The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Lose Game 1 In Sacramento, Playoffs Hopes Slipping Away.

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

Astros Lose Game 1 In Sacramento, Playoffs Hopes Slipping Away.

This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 101 in H-Town. Good morning. Welcome to a Wednesday edition, The Matt Thomas Show, Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Ross, they are. I criticized my partner for his lack of work ethic.

But he put in the hours. See, why is that? I don't know. This is easier. I put in a bunch of hours. I've been here 16 years. I've never said no to a single assignment. I know.

I do post-game shows. I do pre-game shows. I come out and I'm engineering broadcast tomorrow. I know. Why is that? Why do I have no work ethic? Because I watch every single game. I tease you.

I tweet during games. Yet I've got no work ethic. I tease because I care. Point being is this. The man was a grinder yesterday. A bunch of pre-game shows, what, two weeks ago. Well, you tell me I'm number one. No, you're number one, Ross.

and you did the post-game show and you took calls. Yes, a lot of calls. And lots of calls. And one guy wanted Joe a spot of fire because he calls up the wrong players from the minors. Do you think it's bad now? The rest of the week could be. I'll be back at it tonight, baby.

Oh, let's go. Hunter Brown, please win this game. By the way, five and one is still in play. It is. Rossi, it's still in play. Help me out here. For example, yes, 14 and 3 is on the table for the Texans. It is on the table.

It's on the table. Yes. Now it's rolling off the table quickly. Especially because you can't imagine that Baltimore would lose two straight home games. Yeah. Wait. Are they off? Yeah, they go to Kansas City this week and then they're home for the Texans.

I got you. I mean, Rossi. Three hits, Matthew. It was feeble. There was at least eight pop-outs by the Astros. We talked to Joe Espada yesterday and we're like, hey, are they trying, are they going to change approach in Sacramento? And if he hadn't had told us no, so I'm just going to believe him and say this is coincidence, it looked like they were just trying to pop everything out of the building. They had eight pop-ups in the game, at least, at least.

Yeah. And they were complaining about it was hard to see. Okay, well, I mean, you played there before. Yeah, that drop ball, Christian Walker talked about it, the post. game. It was twilight hours and it was a pop-up in the first inning and nobody could see the ball. Christian Javier was like, is this

mind? First of all, rule number one for baseball, those of you that are novices, you never want the pitcher to catch the pop flyer. He is supposed to get, frankly, get out of the way. Right. And I think there was so much hesitation. He was trying to get out of the way. It was, in a perfect world, it was

Christian Walker's ball. But he lost it in the lights. He was throwing his hands up. Like, I can't see the ball guys. Yeah. Damn. And it didn't matter. It didn't matter. No.

Because they got three hits. Three singles, by the way. Three singles. Yeah. Three singles in the game. It did not matter. The bats were terrible. Everybody went over, except for Christian Walker who got two hits and Yiner Diaz, who got one.

And anybody else I'm going to name went over. Hoselle Tubei? Check. Yes. Carlos Correa? Did draw two walks. He got two walks. So, I mean, we'll give me a number.

free pass, I guess. Yarnere Diaz, check. Cam Smith. I know, you got one, yeah. Oh, sorry, Yarnier got one. Cam Smith, check. Jake Myers. By the way, how's the fan club?

I'm just curious. We're feeling good. Because, you know, that running. He's been struggling, but he's been getting on base. Because he also ran into the final out of the game on Saturday, the double play ball. Yeah, I mean, that was an exceptional catch by Robles or whoever was in the field.

Yeah. That was an exceptional catch, but he did run into the final out. I did hurt. And he's been getting on base since he come back. He's got an OPS. Look, he's got an OPS of 733. He's supposed to be basically your nine hitter. Jake Myers has been good.

Fan club has releasing a statement. We are satisfied with Jake Myers' level of play. Now, he did, he also didn't get a ball last night. Was that last night the days are blending together? And I was up, I was on air until 120. the morning. Yeah, he ran in on a ball a little bit late, caught it, and then couldn't hang on to it because he got a bad jump. It was a 95% catch probability. And normally, the greatest asset Jake has in the field is getting great jumps. He reads the ball. He didn't read a ball well.

Christian Walker dropped the ball. The A's couple of those players were having trouble seeing the ball. It was happening all over the place last night, unfortunately. And again, I will say, it didn't matter because you did nothing at the plate. Nothing. Yeah, you can kind of live with the defensive adventures, I'll call it that. You've got three hits. I mean, I guess the sun was in the eyes of the players

and they weren't in the eyes of the Oakland players. I don't know. Maybe somebody was pointing lasers in their eyes because Jeffrey Springs three five innings of one-run ball. I mean, there wasn't a guy in that group that I was like, oh, that's a pitch of the Astros should be concerned about. His ERA is 360 this month, but that's also with the Astros.

Astro start. 5.04 last month. He had not been good. And it was a lefty. That's another thing too. The Astros... Which meant no, Hesu Sanchez was going to play because he doesn't ever hit... He has a 50. Oh, don't worry. He came in at the end of the game, went 0 for one with a strikeout. So, yeah, you normally, this lineup has been pretty good against lefties because you're so righty-stacked. Yeah.

And they couldn't do anything. And that's happened a couple times lately. they're out of gas they are out of gas they are out of gas you said this two weeks ago with the analogy right oh yeah we're trying to go 10 miles

we got three miles left in the tank that's what it's that's that's that's wrong true that analogy from a few weeks ago has rung true

so what can I do for you today because I mean I'm so proud of you put those the 10th inning show nine o'clock that can be

some wacky ass crap going on back in those late night hours we had one guy drop an F bomb as I said one guy wanted Joe Spotify

because he calls up the wrong players. Hashtag Safe Harper? Of course we had a guy wanting. Actually, it was a very civil, nuanced discussion with the guy who wanted the hitting coaches fired. Okay. And I mean, yeah. How could I, how could, if somebody called in and say, hey, everybody needs to be fired

and this team is bad, how do I argue with that at this point? No, when you have had, when you have had this, and again, I don't blame the hitting coaches. I want to make sure I'm very clear. Exactly. Yes. Go ahead. I don't blame the hitting coaches, but when you have had this prolonged, just nobody performing over expectations or nobody being that great surprise, hitting coaches or coach usually is the fall guy. It's the low-hanging fruit.

And look, Jose Al-Tuvae has gotten progressively worse the last three seasons. OPS 915 down to 790 last year and then 766 this year. He's 35 years old. He's hitting home runs, but he looks like he's getting over the hill. Christian Walker, even though he got you two hits last night, he looks like he's getting over the hill. I'm wondering about Yiner Diaz, as he's gotten progressively worse for three years,

about the legs wearing down with catching every day. And then Yordon Alvarez hasn't been there. Jeremy Pena's having a career renaissance, but he hasn't been out there either because he's got the oblique strain. If we blended the two lineups last night, the first five hitters are all A's, in my opinion. It sucked. Kurtz, Langalear, Satterstrom, Rooker, and Jacob Wilson all hit ahead of anyone in the Astros' line up last night.

Yeah, it's... So sad. And the A's have been playing better. Oh, it's the Sacramento A's, but they've been... Over the last 50 games, I think, what was it? They'd won, like, 29, and the Astros have won like 24 or something like that. Yeah, I mean, Ross, we talked about this forever. This is a 425 baseball team, winning-wise.

And you know what? And you were excited about the Rangers sweep. I was excited about it. I did get excited. And I kept thinking, you know what? This Astro team has done a lot of things to surprises in the last week. It's this glory era of Astros baseball, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're going to get past this.

They're going to go overcome everything because it's the great storyline. Sometimes you have writers block. And sometimes you can't write that great ending. They have pulled the rabbit out of their hat. so many times. I think the analogy I made, they've been Jason Voorhees and he keeps coming back,

no matter what you do. And at some point at the end of the movie, Jason Voorhees dies, though. How many times have I seen Jason Voorhees in a movie? You? You don't like horror movies. That is correct. So what would you go? I'll say the first one maybe you saw? No. Okay, that's fine. I don't care. I'm not a big

horror film guy. I'm not going to crush you for that. But it's funny because when I bring it up that I don't like it, people are like, oh, you know it's not real, but it doesn't mean I can't get scared by it. I know, Maddie. You get scared. I'm sensitive that way. I'm sensitive.

All right. You're going to watch two women spit on each other and a soap opera, and that's okay. I mean, a cat fight I enjoy. Who doesn't? Oh, man. Remember the good times, folks. Remember that sweep in Dodger Stadium? But that's what I'm saying.

I don't want the next week, which could be ultimately just torture to watch, to ruin what has been an amazing. amazing run, a ride. I mean, it's been fun. I've had a great time. You've had a great time. You've watched two World Series champions. No. You don't have any of appearances. Well, fully healthy, they'd be American League favorites in my eyes.

Because the Tigers are faltering down the stretch. I'm still not a believer in the Guardians, even though they're doing it with Smoking Mirrors, too. Blue Jays, Yankees. Tell you the truth, Seattle's the best team right now playing. Yeah. Seattle, New York. I would say Seattle and in Houston would be American League favorites if they're both fully healthy.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. The radio program works like this. You call in at 713, 212. 5790. 713. Sorry, I was just free. Jones got my back. It's all good, Joan.

I'm just, I mess on. John, relax, please. Come on. Ross is, we've said way worse things to each other. Love you, Joan. You know, whatever. 713, 212. 5, 7190.

713, 212 570. Can I talk? All right, real quick. The 11 o'clock, Brian Bogussevick, shut your ball mess up at 1130. The news at noon. 120 to, 1.30 today. We'll have Willie Fritz. Our Cougars are going to play Oregon State on Friday night in Corvallis. 713-212-5-790. All right. Bogie at 11, your phone calls right now. By the way, just to let you know, the Astros find themselves officially one game back in the final wild card. There's no tiebreakers. Although, again, if there is a tiebreaker, the Astros lose them.

But... Yeah, wait a second. But go five and one. Because I'm still team five and one. They're going to win tonight. You were team four and two. That feels fair. I was a team.

I mean, I want them to go six and oh. I'm team six and oh. I just don't think it's going to happen. Okay. And that's off the table. I just didn't think five and one is going to happen. We'll see. That's still on the table.

I do want to give you one note. If you think it's bad here, I don't know if the Tigers are on Detroit Sports Radio today. Oof. Wednesday, Wednesday weekly interview with A.J. Hinch. I want to tune in for that one. Okay, just to my point,

and I put this, we were kind of guessing how long the biggest lead was. They had a 15-and-a-half game lead to Detroit Tigers in the America League Central. That's awesome. It is all gone.

By the way. What? Who told you the Tigers were not going to keep that up? I believe the curly-haired, handsome, debonair, young man. Oh, Ben Verlender?

with witty and charming and modest yes i freaking told you the tigers were going to keep that pace up did you say them happened did you have them 15 and a half out no i didn't know that i didn't know it's going to collapse like this yeah but there were so many guys overperforming in that lineup they had targ scoble i mean hattie baez was actually looking good they had targ scoble and they could win that game yesterday yeah the guardians keep winning with like i don't know black magic or I don't know what they're doing. Smoking mirrors.

They're crazy. Major league baseball is flipping out over the potential thought of the Cleveland Guardians because I don't think the America can name five guardians. They have a negative six run differential. Tigers have a plus 70 and they're knotted up. You have a negative run differential. They're in first place with five games left. That's crazy.

Yeah. I'm sorry. Well, the Astros are plus 13 Well, at least you get the Texans To look forward to. By the way, that practice study should be just a real fun... Actually, no, they got rid of the cancer. They're all good, baby. It's going to be the catalyst for a win on Sunday at NRG

where I'll be there as a fan. I think for the first time since like a Chargers Texans game in like 06. Can I buy you a t-shirt? Sure. Yeah. Battle Red? It feels like that's what you got to do, don't you? I am Battle Red Ross.

Yeah. What's up? I'll let you boy. I'll be... I accept free t-shirts. Where's it at? You bring it to tomorrow? Big City Wings?

Oh, I could. We're going to be Big City Wings tomorrow. Yeah. 20,000 block. 20,000, yes. Because that's funny, because somebody sent me an email said, you are mispronouncing, where it is.

And I'm like, no, I'm not like 23 to... Oh, my God. And I'm like, okay. 20,000 block of... Tuckerton. 20.330. But how do we let that happen in our vernacular that we let us saying that way? 23.

Okay, I'm not doing it. Someone confusing myself. 20,000 330. This is a little wordy. It is wordy. The 20,000 block of Tuckerton in Cyprus. 20,000 block of Tuckerton in Cyprus, Texas. I'll take the bundles wings and some wrens dressing.

And you can wrestle wild hogs in the pocket lot. Wildhogs are riding in there, Wildhawk. Well, and pass a get down, Dina. Hello, Will. What's up, guys? I just got a couple things. We wanted to comment first on the approach, which you guys kind of talked about,

and then I had a question. I mean, I think the whole struggle as an offense could be summed up in that eighth inning Altoouet at bat. That new pitcher comes in, hits Caratini on the first pitch, throws it outside the zone, and then Altuva proceeds

to swing at the next two pitches that are outside in the dirt before grounding into a double play. Now, I'm with you. I don't know if this is on the coaches, but I mean, whoever is in charge of this approach for these guys, it's horrible. It's unwatchable at this point. But, you know, I like a spot out. At the end of the day, I'm not sure how much a manager or a hitting coach really affects, you know, major league baseball players. But the main question I had for you guys is I was looking back on it. 2017, 2019, the glory days, you look at the free agent signings and the pre-arbitration extensions we gave. Josh Reddick, Charlie Morton, Alex Bregman, Michael Brantley, even Robinson Terenos.

Those were all steals. Those guys were way out playing their contract. So my question is, looking at this roster right now, is there one, any single player that got an extension or a big free agent contract that we're looking at saying that's a steel on this. on this current roster. Yordon Alvarez. He's hurt all the time. It was still a steal.

He's still making $26 million a year. That's a steal. Well, it is a steal, but attendance is part of the grade. And it hurts that he misses large chunks of the season. I mean, the Astros played better when he came back. He lengthened the lineup. The Astros has no links. Anybody else besides Alvarez?

On an extension, Christian Javier is, and he's been hurt. But I like the Christian Javier deal was made. What did he Christian Walker was a big free agent deal No no he's saying that we should like Oh that we should like Yeah Oh no

Well the reality is this I'm saying any free I'm saying any big free agent Or any pre-arbitration extension Outside of Yordon Alvarez Is there anybody on our roster that we've given that to that? On the current roster no But you loved Altuvae's early extension

Pre-Abitration and you loved Bringman's pre-arbitration signing So yeah if currently The only one would be Jose Altuvia of 10 years ago I have a gut feeling they're going to get Hunter Brown done in the offseason. They need to. That's all I got, guys.

