The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Take Down Clippers, Josh Hader Update, Extensive Texans Offseason Talk

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Rockets Take Down Clippers, Josh Hader Update, Extensive Texans Offseason Talk 

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 102 at H-Town. Good morning and welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. We'd get some sort of update. That's why we sent Gordy down there. Grannie, he's probably vacationing more of the trip. He's probably just...

Stop that. Jumping in and jumping out of spring trading. Stop. I'm just kidding. He was out there this morning? Yes. No, and he's probably not doing much now. Oh, no, he's definitely in a rackerrero having a three-eged breakfast.

We've been there. We've done a rack-a-rero. You've harassed the waitresses there. Harass is a strong term. Just kidding. I've been fairly polite to the people there. I haven't ever seen you berate a waiter or a waitress. No, no, no, no.

I mean, it had to take extreme measures. That's good. All right, it is Matt and Ross with you on this Wednesday. Good morning to you. We are with you today until 2 p.m. and then we've got some more Rockets basketball for you tonight here on 7-90. If the Rockets took care of the clippers last night, which we'll get to that. E. May Iduke will be with us at 11 o'clock.

11.30 will be shut your bum-ass up. Ain't nobody got time for that. Well, the news at noon. And, of course, believe it or not. So we got a lot of things going on between now and 2 p.m. today. But we start today, no surprise what we're starting with is that Buster-only sweet yesterday said that Josh Yader was throwing off a light ground. Flat ground. Flat ground.

That's good. Light ground too. I guess it would be light. It wouldn't be a heavy ground. Is there anything such as? Hopefully it's not loose gravel. I don't want them slipping and falling. It could be fluffy grass. That's technically light. That'd be good, I guess.

Yeah. And Gordy, you get some video of him doing that today in West Palm Beach. We invite you to look at our Sports Talk 790 social channels to see that. But when Joe is spotted met with the media at approximately 8 o'clock our time this morning, he did give us an update on what's going on with one Joshua Hater. Oh, let's give it a second. It's frozen, but it's going to unfreeze, I believe. Josh had a really good, um, uh, off season.

Uh, had three, three, really good. Jonathan, can you pull this up, Jonathan? It's, it's literally a spot of cut one. My computer's freezing. I'm going to restart it right now. Just let us know when you have it. I'm going to restart this bad boy. How you doing, Matt?

I got it. Okay. Thank you. Don't, I don't want to answer that. Go ahead. Josh had a really good off-season. Had three really, really good bullpins. And leading into his fourth one during his throwing program,

he stopped his throwing because arm's soreness, we immediately went and got some imaging. And there is some inflammation on his bicep tendon. So he has not been throwing for, I want to say, 10, 11 days. and he will start getting back on his throwing program again today. Biceps tendon inflammation is not what I wanted to hear. Would you like some more? I guess.

We had to figure there was a setback. There had to be a setback. No question. I mean, it was just the chalk pick when we heard the buster only report. Sure, I guess we can get some more. Yon-R-Diaz is a foot screen. Oh, okay, great. Well, at least a catcher doesn't need their feet.

All right. So when you go to sports radio 101 camp when you want to be a radio host, you're supposed to have eternal optimism unless it helps your narrative of your show just being a cranky S-O-B the whole time. Really? I never heard the eternal optimism. Oh, sooner or other than later? Have you not heard that phrase? I've heard that.

Who says that in life except sports radio host? Me for everything. My life's going to turn around. Sooner rather than later, Matt. And you've been waiting for that for 15 years and how that turned out. Life is beautiful. But yeah, sooner rather than later, hey, things are going to turn around. Hey, listen, see, this sounds familiar.

C.J. Stragg can't be worse this week. Hey, he can't be worse than that now, though. For real this time. I don't know about that. You're not. Come on, he's not throwing four picks in a game his entire life. Can't get worse than that. here's what I'm going to do to buck that trend.

Okay. You're going to be negative and pessimistic? 100%. Oh, come on. So here's what we're going to do. It doesn't sound good. Here's what we're going to do. We're not doing this because we're anti-aster.

In fact, we're frankly pro-astro. Maybe in fact, I'm too close to be pro-astro. I was an astro buddy in 1979. Same. So, I mean, when you're a buddy, we're like in a small fraternity of people in this world. That's true. People don't are running around. City going, I was an astro buddy.

People in Denver and saying, I was an astro buddy. I walked the bases at the Astro. Kids walk the bases. Alan Ashby and I said hello to each other back when he was a catcher. I mean, that's how long it's been. So I have a vested interest in making sure the Astros are good because that's my tip. That's my baseball team. I have a basketball team.

I've got a baseball team. I ain't buying any of this stuff. I am thinking the very worst. I'm not saying season-ending, I'm not saying he's never going to throw again. I'm not going to, I'm just saying I don't want to hear about we're optimistic. I don't want to hear about it's a positive sign that he's throwing on flat ground. I ain't hearing any of it because last year scorned me.

It's like when your kids come home late from being out, I'll never do that again. I'll never do it again. And eventually you just don't buy it. Hey, if you have a spouse or a significant other that constantly cheats on you, Wow. You know, you get tired of hearing about it. And I know it's a different situation because everybody is different. Seems like it.

I'm using this as context, Ross. Mr. Analogies. He's in rare form this morning. It does work. The boy who cried wolf. Okay. Well, every injury is different.

I want to be optimistic. That's what I'm saying. Every injury is different. So there's really no reason for me to have this pessimism. But I felt like I was too optimistic last year with a lot of things. things and now I'm going to go the other direction. I was extremely optimistic. When you show up, you show up until then.

I don't want to hear about how close you are. And it's not an indictment against Josh. It's just about the whole nature of sports injuries. I was continuously optimistic about Lance McCullors Jr. And I was continuously optimistic about, I don't know, Spinterregating game coming back. Kyle, yeah, well, that was a whole other ball of wax. All those guys are gone, though.

Didn't they clean house and the training staff and all that? Jeremiah Randall's laughing his ass off right now. So, we're not me. We blame the training staff. It's training staff. He's working in his own bullpen. Injuries are going to happen. It's a sport.

This is the new normal in baseball, I feel like. With the pitchers, we keep saying, and you know, every pitching interview, I ask the question, hey, what can be done? What's happening here? And every time the pitcher's like, I don't know. And general manager is like, on their shoulders up.

It's why you have strength of numbers. You need spin and you need Velo. And spin, more spin, more spin, more Velo, more Velo, more Velo, more offseason working programs. you're going to have arm injuries. Yep. Guys are not showing up 30 pounds overweight, we're in getting shaped them in February.

Exactly. Rolling their own cigarettes on the mound. This is a different time. Yeah. So I come to you, because I love all of you. Well, I love most of you. I come to you and tell you that when I hear of this, I'm not going to be like, oh, I hope everything's for the best.

Of course I hope everything's for the best. But I ain't waiting for it. When Josh Hader makes his debut, whenever that may be, I'll be excited. But I'm not going to... I mean, we'll have to ask for timelines because that's our responsibility. But my timeline is,

I don't have a timeline for Josh Hayden. Yeah, I got sick of the timeline game last year. I'm done with it. It was bad. If you hear sooner rather than later from me or Ross from any listener, you're going to get the shocker. And you know what that means

you get the shocker? It's not pleasant. No, I don't. It hurts. Cattle prod? Or are you talking about something else? I don't care. Wichita State?

Whatever stings you. whatever hit you in the core of your body stings the nostrils. Yeah. Okay. I'm done with it. Now, the foot sprain happened. I'm looking at what Chandler said. He is now, Diaz is participating in baseball activities.

He will actually catch Tatsuia Emi's bullpen session today. Okay, so he's fine. He's going to hit, he's going to catch, he's just not going to run. Okay. Now, that to me is a little more optimistic because foot sprains can get healed in a handful of weeks. It's not like you're going to be asking your catcher to get four A-Bs per game

on the bases and steel bases, but you ultimately need him to be ready for the start of the season because you cannot, you do not have an automatic runner like we did back when we were junior high school. Man, I love Yordon, and he's by OPS Plus,

the greatest hitter in Astros history, but having him at the D.H. spot and not wanting to put him in the field. I'm just thinking of that, because he's like, yeah, you'd like to put D.I.D.R. Diaz in the D. spot here and there or we've talked about of course about Altuve or Walker or Correa or

whoever. It's going to be interesting. And just this foot sprain from Diaz may end up being nothing, but it just makes me think of this happening in the middle of the season where you'd say, well, we'll put him in it, we'll give him a DH day and he'll be okay. He can't do that because you want Yordon in the D.H. B.A.S.

You by declaring, not saying that Yordon is exclusively this DH, but by declaring he's the primary DH, it does not give you options for guys get off their is actual words from Joe Espada, I will do everything in my power to have Yordon in the spot everything. He might have said,

we're not calling him a Mideh, we're calling it the Yoron spot. Yes. No, he didn't say that. All right, uh, Rocket's got a win last night. We'll get to that. We're going to hear more from Joe Espada in the next segment as well. Bottom of the hour, we're going to go to Gordy in West Palm Beach. Oh, really? We're going to get him off of the table where he's playing his little game with the, with the golf keys.

We'll pull him away from Rachel's. What is that called when you put that, that, that, The T-box? The T-box game. You know where you jump over the T's? Oh, at Cracker Barrel. Yeah. I don't remember.

I've never in my life, and I've done it, I don't know, between being a kid and adult, maybe 100 times. I've only gotten to two T's. Once? I've never had one T ever. You've never done one? I don't think so. I don't think so. I could do it when I was like eight.

Well, that's the difference between you and me. I mean, I forgot the technique, but. Like, how, I used to know how to do it. I've never done the Rubik's Q either. You know where I could do it every time. No, Rubik's Cube bothered me. It was boring to me, so I kind of gave up. Okay.

Have you done the Rubik's Cube multiple times? I don't think so. No, I don't have one. But there's algorithms you can do. There's people who can do them in like 20 seconds. Yeah, there used to be a speed contest way back in the way. There still is. Is there really?

Oh, yeah. They do them blindfold now, too. How do you know what colors match up? It's basically if you turn it a certain amount of times a number of ways, eventually you'll get there. Well, that feels like a scam then. Which I came up with that strategy, by the way, a long time ago, Matt. And do we able to monetize it?

No. All right. 713, 212. I mean, I didn't inventive. 719. 713,

212 5790. It's a Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. 1021 in the AM here on Sports Talk 790. On the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Pitchers and Catchers reporting in West Palm Beach, Florida. Chris Gordy is out there.

We'll hear from him shortly. Matt Thomas. Hope Gordy's not staying at the hotel where the bullet wounds are. And I? You were five. You're never in danger. Well, I had you... We had to make sure we brought in all our laptops

from the car. Yeah, we love nothing in the vehicle. We had the insurance coverage just in case of vandalism. No, we didn't. We declined the extra coverage. That's a scam, right? Of course. Yeah.

It's all a scam. Everything's a scam. Don't get me started. All right. Oh, my God. Can I get Nick Wright's face off my timeline? Jeez. Sorry. Go ahead. What do you mean? I have so much to tell you about Social relevance and sports.

Whatever, bro. He's doing great. I'm sure he's doing fine. Of course, again, my skin is too thin to have people literally hate me every time I tweet something. Yeah, I get it. I'm getting better about that. I just mute every conversation.

Like Jamel Hill. She writes something, and I mean, I look at her replies. I mean, there are, ooh, I would be like, you know what, take the L and just don't do it. because I mean usually again if you're doing if you put stuff on social media to get that controversial then you kind of deserve it and then I think Nick and Jamel want to do that kind of stuff but teach his own all right so we've got some more audio in from this morning and again gordy's going to join us in about five minutes here so we'll be able to accent what he was talking

about moments with uh with uh manager so what else you have today what else do I have yes oh I'm sorry I had restarted so I lost my page how's it how's everything with you it's good Our computers are somewhat working today? I hope so. I just restarted this bad voice, so we should be humming on all cylinders. Can't wait. I think.

All right. Well, do you want to hear from Dana Brown or you want to hear more from Joe Spott? Let's go all the above. How about more on, I like this one. A more update from Hader with Chandler question.

Are we going to hear exasperation in the voice of Joe Spada with Chandler Rome's question? Yes or no? I'm going to say no. I already heard. I already heard it. Yeah, sorry.

So he went no throw for, I want to say 10, 11 days. So he'll get back. in that flat ground today and get going again. Are you guys able to ascertain right now whether that would put him in jeopardy for opening day or kind of where are you guys that timeline was? You know what, day to day, weeks to weeks. I think he's early.

I think we have a good seven, eight weeks, if I'm not counting. But I think we have time. So Josh knows his body very well, so he'll let us know. He said day to day, which I can live with. Weeks to weeks. I'm not thorough with it. If you said month to month, we'd have been really in a bad spot. But even when it's month to month, he says day to day. So we're all scarred from last year. There was a little sigh, but it wasn't at Chandler. I think it was at the injury. By the way, what a wonderful word ascertain means. I mean, seriously, that is high brow vocabulary.

I guess. The average person doesn't use the word to ascertain daily. I would say you learn that word in eighth grade. No, but it's a great word. Okay, you've learned the word. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, we should be trying to use more varied vocabulary. I don't disagree with you at all. I tell people all the time that are in our business, I said, the number one thing you can do is take as many English classes as possible to diversify your vocabulary.

That's why we get you reading the Tory Spelling Book. I mean, it was good. Mumbai you a book. We're going to start the Matt Thomas Book Club. No, we're not. We're going to do none of the such. All right, we'll get you on some curious, George. That's more my speed.

Thank you very much. you. All right, what else? What else from Joe Espada? Well, let's see. How about Tatsuya IMA has been a topic of conversation. Apparently he is going to be in a pool of possible pitchers to throw for Japan in the WBC, but he's not supposed to be there in pool play. Here's what Joe Espada had to say about keeping an eye on his workload. We're going to lean on his feedback. You know, he is going to throw today off the mound. We want to see what is that looked like. How many pitches are you? going to require him for him just to, you know, get ready. And we're going to lean on him. We have some ideas. We have a planning place. But his feedback is very important.

Just to get him, just to get him going here. Okay. So he's looking good. And while he's part of the pitching depth the Astros have, we kind of talked about this, man. We went through the possible candidates. How many names did we get to as far as rotation? Seriously. Well, rotation-wise probably at least eight to ten. Yeah. So a lot of pitching a depth for the Astros, which is something they definitely needed last year and Joe Spottis says it's a good thing. Obviously, you never want to hear any injuries to any of your players. But we went out and we reinforced our pitching staff just so we can endure and be in a position

to anything any of our pitchers will go down for a period of time that we have enough quality of pitching and we did that. Translation, pitching injuries are the new normal, so we have to have as many bodies as possible, and we got them. That's why I said this Saturday, and it's not like I came up organically on my own, we're going to see more six-mans in Major League Baseball. I even think even with the off days, to shave starts off of people, to have them running for August and September,

even though every game counts the same, you don't want to be sitting there worrying about a guy in July who's got a tired arm and having a nurse's way through the rest of the season. So, yeah, you better have six. I like that. I like what they did. I like they have a bunch of options. You know, they don't have a, you know, like the old days you had the ace and then you had like your co-ace and then a couple guys.

They have a bunch of guys who are good. Maybe not great. Maybe not a bunch of Cy Young Award winners. But, you know, you got a bunch of sevens. You're going to make it through the rotation. You can be all right. No, this is not a, this is not the Braves rotation. This is not the Astros rotation of like 2019.

Oh, that was nice. But it does have depth to it. it doesn't make you squeamish when you get to say the 45, 6, 7 spots because all those guys have some sort of majorling experience. I'm feeling pretty good about those guys. Even like Jason Alexander in the back end

and those other guys. Like Ryan Weiss, I'm intrigued. Najee Blueball had a cup of coffee for the asterisk. It is spring training, so we're optimistic about everyone. And then your buddy, Lance McCullors. Yes, Lance McCullors, Jr. I might bebe off that island. I'm way off that island.

Gordy's been off that island for a long time. He didn't get that angry with him at fan fest. Source to tell me it was quite uncomfortable. Well, Lance McCuller's Jr. doesn't like criticism. Nobody does.

Oh, I hate it. Especially not him. Yeah, that's right. All right, let's speak in a Gordon. He's down in West Palm Beach. He's finishing up his pancakes and Apple Compote. We'll be looking forward to getting his update

from what he had for breakfast and what is going on with what he saw and the reading between the lines. We heard the audio officially, what is unofficially, what What are we seeing? We'll talk with Gordy next 1029 on Sports Talk 790. Ross and Matt with you here at 1034.

