The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Is Houston's Offense in Trouble? Astros Lose In A Tragic Comeback

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

Is Houston's Offense in Trouble? Astros Lose In A Tragic Comeback

Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. What the hell was that in Seattle yesterday? It was a blatant collapse. I mean, you're up 5-0 in the 8th inning. You should win. And I don't know when we can have this discussion, we can do it right out of the gate,

but I don't care who the manager has to put out there. They have to hold a 5-run lead. Yeah. I mean, How do I do this delicate? And I've been thinking about this ever since that had it happened yesterday. Because when the Espada hate comes out, and this was hate for Dirker, this was hate for A.J. Hinch. This was, I don't even count Bo Porter and I don't count Brad Mills.

Those don't even count. Well, there was hate for him in case you were wondering. There was, there was. but, and I'm sure every fan base does this. When you go to then, I can be very delicate when I say this, when you go to our manager sucks card, when you have a 5-0 lead, and you put in bullpen guys who already are a part of a taxed bullpen

because it is what it is, the offense is, you're staying in these close games, it's just the lowest hanging fruit, and I don't really trust your baseball acumen. I just don't. Now, I have to also preface by saying I did not see the game yesterday because I was here in L.A., and there's obviously, they don't, I couldn't go to a sports bar here, Ross in L.A., this would be a shock to you.

They weren't broadcasting A's Mariners games on TVs all across the area. Well, it sounds like you were hitting a bar until about 4 a.m. I know, kidding. Allergies have kicked in. Oh, the allergies wink, wink, wink car. I see you, Matt. I wish. I wish.

I still look fabulous. I mean, seriously, I'll look at myself in the mirror. I'm like, damn, I'm good looking. That's a different issue for a different time. So tell me, was there some massive managerial foe pa? I mean, you went five nothing. Now, you could always go to the, he left the guy in one too many, which is fair. That happens a lot.

But, I mean, you're, it's. the end of the day you had Brian Abreu out there. Who is your, in theory, your second best reliever? Right. Well, let's go to, we can start there. Is that Brian Abray with a two-run lead should be able to close this game down. Yes.

Against the Mariners' offense. We're talking about one of the worst offenses in baseball. You have a two-run lead with Brian Abreu. That should get done. Then I will also say this. Your team left 12, 12. batters on base. You drew seven walks.

You got 10 hits. You could have scored easily double-digit runs. 12 men left on base. Four for 13 with runners in scoring position. So let's start there. Four for 13 isn't terrible, but it was all, I believe it was mostly singles.

So you had one extra base hit the whole game. One double. Pena's, double, that's it. You're not tearing the cover off the ball. I mean, that's just flat out. It is. You're going station to station, and your heart of your lineup order yesterday. I mean, Christian Walker, we're fans.

We love him. We've talked to him in Florida, but he's not betting his weight, and that's a problem. I'm trying to figure out who is batting their weight. Is Piraeus 234? That's what he's hitting. In today's edition of who's not betting their weight? Al 2-8, not betting his weight. He's a good way.

He's above his weight. Paredes, 234. He's listed at 213. He looks healthy. So he's betting his weight. About. Alvarez.

195? Walker 146. Pena 186. No. He's listed at 202. Carrotini 211. I'm going to say no without looking. Aaron Rogers.

Brendan. Brendan Rogers. You did. I'm sorry, Brendan Rogers. I'll tell you who is hitting there, Wade. Woo! Jake the Rake Myers! You're so excited about a guy with an OPS to 709.

That makes that warms a clock with a lot of the fire. Matt, the fan club has to seize these moments when they're there, because when he goes one for 15, we're going to hear it, so we have to take what we can get when we get it. All right, Cam Smith has two more hits yesterday. That's good. He's hit in 200. That's probably not his weight.

He's a giant chiseled machine. Yeah, the OPS is 566. that's not great. That's so strange, by the way, him bad in ninth of you. Okay, but the big quibbles that people had with Joe Espada, which I understand, why leave Luis Contreras out there

for another inning? Joe Espada was asked that after the game. His answer was, I wanted to go to Okert and then Abraeu. He wanted to make sure that Abraeu at any point did not have to get more than three outs. They were trying to preserve, they're trying to preserve arms.

So with a five-run lead, Luis Contreras, journey that he may be, he should be able to to preserve a five-run lead. Yeah. And he did not.

And then Ocurt was also, I mean, he wasn't perfect either. And Steve O'Kert came in. And then guess what? At the end of the day, you add it all up, Sue is a contrarian, Ocert. Like, people are acting like we're talking about Lidge, Dotel, and Wagner here.

They did their job enough to where a Brianabray you should be able to hold a two-run lead against one of the worst offenses in baseball. And you can say, oh, why didn't they go to Logan Van Way? Why didn't they go to this? Logan Van Way. This is who the fans are saying it was managing malpractice that Joe Espotted did not go to Logan Van Way. Yeah, you sound stupid. And I hope it's not our audience.

I hope there are people driving around town this morning going, man, I couldn't believe when I went on social media with the dumbasses that are out there. 5-0 against a woefully below-average offense. The Astros sucked. The bullpen sucked yesterday. And the reality is this, Ross, I don't, if we got on the plane with a spot on.

And we were going with him from West Palm Beach to Houston. Remember those two games they had with the space cowboys before the season started? you know he was shaking his head about a couple of things, all right? Number one, are we really doing the right thing here by bringing Cam Smith up on the roster right away? That was probably the first thing on his mind. The second thing is, how long are we going to keep out tubing in left field? Is this really going to be a mess?

And the third thing was, what the hell is my bullpen? Because it was very much up and doubt up until the last couple of days of spring training. So trust me, when everybody jumped on that plane to come from spring training to Houston, no one was beating this chess over this bullpen. They just weren't. You had a brayu for the 8th, and you had, you've got Hater for the 9th. And Hater was down. Yeah.

And everybody else that was wiggin out about, get Ryan Pressy out of here, he can't get out. I'm sorry, Van Wye, I'm sorry, I've been corrected by our baseball expert. Whatever his name is. That's the thing. The dude's barely on the roster. He has not pitched. Everybody's like, oh, Brian, you got to go with Brian King and Van Wye and Taylor. Nobody wants Taylor Scott right now, which, by the way, he was one of their better relievers last year,

even though things didn't go well in the second half. Stephen O'Kert, like, come on, seriously, listen to yourself. You're clamoring for 33-year-old journeyman. Steve O'Kard had an ERA over five last year with the twins. And you're saying, this is the lockdown guy that a spot is blowing it, because this guy's not pitching. Yeah. So, thank God, Ross,

if we don't have those nut jobs that have no grasp of how really below average's bullpen is, joining the show today. Correct? I mean, we can argue. And the day before, going to Taylor Scott when he did, look, I will hear an argument on that.

Again, I will just say that Taylor Scott should have got the job done. And, oh, by the way, they still won that game. That, to me, is way more of an argument than saying, oh, Joe Espada blew this. They were up 5-0-0-0-0-8th. 5-0-0-8. End of story. And if you can't do that, you've got massive problems more than what it is. I mean, think about it.

If you're in Joe's shoes today, are you like, what am I going to do? Because the bullpen, I mean, you talk about a horrendous week. Now, granted, they did win the game in the 12th a couple days back, so that was good. But that just shows you took an average bullpen at best, and you've worn them out. he could have put Raphael Montero even though he's off the team now Raphael Montero could have parachuted from the plane to Atlanta and got in that game with a 5-0-0 lead and he should have held it yeah and please tell me nobody on Twitter was like

Astros made the wrong move by Selma's Sen and Monta no I don't think anybody did that but I had to just mute like five conversations yesterday bottom line 5-0-0 8th inning you could put a position player out there 5-0 in the 8th inning and it should get done yeah It's bad. It's embarrassing.

Absolutely embarrassing. Now, granted, nobody in this division is crushing it, so it's not like you're going, oh, my God, this is going to come back and haunt. But not exactly the way you want to spend a four-hour flight coming back from Seattle. I'll have to sit on that bad boy. Five, nothing. All right, I'm here in Los Angeles. It's funny.

We were just, I've got a buddy of mine with me on this trip, and we were just talking about allergies and how I've been able to knock on wood, get avoided. And then yesterday, I started to, you know how you, if I say this is going to be on the tomorrow's show, you get a tickle in your throat. Three, two, one, clip it. Go ahead and do whatever you got to do. You've got a tickle in your throat, Matt? I do have a tickle of my throat. What's in there? Just spit it out.

Drainage. So some drainage got down your throat and now you have a tickle. This is what we can't have nice things. I'm asking you a question. I'm not doing anything. So the tickle became a full scratch. Hmm. Hmm.

And then that's when the gagging starts. I haven't gagged yet. It is 10 o'clock in the morning, guys. I know. I know. I can't get out of this conversation fast. You're talking about your allergies. Correct.

So the allergies are, the pill is in and, um... The pill is in and you felt a tickle in your throat. I'm just asking. Please, Houston, can you come rescue me? These are your words. This is what I have to deal with, with Ross Villarreal. What did I do? The thing is, when I get ready to say things,

I know what's going to be clipped, and I just know, how do I avoid? What would be a much safer way for me to say, I have a tickle on my throat? There isn't one. No, you got a tickle in your throat. All right. The show has gone to hell.

I need more of you. and definitely less of me and certainly almost Noah of Ross. The Matt Thomas show with Noah of Ross. Yeah. McTaggart at 11 o'clock. We have I just don't get it at 1130. The news is the new. Why did we do gut feelings on Tuesday?

Was I just comatose? Is that the reason why? I don't remember what has. We had a lot of colors, I think. Oh, that's right. Yeah. It was the post, it was post-university Houston Cougars choke in the championship. So we took a lot of Oh, stop. Stop. Stop. Oh, I'm sorry. We were talking about tickles and

throats and and choking seriously so we're going to have we're moving gut feelings I gave it 24 hours before I use that word really Matt thanks thanks Ross

and now we were like three days away so now I can say you were thinking about it you were thinking about it as soon as it happened I know how you roll yeah so I gave you a little time I let you grieve and now we can be talking realities and talk about that cougars gag job 713212

5790 713 212 577 Please call me, just talk to me. I don't want to talk to Ross. Jonathan probably is on my blank list too. I'd rather talk to you, Houston, then talk to these lunatics back in Houston. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Time is 10-22. I'm here in L.A. Ross is back in Houston. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. We are with you today until 2 p.m. Brian McTaggart's going to join us in about 40 minutes. I just don't get it.

Gut feelings is a special. What is today? Thursday. I don't even know what day it is. Thursday edition of the show. It's Thursday. Okay. But it's my Friday.

I'm off tomorrow. You're going to be off tomorrow. See you later. I'm already in vacation mode, Matt. By. Speaking of that, Robert Ford is going to join the show tomorrow. No way. Let me give you the guest list of the show.

You're going to hear from Robert Ford and Craig Ackerman and Emeadoka. And me. Wow. And non-Florist stories. Wow. And, I mean, it's just going to be one. My shoes are that big to fill. Wow, I really appreciate it.

What a compliment. Yeah. How would you guys have a good time at Big City Wing? We did have a great time at Big City Wing. Thanks to all the folks that came out. We gave away a couple of four packs to tickets. We gained some new listeners. We had some of our good friends that we know and love come by as well.

Good. Good. Can I tell you, and this has been in, and I'm in a little bit of a weird spot here because between the Final Four and all my Rocket stuff, I kind of, I mean, I miss the Astros a little bit. I mean, I didn't get to good opening day because I was on the road. And look, I hope the Rockets are in deep, long playoff run, but I haven't really had a chance to sink my teeth into them.

And I've had to rely basically on what, and national games they've had on and highlights and whatnot. Of course, I listen to Robert and Steve all the time when I can. I'm just not going to, I'm not going to count anything right now. I'm just not. I don't, I just, I mean, 5-0 yesterday sucked. It is what it is. I mean, I don't know what else I would say.

Look, it's one out of 162, and it feels like we're kind of, can we just replay shows from last year, Matt? It's not that bad. I literally feel like this is the gods honest truth. And I'm not going to, I think, most of our audience. I'm just telling you when, you know, like we take a bus from our bus from Beverly Hills to Englewood last night for the Rockets Clippers game. And traffic in LA sucks. So I'm on, it's a 50-minute drive. It's like nine miles for 50 minutes.

It's that bad. So I'm on my phone and people are just wigging. And I'm like, I feel like every April we do this. And that part of that goes to the passion of the Astros in this community, which is great. And thank God it is because we need passion in sports. But part of it is when are we going to go, man, that was awful. And that was a game they should have won. But this fire this guy, fire this guy, Dana sucks, mean James.

There's some dumbass on Twitter asking for. James Click to come back. I mean, are we really going to have that little of an IQ? Hey, hey, James Click made some good news. All these years, we haven't gotten our IQs up a little bit. No, it's not even that. It's not even necessarily, I mean, maybe part of it is the IQ's map, but it's the short memory. Because you can have somebody that is unintelligent, but they can learn things, right? You can, intelligence to me is a lot of problem solving, figuring things out and all that type of stuff. but you should all of us have memory banks. This happened last year.

Nobody talked about Nary a person probably that's calling for Joe Spotted to be fired now was calling for Joe Spotted to be fired when the Astros rallied to win the AL West. You know why they were talking about how great the players are? So we continue to have this short memory that when the players do their job, no one talks about the manager. No one. If Brian Abraeu can hold a two,

run lead against a horrible Mariners offense, I don't think anybody's calling for Joe a spotter to be fired. Like, how do we have this short memory? We don't remember. We literally went through this last year. We went through this with Dusty Baker. You've gone through this your whole baseballing life. Even if you're 15 years old. Remember, we're not asking you to remember when you were an infant. Remember last year.

Dusty wore it. A.J. War it. Joe's wearing, I mean, Again, we can argue. Okay, it should have been Stephen Ok, say that out loud. I want the manager fired because he did not pitch Stephen Okert. Come on, man. I like Okert.

He's been good, but they're all nice people. 33-year-old journeyman. He's in his fourth or fifth organization. And let's face it, the last two years, the Astros have done things in the deadline. If they're hanging around in this division, And remember, if the bullpen is the biggest Achilles heel for this baseball team, which, again, we're looking at a still-sad of small sample size here, if it is. Not saying it's going to be, but it could be.

You can go get relievers to the trade deadline. They can be picked up very, very easily. You're not necessarily looking for Josh Hader 2.0. You're looking for just arms. And I guarantee, and I don't know the minor league system at all. We were all busy people But my guess is that You know, again

If you think I'm Maybe I'm just that blank crazy But if Lance McCuller continues to rehab himself well Oh, let's go. Yes I'm still telling you I would put him in the bullpen Just to... Oh, no, don't say that

I know. I'm by myself on that I know I am. I apologize. Yeah, it's not happening. You're not by yourself. There's a lot of people that think that, but it's not happening. Okay.

he walks He walks too many guys to come out You're using a sample size of four years ago I mean I mean Okay all of a sudden he's going to get better control after major surgery Yeah yeah Okay yeah yeah It's gonna be like rookie

He's rookie of the year He's the Henry of Rowan Gardner Of the Astros organization Except with control instead of all No no no you don't know You don't know he's more mature Okay I'm just saying he's making $18 million a year

You better be A one of the best relievers in baseball Or be a starter Let me tell you, at 18 million dollars a year at this point when he hasn't played in a couple of years, I want him to do anything to help the team. And if it's best served to be a, you know, a guy twice a week, I'm in front. But again, who do you want starting? Ryan Gusto over the weekend or Lance McCuller's Jr. Who?

Yeah. Ryan Gusto is starting on Saturday. They need to 30. He's been good, right? I know some people weren't worried about the starting pitching depth, but I, but I think Lance McCullors Jr. would fit nicely into the starting rotation if he's healthy and good to go. We got to get Ronelle Blanco going again, but I mean, Hunter Brown was awesome yesterday, right?

