The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Get Blown Out In The First Game vs Tigers, Should We Worry? Extensive 53 Man Roster Breakdown.

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Astros Get Blown Out In The First Game vs Tigers, Should We Worry? Extensive 53 Man Roster Breakdown.

the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Good morning and welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Here's the 3-2. Get well again. This one to right field. Camp Smith back and that one's gone. He kept this one fair and it's 1-0 Detroit.

I tell a joke or two. Keep inside I'm blue. So take a girl. Green 0 for 2 first pitch and green hits this high the year pretty deep to right Smith is back and he will watch that one go Riley Green with a two-run homer and just like that it is 5-0 Tigers one out men on first and second it's a two-two count to Sweeney here's the pitch and it's driven to right field back goes Smith he looks up and it's ten rows deep

goes deep. That's a three-run homer for Detroit. Fans rise to their feet. First pitch. Diaz hits it in the air. Shallow right center. Going out Torres, coming in, Jones and the right fielder Perez. It's Perez who makes the catch, and that is

the ball game. Astros shut out for a third time in the last four days. As the Tigers beat him 10-0. Astros haven't scored in their last 18 innings. This is an old timer And then I thought about Ross

We're playing a song about a guy Who's now being accused of sexually molesting his maids Oh yeah, I forgot about that Can we not have just normal St. America in 2005? Come on now I forgot about that You support the arts, not the artist Matt Yeah

I got a lot of that going on I saw a Michael Jackson Cirque de Soleil in Vegas a few years back And I Yes It was fantastic and his music's amazing just he had a dark and creepy life. Well, I think they were lying on him

personally on that one. But anyways, that's another story for another time. Well, hopefully the things about smoky aren't accurate either, but apparently his wife's involved in the mix, too. She was complacent. What does that mean? Complicit, excuse me. Oh. Maybe complacent and complicit.

Yeah, I guess. All right, anyways. How about them Astros, baby? Woo! All right. runs in 18 innings and Terrick Scoobel on the mound

today. Don't say how we're feeling. Don't do it. How we feel? Don't you say I asked you don't have to do it. Just wondering. You know what? Just asking. Jonathan, get the A.O. song ready. Somebody's requesting for Aos. Literally it is to start the show. Well, I mean, we got to get him out of the way. It's not a matter of if it when. Oh, Lord. Yeah, I mean, I got to do what the people ask. Hmm. They want AOs. I got to

to give me aos, right? You got to do what you got to do. No, you're supposed to program the show, Matt. Oh, sorry. The listeners. Although you need to program it for the listeners, which you do a great job. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. All right. Yeah, God, was it ugly? And then the power went out here. We got lightning strikes. I was worried about you. You were? I didn't get struck by lightning. No, but I was very, I didn't want you to monologue for like 30 minutes. I did monologue for a while. We were off air. Oh, you did? I had this beautiful, eloquent, flowery, poetic opening. about the peaks and valleys in life and the peaks and valleys in 162 game season.

And I tied it all together beautifully with the intro of the show and then Joshie goes, you're off air. Because I was listening on the IHeart Radio app. Yeah, we went to Fox. We were in Fox radio. Nothing. And then you heard two commercials going at the same time. I'm like, oh, hell, something's going wrong over there. I mean, we've had producers that are bad like that, but I mean,

not currently. Of course, not currently. Jonathan hasn't double-sourced in mini-moons. He's doing great. Yeah, I've asked for AOs, and he's looking for him. He's got it. It's right there. Well, fire him off until let's go. Let's go. He's waiting for you.

Let's do it. 13 hours ago. Astros' Twitter. Tigers 10, Astros, nothing. 109 retweets. Good God. 255 likes and 307 comments. There's also a tweet at Sports Talk 790 put out about improving the offense, which has a lot of responses.

If you want to check that one out. Here we go. Hey. Oh! Let's. go. A.O. Let's go. Astros over. Reaction. Right here. In 790.

I haven't even looked at these. I don't, oh, we got to fire a spot a picture. That's from at the Pac-Man. Okay. JFC, Chas is now in our starting rotation. At FCBM 885, a spot is not a winning manager. I don't care where anyone says. Let's see here. Dr. Karen says she switched to the Phillies game. It was more fun to watch. I thought the Astros played today.

Seems like I was watching a rerun of yesterday's game, except there was a different team. David Morant 48, Hesu Sanchez, now a nifty O for his last 24. Oh, my God. That guy's muted. He's the worst. Let's see. I'm looking here. Embarrassing says Rocket E.N. BNCN.

at Astros Fan 201 Call the AAA guys back up This major league roster needs a boost Oh my God By the way Logan Van Way has been called up Oh yeah so we're all good Yeah I'll read you some from these What can the Astros do to get the bats going again

Sim Cam and Melton to AAA Bench Sanchez Okay if you send Cam Smith and Jacob Melton to AAA and Bench Sanchez You're playing with two off-fielers Who's on the team? Two outfielers Who's on the team?

Don't use Yiner as D-H He's not a great catcher. Why wouldn't you use it at DH? Dana blew it with a bad trade period and didn't get a pitcher. The ship is sinking. Crane should fire a spot and Dana to shake things up and salvage the season.

This is brilliancies from these people. Speaking of, did you say Facebook or where would you find yours? This is on Sports Talk 790's Twitter. Our good friend Chris Gordy put, the Astros have been shut out in three of the last four games. What can they do to get the offense going again? It's got 95 replies. There's a pick of Yordon. That's funny.

somebody said start the 2026 season that's so I went to the Facebook page for the Leoko says forced the pitchers to actually hitters to actually take pitches I swear this team swings at nearly every pitch first A-B of the game folks Jeremy Payne took strike one and two down the pipe

he's down O and two it's not that easy this is not high school whereas your high school coach tells you to take a couple pitches because you got a 50-50 shot of them throwing them throwing a ball. It's major leagues, folks. Major league baseball.

The funniest thing I saw last night was on our Facebook page. Same question. How do you improve the asteros? Actually, that guy got a point, but go ahead. He said, for those of you not paying attention, which is apparently Sports Talk 790, isn't there a stomach bug

going around the clubhouse right now? Of course, nobody stopped to think about that. Let's see one of you go to work and perform 100% when you got the blanks. I Belly laughed Honestly I'm kind of buying into that Jeremy Pena was sick

Christian Javier has an illness The whole team's got the runs And not That's why they're not getting runs Well wouldn't that make them faster on the base pass No the runs are going to the playoffs I mean into the bathroom I don't know Matt

This is upsetting Here we go Fire Dana Brown Score points that's funny I imagine they're trolls A couple more here. Still in first, LOL. That's from Texan 2 Step 73.

Oh, now everybody's got the revisionist history that they should have traded against Aragetti for CIS. Arrogati is under team control until 2029. Dillon CIS was a rental. We're going to have a shut your bum ass up on a Tuesday. At Jelly Astros' Poverty Team. Oh, no. Now, they're not a POT.

Okay, two World Series since 2017 is not Poverty Franchise. Joe bum ass up. I'm getting angry now. When can we DFA, Espada and Cintron? Firing the hitting coach. Fire the hitting coach. Fire Joe. Got tickets to the wrong park. Zoo trip tomorrow since all of you want to watch Tigers run the bases? Hmm.

Crazy what happens when you don't plan a little league ballpark. That's from a Tigers fan. Fire the hitting coaches. Good God. David Morant, your buddy. I can't wait to see the post game presser where a spot a says he loves how his guys are battling when it's obvious as hell they're mailing it in

with almost every inning being under 10 pitches. That dude maybe doesn't even be more muted. Why, I can just do it, please. I'm asking you to do me a favor, man. I don't ask a lot of you. You do actually quite a bit? No, I don't. Okay.

He'll mute that guy. Houston Sports muse says sell the team. That is a miserable human being. Maybe he's very affable. Maybe he's got a family of six. No, I think a lot of these people are miserable human beings. That's a, but that's another discovery. for another time unless you want to have it right now.

One more. I wish we could say suck, but that would mean we were doing something. That'd make much sense. Sucking is something. A man Thompson, keep up the good work guys? That's Thompson with the zero, not the real amendment Thompson. Oh, the real amendment Thompson isn't getting into the mentions of the Houston Astros? By the way, again, massive shout out to C.J. Stroud. He's cursed him.

The Mariners are 0 and 3. Yeah, you should be thanking C.J. Stroud. Thanks. Many blessing. Thank you, Farmer. You know, Farmer's on 20. Queen in a handful of days. Well, maybe that's a good sign.

Since he started a Twitter account, he's been horrible. I got to get those notifications up. Although it was a quality starter Friday, as I called. And not quality defense. Quality start, though. Not quality backup job. Quality is quality start. Quality throwing.

I didn't say he was going to have quality defense. You had never heard, you'd have never heard me say he's going to have quality defense. Let's go. Hey, oh, let's go. Astros, over. Reaction. You just heard it.

on 7.90. All right. I have to a rip-roin. Start here, gang. Okay, you intimately watched the game because you were doing the 10th inning show. Did I miss it? I mean, I was in and out, honestly, did you miss anything? Erigetti got out of a basis load of jam early. There was a bunch of people like,

they're not even trying, they don't even care. Jacob Mountains, like, flying around center field. Carlos Correa had a nice play that he made. Honest to double play, yeah. six out of your nine starters went over at the plate. Everybody was upset that Jesus Sanchez was bad in cleanup instead of Christian Walker. I can probably dig into that. I think the Jesus Sanchez upper half of the lineup bit is kind of running scores.

But then if you wanted Christian Walker there, he's on an O for 21. Christian Walker was like on a one for 15. Yeah, right. He's now eight straight games. He's not at a home run. A hit, yeah. No, I'm talking about Walker at home runs. Oh, a home run or anything.

Okay, Walker. So, yeah, Walker was on a 1 for 15, and Sanchez has better OPS numbers against Ritey's than Christian Walker does. So that's that. And it doesn't, it didn't matter. Karatini's not been great. Yiner Diaz went over for Cam Smith, Melton. So, yeah, I understand being like, Hey, Sue Sanchez is not a cleanup hitter. No, he's not, but nobody was hitting.

They've been shut out in three of their last four games. So it doesn't matter whichever way you want to shuffle the deck. So that was the only time I was getting angry at somebody because he was being so smug about it. The guy was? Yeah, anyways. It's fine. We've been polite audience. It's fine.

It's going to be the mantra. 22 to nothing the last two games. Deep breath. Deep breath, after fans, remember the, you know what I feel bad for was Robert Ford last night. Why?

You know he does as the game recap? And they only play positive highlights. Well, you had a couple of defensive plays, like I said. He didn't play them, though. He just monologued. I didn't notice that.

Yeah. He monologued. Which is, you know, when the, look, when the Rockets get their butts beat, unfortunately, it happens. We do play a couple of amazing plays in their side because it's the game story. No, but they don't get, you don't get shut out in basketball, thankfully. That's true. There are some, there are some calls.

Like, I was pretty amazing. And in one of the games, when the Rockets, like, four years ago, had Christian Wood was their best player, and then we're getting beat by 40 at Oklahoma City. We played a Christian Wood highlight. Rockets down 31. 309 left to go in the third. It happens. All right, let's get after it.

guys need to talk it out we're here for you we're we are your therapist you get two therapists for the price of zero we're not even charging you to come in and be a there and what do you all need what's your copay we can really you know we could do let's try the next segment here of the show okay in a therapist voice I think everybody kind of knows what therapist's voice no how about we get I think you should let it all out for a couple segments and then we do we do soothing okay so what do you think you want to do right now you want to have as angry as you get yes and brimstone for a couple segments, but then we need to chill. Okay.

All right. Well, Ross says it was. Because you need to release and confront these emotions, Matt. Hmm. Okay. So, we're going to backhaul the cathartic part. Fire and brimstone, right? If you don't have fire and brimstone right now for the local nine, we don't want to hear from you.

If you do have fire and brimstone and you're completely irrational, you're welcome to call. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-9. All right, next two segments, fire and brimstone. I mean, you got to be mad. You got to be irrational. You have to be basically a 10th inning caller. And then we are going to...

So you're saying this is how this effectiveness goes in the therapy world. I don't know. Well, I mean, it sounds reasonable. I was going to try to calm the waters down, but we're going to incite people in the next 30 minutes. I think you can let it all out, and then we can calm down. You know, peaks and valleys, Matt. I don't know.

Okay. But you don't have to come in, you don't have to scream. Most everybody was pretty chill on the postgame last night. I was actually shocked. I only had one bad caller. It was you. No, it's funny, you were struggling for calls until I called in. The show had just started.

And I had somebody on hold. Go ask Josh see how the impact of me being on the 10th inning show helps. That's because you beg for callers harder than anybody. Oh, yeah, yeah. I love that time. I know why? Because it's a 10th inning show. I'm not going to sit there in monologue for half an hour.

If we don't want to talk outside of baseball, I'm going to go night night. I'll watch Lauren Shihadding his black skirt. Oh, my God, this is me crazy. I'm going to turn this off. We have lost you for the show. Oh, my Lord. God, black leather skirt is not fair for Matthew. By the way, I got...

I'm trying to get them focused here, folks. You ready for this? No, I'm not. I got sent to me from one of my childhood friends. You know my buddy, Ed. Yes. A photo, an Instagram of Tiffany Amber Theson eating a piece of cake completely naked. Yeah.

How was I supposed to... How is I supposed to watch the rest of the game with that in front of me? I'm trying to figure out the connection your brain made to feel the need to say that on air. You want to see it? Let me show it to you. No, I don't want to. You don't think a hot woman eating a piece of cake is something worth discussing? Right, but we came back. We're talking about Astros. Here, look at this.

She's wearing clothes. Is this AI? No. She got the cake in front of her. Tell me that's not. Wait, she's wearing clothes. Oh, no, she's not. Your microphone is covering your phone.

I can't see it. The cake's behind her. Oh, you look like she was wearing a dress. Yeah, she's not. Tiffany Amber. She could be wearing a bikini. I mean, I don't care. She is an all-timer.

She's number one and number two in the list. How do you move it up that ranking so? Ooh. Okay. So the Astros fell, 10-0. Fire and Brimstone. Here we go. if you're a rational phone caller save it to 1050

if you're completely rational and absurd and want to fire everybody let's go to the phones and talk to people we'll start with matt on 790 hi matt guys I hate that I'm first because honestly I don't have fire and brimstone for you that's good actually and maybe with a little reason a little perspective on this team I gotta say coming into this season I didn't expect much from this group with all the players that they lost. And it's to me incredible that at this point in the season,

there's somehow still a game and a half in first place. And I remember getting to the All-Star break when they were like 20 games over 500, just texting people, friends of mine that watch the Stroes, and just saying, how are they winning these games? Because you look at the guys they're running out there, and it's just not adding up. And so for half the season, I think they overperform. And now for about a month, we've been on the opposite end of the spectrum.

But I called to say, I don't think they're as good as we saw for the first half of the season. And I don't think they're as bad as we're seeing right now. There's somewhere in the middle. And I think what we're witnessing is water finding its level with this group. But, I mean, I look at the lineup last night. And after Al-Tube, it's just not that good. I mean, they're about three guys deep. The starting staff, you've got two proven guys you can count on.

