The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Dusty Baker, Osuna Injury Not Looking Good & Looking Ahead For Rockets

Episode Date: August 4, 2020

It's larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12-0-1-1-8stown. What's happening in lunchtimers? Good afternoon to you. And welcome to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 7-90 alongside Ross and Brendan. I'm Matt, and we are very happy to have you with us today.

If you're an astro fan, you're going to love this show. First of all, you should love the show regardless. Don't look at me that way. Of course you should. There you go, much better. We have a twofer. Yeah. What did you call it a Texas two-step?

We have a double... Trouble? Double burger, if you will. Double burger. I'm hungry for some Astro's conversation. With cheese. With cheese. And we will do so today.

Dusty Baker makes his first appearance on the Matt Thomas show at the regular season. And we've had them on, I think, twice, I think. A couple times. Yeah. But we're going to do a spring training and then I think once on the phone. Right. And we're going to do weekly visits. Now we've got to alter some schedules here and there because of Astro's schedules and rockets and whatnot.

But he'll join us today at 1230. And then Blake Taylor, long time minor leaguer, was the part of the Jake Mariznick trade. So all of you that were sneaky snake Jake fans, you got to appreciate what I mean, honestly, who would have been, who had brought more to the table in? 2020. Jake Mariznick or Blake Taylor, Mr. Zero ERA. I'll go with Blake Taylor as of right now. It's not even close. Yeah. He will join us today at 2.30. So two Astros on the conversation lines today. We've got some rockets to get to because they play the Portland Trailblazers tonight.

We have some college news to get to. So we have a lot of things to get to on the show today. But we believe you are a very, very important part of the program. 713212-5-790. 713-212-5-790 and on Twitter at SportsMT at SportsRV and at Brendan Riley. Gentlemen, we had a great time yesterday on our Monday night, Zoom. It was our summer finale. Brendan Riley, you frankly stuck around longer than a lot of folks had you. The odds makers had you out in the first round, but you survived at least, what, two rounds? Well, the voters did me some favors.

Yeah. I got your back, Brendan. I would invite all of you to watch it because some of the answers. answers that were given. It took sports trivia back a few years. Okay. We had a surprise champion. I wasn't surprised.

He wasn't the favorite. It wasn't the favorite, but I wasn't surprised. We don't want to say who it is because we want you guys to go check it out. Okay. Well, I said yesterday on the show that he has great recall. Okay. Find out who won in our 790 weakest link, Facebook.com slash Sports Talk 790. It's fun.

And we'll kick back up football season, probably. Probably I'm on Tuesdays or something like that. I'm still pissed. I would have done really well in the last round. Yeah. But I didn't make it. But you weren't the weakest link until, what, around the four? I didn't know who the Padres manager was.

Sorry. That was just the luck of the unfortunate draw for you because I would have been, I have no idea who that is either. It is what it is. All right. What do you want to start today? We got Astros taking on the Diamondbacks tonight. Madison Bumgarner is going to go for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It's just weird to say that because he has been such a pivotal part of when the Giants were really good. In fact, we're going to tell a story. Actually, we're not going to tell a story later on. Yes. We're going to let Vin Skelly tell a story. Okay. About Madison, Bumgarner. And it shows you how much we miss Vin because he can tell you a story that you understand every part of the story.

And yet he can also give you eloquent, accurate, crisp play-by-play in between the stories. It's beautiful. So we'll have that for you today. Rockets against the Portland Trailblazers tonight. Rockets right now, they're 2 and 0. They've gone from 6 to the 4th C in the Western Conference. I feel like every other day I wrestle with who I want the Rockets to play in the second round. Here I'm presuming they're going to go to the second round,

which for my mental health, they better go to at least a second round. You get early vacation if they don't. Well, actually, I'm done after the first round. Oh, that's right. I'm a Joe fan starting in round two. Oh, okay. Because all the games are on national television. and Craig would do the radio then at that point.

So, but you know, we're going to do... Well, not the pre and post games here, so... Do you roll your eyes? I'm just saying. Those are the best time to do them. They are, absolutely. I mean, doing a Thursday night home game against Charlotte does nothing, but you're in a plows. You got people listening.

Yeah, well, but when it's midnight and you're on KTRH and there are not a lot of calls, it's not always the greatest thing. Brandon, will you call Ross on the post game show tonight? I got you, Ross. Well, tonight we're on 790, baby. We're fine. We're on the flagship. Brandon, call him on an alias.

Just break down some pistons talk of some sort. I tease. What do you think of the Andre Drummond trade? Yeah, so the rockets take on the Blazers. Blazers are two back, I think, of the 8th. Memphis is not one yet in the bubble. Rockets are perfect in the bubble. Oh, so I was saying, I'm wrestling back and forth with who I want the rockets to playing

round two. Okay. Clippers, Lakers. Well, yeah, you and Jonathan Fagan were on the Lakers band, or Lakers are more dangerous. I'm sticking in my guns on the clippers, especially fully healthy. I mean, Trez is going to be a problem for the rocket. Same thing for... But they're never fully healthy, though.

Well, right now, it's just be... Lou Will's in quarantine and so is Montrez, right? Other than that, they're healthy. Yeah, but I'm saying they're... I guess the phrase, healthy wouldn't be working. They're never together at the same time. That's more accurate. I think when they are, their record is something...

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but when everybody plays, it's incredible. It just happened a lot. Yeah. Pat Bev's always hurt. I mean, that's unfortunate when Pat was as a rocket, too. He used to Wolverine. Until either fouls out a game or he has some sort of ankle injury of some sort. But, yeah, that's interesting.

So we'll get to a little bit of that on the show today. Baseball is going on. And so let's also get to a little football in this very, very opening segment of the show. So finally, the Big 12 spoke sports RV. I mean, they must think that they are the most, they are the holiest conference of them all. everybody else had a plan. ACC, Big Ten, PAC 12,

SEC, they were the last of the power fives to announce their plan. They're going to play nine conference games, meaning they're going to play everybody once. Like normal. And then they're going to allow

each of the schools to play one non-conference game. At home. Right? Yes, because I control the agenda at that point. You know, testing and all that kind of thing. is weird. Isn't that kind of a slap in the face to whoever the opponent is? Like, we're more important than you.

You have to come to us. Not really. I mean, I can see how you can see it that way. I see it as, we're the Big 12. And, oh, by the way, there'll be 100 schools that will call us. You're the Big 12. You're not. You come to us. You don't think Louisiana Monroe would not die to play Texas tomorrow? They're going to have to come crawling. Come on over, raging Cajuns. They are the hawks, I think.

They were Indians and they moved. They changed. Okay. Okay. Well, good for them. But my point is, there isn't a single Big 12 school that's like, oh, no, I'd rather go on the road. I bet all of them are happy about playing a home game, an extra home game. So that's going to happen. I know some people are like, what's the difference between 10 and 12? What's the difference in playing a home game?

What's the difference in traveling by bus or playing? Being really truthful, Ross, I still have incredible reservations we're playing football this year. There's going to be outbreaks. And the NFL is pushing, and today the Texans had a little Zoom with a couple of players, and they're all talking about working out and doing it. Why can't I shake myself of this? Because it's a highly infectious virus that's a global pandemic, and there's millions of cases all over the world,

and we've had outbreaks everywhere, including in Major League Baseball, where they're under all these protocol. And then you add into the fact, at least in Major League Baseball, these are professional-level players who have come up through the ranks of minor league, and you're talking about trusting 18 and 19-year-olds who are fresh off out of home and there's a call over the colleges they're having COVID parties and they just don't have a care in the world. And that's not their fault. Look, I'm hardly a responsible human being right now.

My God, when I was 18 years old, whew. Yeah, but the difference is when you were, I thought I knew everything. But the difference is in 18 years old, you didn't have assistant coach as a head coach and trainers calling texting and telling you, hey, get your ass home or where are you or I'll see you I mean well I have my parole officer but yeah I mean same difference here so uh no I I understand what you're saying but I there's going to be outbreaks but I'm also saying the same thing there will be several outbreaks I'm saying the same thing about the NFL too though if I'm going noster Thomas prediction there will be several outbreaks in college football will they're multiple I'll just say multiple about NFL yes so why because I know

everybody's pushing it mm-hmm September 10th Texans versus chiefs, blah, blah, blah. Get your fantasy football leagues together. Get your college football, you know, get ready for that and get ready for your parties. And you're probably not going to be going to games that you can at least hang out with your buddies if you want to. Why am I not embracing football?

And it's not because I don't like football. I love football. It's not because I'm so enthralled on the Rockets and our Astros. Hey, we've all done this sport. We can enjoy three sports at one time. It's not out of the ordinary. It would be great. But I want to know why I can.

I keep hearing these things and I keep seeing people, NFL respected writers saying, all right, next phase has been completed. Denver's doing this. Houston's doing this. And I'm still beyond hesitant.

I don't know why it is. And maybe y'all can help me out with this. I just don't believe that the sport of football can handle this. I want to be wrong. No, I think you're being logical. because we're seeing what we've had.

When it's not in a bubble, the NHL's been great, NBA's been great, when you're not in a bubbled environment, unfortunately, you have all these players to corral and keep an eye on. All it takes is one guy

or a pair of two Cardinals to allegedly go to a casino or two Marlins to allegedly they're saying on their side not go to Magic City or go out into the strip club or whatever. Right. It takes a couple people and then the cases just blow up.

Because that's how pandemics happen. Yeah. I really, really desperately hope we get to start everything on time. I like the lower, I mean,

okay, conference games are fine. They're going to push the college football season back a little bit. They're going to leave some open spots for championship games and whatnot. This is all good stuff. I'm encouraged that they're not saying,

well, we're done. That makes me feel better. Well, they're not saying that because they need to try to make down money. But I'm just, I haven't bought in,

and I don't want to be that guy, but I'm just that guy. I'm very skeptical as well. Because I said, look, if you got to the bubble, remember, if you go back to old shows of ours, I've always thought the NBA bubble would be the safest place on Earth. And it is. It turned out to be. 12.12 is our time.

Dusty Baker joins us in 15 minutes here on the Matt Thomas show. You may join us right this second. Are you leery to a football? Not because you don't love it, not because you don't appreciate it, but all this positivity, and I'm just looking at Major League baseball going, y'all are a hot mess. We're now amplify that by having rosters that are three, times as big as an average major league roster. 713-212-5-7-90.

I want to tell you right now about Cromberg flags and flag pulls. Why don't you fly the flag or banner of your favorite team, your favorite state, which hopefully is Texas, and hopefully your favorite country, the U.S. of A. And you can do that with a flag or and a flagpole from Crombergs. They have an assortment of flags. You can support your favorite college and pro teams as well. Plus all of their banners and their flags are durable, 100% nylon or polyester that is finished with a lot of.

heavy duty stitching for longest durability. So if you want that flag to really stand out, do yourself a favor and get with Cromberg's flags and flag pulls. In fact, if you listen to our Astros coverage all season long here on either 740 or 790, we give away a Cromberg's Astros flag every day during our tribute portion of the show. So a chance for you to see it and maybe even win one for yourself. But do yourself a favor right now and get that flag and flagpole for your school,

your place of business, or a good old-fashioned USA or Texas flag. 713-661-922-22 is their number. 713-661-922 and online Cronbergs Flags and Flagpoles.com. Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790. Dasty Baker joins us in about 13 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. This is always the hardest one to do because I have like 50 things I want to ask him. He's only going to be on with us for 10 minutes. Yes.

Next week or when we do our next visit with him and won't be nearly as bad because we'll have a little bit. I mean, but he had to, he knew this season was going to be difficult because of the whole thing about the cheating scandal. This is a whole new level. And I don't necessarily to get into that because all of us are going through difficult times. But to add to the fact that you're fighting this virus when you have no healthy pitchers and you are relying on a pitching staff that has Rossi, not any majorly experience. Ryan Presley just came back to give some experience. Osuna was a late arrival, sort of speak. And now he's on the eye.

And now he's on the injured. I mean, we were kind of halfway joking yesterday about this team being a surprise at 5 and 4 and kind of going, man, I don't know, based on everything I described to you, how this team is even 5 and 4 at this point. Because you're top of the order. I mean, Jose Altube, I don't remember him being this under 200

for this long a period of time. I mean, he may have had a stretch during the regular season, but man, oh, man. George Springer's off to a sluggish start. Bregman's turning into the corner a little bit, but it's still a top three lineup. I mean, one of the most feared top three lineups in baseball, and none of them at this point, I think, are batting 200 or they're right around that number. It's quite alarming. We'll talk to Dusty about that coming up in about 10 minutes from now. Let's go to Chris in Copperfield at 1219 of the Matt Thomas show.

Chris, good afternoon to you. What's on your mind? How you doing, Matt? Well, thank you. Hey, man, I love your show as usual, man. Thank you. Hey, I got a little, did you remember we were talking about that cover band stuff, bad cover bands?

Yes. Okay. So whenever you get a chance, maybe you think about that Fab Five, you know, on that again. But I want to talk a little bit about Al-Tivay, like you were talking about yesterday. And I think you've hit it. I mean, he stands too far away from the plate. He gives up too much plate. And I think that's hindering his average.

