The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Fall Short vs Angels, What Happened to Higgins??

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

Astros Fall Short vs Angels, What Happened to Higgins??

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. This team? Thank God I'm an Astro fan since 1979. Because they test me sometimes. What do I sound like Tim Kirkshan? Jonathan, good morning to you.

Good morning, Houston, Texas. What do you think about three dog night? One is the loneliest number. Kind of depressing. It fits. It fits bad. Fits. And I'm trying to update some current songs,

but there are so many great songs in the history of music that just fit the time, and that fits the time. What the hell is it with Astros losing to people named George? I mean, I get George Kirby. He's fine. George Clausen, I guess like a six major league start or something like that. What the hell was that? What young man are named George?

That we got rid of that. It's fading the way a little bit. Fading away, it should be completely gone. Do you see, you see a bunch of 11-year-old Agnes is running around? Nope. Do you see 14-year-old Mildred's bumping around the streets? Nope. Mildred, George, Herman, Agnes.

What else? What other names are gone? Those are gone. replaced by Duncan and Dylan and Jamal and Jermaine and Max. Austin and Max

and Brody. I get it. If Brody Cawson comes in here and throwing seven shutout frames, I get that. I don't need a damn George to come in here and do that. I don't have the angels to do that. Done with these old names.

Give me some Austin's. Give me some Haydons. Give me some Stockton's. What else we got? Dillins. I want some more Dillins in the world in our life. I don't even no damn George is coming here and throwing BBs. Let me just show you how whack yesterday was.

And by the way, welcome to the Matt Thomas show Ross. Ross is off today. So George Cawson throws seven innings. See if you can deduce this, John. a little math. Were you good in algebra and you were younger? Because I was a pretty good algebra guy. Geometry, I sucked. Well, I couldn't do geometry.

I'm not gonna lie. I got an F. My first six weeks in geometry, I almost lost the opportunity to be the mascot because you can't have an F. So I was like I was like down to the last minute. I just struggling to get the D minus and I think I had to clean my geometry teacher's room like vacuum and, you know, get rid of the trash

and stuff like that. I'm the same, but I was in tutorials almost every day. Okay, so here we go. I want see if you can figure out this little math equation, Houston. George Claussen, seven innings, all right? 86 pitches in seven innings. He strikes out

seven and walks three. So think about that, Jonathan. Let's do the quick deduction of that. Three different batters, drew four balls. Maybe a couple of strikes in there, right? There probably weren't straight, 4-0-0-40-4-0, right?

Right, right, right. Okay, so there's probably, that's a six or seven pitch. Then seven, as Joe Espada would say, punchies. I love that term. I'm obsessed with punchies. Seven, which would include three strikes, right? So that's 21 pitches plus 12 on the base on balls. It's 33 plus I'm assuming that all of those 10 particular plate appearances

were not just straight four balls or straight three strikes, right? Right. So to do that, three times four is 12. Seven times three is 21, so it's 33 pitches. The rest of the at-bats, minimum, or 40 pitches to get, what, 16 outs? Oh, that's horrible. Now, again, you're not going to get that math of anybody else in the marketplace. that's why you came to this radio show is to get that kind of math.

That's Robert Ford, except at all. You, what is it with this 1-0 swinging miss or lazy pop fly? Now, there were some hard hit balls yesterday, but they were hard hit right to the angel outfielders. But patience, what do they say, Jonathan, is, patience is a virtue, is that what they say? Patience is a virtue in life. What is the anti-the-patient? Like, what is anti-patience? Impatience?

Yeah, like, is that an impatience is a pain in the ass? Is that what that is? I guess. I mean, were they trying to get the late dinner at Rick. Were they trying to go to Rick and Ranthine's after the, to get a little 10 o'clock chow or something? I mean, they eat well in the dugout and the clubhouses. Both teams have good chefs in there.

That's what the Mariners team was doing if you saw. Ooh, we go get to that too. Why don't I talk? We go cousin disgust them Seattle Mariners, too. Don't think we're not. But I don't care about the Mariners. our beloved Astros 1 and 3

on a homestine against the Mariners who are you thought you could bury them and the sucky angels and even up the suckier A's coming in. This is why I didn't want to do a gut feeling that's today. I decided to feel on something that was in the air. What is it? It's on a first and second pitch swinging is what's in the air,

unfortunately. 6 and 3 is just gone. Oh, it's gone? Well, they got to win every one of them, right? Yeah. It's still in play. Yeah, they're going to win five in row. Oh, okay.

What do you mean okay? You mean the time with this team that has had ebbs and flows about every other week, can't win five straight games? And we're in the ebbs. Ebs and flows? Whoa. We're deep in the ebbs. Deep in the ebbs.

Do you ever use the word ebbs and not use the word and flows right after that? Oh, my first time, though. No, I want you to think about that over the course of the day. I want you to use the word ebbs and not using flows anytime you bring it up, because I don't think you can do it. It's like, you know, they always say the teams are susceptible to something, susceptible to the fastball, susceptible to the run game. I never use the word susceptible except when using sports terminology. But I digress.

All right, listen to me. If you think I'm disjointed right now and all over the place, that's accurate. My beloved Astros, your beloved Astros, America's Astros, have a one-game lead at 63 and 63. And something called George Claussen got his second win of the season with seven innings of baseball, throwing less than 90 pitches with seven strikeouts and three walks. That's a lot of first and second pitch contact. All right, let's get into it. If you'd like to discuss this conversation among others,

713-212-5-790. that's how you reach the program today. Number again is 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. I don't bite. Jonathan might, but that's really for off-air. We will discuss that astro game. We will discuss the embarrassment that is of Seattle Mariners.

We will discuss other things in life, including Brian Bogos Civic visit at 11 o'clock this morning. We will have shut your bum ass up out. I got a good one today. and it's for the people that are driving in this town. Actually, it's probably just the Kingwood. North Park Avenue, North Park Road, whatever it is. I'm going to call you out whoever you are.

We got that today at 1130. Shut your bum ass up, but nobody got time for that. And then we're going to smarten the show up, John, today. We're going to talk some college football. Two segments with our friend Sam Con from the athletic at 1 o'clock today. That's going to be fun. Yeah, because you know what? We need to mix things up.

Because, shie, I don't want to get into a deep dive on the Raiders, Texas. We'll do that tomorrow. they can't do anything today. Do you think Tom Brady's still on town? I saw a clip of him. I know he was at practice yesterday. He's got to be, he can hang around. He's not doing a Fox game today, so he can hang out.

By the way, we'll talk about this. Do you think it's weird that Troy Aikman and Tom Brady have such an intimate relationship with two football teams? The teams they never played for. Isn't that weird? We'll get to that on the program. 713-212-5-7-90. I want you guys in.

I had a great moment in the 10th inning show last night. I'm just going to say something here very generally. You cannot be sarcastic to me at 10 o'clock at night. It's not going to end well for you. Remember, humor, I think I can beat you more times than not. Now, I'm not funny like a comedian. I can't tell jokes. I'm pretty quick-witted.

I think I am at least. So you can't be funnier than me, and you can't be more sarcastic than me. My group text can certainly back that up. 713-212-5-7-9. I'm going to give you some non-breaking news here. Average teams drive you and me insane. Does that make sense? Now back me up on this.

If your team is winning 14 games a year in the NFL, if your basketball team is winning, say, 55, 60 games a year, you get a little blips along the way but man you are feeling fine by the way shahdi today god my mighty oh i don't have Jonathan look tell me to focus this is terrible I gotta turn the station I was like the point you're making and then I know here we go here we go we go okay so if your team wins 14 and 3 right you're loving it right

if your team is 57 and 25 in the NBA you're like this is great and think about the other way around if your team is 2 and 15 in the NFL you're bitching Mone every week. Nothing changed, right? If your basketball team is 20 and 57, you have got no expectations. Jonathan, being average is the worst because sometimes when you're average, you're phenomenal. You are getting dramatic three-run home runs. You are coming from behind in games.

You're also spinning one-nothing shutouts. You're also crushing opponents 11 to 3. You got the comeback kid in you. you are, I mean, you are, you are on cloud nine. And then the next day, your team gives, you know, either gives up seven runs or commits three errors or gets two hits or in this case three. And you're pissed off. I want to be average at anything. You don't go, you know, why would you want to be with a girl who's average?

One day she loves you and can't be in with you enough. Next day she doesn't want you to be within 500 feet of her. You don't go to restaurants that are average. Yeah, you do. Well, maybe I do, but that's a different issue because I'm trying to go on the cheap. But if Ruger Ring was always serving crappy whoppers, you wouldn't be going there. You like it once in a while. But if you go to a phenomenal restaurant, you know you're going to pay big money for it,

but you're going to enjoy every bite of it. You go to a crappy restaurant, it's terrible. You never go back again. Average, you keep giving it multiple tries. That's what we're doing with the Astros. You want to hate it. on them. You want to blame every pitching coach and a hitting coach has been here

the last two or three years and you can't remember you can't name one of them. But you want them fired. You want Dana fired. You want Joe fired. You want every player fired. You want Jim Crane out to sell the team. And then the Astros win 7 to 10 and you're sitting there in first place and thinking, man, this is the best. It's crappy division, but somebody's got to win it.

That's been my philosophy. Today we're in this little mood of ours. The hell with the coaches, the hell with manager, the hell of the owner, the hell of the general manager. But yet it's funny. The players seem to not catch too much of these strays. And look, I wonder why. They're

very nice people. I mean, this is an Astros team. And again, I'm not buddies with any of them. But we've had them on the show. I go in the clubhouse occasionally. I get a couple of interviews here and there. We go to spring training. They're all very, very nice people. This is a likable baseball team. So my responsibility as a radio host is to not make it personal because, again, I would want nothing that I would say to go into the clubhouse.

If I said, if I'm saying what I'm saying about this team now, I should be prepared to do the exact same thing in the clubhouse. So what you do, John, the little 101 for sports radio, which you try to keep it to the facts. You don't try to embellish. You don't try to sensationalize. Well, Nick Wright does, but that's a different issue, a different time. But point being is you can only speak to the facts. And the facts are, this baseball team doesn't have enough quality hitters up and down the lineup.

It just doesn't. And, God, Taylor Tremel, I mean, future broadcaster. Remember when he was on the show a few weeks ago, how eloquent he was? I was like, man, I've been rude for this guy. And then he had that great series in San Francisco. I was, the bat was popping for him for a man. It was. And then he's, I think he struck out every game for multiple times in the last three games.

But he's still a young player, though. You probably, I don't even want to get into this. I know, I know. He had three punches yesterday. There's me, him to Joe Spotted vernacular again. I'm saying punches a lot. Christian Walker, I mean, a swell human being. He started off better this year than he did last year.

He did, but, and then he had a dramatic home run on Friday, and I think he hasn't had a hit since. Yeah, near Diaz. Good dude. Y'all wanted him playing every day. Remember when you all couldn't stand, Marti Maldonado? crushing the Astros for Dusty playing him every day or more times than not. He's playing about

70% of the time. But you know, you're saying that everybody hates the average. This all goes away if they just make the first round of playoffs. They made postseason. It's a better adjustment. I know. I know. Just get in. That's what I've been saying. And then you can like, okay, we got playoffs. Now we just need to focus on the hitting.

Right now it's like, do we sell a team or do we... But even, Yon-on-Avarez. 3-0 count takes strike three called. Everybody slumps. But man, this team is performing as you should expect. It has super elite top of the lineup hitting. Well, maybe that's a stretch. Super elite one player, triple crown. That's super elite, right? And very, very good in Jeremy Pena. And very, very good at Eastside Paredes. And a couple of guys, Walker has his moments,

Altuve's got his moments, Cam Smith the last month has had his moments. But at its moments, guy, usually finishes around 500. And the Astros pitching has had its moments. Remember when Christian, remember when Christian Javier came out of the bullying through five scoreless and he was like, get that man back in that starting rotation?

Well, yesterday, he gives up two runs over four, five hits, 5Ks in a walk, high pitch count. It's not dominant. Remember Brian King was getting everybody out for the first three months of the year and then you can't get anybody out the last month? I mean, these are all facts. F-A-C-T-S, facts. Tatsu Emi, oh, good pound of the bullpen.

Maybe you can put a magnetstar in rotation or maybe make him the second inning guy. Okay. It's not great. Average drives you insane. You want nothing average in your life. You don't want an average look. You don't want an average job. you don't want an average looking girl

you don't want an average car you don't want an average amount in your 401k you don't want to eat nothing is satisfying about being average think about the people in your life that are average barely making it buy living paycheck to paycheck they're not fun people to hang around with think about the average restaurant

like I got I mean I got a and I'll say it I got a a tub-ray sandwich shop within about a block of my house. It's average. I don't want to go there. But it's close.

I can walk if I wanted to. Short car ride. I mean, I'll go get the sandwich. I'll go get a steak and cheese. It's just average. It's not great. But I'll do it. Trying to avoid average is fun. Except when you're trying to love on your baseball team. Who right now is as average as it gets. Anaheim is not average.

They're well below. They're 26 games under 500. And hopefully Astros can take advantage the next two nights. With a man making his Major League debut tonight. 713-212-5-790. You know what's not average

is the Mariners-Brews game last night. 22 to nothing. We'll get to that in a little bit. Let's talk to Roger on 790 at 1032. Roger, good morning to you. Hey, Matthew. or so that's a Mr. Texas. Thank you, friend.

I appreciate that. Here we go. So, you know, you have your tired baseball. You have your lazy baseball. And then you got your, I don't give a F baseball, A.E. Julio Rodriguez. Now, we're not there at all with this team, with that kind of play. But the mentally checked out, sometimes portion gets to the throws. And it really comes to evidence when a greece.

see a game like that yesterday and you see all these, you know, you know the term, never get cheated. Well, yeah, some of these guys got fleece, like GM O'Brien's least at the plate yesterday. And it was just unbearable to watch. You did. So Spada can only do so much with this lineup. You can shuffle a deck and try to get some kind of production that way. One thing he tried to do is he maybe promote Cam Smith because he's been doing. really well as of late

and maybe swap him with Walker because Walker, you can fact check this, does really well production-wise when he's a little bit more down the line as far as hitting goes. Maybe you can do that, but outside of that, there's not much, it's all on the shows. And they've been here before

because it happened time and time again. And, you know, these guys just, you know, this is what we got. Do we want them to go to postseason? Sure. You know, I kind of argued with the first guy this morning, but he's right. you don't want to see them, you want to see them, you want to see them, maybe break out of it in postseason, that would be great.