Everybody else is either working back from injury or somebody we had never heard of until this year. And the bullpen is just decimated. You've got one guy with a track record right now, Abraeu, and other guys that we're finding out what they are right now. But I think at the end of the day, if this group can make the playoffs, win the division, that's great. but my eyes are on just making the playoffs and if they don't you know it's kind of what i expected going in thanks for taking my call thank you matt that was level-headed i hated that call that was thoughtful uh-huh that was not over-analytical that wouldn't fire anybody what that's not what we're talking about here come on matt be better it didn't make me feel good about the

team though by the way taylor scott i mean my god all joe a spot has said to you is please go eat innings. We've got nobody, no high leverage guys. Please go eat innings and try to keep things close. One and two thirds, five hits, five runs, two walks, one strikeout, and two home runs

surrendered. He's paying homage to the station. You know what? He was so certainly when he was with us that one year. It's almost like it's a curse. You see his ERA? 790. We don't want

pitcher's having that ERA. We would like to see batting averages there. I would take an OPS and be very happy. Slug would be amazing. ERA is not what I'm looking for. It's not great. Well, the good news is you were on the road so you didn't have to piece together a ninth inning of pitching.

You only had to get eight and Chaz took one of those. I mean, tattooing is a strong term. They were tattooing him. he's going to be released from three he's going to release three times in one season twice by one team Tanner Scott's not long for this team no he's not long for the major leagues no he's long for the savannah bananas I we're not doing I just don't get it this week okay I just don't get the bananas and we've been there we've done that already have we okay I just wanted to make sure I was not but you can still you can continue not get it I understand they were on the other day and I

get that you don't get it do you get it I get it I get it I get it I get it that you don't get it. Do you get it? No, I don't get it. I mean, I guess I kind of get it. Kids like it and that's... Well, I mean, it's basically when I was a kid, I loved the Harlem Globetterners. I love the Harlem Globetarves. So maybe it's just the baseball version of them. Oh, there's a confetti on them. I didn't realize it. Demonstrated such emotion from you. 713, 212.57 on a more irrational phone callers and then, Jonathan, you've got 20 minutes to find us a... I'll find it. Okay, a cathartic song you'd have No, we hear the music.

Why you're getting a massage? No, yeah. We got it. What? Okay. We're not giving massages on the air. You get massages all the time. You're an athlete, right?

Well, I get, you get rolled out, I guess. Excuse me? What? You get rolled out? What are you rolling out? You don't know what that is? Yeah, Jonathan, you're always getting, yeah, Jonathan. What are you rolling out?

Yeah, you like to get stretched out. That's cool. I don't know how to guide this. He's so exasperate in there. He's very mad at us. there. Ross v. Real here in Sports Talk 790 and I wasn't sure

if we're starting the relaxing segment now or if we're doing it later because honestly I wasn't paying attention to what Matt Thomas was saying. And sometimes it's best to admit

your own faults. A big fault of mine is quite frankly tuning out to anything Matt Thomas has to say. We're going to roll with this right now because we've got some nice, soothing, relaxing music. And we're looking to be a release for you, a calming force to where you can mindfully calm down. Yes, I'm a stay to you as well. So if you'd like to get in on the phone lines and you have some things you're going to,

need to get out about the Houston Astros because it's been horrible. The good news is they're in first place. They have 69 wins. And they still sit in the catbird seat to make the playoffs and possibly challenge for another American League pennant. But there's no way to sugarcoat it. Things aren't going well right now for the Astros. But I want to remind you that in baseball,

much like in life there are peaks and valleys. There are good times and they're bad times. And one of the ways that we can embrace the good times and feel them even more is to experience the bad times. Bad times let you know and let you calibrate and let you feel how good and how high the good times can actually be.

And right now, The Astros are giving you some horrible times. They haven't scored a run in three out of four games, which they haven't done in 20 years. They're testing us right now. Our fortitude and our resolve to stay invested in a team that continues to whiff and strike out and hit into constant double plays and look completely hapless at the plate in situations with runners in scoring position. But it's going to turn, folks. Things will get better.

Things get darkest before the dawn, even though that's actually not scientifically true at all. So we're looking for things to get better. If you have something you want to get out, whether it be positive or negative, at the end of the day, we just want to say we embrace you and we welcome you with open arms. Are you a psychologist or a psychiatrist? 713-212-5-790. I'm not licensed for either right now, so I'm not going to declare myself either of those

because I don't want to get sued. So you can't write a prescription? 713-212. So you're just like basically a counselor. 5-790. You got a Ph.D. and nothing that really matters. Yes.

Okay. Much like, does Tony Robbins have a Ph.D. in anything? So basically I'm talking like the Delilah here. And give a bunch of platitudes. Maybe she called Delilah. She gives good advice at night on Sunny. Yeah, she does.

He's got a great soothing voice, playing the soft hits that you love. And then she puts on a Celine Dion song and says, live with it. Oh, great. We have some people wanting to get in. Therapy is in session. You can keep the music up. Is Stunner got to be calm? You're doing a great job.

You know what, by the way, Jonathan? It's great to see your voice. And we see your wonderful, smiling face. You really bring a light to our lives here at Sports Talk 790. I appreciate you. You've been average. I really would appreciate it. some more anticipation, but other than that, you've been fine.

Matt Thomas is a hater, and you've got to have a positive attitude sitting next to him in a chair for as long as I have. Fifteen years. Let's go. Oh, God, I'm going to... You know what, I'm not going to throw up. You can't, because you're Mr. Positive. You're having a great time. I'm happy to be here. I sit in front of a microphone and talk Houston Sports and they give me money.

Jonathan, I will reiterate. You can keep the music up. Thank you. See, you got to have three. That's okay. Hold on. I was getting callers. Yeah, he's getting callers. He's very busy. back there. You know, Jonathan doesn't know this, but in the old days you would have a board operator, somebody who booked guests and did pitch show ideas, and somebody

who answered phones. Now he has to do all of that. And an hourly wage. And we pay him less than a Burger King Fry cook, but that's okay. We appreciate him. Wopper Jr. sounds good right now. A Wopper Jr. does sound good. I mean, you'll eat it. I know as I preferred, but

the mayonnaise really hits well on that burger. Before we start in earnest, I think we should just take at least one quick deep breath, Matt, in through the nose. Out through the mouth. And you can even let out a deep sigh when you do that. You sure don't have something? I can take the pressure.

You can prescribe something to take the edge off? Let the stress and anxiety melt off of you. This is good because this has been frustrating. You got a migraine right now? Okay, well, just for you, Jonathan, one more deep breath in through the nose. Out through the mouth with a little sigh. Thank you. Can Ross buy you lunch today make you feel better?

I'd love to buy you lunch, Jonathan. If you want it, let's do it. I bought my lunch, but I mean, if you guys were willing to him. Oh, thank God. I was bluffing. You didn't call my bluff. I'm going on vacation. I need every dollar I can save.

Stunna, welcome to the office, my friend. What's on your mind? What's so, Matt, Russ? Hey, man. Hey, Stunner. I hope you're having a beautiful Tuesday. That same deep breath, they cake. That's four is a strike three.

I mean, you got Christian Walker, getting a double but ready to single. How'd hell do that happen? He's very slow. He would have been for a first. out at second, Stunna. He would have been thrown out. He was, he's very slow. Oh, he would have been yelling

about how slow he was. It would not have been a stand-up double. It hit right off the, it carimed. It was played perfectly by the left-fielder. He would have been thrown out. And then he was standing at, man, he would have been on second. Then they turned around at a double play. I mean, a spotter, he's got to run out there with a good one. Yeah, exactly. They hit a double play anyways, and they would have maybe scored one run and they had lost 10 to 1 instead.

It doesn't matter. But go ahead, Stunner. Hey, give me one run. I mean, just give me one run. Is that we're looking for you all? One run? Hey, they haven't gotten one in two games. I'm sorry, hold on. No, you know what?

You're not. You're a fraud. I've scored one run in two games. Oh, my God. You know what? You need anger management. You're the one running this course. Sorry, go ahead.

Sorry. I'm already leaving a VA. I'm already leaving a VA for PTSD. I don't need no more that crap. Yeah, I know. Thanks, son of him. I don't need them more that crap. I know.

I know. You know what you need? You need the NBA and NBC. Yeah. By the way, you know I've been looking at? We need some emotional support runs. You know what I've been looking at lately that's really helping me during these rough times? Tiffany Amber Thiessen with no close on?

That plus the AI videos of baby speaking. You've been watching those? Matt, please. Don't be like my... Don't be like, don't be grandpa. No, I look at the ones that are foul. Grandpa's doing those too. As a young kids say that, you're looking at brain rot.

brain rot, man. Oh my God, your phone is brain rot. AI is rotting your brain. I love it. I am addicted to AI. Matt, let's get your screen time under six hours a day. I don't think it's spot. With the Astros, not scoring runs, that's not going to happen.

Let's get you touching grass. You don't think, when was the last time you went for a walk? Yesterday. You don't think those babies on the AI aren't funny? I don't count walking to your fridge, Matt. Reagan's with us on 7 out of 1042. Hello, Reagan. Hello, how you doing, guys?

Wonderful. Reagan, I hope you're having a beautiful Tuesday, and I'm wishing you peace and love. Oh, I am. With our Astros rotation, it's not giving much peace right now. Who is y'all's top four playoff rotation if we make the playoff? If, I mean, I'm just not having much confidence after Hunter Brown. Hunter Brown is not really going as much as it used to. Oh, Frommers, don't get me going on Frommer, but that boy, Jason Alexander, he's doing great,

but I don't know when he's going back to comedy from Seinfeld, but we don't have much after those three. Oh, man, this is hurting my head. Well, I know it's going to hurt your head, and it might hurt your heart to hear this. Right now, as of this moment, Jason Alexander's your playoff rotation. By the way, there's no more Seinfeld references. You can only reference him in St. Ace. Exactly.

Seinfeld references are fun when he's giving up five runs and four innings. But when he's out there giving quality starts, put some respect on that man's man. Let me tell you, if you besmirch him, bad things are going to happen to you. Like, he will not go six innings to give up just one run. Come on, folks. Respect who he is right now.

The man's got a life too. And he's tired of 1990s television references. And he's embraced it because you don't really have any other choice when your name is Jason Alexander. Yeah, it's more of his parents. Kind of like Seth Beer back in the day. Like, yeah, they're going to make beer jokes. It is what it is.

Yeah. Poor guy. Now he's like, I think he's playing in Okinawa. I believe he's in a beer league softball league. Ooh, did I do that? Sorry about that. James and Rod, hang tight. Now, what?

I think, laughing through the pain. That's all you can do in life. I'm telling you, the- turn into the skid. The AI baby videos can cure a lot of them. All right, please. that's just a sweet release, Matt. It is. That's what I'm saying. You need to confront these emotions.

I'm not asking you to watch this for Academy Award material. You need to not run away. And AI slop is taking away from real artists. And by the old people talking about having sex? That's pretty funny too. Oh, yeah. It's a real laugh riot. Real knee-slappers over there, Matt. The babies are actually funny than the old people are. Just saying. The great part is both you know what I'm talking about.

So it means you're watching them. No, I'm not watching them. but I've seen them. No. Yeah, you are. Jonathan, you are. I've had them sent to me, and I'm thumbsing down them. Jonathan, when you're with a girl at night and she's like, oh, this is so cute.

You're like, yeah, girl, it is. I know you, Jonathan. We don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We don't watch no AI videos. No. Yeah, you do. I'm going to watch AI videos after I tell you about Uptown appliance repair.

All right, yeah. You know what? Tell us about Uptown appliance repair because you know it can be very stressful, Matt. Ross and Matt with you here. We've got gut feelings at 1130. We have the news at noon. Joe Espott is with us at 1230. today. That'll be a real peach. What do we so say? I'm sorry? I mean, I don't know really,

I mean, honestly, I feel like every time we do an interview, we've got some questions lined up ready to go. What am I supposed, what are we supposed to say? What are we supposed to say? What's right out of the gate? How you doing? How's Detroit? See, you know what? How's Detroit this time of I almost feel like I want Robert Ford to go to the hot dog spite store for me. Oh, okay.

There's two Tony Islands next to each other. And I wanted to figure out which ones is the best. One is when they insult you? Oh, no, the Spite Store. I know what you're talking about. Never mind. Yeah, Spite Store is two Coney Island hot dog places

literally sharing a wall. It's the number one spite store in America. Okay. Because a lot of places, like you'll see a coffee place in the same strip center, but it'll be like two or three down. They literally are next to each other. And when I go to Detroit later in this year, I'll be eating a hot dog from both. Really?

Chili? Cheese, onions, relish? Give me the whole damn thing. Okay. I miss. Ram's Rornie Island. I haven't been in years. Well, it's like, yeah, you walk out of there.

You're like, why don't I just spend 18 bucks on two hot dogs? I mean, their prices are really, really high. And when they do the discount days, it's $6. 50 people deep. And I ain't got time for 84 cents hot dogs. They're going to pay for the chili. They're going out of business. Yeah. Hot dog stands are kind of more of a thing of the past, especially brick and mortar ones. Yeah. Let's up our bet to add on a Rames Rorne Island. How's, what do you mean? How's Kyle Tucker doing these days? He didn't play. He's not playing. He's been giving some time off. Oh, that's good. Did he get booed? Yeah. Oh, hell. Yeah, he did. Oh, yeah. I mean, come on. He hit it right to the first basement and didn't leg it out. People were all upset.

Don't worry, Jonathan. I'll be taking pictures from our from our Harbachi and I'll be showing the bill or sports RV. Yes, I don't know, RV. This is a, this bed doesn't look good. I'm not worried about it. You should be. People I trust think that I have the best side. The person that you trusted last year by Bregman,

you went to losing that bad. I've talked to multiple people. I've multiple people. He ain't getting any years. Everyone is on my side. So I'm at least on the right side of history and we'll see how it goes. Okay. You've been the right side of that. check. Everyone's like, man, Matt's

what is he thinking? No, I'm just kidding. James on seven, speaking of Coney Island, hello James. In New York. Namaste. Namaste. Namaste. Surremy now. Namaste, my friend. This game,

I was looking forward to this matchup literally for weeks. When I saw it on the calendar, I was like, I'm going to try and go to that game. I tried to talk my wife into it and some other stuff came up. I was like, all right, well, at least we're going to go out to dinner and we'll watch the game together and we had to turn it off and went to the sixth inning. And then I started

drinking and so now I'm at the beach. I called out sick. I've got my Astros gear on. I'm at the beach a little hammered. But I want to say, what if what if this is the bottom? You know, what if this is the bottom of everything that we've experienced

coming all the way through this series this season with all of the losses, the injuries, everything? And what if now we get to fire off. You know, like, we have stripped the Space City Cowboys down to the hubs and the windshield wipers, and now maybe we get a few these guys back, and that, you know, new light shines in the, in the locker room, and everybody just gets going again. I feel like this is it. This is the

bottom. How much worse could it possibly get? I can't imagine it getting any worse. Well, the worst thing again, thank you for the phone call. sorry you're not feeling well. Hashtag Brew flu. I think he's in Orlando. I don't think he's in New York. I think he was in New York one time. Okay. Big me New York for a guy. It's got a New York accent. The bottom is that they don't make the playoffs. Yeah. They're in the playoffs. And by the way, last time I checked, they have a game and a half lead in the division.

They're in first place. First place. Let's go. If the playoffs began, we'd be raising another division banner. That's crazy. Now, we'll see what happens. I do have word that Jim Crane's like, if we win this division going 80 to 80, we're not getting, you're not getting champagne. You're getting like a Mikul of Ultra. Well, they get those anyways. It's true.