Eme Adoka is going to join us at 11 o'clock. You got to shut your bum ass up. The Emeadoka, Rockets Head Coach? I got to shut your bum ass up. Anybody got time for that about my own NBA at 1130. You know what I should say about Rockets fans? You do? I should.

Fred Van Vleet was on the TV broadcast and he was talking about Rockets fans being so negative and panicking too. Really? Yes. He said I've been on Twitter more since I've been on Twitter more since he's been, since he's been injured. He said he blames KD because KD is always on there. KD is on, for sure.

KD. KD has told people where he knows where they live. He's told him to suck various parts of his genitalia. Okay. Hey, various parts. All right, anyways. All right. Go to Gordy.

Let's go to Gordy. Good God. You brought up the KD on Twitter. I didn't make you talk about genitalia. Well, I mean, it is what it is. 713. I mean, I didn't ask Katie to get so vile on Twitter. I mean, I still am here for it.

Let's talk to our buddy Chris Gordy. He is, of course, handling our spring training coverage early on before Ross and I get down there next week, and Gordy was there for all of the hullabaloo. You did get some flat ground video of Josh Hader. Gordy, what did you think? I mean, he's tossing. I wouldn't classify it as throwing.

But I guess that was good that he was on flat ground and throwing around to baseball. but yeah, I mean, this thing feels like it's, I mean, everybody, nobody's hitting the panic button right now, but it does feel like, you know, this is going to be an opening day and we'll wait and see. And then, you know, probably a few weeks after that, I don't know. I mean, it's very early, but, you know, we're just finding out about the setback he had, what is fourth winter ball bullpen he was throwing. And, of course, the inflammation has become the big word around the Astros organization the last few years.

But I guess I'll classify it as a good sign that he was out there and at least throwing the ball around on slack round. Yeah, you don't necessarily have to do that. I'm just curious if there was anything like you're going to talk to him. Obviously, the meeting will be waiting for Josh at his locker after the throwing session today. And it would be better just to hear directly from him. But as I said, opened the show today, Gordy, I'm going to wait. I'm not going to have sooner rather than later. I'm not going to be optimistic.

I'm done with timelines. and I don't think I'm speaking on behalf of minority of astro fans when he gets out there that's great. Thankfully, if there is a silver lining, you do have some people like Brian O'Brien who can slide into that closer spot, at least early on. It was good last year, not great in that spot, but at least you've got some insurance. Yeah, that's what Dana Brown kind of said was, you know, they, you know, he even said, he's like, you guys know me. I love adding pitching. And so they added a lot of pitching this offseason. And they've got a lot of guys that, you know, we don't know what they're.

their roles are yet. You know, we think everybody's going to be healthy, and this will be a six-man rotation, but there are some jobs up for grabs. But yeah, I mean, you feel good about what Brian King gave you last year. You know what Brian O'Brien brings you. So, you feel good about both of those guys if they both have to

move up from seventh and eighth to eighth innings. But, you know, again, the hope would be that it wouldn't be very long and Hater would be back out there. But yeah, like I say, talking to most people out here, nobody's really panicking on the Hater thing. then we'll do it here in

Houston because I again I don't think there's any worse way you can open up a training camp and having your $20 million year closer barely tossing to baseball I'm going to just be really honest and I and I'm not blaming the Astros I'm just saying that I'm having negative flashbacks

PTSD over what the Astros went through last year well I was talking to Chandleroram about it this morning he was even saying that he thinks you know they're probably fine with him going on whatever schedule he needs to because he's so proven. You know, he's a veteran who's been there done that. So it's just been a younger guy and they were being more rigid with his, with his, you know, schedule and oh, we got to get him back by this date.

And he's got to be throwing this many pitches by this day. And I think they trust Tater to know his body. And when he says he's ready, he'll be ready. Chris Gordy was here on Sports Talk 790 at West Palm Beach. Thanks to Willie's Grill and Ice House. What about the other news as far. his injury. Yiner Diaz and his foot sprain sounds like he's going to catch a

bullpen today and hopefully it's not too much of an issue. Yeah. I mean, he looked fine walking around out there. Joe Spada kind of said all it means is they're just going to limit his running a little bit. So he'll still catch all the bullpins and, you know, he'll hit, he'll

do all that stuff. He just won't be running the bases at a ton now. So I think that's fine, but my antenna antenna went up when I heard that because keep in mind, they lost Victor Caratini this offseason and did not replace him. And as much as we like Cesar Salazar, you know, he's going to have a big roll thrust upon him this season

if they don't add another veteran catcher. And so Dana Brown talked about this morning and said, yeah, we like Dali and we think he's ready. But I made a point to ask him about Walker Yonik, who was their first round pick from a couple years ago. And I said, where is he in his development? And he said, we like where he's at. And obviously, look, if he can come out and have a big spring,

maybe that escalates his track a little bit, and maybe he gets called up this year. But it is a glaring hole because of how much, you know, how much, you know, Janor Diaz, his bat dropped last year. You wonder how much of that was him playing so much. And, you know, now you lose Victor Keratini. Yonard Diaz, not like his workload is going to go down at all. So it's certainly something to watch. What about back into the rotation?

Obviously, it's been another storyline. tying into the pitching and the injuries and stuff like that. Just from you being out there, how do you feel like that could possibly shape up? Well, let me bring you more to the front of the rotation. Now, obviously, Hunter Brown announced today as the opening day starter, but today was Tatsuya Amiga. Like the Japanese media here, I mean, there's about a dozen of them that, I mean, literally he drops something, bends down to pick it up.

They're all literally like in his face filming him and following him around. I mean, they are obsessed with this guy, and falling him around, and we got to see him throw just a few minutes ago, and I think through about 16 pitches, all fastballs, but he looks good, man. I mean, this guy, it's going to be exciting to see what he brings to the Astros. And a humble guy, too.

I mean, you know, you come from Japan where he's beloved. There was an all-star over there, and he's just a guy in the clubhouse here. You know, obviously speaking through his translator, but, and as somebody pointed out, he put some highlights in his hair, too. He's got that going for him now. But yeah, I'm bringing a lot of attention.

But to your point, I mean, Mike Burroughs is here. Got to see him kind of thrown around today. You know, Ryan Weiss and, you know, Nate Pearson, these are all guys that are all competing for the back end of the rotation spots. So good to be a trust to follow them throughout spring training. And then the guy who just walked past us a few minutes ago, Lance McCullors, he's still here, still getting paid well. And if he can pitch well, that would mean good things.

things for the Astros. Pure gut. Do you think Emi leaves the team to join the WBC at any point? I don't get that vibe, but it feels like he's trying to settle in. I mean, somebody asked him how he's enjoying Florida, and he's like, I've been here two days. Like, everything's new

and he's trying to settle in, get to know these guys, these new teammates, and everything. So I don't get that vibe. It feels like he's here and ready to stay. So we know the big storylines as far as the pitching and Hader and the injuries and stuff like that. Anything you've noticed or something you think is flying under the radar right now at spring training that could be another

storyline to pop up yeah you know the noticeable absence guys being in the clubhouse and and it sounds silly to say but not having maricio dubon i mean duby was the guy that everybody loved and you know was kind of almost like that george springer that you used to have the guy that just puts a smile on everybody's face when you see him and not having them here it's it's kind of a noticeable absence and So, you know, I talked with Nick Kelly this morning, you know, the guy that's going to be the new utility man, replace him coming over from the Braves. But, yeah, I mean, the question is who's going to be that guy who's going to be the, you know, when everything's tight, a guy who can make everybody smile. I don't know. We'll have to see who that's going to be.

All right. When is Josh supposed to speak with you guys? I'm assuming after he's showered and shaved and worked on his hair product? Yeah, any minute now. So we're going to head in there, and Hunter Brown's supposed to speak as well about being named the opening day starter. So we'll have that for you on our SportsCoc 790 Twitter and our website presented by Willie's Grill and Ice House. And apparently they're serving crawfish already at Willis. Is that accurate? Yes. That's what they want to be your go-to crawfish spot.

So, yeah, if you're looking to get into the crawfish season already, Willis has got you taken care of and can't wait to get back to Houston so I can get some. All right. send us word down the line when Josh has something to say. Thank you, Gordy. We'll talk with you about this same spot tomorrow here on the show. We appreciate it as always. All right, fellas. That's Chris Gordy at West Palm Beach.

And as soon as Josh speaks, we'll carry some of that, or not carry it, but we'll bring you some of that audio directly from West Palm Beach. SVK and Finn are tied 1-1 in the Winter Olympics. Oh, man. Come on. Slovakia. Slovakia, Finland. Finn, I knew what Finland was.

Slilokia were taking a minute. Really? Yeah. Okay. Hockey, I'll say this, to its credit, is an amazing sport in person. Television doesn't do the sport justice. In the arena, when you're hearing the puck, the glass, that's exciting. When you're watching the Houston Aeros versus the Indianapolis ice and you're in the arena, it's a good time. 2001 appreciates what you just said.

The rest of us for the last 20 years don't even know what you're saying. Okay. That's fine. 713-212-5-790 if you would like to be a part of our show today 713-212-5-7-9 we're going to talk to e-may adoka coming up in just a few minutes here on the matt thomas show with ross let's continue on the phones and say how to the great folks we're going to tarry our cleveland guardians and analysts from northeast ohio terry how the hell are you i'm doing fine guys is cole thompson there no he's not he's his day ends at 10 o'clock in the morning he said he's going to stick around with you guys but anyway you made a comment about the guardians they couldn't beat anybody well let me tell you

they came to houston's swept the asterisk and kept him out of the playoffs do you hang up I didn't oh why did you why did you hang up on him oh because he lied to Jonathan apparently you cannot lie to Jonathan he will hang up on you nothing twice about it happened yeah I was looking at Instagram

Who said anything about the Guardians Apparently Cole did I don't take your phone No I mean I know Terry Good friend of the show But I know it's gonna be a Cleveland Centric phone call

And for those that don't know We do a show primarily Who said anything about the Guardians? He probably Cole did Oh Cole Thompson did Yeah Oh so he's responding to Cole Yes

Does he know he's on for four hours a day Terry call Cole tomorrow Yeah You got beef with coal we call 6 to 10. I know he's only going to talk to you about SEC football, but maybe he'll throw a little guardian talk at you too. Maybe he'll give you a rundown of the Guardian rotation.

Tennessee Volunteers Transfer Portal and what's going on with the Guardians. Yeah. He'll give you his mock draft of Texans mock draft for nine rounds. There's only seven and he'll give you nine rounds because he'll give you bonus coverage. Just in case. I like that. Just in case. A little compensatory selections.

Priority free agents. There you go. Nobody in the world knows more about priority free agents than Cole Thompson. I guess it already is mock draft season. When we start breaking those bad boys down. I've told you this year and year out, and it's just worthy of saying it. If you're doing a mock draft,

you really have got to branch out. Why? Because what if it's your job? Like NFL.com's a shmantz-shmurline. He does mock drafts. But he doesn't do round by round of every team. That is such a wild goose chase you'd go on. Yeah.

It's fun offseason speculation. You've got to get them offseason clicks, Maddie. I don't need those. NFL content creator. Well, there's no offseason for this show because we talk all sports. Would you like for me to give you a mock draft of something for? You think I can give you 30 days of mock drafts of everything? No.

That wouldn't intrigue you. Yes, I'm extremely intrigued. I don't know. Let me ask you this. I was thinking about this driving home the other day. Okay. Where are you? What if I gave you?

once a week a mock draft of something. Okay. It could be race cars. It could be sort of like a fantasy five. Yeah, I was going to say, what if you drafted five things

and I drafted five things and we did in a snake format and then people voted on our lists. That's okay, we're kind of doing that then. I stand corrected. Forget what I said. Rockets won last night. Did you enjoy it?

Well, it wasn't the prettiest game, honestly. No, I don't think Naismith Hall of Fame's calling for a copy of it? Yeah. But you got the job done. You shot 50% from three. I mean, Amin Thompson,

well, not in the post-game interview, but during the game, he was good. And Alperin-Shing-Goon was good. How about this? Kevin Durant, let me see if I can pull the number up. What is it?

Like, a thousand and one-20-point games? Or is he a thousand? One-one-22 games that he's played. So he's over 20 points and a thousand of them. Last night was a thousand. That's pretty good. That's amazing. It's him.

It's LeBron. Karim and Karim and Karam Malone. Yeah, I heard Adam Wexler running it down on the post game show, which was thrilling. The way he delivered or just the end of it? It's good. Yeah. That's rarefied error. And I continue to say this and you back this up when I say it.

One of the 10, 15 greatest players in the history of the NBA is going to wrap up his career. you would think in theory wearing a Houston Rocket uniform. It's pretty good. And he was off. He was one for eight in the first quarter of the game. And then kind of settled back and was much better than the second half. Second greatest shooter of all time. Fight me.

I don't, I can't buy into that completely because I got really going to do a deep dive, meaning I'm not going to do it at all. Okay. That's not a terrible. 37. He's on the cusp of a 50, 40, 90 season. Yeah. Getting close.

from the field, 40% from 3, 90% from the free throw line. He's the only 88.1 from the free throw line. Tis, Tisk. He's got to get those numbers up. Scott, on 790. Good morning, Scott. Hey, good morning, man. How you doing? Good. Get a little rain out here, but anyway. Be careful. Yeah, $45,000 a mess. So I'm just curious what your thoughts are, because I know you go to all the games. I'm wondering if you saw a more, organized offense last night like I did. Did it seem like they had a different game plan last night to you? Did it did to me? I need you to explain because I'm willing to listen,

but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary yesterday at all. I saw less isolation. I guess they were more in fast break than anything, but more than usual. But it seems like the only offense they have is isolate Sadoon at the top of the key or isolate KD at the top of the key. But I saw a lot more passing going on and it seemed like they had some different screens going on.

I'm not wondering if you notice that or it's just me. Well, I'll say this. Yesterday to me, and thank you for the skull, Scott, be careful out there. Maybe if you were to take the amount of time the ball was in a man, Thompson's hands, it would be reduced a little bit? Yes, they were running because the Clippers didn't start the game

with the five on one, which is what people have been doing, putting the opposing center on Amin Thompson and sagging them off, but they did it a little bit with Brooke Lopez, and they did have Amin Thompson a little bit more off ball, screening, running those types of things. But I would say no, they're not an isolation offense. I mean, it ends up that way generally.

It's a pick and roll set what they do with Kevin Durant and Alperin Shingoon in a two-man game with Amin Thompson normally kind of roaming around. That's basically their go-to. They don't do it every single time down the floor. But that's what they do. They were using them in more as a screener last night than I have seen in recent time, which was good because it forces, they were doing it also very top of the key.

So if Brooke Lopez is going to be sagging off of him in Thompson, and that's how they want to go to the defense to get him in the paint, well, yeah, run a high pick and roll with them in as a screener, then Brooke Lopez is going to be in deep waters because he's going to have to either switch and get on to Kevin Durand or Outbrin Shingoon and let them operate. And it's also going to just help more movement all around and help with the space. And the reality is this.

We have seen more centers attack men. The thing you may have noticed differently last time is Brooke Lopez athletically can't do that. No. No. And that's the reason why there was a little more roaming around because the men didn't have a big athletic 610, 611 guy chasing him around. And that's good because they're going to have solutions to this problem. They're going to need counters to that, especially on playoff time if you get matched up.

Right now they would be matched up in the second round against the San Antonio Spurs. So I like that they're going to have some time to figure this. out, work on it, fine-tune it, and get more reps working on this. A men, Thompson, getting defended by five. Because you need him out there. Because you have, you know, some people want them out of the starting lineup because of the spacing and all that stuff. You got to figure it out because of Menn Thompson needs to be on the floor.

Yeah. Because he's a great dynamic two-way player. When he was asked yesterday whether or not Reed could supplant a man in the starting lineup, he said, not anytime soon and probably not ever. Reed had a great night, four of six from three. I like offense off the bench, too. He plays 30 minutes. It's not like Reed. People act like

Reed Shepherd. Oh, you got to start Reed Shepherd. You got to start Reed Shepherd. He played more minutes than Tar Easton last night who started. He's playing minutes. But it's about the configuration of on the floor, as you mentioned. He can come in with a second unit, be the primary ball handler and shooter and score off of there. Because Clint Capelle

ain't giving you 20 off the bench. You need bench scoring, and that's where Reed Shepherd thrives. E. Medoika next on 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 11.02 on 790, Madden Ross, We Q. We spend 10 minutes now with the head basketball coach of your Houston Rockets.

