The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Take Game 2 vs Diamondbacks 3-1, Brice Matthews Is Showing Us He Isn’t Scared Of The Moment, Jim Bowden Joins The Show

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

Astros Take Game 2 vs Diamondbacks 3-1, Brice Matthews Is Showing Us He Isn’t Scared Of The Moment, Jim Bowden Joins The Show.

H-Town. Good morning and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Is Bryce Matthews our new Iron Man Sports RV? RIP Ozzy Osbourne. How many games in a row is he played? Well, I mean, it fits, right? Like three? Two? Yeah, he missed a Sunday game, so the streaks at two.

Okay. My guess it'll be three today when he plays. That's one thing you can count on Joe's spot, especially with the lineup the way it's been. If you get a couple of hits and we're going to go with you. Yeah, Taylor Tremel, you get to play. Yeah, exactly. Cooper Hummel, ever since a certain member of the 790s family, decided he was going to get three hits in a single day.

I don't think he's had three hits in two weeks, but that's neither here nor there. That's okay. Good morning, everyone. We got a really busy edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on a Wednesday. We have a little bit of a shorter show, but we're going to be with you the full way. Matter of fact, we're going to go to 205 today. because Astros baseball, actually 210, Astros baseball starts at 240. Yeah, Wexler and Clinton are getting a day off.

There'll be a lot of those coming up. What? Yeah. They'll be doing no on deck, no 10th inning, they're lazy. That's why when I said, Wex, you're going to call us at some point during the show today. Oh, good. With a training camp report. He's like, because you kind of have to do it, right?

He's got his notes. He's got his notes. Mm-hmm. So we will go through that today. We have on the radio show Brian Bogus epic coming up at 11 o'clock. We have shut your bum ass up at 1130. We have the news at noon. And Jim Bowden is going to join us here on the radio show today.

Really? Yeah. I booked out like a mother yesterday. Yeah. Wow. Thanks for paying attention to the pre-show tweet. I have you muted. That's fine.

He works for the athletic MLB Network Radio. Serious XM. I mean, I can't. You know, I'll start tagging you. That's fine. No, I will. I feel terrible. Don't worry about it.

I'll do it. Okay. Okay, I will pledge as long as I remember, and you can remind me, I will like and retweet it. That's what I'm like to hear. As long as you tag me. Yeah. Matt, don't get distracted. I got to change a channel.

My God. More Cowboys talk on ESPN. Stop me if you're shocked. No, I wasn't stopping for that. What's my girl's name? Molly Karam? Oh my gosh. She looks phenomenal.

This is the problem. I can't put it on any channel. Yeah, you're right. I'm going to put it on like Sesame Street, and you're going to start staring at Big Bird. Put it on and leave it to Beaver. Although Mrs. Cleaver looked good back in the day too. See what I'm saying here. Huh.

You gotta figure something out here. I'll put on the Brady Buds. You're checking out Alice. Come on, man. Hey, no, no. I was always Marsha, Marcia. You know better than that. And then we've got,

we mentioned Jim Bowden. We have, believe it or not, today at 120, which I've already locked and loaded in done. Yes, you have. I will give you a solid B minus on your questions. I did them at 1145 last night. Okay, so you want a curve. No, B minus is fine.

I would have done them at 830, you should have given, you know, and that's what I get. I've gotten a C plus, you know, but no, they're okay. They're not spectacular, but they did the job. They're like the Burger King of Believe it or not questions. They're like the Matt Thomas show with Ross of the 790 lineup. Yeah, we're here. I mean, we're not great. There's better alternatives out there, but you'll take us once in a while.

I like that. All right. So let's put things in perspective here for a second. So Bryce Matthews goes against, you know, two really good sales. pitchers and strikes out a bunch and does get his first hit, I believe, in the last game in that Seattle series, and then winds up getting a home run, right? Then he hits, no, his first home run was in Arizona, I should say. It's his first hit in Seattle.

Then he goes to Arizona where he's going against Zach Gallen, not bad. He's not having a good year, but yeah. Yeah, Rodriguez kids aren't very good, although he pitch a lot. better yesterday. What do you mean? He looked great against the Astros light up. Until that ball hit him in the leg and then they said, yeah, or done anyway. Get out of here. He went

from completely overmatched to when is the next opportunity for him to get on the road to get the Sugar Land to get some more seasoning to my God, where would the Astros be if he was not available to this team in the last two games against the Diamondbacks? It's incredible

how sports and baseball work. I'm glad you said sports because I was going to the same thing. One of the things that I love about constantly watching sports and having a career there is you never know what to expect. You think things are happening one way and then boom they flip on their head. That first weekend against

the Rangers, he looked completely Jack Lider's like, here's 100 miles an hour buddy. See how this goes? And he's striking out three of his first four plate appearances. And I'm like, oh my God, he is underwater. He is well in over his head.

and then literally a couple weeks later dude's got three home runs in two games and a slick as you heard a moment ago a slick defensive double played in the game very well played by him and there had been some talk about

his defensive prowess everything was he's not what did Joe a spot to use a term work in progress not a finished product yeah yeah and I still think you watch him And you go, okay, could have taken a better route or probably should have got to that ball.

But the reality is this. They would rather take a 70% Bryce Matthews and put him at the second base spot as compared to 100% Jose Altova. Now that we don't love Jose, not that he's not willing to play second base, but the range is very, very limited. The arm is not there like it used to be. He held his own, honestly. He did. He's 35 years old. I mean, let's be honest.

He's 35. There's decline. And my guess is there will be more days of him. de-haging, especially when some if any of the mainstays do come back. Why are you smiling over there? I just was wondering how you're going to finish that sentence. No. Optimistically or

pessimistically? No, no. There is nothing. And I listened to Dana Brown just a few minutes ago on with Sean. And God love him, Dana's got that glass three-quarters full. I think I said this on the post game Monday.

If there's one drop of water in Dana's glass, he's calling it half full. And frankly, that's what you're supposed to do as a general manager when you're speaking of your players. Now, there's a difference between being fully optimistic and telling the truth. And look, Dana's not coming on the Sean Salisbury show to lie. In his mind, he believes the reports he's getting about Spencer Aragherty and Christian Javier and Luis Garcia and Luis Garcia and Jeremy Pena and Yaron-Alvarez, all things that he wants to see. but recon and getting on the roster and playing and contributing are two different things and so as he was running through the different pitchers he was saying yeah erigate's got

three going garcia's the two haviers had two winnings jp almost as the two and i'm like this is all well and good but you're supposed to as a major league pitcher go to six and throw a hundred in a hundred pitches in theory now it doesn't mean you can't rev up to that yeah because you do have a lot of guys basically going through spring training. So that's why I said Ross yesterday, especially when it came to Erdogetti, we're going to treat this like this is late February for the guys I just mentioned. And there's going to be no hurry. And there shouldn't be any hurry because A, the team is doing okay, holding its head above water.

And B, they're not ready yet. When somebody's at two innings, that means they're not ready to play Major League Baseball. Yeah, but they're not far off. You can only have Major League rules. dictate that if you trigger a rehab stint, you only have 30 days. So they're all on rehab, I believe. Javier, Garcia, France, and who am I missing? Somebody.

Are you. Garcia. Ergetty. Yeah. I said Garcia. Erigetti. Well, how about this? It's like we're playing bingo with all these pictures coming back.

B36. Let me ask you this. And I guess I should know this, and I apologize for it, but I don't. What if you are not ready? What do you then do? Put him back on the injure list again? I think you already have to go back to the I'll, I think. But you're already on the IL.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know exactly. I think you have to be called up. I think if they weren't that close, then they wouldn't have started the rehab. I got to ask that question. Okay. I'm going to text somebody right now,

see if I get the answer. Because I really don't know. If you, because, I mean, in theory, think about this, you put, what's the second base, Brendan Rogers. It was like which one?

On the injure list. Yes. He went to rehab it at Sugarland and he got hurt. Yeah. So. You can put them back. Yeah. But he never.

left. That's what I'm saying. There's got to be some sort of parameter to do you mean that means you can't compete? Does it mean you got to be shut down? I don't know. But bottom line is this. Maybe you have to go to the 60 day because that's what he did. Yeah, I don't know. That's true. He did go to that. All I'm saying is I'm going to maintain my common stance of when they show up, they show up. Any other word I hear is just food for thought.

Yeah. Fotter. My caveat was rehab. I start to get a little intrigued and I'm intrigued Matt. Eric Getty rehabbing. He threw, yeah, three innings a few days ago. Supposed to start this week. He sounds like he's the one that's having the most fun. Yeah, Javier threw three innings with Corpus Christi on the 18th. So he should be due for another start.

That was last Friday. Yeah. Reporting to AAA Sugar Land this week. Javier sounds like he's pretty close. I know we don't want to get our hopes up. I know. Don't make that face. So guess what?

I'm not doing it. Don't make that face. when he's happy i'll brohung him really now i'd stay away from him well i didn't do anything just in case all right i'll stay away i don't want you tripping on anything oh my gosh all right 11 o'clock bogus evick shut your bum ass up 1130 jim bowden MLB network and uh cbs sports and serious xm radio will join us at uh one o'clock and believe it or not today 120 all things about ozies osborne so i can't B minus. I get it.

Sometimes you're yesterday, you had an A plus. And so, oh, there's days I have a D. I'm five. Wait, what? What? Clip that, 1013. Some days he's got a D. You heard him.

We're talking about letter grades. You heard him. 1014. Must you always be a child? 713, 212, 5.790. The answer is yes. 713212. 5, 790.

I had a tweet last night that I tweeted out at about 11 o'clock. me check my views count on this. And I didn't expect it to have this kind of run, but it did. And the views count is 21,000. What did I say that gained 21,000 views? We're also proud of you, Matt. No, you shouldn't be proud. I'm just saying that people were thinking it.

And I was thinking it too, because I thought it was pretty clever. That plus a Texans running back will not be participating in training camp activities. It's an important one, 10-14. Sports Talk 790. So we all like to be funny on Twitter. If we're not like boring, just information with people. We like to be witty and charming to gain reaction. Usually a ha-ha or you're crazy or something like that.

Okay. Or we like to attack people viciously. I don't do that very often. I usually just attack back if you have been going after me. It's the anonymous accounts. Yeah. So I ask people to Photoshop Bryce and Bob Barker. on the Bryce's right.

Of course, you wanted to tell me that he's dead. I was aware of that and it still hurts, Ross, and thank you for bringing that up. So in my attempt... You're welcome. To my attempt to be amusing late night. Okay. I last night, let me see what time I put this.

You're trying to replace Stephen Colbert. Yeah, at a lot cheaper price, by the way. I put this out at, let's say what time was I? 11.31 at night. 14 comments 41 retweets 789 likes with 21,000 views

Wow, great job Matt It's not great I'm getting out of it I mean I'm legit media So I mean I can use my social media for Just sent the show not Trying to make money off of it Keep Bryce Matthews away from Scott Boris

Too soon Matt Come on First of all you don't know how things are going to play out with Hunter Brown. Oh, I do. Or Jeremy Pena. Oh, I do. And Bryce can sign with whoever he wants.

He's under team control for a very long time. Yes, he is. But. However. However, now, again, I did this 99.999-9-9-9-9-9-0-joking. I know. Nobody took it seriously. I would hope nobody took it seriously.

But my point is that if he progresses over the next year and a half, this would be a very good case of a, guy that you would buy arbitration years out. Of course. To create a better relationship of, you know, some financial freedom that Bryce under the current system would not have. So, again, long way to go before this. Long way. By the way, I did hit it on a gut feeling. You did. And that was? Home run within the next week for Bryce Matthews. He did it that night. He did. Very impactful. He has seven RBIs in that. Nice. Thank you. Seven RBIs.

That audio wasn't clipped and played at the beginning of the show. That's crazy. Huh. Why don't you do that there, Jonathan? You know what, man? You know, that's weird. You know, I don't remember that. Yeah, I get something wrong.

Boom. It's like a flipped, it's turned around like a Big Mac. Flipped up and ready to go. Two all beef patties? Yes. Special sauce and lettuce and cheese. And a Ross wrong opinion. I want to get something right, man.

It didn't start the show with. That's crazy. You got you a jumbo jack correction there. Correct one. I'm proud of it works. No. No, it's all right. No, I didn't even want it.

It's fine. Just find it funny. I just find it funny. I just, but anyway, it's easier to accent your mistakes. I know. Try to tear me down.

It's fine. How's it working? Not well. Yeah. I'm feeling pretty good. Yeah. All right. 713,

212, 5, 790. By way, do we get a hazard pay for working these late nights? You did it a couple nights ago. I was until 12.30, Monday night. It's just, I got the long-ass dry. I don't know.

You were until 1230 last night. and Adam and Adam are off today. And they're completely off. They don't even work today. Zero. Yes. Not even working. By the way, it's because myself and Chris Gordy will be handling postgame

slash live taping of Crawford boxcast duties out at Carbock brewing pizza and pints if you want to come by. I'm busy. But I would go if I wasn't busy. Can I tell you a secret a little? I'm going to be a little honest. Well, no, I'm going to tell you a secret. Yeah. I didn't like the pizza from pizza and pints when they first opened, but they've made the crust better.

It's better now. It's good. Are you a thin crust or thick crust guy? I mean, like both? A little pan, a little deep dish. A little thin crust? Why can't I like it all, Matt? I like Detroit style about once every couple of months. No, Detroit style's great. That can get a little doughy. Now I understand. It gets a little, it's like a brick in your stomach.

Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's go to a gym in Missouri City. It's wood-fired delicious pizza, Matt. Sorry, go ahead. Good morning to Eric. Stop getting distracted by MLB reporters. I have it on here because the Giants

and Braves are on at 11, and for 35 minutes, you can't stay undistracted? Good morning to Erica Weston. Jim, Missouri City on 7-90. Jim, good morning. Hey, Matt, how are you? Good. How are you? I'm doing well.

Just wanted to, before I get to my quick comments on the Astros, rest and peace to the Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne. I'm 57 years old, having outgrown my rock and roll in about 12 or 13 years ago. when I took that first album, Blizzard of Oz for a spin, it kind of rocked my world. He was just an incredible artist. You know, they call him The Godfather of Heavy Metal. Those first two albums was the solo queer, Blizzard Oz and Diary of Madman with Randy Rhodes before, unfortunately, Randy Rhodes died that plane crash at a very young age. We're just incredible, and he's just pumped out so much good rock and roll music over the years.

I saw him in eighth grade. My mom, uh, God rest her soul and God lover, took me in eighth grade with a couple of buddies of mine. We went to the Samusie and saw Ozzy and it was that year right before he, uh, had that little experience over at the Alamo.

I don't know if that's one of your, believe it or not. It is. Okay, I'm going to leave alone. Uh, where that, uh,

you know, it was during that. He bit in the other thing with the, uh, the bat and, and Randy Rhodes dying shortly after, it was like maybe a concert or two after that Houston concert. So I never had on my bingo card that he would make it to 76.

I mean, if anybody that can say hold my beer on living a full life, Ozzie was it. My Twitter and Facebook was blowing up with just constant feeds of posts, not only just people in the rock and roll. I mean, we're talking other, you know, other non-rock and roll artists, people in government. even my Twitter feed was posting with, there was a Texas history, like touch of Texas, I think, as an account or something, and they had a story about Ozzy and the whole incident at the Alamo and what he did to come back and make amends. I mean, he was an icon and, man, could not believe he lived this long. That is exactly, I think the conversation being talked about is how does that man that is

and Justin and done all the things that he did was able to live as long as he did. Hey, have you seen his early 2000s attempt to see take me out to the ball game at a Cubs game? Oh yeah, that is legendary. That's very much viral on even to this day. Yeah.

I mean, just that was, that's Ozzy. But anyway, hey, just really, I want to talk about that, but the Astros, just watching that game yesterday and you guys talking to Bryce Matthews, I continue to look at this franchise, and I'm looking what, in the ninth inning, Third base, Shea Whitcomb, shortstop, Zach Short, second base, Bryce Matthews.

I'm sorry, are we watching the space, I mean, we're literally watching three-fourths of the infield that were space cowboys. It was just, and they freaking turn an incredible double play, finding ways to win. I mean, I'm just hoping, you know, let's just get these keep guys healthy. The one that we're not talking about a whole lot that I really do hope can, like, get, well, I mean, can get productive quickly if he gets healthy as Melton. God, I'd love to see him in Centerfield, being productive, of course, if he can get back. So that's the one I'm really, I mean, obviously everyone, every one of us wants Yord on and the pitchers. But man, it'd be cool if Melton could just kind of like make contributions to be healthy.

Because that guy's, I mean, he wasn't one of our top prospects for nothing. Yeah, and that's been one of the problems. And thank you for the phone call Jim in the memory. Yeah, Melton's health has always been a little bit of an issue But it hasn't precluded the Astros from trying to bring him up here And, you know, obviously very still highly regarded among major league prospects And back to his first point, he goes to see Ozzy has his first concert Yes, mine was Chicago

Disoji Khan, things are a little different in life Mine was Puff Daddy, Mace, Lil Kim Buster Rimes and Usher on the No Way Outt to it 1997. Actually, I need a ruling. If I went in Gassau, you know what? And no, I did not go to the after party. No. No, actually, I think my first concert, I was like five years old was Captain Teneal. Okay.

On Pineab. It was like a Miller Outdoor Theater in Detroit. This is explaining a lot, actually. It should. It should. Yeah. If you're watching the Astros, you're going, what, and who is doing what and how are they making these plays? Like Cooper Hummel made a great play yesterday. I mean, you got guys being, the defense has kept this team alive. Yeah. And that's with so many different guys playing different positions.

I don't know how they're doing it. I don't know either. I'm sorry. I was thinking about that 8 by 10 of Little Kim I bought. She was in a bikini. How was Little Kim right now? No, it don't care. She was looking great in 97.

I'll tell you that. Okay. I got you. Glad your focus is on the show. Sorry, what? Hold on, hold on. You're staring at reporters the whole show. I don't want to hear it.

We both got issues. Yes, we do. We love beautiful women. That's what we're going to rename the show. Yeah. A couple of grown-ass men staring at photos of women in TV. Guilty. 713-212-5-790.

7-190-2-5. Also, not great that he named it the No Way Out tour. Well. That was the name of the album. I'm going to give you one of my believe it or not as a bonus prize today for those to listen at 120 this afternoon. 7-13-212-5-790. I did, and I didn't do it intentionally because I can intentionally dismiss something because I don't like it myself.

I did not mean to dismiss the impact. As the previous caller, Facebook and Twitter were going nuts over people that were big fans of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. I mean, huge, huge, huge hard, early rock. I mean, metal just get at you. And it's funny, we played Iron Man earlier. and the reason why I play that is because I fell in love with that song because my favorite wrestling tag team of the 80s came out to Iron Man.

Oh, really? Yeah. Before they copyrighted laws that you can't use other people's music. Yeah. So the Road Warriors came out to Iron Man, and that's why I fell in love with the song. Did you know they were going to call it Iron Bloke? I did not.

How horrible would that have been? Doesn't sound great. It doesn't sound great at all. That's not a myth, right? Let me look that up. Would you like, yeah. You read something in our day that was not true, and you thought, oh, it was about chlorine in the pool.

Oh, no, but it's on Wikipedia. It's got to be real. Iron Bloke was going to be the name of the song. Would you like the freebie on today's edition of Believe it or not? Absolutely, Matt. All right. Any password? What's the price?

We're playing for those big three tickets and that, where you go? Yay! What is that other one called? Where you at? What the party at tour? What a party at tour? With Nelly and Ashanti or something?

Yeah. I didn't know Nellie and Aschante got back together and they have a reality show. Sounds good, right? Yeah. It's Nellie, Jarlal, and Eve. Or the party ad tour, September 4th at the Woodlands Pavilion. No Ashanti? No.

She's busy. Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster.com for that. Tota Center.com for the big three. The party at tour is September of the 4th. The big three is August 2nd. So we'll be giving me prizes to that. Now, here comes your freebie. Now, that's a jagged edge song.

why isn't jagged edge on this tour? Bring it up with him. I'm only reading one when I'm being told to read. Can we get Nelly on the phone? Do we have their number? His. His, whatever. Can Bun get us to Nellie?

I don't know. He probably knows all of them, I'm sure. How long would it take for Bun to get us a super megastar celebrity musical performer on the show? Well, if he really wanted to? Yeah. Is he going to, assuming he's going to respond to your text, not very long.

I'm going to see when you go on vacation, a bundle to do a couple hours with me. Oh, man, that would make me really jealous. Mad and Bunby. You don't do that. Are you sure? I'm going to go to, like, I'm going to hop off vacation and come back.

I think we're going to do. I actually know who Bunby is and respect what he means in the rap world. I do who he is. You have zero context. No, you have zero. Stop. Queenie loves me. I bring Queenie in here.

She'll do the show with me. Here's your freebie today. A lifelong Beatles fan. Their song, She Loves You inspired Ozzy to become a musician. that is a believe it and I'll give you one knot would you like one not no all right

yeah okay fine um Ozzie was scheduled to be the musical act in a 1981 episode of Saturday Night Live but executive producer Lauren Michaels canceled it at the last second for fear of him being high or drunk on the set that is a knot mm-hmm okay

there's your two freebies okay and we'll play in the game at 120 this afternoon so we're ready for that Brian Bocus up joining us at a couple of hours. All right, real quick on the Texans. Today is day one of practice,

and Wax is going to call us at some point. I don't know when it is. We're going to get a camp report. Yeah, great. It's not sponsored by anybody, but that's fine. We could try. That's true. We could try.

The Texans announcing a bunch of injuries, as they normally would on day number one. Let's see, physically unable to perform list. the Nico Autry, he's old, he's not going to worry about it. Damien Pierce on the list, that was a little bit of a surprise. Jimmy Ward, not on surprise. JJ Taylor, another running back on there, a little bit of a surprise. Tank Dell on there, not a surprise.

Trent Brown, God, he's huge. He's 6-8-3-80. You think that's fat or do you think it's muscle, lean, mean machine? I mean, he's got some fat. Yeah, I don't think anybody, 6-8-3-80's got to be lean. get a little bulk on you if you're an offensive lineman. But here is the name on the physically, on the non-football injury

list. Joe Mixon. Non-football injury list. Now, I don't know what that means as compared to the other ones. You got a disc golf injury in the offseason or something? Well, I mean, you don't know exactly. My guess is he had some sort of surgery that

says that it's a bad foot is what it is. Okay. Not worried. Week one. see you then he was in a boot throughout the spring you remember i told you that was the second biggest thing i was going to pay attention to the offensive line i think is by far the number one thing everyone's going to be concerned themselves with and i thought the running back room would be the second one okay so uh not off to a great start no i mean i don't want to read too much into it because i'm not a breakdown guy but i don't think it's

a great sign i'm not worried nechubbs like i got that this. We're in Yordon mode. I'm not worried until this let me know if he's going to play or not. Do you think the Texans could be the Astros in terms of injuries this year? No, I don't think so. Could anybody be as bad as the Astros? I mean, this is historic what's happening to the Astros. Right. 17 guys on the I.L.

This is ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. For sure. We're going to hear from Dana Brown coming up in the next segment because I want you to hear a little bit what Dana had to say about the variety of ailments. And as we said, talking with you a little earlier in the show, he's significantly more optimistic than I would be. now he's in the room and I'm not

but I've also been there and done that and I also know the general manager speak doesn't not necessarily mean talk shows well we also know Dana Brown and who he is and how he talks and a lot of times he's going to be very very optimistic and so sometimes you do maybe have to take that with a grain of salt I like that he has that disposition

you're going to go through life and you're going to be one or the other I would choose optimism but you have to take what he says with a grain of salt that's just how it is you know what really unfortunately got me was Kyle Tucker's helmet last year. That was the one injury

that made me go I'm going to take a step back of being hopeful. And again, I want all those guys of return. It's imperative that they return. This team is scrappy as they have been and as competitive. And the fact that Bryce Matthews is becoming a hero and so many different guys are stepping up,

there's a bigger fish to fry. You're not just winning the American League West and saying this was a fun season. You'd like to do something really, really fun. but the guys that are not here would be the reasons why you would win such an event and you can't do it if they're not here. Yeah, and I totally understand being

just not 100% trusting with the Astros. But the Tucker ailment really got to me. Yeah, I think it got to everybody. That's when a lot of this kind of started rolling downhill, the fact that how long they hit it and then it wasn't even going to be reported that he had a fracture until I believe Chandler Roman the Athletic

we're going to report it. And then they're like, all right, fine, he's got a fracture. Because they weren't going to tell us the truth. Well, they kept going. What were they kept going with? Oh, a bruise. That's why you need great reporters in this town like we have with Chandlero. Well, you need reporting. Yeah, you need reporting, period. And Matt Kawahara. Yeah. I mean, if you rely exclusively on the teams, and this is the unfortunate trend in today's sports,

teams are now hiring people to write and report for them that are only going to give you the positive spin on things. I don't know who said it. Who said journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Now, again, everything else is PR. Now, what you don't want is you don't want

hatchet jobs, like, oh, I'll be the opposite of Texans.com or rockets.com or astros.com. I will go out of my way to make things negative. You just want fair reporting. That's it. Because I will say this. And Chandler has said this multiple times. You're not a fan of the team. But Chandler

is around these 26 or 30 or 35 guys all the time. I can't imagine that there is hatred. He would like to cover a team that is winning because that means his subscribers are growing and people are reading his stuff. Nobody wants to read stuff about a team that's... I guarantee you, the athletics, Rockies Beat Rider.

He's sitting there writing stuff to... No one's reading. They might not even have one. Do they have a Pirates guy? It is where the athletic does has a Rockets guy. It has an Astros guy. Still no Texans guy. They had one. We used to have them on.

Aaron, something. Reese. Reese. Yes. R-E-I-S-S. Yes. All right. 1044.

Dana Brown Conversation is coming up, and we've got Brian Bogussevick in 15 minutes here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. 10 minutes on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. If you'd like to be a part of the podcast, program, you may do so. 713, 212, 5.7.

Ronnie. Ross, we got Shut your bum ass up at 1130 today. You ready for that? I think so. Somebody mad at. Do you get mad at somebody this week? I've had a pretty peaceful week. Why, they put Megan the Stalion from the Astros game on? Wait a minute. Wait, you're crushing me earlier.

Sorry. Okay, Megan the Stalian. Turn around. Oh, good gracious. David Hensley, highlight of his life. All right. Megan the stallion. This game needs to start. Megan is a stallion. Thoroughbred.

Here we go. Isn't she with, she's with Clay Thompson now, right? Yeah, they were throwing first pitch at the Rangers game in her day. So Clay Thompson crushes the rockets my entire life. He's making all these clutch threes. He's got four NBA championships, untold millions of dollars, and he's dating Megan the the stallion. And sees her naked probably on a semi-regular basis.

