The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - LIVE From Astros Spring Training: Altuve Working With Outfielders, Rockets Are Worth How Much!?

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" go LIVE from the first day of full-squad workouts at the Astros spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Florida. General manager Dana Brown and first baseman Christian Walker join to discuss the upcoming season. Matt and Ross also:react to Jose Altuve working with the outfieldersbreak down the drama surrounding Alex Bregman's defensive position with the Red Soxreview how much the Rockets organization is worth in a latest evaluationdiscuss the NHL's 4 Nation's Faceoff eventgive their latest "Gut Feelings" and more.

Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. A 10-01 in H-town. What's happening at lunchtimmers? And good morning, everyone. To a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross from West Palm Beach, Florida. This is Sports Talk 790.

The 01. And Alvarez belts it. Team to my field. Just it goodbye. Unbelievable. The basketball will walk-off win. Walk-off three run over. And the Astros stunned the Mariners and Gary won in the division series.

And field chates him slightly to pull and the first pitch by Ober. And Al-Tubei rips it deep to left field. That ball is talking if it stays fair. It's gone. And it is a whole run. A lead-off Homer for Jose Al-Tube. One nothing Astros. One pitch into the bottom of the first.

That's 24 Jackson is post-season career now for Al-Dube. Second most all time behind Manny Ramirez. What a way to start. Paine is still in the box. He's ready. Ready to hit a mistake perhaps. Maldonado's on second, Altuvae on first. Here's the three one.

Swing and a drive to left field. It's a rainbow. Moonshot down the... Oh, the sounds of summer in the spring. Or winter, technically. Yeah, it's really weird. They call it spring training. It's still a...

wintertime. I was in D.C. yesterday. It's 30 degrees. It's the wintertime. It doesn't spring about now. It feels nice out here. I will say this. It's beautiful West Palm. It's 77 degrees right now. It is windy. There is rain coming. There are clouds up over us. And we're probably going to get knocked off the air and a slight chance of electrocution. But other than that, we're going to be ready to bring you three days of coverage. I think we're going to be great. We're going to be fine. You're closer to the elements than I am, so I'm going to be okay. Now, I wore shorts today. ladies and gentlemen, because I have, I want you to go to your, if those of you that are at home right now,

get your refrigerator, open your refrigerator door, look for the milk, pour glass out. That's how the color my legs are. That's actually not that far off, which is a little disturbing. So I wore shorts today to get these bad boys a little tan to them. Yes. And it's not going to happen at this point. You'll be fine.

The sun will come out tomorrow, I think. But the shorts are for today. I don't know what to tell you, Matt. All right. Things don't always go according to plan. Clearly. nice sunglasses by the way thank you it's like you're what you got on from the film and louise collection

uh okay remember when you thought that means they wore sunglasses in a hair bun or something didn't we wear that when we were on our trip to like charles i did yes i did that was classic sunglasses yes when we made our videos yeah those were really good thanks to our good folks whatever they were they were there they're gone all right uh we are with you today until uh two o'clock central time if we give you the wrong time

it's we're in the eastern time zones we apologize for that but we will try to do our best to say in Central Time Zone. You can already hear the wind on our headphones. So, again, if we perish, it has been an absolute joy working with you and absolutely joy to have all the city of Houston listening to us for the last 15 years. As usual, folks, Matt is being very dramatic. It's supposed to rain for a little bit at noon. We'll be fine.

Okay, but the lightning you're not concerned with. No. All right, that's fine. If you're any concern, I ain't concerned. I'm not, it's not like I'm going out there with a metal pole. We're not golfing. Yeah, but we've got metal equipment all around us. All right, let's get to the radio show today.

Yes, let's do that. Dana Brown's going to join us in about 10, 1120. So, what, 50 minutes from now? Yes, 1020. 10.20, excuse me. There's my first. I owe a dollar to the tip cup. We need to zap you every time you get the time zone wrong?

Yeah, I will get that. So 10, 20 this morning. In about 15 minutes we'll visit with Dana Brown. Oh, I did the same thing. When I told Brian Leema to tease it ahead, I said 1120. Oh, see. Yeah, guilty is charged. Also on the radio show today, the new Astro First Baseman, Christian Walker, is going to make an appearance.

Plus, today you'll hear from Joe Espada. We're going to hear from Joe each of the next three days as he visits with the media here about a variety of things. And today is the first day of full squad workouts. Now, 15, 20 years ago, when I first started covering spring training, that was a big deal because guys really did get the first workout on. Most of the guys have been here the last handful of days. So it's nothing. It's officially the first day. They have to be here, which everybody obviously is, but guys come in a lot sooner.

Even the position players will be here some days when the pitchers and catchers are supposed to report. Yeah, back in the day, the guys were lazier. They were coming back from their jobs at the docks or the rail yard or whatever. And now in 2025, they're year-round working on their bodies, getting here early and ready to go. Okay. So, yeah, that's what got going on that. We've got a lot of other things going. I missed you yesterday.

interesting day in sports, interesting day in life. We're just going to put this out here right now with obviously what happened yesterday in Toronto. You and I had significant flight delays yesterday. Yes, we did. And we had zero problems with it. Nope, take your time. They were like something. We got to go reset something on the equipment.

I said, that's cool. Go ahead. Do whatever you got to do. I'm going to sit right here. Just get me there safe. Yeah. And as far as I was concerned, I was in D.C. yesterday and they're adjusting flight patterns because of what happened at National.

A few weeks ago, I got to do. I got here happy, safe and sound. It's all good. Got with you. You didn't snore too bad last night. We're a good world. I didn't snore at all. You did a little.

Did I really? That's okay. Was it obnoxious like one of the ten? No, it's fine. I had headphones in. Oh, so you really didn't. I'm used to traveling with Gordy, so I bring headphones. Oh, God.

Gordy is like a foghorn. He's saw in logs. Is he? Okay. I got you. As they say. As the kids say. All right.

We are with you today until 2 o'clock. We will take your phone calls as well. not a lot of this is kind of a dead week when it comes to the main hot piping topics but I do want to revisit a couple of things that happened over the weekend I know you said you barely mentioned the all-star weekend uh it's funny when I was in DC with my daughter's volleyball team I was wearing some rocket stuff and a lot of people were like so what do you think about the all-star game I said I didn't watch any of it a because I'm you know I say no to the all-star games but be I was busy with her but the result of

The founding notion that I saw on the social media streets was that the NHL's Four Nations event has significantly outpaced in terms of interest and intrigue what the NBA All-Star game was just on Sunday night. Yeah, I'm curious to see what their head-to-head. No, they weren't head-to-head, but what the ratings were. But it got a lot more interest. Yeah. Everybody looks. Everybody loves to complain about the NBA, and the All-Star game was a disaster. They tried the new format. At least they did something. Players still didn't seem to care. So it's like, if the players don't care why, should we? And Draymond Green made no issues about destroying his league. No. And talking about how bad it was. And no, I don't even know. I've talked about

LeBron and not him calling it. He wasn't going to play like hours before the game started, which I thought was very disingenuous of him. His ankle has been an issue for about three years now. He said 15 years or something. Whatever. But I mean, and the injury report, it always shows up is he's always questionable going in and then winds up playing. And for that, I give him mass kudos for, but for him to not either tell the league no or the league said we know this, just not tell anybody. It left an opportunity for somebody to plan that all-star game, which is a big

thing for some players not to be able to play. I thought it was not great. Somebody didn't get their participation trophy all-star selection. Wham-wain. LeBron is a beat. You know that, and I know that. He's just the greatest all-time player, but he doesn't handle his business properly sometimes.

I don't know when he was hurt. Maybe he woke. He even hurt for six months. Hey, man. I'm 40, Matt. Sometimes you wake up and that ankle. not feeling good. Dude, I'm 50-something

and I don't feel good ever. Yeah, yeah. But I still get here and do the radio show. Maybe he was trying to stretch it out and it didn't work out. I'm always questionable before tip time. He's also got the most all-star appearances of anyone ever. He knew a week ago he wasn't going to play in this. Then why did he do it?

Because I think the league was like, we have to have LeBron out there. So he said, hey, guys, I don't want to play. And then the league said, no, we need you out there. I'm not saying that's for sure, but certainly with the rumb of possibilities. Which is bad for the league. I'm trying to, because I know. Everybody's crushing LeBron. He's the worst and all that,

but I don't understand what he has to gain from doing this late. No, the fact is, the reason why there's no issue with me of him missing the game. Because, again, it's meaningless. But there was somebody that wanted to play in that. That didn't get to play because of that. That wasn't deserving. No, that's not necessarily true. Yeah.

If you can get to the All-Star game, if you're only an injury replacement, you're not deserving. They're not deserving. They're not deserving. Sorry. No, I'm sorry. You can get your participation trophy. I'm sorry, whoever you are.

All-Star X? There's plenty of guys that deserve it. They deserve a go to the All-Star game. There's only a certain limit of people on the roster. And if LeBron's got a spot because the fans voted him in, so be it. So if you didn't make your participation trophy All-Star appearance because LeBron James bowed out late. I'm sorry.

Listen, Nick Wright, you are such a LeBron lover. Uh-oh. You just raised your brow at me, didn't you? Come on now. You can call me. You can call me anything. You can call me a scumbag. You can call me a scumbag.

Oh, yeah, I know. You're right. A bad brother, sister, co-host. You can say, I don't deserve to be in this business. And I don't, and I have no business being on the air. You do have a business. But do not call me Nick Wright. That was terrible.

You know what? One of those lunches you owe me, you don't owe me anymore. It's funny. I don't think it can knock it out today if you wanted to. You can call me the worst human being on Earth. Just don't call me Nick Wright. Oh. All right.

We are astrocentric, though. We're here for the next three days. I want to get to that. There's a little bit of NFL news, including a franchise player, probably going to stay with his football team, not because he wants it in a long-term deal, but a franchise side will get to that. I don't know if you brought up SNL's 50-year anniversary.

By the way, Channel 2. What are you doing? You cut off 25 minutes of the show, or apparently whatever it was. I was in D.C. saw all of it, because all the NBC affiliates were told we're going way over. NBC didn't get passed a memo along. Didn't forward the email properly to people.

Well, they had to get to the six murders and then the five, whatever else, sob stories were happening. So Channel 2, and normally shut you a bum ass up. Oh. Well, we'll get more on that tomorrow. Yeah. We've got feelings on the radio program today. We do. I feel like we can make some good spring training ones.

I think we should. But the number one storyline, ladies and gentlemen, and it is not even close, is Jose Al-Tuvian left field. No, actually, it's Caleb Ward's recovery process. No, it's, yeah, Sean Dubin as well. It's a lot of Sean Dubin. Yeah. A lot of Sean Dubin reporting coming up here. No, it's Altoou and left field.

I mean, everyone's talking about it. Everyone. Every player that gets interviewed, every person in the clubhouse, left field, left field, Atouet, Atouva. You've seen today that he's working with the outfielders, which makes sense. If he's trying to give it a go out there, he's going to be with the outfielders. Right.

Yeah, well, I mean, this is what spring training is about. It's about trying to get as much time in as possible because this is the time that you do it. I mean, you can simulate all you want to in your off-season workouts, but you're in a major league baseball field with major league. construction. You've got fellow outfielders out there. Let's give it a go. This is what I feel like you and I would have done when Craig Bizio made the move from catcher to second base way back in the day. Yeah, I think he's going to be fine with fly

balls and these little workouts that they do and stuff like that. What I'm worried about is, you know, when there's a screamer coming 110 miles an hour out to left field, him playing those types of balls. It's a live action stuff. So, yeah, him getting some workouts. That's cool. Somebody's out there just knocking him some fly balls and he's getting some workouts and it's it's not like they're going for full bore out there. So once he's out there, maybe when spring training games start coming up here in a few days,

that's when I'll really be able to get a look at Jose L. Tuve and left. All right, let's talk to Dana Brown. He'll join us next here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. We are coming to you from West Palm Beach, Florida for Astro Spring Training, 2025. If you want to join us, got feelings certainly coming up later on the show as well. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90.

Thomasville Ross with a word here for Two Creeks Crossing Resort. I know you need a little getaway because you've been in cabin fever a little bit. Weather up and down, sometimes good, sometimes bad. When the weather starts to warm up or just enjoy like a mid-February crisp day, getting out in the woods, in the Lake Livingston area along one of those beautiful cabins is what you want to do. And that's where you go to Two Creekscrossingresort.com. T-W-O.creekscrossingresort.com. more than just a place to get away.

It's got a lot of modern amenities like high-speed Wi-Fi. It's got opportunities for workout facilities, laundry facilities. There's a catch-and-release pond. There is a ice house. There is pickleball courts. There's things to do to make it a true resort, but yet again, enjoy the outdoors. And you can do that with a short 90-minute drive from downtown Houston. The end of this month, we're running out of time.

40% off the cabin rentals today at 2 Creeks Crossing Resort. 40% off cabin rentals. If you own an RV, you want to get an RV site, that's 20% off. To TWO Creeks Crossing Resort.com. Back to Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal. On Sports Talk 790. All right, the voice you just heard there is Dana Brown. He's checking his text.

He's a busy man. Says at Scott Boris call me. No, no, don't call. Don't waste your time. We're done with that. Dana Brown, the Astro General Manager with this little bad time. We're show with Ross. Dana, thanks first of all for joining us.

Secondly, you've used this clutch, clutch phrase and crutch phrase. We all have them, internal discussions. Please let us end one day of those. Because, I mean, you had so many internal discussions. Is that like a checklist? Like you walk in with you, you got your lieutenants.

Is that what that is of, hey, here's what you all saw? Here's happening at camp. What's an internal discussion? I want to hear about that. Yeah, internal discussions are basically, look, we show up here every day and, you know, we're always thinking of ways to get the team better. And so we're still having conversations, you know, about players and what we could do to make this club even better than it is right now. We feel really good about the club.

We feel like, you know, we can win this division again and get deep into the postseason. We feel like we got a good group of position players, a good group of starters and relievers. And so, you know, we have these discussions every day we talk. I mean, it's amazing that I, you know, I walk in and first time I'm saying, hey, what you guys got today? what's going on. If you talk to any other clubs, what's going on? So that's part of what we do, internal discussions. I don't remember a whole lot of maneuvering this time of year.

Am I wrong about this? I mean, I know guys can sign some deals. I think Justin Turner just signed the day. But in terms of just real hot action, is there a lot right now? I think it is. I think what's going to happen is guys get into camp and you start seeing your players a little bit. Some of the guys have been here for a little bit longer. and you start to get that look at them and you say,

oh man, maybe we can upgrade here or maybe we have enough in this area. And so, you know, those are part of those discussions that you have. And, you know, before you know it, you may make a move. So we're always trying to find some angle where we can improve this club. But I think you have to be relentless because if you're not, that's that day something to slip by you.

What do you think about, I mean, of course, Bregman's signing and it going on for a long time and it happening the last couple years of Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell, and some guys getting signed early, some late. Is that, can you tell me, is that something that's recent? Has it always been like that? But it feels like things have dragged on a little bit more. And it's just as a whole, in a picture of free agency.

In your opinion, what do you think about the state of the way things go these days, especially with the way that Bregman dragging on the way that it did? Yeah, I just think it depends on the type of year. Like, how many big boys do you have on the market? You know, I think it's one of those things where sometimes you have so many good players on the market. And, you know, guys are, you know, waiting on deals and trying to do deals and trying to get creative. You know, so a lot of things are happening all at one time. There's a lot of clubs that you have to have conversations with.

And so it seems complicated sometimes. But, you know, I think at the end of the day, guys, you know, target who they want. They go after them hard, and if they don't get them, they go to the next guy. But how in the world is a general manager, whether it's you or anybody else in the big leagues, you hold a spot out for a guy that may or may not come? I mean, Dana, let's be brutally honest here. We love Bregman very much, but your life had to move on. You had to go fix this infield right away here, whether he was coming back or not.

Yeah, the one thing I learned when I was in Atlanta working under Alex Anthopoulos, he used to move really quickly in the offseason. And he would get his targets, line him up. And, you know, once you, you know, shoot at this one, if it didn't work, go to the next one. And so I think what I was trying to do is, you know, hey, we want Bregman to come back. But, you know, we have to think, what if we don't sign them, if something goes wrong? And so we didn't wait around, you know, we made the trade right away. You know, we, you know, wanted to put Paredes at third.

then, you know, we got Walker for first base, because we were losing two bats that hit one through five, so we wanted to add two bats back, and we wanted to remain competitive. And so you can't sit around and wait. You have to be active, you know, and as the owner Jim Crean says, look, our window's always open, so we're always looking to win.

We're always looking to make deals. We're always looking to get better. One of your early deals was the Kyle Tucker trade to Chicago, and look, Cam Smith apparently, I mean, everyone's like this guy's built to granite, can't wait to see him. I want to see him in some spring training games. On the other side of it, what made them want to get this done?

Because in a year from now, he's not committed to Chicago. I mean, why you have to battle the, I want him now as compared to, I don't want to give a lot of prospects up, so we'd lose him in a year. What's it like on their end? And what was it like dealing with a squad that knew that you were sending him there knowing that he's going to be a free engine in one season? Yeah, I mean, some teams, you know, they get to the point where they're like really trying to get back to the point.

postseason and I think they were motivated by trying to get back to the postseason and they knew that you know Tucker was a really good player and so that they would use a guy like that in the middle of their lineup good defender he could still bases so you know he's one of the better position players in baseball and so I think that was the appeal you know you're getting one of the better positions and one of the better position players in baseball and you're trying to get back to the postseason and, you know, that kind of motivated them to do what they did. And then we felt like, look, if we're going to trade, Tucker, we've got to get something really good bat, you know. And we felt, you know, like getting those three guys were, like, really big.

