The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Miss Multiple Opportunities... Texans Hit the Practice Field

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

Astros Miss Multiple Opportunities... Texans Hit the Practice Field

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Welcome to a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Gordy's filling in. This is Sports Talk 790. Gordy, I tried to listen to the 10th inning show, but the person I was with

my oldest son, my good boy, Camerrein, like Dad, I don't want to listen. I love Gordy. He loves your sports take, especially on the college front. Yeah. But we just couldn't do it.

We went to the game last night. What it's worth, as Buffalo Springfield would say, the Mariners are still in the playoff chase. Couldn't bury him. Couldn't do it. Yep. Yeah, I mean, it's the epitome of what this season has been with the Astros. It's like, so close, right there. What does the epitome in your mind mean?

I mean, just it's, they are who they are. This is what, this is what it is. Why am I, and I don't think I'm the only one, I think there's a lot of people. I'm about what I actually include yourself in this as well. I'm not surprised at anything they're doing right now. They've got some good hitting. They've got some good pitching. They've got just enough to be mid.

And they're that, you know, you go, you know what? You go to Roland Ruralin Ruralt and you get you a little steak and some, you know, the unlimited pizza in egg rolls and the ice cream fountain. It's mid. I mean, you'll eat it. not great but you'll eat it Astros baseball you'll watch it you still love it

there's some moments that are great Friday night the big home run that Christian Walker hid that was awesome right but there was Saturday that was an ass kicking and then yesterday was to steal a phrase from hole and oats

and missed opportunities they are who they are they're 500 that's it yeah they have Astros have 11 losses since the All-Star break, eight of those 11 losses, Matt, they've scored two runs or less.

Yeah. I mean, that just tells you right there. And the game was the last Wednesday, it gets there for end. They won two to one. That was an anomaly. When this team can only score one or two runs, more likely they're getting their ass beat. If this team could score four or more runs,

90% of the time they're winning those games. So that's just kind of way, you hate the simple fight. It's as simple as that. though, this team, the pitching is decent enough. Good enough. At times. If they could score some runs to support that pitching, they're going to win that game.

If the bats do not show up and nobody could come through where they hit. And Dalton, Varsho goes 0 for 4, and Christian Walker goes 0 for 4, three strikeouts, nearly a Golden Suburro. And the base is loaded, eighth inning, people on the edge of their seat. I was going to leave earlier. But I'm like, and now we'll stick around and see what they do. And then when Varshal struck out or was a strikeout or was it an out? He struck out. He struck out.

But he had that hit that ball down the right field line. We just played the highlight of it. It just fell a couple feet fall. It was like, damn. I know. Well, baseball has dimensions and symmetrics that they can't overcome. Could be worse. You could be Kyle Tucker.

Ooh, we will get to that, by the way. Today's missing you at 1.30 is going to be a real dandy. Because I don't think... We're missing anybody. I don't think you're missing him. Matter of fact, Dodger. fans are like, you can go back to Houston, you go back to Chicago. You go back Tampa Bay where you're up.

I don't care. We don't need you. Way isn't missing Bregman. Way isn't missing Tucker. Shoot, Peter Lambert's got a better ERA than Garrett Cole right now. Yeah. Are we missing Mauricio Dubon? Well, I mean, Nick Allen.

Nick Allen was deep yesterday. And then that flimsy-ass home run that Cal Raleigh hit yesterday. That's, I, now let me tell you this, Gordy, I have been going to Astro Baseball games at Dike in Park. give her take for over 20 years. Is that the first doink home run I've ever seen in my life? I think so. It hits, what does it hit the rail? The top of the pole and then bounces over?

I mean, it would have been a homer anyway, but the point being is that thing would have cleared no other ballparks. I mean, a true, true Crawford box home run yesterday. But the most important thing is the theme is this. You do catch a break because the A's beat the Rangers yesterday. You don't catch a break that you don't win the series against the Seattle Mariners. And if you're in Seattle and you're flying in Milwaukee, which they did after the game last night, they're playing the Brewers this week, you're four back in a mid-division.

Very, very mid, very average. Nobody should beat their chest. But somebody's got to win it. And at this point, again, it's still the Astros with a two-game lead. Here's what scares the hell on me, though, Matt. you've been what's your record against the mariners this year? Two and whatever. Two and eight or something?

They've got two games left so they play where they play 14, something like that. Yeah. And they play them both in the last week of the season in Seattle. Right now, I'm telling you right now, you must, must at minimum split those two. Because can you imagine a world where this thing is, it's a one game race between you Seattle and the Rangers and you go in and lose those two in Seattle? you could lose the division in those games in Seattle. Well, the reality is this, if those games mean anything, that means the Astros are in trouble.

They will. You think they're going to pull away and have a five-game lead on everybody? I was hoping so, but it didn't happen. That's Chris Gordy, by the way. I'm Matt Thomas. Good morning, everybody. And Ross is off this week. So Gordy's going to hang out with us today and tomorrow for a couple hours

in the early portion of the show. You are in for a treat today, Gordy. First time ever in the history of the tell the truth, I will not be playing to tell the truth as the host. I'll be as the contestant because Jonathan Allen, our esteemed producer, friend of the show, he's coming up with The Tell the Truth today. I'm ready. So, yeah, that's what I'm saying, Gordy.

It's going to be hard because his takes are sometimes awful. We love him. He's a valuable part of our show, but you got me in the Jane Daniels last week. I'm still mad at you for me coming to your side for like an hour on that one. I didn't even pick a side. Well, I picked this side. I picked your side. It was wrong.

I didn't know he wanted his Hizeman back. He wants everything back. You isn't an LSU fan. I'd be a just like, shut up. Well, it's kind of come out that it's not really him. It's his mom and his quote-unquote team. Oh, we don't like teams. We don't like, well, we like moms as long as they know their role.

We don't like teams ever. But that should have been an email or a phone call about, hey, let's talk about what we could do to. And never discuss in a public. And somebody also said, like, he's only been gone for two years. like this is like a this is like if a current this is like if erin rogers in the middle of his NFL career right now calls the NFL and says I'd like to be inducted into the hall of fame like look bro you might you probably will be but like we're not doing it right now like give it a little time to breathe bro well that's what I think his argument is is wait a minute I've only

been gone two years and he already gave my number up I mean that's I mean I find him on that part I mean he did win a heisman but I mean he won a he won a heisman but he lost three games that year it's kind of it didn't even compete in the very one of the great lSU bowl games of the last decade the one that's in two. Tampa, whatever that sponsor is. I heard somebody say, you know, you know what you do if you're Jaden in that situation? You go, hey, you know what, lo, bro? If it's going to help LSU with recruiting, you can wear number five, but you got a lot to live

up to with that number. That's how you respond. You don't go, you can't wear my number. Like, okay, you don't get to decide your legacy. The school will decide your legacy. That's right. That's right. But again, 99.9% of this should never have been discussed in public lane.

It makes, it makes, everybody looks bad. Cease and desist. You want to turn every fan that you ever had off from that school? Okay. All right. So the Astro struggle yesterday. Struggle this week. Saturday's game was not competitive.

I'm telling you, I took Friday night, I probably took 20 calls. Friday night, I'll be a little pill of curtain bags. That was great. Friday nights are sometimes can go hot and cold because Friday nights, if you win, people want to come on the show or they lose and they get reactionary. But a lot of times it's like, yeah, Friday I'm going to pop somewhere else. And I don't have time to listen to the 10th inning show. We had a lot, a lot of calls.

We had all these dopey Meritor fans in front of us. I'm like, where did you come from? Why are they dopey? They could be really nice people. I'm just like, why are you here? Well, because Houston's a great place to go. I didn't know you guys had fans of travel. Maybe they wanted to get down to get some heat.

Now, there was one group. What's the guy, Calzone, Canzone, that made his debut, his family. It had to be his family, his mom, because I think his jersey even said Canzone's mom. Yeah. So, you know, okay. That's a great assumption on your part. Good for you on that. Glad you're able to figure that one out.

I didn't see it. My buddy pointed out. but you didn't call it but you didn't call dopey did you i mean i knocked to their face but on a major market radio show show why not let me tell you there's some there's some goblins they're ugly people in seattle by the way i do not like to triton at all that thing is no it's stupid it's yeah i i was not a fan of did it let me poll question did if you went to the game this this weekend you saw a merrers fair were any of them attractive they're the ugliest fans i think in all of baseball wait a minute they're goblets wait just a minute

are you basically saying people that live in Seattle are ugly? They're goblins. I don't know what. What are they, were they goth when they were in the stadium? Like, Rangers fans come down, all right, they'll give you, they're attractive. They're good-looking people. Mariners fans? Something in the water up there.

You know, I'm going to find a good-looking Mariner fan on the, on the, on the Gany images. I'm going to find you one. I don't know if you're going to find one. I'm going at the ballpark this week. I'm going to look for the next 10 minutes or show. It had like weird things on their faces, distorted noses. I mean, I don't know what, what's going on with Mariner fans. Do you hear?

Do you hear this awful stereotyping of Seattle Mariner fan? I'm kind of here for it. You know what? We got to record this and send this to soft to see what he thinks. We'll get, we'll get Gordy on KJR radio today. I'm sure they could, they'd love to find you. I've never really thought about, I mean, now, do I stereotype, yes. Do I think the average female Packer fans, 224 pounds?

Yes. Do I believe that average Yankee fan has got a high cholesterol level? Yes. but I've never had an opinion about Seattle Mariner fan. Now, the Triton thing irritates me. In their stadium, which apparently is closed over the roof, but the sides are open, which means if it's cold, it's cold, which seems stupid. If it rains, somebody's getting wet.

Yeah, that's just odd. Although it does rain at Dikin Park sometimes. There's some leaks in it occasionally, but we don't know what this thing called rain is, unfortunately. All right, we got that to get to today. The Astros disappointment of a two games to one loss series to the Mariners. We will get to what Kyle Tucker is going through in Los Angeles. We will get to the Texas. They're on the practice field today.

Over the weekend, D'Meek-O-Ryan saying that, yes, if you are healthy, you are playing. And I have a question for you that I brought up to Ross. And he didn't seem to be too bothered by it one way the other. I am. There is a, there's Tank Dell staying out there, as you know, Gordy. If he doesn't play this week, are we, should we just go and go a, that I was right that he's not going to start the season on the other active roster? I mean, it's one of those things, though, they could be saying we don't want to risk any kind of injury or setback in playing him in the preseason.

Wait for the start of the regular season to get him out there. Don't you think that's a long time between being? Now, again, you can simulate a lot of things in practice, but you really can't simulate when someone else is really trying to take you down? Yes, but again, if you're concerned at all about that knee, well, I risk it in a, preseason game. Freaking Jeremiah Love got banged up already for the Cardinals in their first preseason game because they ran them 11 times in their preseason opener and they're like, you should be ready

for the season opener, but he's banged up. Why risk it? How about the Jets quarterback? What's his name again? They got, uh, they had to go in the concussion 10 again. Um, not the Jets. Oh, the, uh, the Giants quarterback. Giants quarterback. Jackson Dark. That dude, every time he gets hit, he like lays down for five minutes.

By the way, is his name spelled J-A-X-S-O-I-N? Yeah. California thing. Big, big, big strike. He went to Ole Miss, but he's from California. I'm sorry, Dart family. Spell Jackson like a regular human being spells Jackson if you're going to do that. Oh, no, they're from Utah.

Well, that's even worse. Even weirder. Let me tell you someone. I was living in Utah and working there. I would say one kid per block. You know what his first name was? The boys' names? Stockton.

It's not funny. The first name. Weirdos. I mean, there are lovely people there, but they didn't name your kid after. I don't know. I got Cameron and Peyton. Maybe I'm the fraud. It's from, I'm the fraud.

From Keyesville, just outside of... But my Peyton spells his name regular, P-E-Y-T-O-N. Not P-A-Y. No. No. That's more of a girl spelling, right? I don't know. Kind of, yeah.

Which P-E-Y or P-A-A-R. P-A-Y. It's more of a woman. Okay. We got the news at noon coming up. We got missing you at 1.30 this afternoon. And I've already put together today's edition of, believe it or not, all things about Tommy John. He passed away yesterday.

You are so cool in your life and you live the long life that you have a surgery named after you. Yeah, but also a negative connotation. It's not something good. Yeah, I'll ask you this, Gordy. Look at how late we are. We can go to break. What's what's going on here, Jonathan?

Sheesh. 7-1-3, 2. We've got more to get to. Lots to get to. She's name of a proctology exam after Matt Thomas. I was going to go. I was going to have a Matt Thomas today. If you want to grab a procedure named after me, what would you, what would it be?

Oh, he's having Matt Thomas surgery. Oof. It gets a butthole. Excuse me? Operated on. Wait a minute. Do I need this for two hours? We're going to just bring a material already.

If you were to name of surgery after me, what kind of surgery would it be? I'll take the phone calls. I'm a big boy. I can fight through this. 713, 212,790s. 2 and 9. The Astros against the Seattle Mariners. Oof.

It's not great. Last night was the one. You should have had last night. Yeah. I mean, lots of opportunities, lots of men on the base paths. I mean... Open, Brian and Brie, even, you know,

shaky but still got it done. done. A hater got in there. Oker. Everyday Okert's doing fine. I mean, Gordy, this is... We got an outfield problem, though. It's Lamont Wade, Nelson Velasquez, Taylor Tremel. They're all the same got. My buddy's texting be like, why they pitch it? And Tremel said, there's no right answer. They're all 220 hitters. Cam Smith, 220. Taylor Tremel, 220. So about Wade, 220. Somebody called, I think it was Dan this morning and said, why you pinch hit Nick Allen after hit the home run

because it's Nick Allen. I mean, it was only his fifth home run ever. He's one of your best bench hitters. Yeah. Average wise. Velasquez doesn't do anything for me. I'm sure he's a one of a human being and he's bull up by everybody. He just got here. It's just, the bench is full of OPS of 650.

And even though I was trying to sell Tremel a little bit, he said he had a terrible series. Yeah. I mean, terrible series. That's what sucks is the weekend of the trade deadline. When you made the trade for Varshow, all those other guys had a nice week. Like Tramel had a nice weekend.

Lamont Wade had a nice weekend. You're like, oh, okay, well, maybe we're figuring some out here. And then they all went back to sucking. And you got nothing out of any of your outfielders. Yeah, God, I mean, this lineup is littered with, again, 725 OPS, which is slugging plus on base, is about average. If you're about 750, 775, it's pretty good. 800 puts you in a really good territory. And then above that, you're in a little bit.

elite, i.e. Yordon Alvarez's OPS is a thousand fifty-four. Jeremy Payne, even though he slid a lot the last couple weeks, his OPS is 820. So you've got two really elite hitters. Perides is at 775. So he's been able to be above the norm. But everybody else is, Al-Tuve is down significantly. Cam Smith is under 700 has been that way. Dalton Varsho's been 650. At least Al-Tuve and Cam Smith have picked it up lately. Yeah. Christian Walker, it's home on Friday. But I don't know. other than that, not a whole lot there. Nothing yesterday.