Sponsor. Oh, that's right. They're getting food punch. Rudd risers. Red risers, Rick Rulchas and red lights. Mm-hmm. Or they're getting sprayed into my face. Blitz, malt liquor kicka.

No, they're not getting schlitz, Matt. Guess who still has the weakest schedule remaining between the C-Santis? Seattle Mariners in the Houston Astros. Is this still the Astros? Yep. Yeah, but they're counting four against Baltimore who beat the Astros 2 out of 3. They're counting that. Yeah, exactly.

You've got to fight back, maybe. All right. We're fighting. Our buddy Wes is going to join us at the top of the hour. Wonderful. We have gut feelings at 1130. Would you like? Can I take this week off?

Can I read Rex's tweets? Read Wex's tweets? Why? I mean, he is. endlessly tweeting at Texans practice today. That's good. Is this a football town, Maddie? Well, it might be pretty quick if this team continues its struggles.

Of course, it's a baseball town now. It is a baseball town. But if the Texans had won two Super Bowls and been to, what was it, seven straight AFC championship games at our show above the helicopter, in a helicopter, because we wouldn't be a lot on the hello grounds. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 1103, Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Tauber show with Ross

watching Kyle Tucker highlights and how he's mailing it in. Defensively is doing okay. Still having a plus season. Yeah. I mean the OPA, I believe his OPS Plus still 138, which is really good. I think that would be leading active Astros?

Are you kidding me? Maybe Jeremy Payne might be up there. Yeah. Okay, Joe Spott adjoins us at 1230. Great. We're going to read, we're going to read We're going to read We're He's tweets in 17 minutes. Got to mix things up a little bit.

I do want to give you one NFL note. You do? Oh, what was I going to tell you? I don't know. We met Joe Flacko's going to start for the Cleveland Browns. We found out of that yesterday. Daniel Jones will be starting for the Colts in their opener. Over Anthony Richardson.

Yeah. Let me ask. Colts fan. Seriously, Colts fan. I'm going to pat myself on the back for talking about that Anthony and Richard Hudson height at the beginning of last year and how it was ridiculous.

Thank God Thomas Sports Enterprise does not endorse him. Yeah. That'd have been a bad loss on my part. He was more with Will Levis who sucked and then now hurt. Yeah. But he's going to be better wherever he plays next year. The reality is this.

Jacksonville, to me, is the team that might be a little scary. But really, if the Texans don't win this division, what, by at least two games, it will be a massive failure. And look, their defense is going to probably win them six games by themselves. So if the Texans offense can be just pedestrian rows. I mean, I'm saying as average as average gets, some sort of running game, Nico Collins putting up comp numbers, Christian Kirk being healthy, C.J. Straub being upright,

they're going to find themselves with at least 10 wins this year. Yes, they are. Arionte Ursary's making plays already, looking good, not allowing pressures. They look like they're doing with a lot of quick passing game. Now, of course, it's just preseason. We'll see how it goes in there. Joe Mixin needs to get healthy. By the way, I'm going to be three for three on my Texans predictions. We'd like to hear them? Go ahead. I told you that Laramie Tunsell was a bad dude.

Check. I told you that... What are you talking about? Offensive line coach said he was great. He lied. He's lying. I'm going to trust him. Why am I trusting you?

Because I told you, because D'Amico's telling me he got rid of him. An offensive line coach is gone, fired. Of course you're right. He said Laramie Tunsell is a good pro. Okay, whatever. You know. then why would you trade him then? Yeah, you don't have an excuse.

So I'm going to stay with me on this. Okay. Laramie Tonsel, bad seed, check. Coach said he's good, no check. Nope. Stefan Diggs, one and done. Check. I had that pegged in from day one.

Oh, wow. I'm two for two. And when Joe, and then when Joe makes him not ready, I want to be, I want to be known as the Texans insider. I'm known right now as Mr. Texas. They literally restructured his contract to make it a one year deal. Of course he was probably going to be there for one year. Yeah.

Ching You know what? That was a great prediction Because people are like Oh no He'll come back And he'll like it here No

Sifond days was one and done Just like I told you And when Joe makes Most everybody agreed with you I will be Mr. Texans insider Okay Period under story I'm Mr. Texas now

Uh huh Mexico You are not Mr. Texas Yes I am Stop Yeah You were the absolute worst candidate

From Mr. Texas I'm gonna I'm embarrassed You keep bringing this up Because I really don't want to like Keep putting you down

but you keep talking yourself up. You're forcing my hand. I had somebody at the grocery yesterday refer to me as Mr. Texas. Yeah, they're making fun of you, and then they snickered behind your back. I don't care what they did. They called me Mr. Texas.

Okay. Could have called me a lot worse. You've been called worse. I know. I will call you worse. You say directly to my face at least. You were the absolute worst candidate for Mr. Texas.

Wes and humble. How are you, friend? Man, how you doing? Good, buddy. Hey, I have a spot up. Now, PGA Tour selected the Astrosse and their zero hand for the Ryder Cup. Where's the guy with Scottie Sheffler and the lineup?

We missed all of that. I don't know. We can't hear you. We're having some issues with the connection, Wes. I don't know what's going on. Did he just go Scotty Shepler on the Astros lineup? I guess so. Wes, that's your best material? I mean, we missed, maybe we missed the really funny parts, Matt.

Wes. Now, Wes, I played poker with Wes. You have two, I think, once or twice. I have? Yeah, he's a big dynamo. fan and I'm like, come on. Go Dynamo. Go where? Maybe out?

Like the roughnecks? Let's see. Just checking out their recent schedule. Oh, they drew Vancouver recently. What's her record overall? Seven wins, eight draws and 11 losses. Eight draws. Let's get to scoring of MLS. I can't watch MLS. I just can't. Nobody can't. Nobody watches it. It's awful.

I mean, I can go to the, it's fine when you go to the games. But man, it's a tough watch. Premier League much better. Manchester City with a big 4-0-0 win over the, Wolves over the weekend, Matt. Congratulations. Looking forward to the World Cup. Tijani Reinders looking pretty good.

Offseason signing. Erling Holland with a nice tap-in. Mm-hmm. And Ryan Shirky with a late goal as well. I really like what he's done late in games. Yeah. He's clutch. He's probably one.

one of the better final 15 minutes players in soccer? Things looking up for Manchester City. How's Team USA doing? I don't know. They usually suck. I say this. If Team USA does not advance to the knockout round, is that correct? Here we go.

Here we go. I'm going to start calling you Sizzle Thomas. We should disband soccer. The United States Soccer Federation, whatever it's called, just eliminated. Because we're wasting our time. And resources. Well, I think the women are very profitable. Good for them. Give them more money.

They should. And then give them an IHeartRadio podcast on top of it. They will. Yeah. If Team USA... They're not going to disband it. If they don't make it... They should.

If they don't make the knockouts? Yeah, why not? I mean, okay. Why would they disband it? Because no one's going to be wasting their time. Look at you. You're a 100% American and you don't even have any passion at all for Team USA. There's a lot of people that do.

I mean, I'll watch them. You're not rooting for them. I'm like, what was that touch? What was that? pass. Oh my my God. What is this defending? That's me watching Team USA. God, I cannot wait for that. Angry Sports RV on soccer is going to be something else.

You know, soccer will always have a special place in my heart. My first play by play of a professional team in town with the Houston hot shots. I did the indoor soccer. Yes. So there you go. That was entertaining, right? Yeah, lost scoring. Every game was like 9 to 8. Going with four minutes left to go, 14-0-11. I was all for it. You can only say he shoots you score. many times. You know what I liked when we had Omega Ball

on? It was three teams playing soccer against each other. Oh my God. That was cool. That was actually pretty sweet. It's fine. All right. Wax's tweets are coming up next. Okay. We're going to run through what's going on at Texans and he's the one. Can't wait. Yep. We are,

oh, by the way, Roto's with us on Thursday. This Thursday? This Thursday. I'm going to call in. You're going to be on the road. Where am I going to be on Thursday? You'll probably be at San Angelo. I will be on the way. I'll be around junction? You know, it's so weird.

You're going to be going to places that I've only heard of when I fly United. Okay. Let me explain quickly. Go ahead. When you on the computer screen in front of your seat in the plane, if you look at the airplane map, it'll show you little cities that you're flying over. And a bunch of these little small little towns I've never heard of before, you're going to be in all those small little towns. Yeah. That's fun.

I'm looking forward to it. You should be like, will you send me a postcard while you're going? I can send you one from Carlsbad Caverns. Yes, I send me one. Probably. Can you get me a stamp? Do they have stamps at these places? I'll Venmo you a stamp. Okay.

May I have to call you on WhatsApp, by the way? Are you going to be any cell service out there? Sales service should be pretty good at Big Bend. Obviously, inside the Carlsbad Caverns. There's not a lot of sales service. Okay. I'm just worried about you. I'll be fine.

I don't want you coming back in a bag of bones. You know what? I appreciate that, man. This is very sweet of you. I mean, I've already got your. Your funeral speech already knocked out, locked and loaded. I know. It's just mostly because there's a shortage of other co-host options.

But that's okay. I still appreciate you. I still appreciate your concern. I need you here because the depth chart isn't really long. It's good, but this is not very long. Okay. Don't clip that. 1112 is our time.

Wex checks in from the Texans. I knew you was afraid of that. Wex's tweets are up next on all things Texans. Love it. It's 1112 here on the Matt Thomas show. Ross 713-212-5-790. Everybody listen to me very carefully. You've got predictions coming up in about 15 minutes from now.

It's our gut-feeling segment. Is there something you want to bring up Astero-Lay that all three should answer? Anything? We're going to leave it to our own individual. And we're all going to say they're winning the West, right? You didn't answer quickly. Let me just put your headphones on. That's okay.

Yeah. If you're Seattle, are you embarrassed that you can't take advantage of this Astros team that's been outscored by 22 runs in the last two games? I'm sure they're sad. You've got to be feeling Snake Bit if you're Mariners fan, right? Yeah. Our friends at Fangrass, 52% to win the division for the Mariners, 47% for the Astros. How's the Astros playoff seating's looking? The seedings?

I mean the playoffs, you know, to make the playoffs. 90.9%. And that says Cleveland's not doing much. I mean, the three teams that are kind of in that wild card are kind of just kind of beat each other up. Everybody's in kind of a malaise. Maybe it is dog days of summer for everyone. Yeah. Man, it's felt like it's been dog days for a month.

Ever since, what is it? The week before the All Star break was this team, it just hasn't been the same. Is that fair? You think about it? I would say so, but I mean, yeah, it's. That's going on six weeks. When did Issoc Paratus go down? Esoc has been great.

Jake Myers is absolutely. has not frankly been talked about enough. Jake Myers, you know what? As president of the fan club, I completely 100% agree. I figure it as much. Josh Hader is down. I think we kind of talked about this. When they were winning,

we were saying to ourselves, how are they doing this? And as we know in baseball, a lot of times, what goes up comes down a bit. As the previous caller brought up in the first hour of the show, aptly, yeah.

All right, so we need something, not hot takeish, but let's do something. All three has had to do something gut feeling on the Astros in the next segment of the show. We always usually do anyway, but I'm trying to think of something a little more than, hey, quality start tonight. Hey, what's wrong with that? You are Mr. Quality Start guy. Yes, sir. Well, that's easy for a hundred brown.

I'm going to stay away from that one. All right. Real quick, what Texans are doing today, let's see, they signed wide receiver, Cornell Powell and Joanne Winfrey Cornell Powell Xavier Johnson's been released JJ Taylor's been released

Cornell Powell that sounds stately yeah uh wax is taking pictures of Christian Harris apparently ready to practice this morning that's good he's also got a photo of

a coach at Texan's practice going down on the padded area wow that's That's crazy. He's got 11-on-11's offensive line. Ersary Tomlinson, Andrews, Ingram, and Howard. That was 51 minutes ago.

Then the second team offensive line had Robinson, Thomas, Patterson, Scrugs, and Deculous. Deculous. Okay. LSU Tigers's legend. Yeah, he's fine. And then 31 minutes ago, Cam Robinson at left tackle, Scruggs at right guard, now work. This is boring as hell. I apologize.

guys. I mean, nothing against Wex, but I just just suit up and be ready to go. I don't think the water cooler around. Hershey at left in the first O line. I think that's interesting. Well, it should be. He's a high draft pick. Second rounder doesn't normally always doesn't always get plugged in immediately at left tackle and start. You're absolutely right about that, but that just shows you how bad the

offensive line is it Ersher came in and took the job. Good for him. You know what? There's a positive note. I can tell you that. Yeah. We'll see what happens with Cam Robinson. they wasted it. I like the, if first reserned the job, I'll out of camp and they give it to him, that's great. I like that. Don't just hand Cam Robinson the job because you sign him to, I mean, it wasn't like a huge deal. It was like $13 million.

But he isn't established NFL veteran. That's awful hard sometimes because maybe Cam Robinson was promised me when he got here. I can't imagine Robinson was. Yeah, they probably had to say, we'll see what happens in the draft. Look, we saw your PFF grades the last couple of years. You'd be willing to take this job and like it. He allowed a lot of pressures But I had to pull the grade back up

It was actually when Not bad PFF for his pro football focus Phil's that'd be correct Oh Thank you Well you mean There are a lot of people

That aren't running around going I wonder where the PFF grade is of Said player Good for you know And it's not end all be all It's one data point But I like it Because that's they're doing more research

Than I and you and I would ever want On that particular situation I'm trusting them Yeah, I got to trust them too. All right, so the Texans are going to have one more practice. I think tomorrow they're going to fly to Detroit and then at the game Saturday with the Lions. I would assume that most players are not playing the game of any value,

that there's just second and third teamers going? C.J. Stradd. Do you see who played late in the game yesterday? Joe Burrell for the Cincinnati Bengals was playing late. I saw the beginning of that game. I didn't watch the end of it. Okay. So getting some work?

Is he okay? Is he healthy? Well, I think he just is like, man, why are they putting him out there? For a guy that's been as brittle as he's been, I'd be very careful about the Bengals. Pretty well said, I would say. Because put it this way,

if the Bengals are going to be good this year, which I think a lot of people think they can be, they're going to have to outscore people while, like, scoring 35 points a game. Mm-hmm. You know that for your fantasy draft, Matthew. Mm-hmm. Just saying.

Chase, T. Higgins. I mean, load up on anybody since any. I'm sure Mr. There are people that are other fantasy experts. it's talking about like drafting their whole offense. Some weeks you're getting like Chase Brown, Burrow, Higgins, and Chase. But this way. Tell me why Joe Burrow is in the number one quarterback taken.

I'm going to say Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson are the number one. And that would be, so in our league we have six point passing touchdown. So that would make a lot of sense. But just because over the last few years, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson have been better and they give you the rushing yards. and they play 17 weeks. And they give you the rushing touchdowns as well, which Joe Burrow doesn't. But as I said, in a six-point passing touch.

Most leagues are four-point passing touchdowns. So you get that extra premium for the six-point rushing touchdown for Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. When you switch to six, it becomes more of a conversation. I don't disagree. They're really good. Their defense. And Hendrickson. They don't have any money to sign him.

I'm Shetter was talking about this. They simply don't have the money. Troy Henderson is one of the best defense. defensive players in NFL. He's also 31 years old. Yes. That makes teams nervous. He's at camp with Sanning. He's not happy.

