The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Ronel Blanco Is On His Way Back To Houston With Elbow Soreness After Game 2 vs Tampa Bay Rays, Game 3 This Afternoon

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

Ronel Blanco Is On His Way Back To Houston With Elbow Soreness After Game 2 vs Tampa Bay Rays, Game 3 This Afternoon

H-Town. Good morning, everyone. And welcome to a Wednesday edition of The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. It is a snack-size edition of the show today, as we have the mainstream Matt Thomas show with Ross from 10 o'clock until 11. And then Rossi, we get into Astros on deck at 11 o'clock, where we will celebrate great Jake Myers. Okay. Really, really awesome. Isak Perides. Yes. and a bad ochert and a bad orte okert and ort couldn't hold it down that sounds like a bad attorney

at law firm good morning thank you for calling okard and ort I don't think I want I'd rather have some fried ochre have you been saving that for a long time I just came up with it okay yeah actually sounds like it we are with you today until 11 o'clock and then we're going to send you to Astros coverage

from 11 to 1140 and then at 1140 and then at 11 40 Robert Steve will have the finale from what should be a very hot, humid, stinky. Oh, I mean...

You know, I have to use that one. Double shower kind of day with the Astros and Ray is the rubber game of the three game series at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida. By the way, Astro's going for the Major League Record. Most rubber games in a season.

This alternate wins and losses so much. Yeah. Well, you know, they're percentages are pretty good. Now, at home, they're really good on the road. They're not so hot. So, yeah, a rare off night for the local nine when it comes to, well, it was not an off night in terms of everybody. The bullpen has been very good. Caleb Orr has been really good this year. Stephen Oakert's been really good, and they just had off days. And unfortunately, it cost him as the two-nothing lead went to a three-two setback to the raise, and thus the series is tied to a game of piece. But the good news is that the

Mariner's lost last night of the Chicago White Sox, so the Astros lose no ground to the M's in the American League West. Oh, I like you being positive. Could be the bad news is they failed to green some ground with a wind. I choose to have my glass half full. Oh, are you sure? Well, not unusually in life, but you're right about that. All right, if you'd like to join us, and we're only with you for this hour in the full context of the radio show at 713-212-5-7. If you want to chime in on the Astros, you want to chime in on last night's game one.

of the Western Conference finals, which saw the Oklahoma City Thunder really pull away and didn't make it much of a game in the second half, unfortunately, at least if you're a casual NBA fan or a diehard just wants to watch anything NBA related. But yeah, OKC is up 1-0 on the Thunder. We have some NFL news today. Two notes that have not been officially changed, but one you're going to be indifferent to and one you're not going to like. Okay.

So we have that to get to. We have the passing of a, one of the most beloved television characters of all time, would you say? On two different accounts? I guess so. That shows a bit of a blind spot for me. I will tell you this. Cheers was probably a top five television show year and year out in the 1980s.

I liked it Didn't love it Oh, overrated, says Matt Thomas If it was on, I'd watch it Now remember that Thursday night Way back in the day NBC Thursday night They didn't call it must see TV

They called it whatever they had Must CTV was the Seinfeld Friends era right? Right, right, right, right. So I'm talking about This is before that I want to say there was The Cosby Show followed by a different world, followed by Cheers. And I want to say the last show was Nightcourt,

but I might be mixing up my 80s and 90s together. I'm not sure. And I can't look it up because the Internet's bad right now. Yeah. We're in a secret location, by the way. We cannot tell you where we are. But the bottom line is that Cheers was at times ridiculously hilarious. but kind of an old familiar script didn't really change a lot you had goofy woody you had

mayday malone you had predictable yeah predictable would be the term but george went who passed away i'm sure many of you know by now yesterday was norm and uh was absolutely one of the funniest i didn't think cliff that the mailman was particularly intriguing at all i just loved he's alive he is alive i thought they're both dead no he is alive john ron Ractonberger is his name. Now, Shelley Long, who played Diane, is still alive. Obviously, Ted Dantin is still alive. He was just recently on Kirby.