But for right now, man, you got what you got, and it's not pretty. And Matt, have a great hump day. Thank you, friend. Appreciate it. Yeah. If you like baseball, you're not going to turn it off. You're not going to say, I'm done with this team because, I mean, you can be done with a team when they go 30 and 130, or they're 28 games at a first place.

I mean, Angel fans been done with this team all year long. I get that. The five or six of them that are Angels fans. And then the four or five that are A's fans, they're giving up. They're already thinking about Las Vegas. We can't give this up. And I'm not asking you to. Not endorsing that.

Never asked you to. Never would. I'm not giving up. I like baseball. Now, if this team, you know, has a terrible end of August and there's, you know, they fall out of first place and they're four and five games out, then maybe I'm focusing more on college and pro football coming up in September. but there's no scenario that shows that's going to be the case.

Because even if the Astros relinquished first place in division, which hopefully they do not, they're still right in the midst of the Waldcard. Standing 790 would prove that to you. In fact, let me look at the old Wildcard, because let's say the Astros were to give up the division lead. Now, if the Astros and Rangers are tied for first place, the Astros win the season series,

so they would be the Division champions. But right now, the Wild Cards, in the American League are New York, Boston, and the third place walled card is the team that's in the second place in the A.O. West and the Texas Rangers. You got Minnesota half game out, Toronto half game back, Cleveland, Baltimore, Detroit are all one out. Even the Seattle Mariners who lost 22 to nothing yesterday are only three back. That's five.

That's nine teams fighting for three. spots. Bless you Wildcard. Now, as far as the Astros are concerned when it comes to the American League standings, remember when we were talking about maybe they could be, if they could really get hot, and we'll get to the rest of you on the

phone just second here at 713, 2, 112, 5, 790. The Astros, let's take a look here. I love when I look at my phone here and can't figure out how to do this one way or the other. Let's take a look. The Astros are two and a half behind the White Sox for the number two C.

That can be that. So you're telling me that can happen. Well, the White Sox have lost two straight games. This league, this American league, as the kids would say back in the day, the junior circuit, it absolutely blows. Hell, Tampa Bay has not been playing great baseball the last week or so. Yankees and Boston, they're doing all right. They've got the Tampa Bay, the Yankees and Boston are pretty much got their playoff spots locked in, The rest of us are all kind of fighting for those last handful of spots.

So, yeah, you're frustrated. And yeah, watching Taylor Tremel's strikeout drives you crazy. And yeah, watching the Astros miss an opportunity with bases loaded in less than two outs, not scoring any runs. Or yeah, you are mad that this team is swinging a lot of first pitches or not drawing deep counts. Some of that can go to the credit to the other person, another team. Looking at George Cawson's yesterday, he threw 86 pitches over. 7 frames, 54 were strikes. That's pretty good.

Now, when you swing, that counts the strikes. So maybe the asteros are helping them all a little way, a little bit. But, I mean, Clossons, no runs over 7 dropped to ZRA to 3.74. Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy. Back out on the phone, 713, 212, 5, 790. Let's go to Logan on 790. Logan, good morning to you. Man, good morning.

I don't think that guy was being personal with you last night. I don't really, I know some other guys called and seconded the fact that the guy was sarcastic. But, you know, we all have a right to be sarcastic. He was nothing personal. It was not meant toward you. It was meant toward the Astros. And what they did and did not do during the trade with the guy from Toronto and everybody else. And, yeah, you might have had a bad day.

We all have bad days. And, you know, it's 10 o'clock at night. You don't want to hear somebody calling him and be sarcastic. maybe he wasn't as respectful as you thought he should be, but it was not personal. I didn't think it was personal. I didn't say it was personal. He wasn't attacking me.

I'm just saying it's 10 o'clock at night, and you're going to come on the radio with a few cocktails and tell me all the things that were made no sense. I mean, I'm sorry, this is not called sarcastic 10th inning. It's called talking baseball tent inning, right? Don't you agree, Logan? Yeah, okay, to that point I get, But it was baseball.

It was the fact that everybody, you and everybody else is saying that the time has come, that they, look, there are adjustments. When there's a man on base, there's adjustments you make slight mechanical adjustments. Right. And you're entire from head to toe about how to, how to bring a guy in, instead of quit hitting ground balls to second base when you want to, I mean to second base, when you want to move a guy over to third. They're not doing that.

They've lost all of their... It just seems that they have lost everything, whether it's the batting coaches. I know you said they've got new coaches last year, on and on and on. Right. Nothing's working. Nothing's working. You know what it is? You know what it is, Logan, in my mind? You've got a lot of 4A players on this baseball team, right?

I mean, that's what it is. And 4A players sometimes can shine, but typically 4A players don't have long-lasting major league careers because playing at the major league level takes a special kind of of talent. Don't you agree? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And that's been part of it. And he's done the best he can with what he's had.

I said that. And he has. I don't know other managers that would have had as much patient. But I'll tell you one thing last night, and you can listen to the tape. When he comes out, I don't know 31 out of 32 managers that would have come out after a game like that last night and said, hey, we got a pretty good offense. And that's what he did say. I think I'm slightly paraphrated. No, no, no, you're right.

You said that. As a matter of fact, we can play it. So, yeah. Logan, I don't get that. Yeah, well, I mean, let me ask you this. What would have been the better answer? Would it have been said our offense sucks? I mean, you tell me, I mean, you're the manager of this team trying to keep this team together.

What would you have said? Guys, we better do it. Be a guy like the old New York Giants guy or Tom Landre or somebody like that. Be hard-nosed. Get hard-nosed. So you want to... Tom Landry? Huh. Okay. I get it.

Yeah, Logan, thank you for the phone call. I appreciate it. I don't know if Tom Landry would have been the cop I would have gone to. You can be hard-nosed and you can also be out of work. I mean, that's just the reality of it. Jonathan, have you ever in your life watched a manager or a coach rip his team? And that team went... Man. He just called us out in front of a bunch of microphones.

We better get our act together. At the end of the day, they're still grown men. You're not going to. You're not going to do that. Regardless if they're on the team or not, we're all the same age, basically, you know? Because let me ask, let's put this in a scenario, Logan, and thank you for the phone call. Let's put this in, we'll flip it. Man, our offense sucks right now.

I need these guys to step up. I'm sick and tired of having to come in front of you guys and talk about how we are not being. very selective. There are ways to sell it. I mean, think about it. If you're the manager and you've been with those guys since February, going back to spring training, you've seen Cam Smith hit some bombs, have you not? You've seen Christian Walker

hit some big-time home runs. Hell, we were just talking about Taylor Tremel having that great road trip in San Diego and San Francisco, right? That was what a week ago, correct? Yeah. So, think about it from Joe's perspective. He's seen what we're just talking about. Now, what he hasn't seen,

his Dalton Varsho do much, So, but he wasn't talking about Dalton Barshon from the microphone. He was talking in a macro sense of the entire team. Yeah, and I want to, and I guess I'll be on the defense of a spotter. We really don't know what these one-on-one conversations are actually like man-a-man. They really could be hard-nosed. They could be. They really could.

And he could be pissing him off. He could be pissing him off. And on again, that's the, that's the risky ass take. But you got to realize this, he's managing for his job. He's managing to keep his job. So going into a press conference after the game and throwing his team under the bus for being crappy hitters, let us Jamok's radio host and you as sports fans do it.

Because the last thing you want is your team to go against you. And I think that's a hard political way you got to do in the clubhouse. There is a difference than speaking in front of a microphone than speaking at a clubhouse. The door is shut. It's locked. There's no microphones. there's no reporters, there's no cameras, there's no pen and paper.

Joe's not stupid to this. Joe knows. He knows. He's not going to, and let me tell you, AJ Hinch didn't do it. Dusty Baker's not going to do it. Casey Stingle, God rest his soul, it's not going to do it. Tom Landry, that was kind of a weird crossover, but you know what? It's fine.

I get it. I don't really, the Tom Lander I knew when I was growing up was much more even keel. I mean, I don't know what time Landry was like in 1967. I just don't know. I went alive. 1044, Brian Bogusemic, in 15 minutes on sports talk 790. 7-13-212-5-790. If you want to get in, I like the conversation.

You guys have been good so far. By the way, I did have a caller last night that was being uber sarcastic, and I just wasn't going to have any of it. He was giving me the rundown back here. I was like, oh, snap, I didn't even, I got started listening in on these 10-7 shows. Wait, well, we'll play it coming back here. Okay, okay. Because remember, I can do comedy, I can do humor, I can be sarcastic too. But not at 10 o'clock a night after the team scored one run on three hits.

Eh, you're going to do it. Because again, it's a call-in show to talk about smart baseball. We need to get smart. 713-212-5-7 out of it. You know, I'm going to pivot. Wait, I was going to say, do we want to play the audience? I mean, it was just a caller. It wasn't like the end of the world.

Hold on my earbuds on. I'm terrible about this. Ross is making fun of me for this. All right, it's, you want to play it or not? Will you tell me? No, actually, I like it. You like it? It's Matt Thomas.

Look, 90% of the people that call the 10th inning show, I don't necessarily always agree with, but we have good conversation. Let's put this in perspective. It's 10 o'clock at night, right? The Astros had three hits. and Mark A Noble calls the show. Here it is.

Go ahead, Mark. Hey, guys. Beautiful game, man. We've got a great team here in Houston. Thanks to Dana Brown. And I'd like to see if he would take calls from the fans. He might be able to find a trade for Hunter Brown for two or three more adult in Varshals.

And, man, we've got a hell of a good manager. I love our team. It wouldn't change the thing. Y'all have a good evening. You don't. Hope you don't sleep at all. That was a dumb-ass call. When I heard that, I was saying, no, we've got to play this.

And you know what? Mark calls the 10th inning all the time. He can call, I'm doing the 10th inning tonight. You can call me tonight. I don't care. And it's funny because I know there's probably so many Astros fans that agree with Mark, too. That's what got me. Yeah, I don't know. It's just too much.

You seem like you're upset. You were really mad. Let's put the cards on table here. It's 10 o'clock at night. I'd like to go to bed. Astros look terrible. The guy wasted a minute of my time. Oh, come on.

You know. I mean, now look. But if Mark, if you're listening, good morning to you. I hope you sleep better tonight. I didn't want you to sleep all last night. And what I mean by sleep all, I mean, like, have maybe three or four nightmares. Maybe you have to go to the bathroom every 75 minutes or so. Every 75 minutes, you need to get the checked out.

What's I'm saying? But Mark, if you're listening to me right now, I like you. And number two, I hope that you sleep long tonight. Maybe take some melatonin. That's one of my favorite moments. I'm just telling you, Jonathan, man. That's funny to me. If that call comes in right now, I can have some fun with it.

I wasn't going to, I wasn't having a bad day. If that call happens tonight, I'm doing the same exact thing. That wasn't me with a one-off. Matter of fact, you know what I did yesterday? I went to, I went back to the alma mater, University of Houston, and I went to TDCU Stadium, and they had a influencer. We got to taste of new foods at the stadium yesterday. So my belly was fat.

I was happy. I had some great chicken. I had some tacos, I had some nachos, we had this fresh lemonade they're making. I mean, you're going to TDCU this year to watch the Cougars play. You're going to eat and drink well. So I was in a good mood. And then one, two, three in again. One, two, three, and again.

You just love your stroze. I love the strohs too much. You would just hurt. That's right. That's right. Now, I had like 10 other calls after that, and everybody was behaving themselves. So Mark and Humble, good morning to you. I hope that you slept terribly last night, but I hope that you bounced back this evening.

Tom in Cyprus on the bad tubba's show with Ross Tom, good morning to you Hey good morning Matt Great show today Thank you friend Hey I want to look at this team And judge them for what they are now

On July 20th The Astros started their run Against the Marlins 25 games have gone by And they ended last night Against that loss to the Angels During that 25 games They're 16 and 9

Is that the team we have today we don't know but that's the team that has to pick it up they got to go out there tonight they got to win this game they got to get that competitive edge up win this game tonight and start all over again 16 and 9 over the past 25 games

that's pretty good that's including that run that they started after the Orioles swept in so I'm still rooting for them as far as Joe Espada is concerned You know, I think he gets beaten up a little too much, not by anybody on the show, but by the fan. No, you know what the funny thing is?

He's done a great job. You know what the thing is, Tom, is that I could go back. I don't know, and thank you for the phone call. I can go back in my social media. Y. You all hated A.J., you hated Dusty. You hate Joe. You hate the pitching coaches.

The ones that aren't even here. I had a caller last night, Jonathan, that was mad that the Astros got rid of Brent Strom. You know the year that Brent Strom? You know the year that Brent Strom, the pitching coach left, the very next year they won the World Series? That was from Reverend K.J., one of our favorite callers. He's like, we haven't been the same since Brent Strom. That's actually not true. They actually won the World Series.

And went to many more post seasons after Brent Strom left. Shout out to you, Reverend K.F. It's the easiest thing to do. And look, we do it with all of our coaches. If the rockets aren't shooting well, whose fault is it? You may doke's fault. C.J. Stroud. sucks. Nick Cayley's fault. Not necessarily D'emico because D'emico's

keeps kind of basically hands off on the offensive side, but it's Nick Kaley's fault. That's human nature. We do it. And so I don't blame you for it, but sometimes it just gets exhausting. Because what it has to happen is we have to start holding our players accountable. Way more than I think we do. Real quick before we get to Brian Bogussevica at 1057, let's say hello to Morgan on 7.00. Morgan, good morning to you. Oh, Matt, a long time, man. You guys, I hope you guys having a great day.

Same to you. This reminded me, Matt, did you ever see the movie Momento? What was it called? Momento. Momento, no. Christopher Nolan. I've seen it. I've seen it.

All right, Jonathan, talk to Jonathan Morgan. You and him, go for it. Talk. Okay, Johnson, you remember the hotel, the motel scene, and the guy goes up to the desk, the person at the desk at the motel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's already, he's already been in a motel

and he's like, he tells his story and the guy was like, the motel guy said, hey, man, I just, we just talked about this just 15 minutes ago. And then he goes into the whole thing again. Yeah, yeah. And he said,

so anyway, what I was saying, man, we just talked about this, man, like two weeks ago. with Ross and them and I think it was a trade deadline, man. And so it's just funny. It's just really funny. I'm really amused by it.