Yeah, he was, and we don't have to talk about what happened after that. But, I mean, the Astros bullpen helped out. When you go 12 innings, something going to go right, right? Absolutely. They gave it one run in 12 innings, by the way, and people wanted to Spotify or that day, too. For what? For putting Taylor Scott in. Well, they gave up one run in 12 innings.

Yeah. It's where we are right now. Please just win games, Astros. win games. You know, here's what I'm definitely afraid of. Is this how Rocket Twitter is going to become playoff time? Ooh. Is the I-A-a-Doka firing?

If we lose a playoff game, is it's the EMA-A-Doka going to be fired? It was happening in the middle of the season. People were like, U-Ducca's got to go. That's pretty funny. We were talking about the all-time levels of stupidity. Yeah. And then that guy called me a journalist.

That was fun, too. And you're definitely not a journalist. Oh, God, no. You're the last thing I would consider a journalist. Next time I break news, it'll be the first time, Maddie. You don't even know. You don't even know what news is. I do not.

News at noon coming up here on Sports Talk 790. Yeah, it's a poor job. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-79. If you want to join us here on the radio program, 7-3-21-2-5-7-9. We promise we're taking calls next here on the show. All right, let's go the phones.

1034, Sports Talk, 790. 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. Israel, line 2 at 10-34. Israel, good morning. What up, man. Hey, it's the middle the pitching, man. The pitching, the starters are great

just like last year. Even like last year, they started off like 12 and 25. It amazes me how y'all bring up Cam. I really don't think y'all like how Dana move Cam up. It wasn't Joe. And I think Joe doing a great job. I think Joe don't throw in his players

under the bus. He understands. And, of course, it's a disappointment. You know what happened yesterday was a travesty. He knew it, but when he has his first constant, he's not. I know it's your job to get ratings and things of that nature, but Camas is doing a great job. Y'all's talking about he's going to be able to be of the field. Yeah, he's feeling real good.

And $200 for a rookie bad knife, I think he's holding his weight. And he's not going down. And that's what y'all really want. And so, I heard. Shut up. That's stupid. You're stupid. That's a stupid call.

That's a stupid, stupid take. That's a really dumb, dumb take. First of all, we are huge Cam Smith fans. Big. We met the kid multiple times. We're huge fans. And the reality is, he's a baby. The reality is he's seeing majorly pitching for the first time in his entire life.

The reality is, 10 months ago, he was hanging out with his girl in Tallahassee, Florida. And his meteoric rise is phenomenal. but he's not the reason why the team is playing about 500 baseball I'm not saying I don't even know where this is coming from Did we even mention Cam Smith?

Well I mean we said we talked about We went through the list He's not hitting his weight Yeah I mean I don't think when the Astros were thinking about bringing him up They were going to put him in as a nine hole hitter But they're trying to figure out a space for him

He's got to go through some growing pains Yeah Jake Myers said take a back seat bucko Stop You can hit my wink. All right, I'm just kidding, by the way. Now, look, Cam Smith, the reality is, all those realities you said, Matt, another reality, he was rushed up. And they're looking for lightning in a bottle. They needed something.

Look, Chas McCormick is just a guy. It is what it is at this point. And they were looking for Cam Smith to be more than just a guy. And it's early, and he still can be, but he also has been struggling. But he's got five hits now. One extra base. Yeah, the triple was phenomenal. Got two yesterday.

The kids can be a great major leaguer. I feel it. You can feel it. I like it. I can feel it. But man, I mean, you know, he's still got to, he's got, he's going to have to go through some growing pains like everybody does. I mean, hell, we brought Ross up to big time in Houston many years ago and took him like five or six years to finally begin, you know, gaining something to the Houston marketplace. That's not what I was hearing on the streets.

By the way, multiple people at Big City Wings telling me to keep giving you grief, Matt. For what? Just for being you. So I've got to keep doing it. That's what the people need. All right. No, this is not. Cam Smith is going to be fine.

At what point is he going to be fine? It remains to be seen. But it would be safe to say that when they brought him up, they didn't expect him to be the ninth place hitter. That's all we were saying. That's it. And my guess is when Cam goes through the major leagues and learns, you know,

and gets an idea of what it's life. like he's going to not be the nine place hitter. My guess is hopefully he'll be a middle of the lineup hitter just like the way he was crushing a ball in spring training and deserved the opportunity. Yeah, he got the two days off Sunday and Monday. And then since then, he's got an RBI triple and then he had two hits yesterday.

Yeah. Yeah, I just, um, yeah, this is not about Cam at all. We were just bringing up Cam. I think Israel might be in Cam Smith's family. He's been calling us a lot about Cam Smith lately. Well, I don't know what it is. I just can't handle it. Israel's takes are usually pretty bad.

So I, you know. Thanks for the call, Israel. Thanks for the call, listening, but maybe not paying attention. We don't hate Cam Smith. I don't want him demoted. I want him up. You think I want Cam Smith or Matt to Matt? I know you, I think I can speak for you on this one.

You don't want Cam Smith demoted. That means he's struggling. That means it's more Dubon and McCormick in the outfield. I want Cam Smith to thrive. Yeah, I don't, if Cam is here, which again, you and I had a, you know, a good debate about, he might as well succeed. I don't want him to come up here and look lost in over a match, and I don't think, I mean, it's going to take time.

Their philosophy was, you know, he had a good spring, he's got tremendous potential, and might as well run on the fly. That happens. It does. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I'm okay. He'll be fine. And I'm rooting for him.

I mean, the guy, I mean, if there's, you know, if we're looking for young heroes in sports, that guy's got it. I mean, he's built, like, again, he could crush us like a great. Number one. Uh-huh. Number two. Million-dollar smile. Million dollar smile.

Three, loves when his mom shows up. Can't go wrong with that. And four, by the way, the asteros said, hey, we know you had never played a lick of right field, but we're going to give you like two weeks to figure it out in spring training, and then we're going to put you into major leagues. And he's out there. Yeah, he's making five-star catches out there. He did it, I think it was in the first inning, what,

tweeting a couple games ago, along with Jake Myers. Yeah. 713212. 5790. 7132-1-2-570. Got a nice tweet in from somebody. And I'm trying to respond to him. Apparently, my, is Twitter down?

Because I can't respond to him. I am having issue. Well, it should be independent of you. I'm having Wi-Fi issues right now here in studio. But it looks like it's working for me. Okay. By the way, quick rundown, Matt, of the team OPS leaders in baseball.

You want to guess where the Astros are? No, I'm okay. I don't need to do that. No, thanks. They're dead last. Worse than the White Sox and Pirates. Stop. I just said a fact. I know. That's why I think I don't have time to look at the Astros like you do. I'm busy watching these number two-seat rockets and calling Nate Williams and Nafaldi Dante games against the Clippers. Well, do you want the positive spin?

I would hope so. You know, I got a positive spin for you. The Astros are three and a half out of first place. They're five and seven. I mean, come on. They're five and seven. Yeah, with the worst offense in baseball, it is going to get better. There is not a single team in the American League West with a positive run differential.

Again, as was the case last year, if the Astros are just good enough to beat the rest of the crappy West, they're going to be totally fine in the playoffs with a good rotation and hopefully some bats that can hit. Yeah, just like last year. And not every year repeats itself. get it i understand it could be like last year but you actually beat the tigers i mean if you get christian walkers back on at any point you're gonna be in really good shape it will get going yorda will get going yeah it's such a bad mood i'm not in a bad mood you blow a five run lead and yeah in the eighth nobody's gonna be happy no i wouldn't think so let me see if i

can find this guy's the honor if you got rid of it oh here we go this is from at stephen five 47 46948 Sounds legit Shut the F up Opinion Aided ass Click was better than what we have now And the Astros when you start calling people Idiots over the line

F your punk skinny white ass Wow Hey Sounds like that guy wants to throw hands Matt That's fine No we got an internet tough guy He'd be super nice When he was like man I love the show

Appreciate it Appreciate you all the time man you're waiting you're amazing oh and he but you know i can't retweet it he just blocked me too that's the reason why you didn't even stand tens toes down on it that's no that's oh he lives in carolton texas huh so not only did he unfollow me but he blocked me dang so sorry stephen you blocked me now what i can't retweet your tweet here's what he is he's a husband and father son and a brother that's he's listening now i know he is he's a proud texan he's all business, rockets, Astros, Texans,

and A&M, he's. All business. Well, it's an Aggie? Coming after you and blocking and running away. I'm not letting you do that. Interesting. No, why not? Because Aggies are awesome, except for the yell leaders. But you're, Stephen, you're embarrassing yourself. You know what? Your wife is embarrassed by you right now.

All business. Well, first of all, get a real ass of Twitter account. Stephen 587-46948. get him back. I think Stephen Jabroni is available. I'm starting to feel better. This is good. I'm happy for you, Matt. Yeah, you know what it happened. You missed your therapy session with shut your bum ass up yesterday. How was that? But how did Wex do, by the way?

He did good. He came after Luke Adonchich. Actually, pretty funny. Really? Why do you go up to Luke? Oh, for the getting tossed? Yeah. By the way, the NBA rescinded that technical foul. Yeah, they should have. The referee got it wrong. But still, like, at Wex's point yesterday was like, you bitch it. everyone at all times, including

the referees, so it's not really the referee's fault that they thought you were bitching at them because you were in their direction, pointing in their direction. Right. Yeah, it is what it is. Excuse me. I didn't mean a cough on a microphone. 1045 on Sports Talk 790.

713212-5-790. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90. It must be a block you Thursday. All right. I'm start blocking people too. Steve, you can't get my tweets. No, they can now.

No, they can't. That's too bad. Yeah. You can block somebody and they can still see it. I don't know who came up with that idea. That's pretty much defeats the entire purpose of blocking someone. All right. 713-212. 570. All right, it is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. I'm here in Los

Los Angeles. Brian McTaggers is going to join us in about 10 minutes. We've got still coming up on the show today. Gut feelings we've pushed to today at 12, because we didn't know him on Tuesday. The news at noon, McTaggart, believe it or not, and you never know what else is going to pop up between now

and 2 o'clock this afternoon. Let's go to Kyle in Pearland at 1051. Hi, Kyle. Hey, Matt, how are you doing, my friend? I'm all right. Hey, I know you're a cougar like I am. I don't know if you heard one of the all-time great. Since before your time a little bit,

Ali Taylor passed away. I don't know if you knew who that was. I did not, no. And, well, look him up. He apparently had a 46-inch vertical and played in the old ABA and actually jumped center against Lou House Sender back in the day. He's got a lot of stories, but just a heck of a nice guy and a former cougar and just wanted to let you know, my friend.

All right, thank you for that, Kyle. Ali Taylor, 78 years old. started at I guess he started at Tyler Jr. College and then moved on to the University of Houston. It was on a sweet 16 appearance team in 1970. Yeah, okay. Thanks for that heads up on that.

All right, let's segue into basketball a little bit here before we get to Brian McTagger. Oh, so you know I'm obsessed about these standings in a Western conference. You've got to be done now. They're clinched the two-spot. Leave it alone. You know what?

In theory, you're right? Oh, my God. Are you getting worse? But I'm getting worse. Because right now, Golden State last night in San Francisco, lost to the Spurs. I just don't get that. Spurs, well, I guess they're kind of locked in with the ping pong balls.

No, they need to be losing every game, the Spurs. They're now 33 and 47. They beat the Warriors. So right now, if the playoffs were to start today, which they don't. And you still got, most teams either have two, or three games left. The playing game was Minnesota at Golden State. The winner of that game gets the 7C,

which means the Rockets would play either Golden State or Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs. Matt, have you ever heard the phrase, K-serra-ser-rah. Whatever will be will be, Matt. The future's not ours to see. Do you know that I'm the only one wiggin-out about this? You're the literally the only one wiggins-out about who's going to be seventh and eighth. What is wrong with you?

Like if I went to E-May and said, man, you watched Denny's last night, you'd be like, Matt, shut up. We're good. Yeah. Yeah, it's Dante and Folly season. Come on. Yeah, I got a problem. I got people on the league texting me. What are y'all going to, like people are, I will not say a name, but a team broadcaster for one of the teams that are in the current in the playoff chase are like, are you all going to play the starters in front?

I'm like, I don't know. We'll find out email is going to join us tomorrow. my guess is we'll play a lot of the starters tomorrow against the Lakers. But I wouldn't expect. Kind of like on the Jalen's green schedule. Yeah, I wouldn't expect nobody to play 30 minutes and I don't think anybody.

And then the problem is you've got, you're going against the Lakers who need the game, and then you're going to play the Denver Nuggets on Sunday who need the game. I mean, it's, you're not playing Washington and Charlotte here. You've got these super impactful games that even if you raise the white flag and surrender, so to speak. You could be massively affecting other teams in a Western conference. Yeah, but you take care of your own.

You don't care about that. And when I say Jalen Green schedule, for those who don't know, he played like the first eight minutes of the first quarter and then like almost seven minutes of the second quarter and sat the whole second half. Yeah, he's got a consecutive street game going. Yeah, he wants to keep that's something that's cares about a little bit. He's ridiculous. If he was, you need to rest him, you need to rest him for the playoffs.

But whatever. Yeah, I mean, I, again, I would expect most. Most of the starters are not all to play tomorrow, and then I would think Sunday would be probably a little bit of a lean situation. Well, if that's keeping him motivated, then go at it, but full rest would be better. And what I'm saying is full rest and zero exposure to injury. Yeah, the difference is you could also have a practicing at the injury, too.

I know. That's true. I know what you're saying. But, yeah, last night was interesting. It was my second trip to Intuit Dome. How'd the free throw shooting goes? It wasn't really a factor. Seven of ten, the Rockets were.

I mean, it's under their season percentage. I thought the Rockets said, okay. I mean, those have played, they played, they gave it their best. I mean, Reed Shepherd, I think a career high six threes in the game. 20 points? Reed Shepherd, the goat. Cam Whitmore almost got decapitated by James Hardin. Mm-hmm.

I mean, and a no call on that. That was nice. Let's say, Nivalade. played. You got you some Eric McVeigh minutes. What's that? Jack McVeigh, oh, David Roddy played? Who? Yeah, exactly. You made that up. No, David Rodney played. Go on the Foxxor.

No, come on. That sounds like the basis for a metal band in the 80s. David Roddy? Former Atlanta Hawk, former Memphis Grizzly, David Roddy. All right, you're making that name up. I couldn't possibly do that. All right. 1056 on Sports Talk, 790. 713, 212, 5, 790. Ryan McTaggart is going to join us.

I have not spoken to... I saw Brian at the championship game on Monday night. I have not talked to him since. Maybe y'all should just talk Astros. Oh, that's not going great either, I guess. At least based on the last game. Hey, you got a day off today, and then the angels are in town. That's getting fat and happy off of them.

Angels are a heady in the standings. I don't care about the standings. We don't even talk standings on the show. You know how I'm a standings-holic? Yes. We don't talk standings until June 1st on the show. in the Major League Baseball. NBA?

I go to bed at night crying, looking at those standings. I really have a problem. Yeah, you're sick. They're lost into the Tuesday. I'm literally sick. I get it. All right, 713, 212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-790.

Brian McTaggart starts the second hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. All right, it is 1101 in H-Town. Welcome to hour number two of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90 time for us to spend 12 quality minutes with our good friend the one and only Brian McTaggart Brian the last time I saw you we were on the riverwalk and joined life breaking bread getting ready for the big event how has your life been the last 36 hours Yeah, probably a lot like yours a bummer just You know thinking back on the game and this could have happened and this could have happened and

Yeah, it's still thinks, doesn't it, just to get that close and not make it. And, yeah, just a bummer. So how did you handle the post when all the confetti? Do you leave the same as fast as humanly possible? Were you stuck because there were 30,000 people trying to leave it one time? Yeah, I got out there so quick when the confetti popped and I heard all we do is win-win, that song, whatever.