And the only ones I would extend right now are would be Pena and Brown anyways as far as pre-arbitration guys. Cam Smith didn't do enough to do any sort of kind. No, Cam Smith, you've got time. Yep. Is that Cole 300 million? You thinking? Maybe 500?

Well, I already sent a tweet out earlier this year. Bryce Matthews, don't take any phone calls from, you know who, Rot Rores. Well, also don't have a 15,000, percent strikeout rate when you come up to majors. But anyways, okay, this is the thing. The hitting coaches also is that we're talking about how it's on the players.

That also doesn't mean they might not be replaced in the offseason. Yeah. Everything's on the table. There is no, I could not come to you and say that the Astros would not make coaching changes. And I would not come on in front of this microphone and tell you this was some great travesty. I think if they don't make the playoffs at all, everything's on the table. a spot included. I agree.

I think the training staff should be the first thing that should be on the table. I'm going to say, I'm just checking the board, Matt. We got the training staff out at a minus 650. I think there's going to be some shakeups there for sure. I would say the three things I would see is I could see a change in the medical staff. I could see a change in one or both of the hitting coaches. Tony's Paris. Tony, I keep calling Tony's.

Parachica. Tony Paris Chica. Tony, Paris Chica. I think could be moved. I mean, you've got too many... I feel like more guys blew through stop signs of his than Gary Pettis in the last five years. Yeah, they didn't even...

I mean, I don't even know Tony. He seems like a great person, but they didn't even like... They didn't even respect him. And by the way, what is the point of the third base? If you are rounding second coming, third, going home, you're probably in your mind anyway. You really do.

Not that, but you still have to have one. And then I would say that Joe Spotton will be up for consideration. Everybody will be evaluated. Absolutely. I would like Ospada back. Maybe if you think they need a different voice with hitting coaches, that's fine. I'm not saying you, Matt. You know, people.

That's fine. But I know that Joe Espada loves Alexintrae. Carlos Correa does. Jose Altuve does. So whether it be Dana Brown or Jim Crane evaluating that, they're going to get votes of confidence from those guys. But if they feel like a new voice is needed, that's okay. Because we say from one side of the token, yeah, they're not hurting the Astros.

Or are they helping? But sometimes you need a new set of eyes. Absolutely. New set of eyes, just a fresh voice in the room because clearly things got stale and stagnant with this offense down the stretch here. Now, how much of that? Do you blame on the hitting coaches? I blame it very little.

I blame it on Jose Al-Tube being 35 years old and wearing down. Christian Walker looking over the hill. Yonard Diaz's legs running down. And then guys have been hurt. But that doesn't mean anybody is beyond being replaced. 1029 back on the phone's next. Brian Bogos-Evick and 30 on 7-90. 1035 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

7-13-212-1-2-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. If you want to follow us on Twitter, it's at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Sports Talk 7-90. Again, Brian Bogos-Cific to join us in 25 minutes. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Texans back on the practice field.

And as Ross, you alluded to maybe everybody's in a much better now that C.J. Garner Johnson, the problem for the Texans in 2025 is no longer with the team. Pocket watching. Criticizing plays. Man, it would be so easy. If I was Jalen Petrie and he was

smack talking to me, I'd be like, bro, you've been on four teams in the last four years. Shut your bum ass up. That's true, but he's got a ring. And the Eagles only lost three games all year long last year. He lost three games in three weeks. And clearly was fed up with that.

I mean, the world, you won a Super Bowl, and they couldn't get rid of your ass, and they traded you for Kenyon Green, who didn't even make the team. That's how bad the deal was both directions. Eagles got nothing back in return, couldn't keep the guy because he was bad, and the Texans got rid of the guy after three weeks after renegotiating his contract, and I think there's going to be some dead money issues on this. Yeah, anytime you can release a player for three weeks, there's dead money problems. Not these are world problems to you and I, but Nick's got to manage us out.

Sorry, Cap, and there's going to be some money attached to his contract that's going to make not great. I'm sad. Why are we talking about the Texans? I don't want to talk about the Astros either, I guess. All right. Rives VV. V. V. Tours ACL. Let's see. What can we go to? What's the most pleasant thing in your life right?

Well, I actually know they answer that, but we can't talk about that. What do you mean? I have a wonderful, lovely life outside of sports. That's what I'm saying. Is there something outside of sports that would be lovely and pleasant to talk about? I don't want to talk about the longhorns. Um, my would be, um, well, I mean, my daughter's team won in three sets yesterday. We're C.E. King.

I was going to say, they must have been playing a bad team. I'm sorry. You know what is that rude? That was so fast, too, man. You need to get out here. You saw how fast that was? Because we were talking about... You know that Joan Ross is rude too. What were we talking about how the team's not very good, unfortunately, outside of your daughter, who, of course, is a star. Yes. And an all-time great.

They got to put her in a ring of honor or something? I'm hoping retire the jersey. Let's go. Let's go the phones. Talk to Jay on 7 out of 1038. Hi, Jay. You know, it's been a good run since 2017. Been to three World Series, one, two.

Four. So, or four. So, you know, I congratulate the Astros on that. But these guys here lately, they're ready to go on vacation. They're tired. And hopefully Dana Brown, you can build your team up. It might take a couple of years. But, hey, it's time to get rid of these old veterans.

Like whom? I'm curious. What veterans you'd like to get rid of? Go ahead and run through the list for me. Yordon. You want to get rid of Yordon? Okay. You writing this down, Rossi?

Yordon's got to go. Get rid of the greatest astro of all? Al-Tuvie. Okay, Al-Tuvie. Kristen Walker. It's going to take a while to build your team up. But hey, Dana Brown, it's up to you. Hintz did it and that other general manager we had.

So it might take a while. It might take a couple of years. But hey, it's time to rebuild your teams. Okay. There it is. That's all I got. Just get rid of everybody. Now, most of the G.I. can't agree with.

Normally, 98% of the time, we love Jade. We just can't get to rewrite. agree with them. But it does hurt that so many players are hurt. You do have money invested in Christian Javier that has not paid off. You do have money in Yorraise that can't, you can't get dividend back off of that when he's hurt. You do, you spent a lot of money on Lance McCullors, who has either been hurt or not ineffective. You, you, you feel bad for the team because of the injuries.

But that also puts people in positions they shouldn't be in playing five, six days a week. I mean, look, Maricio Dubon is a man's man. He is awesome. He's a great utility player. Mariso Dubon, for probably what the second or third consecutive of your Ross has proven, you can't play him five to six days a week. You just can. And he's had to because, you know, Jeremy Payne has been gone.

This is a little stretch here. You know, he was on the disabled injured list earlier this year. And again, injuries do happen. but when you have high-price players stuck behind the injuries, and Javier is being paid more than he should be at this point because they bought on arbitration years. You are paying Yardin-Alvarez more than he would be paying because it's arbitration years. There is a negative effect to it that it does hold you back a little bit on your financial spending on other players. Would you like to go get an A-lister free agent to play first base?

Well, you can't because you can't afford it because you got your, B-list, $20 million a year guy playing first base, and that has not paid off. Christian Walker making $20 million a year for the next two years, as long as he's a Houston Astro hurts his team, especially if the stroke is gone. How can you trot him out opening day first base next year? Because here's a thing. Even if you trade him, you're paying the contract. So guess what? That financially is going to go against your books. It goes again, but it doesn't affect you against tax, though.

That's true. But you also have to find somebody that's going to be willing to pay the money. You know, even take Christian. I mean, look. Hell, the Diamondbacks might take them back. You give half the money. Christian Walker on a $10 million deal is not bad. You've sent a lot of cash with it.

And yeah, look, they still hurts. I mean, Jim's still got to pay it. It's a situation that you're going to have to take care of at some point or figure something out. I mean, is Esock Parade is going to be your first base long term? Or do you say, hey, there's still something left in that bad? He got off to a bad foot with the guys can't have bad years and bounce back. It's just harder when they're over 30 years old. I mean, Paul Goldsmith, with the Yankees comes to mind.

And he was a disaster. And I didn't want him anywhere near the Astros. And while he's come down to Earth a lot. But still, he's played 140 games for them. And he's got an OPS at 327. No. I'm sorry, sorry. I'm sorry.

743. Okay. 327. Be very bad. Injure players that make good money kill you. I'm not giving you any breaking news or amazing analysis on that. Yeah, they're top paid player. Correa's just got here.

Altuve's been bad, quite frankly. And then Christian Walker's been bad. Josh Hader's hurt. I'm going through this is literally the highest paid players. Fromber has been bad for two months. Lance McEllors Jr.'s, as you said, been bad or not playing. And then Yordon Alvarez has played 30 games for you. And then it's Javier.

Oh, my God. The next one's Javier. He's coming off tommy, John, and he's been up and down. Then Isok Paredes is next. Oh, my God. That actually... And then it's Paredes. It was been out for two months.

So your top 10 players are playing in about either well under their performance, career numbers, or have spent significant time on the injured list. That was the top nine paid players. Next is Caratini. He's been good. Good. Yeah, he's a free agent. For six million.

And then Dubon for $5 million. That's alarming. Actually. I did not expect us to go that way. So how much of that is, and we'll go to break on this, how much of that is poor decisions by the Astros to give Christian Walker three years $60 million? Walker's looking like a poor decision because back to back you got burned by first basement and decline. I'm going to tell you this right now. When you signed your down to that deal, the arbitration deal, you were happy because you're getting value.

And actually, going back. if you really want to be honest with yourselves on this, when Lance McCuller signed his deal to buy an arbitration, you said as long as he's healthy. And it's funny, we all said that as long as we said he was healthy. You'd be fair value. The McCuller's deal was, I don't want to say curious. It was like, oh, that's a gamble.

We knew that when that was signed. It was a gamble, and Lance didn't show much hesitation. He's like, yeah, sign me up. I think I'll take that guarantee money. Yes, sir. Dotted line, give me the docu sign. 10.44. Have you...

I was last time you signed a real contract. I was funny. I'd docu-sign everything these days. Do you? I don't normally sign contracts. We had to sign something around here last month. That's true, actually. You docuson that? Yeah, it gets stronger into addendums.

But anyways... You're not team docu-sign, are you? 10-44, it's about to have a show to Ross. 7-1-3-21-2-5. Yeah, it's funny. Docu-San's never advantage us. No. It's always the other side.

7-1-3-2-1-2-1-2-4. 5.790. 7.1.3.212.5.790. Yeah. Yeah. Are you ready? Are you? 1051. Matt and Ross with you here. Back on the phones in a minute. But we do have a new feature on the show. It's brought to you by nobody. But if you'd like to sponsor, it's called How Does Pro Football Focus Judge the Texans offensive line?

Now, Ross, moments about a month ago said, hey, all I'm looking for is top 25. And I'm like, you're high as a kite. No, no. You're like, no, that's not. That's easy. They're going to get up to 25 easy. Did I really say that? Yes. I don't think. Yeah.

Thank you, Jonathan, for backing me up. All right. Well, maybe I was high as a kite. I also said later in the season. It's early, Matt. It's early, maybe. So, real quick, for going back on the phones, let's discuss where the Texans are

on the pro football focus, offensive line, weekly grades. They do this every Wednesday on their website. Preseason, they were 32nd. Yes. And every week this season, they've been 32nd. So week three, they are,

30 seconds. How about this? They talk about the rotation between Scruggs and Lake and Tomlinson. Tomlinson got a grade of 56.5. Out of a 100. That's failing when I used to take classes. And Scruggs of 55.2. So they're both pretty mid.

So what does that rank among the position of players and grades? I'd have to pull it up as far as guards. Save yourself. If you want me to, I can. Okay, it's actually not that bad. 95 guards have been rated so far this year. Okay. Juice Grugs is 57.

Okay. Great job, Juice. You're doing amazing. Hold on. Let me try to find Lincoln Tomlinson. Oh. You talk. All, I'm going to talk to Al.

How about that? Sorry. Al on 790 and 1053. Al, good morning to you. Good morning to you. sir. Listen, I just wanted to make a comment about the Astros medical staff. I work in an industry that involves private parties and private houses, and 75% of time, Mr. Crane is there, along with other Astros, investors, the doctor is also there with him and his wife partying with him. So I would be surprised if the trains got rid of their main doctor. Wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You have gone to. parties where Jim Crane is working parties.

Stop going to parties, working parties. Working parties. Yes, I work as staff for these private parties. Okay. Oh, you're like a bartender. Yes. Oh, okay. See, I'm a little investigating myself.

So you're a bartender and you have seen Jim Crane partying with team doctors. So what the Ashow's team doctor, yes. Okay, well, that is. And another another, another, I, as investors. Okay. Well, minority owners are investors, if you will.

Okay. So. But yeah, like I said, I would just be surprised because he's always there. Like I said, at least 75% of the time, there's a party with him involved. He's, the doctor's always there as well. Man, you're, so you're working the, you're working the crane party circuit is what you're telling me.

Kind of. I work at a lot of parties in riproaks and stuff. Dang. Well, okay. Can you sink me in? Maybe I get some intel on these doctors. It was going on. Thank you, Al, for the phone call.

Like I said, I've been involved in a lot of times, a lot of times just back was there as well. So at least 50% of time I'm there as well. So that's why I. Okay. I would be surprised. Only that I'm saying. All right.

I got you. And when we say medical stuff, just to be clear on this, it's not just, look, there is a huge corporate sponsorship attached to the group of doctors that are. with the Astros. I mean, you can figure out what that is. I mean, you can figure it out. But when I say medical staff,

I'm not talking about the surgeons, the doctor. I'm talking about the trainers. Yeah, training staff, may perhaps even strengthen conditioning. Strength and conditioning staff. Dietitians. I mean, everybody is going to, should be seriously evaluated.

They're going to be under the microscope. And you might need fall guys. Yeah. And you may serve a great genetic. tonic but doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to say those guys, you know. Gin and tonic's pretty basic, man. How about a refreshing mojito?

Ooh. What's the one? What's the one that's served in like the tin glass? Old fashion. Moscow mule. Oh, Moscow mule. That's copper. Yeah, that's fine. I knew what you meant. You were close. I was in one of those metals. You're not a cocktail guy,

unless it's a sex on the beach. Hey! That's a quite a refreshing drink. Ryan, good morning to you. Morning. Well, speaking of drinks, the caller in that last segment, I want to know where he's at because that sounds like a good time. Trey Jordan and Altube, get out of here. Look, I know they're having down years, but you can't.