Yeah. Three strikeouts. And you know what? He did this again yesterday for like the second time. He swings so hard, he falls down and hurts himself. Yeah. And how many times he falls behind O2 and then he has to take that time out? We're all going to reset myself.

Well, that doesn't help. Maybe you just stay in the box. Well, I told Cameron and his son and his friend who was with us at the game last and I said, Joe goes out there to take a look at him. You've got to pull him because there was no chance he was. getting hit. The next pitch you took, he swung and missed. I know it's hard to replace somebody in a mincown and you have to burn on pinch hit or whatever, but

that was not going to happen. So it's, I don't know why, and I know our friend Dan Matthews, who's listening probably right now in the morning show here, is very impassioned about somebody's got to step up, somebody's got to hit the ball over the fence, somebody's got to do this, some, I know, I know who can do it. I know that Paredes can do it a lot.

I can know it. Ordon Alberts is doing it almost every single night. And Jeremy Paineer, except for the last couple of weeks, has been doing it quite a bit. There's not a lot of guys that I think can do it. Christian Walker, maybe a little bit, but he's regressed a little bit. Wade, I don't have any faith in.

Diaz, Alan, Varsho. You know how I feel about Jose Al-Tube? That's not Mr. Clutch these days, although he got a hit in late in the game that should have been a hit, but thank you Seattle defense for botching that. Yeah. This is a team.

that's got, and again, base off a nine, meaning each one's 11%. 55% of the offense is Gordy, well below average, well below average. And that's what sucks is that... It has been. If Pena and Alvarez are your two straw stirring the drink, like I said, Paredes has been a little bit better lately. Altuvae's been hitting a little bit better lately. Yeah. But it's the whole bottom that from Varsh... Last night, Varsho, Walker, nothing.

Lamont Wade had a dinky hit. Garner Diaz had a hit Nick Allen had a hit But I mean it's like it's that bottom of the or it's like My friend was telling me last night He goes God is awful it's atrocious And he goes

Remember a few years ago where they had Brantley Springer Tucker Well you were trying to find spot for Brantley to play I know but it was like It's like you had those three guys All around 300 hitters In your lineup and now You got a bunch of 220 outfielders

That Dana Brown keeps going to the Walmart bargain bin going, hey, let me go for, oh, and Nelson Velasquez. Oh, he's still got a little something left in. And let me throw him out there. It's just, it's all trash. Lamont Wade would not be playing on any other big league team right now. Taylor Tramel wouldn't be playing on any other big league team right now. It's just you, you literally got all scrap heap guys in the outfield.

Camp Smith's the only one that's promising. He was a top prospect, but he's not big right. You got Joy Lo Perfito and Jake Myers at AAA. Yeah, that's the, those two guys, you made that you got rid of Jacob Melton, who was consider one of your top outfield prospects to bring back low perfido, low profito should be here. And honestly, I mean, like, is it too much to ask for him to be a 260 hitter and be giving you something to the outfield? Whoever is carving up, not carving up, creating the roster for next year or the year after, depending on we get baseball, whether it's Dana or somebody else, I mean, if it ain't about the outfield, then I don't know what it is. I mean, they tried for a boatload of pitchers this year. It didn't work out.

That outfield has got to be addressed. And my guess is it might be addressed if you involve a certain shortstop who's going to be going to his final year of his contract next year. And then who plays shortstop? Yeah, you need a shortstop too. If you trade pieces away, you create more holes for yourself. You could move paying your bet. You could move Coria back to shortstop, but that's why not in his best interest or the team's best interest.

And if I put the over under on 140 games played next year for Carlos Crea, would you take the over or the under? 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Boy, what do you about Shihadi this morning there? Gordi, what do you think? Nice? She's an all-red today.

She's got some mainly features, though. Explain. Her eyes are, like, too dark. Jonathan, please note this. Insults the goddess known as Shihadi and insults every Seattle Mariner female fan. That's true.

All right. I'm going to go, I'm going to Google images right now. 1030 on Sports Talk, 790. Come in and join us if you'd like. 713, 212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. 10-35 is the time. Jonathan's to tell the truth.

Come up in 55 minutes. I'm so anxious. Is it three truths or three lies? Can't tell you. What do you mean you can't tell? I've got to prep for it. Oh, come on. He's a written yet.

It's written. No, trust me. I want Matt to lose. So bad. Damn. I thought you said with Ross being gone. Why don't you want me to win? No.

By the way, we had a good time. Jonathan Ross and I went to a bakery on Friday to pay off on the bed. I should have got you in the video and I apologize for that. That's an early I'm sorry. Everyone's like, where's Jonathan? I was like, you know what? I goofed up because I was not ready to shoot the video of it. And then it's gone semi-biral with him enjoying his croissant.

Even though I think you and I are still going to be right about this, we're going to find out about Joe Mixin eventually. It's just going to be a matter of time. Imagine if we don't find out. I was going to join you guys, but I'd forgotten about it, and I'd just gotten home, and so I didn't want to turn back around and go out there. We've invited Gordy to two different things, a lunch and a coffee and croissant, and he's rejected us on both times.

He came to the lunch, right? I came to the lunch. Didn't we have a lunch earlier this week or something? The one where the guy had to come to our table, cook what's that called oh the cream barbecue yeah yeah all right well i just want you know gordon's always invited and you and jonathan don't have to pay ever unless things get certainly around here but amina at three o'clock on a friday i mean come on yeah you are you're already in full weekend mode but that's like everybody who my wife has she'll have like calls with her work at like four o'clock

on a friday i'm like who scheduled this who their right mind scheduled this four and five o'clock on a friday the weekend has started you know what shot to my a cardiologist just Dr. Agarwal, he sees patients at 4 o'clock on Friday afternoons. Because you know what the heart always needs to be working. He's not a doctor to the males a day. I bet you're not getting the most attentive service. They love me in there. I don't go very often, but when I go, I feel better.

He glances at the char and goes, ah, you look good. All right, see you. Oh, so you tell me he's giving me bad information. Yes. That's terrible to say. Dr. Agargo, don't listen to him. And so let's talk about who you pissed off today. Seattle Mariner female fans, my cardiologist, who was the other one last segment?

Oh, Shihadi fans and Shihadi. You'd insult the Lauren Shihadi. Does she use a full-on razor for those eyebrows? Goodness gracious. It's like a forest up there. Good God. Oh, that's horrible. That's exactly right.

Oh, we got some Wex video. He's out of Texans practice. And then going on, good? Looks like they're in the stadium. Oh, because you know they're going to have their practice tomorrow with the Raiders. And then they're off Wednesday, and then they'll play Thursday against Las Vegas. Odds, we have a scrap tomorrow.

Does Will Anderson, Jr. get into it with somebody? Oh, it's Keelan Rutledge is the favorite. He wants to just fight with anybody. They still Max Crosby? Is he over there? Absolutely, they do. Yeah, there's going to be a scrap. There's always a scrap.

Here's an unpopular take, and I brought this up a minute ago, last week. I mean, I like Keelan. Everybody loves when Keelan Rutledge is getting sideways with people. I don't think rookie should be doing that. I think he should be learning the center position because if he runs into Max Crosby, he wants to throw hands, Max Crosby's going to kick his ass.

And so is Will Anderson. Will Anderson probably held incredible restraint. I mean, fiery is one thing. But Pocke to Bear is another thing. And I'm not messing with Will Anderson. I'm not messing with the Dinell Hunter. And I'm not messing with Max Crosby. So just learn the center spot,

be the best thing that center has had since the Texans have had Chris Myers. And you know what? Throw hands in the middle of a regular season game when it's like 12 degrees outside. I'm looking at the Raiders. O' line. Colton Miller, Spencer Burford, who? Tyler Linderbaum.

Who? I'm just telling you, one of these guys is going to scrap with Will Anderson. They're going to get into it with the Texans. Or it'll be a wide receiver and a DB. Now, you know that Vegas is used to this weather, so that's not going to be an issue for them. You usually bring these teams in from the east that are in the cooler weather. They're like, oh, I can't be playing in this. I'm going to get firing hot. Vegas, like 115 degrees every day. But just that edge the Texans defense plays with, you know they're going to be talking smack.

They're going to be going during practices? Yeah, like the joint practice. Remember when the Texans used to do it? They used to always get it. Karine Jackson, we'd get into it with somebody. And then they called them toast later after that. DeAndre Hopkins got in it with somebody.

And then next week the Texans go to Charlotte to go throw hands of the Panthers in a one of those organized practices. I hate to say it. Bryce Young. Better quarterback right now? Didn't feel that way.

We're key year. You didn't want to. Several years. You didn't want to say it. You certainly weren't saying it for the first year. I mean, he ain't great, but it might be slightly better than CJ right now. All right. Our friend Easy has a name of an operation for the Matt Thomas surgery.

This makes me very, very weary. You brought this up, and this is going to be terrible. In honor of the Tommy John. Easy. Please be nice to me. Easy. Good morning to you. Well, good morning, guys.

Hey, by the way, Matt, who was your producer? on Saturday for the 10th inning chip. Josh C. Okay. I remember there was a drunk caller that called, and I guess they tied my call into that, and that wasn't me, and I was, you know, I had a good take for the game. It was great.

The surgery is going to call something with the brain because you're delusional and demented that you're Mr. Texas, and you're not, so we're going to call that the Matt Thomas surgery. So something brain related?

Yeah, yeah. And by the way, 40, I don't know what you're looking at, sir. If you're focused on Shahadi's eyebrows, then you're focused on the wrong thing because that is a hot, sexy goddess. Hot sexy goddess. Rich, rich, talented. And a hot sexy goddess. No, you don't. Hot sexy goddess who knows baseball.

It pretty much takes care of all of it. Thank you, see. And by the way, yes, sir. And by the way, Seattle fans, for some of the best that I've ever met, man, I've gone to the games with those guys,

and I've sat neck to them guys. And, you know, ladies too. But, man, they're some of the nicest, kindest people that you'll ever meet. I didn't say they weren't kind. I just said they were ugly goblins. Well, I mean, yeah.

They have good personalities, Gordon. Let them go. All right, gentlemen, you guys have a good Monday. All right, thank you. And he wants a, basically a kronachomy is, Is that what we're calling it?

A Matt Thomas surgery, a replacement of the brain? And Geo called in, he said head reduction surgery, isn't the one for Matt Thomas? Okay. We're waiting to put that in there. Seriously. Y'all are so mean to me. What is it called when they tell you?

Yeah, you're just, you're going bald so much. We're just going to shave your head. Yeah, we'll give you a Matt Thomas. Oh, so now we're going to the hair replacement. But like not getting hair plugs, just saying you're just going to go full bald head. I'm doing a Google search. to be fair to you, it's taken a wall for me to find a hot Seattle fan.

Yep. I mean, I'm finding them, but it's just, they're not like tens. I don't think they exist. They're like seven-a-halfs. Nothing wrong of seven-a-half. By the way, how do you get a weed whacker to trim her eyebrows? Pretty bad. Write this down.

You're coming in on Friday. I don't care what you're doing. You're coming in to apologize to her at 1130 on Friday. You would not say these things in front of her. She comes in. She's got no body fat. She's got delightful curves. And you're right.

And Easy's right. What are you doing looking at her eyebrows for? That's about the seventh place I'm going. I think I'm watching the OB network for the MLB inside, Matt. Yeah, seriously. I don't need any hero. Rennels here. Joshua Baez.

Uh-oh. And three homers. Here it comes. Come on, Scott. Scott, get Gordy, please, at 1042. If you're a red-blooded American and you don't think Lori Shahadi is a smoke show, and I'll keep it G-rated, I don't think you like women.

That's harsh but true. Cruve it fair, thank you. By the way, you're celebrating your anniversary. What is it today? Tomorrow. Tomorrow, eight years. I don't know what Lauren did. But congratulations to both of you.

You know, maybe you know that Lauren's listening. Maybe that's the reason why you're taking these little little jabs at Shahati. Because Shihadi, she's perfect. She's all right. She's got cave. man features. Johnson, you don't believe any of this, do you? John, and Google Lauren Shahati. She's got caveman

features. What exactly is caveman features? Like, I don't know how to describe it. Yeah, you do. You just don't want to say it. You're just, you are blind. It's almost a unibrow going. All right. Well, Brooke Shields is the greatest looking unibrow ever. Oh, you know what? I kind of see what Gore is talking about. Okay. It's kind of a bushy up there.

Excuse me? If they didn't make up her up like crazy. You know what? When she comes to Houston to broadcast a game, I'll bring her in studio, and you can talk about how you think she needs to do a little eyebrow trimming. You don't bring anybody in studio. I'm trying to.

Who's the last guess you brought in studio that wasn't a U of H employee? The I person brought to my show? That's a great question. People don't come in the studios much anymore. And he used to bring former Texans in all the time. Yeah, but the I personally brought. They were high as a kite. Stan would bring former Texas in.

They were also high as a kite. We brought in, who is my old guy, the Cleveland Indian? Oh, Omar Viscale. By way, Friday, Eddie Nunez, athletic director of University of Houston, will be in studio with us hanging out for an hour. Oh, you of H employee, all right. Well, I mean, we're in the dog days of summer here, my friend. I don't know that or not.

1050 on Sports Talk 790. The information coming out of Texanville today is limited. Jonathan M. Alexander covers the team. So we have that. And then all we got are photos from Wex. Bryce Hall, the new Texans cornerback is there. The quarterbacks are warming up. Yeah, I just...

We did get this piece from Aaron Wilson this morning. Texans receiver Jalen Knoll, dealing with hamstring and finger injuries. When the Texans activated slot-wide receiver and return man, Jalen Knoll from the non-eastern. injury footballist. He was officially cleared to practice. Noel had been sidelined because of a right pinky injury. He sustained days before training camp

while working out independently. Now, Noel, who has a protective brace on his hand, is recovering from a different injury, a strained hamstring. It is regarded as a minor setback, and the team is optimistic he should be ready for the start of the regular season.

He has missed valuable time after a promising spring, where he was developing chemistry and timing with C.J. Stroud. Third round pick of a year ago, pick number 79, out of the football factor that's known as Iowa State. We love wide receivers from Iowa State. Yeah, it's interesting that one school has been able to help the Texans out as much.