He's been done a bunch of TV shows. We did lose Kirstie Alley within the last couple of years. And then we lost George Wayne. Now, are you familiar with super fans? That's Chicago Superfans. Yes, of course. And I know that if you go to Twitter today, you're going to see a lot of different videos on that. Now, that was great.

That, to me, was simple. Yes. And yet, one note, but yet you still cracked up. Yes. Because what you'd wind up doing is you'd wind up going to your buddy's houses and talking about the bears. The bears. And talking about your favorite indie car driver, Rick Mears. And then you had to talk about the bulls.

And you and I have a very good friend of ours that is in the Chicago area. I have a lot of friends that have lived and or worked in Chicago. The stereotype is very real. I remember going to a Chicago sports bar in the early 1990s. It might have been the first weekend that Fox even had football. And the Bears were on. So I went to a bar to see the Bears, play the Packers. And the people were going nuts.

And I walked around. And I looked around. I'm like, my God, it's super fans. They absolutely nailed what a typical Midwestern Chicago guy looks like. Hard condition. Yes. mustache, bear sweaters that were too tight, and their undying love for Mike Dicka. And chugging beer after beer after beer.

And eating brats. Yeah. Chicago old style. Yeah. Perhaps a PBR for the only classy. It's right. If you want to step up your game. All right.

So if you'd like to talk about cheers, I don't know if that's going to be a huge conversation piece, but, you know. Topic A, your favorite episode, your favorite storyline. I will say this. It is funny that one of the worst decisions ever made was for Sheldon. long to leave after you know a couple of seasons because her career never really flourished i mean i would say probably shenla long's some of her best roles was playing carol brady in the brady bunch movies oh yeah those are classics they were pretty good but i mean she were she she

left the top five show thinking that she was going to be a major star and she turned out to be okay but sometimes you swing for the fences and you miss me like you leaving this show you wouldn't want to do that yeah well make me an offer prokeepsie stop All right, 713212-579. If you want to jump into the conversation today, 7-13-212-5-7-90. And again, if you want to follow us on Twitter, it's at SportsMT and at SportsRV. On the Astro side, your boy Jake just isn't cooling off. And I'm here for it.

I know. And Isak Paredes is not cooling off. It's the month of May. It's time for Jake Myers to thrive. Now, there is somebody that is cooling off significant. and it's a guy that hasn't played very much and probably won't be playing too much longer. I really, and I mentioned this to you probably what,

two or three weeks ago, Ross, and I think it bears repeating. Chas McCormick needs a new scenery, place to play. His base running has not been good. He's not productive at the plate. He's frankly not even playing that much. I think there's value in Chas McCormick. It just probably isn't going to be here.

I think it's in his, I don't want to say it's in his head, but I think the writing is on the wall. We're just playing you when we have to. We're hot-ass Tampa. He went one for four yesterday. And again, limited batting. His OPS is 604. And then the throw that the race won the game with.

He was in left field. Do you remember when Barry Bonds tried to throw out Sid Bream in the National League Championship Series and how bad Barry Bonds throw was when he was a member of the Giants or the Pirates? Not really. Okay. It's one of the legendary moments. Sid Bream was a utility player for the Braves, and he was rounding third coming home.

And Sid Bream is... I remember Sid Bream. I had a Sid Brem card. Nice dash. Nice dash. I would not call him a sprinter. Okay. He had an Isak Paredes speed. Oh, that bad?

I mean, it wasn't pretty. So the fly ball goes to left field. McCormick makes it, and the Ray Runner is running's third coming home, and the throw... it wasn't even a really far hit ball to left field. It just absolutely had no zip to it, and the race walked it off and won the game last night. Chas, I do believe it has some value, but it's not here.