He is set to make, I think, $16 million a year. Yeah, but he wants a big deal. He wants a big deal. And he's like, I'm not playing the regular season. What did life would be the equivalent to that in regular work? A salesperson comes, excuse me, come to the office. and just all right

there's no equivalent to me because Trey Hendrickson is putting his body on the line week to week and he does not have a guarantee there's no fully guaranteed contracts in the NFL well there's not no fully guaranteed guys are getting more and more fully guarantees

and some of these draft picks are getting full guarantees too which is great he wants as much guaranteed money as possible and the Bengals have said we're not giving you as much as you want it becomes a difficult situation because yeah if if a if an NFL team is winning on a deal, they keep you.

If they're losing on a deal, they cut you. And there's usually not a whole lot of repercussions because there's not a whole lot of guarantees. So the players don't have the power balance in the NFL, so they hold out, which I will never begrudge anybody for doing that. And the problem is that he plays for a team that has been known as a miserly football team. It's always on the bottom floor when it comes to money spending.

No one's ever said the Bengals go out and above and beyond take care of the players. So when you are one of the most recognizable defensive players in the NFL complaining about it, you're just adding to the storyline. Yeah, but they already paid Chase and Higgins and Burrow. And it's just hard to pay everybody. That's the beauty and the curse of the NFL. Now, it's interesting, as I was reading this last night. So Hendrickson's like, I don't want to be in Cincinnati.

I don't want to play here. They're not going to pay me. The Bengals went and told him, go find your own deal. Excuse me. Yeah. Nobody was willing to do it. Yeah, I mean, he can go and find his, he doesn't have to get paid. If he doesn't have the leverage, he doesn't have the leverage.

Yeah. So he went and looked, and that's why he's back there because he's going to be, if he's not in camp, he gets fined. In the NFL, you cannot retract those fines anymore. There used to be a forgiveness plan. They don't do that anymore. Yeah, they used to be like, ah, we're good. We're not going to fine you. Now they can't do that.

So honestly, I guess the owners voted for it. How did the players ever agree to that? I don't know. The collective bargaining agreement has not been very fair. Not fair. It has been kind to the players. Well, yes, because they have such a expansive. The halves and the have nuts, it's a huge gulf.

Right. And a lot of times they don't get paid as much and there's no guarantees. And players generally cannot strike as long in the NFL as in other sports. And you also have a discrepancy. I think this is the biggest problem with the league. I've talked about this before. You've got offensive linemen and you've got backup running backs

making decent money, but the difference between the quarterback and the next highest pay player is astronomical. So you really aren't a union for everybody. Yes. Your union is so widespread because when you typically unions are about, I mean, I don't know a lot about unions,

but I would assume that most people in a union at a normal place, like a plant or an automobile, they're all making comparable. money. Your union has 30 players making $60 million a year. That's it. And then everybody else is making

10 and 111. Some guys are making like $500,000. It's hard to negotiate when you have such a wide disparity in cash. So that's Cincinnati's problem. And frankly, for Texans fans, that's got to be good news because Cincinnati would be a team that played really well the back half of the year. They had a terrible September

and that bad September cost them a playoff spot. The team that Texas could be potentially facing in a playoff game. You never No. The AFC is so ridiculous. It is ridiculous. All right. Now, it's time for us to make some gut feelings. Here is what we need you to do. We need you to think about what you've been telling your friends at the office at the water cooler at your house in your group chat about sports predictions.

What do you got going this week? 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Time for you to make some sports predictions. If you get them right, we let you brag. If you get them wrong, unless they're completely preposterous. who won't I make fun of you? Jonathan's worst of the year was Cooper Hummel, right?

No. I think it is. No, this one might be the worst one, actually. The one coming up? Yeah, yeah, if I remember correctly. Ooh, are we going to make fun of you? Big time or a little time? Actually, no, Cooper Hummel might be the worst one.

And Cooper Hummel's the worst. It is the absolute worst. All right, 713-212-5-790. 7-1-2-7-90. Listen up, girls and boys. That's been so appealing. This is their gut feeling on the Matt Thomas show. 1134, Sports Talk, 790.

Time now for us to get some gut feelings in. You are more than welcome to join us at 713-212-5-790. And remember when I tell you all this, if you ever get your gut feelings right, you need to call on and brag, that we do here on the show. I told you that Laramie Tunsell was a bad dude. I'm bragging about that. I told you that Coach said he's good.

Stefan Diggs was one and done. I was right about that. And when Joe Mixon's not ready for the start of this season, I'll be ready for that. Boom, boom, boom. Mr. Texans insider. You take credits for ones you didn't even get right. Like Yiner Diaz leading the team at home runs.

He's like five or six away. I said it's a sneaky pick. I didn't say it was a definitive. He's getting closer. He's getting closer. Yeah, all right. The one prediction I'm ready to be wrong about, and I'll be happy is when

Jordan Alvarez goes deep for the Astros. By the way, he plays for the hooks tonight. Yeah, looking forward to it. Down in Corpus. Yeah, we'll see how it goes. Yoron's life's not bad. He's been in Westbone Beach and Corpus for the last three weeks. Yeah, it's better in Detroit. You know what? I kind of need him in Detroit.

This offense needs him battling Detroit. By the way, Joe's a soft landing spot for him in Colorado next week. That's what the guy. Oh, you know what? Write that down. Got a feeling. Games are here, though. They're in Houston. Yeah, against Colorado. Did I say in Colorado? I meant against. I know they're here. Okay.

Yeah, so Joe Espatoed with us in one hour from now. Right now, you can be with us. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-0. How do we do last week's sports RV? Last week, Matt, you said C.J. Gardner Johnson will not play week one. I don't know what the latest on that is, but it looks like it could be an L. You said a Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros game over there in their series in September. flex to Sunday night baseball. Feel really good about that.

I would imagine it'd be of high interest. You said the Asteroes will not fall to second place this week. They did not. And it wasn't, not for trying. They did not fall. And they're still, I know this is a shocker for you folks. They're still a game and a half lead

over the Mariners. Again, if I'm Mariner fan, do you think Astro fan goes to Mariners account and rips them like Mariner fan comes to the Astros account? I think a little bit, but I don't know if it's as much because I don't know. I'm not a weirdo who's getting up into the mentions of the Seattle Mariners social media. That seems fair.

But whatever. Okay. Let's see. Yes, the Astros have lost four of their last six. That's not good. Anyways, you also said, no, that's all you said. I said the dollar, I had a random one out of left field. I said dollar dogs will go to $2.

Might take a year or two on that. Wait a minute. What is the length of time we're going to hold on a lot? Like next season? Is it gut feeling? Whatever. Because honestly, in 2041, if they're $2 dogs, you're going to claim that one, aren't you? I'm going to call you.

I'm going to call you at the home, at the sanatorium, in between lobotomy sessions. Do I have a hot night nurse? You're going to think she is, but it's just because your brain's going to be damaged. That's fair. I said Spencer, getting quality start? Nope. He got five innings of two-run ball. And five walks.

And then yesterday was far for quality start. That's not close. Five and five. He did a nice little five-five. What is Spencer's ERA since his return? Go look it up. It doesn't matter. You don't want to look. No, I don't care. Okay. He's looking good. He's getting some whiffs yesterday. All right. Swings and I had Yordon back by September 1st. Oh, let me bring it up 50 times and talk about it and pat myself in the back. Talk about how right I am. How smart I am. You know what? You're the Astros insider. Nobody can argue that.

I'm going to nominate you for the. Hey, he can still have a setback, though. I'm going to nominate you for the Astro. Wall Media fan. No, actually, no, I'm going to take, I'm going to take credit for something that hadn't even happened yet. Oh, I'm saying. I was right. I'm two for two.

I'm going to be three for three. I'm saying, I'm right. But I want to be known as a Texan Insider when it happens. Ooh. My God, this is not good. Go ahead. I don't think Hater is out for the year. This is before the shoulder diagnosis and the three-week thing.

Don't forget. This is like the day after he went down. That's going to be an else. I kind of forgot you did. I was being optimistic. I was trying to be optimistic. Obviously he's going to I said out for the year He could bitch in the playoffs

But I mean you said out for the year Not out for the year So if he comes back it's a win for you Yeah so hold on to it Are you sure? We probably put it on the back burner All right How did Jonathan do? How did Jonathan do?

He said the Astros will win their next two series They won the Red Sox series They did They did not win the Orioles series And he said as well as the first game Monday against Detroit. Oh, God. It was close.

All right. Now, he says he's got a take that could be as bad as his Cooper Hummel take. Ooh, I love it. So we're going to let you go first then. Oh, I said that one was the best. Oh, okay. So you got, you got sage ones this week. Taylor Trammell five hits tonight. Let's see.

If you got to think. Yeah, come back to me. Come back to me. All right. Never mind. Go ahead. I was going to say something good for Jesus. Then I remembered who's on the mound for the Tigers today. We're taking too many losses, but now we're scared to say something.

I will make a gut feeling about tonight. Hasu Sanchez gets a hit. Well, what's the time frame on this? Today. Oh, today. Today. Astros score at least three runs against Scoobble tonight. Off scuba, earned runs.

Off of scuba. I want you to be right. I'm not even going to... Three runs off a scubel tonight. I'm not going to provide further comment than I want you to be right. Thank you. You hear that, Houston, Texas?

I got Tarek Scuble giving up three earn runs. Now, it doesn't mean they're going to win. Doesn't mean that he still can't get a quality start. I'm just saying the Astros' offensive woes come to an end tonight and the Astro actually score a run. And they actually score three runs against Tarik Scoobble.

Gut feeling. Okay. There you go. Good God. God, I'm wishing this one bad. I'm trying to will this one. to play. You don't want to back me up on the dude.

I told you I'm not providing further comment other than I hope you are correct. Jonathan? All right. I'm going to just go for it. And I'll go ahead and I'm going to do a numbers thing. We're going to say in the next two series, Astros will score over 15 runs.

Combined? In the next five, games are scoring 15 runs. It's not that great. Let's just do 25. That's three a game. 25. Look when we go to.

Let's see this is how you go to. We suckered you. We suckered you. Yeah. Let me. Let's go. Because we're resting the a oros again. There's no way.

There's no way, right? There's no way. Right. Right. Oh, by the way. Yordon back in the lineup Tuesday. Against the Colorado. Now, of course, we'll take a week.

The Astros have two more. with Detroit. Yes. Four in Baltimore. Three with Colorado. And I believe the Angels are coming back to town. Is that correct after that?

Uh-huh. Uh-oh. You getting bold, Natty? When that stretch is done. The Astros will lead will be at least two games in the American League West. Oh, they're going to gain a half game against all these bad teams? That's pretty vanilla.

All right. You know what? Yes. You're going to me? Yes. That's how you do it. Three. Three is fine.

I'm not doing anymore. That's fine. Three game lead. And then you're into September where all bets are off. Okay. After the, after which series? After the Angels series, which will be not this weekend but the next. The Astros leave, the American League West will be at three games.

Got a hold on to that for two weeks. Oh, that's wishful thinking. That's what I'm saying. It's a gut feeling. And maybe it's my fandom. I get it. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

Anything more for me? You get nothing over there. That's not true. Oh, by the way, I wrote this down. When did I say Christian Kirk over 50 receptions and 649 yards his projections? I wrote that down. Okay, it's fine. You can do it.

That's fine. I want to use that. Okay. I said Yordon's in the lineup and I said, Jose Jesus is getting a hit. You don't want to hear my gut feeling about how tonight's game is going to go. So I'm not going to say it. All right. We're off the record here.

This is not count. How is tonight going to go? How is tonight going? They lose like three to one. This is very discouraging. That's my gut feeling. I'm going to write down. No, you should.

Because I don't want to be wrong. Three to one exactly. Just three to one. Yeah. Well, we're not going to hold them too bad. I was going to. All right. 7.13, 2.12.5.7.

All right. Our gut feelings are in. What are yours next? We'll get to the phones and we come back. I'm going to cry. I'm going to cry and come up with some positive. You know why you don't need to cry? Why?

They're still in game and a half lead. Houston, Texas. 713, 2. 1-2-5-7-90 biscuit. What's in your gut this week, Biscuit, besides gravy. Hey, what's up, my brother? Hi. Hey, Ross.

I think I had a pretty good record with the Coombs and my bold predictions of gut feelings. I called the back-to-back, and I called the Final Four. Matt, I'm going out there on a limb again this time, Matt. As a recruit in the state of Texas in basketball, who's just been deemed the number one recruit. the 2027 class. His father just happened to be a former a cowboy, and he likes

toughness. I'm saying the Houston Coopers is going to land the number one crew of 2027, man. He's going to be over there on Cullen. Play for Kelvin Salton. What's his name? Spears, Marcus Spears, son. Oh, really? The one that's on TV?

Yeah. He has a son that plays high school ball in Dallas area. Marcus Spears Jr. You know what? I see him as number two. I'd be looking forward to calling his games. You know, every one of the top recruits in the country should go to University of Houston. I mean, it's God's gift to college hoops.

I just think that the style of play the Kelman's Anthem play. I think it's going to mesh with Spears' attitude, how he wants son to be pushed. Yep. Couldn't have said it better on myself. And I think Calvin fans are going to, right now I think Kentucky, U of H, and one other team has got him all from.

Rival says SMU. He lives in Plano. Oh, my God. I got bad news biscuit. We can't cash whip SMU. They got more money than God. In Texas A&M? They got money, too.

We're not going to outbid them, Matt. It's going to be the style of play. That's what I'm going with. Well, you obviously haven't been a 17-year-old done lately. well yeah Daddy Trump That's true Dad's got money

That's true Thanks Biscuit SMU A&M Texas Oklahoma State LSU offered I don't see Houston on here right now Have we not offered?

I'm on the rivals page I'm sure he's been offered bro Yeah 2027 Marcus Spears Jr What's a height and wait 6 8195 Who gotta eat Yeah Houston

Indiana Kentucky LSU He's got offers from everyone I'm sure 68 195 Yeah, that's not that bad. For a 17-year-old?

He's 20-class of 20-27. Let's feed him. Okay, Matt. I'm sure he's eating just fine. I don't think so. I think 6-8-195 means that Marcus Spears eating more dinner than Sunday. Maybe he just had a gross spurt. I mean, again, Matt, you're going probably off an NBA highway.

That's true. He's in high school. Okay. Let's go to Ponder in Baytown. Bonder, what's in your gut this week? Hey, man, got a quick gut feeling for tonight's game. Going back, I didn't write them all down, but my gut feeling was we take to win the night. Stereotypically, 500-plus teams, the feel for this team, we show up, especially against our number one pitcher.

All the way back, we've, I know we didn't do well last night against Flaherty, but we beat him the last time we played him. I'm not sure about Tyreeks. But I will tell you that we beat that. In the last few series, even the ones that we've lost, where we pulled out of him. win, we beat Jacob de Grom, Zach Gallen, which I believe are both of those teams, aces. There was another big name in one of the last series that we, McKenzie Gore with Washington. We show up when the players show up.

And this is the start of a 10-game win the street. That's my gut feel. Responsible, logical, completely believable take. Thank you, Ponder. We'll see. Look, I've got. Wait me, you were just our therapist an hour ago. Now you've

clammed up. What do you mean? I said, we'll see. You paused. You shook your head. You went, you don't have to tell everybody that. Well, we're not on Space Any Network. They've got shut out in three of the last four games. I'm sorry if I'm worried about them scoring runs. Against one of the best pitchers in baseball.