You know, you've got two guys that you can put on your Major League team right away. You've got another guy that's not that far away. And so, you know, we feel like we got impact back. Astro general manager, Dana Brown, was here on Sports Talk 790. Well, Dana, the thing that we're all been talking about, everybody's talking about, of course, Jose Al Tuvae and the left field discussion. How did this come about and how does he fit as a piece of the puzzle? Because, of course, we know Chaz, Jake, maybe Dubon, some Zach DeZenzo, maybe Jacob Melton down the line as well.

How does Altuve fit in this left field puzzle? Yeah, so it seems to be picking up steam, you know. It's all Houston's talking about it. I'm not all due respect. I mean, there's a lot of things funny about your squad. Everybody's asking us to ask you about. Jose El Tuva. Yeah, well, you know, we'll give it to him. So look, I think Al Tuve is having a ball out there in left field, first of all. He's excited about it. He's out there like a little kid. It's unbelievable.

He's always smiling. And, you know, we wanted to create some versatility. And if you could use him, you know, that's going to create some versatility. And we think that could be big. And, you know, we needed a bat in our outfield. So that helps us with a bat in our outfield. But, you know, he's done a great job. He's really taken well to it. And as long as he's having fun, you know what? You know, we don't have to commit to it today,

but as long as he's having fun and getting better and we feel like, look, he's got a chance to be a really good defender. Why not? You know, he's doing a good job. I just went out earlier and watched him take some fly balls, and man, he was getting good jumps and, you know, getting balls in the gap

and coming in. So a goal of what you're telling us then. If he wins the goal, glove. I mean, our staff, you're going to look like experts. That's true. I'll take a strong average defender at this point. If he becomes that, that's outstanding in our outfit.

So he's, for sure, taken to it very well. And what about Yordon? How does he fit in a left field pitcher? Yeah, I think we'll get him some time, but ultimately he's our DH. You know, we want him to worry about hitting and driving and runs. and so we will give him some run in the outfield. Joe's made that clear. It's all up to Joe and how many times he wants to put him out there,

but he's really our DH. And so he will get some run, and I'm sure Joe has probably talked to him about it and said, look, we're going to try to protect you because we want you to play as many games as possible. And the way you could do that is you're just de-h it. Is there a metric for that because there are some guys, remember Michael Brantley, He despised being a D.H.

He wanted to be in the action. Other guys, I'll go back to David Ortiz. I mean, reinvented himself by getting off of first base. So do you guys look at numbers of how he batted, how he performed the day after day before he played in left field? No, I just think it's one of those things where, you know, he's going to hit, whether he's a left fielder or a D.H., you know, Alvarez will hit. So I don't think that really had much to do with it.

I just think if he's in the dugout, thinking about hitting all the time he can really lock into what he wants to do whether he wants to, you know, figure out what the pitcher is strong to him, study, you know, what his patterns are, whatever the case may be. Any time that he could spend on hitting is a good thing

and we want to see big results from him because when he goes, the team goes. It feels like the 26th man roster is just about set, but if it isn't somewhere, where would that be? Would it be a decision on a utility infielder and extra arm in the bullpen in terms of that? What do you see as you look for the next month when you watch these games? Where is it?

Well, I can go here. I can go here in this particular position. Yeah, I think, you know, obviously the bullpen, you know, with making a move for Presley, you know, trading Presley opened up a spot there, right? So we definitely have some room to talk about, you know, what is our pen going to look like. And then, you know, outfield-wise, you know, how are we going to be Patoon? Is McCormick, you know, going to really. you know, get back to its 2023 year. So I think those two, you know, spots like, you know, outfield and also relief pitching is where the room, you know, we have to make our decisions.

Before a little, I'll get one, Ross get one more question. One from me, our audience loves this team and is with every intricate move and they'll always bring up the minor leaguers. Melton, Matthews, and then we'll get to Cam Smith. how much do you think that's going to be a conversation piece internally about when they're going to be ready? Look, nobody knows you have to take it. Even if they're crushing it at AAA or AA, you still, it's a guess. How much were you intently watching those three guys, especially in the first couple months of the year, if some of those major leaguers are not performing up to your expectations?

Yeah, I'm locked in on them, you know, regardless if the major leaguers are doing well, and if they're not doing well, I'm still locked in on those guys. Those guys have a chance to help us. I really feel confident that they could turn the corner of, pretty quickly. And so I'm used to, you know, moving players fast. You know, I mean, I told these guys when I got the job, I sat down and I talked to a lot of the minor league players. I think it's important that you always have good young players coming into major leagues. I think it reminds the older players that, hey, we got good young players in the minor leagues, and it reminds the younger

players that if I do well, I'm going to get moved up. And I think you want that energy throughout your entire organization. And I'm telling them, firm believers. So I think if these guys are, if they go down there and they're doing well, we will talk about moving them. You know, I don't know how fast or I can't put a timeline on it, but we're not afraid to move them to the big leagues

if they're doing very well. Starting pitching question real quick. What was it like seeing Hayden Wesneski from afar, now getting him in house and working with him and then as far as the depth Luis Garcia and Planswellies. Yeah, so

West Neski, he's fired up, of course, because he's back home in Houston, right? And so he's locked in. I've had multiple conversations with him. And I think his stuff is going to play very well. I think our pitching guys are really good. And so, you know, they're going to get him, you know, to his next step in life in this game. And so I think they could, you know, our guys have a way of finding out what you need to do to make you, you know, better. and I think he's been a sponge and hopefully we could help him to make those adjustments. You know, Garcia, I think Garcia will know more as he continues to throw here, but I anticipate him turning the corner somewhere in the early part of this year.

And so once he starts throwing here, we probably have more of a firm, you know, deadline or target date or whatever you want to call it. and he's going to be some help that we were going to need in that rotation. So we really feel like we got 10 guys total in depth in rotation. And so we feel like we're in good shape. You know, last year we had that period where we lost like five starters at one point. They were all out. So we feel really good about that. And the McCullors, you know, he's been thrown off the mound

and he's been participating in, you know, the PFP drills. And so, you know, that's a good thing. And so once he starts to throw even harder, we'll get a pretty much target date or, you know, a timeline on him as well. And so I feel like both guys should be pitching at some point this season, hopefully sooner rather than later. Dana, thank you very much for the time. We really appreciate it. And again, we'll take sausage peppers, bun, whatever. That sounds good.

Yeah, whatever they're cooking. You'll take some plate. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I could actually smell that for you. It smells good, right? It's pretty cool of us. frankly better than the questions we've asked you. We're dying out here, man.

Yeah, constantly you're smelling that. Thanks, then. We really appreciate it. All right, thank you. Dana Brown Astros, general manager with us on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. More here from West Palm Beach in a moment on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. Our man Softie up in Seattle at KJR, spit stealing me. He tweeted out, what was your favorite Justin Turner as a mariner moment?

Come on now Can't be doing that Do you start that? What was your favorite blank blank? It's a blank moment? Absolutely 100%. I don't know. I feel like that's been around for years.

I don't think so. I think people realize it. I don't know. I feel like you're taking credit for it just like Crush City when they were I was getting it before. First of all, I never knew that was happening. Second of all, I had a chance to copyright it

and I didn't. Ross, I've made a lot of mistakes in my broadcast career. You didn't confront you. We talked to Chandler this morning. You didn't confront him about the name of his podcast. That's tomorrow when to do that. It's embarrassing.

But it's not mine. I didn't copyrighted. Yeah, you'll be fine. I'm going to tell the story for the last time, at least this week. Reid Ryan was the president of the Astros of the time calls me up one day. You know this happens. I told you as soon as I do. He says, Matt, I'm just going to let you know we've taken the car city and we're going to put it in a bunch of t-shirts at Rarad and Reid.

And I'm like, oh, you are. Because I just want to give you a heads up. Not like, hey, we're sorry or hey, we're going to. give you something. Yeah, $10 gift card to Shoney's. Yeah. I didn't take a Rick Relay. I didn't take anything at that point.

I'm like, are you really going to do that? I said, read. I said, I did that because I didn't want to be a bad partner. We're partners with the answer. He's like, Matt, I appreciate that. But we're putting it up. Rorad of me. We're like, oh, thanks.

That's a shame. And then Space City uses it. People on T-shirts use it. I know. And Chandler's, Chandler Roams podcast. channel rooms podcast got it so if you

growing daily so if any of you are using crushing anything in your life wearing a t-shirt just know that you're my bitch for the rest of your life

I'm going to get nothing out of it I appreciate you Matt not really it's a thought that counts now I'm depressed I could have I couldn't let you have this show and I could have been able

to reap the benefit I mean you know what I'm depressed now how much money what I mean out of that none probably very little very little probably been very little all right it is

Matt and Ross and we are here It's 1040. This whole Eastern Time Zone thing is a weird bit. You did great. You're doing great. It was good. Thanks to Dana Brown. It was great. And if you missed any of that,

where were you? Will you listen to Backup, Blindbacker talk of the Texans? Come on, now let's go. We talk about the relevant things. We're going to replay it later in the 1 o'clock hour if you missed any part of that conversation. He said Al Tuvue is having a ball out there in left field. Well, it's like a kid out there.

What are he supposed to do? I heard your comments. I heard the clips you guys played yesterday. He's hit and double. He wants him more doubles, triples, home runs. He doesn't care where it is. That's good. Yeah. And the reality is, as he was saying this, it's

Minutemay Park. It's not a really it's a challenge if you've never been out there before because it's got some nooks and crannies to it. It's got some weird bounces. But for a guy that has been playing baseball since he was five years old, he'll figure it out. Is it going to be something as electrifying as what you've seen in previous left fields?

No, but again, you're not replacing them. Yoron will never win a gold glove. This is two things. preserving Jordan as a DH and number two realizing that at the end of the day the metrics say

that Jose L. Tubin, this is painful for me to say because he's my great, he's my favorite breaking up. You're getting broken up. Yeah. He's a,

and you've been pointing up the metrics to it. I didn't realize what a, just a truly horrific I was shocked too when I saw it because when you look,

it's in those, so these things you zone and range and all that type of stuff and yeah, if his fielding percentage is high, he doesn't make a lot of errors. Right.

But that doesn't mean that there are other second baseman who are younger, ranger, taller. 6-2 makes a difference. It just does. They're getting to more balls than Jose Al-Tube does, and unfortunately, you also have the elimination of the shift, so it's more difficult to put him in the right place at the right time.

It feels like if you have somebody, the reality of it is as well, he turns 35 on May 6. And if the numbers are there, and you can't hide him like you used to be able to with the shift, you've got to figure out where to transition them. As you mentioned, the Yordon factor. As Dana Brown mentioned, you need a left field bat. Call it Jose L. Tuva is a left field bat.

You also have Bryce Matthews and Cam Smith on the cuss of coming up, whether it be later this year or even next year. That means he's going to have to transition at some point, perhaps if they want to keep the infield intact with those other guys being Christian Walker and Easek Paritas and Jeremy Pena. So if you need to get that ball rolling at some point, and he's getting older, and you need left field help as far as production from left field.

You roll that all together. It kind of makes sense. So who is the second baseman of the Astros in two years? Full-time 140 games. You suck Paredes with Cam Smith at left? And the third, I mean? I don't know. Or Marisoud, not Maris de Dubon.

No, and Dubon is a utility guy. I'm going to tell you this. Dubon's going to play a lot of second base. He just is. He is. And I think that, look, when Jose broke his head. hand was two years ago, the Astros didn't skip a beat. Matter of fact, one of the all-time legendary 10th inning calls was, should the Astros trade El-Tubei to give Dubon a more opportunity

to play second base? And that happened. It literally happened. And frankly, if Dubon plays five days or six days a week, there's no power, but it's, you don't, a lot of the second, they're not a power hitting second base. You can live with a 725 OPS guy playing second base. Yes. As long as El-Tube is going to give you 800 people. Now, again, there may be pressure for Al-Tube to perform as most left fielders do, which are guys that like to hit the ball in high OPS, high sluggy numbers. Al-Tube's OPS took a dip last year. It was a 7-90, which is still really good.

Still better than, say, Alex Bregman. Right. But it's down from where he has been early in his career. It was his worst full season, not counting 2020, OPS since 2013. All right, we are with you from West Palm Beach. We're with you today until 2 o'clock this afternoon. at 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-2-2-2-790 we're going to open the phone lines up if you want to join us the next segment is yours top of the next hour 11 o'clock we're going to let you hear what some of the opening comments were from manager joe espada is today is officially the first day of full workout 713 212 570 come on in if you want to talk some astros baseball look we need to talk some astros baseball rockets don't play until friday texans are vacationing We got U of H playing Arizona State tonight.

Huge. Big game. How about the Saturday game against Arizona? Tell me sports, Harvey. Who the hell beats Arizona in Kansas in the same year? Our cookers do. That's right. That's why I'm on to tell the truth.

One of my points. Oh, don't my takes. You know what? Let's see if I can get it right. Okay. You want me to give you all four? Yeah, we'll do. When do we come back?

We come back. All right. All right, 7.13, 2.12. 790. With the word right now for big city wings. I'm going to tell you the truth about the best place to enjoy a delicious wing here in Houston, Texas, and that is at Big City Wings. Lunch specials every single day, which includes an entree, a side dish, and a soft drink for $9.99,

but today is Tuesday. That's two for Tuesday Wings, meaning you buy 10 to get 10 free. Bone and or boneless, they're yours, and buy one, get one free today at Big City Wings. Delicious desserts, amazing appetizers, very good salads and big sandwiches, all part of the biggest menu you'll find in Houston, Texas. But the Wings of the Tried and True Formula, and that's where you'll get buy one. Get one free today at any of the now 13 Big City Wing locations. To find the one near you, you go to big citywings.com. Matt Thomas and Ross B. Rielle.

Two guys extremely passionate about Houston sports. You can tell them to go get a room. We've shared a hotel room. But they already have. And they're on. Truth be told. That's true. Thanks for the visual. Pillow in between.

There's no pillow between you and more lunchtime Houston sports talk. on Sports Talk 790. And just to let you know, Ross and I aren't sharing a room here in West Paul Beach, and we're at a decent hotel this time as compared to where we were two years ago. We were there for massive murder scenes on the premises and in our hotel. There was not that much police. If you're exaggerating. Do not cross yellow strips across our door.

Only one guy had the crack shivers. It was fine. We had blood on our bathtub. It's permanently stained. It could have been feces. We're not sure. Sheesh. We're good.

We're in a nice spot now. By the way, my milky white legs are now being fully exposed. The sun has come out. You know what? Should we do it before and after? Oh, hell no. Oh, hell no. Why not?

All right. Because I'm so embarrassed by these things. Now, granted, it's in wintertime, so it's not like I'm... Yeah, man, it's literally winter. We're in February. Yeah. I'm going to scoot out. February.

We'll talk to some people in Houston, Texas. Okay. We've got a couple of people on hold. If you'd like to get in, 7-13, 2-1-2-5. seven nine. Matt is literally sun tanning his legs right now, folks. I'll be burned to a crisp. Look at these bad guys. I mean, we don't know. We don't need a melanoma

situation. That's right. Dwayne and El Paso has been holding. What's up, Dwayne? I was how to go ahead. Anyway, my first comment I wanted to make was about Altoube. Major League baseball players, they're saying

that it's easier to convert an infielder to the outfield, which it makes it a lot better. for that player because he sees the ball better, he throws the ball good, because everything is done on the infield, he knows all that, and it makes that player a better player. Now, the second thing I wanted to say was that Dana Brown, I'm digging it, that that man is back in the major leagues with the Astros

because he's a hell of a general manager, man, and that's what I compliment to him. But the third thing I wanted to talk about was the player in the NBA, who stated that the NBA is boring. How in the world can you have a game, which you want to call boring, when you've got players that are, you've got at least 70 players in the NBA that are making over a million dollars a year. And then you've got sellouts by the tons in the NBA.

And then you've got a lot of games in the NBA that are going on now that are really exciting and they're doing a good job. job in the NBA. And that's all I wanted to say, gentlemen. God bless and peace be with you. Thank you, Dwayne. Let's tackle all those points. Honestly, Ross, the thing that I am

anxious to see, it's not whether or not he can catch a fly ball. He's been doing that all of his life, okay? I am more anxious to see how he handles the ball off the wall, any wall, whether it's been in A. Park or somewhere

else. Yes. And how many times runners at third on sack flies will try to run on his arm. That to me is the storyline. It's not about how much field he can cover because, look, if you're going to have Jake Myers playing primarily center field, he's going to cover a lot of ground that most centerfielders don't grab. So I'm not worried about that. I want to know who's going to run on his arm and what's in that arm right now. Yep.

I would definitely say that's going to be the big question, that not only the strength of the arm, the accuracy of the arm, like we talk about Yordon being out there. Yordon can go, throw it like 95 miles an hour, but where's it going? Right. So it's both of those things. It's the accuracy. It's the arm strength. It's a cutoff man.

It's situational. Right. As you said, communicating with Jake Myers. The good news is, as you said, not only does Jake Myers try to, he does cover a lot of ground, he calls for everything. Jake's like, I got it. Like, people are literally sitting under the ball and Jake's trying to take it from him. Left field ball.

