The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Couldn’t Get It Done, Split Series with Mariners

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Astros Couldn’t Get It Done, Split Series with Mariners

This is Matt and Ross in the morning. 6 o'clock at Aitchtown. Good morning. It's Matt and Ross in the morning on Sports Talk 790. Start to cry each time we meet. I like to typically use sad songs to open up a show at 6 o'clock in the morning because you kind of need us to kind of wake you up. First of all, Dionne Warwick is one of the goats.

I'm going to cry. I'm going to cry that Josh Hitter couldn't find the strike zone yesterday. And Dionne Warwick is alive. Absolutely, she's alive. Okay, great. 85 years old. Yes. She's playing in South Palo.

Really? And Rio. Yeah, you want to go? You know who's playing in Rio this weekend, don't you? Well, Barry Manilow. No. Animatronic Manilow. No, it's a sporting event.

You know what? That was rude. Yeah, it is. I'm sorry. We're used to that. Write that down for Friday 1130. I apologize to the man. of family twice on a month. I know.

It's all good. Who is playing in Sapa? Taylor Swift. The Dallas Cowboys. Oh, okay. Yeah. I thought you meant like a musical act. No, as I said, it's a sporting event.

Okay. Oh, okay. So, we here at the Madden and Ross in the morning show, tend to tell you the truth most of the time. Now, we're going to lie to you, and I don't have a much issue with it. Ross may have a little more of issue than I do, but I will lie. I tell the truth.

Yeah. I basically tell the truth, but I think I'm a good fit. ever. Okay. So Astros get out to that really, really fast start. It's 4-0. And then what happened? I'm not going to refer to myself in third person, but Daddy said I need to go to sleep. Oh, okay. You saw 4-0 and you're like, you're hitting the hay. Yeah. I didn't see a single pitch. Well, I'm going to be honest. It's, first of all, 9-10. I mean, it's morning dry people. It's tough. I'm just saying, yeah. I had some sleep to catch up on. Yeah. Been knee pain, haven't been sleeping well. You look like hell. Thank you.

Yeah, I mean, and Perretti's doing this thing. Diaz with a home run and a triple. I mean, everybody was having fun. I mean, the top of the lineup was. I'm catching up on the highlights. I got it 4-0-0-0-posed, so hopefully nothing bad happens. Tramel went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts. Okay, well, you know, he had an off night.

What was that noise? I'm like... Are you okay? I'm actually okay. You sound like me eating a McRibb. Hey, they're new to come back soon, aren't they? I don't know if they got enough port gunk caught up in the machines that they need to go ahead and sell off to McDonald's so they can press them into gristle sheets. America sandwich needs to get back.

Maybe they'll help the Astros win the West. But slowly. McDonald's, you will got that pork gunk. Yeah, you want it for the McRibbs? So slowly but surely, the Astros, first of all, they got to George Co. Yeah, that's a rarity. George Kirby has owned them. Only the second home run hit off of George Kirby by any Astro ever.

That's crazy. That is nuts. With all the different guys that have gone against over the years. So then it became a battle of bullpens. Ethan Pecko went two and two thirds for you. Something called a Hendrickson pitched. Let me tell you something. It is game, what, 157?

I got no idea who this brother is. I was looking at the box score this morning because I was just checking up. I was like, who, Hendrickson? So the first two pitchers out of the bullpen in game. 157 8. No, 158. Down the stretch we come. Was some bro named

Josh Hendrickson. And then Logan Van Way or Van Wy with that strange uniformed fond in the back of his jersey. I mean, that's just how it's spelled. He's got the two capitalizations. I know. Let him live his life. Yeah, but I'm going to buy you one of his game worn jerseys. No,

I can't be that expensive. It's almost like a clown to me. It's probably got to be probably some people fan fest Some people were scared of clowns I'm scared of

the fond of that back in the jersey You're scared of it Yeah You got a phobia Correct Okay

Yeah Yeah yeah So All right So Hendrickson and Van Why are the next two out of the gate Yeah

Then you got Blue Ball Mm-hmm Then you got a brayu who gives you The 8th Game Love it Now ultimately the game

gets tied At 44 As you heard The very first highlight Josh Hader Gets you To the 10th inning Now I think he

through, I want to say, 19 pitches in the ninth inning. Okay. It doesn't really matter what the first number it was. The second number is the more important number. 44 overall. He had not pitched in basically a week. So he's fresh and ready to go.

And oh, by the way, it's Rossi, it's late September. So, I almost gritted my teeth on what I'm about to say. Uh-oh. But it's 607. I can't. Let you 6 o'clock maniacs don't need grit. You don't. You don't

don't need me gritting my teeth. I'll do it, do it. Do it. All right, I'll do it. So listen to hearing you ignorant Astros' Twitter asses. Get them. Let's go. You had three options left, essentially. Sounds like you just got your jaws wired shut. You could have gone with Tutsui Emai, Brian King, or Josh Hater for a second inning. So EMI.

who everyone hates. Correct. Brian King, who Joe Spotted needed to be fired for using Brian King, and then we had that Dolt yesterday who was like, who would have to use Brian King tomorrow? Which they didn't.

And then... He would have been fresh. And then Josh Hater. Yes. Your closer who's got like a 0.8 ERA coming into this game. Yes. You go to Josh Hater.

It's late freaking September. You are trying to gain... If you would have beaten the Mariners last night, you would have had a one game lead with an extra game lead because of the tiebreaker. You wouldn't have been on an easy street, but you would have been on a much more pleasant ride. It would have been less bumpy. Yeah. It wouldn't be like being in Baytown.

You'd be like in the woodlands comfortably. Hmm. Okay. I was thinking more like Richmond and Fountain View for a bumpy ride. Oh. Yeah. Potholes. Yeah.

Instead, we're on Jensen. Actually, that's not true. We're not on Jensen. The Astro sold the Tiebreaker. We're more like on, we're on 1960. A lot of congestion. Some smooth streets, but there's some potholes along the way.

So, Hater did not have it. He, and I think I've said this maybe five times in the last three or four years. He sucked last night. 100 sucked. Four walks,

two runs, two hits. one in a third. He, I mean, he threw, how many did you say he threw? 44 pitches. I mean, and only 25 were strikes. He could, he walked in the tying run.

It's not great for him. And then it was Josh Naler, who hasn't hit, had a hit in two months. Lefty, lefty matchup, all right, you're thinking, all right, maybe induce a double ball, play the ball, let's get to the extra frame, and then go to the 11th. No, first pitch you see his base hit, game over.

So, I woke up, watched the ninth, watch the 10th, went to my Twitter account, said it was a bad idea of trying to go to sleep, couldn't go to sleep. So I'll get back on the old Twitter streets. Joe Espott has got to be fired, got to fire him today. And I thought to myself, okay, I need to go back and look at the box score. Yes. See how many pitchers? Because I'm assuming it didn't go from Ethan Pecco, seven and two thirds or eight innings to Brian and Brayout.

Well, that would never happen. That's this not going to happen in 2026 with this. local baseball team of ours. Hendrickson, Van Wye, Blue Ball, Abraeu. And use a bunch of, you mean,

every night the Astros use five pitchers. It goes without saying, correct? Yeah, it's not great. Every single night, it's five pitchers. So again, you have no,

Ocurt. You threw something called a Hendrickson out there. I'm sure he's a wonderful human being and a swell fella. Yeah, Bennett Sousa had thrown 40 pitches the day before. So no Sousa.

Uiola had thrown 33. Again, I want to give you the run down here. Sousa, Ulola, King, Emi, or $18 million year guy in pitching a week. Now, there is a philosophy, and I've used this philosophy before. It's never fun to put a closer out there for a second inning. The chances of despair go up greatly. Josh Hader's awesome for one inning, and men the same.

second, but he ain't the only one's ever done this before. Most closures don't give you two. Some of the great closures in Astros history were never known as giving you two. I remember when Billy Wagner, Hall of Famer, didn't like going on for a second inning. It's not going to be anything. I've covered a lot of great closers.

Marianne Rivera didn't go out for a second inning. I covered Joe Nathan when he was a Minnesota twin before I came back here. Great first inning guy. Second inning didn't want to see him out there. So what I did is I went to the Twitter streets. I saw everybody wanting Joe a spot of fire for bringing out Josh Hater for the second inning because obviously they wanted to get a nice, steady dose of Brian King or Tatsu Emi instead,

and I started muting people. I don't think I follow anybody anymore. I think my timeline is empty. Good. I like that. Mute them all. The storyline. Oh my God, she's just flawless, whoever that is.

Relax. Quick pitch should not be on at 6 o'clock in the morning because I got a quick something else, too. Where's I going with this? I don't know. Here's the thing. I'm going to make you watch Pat McAfee all day. If you can't stop, hold your comments yourself. Well, the show's over a 10.

No, I'm putting on the podcast. Oh, damn. The Astros had a 4-0 lead and blew it. Yes. They had a triple, as you just heard, from Diaz. Mm-hmm. And left him at third base with one out. Mm-hmm.

Could have gotten the Astros an extra run. Did not happen. And Josh Hader sucked. He's got a 1.01. an ERA now. He's horrible. He's over one now? Yeah. For shame. All right Maniacs. Let's hear from you.

If you even sit up with the game. I mean, 9-10, God, what are you and I doing? What do you mean? 9-10 is like deep REM sleep for us. I was brought asleep. I didn't watch a pitch. I'm going to be honest. I'm catching up now. All right. Well, we need to keep quick pitch on

because it helps us catch up with all the games from yesterday. Oh, never any possible is back. Isn't that goddess is six feet tall with legs. Boy, MLB, let me tell about MLB. Let me tell you about just going to break. If they don't, if you're not a nine, you're not working in MLB. You just not.

They hire well. You're not putting a four and a half on there. 713, 212, 570. Ross, we have an externally busy show. The sounds at 6.30 coming up in 15 minutes. Willie Fritz joins us 645. Wonderful. Fred Van Ville.

Conversation at 7.30 this morning. Okay. Rockets back in day two of training camp. We've got Brian McTagger. We'll join us live from Seattle at 9 o'clock. We have the Ross's Rotten 5 at 920. And believe it or not today, Matt Thomas style at 950. Oh man, can't wait.

It's a big show for y'all. Y'all sit back and listen. Come on and join us. 713-212-5-790. 614 on Sports Talk 790. We love Rossi the 6 o'clock maniacs. We especially love when they call the program. Sleepless in Seattle?

I guess man, people didn't get to go to sleep, but didn't sleep much. I just hit mute a hundred times on my Twitter account yesterday. Good. I'm proud of you. Look, I mean, if you, I'm telling you, you, oh, God, I'm almost said Nimrods. You can say Nimrods. All right, I'm going to say. Morons. If you morons would have seen Brian King go out there and give up the Lee, which he would have done, because Brian King's terrible.

Hey, you can get some outs. Brian King's terrible. Hasouimi is terrible. You'd have been like, Josh Hayter, we paid this guy $18 million a year to get, we can't, you can't go out of his second inning. What is he wearing

panties under his uniform? I know you guys. You're the second-guessing Kings. You would have lost your ever freaking minds if they would have pulled

Josh Hayter for Brian King in the 10th inning. you would have lost your mind. Period. Yeah, we got multiple tweets this morning. Saying? Fire Espada.

We got to bleep a spotta. Yeah, I saw that one. That guy needs to relax. Look, he's not. He's not even following me. That's a mute. I mean, he's just, Joe's not coming back.

I mean, unless he's not. He's not. So you can save all your fire and brimstone for your tweets. Oh, I'm sure everyone will love every decision of whoever the next manager is. Yeah. I can find probably. F. Hinch, I can find Dusty Baker relatively easy. Oh, that's pretty quick.

People hated him. All right, we're going to the phones. But just remember this. You're second guessing, I know who you are. I talk to you people. What does that mean? It seems ominous. No, it's ominous. It seems like a threat. No, it's not a threat. I just know who they are.

All right, okay, good. You're the same people that would have said, why is Tatsu Emai pitching in the 10th inning in game 158 of the season? Mm-hmm. Nine, zero, one. Yeah, 158. Good job. It's trying to forget the numbers. It's fine. Let's talk to the fine people of Houston, Texas, that we call them the 6 o'clock maniacs.

Let's talk to us, 0. 90 am. Zero, good morning. Hey, good morning, guys. I just want to say, as spot as always, day late and a dollar short, he should have taken Pecco out

when we were up 4 to 0. They had back-to-back hits. They never let them back in. As soon as they had two hits with the 4-0 lead, you wanted to be pulled? He was doing bad. you could tell Dusty Baker would have taken

Who was hot in the bullpen then? Nobody, but if they were taking them out, we wouldn't have lost that lead. We won't have that. We gave up three. At that point, a reliever has to get up, stretch, and get ready and get hot, and then come into the game zero. Yeah, I mean, you could do a little thing to kill time here and there,

but that's just my two cents. Like you go to fake a knee injury or something? You know, you can make it a little time You can, you know, I mean, set a squirrel loose on the field maybe Whatever you got to do, but they should have taken out pickle That's my two cents.

Have a good day, guys. This is not MLB the show. You probably, do you, I don't even know, I don't play the game. Do you even, somebody please tweet me at Sports RV. Do you even have to get a reliever hot in MLB the show or can you just put the reliever in? Either way, this is real life.

Whether you give up back-to-back hits, somebody's, you've got to, to make a call. Matt, you got a call to the bullpen? Hey, get this guy up. Probably who are Hendrickson or whatever. Fredrickson? Who was it? Fredrickson. Henderson. Hendrickson. Yeah, who get Hendrickson up. Then he's got to get up.

Then they're probably putting like icy hot on his arm to get him hot. Then he's stretching and then he's throwing a few you know, he's tossing, playing a little catch and then he's got to start really getting hot. Like that takes time. So it's not a video game. You can't just have, oh, back to back hits. He's out. That's not how it works.

It's not how any of this works. You did a good job, Matt. I just want to let you all know. Matt was ready to yell like five different times right there. I'm not going to yell because we love everybody. Zero. Six o'clock maniac? You're a six o'clock maniac.

We appreciate you. Love you, love you, zero. I just really disagree with you. Like, I couldn't disagree with you more. But that's another here nor there. Bryce. Hi, Bryce. What's going on? Hey, man. I just want to know why Joey Loprafito, who is about 286,

and AAA is not up playing outfield. We have no outfield hitting and he can hit as right now. So why isn't he in it? Do you guys know? They don't think he can hit. I mean, we're forced suffering from the outfield bats. And I see he's batting 286 up there. They're trying everybody else.