Oh, my God. All right, let's segue into Dana Brown. All right, you will play the soundbite, and you and I will comment on said soundbite. Okay, sorry. Focus, let's go. All right, here we are. Dana Brown. Let's see.

How about updates on Yordon Alvarez and Jeremy Pena? Yeah, very close. I mean, Pena may go out on a rehab at the end of this week. You know, there's a chance of him doing that. You know, I'm watching video every day that they're sending me with him. his progression. He looks good. You know, Yorine is pain free and we're gradually building him up

with mixing in the day off. And so, you know, that looks really good. And so I think it's, you know, yes, I mean, we should be getting these guys back and they're going to be very important to our run. You know, I think Pena may be the first guy back.

But I think, you know, it's looking good. It's looking really good for our position player. I'm waiting for you to talk. No, I told you. I'm not commenting. Okay. I'm staying consistent.

Thank you for asking. When they were up here, I'll be beyond excited. Dana Brown on a plan for Yordon Alvarez. Oh, yeah, very excited about August for him. And so what we're going to do is increase the intensity on the, you know, the swings. And so as we continue to build that out, he's pain free the day after, those are. are all good signs that we can increase it even more. And so as we progress through this thing, you know, we feel very comfortable that we're

going to get them back, you know, hopefully sooner rather than later. And if he continues to progress in this manner. And so those are all good things. And as I mentioned, we're going to try to increase the intensity. And if he continues to be pain free, we can continue to increase the intensity. and that's the tail-tale test and he's been doing well so far so we're just

we're thankful man this is a lot of sunshines and rainbows when two days ago we had quotes from Yordon saying that the hand needs surgery but where it is the injury they can't get surgery

and that he's going to have to basically deal with the pain all season all right you're not talking but your silence is speaking volumes Matt well I I don't. And this is radio so people can't see this. He's making droopy dog faces, folks.

It's not good. Okay. I'm getting two very much mixed messages. I understand. And let's dumb it down even further. Yeah, okay. If he is pain free. Which he's not.

No, he just, Dana just said he was. If he is, again, I'm just, this is, this is me not. This is me. asking a question. If he is pain free, that would then mean you would want to play because you would be pain free. Correct? Yes. Because connecting these very convoluted dots would mean I put him back out there. He swings the ball hard four times. Swings the bat four times.

Would that incur pain? I mean, are you not playing it because you don't want it to be in pain? but again, again, taking it as dumbest, if he's pain-free, he should be playing. Mm-hmm. Or at least not ramping up and hitting off a tea and soft-toss or whatever we're talking here, we're hearing about. Now, if you wanted to say, and again, this is very minutia, okay? So I'm not trying to dissect here, but if you wanted to say,

we are looking for four to five or six days of pain-free, then I go, oh, that makes kind of some sense. Yeah, no days were given. Just sooner rather than later. You know how I hate that phrase. I know you do. I want that phrase barred. Why? Because it first of all, it's a stupid saying.

You want it sooner rather than later. When does anybody want something lighter than sooner? Even though sooner is later. You can want some things later rather than sooner. Your death. Okay. Give me another one. Your daughter going off the college.

I'm not feeling that. I'm not going to miss. her, but I'm looking forward to her. You're looking forward to getting rid of your daughter? No, she's worked her ass off to play college volleyball, and I wanted to go do it. Okay. All right, besides death, I'll put you on a little quiz on this. Send me some tweets at SportsMT.

Okay. Give me something in life, and Jonathan, you could jump on on this. Give me something you'd rather have later rather than sooner. Okay, I'll throw a few things. Succession in later rather than sooner? Oh, the TV series? You'd rather have your colonoscis later rather than sooner? Yeah, but you got eventually have it.

Yeah, but you'd rather have it later than sooner. Or you want sooner rather than later. I mean, that's up to you. I'm sorry to calling you Mr. Stretch. Lord, what was that? You asked me a question. I know. I'm not liking your answer.

I get it. It's like dealing with you during the tell the truth. You don't like my opinion. You just destroy it. That's fine. I get it. Something, okay. Later, an audit?

An audit by the IRS? Yeah, you'd rather have that much later than sooner. Yes. I'd rather not have that at all. Yeah, that's true. Arthritis. Arthritis, I'd rather have later rather than sooner.

Like at 23, you don't want arthritis. It's 63. You're kind of expecting it. Okay, we... That is as good. We got more Dana to get to how about at the top of the hour? Oh, no, we have Brian Bogus 7.

Then some more Dana. Okay. And more Bogie's going to bring us some great stuff. I know he always does. Shut your bum ass up. It's coming up at 30 minutes from now and ain't nobody got time for that.

With Ross. 1101, Sports Talk 790. Matt and Ross with you here, and our regular Wednesday visitor, always a friend of the show, is Brian Bogoshevik of Space City Home Network. And he is here to join us to talk about what is an incredible run for a man with such a little experience, from going against the Rangers in Seattle pitching staff to going to Arizona and owning the building, Brian. I think everybody, even including Bryce Matthews, would have to be stunned at the way things are turned around in his first. 10 major league baseball games.

Yeah, I think, you know, any, any rookie coming in for the first time is just trying to get to a place to where, okay, I feel comfortable, I can contribute, I feel like I'm playing my game, but to go, you know, a couple games stretch where I'm basically carrying the offense and winning games for a team that is trying to just find ways to win games at this point. It's a crazy turnaround. I think also, you know, it's not really a soft landing spot for. for your first introduction to major league pitching when you're seeing, you know, the Rangers starters and the Mariners starters. So that might have something to do with it also.

But, yeah, it's happened quickly. When you hear about a player who may not be ready yet, and that's exactly Joe, a spotter didn't say it bluntly like that, but he's like, you know what, still a work in progress, still has things to learn. Is that difficult for a player to get that call because he obviously wants it, But at the same time, he knows there are still things, intricacies about second base, intricacies about, you know, maybe being a better contact hitter, not striking out as much. That's a lot for a young man to handle. But really, the team needed him so badly because guys were getting hurt, you know, on a day-to-day basis, unfortunately.

Yeah, I think anybody, if you're asking a guy who's in the minor leagues, would you rather be in the major leagues when you don't feel like you're ready, then wait another year or so and feel like you're 100% ready? they're going to take option A for sure. But I think a lot of the transition has to do with communication from the top. What's expected from you? What do we know that you can do? Here's what we think you still need to work on. Here's how we're going to continue your development at this level because we think you're still a player who's learning a new position and a guy who's still, you know, doesn't have a full amount of that bats to become the hitter that we think you're going to be.

So communicating those things and letting them know that it's okay, you're going to make mistakes and we're going to work through them. I think it also probably helps that he can look out behind him in right field and see Cam Smith as a guy who made the team out of spring training with even less at bats and less experience and no experience in the outfield and see what his development has been this year and know that this is an organization and a team that has a coaching staff that is not just, you know, major league coaching staffs, used to be, we're here to take these finished products and win games. And it's a different story now. And they still have a ton of player development to do at this level. And you look at the guys, you look at Omar Lopez. You've got Tony Peres-Chica. I mean, Joe Spada himself has a background in player development,

specifically with infielder. So, yeah, there's a lot to be learned. But as long as the player knows that, and as long as it's clearly shown to them how they're going to get from A to B to C, it makes it easier. Boki, let's look at this as a macro perspective. The team struggled getting to the All-Star break, did not look good in those first two games against Seattle, and then they put together three consecutive wins.

That just once again shows you for the umpteenth time that Major League Baseball season is a marathon. But you know what's been consistent through all this? Bullpen has been largely excellent, and we're just seeing the series in this series alone. The defense, no matter who you're putting where is bailing this team out and saving this team one or two runs per game. game. It's been really the unsung hero of the entire season. You know, when you can depend on first of all making all the plays, making the routine plays and not putting yourself behind the eight ball by making errors and costing yourself base runners and runs. But also, you know, maybe pushing it a little bit and taking some risks. I mean, Marisio de Bonn throwing, you know,

a runner out at home from from the cutoff position or them going after a lead runner at third base yesterday in a ground ball or cutting down a run at home. It's really become the opposite of a big data type of baseball where, you know, we're going to put together the best roster and feel like we're the better team. And if we just play the game long enough over time, we're going to get the wins. They're not doing that anymore, right? They're, they're taking chances. They're, I mean, how many bunts have we seen over the course of the last couple weeks of guys just trying to get on base, put pressure on defense? They're trying to create a style of game where we know it's going to be close.

We know it's going to be low scoring. but we think with our bullpen, with our defense, with the way we prepare with the matchups we think we can exploit, that you will crack under the pressure and we won't. We will make the play that you're not going to make and find a way to win a game three to one or four to two or whatever it is. And if you're playing close games and where one or two plays is going to flip it, those are the kinds of things. You know, if somebody's out there and they've got an ace on the mound who's shoving, you're going to win no matter what. If you've got a lineup one through nine who's banging the ball around, you're probably going to win no matter what. But, you know, if it's a handful of plays, it's going to come down to, you know, a pitcher or two from a reliever,

maybe being in a higher leverage situation than they're used to being. And are they prepared for that? Or a guy, you know, making a snap decision to make a throw home instead of first base, and is he thinking about it ahead of time? And they've been really good at that stuff. Brian Bogussevick with us here on Sports Talk 790. and Isok Paredes going down in the lineup, and we've talked a lot about how he sees more pitches than everyone else.

So with him gone, Brian, if you were, say, on the Astros staff, how much would you try to stress to the other guys to do that? How much of that is in your mind in the batters box, or you kind of want guys to stay within themselves? Yeah, I think it's something that is probably needs to be talked about and just understood, but it's more about picking and choosing time. you don't want somebody to completely change their approach. You don't want somebody going up there trying to be a hitter that they're not,

you know, go out there and execute in that bat the way you think is going to give you the best chance. You're not going to tell Jose Al-Tubi to go out there and start taking pitches. But there are going to be times when maybe you need to slow the game down a little bit. If you look at Hunter's last start, he had really good in the first two innings. He had the long third inning and the long fourth inning. And in between that, the Astros had a five pitch inning from there at bat. So he was out there for like a 30 pitch inning and a 25 pitch inning with only five pitches in between. You know, you don't want to run into those types of situations.

It might happen every once in a while. But just recognizing, hey, guys, remember every once in a while, maybe we're going to need to see a pitch. Maybe you're going to need to use your time out early on in that bat, not necessarily when you want to, but just to kill some time. It's something that needs to be aware of. but no, you're not going to go to anybody individually and ask them to change their style of hitting just because, you know, the guy who had the lungs that bat's down now. So Cam Smith has been taken over the leadoff spot, has been struggling at the plate since then. You're seeing anything different from him or just maybe a coincidence with the lineup spot?

And how much does that even matter? Is that just something we like to talk about in fans and media with the lineup spot more than people who are playing the game? No, I don't think it's a lineup spot. that's kind of, you know, outside of the maybe the first inning where he might feel it a little bit differently, it just is what it is. Honestly, I look at specifically for Cam and young players in general, it's this time of year, right? You're a hundred games in. It's just dragging, dragging, dragging, there's really no end in sight. You know, you just come off the All-Star break, so maybe a little bit of a refresh.

When we were on the last homestand, the Cleveland, Texas homestand, there were some times when he looked fatigued, physically and a little bit. bit mentally where it just looked like the season was getting to him a little bit. And that's normal for young players. It's certainly normal for a guy who played a 50-game college season last year. And it's typically a situation where, you know, you would say, hey, you're going to take a rest. You're going to be down on, you know, you're not going to play this game on Sunday because we off-game off-day on Monday. We'll get you two days off your feet and come back refreshed. They can't do that. They literally need everybody they have. So he hasn't been able to get those built-in breaks that they could provide a young player.

He's out there just trying to grind through it. And, you know, it takes a physical toll on you. It takes a mental toll on you, especially when, you know, you're not swinging it the way you want and you have to go out there day after day after day. So I don't know that it's necessarily a function of where he's hitting in the order. I think it's more just a function of it's a long season and he's doing it for the first time. Bogie, is there any sort of intangible breaking point with what's going on right now? Because again, it doesn't make sense.

17 players on the injured list. You are bringing up guys that are probably not going to be considered long-term major leaguers. You've got one of your young stars who probably needed more seasoning at AAA coming up and helping. Is there anything that you're thinking about beyond just, hey, the competition's going to get harder? Well, guess what? The competition got harder two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and they went there and swept the series. Is there anything in the back of your mind you're thinking about as you watch this team,

play the next two, three weeks before some of these guys come back and make this a full, wholesome Houston Astro team again? You know, it's in the back of my mind, right, that it's got to catch up to them at some point just because that many injuries to that many significant players has to. But there's nothing that I can think of or point to to say, well, this is when it's going to happen because it should have happened already.

I mean, you just, it's been the majority of the season at this point, You know, they keep adding up and adding up without really getting anybody back from any of these injuries. You know, they've gone through the different stretches in the schedule. And, I mean, just look around the league and the teams, other teams that are experiencing injuries like this. I mean, look at the Dodgers and the resources that they have from a money standpoint. They built maybe the deepest roster and all of baseball over the offseason. They've got one of the best and deepest farm systems, and they're feeling their injuries already. And the Astros keep plugging along.

So the conventional wisdom in my common sense says yes, it should catch up to them at some point. But honestly, at this point, maybe it doesn't. I really can't figure it out. All right. So I'm going to ask you this for the second to last time. If you were having a glass of wine with General Manager Dana Brown, and he said, all right, Bogie, help me out here. What do I need to go get? This is the second to last time I asked you this this year.

