The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Win 10-2 In Game 2 vs White Sox’s, Is Christian Walker Waking Up? Pacers Take Down OKC In Game 3 In NBA Finals.

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

Astros Win 10-2 In Game 2 vs White Sox’s, Is Christian Walker Waking Up? Pacers Take Down OKC In Game 3 In NBA Finals.

10.01 in the a.m. here on Sports Talk 790. Hello. And welcome in to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. However, it is without Matt Thomas. He is in Las Vegas with his son. I believe this is the celebratory trip for his son's graduation at Texas A&M. For the fighting Texas saggies. I love how you throw that out there for his son. Yes. This is Homer buying the bowling ball from Marge when Marge realized that he just bought it for himself. He's like, hey, son, I got a dream trip for my 21, however, 22-year-old son, Peyton Thomas. This is your dream trip, son. We're going to go to Las Vegas. We're going to gamble, which now I think he said this is his 40th trip.

And we're going to go to Barry Manilow and Carrot Top. This is your dream. graduation trip son and well that's what trip they're on Dan is hanging out you hear his voice already appreciate you Dan Nothing says happy graduation Like being a fan alo

Or going to see ripped carrot top Because he is that the man knows the weight room I mean when would this trip actually Be something you would normally hear from someone 1997 I was gonna say I mean you're gonna mix him blue man group in there Is that could be part of it? I don't even know I mean God rest his soul but Danny Gans

When he was firing it up out there in Vegas. Was that going to be part of it too? So Matthew is out. He is out today and tomorrow. The triumphant return of Sigfried and Roy. I don't know. I think one of them is. Maybe it'll be AI, Siegfried or Roy or whichever one.

There you go. Which one got bit by the lion and nearly died? I mean, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter which one of them got bit by the lion. Well, they say, oh, no, that wasn't the, the Chris Rock quote was that tiger went tiger. But that lion didn't go crazy. That lion went

lying. What happened with Sigmfried and Roy? I mean, it's just, it's, it's the sheer, you know, nature of wildlife is even if they seem domesticated, although remind themselves, they're still wild. And that's exactly what happened at that point. But the animal rights people were

saying that the tiger was actually protecting him trying to do like what they do with their young, carrying it. Oh, okay. So he's carrying him by the head. Yeah, thought that it was helping out. But then, you know, there's people. was wrong.

Who were proactive, RIP Arrombay. Oh, yeah, well, RIP Harambe as well. Okay, we've already got one show reference. It wasn't a movie reference from you, Dan, but it was a movie reference two minutes into this show. He's going to be hanging out for the first hour. We got Brian McTaggart at 11 o'clock. We have, I just don't get it at 1130.

Later on, I'm going to be honest again. It's one of the Adams. I think it's Wexler. Probably. Could be Clinton. Who knows? Coming up at 1 o'clock, you will find out. We have a lot of stuff to get to.

You guys can always get in on the phone lines. I'm going to be honest with you. early in the show. First couple hours, phone lines wide open. 713-212-5-790. If you want to get in, 7-13-212-5-7-90, you can also send tweets to at SportsRV to at Dan Matthews, H-O-U with 1T as well. You know what? Shameless plug for my Instagram. You can follow me at SportsRV. I'm trying to build it up. I got to, at least by the weekend,

I'm trying to drop a new video about something that I think the city of Houston needs to embrace and also something that's the city of Houston needs to let go. That's coming up on the Instagram at SportsRVs. Yeah, nobody's ever teased their Instagram

here on the show. That's what we're doing. We're breaking new ground here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. So I have to start off the show, of course, with our Houston Astros, 10 to 2 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

The rumors are true, Dan. The White Sox can be beaten. They're not the indomitable force that the Astros have made them so far this season. to last night what they were three at a one and three against them. Well, now they're two and three. So that's a step in the right direction. And they'll go for a series win today with Framber Valdez on the hill.

But let's start with Ryan Gusto. You needed a little bit of length out of him, hadn't given you five innings in a while. And he did it. He gave you six with seven strikeouts and only two run runs given up. Quality start from Ryan Gusto, that's huge, especially on this stretch of 13 straight games in 13 straight days. Yeah, massive. I mean, what's gotten him in Dutch. a lot of his starts this year has been the walks

and even just the general ineffectiveness to be able to find the strike zone on a regular basis. Is general ineffectiveness the cousin to C.J. Sornness? Yeah, they're in the neighborhood. They're in the neighborhood. A couple of houses down. But one walk last night at Augusto, 91 pitches. I think that's a season high, career high for him in terms of pitches in the game, but he

strikes out seven. Gives up a couple of runs there, but still, I mean, that's what you want out of your five-star. I guess in this case six in the hierarchy of guys going right now for you. And I'd mentioned this all throughout the Sean Salisbury show today that the start before last, he had gone three and two thirds against the pirates. You have Chandler Rome in the post game asking Joe Espada, hey, how much longer can you keep doing this? Like you can't keep running this guy out there and maybe he gives you four

innings because this seems like the results that you're getting. And Joe said, no, we trust him. We're going to continue to run them out there. same deal the following week. And, I mean, last night, it paid off, and hopefully it's a jumping off point. And translation, we don't really have much of another choice. So that was the translation, for sure. But yeah, fastball looked good.

He was getting some swing and miss with it. He was locating it well. He got seven strikeout. So good stuff from Ryan Gusto. That was exactly what you needed, especially to bounce back from Lance McCullors. Wasn't a disaster starting game one. Five innings, four earned runs, not good, four walks. A little bit of the McCullors experience that we've seen throughout the year.

years running up a little bit too much traffic on the base paths and getting those guys on base and then allowing some to score. And I mean, the only home run I think he gave up was just the solo shot to Luis Robert, right? So it wasn't like he was giving up two, three run bombs and a bunch of hits. It was just kind of his own self being his own worst enemy, which we've seen some from Lance McCullors Jr. as well. So much needed from Ryan Gusto after McCullors is so, so strong. Well, I mean, and it's also, you hope that this is a jumping off point for him because if it is, you know, Chandler-Rome comes out with the athletic piece yesterday of what the Astros

priority list could be, that knocks that down. Where unless you're just completely blown away for an end of the rotation guy, maybe you don't have to look for that guy. Maybe now you can look for that left-handed outfield bat. You can kind of situate your priorities because if Gusto is able to be a guy that you can count on to at least give you five, the back end of the rotation, that's pretty much the benchmark that I need for a starter. Get me five innings. Yeah, it gets you five. I mean, what you got yesterday. was great. Also, of course, we should say,

could qualify. It's against the White Sox. It's not exactly the 27 Yankees there, but hey, Lance McCullors Jr. struggled with him the day before. You take what you get. And then now, of course, we have to get to the bats. Let me take you back, Dan, to May 24th and May 25th.

Oh, you're playing Doc Brown. I like it. When Christian Walker had a couple of hits on a Saturday, and then on that Sunday, he followed it up with a three-run walk-off shot. He had three hits that day with three runs batted in, and we're sitting there saying, uh-oh,

is it time? Is Christian Walker back? Now, that was about 11, 12 days ago. And now I ask you again, uh-oh, is it time? Is Christian Walker back? Three hits for him yesterday. Now, one of them was a check swing to right field.

It was, I think, like 53 miles an hour off the beach. bat or something like that. The most weekly hit ball of the game yesterday, but still he had a couple of hard hit balls, including a 412 foot blast and three hits for him. Average now up to 2.17, four runs batted in. Christian Walker.

You're speaking about jumping off points. That's what you need for him and his bat. Well, you hope so. I mean, because that's been the frustration with him this year is, yeah, he's had those fits and starts where you're like, all right, this is where the guy finally gets going. He's not a 300 hitter. He's not somebody that's going to be a massive average guy for you.

Probably when it's all said and done this year. He's going to be in the 230s, 240s is probably average-wise what he's going to be. But clearly he's got some ground to make up to even reach that point because now with that performance last night, he's up to 2-17 on the season. He was 208 heading into this game. And the first two at bats that you saw last night, that was confidence. Like those were swings that I had not seen many of. That home run, it was, oh, that's the guy.

that you signed. The double. Oh, that's the guy that you signed. You talked about the check swing. Hell, when you're going through it the way that he is, you will absolutely take that because then you say, hmm, maybe things are going my way. I'm not going to hit it directly at somebody. Yeah. So now after last night, I don't know how much, do you hate XBA? Are you okay with it? I know my normal partner, Matt Thomas, hates it. His... That's because Matt, he wrote the Bible of Sports Talk Radio and we just all have to sit in the pew and read it. That's true. That's pretty funny. All right. So

last year, XBA for Christian Walker, 246. This year, XBA, after yesterday's performance for Christian Walker, 246. So maybe there's just a little bit of bad luck in there. The K percentages are up, walk percentage are still down. That has to improve. But at least if you go by that, maybe you can convince yourself that it's been a lot of bad luck and this thing's

going to turn eventually for Christian Walker. I mean, and, you know, the exit Velo, it's been there. He's been able to make that happen. And it's also the hard contact that goes with the exit Velo. Average last year 91.2, average this year, 91.1. Okay. So, I mean,

it's not a precipitous drop. I mean, it's still there. It's literally one tick. So, I mean, it's that and it's, you know, the questions. And that's why I liked yesterday when you guys had bogey on, and one of the things he talked about. There could be long swings in there. Absolutely, there could be long swings.

Because long swings, shoulder coming out of the swing. All of those, those happen when you're struggling because you're trying too hard to be able to make things happen. Yeah. So Christian Walker, could he be turning things around? Or do you need to see a little bit more? Also, I haven't even talked about the guy who had the

two hardest balls of the game yesterday. That would be Yiner Diaz. We'll talk about him. Feeling good about the Astros. And I want to hear from Fire Joe Espada guy. Everything the Astros have been through, multiple guys with Tommy John, Surge,

Spencer Arredgetti freak fracture on his thumb. He's been out, and I know the AOS isn't strong, but still the bats haven't turned. Yoran Alvarez has been out for a month plus. Jose Altuve's numbers aren't what they once were, and the Astros are four games up in a cushy spot in the American League West. Fire Joe Spottagai. How you feeling? 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-790.

It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ron. Ross, a lot of stuff to get to with you until 2 o'clock. We got Brian McTaggart coming up at 11 o'clock. Don't go anywhere. Stick with us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10.18 in the a.m. here on Sports Talk 790. Rosvier Reh out with you. Dan Matthews as well. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Matt Thomas is out in Las Vegas. I presume sleeping at this point. It is 8 a.m. over there. But who knows. You can get in if you'd like at 713. 212. 5-7-97-13-212-5-790 talking some Astros. They get the win over the Chicago White Sox yesterday.

Much needed. I mean, how deflating would it have been if they lost that game and then lost another series to the Chicago White Sox? But thankfully, they won the game. Yeah, I mean, it avoids a lot of disasters for you. And, I mean, still a win the night. You split the season series with the 23 win Chicago White Sox. Which, I mean, it's better than losing this season. series two to four so i mean that's that's definitely you hope that you get uh the great framer that

we've been getting lately and if you do and you get enough of the offense well then there's no reason you can't yeah he's been locked in lately um he has just been turning in the quality starts i think it's uh let me see seven or six six quality starts in a row last time out okay we always have to say it's the pirates but seven innings 11 strikeouts he was looking really good. He was looking very sharp from the start with I think it was the first inning. He had three strikeouts on three curve balls or something like that. But he's been in

a fraud or form to where we've seen it before where he gets locked in. Nobody's hitting him. So yeah, it was the Pirates last time out, but tonight it's Chicago White Sox. Not like it's going to be the most difficult lineup except for Luis. Why is Luis Robert like a huge Astros killer? What's his deal? I mean, he's hitting

like, I looked up and I'm like he's hitting 180. What? He's hitting in the 180s and he's just crushing the Astros and he seems to do it of the time. I mean, it's, it's Thai France on steroids almost. I mean, remember how Thai France, even without being on the Mariners, when he was with the Reds last year, he was getting after the Astros, and you're like,

this guy got DFA. What the hell is what is going on here? Like, why is it, why is it you? Like, why are you the one doing this to us? But Luis Robert, it does seem like if he just played the Astros, then he wouldn't be batting Sub-200 like he is. He'd be in the Hall of Fame, I think, if he was going up

against the Astros every game, it's ridiculous. So, yeah, I guess Who else is like that? Like not a great player that was crud. Was it like the last couple of years? What's Akil Badu up to these days? Is he still on the Tigers? Wasn't Abraham Toro that guy?

Abraham Toro? He's hitting hot with the Red Sox right now, by the way. So when the Astros play the Red Sox, we can count on Abraham Toro. Probably. Yeah, I think you could. The 2018 ALCS Stephen Pierce? The hell is this guy? Yeah.

I remember that now. Who was the, was that Yankee guy that was crushing the Astro? Was it? Oswaldo Cabrera. Oswaldo Cabrera. Wasn't Harrison Bader

with his mouthpiece? Wasn't he giving the Astros fits here and there too when he was at the Yankees for that one year or something a couple years ago? A couple of decent hits, but like I never really necessarily

remembered it where I was just like, God, that damn Harrison Bader. I do remember that personally. But maybe that was just like won a game or a couple of games in a row or something like that. Anyways, Luis Robert, notwithstanding, Framber Valdez should be able to get the win,

but didn't mention, or kind of just talked about it at the end of the last segment, Dan. We have mentioned Christian Walker in his big day. Two hits for Yiner Diaz, didn't drive a run in, did work a walk, a four-pitch walk for Yiner-Diaz? I don't know how many he's had that, how many of those he's had this season. But the two hardest hit balls last night, off of his bat, I think it was 111, I'm trying to pull it back up, and then like 109.7 or something like that.

The two hardest hit balls off the bat of one, Yiner Diaz, a couple of singles and a walk for him as well. That's another guy. I mean, we talk about this team scuffling. If he can turn it around and Walker can do it too and you get Yorne on back, I mean, already four games in first place. We're not talking about A.L. West. We're talking about A.L. Pennett, hopefully.

Yeah, and I gave you kudos because I was listening to you and Matt on the way home yesterday. I heard you mentioned that where if Christian Walker wasn't having the struggles that he was having, our focus would be on yiner right now because i mean he's been a guy that's been a 270 280 close to 300 guy throughout his career and he's bat in 239 right now i mean it just looks like you know just kind of seen deal with walker where you think that he's going to get it going he has the walk off home run against the raise and you're like okay that's that's that's the turning point for him but then you're still getting the outside slider being thrown at him and his butt goes to the outside of the batter's box and he has a feeble swing over

and he strikes out, you're just like, how does this continue with this guy? But he's the next one. And it's been a middle of the order symptomatic thing as is. Because, I mean, pretty much three through five, you've gotten good things at times. But Jose Altuve has been kind of, by his standards, just kind of pedestrian at this point. Yeah. And I'm going to be honest. I expect more from Yonner-Diaz.

I want him to be better. I expect more for Christian Walker. I want him to be better. and Altuva is going to be good and he got a couple of hits. He's up to 270 right now, but he declined a little bit last year. It was like his worst OPS since like 2015 or something like that. And he's 35 years old. They're putting him in left field.

I mean, he's been playing a lot of second base lately, especially with Yordon out. But I'm not saying like he's done and he's washed and it's over. I'm just going to say I'm not expecting him to get on a heater and get up to like 900 OPS. I would like to see it. It'd be cool. And if anybody's going to do it, if anybody's defied the odds their entire life, it's been Jose Al Tuvei, but I want him to be at a good, useful level.

But as far as me expecting him to kind of resurrect to being back one of the best hitters in baseball, I'm not putting that expectation on him right now. There's going to be a decline. It's going to happen. And, I mean, he's 35 years old. It's to be expected that it's going to happen. But, I mean, I would like to have a down year per se of 270 with his 720 OPS. That's fine by me.

It's just, it's also, it was the prolonged struggles where he had one, then he went on a heater. Then he had a little bit of one and he gets a couple of hits last night. So you're hoping that maybe he gets back into that rhythm where he can raise it up to 280. For Yiner, it's a thing of, dude, you're not a good defensive catcher. So if you're not giving me that, then I've got to put big. Victor Caratini in there a lot more. What would you say you do here if you're not hitting and you're not being a good defensive care?

I mean, he hasn't been throwing anybody out, but it's not like to me he's embarrassing. He's been servicable. It's if you have better from him. He's in the lineup every day because of, not because of his glove, but because of his bad. Bingo. I mean, the same deal why Jose Al-Tube has been playing left field. Same deal, yes. Also, a lot of bad luck for Yiner Diaz, though, when you look it up. We talked about XBA.

he's hitting 239 on the season. He's at 281 expected batting average. So there has been some bad luck. Batting average, balls in play. Kind of talked about this. Like I said, you've got to let me know if I'm getting too far in the weeds for the people. It's not that complicated to me. But when a ball is in play, you have a certain batting average, most players.