They got Spence up there. They got, you know, Matthews up there. I mean, who else? Yeah, I imagine they've done some scouting, Bryce, and they have their feelings for whatever reason that Lucas Spence was the better option over Joey Loporffito. I mean, we are, we are, unfortunately, Bryce, we're just splitting hairs here. The outfield has been horrific since the jump.

There has not been a guy out there that, man, I can't wait to see him get four A-Bs. It's been a hot mess. And I can't guarantee you Loporfito, but any worse or any better. But, I mean, they've had Bishio was available to them. They said, and we're good. Lo Perfito, eh, Zach Cole. We haven't seen since, like, April 15th. I mean, it's been, it's been a disaster.

I thought it was going to be low perfido. I'll be honest. But they have their reasons. I don't know what those are. Thanks, Bryce. Yeah, I don't know. In 40 games this year, he's got OPS at 641. That's an all-star level for this outfield.

Are you kidding me? You give me 641 OPS, and he's my six-day-a-week starter. Taylor Tremel. I mean, my God. I mean, I don't like Taylor. I hate when I say, my God. I like Taylor. Nice guy.

Nice guy. We had him on a fan fest. He's going to be a future broadcaster. Super nice. Probably sooner rather than he wants to. Yeah, I don't know what they're doing, really. With Lamont Wade and Lucas Spence and, I mean, Nelson Velasquez as your options. I mean, Wade pinch hit for Smith and he struck out.

It's not a good roster. You're starting outfield. I did this yesterday, and it's even more painful today. You're starting outfield. Tremel and left OPS 635. Lucas Spence, whatever he does, is 419. with two strikeouts at an 0 for 3. Did you draw a walk?

And you're starting right fielder with Cam Smith who's been playing about 85% of the time. His OPS is 660. I figured it would have been low perfido getting the call, but I don't know why. It wasn't him. Yeah.

The sounds at 630 are up next. If you are Jason and you are Steve, here's the sounds of 630 for it. Womp, Womp. I don't know. We're going to get to Steve and Jason, I promise you. Willie Fritz in 15 minutes as well. It's Matt and Ross in the morning.

Well, that sounds very inviting. Well, it all sounds exciting. That sounds like a threat. That sounds stupid. No, that's. And now, Matt and Ross bring you sounds at 630. Ross, what's you got this morning? Well, Matt, I have your favorite Colorado Buff's head coach.

Bill McCartney? Try again. Rick Neuheisel? Try again. All right, Dion. Dion Sanders making headlines this week for dismissing players. Of course, they lost 41 to 7 at Northwestern. Things aren't going so well.

You're going to be right on whatever predictions you made about him being out of Colorado within a couple of years. Yes, thank you. So congratulations to you, whatever that happens. Although they do have a win over Georgia Tech and Weber State. And the Weber State was a scrappy game. If Weber State, you know, would you get Weber State and Colorado together, you throw out the record books? That's right. Well, they lost 41 to 7.

And the report came out that players were laughing in the locker room, and Dion dismissed them off the team rather quickly. Dion says, hey, now, let's get this right. It was a cumulative effect. We got great kids. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know, people made a big deal out of last week about us, you know, getting rid of a few kids.

But it wasn't a team thing. It was just a few knuckleheads. Every occupation we have, it's a few knuckleheads. Right? Yes. Oh, that question. Everything. So don't think it was the team.

No, it was the few knuckleheads that I didn't want to poison the team. And you made the point yesterday. You said, number one, it wasn't just giggling walking off the field. Right, right. It was a cumulative thing, correct? Oh, yes. First of all, my kids know me, man. They know I give seconds and thirds and sometimes fourths,

but when it gets about that fifth, you got to go. So there you go. He says it wasn't just laughing in the locker room. It was more than that. Yeah, apparently they had to play in a makeshift stadium at Northwestern because their new stadium is not ready yet. It's like a high school stadium. They're building a new stadium in Northwestern? Oh, yeah.

Why? It's really nice. For what? For the... It's like to be half empty? For the 14,000 to show up? Yeah. Yeah, what's the capacity on this bad boy?

I think it's 31 or 32, something like that. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah, the student section has no seats in it. Really? Yes. And it has desks, I believe, so they can study. That's right.

And calculators are, right? Yeah. They're there. All right. Mine is an ode to an OG. An ode to an OG. The name is Lawrence Tanter. It may not ring a bell to you, but his voice does.

He has been the, or was the PA announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers for 43 years. Okay. He passed away yesterday. Oh. And he is as atypical as today's PA announcers are. And people that don't live in L.A. and aren't Laker fans don't like it. But if you're a Laker fan, you know this voice. And when you heard this voice, you knew you were either at the forum or at Crypto.com.

Here is Lawrence Tanter doing Game 7, I believe, is it 88 or 89 NBA finals. I think it's one of the two. But this is going back to the late 80s. This voice you still recognize from all those years ago. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to the forum in England. California for game seven of the 1988 NBA finals between the Detroit Pistons and the defending world champion Los Angeles Lakers. And now for the starting lineups, first for the Eastern Conference champion Detroit Pistons.

At Ford, in his 12th year out of Notre Dame at 6.5, number 45, Adrian Danley. And forward, in his eighth campaign out of Hampton Institute at 610, number 610, number 6.10. 44 Rick Mahorn. He's some of these great players. At Cinder, in his late season out of Notre Dame at 611, number 40, Bill Lambier. The warm reception for Bill Laenbeer? Yeah, he's beloved. In his third year, out of McGee's date at 6'3, number four, Joe Dumont.

And he comes the biggest of them all. And at guard, in his seventh year out of Indiana University at 6-1, number 11, Isaiah Thomas. The head coach for the Detroit Pistons is Chuck Daly And now for the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers So he really amps it up for the home team At GARC at his right here out of Michigan State At 6-9 number 32, Irving Magic Johnson At Farrn in his fifth campaign out of Arizona State

At 6-4, number four, Byron Scott At Ford in his third season out of Oregon State at 6-9, number 45, AC3. Also at 4th, and his sixth campaign out of North Carolina. At 6-9, number 42, James Worthy. And at Center, the captain. And his 19th year out of UCLA at 7-2, number 33, Corrine Abdul-Tobar.

All right, there it is. R-I-P. Would you like to guess what he did for a living? I'll give you three guesses, but try to be legit on this. He was a Taylor. What's legit? Like, what you just said was not legit? Why is it not legit?

What's wrong with Taylor? What's wrong with being a Taylor? Nothing wrong to being a Taylor, but that's what you would associate his voice you would think to a job, right? Uh, okay, like what? A PA announcer? Okay, so, so PA announcers usually come from Taylor's? I mean, he could. Okay, strike one. And you've got a 40-inch inseam.

You are there way suggested. All right, what do you got? I was naming a, an account. Number two, that's your second guess. Okay. I don't know. A lawyer, a judge. He was a...

A judge could have a powerful voice. A disc jockey at a jazz station. Oh, okay. Yeah. I thought you meant like he would have a second job out of the business. No, I was saying, what was his career? Okay, yeah. Yeah, so there it is.

I met him a couple of times and just was in admiration of him because if he's done it for so long, and he... didn't give me much the time of the day, but that's okay. It's still a great voice. That's fine. I would have swatted you way too. You really would have? No, just kidding.

Aw, that's not nice. What did you say? You're really awesome. You're the best ever. Lawrence, my name is Matt Thomas. I'm like you as a PA announcer and a radio host, and I've been a big fan of yours all the years. He goes, thank you.

Can you pass a salt and pepper? Can you give me a Diet Coke? Yeah, no kidding. Dang. I'm sorry, Matt. That's fine. But when he and I were doing 2K together, NBA 2K, we did share swap stories about that.

Oh, you did? Oh, that's beautiful. 43 years of the PA announcer for the loss. I mean, during the greatest moments of Laker history. It's a good run. It was. Be in the building. All right, before we get to Willie Fritz, talk to Steve in Spring Branch at 641 on 790. Steve, good morning.

Morning, guys. How are you doing? Good. Hey, when I called about six weeks ago, I predicted that the Astros and win the division with the losing record. No team's ever done that 162 game season. and kind of looks like that may happen. So just wanted to point that out. I think y'all dismiss that.

I also suggest the bad will be the coach. I think he's more of a player guy than management. I think I'll sort of dismiss that. Yes. And I think y'all thought I was drunk. I wasn't drunk. I'm a teacher walking into a school right now. Oh, nice.

Where do you teach? I wouldn't drink in front of kids. No, I'm glad you. I'll say it's a charter school for Katie. Okay, well, good. What do you know, what kind of, what do you teach, by the way? Well, really a teacher assistant. I work with special education. Oh, nice. Well, you are much appreciated. Thank you very much.

Steve, I'll just tell you this. Jeff Bagwell has no interest in anything except just being the right-hand man of Jim Crane. He doesn't want to be a manager. He doesn't want to be a coach. He just, he gets a nice salary for basically Jim calling him and saying, hey, Jeff, what do you think? And that's what he wants to do. So that would never happen. The other thing was, what was the other thing? Oh, if they finish 100, 500, then you know what, Steve? That's called a gut feeling in your part.

and you should clam a victory for that. So we will wait to hear from you next Tuesday. Yeah, yeah, historically, I mean, the 80 royals did it in a strike season. They were under 500. And then actually the Astros and 20 and the Brewers. I know. In 20, it was like a 60 game season. Yeah.

So this would be kind of cool if it happened. Obviously, I'd rather win the rest of the games and make sure that they win the division. But it could end up happening. Thank you. Thank you for the phone call. I appreciate. Good luck to your students today. I don't think they would kind of cool and under 500 in the same sentence.

Do you think, Ross? No, I don't think so. They're going to finish 81 and win the division. I like it. Division champions. Raise the flag, chase the fight. Willie Fritz is up next after I tell you about Uptown Appliances Pair. 647.

It's Matt and Ross in the morning. Our next guest is brought to you by the Joint Chiropractic, the official chiropractor of University of Houston Athletics. Willie Fritz is with us here on the line. First of all, Willie, I get some strange emails. this might be an all-timer Willie and you're like, why would you bring this up to me? Here it is.

Houston's Willie Fritz named the seventh most handsome college football coach. Oh, no, no. My wife had me ranked at 111. Would you like to know who you're in front of? I mean, you're apparently more handsome

than Ryan Day, Lane Kiffin, and John Summerall, so you got that going for you. Well, and 50 cents will give me a cup of coffee. I know, I know. First of all, good morning. Hell of a game in Lubbock. I know that the results did not turn out the way that you wanted to. And, man, when they say it's a game of interest sometimes, Willie Fritz, they do mean it's a game of inches.

Yeah, I was really proud of our effort. Our guys, you know, competed throughout the ball game. We're a really good atmosphere out there. And, you know, it came down at that very last play. we were hoping we could get it. We had all three of our timeouts left, and I had a chance to maybe do some stuff with it. But unfortunately, we didn't, you know,

they saw that we didn't quite get it. But throughout the game, I thought our quarterback played really well. Connor would have been throwing the ball, running the ball. We had a good run game. Defensively, we, you know, got some stops when we needed it. They got a tough offense or their good football team with this business. So you've got to move on.

And it was our first setback this year. And I talked to guys. Now we bought our 24-hour rule, 24 hours you goad after a win. And 24 hours, you can pout after you have the wrong outcome. And you've got to move on. So you can be the very best you can the next week. You know, it's kind of unfortunate that you sometimes use non-conference games in big environments to get your guys ready for late in the season

with it being a big 12 matchup. I mean, the place was jammed, the energy was good. And I'll say this, I know you're disappointed and things didn't turn out the way they did, but it's not like your kids melted under the pressure. The lights were on. There wasn't a single empty seat in the building, and you guys were putting up some incredible plays.

You mentioned Connor. The receivers were making some outstanding grabs. But, you know, again, literally, when it comes down to the last minute, that's where you kind of maybe micro-look at the film and go, if we would have done one little thing here or one little thing there, the game could have turned on in different direction.

Yeah, you know, you always want to look at the tape and see where you could have improved, gotten better. I always talk to my coaches on Sunday after game. You know, always had been different. Always you've done the same. What he's done more of? What you've done less, you know, offense, defense, kicking game, make sure he put some thought into it.

You know, repeat mistakes, or you make sure you start really, pushing something that's working well. Sometimes you have a good play, you know, come back to it. You know, offense, defense, kicking game throughout the ball game. You need to. I just present it maybe in a different manner. But, yeah, our coach said our kids prepared,

and they did a great job of competing. We just, you know, when it comes down to those situations, it comes down to a few plays, not just at the end, throughout the ball game, and you just got to make those plays. So when you bring the kids back the first day after a practice, to practice, after a loss, do you spend some time implementing a new game plan? Do you go, hey, I want to try this same play that didn't work for us the previous week? How do you formulate the strategy about something that you liked, but you just maybe didn't like the execution originally?

Yeah, we watched the day tape as an offensive unit. We watch this in an offensive unit. We watch it, special team DNA. it and we sure we did good and we did bad we grade everything the coaches that coach that position group are sitting right next to him we we do it all together so the coordinator can kind of run it I kind of sit in the back and

you know add things if I need to you know and then we we drop it and the last 15 minutes in the meeting or prepping for the next opponent kind of just showing what they do base-wise offense defense kicking game and then we go out and price We have a, what we call a 15-minute focus period at beginning of practice, that's corrections from the game before. You know, and we show some things that we didn't block it right or we didn't fit it right defensively or whatever the case may be.

And then we, you know, have a couple other unit periods that are just devoted to the next opponent. So we turn the page and get ready for the next team that we're playing. But, you know, we want to watch the tape, you know. and I just sit there and bad guys on the back or, you know, you know, be going crazy about corrections and things like that, just so they can see it. And all 11 of us, you know, on that side of the ball or on the same page. If this guy would have done this, we would have this outcome.

Hey, here's this guy doing this sensational effort. That's what we've got to have from everybody or whatever. You know, you need to say to get the corrections done. You are getting some great senior leadership, especially on the offensive side of the ball. McCoy Hughes has been fantastic for you, and it feels like every time the ball is thrown to Amari Thomas, he's catching it. I mean, those guys along with Connor, have really stepped it up here in the first three weeks of the season.

Yeah, Marius had a great season and had a fantastic year last year. I think he's one of the top receivers in the country, Mackay. And Rayshon Sanford both had good games last week. We're doing a good job of being able to run the ball. And I always have to run the quarterback. You know, that was something we had to do on first half, three quarters of the season last year. So, yeah, those guys are playing very, very well. Max Johnson is their starting quarterback for Georgia Southern.