What would you tell them? Well, I think it's changed now. You know, my initial thinking for, you know, the first month or so leading up to the deadline was the relief on the offensive standpoint is going to come from within, right? That's going to be when Yoron gets back. That's going to be whenever, if Jake Myers comes back. But now I'm now with Peretti's down and, you know, we don't have a timeline on it, but it's probably not, you know, going to be just a week or two. I think you might need a bat more than pitching at this point. It looks like Erigetti's close.

Christian Javier looks like he's progressing pretty well. Luis Garcia is a little bit behind them. So, you know, maybe that maybe, I think the need has shifted more from just shoring up pitching and you can always use more pitching to you've got to add to the lineup somewhere. If it's a long-term thing for parades, maybe it's somebody who can slot right in that third base or maybe somebody who has some sort of, you know, positional versatility that you can float around. I think it's a bat now.

It's probably more offensive driven than it was last week at this time before parades went down. Great stuff as always, friend. Thank you very much for the time. And we'll talk again next week, which will be the 30th, and that'll be one delay from the trade deadline. Thanks, bogey for the time, as always. All right, thanks, guys.

You got it. Brian Bogus Civic with us here on Sports Talks. Does that creep in your mind at any point? I got the second, last question I asked him that this fairy tale, the Cinderella story of the 2025 is going to burst at some point, or do you go, you know what, they're holding their head above water, the reinforcements at some point come back, and this is going to be a magical storyline at the end of the season.

You just got to ride the wave, Matt. I'm not at Waterworld. What are you talking about? You got to worry about when it's going to crash. Because whatever it will be will be. I think there were people that were doing that 10 days ago. The future is not ours to see. I think at some point, well, it depends, I would say. How long is Issaq Parada is going to be out?

Doesn't sound great. How long Yordon's going to be out? I think the pitching cavalry comes back and you get Yordaum back and maybe you trade for a bat. The picture can become much more clear in a couple of weeks, I feel like. And what context do we get out of whether or not Dana makes a deal or not? If you got no Paredes and no Yordon, I don't think, I'm going to keep my expectation levels, if you get very, very low.

If you get Yoron back and maybe you trade for a bat, I'm feeling like let's go win an American League pennant. Yeah. I just, what I need it in the next week is I need to see, here's some higher numbers with my rehab pitchers. I'm not worried about it. 30 days, Maddie. By the way, I got some clarification.

If someone's in a 30, position players on a 20-day rehab stand. Okay. pictures can go 30 days. Okay. If at any point they're not ready, they can stop and refile for another rehabilitation stint. It's just a paperwork issue. Okay. So, in theory, see, you can't force somebody that's not 100% to come up and go, well, you got your 30 days or over with you.

I know you're only throwing 35 pitches at 60 miles an hour. Okay. You can't force somebody that way. So you can just stop what you're doing and then restart up again. I'm going to say they wouldn't have started rehab. if they thought that was... No, I don't think so either. But I'm just saying

just in case something was to go wrong and they wanted to slow somebody down. Re-injuries can happen, Matt. Setbacks happen. Ask Luis Garcia. Go ask Brendan Rogers clocked their head. Got concussed in a space cowboys game?

That's a good way to stay on the roster. 10-1116 on Sports Talk 7-08. We're coming up at the bottom of the hour. We got chit-yo bum-ass up, May. That's what Brendan just said to me That's what he just said He's like Who is this person that's doing midday

Is bad hair Are you gonna call Jonathan out like that Actually your hair is Unfortunately good Apparently to some people Is the one talking about hair The one that's bald Say that again

Is Matt talking about hair right now Yeah I don't care Let me tell you something I look significantly better looking Without hair than I do with hair That's not even in question No I disagree I like the curly half row you had back in the day

Stop! Get out of here You had Afro? It was more of a half row. It was a half row. 713-212-570. 7-1-3-2-570. We'll also check in with the Texans at some point during the show today. There are a meeting with the media right now.

Or a bunch of legitimate media and mostly illegitimate media are out there covering the team. When's Wex calling us? What's going on? He's legitimate media. We have some D'emico Ryan's quotes as well. He's been extremely transparent and forthcoming. Uh-oh. I want to hear him.

No, he's not. 713-212-5-7-80. By the way, we're going to do something this year. Oh, we're so late. We'll come back. I'll tell you about a second. Let's say about Big City Wings real quick. Up in 10 minutes.

The news at noon with a little Ozzy tribute to some Astros highlights there. And at 12.5, right in the middle of the news at noon. We're going to talk to Adam Wexler of Sports Talk 790. Oh, so no news at noon. Well, a little bit. Like a mini. No, actually, he will be the news at noon. Yeah.

I like that. You're welcome. even though I actually got some stories I could throw in. We can do the news at noon-nish. No, noon 20, yeah. Jim Bowden's going to join us at 1 o'clock. I do want to ask him about the trade deadline world. That's where I'm really curious about.

Okay. And also Frumber. You know, the Astros have pitched, and I know that people are looking for Texans coverage today. I don't think anybody else in the market is doing it. So we'll just keep it to Astros because they're the team of playing. Nothing happened at Texans today that would be overall crazy. We won't get you the wax up there.

Is there everybody healthy? Other than that, I don't really care. Yeah. Fromper, the last 13 times he started a game, the Astros have won the last 13 games. That's pretty good. In that mix, 12 of those 13 have been quality starts. Woo!

Chuching! We're ready to say goodbye, right? We haven't recorded, I think. Yeah, we do. When did we do that? I did it last year. Oh, really? I thought it was with Breggman.

We did a Bregman one and then we did a Fromber one too If you find it play it I want to hear it It's Radio Gold right there We got ahead of the game on that one Here it is two minutes This is us saying goodbye to Fromber Oh

Fropper You sweet sweet Left-headed pitcher La Grasse They called you And we'll never I'll get you as a a Houston Astro great.

As you came up and we called it Framber alerts because you would walk everyone and blow up when you came out on the mound but you're righted this ship and the blow-up stopped to an extent

and we'll always remember how you how you finished top five in the Syung a couple of times how you would just randomly show up with hair extensions whenever you wanted.

Sometimes you'd give up three home runs in an inning and you would get this weird sinister smile on your face like your Heath Ledger playing the Joker. Go ahead, Adele. This is sad. You recorded this in 2020? Or 24?

This is from March of this year. Oh, okay. Yes. It hurts. So this is the middle of spring training. We did, I think we did it. Sweating profusely. Yeah.

He didn't tell me he's sweating as much this year, doesn't. Offensive butcher jobs. But a wicked curveball. And grab ball outs. We wish you the best. We love you. We appreciate you. We're sorry that the Astros offer wasn't competitive.

We're sorry that Dana Brown strung along the media. And I wish you all the best with team. in the future. Thank you for Umber. Gone but not forgotten. Wishing you the best in your future endeavors. How do I forget we do things in the show?

I completely forgot about that. I think I already nailed it. Dana Brown's stringing along the media and a non-competitive offer from the Astros. Well, I hate to tell you that you're wrong about something. I don't think there was an offer, period. You can't make a non-competive offer. Well, they're going to pull one out,

like they did with Bregman, one that won. be signed like they did with Correa. He's 32. It's going to be like, oh, yeah, it turns out the Astros offered, you know, four years and 120, whatever. It's going to be something like that. So they can at least say, hey, fans, we offered him this money. And then there'll be some rubes, some bootlickers who'll be like, oh, look at all that

money. He could have signed here. He doesn't want to be here. That's not how it would interpret it. Okay. I mean, the reality is this. I don't know. I wouldn't go seven or eight years on your

and Frammer Valdez. I will make you a bet. There will be some report will come out that the Astros made offer X and it's completely non-competitive with whatever else he, whatever he ends up getting. Let's write this down. Get your computer out.

Okay. Because it happened with Correa. It happened with Bregman. I don't know if it happened with Cole. Let's set the deal right now. Okay. Oh, set the deal? Set the deal. Let's go first on years. I will say he will sign no more than a five-year contract. No more than five years for...

Are we making a bet on this? Oh, no. Well, we can brag about it. We didn't make anything but tangible to it. Okay. Friendly bet. Gentlemen's bet. Gentlemen's bet.

A, I told you so kind of thing. Five years. Nothing more than five? Five or not. I'd say five is where it starts. Now, he's 32. That's a lot of it. A lot of it. A lot of pitches thrown.

Yeah. Max Fried just got eight. He's 31. Okay. Put your number down. And we'll play the prices right on this. Whoever gets closest with, you can actually go over. Okay, I'll go six.

I'll bid six years. What is your realistically? What do you really think is going to? I think six or seven. Okay. All right. Dollar amount. This is where I'm really bad about this.

I'm going to. A-A-V. Hold on. Let me get my Nosturongest file here. You should. This is probably going to go on this. This is my weakness. A.A.V. No, you won the Bregman deal.

I did. And I think I'm going to win the Tucker deal. Oh, stop. I think. You want to up it from Habachi? No. I'm already taking the L on that. Do I get a little steak going?

No. You're going to get steak on the Babachi. I'm not going to force you to get chicken breast. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We'll get a little surfing turf. And the extra fried rice. AV on Fromber is going to be There's so much on this file

I know That's all we do is just guess on stuff We can make bets Oh my God we have a bet You got to rescind this one Yor Don Alvarez will never again play more than 130 games That's going to be a win

No Oh please His hand He's got to have a drive-thor The Ritus It's a drive-through lunch bet by the way Okay perfect Keep that one on the board

This is gentleman's bet Gentleman's bet nothing on it. No food changeable. Okay. I got him at five or less years. No, I'll just put under 5.5 years. Yeah, under 5.5. I'll go over.

And then I will go on the AAV average annual value. I will say he is going to make $27 million per year. I feel like that's around fair. You want to go over or under on that? No, I think it's a good number. Okay. Well, stay right at it then. That's fine.

Let me see. It was eight years 218 for freed. That's 27. So, yeah, I could see him being around 25, 27. Now, if I want to pay him five years and I want to go grab him

to be my number one or number two, my rotation, if I got to pay $27 a month a year, I'll do it. But I don't want to do it for seven, eight years. $5.150? That's even a bit too high. $5.140. 6-180.

I don't know Because I mean Because here's the reason why I wouldn't go six Two reasons One, the chance of him getting hurt I wouldn't say it were 50-50 But they're not 2080 Well here's the thing

He's thrown a lot of pitches in his career And what I mean how many 37, 38 year olds are bumping around Major League Baseball being super super effective That's why I think five's a sweet spot I'm trying to compare his Yeah We can further debate this.

I think 27, 25 to 27 is about right, but I think he'll get over 5.5. 5. But also it just depends. If the basically Yankees, Dodgers, Mets, a handful of halves are in, he's going to beat these numbers. If they're not, if it's everybody else,

then you're going to win. You know what I'm saying? So the numbers are kind of on my side. We'll see. Depends on how bad somebody wants a good, Left-handed pitcher. I mean, I wouldn't count the Marlins. All right, it's time for some... You and you and you

call in and tell somebody to shut their bumasses up. Okay. It's our Wednesday staple. It's my favorite half hour of the week. Ain't nobody getting time? Hey nobody getting time for that. Hey nobody getting time for that. 1137 Sports Talk 790.

It's our favorite half hour of the week. And this is where you call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-21-2-5-7-90. 7.98. Nobody got time for that. And shut your bum ass up. 713-212-5-790. Jonathan, I love you like a second cousin. But this running bit we've got going

is just making you look sound terrible too. Your squad's going to lose by four to five touchdowns. So I would say respectfully, ain't anybody got time for SFA thinking they're going to be competitive with the Houston Cougars in early September. Everybody listening. August 20th.

You can come in, I do not care. If we win. If we win. It's not going to matter. You're getting them from row tickets for the beat down? Hey, don't leave. Don't leave in the second half, John Evan. I would sit in the student section the whole time. Poor kid.

Now dodging no smoke? You shouldn't. It's going to be an infernal in your section. Oh, I can't wait. I'm marking that day so bad. Good. You should. It's going to be the beat down of your life. All right, 713-212-5-790.

Is there a way I can mute training camp reports? I don't know what word you could mute. I don't know because, look, I want to see the team play. I want to see the Texans get ready for open up the season. I want the NFL season to come. I'm actually, and again, I'm a fraud for saying that I'm going to be back in your fantasy football league because I said for years I was going to stop. But I love it because it is football and it is an opportunity to kind of keep a,

update on what's happening around the league. Absolutely. But I can't be more bored with training camp reports. Seriously. This is out of control. This is important for the draft, man. No, it's not. Absolutely.

Just getting first team rep, second. Okay. You know what? You're right. It's not important. What is Brevin Jordan going to be drafted? Is anyone saying that in their league? No, not a soul saying that.

I didn't say every single little bit of minutia in report is. That's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing minutia. Ain't anybody got time for dumbass. Manusia training camp reports. And I'm done. Okay. Thank you. Mike drop. Okay.

Floor is yours. Man, have you heard of this? Could you imagine, I don't know to interrupt you. Could you imagine if I went to a Rockets practice, training camp practice on and said, oh my gosh, Kevin Durant just made nine straight shots. Ooh. Be like, shut your bow mess up, Matt. Yeah, people do that.

People don't post videos of people at basketball practice knocking down a bunch of threes in a row. That's a difference in a practice, but in terms of a this place. Then this play, then this play, then this play, then this play. I mean, Jesus. Hold on. People go in and get into summer league highlights. And act like that matters. I'm not doing it.

I'm saying you're not doing it. I'm saying it happens. Shit your bum ass. Shut your bum ass. No, I'm just kidding. All right. Matt, Chase Calicut. Who?