I got a gut feeling. If I'm being unreasonable for that, I don't know what to tell you. Chas McCormick's ERA will be lower. than Taylor Scots. Oh, it already is. A car close, I think. I think his ERA's down to six, right?

Wasn't it wonderful? Did you see him pitch? Obviously, you did. Yeah, I did. He was almost balking every time. He did come to a complete stop, but it was a brief one. But he got on that bump. He just letting it fly.

Yeah. You don't know no stinking pitch clock? He threw 62, 63, and then he burned him with an 82-bomb-per-hour slider. It's not bad. He's getting outs. Better, I mean, Taylor. or Scott, who's the other guy that got lit up over the weekend?

Fresh off the injury list. Stephen Okert did? No, no, no. Sean Dubin? Sean Dubin or Chas McCormick, which one do you want finishing out a game? Sean Dubin. Are you sure? Yes.

Yeah, me too. But it's not by much. I know. We want to be funny about it. No, we don't want to be funny. We're being sad about it, that it's even a conversation piece. Chas McCormick will not pitch in the next week. Is that a big gut feeling?

I mean, he's done it three times. He'll be hurt his arm and he'll be had Tommy John. He's going to get elbow discomfort. Major league outfielder gets Tommy John. How? Would he throw somebody from him? There was a pitcher who, I mean, there was a recently in the last five years I want to say there was a position player who got Tommy John from pitching in a game. I can't remember who it was.

That comes us to no surprise at all. Oh, James and Gardner-Oaks calling in. Oh, oh. There we go. We've got to wrap this bad boy up with the right way. Oh, my God. We got to get our sounders. We got to get our sounders.

He's got to get him on the screen. and then we're going to see if Jonathan can find 66 WFA because that's your home for Yankee baseball right here. Yeah, how come James and God knows didn't call when they used it ashrows went up in the Bronx and they whipped that Yankee ass. We didn't hear from James after that. And Yankees Keith said he was going to call the hell of you.

Where the hell are you, Yankees, Keith? Oh, hiding. Scoundrel. Funny how that works. All right, do we have the 66 sound or no? A head shake, a nod. Play it. He's saying he's working on it.

That's fine. We'll get it back. All right. We'll talk to Kyle first. Oh, Kyle first. We'll go to Kyle first. Hello, Kyle. What's in you got this week?

There's no rules. There isn't. Hi, Kyle. Good morning. How are you guys doing? Wonderful. Thank you for asking. Hey, my good take is, I think Ohio State will upset Texas and Arch is going to get injured.

Ooh, a double dozy. Hang up on this idiot. Kyle, you don't know my partner, mad? You know, I love you, Kyle. Hang up on this guy I know Ross, it's all good I know it's all good Good luck to Texas

I hope you all have a good season Yeah you just said Arch is going to get hurt though Why would yeah he wasn't very We don't like to predict injuries do we No I mean he likes to make plays with his legs Now I dream of people getting injured I know you do because you're a sick human being Oh yeah

I like how you just immediately go Oh yeah Okay we got the WFFFFAN Here we go Here we go The Yankees suck Oh, James and God, no. Thanks, thank you for taking my call, man.

Sure. Governor Thomas, look, I'm going to give it to you straight. I believe my Yankees are going to rise from the ashes and everything, and all that talk about Aaron Boone. Aaron Boone's got to reprieve, but he's got to take it to the next step. Now, he's got to bring it back to where it should be to the standards of what Yankee universe is. We're going four and two this week, and Judge will reaffirms. appear and you'll start hitting some bombs and smashing some homers and I can't wait to get to

that football prediction next week because I'll touch the base with you guys. Okay, fellas, I think the Astros will surprise people and they will win today because the Astros they never, you know, they never quit. Right now, you know, right now, you know, hurting a little bit, but they ain't going to quit. So just, if you are a true Astro fan, you hang with your team, man. You don't start backstabbing and talking about people, man. All right. Thank you for checking my call, fellas.

I think for you. We need jingles like this. 66. Oh, wait, up time. I was going to do a 7-90 singing jingle. You were? Go ahead. You got a song?

Let me drop a beat. I'll have one after the new... You know what? I'll have one for you after we hear from Smokey. The bear? No, the Robinson. Oh, were we sticking with that? Tracks of our tears.

Maybe we go something else. No, we're going to do with it. lock on 7.90. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Here's the 3-2. It well again. This one to right field. Camp Smith back and that

one's gone. He kept this one fair and it's 1-0, Detroit. Green O for 2, first pitch. And Green hits this high in the year. Pretty deep to right. Smith is back and he will watch that one go. Riley Green with a two-run homer And just like that, it is 5-0-0 Tigers

You'll see my smile It's easy to chase The tracks of my tear One out men on first and second It's a two-two count to Sweeney Here's the pitch and it's driven To right field Back goes Smith, he looks up and it's

Ten Rose Deep Sweeney goes deep That's a three-run homer for D That's right. Fans rise to their feet. First pitch, Diaz hits it in the air, shallow right center. Going out Torres coming in, Jones and the right fielder Perez. And his Perez who makes the catch.

And that is the ball game. Astros shut out for a third time in the last four days. As the Tigers beat him 10-0. Astros haven't scored in their last 18. innings. 1206 on Sports Talk 790. This is about Thomas Show with Ross. Joe Espotted joining us in

25 minutes from now. Right now? Time now for the news at noon. What? Joe is spotted at 1230. NFL Rewind Ross at 120. Oh, I'm going to save some of these stories then. See, whatever you're going to do. Yeah, it's fine.

All right, Matt. Let's talk about your use at Astros. Shut out three of the last four games, the lone bright spot. really the last week has been Chaz McCormick in relief. One inning pitched, one hit given up. He also issued a walk, but he got a strikeout and a double play

to lower his season ERA to six. Astros did get two hits with runners in scoring position, but still did not play to run. Six of the nine starters going over. And I mentioned this on the post game last night. Jack Flaherty was dotting up corners and his knuckle curve was was just outstanding

and he was getting some help from the home plate umpire because it was working in the low end of the zone and he was getting a lot of calls. So in a vacuum, this happens. But when you add it up with multiple recent shutouts against Leston stellar pitching, it certainly hurts. But Jack Flaherty was very good for the pitch

for the pitching for the Tigers yesterday. Terrick Scoobo versus Hunter Brown 541st pitch here on Sports Talk server match. Of course, Hunter and Detroit kid went to Wayne State or my mother went to college. Tarek Scouble, who will be a tiger for a couple more years until he gets traded for the big mega deal with one of the coastal teams. Seven innings, one run ball. For which one? I didn't hear you.

Hunter Brown, baby. Hunter Brown, greater than Tarek Scubel tonight. Believe it or not. Believe it. Oh, you wouldn't. Let's do a Tarek Scuba, believe it or not today. Why? Why? Because, I mean, he's going to be a storyline.

The other idea is I gave you more. I'm writing it down. Seven innings of one run ball. I'm feeling, it just struck me like a lightning bolt. Okay. What else's happening? There's a lot happening, actually, Matt. Let's talk about the Indianapolis Colts. Colts fans, how are we feeling? Like, hey, we're not going to go with Anthony Richardson.

We're going to go with Daniel Jones. Is it called Vanessa? Sure. You get her thoughts. but she's been on the national NBA show. Yeah. You know what? She's been talking to Kendrick Perkins.

Jonathan, you've got Vanessa's phone number right. I gave it to you. I'm buying it on the Houston Roggis. Okay, thank you. Call her and tell her we want to talk to her about the Colts quarterback situation. Like right this second. Well, she's probably taping for ESPN. She's very busy.

No, she's not. I think she's in town now. Call her right this second, Jonathan. She ain't got time for you, man. Not sending up for like 15 minutes for now. She's going to give you, ain't nobody got time for that. No, she wouldn't do that. So Daniel Jones is starting quarterback,

opting for him over Anthony Richardson, senior. I mean, my God, that's horrible if you're a Colts fan. But good, if you like the Houston Texans, as they should win another AFC Southcrown. And yet the Colts, how do they get away with this? This is a great example of you messed the quarterback decision up, high first-round pick. It can doom your franchise for years.

The Giants are saying the same thing as they got rid of Daniel Jones. I remember they paid him big time before he left. Yeah, they did, but they had some easy outs in that contract. I don't think it cost them too much. Okay. Oh, he's talking to her. Okay. All right, well, let's go elsewhere in the news of noon real quick, or you want to wait?

Real quick. John Wall is retiring, Matt. He hasn't played in the NBA since 2003. He's been podcasting more than playing basketball, but now is officially announced his retirement. What was the, you want to talk about Ms. Richardson? The text, the quarterback situation with the Colts. I'll talk to her. Put her down. Vanessa.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Vanessa. Yeah, hi, Matt. What are you doing? I was just laying out outside and then I'm getting ready to go interview Bun B. Shut up. I love him. That's my guy.

Yeah. Is he another one of your best friends? Seriously, you must reference him. And he will say nothing but great things about me. Period. into story. But that's one of the reason why we call it. He might call him the whitest man in America, Benisksin. He's not wrong. I mean, everybody knows. Everybody knows that. All right. Walk me through Daniel Jones here. What the hell's going on in your beloved town? They say that if you've got a

quarterback competition, if you've got two quarterbacks, you've got none. And I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. You know, you're talking about a city that went from Peyton Manning to Andrew Luck. And then after Andrew retired out of nowhere for a while for years. The Colts were, you know, basically nursing home for quarterbacks that were getting ready to retire. And then, you know, when Anthony Richardson was drafted, I liked it, but it was a small sample size. He didn't play a lot at Florida. He was very inconsistent. He's got a cannon for an arm. But, you know, there wasn't a lot of, there wasn't a strong track record. And so it, you know, was it a draft where it's like, okay, we'll

see what happens. And I don't know. I mean, I'll be interested to see if they tank. I'll be interested to see if this is like the move that they actually think can help them win. I don't know. But your buddies are not excited about this, I'm assuming, yes. Who are my buddies? What's the Colts group chat saying? You got to be in a Colts group chat, right? Of some sort. I am in a group chat. The group chat is not excited. I think the expectations for this season are measured is what we'll call them. Vanessa, I'm sorry that Matt would call you at a low time at this point.

By the way, she's giving me more analysis about this than you ever could. I'm so sorry. You know you're our Colton. But you know what? Honestly, Texan fans can feel very, very fortunate. I know. I know. I mean, this is this is.

This is like to go from decades of always knowing that the quarterback situation is in lockstep. And then you look at what Dayton Daniels has done in Washington. What a joke of a franchise that a good quarterback can turn around. It's insane. I mean, it's the hardest position in sports to nail down because there are 30, how many NFL teams, 32, right? There are 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL. let's say maybe a third of them if that are actual franchise elite

quarterbacks that could take you to a Super Bowl. I mean, it is the hardest position in professional sports to nail down. And if you don't got it, you don't got a chance. That's why she's Space City and now ESPN star, Vanessa Richardson. Breaking it down like a mother. Remember us small folks when you make the big time,

Vanessa. Seriously, I mean, when you leave us for good, which hopefully will be never, but you are going to be such a star and you're going to know who Barry Sanders is and I'm going to be so happy for you. I will, I can tell you. I will definitely know who Barry is.

All right, tell Bonn I sent my best and he needs to send us some Trill burgers. The best. Okay, all right, talk to you soon. Bye. That's Vanessa Richardson, our friend ESPN and Space City Home Networks. She was at a rocket shop yesterday

didn't get me any gear. Rude. Did you ask her to? Yes. You did? Yeah. Oh, well, I guess that's my name's Paul. That's between y'all.

And that's your news at noon. That is a news, a dude. All right, Joe Espottie with us in 15 minutes. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. I'm going to give you some great advice. I've already given you great insights. Now it's time for some great advice. 1220, the Sports Talk 7-9.

We've got Joe Espotted joining us in about 10 minutes from now from Detroit. I feel like I want to send him over to the Spite store for James Coney Island for the Coney Island dogs. You're going to talk about hot dogs all the whole time? No, because he'd be like, what do you? Look, I'm a majorling manager. There's really very little BS with him. He's probably not the best mood. I wouldn't be in the best mood.

I don't know how you could be. I mean, if I, and I could say, how, how are you feeling? I mean, I can be honest. We'll be walking on some egg shells here because, look, we've all, we've all a disappointing performances in our life. I feel like my show's been that way for 15 years. So, you know, when people. People say, how's the show going?

It's fine. Jack Flaherty's pitching well. Guys aren't hitting. It happens in the course of a 162 game season. They're still in first place. To me, Ross, and this is in all seriousness, it's about roster construction. The roster right now is incapable.

Okay, like who is underpre... Walker's underperformed all year, generally speaking. Diaz, generally speaking, is underperformed. Caratini's done what is expected. Pena's been an uptick. Altuva is what we kind of expected, right? Maybe even a slight tin-short's optimist over expectations.

Numbers are better than last year right now. He had, I think, a 790 OPS last year, and he's still hovering around 800 this year. You've missed the heart of your lineup order guy for four months. That hurts. You are just throwing people up against the wall in center field. And we were kind of teasing by Kyle Tucker. You miss Kyle Tucker.

Cam Smith did not fulfill Kyle Tucker's role. Very few people would have been able to do that. You thought after his great spring and the first month of the season where he's getting his feet wet and getting comfortable. But Cam is just He's, I mean, he's platooning right now.

It's a long season. And yeah, he's platooning and they're trying to manage his workload. So there isn't a lot of lineup shifting. There isn't a lot of, let's try this guy. it feels like to me that Joe changes the lineup almost every single day

he's trying to find the hot hand he's trying to go off the metrics he's trying to go off of what this guy's done in the past he's trying to make the lineups best he can now Jesus batting cleanup yesterday probably wasn't on my bingo card

for a guy that was over 21 going in didn't get any help but frankly the entire line I mean, nobody, nobody's on a good streak. There is no obvious, what are you doing decision that Joe Espada hasn't thought about? There is nothing that goes. Why is he seeing a different game than I am? Well, some people would disagree with you, but I get it.

As I argued with a caller yesterday, his is Sanchez, was going up there, going up against Ritey's. Christian Walker, it's not like he had been hot hitting. he did get two hits yesterday but he was like one for his last 15 or whatever it was and generally speaking Sanchez is going to be better against righties and lefties and oh by the way we've seen this time and time again

Joe does like to show confidence as guys and it's a vote of confidence to put Sanchez in there on a personal level we know he's a player's coach I mean the reality is you're going pain your career Altuva that's not bad for a one two three It's Correa's power is a little down

Not at a whole what I had a home run since that Boston series Am I correct on that? I don't remember I mean he's getting a lot of hits Got one more, got one more yesterday The team's just not He had the home run in New York

But not since then The last game of the Yankees series Okay okay there you go But not only is this team not hitting But there's not a whole lot of slug And that's a problem. That's why the heart of the order is hard to figure out. The only guy is slugging, frankly,

is Jose Al-Tubi with a little bit of Yonair Diaz. Yeah, you don't have anybody who's like one of the most feared hitters on the planet like Yorda Averiz is. And in 15 games, Correa's OPS with the Astros is still 882. It's very good. He's still hitting 339 as an Astro. He's getting hits.

