The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Take The Series From The Cubs! Pena Is Out On A Rib Injury, Can the Astros Take Anymore?

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

Astros Take The Series From The Cubs! Pena Is Out On A Rib Injury, Can the Astros Take Anymore? 

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10-1 in H-Town. Good morning and welcome to a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. The Astro arms have done it. The bats have done just enough. And your stroves own comfortably the second best record in the American League and comfortably own

a lead of six and a half games in the American League West. Good evening, good morning, good night, I remember where you may be. Rossi, how the hell are you? Good morning, Matt. How are you? Good, good. Are you in Dallas?

Are you in Britain now? No, I wish. Now, we should peel the curtain back. I was going to take these days off. But I felt like I needed to work with you. Oh, thank God. It was important. We're a little lean on backup.

staff these days. Yeah, you were going to make me host with Clinton. I mean, come on, man. I mean, Clanton's off for a week. I said, you know what? My daughter playing in a national tournament and she doesn't play into the evening time. I figured, you know what, I need to work. I could sit on my couch in my room. No, you don't have to lie. You already told us the real reason last week. You didn't want to get dragged to matches where your daughter wasn't involved. That might be true, but nobody will hear that at least here in Dallas. That's good. They're not listening on the eye heart. radio app. So you can certainly drag them to the bud.

I'm not dragging anybody. I'm just saying what you said. I didn't say it. You said it. Thank you for once again bringing that up. And that again is fair. I'm glad you I'm going to work with you today through Wednesday. And the Thursday, she's got a series of day game, so I won't be able to be with you Thursday. And then Friday, we're going to all celebrate 4th of July, but then Saturday, Ross, on July 5th, I will recoup and be able to work Astros on deck, because they call me Mr.

Saturday on Astros Broadcasting. They do call you Mr. Saturday night. Yes. How was your Saturday, by the way? You did the Saturday Lance McCuller's post game. Yeesh. Honestly, I thought with it being a night game and it being a huge blowout,

there wouldn't be many calls, but we took a fair amount. We wouldn't, but we met about an hour. So you had an hour ahead of you. there. Yeah, we had the pre-gamer's calling in. Uh-oh. Having a couple before they went out and that's okay. Only one guy complained about Lance McCullers staying in there too long.

That's fine. And then they have to fire Joe's potter because of that, correct? Yeah, of course. No, nobody's called for him to be fired. Actually, most people were pretty reasonable. I mean, when you're winning all these games like they are and you're, you know, what it's 16, I guess, what is it? Games above

500 at this point. Even the complaining takes a backseat, even after a 12 to 3 loss where Kyle Tucker caves your face in with four hits and three runs batted in. Yeah, I think I had the over under on three hits or less for Kyle in the Tucker series and he got all of in one game.

We will revisit that during gut feelings. I believe I had the over three. I went against you. Yeah. That was probably the smart call. It ended up being the right call, Matt. But, you know, it is what the reality is you should only help, I should only go with my bets when I give you over under totals

because that's what Vegas knows me for? You are the over-under king. 931 OPS-291 average for Kyle Tucker this year. And I feel like, and I don't want to give up on this too soon, but I've already put some money away for her Arpaqi Girl lunch because I feel like he's going to get eight years. I'm thinking you're right. You know who else might get eight years?

Framer Valdez. Yeah, the only way he doesn't get eight years is because of his age. That's the only thing that's holding him back, but I don't think it's going to be enough. He's 28. Right? Yeah. But if you pay eight years, you're paying a lot of money for a 36-year-old,

and maybe that's not the best thing to do. Max Reed's 31. He just got eight years, but it was the Yankees. But all the big players are going to be involved with Kyle Tucker. That's what's going to drive him over the years. Yeah. Yeah, and he's absolutely worth it. And showed his arm off this weekend,

and more importantly showed off his bat. Yeah, there's just two different markets in free agency. It's the Yankees, Dodgers, Mets, and then it's everyone else. If the tier one isn't involved, then you end up like Alex Breggman, gets dragged out and stuff like that. Maybe also it could be down to about three or four players per year and that's about it too.

You know, I mean this thought of 10 to 15 players getting these 7, 8, 9 year. Now, if you have a phenom in your organization, I'll use Bobby Wood Jr.'s example from Kansas City. It's smart to buy out arbitration years. It's smart to put your money behind a guy that you think is going to ultimately be a megastar for your team. And so

if you're him, if you're Mike Trott with the Angels, if you're you know, even Julio Rodriguez in Seattle, right? I mean, you're going to spend that kind of money because he's going to be a guy that you can build your franchise around. Even that doesn't necessarily work 100% of the time either.

That's true. But I'll have a buyout take for you coming up at 1130. Ooh, you know, by the way, we should tell the audience that today is reversed to tell the truth. Ross is going to handle to tell the truth, and I'm going to handle believe it or not. I like this deal.

I think, yeah, because you know what it is? And we've talked about this before. Tell the truth is a fun segment, but it's just hard to come up with things every single week. So once in a while, we flip things around. And if Jonathan wants to get involved, maybe in a couple weeks, we'll let him do to tell the truth. Okay. Like, for instance, he would be, he'd say, Western Kentucky and SFA are the Harvards of the Mid-South. We would say that's clearly not the truth.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't believe it, Matt. I mean, you have crackpot takes, but if you believe him, you believe them. That's to tell the truth. that's true he's going to say engagement rings are too expensive yeah he believes that hey I don't believe you can put enough ranch dressing in your salad

honey I believe that that I'm telling you the truth hey you said you were taking a back seat on the on the salad jokes yeah because she likes my music now so I'm okay right oh here it comes there it comes

we rossi we have a lot to get to today for it being a July early late july June, early July. There's kind of a lot of things going on. First of all, the Astros are kicking ass. A five-and-one homestand against two first place nationally legitimate, nationally pennant-contending teams. Yes.

You got that. We have a Houston Rocky getting a big, fat new contract, good for him. Frankly, it cracks me up that people, and it is the truth. I'm not saying they're not lying. But when someone is getting $24.5 million for the next five years and they call a reasonable, really good sound offer, it makes me do a double take. A bargain.

Yeah. When did $24.5 million for anything per year become a bargain? Well, the salary cap is directly rated to revenues, so. Yeah. But it doesn't mean me as somebody who makes $24,500 a year, not real, go, my gosh. I know.

It is great. How often you do that? Seriously, I'm going to say this is a question for all of you listening, and certainly for Ross. How often do you hear about a guy's contract and go, man, that's good value. That's reasonable.

That's, you know, man, the Rockets, like, for instance, I would say it's universal to discuss the Rockets got Jabari Smith on the cheap because next year he has a chance to make more, I had a chance to make more money. I still make it $24.5 million. Ross, I couldn't spend $24.5 million in my life if I could. Yeah. Well, if your wife got involved, you could.

You'd be fine. I mean, if I'm going to go to the Bezos wedding, maybe, but that'd be a different issue for a different time. That's true. How was that thing, by the way? Apparently, it was a three-day festival of nothing, how many million dollars was spent on that Bezos wedding? I'm Googling it.

It says $50 million. $50 million, which is dropping a bucket to him. Yeah, pretty much. I thought it would be more. Yeah, $50 million? Get your weight up, Bezos. So I have a six degrees of separation between, Jeff Bezos's wife and me.

Okay. Stay with this. So, Channel 26, way back in the day, Ross, had a reporter. Her name was Michelle Bonner. Does that ring a bell to you? No. She was Mark Berman's number two or number three over there at Channel 26. Then she left to go work at Fox and over to ESPN.

She was on Sports Center for a while. And she would tell me, and she would come in and do. do once a week radio appearances with us. And she would tell me about one of her best friends is a sports reporter, a news reporter in Los Angeles. This best friend of hers is the woman that Lauren Sanchez that married Jeff Bezos over the weekend. Oh, he married a news lady?

Yes, sir. A journalist, if you will. Huh, that's cool. She's lucky. She's also really rich. I wonder with how the pre-up goes on that bad boy. I mean, yeah, you'd probably negotiate a few million a year in the eventual event of divorce.

Yeah, she's 55, he's 61. Hashtag life partners. She's going to hit 60 and he'll upgrade. Wow. Is that an early gut feeling? Yeah, we'll write that one down for tomorrow. Go ahead. You're predicting a Bezos divorce in the next six years.

Yeah, I mean, you just have to, it's a little bit different. like when they hit 25, DiCaprio gets out of there. That's a bad one. That's creepy, by the way. Well, you know, let him live his life. Why doesn't he like somebody plus 30? Keeps him young. I don't know.

I mean, what kind of conversations are you having between women between the ages of 22 and 29? He's talking about their favorite SpongeBob episodes. And what happened on Love Island last night? Hey. Probably. You watching Love Island? No, my daughter is.

and she cannot miss an episode. You got to start watching, Matt. It's good. It's not. It's on every single day, is it not? No, it's Wednesday's off and Saturday's off, so you got time. So you're telling me a show is on five days a week like that? So the schedule, so I think they started the filming, like, a couple days before.

Yeah. And then they start, like, so they have, like, off on Wednesdays and then the audience will vote, and then they'll be, like, off filming wherever they're at. And then it's a weird production schedule. No, not watching. I'm going to go ahead and pass on that because I've already got my two stories. That's what I say. You live for drama, so it seems like it's up here alley, but you're also, your plate is full of drama.

I got enough with Young and the Restless and Bold and Beautiful. I don't have time for the show. And the Lifetime Movie Network. That's enough from you. All right. On the radio show, Astros 5 and 1 on the homestead. We'll get to that. Jabari Smith.

Have you heard the name Malik Beasley? You're going to hear more of it. We'll discuss who he is and what he's doing or maybe not doing. perhaps hopefully for him it's not doing Rossi the WMBA announces expansion team list for the next foreseeable future The comments are coming back? Well you'll tell you

Remember last year the big phenomenon In college football the BYUju Excuse me Yeah I didn't make the phrase of it was a phrase that was made by people at BYU Okay All right I didn't make it up go look it up

I didn't seriously I didn't make this up it's not to rock ator he calls himself that or did all right i'll explain i'll explain why the b yu no longer want is going to have the b y jew all right settling on that did he get kicked off a campus for having coffee uh worse okay with me on that uh and there are some rumors about lebron james and yannes adentigumpo we need to get to as well hmm we have to tell the truth coming up today at 1130 and believe it or not today at 150 which is all things about de way lucas passing away over the weekend i believe at the age of 89 when you think of course racing you think of d wayne lucas never heard of them and cigar and ali shiba and i think i'm

pretty much done after that all right it is uh 1013 of the matt thomas show with ross 713 212 5 790 719 713 212 5 790 Five and one, the Astros this week over the Cubs and the Phillies off day today, and then they go to Denver to take on the Rockies Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Then the Los Angeles Dodgers in L.A. at Chavez Ravine, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I would tell everybody to go to a game in Los Angeles. I would just not do it wearing Astros gear because you're going to get concussed at the very least and probably a skull fracture at the very worst.

Maybe shift. Which hopefully not in any vital organ. Yeah, you don't need a kidney being replaced in the middle of the third inning of a game. No. I think they might have a kidney replacement center, though, in Section 123. That's true. You know what it's funny, because you think about the Dodgers. And you think of Vince Scully, you think of Don Drysdale, you think of Tammala,

you think of Fernando Valenzuela, Steve Sachs, Joe Kelly. Joe Kelly. Yeah, I guess you're getting to my point here. a classy, dignified, doesn't change. Old school stadium, rich tradition, Dodger uniforms don't change very often, big history, classic, one of the most well-branded franchises in sports. Forget about baseball, Ross, but their fans are hoodlums. Or celebrities.

Yeah. One or the other? We were one row away from who was Jason Bateman when he was finishing up Ozark. Oh, really? Was just losing her mind over the fact that we were one row away. And she goes, I'm going to go to me. I said, you better go now. Oh, I'll wait.

By the time she said she wanted to go, he was already 15 rows up. What do you mean 15 rows up? Leaving the stadium. Oh, okay. Just don't stick around. Can't make it for nine innings? Come on, Bateman. So we were there for an Astros' Dodgers game.

when Bateman said, we're going to win this game eight. And when it was like, Rurr-R-R-R-R-R-R-R. It's so funny. The Astros beat him, so it was not terrible. All right. I'm going to ask you this on a daily basis, I think between now and October,

as long as things continue to go well. How are the Astros 1534? I mean, answer my question seriously. No, I actually answer it in jokingly fashion. Good, good pitching, and a lot of one-run ball look. And how many shutouts of the squad, put together. A lot. I think eight or nine is the last

time I checked the count. Is that right? 17 and 7 and one run games, 5 and 1 in extra innings, and just a lot of good pitching and timely hitting. Two out hitting, two out scoring. What is it? Two-thirds of their runs or something like that in two outs? Yeah. Especially since about May 1st. This team really kind of took off

mid-May, right? And it kind of coincides with Jeremy Pena going to lead off spot. Yeah. That's, I mean, that's part of it. But it's also, I mean, he's just been really good no matter where he's going to hit. Yeah. And I'm just kind of looking around in baseball.

Astros have by far the best record in one-run games, and I'm just saying? I'm just saying. I know what you're going to say. Don't even say it. We heard it last week, and we accept what you said. We just know what you to repeat it. Luck turn sometimes.

Yeah. sometimes it does. Hopefully it doesn't. Hopefully Payne is back in the lineup. Let's see. It'll be three days off. He missed two days. Monday.

He'll be back in the lineup tomorrow. Yeah. I'll lock that gut feeling in. I'll already go ahead and lock that in. He should be fine. I do give the Astros credit. They left after the game yesterday. They get a whole day off in Denver.

Summertime in Denver, Colorado. Are you kidding me? Mm-hmm. Ooh, baby. Load up at the dispensary, head of the ballpark. Well, I'm going to go to the casino. casinos up in the middle of the mountains. How about that?

Okay. What are they like 30, 40 minutes? They're not too far, are they? No, it's 40 minutes, maybe. Okay. I went to Denver, but I didn't get to make it to a casino. Yeah, it's really, the table, there's always $5 tables. I love that.

Yeah, it's really good. And always 3-2, by the way, too. That's really good. $3, $5? I figured you'd like that. Let's go right now. I'm telling you, if I didn't love Vegas so much, there are so many other cities that you could go.