I got it. I'm right good. Exactly. Yeah. So I think he knows, like, his, I have a conspiracy. theory that he knows his range metrics are how he stays on the field. So he tries to get everything. And that's good. That's good for Jose

Al-Tee. Well, the reality is his arm is also below average as well. Yes. You took your best arm in right field and you moved to the Chicago Cubs. Can Chaz? And again, this number one thing for those of you that are relatively new to baseball or not. You want

your right field to have the best arm because you do not want runners taking first at the runner base hit. And if you don't have a respectful arm in right field, that's going to be done all the time on base heads to right field. Yes. As far as Dan is concerned, I mean, you know, we said a good job. You know, there have been a lot of things I think that have been, frankly, out of his control.

He did have to put together a deal for Kyle Tucker. And I meant, when I brought this up to him, it was a sign of respect that, Ross, this Camp Smith kid is supposed to be pretty damn good. And the Cubs gave up him to get Kyle Tucker, who, you know, Kyle Tucker, my guess is he's going to love Chicago. and my guess is they're going to have lots of conversations about him staying there and paying him a lot of money. But there's no guarantee, especially if the Cubs don't want to offer a seven or eight-year deal that Kyle Tucker may get in the offseason. Yeah, so it's good that they made the move, but you do have outfield questions.

And I brought up the, I was bringing up the, the stat cast arm strength percentiles for you, Matt. Do I want to hear this? Probably not. Chas McCormick, percentile, 50. 51st percentile. So basically average. Jake Myers' percentile, 48. But the good news is, Kyle Tucker's percentile was only 52. So you're going from 52nd percentile in right field arm strength to 51.

So basically, all three of them at this point, unless something changes, opposing teams are going to run out. You know how a Space City Home Network they put on the green light. You've got three green lights out there. That's probably is what you're going to have. All right. The callers on hold standby will get to you. We've got a spot to get to his comments today.

We'll get to more phone calls. To tell the truth recap? You're going to do to tell the truth recap, because I want to see how I would do with yours. Okay. So we've got a lot going on. We've got to Christian Walker's going to join us on the radio program today. We have the news at noon. If you missed dinner brown, we'll be playing later in the 1 o'clock hour.

We've got a lot of things going on today here. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross coming to you from spring training in West Palm Beach here on Sports Talk 790. 719.7.1.3212-790 is how you reach a show if you want to get in. 713-212-5-790. I want to tell you about Scott Callahan and Associates. I am very honored to be speaking for Scott Callahan and Associates because let me tell you something, friends. There's a lot of people out there that are worried about being represented by upstanding people. And that's what Scott Callahan and Associates are all about.

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All right, it's 1102 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. And Ross, we come to you from West Palm Beach, Florida, where the Astros are going under day one of full squad workouts. If you'd like to join our conversation, whether it be about the Astros, whether it be about the, I don't know if the All- Star game is going to resonate. I was going to say, there's nothing else going on.

Was there, did I miss what I miss yesterday? We talked 90% of the time about Jose Altuve playing left field. Yep. Whose idea was it? We'll be doing all of that this year. Some people were very angry. A little bit about the All-Star game. I mean, it's just unfixable at this point, right?

Unless, barring, the winning team each getting like $10 million. I just don't, I just don't foresee a scenario. maybe USA versus the world, but I don't even know what the breakdown is of the rosters, Matt. I don't know how many are foreign-born players versus Americans were All-Stars? I'd have to go and look at that. But it just seems like an unfixable product at this point,

which the Pro Bowl basically said, it's unfixable. Let's go to Dodgeball. So I don't know what the solution would be for the NBA. I don't know. Problem is, Adam Silver, I don't, I think he won. He's saying the right things, but I don't think he particularly cares. He just signed a multi-gazillion dollar television deal, Ross. His players are making outrageous amounts of money.

Their worldwide reach on social media and international television is through the roof. Do you think there's a part of him, and we're going to get to, back to the Astros just a second. Do you think part of it is a commissioner, and this could be for all the different sports, just says people in America are just going to bitch to bitch. And that no matter what I do, it's not good enough. We got rid of the layup drill that was last year. We did the International versus Team USA, and people didn't like that.

People don't like the East versus West. Now we did this first to 40 without a scoreboard, without a timer and all. Maybe we just don't like it, and we're just going to tell you how much we don't like it, but yet they're still going to watch it. I think there is a part of that. and I also think for whatever reason, Matt, I don't know why necessarily, but it feels like the discourse around NBA more so than other sports is the first reaction to everything is to be negative.

This guy sucks. Jason Tatum sucks. She Gilgis Alexander's trash. Shailen Brunson's, he's a foul hunting merchant, James Hardens the worst, Steph Curry can't play defense. It just feels like for whatever reason, NBA, it's about The negativity more than maybe the other sports. Like, for example, this ties into actually the, to tell the true stuff. Like, you've got these guys on T&T.

What other show do you turn it on on NFL Sunday on Fox or whatever else? And the guys are just talking about how the players are trash and not very good and aren't like back in your day and the product's not good? Because Chuck and Shaq and Kenny, they do that every single week. Well, I know that you get mad at me when I brought this up. This was a conversation piece. Was it McIntyre on the Colin Coward show a month ago? Oh, Jason McIntyre. And so I know you don't like him.

He's the worst. I don't know an opinion of him. But he was, he said that exact thing a month ago, and I agreed with him. Yeah. They bash the NBA. 100%. And again, I don't need Shaq and Chuck and Kenny to be mouthpieces for the NBA. There's plenty of that already out there.

But they hate everything. And then they bring Draymond Green on. Oh, man. And he annihilated the All-Star game. Yes, he did. He was asked one to ten. He said zero. I mean, and so you have to strike a balance.

Yes. You want them to be honest. Yeah. But you also don't want toxicity. You want honest, like they could have done this better, they could have done that better. Right, right. Just like generally calling things trash. When your own analysts don't even know who's on the team and who's playing on that given night, I don't know.

That's why, again, you should strictly. use it for entertainment purposes because when they're funny, they make me howled. They're that funny. Yes. All right. Let's hear from a spot and then we're going to tell the truth from yesterday. We'll see how I do on this. Joe Espada met with the media. He does every day

here at the ballpark and we'll play some of that for you the next three days while we're here. Today is the first full squad workout and he met with the entire roster that was here in camp and brought up a couple of things including some of the goals for this year. Questions about Jose Al-Tuvia were brought up.

about what Christian Walker's responsibility were. And obviously, what else to expect from Isok Peretti, who is now in camp, at least for now, as a third basement. Here is manager Joe Espada from earlier today. You know, a lot of, you know, our start, 2020, you know, there was a lot of injuries, things that we can't control. But there's some other areas that we can control, how we play, how we go about, you know, our offense. There's things that we can address. And I want to make sure that they hear that from me. And we're going to start working on that from day one from today.

So I'm excited about the season. You know, we talk in there about leadership, right? And, you know, I immediately go to him. That's what leaders do, right? They think of, they put team first. They think about, you know, the group. And that's what it's all about, you know. could easily say, hey, Joe, second base, probably not a good idea.

But he's open to him. And that's what we wanted to do. Just consider the opportunity to play left, create some opportunity for the players, the first utility in our team. There's all the clubs who are doing the same stuff. And Hose is like, let's roll with it. And it's a privilege for me to be around, we'll sell to where for the last eight season. And hopefully we get to work together four years ago.

One veteran gone and now let you know one in. Have you asked Christian to deal some of those responsibilities? Or is that new guy in the black just trying to give something? Yeah, you know, I think Christian is getting a feel for the land. I will have more conversation with Christians in the coming days. But when it comes to leadership, you don't ask to lead. You expect those guys to step up and lead. And he did that in Arizona.

And once he gets his feet settled here, I'm sure he's going to find his way. He's going to find his voice. Alvarez said yesterday he thinks he's got another year offensively, like the best is yet to come. How does he get there? What is he? Guys, he had a really good year offensive.

He told me the same thing. And I'm like, dude, you know, that's how good he is. Like, all are off, you know, we did some good things the second half offensively. But there's ways for us to get we can improve. And, you know, we highlighted those things and we're going to concentrate on those things. and we're going to improve in those areas. But yeah, he wants more. He thinks that, you know, I think he's, he can drive the ball more, he said at times,

where he's, you know, there were some singles, doubles, not really slugging the way he's capable of. So he identifies some areas in his swing and his mechanics that he can maintain that swing throughout the whole entire season. So when the big boy says that, you get excited. Communication in the infield. Because you've got so many new pieces in there potentially, how long could that take or, I mean, is it something that will just be an ongoing process? And Christian talked to us a little bit about yesterday.

It needs to get a feel for everybody. But being a former infielder, does it take time? Yes, it does. And it takes repetitions, you know, a lot of coaching. You know, I need to put those guys in games right away just to get a feel from one another. The space in between one another, the capabilities of one another. Christian is you guys are going to witness probably the best first baseman in the in the game the last two or four years. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of area that he covers.

So he's got to get to know the guy to his right. How much air, how much space that person covers. So same thing with Jeremy up the middle. So there's, there's some things, Paredes joining the organization, Jeremy, getting to know, okay, what side, you know, what areas of the field Paredes will need me to help him with and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, we got some work to do, and you guys will see me kind of changing things around so we get some familiarity from the very beginning. What is you guys in the Irish? You know, we have them as an average defender at our base.

You know, very reliable hands, strong arm, accurate. You know, I think that we identify areas that we can help him with, and he's been very receptive to those areas that we can help him. improve on. So we're talking about his range, smooth, you know, how he moves potentially, you know, look at the area of the field

that he could play or maybe a little bit up the line, covering more, more of that 5, 6 hole. Little things like that, but, you know, when he gets to the ball, he's going to catch the ball. He's always done. All right. So it was interesting how Joe put it, an average defender,

but then he talked about all the things he can do. Glass half full, clearly. Well, got some work to do at third base. For how long? Going to gold glove to average. Fantastic. By the way, the Raphael Devere stuff in Boston yesterday, holy smokes. Houston, we are so lucky to have Jose Al-Tuve.

He didn't put him at catcher. He's ready. Devers, like, I'm not deaching. I'm saying it third. the general manager that was here said i was going to be that well they got a new general manager and alex cora says shut your bomb ass up you'll do what i tell you to do can i get an early gut feeling on that we've got got got feelings on the bottom of the hour i should wait a way but let's wait i might forget though you know how we forget oh we forget a lot of

things i know we always tease ahead that we're going to do something like to tell the truth we swore to god coming back with the tell the true music because i want to see if i get this right from y'all's yesterday's program did everybody else get it right that did connor get it wrong oh that's a hint though i feel like don't say it don't say it don't say it 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90 believe it or not is coming up next no it's not we're not even doing the whole week i was looking at this guy script you know you take one day i think it one day i'm thinking all these days off matt no you're on the johnny carson schedule in in 2020 i worked a full week last week i did five days in studio too five long-ass drives you poor baby you should feel sorry for me nobody put a gun to your head to make you move well maybe actually somebody is. Are you kidding me? Do you know Mrs. Thomas?

I had zero choice. Never mind. Thank you. 713-212-5-7-90. Gut feelings, bottom of the hour. We'll do to tell the truth. Recap next. We got Christian Walker still ahead of us.

The news at noon and a replay of the Dana Brown conversation. All straight ahead. After I tell you about League One volleyball, L-O-V-B.com. They've got a home match coming up at the end of the month, and I want you to be there. I'm planning to be there myself. I love volleyball. I was just spending.

three days in Washington, D.C. And this League One Volleyball, L-O-VB, is really becoming very, very popular in just its first year. If you enjoy watching high-end college volleyball with international stars and all-Americans and Texas players, you're going to love League One volleyball.

L-O-VB.com is the website to find out about Houston's new League One volleyball team. There's teams all around the country. We've got a couple here in the state of Texas, and the one in Houston is off to a great start. Go check them out. They play in the Fort Bend epicenter out there in the Richmond Rosenberg area and I promise you you get out there take your daughters take your son

take anybody that's involved in volleyball and they'll enjoy the experience for more details go to LovBB dot com to get your tickets for League 1 volleyball Houston this is the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790 it's an express edition you guys did this yesterday so I'm going to see how I would do it and sure you had four takes right yes I did and how many of my us believe. One. Okay, here we go. We have got feelings at the bottom of the hour, by the way.

If you've got anything sports prediction-wise, you want to get in, let us know at 713-212-5-790. Now a quick express edition up to Tell the Truth. To tell the truth, express. Take number one, the all-star game for the NBA is a disaster. Big money incentives are needed for the players to get interested. There's no other way to save it. The NBA needs to institute. get a sponsor, whoever it may be. Big money.

I'm not going to stop right there. That's it. Go ahead. Continue on that. Number two. Alex Bregman's number two, well, I don't think it should be retired. Same thing with Billy Wagner.

He's been great. Go on. You're good. We appreciate him. But you also believe that. Number three. The U.S. Cougars have proven enough.

And I especially said that I would only say this since you weren't there. Yeah. They're winning the number. National Championship. They're too good. They've won all these games on the road. They beat Kansas on the road.

They beat Arizona on the road. They finally got something they haven't had. That is the consistent three-point shooting. Calvin Samson's time is now. The Cougars are winning the NCAA. I believe all three of the things you said. Number four. The NBA needs to move on from Chuck, Shaq, and Kenny.

They're too negative. They bring down the NBA. a start, the fish rots from the head, the toxicity with the NBA discourse is too much. Chuck is in his 60s, Shaq is in his 50s, he can go do pitchman stuff, the NBA needs to move on from Chubby Shack. Okay, I believe you believe all four of those things.

You only literally believe one of them? Correct. Well, they just signed, they just signed Shaq to a new deal. I'm not saying what deal they're on. I know. You would never say that nice about. you of age so I'm going to chuck that

the one you do believe would have to be what was the very first one big money incentives needed for I'm going to say that's when you believe Alex Breggson's number two is getting retired while the cougars are one of the favorites I think Auburn is the favorite yeah

big money is not even going to save the all-star game it's beyond repair NBA's got to move on from Chuck oh damn I got it wrong oh well so that makes all three actually I believe Lalima picked two and Connor picked three

man I got you guys good you did it just means my takes are bad no because I believe there's a certain part of me that believes you believe all four of those things I mean you could see the U of H one of that I mean

I could also see the UBage losing in the second round I mean it's a crapshoot the density of all the term it's a crapshoot I still think Auburn and Duke are really good I think it's one two three to me Auburn Duke Houston whatever you want to put it I think it's a three headed monster I think one of those three teams

if you gave me those three I'll take those three over the field what's up I can't take that. I will not take the field. I know, because it's a crap shoot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so you got me. Nice work.

That's a good job. Because really, if you had a reverse it and said, it's hard, man. Only one I don't believe. You know, I always make fun of you your takes. It's hard making those out. It's actually a lot harder than I, than people think,

and then I myself think. Thank you. So you will not crush me next Monday when I do it. I'll still crush you. I mean, come on. It's part of this. It's the bit. It feels like.

All right. 713, 23, 2, 1, 5 is 7907. 1713-212-1-2-5-7-9-0 if you want to join us on the show. Connor, I mean, Ross, we've had any calls. I don't have the call screen in front of me here, so we don't have me at this point. All right. No, we don't have any right now. If people want to get in, the lines are wide-open.

Which means people can come in and join us. Wide-open phones. Yeah, they can. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. What else are going to get to before we get to the gut feelings? I mentioned, oh, the Devere's situation was embarrassing. Yes. They're going to work that out.

They're insanely talented. I'm sorry, Raphael. He's a gold glover, and you're below average. Shut your bum ass up. Say it for tomorrow, but you're right. You're right. You're right. Okay, what else are going to go to?

There's something else spring training that I thought was interesting to me. Oh, Vlad Guerrero Jr., not the senior one because he's long retired. Vlad Guerrero Jr. It basically said, Toronto, step up your game, or I'm Gonzo. The deadline, I guess, is either today or is come and gone already? Monday night deadline. It is Tuesday.

Yeah, so it's come and gone. He's basically saying, Biatchez, I ain't going to talk to you all anymore. Talk to you on free agency. There's one reason this upsets me. Well, there should be another reason, too, because the number one team is being favored for him going there? It's the Boston Red Sox. The number one reason is the Kyle Tucker market.

Ah! By the way, I will tell you that Ross is getting got some terrible advice on the Alex Breggman deal. He went to Randler Rome or Randler Boehm to get his bet on and I won that. See, yeah. And then so Randler today says, well, you should have gone to AAB. You'd have been well over. Yeah, thanks, Randler.

Yeah, thanks, Randler. never going to make that bet. So yes, I'm completely deflecting. I'm taking zero blame for this. My literal MLB insider that broke the news on the deal. Yeah. Gator has steered me in the wrong direction. And I may have strayed my own way wrong on the R bet for the Kyle Tucker. You are going to be eating a lot of meals off of me. Well, the reality is this.

We're not a fast casual lunch today. When can I knock that out? Because we're never. No, it's not going on here. Let's do it here. Tomorrow? No, after the show today. Okay, fast casual. Like a my-mise or a Momolet. We were going to go to, we're going to go to Mindy's.

and get a double stack, right? That's fast food. That's not fast casual. That's fine. I just want something to eat. Okay. I told you this two weeks ago, and you, now it's about two months ago, and you argue with me, and look, there's always room for interpretation.