I said, we out of here. And I walked out of there so fast and I walked downtown. I wasn't even staying downtown. So I had to Uber back to my hotel. I had no idea where I was going. And luckily I found an Irish bar and comforted myself for a couple hours. All right. So at least you got to put...

I went to a denny's and had chicken fried steak lathered in cream gravy until like 12.50 in the morning. There you go. It is what it is. All right. Let's get to some baseball. Obviously, you've been home and you will be rejoining the coverage Friday of the Angels. in town. Five nothing, no matter what the

scenario is, you got to hold that. That's a stinging loss. Tell me as you are now approached two weeks into the season, two plus weeks, kind of of the state of things. First, is bullpen usage the concern

for you right now? Is it bullpen accuracy? It could be a little bit of both. Where are you right now on where do you think Joe's trust factor is? Again, saying what you want to say here, They also won a game going 12 innings, and you have to have your bullpen net. So maybe we're just catching them on a bad day, obviously, when you lose a 5-0-0 lead. Yeah, I mean, you're coming off, you know, the worst loss of the season out of only 12.

But they did that, you know, if you're looking at it glass full, they had a 3-3 road trip. So, you know, you take that. But, yeah, the chance to have a 4-2 road trip was right there. You know, I think coming into season, I think I told you that, you know, I thought the biggest issue was probably going to be the bullpen. the bullpen had been pretty good up until yesterday and yeah i mean hater was down because um you with erigetti being out and now you had a short start from blanco you're having to use guys more you're already behind the eight balls a little bit in usage so they really need the off day to

reset things it's kind of early for that to be happening but that's the reality and and they're already doing some bullpen shuffling but you know you know contraris came in and loaded the bases right away and then uh you know ochre who's been really good you know you're asking him just just to put out a four alarms fire at that point. And that's really tough to do. The Brady won's the head scratcher because that's where you're going to need him sometimes to close games like that, but you're going to need him in the eighth inning. And he can't come out there and just not command his pitches and allow them to win the game like that.

So that's got to be troublesome. Still early. I mean, Braves pitched to six games. He's got a five plus ERA. Got to clean that up a little bit. you know, still, the offense still looks like a big issue as well, with, you know, several guys in the lineup just not hitting. But, again, still really early.

And they're, you know, they're five and seven. They're better off than they were at this point last year. But certainly there's some issues with this team. Yeah, still, and the key is still early. And look, every team can turn it up or it could be a season-long problem. We don't have a crystal ball in front of us here on that. But was there any signs about a Bray-U? Look, we spent a lot of the,

off season talking about. Got to make sure his appearance count is reduced from a year ago. Was there any signs in spring training that said, all right, the great Brian Abray that was a part of last year maybe isn't on the plane just yet coming to Texas? Well, I mean, you know, it's really hard to tell in spring with, you know, especially veteran guys who are established like him. They're always working on things. They're not necessarily going out there and trying to blow guys away and get out.

So, I mean, he looked pretty good in the spring, but, you know, they played 12 games. he's pitched six. So, you know, you're right back at that, you know, 80, 81 game pace that they wanted to try to avoid. And they haven't been able to do that so far in the first couple of weeks of the season. But he's walked six guys in five in the third innings. I mean, that's just, that just can't continue. And so he's just whatever the control issues are, he's got to rein that in. He still has strikeout stuff, elite stuff. But the walks are just killing them right now. And so that's got to be corrected. but, you know, Lewis Contreras has watched five guys and six innings, and, you know, he's not a guy they're counting on as much as a brayu,

but I think we're just going to see a lot of shuffling in this bullpen, but they need the back-end guys, Hater, who's been really good, a brayu, and then, you know, maybe Brian King's or seventh inning guy, they need those guys to step up and be consistent because I think we're going to see a lot of shuffling and inconsistency behind them. I imagine we agree, Brian, that at the end of the day, whoever's gone out there has to get the job done and that didn't happen yesterday. But just in the moment of the decision making of Joe Espada,

how have you been feeling about the way things have been handled? I can't take qualms with anything he's done. I mean, I think they knew coming in. The bullpen was probably not their strength. And you can only call on the guys you have down there to bring out there and go out there and pitch. I mean, losing Erigetti, you know, that was a big key piece of the road. So they're going to have to, you know, fill that now. But I think as far as the bullpen decisions in his lineup, I mean, this is not a team that's five and seven because anything the manager is done.

It's just because they haven't hit and some of their key relievers haven't gotten out at key times. I mean, that's it. The starting pitching has been pretty good for the most part. But, I mean, it's, you know, I'm not going to sit here and, I mean, watching these games, I haven't seen anything where I'm like, oh, you know, what does Joe do? I mean, he's doing everything he can at this point to try to put them in position to win. And look, yesterday they were four outs away from a four and two road trip and the bullpen imploded. So, I mean, that's certainly not on him. Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk 790.

Let's go to the offense side. We know that it will turn at some point. They are last in the majors in Team OPS. But I guess the question remains, how much will it turn to where we were hoping for 40 plus bombs from Yoron? We're hoping for Jeremy Payne and have the best offensive year of his career. And I just, it's kind of in the balance of how close to those types of aspirations we had will get. Yeah, I mean, I think they're last in slugging. I think they're 26 and runs, last in doubles.

It's just across the board. I mean, Payne had a really, really good spring just from start to finish. I mean, he looked like a guy who was just ready to come out and have his best season. Still could, but, you know, 12 games in. he's got a 635 OPS. You know, Alvarez is the one they got to get going. I mean, they cannot win if Alvarez is hitting 195 with a 600 OPS with one homer every two weeks. It's just, they cannot get it done.

Yiner Diaz is another one. He has two hits and 33 bats. I mean, just he's a guy that hits in the middle of the lineup. And it's just just killing them right now. So Paredes has been okay, you know, not bad. Brennan Rogers has been, you know, okay. Altuva has been Altuvae, of course. I think Christian Walker, another guy who has to get it turned around a little bit.

I mean, there's three key bats, Diaz, Walker, and Alvarez that are just not getting it done right now. That is the reason they're at where they're at, yes, and they can turn this around with one big weekend and everyone's back on track. Cam Smith, book out on him a little bit. You know, he's coming around a little bit, the bats look a little bit better. But you really weren't, you know, you didn't know really what you're going to get from him. But those key big three bats in the middle have to get going. Brian McTaggart, MLB.com with us here on Sports Talk 790. I want to go back to the bullpen for a second, not necessarily the group, but the Montero trade to Atlanta.

Do you think in your mind this has been in works for a while that maybe a change of scenery would be better to get something back in return, get a little bit of financial savings on that? Where do you think that Dana said, you know what, it would be best served if we moved him somewhere else? My guess is they've been trying to do it for a while. I mean, if you look at the moves they've made over the last few months, I mean, this team's in a little bit of a penny-pinching mode. I mean, they traded it, you know, Presley for, you know, financial reasons and Tucker because they knew they wouldn't resign him. So it only makes sense that Montero, a guy making the money he's making,

11 plus million would be, you know, on the market as well. Maybe, you know, some teams wanted to wait to see how he did to start the year. But certainly this was, you know, made to, you know, a reliever, I think they can do. without who is expendable. The Braves can pay some money and they, you know, they can call up somebody else like Bennett-Suzza who might be able to do, you know, a better job than the Montero. So I think it was all, you know, financially driven. They're just, they're just trying to save as much as they can. I mean, I think they'll have a lot more payroll flexibility of this year, but they're just in penny-pinching mode right now. And I say that they still have a, you know,

a top-five payroll. Penny-pinching modes relative here for what the Astros do. It's not like they have a small payroll, but they're trying to, you know, avoid going over the luxury tax and, and, You know, next year they'll have a lot more money to do some things, but that's just kind of the reality they're in right now. Any surprise about the amount of second base that Jose Al-Tuvae has played? That he hasn't played? No, that he has played so far. Has plays? No, because, you know, Joe's never really said he's going to, you know, play this much or this much.

I thought he might play once a week. I don't know how many as he started out there, two or three maybe. So, you know, Brandon Rogers is doing a pretty nice job out there, not only defensively, but with the bat, But, you know, Joe's been hesitant to say exactly how he's going to split that playing time between left field and second. And maybe he really doesn't know. It's just going to have to be on matchups and parks are playing in and everything. And maybe there is something to, you know, maybe we should play him a little bit more at second base. But they seem still committed to him being the everyday left fielder out there.

And then, you know, as long as he's hitting, you know, you get him in the bat in there somewhere because he's the one bright spot in this lineup. And that, you know, he's Jose Al-2 base. shouldn't be surprised. Yeah. All right. And look, let's go Glass Heffel to wrap this up. As many things as there have been with bullpen issues and line up being, you know, bottom an OPS, it's five and seven.

I mean, if you were not a consumer of Astros baseball and you listen to a conversation among fans, and maybe to a certain extent this visit, you think this team was two and ten so far. And that's not the case. You know, it could be a lot worse. It really could be. And starting pitching for the most part has been pretty good. Open did do its job in that 12th inning game.

And you know what, Jose Al-Tubei, even though the left field experiment has been a little bit of a mixed back so far, and it's probably always going to be that way, is tearing the cover off the ball right now. Yeah, you're right. It's five and seven. I mean, you look back at Astro starts the last 10 years. I mean, you know, it's not uncommon for them to be, you know, floundering around 500 after two weeks, still trying to fill things out. I guess, you know, going back to the three main guys, I was talking about Walker Diaz and Albert,

I mean, those guys are going to come around. I mean, they're not going to put up these numbers forever. They are going to play better at some point. So you're right. It does feel like they're 2 and 10 and doom and gloom, but they're 5 and 7 with, you know, 140 plus games to go and a chance for, you know, still to do plenty of damage. They're in a way worse situation than they were last year. But I know it's frustrating for Astros fans who all they hear all spring training are positive things.

And we're going to do this and that. And, you know, they come out and get off a little bit of a slow start. look around the league. I mean, there's a lot of teams right around where they're at, and this thing will sort of itself out here in the next few weeks. We'll get a better idea where they're at. Good stuff. It's always, Tag. Talk to you next week.

Thank you for the visit, as always. All right, guys. See you. Yes, Brian McTaggart, MLB.com, 1114 here on the Matt Thomas show at Ross. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, I just don't get it. News at noon. The Tuesday edition of Gut Feelings gets moved to today, because I think I was in a canatonic state, Ross. Was that happened last week?

It wasn't, Matt, that was like three days ago. See, I'm still in a state of shock. Are you okay? No. I'm worried about you now. My team lost a national championship game. You sound like, you don't know where day was. Oh, that's cool.

Yeah, you know, Matt, they missed a good quality shot. I know what they didn't miss. They didn't miss an opportunity to get a generator from quality home. products of Texas. Wow. Look at this guy. True professional at work. I have the list here.

Shut up. Let's tell you. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross here on Sports Talk 790. Ross v. Real with you, Matt Thomas as well. Sounds like everything's okay over there. It is. I was just messing around with a spam call. Matt, you're one of one.

I love you. That's all I'm going to say. I've been taking my spam. calls off but now I'm getting him now I'm just having a good time with him what is wrong with me how much time you got this is I got a lot of a only a four hour show I just take delight in very few things hmm and you delight in messing with spam calls yeah there's a streamer I watch it messes with those spam callers it does like a fake grandma voice and like ties them up for hours and they get really

frustrated yeah if you're maybe you should watch that mad it's pretty funny i can send you some one of the videos i change my voice all the time yeah that's what they do he he he like uh he has like a voice changer and then he takes the calls and apparently he's like really good with software he sets up like a fake bank of america account that they think has like a million dollars in it and then he sends it to the wrong account and then they start crying and getting all upset it's great it's great entertainment so this guy this person was calling was with a uh insurance company uh-huh and he has my number which obviously he called but he's like running

reading off my numbers for my health care and I like that's not right and he goes you have this health care I said yes and that's when you said the show had to start it's like I couldn't further mess with him sounds like it was getting good it was and that's why I mean I couldn't finish the spam call

because I'd come to this radio show we used to do this tell him the call back at your home line 71321225790 oh my god you know what next time I don't do that of course FCC regulations we have to not let them know they're live on air. Yeah, that's not any fun then.

You know I really do that's super immature? What's that? I belch really loud in front of them. Wow. I hope you donate your brain to science, Matt. I really do have a lot of things wrong with me. Part of your charm, as they say. It is not part of a charm.

It's a clinical illness. I just, you know, I take very few things in life with such joy. All right, let's get to a little bit. We have, I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour. This is where you just call in and say, I don't get something. So how much of the Luca celebrations did you see yesterday in Dallas? Very little. I saw him crying, and then I saw him dropping buckets on him.

Yeah, you put up a 40 burger. Can you put up 40 burgers or those? Does it have to be a 50 for a burger? How about a 40 spot? Yeah. Is it 30 bomb? Or is it a 40 bomb? 30 bomb 40, 40 spot 50 burger.

Okay. in a 60 oh hell yeah okay fire nico chance we're going there's lots of video of Mark Cuban shaking his head as he hears these changes so let me get this straight

this is more for I just don't get it coming up so maybe we'll extend this a little bit longer the Mavericks made shirts for him and they were in here where is he from Lucas from Slovenia Slovenia and it was basically a Slovenian I don't know what the exact but it was basically

we love it. We love it. We love you we miss you kind of thing are they just doing that just to kick nico harrison and the nads is that what did that is that what you do i don't know why you would do that i mean he was traded this season that is so funny we miss you in slovenian i don't know exactly what it was the interpretation but it was something close to that so i'm i'm just kind of paraphrasing but the point being is this you have to do a video tribute you have to say welcome home you have you because if you don't then you look even worse but you're literally if you're if you're in the Dallas Mavericks,

you are in a little unknown-win situation. Because if you do something like this, you're like, you didn't have to do this. You could have kept the guy. They're acting like he came home from the Battle of the Bulge. Like, he's just traded to the Lakers. Yeah. And you made the trade.

The team elected. No one forced to. You trade him to the Lakers. Yes. But I think you had to do. You had to do something, though. You had to do a video of something. Yeah, the best part to me is Anthony.

Davis going five of 13 Mavericks were stuck on me in the play end game Phoenix got eliminated last night by way Phoenix gets eliminated which means the Rockets have a lottery pick coming their way How about that? That is correct Isn't that good? Non-zero chance to get Cooper Flagg I think it's like 4% I'll go look it up. I don't know if I'm

going to have built a handle having Cooper Flag on my team Oh why not? Because I mean I'm going to have to rub in his face that he lost in my coogs Yeah they choked I'm sorry, I was talking about Duke. Of course you were. Point being is this. It could, I mean, you had thousands of people wearing Luca jerseys.

You had thousands of people that were there only for one reason. I mean, I know that they must be big fans of the Dallas lineup up and down, but they were chanting Luca. They were giving him standing ovations. They were screaming fire Nico every moment. I mean, have you seen the stories about the Mavericks about the millions and millions and millions of dollars they have lost already on this deal? No. From ticket sales dropping.

Sponsorships. Sponsorships have dropped. People are reneging on season tickets for the following year. There were some endorsement deals that were, that have been cut because of this. Because, you know, as we know, the rockets are great examples of this. When Yao Ming was a rocket, there was an international money that was coming in from China. Well, there was international money with Luca because Luca was an international player before he ever became a star in the NBA. This is another reason why I never rail against a professional athlete's salary.

Like, Steph Curry and Clay Thompson and Draymond Green being in San Francisco has made them billions and they got a new arena. The most valuable franchise in the NBA? Most valuable franchise in the NBA. What was it 15 years ago? Yeah, when it was Monta Ellis and the boys. Mitch Richmond, no disrespect. Yeah. So, yeah, these franchise values absolutely matter and absolutely.