We all know him from his days here in Texas and has been well traveled. What is it like looking at a quarterback in particular in Johnson that has been to multiple schools? Is he changing? Is the philosophy and coaching he's getting changing? Yeah, you know, we're just really looking at, you know, in his play at Georgia Southern. That's the main thing we're looking at because, you know, how his skills

fit into their package and how they do things. Matter of fact, I didn't realize this, but him and Connor were at A&M at the same time a few years back, I guess. So that'll be interesting as a little bit. Yeah, we used to look at the kid and how he's playing there.

I don't go back, you know, and try to watch, you know, this day and age. It would be hard to go back. I can watch everybody where they played, you know, at other places, you know, and then try to look at some things. But then you really want to look at the play caller and how his skill set fits in with their scheme. It is so confusing, though, because all these kids, and you've got a couple of, I mean, look, every program does where they've been to two or three different schools. So what is it like, and more of a macro view on this, when you have a kid that has come in?

How long do you take to get the adjustment period in? Is that where the position coach? Is that where the graduate assistant? And so that one of the guys kind of really try to warm up to them and say, here's how we do it at the University of Houston. You know, maybe you learned a different philosophy about working out and eating and practicing. But here comes an adjustment period because you're now on a new campus.

Yeah, it's big time you've got to do background check on everybody. That's, I tell my coaches, if you don't feel comfortable coaching them when they get here and you don't think they fit in with my culture, do not bring them in that. Because I've got a memory like an elephant. I'll remember that. You know, we want to make sure we have the right guys here is one of the reasons why we, you know, I think you have great kids and, you know, and they want to, you know, they love football, but they also know how to act off the field and, you know, on the field and traveling and all those other kind of things.

So, you know, yeah, it's very, very important to find, you know, young men that fit in how you do things day in and day out. Farlett, Your Run, you mentioned this earlier in the week. you consider this trip to an old stomping ground a business trip is that a fair assessment yeah yeah exactly uh you know i've got been contacted by a lot of people my wife and i we really were over over there for two years at two great years there but you know it's not a it's not a it's not the time to go back for a homecoming it's time to go back and play the very best we can and make sure i'm locked in just like the players are coach thank you for the visit i will see you later tonight for your radio show and we'll see you

and good luck this week again Georgia Southern. We appreciate the time as always. Thank you. Go Cooke. All right. Thank you. Willie Fritz with us here on Sports Talk 790. Again, Cougars taking on Georgia Southern and his radio show tonight at 7 o'clock until 8. I'll be filling in as a host for that. And you can listen to that on our sister station 950 KPRC. All right. So, doom and gloom in the first hour of the show, Rossi, but the Astros still hold first place in the American League West. Thank you Mets, by the way.

What do we do to thank Mets fans? Then the Mets is an organization. I don't know. Hey, David Stearns. Sleeper Cell. Former Astros legend. Trying to help out the Lacos. I love it.

All right. 7 o'clock hour he starts. Fred Van Vleet is back with the Rockets. Getting close. Getting ready to play. You'll hear from him coming up at a half an hour from now. We've got the Rotten 5 today at 920.

Brian McTagher will join us from Seattle at 9 o'clock. I'll have the, believe it or not, today we've got a lot going on this Rossi. Plus, we can find. I just don't get it at 8.30. Dang, the Brown's won, huh? They were number one in the Rodin 5 last week. What are you going to do? Got to make some moves. This is Matt and Ross in the morning. Good morning, H-town, it's time to ride.

The sports takes a coming and so are the lie. That's wrapping the Ross's hook them strong. They've been arguing college football all morning long. There's nothing else to do. Joe, and somehow Jonathan keeps the whole thing. Sports class. Arguments and plenty of noise. Houston's favorite morning crew making questionable choice I like that one

That's good That's fun Got the full horn section going I feel like Jonathan's going to get that one run about once a day Yeah that's fine that's good Let's get him some run I know So Jonathan's show

To Jonathan And then Matt and Ross Oh my gosh Good morning Houston Texas It is 704 Sports Talk 790 719 713212 570 We had a couple of

We had three six clock maniacs called the show Yeah, I love that, including a teacher walking in that we thought was drunk before. And only two of them won in Joe Spotify, or one? They all do. Okay. Well, I mean, it is what it is. Omar Lopez would have been in there and went to Brian King and he would have given up some runs. You would have been mad about that.

Oh. Who are the next manager is going to be your man to him too? I mean, it just comes out to territory. Let's do a quick thought experiment. If Joe Espada makes 100 decisions, how many times all the next? Omar Lopez going to make that exact same decision. 95% of the time? I was going to say, I'm going to say 99.

Yeah. I mean, if not 100, they're going to have that whatever data and matchup data they have, wherever state of the bullpen is and how many pitches they've gone with, Omar Lopez is going to have that same information. And Omar Lopez knows baseball. And I know people don't think this, Matt, but Joe Spott knows baseball too.

Been around a long time. And look, there is going to be, some damage with this record. Dana Barney already knows it. And it's probably going to cost Joe too. I mean, Joe's not stupid. No, Joe's probably gone. But he went with his best pitcher who's been the best closer in baseball all season long

to go close out a game that it was effectively a must win. Yeah. I mean, we're really going to crush him for that? I'm going to tell you this one more time. I'll go back to Dreamweaver sequence. Yeah. Yes. You folks, and I'm talking about you as a Houston, you lovely, sweet people that we love and adore you.

And we thank you for spending time with us every day. If Brian King takes the hell in the 10th. With the runner in second, by the way, because the Manford Man. Yes. If Tatsu Emi takes the hill. If Ben-At-Susa, who would you say through 40 pitches the day before, Yes. Takes the hill.

I'll go find the number, but. Yes, 40. You would have roasted him. like a Sunday pig bar cookout. You'd have put them on the little spit and go around and around and around. You're a rotissory. Yeah, rotisserie. You had a flayed them like a butterflyed pork chop.

Instead! Get out the way, Ross. Get out the way. Yeah, I'm sorry. I've been waiting for this. I'm sorry. Let's go. Do it.

Do it. Instead. Get them. You come on and you go to your Twitter account. Astrofan for life. Astrofen 75. Burn Orange 95. Account created 2017.

Joe Sput is going to be fed. How would you leave Josh Hayter on the bell for a second inning? Ah! I wanted Brian King. Shut. Yo, bum ass is up. Come on.

We are in Houston, freaking Texas. There are 6 million, 7 million people here. Can I get smart baseball people on my timeline. You do not want Brian King on the mound. I promise you that. You do not want Tatsui Imi on the mound.

You want Josh freaking Hater. You do. And here's the thing, friends. He was terrible last night. These athletes sometimes suck. Some more than others. Last night, Josh Hader sucked. I want you to say this to yourself out loud these people who are calling for Josh Hader to have been pulled.

With a one-run lead in the 10th and the season on the line, I would have rather had Brian King out there than Josh Hater. Say that out loud. Look in the mirror, wherever you are, as long as you're safe and not driving, you're at a red light. In the 10th inning of a one-run game with the season on the line, I would have rather had Brian King out there than Josh Hater. Say that. Somebody say it. Jonathan, say it right now.

Get on the microphone, Jonathan. He's quivering. He's shaking. Jonathan, come on right now. Or, replace that. In the 10th inning of a one-run game

with the season on the line, I would have rather had Tatuia my out there than Josh Hater. Say that to yourself. Be like saying, SFA is a great institution. That's hard. It's difficult.

You said it. ease. I don't know if that's difficult. Okay. Say, John, then you got the marquee here because you get your little liner with your name on it like 19 times. Say it right now. Say it loud. The SFA is a great institution?

No, the other part. The SFA's better than U of H? No. Focus. Say, I'd rather have Brian King out there. The season on the line and one run game and the 10th inning. I think I'll gag.

Seriously, guys. Come on. And yeah, Josh Hader walked somebody. It was a soft single, 65 miles off the bat he allowed to. And he was at 19 pitches. I get it. He hadn't pitched basically a week. And you're

going to have the Manford Man out there. Who's going to do the best job to try to stop the game at that point? I would, look, either way, even if you want to say it was a mistake, even if you want to say, I don't know if I would have gone that way, can you really in your heart

to heart's fault, the manager, for going with the guy who's making $25 million a year, by the way, And who's got an ERA under 1 at that point? Is he that much now? I thought it was 18. I don't know. Whatever it is.

I'm sorry. I was way off. His arm's fresh. It's early. My arm's, my brain's tired. Okay, whatever you want to call. I don't know,

however much money he's making. Okay? It's a lot. He's one of the highest paid relievers in baseball. And you're saying, I would rather have Brian King in there. I thought you were joking,

but I'm going through the, oh yeah. Oh, yeah. You're not joking. No, this is. kind of, this is really bad. Matter of fact, I want Ross, we'll read him in the next segment. Oh, no.

We need some, we need some dumbassery music. What's a dumbassery song? What's like the word dumbest song? It's the Benny Hill theme, I guess. Yeah. Or some kind of clown. Oh, how about the clown theme? I want that and I want Benny Hill.

Okay. Benny Hill's a good long jam too. I learned a lot about women and watching Benny Hill. I'll be honest with you. All right. Madden Ross in the morning. Now my throat hurts. Why did I yell?

What am I doing? You're angry. These people are idiots. I'm going to tweet that what we just talked about right there. And I'll tag you on it, see if you want to put that in there too. 713-212-5-7-90. I really want you to say it in your heart of hearts. I'd rather have Brian King in the 10th inning than a second inning of Josh Hater.

With the season on the line. With the season on the line. I want you to speak that into existence. I don't think you can pull it off. I think it's impossible. I think you would vomit on yourself. All right, Ross, we go to the phones. Let's go to it.

Oh, hell. This is the Astros Twitter account after last night's 10-ending set back to the Seattle Mariners. I want somebody to call in. Hi, my name is X. In the 10th inning with the season on the line, I would rather Tatsui I'ma than Josh Hader in a one-run game. Please, come do it. Let's go.

Bring it on. Good God. Ever when they used to run with the nurses, he used to run on the Benny Hill show and he'd chase after him? Oh, good gracious. All right. I understand this is a moment for you, Matt. I know.

Between that and quick pitch, you've lost me for this segment. It's fine. 19 pitches. You're going to read some of the tweets? Oh, I thought you were reading the tweets. I swear I thought you were reading. I'm so sorry. I'm reading these tweets that I'm getting.

Fottle at Sports RV and Instagram. Here we go. Jose Nav. Spada needs to be fired. Hater just didn't have it tonight, and it was obvious watching the game. As a Spotted didn't see it, then please for the love of God,

he needs to go, clearly he wasn't throwing strikes, looking forward to hearing y'all at 6.45 a.m. Here's the deal. Of the 19 pitches he threw in the ninth inning, 12 were strikes. Now, would you like that a little bit better? Sure, but that's not that bad.

He let a soft single, and then he walked one guy in a three-two count on eight-pitch AB. And oh, by the way, Matthew. Yes, sir. Coming up for the Mariners in the 10th. Yes. Randy Orozah, he's a righty.

Yep. Dominic Ken's own. He is a left-handed pitcher. I bet her, I should say. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cowrally is a switch hitter. Guess which side of the plate he hits worse on? The right side.

The right side. Where would he be hitting against a left-handed Josh Hater, Matthew? Or Brian King, don't forget that. Well, yeah, but also Brian King's got reverse splits. Okay. But so if you are, a manager and you have a switch hitter who's weaker on the right side

and a leftie out of the next three guys up, you would say, maybe I should go to a lefty, correct? What side of the mound does Josh Hayter pitch from, Matthew? Well, the money he's making you should pitch on both, but does another you know there. The left! So you have

a lefty and a switch heater coming up in the next three. So you're going to stick with your lefty who had 19 pitches, 12 of them were strikes. All right, I'm sorry. We'll go to the tweets, but it's all right. Oh, welcome to the show for... Oh, he was making his...

He made his debut? Who? Hendrickson? Yeah, he's fine. Probably a Tuesday guess eventually. All right, let's go to this. Final Astros. What a waste. Stop pushing them on national TV. If you have any questions on a spot of taking us to the promised land, look no further

in this game, the decisions he made out of his element. Hmm. manager has to go hit the road joe so poorly managed nice job blowing your closer for the next series this was your astros moment hey somebody blame the player oh my god

shut up b simsimm 31 b sim 31 you actually are the players responsible for his actions okay I can't believe this I cannot believe this oh my god there's zero reason hater should have pitched more than one Fierre Spada immediately.

Immediately. Donnie Mullen finished the season up. He had one walk going into the, yeah. Of course, the walks were a problem after that, but. Oh, I-Ve. Let's see. Managing malpractice, letting your closer pitch 40-plus pitches. What the hell? Please fire a spot.

I don't care anymore. They're not going to fire him with one week to go in the season. There's three games. It would be something else if they did. Yeah. Let's see. I can't wait until I never see Joe. about his face again, says Trips A.

Santiago says this is on you, Espada. This L is absolutely yours. You suck. Walker to Crawford Boxes says, bleep you. This is F. U. Joe Espada. Now we don't have Hater for like two days. Well, you might not have high leverage

in two days. He didn't pitch for a week. Are we this new to baseball? Do you think that Reds talk does this too? Yes. Absolutely. Does Cardinals talk do this? Espada off in Alcatraz at the end of the season. Oh, that's rude. Wow. Bleep you, Espada.

I hope the social media team can see this. Oh, what's the social media team going to do? Look at this. Jackass. No BS all facts. I hope the social media can see this. He's sabotaging the team. Okay, yeah. Social intern, 21 years old,

fresh out of college. He's going to... $14 an hour. It's going to go to Jim Crane. It's going to go to Jim Crane and be like, uh, Jim, you've got to fire. Joe Espada, I just got to tweet. So the social media streets are not very nice to our manager. Do you think we should make a change with four games left to go?

Espada's got a vacation plan for October. WTF Espada. Every world bleeping no hater is not for two innings. Oh, hey. Okay. Well, it didn't work out. Could he have gone to Brian King and everything would have been great? Maybe.

Could he gone to Tatsuya I and Tatsu Yemi would have shut it down? Maybe. Wait a minute. Did you hear what you just said? This is what I'm saying. At the end of the day, you can you really, you can say, hey, you know what? I don't agree with that decision, right? D'Amico Ryan's wants to kick a 58-yard field goal. I'm like, you know what?

I don't agree with that decision, but I get it. Can't you say to yourself, I don't agree with Joe Espada going with the best reliever in baseball who's making $18 million and who you have two people. You want to, you have a switch here. You want to turn around and a lefty coming up. So can you at least say I understand the decision? Or no, he's the worst manager ever and he needs to be let go. If you were in the managerial shoes. Seriously.

