The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Day 3 At Spring Training: Jake Meyers Fan Club Meeting, MLB Testing Challenge System, Wemby Out For Season

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" go LIVE from the third day of full-squad workouts at the Astros spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Florida. Spencer Arrighetti joins to discuss his approach to his upcoming sophomore season. Matt and Ross also:talk with Jake Meyers and Mauricio Dubondebate MLB testing the ABS challenge systempreview ESPN's "College GameDay" matchup between the Houston Cougars and Iowa State Cyclones with Eddie Nunez, the athletic director for the University of Houstonreact to breaking news that Victor Wembanyama will miss the remainder of the season due to injuryfurther discuss the future plans for the Texans stadiumsay "I Just Don't Get It More."

Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 10-1 in H-town. Good morning. And welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show at Ross from West Palm Beach, Florida. This is Sports Talk 790. And the first pitch of tonight's ball game. And Al-Tuve lifts it into center field, roadless, racing back, still going back at the wall.

See you later! A first pitch lead-off home run for Jose Al-Tube. Jump out to a one-to-nothing lead. Al-Tuve with his 24th career lead-off Homer. Renners on first and third, one-o-count. Racon ball hit well. Deep to left film. More going back.

That ball is gone. Cut in the season for Dubon. And a big four-to-one lead for the Astros. The biggest hit of his career. Two to Guerrero. Proud ball tap. Laco lets it go by. Dubon Fields.

throws the first in time. A no! First to jump into his arms. And the rest of his teammates come out to Maubel. Ronald Blanco has thrown the seventh in Houston Astros' history as the Astros defeat the Toronto Blue Jays

10 to nothing. Go ahead and say what you said. Snock it out. What? I got nothing. You just said something off air. Don Henling is one of the greatest of all time and I couldn't love this song anymore. You first of all,

You hate the Eagles. That's not true. You probably despise Don Henley by himself. That's not true. All right. I'm not putting words in your mouth, but I can see it in your eyes. You can see it to my face? I can definitely see it in your face.

Okay. I said that I don't care for that song. I'll tell you, fine. I'll tell you since you want to always snitching on people. I'm not a Don Henley truther. I said as it was playing that this song sucks. I said, I got a hot take for you, Matt. This song sucks.

Yes, I said that off air. It's, I don't care for it. I mean, maybe it sucks is a bit of a strong word, but it's not my favorite. Yeah, I again. Centerfield, I'm down. We play yesterday, Saltons a Swing. Yeah, dire straits. That's good.

Yeah. I think we've officially knocked out every song of baseball. Now, you'll be playing us. We're supposed to play Nellie's batter up, I thought. Oh, you know what? I totally forgot about that at noon. All right, you hear me, Connor? Noon.

Uh, batter up. Got it. So that's on the show today. All right. That's Connor. He's going to be happy to have us back in town tomorrow. I can tell you that for sure. I'm sure he is.

We've been putting him to work. Yeah, it's got like, man, I'm hard to making any money. I'm having to pay predeposit for dinner for my Valentine. Yeah, he's probably still hurting from that. Yeah, that's like for the next six months. We've got to help you on that for sure. All right, we are here in West Palm Beach, Florida for the final time today. We'll be back in town tomorrow because we've got to get back for rockets

and the taking on the Minnesota Timberwolves tomorrow night, and then Saturday at Utah take on the jazz. So I'm traveling these national streets, baby. Huge game. Washington, here, Houston. West Salt Lake City for a big game against Anthony Edwards, but today we're going to, again, large focus on the baseball side of things. Spencer Ergetti was supposed to be with us earlier today.

Yesterday will not be with us. It wasn't with us yesterday. We'll talk to him. Yes. You'll hear from a meeting of the Jake Myers fan club early on the show today. You'll hear a little bit of what Joe Espada had to say, and you never never know else going to have pop up over the next couple of hours. Also, Eddie Nunez, athletic director of the University of Houston is going to stop by around 12,000.

30 to discuss. Yeah, I'll step out and go to the bathroom or something for that. I don't care what you do at this point. It might eat my sandwich. What time is it? It's at 1.30 Eastern, 12.30 Central. Oh, yeah. You should be driving. You can't be eating a sandwich and drive. Yeah, I might go ahead and crush that Wawa sandwich around then.

Baba. I'm sorry, Baba. Yeah. It's fine. They're not local. Yeah, if they were open up and don't spend money with us, then they're really going to get it. But, yeah, college game day is coming to Fortita Center for the second time. So it's a light schedule on Saturday. It's not.

It's Iowa State Houston. It's the national game of the week. Duh. That's wonderful. The nation turns its eyes to the Iowa State Cyclones and the Houston Cougars. You know, there are a lot of schools, obviously, in the heartland of America, they go, how do 18-year-olds find that that's the place where they want to go? Lawrence, Kansas.

Great example. Ames, Iowa. No idea. I really believe 30 years ago it was about the women. Like, you come to these towns, and you're an athlete, you're going to have a lot of fun. So you're saying they have beautiful. beautiful fast and loose women at Iowa State. I don't know how beautiful there, but they're probably loose.

Okay. Nothing is anything wrong with loose women. But you're okay? The reality now is that it's not about the loose woman anymore. It's about the loose cash. Okay. I mean, two in the times both. Two of the schools in a state of Texas that are really doing well, NIL,

are schools you wouldn't put on the, well, you put one on the radar. SMU's doing very well because they've got ridiculous lots of amount of money from there alums. And Texas Tech's got a huge NIA collective right now. Who's the high-powered Iowa State Alums besides? That's what I'm saying. How are they doing it? I don't know. Because I've been Ames, it's like College Station of Iowa. Nothing attractive to it. I'm not saying college station. Well, yeah, I'm saying. Carl's stations. Is Royce White making a bunch of donations? Is he still running for a political office? I don't know. Was that already happened in November? I don't know where it was, but he was running for office. Yeah, well,

wishing him the best. All right. We have I just don't get it today at 1130 today. Can't wait. We get a man at Nunez. The news at noon. You'll hear a little bit of Astro sprinkled in over the course of the conversation. Today is kind of a light day.

Although we have just received, Ross. I'm going to ask you to please leave the studio here from our West Palm Beach remote location. You've got Lance McCullors pitching today. Wow. And a bullpen session. And what else do we have? She need me to go check that out? I believe Hunter Brown and Josh Hater is.

Okay, so three major people that you know, step aside, call us when you get to the field. So, Connor, look on the lawn and the calling in line. Yes. Because I know it doesn't use a whole lot these days. 7-1-3-212-5-79 if you want to join us. Ross will leave us now. Okay. That's the cue.

Oh, all right, fine. Really? Yeah. I'll see you. All right. So Ross is left, and it's going to be giving us a live report from the bullpen area where those guys are going to be going. So we should be hearing from Ross in about, I don't know, two minutes or we're going to take

a break and then he'll come back and join us live on the phone from the back of the bullpen. All right, so today was a photo day for the Astros where they put their uniforms on and they take the pictures that you'll see when you go to a Dyken Park or if you happen to look at a media guide, if you see anything in the Chronicle, this is the day that they have an opportunity to put their uniforms on and smile pretty for that. So it's kind of a little bit of a lighter day. The Astros will start a spring training schedule coming up on Saturday. There's a split squad game Saturday.

Sunday they'll pitch, have a game as well. And then we're going to be your home for Astro's spring training, which will include a lot of games. 90% are going to be live, some in this time slot, some after our time slot, some before. So we will be your spring training home. And, of course, all 162 right here on Sports Talk 790. What else? Oh, again, I,

I wish I could come to you with some really interesting tidbits of, you can't believe this storyline, but I will tell you that Jose Al-Tube conversation piece is not going to go away. It isn't going to go away at any point during the spring training. When he goes out there and plays his first game in left field in the spring training, it's going to be a big story. When he plays his first game at Diken Park in left field, it's going to be a big story. It's really the storyline. I know there's going to be some issues about.

about the pitching depth rotation and whether or who does play second base and whether or not Jake Myers and Chance McCormick can help out the cause and be a solidified outfield and the three minor leaguers but right now it's about taking the greatest astor of all time and making him feel comfortable and I know that Chandleroma was in our media availability today with the skipper Joe Espada and he noticed something I noticed as well when watching Jose he's in really good spirits he is in a really good spot. He loves the fact that I wouldn't say loves. Maybe it's too strong a term. But he isn't begrudgingly thinking about going to left field. And, you know, guys in their 30s have to adjust

and move to different positions sometimes on the field. Sometimes they go from second base to the shortstopper, shortstop to third, or some guys that are catchers turn to first base towards the latter portions of their career. This is a pretty significant switch. But it's also a switch that a couple of other Astros in their heyday still did. Craig Bigeo, second. second base year after year after year goes the outfield so it's not unprecedented within the astros organization to bring somebody in the infield and taking the outfield so we'll talk to jake myers about that a little bit today about what advice he's maybe giving to one hose l too all right we come back we're going to go to the fields found on exactly what uh ross is finding out

as he looks at the three pitchers in their current bullpen sessions it is the bat tomishail Ross. We're here from West Palm Beach. If you'd like to join us today to talk all things Astros Baseball, you may do that at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Also, we had a poll question yesterday about whether or not you could see yourself publicly supporting with your friends, your family, calling a radio show about public financing of a new Texans facility stadium if indeed they decide they want to build one as compared to refurbishing NRG. We'll give you the results on that. All that coming up today at 713-212-5-790. This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Sports Talk 790.

All right, as promised, let's go to the baseball fields. We send reporters from C to shining sea, or in our case, about 100 feet to the right of us. Rossville, Real, joining us live from the Batfields at West Palm Beach and the facility known as the Houston Astros Spring Training Complex. Ross, how the hell are you? I'm doing great, Matt. Yes, we're out here. Lance McCullors Jr., Hunter Brown, Josh Hader, all throwing bullpins at this moment.

And apparently live on fire. What was that? Hold on. What was that? What was that? I think Lance McCullors just walked a guy. No, he did that. There's no batters in there. What are you talking about? No, yeah. Yeah, they got a scoreboard up here. He's got two, he walked the first two batters, so this is not looking great so far, Matt.

No, ladies and gentlemen, he's lying to you. Oh, my God. Wait a minute. Hold on. Lance McCullors is grabbing his elbow, Matt. No, no, it's just a... Stop. Stop it. No, it's just an it. No, he just, it was a scratch. He's good. He's good. We're all good. He's looking great. People are believing this.

People are believing you in this bit right now. This is terrible. The catcher, no, the catcher's mid is popping, Matt. Everything sounds great. Oh, whoa. I think you just walked another guy. Oh, this is not great. There's no walks. They're not doing striking ball counts.

Okay. Well, it looks like the trackman is catching on fire. I think that's good. Is that good or is that bad? How about the, is the robot system in place to challenging balls and strikes at this point? Yes, it is. And now the scoreboard says Josh Hader just gave up a solo home run. Must not be a safe situation in the bullpen.

Okay. come back to the studio over here because you're doing us no no service goodbye yeah they're telling me to leave uh-uh yeah that's returning that was the worst attempt at on the at site reporting i've ever heard in my entire life so i apologize for that that was not good at all and uh that was about as bad as it gets but yeah the bottom line is those guys are thrown another normal days and they feel good they feel great can't wait for the start of the season. It's six weeks of this. And so it'll be kind of nice to see what they actually do in games.

And I know the Space City folks are going to have a bunch of games on TV. And, of course, we'll have all the games on radio's to give you an update of what's happening in there. But, yeah, those three guys, haters going today. Brown's going. And I had a chance to catch up with Hunter Brown, and you'll be hearing that in the 1 o'clock hour with the show. So we're very much excited about that. One o'clock is going to be really full because we've got the conversation with Christian Walker. we had a couple days ago.

If you missed that talk, we're going to have that for you. You're going to hear from Jake Myers. You'll hear with Joe Spottadded to say, and we'll get all that mixed in. Plus, again, Spencer Erigetti is going to join us live in just a few minutes or once he gets done with his workout. So, yeah, there's nothing dramatic. There's no injuries to really worry about.

I'm not overly keeping a count on when Lance McCuller's is going to come into play. Like I said, with Lance, and I will repeat myself on this, if he pitches in 2025, it's gravy. It's 100% gravy. I'm just, I've been led down, not a path of

misinformation because somebody wants to pitch, somebody needs to pitch, somebody feels like they're ready to pitch. Oh, hi, you're back. Yeah. I was talking about my colors. Everything looking good, by the way. Good, that's good.

The reality is, if he pitches, he pitches. I don't want, I'm not putting any more timetables. on him. I'm not listening to what he says. I'm listening to what the manager says, and when he's in live action, when he goes to AAA and double A and he starts working the rehab, he'll probably be down here for extended spring training, getting more workouts. If I get him in 2025, it'll be a nice thing. It'll be a good

thing to add to a depth chart that we've been discussed a little bit. There could be a little bit of worry, especially if that back end does not perform up to expectations. Plus, if anybody gets hurt. Yeah, the thing is, If we changed his name to any, put a different name on his jersey, Don Johnson, number five.

Who? Don Johnson? Yeah, Don Johnson. He plays for Miami. He looks like he's ready to go. He's been throwing bullpins. Everything's on schedule. They said, you're not going to, you know.

But because his name is Lance McCuller's Jr., we all have reservations. And, I mean, nobody can blame, nobody's blaming anybody. Anybody said if anybody's saying I don't know what to I'm not expecting anything from Lance McCuller Jr. You're going to get mad of him, Adam? No. Are you going to say that should unreasonable take? Absolutely not. Like let's, and you know, they call me Mr. Analogy.

You have a friend who's battled weight issues his entire life. And he tells you he's going to go on a diet. Oh, God, here we go. Mr. analogy. And he starts eating better. It's like, man, I'm just on the start of the start. I've lost four pounds.

This is great. Let's check in with you in a month. Are you down 10? Let's check you in you in six months. Are you down 25, 30? If it happens, it's great. But if not, we kind of know you're a fat person. I don't like this.

That's fine. Because his injuries are not of his choosing. No, they're not. That's what I'm saying. If you get to 400 pounds, you earned it. Well, here's the reality. I don't think he's going rogue when it comes to how he pitches and how he has prepared himself on this comeback.

If the body says, I can't do it, I can't do it. Again, when God created our beautiful bodies, Ross, they didn't expect the people to take a baseball and throw it at 95 miles an hour. That wasn't the game plan for the humor hour. And torquing your elbow as much as you do with all trying to, with a high emphasis on spin, which Lance McCullors Jr. always has had. The bottom line is, I understand everyone is expecting nothing out of them. It's a running joke.

And that comes to the territory, unfortunately, because, again, Major League players are held to criticisms that could be about performance. It could also be about non-performance. And the low-hanging fruit. And we've all done it, including me, is, you know, Lance, it's great. Nice to see you. We'll see. What was your best moment? What was your favorite Lance McCuller of a moment of 2017 or 18 or 19 or 20?

I mean, you don't have many of them. I know it's Thursday, but I got a good feeling, Matt. He's going to contribute. he's going to contribute to the 2025 season for the Houston. I've got a bigger one for you. I've seen enough. Let's go. He's met him to a couple of bullies.

He wants to throw here in spring training. Then he's going to hit AAA for a couple of rehab starts. I'm in, baby. Let's go. I choose to be optimistic. Lance McCuller Jr. contributor to the 2025 Houston Astros. I got a question for you.

Okay. It's going to be an A, B, C, or D. Okay. Who contributes more? in 2025 A Lance McCullors Junior

Junior B Forrest Whitley Forth Whitley C Both A and B Both A and B like they're they both got a war of over five D D neither A or B

Just a rando guesso That's it I'm leaning A I'm leaning A Because you just at the end of the day Maybe Forst just doesn't have Morris is a major league pitcher. We don't really have a whole lot to back that up.

And here's the reality. There are thousands and thousands of 4A players. Yes. And high draft picks that are 4A players. And we can go through hundreds of guys. At one point, I believe, for a moment in time, Forrest Whitley was the best pitching prospect in all of baseball. But injuries, weight changes, suspensions,

lack of success, spin the wheel again, go through all those again, have hurt him. I'll give the aster's credit. I mean, they could have given up on him. You know, they gave him first round money because that's what you do as a traffic, but they haven't not, their investment is not nearly as of high of investment

as Lance McCuller's number numbers are. I mean, that's $85 million. Forrest Willie's first round salary, what was his, I mean, I don't know what his slot value was back in the day, but it's nothing, I mean, it's really good. I mean, he's going to be able to comfortably live the rest of his life. But it's not like they're going to the poorhouse over this. I think what is the situation with him?