But I just want to, you know, man, give that little comment, man. Thanks for the phone call, friend. You know what it is? It's Groundhog Day. That's what we're doing. We're Groundhog Deg and the Astros. Look at the analogy's going on the show today. You think so?

No, that's easy. I don't want credit for that one. Everybody's feeling that. Morgan came in with the Memento. That's right. So is that a good movie, by the way? It's a, oh, you got to watch it. Called Memento?

So, Ross, the way he tells me about you how you like movies and that, I don't know if you're going to really, you got to really sit there and watch it. What's it about? I can't tell you much without spoiling it, but it's about a dude takes place at the start of the movie. All these polar-roy pictures are going around, and he's trying to remember what went, like, his memory back. And it's kind of like a story in reverse.

Oh, I can watch that. It's actually really, I'm not going to say much because you actually would really enjoy it. Okay. That's my favorite Christopher Nolan movie for sure. Okay. You know what? I will put that on my list. Now, the list is about 10 deep at this point.

Brian Bogusevic next on 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 1103 on Sports Talk 7-Arney. We got shut your bum ass up. And ain't nobody got time for that coming up in about 25 minutes. Ross is off. We look forward to having you on this program, all throughout the course today at 713-212-5-7-9.

But right now we spend 10 quality minutes with our friend Brian Bogusevick of Space City Home Network. We spent the first hour and really, Brian, a lot of the season, talking about a team that is average. And 63 and 63 is definitely the definition of that. What's that, and I mention this, when things are going well, it's hard to criticize. When things are going wrong, you criticize every day. For Astro fans, for you as an analyst, for me as a talk show, this has been just an unsettling roller coaster ride, has it not for you as well? It has.

And 500 baseball isn't 500 baseball, right? It's not just winning two out of every four steadily, right? It's the ups and down. Then the frustrating part is you see throughout the course of the season times when everything is clicking and you look really good or the offense is really clicking and you say, okay, we got that part of it going. and just these different facets of the game where at any given time is plenty good enough, and you get that kind of tease and that carrot dangle that, hey, if we just put this all together,

we're going to be fine. But then you look at it on the whole, and there's enough downs to counter those ups, and you say, okay, we kind of haven't really figured it out for a long period of time and really put it together. And that's the frustrating part is that you get a taste of it, and then it kind of disappears at times. So last night, the pitch count for the Angels, especially among the starter. He was good. I mean, but again, nothing to be thinking of a future Cy Young candidate.

Here's the problem yesterday. George Cawson strikes out seven, walks three. So doing the quick math on that, there's a certain number of pitches associated with that. He goes seven, Brian, with 86 pitches combined. That means of those 10 plate appearances, there were a lot of first and seven. second pitch swing. Why has this become such an issue for the Astros the last couple of weeks? Well, they're a very aggressive team to begin with. You know, there's a lot of guys who it's just in their niche. Jeremy Pena, very aggressive hitter. Jose Al Tuve been an aggressive hitter for 15 years.

Yiner Diaz. It's just their style. And to, you know, you try to go through times when, you know, you're trying to see more pitches, trying to make pitchers work a little bit harder. But you also have to let guys be themselves. It's why you try to create balance. It's why you have And Esock parade is in the order. It's why Yordon is so important because he is a bit more of a patient hitter. You know, and sometimes it just plays out that way. The guy who was throwing last night, he has really good stuff. He's also had some control issues.

So you want to be kind of on the lookout for, is he going to be just erratic and not in the zone, in which case we can use that to our favor? But if he's generally throwing strikes and he's 97, 98, and he's got a good breaking ball, the idea of just sitting around and trying to rack up pitches on somebody like that, you're not doing yourself, you're doing yourself this service because you're getting behind and you're going to get to those putaways. The issue that you fall into is you can do exactly what happened last night and create a stretch of three, four innings in a row where it goes really quickly.

And he's in and out of those innings, and he gets really comfortable and really gets into a rhythm. And that's what we saw last night. That's the danger of a very aggressive team is you can have a lot of very quick innings pile up. So, Brian, if this team is where they are at 126 games, as many wins as they have losses, they can go in the clubhouse and look at each other and say, remember, like I'll give you a good example. Taylor Tremel against the Padres and the Giants was fantastic. He hasn't seen a hit, I think, since then, it feels like. I mean, a lot of strikeouts.

Sometimes you just are who you are, and that's got to be unsettling for those guys looking at each other going, man, I remember when Christian Walker hit that big three-run Homer Friday night to beat the Mariners, and then I remember the last couple days, and I'm just using two guys an example, striking out with bases loaded or with key guys on the base paths. I mean, if there's something consistent about it is you just can't rely on these guys day in and day out, and that's frustrating for a baseball team as trying to stay in this pennant race. It is, but athletes think differently. And there's a lot of, I wouldn't call it, irrational confidence.

But when you play a sport as unforgiving as baseball, when you go through years and years of being a hitter where you go through slumps, where you're going to struggle, you don't dwell on that stuff. And you're always thinking about the time when you were hot or the time when you were, you know, not missing anytime you got a pitch to hit. And, you know, when you have the ups and downs, it never really sits in your head mentally that you're in a down stretch. You're always just one swing away from turning it around. And you have to be. If you're going to go there and just constantly be down on yourself for every slow stretch that you went through. You wouldn't make it through 162 games. So yes, it's frustrating and everybody wants to ride out the hot

streets as long as possible. But at the same time, once the game starts, once you get to a real at bat and you're done doing your work for getting ready for the game, you have to have the confidence that you had when you were going good, even if you're not. Brian Bocosivik with us here on 790. So Brian, can the hitting coaches? Can Joe? Can they to them and say, hey, we're noticing a trend. We're watching guys come in here with low pitch counts getting a lot of outs on first pitch swinging. Is there such a thing as saying, hey, sit back and take a pitch?

Or does sometimes, if some guys think that, it changes their mindset overall about their bat? Well, you have to have context to it. You know, you have to go back and look at how those games played out and what the pitches were that you were swinging at. Just because you swing at a first pitch and get out doesn't mean it's a bat at bat, right? It's what is the pitch that you swung at? Where was it located? What was your mindset? What were you thinking going in? What are scouting court on the guy going in? Now, if you're swinging at first pitch sinkers down and in and just beating them into the ground

and rolling over pitches, then maybe you can go and say, okay, I need an adjustment on what I'm looking for. I need an adjustment on what my approach is. But if you're getting pitches to hit, and just missing them and just happened to pop one up or, you know, he hung a slider and I just caught it off the end of the bat a little bit and didn't catch it. That's just the process was fine, just the result wasn't there. So you really have to take a real hard look at how those at bats played out to determine whether or not the process was good. And if the process was good, you continue to go with it because it can work in the future and it has worked in the past. But that's something that that's what a hitting coach's job is. That's why they have video rooms. That's

what you bring players in and really break down those at bat. One more batting question. I don't mind Cam Smith batting deeper in the lineup. I know he's been hitting better the last few weeks or so. You do want to turn it over to the top of the lineup. That's one thing. But number two, maybe there is indirectly a little bit of relief that Cam is not always finding himself in position where he's got to get Yoron home. on a play. I mean, obviously he wants to do that every single time, but maybe there's just a little bit of relaxation, a little bit of less angst batting, say, seventh, eighth, or ninth as compared to being in the heart of the order. Yeah, it's a balancing act because if a guy starts to heat up

a little bit, obviously you want to get him closer to the middle of the order and maximize some of that production. But at the same time, you have to think is where he's hitting in the order, have something to do with the success that he has. And it's really difficult to hit in the middle of an order. And obviously, Yordon is going to be the focus of anybody scouting report when it comes to this lineup. But you start getting into that four or five spot and teams take a little bit more notice or a little bit more careful. You're going to get pitched to a little bit differently. And it's really hard for anybody, let alone a young player, take all of that on. And it's kind of a fine line that you have to walk, especially now that Cam's bat has heated up and that the offensive

just as a whole is down. Are we going to be able to get the same amount of production if we put them into the middle? And that's just, you know, that's what managers do. That's the manager's job is to figure out where he fits best. All right. Now to Ethan Peco is going to make his major league debut tonight for the Astros. Well, I'm sure he's thrilled. I'm sure he can't wait and he's going to have family and friends in there.

But my goodness, what a way to make your major league debut oh, by the way, your team is one game in front of the opponents, and there are plenty of spots available for anybody in the starting rotation to grab one of those spots. Yeah, there's a little bit more to it than just, okay, there's going to be the emotion and the adrenaline of first major league start. This is a real high-stakes game. And just from a match-up standpoint, it is a good place for a young pitcher to be against

this Angels lineup. They're a mistake hitting team. It's a team that from a game planning standpoint, you can say, all right, go out there, execute your game plan, make pitches, and you should be fine. What's, you know, a little bit nerve-wracking from the outside looking in is, typically you would look at a guy in this situation and say, hey, we're going to put as much support around you as possible. Hopefully the offense is going to score you a bunch of runs.

Give us four or five solid innings. We'll hand it over to the bullpen. That's not really the case right now. offense hasn't been scoring a ton. The bullpen has been overused. They need a guy to go deep into a game. There's a little bit more that the team needs and hopefully expect because they think he can do it. So, yeah, it's not the soft landing spot that you would typically look for for a rookie coming up and making his debut, but this is just the point where they're at. You know, it's a tough stretch. There's not the off days. You're not going to be able to massage this rotation and skip. starts and use bullpen days. You just need the guys to go out there and pitch well. So the expectations are going to be just a little bit higher. How would you handle EMI staying with starting pitching?

Well, for right now, I think they've got to be, you know, kind of happy with what they've gotten out of him in the bullpen in terms of it's been a little bit more consistent with the results are. There's going to be a pull, especially if the starting pitching continues to be a little bit shaky on the back end to say, can we pull him out of the bullpen and put him back into the starting rotation? But I think for right now, you know, they've gotten decent production out of him from there. And I wonder if they're going to get to a situation to where if they can target one or two spots in the rotation to maybe have him be a piggyback option, that might be kind of the best

use of what he is down there. But right now, they need multiple guys in the bullpen that can provide lengths because the guys in the starting rotation aren't doing it. Bogie, enjoy the time off this week. And thank you for the visit, as always. We'll visit again next week. All right. Thank you, Brian Bogusevick, with us from Space City Home Network. Actually, I see he's not taking time off.

He's doing the color commentary on the Astros broadcast. I knew, Bogie, I'm sorry if you heard me said that. I knew you were working Astros Radio. I listened. I listened tonight. He's probably like, what do you mean time off? I'm working the game with Robert Ford. 1115.

We got to shut your bum ass up, but anybody got time for that. By the way, ESPN announcing some NFL coverage stuff this week, guess they're putting in the NFL coverage. We'll tell you about that in a minute. 1115. Sports Talk, 790. 7.13-212-5-790 if you want to chime in. 7-1-3-212-750.

Shut your bum-ice up. Anybody got time for that in 15 on 790. Now, Jonathan, I know tomorrow we're supposed to do. don't get it. But I continue not to get Pat McAfee. He's going to be a part of their NFL coverage on ESPN. Not calling games, I think being part of like the pregame and post game stuff. I mean, can't we just have a little bit of a break?

Can't we just, I mean, look, I know he makes a lot of money. And obviously he appeals to a wide variety of people. But, man, I'm having Pat McAfee fatigue. It's too late for that. So they already signed the contract. He's going to be on my college game day, which is one of the few pregame shows I watch. You know, I just won't watch the sun. I mean, I can only have so much something.

Everything in moderation. Everything in moderation. Now, if it's Larry David giving me endless amounts of Kirby enthusiasm, I can get that all day long and I'll watch it twice. But, Pat, it's just, oh, it's exhausting. But, yeah, they just announced it today. Pat Mac have been part of their ESP and NFL count. down cover it. Like, oh, great. Yeah, so many producers on his team, by the way. Yeah.

There's like a whole, like, maybe 30 people back there. I know. Just for him. That's crazy. And you're just with it. It's just you and me. And Ross, that's it. We're just a three-man ship. Now, I wouldn't be honest with you, if you had a chance to go work for Pat Maconby, I'd probably wish you the very best, because you know what he did when he got signed his new

contract? Yeah, he probably shared the wealth with this. You know what? I have exactly, I have exactly what he did. He went and got a bunch of backpacks and put $250,000 in cash on all of them. right now I have a backpack for you as well it's got hash browns in it it's got uh sim and roll

and it's got a box of of now and ladders and that that is okay I appreciate it oh thank you very much all right uh thanks to Boguselaer I love doesn't Bogie just kind of level things out for us when he comes on the show he just it's just thoughtful it's no hot taking and I'm I don't think I mean

again you can make fun of me if you want to, but I don't think I'm hot takey. And he's been in those rooms. He has been in those rooms. And that's why you have people like that to come on the show to be able to level it out. And he is right about one thing. And this is the hardest thing I think for people to understand that have never been in a professional setting of being a professional athlete.

And for that matter, a high-end college athlete. There are tremendous ebbs and flows. No, there it is again. I just said it. You never say ebbs and everybody else saying flows. and if you ride the emotions like your fan base does, you will lose your damn mind. And it's funny, you even said high college,

your daughter's going to go through it this season. She's going to feel it real hard, and it's going to be, she's going to go. Oh, let me tell you something. There is pressure. You're saying, well, it can't be pressure at Rhode Island. No, there is absolute pressure. I told this to Carl in the other day.

I said, you know what? You know, when you have a high school coach or a club coach, they're there to help you win some games and maybe get you to a college or team. teach you some fundamental skills. I said, you go to Division I athletics, and this is for any sport. Those coaches, I mean, they can be your friend and they can teach a few things, but if they don't win, they lose their job.

Exactly, yeah. So that's why, again, when we were talking about why Joe Espada said what he said about, we're a good hitting baseball team, and, I mean, he's seen it, but he's also not going, he's going to probably, not probably, I think he's going to definitely have a different approach to how he handles the way he addresses his team. when those doors are closed in that clubhouse as compared to what you hear from him when he comes on this show

or what he does after games. It's utterly ridiculous to think that you think that Joe Espada his glass is half full and everything. But if you let them see you sweat and you see a manager go up there and crack like an egg,

he'll lose the team. Because I get news for you. 90% of those guys have guaranteed contracts in there. So they're either going to play hard for the manager and win this division and maybe make a decent playoff run, or they're going to say, you know what? One, two, three, Cancun. So let them do it one way or the other.