There can be many factors, speed, et cetera. But for his career, Yiner's at 309 when he puts the ball in play, his average. Right now it's 262. So generally that regresses to the mean. So I think we could be seeing some good luck, at least coming for Yainer Diaz, even more so than Christian Walker. And, I mean, you talked about some of the exit Velos off the bat yesterday, too, where, I mean, he was amongst the top of the team. And, I mean, he's running some bad luck, too. I mean, the same thing we've talked about with Christian Walker, the same deal with Yiner.

He's put good swings on the ball. It's just, it's the lasting image that you have is, again, that swing that he has over that slider where about a week ago, I threw it. out on Twitter where he had a bad strikeout like that and I go, why would you throw him anything remotely in the zone at this point? Just all on the sliders. Yeah, you wouldn't. And that's kind of how he's been in his old career. And I think that's what kind of leads to these ups and downs

to where he can have these big runs where either A, he's swinging at everything and missing everything or B, he's swinging at everything and when he does make contact, he can run into some bad luck. So just to me, he's, he

is going to be a Peaks and Valley's guy because of that, that's his approach. Like if we start asking him to, hey, start drawing walks and go, you know, Alex Bregman or Yord on whoever on us where you're going to try to get your walk percentage up to like 12 or 15, that's not going to happen for him. So this is who he is right now. And he clearly, a lot of times, pitch recognition isn't his best trait, but swinging everything with good bat to ball skills is. And he's having some bad luck and I think it will turn. He goes Leroy Jenkins sometimes at the plate is what you're saying. I mean, that's pretty much what it is.

I mean, you know, in football for a quarterback, throwing a lot of yolo balls. I mean, that's pretty much what it is. Yeah, he's the Brett Favre of catching hitters, hitting catchers. Yeah, I mean, he's sometimes going to throw four picks. Sometimes it can get you four touchdowns. Maybe even James Winston, which you know you'd like to have a little bit more than James. I don't know if I want him to be the Jamis 30 for 30. But yeah, I get what you're saying.

Yeah, he's going to swing at everything. and then when he's swinging at everything and he has, I mean, pretty good contact rates and doesn't have crazy strikeout percentages, he makes a lot of contact. And unfortunately, he's been having a lot of bad luck on said contact. And, I mean, you know, like I said last night, with Christian Walker being able to have that check swing single.

I mean, it's exactly what Joe Espada, funny enough, said before the game, they were playing it on Space City Home Network. Those are the ones that can get you going. Because you're like, oh, I can have an awful swing and I can be rewarded for it just as much as I can have a great swing and not be rewarded for it.

Especially when you're in these funks and it kind of seems like Christian Walker has been pressing in Yonair Diaz as well. It's about the mental battle just as much as anything and hopefully that can turn for those guys.

All right, we've been talking to some Astros you want to get in, 713, 212, 5, 790 is the phone number 713-212-5-790. Haven't even mentioned the arrest made by a Houston

Texan. We'll get to that. We got Brian McTaggart coming up at 11 o'clock. And you, if you'd like to get in at 713-212-5-790. This is The Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas with you until 2 p.m. Houston Texans safety, Jimmy Ward, is facing a felony assault, family violence charge in Montgomery County following incident at his home in Magnolia early Thursday. This according to the Houston Chronicle, Catherine Dominguez and Jonathan M. Alexander. According to information from the Montgomery County Jail, Ward was accused of strangulation and arrested on the scene around 5.30 a.m. He is held without bond.

No other information immediately available Thursday morning. These are always rough situations. I mean, just because you have to let it play out. And, I mean, you hope that there was nothing that was too. bad that happened here because I mean it's not good for anybody you know I understand the situations like this it gets people emotionally charged for a good reason

but it's also too I mean it's it's important to be able to let it all play out Omar Majube the senior director of communications for the Texans saying in a statement quote we are aware of the report involving Jimmy Ward we are gathering more information and have no further comment at this time

that's the way it goes you ever hear somebody was arrested at 530 in the morning generally things did not go well. Well, what's the old saying? I mean, you know, things that happen after midnight, so usually it's, you're getting a call. It's not a good call. That's the devil's hour, Dan. That's when bad things are happening. And that's when Jimmy Ward's getting into trouble. So, yeah, I mean, just wanted to mention it. No further details at this time. We'll see what happens.

But it doesn't sound good. And when you're talking about felony, assault, family violence, which that could be anybody. It could be a wife. It could be a girlfriend. It could be. I mean, I'm not a legal mind or anything like that, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was, you know, a son or a mother or whatever. Family violence could also be a partner and then strangulation does not sound good. That's not a word you want to hear. That's definitely concerning with what's going on with Jimmy Award. Yeah, I mean, and again, you know, you mentioned the statement from the team and that's that's the way that you handle it because, I mean, there is nothing else you can say. It's going to be an investigation. It's going to be a court case.

It's going to be all of those different types of things that, I mean, there's a reason why there's no. nothing that annoys me more than people playing attorney on Twitter when they didn't spend the time to be an attorney. Oh, you didn't know that? Law school. Everybody's an attorney. They're an attorney. They are, uh, what do you call it? Political pundits and strat, political, the political strategy, I mean, it's top notch.

It doesn't get any better than on Twitter. The political strategists on there are incredible. The epidemiologists are incredible. Those guys, I mean, it's unbelievable. the amount of genius that is just out there on Twitter. Well, I mean, political punditry, look, you can say whatever you want. I can either ignore it or I can nod my head in agreement or whatever it might be, but it's going to stay there.

It's not going to affect my life. The epidemiology part of it, like I always love people, oh, I can't believe they're saying this. Okay, don't take it. Like, it's really that simple. Oh, but other people, don't worry about other people. Worry about your own life. That's the whole point. Well, yeah, we can spend a whole show on Twitter in the,

the ocean of stupidity that's out there. But yeah, I just wanted to make mention of that that Jimmy Ward, unfortunately, arrested in his Magnolia area home earlier today. And I guess we'll get some more details as they come out. We have been talking some Astros. If you want to get in, 713, 212, 5-790, 7-13, 212-5-790. Haven't even mentioned the Indiana Pacers taking a stunning 2-1 lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA finals. We can get to that as well.

But we've been talking some Astros, of course, with a win, 10 to 2 yesterday. And we were talking about Christian Walker. Mention Yiner Diaz and the hard hit contact. It's almost becoming old hat at this point. A couple of hits, run-bedded in for Jeremy Payne, average up to 322. Yeah, that's who he is. And then what was it? Was it B-war or was it just regular war?

Baseball reference war, which doesn't factor in as much defense, which is why I don't really care for baseball. Even though it helps the cause here in Houston to say, hey, Jeremy, Pena and what Dan is referencing, for those you don't know, wins above replacement. Jeremy Paine is the second best player in baseball, in baseball behind only Aaron Judge. He's a tick down, I think, from Bobby Witt, maybe because of defensive stuff, when you look at fan graphs or maybe some other, I haven't looked at baseball prospectuses either, but at least he's in the conversation, one of the best players in

baseball, and then a couple of more hits last night. Dude's doing it all. He's doing it all, and it's also, too. time after one of your players said straight up to management through the media, hey, extend this guy, find a way. The only bad news is now... They should have listened out too many two months ago. I was going to say, because the price continues to go up.

And, I mean, if he's going to be an all-star starter, that's up to you, the fans. That's up to us, the people who can vote to be able to try to get him there. I just think that most of the nation is going to focus on Bobby Witt Jr. Because he's done it a lot more. But if this can be the Jeremy Pena that we see going forward, then there's no reason to believe that he can't be known as being one of the best short stops all around in all baseball. Yeah, and he should, and he should rightfully be there.

Now, we'll see if this can keep up, but we're talking about the same way we're talking about, it's not a nothing sample with guys who are doing poorly. It's not a nothing sample for guys who are doing well, and that being Jeremy Pena, who's hitting 32, OPSA 865, playing great shortstop. I mean, he is every, he is all-star personified this year for the Astros. where would they be right now without him? We talked about the underperformance of those guys, missing Yoron Alvarez, Jose Altuve taking a slide.

I mean, the guy who has been carrying the torch for the squad all season long has been Jeremy Pena. It's not an accident that the Astros are where they are, and he's one of the leaders in baseball in wins above replacement, and they've been getting wins. Well, it's not only him. I mean, it's a guy that took an O for four last night, but has been a pleasant surprise for you, Jake Myers.

I mean, you're 100% right. You don't have either of those guys doing what you're doing right now. You're not seven games above 500. You're not four games in front of Seattle and the Angels for first place in the American League West. You've pitched well, but that'd be the rest of the team is being pedestrian at best. Those guys have been able to carry some of the flaws that you've had there in the middle of your batting order. And some of the guys at the bottom of the order have picked up at times, but you know you're only going to go as far as the guys that are in the middle of the year.

Also, I want to give full credit to Alex Centro and Troy Snicker. Where's my fighting bat. Fire the batting coaches, guys. Well, how are we feeling? 322 he's hitting. But if you're going to blame them when people are underperforming, they got to give some credit when Jeremy Paine is having a breakout season. But Ross, I mean, you know, Alex Bregman was looking like a third baseman for the Red Sox.

Well, then he looked his hamstring. Kyle Tucker has improved as a hitter in Chicago. Well, he was for like a month. Kyle Tucker has fallen back to the back flat to the face of the earth. He's not to the face of the earth, but his numbers have gone down significantly across the board. Kyle Tucker's numbers worse than they were here in Houston last year. Just saying, where's my fire hitting coaches, guys? 713-21257.9.

I have the phone number. We're going to take quick break. Here it is the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Dan Matthews graciously sitting in, appreciate him. we got what is it called I just don't get it it's coming up at 1130 I can't keep track it's your show I thought it was Wednesday for a second

so I was gonna say shut your bum ass up I'm getting my days You guys did those yes I mean you can do that every single day These long days man I was doing post game last night You know what you'd say whatever you want coming up at 1130 As long as you call in we'd appreciate it We also have Brian McTaggart breaking down the ashros coming up at 11 o'clock And you at 713-212 570 790 719

All right, I finally was able to pull up, hmm, our friends from baseball prospectus, they don't have Jeremy Pena near the top of the war leaderboards. Well, that already kills them now in contract negotiations. Because, I mean, that's immediately what the Astros are going to print up. Like, you know, you're not near the top of the baseball reference. You know, war references here. So sorry, guys.

He's up there on fan graphs. Here we go. Baseball perspectives disagree, but they still have him ahead of Bobby Witt, Jr. But they have him 35th in baseball. And this is just among position players. But if you look elsewhere, Jeremy Pena, one of the best players in baseball, he's been huge for the Astros. I mean, if we're talking like team MVP's at this point as we're nearing closer and closer, what is it, 67 games they've played now, closer and closer to the midway point of

the season. You start with Jeremy Pena, then you go probably Hunter Brown, and then I would say Josh Hader, what say you? I mean, it's going to be one of the two between Hunter or Fromber. I mean, Fromber continues. Fromber continues

doing this. And look, what I'm about to say is going to sound like it's a ding against Hunter. It's not. But the recent starts, you've kind of started to see a tick up of the walks again. And that started to knock knock them out of starts a little bit earlier, whereas Tromber has been quality all the way through.

Hell, quality is the base level. I don't think he's pitched less than six innings in his last six starts. And he continues that. And the ERA is now down to 3.07. And probably the brand name for him with Aaron Boone's going to help him. If he gets below three and he continues on this path that he is, Fromber's going to get the nod over Hunter as much as it sucks to say. I got a sneeze coming. Hold on.

Now it's gone, Dan. All right, sorry. Look up at the light next time. It helps. Is it? Yeah, it helps when you do it that way. Go to the light. Yeah, well, in this case, in this case, do. Because there's nothing, like, that is like one of the top five worst feelings right there. Like, we were like, it's right there.

I was like, he's going to stop talking and then I'm going to have to talk, but I got to sneeze. Oh, I got to sneeze. Oh, now it's gone. Oh, my God. Now it's time for me to talk. But here's the thing. As soon as we go to break, you're going to sneeze. Okay. Hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it just, it pops back up on you. I'll sneeze all over this microphone that you use on a daily basis. I mean, that's, you know, a lot better than. and some of the other things that have been on there at times.

Good God, I came in here the other day. I said, what, did somebody eat an entire Rubin in here? Matt has usually eats a Rachel. You know what? It might have been my fault. I've been getting here later on accident. I remember one time.

I remember one time I did a show with Matt and it was before we hopped on and he was eating an egg salad sandwich. And I go, oh, egg salad, before you go on the air. It's a bold move. I'll go ahead and put the Khorrox wipes up here. He was eating jumbalaya.

mid segment yesterday. Mid segment. I mean, look, it's different. I'm just saying, I understand 10 to 2 is a different animal than 12 to 3. He ate like a reuben or something. There's no good time for us to eat. Like, you got to, even if you eat breakfast

like at 8, 9 o'clock, you're hungry by 2. So we're a tough spot here, okay, folks. He scarfed down and he started hiccuping. Why don't you cry for us? Yeah, it happens. I just had to take down a sandwich. Yeah. Well, it's hard.

out there for a pimp like Matt Thomas where I understand you get under. We absolutely do. The ammunition is thrown out and we've got to and especially too. I mean with you guys I've said it numerous times when you guys were three hours I said it was a three hour of a roast. Now it's four hours. It's a four hour roast.

We're exhausted afterwards. So it's a roast for you guys and then it's a roast for the afternoon guys. Usually we're spared. I hear stray from time to time but I don't mind. That's okay. That's how we roll. That's actually how Matt Thomas rolls. I just follow his lead. I'm going to blame him for everything. But we're talking about, yeah, Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez.

And Hunter Brown's been having a spectacular season. He's been great. But what Frumber has the capability to give you that you mentioned that kind of Hunter hasn't had is going deep into games. He had that one complete game where they lost on the roads. It was only eight-inning complete game. But that was his first complete game of his career. Generally, he's going out there and giving you six. And that's okay.

That's good, especially when he's not giving up any runs and his ERA is under two. but you love that extra value from Frombard to where he can throw a nine in complete game. He's thrown nine hitters. He can be when he's on, out there just going eight pitch inning, nine pitch inning, ten pitch inning, and then all of a sudden by the end of it, how many pitches was that complete? It was like 83. 83 pitches in a complete game. I mean, that's insane. And we asked Joe a spot of the following day, hey, if it had gone to the 10th, would you have run them back out there? And he goes, no.

He goes, that would have been haters. His logic was sound where he said, you know, haters used to have in the runner on second. Yeah. Or is not. So he just felt like that would have been a tough spot for him. It would be cool. When's the last time a starting pitcher in baseball pitched the 10th inning?

I'd be curious to find that out. It probably have to be like. Google AI has everything. Did Pedro Martinez lose a perfect game in the 10th or something like that? Might have. I don't know. All right. Yeah.

We've got Dan on the case and he'll figure that out. Google AI. It's searching. It was Cliff Lee in April of 2012. Wow, in April. Okay. Yeah, Cliff Lee was always going deep in games. Game played against the Giants in San Francisco. Wow, that's interesting. That's cool. Now, Google AI lie to us, I don't think so. Google AI lies all the time.

See, that's Ross saying that. So when you guys take over the world like Skynet, I'm not the one saying that about you. I am saying it AI, you get stuff wrong all the time. I have to fact check, because I write, believe it or not, almost every day when Matt's not here. And I've gotten stuff from them numerous times that has been factually inaccurate. And I normally have time to fact check all my questions. And it's been a lot of stuff inaccurate from Google AI. In the old incarnation of the nightcap, didn't we do a chat GPT of what the Astro should do in the offseason?

Oh, I think so, yes. And it factored in Carlos Correa and Miles Strong. Yeah, I think so. Oh, man. And maybe this bit needs to die. That's right. We tried to do an ask AI bit and then it got completely ruined because AI sucks. I said Carlos Correa.

I was like, well, if this were 2021 heading into 22, then yes. Yeah, terrible. All right. Time for another break here. The hour flew by, Mr. Matthews. I appreciate you hanging out. How about it, man? Thank you.

Tell tags, I said a lot. See you tomorrow. Yeah. All right. And tell them I still owe him a couple of beers. tags? Oh, you can hang out for tags if you want, but you've got somewhere to be. That's okay, too. Appreciate Dan Matthews hanging out. Brian McTaggart, MLB.com. Yes, he is coming up next. 1130. We'll have, I just don't get it. News at noon. Adam Wexler coming up at 1 or jam-packed until 2 o'clock.