What do you think about that? I'm never going to sit there and try to criticize, and thank you very much of the phone call. Chris, good to hear him from you. Ross, you and I cannot criticize Jose Al-Tube's approach to the plate. He's always done that. He's always been very far from the plate. For as little as he is, and I said it yesterday,

I think it kind of lures pictures into thinking they can pitch him outside, and then he just sends it the other way. And that's when he's had his best. So I just, I know, that's what he's been doing for years. I don't think it's something that he just started doing this year.

Yeah, he wakes up with 200 bats, 200 hits in a season. So, if there's anybody that's going to be able to figure it out, it's not me, Matt Thomas. It's going to be Jose Altubei and the hitting and staff

of the Houston Astros. I'll be curious. I'm going to ask, Dusty, about whether or not, I mean, I'm going to ask him, first of all,

excuse me, how much the day off helped. and whether or not another day off may help give him mentally a chance to just kind of think about a few things. Because that's how it usually works in baseball. Guys are slumping in Korea had taken a day. George Springer had taken a day. Maybe it's in a case where Jose Altuva may need a day as well because the numbers we are seeing from these guys are astonishing. Jose is at 158.

Springer 182. Bregman with a good weekend got up to 211. And this is a team that's one of the highest scoring teams. teams in baseball. How do you ask that, how does that happen? Well, Michael Brantley is tearing the cover off the ball. He's at 438. His OPS is over a thousand. Dustin Garneau limited playing time over a thousand in his R. OPS. Oh, Dustin Garneau? Could be the key to the Astro Success, Matt. That's actually not true. Not true at all. Now, let me tell you some, you get a backup catcher that don't give you an O'4 every night? Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, that's frankly part of the

reason why Garrett Stubbs not been able to stay on a major league roster full time is because of the fact that, you know, his bat has just not been able to help the cause. Now, this year, carrying the three catchers almost seems like you've got to do that because you've got to expand that rosters. Do you know in this week, and I just found out this today, that they got to cut the roster by two people while they're in Arizona. What do you do? You can't cut pitching. Yeah, I don't know. That's a good question. Maybe one of the catchers doesn't, maybe Stubbs like you mentioned.

Yeah, could be one of those spots. It's always funny. We always like to, our most fun in October is trying to figure out the 25-man roster. You never think about, well, you've got to cut two, and here we are, August, whatever the day it is. Fourth. Strange ass. These are strange times, Matt. Gimicky baseball season.

Unprecedented times. No, it's a gimmick. It is. So if baseball has become 100% gimmicky, the NBA, frankly, is zero. 0% with the exception of you're just not playing any games in your home gym. Yeah, I wouldn't say 0%. There's no fans. There's no traveling.

It is weird. It's different. But the fans thing is not the NBA players fault. They're still playing on a 94 foot court. They're still playing some of summons of a season. They're going to have a regular playoff. There is no adding teams. There's no changing up rules where if the game goes overtime, you play with six people on the, you know what I'm saying?

It's just, it's still a true game of basketball. That's true. I think they should switch, though, to play to 15 in overtime or play to 12 or 13 or something like that. You know how they did in the All-Star game? You play to a certain number. Really? Yeah.

That way you don't have triple overtimes. First to seven? Seven seems a little low. That's like two baskets. Yeah, three baskets. What do you think? First of 15. I had honestly never thought about this.

You know, maybe that's how we play in the black top. Maybe if you had told me this not. this year. If you'd have brought this up in 2018, I'd be more accepting of it. But I've seen such a gimmick thing going in baseball. I've been bringing this up for a couple years now. Do you have tapes of this? Well, I don't say, you know what? Let me go ahead and save that time. I think you should. Then you'd have proof. Did you actually have said this in 2018? Well, you know what? Joe George could probably back up. I've been saying

this for a while. Let me ask you this. Do you want to win a game at the free throw line? Games are one at the free throw line all the time. But literally wanted the free throw line. Rudy Gobert in the first game back, hit two free throws and they won. He won the game at the free throw line. But how much, there was time left on the clock, though, yes? In a couple seconds, yeah. Okay, so that's, I don't know, I kind of like having a shot to win it. It's kind of

a walk-off. Think of it, that's an actual, like a walk-off free throw. That's kind of cool. I like it. I want to walk-off three-pointer. I'm going to go with no. Okay. Because I don't want to see a game one at the line literally where foul is on like Harden makes, if he makes two or three, the game is over. And they just like, okay, we're

gone. Are you guys familiar with the tournament, the million dollar tournament they do every year? Yes. Exactly, yeah. Because they had started basically, I don't know when it is. I think it's with four minutes left at the dead ball that add 15 points to each of them.

To know, to what the, who's winning. Basically that becomes a target. What they did in the NBA All-Star games. And the whole idea is that it stops the following Leighton games. So there you go. That's an interesting idea. it doesn't get as mucked up.

Say it again one more time. Do you remember what they did for the NBA All-Star game where they said a target score? This is where you are, plus 15 to the highest-scoring team, that's the target. And that's what they did in the All-Star game. But I've been saying they should do this before that.

But didn't the All-Star game end on a free-throw? I don't remember. It did. And it would happen sometimes, but overall it leads to last late game. Okay, here's what I'll say. I mean, if a team's up two, and there's like a couple seconds left,

and they get fouled and they make two free throws, the game essentially ends on a free throw, on a made free throw. Essentially, but not literally. Right. I will say this, it's not a horrible idea. Okay. Just think about it. You don't have to make a decision now, Matt.

Good, because I'm trying to create new rules as often as possible, as we're doing that in sports. Yes, that's why they call you Matt Rule. They do. Kenny and Spring, I got 45 seconds for you before we got Dusty Baker. Hi, Kenny. How are you doing, Matt? What's up, Ross?

How are you doing today? Thank you. We're doing well. What's your question? Good, good, good, good. First of all, I want to mention the Texas. You know, I agree with you, Matt, that they will never, under Bill O'Brien, will never snip a Super Bowl. Ever.

Ever. Okay, that's my first point. And I agree with you 100%. Second thing is the gimmicky extra innings with the ban on second, that has got to go. That's the worst thing I've ever seen in my life, is put a guy on second base. but guy or no bunk guy or whatever. You know, you've got to earn your, you got to earn the extra inning win. So I just wanted to call in and make of that.

I agree with you old Texans and I agree with you as far as this season's gimmicky, but we still have a good shot at, you know, anybody can win this year. Anybody can win. That's right. Kenny, thank you for the phone call. I will say this. I want to make sure I'm clear. I'm not totally against the runner at second base.

I would wait for the 11th inning to do it. agree. That's what I would do. Or even 12th or something. Whatever. I just, I don't want 14 inning games because the game does drag. Guys are tired.

And it's not great baseball at that point. You know who we're going to ask about it, Matt? Dusty Baker. Next at Sports Talk 790 with first a word for oops, steam cleaning. If you want your carpets professionally clean the right way, I want you to pick up the phone right now. Actually, kind of wait until after the show and call 281 822-0-561. 281-8-2-0-6-1 for the great folks at oops steam clean.

You'll get your carpets done right. You'll get your upholstery taken care of. You'll get your air ducts taken care of. You can also get water remediation. If you've had any flooding problems in the past, they do all that, and they'll do it at a very fair price. If you own a small business and looking for commercial cleaning, the folks at OUPS will do that for you as well. True steam cleaning done at a fair price. Call for a consultation right now at 281-8-2-2-0-561. The Houston Astro! The Astros! The Astro! This exclusive Astros segment on Sports Talk 790 is brought to you by Expedity, the future of awesome. It's awesome.

It is 1230 on the Matt Thomas show, Sports Talk 790, Matt and Ross, and we are happy to begin weekly visits with someone we want to really get to know, but unfortunately the Zooms will preclude us from that in this damn COVID thing. We say hi to the manager of the Houston Astros, Dusty Baker, here on Sports Talk 790. Dusty, it's Matt and Ross. First of all, good afternoon, and welcome to our little family. How are you doing, and how was the off day in Phoenix, Arizona? Well, it was very uneventful. You know, we just stayed in the hotel. I got a beautiful pool right outside of my room, but we couldn't get in the pool,

go to the restaurant, go to the spa. I really can't do much except stay in your room and go to the ballpark, but, you know, we're trying to stay safe. We're not trying to do like some of the other clothes that's done, but they've gone out. into the general public and then brought the COVID back to the team. So our fitness staff here and our training staff is very, very hard on us and up on time to do the right thing and follow the protocols.

And so far, we've been pretty good. Have your grown men that you lead caught on to this fact that there are a lot of teams around baseball that aren't following the rules and they kind of self-policing themselves, do you think? Well, they have. Yeah, I mean, but, you know, we still got some improvement to do. I mean, because, you know, guys are used to being close to each other. Guys are used to being close to each other in the dugout and in the training room and in the fitness room and in the, you know, the laundry room and every room in the stadium.

So, you know, we're doing better. And, you know, we're doing better keeping our mask on and cleaning our hands. And, you know, they give us a new set of gloves and, you know, things will wash your hands with, you know, every day. I mean, we got tons of things around. You ought to see my office, my house, you know, they're everywhere. But I'll tell you, these guys are on top of it. I mean, they're the best I've been around. And I can say that in a short period of time because, you know,

they're so conscious of the things that we have to do, you know, to keep us on the field. Let me ask you to skip. Do you, and I don't mean to say this literally, but do you wake up every morning with a quick phone call to your trainers, your doctors to see who you have with healthy arms because I feel like every day it's somebody else is dropping and which is a very sad part but it's the realization of what has been your season so far well you know like no I don't call them when I wake up I already have a text on my phone oh okay I got you they text me because uh and it says hey man my test was negative and all of the

tests are negative or every once in a while so and so uh you know I had a positive test you know I mean, which has been rare, like I said, they've been on top of it. But every morning, you know, I wake up, and the first thing I do is that, you know, you see, you know, how the test came out from a couple days before that. And the second thing that you do, you take an E10, like a test of like 17 questions. You have a running nose. You have any congestion. You have diarrhea. You have upset stomach.

And then you take your, after you answer all those no, and then you got to take a, you know, you know, use a thermometer and take your temperature, and you've got to take it twice and log it on, and if any those are bad, or if you slunk any of those, and you're supposed to stay in the room and not even go to the stadium, they'll come to you. So, you know, baseball's trying. I mean, they're really, really trying, you know, the best they can, you know, to keep us on the field. COVID is one thing, Skip. How about the arms? I mean, that's what I'm thinking I'm perhaps more concerned about, is that I'm being introduced to new pitchers daily, and I've been an Astro fan since 1979 and have a pretty good feel for your squad.

I don't have a feel for your bullpun, except they've really come through for you more times and not so far this year. Well, you know, I don't have a real good feel either. I mean, we're kind of learning as we go and learning, you know, from talking to the guys trying to figure out, you know, who we can talk to in the minor leagues who've had them, you know, knowing who can throw strikes or trying to figure out

who likes to be in situations and others don't like to be in the situations. Unfortunately for me, you know, Miller had some of these kids, you know, in the minor leagues. And, you know, that helps a lot. And, you know, just communicating is, you know, the best we can and trying to put them in a position where they will succeed, which is probably the toughest because you don't know which positions that they, you know, that they, you know, perform, you know, the best under. So, you know, that's been a little tough, you know, and also, you know, we really miss Diaz. We miss Alvarez, we met the Kiti, and I'm hoping that we get them back, you know, within a couple of weeks.

Because, you know, they're both a big part of our offense, big part of our bench, and a big part of our picking set. I don't know, Dusty, if a team can thrive, you know, you want to put your head above water when you lose your number one starter in Verlander, and then Osuna leaves you over the weekend after pitching to a couple of folks. Anything new on him that you can tell us about? Nope. You know, I got to call him this morning. I was trying to, you know, wait for a couple of days for some of the dust to settle.

And I got to call him this morning. It doesn't look real good, actually. So, you know, he wouldn't have an MRI yesterday. And, you know, he's in our prayers and in our thoughts. But, you know, the reality is that it's probably not, you know, very good or good news. So I'll wait until I get to the stadium today to find out. And let's just talk about the starting pitching.

Dussie, you got Christian Javier going today with the injuries and the issues that have cropped up and the issues in the bullpen, how do you what conversations do you have with these guys? I mean, Lance McCullors and Zach Rinkie, the veteran guys, you talk to them about having to step it up or you just let them

go about their business? No, I mean, you don't want them to step up any more than they're capable of stepping enough. You know, the main thing is just do your job and hopefully some of the other guys can do theirs. And, you know, like I try to talk to most of the young guys and tell them that, hey, this is your opportunity,

you know, opportunity to, you know, to excel, to make the team impress us, stick around in the big leagues and make some money for, you know, yourself and your families. And the fact that, you know, how many people 22, 23, 24 years old are reaching a lifetime goal? So you have to urge them to step, you know, over that threshold. and I read an article years ago that Tommy A.D. said that the hardest thing about being in the big leagues is the fact of feeling like you belong in the big league. So I'm trying to tell them, hey, man, you have to feel that you're here. You have to, you know, forget the name on the back of the uniform that you're facing in the opposition. And, you know, all you see is a catcher.

It's the same game whether you're playing in May Park or if you're playing in Bushrod Park. So, I mean, that's all in theory, of course. You know what I mean? It's a lot easier that it bounced, but you know, you still have to tell him something. Dusty Baker with us here on the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Is there any chance you could call your buddies that are fellow managers and ask Major League Baseball to keep your roster size away it is? Because apparently you've got to cut a couple of guys here in the next couple of days. Well, you know, we're waiting to hear that.