You had three options. I'm going to repeat this again and I'm going to not scream and yell because I want to keep my voice. Good luck. By way, I cannot do this in Rocket season. It'll cost me for games. Don't do it. Don't do it. You're screaming at the four seasons.

Correct. Three options. Hater in the second inning. Not premium. Doesn't do it a lot. It's late September. Step up your game. Brian King.

we know what Brian King does. Gives up runs. Tatsu Emi, only pitches when games are within five runs. You make the call. Just decide. Is going to Hader, was it a possibility? The answer was, yes, it was a possibility. Did it work out?

No. You know who owns it? Josh Hader does. Josh Hater is not running the manager going, what are you doing, throw me for a second inning? You know I can't pitch in the second inning. Oh, Josh Heardes. I give me the GD ball and we're going to win this game

and we're going to have in theory a two-game lead. Brian and Pearland on 790 and 725. Brian, good morning. Guys, if I didn't have a fairly newish car, I'd drive it head first into a wall after listening to the stupidity call in this morning. My God. It's okay for me if you guys drink on the job,

especially reading that crap. What about being upset about Nelson Velasquez? You've got a runner-hundred and one-out. out with a drawn-in infield. How about just get the ball into the outfield and you can probably score Yiner Diaz or at least force them to make a play at the

plate? How about that? How about Taylor Tremel not roll over on a weak, A, ground ball and dribble it to the second baseman and make the third out? There's your second run. How about Lucas Spence not get thrown out stealing in the fourth inning, which

then Altube hits a double, which would have given you, runners on second and third and nobody yet. You're not driving them both in. There's your extra run. There's two runs. We left on the table that Estada had nothing to do with. You're a major league baseball player.

You're getting paid. Perform. Now, did Hayter have his best stuff last night? No. The only other option you would have, could have even considered, was Danielle De Los Santos, and good God, we've seen what that's done.

And Delos Santos is hurt. He's not having available. He's not even on a team. he was hurt. It was Emy or King, basically? Yeah, okay. So, yeah, there's your trash that you had left, and Emae isn't a closer. So, I mean, you had your chance right after Diaz gets the triple with Nelson Belasquez. You did not have pay you available.

You didn't have Varsho, who isn't a great option, but better than Lucas Spence and more power. And by that point, you had already pulled Christian Walker for the pinch runner. So that's what you, you had available. This isn't on you. You win that game. All you have to do is go two and two in Oakland

and the Rangers were forced to win out. You go with your best bullets against their lineup. You people who keep wanting a spot of fire. I don't get your stupidity. I stayed up for every pitch last night.

I didn't go to bed until 1235. It was so peoed. But you people who call in, you know what I don't get? I know where an hour. early. I don't get the stupidity of Astros fans. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Brian. I appreciate the phone call. I'm, let me ask you this. How we are. I can't say I don't get it because we've been through this.

We have asked for a decade for this and become a smarter baseball community. And this is why, again, I always tell you, I think Astros' Twitter is the worst of the sports sweater in town. I get it. I'm not going to tell you I don't get it. All right. Let me tell you what I, if we were on TV, right now, which we'd be handsome if you were. I have my left hand on my chin. I'm, I'm, first of all, I'm disappointed. Can't hold on to a 4-0-0 lead. Okay, that's-

I get the frustration. That's frustrating. 4-0. And you leave Diaz at 3rd after the triple. I mean, look, you need two runs to win baseball games in the extra ratings. You just do. 78 and 80. It is what it is.

All right. You cannot hang a banner if you. you win the division with a losing record. Yes, you can. No, you can't. And I'll be there for it. No, you can't. I'll help raise a banner. You're a sick.

You're a sick human being. More phone calls are coming up. You're going to put an asterisk on it. No, you don't. Yes, you do. That's embarrassing. You know what? I want a ring.

American L.S. Ring. A.S. Ring? Cubic zirconia. It can't even be cubic zirconia. Why not? It's got to be made of like paper clips. It's terrible. Like, where would you get a paperclips?

clip ring. From Office Depot? I don't know. So you're suggesting the Astros after their hard-fought 162 games schedule going to get a ring at Office Depot? No, they should get a kick in the shin instead of a ring. Win the division with a losing record. All right. We were going to play Fred Fambly. We got a lot of folks who want to talk to some Astros. We're full Astros. Let's do that. Fred can hang out for a minute. Yeah, Fred's chill.

We love him, but we got folks that want to talk to Masters baseball. And we, again, we like to talk to y'all. We may not agree with you. You may yell at us. We may yell at you, but we're still fam. And our Astros are still in first place, despite a losing record. Matt and Ross in the morning on Sports Talk 790 at 7.1.3212-5-790. Sheena on 790 at 7.30 at 7.36.

Good morning. Good morning. So a couple things. Number one, you mentioned this before. Cardinals Nation does this too. Okay, good. So we're Cardinals fans in my house as well. My husband gets into so many fights on social media with the fans. Every other day they're yelling fire, marmal, and you should see the conversations on Stanek because he's with them.

One day they're raising him the next day he needs DFA'd. Even with that Manny's guy, they're getting mad at him for that? Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, every other game, it's like DFA Stannick. Who is this guy? And then he pitches a gem for them.

So it's, yeah, Cardinals fans do those too. Number two, I am in the Fire Espada Club. Not for pitching Hader last night, though. That is, you know, I've been in the Fire Espada Club for a little while. So that definitely didn't do it. I agree, you know, short on choices. Hater was the only thing to do. I don't like some of the management of the bullpen earlier in the game, though.

Hendrickson is a starter that's been solid. I'm, you know, gave up a walk two singles, one of them to a Rosarena who seems to be able to get on base, basically almost every yet bad against the Astros lately. I wish they would have tried to roll with him a little longer with us, especially with us going into Sacramento for four games, where the ball flies and we're just going to be, like, eating through our bullpen. I mean, that's worrying me. I'm really hoping that Yordon can, you know, if you're, if you're, you know, if you're, out of the park and kind of carry the team on the back and, you know, high scoring games,

but try to avoid our high leverage guys because I'm worried about how this is going to eat our bullpen. If we do make it to the postseason, we're going to have no arms alive from our bullpen for those first games of the wild card. Well, you know, the problem is, Sheena, is that this, the reason why the bullpen is toast is because it's been just, it's been overused almost from the jump. Oh, yeah. I mean, how many times, Sheena, in the course of 162, have we seen an Astro starter go

seven innings. I mean, it's probably on one hand. I know. It's nuts. I know. I mean, and that's part the point is, as, you know, I've heard y'all say multiple times, this team is mid. You know, we just don't have the picking. I know. It's just, yeah, they're below mid right now. Yeah, they're below mid right now. So we just don't have it. I mean, you know, I'd love to see, you know, you know, teams, anything can happen in baseball. That's the crazy thing about it. Whether we had like 11 out of 14 on a run or something like that, a while back. You know, if we could somehow get that lightning in a bottle right for the playoffs and just like you know charged through the playoffs yeah something could happen always can happen so but it's just it's it's looking bleak thank you sheena by the way she was saying that her husband's a cardinal fan and he goes he fights with people on cardinal nation okay every nation's got issues every nation's got idiots i understand i mean we have a rockets fan of texans fans whoooo coogers fans oh my goodness what are we complaining about I'll go to coochsfans.net for five seconds.

And you know I'm right. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. Here we go. Friendly fire. You know what you're doing? You're throwing the saltball. I'm trying to hit it here.

Don't do that to me. Cookfans.net, you guys suck. You're the problem. Not me. I'm sorry. You know what? You hear that, Jonathan? Jonathan.

That's like going to axiomjacks.com. Call them out when you got to call them out. Do they even have forums, sports forums for the jacks? It's all healthy, good alumni supporting the jazz. Oh, my God. I thought you're going to say, they even have computers in Nacadoshes. I want all these jacks.

The Pinytimes.org. What do they even have up there? The Pinywoods.com? I've got Pinywood.com. The Piny Jax. Yeah, I mean, fan bases are dumb. But also, I would say, yes, I'm worried about using up the bullpen. I don't know what Hendrickson had in the tank, honestly.

so I don't know about that criticism personally but in terms of going to your arms I mean you do have in the next three you've got the A's and you're throwing Lambert Wesnowski and Brown if you cannot win these games that's on you.

That's what's meant to be. You have your playoff rotation set up for three games against the frigging A's who are, they are literally like booking flights to Vegas. They don't care. There's no Nick Kurtz. There's no Brent Rooker.

There's no Jacob Wilson. Like they are, They don't care. 70% of the A's, their roster still has homes in their single A minor league stop. I think they're doing old-timers day for one of the games. Jose Konseko is going to D.H. Catfish Hunter is starting game two of the series. Seriously.

Vida Blues coming out. All right, I'm done. Carney Lansford's playing third base. I can keep going. I can give you A's. Seriously. They're not trying and you have your playoff rotation set up if you cannot do. it, you do not deserve it. That's that. Sal's on 790 and 741. Sal, good morning.

Hey, what's up, Matt? Hi. Hey, hey, I just wanted to say, I appreciate you playing the AI songs that I've been sending you. Good, I'm glad. You're such a star. We love you. We love you for that. Hey, I have a question for us. Who do you think is going to win the Nation's League for soccer, which starts today, by the way. So if you missed the World Cup, you got soccer starting today. I'm going to go with Norway Norway And I wanted to do a bet with Ross For Premier League

I have Arsenal Oh Winning the Premier League again Okay I got City I'm looking pretty good on that By the way For our friends who want to trade on Calci I got that at like 10%

Now it's at 40% Just saying And whoever wins We'll buy steak dinner Steak dinner Steak dinner All right you're gonna go You're gonna go sirloin, rabbi or strip

I'll do strips Okay By the way I need to give a confession Thank you very much for the phone call Sal I had a surline the other day Not bad Hold on What

You were sirloin shaming me like three weeks ago It's the cheapest cut of meat But it wasn't terrible Cheapest Yeah you ever had a cube steak No Nobody goes on and says Let's go get some cube steaks tonight

You know it's a cheaper cut of steak Yeah you can get I don't need some entrails I'm just telling you I wouldn't not prefer sirloin Ribai is still my choice It's beefy It's leaner

And it's better You like it beefy You don't like it beefy? I love a good beefy What do you want your steak beefy What do you want it to taste like? Scallops? No

What the hell are you talking about? All right continue Yeah Sirloin's great You're the one See Jonathan He's sirloin shaming What else was he shaming earlier?

Oh his son getting honey barbecue wings Yes but then it's mad that people Shame his food taste Yeah Yeah they do Literally and I just don't get it Which we got coming up in 45 minutes see that I don't get people shaming my food

takes. They should stop. Yeah, then you shame everyone, hypocrite. By the way, Vita Blue unavailable for the A's this weekend because he's dead. I figured. Is Catfish Hunter alive? I don't know. I don't know that. A's dead or alive today on, believe it or not. Ooh. We can do that.

I'm going to do it. You guys know it. I'm as responsible for it. And Vida Blue will be one giveaway. Yeah, Vita Blue is dead. May he rest. They rest. 740. Vita Rochelle Blue Jr.

Now that's a name right there. That's a name. Can you name a second Vita? Yeah. Go ahead. Vita Confectioner. There's somebody in this world named Vita Confectioner.

Yes. Jonathan, you ever been a person named Vita Confectioner before? Never in my life. I didn't think so. It's a trapeze artist. 713-212-5-790. Vita Confectioner

Shut up Wow As I was mentioning Please mention it I did look this is the thing You know you're in a live market And we had Sal just call I literally have shares

Of Manchester City And I got them In the live market I put All right you know I'm just going to be I put one Amount on there And now it's worth that

Plus 50%. Nothing can stop me I'm all away Headlines are the Astros Lost and extras 6, 5 Rangers lost to the Mets. Ranger fan.

I mean, they don't care. They don't care. They're locked on deck. They think they're in Arlington for the Cowboys game because the stadium's right next door. Yeah. They got there by accident. And the Texans entry report, by the way,

out from yesterday. No Nico Collins. Great. JV.on Clowny. Oh, wonderful. I mean, it is no surprise in these things, right? How's Tank Dell doing? You know what, Jonathan?

I'm going to punish you for not taking the early buyout. It's okay. You see, designated to return. Why would I take the buyout if national media all is saying

that he's going to come back and return? I'm the Texans insider. I'm telling you he's not catching 10 passes as sure. Wex, Trace is taking my side of the bed. Yeah, yeah.

I'm just saying. But Wex. The actual Texans insider. But Wex wants to be in the Texans Media Hall of Fame. You're getting stripped of your title if you lose this bet, by the way. For the last time,

you can surrender now for the hash brown. Uh-huh. if I'm right, I want a full omelette at Rairop. No, you know, that is already a Hasproud. You can't offer a buyout for the full amount. This is the thing. They kept Lance McCullors on the roster because they were having so much,

paying him so much money and he was hurt. They still put him on the mouth. That's what's the little to do, Taintell. They're paying him too much for him to be sitting there. He's a third round guy. He's not making that much. Tom. I tried to give you advice.

Take the loss of this. Get me my dad. Ham Hash Brown. Nico Collins has gone to? No. You say the receiver room? They're going to take a chance. DNPs.

Trent Brown, J.D. Clowny, Nico Collins, Jake Hummel, Ed Ingram, Dalton Schultz, but that's listed as rest. Rest, yeah. And Will Anderson was a light rest. Real quick,

as Ross and I, we do share some of the same algorithms. I know you don't want to admit this. I know. Yeah, I'm not involved in some of the things you get. All right. So for those of you that know, historically black college universities

at times, and unfortunately, it's It's a lot, any small college. Any small college, but in particular, some of the HBCUs use their athletic program to make money for the rest of their program, meaning they use their basketball or their football teams to schedule games that they call buy games in order to fund the program. Like when U of H schedule Southern.

Southern, we pay Southern to play. That's exactly right. And we, and they, and they, they took the cash and left. And didn't leave with a whole lot of points. Not didn't leave with points. They left with cash. Or their self-respect, but that's not here nor there.

Before I go to the phones. Mississippi Valley State. You know the most famous Mississippi Valley State player? That would be Jerry Rice. That is correct. The greatest football player of all time. They released their basketball schedule yesterday. Now, there's two sides of the schedule.

There's the first half of the season. Yes. And then there's the second half on the other side of the page. Uh-huh. The red is the road games. The green is the home games. No, this is in chronological order. I know that.