I'm just telling you from a strictly factual, is factual word? Yeah, factual, right? Yes. I make up words sometimes, Jonathan. The numbers bear this out. They're not an elite baseball team. They're average. Super elite at the top, really lousy at the bottom, and a whole lot of mid.

It's just what it is. It is what it is. 713-212-5-790. If you want to get in, 7-13-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We got shut your bum mess up, and anybody got a time. after that coming up. I mentioned

Texans and Raiders are both sitting in I mean, I would assume the Texans are having a light workout. Raiders are probably in their hotel

chilling. I do want to bring something up in the 12 o'clock hour. Are we okay with Aikman and Brady having their relationships

with these teams? So I want to say that because we've got to get to shut your bum ass up. But it's just weird to me that these two dudes have

two of the most high profile broadcasting jobs. And I respect the hell and all of both of them. Obviously, for what they did in the playing field, but also in the broadcast booth. Yet they have that little itch. They want to be in a front office. And I don't know if you can really have it both ways. I know they're trying to, but I don't know if you really can. We'll get to more of that.

All right, shut your bum ass up. Savage. Is his name Savage? The name is Savage? Yeah. You think when he was born, his mom said, hey, you're good looking child, but I'm going to call you Savage anyway. Could be a middle name, too. Could be a nickname too.

Savage. I don't know if Savage is old or young. He could be 6-4-235 and built-of-grant, or it could be 5-7 and 193 and Flabby. But if you're named Savage, you're going to carry some strength. So we're going to find out who this savage person is and talk to him about the Astros. Shut your bum ass up.

Ain't nobody got time for that as well. Somebody you want to complain about. Somebody that's been pissing you off. Let's go. 713-212-2-5-790. I'm calling you out in North Park Drive for a reason. I'll tell you about that next here on Sports Talk 790. That's one.

Jonathan, that's two. That's three. Are we going to a four? We haven't hit four breaking news sounders in a long time. This is crazy. Torn ACL for Texans wide receiver, Jaden Higgins. Oh. Looks like someone's got to have the cash in that.

bet. I think you should surrender. I really do. After this injury? Really? Oh, wait a minute. You mean to tell me that that tank down moved up the death chart because of this? No chance. No, no, no, no, no. This is a big deal. Who else do they have?

Gensers. Xavier Hutchison. Okay. All right, we've got to call Aaron Wilson here. Aaron, if you're listening, we're calling you. Oh, my goodness. I can't even do shut your bomb ass up. This is terrible. This is happened during the joint practice. Now this is what you cuss and discussed.

Shoot! Now I'm getting old. No, I can't even do that. I'm not even happy about this. Why would I never be happy about a person who's getting injured? But goodness. All right, call Aaron and see if you can come on the show. Call them right now.

Okay. Well, we have to bump, shut your bum ass up because, man, I don't want to shut everybody's bum ass up. This is not. This is terrible, terrible, terrible news. All right. Before we get to that and so we can get Aaron for a couple minutes, let's get into Savage here. Savage, how tall are you and what are you weigh? 5-8, 200 pounds.

So you're a little bit fat then. Yeah, well, I'm 64 years old. What do you expect? Yeah, but you still call yourself Savage. I respect that. How'd you get the name Savage? Oh, my mom and dad gave it to me. It was their name. So you know how that goes. You got to keep the name, especially with this younger generation. You got that right. All right. Let's go. What's you got on the Astros? Hey, Astros are fan base is live and well. I'm up here in Salt Lake City, and I'm driving around, and I just about drove off the road.

I saw a sticker on the back of this guy's car, and it said, how do you say MVP in Spanish? Say that one more time, I didn't catch it. How do you say MVP in Spanish? Yordon Alvarez, of course. Yes, I knew that. Yordon Alvarez. It blew me away. way. So we got Astros fans up here in Salt Lake City. It's awesome. Yeah, I used to live in Salt Lake City. There were a few Astro fans that I would wear my Astros

jerseys once in a while, for sure. Yeah. Well, also the change subject, and I'm looking forward to the Big 12. I'm hoping Houston can step up this year in football. So, step up. How about get to the Big 12 championship again? That's what I'm looking for. I'd like to see that. All right. Thank you, Seth. Yeah, that's right. Thank you, Savage, for the phone call. 5-8-200. All right. When there is breaking news, you go to the real Texans insider. And we are very happy to have Aaron Wilson on with us for a couple minutes here. You see him on Channel 2. You hear I'm here on this radio station. Aaron, you always come through for me. I owe you at least two

deli sandwiches at the deli next door. So you know, I'm good for that. You know I'm good for that. I know you are. So let me ask you this. You're not surprised with this, I'm assuming, correct? There were some hope because of the way that he wasn't, you know, looking super uncomfortable after he was checked out in terms of riding in a cart, nothing on there, no ice, nothing like that. But with ACL terrorists, these guys' muscles are so strong. I've seen other guys walk off before. They seem okay. And then it's torn, going all the way back to Jamal Lewis when I was covering the Ravens. and it's just one of these things where the MRI tells the truth,

and the MRI this morning told a sad story for Jayden Hagen and the Texans offense. This is a tough blow. I think he was poised to really do some great things this year after a solid rookie year. We've seen a lot of improvement from him, Matt, and now it's over. So, yeah, you always worry about a player when you hear that they're going to do the MRI reported earlier for you guys that, you know, their MRI was being conducted. They were waiting for the, you know, results, and they get the text that, he is out for the season.

So, yeah, just really unfortunate, sad news for Jaden Higgins who worked very hard, and now they have to adjust, and they don't really have someone like him other than Nico Collins. So the Twin Towers receiving tandem is over for this year. And I'm not trying to oversell this. When you and your colleagues were there covering training camp every day, it was Higgins doing this, Higgins doing that, even going back to. OTAs and Miningham. So let's just put this in perspective. It was not a deep receiver room to begin with. What do they do now? They're going to have to throw it a lot to Nico Collins and Jaden to Dalton

Shultz. They'll have to give Xavier Hutchinson increased opportunities. I don't know everyone will ask you about Tank now, but they haven't felt comfortable enough to let Tank be in any contact situations. It's almost as if he has a due cold another red protective jersey on because when he's been in a team drill, no one touches him and he doesn't do the one-on-one so anyone thinks that you know tank is like poised to to jump in i haven't seen that until he does contact drills at least i call contact like jostling pushing each other and plays in a big season game without you know any issue you just can't trust that you know he's ready and it's like a two-year injury so really later in the season would be

safer for him in terms of a comeback but and it's just a really unfortunate deal. And you look at their receiver depth chart, and like you say, it was then. Jalen Knoll, who is back from a hamstring, I don't know if he screams number of the receiver all over him because he's a shorter, compact guy. You can certainly feed him the football, and that's someone that you can work with. But, you know, Lewis Bond has caught a lot of passes. As far as having someone of his stature, no.

and there's nothing really like great out there. I don't know even to start talking about trades and things like that and those, but there's just not a lot out there as far as available wide receivers. So it's going to come back to the guys in the room. They're going to, they're already planning to run the ball a lot. They're going to need the running game to come back. And CJ Straff is going to throw a lot of darts to other guys. The only, I don't call it silver lining, I do see an improvement from Xavier Hutchinson,

and I see him as being someone that, you know, has had a good camp, but, you know, I don't see him. He's not the same guy as Higgins. Comparisons are, you know, are kind of lazy anyway. I just don't see those guys as the same. How many receivers before this injury did you think the Texans were going to carry? And does that impact guys like Justin Watson on the fringe, Jared Wayne, and I'll even throw tank down the mix on that, too? Sure. I mean, I think there's going to be six to seven. And now, you know, so Justin Watson. and I feel like now Watson would make the squad.

He's kind of on the bubble with him and Luis Mon competing. I think six. Oh, boy. This is not replaceable. Yeah. And again, it's hard to say that a second-year player who showed some signs last year is a devastating injury. But I think when you were, and I'm going to, you're not trying to prop them up artificially, you were saying what everybody else was saying.

This is a kid that's ready to take the next step up. And frankly, Aaron needed to. because it was a lot of heavy lifting by Nico Collins. And you were looking, I'll be honest with you, that probably puts the tight end position as a past catching position as important, if not even more, this year, as it was last year the way Dalton Shultz was such a big part of the offense.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's going to be a big change. And Dalton caught 80, 82 passes last year's career high. You know, it's a, I would say when looking at what they'll do, they'll have to adjust quickly. Well, adjustment. Now, would this have... Also, some news, the Texans are not going to play their starters.

Now, they're going to expect it to rest, expected to rest several starters. Really? So do... Rest, yeah. So that's different than what D'Amico said earlier this week? Yeah, it looks like they're changing it up a little bit. Maybe not every single starter.

but, you know, I think it's going to be a lot of the defensive guys are not going to play in this thing. You think CJ plays? Yeah. All right. Well, CJ and friends and a lot of second-tier guys. Hey, Aaron, thank you for the time. We appreciate it. And anything new comes up, let us know.

We'll be happy to push it along on our social channels. Thank you for the visit. We really appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Thank you. And I got to owe you another deli sandwich.

at least, maybe even a stake. That's Aaron Wilson. I think he was getting text so we were talking to us. Did you get that sense? He was like, I got to, I'm trying to get all this information here. That's what reporters do. He was getting something gorty too. Was he? Yeah, yeah. He's getting it out. He's switching it out. As I'm talking about, all right.

Man, I don't want to do shut your ball mass up. I don't know anything. I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it. I mean, yeah, I was having a light and easy show about talking about an average baseball team and my God, the second receiver, the supposed number two receiver for this team is done for the year. And I was just saying, one day these are Super Bowl contenders.

I don't even know, I don't want to jump the gun, but man, this is a crazy, this is really big. It doesn't affect Tank, though. I mean, he's up one spot.

I'm just telling you. If Tank's healthy, he makes a team right away. I mean, I don't think he was going to get cut of the question of, do you start the year, you know,

on an injure list of some sort. Because this is not, this is not a high ankle sprain. This is out for the complete year. You already know how it went Fred Van Vendlitt, you know? Mm-hmm. And as Aaron just said, it could be two years by the time.

Because of receivers, boy, you know this. You're going to run. All right. Y'all want to react to this. I mean, you can't say anything but oh, well, damn. Or what are we going to do next? Because they're in a bunch of four, four receivers sitting in their houses right now. Go, man, I could go for a place to play.

People are already saying Nick Casera, I need to make a move. That's tough. It's going to be a long Who wants to go give the Texans a number two receivers? What I want to know. Think about that for a minute. All right. 1144 is our time.

Boy, the tenor of the show has changed dramatically. Aaron Wilson, along with others reporting, Jaden Higgins, done for the year. 1144. It is Matt and Ross. Ross off today, Jonathan N. If you want to chime in on that, if you want to chime in on,

you want to tell the ACL people to shut the show their bumasses up? Again, to me, it doesn't feel like it was because of the joint practice. I mean, the injuries are going to happen a matter where they're going to happen. That's true. But he did walk off on his own, which meant people were encouraged, but that didn't last for very long. 713-212-5-7-90.

Ain't nobody got time for Jane Higgins to be gone for the year. I don't know what to say. I mean, I got a radio show to do. Boy, Battle Red was here, he'd really be beside himself. When he comes back, he's in the middle of the wilderness. He doesn't even know. He's not going to know. That's what he gets on that plane.

Well, I mean, I think he's going to check his phone at some point, right? You can't go out, you can't be out there in the middle of the Mount Rainier for three days and not see what's going on in the world. What if a mom and dad are trying to call him or his sisters or his nephews or something like that? No, I don't think so. Maybe you're right. The weather's probably amazing over there, too. Here the birds chirping.

Yeah, he don't care. He didn't check this 401K. He don't care about Jaden Higgins. All right, really fast for me. If you got some of you, you want to tell somebody to shut their bum asses up, anybody got time for that besides the Jaden Higgins injury. Driving home yesterday from I was having,

they had a little dinner for us at TDCU Stadium to talk about all the new foods there. It's really good. I get on North Park Drive, getting off 59 hit in back to my house. Car in front of me for six miles. No lights on. It's 9 o'clock at night.

In front of you? In front of me. Okay. Do you flash your brights at him? Multiple times. Did not get the hint. Ain't nobody got time for you not putting your lights on at 9 o'clock at night. Sorry.

Ain't nobody got time for that. That's all I got. I was just pissed off about that. You know, I have a car thing. I was down over there in Midtown. Yes. And you know when you are going to make a left. You're coming into an intersection.

You're going to make a left-hand turn, and you have to cross the section. And someone's going to let you in, right? You can't see the incoming traffic. And you're hoping someone lets you have a space so you can drive through and get onto the next lane, right? You know what I'm saying? You kind of picture what I'm doing that? Yep, yep, yep. So don't give me that space if it's not clear.

That's how you cause accidents. I'm assuming I'm trusting you because you're opening that space for me, that I can go and go. As soon as I did that, I'm like, okay, thank you. you know, I'm driving. He's honking at me. I almost got T-bone like that. Maybe it's my fault, too, for trusting. But, I mean, ain't nobody got time for that, man.

If you're giving that space, you're telling me it's clear. If you're giving me the space, let me take that space. But, like, you're already telling me it's clear. Don't get mad at me if I'm going for it. You're not telling me, no. I just, I was like, dude, that's just confusion all the way around, man. Ain't nobody got time for that, dude. You ain't anybody got time for that.

By the way, is there an ACL curse going on over in Texanville? You see Wexas tweet? I just saw it. ACL Mertz. ACL Higgins. And they practice on grass, right? Oh, yeah. There's no artificial turf out there.

That's grass. You can't say that. You know, the reality is this. Injuries just happen in sports. It could be on the football field. It can be on practice. It can be in a preseason game. But I was getting the feeling that when Aaron was talking to us, he was like getting text.

Like, hey, because unbeknownst to us, he just like, oh, by the way, a bunch of players aren't going to play tomorrow. Yeah, they, yeah, just they Does the ESPN know this yet? I don't know. It's not that they can dictate that, but I think the NFL needs to look at shortening this preseason even more.

There's no way. Well, but I mean, you can shorten all you want, but you still have to practice, you still have to run your routes. I mean, it could have happened against the air. It could have gone, I mean, it wasn't like he was tackled illegally by the Raiders, one cheap shot, right? Do they really need that long a vacation? They're still vacationing and going to practice?