Phoenix is a great gambling town. Denver's a good gambling town. I'm over the soulless squeeze for every dollar, Vegas. Unless, like I said, I'm downtown only nowadays. Me too. That's where I was about three weeks ago. Downtown's my jam, for sure. All right, so the Astros get a win.

Five and one, they're off again. We mentioned Colorado now. Look, the Astros might lose a game in Colorado. Hopefully they don't. But if they do, I don't need the, oh my God, I can't believe this team can't win. Look, Denver, the Rockies suck. We understand that. but Colorado has won some games.

Not a lot. They've lost 19 and 65. I mean, they're not great. What's their record in their last 10 games? Let's take a look. It's been improved. They've been right. They've dropped 8 to 10.

Oof. They beat somebody yesterday. Let's see who they beat yesterday. Let's see if the team they beat was a decent. Oh, they beat the Brewers in Milwaukee. Yeah, that's not bad. After losing five in a row. They've lost eight of their last 10.

I mean, Milwaukee is 10 above 500, so it wasn't like they beat chopped liver. Just saying, I fully want them to sweep, but don't kill them if they don't. You lose 2 out of 3, and then we can probably have some angry feelings. Okay, we'll see. It'd be fine. Okay, so we've got to get to that. I want to get to the Rockets making some moves over the weekend, and we'll get to that.

Plus, a rumor about Janus Adentagumpo. that coming up as well. If you'd like to be a part of the program, and we are here all week. Now, a lot of you may be taking the week off, which means you don't get a chance to call the Matt Thomas show of Ross, especially you 10 o'clockers. You are more than welcome to chime in.

Let me give you the phone number at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. If you want to visit with us through Twitter, you may do that as well. At SportsMT and at SportsM-T, and at SportsM-E, but the easiest way to get a hold of us is right through these cellophones. At 7-13-2-2-5-7-90. 33 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

I'm up here in Dallas on volleyball patrol, giving you all the insights of the USA National Championship. Good luck to the Moco Juniors, Mavs, of the 17-year-olds, as they go for a quest for a national championship. Us is back in our Houston studios. Ross asking me to send me text of photos of divorce A's, and I can be happy to do that for you, Ron. That's not true, Matt.

That's true. But, I mean, if you send them, I'll look at them. I mean, I know you would. It is what it is. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-2-7-90. Rossi, congratulations to Jabari Smith. Yes.

Team-friendly deal? Is that what I want to call it? Yeah, it's funny. It's a five-year $122 million deal, and we're just talking about how much of a bargain it is. $24.5 million a year is a bargain for someone. Yes. Good for him.

And we'll talk about this at about an hour. He needs to make that next list. leap. He puts in a lot of work. He's got a good work ethic. I mean, just the way that he is now as a 34, 35 percent three-point shooter, 12, 13 points per game, 7, 8 rebounds. That's a good player. It almost feels like to me you are not, they don't have arbitration in the NBA, but you're buying on the future. Does that make sense to you? Yeah, I mean, the Rockets didn't sign this deal, not hoping, I mean, they're hoping that he outperforms this deal. Or at least that takes a step up. And maybe he will with Dylan Brooks gone.

Who knows who's to say? By way, I can't I keep everybody I'm reading and again, things can't change because look, let me tell you something. Eme Adoga doesn't care what anybody writes, but it feels like Jabari's going to be the one that's going to get that starting spot with Tari coming off the bench. That's what everybody says.

I mean, it can't change. I think it, I mean, we saw last year, I think we can point two, where it was Jabari and sometimes it was Tari, and I think a lot of that's going to depend on Tari Easton's leg if he's going to be playing back to backs and stuff like that. But, I mean, he's sick.

11 Alperin Shingoon's 611 and and Kevin Duran is 611 so do you want to start three 611 plus players and would you say any of them are upper end back to the basket guys the answer would be the no on that they're more perimeter guys oh I mean well yeah shingoon is but I mean you're talking about defensively anything I mean yeah I think if if Alpe is going to take the next step in his development he's going to even be better than he is back to the basket I I have a is this a Tuesday gut feeling I will just say I don't think it's a foregone conclusion. It's going to be Jabari Smith Jr. You know, I would buy into that.

I mean, I'm not ready to pencil then. And again, I don't think Eme Adoka is. But it's probably not going to be Cam. I would think it'd be he and him or tarry. I don't think it's not going to be Cam Whitmore. I don't think. Even though it's a natural fit positionally because of where Cam Whitmore is as a shooting guard.

If you're plugging Kevin Durant is my small forward, and then, yeah, you go with, or maybe I guess your power. forward in a in a one big lineup I don't know especially if you don't know what your lineup is let me give you a little sound bite from Brian Winhorst this morning okay ESPN and everyone's kind of going okay directed LeBron rumors are out there that he may not be long for Los Angeles la la but there was also something else that Winhorse brought up this morning that I saw in ESPN that was very intriguing here it is The Bucks do not control their first round pick for the next five years.

They can't trade any of them. And so I honestly do not see how the Bucks are going to be a team that at the end of the week we look at and say that's a guaranteed top 14. And basically, you know, I think Yannis has sort of let them off the hook to a certain extent. He did not apply pressure this offseason by sort of making it clear that he didn't necessarily want to be there. He has just basically done his regular offseason, gone overseas and been with his family. And the bucks who are really strapped from spending an asset perspective, I don't see as much they could do. And a lot of teams that think that they could trade for Janus have been watching this very closely. And the teams like San Antonio or Houston or Miami or New York, they specifically have stayed out of other major transactions to, and in Houston's case, saved assets.

in the Durant trade to potentially chase Yannis. And the reason they did that was because they got sure Yonis is going to look at the Bucks' work this week and think that's a team that compete either. I'm going to be real with you, Matt. I got extremely distracted by it. Why did they start dropping techno beats in the middle of that? Because for those who don't know, Brian Winhorst was actually dancing in a zoot suit as he was talking about all this thing. Why did they start a rave in the middle of that?

Maybe they want to go to the Daisy Festival in Las Vegas. You never know these things. The Electric Daisy Carnival? Yes. I thought you were going to go there. You know, Ackerman wants me to go with him to that. I'm like, I'm not going to that. I thought it already happened.

Well, we've been planning it, but I just said, we're way too old. I told you it wasn't. It's like three. I told you you weren't going to go. I don't want to go because the music sucks first and foremost. Why? Do you know who's playing? I don't know, but that's his jam.

He loves that stuff, and I don't. But let's get back to this stuff. You can get into it. When there's a good crowd, it doesn't matter what's there. Certainly the way they dress there. You're going to enjoy yourself, Matt. Yeah. Bring sunglasses, though.

Yeah, it wouldn't be nearly as obvious. You want to get caught staring. Okay, so let's go to the Rockets didn't give up and hold on to Capitol. That means their first round picks. I mean the other team's first round picks. I asked you this last week. Are you sure you can't give the Bucks four to five first round picks and be fine? Are you absolutely sure about that?

Do you think it's only going to cost you four first round picks? Okay. Desmond Bain went for four first round picks plus players, Matthew. Desmond Bain. But the heat or the magicer also gave the Grizzlies a terrible contract. That's true. Caldwell Pope is now paid $21.5 million a year and that's a terrible deal and that's now owned by Memphis. I think they bought those draft picks.

Yeah, but $20 million a year, as you know, with the cap going up, it's not a whole lot. We're talking about how that's a bargain for Jabari'sman Jr. All right. I'm going to make you the general manager for the Houston Rockets right now. Okay. Give me the deal today that Milwaukee's like, that makes sense. That Milwaukee would say yes to? Don't go overboard. Shingun, a man in three picks. That's what they're going to want.

You can't have a man. That's not a possibility. A certain center, four number ones. They don't say yes. First of all, you need to throw more on there, of course, because of money. Okay. A certain center, a certain backup folder. Why can't you say their name?

Come on. Alpi, Cam, I'm scared. Alpi, Cam, and four number ones. They say no. Tarisan. Alpi. Ooh, that's better. Tari, four number ones.

I think. I can't give you five number ones. I don't even know if you can legally do that. I've never heard of anybody getting more than four, right? Rudy Gobert was four, and Desmond Bain was four. Now, Kevin Durant, of course, was only one, or one in five first seconds. You're out of second round picks. Yeah, yeah, you're giving the ones up that other, like, you still own Phoenix, a Phoenix one.

You want that one, because they're going to suck. Do you own a Brooklyn one at some point? I think they still have a Brooklyn swap, and maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Brooklyn swap. That's exactly right. Hot Ross, that's seven. You want a two-time MVP in his prime, Matt? I don't know.

But he shoots 30% from three. He shoots 60% from the field. I mean, he just won, what, 2020? 221? A couple, he, he, just this year. He averaged 30 points. I'll go pull it up. It was like 11 rebounds and 7 assists or something like that.

Okay. And he shoots 60% from the field. That's the thing. That's how crazy good he is. It's got to stay. Yeah. Everyone knows he's not taking a three point. say that all the time. I tell you that all the time.

They would hurt though. 30 points, 12 rebounds, and 6.5 assists. And world class defense. Hello? His first team all NBA defense. All right. I don't think it's Houston, though. I think New York's going to do whatever they can.

I don't think it's Houston. And I don't think I'm in Thompson is untouchable for Janus. I just don't. Okay. You and I will disagree on that. And I will not budge from that. Okay. I know that the talent levels are different. I know, but I'm just telling you that. Amin Thompson's not going to have as good a career as Janus in all likelihood.

I mean, that's just a fact. Two-time MVP? Yeah, but you're not training a model-o-a-money. Yeah, I know. Him and other players. I mean, it would be, you know, if you did it, if you did one for one, then you could definitely swallow that. But you're looking for multiple live human beings and multiple draft picks. And the fact that Amin is on a rookie deal still.

Yeah. All right, 1042 on Sports Talk 790. It is interesting, however, that the Yonof don't go away. There are Yon-Rumers about him maybe being traded because he picks up his option for a contract next year to stay with the Los Angeles Lakers. And the Lakers are like, yeah, we don't really want to tell you the idea. The world's telling you. Rich Paul is agent telling you. Will he go somewhere else before his career is done?

Because, I mean, are the Lakers any closer even with Luca? I mean, I think there's a lot of uncertainty in Los Angeles right now, which is strange. Because I think I'm not, I'm certainly going to be watching what they do. Yeah, they're not contenders now. I still got him on fraud alert. And I still don't think he's going somewhere else. I mean, at some point, do you, I mean, are you going to just be in, what do they call it, a carpet baggage going from place to place to place?

I mean, that's happening. It's kind of what he's doing his entire career. I mean, Chris Ball is hopping around. Yeah, Chris Paul's hopping around. Kevin Durant's hopping around. He's a Houston rocket Kevin Durant. Yeah, but we believe in certain hopping, especially in the southeast Texas.

Yeah, when it's here, it's all good. It is all good. Yeah, I want to hear from the people that have been talking about how, yeah, how Kevin Durant's ring chaser and he sucks. He comes to the Houston Rockets. Oh, yeah, Kevin Durant, greatest of all time. Well, I want to be consistent. I want to be consistent.

He was going for a ring, but I didn't blame him for him for him. He was also the best player on those teams. He won both finals MVP. Now he went for an ethical. You're supposed to go look for a ring. That's the whole point. Yeah, you can't build up this ring culture and it's all about rings, rings, rings, rings, rings. And then when somebody tries and goes to get a ring, you get mad at him.

NBA discourse is the worst. Oh, yeah. The hypocrisy week to week with among NBA pundits is in an all-time high. 1044 on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790. 713-212-5-7-90. Matt and Ross with you on a Monday. Good morning, Houston, Texas.

We are with you today until 2 o'clock. Don't be a stranger. We know you 10 o'clockers are late risers or just don't like us. Maybe Ross were more affable between 1130 and 2. Yeah, it takes me a couple hours to wake up. 7-1-3-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. So, and maybe I've been the leader of this Ross and I don't mean to be,

but I think I've said it on probably a half dozen occasions. There's no chance, no way, no how the Astros are resigning for Amber Valdez. I would agree with that still. And I can't back off because there have been no whispers of any sort of contract conversations or any, I mean, Zilch, even when Dana asked about it, even when, um, Frambers asked about it. No, we haven't said anything. Bowie, we'll give you a little small update on Jeremy Pena

from Dana Brown coming up at the top of the next hour because there was some interesting comments from Dana from yesterday's Sunday appearance on Astros Radio. But Ross, all he does is win. When's the last time that he, I mean, he had the five-walk game against Oakland against the athletics, but he still won terrible. He just walked a lot of folks. All he does is win now for the Astros. I think the time out before, wait, how many walks did he have,

I think he had four walks a couple of starts ago. He's had nine walks in the previous two starts, not including yesterday. Okay. Yeah. So, I mean, even then, it's crazy how good he can be. And then he had the, didn't he have the complete game and he was like at 80-something pitches or something like that?

He's now on the season, four and three. Actually, that's a road record. His overall... Nine and four. Nine and four. 272 ERA. You have two guys in the top five of the Siong, it feels like. His last five starts, seven innings.

Five, six, seven, six. Number of earned runs in those last five games. Five games, six runs. Is that good? It's really good. Yeah, he's amazing. He's incredible. He's making a good statement.

for himself, he's going to hit free agency, and he's going to get a lot of money. But, man, you ain't hearing squat about him staying in Houston. No, I don't think so. And what do we always say, Matt? Especially if you don't have anything out of spring training, it ain't happening. It ain't happening. So all he's doing at this point is building his resume. The question is going to be, if you're another team, it doesn't really matter what team you are.

do you think at all why you don't why the Astros didn't even possibly offer something or do you say well the Astros history and representation has given out the notion that we don't sign guys a super long-term deal I've never heard Frembergh does say I'm looking for a seven or eight year deal maybe you don't have to say it

you may your agent does the heavy little bit more than that I'm sure he wants something like that he wants to hit the market and get as much as possible before spring training last year we kept here Dana Brown like, yeah, we're putting together an offer for Bregman. There's no offer yet. There's no, there was no real substantive offer. Or for Caltech or for that matter. Yeah.

So this is standard operating procedure. And Jim Crane's been doing this for a long time and it keeps working. Yeah. Has he really been burned yet by anybody? I would say before Tommy John from Garrett Cole, that was probably the best deal that was being lived up to. Did he win, he won a Cy Young with the Yankees? Or he finished? Oh, I don't think the Yankees up until the Tommy John

were upset about the money that we're spending on him. No, yeah, he won a Sy Young Award. Charlie Morton has been able to be productive, but it wasn't like the life, the Astros kept winning despite Charlie Morton not being here. You know what I mean? It was there hasn't been one that has like hitching the belly. I can't, like, if George Springer

was a 4120 guy with Toronto year and year, that would hurt, right? As much as you love Jake Myers, you had your son. Hey. Do love Jake Myers. Yeah. Let's see.

