The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Bregman Agrees To Deal With Red Sox, Astros Spring Training Begins, Framber Hasn't Been Offered Extension

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" react to Alex Bregman agreeing to a three-year, $120 million deal with the Boston Red Sox. The $40 million annual salary is more than $10 million per year than other teams were offering, sources said. The deal includes two opt-outs and deferred money. Matt and Ross also:say "goodbye" to the Astros former third basemantalk with Chris Gordy from Astros Spring Trainingreact to Framber Valdez saying he has not been offered a contract extensionpreview the Rockets hosting the Golden State Warriors with head coach Ime Udokareview comments from new Texans offensive coordinator Nick Caley's introductory press conferencesay "I Just Don't Get It" and more.

Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. And the one two. Swing and a three-pointer from way downtown. It's good. Be nothing. With two strikes, Bregman Popsie. White batting gloves for Bregman, chokes up slightly on the back.

Waiting for a 2-0. Here it comes. And Bregman clubs at D.Tel left center field. Going back, Swarber, still going back at the wall. Sing a later. Two-run home run for Alex Bregman. And the Astros' lead is five to nothing. Boy, left little doubt on that fastball, inner third of the plate.

Bregman with perfect backspin to left center. The 2-2 to Bregman. And that is hammered. Deep to left field. And you can test that goodbye. Off the community leader signs. Three-run blast for Alex Bregman. And the Astros are up three to nothing.

Waited him out until he finally made. a mistake and Alex Bregman made him pay. The 1-0. Bragman belts it. Deep to left field and this game is over. Astros won it seven to six. Best comeback in the year. Astros down five nothing at one point.

Bragman with the bat lift that landed in our booth. I can smell the Pineshar. This was slug to left and hit well back on it Ward. Still going back. A two-run home. for Bregman. Astros lead 4-0-0 on Bregman's 23rd.

There was a little doubt about that one when it left the bat, had the right trajectory, got plenty of backspin, and got it out of here. That'll get the Angels bullpen busy once again. It's going to hurt.

I'll still get an hour's asleep tonight. Ross still at his cost. Going back to the doctor, Nick. I think about damn time. Before we get to Alex Pregman, this song oozes of soul. This is one of my maybe 25 favorite songs of all time. What?

I just, damn. You break up with your girl. It's raining outside. You're laying on the couch. You're feeling bad. You put this song on. It makes you feel worse. Yeah, it's depressing.

The Manhattan's on American Town 40. Casey Cason with you here on this glorious thing in 1977. I don't know what the song it was. You're close. I mean 76. Wow, that wasn't bad at all. Very good. Sports Harvey, how the hell are you?

Boy, what a broadcast you had last night. I called the Rockets win and then got the car and you did a, it was almost like a hybrid show. It was. The Rockets and then a lot of Astros. It was a Breggman rap. It was a Breggman rap. It was a Breggman rap. We were wrapping up Breggman's career in Houston officially.

Now, we had all figured that he was going to go. somewhere else. Right. It finally after all this waiting became officially officially official and he's gone. He is a Boston red socks. Yeah, I don't know how you handle that.

He's on the red socks. If you're a red, you're a sock. That sounds weird. Okay, whatever. We'll worry about that later. He plays for the red socks. He does. Or he's going to. He's going to play second base. Or he's going to probably mash. The monsters your friend, especially when you're a pull hitter like he is.

He's going to get a lot of doubles and a lot of easy home runs. And he's going to do great at second base. Second base. $40 million a year for a second basement. Okay. I'll be honest with you. I'm blown away by the

not blown away by the short term of the deal. By the way, I win on that one. Yes, you do. I also win on the dollar. You're not blown away. 40 million dollars. That's a lot of money. Well, yeah. It was either going to be a long-term deal or a short-term with opt-outs. We talked about this event. I understand the short-term and opt-outs, but the whole off-season. I mean, he was getting what was the Tigers last year offer?

6-171 was, I think, what Nightingale reported. Yes. So give me the quick math on that. It's about $27, $28 million a year. That's a significant jump from the guaranteed to the somewhat guaranteed of 40. there was no one except the Boston Red Sox and it only takes one to tango not two but well actually takes two to tango one's got to be the lead but um 40 million dollars for the next three years if he takes another one the opt-outs are on his side clearly he I mean if he has average seasons he's not opting out of that he's got 120 million dollars coming for the next three years yes he's in a way betting on himself that he's

going to have a good year next year then opt out and then get in and get a big deal so then unless say he finishes his contract with, let's say he finishes his career with series of two and three years after that, he's only got to really surpass $36 million of what the, because the, after the, after he was $1.36 to beat the Astros. Yeah. So chances are he's probably going to beat that, but not for sure. 351 to beat the Tigers deal. Yeah. But also, I believe that he, he wanted the flexibility to, I think Alex Breggman wants to win. He wants to win more. And I mean, locking in six years with the Detroit Tigers, I don't think you're guaranteeing yourself that you're going to win. As we talked about a couple days ago,

the Detroit Tigers have no history of being free spenders. I mean, they are rather conservative with their dollar amounts because the market doesn't necessarily dictate that. They don't have a huge television deal. They're not drawn $3 million to their ballpark. It's a good team. It's getting better. I mean, AJ Hinch has got them on the ups. They beat the Astros on the Walcar,

car, went out of the division series. but I don't know if we're thinking about penciling into Detroit Tigers as a legitimate American League title contender for the next half dozen years. Yeah, but if you're looking for somebody that's going to spend and contend, then you'd probably go with the Red Sox. I'm blown away by 40 minutes. I mean, good for him. That's a lot.

He's going to have to really have a gangbuster year for anybody to, for him to tear up this one year after one year and then go get 35, 36 for six or seven years after that. I mean, my guess is he's thinking I'll cash this 120 in and then maybe I'll play on my way through three or four different teams over the last seven years of my career, make another $50 million and at the end of the day still made more money than what the Tigers and the Astros are offering. All he has to do after this year is have a good year and get $5.150 for someone. Then that adds up to $6.190. Yeah, which is still at the end of the day more than what the Tigers and the Astros are offering.

Right. And honestly, again, from the sense I get from people is good for Breggs. there are some that are bitter about it. There's something like, why would you take the short deal? Very upset. First of all, it's his money, not ours. It wasn't a diss towards the Astros. He was all about, and we kind of mentioned this towards the end,

he was all about the AAV. He loves the AAV. Who doesn't love the AAV? He wasn't worried about long term. He was worried about the quick, what I'm going to get right now, what's the most I can get right now, and the most by far.

I mean, it wasn't even, there was no way that any of the other teams. I don't think the Astros would have offered 3-120. I don't think it would... I don't think the offer that Boston Red Sox accepted. No. He was in the framework of what the Astros were prepared off. Apparently, the Cubs did 3, 4-120. That's still not close. No.

It's not. Yeah. So, betting on himself, but at the end of the day, if he's miserable and he's terrible, he's a 245-hitter OPS above 700 or whatever it is. He's got $120 million for the next three years. Opt-in, baby. I mean, he's, you know, it's funny because there's no opt-out. There's no opt-out on the Red Sox. I mean, they have, they have said for the next three years,

you're worth $40 million a year. At second. At second base. Good for him. Good for him. Big Bragman fan. Wish him nothing but the very best for him and his family. He's obviously very secure.

And, you know, like I said, He's pedestrian these next three years and wants to bounce around from team to team to team over the next five or six years. He's going to surpass what anything in the Cubs and the Astros and Blue Jays or anybody else was willing to offer. So he was patient about it and it's going to probably do okay unless he falls on the map and unless he becomes a Jose Brady. And I mean, if he does that, he's got $120 million. First put him for the next three years. I mean, pretty good running. 713-212-5-7-9.

Your thoughts about Alex Spragman out? Your thoughts about the Rockets win last night? your thoughts about, I just don't get it today at 1130, your thoughts about the Texans' new offensive coordinator being announced for the public today. We'll carry that press conference free at 1 o'clock. E. Medoca at 1230. We believe it or not today at 150.

You got a very busy show. But a lot of it early on especially is with Alex Bregman. We'll also check in in West Palm Beach with Gordy coming up at the top of next hour. 1013, you join us now with your first impressions, your first reaction to Alex Breggman is now a member of the. Boston Red Sox. 713. 212.790.

Back to Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal. On Sports Talk 790. I've heard about it. I don't think it's official yet. But, you know, so I won't comment on that. Look, I would say, you know, if it's true, you know, I'm happy for Bregman.

You know, he had a great run here. You know, and so that's all pretty much I can say about it. So make the best of this test. Maybe he's trying to confirm the story. Maybe he doesn't believe Channel Rome. 1018 on Sports Talk 790. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We take this program today until 2 p.m.

We want you to join us. 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Again, a couple more impressions from me and then we'll get right to your phones. Short-term deal, didn't surprise. Red Sox didn't surprise. 40 milly a year

Ross He Very sure On a short term And not the shorts I mean three years Incredibly short But it's pretty nice for a mini deal

He was looking for length He didn't get the length But he got the girth That is the easiest clip In the history of this show See you on Friday Or see you tomorrow And

The width There you go Yeah It was what it was going to take The Red Sox clearly interested Alex Corr They talked about Him pushing for this move

basically the entire time this was going on, but they didn't want to commit long term. So if you're not going to do that, you got to beef up the short term deal, and they did. Apparently came together very quickly last evening, and now he's with the Boston Reds. Alex Cora probably called ownership and said, that's my guy.

Mm-hmm. Get him. He's out there. We need a middle of a lineup guy. We've got a spot open for him. Won't be a third, but we got a spot for him. with an extremely high baseball IQ who's going to help everyone. He's going to help all the hitters.

He's going to help all the pitching staff. Here's the thing, though, and I don't want you to research it because you've got a life. Can you name a player in Major League history that gets a gold glove at one position and then changes to the new position in the very next year? Yeah, I'm sure it's happened. I wonder if we talked about A-Rod moving to third. I don't know if he was a raining gold glover. I mean, let's think about the ones

most re, the ones I can think all the top. Craig Bigeo was never, I don't believe ever want a gold glove at second, correct? I think he did. Maybe he did, but I mean, it wasn't like right away. I don't know if he was raining. Okay. I can go look at all. So a raining, we're looking for a raining gold glover to switch positions.

The position change that I think of. A rod going from short to third. Craig going from catcher to second to center field. Lance Burtman going first base to center field Cal Ripkin going from shortstop to third base Yeah Abidio had won four gloves between 94 and 97 But wasn't but he didn't switch to what 04-03

Yeah so it was several years over that It's just funny I'm sure it's I would say it's happened Because when you talk about 100 years of history of the baseball I don't know how long gold gloves been around You know what let's probably happen at some point I don't like to make a bet on it's probably rare I'm going to go ahead and call me wrong if I'm wrong.

Okay. You say it's never, ever once in baseball history happened. Now, again, I don't know who. I guess like we could check in with the baseball bros. But has anybody won a gold glove and then immediately swap positions? Again, you're right. Baseball's 100 plus years old. Do you tell me that no one's ever done?

Yeah, it's probably happened somewhere. I mean, I can't even, I mean, I know that gold glovers have retired. but to fly up In position Well From active to retired I get that The first award was given out in 57

I'm sure it's happened somewhere But isn't that weird to think about that But all of a sudden He's going to a new baseball team Which is not out of the ordinary But he's going to play a new position After winning a go glove At that respective position

Mm-hmm All right Who could be the biggest baseball dork We could ask about that Charlie Polillo Is he busy? Probably not You know, we can text wax.

Yeah. I was the only like Chandler Rome. Big baseball nerd. Breaking stories. Good for Chandler. He was first on it. He was. Although other people were trying to give this.

And where can you hear him exclusively, Matthew? Right here in the old 790. In the afternoon show. I think he probably would enjoy our show more, though. I think he was on the morning this morning. He's a 790 guy. He's our 790 insider. Yes, he is.

All right. To the phones we go. 713-212-5-790. In terms of longest wait, we start with Dave. Placito Polanco. There you go. You're wrong. Already? Yeah. Who did that? Who told you that? I'm telling you that.

Go ahead. What you got? You're wrong, Matt. I'm glad. I want you to call me. You know, this doesn't give me any pleasure to say, you are wrong. No, it does. It gives you a lot. Go ahead and tell me what it was. Placito Polanco won golden glove at consecutive, two different positions in consecutive years. So he won one at second base and then at third base the next year. Okay. Well, there you go.

Hashtag I'm wrong. That's pretty good. It didn't take you very long to figure that out. Yeah, that was the, The methodology I figured that would work was two different positions in two different years. Oh, he's so good. Yeah, he's a versatile to a versatile player. And it'd be easy to smoke it out that way. You smoke it.

All right. Damon and Tomball at 1023 on 7-0. Hello, Damon. Hey, how y'all guys doing today? Good. How y'all doing today? Great. Alex Brickman's a situation.

I'm just got, yeah. then when I think back about losing Springer, losing career, but after they left in anyway, then we continue to keep winning. Yeah. Unfortunately, Damien, you got a terrible line. I want to blame you on this one.

No, the way that was, it could be, that sounded like ours. Let's find out. Dwayne and El Paso. How do you sound today, Dwayne? Hey, gentlemen, what's going on today? You tell us.

I was listening today. And Chandler Romne, the gentleman who writes for the paper, I thought he had some great thoughts and ideas about the trade. But the one thing that he didn't, I don't think that he said or he didn't know, but he's going to score like $30 million a year until his contract is complete, which I think is a good deal. That's just take-home pay. but now that the Boston Red Sox, they're loaded as far as pitchers are concerned now. They've got seven starters on that team that will enable them to move into that second position in the east. And not only that, but they also got two relievers that they, well, they've had, but they just gave them a contract for more years playing with them.

But this year, I think not only him being a good third base, but he's not going to have any problem at all playing second base for them. And with that offense that they're going to have this year, I think they're going to compete very well in that East Division behind the New York Yankees. And you're talking about some good games that are going to come on. Man, New York Yankees versus the Boston Red Sox? Oh, man, we're going to be watching some baseball this year. But anyway, gentlemen, that's all the word to say.

And God bless you. Thank you very much, sir. nice to hear from you. Well, every game I'm sure will be on national television, Matt. Yeah, apparently... Sunday night baseball, it's Boston Red Sox and Yankees. The, uh, every Yankees, Red Sox game is going to be on either Fox, ESPN or the MLB network. Or TBS.

Or, I mean... Or Hulu Or... It's funny. The Lifetime Movie Network has picked up four games. That's not shocking at all. All right. So here is the potential lineup for the Red Sox. Jaron Durenz and left. Devers at third. Bregman would bat third in play at

second. Tristan Casas at first, Trevor Story at short, Masa Taka, Yoseida, the DH, Yiner, is it, Wilm, is it, no, it's... Wilier. Wilier. Wilier, Arbreu. Weiger, Arbreu and Wright,

Connor Wong, the catcher, and O'u, Raphael is his first name, Sedian? Is that it, I think it's Cetian, right? Cedon. No. He's French? No. No.

Raphaela, Frumperia. No, no, no, no. I think it's a bagu. What is that baguette? No, we're not adding French. Like Pablo Pugioni was not retaliated. He wasn't? No.

He was Argentinian. There's a heavy Argentinian influence in Italy. I mean, Italian influence in Argentina. Okay, well then, so. Lino Messi. Don't know who that is. Oh, please. 713, 212, 5, 7.8.

I mean, that's a good lineup. I mean, look, the Astros, 1 to 6 is really good. Well, 1 to 5. 6, 789 can get a little squirly, especially 7-8-9 we're occupying all three of the outfield positions A quick thing we were talking about getting to 40 million and how big that was for the Red Sox

I forgot to mention that there is supposed to be significant deferrals in this deal Yeah Some teams want to defer, some don't Well, it's about the player too Yeah, it's got to have both sides Yeah, it's got to have both sides I think every team would like to defer

Yeah, why wouldn't you? Yeah Unless you're trying to... I don't have to pay till later Well, in some cases, if you're trying to sell a team, you don't want to defer because you don't want to have that stuck on the bill for somebody to pay. Right.

Remember when the Drake McLean was going to sell on the Astros? I mean, he was dumping payroll left and right. He's like, man, we're making this is lean and mean here. To the bone. Remember who was the Scott Feldman was the highest paid Astro? He was like, what? And he was making like 10 million a year. It was something crazy.