Can't just, it's been a down here for the entire team. Absolutely. You can't get anything for Altubei. If you want to, that, it hurts, but it's true. You're not wrong. On the medical staff, man, medical staff's one thing, but players have to want to be better. They have to want to train.

and do the things they're told. If you're going to fire somebody on that staff, fire the hitting coaches. They haven't made any improvements. They're not doing anything different, and they look like hot garbage, swinging at just dog water pitches, doing nothing, not producing anything. The only two base runners that I can recollect from the game last night, that a dumpster fire of a game, was two shots right past, right, or right past short and right, or short third base. And so

Christian Walker and Janer Diaz should just thank God that they even got on base because those could have been two just regular run-of-the-mill plays. And we're like, oh, hey, we got hits. That's horrible. The batting coaches need to be fired immediately.

But trading, you are not in and out of the I had to call in and say, what an idiot. I want to drink with you're drinking. What bar are you at? I'll come meet you because it sounds like they're over-serving everybody. Well, I would hope not at 10-30. in the morning. But Al, we love Al. Al. Al's been calling us for years, but his takes are... Jay, whatever. Same difference.

Jay's calls have been sketchy at best. Yeah. He calls him Maddie, though. I always appreciate that. That is nice. Piny and Yordan are out of the lineup. And, Issa, again, we're going to this hitting coaches thing again? Well, because here's what going to happen, and I know this is what's

going to happen. They're going to make a move with the hitting coaches, and everyone's going to call and say, Tojo. Yeah, exactly. And that's okay. And whoever is the new guy, I'm going to say the same thing next year. I'm going to say those guys need to be better. Pena's having a career year. Has anybody given hitting coaches? Full credit for that?

Jake Myers had a second good season offensively. Jake Myers is having a career year. Does anybody we're giving hitting coaches? Isok Paredes, when he was in the lineup, he's been spectacular. Anybody are we giving hitting coaches? No, no, no, no. Yoron Alvarez. Yordon Alvarez has worked with one hitting coach staff his entire career.

He's one of the win-healthy, one of the five most dangerous hitters. on the planet. Are we giving hitting coaches credit there or no? I'm just asking. I just want some consistency. If they're getting the blame, if they're not going to get it. If they're getting the blame for bad hitters, I want them to get credit for the good hitters. That's all I'm saying. If they can't, if they

if they're telling Christian Walker to swing under every single high four seamer on the planet, yes, they need to be replaced. If they're telling Yiner Diaz to swing at everything that comes anywhere within five feet of the strike zone, yes, they need to be replaced.

if they're telling Cam Smith to run out of gas after gangbusters started the season yes they needed their they're failing just be ready for change just going to be changes and like I said again that's okay if they want a different voice and there's going to be changed but I'm telling you what's going to happen if this same lineup is out in 2006 and this team still struggles offensively yeah what are you going to do to who are going to blame now if you're running out steady doses of hazo Sanchez Marisio Dubon and Cooper Hummel or whoever I'm done with Hesu Sanchez. I want him no part of know of next year's roster.

I don't know what's going on with that. Hazer Sanchez we can actually look at. I mean, hey, well, the hitting coach is telling him to get five hits in his first game as an astro. And then, or whatever, was one of his first game? Was it his first game or one of his first games? Five hits in his first game as an astro and basically have about five hits since then. Brian Bogus Tevick, the new hitting coach, the Astros joins us next. Oh, Ross is here to tell you about Centrogenics first and foremost, though.

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. All right, let's spend 10 minutes with Brian Bogussevich. Brian, I'm going to be brutally honest with you. I did not watch the pre- or post-game shows last night. Were you on them? I was not. Okay. I don't feel nearly as bad then.

Maybe that's it. Maybe what is your winning win-loss record when you're doing the pre-and-post game shows? Because at this point, three singles ain't going to cut it in Northern California. Yeah, I think we're at the point to where we just start searching for anything. If it's me working late, I guess I have to do my part. But that might be as good of an answer as anything. Yeah, just really exacerbated isn't the term because, look, this has been a team that has really struggled offensively for much of the season, much of the because of the incidences season in the lineup.

But how do you balance? Don't change who you are. same type of player you are, but at the same time, Bogey, you're down to a week, you're trying to hold on to some sort of postseason aspirations, and you mustered not much of an offense yesterday against a very mid-Oakland lineup. Yeah, it's kind of been the story of the second half or second two-thirds or whatever it comes out to be is just, I mean, the offense looking not, it's the least dangerous that the offense has felt in some time.

And, you know, we've seen very short spurts where it looks like they're putting it together. But on the whole, it just seems like opposing pitchers, regardless of who we're facing, you know, in the division, out of the division, it just seems like the league has generally accepted a plan where, you know, they know how they want to go out and attack this lineup. And there aren't, you know, adjustments being made. And it's just, you know, you're getting.

getting beat by what looks like an inferior matchup on paper. So let me ask you this. This is a tough one. Is there any defeatist mode up and down that lineup? Is it this season wasn't meant to be? I mean, you still largely control your own destiny. I know you're now down a game in the walled card, but has that started the sink in a little bit?

Can you see it? Or is it still for you and I and Ross here? We're 18 or miles away from that team. We can't make that kind of decision. in our assessment. Yeah. No, I don't think so. I mean, I think you've got guys in the clubhouse who know as long as,

as long as they're mathematically still in it that they have a chance, and nobody's going to, you know, go and kind of, you know, give up before it's over. But I also think that they, you know, you have to have a little bit of realist in you and realize just, you know, for an extended period of time, it's been a struggle, certainly offensively. There's been, I forget what the number I saw the other day. 148 or 149 different lineup combination. So that just speaks to how many guys have been in and out of the lineup,

whether it be injury or performance-wise. So, yeah, it's definitely probably said in that, you know, this is not, nothing's going to click. And all of a sudden we're going to be an offensive juggernaut. I think everybody certainly realizes that. But you also have enough guys in that lineup who, you know, we're looking at what is now a five-day season. you can get a couple guys hot in five days, and then they can carry a lineup,

and you can score enough runs to get yourself in. It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Brian Bogusevick with us here on 790, and hopefully this is not our last appearance of the season, but Bogie, we're going to look at a macro view of this team in Christian Walker. Obviously, a lot of folks were excited about the replacement at first base. This team has been looking for that solid offensive production, maybe since the last few years of Yerile, Gerell. obviously the Jose Abraud situation did not work out.

He never was going to be a 285 hitter here. But it just feels like there have been two or three games where like, oh, he's going to turn the corner, and then it's a one for 11 or it's a two for 19. When you look at a macro stance of him, what went wrong for Christian Walker this season? Well, I think first and foremost, he got into a situation. You know, when you're a hitter and you start off slow, you're always kind of doing the math in your head of, okay, you know, I started off and I'm hitting 200 after 50 at bat, so I need to do whatever over my next 150 to get it leveled out. And he got to a point to where he was so

far underwater. It was never going to get back to where he wanted it to be or where he expected it to be. And that can be a really frustrating thing because, you know, you're sitting all of a sudden, you know, 300 at bats in, 400 bats in. You've got a lot of season left and it's already kind of feel like, all right, this is this is a season that's a failure. And it's just never gotten to the point to where it looks like he's been comfortable with himself. You know, there's been times when the abats have gotten more consistent and you think, all right, this is the guy that we expected to see.

And then it goes away. I think a lot of, you know, the biggest thing from a, whatever, mechanical standpoint or whatever is just the inconsistency to hitting fastballs and especially elevated fastballs. and it seems like a hole that got exposed and never got closed up. So I think that's probably the one thing that you can look to and say, hey, that's what needs to be fixed moving forward. But I think just from a seasonal standpoint, it just felt like it got so far away from him early

that just from a mental standpoint, it felt like almost a lost season before the season was over. You mentioned the high fastballs. And I mean, it feels like anybody who's watching these games, Christian Walker has to know it, the hitting coaches know it, everybody knows it. And you mentioned, so what can be done? Is that, how can that get fixed?

Well, you can look at it two different ways. You can look at it from a mechanical standpoint, right? Find what's causing extra length in your swing or a drop-off in back speed. Are you muscling up, swinging too hard? Are you getting long in the back and you're not getting the barrel out front and try to close it up and then be able to attack that pitch? Or you can look at it from an approach standpoint and say, you know, if I can't hit it, I got to lay off of it.

then you just try to make that an area that you're not going to go after pitches until you have to with two strikes, but that also changes the fact that you have to then be more aggressive and overly aggressive to pitches further down in the zone or off-speed pitches in the middle of the zone earlier in your at-bat. So you can try to attack one or the other or a combination of both, but if you can't hit it, you got to not swing at it. And you mentioned, Brian Bocasavica was here on Sports Talk 7-9. You mentioned just seeming a lack of offensive adjustments because you're right. The Walker, four-seamer we're seeing. Yonard Dia is still swinging at everything out of the zone.

Same thing for Jose Al-Tuvae. I mean, what can be done? Especially, there's been a lot of talking. We've been talking about it basically ad nauseum the last couple of weeks, Brian, about the hitting coaches. And the offense has been bad. And Alex Intron and Troy Snicker, the offensive have been successful with him there. But is it a situation where, These guys are not making the proper adjustments for the lineup?

I don't think so. I mean, hitting coaches are very involved in game planning, but game planning has to do, yes, with the pitchers that you're facing and how you want to, you know, combat what they're throwing at you, but you also have to make a game plan that's tailored to hitters that you have. And the fact of the matter is, is that they have a disproportionate amount of very aggressive hitters.

And if you're going to ask those guys to go up there and try to be something that they're not, you're not doing anybody any favors. And, you know, use Al-Tube as an example. He's always been an overly aggressive hitter. He's always swung a pitches out of the zone at times. But when you have him being bracketed in a lineup by Alex Bregman and Michael Brantley, you can live with that and it doesn't show up as well. But when you have a lineup that as you go further down, there's a lot of aggressive hitters. You know, Jamie Payne is a very aggressive hitter. Diaz is a very aggressive hitter. And then you get down to the bottom of the order. And now you're

talking about young guys that are just trying to survive or just find their footing. You can't ask them to be the ones that go out there and just drag out at bats and fight pitchers pitchers down to two strikes. So it just seems like there's a little bit of an imbalance in terms of style of hitter. And that's something that, you know, you can't really work around what you don't have. Last question, Bogie. If you are Joe Espada and you are down to five games left of this season. And part of what a clubhouse has to be is it has to be even keeled for 162. But clearly this has been a different kind of clubhouse the last couple of months because

there are so many guys going in and out of there. How does he treat the pregame rituals, the film study, the pregame visits, the talk to the guys of the hotel during the week thing, knowing that if you can put something together here against two subpar teams, you guys. a better than 50-50 chance of making the playoffs? Yeah, I think from a pre-game before the game, routine stuff, everything is generally the same. Everybody knows what's at fake.

Everybody knows where you're at in the season. I think where it does change is in-game. There's no longer long leashes for anything. There's no longer, you know, feelings to be accounted for when you're making moves. If a guy looks like he doesn't have it coming out of the bullpen, get somebody going immediately and it's going to be three batters and the next guy's coming in. So I think in terms of getting ready for the game, you know, you trust that you have guys who know how to get ready. You have guys who've gone deep into the posting. You have guys who

know what it takes to win. They'll be able to get themselves ready. But when it comes to managing the game, that's where it's different. And that's where more of a sense of urgency and maybe a little bit of risk taking is going to come into play. Hopefully, my friend, we are visiting next Wednesday. Thank you for the time as always. All right, I hope so, guys. Thanks, Brian Bogus. Evick. And he's with us from our good friends at Space City Home Network, not working this series.

We need him for Anaheim, Rossi, because those games are going to matter. Every game matters. I'm going to speak it into existence. Five must wins in a row, Matthew? You tell me. Nope. Oh, it's very easy. I think there must.

I don't care. I don't know. I don't care. 100% believe there must wins. Okay. Is it 4-2 and Hope, or is it 3-3 and Shep? shame, Ross. What are we doing? Maybe it's 2-4 Cancun.

Did you see his tweet yesterday, Jonathan? I was surprised actually looking at it. It was just a joke. You know you never see one, two, three, Oklahoma City? No, nobody goes there. You never see one. Does anybody actually want to be in Oklahoma City? I got a single person.

Okay. Can I give you really quick? I got five seconds. It's a place to raise your family. If you're from Oklahoma, it's the biggest city in the state. Look at this biggest city And Tar Nish, I'll tell you. There isn't a lot to do. But most cities don't have a lot of things to do. Okay.

All right. Team O KC, Matt. No, no. I'm just saying, Matt loves Oklahoma City. Like, for instance, here, you go to bars and restaurants, and you go to the movie theater.

You go to Buffalo Bayou Park. You can go to the wonderful world-renowned museums. You go to the Manil Collection as well. And Oklahoma City has all those things. You can get a, none of their museum. are as good as Houston's. Come on. You're probably right about that. But my point is,

we talk about this all the time when we're traveling, is that most cities, the general average person does about the same 10 or 12 things. I haven't gone to the children's museum since my kids were children because they don't want to go anymore.

And plus, so you have to stay 500 yards away. You're mean to me. Just kidding. I'm sorry, let me give my coffee. I'm tired. I was on here to 1. You'd be cranky if you were on to 1 20 in the morning.

No question. I'm blaming your coffee. I'm blaming your crankiness on the late night. 1123. It is Matt and Ross with you until 2 o'clock. We'll have the news at noon. We will have Willie Fritz at 130. His squad's going up to Oregon State to play the beavers on Friday night. Wow.

They're going up state to slay those beavers. Everybody can slay a beaver. Well, we'll see if the Cougars. We cannot lose that game. I don't care if we won by one point. I don't care. I can't lose. Going up to Oregon for some cougars and some beavers.

Yeah. Beautiful part of the country. You know that. Oh, gorgeous. It is beautiful. I'm going to. Weirdos, though. Oh, my God.

They're weird up there. Oh. Most beautiful, please? Yeah, man. So I flew into Eugene because it was cheaper than Portland. Eugene is Austin, the hippies of Austin on steroids. But, like, tweaked out, and they're just weird. They're just sit there.

No, I went to a. bar. I went to a bar because I was just looking for live music and yes, it was like, oh no, I can't even ask you to see. I can't ask you for a movie. You never saw Sean of the Dead, I imagine. Correct. Okay. Well, that's a zombie movie, but it's a zombie comedy and part of the joke is, you know, we're all zombies walking

through our lives. The people are, that's, that's what the people Eugene were like. They're all on something. He's not exaggerate. Yeah. I've been a point. It was like you were in a zombie way. 20 times. I've never been to Eugene. So. So I'll say about this, you know, there are various things in life that tug at your heartstrings. Homelessness tugs at my heartstrings.

