The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Move On, Look Ahead to ALCS & Texans Expectations

Episode Date: October 9, 2020

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. Falls ripped to right center field going back on its cana. He looks up and it's gone. Brantley with a two-run shot. And the Astros are on the board.

It's three to two. And I believe in this team. and we're going to try and just stick it to them as much as we can and prove to we're the best team in the AOS now. Oh, toss comes out. Here comes his 60th pitch. Breaking balls, hammered. Left field, Goodwood.

And it's gone. A three-run Homer by Correa. And the Astros lead five to three. And I believe in this team, and we're going to try and just stick it to them as much as we can and prove to the way the best team in the AOS now. And Brantley lifts it, the air pretty deep to right field that sends back Kana at the wall looking up see you later

and it is six to four Astros and i believe in this team and we're going to try and stick it to them as much as we can and improve the way the best team in the a i west now first piss to al-toevae and he belts it to center this one's got a chance that's got good one it's gone with a jack he strike three and that is the ball game for the fourth straight year the astros are playing as they defeat the Oakland A's this afternoon by a final of 11 to 6 and win the series, three games to one. 12-03 in H-Town. That's his best you're going to get out of me.

I'm not a PA guy like that. Hey, welcome in to the Matt Thomas Show here on Sports Talk 790 on a beautiful. Okay, maybe it's a little dreary, but to us as Houston sports fans, and certainly as Astros fans, it's a beautiful Friday afternoon in Houston, Texas. via Rial with you on the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. Matt Thomas is out today, a scheduled Friday off day for him as he's going up to Lubbock in Texas Tech to go see his son. Now, just prayers out to Matt Thomas. First of all, it's a lot.

Well, I don't think he's driving, actually. He's flying up there, so no prayers out in that way. But he's going to see his son and he's going to take him to Costco like 15 times as he's at Texas Tech for his junior year, I think over there. Brendan, are we going with it? I have no idea. That is Brennan Riley. So Matt Thomas is out. He is going to be dumping a lot of cash at Costco.

So if you have some Costco stock, go ahead and purchase that because Matt's going to be getting $1.50 dogs like nobody's business. He is out today. But you have me. You have Brendan Riley at 713-212-5-7. 97-13-12-15. 90 tweets to at SportsRV tweets to Brendan Riley underscore as we talk about your Houston Astros, clenching the series against the Oakland A's as I played several times in the open. The A's won at the Astros and they got them.

And I believe in this team, and we're going to try and stick it to them as much as we can and prove it. We're the best team in the AOLS now. Well, you proved who the best team in the AOS was. It was the Houston Astros. And the thing about this to me is that it hasn't even been, I mean, you took care of them four games to one in this series. And it just looked like the Astros were clearly the better team.

So they win the two games against the twins. They win three out of four against the A's. And now I don't know what you guys are thinking. And I definitely want to hear from you. Where did this come from? When did the switch flip? I don't know, but I'm loving to see it. Because you had the regular lineup that the Ashros wanted to have towards the end of the season.

All the guys that you were going to have were getting healthy and coming back, right? You had stints where Jose Altovae and Bregman and Brantley and Springer, all those guys hitting the I.L. point during the season. And of course, we know that Yordon Alvarez out for the year, Justin Verlander, Roberto Osuna, et cetera, et cetera, all that stuff that we knew. And I talked about this as well as far as the long-term health of the team, said, as long as you get your guys back that you expect, at least especially from a lineup standpoint, you're going to be okay. You're going to have a, I would, the phrase I kept using was a prism I could see through where the Astros became very successful and were able to make.

a run in the playoffs. If you get the starting pitching going, which, well, that's going to be a big question mark, certainly with the way Lance McCullors and Zach Grinky pitch in this series. But if you get the guys hitting, guys with not just short track records of hitting in the major league level, but long track records, multiple time batting champion, Jose Al Tuve, George Springer, who's just setting records left and right for home runs in the postseason, Carlos Correa, who we know flips a switch for whatever. reason when it turns October, it's time for Carlos Correa to turn it on. And then we know Michael Brantley can basically hit baseballs probably until he's 60, just the way that he plays.

He's just a professional hitter and he fits perfectly within this lineup. So all of that that we talked about, and oh, by the way, Kyle Tucker with three hits yesterday, he's hitting 400 in the postseason. So everything is coming together from what you're looking for from the lineup. And that's what's happening. And that's where the Astros are winning these games so far, at least at early on in the playoffs, certainly in the A series. It was pitching in the twin series where you gave up one run apiece in each of those games. But in this series, you scored 10 runs and then 5 and then 7 and then 11. So the lineup is turning it around.

The lineup is looking dangerous. They are Baker Mayfield waking up feeling dangerous today. They look pretty good. And this is a team where I don't know how far they're going to go. I don't know if they'll be favored against either the Yankees. or the Tampa Bay race. Certainly it helps that the game five got forced for the Yankees, although if they were going to advance,

that's the way it was going to have to happen. But Garrett Cole is going to pitch tonight for the New York Yankees. So if you do face the Yankees, you will not see him, probably for at least the first three games of a potential ALCS that starts on Sunday with only one day off. So things are shaping up for the Astros right now. And the way this team is playing, the way that they're confident, the way that they just look like themselves.

I mentioned this, I believe, yesterday on the show, or maybe it was two days ago with Matt. You know that feeling you get, or did you got, right? When the Astros went on this run where they're winning 100 games year after year after year, where they would get down 3-0, they'd get down 2-0, they'd get, they would take a lead, you know, four to three, and then they'd give up three runs in the next inning, and they would come to bat, and you would say, you know what, they got this. You know what? I think they're going to be okay.

You know what? they're going to turn this around where you you have that you're almost irrational level of confidence for the houston astros i don't know about you that's back for me that's how i feel right now the astros got down three nothing in that game and the astros have trailed in and trailed in every game against the a's and i just sitting there like you can just kick your feet up okay down three nothing they're going to be all right especially the way the ball was flying out in dodger stadium you just have that back now that irrational belief that the Astros are going to be able to turn it around, and it's because the bats have flipped the switch.

And what has led to that? I don't know. Here's what Dusty Baker had to say about it. And, you know, it feels good to score some runs, because when you're hitting the scoring run, you know, the game is exciting. Everybody's happy. And, you know, the jubilation that I hear in the clubhouse in there.

I mean, boy, it's been a long, tough. road, but, you know, we're halfway there. And so, you know, I'm thankful and happy, but I still got some happiness left to get. That's another thing, right? Dusty says there's some happiness left to get. And it's not like the Astros have done anything. I mean, they got to the ALCS for the fourth year in a row, and they're the first team to do that since the Yankees from 1998 to 2001. Cudos to them. But where they want to be, there is still some work to be done. But my question, to you is this. And I'll ask you this too as well, Brendan. Is

the Astros season validated right now? If they go up against the rays or they go up to the Yankees, has it been validated? Have they proved the doubters wrong enough after winning two playoff series or do they need to get to the World Series

or do they need to win the World Series in order to validate their season? It's so funny you ask that because I'm asking myself that. Because it was such a regular season. But this isn't been, I think because these haven't been like fluky wins in the playoffs, they clearly have looked like the better team. They are, there was no, nobody could watch that series and say, well, you know, sometimes you get five game series. For example, last year, the first round series against the race.

The Astros, that was a five game series. It was nip and tuck. There were a lot of crucial situations. That series, quite frankly, could have gone either way. Same thing for the ALCS against the Yankees. Obviously, same thing for the World Series against the nationals. I mean, you could credibly say, wow, that was just. close. Ashtros were way better than the A's in this series. And I think in both

series, they've looked like clearly the better team. So you know what? I do think it says, look, I don't know what happened in the regular season. This is still a very good baseball team. Yeah, exactly. So that's what I want to hear from you. Is the Astro's season validated or you'd want to see more from them? 713-212-570. The phone number 7-1-3-2-5-790. It is the Matt Thomas. Ross Villarreal. Brinney, Ron. with you coming up. We have Chris Gordy's horrible Friday football parody. And by the way, he said he hadn't worked on it at all. So we're looking for a banger from Chris Gordy coming up later in the hour. We also have Chandler Rome. We might be hearing from a prominent astro figure. Wait

on that. And you know what? I want to hear from you guys on the phone lines. How are you feeling after the Astros take care of a 713-1-2-125-7. It is the Matt Thomas show back in a second after this short break. This is Carlos Correa. It's your home of Fosters baseball. I love how sexy Carlos Correa sounds on that. Like doesn't it sound like he's like trying to, he's laying, is he either laying down Daniela or is he trying to bring us back to, play that, have that ready, play that again, Brendan.

Can we hear Carlos Correa getting us back into the show? This is Carlos Correa. Back to Matt Thomas. You know what? My sports, off, 7.9. It's your home of Fosters baseball. I think we need to put that on to some sexy music at some point. That's what we need to do.

Like, what is the... Now, we did this one time. We did a Fantasy 5 with Matt Thomas. We did, like, sexiest songs or something like that. No, we did. We did bedroom songs. That's what we did. Yeah, just play...

Do you have some bedroom music for us, Brendan? And then we can play that one more time. Yeah. This is Carlos Correa. Back to Matt Thomas. That's four stars, seven a night. It's your home. Let's just baseball.

Oh, yeah. All right, turn this off. It's getting too sexy in here. Oh, nice. I don't need to be looking at you while getting in a sexy mood, Brendan. It's just not going to happen. He had to be coached through that, right?

Well, usually you go out to, when we get those, truth be told, it's either at Astros Fan Fest or it's going to be at spring training or something like that. We just stick a recorder in their face. We have like a little index card and say, hey, read this, can you? And sometimes, I mean, hey, it's baseball. Sometimes they can read English and sometimes they can't.

But anyways, Carl's Correa, of course, can. He's been preparing for, I mean, for English since for day one because that guy knew that he was going to be the number one overall pick. But, no, I don't know why he just sounds like he's just ready to get after him. There's a story there. I don't know what it is, but that didn't just happen. You think we had had some hot intern and went over to him? No, I don't think that's what happened.

All right. Anyways, welcome back. The Astros take the series against the A's, the ALDS, three games to one after the 11 to 6 to win yesterday. And I asked you, folks, how are you? you feeling is the team validated right now a couple of you on the phone lines at 7132-1-2-1-2-5-790 speaking of carlo's carea he was asked about motivations and and you know that's funny that i might ask channel room about this coming up at one o'clock remember there was that andy martino tweet that everybody just poo-poohed and Lance McCullers tweeted and called it fake

news and talked about how the astros want to prove the haters wrong and they're mad and and they have something to prove and stuff like that. Like, after reading, initially I was like, okay, this is ridiculous from Andy Martino. But when you read it, it's really not that different from things that have been said publicly by Carlos Correa. Right. Like, he wants, he's like, what do they got to say now? People are talking bad about us. I heard you on ESPN.

All that type of stuff. And I'm totally okay with that. I'm okay with Carlos Correa, calling out haters. Certainly, if he's just going to be dropping three-run bombs on everybody and being ninth all time in postseason RBI. Of course, the RBI's numbers, the total numbers, a little skewed because the playoffs were expanded in 19, what, 69

or whatever it was. So it's not like Babe Ruth had all these opportunities to get some postseason RBI. But Carl's Correa has been performing like crazy and he says, here's what he has to say on what motivates the team. We're motivated because we want to win. We want to be able to bring another championship to the city

of Houston. We know what it feels like. So we want to be able to have that feeling once again. 2017 was such a special year celebrating with the fans in Houston. So, you know, I think that motivates us is to get to feel that again, be able to win a other championship. So, you know, we're one step closer. We got two great teams waiting for us in San Diego and the Yankees and the race. Whoever wins, you know, we're going to be watching closely and we're going to get ready to compete.

There you go. They're going to be ready. They got work to do. And that's what I like about, I mean, these guys have been here. And Dusty, of course, hasn't won a World Series, but he knows what it takes to win. and he talks about, I have a lot more happy to get Carlos Corray saying we got a lot way, a long ways to go. They got to win eight more games, and then they would be World Series champions. And that would just be, I mean, if they somehow pull off beating twins, whatever, A's who called them out, and then going to the Yankees, and then if they meet up at the Dodgers, which the Dodgers, quite frankly, are buzz saw.

And I'm deathly afraid of the Dodgers. I would not pick the Astros in a series versus them. But, hey, the Astros have been surprising all year anyway. but if they were just like that is a kill bill level of revenge tour crossing them all off the list one by one that would

be incredible if the Astros were able to pull that off right? 713, 2,1, 2,1, 5, 790, the phone number number you on hold. Let's go ahead and get to it. Let's go to Alex in a hobby area. Want to talk some stroes. What do you got, Alex? I want to say that the season, you know, the Astros

accomplished goal number one, but definitely the season is not going to be validated until they beat the Yankees and the Dodgers. And you know the Astros are rooting for the Yankees. You know, they want to, they just want to prove. Those are the teams that are playing in 2017. So I know they want to play both of them to get a crack at them. They're very motivated.