What was it? Was it Colorado State when all the, way back when maybe you first got here, was all the Texans kept picking Colorado State players over and over again? It felt like it was a bunch of tight ends. A lot of Kubiaks of some sort. Yep. All right. I mean, I can't, if we don't see him on the field,

we have no way to want, I mean, except get on the field. That's all we can do it. I mean, if injuries are injuries, it's, although we've kind of penciled him as a reason on the special team's more than anything else, correct? Well, it's funny. I'm looking at this depth chart, and this one lists him as their number three receiver. It lists Nico Collins, Jaden Higginson, Jalen, Noel,

with second string, Xavier Hutchinson and Tankdale. Now, Jared Wayne looked pretty good in the game the other night. I don't know if I would believe. believe that, yeah, I don't know if I'm going to go with Jay Leno is the third receiver on the team, right? I mean, you can't be if you're not on their playing. Yeah, it'll be interesting because I think we're talking about this the other day. I think they're going to keep five wide receivers. I think it's about what they typically keep, but I think a lot will depend on, and this may help with some decision making. They're saying Jay Lenoll should be ready for the start

of the season, but the tank Dell is the big mystery on, I mean, he's been out there. But, I mean, are we really going to go, are we going to go into week one of the season with Tankdale and Jalen Knoll having not played any preseason action? And isn't Jaylonal the punt and kick returner? He has a taste of that yet? Yep. I mean, that's how he probably cements himself on the roster is by his ability to play more than one position. Well, I think he could play. I mean, he's a decent wide receiver.

What do you have last year? He played all 17 games at 26 catches, 292 yards, two touchdowns. Okay. Yeah, it's, you know, me, he played. I'll give him that. So, no, I mean, I think just the quandary becomes, what if you start the season and Noel's not ready to go? And they say, hey, you know what, let's play a little safe with Tankdale.

You can't carry both the guys at the same time. That's how I see it. I mean, as players that make you're at 53, but you're not sure if they're ready to go in week one. Yeah. And Jared Wayne might do enough in the preseason to gain that spot. That's the... The hundred reason they do like.

He's sticking around for all these years. Both those guys this Thursday night, I will have my eyes on Hutchinson and Jared Wayne. And if they continue to play very well, should make this thing very interesting. I think Lewis Bond, the sixth rounder, is a practice squad candidate. I think Justin Watson, the guy that they got from Kansas City last year,

just a guy who probably cut him. Yep. And then it's a matter of how many receivers do you keep? Well, I'll say this to be fair to the Texans. You do have, I mean, your second best targeting threat last year was Dalton Schultz. And I'm not going to read any more into Marlon Klein's one catch over the middle of the field for a preseason game, but they like him. Now, obviously I like him enough to make him a second round pick, so they want to see something out of it. I would just say as a generalization, how do you feel that potentially your second best receiver is your starting tight end?

unless Jayden Higgins takes that leap forward, which obviously he, at least from anybody that's been to camp before and the reports have come out, here's a guy that has really stepped up his game and has looked so far really, really well in training camp. Yeah, I think that should be the goldish.

I mean, when you look at it, it was all Nico Collins last year, and then Dalton Schultz, 82 receptions. And that's great that you're using your tight-in a lot, but so much of that was dump-off, dump-off, dump-off, and it's like, and Jaden Higgins was your third leading receiver, but he had 41 catches. He had literally had, Dalton Schultz had double the receptions

of your number two wide receiver. So you've got to stretch the ball down the field more this year. There's got to be more big plays. I mean, I don't know, look, Higgins obviously came with a good pedigree being a second round pick. There's no reason why he can't take the next step forward, which obviously he has done so far in camp. So if there's anything to be encouraged about, it's that.

I just think honestly Gordy it gets a little dicey after the second receiver and that's not now But if Tankdale's healthy That that helps a lot of stuff Because we know how good he was And maybe he's a step slower Maybe not as good but

Man he had your hands Him and CJ they were on the same page Great yards after catch Yep I mean obviously CJ loves him Both on the field and off the field So there's anybody that he's rooting for hard To get back out there it's him

I just think if you can send an offense out there and you've got David Montgomery who's a competent running back back there. You got an offensive line that you believe in. You got Dalton Schultz, who's a good tight end with Foster Morrow. And you can send out Nico Collins, Jaden Higgins, and one of Xavier Hutchin, Jalen Oll, or Tankdale. Like, that's, I think you're working with something.

I think this passing game can improve this year. 1057, Gordy with us for another hour. We've got to tell the truth coming up in about 35 minutes here on sports. If you'd like to join us, come on Astro fans. I know y'all are a little wigging out today. As usually the case when the team loses, the sky's falling, life is over,

it's no fun, didn't take advantage of other teams. Well, guess what? Rangerville today, well, I'm even talking Rangers in Dallas today. No chance. It's all Cowboys. But Ranger fan didn't take advantage. The Astros losing yesterday because they lost in Oakland, or in Sacramento to the A's.

713-212. 790. 713212. 570. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 11.021 Sports Talk 790. The Astros have announced their starting pitchers for this week. And it will be the following. You ready?

Tomorrow night. George Claussen will throw today for the Angels, one in one with an earning a 552. Christian Javier, back on the bump at one in three with a 668 ERA. Is that official? Yes. Wednesday, TBA. Oh, come on.

What are we doing? That's your boy. Ethan Pecco is going to be probably that one, right? Why are we dragging our feet on this? Maybe they want to keep things secretive. I don't know. Walter, Walbert Urina will throw for the halos 8-8-267 as the R.A. Peter Lambert will throw Thursday, 8 and 6 with an ERA.

a 3.1-1 opposite Grayson Rodriguez, 3-5-7.17. Can I ask you because you did the pregame show and I just took calls and you even watched it closer than I did? I was being a Joe fan at the ballpark yesterday. I miss my Hunter Brown. You know, the Hunter Brown. I mean, I see one and he, you know, he went okay yesterday. But five walks, elevated pitch count. That's not great.

Yeah, control was just not there. And that was frustrating. Was that the third inning when it was, he just kept walking guys? It was like, dude, what are you doing? I mean, five innings for him, and he threw 90 pitches. Yeah, Rodden, Rodden walked, Donovan walked to lead off the third.

He got Rosarena grounded out in a fielder's choice. And then Yiner Diaz threw out Rosarena at second, trying to steal second. So he helped you out there. then Canzon had a RBI single and then you struck out Hulio Roder, I guess. But yeah, it's, he's been, I described a lot of the post game. Hunter Brown's been okay. It's been fine.

He hasn't been bad, but he hasn't been Sigh-Young Hunter Brown. He's had one dominant performance since he's his return. It's the white sucks. Yeah. So that's another part of this too. But again, at the end of the day, you're pitching stuff held in the three runs. in this day and age in Major League Baseball, you've got to score more than that to win.

I mean, like four runs or more gets you a win. Even though Hunter Brown was not lights out last night, he would five innings give up two runs. Like that's, that's, he gave you a chance to win. Yeah. And you didn't win. Yeah. Walking elevates, pitch counts,

does not enforce you to go to your bullpen probably a little bit sooner than you want to, is in the case yesterday. But the game was close. Pecco, by the way, was scheduled to start yesterday in Sugarland. They scratched him. So the writing's on the wall that they, and Dana Browns mentioned his name several times over the last month about being a candidate to come up. But here's my thing.

Have you seen what he's been doing in Sugar Land? I don't want to know, because you've already prefaced it with a terrible precursor. August 2nd against Salt Lake, five in the third innings, three runs. Now, he did have nine strikeouts in that game. So the swing and mess of a gun. In Sugarland or in Salt Lake City? That was in Sugarland. Okay.

And then his last outing August 9th in Albuquerque, four innings, three runs off six hits, five walks, three strikeouts. It's not exactly like he's tearing it up down in the AAA. Oh, I would assume, having never seen Ethan Pecco ever pitch before, live in person, that this is just, let's throw the next guy out there. I mean, the reality is this. Mike Burroughs is going to get one more shot at this. Yeah, and he looked good Friday night from all accounts. They said he looked good. Next man up, because the reality is, Renal Blanco looks overmatched.

Christian Javier is probably starting to keep his spot in the rotation. What do you do with Amai? The outing the other night was three scoreless innings, but they were very shaky. I think that's what they're weighing right now. I think that's why they have not officially announced Ethan Pecco as the Wednesday starter. It's because they're going, Angels are one of the suckiest teams in baseball. Is this when we bring Amai back and say, hey, you're going to get the start on Wednesday?

Yeah, there's no requirement that Ethan Pecco gets called up. Now, can they contemplate it? Yes. Have they in the back of their mind have an option? Yeah. The question then becomes, if you insert EMI back into an important role for this baseball team, do you go with the starter that you did like you did with Brian King in that Giants game, having known that that also burns your bullpen?

I mean, I'm telling you, and I may be the only one thinking this, I'm probably not. God love this bullpen, but it's going to crack eventually. It's going, you know, Josh Hader's ERA is 0.90. He's going to give up some runs. He's going to have a bad performance. A brayu yesterday. bounce back from the disappointing performance he had the one before, but it wasn't a clean inning.

Ocurt is going to be human. Benesusa, we proved to be human yesterday, giving up the home run. Oh, AJ Blueball. I mean, Gordy, these guys just are being used so much. And that's why the Hunter Brown conversation to me is so disappointing because yesterday could have been a day where you really could have used a six or a seven-inning performance to not put so much stress on this very stressful bullpen. What will be interesting is I wonder if they're waiting to see,

because what if Javier struggles tomorrow? You got to go to the bullpen. I guess you can go to Blue Ball. He can be your extended guy. Everybody's healthy. I mean, you can go because you got a day off. So I guess there are some people that can be available for you now. Or maybe that's where they said we could use a Mai there,

and then a Mai doesn't start Wednesday, and we give that to Ethan Pecco. But this is what sucks. It's just it's somebody between the, saw yesterday. Like, what is it? Why have they not had any success with any, across the league, the last 10 years, we've seen guys have Tommy John surgery, and all the guys come back

and they are even better. They're even stronger when they come back from Tommy John. It feels like all the Astros guys who had Tommy John the last five years, none of them come back. I will say this. Burlander, I think, was the only one. I will say this. They're coming in the middle of the season. I would say, let's hold off that conversation, which you just said until the end of the next season.

But Lance McCullors? But Lance is a multiple injury guy. Luis Garcia was not. the same. Multiple injury. What was the other one? Orkidi was not the same. I mean, Wosneski is back. He's been fine. But I mean, I think it's fair, to be fair to those guys, I think we need to look at a full season before we start making out whether or not the Tommy Johns or the elbow surgeries are hurting the Astros. Do you feel good about Ronel Blanco next season? You feel good about Javier next season? No, no, I don't know if I feel great about any of them long term,

but I think we, in order to judge their careers, I think it's jumping in the middle of the season probably isn't the fair thing to do, but they're needed. They're needed because EMI has struggled. Ryan Weiss never was able to pan out. Burroughs has been terrible. McCullors didn't come back. I mean, they were not necessarily forced into it, but think about this.

When you are, if you're coming in after being gone for a year and a half or a year of a major surgery gordony and you're in the middle of a pennant race in July, I would think you're fresh. You're chopping at the bit. Yeah, fresh is one thing. had nice outings in the minors. Like Javier looked good

in the minors. Yeah, but you know as well as I do the difference between the AAA and Major League Baseball. That's nuts. So you're going to bring Ethan Pecco up who can't pitch well in AAA? No, I think they're trying to find, they're trying, I've said this term about 500 times in the last week and I'm apologizing for it. I'm trying to catch lightning in a

bottle. They've been doing this with the outfield, right? No, they're the pitching staff. I prefer the term grasping at straws. Okay. Tomato, tomato, whatever. 713-212-5-7-90 if you'd like to join us. 7-13-21-2-5-7-90. Scott is with us on 7-90.

Scott, good morning to you. What's going on, guys? Man, what a frustrating end to the series. Friday was the best I felt after a win all season. God, that was unbelievable. And, you know, now looking back on it, if we hadn't had that miraculous comeback, we would have been swept by the Mariners once again.

I mean, every time we watch them play against us, it makes absolutely no sense why they don't have as good of a record as why their record is as poor as it is because they look like a 100-win ball club every time we play them. I mean, when you look at it, player to player, they do, you know, I think our top end of talent is just as good as theirs, but they are so much deeper of a ball club than we are. I mean, the one at bat that, listen,

I know you can't ever guarantee the guy is going to get a hit, but the bat that obviously killed us was, was Varsho striking out there in the eighth on the righty on lefty matchup against the Mingez with a 4-5 ERA to strike out in that spot is just very disappointing especially with him being our deadline acquisition but yeah the Mariners I mean they just

come to play against us I don't know they do not look like a bad team when they play us every single game and it's really disheartening and frustrating but I mean we're still we're still in first but boy do I really don't like those guys they just kick her butt. Exactly. With the 2-09 record, I get that.

Thank you, Scott, for the phone call. I mean, they can, look, the Astros still are four better than them. The Astros are still better than two games better than Texas. So when in doubt, root for the opponent. Go Brewers this week. But you look at who the Astros, and that's why I think this homestown is pivotal. I think at minimum, you need two out of three against Angels,

two out of three against the A's. because you got to go play the Yankees with three up in Yankee Stadium. I know the Mets aren't good, but still you're going on the road up there. You got to play four against the White Sox who have been really good. You got to play three against the Phillies in their house. Never easy to go up there. You got to play three in Tampa, who's like the best team in baseball, not named the Dodgers.

And then you get three against the Braves, who are a very good team. And then you finish with two in Seattle and four against the A's in Sacramento. and I'm just telling you, Matt, when we get to September 22nd, September 23rd, and the Astros have to go play that quick two-gamer in Seattle, what if this division is still only one or, let's say the Astros are one back of the Rangers and tied with the Mariners?

Can you even fathom that of them having to go in the Seattle and go, we have to win these two there against them? It's just, it's... Well, put this way, if they don't go up there and win, even if they win the division, and it's not going to brood a lot of confidence for this team to do something compost season-wise. Yeah, at least it's a two-gamer.

So as long as you split, it's no harm, no foul. You don't get any ground, but they don't get any ground on you. But then those four out in Sacramento and that stupid little stadium out there, like, as much as you want to say, this team is way better than the A's, I mean, they just, they, this team has just not played well in that stadium for some reason. By the way, the A's beat the Rangers yesterday. It was their first home season. series win since April.

So it may be stupid. It may be a little, maybe a little bit of a hotbox, but the reality is most teams go there and win except Texas. We've been doing this all year, friends. We just have. We have dealt with mediocrity

in this division. Remember, the Mariners can't hit. You have Cal Raleigh having one of the biggest OPS drops in the history of Major League Baseball. That's how mad it is. 713-212-5-7-90.

By the way, go Brewers. 640 first pitch with the Mariners and Brewers in Milwaukee tonight. Stana and David will get to you. 1114 is a time to tell the truth. Jonathan Allen-style. Bottom of the hour here on Sports Talk 790. The joint chiropractic are the official chiropractors of the University of Houston. And they bring us our first Cougar update of the season.

Cougars come in in the Associated Press poll at Number 23, baby. Let's go. Let's go, Cougars. Beat that Oregon State. Beat that Southern. Then go to Texas Tech. No giggling to loud.

You turn your microphone off. I'm not done. Okay. Then you go to Texas Tech and win. Then you go to Georgia Southern. And you are one and all in the conference. You are undefeated in September. And you are rolling.