Gary Coles finishes in the Syong Mazzi Yankee, fourth, second, ninth, and first, and he won it. And then last year he had injury and this year he's got Tommy John. Speaking of center fielders,

and we'll be here for you on Thursday for I just don't get it. Can I do it early? I just don't get it. Yes. Why is Cedric Mullins and the Astros being tied together from Bob Nightingale? Left-handed bat,

outfield help. You know what his batting averages? I don't. So you're having a bad year. Career he's much better, right? I know he's having a down year. His OPS is 707. Okay.

That was as of yesterday. I didn't see it how he did yesterday. Before yesterday, I should say. I mean... Oh, he's been a negative player this year. Yeah. I knew he was having a down year at the plate, but I didn't know it was this bad.

Can I just ask you? I just don't get it. Why? Okay. Are you hoping that maybe a changing uniform? for him, going from a bad team to a good team could help. I mean, that could possibly be the case. I mean, the Astros went and got you say

Kikuchi, he sucked in Toronto. It was great for the Astros last year, so it can happen. Yeah, but they do it better with pitchers than position players. Yeah. Let's see, he's got an OPS plus of 101. He's got 14 home runs, I think, so there's, there is some

power that bad, for sure. Jake Myers' OPS Plus, 115, and it's not going to cost you anything. Now, do you want to put him in left field or send Jake to left field? Because the guys who's now playing left field very much these days, sports RV? Jose Altuve. Your greatest astro of all time?

Well, Jeff Bagg was retired. But when Yordon comes back from his hand injury, I think you're going to see a lot more, because they've been able to DH and put Jose Altuve at second base a lot. Yeah. And obviously, Brendan Rogers on the injured list does not get, You're down a man at second base. But, I mean, what in the last,

how much left field is Joseovae playing the last two weeks? Maybe once a week? Maybe? And you also, I mean, I guess it was a couple days missed by Paredes, and it's been a couple days missed by Jeremy Pena as well. So you've had some infield injuries. Right, right, right. But it just feels like to me, and I will fall on the sore on this,

he's playing way more second base than I ever thought he was going to play. I think it's an injury-related mostly, personally. Probably so. All right. First hour in the books here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. If you'd like to chime in, 713, 212, 5, 790. When I tell you the Astros, you don't hear a peep about trying to keep Framber Beldez. What is your reaction on that?

My reaction has been very simple. No surprise whatsoever. Because we kind of knew this all along. But I'm not, but you guys are the fan. You guys are the ones that go to see him pitch every fifth day. 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-7-90 also coming up in the next half hour we have an NBA player in some serious trouble with perhaps betting on the sport we have a one of the most interesting stories in college football last year leaving his campus we also have a major trade in the NFL to get to and of course your Astros are 5-1 and the Rockets keep a big man around for a while. All that coming up between now and two o'clock. In one half hour, we have Ross's edition of to tell the truth.

713-212-5-790. The Astero Arms have done it. The bats have done just enough. And your stroves own comfortably the second best record in the American League and comfortably own a lead of six and a half games in the American League. West. Good evening. Good morning. Good night. I remember where you may be. Rossi, how the hell are you? Good morning. Matt. How are you? Good. Good. Are you in, are you in Dallas? Are you in Britain now? No, I wish. Now, we should peel the curtain back. I was going to take these days off. But I felt like I needed to work with you. Oh, thank God. It was important. We're a little lean on backup staff these days. Yeah, you were here trying to make me host with Clanton. I mean, come on, man. I mean, Clanton's off for a week. I said, you know what? With my daughter, playing in a national tournament and she doesn't play into the evening time.

I figured, you know what? I need to work. I could sit on my couch in my room. No, you don't have to lie. You already told us the real reason last week. Which was? You didn't want to get dragged to matches where your daughter wasn't involved. That might be true, but nobody will hear that at least here in Dallas. That's good.

They're not listening on the I-heart radio app. So you can certainly drag them to the bud. I'm not dragging anybody. I'm just as long as they're 275 miles away. I'm just saying what you said. I didn't say it. You said it.

Thank you for once again bringing that up. And that again is fair. I'm glad you're going to work with you today through Wednesday. And Thursday, she's got a series of day game, so I won't be able to be with you Thursday. And then Friday, we're going to all celebrate the 4th of July. But then Saturday, Ross, on July 5th, I will recoup and be able to work Astros on Deck because they call me Mr. Saturday on Astros Broadcast. They do call you Mr. Saturday night.

Yes. How was your Saturday, by the way? You did the Saturday Lance McCuller's post game. Yeesh. Honestly, I thought with it being a night game and it being a huge blowout, there wouldn't be many calls, but we took a fair amount. We went to a lot. It started 6.15, so you had an hour ahead of you there.

Yeah, we had the pre-gamerers call it in. Uh-oh. Having a couple before they went out, and that's okay. Only one guy complained about Lance McCuller's staying in there too long. That's fine. And then they have to fire Joe's potter because of that, correct? Yeah, of course. No, nobody's called for him to be fired. Actually, most people were pretty reasonable.

I mean, when you're winning all these games like they are and you're, you know, what, at 16, I guess, what is it? Games above 500 at this point. Even the complaining takes a backseat, even after a 12 to 3 loss where Kyle Tucker caves your face in with four hits and three runs and batted in. Yeah, I think I have the over under on three hits or less for Kyle and the Tucker series. and he got all of been one game. We will revisit that during gut feelings.

I believe I had the over three. I went against you. Yeah. That was probably the smart call. It ended up being the right call, Matt. But, you know, it is what is. The reality is you should only help. I should only go with my bets when I give you over-under totals

because that's what Vegas knows me for. You are the over-under king. 931 OPS-2-91 average for Kyle Tucker this year. and I feel like, and I don't want to give up on this too soon, but I've already put some money away for her, Apache Girl lunch, because I feel like he's going to get eight years. I'm thinking you're right. You know who else might get eight years?

Framber Valdez. Yeah, the only way he doesn't get eight years is because of his age. That's the only thing that's for him holding him back, but I don't think it's going to be enough. He's 28, right? Yeah. But if you pay eight years, you're paying a lot of money for a 36-year-old, and maybe that's not the best thing to do.

Max Reed 31. He just got eight years. but it was the Yankees. But all the big players are going to be involved with Kyle Tucker. That's what's going to drive him over the years. Yeah. And he's absolutely worth it. And showed his arm off this weekend.

And more importantly, showed off his bat. Yeah, there's just two different markets in free agency. It's the Yankees, Dodgers, Mets, and then it's everyone else. If the tier one isn't involved, then you end up like Alex Bregman. It gets dragged out and stuff like that. Maybe also it could be down to about three or four players per year. And that's about it, too. You know, I mean, this thought of 10 to 15 players getting these 7, 8, 9 year.

Now, if you have a phenom in your organization, I'll use Bobby Wood Jr.'s example from Kansas City, it's smart to buy out arbitration years, it's smart to put your money behind a guy that you think is going to ultimately be a megastar for your team. And so if you're him, if you're Mike Trott with the Angels, if you're, you know, even Julio Rodriguez in Seattle, right? I mean, you're going to spend that kind of money because he's going to be a guy that you can build your franchise around. Even that doesn't necessarily work 100% of the time either. That's true. But I'll have a buyout take for you coming up at 1130. Oh, by the way, we should tell the audience that today is reversed to tell the truth.

Ross is going to handle to tell the truth, and I'm going to handle believe it or not. I like this deal. I think, yeah, because you know what it is, and we've talked about this before. To tell the truth is a fun segment, but it's just hard to come up with things every single week. So once in a while, we flip things around. And if Jonathan wants to get involved, maybe in a couple weeks, we'll let him do to tell the truth. Okay. Like, for instance, he would be, he'd say, Western Kentucky and SFA are the Harvards of the Mid-South.

We would say that's clearly not the truth. But that doesn't mean he doesn't believe it, Matt. I mean, you have crackpot takes, but if you believe him, you believe them. That's to tell the truth. That's true. He's going to say, yeah. Engagement rings are too expensive. Yeah, he believes that.

Hey, I don't believe you can put enough ranch dressing in your salad. Honey, I believe that. I'm telling you the truth, babe, girl. Hey, you said you were taking a back seat on the salad jokes. Yeah, because she likes my music now. Just wait a minute. I'm okay. Uh-oh, here it goes.

There it comes. Rossi, we have a lot to get to today. For it being a July, late June, early July, there's kind of a lot of things going on. First of all, the Astros are kicking out. a five-and-one homestand against two first-place nationally legitimate nationally pennant-contending teams. Yes. You got that.

We have a Houston Rocky getting a big, fat, new contract, good for him. Frankly, it cracks me up that people, and it is the truth. I'm not saying they're not lying. But when someone is getting $24.5 million for the next five years and they call that a reasonable, really good sound offer, it makes me do a double-take. A bargain. Yeah. When did $24.5 million for anything per year become a bargain? Well, the salary cap is directly rated to revenues, so.

Yeah. But it doesn't mean me as somebody who makes $24,000, $5 a year and not go, my gosh. I know. It is great. How often you do that? Seriously, I'm going to say this is a question for all of you listening and certainly for Ross. How often do you hear about a guy's contract and go? So, man, that's good value. That's reasonable. That's, you know, man, the, the Rockets, like, for instance,

I would say it's universal to discuss the rocket's got Jabari Smith on the cheap because next year, he has a chance to make more, or had a chance to make more money. I still make it $24.5 million. I couldn't spend $24.5 million in my life if I could try. Well, if your wife got involved, you could. You'd be fine. I mean, if I'm going to go to the Bezos wedding, maybe,

but that'd be a different issue for a different time. That's true. How was that thing? by the way. Apparently, it was a three-day festival of nothing, how many million dollars was spent on that Bezos wedding? I'm Googling it. It says 50 million. $50 million, which is dropping a bucket to him.

Yeah, pretty much. I thought it would be more. Yeah, 50 million? Get your weight up, Bezos. So I have a six degrees of separation between Jeff Bezos' wife and me. Okay Stay with this

So Channel 26 Way back in the day Ross Had a reporter Her name was Michelle Bonner Does that ring a bill to you? No She was

Mark Berman's number two Or number three Yeah over there at Channel 26 Then she left to go work at Fox And over to ESPN She was on Sports Center for a while And she would tell me And she would come in and do

Once a week radio appearances with us and she would tell me about one of her best friends is a sports reporter a news reporter in los angeles this best friend of hers is the woman that Lauren satchez that married jeff baseless over the weekend oh he married a news lady yes sir a journalist if you will huh that's cool she's lucky she's also really rich i wonder with how the pre-up goes on that bad boy i mean yeah You probably negotiate a few million a year in the eventual event of divorce.

Yeah, she's 55, he's 61. Hashtag life partners. She's going to hit 60 and he'll upgrade. Wow. Is that an early gut feeling? Yeah, we'll write that one down for tomorrow. Go ahead. You're predicting a Bezos divorce in the next six years.

Yeah, I mean, you just have to, it's a little bit different. Like when they hit 25, DiCaprio gets out of the... there. That's a bad one. That's creepy, by the way. Well, you know, let him live his life. Why doesn't he like somebody plus 30? Keeps him young. I don't know. I mean, what kind of conversations are you having between

women between the ages of 22 and 29? He's talking about their favorite SpongeBob episodes. And what happened on Love Island last night? Probably. You watching Love Island? No, my daughter is and she cannot miss an episode. You got to start watching, Matt. It's

It's good. It's not. It's on every single day, is it not? No, it's Wednesday's off and Saturday's off, so you got time. So you're telling me a show is on five days a week like that? So the schedule, so I think they started the filming, like a couple days before. Yeah. And then they start, like, so they have like off on Wednesdays and then the audience will vote.

And then they'll be like off filming wherever they're at. And then it's a weird production schedule. No, not watching. I'm going to go ahead and pass on that because, you know, I've already got my two stories I'm already involved. That's what I say. You live for drama, so it seems like it's up to your alley, but your plate is full of drama. I got enough with Young and the Restless and Bold and Beautiful.

I don't have time for those shows at this point. And the Lifetime Movie Network. That's enough from you. All right. On the radio show, Astros 5 and 1 on the homestead. We'll get to that. Jabari Smith. Have you heard the name Malik Beasley?

You're going to hear more of it. We'll discuss who he is and what he's doing or maybe not doing. Perhaps hopefully for him it's not doing. Rossi, the WMBA announces expansion team list for the next foreseeable future. The comments are coming back? Well, you'll tell you. Remember last year the big phenomenon in college football, the BYU Jew? Excuse me?

Yeah. I didn't make the phrase of it was a phrase that was made by people at BYU. Okay. All right. I didn't make it up. Go look it up. I didn't, seriously, I didn't make this up. It's not derogatory.

He calls himself that or did. I'll explain why the BYU no longer one is going to have the B.Y. All right. Settling on that. Did he get kicked off of campus for having coffee? Worse. Okay. Stay with me on that.

And there are some rumors about LeBron James and Janus Athentagumpo we need to get to as well. We have to tell the truth coming up today at 1130, and believe it or not today at 150, all things about D. Wayne Lucas passing away over the weekend, I believe at the age of 89. When you think of horse racing, you think of D. Wayne Lucas. Never heard of them.

And cigar. And Ali Sheba. I think I'm pretty much done after that. All right. It is 1013 on the Matt Thomas show at Ross. 713, 212.5-790. 7-1-2-2-790. 5-1-1.

the Astros this week over the Cubs and the Phillies off day today, and then they go to Denver to take on the Rockies Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Then the Los Angeles Dodgers in L.A. at Chavez Ravine Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I would tell everybody to go to a game in Los Angeles. I would just not do it wearing Astros gear because you're going to get concussed at the very least and probably a skull fracture at the very worst. Maybe shift. Which hopefully not in any vital organs.

Yeah, you don't need. a kidney being replaced in the middle of the third inning of a game. No. I think they might have a kidney replacement center, though, in Section 123. That's true. You know what it's funny? Because you think about the Dodgers. And you think of

Vince Scully, you think of Don Drysdale, you think of Tomiless Sortie, you think of Fernando Valenzuela, Steves, Joe Kelly. Joe Kelly. Yeah. I guess you're getting to my point here. A classy, dignified, doesn't change.