You know, you're off on the weekends anyway, Like, I don't know how to get ready for a season. I mean, I've done a lot of things in my life, but running the football team is not one of them. I don't know if you're surprised by that or not. Have you put on a football helmet before? Of course. Like played, though. Like, have you ever stepped up?

No. No, no, no. Oh, wait a minute. You quit to go run track. Shut your bum ass up, man. Hey, you grew up in Texas. Eighth grade or ninth grade? I was not doing that.

Them boys are already 6'4, 250. I'm not doing that. I know. I know. Well, Carl Lewis didn't do it. You got drafted by the Cowboys. He said, no, I'll go run track and become the greatest track athlete of the history of the world. Yeah, those guys are different.

All right, not. So if you got something you want to, ooh, I think people are bumping around town going, did Matt really say what I heard, Jaden Higgins done for the year? By the way, did you see, who did the Colts pick up just the other day? It was somebody that was available. Who was I thinking about? Oh, man. O'Kee and Allen was available.

Your former LA Charger Yes, he was, yes And guess who signed him? The Colts! How does it make you feel, by the way? Kim now on Mr. Charger wearing Colts gear. Speaking as almost the entire team got injured yesterday

too on their practice, it's gonna be another one of those seasons, man. I don't know. That's why I'm a Charger fan at heart, but you know. All right. Keen, that one's a good dude. I've had him of fantasy leagues in the past. All right.

So we've had a really, let's just break down the first two hours of the show today. We talked about the Astros being purely mediocre, as their 63 and 63 record would indicate. We have Jayton Higgins going down. And we have Aaron Wilson in the middle of a conversation with us getting text saying the Texans are going to probably set a lot of their starters tomorrow. My guess is that has nothing to do with the injury to Higgins. It was just, we got a lot of work done against the Raiders. No, that's, that's, that's, you think that's really a coincidence. After that injury, it, no, no, no, no, no, I think it is.

I think, I think these combined practices, these joint practices of what they call them, are doing a lot more to evaluate what they have as compared to a game. I really do. Not that, look, if you're going to the Texans game tomorrow, you're, you are not going to go see all your favorite players play three quarters. I mean, that goes without saying. My guess is, if you're going, you are just a. diehard Texan fan who's a season ticket holder.

I mean, you look at the stadium last week against Chargers, the place was half full. Thursday night, 7 o'clock, eh. Games on national television? Anybody can watch it now? You are going

because you just wanted to put your Texans gear on and where your Texans bling. You weren't going because you were actively looking to see whether or not C.J. Strock can score against the Raiders defense. All I know from all of this information is that Tank Dale they're going to have to tell him, hey, are you ready to go?

Because we're going to need you. And he's already been ready. They've been saving him like he's... But they're slow playing him, right? Yeah, but now that slow play must turn up the... Oh, you're looking to speed him up a little bit, what you're trying to say. He was at $3.50, now you put him at $3.85. You know what I mean?

Up that cook time a little bit. I don't know. They didn't meeting him for the broader right now, and he's sitting in the microwave still. That was terrible. That was terrible. See, I was trying to save you. No, it was too late. I can't be saved.

Ladies and gentlemen, all right, let's get to the news at noon. We're going to, oh, we're going to play the song again for the Astros, lack of highlights. Woo, what a show. Sam Khan at 1 o'clock's going to join us. We'll keep him to, we'll see how it goes, because if we get some breaking news,

you've got to adjust shows. We'll definitely have Sam with us at 1 o'clock. You may join us right now at 713-212-2-5-790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. So I got to add to this. One is the lead for the Astros over the Rangers, right? One run, the Astros scored. And how many receivers do you trust with the Texans?

Is the answer one? Ooh, this is not going to be a good news at noon. I can tell you that right now. Ooh, Lordy. Last night, somebody named, George. George Clawson. A human being

under the age of 30 named George. Now, George Kirby's been killing us for years as a member of the Mariners, although the Astros got to him last time. George Clauseid, seven shutout frames. Astros, three hits. One hit, one run.

Thank you, Cam Smith, for home run number 17. Astros fall three to one to the Angels. The Nationals lost to the Rangers yesterday. So Texas wins, Houston loses. The Astros lead in the American League of West is one game. Houston at 63 and 63 on

the season. Ethan Pecco will make his major leg debut tonight. And I'll be on deck for you beginning at 6 o'clock right here on Sports Talk 7.90. Did you catch what happened last night in Miliwake? The Seattle Mariners

were getting their ass kicked. Over and over and over and over again. And then their outfielder made it worse. Here's the audio. Victory is 20 to nothing. As Yelich flies out for the second out. And there is run 20.

Oh, he threw it up. He did. He threw it into the bullpen. He thought it was the last out. Not a home run. No, it's an out. But then two bases from the field. for both to the runner.

I couldn't figure out where the ball was. Yeah, he thought it was three out. So that'll be an error. It allows another run to score. Julio Rodriguez catches the ball and then throws it in the stands. 22 to nothing. The Brewers shut out the Mariners. It is the largest shutout in Major League Baseball history since 1900.

It made it 21-0. The Brewers would score one more run to make it 22 to nothing. Now, if you really wanted to make an escape go for that, I could see an owner firing Dan Wilson a day after that, right? Not his fault, but my goodness. Yeah, that's historic. That is historic for a team that is, I mean, massively underperformed. But you know what they're not going to do?

They're not going to fire him. because you know why? They're four games out of first place. And they're two and a half out of the last wild card spot. That's how wacky the NFL is this year. So they're not going to do it. But yes, Houston, you've got an average baseball team that has won just as many games as they have lost.

And now you're in a situation where if you lose tonight, which you better not, and the Rangers win, you'll be tied. Now, you will have a tirebreaker over the Rangers in every situation. You will not have the tirebreaker over the Mariners. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, y, y'i. Now to the Texans news of the day. Reported, what, 40 minutes ago?

Mm-hmm. Mr. Higgins is done for the year with a torn ACL. Yikes. Twitter is in shambles right now. Who, you want to read some? We'll do the next segment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So who are we going to go to to read?

We can go, you know, we could do John McLean. No, he doesn't have any comments in this one. Let's see, does Aaron Wilson have any comments? Shefter is going to have a bunch of national folks. Damn many Aaron Wilson has here on his comments. Two? Oh, he's got three, six. Yeah, we'll read Aaron Wilson's tweets.

We'll see how Houston fans are acting to it. The number one thing I'm seeing overall here is Nick Casarro is going to have to go trade for a receiver. So that means, that while we appreciate everything that Xavier Hutchinson has done, we know that Jared Wayne has had a good camp so far. We know that Justin Watson has been a guy, I've been around a few years as a durable,

but the gentleman I just brought up to you, including Take Dell, those are not number two. They're just not. Jalen Noel or Noel, depending on how he's pronouncing on this day, not a number two. So Nikki C is on the phone, trying to bring back, get somebody in here. Or is he?

Again, who'd be available? And again, I don't, well, maybe we can find it on these NFL streets the next day or so. Is somebody right now unhappy with their contract or their playing time status? The Casario makes a move. It feels like to me that he just, in this particular case, for a wide receiver room that was not deep to begin with, he can't stand Pat. Because honestly, I don't think you want to be thinking about the fact that Dalton Schultz, and Marlon Klein, the two main tight ends are your number one and number two and number three targetings on the offensive side.

You're going to have to get somebody that's going to have to stretch the field. And most importantly, take some pressure off for Nico Collins. If it's Nico Collins and just a guy on the other side of the field, that's not going to do much for him. He'll have the best cover corner on him every single time. They already do, but you know what I'm saying? You've got to have some diversity. That's why T. Higgins would have been awesome here.

Not that he would have ever come here because he was looking for crazy money, but him and Jamar Chase, it's pretty good one-two combo. Most NFL teams that are really good have really good one-two wide-receiver combos. And the Texans are chasing theirs. All right, so if you want to comment on that, 713-212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90, your thoughts when you were listening to this radio show 40 minutes ago and heard that Jaden Higgins done for the year, your thoughts on the Astros?

getting three freaking hits and just one run against the Anaheim Angels. Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-2-5-79. Your time to come out in. We're going to visit with Sam Com for some college football coming up at 1 o'clock. We have missed the conversation with Brian Bow. We'll have it for you later on the show as well.

Plus, believe it or not, things that are average. And unfortunately, your baseball team in Houston, Texas is average. 713-212-5-7-90. You know, before the NFL season gets kicks off, everyone who wants to make their predictions about who's going to win the division, who's going to win the big game. So did we decide to go to Aaron Wilson for this? We can. It's everywhere.

Okay. Let's see here. I think we need the NFL music, don't we? We're reading Aaron Wilson's tweets. This is not about the news, because if you have not heard, Jaden Higgins out with an ACL tear. Per league source.

I mean, that's got to be somebody in the building, right? I mean, somebody in Portland's not calling him with that. Hit the music. All right. At H-Town, Simba says, I'm sick to my stomach, Aaron. Tate Rodriguez says, F with a bunch of letters I can't read because that would then

connect the letters together to make it a word with a bunch of K's at the end. All right, that's one. Sideline, Sarah, don't sit on your hands and piss me off, Nick Casario. Oh, yeah. The call for D-Hop to come back to you. Not happening. Not happening. Let's see here.

Eric, the body says, tough break. Wish him a complete recovery. Houston for Life Who's blocked me by the way Why is Houston for Life blocking me? What do I do? They knew yesterday I can't even respond to that guy

I can't even like his tweet Why would you block SportsMT? You should follow SportsMT Not block him Here I'm referring to myself in third person Things you learn All right Yeah DeAndre Hopkins will not be a part of this team

Let's see who else we got here Oh let's go with Ian Rappapaport 350 what may Ian Rapport got some... Yeah, that's what I was just out right now. 351? Who's sideline Sarah? Do we know who this is?

No, I don't know who this is. Sarah, what's up, girl? Oh, God. There's been, oh, God. I'm just saying, what's up? No, okay. I wonder why. You want a profile or you...

No, I'm not. I'm busy. I'm trying to do a radio show here, reading tweets. I'm just making sure you're in check. That's what I do. Jackson says, all they have left is Nico Collins. Their season is over.

Hmm. dishonest truth shout out to him he follows me time to lower expectations for the season fantasy farmer says this had to happen

so tanked out can fly did you write that one gentleman I'm looking at it right but I mean that's the what else do they have unless they go get somebody but like you said who are they going to go get

some some sponsorable website I'm not going to mention says Houston can't keep their WR2's healthy Del Diggs Higgins? Hmm. Ryan Pagnetti says really tough for a Super Bowl contender.

Another betting source says, awful news for Texans fans. Our simulations head Higgins at the third most targets on Houston Week 1. This guy, Mani said we should either sign D-Hop or that crazy man I yuk for a year until Jaden recovers. Hmm.

Beaver grasped for an astralist. I'll tell you that. Can we put this to a They're not going to get down to Hopkins You tell them Because it seems like Am I the insider? Yes or no Davian Henderson says

We'll give you y'all Darius Layton for a fifth That's not horrible Let's see here This is absolutely horrible news Wishing Higgins a speedy recovery that's nice. Pete Nova being plundit nice about this. Dude was about to have a breakout year two. AJ says, damn, Texans offense can't catch a break.

I can't even offer my ACL. David said, told you all we needed to address the WR room, F man. He actually didn't say the whole thing. And let's see here. Luke Saw Hook says, I am dead serious. I can't take this anymore. And F.F. Batman says, I literally just drafted him in the best ball slow draft two minutes ago.

thoughts and prayers of those of you that are in a fantasy league that had a chosen too. That's just terrible. Is the Houston receiver room really the cursed? Well, no, because no, no, it's not cursed. But this is a serious blow. And Tankdown can't fix this, Jonathan. I'm sorry, he just can't.

He's not going to fix it, but what other solutions? Man, you tell me right now. Go get somebody. On the radio show right now, who are they going to get? I don't know. I don't know who's available. I legitimately. don't know. Okay, and they have a homegrown guy

that came up an injury, that they were already, they had him at $350, now they got an up to maybe $400 on the oven and make sure. You're going to burn him is what you're going to do, aren't you? You're trying to flash fry him, aren't you? I mean, they got to get some wins here. They need, C.J. needs help. Nico Collins needs help.

CJ's like, and ever since I got a haircut, it's been a bad offseason for me. I got people questioned in my heart and desire. I got I'm interviewing, I'm asking, I'm giving short answers on interviews during preseason games. There's no point for a good offensive line if no one's going to get open for a season in time. There's no point.

All right. This is going to be a weird couple of weeks. Well, you know what it's going to be? It's going to be, we're kind of waiting to see. You know, any good general manager has a list of candidates for every position. I mean, Brett Rippin was signed as soon as Graham Mertz got hurt.

That didn't take very long. But that's different. Going to get just a scrap heap quarterback as compared to going to get a guy that you're supposed to pencil in his potentially number two. And you know how Nikki C. loves his draft picks? Is there anybody that's willing to give up a number three receiver for a particular team to help out? Because think about this, why would you want to help unless you can, unless you can absolutely take advantage of the Texan situation? Because from a defensive side, this team is ready to win the Super Bowl, correct?

I would agree with you. So what were you worried about even before this injury with this team just going to be able to do offensively? And now you're taking a part of that offense that was supposed to be a vast improvement. Because again, Jaden Higgum was supposed to be better today than he was last year and was having a great camp to back that up. This would be a time where you'd have to basically just call the text and say, hey, here, here's my number three receiver. I need a high-level draft pick for him. because you know, I mean, would you not describe the text as being desperate at this point? I'm sorry.

I don't think, I don't think. They don't need to be. Okay, you're telling me that Hutchinson, Watson, Wayne, maybe Noel, maybe Dell can be the answers to this. Now, again, this could not have happened at a worst time. So maybe you're going to have to resolve yourself to that. But dang. I wouldn't say desperate, though. I mean

But aren't you desperate if you're a Super Bowl contender? And you just lost what you think was going to be a key cog to your to your vastly improved offense? But we, they, okay, they haven't seen some of these offenses, other right receivers out in actual play yet though. Okay. And you haven't seen how good the offensive line is. They haven't seen CJ Stroud this new year.