I mean, you know, everybody's kind of pulling for that because everybody's kind of in the same boat. And so I'm hoping that we get to keep this roster size a little while longer because, you know, It's going to make it tough on all of us to cut it to 28 and then eventually to 26. And, you know, are you going to have enough pitch? Are you going to have enough guys in the bench? I mean, that's going to be a real, real tough thing, you know, to do. And it's going to hurt some of the development of some of the young kids that we have called up, you know, that are developing before our eyes.

You know, we'll see. And, you know, that's a good point. You know, we've been discussing it weekly. You know, James Cook flew in yesterday. Today, we're going to discuss it today on who we're going to keep possibly, or if baseball is going to keep the expansion as it is. Because honestly, you know, we like to be armchair managers, ourselves, Dusty, and I don't know what you're going to do.

I mean, you need arms desperately because your starters aren't going overly deep, and your bullpen's been so reliable, and there have been guys that have deserved this opportunity. I really do hope they reconsider this. Well, so do I. And plus, you know, like, we need it also on the bench because these guys go from, you know, not playing at all to play in nine innings every day. So you have to have a bench

to give these guys the rest of else who's going to hurt them too. You know, and like, you know, we have a couple guys, you know, that are ailing a little bit now, you know, you know,

you've got to get Michael Brantley some time off because, you know, his legs are a little sore. And like I said, you go from, I mean, we're still in spring training mode. And, you know,

he's just hoping that we don't have any more injuries. We don't have any positive a Clover test and that, you know, we can get better as time goes on because I feel this club will definitely, you know, get better as time moves on and also will get back Alvarez and Diaz and their kiddie. So just trying to hold on and play the best we can, whoever we can, until that time comes. How bad, Dusty, did George and Jose need the off day yesterday?

Well, they need it badly. I mean, like I said, I mean, you go from playing six or seven innings and max in that spring training number two to seven innings every day. And, you know, I mean, not only do you need a physical day off, but you need a mental day off, because those, in Georgia's case and Georgia's case, I've got to give him a day off, but not against Oakland, probably when we get back to Houston and Altuve. I mean, these guys aren't used to seeing, you know, their averages on the interstate up there. You know, one's hitting I-88 and the other one's hit in I-78 and I-664. I mean, that plays on your mind.

And so, you know, you need a physical day off sometime and a mental day off sometime. And I'm hoping to them to the same. Astros manager, Dusty Baker here on the Matt Thomas show. And Dusty, speaking of, you mentioned, in nine-inning games, well, it's been more than nine innings for you guys three of the last four times. What do you make of the extra innings rules and the strategy? element and just how do you feel about it overall? Well, I'm not crazy about it, you know, but I mean,

they're trying to say to speed up the game and save some arms and, you know, there's a couple things, you know, like I'm not crazy about the picture off to face three hitters. I mean, because that eliminates the, you know, the specialty lefty or eliminates a lot of strategy on the matchups and stuff. So, as I say, we still have to adhere to it. I mean, we're still learning, you know, You know, you probably manage a little different on the road when those

extra inning games, and you do it home because you can manage for one run, but it depends on who's up. People say, hey, why don't you run? Well, some of these guys have never run it, you know. And it's easier than it sounds. And also it depends on who's up next or who's up next after him because they're going to walk somebody to get to somebody else, a weaker, you know, possible hitter or a double-play game.

candidate. And so it all boils down to getting some hits. It all boils down to advancing runners, you know, for up the plate and driving them in, you know, for the opportunity. Skip, you must be listening to some of our postgame call-in shows and Twitter because everybody wants the assures a bun every single time. So if you just put the bunt down, you'll keep a segment of your population very happy. I don't know if you can do that or not, but it's a big debate. Yeah, I mean, it's a big debate. But I'm the only one that's out there that's doing it. Well.

You know, there's a bunch of people that are going to tell you what to do, but they don't know the circumstances or tell you how to do it. Well, just to let you know, we're anti-bunt, so you just keep doing what you're doing. I'm just telling you that. I mean, like I said, if you're bun, no matter what, you still got to get a hit. Yeah. I mean, we've had been loaded like four or five times, and then it boils down to you still got to get a hit. No matter what.

So we'll see. Madison, Bumgarner, how many, you know, hold it. Horror stories, can you tell us about his performance as you're going against him tonight? Not that many, you know, because I didn't, you know, we didn't face him that much. You know, like I wasn't in the National League. Well, I was in the East, you know, when, when Baum was on his game, even though I live in San Francisco, I've seen him pitch a whole bunch of times. And, you know, we'll have to see if he still has his velocity because he still has a session.

but all depends if he has his velocity, which increases his deception. And so, I mean, this guy knows how to pitch and he knows how to win. And, you know, like I said, it's going to give our lefties a bit of a problem because he throws across his body and he's throwing across the lefties. I mean, he's really tough on lefties. And the guy tomorrow night, Robbie Ray, is eating tougher on left because he throws harder than, you know, the bum gardener. So, you know, we've got our work cut out for us.

next couple of days, but they're low down over there. You've got to keep them down. And, you know, you do that possibly by scoring early because we haven't scored early. You know, you've got to jump them early. And if you do that, then they'll go, oh, man, here we go again. And the long as you keep them in the game, then the more they figure they have a chance to win. So that's our game plan tonight. It's the same every night, but especially against these guys, you've got to jump them early.

Well, Dusty, we've greatly looking forward to our visits weekly here on this show. thank you for being so forthcoming as we thought you would be. We look forward to our visit again next week and enjoy the weekend down in Arizona. Okay, I'll see you later. All right, sounds good. Dusty Baker with us here on the mat. Thomas should we greatly appreciate him spending some time with us here today. 1244 is our time.

What I got into that? We'll tell you next. After a word for TGS insurance. The folks at TGS want to save you significant money on your home policy. It's very simple how it works. You text the word money, M-O-N-E-Y, to 23-3. 2323. M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23-23-23, and start saving big on your home policy today with TGS works. You text the word money, M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23-23-23-23. M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23, and start saving

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It doesn't look real good, actually. So, you know, he wouldn't have an MRI yesterday. And, you know, he's in our prayers and in our thoughts. but the reality is that is that it's probably not very good or good news. Damn, damn, damn! Couldn't have said it better myself, Lo. I mean, we're not surprised by what he said, right?

We're not shocked. You're not shocked. I was startled. No, I wish I was startled. I wasn't happy about it. I could agree with you on that. Might be. Might be revival.

Don't even say the guy's name. Don't use initials. Oh, no, I wasn't going to say that. Oh, I was thinking. TJ? Yeah. No. I wasn't going to say that.

Okay. We don't know. I'm not a doctor, Matt. No, nobody play one on the major market radio either. Well, sometimes we do. Actually, we do daily. Frequently. At least twice a week, yeah.

I cannot wait to visit with Dustin. I'm not looking, we're not looking for breaking news every time. Sometimes things naturally happen. Frankly, when we get going here, which we don't have a whole lot of time life because the season's like almost done already. I want to go over some Dusty Baker great baseball memories. He's just so folksy. Well, he's a storyteller.

Yes. And he's seen a lot. He's seen a lot. We talked about the high, you know, you and I talked on there. Was it what about the high five? Were you here when we were talking about a high five? Maybe. You know, him and his teammate created the high five.

He was the recipient of the first high five. So talking about that, talk about managing the Bartman, game, being around with Jeff Kentonbury Bonds and all. I mean, there's just so many things to get to. But right now, it was our first time to visit with him today, and we'll do a weekly. It was just, we had to catch up a lot of stuff. A lot of not good stuff. He sounded more encouraged about Jose Yucidi and Jordan, you know, saying, hey, we'll get

those guys back a couple weeks, hopefully. So at least he's bringing those guys up as into we think they're going to contribute. also I love the fact he's like man y'all think y'all can bunt have you met a major leaguer yeah it's gone that was a good little spiel on the

yeah the extruning of the it's gone and I'm not I'm and I said I'm anti-bunt but I understand why 10th inning tie ball game runner at second at home it makes tremendous amount of sense so I'm either way I'm and I'm not like

you you at a bunge you must die I'm not that I'm not crazy bun guy I'm just anti-bunt guy no one single in most cases is going to knock a run home. Especially with this lineup, that's one of the most, you know, high octane offenses, generally speaking, in Major League Baseball. Think where they are now without the top three guys doing much so far this season.

I believe they're second in runs per game, at least as of yesterday they were. All right, so Blake Tito is going to join us at 230. Yes. Our favorite left-hand reliever of all time? Over Billy Wagner, right? I'm going Trevor Miller. Wow. Okay, you went to mid-2000s.

That's fine. trying to think of other left-handed relievers that I loved. Tony Sip? Billy Wagner. It's probably Billy Wagner. It's Billy Wagner no matter what. But if Blake Taylor wants to continue to throw with a zero ERA, I'm all for that. So if you guys want to comment on anything that Dusty had to say,

we welcome you at 713-212-5-790. How about the fact that he also brought up the fact that he'd like to see this roster stay right where it is? I'm telling you, Ross, it's stupid. from major league baseball to force these teams to drop two players right now. Injuries are left and right in the sport. And we're not talking about the little bit of soreness here and there. We're talking about guys losing seasons. I saw a guy that would picture for the brave just a few minutes ago. Mike Soroka. Yeah, Torres Achilles. By defending, was it a ground, a little ground ball, I think he was running to cover first base. Oh, okay. Or something. And yeah, he just planted off of the

mound and Torres Achilles. Yeah. So we've got arm injuries. We have. have other injuries. It's primarily its arm, but majorly baseball can't withstand a lesser roster. Yeah. So, yeah, we've seen all these arm issues, and I thought it was interesting. Dusty brought up the fact he said Michael Brantley's got sore legs because everybody is sore legs because nobody had the ramp up period just wasn't what these players are used to. This will never happen again.

If there, for some reason, there's another pandemic, if there is, you know, just go and give me some drugs and let's call it a day. But point being is that they'll never try to fast play a majorly baseball. season again. This is, if you're going to learn a lot of things about this, this gimmicky thing, it's you can't have summer camp. You have to have a real life spring training 2.0. It's just everything is thrown off because, I mean, these players in 2020, like back in

the 70s or something in the off season, you just go back to your job as an insurance salesman or something like that. Like these players work out the entire off season and they're ready and they're ready to go and they're working every day. And then they ramp up and they have, everything's regimented. and the regiment has been completely thrown off. Well, and we're talking especially pitchers. Yes.

That's where you probably, the day that Major League Baseball said, we're going to start playing, they should have then put a 911 out and said, if you're a Major League pitcher or you're a pitcher on a team, get your ass to that particular city tomorrow. I mean, there should have been no given guy seven to ten days. They should have gotten there as fast as possible because you just can't ramp up a pitcher like you can't a position player.

And we've seen the evidence of that. All right. Second hour, the Matt Thomas show starts in a matter of moments. Big 12 is going to play 10 games, 9 league games, and one non-conference game. How do y'all feel about that? Can we live with 10? Is that a full major league? Is that a full in our minds college football season?

It used to be back in the day, right? It used to be 11. 11? Yeah. It might have been 10, but when I first started watching college football was 11. Yeah, back when it was Rutgers and Yale and Princeton going at it. And they were wearing the true pigskins. And they had salty and they grainy.

The Bulldogs of Yale storming the field. Cottage football on ABC. Kit Jackson here, live from the Yale Bowl. It's Harvard Crimson against the Yale, whatever the hell they are. Bulldogs, right? Bulldogs. I think. No, there's any yells on a bulldog?

There's no way, no chance. 713-212-5-790, the second hour of the Matt Thomas show. It's the old bulldogs, you're wrong. That's just a nickname. Back in a minute on 790. This is the Matt Thomas show. God, please know! No! No! Be serious! You cannot be serious!

Backing up, we talked with Dusty Baker about moments ago, Mark Berman says an MLB source. Says initial diagnosis for closer Roberto Osuna is that he needs to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery. However, Osuna is getting a second opinion. If the initial diagnosis is accurate, he's saying it'd be a huge. loss for the Astros. Yes. No, God! No, God! Please, no! No! No! Rossi, go check on the

contract status for one, Roberto Osuna. I've got arbitration for a year or two or a little. Let's not guess. Let's be accurate. We are. We're fair, balance, and accurate here on 790. Hence of the matter. He is... Yep, arbitration. This year. arbitration next year and then a free agent.

Well, that's what I was afraid of. Because if he has T.J. He's done this year. He's done next year. Which would then mean when he's healthy and ready to go, he will be a true free agent. Wait, when this is early as free agent in 2022, I think that means that season.

So maybe under control only for one more year. Yeah, that's even worse. Yeah. Yeah, so 2022, he's a free agent. Guess who's also a free agent in 2022? Justin Verlander? That is correct. Cool.

Guessers are going to be a free agent at the end of this season. George Springer, Josh Reddick, Michael Brantley. The walls are crumbling. gosh man we have one world series and that one's

unfortunately tainted not in my eyes Matt well not my eyes either but most of America's eyes they are we have an American League championship that could have been won in a made of a World Series with one home win in the World Series and that's gone to the nationals

and some kid who's 21 years old in my opinion that sucked We have the Boston Red Sox who likely cheated against the Astros in 2018. And now we've got free agent after free agent after free agent. Then we've got T.J. And probably another T.J. Why baseball? Why?