Yeah, yeah. But I'm talking about... Oh, okay, I got you. So when you see red, you see home, you see green, you see road, yeah. On the far left is nothing but road games. 16. Really quickly, at Oklahoma. At Washington?

Check. At Oregon. Check. At Oregon State. Cut the check. At Arkansas. Cash. At New Mexico.

Hula. At Michigan. De Niro. At North Texas. Dollars. At Yukon. Dollar bills. At Mississippi State.

More money. At Tulane. Straight cash. Homey. At Ohio State. More checks. At Texas Tech. Money, money.

At Baylor. More cash. And then they start conference play against Alabama State and A&M. So they don't. Alabama. A&M. Yeah. Okay.

They don't have a home game until January 9th. They play nine home games. All of them are league games. There's no non-conference games. And their first 16 are on the road, 14 of which are non-conference. If I'm correct on this, those 14 games will pay them more than a million dollars

for the athletic department. Oh, I would hope so. I think I saw the early number was like 1.1 million. Because look, Tulane's not going to give the same money that or North Texas is as Yukon or say... Season tickets are going to be pretty cheap. You're only paying for nine games.

Yeah, it's not bad. Now, if you like frequent flyer miles, you're going to get them. If you're following Mississippi Valley State, if you're going to get your ass handed to you 14 times, and the check. I mean, that's what the kids do. I mean, I wonder how much that goes to the kids.

I don't know. Because five years ago, 10 years ago, when you couldn't pay athletes, you had to use those 14 games to pay for your athletic program. They're going to start the season 0 and 14. They're not going to win a single game. There's no chance.

They are not winning a single game. Because North Texas cannot afford to buy an opponent and not win that game. Oh my gosh. Do you know who their coaches? By the way you're tenor, it sounds like somebody I should know. I should know. I mean, I guess who? It's Mike Davis. A former Indiana coach.

And TSU coach. Yeah. Wow. Well, he's getting a free vacation of this by the time he travels all these places. They made the tournament in 2012. Yeah, all it takes are you to win the swag. That's all it takes. But that is absolutely nuts. The first 16 games they play will not be in their home gym. It looks like they've had one NBA player ever.

Alfonso Ford. I don't know. I don't know what I was. All right. Back on the phones we go. It's Matt and Ross in the morning at 7.57. Really quick before the top of the hour. Ken is with us on 7-90.

Ken, good morning to you. Good morning. Ross, I heard you saying that you wouldn't hang the banner if it's an under 500 record. You got to put an asterisk in there? Maybe hang it upside down. But are you going to celebrate the World Series if they were able to go on a streak

and they won with a sub-500 record in the regular season? Yeah, and I think I would go to the parade on my unicorn and then, yeah, I'd be having a good time. Yeah, no, I say celebrated. Like, go all out. Yeah, me and my leprechaun friends are going to get on our unicorns, and they were going to go and we're going to meet up Nessie. And we're going to go to the parade for the World Series parade for the Astros this year.

By the way, and Sasquatch are going to be there too. I want to put this out there. Sparky gets wet when the Astros win the West, right? No. They're douse him with hot sauce in his eyes. They will not be doing that this year. The technology at the, or the A's? Oh, they don't have the, they don't have the.

They don't have the technology? They do not. We can't bring our own mics, our own wireless mics, or the technology doesn't go through the clubhouse? That is correct. Hilarious. Because people are going to say, well, Sparky didn't celebrate. Nobody's celebrating. Sparky didn't get wet.

Yeah. That's the reason. The Sutter Health Park is what they call it. Yeah, sure. It's not equipped to handle such telecommunications. They can't run some wires down there? Run. Oh, Bolsey?

Like 15 reels of wire. Let's get Robert Ford running some wire. Go. You can spark you run up and down, record them and go back upstairs. That poor guy. Is there even an elevator there to the clubhouse? I never been. You've been? I think it's a pool. You got a pool. It's a rotary elevator.

Go to break. You are besmirching West Sacramento, California. You're being raised. You'd be ashamed of yourself. All right. The Astros let one walk on by, Rossi. They just did. 759 on Sports Talk 790.

More phone calls next. This is Matt and Ross in the morning Walks Walk Walked Now you really gotta go so walk on my home Dian Old school

Man Good good stuff right there I can listen to some What year was this song from? Gotta be in the 60s sometimes Ross I don't care about you Jonathan Dionne War

Give me a quick thought Why don't you care about me I don't I've heard this voice before But I didn't know I never heard this song before Yeah. Deion Warwick's just, yeah, great. Let me give you some other songs, really quick,

forget the phones. Do you know the way to San Jose? Would that song ring a bell to you? Maybe. Matt's probably tried to make you play that before. I will do that next Sunday playing the Bay Area. 1964. That's what Friends are for. She was in a quartet.

Is that what you would call it? Four singers? Yeah, it would be a quartet. Yeah. Was it a barbershop? No, it was that. You think Dionne Warwick's in a barbershop quartet? I'm just asking.

Can you name the other three people in the quartet? Of what? That's what friends are for? That's what Friends are for? Mm-hmm. Patrice Russian? Nope. I believe was in it.

Nope. I say a little prayers by her. LaToya Jackson. Well, say a little prayer. Who was that originally? Was it Aretha or who did the original one? I think she, it seems like Diana was the original. I'm not too sure, though.

Is Bert Baccarat? Oh, okay. But with Deion Warwick? Oh, this is with the, I don't know. Go to Google. All right. The other people and that's what Friends are for. It was written for Deon Warwick.

Okay. So yeah. Would be Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and Glyness Knight. Oh, really? Yeah. That sounds wonderful. Poor Gladys Knight, by the way. Her husband, the new husband she's had, making her go out on and perform all these acts.

She goes out and she's like 83 or 84 years old. She forgets the words they have to stop concerts. So she stopped performing. Well, she should. I don't disagree. Jeez. They didn't stop Tony Bennett when I saw him when he was 92. He forgot where he was.

He did the same encore song twice. much, Houston. Thank you very much, Dallas. May he rest? Yeah. All right. Today's edition of Believe it or not is me, and it's still pretty good, though. Yeah. It's dead or alive ace, which I don't know how we got into this, but we're getting into it. Okay. And we gave you one earlier. We're not giving it to you again. All right. 713-212-5-790. Astros are already in Sacramento. Good. Here's the problem. They're at the hotel that I don't like because they don't have a full glass shower. Hmm. Which I think is terrible. Oh, the half glass.

Half glass. Yeah. You know why they do that, don't you? Save money. To get you out of the shower. What do you mean to get you out of the shower? When you close the door in a shower and you're in a hotel and it's not your water bill, don't you stand there for 30, 45 minutes?

30 or 45? Absolutely. Aren't you all pruny? No, I don't be in hot water for 45 minutes. You're a sick individual. First of all, I love long showers and I'll even when the hotel's paying for it. And so what if I shrivel up? What are you doing in there?

Besides sobbing. I'll get back to normal size when I get out. Going back to your whole, you're like going over your entire life? What are you doing in there? I'm singing. I know you're not. I'm shocked. Did you stay off your phone for that long?

First of all. False. False. I'm not going to be on my phone when I had terrible astro tweeters out there. Yeah. It's fine. All right. Let's go to the phones.

Let's do that. Seven one, because the phones will be much better than the tweeters. You don't stay in there for 45 minutes when the door's open? No, because it's cold. It's cold. Yeah. Think about it. When you shut the door and you have hot water, the water and it keeps the...

And it gets steamy, so you're going, you're going full sauna. Yes. And you're in there for 45 minutes? No, I'm not always, but 30 usually. Brushing your teeth. I'm scared to ask what you do. Clean all your parts. You know, you know, join yourself.

Huh. I could take about six showers in 30 minutes. And I don't normally take 30 minutes hours at home, but if the... Yes, you do. I heard your wife complaining. She just complained. You're right. Can we go back to the phones and talk sports? People want to talk about sports. Not my shower habits.

What about just a shower curtain? They don't have it. All right, I'm confused. As a half-glass shower, their reason why they do it is because they're cheap. They want you out of the shower because you're going to get all pruning. Really quick. I don't understand how you can take a 30, I understand how you can take a 30-minute shower with someone else. But by yourself, I don't get it.

That's an I just don't get it. Let me write that down. Write that down for 20 minutes from now. There's many things. John, then, when you take tandem showers, how long do you guys go? What is wrong with you? Nowhere close to even 10. So when you're solo, you go less or more?

Less. Okay. Oh, come on 30-minute showers are fun. Rob, on 790. Rob, good morning to you. Good morning, guys. I just want to go back to the Astros real quick. And, you know, as far as all the spot of hate that comes out on Twitter,

what appears to be every single game that we lose and nobody agrees with a spot decision. I've been saying it for a couple of years. You guys have been saying it for a while that our biggest adversary is the injured list. We can't keep guys off of it. I just ran something through chat GPP to take for what it is, you know, not 100% certain on the accuracy for the most part. Probably much less than 100%.

Yeah. It's probably more accurate than our Twitter users, though. But anyways, I just asked chat, DBT, BT, to give me the feedback on teams that have reported the most injuries over the past three years. The Astros are number two, so only one other team. Do you guys have any guesses on what that other team might be that the only team that has outdone the Astros and injuries of the past three years? The Arizona Diamondbacks. Yeah. Incorrect. It's going to be the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Really? And it's, that's who it is, both in days' loss and total injuries reported. And the biggest difference there when you look at them is we don't have half the farm system that they have. We've traded away our farm system to try and get stud players. And that was years ago at this point and we're still feeling the effects of it. We don't have a debt that can sustain the injuries that our guys in doing. So when our team goes down, the spot is kind of handcuffed. He's in a position where I wouldn't blame it at all.

If a spotting came on and said, what do you want from me? It's a damned if I do, damned if I don't kind of situation. I'm going to take the best guy that I've got, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But we don't have the backup. The Dodgers have got an All-Star lineup built into their depth chart, and those guys don't even play every day. But they have one guy goes down. They have three more that are ready to pop up and would be a regular store.

starter on any other team. And the team's closest behind us, it's a difference of about 10%. Total injuries reported over the past three years was, I don't have the numbers up in front of me anymore, but it was 300 and something for the Astros. And the next closest team behind us, it was like 360. The next closest team behind us was like 330. And the days lost are well over the thousands. But it's a pretty clear indicator of what a Spada has.

had to deal with in his tenure as the head coach for the Houston Astros. He doesn't have the lineup. Every year we're ranked as a top team on paper, but we can't keep that top team on the field every day for 160 games, you guys. Thank you, Rob. I want to share that way. I'll get your phone call. Let me dissect what he said when we come back.

8.13 is our time. It's Matt Ross in the morning. I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour. What did you say again? Did you write down what you don't get at 830? I don't remember. I'll go look. I did write it down. Okay, good for you. 713.212.

Oh, something that has jumped the shark. Sports related. NFL related. I just don't get it. It's coming up in 10 minutes. Brian McTaggart at 9. 920. Ross's Rotten 5. Fred Van Vleek confirmed for 930.

I've talked to him where he's all set for 930. Oh, okay, good. He didn't have a choice. And believe it or not, whether these A's are alive or dead. These past A's are alive or dead. Can't wait. So we've got a busy show. Extremely busy.

What's the record again? 7080. 80. It's embarrassing. A division winner is going to have 80 losses. Minimum. Probably more. Because the Rangers and Astros are tied. By the way, Seattle's not done, by the way.

Do you know this? They're done. Now, they need, They lose one more time. They're done. But they're technically still alive. Yeah, their tragic number is one, right? Yes.

They would have to win all four of theirs. The Rangers would have to lose all four of theirs. And the Astros would have to lose all four of theirs. They're done. You're right. The Astro is getting a four-game suite. I don't want to think about it. If you've lined up landmass,

Westneski and Brown, and you get swept in four games at Sacramento. See, you can't even speak that. There's no way. Even if you wanted to. Even for this team, I'm going to just go ahead and say it. No chance, no way, no way. There's no way. No, there's no way. There's absolutely no way. By the way, the A's have won a couple games in a row.

They are now 31 and 46 at home. They've dropped 7 to 10, but have won two straight. Don't let the A's get hot now. Their winning percentage is 399. They are 63 and 95. Go beat them. You know what I would do? Oh, they won two games against the Angels.

Does that count? I mean, technically, yes. Not really. But this way. If the Astros get swept, does Jim Crane send them back commercially? He might have had them find their own way home. I mean, why would you want them to be on a nice charter plane?

Was it a change of planes? Are you kidding me? Oh, hell yeah. You have to pay for their own bags? First of all, they're going to bus from Sacramento to San Francisco because the airfare is cheaper out of San Francisco. That's smart. Then they've got to change planes. Okay.

That's what I would do. You get no charter service. Think about it. This weekend is either we got in, let's go win this damn thing, or it's, oh my God, we all need to put up for sale signs in our house. because let me tell you, even if this team wins a division, Ross, there's wholesale changes coming here. I think the Astros are closer to breaking everything up than just retooling. How do you retool with this?

How do you break everything up there? You cannot retool this outfield. You try to make a Jeremy Pena type of trade. You try to make a Kyle Tucker type trade for Jeremy Pena. Esoc Paradeus quietly has been one of your best players. Yeah. Yeah. Yiner D.

again, quietly, has been fantastic. Great second half of the year. For like a month. Yeah. He's hitting like over 280. Yeah. His OPS, he's OPS.

Let me go look at his OPS. He did. What do you need to do? He got you a triple last night. In the 10th inning. Yeah, where's the Christian Vasquez, truthers? How are they looking?

What does Vasquez played last? 772 OPS for Yiner Diaz. It's good. That's great. That's great. For a catcher, 14 home runs. 282. with a 772 OPS.

We can't, we, because of course, we're the third string catcher. We can't throw anybody out. Well, I mean, I don't think Vasquez is. I don't know what his percentage is. He's not throwing anybody out really either. Stolen base is just not the bigger of a deal anymore. But when you go against the Astros, it should be. Jeremy Payne stole a base in the first inning.

By the way, is he, no. I'm sorry, no, he was a pinch-rider. Two games ago. Is he down to just running now? I mean, he's Prince-run yesterday. I'm sorry, two games ago, he stole a base in the first inning. That was nice. Yeah.

And then what happened? Yordon drove him home. That was cool. Are Yordon Hunter and Jose going to be in the clubhouse when the Astros resume play next year or whatever it is? Like, who y'all? Trying to figure out who everyone is? Yeah. I mean, are you going to try to trade ESOC too?