I really do believe the super mega deals are gone. I really do. And all it takes is one off season for me to be wrong about this, and I'm accepting of that. Well, Wants over got a mega deal. Max Free got a big deal. You did. Blake's now got a big deal, though. But, I mean, are we going to limit that to five players a year?

that's a lot that adds up so how many were snow only five years but 182 million that's a lot of money that's a lot of money that's a lot of money that's also the do years the dodgers uh so yeah so Kyle Tucker's got to have

an incredible season yes because or he or he's going to be the Alex springman to what uh won soda was for the national for the net for the Mets yeah I think people Well, yeah, Vladito would be the bigger get, I guess. Yeah. Tucker's at the more premium position.

That'll be interesting. It'll be an interesting off season, but if the deadline's gone and deadline's gone, he said, quote, they have their numbers, I have my numbers, Carrero says. And we are nowhere close. Dude's a frigging four-time All-Star. We've talked about this. Oh, that's a good question.

One of the most feared American League hitters. But also a junior and a senior, like, Vlad Guerrero seniors in the Hall of Fame. A junior and a senior both being that good in major American sports. Oh, you mean equally good? Yeah.

Archie Manning and Peyton and Eli? No. But Archie wasn't as good as... No, that's right. Archie was just a guy. I mean, he was good, but he was just... And part of it was because he played on some... woeful Saints teams for much of his career.

And then he went to the older as him as woeful there too. Vlad has finished second in the MVP and sixth in the MVP and a four-time all-star. He's on a Hall of Fame track and his dad is literally in the Hall of Fame. I'm going to give you a comp, but these aren't not Hall of Fame players. Oh, I got one for you. LeBron James and Brony James. Nope. That was another one.

I don't know what Bob Boone's numbers were, but Aaron and Brett were good Major League Baseball players. Bob Boone was a good major They're not a Hall of Famers, though. But they weren't Hall of Famers. So you're asking me for a father's son Hall of Fame duo. Yeah, or even very, I mean,

King Griffey Sr. was good. I think maybe. I mean, in the NBA, you've got Tim Hardaway Jr. and Tim Hardaway Senior was better than Junior. Although Junior's been able to cover. If Hardaway make the Hall of Fame, they put everyone in these days. No, but they're not going to be in that situation. Gary Payton, the senior in the second,

that's not going to work. Del Curry, Steph Curry, but Dell's not that great. Staff was way better. Dell was just a guy that moved around a bunch of places. Who is as good of a dad as he was? A son and son was good as a dad. Sent tweets to At Sports RV and at Sports Ente. That's right.

Do that. That's fine. All right. 1128 on Sports Talk 790. Time for us to ask for you to give us your gut feelings. 713-1-2-2-5-7-90. You want to make a prediction about how Jose Altovae is going to do in left field? I'll take that.

Would you like to make a prediction about how or Alex Spragman's going to play this year for the Boston Red Sox? We'll do that. Will the Astros stamp pad in the outfield is currently put together? Will Yaron Alvarez play more than, say, 35 or 40 games in left field? If you want to make a prediction about the All-Star games, if you want to make a prediction about anything, it's now your opportunity. It's 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-79.

Your gut feelings are next here on Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues on Sports Talk 790. Listen up, girls and boys This segment so appealing This is Russ and Matt Thomas Yo, they got a gut feeling This is their gut feeling On the Matt Thomas show

By way, a couple folks Wayne sent us a note Craig did the same thing Maybe the closest thing to an awesome dad And son Bobby Bonds Bonds and Barry Bonds That's about as close as I've

So far as somebody's giving me an example of Yeah, three times All-Star, three-time gold Glover for Bobby Bond. That's pretty good. Yeah. That's really good. Not in the Hall of Fame. No. But there's Vlad Jr.'s not in the Hall of Fame either.

Hall good. Hall of very good. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go with that. Okay. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-7-9-0. Rossi, let's recap how we did last week on the gut feelings.

Yeah, I'm having my Wi-Fi sputtering, so can you start? all for 10 seconds? I would like to stall by telling you that you may call this radio show at 713-212-5-790. All lines are available, which means either you don't love us or you're just afraid to talk to us. And we're as friendly as it gets, right? All right. We're back online. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9 if you have any sports predictions you'd like to make. Okay, and we had some non-sports predictions I'd forgotten about in here as well. You said Matt Thomas, we're going to have to wait a whole year for this. Next year's Super Bowl winner will be a first-time Super Bowl champion as a baseball.

franchise. Which puts the Texans in that mix. Man, you've got the Texans winning it all, man. That's great. I appreciate you for that. You're right. You're right. Oh, my gosh. You said Red Sox sign Alex Bregman. Duh. Nailed it. That's fine. I mean, look, it was the fifth team you'd chosen.

Yeah, I mean, I had a gut feeling on one of them. I should have just gone field and claim credit for that. But yeah, you're right. Yep, you, Red Sox, that's still, that's a hit, Maddie. I appreciate that. He still could have gone well. He probably was never going to go. anywhere else and then the Red Sox up their offer in the 11th hour and he signed there and that's okay we also made a get feeling

about the JFK documents release. Have they been released yet? No you'd have to ask Clinton. He would know that. You see that's true. He's the first person to ask. You said Cuba and or Fidel Castro were going to be involved

and you also said next year's Super Bowl halftime will involve a country act. I'm going, a matter of fact, I'm a narrow that down even a little bit more. Jelly roll will be the halftime act. Jelly roll. Jelly roll.

Okay. Sure. You want to write that? I'm going to write that down. Jelly roll does. And it's not even my... I think I'm going to give Dan Matthews credit for that because Dan texted it to us. So it'll be a slight assist to that.

Assist to Dan. Also, is that Thunder rolling? Thunder does roll. Oh, no. That's not good. And, okay, that's where we are now. I had forgotten I'd done this. I said Stefan Diggs signs back with the Texans.

Still some time left all that. Did you see who's dating now? No. Cardi B. Who's dating Cardi B? Alex pregnant? Stefan Diggs. Oh, Stefan Diggs.

Apparently. No, that'd been going on for a while. Yeah, they had an affair while she was pregnant, I believe. Which is that, you don't know if you don't believe the internet or not. Did we lose our music? Are we still in the air? Okay. I don't hear anything. I hear it is a little low.

I can turn it up for you. I did it for myself as well. How's that? You can hear it better now? Oh, there it is. Okay, I got you. Yeah, I still hear. Okay.

Sorry. You're right? I'm having difficulty reacting to this Stefan Dix news you gave me. Well, why do I know that you don't? I'm going to stick with him. Maybe I have Cardi be muted. I have a lot of words muted on my Twitter to be true to be told. Rockets win both games against the Suns and Golden State.

Oh. They lost to Golden State, but they did beat Phoenix. Yeah, that Golden State game. What a yuck. I finally resigned myself to this last week, so this is a hit for me as well. Alex Bregman signs a short-term deal with opt-outs. I just felt like that was the way that it was trending. Yep, yep.

And my JFK documents prediction is that the mafia is heavily involved in the assassination of one, John Fitzgerald. But the mafia don't speak. I know, but maybe they have some sort of crime family. Circumstantial evidence to where they couldn't take them to trial. I got you. They had enough evidence, but not enough to convict.

That's what I'm going with, with the mafia's involvement in the JFK trial. Connor McGovern went on record saying the Rockets win the next two as well. He was wrong. He also said Breggman does not sign. So that's a note for two. For one.

Connor McGovern. And they got to tell the truth wrong yesterday, too, huh? And then Dan Matthews, did he text in or call in with Post Malone or jelly roll as the next half-time Super Bowl? He's going to piggyback off him. I think Post Malone's a good one. I think that'll happen. He's got very wide appeal. He's doing Nirvana songs. Is the weekend strong enough to do a halftime show? The weekend is. Oh, they have? Okay. They're not going to combo. That's one guy. Oh, whatever. That's fine. His name is Abel Tess Foye. All right. Great singer. I'm a big, I'm a fan of the weekend.

My first gut feeling, ladies and gentlemen, there's nothing to do with sports. Okay. Lauren Michaels will finish out this year as the executive producer. We'll do one more year. He will retire after the 2026 season of Saturday Night Live. He's in his 80s. It's about time to hang him up, Lauren. So it would make sense from him to do it now, but I think he wants another farewell season to kind of say goodbye.

Make it all about Lauren. I mean, I get. Yeah, you got the 50 years special. Now next year will be the Lauren Farewell special. These specials get ratings. Yes, they do. Yeah. By the way, I've not watched all of it.

I do watch some of it. Okay. I put together the top five list of my fan. Debbie Downer is... I watched Debbie Downer. I was in the late at the airport. I watched Debbie Downer at Disney World Disney. Did a YouTube hole?

I was crying. Absolutely crying at the airport. I was not because my flight was delayed, but because it was still so funny. I went and found it. out some stories about it. Horatio Sands was crying so hard. He had to use

the pancakes that were a part of the scene to mop up the tears because he was laughing so hard. Okay. So yeah, season a half left for Laura Michaels before he recalls it a career. Okay. Okay. That's my first one. Okay. You need a sports take for me, don't you? Sure, why not? I'm going to go. Cougars win by

10 tonight against Arizona State in Tampa, Arizona. Arizona State just a mid-level. Cougars by 10? By 10. 10, 1,0. 10 or more. I go look at that line. See how close you are. I believe it's 9.5. Something like that.

Oh, come on. That's a cover. That's 11.5. Actually. Oh, I'll stay with 10. 10 or more. U of H, 10 or more. Come on, do 12.

One bucket. All right. Screw it. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Give the points. U.H. covers the 11.5. How about that?

You like that? I love it. All right. Get off that fence, baby. Let's go. What else you got? I'm going to go with, we don't normally make Red Sox opening day predictions here on the gut feelings. I would certainly don't believe so, yeah.

But the Red Sox opening day, third baseman, will be Alex Breggman. Oh, does Raphael Devers know this yet? Yeah, maybe I should soft pedal that and just say by the end of the year, Alex Breggman will get most time at third base. But they have to talk him off this. The dude's the gold glover. They just signed them to a big deal. Apparently the promises made to Rafael Devers were by the previous regime, so they don't have to uphold those. Right.

Alex Korr is going to get this guy in there. They're going to talk. They're going to chat. He's going to have this hard conversation. Alex Breggman is going to be the everyday third baseman for the Red Sox. Okay. So you're saying more time than not, it's going to be Breggman over Devers. Yes.

That sounds fine. Yes. By the way, do you think Alex Breggman had this conversation about it and they're like, whatever Devers says, let's go, just shake your head and go, yeah, you'll play wherever, but you're going to be our third basement. Yeah, I think so. So it goes back to my point of last week, you don't remove a third gold glover and put them somewhere else.

You just don't. And you also don't pay him $40 million a year to play second. Now second and third, close, but third is a more premium defensive position. It just is. All right, would you like, I want you to put one for the future. Alex Bregman is not opting out of it for next year, especially if like Rero goes to the Red Sox. He could.

Red Sox, don't worry, Alex Breggman is yours, 2006. Alex Fregeman does not opt out. Correct. So I'm going with. That would mean injury to me. Or could be... Or really underperforming.

Or comp numbers. I mean, he's not a $40 million player right now. No. Except the Red Sox made him one. Yeah, I'm staying with it. No, he could be right. He's with the Red Sox in 2026. I could see it.

Conardee, what do you got real quick? I'll say the Rockets win their next two. Oh, I like it. Friday and Saturday. Yes. Yeah. And then I'll say as much as I kind of want Team Canada to win, I think Team USA will win the Four Nations tournament final on Thursday. By the way, we need to talk about that when we come back.

That was highly, highly impressive. Whatever they did to publicize that, whether it was the three fights in nine seconds or the fact that those players gave it damn, I was in a Washington sports bar Saturday night. Everybody in D.C. was watching that. No one gave two blanks about the Skills Challenge or the slam dunk competition. Everybody in that bar was mesmerized by the, what do they call it, the Nations Cup. Is that what they're calling it? Four Nations face off.

Four Nations face off. Whoever decided that, genius move on your part. All right, more gut feelings coming up next. 713212-570. 7-1-3-212-5-790. This is the Matt Thomas Show of Ross. We're coming to you from West Palm Beach, and you are listening to Astro Spring Training coverage here on Sports Talk 790. Matt and Ross return.

Returned on Sports Talk 790. Final, let's finally drop this puck, get the action going. Kachuk brothers are on the ice, planking Jack Eichol and God people look out. We're going to drop the gloves right away. Matthew Kachuk and Brandon Hagle right off the hop. So, Connor, you're our hockey analyst real quick. did they obviously they said as soon as they got on the ice

we're going to try to kick each other's ass I mean that that had to have been a pregame get together in the locker room who are we going to go after right three three fights at nine seconds not even a regular NHL game does that yeah there's two brothers on the USA team

Matthew and Brady Kichuk and yeah they were the two the first two to fight so I think they were just pretty amped up to play for Team USA do they think they call each other meathead when they were kids and stuff that's what their that's what their dad said their dad was a keith kichuk who is a not a hall of favor but a really good really good player back in his day and he said like

oh you can't really control those two like tasmanian devils out there huh wow kachuk sounds like a hockey yeah it sounds way hockeyish me yeah kachuk is not a somebody that's like a gymnast yeah he kachs got some tooth loose teeth loose yeah and brain cells that have been just as oh yeah by the way uh some more people coming with a couple of more father-son duos. You have to help me out with this one. Floyd Mayweather, Senior, and Floyd Women are Junior? Floyd Mayweather, one of the greatest of all time.

Floyd Mayweather, not really. Roger Mayweather was better. He was the uncle. The uncle Roger Mayweather, also known as the Black Mamba. He had that nickname before Kobe Bryant. Okay. He was a multiple-time champion. Floyd Mayweather Jr. was kind of a decent fighter,

but not anywhere at the level of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Yon easy comes in with one. I like it. You don't really follow all. racing, but Mario and Michael Andretti were both fantastic. Yeah, just trust me in this. And they call me, they call me the official motorhead of the Matt Thomas show.

Yeah, that's true. You are. All right. 713-212-5-790. It's getting a little windier, which means we get showers coming in the air, which means we're going to run for cover. Can't wait. James and Alvin on 790. James, thank you for waiting, and good morning to you.

Good morning, man. Thank you for accepting my call. You guys are pretty good. Y'all got some of the most knowledgeable listeners. in sports radio land. Hold on, hold on, James, James, James. You just called us pretty good? We've been on the air 15 years.

We're more than pretty good. We're damn good, James. Well, I wanted to take a job at you, Matt, because last week you had a sound bite that had cricket sounding in Scott Boris Camp saying, what's the deal with Alex Bretman? No new is he took an Alex Bretman down a path that nobody wanted? Scott Boris had a $40 million $120 million three-year contract in Alice Brickman backpocket. I know everybody was looking at one another like, what the heck just went down? And let me say this here.

Kudos to Alex Brickman for betting on himself. Between Harkin Elijah Warren and Alex Brickman, the only two professional athletes that ever brought championships to this city, and Alex Bredman deserve every penny he gets and he will succeed his $200 million contract before six years is over with.

Man, listen, you guys are awesome and I think if you go back I think it was last Tuesday last, you had this sound bite with the cricket sound. They was crying in the background and you say where is Alex? Mr. Bredman and Scott Boris, where I'll tell you what it was.

He had $120 million contract for three years. Jim Crane or be shame yourself. Thank you, guys. He's not ashamed to himself. See you later, James. He's not ashamed of himself. Jim Crane, you should be a shame. Jim Crane.

Shame, shame, shame, Jim Crane. Matter of fact, Mr. Crane. Shame on you. Well. He could have gone far over the tax. but he didn't want to. Nope. And that's his right.

And the next best deal was the 6 and 171 for the Detroit Tigers, which was that $26 million a year? No, that's more than a half. 20 and a half. Short term, big, big money early. Now remember, he can opt out. And just because you opt out doesn't mean you're going to get $40 million

the next two years after that. But my guess is, Ross, if he was to opt out is because the streets are whispering, we'll give you that big deal you were looking for. Yeah, if he's opting out, he's going to get, I mean, look, as we discussed, to match the Astros deal, he needs to get basically over the last three years, $36 million.

That's if he opts in and stays in there. Right. So if he opts out after one year, let's do this. It'll be five years 116. What is that? 23? 23 and a half? Yep.

So if he can get more than five years of 116, that's already bigger than the aster. As we talked about all last week when the deal came down, it was not about the length of the contract. That was the big thing that Breggman was aspiring for. It was the average annual value. And that's where Bailor Boll was trying to come in and say, you should have got with it. Like, yeah, you need too late.

You lost. To match the Tigers deal, if he plays this year and ops out, he will have to get five years 130, basically, which is 26 a year. Which is what he's turned down to begin with. So, again, that's why I feel very confident that he's going to take at least $80 million with him. In fact, I mean, I don't want to go out and say he's going to be the whole three years. I don't know that. But I think he's going to enjoy, Ross, 80-milly for two years, was way more on average than anybody else is willing to pay.

He's going to, he needs to sit back and enjoy that for a while. Not go through this again. Unless, again, he bombs, hits 30. 35-40 home runs, OPS of him on 900. He's in a good spot. He needs kind of a bounce back in some ways. He did hit the 26 bombs. Average is very stable, but that walk rate took a huge dip.

And I haven't really dived into it because I saw something like mid-season that he was getting screwed by strike three calls more than average. But that doesn't necessarily probably shore up for his walk rate going from 13% to 7%. No, no, no. I think there were more head-scratching moments because, frankly, the reputation of Alex Bregman is that he's got a very good eye. I saw that a lot when I was covering Joe Meyer

with the twins back 10, 15 years ago, Ross, is that once you develop a reputation for being a good pitch selector in terms of being able to have a good eye at the plate, you get benefit of the doubt more. And maybe I don't, maybe Bregman last year didn't get the benefit of the doubt that he maybe have gotten in previous years.