Yeah. It was not good. 713-212-5-790. Stephen Huffman. We'll get to you. Our phone lines are actually okay, which is a miracle in itself. That was just the previous color. Yeah, I don't know.

sometimes we have a line that's acting up. It's weird, even though it's internet phones. So hopefully we're okay. Yeah, I think I do want to hear from the people. We'll check in with Gordy coming up at a half an hour from now, as he is in West Palm Beach. By the way, what is up with our weather? One day it's 80 and next day it's 47. What up at that? I like a little chill in there. It's called a cold front, Matt. It's when it's when chill comes through and then makes it cold. Oh, is that right, Frank Billingsley? Appreciate you very much on that. Thanks for stepping in on helping out with that. Thanks.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-2. 57790 with a word right now for the Shell Federal Credit Union. I want you to take advantage of 3.99% APR at any of the now 13 Shell Federal Credit locations around town. I was out at the Cypress location a couple days ago for that big ribbon cutting grand opening, great event, which means more opportunities for you, the members of the Shell FCU to bank with a great opportunity to work with a group that wants to help with your financial, whether it's investments, whether it's auto loans, whether it's home improvement loans, whatever the kind of financial assistance you need, the Shell Federal Credit Union is there for you. When you purchase a, again, an auto loan from Shell FCU,

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or perhaps a pre-owned. Shellfcccccccc.org, shellfcccccccc. for auto loans today from the Shell Federal Credit Union. Matt Thomas, Ross Villarreal. It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. That'll be in August. We've come a long way from where we began.

2017 championship. Oh, I tell you all about it when I see you again, when I see you again. How's it going to do without any Rachie? in Boston. Monk and moanuts. Sign them up. There are more monk and moanuts in Boston. There are Rarwarks.

Breggie bomb clam chowder. By the way, people are taking jad bit of salsa. You don't even even taste it. You be tasting it? I haven't had an... Are we going brutal honesty for five seconds? No, no, no, no. First of all, you can absolutely go brutal honesty in the show.

Secondly, now the brangy sauce I had years ago was fine. I haven't had a bunch of it. It's not good. It's mid. It's worse than pace. Really? Because pace is mid. Pace is baseline.

If you serve pace, I'll eat it. I mean, you wouldn't prefer. I'd be happy about it. Like, for instance, yesterday I went to a butterburger on the way home yesterday from the Rockets game. You did? Yeah, I was hungry. That's off your regimen, Matt. I got the chicken fajita taco, which is a limited time offer.

It was delicious. They can cook a chicken fajita taco. So let me get this straight. You went to a burger restaurant and got a chicken fajita taco. I wasn't feeling a burger, but I wanted something to dry bar. go to a burger restaurant. Because it was 10.30 at night. I mean, I had to have a bunch of options.

Tony's wasn't, doesn't have a drive-thru. Put it that way. I don't know what that means. Fine dining. Tony's, you know, restaurant? I mean, high-end. Pop-a-o. Pop-a-o's closed. Popsito's closed.

That's the frozen pizza people? No, Tony's down on, near and in the gallery area. It's five-star. You wouldn't be familiar. No, exactly. I have no idea. Point being is that I didn't feel like a burger or chicken strips. I was like, you know, that chicken-a-ed-ta-to-to-to-to-to-to-cgo looks good.

It was excellent. Excellent. So I put a little pecanque sauce and they don't call it sauce. They call pecansoce. And it was mid. It was mid. Yeah, that's, yeah, the waterburger pecanque sauce is pace-ish. Yeah, exactly.

It's mid. It's fine. It gets the job done. You don't hate it. I needed it. It was acceptable. I appreciated it. Mm-hmm.

But it's not like I would like, man, I can really go for a big old, big old bowl of chips and water burgers, or, excuse me, better burgers, peccante sauce. I think it's a green sauce. too. Didn't know they had it. All right. I'm here to help you. So we'll check in with Gordy coming up

about 25 minutes from now. It is first day of pictures and catches reporting. Although a lot of guys kind of stroll in the next handful of the day. We'll be there next Tuesday. We get there Monday night, actually. And we'll be there Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday broadcasting our shows

from West Palm Beach. Yes. Home of one side of the freeway, beautiful beaches, expensive homes, other side, low-end apartments and pawn shops. There's a lot of cities like that. that. But when you think

of West Palm Beach, that just sounds hoity tooty. But it's not. Well, everyone's got a little seedy area. Oh, my God, and we found it two years ago. Our hotel was in the middle of a seedy area. Oh, you're such a whiner. It was fine. The floors

were a little greasy, which was weird. And the bloodstains were bad. How does the floor get greasy in a hotel room? Can someone explain that to me? By the way, our phone didn't work. Somebody had a fish fry in there? And our remote control was actually still attached. to the television by a wire. No, that was the one that was broken. And you had to go get one. And the lady was giving you an attitude.

Or you were all upset because she was trying to eat on her shift and you were bothering her. Yeah. And she gave me a remote control without the, you know, the battery cover. It wasn't there. It was just it was taped on. This is not going to end well. The batteries are going to fall out constantly. Yeah.

And then the guy with the crack shivers. We've just given the Chamber of Commerce for West Palm Beach. I can tell you that for sure. Now, part of it, though, one 10. Did you go with me about four or five years ago when we stayed in that big high-rise condo? No, I didn't stay at any high rides. That was nice. That was swanky. We don't have the budget for

that now. We've got to pay your salary. Well, actually, it's the morning show salary. Stephen Huffman on 7 outing at 1037. Steve, good morning to you. Good morning, guys. How are you on this, Bregman? I couldn't be more happy for the guy. I like him as a person. He's a great

ball player. What can we say? He got the deal that he should get. And bottom line is, my heartburn has been for a long time still is and there's no point in me getting into all how I feel about this guy but he is what he is and that's Jim Crane

you know he could have he could have retained a lot of talent that went by-bye over the last six seven years it was worth retaining he didn't want to do it and you know what didn't really want to do this either I mean he's he's got a lock mode on how it's going to be and that's who he is he's not going to change I wanted him to change

But I'm going to tell you what, I really believe in my heart. If Tillman Furtino owned this team from 2016 to now, you'd have seen a much different result in terms of the personnel that's still here in playing. Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, I love you like a stepbrother. You know this, right? Well, man, I love you too, but I know we disagree on things. And I know we're going to disagree on this. The Houston Astros for what, nine years, eight years, whatever the number, has had the most success in the history of its organization, two World Series, multiple pennants, playoffs year in and year out.

If you're crushing Jim Crane, that is a 100% mistake on your part. No owner's perfect. No, thanks to him. He's been fortunate. No general manager's been. it, Matt. What I mean fortunate? What does that mean?

He's drafted in God and then developed through the system. Well, that's what he's supposed to do. When he got him in a bargain-based price. That's what he's supposed to do, Steve. Hire good general managers and hire good people. You're full it. He's lucky. When it came to keeping him.

I'm out. That's a dumbest call. That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. The owner is lucky. Are you kidding me, Steve? That is stupid. That is 100% ridiculous. Owners are lucky for eight, nine years.

Give me a break. Come on. Be smarter, Houston, for the love of God. Don't be a dumb-ass sports town. Don't be Steve. Steve, I love you. But that was stupid. Really stupid.

Come on. Y'all, stop. This team has won over and over and over and over again. It made trades. It's drafted well. It's kept the superstar. Yordon's locked in. Altoume's locked in.

You'd like to be able to keep everybody. I get it. They've made, they wouldn't got Zach Granky. They wouldn't got Verlender not once but twice. Come on, people. What the hell do you want? He actually threw down his headphones, people. Matt is upset.

Seriously. Lucky. I mean, come on. RIP to these headphones. Come on, Matt. We've got to save those. Astros last year in 2024 were third in major league baseball payroll behind the Mets and Yankees.

Now Jim Crane does want to get under the tax. As do most owners? He's, unless you're going to Steve card. He's already paid once. He doesn't want to pay twice. That's his prerogative. He's going to do what he wants to do because this is prerogative. And he made him a six-year, $156 million offer?

You as Houstonians can't allow Steve to come on these airwaves like that. You've got to find your sport. You've got to find your people. And you've got to say, hey, is every owner perfect? No. Do some owners let guys go? The Astros said goodbye to Carlos Korea. It was fine.

They said goodbye to George Springer. Things went well. They said goodbye to Garrett Cole. Won a World Series. They fired the best general manager in the business. They fired one of the best managers in the business. And the ship kept going. I have to fight this.

What's Houston sports fans? What do they want? I fight this. Unlimited spending. And a championship every single year from every team. Or if you don't do that and you still win, you're just lucky. Yes. I mean, I get disappointed sometimes, and I maybe I shouldn't.

Yeah, we have to realize, as I mentioned, third in the payroll last year. If we were in Tampa Bay and you want to say the owner is cheap and they don't want to spend any money, I'm with you. Oakland, now Las Vegas, of course. In Seattle, they don't spend any money. There are teams that don't spend money and don't care. Jim Crane and the Astros are not one of them. Now, they don't spend with the Yankees and the Dodgers. And spending doesn't always guarantee results.

Ask Steve Cohen. Ask the Angels. The Mets payroll was over 300 million last year. Highest in baseball. Did they win a championship, Matt? No, they lost the World Series. They had the highest payroll in 2023, the Mets. Oh, the Mets.

Okay, well, the Yankees have been the Astros bitch for the last six years. I mean, it's good. Mets have had a top two payroll for like three, four years. It's not resulting in World Series championships. Here in Houston, it did. And you know what? Is there an alma luck to winning championships? Of course there is.

They did. Yeah, there is. It's just because you put the time in and you put the effort and you spend the money, doesn't guarantee your results. You got to be lucky. It's got to be good. They get a little lucky. But also, if you're good every year, the luck is going to fall your way, which it has twice.

But the Astros in this run have beaten the Dodgers multiple occasions. They have beaten the Dodgers. The Yankees. they have beaten an excellent Philadelphia team who, going into the World Series, was the hottest team in baseball, even hotter than the Astros were. They've beaten the Reds? I mean, it's not like they've been fluky

in how they've gotten to where they are. They lost to the Nationals? Yeah. Nationals were lucky. Nationals were lucky. That's how it goes. But if you're good every year, if you're making the playoffs every year,

you're going to make your own luck, which the Astros have done. Yeah. You got to be smart. And you can't, you can't, you just can't say yes to everything. And look, I am not a fan of frugal owners either. There are way too many frugal owners. Jim Crane may be a lot of things.

He ain't frugal. He's just smart. He just has a philosophy about how he spends. And it's worked out pretty well. I've been pretty, as a lifelong Astro fan, I've been pretty happy about it. Actually, really happy about it. 1045, sports talk, 7.9. I need a deep breath.

I need a cigarette. I don't smoke. Just relax, Maddie. I'm my sister relaxed. I got you with me. I'm relaxed. You're not soothing to me at all. 713-212-5-7-90. Love volleyball.

L-O-V-B. League One volleyball is a grand new adventure that's taking over the country. If you love volleyball like my daughter does, who plays, and be playing in college, thankfully. If you love volleyball like I do and watch it a lot on television, work some of the games, you're going to love the next major league, which is called League One Volleyball.

LovB.com is the website. you go to to. To check out Houston's new team, they play in the Richmond-Rosenberg area at the Fort Bend Autoplique, or Centerplex out there. And if you've not been out to that area of town, to check out League One volleyball. You need to do so right now. LovB.com to check out the Houston schedule. There are teams all across the country.

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Matt Thomas. Ross Villariel. It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. 1051 on the Matt Thomas show at Ross. So, you know, for our man Steve, just to know, I went to get a cup of coffee to calm down, which is probably the wrong thing to drink. Yeah, what? And I took a couple of non-dairy creamers that we had in the office,

and I put them into my coffee and they curdled. So Steve, you have scoreboard on me. Got me mad and my coffee cream had curdled in my coffee. We get some real milk in her. Why don't you drink a black coffee, Matt? Come on. It's time to grow up. Oh, you're saying that I'm not mature if I put cream in my coffee?

Yeah, it's time to grow up. Let's go. So you're saying grown people drink their coffee black? All right. So I definitely can't put the cream and splund in there. That's a double doozy for you. You know what? You do whatever you want.

No, it's not. You're going to be making fun of me. I'm not making fun of you. Meanwhile, I want a cup of coffee king because all the coffee creamers curled here. It's all right. We're doing great. 1052, we'll check you with Gordy in Florida coming up in just a couple of minutes. I do not apologize.

And look, Steve's called the show for years. I love him. Like I said, like I said, I said, brother. We appreciate you, Steve. But it's just, we've had baseball greatness for a long time. I don't dissipate it. I don't anticipate it. I mean, it might have a drop off this year a little bit.

Maybe more of a challenge. It may not be a slam dunk. But I'm telling you, you know who doesn't, isn't bothered by Alex Brevin going to the Red Sox all things considered? It's probably Jose Al-Tuve. He's like, man, you get your money. He wanted him here, though. He's probably a little disappointed. I mean, he's probably a smidge.

The dude's trying to play left field for him. Come on. Apparently it's going to happen regardless of it. It's going to happen whether he was there or not. We kind of knew that, too. But they all want to get their bag. They all, everybody, everything is driven in life, literally, but most things are driven by what you can earn. And I do not blame the asteros for not wanting to pay $120 million for a, for three more years of Alex Breggman.

I mean, the Red Sox wanted to overpay. They did overpay. But that's good for him. I want to be overpaid for something somewhere, guaranteed. The Astros couldn't get in that game. Nobody could. Tigers didn't want to get in that game. The Yankees didn't want to get in that game.

The Blue Jays didn't want to get in that game. The Cubs didn't want to get in that game. The game was, he was competing against himself. And finding someone that was going to say, yeah, we're not going to give you the six or seven years that you wanted. But we'll make you worth your while for the next three years. In a big way. And they did. And if he is there.

And if he bats 319 with 35 home runs and drives out 107, you can tear that contract up. They bring in the juice ball back? Well, he's playing the left field. He's going to be hitting that against the monster 80 times a year or thereabouts. Yeah. Yeah, his swing will play well in Boston. I think my swing would play well in Boston, don't you think? No.

All right. Mike in San Antonio at 1054 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Mike, thank you for holding good morning. Hey, guys. Matt, I don't blame you one little bit for Louis. I mean, like you did, this needs to be a, you know, is his name, Steve, shut your bum ass up. I mean, you know, and the thing, the point I want to make is about those players, the ones you mentioned, Cole, Springer, Correa, Bragman, they chose to leave. And I get it. I mean, Breggman's getting, what, $12 to $15 million more a year, and he's going to get anywhere?

Yeah, he's going to go. But those players chose to leave the Astros. They made them, most of them competitive offers. Breckman's offers good, in my opinion. They chose to leave. So, you know, it's, you see. You, you said it well. You basically said everything that I would say just about. I'm an Astros fan, too, but what do you want? This team has been year after year after you're winning, even losing these great players. And Jim Crane has spent a lot of money. He went out and got, even though it didn't work out. He goes out and spent a boatload on a brayu. This year he gets Christian Walker. Yeah, I don't know how anybody can criticize. It's been the most successful franchise in Houston history. So don't blame you. I was over here. What is this guy saying? Anyway, so that

That's just the point I wanted to make. Hey, great one for the Rockets last night. It was great, young. Enjoyed it. That Durant was on fire, I know. I just, but enjoy the show, guys, and keep it up. Thanks, Mike, for appreciate the phone call. And by the way, on to Kevin Durant.

I mean, damn, that young man can play some basketball. He's still young. He's 36. I mean, he's, you know. Yeah, outside of the basketball world. Not a child, but young 36. Mm-hmm. And all those.

guys were hugging on him. Hey man, good game. Beach ass, we, good game for you. Still one. Bye. He was great. I ain't going to hide it. If he wants to get traded to Houston, I'm all for it.

Let's go. We've been depending on the cost, of course. And again, I mentioned it yesterday. If he drops 20%, he's still averaging 23, 24 points a game. Mm-hmm. Well, he dropped 37 last night. 30.

He played effortless. 42 or 43 minutes the night before at home against Memphis got on the plane got they landed in in Phoenix in Houston at 320 in the morning goes to the hotel sleeps has a little brunch

gets the arena and puts up how many to 37 last night 37 with nine assists five rebounds the only thing that he did was lousy last night is he turned the bowl over a bunch and when he turns it over he has zero Fs about going back

to try to defend it he lets those boys fly yeah so seven turnovers Rockets had, I think, 28 points off turnovers last night. 18 turnovers, yeah. Good win for the Rockets. Tonight, Golden State played it back to back.