And I just wish that we can take Chavez-Ravine to us to San Diego, you know. I want to ask you, have the Astros ever play at Petco Park? Is that a hitter's park? Because I think the Yankees or the race, they have a little advantage because they've been playing there in serious at the park. They don't even have to travel. What do you think about that? All right. Well, Petco is a lot, Alex, I appreciate you getting in.

Petco is traditionally thought of as a pitcher's park because they have, which is wide, long fences. And you would think with, I don't know, some kind of. ocean air that maybe the ball would fly out in San Diego, but they are, it's generally thought of as a pitcher's park is Petco. And I mean, I guess that's okay. Certainly if you're going to go up against the Yankees with the likes of Stanton and Judge and Torres and those guys who are capable of hitting a bunch of home runs. And so, I mean, we'll see what happens in game number five. Garrett Cole is going to be very, very tough to beat. He's going up against Tyler Glass now, who is also, I mean, a credentialed and good pitcher, but not to the level of what Garrett Cole is.

and the Yankees, rightfully so, slight favorites in game number five tonight, starting at 6.10 p.m. on TBS. But we'll see what happens. I think, this is another question that I want to throw out to you guys. I think I would be rooting for the Tampa Bay race. Now, for storylines, if I'm TBS, if I'm or whoever, who's going to have the ALCS?

It's going to be Fox. I think at that point, I'm not even sure. I think it is still TBS, actually. So TBS is still going to have the ALCS. If I'm TBS, I'm rooting for the Yankees, and if I'm any executive, just like you root for the Lakers, you root for the Yankees. It's what you do. If I'm the Astros, the matchup, now I'm, I am scared of, I mean, Glasno, Snell, and Charlie Morton, as far as starting pitchers, that's definitely scary. But I think at that point, I would be, I'm more confident in the Astros hitting than I am in the pitching.

I mean, look what we saw in this series. Who had the best star? I guess Frambervaldez in game number two was the best starter at any point for the Astros in this series. Outside of that, it's been a whole lot of – Framber Valdez gave up – it was two solo home runs, I think, in seven innings is what he gave up. So, I mean, outside of him, you're not getting a whole lot. Jose Arquitie gave up runs. Zach Grinke struggled, as did Lance McCullors.

Would you start Christian-Havier a game? I don't know. So the pitching is going to have to be taped together. and you're going to have to win on the backs of your, on the backs of your lineup. So who would the Astros rather face? Just on its face? I would say maybe, probably the raise.

But either way, it's going to be really, really tough sledding for the Astros. Both those teams were really good all season and are obviously duking it out in an ALDS series where they're going to five games. All right, 713, 2,1, 2, 5.7. 90, let's get Murray in the southwest side here real quick. What's up, Murray? Hey, how's you, how's it going, fellas? It's going great. What do you got?

Hey, look, as far as my response to the question of being, whether they're being validated now or what, but I think they've been validated ever since they won the World Series, because these sellers, I think they have the 90% of the unit that won the World Series. I think they're still intact. They still there. and as far as the fear of the upcoming teams we're going to meet, I think mentally the guys are strong. They, as a team they're strong.

And the young guys that they got in now, they don't care nothing about the history of a team like the Yankees or Dodgers. It don't matter. They just want nine in them, and they're ready to go. And I think, you know, Justin Baker, he was the perfect fit for the Astone. Because mentally, they had to work against, you know, what the people accusing them of and what the, all the negative activity that was surrounding them.

And I think Justice Baker was prepared them mentally. I think they were still mentally strong before Justin Baker got there. All right, Murray, thanks a lot, man. we've got to get to a break here. Appreciate you getting in. Oh, yeah, I agree that Dusty Baker has been a good fit for this team. As far, I mean, I don't really, you can look. In any baseball playoff situation, you can quibble with decisions here or there. Should he have sent Josh James out for a second inning?

Should he have pinch hit for Josh Redick? I mean, Martin Maldonado for Josh Redick, when Josh Reddick just has not been hitting at all in the playoffs. I don't know. There are certain things you can quibble with as far from a decision-making stand. standpoint. But as far as a guy who's going to be a steady hand, who is going to be good in the clubhouse, and who is just going to be steering the ship, I think Dusty Baker's done a really good job. And as far as the validation is, what else are getting at, Maria, is I'm talking about this year. Yeah, they did win a World Series championship, but in the eyes of baseball America, it's

completely tainted, even though they tried to cheat in the playoffs, but they were not successful, so they didn't do it. And they won game seven in Dodger Stadium where they weren't cheating. You couldn't hear trash can bangs with the crazed crowd. So it was just, it was a moot conversation. And they didn't do anything in 18 and 19, certainly not in the playoffs. So I think in the eyes of many people who are quite frankly not paying attention, the Astros still have not been validated, but we'll see. They keep winning.

Even if they win the championship, people are going to hate because that's just how we roll in America in 2020. But it would be nice to see them continue on winning. And I'm wondering in the eyes of you guys, is the season validated? or do you need to see a little more? 712-1-2-5-7-90. The phone number 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. We've got Chris Gordy's horrible.

Football Friday parody coming up. Chandler Rome at 1 o'clock, the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas until 3 o'clock. Quick break here. Don't go anywhere. The Astros World Series. Champions. The Welcome, they're going to do it again.

Real winners play and Real Texas Talk on Sports Talk 790. It's why it's all special because it's four years in a row. that we've been able to get to the ALCS. I think only two teams in the American League have been able to accomplish that all time. So, you know, it's a special feeling. It's a special feeling to be included with such a great team like the one that Yankees had back in the day.

Man, we're not done yet. We want to strike for more. We want to go in the next series and be able to compete and win that one also. So, you know, it's great, but we want more. Carlos Correa wants more. Astros fans want more. Ross, we're out back with you on the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. He is out. He will be back Monday. In the meantime, we got all the phone lines full. So you guys want to talk to Stros. I appreciate you very much. So we'll get to you right away at 713-2-1-2-9. We'll open up as we take them. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90 holding through the break. Appreciate you. LJ. You are up.

Man, it's a great day in Houston. Look, man, I actually feel like I have that same irrational confidence. right now that you do. And part of it is because I feel like the baseball gods just love the Astros right now. Like it was a godsend drawing a Twins team that has no idea how to win in the postseason in the first round. The error they made in game one, I think really is what started all of this. And then to get an A's team that said they, I really feel like, by the way, Carlis Correa is absolutely driving everything for us. And to draw a twin team that said they wanted us, I think the Astros are, particularly Correa, is driven by shutting people. up, not the haters, haters, but the people who specifically call this team out.

So for me personally, and then you look at the next round, right, you got Cole pitching on three days rest tonight, and if the Yankees win, as I expect them to do, because Cole's great and Glass Now is not, they're going to have to make a decision with Cole, right, which is their only really good pitcher. You either pitch him on three days rest in game three so that he's available again on three days resting game seven, or you pitch him in game four only one time in a seven-game series. That lines up so freaking well for the Astros and to be motivated again by a group of people who will not shut up about this team. I just, I really feel like things are lining up really well for us to get through this next round. I'm rooting for the Yankees

tonight. I want to see them. I want to beat them. I am with you on the Dodgers. That's a really scary team. But if we get there and I mean, the baseball guys love us. Don't doubt us, baby. Go Stroves. All right, LJ. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. I'm not doubting. All right. I'm I'm hoping, I'm wishing, and I'm going to be rooting. And like I said, yeah, the irrational confidence that I have right now, especially in the lineup. Now, pitching is a different story. But when the Asher's got down three, I was talking with somebody and you look at the, I follow the stat cast during the game when I'm watching.

And their win probability at that point was like 21.4% in the second or third inning or whatever it was. And I'm sitting there saying to myself, man, can I get some odds on this? I really, three runs with the ball flying. out the way it is in Dodger Stadium. I wonder if there is some kind of like a live betting line that obviously there is one that you could find somewhere on the Astros to come back from a three-oholt because they had just been tattooing A's pitching the entire series and the ball had been flying out of Dodger Stadium the entire series. And of course now it is known as Houston

Astros Stadium there in L.A. So for them to do that, it's just I'm really flying high right now. And as I mentioned, and we talked about Brennan in the first segment, they just, they've looked like the better team clearly in both of these series. The A's just destroyed the Astros throughout the regular season. Of course, they had all the IL stents and the injuries and slumps and people just not looking healthy and not looking like themselves, but just look out now because it's the entire lineup is going. George Springer early on in the series was just crushing it. He had a multi-home run game, as did of course Carlos Correa and now Michael Brantley. So three different Astros with multi-home run games and a single series taking with a grain of salt.

That was the Dodger Stadium with the ball flying out. But Jose Altuve goes three for three yesterday. He's starting to hit the ball hard and look like himself. And then Alex Bregman is Alex Bregman. And then Kyle Tucker, three hits. Look at that. Well, look at that first six right there. Springer, Altuva, Brantley, Bregman, Tucker, Correa.

They've all been hitting great. You can turn it around on a dime, I feel like. And then, well, Renegat Maldonado, let's just say the confidence level is a little bit lower there. But Martin Maldonado's fun in the nine spot. He can go out there and hit a home run. He's not going to hit a high for an average, but he can shock you and just knock one over the fences every now. Same thing with Josh Reddick. So you're not going to be one through nine with all-star caliber players or all-star caliber hitters.

But what the Astros got going right now, it's pretty, pretty, pretty nice. 7-13-1-2-1-25-7-9. Let's go to Matthew and Kingwood. not Matthew Thomas, is it? Of course it's not. What's up, Matthew? No, sorry, it's not Matthew. Hey, big fan, man. So I'm curious to see how, you know, Dusty Baker and, you know, either of the other two managers handled their pitches staff through this seven-game series. Because it's seven straight

game. So it's going to be interesting how they managed the entire pitching stats. So I just wanted to hear what y'all had to say about that, man. I'll shut up and listen. Yeah, thanks a lot. Appreciate it, Matthew. Yeah, that's the thing. It's like, it's almost like a video game or really anything in life. The higher you level up, the bosses get tougher and the situations get tougher. The first series for the Astros was the Wild Card series where you could use the little piggyback system. You start with Zach Grinkey and then you go to Framber Valdez. And you start with, who is it, Arquite?

And then they went with Javier. Or is it Javier than Arquitia? I don't know. It doesn't even matter. So, I mean, you can do the little piggyback thing in a short series. Now in this series, they did go with Christian Javier in a relief role multiple times, and it didn't end up burning them. If the Astros lost that game somehow yesterday, what was the plan in game five? I guess Lance McCullors in short rest and then hope for the best?

We don't know. Doesn't that make you wonder in a seven game series if you almost do the same thing? As far as... You just make questionable decisions and deal with it as you go. You deal with it later? Well, because you want to win it quickly. You don't want to get to the back of the rotation. Is Dusty Baker going to the payday loan place?

He's just going to ask for some cash and then put it on the roulette table and then hope everything turns out. They worked in game four. Is he going to go to casino credit? Is Dusty going to casino credit and just hoping for the best in the rest of the series? I don't know. I don't think you can do that in a seven game series without days off. I don't know what's going to happen. And that's what I'm worried about in this series coming up.

That's why, I mean, I don't want to say my expectation level is low. I'm going to say I'm weary. And any time you're going up against the ALCS, you're talking about being in the ALCS. You're talking about being in the final four in all of baseball. You're going to be playing a really good team. Whether you play the race or whether you play the Yankees, you're going to be going up against a really good baseball team with talent on both sides, with pitching and hitting.

So I'm just a little bit worried about seven straight. Hey, look, if they just sweep, just winning four games and do exactly what you did here, you're totally fine. So, yeah, maybe you go with the Brendan Riley strategy, which I think is fair is you put all your chips in and you just try to fold. on winning those games and winning that series early. Because this series went four. Mathematically, the next series can just go four. Are you just going to sweep the raise and or Yankees out of the building out of Petco? Probably not. But I think obviously a disaster

scenario would be for the Astros a seven game series. Not disaster scenario, but it's going to be very, very difficult for them to win a seven game series. Because the longer you go on, the more issues you're going to have, certainly with starting pitching or, maybe Lance McCullors comes out and he is himself and he's in a pitcher's park and there is the, what do you call it, the Marine Layer or whatever in the big power alleys at Petco and he's totally fine. And he goes seven strong and you're good. Same thing for Zach Grinky. Zach Grinky in a spacious pitchers park I think would fare a lot more well than he did in the other series.

All the three guys, they're issues. McCullors Grinky and Erkiti, they're big issues with, and hey, even Framper Valdez, two home runs he gave up were solo shots. Everybody had issues with home runs. You go to Petco Park with the big power alleys and the pitcher-friendly park? Maybe it's a different story. But also, it's going to be a different story for the Astros hitters. Maybe they're not going to be launching home runs as much as they were in that first series.

Are we going to take quick break? I see all of you on hold. We will get to you as we go along at 7-13-1-25-790. 7-19. 7-13-21-5-7-90. Coming up next? Do we have confirmation? Chris Gordy.

Yes, you wait for it all week. The moment is here. The horrible Friday football. Parity from Chris Gordy is next. Craig Ackerman here. When I'm not calling Rockets Basketball, I'm following at SportsRV on Twitter. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. 1247 p.m.