I feel generally bad. The problem with Portland is there are so many of them and they are, boy, they come after you that it's very dangerous. And I don't know why I'm bringing it up, but it's just such a different world up there. that the i mean their and my guess is mental illness is a huge part of yes i mean the closing of many and defunding of state hospitals

but it does scare you it does and i'm just being honest it does and also in those those are very high like cost of living places and yeah i think it was l.A times or somebody did a lot of studies and it's like oh are these people all have mental health and they interviewed a lot of homeless people and they're like no i just can't afford rent anymore yeah it's bad yeah it's just it's it's so beautiful but it's it's it's been

overrun by unfortunately homelessness, which is a terrible problem we all have, but it does affect, the NBA has not had All-Star games there. It's a huge NBA city. They just don't. Terrence Jones knows. Terrence Jones knows. I'm sorry. I didn't have to go there. You did go there, though. Let's go to Gary in Spring at 1125. Gary. Good morning. Hey, guys. Good morning. That's a great interview with old bovi there. He's always like listening to him. He's so knowledgeable. And he's right there with both sides with the management and the players. So he's always listening to him. Hey, three things real quick.

One of them is on the Texans releasing that defensive back they did yesterday. I like to compare it to a medical firm or the way they consider things. Once you discover a cancer, the quicker you get that cancer removed, the quicker you will heal and get back to normal. and that's the way I look at it there. On the Astros, Bogey kind of said what I was thinking. The batting coach can only do so much. The medical staff can only do so much.

Of course, they can slip up more, I believe, than the batting coach. But I think it's 80, 90 percent on the players to perform, not the batting coach. Because they've been doing this. The players have been doing this for a lot of years over and over. so you're not going to really change the way they do anything. So it's more on them than the batting instructor. And last thing on your bumpback music, I'm with you on the Astros. I think it's almost real close to a must win the next five games.

So I don't know if today you can do it, but tomorrow you might want to use that bump back music, that Paul Simon song, Slip Sliding Away. That might be one you want to use the intro with there. So anyway, great show, guys. Thank you, Gary. I appreciate you taking my call. We actually used slips lotting away last week.

Did we not? Yes. Mm-hmm. I'm still groggy from that one. That's a jam. I mean, it's not, it's not, it's not, it's not. I mean, James is strong of a term. You keep using that word, and I don't think it means what you think it means.

That's probably at the bottom five. Wait a, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Get them, Jonathan. Get them. What was it today? Don't let me down? Yeah, you know, it's classic.

That's a Beatles. You could not, no, no, there'll be no, there'll be no Beatles hate on this for a 1966 or something. That was 69. It was one of their last songs ever. Okay. Yeah, I'm a Paul Simon fan. I am.

Now, granted you and I went to that concert. We largely regretted it. We didn't pay those. That made me feel better. That's true. I always think, you know, the funniest thing you say about that is, what's Garfunkel's doing right now? Not nearly as much as Paul is.

Do they call them Garf or funky? I don't think they call me the one. They call them broke. Okay. They call them janitor. Like, for instance, there have been some groups. Like, Loggins and Messina. I mean, Massina left, but Loggins was a star of that.

Yeah, John Oates. Yeah, John Oates was... So John Oates had the mustache? Yeah. I've had them flip this whole time in my mind. Yeah, Darrell Hall's the lead singer. Darrell Hall's the one that's the blonde hair. And John, okay.

I didn't realize that. And John Oats had the Foo Man shoe, kind of. And John Oats slept with a thousand people. he said. See, that feels low. Will Chamberlain said, get your weight up, son. All right, so let's put it in perspective really fast in one second here. So John Oates is a star of a band

that's very popular for what, about 15 years would you say 73 to 88? Ridiculously popular? Sure, why not? Okay, so it's 15 years. That's 365 days a year. All right, hold on. Get the calculator out. Are we calculating his... That's easy. That's easy. 5,400 days.

That's one girl a week. Could you sleep with a thousand people in 15 years? And most of the- It feels like that's still a large number. When you're touring on the road, you're pulling two, three a night. No, no. You're doing five, six shows a week.

You're saying that the guys that John Oatska had to do it two to three times a year a day? You're saying he does it? No, I'm saying he, I'm saying. In 1973. No internet. Can't get traced back? No internet. Oh, that's fair.

Also, 70s, pre-AIDS. Just saying? Was it really pre- So if he had sex 10 times a week. 52 weeks, it's 520 times a... Yeah, he's got to do that for two years. All right, maybe he did get a thousand. Easy peasy.

He did say a thousand. He didn't... That's low. He didn't... Low energy, huh? He needs to go to, yeah. TRT MVP.com. I know where he needs to go right.

TRT MVP, baby. You want to be like John Oates? You want to be sewing your oats? You got your libido back? She's gone. Not for long. And I got no one's coming back. Yeah.

And you're going to say, you're a rich girl. All right. It's TRT MVP.com. I'm done. Oh, I'm not in this. Next break. Go ahead. No, no, go on.

Go and finish your spot. All right, 1137 on 790. This is our favorite half hour of the week where you get to come in and tell some people how you really feel about them. If you want to call in and you are tired of batting coach hate, 713, 212, 570.

Tell them to shut their bum asses up. Shit your bum ass up, man. Put a moratorium on the word batting coaches. Like a mute on the Twitter account. If some ate your office, has given you the rundown of why his back is hurting and what kind of pain medication is used or what kind of... He's not sharing? Creams.

And you are trying to get your microwave lunch fixed in and put on the microwave and get it back to your work so you can get your hardworking job done. Tell me, nobody got time for that. Endless babble we don't need on this show. Endless babble we don't need in life. I'm trying to think, what has happened? this week that has been good. Good? No, as I'm saying. Sports-wise or in life?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know. What do we got? Are you mad at somebody? Yes, I am. Please. I'm mad at several callers we've been getting lately. I don't want the Astros to make the playoffs, because they're just going to get swept. Wee, win, win, win, win, wing. By the way.

This isn't the NBA. You're not entering the lottery. Go ahead. There's a 7-90 host that believes that, too. Well, to that certain 790 hosts and you people, I don't want to want, they're not going to go far in the playoffs. They can catch lighting in a bottle. It's not likely, but it can happen. Maybe Fromber turns it around. Maybe Hunter Brown's awesome.

Maybe Yoron comes back from a bum ankle, and they cruise to the World Series. But you don't have a shot if you don't make the playoffs. Stop being defeatist. Stop being scared. This is not the NBA where you get a lottery pick if you don't make the playoffs. Shut your bum ass up. Shut your bum ass up, man. To Dark Breast Airlines, who continues to infiltrate all of my social media and my TV shows with,

hey, everybody got great news. You're knocking on the sign seats. You're not doing another kindness of your heart. You're doing it because you're trying to raise some money. So Dark Breast, shut your bum ass up, mate. Oh, man. I got beating switch, too. Because, you know, for years and years and years, you check the Southwest Fair, that's the fair.

That's it. Now it's the basic fare. So, like, wow, flights are pretty cheap right now. I don't even understand it with the basic fare. The basic fare is like basic economy and other airlines now. You can't choose your seat. You don't get bags, all that type of stuff. You don't get as much leeway with cancellation fees or refunds or anything like that.

So you've got to upgrade. Yeah. So this is, signing seats is not a celebratory commercial. So I was like, man, this flights look pretty cheap. And then I was like, oh, it's the basic fair. All right, I got another one for you. Jerks. I just don't.

Everybody got time for that stuff. West. I mean, I'll name them. I'll name them. There you go. Southwest, you suck. You used to have a, you used, because you were always team Southwest. I was.

I'm usually team, I'm team, I'm team shmite because it's closer to my house. I know, I got a team be team rear it now. Rear it's not good. They're cutting employees left and right. I thought they're folding, right? Or is that Runtier. They're bankrupt. That's, that's Runtier.

Yeah, run tier's doing it. I got one free. We get gas up the plane, guys. Here's what I, here's. You got to donate $5.00 of gas money to get off the tarmac. How about this one? Shmited Airlines. Last Wednesday, I'm in Newark.

My flight was several hours late. Because of weather. I mean, stuff happens. It happens. Why were the two flights from Newark to Houston leaving Newark before I got to leave? The two flights that followed mine got to Houston faster than mine did.

Really? On a three hour delay. Anybody got time for that? I'm just saying. You know what you got to do? then, if you're going to make me wait all that time and give us at least a free cocktail, one of those free boxes on a plane or maybe some free internet. Something.

Something. I got nothing. Then they want me to fill out a survey. Was there somebody on the flight that did you well? No. No. We got me there. That's true. We take it for granted, Matt.

You took a flying tube from one part of the country or the other and got home safe. That's pretty crazy. That is pretty cool. I thank the pilots every time. I do. I say thank you for your service. Yeah. All right.

Jonathan, I think for you, anything bothered? you this week? You know, the only thing that's bothered me is I was, uh, I don't know if you know the rapper NBA and boy, man. Of course. Yeah, yeah. Oh, they play. Did you get the tickets from this weekend? Did you go? No, no, no, of course not. No, see, look. Oh, they were giving some out over here.

But this is another one. Let me tell you something. His girl ain't letting him do stuff. Sorry. I mean, I don't mean to call you out. Free tickets. But this is why I wouldn't go to this concert is because in, uh, Kansas City, they ended up beating up the 60-year-old security deal upstage, picked them up and threw him on the concert stairs, and this 14-year-old kid started mollywoping him. He has a whole go-fummy and stuff like that.

He's got a go-fumny? The kid does or the 66-year-old? I was going to say. The video is very sad. He's guys butt-wood, but they have no security and all these people that go to these type of concerts. It's like the new age 80s rock. Like, they just go on rampage stuff.

And I don't have time for that. destroying the city making us look bad wow what the heck and everybody's got phones out what are you doing you see it's a sad video and then why do you make me watch this? I did it I just nobody's even pulling him off of him exactly he got like

just beat up just harassed okay this guy at the end beats him up I mean pulls him off alright now he was like Matt no and like if Matt was there working security and got his butt well like why he just got kids I would say the world's going to hell but I think we're already there so

Victor, what's the matter with you? Yeah, this is for the social media of the Astros. Oh, I saw this. Posting right after losing that game, posting about playoff tickets. I got to say, shut your bum ass up, Astros. Yeah, I saw that. Shut your bum ass up, man. The Astros said the Wild Card and Division Series tickets are now on sale.

I was like, oh. I mean, that was a time's tweet. You got to send it. I mean, you got to get to. But you don't want to look at the replies because they were exactly what I thought they were going to be. That's pretty funny. Yeah, I'm trying to find out the time stamp on that.

What time was it? I can't do this morning. No, no, no. They did it 2.37 p.m. yesterday. Okay, so they get the benefit of that a little bit. But, man, the replies. There's the Jim Mora. Lord.

Offs? Yeah, not good. All right, back on the phones next. 713, 212, 570. If something is bothering you, come on in and tell some people to shut their bumasses up. 713, 212, 570. All right, 1151. You got a last call in for those of you that want to tell somebody to shut their bum asses up.

7132-579. 713-212-570. I'm going to do one for Damico Ryans. he told CJ Garner Johnson yesterday to shut his bum ass up. Shut your bum ass up, man. He also said ain't nobody got time for that.

He ain't nobody got time for your weak-ass work. Ain't nobody got time for that? Exactly. Do you think CJ's like, man, I had to get out of there. No good for me. No, I think he's got a screw loose. I think he does. I think he absolutely is a

screw loose. I mean, why would you, I mean, I guess teams are going to be desperate to find help in the secondary. He'll find work somewhere because he's still he's still decent enough player, but he got beat up a couple of times. He threw other people under the bus

and pocket watched him too. How do you pocket watch when you've been here seven weeks? How much of that was like banter and like, I mean, that stuff leaked out with the quickness. Yeah. Texans, Texans brass was on it, leaking that to every reporter they could find

once he was released. Yeah. It is funny. they will keep things very close to the best until they want a narrative that's going to help them justify their reasons. Like how that Bill O'Brien stuff came out after he got fired. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it is interesting. It's, hey, we're not going to tell you what's...

Like, for instance, we will find out the real story about Joe Makeson eventually. We're just going to. Yeah, I think it's gangrene. That's the reason why he's not played all the years because gang green? Yeah, you can get that. Or maybe he got frostbite. Did he try to climb Mount Everest in the office? season? What is he doing?

Texans need him. Although Woody Marks climbing up the ranks. Of what? What do you mean? Let's get more and more snaps. Okay, I want you to explain to me what ranks he's climbing up. How many snaps did he get last week, Maddie? He got more than he did in the previous two weeks. I'll give you that.

Exactly. He got 30. 33 for Chubb, 30 for Woody Marks. Zero for Daria Ogun Bawali. And zero for Damien Pierce, who was a healthy scratch again, right? Woody Marks, season, baby. He's on my bitch, ready to blow.

By the way, did I not tell you there would not be a single running back that would Graham grand five and 500 yards this year? I think you might have said 7-50. Oh, okay. That's going to happen too. That's an easy catch. Joe Mixing, we hardly knew ye.

Woody Mark's season is upon us. Let's go, baby. Let's go to Texans win. Say it again. It's a guaranteed Texans win Sunday. You put your name on it. Nope. Yeah. Yeah, sure, why not?

Put a name on, who cares? Yeah, I was going to say it like it makes a difference. Ethan, I'm seven on a. Ethan, what's the matter with you? Yeah, this is for Nick Cayley, D'Amico Ryan, Nick Casario, whoever makes the decisions in the front office and on the field for the Texans, ain't nobody got time for you to draft two wide receivers in the first three rounds of the 2025 NFL draft just for them to get less snaps than Xavier Hutchinson. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Ain't nobody got time for that? I'm getting this sense, and I listen to our station all day long. We have got some ridiculously grumpy Texans fans. Show me a happy Texans fan. I mean, because again, look, O and 3 is not advantageous for a playoff run. It has happened before. 14.8%. It is the AFC South.

Again, the Colts are 3-0, but one was against Tennessee who's awful. One was a game that you won because Denver, what do they call not a launch, but they had a leverage penalty called against them. And then you beat up on Miami who may be looking for a new coach in three weeks. But the story line has been better. The story line has been same old Texans. And you never want to be that in sports. Yeah, when you hear same old blank.

It's not good. It's like, it's the worst. Like, built for this is a cool thing to say. Yeah. On the come or ready to go. Got. Root, root, root. Root, root. No, that was bad.

Let's get her done. Yeah. If you hear same old, like, if you hear same old something, yeah, like, for instance, the wizards and the NBA have been the same old wizards for 20 years. Yeah. If I go to Jonathan, I say same old Matt, that's probably not a compliment. If you go to Jonathan and say same old Ross, it's probably not a compliment. You want to be same old anything.

Like Florida State last year. Two and ten. We can't be same old. And you know what? They didn't do that. They just paid out players. Now they're number nine in the country. Yeah.