They were in Dallas last night and lost the Mavericks. Rockets won, and so we'll get the two teams getting after it. Tonight we'll be on the year at 6 o'clock with the launch pad, 630, the network pregame, 7 o'clock the tip time. And E. May I don't get joins this program today at 12.30. Wow. What a show. All right, real quick before we get to our buddy Gordy in Florida,

Kyle on 790 and 1057. Kyle, good morning to you. Hey guys, good morning. So I just had a quick question. So do you all think that the front office's attention is going to go to Framber now and getting an extension done with him? Because I know that his contract's up after this year. And I mean, unless one of these guys steps up, like if Eric Getty takes a jump or if, I mean, if Blue Ball comes up, you think that they'd want to extend Frombard. So I just wanted to get you guys's thoughts on that. Thanks, guys.

I'm really mixed about it. I would lean towards no. I'm going to guess he hits the market. I'm saying. I would lean towards them not trying to make a legitimate extension offer. We'll get more into that come up next hour. But again, things, if he wins Sayong, maybe things change. Or gets, you know, 17, 18 wins.

Gordy checks in from West Palm after I tell you about Berkeley Eye Center. Would you like to have great vision for this upcoming baseball season? to watch your favorite baseball team without having to use glasses and contacts, then you're going to call 713-526 eyes and mention me, Matt Thomas, the lovable, affable, calm demeanor to Matt Thomas. And you're going to say,

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You deserve not to worry about glasses. You deserve clear vision. Berkeley Eye Center. 7-13-5-26-E-Y-E-E-S. Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas Show. Hour number two of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Here on Sports Talk 790.

Where the phone lines are open at 713, 2125.790. We've been talking, of course, very heavily about the signing of Alex Breggman to the Boston Red Sox three-year $120 million deal. Reports that he turned down six years, $171 million with the Detroit Tigers. So clearly at the end of the day. 6156 was never going to be signed here in Houston. And, well, he's moved on to Greener Pastures. He's going to go play second base for the Boston Red Sox. And right now, we are joined by Chris Gordy out at West Palm Beach,

thanks to Carbock Brewing, Pitchers and Catchers Reporting. And Chris Gordy reporting as well. Gordy, first of all, how are you? What's up, fellas? I hear it's a little chilly in Houston. It is a sweaty 85 degrees here, sunshiny. working on my, trying to get some color in the pale face, you know, so working on that. But a busy morning here at Astros Spring Training.

So we played some Dana earlier. He's not ready to comment on it quite yet, but it's the worst kept secret in the world. Everybody in their mother said it. Did Joe, a spot allude too much at all about what Bregman had to say or about the decision? Yeah, I mean, a spotter kind of said, you know, he said a little bit more than Dana. So I'm happy for Breggie. You know, wish him the best of luck and all that. But, you know, we're worried more about the guys here at our clubhouse.

And that was interesting. I mean, Sean, when I was going to, Sean this morning, he posed a question. He said, are the aster's better, you know, right now than they were a year ago? The simple answer is no, right? You lose a Kyle Tucker. You lose it Alex Bregman. You know, you're a worst team. But you're not bad.

And that's kind of the interesting angle is once fans kind of wrap their heads around, like Christian Walker is an absolute upgrade at first base. Esauk Paratus is actually going to be a defensive upgrade for you. You know, if Jose L. Tuvae is playing a lot more, you know, left field or, you know, Paratus is playing some third. I don't think it's a big drop off from what Bregman gave you there. So I think once we get into the thick of things, guys, and fans start to kind of wrap their head around these guys they have,

I think you're going to start to realize, like, this is still a really good team, a team that is still the Vegas perennial favorite to win the AOLF and still a team that is expected to make the playoffs. And, you know, it's just going to be some new. I mean, I don't want to dog on those guys, but Bredman was not great for that first month and a half, two months of last season. Kyle Tucker, they lost for half the season and still overcame it. So, again, it's not the end of the world because they lost those two guys. But, yeah, I mean, it certainly has been the topic of discussion here at day one again. All right.

So take the audience through what day one at camp is like. Pitchers and catchers, it sounds like it's just a handful of guys on each side of things, but there's really more position players there kind of getting in early. But as of now, what have you seen so far through the first official day of these workouts? Yeah, I think everybody was kind of focused on watching, you know, they do the bullpen sessions, and we got to see Hunter Brown throwing, and, you know, he looks good, Ronel Blanco, kind of the guy that was, you know, We didn't talk a lot about down the stretch of last season to the off season,

but he was a godsend for this team last year. I don't know where they would have been without Blanco, you know, and have one of the best CROs in all baseball. So, you know, got to see him throw, got to see Spencer Erigetti throw a little bit this morning. This team is, I mean, once they get healthy, guys, this team is going to be robust when it comes to starting pitching. We know that Lance McCullors is throwing a little. We're supposed to talk with him a little bit tomorrow.

But, you know, he's not going to be ready for the start of the season. neither is Luis Garcia. I talked to J.P. France. He said there's no timetable. He's kind of targeting, he told me this morning, All-Star Break is what he's thinking. But if this thing starts to come together and they start to get some guys healthy,

you're going to have a surplus of pitching. You know, Hayden was Veski. I asked Dana Brown a few minutes ago. He said they have him slated as a starter as part of this rotation. So he's going to be asked to come in and contribute immediately. So, yeah, today was just kind of getting a feel for the pitchers working with the catchers and certainly some bullpen spots open as well. I talked with some of the guys. There's a guy named Stephen O'Kert who was with the

twins last year. He's excited to get a minor league invite here and proving what he can do. I'll drop the video later this afternoon, but I caught up with Forrest Whitley who told me it's his 10th spring training with the Astros, and he gets it. It's time to go for him. He got his first taste of the big league last year. And, you know, he said he's, worked on some things this off season. So it's just about getting on the same page with these catchers. Yonair Diaz and Victor Caratini and Thesar Salazar. And

yeah, I was actually impressed for being day one. They actually got a good bit of work today. And you mentioned a lot of the position players are here. Chas McCormick. Jake Myers is here. I mean, a lot of the regulars are here outside of Al-Tuba, who they said should be along in the next couple of days.

Chris Gordy, joining us from West Palm Beach. He'll join us again tomorrow and then Ross and I'll be down there Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday of next week for our own spring training coverage. You know, the reality is this. And I don't know how much Dana will officially get into it once it's all said done and how much you'll talk to Dana while you're still there. But the internal conversations that he kept telling us about, I think we're very quick ones.

They were, you know what, Alex is a great ballplayer. We appreciate his time, but we moved on. And we'll never get the true answer to this, but I'm very curious about how much of this. was perhaps owner driven to say let's keep the lines of communication open and how much of this was Dana going, I've done everything I can. I've got to assemble a 26-man roster for the start of the baseball season. Well, full transparency, guys. I didn't realize, apparently there's a, there's a deal in the collective bargaining agreement that says basically Dana can't come out and say, no, we've completely moved on from Alex Spragman because Scott Boris could hit him with,

I think they said collusion, really, by saying, oh, you're not even going to entertain talking to my client. So I think that's more or less. When you find out that wrinkle, I think that's all this was. Dana, I think if he could have come out and said, no, look, we moved on. We wish Alex the best, but we're moving on. If he could have said that a couple of weeks ago, months ago, I think he would have said that. But I think that's where they really were. I think this whole thing of, yeah, we continue to have internal conversations.

I think with him just trying to say, you know, say, yes, the door's open. we haven't completely moved on, but I think realistically, they moved on. They were not, you know, all these discussions of, oh, they up their offer and all this. I think all that was kind of awlwash. It seems to me they were never going to resign breakfast. So this thing was always. Yes, let's go back to that then. Maybe then Chris, maybe there wasn't an upage in the offer.

Maybe that was an erroneous report. Maybe that was somebody just floating something out there just to get some attention. Because if you've moved on and it sounds like everything that Dana would say to us, at least to the media and to the fans, you wouldn't all of a sudden bump it up. I mean, what would you do that for? To increase your interest in them or to do that to make it sound better? I don't know.

I think there's some lines of communication that were blurred on this, and I think there was a message that was being put out there that may not have been completely 100% accurate. Yeah, I mean, just read between the lines, guys. When they traded for ESOC Paredes, the guy they wanted to trade deadline last year, a really good infielder who could play third base. and when they signed Christian Walker as the first base.

I mean, that kind of said, like, yeah, we've moved on. We've got our new infield. And if you listen to Dana's quotes, he was very dismissive. I mean, he just was, you know, yeah, we continue to have internal conversations. I mean, what is that? Internal conversations, what are those last 10 seconds? Hey, you want pregnant back? Yeah, I love to have back.

Okay, great. I mean, I don't understand what these internal conversations would have been other than, you know, hey, we're keeping the door open. But they moved on. When they signed Walker and they traded for parades, they moved on. And so to me, this was all just kind of waiting until seeing where Bregman actually signed. Now, I wish he would have gone to the Cubs and the NL as opposed to the AL, and the Astros are going to have to face him six times this year.

But, yeah, it's good to at least finally get some closure. But you're right. I think it's a little Dana, Hemming and Hall in today say, well, it's not official yet. It is. I mean, come on. We're being a little ridiculous here. Well, probably just semantics. And I guess he's trying to protect the lingo of it.

So what is the goal for the organization the next two or three days before the all position players get there? What is some of the things that Joe Espada would like to see from his squad? Well, I think they've got to start to figure out some of these bullpen pieces because, you know, I watched Brian Abrae you out there. Josh Hader, by the way, a little bit of a fresh cut. He's trimmed the long hair. It's not as long anymore. We know what you have in those two guys, but I don't, you don't really know what you have in the rest of the bullpen.

You have good candidates. I know they're high on Caleb Ork. You know, he's a guy that should mention several times. You know, we'll see on the rest of these guys. I mean, Bennett Sousa is back in the fold. You know, like I mentioned, Stephen O'Kert, the guy that we posted the interview with earlier, he's in the mix. You know, Taylor Scott, I think we have a pretty good feel that he's going to be back. But all these other jobs are up for grabs.

And, you know, there's a lot of internal candidates and then guys who are out of options. And like I mentioned, Forrest Whitley's one of those. You know, we're going to find out who emerges. but that's really, it always seems to figure itself out, guys, but that's been one of those secret things. Like, the Astros have been really good during this championship run about the last eight, nine years with the bullpen. It is really, they've had guys emerge here and there,

and it's always been pretty reliable. So to me, that's kind of the storyline over the next couple days. They feel pretty good about the rotation, right? You know, with Hunter Brown and Araggetti and Blanco and Wisniews and those guys. But to me, the biggest question is who's going to merge out of this bullpen? I think that's what they want to find here over these next couple days before the position players get here. All right, who brought you to West Palm Beach besides a great airline? If it was even a great airline, I don't know.

Yeah, well, it was okay. All of our great spring trading coverage, always presented by Carbach brewing and the Crawford Bach. It's always in season, whether it's spring training, whether it's the start of Major League Baseball season, make sure you guys are loaded up plenty of ice coal Crawford Bach from Carbock Brewing. And we'll be back at Dyken Park before you know it. Crafton Open some tall boys. and seeing those tequila sunrise stripes all over the ballpark. You know, it's the sweet taste of the Crawford-Bockerick, Carbock, Burring.

And we appreciate them bringing us our coverage here for spring training. Just getting started, Maddie. We'll have plenty of content at Sports79.com all week long. You're that. Sports790.com. Go to that website. Click it. We're going right now.

And then check out Lockdown SCC for all your radio appearances throughout the southeast. You're still able to do those from Florida, correct? We've had to cancel a few. We're busy working on Astros. Wait a minute. Wait, wait a minute. Huntsville, Alabama needs its SEC O line updates for a spring practice coming up. What are you talking about? Come on now. Very busy. I got to do hits with all three of our shows. Got to take care of the home station.

That's what I'm talking about. That's Chris Gordy. Joining us from Florida, Hibby with us tomorrow on the program. What's that gesture you're thrown out there? What's that? I'm having it. I think got arthritis. Got arthritis? Yeah, that too. I got you. All right. 1113 on Sports Talk, 70. Thanks again to Gordy for joining us from West Palm Beach. We have, I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour. I don't think I don't get. Okay.

And we want to hear from you what you don't you get. This is an opportunity for us to help you. By the way, today, 1230, EMA Dug is going to join us. And at 1 o'clock, the Texans officially introduced their brand new offensive coordinator to the radio. Wow. We'll be carrying that press conference here at 1 o'clock. Wonderful. Yeah.

I sent you a text about all the things we were doing today. Yeah. What do you mean? You looked at it like you were completely stuck. No, I was stunned at that Colin Coward still on TV. Yeah, well, yeah, that's fine. I'm changing the channel. You can change it.

But, you know what, I want you put some soccer on. I don't care at this point. 1114 on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. Oh, damn, this is getting sad, right? We will always love him. It's not like he's dying. I don't like he's retiring.

He's just taking a check. We've been mostly moved on for months. Yeah. This is not like, we're not startled by these things. Interesting point brought up by Chris Gordy about Dana Brown being unable to say we're completely out on Bregman. That, you know, as he says that, is that would qualify for collusion.

That makes a lot of sense because you take somebody out of the negotiations. Mm-hmm. I mean, you could inform. formally say that we're not looking. I mean, yeah, how about if you say, I haven't talking to his agent. I owe his agent a call. He keeps texting me and calling me, and I haven't returned it, and we're having internal discussions,

and we're not reengaging. I think a quick deduction would say that there's really no interest, which makes me then now believe that the report that we supposedly heard about the offer being increased, maybe it was full of bunk. Perhaps. Maybe somebody said, hey, let's go tell somebody in town that the Astros up their offer.

and the aster's are could very easily have said and they're not going to come out in publicly and say no we didn't and I don't know how some of these things I don't know either it's tough making heads or tails of all this because everything that's reported can't be true it doesn't make logical sense

no but what it is astonishing to me and I brought this up in the first hour of the show is the biggest deal we had heard we didn't even hear about the Detroit Tigers offer until after the Red Sox offer was accepted so it was going to be six years 171 with the Detroit Tigers. That's a pretty good bump from what the Astros were offering.

Yes. $15 million more over six years. Part of it to me was, I don't think Breggman was thinking that Detroit Tigers are going to be this pipeline of free agency coming to their way. And that maybe last year was more fluky than it was about starting something special in Detroit. Although I'm sure AJ was quite convincing to Braggs. I mean, I don't think, I think the two of them had a great relationship. I mean, I don't think very few players did not respect everything that AJ Hinch did. So that isn't yet.

But then secondly, it must have been about give me the biggest average that I can possibly get. And maybe if it's even on a shorter term deal, so what? I had a number in my mind that I want to be paid per year. And taking 6156 from the Astros would have been a slight decrease in average annual value. Yeah, it just didn't end up being a competitive offer with what he signed and with what was on the table from other places. Yeah. The question is, I guess maybe if the Tigers did more years, maybe they did like 7-2-10, would he have changed his mind? Maybe.

But nobody was willing to give the seventh year. No. Clearly not. And it's funny, no one in the business was giving him 7-2-10 or 7 years, regardless of the dollar amount. I mean, they just, and that's why I mentioned it to you last week, maybe we're down to about four or five. players per year max getting the super deals. Like this year, who got the super mega deals? Juan Soto. Did anybody else get in the seven, eight year category?

How many years was Corbyn Burns as a deal? I think Blake Snells was five. Max Freed got eight years, I think. This, in this off season here. Yeah. Okay. So, you know, maybe it's, and maybe it'll always be that way. And I still believe it, and I will be in, and call me wrong when I'm wrong and get on this,

unless Kyle Tucker has an amazing season in Chicago, I think his dream of an eight-year contract is going to be a little disappointing for him. Now, if he has a game by the year, yeah, I mean, if he crushes it, good for him. He's going to be able to get that mega deal. Max Fried signed eight years 218 with the Yankees. So, yeah, there's some, maybe this,

we're down to about two or three guys a year. He's 31. Tucker's getting eight. Well, up to bet. we got fast casual lunch which I already owe you I thought what you want to do sit-down lunch or what's the up? The up is

oh you know what the up is? We're going to go with like a Rennie Rana. Man, that's pricey. I don't make that Matt Thomas cash. How about two fast casual lunches? You want to do it?

How many do you owe me at this point? I owe you one. Okay. Don't you only only only want? one on the dollar amount too? You never paid off your bet. You said the Texans weren't going to make a splash. Okay, so you only just won fast casual then.

We're doing Korean barbecue, right? Is that fast casual? That's not a bet. That's something else. Oh, I feel like we go. You and I owe each other like five or five minutes. You're on the road six months a year, dude. I know.

Don't even try it. Don't me. You want to be invited to everything, and then you want to do this and make all these bets, and then you just cancel on everything, and you say you're too busy for everything. I don't want to hear it, Matt. From here on out,

don't want to hear it. All bets will involve drive-through breakfast at 9 o'clock at a morning. Seriously. That makes sense? You can pay that right off the top. You don't think Kyle Tucker can get eight years from anybody? What was the Corbyn-Berns deal? Yeah, let's up with the bet.