Sports Talk 790, Ross, Via Rao. Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. Matt is seeing his bouncing baby boy, who is like 6-4-250. And Texas Tech, he's going to take care of him. That's always the best weekend. When you're a kid and you're off at college is when your mom or dad comes to see you and you just know you're going to get that Walmart or Sam's and Matt's case is going to be Costco. You get that trip and you're like, oh, man, I've been struggling eating these Totinos pizzas.

I'm going to eat like a king for a week. When I lived, so I didn't go away to college, but when I lived in Grand Rapids, which was 150 miles away from my dad, every time I went home, he sent me back with like a cooler of food. Exactly. It's so beautiful. Either you come home and you go, you come home, you brought your laundry, right? Oh, of course. You come home, you bring your laundry, you do all that, and then mom or dad or whoever takes you to the grocery store, you fill it up with food and you take it home or they come visit you and you're going to have, you're living like a slob. There's pizza boxes all strewn about where you're living and it's all torn up and mom comes up and cleans up and then takes you to buy, get some food and some, it's just some goodies to go around the house. Oh, always a great feeling. Matt Thomas' son getting taken care of this weekend. So Matt will be back on Monday.

713, 2-1-2-5-7-90. Chris Gordy, awful football parody in a second. Let's go to John in Bay City who's been holding. What's up, John? Hey, how you doing, Ross? I'm doing well. What's up? A couple of questions.

One, how many runs yesterday? I can't remember. How many ones did Greenlee a lot yesterday? I want to say it was three, but four? Maybe four. I'm not sure. Three or four? Okay.

Because I thought maybe they had pulled him just a little bit early. You know, and I thought maybe he was on a pitch counter with that sore elbows. So in the Petco field, that's the Arlington field? That's Rangers new stadium? No, no. It's Globe Life Park in Arlington. That's where the World Series will be. The ALCS is going to be in Petco and San Diego.

So in other words, there's a good chance, too, though, even though with the power alleys, they're going to be flying out of there. Well, no, actually, it's more thought of as a pitcher's park. Okay. Now, my last statement, I'll let you go to have a good weekend, and that is, I bet the Dodgers and the A's are crying like a bunch of bitches right now since they got spiked. Right on them? All right. Thanks, John. Well, I believe the Dodgers did not get spanked. They're moving on to the NLCS against the Braves. So that's going up. But I'm sure, well, look, the A's, Liam Hendricks, one of the Astros. Liam Hendricks said we're going to stick it to him and prove this is what he had to say. And I believe in this team and we're going to try and stick it to them as much as we can

and prove to the way the best team in the AOS now. Well, unfortunately, you proved who the best team in the AOLS was. It's the Houston Astros. Sorry, Liam. But yeah, it's just funny because, I mean, you had that, there was that NBCA's Twitter account who put that cartoon up of Carlos Carrey saying, what are you going to say now, and we're going to say you're a bunch of cheaters,

and C.C. Sabathia is slamming them, and everybody's crushing them. then Carlos Correa. My goodness, the chosen one. He just goes out there and rips a three-run, home run to put them in front. And he's just been completely clutched the entire playoffs, as is George Springer and Brantley and Altuve and Bregman. And they're just, they're hitting like crazy right now.

It's funny. Everyone wants to talk about cheating and trash can banging and all that type of stuff. Astros are being carried by their bats right now. Judge on the last four games, it was the pitching in the twin series. now it's been the bats Carlos Correa, as he would say, what do you got to say now? Well, if they lose whatever series

they're going to play next, then the haters will start chirping. They're pretty quiet right now. You know, these troll Twitter accounts don't have a whole lot of material to work with. But if the Astros lose some games, it'll come back. So in your eyes and mine, maybe they're validated a little bit,

but certainly it's going to take a World Series championship and maybe not even that in order to turn the public opinion around the Astros. Carlos Correa and the boys not caring as much about public opinion as caring about wanting to win baseball games. All right, we've talked about it all week. You look forward to it.

Every week it is the Chris Gordy, awful or horrible football Friday parody. Here's what he's got. You knew it was going to be a good one this week. The anticipation is killing me with Bill O'Brien fired this week. Here's Chris Gordy's parody. A long,

long time ago I can still remember when we hired him from Penn State. And we watched him with that silly grin, and his big old head and the big but chin, and maybe we will have a better fate. But nine and seven was so normal. Head coach NGM, that's abnormal.

Our postseason stints were so brief. Then the playoff lost to the Chiefs, I can't remember if I cried when we traded Hopkins and lost Carlos Hyde, a team that has so much skill, I said, let's fire Bill. So, so... ...in is gone, we'll finally have an offense that is good for Deshawn. The bandwagon is filling up So come and hop on Singing this will be the week that we win

The Jags are gonna take one on the chin Oh And then the beat drops And then you gotta go for like six more minutes Chris Come on baby Let's go He told me you were gonna want more Yeah he said that too actually

He came in here and he's like That's Don McLean's American Pollyne's American pie turned into firing Bill O'Brien by Chris Gordy. The man just makes hit after hit, but he's absolutely right. Because that's that song, it's got that slow build,

and then you go with the bye-bye American Pie, and the beat drops. That's like a seven-minute plus song. That's one, you know, this is a pro tip for you, Brendan. Whenever you're going to the jukebox, do you know that song, by the way, very well? I mean, I'm obviously familiar with it, but I don't know. I wouldn't say I know it super well. I didn't recognize it. Okay.

Until, like, the change in pace. Oh, geez. Well, I recognize it immediately. Yeah, that's like a seven and a half minute banger. If you're going for the jukebox and you want to take over the jukebox for a solid hour, you go. That's definitely one of the ones you go with. But yeah, that's a slow build. Man, if he had had time, you could make a seven minute song about that and it would just be completely entertaining. Just a whole segment. Just the Chris Gordy parody. Just kick our feet up. Put our hands behind our back and then just listen to the greatness that is spewed by one Chris Gordy. So there you go. The awful foot Friday

football parody with Bill O'Brien fired. And now I haven't talked about it much, of course, because the Astros, but we'll get into it in a little bit. But coming up, we'll have Chandler Rome. So we're focused on the Astros right now. But the Texans do have a game. Breaking news, Texans have a game coming up against the Jacksonville Jaguars, where they're five and a half point favorites.

We'll make our picks coming up at about 130. But we haven't really been talking about them much. I will definitely throw this to you guys later on in the show. I mean, I don't know what to expect for the Texans. looking at these lines because we make our beat the Shmo's picks every week here on the show. And I'm honestly struggling. What do you do with the team who, I mean, in theory, you would think it can go either way, right? It's one of those things where on Monday morning we're going to already write the narrative.

If they win, wow, the cancer is gone. Bill O'Brien is out. The team is rallying. They're feeling great. And this is why they're winning. If they lose, oh, well, everything is just thrown up in the air. They're scrambling for game plans. We don't know what to do.

They just fired their coach, and now they're just disheveled right now. We don't know what to think of the Texans. Luckily, it's the Jacksonville Jaguars that are coming in, although the Jacksonville Jaguars have won a game, and the Texans have not. But the Texans is about five and a half-point favorites in that one. I really honestly don't know what I'm going to be picking on later on the show. I'm not sure what it's to make of that one just yet. But all right, we're going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show.

We're with you till 3 o'clock. We want to hear you guys talking about the Astros. We've got some Texan stuff to get to. You got more coronavirus issues in the NFL. But right now coming up next, it's Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle, talking about your Astros, headed to the ALCS. We'll talk to Chandler, Rome next. Next is the Matt Thomas Show.

One o'clock straight up. Sports Talk, 790. It is the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. He is out in Lubbock with his firstborn, buying him hot dogs and other things from Costco. He'll be back on. Monday. In the meantime, you have me, Rosvi, Real, alongside Brendan O'Reilly with you up until 3 o'clock.

And right now, please to poach a guest from the A-Team. You know, A-Team just doesn't have time for you, Chandler. And that's why we're happy to have you here and save you from Adam and Adam. You know, I heard we're talking about America's team. When does the LSU-Bissuree breakdown start in this interview? That will be never. But you can't break down a Texas-O-U if you'd like to do that. Two bad big 12 teams.

So let me have it. Play the over, I think, is the play there. All right. Well, let's talk about some actual baseball. So, I mean, I don't know, Chandler, help me out here. This is an Astros team that lost their last three games, lost five of the last seven. Much of that with this playoff lineup.

Where did the switch get flipped for this team to where they're just looking like the teams of old to where, as I talked about earlier, I have this irrational confidence that you had about the team a couple of years ago that was just nowhere to be found in the regular season. Yeah, I think Dusty Baker put it best yesterday. He said he didn't even know. I mean, I don't know either. I mean, I came into this series,

and I think I even went on Lex and Clanton show and said, you know, the power is not going to come back against the eight. And that blew up in my face, like a lot of things often do. But, I mean, I don't know if it was familiarity. I mean, they had seen the eights ten times this year. They had faced every arm in that bullpen aside from one. and, you know, they had done, you know, pretty much nothing against the A's all year. And I don't know if it was familiarity, just breeds, you know, better at that.

And that's how it went, because you've got to remember, in that twin series, they only hit two extra base hits in two games. And that was, again, against a team that they hadn't seen since 2019. All the pitchers were not familiar for them. And I don't know if that had something to do with it. I think the ballpark and the conditions certainly had something to do with it. saw how, you know, balls were flying out left and right. Both teams hit 12 home runs, playing during the day.

I mean, it was playing like a little league field, to be completely honest with you. So I'm not sure if that had something to do with it, but then you also look at some of the home runs they hit, and some of those home runs they hit are going to be out of every stadium, no matter what time of day you're playing, no matter what condition you're in. So certainly some sort of switch has been flipped. If I had the answer, I would have written already, like what it was specifically. but these guys are playing pretty confident. They're swinging the back confidently,

and they're just kind of riding this momentum. They're riding this high in the next round. Yeah, and you know, it's also been on the pitching side. Outside of Frambervaldez, you didn't have anybody going at least five innings. So that's, if I had told you before the series that that were going to be the case, you would have told me that the Astros are going to just, they're not going to win the series, and it might not even be close. So, I mean, I guess you also have to credit some of the bullpen,

but they were giving up runs during the series. too, I'm just still trying to figure out how what is going on with this team and how they were able to just look so dominant. Yeah, I mean, they're hard to figure out. You know, you mentioned the starting pitching, and that's going to have to, they're going to have to get some more length out of their starters if they want to have a chance in this next series. You know, we talked about after the twin series, how this team, you know, and this fishing staff specifically really wasn't built for a five-game series. Well, they got through that somehow. This team really isn't built for a seven-game series. You saw how games three unfolded in this series when they didn't have two of their three trusted relievers available to pitch that day.

You know, if you get into the underbelly of this bullpen, it can really get away from you pretty quick. And I think we've seen that there are about three guys in that bullpen that they trust. And one of them gave up two runs in the night yesterday trying to close out a seven-run game. You know, Anoli Paratus has been everything you can ask for. but again, you have to caution a little bit. He is a rookie, and you wonder if, you know, he can keep this going. But we've said that all year about, we said that all year about this entire roster, this entire bullpen.

You've waited for them to just crash and burn, and it hasn't happened yet. And you hope it doesn't happen in the ALCS, you're an Ashrafis fan, but, I mean, these guys arise on the occasion. Having no fans certainly does help, but the intensity of playoff baseball in the magnitude of every pitch doesn't go away just because of it. Did you start a fire, Chandler? What's going on back there? Yeah, I don't know. I'm in a parking garage in downtown Pasadena right now.

I didn't time my breakfast journey well enough with this interview. I stepped into a parking garage, try to limit the noise. Yes. I guess somebody set a fire in downtown. Well, I hope it wasn't you, Chandler. We need you covering this Astros team. All right, Chandlerone, with the Houston Chronicle with us. As you mentioned,

obviously the ball was just flying out of Dodgers Stadium. Now, going to Petco with the big power alleys and known as the pitchers park, is that what we just have to rest our hope on with the starting pitching? And as you said, it's going to be an issue with the seven-game series. Are we going to see some of Dusty Baker trying to, I mean, I guess it depends on how games play out, but is he going to have to be aggressive and try to win games and keep the series as short as possible, I'm guessing? That would be for me what you have to do. You can't piggyback in the series.