Isn't he out of options or something like that? He's got to make the team. He's got to make the team. The major league squad. Yes. Or that he could be up for a free agent. Free agent. Which again, if he doesn't make the team and all of a sudden he goes somewhere in his say,

seven and four with an area of four and a half, you kind of say, good for you. Glad you were able to resurrect your career. career. But I can't imagine you and I in the middle of the season going, wow, the Astros just couldn't give him that one more shot. And look what he's new and doing now with Atlanta or Oakland or Sacramento or whatever, not Oakland, Sacramento. Or insert team. He's 27 years old. Now, in AAA Sugar Land. Yes. Last year. Right.

In 32 games. He had an ERA of 189. Oh, there wasn't an issue getting outset at Sugarland, but there's a difference between, and again, extraordinarily short. Slight difference. Slight difference. No, okay. The biggest leap you can make in baseball, of course, from AAA to the major leagues. But the reality is, Ross, he's got a shot to make this team because everybody that's a middle reliever, none of those guys should be going, oh, I've got a guaranteed lock.

I mean, a Braew's got a lock spot. Yes. You have hate over the lock spot. but there's just as many guys on there that could have an area of six this spring and develop arm trouble or the velocity's not coming out of the arm and be like, you know what?

You know, it's maybe not me. I will say this. I give him credit for readjusting his career values. This guy is supposed to be a frontline starter. Now he'd be lucky to make the team as a long reliever. Oh, he didn't really have a choice. He could have to walk away from baseball. Yeah, yeah.

He had a big signing bonus, but I don't think he's been making much sense, and he's 27 years old. Yeah, so there you have it. 713, 212. 5790. So again, my question, A, McCullors, B, Wittley, C, both, D, none of the above.

You know what? I'll say see both. That you are full of optimism. Let's go. It's spring. Spring training. It's Eternal. Yeah, Jake Myers is hitting 20 bombs. Let's see, what else? Chas McCormick, 25. You can't pull him out of right field.

Jacob Melton's going to be knocking down the door. Camp Smith is going to be You can be up here and dealing. And Jose Altube gets a gold glove and left. Okay. Now you're getting crazy. Wait a minute. You said you're optimistic.

He's not going to play enough games. Oh, that's left. But it's the only thing that's going to keep him from doing it. If it was per 162, he'd have this spot. Exactly. I got you. Yordon's going for 50 bombs. Let's go.

All right. 713-212-5-7. I'm speaking of Jake Myers. We're going to hear from him coming up in just a couple of minutes. What I do want to come back is give you that poll question about what we talked about. a little bit on the show yesterday, and that was, would you be willing to help spend public tax dollars to get the Texans a new facility if they so choose? By the way, looking at Twitter yesterday,

I don't know if folks want to find a spot needo for the football team. I don't know that area well enough. That land is going to cost you. That's part of the issue is the land cost. Absolutely. That's probably issue one. Probably for sure. Where, again, I don't know the real estate values, but I'm going to assume.

that I-10 and Gessner may be a little bit easier than, say, navigation? Yes. I would agree with that. All right. 713-212-5-7-90 with a word now for Love Volleyball. League 1 volleyball.

L-O-V-B.com is a website. They've got a match coming up in the next week or so down at the Fort Bend epicenter, and if you have become a fan of volleyball, it's one of the fastest-growing sports. And you hear that a lot of times, but literally, it's the fastest-growing sport. These colleges are now making serious revenue, having huge crowds.

There was like $75,000 in a game in Nebraska year or so ago. The national championships getting huge ratings. We've now got a professional volleyball league. More kids are playing volleyball, both boys and girls. My daughter is heavily involved in it, and I promise you, if you want to check out the best volleyball in this country, it's going to be found at League One volleyball. LovB.com for games in February and March.

Check out the schedule. Get yourself some tickets. Go down to Fort Bend County, Richmond, Rosenberg area. and enjoy the next major league. It's League 1 volleyball, L-O-V-B-L-O-V-B.com. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues on Sports Talk 790. All right, we've got a meeting of the Jake Myers fan club coming up in just a few minutes here on the Matt Thomas show.

Actually, we did it this morning. And you'll hear a little bit of that in the next segment of the radio show. I did put a question out yesterday. As long as it's deemed a reasonable, should tax money be, used to help the Texans build a new stadium. Rossi, we have two hours and three minutes left in the voting. So if you have not voted yet,

make your voice heard at sports. I said I'm willing to fork over as much money as it takes to get these poor McNairs who have poured out their hearts and souls for this city and they live,

you know, they don't live extravagantly. Paycheck to paycheck. Paycheck to paycheck. They give it at every turn. They never make it about themselves. I love the McNair's. And they can take anything that they need from me. Take all my money. Texans are only worth $6 billion. Take my money, Hannah. It's for you. For all you've given us. 573 votes are in. So there's an opportunity for more of a sample. I have like 31,700 followers.

I only have 573 votes. Get you vote in. Let's go. Get you voted. Most of those are probably a certain percentage in they're dead. Let's be real. Oh, my God, yes. So the bots are real. And I do a pretty good job of getting rid of bots.

No, you don't. I mean, I can do a better job. You block legitimate people. But I've also figured out. Stop blocking people. Whatever. 15% said, I love them 24-7, yes. I'll be willing to do it as long as it reasonable.

14% said, win a Super Bowl, and then I'm all in. And then 71% said, no, you want it, your money. Now, let's say that, Mark Van der Meer did it. I'm going to guess his numbers would be skewed a different direction. Rock and roll, new stadium. If Texas Darlene had a Twitter account, my guess is her numbers would be significantly higher. I'm not going to use you because you're associated with the show, but let's say a battle red Rick was to, you know,

who's that dude that was dressed up with the road warrior? He's got. Oh, yeah, the ultimate warrior fan. I'm sure his, great for him. His Twitter numbers would be significantly more of a, we got a kid. keep them under all circumstances. Great podcast, by the way. I'm not listening.

Were you guests? Oh, I mean, yeah. No, I'm not a guest, no. Were you guests before? A day one subscriber. Oh, you listened to all those? No, I didn't listen to it. All right.

I was kidding. Sorry. I'm listening to all the wonderful I-Heart podcast we have. Yes. By what, make... Dudes on dudes. Make Houston Sports and 790 your number one preset. Do me a favor on that.

Will you please? Oh, yeah, that's true. Tell the folks, Matt. Come on. Okay. You go the Iheart radio app. There's a preset. Yes.

Put us number one. Makes it real nice and easy to find us. Put Sports Talk 790 on your presets. Like when we leave today to go to the airport, we're putting on the IHart Radio out so we listen to Adam and Adam. Look, I'm going to be honest. If you like to show, you enjoy the show, you want to support Matt Thomas and me, Ross. We've been asked by our bosses to do it. So if you could just put it a preset, it really help us out.

Just put a preset. Just put a preset. And again, thank you. If this is that I can do for you guys. I did it on my app. I'm asking my family to do it. Oh, yeah. Sports Talk 790.

Make us a preset on your iHeart radio app. There you go. We'd appreciate it. Yeah, that's it. That's it right there. All right. So back to it. And we're not going to make this a daily conversation piece,

but I wanted to P.S. this on the poll question from yesterday. I can tell, and I couldn't tell you this was in certainty 25 years ago when I was a young man. I was a little older or a little wiser. The NFL ain't leaving Houston, Texas. I think that's a good point by you. I think that's right. There's no way.

There was Nashville. There was Jacksonville back in the day. There was other cities. Las Vegas. Charlotte. Los Angeles, who is in flux. Oakland. I mean, there's nowhere else to go.

They're not taking the Houston Texans and sending them to Chattanooga. They're not taking the Houston Texans to put them in Boise, Idaho. The Texans, I think, won't do this, but if they come with any pressure, they're going to get their ass kicked. Because we as a society, I think, are largely done with buying sports facilities for teams. Because I don't know if, look, I travel a lot and I do a lot of this with my daughter's volleyball club schedule and she bumps around the country. We go to places like San Antonio in Orlando, and I don't know what the Las Vegas taxes are for their stadiums, but Orlando and San Antonio, go look at your hotel bill and look at the outrageous stadium facility taxes that are added to your bill. You will lose your freaking mind.

And I'm telling you, in the world of conventions and cost, big companies are first of all getting rid of these major conventions Las Vegas is always going to be a destination Orlando is always going to be a destination But if I have a shot to go haul a convention of Woodworkers or plumbers And I get a better rate of a hotel and better convention fees and less taxes If I'm doing it in Omaha as compared to San Antonio

Sorry San Antonio We're not going there So if you want to put on another hotel and rental card attacks on our community, we will lose, we being the city of Houston, we'll lose business because of that. It's just going to happen. Hmm. So this whole notion of, we'll have the outside pay for it. That's true in some regards, but I'm telling you this, the McNairns are going to have to put, and it's going to be audited by somebody not from the Harris County Sports Lord, it's going to be audited by real true

of third party, third party CPAs, Ross. They're going to have to stay. step up and put a lot of cash in this bad boy because if they put a lot of cash in it's going to happen they're we're not going to see the texans as currently situated where they are five years from a minute they're either going to start rebuilding and refurbishing energy or there's going to be construction a new facility i i know this is coming it's just going to be who's going to pay for it well it's probably be the city of houston but it's a matter of how much right oh yeah i'm i guarantee we'll be on the city houston me on the hook for some of it, for sure.

By the way, you're talking about places to move. From a previous discussion, we had the largest metro areas in the United States. Now, I didn't know that Riverside San Bernardino has 4.7 million people.

Yeah, but they're not going to grab. So we're going to throw them out. Right. San Diego? 18th? Need a stadium. So maybe San Diego would be a threat.

But they have no interest. They had a chance. They had 10 times, 10 chances to keep the chargers. Orlando, 21st. No. I'm just going through teams that don't have an NFL team. Right, not enough. San Antonio 24th.

Nope. Portland, 25th. Nope. Austin, 26th. Nope. Sacramento, 28th. No. That's top 30.

You have NFL teams surrounding all those metropolitan areas. San Antonio Texans, you wouldn't have to change the name. That isn't, that's the lace. You have to just, first of all, you have to completely destroy the Alamo Dome and rebuild it from scratch. Those people in San Antonio were bitching about the Spurs getting a new arena. They're not building a new stadium.

They already got built a city once and didn't get a football team out of it. They're not doing it twice. They tried right when it was the, weren't they trying to make a good impression when the Saints played over there after Katrina? Yeah, and they're like, this Alamodome's nice, but it's about a college facility. Hey, I love the Alamo Dome. I know.

You've got a permanent seat in there. You've been there more times than David Robinson for games, and he played there. So, yeah. don't worry Houston they're not moving and i guarantee you they're not moving but we're going to have to see the mcnares cow doesn't care because he doesn't even know what the books say hannah doesn't mean like we have to do what it's going to be hannah's going to be more pissed

than cal and by the way you don't want cal in front of anybody trying to explain how much money he's putting in that's another thing when you have savvy business people that are in front of a microphone all the time that can convince you of something, that's one thing. How is Cal going to push an agenda to say, we've given enough money or we're doing our part? The Texans PR revival has been because Cal has been put out to the side.

Yep. You can't have Cal out in front trying to explain to the city of 6 million people why you need $2 billion to help you build a stadium. Yeah, Hannah McNair is acutely aware of the image that the Houston Texans had and projected to the city. Yes. And she's absolutely had a big part in reviving how the Texans are viewed.

And she's going to be aware if the city of Houston and the pulse of the city of Houston is going to want to have any part in this stadium as far as financially. So that's another angle of this that's going to make it interesting. And the reality is they're probably going to need a frontman. That's why they hired a new team president. Let him do the heavy lifting. All right, 1044, Matt and Ross with you here from West Palm Beach. An early Jake Myers fan club meeting is up next.

It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 713-212-579. If you want to get in, 7-13-212-5-7-90. Matt and Ross return. Return on Sports Talk 790. 1049 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-9. If you want to chime in and say hello

or you just want to argue with us or yell at us, we'll do all that. We're a fair game. Rossi, we have monthly meetings about the show. We have monthly meetings about... Well, they're supposed to be weekly, but you're always out of town. Yeah, but you're out of town with me this time. We'll meet this.

No, we're not going to meet this Tuesday. I can't, certainly start. We'll eventually meet. We have monthly meetings of the IHeart Radio App, and you want to make a number one on your preset. Yes. Let's go. And then we have...

monthly meetings of what we'd like to call the Jake Myers fan club. I don't think I would have ever thought to ask you this question. What advice are you giving to Jose L. Tube? Seriously, I can't believe I'm asking you this. I know. Yeah, I'm in shock as well because we've

had some great conversations out there. It's just amazing that a player, you know, of his caliber is kind of going through something like this. And for me to be a part of it, I'm really grateful for it because, you know, had conversations he's asked me a couple questions of you know what i've learned and whatnot it's just been so much fun for me to kind of share what what have i what i've learned and watch him

um you know go out there and do what he's doing the reality is however you've all caught flybals whether he was in the infield or not but ball parks are different nuances balls off the wall are different that's something that only game experience is going to help out with right sure and and that's why i mean the first couple days he's been he's been out there just taking red reps and it's so fun to watch. And BP, and he's just loving it. You know, he's loving it. And that's honestly, that's how I see outfield as well.

It's like, I just absolutely love, you know, catching fly balls. And I can tell he kind of shares that passion. All right. You probably been playing baseball since you were able to walk. So if you went to Joe a spot and said, I want to go in the infield now, where do we find Jake Myers? Well, see, I'm working with an element of the game that's keeping me away from three of the positions. Okay. But if I could choose, I mean, throw me at shortstop.

Why not? Does Jeremy know this yet? No, he doesn't, but I don't think he has to worry. I don't. Hey, your main was outstanding. I mean, we know how good that was, and obviously the second half of the season was not. Do you look at the tapes of that month and go, things were clicking, and what did I not do after that start?

Yeah, I mean, that's something I always believed in and knew I could do. So I wouldn't say I necessarily look back. at it and try to pick it apart or whatnot. But I think it's the other times of just getting better at, you know, helping the team win, whether that's, you know, situational hitting or, you know, getting a knock here and there, walk. That's what Joe told us. Yeah, a little bit more discipline.

Yeah, a little bit, maybe a little bit more discipline in some of those areas, you know, in the times where it's not, you know, just on fire. Showing up right now is Ross Fielder Real. He is the president of Jake Myers fan club. It's true. The group, Ross, was a huge last year, early on, right? A lot of memberships. So we're looking to regain enrollment.

What's going to happen to get the Myers fan club back stronger than ever in 2025? Yeah, like I said, just play like I know I can. And just try and help the team win, however way I can do that. What is it like now with Chaz at Wrightfield to start the season? Look, all of you've done all these different positions, but what advice would you give to him? And he's done it before, but it still has been, I mean, that's been Kyle's spot for the last couple of years, obviously. Yeah, I mean, I think he's going to hit the round running. He's a, he's a great player.

And he, yeah, he's comfortable over there. And it's just going to be a lot of fun to get to play with him. And what about you as far as improving and wanting to be better and wanting to help the team, but also maybe not pressing too much and not putting too much pressure on yourself? Yeah. It really is about just keeping it simple and being athletic. Those are the two things I just really want to focus on this offseason. Because, you know, the big leagues is, everyone's good.

So you just got to show up on a daily basis and find a way to help the team win. And I know we're all going to be a great spot if each one of us do that. Last question. Look, you guys overcame 10 games in a very short period of time. But it was it was excruciating to find yourself down by the double digits. Does a fast start, I mean, look, they're all going to count the same. But is that part of the mindset for this veteran group? The guys are coming back saying, hey, we don't want to dig ourselves an early hole.

Yeah, we had kind of talked about it. Joe was up in front of us and gave us a great, great, you know, pre-year speech of, you know, last year's great. We learned a lot of great things. We have a great clubhouse, great culture. But this is a new year, and we're just going to start with game one. And I think if we go game by game, we're going to be in a great spot. The February edition of the Jake Myers fan club meeting has a job. and thanks, Jake Moore.

Yeah, thank you guys. All right. I think we're going to get an enrollment bump. Don't you need a web page? Don't you guys? Do you guys have a little MySpace page for the AJ Myers fan club? Yeah, we have a, yeah, we've got a Discord server. Do you really?

You're on the copy server account? No, no. It's different. The kids are on the Discord. I don't know what that means. That's okay. That's fine. It's all, it's like WhatsApp or something like that.

Oh, I see. I see. Not really, but okay. I'm trying to help you. Jake's going to get probably a longer leash than Chaz in right field. Do you feel like that? Because I get the feeling that if Cam Smith rakes early on and Chaz does not, they might want to give Cam an opportunity.