Yeah, you can look at it a couple of ways. Chris Morrell was the one of running your score. He has some bad luck in that Jake Myers is hitting very well, so he's earning every day time. They want to give Desinzo an opportunity. They want to give DeZenzo an opportunity. They want to give Cam Smith an opportunity. But also, it's not like I just named a heap of all stars.

So it is tough luck in a way that Chas McCormick can't beat these guys out. And you want to give the young phenom Kamsmith A.Bs. The exact Zenzzo is more of an unknown quantity. But they're giving those unknown quantities, those A.Bs because Chaz McCormick is, what, 29, 30 years old at this point. So he hasn't proven to the level. that he has earned everyday time.

No, and in the throw again, it was a sack fly. He just doesn't have a good arm. It's slightly better than Jake Myers' but... Well, the reality is nobody in this team, I mean... Cam Smith.

Cam's got it, but he just needs to... And, you know, look, whoever you put in left field last night, I don't have enough of a sample size of tape if Zach Descenzel's going to throw that runner out. I can tell you that Jose Al-Too is not. And clearly, Chas McCormick is not going to either. so that is the case.

All right, 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-2-7-19. We'll start taking some phone calls coming back in a minute. 7-13-212-5-7-90. All right, we're only with you until 11 o'clock. Then we go to Astros, Spring Training. As well, we're playing in the spring training ballpark. They are.

It actually feels like that. It looks like spring training baseball when they're playing. It is absolutely incredibly hokey. Yes. And now, look, nobody would have intentionally put the raise in Tampa's and the Yankee Spring Training facility. It's a hurricane situation. It's a little different than Sacramento, I feel like that Major League Baseball failed more than anything. Yeah, I mean, Sacramento doesn't even want the A's.

They only kept the A's as an organization only stayed in Northern California because their TV deal is tied to NBC Sports, California, which is their cable TV partner. It's their version of Space City Home Network. So they would have lost that money if they would have said move to Nashville or Salt Lake City or something like that. I'd be curious because I'm going to Vegas next month. And I'm wondering if the stadium is progressing or, I mean, you don't hear much about it, frankly. Now, I know they've already started destroying the trap and it's no longer operating. RIP. Yeah, it's the first one ever went.

1993. You never forget your first, Matt. Oh, God. I was such a terrible player. I didn't know any rules of blackjack. I was spending... So you're like everybody else. That's what it was like.

Yeah, I've had those problems. $800 I took with me, and I think I lost it within the first, I don't know, three, four hours. Got violently sick... Yeah, I know. I know. I got violently sick at the Excalibular. buffet, which was next to the Tropicana, and the Ice Calibur is still going.

Oh, man. Mistakes you make, it's almost like, in my 30s, I grew up a little bit. In my 40s, I became a father and a husband. And, you know, I was a third. I kids in the 30s, too, but 21 to 29, you just go through a lot of, man, I wish I could redo that. Or, man, I'm glad I did that.

Or what was I thinking trying to do that? Figuring things out, Matt. Life experience. It's natural. Yeah. So when you get to... Sorry. Oh, my God.

I wasn't ready for that, but it works. I guess so. That is so funny. Good, good pull by you. Good pull by you. Next, cube. We're never going to have that end on. This show is going to last, hopefully, another 10 to 15 years,

and we're going to have you playing that sound bike. Hopefully. All right. 713, 212. 5-79. 713212-1-2-5-790 so we'll get obviously lots of astros we'll go exclusively astros between 11 and 1140 here on sports talk 7-98 last night in the NBA we did have the game one of the western conference finals which went to the oklahoma city thunder and seriously if you're if you're the minnesota timber wolves you've had all this time to rest you've had all this opportunity to get your body right because the oklahoma City Thunder just finished off a seven-game series of the Denver Nuggets. And you hung around for a while, but man, oh, man, oh, man.

You got Shane Gilgers Alexander, who did not shoot particularly well. You know, they won 114 to 88. Oklahoma City was down by four at the half. Outscored the Wolves by 30. Anthony Edwards was terrible last night. Nas Reid was terrible last night. Yes. Couldn't it three.