Not the same old Seminoles. If I say same old Aggies. Oh my God. Oh, Lord. I'm just saying, or longhorns or whatever. But you're not the same old longhorns. You were in the national semifinals last year.

You know, that's a good point. You could be the same old Houston Cougars. And it's like a good thing because they go to final four, but it's like the same old, they lose every time. Yeah, if I say same old, that's kind of crazy thing. If I say same old Kelvin Samson's Cougars,

that's probably not a good thing. It's like a good thing. It's like bittersweet. You know, like he's up there. That's bitter. More bitter than sweet. See,

Jonathan Allen brought that up. I was, you know, I was brainstorming. Shut your bone ass up, Matt said. I always get this wrong. Is it Nigel or Nigel?

This one's Nigel. Nigel. Nigel. I don't know what we got a needle or Nigel. I know we got a needle and a Nigel. I know we got a needle and Nigel. Nigel, Vancouver, eh? In Vancouver, exactly.

I thought we cleared this up some time ago. I'm a failure as a communicator. I'm sorry. Matt's brain is rotted, Nigel. I got you. And if you think Oregon is full of weirdos, you should have a few hours north. You'll get a real taste of weird.

I've recently invested several hundred dollars in a bunch of Texan swag, some beautiful corduroy hats, t-shirts, etc. But unfortunately, I can't wear it to my local bar or out in public. In fact, I've taken in the last couple weeks to wearing a New York Giants hat. Ain't nobody got time for that?

Ain't nobody got time for that? The Texans are in huge trouble. That they let Laramie Tonsal walk without having a plan to upgrade at that position. As much as I agreed with Tonsal leaving, the team is in big trouble and this Gardner Johnson cut better work.

People need to shut their bum ass up. I certainly hope they win on Sunday. Have a good show guy. Thank you very much. Shit your bum ass up, man. There you have it. I said in the off season. How's that Texan culture going to matter

when Josh Hines Allen is out there? How's that Texan culture going to matter when Jared Verst is out there and your left tackles on an island? By the way, the Los Angeles Rams are your first opponent. They smelled the breadth of everyone those linemen. O'oh?

CJ did. Gardner? No, Stroud. Stroud? Yeah. We're talking about offensive line. You're talking about that culture. Smelling a man's breath? He got sacked so much and hit so much so he could smell their breath.

You know what I meant? Okay. There was a funny video on Twitter. Did you see it? It was Miles Garrett, like, made an inside move on the whoever the left tackle was the Packers. And the The tackle turns around and goes, Jordan, run! Oh, wait, I this is.

He's on this own desperate. Yeah, he's like, run, Jordan. I got destroyed. Will I have a guy. Get down, Jordan. Al's Garrett. Greatest pass rusher. Number one.

Mike Parsons number two. Will Anderson trying to get up there. Daniel Hunter, too. I'm team Will Anderson, by the way. Will Anderson, very good. Very good. Going to be wasted. Another wasted career

JJ Watt style Oof J.J. Watt, Deshawn Watson. Next photo C.J. Stroud, Will Anderson. Tell me I'm lying. You are lying. Watson had a great year.

Oh. Once again, Ross being rude. That's fine. Truthful. Once again, Ross being truthful. That's true. No, I don't know. Are you, stop calling 911.

Man is calling 911 on his Siri right now. Yeah, because I'm devastated about this show. I need some burns. I need some CPR at this exact moment. All right, let's, uh, ooh. Did the Astros let you down yesterday, Rossi? We'll give you the answer to that next. Plus the news at noon 1159 on Sports Talk 790.

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. The athletics beat the Astros 5 to 1 take the first game of this three game series. Astros have lost more in a row in their playoff hosts. Don't let me down. I don't know if I call them live support, but we're calling in medical care. If they lose tonight, it's on live support. I am Mr. 5 and 1. I guess I got to live with 4 and 2.

But I need 5 and 1. In one day, their playoff odds went... Go ahead. They went from 66% to 44%. So you're saying there's a chance. My answer to that question is posted on Sports Talk 790s Twitter, and I reposted it on my Instagram at Sports RV. All right, listen to me.

The reason why the Astros have struggled is because not enough of you are following me on Instagram at SportsMT. Wait a minute. No, you said they were going to win. They were going to win all these games if I followed you. But they lost four in a row. So you're lying. My point is it. Here's my point.

Okay. People didn't heed my advice. If you follow me right this second at SportsMT on Instagram, the Astros are going to win. Follow back, maybe? False promises and lies. At SportsMT. Yes, I admit it. Ladies gentlemen, 1207, time now for the news at noon.

Rossi. Yes, Matthew. What do we got today in the old news at news? Astros got their ass ass whipped and I'm sad. That's the news at noon. All right. We did play the highlights, so that's fair.

Three hits, Matthew. O for three with runners in scoring position. They had three hits, three walks, two of them by Christian Walker. Everybody else besides he and yinerd is. Ofer! With your backs against the wall. Again, we should say the A's

are pretty good, actually. And I will maintain, if you blended both teams and set a lineup, up the top five would all be A's from last night. With Jeremy Paineer remaining out with his oblique injury, with Yordon Alvarez, remaining out with his ankle injury and with Isak Pridis on one leg and not able to run. You've given me if this, if this, if this, if this. You know what you do that?

You know what that means it wasn't meant to be? And I'm everybody's heard. And I'm starting to settle into my brain right now. It's not feeling like the year. I said that to you two weeks ago. you got mad at me. I did get mad at you. Well, we'll see what happens. There still have 44%

playoff odds. You had the Guardians beating the Tigers last night. They are tied in the American League Central for the lead. So technically you are behind the Tigers right now. You do not have a tiebreaker with. I want to hear from Astros beat all the good teams and lose all

to the bad teams guy. Because if they beat, if the Astros beat all the good teams, how come they don't have the tiebreaker against the Blue Jays, Mariners, the Tigers, the Guardians, or the Red Sox? Do they, they might have the tiebreaker over Toronto.

Oh, is it the Blue Jays? They won't? But that's the only one? Okay. It doesn't really matter. Yeah. Yeah. How we're feeling? Um, Instapol time. Right now?

Right this second. You got the Instapult music, Jonathan? He's like, um, I think. It's been a while. It has been a while. It's, uh, what is it? Chain reaction? Yep. It's got to be in there somewhere.

Oh, yeah. We'll find it. He's uploading videos for us. He's already got Brian Bogus up video up. Look at that. Retweet. Jonathan is working really, really hard. I'm telling you.

The two of you are outperforming me, out-hustling me. And you're probably saying, Matt, this is something you've said. Yeah, I mean, we've been talking about this behind the scenes for months. It's time. Turn the music up. It's time for it's to pole. And what I always say, Ross. The Niportispo doesn't lie.

713-21. 1-12-7-90, 7-13-21-2-5-7-90. Wait, you didn't tag me in this reel? Jonathan, your praises are revoked. Ooh, the question I have for you very simply, can the Astros make the playoffs? Yes or no? First of four wins,

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Instapol doesn't lie. You simply will, we will not screen you. We'll just go to the phones. Either you say yes, they do. No, they don't. Right? Yes.

no screening on the instapole. No screening on the instipole. So here we go. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Either they make the playoffs or they don't. What is your answer? Remember, the instapole does not lie. Don't, we just talking about the screen. Yeah, no screen.

No screen. No screen. No screen. Here we go. 7-1-3-2. We're just trying to save you some time, my brother. Let's go. Line 1 in the instipole. Are the Astros making the playoffs, line 1? As much as it hurts me to say,

this Matt. I don't think so. Not this year. No. That's a no. All right. It's one no, Ross. You keep a track? I got a tally. Line two, instipole. The aster's making the playoffs. Yes or no? Not. Oh, Lord. That was emphatic. Oh, no. Line three, insipole. Are the aster's making the playoffs? Yes or no? Hell no. And I did add you in this real, by the way.

Oh, it didn't show up in my mentions. Shame him. Shame him. Oh, no, you added it just now. Line 2, insipole. The aster's making the playoffs. Yes or no? Line 2?

Hello, line 2. The aster's making the playoffs. Yes or no? No. All right. We've had four noes so far, Rossi. Are we going to get a yes eventually? Fantastic.

Line 3 on the instipole. The aster's making the playoffs. Yes or no. Yes. There we go. That's it. The big six pulls closed. I stopped counting, actually.

It's 4 to 1. It's done. We had two nose. Definitely the first two. That's what I'm saying we've had four nose, yeah. All right, back to the news at noon. So confidence is not high. No.

No, it is not. All right. Texans back on the practice field. Can't wait to hear the reports come out of that today. Everybody's in a much better mood. Great from my mind. It does help the sucky Titans will be here on Sunday. They're bad, but you're only six and a half point favorites.

By the way, TV coverage will be with Beth Mowens and Ross Tucker. Oh, wonderful. Sounds good. Should be a great call. CBS, the best of the best. The map is out for the game on 506.com, which is an I'm obsessed website. The game will be seen this week in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, the Valley, Waco, O'Sco, Odessa, Abilene, Lubbock, Amarillo.

Dallas says no. You name something on Texas. Dallas said, no thanks. They're going to put Washington, Atlanta on over them. That happens fairly often. Are you serious? Dallas does not put Texans games on. They just don't.

Yeah, they don't want to build the fan base. And then the Nashville market is Nashville, Memphis, Huntsville, Knoxville, Indianapolis is going to have the game. So there you go. Wow. Hall of Fame finalist Matt on the news at noon. Please. For 2016, include Drew Breeze,

and Larry Fitzgerald in their first year of eligibility. I'm going to go ahead, put my name on it. They're making the hall of fame. They're both going in. There is an NFL quarterback change going on in New York City, Sports RV. Okay. Yes, Jackson Dart is going to start in New York, but quick one, Matt. Yep.

First year of eligibility for Philip Rivers. Just give me a yes or no. Say it again. Philip Rivers. No. But eventually? Yes. Greg Olson?

No, yes. No, but eventually? Okay. Jason Whitten? No. I could see Whitten being first team. He's one of the all-time leading pass catchers. Who'd rather have Greg Olson or Jason Whitten?

Jason Witten had the better career. I'm going to say Jason Witten. I'll go no yes on that one as well. Witten is fourth on catch as all time. So when I say no, I mean, is that you're going to see a first ballot guy? Top four catches all time. Jerry Rice, Larry Fitzger, Gerald, Tony Gonzalez, Jason Witten, Marvin Harrison.

He's in. I think first ballot. Okay. I think first ballot. Frank Gore? No and yes. LaShawn McCoy. No and yes.

Oh, you're thinking no, no, aren't you? I don't think my... Frank Gore, yes. LaShawn McCoy. Frank Gore is like top seven in all-time rushing, right? Yeah. No, that's because he's been around forever. David DeCashore.

He's with the Steelers a long time, I think. Who? David DeCastro he was a lineman Okay, I don't know him A guard Yes, nine No, nine season with the Steelers Two-time All-Pro, not enough

Okay, sorry David Marquis Pouncey, I'd have to look No and no Gino Atkins, no No, Dereau Casey, no Thomas Davis, no No I believe Aaron Fosters is in the list

too, correct? Oh really, that's a no Okay, it's a no Guys who will be coming back around Willie Anderson Torrey Holt, Luke Key, Adam Venetary. Venetary.

Vinetary got in, or no? Venetary should be in. Two great teams, two big field goal kickers. No, he wasn't knocking back. I think Luke Keeckley should be in, although longevity, he retired very young. Yeah.

All right. And Jackson Dart is now the new quarterback of the New York Giants. And Brian Daibald, the coach, who will not be there very much longer, says he's going to be the quarterback for the rest of the season. It's kind of presumptuous, isn't it? It's a desperation move.

it's a it's uh he's got he's cashing him he's buying a lottery ticket to try to save his job yeah he's out i would love him as texans o c next year let's get a real o c in here yeah and maybe a real general manager too right d'amble come on damn i want no patriot way here i'm done with patriot way yeah and that's the news at noon all right even though you don't think the aster's are making the playoffs i get that i want you all to please believe you what i say you want them to make the playoffs There is no negative effect of the, like you don't lose draft position. You don't lose salary dollars. You don't, they're not kickers in there. You want them to go to the playoffs. You know what, baseball does have a lottery now.

How does that work? You're asking a wrong person. By the way, baseball draft, they've tried to make it somewhat sexy. It's not, and it never will be. Okay, with the Astros out, or I, their lottery odds right now are 0.39%. Oh wait, maybe we do want them to make the lottery. Shut your bum ass up, man.

I will have none of that. Okay. I don't want to be the nationals. I'm watching the nationals and the Braves on MLB Network. Can we give like non-stop shahdi? It looks like first team. That's pretty good. Looks like, can you play that again?

By the way, my idea. on that sound on that sound oh you're doing great man thank you uh 0.39% lottery odds for the Astros for the number one overall pick so you're saying there's a chance I don't care whatever we'll be will be

let me tell you we I feel like I'm having to convince people that are bump around this town October baseball is electric it's as good as it's a little cooler there may be a puncher's chances it's a home game at some point. The roof

might be open. Who knew? Yeah, the close Razors Edge, October baseball, about as good as it gets. And when you give up two grand slams and you're out of the game because who is that pitcher

the Astros traded for and then he was bad? I can't remember. He gave up the second grand slam to the Red Sox a few years ago. Anyways. Oh, oh, oh. The guy was always heard. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. wish my memory was better than it was. Because I got so much going on. I got NBA in my head.

Jake Oterizzi. Yes. Remember he was, he took all that time to warm up because somebody got hurt and then he gave up the home of the sun. Eish. Jake Oter Rizzy.

That's when playoff baseball sucks. Or it's game seven and 23 against the Rangers and then Christian Javier can't get out of the second inning. Or maybe it was the first inning. Remember that time that Yonard Valdez melted down on the mound? Oh, that's happening with the last two months.

Hey. Well, remember that time? He threw eight innings of one run ball in Fenway. In June? No, that was in October. Oh, okay, previous years, I got you. 2021, I think. Yeah. He threw seven innings a shot out against the Rockies.

You know what? I'm going to Rick Ashley this thing. I'm never going to give you up. I'm going to continue to hold out, help the Astros can put it together. Yeah, until they can. Until it's zero percent. I believe. Because they have.

come through. We were sitting here last year at some point of this season. Because guess what? Two years ago we were sitting there. Yeah. Because I'm a fan. You hear me? I'm a fan. No, fan can be critical. Fam doesn't have to buy into everything that somebody says. Look, we've been as disappointed in the

direction of the organization on a variety of things. It doesn't mean we still can't love them. Sometimes things you love disappoint you. Actually, the things that you love disappoint you more than the things that you You know what? You love the Texans. They're 0 and 3.