I'll throw you another one. How about Johnny Mansell and what he meant to the revolution at the Aggie football program? Right, exactly. He got Kevin Sumlin paid. He got new parts of the stadium built, all these new donations. Yeah, these athletes mean a ton. It's not just the salary and it's not just what's made with TV dollars. It's what you said with endorsements and deals.

and partnerships and all that. I mean, it can wind up. It could wind up destroying the franchise. Now, Dallas, I looked at this up yesterday. Their lease at American Airlines Center ends in 2013. Okay. You are arena slash stadium guy. Here's the bit.

If they don't get a new arena, that's what they're going to want, because everybody wants new arenas. I think I brought this up in a gut feeling just kind of half, what? Could the Mavericks be thinking about moving to Las Vegas? Ooh. Because the team that, the group that owns the Mavericks owns the Sands Casino, the corporation there. Oh, really? And their plan was to build a Megaplex somewhere in the DFW area, which would include casinos, full casinos when they're hoping that the casinos eventually could pass in Texas.

Well, yeah, buy enough politicians, you'll be good. And then build an arena and entertainment complex next to set casinos. That's been the plan all along. And that if they don't get their new arena and Maverick apathy hits, because a Luca trade could haunt you for a decade, right? I mean, when you make super bad trades, it can hurt your franchise for a long period of time. There's no guarantee the Mavericks are going to build it come back from this without a lot of Because here's the thing

I said something I didn't think about. I get to break here. We were talking about expansion and this new TV deal that they're getting from Amazon and from NBC and whatnot. Maybe these owners don't want to split that pie up

with two new owners. Yeah, I could see that. That if Memphis is in a tough spot for their arena in downtown Memphis, if the Mavericks are in a tough spot, why would you bother trying to expand two teams when you can move two teams

to say Seattle in Las Vegas and call today. I'm just thinking way ahead of here, just kind of just throwing stuff against the wall. Or late night West Coast games. Fantastic. But, I mean, seriously, I know there'd be a good expansion fee that would come,

but I think the television dollars would be better served cut up into 30s compared to 32. Well, I guess you would renegotiate and charge more for the coverage. I don't know if there's some kind of clauses in there with expansion. But I can't imagine the Sands Ownership Group

wanting to keep the Mavericks long term if they don't get a casino. That's the whole point of them doing this, is that there's an untapped area of the country, meaning Texas, that could use casinos in DFW area, Houston, San Antonio. I mean, the whole state could use it, right? We all gamble in this state. We just do. Yes, we do. All right.

What don't you get, Ross? A lot. It's a very simple question. And don't say me. I know what you, I know. I'm hard to get. I sit there and spend time talking to people on. spam calls because I have an issue.

No, the worst one to me is caring about who's shuffling three through seven or four through eight now or whatever it is. Maybe I need a hobby. Maybe I should start hot yoga. Let's just get you watching some good movies. Good fellas.

Heat. Whatever else classic movies you haven't watched. There's a bunch. Ten Commandments. I guess. I didn't catch that one. I guess maybe when I was a kid I saw it. All right.

713, 2. Spartacus? Spartacus? Okay. Watching Rudy all the way through? Oh, you've said anything. It's fine.

You know, it's fine. It's fine. My family hates me when I tell him I don't watch Rudy. It's funny. What don't you get? Ladies and gentlemen, what do you not get? We are here to help you get what you don't get.

713-212-5-7-90. 7-13-21-2-5-7-90. It is 11-31-3-3-3-3-1-3-7-0. It is 1131 here on Sports Talk. If you want to come in and tell us what you don't get, we're here to help you. Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? No need to worry. No need to fret.

We will discuss the topics to see if we comprehend. The things that may confuse our friends, it's time to say, I just don't get it. All right, let's go. 713, 212, 5790. 713, 212, 5790. 9.0. Let's I ask a question of you. What happened to our music? Are our music not there?

There it is. Okay. Ross, there's lots of crazy jobs in this world. Being working for a spam account? They're trying to basically swindle money from you off of strange phone numbers. Does that pay well? I mean, it's a massive self-esteem issue to call somebody you don't know and hopefully swindle them from money. Is that because the average person thinks that their average person's stupid?

I think a lot of times, quite frankly, they're looking to prey on the elderly, people with Alzheimer's, stuff like that, and they can have, if you just get one really rich, wealthy person and you can scam them, certainly if you're from a country

that doesn't have the GDP of America, the cost of living is lower? Let's just put it that way. $10,000 could go a long way. or however much you could scam out of somebody. I just feel it's terrible. I mean, again, what do you do for a living? Well, here's what I do.

I call people randomly, and I ask for their credit card number and their social security number, and I get like a 14% commission off whatever I grab. There's a special place in health for those people. So I say to those people, your life I just don't get. Yeah, I mean, I guess I get it in that they're stealing and people are scumbags, on the elderly? Yeah.

I just put how much do scammers make in Google? It says estimated 8.8 billion in 2022. No way. Investment scant? Oh, this is including investment scams, but yeah, I don't know. Let's say you live in some third world country and, well, you can call some old American person and steal their money or some old whoever from wherever.

So every 900 calls you make, nine of them either swear at you or burp or just hang up on you. I'm probably saying every thousand you make $990. Yeah. That one calls. Yeah, that sounds about right. Here's my information. Here's my bank account.

Yeah, they have those scams. I mean, I'm kidding these toll scams now. I got another one yesterday. How about the one that you owe income tax? Oh, yeah. It says internal revenue service on the letter, Matt. You might want to answer that one. Oh, that's true.

Toptax defenders.com. I haven't had those issues in a while, Ross. So that's not going to be a problem. I totally get one of the IRS sends your emails. I just do. All right. 713, 2, 1, 2, 5, 790. There's something in your life that confuses you.

We're here between myself and Ross. Jonathan's like 22 years old, so he doesn't have much of crap of anything in life. He can't help you out, but Ross and I certainly can. 713-212-5-790. Let me ask you, Ross. What don't you get? This was brought to my attention by Chris Gordy. there is an online auction for the Astros right now.

Okay. They're selling bits and pieces of Minute Made park signs. Like literally you can just buy the D, the letter D for Minute Made. For $650. You can buy the oranges from the train. You can buy dirt from the field. I mean, some of this I guess I get if you want to be. on it, but at large, you're bidding

on a vial of dirt? I just don't get it. The AI for Minutemade Park for thousands of dollars? No, I don't get it. I would buy, I'll tell you this, I would buy an orange. It's a sponsor. No, it's like a whole thing of oranges.

It's all one big thing. You can't buy one singular orange? No, they're all stuck together with like a little ladybug with an astro on it. Oh, so is it like a, is an auction or can you just like to say, No, it's an auction. It's currently a bidding for $2,800. Well, I mean, you've got some die-hard Asthma fans that are economically.

$3,000 for some giant oranges. Where are you going to put them in your backyard? In the backyard. That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. No, no, no, no, no. I get it. Oh, yeah, see, yeah, I guess you would get it. I get it.

You're going to drop three Gs on some oranges, painted oranges? Painted oranges? If my backyard is like a is like a homage, right? Amage? Yes. To the Astros. Let's say I've got jerseys and I've got

a baseball field in my backyard, a hitting cage. You're ridiculous. It's a conversation. It's a conversation starter for sure. A conversation starter? Yeah. How much money did you blow on this crap? I'll build you a paper mache orange. Dude, I put the sand volleyball court in my backyard. I know these things.

I get it. Yeah, I guess you've got to come to the fence. At least your daughter is playing volleyball. That's different. Sand volleyball court has utility. What's the utility of a bunch of oranges back there for however it's going to get bid up to? You are the coolest people in the neighborhood.

Period. By the way, bidding opened up yesterday. This is $3,000. So it's probably going to get much larger than that. You're the coolest people in the neighborhood? I would say you're the biggest dumb ass. is in the name of you're spending 10 gs on some oranges. Well, how about this?

People buy old seats from the Astrodoll and whatnot. You can at least sit in those. Those are cool. Nobody's going to sit in those. You've got to put a big case around it. I get sitting in seats. There's literally they're selling the letter U. The current bid is $500 for the letter you of Minutem made.

Let me tell you something. If anybody can get, what is, look, my name is Matt. And you like money on fire. Go ahead. What is an M going for? an M Yeah Hold on

Let me The minute M is going for $1,250 right now Oh That's a little pricey Oh go ahead Mr. It's all good

No I'm saying I can't do it I can't do it But I understand Why others would You put in your man cave You put in your garage You put in your garage

You're like damn That's a good looking M Where'd you get it Is that the M From the ballpark This thing is like Six foot by three feet I will build you

One out of metal For half the price and you could just lie to people and say it's from there. This is ridiculous. I'm going to say I get it. Yeah, you would. How much you bidding on these vials of dirt? No, and I don't buy the dirt I can't get.

The dirt will do nothing for me. But the letters and the oranges would do something for me. All right, Jonathan, what don't you get? I don't get, I'm looking at Twitter right now. Why the big three is a thing. The Ice Cube thing league, he has Nick Young as a coach and just signed Dwight Howard. Isn't he like 45? Yeah.

Big three is for old guys that are looking for that last five minutes in our life of fame. And looking to rip their Achilles. I just don't get it. I don't understand why we're still playing basketball. I don't understand that. I don't get it. I, Ryan Hollins, friend of the show, played in the big three a couple of years back.

I went up in Dallas and saw him play. To Jonathan's point, I didn't think it was particularly entertaining. I didn't know the league was still running. Who's your favorite basketball player right now? Jonathan. Right now? Mm-hmm. Oh, geez.

All right, anyways. How are we going here? Yeah, however. No, it's nostalgia. People like Dwight Howard. He played 15 years ago. So when you get old, which you're not old enough to understand. No, you're not even close.

You get really nostalgic about things that were important to you like 15 years ago. So he's like, oh, Dwight, Dwight Howard's playing, I guess I'll go check it out. I remember him. Hall of Fame. Three-time defensive player of the year. Oh, I remember Dwight Howard. I'll go out and watch him play in this crappy big three league.

It's nostalgia. So, I mean, you say you don't get it. I'm trying to explain it to you. It's mostly a nostalgic thing. I see it. All right. Yeah, I saw it. I don't get it either, but I kind of get it.

I mean, just to go see your favorite old players. Middle East try to be nice to you at that point. Hell, Russell Westbrook might be playing Big Three before you. know it the way that he's being true in demer he's playing big three basketball right now just in an NBA jersey getting NBA dollars that's right 713212 5790 we got one more segment of this is if there's something in your life you just don't get by the way friend of the show um at the real dandaman said your boy stephen 587 went after you too ross did you know that no i don't care about him i'm going to read what he said to you i don't care he's an equal opportunity offender

I just don't get you going on Twitter and calling us names, and we'll read that for you next. If you've got something you don't understand, let us know. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Let's see here. At Stephen 587-469-48. This is a response to Ross.

Shut the F-up, man. I was calling for a spot-a-ass all last year. This team sucks. came back last year on what was left in the tank from years previous not Cuzz Espada. He's overrated. Dana's over his ass over his head and Crane has let this team

go to ask F you. That was to you. Thank you, Stephen. I'm unable to respond unfortunately because you have blocked me now. Oh, he blocked you too? Yeah, that's okay. I'm wishing him the best. Clearly he is troubled and upset

and having some sort of interpersonal issues. Is there your followers? I have no idea. I don't care. And that's fine. Stephen, I just hope whatever you're going through gets a little bit better. And I hope you have a great Thursday. And I'm off the rest of this week.

I hope you have a great weekend as well. Have a good one, Stephen. I don't care about you at this point, Stephen. You're nuts. We're better off without you. I mean, honestly. I'm wishing you enter peace and whatever issues you have. I hope you get them sorted out.

I hope that you get massive diarrhea for the next three weeks. That was Matt. That wasn't me. Hi, my name is Ross, Stephen. I am wishing you the best, and I hope everything gets better. Yeah, okay. Another thing I don't get, by the way, if you've got to get in, 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90, I have been using a lot of Ubers, excuse me, boobers and Riffs.

Okay. Boobber, for about six straight months now, is significantly more expensive than Riffs. I would say for about two years now. But, I mean, I'm looking at the last six months. So yesterday we took, my buddy and I went back from Into a Dome to our hotel here in Beverly Hills. And Ruber was about $25, $30 more than Rift was. How much?

Yeah. Wow. I think one is much more popular, so you have more users, so you have more surge pricing. And I think a lift to me is just as good. I mean, I took two lifts yesterday. All right. So let's say I have no issue. I'm going to put in in Rift.

I'm going to go to L-A-X. Right now, if I want to leave the, if I want to leave, it's going to cost me $39.89 on Ruber, no, on Rift to go to L-A-X, okay? Okay. 39-89. Let me punch in Ruber and L-A-X, and it's going to tell me that it is $49.91, so that's $13 more.

Hmm. I just don't get it. Yeah, I imagine there's just more supply and demand. I just imagine there's more users for Uber. It's a more popular app. I don't know, but I just don't, you're not getting my business ever. I mean, what percentage of people are like straight Uber as compared to using both

them to flex out which one's the lower of the two fair? I don't know. I feel like most people know about both of them, but I think Uber is much more popular. Oh, I don't. Yeah, I think it's a, verb now. Yeah, exactly. It's like a Kleenex. It's, I don't remember.

Or Xerox. Yeah, there's a marketing name for it. I don't know what I remember what it is. But yeah, so it's, even when I'm on a Rift, I say I'm on a Ruber. Right? I'm going to, we're in a Ruber, we're on the way over, but you're really in a Lyft. Then you still use that word. So it's, yeah, it's a way

more popular. It's about supply and demand. There's a finite amount of driver, so probably you make more driving for Ruber than Rift, man. Oh, I think you do. But I'm a Rifter. Yeah. That's up to you to the consumer. This is why free market works

until one company buys the other. Oh, no, don't even say that. We're good until the free market works until the monopolies come in. But anyways, I digress. All right. Last call. We had people calling in, but I think Jonathan's taking a nap back there. We couldn't get to the screen, but that's fine.

713-212-5-79 if you've got a last call. Anything else, Ross, you just don't get. There's a lot, but we don't have time. All right. We can get the news of noon going in, right? We have gut feelings at 1230? I don't want any predictions. I had a gut feeling we were going to win the national championship on Monday night.

And that would work out. Well, you know, I didn't remember I had the gut feeling. They were going to make the final four and then lose them the final four? No, I don't remember that at all. Okay, we'll go through it. We'll go through it coming up in 1230. Do we really have to? It is 12 o'clock in H-Town.

Hour number three underway here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Coming up in 30 minutes, a late, but definitely needed addition to gut feelings. If you missed a conversation with Brian McTaggart a year ago, you'll hear that a year ago, an hour ago. Well, if you hear it a year ago, it's probably talking about the same exact thing. But McTaggart was with us at 11 o'clock and we'll replay it for you later today at 1.30. We believe it or not at 150. But right now, as we do each and every day at this time, we present to you the news at noon. And handling such responsibilities, the, let's go with the Walter.

Now, where do you use Walter? So we'll go with the Peter Jennings of the sports journalism and Houston. Wow. Ross, very happy. Thank you, Matt. What a great honor you have bestowed upon me. A lot to get to here on the news at noon here on the Matt Tobby show with Ross. We begin with the Astros collapse yesterday afternoon in Seattle.