Yeah, his walk rate was as bad. It went all the way back to where he went. He was a rookie. So I expect that. If the walk rate bounces back, on base bounces back, he can still hit 25 bombs, play steady-handed, two-plus third base,

which he's a gold glove, raining gold Glover. Yep. Somebody could give him $5.150, maybe. And then that'll add up to what, $6.190. That's what he's looking for. It just took a little longer to get to what he wanted,

but his average annual value is over $30 million a year. So we'll see. We'll see. All right, let's get to the news at noon. We'll do that next here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. We are coming to you from West Palm Beach, Florida. There are guys manicure in the infield. Do you want to get on the thing and go for a ride with that, dude?

Why not? I'm just thinking, do you want to? I don't think there's a seat for you, Matt. We could always find a spot. You're going to have to ride shotgun. Do you think he is like, I am the luckiest man on Earth? Like, I'm making $11 an hour of manicuring. He's probably listening to his favorite album, and it's just kind of busy work.

Manicuring and infield? I don't know. Do people get really into that? He's going to the same spot between third and short, over and over. I'm mesmerized by this dude. Yeah, you are. The news at noon is. Step out of it, man.

The news at noon is next. It's 1157 on Sports Talk 7. All right. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 1202 at H-J. What's happening in Lunch Timers? Welcome to hour number three of the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

come to you from West Palm Beach, Florida, home of Astro Spring Training, 2020. And just a reminder again, if you're coming out here in the next month or so, bring a credit card. That's the West Palm living, baby. It is. Orlando, Kissimmee, reasonable. West Palm, not reasonable. Yeah.

We're doing all right. We're bawling on a budget. We're going to go get us a riggy rag at... Yes, sir. We negotiated... At Bendies? We spent the entire break negotiating our Bindies. order. Yeah, we did.

Because we hit the station, this is not talking out of school, but we have a certain budget we cannot go over, so we're going to eat cheaply. Yeah, we'd rather go to Dordons, but we're going to go to Bindies. Yeah. We'd rather have some steak. We're going to have some steak fries. Grun chuck.

Time now. People are like, shut up, Matt. Shut up, Ross. 713-212-5-790. Christian Walker's going to join us sometime in the next hour or so. Here's your new first basement. Right now we present to you, the at noon. And we go to the remote desk of the news at noon.

We've brought it here to... By the way, this week on Friday, we get to do Florida stories. We are in the state of Florida this week. So the rule is if you're in the state this week, you get to do the Florida stories. But you're not going to be in Florida on Friday, are you? Nor are you. Okay. I'm down.

I want to do a Florida story. Because you always talk trash about Florida stories, and I think they're amazing. I love Florida. The rule is if I'm in or you're in the state of Florida, we do Florida stories. If we're in this week, so Friday will be Florida stories. it right now. We present to you the news at new. Yes, Matthew, we are here at West Palm Beach. First day of full

team workouts. We'll be bringing you coverage for the next three days. Joe Espada will be speaking each of those days. Hopefully we'll be able to join us in the next couple of days as well. We did have Dana Brown earlier on. We'll replay some of that. You can also find it at sports talk 790.com. But here is some

of Joe Espada, Matt, talking about the big topic of spring training. Jose Altuve in left field. Joe Espana saying that's how Jose Altuve showing some leadership that he's willing to play anywhere on the field. You know, we talk in there about leadership, right? And, you know, I immediately go to him. That's what leaders do, right?

They think of, they put team first. They think about, you know, the group and that's what it's all about. You know, he could easily say, hey, Joe, second base probably not. idea but he's open to him and that's what we want to do just consider the opportunity to play left create some opportunity for the players the first utility in our team there's all the clubs who are doing the same stuff and hoses like let's roll with it and it's a privilege for me to be around most al-tube for the last eight season and hopefully we get to work together three years ago working out with the outfielders today, Matt,

here in focus. Can't wait. Might as well. Nothing against it. Let's go. I'm not expecting anything super special. I'm expecting him to patrol it like most players have gone to the outfield after spending their entire lives playing in the infield. As we kind of talked about this yesterday, Matt,

everybody in baseball, for the most part, makes an error, misplays a ball, misses a throw. but he's just going to be under that extra microscope. We've seen Yordon or Dubon or whoever else, misplay balls and left. It's just part of the game. So it'll be interesting to see the very first time he does that what the reaction from others is going to be.

Again, to me, it's not about him fielding because he's caught fly balls plenty of his life. It's about the ball coming off the wall, run around and third. Can you make the play? Can you get a guy out of the plate? All right, Matt, let's keep it with baseball. some news around the league.

We mentioned this earlier. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Blue Jays failing to reach an extension. Vlad Jr. saying, quote, they have their numbers. I have my numbers. Bye. General manager Ross Atkins saying the Jays offers were,

quote, very, very aggressive. I'm confident that we exhausted the communication, the ideas, the thoughts, and communicated every dollar. His deadline that he set, It was 9 p.m. on Monday. That has passed. He's going to hit the market, along with Kyle Tucker.

Maybe Alex Bregman as those among the headliners of the next year's free agent class. So that means Kyle Tucker is moving down a spot, right? And that's why Breggman's going to keep $40 million. That's up for debate. I was probably put Vlad Jr. ahead of Kyle Tucker. Okay. We mentioned this. How old is Vlad Jr.?

He came up pretty young, didn't he? Yeah, he's been around a long time. Is this his first goal? He's only 25. Oh, yeah. He's a six-year-free agent. Yeah, probably. Vlad's going to get paid.

Oh, he hits in a very friendly ballpark, too. Unless he's hurt, he's going to crush. Last year, 30 home runs, 100 RBIs, 323 average, and the OPS of 940. So, should be a pretty darn big free agent hitting the market next year. elsewhere, Matt. Actually, go ahead and keep it with baseball. Did you see Buster Olney's top 10 first baseman in baseball this, Matt? Yeah, I believe Christian Walker's third.

Am I right? He is sixth. Oh, I was off by three. Freddie Freeman, Bryce Harper, Vlad Guerrero Jr., Matt Olson, Pete Alonzo, Christian Walker, placed sixth for your Houston Astros, the three-time gold Glover, supposed to join the show later on today. Yeah, he'll be here. You know that's down? I don't know. It's very media-friendly, so we'd love that.

Yeah, absolutely love that. We're looking forward to hearing from Christian Walker later on in the show here as we broadcast from West Palm. Let's go to some basketball news, Matt. Did you know that Kyrie Irving was born in Australia? Did he make this up himself, or is just, this is verified? Well, whether the earth is flat or round, he was born in Australia. He says he wants to represent Australia in the 20th. 2028 Olympics telling reporters they're in the process of getting his nationality or whatever you call it,

FIBA rating or FIBA configuration. I don't know. But he might represent Australia as he represented the United States in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games and won a gold medal there. He did not make either of the past two USA Olympic rosters. so he might be going to the Great Down Under and joining the Aussies. So he's trying to find a cheap way to get a trip to the Olympics after all. Kyrie Irving to Jack Landale. Is there a better pick and roll combination? There's a lot of Aussies in the NBA.

Dante X-Mexam? Jack McVeigh is a New Zealander, correct? Josh Gittie, is he Australian? He's Australian? Yeah. Okay. I think Australians have a great accent. I can't do it.

Ben Simmons, Patty Mills? Yeah. That's not a decent. Joe Ingalls? They got a squad. Not bad squad at all. If he's Tybal, if you will. Like Jocchland knows already told me, he says, you go to Australia, I'll set you up in all the places.

You drop my name there. You'll be a freaking god. That's okay. Yeah, but do we believe him? Not really, no. He doesn't even know my name. He calls me mate. I mean, that's, at least you've been called worse.

By you. That's fine. All right, Matt. Well, let's keep it with basketball. Well, let's go to the college ranks. Huge. Big 12 showdown tonight. The University of Houston Cougars taking on the under 500.

Arizona State Sun Devils. James Hardin is rolling over in his graves. Arizona State just 3 and 11 in Big 12 play. And if you didn't hear it earlier, I got the Cougars covering the 11.5 and a half. Cougars favored by 11.5

in that one. Man, how crazy is it? Cougars joined the Big 12 and then the premier basketball conference becomes the SEC mat. By the way, I think the Lannardi bracket has eight Big 12 teams going to the tournament.

Wow. I think the SEC's got 12, I think. 12. My goodness. I believe the Longhorns are among that group, by the way. By the way, nice win for you. After that big win over the, well, Kentucky was missing some good players, but that's okay. And it took that game.

A win is a win. A win is a win. A win. A win is a quad one win, folks. Got that right. That's in the last couple of weeks. Wins over ranked Mizzou, ranked A&M, and ranked Kentucky. You guys are in.

All at home. And Ronnie Terry can get himself a new deal out of this. Good for him. Oh, stop. Please stop. Oh, hey. On that note, let's see, what else did I get for the news at noon? I think that's all I got.

It's all was needed. Unless you want to hear about the Cubs getting a one-year deal with Justin Turner. And I would ask you, what was your favorite Justin Turner moment as a Seattle? No, that's a bit steel softy. I got you. I know where you are. All right, that, my friends, is the news at noon at 1212 here on Sports Talk 7. If you want to jump in on the conversation, you may do so at 71321.

2-12-7-9-0-7-13-21-5-7-99. So I'm going to ask all of us to put our crystal ball in front of us here. Are we going to be deliberating about the move for Altubia to left field? A little bit, a lot, or on the daily. Think about that for a minute. Okay. And we'll discuss it when we come back. 7-13-212-57-90.

If you want to chime in, 7-13-21-2-5-7-7. I got a question for you. And I always ask you this question. Well, actually, it's a different question, but it's the same thing. How are you feeling? How's your day and day? How's your workouts? How's your New Year's resolutions? Dude, it's middle of February. Haven't been feeling motivated. Said you're going to hit the gym. I don't know why you haven't been feeling like yourself. Diet's been the same. Workout regimens are the same or non-existent. Testosterone levels could be low. Get them checked. I know you have a lot of options. Why synergenic testosterone and weight loss? because they are the true TRT experts.

They're going to give you personalized therapy. Some stuff you hear, that's your stuff out of a bottle. Some other stuff you hear, they're just going to give you some stuff in you on your way. Not at synergenics. They're going to tailor treatments to you, the individual, based on your types of testosterone and those levels. Cinergenics also offers weight loss management.

How about affordable prescription GLP-1 plans? Stop waiting. Book your appointment, clinics all over town. Cinergenicshealth.com. S-Y-N-E-R-GenX-Health.com is the website you need to remember. CinergenX Health.com. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues on Sports Talk 790. Time is 12-17.

The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Christian Walker is in a photo shoot right now, so as soon as he's done with that, he will come and say hello to us. Wonderful. Looking forward to that. If you missed our Dana-Bron conversation, that's also in the 1 o'clock gallon. I did miss it. We'll check it out then.

Well, I know you checked out, but you were literally here. All right. So I've got my crystal ball in front of me here. Okay. Here's how I think the outfield is going to go. Jose will be fine. I'm not saying it's going to be a while he reinvented himself. I'm going to say he looks like a second baseman career infielder playing the outfield.

He'll make the regular catches. He will not go out of his way to make the catch that wasn't specifically. supposed to be made. I don't think he's going to have a terrific rate of return on throwing guys out, scoring on sock flies or anything like that. I also think he's not going to be asked to do a whole lot of that because I think my guess is he'll probably be playing some of the shorter porches in baseball, which are quite a few as you go around the National America League.

To me, the biggest bone of contention for Astro fans and probably for the organization will be Kenley Outfield collectively, that's Jake, Chaz, Jose, DeCenzo, Yoron, and that, can they hit enough? I think we're going to spend Ross a lot of time debating what they're going to do with six through nine in the lineup. That's just my early season feel of it, and that I think we'll spend more time than on that than we will worry about who's playing on left field today. Is this going to be a daily, well, we run to the ballpark and go, oh, is it? Altubei in left today. Is it Alvarez in left today? Is it Dubon in left today? Is it Desenzo and left today? I mean, it's been a... It's going to be a conversation piece, but I think what will drive the show and drive Astro fans is, why don't we have anything in terms of massive pop out in the outfield? And hopefully that isn't the case. But I think if we were to say, based off of educated guests, based off of history, I think that's what we're thinking about. Because they're hoping Chaz comes as well.

back to what he was a couple of years ago. I'm going to hopefully catch up a Chas tomorrow and Jake as well. We know Jake is offensively. We know he's defensively. I don't think there's going to be a massive amount of change in his game unless he all of a sudden figures out what he was looking at in the month of May to say, oh, that's what I did and I didn't do that rest of the month of the year. That's to me to me what they do offensively much more than what they're to work is going to be defensively.

Yeah, I think that's what we're worried about. And then, you know, Dana Brown kind of hinted out when we had him on. Like, hey, if you want to answer, we need some left field. production at the plate, then Jose L2B provides that. But then, of course, where does the tradeoff come and what you're going to get elsewhere? So that's going to be the storyline, especially if the pitching can stay healthy and inline the way that we want it to, and we think it will, if all of, what, Brown, Blanco, Erigetti, are what they were last year, what they were at their peaks of last year. Then you add in Fromber. Right.

And then I just got a gut feeling that Wesniews is going to be very, very. good because as Dana Brown also said, they bring pictures here and they work wonders with them. And if you think we're giving you the company line, no, the evidence is Verlander reinvented himself,

even though he was late in his career. Remember when he was trashing the Mets organization for how bad their analytics were because of how good they were with the Astros? And if there's no better example, it's what you say Kikuchi was. You say Kikuchi was a home run machine.

not hitting them, tossing pitches that were hit by other players out of the ballpark. And they went 9 and 1 in a start, something like that? Yeah, and I gave up the home run on the very first game. He didn't give up a few home runs because that's what flyball pitchers do. But generally speaking, you had zero worries. Matter of fact, there were people clamoring. When's you say going to pitch in a playoff game? Well, the series only went two games.

So whatever the elixir is they use in the Astros pitching room, video room, whatever the instructions are there's a lot of evidence in the last five years and even before that when we had what's his name the old guy I'm going to be rude but oh Brent Strong

there's something in the DNA and the Astros pitching academy that seems to work and help people out Charlie Martin reinvented himself too it's yeah it is the pitching coaches but it's also the numbers guys and tinkering with repertoires and adding this pitch or throwing more of this pitch or whatever as well.

So, yeah, I would say the question mark is going to be production and a lot from the outfield. But that is the thing. As you mentioned, Jake Myers isn't going to go out there and hit 325 bombs. It's not going to happen. He's not enough of a sample size. We kind of know who he... Now, can he have a hot spurt?

Yeah. But there was also, you know, June and July, the second half numbers were not even close to what they were in the first half. Yeah, the numbers... He had that hot May where he was OPSing like 900. numbers tumbled so hard. He had a worse year than he had the year before. That was tough.

With that really hot May. You take out that hot May, you don't want to look at Jake Myers' numbers last year. They would not have been major league caliber numbers. What he does is he is a ninth place hitter that is brought on for his defense. Now, again, nine hitters you need in the world of baseball today in 2025. You need something out of your top nine. You just do. But you can kind of live with it if one through eight are projecting to have.

have the type of power. The problem is, Dubai was playing almost every single day. You didn't get any pop from there. Myers was playing every day. So you had, you know, two nines of your lineup. If they got on base, that was cool. But one of them wasn't getting on base and one the other one was, it was nothing more than a singles hitter. Yeah.

Oh, that's what you're wondering about. And that's why I think a lot of the onus is on Chaz to get back to where he was a couple of years ago, or at least close to it. He's probably somewhere in between, right? He's not as bad as he was last year. Maybe he's not as good as when he had 22 home runs in a very smaller,

much smaller sample size. And everybody was talking about playing him every day, and Dusty Baker and the whole bread put, our banana pudding thing and all that stuff was going on. So he's probably somewhere in between. That still means to me it ain't some production. Do you anything that can carry the day? In the honor it is, we haven't really,

we've hardly mentioned his name all the off season. He's going to have to continue to produce. Because we talked about it last year because he was taking, He was going from the part-time starter to playing every single day. All we got to do is get him out there six days a week. And you did that. Batting-wise, it was obviously an upgrade. I mean, anything over Martin Maldonado was going to be an upgrade.

Did defensive work? I still, and this is an early guy feeling we had on the show years ago, which maybe will change because of Christian Walker stance. But I always thought, maybe this is still happening. happen. I think Giannieree is going to end his major league career, or maybe three or years now, if Christian Walker's deal is done, he's going to be a first basement. I don't think the catcher that got out of Sam Houston's day, I forgot the guy's name,

but the advance right up on this kid is unbelievable. Yeah, but for 2025 sake, though, that's another question mark to me. Because where would you stick, Yanor Diaz when you want him in the lineup, but you also want to get Victor Caratini in there? You want some production. and you maybe get him off his legs. You'd stick him at DH. They want Yoran more, D-Hing more.

They want L-Tuve probably to D-H some this year as well. So how do you stick? You know, that was kind of that relief spot for Joe Espada to say, you know what, I'm going to throw you in the D-H spot. Let's get Yoran on in the left. They don't want to do that as much. No. They would also say occasionally, it was only a handful of times.

We'll put you on here at first. Well, Christian Walker's supposed to be locking that down every day. Christian Walker, and again, I don't know him. We're about to meet him in a few minutes. He's playing six days a week. He's also. He's also. 34 years old.