I mean, I think the real question will be how they deploy Christian Javier. Is he going to be the guy that they go to to finish off, you know, one of these first few games if they have a lead after five or six innings? Or do they want to have him available maybe for multiple games? And also, I mean, are you going to rock with a four-man rotation? You're going to rock with a five-man rotation? I would tend to lean toward if they're going to keep Christian Javier in the bullpen and deploy him when there's a, when there's a,

game ready to be won after one of these starters that they don't go very deep into the game. So I think their usage of Christian Javier will be fascinating in this series, but they need some lengths and they need their starters to get deeper into games. Zach Grinky hasn't pitched deep since the middle of August. I mean, Lance McCuller Jr., he looked okay in game one, but again, there's the home runs did him in, and then you look at Jose Ortee. he's been a guy that's going deep for you, but, you know, depending on who they face, I don't know if Jose Artis is a great matchup for the Yankees because right-handed hitters

absolutely are destroying Jose or Qaeda this year. And if you look at the Yankee lineup, a lot of their big thumpers are right-handed hitters. So, you know, you've got to worry about that a little bit, but I think certainly Dust is going to have to find a way to win the games that are in hand. And I don't know if there's a game ever, quote-unquote, in hand, especially with this pitching staff. but he's going to have to find a way that maybe, like you said, shorten the series a little bit, win the games when he can win them, and then they just have to be some days where it kind of goes like game three did, where you know you don't have guys available, and you just kind of hope and pray for the best with the underbelly

that they can get a couple of guys to step up and maybe that the offense out hits the opponent. Yeah, and do you, I mean, do you just kind of, if you're being an optimist, you say, well, the issues that the Astros had in the Oakland series was home runs, and maybe that's less of a problem in Peco? I don't know. I mean, I guess maybe it would depend on the game times. I think the time of day had a lot to do with what happened. And even you saw, even yesterday, I thought, you know, the ball Marcus Semyon hit off Zach Grinky to start the game yesterday. I thought that would have been out in games one or two. The ball that Kyle Tucker made a very adventurous route toward the seventh inning. I forgot who hit it. But that got to the warning track. That was out of

the ballpark in games one and two. And in games one and two, like the game time temperature was in the 90s. It cooled off about 10 degrees for games three and four. Maybe that had a little bit to do with the ball not flying as much. But, you know, if you go to Petco, you mentioned how the dimensions are a little more pitcher-friendly. If they play at night, maybe it's a little bit different with the atmosphere. But like I said, some of those home runs, the asteros that it didn't matter.

They could have been playing on Mars and they would have been out of ballparks. You know, Carlos Correa's pre-run home run yesterday was. quite long. Hose Al-Tube's two-run shot was also very, very long. So I don't know if you can blame at all in the conditions, but certainly the conditions had an effect on it. If you just look around kind of how the other playoff series went, none had the just complete launching pad that this one did. So it may be an anomaly.

You know, the Astros spent their whole season not really relying on the home run ball, but they did in this series, and they may have to find a way next series to, I'm sure they're going to get a couple, hit a couple balls out of the ballpark, but I don't know if they can be as reliant next round as they were in this one. Chandler, Rome, of the Houston Chronicle here on the Matt Thomas show,

and let's talk about what's ahead for the Astros. I mentioned, of course, it's going to be a tough matchup, whether it is the Rays or the Yankees. If you're Dusty Baker and the Astros, obviously not talking about narratives or anything, we're sure TBS wants the Yankees in, but who is the easier matchup for the Astros? in the ALCS.

God, I don't know. I mean, I've kind of spent the last like 24 hours thinking about that. You look at the raise and they really pitch. I mean, they can pitch the ball about as well as anybody, but then you also said that about the 80s coming into this series and the Astros handled them pretty well. You look at the RAIDS lineup. Obviously, it doesn't have the star power off and down what the Yankees does.

It doesn't have that power. But if you look at how they approach, you know, they don't strike out. I think they're on base percentages, like second or third in the American League. This is the team that gets on base. This is the team that doesn't have a ton of power, but, you know, they're kind of pecky at the plate. They're a little bit like the A's lineup that the A's just kind of ran through, that the Asteros just kind of faced.

The Yankees, on the other hand, you look at the lineup, and, I mean, it scares you. I mean, John Carlos Stanton's hitting balls into the Pacific Ocean right now. Aaron Judge is kind of sloppant, but no one notices because they've got guys like Shella and LaMayhew and Torres doing what they do. They've got Gary Sanchez's backup, who's now the starter. I can't even pronounce his last name. Nagashikoa, I think. He's, you know, he's doing well.

So, I mean, that lineup definitely scares you against an actress pitching staff that was home or prone in the series. So I'm not sure. I guess it's the lesser of two evil. Both, you know, you're unfamiliar with both this year. And I mentioned how familiarity I think helped out in this 80 series. You know, I would personally, I would be a little more worried about the Yankees than I would be about the race, just given the Yankee lineup, given their tendency to be able to, they have up and down the order. They have guys that can change the game with one swing, and the raises just don't have that.

And given the Astros pitching staff, given, like we said, they've done well, but their reliance on rookies and guys that have not been, you know, that have been inconsistent. you worry about that one mistake being lethal. And the Yankees would worry more than the raise. But, again, I'm not short-changing the race here. There's a number one seed in the whole thing for a reason. I mean, they won the division over the Yankees. So obviously this is a big club. Obviously, this is a club that can pitch and that can really, really hold you down.

When I look offensively, I think the Yankees would pose a little bit more of a threat to the race. Chandler Rome Astros beatwriter for The Chronicle you can find it on Twitter at Chandler underscore Rome ROME Chandler let the folks know what you got up on the Houston Chronicle.com besides a full Joe Biagini breakdown. Oh man, the therapy puppies. What's going to happen to the therapy puppy? I don't know. Are you not that concerned about the therapy puppies? Well, I am concerned if they were in the possession of Joe Beijini in the first place. Oh, he seemed like a nice man. Just didn't work out for. Yeah, so in The Chronicle, I think I'm going to expound a little bit more on what I told you guys about familiarity and just kind of how that may have played a key in this series.

Dusty Baker called, Dusty Baker pretty much acknowledged after the game yesterday that, you know, being familiar with the A's certainly helped this offense. But that's certainly, you know, not to take away from what the Astros' offense did. I mean, they faced these guys ten times this year and couldn't do anything, you know, beforehand. So obviously, some sort of switch has been flipped. But we'll look into that. I'll watch the ALCS the other game tonight and kind of maybe have a breakdown and early look at the next opponent.

But I'm going to drive to San Diego at some point tomorrow morning and they'll work out at Petco Park and one of the full coverage from there. All right. Talk to you down the road, Chandler. I don't know, maybe in like five years, whenever it happens that we happen to have Matt Thomas off and a team not wanting you, but that's okay. Just for this weekend, though, go Tigers.

And of course, I mean Missouri Tigers. Go Tigers. All right, thanks a lot. Chandler Rome. Find him, as I said, on Twitter at Chandler underscore R-O-M-E. All right, he's talking to some stroes. Who would you rather see? You want the Rees? You want the Yankees. It's going to be a tough decision or a tough series either way. 713-21-2-5-790. The phone number 7-1-3-1-2-790. A couple you on hold. We'll see you. We'll get to you as we go along. Still got to talk about Texans, Jaguars, still loving on the Astros after they beat up

on the A's and what's coming up next in the ALCS. So it is the Matt Thomas show. Got a lot of stuff to get to with you until 3 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. Lance McCullors. Hey, it's Lance McCullors. Back to Matt Thomas. Turnball swinging a mid-swig three. On Sports Talk 790. Your home for Houston Astros baseball.

Great conversation with Chandler Rome with the Houston Chronicle about the Astros, what's going on in the past series and what's going to be happening in the future. As the Astros, if you've been living under a rock, come on now. advanced to the ALCS winning the series three games to one over the Oakland A's and quite frankly just looking like the better team and it wasn't even close against a team who had just bullied them the entire regular season weren't able to hit against them. The pitching for the A's had just been outstanding and whether you want to chalk it up some to the air in what was happening inside Donder Stadium and how hot it was and the ball was just flying out or I don't know what you're. want to shock it up to, and I don't care. Some of those were not cheapies. I mean, you're hitting your ball with at 170 mile an hour exit velo at whatever 28 degrees. That ball's going out. It doesn't matter where you hit that ball. It's going out. And that was a lot of those home runs, certainly that one that Carlos Correa hit to go ahead in the game, 5 to 3 or whatever it was

yesterday. It's just not, they weren't hitting cheapies. And the bats look like themselves. If you want to talk about it, 713, 2,1, 2,125. 790 is the phone number, 713, 2,1, 2,125, 790, Ross, via Real, Brendan Riley, with you as Matt Thomas is off in Lubbock. You can also send your tweets to at SportsRV and at Brendan Riley underscore. Let's see, a couple of tweets coming in. Pedro says the Astros are playing with house money, so no validation needed. And, you know, that's, I mean, I almost want to feel that way. It's weird because you're kind of, you're pulled in two directions when it comes to the Astros and what the expectations were.

Because coming into the postseason, as I said, they lost five of seven games. They'd lost three straight. They completely limped in the playoffs and backed into the playoffs because the Dodgers beat the Angels, right? So I wasn't feeling confident. I came on this show and I said my gut feeling was the Astros weren't going to win a game in the Minnesota Twin Series and they were going to be completely out before you even get to a DS, let alone a CS. or the World Series. So I was wrong, obviously, which I was glad to be wrong because I'm rooting for the Astros. But so from where you were two weeks ago, they've exceeded expectations, I think, for most people.

Even going into this A series, the Astros were underdogs to the A's. Now, it was slight dogs. If you want to go by the Vegas numbers, they were like a plus 120, which means you put down $100, you get $120. so you're getting a couple of bucks for odds. But now the way that they're playing, the way that they flex their muscles, the way that this lineup has looked, you almost want to say they haven't exceeded expectations.

You almost want to say, I expect them to go further. I expect them to beat the rays of the Yankees and at least make the World Series where I imagine it's going to be the Dodgers because they've been the best team in baseball all year. But that ace pitching has been nails. far in the playoffs. So that's going to be an interesting one to keep an eye on there in the NLCS.

But I don't know. I don't know where to go with this and how I feel. I feel like this is about the soft landing cushion where you didn't disappoint. If you lose this next series, you showed yourself pretty well, even though if they lose, certainly if they get swept or something like that, then the entire nation is going to just dump all over the Astros. And I get that. But I just feel like you're about where you wanted to be. This is a sweet spot. It's almost like where the rockets went, and unfortunately they have championship aspirations, but they got to the second round, and you felt like that was kind of where their ceiling was.

They weren't better than the Lakers. They weren't going to be better than the Clippers. I don't know if they would have beat the Nuggets, but they were just clearly not better than the Lakers, and they're clearly just Tier 2 or maybe even Tier 3 when it comes to championship contention. So I don't know. I don't know. Where do you feel about the Astros? 713-212-5-7-90.

We don't know who they're going to play in the next series. One of the big question marks is what's going to happen with the pitching staff? Where are they going to go with? How much of piggybacking are they going to do? And if they get down, you know, 5 to 1 in a bunch of these games, then there's no going to be no piggybacking. You're just going to start throwing guys like Cy Sneed and Luis Garcia out there and opening for the best and trying to get on to the next.

But what's going to happen if these are close games, if they're tie games late or if the Astros have small leads late, do you use Christian Javier, do you use him as a bullpen guy, and then you burn him as a starter in a seven-game series with no days off? What are you going to do with setting the pitching staff? Dusty Baker was asked that yesterday. Well, you know, like it's going to help to have, you know, a couple days off before you start, you know, to get everybody rested,

get guys that are sharp, you know, really going to help the young relievers that didn't, you know, have never, you know, picks as much on consecutive dates. And so, you know, we'll set our pitching plans. We'll have to get together and, you know, see who wins and see who's predominantly left-handed, right-handed and just all kind of, you know, every scenario that we could possibly, you know, you know, think of. And like I said, I mean, I'm, you know, I'm real happy, you know, for these guys. I'm extremely happy for the city of Houston.

Who's your game one starter? Brennan Riley? I have no idea. Lance McCullors, I guess. I really don't know. Does it matter? Well, if it's a Yankee, yeah, I mean, you're roughly, you're avoiding,

Frumber's been your best guy. No, I think that's the way out. Who's your number one guy, and who's your starter is two different things? And the problem in the A series was, the home runs. And some of those were cheapies. Some of those were like normally would have been warning track shots, but some of them were just, just launched. Like the one, Ramon Luriano, the first one that he hit yesterday, my God, did he get a hold of that one? That's a home run in whatever ballpark that you're talking about. That's a home run in the polo grounds in the 1950s

where you had like Willie Mays out there making catches 450 feet from home plate. Like it just, I don't know. I guess you go with Lance McCullors and because of his track record or his stature with the team. If you're going best, who are my best guys? You probably go Framberg-Rqidi won too, right? Although, as Chandler-Rum said, Erkidi's been struggling with right-handed hitters and going against the Yankees.

Yikes. In a long series, though, especially, you know, the guy going in game one could go three times. Yes. So it is really important to set that the way you want to. Well, maybe not as much with no days off. But, yeah, I get what you're saying. Well, he's not starting three times,

but he could pitch three times. pitch three times. I get what you're saying. So yeah, I don't know. I don't know what you're going to do. I don't even know. I mean, they have a lot of things to figure out. And that's funny that we're talking about a team in the ALCS. And it's almost like it doesn't matter because all of your options are not great. Besides Framber Valde's who's been spectacular. So I mean, I guess I would make him if you want to go out there and you want to win. And you know he can get a lot, especially if you're going against Yankees, where Stanton and Judge are prone to swing and miss. And if they're even going to throw Sanchez in there who's been a,

part-time player for him. He's a swing and miss machine. Then you maybe go with Framber Valdez and that curve ball and he can make everybody miss. And you go with him. So I'm not exactly sure. I mean, we don't even know who they're, that's where we are on this team. That's how mediocre the pitching has been. We're not even sure who to throw in the one spot in the ALCS. I'm not sure. But that's what Dusty Baker makes the big bucks for. That's what he's going to have to figure out. I think there are a number of different ways that you can go. And honestly, I really don't hate many of the options. But nobody's been great. and you're just hoping you're going to be in the friendly confines of Petco

with those big power alleys and hopefully late games with a marine layer and all that crap and then the ball just doesn't fly out. But that's going to happen for your hitters as well. But I would favor if it were the race, the Astros hitters over the race hitters. So we'll see what happens tonight as the Yankees and Ray's face off with Garrett Cole on the Hill. 610 to start on TBS. Yankees minus 146.