This is the third, I mean, honestly, honestly, this is the third worst injury of the group. Because there's nobody in the offensive line that you're going, Oh my God, if he's hurt. I mean, look, you never want injuries, correct? I mean, we're going to say that. You never want injuries in anybody that you're projecting as a starter. If you lost Stroud, that would be crushing.

If you lost Montgomery, that'd be crushing. If you lost Nico Collins, that would be. So maybe he's your, of your 11 starters, you lost your fourth most important piece. And maybe even your third, if you consider the fact that Montgomery's going to split time, or at least part of the time with Nico, with Woody Marks. So that's in a nutshell is what it is. You lost your third or maybe fourth most important offensive player,

especially the guy that you were expecting of a breakout year because he was having a breakout camp. And he fulfilled a role that was desperately needed because you got rid of Christian Kirk. Not that Christian Kirk was this amazing number two, but you get my drift on this, right? You were looking for somebody, you were looking for another receiving target not named Dalton Schultz.

Dalton Schultz. Nikki, she's got work to do. 1228, Sports Talk, 790, 713, 212-5-790 if you want to chime in. Geo's going to start us off. 7-13-212-5-7-90. It is Matt. It is Ross off today.

Jonathan didn't hang in with us until 2 p.m. It's 7-13-212-5-7-90. Let's get to the conversation with you and me at 7-13-212-5-790. Good afternoon in Houston, Texas. 1233 is our time. We're going to do a little college-bris. Football chatter with Sam Con coming up at 1 o'clock. Big news again, Jane Higgins, done for the year with an ACL tear.

Astros lose to the Angels lead for one game in the American League West. 713, 212, 5, 790. Gio on 790. Gio, what do you got this afternoon? Matt, what's going on, man? Great show as usual. You tell me, thank you, friend. Just want to tap in with the Texas real quick and a little comment about the Astros.

So real sad to hear about Higgins, man, from what I've heard and what I've seen, so far during the preseason and that OTAs and everything, man. He looked like he was going to have a breakout year. So that sucks. And with that being said, man, there's not a lot of free agents. After looking at over, there's really not a lot of free agent why receivers out there, man. I mean, you got Tyreek Hill, but he's banged up recovering. You got Andrea Hopkins, which I know we're not going to sign. We got, you know, Tyler Lockett, Brandon Cooks.

So, you know, barring a trade, I would like to get your opinion on. Out of those free agents, who would you like to see Casario, kick the tires on? Who are the names again? So you got Tyree Kill, you got Brandon Cooks, you got Hawkins, you got Tyler Lockett. I think there's one other, but it comes from my mind. But yeah, those are kind of like the top four or five free agents that I've seen so far. Can I say none of the above? But I can't today, can I?

Wow. It's your show. You can say it. No, but I mean, Tyree Kill's got baggage. and what has he got left in the tank? Yeah. Brandon Cooks, I mean, we already know what that's all about. I don't, nothing comes to mind that goes, wow.

That guy's available. That makes me excited. I'm looking right now at free agents. King and Allen would have been nice, in my opinion, but of course the coach got him. Yeah, that just happened yesterday too, right? I mean, that was tough. Oh, my goodness. You know, somebody was thinking about,

I guess the question would be, do you then go find? Okay, okay, Tyree Kill, no. Brandon Cook's, no. Deionery Hopkins, no. Curtis Samuel, maybe. D. Eskridge? I like Tyler Lockett.

Honestly, I mean, out of those four or five that we named by Josh Reynolds, maybe. Zay Jones. Sterling Shepard. I'm looking at that these are guys that are available right now. David Moore, DeAndre Carter, Tyler Lockett,

you mentioned him. Yeah, it's not a robust group, to be honest with you. Yep, yep, I just had to get your peeing on that, man,

but real quick about the Astros. Yes. We were talking about them earlier. And it's come to the point in the season to me, man, like I'm not bagging on Joe at all. I'm not bagging on Dame at all. I know,

you know, they're playing the hand that they were dealt in to be honest they've done a pretty good job so far you know we're in first place uh in a trash league but you know we're still in first place but it comes to a point man like yesterday's loss was horrible you know i mean that loss sucked and to hear dana this morning you know so positive still in spite of losing three to one to the angels it becomes it's starting to become real tiresome for me man them just kind of being you know non-transparent and giving us you know i guess

the real feel about how they're feeling about the team right now. Like I would really like to see Dana and Joe to take a page out of EMA's book and just once in a while just tell it how it is, man. Because I can appreciate the transparency from EMA, you know, I mean, you know, Matt. Yes, I knew. EMA doesn't beat around the bitch. And I would love to see that from Joe or Dana from time to time. And that's what I got on it, man.

Great show as usual. Thank you, friend. I appreciate it. All right, I've come up with the name. And this, again, I can only. played on my strengths here on this. And he was hurt last year too. Oh, does Curtis Samuel

have anything left in the tank? Six games last year. What's your reasoning behind this, though? Been there, done that. Can do multiple things. Can be a kick returner for you. Had success as soon as 2025.

He's just turned 30. Again, I don't know his injury status. But that's just the list that I was looking at while I was talking to Gio. 31 catches in 2004 in a real season hasn't really been super effective since 2020

when it's with the Redske, with the commanders of the time. Again, this does not look like of all the positions to go try to get somebody. My buddy Trevor just sent me a list here too. Curtis Samuel second that list.

Josh Reynolds come on the chief. Zay Jones, Hunter Renfro, Sterling Shepard. Tyler Rockett would be good, but he's also 34 years old. I guess you're not looking for a speech. You know what you're looking. Well, not necessarily experience, but just a good pass catcher that's going to take some pressure off of Nico Collins. Because let's face it, 24-year-olds that run sub 4-4s, Jonathan, are not sitting around on their couches, eating a cheetah

is ready to sign it with an NFL team. Right. Whatever you're going to get is going to have some blemishes. Unless you can find the team that is abundant in wide receivers that wouldn't mind moving one of them. Well, like the Vikings or something?

I don't know. Vikings. I got a call here from Jason. It says the Cowboys. Let me, I'm look at the Cowboy Deptart. Are you a cowboy fan, Jason? I'm going to tell you. I'm weird. you're going to make fun of me. I actually, I would love nothing more than to see a Cowboys Texan Super Bowl.

I pull for both teams until they play each other. Then I am for the Cowboys. I know I'm weird. You can go ahead and... No, you're fine. You're fine. But, oh, another thing, too, Mr. Texas. A little bit of orange juice and that unsweet tea.

It hits. Oh, okay. How about lemonade? You okay with that? Yeah, lemonade's good, too, man. If you like any kind of fruit, a little bit of fruit juice, I prefer orange, but I like lemonade. You put that in some unsweet tea better than sugar.

I mean, so anyway. I got you. All right, continue on. Okay, so during trade for me would be George Pickens for Sting, and I know everybody's going to laugh. Oh, slow down, slow down, big fella. You had me at the orange juice and the tea, but I'm not trading. Look, I'm not saying Starek Sting was going to finish his career as a Houston,

Texan. I'm not saying that because you're going to have to eventually shave some money and then secondary. But I'm not making a stingly trade. Why would I crush one side of my, I mean, no, no, no. I don't want to hurt what's a super strength of mine right now for a number two receiver. But the thing that is, you've got an

awesome defense, and again, a dream trade. George Fitchin's for sting. I mean, it's again, it's a dream trade, but if you could pull that off, you've got a great defense to begin with. And then you want Tremont Smith out there, I mean, you would, but Jason, you would be killing one part of your team.

You'd be going from having two really good corners to one corner and one that probably shouldn't be on the field except the nickel coverage. I mean, I don't think that works either. So you don't have any depth at that position that you could put somebody out there and that defense wouldn't still be probably the best. And then I don't know the Houston, Texan's corner depth card off the time. Well, yeah, Jalen Smith and Tremont Smith of the two. backups at this point. Okay. All right. Never mind. Forget. Forget. Yeah, don't do that. Don't get Houston mad at you that way because you, you, you have me most the way. I don't want Houston, but I don't want Houston mad at me. I've got my Astros hat on.

I wear it every day. I live in four stock seven, nine years. And another thing about about these Astros real quick, and I want to tell you, you've got me stuck on something all the time now. I'm walking around going, we go, we're going to cut and discuss the Astros. But do you really, I mean, honestly, Ross just tore me up when I said go sign Nick Castellanos. He's as good or better than anything else in the outfield right now. And I swear, it looks like they're going to have another collapse where they were winning the division and it falls apart. No, no, no.

Jason, they're not having a collapse. They're just doing who they're playing like they've been the entire season. Collapse would be losing 11 in a row. That's a collapse. This is a collapse. This is who they are. Collapse to me is not winning the division because it's a swim lead. And you don't play well against the Angels.

I'm not saying, like, collapse, like be ahead by 10 games and lose 11. I'm just saying, could we limp to end of the season and see our beloved Astros not make the playoffs or not winning the division? And, no, I'm not saying it's Brown and Spada because I'll tell you right now, Joe Espada has made more chicken salad, and I'm going to leave it at that. There you go. Look, the outfield that he's had, and the pitchers that Dana Brown went out. and like EMI and all this stuff. If you want to blame somebody, I mean, yeah, you can jump on Dana Brown,

but I'm telling you right now, there ain't nobody else walking in that door that could do a better job than Joe Espada. And we've got to support these guys at the end, but I mean, do you see us? Seriously, you said you see us maybe not winning the division? I think they're winning the, I think they're going to win the division. I do.

Because, again, thank you for the phone calling, the nice words, Jason. This is a team that doesn't get super high or super low. It's done. It's not good enough to do one of the other. It's not good enough to win 9 of 11 and it's not bad enough to lose 9 of 11. And in 2026, that can work a little bit. It's worked for 126 games. There are 120.

There are 126 games in the season and they're in first place. And they're 63 and 63. Why can't? There's been nobody in this division that has been able to put up, put together any sort of run like I thought it was going to happen. So if it's not going to happen because all three teams that are. competing for this division or with the playoff spots have blemishes. Seattle can't hit. Rangers have been beset by injuries and their lineup is not loaded either.

And the Astros have essentially a third of their lineup is of super quality. A third of it is mid and a third of it shouldn't be playing. That's in a nutshell. And in 2026, you can get away with it. You're starting your 17th different starting pitcher tonight. And you're in first place. These things are not adding up. 1244 is our time.

Chattel, we're chasing running, we're chasing wide receivers around this country. We're having people throw names against the wall. Trying to sing. Who is out there? Who could we ask that could be willing to make a trade for a wide receiver that could help? I mean, where are the Texans abundant? I don't know.

I think it's going to be this late in the game, you're trained draft picks. and even if you are, maybe you're just scrapkeeping at this point. 713-213-5-790 if you want to get in. I don't want to chew my own horn, but I'm going to do it. You know what, Jonathan, when you need a respected, trusted NFL voice in this town, can come to me.

Respected NFL voice? Yes. I've been all over the Stefan Diggs mess. The C.J. Garner-Johnson mess of us all over. I gave you the Joe Mixing News before anybody. else had it. I think I figured out who the Texans are going to call and I want to be, I say that

I'm ashamed that I didn't even think of it ahead of time for the natural connection. Nikki C. is calling his old team like he does all the time. Kisham Booty. Or Bouté. You can put your name on it? No.

Why not? Because I'm live on the air. I haven't had a chance to make my calls. But you're the inside of it. I can't inside when I'm doing a major market radio show. I can't be in two places at once. You got to lie at least. You went back on your tech so quick. Tell me that wouldn't work.

He's not sure about his contract status. He's from New Liberia, Louisiana. He went to LSU so he knows good Houston. He knows Houston. I'm just assuming he does. I'm sure he does. I mean, the name, Kisham Butte. He's got to be Kisham Butte, right?

right? That's got to be it. That's not booty. You wouldn't call himself booty. He might? No, I'm not making. It might be a family name? No, no, no. Six foot 203. Number three receiver for the pay. Remember, I did tell you last hour you should be somebody that maybe be kicking the tires on number threes. Drew Rosenhouse is at Patriots practice today talking to his client.

Why would the Patriots help the Texans though? They wouldn't. You're right. You're absolutely right. That's you after last season. No, they were laughing their asses off. Like, yeah, man, keep throwing those balls right to our defenders. What's what I'm saying? Well, why, you know? No, what you would do is you would say, all right, you want him that bad.

It's going to cost you. You're going to have to, we're going to sell high on if you want him that bad. But if you're the Patriots, you're absolutely right. You're not helping. See, again, if the true insiders do their work when there's not a microphone in their face here. I'm trying to do the show here. You got to be dual thrilled. I'm trying to.

Insider and a public voice. That's true. That is true. Hmm. What do we think? We like this or not? You know, it's one of the better names for sure. Because they got Dowds and they've got Brown already.

Maybe they got AJ Brown. They trained it from him. That's the reason why the Kishaw may be good for Houston is because maybe he's not thrilled that AJ Brown's not wearing Patriot gear. Oh, this is genius. So if he does wind up getting traded here, I want full credit. So put your name on it. You can't get full credit if you don't put your name on it.

See, that's what I'm saying. You can't, you got to double down on this right now. Or you can like, all right, I'll come back tomorrow. You know what? This is going to be a wish thing. Let me, let me do this. I have numerous sources throughout the league. People want to, I'm sure my phone, my phone will be blowing up with texts in a matter of seconds.

I can just tell you I'm putting my name on it. It ain't going to be. DeAndre Hopkins. Okay. So you can, all right. I'm putting my name up. My NFL insider reputation is telling you that

DeAndre Hopkins will not be in Houston, Texas. What team is he even on right now? He said the Georgia Tech assistant wide receivers coach. I'm not kidding. Oh. He's on no team. He'd be easy to pick up, for sure. Well, why would anybody want that?

They don't. They don't. No, no, no. Let me just say there's a variety of reasons why he's not coming here. variety. As an insider, I cannot give you more than that. All right,

what's going to have? That's your word. So what is he? He was originally a six-round pick. Again, I don't know enough about him to tell you the truth about whether or not he's awesome

or just good. I guess I got to do a, last year as a Patriot. Here we go. 33 for 5.51 and 6 touchdowns. Okay. You know what? That's not horrible.

That's not horrible. Is he healthy? Yes. I'm surprised Gordy is not running around here with all the LSU tie. He's got to give me a Kishan booty update or Boutte. I think he just wants to say Boutet. I don't know. I think this is kind of from Matt Thomas.