Three, two, to a Roserana. Breaking ball, high ball four. And the Mariners went on a walk-off walk. Rodriguez scores. Seattle comes from five runs down to walk off the Astros, 7 to 6. That was a heartbreaker. Yes, yes it was. Robert Ford, guest of the Matt Thomas show tomorrow. What time will that be, Matt? 11 o'clock. Cool. Mariners win 7 to 6 over the Astros. They fall to 5 and 7 on the year. Astros bats 12 left on

Base four of 13 with runners in scoring position. All of them were singles, by the way. So the bats could not take care of some good opportunities, especially with seven walks drawn against Mariners pitching. Hunter Brown was good, six innings of

shutout ball, but it wasn't enough. Luis Contrera, Steve Ocert, Brian Abrae, all giving up runs out of the bullpen and people, of course, arguing about Joe Espada blowing the game, Matthew. Channel Rome puts out 12 games. The Astros slugging is

291. Their OPS is is 584. They're both the lowest in baseball. They're 5 and 7. It's early. I was going to ask if that was bad, but you answered it for me, Matt. Both the lowest in baseball. It is early. It is going to turn around. The question, of course, and we talked about this with Brian McTaggart, it's to what extent will it turn around?

Will the real Houston Astros bets please stand up? I want to be obliques. I want to be obliques. I want to be obliques is an issue with Christian Walker, we just don't know much about it. There's been a lot of hard hit contact, Matt. So it seems like that's fine. He's just, I honestly think, okay, he drew two walks yesterday.

Those are the first two walks he's drawn all year. He's been striking out of, his whiff numbers are way high, his walk rate is way low. You need to find a happier balance there. I don't know if he's pressing because of the contract that he signed or what. Right.

But those numbers will get better. But it's basically everything. A little bit of bad luck, not drawing walks and whiffing a little. a little bit too much from Christian Walker, if you asked me. Gotta get my man, Yonair Diaz going here. He was my sneaky pick for a home run leads. How you feeling about that?

Not great. But really, he needs one good game. He's right back at the top, would he not? Well, yeah, I think it's a three home run game, but I don't know if he's had one of those in his career. So the Astros leader in home runs is two? No, two has three. Okay.

Because he got that one off of Logan Gilbert. So yes, your Astros leader in home runs. home runs right now is Jose Al Tuvei with three. That's your home run counter presented by okay no that's not. We need to slug. That's what we gotta do. We got a slug baby. The Asheros have seven home runs on the year.

Royals have six, Blue Jays have six, everyone else has more. So we're bottom five in that. We, because of course on the backup. You could probably guess which two teams are leading the way with home runs, Matt? Would it be the Rankies? And the Dodgers? That would be correct. Dodgers have 28.

Yankees have 26. You'll never guess. I probably guess you wouldn't guess number three and four. I'll just go on a whim. The Marlins. The athletics and the angels. What? Yeah.

By the way, the bloom is off the rows of the Sacramento A's. They're drawn like 9,000. They can't even fill up a AAA stadium now. That's still better than last year in Oakland. That is true. A lot cheaper. rent probably. Funny enough. All right, now we'll keep it moving on the news at noon.

We'll go to the NBA side. Houston Rockets in action last night against the Los Angeles Clippers. Reed Shepard, knocking down some threes. Shepard comes in a front court, across middle of the floor. Tries to get by one defender and done. Giving it now to J. Sean top of the key, turns to his left. Reed's wide open, 25 feet up and in. Reed Shepard in double figures in this first half with 11 as that three ball. makes it 68 to 55.

He would have 20 points on 6 to 10 shooting from three. Rockets would rest basically all of their starters. You did have Jalen Green play the first eight minutes of the first quarter and about the first seven minutes of the second quarter and then completely sitting the second half, keeping his start streak alive. But clearly, the rockets are shutting things down to what extent we'll find out more tomorrow.

And Nimeo Dukukukuk. We'll join us tomorrow at 1.30 here on the radio program to discuss. Rockets and Lakers and then home Sunday for Denver and then it's playoff time, baby. Again, I don't know who, because I'm still staring at my standings column this morning and it hasn't changed the games of last night. Well, why don't you give us the update on those standings, Matt? There's a whole big mess from 3 to 8, correct?

Yeah, I think it'd be in one ear and out the other for the audience. Okay, that's fine. Well, I'll tell you one part of the standings. The Phoenix Suns eliminated from playoff contention, the Houston Rockets in control of their first round pick. they have a 17% chance, as of right now, of a top four pick and a 3.8% chance. So you're telling me there's a chance.

Yes. For the number one overall pick, no team, the top three will all share the same percentage. No team will have more than a 14% chance. So a 4% chance, not nothing. And apparently the draft's going to be good this year as compared to previous years. I think it's supposed to be better, yes. Yeah, I mean, last year was horrifically bad.

No, hey, number three overall, a pick. Reid Shepard with 20 points. It's knocking down three points. Yesterday. He's growing into his role. Absolutely, Matt. We're all proud of Reed Shepard and where he is. I like Reed. I hope next year is significantly more productive. So look, as we know, the Rockets and the perimeter shooting,

there's just no way around it. All right, man, let's keep it going on the news at noon. Yeah. At the Masters. On CBS. The Zalias are in full bloom, Matt. I can do the full sock. I can do the full golf voice. Yeah, you want to go ahead and pull up the leaderboard?

You can do it. It actually sounds good with what you got going on. Okay, let's see. Let me pull up the Masters leaderboard. As we give time to Matt Thomas, a tradition unlike any other to bring up the leaderboard of the Masters at Augusta National. There's a few clouds outside. Temperatures in the 80s. The smell of spring is. in the air. This is great. And

on this day where I went to the Waffle House just outside of Augustin National where I had two eggs scattered, smothered, covered, diced, sliced, Scotty Schaeffler

through 9, his 3 under bar. Something called, let's see, the guy's name. I don't know this guy's first name. Tyrell? Tyrell. Hatton is also tied atop the leaderboard.

Justin Rose also tied to top at 3 under. But he's through 4. Hatton is through 9. Sheffler through 9. Rossi, there's a crowded leaderboard in a tie for 4th. Wow. Harris English. Brian Harmon.

Stefan Yeager. Joaquin Neiman. Oh, I love Joaquin Neiman. and Jordan Spieth are all in a time for fourth Wow multiple long horde legends up there Tiger Woods currently tied for 793,000 Yeah I don't think he's gonna make it

What do you do? He ripped his Achilles, right? He's shredded it apparently Oh Not good tiger You hate when the parts of your body get shredded How many majors would he have If not for the injuries And he's got a new girlfriend

So he's winning on CBC B.S. Yeah, it's some new socialite, right? No, yeah, it's Donald Trump Jr.'s X. Yeah, she's been getting around. Is she frisky?

Said your net worth's under 100 millie, we're out. Ross, you got to rebound here a little bit, don't you? Yeah, I guess. A wishing tiger and whatever her name is, the best. All right, Matt, let's keep it moving on the news at noon. How about this one? Browns?

quarterback Deshawn Watson who has been rehabbing after re-tearing his right Achilles A tendon. Akele's tendon posted a video on Instagram which documents his rehab at the Brown's practice facility. Watson also said, quote, everyone's doubting me. Everyone don't believe in me.

Everyone don't think that I can get back to where I was, but I know and I believe the work that I put in what I believe in myself. The piece that I've been channeling these last couple of months, I know I'm going to be way better than before. Not. He's done. The Browns know it.

I mean, multiple Achilles tears. No, he's, that's, I'm putting, you know what, I'm going to put my name. Yeah, let me, hold on. Get the no sure on his file out. Get it out. That's fine. He will be nothing. No, I'm not saying he'll never play again.

I'm not saying that. Okay. But he will never be close to what he was at Houston, Texas. Yeah, that would be. ever. That seems like it. Sometimes you put your name on some very safe bets, Matt. Well, I feel like I need to.

By the way, recently, March 25th, Matt Thomas, you put your name on the Rockets finishing top fourth. That's a hit for you. Thank you very much. We have got feelings coming up at the bottom of the hour. We need to do some more braggadocious things about it. Okay. Let me tell him on what.

Sean Watson never reaches. That feels like a pretty safe bed. Like what? Should I narrow it down to what I think he's going to be the rest of the way? No, that's okay. I got one for you. He will start less than 10 games the rest of his NFL career. Ooh.

How about that? How about that? Okay. All right. Fewer than 10 games started the rest of his career. Rest of his career? Yeah. Woo!

Okay, that is a little more spicy. Yeah, I figured you like that. He was seven games started last year for Deshawn Watson. He was one and six as a starter. Five touchdowns, three interceptions. He's not supposed to play this year. year at all, is he? I don't think so. Yeah. So that's another year.

You know, spring chicken. Yeah, and his game wasn't predicated on necessarily running like Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson, but him freeing himself up with his mobility was a big part of his game and two Achilles stairs, probably not going to be great for him. And that's your news and news, my friends. Yeah, it was a good job, but you know,

we've not done much of the off-the-beat story on the news at noon. And we just know, there's so much great news to get to, Matt. By the way, congratulations to my 401K yesterday. bounce back. Oh. Are you checking that as often as you check the standings? That's another thing. Just leave it. Just leave it.

Check it when you retire. Yeah. I did go up $18,000 yesterday. All right. I will have these scammers start calling you as soon as possible. Have them call me because I'm ready to belch in front on their phone anyway. Okay. All right. Gut feelings.

Bottom of the hour here on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790. Ross, what is today's edition of Believe it or not? A hell if I know. How about the history of 401Ks? No, I'm good. That seems kind of boring. What are you, Roth IRAs?

I can't name another one. How about a Fannie Mae, if you will? Okay. Vanguard, Fidelity, ADP. I think we've narrowed up just about every one of the 401K is available to us. You said Roth, right? Well, Roth IRA is a type of account. Oh, I didn't know that.

It's okay. I should. I don't think you can do when you make too much. which should I look at less excuse me my 401k or the Western Conference playoffs standings

both of them you know I should do just get off my phone exactly I have people calling me skinny white ass on Twitter this has been a tough day it just has been

you'll be fine 713212 5701 I want to tell you about Matt Thomas show with Ross continues here from Los Angeles It is 1220 in Houston. 713-212-5-7-9.

If you want to jump into the conversation, we've got gut feelings coming up at the bottom of the hour. We usually do this on Tuesday, but I was... I would say basically clinically depressed for about 36 hours. The sting is still there. You know how you get when you get bruised and it's like black and purple, and then it starts to get like to a more of a brownish tone?

That's where I'm in with my pain of the Cougars losing. Time will heal all wounds, Matt. Not really. I mean, not completely, I guess. No, no, not completely. The scars will still be there. Oh, yeah. Bad scar.

Lorenzo Charles, bad scar of me, 1983. It's 42 years ago. I'm still feeling that. You poor baby. Do we all have those? What's your longest sports scar? 18 rockets?

Mm-hmm. That's it. That's not bad for you. You're just turned 40. That's not terrible. The 09 championship game when Colt McCoy got hurt. Marcel Darius ripped his shoulder in half. Yeah.

They got a three and out and then they were driving down the field with Jordan Shepley got a big pass. There was like first in goal. And then I'm like, oh my God, they might beat Alabama. And then you got the Garrett Gilbert comeback that was, what's his name, Mark Ingram ran for like a billion yards. We don't have to talk about it. That one hurts. Yeah. Yeah.

You know what? We do have our scars. We can live with that. A couple of things have happened on social media that I don't know if today's sports organizations are tone deaf or you've got some youngans in these media departments, these social media departments that just don't understand tact. So the Denver Nuggets, and not that we spend a lot of time talking Denver Nuggets basketball, they fired Michael Malone. and they fired Calvin Booth. They're not bringing back Calvin Booth. He was general manager.

So they flat out fired Michael Mullen. They own about $25 million. They don't own Calvin Booth anything. He's a general manager. And he and Michael Malone didn't get along. So instead of firing one of them, they fired both of them. Clean slate. Okay.

The Denver Nuggets put out a tweet earlier, I don't know when it was within the last 24 hours, thanking Calvin Booth for his time. I don't. I think sometimes the best things you do are doing nothing at all. Because what you're doing is you're giving an opportunity for a fan base. I don't know how big the Denver Nugget fan base is. But you're giving that fan base an opportunity to just take one relentless shot at you over the other, right?

Are people taking shots at Calvin Booth? Well, they're like, well, thank you, Calvin Booth. And he's like, that's the reason why this team is underperforming. I mean, I just, I think sometimes less is. more when it comes to an opportunity to go on a public form like a social media like X and go, you know, maybe you just let that

sleeping dog lie a little bit. I mean, he brought the team a championship. You can thank him. But you're not only not thanking him when you're firing him with five games left to go in the season. You're basically saying, we didn't want to wait any longer. We were tired of you fighting with the coach.

Get out. We won't even let you we won't even let you see how the playoffs come out. We're not going to give you an opportunity to craft this team again. I'm trying to find this post. I'm curious what people are saying. They're making fun of his physical appearance. Oh, that's not nice.

Yeah. I mean, I just had my I was just called a skinny white ass today. That doesn't happen to me very often. I was actually kind of as like a backhanded compliment, correct? Yeah, man, good for you. Yeah. You've been waiting, you've been yearning to get called skinny your whole life. I know. I only took 40 years. Forty-five years. I just, I don't know if you've got 23-year-olds that just don't get it or their bosses are saying to do this,

but it just doesn't. I imagine it's from the higher up saying, yeah, go ahead and thank Coach. Yeah, I see, thank you, Coach Malone. Mm-hmm. Yeah, thank you, Calvin. That's from two days ago. And what are the responses? Read a few of them roll out. No, we're good. Um, whose man's this? Thanks for nothing.

Where can I play for the job? Pretty sure I can do better. Yeah. So long booth. Yeah. Not all publicity, Ross, is good publicity. Yeah, but this is also all people who pay for Twitter trying to just get their likes. So I've got to scroll down to the actual unchecked people.

Oh, yeah, they're still upset, too. It's so ridiculous. It's like sloughing off the, like the foam. off atop of a beer with all these check marks who get first in replies because they pay for a free website. Right. And you've got to, then you've got to go to get to what actual people are saying.

And the actual people are like, thanks for running this team. They're underperforming. Why did you bring Russell Westbrook here? Enough is enough. And Russ is charming for a while. And we know this firsthand from here. Oh, by the way. Russell Westbrook was traded. It was pretty exciting

in Houston, Texas for a short time. People are saying, don't recheck your fore I guess it's another bad day at the markets. Ooh, 401K's a bad day again? Told you, don't check, Matt. Don't check. All right, I'm going to try to not check my 401K today or the Western Conference standards. Don't even check it for years.

The Rockets playoff standings? I have to do that. Oh, either, actually, yeah. Don't do either for years. It's fine. Whatever it will be, will be. All right, so is there any team you don't want to play some playoffs, playing the playoffs, or you ain't scared of anybody?

No, it doesn't matter. I have no control over it. It really doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter at the end of the day. The West is tough. Yeah, would I rather play the Grizzlies or the Clippers than the Warriors? Probably. I mean, could I get another trip to L.A. out of this?

I mean, I could, right? Grizzlies are really good, though. They have John Morant, Jaron Jackson Jr., good talented team. They fired their coach, but they've won three in a row. There's going to, the West is just ridiculous. It's, yeah, and that's the reality is that there's no easy opportunity. period. Yeah, the seven seed in east, the seven seed is a 40-win team, the magic.

Yeah. But that top of that east is so top-heavy. Cleveland and Boston are just ferocious. Yeah. Top three contenders, I would say, Thunder, Cleveland, Boston. And the Rockets, if you were to slip in a fourth team. If you were. I put them in a second tier, but no, no, no, I'm not.

Sorry, Matt. I know you're trying. the rockets are not in the Thunder Cavs or Celtics tier. They're just not to me. Okay, well, all it is prove you wrong. All right. They would be underdogs to all three of those teams in a series, but they don't play. Depending who they play in the first row, they may be an underdog because of the fact that if you're going against a team, it's veteran lane like Golden State.