If we kind of pictured him as the future third baseman, maybe Cam gets his way out in the major league roster playing a quarter outfield spot. that could definitely be the case. I think you're absolutely correct. So, I mean, it happens anyway and any given normal year that your opening day lineup isn't anywhere close to what it is at the end of the year, depending on injuries and all that type of stuff. I think that's especially going to be a case for the Houston Astros.

Because here's the reality of it. We're trying to find a storyline that we haven't thought of yet that if you and I four months ago said, remember we were down in spring training? We never thought of that. Exactly. Absolutely. We're trying to do that right now. 100% that's going to happen.

So that storyline has got to be, is Kim Smith the X-Factor? I don't think Bryce Matthews will be that guy. Jacob Melton comes in, or is it maybe, you know, a return of an injured pitcher? Is it a guy that, you know, I don't know.

When there's such a little storyline, you're trying to find something. And that's the one I'm kind of curious about, How long will the Astros live with a outfield that doesn't provide much offensive punch? So we'll have to see how that works out. 713-212-5-790 if you want to jump into the conversation. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9. Joe Espottis met with the media a little bit ago,

and we'll hear some of those comments here in just a little bit. Plus, we'll hear from Spencer Erigetti. Spencer Arrogati. South Savannah, Georgia. No, I don't think I, I believe he's from... He went to seven lakes, right? Yeah, or single range. Yeah, no, yeah, he no hit you guys, like, twice.

What did Wisnowski say is, I know what kind of school you went to. He no hit you twice. Hey, Winsneski. You were my guy until you said that. He's terrible. But he wasn't wrong. He wasn't wrong. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Eddie Nuneia is University of Houston. Athletic Church is going to be with us at about to 1230. The news at noon. and I just don't get it coming up in about a half an hour. Right now, unfortunately, unexpected things can happen, especially if you're in your vehicle, if you're at your workplace and you've been involved in an accident that's got you down and out.

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Lunch timers, this is the Matt Thomas show. It is 1101 in H-Town, second hour. of four today on the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790 coming to you from West Palm Beach, Florida. If you'd like to join us, say hello. You can do it two ways. One is we want to hear your voice. 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-7-90. You can also visit with us on Twitter at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Connor D. McGovern. A few headlines we'll get to before we let you hear from Joe Spot against Spencer. He'll get it. He's going to join us a little bit later. If I just don't get it, Eddie Nunez, University,

Houston Athletic Director is going to join us as well before we get you to all Astros final hour of the show. One to two will be all Astros for the full 60 minutes. As we wrap up our coverage here from the first poem. All right, quick headline check. Bobby Portis, taking a painkiller. Bobby Fordis, Milwaukee Bucks, find 20, suspended 25 games. You don't say very often in the NBA. Well, it was an ibupro for then.

No, if I gave you to you, I don't know if you would, I don't know if you would. know the answer to what it was. But it is one of those things. And look, his agents already send something out. And the league's like, I don't care. You're going to meet it's 25 games. Tramadol. Tramadol.

Are you familiar with Tramadol? No. I am not. It's an anti-drug policy the NBA has. I got to say this, because I've got to be consistent about this, whether this is a rocket, a buck, a, or, Orlando Magic player or NFL or Major League Baseball player. If you are one of the... How many professional athletes are there's a thousand, give a take, right?

Yeah, a couple thousand. Between the major sports. Major sports. If you ingest anything shy of a Tylenol or an Advil or a bear, you got to run to your team doctor. You just do. and I feel like Ross I've been repeating this

for 25 years because the banned substance list some of them are the substances don't make any sense some of them seem like there's no malicious intent to them trying to gain a performance

enhancing advantage over competition but since the steroid era in baseball and in football much lesser extent in basketball these teams have put together list of absolutely 100% safe things you can take no worries, no big deal. If you're trying, if you go to that master list

and you don't see what you're about to ingest on that list, you are taking a tremendous risk. Bobby Portis, and for those of you don't know, it's a six-man for the Milwaukee Bucks. Good rebounder, back to the basket guy, probably scores, what, 10, 11 points a game somewhere in that range, maybe a little bit more. He's missing 25 games.

That is going to really hurt the Milwaukee Bucks. Not that we've got a Milwaukee Bucks audience in Houston, but the Rockets are playing the Bucks coming up in a couple weeks. And so that will make a difference as they try to climb up the Eastern Conference ladder. Ross, help me explain, you explain it to me, why do we in 2025 when you are taking anything except something you would buy over-the-counter at a Mung Green's or at a MeeBS, why would you not go to your team doctor or somebody, a trainer, and say, hey, is this okay for me to take it?

While you're right, Matt, these are also human beings who aren't paying attention or maybe just forget or it slips their mind or if he's in pain, he wants him anti-inflammatories and he forgets and they tell him, maybe he even told him, maybe somebody even told him it was okay. And it wasn't. So to me, yeah, he should be checking and double checking and triple checking. Five games is a heavy price to pay. And he made a mistake. Or he's just juicing and got caught.

What are the other? It runs, you know what to me? Because it's funny when you see this happening in the NFL all the time. Oh, tainted supplement. They run to their Twitters. The agents run to Instagram. Who was it, Autry, right? Was the guy that got...

Gene Autry? No. De Nico Autry. Gene's great-grandson. he ran to it i i'm sorry i thought i was doing this to you know what that makes me when i see this and i hear this i think you're just lying to us because the average average person lies four times a day and why can't this be one of them it's possible i mean yeah with the denico act your case and i feel like yeah to me just

in general if you ask me do i think there's more players using abusing steroids and performance enhancing drugs in the NFL or the NBA, I would say the NFL. So I don't know. It doesn't make a lot of sense. For Bobby Portis, being on the juice, I don't know what Tram at all does. Seems like an honest mistake. I think we should try some on there. See how it goes.

Okay. There's no better way to give the audience a real feel of what that is, but I've taken a couple. You need some anti-inflammatories? I don't think so. I'm inflamed about a lot of things. One baseball knows we segue into Joe Espada. The starting pitcher for the Los Angeles, Angels of Anaheim, Opening day will be, Ross?

Well, not. I don't know. You told me three minutes ago, so you absolutely do know. I thought we were doing a bit. Oh, sorry. You're supposed to tell me. Oh, you want me to tell you. You say, Kikuchi, Matt.

So Kikuchi goes from being a guy that was destroyed by the Astros for being coming here. Yes. To being a guy that got a pretty good chunk of change for being a free agent to being the opening. Now, is that really more an indictment against the Angels than it is about how good Yusei was? Probably. I think so. Thank you. That's why we love Conradine McGovern.

You say Kakuchi, opening day starter, Los Angeles Angels. All right, to the Astros, more importantly. Joe Espada, you heard from Jake Myers a few minutes ago. Yes. We had a fan club meeting February. And he was asked among many things about Jake, Myers, can his bat be good enough to keep him in the lineup, especially late in games when you know you need his defense to help you win some games?

Yeah, you know, his swing, he's been good. You know, he made some adjustments in the offseason on his swing-wise that I think we're just trying to create more consistent. You know, some walks, do some small stuff that I know he's capable of doing. We're just trying to avoid the big dip in, you know, like the May he had, right? it was kind of a rapid dip that we're trying to kind of level that and create some consistency when he comes to the quality of his outbats. Has he changed that much? I mean, his approach at the plate differently so far compared to last season.

Yeah, you know, we just seen how good, you know, he can be. So when we see the biggest drop in production, we kind of, we want to make sure that it's not for a whole month, you know. You know, hitters go through tough moments during the season, but he needs to make this adjustments quicker than what he's done in the past. With Myers' range, was that part of the conversation you had with Jose was, let's not reinvent the field. Yeah, sure. You got a center field who's going to cover a lot of ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, right now, we tell him that, but right now when we do a drill, you know, Jake is not there next to him.

So he'll understand that. So those are questions that we need to ask. When we start playing games, how far left he can go? You know, coming in towards the line, you know, he's going to have Jeremy, who has a ton of range, you know, you don't have to catch him all. But also, when he's walking, you know, when he's running into the infield, he's got the priority over the shorts up on the third basement. So he kind of likes that. Getting ahead of the game a little bit, when you need to give Jake a day off, will that affect whether or not you put Jose in left field? Yeah, you're thinking way too ahead.

I know, but I can ask these questions. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. I think about all those things. Right now, I like where Altuve is in this process.

You see him more than we do, but like just watching him. He is smiling. He's bouncing right. Is this like, is he excited? Is this energizing him a little bit? Yes. Too much. Where are we trying to control the volume of yards he's running a day?

again he wants to win and I as the manager I really appreciate what he's doing his teammates I appreciate everything he's doing trying to put us in a position to win but you know today I told him you need to so we're going to we're going to monitor his volume for the next couple of days you mentioned Spencer on Sunday for a rookie pitcher to go through that the first few couple months or not innings weren't very long high strikeouts high walks what is it for him and with your staff, especially your pitching coach, is about getting off of that start in April that he had, I was in the middle of the year? Yes, you know, we always tell Spencer, just throw the ball in the box, be more aggressive. When you get ahead, put people away. You don't need to throw an extra two pitches after you get ahead of hitters. Just put him away. You got quality stuff.

Simplify his approach, and I think we have pointed out some things about his attack plan that I think he's going to be more efficient when he comes to. putting hitters, you know, away. You see him taking more deep press, maybe in the second half of the year, getting over the anxious as of being a major leader. Yeah, yeah, both him and Hunter. I think they overcame a lot of stuff after that first half, and I expect him just to come out, you know, kind of carrying that momentum from the second half. You know, and Bernard Ruggers will get here?

Yes, but, you know, we're still working through some things. What are your thoughts on testing out? I actually like it. I actually like it. I'm just telling, you know, a lead off guy or you can't use them all in the first inning. So, you know, there's some strategy behind it. Obviously, we're just going to test it this spring training. So we're trying to, we want our catchers to, you know, to be able to use it. And, and, you know, I told Baldess, I was joking around with him. I said, dude, you can't. You can't. You and just use it in the first inning. And so, but, but, but I like it personally. I think we're trying to get all the calls, right? I like the human side of thing. I think the impires who still have, you know, the, the power back there just to call

Boston Strike, the human side of things. It's, it's, it's baseball. And, and I like that, that we still can control some of those things. But, you know, it's going to be, it's going to be something fun, something, you know, decreased your framing, catchers? I mean, we're really good at this. Yeah. You know, eventually, but you know, you only got two challenges, so you just got to make sure that, you know, you use it wisely.

Will you let your pitchers challenge? You can they feel like that? That's, we got to, we got to come, you know, we got to talk about that. And we have some guys that, oh, they will use in the first three pitches of the game. I get it, it's been four days, but your first impressions of getting your eyes on Cam Sniff, kind of how he's moved at third, some of the swing. he's taking kind of what have you thought of early impressions of him? Yeah, you know, I now I see why everyone really pointing him out when we were trying, when we tried to Tucker.

His tools are legit power. It's pretty athletic for a kid his size. Pretty, pretty smart kid too. So this is a kit that, you know, we're going to, I'm going to give him some reps up third, but I think he can be also capable of playing corner outfields. So he's exciting. So pretty bright future ahead for this young man if he stays healthy. All right.

That again. There's some thoughts from manager Joe Espada. I want to talk about this challenge system because Ross and I have gone back and forth on this. I think there has been pretty much a consensus. I'm not going to mention for all 100% of the baseball players and people I've talked to, but enough people in baseball believe the challenge system is going to be the one that's going to ultimately be used for the future of Major League Baseball.

We'll tell you more about that coming back in a minute. Our time is 1114. I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour here on Sports Talk 790. Matt and Ross with you from West Palm Beach, 7190. 719 if you want to join us here on Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues on Sports Talk 790. So I've got good news and bad news if you like to see the umpires make the right calls, Ross. You're going to get a challenge system in for the spring training games where teams play games that minor leagueers ultimately play.

Meaning there's no minor league team that plays in this ballpark. So they're not putting the ABS system in. Okay. So if you're going to watch an Astros game in, This ballpark where they share with the Nationals, cacti Park, whatever it's called, you will not see ABS. You'll only see it when they go to other places

where there is a Florida State League team. Oh, what the hell? That's what I'm saying. I mean, is it that expensive? Let's go. Come on, Jim Crane. I don't think it's really, I think it's the league's called.

Major League Baseball's called. I'm just kidding. So they're going to have this automatic ball strike challenge system. It's going to be playing in spring training. Each team will start the game with two challenges apiece. Now, this won't be for Saturday here, but some of the road games, when the Astros play, if they were to play the Yankees in Tampa, if they were to play the Blue Jains and Dunedin, or if they were to play the Bray.

I mean, Red Sox would be in Fort Myers. I mean, there's just places that the minor league team is play. So this is not one of them. But you will see this probably when you watch national games broadcast, and if the Astros play any road games on TV. You get two challenges. Who can challenge the issue, or issue the challenge. challenge, I should say. The batter, the pitcher, or the catcher can challenge an umpire's call.

Nobody else, not even the manager, can't do it. Challenges must be made immediately after the umpire's call without hesitance, without assistance, or hesitance for that matter, from the dugout or other players. The pitcher taps his cap or helmet to alert the umpire to his desire to challenge the call. The Hawkeye view is shown to those in attendance via the video board and to home viewers via the broadcast. Are successful challenges retained? Yes, a team only loses its challenge if the umpire's call is confirmed. So, I know I still, I hear the disgust in your voice.

Ross, you went to your bosses and said, I need a 20% raise. Okay. You're getting five. I know you're worth 20. This isn't, again, a bad analogy. It's a wonderful analogy. They can get every single call right. Then they're saying it to your face.

We can get every call right and we choose not to. We're going to guess. We're kind of keep it guessing. This would be the NBA. This would say we made a magical one. We have a magical system. I have two words for you that's the only way to describe why your plan is never going to happen. Human element.

Why? What is human element is a euphemism for getting it wrong for errors? If I said I can wait. I don't know where you're going gourdly on me by yelling at me. No, because this is ridiculous. I'm not yelling at you, man. This is ridiculous. If I could wave a magic wand and I said,

I can get every single NBA foul call right, every single one. But instead, we're going to use a challenge system. How stupid would that sound? We do use the challenge just a minute, and I don't like it. The NBA needs an overhaul. But if there was for whatever reason, they came up with some crazy AI algorithm with a camera system, they could get every single NBA,

foul call right. And they're like, no, we're not going to use a system. We are going to keep a challenge system. You would say that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. And that's what's happening here. They have a system to get every single call right. Instead, they're going, we'll give you two challenges. There's 200 plus whatever pitches in a game.

And you're getting two challenges? One percent of the time? instead of getting 100% of the call right we're giving you a chance to challenge 1% of the pitches I heard two players I didn't interview them directly but I heard two players in the clubhouse today

I know they were asked about it not pitchers excuse me two hitters the hitters are like the ABS's challenge systems goodbye but they don't want every pitch judged I Ross again I don't want to speak for every

major league player among the 26 players on a 30-man roster, or 26 roster on a 30-man team around the league, I think you'd lose. I don't care if I'd lose. I'm right. The logic makes sense. It doesn't matter what they want. It's about getting the calls right.

We can get every call right, and we're saying no. Unbelievable. Okay, I believe it. So put yourself in those shoes for a minute. The why does, if we went around Major League Baseball, I bet you I could find 75% would say this ABS challenge. challenge system, where it's pretty good. Because that's the way we've always done it, because it's tradition to have

umpires back there. Why does everybody hate the man on second base, which I think is a good rule because it shortens games? Because it's changed. It's changed from tradition. Anytime you try to change a game, everybody gets all upset about it. And that's any game. It's any NFL rule, NBA rule, for the most part, they don't like change.

Rule changes. People always resist change. I do love the sincerity that Major League Baseball has to keeping it as true. of a game that it was when it was created. I never understood the last couple of years why everybody lost their blank over the Manford Rule. Manford Man Rule.

We want to get out of the ballpark. We don't want to be there for 15 innings. The players don't want to be there. You don't want to add extra injuries. You don't want to bury a pitching staff, and you want to get out of there in three hours. You just do it, or shorter if you can, if a game goes extra innings.

Manford Man Rule, I am 100% for it. Now, when it was first announced, and I still to this day believe the exact same way. I would like it to start in the 11th inning as compared to the 10th, but you can't win everything. Okay. So how about this? How about I give you a little bit of optimism? What if I tell you this system, this challenge system is so good once they permanently implemented into Major League Baseball games?