You might want to get him off his feet every now and then with a D.H. Yeah, there's a lot of get guys off their feet days. And that's the challenge, I think, for every major league manager. We're going to write that down. We need to ask Joe a spot about that. I actually might. I have that. You know, matter of fact, I'm going to let you ask that question.

Okay. It's get off that guy's feet day. How do you balance that? Okay. Because that's a lot of, honestly, it's a lot of work. 713-212-5-790 7-13-212-5-7-90 I hope you guys are enjoying the Astros conversation

because we are certainly getting ready for another season we'll get back to the other things in sports including the MBA letter on this week we have a little bit of NFL tidbits to get to real quick before we get to the break did you all enjoy that you watched Saturday Night Live the 50-year thing

did watch a second of it because you just don't care if you don't care you don't care I mean, I kind of forgot. I saw a couple clips on... I didn't see it live because I was obviously... I saw the Black Jeopardy on Twitter. I saw a couple other ones on Twitter. Yeah.

I thought they were funny. Like Eddie Murphy and Will Ferrell doing the scared straight thing and yelling at people. I thought Eddie Murphy was the star of the show. Eddie Murphy doing Tracy Morgan on Black Jeopardy was hysterical. Yeah, I saw a call. I laughed. I just didn't watch the show. Yeah.

It's crazy. It's 50 years. And to me, it's still. keeps you one or two segments a week. You know why? That's where social media and follow that account as well. Yeah, that's true. I mean, I feel like if there's something really funny, I catch it on Twitter. Like the George Washington one they've been doing,

I thought those are pretty funny. Yeah, and Kate McKinnon is that whatever that woman is, she's in the prison and she's talking about aliens and stuff, and her mom came on there for the first time. Their mom was Merrill Street. She'd never been on Saturday Night Live before. Oh, I didn't even catch that one. And then Paul McCartney was fantastic.

Was he? Except Houston, you didn't get to see it. Sorry about that. Was he fantastic? Did he sing? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Are you sure he was fantastic? Matt?

He was amazing. No, he was amazing. People that brought the house down. So did Adam Sandler saying, too, about the cast. It was really, really good. I saw that. All right. Phones next.

713212-5-7-90. By the way, the man-manacuring the fields now worked this way towards first base. Man, he's just having a ball out there. Do you think he's jamming or do you think he's like, can I get, I need to hang on here for like 15 more minutes? Yeah. You think it's like, like, we're near at work and you got, like, an office job, and you're like, All right, I really only have like two hours of real work. I've got to stretch this into five hours.

Yeah, so you get on your computer and you get on your Facebook. You're like you're typing a bunch of stuff, but you're really just DM in people. He's just going in circles. Yeah. Is the eighth revolution of him going in circles really that much better than adding that much? Like he could stop right now, but he is in the same spot over and over and over again. Actually, moving towards second base. 713212-5-790.

7-1-3-1-2-5-790. We are in West Palm Beach for Astero Spring Training here on Sports Talk 790. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. Matt Ross, with you from West Palm Beach. We once again will tell you that our off-the-air comments are seemingly better than whatever we provide you on the air. And someday we'll tell you what we're doing off the air. Someday.

Someday. Probably when we retire. Like if we ever have a party, like for my retirement or your retirement, Ross, we'll tell people what we really talk about. Honesty Oh Yeah gloves come off For the final show ever

Oh my God Whatever it may be 713 212-5-790 Let's go to Jay On the Matt Thomas show With Ross Jay Thank you for holding what's on your mind

Jake If he doesn't have a good spring That means he'll stay in the minor leagues Or they just cut him And Jake Myers is going to be your starting center field are in all likelihood. Oh, no. What about John Singleton?

Did they cut him, or they're going to give him a trial? I saw him today as a matter of fact. You want him in center? No, no, no. He's supposed to be backing out first base. That is correct. Or V8s or one of them. Okay, and then I heard you say you're going to put Altooby and left field? I'm not doing it. The Astros are going to put him out there.

He's working out in the out field right now, or today he did. Jay, where have you been? Besides playing here, I've been out working. So besides him playing here at the park, how's he going to jump up and steal home runs? He's not. That's not going to be a part of his repertoire. By the way, no one in the history of the world.

Jay, no one in the history of Minutemate Parks ever robbed a home run off the Crawford boxes. It's never happened. But I tell you, they jumped up and grabbed him off the wall. Hey, legally, can he climb up that scoreboard and get up there? Like Spider-Man? Yeah. Sure, why not? Why can't he, Jay?

He can climb up the... He can kick out some of those threes and fours. He's only... He's only five-foot-three. Wait a minute. How often do you see a Yordon climbing walls in left field? I didn't remember seeing him doing it ever. Yardon is too busy.

He's not getting... Worried about not getting hurt. That's why they're taking the bottom left. He don't need to play an outfield. You don't need to play in the outfield. You know what? Give and take, the Astros, they probably are going to fire is spotted before the All-Star break. What?

Yeah, that's my take. They're going to have a whole lot of team. No pitching. No pictures. The hot take cannon. Well, hold on, Jake. Stay or whatever your name is. Jay, well, run through the rotation for us, and who do you like and who don't you like among the guys in a rotation?

Go ahead. Rotation? You got Voddes. He's probably going to get hurt. All right. You got Blanco. you might get away with him. And then you got Eric Gettie.

Yeah. And then you got, who's the other fork guy? You ain't got Hunter Brown? How about Hunter Brown? Hunter Brown? Hunter Brown might be your only hope. Hunter Brown. I forgot about him.

But one guy ain't going to win you a hundred games. Well, they only have one good pitcher. Why are you firing Joe's spot over it? Why is Joe's spotting the hook so quick? Oh, because they're not going to have a good season. Trust me, they're not going to have. I won't call you back right before the all-star break and say, Matt, I cannot wait.

I told you so. Back in February, I told you. I like I told you. I told you. Jay, you got zero problem with you calling us back. But remember, Jay, if they're doing okay, you have to call and apologize, too, right? Yeah, you get to call and apologize. Will you do that?

Yeah, I'll eat crow. That's right. That's what I'm talking about. Thank you, Jeff. All right, see you later. All right. See you later. I feel like we were giving him news that he had not heard. And look, I know people have to work.

But he's like he's woken up out of a coma. This Jose Al-Tube thing's been talked about for about what, three four weeks now, has it not? Yeah, I think Lester Holt was talking about it. Lester Holt? Wait, what's that guy's name? On NBC News? Yeah. I think he was leading the NBC News, right?

That's a rando poll. Lester Holt was talking about it? Yeah. Okay. I respected the game. I believe it was Bill Maher's topic A on this week with a real time with Bill Maher. I think actually it was a Donald Trump executive order that Jose Al-Tube play left field. Hold up.

We're getting any word than Anderson Cooper had Jose Al-Tube on the show a month ago. Hold up. Barbara Walters before she passed had him on 2020. The ghost of Walter Cronkite has weighed in. Oh, he's got El-Tubei left. Excuse me, what did you say, Mr. Muriel? Edward R. Muriel, what did you say? You got El-Tube coming on?

Okay. Good. Well, look, it's possible. The win total is 86 and a half, Matt. Okay. I want to be realistic. As soon as you told me that this morning, what was my first response? Oh. And what else?

That Astros overreaction was going to be in full play this year. Perhaps. Not perhaps. They go 86 and 76. This city's going to lose its mind. This city's going to lose its mind. Yoron's going to be good. You're not going to have a slow start in Bregman here.

Now, that's not nice. By the way, by the way, I got an email from a listener. I forgot who it was from. But the listener bring up a good point. I apologize for those of you that email me, they didn't. We're going to do Bregman updates every couple weeks. Bregman updates. We've got to change it.

On the Matt and Ross's show. Bragman Update. How many airs did he throw? No, no, no. Is he wicked good or no? Did Devers let him play third or no? You got to bring in Wicked at some point. All right.

You want to go Wicked and Awesome? Wicked and Awesome. Wicked awesome. Wicked awesome or no? That's not bad. All right. Let's try. We got time to worry about this. What does he call it?

Not a thunderstorm. Brainstorm. We're about a thunderstorm coming our way here. Claus are looking pretty ominous, but I think we're going to be fine. Yeah, we're going to be fine. At least till 3 o'clock then it's going to deluge on us. Easy on 790 at 1238. Thank you for holding. Good afternoon to you.

Not a problem. Welcome back, Matt. We had a good time listening to Ross and Gordon yesterday. I'm glad they were good people. Well, I just wanted to kind of spice up the thing because Debbie Downer was on record before I was right now. I mean, the rotation is set and it's fine. I mean, you got guys coming off Tommy John that would help. So we have a surplus of pitching, gentlemen.

And I want to know if you guys can give me the timeline of when Garcia and El Reteel are coming back, and I'll hang up and listen. Thank you very much. Garcia and who? I think he said McCullors. It didn't sound like he said McCullors. Would you say easy was the second guy? It was Garcia or El Reptile.

What's his name? Javier. A reptile. Okay, Javier. Christian Javier. I think Javier's done the out of the entire season. I would say probably, if I had to guess he's not going to come out of this year. I don't think Javier or France pitch in 2020.

I mean, he's here. He looks good. Of course he does. I don't know if he's got good money, too. Yes, he does. He's got good money. I would say Luis Garcia, he's not, we haven't heard about him throwing off of a mound recently. No, I think McCullors would be first before Garcia.

To me, I think in the world today, even though the Tommy John surgery is a revolutionized players, I think you're looking at two years. If you get anything from Luis Garcia before 26, I'd be considered a win. I don't know. I mean, I'm just on something against the wall here. Yeah, I don't know either. How bad was the setback he had in September? Because they were trying to get him up there.

Yes. We were talking about, whoa, that seems fast. And, you know, it seems to me that's kind of been the issue. Lance McCullors Jr. talked about it. It seems like that's what happened with Luis Garcia. Is these guys trying to rush back. Lance McCullors Jr. talked about it being a 15-to-17-month injury they told him. So when he hit 15 months, he started to ramp up.

And he wasn't ready. So he had a setback. So hopefully he can be back. And oh, by the way, you can do, and I'm not saying that you're doing this, but everybody puts timelines on injuries. Yeah. And it just doesn't make any sense because everybody's different. Damn, he's got the Astros gear already.

Yeah, he came from the photo shoe looking good, man. That's a clean-ass uniform right there. Yeah. Christian Walker's with us on the show. Yes. We're blown by this break, by the way. Ross. I'm Matt, by the way.

Nice to see you. How are you? All right. Christian Walker is the newest Houston Astro. We're in the Monday through Friday whites. Man, that's a clean-looking look right there. Good. Yeah, it feels good. By the way, what the hell were y'all wearing in Arizona the last few years?

You've had some terrible ass uniforms. Yeah, the colors got weird there for a little bit. Colors, everything got weird. I mean, what was that all about? You couldn't figure out what you were wearing. Yeah, those city connects, the Serbientes are love or hate. It's a tough one. Yeah, like six different.

I mean, the Diamondbacks changed your uniform. You must have worn 15 uniforms while you were there. Yeah, it makes it tough. I like having some custom gear in season, and you never know what colors or what color schemes to order during the off season. All right, got to get a couple things knocked out. Our program director is an SEC fan. He wants to honor you with your great days at South Carolina.

Give us your great moment as a South Carolina baseball player. Yeah, absolutely. Without a doubt, I mean, easy answer to the national championships. Perfect. 2010, 2011, we were back-to-back national champions there. We got to close out Rosenblatt and then open up that new stadium with Natty. So kind of a fun thing there. All right.

Now we're going to be honest on the other side of it. You won the National League penned a couple of years ago. We hate the Rangers. You as Americans let us down. You know that right. Do you see their parade? If you didn't want to want it, you did a nice parade.

I've been to Phoenix many time. I'm the Rockets and the House, so we go there all the time. Great city. They were at a freaking Walmart grocery store one of the champions. It's pretty sad parade in Arlington. So next parade,

you always won here, right? We'll make sure it's here for sure. Yeah. Take us through this for agent process. You had been in Arizona for 90% of your major league career. So a thought or two about what that was like, did you enjoy the experience? Were you intimate in conversations with your agent on the daily or did you say, hey, get back to me when you wanted to hear something you liked? Yeah, a little bit of both.

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

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

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

and being back in the good weather and playing baseball again is what we want. Did you do any recount about the Astros as an organization when you knew they were on the shortlist for yourself? A little bit, a little bit other than the obvious things. You know, it's cool meeting a guy like Bagwell, getting to have some conversations with him, how much pride he has for this organization. And, you know, he said something today. He's been wearing this uniform since 1990. So hearing little things like that really remind you of,

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

That's a good question. So I didn't actually start playing first base until college. Growing up, high school, middle school, I was an infielder, but mostly third base. I loved watching Scott Rowland. He was my guy. I got a chance. I was a Philly's fan growing up, so he came through Philly and watching him was a lot of fun. And then Ryan Howard, you know, that first year he had, that rookie year, broke onto the scene.

That was a lot of fun to watch, too. I was in high school for that. When we were growing up, and probably you'd as well, a lot of the first baseman were big stodgy guys, just find a place for them. First of all, I grew up watching Jeff Bagwell, so I knew there was intricacies to it. Yule de Gueriel before a couple years before you, same situation. The art of playing first base, thankfully, I think, is no longer just put the fact out there. It's a skill holding runners on, fielding your position well.

Tell me the biggest adjustment for you going from the left side to the right side of the infield and being able to say, yeah, I want to own this part of the field. Yeah, absolutely. I think what helped me was playing on the other side of the infield at one point and knowing what it's like to feel like you have to make a perfect throw. I feel like you got to hit somebody in the chest over there for them to make the play. And, you know, I pride myself on not being that guy. I want to be somebody that, you know, my shortstop can lay out in the hole

and come up and throw from his knees and know that if he gets it close, we're going to make the out. That always helped me as an infielder knowing I had somebody over there. So, you know, that's something that's important to me playing first base now. Christian Walker, newest Houston Astro with us here on the radio program. Very excited that you came here because we were all anxious about what's going to happen with Alex and figuring out with Kyle and whatnot. When you finally signed on the dotted line, tell me what it was like, trying to find your teammates, know what was going to be there. And honestly, this infield is going to be completely different. How long do you think it's going to take and is there going to be a magic day that you're going to go, all right, we as a collective group, know what we're doing in here?

No, it's hard to pick a date. I think Tony Perry's Cheek is going to do a great job of making sure we get quality reps out there together. I think practicing fast is important. Yeah. You know, feeling out each other's range and, you know, like something little like knowing that, you know, Dubon is such a great arm, but trying to figure out his arm action. Does he cut it? Does he throw it clean? You know, is it a true ball?

Does it have arm side? You know, everybody has their tendencies. so it's fun to get to know, you know, some new really, really good infielders. How long can that take to get used to and acclimate to? This time of year, it happens pretty quick. It's never really a struggle. It's just, you know, before we know it here, we're going to have hundreds of ground balls together and, you know, hundreds of double plays that we've turned on the backfield.

So it happens quick. I'd say here in, you know, about a week or so, we all start feeling pretty comfortable with each other. You have a lot left in your career, but once the clock turns 30 and beyond, Did you have to adjust getting ready for this season, getting maybe a little sooner as compared to maybe when you're in your 20s coming up in the game? I mean, yes and no. I think there's a side of it where the more time you spend around the game, the more you know yourself and you know your routine and you know what you need to be ready for a season.

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

My body feels good. I spend a decent amount of time in the weight room. It's something that I pride myself on. It's helped me stay on the field for a while. So, you know, feeling strong, feeling ready to go, and looking forward to playing a lot of games. Your overall thoughts about playing at what Dyken Park now, You've been there obviously a few times over your career. Yeah, yeah, I'm very excited.

I like the dome feel. I think that's cool. I think the consistency in the environment, knowing the weather in Houston and the rain, I'm sure it comes in quick and the humidity and all that. So knowing if there's a home game, we're playing. I think that mental, just knowing what to expect, getting into a routine, you know, there's nothing like waking up on a gloomy day and trying to figure out if there's going to be a delay or if you're hitting BP

on the field and this and that. So I'm looking forward to that, and then, you know, the fans. It's something that's always stuck out to me coming in as a visiting team is playing in front of the fan base. What was your conversation has been like so far with Joe Spotted? Because, I mean, as you know, first base was in flux for the last couple of years. Now, give you a big hug. Say I'm happy to put you in first base every day. Any conversations also about DH?

And can you play left field? I'm just kidding. Yeah. We're trying to figure out left field. Everybody in their mothers wants to play left field apparently. actually coming up with a few different teams there was a lot of really good first basement in front of me so i have played left field oh that's there we go folks headlong oh here we go we're just started hopefully we just started a controversy now because

it's not it's not pretty out there um no i mean i mean d h and cool like if that's something where um you know it's a way to maybe take a day and and and get the legs back under me but but honestly i like to be out in the field i think it helps me stay in a routine offensively and um you know stay moving and it's it's something that I've just grown up doing. I enjoy being out in the field for sure. But yeah, I think there's something to

coming in and feeling valued. You know, that makes you excited to play. It makes you excited to prove everybody right. You know, the standards are real. The expectations are real. And it's something that you crave as a big league or you want somebody

to put pressure on you and you have to go out and prove it. So you're a South Carolina native. No, no, no. I grew up just outside of Philly. I was going to say, because I was like, you have no accent whatsoever. You don't have a Philly accent, of a South Carolina accent, and none of that. Yeah, yeah.