Where are we at in society today? You Matt Thomas. Yeah, well, I don't where that came from. I ain't nothing to do with any of that. How about doing the day? Anybody else want to just ruin our? afternoon. 713.

I mean, what do you want to? You want to say you're going to kick my dog now? I mean, what else is there? You want to just tell me how much fun you've had and having COVID the last three weeks? 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We're here for you.

We're here for you. Seriously. We've do Astros Therapy again. We've had to do this a couple of times throughout the years. What is a good therapist music film? That's where you'd put like some like, oh, I got you. What do you got?

This is where you put some light music, you know, you're laying on a couch. We're like you're, we are your official psychiatrist of Major League Baseball here in Houston, Texas. Oh, perfect. Perfect. All right, Astro fans, come sit down. Take a deep breath. I'd like to introduce to our staff. Our receptionist is Brendan Riley.

Yes. My name is Dr. Thomas. This is to my man in my right is Dr. Villarreal. I am the massage therapist. Oh, you are? That's kind of creepy. Sixes and up. Dudes, too?

No dudes. So you're only doing women six and up? Well, unlike my cohort here, I will talk to all of you, whether you're a six or not. And if you're a dude, I'll talk to you as well. Well, I touch you, probably not. Touch your soul, man. Yeah, that's exactly right. I will touch your soul.

And I'll actually touch your credit cartoon as you slide it through. Yeah. I'm only going to charge you for the special rate today of $79. Or you can get 10 meetings with me and my massage therapist sports every for $790. What a deal, Matthew. Rossi, before we go visit with our first client, by the way, if you want to be a client of ours, you want to lay in the chair and get a massage. Again, if you're a girl six and up, you're welcome to talk to Ross.

I will talk to all of you, whether you're a six or not, or if you're a dude, I'll talk to you. I'm not going to massage anybody. 713, 212-1-2-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. So who's the closer of the Astros? Ryan Presley, Matthew. Ryan doesn't like to pitch much either. He likes to.

He's not normally available to. He's physically unavailable at this point. Are we going to be talking to the new closer of the Astros in less than two hours? That's a great question, Matt. We might. Blake Taylor because this is 230 today. Blake Taylor, who all of you had in your fantasy roster. Did anybody know that Blake Taylor was part of the Jake and Resonick Tray?

Did you remember that? No. Me either. I mean, but I heard it and I heard it a few weeks ago and then so I knew it. Okay. I mean, I didn't remember. This isn't going to, this music isn't helping. What do you want?

I want nothing. I want to go in my room and I want to shut the door and I want to forget about this entire baseball season. Thank you very much. I thought it would work. It wouldn't work. We don't have music that's going to make you forget. That's what hard-looking. is for. It's like Nicholas Cage's character in leaving Las Vegas. What's the point?

My girl doesn't love me. Yeah. I've lost my job. I've lost all my money. Yes. Just get to Vegas in a strip and drink large amounts of alcohol and hopefully that'll take care of all of it for us. You guys know the Astros bullpen has been good, right? It has. Well, it's not been good. It's been frankly great, but the problem is, can these young men hold up for another 50-something games? That's a great question. Because Chub... The bullpen ERA is like under two. Is it under two?

Yes, 1.93. Well, it helped out Framber. Reliever ERA. Yeah, so Framber came out of the bullpen, so that counts. That he did and did a really good job. But here's another thing. As good as a bullpen is boys, starting pitching cannot continue to go less than four innings. that's what crushes a bullpen.

Yeah, certainly with the lack of days off coming up. And I'm telling you, Dusty, let me tell you, do you think Dusty Baker could lob a phone call to Rob Manfred and say, listen, I know more about baseball and my pinky than you do in your entire cigarette-filled body of yours? I'm not hearing, assuming that Ryan Manfred smokes. Could he say, listen, bra, you're not managing out in these streets. I am. You cannot cut my roster in two.

And I'll go talk to all my buddies around Major League Baseball and do the same thing, like Padres manager. John Stamos? No, he doesn't manage the thing. Oh. You see what I'm saying, though? There's no way. Rob Manfred and the union have got to get together and say,

we're going to keep these rosters at 30. Jace Tingler? Yeah. Quite frankly, I thought you made that name up. I wish I would have. It's a name I'll use in future hotels in the Rocklers with a rocket strips. Sounds like a porn star. Jace Tingler?

I guess you're right. 713212. 5-7-9. I don't know how to respond to that. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Let's go to Jeff in Memorial at 110. Hi, Jeff. Hey, Matt. How are you doing? Well, buddy, what's on with you? What's up with you?

Good. I want to call and say, hey, you remember when Allison Flitter used to always tweet out the 1-800 abuse line when Ozina would come into pitch? You think she's about to tweet that one out again? I have not checked her Twitter accounts. I don't know if she's done that. I think, do you think this is karma for hitting, for hitting his life back in Toronto or

or last year, or actually just beyond eight ball all year? I think he's a major league pitcher and sometimes they need Tommy John surgery. Yeah. I would not associate domestic abuse with what baseball karma does. No, I do not believe that. But do you think his right arm got a little sore? Okay, you're dumb. You're really, I mean, that's just stupid.

In Lance McCullors had Tommy John surgery. Did he, I mean, he seems like a great guy. Yeah, unfortunately, baseball injuries do not check personality traits. Oh, that guy's a douche. Well, he should go on the 15-day disabled list with a pull quadrice muffler. I mean, is Justin Vernon or a horrible person? He seems great. I mean, he's a diva, but he doesn't seem like he's a bad person.

I don't think he's a bad person at all. No. He donated millions of dollars to... And his paychecks, too, yeah. Yeah. And he also came and helped the Westroes winner world series. Yeah. And he's married to Kate Upton.

I mean, there's a lot of things that are going to... right in his world. He's doing okay. Do you think God said, you know, God, I'm going to give you this smoking hot wife that you'll take naked pictures with eventually and what couple will appear on it in social media. I'm going to give you a chance to throw a couple of no hitters. You're going to win a couple of Cy Young's, but I got even things out. I'm going to give you a massive forearm injury that Channel Rome thinks you're done while you don't think you're done. No, I don't think God works that way. I agree, Matthew. Yeah, that was That was a wretched phone call.

I'm sure a great person. But you know what? As I said, I don't have great shows every day. People call them, maybe not have great calls every day. You never know these things. 113 on the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-5-790 with a message for Big City Wings.

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I had one and all my hair fell out. I mean, it's that kind of variety. Dry rubs, all the sauces, all the flavors. Garlic is a huge favorite of mine, too. And today is a great opportunity for buy 10, get 10 free, buy 15, get 15 free. You get the drift. Great dressings, great sides.

Appetizers are fantastic, and so too are the desserts. Find the Big City Wings location near you for buy one, get one free. You go to bigcitywings.com. BigCitywings.com. More Matt Thomas. Now on Sports Talk 790. 118 on Sports Talk 790. The Astro News of the day kind of now dominating our conversation as it appears.

Roberto Osuna is headed for a T.J. And Michael Connor brought up a good point. And Channel Room just backed it up. Roberto Asuna has another year left of arbitration. The Astros are not going to tender him a contract. You're not going to pay a guy a year to rehabilitate Tommy John. You're just not. You can go get a closer anywhere.

You don't know, first of all, what his recuperation process is going to be. Second, you're not going to pay him. And third, you don't know who he's going to be when he comes back. Is he still going to have a 95-mile-hour fastball after having this Tommy John? A lot of the pitchers do come back stronger. because of the surgery. So we'll see. It's going to be a lot of time.

Can you look at his contract, what he's paid this year? $10 million. Oh, yeah. There's no chance. Because he's going, if you tender him a contract, he's going to be making at least that,

if not more. Yeah, I guess. Arbitration, wouldn't the number be really low, I guess? You can't say... You have to offer him a contract first.

Yeah, that's true. And then that starts the arbitration price. It's very confusing. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, I think of non-tenders I think of going to big city wings and getting a bone in is compared to a non-tender. You know what I'm saying? That's a terrible, terrible, awful joke.

And I apologize. Do I have a rim shot in here? No, don't play that. It was so bad. I don't want you playing that. It wasn't that bad. It's just a dad joke. It's fine.

But the point is that I didn't think of that, and I should have. Yeah, that's interesting. That you're not going to pay a guy crazy money to sit out a year. No. So the Astros will be looking for a closer tomorrow or certainly by the 2021 season. man you spend that money on somebody else frankly or make a trade but you're not going to do that james click will be on with sean tomorrow at 930 i'm sure he will discuss more of this and my guess is officially the aster is now again dusty's talking to us is just talking baseball so i you know

the a astros are probably sent on official release but they haven't sent anything official about justin except for the fact that's a four-arm stream and i don't know if that's because there was a misreport or i have a feeling that jess and bernard likes to control his narrative and when he says his season is done or he's going to have a particular surgery or whatever he wants the one to say it he wants to be the one to say it not a beat reporter just my guess on that yeah i would think so that's very justin verlander-esque and that's what divas do divas couldn't want to control it and by the way when i call him david senate it's not because i don't like him it's just because that's who he is we work with divas here on seven ninety all the time and constantly

for at least a decade i'm the only one that's been here a decade 1713, 212, 5, 790. I just pulled the Matt Thomas. Mark and Katie on the Matt Thomas show. Mark, what's going on? Hello. Hello. Hey, yes. I was calling, what's the deal with Forrest Whitley?

Let's get him in there. And then also, I heard they picked up Fernando Rodney. Yes, he is with the minor league camp in Corpus Christi. And as far as Forrest Whitley, he has been shut down to check on his shoulder. Oh, God. I know, I know. Mark, do you have any sort of arm speed at all? Well, I did play in high school, so...

How old are you now? I am 40. Okay, report, please, to Corpus Christi as soon as possible. 10-4. Thank you, buddy. Thank you, Matt. Yeah, he's three years younger than Fernando Rodney, so... Less mileage on the arm.

I don't even ask about force. You only have 13 minutes with a man I can't go through every injury. We can't go through every guy who's experiencing discomfort on the squad. I forgot about forest. Holy smokes. Armed discomfort, yeah, I think. You think Dusty would have minded just a minute per an injury?

You know how they do like a word association in an interview and you say, I say this and you give me a word association? You do that except with injuries. All right, I'm just going to run through all these. Dusty Go ahead of. Forrest Whitley. Presley. Brad Peacock. Justin Verlander.

Roberto Osuna. Jose Arcitti, Jordon Alvarez. He just keeps saying not good. Austin Pruitt. Here's how Dusty answers it. Oh. Yeah.

This is not an indictment against Dusty, but when he says he doesn't know these pitchers, he ain't the only one. Yeah. I think Don Mattingly said he's never met some of these guys that are on the Marlins right now. He literally went on record. He didn't even met these guys.

The Astros' minor league pitching coordinator is the only person knows the Astros' Major League Proster right now. Yeah. There's a good deal. Let's say a literal who's on first routine. Oh, man. Who's in the bullpen? Who?

And they're in first place. Yeah, they are. And the dimebacks are not off to a great start. So in Madison, Bungarner, by way, we've got to play a little, coming up at 1.30, a little snippet of the best of Madison Bungarder. Not pitching, but being talked about. We'll tell you about that in just a little bit. Let's go to Adam and Spring on the Matt Thomas show. Adam, what's going on?

How are you guys doing today? Good. First time caller. I just found you guys just moved here from Detroit in February. Well, guess what? Hey, I got great news. I'm from Detroit and so my producers from Michigan. How about that?

Awesome. So it's just like we're family, just moved here. Absolutely. So I got a couple questions for you about JV. I heard you guys in the last segment saying that, you know, he might be done. You never know. If he's done, do you think he did enough to go to the hall? And if he does go to the hall, is he going to wear a Houston?

Jersey or you can wear a Detroit jersey? You know what? First of all, I answer the second question. He would wear a Detroit jersey and he is absolutely a Hall of Famer. No question of my mind. You don't think you'd wear the Houston jersey just because of the ring? No. I think people still think of and thank you for the phone call, Adam. Don't be a stranger. I think people still think of him. When you think of the best of Verlander, you think of him as a Detroit Tiger. although I'll say this

Say Young and a World Series ring helps the cause I thought Major League Baseball doesn't They don't give the vote They don't give them a choice anymore Do they not? Well, did they change it? Well, I think they can suggest

But the baseball makes the Hall of Fame Makes the Final Hall of Fame makes the call And the reason why they did that Was because, do you know what you remember why? It was No Didn't Nolan Ryan want to go in? Wade Boggs was the first one

That's right Wade Boggs got so surly with the red side that I think he went in as a Tampa Bay Devil Ray. I mean, come on. Not going to work out that way. So I think Major League Baseball, I think that, I should say Major League Baseball. I think the Baseball Hall of Fame, which is a different body, decides who gets in that way.

By the way, if Verlander has T.J. too, he's probably done as an Astro, right? Although the difference in him is he has a guaranteed contract for next year. He'll be 39. When he's, in two years, was he 37 now? Yeah. And my guess is knowing him is he'd be like, I got a brain new arm. And by the way, this is Osuna's second T.J. If this is true.

Does Roberto Asuna ever pitch again? I don't know. What's the history of guys with multiple TJs? You got me saying TJs now. Tommy John surgeries. No, I want you to continue to say TJs because it makes you uncomfortable. It doesn't make me uncomfortable. Have you had multiple TJs?