So slight favorites in that one. 713-21-2-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-2-1-2-5-7-90. You haven't talked much football on the show yet because we've been full Astros, but coming up next, we will get our NFL picks, talk a little bit about the Texans and the Jaguars, and we'll also take your calls and talk some Astros and all that good stuff coming up here on the Matt Tom Show

on Sports Talk 790. Very short break here. Don't go anywhere. Around here. Ketchup and mustard is not just for hot dogs. Seth Backchutes for three. Got it! Sports Talk 790. Home of Rockets Basketball. Well, the Astros flipped the switch.

I don't know how they did it. I don't know when it happened. Seems like it happened in the series. Obviously with the A series, especially with the bats. They only scored four and five runs in the first couple of games against Minnesota Twins. And then against the A's, they completely turned it around. So fantastic stuff from them. And now, I mean, everyone that you, I mean, think about this.

It's like George Springer's hitting. Altuve, Brentley, Bregman, Tucker, Correa. That's your one through six. And then whatever you can get out of Maldi and Reddick has just found money. And then Yule, I feel like, I mean, he was 0 for five yesterday and he's not been hitting well in the playoffs. But that's a guy who he can be a street guy, just like anybody in Major League Baseball. And he can turn it on. So I'm still, you know, I'm not out on Yule as being done for these playoffs.

He can have some clutch hits. He's done it before. He can do it again, certainly as the playoffs go along. So you definitely want to talk some Astros to you folks. 713-21-1-2-1-2-5-7-90. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. But as of right now, it's time to get in some picks with beating the schmows.

Ah, yes. It's the weekly segment where we beat the schmose on the Matt Thomas show. We make some picks in the NFL. Now, I don't know. I don't have the standings or how we did last week. Did Matt send these to us? He did not.

He left us completely naked. He said us his picks, though, so he must have done best, right? did that at least. So I do know that I went three and one. I got screwed by Kansas City and the Patriots. They were going to cover the 11. And then Julian freaking Edelman just hands off the ball to who was a Tyron Matthew or whoever it was. And the Kansas City Chiefs get a pick six. And then the New England Patriots lost by 16. They would have covered the 11. And I would have been a perfect four and O as we headed to October. But I got screwed. Do you know how you did last week? I'm fairly certain I went two and two plus 1,000.

bucks. I definitely went three and one. I don't remember how many empty bucks I won, but that puts me over 500. I believe I am now, no, I think I'm eight and eight, actually. I'm eight and eight with some money won here on Beat the Shmo. So in the meantime, we're going to get in our picks for this week. Let's start off. You know what? Let's go ahead and do it with Matt Thomas's picks. We don't have any reason around any of these, so we're just going to go with it. He is taking the Eagles. I'm sorry, he's taking the Steelers, giving the seven against the Eagles. Carson Wentz and the Eagles have just. just been terrible. So I like that pick from Matt. Seven points for the Steelers for $2,000 M.T. Bucks. And next for Matt Thomas. This is a big spread.

Now, it says 12 on here. I'm giving him the 13 because that's what we have, right? We're going to fudge these lines for whatever is going to screw Matt Thomas, I think, at this point. So, also, he just doesn't get to pick his own lines. Yeah. He didn't use the right place. He's going off the Yahoo app or something like that. Come on, Matt. You can't be doing that. You can't be making up

your lines. So the Baltimore Ravens, giving up the 13 against a Cincinnati bingles. I actually don't like that pick. That's what I don't like. I think Joe Burrow, three weeks of 300 yards, the bingles have been somewhat competitive. There's a lot of big, big points spreads this week, which is always tough. Yeah, the big ones are definitely, especially in football, right?

You can go from a 13 spread can become six with one touchdown. It's so tough to do in the playoffs. But anyways, Matt Thomas is going for that one for 3,000 M.T. bucks. Next, he's going with the San Francisco 49ers against the Dolphins. That one is nine. Jimmy Garoppel looking like he's going to start, but you can never just bet against Ryan Fitzpatrick. All right, you never know what you're going to get from him. But Matt's going with the San Francisco 49ers for 2,000 M.T. Bucks. And next, you know what? You go ahead, Brendan. Why don't you go? You're doing, I think you're doing better than I am on the season. So I'll let you go ahead. All right. So this line is really,

interesting to me. I'm going to start with Vegas plus 12 at Kansas City. I think the Raiders have been one of the most impressive teams in terms of expectations. Was that your favorite pick? Let's move on. Go ahead. Anyways, I think they're one of the most

impressive teams this year in Kansas City's underperforms. I'm going to go 4,000 MT bucks on that. Wow. You know what? Can I do that pick too? Because I'm only doing 2000. I don't care. Yeah, I think so. Matt's not here. Yeah, I got to write these down. Hold on. Let me write. Okay, Brendan, what's your name? Brendan? Yes, my name is Brendan. Okay. You have

Las Vegas for 4,000? Yes. Okay. And then I'm going to go to the Cleveland Browns plus one versus the Indianapolis Colts. I have been, if there's one thing I've been, it's a Rams fan. If there's another thing I've been, it's a Colts hater. Didn't work out for you last week, did it? No, it didn't. And I don't know if the Browns are actually decent. They looked good last week. I'm not super confident in this one, but I'm getting the point. And like I said, a lot of big spreads in this one. So 2,000 MT bucks on the Browns.

All right. I faded MT with the game last week. I'm going to do it again this week. Fade MT's been good for me this year. San Francisco has been good, but they've got so many injuries. Miami kept with Seattle, who I think is a better team than San Francisco. I'm going to go with Miami plus 9,000 MT bucks. 2000?

Yes. And then finally, I think we're going to see a much better Houston, Texas. this week. I thought that the last couple weeks, so hopefully I don't get let down. Five and a half points I'm okay, given that. I'm taking the Texans for another 2000 MT box. All right, there you go. You're all locked in there. Big play on Las Vegas. You know what? I'm going to take the same pick because I'm doing it for less money, so it's going to work out differently for us. So I'm going to go with you on this one. I'm taking the Las Vegas Raiders. I'm with you. I mean, they got a really good running game with Josh Jacobs. As I mentioned

last week, they have a porous run defense. They gave up almost two. 200 yards rushing to New England. New England should have covered that 11, but that's okay. I'm going to get redeemed this week. I'm going with the Las Vegas Raiders for 2,000 MT bucks. Next, it's a little fade Brendan. You have been anti-cultz. I've been for the cults.

So far, yeah, they did lose to Jacksonville, but they've been pretty good. And I think they're just better. This is the thing. When you're getting a point, there's no home field advantages. you look at who the better team is, and if I say who's better, the Colts are the Browns, I think the Colts are better.

So you're only giving up one point. I'm going to take them for 2,000 M.T. bucks. And next, the Atlanta Falcons are laying points. To who? It doesn't matter. The Atlanta Falcons laying points to anybody doesn't seem like a good idea. I like the Carolina Panthers.

I like what Mike Davis is done, filling in it running back for Christian McCaffrey. they got some good pass catcher pass catcher options and the Falcons are just completely falling apart. So you're giving me two points I know they're on the road but I'm going with the Carolina Panthers in a divisional game

grudge match for 2000 MT bucks. Have you seen how much that spread has moved? Where did it start? It started at three and a half. Okay, now it's down to two. Yeah, I guess so people are with me like why are we believing in the Atlanta Falcons? But I guess they've been close. They can score some points. So the total

on that one is pretty huge at 54. But Let's go now to the hometown team. Look, Jacksonville has won a game this season. The Texans have not. They just fired their coach. Is that going to turn their season around in one week? I don't know. Long term, I think yes.

But after just one week, I'm not confident they're even better than Jacksonville on its face. And then you're telling me I'm getting five and a half points? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I'm taking Jacksonville. I just, I don't like either of these teams. It's two bad teams, and I'm getting five and a half points. If the spread were a little bit closer, I'd probably go with the Texans, but I'm taking the Jacksonville Jaguaws for 3,000 MT bucks.

Actually, I'm a little short there. I've got to add 1,000 to something. Oh, I'll add 1,000 to Cleveland. There you go. 3,000 for Cleveland on that one, and that are our picks for beat, the Schmo's. All right, we're going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show, and I just mentioned, I can't be confident in the Houston Texans. and what they're going to be able to do.

How do you feel about it? No Bill O'Brien. Is the cancer removed and they're going to be relieved? Is it going to be like, you know what you have something stuck in your tooth for a couple of days? And you're like, what's going on? I got a toothache. And you think your tooth's going to fall out and then you rip it out and then you're all good? Is it going to be like that?

Or they're just going to be completely out of sorts against the Jacksonville Jaguars this weekend. What say you, 713-212-5-7-19. 97-13-190. This is the Matt Thomas show. without Matt Thomas will continue until 3 o'clock. But there's a short break here. Don't touch that doubt. When I listen to the Matt Thomas show, I don't even understand the eclectic nature of the show,

the dichotomy, the ostentatiousness, the perfunctory that sounds about as smart as LeVar Ball. Back to the Matt Thomas show, whoever he is. A Thomas show, there is no Matt Thomas. Well, not today. I mean, he exists. Several Matt Thomases exist. He is in Lubbock, taking care of his.

bouncing baby boy in his junior year at Texas Tech. Because he's going to take him to Costco, buy him a bunch of stuff. Always a great weekend for a college kid. When the parent comes into town and buys you a bunch of stuff, makes you feel good. You can actually eat some decent food with substance. You're not just eating Totino's pizza that you heat on. You take out the Totino's pizza.

You put it on top of the cardboard that it comes in, sticking in the microwave for a minute and then just fold it up and eat like a taco. Or maybe that was just me? Or did you do that too? I've never had a tootina pizza. What? Never. Man.

What's your, what do you, like, frozen go-toes? Red Baron, probably. Oh, you're a Red Baron. Oh, man, you're fancy. Can't be a Ford. It's either Red Baron or like the, like, you can buy like the $2 ones that are a store brand. Yeah, if you just said Dejorno, I don't know, and you're real fancy with the rising crust. Look, that's like, that's after payday, baby.

I mean, I love Dejorno, but I don't think I've ever purchased Dejorno frozen pizza. That's when you spring for the Dejornos. Red Baron is. level. And if you're really on the cheap, that's when you go for the Totinos or, of course, the pizza rolls that are for whatever reason, frozen on the outside and molten hot lava on the inside. I don't know how that happens. I need to get some scientists on that, but that's just the way it goes. So that's what's happening with Matt Thomas. He is not with us today. But he'll be back on the show on Monday. In the meantime, we've got you folks,

at 713-213-5-790. And talking about the Texans and the game they got coming up against the Jacksonville Jaguars. And look, look, this is just appropriately on CBS at noon. I don't know what crew they have calling this game, but whatever, like, you know, when they bring in guys for auditions to try to work on games because nobody's going to be paying attention or they do it with no audience,

that's what CBS should be doing for the O and four Texans who have already fired their head coach against the one in three Jaguars at NRG Stadium with a noon tip-off. But I really can't fathom how the Texans are five and a half-point favorites in this game. I mean, Gardner, Minchu and the Jaguars have been playing decently well enough, and I just don't have a whole lot of confidence

unless you're just going to go with the we are just having, breathing fresh air. And you know, you have the tweet that JJ Watt put out earlier this week, right? With NRG Stadium and the roof off and the sun shining, and then that's what we're going to buy is that that

they're breathing a sigh of relief. This weight has been lifted off the chest of the Houston Texans. Now they can finally perform or is that they weren't performing well because they're just not a very talented team. I lean more towards the ladder. And if there is going to be a turnaround, I don't know that it's going to happen just in a few days.