You guys want to get into you can at 7-1-3-212-5-790. But the slam-in stroze, it got 10 runs yesterday. We're going to talk about it with Brian McTaggart of MLB.com next here on your home for the stroes. Sports Talk 790. 11 o'clock straight up here on Sports Talk 790. It is our number two of the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. He is with his son, celebrating his son's college graduation. And his young son's dream trip for his vacation, going with dad to see Barry Manilow and Carrot Top. So he is in Vegas.

Brian McTaggart is here with us. Brian, your thoughts on Carrot Top. Boy, that sounds like we're really missing out on that. Yeah. I don't care. Carrot top was okay like 20 years ago or something, but I don't know. No, you don't know. I know what you do know about.

You know about the Astros. Brian McTagger covering the Astros for MLB.com. And all these storylines, Brian, and honestly, a lot of complaining from myself, fan bases, all that, like the injuries, Yordon, hand stuff, and underperformances from Yiner and Walker until last night. and here we are four games up in the American League West. Well, I mean, you tip your hat to the Astros, but also the division is really bad. I mean, everybody's below 500 except the Astros.

I mean, the Angels are tied with the Mariners for second. I mean, the Angels are not good. I know some Angels fans are getting excited about, you know, now that they're in second place. Well, it's because the Mariners are just as bad as you are. And the Rangers aren't good. I mean, but, you know, props to the Astros, you got to, you know, you got to take out the trash when you play them. And so you got to take advantage of those situations.

But yeah, I mean, if they had been more healthy and those guys you talked about had hit better, I mean, they would have like a 10-game lead right now. But still, they have to be thrilled with where they're at because a four-game leads, a four-game lead. And, you know, you have a chance to build on it here. I don't know how much Mariners baseball you've been catching, but they have lost eight of their last nine games. I mean, what is going on over there?

Is this something like our? Are the Astros just going to run away with this division? Well, unless the Mariners make changes, then probably yes. I mean, they didn't make any offensive improvements in the offseason. Jerry DePoto thought, you know, it was kind of banking on getting healthy and having some guys had bounced back seasons. Now, you know, Cal Raleigh's been really good. J.P. Crawford's been good.

But Julio Rodriguez doesn't play like a star anymore. And, you know, they went out and brought back Polanco, who got off to a really hot start, but he's cooled off. You know, they signed Donovan Solano, who's terrible. Mitch Garver hasn't been good. I mean, they just can't score. Their bullpen hasn't been great. I mean, you know, they have a pretty good closer.

And then they've had injuries to the rotation, which they didn't have last year. So they're just not a good team right now. So the Astros will play them after the All-Star break in Seattle, you know, with a chance to put more distance between them and the Mariners. And they get next week, they get the Angels on the road. So they're going to start facing some of these teams head to head. Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk 790. Quality stuff from Ryan Gusto last night.

Where do you think his leash was before that started? Obviously, it's longer now. As in terms of staying in the rotation? Yes, yes. Well, I think it was long because they don't really have anybody else. And now they're in this six-man rotation. So they really had nowhere else to turn, I think, unless he just went out there and, you know, pitched one or two innings, then you would really have to reassess.

But the fact he had career highs and innings pitched and pitches and strikeouts, you know, fastball hit in 97, he was a lot more aggressive. You know, it helped when he had a 3-0 lead in the first inning. But it's definitely something for him to build on. That's sort of the pitcher that we heard when they put him in the rotation, that he was capable of pitching like that, hadn't done it yet. But, you know, like I said all along, they're sort of at the tail end of their starting pitching depth here.

So there's not a lot of places for them to turn right now. You know, maybe that'll change if they get an arm at the death. line, Erigeti back in July maybe, we'll see. But, you know, I didn't think Gusto was in real danger to go anywhere because there were no other options. Christian Walker and Yiner Diaz with Good Nights, Walker, the headliner, of course, but the two hard-hit, hardest hit balls were off the bat of Yiner Diaz. And it feels like we've been here a couple of times with both of them saying, hey, is this the jumping off point for a turnaround to their seasons? What are you feeling on both of those guys? Yeah, you're right.

I mean, this happens like once every week where one of these guys has a good game or hits the ball hard. You're like, okay, maybe this is it. But, you know, Yonner hit a couple balls hard the night before as well. You know, Walker really crushed his Homer. I think it was almost 108 off the bat. And then I think one of the things in Joe Espada brought this up too was his third hit. Was a little bloop single to right field. And he had just been not getting those.

He'd really been not getting the breaks on balls that weren't hit hard or pop-ups. or things like that. So I think for him, that was probably as encouraging as the home run. Like, hey, I'm finally starting to get some breaks here in the three-head game. But, yeah, if you're the Astros, you can only hope it's, you know, this is the one they turn it around and start building on. Because, man, if you get those two guys going, you know, in the five, six spots of the order wherever they're at

and you get Yordaun back healthy and playing like Yordaum, then you got a real chance to run away with the division. Yeah, on Yiner-Diaz, I was kind of a little surprised, just looking it up earlier today. His batting average 239, but his XBA is 281, and he's had pretty bad luck with batted balls. So I think I'm feeling confident that if he can keep this up, he'll be looking better.

Yeah, I believe that. I mean, he drew a four-pitch walk yesterday, too, which was pretty strange as well. But, yeah, I mean, you can tell that he's hit some balls hard at people. And I know fans don't like hearing that. I mean, either get hit or you don't, or you drive the ball over the fence or you don't. but it's not like Yiner's hitting 190.

I mean, he's probably hitting like 240 is, I'm guessing his OPS is around 700. I'm not sure. So it's not like he's been terrible, but certainly below, I think, what everybody expected of him, but certainly swinging about well lately. Brian McTaggart continuing with us here on a sports talk 790. Jeremy Pena, a couple of hits again, hitting 322 and just keeps on doing it. Should be an all-star at the shortstop position. What do you think is the biggest reason?

for his breakout, whether it be change in approach or maturity or, I mean, just a little bit of luck or what do you think is happening with Jeremy Pena that's leading to this? Well, I think you hit on the two biggest things. I mean, maturity, this is his fourth year now. And, you know, he came up and had a pretty good rookie year, and then we all know what he did in the playoffs. And he sort of had similar years the next two years, you know, a couple years ago that the power went away in the second half. So he came to camp last year in 24 and changed his stance. seemed to work pretty well for him, but I think he made, you know, he kind of worked on that a little bit more and just tried to, just try to refine his stance and his approach to where you could see the ball better.

And that's worked out for him. I think once he starts getting confidence, then he realizes that, hey, this is the player that I know I can be. But, you know, props to him because, you know, he's really worked hard the last couple of years to try to get to that next level. And it looks like he's going to be there. I mean, certainly seems like him. Bobby Witt or Jacob Wilson of A's are probably your three best short stops in the American League at this point. So I don't know if they'll take three short stops. I mean, I'm guessing they probably will.

But certainly, Payne deserves a shot to be in the All-Star game. And who knows, maybe he starts. Maybe he gets enough fan votes to start. I know the Royals vote pretty well. I'm not sure. It'll be interesting to see what kind of voting support A's players get. Not that they have that many All-Star caliber players, but just, I mean, are people in Sacramento going to rush and punch, punch the balance online, who knows.

But, yeah, Pena certainly deserves to be in the All-Star game, I'd say. One of the reasons the Astros have been so successful is they've had these guys that kind of just live and breathe and love baseball. Born ballplayers, I would say. You know, like Carlos Cray, Alex Bregman, Jose Altovae. Would you put Jeremy Paine in that category? Oh, yeah, he's definitely a ball player. I mean, he grew up around in ballparks. His dad played in the big leagues for seven or eight years.

So this is, you know, this is what he wanted to do all along. This is what he was born to do. And from day one, he's carried himself like a big league player. And now he's performing like an elite big league player. So, yeah, he's definitely cut from that same cloth. You know, Bregman was a gym rat, so to speak, as far as baseball players go. You know, the story of him turning on the lights at LSU in the middle of the night so he could go up and feel some ground balls.

And, you know, Kare is a guy who was drafted at 17 years old and, you know, realized his dream at an early age. So there aren't many of those guys, but, you know, Peña certainly is, you know, took advantage of, you know, the opportunity he's been given to him. He's very talented player defensively, too. He's been terrific this year. Continuing with Brian McTaggart Astros.com here on Sports Talk 790. A couple of hits for Jose Altovae yesterday. Where are you at on him in general? To me, it's kind of harder to get a beat on him rather than others.

Like, Walker's been bad. Pena's been good. It's been a little bit of up and down with a little bit of up and down. Altuvae and you factor in the left field stuff, the fact that he is getting older. What are your expectations, I should say, for him going forward? Yeah, you know, he's hit the ball a lot better here the last couple of weeks. I know that he was trying to hit the ball in the Aramore. You know, he had a pretty prolonged slump there for a couple of weeks, I think in May,

and he came out of it. And one of the things he said was that he just, he was needing to hit the ball in the Aramore, he was hitting the ball on the ground too much. And once he started driving the ball a bit more, you know, the home run started to come back again. But, you know, I'm just never going to count him out with age. I mean, he still gets down the line when he can, an elite, you know, 30 feet per second. You know, he can still put the bat on the ball and hit it, you know, as far as almost

anybody. Defensively, he has played more second lately, but I think some of that in the last week or so has been because they have Jacob Melton. I think Espada wants to put him in the outfield to get a longer look at him. Also gives him that other left-handed bat in the lineup, but he's still going to play left field. So it's been an interesting season for Jose, but overall his numbers are probably a little below where I would expect they would be, but it wouldn't surprise me if at the end of the year he's put up a season similar than he had last year. So at some point there's going to be a big decline coming, but I just really haven't seen it yet.

I mean, I still think, you know, you feel good about him when he's hitting near the top of that lineup. Trade deadline, seven weeks from today. Of course, we talked about the cushion right now in the American League West and how bad the division is that. Does that affect Dana Brown's thinking at all, or do you think he's more focused on trying to win a pennant? And, I mean, do you still think they will be in the market for a bat and an arm come deadline time? Yeah, I do. I mean, I don't think whether at in the standings is. going to have much effect. I mean, they want to get better and they have, you know, a couple of glaring

areas where they can get better, starting pitching, of course. I mean, there's a lot of teams that need starting pitching, so that, you know, that's not a shock there. And it's not like they're going to go out and I think get, you know, Justin Verlander in 2018 or anybody like that. I mean, they need a guy that they can plug in the rotation, just give them a little bit more depth. And they could use a left-handed bat. I mean, you know, maybe Melton ends up being that guy and they, you know, they feel comfortable riding with him, but maybe another guy they can put, they can play, you know, maybe some second base, about two days in the left field, because, you know, I'm not sure, you know, Brendan Rogers is going to be long-term plans on this team, but,

yeah, I think if you have a four-game lead, you want a 10-game lead, you have a 10-game lead, you want a 15-game lead, and then, you know, you think, you know, you get Alvarez back and you get Arrogati back, and who knows, maybe you get Garcia back at the end of the year, and now you're in really good shape, but, you know, everyone's going to want starting pitching. It's going to be interesting to see who makes the first trade because then we'll start to see these things start flying off the board. I have a dumb question.

Now, the Astros need a left-handed bat and they could use a second basement. Are there any left-handed second basement in baseball right now? Left-handed hitting second baseman. It's pretty rare, right? Yeah, Brandon Lowe maybe with the race. I mean,

it might not be a bat. Yeah, go ahead. But yeah, it is pretty rare. I mean, it doesn't have to be a second basement. It could be somebody that can play multiple positions in DH here and there. But so, you know, you're not going to put somebody at first. You're not going to put somebody at third. You're not going to put somebody at shortstop or catcher. There's no room. So you're kind of limited in your roster construction where you could bring in a left-handed bat.

But if you could have somebody versiled up to maybe, you know, play some outfield in D.H., you know, that's also something they look at. All right. There you go. Brian McTaggart. Great stuff with him. As always, appreciate the time. What you got going on in the old astros.com, Brian. yeah well I had a there's a story on the website tonight sort of breaking down three of the the key uh reasons the Astros won yesterday one of them Alteva getting his 23rd 100 hit dived in the Ryan Gusto and his performance a little bit but uh I have a really a really nice Father's Day story coming up on a on an Astro who's a first time father and he's going to he's got the cleats and the belt to celebrate it on Sunday so he's just got to get in the

lineup but look for that this weekend this well. All right. And I like you giving the nod to Brian to Bray you as a guy we're not talking about, but is all-starworthy. So appreciate the good work. As always, Brian McTaggart of Astros.com. We'll talk to you down the road.

All right. Thanks, Ross. All right, there you go. Brian McTaggart, astros.com. MLB.com does great work covering your Houston Astros. You want to react to anything. He has to say seven weeks away from the deadline. If you had to guess, more likely a bat or an arm that they would trade for.

and will they be making some deals? Are they going to feel a little bit more comfortable with this American League West lead that they have? Ashro's win 10 to 2 yesterday against the White Sox. We'll talk about that. And anything else you want to get to in sports, 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-790.

Thanks to Brian McSaggart. For joining the show here on Sports Talk 790, as he does. Thursdays at 1 o'clock. Also does Fridays on the Astros. on deck show. That will be hosted by, I don't know, it won't be me, so I'm not too worried about it. You might hear a little bit of that Brian McTabberg conversation later on today. As we continue along on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. No Matt Thomas. He is out in Las Vegas. I am here with you at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. You can also send tweets to at SportsRV if you'd like to get in that way. We have Adam Wexler coming up at 1 o'clock. We have the news at noon with Jonathan Allen. The news at noon with Jonathan Allen coming up at noon.

And we have, I just don't get it coming up at 1130. Is there something in your life, something that's happening, something that you see on a day-to-day basis, and you're like, I don't understand this. What is happening? I don't get it. That's coming up at 1130. In the meantime, you can get in, talk some sports, talk some stroves.

talk some NBA finals. Your time is coming, Jonathan. We'll let you come up at 1150. We'll let you brag all you want about the NBA finals. Ain't nothing to brag about jobs not done yet. Oh, yeah, that's true. Jobs not finished. Jobs not finished said to Kobe Bryant. Anyway,

713-212-5-790 is the phone number as I know the ratings haven't been great, but the series has been good if you ask me. But we'll talk some NBA finals coming up later. And as I said, I just don't get it. Coming up at 1130. So we've been doing a lot of talking Houston Astros.

You know, I've been calling for all these Fire Joe Spada guys, people. Hey, what's going on? And I'm joking when I say this. Because if the Astros lose five out of six, or if they win five out of six, to me, for the

most part, the onus falls on the players, especially in baseball more than others. Joe Spotted does have a very difficult and important job. He's there to be there for the players, to converse with them. I see how they're feeling, to set lineups and to pull guys and put other guys in the bullpen. But a lot of that stuff is match-up stuff that has been put into place pregame. He is there to kind of be a manager

of a baseball team, not necessarily managing what's happening on the field, but almost like your manager at work, right? You don't want some taskmaster who's going to make you upset and put a cloud over your head every time you go and to work and and just make it not a good work environment. He's there to be a people person, which he is, and he's great. I remember in spring training last year when Joe Spada was first going to be the Astros manager, him every day going into the clubhouse and going up to every single player and talking about, not being fake about it, not just not caring, being genuine and caring and being there for his guys

and talking to all of them and just kind of being that kind of a guy that people can bounce off of and feel light and be honest with and then as the season goes along, when you're in struggles, he's going to be there for you. When you're having a good season,

he's going to be there for you and talking to guys and building relationships and all that types of stuff. That's what Joe Espada is there for and he does a great job of it from all accounts. Just ask all the players, listen to the post game comments and just,

See how things go. And I know a lot of you, of course, don't have clubhouse access, but listening to read the reporting of guys like Chandler Rome and Brian McTaggart and people, Matt Carohara, of the Houston Chronicle, who are covering the team there every day and reporting on the team and talking about these types of things. When it comes to, oh, no, he put this guy in in the bullpen and it was terrible, unless he's going to the guy at the very end of the bullpen,

he's probably putting somebody out there who needs to go get outs, whether it be Stephen Okerd or Brian King or whoever else, Bennett Suza, I mean, none of these guys who are making $15, $20 million a year and he's been pulling all the right strings for the most part with these guys. I mean, I wonder what the bullpenny R.A, at least when I looked up yesterday,

it was like seventh in baseball. It was second for a lot of the time. Then they had that bad weekend series against Tampa Raids and it blew up. But a lot of that was Forrest Whitley, who was designated for assignment. and not on the team anymore. So I'd be curious if you just pluck out Forrest Whitley

what this bullpen ERA has been. And you have to put guys in positions to succeed, but then they kind of have to go out there and do it for you. That's what the manager's job is. And I know there's a lot of you that they think there's just gross incompetence and Joe Espada is holding the team back. Well, I'd like to hear from you. They have won.