He is a Georgia football commit and a North Shore high school player. Unfortunately, was arrested in an incident where there was basically a road raid incident and somebody he was with pulled a gun and began shooting on somebody. First of all, anybody got time for that. Second of all,

Georgia and Texas fans are like at war with each other on the internet over this. Even to the point where Georgia Bulldogs fans are accusing Texas Longhorns people of setting the kid up.

Can we We stop arguing and fighting and spending energy and hours of our lives, yelling about a 17-year-old child? Ain't nobody got time for that. Who are these people on recruiting message boards all over the place, getting in wars with people over recruits, over teenagers? I mean, come on. It's ridiculous.

And ain't nobody got time for that. Ain't nobody got time for that? Is it north? Yes. If you are on a message board in 2025, you're a dork. The biggest, you think that's the biggest cancer in sports today is not the Twitter, Instagram. It's both. Snap.

TikTok. It's message boards. Because that gives you like pages and pages and pages to put out erroneous stuff. So if you're an administrator, it's like, well, it's like, I mean, what percentage of Reddit pages are kind of bad for you? Quite a bit? Bad for you? Yeah. I think Reddit's pretty hard.

I'm not going to call it harmless. That's not correct. All right. Sometimes people get bullied and there's been. We don't need that. All right. Here's my tip. If you're getting cyber bullied, close your laptop.

Yeah, there you go. Yeah. And just wait for the 15 minutes to get over with. Like this guy from the CEO. Delete your account. It'll go away. Like the CEO of the former. CEO of that company up in

Massachusetts who's, you know, caressing during the Coldplay concert. They were getting cozy. They were. They were about to make a sweet love at Foxborough. I don't think they were going to do it in the stadium, man.

You don't know that. You know why the thing was going to progress. You think they're going to go to the family bathroom and knock it out? That's disgusting. Oh, please. You've never done that before. On the koala bear changing station. That at the time of venue with 60,000 people

in the family restroom, you might see some stuff. How much weight does the koala bear changing station hold? Who sits on it? Her or you? 713-212-5-790. What's the matter with you, Jonathan, this week, quickly? To the overweight lady at the meddle's line this morning. Oh, Lord.

Hey, why are you going to get a fat shame this way? No, no, no, no, no, no, because I've been waiting all day. Why are you honking at me in line? What's the reason? I'm just talking about my ordering. What is the problem today? I don't get that. sorry because she was she was I had to look at the window

and then she passed me and then honked at me again I shut your my ass up I don't know what you did shit up my assholes you needed but you need to go lower on it okay so what was she doing to interfere with you just delaying everything apparently I would delaying it for her I was just waiting for my stuff and it was honking at me like she was in a rush hmm how do you know if she was overweight you turn around to look at it

I yeah I got I got all I got all I got all I got out of the line, parked. Oh my God. Waited until she got out of the line. Ah. And followed her. What?

Don't do that. You're just wrong with you. You were getting... No. No. I didn't... Okay. I followed her outside of the parking lot.

And then I went on a wrong way. I made sure she knew that I knew that she was not going to me. I'm a very confrontational person, guys. Yeah. I don't be like that. Shit your bum ass. Yeah. I better back off on my FSA FAC smack.

Yeah, you better watch out. I had some lumberjacks going out. I don't do nothing. You're going to feel my gaze through your car. Every window you have in your car, you're going to feel me. It's going to bring you a two-piece at a biscuit, man. Oof, an axe. Quick time out.

Mike and Joe will get to you. If anybody you guys want to tell me to shut their bum asses up, 713-212-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Here we go. 7-13-212-5-7-90. 713212-5-7-9-0. Let me tell you this. We'll have a little Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Astros' Tribute, followed by Wex.

If that's not a one-two pairing coming up in 10 minutes, Ross, I can't tell you what would be. Okay. I got some camp updates you might like that. Please. James Boyd of the Athletic in Colts Camp. Two hours ago, Qie Anthony Richardson nearly picked off. next week Kenny Moore just picked off

Daniel Jones could the Texans win the AMC south by six games I mean this division is god awful imagine me a Colts fan to follow him this guy

like Anthony Richardson nearly picked Daniel Jones picked off everything is do you hear somebody at the Tennessee Titans press conference yesterday asked

that the Titans are a Super Bowl contender what? I'm like what are you doing to those poor front office people the actual the NFL Super Bowl Well, yeah.

Terrible. Let's go. Mike on 790. Mike, what's the matter with you? Mike? Hey. That's you, Mike. Yeah, this Matt. This is Matt. This is Matt.

J.V., man. He said Matt be triv and so he asked me to call in for him, man. Who did? Justin Burlander, man, JV. Oh, he said, the humpahed that told him he, need to focus on getting out the third end and tell him to shut his bummed ass up, man. Shit your bum ass up, man.

Thank you, Mike. He is actually pitching right now. His Ernie is 5.99. Is that bad? Or is it 4.99? What does it really matter? He's got no wins this year. Yeah, coming into the game, he's 0 for 8 with 4.99.

4.99. I mean, that's, honestly, if you had not won a game and it's late July and your earnies only five, that's not terrible. negative.7 war below replacement level James what's the matter with you ain't nobody got time for these lame nicknames why not take

to Mel and Bryce Matthews and Cam Smith and call him the band of brothers that's a good nickname become the band of brothers shit your bum ass up man ain't nobody got time for these terrible nicknames and then he gave us a

terrible nickname. So James just called and said, I don't have time for these bad nicknames, so I'm going to give you one instead. Huh? God, what? I thought it was pretty funny. Good. Okay, good, Jonathan. Your opinion is more valid than ours. Significantly more valid. Joe, on 790, Joe, what's the matter with you? Well, I'll tell you what's the matter at the end, but I had a question. Do the outskirts hit a hitter, a pitcher, or should they just stay with the space cowboys and not get nobody in the, I forget what you call it?

Trade deadline? Trade deadline. And did anybody else say it's time to lay it down in the 1980s when MASH came on TV and said, well, time to go to sleep when they saw the helicopter and I hang down and go to sleep? Time for that. What? Is there a joke in there that's going over my head, Matthew? I didn't watch MASH. Let me ask y'all a question.

If I go beat my head against a wall, can I do it like five times and not injure myself? No. You don't have any hair. You don't have a cushion. I would like, I'm like, I was, that was, I'm not even saying, I'm like to see, I'm being serious. Time for that.

David Arters around. I don't think so. What's the matter of you? My God, this is about to go even further down. You can smash five times into yourself, Matt. Matt. But anyway. He might want to stretch out.

But anyway, what's wrong with me, Matt, is I don't want, like last week, I won the tickets to go see the concert. And whoever you're a guy that's supposed to be taking the information to get me a ticket, I haven't got my ticket. I didn't get my tickets then. I didn't get my tickets last time. That's probably because you're winning every six days. No, that's not true. I've been losing late. Yeah, it's pretty funny.

But to make a long story short mech, I went to see the Space Cowboys, right? And that ticket did say one ticket. You say, no, once you scan it, it's supposed to be four things proper. I paid, I had to pay extra $23, you know, to get my girl in, just let you all know. I didn't get my tickets. And first, I didn't get it. in the space couple. So ain't nobody got time for that. But I appreciate y'all and I love y'all.

Yeah, we appreciate you trying to free load everything possible off of us, Bill. Does anybody else have problem with those vouchers? I thought it said four tickets on there. I thought it said four tickets over here, Bill. I don't, I don't, that might be promotions or I don't know. All right. We're just going to go ahead in the most incredible train wreck segment. This is an all-time five-war segment, right?

It's been great. We've had absolutely horrific call after horrific call after unbelievably embarrassing call. Why not finish it with Eric in Bay City? Eric, what's the matter with you? Man, ain't nobody got time for the amount of time that Kyle Tucker laid on the ground like LeBron James with minstrel cramps last night after fouling off a 48-mile-an-hour, Rich Hill movement ball. Okay, I don't even know what you call the pitch, but it was fantastic. He struck out Kyle Tucker last night. bum ass up, Ross.

Kyle Tucker ain't worth no amount of money. He ain't getting six years. He's not getting six years? Okay. I bet he doesn't. You're an idiot. You all have a good one. What was my number?

Seven? I said seven or less, right? Seven and a half. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he ain't getting eight. Not getting eight. We got Habachi on eight? Seven and a half, I think.

We have a Batchie on that? I don't feel nearly as bad as I did like 30 minutes ago. He's 28. he's 28 with a 900 OPS and he's won a gold glove in right field you want to you want to up it we can have it how do you up in a Bachi hey hang on tight my girl got one oh your girl uh oh oh oh it wasn't me who upset the valley girl Ivana

Hi yes okay I wanted to come on here because I wanted to say what's wrong with me and so my boyfriend comes home every day. And the one thing that has stood out to me is he says both of you do not like chorizo. What? No, no, no, no, no. No, that's incorrect. Matt does not like chorizo. Tell him, give him your full wrath, Ivana. I... So I find that very hurtful because here, where I'm originally from, we have chorizo San Manuel. So I truly just think that you have not tried. Yes, you have not tried the correct chorizo. diesel. And Ross, I'm not done yet. Ross, you don't like

stockies, which is a serious issue. Talkies? Yes. When did I say I didn't like to say? That was Matt. Me too. See, again. Again. This is Matt. Again. Shit your one man's up, man. Hey, man, I got news for you. Stop putting five ranch rinsings on your salad. Let's go now. Let's go with the one salad. That's all we're going to do. We're going to use moderate amount. I don't need a whole bottle of Hidden Valley on my salad.

Vana, what do you say about that? Ain't nobody got time for it? Exactly. Anybody got time for using four bottles of dressing? Sorry, but I actually just went to Chick-fil-A and just got my salad without a amount of ranch. How many ranches you get? I got two. So you had some ranch soup?

Ranch soup. That's not a salad, it's a ranch soup. And thank you for attacking Ross. He deserved it. Thank you, Vana. She was wrong in both counts. I don't think it was. Yeah, you're not communicating.

Probably, Jonathan? No, I literally just try to tell her. She got confused. Mark. And yes, San Manuel Chorreso is the goat. And tachis are disgusting on a burger. Mark, what do you got? What's the matter with you?

Oh, like the other guy. I wouldn't think it's two months ago. I never gotten anything. I emailed Marvin like a dozen times. Marvin, shut your bum ass up. See your bum ass up, man. Marvin's in like Cancoup, man. He didn't get time.

Mark. Marvin said, ain't nobody got time to answer your emails. Mark. Jonathan talked to him during the break and we're going to hear a little Ozzy and then we're going to hear a little Astros highlights and I'm going to hear from Wex.

Marvin said, tell me how this out of office email tastes. 12-1 on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Rewind, part of the news at noon and Wex was going to call in a matter of seconds. He sent me a text with a bunch of question marks.

I guess we were supposed to call him. Oh, mistake on my part. well it's like three minutes left for the segment i asked wax i asked yeah we're actually so wax we're waiting for you now patiently waiting for wax's football report there's one thing we do in this show it's stay on the clock yeah we do especially if that last half hour that was maybe one of our worst 30 minutes in the history of the show what did he say he said that he said Kyle Tucker's not getting five years no I don't listen to a word he says

yeah you should I mean I think most of it's a troll act and then James like I don't like God I try I try to put together a good show we got Jim Bowden coming up in about that's good

50 minutes from now and I haven't even made a Bobby Bowden joke yet I got believe it or not it's already locked and loaded love it we've called for Wex three times in the last minute I think we should do it next Is he available? He's very busy he sent me questions

he's a question mark question mark question mark I can hear him rolling his eyes at you oh he is you know what we're so late the second we're going to have to wait till 1220 if that's okay make sure he's very busy you know he's got nothing else to do he's not working

today didn't work until 1230 this morning I know so you know what wait a little bit earn that sourn't I'm doing post game today you're doing pregame well we're doing actually I'm doing pre-in-post I'm doing pre with you and post and pre-imposed tomorrow and Friday and Clinton's in his is in his pool

dang I'm on four games this week I'm on three you know what Matt We are the backbone of this station, aren't we? We are worth every penny that I make. Yeah. All right.

We're calling. I sent text, can you call? That was three minutes ago. What is he doing? Is he in the drive-thru? He's probably, yeah, yelling at somebody. Oh, he's yelling at me. I can tell you that for damn sure.

All right. We'll do this quick timeout. And then we will get to Wex's football report. Brought to you by nobody at this point. 7132. If you'd like to sponsor Wax's update, be a part of the 790 family, you should do it.

Just like our friends at Taya Brewing are a huge part of the 790 family. Shout out to everybody at Talyard on Imperial Boulevard and Sugarline. If you've been going to Space Cowboy Games, you know exactly where it's at. If you are in the Sugarland area, you know where it's at.

But if you are in Cyprus, if you're in Gavison, if you're in Kingwood, if you're in Katie, looking for great craft beer. It's got to be Tired Brewing. Tirebrewing.com. And again, if you want to join the 790 family,

mT at Sports 790. com and we want to help your business grow right here on sports talk 790 wex is up next 1212 on 790 generals gathered in their masses is this the official wex song to enter in on the segment is the war pig of sports talk 790 this is a jam of death's construction

I'm going to have to probably download some black savannah songs. Oh, look at this. New Horizons for Matt Thomas. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. One of the songs you haven't heard for 765 times this year. I'm proud of you. Thank you. Well, it's better on the other bumps. You play over the smashing, whatever they call, and Madden Dragons and crap. Whatever. Yeah, smash it back ones.