And not to say that I think the Jaguars are some great shakes. I do expect the Texans to win this game, I think. But would it totally shock you to see Gardner Minshu and the Jaguars come in here and get a win? I don't think it would be for me. So we'll see because the Texans have had issues stopping the run. James Robinson for the Jaguars has been a revelation for them since getting rid of Leonard Fournett and then

was it, Raqa, Armson, whoever got hurt, maybe Chris Thompson, I can't even remember, it doesn't matter. It's the Jaguars in their running back situation. But they've definitely had some issues stopping the run, but maybe it's just going to be energy. Here's Romeo Cornell getting asked if the energy of the team has improved. Well, I can only talk about what I've seen the last couple of days. And so the last couple of days, I think that there's been good energy.

and the guys are upbeat. I think that they want to win a game and they want to prepare. They're preparing like that they want to win and trying to win. Not that they haven't been doing that in the past, but we haven't won to this point. So we'll have to go Sunday and find out, you know, if a new head coach makes the difference. Don't you just want Romeo Cornell to read your bedtime story?

doesn't he just seem like like he could just read you the night before Christmas or something like that isn't that's isn't he so soothing? I'll say positive vibes too just brings happy feelings yes I was like

it was a night before Christmas went all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse can we get Romeo Cornell on tape saying that at some point I'm not even saying this because of his age it's the way he talks it's the way he talks like grandpa

and yes and well and he's plump and he's got gray hair and he wears those like half glasses. Like what's going on with these half classes? I don't even know. But he just, I just want him to read me a bedtime story. All right,

713, 2, 1, 2, 5, 7.9. Let's go to Peanut and Mission Ben. Would you like Romeo Cornell to read you a bedtime story? Yeah, that'd be really funny if he did. What do you have, what do you have, and my regards to your brother, cashew? And all I got to say is,

the Texas are going to win our division. Really? We're going to win our division. everybody is woke in Texas in the locker room everybody is up they live they're ready to let them go and we're going to freaking hurt not hurt but we're going to beat jacksville we're going to beat them we're up you're ready like they're going to hurt them all right thank you peanut appreciate it so the texans this sleeping giant that is the houston texans is going to be awoken this weekend Do you believe in cross-sport momentum?

No. I don't believe in-game momentum. That's not a popular one with people. Sometimes stuff just happens. It just sounded like an Astros fan who's feeling really good. Yeah. Hey, you know what? I think Peanuts are feeling good for a number of reasons.

But we appreciate you calling in Peanuts. So look, that's what's going to happen. I'm totally on board with it. I would love to root for a team that's going to be successful in Houston. I root for Houston sports. I'm not a huge Texans fan. Number one, because the organization has been run into the grand. largely since their inception, and I've never been convinced that Robert C. McNair and Cal

McNear want to win, but now, with this latest move, this is the first time in years, right? For those of you follow Texans, this is the first time in years. I've been convinced, hey, maybe Cal McNair wants to win, or the owner. It doesn't matter, because when it was Robert C, he held on to Gary Kubiak too long. He gave Bill O'Brien an extent. Bob was alive, right? When they went 4 and 12 and he gave him an extension, I'm pretty sure. So I just haven't been convinced that they want to win.

And that's the thing, right? Somebody was tweeting me the other day when I was saying something about the Texans when they were going 0 and 4 and having a completely dumpster fire of a season and fired their head coach. Some died in the wool Texans fan tweeting me. Oh, it's funny how the 790 guys don't criticize the Rockets or the Asthma. but they just really go after the Texans. I wonder what that means.

Well, first of all, you're wrong. You've obviously never heard. I crush the Rockets regularly on postgame shows. If you just want to sit here and listen to me talking about their bad rotations, their bad layer, their lack of degas local defense and turnovers or whatever, I've criticized the Rockets ad nauseum for years. All right? And one of the reasons, though, it's easier for me as someone who follows Houston sports

and loves Houston sports to root for the Ashken. to root for the Rockets. It's not really because they're here on 790. That's Simpleton thinking. It's because they try to win. Jim Crane and Jeff Luno when he was here, they tried to win. They traded for Justin Verlander. They traded for Zach Grinkey. They made moves. They had one of the biggest payrolls in baseball. They've signed their guys in El Tuve and Bregman. They tried to win. The Rockets, now obviously you can argue the results. You can argue the way that it's played out, they tried to win. This past off season, or this past season, they traded for a former MVP to get out of a contract where Chris Paul is going to be overpaid for the next several years,

and they went for it. Was it the right move? Was it the best move? Probably not. Is the Russell Westbrook trade going to work out long term? I don't know. But they've signed Dwight Howard. They traded for Chris Paul. They've traded for Russell Westbrook. They traded for Robert Covington to go all in on a small ball lineup when Clint Capello wasn't playing well. And people forget he was going to miss the rest of the season with the planter fascia issue. So he was just not going to be able to play. So they went there. They're trying to go all in on championships.

Are they just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic where the Titanic is James Hardin? That is to be argued. I disagree with that point. But they're trying. They're trying to win. The Astros try to win championships. The Rockets try to win championships. The Houston Texans have their coach go 4 and 12 and give them an extension.

The Houston Texans don't even fire their coach in Gary Kubiak until he's going to use 2 and 11 or whatever it was at that point and having a stroke on the field. Otherwise, they're going to keep them because I'm not convinced that they're trying to win. They're happy just selling seats and making money and being one of the more valuable franchises in the NFL. So that's why it's easier to criticize the Texans. Now, this has been the biggest momentum shift that I can remember in Texans history as far as, hey, maybe they are trying to win. Now, I'm not convinced so because apparently Jack Easterby is going to be back in a VP of Football Operations role whenever a general manager is hired. But I'm in wait and see-mo. If they hire a good general manager, if they hire a good coach, I'm going to be convinced that the Texans are trying to win because they finally got rid of Bill.

O'Brien, who got outscored 51 to 7 in a playoff game and then got named GM. I wasn't convinced months ago. I wasn't convinced a week ago. Now, we'll wait and see. All right, time for a break here. It is the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas till 3 o'clock. You want to get in 713-213-125. 7-9.

7-97-1-3-2-5-7-9. I ain't talking Astros, talking Texans. You want to get in some college football? You want to get on any of that going on. 7-1-3-2-15. I need tweets to at Sports RV and at Brendan Riley underscore final hour of the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas is coming up in just a sec. Yeah.

Is the Matt Thomas show. Balls ripped to right center field going back on its cana. He looks up and it's gone. Brantley with a two-run shot and the Astros are on the board. It's three to two. Motos comes out. Here comes his 60th pitch. Breaking balls hammered.

Good one to three. Stanley lifts it in the air. Pretty deep. to right field and sends back Hannah at the wall. Looking up, see you later! Second home run of the game for Michael Brantley. And it is six to four Astros. How you'd like me la?

And he belts it to center. This one's got a chance. That's got good one. It's gone. 11 to 4. Altuve with a jack. Astro's saying, how you like me now? To the A's 2 o'clock hour, final hour,

of the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. He is out today in Lubbock with his son. He will be back on Monday. In the meantime, you have me, Ross, via Real, alongside Brendan Riley at 7-13-212-5-7-90. The Astros win yesterday, 11 to 6. And you know what we didn't even talk about? It got a little, was it we are being Houston sports fan dicey? Or is it that it wasn't that dicey and we're just worried about everything?

Because I think us, We've seen, obviously, the Buffalo. Bill's come back. You've seen a number of other things happen to Houston Sports, and we were just completely ruined. So Ryan Presley, at the end of the game there, he gave up a couple of runs. Then he had two runners on base. He got to, what was it? Was it Chris Davis up at the plate, I think, with a full count?

And you're just like, I don't know what's going to happen. But you know what? They end up winning the game, even though we were super nervous, up five runs. Even if he hit a home run there, you're still up too, and he's going to be replaced. And probably it's going to be fine. But I was just going to tell you, being up five in the ninth inning, being scared tells you that you're scarred. Okay. See, that's what I think it is. I think we're just, we're like these scarred puppies in a corner and we just want somebody to pet us with some, with some sports success. Because we've been ruined here in Houston, but we're a little bit worried.

But we're all okay. I was still nervous at the end of the game because until the final out in Houston sports or until the final whistle, until the final bell, the final horn, the final whatever, you never know what's going to happen. in Houston Sports. All right. A couple of hold at 713, 2,1, 2,125. 790. 7-1-3-2-5-790. Tweets to at Sports RV and at Brendan Riley underscore. Let's go ahead and get to Steve in San Antonio, holding along with Steve. How are things out west, sir? Hello, how you doing, guys? I'm good. What's up? Hey, you know, I know that, I mean, I'm as happy as anybody to have Bill gone, but I want to ask you guys a question. You know, the tackling for these last four games, has been horrible.

The throws at the receiver's knees and overthrows and things like that, again, I'm glad Bill's gone, but Bill wasn't out there tackling. And can you tell me what's going to change when come Sunday, when we have to go back out and we have to tackle somebody and we have to throw the ball with somebody? How exactly is that going to, what is the inspiration for these guys to start tackling again? I'll hang up and listen. All right. Thanks a lot, Stephen. You know what?

I mean, I think that's a good point by you, and that's just something we have to figure out. But we have seen there are sometimes there is the Geneseecois. There's something you cannot put your thumb on. There's something that a certain something that just changes for teams. And I looked no further than the Ashroads that I was just talking about. They limped into the playoffs. They lost five of seven. They looked listless.

They just look like they, well, I'm not going to go as far as ESPN and say, oh, well, they're not. They have no confidence. and they have zero energy. Okay, well, they won 29 of their 60 games. They're not going to be out there fist pumping and preening on them people. It's just not going to happen. Now, when everybody's slamming home runs and they're scoring 11 against the A's in a clinching game and destroying them, it's a little bit easier to be confident.

But, I mean, what happened? What changed? I don't know. We don't know. Is it just because it's the playoff air and you're in the friendly confines of Darja Stadium? And what's going to change for the Texans? I'm with you. The big major problems for the Texans were what?

Uninventive game plan. Is that going to change? Is Tim Kelly just been completely unshackled from Bill O'Brien? Or is he his protege? And he's going to run a lot of the similar concepts that Bill O'Brien did. Is he just going to inject new life within one week of NFL practices and completely overhaul the offense? I don't really know that I can project that. Deshawn Watson has been inaccurate.

he has held on to the ball a little bit too long here and there. He's been under pressure. A lot of it not his fault because of the offensive line, although they are improving. Certainly Titus Howard is, and Laramie Tunsell is still playing well as a tier one left tackle in the NFL. But is that all of a sudden going to be okay? It is because Bill O'Brien got fired that David Johnson is all of a sudden

going to get shaved 0.2 seconds off his 40 time, and he's going to be great and look like the, David Johnson that he has been in years past, rather than what we've seen this year so far, we've seen a replacement level guy. That's what we've seen out of the Houston Texans for David Johnson in the running back situation. Maybe there's going to be more Duke Johnson. I'd rather have him in there than David, quite frankly, is the, like the caller said, Steve, are the Texans all of a sudden just going to be great tacklers?

Whitney Merciless showed a little bit. J.J. Watt has flashed a little bit, but we haven't seen. consistency. Brandon Dunn's not giving you much. P.J. Hall's been okay. I mean, I like Zach Cunningham as a downhill run stopper, but he hasn't been grading coverage. Same thing for Bernardric McKinney. And outside of, really outside of Justin Reed, the entire, who's the second best defensive player on the Texans? Justin Reed won, who's two? I think it's. Bernardric McKinney or Zach Cunningham, maybe? I like Zach Cunningham. I like them both. I don't. I don't they're not game. They're not, they're good players. They're good NFL players. They're not game

changers. I want to specify, you meant JJ Watt behind J.J. Y.J. Y'clock. So you don't think he's in the discussion for number two, even. Not from what I've seen. I mean, maybe. You want put in there? I think he's in discussion still for number two. Okay. Okay. Well, to me, Justin Reed has been making plays. Justin Reed has blown up screens. Justin Reed is really good at reading and reacting. I really love what he's doing. To me, he's far and away the Texans' best chance at a defensive pro bowler. Outside of that, I don't know what you're going to get. I think he, I'm talking about game-changing playmakers. To me, Justin Reed has been one so far for the Texans. I really haven't seen much outside of that. So is that going to

change because Bill O'Brien's gone? Bill O'Brien hadn't been calling the defense. Romeo Cornell's now the interim head coach. Now, is it all going to be this pressure is released? And you can know, this happens to you in life. If you're in a bad work situation, you're, you get a new job and all of a sudden the day feels brighter, the air smells sweeter, food tastes better, drinks taste better. And that's going to be the effect for the Texans. Was Bill O'Brien this huge cloud? That seems to be the case because there was apparently, according to reports,

a player revolt led by J.J. Watt, and that's the only reason Bill O'Brien got fired. So is that going to be the case? And they're just going to be this new team? Maybe. To me, they're still not a very talented bunch who had to be. hadn't been playing well. I don't know how much that's going to change. It's not often, now year to year NFL teams will turn around because you have big

turnarounds on the rosters. It's not often in football that a head coach gets fired and then everything's all hunky-dory. Think of what I believe Kubiak was 2 and 11 and then Wade Phillips became the head coach and they went 0-and-3. Their Romeo Cornell, when he was the interim head coach, they went 2-1 or something like that, and then there were 2 and 14 following that. So to me, the issue was Bill O'Brien, for sure. But the issue is also the roster that he built doesn't have a whole lot of talent on.

713, 2, 1,25, the 7994 of a break. Let's get to holding longest Richard, northwest side. What's up, Richard? Hey, how's it going, John? Listen, I think that the detectives got a chance. We just need to get a little more creativity. How about a screen to the right? A screen to the left?