There's no doubt in my mind that Verlander was still trying to play. Oh, no doubt. It's just going to be where is it going to do? Does he go back to Detroit? Because at that point... You're going to have to rip him off the mound. Because at that point, they're going to probably be good in a couple of years. I mean, the Tigers have had, you know, obviously very high draft picks.

They're in the quote-unquote rebuild mode. Yes. And maybe you'll be gone by then, so there'll be a lot of the money gone. Albatross of a contract. It'll be freed up. 713-212-750. 7-1-2-1-2-5. 790.

We'll step away from baseball for just a minute. Rockets and Blazers tonight. You ready to talk about that? A little NBA chatter. I would love to. Congratulations, by the way. Well, sort of to the Los Angeles Lakers. They have captured something yesterday that no one can get in the Western Conference.

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Fish are around third and coming home. The thought of the plate, not inside. Sports talks. 790. Home for Astros baseball. 132 sports talk 790. Blake Taylor. Astro second greatest

left-handed reliever in the history of the organization. We can pontificate on these things. Interesting. Hmm. No. He'll join us in one hour. You know, when he keeps having a season

like he has, let me tell you something. If you got a zero ERA, and by the way, we will discuss at 2 o'clock who the new closer is for the Astros. Okay. Legitimately, because I don't know if I want to put the ball on Ryan Presley's hands on because I don't trust him. It's just that this is the guy that's been battling some ailments too. So we'll talk about that coming up

at the top of the hour. Rockets tonight taking on the Portland Trailblazers. Have you seen the shift in the Western Conference standings in just the last couple of days? Your beloved rockets go from barely holding out of the sixth spot in the West to I wouldn't say comfortably in front. They're only a half game in front of Utah for the four spot, but four and five don't make any difference because there's no home court advantage. They are right now one game better than Oklahoma City for the number six spot. But more important, they're only a game and a half out of the three. So again, I don't know if people generally speaking care where they end up because ultimately

no matter who you play in the first round, provided that you don't drop to seven, which I don't think the rockets are going to do. They're now three and a half out of the seven spots. They would probably avoid the clippers in round two. By the way, the Lakers clinched the number one spot in the Western Conference yesterday, with their win over Utah. Congratulations to them. Who do you want to avoid in the first round? Would that be an easier question?

Avoiding in the first round? I'm not super scared of the jazz. I'm not scared of nuggets. I'm not scared of the jazz. Maverick's scared a little bit, but they would have to get, they would have to climb up somehow. Or the Rockets had to move up. That's what I'm saying. They'd have to both move up.

it had to be a 3-6 match-up. That's probably not happening. I would say nuggets. Nuggets are a good squad. I mean, if they're healthy, how much, I know they've been having some injury issues. Yeah, three different starters didn't play the other night and still won. I don't know.

Chris Paul trying to beat his old team. That's fine. It scares me a little bit. I can worry about it. The Rockets are more talented and a better team than them. They should be a favorite, and I would say a sizable favorite against anybody they face in the first round. It then becomes the question of the,

the second round, who do you want? The Lakers or the Clippers? And I feel like Rossi, we can honestly every single day flip an opinion about who we think should win that. Who should be playing that series? I'm sticking with the clippers as the more dangerous threat to the Rock. Both. The Rockets would be underdogs to both.

Let me be clear about that. And I would not see the Rockets be favored in either of those matchups. But I think the Rockets can make the Lakers more uncomfortable than they can the clippers. Just because of the clippers, I think their depth. their ability to go small, their ability, I just think all of that, those factors, they're going to be a really good deal.

If fully healthy. That's always the big F with them recently. Any part of you that is generally concerned about the tremendous discrepancy and rebounds in both games so far? I feel like, see, I would say no, because you knew that was going to happen when you got rid of Clint Capella. But it was so, it's been so poor.

And some of it's been bad bounces. I mean, and that happens to every basketball team. But some of it has been, I mean, there was a couple of times where Brooke Lopez was just taller than everybody. There's a couple times of Chris Stops Porzengis. And when Boban Marjanovitch came in for five minutes, it was like he was a dad in the driveway and the rockets were his kids. So it can have. He had incredible e-scoring. Yeah.

And they only played five minutes. They didn't use them in the second half, which I thought was weird by Rick Carlisle, who is obviously a very fantastic, successful coach. So there are sometimes where you say, you know what, didn't bounce their way, it's not their fault. But there are also other times where size does matter in the rebounding. So it's a mixture of both. And I'm concerned about it, but it's, hey, this is, you dance with who brung you. This is what the rockets, the guns of the rockets are going with. I think we have seen a sign.

And this is a question that we get asked quite a bit. And by way, Mike Danton, I think we'll join us on Thursday on the show this week. Because tomorrow, I think they're practicing when we're on. We're going to see nine men for the playoffs. And that includes if that's Eric, Eric Gordon healthy out of the ankle. That would put him at nine. Yes.

Damari Carroll has not been used so far in the two, and I don't really count anybody else. And I know that we had a caller yesterday in the show that was dying to see Tyson Chandler get major minutes. The word, I shouldn't say major. Some minutes, I don't think Tyson Chandler has played in double digits probably as a rocket, right? I know that we could look it up for a minute's high,

but maybe there were some injuries. There had to have been something. Clint was early, hurt a little bit here and there. Maybe, you know what, he did start a couple of games, so maybe there were a few nights where he started at least 10, but more important, more than not, he's got a lot of DMPCDs

to his credit. I mean, has not touched the basketball in a game, either with the three scrimmages or the two games they've played so far in Orlando. He's played in 26 games. He did start 5. Okay, so there's probably a 10 minutes in those games that he was at least five, so.

He's an insurance policy, frankly. Yeah. Because again, you're presuming that even if Tyson Chandler does come in and try to do something, he's going to be going against guys that are probably 10 to 12 years younger than he is. He played one second in February. Before that, he played nine minutes and 45 seconds against the Lakers on January 18th.

You know when he was in that one second game, he was guarding the inbounds? Is that right? I want to say it was on a game-winning shot, too. Was that the Utah game? Yeah, Bogdanovich. Yes, Bogdanovich. That's exactly what it was. That was not fun.

So, again, would Tyson Chandler be able to move Brooke Lopez out of his comfort zone? Move, you know, the Greek freak out of his comfort zone? More than likely not. Yeah, well, the rockets would have to change your defense because they switch everything and you're just getting up with Tyson Chandler on the perimeter against, you know, Luca Donchich or against Janus Intentacinpo. And Janus is just going to blow right by him. So really, the only time you'd probably.

I don't want to spend a whole time on Tyson because I just, I don't think he's part of the mix, would be against true back-to-the-basket type players. Nikolio Kukich, he's, his, his face is square of the basket more times than not. And the PJ Tucker's and Robert Covington's and James Hardens of the world can do a good job defending him. James is used to it, too. We've seen it. That's right.

That's right. So tonight's a Portland Trailblazers is coming in. I'm a little confused by them. Not they should be better than what they are. I really believe it. have one of the highest scoring backcourts in the NBA with Damien Lillard and with C.J. McCollum. Carmel Anthony's playing good basketball. Now, Nurkich being gone most of the year has

hurt them for sure and he's now back, but it's not like Hassan Whiteside's chop liver. I remember a few years ago, Ross, Hassan O'Waithside when he was in Miami was a highly, highly coveted free agent. They've got a deep enough team. I don't know why they're struggling the way they are. Zach Collins is back for them now. Gary Trent Jr. was hit every three-pointe alive in their last game a couple of nights ago against Boston. It seems like they should be a better squad.

But I'll tell you this, with the fact that New Orleans has struggled in the bubble so far, and so has Memphis, if Portland ever got their act together, I think this is a way more important game for them tonight than it is for the Rockets. Yeah, they're a dangerous team, their fun team. That's what we've seen the last couple of years out of them, though. They're schizophrenic. And I think they have defensive issues. they can score with anybody

with all the guys you mentioned I mean, Dame can go for 50 on any given night. He can just do that. You know, he's got one triple double this year. It's kind of surprising, right? He's not a big rebound guy, I guess. Against the Rockets, ironically enough.

It was in Portland. Let me tell you. Portland's a weird city. I mean, on a scale of 1 to 10, it's probably San Francisco weird, just smaller. But that crowd gets going, and it's a tough place to play.

Those single pro-tebrose, city teams, you know, they don't have the NFL, Major League Baseball. Those, like those one-trick towns like San Antonio, Utah, Portland, they are some of the best crowds in the NBA. And that place, I remember, like it was yesterday, it was rocking as the Blazers were beating the rockets up and down the floor.

They are fifth in offensive rating, 27th in defensive rating. And that's the reason why they are where they are. They're an atrocious defensive team. They lost 128 to 124. It was probably fun to watch. Yeah, the three games this year, the Rockets won 132 to 108. Blazers won the next two, 117, 107 in Houston.

And then the last game we were at was a 125-12 game. In fact, that game, James Harden, in the last game, had just 18 points. How often is James Harden getting just 18 points? Under 20? It's been a minute. Let's go to. So we're saying play the over tonight. I think so.

Every NBA game has felt that way. 244 and a half. Jack and Spring on 790 at 140. Hi, Jack. How you doing, man? Good. Jayce. I just wonder, how confidently y'all, I know we are all homers or whatever, you know, not to use a negative connotation, but how confidently you all that the Rockets could get past somebody like the clippers?

Well, again, that's what we've been debating, frankly, Jace, is that those two teams on paper over the course of the year have been better, but the Rockets have played. extremely close games with them. There's been, I don't think there's been any blowouts. The Rockets have victories over both those teams. And the Rockets record against upper echelon top three teams in both conferences is, I think it's about a 750 or 800 winning percentage. They got another one against Milwaukee a couple nights ago. So I don't know if it's a Rockets team that rises the occasion or the opponents

don't consider them nearly as threat, which I don't believe that to be the case, because how would you not respect James and Russ? You know, but again, seven game series are different animals. I'd like to see what happens. But all I can tell you is that on a night where the Rockets went and took on the Lakers and Robert Covington played his very first game in Los Angeles and the whole world's laughing at the Rockets are having this super small lineup. The Rockets beat them with some key offensive rebounds, made their three-point shots,

and beat the Lakers in Los Angeles. Now, one regular season game doesn't make a season. But I'm not scared of anybody. Like, for instance, I'd be honest with you, Jace, the Warriors scare me for a better part of five years, right? You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, they were just the best team in the Western Conference, and we couldn't hide the fact.

I think there are little cracks in the armor on both those teams in front of the Rockets. I think they're still excellent basketball teams and are very much the favorites to win the West, but I'm not nearly as fearful of the Clippers and or Lakers like I wore that was the Golden State Orders the last half dozen years or so. Okay. The reason why I say that, I mean, because if I look at the clip, I pick the Clippers out of all the Western teams, because the Clippers come at you defensively, even though you, you're not. You know, I'm sure, you know, the numbers don't suggest that, but we all know they have prime time defenders, you know, and they come at you offensively now. So I think they give maximum effort both ways, and they're very streaky, you know, so we are, but, you know, they seem to be more, I wouldn't say efficient, but just, you know, just mid-range and get to the file line and clutch and, you know, just to look nuances that make a great team great,

I think we have a problem with the clippers more than anybody else. I think the clippers pose a greater problem. Jace, thank you for the phone call. The problem is I don't know which group of clippers are taking the night off for one reason or the other. I know LeBron's going to be there. I know that Dwight's going to be there.

I know that Anton Davis is going to be there. He's been fantastic. He's been really, really good. The Clippers one night, Lou Williams will shoot him into a game. He'll shoot him out of the game. One night, Kauai's,

playing one night Kauai's got minutes restrictions. Paul, you know, they have a deeper team. There's no argument to that. That's what I'm scared. I mean, the top three for the Lakers, what would you say is,

of course it's 80 and LeBron, which I mean, you're talking about two of maybe the five best players in the NBA, five or six. Danny Green. And then Danny Green. And then it's kind of... Danny Green has been a rocket killer

for no matter what uniform he's worn. Kuzma's okay. Alex Caruso is a nice role player. I know he gets all. this press like he's some savior and it's kind of a joke and it's funny. It's a headband. It's a mean thing because, yeah, he's balding and he's and he's white and he plays hard. That's great.

That's fine. But I mean, I just think I can go deeper to guys who scare me on the Clippers. Kauai Leonard, Paul George, Lou Williams, Montrez scares me a little bit. I mean, Patrick Beverly is a good piece. I just feel like they're a little bit the one through, you know,

eight or whatever it's going to be is a little bit stronger through. 145 on the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790 if you want to join us. 7-13-21-2-5-8 or whatever it's going to be is a little bit stronger through. 145 on the Matt Thomas show. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. If you want to join us, 7-1-3-21-5-7-90.

More your phone calls, plus a little audio from the greatest baseball announcer of all time, talking about tonight's pitcher in Phoenix. Plus, who would the Astros use as their closer with a presumption that our friend Roberto Osuna is probably done for this season, and perhaps, is Astros' career. Right now, message for improvemyerection.com. It's a website you can look at. It's very easy to navigate. It talks about the issues that a lot of men are having, whether they are 25, 55, 75, 75, or

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Matt Thomas continues on Sports Talk 790. All right, before we return to the first. phones. Tonight, the Astros will face Madison Bumgarner. I got to look up what his career record is against the Astros. God, it's been a long time, right? I don't think he... So the Astros

and Giants played a couple of years ago in San Francisco, and we were there for those games, and I don't remember seeing him. So either my memory's bad, or they just happened to, either he was either heard or not a... He'd already pitch. But Madison Bumgarner is one of the best pitchers in the

game. As Dusty Baker mentioned, last hour, maybe doesn't have the velocity that he had a couple of years ago, but he just signed a big, fat, new contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and he's going to pitch tonight. The game will be over on KTRH with the On Deck show beginning, I believe at 7 o'clock. First pitch from Phoenix is at 8.10.