You tell me that you wouldn't be, I mean, would you be a favorite even in a two-seven? I don't know. But they don't play the games at the betting window, Matt. That they don't. I've been telling you that for years. Vegas is right a lot of time, but I know we are. All right. Let's do some gut feelings here.

We do this normally on Tuesdays, but we were in a bad state of mind on Tuesday. We're in a fresher frame of mind right now. Time for us to make some sports predictions. If you want some sports predictions to get off of your chest, if you get them right, you get to brag on the show later. If you get them wrong, we just forget about them. Unless they're so atrocious that we're making fun of you. But we don't do that here on the show very often. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach the show.

if you want to get in today, that's 713-212-5-790. If you want to follow us on Twitter, you may do that as well. It's at SportsMT and at SportsRV. That's at SportsMT and at SportsRB for today's edition of, this week's edition of the gut feelings. And again, if you want to get in on the conversation, you may do so at 713-212-5-7-90. Make your guts feelings. Make your predictions about who the, you know what, I got one for you.

Who were the Rockets ultimately play in the playoffs? You ready for that? That might not be a bad one here. 713-212-5-7-99. Listen up, girls and boys. This has been so appealing. You're Russ and Matt Thomas. Yo, they got a good feeling.

This is their gut feeling on the Matt Thomas show. Prediction time. Let's go. 7-13-212-5-790. 7-1-2-1-2-5-7-9-0. Time for us to get your predictions in in the world of sports. 713-212-1-2-5-7-A.

Ross, how we do last week? Well, let's see what we have. Matt, you had University of Houston versus Florida in the basketball championship final. That's correct. You said, I guess this is for his Saturday start. Lance McCullors Jr. will pitch in the second. Oh, no, no, this was you saying that,

no, this was you saying that he will be an opener at some point. Yeah. That's the colors, Jr. will pitch in the start pitching in the second inning of a game. Got it. That's all I have written down for you. I have Astros' next home run, Yordon Alvarez. I believe that was incorrect. I think it was Jeremy Pena.

I said Florida versus Duke, Duke wins at all. That did not happen. It was Florida versus University of Houston, and Florida, the Gators, Matt, won the championship. They did? I didn't know that. Thanks for bringing that along. I also had the Lady Longhorns winning the national championship. They got destroyed by South Carolina.

Who then got destroyed by Yukon? Yes. And that'll conclude today's edition of Women's College Basketball Talk. Yes. And that's all I had written down. Dan Matthews got in with one. Yeah. He had Christian Walker homering.

I think he said, he said tonight or tomorrow. Oh, were out? Were you out or something? Last Tuesday I think you were Yeah oh I was traveling back from LA Yes yes I was And I think I got some from you late Monday

That's what I have written down Okay he had Christian Walker homering And I think he did the next day So we'll give a tip of the cap to Dan Matthews Thank you Dan And for Mr. Jonathan Allen He had Auburn in the final versus Houston With Houston winning it all

Mm Loss and a loss He's forgetting my first original gut feelings, which is true now. Which was that? Houston hits the second seed. Always will stay there. Oh, okay. That was from a few weeks ago.

Yeah, if it's from a few weeks ago, you got to bring, this is how gut feelings works, Jonathan. We recap the ones from, I'm not recapping ones from all the way to 2023 or something. You got to know I'm right. You know, I'm saying, yeah. So the onus is on you to bring up anything that's more than a week ago. Correct. Correct.

I'm not going to comb through every one of your predictions. You have to brag immediately or we forget about you. Correct. Correct. Like, for example, it was a. few weeks ago that I said the Cougars would make it to the final four, but lose in the final four,

and that was a correct hit for me, Matt. Yeah, congratulations. I'm happy for you. And I'm sorry. It's fine. I don't care. I do care. What do you tell me? I do care. I do absolutely care, Ross. I'm sorry, Matt. Sixteen seconds left to get up one shot. It's all we needed.

One freaking shot. Hmm. Mm. I'm not getting up any shot. in the last minute. I'm by the time. I'm going to be nice. You know what?

I appreciate that. I don't believe it to be genuine, but I believe... I got one for you. Rockets win their first round series. I don't care who it is. That's what I'm talking about. What's up? And I got one for you.

The Rockets win the first playoff series, and it won't even go seven. Boom. How about that? Ooh, okay. They win it before seven. Nobody likes a one-upper. Nobody likes a one-upper, Matt, but I like that prediction.

Thank you very much. how's I'm going with. Okay. All right. Jonathan, what do you got? I'm going with, honestly, I think Houston, this first, wherever first round they're getting,

look at the standings, is going to be a seven games. So I'm not going to want up, but I really don't think this first round's going to be easy for Houston. And I just, just from past experience, I've been going up with that.

I don't know. But who wins game seven? Oh, Houston, we're going to get it. But it's going to be a hard. It's going to be one of those nail-biter things. Okay. Man, I'm already, nervous just hearing that.

I don't know what this is like, Ross. It's been five years and we've done this. You know this, right? It has been, Matt. Yeah. All right. 713-212-5-7-90. I got one for you. This is way, way down the road. There will be no Astros in the next year's World Baseball Classic. I think that's wrong.

Okay. I'll be wrong. Why? Why? What's the matter with that? he's saying that you're saying that they're going to sit out due to injury risk yes okay that's different what do you think I said I guess he was thinking you were saying that they wouldn't be deserving that no no why would I say that that's ridiculous I think that's way wrong I think there will be multiple Astros

Can I put that down how about I want them not to play is that better? Yeah that's better but I'll write down my gut feeling multiple Astros play I think they have the most foreign-born players on a major league roster. Well, I'll tell you what, I'll give you one name I don't want anywhere near it. Jose Al-Tuvei. We'll see. We shall see. No, I want you to be right.

I get it with the injury risk, but just talking to hear the players talk about it. They love the WBC. They love representing their country. They do. Yeah. It's a big deal with them. I agree. I agree.

I agree. I'm sorry, Matt. Let's talk to Stephen who's probably down the street here in L.A. Hi, Stephen. You're on 7.99. At 8, 1239. What's going on? Hey, guys.

I've got two gut feelings. The first one is, I think Camp Smith gets his first home run against the Angels this weekend. He's been swinging about well, and Angels have pretty poor pitching. So that's one. And my second one is, I believe the Rockets will go further in the NBA playoffs in the OKC center. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

I think OKC is too dependent on foul calls that you don't get in the regular season. I like the Rockets being able to manipulate their lineup, going double big, playing physical. So, yeah, that's my gut feeling. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Stephen. I will say this, Ross, there is a little national narrative. Whether it's just, what do you call it, the recency bias, is that what you call it? Oh, there you go.

Sometimes. You know, the Rockets lost or beat them Oklahoma City on Friday. Then they got beat badly by the Lakers the next game. And then they were mono-a-mono with the Lakers again on the Oklahoma City floor. And the game changed when Luca Donchich got his second technical foul and got tossed up the game. And then it was a different game after that. There is a little bit of people that are kind of painting this portrait of maybe Oklahoma City is a tinge overrated. I think there's still the favorite.

but I would make basically like a horse racing analogy. While they're the favored horse, it's not like you've got to lay money. It's not like it's even money. You know what I'm saying? They can be two to one or three. You can still be two to one and still be the favorite where everybody else is four to one, five to one.

You're not like the cigar back in the day when you were getting one to nine. Right. Who's your favorite horse of all time? Seattle Slew. Oh, that's not a bad one. I'm going to go with Secretariat. I'm a little on Mount Rushmore, Sea Biscuit, Seattle Slew.

Yeah. War Admiral. Oh. And Secretariat. My favorite that didn't get off to a great start. I know what you're going to say. You know which one of it is. I already know what you're going to say.

Down goes Frasier. Down goes Frasier. I was watching some of those fights when George Foreman passed on YouTube. That dude was a monster. Forman or? Howard Cosell. Well, Howard Cosell, too. Yeah.

All right, let me tell you the scenario we're in currently right now. All we have left on the line is Brad. Please get ahead of him, please. So you know the rule when Brad calls in. Anybody that gets in or calls 713-212-5-7-9 can get in before Brad. I mean, even my man, Stephen and Lewis, or whatever he's calling, Carrollton, he could even get in before him. Love it. So if you want to get in with your gut feeling, you got to do it now.

Because if not, Brad's coming up next with his gut feeling. And, Ross, you better get your pen running because it could be like an hour full of predictions. Yeah, I guess. I usually write down his bad takes. That's good. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. If you want a gang, you will get in, I promise you, before Brad and Spring Branch joins us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. That's 7-1-3-2-5-79. Ross is... The boys have been so appealing. You're Ross and Matt Thomas. Yo, they got a gut feeling. This is their gut feeling on the Matt Thomas show. Let's go to the phones and talk to the great people of Houston, Texas, and throughout the world on the Iheart radio app.

Make us your number one preset, right? Sports RV? Please. We're asking you to make us your number one preset here on Sports Talk 790. We would really love it if you would support the show and the station. This is, I will say, Accompany the initiative. So if you want to support us, put us at the number one preset

on your iHeart radio app. We really, truly appreciate it. You know what the presets are. Go to the app. Oh, by the way, hold up. Even better. We got Kendrick Lamar tickets to give away with this.

We should be mentioning this like every second of the day. Okay. Kendrick Lamar tickets. If you show a screenshot, email them to, is it Adam Wexer? We're emailing these two?

I don't know. Okay. Wex has been getting emails. You know what? Email me. I'll take them. Ross at Sports790.com. I'm a big Kendrick Lamar fan.

You want Kendrick Lamar tickets at NRG Stadium in like two weeks. April 23rd. Take a screenshot of you having Sports Talk 790 as your number one preset. Email it to me, Ross at Sports790.com. And you will be entered to win a pair of tickets to Kendrick Lamar and Siza at NRG Stadium. You sit next to me for the event. Well, I tried to. I don't know. I try to ask for some free tickets through work, Matt, and they told me to shut my bum ass up.

Yeah, you know what? Get your damn credit card out, Ross. Ooh, these are pricey, Maddie. Woo, they're pricey. You want to sit on the floor, it's going to cost you a G. For Kendrick Lamar? Yeah, 22-time Grammy winner or whatever it is. A Voice of a Generation? A Pulitzer Prize winner? Literally the first non-jazz or classical artist to win a Pulitzer Prize for music.

I would say that's pretty good. God's gift to the music industry. Pretty good accomplishment. Can't wait. Ray and Pearland, what's in your gut, Ray? Well, I've been looking for the perfect time to call back and to keep Brad off the radio. It's got to be the perfect time.

So last time I called, I predicted that A&M would beat LSU. That's how long ago it was in the football season. And as a former Cougar alum, I feel your pain, Matt. And I predict that with our transfers coming in, pop Isaacs in our great recruiting class. We're going back-to-back Final Four. All right. But you know what, though, Ray?

I don't want Final Four anymore. I want the Natty. Well, the only thing that saved me not losing, winning the Natty was the tattoo I was going to get. So I do want the Natty also. What tattoo were you going to get? Oh, it was going to be Old Shasta with a standing on a basketball holding up the trophy. I'm glad you didn't get that just. yet.

I feel, oh, well, to lessen my pain, I did get to go to the Masters on Tuesday, so that's a nice little humble brag. Oh, nice. Good for you. Thanks very much. I appreciate the phone call. For you. I used to play golf quite a bit, and I don't play anymore because I just don't have time to do it. But I thought about, you know, if I got an invitation to go to the Masters, I'd probably take it. But it's not one of those bucket list things anymore like it used to be for me. Why not, Matt? I don't know. First of all, watching golf on television now, now the Tigers aren't involved and Phil for the most part, it just does nothing for me.

Like, we did the bash your scoreboard 50 minutes ago. I mean, I knew who Jordan Speath was, and who Scotty Schaeffer was, the rest of the guys I had no idea who they were. It's early, Matt. Hideki Matsuyama will be charging up the leaderboard soon enough, I'm sure. Rory McElroy is even through none. on Sunday. You're going to watch more of the NBA or you're going to watch the Masters? Sorry, through two. Is Tiger involved? No. Remember, he's got his legs all shorter.

No. Okay. Let's go to, oh boy, this is a... James and Klein. James, what's in your gut? Yeah, the Cubs nor the Red Sox will make the postseason, but the Astros will. Whoa! That feels like a lot of old astro bias right there. Well, it is, but that's my good feeling. Okay. Thanks for the phone call. Have we done an update on the guys yet lately?

On which guys, sorry, I'm getting a flood of Kendrick Lamar emails. Appreciate you guys. Are you really good? That's good. Yeah, people want the tickets. Make us your number one preset. Send me a screenshot of it. I mean, when you say flood, how am I'm talking about?

I got six. That's nice. In like a minute. Ross at Sports790.com. By the way, a million seats left. I thought a stadium tour quite frankly was a bit ambitious for Kendrick Lamar, and that's bearing out in Houston. A lot of tickets left.

But you want free ones. We're giving them away. Show us as your number one preset. Send me the screenshot, and you'll be entered to win a pair of tickets to Kendra Mar and Samson. And take Ross with him because he's too much of a cheap ticket to go see his favorite singer of all time. If you win, you want to take me, I am available. Wednesday, April 23rd.

You know what? You sell him. Like, he's the one of a kind. He's a magic man. He's a magician. He says that, da-da-da-da-d-th. Yeah. You won't spend money on his tickets.

I've seen him live twice already. Well, I've seen, I saw Paul McCarney multiple times. Yeah, okay. I've seen Barry Mantle them multiple times. Yeah, these tickets are real price. I'm going to keep, look, I keep in an eye on the prices. I'm looking, I'm going to bet you. I'm going to bet you they're going to go down the day of the concert.

So I have not ruled it out. I'm just keeping it on the markets. They're in first place by a half game where we're walking to Central. The Red Sox are six and seven, and they're in third place, two back of Toronto in the American League East. Other than the Yankees weren't supposed to lose any games. They're 7 and 5. Yeah, I think their pitching has been bad.

And the Dodgers are 10 and 4, which is really good, but that's only there. A half game back of San Diego, who's 10 and 3. Well, Garrett Cole is still recovering from Tommy John surgery for Pete's sake. Sal and Pearland at 1254 on the Matt Thomas show

with Ross. Sal, good afternoon. What's in your gut? Hey, what's up, Matt? Hey, Ross, so this is for Matt. This is my good feeling. I have a... My good feeling is that Matt will be a fan of soccer by the time the World Cup comes to Houston.

Oh! I don't think it's going to happen. You know why, Sal? Matt's very stubborn, especially. He digs in. He doesn't... Oh, my God. He's not...

I work with the most stubborn person I know. You! What? That is so rich coming from you. I'm open-minded and changed my opinion all the time. What? No. chance.

What? No. Hey, Rod. Yeah. And he'll also, by that time, he'll, he would have also eating chorizo by then as well. Okay. Let me tell you, Sal, let me give it to you right now. Okay.

One of those two could be true. Which one do you think is more likely to be true? The chorizo one. No, soccer. Toreso is greasy. It's greasy. Gross. You see, you're just not, again, I don't know where you're getting your trisolee.

so, Matt, but you're not getting the right stuff. I just don't think. Torizo is greasy by nature. I've never seen anybody eat. You eat breakfast sausage? You eat Jimmy Dean sausage? You eat hamburgers? It's not greasy like that. You eat French toastics which

are squirting grease into your mouth with every bite. You like the filet fish. You're telling me, you don't let. What? White fish, delicately fried with a layer of nice tartar sauce, slice of cheese, and a warm bun. Good. It is an explosion of

grease down your gullet. when you're eating filial fish. Get out of here. Stop. The chorizo grease is in a different world of grease. Oh, and then the McRib. Oh, let me tell you about the most light tasting. It's got like 700 grams of fat.