Manchin dragons? Wex is with us. Hey. Fresh off of the practice field. Wex, we're quick. How many out-of-work radio people ask for jobs today while you're a practice? If I heard you correctly, you were asking about what songs you should download. you're Napster. No, I don't even know what Napster is. He's a limewire guy.

I don't keep track of the things you keep track of, so I can't answer that. What did you keep track of then today? Attendance. Okay, and so I want to ask about Joe Mixon. What are we to read about him on the non-injury football list? Football injury. I thought it was pretty interesting that the Pupp list is kind of made for off-season injuries. It's not really relative to what.

when people return. It just gives you just roster flexibility. You can come off the Pup list anytime you want, but the other player on the NFI list isn't going to play this year. So for Joe Mixen to be put there, I was just a little surprising, didn't get any clarity on it from Damiko Ryans, though I'm still led to believe it isn't of any great significance.

I just simply don't know what it is. An NFI obviously is what it says, a non-football injury. So it's more curious than concerned, I would say. September 7th, they'll play the Rams, and unless there's an injury between now, and then Joe Mixon will be in the starting backfield. I wonder if it's just semantics of some sort.

I mean, because there are several lists. You could put him on. He could also put him on no list at all, correct? I mean, you just didn't have done a while practicing? Yeah, but he's not capable of doing that. So from a roster standpoint, you wouldn't want it. There's no reason to do that to the rest of the roster. And it gives yourself some flexibility in having guys here and getting a look at them for longer than you would have otherwise had the chance to do.

There's 11 players on the Texans Pup list. It's a pretty sizable number. It's a little concern to where these guys technically are, but more to when do they really want them on the active roster if they are already planning on giving them rest days or they're not really ready today, but they'll be ready July 30th, you know, things like that. All right. So you walked in today. What did you want to see? And granted, this is so not like your old school where guys were in pads and beating each other up. It was probably a get-together informal session. It was first time they got together in quite some time. what did your eyes notice today that would be of interest to my audience, not necessarily the minutia of the training camp, but just general getting ready for training camp stuff.

The pick they made at number 48 will be a starter for the Texans this year, Ariante Ursary. I'm not telling you for a fact. I'm telling you that's what I believe is going to happen based on what they did during the offseason. And even based on what they did today, I mean, they are playing, they are operating like it's a real practice. You could have seen things like this a week or two weeks or now on a day they weren't in pads, but this was still day one. A lot of it was at walkthrough speeds.

There is no hitting. There are no pads. But you're still lining up against each other and you're still putting five starting linemen out there in front of C.J. Stroud. And, of course, behind him is Nick Chub because both Damien Pierce and Joe Mixon are not active right now. But he's playing behind Jarrett Patterson at center. He's flanked by Tomlinson and Titus Howard. And then Erserie is playing right tackle currently. with that first group, getting the reps with that first group,

with Cam Robinson on the left side. And when they bring the second unit out there, nursery is getting work on the other side, on the left side. He's shown them enough or they liked as much as they did on draft day to give him an opportunity to pretty much pass up everybody that was already on the roster or that they added in the offseason. And I think he's going to play that well in order to do so. Yeah, and I saw that as well.

What do you think, I mean, how much of this, of course, none of it's set in the stone, but how surprised were you not to see Blake Fisher, Fisher in the configuration at all, and Arionte Ursari starting there in that right tackle spot. Yeah, I mean, Fisher's the guy that will, you know, he gets the right tackle reps behind him, and you saw some of that during other offseason work. I mean, he has more experience, but I don't think he has more talent. And I think, you know, one thing that they have from last year from an eyeball standpoint is

Cole Popovich may be the new offensive line coach this year, but he was also an assistant offensive line coach last year. So they turned over a lot of the roster at those spots among the play. players that will contribute this year, but he saw Blake Fisher for an entire year. He saw him in games. He saw him at practice, and I do think there's room for improvement, clearly, and it will be made by Fisher, but he was a second round pick two years ago, or say a second round pick this year. Choose Scruggs, by the way, a second round pick the year before that, and Ersary's light years ahead of both of them, and Fisher is, you know, technically, he's fighting

for, say, a swing tackle job. It's day one. I don't want to say, don't quote me on this, but I do believe that's exactly what's going to happen. Trent Brown also, interestingly, is on the pup list. He's the biggest lineman that they have. He actually towers over every day. 380 pounds, Wex. He's huge. He's so tall.

He carries it like he's not crazy overweight. He really does. But at some point during camp, probably soon, he will be out there as well. And he could, if healthy, he could play his way into that mix for sure. Any thoughts, initial first impressions of Nick Chubb? I think this is a player who's making Damian Pierce's roster spot tenuous at best. Darya and Gunbo Wally is going to make this team. Nick Chub and Joe Mixen are going to make this team.

Woody Marks was just drafted. He's going to make this team. Well, that's four running backs right now that I'm telling you are all making the team. I'm not sure where that leaves Damian Pierce, and obviously with him on the pup list and not practicing, and he did not practice during the offseason because of injury. I do think that makes it tenuous, but Nick Chub, I think, is going to be one of the most effective late ads that this team ended up making. He was there for just a day of actual work on the field during the offseason, but he's going to matter this year. It gives you an option to not overwork Joe Mixon. He obviously missed time last year. And I think Nick Chubb is far enough away from his injury. And these are basically his words, far enough away from that injury that had a sideline for so long. He came back last year and played, not very effectively, because I don't think he was where he is today health-wise. I think you're going to see a pretty,

useful player, again, as a backup. There are not too many second team running backs that I think can provide what he will for this team. Most interesting thing that Nick Assyrio and Domingo Ryan said today. I think Domeko Ryans was good, and he said this before about the offensive line. I can keep telling you about what I see. I can keep telling you about who's working hard. But until these guys play somebody else, I don't really, he doesn't even care. He doesn't even really pay attention to it.

When they have a joint practice with the Pansors, when they have a joint practice, when they have a joint practice with the lions. That's when you're going to get some real answers about the offensive line. So he's basically saying, you can ask me all you want about Cole Popovich, and he had some good stuff about why things are different in that regard this year, and you can ask me about how the offensive line looks and the new culture, and all this and that and the other. But until we see them put pads on and play against somebody,

obviously playing against Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson every day with pads on the next three weeks will also matter, but it's really about what do you look like when you're actually competing, and that's just not what's happening today. And who do you think C.J. Stroud had the best custom handshake with among the offensive linemen? That's a good question. I think his custom handshakes really are the running backs and the wideouts. His work with Xavier Hutchinson is pretty good. It's pretty elaborate. His work with Nick Chubb is nothing. He shakes his hand. That's it. That's all I saw from MD. Everybody else has a move, a dance, a hip thrust, something. But Nick Chub, the veteran, all business.

And should we do that up here at Sports Talk 790? Get custom handshakes with everyone. Well, you and Matt obviously should. Yeah, I guess that's true. Yeah, what's on the big 18 today coming up at 3 o'clock? Was only a matter of time. I appreciate you joining us. Well, let me tell you, at least you came to work today, sort of.

You went over to Texans, and you came on this show, and for that, we thank you. Your partner is dead to me. It's 1225. I was at Texans at 8 o'clock. That was my four-hour shift today. Yeah. Yeah, I respect that. All right.

Thank you. Your partner, nowhere to be found. We can talk to him tomorrow, too. Oh, don't worry, I will. I've been already texting him, how lazy he is. Go crush us on social media, please. Oh, no, I would never do that. Yeah, actually I would.

Thanks, We'll see you later. That's so, Adam Wexer, with Wex's walkout as part of his Instagram. Now, our Instagram is better than his. ours of course is at sports mt at sports r yes but if you want to pull uh wex this is too it's i'm sure he's got some camp stuff on there right oh yeah he's did as the patent walking out with wex oh yeah that's true and i think you start going to practice with him so you can hold the phone well he does i got to get here for the show yeah we practice is normally like at nine right we gotta carry four hours in the middle of the day we're doing all the heavy lifting all

everybody's just standing out there looking for jobs yeah my back hurts exactly thank you wex appreciate the insight. We'll get, and we're going to put Wax to work. You didn't know this yet, but I'd rather talk to Wax than other people. I thought you're going to say to Adam Clinton. Well,

I mean, Adam would have to go to our practice. That's true. You know what I mean? You can't, can't come on. What is he doing right now? Eating.

And by, he's within 20 feet of his pool. Astros on deck coming up at 1.30s. Maybe he's nibbling on Teresa's neck while she's trying to work. Oh, right. Okay. Nobody needs to know that.

Just, you asked what I would potentially be doing. So you're saying, baby number two at nine months. I'm going to go and put that as a negatory. I mean, I think he would. I think she's like, I'm had plenty. 713, 212.790, 1228. Jim Bowton's going to join us from Sirius XM and CBS Sports.

He is a former general manager of the Cincinnati Reds and he can give us the intel of what he thinks the Astros could and should do at the trade deadline. 1228, Sports Talk, 790. All right, now we're getting a little too. deep cut here for me. What do you mean? I cough. Will you like it? I can listen to a couple of songs.

So I'm going to say, I'll do respect, Gazi. May you rest in peace. I'm not listening to song. So it sounds like he's in the background singing, right? Yeah, they layer the vocals. Yeah. All right. 1232, thanks to Wex for joining us, and he doesn't know this yet, but he's going to join us on a semi-regular basis. He doesn't know this, but he is.

I mean, unless he's, if he's listened to us, he is. Okay. But he doesn't, you know, I'll definitely refer to him frequently. 713212-5-7-9-0-7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Jim Bowden's going to join us at 1 o'clock. We will have Astros on deck at 130. Believe it or not, today is all things about Ozzy Oswald at 120.

All right, anything else we've missed today? We got, went over the Danek-Brown cuts. You want to play? Is there anything else you wanted to play from the Dana-Brown stuff that you wanted to play? Or do we want to save it for on deck? Oh, yeah, wait. We were supposed to. Let me go look.

optimism is flowing. Do you want to hear what he has to say about Lance McCuller's Jr. And is Blister? Yeah, why not? Yeah, you know, blisters could be tricky. It sort of happened right before the last start. And then it was really aggravated during that start. And so, you know, they could be tricky.

But, you know, hopefully it's not too long. That's our phone system, right? Yeah, a lot of repeats. Is it our phone? Our computers are both. It's probably a little bit of both. When in doubt, blame us. It's great.

It's meant fantastic. And then another one I wanted to play, his, well, you can react. Lance McCullochell's got a blister. I mean, happens to pitchers. I mean, blisters are very common among pitchers, so that's not out of the ordinary. Fortunately, it's happening to a guy who's had a storied injury history. I mean, the weight landing on his foot. Mm-hmm.

I believe also his dog ate his homework. He's going to be missed 15 days with that. Did today's kids even say the dog ate my homework anymore? That's all digital, right? It's on the tablets. The dog ate your tablet? Yeah, you still did, though. Okay.

Oh, you sounds like somebody's speaking of from experience. You know, you know. Here's what you've got to go with. Here's what they're getting to have through now. The teachers are saying that they're cheating because they're using AI and they're using the Internet to write their papers. Yeah, so you can go back to handwritten. Let's go. Get them hand cramps going like we did back in the day. I will say this, that my daughter was accused of that. And it turned out to be that was incorrect and the teacher had to apologize.

Do you believe her? Yeah, I mean, it was proof. Okay. What was the proof? It was, hey, here's what I did. Here's my research. And the generator that tried to figure out of the paper was cut and paste was not accurate. So I was exonerated once in them, but I cheated in that grade. Oh, I mean, here's the thing. I can't crush her if she did because I cheated in high school. Cheating college. You ain't cheating? You ain't trying.

Anyways, Dana Brown, what's going to happen during the trade deadline? Strategic. You know, we want to be strategic in what you do. You know, you want to acquire the right player. You definitely want to make sure that it, makes sense for the organization and what we're doing as we continue to grind through winning presently and the future and the future and so you have to really think through all these things at the deadline and you try to acquire the right player that's going to get you over the hump

and get you back to the postseason and deep into the postseason so that's what we're you know we're doing we're trying to be strategic about this we're having meetings constantly and we'll meet all the way up to the deadline I do believe everything he said. I do believe they are legitimately kicking the tires on whether or not they need to make a trade. And I'm telling you, even though all these positive things, which you'll hear during on deck about the pitchers are right around the corner, Ross, I still think you have to go get pitching. I still think it. Nope.

Okay. I understand you. No, you're reasonable in saying the Astros could use a pitcher. However The more pressing need is a bat They don't have the capital to fill every need They just don't They're bargain bin shopping

They're at Darshals Why is gentlemen They are not Hannah with the black card at Nordstrom's Oh my God Hannah If she wants something she'll get it Whether a house is okay or not They're not doing that Go look up, do me a favor

And I'll segue to this Cedric Mullin's numbers In just the last week or so Okay. Give me the month of July for Settrick Mullen. Senator Mollins is a very talented center fielder for the Baltimore Orioles.

The Baltimore Orioles are in full cell mode. The Baltimore Orioles have been a major disappointment after winning and making the playoffs each of the last two years, only to get knocked out each of the last two years in the first round. He's hitting 213 with 13 home runs. You want the last...

What's he doing in the last week? Maybe he's catching fire of some sort. How about since July 1st? Yeah. He is hitting 217. with a 620 OPS, one home run this month. Jeff Passon, a friend of the show,

says that's a candidate he believes would fit the Astros best in a trade. Now, is he saying that because he believes that Judge Mullins in a new scenery, new team, back in the pennant race, would be better than what his numbers are right now? Or is he saying that's all the Astros are willing to give up in a potential trade? Maybe he's having some bad luck. Maybe he's got a lot of hard hit contact, man. You can't just use batting.

