than, you know, he was the bench coach over there for a while. and he knew policies, procedures, signs, whatever. I didn't think there was anything unusual about his comment until Major League Baseball issued their report,
Starting point is 00:54:42 and the light bulb went off, and I went, oh, that's what he was talking about. How cryptic is that, yeah? Yeah, and then the Red Sox went on and beat the Astros fair and square, and they went on to beat the Dodgers Fair and Square as well. Before I let you run, let's get to Muky Betts in his new contract. There was question marks as of about, I don't know, two weeks ago whether or not he would be one and done in Los Angeles.
Starting point is 00:55:05 Frankly, it's just the opposite. What's been the reaction to Mookie's new deal and the fact that he will probably be a Dodger for a very long period of time? Yeah, it's been met with a lot of positivity, obviously here in Los Angeles. It's been met with great negativity in Boston because many of the fans there, most of the fan base, wanted the Red Sox to go back after him following this year and re-sign him. but that ship has now sailed and those folks are quite upset. But as far as the Dodgers are concerned, they are thrilled because of what Mookie brings to the table.
Starting point is 00:55:41 I mean, the back of his baseball card does not lie. You know, what he has done so far and what he will continue to do, and even in a short season, he should be very effective. Mookie Betts is an incredible baseball player. He's an incredible human, too. And a lot of things he does that nobody knows about that are really, really, really good, really positive for, you know, that he cares for other people and he's a solid citizen. So in all respects, the Dodgers felt that it was worth locking him up.
Starting point is 00:56:11 Andrew Friedman, who is the president of baseball ops for the Dodgers, fell in love with Mookie Betts a long time ago. And he had made overtures to the Red Sox in the past to try to get him somehow. And finally they were able to work it out. And, you know, I think once Mookie got to Camelback Ranch in Arizona, during spring training and got to see the facilities, got to see how the Dodgers do things. He immediately thought that this was the place he wanted to be, and he's even said that. He said, I don't want to be anywhere else. He goes, he fell in love with the whole situation very quickly, and the Dodgers are super happy that he did.
Starting point is 00:56:52 That makes perfect sense. I got 15 seconds real quick. Clint Kershaw, when do you think he'll be back? What's your best guess on that? I think probably when he's able to come off the IL, the IL, I'm sorry. I know he's scheduled to throw a bullpen today, so it's probably in the not too distant future. I'd say maybe sometime next week, perhaps, but he said he's been feeling pretty good. It was just a small thing that wouldn't allow him to go on opening day, but I think he's going to be back probably sooner than later.
Starting point is 00:57:25 Well, I've told my audience on multiple occasions, Dodgers Stadium is one of my favorite. venues in sports period, except for when you try to leave. You will not have that issue this year, my friend. Thank you very much for the time. Congratulations on your success. The Dodgers are lucky to have you, and we look forward to talk with you. Maybe perhaps come playoff time. You never know. Well, you never know. Anytime you want that, no problem. Yeah, the traffic coming and going to Dodger Stadium is a whole different, whole different situation. No question. No question. Thanks, Timmy, for the time. We really appreciate it, friend. Okay. Thanks, Max. You got it. All right, that's Tim Nevert. one of the voices of Dodger baseball here joining us on a sports talk 790.
Starting point is 00:58:01 Lance McCullors at 230. You and me next. 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. I got a question for you. Guess who is the newest member of the Shell Federal Credit Union? That'd be me. My middle son Peyton got his driver's license, and now we're getting him a car,
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Starting point is 00:59:12 iHeartRadio app for your phone at Sports790.com. Just remember you'll have to feed him. That line of you just heard, we've been playing for basically 10 years. I believe that is accurate. I think, not basically, I think 10 years plus. Isn't it surprising we have not since Brendan has taken over producing?
Starting point is 00:59:34 We've not heard a Royce White promotion of the show. I'm pretty sad about that. I mean, actually. And where's the Eric Winston? Eric Winston? Tyler White. He's like two teams removed now. Who did Tyler go?
Starting point is 00:59:49 Did he go play overseas or something? Did he? I don't think, not to my knowledge. The Great White. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, he went to the KB. Did he really? Oh, man.
Starting point is 01:00:02 He plays for the S.K. Wyverns. How's he doing? I don't know. They don't have stats available? You want me to find KBO stats? I can try. I want you to focus on the show now.
Starting point is 01:00:12 No, no, it's too late. We're in too deep. Okay. So now when Major League Baseball is getting freakier, okay? This is a straight-up freak. The Miami Marlins have paused their season. What does that mean, Matthew? first of all,
Starting point is 01:00:35 the Marlins now have a total of 19 positive test. 19? This number keeps going up. Wasn't it 13 and then 17, now it's 19? Well, if you're counting on coaches, anybody that's with the traveling group, I'm assuming as a train. So the traveling group is 45,
Starting point is 01:00:54 give or take, maybe even a little bit less. Maybe it's 40. You're looking at about almost 50% of the team with the virus. Wonderful. Let me ask you, how do you think it happened? Do you think they, one group of guys went out and had dinner and caught it and then they just spread to everybody? Do you think it was, do you think the virus was in the clubhouse? All that takes is one.
Starting point is 01:01:16 It's apparently very easily spread and highly infectious. That's why it's an issue. That's why it's a pandemic. Could you imagine if one person did it to 18 others? It's just, that's a huge number. I mean, how much. Okay, so forgetting about how they got it or where it is, because we really don't know the answer. Where is patient zero?
Starting point is 01:01:36 That's what we need to figure out for the Marlins. You're going to pause their season for a week. Seems like the right move. And this solves your Washington Nationals problem as well. Yeah, because now they can just group text all they want to and say, Cibra, we had the power. Power to the Nats. Is that their slogan this year?
Starting point is 01:02:00 Power to the Nats? For the age for the Astros? Power to the Nats. I don't know what it is. But it's just the weirdest thing ever. This is what we... So basically now, there's no way they're going to make up those games. No.
Starting point is 01:02:16 There's no way. They're not going to have forfeit of them, are they? If the marlins suck, okay? Which they do. Is that going to hurt the really good teams if you're trying to fight for home field advantage that you don't get to beat up on those marlins for a while? I would think so, yeah. You're missing out on an opportunity for free wins.
Starting point is 01:02:34 So basically you're now also going to have Some teams play 60 And some team and the majority of the teams Frankly, not majority But a good handful of them We'll be playing anywhere between 54 Well, by the end of the season It might be a more majority, we'll see
Starting point is 01:02:49 Yeah, what if the Marlins just said We're a month away from getting better Then do you bring them back to play 30 games? Oh my, what a disaster The AA squad is going to play Well, that's the first thought idea was I had was bring these guys out and guess what they didn't do. They didn't not, that's not an option for them.
Starting point is 01:03:10 They basically said, we'd rather pause your season. You guys play less than 60 games than us try to send out the Fort Myers-Marlins to try to play for and pretend your major leaguers. But these guys are going to need more than a week. The guys that are positive, you would imagine, right? It's 10 to 14 days deal. So let's say they're going a week. That doesn't mean, I mean the guys can pick up and go to the batting cage and hit.
Starting point is 01:03:34 But pitchers, you tell a pitcher to take a week off, they're going to need throwing programs to get their arms back to go. I mean, it's, I don't mean to oversell this, but this is borderline catastrophic to a baseball team. Especially in a, now, if you're playing 162 games, this is a blip on the radar. This is 60. They're going to miss at least another six games,
Starting point is 01:03:57 and they're not going to be, now what this will also maybe do is give them a chance to get that taxi squad ready for arms to go. So maybe they slowly bring them back and then as guys work off the virus and feel good enough to go play. It's basically like they say, we'll give you a week, figure this whole thing out.
Starting point is 01:04:14 Figure out what's going on. Keep getting everybody tested. See what's going to happen with your rosters and such. Miami Marlins baseball. Had to be the Marlins, isn't it? Well, it's just basically the trademark is why bother, right?
Starting point is 01:04:28 Tony and Katie at 125. Hi, Tony. Hey, Matt. How are you doing? Hey, Ross. What's going on, buddy? We're doing great. Thank you. Hey, I got a question for both of y'all.
Starting point is 01:04:36 Hey, you know, we've got all these fan cutouts and all the stadiums and stuff. And I know Minutemate kind of like a hybrid. It's a closed stadium and it's also an open stadium. When they ever open the stadium and say someone hit the shot, you know, on right field and Fredick's trying to catch the ball and or even the opposite team trying to catch the ball and then say the wind gushes that fan cut out and it touches the ball. Is that fan interference? Joe West would call it fan interference.