That's what I'm telling you. I will say it's not the sexiest of schedule. However, that means there's a lot of dubs on that schedule. So Willie Furtz. Two great quarterbacks. Go 10 and 2. Let's go. You be in the playoff conversation?

Yes, conversation. We're going to be like leading the conversation. We're in the front of the room. I think 11 and 1 they're in. I think 10 and 2, do you have to win the big, you probably have to win the big 12th title game to do that to get in. You know, I don't know. I mean, I would like to be able to say just getting to the big.

12th championship game would be enough, but we don't know. 14. By the way, they're the fourth ranked Big 12th team. Texas Tech coming at 12. Bye. BYUu at 14. Overrated. Utah at 21. Not going to happen.

U of H. 23. And that update on the Cougars brought to you by our friends of the Joint Chiropractic. We got Houston's and H-town's back. The Joint Chiropractic, the official chiropractor of University of Houston Athletics. They do have to play at Tech and at Utah. Yeah, that's fine. you're going to go back to your old stomper grounds?

I am not. Rockets of a game then. But I am going to the tech, so I'm excited about that. And to Georgia and Southern. I'm going to knock off another stadium in my... I don't even know what Georgia Southern Stadium. Stadium's like. It's in Staysboro, Georgia. Yeah, I would say it is probably high school-like.

That feels rude. I will tell you right now, I would venture to guess Katie Stadium is better than that is Georgia Southern. Look at you giving the Katie some shine. I like that. By the way, where's LSU and the top 25? I think 11. Did that schedule you have?

Who's your most difficult non-conference? I mean, we get Clemson at home, Texas at home. Nice. Bam at home. And then your non-conference besides A&M at home, at Ole Miss.

What else you got on the non-conference? Well, Clemson is better than any of U of H's non-Colferts games. I'm simply asking you a question. It's like Louisiana Tech and somebody else. But that's your two run-of-wins. At least we didn't schedule three run-of-wins like Indiana did. Indiana, the reigning national champs, open their season with, I think, North Texas, Howard, and Western Kentucky.

Really testing yourself, champs, really going out to all of them to really try to test yourself. So, the, as you guys know, ESPN has the SEC. Everything on ABC ESPN is going to be SEC. see the Big Ten's primary partner is Fox and they always do that big Fox noon Sunday game which is 11 o'clock hour time our friend Joel Clott used still does the games it doesn't do anything with us anymore but that's

under here nor there he's very big 10 propaganda too do you see their first Big Ten game of the year is north Texas Indiana is it really? Meanwhile ESPN you know Kirk Herb Streets at the is it Clums and LSU and LSU And Gus Johnson and Joel Cloud are doing North Texas, Indiana.

I will say the SEC, though, is not very sexy week one. It's Cupcake City for just about everybody. Baylor and Auburn play. They're playing in Atlanta, by the way. That's an NIL deal. Auburn's players, that's supposed to be an Auburn home game because they played in Waco last year. Chick-fil-A-Bull paid their players NIO money to move the game to Atlanta. Zero surprise.

So you got Baylor, Auburn, you got LSU Clemson, which is the pre-fil-Ablebleau. Premier game, college game days going to it. And then that Sunday night, we get Louisville Ole Miss, which should be interesting, in Nashville. So. But those, and then week two, we get the two big premier games of SEC Big Ten. We get Oklahoma at Michigan. Yep. And we get Ohio State of Texas.

All right. Let's go to Stunna on 7-0. Stunay. What are you got today? What's up, man? What's up, Chris? I really wasn't happy with the Mestros last night, but they didn't. run my 10-game

hell west streak that I thought would have came up but I think Seattle's making them they hold right now man because every time we face Seattle no matter where we play them at they're like hey

Seattle is the big brother we're the little brother hey and I think it's going to have to make these guys hold their nuts a little bit on Seattle Hold on. Hold on, hold a, hold a, hold a whole, stunta. You called

the Astros, Seattle's hose. Is that correct? Is that right? Yeah. No, no, no, no. I'm calling, yeah, yeah, the Seattle is punking us right now. All right, and then you talked about Joe a spot of holding people's testicles.

I mean, you know, just saying, he needs to hold a nuts on Seattle They talk some crap to them, you know. Stop acting like they just running crap. Because every time we face Seattle, it looks like, oh, we ain't supposed to go but one run while they ain't scored two. I mean, and they always are going to school first.

Hey, we got bases loaded. We never come out of that. Every time I see bases loaded, I know it's going to be three hours next. It's just that. they got a man up everybody i mean so everybody walking i can't see him go three strikes and look like oh hey i just had a tosy pop stana you in rare form today my friend thank god love you i love you for that thank you stunner i'm not gonna i'm gonna let you all just interpret with stunted's calls we're all there tootsie pop hose and he said going nuts i think is what he said

Before we get to tell the truth, David in Las Vegas, quickly on 7-90. David, what do you got today? Hey there, Gordy. By the way, I did listen. Unlike the family, Thomas, I did listen to you on the college show. There you go. See, you guys. Somebody listened to you, Gordy.

I just didn't call in because I was a little depressed with my weekend as an Astros fan, so I didn't have much to say. And I will say one thing about it right now. This is why I called, but just I'll toss aside, and I'm not going to hang up after I thought of you. I'm thinking that bullpen's stuff. starts are actually not the worst thing for this team. I mean, I have a fair number of faith in some of these middle reliefs.

I don't have much relief in the starters past three. So when I see bullpen start, I actually don't know how long, but that's just, that's just a baseball thought. I actually called to say something about the Texans, which depressed me also. I follow a handicapper named Mark Lawrence, and he does up, actually, one of a few guys I actually pay for his stuff, and he sends out an annual guy at the beginning of the year. and I just got it, and I saw the number 32 in a place where you just don't want to see it. And that was offensive line rankings.

That's where he has the Texans. I think we've all been kind of operating under the assumption that, you know, between all the draft picks and recent years and a couple off-season moves and so on, it was going to be better around here. Maybe not great. Maybe not even up to average. But, you know, third quartile or something decent to give us a chance. Some improvement.

But I'm staring right at that number. at least one handicapper that still has us ranked dead FN last. Yeah. I just throw this out for your discussion. Yeah, I don't particularly care what a handicapper. Thank you for the phone call. There's 9 million handicappers. I can find somebody that's going to, quote unquote, handicapped that can tell me that Texas

are going to have the 17th best offensive line. No, I have absolutely no comment on it whatsoever. I don't even care of preces and rankings. I don't care about rankings. You know that, Gordy. I don't care about rankings. I care about watching the games in September that means something. Wouldn't most Texans fans out there if you've polled them,

say you feel better about this O-Line than you did last year's? I don't think we can poll. There's no need to pull it about it. Cieland Rutledge is an upgrade. White Teller is an upgrade. Braden Smith is an upgrade. Yeah. Ed Ingram was good.

He's back. And Aonti Ursri is another year older. Yeah. In theory, simple deduction says you got rid of the below-average players and replaced them with guys that have had some. success now. And then you have depth in another year mature Blake Fisher, Evan Brown. Can Braden Smith say healthy?

Jake Andrews is a good backup center. And Way Woo, the second round fourth rounder from Oklahoma. I mean like Jared Patterson still, you've got depth. So like I would say hands down, this old line is better on paper than last year's. Now we'll see it

in action. Yeah, got to see it in action. But in theory, Nick Assyrio did try again to improve the offensive line. We also said this to comp over to baseball, Gordy. Dana Brown went and got a bunch of pitchers. So his pitching staff was going to be better this year than it was last year. And didn't turn out that way.

They had a bunch of guys. That was, that was, Jonathan, give me credit for that. That was a comp. It's pretty good. It wasn't bad. Thank you. Maybe I'm missing my best work is when Ross isn't here. Maybe he puts too much pressure on these analogies I try to make.

Just saying. They've missed a lot, though. Like, it's hard to. Like I would have bet on I would have bet on one of Mike Burroughs being really good or Tutsu you and I being really good Not both sucking or Ryan Weiss Who they gave him starting money

Yeah Oof All right so just for all of you listening when it comes to handicapping Offensive lines let's Why don't we use our own eyes Does is CJ Straw going to be up right this year Is he got time to throw

He's going to have time to Check down and maybe find second And third guys read through his progressions then the offensive long will be better. But I'm not going to use a handicapper. Do you think that a handicapper spent hours and hours and hours and hours breaking this down? No, he spent five minutes. You've got to put some on his publication. And you actually have a legit running back, too. You didn't have one last year. No. All right. Here we go. But Jonathan, I have a question for you. Do you know how to tell the truth? Of course. Of course I do. All right, so when you started, do you start thinking about this yesterday or this morning when you woke up?

Yesterday I was writing, playing a volleyball, watching my girl play, and I was, you know, let me. Oh, I like this. Okay. So those of you don't know, every Monday at 1130, we played to tell the truth. Whether we tell three lies or three truths, and you got to figure out which one of the truths or which one of the lies. I usually am the one that comes up with the sports takes. Ross is off this week. I got to handle Believe it or not all week long. handle missing you at 130 so i thought you know what we're going to see if jonathan can break the

ice and become the first time ever host of to tell the truth the floor is yours all right so we're going to go with three truths and one lie three truths and one lie i have to detect detect the lie all right the lie okay so my first take it's about tatsuya e my i've been wishy-washy about him all season and then last week with the giants i saw that nasty what inside curve or slider that was? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I can't to the conclusion. He just needs one more year. He's not a bust. I really think he just needs one more year to settle in.

And he's an astro's guy. I really believe that. So you are not projecting an overall bus for EMI. No. All right, that's take number one. Not a bus. I'm writing this down. Okay, make sure you get it. All right. Go ahead. Number two, Texans should and should be seen as Super Bowl contenders. All CJ Australia has to do, is be somewhat average. Defense stayed the same.

Offense line upgraded. Wide receiver room was sharpening the iron. They should be seen as a threat the entire season long no matter what happens. It's going to take two. Okay. It's coming from a Charger fan, by the way. So I'm a little leery already.

I keep credit with credits, dude. I know you do. That's fair. I'm a more realistic Chargers fan now. Come on. That's fair. All right. Take three.

Phillies will be the front runner. I'm sorry, I said Phillies. 76ers, this is NBA, 76ers will be the front rudder for the league. I'm sorry, you got Embed, you got Maxie, you got Brown who's already won a championship, and then you add LeBron with the depth they have. The West is so deep,

you don't know what they're going to beat up on each other. The East is clear. I think the Knicks are just a one year thing. 76 has got it all. No doubt in my mind. Are you saying when the East are the whole championship Are you ready to put anything on it or what? They should be the frontrunner, the highest.

NBA frontrunner, okay. NBA frontrunner. The whole season. Okay. All right. Well, this is, huh, man. Okay. In your fourth take.

Astros won't ever get back to the back to 2017, 2022. They won't ever get back unless they revamped. They have to do something drastic. After this weekend, I kind of threw my hands up. And I was just like, there's got to be. be something. I don't know if it's got to be changes in the staff again or we do some trades that

it might be weird for conservative astrophans that don't want to get rid of people or put people down, but something's got to give up. All right, so here we go. So you said, Emi, you're not projecting as a bust. Just needs one more year.

It's not a bust. You have the Texas the Super Bowl contenders. Should be seen as that, yes. NBA frontrunners, the 76ers, i.e. contenders. And you believe the Astros need a drastic change to get back to where they were. They won't ever get back if they have to revamp. They have to do something. What lie is being detected?

Hmm. Three truths and one line. All right, Gordy, you and I will mull this over. We can make our own individual decisions. I do believe he believes the Astros need drastic change. Because, I mean, they're going to probably make the playoffs, maybe not even win 85 games, so I could see them saying drastic change. Jalen Brown, LeBron James, Maxie, Embed.

I could see him thinking the Sixers are our frontrunners. I love that he's giving us the poker face right out too. I'm not even looking at you. I was looking for a tell on the camera. I'm not even looking at him. Last night I was like, I got a fool y'all. There's no way. This is my one and only chance.

No, we'll give you some other shots. But I'm going to go with Gordy. I think he is lying to us. I think he thinks EMI is going to be a bust. That's what I think he's lying. I think that one is a little bit more believable. I think the Texans, the Super Bowl contenders, believable.

I think he maybe just think the Astros could use a rebuild. I think the Sixers, just because they added old-ass LeBron. Wait a minute. They didn't not just old-ass LeBron. They added younger-ass Jalen Brown. The favorite to win the NBA finals, you got the Thunder, you got the Spurs, you got the Spurs, You've got the Celtics, the Nuggets, the Knicks.

Well, the reason why I could go with you on that is because and B's always hurt. I already told you I don't think LeBron's playing 60 games of the 76ers. I think it's not a part-time deal, but he's going to take more days off. I'm going with the Sixers take. Okay, I would... I'm going to stay with it, but I could see why you said it. So I'm going to go with Emi.

I think you are projecting as a bust. Gordy thinks your line about the Sixers. being front runners. So let's deduce this thing going. The floor is yours, my friend. What do you believe at this point? All right. I really do believe the Texans are a Super Bowl contenders.

You guys are that. They should be seen as that. There's no way. Okay. There's no way they don't see a Super Bowl contenders. Okay. My next take, Astro's got a revamp. They've got to do something.

All right. I threw my hands up this weekend. I was actually really upset. As a lot of Astro fans did, that's for sure. One of us is correct. One of us is correct. So yes, when y'all did get it. A little drum roll.

I'm sorry, Matt. Emae just needs one more year, man. I was like, there's no, he's these time because that's nuts. I've never seen anything like that. Like, that pitch is crazy. Yeah, but the problem is he walks guys and throws 50 pitches in their first inning. I'm telling you, I was like, no, we got to get this guy one more chance because that's correct. No one has that in the arsenal.

And he gets that straight, gets a little comfort in the American dirt. He's got that all day. So Chris Gordy is correct I don't think So why don't you think the sixers are contenders? For the main reason Mb's always hurt Dude the West is still

Regardless Even if it's Houston Wolves Nuggets They're not beating these guys And Sixers are That's like a video game team Like that they're going to be fun to play with On NBA 2K

But when it comes to actually Winning games and staying healthy Come on I would be genuinely surprised They actually even went to the Conference final, honestly. Huh. I almost got you out there, but you know, Gordy's smart.

Good for you, Gordy. I'm happy for you. I get Paul Ross. That's just a terrible, terrible take, Jonathan. I don't remember what you're thinking about. They're so talented. He just needs one more year, Matt. Hey, you did a good.