I'm going to guarantee you, Dana Brown, whoever, if they're looking at Cedric Mullins, they're not just looking at batting average in OPS. His career track record is... Left-handed bad, by the way. Yeah, first of all, yes, he's left-handed. Decent bat. Career OPS plus of 106. I mean, with those who don't know, average is 100.

Around 15 home runs in the bat. He's already at 13. He had 18 last. year 15 the year before he did a crazy in 21 he hit 30 homers and he plays pretty good center field and also i mean that would make more sense if we don't know how long jake myers is going to be out yeah not resuming any sort of swing he is rehabbing here in houston he has not gone to any minor leagues he has not gone to florida to work out with anybody there so uh jeff pass and describing the astros as adding but not all in meaning how aggressive they be

the deadline. Biggest need, he says, is left-handed back, which I think you could certainly not argue that. And the best fit, he says, is outfielder, Cedric Mullins. I mean, look, if the Astros bring Cedric Mullins here, it'll be better than what they're trotting out right now. I mean, it is what it is. He's a guy that's been there, done that.

He's been kind of on the Astros radar of the last couple of years, but it's the kind of minor move that's not going to set the world on fire, and it's also not going to tell the entire Major League Base. baseball world that the Astros are going to go from a team that's fighting for the top spot in America League to a team that may be fighting for the best record overall. I don't think he's a game change. The numbers just don't bear that out this year. There have been some names mentioned by Chandler Rome. Subscribe to the athletic folks. Always great stuff from Chandler Rome. Talking about the race, probably not going to be inclined to move Brandon Lowe, who also is on the IL now with a

foot injury. But are you even needing a second base if Bryce Matthews is the answer? Well, it depends. If Paredes is out, can Bryce play third? He played short in AAA. You don't want him playing short, apparently. But it feels like to me, they don't want to move him around. They think young man just happens to be on the team.

But if you can get Brandon low, but that's probably not going to happen. Anyways, Colorado's Ryan McMahon. But apparently, it could be a luxury tax thing. The Astros are only $2 million below the tax. So we know that Jim Crane wants to avoid the tax because the penalties are bigger and more significant if you are a repeating going into the tax repeatedly. This doesn't feel like they would be going over the tax. As I said before, when you and I talked on Monday, do you think that a hard conversation is happening inside the ivory towers of the Astros?

Or Jim Crane's going and saying, hey, we are just not. on borrowed time. But man, we are extraordinarily lucky. Are we really one player from getting over the top? Is that one player via trade, or is that one player among our 17 guys that are injured, of which 12 of them

have some opportunity to come back this year? Could he be thinking that? Why wouldn't you be thinking that? Especially if Dana Brown, now again, just because he tells Sean Selsbury optimistic things on one end, doesn't necessarily mean that that's what he's telling his boss on the other hand.

Ryan McMahon plays mostly third base and he's got an OPS plus 93. You need a new third baseman, honestly. I think... Tell me where Paredes is... I'm going to be back tomorrow. I got feeling...

Did I mark it down? I think he's probably going to be out for the regular season minimum. That's just my gut feeling. And at that point, why would regular season make... Why would you say all coming October 1st, he'd be ready to go?

I mean, who's to say? I think Jim Crane wants to stay. I think it's two things. It's either, Dana, I want you to stay under the tax unless you're making moves that are going to win us a World Series. If you've got a couple of meh deals for rentals and they're just kind of depth deals, don't do it. If you think you can strike deals. But debt deals get them under the tax, my guess. Well, they're only two million under.

But, I mean, if you're pro rating a contract Yeah, you're pro rating 100 games in, you need somebody making less than, what, $6 million? That kind of feels accurate. I got one for you, too, Rossi. How about if you're really going to make a trade, if you're really going to go to that farm system and use it one more time, how about you get somebody with club control for next year and not going to rent them? That's going to cost you more. Then you've got to give up more, and you're already limited with the resources.

1243. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. up in 18 minutes. We'll bounce all these things off of Jim Bowden. He'll be with us. The former general manager of the Cincinnati Reds will be with us here on Sports Talk, 790. 1249, Madden and Ross with you. We are into baseball mode at 1 o'clock. Jim Bowden's going to join us from Sirius XM Radio, former general manager of the Cincinnati Reds. 713-212-5-790. We'll have, believe it or not, all things about Ozzy Osbourne at 120, and then Ross and I will host Astros on deck at 130, Where will you be tonight right after the game is all said and done?

Yes, Matthew, we'll be at Carbock Brewing, myself and Chris Gordy. We do the Crawford Boxcast. We do a live taping slash 10th inning show from Carbuck Brewing from when the game ends until 7 p.m. Is Gordy's head going to be really big as he got on Fimbom yesterday? I think it should be. It was great. Proud of them. That's awesome.

I watched like 30 seconds of it. I don't necessarily believe you. What? Why would you watch 30 seconds of your friend and then have seen enough? I was talking about SEC football. It didn't interest me that much. But I think, I mean, being on the Fine Bomb program, that's amazing. It's one of the biggest programs in the entire country.

Great for him. I don't doubt anything you said. I just don't think you were on, I don't think you watch it for 30 seconds. You think I was under? I think you didn't watch it at all. Oh, you're wrong? Okay. I saw him fixing his hair.

Oh, my God. Poor Gordy. He's got his comb over. Don't, don't shake. I didn't shame him on that. See, I did not say that. You did. Don't shame him. Say it again. Say it again. No, nothing. Matt was being mean. No, I was not. What else is new? You lied about the amount of time you watched Gordy on his show. I literally retweeted. Did you retweet it? Did you retweet? No, you went on this. No, I said, I'll remember Chris

Gordy when. Oh, okay. So you quote tweeted with something snarky. I gave it a straight retweet. That means when I say that, that means that's a very, very, oh, that's your love language. No, it's like, I remember when he was just with us. Now he's going to be in big network. Everybody's going network around these parts except me and you. We're downgraining. We're going to be in Buffalo by the end of the week. Aggie Doug at 1250 on 790.

What do you got? Howdy boys? How are you all? Amazing. Great. Excellent. So I was talking on my podcast on Sunday about that I don't think, I don't think the Astros are going to make a move, guys, or anything significant.

I mean, first of all, look at what we have to offer at this point, and they're basically playing for us right now. So I don't think you're going to basically trade one for one, just say, hey, you want a couple of our starters so we can get one of your starters? I mean, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense at this point. And I think with McCullors going to the DL, or the IL, I think it's, I think what you kind of do is you have to start looking at like maybe even a relieving game, a piggyback game where basically Gusto pitches three and then maybe, Gordon comes in and pitches three. I think that it's got to start thinking outside the box until Araggetti and Javier are going to get back, because I think those are the two guys that we can depend on coming back.

And, dude, if we get Garcia, that's gravy. As far as Yordon, I think Yordon's going to come back. Unfortunately, I think it's going to be like an every other day start until we get to the playoffs. And then I think Pena, I think Myers hopefully will be okay. If not, you can kind of get by with a Cam Smith, possibly moving to center. So I think the Asho's got a lot of options.

It's just they're all kind of playing for us right now. So, I mean, we literally have 17 guys and doesn't that mean that we have 23 on our roster right now? And you're supposed to have 24 to 26? You have guys on the 60-day IL as well, which means they don't have to be on the 40. Yeah, that's 17 includes the guys that are like the Wisniewski's of the world and the Ronell Blancos. Gotcha. Okay, yeah. So I just didn't know how that worked.

But I know that we have, don't you still have the whole injury or the COVID thing that they had back in the day? Don't they still do that? Taxi squad? There is a taxi squad. There is. I haven't seen it. There's one, I think. I think you can designate one player for that.

Okay. That makes it not a squad. It makes it just a taxi guy. Taxi guy. Your taxi driver? Long take short. I don't think we're going to do a move. Yeah, I mean, put this way.

Thanks, Andy, for the phone call. If you were to put on the big board, zero moves, super minor moves, move, or wow, going to rock the baseball world move, I bet you zero move or minor move would be equal on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the bedline. I think a right-handed deliver happens. I don't know if it's going to be a big name. You can, feels like you can find guys, you can move around cash considerations, you know, some prospect or whatever. You have about this. If I can go get a good.

decent left-handed bat, can I give up one of my lefty relievers? You know how valuable left-handed relievering is in Major League Baseball? Well, Dusty Baker does. Yeah, but everybody who's performing well for you, basically you made them what they are.

So I don't know how other teams, and also short sample sizes. We've seen it, Matt. Relevers can be good for a few months or six months or a year. I mean, Taylor Scott, literally last year, where we were right now, we're talking about what a great fine Taylor Scott was. Well, how about Brian King just last night? Brian King, in the ninth inning with a chance to get his first saved, first three batters he sees, he gives up base hits, bass is loaded, and then if not, 4-9, he did get the striker. That was the first shot, and then he induces the double play, but that was on an easy double play to create.

You know what my favorite thing was? People were, before a run had scored, people were crushing a spot of for using a Brayu in the eighth instead of the ninth. against the top of the lineup, a higher leverage spot against the best Diamondbacks hitters. 2, 3, 4. Yeah, 2, 3, 4. They were, before a run scored,

what is Joe Espada doing? Brian King gets out of it. No, no, peep out of anybody. No, no congratulations, Joe Espada. He put the guy out there that you said was going to get in a runs and you're all calling him an idiot, and then he didn't give up a run and they won the game. No thanks.

Ridiculous. I mean, I know. It's low-hanging fruit. A lot of idiots out there. When do we learn? Is that not a teaching moment for some of you people that were crushing a spot before a run even scored? Or you just move on and you just think you're always right.

No, no, no. It was the, it was when it wasn't a brayune in the ninth, and it was king instead. But if you'd have realized, I've been watching the Astros at any point, you realize that Josh has been used a bunch in the last week and a bunch of high pitch cat evenings too. Oh, yeah, but people were wanting a bray you in the ninth when he was...

Oh, for a second straight inning? I'm sorry, sorry. Instead of swapping him instead of pitching the eighth, pitching the ninth. Yeah. No, I totally get it. And we've seen that in baseball a lot in the last decade. If you've got three high leverage guys that go get in your lineup in the 8th, then you put your high leverage reliever out there.

That's exactly what they did. The number one reliever available to the Astros last night pitched against the three most important guys in that lineup. Now, granted, 5, 6, 7 got on the base pass. get it. That wasn't great, but I would rather take my chances Brian King going after the back half of the lineup than I would against the front half of the line.

Take a deep breath. You're fine. Thank you. All right, let's talk to Jim Bowden. He will join us to start the final hour of the show. Believe it or not after that. And then we've got Astros on deck. Oh, that's a busy next half hour here on 790. It is 101 on Sports Talk 790.

We are very pleased to be joined by a man you can hear on Sirius XM radio on the baseball channel that does a great job. It's MLB Network Radio. Also, a contributor for the athletic and has a terrific perspective because he's a former general manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Longtime baseball executive, Jim Bowden, with us here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Jim, it's Matt and Ross. Thank you for the time. We appreciate it.

Let me ask you right off the get-go. We know, look, we live through the world of the Astros, and we are completely stunned at what they're able to do five-game lead in the American League West, tied for the second best record in the American League. Are other cities doing this with their teams, or are the Astros just this incredible one-off of injured players that are just pulling off this miracle story so far this year? Well, you've got a great general manager in Dana Brown who has done incredible things, and I think you have to start there, right? I mean, you know, it's really hard to move on from a superstar player like Kyle Tucker, but he was able to pivot and turn.

turn that into Cam Smith and Isok Paratus. That was an amazing trade for the Houston Astros to allow them to continue to contend. And he has done an incredible job of drafting since he's been there as well. He has a keen eye on prospects and talent. He's not afraid to promote prospects. He's not afraid to pull that trigger if he thinks the prospect is ready to compete and help win at the major league level. And credit ownership, too. I mean, you know, the ownership of the Astros is the one that continuously makes these moves, right?

And moved on from A.J. Hinch to Dusty Baker to Joe Espada, moved on from Jeff Luno to Dana Brown. I mean, he's done a really good job in that seat. And he gives his GMs the finances it takes to win, the creativity, not afraid to walk away from giving a bad contract. And, you know, I think it's just a well-oiled, well-run organization. And I think one of the thing that stands out about this year's Astros team is how good they are against good teams. And I always look for that. That matters, especially when you start to look ahead to October. The Astros are 14 and 4 against the first place teams.

All the teams are in the first place right now. They've got two aces in Hunter Brown and Frambervaldez, which means an impact closer and hey, they're in a great set-up guy in the brayer, which means you can run the table in the playoffs pretty easily. And they're not done. I mean, look, I think Dana Brown is either going to get a big starter or I think he's going to a big left-handed bat at the deadline. We'll see. We're a week away. But Houston, you don't have a problem. You brought up the ownership. And one of the things that we have to fight here with some of our naive Astro fans is that Jim Crane doesn't spend money. The Astros are always top seven,

top eight in payroll. And it's been that way for about seven or eight years now, especially as a team, has been good. What he won't do is he won't do those super mega contracts. Let's not use Miami, maybe your former team, maybe some of the, bottom third teams that just haven't had a history of spending it, but like the top 20 teams, are other cities fighting for their players to get seven, eight year, nine year contracts, or is Jim a one-off on this? No, everyone's fighting for the same thing. And I think if you give them, you've got to make sure you're giving it to the right guy.