Let's see. I think it's seven of their last 10 games have the Houston Astros. You know what I'm wrong. I lied on that. Six of their last nine. Six of the last nine games, the Astros have won. There are four games up in the American League West. Season's going pretty well,

considering all the things we've been talking about and hymming and hawing and getting upset and complaining and just worried about with Yordon's hand and Erigetti's hand and multiple Tommy Johns. And Christian Walker and Yiner D as having bad luck this entire time, they're four games up in the first. And yeah, it's a weak division. But they have the fourth best record in the American League.

They're behind the Tigers, Yankees, Blue Jays by a half game. Everyone else, they're ahead of in the American League. And the way, and I'm going to tell you, I'm guilty of this as well, just because worried about especially the pitching. and it's just somehow the glue is held together there. They're still fourth in the American League. And the way that a lot of some of you talk about this team, you would think they're the Baltimore Orioles,

where they have these aspirations of winning the AL Pennet, and they're 12 games below 500. I say all that to say this. We're spoiled here in Houston. We are absolutely spoiled with what the Astros have done. Eight straight seasons into the postseason. seven American League West championships

in every season that was a full season of course the shortened 60 game Mickey Mouse. That's right Dodger fan. Mickey Mouse 2020 season. That doesn't count. That was bizarre. No fans in the stands. Just a weird throwaway season to me, even though

the Astros did get down 03 in that ALCS and then battle back to force a game 7. That was fun. But no. it's been a great run for the Astros to where we've gotten so spoiled that we expect this team to win

every single day and then when they don't we're ripping our hair out, hair out, and then talking about how this guy needs to be fired and that guy. And so I haven't heard much from Fire Joe Spada guy lately. And I'd be curious to hear from Fire the Hitting Coach's guy where, I mean,

Jose Altovae has talked about Alex Centrone and helping him turn things around at the plate. Other guys like Christian Walker have talked about the hitting coaches and how things, and they're trying to get things going for him as well. He had a three hit day yesterday with a home run, a couple of very, very hard hit balls. Jeremy Payne having a career year.

Jacob Myers having a career year. Esoc Parade has hadn't even really, I don't think I mentioned his name much of at all in this show. He had three hits yesterday. He's got an OPS of 818. Well, let's go. Where's your praise for the hitting coaches? I'm all ears and I haven't heard much from you.

So things going pretty well for the Astros. And I know it's easier to call in and complain when things are going bad. And, well, they kind of were even yesterday. It's a day-to-day thing with a baseball season losing to the Chicago White Sox. But a big bounce-back win yesterday. Astro is going for a series win today. 710 first pitch here on Sports Talk 790. You're home for the Houston Astros.

I'll be with you from Dyken Park for the Astros on Deck Show coming up at 6 o'clock. Time for a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Is there something that you just don't get? Something you don't understand. You could say, I just don't get it. When you call in at 713, 212, 5790, 713, 212, 5790. You can also send tweets at SportsRV. We've got the news at noon coming up at noon.

And then we have, I just don't get it, coming up next here on Sports Talk 790. something in your life. It's just don't get. No need to worry. No need to fret. We will discuss the topics to see if we comprehend. The things that may confuse our friends, it's time to say, I just don't get it. There it is.

All right. 713-212-5-790, the phone number to get in. If there's something you just don't understand, you just don't get it. 7-13-21-2-5-790. I will start. Jonathan. A couple of weeks ago, myself and Matthew and my brother, we went to Lake Charles, who went to the casino, and we were playing and gambling and things like that.

And everywhere on the floor, there were people that were, smoking, except for one table. There was one table where there was no smoking. What do you mean? Like, no, cigars, cigarettes, you could light up at the table. And for some reason, I thought, I think in a lot of Vegas casinos,

there's no smoking indoors. I don't know if it's a Las Vegas thing or what. And I thought this had happened in Lake Charles. I literally asked a dealer, I was like, you can smoke at this table? And they're like, yeah, you can smoke at every table except for this one. And they pointed to one in the corner that nobody was at and there wasn't a dealer on the table.

I'm sitting there like, I look, I understand, look, if you want to smoke, if you enjoy a good cigar, that's cool. But this is the problem, and this is a problem that we have basically in society today. You can do whatever you want as long as it doesn't infringe upon others. And then when I have tears streaming down my face and my whole face is getting irritated and I'm coughing because you're just straight up lighting up at the blackjack table, I don't get how in 2025 that's allowed. Do we not have enough studies on secondhand smoke and the tie-ins with cancer?

I mean, what are we doing here? How is it 2025? It's like when you randomly accidentally go to a bar in like Webster, Texas, and they're like, you can smoke in here? This is allowed? In 2025? Have I hopped into a time machine?

How is it that you're still allowed in some places to smoke in public? I just don't get it. it's almost like how they have like spots in the amusement parks where you have like the smoking sections and they're still passing that second hand smell around yeah and they're still doing that and that's fine look i'll be in the garage or whatever here and occasionally there'll be some degenerate who's uh who has to go down and smoke a heater every five seconds for whatever reason and that's fine look you you should have quit i'm gonna be honest folks if you're still smoking cigarettes in 2025 what's the deal i mean i get it looks cool and like uh in photos and stuff like that but that's about it. Everybody got their advice, Ross. Everybody does, but it's nicotine. Some people drink.

I'll do it out broader. I just don't get it. Smoking cigarettes. Yeah, look. Okay. All right, I agree with you. I mean, I had a stray cigarette here and there in my time, but it's, I just don't get it. But also, that's fine.

If you want to do it and that's your vice, like I said, that's okay. As long as you're not blowing smoke in my face, so I don't get why these casinos still allow this. doesn't make any sense to me. All right, Jonathan, go ahead. You know, recently I've been to the dentist's office, and I realize I don't understand something. Okay. You go there, and the assistant walks you down, you sit down, right?

Okay, and then you sit there, and they get that little plastic thing, putting them out to the x-rays, whatever. And then I'm looking there, and I'm sitting there, I'm wondering, okay, and I'm asking her questions, like, hey, what's going on? I have this in my mouth, da-da-da. She looks at me dead in the face and goes, goes, oh, I don't know. Let me go get to the doctor. And I'm like, all right, that's fine. You don't know what you're doing. You know, you just got an assistant. The doctor comes and I'm asking her and she's looking at my mouth, checking me up. And I got something in my mouth. And I got to get checked out. I asked her questions, like three questions. Hey, what's this? What I need to do? She goes, well, I don't know. I got to give you a referral to a specialist. Aren't you the doctor here too? and this happens in a lot of like

yeah you go to your doctor and then they'll refer to you the specialist and then I just don't get that why isn't just the specialist and everything in every practice they should be one specialist yeah I don't know man

that doesn't make any sense to me well maybe you're what do you got going on in there man is everything okay you got to get a tooth yanked yeah yeah everybody I was young trying to avoid this wisdom tooth coming in

and just you know biting it through the gums and then just why words don't do that. Everybody should go get the chief regularly cleaned and checked out. Don't be like me. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Take care of your teeth. I'm trying to do the same, Jonathan. I appreciate you. But I don't know. I don't have the medical expertise to break down what specialists they're sending you to and where you are. Now, you weren't in an alleyway in a van at this dentist's office, correct? Oh, all dentists office are kind of sketchy. I was an office off Westheimer.

So I guess. I guess. Okay, so you're at a good spot. All right. Well, I don't get it, Jonathan, but I also, maybe I'm dealing with incomplete information. So maybe that's on me. All right, 713, 2125-790, the phone number. What don't you get?

Tom and downtown. What's up? Not much. Always good to hear from you, Ross. Thank you. And you're holding up the show well, Jonathan, with the absence of MT. So what I don't get is I drive a lot in the city. and it doesn't matter if the suburbs or inside the city.

But, you know, there's always stop and go red lights, right? But these idiot people will always drive, like, way below the speed limit. And then because they're driving so slow, they run the red light. I mean, to me, like, you're not safe driver if you're running the red light. So go ahead and at least do the speed limit. You know what it is, I think, Tom? I think it's people on their phones. They're not paying attention.

They look up. They realize it's a yellow light. And they're like, oh, bleep. I got to hurry up. And then they speed up. I think it's people on their phones. I'm really not one for infringing liberties of the American people. And there's no practical way to enforce this.

But I wish we could live in a time where people just weren't on their phones on the road. I mean, it happens to me every day. and it's every single day when I come to work and I don't come on a major highway I live a couple of streets away so mostly it's just lights every single day I'm honking at people who are not paying attention at lights it's too much pay attention people

get off your phones show some courtesy to the others on the road all right you don't need to be watching cat videos right now you're even paying attention to the things are going on around you sorry Tom I didn't mean to take over your call Go ahead That's all right And one other one

This one's a big one I have I'm a client of Nank of Snomara And pretty much You have to use the ATM Where they charge you a ton of fees So

That place sucks by you know what I'll say Bank of America you suck I've had Bank of America since 2003 Tom I'm switching this year I'm not even kidding Okay well I probably should as well I've had it I go way back to one of the nation's

You get old Yeah, I think it was, it might have been when I was there, was it Bank You? And they bought Bank United. They bought up all these banks that became Bank of America. Maybe it was Bank of America in 2003 when I opened it. But either way. Yeah. And like you said, Tom, again, I'm taking over. I'm sorry. They've been tearing down all these ATMs. Two of the three nearest ATMs to me, they got rid of the banks. And I can't use them now. Right. And what's irritating about it is, okay, they force you to use these ATMs. And then they shut down the drive-thru. The drive-thru will have four lanes, and they'll put two ATMs in the same lane. And inevitably, you always get stuck behind someone who has no clue what they're doing. So you're stuck there trying to get through the ATM. Yeah.

Like, come ready. Come with your check filled out. Come knowing what you want to pull. Get it done. Ridiculous. Yeah. I don't get it, Tom. I'm with you.

I appreciate you. Thank you for chiming in. 713-212-5-790. Let's get Cameron real quick ahead of a break. What's up, Cameron? Hey, guys. Good morning. Good almost afternoon.

Jonathan, I work in health care. I can tell you right now it's a racket, so that's why you're getting ping ponged around. I know. I know. Yeah. I don't get AI, man. You know, the art looks demonic.

And when you go to the actual text AI, like asking me a prompts and questions, it looks like a glorified spell check. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you why AI is here, Cameron. What did you say the ping pong is? It's a racket. AI is a racket.

They're eliminated jobs. IT, like entry-level jobs for IT are getting eliminated. AI is a way for these big corporations to save a couple of bucks. Keep the revenues up. Keep the shareholders happy. Let's go. And who cares about the working man? Exactly.

Well, hey, guys, love the show. I'll see you. Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you, Cameron. I'm pretty sure this will be AI Matt Thomas and Ross show from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. coming up. It's a way to make things easier for people. AI arts sucks. I'm totally with you. When Grok first came out or Groke, whatever it's called, I was making a couple of the AI pictures because I thought they were funny. I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm not supporting any of this AI clap trap. It's ridiculous.

And it's here for what they're calling efficiency, which efficiency means, hey, How can we eliminate a few more jobs? That's happening in every boardroom in a corporation in America, including some very close to home. All right, anyways, we're going to take a quick break here on Sports Talk 790. Will Jonathan and I have jobs when we come back for this break? Let's hope so. You want to get in.

Those you want hold, I promise you are next. You just don't get it. Neither could we. We'll find out. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. All right. Continuing along with I just don't get it.

713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We have Adam Wexer joining at 1 o'clock. We have news at noon coming up at noon here on Sports Talk 790. And if you just don't get it, you can get in quickly at 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Robert and Katie has called in, Robert. What don't you get? Man, I tell you something.

What I don't get is these people on scooters, okay? Oh, man. They don't pay attention. They don't abide by the law. I don't know if they're supposed to be on the street or the sidewalk. I mean, it's just getting ridiculous. It seems like summers to hear more kids and adults are just driving all over the place over the road. You know, it's just I don't get it.

I'm with you. And you know what? Maybe this is a question for the young kids like Jonathan Allen. What's with you young kids today? You're all around down. This happens. Have you been seeing this downtown, Robert? Or have you been seeing this everywhere?

Everywhere. They're too lazy to ride bicycles or walk or... You know, Robert, I was just going to have this as my... I just don't get it. They're all on these electric scooters. And I used to walk the school. So I wasn't even that type of guy. And now they're all just going on the street.

I almost hit one other day, actually, two weeks ago. Yeah. Yes. anytime if you go spend any time downtown Houston now and appreciate you Robert I don't get it either like you go downtown and I'm often going to Astros Rockets games covering them and doing whatever in downtown Houston as well it's it's packs of people like dozens sometimes they're like they're in scooter gangs and I rode like back when Bird and Lyme first came out and I was like all right let me get on a scooter and I'm risk of in the first place. I don't like riding these types of things. I don't want to be skydiving or in hot air balloons or any of that type of stuff. What were we talking about? Rollercoasters. What was it last week, Jonathan? Yeah, I'm out on all that. So I understand I am risk averse and then maybe there are some people who are thrill seekers and stuff like that. But the level of danger that you're in, you're going to tell me that you trust. It's not about trusting yourself. It's about trusting the other drivers on the road. You're going to be around 11 o'clock. midnight at night, riding around in scooters, in low visibility, in low light, in downtown Houston with these people who, A, aren't paying attention to what's going on the road in the first place. B, they're probably drunk at this point as well.

I mean, you're putting your life in the hands of these people? I just don't get it. I'm with Robert. Robert made a good question. He's like, are they supposed to be on the road? Are they supposed to be in a silent? He doesn't even know. And we don't even know.

What's the rules on regulation? I think the rules are they're supposed to be on the road, but a lot of people feel like they're going to be safer on the sidewalk. And that's another thing. If you're just walking on the sidewalk, if you're going from like one bar to another and there's people zooming by you and all that type of stuff, is this, tell me if I'm a bad person, Jonathan.

I don't get out of the way. You are a bad person because I fell on Seattle. One of my trips, and this dude just didn't move. Well, guess what? Guess what? He has his right to his face, Jonathan. But you see me coming, though. Yeah, if I see you coming, that's fine.

But you're not supposed to be on the sidewalk anyways. You're supposed to be on the street. So you just stand there menacingly? No, I don't stand there menacingly. I just stand there with a straight face. I don't make a minute. I don't scowl. You're like the hall monitor in school.

Yeah. Yeah, what's up? This is my space. I'm entitled to my space. How come I have to move out of the way because you're flying down the sidewalk like a madman and endangering your life? You fell down what happened? You were in Seattle?

Yeah, I was on a trip for conference And a track back in college And we went to Seattle over there With Washington U And they had all those like The green and white scooters Lime ones I guess they're called Yeah

And you know It was like two of us on like Or two of us on one And like we were trying to like double Are you just Are you supposed to get two on one Or was it one of those big ones It was like no

We don't know We're kind of smoke skinny You know so we put in there And this guy You packed in there like sardines Yeah And I'll never forget This guy was

big white ball dude and we're coming back and we had like and they have a little bell so we're ringing the bell you're ringing the bell you think this is going to make you think this big guy's going to move just because he hears and it's like he bunched us and you didn't say

okay did he nudge you okay if he threw out an elbow or something it was like so I'm so he's walking right and say we're coming the horizontal way uh-huh I'm going on the sidewalk and he's walking towards the street uh-huh and I'm trying to tell him to move faster because we're going to run into him Why don't you hit the brakes, Jonathan?

You know, screw that guy. You know what? He said screw you. He said screw these kids. But I understand now I'm older. Two years older, but, you know, I'm older now. I won't get in the way. I'm not chucking an elbow at anybody, but I'm not getting out of the way.

I have my right to this sidewalk. Just because you're out here blazing by on a scooter, endangering your life doesn't mean that I got to move out of the way. The scooters are ridiculous. and sure, I'm okay if I sound like old man and get off of my lawn and all that type of stuff, whatever. This has got to stop. It's ridiculous. It's getting ridiculous. Everybody sees what's going on to quote Boogie Cousins.