Stop. Oh, my God. You're ridiculous. Last but least. Brad on 7.8. Brad, what's in your gut this week? Well, besides my guts, Matt, you know, you make me weight. But you're going to have to wait a lot longer than me.

We can hang up on you if you'd like, Brad. All right, so the Astros are not going to the playoffs this year. And Bradford is. We're going to get our money back from giving up. And y'all bragged about Loporfito. I'm the only one that bragged about... Stop! Stop!

Oh, my God. Stop. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. And he should be... As soon enough, he'll be the third baseman. I also have the Rockets get going to, they'll win their first couple of playoffs when they get to Oklahoma City. That's when they'll lose.

You there? Yeah. Okay. I also have the Las Vegas Raiders doubling their win total this year. That's a piece of cake. I see Crane buying out, trying to buy out, Cam Smith, R. years. As soon as he starts doing really, really good, and I know he will. I see Jim Crane. I don't know if it's going to be done. If Cam Smith was smart, he'd say no. But I see Crane

trying to buy out his arbor years. I see Lance McCullors being one of the starting pitchers as soon as he gets back in the rotation. I see the Boston Red Sox winning the American League. I don't know if they're going to win the World Series. I have to wait on that one, but I think I know they'll win the American League. They're better than the Yankees. They're better than everybody else in the American League. And they will go on the trade at the deadline if they need to better some position. Anything else?

And I guess, let's see. Oh, yeah, no, the Rockets will get a center in the offseason. I don't know if it's by draft or trade or a free agency, but they'll need a nice center. And that's it. Okay. You read all that down, Ross? Some of it. I zoned out.

I'm long checked out. I've long checked out. All right. Final hour of the show is coming up. Ross, what is today's edition to believe or not in 50 minutes? Kendrick Lamar, actually.

Again? Have we done like four times of Kendrick Lamar? I'm just kidding. First of all, I don't think it's been done ever on this show. Number one. I don't know. Calvin Booth? What do you want?

Ooh. Oh. I've got a lot of work ahead of us here. All right. Brian McTaggart replay coming up in a half an hour. You may join us next at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. Astros fall, Rockets fall as well.

Luca Donchish goes back to Dallas for the first time among the things we'll get to in the final hour of the Matt Thomas Show at Ross here on Sports Talk 7-90. 104 on Sports Talk 7-90. It is the final hour of the Matt Thomas show at Ross. It's 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-9. 97-13-2-1-2-1-2-5-7-90.

I'm watching FS1 right now in my room. I'll see 45 points, 8 rebound, 6 assists for Luca Dodgich last night for the Los Angeles Lakers. I mean, and now he's hugging like Mark Cuban after the game, hugging all the staff members. How embarrassing for Dallas. Seriously, I don't know. We've talked about this for a couple of months since the trade. Where is it going to go down? Are we going to remember this trade for the rest?

of our adult lives. I think so. Yes. He's 25 years old. They just went to the finals. He's already like third or fourth in the all-time triple doubles list. I'll pull it up. It's like he's like got as many as Jason Kidd or something like that.

Yeah. He's still Doey. Okay, sorry, he's seventh on the list. But yeah, Jason Kidd has 100. Jason, he's got more triple doubles than James Hardin. He's 25. Luca Donchage. Remember when James Hardin was getting a triple double double?

like every other day? Yep. By the way, shout out to the officials last night. It's hard and kept falling down and wouldn't get cold. I think you'd get one whistle on a fall down. I still got to the free throw like 10 times, I think last night. Yeah, I think this transcends even for basketball, even for people that aren't fans of basketball,

that you make such a boneheaded decision. It will, will it be something that will ultimately, like everyone talks about, I think even Jason Kidd, the Mavericks coach said, you know, is this the Babe Ruth trade? But Babe Ruth wasn't traded to the Red Sox. He just left the Red Sox go to the Yankees, right? He was sold.

He was sold for money. And I think it was the Red Sox owner wanted to finance, I don't know, it was a play or he needed money. So he sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Because that was the curse of the Bambino. What is this the curse of? The curse of the Lucas? Donchich

Dantich curse Because of the airlines The American Airlines is here I know That's the stadium name Yeah the arena I guess he's going with the curse of the American Airlines curse The American Airlines The airline curse

Okay The airline curse No the airline curse would be going on a plane And then having it crash That would be a curse Okay 713212 5790

713 212 5790 Astros fall in Seattle. They have a day off today. Rockets are off today. What are we going to do as a sports society for tomorrow? What do you mean? What are we watching tonight?

Nothing, correct? There's got to be some Thursday night, TNT, action on. You won't let me watch basketball because I've got to look at the standings every five minutes. You can watch it. You just don't look at the standings. They don't change until games are over. All right, maybe so. Let's see what our friends on TNT slash True TV slash Max have.

Cavs Pacers? Nope. No thanks. Yeah, Cavs are mailing it. in, I guess, because the Pacers are 9.5 point favorites. And then you have Timberwolves, Grizzlies. That should be good. 8.30.

830. 830. 830. All right. Or my time, 6.30. I tell you what, I'm pro West Coast time zone. I just like it. Good.

All your events are done by 9.10 o'clock local time. You're not having to stay up, you know, bleary eye because it's 1 o'clock in the morning watching a West Coast game. Central time's good. Central's good. East is the worst. Imagine why if you were an East Coast fan and you live in the East Coast

and you were going to watch a team at the Playland of West because you're watching games at 10 o'clock at night. And who the hell's doing that? Yeah, Rockets Clippers started 1030 at Eastern time. Yeah, Rockets Lakers tomorrow night will be, I think, is also at 9.30 central time tomorrow night. So there you have that. All right. Astros issues.

So we had Brian McTaggart on earlier today. You'll hear some of that conversation coming up in a few minutes here on the program. let's get to what is the most, okay, they're five and seven, right? I mean, this is an extraordinarily sample size. We're talking about what, 10% of the season would be 16 games, so we're not even at the 10% part of the season. Correct.

So if you were to put a synopsis together the first 12 games, are you more concerned about the pitching or more concerned about the hitting? I would say to me it's still about the hitting way more than it's about the pitch. It's still about the hitting. even though the bullpen was given up runs and gave a bunch of runs yesterday. Yeah. Outside of Josh Hater,

everybody's been questionable for the most part, pretty much. Including Brian Abrayu. Including Brian of Brayu. And frankly, you've got four or five guys in your Astros bullpen that you just don't know much about. I mean, they're literally journeymen. And that's what bullpins are typically about, right?

Yeah, well, I mean, when you had Presley Abraeu and Hater, you felt a lot better, and then you could figure it out from there. but yeah, there are, you'd like to have three reliable guys in the bullpen. And what the Astros approach is right now, and quite frankly, they had to trade away Ryan Presley. There's not a whole lot of money to sign relievers because they are trying to stay up as far under the tax as they can't. When we talked about with Brian McTaggart earlier, you'll hear it again. He's talking, they couldn't go out and sign a bunch of guys. So what they have to do is you have to kind of just scattershot this and you hope you hit something.

You're throwing a bunch. If they're trying to send into the tech, let's figure out where they got close to the tax to begin with. Tucker's gone. Presley's gone. Well, let's start with a Brayune-Martarro. Yeah, that's right. You're still on the hook for those guys. Well, not as much as Montero because of the fact that the Braves are paying some of that's are.

But you're still on hook for some of it. Al-Tuvae's money went up as far as his contract extension. He hit the $30-plus million. You paid Christian Walker a pretty good chunk of change. Correct. Jordan Alvarez. You bought an arbitration years on that and whatnot. So he's taught up to a more money than you would normally spend on a guy like that.

Yes, Josh Hader is making $19 million a year. Lance McCuller Jr. is making $18 million a year. You don't have to clench your teeth. It's fine. We're used to it. And so you've got to find values elsewhere. So, yeah, I mean, people are also crushing Dana Brown for this, the building of this bullpen. It's like, he's following instructions from the owner. They don't want to go over the tax.

So you got to slap some stuff together and hope something works. And you're going to get Force Whitley back. You're going to get Caleb Ort back. But neither of those guys have really long major league track records. And then, yeah, we're talking about Brian King, Stephen O'Kurt, Benet-Souza, Luis Contreras, like, yeah. Taylor Scott, the journeyman from, they're really throwing out of South African out there

is one of their best pitchers. Well, the reality is this. Every single year, Ross, this is to the audience, Most teams have to really, really struggle to have a smile on their face about their middle relief. That's why teams are in such flux when it comes to that. That's why in some respects, if you've got a 7-8-9, you feel like you'll take your chances because you know if it gets to the back end, you're safe. But when one of those key members of that back end of the bullpen struggles, I mean, Brian or Brayue was,

did he not enter the game with a two-run lead? Two-run lead with Brian Bray. You should have been game over. That should have been game over. Not that he has to be perfect every single time, but that should have been enough against a meek-hitting Seattle Mariner team. Mm-hmm. So that's the reason why yesterday hurt so much,

is because it wasn't because you asked, you know, and you brought up all the different names of players, you didn't ask Contreras to go three innings and finish a game for you. You bridged him. you bridge him to O'Reyu, two-run lead, against Seattle, not known for having a lot of power, although Randy Rosarena is a pretty decent hitter for them. Yeah, as we mentioned,

Abraeu's already been six of their 12 games. Joe Espada mentioned after the game, I know people wanted Contreras out of the game earlier, and I totally understand that. But Joe Espada, who is a general, I mean, who is a major league manager for a reason, he had a reason behind what he was doing. He said he wanted to make sure.

at all costs. He did not go to Brian Abraeu for more than three outs. So he didn't want to put Okard in there and then have him run into trouble and then you're trying to go to a Brayu. Unfortunately, he gambled that Contreras was going to do his job. He did not. But at the end of the day, however he bridged it,

you got to the ninth inning with a two-run lead and Brian Abraeu to close it out. And when he is a, he's one of your two supposed to be unbelievably reliable, lockdown high-leverage guys, fails you. you're going to lose.

You're going, you know, because again, you didn't have any of reinforcements. Your offense, as you mentioned earlier in the show, what did they live? 13 men on base, something like that. Runers of scoring position numbers weren't great, but there was enough. I mean, the Astros offense, while again, could have done more, did enough to give you a 5-0 league. You had, you had a two-run lead with Brian Abrae going up against the number six spot. Yep. Six, seven, eight, nine, you got some room.

Get some outs. And remember, they're five and seven. This isn't two, this isn't Atlanta right now. This isn't two in ten. This isn't, I'm trying to think who else is really off of a bad start. The white, well, the white socks sucks. This isn't, I mean, you think we're working out here in Houston? Imagine Baltimore, a lot of folks, including me, thought there was to be a legitimate

American League title contender. They're five and eight. Yeah, the good news is, A, it's early. B, the bats will be better. C, the division's not good. Nobody has a positive run differential in the whole division. Who did Texas play? I'm going to look at their schedule, see if they play anybody worth anybody.

They did go to Chicago and win. Oh, they lost two out of three of the Cubs. Yeah. They had the raise there. They went to the Reds. They beat the Reds two straight one-nothing games. They've won a lot of, they've already won, let's see, looks like four. Yep.

If not five of their nine wins are one-run ball games. To me, going back to the central point, the bats have got to start heating up. Jeremy Payne were waiting for the clock to speed up a little bit. For a guy that was unbelievable in the championship, it was a 23, right? To where he is now, he's kind of stuck in neutral, not even taking a step back offensively. Would that be fair to say? I think that's fair. Yoner Diaz, I think he's a 25 home run guy.

That? Jordan certainly is a 30 to 35 home run guy. Need that? Christian Walker. I mean, there's just, there's too many things for me to say it's too easy to blame the bullpen for yesterday and for some of the issues. The Astros offense just has to be better. Well, the good news is Yiner Diaz had a negative 39 OPS plus. It went up to negative 38.

So it's getting me. Okay. And remember, average is 100. Correct. So he's got work to do. Negative 38, which I didn't even know until Jose Bray, who taught me the, you could have negative numbers. I didn't even know that either.

I didn't know it until I saw Jose Abrae you. It's very, it's a concern, but remember, it's, we're looking at 8% of the season gone so far, right? I would say, yeah, but I'm more concerned. I'm less concerned about Walker and Alvarez, more concerned about maybe IR. Diaz and to some extent, Jeremy Payne as well. Yeah. All right. 116. Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues.

I'm here in Los Angeles. Rockets and Lakers tomorrow night. 713, 212, 5, 7. Those of you that are Cougars fans, Harold Arsson, no Harold Arsena. Terrence Arsena has entered the portal. There you go.

Wishing the very best. There you go, Matt. Yeah. I mean, it's going to be there's a log jam on the roster, correct? Too many, like seriously, literally an abundance of talent. Yeah, I mean, I think you have that heart to heart with some of those players and you say,

hey, what's my role? And I don't think the coach mince's words, says we think you're no more than, you know, a second or third guard off the bench. Terrence is probably thinking, you know what, I can go play for another school and maybe, you know, play more minutes. I mean, you know, it is what it is. Oh, yeah.

Wishing him the best, as you said, Matt. Yeah, you know, I've always had the belief that years ago that you kind of stick to your commitment, but with coaches changing left and right, I mean, look what happened just after the tournament. these teams were being eliminated into March Madness, these coaches were bouncing around from school to school to school. Not even letting the tears dry up after losing a game.

They're on their way out. I mean, the McNee's State coach goes to North Carolina State, Will Wade. You got, what's his name, Buzz Williams, going to, where did he go, Maryland. I mean, everybody, everybody's just, they're just hired assassins. it. We still like it. That's a 30,000 my Cougar friends were there in San Antonio.

We enjoyed it. We didn't worry about the portal. We didn't worry about NAA. We just weren't about a national championship. That's true. So I, you know, I had this laissez-faire approach to it.

I just, I just, I don't have any emotions about it. There was an interesting tweet that I saw. I don't know who it was. It was one of the four in the four U tab. You know, I think it was Jeff Goodman that put it out, college basketball runner,

that picks like 24 through 30 are about $3 million during the NBA draft coming up next year. Rossi, if you're a really good college player and you're playing in a Power 4 program, or for that matter, Power 5, you count the Big East. I mean, there's a lot of... You can get $3 million next year to play college basketball, easy.

Easy. Easy? Easy? If you're not a top 25 type player in the country? No, I'm just asking. That seems crazy to me. That you're not one of the top 25 players in the country because you're not going to be top 25 in the draft. You're not, well, I guess there's, of course, international players as well.

Right. Top 20-ish. I think it's now, there's never, the thought now is, Ross, you don't go back because you're looking to hone your skills. You're going back is because financially you can stick around in college one more year. You can still hone your skills and still make a lot of money and probably improve your draft. If someone comes to you and says, I think you're a late first round pick, or you can stay at XYZ school and get paid $2.5 or $3 million and work on your draft status. Kind of a no-brainer, is it not?

Yeah, and you have some guys who are really, really good college players who probably aren't going to be NBA players or factor much in the NBA who can come back. Yeah. I just, and honestly, I don't know where the money's coming from. You've already gone to the boosters enough as it is to build facilities and fund scholarships and put money in the coffer. I mean, where has this found money coming from? Or has it just been illegally been given to these players all these years? I think it's to an extent, right? A percentage of it was under the table is now over the table.

But it's what person, I don't think it's 100%. I don't think it's close to 100%. Right, right, right. Like I saw the NIL guy for the University of Houston bumping around in San Antonio. It was like he was like a used car salesman. Hey, what's up, man? I want to get your card. Yeah, you make some donations?

Let's go. Yeah, you're getting not a damn penny from me. Program's got to get their weight up, Maddie. Let's go. Well, I mean... Joseph DeWarte just retweeted a Wall Street Journal article. I think the University of Houston Cougars at the 58th most valuable basketball program.