And they're headed for a long. Actually, I'm more pissed off at them than I'm disappointed at this moment. And to the best part for me is I have no relationship with the Texans. Well, they suck. So I don't have the emotional. Could you imagine what a basket case? Like, I'm a basket case right now in general. That's fine.

The Rockets lost Fred Van Bly. That's not good. Okay? That's flipping me out a little bit. It's a men season, baby. By the way, did you see there are people that are thinking the Rockets could be down to a six-season in the Western playoffs because of this? God, I hope not.

By the way, did you see that I retweeted that the conservatism of Domeco Ryans is costing the Texans every week? Please explain. So obviously, punting and kicking and going for things cost you, if you should be going

for fourth down, it costs you win probability. D'Amico is costing the Texans almost 5% a game. In the NFL, 5% is huge. It's a second worst in football. behind only the Bengals. And Zach Robbins, who's very conservative. Now, you also can say, hey, how can he be aggressive in fourth down decisions when the

team's no good offensively? I'm going to ask you a very, very difficult question coming back. I bet you'll answer it easily. I want you to give him now recency bias. So put that in perspective. The two plus years he has coached this team. I want you to give them a grade. Okay.

And we'll do it and come back. Don't do it now. Okay. I do want to give you a chance to get a seven-year warranty from quality home products of Texas. That's what I'm here for. That's right. I want you to get a seven-year warranty on a Generac standby generator by calling 713 quality.

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Three freaking singles, a hit by pitch, and a double play ball. and then a lot of can of corn fly balls. There's your Astro rundown. I'm getting some messages from listeners that are mad about the Instapole. The Insipole doesn't lie because y'all are cranky and I kind of get it. I just don't want you to give up. Terrible. Droopy dog take.

Don't want to make the playoffs. Do we need to play some Rick Ashley to get people fired up? No, we need to play. Why? Because they're never going to give you up. Never going to let you down. All right. With some Astros highlights?

Yeah. If you want. We might have to say that one for tomorrow. They're winning. They're winning. Put your name on it. Louis Severino's done very well against the Astros this year, not putting my name on it.

By the way, somebody on Twitter said the A's have a better record. Let me look at it. The last 50 games in the Astros. Yeah. Actually, I think it goes beyond that if I'm not mistaken. Okay. Yeah, they've been better than the Astros for two straight months plus. Let's see what we got here.

Again, look at that lineup. We did this against the Mariners. Like, yeah, Mariners comes. we're going to whip your ass suck. Greg and H-town. The A's since the Astros swept the Dodgers in July. Was that around July 4th, right? Because I got worked. 4th weekend.

Remember I work holidays. We're proud of you. Thank you. Astros are 29 and 38. The A's are 37 and 28. They have been better than you. You have been injured and underperforming. You have more fans at your games. Nick Kurtz, Shea Langalears,

Tyler Schottis, from Brent Rooker, Jacob Wilson, all better than what you've got in your line at the moment. All right. Back on the phones in a minute. We've got to pay off on the T's the question I asked you. Great. What is Domeico Ryan's grade?

Back to back. AFC South Champions. 10 wins. Divisional losses. Divisional losses. O and three start. Grade mackerel. Is that a word mackerel?

No. Sounds good. Okay. I have a macro piece. I can say, all right. Macrilly is not a word. I think it's a great. I'm going to use it again, though.

I'm going to will it into existence. Yeah, you got a lot of made up. fictitional words. From a macro standpoint, grade the coach. B minus. Damn it. Good defensive coach. Good defensive play caller generally.

When the team's out on the, when the defense is on the field, the biggest issues have been offensive line. That's not D'emiko's fault. Offensive play calling, not D'emiko's fault. He does make, I think, overly conservative decisions. That would be my biggest blight. That's why, I mean, you can't give him an A. They really turn things around early.

They're doing the tech. and swarm and the culture and all that type of stuff and they do got some some swag on defense. I got one thing I'm really bothered with besides the conservancy, conservatism. Conservatism is the sheer number

of penalties that this team has a week and we get out. Okay, maybe that bumped down to C plus. I could see that argument. No, see I think C++ is too hard. You are a two-time playoff team. This team. I mean minus feels right to me.

They've hit the over on the win total two straight years. You know Matt. I do know that. You might hit, you know what? I thought I was swindling you with the seven and a half bet. We have on the bat. We have a bet on that. Let me go look.

Let me go look. We bet lunch or something. I'm going to go. I don't have to go. I had the under seven and a half wins and I didn't want to publicize it. I didn't want to eat off here and I thought I swindled you so bad. Oh, no. I don't care about that bet.

I want the Kyle Tucker bet to win. That's the one's way more important to me. No, sir. You are way. done. You are way done. I know. I'm already starting the money. Yeah, I do the terriaki steak. By the way, Jonathan, you're going with us.

Yeah, with the vegetables. Go ahead and give me the broccoli, too. I need some vegetables. Oh, wow, look, Matt. He's making an onion tower volcano. That's cool. Oh, look at how he's spinning the egg when he's making the fried rice, Matt. Thanks for paying. All right, let me look at the bet. You're not laughing, Matt.

No, because you're being rude. It just says lunch bet. Yeah, so that's like the deli lunch. I'll put an addendum, Delhi. All right, let's go to... There's another Texans bet we made. Do you remember this one? Go ahead.

You have the field, but I have no playoffs for the Texans or Saturday at 3.30. We didn't put anything on that. I was a gentleman's bet. All right. Who's on line three? Is that Neegel or Nigel? It's Neal. Neal.

We had both Neal and Nigel call on the same day. Hi, Neal. Hey, how's it going? Good. So, Matt, do you know how for the last few years you've been unfairly characterized as having a curse, you know, relating to people getting injured or things losing? Correct. And thankfully, that has been long gone. That's about seven or eight years in the past, but I appreciate you bringing it back up.

Yeah, so I think we do have a new curse, and I think it's an RV curse. when you were off last week when you were off last week Ross did the three lies in a truth segment before the Texas State Sunday Yeah Yeah ask Ross what his truth was

Oh let's I don't even remember Do you have it? I don't recall Was it that CJ Stroud is going to be a franchise quarterback? By the end of the season Okay is the season over Nijil

Well pretty much No it's not Plenty of time For that offensive line to gel, Woody Marks is ready to cook and the Texans are ready to ride to victory against the Tennessee Titans. Nigel, he doesn't believe a word he just said.

He's a liar. You're going to win this week. It is a curse. It's a curse. You know what? I'm going to be fair and balance. I don't believe in curses, so there was no such thing as a sports RV curse.

Yeah, I backed off that curse bit years ago. Do you remember why I did that? No. We were interviewing Evan Gaddis, and he was talking about the guys in the clubhouse were talking about it. And I was like, this has gone out of control. We don't stop.

This is too much. When guys don't want to come on the show, because baseball players are superstitious. They are the most superstitious of anybody. I was like, oh, God, this is affecting the show. I got to stop this bit. And we thank you for that. Let's go to a lookie here. And it was just a bit, of course, Matt.

You don't control injuries, and I don't believe in curses either. No. I'm not superstitious. I'm not even a little stitious. I don't have a superstitious bone in my body, I don't think. Like, I'll talk about no hitters. Don't care. Yeah.

I will bring an umbrella in the house. I will do it as a joke. Let's say I'm watching the Longhorns or Astros or somebody. I'm like, hey, switch seats with me. I don't really think that affects the game, but just kind of like mix it up. What's the black cat when? You can't walk near a ladder? You can't walk under a ladder.

All right. I've done that before. And a black cat crosses your path. You don't walk in a path that a black cat walked in, I think. Hmm. Do you walk on cracks? Can't crack mirrors. I know you'll break your mother's back, Matt. Do you sit, sit, crisscross applesauce? Don't split the pole. Excuse me? Don't split the pole. When you're, uh, you're walking with your lady and you're holding hands and there's, you've got to both go around it. You can't split. Or just even, yeah. If I was walking with Ross, he can't cross that pole. I got an unpopular take for you, romantic people out there. Okay. Walking and holding hands is very difficult. It's hard to get in unison when you're walking someone. What?

Yeah. This might just be a Matt Thomas. Yeah. I very rarely do it. What are the roadblocks that you were seeing in this scenario? Grab your girl next time you do your arm. Go for a walk and see how long you guys can move your arms back and forth in... You don't swing them. Are you skipping?

No, but I'm just saying it's hard to stay... Are you frolicking or are you walking? No, no. Just I'm talking about normal pattern of walking. It's hard to walk at the exact same pace of someone else. and I think holding hands is a detriment. It's not hard at all. Matt, are you telling us you uncoordinated? Are you a slow walker?

No, I'm just saying. Or is your wife a fast walker? No, we don't, we will hold hands occasionally, but it's just, it doesn't last long. I mean, a lot of things that she and I do don't last long, and I fully admit that as well. You put your arm around her. Hmm? I feel like that's a very basic human. This is such an interesting topic.

I have never heard of this. I want you to go to a mall this weekend. I haven't been to a mall. I want you to go, go to any of them. Go to a mall. I want you to watch somebody hold their hands and say how long they walk for it. And I guarantee they'll be done within about 60 seconds. The average, hold of holding of a hand is about 60 seconds.

That doesn't feel accurate at all. I mean, if the walk is 60 seconds, and yeah. I stand by my statement. I feel it's difficult to hold hands for a significant period of time. You can't get in sync with your wife when you're walking. that's actually alarming. It may be alarming. I'm just telling you the truth.

It doesn't affect our marriage. I'm just saying holding hands is not one of our strong suits. I almost want to get another instipole. No, you do die. No, you do die. All right. Keith, do you hold your hands with your wife quite a bit? We do that all the time, Matt, with no problem.

Thank you, Keith. I don't know what's going out of here. Keith, I want you to tell me next time you hold your hands with your girl, I'm going to go out and watch you and see how long. you guys last because you ain't i don't think you last much in anything we can last for at least 30 minutes walking hand in hand and we've been doing that for years all right you got a problem man not of a problem i'm just telling you it's just something that's never been a forte in our relationship the holding hands about 45 50 seconds stops well who's pulling away from who it's me more than

that that makes sense that's good you get your phone out that's why Keith, congratulations on making the playoffs. I guess I don't care at this point. Okay, so I really wanted to talk about the Rockets. Please do. I'm just go ahead and rain on your parade. I predicted a month ago that the Yankees would win the American League East. We're still going to do it.

They got five games left. And Toronto's going to lose at least two games. And as for your Astros, it's see you later, maybe in March. How about that? Now, here's the prediction that the Rockins fans are going to love. Right around Christmas, we're going to get a Christmas gift with a Hall of Famer. His name is Russell Westbrook. He will be playing point guard.

you know, like for at least 15 minutes per game. They can't afford them. They're hard-capped. No, I'm talking about December 15th. That's when they say they can raise money. Okay. Yeah, we're going to get Russell Westbrook and we're going. That's fine.

And we're going all the way to the finals. If Russ can make that happen, I'm all for it. I'm not anti- Russell Westbrook. I mean, I need to, when's the last time he was in the finals? I mean, No, it's been a while. 2012. It's been a while.

All right. 12.45 is the time. Biscuit, Mike, and Stunner. We'll get to. Mike wants to talk about holding hands. In the history of me doing sports radio, they're at a holding hands call. God, this is the best show in the planet.

This is the best show on the planet. This segment might go down for your show for sure. You think so? No, both biscuit and Mike want to talk about it. Oh, do? Am I going to get crucified? Maybe somebody wants you to have your back. We'll find out.

I don't know. I don't know. When we come back. When we find, okay, please, can somebody have my back to it? It's difficult to hold hands for a significant period of time. Just one person, just one little person out there. We get six million people in Houston, Texas. 713, 212,7.0.

All right, Matt Ross, we're here on Sports Talk 7.9. Let's get back on the phones. Coming up in the 1 o'clock hour, we'll run through the news headlines the day again. 120 will replay some of the Brian Bogus. We have a conversation we had. 130, Willie Fritz can be with us as our Cougars. America's Scoopers Ross will be in Oregon State Take on those beavers Friday night

from Corvallis, Oregon and then we've got Texans on Sunday Who's Texas? You got an off week and get ready for that big Florida game coming out. All right. A&M's got Auburn coming in to Kyle Field. And Heisman favorite John Meteer, the Oklahoma

quarterback, had hand surgery. Three weeks, right? Probably going to miss the OU Texas game, so now I'm back on to go, baby. So you basically went because of a man's bad thumb. I'm more likely to go, yes. I've been when Longhards have been underdogs

multiple times. I mean, isn't one my first you ever go during the John Blake era? No. That's good. First one I went to was 06. That was Colt McCoy. They won Handily. I think it was 28 to 10 or something like that. All right. Let's go to Biscuit on 790

Biscuit. What do you got today? Bougar, I knew it was something I liked about you, man. I don't have a reason now. I'm going to at the state fair this weekend and the wife's going to reach your hand out and I'm going to tell her two people can't walk at the same pace is it's not doable now I am where you get that from now I'm just say yeah Cougar Matt tell me yeah throw me under the bus that's fine I'm not I'm not I'm not anti holding hands I just want to make sure I'm clear on this it's just it has not gone like more than a couple of minutes that's just the reality I agree that's all I'm saying that's all I'm saying I'm not saying let me tell you if you can do it What? Plaws to you. I just,

I've not been able to do it my life. And met to all the Astros fans and the words of Eretta Franklin. Eretha Franklin, ain't no way. Ain't no way, man. It's over, baby.

Ain't no way. There is a way, though. Thank you, Biscuit. Rossi, there's a way. They win the next five. They're in the playoffs. Just telling you. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a way. There's a way. 44% chance. How we're feeling? It's a flush draw. Hey, flush drawls all the time. Would you say?

Oh, flush draw. Like, what is that? A flush draw. A flush draw. Flush draw. Flush draw. Yeah. Sorry, I didn't go to Syracuse.

No, Detroit plays Boston, I think. Close at the year. They're going to beat each other up, just like Detroit and Cleveland are beating each other up. That's where the odds come from. Because you look at it as a practical matter. If you don't look at those, everybody else the schedules, you're like they have no chance.

But when you factor in that a lot of these teams are playing against each other, then that's when you have a chance. Yeah, the only way I think you can win the next five and still not make the playoffs is if Detroit loses every single game. Which, hell, maybe blew a 15 and a half game lead. That would be certain within realm of possibility here.

AJ Hinch. You think AJ's going to get the... I don't think so. I mean, 15 and a half game lead in July? A certain host on this station said this on air. Adam Clanton or Wexler? that there is mutual interest between the Astros and AJ Hinch. Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, you said this?