Old school stadium, rich tradition, Dodger uniforms don't change very often, big history, classic, one of the most well-branded franchises in sports. Forget about baseball, Ross. But their fans are hoodlums. Or celebrities. Yeah. One or the other. We were one row away from, who was Jason Bateman when he was finishing up Ozark.

Oh, really? Was just losing her mind over the fact that we were one row away. And she goes, I'm going to go to myself. You better go now. Oh, I'll wait. By the time she said she wanted to go, he was already 15 rows up. What do you mean 15 rows up? Leaving the stadium.

Oh, okay. Don't stick around. Can't make it for nine innings? Come on, Bateman. So we were there for an Astros Dodgers game, and that's when Bateman said, we're going to win this game eight. and where was like the Astros beat him

so it was not terrible all right can I, I'm going to ask you this on a daily basis I think between now and October as long as things continue to go well how are the Astros 1534 I mean answer my question seriously

um no actually answer it in jokingly fashion good good pitching and a lot of one run ball look and how many shutouts does this squad put together a lot I think 8 or 9 is the last time I checked the count. Is that right?

17 and 7 in one-run games, 5-1 in extra innings, and just a lot of good pitching and timely hitting. Two-out hitting, two-out scoring. What is it? Two-thirds of their runs or something like that in two-outs? Yeah. Especially since about May 1st. This team really kind of took off mid-May, right?

And it kind of coincides with Jeremy Pena going to leadoff spot. Yeah. I mean, that's part of it. It's also, I mean, he's just been really good no matter where he's going to hit. Yeah. And I'm just kind of looking around in baseball. Astros have by far the best record in one-run games,

and I'm just saying, I'm just saying. I know what you're going to say. Don't even say it. We heard it last week, and we accept what you said. We just don't want you to repeat it. Luck turn sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes it does.

Hopefully it doesn't. Hopefully Payne is back in the lineup. Let's see. It'll be three days off. He missed two days. Monday. He'll be back in the lineup tomorrow. Yeah.

I'll lock that gut feeling in. I'll already go ahead and lock that in. He should be fine. I do give the Astros credit. They left after the game yesterday. They get a whole day off in Denver. Summertime in Denver, Colorado. Are you kidding me?

Mm-hmm. Ooh, baby. Load up at the dispensary, head of the ballpark. Well, I'm going to go to the casinos up. in the middle of the mountains. How about that? Okay. What are they like 30, 40 minutes?

They're not too far, are they? No, it's 40 minutes, maybe. Okay. I went to Denver, but I didn't get to make it to a casino. Yeah, it's really, the table, there's always $5 tables. I love that. Yeah, it's really good. And always 3-2, by the way, too.

That's really good. $3, $5? I figured you'd like that. Let's go right now. I'm telling you, if I didn't love Vegas so much, there are so many other cities that you could go. Phoenix is a great gambling town. Denver's a good gambling town.

I'm over the soulless squeeze for every dollar, Vegas. Unless, like I said, I'm downtown only nowadays. Me too. That's where I was about three weeks ago. Downtown's my jam, for sure. All right, so the Astros get a win. Five and one, they're off again. We mentioned Colorado now.

Look, the Astros might lose a game in Colorado. Hopefully they don't. But if they do, I don't need the, oh my God, I can't believe this team can't win. Look, Denver, the Rockies suck. We understand that. but Colorado has won some games. Not a lot. They've lost 19 and 65.

I mean, they're not great. What's their record in their last 10 games? Let's take a look. It's been improved. They've been right. They've dropped to 8 to 10. Oof. They beat somebody yesterday.

Let's see who they beat yesterday. Let's see if the team they beat was a decent. Oh, they beat the Brewers in Milwaukee. Yeah, that's not bad. After losing five in a row. They've lost eight of their last 10. I mean, Milwaukee is 10 above 500, so it wasn't like they beat chopped liver. Just saying, I fully want them to sweep, but don't kill them if they don't.

You lose 2 out of 3, and then we can probably have some angry feelings. Okay, we'll see. They'd be fine. Okay, so we've got to get to that. I want to get to the Rockets making some moves over the weekend, and we'll get to that. Plus, a rumor about Janus Adentigumpo. that coming up as well.

If you'd like to be a part of the program, and we are here all week. Now, a lot of you may be taking the week off, which means you don't get a chance to call the Matt Thomas Show at, especially you 10 o'clockers. You are more than welcome to chime in. Let me give you the phone number at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

If you want to visit with us through Twitter, you may do that as well. At SportsMT and at SportsM-T, and at SportsCever. But the easiest way to get a hold of us is right through these cellophones. It's 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. 33 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. I'm up here in Dallas on volleyball patrol, giving you all the insights of the USA National Championship.

Good luck to the Moco Juniors, Mavs, of the 17-year-olds, as they go for a quest for a national championship. Ross is back in our Houston studios. Ross asking me to send me text of photos of divorce A's, and I can be happy to do that for you, Ron. That's not true, Matt. That's true. But, I mean, if you send them, I'll look at them.

I mean, I knew you would. It is what it is. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-2-7-90. Rossi, congratulations to Jabari Smith. Yes. Team-friendly deal? Is that what I want to call it?

Yeah, it's funny. It's a five-year $122 million deal, and we're just talking about how much of a bargain it is. $24.5 million a year is a bargain for someone. Yes. Good for him. And we'll talk about this at about an hour. he needs to make that next leap.

He puts in a lot of work. He's got a good work ethic. I mean, just the way that he is now as a 34, 35% three-point shooter, 12, 13 points per game, 7-8 rebounds. That's a good player. It almost feels like to me you are not, they don't have arbitration in the NBA, but you're buying on the future. Does that make sense to you? Yeah, I mean, the Rockets didn't sign this deal, not hoping, I mean, they're hoping that he outperforms this deal.

Or at least that takes a step up. and maybe he will with Dylan Brooks gone. Who knows who's to say? By the way, I can't I keep everybody I'm reading. And again, things can't change because, look, let me tell you something. I'ma Doka doesn't care what anybody writes. But it feels like Jabari's going to be the one that's going to give that starting spot with Tari coming off the bench.

That's what everybody says. And I mean, it can't change. I think it, I mean, we saw it last year. I think we can point to where it was Jibari and sometimes it was Tari. And I think a lot of that's going to depend on Tari Easton's leg, if he's going to be playing back to backs and stuff like that. but, I mean, he's 611. Alperin Shingoon's 611 and

Kevin Duran is 611. So do you want to start three 611 plus players? And would you say any of them are upper end back to the basket guys? The answer would be the no on that. They're more perimeter guys. Oh, I mean, well, yeah, Shingoon is, but I mean, you're talking about defensively?

Anything. I mean, I think if Alpe is going to take the next step in his development, he's going to even be better than he is back to the basket. I have is this a Tuesday gut feeling? I will just say I don't think it's a foregone conclusion

it's going to be Jabari Smith Jr. You know, I would I would buy into that. I mean, I'm not ready to pencil then. And again, I don't think Eme Adoka is. But it's probably not going to be Camor. It's got to be, I would think it'd be

he or him or tarry. I don't think it's not going to be Cam Whitmore. I don't think. Even though it's a natural fit positionally because of where Cam Whitmore is as a shooting guard. If you're plugging, Kevin Durant is my small forward, And then, yeah, you go with, or maybe I guess your power forward in a one big lineup.

I don't know. Especially if you don't know what your lineup is. Let me give you a little sound bite from Brian Winhorst this morning. Okay. ESPN. And everyone's kind of going, okay, directed. LeBron rumors are out there. Then he may not be long for Los Angeles.

La, la. But there was also something else that Winhorst brought up this morning that I saw on ESPN. that was very intriguing. Here it is. The Bucks do not control their first round pick for the next five years. They can't trade any of them. And so I honestly do not see how the Bucks are going to be a team that at the end of the week, we look at and say that's a guaranteed top 14. And basically, you know, I think Yannis has sort of let them off the hook to a certain extent.

He did not apply pressure this offseason by sort of making it clear that he didn't necessarily want to be there. He has just basically done his regular off-season, gone overseas and been with his family. And the bucks who are really strapped from suspending an asset perspective, I don't see as much they could do. And a lot of teams that think that they could trade for Janus have been watching this very closely. And the teams like San Antonio or Houston or Miami or New York, they specifically have stayed out of other major transactions to, and in Houston's case, saved assets. in the Durant trade to potentially chase Yannis. And the reason they did that was because they got sure Yonis is going to look at the Bucks' work this week and think that's a team that compete either.

I don't want to be real with you, Matt. I got extremely distracted by it. Why did they start dropping techno beats in the middle of that? Because for those who don't know, Brian Winhorst was actually dancing in a zoot suit as he was talking about all this thing. Why did they start a rave in the middle of that? Maybe they want to go to the Daisy Festival in Las Vegas. You never know these things. The Electric Daisy Carnival?

Yes. I thought you were going to go there. I'm like, I'm not going to that. I thought it already happened. Well, we've been planning it, but I just said, we're way too old. I told you it wasn't. It's like three. I told you you weren't going to go.

I don't want to go because the music sucks first and foremost. Why? Do you know who's playing? I don't know, but that's his jam. He loves that stuff, and I don't. Let's get back to this stuff. You can get into it. When there's a good crowd, it doesn't matter what's there.

Certainly the way they dress there. You're going to enjoy yourself, Matt. Yeah. Bring sunglasses, though. Yeah, it wouldn't be nearly as obvious. You want to get caught staring. Okay, so let's go to the Rockets didn't give up and hold on to Capitol. That means their first round picks.

That means other team's first round picks. I asked you this last week. Are you sure you can't give the Bucks four to five first round picks and be fine? Are you absolutely sure about that? do you think it's only going to cost you four first round picks okay so desmond bain win for four first round picks plus players matthew desmond bain but

they're all but the heat are the magicer also gave the grizzlies a terrible contract that's true colwell pope is now paid 21 a half million dollars a year and that's a terrible deal and that's now owned by memphis i think they bought those draft picks Yeah, but $20 million a year, as you know, with the cap going up, it's not a whole lot. We're talking about how that's a bargain for Jabari'sman Jr. All right. I'm going to make you the general manager for the Houston Rockets right now.

Okay. Give me the deal today that Milwaukee's like, that makes sense. That Milwaukee would say yes to? Don't go overboard. Shingun, a man in three picks. That's what they're going to want. You can't have a man. That's not a possibility.

A certain center. Four number ones. They don't say yes. First of all, you need to throw more on there, of course, because of money. Okay. A certain center? A certain backup folder. Why can't you say their name?

Come on. All right. Alpy Cam and four number ones. They say no. Tarisen. Alpi. Ooh, that's better. Tari.

Four number ones. I think. I can't give you five number ones. I don't even know if you can legally do that. I've never heard of anybody getting more than four, right? Rudy Gobert was four, and Desmond Bain was four. Now, Kevin Durant, of course, was only one, or one in five for a seconds. You're out of second round picks.

Yeah, yeah, you're giving the ones up that the other, like, you still own Phoenix, a Phoenix one. You want that one, because they're going to suck. Do you own a Brooklyn one at some point? I think they still have a Brooklyn swap, and maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Brooklyn swap. That's exactly right. I'm Ross. You want a two-time MVP in his prime, Matt.

I don't know. But he shoots 30% from three. He shoots 60% from the field. I mean, he just won, what, 2020? 221? A couple, he, he, just this year. He averaged 30 points. I'll go pull it up.

It was like 11 rebounds and 7 assists or something like that. Okay. And he shoots 60% from the field. That's the thing. That's how crazy good he is. It's got to stay. Yeah. Everyone knows he's.

not taking a three point. I always say that all the time. I tell you that all the time. They would hurt though. 30 points, 12 rebounds, and six and a half assists. And world class defense. Hello?

His first team all NBA defense. All right. I don't think it's Houston, though. I think New York's going to do whatever they can. I don't think it's Houston. And I don't think I'm in Thompson is untouchable for Yonis. I just don't. Okay.

You and I will disagree. agree on that and I will not budge from that. Okay. I know that the talent levels are different. I know, but I'm just telling you that. I mean, Thompson's not going to have as good a career as Janus in all likelihood. I mean, that's just a fact. Two-time MVP?

Yeah, but you're not trading a model-a-moner. Yeah, I know. You have to give up him and other players. I mean, it would be, you know, if you did it, if you did one for one, then you could definitely swaddle that, but you're looking for multiple live human beings and multiple draft picks. And the fact that

the men is on a rookie deal still. Yeah, yeah. All right, 1042 on Sports Talk 790. It is interesting, however, that the Yonof don't go away. There are LeBron rumors about him maybe being traded because he picks up his option for a contract next year to stay with the Los Angeles Lakers. And the Lakers are like, yeah, we don't really want to tell you the idea. The world's telling you. Rich Paul, his agent is telling you. Well, he goes somewhere else before his career is done. Because, I mean, are the Lakers any closer even with Luca?

I mean, I think there's a lot of uncertainty in Los Angeles right now, which is strange. Because I think I'm not, I'm certainly going to be watching what they do. Yeah, they're not contenders now. I still got him on fraud alert. And I still don't think he's going somewhere else. I mean, at some point, do you, I mean, are you going to just be in, what do they call it, a carpet baggage, are going from place to place to place? I mean, that's happening.

It's kind of place to doing his entire career. I mean, Chris Ball is hopping around. Yeah, Chris Paul's hopping around. Kevin Durant's hopping around. He's a Houston Rocket Kevin Durant. Yeah, but we believe in certain hopping, especially it's the southeast Texas. Yeah, when it's here, it's all good. It is all good. Yeah, I want to hear from the people that have been talking about how, yeah, how Kevin Durant's ring chaser and he sucks. He comes to the Houston Rockets. Oh, yeah. Kevin Durant, greatest of all time.

Well, I want to be consistent. I want to be consistent. He was going for a ring, but I didn't blame him for it. He was also the best player on those teams. He won both finals MVP. Now he went for an ethical... You're supposed to go look for a ring. That's the whole point. He can't build up this ring culture, and it's all about rings, rings, rings, rings, rings.

And then when somebody tries and goes to get a ring, you get mad at him. NBA discourse is the worst. Oh, yeah. The hypocrisy week to week with the NBA pundance is in an all-time high. 1044 on Sports Talk 790. 7-1-3-212-5-790.