Starting point is 01:05:01 Will they have to throw that cutout out of the stadium? He's going to escort him out. Tony, I feel very safe in telling you this, that there is not a cutout anywhere close to anything quasi-controversial about a cutout causing something to be go erroneous in a game. I appreciate it. I was just concerned because I was afraid they win gutters and they run on the field. Are they going to throw them out too?
Starting point is 01:05:27 I've never seen a cutout being thrown out. Thanks for the phone call. have you seen these these these these these these cutouts are being belted by people though yeah one of them got their heads cut off like ripped from the board knocked off the board yeah the orbit had to go out there with uh with duct tape are you serious yes go it was uh orbit tweeted it out why don't we put this on the what's on mats mind show page people want to see this uh well we got the team working on more important stuff like our girls well we're working on that i'll do that today by the way if you go to an oakland a's game
Starting point is 01:05:59 there is a picture of Orbit with a trash can around his midsection that is in an Oakland A's game. You see, Orbit had to reattach some woman's head to her body. Damn. Poor kid. It's going to happen to these cutouts.
Starting point is 01:06:19 What are they made of? Just cardboard? I don't know. Whatever the, whoever the cheapest printer they could contract to do this. Yeah, because it probably takes them costs three bucks to make. Well, more than that. A dollar for labor.
Starting point is 01:06:32 You're talking about, life size full color print, Matt. What does the cost on that? Where would you find that? I've been out of the printing business for a minute, so I don't know. It is 127 on Sports Talk 790. If you'd like to join our show to talk about your cardboard cut out being knocked out by a home run. 713-213-2-5-790.
Starting point is 01:06:52 7-13-212-5-790. What do you all think? The Marlin season's been put on pause. How many more are these wrong men for D&E before you just pause the entire season? Sports Talk 790. At home, say, Alexa, play Sports Talk 790 on Ihard Radio. House, what the through down? Daniel House here, you got Sports Talk 790.
Starting point is 01:07:16 Throw it down with the right hand. Flagship station. Of your rocket. Speaking of the Rockets, final tune-up game tonight, the scrimmage before they get back at it Friday. Wednesday night, or actually tonight, it'll be the hated Boston Celtics and a potential NBA finals preview. Game coverage begins at 630.
Starting point is 01:07:39 We'll actually get started with the unofficial pregame show. We call it the Sports RV Nightcap at 6. It'll be the soft launch pad. At 630 network pregame, I believe that is Adam Clayton. And then at 7 o'clock, it's Craig and Adam. And then Wex and I will have the game for you Friday when it all starts back for real. That'll be on KTRH. We need 50,000 watts.
Starting point is 01:08:03 Just look for KTRH or 790. At one point, you're looking for one or the other. they will be on either of those stations in general. Somebody on a website, and we're going to do this a little bit later, a Clutch City control room. I don't know what that is. Hmm, okay. They don't follow me, which they should.
Starting point is 01:08:19 At SportsMT best here and or there. How are you a Clutch City affiliated and don't follow Matt Thomas? That's what I'm saying. So they have built a bingo board. Yes. You have $15 to spend on a championship lineup, and there is values between $1 and $5 based on the players. And we'll do it later on.
Starting point is 01:08:39 Oh, okay. We'll do, in a matter of fact, Brendan, you're going to have 40 minutes to get yourself called up to speed on the rockets. We're going to spend $15. We're going to get $15 spent on a board. And we'll do that a little bit later on. Where's Hakeem on this?
Starting point is 01:08:54 These are non-championship players. Oh, okay. So no Elyjean, no Drexler, no Mario L.A. These are all looks like... No Pete Chilcutt? I mean, I'd throw a dollar at Pete Chilcote. These are all guys that have all play with the Rockets within the last it looks like 10 to 12 years.
Starting point is 01:09:11 Okay. So we'll spend our $15 on that. Can't wait. Oh, by the way, Joel Sherman, who attacked basically, James Click. That's a little strong. Describe it. Strongly questioned.
Starting point is 01:09:28 Was pressed? Was New York Borish media guy going, I have a pen and a recorder. Here's my power. Suck it. Yeah, he was basically, Joel Sherman was asking him something like,
Starting point is 01:09:43 are you going to fire everyone that was, or what, with it, that evolved in the, in the cheating center or the previous regime? And he's like, I'm going to talk to everybody on an individual basis, and I'm going to evaluate as I go along. Mm-hmm. And Joel's like, you mean to tell me that you're not going to blah, blah, blah. I'm like, Joe, calm down, dude. Yeah, Joe, go have sex.
Starting point is 01:10:02 Relax. And Joel is incredulous. He's just like, oh, my God, you're not going to just let everyone go. James Click, his head is spinning. Literally, 36 hours in the job. He's supposed to learn this whole new system, this whole new, the farm system, I mean, the whole new organization, whole new staff,
Starting point is 01:10:20 and he's trying to evaluate everything, and Joel Sherman, you're not gonna fire everyone? Shut up, Joel. Let James Click get settled in the job. So the reason why we brought up Joel Sherman's name because A, he's an A-hole, but B, heard MLB would like to get 60-game season in for all teams.
Starting point is 01:10:36 Well, I would hope so. When you schedule 60, you'd like to play them. But not wedded to it. Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't be wedded to it either. If some teams play 50s, 8, 56, 55, et cetera, winning percentages would determine playoff spots. Yeah, thanks for the breaking news, Joel.
Starting point is 01:10:58 Well, no, I'm not blasting him for, no, no, I'm blasting Joel. Oh, I'm blasting for being an a hole towards a general manager. Cool. I mean, I could have tweeted that out. cool. It's just common sense. Okay. Can the three of us agree this is a totally gimmicky season? Absolutely. How gimmicky is it? Like let me give you... How gimmicky is it? Let's give you a variety of like gimmicks. Like dollar hot dog night is gimmicky, but it's not a terrible gimmick. It's values. Well, it's high in cholesterol, but it's delicious.
Starting point is 01:11:32 But it gets people out. Yes. Um, is it and the gimmicky level of everybody gets, gets a World Series ring, gimmicky. This is... This is becoming, after today's revelation, as, I mean, on the high end of the gimmicky scale, right? From one to WWE, it's pretty high up there. Is this Major League Baseball season a W... Now, the difference between WWE and this is that we don't have the results
Starting point is 01:12:07 are not predetermined. So I'll never put Major League Baseball at the WWU How about Harlem Globetrotters? Ooh. No, pre-determined. National, I mean, the Washington generals never win. Yakes.
Starting point is 01:12:20 They're not supposed to, at least. They always get confetti thrown on them, though. I would put this on the gimmicky level of a MTV NBA All-Star Rock and Jock preview. I like that. Or the legends and celebrities, like the celebrities, the celebrity softball game at the All-Star game.
Starting point is 01:12:41 Like the events on TV. Like Jose Canseco shows up or something? Yeah, the Friday night TV events that nobody watches until you see who the stars are and go, that's a celebrity. Is Scott Bayle really a thing still? Wow, Nate Robinson? I thought he was still in the league. He's on the celebrity team now?
Starting point is 01:12:55 Yeah, some guy from some boy band you never heard of is playing point guard. Oh, hey, there's Earl Boykins. Earl Boykins is out there. That's cool. So Rock and Jock baseball or basketball equal to the 2000. The Beebs is out there getting some shots up and stuff like that. Yeah. I think you found a sweet spot.
Starting point is 01:13:13 I think that's what we're looking at. It's about like that. But I'll say this. I'm willing to trade that off for the entertainment I get from watching baseball. Yeah, look, it's somewhat entertaining. Look, at these All-Star games, they hand out MVP's. They have champions. That's what's going to happen in 2020.
Starting point is 01:13:27 Right. Somebody's getting World Series rings. Somebody's getting a ring. There's going to be a Cy Young. There'll be a commissioner's trophy. Yes. There will be MVP's. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 01:13:36 but somebody is but you're also going to have Corey Feldman chucking up five-pointers Stro's relegation says the gimmick that comes to mind from the Astros history would describe the season was I went to a game once
Starting point is 01:13:49 Operation Dumbo drop night they brought an elephant on the field and had it walk in the outfield to tie it in with the movie hmm that terrible Bill Murray movie in the mid-90s it was called Operation Dumbo
Starting point is 01:14:05 you never heard of that Operation Dumbo drop It was a movie with Bill Murray and an elephant You're what? Yes. Operation Dumbodrop. You never heard of that? You mean the man that came part of Ghostbusters
Starting point is 01:14:18 and Groundhog Day and all the funny movies and S&L did Operation Dumbodrop? Wait a minute. I might have got this one wrong. It's Danny Glover and Ray Leota. Sorry. And no, Bill Murray. Bill Murray was in some other stupid.