I agree. Okay. It's everywhere now. And it feels like, I don't know if there was there a band lifted? Can somebody educate me on this? Tweet me at Sports RV if you'd like. Like, was there some kind of band? Because Dave just feels like in the last couple of years, it's really, really blown.

up. I know in Austin they banned them. I don't know if that ban is still in place, but it's endangering people. By the way, I had some friends in Austin who would take the scooters, Jonathan, and then they would hack them and then take the governor off so that they could drive them faster.

And then take off the mile. Oh, that's kind of cool. That's kind of cool, but also, again, seems very dangerous. I don't trust Houston motorists for anything, nor should you. And I understand you're young and you're invincible. It's a lot of kids that are doing this.

These dang kids today. I would have done it if I was like 22 years old. So I mean, I guess I do kind of get it, but it's got to stop. Somebody's got to step in. It's just ridiculous and people are going to get hurt. People are going to get hurt in downtown in the streets

of Houston. It's just gone. It has gotten ridiculous. All right. We're going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Two hours in the books. We've got Adam Wexler coming up at 1 o'clock. We've got the news at noon. We got You, we've been talking Astros. Did you hear that Jimmy Ward got arrested in the middle of the night out in Magnolia, Texas?

Haven't really talked about that much. There's not much to break down, but still anything Texans you want to get to. Rockets related as well as he, Kevin Durant, I should say, was listing, not necessarily listing, but Sham Shorani talking about teams interested in Kevin Durant's services, listing Houston, the Houston Rockets, among them. We can talk about that. Anything you guys want to get to, 713, 21, 2,000, 5. 790 is the phone number. 713-212-5-790.

Back with the news at noon on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Hour number three of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is out in Las Vegas. Ross Villariel with you. Adam Wexler will be joining at 1 o'clock. You guys can get in and co-host with me. I'm flying solo for this hour. 7-13-212-5-790 is the phone number.

7-13-2-2-5-790. 2-1-2-5-7-90. Number of things to get to, including all the top sports news items of the day. We call it the news at noon with the slower talking. Jonathan Allen. All right, you guys, my name is Jonathan Allen. My friends call me JK.

And today, of course, we're going to start off with Astros coming back with an explosive 10 to win. And someone who's been on the hot seat with us for a long time, showed us something that we didn't really think he could do. The 1-0. And that's hammer. Deep to left field. And you can kiss it. Goodbye.

On to the train tracks. A two-run jacked for Christian Walker and a 3-0 lead for the Astro. A slider that spun at the top of the zone. And Christian Walker absolutely pounded that. I don't know, Ross, we've been talking a lot of mess about Yonard Diaz. I've been talking mess. Hold on. As a collective.

Okay, I was going to say. I've been saying, I've been steady-handed. I've been saying that they're going to turn it around. And I said, even yesterday, I said they would have three and two hits a piece, respectively. Okay, maybe I didn't say that. But we did say yesterday. Now, I kind of, you know, I always like to look at numbers. And I know not everybody's like that.

But that's okay. Trust me when I tell you, these teams, these players, these general managers, the people running these organizations are looking at numbers. So if you want to say, all, it's a bunch of hogwash. That's fine. you could say it. It's simply not true. But anyways, the expected batting average for Christian Walker, not up to where, I mean, it's ahead of where he is, right? He's hitting 217 now. I think his XBA is like at 246,

which is what it was last year. So hopefully some bad luck that he's had will turn around. Same thing for Yonner Diaz. He's got an XB of 281. He's only hitting 239. So I just kind of seeing those numbers makes me feel more and more confident that they're going to be able to turn it around. get a little bit more batted ball luck, which Christian Walker did, especially with that third hit that he had,

literally a check swing off the bat to the right that blooped into right field to get him a single. What's that? It's like he heard all the haters. Yeah, he's shaking him haters off. And I appreciate Christian Walker for doing that. So good to see him with some hard hit contact. I mean, smoking the ball, 412 feet with that home run.

Also had a very hard hit, doubled the center that scored Giannaer Diaz and Jose Altuve. Four runs batted in. Just like that, raising his average to 2.17. Hopefully, he can keep this up. We saw even, what, like 10, 12 days ago, it was a couple of hits and then three hits

with the walk-off three-run shot. We were hoping he's going to turn it around. Can you finally kick the door down and really get things rolling for Christian Walker? Hopefully, because historically in his career, he's been a slow starter. Maybe not this slow. It's been one of the worst stretches of his entire career. But if he can start heating up, that'll be

huge for the Astros. Jonathan, go ahead. All right. Moving on to another local sports here on, the news at noon. On news at noon, I apologize for that, and not so great of news as we just discussed, but Texan safety, Jimmy Ward, facing

felony assault charges. I know Ross and you and Dan had spoke about it earlier, but I wanted to address it and give the audience one more refresh. He was arrested at 538 a.m. in Montgomery, Texas, and it's facing felony charges, I just said, but they're not really giving

too much details about what would be happening, which kind of worries me, and the fact is it's a lot worse than what they're giving out with felony assault charges. If they're not giving out right now and saying, like, okay, this is this person, she said this, this is what happened, and came out of details, especially from the organization himself,

seeming like they're going to have to keep this under wraps until season starts and seeing if he can get out of it. Yeah, I think. I think, Normally they won't have a whole lot of details and we'll get the reporting as it comes. A police report will have to be filed. And then I don't know exactly if somebody's going to have to request that from Montgomery County or what. Probably I would guess in the next couple of days, something will come out. But as you said, doesn't sound good.

It just says accused of strangulation choking someone, doesn't say who. Felony assault, family violence, doesn't say who in the family. So vague. but it doesn't sound good for our old friend Jimmy Ward. This could be a scenario. This happens in the NFL where... Too often. Yeah.

Where the charges eventually get dropped. Will there be a suspension? Who knows this would definitely be a violation of the code of conduct policy for the NFL? So not sure. Unfortunate Jimmy Ward, like him as a player. Don't know what went down. he's innocent until proven guilty but 5.30 in the morning

strangulation, family violence in Montgomery County and Magnolia apparently doesn't sound good for Jimmy Ward. Not where you want to be. Yeah, well, let's move off as better news. On to the NBA finals. Pacers win game three. And I'm going to use this little minute to tell guys,

what happened? What happened? Cases were in six. Yes. They were saying, okay, C and five. You guys should have just listened to me. Your parlias would have been better. You're right.

Everything would have been. I told you guys, your brother knows ball. Now, I'm just letting you know. A lot of me left on the bone. I love. Just let you know. A lot of me left on the bone. They went in and a big three.

One more game in Indianapolis. And another move on to topics. The U.S. Open. Starts today for golf. Yes. Open tea times are up and pairing and schedules. all around, groupies for round one are out right now on CBS Sports as well. You've already got some guys completing their round, I think, out at the old Oakmont Country Club.

Oh, yes, live right now. Yes, you're right. I know. Oh, okay. Jay J.J. Spawn, atop the leaderboard. He's at minus four with his round done. You also have Kim C. Wu in second place. He's a minus three.

And then Blake Griffin. No, okay. Maybe it's Benjamin Griffin. is also in the running. He's at a minus two in the U.S. Open. And you have some others basically hovering around even, but J.J. Spahn leading the way at a minus one at the U.S. Open. But back to the NBA finals real quick,

which we can talk to, talk about in a little bit. Yeah, Oklahoma City didn't look good. Who was it? Was it? Who came off the bench for 27 points? Was it Benedict? Benedict freaking Matherin came off the bench for 27 points. Exactly. Tyreys Halliburton had a good game.

Oklahoma City Thunder backs against the wall a little bit. They have to win three out of four games. And they looked exhausted last night. To win this World Series. To win this NBA Finals. Not looking good. One of their worst games of the postseason. I think we have to knock them down a peg now.

People were talking about them as being one of the all-time great teams up there with like the 86 Celtics and the early 2000s Lakers. and blah, blah, blah, blah, because they did a, it is a fact. They had the best point differential in NBA history, but getting pushed to seven by the Thunder, excusable because, I mean, by the Nuggets,

because, I mean, Nicolioch is a freak of nature, one of the greatest basketball players of all time. But, and the Pacers are good, too, but I think the Thunder getting down a peg. I still think they're going to win the series. See, guys, you heard it here first. I don't think they're going to win the series. You know, I don't know.

I have to last. Chet Holden Green is very under experience and gets in his head way too, way too much in this clutch time. I know you saw the Miles Turner block on that three-pointer, and then he went and tried to go driving the paint by himself with four of the kickbacks and he still didn't do anything. And he's even, it's almost like another Jalen Green situation. Oh, hey, come on now. At least Chet Hongren had 20 points. I don't know how many times. I said in the NBA finals.

It's different. same situation going on, at least in my opinion. All right, all right. Well, Shagildis Alexander's still doing his thing. I still think that Thunder are the better team, but we shall see. We shall see as the finals go along. What else is on the news at noon? Jonathan Allen.

If you want to say that's all you got, that's fine. That's all I got, guys. I appreciate you guys trying to get better every time I get on here. We appreciate you. Yeah, there's other couple of stuff, but I mean, it's that slow time of year as you're learning. Jonathan's like, man, there's not been a lot of talk to talk about. Yeah, it's that time of year. So it's been pretty slow.

So you know what we talk about? We play the hits. We talk about what you want to talk about. At 713-212-5-790 here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. He is out in Las Vegas. You can get in at 7-13-212-5-7-90. Astros bounce back after losing the series opener to the White Sox. They get a resounding 10-2 victory over the White Sox.

going for a series victory today, 710 first pitch at Dyken Park. And also, when we come back, Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets, how would you feel about it? Because now we've talked about rumors, but Shams Sharani, mentioning the Rockets as one of the five potential suitors for Kevin Durant. We'll get into that next. You want to get in, talk about anything. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-790. Continuing along on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Adam Wexler joining coming up at 1 o'clock. Phone lines open if you'd like to get in. 713, 212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Sham Shirani reporting the Phoenix Suns and Kevin Durant's business partner, Rich Climman, sorting through trade options with interested teams, mainly featuring

Houston, San Antonio, Minnesota, Miami, and New York. So what do we make of this report? We know normally that when things come out like this, especially when it's through shams, this is the nature of the business these days. Guys are trying to put something out normally for a reason. And if you ask me, not knowing anything, when you put five teams out there, that sounds like trying to drum up a market for Kevin Durant. perhaps all these teams are genuinely interested,

but putting out that out and reporting it, while it's good news, it's good fodder, it's good for ESPN, it's good for Shams. It's also good for the Phoenix Suns to have this put out. So other teams say, hey, oh, wow, we're not the only ones interested. Well, Spurs, Heat, Timberwolves, New York Knicks. So I've said, I don't think that the rockets are going to land Kevin Durant because I think they could possibly get into a bidding war,

and I don't think that is going to, I just don't think that's going to be something. something that Rafael Stone is going to want to get into. But there have been a couple of trade proposals that I saw across the internet that I wanted to bring to you guys and ask what you think. This first one is from a Sun's SB Nation blog. It is called Bright Side of the Sun. They put Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. together with the number 10 overall pick with the Rockets getting the Sun's first round. pick back, which is number 29.

And then, well, it's not their pick. They have the sons pick, of course, but a pick that the sons have and Kevin Durant. So would you give up Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. For basically one year of Kevin Durant? I mean, on its face, it sounds like giving a lot. And I've talked about Jalen Green. And if you haven't seen, you can go, it's one of the last post that I had on my Instagram, kind of breaking down where he is as far as his progression. and it's in relative to other guys who have made all NBA. And he's just not up to that level. Unfortunately, you draft the number two overall and you're hoping to get a star.

But if you get a solid, good NBA contributor, which Jalen Green is, who is a plus player, who is your leading score on a 52 game, 52 win team, that's pretty good. That has value. But he also got shut out in the playoffs, except for one game where he, he got hot from three. And I have serious, serious question marks of him being that star player who can be the best team on a championship team. I think he's probably more suited to be a number two or number three. Just judging from the first four years of his career, where the shooting numbers have been,

where he's gotten better, but he hasn't gotten better to the same rate of, say, in Anthony Edwards, a John Moran, a Devin Booker, whoever else. those types of guys that we would think of and hopeful to be his contemporaries. So giving away Jalen Green to me, that hurts. That's a lot. Jabari Smith Jr., I'm less worried about giving up because he was a bench player.

He's got good value. He can score a little bit. He can knock down the occasional three. He's a good stretch four slash five, switchable defender. He's got value for sure, but you got to give up value in order to get Kevin Durant. back. So is that too much? Or is that about just right? It feels like you're definitely giving up a lot.

And I wanted to pose this question to you guys. Like, would you do that? Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. for Kevin Durant and basically a first round swap? Too much? You think, Jonathan? For Jabari Smith and Jailen Green? I think that's what I know. For Kevin Durant, I really feel that's like a really good value trade if you think, ask me. Good value for the Rockets? For the Rockets? If the Rockets are going for a potential,

right, we're going to go for a championship. We've got a number two seed, right? I feel like if you're going to only take away Jaylen Green, and the only thing is, if you take away Jaylen Green, you have to risk him doing really well against you at the different place it goes, right? Yeah, and Jalen Green has value. He's played 82 games. He's been healthier than

Kevin Durant. He's younger. He could still grow and get better. But he's not Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant to me at this stage of his career he's a one trick pony but it's a trick that's the whole crux of basketball. He puts the ball in the hoop. And then we keep what? That's what basketball is. You put the ball

on the hoop. Yeah, but then and this is good. I thought that's good because you keep Thompson as well as Singoon, right? But it's going to be hard for any team to just let only Jabari Smith and trade or in picks for Kevin Durant. And he's 37 years old. He played 62 games last year, had a little bit of injuries. He played 75 before that. but even before that 47 games, 55 games, Achilles injury,

there's no guarantee that he's going to be healthy. There's no guarantee that it's going to be healthy for the playoffs. But that's every player. But Jalen Green, younger, and it has shown a lot of durability. I'm going to say no. Oh, that's tough. I think that's a good deal. I think that's a good mock trade from this website that put that together.

another one that I saw on the internet this is from a guy named David Weiner at Beemothug has done some stuff for clutch fans kind of a someone I think that's good to follow for rockets and capology type of stuff he has or the Rockets getting the

getting Kevin Durant in the 29th pick for Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks and the 10th pick that to me I would I would do that more I would be more apt to do that deal rather than the other. What do you think? 713-212-5-7-90.

1-3-212-2-790. Holding longest Heidi in Conroe. What's up, Heidi? Hi, Ross. Hi, how are you? I'm calling about you and Brian. We're talking about why Jeremy Payne is so much better this year than he has been in the past year. Okay. And it's, you guys don't know because you're guys, but it's because he's got a girlfriend and it's the love of a good woman. Oh, now, see, I thought it was the other way around. I thought the girlfriend's distracting you and keeping you from your work and then that's why you would struggle.

Well, they say that, but I think it's really just the love of a good woman. Behind every great baseball player, there's a good woman. Okay. That he may or may not be cheating on. I got you, Heidi. All right. That's something that I'll have to consider. I appreciate that.

He's going public. Huh. I like that. I like that. Is Jeremy Pena? He has the support of a good woman. And that's why he's locked in on the plate. He's not running around town chasing women.

Not like I'm saying that he was doing that. But I'm just saying, you know, I mean, look, Jeremy Pena got a lot of fans from when he first burst onto the scene. My girl's a fan now. Uh-oh. Better watch out, bro. No more games. She can't go to the Astros anymore.

He's smoking for us. So you're good. You don't have anything to worry about. Baseball player, famous athletes, billionaire athletes would never, ever do anything like that. Anyways, okay, huh. We're going with a girlfriend card where he doesn't have to be,

like I said, running around town. If you ever just went any, like, weren't there women, like, lying down the street in raising canes when he was appearing there for their middling chicken tenders, but good sauce? But anyways, okay. I guess we can buy that. We'll see if it keeps up.

And we'll get more data as it goes along. Sometimes, let's see. That's what I'm going to believe from now. Carlos Correa got married and things got worse for him. Alex Breggman had a couple of kids. It's been up and down. That's true. Okay.

So when it's a wife, when things get really locked down, that's what you're saying. That's what you're saying. She said girlfriend. Okay. Well, thank you, Heidi. I appreciate you making the call. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. Let's keep it going with Mac and Pearland holding longest.