I think you can get him on a reasonable deal long term. Let me ask you this. I'm going to ask you some more things. Can you not pay anyone? What if one of the questions? For the new general manager of this team is, I give you the keys to the house. Are you rebuilding it or are you trying to replenish? Any sane person that would get this job would look at this roster and go, we have no outfield, maybe Kim Smith.

We have a shortstop who we love, but does not want to stay here long term. Got to move him. We have no minor league. I mean, the Astros' minor league system moves up the charts. charts like the Texans' offensive line moves up the system. The most intelligent thing for them to do long term would be to completely and utterly blow it up. Blow it up. And I don't want to talk about it. It sucks. They don't want to do that. This is why I was saying at the deadline, well, they went on a little winning streak around there.

Speaking of the deadline. Speaking, did you see Chandler Rome's story about Dalton Varsho? What in his wrist injury? Yes. What about it? He had one before he got here. Oh, I didn't know that. And it's not worse. It didn't get better Dana Swal for human being

Do you have to pass physical When you get traded Don't you? You would think so How do you allow a trade To happen Involving a guy who does not come to you With 100% wrist

Yeah it costs you Arrogatti What's he up to? You know what? We've never done it Have we done a missing you? Is Spencer Arrogatti? I know he was hurt

He had the nerve thing But he came back I have you know what I don't even know How Spencer Arrogati is doing Two days ago he was sent down. Oops.

I guess he's not tearing it up. And we send players with Blue Jays all the time. This is why people... They want him in Buffalo. Yeah, the Blue Jays is going to stop dealing with the Astros. Who was the kid that was the pitcher that we sent? He's got a negative point seven war, 635 ERA and seven games,

Spencer Argeti with the Blue Jays. How could you give away Spitzer Eredge for a little? Who was the pitcher in the Suzuki trade that got sent to the Blue Jays. Suzuki? What? No, Suzuki. Oh, my God, I'm drawing a blank. Refrescan, Francisco, Liriano?

No, no, no, no. Oh, you say Kikuchi. You say Kikuchi. Jake Bloss? Yes. How's Jake Bloss's career as a Blue Jay? How's Will Wagner? Oh, by the way, they're saying,

How's Joe? Well, Wagner's going to be an all-star for the Blue Jays. Why is Dana Hoggerson jumping in on this? That was Brad. Oh, was it? I heard from Brandon a lot. Is he now what we made the movie in the mornings? I don't care. I don't care.

I'm sorry for bringing him up. Jake Bloss, I don't know what he's doing, but he's not pitching in the major league level. How could you get away, Jake Bloss? Let me tell you, Toronto Blue J. Radio's going, you guys got Joey Lopofito and you don't even use him. Seriously. Loporffito's been toiling away in AAA.

Just trading... Then hang in on the Sugar Land Fountains. Traiting 4A players for 4A players. All right, ladies and gentlemen, Joey Loparffito's the goat You change your voice as much as I do I swear It's hard being a general manager

Especially when you're trading for players that are hurt when they come to your city Just saying Whatever Let me check on Will Wagner I'm sure he's doing great Oh he's with Padres Yeah we saw him earlier this year That's right

Didn't he had a home run against the Astros? Maybe Or did he just No he's got no home home runs all years. Okay, well, that would be not against the Astros. Maybe it was against the Rancho Cucumonga. You know what?

He's got a 708 OPS. How many games? 16. Okay, see, you forgot that part. If there's things in your life, you just don't get. And Ross has one about the NFL that he believes has jumped the shark. I'm very curious where this is going. I feel like you might disagree with me, too.

Ooh, we love disagreements. And remember, here on this rodeo show for the last 16 years, we don't make them up. They're not manufactured. So whatever it is. I disagree on a lot enough, naturally. On air, hand off. That's right. 713-212-5-790.

There's something in your life you just don't get. 7-13-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We'll try to answer those questions for you in our weekly Thursday segment we call, I just don't get it. Rossi, it's time for us to help the people of Houston, Texas out, and all of you listening on the I-heart radio app. Things in life you just don't get.

We're here for you. And mine is very minor. Can I get mine out of the way? Do you want me to use your first? What's going on with the water in San Antonio? Was you talking about this? At the sewage walk? Whatever.

It's dirty. So many moons ago, Tony Parker was sexting with Rick Berry's wife. No, Brent Barry's wife. Excuse me, not Rick. I guess it could be weird. Then this past year, the Spurs TV announcer is hooking up with a player's sister. Yes.

What now? Greg Popovich got remarried yesterday. Okay. Oh, she's like 32? He married Mike Boondhozer's ex-wife. What? Who was an assistant on his staff for like 10 years until Mike Boonhoser became an NBA head coach. Well, you know, coaches always steal ideas from other coaches.

Say it hasn't been an original idea in the NBA in many years. So I would say to the new Mrs. Popovich. What the hell? Congratulations, but I'll be honest with you. Yeah, that's not in good health. Not in great health. Hmm. So I will say as delicately and as politely as I can say,

I just, well, I mean, I guess I just don't get it, but I kind of do, and I don't want to say it out loud. What do you get to say? What do you mean? Jonathan, you know, so I'm not going to say. No, I actually don't know. I don't know either. I was going to join you, Ross. Are you going to say, I have speculation. Please speculate.

Okay, and then you could just nod. Gold digger? Okay. I think you could hear his neck creaky. He's nodding so hard. Okay. I mean, true love is. Maribald's Boodenhols. What's her name?

Mary Barth? Budenholzer? I mean, isn't that a little peculiar? What if they're in love, Matt? I mean, clearly they're in love. But, is there an age difference? I'm assuming there is. She looks older.

This is the picture. Oh, excuse me. Mike Boonehuser was an assistant under Pop for 20 years. You know what? Love is timeless. I wish I'm not thinking of the very best. She's 61, by the way. And Pop's got to be, what the hell is Pop?

They've been divorced for 10 years. Okay. So is there a time frame you can go with here? I mean, if that's been your Brosky for 30 years since 96, that's a stayaway, I would say. My general advice is there are plenty fish in the sea, I guess? Pop is 77, she's 61. Okay.

Wow. He's really cradle-up. Robin. That's a significant drop. That's not, oh, shush. Not like she's 28. She's in her 60s. She's got an AARP card. If you got an AARP card, you can't get accused of dating young.

If she's got an AARP card. Maybe they use that to get a discount at the wedding. Double discount, yeah. All right, so I will say. If your first date was at Lubies. Do you get it? Or do you not get it? I mean, I don't know if she's been, they've been devourable.

for 10 years. That still feels like a stay away from your bro. What if Kim and I got divorced when you want it? Would you go out and date with my wife? Are you serious? I would know. What? This makes me believe they've been doing it, you know. Oh, on the slide.

Oh, wait a minute. I got you. Jonathan might be on to something. I mean, 20 and just so happy. I got you. So you said he was maybe hitting that in the Clinton administration. Yeah, my wife dies. Everybody's sad from me.

the second championship trophy ceremony. Hey, he was locked in during the lockout in 99. So here's the question, before we go to yours. What do you think Mike Boonehouser thinks? Do you think good for him? He's going to have this hag now, or what? I mean, if they divorced, maybe he is like, good luck. Mary's next victim.

You think he gave him a call? Hey, hey, my guy. Yeah, you got to call him. Why? They've been divorced for 10 years. You got to talk to, you got to let Coach Bud know. Do you really? Okay.

But he probably knew they were to, hey, I just want to let you know. All right. So if any of you are having a real life situation like this, have any of you ever dated or married an ex of a friend of yours? Her firstborn son is named Greg. I'm just kidding. Oh, my God. That was a Diana, Rucina reference.

All right. So I'm going to say, I barely get it. I want to see what these kids look like. What do you get, Matt? I need to, we need 23 and me on these kids that she had with Booneholzer allegedly. Wait a minute. Now you're throwing other things into play. No, do not. Hit the delay button. We don't want that in the conversation. All right, Ross, go on.

All right. So last week on Amazon Prime Video, they did a bit where Ryan Fitzpatrick, of course, former Buffalo Bill Great, was at the game between the Lions and the, and the, Bills. And they did a bit where he went and he like, they crushed him through a table. He jumped through a folding table. It's too much. It's jumped to shark. This whole Buffalo Bills, I'm going to light myself on fire and I'm going to jump

through table at the tailgate. I mean, it was funny the first, I don't know, 600 times. But like now you're just making a whole thing out of it. Ryan Fitzpatrick is doing it on Prime Video. The Buffalo Bills jumping through tables has jumped the shark. I'm over it. I've seen it too much now. It's literally happening on the pregame show.

Buffalo Bill fans, get a new bit. It's jumped to shark. It's over. I don't get why we're still jumping through tables. I got to be honest, I don't see it a whole lot. So in this particular situation, I get it. Why are they breaking these tables? I mean, Amazon's got the budget.

Because they were there for Buffalo's first game. So you set up a tailgate. Yeah. You're, I don't know, Johnny Brosky from Buffalo. And you're going on the tailgate. Yes. And you go like, I'm going to destroy my table so I have to buy a new one every single week. Just so I can do a bit and go viral.

You've got to set the table on fire too. It's stupid. It was kind of like, oh, man, this is crazy. The first, I don't know, like I said, 600 times. But it's too much. And other tailgates you do beer checking contests. We've seen hundreds of those. Okay, yeah.

What's wrong with that? You're not destroying a table. You're destroying your liver. Well, the people are doing that at football games. Would you rather destroy a liver or a table? They're going to do both. You were going to tell me the guy who's in flames jumping through a table. I hadn't had a few?

Oh, he's sober? He's the sober driver? I don't know. Yeah. This is my designated driver, Tim. He's about to crush this table as he lights himself on fire. It isn't about it. It's too much.

It's over. It's done. Buffalo gets one or two national games. It's a tired bit. When Ryan Fitzpattsch is doing on the pregame show, it's a tired bit. How about, you know what I don't get, why pregame shows have seven. people on them. They're all saying the same exact thing. Yeah. I don't get that either. You're right. How many checks are they cutting? Yeah. I like Whitworth. Sherman's decent. Fitz is good.

I couldn't tell you who's on that. Yeah. Carissa Thompson. Yeah. What was that? I said meow. You said meow? You're meowing like a kitten. No, I didn't do it that way. I said mea out. Adults can say meow. 7.90, we go to the phones after Jonathan tells us what he does not get. What do you got, friend? I guess mine is about Damico Ryan's, I don't understand. Please. After the loss on Sunday, he comes and when he goes to his press conferences,

he always addresses the team as, or if there's issues, as they need to play better. They don't execute better. He's never, I don't understand that because as a coach, would want to defend your team in your play calling and like you know we got to do this as nist he's always saying well if you can't block this person you're not going to play is well the play would it work but they just didn't execute i just feel like it's always a cop out so if you could play a better game if you're the coach and i never understand that because then he gets upset if you talk

about certain things about this and this like it's a character like he's too much of a player sometimes when he's being asked questions about the team as a whole and how he operates i totally get it because he has an ex-player. He does not like individual player evaluations in front of a microphone. So he's always going to think of the, when he's saying about a particular play, he's going to use the entire group. So I will say, unfortunately, Jonathan, I get it.

I get what he's doing. But I don't, like, so. He's not going to go, Wyatt Teller was ass on Sunday. But no, it's, no. So the point I'm trying to get across, though, is if you ask him, okay, why did y'all not go on a fourth and, that fourth and one?

Well, I mean, the play would have worked if we would have blocked. You know what I mean? It's never about, oh, maybe I should have thought. He's never defending his team. He's saying, like, they need to play better. I coached fine. It's never, I played it. I made a bad decision.

Oh, no. He does that, though, I think. It's like flip-flop all the time to me. I don't get that. He's really, at the end of the day, Jonathan, he's just very vanilla. He just is. He's not going to. In front of the microphone.

In front of the microphone. Now, in the war room, in the training facility, he's probably a different animal. But in front of us, he's not going to say anything. Yeah, it's just, I don't know. I just don't get it. Just be one way or the other. You know what I mean? I just think he's 100% coach, speak, is what he is to me.

Let's go to Jason on 7-90. Jason, what don't you get? Hey, before I get to that, I went on this cruise to Greenland for two weeks, you know? Wow. Call John said the Astros would be 10 games over 500 when I got that. I guess that didn't work out very good. Real close. Almost there.

But how was the trip, by the way? It sounds lovely. Did you go to Iceland, too? It was long. I lost a lot of money in the casino. I just leave it at that. Don't go to the casino in a cruise. But I come back and y'all around the morning, I'm like, what the hell is going on here?

I didn't even know who was coming on after you. I didn't know if Dan was still here or not. But anyway, what I don't get is what you said the other morning. I'm going to make a new law. I drive for the last year from Katie to Westlake-Huson Parkway. Every morning at 6 o'clock, these guys, driving 100 miles an hour, we've been in and out of traffic. New law.

Attempted vehicular band slaughter. They need to start pulling them over and arrest them. Put it all over the news. I can't take it anymore. I have to say a prayer every morning when I get in the car to make sure I make it to work. Jason, I totally get it. Thank you very much of the phone call. He knows getting ridiculous.

No, I don't get it. It's when you get on this highway, it's a war, all right? No, no. It is war at... Oh, you do get it, Jonathan? No, I don't get it. We should get arrested. It is Ward 455 on those Kingwood streets.

I don't know. I don't even get on the freeway to get in here. Yeah, stop bringing that up. Why? Yeah. Literally from my door with no traffic in the morning to hear, to this door, eight minutes. It's not bad.

Well, if those that don't know, Ross is going to be getting a room dog when the rocket season comes, and it's this buddy here, Matt. Are we carpooling? No. Why not? Oh, I got to get you a gate coat? Gate code, fresh sheets. You can wash your own sheets.

Big screen TV. It's a B-Y-O-S. We're going to have for breakfast in the morning. You got a breakfast like some danishes? You want to make you an omelet? No, no. No, we're going to sleep until the very last second. Okay.

I thought you wanted an omelet. Maybe some bacon? Hashbrowns? I'm not going to do hash brouts. Cued? You want to be grating up potatoes in 4.30? It wouldn't be the worst thing you'd do. It was a nice guest.

Because I know you're going to want handmade. Mm-hmm. I put some frozen ones in the air fryer. You're going to be complaining, fancy Matt. That is fair. All right, that is, I just don't get it for the week. Yeah, y'all be pleased be nice. If you are on those streets between, say, 4.45 and, I don't know, every hour of the day.

No, 24 hours in Houston. 24 hours. It's a frigid war zone. I'm telling you, today was not bad. I'll give you, those of you coming in 59 South, you must have been listening to me because you were a lot more polite today than you were in the previous. That 45, 610 interchange still a bitch, though. It just is.