Starting point is 01:14:34 Maybe it was a man who knew too little. I'm thinking of. Okay. some other mid-90s I mean, guys I don't know why I'm confusing the man who knew too little with Operation Dumbodrop just they were both massive failures
Starting point is 01:14:47 When will the bullseye be put out in left center field Hit it here in a home run is worth five home runs Is worth two of five runs Yeah, I like that No you don't, you hate it For the All-Star Gamer You know what, they should do that for the Home Run Derby
Starting point is 01:15:01 There's no home run derby Oh Or All-Star Game Oh And frankly we're looking at one or two more teams going into week breaks is probably ending a season. It took us four days for a massive outbreak with a team paused. In Philadelphia of all places, too.
Starting point is 01:15:20 Well, as you said, man, it's dirty city. Dirty city. Great cheese steak, though. No, I don't put the cheese was. I go right for the... The whiz? I go for the mozzarella. That's what I say, wit or whitt out?
Starting point is 01:15:31 A provolone, man. Provalon. I prefer the provolone. Good fries, too. Underrated fries too. Provalonia. Yeah. And they've got a casino that's not safe, but it's still good fun to go to.
Starting point is 01:15:40 Okay. And then they got a broken bell. And the Rocky thing's there. The Rocky statue, yes. They put up a statue of Rocky before smoking Joe Frazier in Philly. What a disgrace. All right. 141 on sports. A fictional boxer.
Starting point is 01:15:53 Got a statue before Joe freaking Frazier. That's, I mean, let me tell you something. I guarantee you there's in Milwaukee, there's a photo. There is a statue. There's a fond statue somewhere, yeah. Who's the greatest person in Milwaukee history? The Shlomeil Shal Chicks? That's Laverne and Shirley.
Starting point is 01:16:10 No, I wouldn't put them up there. Greatest Milwaukee athlete. Young Lou Alcender. He's not from there. Oh, you're talking about people from Milwaukee? Yeah. Find out who the greatest athlete is... Milwaukeeans? Milwaukeeers?
Starting point is 01:16:25 Miliwakeans. Okay. Famous people from... Yeah, famous sports athletes from Milwaukee. And I wonder if they have a tribute to them, like the Fons is being attributed, has a tribute in Milwaukee. Al Jaro. There's not a statue of Al Daro and Milwaukee. There just isn't.
Starting point is 01:16:46 Liberace? Guarantee, that's not. Do you think there's a Robin Yount? Paul Molotter? Rodney Buford, apparently was... All right. We're done with Milwaukee Sports. 713-212-5-790.
Starting point is 01:17:02 7-1-3-2-5-79. It is the Matt... Carl Landry. Former Rocket Great. Is he on our board to build a franchise? championship branch? I hope so. 713, 212.5.790. Our time is 142. It is the Matt Thomas show
Starting point is 01:17:19 with a message here for TGS Insurance. Hey, I got great news for you. Would you like to save some significant cash on your home policy? Do you even know what you're spending right now? Why don't you get yourself a new opportunity to save some money on a home policy by going to TGS Insurance by texting the word money, M-O-N-E-Y, to 23,
Starting point is 01:17:41 23-23-23-M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23-23-23 and start saving huge on your money when it comes to your home policy. The folks at TGS Insurance will ask you to text you or you text them to their address. You send it to them and by 15 seconds later they're going to give you a great opportunity to save some serious cash. Text the word money M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23-23-23 and get in today with T-GS insurance. text money to 23, 23, 23, and start saving big on your home policy. That's with TGS. Greg Vizio here, the heart of the order is up right now. Matt Thomas is swinging for the fences here on Sports Talk 790.
Starting point is 01:18:35 148 on Sports Talk 790. Ross and I are put together our championship roster off of this Clutch City Control Room website. What's the best line of you can make and you get $15 to spend? By the way, the two guys, let me just say who the $5 row is. it's Russ CP3 James Tracy McGready and Yao Ming
Starting point is 01:18:57 each for $5 so we'll be doing that there's some value on the board but there are some guys that I think they're way overestimated in terms of money spent we're going to spend $15 so shout out to Clutch City
Starting point is 01:19:13 control room for giving us this and we'll do this at 220 Lance McCullors will join this radio show at 2.30 this afternoon if you'd like to join us before then you may do so at 713215.790.
Starting point is 01:19:29 713212.5.790 on Twitter at SportsMT at Brendan Riley underscore and at your sports RV. I lost track from my time for a second. Yes, that's correct. Tomorrow we're going to be at Big City Wings. That is correct. And we are going to eat wings and we are going to watch the Astros play. Tonight's Astros games at 810. Tomorrow's game is at 610.
Starting point is 01:19:59 So these times are... Well, it's because of the national game. No, there's going to be some games that are going to be 810 when they're not national. Well, I'm saying tomorrow is 16. For national purposes, right. So you're just going to have to keep your calendar nearby because when you think... Trust me. I don't think there's hardly any games that are at 710 except the ones against the Rangers.
Starting point is 01:20:20 Everything else is either 810 or 610. These are impacting whether or not I have a nightcap, so I've been paying attention. Yeah, so pay really close attention as to what time these games are, because you'd hate to be an hour late to listen to them. But we're going to be at Big City Wings tomorrow, Marky Center at I-10 and Silver. I'll be trying the cool ranch flavor. Yep. I can't wait. 75 cents a wing.
Starting point is 01:20:40 And they're good-sized wings, too. So you're not going to be, you get 10 and you're going to be fat and happy. Well, that might go for 15. I have gone, the last time I eat wings, I ate 15. Okay. What's the most wings you think you've ever eaten one sitting? In one sitting? I've done 20.
Starting point is 01:20:55 I think so as well. Me too. There's no chance I've gone beyond that. Yeah, probably maybe like 21 or 22. Now, have I done more than 20 in a day? Yes, but in one sitting, 20. It's like you get a 50 piece with a family and eat like 25. And you're like, hey, who ate all the wings?
Starting point is 01:21:07 And you're going to be boneless guy because you love chicken nuggets. Well, because I love something that is more flavorful, something that is easier to eat. And you're five years old. That is not going to make as much of a mess. five years old is when you get sauce all over your mouth from eating actual wings. I'm a man of taste and cuth. And I just, it's just the smarter decision. And you want an apple sauce with your boneless wings.
Starting point is 01:21:34 And by the way, Mr. Fraudster, I converted you to Team Boneless a few years ago and then you switched back. You try to act like that didn't happen. You know what that was? That was a drug you were trying to give me. And I'm off the drug. Bone in, well done. So it's extra crispy. there's a good coating on it.
Starting point is 01:21:50 All the best. Yeah, it was thrown away for years by butchers or just used for chicken stock. It's a marketing. I don't know. I think people have been in chicken wings for decades, just fine. Yeah, chickens have been around for thousands of years. And buffalo wings have only been a thing for 50
Starting point is 01:22:04 because people are just trying to dress them up. It's a marketing ploy, and you're falling for it. I will not fall for it. I will get my all white meat chicken breast. Nuggets. Cut up. Deep-fried wings. And all, by the way, our buddies at ram shirts
Starting point is 01:22:17 who came up with a amazing. Good Morning Super shirt. Did they slim me down on that? They did. They dropped 10 pounds for me, which I was very happy. They're going to bring some shirts, probably 10 or 15 maybe.
Starting point is 01:22:28 Oh, really? Yeah. Did I get one? I'll pay for it. Okay, that's much better. So, yeah, we've got 10 or 15. We'll be bringing over. I don't know what the number of me.
Starting point is 01:22:39 So whatever they're giving them, they're bringing them as gifts. So massive shout-out to Ram Shirts and we'll give you guys an opportunity to actually purchase them if you cannot make it out tomorrow night. But yeah, we're going to give away some for free tomorrow. So wonderful.
Starting point is 01:22:49 And then you would munch on gristle elbows, and I will have nice all white meat, breaded chicken. With Coors Light. Well, we'll see. 713212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-9 if you want to get in. And through Twitter, you can do so as well at SportsMT, at Brendan Riley underscore, and at SportsRV. We're going to go over the injuries update situation for the Astros at the top of the hours. Or is there anything else that we were going to today.
Starting point is 01:23:18 We mentioned Eddie Vanderdose no longer playing. Who? Van der Does. He's no longer with the Rockets. Over the Rockets, the Texans. The Yankees-Fillies game has been postponed again tonight. The Miami Marlins season has been postponed. Is that where it is that we're going it?