Last night, Rockets took care of business. 102.95 to the LA Clippers. He may duck with us. Coach, good morning. How different was it facing a Clipper team without Zubots and a Hardin on the floor? I know you know all those players very well. You certainly know Kauai and what he's able to do. But just for the strategizing during the course of the game,

was it a complete different change? there's some elements that you used in previous games without those two guys on the floor? No, it's very different, obviously. Hardin is just such a unique player and what he brings to the table. You have to game plan on the scheme for him, and Zubach's kind of their anchor on defense. And so they're very different as far as the spacing with Lopez, you know, more spaced out on the perimeter. The ball in Leonard's hand, 100% of the time now. And then, you know, they're not at full strength, you know, garlands out. And obviously they're getting their guys up to speed, Matherin and then Jackson's.

playing in the first game. So it was very different than the team we faced before. The double team on Kauai, look, you got his shots up, but it took him 19 to get 24, so I think you'd be generally speaking pretty pleased the way you guys doubled him on a fairly regular basis. Yeah, and that's my point. You know, with

Hard Gone and some of their guys out, we, you know, have to go after Kauai Leonard. Obviously, he's going to have the ball in his hands and much more. And so, yeah, you don't always look at the final score, you know, him having 24 points. It's the 19 attempts. other than nine free throws, I think we did a decent job on them.

Reed back off the bench, good to get a men back out there. There was some time out there that it looked like that men didn't have to necessarily worry about ball handling as much as maybe in previous games. Was that intentional or just how the game progressed, especially because he had not as many big men chasing after him as he had in recent weeks? Yeah, I think, you know, we like to have multiple handlers out there at times, and so when we can get our read and amend out there together, it's always been good for us. you know, obviously you can initiate through Alpi and Kevin does his chair handling as well. So as always this year, you know, we try to go through a little bit through committee while the young guys are learning. But, yeah, several different ways to attack it. And like I said, with Alpi being such a unique center, that can play up top and get us into our sets.

You can take some of that pressure off the other guys. There has been a lot of talk about Amin Thompson and the five's guarding him. How much has that been discussed in practices and meetings and things like that? And does part of you as a coach kind of like the challenge of seeing that in trying to work on ways to combat it? Yeah, I mean, it's something that we've seen since his first year, it's just his rookie year. When Alpern went out with the last 18 games, I mean, it was technically our small ball five or, you know, him and Jabari out there at the four and the five. So quite a few teams had the bigs on him. So something that he and we are very accustomed to.

And, you know, he knows the spots that he can pick. whether he's handling. Obviously, putting the big arm in the sagging back, takes away some of the driving lanes, but very good in the pocket, very good in the dunker spot. He, you know, him setting screens and rolling has always been good for us. And so he's had his practice over the last few years, and we know the areas we can get to with him not handling the ball. Rocket Tech coach, Ema, Doka with us here on Sports Talk 790. Just Reed Shepard, of course, with the bounce back night shooting last night. Is there any bit of a kind of a semblance of a maybe he's not a rookie, but a rookie wall

He's played double the minutes that he did all of last year. What have you been seeing from him not only just from on the floor, but as far as energy and maintaining and being out there on the floor? Yeah, I mean, he's played a lot more this year, obviously. You know, didn't play a ton this rookie year. But I think for all young guys, everybody's going to have a slump at some point during the season. And, you know, what we say is don't let that affect your overall game. You know, don't just rely on jump shots to impact the game.

And so, for Reid, you know, he's making some really nice. passes and stepping up on the defensive end is what we're asking all the guys to do. And so it may hit that wall. And obviously one more before I'll start breaking. You can get your legs back, get a little rest in and kind of reset from there. But I think he's playing fine, you know, missing some shots that he normally made early in the season. But Jabari did that a few weeks ago.

Alperin's gone through his thing. And so you just have to push through it. Like I said, and not just let May shots dictate how your game's going to go. We've discussed as many times where coaches like yourself have to kind of fight the All-Star break, you know, hey, I want to think about the vacation or getting away from the sport. Your guys have fought through that the last couple of days. Discuss the bounce back in your mind the team has had after those two home losses to

Boston, Charlott and how you fought back. And now with a chance here to go to the break on a three-game winning streak. Yeah, I mean, it's just the effort and intensity that takes to win a basketball game wasn't there in those two games. And, you know, quite simple, you know, whether you make shots or not or guard well enough, if you don't play with the right effort and mindset, you're not going to give yourself a chance on the nightly basis. And so for us, it was just getting back to that.

I think you saw that in Oklahoma City game. We watched quite a bit of film on the Charlotte and Boston game and it looked like two different teams, whether it was just legs or guys thinking about All-Star Break or whatever. We had five games left and we wanted to play well. So, you know, two of those, not too well, the last two have been really good. And it's, like I said, you can see the difference on the tape. Our guys have been back locked in and obviously want to finish on a good note tonight.

I don't know if you've heard from the medical staff. Where are you on who can sit and who can stay tonight? Is there anybody that would be definitely out for tonight's game? Dorian will be out tonight for sure. Tario will be a game time decision. He's going to try it out and see how he feels and go from there. All right. Josh did not play yesterday.

Is anything okay with him? Yeah, yeah. Josh is fine. I think part of it was the fact that Dorian's going to be out tomorrow tonight and, you know, wanted to rest to him. But obviously, Josh is always ready to be called upon. And went with a little shorter rotation, knowing that. that we were going to run some guys in longer minutes,

and we'll have Josh tonight for sure. What did you think of Benedict Mathurin getting his first amount of playing time for the clippers? We just saw him a few weeks ago wearing pacer gear. Yeah, I mean, he's going to be a good asset for them. I think, you know, it's always hard when you kind of get implemented into a new situation like that. And, you know, he wasn't as aggressive as he's been with Indiana, but expect that to happen over time here, you know, probably right after all-star break when he gets some practices in,

but good pickup for them in general. Do you tell the ambiguity folks to keep your center and your power forward on ice and make sure you don't work them too hard? I mean, oh, it's a great experience for both of them, especially for Alpi when getting the late addition. But Kevin's been through this a lot. So do you think about that? Like, hey, man, I want you to get away from the sport, but it feels like to me that Katie's been since a gym ride his entire life, that it's he trying to find a place to shoot some baskets even during the soft time.

They definitely would have done that regardless. And so, you know, it's another honor for him, man, Alper, and, you know, and we want those guys to be perennial all-stars. And, you know, as much as the rest is good for you, that's a huge honor. And I think the guys will trade that off any day. But they know how to mix it in and get the rest in that they need in the days with the media and all that. And then obviously the game isn't full speed, full speed.

So they'll be out there getting some rest. But even after that, they got two, three, four days off until our next game against Charlotte and get a chance to rest up then. And we've still been through this amazing run of back-to-backs. It's getting better. I mean, they're being knocked off the list, but it feels like this squad has had more back-to-backs in the last month and a half than maybe anybody else

than the NBA has had. Yeah, well, I'm sure we have. I think we didn't have any for the first, you know, eight or so weeks. I think we had our first in late December, and so, you know, we had it easier early in the year, and now it's catching up to us. You know, we basically had one every week

for the last four weeks, and so it is what it is. You know, it's going to catch up to you at some point. And like I said, we have done a good job in some, I struggled earlier and some others, and now we want to finish tonight on a good note against clippers. Is there any wrap things up with you? Is there any individual message you tell the guys that they step away from the sport? Or is it more of a team get-together conversation as guys try to take a step of break away from the sport for a few days?

I think it's both. I think, you know, team and individually everybody needs to, you know, kind of take a step back and decompress. You know, get your legs back. We have 29 games coming out of the break, and that goes really quickly. So get the work in that you need to. obviously don't come back out of shape or, you know, rusty, but also get away from it for a minute. Like I said, clear your mind and prepare for what's ahead. Are you much of a standings watcher guy right now, or is that never going to happen for you?

No, I think we're all conscious of it. There's such a tight race in the West that every game kind of matters. And so when it's that tight, and at this point in the season, you're already starting to peek at it. Thank you for the visit, as always. We'll see you tonight. Good luck against the Clippers. Thank you, guys. You got it.

You may haveoka with us here on Sports Talk 790. Stannings watch Was it Joe that was never watching Stanings or is every coach lying to us? I mean, he may at least say it, I appreciate that. He's aware of it, yeah. Number three in the West. Well, it's by percentage points.

Still, number three in the West. I love it. You can say whatever you want. You can put all your asterisk and all that. Number three in the West. And I think I had as a gut feeling. All the him and honing coaches and your dog is the worst. And they're going to be an eight seed.

And the team's falling apart. Who is that? Have you seen Rockets Twitter? Is that Rocket Twitter sounds like that? Oh my God. Firestone, Fire Emu Doka. Are you ready for this little nugget for you? What?

The Rockets are one game better record-wise this year than they were at this same point last year. They were 32 and 20 last year. They're 33 and 19 now. Okay. You know what just feels a little bit different? Is the fact that last year was Oklahoma City Boat Race everybody? Yes.

Now you got the San Antonio Spurs killing it. Yeah. They're like, uh, they might win 60 games. Oh, we don't even need to talk about what Wimbidiama did last night. Will you please text Clanton during the break for me? No.

Why? What's his reaction? He, well, this is what he's going to, I'll predict if he's not listening. Let's do it. I'll predict what he's going to say right now.

He's just say, oh, yeah, I was against all the Lakers' backups, which is true. Lakers were missing Reeves, LeBron, Donchich, who else? Some other players, DeAndre eight and I think didn't play. So for those who don't know, Wemby last night scored 40 points. Here's the incredible part of it. He scored 37 of that in the first half. 25 in the first quarter. He had 25. He's going, Wilk Chamberlain pace in the first quarter. He had 25. The Lakers had 30 collectively in the first. So what you do is while you don't want to root for San Antonio No, I don't. It does give a little separation between 3, 4, 5, 6. Yeah, you're 3.5 back. I think heading to San Antonio for a game one of the Western semis

feels like a... The chalk pick. You're staying with me, right? The chalk pick. You know with me to San Antonio? You gotta go. We're staying on the sewage walk? Well, we stay a little bit off of it a little bit.

Okay. We're in a more of the quiet. In San Antonio? It's about, I don't know, a thousand miles away in Denver or in Las Vegas. Gosh, I thought Texas was supposed to be about freedom. Speaking of that. What's the deal? There's an interesting story about what's going on in Dallas with the ownership of the Mavericks. Oh, because they want some cash. They want some cash. They want some casino cash. We'll talk about that in a second. Okay. And then we got shut your bum ass up at the bottom of the hour here on Sports Talk 790.

We got some breaking news here on the Matt Thomas show. Did I hear it or no? How many? No. All right. Did you want them? I think we should get one. Okay, one? I don't know what's happening. It's not breaking.

It's common to, you know, when you hear from people, it's also breaking as well. Oh, okay. So here is Josh Hater, speaking to the media, literally a couple minutes ago. This is raw. We have not cut the sound up, but this is, I'm assuming a couple of Q&As. Oh, his computer froze up, so he says, keep a second. Okay. This is Josh speaking after he soft-tossed today.

and when Gordy said soft toss, he really meant... He was having a catch? Well, he was... Put it this way, if he had a two-year-old son, he was probably throwing the ball to his teeve, to his tee-bat. You know what I mean? It was an underhand, was it? You know, maybe use your right hand.

Build up a strength just in case. I mean, if you're paying $20 million a year, when you're least want on Trevor to give it a go with the right hand? Might as well. Okay. Are we ready? I think he's... Maybe we're still frozen.

All right. I said I sent it to Ross. We're a multi-billion dollar company. We have the worst equipment. Sorry, I got to run this BIOS update real quick. You just, now you're just making things out. Okay, I'm kidding. Computers are great.

Well, can you give us the gist of what he said? No, I'm not giving you the jest. Let me get a paraphrase? No, no. We can call you the gister. No, we're not, no, I'm the jester. Excuse me, what I just say? Oh, man.

We tried it. I'm telling you, folks. Here's from Chandler-Rome. We'll get the audio eventually. Josh Cater's... We are an audio company, medium. It's fine. He's a few weeks behind, but did not want to speculate about opening day.

He said he thinks the biceps issue is independent of the shoulder capsule spray that sidelined him last year. He said he felt his bicep grab while throwing a change up in catch point. We'll see you May 1st. You want to fight me on it? Go ahead. No, I don't. I'm defeated. I'm down.

I know. Because not gives us a hand on about our computer system It's okay, well, I know It's all rolled into one, Matt Oh, it probably is a combination of things Bringing down your subconscious, which is a powerful thing Alright, check your email, see if it Yeah, well, I have to roll on this and then save it

And then we can So really, our computer crashed We have people that I would like to get Josh Hayter audio here, and we can't play it We're working on it We got a team with the Tiger teams on it Just break down the Slovakia Finland game for us No, I don't want to do any of that.

I would like to have equipment that works. That's only I'm asking for. Well, someday. Here, was this play? I don't know. I just kind of take us to do what happened when you were shut down. That's Brian McTaggart. You're in your fourth bullpen, I believe.

Yeah, so I was going into my fourth bullpen. And for me, when I was throwing catch play, I just threw a change up. Kind of grabbed on me. So then kept going on. And then the next day, felt it again on the change up. So following that, tried to do it without throwing the change up. And then the more intense I got felt it again. So the bicep kind of got inflamed.

So then I took about 10 days off and started just letting that heal a little bit. And now we're here today. And today was the first day of catch play, which was pretty good. So like I said, a little setback, but nothing too concerning for me. And yeah, so just building back up now and just get ready for the season. What are you going to do now? Just kind of relax, wait, see, how? it pulls. I mean it's just back to normal just building back up so I mean I was at the point where

I was selling bullpins I was up you know in 85 and you know it felt really good so I think it's more so just getting back to that just building the arm back up since I had 10 days off so I would say we're probably a few weeks behind right now on just getting that arm back to where we needed to be I understand it's the first workout but have you given yourself a time frame as to whether you think you'd be ready for opening that? No, right now I'm just taking it week by week and just seeing how I'm progressing with that. For me, it's more of just like seeing how my body responds

on everything because if I start setting a table, I don't want to get to the point where I'm going to be rushing and then something long-term happens, which I don't think it will, but, you know, sometimes you've got to be cautious with that. But for right now, it's just building back up to where we need to be. She's building back up. It's all good, baby.

It's a little soreness, Maddie. Don't worry. Don't you worry about a thing. Okay, you're not worried? Well, I'll do it. No, no, no, no. You said literally an hour ago. I'm not worried about it.

When he's back, he's back. It's all good. I just asked you a question. Are you worried? You are going to say? No. I'm worried. About what?

He's going to rip his bicep? No, that this is going to be something that we're going to be sitting here talking about for weeks and weeks and weeks and that is what it is. Then we can do about it. Be there when he's going to be there. it'll be here when he gets here. Like we said, about Yort on all last year. And then Kyle Tucker the year before that.

Yeah. Brian DeBray, who's got this. Let's go. Yeah. It is what it is. Brian King's ready to rock. Brian King, the most important seventh inning guy in Major League Baseball. Let's go.

Yeah. Okay, May 1st, it sounds good to me. I'm okay with that. I mean, whatever. Again, the only thing I have any sort of feel good about is that you've got a terrific plan B. Most good teams are supposed to cover for guys that are closed that are down. If you don't have an 8th inning guy, why you spend all the money on your 9th inning guy? The Astros have always spent a considerable amount of money and importance in their bullpen.

And I respect them for that. Backup catcher in utility infielder, not so much. But don't let me start on that. I mean, we're going to miss Victor Keratinny. I get it. But unfortunately, you just can't have gold glovers or unbelievably got to have the same. guy in my roster and threw all 26 spots in your rotation. He's like, greatest catch?

I'm convinced more than ever. I know that Dana today said that things have cooled off. Yeah, I think once the Red Sox got out of the running, things did cool off. You know, things are going to heat up. Somebody's going to get hurt. Well, then you don't have a log jam. Yeah. I'm talking about some other team in baseball. Oh, from another team. Yeah. Okay, I thought you meant here. Yeah. Just my, I mean, it could.