I'm very happy for you. This was not a piece of cake. But I'm going to hold you to the EMI not being a bus. And honestly, I hope you're right. Because if he's a bus, that's a lot of money that Jim Crane and Diken spend on a guy that's just not very good. that talent though there's no way

he's got it he just needs maybe it's the mental thing he just needs one more year let me ask you somebody just sweet Astros will not get back without a change in ownership why did why are people so anti Jim Crane because

Gordon I'm gonna peel the curtain back everybody hates the owner everybody hates the general manager and everybody hates the manager and I want what I mean by everybody I mean everybody yeah I just like at least he's given at least every year since he's been here

they have they've spent money. They've done things to try to say we want to be a good team this year. It's not like these teams selling off everybody. You have not had a quote-unquote phenom with the exception of Yordon. And Yoron you got because you bought out arbitration years. What I think that particular person that may have tweeted you, and I don't know what it is, is saying that when a guy is on the precipice on the cusp of free agency, you don't let him go. and every single time

Cole, Springer, Correa, Tucker, Tucker, but you traded Tucker, so that was even different, that you did not put the money. I'm going to tell you all something. L.A. is flipping the F out over Kyle Tucker's contract. Isn't that exhibit A on why not to do those deals? Come on.

Jim Crane's philosophy, whether you agree with or not, is fairly compensate on shorter term deals. Yeah. I think there's nothing wrong with that. People yell cheap and all this. I yell, no, 12-year deals are bogus. Stop buying the Scott Boris dumb-ass deals. Yeah.

That's one group of players. Now, again, to be fair, if you go get Scott Boris, that's what you hire him for. And if the Astros don't do it and Scott Boris wants it, that's why Scott Boris clients don't go. and stay here long term, except for Altuve. Oh, Brigman, we forgot about Brighman, too. And how are all those guys doing, Matt?

You'll find out today at 1.30 in this week's edition of missing you. Although we can tell you that Kyle Tucker, I believe when hitless on the homestand. Over 19. And was benched and had an error yesterday. It was yesterday the day before that people were losing their mind over. Yeah, Kyle Tucker is, you know what he is. He's missing Houston is what he is. Slowly walking over to a fly ball while you chew your gum and you.

miss the ball, not going to buy fan support. I'm just telling you, he, I was mentioning this to my son. We were walking on the ballpark yesterday. Preston Tucker, his brother, older brother, right? Gordy, he loved baseball. Yes. He just wasn't as good as his brother. Right.

Kyle Tucker doesn't love baseball. He likes it. Doesn't love it. Preston played his ass off. Tried to, but was just limited with his abilities. I think Kyle just kind of rides on natural ability, and he's very naturally gifted. but where's the give a damn attitude? Even as an aster, he didn't have a lot of it, honestly.

1146, Sports Talk, 790. I did not tell Gordy we were doing this because sometimes the best radio is the organic radio. We don't prep out every one of our segments of the show. Only geeky radio people that eventually lose their jobs do that. All right, Gordy, I need a ruling for me, my friend. I saw this for the first time in person at a baby. baseball game. I've seen it at a college football game this year. I even tweeted about it during

the game last night. There were a section of bros, and Jonathan, you're going to get involved in this as well. There were a section of bros up in the upper deck that were taking their shirts off and waving them over and over and over and over again, trying to rally the Astros. My simple question to both of you. T-shirt guy taking him off, bare-chested, rally towels using t-shirts. We like it or we don't like it. Need a rolling, please. Now, to be fair, the first time I ever saw it

was when University of Houston went to Oklahoma State to play the Cowboys in Stillwater, and we beat that ass for three and a half hours and them taking a shirt off, it didn't matter. Yeah, this used to be reserved for those games, like a football game that had a four-hour rain delay, and then they come back out, and it's just these nut jobs that have been drinking all during the break,

and they're taking their shirts off. and you're soaking wet and you're just waving your shirt around. Like that's normally where this all started. Yep. But the movement, Matt, they call it tarps off. You know, like a tarp on your... See, I didn't even know that. I'm glad I didn't know there was a formal term of it.

It's called tarps. Fans going tarps off. I'm not a fan. I don't think that belongs in professional sports. I think that's more for like a Thursday night soccer game in college and the fans are trying to get rowdy. Yeah, tarps off. Let's go.

But in professional sports, no. My thought is, they're not doing this because they generally think it's going to help the team win. They're doing it because they want somebody to take a picture like I did. Or the video cameras on NBC Sunday night baseball has those broski's up in the right field doing it. Yeah, I think it's kind of corny because they're trying to force. Like what happened at OSU was like, that was funny. Like, you know, they were just sitting out there and still water well. Yeah, it was hot as hell too.

I give them credit for doing it. I mean, geez. So I agree with Gory. It's doing a little too much. Now, the one I do like they do at pro games, college games, whatever, is when you buy so many beers and you start stacking the cups and you see how high you can stack the cups. Without them dropping.

Yeah. And they make a big snake out of the cups. I like that movement. I just believe. Jim Crane likes that movement, too. Yeah, no kidding. I'm not a fat shamer, but I do believe if you take your shirt off, we don't need rolls of fat being seen.

I do believe there's got to be like a, you know, you can pinch an inch. If you pinch more than an inch, you can't take your shirt off. Yeah, but how many Ryan Goslings are hanging out in the upper deck? That's why you shouldn't do it. Okay. Now, that would go viral. If you have man breast or as the kids say movies, you don't need to be doing it. Do you know who's sitting in the upper deck, though?

I mean... They're young bros. And honestly, Even the ones with no body fat are probably pale as can be. So you're actually helping me out here. What redeeming value is there? Flabby or thin, pasty white dudes? Yeah, I think it's just people trying to get on the Jumbotron,

trying to get on TV or something, trying to make a viral moment. And I don't get it. And I'm not trying to go to the race card here, but I don't see black guys doing this ever. Why is it we whites that do it all the time? You tell us. You're the source. I don't know. I have never been a part of it.

Yeah. Feels like a white guy thing. Hey, bro, 17. So, Jonathan, as as as a lily white as I am, I'm against this. Then you need to start a movement, just like you did wavebusters. Exactly. Here was an article on Click to Houston a few weeks ago. Growing phenomenon for fans known as Tarps off is sweeping through Major League Baseball,

transforming sections of stadiums into seas of shirtless fans twirling t-shirts. over their head like helicopter blades. What began as a small gathering in the right-field sands at Bush Stadium in St. Louis has quickly become a baseball's one of baseball's most unexpected traditions of the 2026 season. What if

girls want to do this? Well, you'll be arrested. It went right to bras. Correct? Oh, you mean keep the under. Yeah, they keep their brawes on. Would we be hypocrites? Well, will you be saying the same?

thing. Will you be judging some of the ones that decide to do it going, yeah, you probably should have kept the shirt on? I will say this in fairness. I do, and when you were talking about how you were, you, you've besmirched the Seattle Mariners, female fan. The Astros have got some very hot female fans. Would you agree?

You go to the ballpark enough, you know. We're, we're good looking city. We've got good looking at people in this town. I mean, I've, I've seen Jonathan a game looking over and his girls like, focus over here, please. You've never seen you do that I'm just kidding But you know

I mean look we used During the playoffs We used to do playoff shows on the concourse We'd see sevens Eighths On the regular Gordy right Oh you gotta

You got to go to playoff baseball You either have to have money Or you got to know somebody with money Or there's a Maybe Jim Crane has a rule You're gonna be at least seven to walk in the building I mean even you go in the diamond club It's not a lot of ugly people there

No Yeah All right so I'm just just saying, we are down with the white pale bros doing it. How do we feel about if there were white pale females doing it? Just, I want you to mull that over as you are. Out of shape females, would you say? I mean, there's always going to be a crowd of that, right?

What if it's a group of grannies? You know what? Grannies tarps off. You're leaving this show on that note? That is disgusting. That will have full coverage of that. the next 30 minutes on the show. Thanks, Gordy.

Let's recap Gordy's Day. You ready for this, Jonathan? Besmirch Seattle Mariner female fans. They're ugly. That's valid, though. Made fun of the goddess known as Lauren Shihadi. That's kind of valid. Unibrow.

Justified LSU's non-conference schedule. That's not as valid. Harder than anybody else's. And basically wants to see Graney's doing the tarps off. You just be equal. Everybody do it. I want you all to mull that over as we get ready for the top of the hour. I'm like the WNBA. I accept everyone here.

That's actually not true. That's just the opposite. Allegedly, who knows? Go to break. Oh, there's the first one of the go-to-brinks today. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. The Seattle Mariners continue their dominance over the Houston Astros taking two out of three in the series after winning tonight, three to two. Astros

All right, Jonathan. This is a little bit of a past my prime. But this song was considered one of the top 500 rock songs of all time. I need a Jonathan Allen ruling plays. It's actually really soothing. I'm actually putting some of play in this one.

Yeah, it's not bad. You're driving around? Just driving in? Yeah. I really like it. Not too much. 1967, which again, I'm not a big fan of the 60s. I'm more of a 70s guy, but it's a banger.

We have a little bit of breaking news on the radio program. It's during the news at noon. I'm going to give it a second one, and then you need to tell me if I'm running giving you a second one or not. The NBA has found no evidence that Clippers owner, Steve Balmer, funneled money through team sponsors to pay Kauai Leonard and circumvent the Saturday cap. 11-month investigation.

Now, the league is still going to examine whether the clippers are guilty of, quote, failure to supervise employees, though it's unclear what specific rule the team would have violated in what the penalties might be. Was this an internal investigation or? No, this is, yeah, they internally investigated for 11 months.

One and a half, you know. Oh, man, you can see, it was, it was, you know. I think then you round up for two there. I forgot about it. I know. I forgot that what was going on. Okay, so for those that don't know, there was an investigation within the, and Pablo Torre is like the wannabe, what would you call him?

A conspiracy theory investigator kind of thing? Yeah, I guess so. And he's like, I've got evidence that says that Steve Ballmer, the owner of the Clippers, is paying Kauai Leonard money on the side to circumvent the South. battery cap through a fake marketing company. Like it was a gardening, some sort of gardening service. Trees, right? Trees, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So this just literally came out moments ago through ESPN. The NBA is actually going to focus on what of the team's introduction of Leonard to team sponsors constitutes a violation of the league's rules. So they're looking for something else. But the main thing is there's no actual funneling of money between Balmer to some dummy companies for Coilner to receive like an appearance fee, that kind of thing, to help him with that. So can I tell you what I think about this?

What is it? First of all, Pablo Tori was swearing on every stacks of Bible he could find that something was shady was going on. Now, could he be given some bad information? Of course he could. Not every story, not every tip you get about things is accurate. Yeah, but when you come out that confident, it makes you wonder really what the source is. He was really, really super confident about this.

So I don't know. But let me ask you this. Could the NBA really hide the evidence? Because Balmer is one of the most affluent. Look, all 30 of the NBA owners are affluent, right? They're all essentially billionaires, right? Give or take. Yeah, but he's probably the most popular.

But he's out there. He has been, you know, Mark Cuban was the guy 50 or 20 years ago. now at Steve Balmer kind of being the lead dog on things around the league? Yeah, being like the likable owner. Yeah, very, very public out there. Is there any part of you that says that maybe the NBA hit some things to make sure they wouldn't

be found guilty of this? Or do you think the NBA is so pristine and so thorough? They went through 11 months of this in order for them to make sure that every bit of evidence was discussed in analyze.

Because this happens the same time with the mafia and the gambling, right? And NBA was like, oh, we never knew about it. And they, oh, we'll internally investigate it. Oh, you're talking about it with Chauncey Billups and all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, they didn't want the FBI to come in there. They probably wouldn't have even came to light. So I really do think the NBA is just kind of saving their graces right now, saving their little gravy.

So I'm going to look at Pablo Tori here on his Twitter account. He's not, he's not, yeah, all he's doing is just retweeting what ESPN just put out of. He says, Pablo Tori is the investigative reporter. He says, when the time is right, I'm extremely, extremely excited for our episode about this, meaning his podcast. So was this a publicity site to get him out? Well, obviously got him out there. It did. I will say this.

And if I'm naive, I'm naive. it would not be in the best interest for the NBA to hide this. Really? You don't think so. Because what you don't want the NBA to do is allow other owners to think they can get away with it. So if there was really something going on, it's easier to make an example to preclude other owners from thinking about doing this. I see what you're talking. I see the anger you're doing with it. Yeah. Again, I don't know if I believe that 100%, but that's my initial gut feeling is that

no owner can get away with this because if he gets away with it, then everybody else is going to try to do it. Well, then you see the Dodgers, I don't know it's a different sport in different leagues and different owners, but you see the Dodgers with the Fermi and all that other stuff. No other teams doing that. The Dodgers are the only ones doing that loophole.

Yeah, but that's legal. There's something illegal about that. Funneling money to an athlete through a dummy marketing company or another way of earning money would be a violation of the salary cap rule. But I mean, if you watched Pablo Torre or caught any of his podcast or any of his tweets, he's like, this is going to crush the NBA

that the Kauai Lenter may be suspended for an entire season and that maybe C. Balmer may have to sell the clippers for them. None of that's happening. So I'm just, I need to chew on this for a while. I want to see what the reaction is of other people. people run in the country. But at this point, the Los Angeles Clippers, according to ESPN, are free and clear,

at least for now, about trying to send money for Co-I-Leylander to circumvent the salary cap. Oh, and the Astros lost, which you already know, and that dumb pitchfork, I hate, that Triton's out there. And the Texans had a very light workout today. They're going to have a good old-fashioned hard-ass practice tomorrow when the Raiders are in town, and then they'll play the Raiders on Thursday. And that is your news at noon. I don't know. I, man, I, I, I wish I could say, and again, I don't know how many of you particularly care.

We're going to talk about the Astros. That's the main thing around these parts. But there's just a part of me that's, I wish I could say, whew, I'm glad that Steve Balmer wouldn't, wouldn't do something so immoral and illegal to circumvent rules. But I don't have that. I guess the can, I'm hesitant about. about going full in on wow thanks the Lord that he didn't do it man popo Tori made a living out of this

which is giving me the bad taste in my mouth I just I hate the ethics and stuff how it's going on with journalism lately but again Pablo Tori's benefiting from this too he's the one saying yeah I mean there's there's something rotten here because if Pablo Tori did a podcast which I will not be listening to because I don't listen

to podcasts except a wrestling podcast then what is he going to do? He's going to go on his podcast. He's going to say, hey, I know there's a conspiracy. I know something happened. But with that being said, that now clears Coahe Leonard to go to Toronto. Because the league held up the deal, or actually the Raptors held up the deal until the investigation came to a conclusion. Apparently, it's done so.

All right, 1215, it's Matt and no Ross today. Thanks again to Gordy for dropping by for a couple of hours. It's me the rest of the way. And Jonathan, you're like, you're like, you're. The nice parts of the show. The nice, the nice polite parts of the show are around. 713-212-5-7-90. If you want to chime in.

Astros missed opportunity, whatever you want to say, but standing 7-90 still shows them in first place. American League Wells. We'll discuss that next. 7-13-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. 1221, 21, Sports Talk, 790. It is Matt.

And Jonathan Ross is off this week. He is in the middle of the mountains. I mean, we can't even get a hold on if we tried to. Hope he's okay. Hope he's okay. Or a bear or a hippo. A hippo? So, don't we see that.