Starting point is 01:23:36 Not postponed, but they're taking a break. Pause. How are they ever going to be competitive? The Marlins? Yeah. You don't play for a week? That's what I mean It was kind of
Starting point is 01:23:49 We were talking about it yesterday What if this was an actual good team They expected to contend This is actually the best case scenario For Major League Baseball For this to happen to the Marlins Out of all the teams you could have picked Who are irrelevant
Starting point is 01:24:01 And nobody cares about And you can just pause their games And nobody's really gonna care This is really a godsend for Rob Manfred Yeah because if it was somebody that What if it were the Dodgers Or coming into town right now Or the Ateachians on National Title District
Starting point is 01:24:14 Yeah exactly They dodged a bullet So frankly So far. So Rob Mann for the commissioner baseball is like, we are very sad about the Marnons not being able to play. Why don't I suddenly Donald Trump? We are very sad that the Astro,
Starting point is 01:24:30 that the Marlins cannot play. Meanwhile, he is fist pumping in the ivory tower of the yard. He's like, yes. Wiping the sweat off his brow. I don't have to pretend that the Miami Marlins are a real baseball team. Yes, exactly. I mean, in all things, in all seriousness,
Starting point is 01:24:47 is what a disaster that organization has been. They have won two World Series. Come on, Jeets. Okay. Yes. And after every time they won the World Series, they blow it up. They gutted the franchise. Then they said, hey, we cannot continue to play baseball in a Dolphins NFL stadium.
Starting point is 01:25:05 We have to have our own facility. So we want you to tear the Orange Bowl down. We want you to build this Taj Mahal baseball stadium. And it's going to have a swimming pool and it's going to have a hot club. with good looking girls in there in the left corner. It's going to be the place to be to watch not only your baseball team, but hot girls out in the left field. Yeah. And it's going to have that gouty, that Marlin thing for the home run thing?
Starting point is 01:25:32 That like architecture, whatever the hell that art. Yeah. Whatever it is. But most importantly, it's going to be the place to hang out because in the area of Miami where the Orange Bowl is, it's a little seedy. Is it? Not a little. It's a lot seat. Okay.
Starting point is 01:25:45 So the city of Miami, He says, okay, we'll give you all this money to build the stadium. And since that team is moving in that stadium, even before it, they have not spent any money. In fact, what they've done is they sold the team to Derek Cheater, who then sold Jean-Cardle Stanton to the New York Yankees for, as Michael O'Borbing would say, chicken sandwich. He just collects revenue sharing checks. Yeah. It's really sad. Why wouldn't that town, why wouldn't they be able, when they're winning World Series and stuff?
Starting point is 01:26:14 Why wouldn't they be able to, that town would embrace them for them to be able to have some. kind of payroll. It's big enough too. That's what I'm saying. It should be. There's really, and I never lived in Miami, so I don't know. There's a lot of Latin American people. Latin Americans love baseball. And there's money down there. It's not like it's a question that there's not corporate sponsorship. Maybe some of it's cocaine money, but that's still money. Yeah, it's still cashes, right? Exactly. It's not that we'd ever want to spend a lot of time feeling sad for people of South Beach, but it's a, it's a tragedy in sports. So that franchise is what it is.
Starting point is 01:26:44 Had a good time in Miami. I didn't go. I mean. Missed it. It was fun. Other end of the country. What was the most intriguing place you went during Super Bowl? I mean, the restaurants were good. We ate at, I mean, we're eating some Cuban food, and there was right across it from our hotel. There was a nice club.
Starting point is 01:27:04 Well, it was like a bar. Did you wear a Tommy. Bahamah shirt at the club? I did not wear a Tommy. What did you wear? I don't know. I remember whatever random shirt I packed. You probably a T-shirt or a polo.
Starting point is 01:27:13 Jeans or do? Jeans or slacks? Jeans. Okay. But dark jeans. dark did you go with tennis shoes or to go with dress shoes? It's Miami's very casual unless you're going to the
Starting point is 01:27:23 open up until 6 a.m. Coke party clubs, which I did not. Which you should have. Well, it's not my scene. If I'm going to start being more adventurousome on the road of the NBA, the least you can do is be avengersome when you go to the Super Bowl. I didn't have a Josh James signature series, fuchsia silk shirt, so I don't know if I'd have got in. Well, he can't
Starting point is 01:27:39 wear that again if he's going to continue to go less than four innings. Astro injury concerns. We'll get to that coming up. Plus, we are going to draft an NBA team of rocket grates that don't have a championship. Greats. There's some greats on there. Okay. And there's Rayfer Alston. Rayfe, if you're listening, what up? That's Ross. 157 on Sports Talk 790. Lance McCuller. He's in one half hour.
Starting point is 01:28:09 Is the Matt Thomas show. All right, 2 o'clock on Sports Talk 790. We have got to, unfortunately, brag about the Astros win yesterday with, not unfortunately, but we're going to brag about what was good about the game. The Astros' offense. Something bad happened? Well, Josh James did not go four and a third as we had hoped.
Starting point is 01:28:38 Josh James, unfortunately, went just three innings. Sucky, sucky, sucky. Three hits, which isn't bad. It's a good. Three runs. Okay, that's not great. So my math puts the ERA at nine. Good job, Matthew.
Starting point is 01:28:53 Earn runs, all of them, three. Five strikeouts, really good. You are fake news. Five base on balls. Not one. And another one. And another. Not one.
Starting point is 01:29:08 Not two. Not three. And another one. Not four, but not five, but five walks for John James. And another one. He threw 75 pitches. 39 were strengths. Not a great percentage.
Starting point is 01:29:26 It's going down to tubers. Brandon Belak did come in, however. three in a third four hits that's more than a hit per inning two runs only which one were earned because you had a Josh Redick fielding error four strikeouts
Starting point is 01:29:43 no walks Jeff Luno yeah my guess is Jeff Luno was responsible because Brandon Blek was a part of the organization last year right that was a great job of skippering
Starting point is 01:29:57 Peretti's two thirds of inning two strikeouts Outts, one hit allowed. Wonderful. Sneed, one inning, one walk, no hits. Is his full name Cyrus? No, I think it's just plain old side. Just sigh?
Starting point is 01:30:09 Yeah. And then Osuna comes in, one hit, two strikeouts. It looks pretty good. Strange hair. He gave it one hit, right? One hit, I think it was a triple. Was it? No, it wasn't a triple.
Starting point is 01:30:23 I can tell you that. It must have been a single, yeah, because it was, I'm seeing nothing. Kyle Seeger, he got a single or something like that. Yeah. So there you go. I can look it up. That's right. It was a single. So some of the bullpen is in great shape. Some of the Astros pitching is in great shape. In fact, Lance McCullors will join this radio program in one half hour and we'll brag on him.
Starting point is 01:30:41 Astros ace Lance McCullors. No question. As of right now. Bubble wrapped. Oh, let's hope. And I'm going to have to, yeah, we're going to talk about bubble wrapping him in 28 minutes. Wonderful. Now, let's get to the rest of the Astros pitching staff. Go ahead.
Starting point is 01:30:59 Justin Verlander. forearm strain. No, God! No, God! Please, no! No! No! Ryan Presley, Elbow. That sounds as creepy as the day I heard it for the very first time.
Starting point is 01:31:30 Next. Austin Pruitt, shut down, Elbow. Oh, geez. You cannot be serious! I didn't realize that John McAro was going to get involved. He's really invested in the Astros this year. Roelho Almond Taros still recovering from elbow surgery.
Starting point is 01:31:53 Yes. This is horrible. Brad Peacock, right shoulder tightness. Oh, no, it's bad. It's real bad. Chris Davensky, elbow sortis. And that's all I have. Well, we also have
Starting point is 01:32:17 Alimus Diaz. No, Elimus Diaz. Oh, yeah, he's hurt. Oh, that's right. He went on the injured list. The groin discomfort, right? Yeah, we all have groin to strain.
Starting point is 01:32:25 Yeah, we're waiting for Jose O'Kidi to come back full, 100%. Need him in the rotation. Sucky, sucky, sucky. No, he doesn't sucky, sucky, such. Well, that he's out, it's sucky. That's right. We hope he's good.
Starting point is 01:32:35 And then we have Yoron-Alvarez, our defending rookie of the year in the American League, who is yet to take an bat in a major league game. Great. Is this a who's who? they're not going to win. Who said that? That's you.
Starting point is 01:32:54 They're going to win the West. All right, you're an idiot. They're going to be extremely challenged by many of the other seven baseball teams of American League that make the playoffs. Oh, wait, mention that Led Miss Diaz again. This damn groin of his has gotten him in a lot of trouble. I just don't remember saying these things. Now, don't put things in my mouth here. I feel like that you go into the editing room after shows and combine things that I somewhat say and you just mix them up.
Starting point is 01:33:32 These are all 100% fully natural, like Kate Upton. No, I think these are like basically chicken nuggets. Form pressed, mixed together to make me look bad. If I didn't have anything else going on in the show, I would probably look at Red Tube. Yeah, there's no doubt in my mind you have made these things up. Look, folks, can you all call the show so Ross can stop playing sound bites as me? All right, I'm done, yeah. Just call about anything.