He's been getting hit to the last few games. some others have it. I think he's on a three-game hit streak or something like that. Let me go. Oh, let me take something. There is not a single person. There's not a room in this room

is going to be playing about Carlos Correa. He has handled third base beautifully. It looks good. He looks like, again, he's not 24-year-old Carlos Correa, but nobody was insisting that when he was signed here, he was going to be 24-year-old Carlos Correa. Right?

I mean, it was acquired from the twins. No. And he's a guy that I can pencil in the lineup in the middle of my lineup or the top third of it every single day between now and the end of the season. feel like I've got a puncher's chance. Now, is this illness? Is it slowing down Jeremy Payne a little bit?

Yeah. Well, apparently, did he get it from Christian Javier too? Or did he give it to Christian Javier? How's he doing? I don't know. We can ask. Because I don't know at this point, I don't think he's,

I don't think Joe knows what he's going to do pitching-wise in Baltimore. Now, they've been kind of more secretive this year than they had been in years past. Well, I think they've had a lot of question marks. I mean, you get eight starters on the aisle at one point. Yeah. All right.

Speaking of Joe, he's going to join us here in just a couple of seconds. Let's get to him and then we'll get to you after that. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-2-790. Joe Espada is next here on the Matt Toma Show Ross. Probably the man joining us now. I would certainly love a plate of J-bar-M barbecue right now. Joe Espada with us from Detroit. Skip, how are things? I'm doing well guys here. Detroit. raining right now. Hopefully clears up for game time. Hey, my partner here, Ross, is going to do the postgame calling show. Let's pray for a three-hour rain delay.

What do you say? Oh, come on, man. No, no, no, no, no, no. We need this game to start on time. It looks like he's going to be clear for game time. But right now, yeah, it's pretty wet outside. All right, well, thank you for the weather update. Update on your squad.

look, you can move the lineup around. You could move guys in and out. You've tried. You've in combination of things. Do you want to chalk this up to dog days of summer? Is this a team-wide funk? Where are you right now, as you've seen your team, unfortunately not be competitive the last couple days?

This is baseball, man. It's August. It's late. Grinding through things. You know, the guys are grinding. They're preparing themselves very well now when it's time when the game starts. It's taking us. We having difficulty executing our game plan, which is part of the game.

This is what happens in a long season. Now, our job is to walk in every day with a winning attitude. You know, we're going to do whatever it takes to put ourselves in the best position to win today and not talk about yesterday. You know, today's a new day. and we got, you know, we got hunting on the mound. We're going to prepare ourselves to put a height against cool ball. I want to ask this.

I know that Jeremy was kind of feeling it this weekend. I know that you had to leave Christian Javier off the mound early on the game on Sunday. Is there any sort of sickness going to the team right now or just a couple of remote guys? You know, just a couple of remote guys. I think, you know, we, there's been like a bug around and some of these guys were, you know, you know, they're under the weather a little bit, but that's part when you are, you know, at home with your family and your kids. And, you know, that's how I consider our clubhouse.

This is a family and we're around each other all the time. So some of these stuff is going to spread around. But right now, you know, things are, the guys are feeling better. And those guys that had the little, we're not feeling well, they're starting to feel better. You know, no one's going to ever question that they do. They're ridiculous about the game plan, the approach going in. but when the game gets going, are there things like maybe taking a pitch,

not taking a pitch, trying to go the other way, not go the other way. Are there little intricacies that maybe you're not seeing right now from this team that maybe you saw earlier in the year? Or am I just trying to get really micro on this,

trying to figure out why the team is struggling offensively these days? You know what? At the end of the day, you have a game plan and sometimes it comes down to the fundamentals of the game. Sometimes it comes down to fighting,

grinding in a bat, doing whatever it takes, you know, when you get two strikes, hit the ball the other way. You know, it's it, you know, making the starter, you know, work, let me take a few more pitches. You know, sometimes you've got to do things that are uncomfortable to become comfortable. So we're trying to do those things. We do it, we've been doing it lately, the last couple of games. We have not, it has not work out our way. And sometimes it's about fighting sometimes it's about who wants it more than the other team. You know, that's the message that we always

continue to preach our guys, that sometimes when things get tough, you've got to be tougher. You have to fight. And, you know, the fights in there, things haven't gone our way the last two or three games. You mentioned maybe taking some more pitches

as far as an approach. And we kind of talked about when ESOC Paredes went down, that that was a big piece of the lineup that was missing. But what exactly, what does that mean like in practice. You just talk to guys because you want guys to stay within themselves, but maybe be more patient, but also if the guys out there are throwing strikes, you can't just

sit there and take pitches. Correct, but you know, another thing is, you know, they're not always going to throw strikes. That's the part of the game that, yes, the guy's throwing strikes, but once they're ahead in the count, they're just not going to continue to throw the ball in the box. So it's also recognizing where they go with their misses, what pitches do they want

us to chase when they're ahead. and if we are overly aggressive, now we see pitches that we normally don't swing at, pitches are on the edges that we usually take. We're chasing because we find ourselves on our heels. And so that's the balance when it comes to having an approach. You know, we know we have the tendencies of the pitchers. We have faces, pitchers in the past.

Now it's us staying within ourselves, not trying to do too much, trust the plan, and fight through our back. and that's what leads you to good offensive games like we saw in that series against the Yankees, against the Red Sox in Miami, where we grind it, and we got the starters out of the game in four or five innings. And we need to kind of go back to that. And we saw some of that yesterday, Frality, where he was high pitch counts to three or four innings.

And we were right there, and then things just got out of our hands. Astros manager Joe Espada was here on a sports talk. 790. What did you see that you like from Spencer Arrogatti yesterday and what does he need to improve on? You know what? I think the last, you know, every start he's gotten better, he's gotten better yesterday. The first two innings, it was a ton of strike, sweeper, fastball, some really good changes against some lefties.

So you started seeing the signs of the Spencer that we've seen in the past now is once you get into the middle, middle of the game and you start building up the pitch count, you know, the 60s, 70 pitches, keeping the quality of pitches going, you know, limiting the walks, you know, the falling behind hitters. That's when hitters kind of capitalized. The same way we do against our opponents, when we start seeing the pitch count go up, our bats get better. He's just got to be able to, you know, finish some of those hitters up. Joe, I've tried to avoid getting into a deep injury conversation with you because it's been a broken record, unfortunately. And I want to talk about one player. We've not talked about a lot.

who's going to be playing today for the Corpus Christi Hooks, and that's Jordan Alvarez. Yep. Can you definitively, and maybe there's not a definitive answer to it, what do you want to see, what is the game plan from an organizational standpoint to say, okay, all this time away, the rehab, going down to West Palm, it's all paid off, he's coming up here, he's going to play for you, you're going to put him in the heart of your lineup, and hopefully he stays healthy the rest of the season.

Yeah, you know what, for me, to be honest, I really, not looking at the outcome of the game, like performance-wise. I'm not looking for him to go there and get three or four hits today. I just want what comes after the game, how he feels post-game and how he feels tomorrow morning. If he feels good and he's able to play tomorrow Wednesday, I'm feeling great. So for me, I'm not really looking at how many have bats, equality of bats. you're done is a great hitter. All I want to hear that Joey felt good.

I'm ready to go tomorrow. And then we can continue to move forward and building him up to get him back at some point. Do you want him in the outfield at all during this time down there? Or does that come when he comes to see you? You know, one day at a time right now he's going to DH. And we are focusing on just trying to get as many as a bat as we can. You know, if we put him in the outfield, which we probably have, would during his rehab.

The problem with that will be if we, you know, he has to play on the field for a few months. So if he's six innings and he needs to come out of the game because of the length of the game, he could miss out on a few of bats. And I want him just to try to get as many as the best as possible. And the best way to do that is you DH and you lead him off and just let them control the volume of swings and the volume of the game as he goes in that DH spot. If he feels good and we could get him in the outfield, let's go for it. But right now, D.H., let's try to get as many as a paths as possible.

I want to make sure that he feels good post-game and tomorrow morning. A couple more minutes here with Joe Espada from Detroit, Astros, and Tigers here tonight on Sports Talk 790. You lost Josh Hater for the regular season. You've got Brian O'Brien. You now is your closer. To me, the indirect effect of that is, I think Brian Obrugh's got closer stuff. He could probably close for 90% of the teams around baseball. you're now going to be asking some guys that were your fifth, six-inning, mid-leverage guys to be in some higher spots.

And I think right now you're kind of thirsty to find that guy that wants to take that seventh inning from anybody in this Astros bullpen. And we've had guys that have shown capabilities of doing that. But you're right. You know, they're going to be exposed to more of those big moments the next six weeks. And I know that they're capable of doing that. they have shown the toughness and the ability to do it. You know, but it's different now when we get to August, September, right? The stage becomes much larger, and now it's us helping them manage that volume, those big innings, those big moments,

because we know that they have this stuff as the toughness to do it. It's just making sure that they know how to do it day and day out. Did Chaz McCormick making his bit? he telling you he wants to close the games out? You know, I kick my hat to chat because he understands in the situation that we've been the last two days.

For sure. And as a professional, man, he's like, Joe, I understand, I get it, I go out there and do it. You know, he's not a pitcher, and we all know that, but he's a team player. As a class act, what he's doing, and I have a lot

of respect for him for doing what, you know, what he's done the last few days. And hopefully we never had to see him anymore this season on the mound, I'd be honest with you, Skip. That will be great. Thanks, Joe for the time as always. All right, guys. You'll see. Joe spotted with us.

From Detroit, Astros and Tigers. Yeah, I mean, he's been great. I don't want to see him anymore. I'm done. I'd like to see him get a safe. No, no, no, no. No. What does it matter with you?

What do you mean? No. Chaz's getting out. Chomping up innings, baby? I am done with the Chaz chop on the mound. At least it's something. At least if you're going to lose 10-0, we get, entertained with Chas McCormick on the mound.

He's out there spinning at 80 plus, baby. I'm good. Okay. Fine. I'm good. 713, 212.1, 7190. 713, 212 5790. 1247.

47 in the PM here on Sports Talk 790. Many thanks to Joe Espada for joining the show weekly as he does. Yeah, you know, it's hard to kind of wrap your head around sometimes. times, but you have to be more in tune with a good process rather than good result. I feel like especially in a game like baseball. For example, if we look at the result, the last two games, you would say Chas McCormick is the best relief pitcher on this team. He needs to be in more relief appearances, but that's obviously not realistic. You have to look at a little bit more than that. So how much of it is that's just baseball that we can sweep away? How much of it is the Astros need to improve their

processes. And Joe did talk about that with the approach and taking more pitches, being more patient, not going so much outside the strike zone, making guys work. So it's good in theory, but I will point out again, Jeremy Pena took the first two pitches yesterday and then he's down 02 in the count. So you have to have better pitch recognition and all that type of stuff. And it's just not been great for the show's the last few days. And there's also a factor too that's very sensitive that a manager's not going to answer.

But if you don't have enough personnel that can compete at the major league level, you're going to be hurt. And look, Melton, Tramel, who else am I thinking about? I mean, Cam Smith has... He's regressed. I mean, look, he's a rookie. He's a rookie. I'm not... Accutations are low.

Right. I mean, Dubon at the plate is just not very good. He's a very nice player. He's a great utility guy. But there's no... slug, it's not going to be a hard of the lineup guy. I mean, Sanchez is

struggling. But Sanchez is a major like player. Sanchez is just going through it. I'm just saying there are going to be guys during this stretch of the last 30 games, give or take, that just wouldn't be on a lineup card five days a week and the asteros are having to use it.

I mean, saying what you all about Jake Myers, the Jake Myers loss has hurt this team because he was having a great season offensively. He said no, $300. And you never worried about as defense. No. Jake Melton's out there making defensive plays. Taylor Tramelkin played defense. They've been solid defensively. It's just they have to get better at the

plate. And they need they need guys to be themselves. Mostly we've been talking about this a thousand times over and over. Yonner Diaz and Christian Walker, who have, we've seen flashes from them here and there. Who are? Who are? But they haven't been consistent enough. And Yordon Alvarez is the

cornerstone of this lineup. And he's been out since May 3rd. And I mean, if there is tremendous pressure on him. But you know what? You're a major league player making really good money. It's going to come with the territory.

Yeah. You need a talent influx. It's not like if Kyle Tucker and Bregman and Alvarez were in this lineup and they were underperforming and not scoring runs then you'd be saying, okay, this is a team that's just not executing.

But this is not the team that was created when the start of the season, even with injuries, even with guys having slumps, Christian Walker's had a season in long slump. He's been better lately since what July 1st, been significantly better, frankly.

But two hits yesterday. Yeah. I mean, he's yeah. Let's go, man. He needs a, like an amazing September. Because I don't think it's fair to put the way to the world on Yordon Alvarez. I mean, guys

hadn't played but a handful of games this year. Well, a handful. I see what you did. 29 games he's played. 700 even OPS for Christian Walker this year. If you get 725, that means he's at a good September. He's been over 800 the last couple years. James and Alvin at 1252 on the Matt Thomas show.

With Ross, James, what do you have today? Oh, thank you, gentlemen, for accepting my call. Listen, I was watching the pre-game yesterday, and they retired Billy Wagner uniform number. and I was trying to go back in time and say, what did he really do to justify him being a Hall of Famer? And I'm trying to say, I know he had over 10 points, some ERA. He never won a playoff series with Astros, as a matter of fact.

In 98, all I can remember Billy Wagner doing was giving up a walk-off home run to the third string catcher in San Diego. and the Astros had a hell of a team in 1998, and the nine years that he played with the Astros, he never won a playoff game. And I'm wondering what justify him retiring the number other than striking out a bunch of average major leagues in accomplishing, I'm going to say, basically nothing.

and he just stockpile some numbers. Do that make him a Hall of Fame? I'm going to hang up and listen. 10.03 ERA in the playoffs for Billy Wagner. It's not good. Yeah, you know what? If we're crushing Jeff Bagwell for his playoff performances,

I'm crushing Billy Wagner. He's the worst. Doesn't deserve it. Shouldn't be in the Hall of Famer. Should the Baseball Hall of Fame retract his invitation? Seven-time All-Star. Billy Wagner. Wait, he got MVP votes?

Wait, this can't be right. Eighth in all time saves. It's pretty good. I think his ERA plus and his K-per-9 are like among the best in baseball history. Career ERA of 2.31. That's pretty good. 422 saves. That's pretty good.

Almost 1,200 strikeouts. Oh, yeah, but he only pitched 900 innings. Oh, what? He only pitched 900 innings. And you got nearly 1,200 strikeouts and they only pitched 900. I actually, and even before Billy Wagner made it in, I'm okay with the argument that relievers shouldn't get in because they're just the best of the worst pitchers. I'm okay with Billy Wagner being in.

It's not a travesty. But if you want to gatekeep in that way that he only pitched 900 innings in his entire career, where's, I'm curious just like out of the blue. Where is Frambervaldez on career innings? I can look it up for you. Let me take... He's got a thousand innings. So a Framber has already thrown

over 100... or almost 150 innings more than Billy Wagner ever did. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Let's then let's chew this up a little bit. Number of high leverage innings at Frembrer Valdez is thrown. And great, you can see every inning is high leverage

because you're starting. But the first inning and the second inning don't carry the same weight that the ninth inning with two on and two out. What do you mean? It's zero to zero. It's a tie game. He's pitching more tie game innings than anybody else.

Not late and close. You know what I'm saying. Impactful moments. Uh-huh. Billy Wagner. I mean, this is about any closer. The great closers are brought in in the most tumultuous times. Not every pitch.