That's based off of what is currently invested in terms of what the... It's a paywall. I don't know. I'm getting paywold. hard by the Wall Street Journal. I mean, I will pay, I pay for like the Chronicle. I pay for the Athletic. I got no reason to pay for the Wall Street Journal. So I'm wishing them the best. Yeah, I'm not paying for that. They can shut their bum ass up. Alan and Tom Ball at 127. Alan, thanks for holding a good afternoon to you.

Hey, good afternoon, guys. Okay, so I have two questions. Yeah. First of all, Matt, when you do the play-by-play for the Rockets and then you have the guys that do the television, why can't they just dub you into the TV as well? Because is it a money thing or how's that word what do you mean by a money thing well i mean i'm just wondering you know

you have your your call on the radio right and then you've got the other guys call on tv yes right why can't they just have one play by play guy oh i see what you're saying simulcast what you're talking about because if you're watching a television broadcast you are seeing where the ball is placed you're seeing

where the shot is taken you when you're doing television play by play you don't have to do as much of the play calling. I have to describe every single moment of the game, where the ball is, who's got the ball in their hand, where it was shot, how far it was, what's on the shot clock, what the time is. In television, your TV playbite play, guys,

still have to do some of that, but it's just, it's much more of a, it's, frankly, it's a lot less work because you're seeing most of the stuff that I'm describing on the record. Yeah, that's a reason. Okay, well, real quick, I've got two games to go to,

in May for the Astros, can y'all give me two games to go to? Y'all would think the best games would be in May? Well, I mean, are you going to see individual teams, or are you just, what do you, what do you, I'm curious, wait, what's the parameters here? I just, no parameters. I just have two days in May I can go to the game.

And I'm just trying to figure out which teams would be, which two games would be the best to go to. I'm not really worried about bobbleheads and free giveaways and all that. You're going to tell you who's in town, Matt, in May? It's awful. You've picked a terrible month to go to two games. It's the Reds. Then the Royals.

Seattle. The Mirrors. The A's. Yeah, no, I realize a team is the greatest, but that's what I got. I would go to two probably Kansas City games. Two K-C games, okay. I'm going to see the Mariners. It'd be good pitching matchups.

I don't want that. I want nine to seven. Let's go. I want that Asteroffin. I was hoping I was going to be able to catch the Cubs or the Red Sox, but that ain't going to happen soon. No, you know, Cubs, but thanks for the phone call. The Cubs are coming to town in late June. The Yankees come to town in early September.

The Red Sox will be here in early August. I was watching a little snippet of a podcast, Matt. they were talking about Kyle Tucker's projected contract now that Vladdy's got 14 years. Oh yeah, please I want to hear this. They were talking about basically

11 years 400 million. Wow. That would be a loss. That would be a loss for me. I might bet on that with you. It's a buster only and somebody called Paul Hembikides, I guess.

Paul Meketus. He's a loss. on ESPN platforms. Yeah, all right. I wish Tuck the best. Tuck's a good guy. And if he crush he crushes, nothing more as I could do than that.

Just applaud him. Tucker is two years older than Vlad, and yeah, that's bad for our bet of seven and a half years for you because the market was, it's got leaner with them locking up. 14-year contract for Vladito. Do you think the Blue Jays will regret that?

The answer is yes. At what point will they start regretting? Yeah, they were going to regret at the end of it, I imagine. Yeah. All right. Tags was with this earlier today. If you missed the conversation, he's next. It is 131 here on Sports Talk 790.

713-213-212-5-790. 7-19. So, what is coming up on April the 15th? Every Thursday at 11 o'clock here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We have a chance to catch up with Brian McTagg. We play it for the 1 o'clock audience as well in case you missed him earlier today. And our conversation got into the disappointment that was a 5-0 lead that eventually turned into a Seattle victory. Yeah, I mean, you're coming off, you know, the worst loss of the season out of only 12.

But they did that, you know, if you're looking at it, glass full, they had a three-and-three road trip. So, you know, you take that. But, yeah, the chance to have a four-and-two road trip is right there. You know, I think coming into season, and I think I told you that, you know, I thought the biggest issue was probably going to be the bullpen. and the bullpen had been pretty good up until yesterday. And yeah, I mean, Hater was down because with Erigetti being out and now you had a short start from Blanco, you're having to use guys more.

You're already behind the eight balls a little bit in usage. So they really need the off day to reset things. It's kind of early for that to be happening, but that's the reality. And they're already doing some bullpen shuffling, but, you know, Contreras came in and loaded the bases right away. And then, you know, O'Kert, who's been really good. You know, you're asking him just to, you know, put out a four-alarned fire at that point. And, you know, that's really tough to do.

And the Brady ones, the head scratcher, because that's where you're going to need him sometimes to close games like that. But you're going to need him in the eighth inning. And, you know, he can't come out there and just not command his pitches and allow them to, you know, to win the game like that. So that's got to be, you know, troublesome. Still early. I mean, Braves pitched to six games. He's got, you know, what, a five-plus ERA. got to clean that up a little bit.

You know, still, the offense still looks like a big issue as well with, you know, several guys in the lineup just not hitting. But, again, still really early. And they're, you know, they're five and seven. They're better off than they were at this point last year. But certainly there's some issues with this team. Yeah, still. And the key is still early. And look, every team can turn it up or it could be a season-long problem.

We don't have a crystal ball in front of us here on that. But was there any signs about our? Brayew, look, we spent a lot of the offseason talking about, got to make sure his appearance count is reduced from a year ago. Was there any signs in spring training that said, all right, the great Brian of Brayu that was a part of last year maybe isn't on the plane just yet coming to Texas? Well, I mean, you know, it's really hard to tell in spring with, you know, especially veteran guys who are established like him.

They're always working on things. They're not necessarily going out there and trying to blow guys away and get out. So, I mean, he looked pretty good in the spring, but, you know, they've played 12 games. He's pitched six. So, you know, you're right back at that, you know, 80-81 game pace that they wanted to try to avoid. And they haven't been able to do that so far in the first couple of weeks of the season. But he's walked six guys in five in the third innings. I mean, that's just, that just can't continue.

And so he's just whatever the control issues are, he's got to rein that in. He still has strikeout stuff, elite stuff. But the walks are just killing them right now. And so that's got to be corrected. But, you know, Lewis Contreras has watched five guys and six innings. And, you know, he's not a guy. They're counting on as much as a brayu. But I think we're just going to see a lot of shuffling in this bullpen.

But they need the back-end guys, Hater, who's been really good, Abraeu, and then, you know, maybe Brian King's or seventh inning guy. They need those guys to step up and be consistent because I think we're going to see a lot of shuffling and inconsistency behind them. I imagine we agree, Brian, that at the end of the day, whoever's gone out there has to get the job done, and that didn't happen yesterday. But just in the moment of the decision-making of Joe Espada,

how have you been feeling about the way things have been handled? I can't take qualms with anything he's done. I mean, I think they knew coming in. The bullpen was probably not their strength, and you can only call on the guys you have down there to bring out there and go out there and pitch. I mean, losing aergetti, you know, that was a big key piece of the rotation. So they're going to have to, you know, fill that now.

But I think as far as the bullpen decisions in his lineup, I mean, this is not a team that's five and seven because anything the manager is done. It's just because they haven't hit and some of their key relievers haven't gotten out to key times. I mean, that's it. The starting pitching has been pretty good for the most part. But, I mean, it's, you know, I'm not going to sit here and, and, I'm not going to sit here and, I mean, watching these games, I haven't seen anything where I'm like, oh, you know, what is Joe doing? I mean, he's doing everything he can at this point to try to put them in position to win. And look, yesterday they were four outs away from a four-and-two road trip and the bullpen imploded.

So, I mean, that's certainly not on him. Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk 790. Let's go to the offense side. We know that it will turn at some point. They are last in the majors in Team OPS. But I guess the question remains, how much will it turn to? to where we were hoping for, you know, 40 plus bombs from Yoron. We're hoping for Jeremy Payne to have the best offensive year of his career.

And I just, it's kind of in the balance of how close to those types of aspirations we had will get. Yeah, I mean, I think they're last in slugging. They're, I think they're 26 and runs, last in doubles. It's just across the board. I mean, Payne had a really, really good spring just from start to finish. I mean, he looked like a guy who was just ready to come out and have his best season. Still could, but, you know, 12 games in, he's got a 635 OPS. You know, Alvarez is the one they've got to get going.

I mean, they cannot win if Alvarez is hitting 195 with a 600 OPS with one homer every two weeks. It's just, they cannot get it done. Yiner Diaz is another one. He has two hits and 33 bats. I mean, just he's a guy that hits in the middle of the lineup, and it's just killing them right now. So Paredes has been okay, you know, not bad. Brendan Rogers has been, you know, okay. Altuve's been Altuve, of course.

I think Christian Walker, another guy who has to get it turned around a little bit. I mean, there's three key bats, Diaz, Walker, and Alvarez that are just not getting it done right now. That is the reason they're at where they're at, yes, and they can turn this around with one big weekend and everyone's back on track. Cam Smith, book out on him a little bit. You know, he's coming around a little bit, the bats look a little bit better. but you really weren't, you know, you didn't know really what you're going to get from him. But those key big three bats in the middle have to get going. Brian McTaggart, MLB.com with us here on Sports Talk 790.

I want to go back to the bullpen for a second, not necessarily the group, but the Montero trade to Atlanta. Do you think in your mind this has been in works for a while that maybe a change of scenery would be better to get something back in return, and get a little bit of financial savings on that? Where do you think that Dana said, you know what, it'd be best served if we moved him somewhere else? My guess is they've been trying to do it for a while. I mean, if you look at the moves they've made over the last few months, I mean, this team's in a little bit of a penny-pinching mode.

I mean, they traded it, you know, Presley for, you know, financial reasons and Tucker because they knew they wouldn't resign him. So it only makes sense that Montero, a guy making the money he's making, 11 plus million would be on the market as well. Maybe some teams wanted to wait to see how he did to start the year. But certainly this was made to a reliever I think they can do without who is expendable. The Braves can pay some money and they can call up somebody else like Bennett-Suzza who might be able to do a better job than the Montero.

So I think it was all financially driven. They're just trying to save as much as they can. I mean, I think they'll have a lot more payroll flexibility this year. But they're just in penny pension mode right now. When I say that, they still have a top five payroll, penny-pinching modes relative here for what the Astros do. It's not like they have a small payroll, but they're trying to avoid going over the luxury tax.

And, you know, next year they'll have a lot more money to do some things. But that's just kind of the reality they're in right now. And that is because, again, the Jose Arbrew contract is still under their watch until that expires at the end of the year. Up next, we're going to play, believe it or not. It is highly Googledable about the Masters. If you would like to play for a chance of some amazing prizes. 713-212-1-790.

7-1-3-2-2-7-9. Tomorrow on the radio show, we have both of the radio broadcasters for the teams we're carrying the station. Robert Ford is going to stop by on 11 o'clock tomorrow. Kirk Ackerman will be by as well. We've got to figure out what we're going to do for a time on him. We're going to have lunch right now, so we'll have an executive meeting on that. I have I'm sorry's tomorrow at 1130. We have Eme Adoka at 130.

We're going to have non-floor stories earlier at 120. And of course, hell, you're not. So a very busy Friday. Ross is off tomorrow. So it'll be just me and you and a chance for us to just to get to know each other. And basically bash Ross for four hours on a Friday. That'd be rude. Sounds good.

You got to bash me for four hours. I mean, you can take a little break. Yeah, I might, I might, between 11, 30 and 12 tomorrow when I'm saying, I'm sorry, I won't be bashing you during that time. Okay. That just feels right. Okay, so Ross, nobody locally playing tonight. We've got the Masters.

The Masters. Yes. You'll be the most intense Masters coverage on the radio tomorrow. Unbelievable stuff. I can't wait. We're getting into some serious offensive. We've got some draft talk going on the Texans, too. Can't get enough of that.

Draft Talk, 790. And you know what? Let's do one more reminder, Matt. Kendrick Lamar tickets. If you email me, Ross, at Sports790.com. You have us Sports Talk 790 as your number one preset on the IHart radio app. I had a lot of people sending me their car radios, Matt. IHart radio app number one preset.

Send me a screenshot to that. You will be entered to win a pair of tickets to Kendrick Lamar and Siza at NRG Stadium. April 23rd, the drawing will be tomorrow. What is your favorite Siza song? All of them? Me too. There isn't one. I can't separate.

Jonathan, what's your favorite Siza song? song. You know, I don't like Siza. Oh. She doesn't, you can't hear her. You don't understand her. There you go. Is she hot? Oh, those lips, dude. No. No. Excuse me?

She has, well, she has very big lips, but Lippin Jackson's it's fake. It's, yeah. I'm looking her up right now. Let's take a look at its old Sizzar here. What about Kendrick? Do you like Kendrick, Jenna? Yeah. I like Kendrick. Oh, that was a light.

Yeah, you know, you know. That was lukewarm. Boy, her lips are big. She's cute, though. Did she, like, get, though, like, what are they called, filler? Some people love big, fake lips. There's filler in the BBLs, you know. I don't think I can say that.

Brazilian butt lift, Matt, BBA. There we go. Okay. I'm trying to help you out here. Thank you. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? Except Lee, probably.

We should play America's Fastest. growing sports radio game show we simply called it be believe it or not and here's how it works you'll call 713212 5 790 713 212 5 790 today's edition of believe or not is is this person in the master's field or is he a u.s. governor or world leader you get like two seconds answer this question if i give you a name and he's in the master's field you'll say this believe it if he's a u.s. governor or world leader you'll say this not to believe or not in a row, win your prize. What are we playing for today, Jonathan? All right, we got the Sports Talk 790 T-shirt,

then a pair of tickets to see live and collect the soul in the summer Unity tour with our lady piece in Grayland, James Rue, on August 15th at the 7-13 Music Hall. Joe on 7-90. You're ready to play, believe it or not? Joe is not ready to play, believe it to play. Let's go to Paul on 7-90. Paul, you're ready to play, believe it or not? You better believe it. Meda Fredrickson is a Masters Field participant, believe it or not. Believe it?

No, he's the president in Denmark. Sorry. She actually. Whatever. Dean on 790, Dean, you ready to play? Believe it or not? Believe it. Dean, your question is Mark Gordon, a Masters Field participant. Believe it or not?

Not. Yeah, he's governor one. Number two for the win. Alexander de C-Crew. That's D-E-S-R-O-O-A-E-C-R-O. Alexander DeCrew, a member of the Masters. Believe it. not believe it no is a prime minister of belgium duh mike on seven 90 mic what was your favorite part of

today's radio show when uh ross was bashing about the ufas scuricolai hogard member of the masters believe it or not believe it for the win jose maria olifabal believe it or not oh come on that guy's going around for 20 years. You suck. Bashing on my Cougars, too. Have great day, though. Dave on 790. Dave, you ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. Daniel

Berger, member of the Masters. Believe it or not? Believe it. Believe it. Name number two for the win. Joe Highsmith, is it the Masters? Believe it or not? Not. No, he's there. You did not. You make it step up.

Neil on 790. Neil, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Josh Green at the Masters. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, he's a governor of Hawaii. Last one, Bruce on 790, Bruce.

You're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Marcelo de Sousa is at the Masters. Believe it or not? Not. He's the president of Portugal. Name number two for the win. Raphael Campos, is at the Masters.

Believe it or not? believe it. Yeah, there you go. It's on a better win. That's it for the radio program today. Talk to you tomorrow for an anything goes Friday. We'll wake the strippers up at noon. We have our Friday open at 10 o'clock,

which I'm definitely afraid is going to involve a lot of uncomfortable things I've said over the past week. Up next, Clinton, Wexler, the A team, right here on Sports Talk 790. Thank you.