Starting point is 01:34:00 I don't care. If you want to insult me, just call me. We got a one-one drawl. You want to talk about the Barnburner happening versus Parma and Atalanta? All right, so they're going to have to go get some arms. From where? Well, the Tax Squad? Maybe the Marlins.
Starting point is 01:34:14 Maybe one to bring a picture over here. The CEO for show is tweeting us. There's a rumor there getting Fernando Roddy from the Skeeters. What? CEO for show. There's a Fernando Rodney rumor on social media about him joining the Astros from the Skeeters. Is there any truth to this? I don't know.
Starting point is 01:34:28 I cannot confirm that. How old is he? Fernando Rodney? He's got to be closed on 40. You cannot pick up a player and expect him to be particularly good. He's over 40. Particularly good if he's claiming AARP benefits. He's 43.
Starting point is 01:34:49 Oh. What? Are the Skeeters playing games? Well, sort of. They have that 14. league that is out there. Fernando Rodney, really? I mean, I liked Fernando Rodney
Starting point is 01:35:05 like early 2000s. He was a flamethrower. He was like Josh Flames James. But, okay, I'm just... I'd rather see what these young guys got than pick up Fernando Rodney. Yes. Give me Taylor and Christian.
Starting point is 01:35:26 No, there's a Blake. There's a Brandon. There's a Brandon. And a Timothy. There's no Timothy's. Give, you know, give me Blair or Blaine or give me some, give me the new, the new bloods.
Starting point is 01:35:40 The new bloods is compared to former. Brandon Belac. Yeah, he was fantastic. Brian, Abraeu, Brandon Bailey. And the Paredes kid looks like he was, he can throw some strikes. Inouly. Aoli or just Oly?
Starting point is 01:35:52 In Oli. An Oli. It's not con Oli. Yeah, an Oli, Paredes. Yeah, leave the gun, take the inoli Paredes. Don't confuse him with Jimmy Paredes. I made a Godfather reference. You should get it.
Starting point is 01:36:01 get that now. Say it again? Leave the gun, take the anoli. Oh, yes. Six months ago, no chance. Now, very fluent. 713-212-570. Ron, southeast Houston on the Matt Thomas show. Ron, good afternoon. Hey, how y'all doing, man? Good. I had to call in. I didn't know my boy Ross was back. Well, it's been a week and a half. We can have. Thanks for listening. Great to have you, Ron. You've been back that long. That's okay, Ron. Yeah, but that's, I want you all to know y'all my favorite. too. We appreciate you. But I want to,
Starting point is 01:36:37 Josh James, I don't know why y'all was surprised. He only wins like three or four in his, man. Every time that guy come out there, he reminds me of one of those left-hand specialists that you hate to see come out there. Yeah, we were not thinking, Ron, we got to be really honest with you. We like Josh.
Starting point is 01:36:52 We're rooting for him, but yesterday on the show, because obviously we're listening to every minute of it, we had the over-under on him pitching at four-and-a-third inning. So, needless to say, we were not expecting tremendous results. a lot of ways about it. Surprise was not one of them. Okay, it was a joke. Okay.
Starting point is 01:37:08 Yeah, because like... By the way, speaking of that, your buddy, number five starter Framber Valdez goes tonight. Your thoughts on the excitement level of him pitching. Really good? Really good. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. What's the overrunner on his pitching number?
Starting point is 01:37:29 How long is he going tonight? Three in him. No, geez. That's not good. That's not big, Ron. That's just not. I'm sorry, it's not. But, hey, at least our best here going good.
Starting point is 01:37:42 I hadn't saw, I think I only saw a couple of games. It looks like they'd go like seven runs on every game this year, at least seven runs every game this year. Hey, Ron, earlier we were talking about something. Are you a gambling man? Yeah, well, I go to Vegas.
Starting point is 01:37:55 I go to Vegas like three times a year, and I never gamble at all, not even a quarter. Oh, because I'm going to say, I want you to call your bookie. Okay. Because the over-under on runs in the first five, five innings of tonight's game is four and a half.
Starting point is 01:38:15 What? I go under. I want to hear the explanation to this. Because you say four and a half, that's a lot of runs, even though the Astros are scoring a lot of runs. Total between both teams? Between the both teams? I'm sorry, I didn't hear you correctly. Oh, yeah, I go to over.
Starting point is 01:38:33 All right, because I thought you were clinically ill for a minute, but we're okay. Okay. Hey, man, I have a good day. Let me go back to work. You got it, my friend. valid. Let's go to Doug and Med Center at 2010 on 7-0. Hi, Doug.
Starting point is 01:38:47 What's up, fellas? How are y'all? Good. Hey, y'all say, you know, when it calls about the Astros, I mean, you're putting all those bad things against us, but we saw the best record in the major leagues, Matt. That's true. There's only one three-and-one team in baseball, correct? I think that's us, right? All right, well, yeah, I mean, the defending
Starting point is 01:39:10 American League champions. The raising the A's are 3-1. And the Padres. Well, I think what the last caller forgot to point out is that we are playing the Mariners this weekend. So for us to score seven runs on every team, I don't know about that. Now, maybe when we play the Mariners again, but not every team. No, the Mariners are basically the Marlins of the America League. I mean, we're going to be brutally honest.
Starting point is 01:39:38 They may be lucky to win 17 games. So the Mariners have coached. COVID too? Well, they're going to eventually get it. Okay. All right. I was looking for an excuse on how badly they play. No, they're just, if you watch, first of all, they don't very good pitching. Secondly, they've got two bats and third, their defense is atrocious. I didn't realize, I had forgotten how bad the Mariners defense was. Well, I think what did they say to the youngest team and what their average age is like 23
Starting point is 01:40:13 years old or something crazy like that? Yeah. And they're in full rebuild mode. clearly. Oh, yeah, for sure. But, I mean, I don't think it's going to be a problem, honestly, Matt, to make the playoffs, I think just once you get there, if we're in a, you know, even a 2-7 matchup or a 3-6 matchup, because isn't that how they're going to slate everybody is basically like a tournament? Yeah, and then you get to pick some of your opponents, too. I'm still trying to get the full clarification on that.
Starting point is 01:40:40 All I know is that more teams are making the playoffs than not, which is very NBA and very hockey and something that we're not used to in baseball, but we're getting now. Hey, Doug, thanks for the phone call. Well, do you guys something else? All right, bro. Have a good one. All right. I think he's done. Okay. All right. Thank you, Doug. Thank you, Doug. We got a scrimmage tonight with the Rockets and the hated Boston Celtics. Hated? Yeah, I don't like him. You? You hate it as Cantor and Kimball Walker? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I don't have him. Danny Aange and Larry Bird and Robert
Starting point is 01:41:12 turned down with that. Yeah, I'm just not a fan of theirs. I got you. We're going to, we're going to spend $15 to create a special Rockets basketball team and will help us win a championship. And then at 2.30, 17 minutes from now, we're going to say hi to Lance McCuller's Jr. It is the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 7.9 with a message
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Starting point is 01:42:21 That's yours. Houston's official sports cliche translator. I'm working hard. I'm trying to be a good teammate. I'm trying to go out here every day and do my job. Matt Thomas. Taking it one day at a time. All right.
Starting point is 01:42:38 Lance McCullors, who is under the age of 40. We'll be with us coming up in a matter of moments. All right. We got this thing from the Clutch City Control Room. Is that what they call it? It's not even a real. Is it a real website? I don't know what they are.
Starting point is 01:42:56 I have never heard of them before this segment. They probably should follow me at SportsMT for legitimacy. They don't. They don't. Still won't. That's fine. Well, maybe you should follow them for legitimacy. Let me see what they're acting.
Starting point is 01:43:08 Let me see what their results are. If they're good, maybe all will. The hypocrisy is dripping off of you. So they've got 25. rocket players who have never won a championship. Yes. And 90% of them are within the last 10 years. With the rockets, correct.
Starting point is 01:43:22 With the rockets. They've never won a championship with the rockets. Within the last 10 years, 90% of them. And we have $15 suspense. I want to do this very quickly because I don't want to mess up with Lance here. Dollar bets. So you all hear this out loud. And then we'll, have you got your team ready to go, by the way?
Starting point is 01:43:39 I do. Okay. And we'll just judge amongst ourselves who has the best list. And I think mine will be the best. For $1, you can get Pat Beverly, Courtney Lee, Luke Baamute, Daniel House, and Chuck Hayes. For $2, Raffer Alston, Chandler Parsons, Trevor Areza, Carl Landry, and Clint Capella. $3 to get you Aaron Brooks, Eric Gordon, Shane Badiere, Meadow World Peace, and PJ Tucker.