Seven from three. Yeah. Nas Reed. Yeah, it's also a good Oklahoma City. under defense. The big storyline nationally has been Shea Gildes Alexander and that foul hunting. He had seven free throw attempts

in the first quarter. I think there was a Bill Simmons tweet going viral and a bunch that I was seeing as well. She's not even getting touched and he's just flopping and flailing and they're calling everything. So I'll be interested to see game two and see if the whistle changes or tightens up a little bit. Oh, you mean to tell me the other 110 games

that he's play has to give you an indication that the whistle's not going to change? I don't know. Squeaky wheel gets the grease and that wheel was squeaking. So, the national media, national NBA media. So I do a lot of stupid things, and one of them is watch the morning TV shows because I'm trying to get a sense of what's going on in the world of sports. Because I was going to watch the show today, but they were at Universal Studios at the

new theme park, and I don't care about that kind of stuff. Okay. It was a blatant, because NBC and Universal were the same. It was just a, yeah, no, no, that's ABC, Disney do that. Well, NBC Universal. Yeah. It's a blatant rip-off of, hey, come. Not, we're not being journalists.

were here just to promote this part. So I had to put on the morning shows. And Kendrick Perkins talked a lot about how people should stop complaining about Shane Gilder's Alexander and the foul calls because we've never complained about Michael Jordan getting the calls.

What? Hold on. We never complained about Kobe Bryant getting foul calls. We never complained about LeBron James getting foul calls. And I'm thinking to myself, what NBA has he watched and or played? I don't remember ever as a kid watching Michael Jordaner as a young adult in 1997 when he's playing the NBA finals going,

oh, yes, MJ, I'm glad you got that foul calls to go to the free throw line. I remember MJ making big shots. I remember MJ carrying the bulls on his back. I remember Kobe Bryant putting together a run of 10 or 12 straight points. Now, do those guys get foul calls? Of course they did. But I don't remember going, that's a KG team. Now, the only player, two.

be fair that we as a fan base, especially in Houston, talked about if you think you can stop it, then stop it. If not, let the man eat. And that's James Hardin. We bemoaned, I will say this, I bemoaned people complaining about James Hardin getting to the free throw line. And I would say, well, if they're fouls, they're fouls. if James is extraordinary and gathering contact and gets the free throw line 13, 14 times a game, good for him.

The problem was, as I watched the game last night between the Thunder and the Wolves, it felt like to me, and not that I got the officiating handbook in front of me, that about every other call Ross that SGA was getting, there was minimal contact or nothing that deserved a whistle, and he was getting reputation calls, where at least in James' case, he was getting attacked pretty good on a on a semi-regular basis. James was selling it, but I mean, we did complain

about LeBron James in his free throws. We did. Has Kendrick Perkins suffered some sort of brain injury? I really believe he eats too much oatmeal in the morning. I got two words for him. Because his head is mush. Push off. We talked about that for years with Michael Jordan.

And the Jordan Rules was originally the Pistons and their Jordan rules beating up on Michael Jordan. But the Jordan rules morphed into us talking about him getting every single. call and superstar calls. We've talked about this in the NBA for as long as I can remember. And yeah, we're talking about with Shade Gilgis Alexander,

but it's also more flopping and flailing than anything else. I remember Reggie Miller in his heyday. He'd be flopping and flailing around, and, you know, he'd come around those curls, get up a shot, and then he'd start kicking his arms up like he got an electric shock. Yeah, this has been a storyline for basically as long as the NBA's been around. Maybe not the 1960s or something, but, Kendrick Perkins.

Beaumont's finest. I mean, he's carved out a nice career. Good for him. I mean, he was on commercials last night. I mean, he's done quite well for himself. Wasn't he also bragging about how he would lock down Nicoliochch if he was in his prime, if they were both in their primes? He would be exhausted trying to guard Nicolioch for a couple of minutes.