Now, let's go back in history. Did they make a mistake and not paying Carlos Correa? No, they didn't make a mistake. The right decision was to walk away. Jeremy Pena, before he got injured, was the best player on the Astros this year. So they were able to replace him. But if you had given the Correa, the Twins contract, what the Giants and Mets had offered for the medical nix those deals,

you know, everyone would regret it. Minnesota doesn't want to have that on their books right now. I'm sorry, he's a good player. I love Carlos Correa. Help win a World Championship for Houston in 2017. I get it. But walking away was the right movement. And I know George Springer is having a fountain of youth season

for them, but anyone that watched them the last two years has to be happy that the Astros didn't give him that long-term deal. You know, I would say the one that the one that he didn't do that I think he should have done was Kyle Tucker. That's just my opinion, because I think he's going to age extremely well. And I think at one point they could have given him the Austin Riley deal that the Braves gave to Riley, and that's the one I would have done. But I give them credit.

And, you know, look, if you have a GM that can. can turn Tucker into Cam Smith and Paradeus and keep winning, you know, it's hard to sit there and argue that Jim Crane didn't make the right decision. You know, you're going to have six years of Cam Smith. And by the way, you know, were you going to pay Tucker $600 million? No. See, when you could have signed them at the Austin Riley deal, that would have been a good investment. You can't sign Tucker now. That's why they had to trade him. Because otherwise, he's going to be $600 million. And, you know, you're not, you're not New York, Philadelphia, or L.A. You know, you're a top eight market, but you're not, you know, you don't have the revenues that they have.

So, you know, to put 600 million on one player, no, you go trade for Camp Smith and Parades. Jim Bowden with us here on Sports Talk 790. Ross with you as well here, Jim, and I had a question for you about the Astros having a lot of pitchers on the IL, but a lot of these guys rehabbing. What do you think philosophically, if you can put yourself in Dana Brown's shoes, where you got guys like Spencer Arrogati, Christian Javier, Luis Garcia, possibly coming back? but you need starting pitching. What is it like for you trying to weigh when guys are coming back and addressing the need at the deadline?

You always have a need. Go get as many as you can. Here's what you can't control. And you haven't been able to control it for six years. For six years, you can't make waiver trades in August. So if you get two more injuries in August, what are you going to do? You can only bring up the guys in AAA. It's not like you can do what you did in 2017

when you traded for Justin Burland or August 31st. and ended up winning a world championship, right? It's not going to be like, you know, when the Rangers, Chris Young went out and traded for Jordan Montgomery when everyone else is trying to get them and he won a world championship with Jordan Montgomery. So you can't, you know, you don't know who's going to get hurt in August and September. All you have to do is look at the Dodgers injury list. They have 11 guys on the injured list.

A lot of their star pitchers on the injured list, right? Take a deep breath and let's understand that's part of baseball in 2025. Because we're doing such a great job of teaching pitchers how to maximize velocity, maximize player movement, maximize grips, guys are going to get hurt. Because the pitching body, when you're born, was not meant to do this. It wasn't meant to throw 100. The elbow wasn't meant to be bent at the angles that we're bending it now. Pitchers are going to blow out. You can't get enough.

You just can't. So don't count on guys. Just keep trading for as much pitching as you can. And when you're done doing that, go get some more. And when you're done doing that, get more than that. You'll never have enough. It's interesting you bring that up because I was actually going to talk about that with you as well. Is this just the new normal?

This is just how it's going to be? You just build teams and get as much pitching and guys are just going to blow their arms out? Yeah. And then we've got to help the medical team continues to find ways to improve the surgeries. I mean, you know, I think this new brace surgery is working. Look at Lucas G. Alito in Boston. It's working. That's exciting.

and we've got Brandon Woodruff coming back from the shoulder surgery at a level where it looks like he hasn't missed a beat. He looks like an ace right now in Milwaukee. You know, back in the day when I was a GM, there's no chance you come back from that shoulder. But the medical profession is really figuring out how to get guys healthy, but you're still going to have to, you've got to imagine that every picture you have at some point is going to miss a year and a half with Tommy John surgery. You just got to bank. Every time you sign a guy, you've got to tell your own, if you're going to give Corbyn Burns eight years, you've got to tell them you're only going to get six and you're only going to get four good years. And you're going to get two years where he regress and two years where he's on the injured list.

And that's just what you have to expect. That's where we are right now. That's where the industry is until someone can figure out a better way to do it. That's what you're looking at. A couple more minutes here with Jim Bowden with us from MLB Network Radio and Sirius XM. Jim, speaking of pitching, what's the market going to be on Framber Valdez next year? he's going to get paid and he's supply and demand

they're not out there he's going to get paid he won't be an astro I mean I don't I don't see how I don't see how Jim Crane and Dana Brown are going to be able to pay him I really don't so I mean I'd like to be optimistic and say it's going to happen but you know when you're competing with

the Yankees checkbook and the Dodgers checkbook and the Mets checkbook it's you know it's hard to keep these guys and they all get overpaid and as I just explained once you sign them, everything you've seen for the last five years,

don't think you're going to see it the next five years. Some point he's going to get hurt and he's going to miss time. It's going to happen. At some point, he's going to regress. That's the way it happened. So the question is, do you want to go and take the $220 million gamble? Or do you want to do what the Mets are doing? I mean, look, it's risky.

But you also have to understand if you're going to commit the $220 million, you might have to do what Arizona is doing and look at them on the injured list, which doesn't feel good at that money. Yeah. All right. Crystal ball time, and don't worry if you're not, since you're doing the show in Houston here, you do MLB Network Radio for a huge audience, but give us your crystal ball assistant of how this American League playoffs

is going to end up here in 2025. Well, the Astros are going to win the American League West, and they're going to get into the playoffs, and then from there it's a total crapshoot. I think Houston has as good a chance of any of getting to the World Series, If I had to pick a team today, I would pick Houston getting there, but that's subject to change. We've got a long way to go. But I do like how they're set up with two aces, two impact relievers at the back, and a team that, you know, grinds the way they grind every day.

But, you know, I don't think there's a lot of difference between Yankees, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Tigers, Mariners. And I think the Rangers are going to get back in this race, too. I mean, I think we're in for a really fun October, because I don't think you look at the National League. I think they have six teams in the National League literally can get to the World Series. I believe that. And if I look at the playoffs in the American League, which you're asking me can say, okay, which playoff team has no chance of getting to the World Series? There isn't one. They all have a chance.

We don't have, in my opinion, the team in either league right now today that is so dominant that they should be the clear favorites. And very last question. We're watching a certain very talented third basement for the Arizona Demosbacks play the Astros this week. And he has been named up, Mr. Suarez, we're speaking of. Where do you think he ends up here in the next 11, 12 days? I don't know. That's Mike Hayes in question, the GM of the Diamondbacks. I talked to Mike on Sunday and asked him, and he is hoping he doesn't sell at the deadline.

He said, I hope we have a really good week, and I hope I can choke the supply and help the sellers out. by just taking Arizona out of being a seller. That's what he's hoping to do. We'll see how they play. They're five and a half games out. If we're sitting here next week and they're three and a half out, he's not going to trade him. So he'll be a diamond back.

If we're looking at it next week and he's seven and a half games out and loses a couple more games, he's going to get traded. And then I think you have to look at Yankees, Seattle, Cubs, as the most likely landing spots. Jim, I enjoy your work on MLB Network Radio. Thank you so much for the time. We hope to bother you again down the road, and we really appreciate your perspective on things. And enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy this trade deadline coming up next week.

Thank you very much. I appreciate you having me on. Thank you. Jim Bowden joining us, your excellent guest here on the Matt Thomas Show. Rossville, National Perspective, on what could be happening? Did he say he's got the Astros won in the American League? Did he say that? He's smart.

We got to get him back on. And we'll see what happens at the deadline. And how's you were on doing it? Did he go on with Softie and said the Mariners are going the American League Championship? No. All right, just want to make sure. All right, let's play Believe or Not. You want to? Oh, yeah.

I wrote it. It's already done. I'm going to go get a snack. Lock and loaded, baby. I'm going to get some food. We get ready for Astros on deck at the bottom of the hour, but all things, Ozzy Osbourne, believe it or not, it's up next. Now, the prize horse listened this early, or are they always attuned to ready at 150? Find out next. You want to play, believe it or not?

713, 212-790. 7-190-1-790. We have Astros on deck coming up in about 12, 13 minutes from now. Tomorrow on the show, we'll have Brian McTaggart. I don't know when he's flying back from Phoenix. We'll have, I Just Don't Get It Tomorrow, we get a lot of that. Our whole lives are just don't get it. You have a good one already for tomorrow's show.

Yeah, I wrote it down. You did. Don't forget it. I don't remember what it is already, but I wrote it. Yeah, I got it. I wrote it down. Let's make sure. And we have more on the Texans Day 2 of Training Camp.

lovely. Are we getting daily reports from Wex? He doesn't know, but I'm going to make sure he does. Okay, he's not doing anything. Well, what else? I can talk to himself? No. I like that. I like a little football talk on the show. Yeah, and we will get more of it when we get closer to the season. Great. Because I don't know if anybody else in the market's talking Texans today.

I don't think they are. And that's why you're here for, we're here for you. You know, we'll start believing or not early here because we want to get as much time with you on the Astros on deck as possible. So we say with... Oh. Well, we were going to say... Eight minutes, nine minutes? Ah, whatever.

Six minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? And we should play America's fastest-growing sports radio game show. We simply call it Believe it or not. And here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe it or not is all things about Ozzy Osborne.

I will read your statement about Ozzy. If the statement's completely utterly accurate, you'll say this. Believe it. If the statement's errone is full. Bunkin made up, you'll say this. Believe it or not, if you get two of them right, you're going to win one of these three prizes. One is a seven-outy t-shirt.

Number two is a pair of tickets for the big three, August 2nd at Toyota Center. You can see the Houston's Rigghands team coached by Rocket Great Calvin Murphy as they make their debut that night. Tickets are on sale now at Toyota Center.com. And we also have a pair of tickets to see Nellie,

Jarlul, and Eve, live at the Where the Party at Tour? September 4th at the Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.com. So we're talking about three different sets of prizes, if you win on today's edition of Believe it or not. We'll start with Matt on 790. Matt, are you ready to play Believe it or not?

Believe it. Matt, good luck to you, my friend, and here is your question. Ozzy was born, Oswald, Leonard Osborne, on October 15th, 1947 in Liverpool, England. Believe it or not? That is right. He was John Michael Osborne, 1948 in Manchester. Statement number two for the win. A lifelong Beatles fan, their song, She Loves You, inspired Ozzie to become a musician. Believe it or not. Believe it. There you go. How about that?

Now, it doesn't mean he was listening when we gave away that freebie earlier, but it makes me feel good that somebody was got that right right off the top. Let's go to Nelson on 790. Nelson, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Ozzy was banned from the L-O for peeing on it in 1982, but was allowed back in 2015 after apologizing to the city's mayor. Believe it or not? Not. That is a believe it.

Yes. He was on good terms with San Antonio. Let's go to Felipe on 790. Felipe, you're ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. Felipe, Ozzy has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Believe it or not. Believe it.

He does. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. Ozzie's wife, Sharon, was first his manager before they got married. Believe it or not? Believe it. Yes, another winner. Let's go to Ken on 790.

Ken, what was your favorite part of today's radio show? The Astros Talk. In 2013, Rolling Stone magazine named Ozzie, the 112th best singer of all time. Believe it or not, 112. Oh, that's a knot. That is a believe it. That's a lot of work, Ross, for 112 singers. Yeah.

Do a lot of research. Number one? Aretha Franklin. Do you know that for a fact? That's my vote. I would go with that. I think she's one on the list. I think she's one on the list, too.

Let's go to Yankees Keith on 7-0. Yankees Keith, what was your fair part of today's radio show? Too much Astros talk. What did you want instead? Yankees-talk. You know, here's one for you. Yankees talk. Here's your Yankees talk.

They suck. They really suck. They super suck. How about that? How's your Yankees talk for the day? Ozzy was scheduled to be the musical act in a 1981 episode of Saturday Night Live, but executive producer Lauren Michaels canceled it at the last second for fear of him being hired drunk on the set. Believe it or not. Believe it. That sings, Ross. It just does. Why? Because I gave it as a freebie earlier.

Oh. Well, Keith was busy. Roy on 790 Roy you're ready to play believe it or not believe it it was a huge soccer fan it owned a 30% interest in the Ashton Villa football club believe it or not not that's right he was just a fan congratulations and in England they say Villa okay Ashton Villa I know it's funny because I did the same thing when I was be a fledgling soccer fan that's the use don't get in me yeah yeah yeah exactly Matt you're so Hispanic I am then they call me you love chorisci They call me Mr. Houston.

Yeah. They call you Mr. Torizo. Triso sucks. Oh, you're up. Stop. We got to get. Wait a minute. Why are we breaking now?

We got a minute. Just let it sit. We can actually start on deck a little early. It's, you know, got that long introduction. Okay. But, I mean, let's go back to this. Real quick. No, I don't even want to talk about it.

It's a greasy sausage. You're wrong. Oh, sausage is greasy? But it's super. Jamie a non-greasy sausage. You're just going to make me mad. Koska kiavasa. I don't have

We wouldn't have sausage. Literally the definition of sausages is like in trails and other greasy bits. We wouldn't have barbecue last week. The sausage wasn't greasy. Yes, it was. I didn't think it was. I think it was tender, delicious.

I'm not going to argue with your soul. This is the most. The most wrong you've ever been. It's fine. Mount Rushmore of wrongness. Now my wife likes Teresa very much. Astros on deck. 124.

Astros on deck. next on Saturday