Starting point is 01:44:12 For $4, you can get Steve Fran. Kevin Martin, Robert Covington, Luis Scola, and Daniel House. And for $5, you can get Russ, CP3, James Hardin, Tracy McGrady, and Yalming. Ross, spend your $15. You know what? I thought there was a lot of value in the low, so I spent high and then I basically went ceiling and floor. Number one, Patrick Beverly. he is my point guard at a dollar.
Starting point is 01:44:44 I think it's a great value. Three and D. Dog out there, so I'm going with him. In my two spot, I went with Superstar Power in Tracy McGrady. Two-way player can score, can distribute, play some defense. In my three, I went three-and-d as well with Trevor Arisa for only $2. I think that's a good value as well. Three-and-D, not really, you don't want him dribble into the basket, but that's okay.
Starting point is 01:45:12 And then I went with, for a dollar, 3&D as well, I think. And we're talking about these guys are in their primes, right? Yeah. And by the way, can we get more than five players if we want if we have money left over? Are you going to have a bench? I'm going to have $1. So you might as well pick up Daniel House or something you're saying? No, it's five players.
Starting point is 01:45:31 Oh, okay. It's a lineup. That's a one through five. I went with Luke Rashar Bamute in his prime, not when he was ruined and his shoulder fell off and he couldn't make a layup. prime Luke Bamutei and then I have $5 left over I went with the big man Yao Ming because I think he could make threes he could play in 2020
Starting point is 01:45:48 your squad is going to be all injured what do you mean McGready and Yao why would you pick those two guys they're injury history this is for one game this is in their prime in my mind we're doing this like we're on 2K it says championship line up right in the picture yeah trying to win a championship it's fine
Starting point is 01:46:03 they can stay healthy for one year so give me your names real quick again McGrady Bev McGrady Eriza Bamute Yeah. Reza and Bam Mutu. That's a squad right there.
Starting point is 01:46:13 All right, I'm going next. I'm going to spend heavy. I'm going with Russ and with James. Russ and James. That's $10. Defense is going to suffer. I'm going to go $2 with Clint Capela as my center for rim protection. So you basically have the 2020 start of the season Astros.
Starting point is 01:46:30 And then I'm going to go Pat Bev and Daniel House and have a dollar left over. You basically have the starting lineup for the beginning of the season. Yeah, because here's the thing. I think Covington for $4 to cost too much. McGregney and Yow, I just think of them as injured. Battingay's defense, but no scoring is not going to help me out. In my mind, we were doing this in their primes at their best. Yeah, primes at their best.
Starting point is 01:47:00 Russ and James are a dynamic 65 point scoring group between the two of them. 65 points, 10 to 15 rebounds combined, and 12 to 15 assists between the two of them. Okay. Yeah, I'm going, yeah, I'm going to Russ, James, Clint, Pat Bev, Daniel House. Okay, so you basically have the starting lineup of the Rockets except PJ Tucker out, Pat Bev in. Yeah, all right, what do you got? At the beginning of the season.
Starting point is 01:47:29 Brendan? All right, so I started with Pat Bev at point guard as well. Well, all three of us went with Pat. Now, here's the thing. It's a little bit out of position. Great value. But welcome to today's. NBA. Sure. Okay. At shooting guard, I actually went $5 on Chris Paul. Okay.
Starting point is 01:47:44 At small forward, I went $5 on James Hardin. This is probably the biggest reach position-wise. I'm putting Trevor Reza at the four for $2. And then rounding it out with Clint Capella for $2. I like your lineup too. My lineup destroys you guys. I don't think so. You think Yao Ming can run with my lineup? Absolutely. Yomings not playing 30 minutes in today's NBA. He's guarding one through five, baby. And he's putting up three. You can make threes. You can make threes. You're not asking Yalming to make threes. Why not? You're just not.
Starting point is 01:48:13 Stretch five, baby. Let's go. No. I think he could shoot in today's league, but I don't think he could run with it. No, that's right. He wouldn't be able to run in Mike Dan Tony's offense. You know what? I might put him at the point guard, all right?
Starting point is 01:48:26 That's how much confidence I have in Yal Ming. Up and down the floor, legs like trees, soft touch, you know, your defense. You're chuckling as you described this, so you don't even believe your own list. I'm not chuckling. My list is way better than both of them.
Starting point is 01:48:39 Brendan, you and I are pretty much close. I think he's a distant thing. I have the very, first of all, my team is way better than all y'all's on defense. Is Patrick Beverly the best value pick? Yes. Like,
Starting point is 01:48:49 that's where I started was Patrick. Bauer for a dollar. You don't think Daniel House is good for a dollar either? I'd rather have Pat Biff. Although Daniel House is perimeter defense. Do I get Chandler Parsons at this prime? Because I could bump Daniel House
Starting point is 01:49:01 and spend the extra buck and get me Chandler too. Chandler was a good decent. Like he was at the time, he was the Rockets best on ball defender. Can I get, can I score a little bit? Am I getting him at prime? That's what I figured, right?
Starting point is 01:49:11 Then I'm gonna, I'm gonna- Can't change? No, why not? It's my own, Daniel House by. I'm gonna bump him for Chandler Parsons, because I got an extra dollar to spend. Yeah, get you a little bit, not bench scoring,
Starting point is 01:49:22 but you know, when James and Russ need a rest. And versatility can guard any one of the positions. Yeah, so there's a defense of health. He's 6 foot 9, absolutely. Now he's got arthritis now, which is not great. Well, his knees have fallen off,
Starting point is 01:49:31 but he's made $100 million off of each of them. Okay. I still like my lineup best, Brandon's second and yours third. Okay. I think Chandler Parsons has been back-to-back least valuable player in the NBA. The amount of money he has made by not being able to walk straight is amazing. 226 is the time we say hello to the one and only Lance McCullors. He'll join us in a matter of moments on Sports Talk 790.
Starting point is 01:49:56 If you want to join us, you may do so for, believe it or not coming up in about 20 minutes. Right now a message again for the Shell Federal Credit Union, where I have recently joined their family because the auto loan rates are really good. I'm getting 36 months on my son's new car at 1.99%. If you'd like to get something comparable to that, go to shellfcU.org, shellfcU.org and subscribe and apply online and see if you are a candidate to get a great low interest rate. Plus $250 in cash back to skip a pays a year and the opportunity for deferred payments, all with the Shell Federal Credit Union and 10 locations all throughout the Houston area. To join, simply go to shellfcccccum for all.
Starting point is 01:50:36 all the, I say shellfcU.org for all the information, that shellfcU.org auto loan rates as low as 1.99% from the Shell Federal Credit Union. This is 790 baseball direct. Direct from the ballpark. To your radio. Driven by Texas Direct Auto, powered by Vroom. And how about Lance McCullors? Hey, it's Lance McCullors.
Starting point is 01:51:03 Back to Matt Thomas. Turnball, swinging a misstrike. on Sports Talk 790. Your home for Houston Astros baseball. That is the greatest introduction to the return of the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 790 when Lance McCullors introduces himself to the program. Lance, it's Matt. How are you, friend?
Starting point is 01:51:24 What's up, guys? How are you doing? Hey, I said this earlier to my audience, and I'm not kidding with you. Can we bubble wrap you for like the next, except on days you have to pitch? Because we need to keep you healthy. pitchers are dropping like flies on your squad and it feels like every other team in baseball right now. Yeah, you know, injury bugs going around. You know, that is something that we thought league-wide could happen with the long period that we head off
Starting point is 01:51:53 and then the quick kind of summer camp ramp up, so to speak. But, you know, I'm feeling really good. I'm feeling healthy. You know, I've put the work in that I've needed to get to this point through the whole, you know, Tommy John rehab and a little hiatus we had. And I'm looking forward to taking the ball as many times as I can. Yeah, you put the work in. You grabbed your first victory in a long period of time.
Starting point is 01:52:16 You know, I know the guys were asking you about it after the game, and you're on a Zoom call so you don't really have a chance to maybe materialize it. But when you got home, you had time with a family. Did you sit back and go, man, a lot of tough work to come back to where I am right at this exact moment? Yeah, well, I actually just, like, rushed out of the field. because I was trying to get home to see my daughter before she went down. But it was a long time. I didn't quite realize, I think because I did the rehab during 2018,
Starting point is 01:52:46 I did pitch a little bit in the postseason. And I was to run the team all last year. Many guys that are rehabbing from Tommy are down in the spring training sites of each team. But I didn't realize it was quite that long. Someone told me before the game, you know, almost two years to the day. and it was good over two years since my last win. My last win, a couple of star or two before the All-Star break back in 2018. So when you put it in terms like that, look at the days, like 722 days, you know,
Starting point is 01:53:15 you kind of get lost in just to rehab and take it every day as an individual day. But, you know, that's a long time. So I was proud of the effort that I put in. Ross Vireal with you Lanson. And just how did you feel afterwards? Just on the baseball side, obviously emotionally it was a roller co. poster for you. How'd you feel about commanding your pitches? How'd you feel afterwards? And just how are you feeling now?