What's up, Mac? There's guys that do better with stability, and there's guys that don't. So whatever. That's true. It's up to the individual, Mac. I like the second trade for Kevin Durant better than the first one. Two things. One, until we get a better, a more accomplished three-point.

shooter, I think we have to hold on to Javari Smith because he sunk a lot of them. His percentage is spotted higher as anybody on the team. Also, a couple of months ago, there was, in the Western Conference, there was a bunch of teams scrambling for the last positions as, you know, one through six and then the play-in people. And during that team, one of those teams was Phoenix, and where was Kevin Durant while that was going on, on the injured list. if we're going to give away a bunch of people and draft picks and this and that and the other,

we need to get somebody back that we can count on to be there playing when the chips are down. Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you, Mack, and thank you for making the call. That's the thing that kind of swings my favor into kind of not doing the trade is because while Jalen Green, yes, sometimes he can struggle against Ben, better defensive teams, guys with good low block defenders, and a lot of his success can be predicated on whether or not his three-point shot is falling on a given night. He's given you 82 games in the past two years.

That's got a lot of value. It really does. And not to say that he couldn't go injured and twist an ankle and be out a couple of weeks or something else could happen. It could happen to anybody, but you have to play the numbers game. Who is it more likely to happen to? a 37-year-old who's had an Achilles injury, who's missed games in the last several years, or a 23-year-old who's battled and played through injury

and given you 82 in back-to-back seasons. But also, this 23-year-old in Jalen Green, he can improve and get better. It's just a question of how much will he improve and get better? Because his point totals have gone up, down up in the last three years. You're hoping for a more steady, upward trajectory

for his career and getting better. But he is coming off of a season where he had one of his most efficient shooting seasons, where he had his best three-point shooting season, and he had his best free throw shooting season, and he averaged 21 points per game, which led the team on a 52-win team.

But he's not Kevin Durant. But is he giving you more value long term than 37-year-old Kevin Durant? That would be something that the Rockets would have to weigh, and Rafael Stone would have to weigh. I think, again, even this type of deal would be rejected by the Sons. I think you're going to have somebody else who's going to be in this mix is going to get a little bit more desperate. I think the Knicks could be a team that got desperate. I think the Spurs have a lot of assets and would be attractive landing spot as well. Timberwolves, intriguing, but not so.

I don't think that's going to happen. And I would say the same thing for the Miami Heat. And those are the five teams, including the Rockets that were mentioned by Sham Sharania as potential targets for KD. All right, time for a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. What do you guys think? 713-212-5-790. The phone number to get in. 7-13-212-5-790.

You can also send tweets to at Sports RV. And is Jeremy Pena having his breakout season because he's got a lady? We can discuss that as well. as we go along. On the Matt Thomas show with Ross with you until 2 o'clock. 1234. And the PM, Rosvia, we are out with you. Phone lines open at 713-212-5-790.

Adam Wexler joining us in just a little bit. And you can get in again at 7-13-212-5-790, talking some about some Jalen Green trade proposals that I saw on the interwebs in the last couple of days. one of them from a Phoenix Suns blog saying Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr. and effectively a pick swap for the Astros and Rockets, excuse me, for the Rockets and Suns. The Rockets 10th pick for the Suns 29th pick. And then another one that I saw from at Beemothug on Twitter, like I said, a sometimes contributor to. Clutchfans.net locally here has

Kevin Durant coming to Houston with the 29th pick for Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks and the 10th pick which I think most everyone in Houston would be more on board with and as I've said sometimes on these

airwaves you know they teach you in sports broadcasting and I think it's a lot of what has led to bad sports broadcasting. Have a strong opinion. So if I can come out here and I can go and tell you, this is the dumbest trade I've ever heard, and Jalen Green needs to stay here. Raphael Stone would hang on a, hang up in a second.

I don't really feel that way. I think it hurts. I think it stings, but I think you get value back. I think Kevin Durant certainly fills a hole on this team, and that is clutch scoring when it matters most, basically at an unguardable level. But you factor in the youth. You factor in what you're going to have to give up.

You're factoring in the potential health of Kevin Durant, who did play 75 games two years ago, but before that, 39 games and, excuse me, 47 games, and before that, 55 and 35 games. Also, of course, was recovering from an Achilles injury at that point. And also in this stage of career, you know, when Kevin Durant was in his prime, he's one of the best players in basketball, rifle MVP.

Not only could he drop 30 a night, he was doing it efficiently. He is, I think, in the argument for second greatest shooter of all the time, which of course, Steph Curry is number one. And those Hampton

five lineups that we talked about in the heyday of the Golden State Warriors, where it was Draymond Green at the five and Kevin Durant, like he was basically their rim protector. Very underrated. defensively. I don't think he ever ended up on an all-of-defense team. He did finish top 10

in the defensive player of the year voting in 2018. But I think in his prime, in his prime, underrated as a defender because, I mean, dude's got go-go-cadget arms. He can just block anything. You go buy him and he's still going to block you. Go-Gadgett arms.

Yeah, good. You know who Inspector Gadget is? That's good, Jonathan. That makes me happy. I guess they made the couple of movies. Yeah. That's the only reason I know about it. Okay, good.

I used to watch the car. I'm old enough for that. But yeah, he's got go-go gadget arms. So he was a great defender in his prime. And, oh, by the way, four-five-time scoring champion puts the ball in the hoop. His game isn't what it once was, can't get to the basket as easily as he once did. But still, he can start driving in that pull-up midi. It's about as automatic as it gets.

And he's still an excellent three-point shooter, which the rockets need all of that. They need a creator. need a guy who can go out there and score 26 points per game. But do you need that guy to be a 37-year-old who possibly has health question marks and could break down and who isn't the defensive player that he once was and never has been like an elite ball distributor, pretty good passer, but never somebody who's, you're going to confuse one of the best passers on the planet. Can pass out of double teams.

Did do it. I mean, when he played the Rockets earlier this year. but Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. Some young pieces. You've got to give to get. To me, it's like a close 55-45-type deal.

I don't think I would do the one that is Kevin, that is Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. I think I do do the deal that is Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. Eric in Bay City

against my better judgment. What do you got, Eric? Hey, Ross, listen, you're going to be surprised by this. I'm a lot more ageist when it comes to, yes, sir, where I'm a lot more ageist when it comes to basketball. Okay. I don't want to give up anybody in the Jalen, Amen, and Alpi category when it comes to any NBA player over the age of 35.

Kevin Durant has averaged 45 games a year, the last six seasons. If, I mean, you're not talking about a 40-year-old pitcher that plays every five days. You're talking about a guy that you're counting on to, carry you through an 82 game season and then several rounds of playoffs. He doesn't have it anymore. This would be a horrible decision in my book to give up anything more than just, I mean, maybe if they wanted to do Jalen Green for Kevin Durant swap, you consider it. But I mean, Halliburton wasn't in the finals in his first playoffs. Sometimes it takes a guy time to adjust to that pressure and that spotlight. I say give Jalen time rather than go down to Kevin Durant

rabbit hole. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Eric. this is the thing. Everything that we say when we're talking about Jalen Green, how he's young, and it was his first playoffs and all that type of stuff, and comparing him to Halliburton and others as well,

it's all well and good, but the, I guess I'm going to have to go back and look. Was it four single-digit performances? Or was it, I think it was four? For Jaylin Green? for Jalen Green in that series. Was four or five?

I think it was four. Okay. He had the one big game, of course, where he had 38 points. But he had, I'm going to go, I'm pulling it up right now, actually. Yeah, four single-digit performances, all five games, excuse me, six games out of seven, he was 12 points or fewer. Tyrese Halliburton has played 34 playoff games

Jalen Green has four single-digit performances Tyrese Halliburton has four They're tied That's a rough comparison though At least you're putting Jalen Green at Halliburton's caliber Or you're just like Jason how bad it is Four out of 34 and four out of seven. Yeah, that's pretty bad odds.

I can't defend you guys. I don't know. Anthony Edwards has had 42 playoff games. You know how many single-digit performances he has? Four. Zero. Okay, now let me pull up my friend, Devin Booker. We've done this before.

Devin Booker, let's bring up his career playoffs. Because we keep making this first playoff's excuse, first playoffs excuse. Devin Booker has played 47 playoff games. Single digit performances zero. Kay Cunningham, that would be a good. I believe he had zero.

Now, he also was a high volume shooter. He had a bad playoffs, but in a different way. He had a bad playoffs in a way that I wish Jalen Green did. Kate Cunningham had a lot of bad games, but he was scoring points because he was getting up like 20 shots a game. Yeah, look, he only shot 18% from. 3 and 42% from the field. He didn't have a game under 20, under 20.

And Jalen Green had 6 under 20. That's where I get worried. Now everybody's on a different plane, right? They tell you this in school. Everybody's on a different path of growth and everybody can get, you can all reach your full potential. And you can. And he can.

I'm going to tell you this. He's in remedial playoff basketball right now because he had four single-digit performances. and I pulled up the numbers between before other guys and where they are as far as true shooting percentages and box plus minus and all these other things and he's lagging behind star players.

That's why I have a big red flags for him being a superstar player. And if he's not, if you get a number two overall pick and he has a 10-year NBA career, makes one or two all-star games, and averages around 22 to 25 points per game, that is value. Doesn't mean Jalen Green's a bad player.

he is a bit of a victim of NBA discourse where it's all like rings rings rings rings rings rings rings rings rings playoffs playoffs playoffs 50 point games Jalen Green has value 21 points for game somewhat efficiently leading the team on a 52 win

campaign that's got value but as it is in this in the sports world we want more and when you look at his peers when you look at just what he did for the rockets that all sounds pretty good But like I said, when you look at his peers and some guys who have had four or five years and some guys even from his own draft class, he's lagging behind a bit.

But that doesn't mean he's a bad player. It just means the clock continues to tick on him possibly being a mega star player, which I feel like he has the talent to do. Does that mean his career is over after four years and 23 years old? No. but he certainly is, in my opinion, well, and by the numbers, lagging behind some of his peers. All right, 713, 212, 790 is the phone number if you want to get in. 713-212-5-790. You can also send tweets to at SportsRV.

Ross v. Real with you until 2 o'clock. Matt Thomas is out. Adam Wexer joining at 1 o'clock, and you can get in at 7-13-212-5-790. All right. the excuses for Jalen Green. I thought we were done with this. I guess it's going to continue to happen. That's okay.

Timothy, appreciate you listening. This guy always is listening and then responds to whatever my pin tweet happens to be, which is my appearance on Channel 2. So, I mean, at least he finds me at Sports RV, which I appreciate. But talking a little bit

about Jalen Green and possibly giving him up. Look, like I said, I want to be clear. He's 23 years old. career is not over. He's improved every year. But that also doesn't mean that he's not lagging behind some guys who I think level, whose level,

he's not going to be able to hit. So actually, oh man, you know what? I gave him some bad numbers. So I'm going to shut up. But I'm going to have to redo these numbers. I'm going to delete these tweets. Do they fact check you or what? Yeah, no. I'm fact checking myself actually. Um, but anyways

I already mentioned Tyrese Halliburton has four single-digit playoff performances in his entire no wait actually I did do this right didn't I

four playoff performances uh I mean four single-digit playoff performances in his entire playoff career that's in 34 games and Jalen Green has four in his first seven

and six 12 or under also this excuse that he he was oh I'm throwing out the first two years he was under Stephen Silas. Like what? Stephen Silas is a great offensive coach. You can talk about whatever you want about the, the, you know, his ability to not really corral

and gain, garner enough respect from these players, kind of like substitute teacher vibes, where everybody's walking all over him or whatever. But he's a good coach. He's a good offensive coach. And by the way, the most efficient season that Jalen Green or the had were his, his high. highest points per game scored was in the first season with Stephen Silas as his coach.

And then the highest true shooting percentage numbers that he's had. Now, this factors in three points, free throws, two points. His highest true shooting percentage he had in his career was in his first year with Stephen Silas as coach. Since then it's been down, up, and then up incrementally, but still worse than his first year. And oh, by the way, Alperin Shingoon was here in these Stephen Silas years. And the playoffs, while he wasn't hyper-efficient scoring, he still led the team in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. So I don't want to hear any of that. I'm in Thompson. Oh, he's, you want to blame Jalen Green for lagging in development.

Men Thompson is younger than Jalen Green. He had fewer single-digit games, and he was taking over games offensively and defensively for stretches. Jalen Green didn't do that. So like I said, I'm a Jalen Green fan. I want him to be good. I want him to continue to blossom into a star. His career's not over. He's only 23 years old. He's only four years into his career. I'm a Rockets fan. I don't care what the name is on the back. The name on the front says Rockets, I want you to succeed. I know that's not how a lot of people fan these days. You got Schengun fans and Green fans and whoever fans. And then again, goes from there. But I mean, we have to stop making up these excuses.

Stephen Silas's two years don't count? What? Things in Jalen Green's favor, like I said, the youth, he has improved. Also, his development year between high school and college was a wash. He only played like 15 games in the G League because of the COVID short and season. So if you want to tell me he's lagging in development because of that, I'll buy that. You want to tell me he's only 23-year-olds or old, and players don't normally hit their peak at 23, I'm buying that.

But I'm not buying that the first two years don't count when he had his most points per game and then he also had his best shooting season under Stephen Silas. And that was in his first year. Since then it's been up and down. Bradley on the phones, what's up?

Hi, I just wanted to give you my idea of a trade and the only one I would do for Durant. Go ahead. That would be Whitmore and the 10th pick. Well, if you're in a bidding and more, with five teams, somebody's going to give the Phoenix sons better than that. So I don't think that

would net you Kevin Durant. Well, I'm all right with that. I want to give our guys another year. And I also want to say that I think Jabari's going to be special next year. I hope so. What do you mean

special? Like 20 and 10 type of season? I think they're going to start running plays for him. And I think he's going to bring his average up and keep his rebounds and his defense. 20 points, let's say around there. Yeah. Well, what type of plays are going to, I mean, he's not a ball handler.

You're not going to run picking rolls for him. I mean, I guess they can run him around a bunch of screens and curls and get him some open shots that way, which they do have to time out of time out sometimes. But he's not that good of an offensive creator on his own. And I think that's one of his big problems. Yeah, but I understand he's working really hard somewhere to work on these things. Yeah. That's good.

He's young. He can get better too. Thank you, Bradley. Appreciate you making the call. We do have to hit the top of the hour. But yeah, his offensive game is catch and shoot. Or I'm going to back somebody down for a dribble or two and go turn around pull up. That's basically the whole bag of Jarvis Smith Jr.

And it's good. And he's, you know, 6 foot 10 with some length so he can shoot over just about everybody. But he needs a little bit more of a game inside the restricted area. if he's going to continue to grow or just grow as a shooter, which he can do as well. All right, time for a top of the hour break here on Sports Talk 790. That's three hours of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We've got another one coming. Still no Matt Thomas, but Adam Wexler is warming up in the bully.

He'll be with us. And you can get in as well at 713, 212, 575. 790. 713-212-750. Adam Wexler joins next. Don't go anywhere here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 1.02 p.m. here on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas.

Adam Wexler in the fold now. We'll have some conversation with Brian McTaggart coming up at the bottom of the hour. That's radio speak for around 130. We also have you at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. A lot of things to get to with you, Mr. Wexler. But I'm going to start with where we were going. the last couple of segments

with the Kevin Durant thing, of course, the news coming yesterday from Sham Sharania, the Rockets among the five teams who have expressed interest in Kevin Durant. My initial philosophy yesterday was, I think Raphael Stone will answer any phone call,

but I also think that he will not be one of the teams to engage in a bidding war for Kevin Durant. He'll have some sort of semblance of an offer. We've seen some different trades floated out. We can get to those in a moment. But the more teams that are involved,

the less likely I feel like that Kevin Durant would be a Houston rocket. Yeah, there's probably other teams that would do what you said. The Rockets won't. That is get into a bidding war. Maybe a little bit more desperate to feel more compelled from a timing standpoint of where their teams are that, yeah, we'll go above and beyond. I think the Rockets have a pretty clear plan

and probably have a, here's the five or six players we'd be interested in. This is what we're willing to give up for that one. And they're maybe not going to go all in in that regard for, well, we have to go do this. I think they feel good enough about their team that you're probably right in assessing it that way. This is what we're willing to do. Kind of take it or leave it situation. And if it doesn't work out for this player, we'll move on to another one or just move right back into the same locker room we've been cultivating for several seasons.

I've pulled this up from there's an SB Nation's son's blog that they put it into the trade machine, spit it out. Jalen Green, Jabari Smith, Jr. for Kevin Durant. Also with the Rocket's 10th pick going to Phoenix, with the 29th pick from Phoenix coming back. So two of your top six per se, Jabari and Jaylin. And I don't know, negligible and all the other pieces. What 10 is for this year versus, I mean, we know what 29 is. 29 is a crapshoot. Anything outside of the 15th pick, 20th pick in any given draft.