I'm ready. If Kyle Tucker goes on the disabled list two different times extra, he's not getting eight years. Yeah? I'm not anticipating that. Nobody can't predict injuries. He could have the worst. Yeah, but if he doesn't and he has a good year, he's going to easily get eight years. How old is he again?

29? 28. 28? Yeah, he's still in that range. He still can get it. Um, why not? I mean, I don't mind. I don't mind up in back.

I heard it too. What did I say? He's still in that range. He still can get it. Oh, geez. You hear what I have to work with every day? You started this bit. I know.

You don't even... And last week, to your credit, you were all over it. I had very minimal, minimal participation. That's fine. I felt good about that. This is like you feel like it's going to be a lot of me. You're like, we're all looking for the guy who did this, and it's you. No.

All right. 713212-5-790. All right, let's up to bed. Benihana. Benihana. Or Habachi Place. Habachi Place. How about just Korean barbecue?

Okay. We still need to go. You want to go tonight? No. Oh. I got a Rockets game. What about tomorrow? I'm going to Washington, D.C.

See? This is what I'm saying. This is what I'm talking about, folks. Take counter on. He's not making any money. I am actually. I was actually going to do that. Connor, are you available for a lunch after two tomorrow?

No, he's very busy. He's got a thing with the girls. He's got a guy. Oh. I didn't even realize that. You know he's giving? He's giving the gift of a rocket's tickets. I heard it's something in a box, I believe.

Is what he's... What are he giving her in a box, Connor? Chocolate. Chocolate in a box. Yeah. Wonderful. Just normal. All right.

We'll go next week without Matt. I like that idea a lot. we're going to be in Florida but crap look at you all you're you're fake all right here's what we're going to do next on the radio program I just don't get it

this is where you call in with something you don't get give an example Ross can you get like people don't get uh what I'll tell you what I thought of doing but I'm not going to do I was going to say I just don't get it why is everybody so hung up and angry at Alex Brighman I don't think it's I don't think it's a little bit of

you ain't with this you're against us people who are angry so I get it But it's just dumb. Does Clinton hate Bregman now? I can't keep track. He's not an astronaut. He's on an astro now. We know Clinton's the biggest homer on the station. So, if you're something you don't get, whether it's in life, whether it's in sports, let us know.

713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-2-5-7-90. 11-27. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We look forward to your contributions next. I just don't get it here on Sports Talk 790. 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. Sometimes you've got a crack on your own, Ross. I just don't get why the University of Houston will not fix its crime issues. President Gator, this is on you. Honestly, I'm sick and tired of hearing about crime at the University of Houston. I just don't get why we have. have not, look, raise everybody's tuition, the student fees, whatever, charge additional parking. Let's protect our campus. Boys, I just don't get it. This has been a problem for our school for 30 plus years.

Oh, student robbed a gunpoint. The students are protesting? Yeah, it's not safe. It's just not, and I'm embarrassed by it. 100% embarrassed by it. Just don't get it. Another thing I don't get. Okay. Why is the line at Bertoberger so long of the drive-thru? They're so slow.

I got it. Every time. It took me 25 minutes to get my chicken fajita taco fries and iced tea yesterday. Well, they probably were like, somebody ordered what now? Because if you're... They had to dust off the thing on how to make that. No, it was on the little board there.

I saw it. I'm not saying it's off-menu. I'm saying how many times... What percentage of people ordering chicken fajitas at the butto burger? Let's break this down. You have a big pot of chicken fajita meat, vegetable onions and peppers. They probably have to slice up a chicken breast that they use for chicken sandwiches. Yeah, it's delicious.

But it takes one second. You close your dining room at 11 o'clock most nights. You have four or five employees that are cooking. You've got two or three at the register. This should be a machine. Rick Rolley is a machine. Rudder Ruger, it's like molasses. Boys, why is Rutter Ruger take 25 minutes

of the drive-thru? I just don't get it. They're just slow. It's almost every location, too. Is it because you want your hamburger a certain way that it confuses them or something? But, I mean, you go to Rick Ronnell's and you want a rig rack without lettuce or onions and extra sauce, they can seem to get that down pretty quick.

They've been the fastest in the history of time for forever. Drive-thrues are. meant for speed not to be able to comb through Facebook for half an hour. Well, I'm sorry you got your hot ready to order meal in a few minutes and it took a couple extra minutes. A couple extra's fine. 25 too many. There's no way you were there for 25 minutes.

I'm calling BS on that. There's no chance. I'll call on the over. I can tell by your face too. You're exaggerating now. I might have an answer. Call me under. Go ahead.

Please. Chick-fil-A employees are paid more. Mm-hmm. than Waterburger, so they probably have more motivated and better employees at Chick-fil-A than Mudderberger. That seems fair. And it's always their pleasure, too. When somebody at Rutterberger said it was your pleasure?

They say that. Sometimes. No, I've had them say that at other places, and you're like, oh, you work at Chick-fil-A-2, or you did. It's unfortunate that you can't say my pleasure anymore with someone associating you with a chicken restaurant. That's true. Copyright of the phrase. They've taken it over, Matt.

And that's okay. I just want drive-thrus are meant for speed. I'm not saying 75 seconds and out. But 17 to 20 minutes to order a burger fries and a Coke is too much. I don't get it. Okay, Matt. Thank you. Rossi, what don't you get?

I go to Connor. Oh, Connor? Connor, what don't you get? Well, mine is something I kind of get. So I did this a while ago. I was making reservations for. for Valentine's Day, as many do. And it just seemed a little extreme for restaurants to require a deposit to book like a dinner

reservation. I somewhat get it, but multiple places were requiring it. And it kind of just turned me away from wanting to even book a reservation there. I ended up not booking a reservation at a place that didn't require a deposit. So I just don't get it. You're unfortunately and you're hiring places they're going to charge you because they want every table full. And it's, what's the equivalent to this?

Deposits on anything for hotel. rooms on banquet facilities. You know, if you can't show up, the chance of them getting that table filled. Now, if you, they accept walkups, it's pretty good. But if they don't accept walkups, then they're doing reservations on special lights. No shows are going to cost them money.

Yeah, I, I'm sorry, but, Connor, I get it. I just made me not want to, I've just looked for alternatives than other places that didn't require it. Yeah, and I'm sure your girl's going to love the 12-piece nugget you're getting her for her, uh, Valentine's Day. Well, I don't make money like you, but I'm not going there. Yeah. I mean, that's true.

So how long have you been dating with this girl, three, four months? Am I in the right range? Officially, yeah, like two months. Officially. Okay, so. We were seeing each other before that, yeah. So would you say total? It was casual, then it turned up.

The heat. Turned up, right? It turned up. It turned up a notch. So flowers, yes or no? Yeah. Candy, yes or no? Maybe.

A gift, yes or no. No. And dinner, yes. Yes. That feels about right. Not a gift My gift is dinner And I believe in the evening at the Malice Inn

And apparently a rub down with baby oil Ross Anything you don't get I'm good I'm sorry I'm just not feeling great You know what yeah I don't get why I've had a cough for three weeks

I don't get why somebody who has a cough and a cold for a week and a half Does not go to the dock in the box It should be my second doctor's visit In person First in person There you go So what? You know what, tell a docs I don't get you

Because you give up better information I've been getting better getting better progressively. You have not. You sound like crap every day. You know what the hell you're talking about. And you're wrong. You're coughing up buckets of fun here. It was worse before. So you know what? I don't get why you think you know what you're talking about. Because I've been a sick of before. If this or Wednesday, I'd be saying, shut your bum ass up.

I'm sure you would have. I'm just looking for a clean, germ-free studio for a few hours. Well, guess what? Poor Wexler, but there's been sucking on that microphone forever. I've been wiping it down every day. That's true. You have done that. Very least you could do. Jesus. Zach and Humble at 1137, I've got one simple question for you. What don't you get? Well, Ross took that away. I don't get why everybody's upset about Bregman leaving.

As soon as he turned down the first offer, I knew it was going to be a goner and fine by me. Let it go. And the trade with Tucker, it turned out to work well for us. And we've got a prospect coming in. And then we also save money to develop or get somebody else at some point and not getting tied up for three, four years with it. Very good. Thank you, Zach. You see the photo of Brian McTegger took a Cam Smith?

No. He's ripped. Well, that's good. I mean, he's a hookah. That means he's going to hit 50 home runs. Like Jeremy Payne who's ripped. He's Hercocles. Go ahead.

Yeah, you know what? I'm going to go back to it. I'm with Zach. I said I get it, but I kind of don't. You should know by now. You should know the drill. If you're an Astros fan, this is not your first rodeo. If you want to go said and say, Carlos Correleys,

oh, I can't believe he didn't stay here. He was drafted here. And, you know, whatever happens. happen of loyalty. All right, fine. But by now, you should be, you should know the drill. Carlos Correa, George Springer, got Garrett Cole, all these other guys.

Kyle Tucker, Louis and he'd be traded away. And now Alex Breggman, you should know the drill. Why is his fan base still acting surprise and calling Alex Breggman greedy and blah, blah, all this other stuff? It's a business. You haven't figured it out yet? How haven't you? I don't

it. Because once you, Donna, Houston, uniform you're never supposed to leave it. Or whatever. Remember when Chandler Parsons got way overpaid to go to Dallas? Well, he also called the city dirty. Mm-hmm. And that didn't endear him to the fans here.

And then he liked going out with older cougars and mom jeans in Dallas. Yeah, what's wrong with that? Nothing, actually. Yeah, let Chandler get his. Not Rome, but Parsons. Chandler too. All the Chandlers can get theirs. Yeah, you got a name on Chandler. Jones?

Tyson Chandler? Tyson Chandler? Um, it's all like, Okay. Look, I don't bemoan, unless you just absolutely, unless you got a, unless you took money, less money to go somewhere else, which Ross, 99.9% of the time doesn't happen. Most guys leave because the contracts are better elsewhere. Yes. There was minimal interest in the Astros.

And it's not a, it's not a, I mean, the offensive productivity has dropped in the years. Doesn't mean he doesn't mean that he's not going to be a great player for the Red Sox. doesn't mean I'm going to be rooting against him when he plays the Astros. But, I mean, they did make some adjustments. They just didn't go, well, we lost pregnant. We have no, we have no plan B. Let me tell you what Dana Brown's been doing. Dana Brown's been plan B in this bad boy for about three months now.

Yeah. Christian Walker says hello. Eastside Parades. What up? And ripped Cam Smith, like, I'll see you boys in late 25 or maybe in 26. Hopefully. And I'm just like 40 home runs each the next five years. And you guys be like, Alex who?

Let's not get crazy. Quick question. Astros retire Alex Breggman's jersey, yes or no? Yes. You hesitated slightly. Slightly. He's an Astroo Orange Jacket Hall of Famer guy. I mean, how many are you going to retire? Obviously 27.

Yep. One for Correa stays? Correa's not getting retired. Springer not getting retired. Verlander. Jim Crane owned the team in 10 years? Probably. I call it the Clyde Direx or Les Alexander Rule.

Yeah. Yeah, Bregman's retired. I mean, these are retired Billy Wagner. Yeah, yeah. Bregman's getting his number retired. I got another one for you. Go for it. Alex Bregman Hall of Fame.

Got work to do. I'd say a lot of work. Hall of very good. Chance to be all great. Go to Red Sox, be in front of the East Coast audience, be on ESPN more times than leave it to Beaver. Let me pull up the old resume. Gold Glover.

World Series champ. Oh, only a two-time All-Star. Career batting average? Probably the 260s, huh? OPS career? Let me see. 272.

OPS career? 848. Hmm. Hall of very good. Got a chance to be great. Work to be done. Got five years. Meat on the bone, as they say.

Jose Altovae Hall of Famer. Yes. Correct. First ballot? Should be. Should be. We'll see. We'll see how many.

He's going to get. Let some of these old fogies die off. I've been asking that for a long time. Should be. Old, stodgy, holier than doubt, baseball riders die. Three time batting title list. Three time, right? Yeah.

He's going to, like, eight-time All-Star or something. Mr. 200 hit per season guy. Going to probably finish with 3,000 career hits. I'm going to get close. He's going to get, he's going to stay in. I mean, he's got work to do on that. Stay with me on this. He's 30, he'll be 35.

in May. He goes to 40. Can you get to there? He's got 2,200 hits. That's 800 away, five years. It's going to be close. It's going to be super close. 185 hits last year. One of the 10 greatest lead-off hitters of all time? Just throwing a number out. He's going to have to really turn up the heat. I don't think he's getting, he's going to play until he's 40 to get there. I don't think he needs 3,000 to get there, but it would cement his mark. Anybody that it's got 3,000 hits that's been in the main,

it's been in the Hall of Fame. Seven times Silver Slugger, three time battling title, batting titleless nine time All-Star. Oh, yeah. I was off by one.

Yeah. MVP. And a first bowler. And he better be a first bowler. No. He's not going to get 75. He may not get 93, but he's going to get 70s.

Yeah, yeah, you're right. I think you're right. All right. Ryan and Chris, what don't you get? We'll find out next. 1143,

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get treated fairly after serious injuries or wrongful death. 713-888-9,000. 713 8889,000. WeHelptexas.com's website. That's wehelptexas.com or 713888-9,000 for Scott Callahan and Associates principal office, Katie, Texas. Matt and Ross returned. on Sports Talk 790. Real quick, put it back to the phones. Why are the Dallas Mavericks pissing off their fans?

Look, they're mad enough as it is that Luca Donchish got traded and now you're being antagonistic and throwing them out of the arena. Ross, I've always learned something. If people are really mad about something in sports-related, it only has a certain shelf life.

Everybody that told me like 15 years ago that when the Astros went to the America League West that they were never going to watch the Astros again, there was a lot of people angry and mad. and I'm never going to want you to give it. You watch and you went back.

There were a lot of people that were mad about Luca being traded. But if they're a Mavericks fan and they're a Dallas basketball fan, they're going to root for the Mavericks. It may just be more painful. But Mark Cuban and the entire Mavericks organization and the ownership group just tossing people out left and right, getting pulling signs down, just let people be pissed off for a few days and let them get over it

and then start rooting again for the team. I see the Dallas Mavericks and the way you're treating your fans. I just don't get it. You got to protect the shield, Matt. There is no shield. Protect the brand. You're not protecting anything. Dallas Mavericks basketball.

You're covering your, you're completely inept general manager's ass is what you did. You're trying to do. Well, they think it was a great move. Nobody believes that. Not a single person. Nico Harrison believes it was a great move. He's the only one. So I just don't get it.

But what happened? I know there's people with signs. What would the signs say? Fire, Nico, sell the team. If you're coming in with a sell-the-team sign, we're removing you. That makes sense. I get it. You do not. Absolutely.

You have to let them just be mad for a few days and move on. That's what I say. What's the grace period? One week? Probably the rest of the season? Rest of the year? There's no way in April that people are going to bring fire Niko signs into the American Airlines Center. It's not going to happen.

You don't want to encourage this behavior. You've got to nip it in the bud. Get them out of here. Get them out. you don't want dancing in waco either do you I'm okay with dancing in Waco okay I'll make sure I encourage it

what else you're going to do in there I mean you can do a lot of things What's the number one attraction to Waco The Dr. Pepper Museum You don't even like Dr. Pepper Pepper I don't know That's why I wouldn't want to go What's number two?

Baylor Bear Athletics Oh oh the husband and wife A couple that fixes homes up That's not an attraction You can't go see them. Yeah, you can go to their little community. They have a little shopping room. You go to their house?

No, yeah, you can take tours. They've got a famous building down there now. What is it? It's a museum dedicated to them? That's not a museum, but it's like an area development, yeah. What do you mean? They have knickknacks with their faces on them? Chip and Joanna Gaines, I think it's their names?

If you go to Chip and Joanna's store and you buy stuff for them on a TV show, you're a loser. What's up? I totally get it. People love that show. People want to go buy their stuff. That's ridiculous. I get it.

Ryan and Montgomery on 790 at 1152. Ryan, what don't you get? I don't get why I'm expected to go through this guessing game with my wife to find a gift when I know I'm going to get some dog water in return. I think gifts should be banned for Valentine's Day. Also, Brendan Rout is getting better than Rutter Ruger every day. You got that right. So just either can step it up or.

They would expect people to come there. But anyways, I don't get why I have to go find something. When I'll tell my wife, I like what I want and then still won't get it. Yeah, what do you want, by the way? Can I ask you what you want for Valentine's Day? I can't say it on the air. So you want what a normal man would want from his lady on a special day? I'll just say, yeah, the first part would be state.