Starting point is 01:53:38 I've been working so hard throughout this period of time to get my change up in a position to where it's a really lethal pitch for me and it's going to be a big pitch. You know, you guys saw it. I got me out of the gym in that first inning. First pitch change up to Nola in the zone with good with good depth and got a double play many times throughout the rest of the game. I had two strikeouts on it, got a couple other swinging misses, had some opportunities. I used it to get back in the count. So I split my pitches up about 33% each, you know, give or take. And it was a good mix for me.
Starting point is 01:54:13 I definitely was a little erratic early because you with the breaking ball. Two of the three guys that I walked. Actually, I had 02, which is frustrating. But, you know, those are things that you learn back in the start and back in the group of things. And I'll clean up moving forward. Lance McCullough is with us here on the Matt Thomas show. We were opening up our conversation about the number of injuries, not only with your staff, but around baseball.
Starting point is 01:54:37 Is this, unfortunately, a byproduct, Lance, of you guys having to get this summer camp done in a very short period of time? Yeah, I think so. I mean, baseball is a very methodical thing. I mean, guys understand. It's almost like your body understands how much time you do have to get ready. I mean, there's times during, you know, midweeks where your body's drag it along, and all of a sudden you wake up on start day.
Starting point is 01:55:00 you know, your, your body's found a way to kind of get itself in the right spot. And same thing, you know, we know we typically have a longer build-up to spring training, and then you kind of ramp down almost when you get to spring, and you build back up throughout spring training, where in this instance, you know, you were trying to do what you could stay in shape, and then as soon as you got to camp, it was full go. But that's what was asked of us. That's what we had to do in order to, you know, make the start of the season.
Starting point is 01:55:28 And, you know, I think some of the injuries you guys are seeing are from that. And hopefully, you know, guys start getting more used to it and we can have a, you know, more healthy season. Dodgers in for two games tonight. Just man to man on this. I hope they're just like every other normal set of two baseball games, a lot of crowd. I'm assuming you'd agree with me on that. Yeah, I mean, it is what it is. I think the fans and especially the, you know, Dodgers fans are making this series, you know, something that that's really not.
Starting point is 01:55:57 It's two-game series in the first week of, you know, post-summer camp. You know, they obviously have two of their horses going in Bueller and in May. So we're looking forward to it. They're a good team. It's always nice to play other good teams and engage yourself where you're at. I was actually a lot more impressed with Seattle than, you know, then rumored, I guess, than what you would typically expect. I thought they play good defense.
Starting point is 01:56:26 They have a pretty good line out. They have some speed at the top, speed at the bottom. And they have some new guys, some young guys in there who can legitimately swing it. So they had a nice little ball club coming in, and it was good to get that first big series win, especially in a four-game set. And we've got to move forward and play some more good baseball. Sound effects, the noise. When you're on the hill, do you hear much of that with a regular crowd?
Starting point is 01:56:50 And what was it like having it artificially put in the stadium? The artificial stuff is bad. It is what it is. It's not even, you know, it's not loud enough. When they do turn it loud, it sounds a bit like a low buzzing crowd. When it's not loud, I think Reddick described it the best. It sounds like my daughter's white noise machine. So, you know, it is what it is.
Starting point is 01:57:16 Like I said, we know this year is going to be extremely different. You guys are already seeing how different it is with just the guys that are kind of, you know, going on the DL that you typically wouldn't expect. So it's going to be one of those years. We have to battle through. We have to stay safe, stay healthy. I think the teams that position themselves as far as COVID-IEL goes are going to be the teams that are putting themselves in a good spot to win it all.
Starting point is 01:57:41 Yeah. And speaking of that, Lance, obviously you know what's going on in Miami and all the positive tests and now their season is on pause. Just, I mean, your general thoughts on that, or have you guys obviously talking about it in a group text or something like that? What is just the feeling with what's going on over there? Yeah, well, this was one of my big concerns. I'm the rep for the Astros, and one of my big concerns throughout negotiations was we were cramming the timeline so far up against, you know, against the wall that we weren't going to have any time for makeup games.
Starting point is 01:58:12 And the amount of time that we did have for any type of makeup games, you know, somehow, some way, we couldn't find any more days to play actual season games. but we found a way to shove a bunch of playoff games in there. So those days are now gone. It's going to be a situation where double headers are going to have to come into effect. And as you guys are already seeing, you know, guys are having a hard time just, you know, bouncing back. And we have long stretches this year. We have, I think, one or two stretches at least where we have 17, you know, games in a row. We have a stretch this season where we play 17, get one off day, play 10 or 11 more, and then get another off day.
Starting point is 01:58:51 So it's going to be interesting to see how they handle that. Hopefully this is a good lesson and reminder to everybody the situation that we're facing, and we can avoid this in the future. Last question for a let you run. You guys went to Kansas City kind of went through a walkthrough of what it was like to get on a plane, go to a hotel during all this. What was that like? Was it dramatically different than a normal road trip would have been?
Starting point is 01:59:16 No, it was pretty similar. We flew in the day of, though. So we flew in the day of to avoid the action I at the host. hotel, so that was a little different. But other than that, you know, the clubbies, you know, at our field, the away and the homes, I was on the wayside during summer camp and now, you know, going to KC. They're all doing a great job of keeping the facilities clean and making sure everyone's masked up.
Starting point is 01:59:36 And, you know, our players have done a great job. I'm not around other teams, obviously, but the players in our locker room and the players at our alternate site all understand, you know, what we're facing and they understand that guys need to take this seriously. So, you know, I feel good at least about where the Houston Astros are and our ability to, you know, follow protocols. So we're just going to keep doing that throughout the season. And, you know, it is what it is. There's no fans.
Starting point is 02:00:03 It's going to be weird traveling. We can't leave the hotel on the road. We're kind of confined to our room. But, you know, we're trying to get a season in. And we're trying to do it the best and save this way we can. I know a lot of people out there on social are easy to criticize. But, you know, we're doing our best. Well, whatever it has is a player, if you've got to get some more per diem on
Starting point is 02:00:20 those room service charges got to be piling up a little bit. No, you're not lying, right? I'm not lying. So we'll have to try to figure that out. We have a lot of young guys in the squad. So maybe some of the older guys will have to pitch in for them. All right, we've got you on tape saying that now. Lance, thank you for the time, my friend.
Starting point is 02:00:37 Congratulations to getting that Victor for the long time. And stay safe. Have a great road trip, and we'll talk with you soon. All right, guys, thanks. You got it. Lance McCullors, Jr., joining us here on the Matt Thomas show as he's basically taking the vet's money and saying, put it to the young kids.
Starting point is 02:00:51 It can't afford the expensive room service. And they're going west, which is room service on the West Coast. It's got a little pricey. Very, very pricey. $35 pancakes. I know these things. Yeah. Did you or was it, was it Verlander who posted some crazy.
Starting point is 02:01:07 And that was the restaurant. Yeah. Well, they charged him a million dollars as a joke, but also it had stuff on there. There was not a joke. Wasn't there literally like a $35 pancake or something like that? There is one place we stay in the NBA. that has no close walking to place for breakfast. Omelet potatoes.
Starting point is 02:01:26 Those two things, and I think we get a piece of toast with it, $27. Cranberry juice, I just found it. Cranberry juice, $10. The pancakes were $30. One McCarthy salad, $42. What is it a McCarthy salad? Gold shavings, I hope. I don't know.
Starting point is 02:01:42 By the way, if you ever a salad named after you, that's got to be pretty prestigious. Like Cobb. Caesar. I think we've narrowed it down to those, too. No, we don't know. Johnny Garden. Tossed? By the way, why can't we say Toss Salat anymore?
Starting point is 02:02:00 Why not? You can say it. But people chuckle as soon as I say. What do you? Don't you like a delicious tossed salad? I'd love it. But apparently it's taboo. Oh, I don't know what you're talking about.
Starting point is 02:02:14 Well, good. Believe it or not, is next. What's the category of today? Googlable. Oh, by the way, I will give you the topic. Pat Mahomes is a part owner of the Kansas City Royals. That's all we're saying. 242.
Starting point is 02:02:29 It's part owners of the Kansas City Royals, believe it or not. Really? Is it that? No, I can't be that. 713-212-579. If you want to play, believe it or not, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. And we'll be playing, believe it or not, today for gift cards to a spectacular wing-based restaurant. Right now, I want to tell you what's happening with the folks at Beck and Maston-Buick G.