A certain 790 host. Is it you? Said this on air. It was not me. Is there a scenario where both teams missed the playoffs or the Tigers just don't perform well in the playoffs and your 2026 Houston Astros manager is AJ Hinch? I thought it sounded way whack and off the table. Who said that?

First we got to tell me who. said this. It's Adam Clinton. He said it where you were gone. All right. Can I give you you, let me give you some layers on this. Joe spotted and AJ are close. That is true. So I do not believe AJ would snake his way in. Okay. Okay.

But. However, AJ still lives north of the woodlands. Mm-hmm. And has decided not to move full time to Detroit. and the greatest stretch well Dusty did himself pretty well too but AJ was beloved here by the organization because you not only got a really good manager but you also got a guy that had some GM chops too he has been in front offices of teams

yes former player front office and a manager and a World Series champion I like I like Joe I don't want Joe to lose his job I don't want Joe to go either. But if Joe was to lose his job, which I don't believe is the case. I don't think he will either. I would absolutely lob a phone call to AJ. And maybe that's me personally, just personal bias, and I can fully admit that to the audience.

You might have to make a trade. There is precedent. I believe it was Ozzy Gien was traded from White Sox to the Miami Marlins. I don't think the tigers let him go, but it is a 50-and-a-half. Ooh, not even make the playoffs? That's a meaty collapse, Matthew. That is a meeting one. Scott and River Oaks at 1256.

Scott, good afternoon. What's going on, fellas? So, man, this week, obviously everyone has been, but we've even taken one on the chin in the city of Houston on Sunday after the Texas got embarrassed and the Astros decided to say one, two, three, Cancun. It was all, I mean, it was almost spooky. I said to about four or five people, whoever I was talking to about the state of sports, I was like, well, at least we got rocket season.

At least rocket season is coming up. Let's get excited in less than 24 hours after that. We get the news about Fred Van Fleet. I wanted to call and try and give some optimism on the Rockets. The more I've sat with this Fred Van Fleet injury and what my thoughts are on it, I wanted to hear what you'll have to say. So when I first heard it, I mean, with everything else going on, too, it was absolutely like, you've got to be kidding me right now.

But I do think with the men being the starting point, guard were going to be maybe the best defensive team in the NBA, with Dorian fans, Dorrit DFS at 2. And I think the men can make the all-star. Reed Shepard, you know, with Fred still in the lineup, Reed was going to get minutes, but if he wasn't playing well, there was still going to be, we still had enough guys to not put him on the floor. Now he's going to be a true backup point guard and get a chance to develop through the highs and loads, so it could be

a blessing in disguise for Reed's development in the long term. I think there's no question about that. So I still think with he may being the coach there's enough talent on the Rockets to for us look forward to that. Yeah, but let's just try and get to the

rest of the disaster season and see where... Thank you, Scott. They're going to need Reed Shepherd. He's going to have to grow up fast. He has, he had to grow up fast first and foremost before the injury. Now he's really going to have to grow up. All right, Final hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross coming up. We've still got, if you miss our Brian Bocus of a conversation, it's always excellent.

We'll get to that. Willie Fritz, and believe it or not, today at 150, which is the category of. Is this, this team's hitting coaches? Oh, my God. I actually, you know what, I'm going to do that. I'll leave it, Google, we'll say Google to later. How about this? Why don't you do it with famous hitting coaches?

Oh, man, I can handle it. Are you sure? Are you sure? This can be very minutia filled. 1258, Sports Talk 790. 103 on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach the show if you want to get in. 7-13-212-5-790 is how you reach us.

We are getting ready for game number two of another climactic A's Astros game in West Sacramento. A huge clash at the Little Minor League Stadium. How do they go from the Oakland, County Coliseum with all that foul territory to basically no foul territory in that little dinky park. Be curious, my guess is Las Vegas is going to be very small. There's not a lot

of real estate there. Yeah, I know. We got it. Hopefully we're able to, you and I to go to those first games there. The first Astros games there? Okay. Yeah, we didn't go to the Texans Vegas game. Yeah, you told me we were going to go. I know. Remember we said we were going to

get Vegas season tickets? Good thing we didn't do that. I think we would have taken a big L. Big loss on that. Vegas is going way down the economy over there. It's not good. You know what it is? And I think we generally agree on this. To me, it's Vegas is out prices.

It's nothing. Not that our economy's bad. We're just not going to pay for Las Vegas prices anymore. Yeah. And a lot of it. I got like Charles two hours away. I get my fix. And it's,

it's become soulless and they've squeezed every extra dime they can out of you, especially on the strip. And then also, I mean, a lot of people would go a sports gamble and it's available like 30 states. On your phone in the neighboring state and Blas, again, I still love Vegas because I feel like

it's my little world away from the real life that I live in, so it's a kind great escape for me, but it is a logistical tough spot, especially because you get the room of $99 a night and you're like, oh, that's fine, and then you get $46 and fees at it on every day. Resort fees are the biggest scam

in human history. So Vegas, I don't feel sorry for you. I don't. Now, I will come back. I took more and more and more and more and more and more. And they give less and less and less comps. Everybody's, you know, the comps are terrible. Everybody, if you go get a cab, you open up the door, they want your tip for that. If you want to exit, you have to get a tip, tip for that. I mean, the guy holds the door and got his handout. Yeah. Like, I could open the door, my friend. Yeah. Everybody has their handout more so than ever before because, you know, part of it is because

they used to get the money. Now they're not getting it as much. So now it feels a little more aggressive. Yeah. Solace. There's our, there's our. It's a soulless wasteland. It's a soulless wasteland. And hopefully the rockets will be there for the in-season tournament.

I can't wait to get back. But it's a soulless wasteland. Come with me. We go. Okay. You got my room? I mean, you know I can share. We've shared rooms before.

That's true. Two beds. I'll use the pull-out couch. No, two beds. This is a nice hotel, too. Yeah. Very nice. Get a bed rolled in there?

We can do it. We can do it. Get a massage. We can get one. Massages in Vegas are expensive. It's like $3,400. No, I've got a cheap spot for you. Oh, do you really?

Yeah, they take care of you. Okay. To the phones we go. I'm kidding. Stana. What do you got today? Stunna. Stana.

You tell us. What's happening? Yeah. You tell us. You tell me. Hey, man. First of all. First of all, our phones suck.

It's the thing of men. Stunner, I got terrible news for you. Your phone's, it's probably our fault. I'm on the fence. It kind of sounded like ours. All right, we're going to find out whose fault it really was because Larry in Galveston is going to call us. Hi, Larry. Matt, how are you?

Amazing. I tell you what. I wish I could say amazing. I've been following the Houston baseball club ever since they were the Buffaloes. And that term never gets. up, I will never give up. But one thing that the Astros need right now is something that only you and Ross can provide for them.

And that is a revival. And we need the revival to be able to get our boys back up on their feet and go out there and beat the dead gum athletics and then beat the dead gum angels. And so Ross, Matt, bring the revival back and bring it back now. We can't wait anymore. Our backs are up against the wall, as you guys well know. And that's all I got. Thank you.

We have to alter the revival a little bit. It's a little bit. In 2020, Yeah, we're gonna do, yeah, we just have to a little bit. We could certainly have a, um,

we could have like, uh, like, the late Zig Ziglar was a motivational speaker. I'm not familiar with that guy. Yeah, uh, you've heard of motivational speakers.

You go to those conventions and they have like, Tony Robbins. Yeah. Yeah, Tony Rob is a good comp. We can certainly Tony Robbins this thing. We did. I used to do this on the sports RV show.

Was that a good show? Oh, Fantastic. People loved it. I've had dozens and dozens of people tell me it was their favorite show on the station. I appreciate all of you. That was nice of them to do that. Especially my mom. She said it was the best.

So she wouldn't lie to me. All right. Continue? We would do basically like a pregame speech. I wonder if I even have it. I would play like the Last of the Mohicans theme. And then we would have a contest. Whoever could fire them up, the best would get a prize.

Yeah. This is the Last of Mohicans. I play like a like a, a, like a, a contest. fire. Yes. You said Astros. You do not walk quietly into that good night. You have your backs against the wall.

There's only five games left in the season. Frumber Valdez has lost his mind. Everybody's swinging out of their shoes and their helmets. But now is the time. You have to take care of business in Sacramento. Hunter Brown is on the mound. your ace. You've fought for so long.

You've been ALS champions year after year. And while that's not happening this year because you're four games back and it's over. But you can still make a wild card. You can still fight for the American League pennant. Have you no backbone? Have you no will to win? Show it tonight at Sutter Healthfield in Balmy Saccharaccharacterial. because the time is now.

Your backs are against the wall, and you must come through and win a wild card spot, and hopefully not beat her out and losing two games. My turn. Okay. Listen to me, Astros. We're in the 11th round of this 12-round fight. You have been beaten. You have been bruised. Your cut man is hurt.

You don't trust your doctors, but you're still standing. Put those gloves in the air and fight for Houston. So you can go on the road in the wild card series. And yes, Yonair Diaz, you can throw somebody out at second base. And yes, Christian Walker, you can catch that pop fly in the infield. And yes, Ham Smith, anybody else in the outfield. Get a hit. Please.

Says ourselves. Are you come back from Sugarland and Stephen O'Kert and Brian King. And I don't care who the hell doesn't. Just get us to the playoffs.

You're bloodied. You're a hot mess. You're concussed. But you're going to fight in Sacramento. West Sacramento. Actually, it's a block from downtown Sanctal.

But it's not here. there. And you're going to go to Anaheim. And you're going to beat those angels. And you're going to go to Cleveland or Boston and play in the wallet card. You're going to win that series. And then you're going to be able to go to the Astros website and say to Visual Series that gets available.

And mean it. Ah. You know a little Howard Dean at the end there. I like that. All right. Really quick before we get to a little bit of bogey. Jerry on 7 out of. Hello, Jerry. Hello, Jerry.

Hey, guys. look it's bad when SportsCity Network is out there promoting playoff tickets when the boys had the bases loaded and can only must have one run in

and also when you're depending on the Rockies to even help you get a chance of the division it's bad tag it up boys after Los Angeles go to Cancun

thank you back to Los Angeles and then Cancun that's not nice Brian Bogusavik is up next after I tell you about the great folks at affordable tree service. We always get a great opportunity to visit with the analysts of Space City Network on the Astros.

Of course, Brian Bogus Sevik. And he joins us every Wednesday at 11 o'clock. Hopefully to be back with us next Wednesday at 11. Today, our conversation will let you hear a little bit of it right now. Before we hear from Willie Fritz, coach the Cougars, was about just how disappointing it was and frustrating it was to watch the Astros just put together just three measly singles against the A's last night. Yeah, it's kind of been the story of the second half or second two-thirds or whatever it comes

out to be is just, I mean, the offense looking not, it's the least dangerous that the offense has felt in some time. And, you know, we've seen very short spurts where it looks like they're putting it together, but on the whole, it just seems like, opposing pitchers, regardless of who we're facing, you know, in the division, out of the division, it just seems like the league has generally accepted a plan where, you know, they know how they want to go out and attack this lineup. And there aren't, you know, adjustments being made. And it's just, you know, you're getting beat by what looks like an inferior matchup on paper.

So let me ask you this. This is a tough one. is there any defeatist mode up and down that lineup? Is it this season wasn't meant to be? I mean, you still largely control your own destiny. You know, you're now down a game in the walled card, but has that started the sink in a little bit? Can you see it? Or is it still for you and I and Ross here?

We're 18 or miles away from that team. We can't make that kind of decision or assessment. Yeah. No, I don't think so. I mean, I think you've got guys in the clubhouse who know as long as, as long as they're mathematically still in it that they have a chance and nobody's going to, you know, go and kind of, you know, give up before it's over. But I also think that they, you know, you have to have a little bit of realist in you

and realize just, you know, for an extended period of time, it's been a struggle, certainly offensively. There's been, I forget what the number I saw the other day is like 148 or 149 different lineup combination. So that just speaks to how many guys have been in and out of the line. lineup, whether it be injury or performance-wise. So, yeah, it's definitely probably set in that, you know, this is not, nothing's going to click and all of a sudden we're going to be an offensive juggernaut.

I think everybody certainly realizes that. But you also have enough guys in that lineup who, you know, we're looking at, looking at what is now a five-day season. You can get a couple guys hot in five days and they can carry a lineup and you can score enough runs to get yourself in. It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility. Brian Bogusevic with us here on 790, and hopefully this is not our last appearance of the season. But Bogie, we're going to look at a macro view of this team in Christian Walker.

Obviously, a lot of folks were excited about the replacement at first base. This team has been looking for that solid offensive production, maybe since the last few years of Yerli Gueriel. Obviously, the Jose Abraud situation did not work out. He never was going to be a 285 hitter here. but it just feels like there have been two or three games where like oh he's going to turn the corner and then it's a one for 11 or it's a two for 19

when you look at a macro stance of him what went wrong for Christian Walker this season well I think first and foremost he got into a situation you know when you're when you're a hitter and you start off slow you're always kind of doing the math in your head of okay you know I started off and I'm hitting 200 after 50 at bat so

I need to do whatever over by next 150 to get it leveled out. And he got to a point to where he was so far underwater. It was never going to get back to where he wanted it to be or where he expected it to be. And that can be a really frustrating thing because, you know, you're sitting all of a sudden, you know, 300 at bats in, 400 bats in. You've got a lot of season left. And it's already kind of feel like, all right, this is a season that's a failure. And it's just never gotten to the point to where it looks like he's been comfortable with himself.

You know, there's been times when the abats have gotten more consistent and you think, all right, this is the guy that we've expected to see. And then it goes away. I think a lot of, you know, the biggest thing from a, whatever, mechanical standpoint or whatever, is just the inconsistency to hitting fastballs and especially elevated fastballs. And it seems like a hole that got exposed and never got closed up. So I think that's probably the one thing that you can look to and say, hey, that's what needs to be fixed moving. forward, but I think just from a seasonal standpoint, it just felt like it got so far away from him early

that just from a mental standpoint, it felt like almost a lost season before the season was over. You mentioned the high fastballs, and I mean, it feels like anybody who's watching these games, Christian Walker has to know it, the hitting coaches, know it, everybody knows it. And you mentioned like, so what can be done?

Is that, how can that get fixed? Well, you can look at it two different ways. You can look at it from a mechanical standpoint, right? find what's causing extra length in your swing or a drop off in bat speed. Are you muskling up swinging too hard? Are you getting long in the back and you're not getting the barrel out front and try to close it up and then be able to attack that pitch?

Or you can look at it from an approach standpoint and say, you know, if I can't hit it, I got to lay off of it. And then you just try to make that an area that you're not going to go after pitches until you have to with two strikes. But that also changes the fact that you have to then be more aggressive. and overly aggressive to pitches further down in the zone or off-speed pitches in the middle of the zone earlier in your at-bat. So you can try to attack one or the other or a combination of both. But, you know, if you can't hit it, you got to not swing at it.