I mean, look, Coray is 33 with back issues and San Francisco wouldn't pass him in a physical. Jose Altuva is about 336. But you're also presuming that Issaq Parades can play some second base. I mean, can you move people around? No, because you know,

again, if Isak Prades play second base, it's wonderful, but that's something that's not been a huge part of his professional repertoire. He's done it before. Well, I'm going to say something that's going to sting you. Please. It's not going to be worse than Al Tuvae at second base. Oh, stop.

I'm sorry. I disagree. At this point in their careers? All right. Well, let's make a DRS bet. I don't even know what that means, but I think I know what it means. Let's make an OAA bet. No, we're not doing metrics bets.

Okay. Only people that sit in their laboratories with their door closed and have no friends make DRS bets. There was one guy who was the worst at his, at two positions last year in DRS. defensive runs saved You know what DRS stands for Defensive runs saved? No, it's something else Okay

I'm just saying I know I told you it was gonna sting You know what it is? DRS is dumb, ridiculous stat Oh here we go, good job Pretty gun on limb Well guess who's you? You don't like them and that's fine You know everybody at the

Pinnacle game doesn't like DRS I get it but it's being used all over the place I don't play pinnuckle Yeah I know you're playing bridge with Maud I play spades In Spades with Maud. I love Spades. I'm a great Spades player, by the way.

At the shuffleboard, they don't get DRS. I understand. If you don't count your books properly, I will get mad at you. But it's 2026. Ryan and Montgomery at 1127. Hello, Ryan. Hey, guys. How are you all doing?

Good. I want to pull my hair out because all I heard was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We're going to try to fix this, and we're going to pay $19 million for half a season's worth of Josh Hader. and it's going to suck. And maybe that's just the negative Nancy in me and just the Astros just upsetting me, which they have. And that's okay.

But I agree with Ross also. Jose Al-Tuvre is a defensive liability. I mean, my God. And it's, DRS matters, Matt. It does. And I just, I'm shook. I don't know how to, should I even be excited for opening day? Yes, of course you should be.

This team is still going to be very good. Yeah, come on. Let me just say, just because. I'm nervous as hell about Josh Hander's return. Doesn't mean this team still can't win some games? It's not just Josh Hater, Matt. It's a lot of stuff, man. This is freaking me out, dog.

I don't know it's too. Freaking out, man. Perverbrival cake. All right. I'll talk to you later. Thank you very much. DRS matters. It does.

Metrics matter. So I'm saying, Parade is second base can't be worse than El Tuve. I'm just saying. He can't. We love Jose Altuvei. Build the statue. But see, I think if somebody's listening to this show that has not seen Jose Ltuve play, you come across.

I'm not trying to do it. But it comes across, he's a butcher out there. He's not a butcher. He just has limited range. And I'm sure range is a huge part of D.R. Range is a huge part of it. But the ball gets to him. He doesn't kick balls.

The arm isn't a strong. He's late 30s guy. I mean, it is what it is. But I've never in my mind. And maybe I'll feel differently in 2020. I've never gone, oh my God, Jose L Tuva is the second base, we're in trouble. Where I've honestly felt like Jose El Tuba and left field puts us in trouble. Yeah.

I don't feel that way about second base. I just don't. That's just me being honest. He was the worst left fielder in baseball. I know you hate DRS. And then let's see, in only 500 innings, the seventh worst second baseman. Yeah, it's about, I will say, I say often. I don't normally say, oh, he booted that ball.

No, he happens. and he's not, it doesn't have a thousand fielding percentage. But there's a lot of times when I say, ooh, I think somebody else would have got to that. That's fair. All right, time for people to say, shut your bum ass up. I'm going to tell, I'm going to tell me to shut my bum ass up. No, no, I do that.

Even non- Tuesday's Wednesdays is 1130. I'm going to tell a national talk talk show host shut their, shut his bum ass up. Okay. Just came down the 4U tab. I'm intrigued. And then I have one for my beloved MBA that I love. It's more, but ain't nobody got time for them to shut your bum ass up.

I mean, I know where I need to stand on this. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-190. It's a Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ain't nobody getting time. Ain't nobody getting time for that. Ain't nobody getting time for that. Time for that.

All right, this is where we spend the next 25 minutes, just letting it all out. And Ross wants to say something, but he can't. Because I'm trying to create harmony in these streets of 790, so we'll save that for our off air. I didn't mean to fill things in-house, Matt. We do keep things in-house, Matt. We do. Can you do that? All right, 7-1-3-21-25-7-90.

If there's anything that you want to just say, you know what? Some of the office is grinding in your nerves. Somebody at the driver's license office was not polite. Do you want to tell them to shut their bum-ass up? Here's worth for you here, right here on 790. Hey, nobody got time for that. Or shut your bum ass.

They'd be the one. All right. I'm going to start first with one shut your bum ass up and one. Anybody got time for that? I'm going to go with the NBA first. The NBA announced yesterday. And look, I love the NBA.

I mean, I want to say that of all the people in this city that do radio, you and I fall in the NBA more than anybody else in the marketplace. I think it's pretty even safe to say that, correct? Mm-hmm. The NBA is going to send 200 influencers to the All-Star Games so they can take pictures and videos and all that kind of thing to show how awesome everything about the All-Star Weekend is. I love you, NBA.

but I'm muting you this weekend. 95% of people that consider themselves professional influencers are douchebags. Not 100%. Okay. But it ain't 80. It's 95. The last thing I want is a bunch of 20-year-old people, 22-year-old people who got a free trip to stay in a nice place in Los Angeles and all airfare and this amazing access. Tell you what everybody else in the world is missing they can't afford it or doesn't have the access to.

So I would say respectfully NBA, I love you, but ain't nobody got time for influencer D-bags to give me highlights of NBA All-Star Weekend. Hey, nobody got time for that. They have to connect with the young audience, Matt. They're going to anger the audience. They're not going to connect with them. Go look at the replies when the NBA announced this. It's not pretty. Number two, I would say friend of the show, but he's not a friend of the show.

Nick Wright is he and I have been knowing each other for years. he is the epitome of let's do something on a national hot take that will get people talking. And I don't think it'll get people talking except me for one thing. Again, my philosophy is not all publicity is good publicity. Some people will disagree with that. That if you just get the name out, that's good. Apparently, I caught this on for you just a few minutes ago, Rossi. He says, this is according to the ring.

the NBA could fix the All-Star game by doing something. Do you know what that would be? Think about what Nick Wright is about. Grifting? Lying? You can't grift her in the All-Star game. Oh.

You could lie, I guess. Social justice? You're getting warmer. What? I'm scared now. He would like to have a team on one side full of white players versus a team of black.

You're kidding. of black players. You're stop. You're joking. There's no way that happened. That's AI. He did not say that. NBA Central, that's a legit website.

Are you sure it's Centale? No, it's Central. I'm going to tell you something right now. Was he joking? I really wish. I'm speaking as a white person. I really wish. It feels like everything

when it comes into conversation has either a political line or racial line to it. We have to stop a society worrying about color of skin and political affiliation. If we disagree on something, we disagree and we move on. Okay. Sorry, go ahead. How would think about this for a second? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the NBA All-Star game.

Introducing the team of white players. versus the team of black players. And let's be brutally honest on this, Ross. What if you have a white mother and a black father? What if you're mixed? There's no way this is serious. He has to be joking. I'm not, there's no way.

Are you, you know Nick Wright. You've heard him to talk before. You think he's kidding? He's either kidding or stupid. Or trolling. Damn it. That could be Nick Wright. So Nick, I would have to listen to us.

You trolling, race baiter, shut your bum ass up. shit your bum ass up man and I'm done he's kidding he's got to be joking I'm gonna listen to the audio we were gonna play it but he swears a lot during it

so I guess we couldn't play I would rather I would rather not hear Nick right on the show I don't disagree with you Jonathan what's the matter with you my friend you know what it's one of those weeks I'm not the past

I got too much anger oh oh wow too angry you know what Sometimes you don't need to put air out the dirty laundry. And for that, I respect. We didn't do anything wrong, did we?

So I'll make sure we're okay. Yes, probably Matt. No, no, no, no. Okay, thank you. I'll go with Rockets fans. Last week, Rockets lost to the Celtics and the Hornets. Oh, the Rockets are falling apart. And, oh, they're going to be an 18.

And, oh, this team is terrible. And the sky's falling. And they're the worst. And Men Thompson needs to come off the bench and blah, blah, blah, blah. Now they beat the thunder. Okay. They didn't have Shaggill's Alexander, but they won. And they beat the Clippers.

They're the number three seed in the West with two rotational players, a starter and a major bench player out for the season. You can't play Dorian Finney Smith on back-to-backs. And when he does play, he's not playing well. Tari Easton doesn't play back-to-backs. You've had a limited rotation to where, I mean, you're having to hold out Josh Okie of all people so that he can play the second half of a back-to-back.

And they're third in the West. Shut your bum ass up, you bunch of whiners and the Rockets Twitter. That's grumpy sports fan. We fall for this every year. It's an 82 game season and we can become prisoner of the moment. Every time the Astros lose three games in a row, every time the Rockets lose two games in a row, the sky is falling, fire Raphael Stone. I can go and if I put fiery Madoka, I can find you a thousand tweets from the last week.

idiots and overreactionary it's getting worse I know this is what it's always been prison in the moment but it's getting worse and worse and worse Chuchabazz is up shit your bum ass up man

All right we've led the groundwork down Okay Now it's Houston's turn Yes You're driving around You're an 11 o'clocker We got shot at 11 o'clockers Maybe you're upset because it's raining right now

In your neck of the woods 713-212-570 713-212-5-7-90. If something is bothering you, we are here for you. 7-13-212-5-7-90. It's 11-43. It is Matt Thomas Show with Ross, and this is Sports Talk 790. All right, last call for shut your bum ass up in just a moment.

7-13-212-5-7-90. If you've got something you're complaining about, I ain't anybody got time for that. We'll take it. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We mentioned this a little while ago. to get it in between the Josh Henderson. By the way, we're going to have the full update for you

and what's going on with the Astros, the top of the hour with the news at noon. Mark Stein used to work for ESPN. Now he just does a substack. Can you make money off just doing substacks? And how do you pay the bills? I mean, I guess you have, like, people that subscribe, but Mark Stein, you can get that,

you can get better information from ESPN dudes and Mark Stein. But he put out a story that, Mark Cuban has been approached by several investors to help try to re-buy the Dallas Mavericks from the current family that owns the Dallas Mavericks. And it's not going where at this point, the Mavericks ownership group, which is tied to a casino chain, I want to say, in Las Vegas, has said, yeah, we're not looking to sell.

We're looking forward to running it back with Cooper Flagg and looking forward to having a successful run as Dallas Mavericks owner. The reality is this and how it ties in the state of Texas. And again, we're not getting into Maverick deep conversation here. But they bought the Mavericks in order to create a entertainment empire. They wanted a new arena for the Mavericks, just their own, not to share with the Stars. And they want to build a casino. I mean, not like a folk casino.

I mean a real casino with real blackjacket and real backerat and real craps and real roulette. How's that going? It's going nowhere. Have you heard any buzz for casinos in Texas? No. So the issue is that they're saying, why do you think all of a sudden it's going to turn on a dime and people are going to change their minds and say, yes, we're going to get casinos in Texas? And oh, by the way, even if they do, how long would it take for a casino to be built? I mean, casinos take multiple years to build.

Yes. You don't even have a Texas casino commission that regulates over things like that. I mean, we're looking, if they passed it all of a sudden tomorrow, you're probably looking at minimum five, maybe 10 years before we ever got it. Yeah, like you say, you need a gambling commission. You need all kinds of stuff. You need everything. Some sort of regulation.

Yeah, they're going to get their taste. Well, yeah. So the people that are trying to inquire, or at least if, kicked the tires to Mark Cuban have said, hey, if they're not getting this anytime soon, let's see if they can sell it back to us so we can solidify the Mavericks membership in Dallas. Because there are some people still to this day, to this hour, believe that the Mavericks ultimately could be moving out of Dallas and going to Las Vegas if they decide to put an NBA team in Las Vegas. I don't think the dots connect.

That seems way out of whack. I don't think they would get out of the Dallas market. I mean, Adam's there would be foolish to leave Dallas for Las Vegas. He just would. I mean, Dallas is just too big of a sports mark. Las Vegas, again, I say it sounds sexier than it is. I still think there's so much. By the way, I was listening to a podcast yesterday, wrestling podcast.

Oh, really? 2024 to 2025. So I don't have the 25 to 26 numbers. Okay. And let's change February. Los Vegas 7% down in overall revenue in Las Vegas, 2024 to 2025. I'm curious where that is even from 10 years ago.

it's fair yeah it's gonna get worse I think get rid of the resort fees well yeah it's lower your hotel fees in general because guess what if you lower your fees we'll go back and we'll spend we'll spend our gambling money there we will

we promise I won't because three to two's not coming back I'm staying downtown we're talking about Vegas in general I know oh you got me team downtown by the way I'm all about it I was talking about that today with my wife I said Ross and I're going to book a trip the next month or so and we're going downtown

We're going to Circa. Okay. Because nobody under the age of 21's there. Beautiful pool. Beautiful pool. Beautiful pool. Oh, the water is delightful. Oh, it's refreshing.

Yes. Good, great sportsbook, huge sports book. Oh, amazing sports book. And a beautiful pool. And three to two blackjack. And three to two. And no hesitation. Everywhere. Everywhere you go.

And they're nice people there. The food, the burger place is good. They got good. food there? Yeah, but lower your food cost 20%. Well, I don't know if that's going. Lower your, get rid of the resort fees because they're killing people there. Here's a $30 smash burger. Oh, thanks, Vegas. We'll eat your fries with it. Although, I'll walk to the Coney Island, I get by two for one. I got with a PBR and a dog for two bucks.

Koso on 790. Kesa, what's the matter with you? Quickly, before I tell someone to shut their bum ass up, as someone who listens to the Ringer podcast, and I actually listen to the one this. morning with Nick Wright and I've always kind of had a soft spot for Nick because back in the Harden days he was one of the true the only true believers in James so I've always kind of liked him his hair drives me crazy but it was clear they were clearly joking he anything that Bill Simmons and and Nick talk about on that podcast was clearly this them joking I know

it got a big a big you know rally I've very everyone on the internet, but it was clearly in fodder, and I just think it's kind of funny how everyone's blowing up on them. And I would say this, I mean, I would think the whites would have a puncher's chance now, wouldn't you say? The whites.

Well, it wouldn't be so lopsided. I don't care if the whites had a six-point advantage. We have got to as society stop trying to characterize people by the color of their skin. I know I've been, I think everybody's been saying that for the last, I don't know, 150 years of our life, but, I mean, Did Luke Dantage count, though?

He's Slovenian. Yeah, they're saying all Europeans would go to the whites. We as whites would get the Europeans. You as a Victor Wimbuniamas French. He's in there? He would go to the blacks. His mom's white. Come on, really.

He goes to a black. All right. You know what? I'm turning my microphone off for the rest of this. See, how some preposterous is his case? I'm out of here. To even bring it up is preposterous. I'm sorry.

No, all right. Let me just let me get my shut your bum ass off. All right. I'll get off. Go ahead. I just want to send one to an old rival to the Rockets to the whole organization for having an actual decent roster and sitting every starter, every fourth quarter, not taking one time out, not doing anything so they can continue to tank. To them, I talk to the Utah Jazz. Shut your bum ass up.

You got a great roster. Not a great roster. great coach in an okay roster. And you know what I got time for your tanking, ruining the NBA. I'm over it. Shut your bum ass up. Thanks, guys. Shut your bum ass up, man.

Mr. JLF. Matt, I understand why you say Jalen Williams 6, but it's annoying. Is that what the Oklahoma City radio announcer says? Hashtag ain't anybody got time for that. Hmm. I'm sorry. J.R. Jalen Williams is a Oklahoma City Thunder.

There are two of them. He calls $80. two of their games. I call four of them, sometimes three. What does he say? He says, I shouldn't say J. Lynn William 6. No, no, I don't say. What is the, what is the, what is the, Jay Will and Jay, I mean, I don't know, I don't even know what he says. It doesn't matter. I do it the way I want to do it because it's easier for me to identify. And there's a difference. So you don't have time for it. Then shut your bum ass up, but don't listen. God, I'm sorry. I love the critics I want to come in and tell me how to do my job.

Shut your bum ass up, man. Oh, that pisses me off. I see that. Clearly it does. Yeah, I don't. I don't know how does anybody else do it. They do Jay Will or Jay Will. They do one of them says, one guy says Jay Wool from Santa Clara. One guy says Jay Will from the other college is from.