Okay. Ooh. January of 2024, Bouté was issued a warrant of arrest in connection to an online gambling investigation. Bouté was alleged. who he's still on the team Hold on Boutte was alleged to have placed

8,900 wagers while underage including on at least six LSU football games 8,900. On July of 2024, all gambling charges against Boutte were dropped in a 2026 piece for the Players Tribune Bouté admitted to being a problem gambler during some of his time at LSU.

Last year, 14 games, 10 starts 16 and a half yards per reception 33 receptions the year before that 43 for 589 with three touchdowns and then a limited season in his rookie year in 2003 five games played two catches for 19 yards okay you know what he wants I guess he wants a fresh contract by the way in 2004 little known fact about k shone Boutte scored his first NFL touchdown Drake may 40 yard touchdown pass in

New England. Texans won that game, by the way. 41 to 21. All right, there you go. So that is what's going on there. Again, we're talking receivers run the NFL because Jaden Higgins torn ACL. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

There are two reasons why I subscribe to the athletic. One is Chandler Rome. Our second one is our guest now, Sam Con Jr. on the college football beat. Sam, where the hell are you today? I'm here at home grinding away at a million pieces of preseason college football

concert that we got to get out before we kick off here at about 10 days. All right, I'm going to do something that normally radio hosts don't do. I'm going to let you forward promote before we can talk to you. What the hell are you going to be giving out that's going to make people want to subscribe to your awesome website? Well, today we had our preseason All-America teams up at the athletic. So that's going on. You know, we had the freak slithers, first-valuated as free sluble.

recently. So we've got a lot of other good stuff coming, ranking some of the top players in football coming up soon. And lots of good, we'll do some sort of preview of all 138 teams coming up pretty soon too. So plenty of stuff there to let your college football be. All right. We're going to bother you a couple times over the course of the year to talk NAL step. And I'm not, not today. We're going to get to the nuts and bolts of things. Tell me about this offensive alignment at Texas and how devastating an injury it is to keeping Mr. Manning

upright for 12 to 13 weeks this year? Yeah, I think as long as it is what is being reported out there which is a bone bruise. I think Texas confirmed that it was a bone bruise. If the timetable is what it seemed to being reported out there by

a few different outlets today, which I think is just a few weeks, I think the key is do they get Trevor Grizzby back before Ohio State? Because that's going to be the first really big test for them. I'm just, no disrespect to the Texas State Bobcats who Texas opens with, but

I don't know that they need him in the opener, but if they can get him back to shape and ready to go for the Ohio State game and even more importantly, before they get into conference play, I think that's huge. That said,

did do a good job in the transfer portal. They got Melvin Siani, who plays the right tackle for them. He started left tackle a wait force, one of the better left tackle in the country last year. He's slated to right. I don't know if Goosby doesn't go. I'm not sure yet if they're going to slide the county the right from right to left

or if they end up going with somebody that's been in the program with Conjaro or someone else as a death feast. But their hope is that they don't have to answer that question that he's ready to go by off state. If he is, I think Texas is in good shape, he's a rock role and make a heck of run this year. Would you describe college football this year as a coin flip among four to six teams? in your mind is our prohibitive favorite and how close to the city of Houston

do we get to watching a team that we follow around here winning a national championship? Yeah, I think, I don't know, I would say it's more than four to six. I'd say maybe like seven teams that I feel like are in this national championship mix or amongst the teams.

I think you could make a case for maybe as many as 17s to be preseason number one. I know the poll came out recently. but I think Ohio State's in that conversation, Oregon's in that conversation, Notre Dame, Indiana, the defending champions, and only you can forget about them. I think people sleeping on them, weirdly enough. Even, I lost their Heisman Trojan winner, but they really have a lot of talent. Texas is absolutely in that conversation.

Miami is in that conversation. I think Texas Tech and Georgia also probably have to be in that discussion at some degree, maybe even Oklahoma, who I think had one of the better off seasons in the country. And as far as locally with Houston, I don't know that I'm a national championship contender, but certainly a college football playoff contender just because I do think they're one of the top three teams in the Big 12. And if you're in the top three, then that means you got a shot at the Big 12 title game. And if you win the Big 12, then you're pretty much in the playoffs. So I think the Cougars have a really bright future. Do you think going to Texas at Arch's game, not necessarily to decide his Heisman or of his draft status,

but whether or not this Texas team can really win the national championship, you mentioned the Texas State game. It comes down to beating Ohio State on the home field, does it not? I don't know that that is going to be all end all for them. I think it's a barometer because, look, they spent a lot of time this offseason. The SEC as a whole, and I think Steve Sarkeesan spent a lot of the end of the last season as well, discussing the schedule, and he felt like maybe he got punished for going to Ohio State and losing. I would take exception to that.

I think they didn't get in the playoff because they lost at Georgia. I mean, lost at Florida. They lost my double-dudges head Georgia. And they really didn't look like an elite team for the first half of the season. They struggled to be Kentucky. I had to go to overtime beat Mississippi State. I think all those things added up. That said, I think there's been enough off-season discussion around it

that if they, whatever happens against Ohio State, is not going to matter as much in the playoff discussion as what they do on the conference. And if they come out at the end of the day and they're attending to football team, they're probably getting in the playoff. They might even, with their schedule, as tough as it is, might even be able to squeak in as a 9 and 3 team. That's going to be a real barometer to see if they can get in with that. But I think it's a good barometer. I don't think it's an end-all-be-all.

And this is also a very different Ohio State team. But I think Texas should be the favor. They're at home. I think they have a more talented roster at this point, even though I know some people have some doubts about them, some people have some doubts about Archmanianney. I really don't. I think this is probably the most star-studded roster.

I don't know if it's 1 to 85 the best roster, but if it's not pretty close, and certainly in terms of star power at the top, your top 10 dozen players maybe, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a team that's got a group as good or better than Texas. A few more minutes here with Sam Khan, the Athletic,

with us on the program. Again, Jaden Higgins is out for the year for the Texas. We found that out about an hour ago, and we'll give you more details in the next segment of the show. But let's keep it on to college football here. What was left in the cupboard for Lane Kiffin and LSU? What are realistic expectations in your mind for the Tigers this year? Yeah, I think a nine-win season, maybe 10-win season is pretty reasonable.

I understand some people are putting them in the top 10 or thinking, hey, they should be national championship contender day one. I think the top in talent suggested that's possible, but I think these rebuilds are so difficult to do, especially in that conference and in such a short time frame, trying to build a program, build a culture with, essentially, you know, 40 plus new players. They took 40 transfers in the portal,

but they really did have some high end guys. Pam Levitt, the quarterback from Arizona State, is one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Jordan Seton, the left tackle from Colorado, one of the best of the best defense to have benefited of safety. You name it. They did a really good job of going to get really highly talented players. It's just a matter if you can get it to come together or not. And I think over time, you know, maybe by next year, I think even by year or two, you could really consider them

national championship defenders. I consider them really probably in that second tier. I name those seven or eight off the top. I think LSU is probably in the next seven or eight this year. And I think if you win nine, ten games, I think that's a really good solid start to, to, to, his tenure there, and I think they're going to have a really successful tenure there because he's won a lot of football games, and I think he knows how to master roster management, and he knows how to put together some really high score in offenses, and I think they'll do that at LSU. Getting a crystal ball out, is Indiana a one and done in terms of a national powerhouse, or do you

think this is a long-term Indiana's where it's going to be for the next handful of years? One thing they've already done is made sure they dumb down their non-conference schedule. They don't want to burn any of those tough appointments. and certainly in the first month of the year. I can't argue with Kurt Signetti's logic on that front when you hear and prepare their schedules to maybe SEC schedules, things that sort. But I'll say this. I think they're a top four, top five team this year without question.

I think as long as Kurt Signetti is there and the infrastructure that he has from the front office to his coordinators and to the financial support that they have from the university and then being in that conference at the Big Ten, which is the most limited conference. in the country. I think they are positioned right now to have some staying power. It would not shock me in the least if they ended up in the matchup championship this year.

Yes, they lost Fernando Buzzy. Yes, they lost lucky starters. But they also got some really good players in the official Josh Schumer, the quarterback from TCU is a three-year starter. Nobody is thrown for more yards in the last three years. And Josh Hover, Nick Morris, the receiver from Michigan State. They got a bunch of

others that are really, really good quality high-end players, and they have really good depth too. And they have staff continuity in terms of coordinator. You got Cignetti, who I think has really matured how to get guys who have production, not necessarily betting on young

unproven guys with high feelings. He's getting guys who've got staff, whether they've got the high-in NFL traits or not. But this is a really good team, and again, it wouldn't shock me to see them back in the championship and back even in the national championship game. I think Indiana is going to hang around for a little bit. All right. Last question, we're going to let you run, and I

appreciate you spending some time with us again. I think the Big 12 can go in four or five different directions. I can see my Cougars, our Cougars, your U of HLM as well. And look, BYU is going to be good. Obviously, you've got folks I think the TCU could be very good this year. Texas Tech, obviously, in the national stage. How does the Big 12 in your mind shape up, maybe top four? I think there's a clear group.

I think it's Texas Tech and BYU are the clear two top teams. I think they're the most talented. I don't think there's very much question about that. And then after that, I think you have a group. group of Houston is right there after them. I think TCU is right there in that mix. And then after that, I think you can put a few different teams. I think Utah maybe could be in that mix. I think Kansas State with Colin this first year could be in that mix. I think even Arizona over because I know if it could be even in that mix. But this conference is so

unpredictable. You know, could we see Oklahoma State turn into a quick turnaround story going from one in 11 last year to a top 25 team this year? I wouldn't rule it out. I think When you look at the town they brought in with Drew Messmaker and all the guys from North Texas. If all over there, maybe they could get in that mix. But I think your top two clearly are Tech and BYU. I would consider them the favorites to get a big 12th battle game. I think Houston is your next team. And I think PCU, Utah, and maybe Arizona are probably right in after that.

And very last question. Do we see an Old Dominion? Do we see a Tulane in a type of a playoff tournament this year? Or did the CFP go? you know what we gave you guys your opportunities that's not going to happen again this year yeah we'll still see one there's still one group of 16

that will get a bid because it's still the top five cover champions so there's the four power conferences we'll get theirs and then there will be one I don't think you'll see two this year like we did last year I think everybody getting up in arms after that it's probably going to prevent us from seeing two ever again but but you will see

one and and that's going to be a fun race to watch too because I think there's a lot of really good teams that you hear a lot about UNLV. I think Boise State's probably going to be a team that's contended in that mixed. USS, you know, the old team that I know U.S. should be in a conference with while back their team to keep an eye on. So there's a lot of really good ones, and the race for that bid is going to be pretty intense and pretty fun to watch. And I'm of the belief that we should include those teams. I'll give you a Texas team, too, that I wouldn't be totally shocked because

they got in. It's Texas State. They moved into the PAC 12. They brought back Brad Jackson, who's the quarterback locally here, who is the best quarterback in the group of so that those are receivers came back with him. I think DJ Kinney, Tech State

haven't made some noise in the G6 level. So don't be shocked if we see the box hanging around in that conversation in the end of them. All right.

What is the next great story you're working on right now for the athletic? We're going to rank top 100 players in college football.

All right. And have you got your list already knocked and loaded or are you still working on it? Oh, we're still, we're still finalizing it, hopefully,

finishing it up today. I've been working out for few weeks. Please follow Sam Khan. He's a University of Houston. He's smarter than I am, and he writes for The Athletic. He's also one of the best dress for sports reporters in America. Samuel, thank you for the time, as always. It really appreciate it.

No problem. Thank you. All right, got it. Sam Khan, Jr., the athletic with us here on Sports Talk 790. All right, if you've not missed the major news, if you've missed the major news of the day, it involves the Texans and it involves the wide receiving room. We'll discuss that in a moment here on Sports Talk 780. If you missed

our visit with Brian Bogussevick, that on the Astros coming up at the bottom of the hour. All right. If you miss Brian Bogussevich, that's coming up in about 10 minutes or now. I got to, have we checked the Twitter streets? Are we still freaking out in Texanville today?

You get in your rig and get in there and cuss and discuss who can be? Oh, I'm sorry. That's not nice. I'm trying to be better. Can't do it. Injuries make me a different person. They just do. All right, I'm going to check these Twitter streets.

what's going on. It's not looking too good. Is everybody flipping out? All right, here we go. Oh, this list, again, these list of people. Tyreek Hill 32, Curtis Samuel 30, Adam Thielen, 36.

Uh-uh. Deionre Hopkins, 34, Noah Brown, 30. Josh Reynolds, we're talking about age, obviously, just in case you were playing at home. Torn ACL for Jaden Higgins. Mm-mm-mm-mm. Okay, so let's do this real quick.

We get about three or four minutes in this segment. Let's get ahead in our crystal ball. What is the most likely thing that you think Nick Casero is going to do, Jonathan? We can each make a little bit of a gut feeling. Let me give you the options. Does nothing at all, picks up a street-free agent, or makes a trade. Or I'll give you fourth option.

waits until the waiver wire and somebody gets cut. Does nothing at all? No, I would think that's the least likely. They've got to fill the body. If they're going to carry 6 or 7 receivers. Yeah, they got bodies, but come on. Nick is here, the one that's saying, oh, we'll be all right, CJ will be better. You just have wet, let them play.

Like, I'm not. That's him being, remember we type people, remember coaches and general managers and players lie? I don't know why I sound like Mac Brown when I'm doing this, but they say they lie on the front of the microphone. If it's not, then wait for a waiver then. Okay, I'm just telling you, I'm going to give you the wide receiver room. Let's assume there are seven guys, okay?

And I'm not including Higgins. Collins, Hutchinson, Dell, Wayne, Watson, Noel, bonds, maybe Trivian Saunders. Come on. And they could bank on the running game being great so they don't have to worry really way. Or they can go glass half full and say we got Foster Merrill and Marlon Klein. Those are past catchers guys too.

I just don't think Houston should get their hopes up. I really think they're going to send their hands. I think what they're going to do is I don't think Nick makes a trade. Because even though we think we like Higgins and everything that was being discussed in the Training camp has said that he's had a good camp. Having good camp and translating that into the season is two different things, right? It wasn't like you're, it wasn't like Higgins last year, the production that he gave the Texans can't be replaced. I mean, if Nico Collins was the one suffering this injury, you understand that, right?