It's a guess. It feels like out of the top three at this point. This draft in particular, maybe it is a little bit lighter. I think that's reasonable. I'm not sure that I'm going to sit here and say I'd pull the trigger on it for sure. You're taking out a guy that takes a lot of your offense's shots by design. You want him to, Jalen, and you're replacing him with a guy that does the same thing. You're not bringing Kevin Durant here to not be a humongous part of your offense.

We were talking about it quite a bit yesterday. Kevin Durant was 1-1A in Phoenix with Devin Booker. If he were to go to Minnesota, one of the other five teams there, he's a two. He's definitely not the one. He's a two, which is great for Minnesota because they lean on him a little bit less. The heat does not require our discussion. One of the five teams mentioned he's not going to play for the Miami Heat. There you go, the Spurs.

Interesting situation. Would he truly be their number one option? I tend to believe he would. I don't know if he's so-called their best player, certainly not for too much longer. And here, I'm having a hard time saying, how would he not be the one? You know, I do respect that they run the offense through Operation Schengoon, and I'm not saying they should discontinue that. But he's going to, he would be looked at quite heavily here.

If that's what he thinks he can still do, if that's what they think he can still do, if that's what they want him to do. It starts to make more sense. It's just a much shorter-term situation. Now, there's a ceiling to the two players you're talking about, Jalen and, Jabari, I think. You know, we question how close to the ceiling is Jalen already as he enters year five next year. And I think we're further away from answering that with Jabari. And I heard the end of the last segment for all the reasons you suggested. There's things that look like he might not ever

be able to do. And there's other things that look like he's already so good at them. What if they get even better? He does have a tremendous turnaround game from, you know, six to 12 feet out. And over nearly every player who will defend him, it's indefensible. He's just going to turn around and shoot it over him and it's going to go in. Getting to the spot and beating guys off the dribble and creating on his own, those are areas of development still needed and maybe development will never come. Yeah. And I mean, this whole, I mean, we've talked about the Kevin Durant and possibly going to,

I want to make an analogy, you can tell me how bad it is. Remember when Bob McNair was like, hey, we need somebody to beat the Patriots and the playoffs and they went and got Ed Reed. And so you forget, oh, you have to get to the playoffs first. Jalen Green's value of being there for all 82 games. And yes, a lot of times when he's going off for 40, it's against the Wizards. But hey, somebody's got to go off for 40 against the Wizards. And he's there for you.

I almost want to compare it even to like an innings eater pitcher. Like, hey, somebody's got to go out there and score some points. And 21 points per night over 82 games, while that's not going to get you, when he comes of the playoffs and then there's going to be some shortcomings there. You've got to get to the playoffs. You've got to get to that number two seed. And Jalen Green provided a lot of value for the Rockets in that regular season. Probably worth noting those points that he scored.

30 points or more, for instance, 13 times against a variety of teams. The Lakers, the Thunder, the Grizzlies, also the Sixers and Pelicans and the like. They didn't lose a single game. 13 and 0 last year, the Rockets when he scored 30 or more points. That seems pretty good. All right. So definitely something to be said for that. And the fact that he's out there, just put Kevin Duran on the Rockets' 25-26 roster.

Maximum, he's playing 72 games, 74 games, because they're going to be, even if he's healthy, the whole season, they're going to be nights where they just say, we got to rest you. We want to rest you because we hope there are 10 to 16 more games later this year in the postseason in April, May, and June. So that's something you wouldn't have. The idea that he's going to stay healthy is a bit of a stretch because that hasn't happened for multiple seasons. He's had no catastrophic recent injuries, but injuries nonetheless that have kept him off the floor for certain nights. And clearly, if

Jalen were to miss a game, just like if Kevin Durant were to miss game, that's a big part of what you do. That's a big part of what you like to do. And I'm curious where people think the rest of Kevin Durant's game is. We know where his offense is. It's very high. He's an elite offensive player, top 10 offensive talent, top 10 score. Will still be that next year, I believe. How much does the Rockets

MO of how they win games? with defense. How much does that change if you turn Jalen into Durant, which also turns your two guard into somebody else, or your lineup basically into somebody else, how effective of a defensive team are they? And we've added Jabari Smith Jr. to this hypothetical deal. They change pretty dramatically. More minutes from men, you know, more minutes for others that weren't as big of hopefully a healthy Tari East. And all these things can maybe combat that. But it would be probably close to the top of the list for me that the reason you won 52

games, the reason you gave Golden State fits in most of the series was because of your ability to go out and stop people. Yeah, it feels it's correct, but it feels like I'm trying to diminish his skills by calling Kevin Durenna a one trick pony because that one trick is

putting the ball into the basket, which is kind of the whole point of the game, but he doesn't do much else. Well, we have, that last statement is the first time we've even gotten to the other side. I just said, we know what he can do. Do we feel like he can't play defense? I don't feel like he can't. I don't think he plays the defense that the Rockets have played. And I don't, I question whether you want him to. It's the same thing with LeBron and all the other aging stars. There's, there's

something to be said for. We need to get out of him the, what he gives us on the other end. I mean, LeBron hasn't played top level defense in almost half a decade, probably, at least. And it's, look at why he's able to produce the numbers and say, can you believe what he's still doing? Yeah, because that's the only side of the court he plays anymore. And I get it. But you have to be living reality. I don't think Kevin's quite at that point, but my gosh, Phoenix played him a lot of minutes.

I just don't think that's what you want. I do think that's a reason that they weren't as successful. Yeah. And the other trade I saw from Bema Thug, who's contributed to clutch fans, I'm sure you've seen around the Twitter's fierce. He had

basically the same basically the same trade, but with Jabari Smith Jr. and Dylan Brooks swapped out. I would say Phoenix probably says no. Like I said, if there's going to be some kind of bidding war. And the big factor to all of these proposed deals is there are some interesting things that usually have to be done because Kevin Durant is it's such a high salary. And, you know, Jalen Green and Jabari, obviously, because of Jalen's extension, get you there. Dylan, that's why Fred Van Vliet's involved in many of the proposals.

I think we probably would be more likely to see another team in a deal. I think for that very reason, which makes it very difficult. Here's a three-team proposal because they're so ridiculous, even when you see the actual deal that we're not going to sit here and put that out there. The Rockets, I talk to people all the time. I'm sure you do as well outside of the show and on the show. No, I don't talk to me. Everything is on the table.

Do nothing. Go after Kevin Durant. Go after one of the, you know, Janus. There are other players we don't mention at all could very easily end up in Houston because of what they do, what they can do to make the rockets better. We know what areas they're missing. Kevin Durant provides that. They need offense.

They need a shooter. They need someone who can get his. There are a lot of other players who can shoot. And maybe that's all they think they need. Someone who can hit the wide open three at a 38, 39, 40% clip or better. There are more players in the NBA now than you think that can do that. I think if Rafael Stone gets the Rob Polinka, Nico Harrison, one line of communication, no bidding war.

I'm trying to do this in secret. And for whatever reason, I'm not negotiating with any other teams, then something can happen. But it's just not going to happen that way this offseason. So whatever kind of Jedi mind-tricking that Rob Polinka did, if he could do that with the Phoenix Suns brass, I think something could happen. But other than that, I just, it doesn't seem likely to me.

It's interesting that the Mavs weren't desperate, I don't think, to move Luca. They were compelled to, but they're not in a terrible situation. Kevin Durant is 100% not a son next year. Everybody knows that. They're desperate to move him. It's a totally different situation. And that's why I think he has a much bigger hand in the deal. He and his Rich Climb and his agent,

they're going to orchestrate a deal that quite honestly they probably could have at the break or at the deadline and just weren't as involved at Phoenix's foolishness. That's Adam Wexler. I'm Ross Vieer. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. phone lines open at 713-212-1-2-5-7-90. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90.

We'll take quick break, anything you guys want to get to. So we've got to talk about the Stroes. They're 10-2 victory over the White Sox. Ryan Gusto with a quality start, rockets, and their possible trades. And we will have the legal mind of Adam Wexer breaking down the entire Jimmy Ward scenario as we go along as well. With you until 2 o'clock, the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 119 at the PM here on Sports Talk 790s Matt Thomas show

With Ross Without Matt Thomas He is out in Vegas In his dream trip For his young son You know when you graduate college You go to Vegas You're really ready to let loose

You go for Barry Manilow one night And then carrot top the next Hard to beat that I mean it's just unbelievable The stories he'll have Upon return The stories that they will tell about, I don't know, icy hot and unfunny comedians

should be amazing for Matt Thomas. He'll be back on Monday. How much money do you think was generated by the plastic surgeons that worked on those two gentlemen's faces? Who do you, no, somebody mentioned that yesterday. Who's had more surgeries? Ah, that's a close call.

I'm going to say because Manilow's in his 80s. He's got to give it to him. Sure. But clearly Caratops got some sort of, what do they call it, addiction, right? You can get addicted. to plastic surgery. I've heard about that. There's some people who've tried to look like

other people or dolls, yes. He's going to be featured on a TLC episode of something. We'll care at top. Anyways, we're back here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross, Adam Wexer, graciously hanging out with me. You guys can get in if you'd like at 713, 212, 5, 790.

We'll have Brian McTagger coming up in the next segment. So let's go ahead and talk a little bit of Astros. Step in the right direction for a number of people. Of course, Ryan Gusto with the quality start. That was nice to see. And I think we were here maybe two weeks ago about Adam Wexler. Is Christian Walker turning it around at the plate?

Four runs batted in, three hits. One was a check swing to right field. But hey, counts all the same, but two really hard hit balls, including one that went 412 feet. Yeah, some pointing to the last 15 games for Christian Walker seems like a reasonable endeavor when the numbers, that's a little over, you know, a little less than a fourth of his season. They're reasonable to look at.

You know, four homers, 13 RBIs, and those 15 games, an OPS of 866. Still strikes out way, way, way too much. Even mixed one in last night during his best night of a year. Swings and misses are, I felt like I knew a little bit about Christian Walker before he arrived. I did not expect that. The amount of swings and misses at strikes. is alarming. Now, swinging it pitches out of the zone, everybody falls to that at some point, but he swings and misses at so many pitches in the zone still. I'm amazed by it, but I do respect

what he's done over the last, you know, like I said, a little less than a quarter of the season, 15 games. I'm hopeful that that is something of consequence. I feel like we've seen it before, maybe and not quite as long of a stretch. It's definitely mandatory for the Astros to really do anything great this year that, you know, there's only so many players that can have down years. If he's going to have a year the rest of the year in the below 700 OPS, the only way they can manage through that is if Yiner Diaz doesn't, or if Yordon Alvarez comes back and all of a sudden he's himself and sitting at 950. You know, if Christian Walker goes up, then maybe you can withstand Yiner Diaz still being where he is. The swings were good. You know, the barrels are good. He actually

leads the team in barrels per plate appearance for this season. That's good. Christian Walker, which is pretty remarkable. So some of the, he hits into bad luck. You have to give it a little bit, and we've seen it. He hits a ton of line drive outs to all fields, infielders, outfielders, guys that don't have to move, guys that have to make great catches. It has been a part of his season. That's why some of those other, you know, balls in play, batting averages, balls in player, bit down and some other things. His bat speeds almost unchanged, 75 miles an hour of the last two years, 74.2 before yesterday. It's slower. It is slower, but it's marginal. Even though the, you know, one to two miles an hour

can be considered something. We were actually looking at that yesterday on the show in comparison to the player he replaced. And there's no comparison into where some of the peripherals went down for the previous $20 million a year or thereabouts first baseman. Those were catastrophic drops and hard hit percentage and poll percentage and all sorts of things. It's not, it's down across the board for Christian Walker just last year to this year. No question about it. But yeah, I've been very hesitant to say, I'm seeing the signs. I'm seeing it a turn. I really don't want to say that because for two months

if he does this he's still only going to have a 725 OPS Well he can hit like that like Jose Altuve did in that Seattle series Where he had like eight hits in one series You can just pull that together He can really pull up his numbers I mean he went from 208 to 2017

In one day And then I was you were mentioning some of the numbers Last year his XBA was 246 This year it's 246 So hopefully there is still some average X-Vlocity, 91.2. I know you don't get a chance to do this much on this show. I'm going to get shut down.

But XBA, which is a big one, a lot of people look at it. It's for every single at bat, oh, there was a 940 OPA or expected batting average. The more I look at it, the more we watch it, the less I want to put credence in it. Because these balls that go 412 feet, okay, so it's 1,000 XBA, isn't it? No, not today. No, it's 970. Because there's some wind that wasn't there. There's so many other things.

And I just, it's, it almost seems made up. Almost. Almost. But it's not. It's not. It's real. But it can't hurt you. So if his XBA is unchanged last year to this year, are you calling it bad luck?

I'm calling it some bad luck. Yes. Okay. I mean, his, yeah, you mentioned the batting average balls and play is a little bit down. Not as far bad as Yiners. Yoners is way worse. I can't remember I pulled it up earlier. But he was also over his head last year.

and then probably a little bit... My favorite thing about Yiner this year is if I'm watching the game with somebody, usually my daughter and he comes to the plate, I'll say, I guarantee you he's swinging at this pitch. And I'm pretty much right every time. You're going to be right just about every time. Not the first pitch or the second pitch or the fourth pitch, all of the pitches. That's just also kind of the nature of who he is and hasn't changed,

and I don't really expect it to change, but hopefully some luck for him can change. But overall, for the Astros, it seems like, I mean, we talked about it this whole season long, it seems like it's been bad luck with the injuries and with the underperformances of the guys we just talked about. Well, you're four games up in a very bad American League West. And the injuries, I guess at least, have almost exclusively been confined to the pitching staff. Clearly, Yordon Alvarez is the worst one to get hurt, and he's been hurt now for a significant period of time, during which the Astros have been well over 500, which is outrageous, but it is true. There were one game over 500 prior to the games that he's missed in succession,

And now they're... Don't need them. Many more games over five. But nobody else has really been hurt. You had a game here or a game there. Walker's been out there all year. Pena's played and every... I mean, the most of what you wanted.

I know Chaz and Zach Desenzo are hurt currently, but I don't believe that's relevant to the discussion. No offense to the two. Pena was pulled from the game now. It was a laffer at that point. He stayed in the game when he got hurt. He got an A.B. He stayed in the game when he got hurt.

He was pulled in. Just something to monitor. He looked like he kind of... Eight at the time? It looked like he might have tweaked his back a little bit. So you're saying... I'm not saying anything. You're saying the double play machine that is Frambrose Valdez is going to have to make do with Maricio Dubon at shortstop tonight?

That's what you're forecasting? No, that's not what I'm forecasting. Yeah, Jeremy Payne is going to be leading off and starting at shortstop. That's what you're forecasting. I'm not forecasting that either. I can't wait as you to play shortstop tonight then. I'll have it for you on the Astros on Deck Show coming up at 6 o'clock. And it'll be, of course, the lineup will be announced before that.

I'm sure it will be discussed on the A team with Adam Wexer and Adam Planton. Is everybody in? Everybody's in today, and all these things we get into with, you know, obviously you need to go out and beat teams that you know can't normally compete with you. I still think the White Sox are way better than people think they are this year. And their record is so awful that it's hard to believe that. But the run differential, they're starting pitching much, much better than people think. What they did yesterday was outstanding. They haven't always done that.

The pitcher they faced in game one, that's their best starter. And it looked like it. He gave up a hit and worked around it. gave up another hit and we worked around it all night long. They hit into three double plays. The Astros, while they have the fourth best record in the American League, aren't clearly they're not invincible. Clearly they're not what I think we'd call a great team.

But as they continue to win series, which is what they'll do when they win today, and it'll be three consecutive series, winning two out of three, you're just getting further and further away from 500. You're also getting further and further away from the Angels and Mariners. And that's going to put them in the usual Astros ready for the playoff stratosphere. That's what we're hoping for. still have the weakest schedule remaining as terms of opponents win percentage. 30th out of 30.

All that being said, I'm like, enough of the games against the teams that you can't stand losing to. I'm okay losing to the better teams because they're good. But the Astros clearly have fared well against the very good teams. So all the bad teams are going to play, going to beat them, and then we're going to be really frustrated. Or hopefully they just run away with the American League West. That's what I'm hoping for at this point.

All right, quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross, Adam Wexler, hanging out. When we come back, conversation with Brian McTagger talking about many of the things we just discussed what is going on with your Houston Astros. We'll bring that to you next here on Sports Talk 790. Continuing along, you're on Sports Talk 790. Rosvierreale, Adam Waxer with you, Matt Thomas out. He'll be back on Monday.

And right now I want to bring some good conversation for you guys. every Thursday we were joined by Brian McTaggart, but that was a long time ago, so wanted to get you guys some of this great conversation. You can find it in full. It isn't the full conversation, but you can find it at SportsTalk790.com and the podcast page.