And then the second part, yeah. That's March 14th. March 14th, Ryan. She ain't going to celebrate that either. She ain't going to celebrate that either. Ryan, here's what I hope you feel better. Here's what I'm going to do for you. Thank you, Ryan.

March 13th, we're going to call your wife on the air. No. You write this number down. You ready? No, no. Just have her, no. Just have her call us on March 13th and we'll explain to her the importance of that day or the next day. You got it.

Thank you very much. At this point, I would just take steak. Both would be nice. Oh, both is wonderful. But if I'm going to choose, I think the other thing, but, you know, steak isn't a consolation prize. By the way, I would be all for getting rid of Valentine's Day in general. I think it's just a manufactured holiday based off of greeting cards. Commercialization.

Yeah, I'm okay with it. You mean every holiday. Christmas, you still give a gift. Giving. It's commercialized for sure. Yeah, the most commercialized. Christmas? Oh, it's just the biggest time of year to give gifts.

Spend, yeah. I love Christmas. Who doesn't? but can we how about this kid? Also, we have to deal in realities as Matt Thomas would say. I know. Let's get rid of it. You want to get rid of it? What? Valentine's Day.

No. Why? Why not? What's wrong? Do you enjoy it? Is it one of the days you look forward to? You have to look forward to it, but I mean, there's only so many days in the calendar, Matt, for you to show your special lady. You can do that on January 19th. Tell her how much you care about her. Anniversary in Valentine's Day. Two days a year. You can't handle two days a year? You should be able to give her the gift of whatever you want to give, and she gives you the give. whatever she wants. 365.

Why wait February 14th? All right. Well, yeah. If you hate your partner that much, that's fine. Two days a year, buddy. Buck up. It's going to be all right.

Chris and Jersey Village on 7-90. Chris, I may ask you, what don't you get? I don't get why the Red Sox overpaid, a washed-up has been who's hitting 260 last year and had elbow surgery. The Red Sox fans

better hope there's some good garbage cans in that dugout to get their money. Oh, my gosh. Chris, Chris. Are you familiar? Oh, he hung up. He didn't want to someone. He's routinely one of the worst callers we have. Thank you, Chris, for listening and appreciate you.

No, you didn't know. You say he's one of the worst callers. That's not a token of appreciation. It's a token of we hate you. No, I don't hate him. I don't hate him either. And his call was not good, but I... Bad calls better than no call. I agree. He's a call in show, Maddie.

Yeah. We do take calls on his show for the show. good and the bad. Are you familiar, Chris, of what the, this thing known as a gold glove. And he was an above average hitter. He slipped.

768 OPS. Which for 2024, it's a 118 OPS. Still above plus, above average. But still worse than what he had the last couple of years.

So, it is what it is. All right. Last call for something you don't get. 713, 212, 5, 719. 713-212-5-790.

NBA, you have increased your back-to-backs. I thought you were trying to get away with it. NBA, I don't get your scheduling. I think we should cut the All-Star breakdown a day. Why? I mean, do you have... More time off. Because if you give me that day,

that means I've got a puncher chance of one less back-to-back. Rockets have a back-to-back tonight. They go off week-week, they come back-to-play a back-to-back. extend the All-Star break a couple of years ago? Yeah, it's too long. Because the players wanted it. I know. The players are bitching about the length of the number of back-to-backs.

I know. Well, that's why they're going to go to 40. I'd rather have shorter All-Star break and less back-to-backs. But that's just me. I'm starting to believe more and more. They're going to go with this 40-minute thing, game thing. Not happening. You think zero chance?

I'm putting my name on it. Okay. Now, it's not going to be soon. So give me a range, then. 10 years? Nope. This would be a huge fundamental change.

Yeah, why why is the greatest professional basketball sport acquiescing to what the other tier professional sports and college sports do? It should be the other way around. Money.

There's not more money in a 40-minute game less. There's more team, more players playing in more games. Not at 40 minutes. You're going to cut rosters, probably. You don't think? Do you think they'd cut rosters? players aren't going to agree to that.

You're going to cut in a number of minutes. The chance the players cut a roster. Zero percent chance are playing 40 minutes. I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm giving you a zip. Look at this. Goose, baby, sports RV. A goose.

It ain't going to 40. Cool. Yeah, I'm putting my name on it. I'm writing it down. You better. Felipe, what don't you get? Well, SportsMT, what I don't get right now is why are people hoarding eggs? I understand there's a bird flu going on.

but it's like not the end of the world for eggs. People do that with water, people did that with toilet paper during COVID. And when the porch shut down last, like last year, not the long ago, like, why are we hoarding stuff? It's not, it's not the end of the world, guys. Calm down. Yeah, by the way. I had scrambled eggs this morning, very mid. Thank you, Felipe.

What? Yeah. My least favorite way of cooking an egg is scrambled. Crambled eggs. All right. Don't argue food than that. Oh, come on. We've already had this conversation.

Don't argue food with Matt. Oh, I'm sorry. Scramble eggs are so spankled. How can Matt not like scrambled eggs? I like him. I like him over easy, over medium, sunny side, poached, what other ways? Omelette style? Scrambled?

Eh, it's just scrambled. No big deal. Don't argue with food with Matt. Scramble eggs is such a sacrifice food item. It's so delicious. How can somebody not like scrambled eggs? Food with Matt. Don't argue with Matt.

Good. You shouldn't. It's not even arguable point. It's just there. Anyways. Felipe. I very much get it. People are idiots.

Everyone was hoarding toilet paper when the ports were shutting down. We don't import toilet paper. Like 99% of toilet papers made domestically. People are stupid. Yeah, people are stupid for arguing me about how I don't like scrambled eggs.

Yeah, you don't like sorry. I said, you don't like it. That's fine. I'm just not going to argue with you. Good, because you were just memorabiling to yourself. Yeah, it's like arguing with a six-year-old about whether or not they like peas. It's just a waste of time. That's fine. You don't like scrambled eggs. That's great. It would be my least... It'd be my least preferred way of eating them.

Now, I like scrambled eggs and a breakfast taco. Yeah, that's great. Because you got the egg, you got the bacon, you got the sausage, you got the potato, the cheese, the salsa. So you do like scrambled eggs? You're a fraud and a liar. I'm not going to go... I'm not going to run to Rennies and say... You're like two scrambles eggs?

Breakfast taco? You got damn straight. Yeah, I'm not going to go get some... Ridiculous. I'm not going to Rennies and saying I'd like two pieces of bacon, two fluffy pancakes, and two scrambled eggs. I want my eggs. Sonny side.

12 o'clock sports talk 790 launch timers this is the matt thomas show and the one two swing and a three-pointer from way downtown with two strikes bregman popsie the two to bregman

and that is hammered deep to left field and you can't test that goodbye off the community leader signs three run blast for Alex Breckman and the Astros are up three to nothing waited him out until he finally made a mistake and Alex Bregman made him pay the 1-0 Bragman belts it deep to left fields and train tracks

Alex Bregman Astros won it seven to six best comeback in the year Astros down five nothing at one point Gregman with the bat flip that landed all the pints are I guess would be done Ross and I got to finish our dance here real quick and we'll resume the program We're doing a serious load dance, aren't we? No. Let's just kiss and say... When I write a movie, the movie's going to be called Kiss and Say Goodbye. What's it going to be about?

About a couple. Scrambled eggs. It's going to be about scrambled eggs. Torizo. M. Guacamole. Oh, it sounds horrible. And Kendrick Lamar.

That'd be a good movie. 12.7. This is the quiet store. The Manhattan's with us here on the 7.9. I'm right, Ross. I'm already over it, I think. I'm fine. I'm getting me too. You know what? I'm so over it that we're going to get to something else. We're going to move on.

We've still plenty of bad, sad songs. We haven't even played. I wanted to hear, I can't remember what I said, because we recorded me when I went on vacation. 1245. Okay. Because we got to, we have 12. know we'll do it next segment because we got e-may at 1230. Coach Eme Adoka?

Yeah, Rockets Coach. Okay, we're going to get his thoughts on the Alex Bregman signing. Not going to bring up at all. What do you think about the opt-out instructor? Zero. Deferred. Deferred salaries. No thoughts. Alex Bregman at second base.

So the final time, you know what this will be? This will be the final Alex Bregman update in the history of the show coming up in the next segment. I know. Right now we present to you the news at noon. Well, Matt, obviously, the news at noon is that Alex Bregman, has signed with the Boston Red Sox on that three-year $120 million deal.

Reports are that at least $30 million of it are deferred. There are opt-outs after every season for Alex Breggman as he is now a Boston Red Sox person. A Boston Red Sox? Yes. Whatever you want to call it. Chandler Rome joined our good friends on the morning

show, the Sean Salsbury show, earlier today. Chandler, who first broke the news, by the way, congratulations to him. Why the heck did this take so long? That's my computer. Chandler, why it takes so long you to give us an answer? I think a couple things. I think obviously

the market didn't manifest like we or Bregman thought it would, you know, in November. I think everyone, you know, we looked at two deals as kind of baseline deals for him. It was the match Chapman deal with San Francisco.

And then when Willie Adomis got his deal also from San Francisco, you know, Adomis isn't a third baseman, but still, he was the second best infielder on the market, just longevity and career-wise. So you looked at those two deals and you knew that Bregman wanted to try to eclipse both of those. And it became kind of clear that that wasn't going to happen. And, you know, when you have Scott Boris as your agent, you know, Scott, a lot of times to shatter or match records. He tries to enhance one thing with his clients,

whether it's A.A.V., whether it's total money, whether it's years. I mean, I think it came down to, honestly, like, what did Bregman value? Did he value the opt-out after the first year to get back on the free agent market next year? did he value, you know, long-term sustainability? Because if he stays with the Red Sox for all three years, they're probably positioned as well as anyone to really compete for these next three years, albeit in a brutal, a really difficult division. Was he focused on the Aav solely?

Because clearly the Red Sox blew everyone out of the water in AAB-wise. So I think it was a combination of a lot of things, but why did it take so long? I think because his market just didn't play out like he presumed it would in November. Well, it played out well enough for him to get the $120 million. So, of course, this basically means

if you do the math, he has to make three for 36 to best the deal put out by the Houston Astros. And that would be three. After that, three and 51 to best the Tigers offer. And as Chandler Room laid out there, Red Sox's probably better positioned to be contenders over the next several years than the Tigers.

And again, if he, three years and he's terrible, like he performs like Jose Abray, who does, this is $120 million guarantee coming as well. Yeah, he's betting on it. He's betting that he's going to beat the other big long-term deals. Yep. Is what he's doing. This is still a gamble on his part. But it's a gamble where even if you lose, you get $120 million.

It's not the worst gamble in the history of time. Yep. All right, Matt. You also had last night overshadowed by this, the 119 to 111-11 win by your Houston Rockets. Screen, screen from Brooks. Brooks, a three-pointer straight on. Yes. Smooth shot.

Coming from the hands on number nine. He's got 13. 112-106, rockets up by six. Drain some clock here. Shot clock down to 12. Janna left-hand dribble. Screen set by Dylan. Oh, DB straight away.

On the way. Got it! Two huge threes in the final 60 seconds here. And it gives the Rockets a 115-106 leave with 68 seconds remaining. Dylan Brooks knocking four of his nine three-point attempts down. He had 18 points. Tari Easton with 25. He was doing a great job getting into transition with his three steals as well.

Not a super efficient night from Jalen Green. But Rockets did enough to win with Kevin Durant, 37 points and 9 assists did turn the ball over seven times with the Rockets get their second straight victory. Did not cover the nine and a half though. It's fine. Nobody cares about that, except maybe a few folks in Vegas. By the way, did you see the Vegas story? I don't know if you're going to mention this or not. Vegas casinos did extremely well in the Super Bowl.

The money overwhelmingly coming in on the Kansas City Chiefs to win that game. Yeah. You know, the Sharps like me were on the Eagles, Matt. You are sharp. They call you Mr. Sharp. By we, E.M.A. Doke, more on the Rockets coming up in about 15 minutes. Yes, that is correct. So we'll have more on the rockets coming up here, Matt, and there's your news and new.

And we have the new Texans OC going to be introduced to the media at 1 o'clock today. We'll be carrying that here on the program. Wonderful. Believe it or not today. You're just hitting it all. We're literally, we're like a high-end buffet. We're like the B-O in Las Vegas when they used to have the B-O buffet. The body odor buffet?

No, the, the, the, the, the, deal. Rio, okay, Rio, Rio Hotel, great buffet. Is it? Yeah, crab legs. Too far off strip. Barbecue ribs, strip steak, pizza, chicken wings, pudding, omelet bar. It's got everything. Oh, wow, omel bar.

We are like a high-end buffet. We've given you a little bit of everything. We got Bregman Talk today. We have E. Mae Addoken coming up. And Texans offensive coordinator talk. Yeah. Nick Cayley, right? Is that name?

Nick Cayley. C-A-L-E-Y, I believe is how he pronounced it or spell it? Yes. All right, Nick C. So you get two Nicky C's on the team. And also a Patriot ties. They are both John Carroll ties as well. Grant.

I didn't realize it was such a football factory up there. That's coming up. E-M-A-D-O-K in 15 minutes. You may join us next. Do you want to see Alex Bregman's jersey, ultimately retired by the Astros? 713-212-5-790 7-13-212-5-790 The Matt Thomas Show with Ross

continues on Sports Talk 790 I want all of you to get your clocks out, write the time down because you're going to want to get the podcast of this show today at 1221 on this chilly Thursday afternoon in the city of Houston. we are about to play the very last, for the very last time,

an Alex Brighman update. And we're going to go back to yesteryear, i.e. two months ago. Is this about two months and you recorded this? Because you have gone. Yeah, November. End of November. This is before you went on your worldwide tour. Yes. We present to you this final Alex Bregman update.

The bit's never going away, much to the chagrin of some. Well, it is going, this bit's going away. This is what Ross had set up, locked and loaded, two months ago for the day just like today. Alex, Alex, Alex, Alex F. Bregman. We really appreciate you as a representative of the new era. of Houston Astros baseball, where we didn't have to watch Bo Porter

Bumble through double switches, where we didn't have to watch Brad Mills just call everyone special when they were a replacement level to where you finally got some national recognition. You, Carlos Correa, Dallas, Keiko, Lance McCullors, Jr., Jose Altovae,

the foundation of the new Houston Astros. We will always remember how you could hit 40 home runs when there was a juiced ball at least. We'll always remember you're calling Trevor Bauer Tyler and being brash and young and setting the edge

and having an attitude about the new Houston Astros and all the great times you've given us and all the great plays over there at the hot corner. Go ahead, Adel. Two-time all-star. Gold Glover. Crawford box shots.

sure you couldn't hit home runs over 400 feet but they still went out and we appreciate you for that an all-time astro great well welcome you back for your orange jacket to be in the astros hall of fame go ahead and as marshawn lynch would say get your chicken and we appreciate you and we won't be rooting for you as you play for boston red socks but we'll always love you and respect you And remember the greatness of Alex F. Brickman. Getting emotional. I like that you slid in the Red Sox thing at the very last second. That was nice.

It was great. You left a little gap there in case the team of DeJure. Yes, I did. And it was the Red Sox. I believe that's a gut feeling hit for Adam Wexler. Yeah, I think I was all over the place. I think I started with the... the Red Sox probably at some point. I did too.

I think I named every team except the Mariners, I think at some point, yeah. 1224 Sports Talks, We need to pay off something we mentioned. Somebody called asked about Framber Valdez. Yes. I need to reserve the ability to change my mind on this. Of course.

But my feeling is not even, I'm not even ready to put on the gut feeling list is the feeling is that the Astros are not going to be overly anxious to sign him to a long-term commitment. speaking 30 minutes ago at spring training

Framber Valdez said the Astros is according to Chandler-Rome who is there Framber Valdez says the Astros haven't approached him or his agent about an extension Rossi you and I've worked together for a long time what's my number one rule

about guys going to their final year for agency if they don't get it done by spring training by the end of spring training it ain't happening correct see you know what Cue the music. You should just bring it back. You mean like just insert player?

Yes. It was just for Frumber. But I've kind of felt that way for the last couple of years. Yeah, me too. He's been, I mean, I don't want to dumb this down. But when he's been really good, you can't wait to see him back on the mound.