713-212-5-790. Astros. There is a player on the Astros that is having a magnificent season that we've already, for about a better part of a year, have said Sayanara to. And I don't know how we get out of that, because no one is trying to keep him here. We'll discuss who that is coming back. Matt Ross with you on a Monday. Good morning, Houston, Texas. We are with you today until 2 o'clock.

Don't be a stranger. We know you 10 o'clockers are late risers or just don't like us. Maybe Ross were more affable between 1130 and 2. Yeah, it takes me a couple hours to wake up. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. So, and maybe I've been the leader of this, Ross, and I don't mean to be. But I think I've said it on probably a half-dozen occasions.

There's no chance, no way, no how the Astros are resigning for Amber Valdez. I would agree with that still. And I can't back off because there have been no whispers of any sort of contract conversations or any, I mean, Zilch, even when Dana asked about it, even when Frombers asked about it, no, we haven't said anything. By we'll give you a little small update on Jeremy Pena from Dana Brown coming up at the top of the next hour because there was some interesting comments from Dana from yesterday. so Sunday appearance on Astros Radio. But Ross, all he does is win. When's the last time that he, I mean, he had the five-walk game against Oakland, against the athletics, but he still won't terrible.

He just walked a lot of folks. All he does is win now for the Astros. I think the time out before, wait, how many walks did he have, I think he had four walks a couple of starts ago. He had nine walks in the previous two starts, not including yesterday. Okay. Yeah. So, I mean, even then, it's crazy how good he can be.

And then he had the, didn't he have the complete game and he was like at 80-something pitches or something like that? He's now on the season, four and three. Actually, that's not, that's a road record. His overall, nine and four. Nine and four. 272 ERA. You have two guys in the top five of the Siong, it feels like. His last five starts, seven innings.

5, 6, 7, 6. Number of earned runs in those last five games. Five games, six runs. Is that good? It's really good. Yeah, he's amazing. He's incredible. He's making a good statement for himself.

He's going to hit free agency, and he's going to get a lot of money. But, man, you ain't hearing squat about him staying in Houston. No, I don't think so. And what do we always say, Matt, especially if you don't have anything out of spring training, it ain't happening. It ain't happening. So all he's doing at this point is building his resume. The question is going to be, if you're another team, it doesn't really matter what team you are. Do you think at all why you don't, why the Astros didn't even possibly offer something?

Or do you say, well, the Astros' history and representation has given out the notion that we don't sign guys as super long-term deals? I've never heard Frymervaldez say I'm looking for a seven or eight year deal. Maybe you don't have to say it. No. I'm sure he wants something like that. He wants to hit the market and get as much as possible. Before spring training last year, we kept hearing Dana Brown like, yeah, we're putting together an offer for Bregman. There's no offer yet.

There's no, there was no real substantive offer before. Or for a counter for that matter. Yeah. So this is standard operating procedure. and Jim Crane's been doing this for a long time and it keeps working. Yeah. Has he really been burned yet by anybody? I would say before Tommy John from Garrett Cole,

that was probably the best deal that was being lived up to. Did he win, he won a Cy Young with the Yankees? Well, I don't think the Yankees up until the Tommy John were upset about the money that we're spending on him. No, yeah. I mean, he won a Cy Young Award with the Yankees. Charlie Morton has been able to be productive, but it wasn't like the life, the Astros kept winning despite Charlie Morton not being here.

You don't mean? It was, there hasn't been one that has like hitching the belly. I can't, like, if George Springer was a 41, 20 guy with Toronto year and in year, that would hurt, right?

As much as you love Jake Myers, you had your son. Hey. Right? Do love Jake Myers. Yeah, I'll let's see. Garrett Coles finishes in the Syung

Masi Yankee, fourth, second, ninth, and first, and he won it. And then last year, he had injury in this year. he's got Tommy John. Speaking of center fielders,

and we'll be here for you on Thursday for I just don't get it. Can I do it early? I just don't get it. Yes. Why is Cedric Mullins and the Astros being tied together from Bob Nightingale? Left-handed bat,

outfield help. You know what his batting averages? I don't. So you're having a bad year. Career he's much better, right? I know he's having a down year. His OPS is 707. Okay.

That was as of yesterday. see it how he did yesterday. Before yesterday, I should say. I mean... Oh, he's been a negative player this year. Yeah. I knew he was having a down year at the plate, but I didn't know it was this bad. Can I just ask you? I just don't get it. Why?

Okay. Are you hoping that maybe a changing uniform, going from a bad team to a good team could help? I mean, that could possibly be the case. I mean, the Astros went and got you say Kikuchi. He sucked in Toronto. It was great for the Astros last year. It's not going to happen. Yeah, but they do it better with pitchers than position players. Yeah.

Let's see. He's got an OPS plus of 101. He's got 14 home runs, I think. So there is some, there is some power in that bad, for sure. Jake Myers' OPS Plus 115, and it's not going to cost you anything. Now, do you want to put him in left field or send Jake to left field? Because guess who's not playing left field very much these days, sports RV? Jose Al-Tuve.

Your greatest astro of all time. Well, Jeff Bagel was retired. But when Yoron comes back from his hand injury, I think you're going to see a lot more, because they've been able to DH and put Jose Altuva at second base a lot. Yeah. And obviously, Brendan Rogers on the injured list does not get, you're down a man at second base.

But, I mean, what in the last, how much love field is Jose Altuve playing the last two weeks? Maybe once a week? Maybe. And you also, I mean, I guess it was a couple days missed by Paredes, and it's been a couple days missed by Jeremy Pena as well. So you've had some infield injuries. Right, right, right.

But it just feels like to me, and I will fall on the sore on this, he's playing way more second base than I ever thought he was going to play. I think it's an injury-related mostly, personally. Probably so. All right. First hour of the books here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross, if you'd like to chime in, 713, 212, 5-790. When I tell you the Astros, you don't hear a peep,

about trying to keep Framberra-Belnaz. What is your reaction on that? My reaction's been very simple. No surprise whatsoever. Because we kind of knew this all along. But I'm not, but you guys are the fans, you guys are the ones that go to see him pitch every fifth day. 7-13-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-7-90. Also coming up in the next half hour, we have an NBA player in some serious trouble with perhaps betting on the sport. We have one of the most interesting stories in college football last year, leaving his campus. We also have a major trade in the NFL to get to. And, of course, your Astros are 5-1, and the Rockets keep a big man around for a while. All that coming up between now and 2 o'clock.

In one half-hour, we have Ross's edition of To Tell the Truth. 713-212-5-790. Your squad went five and one. Meet the Cubs, two out of three, two nothing, another shutout for the local nine that leads us into at 12.06, the news at noon. And with that, the Fernlandquist of Houston sports journalism. It's Ross-Billeria. Oh, thank you, bad. I'll take that, I guess.

In your life, have you ever seen anything like a fracture in the rib? Of Jeremy Pena. Now this just broke a few. No. No. I know. No. Press release from the Houston Astros. We talked about it, of course, last segment.

Additional imaging done on Jeremy Pena has revealed a small fracture in one of the ribs on his left side. As a result, he would be placed on the 10-day I-L retroactive to June 28th. We will announce a corresponding roster move on Tuesday. Jeremy Payne you We hardly knew ye When Scott Boris reaches out To Jeremy Payne to Dana Brown

Yeah He said Hey you just want to make sure you're still in love with my client And Dana Brown respond Newfound, who is Uh-oh I think this tips the balance of the leverage And a deal with that

I don't think so No that's a terrible thing to say So we're going to see Everyday Shortstop Marisa DuBahn for a couple of weeks You think? Yep Yep

is even qualified to play short on this team. Probably just doobie, huh? Not Guillermo. No, I mean, Dubon can. Yeah, and that probably means a little more Altovae at second. Yep, it does. You do we have any kind of updates on your own now for us? I mean, what the heck's going on over there? Oh, he's going to West Palm Beach.

Oh, that's right. And Chas McCormick, both, yeah. That's right. He's getting some hacks in the Florida Complex League. All right, well, you also have the Astros off today, and then three games. with the Colorado Rockies coming up, Matt. It'll be Colton Gordon versus and then Hunter Brown and then Brandon Walter against three guys with ERAs around six for the Rockies. You're saying there's a chance.

I'm thinking so. So if an ERA is six in Houston, is that an ERA like eight and a half in Denver? That's what I'm thinking. I mean, they're all Denver pitchers, so it could be inflated numbers. So SportsMT, that's me. take the over in all three games of the series. Just saying. Even with Hunter Brown on the mound?

Well, we fell into that trap in Tampa. Oh, we certainly did. Your fault. You're right. It is my fault. Okay, elsewhere, yesterday for the Houston Rockets, Jabari Smith, signing a

five-year $122 million rookie extension, Sham Sharania, first to report. Smith with 12.2 points and 7 rebounds for game. Also had that broken left hand. Has been better in the last two years as far as three-point shooting, but not to the level you were hoping with where he was drafted

and with his track record as an Auburn Taiga. But we talked about this earlier, Matt, $122 million. Roundly thought of around the league as a bargain for the young role player. I love the fact that a role player can make $24.5 million per year. It's not bad work if you can get it. Overall in his career, a 34% three-point shooter, but he was horrible his first year, 30.7%, but since then 36 and 35. He can continue to be around there.

He's going to be pretty good, and this will be good value for the Houston Rockets. Whether he comes off the bench or starts, you think he starts more games, or comes off the bench and more games in 2025? I will say he starts more games. I think he can very well be right. I put that as a heavy favorite, by the way. A couple of other moves in the NBA. LeBron James opts into his $52 million option.

So he is for now, but it could be traded. But for now, still a Los Angeles Laker. James Harden opting out of his deal with the Clippers, but then resigning to a two-year, $81.5 million deal. we went through the list already before, I think last week, Matt. James Hardin's already one of the highest earning players in NBA history, and he just got another $80 million. Can I tell you that I respect Sean Sharani?

Obviously, he gets all the information, right? I mean, Sean doesn't miss anymore. Did you see what his second tweet was after his first tweet announcing that James was resigning with the Clippers? He said, hard work and well-deserved new contract. Yes I don't think anybody in Clipperland believes that Do you think the Clippers fans are upset?

I guess maybe Well, I want to make sure I read you the exact tweet Because I did a double take when he said it Because again, I understand James has value But James also Another year of another first round out in the playoffs and another, where were you and we needed you in game seven kind of thing?

Third team, all-N-B-A, All-Star. Here it is. 23 points, 8.7 assists. Shams' tweet, the second year has a player option and is partially guaranteed. This deal furthers the strong relationship hardened his forge with the clippers since he arrived. He receives a well-deserved raise

while providing the team with flexibility to add talent in the present and future. Well-deserved raise? The comments don't say that, Rossi. No, the question is, did he copy? and paste that directly from the agent, or did he add his own modifications? That is exactly. On Twitter, the dude that bet says deserves a raise for what?

Let's see here. Oh, and then at Kings of Card says, yes, 81 million well-deserved, and he puts in his game seven box score, 35 minutes, seven points on two of eight shooting. How many assists, though? Oh, stop. What? He had 13 assists. See?

All right. right, maybe you win. I mean, I like, James is fine. You know James has been nicer to me before as a, as a post rocket than ever was as a rocket? Oh, really? Yeah. That's cool. Not really. He's maturing. I'd like to have been nice to me on the plane when he didn't play that vile rat music. We were trying to sleep. Oh, well, that was his plane. You weren't on the rocket's plane. You were on James Hardin's plane. I was on, I was at Hardin Airlines. Yes, you were. It also went wherever he wanted to. I will say this. We used to go to LA two days earlier. That was fun.

You missed that, don't you? Maybe a little bit. And that's your news at noon, Matt. When we return, more basketball headlines that may disappoint some of you. We'll tell you about that and more. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We'll get back to some baseball conversation coming up in a little bit here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

It is a group chat Monday. Ross, my group chat is nothing involving volleyball scheduling. So nothing overly intriguing for the audience. Yeah. Yeah. We don't want to hear about that. I don't think so. My group chat is talking about Jabari Smith Jr.

And also the horrible Jake Paul boxing fight over the weekend. How bad was it? I didn't even see anything of that. He fought. Did you even know he was fighting, Matt? No. He fought Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.

And apparently there were rounds where Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. didn't even throw a punch. No way. And Jake Paul won the fight, yeah. That's very Floyd Mayweather of him. Explain. Floyd was not a heavy volume

puncher, was he? I mean, yeah, he would throw some. I would say, so he threw enough to win. He was a counterpuncher for sure. But Julio Cesar Chavez was when they're basically taking a die. And now Jake Paul, you know what, I better shut up and not say that because he said he's threatening to sue people who say that they're taking dives. Okay. And that'll conclude today's boxing conversation for the day.

Another topic that will get about a one-minute run on the show. Ross, the WMBA, announced three new expansion teams for Play Through 2030. Comets? Well, that was a team that won four championships back in the 90s. Yes, you're accurate about that. Comments coming back? They need their voice back. He's available.

In the summers. He's available. Craig and I have both done comments games over the years. Did Wex do them back in the day too? Wex might have been a filling guy, yeah. I don't think so. Yeah.

Congratulations to new WNBA teams in Cleveland. And I lost my list. Stand by. Okay. Promote your IG. Yeah, Instagram. I'm following people back right now. Now, at SportsRV and Instagram, I'm trying to build it up.

You know, it's 2025. And quite frankly, I've been lagging behind on social media because it's not my favorite thing in the world. But got to put myself out there more so you can follow me at SportsRV. Follow you back. Congratulations to Cleveland who used to have a team. Oh, they did? Detroit, who used to have a team. And Philadelphia, who will get a new team for the very first time.

Are they just going to name the league after Caitlin Clark? I mean, didn't they say all the teams are like doubled in value since she came to the league? And now they're doing expansions and bringing back teams where franchises have folded. It's crazy how the star power of, I mean, okay, others, but mostly her, led by her as the flagship, are revitalizing the league. Do you know how much it cost for an expansion team to, if you want to buy into the WMB? You know what the cost is? $172. All right.

I want you to take that back, and I want you to give me a real number, and I want Jonathan, you look at it as well. I have no clue. Whoever gets closest without going over wins a WMBA franchise. Oh, we're doing the price is right. All right. Let's see. I have no context.