Somebody had brought up some video of, like, Nicoliochich as a rookie torching Kendrick Perkins? But all I'm going to say is this. having watched the game last night, it did aggravate me. And I can tell you, it aggravates the rockets because that was one of the things that I know that Eme Adoka has told the guys

and the guys have talked about. We've got to make sure we've got to be on our best behavior because Shaggiltes Alexander lives at the free throw line. He was two for his first 13, but yet he had a decent number production-wise offensively because he was getting to the free thaw line, double digits, not by the end of the game, but like early third quarter.

Yeah, he had seven in the first quarter. He ended up 11 of 14, so it kind of evened out a little bit there, but still, it was ridiculous, and it can get ridiculous for stretches. But he does it. Luca Donchich does it. Nicola Yokic does it. We were talking about this last night. Jalen Brunson does it. I mean, it's

part of the game. So as long as there, and here's my thought, and this is overly simplistic, but it's what it is. If they're fouls, good for them. But if they're just the like I remember the Showtime Lakers, I used to watch Magic Johnson go right down the heart of the lane,

and someone would tip his index finger, whistle, and one. And I loved Magic as a player, but it would drive me nuts. If you're going to get called for a foul, I'm not asking for people to get, like, assaulted on the court, but the stuff that last night was being called was very, very chippy. Ticky tack, as they say. Yeah, exactly. All right.

713, 212. 5790, 713, 212 5790. That's two. That's three. Oh, no. The good news, because the good news is relative. Kelvin Sampson's new contract,

four-year extension through 28-29. So he's going to retire as the coach of the University of Houston Cougars. That'll be his last spot. So anybody else wants? Wanting some little Calvin Samson-Loney? You ain't getting it. Get out. He's too old.

Nobody wants him. I think the University of Houston wants him. Okay. That really isn't for the breaking news, Sounders. Would you like to... Don't say Yordon Alvarez. Nope. Okay.

Woo! Give me the sport. I have no idea. My internet's not even working. It's the Astros. Three? Mm-hmm. Five is the max, right?

I don't know. Just say it. Ronell Blanco has elbow and a sword. Oh my God. And was set back to Houston to be seen by team doctors. Well, good thing they got great pitching depth and we're not concerned. Okay. I need you to shut your bum ass up for a second because I'm going to tell you why.

You can't, no matter what kind of pitching depth you have, listen to me very carefully. You can't have pitching depth when you've already lost Hayne West Nesky to Tommy John, a broken hand to Spencer. ergetty. That hurts any team's pitching depth. So I will not buy the argument of you didn't have enough pitching. Complained of a sore elbow, Joe Espatter says, been sent back to Houston Brexamination. But if they could have signed somebody, you're not relying on the Colton Gordons and the agent blue balls and the whatever else. What was it last night? Brandon Walter, who's been fine. And he's been sent back to it. But probably my guess is coming right back.

Yeah. It's going to be a quick turnaround trip. And you can do that because you're replacing somebody that's been injured. So you could do that in theory. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I can't give you, it probably is nothing because that's false. No. It's probably, look, we, what is the phrase, the Matt Thomas phrase?

We deal in realities? It's probably Tommy John. I mean, you get sent back to get seen by the time team doctors for elbow discomfort. Or soreness. Or soreness. Icepack won't do it. And even if it's not Tommy John immediately, it feels like it is eventually. Oh, they're going to see a good second opinion.

They're going to try to work through. They're going to rehab through this. And then literally like three months later, the UCLA gets fully ripped out. It's Tommy John time. And the reality is this. And Dana Brown did not make an appearance today with the previous show. That does make sense. He's probably going, oh, my God.

I mean, that's what I'd be doing. If I'm Dana Brown, I'd be like, I mean, I love you, Dan, and the morning show, but I got a fish to fry right now. Is it time, do they need to trade for a starter? I would say yes. They 100% need to trade for a starter. Chas McCormick, come on down. What kind of value does he have?