That's too hard to you. Yeah. I don't know. There's no easy way to do it. Don't listen. You don't like it. Don't listen. Did I mean or hurt you? It's ridiculous.

I got a hard enough job as it is trying to worry about five. 500 players in a league. And if I have to go Jay Williams 6, Jay Williams 8, because there are two literally Jay Lynn Williams on this floor,

shut your bum ass up. Identifying them by the number seems way better than by the college. Yes. And if I said them by their nicknames, you wouldn't know who is much because you don't know

who Oklahoma City is. They don't know what their nicknames are. J. Y, J. Will? Is that easier? Stop. You should do Joe Williams good and J. Williams

bad. I could say Jay Williams Big Ford, Jay Williams off guard. I mean, I could say that. Jay Williams Mid and Jay Williams Good. Well, but if what a Jay Williams 6 has a good game from 3.0. That's true. Jay Williams had a three point.

Jay Williams Mid is playing like Jay Williams Good tonight. At the Toyota Center. Now you're just pissing me off more. Okay. Anybody got time for you telling me how to do my job. I feel like the way you do it seems it seems pretty logical.

Look, I understand if there's some things you don't like. Some guy, too, Two weeks ago, he doesn't like when we play, I'm sorry by what's her name, Connie Francis. Why not? Oh, no, it's Brindalee. Brendelie, whatever. Same difference. Why not? It's a jam. It reminds me a Tommy boy.

It's annoying. It reminds me a Tommy boy when they're at the diner. I'm going to make sure, just to piss off Mr. J.R.L.F., whatever his name is. I'm going to do a hundred times Jalen Williams, I'm just going to just confuse the hell out of you. And by the way, there's a Kendridge Williams on the squad, too. Well, at least Jalen Green's not there. Oh, my God. I'm going to get some eggs out. The news at noon is next.

All right, relax. Through nine innings, Astros three, Guardians three. Here we go, 12-04, Sports Talk 790, is the news of the day, right? Would you say? Josh Hater, soft tossing, and then speaking. Yes. This is where Ross jumps in with the news. Okay.

At noon. Yes, Matthew, the top news at noon. is that it is a biceps issue for Josh Hader. He said it is fourth bullpen of the off season. He felt some tightness while throwing a change up. And he took about 10 days off. And he threw some catch today. And he's feeling better.

And maybe everything's going to be okay, Matt. All right. May 1st, if he's back, can't wait. Other than that, I'm not holding my breath. I mean, whatever will be will be. You got eight weeks. As our good friend Joe Spottis said, So he does that Bobby Brian a Brian Brayu is a great insurance policy.

Yes. Bobby, we'd be nice as well, but it only is going to be Brian. Well, let's go ahead and hear from Joe Espada earlier today on what's going on with Josh Hater. Josh had a really good offseason. Had three really, really good bullpins and leading into his fourth one during his throwing program. He stopped his throwing because all. arm's soreness. We immediately went and got some imaging and there is some inflammation on his bicep tendon. So he has not been throwing for, I want to say 10, 11 days, and he will

start getting back on his throwing program again today. And he did throw. Yes. And we'll hear more for Josh. He had a catch. Yes. He didn't say Owie at any point, which is a very good sign. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was an actual baseball. He wasn't using like a wiffle ball. That pilot put more strain on his shoulder. You're right. So we're all good.

And let's see. Also elsewhere in the news, Yiner Diaz, what's going on with his foot? Here's Dana Brown. Diaz, you know, he hurt his foot on the slide. So I saw him yesterday take good BP, driving a ball over the fence. He looks totally normal.

he's like a modified running program right now, but everything else in terms of swinging the back and throwing, he's fine. So I would expect that he's going to be fine. Dana Brown said it's going to be fine. Dana Brown speaks the gospel. Dana Brown has never steered us wrong with an injury, Matt. Let me ask you this.

Doesn't every general manager do that? Doesn't every coach do that? Doesn't every front office official in every sport do that? Look, we are closer to it because we heard it on the daily length. year. But tell me a team that comes out and says, man, ooh! Now, the last person I can think of of that was as open and honest right after something had happened was when Bo Nix hurt himself in the AFC, a divisional playoff game. Remember that right after the game? He's in front of the podium. He said, yeah, Bo Nix is going to have foot surgery tomorrow and he's done, our ankle

surgery, whatever it is, and we're going to be starting Jared Sinan, please pray for us. Yes. So, yeah, it is going to be fine. eventually. No, now. He's good to go. He's not going to run. He's catching bullpins. He's a modified running program, whatever that means.

So, quick question. If it was me versus Janar Diaz and a sprint. You don't even know what I was going to say. I was going to say running to first base. You think Janar Diaz with a hurt ankle is better off than I am? I think he could do it backwards and beat you.

I don't believe that. Now, 25 years ago. You know what? Let's try to get this going. Actually, let me text some people. No, don't you text anybody. Yeah. So you're saying he will beat you backwards. Even with a bad ankle.

Yes. No chance. Are you serious? I'm not a prodder. I can get you. Okay, you know what? Let's go out to a field and get your feet per second sprinting. Because we can find a...

How about I just run 90 feet? How about you want to do it per second? Just go 90 feet and see how it goes. Okay. Let's do it. But the problem is we can't do it because he won't run. Yeah. I got to go by...

Hold on. Let me go to Amazon. I'm trying to buy a sundial real quick. You know the way I am is because of you More often than not What do you mean? You just called me a sundial Well, I mean, when you're up in the clouds

I've got to pull you down to earth, Matt. God, somebody's got to do it. Oh, I got J.R.F. telling me I can't pronounce Jalen Williams 6, J.L. Williams 8. He finds it annoying. I find some other things annoying. All right, what else you got? Oh, for the news at noon, Matt.

Victor Wimbanyama. You're bearing the Rockets over Victor? Okay. I mean, you know, the Rockets won. Yeah, we got that. It's just headlines. 102 to 95. Kauai Linder with 24 points on 19 shots.

He was double team much of the evening. Kevin Durant was good. 26 points on 22 shots. Jpari Smith Jr., good enough. Didn't he make the first two threes of the game and then he didn't make another one the whole rest of the game? Not much if he male offensively after that. That's okay. I mean, 13 points is fine.

13 points from Jabari. You don't need much more than that. Certainly not when the defense is holding the clippers to just 95 points. It was a slower, knockdown, drag them out game. Rockets won by 7. They shot 50% from the three point line. Which is very nice because they were 40 for much of the year and they've down to 37% going into this game tonight. Really a 40% three point shooting team. But Drew Sheper was four of six, a nice bounce back. The numbers are the numbers.

You like to tell me. The numbers say don't lie. They are, but the numbers don't lie, but the numbers can also be out of whack. And the numbers, there's always context in the numbers, Matt. I'd like to hear this context. Well, when everybody's shooting well above their career averages, probably the numbers are going to dip. Regression to the mean, they call it, Matthew. Okay, well, last night, a 37% three-point shooting team shot 50.

And I want more of that tonight. Okay. So by your numbers, then they're going to shoot 50% every night. No, I'm saying I'm hoping they shoot 50% every night. Well, some regression came and now it bounced back the other way, so we're all good. Sort of like, unfortunately, Alperin Shingoon's free throw percentage. We don't have to talk about that. I won't then.

Kevin Durant was 7 to 7. All right. Then Victor Wimbunyama, Adam Clanton's favorite son with 25 points. Oh, did you tweet? Did you text? Oh, no, I forgot. No. Did you see, here's what you're going to, to Adam Clinton, include me on us.

Did you see what Wemby did last night? Because those who don't know, Adam hates Wembe. Now, he would love him if he was a Houston Rocket, but he's not and he hates him. The immediate response will be. Did you see who the Lakers put out there yesterday? He will say something to the context of, well, I would have scored 40 if I had

Dalton Connect guarding me. If I had, who was their leading score last night? Luke Conard. Yeah, sorry, I'm sending my tweet. I mean, text. Text, yeah. Oh, I hit the wrong button.

Jesus. Don't send that text of that girl person. That can cause some issues. That's fine. All right. All right. I miss her. That's the news at noon.

Are we good with that? Yes. Okay, very good. All right. It's 1212 here on sports. It was 25 points in the first quarter, 40 points on 20 shots in 26 minutes. And 12 rebounds. Four turnovers.

He's got high turnover numbers. As does anybody seven feet tall, typically. Only one block. J.J. Redick, after the game, calling him one of one and one of the best five players in the league. I'm not ready to do that. Matter of fact, I will never call a spur a top five player in the league unless I just was like held under gunpoint or something. Then you're just being a hater. I'm with you, but I'm not going to say just because he's a spur. No, but I'm not going to root for him. You know, that's what I'll send to Clinton, the JJ

Reddit quote. Oh, God, now you're just going to pour salt on his wounds. You know, you're, know what you're doing? You're just poking the big bear. Well, he's the one that called him a bum. Yeah. All right. 1212 on Sports Talk 790. If you'd like to join our conversation, God knows we need it. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9-0. So let me ask you this. I brought this up very early in the show today for you 10 o'clock as we love you for that. I am not optimistic about Josh Hater because if I've been optimistic in the past, it always burns me. No, be optimistic, Matt. Nope. He's going to be ready to go at some point. You tell me, when you hear Josh Hader is throwing

a whiff a ball I don't know wiff balls I get tennis he can throw a tennis ball hard I guess if he wanted to when I say that he that spring training

is in flux not spring training the regular season is in flux how nervous are you 713 212 5790 719 719 1219 on sports talk

790 Astros spring training pitchers and catchers reporting today officially. There are some position players there as well. Dana brought up, Yarner Diaz, was hitting the ball hard. Now, Yarner, to me, footspray doesn't sound nearly severe because, again, if it was severe, he wouldn't be strung in the bat. They would have said, go rest and relax and laying in bed. He wouldn't be catching bullpins stuff. It's all good.

Right. So that, to me, is not to worry. The hater stuff worries me. But thankfully, you've got an insurance policy. He threw today. Did anybody put a gun on that? No. Could you imagine going over and watching a soft toss with a gun?

11. 10. It'd be interesting. 14. We get the spin rate on it? Well, what's the RPM's on that bad boy? Do you even have a spin rate on that? As long as it's not knuckling, it's got to have some spin.

So who thought of spin rate? Because spin rate's been around as long as baseball's been around. I mean, yeah, I mean, you still twist it around and throw it. In our day, you called it snap. A snap on the curveball. It's snapping. It's because it's spinning. And that's, I mean...

Or saliva. Yeah. I can't remember. What is it called the way that the ball moves? I can't remember. Slurve. No, there's an effect on the wind. It's a curve ball.

Are we getting in the weeds on this? Did I mean to do this to you? I'm just trying to think of it. Now it's... You know, you can't come up. The Magnus effect. Wow. The aerodynamic force acting on a spinning moving object that causes it to curve.

I mean, you talk about it in tennis. You want a lot of top. spin, top spin lobs, that kind of stuff. Put spin on the ball. You do what they do in ping pong. I mean, try to get a good spin on the ball. Wiffle ball. What about putting English on a basketball shot?

English on a basketball. It's a little different because it's bouncing off of the backboard, but Chris Paul put some great English on the ball. Backspin on a golf shot. Oh, see? Spin rates everywhere, man. Yeah, it is everywhere. What happens when I hook the ball into the woods? It's got a high spin rate.

It means I'm usually snapping my club in half and swearing. Yeah, exactly. I've tried to cut my swearing down in 2026. It's not going well. Really? Yeah. I haven't noticed an uptick or a downturn, I suppose. That's what I'm saying.

It was supposed to go down. Okay. It hasn't happened. That was a swear jar. At the Thomas household, I'm the least, I am the least one that contributes to it. Really? Yeah. Okay.

The boys are number one. and number two. Actually, that's not true. Kim's one, boys, two, three, and then Carly's fourth, but she's not far behind. It is so amazing. You don't have children,

so you can't speak to this. Thank God. But hearing your children swear, it hurts me. Really? Yes. Really? And I don't really like

that you really swear in front of them very often. I don't swear in front of my mother at all. I didn't. I can't say that I don't. I didn't for years. But around you? First, certainly around my dad.

And my bros, I do it all the time. I did around my dad. I come around 18, 19, probably. And then my mom took a little longer. And it's rare. I try not to around my mom. And there's really no reason for it. Because, again, I would say on a scandal 1 to 10, my potty mouth is about a 7.

It's stupid made up. It's just sounds coming out of our mouths. I think it's dumb that we can't say certain words to certain people. Or how about maybe just changing it? Do we have to swear every time? Every language, every culture has swear words. Right. Obviously, I mean, it's everywhere.

But I think it's dumb. But just hearing my, my baby girl. I can say truck on the air. I can say muck on the air. I can say tuck on the air. Yes, you can't. Nope. You cannot.

That's what FCC has said yes. Why? Stupid. Well, there are the magic words. And George Carlin had one of them. What the heck? Yeah. Like in Utah, you can say, oh, my hell.

They always say, oh, my heck. the Mormons did not want to you swear in any circumstance. On air? Anywhere. Okay. That was always kind of a running catchphrases. They were really mad about something. They go, oh my heck.

Six wives, cool? Hell, no. Now stop. That's 200 years ago. Okay, I'm sorry. Nick on 790 or 1223. I'm going to start calling you Mr. Stereotype. Hello, Nick.

Hey, good morning, man. How's it going, sir? Good. How are you? What's going on with you? Oh man, dude, you just want to get your take on Donovan Smith. What was your thoughts of him in his Q of H year? Donovan Smith?

Yeah, Donovan Smith, quarterback. You mean the one that was here two years ago that didn't get the Cougarsville bowl game? Is that what you're talking about? That's who I'm talking about, exactly, that one. I would say he was mid at best. Yeah, you know, he's supposed to be a number one pick at one time. Number one in what? He transferred it out of Texas Tech.

No, I don't know when he, nobody ever considered a number one. I mean, he might have been a highly recruited high school player, but never as a collegiate. There was some talks about it at one time. There was some talks about it at one time. All right. Just stop for a second. Is he signed with a gamblers? Is that the reason why you asked?

That's the reason it has to be. Do you sign with the gamblers? It is. Oh, it's gamblers talk. I see what you did. I see what you did, Nick. You're very crafty, my friend. You did it, and you got me.

Thank you, Nick. You got us. Yeah, it's not going to happen. I'm not going to do it. Thank you for the phone. Because nobody cares. I mean, I guess the insipole. I'm telling you.

I'm going to tell you something right now. I'm going to take a photo. I'm going to take a photo. to me, Nick, Nick, I'm going to take a photo of the crowd opening week, and I'm going to send it to you, and you're going to be like, damn, when's the game start? I'm going to say it's in the second quarter. Hey, man, all I'm going to say is I think this is a year it takes off. 100%.

I mean, that's the best thing we have in Houston. That's not true. The Texans won in the divisional playoff. Now you're just trying to go with me. Thank you, Nick, for the phone call. Donovan Smith, Houston Gambler? I don't know. Does Diamond Smith even know what team he's playing for?

I'm not getting... Did somebody call and suggest that Donovan Smith be drafted by the gamblers? Is that what he's trying to say? Hunter Decker's. Who? It was taken in the UFL draft. I don't see this anyway. I mean, they're spending money to play at Shell Energy Stadium.

They spent money to play at TDCU. Nobody went there. Nobody's going to go to Shell Energy. Nobody's going to go anywhere. No, no, no. It's a non-starter. Let's get you on the games. No, I'm busy enough as it is.

I want an audience. I mean, as soon as I get one, I'll let you know when I get one. But as soon as I get an audience, I cannot wait. Although I was on Serious Channel 86, the main channel last night for the Rockets. On an interview? No, on the game call. Oh, really? Yeah.

Was anybody in Los Angeles listening? You want to call in and complain? Anybody get called to Jumoke? It does happen That was Clinton, not me Okay That is so funny Yeah, you can

So you guys are like the feature Everyone there was only four games last night Spurs, Lakers wasn't the featured game Or they came after us, yeah There are about seven or eight different NBA channels Okay But they put the main game on this What they call the Sirius XM radio channel

So you're on the main game I was the main game And they usually Match it up with what's on television whether it's a, you know, like last night's game was on NBA TV. It wasn't, oh. They took Craig and Ryan sims, and they simulcast into the NBA TV channel. I don't do serious XM, but that sounds great.