I have no clue. I'm going to say. It is in the millions. 55 million. I was going to go to 25 million. No, no, I'm going to go under that. I'm going to go back to 35 million. I don't know.

I'm going to stay with 25. The actual retail price to purchase an experience. an expansion team for our WMBA is $250 million. American? American. I'm talking about rubles? So the three teams that are getting new franchises in 28, 29, and 30, each paid $250

million, which is about five times as much as Golden State did a few years ago, and that team is playing in its very first season in the WNBA. The Valkyrie is what they call them. Okay. So we're bearing the headline. The comets are not coming back anytime soon. What the heck? It would be probably at least 2031 if that was to happen.

Why is that? Why that year? They're announcing that the teams have announced through 2030. Oh, okay. By the way, would you like to know how much it costs to buy an expansion NHL team? Okay. if WNBA's 200

How much was it? 75 mil A 400? 750 mil 750 million, huh? The actual retail price for expansion team is $2 billion. What?

For NHL? That makes sense. No, it doesn't make any sense, I guess. What are those franchises value that? I don't know, but... I guess you've got to buy in for the value? Is it you're talking about all-end? Does this count like an arena getting built?

I'm confused. I don't know. But they say, I just got to text it and said $250 for a team in the WNBA, NHO wants $2 billion per expansion team to split up among the ownership, I guess. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. This says their maple leaves are the most valuable franchise at $2.8 billion. It costs $2 billion to get another team?

Yeah. Only three teams are 14. teams are above $2 billion in value. Maple Leafs, Rangers, Canadians, kings, and that's it. Should I out the person that sent me that text? No.

Okay. I don't, you know, I'm only going off of what our good friend who is an authoritarian on sports teams told me. I'm not calling that person a liar. I'm just saying, I guess it's because, I mean, they're worth that, if that's what they're worth, then you got to buy in what it's worth.

I don't know. Who knows? Who knows? all I know is that I would have never guessed it cost $250 million for a WMBA team. I guess it looks like they're making about 100 million a year, these franchises

for the most part. Well, wait a minute, how is the league then never turned a profit? Oh, I'm sorry, I'm talking about NHO. Oh, okay, okay. The NBA has to be turning a profit now. I mean, it just has to be. It didn't turn a profit last year.

It didn't? No, it has never turned a profit. and the history of its league. Well, they must be making some kind of money with the subsidies from the NBA, because why would anybody lay down $250 million to not make money? That's a great question. Again, you're making total sense. How do you get $250 and you still don't turn to profit?

You're not playing a full 82 game schedule. Your television deals are okay. I guess your arena sales are okay, especially if you have Caitlin Clark. Clark's in the, yeah. Heaven forbid she, like, tears an ACL or something. The whole league's going to go under. You get a game between the aces and the sparks and no, no, Caitlin Clark, you're drawn 4,500.

I don't know. Ross, it seems like to me there's just a lot of funny math right now. I don't know what's going on. But congratulations, the WMBA for securing $750 million with three new teams. And sadly, Houston, for those of you that are WMBA fans, it's not one of them. All right, it is 1228 on Sports Talk 790. 713, 212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-790.

We have an NBA player in some hot water. We'll tell you what is going on with him next. Ross, so what's your favorite, Malik Beasley is an NBA player moment? When I forgot he existed? Yeah, I don't know if he's a household name. Now, obviously, I've called a lot of NBA games, and Malik Beasley played for a variety of NBA team. he is in trouble with the law or maybe not, who knows? Malik Beasley is a swing player who is about to sign a three-year contract worth $42 million.

There was only one problem. That deal is off the table by the Pistons because federal authorities are investigating whether or not he has had gambling related to NBA games and prop bets. When are these players going to learn? I have to say I was wrong. I thought there wouldn't really be much of any sort of gambling scandals because of the salaries and how much money the NBA players make that it wouldn't be worth it for them.

A gambling industry source pointed to a game between the Bucks and the Blazers on January 31st, 2024. The odds on Beasley recording fewer than two and a half rebounds moved significantly at sports before the game shortened from around plus 1 to around minus 250 due to a surge of action on the under. Beasley finished with six rebounds

and the bets that were deemed unusual lost. Huh! So there was unusual activity, but he's still won. So he tainted... Well, you could... If it went to minus whatever, huh. Did they do unusual activity? to swing it one way and then they bet the other and then somebody bet the other side?

Yeah, that I don't know. I'm all going off a wire story here. For example, I'll tell you that Billy Walter, it's the big gambler. He would bet like a million dollars on one side to move the line and then he would slam the other side for multi-millions and then go that way. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, so betting one to swing it and then betting two the other direction because you want to make more value. I get it. That makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, boy, this happened during the 23, 24 season when Beasley was with the Bucs. I don't think there's anything to tie to him as a piston, not that it matters.

I mean, I'm just, I'm, this is nothing more than a headline chaser in terms of, I mean, we don't even know what happened. But it's a bigger point. These prop bets have become, you know what it is, Ross. It's just a, it's a thirst for betting more than just the score with the game, right? Yeah, I mean, get a little action on it. Get a little taste. I don't mind that. But, I mean, when I was pushing for illegalized gambling,

I didn't realize, I mean, how much it was going to be put into everybody's faces. And also I didn't realize that this was going to be happening with players. Although, there has been no, he has not been charged with a crime. Correct? Correct. There's just an investigation. Now, he was about to sign a three-year deal with the Pistons. He played very well for the Pistons last year.

He was set to sign a three-year deal with. with $42 million, that deal has been pulled off the table temporarily. You said the feds got him as federal? Yeah, he's made $53 million in his career. Which I thought I would have guessed more. He's been a guy that's bounced around him. It was a nugget for a while, I think. Timberwolves mentioned the bucks now that Detroit Pistons.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I'm honestly not, I'm surprised we don't talk about this more than when we do. Because not only it's not about, hey, I like the Sixers Plus Six and a Half, or I like the over-under total. It's you can go to any casino you want to within reason. Get on that betting window and you can bet what individual prop bets on just about anything in the game, correct? Yeah, but they're monitoring.

I mean, there's a reason there was a red flag here. They monitor the activity. And if there's a flurry of activity, very unusual activity, then that's going to put up flags all across these sports books. Yeah. Then why do it then? If you want to bet on yourself or have a friend of bet on you, you can probably get away with it as long as the numbers aren't crazy in terms of dollars and cents.

You help me on this. How do you swing something from a plus, what I tell you, one-fifth? That means that there was a, I mean, thousands and thousands, if not millions of action. I'm not a sports book. I don't run a sports book. But if you're moving, you know, you and me putting 20 bucks or a couple hundred bucks on it or whatever, it's not going to move the line. It had to be in the thousands, if not more.

To move a line from, for people don't know, plus 120 means if you're $100 get you $120 or you're laying $250 to win $100. That's crazy. Yeah. That's a huge swing. I just don't know what he would. Why would you jeopardize? I mean,

unless you're trying to take care of bookies or whatever because you've got your own gambling issues. I don't know what they're... Yeah, or you just tell your friend, your friend needs some money or whatever. You're like, okay, I'll give you $10,000. You make this bet, and it'll turn it to $20,000. But, I mean, it would even have to be...

I would guess it had to be larger scale than that to move a line that much. Yeah. All right, it is 1239 here on Sports Talk 790. We're going to get back to the Astros. One other thing I want to get to, and this is another one of those situations, We've got a story here, Ross, that we can't possibly comment on. There was a quarterback that played at BYU last year.

That was of Jewish faith. Yes. And it has nothing really to do with the story itself, but it is an interesting story. It's just so rare that a non-Mormon player first of well plays at BYU. That happens every year. But the number of Jewish players that have ever played at BYU has got to be probably, you can count on one or two hands. The gentleman's name was Jake Retzloff.

And he was an all-conference player. He was a guy that people embraced because he was Jewish and that there was a lot of people that called him B.Y. June. I didn't make it up. They said it, not me. Make sure of birds you on this. All right, Matt. Just want to make sure.

Yes. I mean, they were selling T-shirts. Selling T-shirts. He embraced it. There was a whole sports center game day story about him. So I'm not making this up. I've ordered you a T-shirt already. Don't do that.

It's not any good. So apparently, within the last handful of months, there was a story about him having relations with a BYU student, and she claimed sexual misconduct. And there was a civil suit that was filed on behalf of this woman. They called her Jane Doe. Okay. And apparently, there was a lot of... of investigation or whatever the case may be. And they never said whether he was guilty or not.

He says it was consensual. They met online. They got intimate, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And whether or not that is true or not, BYU decided to suspend him for seven games, not because of the per se perceived sexual assault or harassment or violence towards her. But whether all that happened or not is moot, because if you're a BYU student, you cannot have sex at all while you're at

BYU. He violated the honor code. If you're... What's that? If you're married, is it okay? I believe if you're married, it is okay. That's why all those BYU players get married.

They're also older, too, is they go on missions. Yeah, I race is, so with some dude that was 27, and he had a kid at the end of the race on BYU. All right. He had the dad's strengths. There's old.

That's true. So he has been suspended for seven games for the violation of the BYU honor code, meaning you can't drink, you can't smoke, you're not supposed to swear. You're definitely having caffeine either, right? Yeah. No caffeine. I don't know if it's part of the honor code or not, but you're definitely under no circumstance, supposed to have any sort of sexual activity.

Nothing more than a kiss. Ooh, no vulgar language? Mm-mm. It's tough. Ooh, I'm violating a lot of these rules. Yeah, but you're also an adult And you didn't go to BYU, so you're fine Okay, good

Word comes out today That she has dropped the civil lawsuit Mm-hmm Oh, this is horrible So the rape dismissal charges are done He is still on a seven-game suspension And he has announced, for the most part, he is planning on transferring out of BYU

So it sounds like she knew what she was doing Even if it was consensual And like a bad That I can't I can't verify fine. I'm just saying it's optics. That's what optics is right now.

The optics don't look good for her. That's all I'll say. Either that or somehow the Retslav family has paid her off to go away. One of the two. Either she made it up and she got in trouble because she had these sexual activities that probably mom and dad weren't particularly huge fans of. or something serious did happen and that she was paid to go away, one of the two. So it's kind of a bizarre story, but it is interesting because this kid was a guy that was not supposed to go to BYU.

Jewish players don't go to BYU typically. Not only did he go there, but he was very good and helped BYU win a 10-game season. And now this lawsuit got out there for. Now he's going somewhere else. Wow. Now he's going somewhere else. And I don't know what BYU's quarterback situation is, but. You know, there are now backups there that are looking for a job at this point.

Apparently, Retzlaff and the woman traded, quote-unquote, lighthearted text messages for months after the encounter and characterize the lawsuit as an extortion attempt based on the idea that Retzlaff developed into an NFL prospect about a year later. Good gracious. Good, gracious. He's going to get some money. Probably has some NIL money right now. Again, I want to presume anything, Ross.

I don't know. I'm staying out of this. Me too. I'm walking out of here. See you later. Yeah, I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. I'm not going to bring it up anymore.

1244, Sports Talk, 790. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. If you want to follow us via Twitter, you may do that as well. At SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Sports Talk 790. If you're just joining us at 1250, where the hell have you been? Number two. Jeremy Pena on the injured list, Ross,

with a small fracture in one of his ribs on his left side. On the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 28th, he sustained the injury Friday against the Chicago Cubs after being hit by a pitch. Just great. Do we need a water tower with saved Jeremy up there? It'd be fine.

There's a little rib fracture. It'd be a right. Let me tell you something. And again, I don't know, I haven't had very many rib fractures in my life because I'm not in a quote-unquote athlete. I haven't really gone that hard at anything in my life.

Yes. That can't feel good, dude. Not being able to breathe. Ooh, Lordy. You know, you kind of need to do that to live. Yeah, I'm with you. Doesn't sound great. Do you want a general timeline according to my cursory research?

All right, one o'clock. We're going to come back with the WebMD update. Okay. brought to you by no one. Uh-huh. We're going to play some music behind it. Okay. You'll instruct Jonathan where to find that music.

That's fine. And we'll have Dr. Villarreal give us the rundown of how bad this could possibly be. Dr. Billariel, that's good. I'm not breaking any of this down. All right. I was just, yeah, I was just, I had my license revoked. For what? What?

They shut down my vein in the alley. It's ridiculous. Oh, gross. Does our insurance cover Dr. Villariel's payments? I think I'm out of network. Matt. All right. Well, all right.

Let's go to the phone to talk to some people. Let's talk to first, Ramon in Midtown at 1253 on the Matt Thomas show at Ross. Ramon, what do you got today? Yeah, I just worried about the Jeremy Pena injury. And if he does have a broken rib, they do take more than 10 days to heal. So I think they're lying to us again. I don't think he'll play, certainly not through the old. All-Star game, maybe mid-August might be.

Holy smokes. Well, the 10-day I-L, there's not like a 30-day IL. It's either 10 or 60, so, I mean, 10-day-L doesn't necessarily mean he's only going to be out 10 days. Yeah, it's maybe a renewable IL situation. So, you know. No, he just stays on there. He just stays on 10-day IL after the 10 days. Yes.

Yeah, you don't have to come off after. 10. You can stand there as long as you need to, I think. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's bad because he's our hottest hitter right now. But, you know, maybe Alvarez will come in anytime he's been on the IL for like 60 day. I don't know something ridiculous. I think May 3rd since May 3rd was the last time you played, I think, yeah. He's on the 10-day IL as well. We'll hope for the best, but it's not looking good.

we'll need some more miracles. Are you a physician? I'm curious. How do we know it's mid-August? No, it's just that, you know, I've known people that have had broken ribs and it's taken them longer than 10 days to heal. Oh, man. All right, Ramon.

Thanks for being a Debbie Donner for us. Sorry. Bye. See you later. We'll be it by. We don't want to do it. contest like when is it coming back? Stop.

I'd rather not. Who do you win? A warm hug and an embrace. Gift certificate for a massage. That would be a bad idea. Guess when your favorite injured player returns. Oh, no.

Whatever. When they're back to reality. Joe was asked about it. And it's like, yeah, I'm going to sit them out today. I'm going to send him out tomorrow. And then I'm going to give him another day off on Sunday so he can rest on Monday and play on Tuesday. That was the last we had heard until this, correct?

Yeah. Apparently, he'd wanted to play. On, yeah, Friday is when he was, I was saying Saturday earlier. That's Friday he was hit, correct? Right. So, Joe was saying basically, yeah, if you know, he wants to play, we're doing, I'm going to do everything with my power to keep him out of this game today. As in like, I don't want to use him as a pinch hitter. Like, it sounded like it was just going to be a couple of days.