This is just a trial for spring training. Would you be happy if I give you full ABS in five years? Yeah, we'll take it. This could be a step in the right direction. But when you pulled the players in 1970, whenever, when they made the DH, what did everybody say? Everybody hated the DH. It's not real baseball, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Now it's in both. Actually, the original baseball was originally conceived. You had nine, like, it was like nine balls in five strikes or something like that. Yeah. And then you could put spit and mud and whatever you wanted on the ball. You toss it over there. You got nine balls and like five strikes. I think it was still three outs.

But the mound has gone up. And it wasn't even 60 foot six inches. until like the 1900s. You went 30, 40 years where the mound was moved. The mound was up. The mound was down. You added DH. You've changed rules, and I'm sure there was resistance to every single one of these changes. But at the end of the day, you've got to say we've got to get it right. And they're not going to do that. Whatever.

I don't think I'm alone on this island, but I'm probably for whatever reason we're the most vocal ones. I think people are concerned about time. I think are people concerned about the world of technology? taking over sports. And a lot of technology that gets taken over is good for us. AI has value, Ross, but AI can be dangerous too. Okay, well, I'm not asking for any AI robot umpires that go out there and then start hitting people with guns and bullets and torpedoes and destroy the world.

I'm asking for that they, they behind a curtain, they can get every single call right and they choose not to. All right. All I'm going to ask you is just enjoy the spring training games you see, and let's see how it goes. Okay. But don't expect to see it when the Astros are on home TV games. Yeah, they'll see. Don't expect me to ever. I mean, we'll see.

It'll change eventually, I think. I think automatic full ABS has to come at some point. I hope and wish every single World Series game one year is marred by bad umpiring calls, and they kind of are. we just got to forget about it. But the thing that Joe Espada brought up a few minutes ago, which makes a lot of sense, is you don't need your pitcher or your catcher burning those challenges early. It's like challenge calls in the NBA.

You've only got two, and that's if you win the first one. Well, you're going to be mad at me. I disagree with that too. If it's, look, a crucial out in the first inning can be just as crucial in the ninth inning. A two-point basket in the first quarter counts as much as a two-point basket. You and I will disagree on that one. Because, again, while in theory you're right, I just, I like having that in the back pocket.

Again, it doesn't make it make it right, but give me a challenge opportunity with a minute 14 left to go in the game as compared to worrying about whether a foul was called or possession change with 309 remaining in the first. Right, but if you back pocket it and then it's a one-point game at the end, what if you should have not saved your challenge, and it could be a three-point game from the first quarter. You could say that.

It all adds up. I'm just knowing. It all ends up the same. I have called enough NBA games to know that I have watched challenges be burned early. We're out thinking three or four times a game in the fourth quarter of alone, when everything is tighter and everything has more magnitude

and there's a lot more drama, I would want one of my back pocket. You would. Absolutely. But I'm saying use it early if you're 100% right. There's no reason to save it. And I think that we're seeing that. All right, it's time for just don't get it. This is where you come on this radio show at 713-212-5-790

and you say, I just don't get it. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. There's something in your life you don't get sports-wise or in your life. Tell us, you just don't get it. 7-1-3-212-5-790. And it's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Coming up, Spencer Arigetti.

Coming up as well, Eddie Nunez. And a full astro hour to wrap up our coverage here from West Palm Beach is straight ahead between now and two on Sports Talk 790. Do you have something in your life? It's just don't get No need to worry No need to fret We will to see if we comprehend The things that may confuse our friends

It's time to say I just It is a weekly Thursday Get Together on the Matt Thomas show at Ross At this time we do spend a little bit of time discussing things in life We just don't get What don't you understand? What can we help you with

And sometimes we join you in our uncertainty And sometimes we can help you With exactly what you need in terms of advice. What don't you get? 713-212-215-7-90. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Connor, you have worked very hard this week.

You've had some Valentine Day's issues. Anything else you just don't get that we, as the elder statesman of this radio program, can help you with, or the people of Houston can help you with, for that matter. I mean, not really. I'm just, all I'm going to say is that, like, Tonight is the Four Nations face-off final between Canada and U.S. And there's nothing else going on in the sports world.

So if you're not watching that, then what are you doing? I just don't get you if you don't want to watch that. So basically, even if you're not even a hockey fan, you have to watch it because there's literally nothing else on. Pretty much, yeah. I mean, there might be some NBA. I don't know, but. No, actually, there's a full set of NBA games tonight. Yeah, but who cares about that?

The rockets aren't playing. So it doesn't matter. There you go. Much better way to save yourself there. Nobody playing. By the way, NBA numbers went down 14% from the All-Star game of a year ago. Wow. They changed the format and the numbers went down?

Yes. Nobody cared. Much more important to the NBA world. The NBA communications, PRFlax, said, NBA can't. Ratings went up 59% for the All-Star game. Here, I'll give you what I don't get. Okay. When people tweet at me and call a case, they're saying, I hate the NBA, all my friends hate the NBA,

I don't nobody cares about the NBA I mean you maybe your cluster friends don't care about it they just signed a multi-billion dollar deal with all these TV networks the global reach of the sport is the NFL dreams of that major league baseball dreams of their global reach

and while again the game is far from perfect the all-star game frankly in my opinion is an utter joke the amount of resting and having guys take games off for stupid reasons. Load management is stupid. But you continue to tell me nobody cares about something, and that's about anything, I say I just don't get it. You're going out of your way to tell somebody I don't care about it,

especially like on a social media. Stupid thing, I'll give you one that I do stupidly. I always tell you nobody cares about soccer. That's not true. I know it to aggravate. you. But the reality is, soccer is the world's most popular sport. There are foreign

leagues that have national US TV deals. That's how big it is. Premier League, Euro League, La Liga League. Look at you. CDA. Kankajaf. Kankaf.

You get my drift. Now, does nobody care about the N-A-M-LS? Yeah, I feel pretty good about saying that. barely the values of the franchise is going up. So to tell me you don't care about something really means you're just trying to aggravate to me. Like when Rossi says, I don't care about pro wrestling. It sucks. It's stupid.

You're stupid. No, I'm not. I mean, you're bright, but you're stupid about that thing. It's a bunch of play actors doing, getting oiled up and roided up. It's about a snorting as much cocaine as possible while they're on the road. It's about a $5 billion of your business. And look, if you're 12 years old, I get it. But if you're over.

Let's say 21. No, you know what, I'll even give it to the college kids. If you're over 25 and you're still deep in the wrestling, I just don't get it. All right. 713, 212, 5790, 7190, 7190, 7190. There's something in your life you just don't get. Let us know. Ross, what you got this for?

Well, I'll go with that one, wrestling. I'll go with this. Did you see what the Yankees did? Like lately? They extended Aaron Boone through 2027. What? I just don't get it. They won the American League pennant last year.

Yeah, that's fine. He's good. But give him a fat extension? Who's poaching Aaron Boone? Uh, I mean, they were a defensive disaster. I got news for you. Oh, Aaron Judge goes, oh, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, you could have led the Yankees to the World Series last year.

And Jared Carlis-Stanton hit like 9,000 home runs in the playoffs. I think he gets criticized, but... I don't think he's... I think he's mid? Yeah, exactly. I don't think he's a bubbling fool. I don't think he's some... you know, Master Stroke genius.

Is he extending them? I don't get it. I, you're the Go ahead. You're the, you know what? Ross, I got to tell you, you won the American League pennant. I know you're a star-studded team. It still have to put the guys in the lineup card. So have to manage it in-game. I say, I get it.

Well, how much time do you have left in his contract? Look, it's just a 2027. It's this in two more years. It's not like he's there for life. Was he lame duck this year or something? You know, these managers don't want to be on lame duck situations. so I say I get it. Does he see the end of that? That's not a guarantee under any circumstance.

Then I don't get it. He's there for two of the three years. Maybe. Okay. They are the American League favorites if you go by betting odds. The New York Yankees. And the Astros have taken a dip since the two moves. That is correct.

There's still another third in the AL. Odds? Yeah, I'm talking about World Series. Oh, World Series, I think they're around six. I'll go, I can confirm that. I did check the other day. They were third in the A.L. It's Yankees, and then?

Dodgers? Better, A.L. Oh, A.L. Yankees, then. God, do I, who would be? Orioles, maybe? Correct. The oils have just flailed out. That's what we call you the Wizard of Odds.

I don't get the Oriole love. I've been trying to push the Orioles, and they just, Peter, out in the playoffs. They're pretty good with all their Jackson's and their Torglesons and, yeah. Well, Torkelson is a, what, a tiger? Yeah.

Zaks and Gunners and Adleys. Let me tell you what the Baltimore oils are. They're a bunch of fraternity bros. Here's their projected lineup. Gunner. Dang. Adley. Ding. Ryan.

That's normal. Let me see what they're got. Tyler. Oh, my God. Colton. They're a bunch of douchebags. Colton, Jackson, Jordan. then you got Cedric Mons

Ron Mountcastle No Torkelson Grayson Oh yeah they signed Charlie Morton They be good He's like the dad He's the dad factor He's the dad

That watches over the kids In the Fratt House Okay Could you imagine doing that Hashtro's 13 to 1 to win the World Series That is he has 6 Dodgers 3 to 1 If the Dodgers

don't win the World Series It's like a failure. It's a complete, utter failure. Yeah. They have literally spent more money than anybody and then some. Even the Mets signed in the big deal for Juan Soto. The Dodgers are like, hold my beer. Yeah.

You put money down right now, what do you put money down? Dodgers. Actually, I'm going to give you some money for that too. A little normal strip. Okay, I got you. I got you. All right. Venmo, SportsMT.

Oh, you can do that. By way, did a nice cameo the other day. if you want to use my services for Cameo. Let's go. Look at this guy. Prattie. I'm very reasonable. Quick response.

A little pricey. I'm going to Ryan Hollins. Ryan Hollins is more about the... Is Ackerman on there? No, he's not on there. He's also doesn't want to go on IG because he thinks the only guys go to IG for DMs for people. Well, at least you're not charging Julian Morales prices.

What is her price? I don't know. You don't even know what her price is. I'm just joking. Maybe she's fair value. Who thinks that's... most expensive broadcaster in Houston is. It could be me.

Let's see. Camio.com, Julie Morales. How much is yours? $49. Woo! I'm going to Julie Morales. 35. You think you're more important than Julie Morales? No. You got another thing coming about...

No, it's not more important. It's about... I take the time and effort. I'm going to... Actually, I'm going to pay Julie Morales $35 to tell you to lower your price. She's here. I know. I literally was talking to her earlier. Oh, okay. I see what you're here. Okay, I got you.

All right. 713-212-5-790 if you want to chime in. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. If there's something you just don't get, let us know what that is. We've got that for you. The news and noon is coming up in a few minutes. Still ahead. We expect to hear from C. Spencer Aragetti with us.

I was going to say Spencer Tolkerson. That's not going to happen. Spencer Arroghetti. And Annie Nunez, athletic director at the University of Houston. Plus, in the final hour, it's all Astros between 1 o'clock and 2. Right here on Sports Talk 790. More Matt Thomas show. with Ross.

Now on Sports Talk 790. 1148 of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We have the news at noon coming up in about to 12 minutes from now, but I think we've got some breaking news that need to jump in before we get to the news at noon. That's one. I don't know what it is. Have it look. Don't look.

Five is the max. Let's give it. Connor, let's give it one more. Connor, you decide. Do we go to a third or keep it two? This is juicy. It's on the borderline of three? Oh, no.

Oh, my God. What team? San Antonio. Oh, okay. Ooh, Wimby's hurt. Keep going. Significantly? Keep going.

He's out for the year? There you go. Oh, my God. Are you serious? San Antonio Spurs, All-Star Center, Victor Wimbabiamma. is expected to miss the remainder of his season with a deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. Oh, that's not good. All right.

Real quick, Connor, I know we throw things to the very last second. Get the ER theme ready because this is where Ross shines. He has to go to WebMD for this. I'm going to give you guys a few seconds here to get your ducks in a row. Okay. And when you get the air ready and the music to start playing it, we'll go to Dr. Villarreal. I want to once again describe to you.

what it is, a deep vein thrombosis. Is this where we get Adam Clinton to call in to Victory Lab? Adam Clinton, if you are listening, you have to call right now. Matter of fact, I'm going to text him right now to call the show. Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you, Dr. R.V. Rossville-R-R-Vil with the explanation of what a deep vein thrombosis is. Yes, Matt. I'm glad you asked. Deep vein thrombosis, according to you.

to my extensive research. It occurs when a blood clot, known as a thrombus, forms in one or more of the deep veins in the body, usually in the legs. Deep vein of thrombosis can cause leg pain or swelling, sometimes there are no noticeable symptoms. Basically, it is blood clotting. You can also get it if you have certain medical conditions

that affect how blood clots. A blood clot in the legs can also develop if you don't move for a long time, For example, you might not move a lot when traveling a long distance or when you're on bed rest due to surgery and illness or an accident. Symptoms include leg swelling, leg pain. It's got to be shoulder, right? It's in his shoulder. Yes.

A feeling of warmth of the affected leg, but it could be, he's got into his shoulder, bro. Chest pain or discomfort. Sudden certainness of breath, feeling lightheaded or dizzy. You could be fainting, rapid breathing. you could be culfing up blood. Could be from a pulmonary embolism as well. This sounds absolutely horrific. Now, this is nothing to do with the fact that he's seven foot, whatever, right?

This could have happened to any guy that's six feet tall, correct? Prevention. Move your legs. Don't smoke. Manage weight. He's been trying to add weight. Interesting. San Antonio is not going to make the playoffs this year.

They are three and a half out of the 10 spot. So this is not like their playoff plans. been thwarted. So this is more known as upper extremity deep vein thrombosis or UEDVT then. What? Yeah. What? I don't even know what any of that means. About 10% of DVTs. That would be

deep vein thombrosi. Yeah. It's easy. Don't throw them by. Yeah. Yeah. Thrown by. And they affect about three out of every 100,000 people. So this is bad luck. But it's not because he didn't take care of himself. I don't know. The symptom, it even says on this page, the symptoms are vague. shoulder pain, swelling of the armor hand, blueish skin color.

Hand weakness. Sometimes it has no. All right. Causes could be strenuous activity. So here's the bit we got going here. Clinton hates him. He thinks he's a bomb. Which is just stupid.

And I've told him, we've told him that. We love Adam, but it's stupid. But in Clinton's defense, guys of that. stature and of that build have had a hard time staying healthy. And we've always said that as the caveat. Correct. He is a special NBA player as long as he's on the floor. But I could, if you wanted to argue with me that I'm not going to buy into a particular

player because he's always going to be hurt, Rossi, a certain broadcaster many moons ago didn't buy into the Yao Ming Mania because I knew it was, I mean, this person was going to be hurt that this person that wasn't buying into yow ming was like he's going to be hurt his body is not going to be able to withstand the wear and tear of any two game schedule that person was me so i wasn't anti yow ming i didn't not value who he was i didn't turn to blind eye to what he could could and could not do on the court but yow ming to me back in the day was just can't stand the court for a long time and i was right i've been wrong about a lot of things but the yow ming When he played was awesome.

But Victor Wembeyanama, missing the last 25 or so games, whatever it is, there's going to be people that are going to say, does the wear and tear of a guy of his sight of his length and his lack of girth? Merit, no, nirth, with, girth, body weight, weight, what's going to go to? Musculature is going to play a factor in, you know, part of the reason why LeBron James has been able to stay in the league as long. as he is because first of all he was built by a machine but secondly he's always ripped he's filled out he's physically able to withstand the pressures of a of a long NBA season

the closest guy and help me out if I'm wrong on this or help me if I'm right the closest guy that's been able to kind of stay relatively healthy because of who his build it is that is it yonazza dentecumpo uh yeah but he's what 611ish yeah there's this there's even a significant difference between Janus and Victor. UVVT can be treated with Matt with blood thinners. Okay. Thrombiletics. Yes. Which I'm sure

Darryl Morey loves. And surgery. If I'm in San Antonio, I'm really wigging out of this. I just can't explain it any other way. If I'm a Spurs fan, I am really, really distraught about this today.

I'm looking for like the tallest active NBA players, Zaki's 7-4. And this cannot defend anybody. Bobon's 7-4. He played for a while. But he was ever playing major minutes. Yeah. Mark Eaton, 7-4.

He played a nice-ung-may-career. Rick Smith, 7-4. He had feet problems. The dunking and Dutchman, but he played for a while. He did. He did. Okay, yeah. Ralph Sampson?

Nope. Knees. Feet. Y'all. Arvita Sabonis played a hell. Played a billion games. But a billion games, most of them were overseas. But he still...