No, I guess the hippos are in the warmer water, right? Yeah, they're not even in this continent. That's true. They're in Africa. Well, maybe we don't want a, we don't want a ferocious panda to hit him either. I just wanted a nice, relaxing trip, get away, and not be eaten alive by animals. Something is different about your money. It is.

I mean, I'm wishing another with the very best. All right, 713-212-5-7-90. If you want to chime in, Astros fall to the Seattle Mariners 3 to 2 in a game of, again, I hate to use the cliche term, missed opportunities, but that's exactly what it was. Let's talk to our friend Biscuit at 1223. Biscuit, what do you got today? Hey, Cougar Matt, man. Before I get to my take my homie, Tommy John, man, my take on that bomber thing is, man, you and I,

when we went to that communicates a school over and at the universe, you said, man, you had to have, like, three sources and check the sources and this and that. And nowadays, you get half a source and you just be the first one to come out with it. And if you're wrong, nobody really holds you to it, you know. So it might have been something to somebody told him that. somewhat might have mentioned something about why I get some money, but when the NBA probably investigated, it probably was no smoking gun.

Let me ask you this, Biscuit, because Pablo Tori is a journalist. Now, how good of a journalist he is, I don't know. But this guy, Tori, made a living in the last year by telling the entire world what's going down there. I mean, somebody's wrong. And if he's wrong, guess what I'm never going to do? I'm never going to believe him again.

Well, I mean, the NBA didn't say Balmer was innocent. They just said he couldn't find enough evidence. So he's not technically wrong. He just jumped the gun without having a smoking gun. That's what I'm saying. There's no smoking gun. That's what I would probably think. It's probably some little evidence or whatever,

but it's nothing to tie bomber to it. So I can't imagine if they had a smoking gun that the rest of the owners would be down with it. You know what I'm saying? He's circumventing them. That's right. That's what I'm saying. There is no interest by the other 29 being owners to protect the guy, especially if they're circumventing the satiric cat.

There's no reason to say, oh, just brush us under the carpet and don't worry about it. There's just the opposite they would want to do. That's right. So that means to tell you that they didn't find a smoking gun. Wow. That's just my finger. I got you. I'm from, and I'll be interested in Vanessa, you ask Vanessa if she ever heard of Tommy John or.

I, you know what? I did text Vanessa yesterday. She actually met him one time in Tara Hote. So she did. And so she was obviously disappointed and obviously hearing the news. But he lived a nice long life. I mean, my goodness, what was he, 86, something on that range? Right, right. My uncle played Little League in high school baseball with him.

Then he played for the Dodgers at some point. Oh, absolutely he did. Yeah, he played for a bunch of teams. Back in the 70s, I believe, whatever. But that was our, we got Tommy John, we got Scatman Brothers, who, you know, Hong Kong, Fui, voice or whatever, and been a couple of little movies. And then, of course, we adopted Larry Bird.

So those are our three claim to fame from Terre Haute, Indiana. Shout out to Terre Haute. And by way, you have a brand-new casino in Terre Haute, by the way. You don't know that yet. I can't imagine that. They got a casino in Terrehold. We don't want to have with Houston, man. Don't get me started on that, my friend.

Thanks, Biscuit, for the phone call. We'll see you later. We're in the summertime, right? I can bitch about not out of a casino, correct? I'm going to give you four minutes. I won't take that long. I want a casino. And even if you don't like casinos,

you would want to have other people would want to have casinos. Because I'm going to guess there's going to be some sort of tax break that helps out our community, right? Because Lord knows, I'm spending money in Louisiana left and right. Las Vegas gets my money, Jonathan, once a year. It just does.

I fly there, I stay in their hotels, I eat their food. Hell, my daughter goes to the University of Rhode Island. There is a casino. Providence is the main city there. She's in Kingston, which is about 40 minutes away. But where my wife is living in Providence, there's a casino 20 minutes from there. And it's beautiful. And by the way, January 1st, it goes smoke-free.

So you're telling me a smoke-free casino? I can have fun. and there's like 10 restaurants in there. You're just going to lose so much money, though. That is accurate. That is accurate. But I can win some sometimes. You know, I'm going to be worried about you.

Now you're on Rhode Island. I'm going back in two weeks. That's not good for Matt's on. I'll take you updates. Please don't, because I'm going to be worried. Because it's so crazy because I've never lived that close to them. Because when we went to drop the girls off, you know, we moved everything around.

And then I'm like, so I'm just sitting in the Airbnb. And I'm like, I think I'm going to go to casino. I don't know. I don't ever can say that. Like, if I want a casino right now, I'm two hours and 15 minutes away. Well, you could, you could just set up, you know, I'm going to leave Friday. I'll see the boys on Sunday. You know, you could if you really want to.

But I know the drive, you know. That's right. But they wouldn't put the casino downtown. They would have to put it, you know. Well, my guess would be if we ever got it, it would go to, you would go in Galveston. Okay, with the cruise ships and all that stuff. cruise ships and, you know, look, the Vertita family owns about 80% of Galveston anyway. That's true.

I mean, obviously for E's sake, downtown Houston wouldn't be a bad idea over there next to NRG, but. Oh, wow. Okay, that's it. I'm done. I'm done with my, I need casino here. All right. That was two minutes. That's all I asked for.

All right. Are you gambling on the Astros? How about that for a segue? I'll give you a B. I had to segue. somehow and I did it. 713-212-5-7-90. Did you experience what I

experienced with the Astros? A super high on Friday and then an ass kicking on Saturday and a missed opportunity Sunday. If you want to discuss that, 7-13-21-2-5-7-90. 7-13-212-5-7-90. 1232 on an open-line Monday.

We're always open line. You guys want to talk about whatever you want. We're in for it. 713-212-5-790 Astrofutility to be discussed. One thing I just happened to be looking on the Twitter streets, Jonathan, and brings up a good point. This is from one guy. One, in this NBA investigation, they may think Balmer is truly innocent.

That's right. Or the number two thing, which you and I have not discussed on air, maybe other teams are doing it, and the other NBA owners are like, if we go after Balmer, maybe check on our deals too. I hadn't thought of that. I typed in him in the same way. Like, okay, you know. I hadn't thought of that.

I got it. See, that's what I'm saying. That's why I ask, is if it's an internal investigation, it could be a lot of things going on that ruin the brand itself as NBA, you know? Because if maybe four or five of their teams are doing similar type deals, they don't want the NBA to investigate that.

Yeah, and it just so happened to be Kwai Leonard, one of the biggest stars in the NBA. Yeah, well, I don't think it's any, but yeah. But, Quai Leonard doesn't help for sure. But, um, hmm. Would NBA owners tell the commissioner to take it easy because if they go after Balmer and Balmer says, well, guess what? I know who else is doing it. Because look at Big Club because I know if you got to, they probably like him too because, you know, owners could hate each other.

Yeah, like let's bring him down or maybe they say, again, sometimes when you go after somebody, like if you're audited at your company and you're like, man, I know that my coworker's doing something shady. they may be coming after you too starting it out there what I just don't like about this whole situation is really what Biscuit says man where is the credit but like you don't break this story unless you have it all

and then you blow up you're that guy you're that reporter you blew up all this undercover schemes going on the money and then you just 11 months later it's done yeah that's not no you just lost the story but I guess now you can just make a podcast

and make the money because you get the name out there went and down make the podcast I don't know. All right. I just wanted to... We'll add more on the little bit later on. But yeah, I want to get back to the Astros.

Hey, your squad. I feel like we have to have like a constant reminder. I don't know the record sucks. Okay. I'm not oblivious to that. Everything that I... I do this when I argue with Ross, because he's in the same category as a lot of you guys are.

I'm not oblivious to what the wins and loss numbers are. And the wins and loss numbers are. loss number is 63 on the windside and 62 in the loss side. Under any other circumstance, in normal years, 63 and 62 on August the 17th of a particular year means you are, well, you probably already have sold off your prospect, your players for prospects, and you're thinking about 2000 the next season. But this is not a normal season. So it shouldn't be treated that way.

The reality is anything can happen in a three or three. or a five-game series. I'll give you a great example. New York, by the way, played in Toronto this past weekend. Guess what the Toronto? Blue Jays did. They beat the Yankees, two out of three. Yeah.

It happens. The best teams don't always win series. I got even more news for you. The Tampa Bay Rays played a weekend series. Did you know that? They played the weekend just like everybody else did. to the lowly Baltimore Orioles in St. Petersburg. Guess who won all three of those games?

The Baltimore Orioles. When is somebody going to believe me? That strange crap, and I almost said the swear word, strange stuff can happen in the postseason. Seven gamers, usually the better team prevails. In three game series and in five game series, all bets are off. So yeah, your squad is a game of 0500.

Yeah, your squad could have kicked Seattle to the curb. But what's his face? It's the home run, the cheapy home run to left field. Cow Raleigh's OPS is 568. Embarrassing. But your squad is still in first place. And even if they weren't in first place in the American League West, it's still in the wild card lead.

That's how crazy it is. Because the wildcars right now belong to the Yankees, Boston, and Baltimore. The Rangers are a half game back. Toronto and Detroit are a game out. Minnesota and Cleveland are a game and a half out. And even lowly ass Seattle's two and a half out. Everybody is beating everybody up this year because the quality of baseball it just isn't like it is in years past.

There aren't one or two or three or four or five dominant teams. There's really one super dominant. on a team, one pretty good team who's got a bunch of injured players, i.e. the New York Yankees. And then you got the Boston Red Sox who have played much better the second half of the year. And every time I do a 10th inning show, oh, they don't want it very hard.

They're not clutch. When is somebody going to step up? I got news for you guys, Astro fans. Guess who stepped up? All you damn year long. Yoran Alvarez, your Triple Crown guy, your MVP. He has stepped up. Carlos Jeremy Pena for the most part.

Not this last two weeks, but you get my drift. He has stepped up. Isaac Perdiz has stepped up. The rest of the guys, Christian Walker, well, not so much the last two months, but the first two months, sure. These are all major league players. But there's a difference between being a good major league player, just a guy, unlucky to be here,

or an elite player. And the reality is your team, my team, the Astros, have about three really good to elite major league hitters. You got a couple of mids, and then you've always had this season, whether it's the outfield, whether it's Nick Allen, whether it's Lamont Wade, whether it's whoever's catching on a particular day. You got four ninth of your starting to line up. that wouldn't be starting for any team that would be considered good.

But guess what? Every team is going through this. You don't think Mariner Talk? Think Mariner Talk was popping champagne bottles after winning this game yesterday? No. They're still saying themselves, we were one victory away from the American League penalty last year. Look, we are.

We're four games out in a terrible division. Mariner Talk ain't great. Ranger Talk. You know what Ranger Talk was yesterday in Dallas, Fort Worth? is what the guy did. Welcome to Ranger Talk. I'm your host, Greg Jones. And the Rangers lost to the age yesterday.

You know what the first five callers were on a Ranger Talk? Whether Dak Prescott's in a league quarterback. They don't even get calls on Ranger Talk. They're worried about CD Lamb on Ranger Talk. So it's just not a byproduct of the futility that it's been some of the Astros this year. Everybody's going through it. Now the only negative in the last couple of days is that the White Sox have won three in a row while the Astros have dropped three of four.

So that means now this dream of mine, which maybe was more of a dream than a reality, that the Astros were going to catch a number two seed. That may not be in play. The Astro is now a full three games behind the White Sox with a number two seed in the American League playoff. Now the White Sox will be here early September for four games. series. The Astros at this point had the tiebreaker two games to won over the White Sox. So they win that series. They'll be able to cut into the lead in that. And maybe if the two teams are tied at the end of the year, the Astros will have the tiebreaker for the two C. But I ain't worried about that. My philosophy has been and it continues to should be this case. Just watch your team get in and then see what craziness can happen. Because you've got an excellent Tampa Bay team who just lost three in a row. because they're human at home to Baltimore. You got a pretty good Yankee team

who's missing a lot of part of their lineup and who knows when they're going to be back. And then you got a bunch of mid after that. And your Astros are as mid as Mid gets, but mid might win you a playoff series. I had a caller on the show Saturday night. All he ever, I don't know the guy's name, I forgot that guy's name, I apologize.

All he ever does is call when the Astros lose. he never calls anything way he's like i don't want i hate when my team loses it's depressing when i try to explain to him i said even the most elite teams lose 65 times in baseball even the suckiest of sucky teams win 60 to 65 times is what you do with those other 40 that make a difference the astros are going to lose some more games unfortunately but if they stay at or above three games above 500 the rest of the year, which is what their talent level shows that they're capable of doing?

This team is not a team that's going to play 700 baseball the rest of the way. It's just not. Hunter Brown is not the Hunter Brown we're accustomed to being a staff ace. Emi, we don't know what the hell to do with him. Ethan Pecco might be a rotation guy. Javier is a supporter. Blanco's down in AAA.

Four-ninth of the Astro lineup is probably 4A material. But yet, They're still figuring their way to keep their heads above water. And that's what I choose to believe and choose to understand and watch about this team. It ain't great. We're not going to be building documentary series over this year's team. But the Astros are in a big, big pool of mid.

See, Miles won't win it. We can have September baseball. It's going to be cool and fun. We can do it. We can have good college football chatter. We can have good Texas talk as well. and talk about an astro baseball team, even though it's just going to be two or three games about 500,

probably the rest of the way, hanging around. I think we can do it. But firing Joe and firing Dana right now, you sound stupid. Those decisions will be made at the end of the year, if they haven't been already. We're down to about 40 games.

And if you like baseball, like I think many of you do that listen to show at this exact moment, then as frustrating as it gets sometimes, let me tell you Friday night was not frustrating. you gave up a 5-2 lead, I get that, but you don't tell me this place was the city was rocking when Christian Walker hits at three-run, home run to beat them 10-7, especially after the Mariners scored 2 in the top of the 10th.

That was a hell of a game. And I'm here for it. But they better kick some ass this week because the Angels have mailed it in and the A's had mailed it in, although the A's did win the series against the Rangers. And all by the way, the A's and the Angels beat the Rangers earlier. So for Texas fan, the two of you that are in this town that aren't worried about the Cowboys,

your squad was terrible this week on the West Coast. Hate to hear it. 1245, it's the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross off this week. Jonathan, hanging out with me and you may hang out with us. If you want to take my little, well, I mean the Catholic Church would be a homily. I give you a little homily in the Astros. Would you like to comment?

713-212-5-790. 713-212-5-790. You think it's bad for the current Astros. There's a former Astro that's wearing it. We'll discuss that next. 1245 on 790. All right. Every week on the program on Mondays, we do something called missing you at 130,

and it's a 52-week segment. We started here in the baseball season, and we'll move it on to basketball and to football, football first, then basketball, about people that used to play for Houston professional teams, we'll go over their stats week to week and we'll simply ask ourselves if we're missing them. So normally I would save this for 130, but I'm going to play it here now for, or not play it from you, but at least go over one of the players that is a weekly contributor to missing you, and it's Kyle Tucker.