I haven't even seen a screen. screen to the middle, a draw play. I haven't seen any of that. How about a catch and trailer man pitch? We can get wicked wild right now. What we got to lose? At least it would be exciting. We got some speed on our team.

I've seen no reverses. What about a reverse pitch, pants? Come on, man. Defense. Come on, defense. I'm looking at guys standing around, letting this guy tackle. instead of helping him tackle, game tackle.

That's what I was brought up to do. Game tackle. Now, I know it's a little bit more difficult nowadays for the defense because they're ready to call that head, you know, lead. When you tackle normally, you lean forward, and your head is on the front. So we've got to be careful about that. But if you hit them low and don't hit them with the helmet, you're good.

You're good. All is grabbing. That's not going to work. these guys are strong and I know about it. But listen, I think we got a chance. We got a second quarterback a la Warren Moon with a little more speed. We got that. We've just got to get creatives.

That's my take on it, man. All right. Thanks a lot, Richard. Appreciate you getting in. 713, 2, 1, 2, 5, 790. Look, I don't think the Texans answer is necessarily a bunch of flea-flickers and reverse passes. but I will say that I'll agree with you on this point that they need to be more creative. They need to do some of the stuff.

I mean, like I said, it was like watching going from SD to HD or 4K, watching the Texans offense and then watching the Chiefs and Ravens face off where you have these variable screens and these different run concepts and rushing a guy in motion and then having them flip around, all this kind of inventive stuff that was fun. And I can only really remember seeing that from Bill O'Brien for like a couple of weeks when Kiki Kootie first got his start with the Texans. I was like, oh my goodness, is Kiki Kootie the key to offensive inventiveness from Bill O'Brien?

It was mind-boggling. But it was just been flashes here and there. And for the most part, he just hasn't looked like one of the best offensive coaches in football. And that's what he was hired here to be. All right, we've got to take a quick break here. A lot of you guys on hold. Appreciate you getting in. We'll get to you next.

713, 2, 1, 2, 5.790. 2 phone lines open. 7.13, 2, 1, 2, 5 is 7. the 90 Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas continues in a second. This is Cougars head coach Dana Holgerson. Matt's kind of like Shasta without putting on a costume. He's a big old... The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790.

Speaking of Holgerson, the U of H Cougars, got a nice win, 49 to 31 over the two-laying green wave. Got down early in that game, but they came back. Won it, dominated in that second half. So congratulations to them and Clayton Tune. And Kyle Porter, wasn't Kyle Porter the Longhorn running back the transferred over there? I can't remember. But anyways, you know what? If you give, well, I'm not happy with Tom Herman right now in Texas, but that's okay.

We'll see what happens after this weekend. But anyways, congratulations to the Cougars with their win. Ross V. Real with you until 3 o'clock coming up, we'll get some picks. And also at the end of the show, if you missed it in the first hour. Chris Gordy is just an American treasure and he used a song that is an American treasure for his football, horrible

Football Friday parody. We'll play that for you coming up at the end of the show. In the meantime, it's me, it's you, it's Brendan Riley. It's 7132, 1,2, 5-790. Holding longest is Jay in a Willowbrook. Jay, what do you got? Sports RV, good afternoon. How you doing, man? I'm well, sir. What do you got?

Well, you know, real quick, man, I think the fire in the Bill O'Brien, is really an indictment on the entire organization, man, because, number one, how did he get hired in the first place? Number two, how did they let him stay for seven years, basically with a team built on mediocrity in a weak AFC South Division? Number three, how did he even get to be GM? And then number four, he's carrying the clipboard around calling plays

in his last act of head coach of the Texans. But really what I want you to speak more to, this is my question to you. I think it speaks more of this dynamic of a college coach trying to make that transition to the NFL. We've seen a lot of this, Lou Holtz. We've seen Lou Holt, Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban, Chip Reed, even Pete Carroll. He comes back on a second time and did much better than he did the first time. But we've seen a lot of failures with these college coaches trying to make the transition. transition to the NFL. So what

did you think contributes to some of those dynamics is the relationship with the players? I don't necessarily think it's the understanding of the game, but there's something I think that we need to look at relative to these college coaches trying to make the transition to the NFL. And I want

to hear what you have to say about that. I hang up in this. Thank you, man. All right. Thanks a lot. I appreciate you, Jay, and thanks for getting in. Yeah, I mean, we've seen it on both sides of the coin. I mean, Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer won Super Bowls. Pete Carroll has been successful from coming from the college ranks, but we've also seen some of the guys that you mentioned who have not been able to do it. And I think it's mostly a case-by-case basis,

but also to me, I mean, college football and NFL football are almost two different sports. I mean, you're dealing with not only the rules and where the hash marks are, which definitely factors in with college offensive-minded coaches, like you mentioned, Chip Kelly and those guys who are coming up here. Cliff Kingsbury has been. well, okay. What is he so far in his tenure as he went six and ten last year, right? Or was it five and eleven? I can't even remember what he did.

Five ten and one. Five ten and one. He's two and two this year. I don't know that he's going to work out. And by the way, though, he wasn't even a good college coach. So I don't know why people think he's going to be a good NFL coach. But I mean, they're looking like a 500 team right now, though Kyler Murray is looking like a dynamic talent. Yeah, really the only.

guy that I can think of right now. Well, I guess you have the Giants coach. What's his name? Matt Rule. But he also had an NFL background. He has previously had, and not the – he was with the Giants and assistant with the Giants. He's the Carolina Panthers coach right now. So that's what I'm saying is he had an NFL background.

So then he went to Temple and Baylor and now he's back with the Panthers. I don't know. Do you call him a college coach? Same thing with Bill O'Brien. He was the offensive coordinator with the Patriots. And then he went to Penn State. So it's kind of different. I don't know exactly what it.

They're different jobs. One of them, you are burning the candle at both ends. You are in first and outlast. And you are just focused on game planning against the brightest football minds in the entire world. In college, you're doing some of that, but you're also dealing with players. You are just keeping an eye and being, I don't even want to say, almost like a principal. in a way for 90 players who are on your football team. And then you have to glad hand and you have to meet with boosters and you have to go and go to fundraising events and you have to go out and recruiting.

And you have to go, you know, if you're at O'Jeron, you're going to have 15 gumbos today because you're going to go to 15 visits and go to 15 homes. So, I mean, it's just to me, almost in a way, different jobs. And it's about different personalities too. Why did Nick Saban fail? I think he was a little bit too hard on the ungrown men who are like, okay, we're not in college, Mr. Sabin. Like, come on, dude, let's go. We don't need to be like this.

Like, some coaches need graduation. All right, you can only, you can take Nick Saban and the way he is and how hard and fast his rules are, or firm but fair, or whatever you want to call him, kind of just hard-edged. You can only take it for so long, and it's going to wear on NFL players. Same thing with what you mentioned about Steve Spurrier. I think one of the things that benefited Pete Carroll is his first in in the NFL. It was a disaster.

Then he went to college, and, you know, And then he was obviously successful at USC. And one of the things that happened is the NFL changed a little bit. It became more of a player-driven league the second time Pete Carroll came back. And Pete Carroll is a player's coach. And one of the things you need, if you're going to be a successful NFL coach, that you didn't maybe need back in, say, the Tom Landry, Vince Lombardi days, is you need your players to like you because the way that it's structured now,

if your players don't like you, ask Bill O'Brien how it goes if your players don't like you. So it's a case-by-case-based. It can go any number of ways. All right, 713, 2,1, 2, 1, 5, 790 the phone number. Keep going on the phone lines, that's enough for me. Let's hear from you. Lee on the west side. What's going to change is playing the Jacksonville Jaguars this week.

That's the biggest change that's going to happen. We're going to beat up on the Jaguars. Everyone is down and out on the Texans. I'm going to tell you a secret. The Texans are the same team that perennually competes for the AFC South. nothing has changed except for playing really good teams and then the team has given up on Bill O'Brien. Now that he's gone, it doesn't matter who's the coach,

we're going to have a momentary uptick. Don't be shocked if the Texas compete for the playoffs again. The cupboard is not as bare at your thing. J.J. Watt is nowhere near as bad as you make them out to be. The defense is more talented than you think they are. The offense is better than you think they are. If we don't play Baltimore, Kansas City, in Pittsburgh, and barely lose to Minnesota, it's all different. We just happen to play our hardest games of the season at the beginning.

It's going to loosen up. We're going to be on track, be back to normal. Sorry about that. But nothing's really changed like you think. I mean, the Texans are the same team we always are. We're around a 9-10-win team. We had a rough spot. Things will turn around.

All right, thanks, Lee. Appreciate it. Yeah, look, I don't think they're completely talentless. I picked them at 8 and 8 before the season. I'm sticking with that. So, I mean, by that logic, they're going to go 8 and 4, and that's pretty decent over the last stretch of the season. I just, when I say that JJ Watt, I just mean J.J. Watt is not a game-changing disruptor to the level of what he was in years past.

I just don't think that's arguable. Is he good? Is he above replacement level? I would say yes, but he is just not that. I'm asking for who is, who are. are the playmakers? Who are the game changers on this Texans defense? And I think you kind of just, after Justin Reed, you kind of look at, can throw your hands up and say, I don't know, it's not really Whitney Merciless. Jacob Martin is a part-time pass rusher. He can get a sack here and

there, but I don't know. And yeah, it is going to help going against the Jaguars. Jaguars aren't very good. And the schedule is going to lighten up. But the Vikings are very good either. And the Texans lost to them. And for the three quarters of that game, they looked horrible. Yeah, they rallied late. Yes, they are a Will Fuller getting his hand under the football catch away from vying for a two-point conversion that could have converted, that could have gotten in overtime where they could have won. But, I mean, that was going to be a long stretch there anyways.

So I don't agree also with the barely lost to the Vikings. They need a lot of things to break their way to even get a victory in that game. And the first one of them did not in the catch from Will Fuller on a fourth the down play, desperation play at the end of the game. The Vikings were better than the Texans on that day. They just weren't. Where 5,000 fans are in the stands and making noise and booing and cheering fire bill at the end of that game, which it did happen.

So I think this is just a mediocre team. I think they're going to continue to be mediocre. Mediocre teams can beat bad teams. Jacksonville Jaguars are not a good team. So sure, certainly they can win. And I said they're going to win this weekend. I just don't think they're going to cover five and a half points. I think it'll be a little closer than people think.

But you know what? Wouldn't be the first time I picked a Texans game wrong this season. So we will see. The Texans, of course, are good enough to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars and Gardner Minshu. Will it happen? I think so. But that remains to be seen. All right.

We've got to take quick break here on the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. A couple of y' on hold. I appreciate you. We're going to get some NFL picks. We still got to get to Gordy's parody. And we still have to get to you on the phone lines at 7-13-2-1-2-125. 790. Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas back after this. The locket to the world champion. Houston Astros.

World Series champions. Home for your home teams that actually win championships on sports talk 790. Oh well hello there. A couple seconds left to the Matt Thomas show. A couple of you on hold. We'll get some picks in just a second here. Also we'll get Chris Gordy's horrible Friday football parody. In the meantime, the phone lines are open at 713. 21, 2.25, 790. You guys have been great. acting today after the Astros clinch and you got the Texans game coming up so let's keep it going with Ryan in spring branches holding longest what's up Ryan? Hey Rock you by any chance kind of feel like one of the either Tim Kelly or Anthony Weaver right now

that you're not bound by head. Yeah you know what we've just been uh look you always getting in shouting mats with Matt and he's so overbearing and just terrible to work with so now he's gone and I know what I just feel this relief this weight has been. been lifted off of me, Ryan. I will say I love the guy because of what he did during Hurricane Harvey at the office, not talking about sports, just trying to help people with. Yes.

He did that for Laura as well because, you know, a lot of people who can hear KTRH that are on the east side were having some issues. So Matt Thomas was doing the round of the clock of Laura coverage as well. So he gets, when he gets called in for Hurricane, he's the first one off the bench. So appreciate him. But yeah, he is off today in Lubbock. Yeah. I love him.

But what I was calling about was I think Tim Kelly and Anthony Weaver are auditioning for their next job. Where it stands right now, they'll be coaching position players at Purdue State. So I wouldn't be surprised if you start seeing a trick play, more blitzes, make stuff happen. They're auditioning. Okay. Okay. Anything else, Ryan? And I think right now, the Texans are looking at a pretty,

dim future because of all the draft capital they have traded away. All you're going to get with those draft fix that they have remaining next year are project players. They're not going to be your playmakers. Yeah, that'll be interesting, Ryan. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. We've got to get to Paul Nolan here in a second. But what you're saying is, yeah, we talked about the attractiveness of this job. It is more so attractive as a coach because of Deshaun Watson and you're locked up at left tackle than it is a general manager. because you've already got your quarterback on a $40 million deal.

You're already paying Laramie Tunsell. And, oh, by the way, you don't have a first or second round pick coming up in the next season. So that'll be difficult. But I think there's only 32 general manager jobs in the entire NFL. So anyone will jump at the chance to try and nab one of those, even if you are going to have it going a little bit against your way when it comes to the draft picks. But right now on the Matt, Tom's show. Time to get some picks.