He was hurt at the interview. his career a lot. But I mean, for all the wear and tear, it doesn't surprise me. And then we come to guys like 7'4-3, guys like Victor, Wimbeniama, Zizunas Il-Gauskis, and Hashim Thabit. We just couldn't. Please, it wouldn't go. No, no. Real quick before we get to the news at noon, Tom is in Monroe, Louisiana on 790. Tom, we are your Monroe sports leader. Tom, good morning to you. Good morning, gentlemen. Do you know whether or not Victor has more fan syndrome? Oh, Marfan syndrome?

I don't think he does. Don't you normally have like an extent? No, I'm going to, I don't know about a doctor, but I don't think he does. Okay, because being as tall as he is, that's one of the symptoms. And the thrombosis is also a symptom of that. And I was just curious. Yeah, my grandpa had it. Good crossover on that one.

Yeah, I don't, I don't know his history or background or whatever. Google says he does not have it. Okay, there you go. But normally, yeah. You have like super long arm, fingers, I think nose, too. The curvature of the spine. I don't believe he has Marfan syndrome. No, I don't believe it does either.

Not that I have a doctor. But I play on the radio. Apparently, Google says he does it. Okay. Google never lies. Google doesn't lie to you. That Wikipedia never lies to you. I don't lie to you.

Wikipedia doesn't lie to you, and Google doesn't lie to you. But seriously, if we were doing San Antonio's sports talk today. We would be beside ourselves. And by the way, the Spurs and the Suns play tonight in Austin, ironically enough, on TNT. Well, Victor Wimbabwe'll not be there. No. Well, at least he won't be playing.

He may be in streetcloth. You know what? Do you make the drive to Austin for that bad boy? Yeah, absolutely. To do what? What do you mean? You go have a night out of the town. Dollar bet he's not there. Hit the 6th Street? Dollar bet. Let's do it. At the game, no. You can still go. Nope. Why won't he have a good time? One dollar. You're not there. I don't care. Let's make a dollar

I don't care enough to bet you. Because you can do it your bets. One dollar. Go ask Channel Rome and he'll take the episode of what he says. Whatever. Okay. I'll do a dollar. Whatever. Yeah, that's all like that I'm talking about. Like, what? This is the worst bet. I do not care if he's going to be.

I'm saying he should go. He should go because you have a nice night out of it? No, he wants to be at home crying. He's got thrombosis. He's not going to go out of the town in Austin. He can go wave to the crowd with whatever shoulder's healthy. Oh, my God. News at the mood or where?

Moody God. Yeah. Okay. 713212.5.790. The news at noon is next. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. All right.

The Matt Thomas show with Ross continues. We were going to give you the news at noon, but we're going to give you the news at 1220 instead. That's what we'd like to. We make adjustments here. As you guys know that listen to the Matt Thomas show with Ross, I am out of our fantasy. League because I'm sick of losing and finishing in sixth place because of terrible defense. Yeah. There's one guy he's really annoying.

He's like back to back to back champion. And he just won't ever shut up about it. He's such an ass. All right. So the man replacing him in our fantasy league will be our next guest, the pride of We got a spot open now. He's out. Cinco Ranch High School.

Look, your economic potential, we ain't worried about you. I'll put the number on our phone. I don't want to say it on air. Tuskustles things on air. First of all, you can afford it. I'm a grinder. I like analytics. How many leagues are you in?

I was only in one this year, but it was like an important one. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, all right. I mean, I like winning money in Phoenix Football. That's a, that's a game for me. Oh, if you're good, actually, we don't want you. Because he's terrible. Spencer, I got to get into, by the way.

We need somebody weak, all right? I'm going to tell you, he's terrible, so we can't let you in, actually. I got fourth place in our league this year, but there was, I mean, there was really one trade I could have made. I'm kind of kicking myself over. Jake Pacherica. Yeah, man. It was like week four, week five.

I kind of, I was a little bit higher on Remandre Stevenson than I should have been. And I had an opportunity to acquire Chase Brown. You know, I think that could have won me the league. I think that would have been the difference. But Zach Moss wasn't hurt yet, right? Zach Moss was not hurt yet. See, that's not your fault. I know.

It's not your fault. But Brian Thomas Jr. was also in the trade. Ooh. I was going to have to sacrifice D.K. Metcalfe. I liked Metcalf at the time. I mean, I love Metcalf as a player. I just wasn't. I wasn't thinking straight week four, you know?

I wasn't looking at upside. Look, all you got to do is just try to get better, go out there and be better next year and look to improve. I made some good trades. I made some mistakes not making them, you know? I don't know if the bros are doing the fantasy baseball draft anymore, but let's ask the question. If you were, if I was in a draft, what round would I,

a draft Spencer are getting? If I was in a draft, I'm probably, let's see, if I'm drafting early in like a 10 or 12 man, I'm probably picking myself like on the cusp of eight, probably 7, 8 if I had to guess. Your strikeout totals will help us out big time. Oh yeah, 100%. We've got to get some wins. We've got to keep those

walks down. Yeah, walks down, K's up. Yeah. It's like the whole goal going into the year anyways, so I think that's a lot to be excited about as a fantasy baseball manager. He is the hero of Cinco Ranch High School. He no hit my May Creek Rams not once but twice. You remember that from last year. Thanks for bringing that up. But I'm in their wall of honor, so that's not a terrible. I don't know if I'll be in the Cinco Wall of Honor. Oh, my God.

You know, your school's barely been around. You've been contacted shortly. We got one other big leaker in program history. We got another one on the way probably we're excited about. But yeah, Cinco Ranch means a lot to me. Obviously, I love being from the area and getting to play for the team now. I mean... You live out in Katie now?

No, I don't live in Katie anymore. I live closer to the loop now. Yeah. It would be quite a commute to get to the stadium every day. See, I live in Kingwood now. That's not much better. No, it's not at all. Not at all better.

All right, so I'm looking at the videos of all the people that were down here, like Spencer's more mature. He's got a greater stance on things. He's more confident. I didn't think you were like quiet and meek when we talked to you last year. I mean, what's up with that? I think I just got used to talking more to you guys, I guess. Yeah.

I did more media stuff, did more interviews, get a little more comfortable finding the voice. it's been fun for me. I think I enjoy doing this stuff a lot. And I, last year in camp, was definitely intentionally a little bit less talkative when it wasn't my turn. But I definitely, I can let it fly when it's time. Well, we told you when you were on the... You didn't say, shut up, Justin. Let me tell you how to pitch. No, man, actually, I was hoping for him to tell me the same thing, actually. I wish he would have told me to shut up and how to pitch. You don't have a brother that gravy trains off your success, do you?

Oh, why are you doing this? That was his stray. Ben is in our league technically so the connections here are crazy. Ben had a great football. Ben had a great fantasy football team. I'm sure he's great. He's wonderful.

Oh my God. He's a heck of a gym. I'm sure he's outstanding. Can't wait to visit with him again. What's been the focus for you this off season? We talked, I mean, has it been more mental, more physical, all the above as far as, you know, going from that guy, not that you're established 10-year vet, but being, like you said, starting out and now going and getting ready for your second year?

Yeah, I think it's always both. Spring training is always both for me. I think it's obviously the mental aspect of it's kind of just getting back into the routine, getting back into the kind of flow of everything, feeling like I'm on top of my five day. A lot of the mental stuff this year is just kind of embracing the readiness to compete. I think that's always been a part of my game. It's just like itching for the challenge, itching for that moment.

And obviously this year I'm a little more, welcoming to it. I think last year this time, I was a little unsure where I was at. Was I ready for the big leagues? Am I going to have success when I get there? Obviously, we saw the story right itself a little bit last year, and it wasn't pretty right away, but I am very confident that I can continue to build off of what I was able to achieve in the second half last year. And I think a lot of that centers around me getting my brain and my body ready right now. I think the physical aspect of it's the same. Camp is camp every year for me. I'm just, I am, really trying to attack my routine and then like i said just just really really preparing the brain to go out there and and fight for it every time i'm on the bump it's so you i asked this to a lot of young players because it's it just comes there had to been a turning point and i don't know if it was a particular start or where you were or a bit of advice you got but you're not in your head so there had to been something that you want to bring to the to the passion here yeah i think i i hit on it at fan fest a little this year i didn't really get a chance to talk about that a whole lot last year you know

we're we're in the heat of it we're trying to we're trying to make up ground in the division right when I finally started hitting my stride. And really, the day that everything changed for me, I actually went to check myself after I mentioned this at Fanfest. But it was the day that we actually got back to 500 baseball. It was against the Colorado Rockies at home. And that was the turning point for me in my head because not only did I have a great game. I mean, everything was good. My stuff was great. Mentally, I'm great. I'm dominant in my brain. That's really where I have my best days. where in my head, like, I'm untouchable, I'm in my bubble, I'm in my zone. And on top of that, like, obviously, being able to be the guy on the bump when we started

rough and I was there to witness it and I was part of the reason we were struggling. And to be the reason why we were able to flip the script and be at 500 at that point in the season was that was a big deal to me. I think that confidence-wise, that kind of propelled me to a new level in my head where I could be dominant like I had always been in the past in minor league ball in college coming up. And, yeah, I think that really flipped a switch for me right now. there was just having that one first really really clean really crisp outing i had no walks i punched a ton i i i didn't give up any runs it was it was a it was an incredible feeling but then the feeling

was really only there because of the stark contrast of the months that were leading up to that the the real lows that i felt uh trying to find myself in the big leagues and yeah that that day things really really changed for me spencer ergetti with us here on the matt thomas show with ross sports 70 from west palm beach joe said today he doesn't want to want you to waste pitches that you get ahead of counts. Now, there is a difference between wasting pitches and also having a one-two pitch get away just to have a guy chase. So tell me and tell the audience a difference in those two philosophies. Man, I think one of the biggest things I learned last year was I really have two versions of every pitch. It's the one that I'm getting there and the one

that I'm trying to get past you. And I really feel like, I think that's what he's talking about, is me embracing the pitcher that I am when I'm good and trying to throw more of those pitches to get it past people and not necessarily just throwing a pitch to throw a pitch. And he's 100% right. I could pitch a lot deeper into a lot of ball games this year just by taking that approach and throwing the right one in the right count,

like getting there early so I can have some count leverage and then like you said, using the O2, using the 1-2 to try to generate a chase, try to generate a whiff. And if I don't get it, right back to the aggressive stuff. that I had success doing that last year. I had success when I was in the zone a bunch. And I think that's exactly what he's talking about. I think we all know the potential that I have when I'm throwing the ball where I want to throw the ball. And that's exactly it. It's just being a little bit more aware of what it is I'm trying to do with that pitch.

We talked a lot last year about you being one of those guys. It loves diving into the numbers and shapes and spin rates and all that type of stuff. After a year of a major league experience, are you more or less or about the same with that stuff? I think the scales have kind of tipped in the other direction just a little bit, and I think that's healthy for me. I think that my concept of what made somebody good prior to making my debut, prior to having that stretch early where I wasn't really having success, and then finally being able to figure it out around the midpoint of the season last year,

a lot of my struggles came from having the analytically centered brain, from thinking to myself that this is my best pitch, so I need to throw it right here because analytics say this is my best chance of a swing in mid, when in reality I was searching for swinging misses in the wrong counts against the best hitters in the world. And that's where you see the walk numbers go up. That's where you see the ERA start to inflate a little bit, just because I'm not doing myself any favors, really. And like I said, a minute ago, like trying to get my brain in a place where it's more about competing than it is about the numbers on the scoreboard, that's really gone a long way for me.

So I think I'm still definitely all in on analytics. I believe that that's something that's helped me develop an arsenal that I can, go compete with against the 1% in this game. And having that mental state where the rubber meets the road and it's time to go and it's time to just compete and not worry about what the track man's saying in the bullpen a few days ago, that's really where you start to see success. I think that there's a ton of guys in this game that have the most elite stuff you can imagine and really would just benefit from that approach.

I think that a lot of guys watching what we do in professional baseball, like the data-driven training is awesome. It's really cool, and it's really easy to get hooked on that and have some identity in that. But when your identity is the competitor in the arena, and that's what's backing you, like that's your base is I know I'm nasty on track, man. Like, it's scary, man. Like, you got a lot of confidence. You got a lot of options.

You got a lot of weapons, and you can just go to work that way. I don't know if you're going to be a future broadcaster or a general manager or both. He's actually making me angry. You can't have this nasty stuff. How old are you again? I'm 25. I just said, I don't want to talk to me. He's pissing me off.

What is wrong with you? You're 25, you throw mid-90s, you get strikeouts, you've got decent money, you're broadcasting already a future ahead of you, a general manager. Absolutely. Let's see, what is wrong with me that I can tell all of the radio? My biggest flaw. Give it a quick temper? I do, yeah.

I think we saw it in Cleveland last year. That's something I haven't wanted to talk about. But, yeah, I mean, my temper flares a little bit when somebody hits a minute. nerve. I guess that's a big low point. I've been trying to work on that. I think as a young player in the game, that's not the best thing to have. Channel it properly, maybe? Yeah, channel it properly is the right way to say it. I definitely, I heard about it from some guys that I look up to a lot that I should, like you just said, control that temper a little bit better, kind of channel it into my game. And what I do, it's, yeah, it's awesome. Look, I have a zero 60 on the same thing, but I quickly

forget about it. Yeah. Don't listen to it. I mean, I got road rage. I think that's really like that's really like the, oh my gosh. When you're going to say, See mom and dad on the Katy Freeway. Stay away from you. I mean, I'm driving in the HOV land no matter what. Oh, if you're by yourself, you don't care. I mean, I'm not going to admit that way. I got 60 seconds here.

Wow, strikeout. You struck out blank person last year. You're like, damn, this is awesome. Oh, that goes without saying. It's Luis Arais. That guy doesn't punch out. He doesn't punch out. Show Hay Otani, too.

That is so inside baseball, but it's so good that you said that. He doesn't punch out. Like, that guy, if you, you've got to really earn it. Like Hunter Brown got him to punch out looking last year, and I was impressed, man. I was like, there is not a pitch in or around the zone that that guy won't swing at. And you got him to turn and not move the bat. Like, that's awesome. I thought that was cooler, honestly.

All right. Real last question. ABS hitters love it because they don't want to be watching the computer. Heck, call the balls and strikes every time. What is a pitcher's perspective on it? The pitch's perspective on it is a little different. I think there's always been the human element in baseball, and the umpire is really the regulator there. like human in the fact that like I can I can aim up and in and miss down away and still get a call because it's over home plate.

So I think that the ABS is good. I think that it's nice to have a look in the mirror for umpires also because that's what we're constantly doing. Like we're adjusting our game trying to turn to dial it in a little bit. And I think if you talk to the umpires that were in AAA the last couple seasons, it's probably made them tighten the zone up a little bit. And I think most pitchers don't like it. I don't like it. Nobody likes pitching to a small zone, but at the same time, it is a competitive advantage to be able to convince the umpire

that a ball outside of the zone is a strike. We can all admit that. But it's also been part of the art of pitching for a long time now. So it's hard to accept that that's kind of seemingly where the game is moving, but it's also you got to adapt, you know? That's how we all get paid. That's how we all stay alive, and this game is making adjustments. General manager?

Broadcaster or that answer? We were already about this. I'm like, this is my argument is, you tell me you have the ability to get every call right, but we're not going to do it. I know. It's so hard. Like, you're looking at that and you're like, yeah, that's the most fair version of the game.

But you also have to think. But I would think maybe even a little bit of maybe expanding, a slight expansion with full ABS. I think there, so that's the one thing that we all argue about constantly is there's obviously a gray area where part of the ball is or appears to be in and that's where those calls outside of the zone come from. And it's really like if I can be super nasty and make things move super late and convince the umpire it was there if it wasn't,

that's part of the game. It's also now part of the game that if I do that and the hitter feels that way, they can kind of have that check and balance, which I think is good for them. I know pitchers are nastier, firmer, faster than ever before. Like, that's just the direction our game has moved. So if that's how we continually be competitive, then that is what it is, and I'll make my adjustment.

All right. Good luck on Sunday. You've already got your script down. Throw my pitches. I felt good. It was good to get out there. Good to see the guys behind me. All that's, that's why we're leaving.

We can't, I don't want to see. I actually said that the other day. We were doing PFP's and I'm like, man, it is nice to see the defense out there behind me. It's nice to know. Like, we got guys working. Everybody's getting back in their rhythm. And yeah, I'm fired up to get after it on Sunday. Future 790 host, Spencer Erraggetti with us here on the Matt Thomas show.