But follow up imaging, disagreed. Pray for Jeremy. No, he's got Squab Boris. He can be all right. You know what? He's not going to play on the All-Star game now, I don't think. No, I wouldn't think so. Can he still be selected? Yeah, well, no, he hasn't been selected. But I'm going to assume he's going to get in. I would assume as well, but...

Oh, man. Vince and Midtown's got better news for us in life. Vince, what's going on? Hey, yeah, I was out of town all last week, so I didn't get to see you guys to the Durant trade. First of all, I think it was a... steal now. I was all against it thinking that we would have to give up a Jabari, but definitely a good thing. And wondering what you think the status of Whitmore is as we stand right now. And I'll listen. Thanks. Thanks for the phone call. Ross, to me, his name is being

brought up way too much in trade conversation for him to be thinking he's a guarantee return to the Rockets. Yeah, I don't think he's a guarantee return. I don't think he's guaranteed to a lot of minutes. I'm just going off previous history. Apparently the Chicago Bulls are showing interest in one Cam Whitmore. My guess is if they do kick the tires on Ayanna's and then the Gumpo move, that there would be Cam Witton or would be involved. I think he's a trade chip.

Don't know that for sure. I like him. Didn't get see a whole lot of him for a reason. And, you know, I don't know how much more playing. time you would get if he was to stay here. You know, is he a guy that needs a change of scenery? Is he a guy, is, is he already decided who he is?

Because he didn't play very much unless guys were hurt. No. Yeah, I think he was just a last option. I mean, he had games or he was going off for like 20 points, but he's just also kind of, I think of him as more of a volume guy than a, like a devastating score. Yeah. And again, sometimes the change of scenery work, and also sometimes maturity can kick in. I can't guarantee either one of those situations.

But I would be foolish, I think, if the rockets are not done in this offseason, that Cam's name is being talked about. Because I don't think they want to trade Tari, and they're not going to trade a man, they're not going to trade out. I mean, if you're going to put out there of a guy that, you know, you may want to buy low and get something in return, Cam went where it would be the guy, right? I would think so. I'm just looking at his shooting percentages better than Jalen Greens across the board. Just saying.

And can we trust? Except for the free throw shooting. 75% last year. And the defense wasn't spectacular. Yeah. Missing assignments here and there. He looked kind of grumpy on occasion. Yeah, he looked very upset a lot.

A little bit of an attitude problem it looked like. First round pick, NBA guy, living the high life, doing, you know, enjoying all the nice stuff. You always see me smiling. Why can't he smile all the time? wants more, Matt. I want more. Okay. Let's see. You're making three and a half million. Yeah, he's doing okay. And again, part of it is, is that, you know, he did drop in the draft a couple of years ago because of the things that I think people were concerned about.

Yeah, we thought it was an injury, but didn't somebody report that that was not the case or something like that? Particularly, he didn't interview well is what I heard. But sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle and look, if you can turn him to, than something else to help you with a sign and trade or anything to grab something, you know, you didn't overpay him while he was here. He was slotted for his draft spot.

And, you know, if it helps you get somebody else or it helps you get to draft pickback that you may have lost, you know, me you're looking for some second rounds down the road? You know, all the rockets, they do value the second rounds, even though they give a bunch to Kevin Durant. Yeah, they're out of them, basically, for a while.

You know, but Darrell Ward didn't care about it. My guess is that I think probably Raphael likes having some picks around. Well, he threw five of them out to Phoenix. It's fine. One o'clock. Sports Talk, 7.98. Jeremy Pena, a fracture in his ribs. We discussed this, among other things, in the final hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

713-212-5-790. If you want to chime in on the conversation, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. I've got, believe it or not today, Ross, it is a highly Googledable about D. Wayne Lucas. All right. Who's that guy? He was a horse trainer? Oh, a horse trainer.

He wasn't a jockey? No. Okay. Or was he? I have no clue. You know, horse racing used to be cool to watch. We watch a Kentucky Derby, right? We go that, we enjoy that.

Go slam some mint juleves put on a big hat. It's a good time. We're a suit and a cane, top hat? Sure. I mean, realistically, if I wanted to go to the Kentucky Derby, it would cost me probably $20,000. You can afford it. No, I can't.

Airfare, hotel, you got to get a good-looking suit, got to get your hat, got to get the meat of jolips. Yes. Tickets? Yeah, $20,000. I'm good. So if I put you in a dream sporting event, I pay for it. It can be the Kentucky Derby.

I don't think for you as Kentucky Derby. Can I guess what yours is? I don't know what it is. Oh, I think it's easy. You World Cup Final. I get you a ticket for that. Oh, World Cup Final, be good. Yeah, but we have not shot out the U.S. national team.

Yeah. Take that, Costa Rica. So let me explain. I got to the hotel lounge in time to watch the free kicks. Penalty kicks. You ready for a non-s soccer take on this? Yes. I would watch more soccer if the game was just on penalty kicks.

That's ridiculous. It is ridiculous. But I enjoyed the penalty kick round. Okay. Good. It's high drama, Matt. The goaltender is having to jump one direction to the other. Well, keeper.

The keeper, yeah. And then one of my close friends, the Spanish voice of the Rockets, Adrian Chavarillas from Costa Rica. Oh. Was he conflicted or was he all Costa Rica or all USA? Oh, he's 100% Costa Rica. So I said, I texted him, sorry for your loss.

Oh, no. And he told me what I could do with the rest of my night. Sounds about right. I don't text him daily. You were just Mr. Twist the Knife. I might have done it. You know what? I didn't.

You know what? I showed courtesy not texting you when the Cougars choked away the championship. Oh, but you say choke like every other day now. I gave you a few weeks to heal. You didn't. You gave me like a day and a half. You're right. I think it was like the next week.

You didn't give me 48 hours. What are you talking about? I'm sorry. I would have died for two days of remorse from you, but I didn't even get that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, when they lost. Sorry, we're going to be pre-season number one. That's right.

Anything less than a championship? Absolute failure. Ladies and gentlemen, it's 108. Time now for a WebMD update. Hit the Music Meister. They don't make good television dramas like ER anymore, do they? They got Graze Anatomy, don't they? No.

That jumped the shark like 15 years ago. All right, Matt. Well, actually, I'm not going to WebMD. I went to the history, recent history of Major League players and rib injuries. Okay. This is what you call deep research. Here, we went into the research lab for this. All right, recently, we'll go to 2024.

Cody Bellinger. On April 24th, excuse me, April 23rd of that year, crashed into the wall at Wrigley Field and broke two ribs. He was back by May 7th. So April 23rd to May 7th, that's only a couple of weeks. That's 14 days, give or take, right? That's pretty good. However.

Uh-oh. Jake Croninworth recently with a rib injury was hit by a pitch on April 6th. He was activated. May 9th. So we're talking about five weeks there. Also, Sean Murphy in spring training, hit by a pitch in the ribs. On February 28th.

Yes. He was not activated until April 6th. That's 45 days. That's about six weeks, yeah. So our previous call Ramon said, see, in mid-August, isn't the, wasn't the craziest thing I've heard said on this radio show. Six weeks from today is April 11th.

No, September 11th. I'm sorry, August 11th. What did I say? I meant August. What did I say, April? It starts with an A. August. You know what you meant. Yeah, whatever.

Six weeks from today is August 11th. What is my philosophy, Ross, on the astro injuries from here on out? Let us know when he's active. Yep, that's good. So could be a couple of weeks, could be a month. Apparently when Cody Bellinger was activated after only two weeks, he was still sore. Oh, no. But he cracked ribs running into the stupid brick wall.

Can y'all put some padding up there? It's ridiculous. It's 2025. Tradition be damned. Briggly. It's nice and soft. You can put ivy over the padding and still have pot. You can make the padding paint it like bricks.

Who cares? Wait a minute. You don't mind. I don't mind once in a while a guy getting concussed out there in left center. Exactly. What if it's a Houston Astro? I'm not the only other once every two years. Chance are minimal.

Yeah, but the second, Jordan Alvarez cracks a rib on the wall, what are you going to be calling for? Padding. Ooh, that'd be quite a, that'll be quite a monologue the next day. Exactly. I'm sick and tired of this happening.

I'm tired of this. We deserve better. That's exactly what I would do. Not worried about it until it happens to you. This is America. All right, you want to put a date down? Hell no.

Tomorrow we'll do it. Okay, well, I guess. We'll consult the physicians. When he comes back, he comes back. And we'll walk him with open arms. Sounds like four to six weeks is what I would guess. Not four to six days. Correct.

Okay. All right. 713, 21, 212, 790. We're not playing guess the return date. Because if we'd have had that on Yordon Alvarez, we'd have really screwed that one up. How was this team doing it? 50 and 34, and they've been.

got two more players, everyday players in the injured list now. I don't know. It's crazy. And half the pitching staff. Mm-hmm. God bless his team. It can be all so much sweeter when they win the World Series in 2025. Put your name on that?

If Ross, you might be there. Didn't you guess they were going to get 80 wins? No. No, he said 88. Oh. 88. And I will happily take the loss. I think Jonathan listens to a different show than we do.

I was close. He was going to 18. Yeah, 80, 88. Same thing. Mm-hmm. All right. 713, 212-790. If you want to chime in.

Come on in. Pena out. Astros continue to win. Jabari Smith has a new contract. And will the rockets make a move in the next 24 to 40 hours? Shamsaranias says it can be a busy time in the NBA in the next 24 hours. 113 on Sports Talk 790. 118 on Sports Talk 790.

Matt and Ross, we'll be here until 2 o'clock. Believe it or not, today, highly Googled about D. Wayne Lucas, RIP. You don't get guys named after their first initial anymore, do you, Ross? What about D. Calhoun McNair? Yeah, but nobody calls him that. That's what I do. Yeah, that's true.

Your impersonation of him continues to suck. You do some good appurations, but that one you just... That is your opinion, Matt. By the way, did you see the tweet I put out this weekend? Again, the Cleveland Browns have purchased some new land, Ross. Oh, they have? To build a mega black stadium, offices, restaurants, bars. Stop me if you've heard me of this before.

15 miles outside of downtown. Okay. And downtown Cleveland's good. Busy. Okay. Storn it out there. I read this on Twitter. I'm not saying this is real, but somebody on Twitter was commenting

that the Texas live area of Arlington isn't doing so hot, like a high turnover. That's, you know what, that's interesting. I wonder if that's true or not. I mean, it's got to be hopping for games, but that's, well, that's 80 Ranger games and 10 cowboy games. It's only 90 nights. You know, I don't know how many people that live in DFW run to Arlington to go hang out on non-game nights.

Probably not a lot. Not there than much else to do in Arlington, though. Oh, yeah. I mean, you can go at pawn shops and you can go to Rappelries and do stuff like that. You've got to book a reservation at the Rappelries. Yeah, you do. It's so crowded. It is.

It's like the place to go. Yeah. Okay. So if I, let me throw it real quick at you and we'll go to the phones. If I told you that NRG was off limits, the Texans said, no way, no how, we don't want to refurbish, we want to build our own palace. And Ross, you were to, you were to whisper into Hannah's ear. where would you tell them to build to spend the money to build the property i don't know what's i don't know what's safe downtown is not safe i don't feel like i have assurances that katie would

be safe or sugarland um let's just do katy see if i got it northwest mall that wouldn't be enough real estate right i don't think so too congested over there too would you go next to smart financial Is there even enough land over there? I know there's parking. I don't go there very often, so I don't know. Well, where's the population? What's the population of Katie? You could do Katie Sugarland.

You're looking at about, what, a million and a half over there altogether? Maybe. Yeah. Cyprus is an area. It's really growing fast, but that's really far outside of the city limits. That's almost like too far. Greater Katie, according to Google, says 340,000. But Sugarline's got to be a mill, right?

That's all I was putting two together. I don't know. Man, this is a very difficult decision for the organization. Because you're going to get some group of the city mad at you for being too far. I just don't know if refurbish, unless they could live with just a refurbish stadium and not worry about the other stuff. but that other stuff is what these other teams are getting and they want that which you want and what you get are two different things

I will say refurbishment is still my I would say the leader in the clubhouse to me without knowing much of anything if they can live with just a better stadium with all the bells and whistles that the other NFL cities are getting that'd be fine but I don't know if they if they're looking for additional

things to create revenue outside the stadium itself because again even if you were to refurbish NRG it's still going to be get in

watch the game and go home I think your best chance for these places you could well the best thing for these

other cities have been get there at 8 o'clock in a morning and leave it at 8 o'clock at night I mean you would have to really invest in that area

how much would it cost to actually invest in that area relative to actually relocating somewhere and investing there. I don't know. Because I think your best shot would be staying in the city. Well, you would think.

My thought is you go where the population is. Population is Houston. Six million, but not all six million are... Again, who does the most moving around? Who spends more time outside of their community? Who would be willing to make that drive.

I mean, I think going to one of the satellite suburbs isn't better than staying in the city. I just think Houston's just not really built for that type of entertainment district, I guess. So they're saying it's just, yeah, you're saying it's just build, fix up energy.

It's already there. It's already in the ground. It's already it wouldn't take as much to build that, fix that up as you would be building to $2 to $3 billion for a new facility. with all the stuff around it. Yeah.

There's no guarantee that if you build the stuff around it, people would go there on non-game days. Yeah, you've got no guarantee going to Sugar Land or Katie. Like, friend, I'll give you an example. Town and Country, that area is really booming. Energy corridor area. I mean, lots of restaurants popping up, lots of places to live, apartments, houses.

I was just there two weeks ago. And I was stunned at how progressive that area of town is. Yeah. But if you're building it just to build the stadium, that's one thing. But if you're trying to build a megaplex around it, then that would be a separate animal. I mean, energy doesn't seem like it's in that bad. If they wanted to build it up, you're not far from the Med Center. You're not far from West U or Belair.

But maybe that's what they thought to begin with. Yeah, but what did they do besides, I mean, they didn't build up any restaurants or anything? No, no. You'd have to find a group up. You'd have to find a real estate group that would be, willing to invest in that area. Right. You couldn't half-ass it. If they really wanted to invest it, I think

it could work. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. We'll see. Let me get a quick call in from KJ where this is at 125 on 7. Hi, KJ, what's going on? My fellow, fellas as usual love the show. Man, I got a couple of quid takes, man. I'm going to sit back and sit here to get your guys'

opinion on it. With the fact that, obviously, the Astros are in a bad situation with the injury bugs this season, I also look at the fact that we I think we've overachieved to some degree, well, to a large degree in regards to the pitch of staff,

however, achieved they have with these young guys, when we get the Arring Gettys and the Garcias and the J.P. Francis and the Javier's back, and just two of those guys are able to be the pictures they were before they were hurt.