Rockets are here on 790 tonight. Ross, you'll have the Rockets liftoff? Launchpad. Thanks for listening. Some vernacular. He's pitched against the Ashro's six times. Last in 2018.

So maybe I was there. And how quickly I forgot. Point being is this. He's really, really, really good and has been. And I think it would impress me most is the way he dominated them against when they won the World Series in 2015, how he just came in the bullpen. I'll throw five in his care. I'll start the next day. Well, he's also a country bumpkin.

Where is he from? Oh, gosh. I don't remember. I just remember that we had a, didn't we have a draft, the guys you wanted a sports guys you wanted in a fight with you or something like that? And he was top of the list. Well, Vin Scully, the former Los Angeles Dodger broadcaster, probably pound for pound,

the greatest play-by-play broadcaster in the history of sports. I'll even go beyond baseball, right? Hickory North Carolina. Hickory. From Madison, Bunga. Not Vin, Madison. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, Madison's from Hickory.

So Scully is in one of his final years during the Dodger games, and Vin works by himself. He's a storyteller in the middle of calling a game. Here's a story from Vin Scully about Madison Bumgarner. You know, Bumgarner tells a story which in a sense reminds you of what it takes to be a big league ball player. It's two years ago in spring training. And he and his wife were roping cattle, which is what they used. do one one pin sinker low ball two two and one and they were startled by a large snake and Madison thought it was a rattlesnake so he grabbed an axe and he hacked the snake to pieces

but there's something more to the story to one pitch low ball three three and one when his wife alley and an expert field dresser examined what was left of the snake she found two baby jack rabbits inside pieces of the snake and extracted them three one pitch to turn her way inside ball for and after she extracted them a short while later the bum garner's noticed that one of the rabbits had moved slightly it was alive well his wife brought the rabbit back to their apartment for the next few days they kept it warm bottle nursed it and the rabbit soon was healthy enough but they released it into the wild. And Madison said, just think about how tough that rabbit was.

First it gets eaten by a snake, then the snake gets chopped to pieces, then it gets picked up by people and lives. It's all true. Meanwhile, line drive base hit to center by Hendrick, and the Dodgers are in business, first and second and nobody out. So I guess really the morale of the whole story about the rabbit and the snake, You've got to somehow survive. You've got to somehow battle back.

A lesson well taught for all of us. Okay, first of all, good story. The most amazing part of that whole stretch of audio right there is the fact that he can call the play-by-play and tell a story and pick up where he left off properly. I can't even do that with my own radio show. I can be talking about a bunch of really fiery hot sports takes and you bring up Wrigley-spearment gum,

and five seconds later, I'm talking about my favorite gum flavor. It happens, Matt. It happens every day. You throw me off every single day. I don't know what you're talking about. You do it all the time. Yeah, that's the beauty of baseball, and that's why it's the most radio-friendly sport,

and that's why it's the most fun to listen to on that type of broadcast because of the downtime and the way that downtime gets filled by the true professionals. But he's by himself. He's doing the play-by-play. he's taking his cues from his director on television and he's sitting there telling a story eloquently and I'm following along about what Madison and his wife did

with jackrabbits with a snake and a jackrabbit survived being chopped up yes he hacked the snake to pieces and there was a jackrabbit inside Madison is the ultimate farmer but Vin's just better at what he does than what Madison does he told a story and I followed every word of it

and I got the play by play And that Jack Rabbit's probably dead by now. Well, thoughts and purrs the Jack Rabbit. Gerard at 155 before we give the final hour of the show. Hello, Gerard. Hey, what's going on, guys? Y'all doing all right.

We're doing great. Yeah, man, I want to get into this debate about who would be the tougher matchup for the Rockets, the Lakers or the Clippers. I think it's the Clippers, man. I think the Clippers have the personnel to play the rocket straight up if they stay at home on the three-point shooters. They could put Kauai and Paul, George on Hardin and Westbrook and stay at home on three-point shooters.

They have the personnel. They've got Beverly that they can put on Eric Gordon. They have the guys that can play the Rockers. The Rockets Strip is obviously on the perimeter with James Hardin and Russell Westbrook, and the Clippers can match up with them. Clippers kind of remind me of back in the day when the Rockets had a tough matchup with Seattle. I kind of look at the Clippers in that same way. Not to say the Rockers can't beat them.

I agree with you that Clippers are not going to state. They're not on that level. They're not on that level with Golden State. So they can be beat, but to me, it's obviously they're the tougher matchup than the Lakers. The Lakers lost Avery Bradley, and they lost Ray John Rondo's out. So that's two of their better perimeter defenders. Now, they have Carwell Pope, but he's not on a level of a Paul George when he's engaged on defense. Orrano when he's engaged on defense.

And they got Caruso, who's a crafty defender underrated. But again, he's not on that level of a Paul George, Coahillan. So I think, obviously, to me, the clippers are the toughest team for the Rockers in the whole NBA, that's the team that's going to get a rocket, the most problems in the whole NBA. I put them over the Lakers and Milwaukee as far as the toughest matchup for the Rockets. But the Rockets can't beat them. Like I said, like you said, they're not Golden State, though, so they can be beat.

And they've had, they have chemistry issues throughout the year. They haven't had their lineup together, and they kind of rely on their talent to get them through, kind of like Golden State Day at a time. They kind of rely on their talent. They don't play at the level of their talent all the time. That's the difference between them and the Lakers. The Lakers have pretty much maxed out their talent level. That's why they're number one seed.

Clippers kind of play off and on throughout the season. They don't play consistent basketball throughout the season. That's the reason why they're behind the Lakers in the standing. But again, as far as matchup goes, there's the clippers, man. You just look at the personnel. They have the personnel to give the Rockets personnel problems where the Rockers are strong at. So we'll see what happens, man. Quick, quick breakdown on the game tonight against the Blazers.

Looking forward to it, you got Russell Westbrook, versus Damon Lillard. They got a nice little robbery going, so I'm going to be looking for them two guys to go at it. You got Harden the DJ McConnell, so that's going to be a good matchup. Another tough matchup, and guys have a great back court. We have a great back court. They've got a couple of good shooters, Trent Jr. He's shooting the head guy with the three ball, and we want to be wary of him.

And then you've got the inside game with NERCIT, so we're going to have to try to keep him off the board, him and White Side. So White Side can make it real tough on us as far as I drive our penetration game with Harding Westbrook. So you got a couple of shot blockers there. So it's going to be a big-time matchup. Man, he's got to play. It's just because we played against Milwaukee, man, to get this win against the Portland because they present

different problems than Milwaukee does. They have multiple guys that can put the ball in the hole outside of what Milwaukee had with the Greek freak in Middleton. And Boca Lopes has hurt them a little bit too off the bench. Looking forward to the matchup tonight, man.

And the key is the fourth or the fifth seed. That's the way I want to be if I'm a rocket. won those spots. That's what I want to be. I want to see the Lakers if we get fast the first round. You want to see the Lakers in the second round instead of clippers. I think that's a much better matchup for the Rock. Thank you, Gerard. Appreciate it, my friend. That is... All right, man, y'all take it. We'll see you later, Gerard. I appreciate it. 324. That's one of her longer efforts. So we should have had him throw to break. Yeah. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show.

Blake Taylor in one half hour. Who's the new closer for the Astros? I'd like to go over candidates, but I would have to look through the names of the people there in the Astros' boulepay. We'll discuss that next. Plus, hear a little bit of what Dusty had to say about some bad news concerning Roberto O'Suni. You're saying, Matt, we already have a closer. I don't think so anymore. 159 on Sports Talk 790.

I'm on my is the Matt Thomas Show. All right, we've got Blake Taylor, the Astros coming up in 25 minutes. This is the final hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross and Brendan. I'm Matt. We had Dusty Baker for the first of our weekly visits.

It's at 1230 today, and we got an update on Osuna. We got some of it from Dusty and some of it from Major League sources. Ross explained. Yeah, first of all, Dusty was on the show, and here's what he had to say about the latest on Roberto. It doesn't look real good, actually. So, you know, he wouldn't have an MRI yesterday, and, you know, he's in our prayers and in our thoughts.

But the reality is that it's probably not very good or good news. when you're talking about a player on your team and you drop a he's in our prayers, things are probably not going well for him. Things are not. How do you pray for that? I don't know how you pray for that. For instance, if you walk off the mound and you have an MRI, it doesn't take very long to get the MRI results, right?

Yeah, I'm just saying, Dusty, if Roberto Osuna had, I don't know, just a random strain or random discomfort or a finger blister or hangnail. Dusty wouldn't have said, hey, he's in our prayers. We knew it's going to be something major once he said that. Then Mark Berman followed that a few minutes later with a tweet saying, MLB source, initial diagnosis for Astros closer Roberto Osuna is that he needs to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery. However, he's getting a second opinion. The initial diagnosis, if the initial diagnosis is accurate, it would be a huge loss for the Astros.

and probably Roberto Osuna and look there's a lot of mixed feelings about Roberto Osuna for the right reasons domestic violence is very hard to accept as an apology you know I'm sorry

yes okay it just is and I'm not here to tell you whether you should or not okay well I'll tell you that he wasn't convicted and I think it's even if he it's okay for him to throw a baseball

in my opinion it's not a It's if people are imperfect, people make mistakes. There are people who get out of prison and they can't find work because of what's on their legend. They might be good people. So, I mean, we didn't elect him president. I don't want him, I don't want Roberto Suna as president. It's okay to me for him to throw baseball.

Call me crazy. Well, I'll say is this. The thought of hitting a woman is despicable. Of course. Peering into story, there's just, I'm going to, but I will say that everybody that, everybody that is has been as heavy-handed in criticism of him

just better make sure that they've never had done something in their life that they regret. Whatever it may be. So I'm just careful to destroy human being, especially because there was a convoluted story to this, whether you want to believe that or not. And again,

I'm not trying to justify it. All I'm telling you is, I understand why there's people that are upset. So it is what it is. So there are some people today on Twitter going, this is great, didn't want the guy to begin, with glad he's hurt goodbye

I can't change those opinions we had a terrible call our last hour about it is this karma I mean does everybody who gets Tommy John surgery has done something terrible in their lives and they're getting karma payback via elbow surgery so I'll be as superficial as it comes okay he was

good for the Astros yes he was a closer and now the Astros really don't have a closer Ryan Presley is back but Ryan Presley has battled through his own variety of minor ailments there's a lot of Ross there's a lot of minor ailments Chris Tivinsky, minor ailment, guys getting shut down, guys going an injured list. The realization is, I don't think Dusty Baker knows who his closer is, and my guess is he's

going to have to go by committee on this. Say what you will about Roberto Osuna. For as terrible things we have heard, he has been a model citizen since getting the second opportunity, as is the case with most people that are looking for second opportunities. Most people in life had asked for a second opportunity to say, please forgive me, I will do better in my life. And he's done so, and he's been good for the team. So with forgetting about the other stuff on the side, the Astros do not have a closer. The Astros don't have much of a bullpen. They are having to go by committee, and that's why we will honor Blake Taylor coming up in 20 minutes

and hopefully bubble wrap him because he has been fantastic since being recalled from the minor league camp, stepping in in very, very difficult positions and being very, very successful. Yeah. It's just been a rash of injuries. For the, Astros and Dusty Baker talked about that and how much it had to do with the off-season programs and the summer camp and all that type of stuff. Here's Dusty on the injuries, not only with the Astros, but all over baseball.

I don't have a real good feel either. I mean, we're kind of learning as we go and learning, you know, from talking to the guys, trying to figure out, you know, who we can talk to in the minor leagues who've had them, knowing who can throw strikes or trying to figure out who likes to be in situations

and others don't like to be in the situations. Fortunately, for me, Miller had some of these kids, you know, in the minor leagues. And that helps a lot. Discommunicating is, you know, the best we can and trying to put them in a position where they will succeed, which is probably the toughest because you don't know which positions that they perform the best under.

So, you know, that's been a little tough, you know, and also we really miss Diaz, we miss Alvarez, we met Bikidi, and I'm hoping that we get them back within a couple of weeks because, you know, they're both a big part of our offense. It's a big part of our bench and a big part of our kitten staff. Did you notice the one name he did not mention? I did not. He's the defending Siong winner.

That would be one Yustin Verlander. Correct. My gut tells me Justin's going to tell us in a few weeks that, well, he's going to say on his own terms. I'm coming back in the last week of September. I'll be ready September 1st. I'm never coming back. I'm having surgery. It just feels like Justin's a type of person that wants to be able to discuss and tell his story about his body by him.

He doesn't want a beat reporter or a friend of a friend, spilling the beans about Justin Bernan's future. You think he'll do it in a video like a recruit and he'll put hats in front of them and one of them will say Tommy John and then one will say, I'm coming back and then he can grab the I'm coming back one and everybody can celebrate. No, I think it'll be a 250 word. Players Tribune? Well, here's the thing. Players Tribune would be the easy choice. I think he's going to go to the notepad on his phone. Ooh.