Quick with Ross. Quick timeout come back. We get the news at noon. Eddie Nuneez, athletic director, joining us U of H. Spencer, we really appreciate. May I car you spent? You can call me whatever you want. That's fair.

Thank you for having. Tell Ben I send my best. It is 12. What's how later are we? Way late. Oh, we're going to break. 1220 on Sports Talk 790. Back to Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal.

On Sports Talk 790. It's the news at 1225. It's going to be brief as we got Eddie Nune. You have some U of H joining us in a couple minutes. To the news center. Here's Ross. All right, Matt. We've been talking a lot about this automatic ABS.

It's been discussed all over the place. Just talked about it with Spencer Araggetti and others. Joe Espada speaking as we are at West Palm Beach for spring training. Here's what he had to say earlier today about the ABS. I actually like it. I actually like it. I'm just telling, you know, a lead-off guy or you can't use them all in the first inning. So, you know, there's some strategy behind it.

Obviously, we're just going to test this spring training. So we're trying to, we want our catchers to, you know, to be able to use it. And, you know, I told about this, I was joking around with him. I said, dude, you can't just use it in the first inning. And so, but I like it personally. I think we're trying to get all the calls, right? I like the human side of thing. I think the umpires who still have, you know, the power back there just to call balls and

strike, the human side of things. It's, is baseball. And I like that that we still can create. control some of those things. But it's going to be something fun. Yeah, like I was kind of, we were talking with Eric Getty. He said, I know you're right. When I mentioned we can get all the calls right, but we don't.

But I think that's what the pitcher's beef is, is that it's also kind of a tight strike zone. So maybe a slight expansion of the zone with full ABS. That's probably the compromise that most everybody else would agree with. Can I challenge this and we'll take it? I'm going to tell you one thing. I'm going to a dark place for just one second. When I hear ABS, I think of IBS almost immediately after someone says

ABS. I think of automatic brakes. Again, I think of IBS, and I think for those people to suffer from that, I'm sorry. So I'm thinking about cars and you're thinking about bowels. Or diarrhea, yeah. Yeah. Continue on. I don't even know where to continue on from here.

Mimby. Okay, Wimbenyama's out for the season with deep vein thrombosis. Upper extremity, deep vein thrombosis, Matt. and he is going to miss the rest of the year. I have a question. Have we heard about this happening to anybody? One, number two, clearly this is a tanking move by the San Antonio Spurs.

Okay, I'm just kidding. How do you think De Aaron Fox feels about this right now? Well, they weren't going to bear it. I think the Spurs don't want to make the playoffs anyways. So, it's sticking the lottery. So, you know what? You got thrombosis? I don't know the thrombosis.

I don't know why the Spurs is a lot. You know why it sounds like a strong. Tromboli. A thrombol. Not a dominoble. Yeah. Okay. Well, anyways, Victor Wimbignama.

What's wrong with us? Out for the year, Matt. And then one quick thing I was going to get at the news at noon. The Orange and White Spring game at Texas is no more. Nebraska's Matt rule earlier making waves when he was talking about the Huskers not conducting an open spring scrimmage. Because he doesn't want other teams poaching and looking at his players. Yep. Steve Sarkisian following suit, the spring scrimmage is dead.

No more orange and white game. And at this point, A&M is going to have theirs. Okay. And that is the news that new. We visit with Eddie Nunez, athletic director, University of Houston next. After I tell you about Uptown Appliance Repair, I want you to get your appliances fixed when they're not working.

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Phone number again is 281-758-9-9-78. 281-758-9978 online uptown appliance repair.com. Lunch timers. It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. Matt and Ross with you here from West Palm Beach, Florida. A reminder, all of the next hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross will be all Astros. A lot of great interviews we've still yet to hear.

You'll hear from Maricio Dubon. You'll hear from who else we got, Christian Walker. You'll hear from Jake Myers. You'll hear from Joe Espada all next hour here on Sports Talk 790 as we come to you from West Palm Beach. The Pride of Miami, Florida. Eddie Nunez, the other director at the University of Houston joining us here on the Matt Thomas Show Ross. Eddie, I've dropped your name here in South Florida. And all I'm getting is a discount at Wawa.

Can you help me out with something here? Yeah, it's your Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, or whatever. That's not South Florida. You're going to go down there. You've got to go down to Miami and enjoy yourself some great Cuban food. I mean, I don't know what you're doing up there. I mean, enjoying the beach, maybe. What are you coming?

Wait a minute. You're telling me there's hate between Palm Beach and Miami. That doesn't seem very nice. It's not hate, but if you want the real South Florida, you got to go down to the real South Florida. That's where you get things. I'll be there. I'll be there next. month with the Rockets. I better

get some serious discounts when dropping your name. Hey, first of all, congratulations on getting college game day back to our campus. It'll be the second time. For those that just heard of this for the very first time for the last 24 hours and this may be a long-winded question for a long-winded answer, but what are

some do's do you want people to be? Where do you want them to park? What time do you want them to get there? So first off, we're extremely excited. I mean, this is a testament to the program that Coach Samson has built. You know, just the season that we've had the last couple of years and this year as well. But we're asking everybody to come out. Let's show America what U.H. basketball with the University of Houston's about.

We're asking everybody to come out there. We're going to start opening up the Holman Street Concourse. So on the Holman side at 7 a.m. And so first 500 students with tickets will line everybody up. Those that don't have tickets will also let them in. but we're going to line up every student we can. Anybody that's a fan that wants to come out there, we're going to have another line designated for them.

We're going to have posters so they can make signs, hopefully that are respectful. At the same time, we're going to have our football team there, passing out donuts and other items to the fans as they come in. And then we're going to have as many student athletes supporting the basketball team there as well. So it's going to be a fun event.

We're going to make this want to remember, hopefully, here for Houston for a long time to come. And I guess, Eddie, I don't know if you know if the answer to this, but who gets to take the $19,000 half-court shot? Somebody's going to want to do that. That's the SPN. I wish I mean, I'll take it if I could, too. I've got a lot of ideas. I know. I know.

As I've told you many times on-air and off-air, you have just had to have such a huge. responsibility with fundraising, not only for the scholarships, but the NIL has now been a huge play. And maybe when you and I talked about it, we didn't necessarily a percentage on it, but now that you've had your feet settled down on campus, and then you're not unlike any other athletic director, how are you balancing your time right now on that besides facilities and compliance and winning? And oh, by the way, you've got to fund this NIL and you've got to fund scholarships. Where is the percentage of balance of your time? on a week-to-week basis on that right now?

Well, I think week-to-week it changes quite a bit. The one thing is every week's a little bit different. I've got to focus on certain aspects probably more depending on what's happening just in our industry. So the one thing that's constant is we've got to continue to right-size our budget, and part of that is increasing fundraising, NIL. So I kind of group all that together. Yes, it has different pods within it, but I tried to group it all as, one because we have to elevate our fundraising. We have to elevate our budget. We've got to get it

so that we're not just doing everything we can to compete at this level. We need to make it a little bit easier in some respects. But even this week, we've gotten two six-figure gifts from donors, and a lot of it is because they're seeing the mission, they're seeing what we're doing, we're executing it. So every day it's a little bit different. I'm trying to even take a little time during all this craziness and actually continue to take care of myself before I go crazy running around from one side of the city or the state to the other. But it's been fun. It's been fun. Well, I'll say this.

Game Day, when it's come to our campus for football and for basketball, it's literally an infomercial. And so your video staff's going to have a good time. Your marketing department's going to have a good time with this. But to have Kelvin and how well-spoken he is and how he's beloved by the national folks. And look, Willie's going to feel that, too. I mean, if there's anybody that could be a charmer for a national network like ESPN, your two top coaches, not disrespecting anybody else you got on your staff, but your two main guys that are the faces of your athletic department,

couldn't be any more media affable than Calvin Sampson and Willie Fritz. Absolutely. I mean, Willie was the first one that raised his hand and said, what do you need me to do when he heard about this? He said, I'll get the whole team there. We want to support Kelvin and the men's basketball team. So when you have that support from your first, football coach in understanding how we can really elevate UH, the brand, not just in the

Big 12th, but nationally. No, we've got two unbelievable ambassadors and many more in our department. But we're starting to those two. It's exactly what hopefully our Cougar fan base is really proud of. I'm going to throw a crazy idea at you. We're visiting with Eddie Nunez, I thought a director at the University of Houston. The Vegas event to me, when the basketball team went and played, it was basically to fund their NIL.

Let me ask you if we added an extra football game and added one or two extra basketball games and just said, let's make those revenue games for the NIL movement. Is there any legs to that? Is that sound preposterous? Or would it be too much of a financial disadvantage to the schools because you have to put these games on?

You've got to turn the electricity on. You've got to pay the employees. You've got to pay the expense. is there any part of that that says we can take separate games and make those games where we can take the revenues from that and give it directly to the athletes? Yeah, I would tell you that those conversations are being had not just here but everywhere. What that basketball tournament in Vegas showed was that those are possible. Now, you've got to get a lot of sponsorships.

You've got to get a lot of things to help generate the revenue that you were able to get from there. But if your hope is to generate something, those are all possibilities. And it does. We have to make sure that it goes outside the normal scheduled games that we already have that help us for our budget and make sure that we can do things. But no, everything right now is on the table, and we are aggressively looking at ways to do more of those, but also trying to make sure that we don't push it or, you know, go to other parties. of the world of the country because we want our fan base to be able to see it and experience it. So you got to balance that out.

For I let you run, this Cougar basketball team, I am beyond proud because it's not only my good friend Calvin Simpson, but it's my school to win at Arizona and Kansas in the same year. I think no one's done that probably. I think I saw it was like late 80s of the last time it happened. The schedule is awesome. The tournament's going to be fun. Hopefully we're at least a minimum of a top two seed. If people want to just get on a plane and go because there is nothing more electric than being in a tournament

atmosphere, whether it's the first round, the Sweet 16, or hopefully the final four, what's the easiest way to get on that waiting list and let's hang out? I want to make sure I get tickets for these events coming up. Reach out to our department.

Just go online. And he just, heck, you can call my office. I'll get you to the right person. But biggest thing right now is reach out. if you're interested in any way to go on the ride with us. We're going to have packages. If now we're going to find ways to make sure that we get you all the information of how to get there. But it all starts this weekend.

We've got a great opportunity here at home for everybody to come out. We need that place full of Coogs. And so let's start that craziness here this weekend. Well, Eddie, I wish I was there. I'm going to be in Salt Lake City with the Rockets. But, man, I'm so excited. It's, again, a great opportunity. and look, the guys at ESPN love our program,

and I cannot wait for them to see it firsthand. And if any of you are going to the game and you don't, you can't get there or can't get there, give your seat to somebody. I want every single seat at Fortita Center sold. They better not be an empty spot because we owe Iowa State for last year, and I look forward to getting that revenge coming up on Saturday. Eddie, thank you for the time.

Don't give them to Iowa State fans. Don't give them to Iowa State fans. Oh, hell no. Yeah, no cyclones are invited under any circumstance. Thanks, Eddie. We'll talk to you. Safe, Matt. Hey, Jeff.

All right, that's Eddie Nunez joining us here, the Vice President Intercollegiate Athletics. Again, if you're an Iowa State fan, I'm sure you're a lovely person. You're not invited. 713-212-5-7-90. Back to wrap things up here this hour. Remember, all next hour, it's an entire Astros hour of interviews as we get you ready for the spring training opener, which will be coming up on Saturday, as the Astros will be in action. A reminder tonight, 6 o'clock this evening, it'll be Asteroline with 3 o'clock.

the special guest, Joe Espada, the Astros manager, for a full hour. Right now, I want to tell you about Big City wings. Delicious wings, amazing sandwiches. Crawfish is in season now. They have shrimp boils going on right now. It's just the biggest menu in town. The wings are the tried and true favorite, that if you're looking for a hamburger, you can get it there. If you're looking for crawfish, your shrimp, your salads, your sandwiches, the chicken sandwiches are absolutely amazing.

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Well, is there anybody more Houston than Madison? Thomas. No way. Back to the Matt Thomas show. There are plenty of people that are just as much used to it as me. I'm sitting a man in my right. Aldi Nimitz grad. Yes.

Born and raised. Born and raised. H-Town proud. Oiler fan. Two-year Texan fan. Yes. Rocket fan. Yes.

Astro fan. Dynamo. Dash. I've been to some dash games. You went for the food and drink. You're kidding. And big. And Cougar fan when the Cougars won the final four,

win the national championship in college basketball. As long as I get that futures bet now. I got you. I tell you, I got you. Appreciate it. I brought up this thing with Eddie Nunez real quick. Who? Our previous guest.

I was crushing a sandwich. Okay, so we had some people ask about this, namely our girl Ashley. Okay. What did you get for a Wawa? Oh, I went with the honey garlic turkey. with the garlic aoli. Yes. Delicious.

That's a good choice. I went with a strict Italian. Yeah, I had Italian last night. Truth be told, I've eaten Wawa two days in a row. I went with the Italian yesterday, which is great. And I went with the, yeah, the honey garlic Italian today. I think it's great. Oh, it's good.

I'm telling you, and look, I'll give Wawa a run because first of all, they're not in Houston, so it's not really doing much damage there. But Wawa is, it's the goat. East Coast primarily. They have Florida locations. It's a frigging convenience store. And the sandwich is so good. But it's literally like a, like a, what I, what's a, 7-Eleven?

It's a 7-Eleven with an awesome sandwich shop. Yeah. Now, I don't know how to get their hot food, but the sandwiches itself are amazing. Apparently the burgers are supposed to be good. I didn't know why-Wall had hamburgers. Damn. Things you learn on the Matt Thomas Show, Ross. Okay, back to my point.

I said, why don't we give a, why don't we take a game and add a game and give the money of the players? as a way to help with NIL. Just directly give the proceeds to it. Now, within reason, I mean, I guess within reason, because if Alabama's going to have $85,000 for a game and you've actually going to have $35,000,

it would be obviously a huge difference. Yeah. But could you schedule an extra game or in basketball to an extra game just to give them and say, this certain revenue off of this is given to the players? And I guess you have to give them a minimum guarantee. The NCAA can't sanction that.

I don't think. I guess you have to. Then how is that amateur athletics? I guess it's not. But they do it in Vegas. That Vegas event next year has been doubled. They're giving them a million dollars a pot. They did last year.

And they're going to add eight more teams and give them a million. Yeah. Oh, they're doubling the teams. Double the teams. Yeah. They're going from eight to 16. Okay. Interesting.

Hmm. I don't know. How is any of this standing up? It's not. How is the NCAA... There's no regulation. How could the NCAA go in front of any judge and say this is amateur athletics if this is happening? But I'm telling you, as much as I'm against it, I've got to be a realist about it, and so does Eddie Nunez, and so does every other athletic director in this country.

You may not like the rules, but if you don't play by them, you're going to lose. Correct. If you want to make a stand and say, no, this is about amateur athletics. We're giving them room and board and a college education. You're going to not get any athletes. Unless they're literally the sons of... billionaires. Now, I'll say this, you are losing a lot of really good coaches to the industry because they're like, yeah, I'm good. I think pro-co, I think you're going to see more coaches

gravitate towards the professional side of it because they don't have to worry about it. It's an extra layer of responsibility. Well, there's only 30 spots. That's right. Well, our NBA, football, whatever the case to be. I mean, you're going to have a better shot of being a, I mean, I don't know. I don't know. There's only, yeah, there's only 32 NFL jobs. There's only, you know, I guess competition for professional jobs will be much more intense than they were before. Yes. I think at the end of the day,

you could argue that especially college football, the top, top, top jobs might be to some more desirable than an NFL job. But I think that argument is lessens and lessen and less than the last few years because of all this NIL stuff. If you're really good, you're going to at the collegial level you're going to you're going to you're going to see college coaches making more than NFL coaches and in fact you're seeing that now what is Kirby smart making it Georgia it's obscene he's making more in Domingo ryan's yeah way I think way more yeah

Domingo ryan's worked his way as an assistant coach after playing a long successful NFL career his first head coaching job and Kirby smart's like man bra I coach five less games a year or four less games a year and look at the response but I carry, I'm going to be making more money. Because he now has to. Kirby Smart has to maintain being a father figure. He's got to run the program. He's got to win football games. He has to kiss the babies and shake the hands of the big donors,

and he's got to pay the athletes something he has to worry about 10 years ago. Maybe these college guys making $10 million dollars are worth the money. This, what I'm reading on Google says, Damico makes 4.6 million a year. Kirby's what, 11 or 12, somewhere in that range? Somewhere.

Well, I'll start doing it. How's Sark are you at UT doing? It's 10 million a year. So I can find making more than 4.6, there are 45 coaches. You know who he's making the same? The Cal Coach. You know who it is?