And I mean, you know, mid to hide, three ERA, what do you guys think the chances are of them trading off a couple of those pitches to potentially get some bats over here, whether it be a young, up-and-coming already established Major League or somebody from a farm just see if we can catch another Cam Smith in the bottle. And my second question, I've been hearing a lot about potential, another potential move with the Rockets involving Cam Whitmore. I'm not a big fan of it. I'm a big Cam Whitmore supporter. Been behind him since.

day one. I understand he has some issues with Jodoka, but I do see that dog in him that we, as a team, embraced on the court and obviously his scoring ability is second to none. I easily see him sliding into that role of Kevin Durant after a couple of years when Kevin Durant

is no longer with the team, so I'm going to ask you, Matt, since you have a stronger thumb on the post in regards to the Rockets, what are you hearing about Ken Whitmore, and I want to hear what you guys say about my asterisk. Another show time in some other time, fellas. Thanks, Kedger. We've got a quick time out, get those responses back.

One, did he ask, moving a pitcher to get a hitter? Is that what he said at the first part? I mean, if you have Javier, Garcia, Arigetti coming back, and then you've got McCullors, Brown, Valdez, and then you go with Gusto Walter, who am I forgetting? Golden Gordon. That's no, you guys are there.

You just brought up have zero trade value until next year. You can't trade Luis Garcia. You can't trade Christian Javier. They need to get back on their resume. Well, he asked the question, not me. So the answer is no. You don't have a single pitcher with the exception of single pitchers, I should say, among your starters that have any trade value, except for Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown. You couldn't trade McCullors, you couldn't trade Walter, you couldn't trade Gordon, you couldn't trade.

No, nobody else in the starting five has any free value. It's part of the package it could be. But, yeah. I think the only player that you have any trade value in your lineup to get a left-handed bat would probably be your center fielder. Well, if you get Setti Mullins and a second baseman. Just saying, is that what we call him SETI? Yeah, that's what I call him.

Or SED. Can I call them Moles? Mully? Trying. We'll answer the Cam. One more question when we come back. 128 sports talk 790 Believe it or not coming up in the 20 minutes from now

Right Real quick to answer KJ's thought There's Ross there's too much smoke out there I think Ken Whitmore's being shopped I mean I don't Raffel's not texting me this But it's just There's too much

Names just don't get thrown out there If you love a play You don't hear him in Thompson rumors You don't hear operand shiginin rumors You don't hear Tar Heism rumors I wonder You know, Rafael Stone and Emaidoka always have to collaborate, right? And they might have differing opinions on certain things and whatever.

I wonder how Rafael feels about him because we kind of know how Coach Udoca feels about Cam Whitmore. He doesn't like putting him out there. Yeah, and it's not, he didn't do anything in particular. There's just, there's going to be some behind-the-scenes stuff. And that we're not privy to. and, you know, again, I don't know if it's because of it's shoot first and everything else is a distant second. If he doesn't practice well, I mean, whatever the reason why he didn't hit rotation time didn't necessarily get out a whole lot, right? I mean, it wasn't like it was a storyline that troubled people.

When you're winning 52 games a year and you're watching a men Thompson and Fred Van Vlead and Alper become an All-Star, if you're 10th or 11th guy and your team is kind of disgruntled, that's not out of the ordinary and not necessarily going to ruin a basketball team. And so even if Cam was the worst teammate possible and never became such a problem that it affected team chemistry. Yeah, I mean, like you said, guys at the end of the bench are disgruntled anyways. Maybe he wears his heart on his sleeve a little bit more than others. And you can kind of tell with the body language and the way that he acts that he's not happy.

and I mean, he's at the end of the bench and he's making $3.5 million a year. You got him with a 20th pick. He slid. You were hoping to get kind of a sleeper pick there. And so far, a couple years in, it's, he's been okay. Yeah, I mean, I can see why there are some Cam Whitmore fans. And let me tell you something, there have been times, granted not a lot of them, then you put up 12 points in four minutes.

And I'm like, damn, this guy can do it quick. Yeah, it's per 36. pretty good. This per 36 is like Bobon per 36. Maybe even better. But you know my drift? I mean, I just, I don't think it's, there's got to be reasons why.

There's got to be reasons why he didn't correct the rotation. And there's certainly reasons why that his name is being brought up in trade conversation. I think it would be mostly defense and also just kind of playing more under control and for the team rather than just trying to get as many shots. up as possible. Yeah. And look, the rockets

would at Ross would have metrics on this that we wouldn't have. Minutes that actually meant a damn. Because let's face it, Cam played in some games that were blowouts or games that didn't mean anything. Remember those last three games didn't count, remember? In theory, because the rockets already had secured

the number two spot in the West. You know, I don't have any relationship with him. Don't need to. I'm calling his games. I wish him well. And there are spots that I go, man, this guy he's got terrific athleticism and can shoot. Remember that first month of the year, Ross, he couldn't find a three ball to save his life?

Yeah, he turned things around. He shot around 35% from three, which is good compared to where it was. Below league average, but better than what it was. So, yeah, I would say that my guess is if Raffles on a phone today, Cam, what Moore's name is being brought up. Because if Cam goes somewhere else, and he can get into the front end of the rotation,

There's no reason why Cam can't score 20 points a game. Now, the question's going to be, does Cam Wittmore do it on 20 points a game based off of 13 shots per game? Or does it do off of a 24 shots per game? Yeah, there's no doubt. There's no doubt in my mind. He can score 20 a game somewhere on a bad team. Right. But I don't know.

Look, I've done some Charlotte games. He can go to Charlotte and fill that bad boy up quick. Yeah. Well, you know, they got, what, Brandon Miller and one of the balls in the yellow? Ross, he can go to Washington. and replaced Cory Kispert. People are like, who the hell is Cory Kisper?

No, Trey Johnson's ready to dominate Longhorn Legend. You're going to want my tickets for that Washington game, aren't you? I think they'll be very readily available. What's the waiting list for the whiz game? You mean for the people of Washington or people would use it? Both. Yeah, that's right. By the way, official shout out to Texas State University, the Bobcats,

are now officially members of the new Pact 12 that begins July 1, 2006. Congratulations to them. The schools, now you have to have eight to play football, and that's the reason why Texas State became so appealing. The eight football participants, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego State, Texas State, Utah State, and Washington State. How many states do they have? And the one non-football playing school is Gonzaga. How many states do they have that are not?

not states. One, two, three, four. Boise's not a state. Fresno's not a state. Fresno's not a state. I never quite thought of it that way, but I get you have a point there. This is the Mountain West and Friends, right? That's what the conference should be called.

It's not the Pac-12. It's the WAC 2.0. That's actually not a bad call either. Good luck getting fans some other schools that come to yours games and vice versa. How many Boise State fans are going to be at the? Texas State game. Handful? Three?

First of all, they're not easy to get to. Washington State, hard to get to. Utah State, hard to get to. Texas State's not bad because you can fly to San Antonio

Roaston. San Diego State's easy. Oregon State, hard. Fresno, Colorado State's, Denver and a drive. Boise's, you know,

a long plane right away, plus change. What a conference. I hope those athletic budgets are going to handle that travel very well. Did you see they, they signed a deal with, I can't even remember who it was, Fox or CBS or whoever, and it's very

rare that they don't disclose the amount of the deal and they did not. Ooh, meaning a pat on the back of an out of boy? Meaning, like, $5 deal. Well, the reality is, I did see the TV package. They're getting three games a year on CBS. Three? Yeah. The whole season?

Well, you can get like 25 on CBS Sports Network. Oh, wait, CBS, let me tell you, I would do those games. would do the pack 12 games the rest of the games are going to be on paramount plus well come on paramount plus has its value that's where that's where that's where that uh yellowstone show was yeah i'm gonna go catch yellowstone and that uh that movie was some that show with sylvester stillone i heard that sounds good though isn't where paramount plus has bar uh bar rescue is that true oh no i love bar is john taffin's gonna be on the john taffers going to be on the color can i tell you i love bar rescue a lot.

I like to. Big fan. Yeah, but every episode's kind of the same. That's true. It's a little redundant. Yeah, so I mean, I definitely liked watching it for a while, but I haven't watched it in some years. So he's got a lot of Gordon Ramsey in him.

He goes in there and destroys them. He insults them. Yeah. Like, you would do this to your wife. You would do this to your kids. You would do it to these employees. What kind of scum are you? Right.

And then he just destroys him. And then he builds him a brand new bar. You know, there is a bar rescue bar in Kingwood. Oh, really? Yes. Did you go? No, but I need to go. They clear out the roaches.

They probably did more than that. They probably did more than that. It's at $4.94 and $59. And it has a pizza oven and like a little bit of a tap. They got a website called Bar Rescue Updates. You can check on them. Do you know I watch the Bar Rescue show

just to see what the updates are at the end of the show to see if these places make it alive? Yeah. I probably have watched 25 Bar Rescues in the last two weeks and I think all but one have done okay. Oh, wow. They did some places in Houston that I'm not going to plug. Are they doing okay or no?

I guess so. Imagine if somebody came into your house and said, This house is disgusting. You need to fix. You need to get rid of this carpet. You need to get some new appliances. Your wife hate you.

Your kids don't want to live here and bring their friends over. Okay, fine. Come in here and fix my house up. Yeah, most of these places are still open. Good job, John Taffer. Yeah, let's not get any plugs. No, I'm not. All right.

A highly Googlable, believe it or not, is up next. It's about all things D. Wayne Lucas related. you're like who is d wayne lucas he is i would have to say one of the greatest horse trainers ever in the business he's certainly on my mount rushmore matt who else on that mount rushmore uh bob baffert and continue on uh larry wilkinson larry wilkinson larry wilkinson uh trained ali shiba believe it or not yeah believe it no larry wilkinson okay and my fourth one of course is maurice miller

Those are the four. Yeah, nicknamed the Prince. The Prince of Miller? Yeah. All right. DeWay and Lucas passing away over the weekend at, I believe, age 89. It's a good run. Great run.

I'll take 89 years. Believe it or not, it's up next. D. Wayne Lucas, Google Bowl-related next here on Sports Talk 790. Final segment on this Monday, Ross and I with you all week until Thursday. And then Ross will carry the four-hour infomercial together. for you with a variety of friends, I'm assuming, right? Yeah, sure, why not? All right.

And then Friday, we will all get our rest. It's July 4th, and then Saturday, it'll be game two of the three-game series of the Dodgers. And I'll help the on the extra for you there. Tomorrow on the show, we'll have Joe Spotted from Denver. We'll also have gut feelings. And can I make it pre- Tuesday gut feeling? You want to write it down? I'll remind you tomorrow.

Okay. The Rockets will have a new player by tomorrow. Oh, look at the Matt with the inside info. I could be wrong. Please out me tomorrow if I'm wrong. Okay. Oh, we will. Yeah, duh.

That's how the show works. Jonathan knows how the show works. It's only taking me for me. Rockets. Hold on. I put Ricketts. The Ricketts. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Yeah. By tomorrow. Rockets have a new player. Okay. So by the end of Tuesday. By the end of Tuesday. I don't want to get in early just in case it hits. If it hits tonight, then I can really feel like to really brag about it. All right.

Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show. We simply call it B. Believe it or not, and here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe or Not is highly Googledable.

It's did DeWain Lucas train a horse name this? If he did, you'll say this. Believe it. If I made the horse's name up, you'll say this. Not. To believe or not. I didn't know you're just making them horse names. Yeah, I did.

That's pretty funny. Some of my favorite all-time ones I've done here. So if I made the horse to name up, you'll say not. Two, believe it or not, to a row, won your prize. What are you playing for today, Jonathan? Of course, we got the Sports Talk 790 T-shirt and a pair of tickets to see Outlaw Music Festival to the Outlaw Music Festival with Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, the Advent Brothers, and more on July 6 at the Woodless Pavilion. Tickets are on sale now this Friday at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster.com. All right, so again, did DeWain Lucas train this horse, believe it or not?

Paul on 790, Paul, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. My bestie. Believe it or not? Not. That is correct. Name number two for the win. Grab a plate.

Believe it or not? Believe it? No, I made that one up. I'm sorry. My best. Come on, man. Come on. I'm trying to keep serious.

It's like an hour early, too. Brian on 790. Brian, what was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? Every show's worthy of a Marconi, sir. Thank you. Criminal type, believe it or not? Not. Yeah, it was the 1990 horse of the year.

Ken on 790. Ken, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Down goes Frasier. Believe it or not? Not. That is correct. name of the horse that I want to own someday.

Name number two for the win. Pittsburgh Freedom. Believe it or not? Believe it? No, I made that one. I'm sorry. Sean on 790. Sean, you're ready to play, believe it or not? I believe it. Thunder Gulch. Believe it or not?

Believe it. That's right, a former preteness winner. Name number two for the win. Fourth times the charm. Believe it or not? Not. That is correct. We finally have a winner. I made that one up.

Nicely done. Matt on 790. Matt, what was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? The whole thing, Matt. Tabasco Cat, believe it or not? Believe it. That is correct. 1984 Belmont.

Name number two for the win. Secret oath. Believe it or not? Not. No, he won the 2002 Kentucky Oaks. Last one, Felipe on 790, Felipe, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. And all that jazz, believe it or not?

Not. Not. Ross, this is never going to be a tired topic if this horse is real. We could just do real horses. We've done it before, I think. Kentucky Derby winners or something. Anything horse-related from here on now is going to be about horses and make them names. keeping an eye out of dead jockeys and dead horse trainers all over the person.

Correct. Any excuse to do it? I believe it or not. I'll do it. All right. Hey, everybody have a great rest of your day. Wish our Moco Juniors the very best of success in their upcoming matches tonight, Ross. I know you'll be there for all the play by playing color analysis. Yeah, I'll be watching on stream. It is available. Four, six, and eight. Check it out. Up next, Wexler and Friends. Wexler Solo.

Lexer and Ross, that matter. It's the team. Talk to you tomorrow at 10 here on Sports Talk 790.