So Kyle Tucker, the Dodgers are, look, they're a great baseball team and they've got stars left and right, but Kyle Tucker just adding more star power to a team and there's deferred money and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, you know, last year in Chicago, he wasn't great. Still got the big contract to go from the Cubs to the Los Angeles Dodgers where he signed a four-year deal worth $240 million. I think is what it was. I don't know if it was four years or six years, but it's 240 for sure. He gets a Saturday off because he was hitless in the homestand prior to Saturday's game.

Sunday against the Brewers, he plays again. He's back in the lineup. doesn't catch a fly ball near the warning track, allowing Milwaukee to score. Brewers win the game, by the way, 6 to 2. He had already gone before the defensive miscue 0 for 3 at the plate. The Dodgers on their week-long homestand. He went 0 for 19. Zero for 19 on a four-year, $240 million dollar contract.

Tucker is now batting, this is batting average 200, under 200 at home with just two home runs. His home OPS is 300 points below his road OPS. So for any of you that continue to complain about crazy money that is not spent by this organization, think about this for a second. Kyle goes to Chicago for one year. Chicago foolishly believes that he is going to now become Uber faithful to Chicago. These guys get their first looks at free agency.

They want to go where the big money is and they want to be able to test where they can go, other places, other cities. He wasn't going to just go to Chicago because they traded for him and now is going to sign a long-term contract. They could have, but they just, but you got it. They got outbid to the Cubs who outbid him. The Los Angeles Dodgers, four years, $240 million. And what you get from that is awful. In fact, in 40 minutes, we'll give you the numbers on it.

But point being, he went 0 for 19 in the homestown. Now, it doesn't necessarily mean that every time a player leaves to go from one team to the other, they're going to be miserable failures. Sometimes guys go from one place the other and they're missed badly, thus missing you. but I'll say this for all of the criticisms that maybe the Astros get, they were not super aggressive at the trade deadline. Not super, they were not aggressive.

Dalton Varsho doesn't necessarily move the needle when it comes to trade deadline moves. But the players that have left really in the last, what, five, six seasons, from the Springers to the Correa's, who's now back, to the Charlie Mortons, to the Gary Coles. Now, Garrett Cole was always going to go back to play

wanted to play in New York. He had dreamed of that, so I don't even count that. Maricio Dubon, the trade, terrible. But the Astros were trying to save some money. And they paid the price for it because Nick Allen is nothing close to what Maricio Dubon has been for the Braves over this course of the year. But by and large, if you look at the macro view of the Astros and the contracts they have spent or not spent, it's been okay.

And this trade that saw Kyle Tucker go from Houston to, Chicago did bring you back. Hayden Wisniewski. Was not good on Saturday, but it's been okay and the future is bright. Cam Smith has been okay, although his last couple months have been better than the first few.

And probably your third best hitter in Issaq Paredes playing third base. Who you thought was a trade candidate. We all kind of thought he was until Carlos Cray got hurt and Jeremy Pena was hurt before that, meaning you had to put him in.

So you want it being an incredible insurance policy. Now, I know that you as Astro fans at some point want to have the, he's our guy, he's staying. And that might happen. But if the next time the Astros are in free agency mode or, you know, like when they, if there is baseball in 2027, which I don't know if there's going to be or not, I'm scared to death there's not. But let's say there is a full season. And the Astros sit down with Jeremy Pena. And Jeremy Pena says, I want to test free agency.

I would trade him. And I don't want him to go. But if you are moving away from the most glorious moments in Astros history, this run of eight, nine years, and you don't have a drafts, you don't have a minor league system that's ready to replenish, the only way you replenish is by moving guys before they become street free agents and you get almost nothing in return. You get a compensatory pick. I don't want a compensatory pick.

If Jeremy Pena and the Astros sit down and have a long, deep conversation and it's heartfelt, and the end of the day he says, I want to go test for agency because I think I can go get crazy money and a crazy long-term contract, then I would be completely, as much as it would hurt me to say this, I'd be all in on the Astros, moving Jeremy Payneau. The same probably would be said for Hunter Brown in a couple of years, because he's not far behind Jeremy when it comes of free agency. And then obviously, Jordan Alvarez is going to be due for a big fat paycheck one more time at least. I would hope that one of those three guys, the Astros would say, we need you. You are the cornerstone of the next era of Astros baseball or the continuation of.

but all this thought of you got to sign Kyle no matter what it is put it on your shoe make banners in the stadium whatever it takes the Dodgers are hating this decision so far he got booed at home he doesn't even play defense

he was not beloved in Chicago it was the right move it just was and it's hard for us to admit it now again hindsight is always 20-20 I get that. If Kyle Tucker would have gone to Chicago and had an OPS of 950

and been the hero of the Chicago Cubs and helping them win a World Series, they would have been, oh, this is the greatest move ever when the Astros would be sitting there like, man, Kyle Tucker could have done this for us. I do understand hindsight is 2020. But that's what we do in sports. We hindsight all the time, do we not?

Hindsight right now is a Dodgers spent crazy money for a guy who cannot bat $200,000. at home and took a lazy track on a fly ball yesterday that would have helped his team stay close with Milwaukee, who didn't get a single hit on the homestand. And hindsight's awesome, isn't it? We use hindsight in our life, do we not? Girls we dated, food choices we made, vacation trips, stock market, job choices. Sports radio is perfect for hindsight.

And we're seeing it right here. But the hindsight is the Astros have not. really at any point been Uber burned by letting a player go. And if Jeremy does not want to resign for the Astros, when it's time to have that kind of deep conversation, that I would do the exact same thing with Jeremy that I would do with Kyle Tucker. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show at Ross. The NBA has a response, Jonathan, for what ESPN just put out a half an hour ago. Uh-oh.

You got that right Oh, oh, is exactly right Does that sound like Scooby-Doo there? Yeah, look, Lou, yeah Come on, Raggy Come on, Adam Silver You were doing good this whole show You got one hour left

I know, I'm down the home stretch, right? You were doing so good Oh, you don't like my shit You don't like my Scooby-Doo? You got better impressions But everybody does a Scooby-Doo, do they not? Let's hear yours really quick Come on, try it.

No shot. Say go to break. No shot. Do it. Come on for the audience. They want to hear you say it. I don't even got it in me. I can't even do it.

Go to breaks, Scragy? See? Mine would have been 10 toss words. Oh, that was worse. That was, I'm embarrassed. Say, if you're sitting here by yourself, that's why you need people to call the show.

More phone callers from you great sports fans and less of me doing Shaggy is a good thing. 713-212-5-7-90. This is the Matt Thomas show. with Ross. Friend of the show V-Rox says every time I try to rhyme something, he says I sound like Shaggy or Scooby. Do I do that when I try to rhyme something? I don't think so.

I don't change my voice when I rhyme. Let me tell you the reason why I rhyme. We have incredible radio sponsors of this show. And they deserve their flowers. And if you don't want to spend the money to get an audience out there, you ain't going to get the run. not going to happen. So I'm going to continue to rhyme.

And I'm proud of my rhyming. I love it when y'all send me tweets with rhymes too. Sounds like it will change. All right. 105 on Sports Talk 790. We got missing you coming up at the bottom of the hour. 713-212-5-790 if you want to chime in.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. So we mentioned about an hour ago, wasn't it? Jonathan's that ESPN says that Steve Balmer is there's no evidence of any sort of funneling of money to Kauai Leonard through a marketing company that's in what is it soil trees, plants, something like that. And that there is nothing to be found about Steve Ballmer doing that. Well, guess what the NBA just did about 20 minutes ago? NBA spokesman Mike Bass, quote,

ESPN's article regarding the L.A. Clippers' investigation, for which the NBA declined to cooperate contains numerous and significant inaccuracies. So again, ESPN called the NBA and said, when you tell us, you're going to want to quote for our story, and they said, no. The results in this matter will be made clear once the investigation is concluded.

What the hell is going on? Now, obviously you guys know that ESPN and NBA, are in cahoots with each other. ESPN writes a huge check to the NBA to carry the NBA. Finals, regular season games, playoffs. I mean, they're joined at the hip. What?

So why would ESPN, you know that ESPN would have lobbed a phone call the NBA, they've even said as much. And if the NBA tells ESPN, we ain't done, then ESPN, shouldn't be putting the story out. This is exactly what I'm talking about, Matt. Am I, again, help me if I'm missing any pieces.

So ESPN puts a story out an hour ago. Literally it was like it was 1203. It says that Steve Ballmer did nothing wrong. ESPN calls NBA for a quote. NBA says, no, I'm good. Nothing to say. Then the lead spokesperson, you know, the lead PR dog for the NBA, name is Mike Bass

says the article that ESPN wrote contains numerous and significant inaccuracies. The results in this matter will be made clear once the investigation is concluded. Now, it's Ramona Sherburn.

It's, who else wrote the story? Was Sham as part of this or not? I don't even know. Oh, it's two other reporters. Baxter Holmes. Baxter Holmes and Don somebody, right? Yeah. This seems squirly to me.

Don Van Netta, Jr. Don Van Nettta, okay. All those three of the two dudes and a girl. The three of them have been around the NBA for a long time. What's going, do you think, here's my uneducated guess. Those three have been working in this story. Those three have been in contact with Steve Ballmer. Well, they're crediting Shams as well in the story.

well. Oh, Shams involved in this now. Yeah, back sirs, quoting Sir James. Ain't that a blip? This is so weird. What do you think? What do you think? All right, after hearing, seeing this.

Okay. I'm sure. I'm, this is, you know what this to me is? This is like a puzzle. And I don't know if I can figure it out. My first blush, and I'm a lot of change of mind, just like I should change in mind with Jane Daniels, until I got some bad advice from you.

I can't believe you. I didn't know either. Is Bomer calls them and says we've been cleared. There may be some minor things that we might have done better, like informed employees of, you know, like we, the original report says that Bomer didn't give any money, but there may be some things of the Clippers as an organization did that may have been not the most ethical things in the world.

But the main thing is that Bomer did not cipher money away to Kauai through a side gig. because that's not the circumventing of the salary cap is the story so he so balmer calls these three says what do you want to know let's get out in front of this and all three these reporters are like oh this is it is really good this is really good not only are we get because you know by way Steve balmer wants to get at tory because Pablo tory's been after his ass for a year right 11 months mm-hmm now would Steve balmer maybe maybe hide some details from those three reporters that he didn't want those reporters to know and that maybe even Balmer thought that maybe the investigation was over with when the NBA said

we're not done yet. All I can say is this is a plot twist. Because the NBA is openly going against their own. They just told ESPN. They just told the world that one of their television partners is wrong full of, I mean, you the exact quote again here. ESPN's article regarding the LA Clippers investigation for which the NBA declined to cooperate.

Well, they put that a bad boy in there, do didn't they? That's what I said. Damn, they're like, we want nothing, we want no part of this. Contains numerous and significant inaccuracies. Okay, so if someone says that the sky is blue and somebody reports that, but the guy really is gray and black, that would be a numerous and a significant inaccuracy. What is the opposite of

Steve Bomer did nothing wrong? And that's, now, this is literally my thought process right now? Is there another couple of owners under the table? Like, hey, no, that's not true. Like, there's still something fishy going on there. You know, he's trying to get ahead of it and clear his name because...

The SPAN's article contains numerous and significant inaccuracies that are all... The results in this matter would make clear once the investigation is concluded. Now, the NBA could also spin control this themselves. Let's not make this void. Okay. Maybe Jonathan, the NBA wasn't ready to say these things.

And they don't like how fast it came on. And they don't like how it got out. And they're probably calling Steve Ballmer saying, what are you doing, calling ESPN telling them these things? And you didn't go through us first. Correct. That can happen all with that can happen too. Okay.

But it would be easier if the NBA said at this time, the NBA has no comment on the ESPN report. That's the easy way to say it, right? Yes. Like if you find out a coach gets a job, Shams finds out that Jalen Brown trade happens. But Philadelphia's not ready to announce it. Then they would say, we have no comment about this.

Yeah. Philadelphia wouldn't say, these reports of Jalen Brown going to the Philadelphia 76ers contain numerous and significant inaccuracies. Can I, and I get, I don't know how many people are interested in this, but I love when leagues and media people get into little scrapes like this. Makes me want to get my popcorn. Because this is bad.

I mean, this is not, what are the odds? That's so funny. The odds are, now that I'm thinking about this a little bit here, the odds are ESPN, that the NBA is just pissed. They didn't, they didn't get to announce it on their terms. That is my guess on this. is the NBA wanted to make this theirs and that ESPN got a tip

and that ESPN those three writers plus shams because he plus shams said the hell was waiting for our TV for the people that we write a check to we're the ones writing the check

we're journalism we're going to get this out our credibility over yours our responsibility over yours oh okay Or if Steve I got one more

Do I give you more Ors than the average person Does I think I do Radio host That's what I do It's live radio I'm picking on my Or

Balmer says I'll give you What I know But you got to get this out here Before the NBA does Because I need Damage control And you ESPN

Can carry that weight For me I'll give you the scoop You got to get it out Now the public doesn't know what to believe. The public like me is confused. Confused. 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-7-90. Update on that, update on the Astros, and what's going on today in Texanville, 115 on Sports Talk 790. If you'd like to join us, 7-13-212-5-790, 7-13-21-2-5-7-9. 9.0.

121 on Sports Talk 790. It is Matt with you, Ross off this week. Gordy's going to come in for a couple hours tomorrow and hang out with us. Also tomorrow on the program, Joe Espott. I'll be with us. And Hayden Wisniew will make an appearance on this radio show tomorrow at 1.30. So we've got a busy Tuesday edition program. Texans that will take on the Raiders on Thursday at Reliant.

And tomorrow they'll have a joint practice. They will not practice on Wednesday. day before the game, and then they will play the game on Thursday. And the Texans will have a couple days off, and they'll close out the regular season, or the preseason, against the Panthers next week in Charlotte. And from what D'Amico Ryan said yesterday at the Texans practice of many availability,

that anybody that is healthy will be a go for the game against the Raiders. By the way, the game with the Raiders is nationally televised. Now that's going to make a huge difference in, Who plays, but, I mean, you got Joe Buck and Tritman coming here. By the way, if you don't have ESPN, which some of you don't, which I don't know if you do, but it'll be on Channel 11 as well. So if you are going to pick up the game, there you go. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Koso at 123. Koso, Wichichita can comment this week. Hey, Mr. Texas. How are you doing? I'm amazing. Thank you. Awesome.

quickly about this whole bombers, clippers thing. I wish I could be surprised about this outcome, but I think it's just quite the par for what the NBA is nowadays. I kind of knew something wasn't going to happen whenever the clippers were able to keep their

pick and then draft their pick. I feel like the last time this happened was, was it 2001 in Minnesota where they did capture convention? Do you recall that? It was, wasn't it yeah, with Joe Smith, right? Yeah, a player I've never even heard about.

I'm a die-hard. Yeah, he wanted to be in the league a long time, but they caught them red-handed and suspended. They lost draft picks over it, if I'm not mistaken, correct? Five, five first-round picks. They were lost. For Joe Smith, it was not that special of a player. I don't even know who I know who Josh Smith is, Rocket's Legend.