Oh, that's right. You know one of the things we love about football. is you get a little action down. And when we need to do that, we call our guy Paul Nolan here on the Matt Thomas show. Paul, I thought we'd give you a break from Matt for one week if you don't mind. Oh, thank God. That guy's the worst.

Oh, I know. That's what I'm saying. He's just, ugh. Just the absolute worst. I'm with you, Paul. You know what? I've got to tell you, I love listening to show when I'm holding for it. And I feel so bad for the fans. They're the only person who's happy about Bill O'Brien's job right now was Matt Mullen up in Detroit after the destruction.

He put the Lions through. I mean, he's no longer the worst GM in the history of the sport. Jesus, I'm sorry, my language. Jesus, Louise, I mean, he's, I can't believe what he did there. I mean, the capital, the draft capital. Oh, boy, I wish for you guys. Such a great football town. Yeah, but it is, it's more of a ding-dong the witch's dead situation here, Paul.

So I think people are dancing in the streets. Good to know. All right. Let's go with the picks, Paul. First of all, I know obviously we like getting a lot of different things down, and we made our picks earlier on the show. And one of the ones you were picking is Cleveland versus Indianapolis. This is an interesting one.

Cleveland playing better. That Indianapolis defense has been looking pretty good so far. How do you see this one playing out? Well, I don't want to be – I don't want to run out on it. I kind of feel like this – as much as I like India, and last year they were a great value team, and I do like the defense in general. The competition they faced us far is kind of – suspect. What I do like, though, is that

Indianapolis, you know, for one, obviously good team up, but they're constantly hawking the ball. They play a base defense. They like the rush four. You know, they don't blitz a lot. So, you know, I like the way they can get after the quarterback. But outside of that, you know, last week they played in 20 mile an hour wins against the quarterback who kind of missed open guys. There were people open. There was opportunity. there. I think that right now

Cleveland, the way they're running the ball, what they've done since really the end of the first quarter in week two, they're averaging almost a third of a point per play. It's just an astronomical number. It's right there with the bills and the Packers. So this team really seems to be

doing the right thing, letting Baker Mayfield be a passenger, just manage the game. And maybe there is one of those high-end rollout plays where he can make, like, one of those extraordinary athletic plays, which he's finding that he's not as athletic as he, you know, by NFL standards as he is, was in college.

He's got to stay in the pocket more. If he continues to stay within himself and just be a high-performance gardener Minchu, this team can really do some damage because what they're doing on the ground, you know, I mean, 5.9 yards per run play over the past three weeks. I mean, it doesn't matter if Chubbs out because Hunt is in and he's done a phenomenal job. the head, the forest Buckner on the back end, Xavier Rose, as you know, as a stud. This defense is starting to come around, and I just think there's going to be a little bit of an extra grind.

I like Cleveland, especially earlier in the week when they were plus two and a half. I just think that's a tremendous value here. I'd love the spot they're in. You know, I know the public is kind of backing Indian. There's a lot of love for them right now. I mean, weather might be a concern. They're expecting a possibility of rain and 10-mile-in-hour wins, which isn't devastating. but right now I think Cleveland's a tremendous value.

All right, Paul, Nolan here on The Matt Tom Show. And what is that phone number that you got for the folks there, Paul? Oh, yeah, cool. Thank you. Anybody who wants the free picks for the weekend, we have three tomorrow. We have three on Sunday in the Monday night game. We're just going to give it the weekend six-pack. All you've got to do is call 888-36-3.

Or they want to go to freewinners.net. They can watch the full-length show that has every Saturday and Sunday there. and, you know, they're welcome to call on for free picks and, you know, get a recorded message, hold the line and get some freebies. We'll really do a nice job for you. Well, I don't mean to disappoint you. I'm not going to sing the phone number like Matt Thomas does there, Paul.

But freewinters.net, 888-863733. Did I have that correct, Paul? I think so. Yes, you do. 888-36-3733. I can promise you it'll be a really good weekend. We're really excited about the board. All right, freewinters.net.

And also another one you have is an interesting one. me. Philadelphia, it's hard to make out, are they a good team, or are they a bad team, are they a disaster, or are they not? Sometimes they show up, sometimes they don't. And Pittsburgh with the bi-week last week because of the coronavirus, what are you expecting

in this one? What are you talking about the first place leaders? The Philadelphia Eagles? Yeah, it's true. It's just, it's truly a sound. The tallest midget, yes, Paul. truly is now

I think it's one two and one that they're leading the division you know Wentz has been atrocious last week though look you looked like he had the yips in the first few games he literally just missing

wide open guys at a level we've never seen he just looked like he was like the equivalent of you know a baseball player or a hockey player squeezing a stick too tight and he looked the same way like he just couldn't get the ball out of his hands the way he wanted to

and I think once he started to be a little more physical using his legs getting down and dirty feel like one of the guys again, getting a win on the road against the JV squad for San Fran was still a big win. They get to come home on that plane, long flight,

feeling good, breathing easy, relax, and knowing they're in command of the division, knowing that it's a do-over. All they've got to do is get on track. But they've got some issues here. You know, the right guard and left guard of Steelers has been nothing short of outstanding.

Fila and DeCastro, and they're going against Lee Jackson and now Fletcher Cox being so banged up. He's probably not playing at this point. I've been on the road today, so I'm pretty sure he's not going to play, according to my insiders. And that kind of takes away the one thing Philly really does well. And that's get after the quarterback. And I know on the other side of the ball, T.J. Watt, Bud Dupree,

these guys are going to go after it because this offensive line is not the same offensive line for Philadelphia. you know, Jordan, Malata, Jason Peters has been a disaster, not a disaster, but not good at all. And Kelsey hasn't been himself.

Outside of Lane Johnson is also playing banged up. True Warrior, he should have a little bit of an issue this week, considering the fact that this is a steel team that blitzes 52 or 53% of its plays. And not just that, they get pressure 50% of the past place. That's almost unheard of. So I think Pittsburgh has got a chip on their shoulder.

angry about this forced, you know, by week that they didn't want to take right then and there. The team is, you know, still has an issue, in my opinion with, you know, Big Ben misses open guys a little too often. But I don't think that's going to be an issue here with a secondary that's been nothing short of terrible. Considering, I mean, a guy like Mikkel Robby Coleman, who's so good in the slot as a cover man has been a disaster thus far this year. You wonder if he's a deal with an injury. I think Juju has a big day. So for the fantasy players out there, besides the... betting Pittsburgh laying in the seven.

I think Jetjou is a must install on your fantasy team. Oh, there you go. I mean, that full breakdown from the roster there from Paul Nolan. So you know what? You know he does his research. So go to freewinners.net. Freewinners.net or the phone number 888-36363733. Paul, just remind the folks again what you got was going on with the free picks.

Yeah, look, there's no catch. There's no hustle or hassle. You know, we just want to share the picks. We work up, but off to be as good as we can be. And if you dial 888-366-37-33, you're going to get three for free for Saturday, three for free for Sunday. And we'll treat you with respect, decency, and honor, and we know we can win for you. We know we can do a really nice job for you. All right, there you go. Paul Nolan, we'll talk to you next week, and you'll have Matt back with you.

Appreciate the time. All right, Paul Nolan, there. Freewinners.net. 888-366 free, F-R-E there, if you want to call in and get his picks. Time for a quick break here. We got to tell a couple of you guys on hold. I promise we will get to you if you're holding right now. We also have Chris Gordy's horrible football Friday parody coming up.

It is the Matt Thomas Show with you until three. We're right back after the short break. Yo, this is Bunby. And my wife is the biggest fan of the whitest man in America. Matt Thomas, Matt Moore. Reckless, ratchet, and don't give a fuck. Final segment, Matt Thomas Show. A couple of you on hold.

We'll get to you real quick. We also got to get through the parody again. Let's get right to it, starting with Gerard and Richmond. Gerard, we got. There should be no doubt that Frammer Valdez should start game one. He's been their best pitcher. McCullors, man. He don't pitch well outside of Houston.

I don't know what the problem is. But on the road, he's not the same pitcher, man. So I would not be going with him in game one. I would go with Framma Valdez, Pabelle O'Kidi. And then, you know, we can go with Grinkie and McCullors for three and four, man. That would be high-go. I really, I seriously be going with Christian Hover if he wasn't so valuable in the bullpen, man. because he's really pitched better than McCullors and Grinky, too, in this playoff run.

But I understand that the Bullpen is kind of suspect. I probably would leave Christian Javier to be that bridge pitcher coming out at the Bullpen. So I probably go with that route, man. But looking forward to the game tonight with the Yankees in the Tampa Bay race. It should be a good matchup. Both teams caused different problems. I think Tampa Bay has the better pitching. But those hitters that Yankees got are scary, man.

They got a lot of long ball hitters, man. They got a lot of good players. They got Torres. He's a big-time player, too, man. Urshilla, they just got, they remind me of the Astros, man. They have a strong lineup throughout all hitters in their lineup, man. They probably have a little bit more power than Astros, but the Astros probably have a little bit more contact hitters than the Yankees.

So that would be a terrific matchup either way. Quick thing on the Texan, man. The Texans are on four, but with that wild court spot, they're only two games out, man. The wild-course spot are going to come into place. Texas are very much alive, man. They're only two games out of the seven spot in the playoff picture, and they haven't played any division games.

So they got a first division game coming up this Sunday against Jacksonville. Jacksonville has a hard time stopping the run. So the Texan should be trying to get their run game going. And let Deshawn Watson be himself, man. Put him as the same offense that he ran in Clemson and that he was running his rookie year before he got hurt, man. They go back to that style of offense where you put the ball in Deshawn Watson in his hands.

They can put up a lot of points. And the defense just got to be average. We ain't asking them to be the 86 Bears, man. They just got to be average and hold their own, man, and don't be giving up all-time rushing yards in the fourth quarter, man. They've just got to be average, and I think the Texan can win a lot of game. And again, with that extra wild-course spot, they're very much alive, and they have very much alive in the division because they haven't played any division games so far.

So we'll see what happens, man, by the Texas are beating the Jaguars, 27-17 Sunday, and get ready to go to Tennessee for another big division game on the role, man. This season is not lost by any means, and it's got a lot of football left to play. All right. Thanks a lot, Gerard. I appreciate you getting in a succinct 21 for those of you keeping track at home. Real quick, before we get to the parody manual in SoCal, what's up, Manuel? Hey, Ross. I was good to hear your voice. Glad that you're doing an awesome job taking over right now for Matt. Real quick, I'm going to congratulate you, Astros. I'm glad you guys. I've been

sticking it to the haters. I'm a die-hard brave fan since way back in the 90s. I really would like both of our teams to grow the World Series. I know it's going to be hard. We got the Dodgers are an awesome team, but I got to believe in my squad, right? And I want you guys to smash the Yankees just because I can't stand the Yankees. He killed us in the 90s, so I hate the Yankees. So I hope for you guys to win it and us to win it to underdog teams that nobody thought should even be there.

And then whatever happens happens. but, you know, I want to congratulate you guys. You guys are doing awesome, and I'm proud of our guys. Nobody expected us with a bunch of young kids on the pitcher staff to show up and get it done. So let's get it done. One more team to go through for both of us and then this meet up in the World Series. All right. Thanks a lot, Manuel. That'll be interesting to see.

Yeah, it's funny. The fun story is the Astros play the Yankees and the Dodgers. The easier probably route might be the Rays. And then, well, the Braves aren't going to be easy. No matter who you play in the World Series. you're playing against a really good baseball team, but I'm just deathly afraid of the Dodgers at the Ashford were to play them in World Series.

All right, before we get out, let's go ahead and play it one more time. It's Chris Gordy with Bill O'Brien fired. Of course, we had to say goodbye. Here's Chris Gordy's horrible Friday. Football parody. A long, long time ago, I can still remember when we hired him from Penn State. and we watched him with that silly grin

And his big old head And the big butt chin And maybe we will have a better fate But nine and seven was so normal Head coach and GM That's abnormal Our postseason stints were so brief Then the playoff loss to the chiefs

I can't remember If I cried when we traded Hopkins and lost Carlos Hyde, a team that has so much skill, I said, Let's fire Bill. So, so. It is gone. We'll finally have an offense that is good for Deshawn. The bandwagon is filling up so come and hop on. singing this will be the week that we win the jags are going to take one on the chin and then that's where it should ramp up yes

now for ten years we've been on a rollin stone now the problem with doing this in a karaoke is it's like a seven-minute jam and things that seem like a good idea that aren't are like seven-minute songs that you karaoke or rap songs Like one time I thought it'd be funny to do, what do you call it? Baby got back. You're up there for like six minutes saying 15 million words. This is eight and a half. It's just not a good karaoke choice. But this one's not that bad. All right, that's going to do it for the Matt Thomas show.

Thanks to all you for calling, listening, tweeting, being involved in the show. Thanks to Brennan Riley, producing, doing a great job as always. Coming up next, it's Adam, and it's another Adam, and it's a Jeff. The A team is next. here on Sports Talk 7.80. My name is Rossby-Areal. I'm taking a vacation. I'll see you guys. I'm like, I don't know, nine or ten days or something like that. Until then, have a pleasant weekend.