Which I do quite a bit. Not quite a bit. I've done that. It's happened before. For longer things. The notepad is your friend. Or the notepad or the twit longer, if you will. How many is that?

You can tweet. It's a website. Yeah. And it cuts it down and half. All right. One more thing we got to mention from our dusty visit of 1230, which, by the way, if you missed today, shame, shame, shame. You can find it on SportsTalk 790.com.

The what's on Matt's Mind Show page. Ross had to do it. I followed it up. Ross, what do we talk about that we've talked about more in these extra inning games than we ever thought we'd ever talk about it? A bunting. Here's what Dusty had to say about that. People say, hey, why don't you punt?

Well, some of these guys have never bunned it. You know, it's easier than it sounds. And also it depends on who's up next or who's up next after him because they're going to walk somebody to get to somebody else, a weaker, you know, possible hitter or a double-play candidate. And so it all boils down to getting some hits. It all boils down to advancing runners, you know, for up the plate and driving them in, you know, from all the opportunity.

So those of you that are... Should we save that for Bunt Guy any time he calls in? Please. So any of you that are Bunt guy, I'm just going to play that audio back to you. Matter of fact, if you tweet at me about bunting in the 10th inning, I almost feel like Ross, I don't want the Astros to play any more extra inning games. It just saves me the aggravation. I mean, three out of the last four, certainly not when you're working on the 10th inning show, Matt.

Oh, definitely during that time. I mean, come on. It's crazy. And the 13 inning affair against the Dodgers, especially annoying. Do you think the second baseman of having the runner there is adding two longer extra training games? I don't believe that's, there may be a little bit of example. of that. We've had a couple examples of that so far. But the reason why they put the runner

at second base was to try to speed the games up, because there are a lot of times where teams won't score any runs for multiple innings, and that's the reason why you try to put the runner in second. Yes. But I'm thinking about that, how it might have the reverse effect to where everybody's scoring and... I bet it's a smaller percentage. Yeah, it's probably smaller, though.

I'm sure it's better. We happen to see it the last couple times. It might not be as much of a difference as we think maybe then. That's why, again, if they bring it back, I want them to start in the 11th inning. They're asking my advice. I just think, give me 10 old natural innings and then get fluky with me in the 11th. Okay.

That's a good phrase. Get fluky with me in the 11th. I don't want to ever get fluky with you, Matt. You can get fluky with me 12 to 3 here on Sports Talk 790. Blake Taylor coming up in 18 minutes. Your phone calls next. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-7-90. Speaking of no gimmicks, that's what

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First of all, he's a great guy. He's a hardworking guy. It's Matt, and he's back. Brings his lunchtime, Houston Sports Talk, the Matt Thomas Show on 790. 218, Matt Thomas Show, Sports Talk, 790. We'll talk to Blake Taylor the Stroes coming up at about 12 minutes from now. 713212.5.7.9. Let's go to David on line one on the Matt Thomas show. David, thanks for holding what's on your mind today. Hey, Matt. Hey, Ross. How's it going, fellas?

Good. You? Hey, it's great, man. Just played some golf this morning. It's pretty hot out here, but we're going to make it. Nice. What's up? I want to talk a little baseball. I had several thoughts. We'll see him that I get through. So this is, I really like Duffy Baker. I don't know how he's going to turn out as the Astros manager, hopefully good. We got him for another year. But I got to say, he's just a breath of fresh air. I love his honesty and his kind of openness.

I was a fan of AJ. He's a winner, very smart guy, but it always felt like he was kind of talking down to you, not you specifically, but anybody he interviewed with or talked to. Understood. And he kind of always knew more than he was revealing. So I like that about Duffy. He really seems like a genuine, likable guy. Two other guys, I'll give you my opinion on.

When Verlander first came to the Astros, I was a huge fan, loved him, and he's kind of grown, I've kind of grown not to like it as much. And when soon it came the Astros, like most people, I wasn't too happy about it. It wasn't a big fan. And through his humility, I mean, you can see on his face it, it kind of hurts him how everybody thinks of him, and his hard work, and the great job he's done. I think he's been one of my favorite Astros recently, and it's really going to hurt the Astros to lose him. I would put the two guys on the left side of the infield, Correa,

and Bregman right ahead of him, and I would put him as the third guy we could least afford to lose as far as making a chance of the World Series this year. It's really going to hurt this short bullpen. And thirdly, that's a great job by Blake Taylor so far, so tell him, tell him congrats on the fans. I think he's gone four scoreless appearances, hasn't he? Yeah, he has got a zero ERA, his whip is .55, which is phenomenal. I was just thinking out, God, we never have any lefties, and then I saw him out there, and I've been mighty impressed. Yeah. So glad baseball is back.

Every team's having injury problems. The Braves lost to Roker yesterday, which is really going to hurt them, and I thought they looked really good. So it's happening all around the league. But I'm sad to lose this sooner and just kind of pointing out the discrepancy between him and JV, how one kind of earned my respect despite his past, and one kind of I've been turned off on how off-putting he can be. So I appreciate you guys giving me a little time, and I'll hang up in a much.

Glad you called. Thank you very much. And look, it's not fair. I don't think Justin is an off-putting person. That's just kind of who he is. I think he was born with an ounce of arrogance in him. Maybe several ounces. But that's because, but that attitude of his

has made him one of the greatest pitchers of all time. Yeah, that's part of what makes him great on the mound. And he doesn't suffer fools. I mean, we had him on one of the Astros fan fest. And he was, it was me, Michael, and Chris Gordy interviewing him. He was totally fine and totally nice. nice and answered every question we had. I mean, what he was giving us a lot of what you would call, I guess, what would you say

coach speak for a player? Standard pat answers. And that's fine. I mean, but he was totally courteous on and off the microphone. So, I mean, I never had any issue with him personally. But if you cross him, he won't forget it. There's nothing he's done, I think, as an astro that you may go, I don't like you as much. Now, everybody's entitled to their own personal opinion.

He didn't do himself any favors nationally by getting into a hissy fit with a Detroit reporter. That made him look small time. And it made the Astros look small time because when Justin Verlinder goes to anybody in the front office in the Astros and says, this is what you're going to do with this media person, you're going to do it. What are they going to say? No, JV. We're not. JV. is one of the greatest of all time. And he's going to command a very powerful presence in that clubhouse. And that's what he has to do. That set a terrible tone. And if you don't remember what it was, basically there was a reporter in Detroit that he and Verlander got sideways, which

you know, that's going to happen, but you still have a responsibility as a major league player to go in the locker room, answer the questions that are being asked. You don't have to have conversation with the person. You don't have to break bread or have dinner or have a long-worthy. You just answer the questions that are being asked and you go. But you, by telling the other media,

I'm not going to speak to you unless this person goes, and then the Astros Peerra Department has step in and do all that. What was an ugly look? And then all the writers, of course, banding together and getting upset about that. And baseball writers are important. And they're also...

What's the good word? Smarmy? I'll tell you guys this. They're a smarmy, holier than thou bunch. They're the ones... They think they're protecting the flame of baseball. They're not. I'll tell you this, the writer who it was.

There was definitely... Like you guys said, the writers banded together. But there was a sense in Detroit that like, oh, him. Yeah, I understand why Justin Verlander felt that way. Yeah, and, you know, there are writers that are going to crawl up athletes, you know what's and cause problems. But there just was a better way to handle it. You answer the questions of the performance of that night. If you don't want to get into a long conversation about your past life in Detroit or whatever the case would be, that's what would have been right.

But to make it a – when you talk to a pitcher after a game or any player, it's 95% about that performance of that game, right, of that night. You're not going in at 1030 at night looking to have a – long conversation with Justin Berliner about the time whether or not he was going to stay with the Tigers and move on to the Astros. You just weren't. You were going to report on what he did going against his old teammates for the very first time. It didn't happen that way

and it was ugly. Astros have had a few of those. They've had a few of those PR head scratching. Please don't do this moments. Now, I know those guys that are running it and I think it's above them, frankly. So the gentleman that we work with on a daily basis, Gene and Steve and Chris and those guys on the Astros PR.

You don't know who they are, but I do. They're really, really good guys. And they do a great job? They do a great, great, great job. It was just, I think, above them. And again, when a player comes to you and says, here's what I'm doing, and the PR person says, you shouldn't do it that way.

And the player says, I mean, it happens all the time. If you say, I'm not talking to this guy. You can't force him to talk to him. Do you think James Hardin speaks to every member of the media? Or how about with Russell Westbrook, with the reporter in Oklahoma City. Yeah, the Barry Tramwell guy. It writes for the Oklahoma paper.

Yeah. Sometimes athletes just get sideways with a media member, and instead of fixing it, they more often than not make it worse. And that's unfortunate what JV's done. And O'Suna's tough. Because Osuna has been a choir boy.

He's been good. He hasn't caused any problems off the field. But there's just going to be a certain segment. You always believe everybody deserves a second chance. It's hard to tell someone that's beat a woman to give a second chance. It's hard for someone to say, you shot and killed somebody. You deserve a second chance. I mean, you don't automatically get second chances in life.

You just don't. It just depends on everybody's threshold of whether or not someone deserves a second opportunity. And if you can get guys out in the ninth inning, it doesn't hurt. It's going to help you. It doesn't hurt. That's true. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-790.

We speak to... Blake Taylor, who very well could be a candidate, could be getting some saves after spending, what, seven plus years in the minor leagues, getting a chance to get out to the major league level, and helping a bullpen in his desperately needed. We'll talk with him coming up next. Right now a word for oops, steam cleaning. I'm so proud to speak these folks.

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This is 790 Baseball Direct. Direct from the ballpark To your radio Driven by Texas direct auto powered by Vroom 2.30, Matt Thomas show. We spend five quality minutes with I think one of our new favorite

pitchers of the Houston Astros. Lefty, zero ERA, Blake Taylor. Blake, it's Matt. Thanks for joining us. Congratulations. You've had a fantastic start. How crazy of a ride has it been for you

and your family to last, say, three or four weeks? Thanks for having me on, first of all. I appreciate it. And second of all, it's been a whirlwind of emotions. You know, a lot of crying of excitement, a lot of anxiety. Well, not for me, but for my family, I'm guessing. And, you know, it's just, you know, it's just, it's been an emotional time.

You know, I wish these emotions could be together. I could be together with my family having these emotions with them. Under the circumstances, both me and my family sat down and had a conversation over the phone, said that it was better. You know, we weren't exposed to each other and couldn't have, like, didn't have, like, in case somebody had corona. So it's been a crazy, crazy roller coaster of emotions these past couple weeks. We should explain.

You're from Southern California. So could you even, like, waived your family from a car or something? Or do you just say, I'm staying in the hotel and not moving? I just said I was going to stay in the hotel in order to get to a place I needed to get to where we could see them. I would have had to have taken an Uber, which, you know, that's... Oh, uh, eh, eh, can't do that. You can't leave the premises and the hotel had a, like, a place blocked off just for players, so my family couldn't really get into that either.

So it was, it was just, we're just trying to be cautious, you know, as a family and as a team. just trying to be cautious. Well, you've been spectacular, and boy, have you been needed. Does everybody know each other's first names at this point in the bullpen? I mean, because I don't even know half y'all. I mean, I'll be honest with you. And I've been a longtime Astro fan. I don't know you.

Half, like most, like for a good amount of us, yes. We all know each other's first names because we all came from the same place. We all came from the minor leagues in the past season. And, you know, we were the new guys in the locker room in Big League camp this year. So, you know, it's, you know, it's, We spent a lot of time with each other, and now we're in the big leagues and the bullpen with the Astros. So, you know, we got to spend a lot of time in spring training. And, you know, it's a good group of guys out there.

So I'm excited to see what they could all do this year. We could all do this year. Blake Taylor with us on the Matt Thomas show. So you spent seven minor league seasons. You find out you're being traded for an Astro who has the best hair maybe in recent Astros' history. Did the change of pace? Was that something that you were kind of looking forward to after kind of, you know, hanging out in the Mets organization for quite some time?

No, it was a, that was a shocking, that was a shocking news. That was shocking news for me, actually. You know, I woke up one day, like, I just got put in on the 40-man roster by the Mets. I was excited. I was pumped. I was getting ready for the season for them. And then they called me and said, hey, you're going to the Astros. And it was shocking.

And, you know, I did my research on the Astros, and I did everything. and all of my research. And the Astros have one of the best track records for developing pitchers. And, you know, like I thought, hey, last year I had some success, but I could have a little bit, like I can always try and get better. And coming over here, they've really showed me that, hey, this is how you can get better. This is how we could use your strength to get you better. So I really, I've really been getting a lot of information on all that with the Astros.

So. And can you talk about that, Blake? Just what has been the difference from being in the Mets organization and being here? Because as you said, there is a reputation for the Astros and improving pitchers. So, I mean, has it just been analytics? Has it just been, I mean, working with Strom and mechanics or all of that. Oh, I mean, the veteran guys? Yeah, it's been, there's a lot more analytics than the Astros.

You know, the Mets, towards the tail end of my stint with the Mets, they started to get more analytical. they were just in the beginning stages of it. So, and then going to the Astros, they were in a more advanced stage. You know, they were one of the first teams to have analytics and everything like that. So it wasn't like the Mets just didn't believe in it. They're just getting started with it. So, you know, they're coming along and I talk to my buddies over there, and apparently it's a lot, getting a lot more analytical and they're getting a lot more information.