Yeah. So I love Craig and Ryan and Vanessa, and they had Fred Van Vlead on there. And you like that? You said you enjoyed that? Yeah, Fred was pretty funny. Fred's got a broadcast career ahead of him if he wants it. He's got a good voice. I tell him to slow his roll down.

He'd be doing this podcast baloning. Yeah. He said, don't worry. As soon as I get back on the corner, I'm out. He's bored. He is bored. He also swears on his. That's the number one thing about these podcasts.

These guys can swear left and right. We can't do it. It's just against the rules. Not that it wouldn't accentuate our show one way, but... I'm going to swear on my podcast. What's your podcast to be called? Guttermouth, Villarreal? That's one of the working titles.

Is that really? Yeah. I didn't think of that. It seems a little wordy for a hashtag. Hey, I'm Ross the gutter mouth. Stay with me. Yeah. Sounds good.

I mean to talk about ice dancing. It's a guy that's a ice. dancer he goes to college at George Mason. Really? Yeah. I think he's 21 years old, free flowing locks. He is the heavy, heavy favorite to finish the golden in whatever that category

is. I don't think it's... Free skate? I don't know if it's ice dancing. Yeah. Ice dancing? Yeah. Or is it ice skating? It sounds like all the above. It's different. Can you do both? Can you excel at both? Why couldn't you? I don't know. Seems like you should. Could you be

a good skeleton and a good bob slubber? It feels like it might be a little too different. I don't know. Yeah. All right. That'll conclude a Winter Olympics and a gambler talk for the day. 713-212-5-7-dadi. Well, I mean, look, if they draw $25,000 a game, I'm all for it.

Yeah. But they're not. Because people aren't going to pay for, I mean, truth be told, minor league football. It kind of makes me sad that we can't. but they're every literally ross every league that has ever been created has failed xfl or whatever ufl can't be turning a profit yeah how long have they been going uh well the rock bought into it a couple of years ago that was xfell they merged 24 remember they merged the usFL they merged in 2024 so this is their third season but yeah

it's doesn't feel like it's going to last much longer every time i watch it i see how many teams can your name. Right now, Houston Gamblers. I would have changed names. I would own to zero. I can recognize these, but to name them and pull them out of the air is a little different. Believe it or not today, was this, listen to me, this is a good one.

Was this ever a team name of a minor league football franchise? Okay. USFL, the World League of American Football, the XFL, the old school of XFL? Defunct football teams. Defunct, yeah. Was this ever a defunct football team. Like the Memphis steamboats? No, that's not. That's a not. What? They were the Memphis

showboats. Oh, showboats, sorry. Things are close. No, steamboats would have been wrong. Okay, good. Best uniforms ever? The Chicago Blitz. They were wrecked and silver. Best uniforms ever? I love the USFL. In sports history? They were my favorite in the USFL. The Chicago Blitz? The Chicago Blitz. The Chicago Blitz. The quarterback was Vince Evans, who was a backup quarterback for the Bears for a long three times. These are pretty sharp, actually. Thank you. You know who the coach of the Chicago Blitz was?

Yeah, it was Dom Deloese. So a Rotten comedian ran a football team really? That's what you went with? Dom Delo? I like this. It struck you so funny. You're the dumbest person alive. You really are.

And he really are. You're dumb. I don't care what education you have. He was dumb. The dummy or the dummy that's laughing at the dumb. Debbie. Dom DeLewis with the headson on.

No one of the league went under. More on the Astros. We can come back. Yes. Going back to sports. Dom Deloise, 1231 on Sports Talk 790. The answer to my question before you went to Dom Deloise

was Hall of Fame coach George Allen. You put me in a laughing fit. I couldn't stop. Nobody else find it funny. I know. That's what makes me... That's why...

No, that's why I laugh. Because it's so stupid. Because people criticize the show for not being serious enough. And you didn't help. I have a lot to do with that. I understand. Yeah. Wish those guys just talk sports.

Oh, man. We got to hang out and we got to have fun. Sorry. We have not gone in any Texans off-season conversation yet. You want straight boring sports talk. You can find that elsewhere. You can find plenty of places in this town. Jesus, you could.

And YouTube channels too, but that's a different issue for a different time. All right. Oh, my God. Johnny Weir's hair. My God. Whoa. My God. He's gone full, what was her name?

Winona's rider's name and Beetlejuice. Yeah, that's exactly what the character is. Did Johnny Weir wake up in the morning and go, this looks good? He went full Lydia Dietz. I never saw the second Beetle juice. You ever see it? It was okay. It wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good.

I don't regret seeing it. This is like a six out of ten. I'm a big Michael Keaton fan. I actually liked him in Batman. For nostalgia's sake, it was good. Yeah. And yeah, Michael Keaton was great. Catherine O'Hara, may she rest.

Looked old in the movie. But, I mean, credit to her, she's not like one of those people. They got a billion, you know, a bunch of work done. Yeah, good for her. All right. So we got, let's see. Oh, Cougar basketball, I said, took care of Utah. That was good.

Yeah? How are the Utes? Are they any good? They're dead last place in the Big 12. Oh, remember I told you yesterday? Real quick about the big announcement that was going to be revolutionized the Big 12 tournament. I completely missed the bone on that one.

Oh, what was it? They're going to be playing it on a glass floor. What? Yeah. They're going to be. Kind of like it's going to have graphics on it and stuff? Correct. And advertisers. Oh, for sure.

But Brent and Yormark told all those little Big 12 radio cronies, hey guys, I want you to really pump this up. It's going to be really awesome. People are going to love it. And yeah, the score, the board, the surface itself will change colors, and I'm sure we'll have exploding fireworks. And as you mentioned, sponsor plugs. But that's not going to drive people to Kansas City to go watch the tournament. No.

Kansas being in the phone. Atlanta will. Yeah. I mean, the Big 12 has made a concert effort to say, hey, we've got to figure every which way we'd lose to get either Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, in the Big 12 tournament. Houston versus anybody in Texas, no thank you. Houston versus Arizona, no thank you. Because if I'm a Houston fan and I'm saving my money, I'm skipping all that. I don't want to go the conference tournament. Back in the day, it used to move. I remember one year Texas was in there, it was in Dallas. It was when I was on campus because I remember a bunch of us, they were kind of regulars in the student section we're talking about going and

a group trip and stuff like that. Honestly, I know why they go to Kansas City because that's where the powerhouse of the league is. In theory, it was. And it also draws a lot of people where honestly you put a college basketball tournament in Houston or Dallas. No, they're smart. I get it.

And unfortunately gives them a built-in home court advantage. To her extent. The Cougars, they won the whole damn thing there. So, yeah, but historically, Kansas, well, also because they've been good. But it was also sad watching Houston play for the Big 12 championship last year. And there wasn't anybody in the house. Yeah, we're the huge, U of H fans. Let's go.

We were saving our money. Big powerhouse. And we saved it to got San Antonio. Now, we did well. We went to Wichita and Drew and did well there. I don't remember where they played their South Regional or Midwest. I don't know what they were in, but I know this year that the South Regional, if they get to the second day, the second weekend of the tournament,

will be in Houston at Toyota Center. So that'll help. Now, the championship games have been in Indianapolis, and hotels are not cheap there at this point. Are you looking? I don't know what I'm going to do. I booked all airfare. I'm not booking the hotel because here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to book the hotel if they play for the championship game. I'm going to book it the night before because people will be leaving. Ah, you're smart. And then I'll scoop in and buy a room at the very last second. That's some savvy veteran. You're welcome. travel tips from Matt Thomas. Yeah.

I think it's for any sports fan. Yeah. Don't they always say when you go to a tournament and your team loses, you should just wait outside the arena and people are walking out and going, I'm out of here. I'm going to try to sell my tickets for 40 cents in the dollar. It makes a lot of sense to me. Yeah.

That's very smart. I'll take you this. I have been to a handful of regionals over my life. It's fun because you do, it's interesting to get eight fan bases, or in my case, I went to a sweet 16. four fan bases that all go to this building think they're going to win the whole thing. It's a lot of fun. And you mix it up with other fans and whatnot.

Hopefully you get to all experience that sometime. If you are a connoisseur of college basketball, especially for a school that you think that you went to or roof. I'm not holding my breath. I'll go with you on a big Texas tournament run. Not this year. Recruiting class was supposed to be good. Sean Miller's a good coach.

It needs time. Yeah. I've been waiting for 23 years now. You got the facilities. Yes. You got the money. Yes. Good coach. You have the conference. Good enough coach to win with if you get players. Right. So let me ask you this. Are we going to see something in college basketball that we've seen in football where Indiana out of nowhere becomes this national power?

What would be the comp on that? Alabama's kind of... They've been good for a half dozen years now. I'm not going to say come out of nowhere, but Texas Tech has always been flirting around top 25. Yeah, that wouldn't be the competition. I'm trying to think of a football school that has been miserable in basketball. Penn State would be the call.

That'd be my call. Penn State football has been really good. Penn State basketball has been atrocious. Oh, okay. Vandy's pretty good. Oh, how about BYUU? BYU goes a tournament a lot. But I mean, back in the day, I mean, now they're, well, now they're 20-second.

But they're spending a bunch of money. Yeah, BYU went and destroyed the BATR, What's that young man's name, AJ DeBanza? Yeah. Top five pick. No caffeine. No sex. No, you can't.

Wink, wink. It's a break of an honor code. And if you break the honor code, you're supposed to go tell somebody you broke it. You got a snitch on yourself to get yourself kicked out of school? Well, let me ask you this. How are they supposed to find out then? I don't know. I ain't bad check?

I hope not. Let's get weird over there. Yeah. It's 2026. It's religion Okay Some have a little more Well I mean I would think

Presume most religious How about Butler Coming on it We're talking about Coming to nowhere in college Basketball Yeah But who would do it in the NIL era

I guess Yeah I don't think A Butler would have Brett Stevens Like one of the greatest coaches Of all time He made Butler relevant They were nothing

When they left Turn the Celtics around Turn the Celtics around Won a championship Now is Well he's still their GM Correct Yeah

I mean he's a Clearly it's a very best It's very astute basketball mind That's for sure sure. All right, 1243 on Sports Talk 790. Coming up in the next hour and change, we do need to let you hear what Josh Hader had to say about his situation is he did throw off flat ground today. And we'll let you guys decide whether or not, I mean, I think, I would think most people that are astute astro fans are not overly thrilled with this announcement. But remember, we do have a backup plan What the Astros do with Brian O'Brien Abraeux.

The rocket's got a nice... I don't think anybody's like worried about amputation. I mean, fine is one thing, but getting it back on the field is another thing. Because if he's soft tossing the day in a flight ground, when do you start kicking that velo up? Getting on the bump. He said it was in the audio we played from Brian McTaggart in the locker room. He was throwing around 85 and then that's when he got hurt.

So he was ramping up. I'm presuming he would eventually gotten to the 90s where he normally is, right? I think you're May 1st. Let's stick with that. It'll be fine. You'll blow everyone out. You're not going to need a closer the whole first month. First of all, we don't even count the first month of seasons anyway, right?

The offense is going to be unstoppable. Oh, I like how you think. Yeah, fresh Altovae. Yordons in the lineup. Esok, the pinch hit wizard. You're going to have an incredible DH the whole time? Yes. Let's get back to that in a minute.

The ESAC stuff when we come back. 1244, Matt and Ross. 713-212-5-790. Believe it or not today is whether or not this was a former extinct, defunct, if you will. I guess it's defunct and extinct. That's two different things, right? Instinct is probably, extinct is probably an animal or plant. Defunct NFL football franchise.

713-212-5-790. 1250 on Sports Talk 790. This is a Matt Thomas show with Ross. friend of the show, Chris, has sent us a awesome photo. Now, is this AI, or do he really find this somewhere? I'm going to assume this is AI. This is Dom Deloese wearing an NFL headset. That's got to be AI, of course.

Chris. For as many debags to listen to this show that want to correct me with everything they are nice. 99% of people are nice, or don't say anything. Which is nice. Yeah, because I don't, 99% of the show. I don't correct you. Well, you, I do correct. I was going to say, wait, what?

I got confused. We got a little 1% on the Twitter world that just wants to just zig, get in there and zigzagging it. That's okay. And guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to be even rude or back to you. We'll see how you like it. Mute button is your friend. Mute this conversation I'm finding very valuable.

When I say the Rockets aren't scared of Victor Wimbunyama and then Tari's and mom retweets it and then Wimby goes off in the second half. I'm like, got to mute this conversation. I don't want to hear it. She's so salty on Twitter. Oh, my God. She's quite a swear machine herself.

Sometimes when her son's not playing well, she'll crush him. She's equal opportunity for sure. All right, we've got to tell you about something here. Okay. It has been, among people that like the response, we talk about the Astros, this rather large debate about can the Astros live with too many good people in the infield?

I'm not backing down for my stance. It's not the best interest for the Astros. to have somebody sitting every day. I know it's 162. Let me give you all the prefaces. I know it's not valuable to have 162. I mean, you have to play 162. I know guys need days off.

I know all these things. You don't have to come and tell me this in advance. I've watched baseball a lot of my life. I know that guys get in slumps. I know sometimes pitcher batter matchups can make a difference. But if there is a part of your team, team that is significantly in, with a tremendous amount of uncertainty, I consider that the outfield.

I think the Astros outfield is a huge level of concern and maybe something that is not being talked about enough. That if you can strengthen one part of your team by giving up something that you have too much of, that's good business sense. That would be the perfect world as you would trade probably Christian Walker. for a viable outfielder and then you would kill the two birds with one stone. Problem is Walker has less value. Isaac Paredes does have more value.

So that's why his name has been mentioned more in trades. And in theory, giving guys days off of Correa's older back issues. Jose Altova is going to be 36 by the start of this season. Christian Walker's 34. You can kind of rotate. But baseball is also a game where everybody that I just mentioned wants to be out there as much as possible. and you need guys to go in rhythm and baseball is a sport

where people can slump for weeks or even a month plus and still be very good players and they need to work out of it. So you've got to keep guys in a rhythm. Yeah. I think the two of us is giving you a bunch of points. You just don't have that. In 2026, when every spot on a roster is valuable, look, I can't wait to find out what Zach Cole does in April.

I know what Jake Myers is for six months. Baller. I'm not saying he's bad. Gold glove finalist. But there's no slat. There's no power. It's all slap. 10 home runs.

And the olden days when a guy hit 15, you'd say he'd had some pop. And the record went on the olden days. All right. The fan club is just the fan club. Jake Myers fan club of me and is talking. And Cam Smith should be given every opportunity to do exactly what he did last March and that was crush it. But he regressed. He was not the same player because the competition was different in Florida than it was during the course of the season when the games really counted.

He had OPS under 500 in the second half. That's not acceptable. I mean, the great right field is great. If you're not worried about the outfield, then you have your blinders on this. You need your corner guys especially to hit. Yes. And I'm not trusting Zach Cole September. And I wouldn't trust Zach Cole March, but he's been given the opportunity.

Now, you can say, well, you're not going to be out there. Doesn't sound like it would be very much. Yeah. Your backup plan is that no trade is made and then you have to figure out the logjam and then you have some options as far as outfield guys. The backup plan isn't terrible. You would just like it to get improved with a possible trade of getting rid of the log jam and helping the outfield. If you had, well, I don't even know. First of all, you wouldn't have USAC parties if you kept Kyle Tucker. So that's not even a conversation. but if you had somebody, like if you had Cam Smith 275 with an OPS of about 775, you'd feel better about it?

I think we looked at his baseball reference projection. I think they had him at 770. Or am I thinking of Zach Cole? I'd have to look that up. But you have a very youthful corner. You have a corner outfield spots of not much experience and what little experience one of them had was didn't come up to advertise

as advertised living spring training guys outperform their projections all the time especially young guys so while again I appreciate the you can't trade Issoc Paredes truthers I understand where you're coming from you don't have strengths in a lot of categories and honestly

does this if in fact Diaz is going to worry about this ankle all year long do you want to improve your backup catcher spot you would ideally but Cesar Salazar is out of options and you want to keep him

so you can't yo-yo him up and down from Sugar Land like you have been. I just don't think it's not irresponsible to continue to say that the best thing for the Astros is to trade Yusac Perides. Because here's the thing, you can trade Christian Walker.

Love it. But the other team wants money back. Money. And guess what you're going to do? Prospects. No, no, no. You're going to want prospects because you're the one paying the salary. You're dumping him. You're paying for prospects. We better pay some big cash then.