I don't know who that is. Anyways, I was talking to a friend. We're trying to come up with ideas. Steve Balmer, if it was anyone other, than Los Angeles, I think this might go a different direction. Steve Balmer just has too much money into the NBA. I think Adam Silver did not want to penalize one of his big markets. I just, you know, I don't think what Silver has been doing the last however long he's been

in the NBA 10, 12 years. It's just, it's becoming a clown show. I love the NBA. I love watching it. I'm not saying I'm not going to watch it. it, but this, it stinks. This whole thing stinks. And this just shows that I think other teams have been doing it. Dee Balmer took it to a whole other level and completely destroying what little integrity is left of the NBA. It's already hard enough for folks who are diehard baseball or NFL fans to turn on to the NBA.

It is a great product. The sport is awesome. Yeah. But it's fishy. It's fishy. I tell my wife this all the time. People with that much money. are not to be trusted. The NBA, Adam Silver is letting the Lakers, they sold twice within two years. They let a guy who has crazy Saudi money, apparently coming in by a team.

He's letting the NBA slip away between his fingers. It's kind of ridiculous. I just want to get your thoughts on it and have a great rest of your day. Thank you. You know, it's, for me, I don't really get involved in the big, grandiose view of the NBA. The only person that should be really concerned about the NBA or the persons are the 30 people that employ Adam Silver.

And you're not going to want to hear this case or anybody else. You just signed a humongous 10 or 11 year television deal with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon. They love that. their ratings for all of their events last year were up significantly. The networks love that who are writing the big check. They're about to expand probably two more different NBA cities. The owners love that. And they're about to open up a European division of their league.

The owners love that. Other things about the NBA that you don't particularly like, whether it be whether or not Steve Bulmer's getting away with this, whether or not it takes you to have six channels to watch your favorite teams play, whether it's the social media, the social justice, or the mixing of politics and sports, you may not like that. But the 30 owners got to be pleased as punch.

Because at the end of the day, the 30 owners are looking at their bank books. Their bank statements. And money is coming in very easily. and quite often. That's why this whole thing about ESPN getting surly, or the NBA getting sorely with ESPN is very interesting. Because you're supposed to be Kumbaii with your partners. You're supposed to have a level of,

look, I know what's going on, but hey, let's put it in this perspective. Let's present it this way. Let's, you know, Shams has been employed by ESPN to be your main go-to guy. So if Shams needs to get a story or two, to help you out along the way. In return, you got to help us out. It's all backscratching. Everything in journalism now is backscratching. You scratch your back. I'll scratch yours. That's why this one is, that's pretty stern that the league put out a statement saying ESPN in a story, which we did not comment on, has inaccuracies. And we'll comment when the, when the investigation is concluded.

and that basically also if my two and two adding it all together has the NBA one of its owners going to one of its television partners and saying hey I can circumvent your system because I want to get out in front of this

I want to look better on this maybe Balmary was pissed the NBA was even looking at this to begin with it took 11 months to do it which is 11 months of uncertainty and 11 months of people being mad at them because nobody knows if the if the clippers were doing business

by the rules or not. It's very funny to criticize commissioners. Betman hears it in the NHL. Rob Manford hears it. Not Paul Tyler. Roger Goodell hears it all the time from the NFL. And Adam Silver has been wearing it. Go find an owner of an NBA franchise.

They're very pleased. Money is coming in. Buildings are full. There is harmony among the players and the owners with the labor negotiations, you're expanding, and that means more cash. That's the bottom line on this. It really is.

Ethics sometimes takes a backseat to that. 129. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 713-212-5-790. If you'd like to come in, 7-13-212-5-7-90. Once a week on the Matt-Thomas-Tomysm. show with Ross. We decide to

look and see what everybody else is doing. Former Houston athletes. We had to figure out what players we're going to do for the NFL when it's NFL season. I think we'll stay with baseball until the end of baseball season, right? Unless we have a good enough. I mean, it depends. I guess Stefan Diggs got a spot?

No. We don't miss them. Yeah, it could be good, actually. Who was the Jacksonville receiver that came here for a year and then moved on? It was always heard. I'm drawing a blank. Christian Kirk. That's right. Christian Kirk. Yeah, yeah.

Well, he'll be on missing you, right? At some point. I think you can do a lot with that. Yeah, we're going to do this. And then we've got basketball we've got to get to. James Hardin. Are we missing him? It's been a long time. That was like three teams ago. Who doesn't do that? That was beefing with EMI? No, they're okay.

No, the dude that went to the Wizards. What was the name? Oh, John Wall? No. Went to the Wizards? Oh, the first round pick. Ken Whitmore. Yeah, Whitmore. Yeah, we ain't missing Cam Whitmore. I couldn't even think of his name. I got stories on Cam Whitmore.

I can't say, though. I don't mean to do that. I don't mean to be that douchy of it. But I got stories. All right, missing you. Here we go. Maricio Dubon of the Atlanta Braves. John, then I tell you he went four for 26 this week in his last seven games.

Yeesh. No home runs, three RBIs, hitting 10 home runs, 61 ribbies, and an OPS right now at a flat 700. I ask you, are you missing Mauricio Dubon? Yes, I'm still missing. Yes, we've missed him every single week. God bless you, Nick Allen for hitting a home run today, but come on. Still don't like that trade. I was going to be.

Well, yeah, nobody, I don't think anybody would like that trade. Nick's nice guy, but come on. Alex Bregman, last seven games. nine for 26. Okay. Four home runs. Now, three of them were in one game. Ten ribbies. And also drew five walks.

For the season, 16 bombs, 61 ribbyes for the Chicago Cubs, and an OPS of 745. I ask you, are you missing Alex Bregman? Nope. I'm saying no. You say no. Peritas is good.

Paredes is cheaper too. Remember, Perides is part of the bigger picture, big trade. Got to make that happen. Yeah, you're right. You're right, you're right. I mean, Breggman still is awesome. I love him, but...

It's been a long time. That's a lot of money. The Astros won a World Series. Bregman, great money spent. But Breggman was looking for that one... He was looking for that one real long-term deal before he was moving on. Didn't get it in Boston, and now he's out in Chicago.

Hesu Sanchez of the Toronto Blue Jays. Last seven games, two for 13. No home runs, no rubies, five walks. Hesu Sanchez, eight home runs on the year. Again, limited to play, missed about six weeks, I think, injury. Eight home runs, 32 RBIs, an OPS of 741. Are we missing Hesu Sanchez? Nah, he can stay over there

He's just a guy Terrible defensive player Cam Smith is Cam's we're on the uptick on him Okay May not all we'd be there But we're on the uptick From Bervaldes

Last start against the White Sox As he's a member of the Detroit Tigers Five and two thirds innings Six hits Four runs Record on the year Seven wins eight losses and a 4.26 ERA big money to go to Detroit.

Are we missing? Rambra Valdez. Never. No. I'm sorry. I would never say I'm missing them. You know why? Says our sales are.

Crossed up his own catcher. I just can't get over it. I know. I know. And I'm mad enough to admit that. I just can't. I can't get over that. I know.

Your own teammate, man. That's nuts. man he's not been able to I mean he was a great pitcher he helped the Astros win World Series but we can't stop thinking about that he was good that whole season until the last three months so he just broke down crack like an egg on the mound literally

then Kyle Tucker we mentioned this last hour 0 for 19 in the homestand last seven games Kyle Tucker one home run no excuse me one hit 23 at bats one for 23

No home runs, one RBI. On the year, Tucker as a Los Angeles Dodger, not so bad away from Dodger Stadium, but awful at home, 11 home runs, 54 ribbies, and an OPS of 700 and a four-year deal worth $240 million. I ask you, John, the now, and are you missing Kyle Tucker?

I'm sorry, I watched that video that dropped past. He's going through something. He's looking intoxicated. I don't know. You think he's drunk on the field? The way I just, dude, that was bad. Did that drop of the fly ball? I've never seen a professional baseball player. Like, his caliber?

He olayed that bad boy or tried to. And then he hit the wall, look at the wall, look like everybody else. Like, oh, like, no, no one's missing that, man. I like Kyle Tucker, too. And a nice guy. I mean, not the most media-friendly in terms of, you know, saying a lot of things. But I don't care. He was a good player.

He was five-tool. And help the Astros, a huge part of 22. We can't argue that. But, man. Like you said, I just don't think he loves baseball. He doesn't love baseball. He likes it. He doesn't love it.

He loves four years 260. All guaranteed. Generational. And that, my friends, is this week's edition of missing you. So who are we missing? Dubon? Yes. All day.

Maybe a little bit of Breckman? No Sanchez, no Valdez, and no Kyle Tucker. Kyle Tucker, O for 19. Oh. Can't believe he was getting booed bad. He was getting. I mean, and the Dodger fan is. So his batting average at home is 189.

Okay, here with this, his OPS is 5.58 at home. On the road, it's 840. He's got to be going through something. He's almost 300 points better OPS on the road than he is at home. Is the home life all right? It's got to be something going on. Well, you know, it is a pain in the ass go to Dodger Stadium. You ever been there before?

Yes, I have a couple times. I mean, it's a great stadium. It's held up well for all these years. But it's not easy to get in and out of, right? No, yeah, you go up the hills. Yeah, the hills and the traffic after games. I don't know. Those numbers speak, that's something's going on.

His OPS and day games is 804. That's really good. Night game 662. A new temper mattress or something. Going those purple mattresses. Why are you worried about his bed? Something's going on at the house. Maybe he's not sleeping good, you know?

Like, you know. Maybe you get a mattress. I might have to give him a shout out or something. I don't know. But you know what it doesn't matter. They spend so much money, they got five other players. Mookie Betz is like, I got this. Freddie Freeman's, I got this.

Imagine they win again. Oh, I'm not imagined. I think they're going to be the favorite. I really do. I mean, you've got the most recognizable star in the world playing for your team. Filthy. All right, let's play, believe it or not. You guys ready for that?

We're going to honor, we didn't really talk about Tommy John yesterday today, because it hasn't played in 30 years. But point being, he is a man that we talk about all the time because of his surgery. So if you would like to play, believe it or not today, all things about Tommy John, he passed away yesterday. And we've got a chance to honor him. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach a show if you want to get in play. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Believe it or not today, the category is all things Tommy John.

and we are playing for one of three things. Leonard, Skinner, and Foreigner tickets, August 27th at the Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster.com for that. Tickets to see Santana and the Doobie Brothers. This Friday, I will be at that concert. Tickets also at Ticketmaster.com. Santana and the Dubies?

Oh, that's going to be a knife for sports empty or a 790 T-shirt. So either Santana and Duby Brothers, Leonard Skinner and foreigner or a 7-90 T-shirt. All, if you want to play, believe or not, all things Tommy John and that is next. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Jonathan, write these down very quickly because, you know, I'll never do it.

These are early gut feelings on tomorrow's Texans' Raiders practice. Kieland Rettledge gets into a fight with a Raider, right? Automatic? Gets it in. C.J. Stroud throws a pick. I got three more. Okay. Well, Anderson

Sacks Either Cousins or Mendoza. Not like, you know, like, sack, sack, but like touches him to play over. That's a sack. That's three. David Montgomery reaches the end zone. That's four. You write these down, by the way.

I hope you are. I'm typing. Okay, good. Thank you. And number five. Team Dale catch. You know what? Put that under your category.

Taint-Dow catch. You don't want to say? No, no, we'll do it together. I don't believe that, but you can... In a practice. Not with a jugge machine, right? In a practice. In a practice.

Against the Raiders. Okay, tanked-dell catch. I hope you're right. I don't think you're going to be, but I hope you're right. Your own guy, your own coogers. I love him. But, you know, part of being a major market radio host being honest with the peeps.

I'm just not feeling it. Something doesn't... Doesn't vibe well. And I think you agree with me. You just don't want to. Because you'll me a breakfast sandwich and a meal. Hash brown and soft drink. Or coffee.

My choice. 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 B. Believe it or not. And here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-5-7-9. 790. Today's edition of Believe or not is all things about Tommy John, the great pitcher who passed away yesterday. I'll read your statement about Tommy John. Statement completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. The same as he running is full of bunk and made up. He will say this. Two believe it or not in a row. We'll get you those Doobie Brother tickets with Santana. The foreigner concert with Leonard Skinner or a 790 t-shirt. Let's go. Let's play. Believe it or not. Javier on 790. Javier. You're ready to. to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. Javier, good luck. Tommy John was right-handed. Believe it or not? Believe it. No left. It's going to be a long day, in it, Jonathan. I knew that one.

Brian on 790. Brian, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Tommy started 619 games, which is 13th most in Major League Baseball. Believe it or not? Not. That's right. He started 700 games, which puts him eighth.

Statement number two for the win. Tommy pitched for the Astros for one season back in 1978. He went 9 and 14 with a 4.39 ERA. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, he never pitched for the Astros. I'm kind of proud of my work on that one. Andrew on 790.

Andrew, your favorite part of today's 10 to 2 radio. show. Matt Thomas. Tommy John's surgery is formerly known as Ulner Collateral Ligament Reconstruction or the kids would say UCL. Believe it or not. Believe it. Yes. Statement number two for the win. Tommy John was elected into baseball's Hall of Fame in 2004 in his final year of eligibility. Believe it or not. Yeah, he's not in. Thanks very much. Congratulations. Let's go to Ike on 790. Ike, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Mike, Ike, because of the metal and tendon reconstruction in his elbow,

Tommy John earned the nickname the Bionic Man. Believe it or not? Not. He did. How do you not know that? He said it once a thousand times. You don't know who's been called the Bionic Man, who's not. Gill on 790.

Gill, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir. Gil, even with 288 wins, Tommy never won a Sion Award. Believe it or not? Believe it. That's right. Believe it. Statement number two for the win, even though Tommy did come back to have a long,

successful career, he never threw a complete post-game post-surgery. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, he threw lots of them. Thanks for playing. Andy on 790, Andy, your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show. The missing you part. The second person ever to have Tommy John surgery was former Astros pitching coach, Bert Houton.

Believe it or not? Oh, not. That's right. It was Brent Strom. I was trying to fool you on that one. Good for you. Statement number two for the win. When Dr. Frank Joe performed the surgery in 1974, he said John had a 100 to 1 odds of the surgery being successful.

Believe it or not? not he did say that thanks for playing though grade me on that that's like an 8.5 out of 10 you know what it was I was sitting at home last night before I went to the Astros game that's why I had time to prep for it you do it on the spontaneous like an hour before the sucks all right hey tomorrow on the show

in-depth Texans versus Raiders fight coverage I mean practice coverage. Also, we've got Joe Espana. Also, Hayden Wisnowski. We have gut feelings. And I think that's about it. Sit back, relax. The real star of the A team.

Adam Wexler is up next. He'll entertain the hell out of you between now and six o'clock here on Sports Talk 790.