Not every single time. But most. Billy Wagner pitching the seventh inning in games in a seven-one game, unless he was getting work done. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes you've got to get him playing. in a low leverage situation just to get him some work. And frankly, to me, not every pitcher is created equal.

Some are built for the distance, but some are like, you know what, ninth inning, two on, I need three strikes to get the guy out. I got a guy I'm going to trust over somebody else. And that's what makes the great closers, is that he's going to go in there.

Mariano Rivera, is anyone going to besmirch Mariana Rivera's career mark? I mean, regardless of whether he's a starter, really, he won the best pitchers of all time. He took one pitch and made a 15, 20-year career out of it, and it was unhittable for 90% of it. I am not arguing against Billy Wagner. I'm saying, I think to me, it's arguable.

Yeah, there are no, when I think of sure-fire closers, Billy didn't come to mind. I'm glad Billy got in. He was one of my favorite players as I was a young broadcaster, but I could see why. But to, I mean, it also took him 10 times. 10 go-rounds here. It was close.

He had to wait. Yeah, that's why I don't think it's a slam dunk case. But his K-per-90 are a lot of his numbers. The reason why he shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame because the Astros didn't have a three-up series. That's where you kind of lost me. Real quick, we go to Ryan before the top of the hour on 7-90. Hello, Ryan.

I can't. I don't want to hear this Billy Wagner slander. This is crazy talk. Okay, I get Ross's point. Relief pitchers, you're the best of the worst. However, I would argue that with Matt, a closer is a whole different designation of pitcher, in my opinion. A closer is, while they are technically a relief pitcher, they are doing a very different job. But come on, man.

We're sitting here cutting hairs over a Houston great achieving that ultimate goal going into the hall wearing an Astros hat. That's legit. And the fact that people are even calling. I heard him talk. I heard his name, and I didn't even, it just went right out of my head because I was like, you got to. James and Allen's a good friend of ours. He's the outside pitch guy. But he's got some whack tags.

He knows it, too. A high leverage plate appearances pitched for Framber 741 for Billy Wagner, 1780. So a thousand more high leverage plate appearances. I mean, can I make this blanket statement? Yes. There are probably a group of pitchers that would be considered the greats of the great that probably don't want the ninth inning. and Billy Wagner's DNA says I want the ninth inning and all the great closers.

Guzis Gossos is one of the ninth inning. Trevor Ruffman wanted the ninth inning. Ken Giles wanted the ninth inning. Ken Giles wanted to hit himself. I just think that they're... I don't treat closers to me as guys that can't do with a starting rotation. And if you can do both, thanks for the phone call, Ryan.

Like John Smoltz to me is great. Wins, 200 wins and 200 saves. He was able to do both. I don't know if they're not. there's a whole lot of John Smoltz out there. Do you think Justin Verlender would be a guy that I want to go in the ninth thing of a game fresh without having a warm-up? I don't know. He could have done it.

Absolutely. He just was. That's kind of the point, though, that Justin Verlander was never going to be a closer because he's one of the best pitchers and the best pitchers pitch more innings. So, to me, it's kind of a valid argument. I'm not going to smirk. I don't think I'm going to denigrate. if I see a guy that's a ninth-th inning guy that I can use three times in a week

and can get me 95, 96, 97, that's as much value to me as a guy that gives me something every five, five days. It's not a denigrantage or two, one of them. It's just that's who that guy is. If I can use him three times a week to get me three saves, boom, I'm all for it. Because teams value the closer.

Ninth inning, game over. Bobby Jenks, God rest of his soul. Chicago White Sox, when he was playing 10, 15 years ago, I mean, good gracious. He came on the mound. He scared the living crap out of you. Yeah.

He was also eating Chicago-style dogs on the mound. He was big. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross. So I checked my phone during the break. A friend of the show, I will keep his name anonymous. Is that call about Wagner was some of the dumbest blank I've ever heard. There was no walk-off in San Diego? Yeah.

No walk off in San Diego. We just flat out lost it. No, I don't think so. He gave up a home run in 98. But I think it was in Houston. Okay. Whatever. Whatever.

That 1980 pissed me off. Like I said, I kind of hear arguments to the contrary, but that's just as a blanket statement of relievers, not necessarily an indictment of Billy Wagner. Once you move the goalpost, the relievers are in, Billy Wagner should be in. Yeah. And then I went to check Facebook. And since we don't do non-flora, we can't do Florida stories. We should. On Fridays.

Only when I'm in Florida. I do have a Florida story for you that I'm going to wrench in here quickly. Okay. And we get back to sports, sports, and more sports, because that's what we are here for. Rossi, I'm going to invite you on a cruise. Now, you and I will not be going together on this cruise, but I'm going to invite you to cruise me. Not one of those cruises from match game? No.

Passengers will be able to pack lightly for this journey, which will be leaving in February. And it's going to be going for 11 days. It will depart Port Miami on February 9th. It will include stops in Aruba, the Bahamas, and Jamaica. The ship will return to Miami on February the 20th. Okay. Sounds pretty good, right? 11 days.

It sounds like fun. Name of the travel agency handling is called the Bear Necessities Tour and Travel. It is the big nude cruise. Oh, excellent. Here are the rules. What are the rules, Matt? attendees are required to wear clothes in the dining rooms thankfully but not at the poolside buffet

oh come on clothing must be worn when port authorities are on board inspecting the ship and guests must exercise modesty when they are in port individuals are also expected to be clothed during the captain's reception the cruise line employees will not be nude if you want an inside cabin it'll cost you $2,000 for 11 days That doesn't seem too bad, right?

No. If you want a three-bedroom via, villa, $33,000. Three bedrooms for 33K? Mm-hmm. The website... Has it come with free loop? The website advertises theme nights,

workshops, and the unique entertainment you've come to expect to join a Bear Cruise. B-A-R-E. B-A-R-E. B-E-A-A-R-A-A-R. A-R-F-E. So you're going to be going to be going to be going to? According to Tampa Bay Times, there are fewer than 25% of cabins love for this cruise.

There may a lot of parrot heads on that cruise. I've made this blanket statement before. Not that I've ever been anywhere in a nudist area before. You've ever been to Hippie Hollow in Austin? I did as a kid by accident. Oh, okay. Why are you winking at me? Because I got something in my? I don't know. It was when I went to that Swingers convention in Vegas.

Swingers conventions, all on accident. Being at the Star Dess was a pure accident. I was just looking to gamble and I was the only person that didn't have a bracelet on. I'm going to presume that 10% of the people that are on this nude cruise are going to be very, very attractive. 10%? Under. Okay, my point is at least 90% will not be attractive. Okay.

I don't know if I want to go on 11-day cruise. You probably find picks. What's it called? I'm not new. It's fine. I'll do my work laptop. If I get fired, you guys know why. All right. The name of the group is called Bear Necessities Tour and Travel.

B-A-R-E. Bear Necessities. I'm just going to put Bear Necessities Cruise. The Big Nude Boat. The Nude Cruise. All right, let's get some images here. What the hell? What?

Oh, these can't be real. Oh, no, I don't think I should be clicking on these. I'm going to, again, I'm going to be safe and saying. 90% of them are unattractive people. Correct? That should be fully clothed. Um, hmm.

I don't think anybody is about under the age of 50 year. So why would you want to go on it? Why isn't really out from attractiveness, I guess? Sorry, go ahead. No, I'm just saying, I don't know why you'd want to go see 50 plus people, 50 year old plus people. What if you just like to let it all hang out, Matt? But I don't. It'd be.

uninhibited. Well, yeah, well, some of these people do. There's really no area in town you can be nude in. You have to wear clothes to go to work. You have to wear clothes to go out. You can't be naked in your house. Yeah, I can't, I'm not going to, there's, there are pictures, but I am not going to click them on. No, do not. I want you to keep your job. I don't need Bob Pittman sent in a group email. Hey, guys. Team mirror, I got a invite for Microsoft Teams for H-Hs, Char. Anger management. That's for you. I just... No, thanks.

Good looking bikinis. If you're fit, God love you, but I guess there's a lot of fly-ab and they... Well, some people just like to go and be free, Matt. Let them live their lives. Clearly, there's enough interest in this. They're charging $3,300 for a villa. What do you think about the people that are working the crews? They've got to get premium pay. If you're the comedy writer, you know there's comics on those things? Oh my God.

Does he do nude comedy? Does he do nude comedy? Like, you would need to put some clothes on. And probably would make an enemy jokes, that kind of thing. I don't know. It just, things you check while you're trying to do a four-hour major market of sports program. You sound like you want to go, but you're just scared to me.

I do not want to go. I'm first of all, I'm too pasty white. I don't need it. What better way to get a tan than it be completely nude? I was about to say. Do you think I should go? Yeah. I think you and the misses should go and report back.

It's during All-Star break. Oh, see, you're already planning it. You really want to go. You just don't want to admit it. No, I need to get... No, I don't want my albino body being seen by other people. I'm sorry and brought this up. But I just wanted it.

We need a little small segue from the intensity of that has been the Astros disappointing last couple days. It's a must-win Tuesday. You claiming it? No. No. It's funny. They've had two terrible beatdowns, and their lead has not shrunk at all.

Beauty of baseball. You lose 10 to nothing or 1 to nothing. Does the winner in the American League West get to 90 wins? What are we pacing for now? I will say yes. Well, okay, so let's do this. If they're going to play 500 the rest of the way. I will say yes.

Yes, over 90 wins. Okay. Let me look at the standings. The Astros right now are at. 69 and 56, 13 above 500. So they played 500 the rest of the way, they would be 87 and 75. That's not 90.

I said they're going to get there. They're going to play above 500 the rest of the way. The winner of the division or the Astros? Both. Oh, okay. The one of the division, the Astros. I like it. I like your optimism.

All right, we're going to come back. It's really been paying off this week. It has been. You've put. But too many quality starts on Spencer Irrigi's agenda. I'm going to keep saying until it's going to happen. It's going to happen at some point. Well, is that right?

You're going to be boastful about it. Okay. Yeah, I'll learn from you. Start calling you the Arrogati Insider. Hey, let's, uh, you okay over there? No. NFL rewind with Ross is up next. What?

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The best back-to-school styles are here now at Macy's. Recently on an episode of the Fudd Around and Find Out podcast with AZ Fudd, we were joined by Courtney Williams and Natasha Hidiman, The Stud Bloods, for a conversation that goes from viral moments to downright chaos. Courtney, you pick me up at All-Star? Do you remember that? Stop it. Y, I was picking people up, but I do remember picking you up, for sure. I picked you up in a different way, A.G. Than I was picking the other baddies up, you feel?

To hear this and more, open your free I-Heart radio app. Search, Fud around, and Find out with AZ Fudd. Listen now. Matt Thomas, Ross Villarreal. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. 121 on Sports Talk 790 is time for us to find out what's happening around the National Football League with all the headlines. Frankly, there isn't enough NFL talk at our town. That's what we bring in Ross to bring us a rewind.

Thank you, Matt. Now, we've talked a lot about things going to be. going on in the NFL, including recently named starters. We mentioned Daniel Jones. We've also mentioned Joe Flacco. We should mention Daniel Jones in Indianapolis now. Yes. And taking over

for Anthony Richardson, week one starter. Joe Flacco, the week one starter in Cleveland, coach Kevin Stefanski with a vote of confidence. Quote, I thought he's done exactly what we've asked him to do, and I think we have a lot of confidence in him. Flacco has been the only healthy quarterback also since the start of camp.

Efechtia Dor Sanders, Kenny Pickett, Dylan Gabriel, others dealing with injuries. But Joe Flacco entering his 18th season, starting week one for the Browns against the Cincinnati Bengals. That game is in Cleveland, I believe, or is it Cincinnati? It is in Cleveland, September 7th. How are we feeling? I mean, when you have the over? Yeah, for sure.

Because, I mean, he's going to throw a pick six. At least one. And then the Bengals will score 20 to their own, so 34 right there from the Natty. Can you believe he's even still in the NFL? And now he's also named a week one starter. Yeah. I mean, K. Skidon, God, love him. He's still in the NFL.

Yes. Yes? Where is he? You had to ask that question. He'd have to go somewhere. You continue. I'll give you the answer. I think he's playing with the Barcelona Dragons.

He is not. Stop. Okay, is the Chicago Bears apparently. Yes, Matt. We also mentioned Daniel Jones named the starting quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. He is the 11th

quarterback to start since Andrew Luck retired. Sam Mellinger, Longhorn Legend, among those names. Best was Philip Rivers. Philip Rivers. Yeah. Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan,

Gardner, Minchew, Oh God. Anthony Richardson. Oh, God. It's not been great for the Indianapolis Colts. And then you kind of just added Daniel Jones under that pile of mid. I mean, doesn't, you know, Robert Ursay, that was the dad, right? The son was Jim.

Jim. He passed. Now, Jim's kids are running it. Okay. Don't you think that they're going to clean house at the end of the year? Probably if things don't go well. I mean, which they probably won't. Here's the reality.

If you're a general manager and, again, Yeah, this is the second time I brought this up, but it's worth repeating. If you have a top five pick and you pick a quarterback and that quarterback does not work out, it screws your franchise for years. They've had no excitement, no joy in Indianapolis a lot. I mean, they went eight, nine last year. I don't know how the hell they did it. The team that's going to finish second in this division, and even close could be the Jacksonville Jaguars. I can see Indianapolis in Tennessee fighting for five wins.

guess depending on Cam Ward and how good do you think he's going to be been kind of quiet it feels like for Cam Ward and the Titans Well it was quiet The night The moment he got drafted It was like Cam Ward's number one

Number one picking the draft Mm-hmm By the way the Titans are not going to wear those god awful older jersees anymore Get their ass beat twice And said to wear enough's enough Oh they're not going to wear them Nope they're done

That's good I mean it doesn't matter They're also getting a new stadium too We all got to move on From the Oilers It's not like they did anything. All right, Bill Barnwell came out with an article, Matt. Five teams to decline in 2025.

Okay, may I guess? Go ahead. The Colts are on the list and then everybody else made the playoffs last year. Okay, so they're saying the Colts could be worse than 8-9 last year. All right, I'm going to go with Kansas City being one of them. Wow, look at you. Kansas City's on the list. You looked at this article.

Go. Barnwell. No. Who else was really good last year that's going to take a step back? Denver? Nope. Let me just tell you. Go ahead. And then you

can react. Commanders. They did make the NFC championship game. A little sophomore slump for the quarterback? Could be. Jaden Daniels. Okay. And the Lions and the Vikings. Bill and Bonnewell says what to call. Because the starting quarterback is gone. You got a rookie quarterback. And the Lions

lost both of their coordinators. Chiefs and Lions on this list. Commanders, it makes a little sense. I mean, the Chiefs did go 15 and 2 and go to the Super Bowl, so decline could be not that far of a fall. If you've gone 15 and 2, wouldn't you naturally, even though you're maybe still an awesome team, it was 13 and 4, that technically is a decline,

but is that really a decline? Dude, I was listening to a fantasy football podcast, and they're like, if you look at the numbers for guys after 2,000-yard seasons, all their numbers go, yeah, nobody's having a lot of, a back-to-back 2,000-yard season. Breaking friggin' news. Okay?