And maybe Jim Cran's like, I can't do that. Yeah. Because that would once again be another loss on their quote unquote free agent acquisitions the last handful of years. And you're also assuming the hamstring is a healthy for a Paredes and that it can feel first base. Well, he's got to put him somewhere. You do have to put him somewhere.

That's right. You can't. It's easier than trust him at first more than what it's second. It's the, yeah. Well, we had Tony Perez Chica on in Fan Fest. He said second base is the easiest. Just in terms of learning. Right, right, right.

He did make me feel better about him going to second base. And I will say this again. You're going to get mad at me. Don't say it. Can't be worse than Altovae. I'm sorry. Love you. Build the statue. First ballot hall of famer.

Well, hopefully if the writers aren't bitter, he's a first ballot hall of famer. Okay. I'm not saying a bad word about it. out of him. I'm sorry. Okay. I'll be, I'll be realistic. He's not a butcher out there. And I think that those that want to make fun of his second base work, I've seen butchers in left. Okay. Second base. He was like a bottom 10 second baseman in baseball last year. And he's number one in my heart. I know. Final hour of the Matt Thomas showed Ross coming up in a matter of moment.

713-212-5-790. We take this program until 2 o'clock. If you missed our conversation with Emada Doca, we'll have it. for you coming up in about 30 minutes. Believe it or not today, is this defunct football team that it ever exist? That's UFL, XFL, U.SFL, World Football League, World League of American Football. Hell, CFL will take it all. 12.58 on 790. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. All right, Ross and I have argued we got phone calls to get to here at 713212-5-790.

We always enjoy good conversation with you, folks. Then we no more gambler talk on the show ever. Unless they win the whole thing. It would be a nice Houston sports championship. Yes, a big parade. A hot shot to win back in the day? No. Oh, no, no.

All right. So you and I have an interesting observation and a small bet about the number of games Jordan Alvarez is going to play for the rest of his career. Yes, you have him under 130. Which I hope. Which I'm really hopeful. entire life. I'm hopeful that's, that's inaccurate.

I hope he gets there this year. Oh, man. If he plays over 130, guess what he's going to do? Going to mash. Well, it's a reason he's never hit 40 home runs in his career. Well, the reason why I bring this up is because the folks on the gambling websites have said, hey, would you like to predict who's going to hit the most home runs in 2020? Oh, okay.

Aaron Judge won. Three and a half to one. You got to lay 7 to 2. So it's plus $350. Okay. So you got to lay $350. No, you lay $100 to win $350. What?

What? Everything is fresh. For Aaron Judge? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Can I, uh, what, give me that website again, please? You go to any casino in Louisiana.

Okay. I'm sure you could. That seems like he should be even money. Let me give you the top five. Aaron Judge is three and a half to one. Shohei Otani is 4 to 1. Oh, to leave the entire majors. Yeah, and home runs.

Okay. I don't know. I was thinking American League. Nope. That makes a little more sense. Yeah, Shoheyotani is 4 to 1. Kyle Schwerber is 8 to 1. I got you.

All right. Cal Raleigh, 9 to 1 and Nick Kurtz is 10 to 1. I would like to short Carl Rale like bet against, bet the other side. Oh, that's easy. Right? He can't do this twice in a row. He can't do this twice in a row. So this puts you in perspective of where baseball sees Yorda.

Yes. You have to go all the way down to about 10th or 11th in a list. Yoron Albrez is 30. to 1. Okay. To leave the major league in home runs. Well, he's never hit 40. Yeah, not only has he never hit 50, he's never hit 40.

So he needs to get there. And part of the reason is because he isn't always out there. The most he's hit is 97, excuse me, 37. Well, I'm going to tell you, maybe Joe wants me to lose this bet with you because I think the easiest way for him to stay above the 130 line is by de-aging as much as possible. Although his injuries, frankly, Ross,

had not come with him on the base pass. It's happened. Yeah, normally he, wipe down home plate, please. After first innings. Didn't he also slide awkwardly in the second base one time? He kind of lumbers. He's a big dude.

He can mash. He can mash. He can hit upper deckers off of Robbie Ray and give you the most electric moments of your life. And then he can also be out with knee injury and creaky knees. And oblique injuries and whatever else. I honestly tell you today at 105, I pray that I lose the bet. You're going to lose.

Eventually. The bet ends at 2036, by the way. Is that what we said? We put a 15 years in years on that thing? I don't remember what did we bet. I don't remember dinner or something. There's something small. I got to pay off of my coffee.

Did I already pay my coffee off? No. Oh, you got me some. but you didn't get me a pastry, though. Oh, I owe you a pastry. No, we're supposed to go to a nice place. It's right. Not Starbucks.

I'll say it. Not Starbucks. We're supposed to go at a nice, good coffee place. Can you bring our computers and work while we're there? Absolutely. We don't have to have a conversation. Excuse me, there's a Wi-Fi password? This is a barista here that more than anything in the world?

How about what's your code for the bathroom? Oh, that happens too. Wi-Fi password one. Usually try the address number. It's a good guess. Oh, that's the things you learn. You must be going to a lot of places that have. require that. Yes, I do. I live in the city.

All right. So I just want to give you up. Certain people out. If you wanted to bet on Yordon Alvarez being the home run king of 2006, for every $10 you put down, you'd win $330. No, this is for all the baseball. Now how far down the list? Oh, let me give you some other names. Really quick. No, like he's, he's what, like seventh, eighth? Like, where is he from the top? Five, six, seven, eight, nine. He's tenth. Okay, so he's supposed to finish

top ten in home runs in the entire major leagues. He is in a three-way tie for eighth, actually. actually with Matt Olson and Vlad Guerrero Jr. Okay. Pete Alonzo's in front of him, Juan Soto's in front of him, and that's it. But Aaron Judge, the clear favorite. Because that's what Aaron Judge does. He hits in a homer-friendly ballpark, Tony, and let's tell you, that's chalk.

He plays 90 games a year in ridiculously friendly home-run stadiums. Yes, he does. Between Fenway and Yankee. I'm sure there's other places, too, but yeah. And then he comes here sometimes. Pretty friendly. He manages pretty well. Let's talk to the great people to Houston.

When the wind's not blowing in, Aaron Boone. I don't think we've had a single game roof open last year, did we not? I don't think we did. I don't think so, because normally the playoffs, they open it up, and well, I got one for you. Should they open it up for the World Baseball Classic? That's coming here. Would that be a great way to kind of celebrate the city? The players don't like the unknown element of the wind.

No, that's not the players. It's Lance McCuller doesn't like it. Remember, Lance was all. He was upset at that Arizona opened up their roof and everything he was He got sheled, you know. Real quick. One, two, three. Is Lance McCullors, Jr.

a major storyline for the Astros in 20206? Oh, man. Major means like a comeback story. Well, or something meaningful, like he's got a meaningful role. I'll rephrase. Is Lance McCullors a major part of the 2016? One, two, three, no. I love Lance McCullors, Jr.

You didn't. Barry him in the age. No. does Lance McCuller's finished the year with the Astros? I'm going to give you a phrase. How about this one? Before you go to your phrase. Tradable deadline for a veteran arm,

if he's healthy, or B, we gave you as much time as we could. We thank you for your service, but we eventually had to take a loss. Cleared waivers deciding to accept his assignment to Sugar Land. That hurts me to say out loud.

Oh, that's not on my bingo card. Okay, good. That's not on my bingo card. Let's talk to John on the Heights. He's going to bounce back. You know what? I'm changing my mind right now. Wait a minute.

You just literally said something else five seconds ago. No, please. I got to believe, baby. He's only 32. Hi, John. MT. I was just about to say something until Ross said what he said, then LMJ is a rap, man.

Let me believe, John. Let me tell you, John. It's the name of that show is Matt Thomas' show with Rawls. It's Matt Thomas of the flip-flopper over here. I had him out right. I didn't know I got him bounced back within 30 seconds. God, you are such a fraud. That is fraudulent behavior.

That is fraudulent behavior. That is for sure. Real quick, empty, two things. I agree with you that the outfield for us does not get talked about enough. Because I totally suspect much like him, they don't have any tape on Cole, so he's going to start off like game busters and by the second half,

go figure him out just like they figured Cam out. And I think you'll have the same type of season that Cam had in his first year kind of up and down. So if you were Dana with that piece of paradeers, who is still out there that you would trade for as far as the outfeiter to boost the outfit to boost the outfit because I agree. The three guys that we have

out there now, and I'm sorry Ross, I know you're the president of the fan club, but around these parts, Jake Myers is a jag. He's just another guy. And you can't, you got to be able to find something for that center field. And then

the lastly, MT, what is Dorian Finney Smith's nickname when you call them on the on the on the on the on the radio what is DFS DFS DFS okay is there any way and Ross please get behind me on this because we got

a petition going can we change his name from that to Kelvin Kato oh come on too soon is it possible that we can call him Kevin Kato

because I just I just believe any if any wide open three points shots that are open he's just not a don't hit it. And unless he's in the Dallas Mavericks uniform, we've been bamboosal. We've been hoodwink. So that's all I got them to you. Want to hear if, uh, who would you trade for? And again, can we just get that Kelvin Cato as a new DMV call? Thanks, guys. I ain't going to listen. No, you're not going to call him Dorian Finney Smith. You're going to call him the

other nickname that I heard. There are other names, sadly, that are out there for Dorian Finney Smith. Do you want to say it? Or you want to say it? No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm zero chance I'll say it. Dorian Finn to miss. That's not very nice. He's a work in progress.

Work in progress. People can improve. I like him personally. He's had a terrible season. I didn't realize he was 32 years old. Let's get him you know what? Let's get him rested from the All-Star break

and cleared for like 30 minutes of play and he can get into a rhythm and play better. Because the Rockets are going to need bench play. That's the bottom line. You can talk about whether or not he's going to play well or not. They need him. because last night on the bench,

when you can't play Dorian Finney Smith and Tar Easton on back-to-backs, it was zero points from Clint Capella, and I can't even remember. You're getting J.D. Davis in minutes. You're getting the stray, Isaiah Crawford. They need Dorian Finney Smith to be a key part of this rotation.

To answer your question, I can't give you names because everybody that had names attached to potentially a tray with Isak Predis have been traded by now. The market is cooled. That much is clear. Yeah.

I'm looking at the literally the latest trade rumors of a website that I do trust and they're saying that there's Boston already filled its spot. Does Boston have an extra outfielder at this point? Yeah. But it's too late, baby.

It's too late. Because the Red Sox they made a trade. Opening day. Brady was available, wasn't he? Brian? No, Wilner. Oh, Willier. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Former Astros legend. Astros Farm System legend. Yeah, they got Caleb Duren from the Brewers. Yeah, I'm getting nothing. Durbin, excuse me. What did I say?

That's fine. Durbin, Durham. I'm not how to read. That's fine. I don't know. There are mystery clubs in the package. I don't know who's tradable. I don't know what teams right now

have too many outfielders. Oh, I'm not, oh, no, there's other nicknames for Dorian Finney Smith. Don't, Finney, shoot. Don't even show that to me. Don't. Why did you look that up? I didn't look it up. Oh, just popped them on your timeline.

Willie tweeted it to me. Willie, please. Be polite. He's going to be all right, guys. Everybody was calling Reed Shepherd a bus, and then now one year later, everybody wants him in the starting lineup. Guys can improve. Now he's 32. It's a different case.

Well, he better improve because he's on the books for a lot of money. That's what I'm saying. He's on the books for like three more years. He was good as a Laker against us. He's going to get better. He's going to get healthier. He had a three-poena last night. Yeah.

And then he almost caved the front end of the rim and with the other one. Well, he's got to get a little more lift on it. Yeah. The line drivers are not going to work. Yeah, he's got to get his legs underneath them, guys. Let him get the All-Star break. 115 sports talk 790. We'll hear more from the Rockets coach in about 15 minutes here on 790.

Big story today coming out. of spring training was Josh Hater and his apparent setback. He did throw some soft tosses today at Florida in Florida down at West Palm Beach. And after that, he spoke to the media. Can you just kind of take us to do what happened when you were shut down during your fourth bullpen, I believe? Yeah, so I was going to my fourth bullpen. And for me, when I was starting catch play, I just threw a change up. Kind of grabbed on me.

So then kept going on. And then the next day, felt it again on a change up. following that, tried to do it without throwing the change up, and then the more intense I got felt it again. So the bicep kind of got inflamed, so then I took about 10 days off and started just letting that heal a little bit. And now we're here today, and today was the first day of catch play, which was pretty good. So like I said, a little setback, but nothing too concerning for me. And yeah, so just building back up now and just get ready for the season. What are you going to do now? Just kind of relax, wait, see how it unfolds?

I mean, it's just back to normal, just building back up. So, I mean, I was at the point where I was done on bullpins. I was up, you know, in 85 and, you know, it felt really good. So I think it's more so just getting back to that, just building the arm back up since I had 10 days off. So I would say we're probably a few weeks behind right now on just getting that arm back to where we needed to be. I understand it's the first workout. But how you're giving yourself? of time frame as to whether you think you'd be ready for opening that? No, right now I'm just taking it week by week and just seeing how I'm progressing with that. For me, it's more of just like seeing how my body responds on everything,

because if I start setting a table, I don't want to get to the point where I'm going to be rushing and then something long-term happens, which I don't think it will, but, you know, sometimes you've got to be cautious with that. But for right now, it's just building back up to where we need to be. You know, there's something that you caught that in the interview. It wasn't about the questions or it wasn't about the answers. It was the way they were presented. I have found myself, and we've talked about this with other people in the media business,

for some reason when you get into a clubhouse, you do not want to go full throat. Josh was giving you his answers, right? Yes. In a normal tone. The questions were like, so do you feel like you're going to be how far behind you are? I think it's natural.

You've got guys in the locker room in the next over and they're getting ready. Other guys are chatting. You don't want to just blow them out, Matt. But there was not an equal balance between Josh's voice and the reporter voice. Yeah. And I have done that myself over the years where I've, I catch myself going, why am I talking softer than the guy I'm interviewing? Yeah, but also, that's from Brian McTaggart.

and he's pointing the camera at Josh Hader and not the reporters who are talking. So if you move the direction of the microphone, I'd pick it up better. Yeah, but it's so funny. Probably if you're there, the volume's a little closer. The second, the first question after Brian's one, the second question overall, the guy was like, man, do you need a hug or something? Yeah, you can hear Brian's question better because he's right there in front of the phone. Okay, so he's off mic.

I will just say that we as reporters, when I do very little reporting, but when I'm in the clubhouse, I'll interview interviews. We as interviewers have done that in the past where you've kind of gone, you know, are you going to be back in next couple weeks? Is your arm going to fall off or what's the deal with that? Did you throw a curb ball or a change-up in that fourth inning? You don't want to shout at anybody. Well, you know what it is?

You're also trying to soft play, too. Also, if it's something, you're kind of sheepish about having to ask the question. Correct. If it's something negative, especially like, well, what went wrong in the ninth inning there? Well, and again, when you go to a player. mad at me. Who's hurt. That's the last, I mean, you're not, like, you and I are relatively jolly people in general.

I can't imagine us going to Lance McCuller's, man, Lance, do you think you're going to make it through this season? I mean, you wouldn't go, hey, Lance, and he thought about you playing a full 162 this year? Like, you know. Five runs and ending in third. That's got to be some kind of record, Lance. Lance, man, that must have sucked out there. You go, hey, I know, you know, what wasn't working for you? I was going through your, yeah.

Well, what do you think you'd improve the next time out? that's just that's a study in the in the vocal performances of everybody in human interaction man yeah is ever working in your life yeah I guess well like you're firing someone you're not like hey

hey man you're out of here pal hey I got some news for you your numbers are down 40% year to year and we can't keep you around anymore what do you normally do every decision on here's tough you know we had to make some budget

cuts. This is corporate. This is out of my hands. This is harder for me than it is for you. Well, they don't say that. Well, they're lying. That's right. No, that's why you don't say it anymore. Yeah, I just, uh, it's not, those are not easy. So I'm not blaming them. I'm just saying that's just, that's just the normal way to, you want to soft pedal it so you don't. Because obviously Josh Hedder does not want to stand up in front of a bunch of meeting and explain why he's not going to be ready for probably the start of the regular season. That's not an uneasy conversation to have.

No. So you kind of just, you want to quietly work your way up to asking the most important questions. Biceps tendon inflammation. How are we feeling? Not good. I told you that. At least I'm saying consistent with that.

You flip-flopped already. What did you flip-flop on? Lance McCuller. This is different. Are you sure you want to do that too? Yes. Because I don't think it's going to work out, but I wanted to. So you're more hoping than dealing with realism.