Damn NASCAR race. Every day in Houston. Every freaking day it starts at the airport and goes all the way in. All right. Brian McTaggart is going to... How sleepy is he going to be? Oh, Brian McTaggart.

Oh, he's a fine Irish Scotsman. He will join us from Seetown. Is it C-Town? C-Town. S-E-A-Town. C-Tac? He's out there like the Emerald City or something like that. Yeah, from the Emerald City.

857 on 790. This is Matt and Ross in the morning. I'm up too early, but it's all right. Stock 790. All right, let's go to Seattle, Tacoma International Airport. I'm assuming I don't know. In the first class lounge is our buddy Brian McTaggart, a Thursday visitor. I hopefully this is not your second to last Thursday with us here on the show.

Tags, I brought this up on Twitter this morning because a lot of the controversy from, I don't think it's controversy, but it is what it is. You have a choice in the 10th inning of a game in which you're trying to win the game and advance to a one-game lead, American League West. You have a choice of Brian King, Tatsui Emi, or Josh Hater in a second inning. Which of the three guys would you have gone with last night in the 10th inning of that baseball game? Yeah, I would have been with Josh Hater. You know, he pitching on five days of rest.

He only threw 19 pitches in the ninth inning. And when they took the lead in the top of the 10th, I was like, well, this game's over. I mean, he just didn't get it done. I mean, you know, when a player doesn't get it done sometimes, I mean, you know, everyone jumps on Spada and he's like, oh, he blew it. He shouldn't have put him in for two innings. But if he would have pulled him after one inning and one of those other guys would have given it up, it would have been the other way around. Why did he not push him for two innings? Because he only threw 19 pitches and he was rested.

So he had his best guy on the mound with a chance to close it out. He just didn't get it done. He just, he walked three guys and ultimately give up the walk-off hit and they move on. You know, to me, and I feel like we're an endless record repeating ourselves here. It's the starter's not going deep. It's the top of the order contributing. The bottom of the order is a hot mess. I don't know, Brian, if things get in your life get you angry,

but if you're a baseball fan, seeing the OPS of the starting outfield for this season, just flat out makes me angry. Yeah, it's been terrible, man, you're right. I mean, they get past the top four or five hitters, and, you know, Tremel has been bad for a long time. Nelson Velasquez, you know, he's a fringe, big leaguer, if that. Lucas Spence, you know, they brought him up. He looks like he's still overmatched.

it's rough. It is really rough. And it's putting a lot of pressure on the top guys in that order. But yeah, you got starting pitching. I mean, two innings from Javier. Pecco doesn't get out of the third. And I mean, Joe's pushing every button he can the last couple of days. The first 21 outs they recorded last night were by rookie pitchers. And so doing everything he can just to try to get these wins. And it is hard. I mean, they're going to be up against it today with pitching. The good news is their next three games, they have their best three starters going. The A's are terrible, but they're going to a ballpark where anything can happen. And the A's have nothing to lose.

And we've seen this before. We saw it last year. So they're in a better spot than the Rangers, for sure. But, man, they get that win last night, and they are in the driver's seat. But, you know, this thing is changing day to day. but if they can just pull this off with this roster, it would be pretty amazing. But guess what? People in Ireland are thinking the same thing about their team, too.

They're actually talking Dallas Cowboys football, Brian. Come on now. You know better than that. Hey, real quick. But, yes. Spence gets a call up yesterday. Call her ass about why not Loper Fito. Any intelligence on that?

Yeah, I mean, I think they were looking for a little more strength defensively in center field. But, I mean, Loper Fido hasn't exactly, you know, hit the ball well when he's been up here either. So I know his numbers in AAA had been pretty good. But, I mean, that's the best I can tell you. Joe did say yesterday before the game that it was a defensive-minded decision. And you mentioned the rotation three best. We were speculating that if Hunter Brown would be on regular rest for Friday

and then also be available for a potential wild card series for game two on regular rest. Has the rotation been set? No. I mean, Joe is going, they're going day by day with this. I mean, they, they, they, I honestly think they have no plans for Friday on what they're going to do. Yeah, I mean, you know, a hundred could slide in there. But it depends on, you know, where they are on the standings. I mean, I don't think they've looked that far down there. They're just trying to patch nine endings together tonight and get by the A's.

But, you know, they do have these three guys on normal rest coming up. And I think they're just doing whatever they can. And if they make it, they will figure it out on Tuesday who's going to pitch. Now, yeah, the sooner they clinch, the better. Maybe you can line up a guy or two to start the wildcard series. They just want to get there. Brian McTaggart, MLB.com, astros.com with us here on Sports Talk 790. Well, I mean, it's all laid in front of them last series of the year.

As you mentioned, the three starters. I mean, in the A's, it seems like they're not even trying to win. So I would say what better time than now coming down in the last series? Yeah, I mean, they're in a good spot. I mean, the A's are not good. They're beat up. They're pitching is in disarray. But like I said, I mean, that could put you in a dangerous spot if you're the Astros

because they got a bunch of young guys out there who have nothing to lose. And they know the gravity of these games for the Astros. But let's be honest, as dysfunctional as the Astros roster is, I mean, they should sweep the A's, or at least win these first three games and put this thing out of reach. I don't think there's any excuse for them not to go there and win these next three games and pretty much lock this thing up. You know, Sunday could be, you know, if they still have to win Sunday's game, it's going to be an all-hands-on-deck kind of thing, and those games can get kind of crazy.

But with everything that's at stake and as bad as the A's are, they need to win these three games and should. You have been a long time bait rider for this team. You have been there through the 100 lost seasons. You have been there through the World Championship runs and the deep playoffs. Just from as a reporter, what is it like walking into a clubhouse

with a team that is under 500 that the division winner at the very most will win, what, 82 games this year? And I know the tenor has not changed, but man, it's almost like you're really earning your pay tags because you're asking the same kind of questions and just trying to phrase them in a and perhaps more polite manner because it's the same

problems it's d as a third base last night in the 10th inning it's not going deep in games it's the outfield with it's runners left on base i mean you're you're just having to kind of reinvent the same storyline almost every single night right now yeah it seems like every game's almost the same it's they scratch and claw for a few runs you know it's two to one three to one going to the six or seventh. Then you're wondering, you know, what relievers can hold it? Can they get the ball to a brayune hater? It wasn't really the case last night. They had a four-run lead. But with the state of their pitching, even a four-run lead, you're like, well, I mean, it's still early in this game. It's the third inning. You don't feel good about it. You know, they're going to be

able to hold it just with the arms they're putting out there. But yeah, it's, you know, why did you, why did this guy hit, you know, over this guy? And, you know, neither one of them are really good choices. There's five or six guys on this roster that probably shouldn't be in the big leagues and they're getting big at bats or big pitches and big spots just because that's the situation they're in. So, you know, the coaching staff and the players are coming in and feeling the same way every day too, and they have to be frustrated that, man, if they just would have have won 83 games, they would run away with this division. And here they are with four games to go and in a dog fight with another team with a losing record.

It's crazy. Yeah, back to Hater for a second. I know you had to talk to him after the game. A thought about the second inning. It felt like to me he just felt like it was a night where he just could, everything was just outside the strike zone. And, you know, sometimes you can get away with that with some bad pitches and sometimes you had some patient hitters.

And that's exactly what Seattle did last night and forcing all those walks. Yeah, he was trying to get some swing and miss and chase outside the zone, especially up with the sinker. and he wasn't getting it. And so, you know, he said instead of throwing pitches in the zone and taking chances, the ball getting hit, you know, he's searching for these strikeouts. And they fouled, what, 11 of his 44 pitches off. They only swung and missed five times. So, you know, they were very patient, some great approaches by the Mariners.

And, you know, three watts in the, you know, the 10th inning put them in a bad spot. But there was no part of me that ever thought that haters shouldn't have pitched the 10. or, you know, at some point you need to take him out. It was, you got to live and die with Josh Hader right here because he's by far your best option right now, even though he pitched, you know, he pitched the ninth inning. And by far your best option of catcher has been Yonner Diaz. I mean, I want to say quietly, I guess if you're following the team you notice, but, I mean, not making a bunch of headlines, but he's been hitting very, very well.

And it has been a couple of rough weeks for the Christian Vasquez truthers. Yeah, Diaz has really come around the last month, hitting the ball hard. I mean, first Astros catcher to have a triple and a homer in the same game in seven years. And he hit another ball hard too. So, yeah, he's up over 280. So he's one of your middle of the order bats you can rely on right now. And, you know, when he comes, he's to the point. When he comes to the plate, you feel pretty good about, you know, the quality of the bad and what he's going to do.

So that's good because they need somebody to step up other than, you know, the top three guys and the back. batting order. But, you know, it would be interesting to see if they get Pena back. You know, he pinch, pinch ran yesterday, but, you know, I'm not sure if his ability to swing the bat right now, but obviously having him at the top of the order changes your look a little bit. So, you know, Varsho out as well. You know, he's been pretty terrible since I traded for him. So, but, you know, I know they're going to do what they can to try to get, you know, Pena back in this lineup. Kind of reminiscent of the last year where they lost Pena for the last few games. They were on the West Coast to end the season, and they ended up not making it.

All right, Christobal, get it out real quick. What's going to happen? Tell the truth. Don't lie. I think Astro will win the division just because they have the tiebreaker, so they had the leg up here. Like I said, the A's are terrible. The Rangers are, their schedule is a little tougher. You know, they got Kumar Rocker pitching today who has not been good against a Mets team that looks like they're having a great time playing the sport, spoiler role. And then they go to the Twins, your road game. So Astros are still in a good spot here.

So, yeah, I think the Astros do win the AOS and will host the Wild Card Series next week at Diking Park. And that'll be either the White Sox or the Guardians. Who would fare better for the Astros against which one of those two teams? I would assume the White Sox because they've kind of failed off, trailed off the last two months? Yeah, I think the White Sox Astros handled them pretty easily in the regular season. But, man, with this season, who knows? Just got to get there. and then figured out.

And I forget who tweeted it last night. I saw it late last night, kind of mocking the Astros and Rangers and then saying, but one of these teams is going to go to the World Series, which would not shock me just with the way this season's gone. Well, think about all those Marriott points you'll be getting in. Very true.

That's the lone silver lining. All right. Well, you're with us next Thursday, and hopefully we're discussing how to set up the division series because the aster's will finish off the wall of card by then hopefully. Brian, thank you for the time. Safe Travels down to Sack and we'll talk to you next week. All right.

That's Brian McTaggart, MLB.com. 82 and 80 will be the high watermark potentially. 80 and 82, division champs. Let's go. That would be so funny. We are raising a banner. Oh, my God. I will buy champagne for the office.

The banner has got to be, I don't even know what to say. You, it's good. You made it up. make it out of paper. No. What are you talking about? 162 game grind sports RV. Yeah, the worst.

It would be the first time in Major League history. In a full season, a team will win a division with a losing record. Embarrassing. And it's right here on 790. Ross's rotten fiber up next. They've gone bad. Hey, they draw flies. Ooh, it's Ross's rotten fire.

This don't smell quite right So should we shoot videos of us at your apartment One night's that I spend the night at your place? No, no, I'm going to be sleeping. I am not going to wake up. I'm giving you a key and do not disturb me. Do not knock on my door. What if I come home and say?

Come home because it's our place. Yeah, seriously. What a great game last night? I don't care. I will be asleep. What if I bring home waterburger? Tequitos? Whatever you want.

want. Halapino cheddar biscuit. They do my think about it. They go waft you under my nose. All right, let's get this.

A sock on the door. So I don't come in at that point? Correct. The last time there was a sock on somebody's door, I interrupted it.

And it was... Why did you do that? Because I thought the guy was kidding. You're a liar. You're a sick. You know what? You're a sick voyeur.

You know who the person is, too. I know who it is. I know the story. I forgot that there was a sock in the door and you still bust in there. No, I didn't do it. The person in our travel group did, and he saw

it first, and he goes, oh my God, I said, what? I went to them in, oh, my God. On to the rotten five. Fred Van Bleed in less than 10 minutes. Rodden 5, number one. Matt Thomas. Never mind. I got some bad news for you, Jonathan. Just give it to me. A new team in the bottom five this week,

the Los Angeles Chargers. Look, if you go 0 and 2 and you lose it, Der Raiders, after losing to the Cardinals, and you're at the bills this week and at the Seahawks after that, by the way. So this might not be going so hot for them in the Rod and five. Maybe they can turn it around at some point. Herbert, uninspiring. A touchdown to picks, just 15 to 27 for under 200 yards. O'Marion Hapton had a good day, but I mean, you're giving up 26 points to Kirk Cousins and the

Las Vegas Raiders. You are the fifth worst team in the NFL. And now go. Go ahead. Chargers, go. Go, get your ass kicked in Buffalo. All right, on to number four. Cleveland Browns jumping up in a big way. They did win on the road at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Deshawn Watson actually wasn't horrible. Now, the average depth to target wasn't very high.

24 or 30 with a couple of touchdowns. He also led the team in rushing and got a few rushing first downs. So didn't look horrible. Todd Munkin was all fired up with the weekend, and they got their first win of the year. So hopping from one to number four, your Cleveland Browns. You are a factory of sadness. All right.

This team is continuing to go down and it might get worse. I mean, what a horrible, horrible loss at home to the Carolina Panthers. 34 to 3. What a beat down they suffered. Cooper Rush was awful. Some dude named Jack Strand got in the game. It looks like Michael Pennix is going to be ready to go for the Falcons. so maybe the arrow will point up for them at some point.

But losing by 19 points per game early on in the season, the Falcons are awful. They're the third worst team in the NFL. Oh, no, it's bad. It's real bad. All right, we knew going to go in the year that Miami Dolphins were going to be one of the worst teams in the league. Malik Willis, Matt Thomas' favorite NFL quarterback.

Sucks. 197 yards with a touchdown. Devon A. Chan still has not been getting it going consistently. that defense is probably the worst in the NFL. Falcons worst at losing by 19 points per game. It's 18 points per game for the Miami Dolphins as they got crushed by the San Francisco 49ers, now in an 0-2 hole,

and they host the Chiefs this weekend. I don't imagine that's going to go too hot for the second worst team in the NFL. All right, simply as a fact they were number two, we're going to put them down to number one, but I definitely think there's an argument for the dolphins or the falcons. but the Titans did hang tough with the Philadelphia Eagles took a last second touchdown for them to lose that game at home, but they still are 0 and 2. Cam Ward continues to not impress. I mean, they're trotting out Tony Pollard and it's just, I don't even know who their WR1 is at this point. Defense is not good as well, giving up that late touchdown to the Eagles. The Tennessee Titans remain king.