By the way, Nico Collins is not stepping out of football field until the regular season. You were bubble wrapping that dude, bubble wrapping that guy. There ain't no chance, no way, no how. you are I'm going to tell you something you're bubble wrapping the defense too you're not seeing Will Anderson tomorrow night you're not going to see

Daniel Hunter tomorrow night you're not going to see Jalen I mean unless they just go in there and say I must play because Bill's is week one right? Bills is week one you've already you've got a practice you already got done with the the Raiders you're going to practice

next week in Charlotte against the Panthers this would have tomorrow night's game would have been the game where you would have seen at least some of the starters but even Aaron Wilson when he joined us about an hour and a half ago I was like, eh, I don't think so. So I don't know how much this Higgins injury all of a sudden made D'emico change his mind.

But, yeah, if you're going tomorrow night thinking you're going to see your stars play for a significant amount, I think you're going to be unfortunately very disappointed. So the receiver room right now, if you were to keep seven, Collins, Hutchinson, Wayne, Dell Watson Noel Bond

Saunders and that's presuming that Tank Dell is healthy enough to start the season that's eight I just gave you

eight I don't know that's not good enough it's not this is hurt this hurts this hurts this is not good enough but

it's a star and a bunch of guys but what you go get somebody and say that doesn't work out they're going to send their hands I think the way the fourth option you gave

was probably the waiver wire makes sense to me That's probably what they're going to do because there's no point of making a decision so quick. You haven't seen the team play against actual, you know, haven't seen them play after the game.

But the reason why you do bring them in quick is you do want to get him acclimated to the playbook. Now, receiver playbook is pretty, I'm going to say like, yeah, not a nearly difficult as if you're running back or a quarterback.

I get that. You know, Dalton Schultz is like, I'm here, man. I was your second best threat last year. I can be your second best threat again this year. Marlon's like, do you see that catch I made against the charges

last week? I can do more of that? I bet all those guys are walking up at Casera I got you bro we got you I don't think Cassara comes across a bro guys Maybe they didn't say bro

I don't think Casera is at the practice right now I think he's Had Oh he's heavily drinking He's in his head On his office Like what am I going to do And Hannah is texting him every five seconds

What are you doing? What are we gonna do about this Cal texted him and say Can I still drive Higgins on my fantasy team No Cal you cannot He's not gonna play this year Hannah's wigging out about more of this

and I mean, Cal's like, shoot darn it. Hannah's like, get this, get this fixed now. No, Cal's like, dangnam it. G. Shucks. Maybe he can play some more, what's that video game they like to play?

He and Clinton like to play all the time. TTA? Yeah. More TTA for me and Higgins. All right, more on this with the A team at 2 o'clock. Let's let you hear what Brian Bogussevick said about yesterday's loss and what this Astro team has done through 126 games.

Every Wednesday at 11 o'clock, you can hear for Brian Bogus Sevik here on Sports Talk 7.9. We get to play most of that conversation for you now. And when Brian and I visited a few minutes ago or a couple hours ago, we talked about this team, which is the category for today's edition of believe or not, average things. And unfortunately, the Astros are an average baseball team right now at 63 and 63. and we asked Brian about what it's like to watch the ebbs and flows of a 500 baseball team. It has. And 500 baseball isn't 500 baseball, right?

It's not just winning two out of every four steadily, right? It's the ups and down. Then the frustrating part is you see throughout the course of the season times when everything is clicking and you look really good. Or the offense is really clicking and you say, okay, we got that part of it going. and just these different facets of the game where at any given time is plenty good enough and you get that kind of tease and that carrot dangle that, hey, if we just put this all together, we're going to be fine. But then you look at it on the whole and there's enough downs to counter those ups and you say,

okay, we kind of haven't really figured it out for a long period of time and really put it together. And that's the frustrating part is that you get a taste of it and then it kind of disappears at times. So last night, the pitch count for the Angels, especially among the starter. He was good. I mean, but again, nothing to be thinking of a future Cyanne candidate. Here's the problem yesterday. George Cawson strikes out seven, walks three. So doing the quick math on that, there's a certain number of pitches associated with that.

He goes seven, Brian, with 86 pitches combined. That means of those 10 plate appearances, there were a lot of first and seven. second pitch swing. Why has this become such an issue for the Astros the last couple of weeks? Well, they're a very aggressive team to begin with. You know, there's a lot of guys who it's just in their niche. Jeremy Pena, very aggressive hitter. Jose Al Tuve been an aggressive hitter for 15 years. Yiner Diaz. That's, it's just their style. And to, you know, you try to go through times when, you know, you're trying to see more pitches, trying to make pitchers work a little bit harder. But you also have to let guys be themselves. It's why you try to create balance. It's why you have

and Esock parade is in the order. It's why Yordon is so important because he is a bit more of a patient hitter. And sometimes it just plays out that way. The guy who was throwing last night, he has really good stuff. He's also had some control issues. So you want to be kind of on the lookout for, is he going to be just erratic and not in the zone, in which case we can use that to our favor.

But if he's generally throwing strikes and he's 97, 98, and he's got a good breaking ball. The idea of just sitting around and trying to rack up pitches on somebody like that, you're not doing yourself. You're doing yourself disservice because you're getting behind and you're going to get to those putaways. The issue that you fall into is you can do exactly what happened last night and create a stretch of three, four innings in a row where it goes really quickly.

And he's in and out of those innings, and he gets really comfortable and really gets into a rhythm. And that's what we saw last night. That's the danger of a very aggressive team that you can have all, lot of very quick unions pile up. So, Brian, if this team is where they are at 126 games, as many wins as they have losses, they can go in the clubhouse and look at each other and say, remember, like, I'll give you a good example.

Taylor Tremel against the Padres and the Giants was fantastic. He hasn't seen a hit, I think, since then, it feels like. I mean, a lot of strikeouts. Sometimes you just are who you are, and that's got to be unsettling for those guys looking to each other going, man, I remember when Christian Walker hit that big three-run and Homer Friday night to beat the Mariners. And then I remember the last couple of days, and I'm just using two guys as an example, striking out with bases loaded or with key guys on the base paths.

I mean, if there's something consistent about it is you just can't rely on these guys day and day out. And that's frustrating for a baseball team as trying to stay in this pennant race. It is. But athletes think differently. And there's a lot of, I wouldn't call it, irrational confidence. But when you play a sport as unforgiving as baseball, you go through years and years of being a hitter where you go through slumps where you're going to

struggle, you don't dwell on that stuff. And you're always thinking about the time when you were hot or the time when you were not missing anytime you got a pitch to hit. And, you know, when you have the ups and downs, it never really sits in your head mentally that you're in a downstretch. You're always just one swing away from turning it around. And you have to be. If you're going to go there and just constantly be down on yourself for every slow stretch that you went through. You wouldn't make it through 162 games. So, yes, it's frustrating, and everybody wants to ride out the hot streets as long as possible. But at the same time, once the game starts, once you get to a reel at bat and you're done doing your work for getting ready for the game,

you have to have the confidence that you had when you were going good, even if you're not. Brian Bocosivik with us here on 790. So, Brian, can the hitting coaches, can Joe? can they go to them and say, hey, we're noticing a trend. We're watching guys come in here with low pitch counts getting a lot of outs on first pitch swinging. Is there such a thing as saying, hey, sit back and take a pitch? Or does sometimes, if some guys think that, it changes their mindset overall about their at bat? Well, you have to have context to it.

You know, you have to go back and look at how those games played out and what the pitches were that you were swinging. Just because you swing at a first pitch and get out doesn't mean it's a bat at bat, right? It's what is the pitch that you swung at? Where was it located? What was your mindset? What were you thinking going in? What are scouting court on the guy going in? Now, if you're swinging at first pitch sinkers down and in and just beating them into the ground and rolling over pitches,

then maybe you can go and say, okay, I need an adjustment on what I'm looking for. I need an adjustment on what my approach is. but if you're getting pitches that hit and just missing them and just happen to pop one up or, you know, he hung a slider and I just caught it off the end of the bat a little bit and didn't catch it. That's just the process was fine. Just the result wasn't there. So you really have to take a real hard look at how those at bats played out to determine whether or not the process was good. And if the process was good, you continue to go with it because it can work in the future and it has worked in the past.

but that's something that that's what a hitting coach's job is. That's why they have video rooms. That's why you bring players in and really break down those at bat. One more batting question. I don't mind Cam Smith batting deeper in the lineup. I know he's been hitting better the last few weeks or so. You do want to turn it over to the top of the lineup. That's one thing.

But number two, maybe there is indirectly a little bit of relief that Cam is not always finding himself in position where he's got to get Yord on. home on a play. I mean, obviously he wants to do that every single time, but maybe there's just a little bit of relaxation, a little bit of less angst batting, say, seventh, eighth or ninth as compared to being in the heart of the order. Yeah, it's a balancing act because if a guy starts to heat up a little bit, obviously you want to get him closer to the middle of the order and maximize some of that production. But at the same time, you have to think is where he's hitting in the order have something to do with the success that he has. And it's really difficult to hit in the middle

of an order. And obviously, Yordon is going to be the focus of anybody scouting report when it comes to this lineup. But you start getting into that four or five spot and teams take a little bit more notice or a little bit more careful. You're going to get pitched to a little bit differently. And it's really hard for anybody, let alone a young player, take all of that on. And it's kind of a fine line that you have to walk, especially now that Cam's bat has heated up and that the offensive production just as a whole is down. Are we going to be able to get the same amount of production if we put them into the middle? And that's just, you know, that's what managers do.

That's the manager's job is to figure out where heat fits best. All right. Now to Ethan Pecco is going to make his major leg. Sorry, we're going to, you're going to save the Ethan Pecco for later. I'm sorry. We've got to get to break. We get to play, believe it or not. Thanks again to Brian Bogussevick for joining us here on the program.

713-212-790. if you want to play believe it or not. That's 713-212-5-790. We were talking, unfortunately, about the average Astros team this season at 63 and 63. I'm going to have a bunch of things about being average and you have to believe them or not on whether it is considered average. We're playing for some above-average prizes today on today's edition of Believe it or Not,

and that will include the following. I was losing my prizes. Where did my prizes go? Oh, here it is. I've got tickets to see Santana and the Doobie Brothers this Friday. I'll be at that concert if you want to go to that. Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster.com and that's Friday, August 21st at the Willens Pavilion.

Or you can get a pair of tickets to see Leonard Skinner on the Double Vision Double Trouble Tour. Oh, did I send you, believe it or not yet? That's a good question. It is America's fast-growing game. Tomorrow on the show, we are going to... Oh, and I send it right now, no, don't I? Tomorrow on the show we've got, I just don't get it tomorrow. Tomorrow on the show we've got Brian McTaggart.

I'm efforting a member of the Las Vegas media who is a radio OG. I put it that way. So we'll have that for you tomorrow on the show. And I don't think the Texans will have a idea on who their replacement is. I mean, I know they're going to go replace somebody. It may be street for agent. It may be waiver wire claim. I doubt it would be a trade.

And to the point of we were talking about, what's his face, Bouté from Booty, Boutte, whatever, from New England. Somebody just sent me a text on this or tweet. Why would the Patriots want to help? That would be against their best interest. Because last time I checked, the Patriots believe the Texans would be a legitimate Super Bowl contender. And you're not going to try to replace them by having one of your guys try to help you beat them. So we will get to that on the show tomorrow.

Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game. Shall we simply call it B, believe it or not? And here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

Today's edition of Believe or not is, is this average? If it is, you'll say this. Believe it. If it's not, you'll say this. Two believe it or nots in a row when you either tickets to see Santana and the Dubies this Friday, which I'll be going to,

Doing my best Michael McDonald impersonation. You know, Oh, you tell me a little thing you're going to do for me. You don't know me. Continue. Hi, Adam. Or see tickets, see Leonard, Schindernard and Foreigner. That's August 27th.

By the way, Adam's got a little white in his beard today. I like it. I've had this for like two years now. I haven't paid attention. Let's play. 713-212-5-790 Brett. On 790 Brett, you ready to play, believe it or not? Hey, what's going on, fellas?

I'm ready to go. Brad, good luck to you. The average person's IQ is 100. Believe it or not? Not. It is. See, it works out well here because my IQ is 120. Adam Klan's 80, so thus the average of 100.

Let's continue. Victor on 7.90, Victor, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. The average gallon of gasoline this week, $4.36. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, it's $4.9. It seems I was surprised by that.

Spencer on 790, Spencer, your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show. I'm a late listener. I've been at the dog park for the last hour. I'm sorry. You know, at least you're honest with being for that. I thank you. The average male weight size is 40.6 inches.

Believe it or not. I would go lower, so not. It's a believe it, which means we're a bunch of fat asses. My biggest weight size ever was 44. I'm at a 34 now. Let's continue. Nick on 790, Nick, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it, brother.

Nick, for 2026, the average family income in the United States is about $134,296. Believe it or not. Man, where are they? Not. That's a believe it. Clint makes more. than that, so he's above the average. Good for him. Proud of you. Ron on

7.Di. Ron, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Average rainfall in Houston in August is 7.36 inches. Believe it or not? Not. That is right. It's 5.13. Statement number two for the win. The global average typing speed for an adult

is about 40 words per minute with roughly 92% accuracy. Believe it or not? Believe it. That's correct. Congratulations. Jamie on 790, Jamie, your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show. Target over seven. The national average salary for a physical therapist is about $87,440. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, it's $100,440, but thank you for playing.

Last one belongs to Michael on 790. Michael. You're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. The average life expectancy at birth for a woman in the United States is about 81.4 years. Believe it or not? Believe it. That is correct. Congratulations. Adam Clayton says Teresa will live longer than that.

She will. If she doesn't, she's going to stalk me as a ghost. The ghost of Teresa. Hey, let me remind you about what's going on with Serta Pro Painters. If your home is your happy place, and if you're looking to make it more joyful, time for a refresh, you turn to Sertrter Pro Painters. Free estimates, reliable communication, and professional service, all at the right price. Free estimate online at SertorPro.com that Serta with a C. They have 70,000 five-star reviews.

So if you want to be in good hands with getting your paint job done properly, get with SertaPro.com. Each Sertrter Pro Painter's business is independently owned and operated and get that free estimate now by going to Sertrero Pro. com that's serta c-a-t-a-p-r-o-serta with-a-c dot com all right up next it is clinton and it's wexler they will have the a team two o'clock until six i'll have astros on deck and the 10th inning because those two gibonies don't do it very often but i do here on sports talk 790