And you mentioned, Brian Belkisavica with us here on Sports Talk 7-9. You mentioned just seeming a lack of offensive adjustments because you're right, the Walker, four-seemer we're seeing. Yainter Diaz still swinging at everything out of the zone. Same thing for Jose Al-Tuvae. I mean, what can be done, especially, there's been a lot of talking. We've been talking about it basically ad nausea in the last couple of weeks, Brian, about the hitting coaches. And the offense has been bad. And Alex Intron and Troy Snicker, the offensive have been successful with him there.

But is it a situation where these guys are not making the proper adjustments for the lineup? I don't think so. I mean, hitting coaches are very involved in game planning, but, you know, game planning has to do, yes, with the pitchers that you're facing and how you want to, you know, combat what they're throwing at you, but you'll also have to make a game plan that's tailored to hitters that you have. And the fact of the matter is, is that they have a disproportionate amount of very aggressive hitters. And if you're going to ask those guys to go up there and try to be something that they're not, you're not doing anybody any favors. and, you know, use Altuvae as an example. He's always been an overly aggressive hitter. He's always swung the pitches out of his zone at times.

But when you have him being bracketed in a lineup by Alex Bregman and Michael Brantley, you can live with that and it doesn't show up as well. But when you have a lineup that as you go further down, there's a lot of aggressive hitters. Jeremy Payne is a very aggressive hitter. Yanner Diaz is a very aggressive hitter. And then you get down to the bottom of the order. And now you're talking about young guys that are just trying to survive or just find their footing, you can't ask them to be the ones that go out there and just drag out

at bats and fight pitchers down to two strikes. So it just seems like there's a little bit of an imbalance in terms of style of hitter. And that's something that, you know, you can't really work around what you don't have. All right. Then the thoughts again, very logical. And I'll say what, of all the things we've done this season on this show, having him has been great. Very level-headed. Sees it from a player perspective, but also sees it from a fan perspective as well. And it's always good to get Brian's thoughts. And hopefully he'll be with us for some sort of postseason run.

I'm team 5-1. 5-1 starts tonight. Should have started last night, but it starts tonight. Well, in France, coach of your Cougars, getting ready for Oregon State. We'll join us next, 129 on Sports Talk 790. The Joint Chiropractic. They've got Houston's back to the official chiropractor at University of Houston. and athletics brings you Willie Fritz here on the program.

And let's say hi to coach. And coach, first of all, congratulations on the win against Colorado and the time off. Let me ask you, first and foremost, I'm assuming you and your coach has had a chance to go check out a lot of high school talent over the last week or so. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. When a really good game on Thursday night, a real good game on Friday night. So enjoyed going out. You know, you see a little bit more in person, you know, the interaction, student athletes, you know, with their teammates and, you know, different things like that, how they compete.

And it's funny to go out. We went out and watched kids who were committed to us. So it was, I think we got a lot out of it. Pardon my ignorance on this, but I'm curious. Do you want to tell them you're coming? Do you want them to not know? And does it matter whether they're committed or not? No, and, you know, you don't want to get it set up.

and, you know, you tell the high school coach, and I like standing down on the sideline where I can really get a good bird's eye view of what's happening going on. And so, yeah, they know that we're coming to the ball game. Well, you had a chance to see a lot of that while celebrate the victory against Colorado. Coach off to a 3-0 start.

Not only are you one of the few undefeated teams still in college football, but your squad has not turned the ball over. That's always a focus for every coach, but what has made it especially more satisfying over the first three weeks? Well, we didn't do a great job of it last year. It's something we really emphasized last year,

and we emphasized the big time during the spring in the summer and preseason camp, and guys just did a nice job. Part of his play calling, part of it's a little bit of good luck where you don't have to put the ball in harm's way. I think our offensive coordinator, Coach Nagel, does a good job

with making sure their plays that you have minimal risk to them as far as a turnover is concerned. And then we're doing a good job. job of taking the ball away. You know, call them takeaways, not giveaways. And our defense has done a pretty darn good job. We've been close to having four or five in each of the games. And I think we're plus six right now in the turnover takeaway category.

So we just got to continue to keep doing that throughout the whole season. And my career is head coach. And we've been plus one or better, we've won 91% of our games at a lot of different levels that I've coached at. So that's something that helps your success is making sure that you want to that turnover takeaway. Now, I know you had to mentally and physically prepare for three different quarterbacks. I know Coach Sanders did not announce Dobb until the very last second. But I'm going to assume your kids were not surprised because there was some game tape on him.

Yeah, there's game tape on him. And, you know, unless it's just completely and totally different, you know, skill sets with the quarterbacks. You're going to get the same offense. Maybe you might run one guy a little bit more than the other or maybe there's a certain pass. The guy's a little bit better than

the other guy's at. You know, by large, you're going to get the same style offense. So we just worked on what they've done the first two games and had an idea that this dog kid might start. And he did and, you know, our kids did a good job adapting to him.

Connor gave you 222 yards. through the air. 83 on the ground. The 83 has a career high for him. Is that something you want to see more of? Not necessarily the yards, but just the ability to say, you know what,

I can take off if needed. Yeah, we're going to run the quarterback every week. You know, I've talked about it many times. It's just when you play 11 on 11 football, you've got a better chance of being successful in the run game. When you're handing it off his back,

you know, it's a little bit more difficult and, you know, fortunate that Connor can run and he's got good speed, good movement. And then there's some times where, you know, everybody's covered and you see a crease and the protection and he

did that one time as well. He took it and ran with it and scored a touchdown. So yeah, we're very fortunate. We have a true due for a quarterback. Now, are we going to run them 20 times a game no? But we're going to run them five to ten times a ball game.

Is that under his circumstances or are those specific play calls? What do you think would be more of that? Probably three or four of them are going to be, you know, where he tucks it and runs or either he's got pressure or, you know, and there's not a clear receiver

to throw to, but the other ones will be called quarterback runs or option plays where you, you know, you're reading somebody and it's either, you know, give the ball the back or pull it. So, you know, but yeah, we're fortunate that we've got a guy back there that can move around well. You got two and nine yards.

on the ground, 222 through the air. If I've talked to one coach, they all said the same thing. We love balanced offense and you got that against the Buffaloes. Yeah, we want to be a 50-50 team. You know, the pass opens up the run and vice versa. And, you know, if you make them, you know, have to defend the whole field horizontally and vertically, got a much better chance of being successful. We think we've got some good backs and we've got good receivers and tight ends.

And we'll try to utilize all of them. You know, you get into a game sometimes. you have more success doing one thing or the other, and you're smart to stick with that plan of attack. But, you know, we'd like to be a 50-50 team. I sometimes tease my radio audience about not being able to trust college kickers. You and I earlier this season talked about the fact that we were seeing more and more successful ones. Your guy, five out of six, if you can get 15 points a game from your college kicker like that,

you're going to be in a really good spot this year. Yeah, and a bunch of them were long ones, too. You know, he was 10 of 11 at Old Dominion. in last year. There's one miss with 50 plus yards. So that's the reason why we got him here. We want to be able to get the automatic three points when it's going to be hard to convert on a fourth and six or seven, whatever the case may be.

You're in that little in-between fringe area, you know, right around the plus 25, plus 35-yard line, and you still got an opportunity to get points, even though the down of distance is good for you by kicking the field goal. So even Sanchez did a really nice job of it. you know, kicking the last, well, I guess it was two weeks ago, right? Yep. And the best, I know. It seems like it was two months ago.

You know, it does feel like that. How do you like the early off week? You had a chance to rest up some guys, and Knicks and bruises are always going to be a part of a college football season. But how do you feel at least health-wise going to this game against Oregon State? Much better. We were banged up, particularly on the offensive line. We've got a few of those guys back now, and now they're healthy.

We took a couple days off with the student athletes. And we came back on Monday and we just really lifted during that by week and practice Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and getting Friday, Saturday off and came back and started working again on Sunday because we're actually flying out tomorrow to head out to Oregon State. So as far as Oregon State is concerned, a really rough goal, thanks for them. They are in a full rebuild. It feels like they also are trying to get established back in a new conference, which will be next year. I don't know if the travel is going to be a huge consideration. Guys have been on plane rides before. But just a thought or two about seeing them having already one conference game in the books,

and this being your last non-conference game coming up here on Friday. Yeah, we just, you know, I've really had an opportunity that, you know, study these guys. We would have in the buy week. And, you know, like I tell these guys all the time, this is. This game counts as one, just like last week, and just like next week. Elkhound won, New York, year-round for these 12 guaranteed opportunities. And, you know, having this time off, we want to be able to play the best we can.

We should be healthy. I think we've had an opportunity to figure out our squad a little bit, what guys do well, maybe some things they don't do quite so well. We try to stay away from that. You know, and we've been able to do that in all three phases. during this time off. And do you want the depth chart fluid every week, or do you like the things settle down by this time of the year?

I would like it to be pretty close to settle down. There's all these guys that continue to keep improving during a year. Maybe they're playing five snaps a game, and another two, three weeks are playing, you know, 30 snaps a game. You know, sometimes that's based on injury as well. A guy comes in and shows what he can do and may beat the guy out. We want competition. We want depth.

And we want to know, though, what are the guys that are going to be playing? You know, not just on defense or offense, but, you know, who are the best 11 guys on kickoff team? We're the best 11 guys on kickoff return. Who's the best 11 guys on third long defensively? So you're always trying to figure your squad out and make sure you got the right Jimmy's and Joe's and the places where you need to have them. Well, there will be a handsome bald guy filling in for Jeremy on your coaches show tonight. I will be seeing you in a few hours looking forward to hanging out with you for now.

That sounds fantastic. We'll see everybody at Little Woodrow's and Edo at about 7 o'clock tonight. Thanks, Coach, for the visit as always. All right, man. Thank you. You got it. You got it. That's Willie Fritz joining us here.

And yes, the coaches show over a 950 KPRC will be at Little Woodrow's Edo. And I will be there. And I will, I mean, I don't if I'll sign autographs for us, but I feel like if people want to ask, I'll be happy to sign a couple. Are you going to put you on the big screen? Big screen. There's a big screen outside in there. I have not been in that location before. I have.

Last time I was on the screen during coaches show was with me and Tom Herman, and we were trying to figure out where he was going. And he went to Texas. You should have kept them. You don't seem upset by that. You've moved on. Remember, Texas is back. No, they're not.

We'll be after being Florida. 145, believe it or not. It's highly Googledable. It's about hitting coaches. This is a good one. 45 Sports Talk 790. Thanks, Sart. I hope you're getting some downtime.

Looking forward to see Texas and U of H in the first round of the college football playoffs. What did you say, Ross? A little, let's see, would be... I don't think the Rainbow Warriors are going to have a season like that, but I guess it could happen. Major League Baseball, Detroit had a 99.9% chance to win the AL Central on September the 10th. 99.9.9. Seriously, there's a chance. Now it's even for Cleveland.

It's Detroit's collapse It's not Cleveland playing out of its mind, right? I mean, Cleveland has been playing great. It takes both. But 15 and a half games is That takes a lot of work. That's like, if you think the Astros have been bad

The last six weeks, go look at Detroit's record. Yish. Problem is the lions are really good. So the Tiger fans even really, now that's a good baseball town. I give them that. It looks like the Guardians have won like 18

of the last 20. So they're basically. basically Seattleing the America League Central. What's the Trits record in the last? I mean, they've got to be, I mean, yeah, we'll look it up down the road. By now, I've got something else. Something like that. All right.

I don't have my exact math on there. It doesn't matter. That's fine. We're a big city wings tomorrow, by the way. Where? 20,000 block. 20,000, 330. Tuckerton, in Cyprus.

Tuckerton, in Cyprus. Come by. I got some giveaway stuff. If you're within 20 miles, come to have a lunch with this. Okay. I'm going to hang for an hour after the game and eat. and watch the game. I have to go to the dentist.

What time are we off? We're off at two? I got to go to Dennis by three. And I need to make sure I remember to bring my floss picks. Ooh, Lord, you got a brush chief when you get there. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show.

We simply call it believe it or not. And here's how it works. She calls 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Today's edition of Believe or not, is this the hitting coach of a particular team or is he a first American Congress? Is that right?

Part of the First American Congress. You got to be really quick. I'll give you the name of the team. If it is, you say this. Believe it. If this person was a first American congressman, you'll say this. Two believe it or not in a row will win you. Either a 790 t-shirt.

Also along the way, we have other great prizes. I'm segue-wing. I'm segueuing. Oh, Tote's tickets on December the 29th at House of Blues or Monster Jam tickets, October 18th at NRG Stadium. tickets of both those events can be found at Ticketmaster.com. Let's play. Very quickly.

Bill on 790. Bill, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir. St. Louis Cardinals batting coach is Brant Brown. Believe it or not? Not. He is. Bye. See you.

Believe it. John on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Cleveland Guardians hitting coaches Grant Fink. Believe it or not? Not. He is.

Sorry. Belive it. On 790, what was your favorite part of today? You send the two radio show. I love listening to Coach Brits. Go Cooghs. Philadelphia, Phillies. Hitting coach is Kevin Long.

Believe it or not. Believe it. That's right. Believe it. Name number two for the win. The Chicago Cubs hitting coach is Robert Morris. Believe it or not. Believe it.

No, he's a Penn Senator. Everybody knows that. Chris on 790. You're ready to play, believe it or not? Milwaukee Brewers hitting coach is Alan Labouf. Believe it or not? Not. He is, sorry. I don't know who know what Aaron LaBoof is. Aaron on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not?

Colorado Rockies hitting coach is Daniel Heister, H-I-E-S-T-E-R. Believe it or not. He is a Pennsylvania representative. statement number two for the win. The Los Angeles Angels batting coach is Johnny Washington. Believe it or not. Did he just hang up? I guess he did. Wow, he hit one down.

Mike on 790, Mike, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. The Los Angeles, Angels hitting coach is Johnny Washington. Believe it or not. Believe it. That's right. Name number two for the win. The Atlanta Braves hitting coach is Theo Bland.

Believe it or not. not yeah he's representative from virginia you're a winner Alex on 790 you're ready to play believe it or not believe it the Pittsburgh Pirates hitting coach is Joshua Seney believe it or not nah yeah he's representative from Maryland statement number two for the win Toronto Blue Jays hitting coach is David Hopkins

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and they are A-plus rated from the BVB. 281-758-9978. That's 281-758-9-7978 or online at Uptownappliancespair.com. Up next, it's Wexler, it's Clinton. They will break down every one of the three singles the Astros had in last night's game as part of the team on Sports Talk 790.