Brian McTaggart of MLB.com and Astros.com covering the Astros like nobody's business. Here's what he had to say about a number of Astros topics starting off with Christian Walker and Iyner Diaz and their good nights. It feels like we've said it before. Are these guys

back in business. Here's what Brian McTaggart had to say. Yeah, you're right. I mean, this happens like once every week where one of these guys has a good game or hits the ball hard and you're like, okay, maybe this is it. But, you know, Yonner hit a couple of balls hard the night before as well. You know, Walker

really crushed his Homer. I think it was almost 108 off the bat. And then I think one of the things in Joe Spada brought this up too was his third hit was a little bloop single to right field. And he had just been not getting those. He'd really been not getting the breaks on balls that weren't hit hard or pop-ups or things like that.

So I think for him, that was probably as encouraging as the home run. Like, hey, I'm finally starting to get some breaks here in the three-hit game. But, yeah, if you're the Astros, you can only hope it's, you know, this is the one they turn it around and start building on. Because, man, if you get those two guys going, you know, in the five, six spots of the order, wherever they're at and you get Yordaun bike healthy and playing like Yordaun, then you've got a real chance to run away with the division. Yeah, and Yiner Diaz, I was kind of a little surprised, just looking it up earlier today. His batting average 239, but his XBA is 281, and he's had pretty bad luck with batted balls. So I think I'm feeling confident that if he can keep this up, he'll be looking better.

Yeah, I believe that. I mean, he drew a four-pitched walk yesterday, too, which was pretty strange as well. But, yeah, I mean, you can tell that he's hit some balls hard at people. And I know fans don't like hearing that. I mean, either get a hit or you don't. or you drive the ball over the fence or you don't. But it's not like Yiner's hitting 190. I mean, he's probably hitting like 240 is, I'm guessing his OPS is around 700.

I'm not sure. So it's not like he's been terrible. But certainly below, I think, what everybody expected of him. But certainly swinging the bat well lately. Brian McTaggart continuing with us here on a sports talk 790. Jeremy Pena, a couple of hits again, hitting 322 and just keeps on doing it. should be an all-star at the shortstop position. What do you think is the biggest reason for his breakout,

whether it be change and approach or maturity or, I mean, just a little bit of luck or what do you think is happening with Jeremy Pena that's leading to this? Well, I think you hit on the two biggest things. I mean, maturity, this is his fourth year now. And, you know, he came up and had a pretty good rookie year, and then we all know what he did in the playoffs. And he sort of had similar years the next two years, you know, a couple years ago that the power went away.

in the second half. So he came to camp last year in 24 and changed his stance. Seemed to work pretty well for him, but I think he made a, you know, he kind of worked on that a little bit more and just tried to just try to refine his stance and his approach to where you could see the ball better. And that's worked out for him. I think once he starts getting confidence, then he realizes that, hey, this is the player that I know I can be. But, you know, props to him because, you know, he's really worked hard the last couple of years to try to get to that next level and it looks like he's going to be there. I mean, it certainly seems like him. Bobby Witt or Jacob Wilson of A's are probably your three best short stops in the American

League at this point. So I don't know if they'll take three short stops. I mean, I'm guessing they probably will. But certainly, Penny deserves a shot to be in an all-star game. And who knows, maybe he starts. Maybe he gets enough fan votes to start. I know the Royals vote pretty well. I'm not sure. It'll be interesting to see what kind of voting support A's players get. not that they have that many all-star caliber players, but just, I mean, or people in Sacramento are going to rush and punch the balance online?

Who knows? But, yeah, Peña certainly deserves to be in the all-star game, I'd say. Continuing with Brian McTaggart Astros.com here on Sports Talk 790. A couple of hits for Jose Altoouva yesterday. Where are you at on him in general? To me, it's kind of harder to get a beat on him rather than others. Like, Walker's been bad.

Pena's been good. It's been a little bit of up and down with Al-Tuve, and you factor in the, the left field stuff, the fact that he is getting older. What are your expectations, I should say, for him going forward? Yeah, you know, he's hit the ball a lot better here the last couple of weeks. I know that he was trying to hit the ball in the Airmore. You know, he had a pretty prolonged slump there for a couple of weeks, I think in May,

and he came out of it. And one of the things he said was that he was needing to hit the ball in the airmore. he was hitting the ball in the ground too much. And once he started driving the ball a bit more, you know, the home run started to come back again. But, you know, I'm just never going to count him out with age. I mean, he still gets down the line when he can, and elite, you know, 30 feet per second.

You know, he can still put the bat on the ball and hit it, you know, as far as almost anybody. Defensively, he has played more second lately, but I think some of that in the last week or so has been because they have Jacob Melton. and I think Spada wants to put him in the outfield to get a longer look at him. Also gives him that other left-handed bat in the lineup, but he's still going to play left field. So it's been an interesting season for Jose, but overall his numbers are probably a little below where I would expect they would be,

but it wouldn't surprise me if at the end of the year he's put up a season similar than he had last year. So at some point there's going to be a big decline coming, but I just really haven't seen it yet. I still think, I still think, you know, you feel good about him when he's hitting near the top of that lineup. Trade deadline, seven weeks from today. Of course, we talked about the cushion right now in the American League West and how bad the division is that. Does that affect Dana Brown's thinking at all, or do you think he's more focused on trying to win a pennant? And, I mean, do you still think they will be in the market for a bat and an arm come deadline time? Yeah, I do.

I mean, I don't think where they're at in the standings is going to have much effect. I mean, they want to get better and they have, you know, a couple of glaring areas where they can get better. Starting pitching, of course. I mean, there's a lot of teams that need starting pitching. So, you know, that's not a shock there. And it's not like they're going to go out and, I think, get, you know, Justin Verlander in 2018 or anybody like that. I mean, they need a guy that they can plug in the rotation, just give them a little bit more depth. And they could use a left-handed bat.

I mean, you know, maybe Melton ends up being that guy and they, you know, they feel comfortable riding with him. But maybe another guy they can put, they can play, you know, maybe some second base, about two days in the left field because, you know, I'm not sure, you know, Brendan Rogers is going to be long-term plans on this team. But, yeah, I think if you have a four-game lead, you want a 10-game lead, you have a 10-game lead, you want a 15-game lead. And then, you know, you think, you know, you get Alvarez back and you get Arigetti back. And who knows, maybe you get Garcia back at the end of the year. And now you're in really good shape. You know, everyone's going to want starting pitching.

It's going to be interesting to see, you know, who makes the first trade because then we'll start to see these things start flying off the board. There you go. Brian McTaggart, MLB.com talking some Astros earlier today on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. You can find the full conversation, Sports Talk 790.com. I'm going to go ahead and take a break here on the show. Adam Wexler still here. Ross Vareal still with you. And we'll talk a little bit more Astros or whatever comes in. in mind as well. Coming up at 2 o'clock, it will be, of course, the A team with Adam

Clanton and Adam Wexler. I'll be with you after that from the ballpark for the Astros on Decks as they take on the White Sox in another rubber game. It feels like every three-game series all season long, the Astros have been in a rubber game because it's been a lot of wins and losses, but you pile it all up. They're 37 and 34 games ahead of the Mariners in the American League West, and we'll talk about them when we come back. And you can get in quickly if you'd like a few minutes left. No, believe it or not, with Matt Thomas out, 713, 212-5-790. Is your phone number there.

7-13-212-5-790. Back in a minute on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Don't go anywhere. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate you. One of my favorite running things about this show is that Matt has been asking for that to be removed from the system for like eight years. Okay, maybe not eight years. Let's see, I guess, four years at this point.

four or five years and it just hasn't been. It's still in there and it still runs and it still makes me chuckle. All right, anyways, last segment of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross, Ross Villarreal with you, Matt Thomas out until Monday. Adam Wexler hanging out. Conversation from Brian McTaggart in the last segment. And you know, I'm going to ask you a question that I asked Brian. And it's about Jose Al Tuvae, 2300 hits now.

Second among active players behind only Freddie Freeman. but 700 away from getting 3,000. Where are you at on him? I'm not going to talk about 3,000, which we can talk about in a second. But as far as the expectation level, he had to decline a little bit last year. Two years ago, he was still one of the best

and most productive hitters on the planet. And it's gone more to swinging for power and hitting home runs rather than being the contact hit king, which he was batting tidalists earlier on his career. But I would say, with the two hits last night especially, declining gracefully, but where do you peg him?

We know where we peg Yord on. We know where we want Christian Walker. We know where we want some other guys. Where are we putting Al Tuvei? For 2025. 2025 only. Yeah, I think he's probably going to be about what he is. I think maybe the OPS ends in the mid-700s,

so that would mean he's going to have a better last three months than first three months, but not anything overwhelming. Probably twice as many homers as he is. has now, somewhere between 18 and 20. So a drop-off for sure. I think that's, at this point, it seems very obvious, because you mentioned two years ago in 2023. He just

had finished a second consecutive unbelievably productive offensive season at age 34, or at age 33. He was awesome both of those two years. Last year there's an undeniable drop-off. Still a very good player. You throw a 790 OPS, a

124 OPS plus. That's great. That's great. That's awesome. I'd love to have that guy in my lineup every single day at second base. There's another drop-off this year, and I think we've played enough baseball this year to probably assume it's real, and it's not, he just needs to get going. So I think he's probably, at least for this year, probably in that range. I don't think we're headed for another big drop-off again next year as the contract continues, but it'll be not the same guy you're used to.

This is the guy you're probably going to need to get used to. I don't want to hear you say that. It's hard to disagree. But OPS Plus, for those who are no, 100 is average. 161, 151, 124, 101. That's the last four years. So the last four full seasons, again, one of them was the partially missed season because of the broken hand. Yeah.

He had 622 hits. Do you have an oblique injury that season two? Or is that some other year? It might have been. Whatever it was, it wasn't out a long stay away from the lineup. So he had 622 hits in four seasons that is what he has after this contract. and he had over 600 hits. Whatever he finishes with this year, if he's a healthy player,

I think there's a really good chance he's going to get to that number of 3,000, and he's actually had one other full season in his career that matches this year's OPS Plus, his very first full season as a major leaguer. 630 plate appearances at year and he had 167 hits. So if he plays just around average baseball offensively for the remainder of his contract, 165 hits for four more years, he's going to be right, he should get that during the final year of his contract. And I imagine from the organization he will get the grace and love as an all-time great Astro to be put out in the lineup every day if he's just average and not good in the field? The Astros, we talk about why they've made all these other moves with players not getting much of a chance and how come you don't play them every day?

He's one of your top young players. and because they're trying to win. If they're still trying to win, and they should be trying to win, if they're a division title caliber team through the final four years of his contract, all of which Yordaun Alvarez is under contract for, three of which Josh Hader's under contract for, Hunter Brown's going to be here. They should still be playing to win. How do you not play him every day, though?

Because you're clearly trying to get him there. You're trying to get him there. But it's funny because I think it was yet, did the Astros put this out or somebody, it's been talked about about the baseball references war metric which is different than some others war metrics where Jeremy Payne is second best player in baseball B-Wore is the greatest.

Love this metric. Well, if you look at B-Wore, the worst Astro is Jose Al-Tuve tied with Christian Walker. He's at a minus 0.6, as in he has been worse than a replacement level player according to that same metric that has Jeremy Payne of the second best player in baseball.

And it includes everything. Offense, defense. Yes, but I think I would have to look at baseballs. They use, I think, more, they don't use as much like zone metrics and stuff like that as fan graphs and other outlets do and baseball perspectives, I think. So I haven't looked at where Jose L. Tuve. I'm scared to look where Jose Al-Tuvae would be as far as fan graphs or baseball perspectives were. He's been as limited a part of the 2025 Astros as possible. That's why he's playing left field.

They have pitchers that don't give up a lot of fly balls, especially with Renel Blanco gone or even hits out to left field. And he doesn't get very many plays. So they're trying to do their best in year one of the five-year extension defensively. We played a lot more second base recently. Obviously, the Alvarez absence is among the reasons why they can make a better defensive outfield and he can still be in the lineup, take their chances at what he can and can't do at second base. Heck, the double play they turned last night against Luis Robert. Peña flipped it to Altuve, who hopped off second base to make the throw.

I think he was trying to avoid the runner, but it was, they should have beaten it, had Luis Robert out by a mile, and they just barely got him. Yeah, I was just looking up the, fan graphs war is better. They have them at a half win above replacement. So that's something. At least that's a little bit better than the baseball reference war, which has, I was a little surprised. I was just looking it up just now to see that they have him as basically the worst player on the team, along with Christian Walker and Yorda. How about this for your worst?

The worst Houston Astros, according to baseball. What a topic. Altuve Walker and Alvarez. I mean, Alvarez's numbers stink. We can't deny that. No, we can't. I mean, he's a designated hitter. When your designated hitter doesn't hit, he's not providing a whole lot of value.

How do you like getting this extra bat in your lineup every day, Joe? I mean, the idea is to put a good one. in there and Yordon strikes you as a good choice. Oh, yeah, not a bad choice at all. Normally. So hopefully he'll come back and he'll turn things around. But yeah, that's just, I mean, one of the kind of storylines I always say, I like kind of keeping and seeing how things play out because we love being on these talk shows. We talk for four hours a day.

If you have someone who is gracious and giving, they'll come on for five hours a day, which I appreciate. And we talk. What's this going to be like? What's this going to happen? But at some point the talking stops, and then they go in between the lines and we'll see. So that's, I am just interested for somebody like Altuve, who we love all-time great astro. He's getting a statue at Dichen Park.

I don't know where they're putting it. Well, doesn't it need to go where Biggio and Bagwell are in that plaza? They got a second basement there. Where are they going to put them at third? Well, they don't have to make an infield, even though those two guys kind of do. I know. They can put a wall, they can put a manual scoreboard out there and put Jose right in front of it. I think the Jose Al Tuve, I think the statue of him should be him shaking his finger and pointing to his jersey that he doesn't want ripped off just to make Yankees fans upset.

If not, what else, what is the most iconic? Will you have a piece of confetti floating down right above his shoulder? Yes, of course. And then an authentication sticker on his bat for Jam Boy can come and look at it and, well, count his millions of course. Okay, so if it's not going in the plaza, if he's not part of the infield, are you putting where the rings go? Are you putting where the... In between the rings would be good. Those, I mean, he was part of those.

Somewhere near the Diken Park clock. Even though he was terrible in the 2020 playoffs, 2022 playoffs, we're going to talk about that. But anyways, inside the stadium on the concourse? Would it be his dancing to the back street boys? No, I think he... What would be the Jose Al-Tuvae statue?

Standing in the box, waiting for a roll just Chapman to serve one up? Getting thrown out on the base pass? So many options. Slamming his helmet into the ground as he's getting thrown out on the bases again. Man, he's just standing there. He let the first baseman run him down. That should be it. Yeah. Him standing there with his hands on his hips rather than getting on a run down.

He's made some good plays. Don't you remember when he scored from first on Correa's double when they threw to second against the Yankees? Generally, the Jose Al Tuvae curse is also the Jose Al Tuve blessing. You're right. We don't talk about it as much. He gets a lot of first and third second to home, being aggressive and running on pass balls and stuff like that. Where when he gets thrown out, we're like, what a bonehead. And then when he makes a play, wow, what a gamer. Gamer. That's basically the Jose L2A experience.

For sure. We'll have to put that to thought. We have four years to make a decision. We do. Or do they unveil the statue while he's active, knowing that the end is near. Is there a lot of precedent for that? No, there isn't.

The Tom Brady statue is just a couple months away of being unveiled. They might wait for copper prices to go down. I don't know. We'll see how Jim Craig wants to play that. If there wants to play that, I don't know. Just don't get the guy that did Dwayne Wade statue. That's all I'm asking. Sounds like a good idea.

All right. Well, on that note, that's going to do it for the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, Wex, appreciate you hanging out. You got it. Thank you very much. Dan Matthews hung out in the first hour. I appreciate him. Thanks to Brian McTagher for joining. Thanks to all of you who listened.

Extra special thanks to those you called and tweeted. Certainly couldn't get around those solo hours without you. I appreciate you. And Jonathan Allen producing RIP to his wisdom tooth. He's getting that one out tomorrow. He'll be out tomorrow. So it'll be just me. but that's okay.

All right. Coming up now, it is Adam Wexer. It is Adam Klanin. They call themselves the A team. They're going to bring you great coverage talking all things. Houston Sports from 2 to 6.

Don't go anywhere. They're coming up next here on Sports Talk 7-Eck.