I'm not going to the betting window and betting on Lance McCuller's over. wins, okay? But I'm hoping. Well, honestly, if he does come back and give you anything, you do need a long reliever. Dems of breaks. You're still not a veteran pitching staff. Guys are going to have all performances. Maybe he's going to blow us all away. Could you get a guy that could give you three innings once every seven or eight days if a guy struggles? If Lance wants to inherit that, look, at this point, with the money that's been spent on Lance, Lance ought to be happy that his arm is working and he can actually try to help his team.

whatever role that may be. He's going to get a shot to start. I believe that. I mean, that's a big guy feeling for me because he's making $18 million. He's going to be the sixth guy and go out there and give us something. We're making $18 million. I don't know if it's going to be one start, five stars, or what? If you gave me a healthy Lance McCuller every sixth day, sometimes it would be seven with off days.

And you didn't have to disable him at any point this year, that's a win for the aster. That'd be shocking. first of all. But I think unless he's a complete disaster in spring, he's going to get a shot because of the money. Which would be, and people are going to say, why is he out there? I mean, he could even, I mean, he could have an atrocious spring, and I don't think it would matter.

Unless he was. This is like really bad. Yeah. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. I just got a text about the Clippers injury report tonight. Nicholas Patum is out for. rest. He didn't play yesterday either.

He must want a lot of rest. That's funny. So the Rockets, Alperin, Shingoon is probable. Okay. Tari Eason is questionable with his injury management. They've been trying to get him back to back to back. Emo. Eme Adokos had game time decision. And we'll hear more from Eme coming back here.

Did the Rockets beat the Clippers last night trying to go for two in a row and win three games overall before sending the boys to the All Star break? They are 33 and 19. And by percentage points on the third spot in the Western Conference. More with the coach next. Earlier on this show today, we had a chance to visit with

EMA, Doug. I want to play a portion of that for you. EMEA on the Rockets win last night. They took care of the clippers by a final score of 102 to 95. Houston down 33 and 19. And I open up our visit with him asking how much different it was taking on a clipper team with no James Hardin and no Evita Zubats on the floor. No, it's very different. Obviously Hardin is just such a unique. player and what he brings to the table you have to game plan the scheme for him and you know zoobox

kind of their anchor on defense and so uh they're very different as far as the spacing with lopez you know more spaced out on the perimeter uh the ball in lennon's hand 100% of the time now and then you know they're not at full strength you know garlands out and obviously they're getting their guys up to speed math are and then jackson playing in the first game so it was very different than the team we faced before uh the double team on kauai look you got his shots up but it took him So I think you'd be generally speaking pretty pleased The way you guys doubled him on a fairly regular basis Yeah, and that's my point

You know, with Hardgon and some of their guys out We, you know, have to go after Kauai Leonard Obviously, he's going to have the ball in his hands and much more And so yeah, you don't always look at the final score You know, him having 24 points. It's the 19 attempts Other than, you know, nine free throws I think we did a decent job on him Reed back off the bench good to get a men back out there There was some time out there

that it looked like that a men didn't have to necessarily worry about ball handling as much as maybe in previous games. Was that intentional or just how the game progressed, especially because he had not as many big men chasing after him as he had in recent weeks. Yeah, I think, you know, we like to have multiple handlers out there at times. And so when we can get a reading our men out there together, it's always been good for us. You know, obviously you can initiate through Alpi and Kevin does his share handling as well. So as always this year, you know, we try to go through a little bit through committee while the young guys are learning. yeah several different ways to attack it and like i said without you being such a unique center that can play up top and get us into our sets uh you can take some of that pressure off the other guys

uh there has been a lot of talk about men thompson and the five's guarding him uh how much has that been discussed in practices and meetings and things like that and as part of you as a coach kind of like the the challenge of seeing that in in trying to work on ways to to to combat it Yeah, I mean, it's something that we've seen since his first year, it's just his rookie year. When Alpern went out with the last 18 games, I mean, it was technically our small ball five or, you know, him and Jabari out there at the four and the five. So quite a few teams had the bigs on him. So something that he and we are very accustomed to. And, you know, he knows his spots that he can pick whether he's handling.

Obviously putting the big on him a sagging back takes away some of the driving lanes. But very good in the pocket, very good in the dunker spot. He, you know, him setting screens and rolling has always been good for us. And so he's had his practice over the last few years and we know the areas we can get to with him not handling the ball. Rocket Tech coach, Ema Adoka was here on Sports Talk 790. Just Reed Shepard, of course, with the bounce back night shooting last night. Is there any bit of a kind of a semblance of a maybe he's not a rookie, but a rookie wall to, he's played double the minutes that he did all of last year. What have you been seeing from him not only just from on the floor, but as far as energy?

and maintaining and being out there on the floor. Yeah, I mean, he's played a lot more this year, obviously. You know, I didn't play a ton this rookie year, but I think for all young guys, everybody's going to have a slump at some point during the season. And, you know, what we say is don't let that affect your overall game. You know, don't just rely on jump shots to impact the game. And so, for Reid, you know, he's making some really nice passes

and stepping up on the defensive end is what we're asking all the guys to do. And so it may hit that wall. and obviously one more before our All-Star break. You can get your legs back, get a little rest in, and kind of reset from there. But I think he's playing fine. You know, missing some shots that he normally made early in the season. But Jabari did that a few weeks ago.

Alperin's gone through this thing. And so you just have to push through it. Like I said, and I just let May shots dictate how your game's going to go. We've discussed as many times where coaches like yourself have to kind of fight the all-star break. You know, hey, I want to think about the vacation or getting away from the sport. your guys have fought through that the last couple of days. Discuss the bounce back in your mind the team has had after those two home losses to Boston, Charlott and how you fought back.

And now with a chance here to go to the break on a three-game winning streak. Yeah, I mean, it's just the effort and intensity that takes to win a basketball game wasn't there in those two games. And, you know, quite simple. You know, whether you make shots or not or guard well enough, if you don't play with the right effort and mindset, you're not going to give yourself a chance on the nightly basis. And so for us, it was just getting back to that.

I think you saw that in Oklahoma City game. We watched quite a bit of film on the Charlotte and Boston game and looked like two different teams, whether it was his legs or guys thinking about All-Star Break or whatever. We had five games left and we wanted to play well. So two of those, not too well, the last two have been really good. And it's like I said, you can see the difference on the tape. Our guys have been back locked in and obviously want to finish on a good note tonight.

I don't know if you've heard from the medical staff. Where are you on who can sit and who can stay tonight? Is there anybody that would be definitely out for tonight's game? Dorian will be out tonight for sure. Tarry will be a game time decision. He's going to try it out and see how he feels and go from there. All right. Josh did not play yesterday. Is that anything okay with him? Yeah, yeah. Josh was fine. I think part of it was the fact that Dorian's going to be out tomorrow

tonight and he don't want to rest of him. But obviously Josh is always ready to be called upon and went with a little shorter rotation knowing that we were going to run some guys some longer minutes. And we'll have Josh tonight for sure. What did you think of Benedict Mathuron getting his first amount of playing time for the clippers. We just saw him a few weeks ago wearing pacer gear. Yeah, I mean, he's going to be a good asset for them. I think, you know, it's always hard when you get kind of get implemented into a new situation like that. And, you know, he wasn't as aggressive as he's been with Indiana, but expect that to happen over time here, you know, probably

right after all-star break when he gets some practices in, but a good pickup for them in general. Do you tell the ambiguity folks to keep your center and your power forward on ice and make sure you don't work him too hard? I mean, oh, it's a great experience for both. especially for Alpi when getting the late addition but uh Kevin's been through this a lot so do you think about that like hey man I want you to get away from the sport but it feels like to me that Katie's been since a gym ride his entire life that it's he's trying to find a place to shoot some baskets even during this off time oh they definitely would have done that regardless and so you know it's another honor for him and alper and you know and we want those guys to be perennial all-stars and

you know as much as the rest is good for you that's a huge honor and I think the guys we trade that off any day, but they know how to mix it in and get the rest in that they need in the days with the media and all that. And then obviously the game isn't full speed, full speed. So they'll be out there getting some rest. But even after that, they got two, three, four days off until our next game against Charlotte and get a chance to rest up then. And we've still been through this amazing run of back-to-backs. It's getting better.

I mean, they're being knocked off the list, but it feels like this squad has had more back-to-backs in the last month and a half than maybe anybody else in the NBA has had. Yeah, well, I'm sure we have. I think we didn't have any for the first, you know, eight or so weeks. I think we had our first in late December. And so, you know, we had it easier early in the year. And now it's catching up to us. You know, we basically had one every week for the last four weeks. And so it is what it is. You know, it's going to catch up to you at some point. And like I said, we have done a good job and some struggled earlier and some others. And now we want to finish tonight on a good note against clippers. Is there any wrap things up with you? Is there any individual message you let tell the guys that they step away from the sports?

or is it more of a team get-together conversation as guys try to take a step of a break away from the sport for a few days? I think it's both. I think, you know, team and individually, everybody needs to, you know, kind of take a step back and decompress. You know, get your legs back. We have 29 games coming out of the break, and that goes really quickly. So get the working that you need to. Obviously, don't come back out of shape or, you know, rusty, but also get away from it for a minute. Like I said, clear your mind and prepare for what's ahead.

All right. Getting away from it. Ross, how are you getting away from it? I'm going to see my daughter play volleyball. Going to West Palm Beach. And going to West Palm Beach. We'll be there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday next week. Looking forward to that much. Very merry and very much. Hopefully, Josh Hed will be ready to go by then. I think he will be. On the bump, throwing 96.

Let's not hold our breath on that one. But I like you're turning some optimism. No, I'm just trying to placate to you. Okay. All right. Today's edition of Believe it or not, it's going to be a good one, right? it's about whether or not this is a defunct football team variety of leagues

XFL, USFL, UFL, World League of American football, WFL Yeah, the NFL back in the 1920s Arena football too, do for you. Are you one arena football? Sure, why not? Why not? Throw something in there. It was this

really a team name. 713-212-5-7-9-U and we'll have probably, we can try to 10 or 11 of those, you think? We got time? 11. How about 10? I mean, 11 is, we've never done 11 ever in the history of the show. That's why it caught me off guard.

I was just trying to throw you off. You want to do 11 we can. All right. 713, 212-790. 713-212-5-790. All right, what I was looking on my phone is the nice people over at Space City Home Network, Rossi, did a feature on me yesterday. Actually, it'll be airing tomorrow.

We did it. We recorded it a couple weeks ago. It's a ride-along. Vanessa drives me down to the Toadis Center, and we talk some Rockets and talk about my career a little bit. Uh-huh. So that's going to air tomorrow and I on Rockets All Access. So if you want to catch me with Vanessa talking about my career,

it's going to be... Sounds great. I don't miss an episode, so I can't wait. What was the best part of the last episode? Reed Shepard Spotlight. And before that? That would, of course, be the Donnie-Finney Smith Spotlight. Don't be ridiculous. You are watching it.

Good. And I just made that up. So the funny thing, it was, is the original feature. I'm not toot my own horn, but I'm going to do it. Go ahead. It was originally 10 minutes long. They're like, we can't give, we can't give 10 minutes of a Rockets All-Excess show to this. Yeah, it's only like 22 minutes.

They've shaved it down to four. Oh, okay. And what they did is they came in here and they kind of, they literally follow me throughout my day at the office, including when I talk with you. So you're not in the final clip, sadly. Oh, okay. Well, that's fine. It didn't get me taking a nap because they took a, pictures of me sleeping.

Okay. And then they got me going to the Toyota Center. Vanessa picked me up, took me down there. We were in a Toyota, and we drove down there and had a good time.

And a nice visit. They didn't get me, they didn't catch me. They have one of my calls. Remember when a man, Thompson hit that little mid-ranging Boston a couple of years back? The Rockets finally beat them against the Celtics up there.

So that's on there too. But yeah. So tomorrow night, six o'clock, Rockets all access for my little Toyota ride along to the Toyota Center. Wonderful. I can't wait to,

Catch it. DBR it. I want you to permanently keep it as a part of your future. I mean, I'm good. What's the long version? Can we get the extended version? I'm going to try to find out the extended version. Where is the director's cut?

That's what I'm saying. That's what we need. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game. Should we simply call it? Believe it or not. And here's how it works.

You call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212. 570. Today's edition of Believe or not is all things about whether this is a defunct professional football team. Professional football. Not all NFL. Oh my gosh. James Vandermeek just died.

48 years old. Vanderbeak? Yeah. The Dawson? Dawson's Creek. Dang! Gone too soon, literally. That's true. That's believe it or not for tomorrow. You get that locked and loaded.

All right, here we go. Let me focus here. I'll read your statement if it's a defunct football team. If it is, you'll say this. Believe it. If it's a real-life team that eventually was never existed, that doesn't make any sense. If it's a football team that never existed, you'll say this.

Two, believe it or not, to win your prize. You're going to play for one of three prizes today on today's edition. Believe or not, one is a $7.00 T-shirt. Two is a pair of tickets. Actually, a four pack of tickets to see Montra Jam this Sunday, NRG Stadium. You'll get pit party passes with that. or a pair of tickets to see the Stained on their break,

the cycle 25th anniversary tour that features Cedar with special guests, Hubastank, and Hinder. That's October the 17th. If you want tickets for the Montser Jam this weekend or that concert had just brought up, go to Ticketmaster.com. That's Ticketmaster.com. Let's play, believe it or not.

We'll start with Neil on 790. Neil, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Neil, good luck to you. The Toledo Maroons were once a football team. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it.

They were an NFL team. Statement number two for the win. The Washington vigilantes were once a football team. Believe it or not? Not. That's a believe it. They were on the Ohio League. It's a precursor to the NFL.

Things you learn on the Matt Thomas Show at Ross. Actually, that's Ross giving him credit for that one. Brian on 7 on a Brian, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. The Pittsburgh Mallors were once a football team. Believe it or not? Not. That's a believe it. That's U.S.F.L. That was Mike Rozier's team.

That played the college football at Nebraska. Eventually went on to play for the Oilers in the NFL. Ken on 7 on a Ken was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show. The interview is the Rocket's Head Coach, Ina O'Doka. Thank you, friend. Providence Blues. Once a football team, believe it or not? Not. That's correct.

Not. Statement number two for the win. The Jacksonville Bulls, believe it or not. Believe it, I guess. Yeah, USFL. Nicely done. Let's go to C in Brazoria. C, you ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. Memphis Showboats were once a football team. Believe it or not? Believe it. Yeah, USFL. Statement number two for the win. The Evansville Crimson Giants were once a football team. Believe it or not.

Not. They were an NFL team. I'm sorry, but thank you for playing. Let's go to Pete. On 790. Pete, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. The Flint Marauders were once a football team. Believe it or not? Not.

That's correct. Statement number two for the win. The Kansas City Cowboys were once a football team. Believe it or not? Believe it. Dave in the NFL. Congratulations. Last one belongs to Dave on 790. Dave, your fair part of today's 10-2 radio show. Absolutely, the whole show.

Atlantic City Blackjacks were once a football team. Believe it or not. I believe it. Yeah, they were an arena league team. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. The Columbus Pioneers were once a football team. Believe it or not. I have no idea, but I guess I'll believe it.

No, you shouldn't have Ross man it up. Thank you, though. Guy, listen to show the whole thing, loves it every bit of it, and thus could not figure out the Columbus Pioneers were a fake football team. All right, Rossi, we got Rock. It's on launch pad tonight at 6 o'clock. Dan Matthews on the call. Yep, you'll be spending time with your sister. Yes, it's her birthday.

Shout out, Rachel. You're cooking tonight. Yes. Steaks. Yes. And pan seared and cast iron? Will you be doing any sort of seasoning to those steaks? Yeah, salt and pepper.

No marinate of any sort? No, we want to get a bottle of steak and ale? No, sir. Stakeet ale. If you sear, what was it, shaking? You only put some shaking bacon? on it. No, if you get a nice, good cut of steak, all you need is a little salt, pepper, and oil

and you sear it correctly, which I do, and then it's going to be delicious. Will you take video of it? Video? Yeah, I want to put it on my Instagram? I would love to see you cook a steak. Absolutely. Absolutely. I can't cook the steak and video of myself. We'll have somebody doing it for you. That seems weird. All right, up next, Wexler and Clanton. They are

the team. I'll talk to you for Rockets and Clippers at 7, right here on 790.