But when he shows the first sign of things that are troubling. A strike call that doesn't get called it's way. It's called a ball. A base hit, an error behind him, a home run allowed. I don't want to say it implodes quickly

every time. That's not fair to him. And I would say last year was probably better than in years past, but there's always that phrase never let him see you sweat. He's just the opposite. I see him perspiring out of control when things don't go as well. And I think when you're

going to put a lot of money behind somebody, especially a starting pitcher. You need that guy to be your A number one. Like Verlander at times struggled the last couple of years, but you never saw it on Verlander's face. Zach Granky would have a home run and Zach Rankin would attack the player like it was a zero-zero game.

I've never gotten that sense from Vron Rob Valdez, and I think there are some concerns about him, extending him, giving him super big money when you do that, expectations grow and that maybe his maturity hasn't grown to the level of a guy that you'd want to pay obscene amount to be a top flight, a number one starter on your rotation.

Okay, I'm ready for the farewell. Whenever we want to record it. I mean, we got to get to coach. Yeah, we'll get to... 1250. My farewell to farmer, I'm ready. You're really ready. Yeah, absolutely.

You'd be the first person in marketplace to do this. We've got to jump the gun. We've got to get ready. He's gone. Okay. He's gone. 1250, we say goodbye to front. Farmer Valdez.

Right now we say hello to Imaidoka. He'll join us next here at 1228 on Sports Talk 790. Lunchtimeers. It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. 1232. Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues on Sports Talk 790. We are happy to be joined as we are weekly by the head basketball coachery Houston Rockets.

Tonight the Rockets take on the Golden State Warriors winning last night against the Phoenix son's coach at doka with us with matt and ross coach congratulations nice win last night and for the second straight game a really good fourth quarter offensively i don't know what you would say that you spent a lot of time focusing on just the fourth but it is kind of nice to see that you've won two games where you put up some big numbers in the final 12 minutes of play yeah it was good to see the shots go down obviously made a bunch of threes in those last two games in the fourth quarter but also guarded well as well you know 19 points given up to phoenix last last night and 87 overall in the game before.

And so, yeah, not only offensively, defensively, we're doing good as well there, but, you know, sometimes as simple as continue to be confident in the shots and they go down and the fourth and extend the lead. One thing that you were able to do, look, Duran had a fantastic game as you expected he would. You did take advantage. They forced 10 steals, I think, 18 turnovers, got 25 points off of that. That's just one of those unsung numbers that you can always look at and say there's a main reason why a team wins or loses by just taking

good care of the basketball. Yeah, we've been one of the teams that is one of the best in the league of taking care of the ball. And so when we keep our numbers down, obviously we're in good shape, but to create that many on them and get with the activity, obviously we went after Durant and 4-7 on him and 6 on Tyos

Jones, which is a guy that doesn't turn the ball over much. I think our activity was great. You know, get tardy back, you get certain guys out there, and they're obviously going to get their hands on the ball a lot, and they came up with a lot of steals, ignited our transition fast break and obviously got some easy buckets. Speaking easy buckets, it was not easy to get Alpy involved in the offense at least in the first two and a half three quarters got things going on the fourth.

Was there something you guys thought you could do or something that they adjusted to that Alpern was able to take advantage of to get him busy in the fourth? Well, they went after him pretty much every time he got in the post in the first half. And so he kept this simple and made the right pass and sometimes make or miss as far as him kicking out. But he's doing the right thing, attracting that attention. And yeah, anytime he was in the post, they went after him. And so regardless of who was on in big or small, they sent two or three bodies to him and limited him some in the first half. But we moved him around a little bit more, put him on the perimeter a little bit more,

and at the elbow where he could face up and see all the double teams and everything. And it's obviously harder to double him from that position. And he got going downhill a little bit there, got the free throw line and made some good shots. But, yeah, they simply were not going to let him score in the post and went after him. And Alpy did the right thing, kicked it out. other guys were recipients. 38 minutes from him last night. How is he feeling and do you expect him to play the back to back?

Yeah, he came out feeling good. Nothing happened during the game. So the tightness and the spasms that he had previously, hopefully that's even better tonight. But he felt good. You know, obviously going into a break here, we want to finish on a good note. And hopefully guys are all available.

Obviously, Tari and the back-to-backs, we'll see about Stephen with the back-to-back as well. His minutes were pretty low. But nothing happened without being, hopefully he's good to go and can rest up and then go play an all-star game. Yeah, when it is the last game before the all-star break, do you ever feel like as a coach, you see, not necessarily just now, but in your history, is there, do you have to put kind of an extra emphasis

and say, hey, guys, let's focus and let's get this one done before we hit the break? All the time. It seems like every year. Guys, minds are starting to think about the break, think about the All-Star game, Rising Stars, whatever they have going on, and you want to lock in and finish on a good note. And so, yeah, I've been on both sides that had some 10-game winning streaks before. They got snapped to go into the all-star break. And we talked about that last night in Phoenix. They played the night before at home and got in 4.30 in the morning.

We wanted to jump on them. Obviously, they put up a much better fight, and DeRan had a big card to do with that. But we knew that was their last game as well. And so if we knew if we could lock in, they might bow out early as well. So the squad plays tonight, and then we don't play again until a week from Friday, when they're back-to-back with Minnesota and then go to Utah. I'm going to throw a scenario. If I shorten the All-Star break by two

days and it gives you two less back-to-backs, would you take that or do you think the week away from the sports a good thing for the guys? Well, based on how we are right now, I think the rest is good. Obviously, Fred being injured and then the guys that can't play the back-to-back,

Stephen and Atari right now, but I'll be being banged up as well. And then guys that haven't missed games like Jalen, you know, playing through contusions and bumps and bruises, I think it's good to get everybody's legs back. get physically refreshed, but also mentally take a step away as well. So we'll take the extra days needed.

And then like you said, they take it right back from us with the back-to-back. ESPN game late night here against Minnesota and have to go all the way to Utah. So we will be prepared for that. But the back-to-back schedule right now has been crazy. I think that's four in a row for us. I did watch a little bit of the Warriors game last night when I got back from our game. This guy quit and post didn't play a whole lot, but he's a seven-footer. Why is there a seven-footer playing for the Golden State Warriors?

I've never seen that for them, at least since like Andrew Bogget played. Yeah, he brings a different dynamic to them. He's picking pop big, something different that they haven't had in a while. I think Luni hasn't been playing as much. You know, they bring a small ball with Raymond at the five-sum, and then Trace Jackson-David, who was starting for them, isn't really in the rotation right now. So he gives him a different look,

something that we haven't seen when we played him so far. He wasn't in any time at that point. But, yeah, stretches of defense does some different. things for them so they're going with a different look to try to shake it up as well. How about Jimmy Butler? What have you seen so far him wearing Golden State gear? No, fitting in well. I think he obviously brings the leadership toughness to that team, but he's a little bit different with how he scores. It doesn't, don't need to play call for him, but he can impact the game in so many different ways and very unselfish. And so it seems like he's fit in well so

far has made an impact. And obviously until last night, they had won a few in a row with him. And so I'm sure he's happy to get back on the court. And we'll see what he looks like tonight. against us. We haven't talked about this, and at least on this show. What was it like coaching in Dallas on Saturday for that game with all the Luca stuff and the protest? We were on the buses, obviously, getting in the arena. It was growing as we were getting there. But what was the vibe any different for you? Just being around the fans with all that, you know, there was a lot of, a lot of angst in that crowd, at least early on. There certainly has been since they've played that game. No, I think the outside was more crazy. Obviously, the protests and the people out

with signs and the whole crowd gathered out there. Once you got inside, I think Anthony Davis made them forget a little bit about it immediately with the first half that he had and then the injury happens. And so it's kind of exacerbated that Luca's gone again and then Davis has hurt. So I think it's been some ups and downs for sure. Davis, if he was healthy and playing, might have helped sway their opinions a little bit. But him being out for the extended time is only going to make them miss Luca more. And so it was a wild outside, but inside they were pumped up for him.

him. Davis had a great first half. And like I said, we clawed back into the game. And he got hurt, obviously, so that dampened their expectations a little bit. You had last night, 36-year-old Kevin Durant playing as well as he is. And then you have 35-year-old Jimmy Butler, 36-year-old Steph Curry,

LeBron is 40 doing his thing. What have you just seen in your time around the league? How much of this is, these guys are freaks of nature? How much of this is the sports science improving and guys taking more care of their bodies to where you have these guys into their late 30s playing as well as they are.

Yes, a combination of all the above. I think, you know, taking care of your body has become paramount, you know, for these guys. They're also great players, so their skill set lasts a little longer and they're very efficient at what they do. So it's a little bit of both. But, you know, me being around, Durant and some of these guys over the years, you see the work ethic, you see how guys take care of their bodies and the amount of time they put into their sport. And so I think guys are starting to do that at a younger age as well, which helps them extend their career. But the other part is guys will sit out some games and not play the back-to-backs three and four nights.

And so those things help as well in longevity of your career. How old were you when you retired? 34. Quitter. 34. Got a coaching opportunity. Physically could have kept playing. Pop off from your job when I took it.

So did you know how, and you've been asked this before, when did you know that you had the coaching bug you probably around 29 you know mid the middle of my career i started the a u team in Portland and did some coaching clinton with the nbpa the player association put them on i did that three years in a row out at uva with the top 100 high school kids and so knew i enjoyed it and i knew i wanted to do NBA more than college or any other level and so once i got the call from pop and the opportunity i stopped playing a little you know a year or two before i had to what the hardest part about an assistant coach is that is that is the skis Is it the endless watching of tape?

When you have to work your rank way up, and you certainly have done that with all the different stops you made, what was the toughest chore and ultimately getting to the spot where you are now? I think just the opportunity. The thing that I was told with all the interviews was you've never done it before. Well, you can't do it until you do it. And so that's the hardest part, you know, is everybody has to be the first time with something. Obviously, the hours are much longer than when you're a player.

You know, you spend countless hours before and after practice all night. doing scouting and films. But, you know, I learned from one of the best, and I'd say the thing for me was having to be good cop for pop when he was a bad cop. And even though I may have agreed with him on things, I'd be good cop and put my arm around guys and kind of lie a little bit to, you know, I love it. You have to lie.

I love it. That's what I'm saying. The best coaches come time to have to lie. So are you good cop, bad cop right now? Or you kind of, as a head coach, it would be kind of a mix of that right now? 66% bad. 32% good, but I got a staff and some veteran players that make up for my aggression. Yeah, you know what, I wouldn't change it.

Let me get you out of here on this one. Dylan Brooks is having a great year three point wise, up to 39% that's his best number. The ball leaves his hand. It looks like a much better this year than it even did last year. And certainly it was a Memphis Grizzly. Do you attribute it to anything? Is it spacing? Is this slide step is a little bit of everything?

Because it looks like it just looks like it's leaving his hand with much more confidence. I think his preparation is much better. He's always down, ready to shoot. Guys are looking for him, and he does a really good job of relocating and finding that opening for the kickouts or post-ups with Alphe. And so one thing he has done,

obviously he's shot at a high level. I think he's ready to shoot every time, and I think he's improved the pace of his release as well. So he's getting a shot off quicker. Doesn't need as much space, and obviously it's been one of our best, most consistent all year, so we want him to stay confident and aggressively

and take those shots and I pass them up. Great stuff as always, Coach. We'll see you later tonight. Thank you for the visit as always. Thank you guys. You got it. You may have okay with us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Nick Kaley is the Texan's new offensive coordinator. You'll hear from him in just 15 minutes on Sports Talk 790. Matt and Ross returned on Sports Talk 790.

All right. This feels a little premature, but this is Ross idea. and I think he's going to want to being a hit on this. So let's give the man his flowers. We present to you. He's going away. Ross. Oh, Robert.

Oh, proper. You sweet, sweet, left-headed pitcher. La Grasse, they called you. And we'll never forget you as a Houston Astro great. as you came up and we called it Framber alerts because you would walk everyone and blow up when you came out on the mound

but you're right to the ship and the blow-up stopped to an extent and we'll always remember how you finished top five in the Syung a couple of times how you would just randomly show up with hair extensions whenever you wanted

sometimes you'd give up three home runs in an inning and you would get this weird sinister smile on your face like your Heath Ledger playing the Joker. Go ahead, Adel. Yes. It hurts. Yes, it does, Adele.

You'd be out there sweating profusely, counting to ten and taking deep breaths. Defensive butcher jobs. But a wicked curveball. and ground ball outs. We wish you the best.

We love you. We appreciate you. We're sorry that the Astros offer wasn't competitive. We're sorry that Dana Brown strung along the media. And we're wishing you all the best with team in the future. Thank you for Amber. Gone but not forgotten. Wishing you the best in your future endeavors.

There is none of the radio show The Marketplace That the day after a player leaves We predict another player is going to leave Less than 365 days from that player leaving Come on, he's gone If There was a

Percentage meter about And you can't percentage either It's a yes or no it happens or doesn't happen But if you were to put a percentage on Chances of Fromberbald that stays with the Astros, I'd put it at about 10%. I was going 5. It was the first thing that came to my mind.

Now, Sai Young, 20 wins. Well, not winner. I mean, I finished second. You know, now, this is the truth.

International players, especially those not South American, not Hispanic, when I'm a Hispanic country. trying to the latin the latin teams latin players typically will take deals

a little more a little quicker than say other other white players for that matter or black players so that matter i don't the the latin american players take deals a lot more than other players do uh okay it's not a stereotype but i mean think about it

think about the who the astros have have secured up and locked up for years on multiplications twice those out Tuvae, Christian Javier, Yaronne Alvarez. Yeah. I think there is a certain bit of... Carlos Corres said no. Carlos Gray did say no.

Puerto Rican. Yeah. No, no, I'm not saying anything. I'm just saying that the track record has shown that Latin American players will sign longer guaranteed contracts because they don't want to get into the negotiation wars as other players will do. Maybe because they feel like they're lucky to be there. It's been good.

But again, everybody's individually different. Yeah, I would say it's up to the individual. But there is a little bit of a track record of, again, Jose Twice, Javier, who else was somebody that signed a... Mm-hmm. Yoran, somebody else had signed a pretty decent extension. John Singleton did. That would be Juan Singleton. Juan Singleton did, yes.

A Mattie Dominguez did not. No, he bet on himself. He bet on himself and I believe he's serving coffees at a local... I mean, I don't know. I would imagine that, I mean, Frommers clearly not taking any sort of deals, but he also said he hadn't been an approach for an extension. Yeah. He's going to hit free agency.

He's hitting free agency, and I think he's going to go. As long as he has some sort of successful. I mean, here's the thing. As a lefty, he's going to get the benefit of the doubt. Good left-handed starting pitching is hard to find in baseball. It just is. And teams will typically overpay for that. And he's great.

He's ace level when he's at his best. Yeah. But when he's in his worst. He makes you really nervous. But still, you add it all up. He had a great season last year. Yeah. Even with the big blow up against the Angels.

Yeah. I mean, again, he will have suitors. That isn't the issue. It's going to be at what level does he want to get comfortable with and does he really, really want to truly test it for agent waters? It's not even him doing. It's his agent doing it. And ultimately, he will be the one that will say yes or no, I will take the offer.

Syung finishes the last three years, five, nine, and seven, two-time All-Star. I like it. It's pretty good. Pretty good. again, if you want to stay here, I'm all for it. And there will be a value that we placed on a left-hand starting pitcher as successful as it's been. Let's go to James and Cyprus at 1254 on 7-90.

Hello, James. Hi, guys. I hope you're having a good day. I just had a quick question. Do the Astros get any type of compensatory pick or something like that because they're loose in Brugman, even though it's free agency? Yes. I believe it's after the fourth.

round they get a pick. Okay, so they just gain one extra pick after the fourth. So it's like that. It's different than other rules. It's just it happens when any team loses a free agent or is it a quality free agent? If you offer them a qualifying offer, which the number changes and goes up. So the qualifying offer was one year, 20 million or whatever it was, he declined. And then once he declines, you get the draft pick compensation of anybody who signs him.

And the Red Sox have to give up a pick as well. Yeah. Okay. So we get, we'll gain like two picks out of that deal, right? I think it's just one. One pick. One pick. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thanks for clearing that up. I appreciate it. Yeah. Appreciate it again. And it never, never, you never go, oh, well, we lost the players. We got a draft pick. I mean, that draft pick may be good, but it's going to be probably five years down the road before we even know that that traffic is going to be any good. All right. New Texans OC, Nick Kaley's going to speak in about five minutes from now. Real quick, I have a poll question up. would you be okay with getting rid of Valentine's Day? Have you seen the numbers on this?

What is it, 90-10? Not bad. 88% is a good idea, 12% said bad idea. Okay. A lot of lonely people out there. Now there's Galentine's Day, which is gaining steam. Yes. And then there's Side Pieces Day, the day after Valentine's Day.