They've both kind of disappeared. I went to school there, obviously, and just fell in love with the area and never left. But grew up just outside of Philly. Same city as Mike Piazza and Gino Oriama. Do your research, Matt. Come on. Yeah, Tommy LaSort. By the way, we know your dog's names, too.

Yeah, that's true. What was it, Doddy and? Jackson, Millie. Millie. We had, there's a cat, Doddy. catty. Yeah, she's a, she belongs to the neighborhood now. Oh, really? The neighborhood cat. Yeah, she's just on her own scale.

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

It's humbling and all that. But back home in South Carolina, it's mostly from the national championships. Okay. I've never been to South Carolina. Apparently quite an experience. I mean, for football, basketball, women's team never loses. I mean, I don't know. That's all about it. Yeah, they're the dynasty. Yeah, geez.

They did. They did. Any SEC smack talk in the clubhouse at this point? Not yet. Not yet. I'm sure it'll start once, especially when football season starts back up. But nothing so far. Well, we're very happy to have you here. Such a nice surprise when you came here. I mean, we're anxious. This is kind of new to us.

We've known Braggs, we've known you early earlier a couple of years ago. We've had, you know, J.V. and Kyle Tucker. This is, you're actually coming out at a bad time because I think they're all, your teammates are trying to figure out what the vibe's going to be right now. Yeah, yeah, it's a fun time. It's, you know, guys, guys come and go. It's part of the business side of things, unfortunately. You know, you never want to lose guys. especially people who were staples in the lineup and a part of a lot of successful years.

But I think there's a cool opportunity about that of being able to keep the success going with a different group of guys, different responsibilities, different roles. And so far, the clubhouse has been great. And I'm looking forward to, you know, continuing to mesh. He alluded to the DH for Let You Run. Do you like the DH once in a while to get off your feet a little bit? Or is that you just, I need to be, if I'm in the lineup, I need to be at first base. So, I mean, I would much rather be at first base, but I would rather be in the lineup than a full day off, period.

So, you know, if that's a way to get some at-bats and help the team on days where, you know, maybe we're trying to rest up the legs or something like that, for sure, very, very interested in something like that. But if it was my call, I'd be at first every day. Thank you so much for coming by. Again, it's our pleasure to have you in town. You're going to love the city of Houston. Diehard Baseball Group. Great stadium. Not 155 degrees in Phoenix like it is.

day, but the humidity's going to suck. I'm just going to be honest with you. It's not great. Yeah, we're used to it a little bit on the East Coast. I'm sure. I'm sure it'll be. It's a, yeah, and we don't have the dry heat. We just have, like, just pure heating.

You start your air conditioning on. The five-minute walk to the park, you'll be fine. Yeah, yeah, we're from the garage. Yeah, I appreciate you guys having it. All right, Christian Walker. By the way, you've got a media career ahead of you, too. We're a little scared. We're going to take our jobs.

All right. All right, Christian Walker with us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. More coming up in a moment here on Sports Talk 790. Launch timers This is the Matt Thomas show Final hour of the Matt Thomas show With Ross, thanks again to Christian Walker for joining us

You get a picture of Christian and Ross talking Because I had to take the picture By the way, my phone's doing a lot better And you happy with me now I'm proud of you Matt Make somebody jab at my phone I got the new phone You know, it's called constructive criticism

No it's not called beat me over the head with it No, nobody wants to see your smudged-ass photo I'm trying to help you out. That's true. Get the quality up. Let's go, baby. I like Christian a lot. Very nice.

And just rake. Just swing really hard. You're going to get a bunch of home runs out of the ballpark. Sounds like he wants to be at first base every single day as well. D-Aid my ass. I'm playing. I'm at first base called a day. So we'll see.

We'll see. Yeah. We are here in West Palm Beach. We head to Dana Brown early, early in the show today. If you missed that, it's coming up in about 10 minutes from now. as a oh your water just I can't control the wind I know I know I know

I'm not I'm not right I'm disappointed I know I've disappointed you a lot we're here in West Palm Beach Florida getting ready getting ready

tomorrow's show is already locked and loaded are you ready for the we're doing on the show tomorrow no I'm gonna tell you right now we got going okay we got oh number one we got

our Wistanski is going to join the show Joe. Word? Yeah. We got Spencer Erigetti going to join the show. Spencer Erigetty. Spencer Erigetty. Oh, dude, he's good. He's good. Cam Smith. Speaking of the guys are going to take our jobs. Ergetti's very good. Yeah, Cam Smith, who is going to bench press me during the show. I believe we're going to stage in arm wrestling match between you. No, there's no chance. Matter of, we need to get a photo of that. That'd be pretty funny. Actually, that's what I'm saying. See?

Yeah, funny, funny, funny, funny stuff. And then we're... Maybe Joe is spotted, maybe joining us live. Don't know that for sure. But we'll hear from Joe tomorrow as part of this. the immediate scrum. And then Wednesday, don't know yet, but I can tell you already, we're going to hopefully hear from two of the outfielders. And we're going to talk to Hunter Brown on Wednesdays. Oh, my gosh. I think we're a day ahead. I took yesterday off. Love it. Spring training, Matt.

It's in the air, baby. Yeah, this wind is coming on. It's blustery, as they say. Yeah, the kids will say blustery. So that is what we're doing here, and we look forward to bringing you more spring training coverage. Again, the Astro start their spring training games this Saturday.

Okay. Now, in years past, there have been nights, days we've been off the air completely because of the game starting at noon. Yes. But since we start at 10 o'clock now, you get a snack size. Actually, I'm better than snack size. It's almost like a light lunch version of the back to the show of Ross. So on days where we have day games, we'll be on 10 to 1150. Yes.

And then we'll say goodbye after that. And then those dead beats, Adam and Adam will be on late. They're not going to work much in March. No, that's fine. That's reality is. No, actually, someone else. those games go pretty quick. No, but they also have 451st pitches too here too.

Yeah, I know. I mean, a bunch of slackers. Yeah, I don't know where you pay them, but it's going to be entirely too much. Plus, the day game's coming up too. Oh, well, we're getting half this. So I ain't mad. That's all right. No complaints of the day.

Jose Altovae out with the outfielders today. Yes. No surprise on that. Didn't see any videos of him dropping a fly ball or throwing his mitt down going, I'm not doing this. And flipping off. the coaches. Let me tell you, all of us, I should tell us, a lot of us, either as dads or we ourselves were little leaguers, when we didn't make the play, we would take our glove and slam it down

on the ground. We should do that. I'll tell you a concern that popped up in my head. No, within the last five minutes? Before Christian Walker. Okay, go ahead. Tell me if this is concerned. All right, I'm going to close my eyes. What is Jose Altuve's biggest failing as a player? Base running. Not even close. What does he do when he makes base running errors? He's too aggressive.

Yeah, it's never halfway and then goes back. He always goes to that extra naughty fee. And it's a blessing and a curse. Sometimes he can steal third when he's not supposed to. Sometimes he gets thrown. He looks like a fool. Also, when Altuve is a fool. going through it at the plate. What's going on?

Sometimes he swings at everything, a little too aggressive. Is he going to be too aggressive sometimes in left field? Or is that not going to be an issue? Just, I was thinking to myself. Okay. Then I'm going to give you my approach to this answer because he's my, he's the greatest astro of all time. If you're aggressive, if you're aggressive in one thing, you're aggressive in everything. So that's what I'm

Hold on What has made him the greatest Astor of all time Is the things we're talking about Yes The aggression can be very good And when he jumps on a first First pitch

And he's aggressive Yeah And it goes over the Crawford boxes Yeah We love it So I don't think you can You can pick and choose Your aggressiveness

So do will there be some throws That will look Jose running the bases Makes you shake your head About once a week But he's been doing that for the last 12 or 13 years, and look where he's developed, ended up. As the greatest astroval of all time. After Jeff Begwell.

Well, he'll get there. He better get there in the first bout. I don't want to... If he gets to 74.8%, I will chase down every gibroni. He'll make it. He's going to get in. Dan Chonessy said he's not voting for him. Because Dan's a douche and he's got bad perm. That's a different issue of a different time.

I'm not letting Dan Chonnessy of the Boston Globe tell me who and should be. and should not be in. There's going to be enough sane people, even the Passons of the world, and the John Haymans and the bus trolleys are going to say, we can't be that stupid. I think as the years go along, you get further distance away from it, the 2022

championship as well. And oh, by the way, he's been excellent in those years following that scandal. And as long as he says he's healthy, and the data says he wasn't involved in. He's going to have a puncher's chance at $3,000. Not saying he's going to get to it. 800 hits, I think.

Okay, that's five seasons. He's turning 35 this year. Okay. Play the 40. I mean, guys can play to 40. It's going to be close. Can I tell you how badly I want him to get it? Because at that point, it's irrefutable he's going to get in.

Yeah. You got wiggle room. You know what you don't know? There's no wiggle room. I'm just saying that for the stats. 8 or 9 time All-Star. There's not a major leaguer with 3,000 hits. It's not in the major league.

a baseball hall of Raphael Palmero. There's one. Barry Bonds? There's two. Any other cheaters? Did he Rugg get to $3,000? I don't think so. But he not embroiled in a steroids. Okay, so let me put it this way. Let me rephrase.

Not involved anybody that's hit $3,000 in steroids. Stereoises got in the Hall of Fame. Same thing about 300 wins, too. Which I don't know if it's driving Verlander, but that's not going to happen. He ain't getting there. Sorry. No. We appreciate you. He already won the prize. Poo holes will be in,

McGee will be in, A-Rod not in, and Palmero. So Barry Mons never got to 3,000 hits, huh? You know why? How many times when he's walked in the last five years of his career? It's crazy. His own base was like 570 one of those years or something ridiculous.

Good God. By the way, did you see him coaching one of the celebrity games in San Francisco over the weekend? No, I didn't. Yeah. He was, there was somebody else that was, I don't want to say it was somebody else that was a

Bay Area legend. Se 40? Too short? Stop. Okay, help me out. Rick Berry? No, help me out. Somebody that watched, and this may be asking for it.

Did somebody watch a celebrity event on this weekend? It was Barry Bonds on one side, and there was somebody, I don't want to say, I don't think it was Ronnie Lott. It might have been a 49er. It is nine. Look up Celebrity Co. coaches and see if Jerry Rice. It was Jerry Rice. That's who it was. Jerry Rice.

You had Jerry Rice and you had Barry Bonds coaching the celebrity game. Wow. And I watched a minute and a half of that. The greatest baseball player of all time and the greatest football player of all time. It's pretty great. Jerry Rice? Greatest football player? You're really going to narrow down to one person?

I don't think you can. Come at me, bro. And you know what? If you're going to do that, his name's Tom Brady, bro. Jerry Rice, bro. No. Tom Brady, better than Jerry Rice. Nope.

Disagree? We're going to have this fight in West Palm Beach. No, it's fine. Okay, if you're going to do that. I got Tom Brady, too. You don't want to do that then? I'm going to go Jim Brown and Barry Sanders. There we go.

Let's get some nuance. Just go. Guess what? Quarterback didn't even really have to do anything. Tom Brady, you can't play wide receiver at 44 because Tom Brady's just sitting there not doing anything physically. I'm about the most feared defensive player of all time. Lawrence Taylor.

How about that? Okay. Let's go. Yeah, I like these arguments. I don't want argument any of this. That's okay. Don't hurt yourself. Well, I'm just saying it's too many positions, too many generations.

There's no right answer. There's no right answer. But if you want to go shortlist, Jerry Rice, that's right there. You know, I'll put that if you're building an all, if you're building an all 22, Jerry Rice is on the field. It's not about the most valuable position is quarterback. Okay. But the best at what they did.

In my 11-man, offensive team. Tom Brady is throwing the ball to Jerry Rice and his hand of the ball to Jim Brown and Barry Sanders over Walter Payton and over Emmett Smith To me he's the only one at his position that's inarguable

well Tom Brady's pretty inarguable but at there are times people before this last Super Bowl were arguing Pat Mahomes are no no Peyton Manning back in the day Joe Montana whatever when I took Joe Montana off my list is the greenest quarterback of all the time because all he did was win and make great plays.

I replaced him with Tom Brady. I could do that. I felt good about doing that. All right. 111 is our time. Back to the baseball conversation next. We had Dana Brown in the 10 o'clock hour. You're saying, Matt, you guys are on at 10 o'clock?

Yes, Ross, explain the audience where on every day at 10 o'clock. 10 to 2. Sports Doc 790, the new time slot. Live it, love it. Believe in it. All right. Dana Brown visited with us next. We'll carry most of that conversation straight ahead. Matt and Ross, we are with you today from West Palm,

loaded gasless tomorrow, working on Wednesday or Thursday as well. We want you guys to be a part of the radio program. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9-0. Ross is back here for another company out there. Yeah, we love synergenics. We know synergenics. They've been taken care of you.

You've heard me talk about synergenics. You said, yes, my energy is low. Yes, the libido hasn't been there. Yeah, I haven't felt motivated, but you haven't climbed yourself out of that rut. Why not? It's super easy. It's a very easy website to learn. CinergenXHealth.com. S-Y-N-N-E-R-G-X-Health.com. That's where you're going to find all the clinics all over town. That's where you're going to find the true TRT experts that give you personalized therapy that goes beyond standard treatments you're going to get with other providers. Cinergenics also offers weight loss management

with affordable prescription GLP-1 plans. So you want to get back to your best self. You want to weight. You want to be that new you in 2025. Center, genxhealth.com. S-Y-N-E-R, genX-health.com. More Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. Time is 118. It is a Matt Thomas show. We take it until

two. Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Don't forget that. We're here until 2 o'clock every day. 10 o'clock until 2. Come on now. I'm getting pretty good about it. Matter of fact, I have our new volleyball court in the backyard. relatively new. We have some new banners going up with Carly's new school, and I have a new banner made for the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Really? Yes.

All right. I want to show I owe you. Zero. Okay. Can I give you a couple shekels? No. I want when we put up that one, she'll go, man, he really did. So your name is in my backyard. Wow. That's weird. That's great. It's a little weird. Just don't make the dogs pee on it. It's fine.

They're peeing on the old one. 12 to 3 urinate. All right. obvious let's get you some of the conversation, most of the conversation, with Dana Brown, the Astros general manager. Now, one of the things you kept hearing over and over again during the whole Alex Breggman conversation was these internal discussions, meaning, i.e., do you all want Breggman? Sure.

You want to give him extra money? No. That was internal conversation. So I did ask Dana in a little bit of a lighthearted manner, what exactly these internal discussions are every day when he gets to the ballpark talking with his baseball operation staff about what's ahead for 2025. Yeah, internal discussions are basically, look, we show up here every day and, you know, we're always thinking of ways to get the team better.

And so we're still having conversations, you know, about players and what we could do to make this club even better than it is right now. We feel really good about the club. We feel like, you know, we can win this division again and get deep into the postseason. We feel like we've got a good group of position players, a good group of starters and relievers. And so, you know, we have these discussions every day we talk. I mean, it's amazing that I, you know, I walk in and first day I'm saying, hey, what you guys got today?

What's going on? If you talk to any other clubs, what's going on? So that's part of what we do, internal discussions. I don't remember a whole lot of maneuvering this time of year. Am I wrong about this? I mean, I know guys can sign some deals. I think Justin Turner just signed the day. But in terms of just real hot action, is there a lot right now?

I think it is. I think what's going to happen is guys get into camp and you start seeing your players a little bit. Some of the guys have been here for a little bit longer. And you start to get that look at them and you say, oh, man, maybe we can upgrade here. Or, you know, maybe we have enough in this area. And so, you know, those are part of the discussions that you have. And, you know, before you know it, you may make a move. So we're always trying to find some angle where we can improve this club.

But I think you have to be relentless because if you're not, not that's that day something to slip by you. What do you think about, I mean, of course, Breggman's signing and it going on for a long time and it happening in the last couple years of Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell, and some guys getting signed early, some late. Is that, just, can you tell me, is that something that's recent?

Has it always been like that? But it feels like things have dragged on a little bit more. And it's just as a whole, and a picture of free agency. In your opinion, what do you think about the state of the way things go these days, especially with the way that Bregman dragging on the way that it did. Yeah, I just think it depends on the type of year. Like how many big boys do you have on the market?

You know, I think it's one of those things where sometimes you have so many good players on the market. And, you know, guys are, you know, waiting on deals and trying to do deals and trying to get creative. And, you know, so a lot of things are happening all at one time. There's a lot of clubs that you have to have conversations with. And so it seems comprehensive. complicated sometimes. But, you know, I think at the end of the day, guys, you know, target who they want. They go after them hard. And if they don't get them, they go to the next guy. But how in the world is a general manager, whether it's you or anybody else in the big leagues, you hold a spot out for a guy that may or may not come? That, I mean, the analyst, people are really honest here. We love Bregman very much. But your life had to move on. You had to go fix this infield right away here, whether he was coming back for now.

Yeah, the one thing I learned when I was in Atlanta working under Alex Entopoulos, he used to move really quickly in the offseason. And he would get his targets, line them up. And, you know, once you shoot at this one, if it didn't work, go to the next one. And so I think what I was trying to do is, you know, hey, we want Gregman to come back. But, you know, we have to think, what if we don't sign them, if something goes wrong? And so we didn't wait around. We made the trade right away We wanted to put Paredes at third

We got Walker for first base Because we were losing two bats that hit one through five So we wanted to add two bats back And we wanted to remain competitive And so you can't sit around and wait You have to be active You know, and as the owner Jim Crean says Look our window's always open

So we're always looking to win We're always looking to make deals We're always looking to get better One of your early deals was the Kyle Tucker trade to Chicago. And look, Cam Smith apparently, I mean, everyone's like this guy's built to granite, can't wait to see him. We'll want to see him in some spring training games. On the other side of it, what made them want to get this done? Because in a year from now, he's not committed to Chicago.