But when I got over here, it was just an information I never got. So, you know, the Astros were on top of it. The Astros were just a little bit, they were further ahead in the analytics game and just showing me everything, what my pitches do, how I could attack, how effective I am and count. And, you know, just and working with Stromi on my slider and working with Miller on my slider, you know, just having drills to where I can get it to be more consistent and more shape and have more shape and have more depth.

So, you know, it's a combination of everything. combination of the pitching coaches really helping me out and a combination of the analytics side really helping me out. We know you've got to catch a bus real quick. Are you guys getting used to no fans in the stands, the noise, the buzz? Is it still an experience for every time to go out there? Or are you guys getting more and more comfortable with it? I think we're getting more and more comfortable with it, to be honest with you.

And, you know, MLB is doing their best to try and emulate a or simulate a fan base, you know, with the cardboard cutouts and the noise, the white noise, getting pumped into the stadium. And, you know, it's probably going to be a really big shock again when fans are allowed back because we got kind of used to not having them right now, or at least I am. I mean, don't get me wrong, I played in the Florida State League for two years. It's a great league. It just doesn't draw that many fans.

Yeah. I mean, pitching in front of no fans isn't like the word, like isn't like something that's never happened. to me before. Stay safe. Keep pitching great. We're very glad that you spent some time with us today. Enjoy Arizona and we'll look forward to visiting with you and talking to you, maybe some more during the course of the year. Thanks for the time and congratulations. You got it, Blake. Thank you. Thanks for having me on and thank you. You got it, Blake Taylor. I think our new favorite astro. Period.

Zero ERA, bullpen helps. And frankly, more Blake Taylor, probably a little less Joe Beijini, right? We forgot about him on the injured list. Well, it's somewhat forgetable. But good stuff from Lakin. It's always interesting because we've had these doing these player interviews for a couple of years, Matt, and they all talk about how different it is when you get to the Astro's organization, the analytics, and then Brett Strom, you add all that

in, and that's why, I mean, it's no mistake that you have the Astros, all this success that they've had in the last couple of years, and then right now you have the lowest bullpenny array despite seven guys making their major league debut. It almost feels like every other team is an Introducing to their audience or they're not audience their their team. I want you to see this computer. It's got a bunch of funky keys on it. It turns on and you can play video games. And meanwhile, the a Astros are like, you wouldn't believe this. We can create a ham sandwich off of this computer file. It's crazy what they have. And it's, it's been talked about by numerous players and everybody who comes over here. And we had, who was that guy that sprints out of the bullpen that didn't make the club? What was it? Oh, Todd Ringerwater. We liked him a lot too. No, what was his name? I forget. It doesn't matter.

But he was talking about how he was blown away, how different things are here with the Houston Astros and what they do with all the pitching and the analytics. Could you imagine going, this is what, you know, they were in L.A., this past, or Anaheim, he's from Orange County. Could you imagine being that close to being home? Jared Hughes.

Good kid. Good kid. And he can't go see his family. He can't go see his family pitching a stadium where he's been there. I'm assuming multiple times watching Angels baseball in the past. And he's a second time he's brought up. He must be an emotional kid. I like him.

Seven years in the minor leagues, six years in minor leagues, getting the call up, finally going to a strange team. Oh, by the way, we need you to pitch. Oh, by the way, I've never seen these hitters before. And that's the one thing about the bullpen is that it has been phenomenal. But two things worry me. Second time through the order. Remember, you're playing the same teams over and over and over again

because you're only playing Western teams. because they'll get to catch you a little bit. And then secondly, which is to me way more important, is the overuse factor. Yeah, I'm worried about it. And when Dustin Baker talked about it earlier, he wants the rosters to stay where they are rather than cutting a couple of papers.

They've got to cut the 28 this week and then 26 and two more weeks. That's ridiculous. Not going to happen. Let me taste them. Ross, they're changing everything else in baseball. What's the benefit? What's the benefit of cutting everybody from every team? Save money.

Major League's hours. Okay, I guess so. That's true. But usually the two guys you're cutting are making what? That doesn't matter. I mean, they're probably close to league minimum. You gotta realize. They're not making a dollar inside these stadiums.

So any money saved. But here's the thing. I don't think anybody could have predicted the tremendous amount of injury so far in Major League Baseball this year. I mean, we were talking about storylines. We didn't think about super injuries, did we? I haven't maybe lightly discussed just about the... But not this level. especially in the pitcher's side because of how regimented everything.

The thing we thought about was you're going to see far viewer complete games. You're going to see pitch counts and way more. And it feels like to me, at least from all the Astor games I've watched, that once you get to 70, you start to wig a little bit. And I'm talking about Zach Granky. I'm not talking about just about Lance McCullors. Everybody. So they're not all, they're all off.

All thrown off. That's why we've seen injuries. They're not, their programs are messed up. summer camp was too short. It's just everything is snowballing right now. Well, at least we're playing some baseball, right? Everybody's playing, I think. Yeah. It's not, it's not my elbow getting worked on. Roberto Osuna. Do you get, do the Astros get discounts if you do multiple TJs in one year? As you get a punch card, like fifth one's free from James Andrews. That's, that's kind of one of those things you don't want, right?

No. It's like, uh, yeah, it's a discount you don't want. Buy one. T.J. get the second one at 50% off? Yeah. I don't even know what to say that. I feel like we should go get TJs ourselves. No, I'm not getting Tommy John surgery. So we can at least see what our, maybe we come back with bionic arms. Oh, you think you're going to, you're really trying to make the assures bullpen? I can tell you something. I can throw a knuckleball like nobody's business.

Can you? Sure. When's the last time you threw a knuckleball? Five, six years. Okay. You've had multiple shoulder injuries, Matt. You're a, uh... I didn't have a scope, remember that? You're a medical red flag. You're the worst.

241. Final segment of the Matt Thomas show up next. I want to get a couple of calls in which we have here at 713212.5-790. Plus, a player is happy with the team he's on because he feels like some city's social distance better than others. There's absolutely no evidence of this, but it's at least worth discussing, right? We shall talk about it. A little social distancing to wrap up the show. 242 on Sports Talk 790 with a message here for Improve Myerection.com. Hey, would you be willing to admit that maybe there are some issues in the bedroom?

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Visit with Dr. Roy, get a free consultation. See if the opportunities and the options they have present to you will give you that long-term sexual wellness you've been looking for. Improve your life in the bedroom, 281, 496, 3355 online. Improvemyerection.com. Houston Sports Talk for lunch. Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790. So the Texans had some Zoom meetings today with Trevor Cobb. No, not Trevor Cobb.

Kevin Cobb? Kevin. Not even Kevin Cobb either. Randall Cobb, the new receiver. And with Whitney Merriss. And there was nothing groundbreaking. So we're not going to just play soundbites to play them. But the Niners today had a Zoom call and Richard Sherman was part of it. Richard's got things to say,

Sports Harvey, does he not? Of course. He said he never thought about opting out of leaving San Francisco to play for the 49ers. Do you know why he said that? Why did he say that? Because he thought that,

frankly, the Niners are better to set up in living with living with the virus. He believes that Santa Clara, where the team practices and their games are being played, it doesn't have a particularly great nightlife. And that helps.

Okay. Here's the quote from Matt Mayaoko of NBC Sports, California. Former guests on the Matt Thomas show. Has he been? Yeah. He's big time. No, after. That's too bad. The 49ers are set up to deal with the virus in part, Richard Sherman says, because the nightlife of Santa Clara is more conducive to social distancing than

cities like Atlanta, Miami, Las Vegas, and the Texas cities, etc., etc., etc. So Richard Sherman is not going to go to a city and play football if it's got a decent nightlife because he can't trust himself. Is that what he's trying to tell us? Yeah, I guess so. Or it's easier. Anytime you want to stay away from something, it's easier to get away from the temptations.

Right? If I have a bag of Oreos in my house, it's more likely I'm going to eat them. Keep the Oreos out of the house. You're going to be fine. Not a bad call on your part. That's why if I was to move and go to move to another different NBA city and call their games, I would move to Sacramento, Oklahoma City, Miliwakei. Why wouldn't you move to any party city?

Indianapolis, because the nightlife just there aren't Salt Lake City. Is the nightlife too tempting for you? You've seen me. I'm a cosmopolitan man. Are you? Let the bit continue. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Look, when we go to New York, L.A., Chicago. I go out. New Orleans, I go out. Of course, I'm usually going to the casino. Well, yeah. You don't go out. You go into the casino. And then walk right back in.

Do you want to find top ten things to do in Santa Clara, according to TripAdvisor? Please do. This is Santa Clara, California, by the one. Number one, go to Levi Stadium. Richard Sherman has knocked that one off the list. All right. Number two, the Intel Corporation Museum. Do you want to go learn about computer?

computer chips, Matt? God, he's... Richard Sherman is spot out on this, right? Number three is a church. The Mission Santa Clara de Assis. Matt, your thoughts on that? Never been there. This is bad.

Number four, Santa Clara University. Wait, wait, me. Top four things to do. Let me, let me say this. If you are... Whose website is this? This is Trip Advisor.

Top things to do in Santa Clara. If you're a trip advisor employee, do you just stop halfway through? And go, I can't possibly come up with ten things to do in Santa Clara? Number six is the 49ers Museum. He's right. You want to have a good party there? And number seven, Our Lady of Peace Church. There's two churches on this list.

By the way, Sherman for a... Literally number nine is Central Park Library. There's a library. on the top 10 things to do in Santa Clara. And number 10? The convention center. He goes on to further say, it's not like we're in Miami or in Houston or Las Vegas

or somewhere where the nightlife is crazy and the distractions are immense. No offense to Santa Clara, but I think that works for our benefit. You think? He's right. Number two attraction is the Intel Corporation. Oh, he's absolutely right on this.

He didn't screw this up. You want to go somewhere and focus on football exclusively? play for the 49ers because you know what you don't even really go to you don't go to San Francisco Santa Clara is probably 45 minutes from San Francisco not that you could go up there but if you've worked a long hard day you're not going to go run in the car and go somewhere especially in this you know social distancing world in which we live in okay but seriously if you're trip advisor do you even bother like trip advisor no certainly any offense to Beaumont Texas oh forget Beaumont we love Beaumont let's go to Lufkin okay does trip

Did TripAdvisor have 10 things to do in Lufkin? Let me see. Is part of the rule of working for TripAdvisors? You've got to find stuff to do in every city? I don't know. I'm Googling best things to do in Lufkin. Oh, here it is, TripAdvisor.com. 15 best things to do in Lufkin.

Wait, wait, there's 15 things to do? Number one, the zoo, the Ellen Trout Zoo. I didn't know that Lufkin had that. Number two, the Naranho Museum of Natural History. We're done. I don't want to do Lufkin. Oh, here we go. This is very Lufkin, number three.

The Texas Forestry Museum. Larry, 252 on 7 on a. Hello, Larry. M.D., how the heck are you? Well, Fran, what's up with you? Well, I tell you what. You know what?

Richard Sherman needs to add Galveston on his list because G-town has all kinds of really good things to. As far as the pleasure here, and then let me think about this. Don't worry about it. We know what Galveston brings.

He wants to go. The problem is he wants to go somewhere where there is no life. In Galveston, you can get in plenty of trouble. Yeah, that's true. Relievers dropping like flies from the Astros, God help us. Wagner and Bradledge. And can we bring those boys back just for, you know, 10, 15, 20 games just to go out and throw up? two balls and, you know, help save the Astros. Well, a better call from you, Larry, would have been Brandon Bakke because, of course, he's Galveston's owns Brandon Backy. That would have been the better call on your part.

Well, there you go. All right, buddy. Have a good day. We appreciate the phone call. Billy Wagner is only six years older than Fernando Rodney. Is Wags 49? Yes. Does that make any of you feel old today?

No. Makes me feel old. I'm sorry, man. Billy Wagner was a former starter. converted reliever and a badass too did he how close did he get

to the Hall of Fame appeared on votes I believe I got some votes I don't think he'll ever get to the 75% That's a shame He's in the college Baseball Hall of Fame

Where do you go to school You tell me Mr. Trivia man Can I get the first letter Of the college? No Would that be so obvious I don't

I haven't even found it yet So hold on Oh wait a minute So wait a minute You can't give me The first letter You think it's because I would give it away

No the key to hosting A good game show I've learned this from Alex Trebek is ask questions you don't know the answers to because he already has the answers. You never notice how he makes everything look so easy? Like this trapezoidal figure

can be found on the... You crushed all of us for getting stuff wrong even though you probably didn't even know any of it yourself. That's exactly right. He went to Ferrum College in Fairham, Virginia. Duh. I never would have gotten that. Never.

All right. Rockets, Blazers, tonight. We'll have it for you here on 790. Ross, you have the launch pad at 7. Yes. I'll have the call at 8 Wexel, the pregame show at 730. Wonderful. Hopefully they're not 300 points scored in the game because I was tired after the last one. Yeah, you got to call a lot of buckets, Matt.

On this one, the over is 244. Oh, yeah, I'm calling 300 point games. It's Blazers Rockets. There's going to be some points. Defense. Don't waste your breath. That's not my job. Then I'm doing play by a play.

Astros on 740. Clinton, Wexler, next right here on 790, with the A team for Brendan Ross. I'm Matt. Have a wonderful day. We'll talk to you all tomorrow at noon and tonight at 8 here on 790.