What, that was the day before or the day after? Well, it could be either. I think it's either one. It's just not on the... You couldn't have a side-piece day on the day before Valentine's. You have to kind of do it the day after. Well, it just maybe depends on her work schedule. I don't think, if you got a side piece, are you really worried about the work schedule?

You work about the 9 to 5? Aren't you, if you're the site piece, you're available at your, at your beck and call? Or at least, you know. I don't know, Matt. That's for you to explain. I don't have a side piece. I'm just saying that I have some friends that have side pieces and it's usually the day after Valentine's Day. Okay.

I didn't know what the protocol is because I'm not in that game, Matt. Nor am I. Straight and narrow. All right. Hey, let's hear from Nick Kelly next. Okay, let's. Big City Wings. Delicious Wings.

You bring your girl to Valentine's Day at Big City Wings, $1 Wings, plus they've got chocolate-covered strawberries. How good is that? Wings, burgers, beer, margaritas, wine, mixed drinks, appetizers, and chocolate-covered strawberries? Oh, what a delectable day at any of the 13 Big City Wing locations. To finally one nearest you, you go to Big CityWings.com. go eat there tonight, whether you're taking it out or eating there, you get buy one, get one

free on the boneless wings, aka executive chicken nuggets at any of those 13 big city wing locations, wall-to-wall TVs to watch the Rockets game tonight, to watch some college basketball, anything you want to do, you can get it today at big city wings and big city wings.com. Lunch timers, this is the Matt Thomas show. Nick Cayley is the new Texans, offensive, coordinator we hear from him now as we go over to n rg thank you all for being here today it's exciting time for us uh as you all know we made a move at the offensive coordinator spot and you know so i went through a long process thorough process of interviewing a lot of great candidates college and pro candidates and you know i'm just i'm thankful for the mcnares thankful for

nick casario and his help their involvement in supporting me through this process. And, man, I couldn't be more excited to welcome, you know, Nick Kayla as our new offensive coordinator, right? He brings the wealth of knowledge, smart coach. He's coached on the defensive side. Offense coached multiple positions, work with a lot of different people, various schemes, not just beholden to one scheme.

He's very well-versed in run game, pass game, protection. Like, he's well-versed in it all. So very smart coach, very energetic guy, great leader. Everybody I talked to about throughout this process had nothing but awesome things to say about Nick and his approach. The players that he's coached, there's nothing but rave reviews about Nick and how he's helped guys in their career. So I'm excited to work with him. I know I can't wait for our players to get here and work with him. I know they'll feel his energy, feel his excitement, and what he's able to bring to our team.

So with that, I just want to welcome Nick. Kaylee is our new offensive coordinator. I appreciate it. DiMico, I just want to, you know, it's great to meet everybody. I'm extremely thankful for the McNair family, for Coach Ryan's, for Nick Casario, for the opportunity to be here in Houston. You know, really looking forward to getting going and excited to, you know, to visit with you guys today.

If you can introduce yourself when you're going to ask the question. Go ahead, Christy. Hi, Christy Riekin, from the Associated Press. I guess the two-part question. First, how eager are you to work with C.J. Stroud? And as a first-time offensive coordinator, how do you hope to put your personal stamp on this office? Yeah. Well, to answer your – nice to meet you.

To answer your first question, you know, I'm very eager. I'm excited for the opportunity. You know, it's a great opportunity, great people in this organization. And, you know, really looking forward to working, obviously, with C.J. You know, tremendous talent, competitor. You talk about an ultimate competitor. tough, instinctive, can make play. So I'm very excited.

And as a, you know, first-time coordinator to answer your second part of the question, really excited to get an opportunity to evolve this scheme and put, you know, it's not going to be my spin. It's going to be what's best for our players. And it's always going to be what's best for our players. We're not pounding a square peg into a round hole. It's going to be based on the strengths of our quarterback, the players, and the guys on this team.

So that's what it will always be, you know, designed around. Yeah. Nick, last year in Texas had a lot of protection issues and you guys have elevated coal. What can you do to protect Stroud and give him the kind of time that he needs? Yeah, I think it all starts up front, obviously, and it's really all 11. I mean, we all got to be in sync. And I think protection starts obviously with communication, with trust and communication, cohesiveness up front and really having clear rules.

in the protection system. So we're going to, we'll be going through that process. Obviously, I got a history with Cole dating back to my time in New England. He was our offensive line coach and I coached the tight end. So I have a really good working relationship and a level of trust with Cole. He's a very good football coach. And I'm excited to go through this process with him. Baker, Wilson, from KVRC TV.

Here's coaching philosophy. How would you describe it and to follow up just kind of to the influences of the Bill Belichick's Sean McPays and go back to JCP with Regiscape? Yeah, nice to meet you. Starting off, I mean, everything I'm going to preach and we're going to preach here is going to be rooted in fundamentals. I think you look at every good play, it has good fundamentals. So we're going to start from the ground up, building fundamentals and getting repetitions and time on task with that. The things that I can take, you know, have the opportunity to obviously come most recently with Sean in L.A.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I learned a ton of football, you know, from him as well as obviously Coach Belichick with my time in New England. invaluable experiences for me. And they're both rooted very similarly, maybe different personalities and different ways of doing things at times, but it's fundamentals, it's not beating yourself, it's playing clean,

it's controlling the line of scrimmage, that's the run game, that's past protections, et cetera, and it's being a cohesive unit that takes care of the football. So those are going to be the things that transcend any kind of scheme, any specific play,

you know, we're going to be fundamentally based and rooted in that. Nick John, Alexander, Eastern Cranco, nice to meet you that. A lot of people who worked with you talked about how you waited for the right opportunity. Why in particular was this the right opportunity for you? And why do you feel like it was right fit for this time? Because of the people.

Starting from ownership to Coach Ryan's, to Nick, to the people, to the players, to the staff that we have here. I feel really convicted in that. And I think you got to get the right people on the bus, and we have the right people on the bus. And I'm really excited about that. Thank you. Two part question. What kind of led you to land on Nick and why did you feel like you guys

had to make a switch and really bobby of his previous duties? Yeah, I talked to a lot of great people throughout this process and just it was clear as I kept going through it talking to people and going through my process.

It was very clear that Nick was the right guy for our team just with his energy his leadership ability I think with him being able to understand the run game, past game, with him being in multiple schemes, multiple schemes that were successful, understanding how to tailor the offense to the players that we have that led me to Nick. And I feel really strong in my conviction that he can lead us and get us over the hump.

We've been, we've had a lot of good success these first two years. And the reason for doing it is I think there's another level that we can go to. And so I said earlier it's my job to take this organization in new heights. And I think hiring Nick will help us to get there. D'Amico, and welcome to town coach, King Davis for Chalk Talk. Thank you. Two-part question. Demico, can you talk about, what were you looking for?

I know you talked to a lot of people, but when you started, what did you say like, this is what this person needs to be able to do it? I went in with open mindset, Kim, and just wanted, I learned a lot from a lot of sharp coaches. I learned a lot just seeing how guys put things together, how guys adjusted and adapted to what they were from their schemes, what they were able to do. So I went in with an open mind, but also went in with the idea of the right person who can lead us, right,

in the right direction, get everybody going in the same direction, can help our quarterback the most, help us where we had our issues, of course, with our protection. We know we can clean that up. up, just all a well-rounded football coach, right? And that's Nick. Nick is coached multiple positions. He's coaching on the defensive side.

He understands how to attack schemes. He understands how to put guys in the right position. I understand how to adjust it to make sure it's favor to our players and making sure they're able to accentuate their strengths. And that's what it was about for me. If you could just describe yourself in your coaching style, I know you talked about fundamentals, but how would you describe yourself? Yeah, passionate, high energy, you know, relationship-driven, you know, getting to know the players beyond just the actual, you know, performance on the field, getting to know what makes them tick and really investing in them as people to understand, you know, how they operate and how you can help them and help them, you know, reach and realize their potential.

And I'm going to invest and I'm going to work hard and I'm going to bring a great energy and a great vibe every day. and I run where I'm going on the field. I move fast, and I have fun. I love this, you know. Are you going to make me? Great, yourself. Brian Beirfer from Big Sarge Media. I have a two-part question, one for Coach and one for you, Nick.

Coach, how apprehensive were you to hire another first-year office coordinator, excuse me, first-time play-calling office coordinator? To me, there's always everybody has that first time. I was the first time play caller. There are a lot of guys who have that first time, so I wasn't beholden to or nervous about hiring someone who was that first time because it's about the person. And I think you get the right person to do the job.

And I think I truly believe that Nick can do that. And it's play calling is also about who you surround yourself with. And I think, you know, we have a really strong staff offensively and defensively surround ourselves with the right people who can help when it comes to calling it for the first time. And Nick, you're coming from a situation with the Rams where you had two wide receivers and Cooper Cup and peeking the cooler. Two players who nobody really, you know, was on anybody's radar coming out of college like that. You have that type of situation in this wide receiver room. How do you get the best out of players like Xavier Huffington and John Mitch?

Yeah, I think you, you know, put them in positions to have success to, you know, be in the position to do what they do best. And I think the spring is also an opportunity for us to, you know, you experiment with routes and you see what guys do and you refine certain skills. And I think everybody's got a little bit different skill set. And you try to maximize those guys and put them in the best positions to have success to help the team. And that's what I'll try to do here with this staff. We've got a great staff. We've got great players that are, you know, going to work hard, and we'll go attack it here once we get the guys back. Nick, Adam Warsh, their sports talk 790. You spent eight years with Coach Belichick,

the last two with Coach McVeigh. Could you pinpoint something you take from Coach Belichick and take Coach McVeigh? They're obviously very different. Yeah, well, there's a lot of things that I could point to in both of those situations. But yeah, I think just going back in my time in New England, you know, embracing your role,

keeping your head down, working hard. And really, the more you can do, the more value you have and just, you know, there's no detail that's, you know, I would say too small. You turn over every rock. you try to find a way to give yourself an edge as a team through your players through coaching, et cetera. And I would say thoroughness, attention to detail, accountability.

That's what really stands to mind with Coach Belichick. You know, Sean, same thing, just the energy, the passion, the leadership. Obviously, both men are incredible football coaches. But you talk about the way he goes about the day in L.A., the way he moves, the way he communicates, the way he invest, the way he pours into players. Those are just a few things about both those coaches that I've obviously taken along the way. Nick, welcome. Greg Bailey from ABC here in Houston.

I understand he takes all the level with protection. Yep. Specifically with the offensive line, what are the foundations in your coaching history that you'll lean on to get that group to use Demico's term to the next level? Yeah, well, with the offensive line, the quarterback, obviously the halfback, you've got to be able to see the game through the same set of eyes. and you've got to be going in the same direction, and you've got to be tied together. And it starts with communication, and it starts with protecting inside out

and establishing the pocket, the depth of the pocket, the width of the pocket. And that extends obviously in the tight ends, receivers when you're chipping and stuff like that. But it does. It really starts inside out, and it starts seeing it through the same lens. And we all got to be coordinated in that. Is there any coach who's influenced your views of the offensive line? Sure. The experience that you have with that. Yeah.

Dante Scarnacia. You know, I was with Dave DeGuliamo in 2015. Very good coach. Dante Scarnacia, a long time New England coach. Influenced a lot of, you know, what I've obviously learned up front in the protection systems. And then, you know, been a part of other ways of doing it too. But, yeah, in terms of my, you know, the formative stages, it would be, you know, my early years in New England, obviously, with those two. Hey, Nick.

Sam Warren with the Houston Chronicle here. Hi. Damico has spoken about your ability to coach him. in different schemes, pulling from different areas. Just kind of been your first time calling plays, do you have an idea of where scheme-wise are really going to be drawing on for building this offense and kind of where you're pulling from? Sure, I think, you know, yeah, you know,

you have things, you have foundations and pieces that you want to, you know, hang your hat on, obviously. I think, again, it's all about the players. You know, there's different years, every year's different, so we're going to do it around the strengths for our players, but I want to obviously first start off you establishing the run game. You know, what is that going to look like? well, it's going to be based on, again, what we do best, and we'll pave the way with that moving forward.

Yeah. I've got one more for Tomico. How's it going to do you go? Just with the decision to retain Cole and promote him to offensive line coach, just kind of what went into that decision and what's your confidence level on him, you know, being a part of last year's staff, kind of fixing some of those issues that we're going. Getting Cole is our offensive line coach to lead their room, just having one voice to lead it. feel really strong about that. Cole helped a lot of our young players when it came to developing. He had a really great relationship with a lot of guys.

And I think very highly of Cole and what he's able to do. And I think him having a prior relationship with Nick as well and them being able to work together and them to get hit the ground running instantly. I think that also led to my decision. And I know we'll be better for it. Landry Locker, Houston Football, and the locker, I got one for Domingo and one for Nick. Damico, what was it like, this is the second time you've looked for someone to kind of oversee the offensive side of the ball?

What was it like this time as compared to the first time when you hadn't been a head coach yet? This time, this process, it was a little easier. I think knowing what I was looking for and knowing what to look for out there being a head coach for two years now and seeing how we operate here. and it was an easier, I guess, process for me. The first time around, becoming a head coach, it was very hectic, trying to get a new staff, trying to put everything together, a lot more hectic this time, just being able to take my time,

not rush anything, but to think through it, get the right guy, talk to a lot of different people, right, to get a lot of input in what we were doing, so I felt much more comfortable this time around. And Dick, you said the scheme's going to be player-driven. A lot of talking points, when you hire an offensive coordinator, are they going to run the McVeigh scheme, or they're going to go back to the Patriots?

How would someone like me describe this scheme if we were talking about it? Yeah, it's going to be Houston's. It's going to be our scheme based on what we do. And I don't say that to throw any curveballs. It really is. I mean, my history dating back to when I first got into the National Football League under Coach Belichick, is we were going to be a game plan team. If that meant we were going to run duo and gap schemes and run the ball 45 times to win the game,

then that's what we were going to do. If we had to run more perimeter plays, wide zone, and we felt that was going to give us the edge. We were going to do that. We were going to ask our guys to do what they do well, but it was going to base on what we do to help us win. And at the end of the day, we want to win. And that's a priority for us.

And following last year and taking in all that information and approaching the off season, is there anything that you think or any area of improvement that you think this offense needs to make to achieve those goals? I would say this. I'm really only focused on moving forward and each year is different. We're going to hit the time.

We're going to get into free agency, draft, et cetera. We'll see how our team shapes up here in the next couple months, but we'll put our focus in that one day at a time as we put together our roster. Having the way like Joe Micson in the back field, he's talking around in the football. Specific to Joe, what are some of the skills that you see from Joe and kind of the mentality he has as you plan things on? Yeah, I love his mentality.

I love the way he runs. I love the way he finishes. He's a violent runner on contact. He's competitive. I've admired him for a long, long time. So I'm really excited. He's a really good player, and I'm really excited to work with him. On the tight-end position, it was a spot that they made an investment in.

They didn't really use the tight ends as much this past year. You have a long background with Brock Bromkowski and guys like that. What do you hope to do to get the most out of the tight-end position blocking and catch the past this thing? Yeah, I love tight ends, obviously. I'm a little bit biased. but I think we got a great group of guys, smart, tough, competitive, and, you know, in my history, we've used a bunch of different guys in different roles, and I like tight ends.

Hi, Nick, welcome to Houston. Chancellor Johnson. Question for both of you guys. DeMeico, I'll start with you. If there was one thing that she was specifically appointed you from the ampu process that you walked away really impressed with Nick, what would that be? The one thing that stood out to me was just his passion for the game. of football. I want players. When I'm looking at players, evaluating players, I want players who love the game of

football. Instantly, when you talk to Nick and you guys see it right here, he's passionate about football and that's what's the one thing that stood out to me. Thank you, Nick for you, coming to the situation, having CJ as your quarterback, what is it about him and his talent that might allow you to do some different things and be creative in that aspect? Yeah, I mean, he can spin it, he throws the ball,

he's an accurate thrower of the football he has a natural he's a natural thrower of the football he's instinctive he's got the it factor and and he's a warrior in terms of his competitiveness and I've admired him dating back to his college days so

I'm really really excited to have an opportunity to work with him Nick Cole Thompson Texas wire I think you talked about in the past waiting for the right opportunity to come to Houston but or come to become a play caller, but what sold you on Houston being the right fit for you specifically?

Yeah, again, the people. Starting with coach, ownership, Coach Ryan's, to the people in this building, the coaching staff, Nick Casario, there's a lot of really, really good people, and they're aligned. And that's what is really intriguing to me, was really intriguing, and I'm excited to get to work with everybody here. A question for D'Amico, and the first for D'Amico, you know, obviously, free agency is coming, up and you have some pending free agents. I'm wondering about the potential of bringing a guy back like Stefan Diggs.