Sorry, Titan whomever who are calling in. Titan Mortimer. Titan, Charlotte, whoever, you people can call in. Titans are terrible. They're the worst team in the NFL. I mean, if we're keeping a buck right now, we ask. I want them in the Rotten Five all year for multiple reasons. One of them is that sound like. And number two is all the Titans fans are still around here.

Way too many. I got terrible news from now. Titan, Larry. Their uniforms are awesome. I do like their uniforms. I'm moving on. Let the Oilers go, Houston. It's been 30 years.

I know. I'm just saying I just like the uniform. I just do. I know the Texans let you down, but so did the Oilers, so you should fit right at home. It's been 50 years of sadness. Yeah. They've been consistent at least. Yeah, they share that with everybody.

What team better to carry the torch for the losing Oilers than the losing Texans? That's fair. All right, our visit with Fred Van Vleet, he is back on the court. Will he be ready to go opening night, hopefully? Matt and Ross in the morning here on Sports Talk 7. I'm joined now by our friend Fred Van Vleet, and the reason why I need you back on this floor, not only for your excellent point guard skills,

but when we would win a couple of years ago, Ross, I'd say, I want to talk to Fred on the post game, and he'd be like, where are you at? I'm 500 rows of me. I can't find you. I like that you want to have a little face-to-face conversation with me. I've got to be able to see you, man. You're in the building, I can't see you. It's crazy.

Talk to the NBA League Association about that. I know you've got some big role up there, but that's enough issue. All right, skip the Ohio you feeling. Let's get right to it. What have you done and say the last 45 days that has you ready for training camp? 5-on-5, 3-on-3-1-1. It's been a slow process, methodical ramp-up.

There's a return-and-play protocol that you've got to do. You've got to pass all your tests and get your right leg, balance with your left leg, and all of these scientific things that we pay the doctors a lot of money to be able to make sure that we're clear to go. So over the last two, three weeks, been playing a lot of basketball, up and down, 5-on-5, and just, you know, get myself ready for camp. Have you found a player or a friend that has gone through a similar situation and kind of took your date line as compared to what they did in the past?

Not really, but there is a lot of guys that I know that have went through this before and what you learned as you start to do your research is that everybody's situation is different and nobody really discloses what actually happened, right? So the only reason I overshare sometimes, but like you could just tear your ACL or you could just tear your meniscus or you could do everything or, you know, so it's like every variable counts in terms of how you get through the process and the return of play. So more for big picture-wise, yes, I've talked to some guys and what they've done and what you'll find is everybody says the same thing.

Take your time. Yeah, just take us through that journey. I mean, you're so excited. KD's here. You're ready for the season. And then you just have that setback. What was that like for you to kind of go through that? And then you were the coach on the court and now ramped up, ready to go for this season.

Yeah, it's devastating. And you feel other people's energy more than, I mean, I didn't, I didn't, felt sorry for myself for maybe like a day. And then, you know, I'm already like, let's get the surgery, let's start to rehab, let's start this process, right? It's like sitting around, feeling sorry for yourself, not really going to do much.

And then the season starts, and we start off hot, and I'm like, okay, cool, this is going to be a breeze, and then, right, the ups and the downs and all of the talk and, you know, watching the guys go through the fire. That was the hard part. It was just sitting there not

being able to help much, losing my voice, going home with headaches. It's the most stressful basketball that I've ever played, not even play. Especially in the playoffs. Do you feel like that? Did you really ramped up? Yeah, playoffs killed me because then I'm like overdoing my workouts and I'm trying to feel like I could be back out there.

But just that time of the year, it just does something to you as a competitor, right? It's like when it all counts, when it all matters. So, yeah, I just try to be available, be around, contribute as much as I could from where I was. and I think that all of those experiences will help our group going forward, but it was definitely tough to go through. You still have a young team with the Tari's and the Alpies and Reed, but you guys have got Marcus Smart coming back.

Kevin will be with you for the second year. Tell me about the chemistry and how long does it have to take. Will it be done in training camp? Has it already been done? Tell me what it's like the new dynamic of these new players now. Yeah, it'll be good to, get an extended training camp with this China trip. So we'll have probably more practice days than normal to get on the court.

The off-the-court stuff is up to us to figure out how fast we can speed track that. But I think a lot was done last year, good and bad in terms of going up and going down and losing some games we're supposed to be winning and giving away the leads and all of that. Like that stuff either pulls you together or pulls you apart. And I felt like towards the end of the year, we found some cohesiveness and some chemistry and some energy. and then we'll add high character guys, Marcus, boge, and we'll sprinkle those guys in. And I'm excited about our group this year.

I will say this, and this is to your leadership. The New Orleans game drives me crazy. The next game up there. You saw a lot of that firsthand. That had been the most difficult part of it is that you have been such a calming influence in your NBA career, whether it's a rocket or as a raptor, that a lot of times Fred Van Valleat would not have allowed that to happen.

The game would have slowed down, of an adjustment. Was that the hardest part is being helpless when some teams, unfortunately, too many of them came back against the Rockets this past year? Yeah, and it's like inevitable. It just started to feel inevitable. You know, Minnesota was one that sticks out of my mind with a crazy roller coaster. And what I realize is that I undervalue my presence on the court because I do a lot of talking. I do a lot of pointing. I do a lot of coaching in between plays and things like that. But at the end of the day, you still need somebody to go get the ball and calm things down.

So I undervalued that. I think we all did. And I'm excited to bring some of that back to the group. And with that observing you were able to do, do you feel almost in a way like you're even more ready to kind of see how things fit? You have more of a mental picture of I can do this or I can help in this way? For sure. And again, I talked about it before. We had a lot of guys out of position.

So they got reps in different positions that will help us at different times this year. So when they go back to their natural positions or what they do really well, I think that it's going to bowl well for our goal. group, but yes, I got a lot of intel and data. Ideas from watching over there as a coach, but definitely a lot of migraines too. All right. I look forward to talking to you 15 times this year. All right, let's do it. Thank you, Fred.

Poor guys getting migraines. I'm not even on the floor. He's got a bad knee. Blake blew up and now he's got migraines or did have migraines? Yeah. Ross and I were just talking off air about the number of crappy lot. I mean, you lose 11010.10. 10.10.

Okay, it is what it is. but he brought up Fred brought up the Minnesota game that was when the Rockets would score what the first 12 you said I think it was 13 it was like the first time in NBA history a team was it 15 or 13 something crazy double digits and they came back and scored

more double digits and then you lost I think it was 13 and oh and then they went 15 and oh yeah 13 and oh they started overtime you got a 13 nothing run lost a 15 nothing run by the Timberwolves This is my, I mean

Hmm 47 and a half seems light Might be in, are we just being, am I being a homer? We are 100% homers. Okay. And now I cannot endorse that, so I will not. Okay. I'll let you do, I'll let you be you though if you want to.

Well, I'm surfing the Kouchy bet markets, I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah. I have a feeling we're going to need them to be good this year for multiple reasons. Oh, baseball? Well. We'll get a lot of baseball labor strides. Well, we'll be good for labor strife until at least March.

Now, you know, Ross and I wants the lockout as official. That'll be in December. Okay. We're going to record an entire show and just replayed over and over again when we talk baseball. I mean, we kind of hit a little dress rehearsal about a month ago. Okay. About how the players need to acquiesce. That's right.

You know, rich, you know, rich. The players are dug in too deep. They said they're not going to fight. And I actually remember they put out like a, you know, they've been doing their talking points or whatever. It's a good point. the owners are going to try to give them a sweetheart deal for the first cap and then they're going to beg for more and more and more and more and more and that's a good point because you look at these other leagues the owners push they start at a certain point it's like Disney Plus like seven bucks when it first came out now they just raised it again to 2150 they're going to push and push and push and push so the players know that they're talking about it and they're right I have several friends that are in the sports business community

and in particular the baseball community. They're preparing for this. And I hate when people are, because they don't want to be caught when the bosses say, we can't pay you for a while. When you work for a sports team, that can happen. If there are no games,

the staff accountant doesn't get paid. And that's, that's, I'm not talking about the ticket takers and the people that are the hardworking ushers at stadiums. I'm talking about the nine to five that never see the field that are just a good old fashioned marketing assistance or they're in the payroll department or they're in HR. Baseball has done this in the past with teams. They're going to, they're going to furlough people. So people in our industry that we work with that are not on air and are getting ready for them. this. Yeah, it's unfortunate. It's what happens when the

millionaires and the billionaires are going at it. And you've got TV networks that are trying to sprout up because they're now trying to run their own you can't sell advertising to the Cardinals TV network when there are no Cardinals TV games. Yeah, we hear Sports Talk 790.

We are sports talk. If there's no sports to talk about well, they're going to go so hot for us. It will also affect our advertising. We do astrocentric packages. Of course we do. everybody sadly is digging their heels on this because nobody likes what they're hearing. Now, again, that could be just history. Ratings are up, revenues up, interest is up, and let's go ahead and get in a big labor fight.

It's ridiculous. And I will stand firm on this. We're not getting baseball again unless we got a salary cap of some sort. Now, whether you want to call it something else or you want to make it a little less stringent as maybe with the owners, want, there's going to be more of a salary cap in place today than there was in previous years. Whether it's a higher tax,

whether it is a firm deadline, a cap like the NFL has, or a softer cap like the NBA has, the current economic structure is not coming into play. Okay. And until the baseball side, the players understand that we aren't playing baseball.

That sucks. Now, I know that baseball executives and teams are organizing. How do you think the players are they preparing for this? Absolutely. They've been saving up for this too. Yeah.

I think you're probably right. You're going to have disbursements or whatever for salaries. People pay their rent. Say go ahead and get ahead a couple of payments on your Ferraris. That's the crazy part, is that you are,

we can't even feel bad for them because they've been thinking about this too. And they're also making crazy money. 713-212-5-790s. Ross and I owe you an apology. We didn't. Cus, Discuss, Reblankenship today on the show.

Shee! We're going to be the Texans wide receivers this week. If Nico Colts can't play again. What's going to do? Get in your rig and run around and you're mad on 45 and 59? Four hours Texans

breakdown tomorrow. Period. What are we going to do with him, Jonathan? Al-Zis Aashire. You tell me. It's too late. You guys are, it's off the rails. It's too far gone. I agree. It's too far gone.

You're too far gone. I got a volatile baseball team. I've got to finish up. Texans who get your time. Don't worry. Nicky C., Hannah's going to want to talk to you if you don't win this game this week.

It's going to get called in the office. Oh, hell yeah. Say WTF. Cal's got a do-not-d-disturb on his door. You know, you skip his office. Go right to Hannah. We're going, Curs. We're going to get in and get on deep breakdown tomorrow on the show.

show. Stop. We're going to talk to everybody, Derek Schultz, in Indianapolis tomorrow. Dr. Roto. We're going to give you unabashed four hours of deep coverage in Texans' Colts. But first, five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do?

We should play. America's fastest-growing sports radio game show. We simply call it, believe it or not, and here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe-Lever-N-N-N-N-A. Is this former Oakland A alive or dead? If they're alive, you'll say this.

Believe it. If they're dead, you'll say this. We're playing for the stray cats tickets and the $100 gift certificate as well to the hat store. Let's go. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. You have to get two right to win today on Believe it or not. Mike, on 790, Mike, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. Anthony Lansford is alive. Believe it or not? Believe it. Yeah, he's 69 years old. Raleigh Fingers is alive. Believe it or not? Not.

Yeah, he's very much alive. He's 80 years old, but thank you for playing. This is pretty funny. 713-212-5-7-90. Apparently not a lot of stray cats winners out there. Come on, let's go. You're going to go sit and enjoy some stray cats.

I'm sure it's a wonderful band. 713-212-5-790. Gary on 790. Gary, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Vita Blue is alive. Believe it or not? Nah. Yeah, he died in 2023.

Name number two for the win. Catfish Hunter. He's alive. Believe it or not. Not. He died in 1999. All, Ross. Just me and you now. Okay.

The monster truck jam tickets were hot. They're flying off the shelves. The stray cats were not. So if you want to get in, straight cats, huh? 713-212-5-7-0. Where are they planned? Smart Financial. So that means there's got to be a good enough crowd for that.

That's what I'm saying. I don't know the stray cats had it like that. Leon on 790, Leon, your favorite part of today's 6 to 10 radio show. Yeah, I'm ready. Ricky Henderson, alive. Believe it or not? No, he died in 2024, but thanks for playing. Great contributor, yeah. Danny on 790, Danny, your favorite part of today's 6 to 10 radio show. Waking up to you guys.

Dennis Eckersley is alive. Believe it or not? Believe it. Yeah, he's 71. Believe it. name number two for the win Ray Fosse is alive. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, he died in 2021. Thanks for playing.

It's a tough one. Gio. I was horrible on this, by the way. You know what Ray Fossi's most famous for, don't you? He was the one that got crushed to home play, right? In the All-Star game, yeah. Gio on 790, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Dave Stewart is alive. Believe it or not?

He is alive, you're 69 years old. No, that's a win. That's right. Name number two for the win. Terry Steinbach is alive. Believe it or not. Hurry. He's alive.

He's alive. He's alive, 64. I don't even know who Terry Steinbach is. He was a catcher during those 80s championship teams. Q on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Blue Moom-O-Otom is alive.

Believe it or not? Not. Now, he's alive. He's 81. Thanks for playing, though. You know what's alive? to be energy at Clear Lake Honda Honda Clear Lake.com. We're going to be able to see an amazing selection of vehicles.

As a matter of fact, you can Ross, you can take that ranch dip of yours and get over to a Honda Clear Lake. That'd be great. Yeah. Get dip in a car. I'll drive my Honda over there. Yeah, I'm glad you're going to go on. I'll get some of my dip. What's wrong with you?

Me? Yeah, you. Honda Clear Lake, I-45 South. Right now, 2026 Honda Civic Sport 5.49% APR for 16. months on a sedan. If you're looking for a sporty SUV, a 2026 Honda CRV-EX available on a lease at 2.49% APR for 36 months. You can buy an location in Honda Clear Lake and I-45 South or online from the comfort of your couch at hondaaclearlake.com. Visit today to make car buying easy and fun, instant approvals and the largest pre-owned inventory ever and great lease deals all at Honda a Clear Lake. Up next. Dan's going to be mad. Farm Brimstone with Dan Matthews up next.

Then the A team for lots of Texans linebackers talk. Talk to y'all tomorrow six on seven hundred.