I didn't know who it was. Justin Wilcox. I got news for you. I think Lili Fritz makes more money than you. than the Domingo Ryan's does. Really? Yeah. Willie Fitz 4.5, this says.

Okay, so close. Yeah, really close. Ooh, wow. Let's get Domingo an extension. Well, I bet we get the UFC championship game first. Back-to-back AFC South Champions, Brian. Brian's on here. He's in London.

Oh, sorry. Back-to-back AFC South champions, Aaron. Two playoff wins, two playoff losses, but two playoff. wins. Zero a

underdogs in both of them. True. So he didn't, did he cover? Oh yeah. You went out right and there's a dog, man.

That's called a cover. Do you think he uses that in his negotiations? I've covered games. He's like, I'm up on the money line. If you went to a fantasy website, you wouldn't do that well with me.

Absolutely. That's what he's saying. All right. We got one more hour left to go with the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We've got lots of things going on. You're going to hear from lots of players.

You're going to hear from Maricio Dubon. You're going to hear from Jake Myers. You're going to hear from Joe Espada. You're going to hear from Christian Walker. And we're going to take you for a full one hour of Astros baseball conversation. We are back in Houston

one day from tomorrow, 10 o'clock until 2. So be ready for a full 60 minutes of Astros interviews. Final hour from West Palm Beach next here on Sports Talk 790. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. It's the final hour

of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We come to you from West Palm Beach, Florida, where Astro Spring Training is underway. They'll play their first game coming up on Saturday. This hour, an opportunity for you to catch some of our better interviews while Ross and I were down here covering the team. Our visit on a couple days back

was really good. We had a chance to talk with Christian Walker, the brand new first basement for the Astros. Back to back to back, go gloves as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks. And we visited about life as a diamond back moving on to the Astros and what it was like to be a part of the free agent process trying to figure out where he was going to play his baseball in 2025.

There's definitely quiet periods and crazy periods of the off season. Fortunately, we had a little bit of leverage coming in, so I wasn't too worried about, you know, if somebody was going to call, it was just a matter of finding the right fit and the place that I wanted to play. There's not a lot of chances and opportunities in the business side of things these days to get to pick where you play. Yeah. try to pick a place where you want to play.

So we wanted to use that to our advantage. And, you know, Arizona was great, but it was pretty far from home for us. We live in South Carolina. So going into the offseason, my wife and I had Houston circled. It was a city that we were excited to be a part of and just super pumped when the front office reached out. And what's it been like for you getting here, getting acclimated? Obviously, first full-team workout here today. But from the outside, looking in and now kind of being here for a little bit,

getting to know the guys, the Astros. It's the clubhouse feel for you here. Yeah, it's great. You can tell winning is at the forefront. But in the same sense, you know, at this time of the year, it's just getting back into the swing of things. And it's a pretty lighthearted attitude. I think, you know, you see guys working hard and getting their reps in, but also, you know, joking around and having fun. It's a good time of year.

We're all got the itch after a long offseason and, you know, being back in the good weather and playing baseball. again is what we want. Do you do any recon about the Astros as an organization when you knew they were on the short list for yourself? A little bit, a little bit other than the obvious things. You know, it's cool, you know, meeting a guy like Bagwell, getting to have some conversations with him, how much pride he has for this organization. And, you know, he said something today. He's been wearing this uniform since 1990. So hearing little things like that really remind you of the culture and, you know, the winning tradition. three straight gold gloves for yourself.

First of all, where are they? I mean, do you have them in your, at the house, or where can I find the gold glove of yours? Yeah, they're in the house. I have a little workout room upstairs with, uh, some, some gear, some bats that I've had signed by guys and some teammates, and they're in there, uh, you know, on the, on the, the trophy rack, if you will. Who was your first baseman idol growing up? Uh, that's a good question.

Um, so I didn't actually start playing first base until college. growing up high school middle school i was i was an infielder but mostly third base yeah loved watching scott rolling he was my guy i got a chance i was a philly's fan growing up so he came through philly and and you know watching him was was was a lot of fun um and then and then ryan howard you know that that first year he had that rookie year uh broke onto the scene that was uh that was a lot of fun to watch too i was i was in high school for that when we were growing up and probably you as well a lot of the first baseman were big stodgy guys just find a place for him First of all, I grew up watching Jeff Bagwell, so I knew there was intricacies to it.

Yule de Guerrille before a couple years before you, same situation. The art of playing first base, thankfully, I think, is no longer just put the fact out there. It's a skill holding runners on, fielding your position well. Tell me the biggest adjustment for you going from the left side to the right side of the infield and being able to say, yeah, I want to own this part of the field. Yeah, absolutely. I think what helped me was playing on the other side of the infield at one point and knowing what it's like. to feel like you have to make a perfect throw.

I feel like you got to hit somebody in the chest over there for them to make the play. And, you know, I pride myself on not being that guy. I want to be somebody that, you know, my shortstop can lay out in the hole and come up and throw from his knees and know that if he gets it close, we're going to make the out. That always helped me as an infielder and I want to have somebody over there. So, you know, that's something that's important to me playing first base now. Christian Walker, newest Houston Astro with us here on the radio program. Very excited that you came here because we were all anxious about what's going to happen with

Alex and figuring out with Kyle and whatnot. When you finally signed on the dotted line, tell me what it was like trying to find your teammates, know what was going to be there. And honestly, this infield is going to be completely different. How long do you think it's going to take and is there going to be a magic

day that you're going to go, all right, we as a collective group know what we're doing in here? No, it's hard to pick a date. I think Tony Peres-Chicca is going to do a great job of making sure we get quality reps out there together. I think practicing fast is important. Yeah. You know, feeling out, feeling out each other's range and, you know, like something little like knowing that,

you know, Dubon is such a great arm, but trying to figure out his arm action. Does he cut it? Does he, does he throw it clean? You know, is it a true ball? Does it have arm side? You know, everybody has their tendencies. So, so it's fun to get to know, you know, some new, really, really good infielders. How long can that take to get used to and acclimate to you?

This time of year, it happens pretty quick. It's never really a struggle. It's just, you know, before we know it here, we're going to have hundreds of ground balls together and, you know, hundreds of double plays that we've turned on the backfield. So it happens quick. I'd say here in, you know, about a week or so, we all start feeling pretty comfortable with each other. You have a lot left in your career, but once the clock turns 30 and beyond, did you have to adjust getting ready for this season getting maybe a little sooner as compared to maybe when you're 20s coming up in the game? I mean, yes and no. I think there's a side of it where the more time you spend around the game, the more you know yourself and you know your routine and you know what you need to be ready for a season.

Spring trainings, it can be a long amount of time and it can be short. It's right. It's like some years you feel like you just you're not clicking, you're not clicking, and then all the opening day comes and it's lightning. And then other years it's like by 10 at bat's in, you feel like you're in a good spot and you could go to opening day the next day. So it's, you know, the age or anything like that, that's, that's, that's nothing that's on my radar. My body feels good. I spend a decent amount of time in the weight room. It's something that I pride myself on.

It's helped me stay on the field for a while. So, you know, feeling strong, feeling, feeling ready to go and looking to, looking forward to playing a lot of games. Your overall thoughts about playing at Dyken Park now, you've been there obviously a few times over your career. Very excited. I like the dome feel. I think that's cool. I think the consistency in the environment, knowing the weather in Houston and the rain, I'm sure it comes in quick and the humidity and all that.

So knowing if there's a home game we're playing, that mental, just knowing what to expect, getting into a routine, you know, there's nothing like waking up on a gloomy day and trying to figure out if there's going to be a delay or if you're hitting BP on the field and this and that. So I'm looking forward to that, and then, you know, the fans, it's something that's always stuck out to me coming in as a visiting team is playing in front of the fan base. What was your conversation has been like so far with Joe Spada? Because, I mean, as you know, first base was in flux for the last couple of years. Now, give you a big hug.

Say I'm happy to put you in first base every day. Any conversations also about DH? And can you play left field? I'm just kidding. Yeah. We're trying to figure out left field. Everybody in their mothers wants to play left field apparently. Oh, man.

I actually coming up with a few different teams, there was a lot of really good first baseman in front of me. So I have played left field. Oh, that's good. There we go, folks. Headlines. Oh, here we go. We just started a controversy now. We'll never see it because it's not pretty out there.

No, I mean, D.H. and cool, like if that's something where, you know, it's a way to maybe take a day and get the legs back under me. But honestly, I like to be out in the field. I think it helps me stay in the routine offensively and, you know, stay moving. And it's something that I've just grown up doing. I enjoy being out in the field for sure. But, yeah, I think there's something to coming in and feeling valued, you know, that makes you. excited to play. It makes you excited to prove everybody right.

You know, the standards are real. The expectations are real. And it's something that you crave as a big league. You want somebody to put pressure on you and you have to go out and prove it. So you're a South Carolina native. No, no, no. I grew up just outside of Philly.

Oh, I was going to say, because I was like, you have no accent whatsoever. You don't have a Philly accent, or a South Carolina accent, and none of that. Yeah, yeah. They've both kind of disappeared. I I went to school there, obviously, and just fell in love with the area and never left. But grew up just outside of Philly. Same city as Mike Piazza and Gino Oriama. Do your research, Matt.

Come on. Yeah, Tommy Lassort. By the way, we know your dog's names, too. Yeah, that's true. What was it, Doddy and? Jackson and Millie. Oh, Millie. I'm sorry.

We had, there's a cat, Doddy. Oh, okay. Catty. Yeah, she's a, she belongs to the neighborhood now. Oh, really? The neighborhood cat. Yeah, she's just on her own scale. So, what part of South Carolina, do you have in Columbia itself?

We do. just north of Columbia. We're like 15 minutes from campus. So can you walk around town incognito or do people stipe at the grocery store? They recognize me for sure, but it's more from the Gamecock days than from Pro Ball. The Braves are the team there. So everybody knows the Gamecocks more than that. Do they realize how many home runs you've hit in the last five years? Yeah, Arizona was cool.

It's a crazy thing getting recognized. It's humbling and all that. But back home in South Carolina, it's mostly from the national championships. Okay. I've never been to South Carolina. Apparently quite an experience. I mean, for football, basketball, women's team never loses. I mean, I don't know. That's all about it. Yeah, they're the lions beat them. They did. They did. Any SEC smack talk in the clubhouse at this point? Not yet. Not yet. I'm sure it'll start once, especially when football season starts back up, but nothing, nothing so far. Well, we're very happy to have you here. Such a nice surprise when you came here. I mean, I mean, we're anxious. This is kind of new to us. We've known Braggs, and we've known, you really earlier a couple of years ago. We've had, you know, J.V. and Kyle Tucker.

This is, you're actually coming out at a bad time because I think they're all, your teammates are trying to figure out what the vibe is going to be right now. Yeah, yeah, it's a fun time. It's, you know, guys, guys come and go. It's part of the business side of things, unfortunately. You know, you never want to lose guys, especially people who, you know, were staples in the lineup and a part of a lot of successful years. But I think there's a, there's a cool opportunity about that of,

of being able to keep the success going with a different group of guys, different responsibilities, different roles. And so far, the clubhouse has been great, and I'm looking forward to, you know, continuing to mesh. He alluded to the DH for Let Your Run. Do you like the DH once in a while to get off your feet a little bit, or is that you just, I need to be, if I'm in the lineup, I need to be at first base. So, I mean, I would much rather be at first base,

but I would rather be in the lineup than a full day off, yeah, period. So, you know, if that's a way to get some at bats and help the team on days where, you know, maybe we're trying to rest up the legs or something like that, for sure, very, very interested in something like that. But if it was my call, I'd be at first every day. It was a good visit with Christian Walker. Hope you have an opportunity to catch him in action. He should be hitting a lot of home runs this year out to the porch. Crawford boxes out at the Diken Park.

Or coming up here from West Palm Beach in a moment as you listen to Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas, Ross Villariel. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas show with Ross continues here on Sports Talk 790, here from West Palm Beach, an opportunity for you to hear from a couple of guys for the first time this spring. We're going to hear first from starting pitcher Hunter Brown, who should be an excellent part of the five-man rotation for the local nine. And one of the things I had a chance to talk to him about was getting the word from one of his idols,

Justin Verlander, that he was leaving to go play somewhere else. I know you and JV were tight. Just talk about if you can a little bit of the conversation when he said I'm going to play with the Giants and how that was like, hey, see you later, love you. Appreciate that kind of thing. Yeah, I mean, he just, you know, shot me a text and hey, you'll probably see in the media that, you know,

I'm not coming back to the Astros. So, you know, pulling for you, man, kind of thing. And, you know, see you around. It was not like, you know, an official goodbye because the baseball world's... You didn't FaceTime you were there later? No, no, no, no, no. Just shot me a text.

He's probably, I'm sure he's busy trying to get his ducks in row. So it was nice to be. to reach out and, you know, I was thankful for that. Tell me one or two things and maybe just little things that he taught you about, not necessarily the mechanics or the sport, but just things about being a major league baseball player. Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest takeaway I got is probably when things are going well, that's, you know, that's who you are.

So, like, you want to attach to that versus, like, you know, kind of the roller coaster that results can be. Like when you're going well, that's who you want to identify yourself. as versus, you know, maybe, like I said, with the roller coaster of the game. You know, being a true student of the game, I learned a lot from just watching him, watching him go about his business, whether it was, you know, doing scouting reports and stuff like that. But so I'd say like being prepared and then, I don't want to say self-confidence because, I mean,

you should have that anyway, but you got to at this level, right? Yeah, exactly. Do you walk in this, look, you guys have been here a little bit, the position players come in. Do you get the vibe of how things have changed, or is it just like when you get in your locker and you sit down and you start working out? It's kind of focusing what you need to do when you get down here. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a little bit of both. I think I was excited to see what the clubhouse would be like this year, you know, with just a lot of changes. Something that I haven't experienced as much.

But, you know, I think the vibes are great. I think that I think it seems light, you know, this year. It seems, you know, it doesn't seem like tight and everybody's kind of wound tight. It just seems like everybody's excited. Has it ever been that way before? I don't know. I wouldn't say that maybe necessarily, but I think this year it just feels like loose and everybody's just excited to be here. Yeah.

I don't want to speak on behalf of everybody else, but that's how I feel, you know, just decided to be here, get to work. Your second half of the last year was really, really good. Was there a turning point for you something, a game situation? Do you felt like that, you know, because I know that you, everybody wants to play and pitch 26 times to be 26 good outings, but things obviously a second half of the year were significantly better in the first. Yeah, I mean, I think I could point to so many different things, whether it was execution of some of my off-speed stuff, whether it was, you know, adding in a two-seam. You know, maybe I remember sitting in the analytics room at the computer with Lance and JV and Bregman and kind of maybe, you know, changing how I kind of scout the opposing lineup. I think that factors in.

you know there was just kind of all of it i think i i felt i felt good again when i um i went out and i kind of i kind of went back to some of my older mechanics and added the two seam and i mean it wasn't a significant moment in the in the season i don't think it was even really a great start but i pitched at seattle at home and it was full count bases loaded to julio rodriguez who obviously is a exceptional player. And I just threw my two scene for the first time and struck him out. And I was like, all right, you know, that, maybe that'll keep working, you know? So you're a grown man and you are in the major leagues and you're adding a new pitch to your repertoire.

I mean, is that a little scary or like, why didn't I throw this like 10 years ago? Well, I had it when I first got drafted. And then the ashes, you know, kind of introduced me to all the analytic stuff that I wasn't aware of coming out of a D2 school. but it was kind of more I mean yeah it was I mean obviously I threw it in one bullpen and then went out there but it was a pitch that I used

the whole time in college and I just kind of shied away from just based on everything else so I mean yeah nerve wracking a little bit but also I didn't really have much to lose so I just kind of went for it two last questions you mentioned Bergman assistant pitching coach last year to the team

corrected I wouldn't say that he's just a true veteran leader that you could go to with anything and he's obviously a really smart guy. So not a bad guy to turn to. Yeah, for sure. You've got a couple of guys in this rotation

that are going to have a chance to make it plus bullpen work. Are they leaning at you at this point? Do you feel like you've been enough in the major leagues to say, all right, here's the do's and don't. So get yourself ready for the start of the season? You know, I don't know if I'm the guy that on the forefront of their mind. But they're going to go to you. They know you, right?