Starting point is 02:02:51 MC where they have two locations. Southside, you're at 45 in Fouquet, North Siders. You can go to FM-1960 in Jones Road. Either one of them is going to give you spectacular offers during their massive summer savings. 2020 Sierra, $2,500 at $10,000 off the MSRP, 2020 terrain, $9,000 off the MSRP, a 2020-on-Kor-on-Kor-GOR, $9,500 off the MSRP, plus zero down, 0% APR for 72 months and absolutely no payments for 90 days. All from Beck and Maston. Check them out online, beck and Maston.com for Beck and Maston Buick GMC, where they are professional grade.
Starting point is 02:03:36 Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson here. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. What now? What do you think it is? It's real the breaking news, by the way. Real breaking news. Yeah, but it's not. bad, though.
Starting point is 02:04:09 So on a scale of one to ten, if Fernando Rodney is a three, where is this one? Nine. Nine! Yeah. Fernando Rodney is on a three. It's a one and a half.
Starting point is 02:04:20 Maybe a one. Okay, fine. Maybe it's a dog. He's 43 years old. Bullpen experience, Matthew. A nine, another outbreak in a sport, COVID outbreak. Nope.
Starting point is 02:04:30 Okay, good. Dusty Baker's option for next season has been picked up. Nine. This is not a nine. It's this early? Absolutely, it's a nine. Nine would be like what I said. There's a coronavirus outbreak.
Starting point is 02:04:45 Ten would be nuclear war. Okay, six. Okay, yeah, I'm six, I'll accept. Dusty Baker's been picked up for 2021. Also, Gary Pettis, the man who never says no to scoring from third is picked up. Mr. Windmill himself. I mean, hopefully he gets the shoulder surgery as part of this deal. How's his rotator cuff doing?
Starting point is 02:05:07 And then Brent Strom. as we kids call him. Strami. Yes. We'll also be picked up. Oh, I'm happy about that. So. I'm happy about that.
Starting point is 02:05:37 Because he's older. I was hoping he wasn't going to retire. , Strom. I like that. The three me goes. Yeah, real quick, before we get to believe it or not. Patma, Holmes, signs a $500 million contract. Yes. He says, I'm going to buy a major league, at least by a part of a major league team. Do you think the Royals called him or he called the Royals? Or there was a third party. Why would you buy the Royals? Well, it doesn't matter.
Starting point is 02:05:50 These, all these friends, I mean, why is Derek Dieter on the Marlins? Because they're cash flush. They're going to make you money. When he fires people from the Marlins says he give them gift baskets. Well, you can't give gift baskets away through Zoom, so no. You could send them. You can order. Yeah, you can have an order.
Starting point is 02:06:06 Yeah. Do you Uber those? Do you Uber the gift baskets? Isn't it kind of crazy? They have Uber Connect right now, right? That Pat Mahomes, four years ago, is in Lubbock, Texas. Probably the same dorm that my son was in. You think so? No. Your son in the athletic dorm?
Starting point is 02:06:23 No. Is it a team there? No, just stay with me on this. In a dorm in Lubbock, Texas. Yes. Four years later, he owns part of the Kansas City Royals. So in four years, you want your son to be part owner of a major league franchise. It just shows you.
Starting point is 02:06:37 Do not worry about getting an adjuncts. education, just be a great athlete. Yeah, it's that easy. And you can strike up one of the biggest contracts in NFL history and own part of a baseball team. Be an immensely gifted athlete with a great work ethic. So let me ask you this. So Pat Mahomes is in his hotel on a Saturday when he travels somewhere. And he's watching the rolls on his iPad.
Starting point is 02:06:58 And they're getting there asking, does he get to call somebody and say, fire that dude. Let's go. Let's get a better team. He's probably got a vote. A small vote. Do we know what the person is? We don't know the percentages. I don't think they even have to announce that.
Starting point is 02:07:13 And is this an under the table. This is a conspiracy time, Matt. Under the table's sweetheart deal? Do there's somebody of the chief, whoever the, is it the Hunt family still on the chiefs? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Was there somebody?
Starting point is 02:07:29 I didn't realize the Royals are looking for minority help, minority ownership help. Clark Hunt. Did Clark Hunt say, hey, sign a deal. I'll get you a little piece of the Royals. And I'll get you 11% of the Royals. Timing suspicious. I'm saying, it just happened. I do want to know how much he owns.
Starting point is 02:07:48 That's what I'm saying. It seems a little weird that all of a sudden a 24-year-old's like, you know what I want to do with this $500? Oh, you guys think he was gifted in the rules? You think he was gifted for ownership? Sign this contract, get a little piece of Royals, buddy. But what would be in the Royals best interest in doing that? It's not in the Royale.
Starting point is 02:08:02 It doesn't matter. Clark Hunt says I'm giving you this much money for a piece of the royal, for a piece of your franchise. Give it to me. Okay. So the Royals and Chiefs have that kind of relationship. It just seems a little odd that the 24-year-old gets a giant deal and is all of a sudden like, you know what I love?
Starting point is 02:08:20 The Kansas City Royals. Well, his dad was a long-time major league pitcher. Okay. So I think that had to do with that. I think he probably just loves baseball. He does love baseball. So much so that he wants to buy a team that's probably going to lose 90 games for the next five seasons. Exactly.
Starting point is 02:08:36 Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play. America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply called it B, believe it or not, and here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-790. Today's edition of Believe it or not,
Starting point is 02:08:56 it's brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spaws. Print out your gift card for the gift of relaxation at Houston, woodhouse spas.com. The category today is, does this athlete part-own another sports franchise? Or famous person. Or famous person. Ever. And this is past tense or present. or present.
Starting point is 02:09:14 All right. If this person's ever done so, you'll say this. Believe it. If this person has never done that or Ross has made it up, you'll say this. Two Believe it or Not to a roll on part, owner or not wins your prize. Ross, what's the prize? Matt, we got a $50 gift card to Hooters restaurants. Delicious Wings.
Starting point is 02:09:31 Smoked, original, or naked, and obviously heavy-chested women. With flat bellies. Correct. Or at least you hope so. Let's play. Joe on 790. Joe, you're ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it.
Starting point is 02:09:45 LeBron James is a part owner of Liverpool FC. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. That's correct. Statement number two for the win. Drew Carey is a part owner of the Seattle Sounders. Believe it or not. Oh, he talks about it all the time and the price is right. That's why I watch it, Ross.
Starting point is 02:10:08 For Seattle Sounders Talk. Seattle Sounders talk. You love the Sounders. And Plinko. Actually, you hate Drew Carey because you. you wanted his job. Well, I think he's also... He's average. No, you can say it.
Starting point is 02:10:18 He's not that good at it. But it's tough to follow the goat. But I could try. Yeah, but you're willing to try. Matt on 790, Matt, you're ready to play, believe it or not? I believe it. Bob Hope used to own part of the Cleveland Indians. Believe it or not.
Starting point is 02:10:35 Not. Believe it. Duh. Don't say duh. I should talk about in the USO shows I attended. I was kidding. Massive reach. Let's go to Andy on 790.
Starting point is 02:10:49 Andy, you ready to play, believe it or not. Believe it. Elvis Costello owns part of Southampton FC. Believe it or not. Not. That's correct. Statement number two for the win. Larry David is a part owner of the New York Islanders.
Starting point is 02:11:06 Believe it or not. Believe it. Not. Not. Makes a lot of sense, too. Oh, wait, why all these soccer teams available for partnership? I don't, why would you, that's a losing investment. Line number four.
Starting point is 02:11:20 The most popular sport in the world. Chris on 790. Chris, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. John Candy, part owner, Toronto Argonauts, or was, believe it or not? Not. Believe it. Talked about it constantly, I think.
Starting point is 02:11:34 Did he? Before he pass, unfortunately. He's not talking about it much lately. 7-13-212-5-7-90. John on 7-90. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Nelly, part owner, Charlotte Hornets, believe it or not?
Starting point is 02:11:51 Not. Believe it. Damn, we are on a rot here. One more. This pleases me. Line 5, Joseph on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it.
Starting point is 02:12:01 Joe Perry, part owner, New York Red Bulls. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, and we give away nothing today. Nothing, I say. We will see you guys tomorrow. The first guy got it, right, didn't he? No, no prizes, right?
Starting point is 02:12:16 Nothing. Tomorrow will be a big city wings for National Wing Day. We'll be there for 75-cent wings. We'll be there at 6 o'clock to watch the Astros and Dodgers. Astros Dodgers tonight on 740. Rockets, final scrimmage against the hated. I mean, hated Boston Celtics,
Starting point is 02:12:33 right here on 790 at 630. Wax, Clint, we don't hate either one of them. We love them because they're part of the A team, and they're up next on 790. Yay.

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