And then for Nick, what type of players do you look for to build your offense or what type of traits do they have? So if I could start with Demico first. We won't get into specifics on free agents. Like that's a process that will take his time. So I won't get into specifics on different guys. And Nick, what type of traits do you look for in particular players? Yeah. Tough, unselfish, dependable guys that love to compete and love football.

that will start there and obviously extend the specific skill sets of different positions, but one guys that love the game, that love to compete, you know, and are good teammates. We all know that CJ has a tremendous amount of time to squadron. Has a tremendous amount of time. What specifically about Nick and his ability to design plays and call plays, do you feel that we'll be able to get the best out of CJ? We all know what type of talent and what type of player to be. what specifically about his play calling and his design and his scheme can help elevate the future of quarterback play?

We all know CJ is a really great quarterback, right? So it's about developing that relationship with CJ and also just putting CJ and everyone else around CJ in the best position possible for us to move the football down the field and score points. I think Nick is going to do a great job of that, building that rapport relationship with CJ. and I think CJ is already, you know, great players is getting everybody on the same page. We talked about that communication, all 11 guys being on the same page. We do that, and instantly, CJ will be better. D'Amico, considering your relationship with Bobby, how far, what power was it for you to power him? It was very hard to let Bobby go.

Bobby's a really close friend, as you all know. Bobby's a great friend of mine. When I got into coaching, Bobby was the guy who helped me figure it all out. And we were QCs together there in San Fran. So really a long relationship there with him, nothing but love and admiration for Bobby and what he's done. I know he'll be a really good coach in his league as he continues to press forward in his career. And I wish him nothing but the best. We're in close with Christy saying sorry.

Nick, I wondered about your path into coaching. Did you always want to be a coach when you're growing up? And was there a certain coach or a person in your life that kind of feared you towards this profession? Yeah, to answer your question, yeah, I grew up in Canton, Ohio, three miles from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. High school football was big, 15,000, 12,000, 15,000. So about the age of nine, I knew I wanted to be a coach. And my dream early on was to be a high school football coach in Stark County, Ohio, similar to Tom McDaniels.

You know, Ben and Josh's father, I watched him at Camp McKinley as a kid growing up. So I've always wanted to do. to coach, it's a part of my, you know, fabric of my life and my dad took me to a lot of games as a kid, so, yeah. I've got two questions for D'Amico. Just, Nick's talked a little bit about the excitement about working with C.Vey. Was he involved at all in kind of the consultation of potential OCs and kind of involved in that decision on making, you know, making the decision to bring Nick here?

I had to hire an OC. We've seen Tankdale make some recent public appearances. He seems like he's in good spirits. Do you have any updates on how he's doing in his recovery? Tank is definitely in much better spirits, encouraged with his process and where he is. So I'm excited for Tank. It's great to see him just with that smile back on his face.

We know he went through a devastating injury there. I hate to lose him, but he's on the right track. We'll see where he ends up as he continues to progress to his rehab, but it's great to see that smile back on Tank's face. Nick, you talked about, you know, DiBico, you've talked about the players, but can you talk about your relationship with Nick Casario? Yeah, I got a lot of respect. I mean, I came into the league. In 15, I was hired by New England, and he was there in New England, and he's always been just a positive, sharp, organized mentor to me. You know, always did a great job leading, and, you know, I have a high level of respect, very thorough. and he's just a big, good sounding board

as a young coach coming up too, and, you know, I have a lot of respect for Nick. All right, thank you guys. Thank you, guys. Thank you very much, Nick Cayley. Quick, 30 seconds on this. We're super late. It's fine.

Highly cliches, highly use of cliches. It's fine. You don't have to win the press guys. I'm not about football. Yeah, loves football. I think CJ Stroud is good. He knows protection issues.

We're there. He loves tight-in. He's? Loves tight ends. You heard him say that. I like that he said he's going to be versatile. Whether it be they need to run outside zone, they need to run the gap scheme, Maddie. Yeah.

I'm a big gap scheme guy. I know you are. Yeah. And there were some dumb questions in the group, too, but that's not their fault. Yeah, I was wondering the names of his childhood dogs. Yeah. If we can get that. God, I'm so embarrassed sometimes.

His favorite cartoon and cereal. It's terrible. All right, 125. Let's come back. Joe Espada spoke today about Alex Breggman's departure. We'll hear from him next. We got, believe it or not, coming up in 25 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. More Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Now on Sports Talk 790. Where do you put this on the list? Oh, it's top fiber. Yeah, it's spectacular. I don't know if it was on my list when I beat you in the Elton John Fantasy 5. We're supposed to do Fantasy 5 tomorrow, but with this Bregman news, you want to push it back a week? Yeah, let's do that. Because it's got too much preparation to it.

Hey, what were we even supposed to do? Saturday Night Live recurring characters. Oh, okay. I mean, we can do it. It's a four-hour show. You want to dry-fry? For whatever reason, Connor's upset if we push it back. I don't know why he's all.

Let's do it tomorrow. I'm out. Thank God. Are you out tomorrow? No, I'm here. I just, you know, you do what? Do you guys do what you want? No, you know what?

We have to do it tomorrow. We can do Valentine's Day something related. No, because the, it's on Sunday. It's on Sunday. It's on Sunday is a big 15. Okay. So we got to do it tomorrow. Why don't we do love songs?

That's so wide. What do you mean? I mean, there's only 9 million love songs. Mm-hmm. I like recurring characters better. Okay. All right, so we're going to do it after the show today. Can we do it up the show?

You have a doctor appointment, don't you? Yeah, I got to go. Can I call you? No, why? You should do it in the morning. We're going to give him less than three hours. What time are we doing? 130?

120 tomorrow. If you want clips, like I need, I need time. Yeah, we'll give you three hours. All right, 9.30 tomorrow. 930 tomorrow. I'll make clips. Okay, 930 tomorrow, before the show starts. We'll see.

What time? 930? 9.45? 9.51? 951. We're going to make the clip. So tomorrow. All right. Joe, speaking of clips, Joe Espada spoke today in Florida.

Yes, he did. Joe Espada in West Palm Beach. Joe Espada, your thoughts on hearing about Alex Bregman signing and have you talk to him. I woke up to the news. So no, I have not had a chance to, you know, text him or call him or none of that. Okay. Well, thanks, Joe. We really appreciate that.

Have you addressed it with the team? The team is still not all here yet. So we'll see when the race with the guys will get here. Okay. Thank you, Joe. Who cut these clips? I think Dan, but yeah, I mean, he's working with what we got. Okay.

I mean, yeah, is it nice to finally have some closure with Alex? I'm happy for Alex. I know the news are not official yet, but I'm happy for him. You know, he made his decision. So now it's time for all of us just to move forward. Yeah, I'll go with him on that. Let's move forward. Turn the page.

Turn the page. As Bob Seeger would say. All right. That's our segment right there because we are a little bit behind because of the Nick Kiley. Yeah, we're going to do right now. Okay. 713-212-125-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

Alex Spregman, should the Astros retire his jersey number. We're going to hold on to this conversation, what, for the next 10-12 years, Ross, what do you think? Just so I can randomly bring that up? Yes. Well, also, we come back. We're going to tell you about a broadcaster who made a mistake on air, didn't own up to it, and it just kept getting worse.

Hmm You intrigued? Yes 134 on Sports Talk 790 Lunch timers It's the Matt Thomas show With Ross On Sports Talk 790

Oh man Going to the Beatles now Brangman says goodbye We said hello to Christian Walker And Isaac Apparedes Cam Smith No Eventually

we'll see eventually oh man Forrest Whitley in for his 10th camp When Gordy said that I was blown away by that I shouldn't have been because if we've been down there a bunch of times and interviewed him the same year of the year What's it going to lose weight this time

He's always lost or gain What was the suspension like? How's your arm? Are you going to be able to go? And you know what? A lot of guys could have quit But he hasn't quit He's I mean he's not got any He got his initial first round salary it's, you know, his signing bonus, but he hasn't made a lot of money since.

He has, what, a couple of days of service time under his belt. I mean, he's done okay for himself, but he's not super rich. He could have easily just taken that. I mean, he's, the money that he got by being a first round selection, he's had to spread over his entire professional career. He hasn't gotten an extra contract. He hasn't gotten a bonus. He hasn't, I mean, he hasn't gone to arbitration.

Doesn't, I mean, he could have quit. So I give him credit for that. And honestly, there's a spot for him. There's a fifth or six-inning guy available in this Astros bullpen this year. So he's got a shot at it. I believe Lance McCullors could be in that position as well. Now, ooh, we forgot to ask Gordy about it. He's talked to Lance McCullors tomorrow.

Yes. How awkward will that be between Gordy and McCullors? I don't think McCullors. It's not that bad. We're overselling it. We were just embellishing. Joe Spottah did speak on Lance McCullors and Luis Garcia. Okay.

I think we just, as an organization, we just feel that's what's best for him and for the team. So we just want to make sure that we get it right and we get these guys, you know, when they're ready to go. We could keep them on the mound for the long haul. Yeah. Taking it slow, Maddie. Very, very slow. If either want him to show up this year, I'll be pleased. I think if you're trying to think that either one of those guys, and I'll also throw J.P. France and a mix are going to help in 26, I think.

think you are holding out a lot of hope. I wouldn't, if I'm the Astros, and I don't think they're doing this, if I were the Astros, I would not be planning either one of those three guys making a significant contribution to this team this year. You're probably going to need them to at some point.

Because you got what, Frumber, Hunter, Rinald Blanco, Eriggetti, Wesneski, that's five. Then where's your depth? Blue ball? Yeah. What if two, three pitchers go down like it's been happened the last couple years.

What about that I was supposed to pitch on the last day of last year before I got rained out in the nine-hour rain delay? There was a kid that was for the against the guardians that was supposed to pitch. I forgot his name. No, there's reinforcements. They're not, Ross, they're not going into starting rotation with just five guys and you are the five. Oh, I know that, Matt. I'm not saying that they are.

But are they any good? I don't, I think we're going to have to figure that out once we see them play in spring training and they get their first call-ups. But have you, did you really ever hear of the Astros thinking about going after? a starting pitcher in this off season? I didn't hear much of that, did you? Maybe that tells us a number of things.

They don't have money to spend. I mean, they weren't seriously involved in the Yusei Kikuchi sweepstakes, if they want to call it that. They didn't really try very hard to keep Justin Verlander. I mean, you got you know what you did, Rosson? We haven't really talked much about this. You got rid of two-fits of your starting rotation. Well, Verlander

didn't pitch a whole lot in the rotation. You got rid of one fifth and then you got rid of an extra guy. Gordy reported to us, JP France said after the All-Star break. Javier had Tommy John in the middle of the year. That's going to be a year probably. Herkitties are out of the organization.

Hercuiz nowhere to be found. So maybe Luis and Lance are going to be ready soon. You kind of want them to be because, first of all, the five guys you just brought up, not all five are going to be great. One of the five, this is reality. You're going to get hurt at some point. That's what starting pitchers do.

Mm-hmm. I will just say this. and we'll get a better grasp of it when we get down to Florida next week. There's two names that we don't even know about right now that we'll be talking about the middle of the year. Yeah, but how good are they? If we haven't even heard about it. We didn't mention Spencer Arigetti's name. Yeah, we did.

Absolutely. Not in spring training? No, we did not. Last year? Yeah, we interviewed him in spring training. Absolutely. But he wasn't a part of the opening rotation. No, but he was talking about as a contributor for the year, absolutely.

But there's going to be two guys that we get down there. We'll introduce ourselves. I am, if the Astros ain't We're scared about it, I'm not scared about it. I'm just telling you that something in the organization said We don't, we're not as concerned as everybody else seems to be Because last year we had so many The Astros had so many and then they ran out

Because guys got hurt If there's things to worry about to me The number one thing Rossi to me to worry about Is where the hell you can get hitting on the outfield Yes That's what is to me The 9-7-8-9 scares the life out of me for the Astros Okay, it does too

It should for anybody But that doesn't mean that we're totally said We're all good So we're all good at starting pitching No, I didn't say that I'm not, but I'm not fretting over starting pitching right now Because clearly Astros aren't fretting about it There's got to be

There's got to be two names that we'll find out In the next 10 days, like oh okay, you guys are high on them That's cool Ryan Gusto That's who it was supposed to be It was supposed to pitch All right That was again the last game of the year

Now that doesn't mean anything But I mean that's a name Gusto Blue Ball Exactly. I mean, yeah, it's not great. But were the Astros in on any names at this point? I don't think so. No, because they were trying to shed payroll. They're trying to stay under the tax again because they don't want to spend money.

So we'll see. I think they're lacking in starting pitching depth. Unless we're banking on Luis Garcia and Lance McCullochellers Jr. Well, I can't. I just told you I can't do that. So maybe I should be more concerned than I am. I'm not saying I'm not concerned. I'm just not going to worry.

about it right now. Starting pitching, no problems, Matt Thomas. Nope. And I quote. I believe I just said five 20 game winners in one rotation. The Baltimore Orioles of the... Shakers, yeah. The early 70s 70s. Mike Quayar is shaking in his boots. Jim Palmer's like, what? You're going to do what again?

No, I am... Pat Dobson? McNally? You're like a Dave McNally. Dave McNally? His cousin, Pat. Real quick. Oh, man, we are super late. Oh, okay. Oh, I got a... Carl Rabbit's story. I've got to tell really fast. do we come back, 147.

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That's 281-58-9-9778 or online at Uptownappliancerepair.com. Let's play America's fastest growing. Sports radio game show, we simply call it B. Believe it or not it, and here's how it works. You call 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-7-90. Today's edition of Believe-Nall, All things about Alex, Bregman.

I'll read your statement about Alex. Statements completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. If a statement's erroneous, full of uncum, you'll say this. Nah. Two, believe it or not to a row in a year prize. What are we playing for today, Connor?

We've got four pack of ticks to Mardi Grasin. Happening February 21st through March 4th in Galveston, some 790 T-shirts. And if you're wrong, you pay for Ross's co-pay at the clinic. 1713-212-5-790. Let's go to the phones and talk to the great people. We'll start with, God, this phone system, Jesus Christ. Matt on 790, Matt, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Alex Bregman converted an unassisted triple play in his first ever T-ball game. Believe it or not?

Not. He did. I was there for it, actually. I wasn't. Let's go to line number two, Roger on 790. Roger, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it, believe it. Yeah, yeah. Alex Breggman was selected in the 29th round of the 2012 MLB draft of the Red Sox,

but elected to play college baseball at LSU. Believe it or not. Not. Yeah, he did. I don't know your LSU stuff. Let's go to line number three. Greg on 790. Greg, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. Greg, Alex Breggman, was a projected first round pick and the 2012 MLB draft, but a broken hand caused him to slide. Believe it or not? Not. Believe it. Well, y'all don't know your Breitman stuff. I thought you love this guy. Line 4, Matt, on 790. Matt, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Alex Breggman will have to switch numbers for the Red Sox as the number two is retired for Jim Rice. Believe it or not? Believe it. No. Gosh. We got a mini skunk. going here, Sports Harvey. You're feeling pretty good about that?

Let's go to Donald on line 6. Donald on 790. You ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir. Both of Alex Breggman's parents are lawyers. They met in law school. Believe it or not? Believe it. There you go. Statement number two for the win. Alex Breggman won the 2015 Golden Spikes Award given to the nation's top amateur baseball

player. Believe it or not? Not. Not. There you go. We finally got a winner. That's what I'm talking about. Let's go to George in Cyprus. George on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it.

George, good luck to you. Alex Bregman, war number 30 in college to reflect all 30 MLB teams passing on him in early draft. Believe it or not? Not. That is a believe it. Sorry, my friend. And let's go to... That's it.

That's it. We got nobody else. All right. This is for Adam Clinton. If he gets this right, we will... will buy him the biggest box of goldfish available. If you get this wrong, you must eat a spoonful of mayonnaise. Cheese is what he likes.

Cheese, it's whatever. Whatever kids treat you like. Here it is. You get it right. You get cheese. It's wrong. You have to drink a... Do you get me a family size?

Spoonful of mayonnaise. Gross. Growing up, Alex Brighman had dogs named Jeter and Kofax after two of his favorite Yankee ball players. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. Duh.

Duh. Jesus, it is. Yes. Are you really getting me some? No chance. Come on, before the game tonight. I'm sitting on my spot at the arena. Up next, it's Clinton.

It's Wexler. It's the team. Talk to you for Rockets at 7 right here on the home of the Rockets and the Astros. And credential media who actually covers a Texan. Sports Talks have an idea. Goodbye.