Yeah, exactly. I'd like to think so. And I'd be here with open arms. I think there's a lot of stuff that I've learned over the last couple of years. and, you know, definitely love to help guys out. I mean, a couple, like Spencer last year, I thought, you know, I kind of went through the same thing that he did the year before, come up, you know,

and do that. I thought that was great, that, you know, he came to me for a lot. And then I was able to, you know, hopefully give him some words of wisdom. But also, you know, you got to learn for yourself. But I'll definitely be here as a sounding board. And so, so will the rest of the guys in the clubhouse, it's kind of the team that we have. Again, that's good stuff from Hunter Brown.

We'll go to the infield now where we'll find Maurice. DeBan last year played a little bit of left field, played different spots in the infield. And now it looks like he's going to be playing a lot of second base with the move to left field for one, Jose Altova. Here's Maricio and I talking about what kind of glove he's going to be carrying, at least, of the early portions of this spring. Karen just won right now. Yeah. Yeah. That's the infield one right now.

So I'm carrying just one. Well, I'll say it is. When Jose going to left field, they obviously think a lot of what you're doing there when you found out was your initial reaction. and now that it's settled in, what's it going to be like seeing this new infield? It's crazy. It's crazy. This is a Hall of Famer, you know, just carrying what's best for the team. I mean, you see situations in all different places and what's going on. Players are moving position, and this is the first, literally first ballot hallfamer,

just saying, you know what? Eff it. I'm thinking what's best for the team, and I'm going to the outfield. And, you know, it's selfless what he's doing. It's pretty crazy. All right. This is you and me talking, nobody else listening. Did you like all the changes? Are you a guy that likes kind of consistency the best you can get it?

I can say, I like winning. Yeah. For me, it's like winning. I like whoever's going to come and help win. I love the parades. I love the parade. I love the feeling of winning. And I think whoever comes and helps win, I think it's welcome.

Was it a little strange last year? You know, we're used to seeing this team go on these deep, long, posties it runs to end the way that it did. Was it a little surreal that your season ended as soon as it did? Yeah, I still didn't believe it at the time. I mean, I was the last out too. So when I hit him, like, there's no way in hell I'm going to the house beginning of October. Like, it's crazy.

Long, long, it felt like a long offseason. It was an eye-opener. It was humbling experience for everybody, I think. Right now it's just out of getting to the world series. I'm winning it. You know, people always want to ask about changes from year to year. I think one of the things you guys want to probably do this year is get off to maybe a little bit of faster start. I felt like you guys were always, you know, from behind into you,

made that big run towards the middle of the season. Yeah, no, it was, it was a, after the 16th, it was a climbing uphill. I mean, ended up, you know, winning the division. We're down in 10 games and still, you know, ended up winning the division. It is a matter of starting, starting like you start hot, and, you know, give guys a little bit more breaks and everything. Just start hard and, like I said before, you're not going to win every game, but might as well try to. Got a new first basement, too. Tell me about how long you think it will take and my guess is y'all are pros so it won't take that long but what about is there such a thing as in field chemistry and how long do you think it'll take i mean he's a gold glover i mean they don't hand

them out yeah that's right it's right so he's he's good he's good i know christian i see him play i play against him and he's he's special i mean a little bit of communication game or two and we'll be on the same page uh as far as a couple of departures here uh you've been around now a few years now do you do you feel like you have to take a maybe a leadership role or is it like you know what, this stuff will come organically to this squad? I think it'll be, it'll come organically. I always been a loud guy since I got here. So I'm just, I like talking.

So I talk to the guys. I don't go out there and tell him what to do on anything. Hoossey's the same way. Hoosie, it's, you know, he'll quietly, but, you know, I like talking to people. So it'll come organic, I think. Do you feel like a team has to have that, or is you guys enough grown-ass men are out there to go,

you know, we know what we have to do it if we're not playing well, we don't need somebody telling us what to do you know it depends i mean it depends like in 22 was maldi you know 23 was michael like it's it's it's it's something that that you need to in a clubhouse you know that that's sorely like okay like if you do something bad he's going to get mad right right right right like we got to be right so i think you need that in a team you know you need somebody in a team to know to to to to vouch for you or like to like to tell you kind of like okay time we're playing the kids game. Yeah.

I like the swagger that Maricio has. Looking forward to hearing more from him over the course of the season and hopefully a productive season at the plate and wherever he plays defensively. More coming up here from West Palm Beach in a moment. As you listen to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross, this is Sports Talk 790. Lunch timers. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues.

here on Sports Talk 7-9, we had a chance to have a brief get-together of the meeting of the Jake Myers fan club, me, Jake, and of course, the president. I don't think I would have ever thought to ask you this question. What advice are you giving to Jose L. Tube? Seriously, I can't believe I'm asking you this. I know. Yeah, I'm in shock as well because we've had some great conversations out there. And it's just amazing that a player, you know, of his caliber, you know, is kind of. kind of, you know, going through something like this. And for me to be a part of it, I'm really grateful for it because, you know, we've had conversations.

He's asked me a couple questions of, you know, what I've learned and whatnot. It's just been so much fun for me to kind of share what I've learned and watch him, you know, go out there and do what he's doing. The reality is, however he's all caught fly balls, whether he was in the infield or not. But ball parks are different. Newances, balls off the wall are different. That's something that only game experience is going to help on with, right? Sure. And that's why, I mean, the first couple days, he's been out there just taking reps. And it's so fun to watch.

And BP, and he's just loving it. You know, he's loving it. And that's honestly, that's how I see outfield as well. It's like, I just absolutely love, you know, catching fly balls. And I can tell he kind of shares that passion. All right. You probably been playing baseball since you were able to walk. So if you went to Joe a spot and said, I want to go in the infield now, where do we find Jake Myers?

Well, see, I'm working with an element of the game that's keeping me away from three of the positions. But if I could choose, I mean, throw me at shortstop. Why not? Does Jeremy know this yet? No, he doesn't, but I don't think he has to worry. I know. Hey, your main was outstanding. I mean, we know how good that was, and obviously the second half of season was not. Do you look at the tapes of that month and go, things were clicking, and what did I not do after that start?

Yeah, I mean, that's something I always believed in and knew I could do. So I wouldn't say I necessarily look back at it and try to pick it apart or whatnot. But I think it's the other times of just getting better at, you know, helping the team win, whether that's, you know, situational hitting or, you know, getting a knock here and there, walk. That's what Joe told us. Yeah, a little bit more discipline. Yeah, a little bit, maybe a little bit more disciplined. in some of those areas, you know, in the times where it's not, you know, just on fire.

Showing up right now is Ross Villarreal. He is the president of Jake Myers fan club. It's true. The group Ross was a huge last year, early on. A lot of memberships. So we're looking to regain enrollment. What's going to happen to get the Myers fan club back stronger than ever in 2025? Yeah.

Like I said, just play like I know I can. And just try and help the team win, however way. I can do that. What is it like now with Chazant in Wrightfield to start the season? Look, all of you have done all these different positions, but what advice would you give to him? And he's done it before, but it's still has been Kyle's spot for the last couple of years

obviously. Yeah, I mean, I think he's going to hit the round running. He's a great player. And he, yeah, he's comfortable over there, and it's just going to be a lot of fun to get to play with him. And what about you as far as improving and wanting to be better and wanting to help the team,

but also maybe not pressing too much and not putting too much pressure on yourself. Yeah, it really is about just keeping it simple and being athletic. Those are the two things I just really wanted to focus on this offseason. Because, you know, the big leagues is everyone's good. So you just got to show up on a daily basis and find a way to help the team win. And I know we're all going to be a great spot if each one of us do that. Last question. Look, you guys overcame 10 games in a very short period of time.

But it was it was excruciating to find yourself down by the double digits. There's a fast start. I mean, look, they're all going to count the same. But is that part of the mindset for this veteran group, the guys are coming back saying, hey, we don't want to dig ourselves as an early hole. Yeah, we had kind of talked about it. Joe was up in front of us kind of and gave us a great, great, you know, pre-year speech of, you know, last year's great.

We learned a lot of great things. We have a great clubhouse, great culture. But this is a new year. And we're just going to start with. game one. And I think if we go game by game, we're going to be in a great spot. The February edition of the Jake Myers fan club meeting has adjourned. Thanks, Jake. Yeah, thank you guys. Hopefully what we saw from Jake offensively in May can translate into a six-month season here in 2025. More coming up from West Palm in a moment as you listen to Sports Talk 790.

Matt has eye trouble. He's having trouble seeing Dallas win anything anytime soon. Sorry about that friends to the north. Back to the Matt Thomas show. It's our final segment of our time here in West Palm Beach here on Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas Show with Ross, had a chance earlier today to catch up with manager Joe Espana, as he did with the rest of the media here covering the team. Variety of topics and conversation, first about our previous guest, Jake Myers, and whether or not he can keep his bat in the lineup. We know his glove will be there.

Also talked a little bit about Spencer Arigetti, the automatic ball strike situation, not automatic, but a challenge system coming into place. and then a little bit about the player we visited with on the show yesterday, Cam Smith. So some wide variety of topics right now from the manager, Joe Espada, ultimately talking about, again, something that's been the number one topic of conversation, how Jose Al-Tuvae is handling left field and the role of Jake Myers playing next to him. Yeah, you know, his swing, he's been good. You know, he made some adjustments in the offseason on his swing-wise that I think we're just trying to create more consistent.

You know, some walks, do some small stuff that I know he's capable of doing. We're just trying to avoid the big dip in, you know, like the may he had, right? And then it was kind of a rapid dip that we're trying to kind of level that and create some consistency when it comes to the quality of his outbats. Has he changed that much? I mean, his approach at the plate differently so far compared to last season what's going to do. Yeah, you know, we just seen how good, you know, we just seen how good, you know, know, he can be. So when we see the biggest drop in production, we kind of, we want to make sure that it's not

for a whole month, you know, you know, hitters go through tough moments during the season, but he needs to make this adjustments quicker than what he's done in the past. With Myers Range, was that part of the conversation you had with Jose was, let's not reinvent the field. Yeah, sure. You got a center field who's going to cover a lot of ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, right now he's, we tell him that.

But right now when we do a drill, you know, Jake is not there next to him. So he'll, he'll understand that. So those are questions that we need to ask, right? When we start playing games, how far left he can go, you know, coming in towards the line, you know, he's going to have Jeremy who has a ton of range, you know, you don't have to catch them all. But also when he's walked, you know, when he's running into the infield, he's got the priority over the short. worse up in the third basement. So he kind of likes that. Getting ahead of the game a little bit. When you need to give Jake a day off, will that

affect whether or not you put Jose in left hill in that particular day? Yeah, you're thinking way too ahead. I know, but I can ask these questions. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. I think about all those things. Right now, I like where Altuvae is in this process. You see him more than we do, but just watching him. He is smiling. He's bouncing. Right. Is this like, is he excited? Is this energizing him a little bit?

Yes. Too much. Where are we trying to control the volume of yards he's running a day? Again, he wants to win. And I, as the manager, I really appreciate what he's doing. His teammates, I appreciate everything he's doing, trying to put us in a position to win. But, you know, today I told him, I can he soon? So we're going to monitor his volume for the next couple of days.

He mentioned Spencer on Sunday for a rookie member. pitcher to go through that the first few couple months or the long, not innings weren't very long, high strikeouts, high walks. What is it for him and when your staff, especially your pitching coach, is about getting off of that start in April that he had, obviously in the middle of the year? Yes, you know, we always tell Spencer

just throw the ball in the box. Be more aggressive. When you get ahead, put people away. You don't need to throw an extra two pitches after you get ahead of hitters. Just put him away. You got quality stuff. Simplify his approach, and I think we have pointed out some things about

he's a attack plan that I think he's going to be more efficient when he comes to putting hitters, you know, away. Do you see him taking more depressed maybe in the second half of the year getting over the anxiousness of being a major leader? Yeah, yeah, both him and Hunter. I think they overcame a lot of stuff after that first half and I expect him just to come out, you know, kind of carrying that momentum from the second half. You know what Brendan Rogers will get here? Yes, but, you know, we're still working through some things. What do you have got to testing out the ABS system? I actually like it.

I actually like it. I'm just telling, you know, a lead off guy or you can't use them all in the first inning. So, you know, there's some strategy behind it. Obviously, we're just going to test this spring training. So we're trying to, we want our catchers to, you know, to be able to use it. And, you know, I told about this, I was joking around with him. I said, dude, you can't just use it in the first inning. And so, but, but I like it personally.

I think we're trying to get all the calls, right? I like the human side of thing. I think the umpires who still have, you know, the power back there just to call Bolson strike, the human side of things. It's, is baseball. And, and I like that that we still can create. control some of those things. But I'm, you know, it's going to be, it's going to be something fun, something, you know, different way. Decrease, yeah, framing, I don't know, catchers.

I mean, some of them are really good at this. Yeah, you know, eventually, but, you know, you only got two challenges, so you just got to make sure that, you know, you use it wisely. Will you let your pitchers challenge to make it like that? That's, we got to, we got to come, you know, we got to talk about that. And we have some guys that, oh, they will use in the first three pitches. of the game Robert

I get it it's been four days but your first impressions of getting your eyes on Cam Smith kind of how he's moved at third some of the swings

he's taken kind of what have you thought of early impressions of him yeah you know I now I see why everyone really pointing him out when we were trying

when we tried a Tucker his tools are legit power he's pretty athletic for a kid his size pretty pretty smart kid too.

So this is a kit that, you know, we're going to, I'm going to give him some reps at third. But, you know, I think he can be also capable of playing corner outfield. So he's exciting. So pretty bright future ahead for this young man if he stays healthy. A lot of great stuff you've heard throughout the week, three days with the Matt Thomas show with Ross. That, of course, Joe Espada, his first baseman is Christian Walker. More from him from spring training. You'll have no idea how much a big deal it is.

With the Cubs, it was, and I loved playing for him. It's just I didn't know what my role was. I didn't know where I stuck. I did everything. I would show up to the park, and I wouldn't know what I was doing that day. And that's a weird feeling to have? Is that unfortunately the management, or is that just guys like yourself that just don't have a spot just yet? I think it's that.

I think it's what they needed me to do, right? A lot of guys get hurt, and I think a lot of it has to do at the clock. That's another issue, another time. A lot of guys get hurt, and at some time, a starter gets hurt. They need me go there, and then a guy getting the ballpink gets hurt, and I got to move there, right? It's just kind of what you have to do to balance out. How does your arm handle all that? I got hurt last year, so, you know, it happens.

But for the most part, it's good. I'm pretty healthy. I mean, like, you get banged up, but it happens. Yeah, when we can see you out here for the first time? 25th, I think. What is today? That's 19. We get six days.

25th? Yeah, I throw live tomorrow, and then after that, I think the 25th. Do you like spring training? No. Sucks or just? just part of the business. Part of the business. It's just like, you get really frustrated.

I get really frustrated, like, things aren't going. The ball's not coming out the way I want it to. You know, like, it's just like it's early on. You get through the season. It's like, okay, when something doesn't happen the way you want it to, you know how to fix it. You know how to spin it right or go pull it back. Spring training, I just, for some reason, I'm like throwing a pitch. And I go, why isn't it doing what I want it to do?

And it's just you try to figure out how to fix it. You put your head against the wall. I got great news. You got a month and nine days or something to figure it out. Yeah, no, we'll figure it out, but it doesn't mean I'm not going to be frustrated the whole time, you know.

If you thought Christian Walker knew a lot about pitching, well, so did I, especially since that was Hayden Wisniew. If you missed that earlier this week, that actually was one of my favorite lines of the entire three days, and it came from Hayden Wisniewsky. So do you like spring training? No. They haven't hardly even begun.

They haven't even been there a week, and he hasn't even been with his. team at all. And he was straight up and very serious. Hayden was one of the players. We had a chance to catch up with during Fan Fest. I think everybody from a media side is absolutely going to love him. Hopefully he can handle that role that he is very clearly slated to hopefully earn and hold on to. That is the fifth spot in the rotation. You heard from Spencer Arigetti a little bit earlier today coming up on the A team for those that were not with us earlier during the Matt Thomas show with Ross from spring training there at Cacti ballpark. the Palm Beaches. We will bring you the Spencer Ergetty short form

interview coming up at 315 this afternoon, part of our four-hour show. And again, a lot more of the other things you might have missed from earlier today from spring training from Matt and Ross. We've got a couple of those things to bring your way. In addition to that, back to, well, the court for most of the rest of the NBA tonight.

Major, major news item, an unfortunate one from the NBA as well. And of course, the Rockets. are on the practice court today. So all sorts of goodness coming your way next. It's nice every once in a while to get a real fresh personal tease ahead for the gate team. Myself, AC, Dan, we will be with you from 2 to 6 as we are each and every weekday afternoon right here on your home for Astros and Rockets.

Sports Talk 7-9.