I mean, why you have to battle the, I want him now as compared to, I don't want to give a lot of prospects up, so we can lose him in a year. What's it like on their end? And what was it like dealing with a squad that knew that you were sending him there knowing that he's, going to be a free engine in one season. Yeah, I mean, some teams, you know, they get to the point where they're like really trying to get back to the postseason. And I think they were motivated by trying to get back to the postseason. And they knew that, you know, Tucker was, you know, really good player.

And so that they would use a guy like that in the middle of their lineup, good defender. He could still base. So, you know, he's one of the better position players in baseball. And so I think that was the appeal. You know, you're getting one of a better position. positions in one of the better position players in baseball and you're trying to get back to the postseason and you know that kind of motivated them to do what they did and then we felt like look if we're going to trade Tucker we got to get something really good back you know and we felt

you know like getting those three guys were like really big you know you got two guys that you can put on your major league team right away you got another guy and it's not that far away and so you know we feel like we got impact back ashtro general manager dana brown was here on Sports Talk 790. Well, Dana, the thing that we're all been talking about, everybody's talking about, of course, Jose Altuve and the left field discussion. How did this come about and how does he fit as a piece of the puzzle? Because, of course, we know Chaz, Jake, maybe Dubon, some Zach DeZenzo, maybe Jake a make of Malcolm Melton down the line as well. How does Altuve fit in this left field puzzle?

Yeah, so it seems to be picking up steam, you know. It's all Houston's talking about it. With all due respect, it's nobody, I mean, there's a lot of things funny about your squad. Everybody's asking us to ask you about Jose El Touver. Yeah, well, you know, we'll give it to him. So, look, I think Al Touve is having a ball out there in left field, first of all. He's excited about it. He's out there like a little kid.

It's unbelievable. He's always smiling. And, you know, we wanted to create some versatility. And if you could use him, you know, in left field, you know, that's going to create some versatility. And we think that could be big. And, you know, we needed a bat in our outfield, so that helps us with a bat in our outfield. But, you know, he's done a great job. He's really taken well to it.

And as long as he's having fun, you know what? You know, we don't have to commit to it today, but as long as he's having fun and getting better, and we feel like, look, he's got a chance to be a really good defender, why not? You know, he's doing a good job. I just went out earlier and watched him take some fly balls, and, man, he was getting good jumps. and getting balls in the gap and coming in. So a gold glove is what you're telling us then.

If he wins the gold glove, then our staff, they're going to look like experts. That's true. I'll take a strong average defender at this point. If he becomes that, that's outstanding in our outfit.

So he's for sure taken to it very well. And what about Yorda? How does he fit in a left field pitcher? Yeah, I think we'll get him some time, but, no, ultimately he's our DH. You know, we want him to worry about hitting and driving and runs, and so we will give him some run in the outfield. Joe's made that clear.

It's all up to Joe and how many times he wants to put him out there, but he's really our DH, and so he will get some run, and I'm sure Joe has probably talked to him about it and said, look, we're going to try to protect you because we want you to play as many games as possible, and the way you can do that is you just, D.H it. Is there a metric for that because there are some guys, remember

Michael Brantley, he despised being a D.H. He wanted to be in the action. Other guys, I'll go back to David Ortiz. I mean, reinvented himself by getting off of first base. So do you guys look at numbers of how he batted, how he performed the day after, day before he played in left field?

No, I just think it's one of those things where, you know, he's going to hit, whether he's a, you know, a left fielder or a D.H., you know, Alvarez will hit. So, I I don't think that really had much to do with it. I just think if he's in the dugout, thinking about hitting all the time, he can really lock into what he wants to do,

whether he wants to figure out what the pitcher is drawn to him, study what his patterns are, whatever the case may be. Any time that he could spend on hitting is a good thing, and we want to see big results from him because when he goes, the team goes. It feels like the 26-man roster is just about set, but if it isn't somewhere, where would that be? Would it be a decision on a utility infielder, an extra arm in the bullpen in terms of that? What do you see as you look for the next month when you watch these games?

Where is it? Well, I can go here. I can go here in this particular position. Yeah, I think, you know, obviously the bullpen, you know, with making a move for Presley, you know, trading Presley opened up a spot there, right? So we definitely have some room to talk about, you know, what is our pin going to look like. And then, you know, outfield-wise, you know, how are we going to be Patoon, is McCormick, you know, going to really, you know, get back to his 20-23 year. So I think those two, you know, spots like, you know, outfield and also relief pitching is where the room, you know, we have to make our decisions. For a little, and I'll get one, Ross, get one more question.

One from me, our audience loves this team and is with every intricate move. and they'll always bring up the minor leaguers. Milton, Matthews, and then we'll get to Cam Smith. How much do you think that's going to be a conversation piece internally about when they're going to be ready? Look, nobody knows. You have to take it. Even if they're crushing it to AAA or double A, you still, it's a guess. How much were you intently watching those three guys, especially in the first couple months of the year,

if some of those major leaguers are not performing up to your expectations? Yeah, I'm locked in on them, you know, regardless of if the major leaguers are doing well, and if they're not doing well, I'm still locked in on those. guys. Those guys have a chance to help us. I really feel confident that they could turn the corner pretty quickly. And so I'm used to, you know, moving players fast. You know, I mean, I told these guys when I got the job, I sat down and I talked to a lot of the minor league players. I think it's important that you always have good young players coming into major leagues. I think it reminds the older players that, hey, we got good young players in the minor leagues, and it reminds

the younger players that if I do well, I'm going to get moved up. And I think it reminds I think you want that energy throughout your entire organization, and I'm a firm believer. So I think if these guys are, if they go down there and they're doing well, we will talk about moving them. You know, I don't know how fast or I can't put a timeline on it, but we're not afraid to move them to the big leagues if they're doing very well. Starting pitching question real quick. What was it like seeing Hayden Wesneski from afar, now getting him in the house and working with him? and then as far as the depth Luis Garcia and Planswellies.

Yeah, so, Wadsneski, he's fired up, of course, because he's back home in Houston, right? And so he's locked in. I've had multiple conversations with him. And I think his stuff is going to play very well. I think our pitching guys are

really good. And so, you know, they're going to get him, you know, to his next step in life in this game. And so I think they could, you know, our guys have a way, of finding out what you need to do to make you, you know, better. And I think, you know, he's been a sponge and, you know, hopefully we could help him to make those adjustments.

You know, Garcia, I think Garcia, you know, we'll know more as he continues to throw here. But I anticipate him turning the corner, you know, somewhere in the early part of this year. And so once he starts throwing here, we probably have more of a firm, you know, deadline or target date or whatever you want to call it. And he's going to be some help that we're going to need in that rotation.

So we really feel like we got 10 guys total in depth in rotation. And so we feel like we're in good shape. You know, last year we had that period where we lost like five starters at one point. They were all out. So we feel really good about that. And the McCullors, you know, he's been thrown off the mound and he's been participating in, you know, the PFP drills. And so, you know, that's a good. good thing. And so once

he starts to throw even harder, we'll get a pretty much target date or, you know, a timeline on him as well. And so I feel like both guys should be pitching at some point in the season, hopefully sooner rather than later. That again. Dana Brown from earlier today.

We'll have more throughout the next couple of days as we broadcast a full four hours to hear Wednesday and Thursday from West Palm Beach. Some mind-boggling economic news. that we just received. Not like breaking news, but it's just

still what a sports team is worth these days. All thanks to a television contract. We'll discuss that next after I tell you about uptown appliance repair. Uptown appliance repair is a company that I'm very happy to speak for. I've done for the last few months because they want

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281-758-9-9-78. Write the number down, So if anything does go on the fritz, like Matt, tell me the number. So I'm going to give it to you two more times. 281-758-9978. 281-58-9978 for Bobby Fierro in the group at Uptown Appliance Repair.com. Lunch timers. It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Sports Talk 790.

Thank you again to Dana Brown. I'll be joined us earlier today. and we've got more coverage coming to you starting tomorrow. We're here at 10 o'clock on Sports Talk 7-90 from West Palm Beach. Shout out Christian Walker, even though that was rude of you to offer him your co-host job. It's good. If you missed the Christian Walker interview, where were you? Were you cussing and disgusting?

Is that what you were doing? Come on, no one cussing discussing. Are you all right? No. I'm starving. Oh, God. You'll be fine. All right, real quick.

We're going to go hit the Bindies right after this. We're going to Bendies after to get a Rubble Rack and a Miggie Muggy Mound or whatever. We've got to make sure we don't say anything. I know. I'm starting to. So we got the greatest tweet ever from a listener yesterday, or maybe it was Saturday, about how it's insanely stupid what we do, which is really what the show is insanely stupid. But people in their house, at their workplace, with their buddies are having to change names to protect the innocent. Now, we do it because we don't get away free plugs on the show.

Correct. We were listening to Sean Salisbury show with Brian Lehman today coming in here. Yeah. They were free plug and everybody. Like a muddough, some might say. Yeah. We don't free plug. You're all right. You spend money with this show. You're going to get great value. Absolutely. You don't spend money. You get Bupkus. Speaking of money. Something called at boardroom. It must be a business. Is it a business angle? Let's see what it is. Yeah. It's an aggregate of a business, sports business stuff. Okay. The most valuable teams in NBA in 2025.

The Houston Rockets coming in at number five. Wow. $5.7 billion so Houston Rockets are worth. The Bulls are 5.8. The Lakers are 7.5. The Golden State Warriors are 9.4. I don't care about the four in front. I'm caring about the Rockets because that's my team.

And if I can use this towards maybe a small increase of salary next year. Good luck. That is interesting, though. Let me finish for quick. Yes. So they were valued this year at $5.7 billion. Tim and Fertita bought the team in 2017 for $2.2 billion. In eight years, not even eight years, seven and a half years,

the value of his franchise has gone from $2.2 billion to $5.7 billion. Basically two and a half times, your money. In seven, eight years? That's pretty incredible. I don't know if there's a greater rate of return in anything in the world than owning a professional sports team. So you're telling me. I'm telling you. Nobody likes the NBA.

The products watered down. It's unwatchable. The All-Star break is a disaster. Correct. Star players aren't playing in games. I don't watch the NBA anymore. What is the All-Star game? What is the NBA?

It's a bunch of guys shooting threes and dunking the ball. And Tellman has nearly tripled his money in eight years. You're right. Now, let's talk about where they think the money is coming from. First and foremost, the international portion of this is very, very strong. People outside the United States, frankly, I don't know if it's Mexico, but they love the NBA in Canada. They really do. It's not hockey's number one there, but basketball is really, really, I think it's more popular than the CFL. I didn't know that.

Yeah. Basketball is huge in Canada. It's not like British Columbia and whatnot. They can't get enough of the NBA. They still want to catch their Memphis Grizzlies, though they were once in Vancouver. Okay. So the international pool money, that's why the NFL is going to go more international, because they just know the NBA has been able to capitalize on it, so why can't they?

Yes. Okay, that's number one. But number two. $5.7 billion is that's NFL franchise money. What do the commanders go for? $6 billion or something like that? So another part of the reason why it is so popular, and the value of these franchises are going up, is because the new media rights deal, I want to read.

this and I can't fathom this. I'm going to read it as is. With a new 7676 billion media rights deal set to kick in next season. The league will see an annual payout payout, excuse me, of 6.9 billion, nearly 160% more than its current agreement. So every team in the NBA is going to split per year. $6.9 billion. I cannot fathom that, Ross. Are we sure those... This is all according to CNBC, which they don't make mistakes.

Well, they probably made some. But we're going to trust them. Because we have no other choice. So the next 10-year media deals worth $76 billion in which every team is going to get 6.9, or the league's going to split 6.9 per season.

I'm blown away by that. So for whatever we want to complain about, the NBA nobody likes it, nobody cares, it's woke, and there's some issues there. I do believe there's way too much politics in my sports, but that's a different issue for a different time. The reality is

Adam Silver can walk on water to those 30 NBA owners because look at the money they have brought in and look at the increased value, obscene amount of money that these NBA franchises work. Now it takes two to tango. If the rockets wanted to sell tomorrow, I don't believe the fortitas will ever sell because they want to keep it in the family. Could you get 5.74? I don't know.

But CNBC says, at least right now, it's worth almost $6 billion. This is insane to me. The Texans now, the commanders sold for $6.05 billion. Okay. And that's a franchise that's been around for, what, 70 years? Yes. And they're listed as number 10 on the Forbes list. The $9.4 billion that the Warriors are worth is worth more than every NFL team.

Every NFL team except the Cowboys. How is this possible? Is there any party that thinks the economists that are putting this together are highly inflating the numbers? It's possible, but it's also, I get it just must be that international appeal. Because the NFL is mostly an American sport. Right. Their international television dollars are not even closer with the NBA. But the NBA is huge overseas.

We're talking about China. We're talking about Israel. We're talking about Turkey. We're talking about Great Britain. We're talking about Australia. We're talking about everywhere in the world, the NBA, because basketball is much more of a global sport than American football. That global impact must just add that many more dollars to their valuations.

Because if you put the rockets right now at $5.7 billion, they'd be 13th in the NFL ahead of the Packers, Broncos, Seahawks, Buccaneers Steelers. Let me ask you this. If this is what an NBA franchise is worth, what about these these soccer teams you like to follow?

Apparently, oh, Real Madrid, like the big game, they're around, they're less than the Cowboys, I think, but they're close. They're around $7,8 billion. I can find it. I think Manchester United

just is selling for like $5, $6 billion. That's one of the big heritage. In our, in our short term, that we have a lot of time in his left segment. What are we, as you and I are basketball fans, I don't care about the dollars and cents of it.

I just don't. But Commissioner Silver does. Why does he have to improve on something when he is bringing, when everybody is coming to the table offering more money for what the NBA provides? When is it going to level out? And the answer is, it's not going to level out. We've been hearing about dying television ratings. We've been hearing about politics. in sports. We've been hearing about game management and taking their time off, load management.

We're talking about three point line. We're talking about all sorts of stuff. And it's recession proof. It's economically crushing. Baseball can't use these numbers. No. Football uses them because they just, but they're only confined to what the United States can offer in terms of money. As far as soccer, the most valuable team is Real Madrid at $6.6 billion. I'm curious about that. Maybe they don't make as much as rice fees. I know that their tickets are generally cheaper than they are here in America.

So I don't know how that all adds up. This is corporate-driven. All right. Back to wrap things up here from West Palm Beach in a matter of moment. 7-13212-5-790. Are you blown away that the Golden State Warriors, a San Francisco basketball team, that 15 years ago Rossi wasn't...

Bub kiss. Yeah. I mean, a feudal, feudal team is now worth over $9 billion. You know it's worth also $9 billion? The amazing flavors you're going to get at Buff, Big City Wings. Delicious wings, awesome sandwiches.

Today, it's buy one, get one free wing. You don't need $9.4 billion of these Big City Wings. You know, bring a couple dollars in. They bring their debit card. It's got a few bucks on there. And enjoy, buy one, get one, get one free. 10, get you 10, 15, get you 15, 20, get you 20, and so on and so on.

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are we? Yeah. No, we can't. We got stay. We got two and a half minutes to hang out with you folks. No, we had to He said we're out at 57. It's 54. Oh, okay. By the way, we're being... I guess the accident. Are we in the middle of Kansas? What the hell's going on with this wind? It's Gale Force, I believe, they call it, Matt.

Is that what the kids call it, Gail Force? All right. Thanks to Christian Walker. Thanks to... Who else we want to thank? Oh, we'll thank Dana Brown. We'll thank the listeners that called the show today. Yes. We had got, tomorrow we got shut your bum ass up. We had got feelings.

We got got feelings today. We got to shut your bum ass up tomorrow. Uh-huh. I got a few things. You do? Real quick on this. Let me have two minutes. When there's a crowded airport and flights or delay, meaning not just your flight of every flight,

seats are to premium. Don't be taking up extra seats to put your bags in your briefcase so you can have a little separation with a person. Just suck it up and let us sit next to you. Oh, you're talking about the, uh, the one seat separation in the waiting areas in the terminal. there are 60 seats for a reason they're not they're not 60 seats for use be used by 30 people I get it

I know I know people afraid about the vid and people afraid about germs and stuff we weren't we weren't scared about the vid germs 20 years ago yeah you should have been we didn't become more bacteria filled then now that we did 20 years ago it might be I don't know but I mean I was walking around

I was trying to be respectful but I like nine flights and we're all we're in the same gate area by the way Schmided stop putting seven flights at one gate by the way too too much when you fly Schmited Express that's what they do they take the smaller jets and they say oh well just put a cram 175

people into one area there was a guy literally getting on our plane and he was and he scanned his boarding pass and the lady's like what are you doing he's like this isn't the flight to Dallas did it go through No, it's flashed, man, man, yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't want that. He's like, oh, this isn't to Dallas?

Like, dude, look up at a resource. Everywhere. There's signs everywhere. Ain't nobody got time for you. He can't be a doof like that, can you? He did, he was. I gave a loud Chuck. I made sure he could hear me.

I gave him one of those. That's passive aggressive, chuckle. What do you want me to punch him in the face? I want you to say, dumbass, go to your gate. Up next. Clint Wex are going to entertain the hell out of you for the next four hours. We're going to seek refuge. And this Gail Force wins.

It's the team next. Talk to tomorrow at 10 from West Palm on 790.