Oh, quarterback threw for 5,000 one year. He's only thrown for 4,600. Oh, there's a drop. There's a material decline after the year after somebody rushes for 2,000 yards. Yeah. There's nobody ever rushes for 2,000 yards twice in a row. Now, we will not have NFL rewind next week

because you're going to be gone. Okay, I'm calling. No, you're not calling. No, I won't call it. Hell no. Let's do this right now. Let's not hold ourselves to this. Okay. First blush. Super Bowl teams.

Wait. We got time. Opening days now for like two weeks. I'm saying you're welcome. Just right now. First blush. First blush. Ravens.

Eagles. First blush. Bill's 40-9ers. First blush. Okay. You raise your eyebrows on the 90s in here. They could bounce back. Kyle Shanahan is a great coach.

I think the NFC. Wes is. Christian McCaffy's 29 now. openly winnable. Okay. And Brockport has got his money. We also mentioned this earlier, Matt. Trey Hendrickson remains entrenched in his position on not playing the upcoming season. Hendrickson telling Laura Rutledge that he and the team are in close agreement on the total average annual salary of the deal and the length, but not the total guaranteed money.

He ended his holdout on July 30th. He's been holding in since then, but not practicing. So he goes to the camp. He puts the gear on. He eats the food, but doesn't practice. That's a way to get him not find, I guess. What a completely uncomfortable situation that is for them. I'm not, he says, recognition is not something I'm chasing.

I think I've made my statements clear. Security is something that I value in telling my wife where we're going to play. Those are the things that matter to me. Got a feeling? Deal by week one? Or he missed his time. Well, I would have had him traded, but he wouldn't kick the tires on that, and nobody wanted to trade for him.

So he's got two options. If they're agreeing on years and I think something, I will gut feeling something gets them. If they've agreed on years and money, just not on guarantees. But man, the Bengals have been pretty steadfast. The Cubs play day games every single day. They used to when we were kids. They have lights there now, Ross.

Because, yeah, they didn't wire up with the, lights to the stadium. You name the year they got the lights? 1921. No, stop. Crosby Field. No. When do the Cubs get their lights?

Oh, the Cubs? Yeah. I'm sorry, I thought you'd be when the first night game is played. No, no, Cubs get the night game. The first night game was Crosley Field. I know. First night game at Wrigley Field. The Reds beat the Phillies or something like that.

There you go. I don't remember. 1987. Oh, when they got them? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Ronald Reagan went to the game and everything.

Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, dang it. You're rolling out by a decade. Cincinnati beat the Phillies, though. What do I get for that? It was at Crossey Field. What do I get for that?

Firm hand-shaking and out-a-boy? Who could have told you who's a Reds and Phillies? Come on. Wexler. I think he wouldn't have got it. We'll have to ask him before he comes in because he's not listening to the show. He might be.

He doesn't listen to us. No chance. Okay. All right, real quick. Oh, Hendrickson. I mean, he's already there, Ross. He wants to start getting paid. He knows he's not going anywhere of this.

Yeah, I'll go with you and say he's going to be signed by the time I play week one. That's the NFL re-won. Thank you, Matt. No, thank you. You did the heavy lifting. Yeah, you're welcome. Am I nuts on the Niners being sneaky on them this year?

That's fine. It is kind of sneaky. Oh, they're good. Because, I mean, I could see Washington maybe taking a step back. Detroit may be taking a step back. Philadelphia probably step. All right, I'm just throwing it out there. Excuse me.

Want some new blood. And remember, the Texas. Niners aren't new blood. recently. If the Texans go to the Super Bowl You'll become a fan. I become a fan. And when I mean fan, I will be getting a jersey. No chance. I will be getting a hat with horns on it.

Okay. You'll be taking an L on saying they'll never make the Super Bowl with California. Correct. Correct. And I will go interview Hannah McNair often and pretend that I'm a real journalist. You know what they call that in my age? What do they call it at your age? I'll tell you after the break. That's the radio tease right there He's learning so fast I'm about to be called a name by the young and I'm a little nervous

Can you say it on the air? Yeah yeah I'll say it though A little drama 713212-57.7.7.7.1-23-212-5-790 A college football headlines Two things. One, there is a guy named Josh Pate. He's like a college football analyst. Ross. You heard the name?

Josh Pate. Have you heard it? Okay. So Josh says the reason why the Big Ten is doing what they're doing and trying to expand it is because they're really giving you a completely preposterous idea, hoping that you'll take the deal that they originally said. They originally wanted to go to 16 teams and that's why they're throwing the 24 to 28 out. There's really no intention to going to 2428. They just want to get to 16. I totally believe that. Okay. All right. I just wanted to see if that made a little bit of sense. You've done that before in your life. Yeah, you overnegotiate?

Like, honey, let's go. You ask for raise X knowing you'll probably get raised Y? Like you say, let's go on a vacation to Tahiti. Well, how does Galveston's on? Okay, that's fine. So you admit it wasn't your first choice? No. I'm saying that I love Galveston. Mr. Texas appreciates Galveston.

unlike elders I appreciate it All right I'll give you another example I want to buy a Maserati How about a nice Full-loaded SUV instead

Okay there you go That work Yeah you probably get out Negotiated by your wife Every week Week I think three times Since the show began

And BYU is gonna have a brand new quarterback You remember the BYU Jew Who's no longer there I can say that He says it I'm not Nothing guy said wrong

I didn't say a word You smiled I said nothing Because I'm a happy guy. So the B.Y. Former person. The B.Y. Jewish quarterback person. Who got a piece of ass and pro bono not supposed to.

That's such a ridiculous role. It's now, Tulane. So the quarterback is going to be a true freshman. He spent last year at Stanford, I guess, leaving. He left high school early to go train at Stanford. Now he's transferring to BYU. His name is Bear Bachmire. And that's no big deal, right?

First true freshman quarterback ever. I don't think so. First true freshman quarterback ever at BYU. Is he from Munich? Okay. Here's the diva part. You know what jersey number is going to wear? 69.

47. 47? 47. Why? Because you're an attention-seeking horse, is what you are. Does the number have significance to him? I don't know, but it doesn't matter. Doesn't that number come with a neck roll?

and unlimited steroids? Yes. I don't know why it is. I'm sure it's a wonderful reason. Sorry, quarterback should not have the jersey number 47. I'm old school that way. I understand.

It doesn't matter. All right. Now, Jonathan, you were going to call me a name. What was the reason why I was calling me a name again? Because you were saying how... I changed my stance on something. Oh, the Texans.

You become a Texans fan when when. Yes. And, you know, what we call that is a bandwagon, Matt. How can you be Mr. Texas if you're not rep in Texas all the way through? If I told you right now, if U.S. 1 last year, I'll be a U.S. basketball fan. What would you call me? Welcome to the friend. Welcome to the party. Really?

Yeah, I'll accept. I don't care. I'm not going to bandwagon. You're going to be bandwagon in U.H football if we put the beat down in you a week from Thursday. You're not a week from Thursday from your beat down? I mean, beat down. I mean, utter embarrassment. Guys, oh, my God. I want everybody to tune in. such a day after. Oh, I do too. I don't even care.

Trust me, I do. I don't even care if we get blown out. I want everybody to call in because if we win. Let me tell you. It's going to be me talking the whole show. You're welcome to talk the whole show because I probably aren't going to be on the show on Friday. Sick day.

Let me tell you something right now. Have they posted a line for this yet? No way. No chance. No how. SFA's beating Houston. No. There is no possibility.

Zero. Zero. How many lumberjohns at the stadium team? It's okay, 11. I don't know. 12 maybe. All that can do you probably could be in that stadium. Yeah, it's going to be like a home field, Matt.

Do you all even have cars up there? I've got some lemons there. Is there a line? Is there a line? There's not going to be a line. There hasn't been. Because Vegas is like we're not going to embarrass you. It's going to be like a 70 point line.

They don't want to lose money. Imagine SFA wins and beach. And they just put it. I found one line. Oh, look here. on ESPN bet. And it's on Fandu, actually. No, there's a line.

Do you want to guess, Jonathan? How many points are the University of Houston Cougars favored by in the game? I probably like 14. 22.5. Oh. How are we feeling? How are we feeling?

You're more than three touchdowns down to me. Hey, now, 22.5 point dogs can win. That's what I'm seeing. It won't be next Thursday. That's happened. How many point dogs is, Northern Illinois versus Notre Dame. Those are two Division I schools.

Matt, you just became a power four like three years ago. Yeah. You're not a, you're an FCS school. You were in the same. No, no, no, no, no, no. We were not the same. If we could go toe to toe with FBS, Sam Houston, and they're in there now? Northern Illinois was 28.5 point dogs. Okay.

To Notre Dame. I'm not stuttering. There's no chance. No way. know how. I need this to happen. SFA is going to beat University of Houston. A 20% chance. At least it's up on the books now. 22 and a half.

Yeah, this is going to be good. I can't wait. I can't wait either. I can't wait for Friday 10 o'clock. Similar lines, Oklahoma State is 22.5 favorite over Tennessee Martin. Okay. By the way, I'm going to grab all the pub I play highlights. I want U of H highlights all throughout the entire.

show all four freaking hours and Rashi be back for that so I'm gonna get so much SFA alumni just calling and like look at us win and they're just gonna be smack talking you and I'm just sitting there everybody on the call air I screens air I con more context

Indiana 22 and a half point favorites over Old the Dominion okay old Dominion is horrible though that's that's nice I would I'd give Western Kentucky a better chance beating Houston than SFA West Virginia has a good program though

I'm saying I would give you a better chance you got no chance I'll give you one more. Texas A&M 21 and a half point favorites over UTSA. See, and UTSA isn't horrible? It could happen. It could happen. It's not happening. You got to believe, Jonathan. You got to believe. Honestly, I thought it'd be more than 22 and a half, so I'm feeling pretty good. Let's look at your schedule. After that, you go to Abilene next, the final week. That's fine. You're hosting. Abilene Christian? Yeah. Then you're hosting Sol Ross.

Okay. The hell is that. That's where Brian Lehmiema played. Yeah. Okay, so it's the community college. Then you have Cal Poly, McNeese, you go to UIW, home from Nichols, you play at East Texas A&M, home for UTRGV, home for SFA, home for Lamar, and you close the year at Northwestern State. I mean, it's fine. And you start that with U of H beat down, it's a good season. Woo!

Let's go, Jacks! You know, Axeim, Jacks. You know what I'm saying? I will wear a collared SFA shirt. And sing the fight song. And sing the fight song if you win. That would be the best day of my young career now. It's not going to happen.

You can say it all you want. I'm going to say it all I want. 22 and a half is not that bad. That's a couple pick sixes, Maddie, and you're in the game. We're not betting spreads. We're just straight up. I know. Straight up.

Who's y'all's quarterback? I don't even know what else quarterback is. It's future Heisman champion, Connor Wegman. Connor Wegman. Oh, okay. I know about him. Yeah, okay. Yeah.

Yeah. And you want to, you want to back off now? No, not at all. I mean, he's, UFH is irrelevant

even until basketball. Oh. They can go, they can get beat down by any group of fire school. Do you mean? Oh. I want you. Back talk.

Yeah, I thought the director's going to be here on Friday. Will you tell him that to your face? I would tell him, I would tell him, I would tell him, yes, I would be like,

I'm living. There's no chance of that. There's no chance of that whatsoever. Let's go. I would tell him right on air. This is great. This is my favorite running gag. Okay, so what is he going to do in return?

Nothing. You're 22 and a half point favorites. He can sing the cougar fight song. I could try. I'll butcher a little bit, but you know, I got it. You get the words. No, you know what? Do you want him to wear the Shasta outfit?

Can you arrange that? Well, I could definitely arrange that. All right, believe it or not, it's up next after I tell you about the Shell Federal Credit Union. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We, I have to kill time here. Should play. I was working on your laptop and I forgot.

I got to do one more question. Oh my God, one more question. Hold on. Fast as growing sports game show. We simply called it, believe it or not. It's going to be a basic-ass question in here. You call 713, 2-1-2-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

Today's edition of Believe it or not is about all things about John Wall who just announced his retirement. I'll read your statement about John Walf's statement about John Walf's statement. statement's completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. If a statement's erroneous photo bonnet up, you'll say this. Not. Two believer knots in a row when you won of three prizes. One, a 790 t-shirt. Two, a pair of tickets

to see the offspring on their supercharged worldwide and 25 tour. That's along with Jimmy Eat World and Newfound Glory. It's this Saturday, August 23rd at the Woodlands Pavilion. Or you can win a pair of tickets to see George Thorogood and the Destroyers. It's the baddest show on Earth. On August 27th, the House of Blues, tickets for both the offspring and George's Soror Gooder available on sale now at Ticketmaster.com. That's Ticketmaster.com.

Okay. Let's play, believe it or not. Corey on 790, Corey, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Corey is not ready. We'll drop him and go to Brian on 790. Brian, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Let's do it. John Wall was a star pitcher for Gardner High School in North Carolina

and was getting attention from scouts before he decided to focus on basketball. Believe it or not? Not. That is correct. Statement number two for the win. John Wall is the fourth, fourth leading score in Wizards franchise history. Fourth, believe it or not? Not.

That is a believe it, Sally. How do you not have that wizard's what I literally just wrote? I was going to call that. Why don't you have the Wizards' all-time scores on your computer? Number one is? Elvin Hayes. That is correct. Kneel on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. John Wall never met an NBA first or second team. Believe it or not. Not. He did not. That is a believe it. Only one third team, which got him a Supermax. Yep. Garrett on 790. Garrett, what was your fair part of today's 10 to 2 radio show? All of it.

According to Sports Invo Solutions, John Wall has the highest top speed while dribbling from three straight years between 2014 and 2016, the highest dribbling skills. Believe it or not. Top speed, top speed. Believe it or not. That is correct. Statement number two for the way. John Wall is a huge fan of seafood, even saying shrimp and crab legs are his favorite foods.

Believe it or not. I believe that. You should. Congratulations. Andrew on 790, Andrew, your favorite part of today's 10 to 2 radio show. Raw. I hope you lose. John Wall was the winner of the 2014 All-Star Weekend Slam Dunk Contest.

Believe it or not? Not. Yeah, he did. Sorry, bye. Renee on 790. Renee, you ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. Despite growing up in North Carolina, John Wall is a lifelong Dallas Cowboys fan.

Believe it or not? Believe it. There you go. Statement number two for the one. win. As a rookie, John Wall signed a five-year, $25 million endorsement deal with Reebok. Believe it or not? Not.

Believe it. He did. I'm sorry. We gave away nothing again today. All right. Listen to me very carefully. Wait, Garrett won? Oh, that's right. The first guy was a winner. That's right. Gary, congratulations. Remember, he loved all the entire show. Tomorrow, we're only on the air for an hour and a half. We're going to move, shut your bum ass up, to Wednesday, to Thursday.

So, tomorrow's a snack-sized edition of the show, 10 to 11. Astros on deck at 11. Ross will be largely checked out because he's going to be thinking about his vacation as already going on. I've got to be back tomorrow? Take tomorrow off. I can do an hour. No, I'm just kidding.

You can do it. I'll handle it. We're going to be all right. No, dude, take a day. I don't care. I won't even count it against you. You work hard. Oh, you're doing the 10th inning the night, by the way.

What? I know. Yeah, it should be early. Dude, you got on the year 805 yesterday. Well, it's a part of you got on the year to 805. All right, up next. Level-headed sportscaster. And, of course, Adam Clinton as well.

It's the team. And they're going to entertain you between now and Astros baseball right here on Sports Talk 790.