I don't know. Well, don't do that. You pulled an asterer's Twitter moment there. We can go get a number two starter for Chas McCormick. I didn't say number two starter. I know. I know what you didn't say. that. I know. I know. Maybe you find some guy whose repertoire you can tinker with and turn him

into a better pitcher, like what you saw with Hayden Wisniewski, like what you did with you say Kukuchi and those kind of guys and give up something. But man, the cupboard being as bare as it has been and you've already traded away from it a couple times and now having to do it again. Oh, man. I'm going to 100% tell you I have zero. positive vibes about this. Yeah. Because if you have soreness, which can happen, you put ice on it on a day,

you skip a start, you think it's fine. When you have to fly back, he's already in Houston right now, which means he left yesterday. I don't think he's getting up at 5 a.m. to catch the Tampa flight. So Luis Garcia is recovering from Tommy John. Christian Javier is recovering from Tommy John. Hayden Wisniewski is, and now possibly Renal Blonde. Yeah. That is insane.

That is just ridiculous. And I will say this, and I don't know the doctors, I don't know the trainers, I don't blame the Astros for this. I blame baseball. Yeah, it's just been the emphasis on spin, the emphasis on Velo, how's gone up, and guys, I mean, a couple of years ago, or maybe it was last year, Justin Verlander had some really good quotes on all the injuries. And he said basically it's a combination of things. and maybe it is just the nature of the game and the way that it is in pitchers and all that type of stuff. It's how pitchers come up. It's all those things.

I got one even a simpler thought than that. The human arm was not meant to do what majorly baseball players are supposed to do. Yeah, that's very core. That's problem A. And by the way, then we get the problem B, C, D, E, F. And you've been doing this since you've probably been nine years old. Yes. Your arm gives out.

If you were to do something as a great, because think about it, when you were nine years old, you probably threw faster than the average nine-year-old did. You've done every, if you're a major-ly, pitcher. You've done this at an exemplary level for at least bare minimum, even if you started to pick, if you picked up a baseball for the first time in high school. You did this, you've been doing this for about nine or ten years of throwing a baseball really hard, gripping it, sliders never help. Curb balls don't help. Frankly, if you want to make sure that you don't hurt your arm, you throw changeups and fast balls, but that doesn't get outs in the

major leagues. And then the pitch clock question looms as well. How much is that affecting pictures? No doubt. We love it because baseball games are shorter. We were talking about it last night at dinner. But you tell me, is there not a direct correlation to the number of T.J. elbow forearms, soreness to where we. And honestly, if I'm Lance McCullors, I think about these things.

Look, there's enough baseball nerds that we will, I'm sure there's data on this or stories and studies. but also you have to have enough of the sample size. If everybody's getting Tommy John one year, and then that doesn't necessarily mean that's a statistically significant sample. We need, unfortunately, years and years to kind of figure this out. Because we can't take 60 years of non-pitch clock

and compare it to two years of pitch clock. You know what I mean? You need to zoom out. You need more data. And it's only been a couple of years. But could I take the previous two before. You could say the early returns are not good. It feels like

the early returns are bad. I mean, and maybe it's just localized here, Houston because it's so bad, but I feel like it's been a bad at Rock baseball. Let me ask you this. If we had Ron Manfred on the show right now and we threw that question to him, what would his response be? You know,

we look to improve the team, improve the game in all facets. And that's something we're definitely looking into, and we need to talk with the players about it, trainers. We're actively looking into the situation. It's too early to say anything.

That's what he would say, yes. Or how about this? And forgetting about the pitch clock, how about ladies and gentlemen, just the number of injuries on this? Tommy John's surgeries, it feels like you've got high school kids getting them. It's like Oprah handing out Hondas. Everyone's getting it. I actually get that. I don't know if our audience does, but I get that.

All right, we've got one segment left. If you'd like to join us, if anybody's on the line, we'll talk to you when we come back. Tough. But this is, again, if you're just joining us, Renal Blanco, is now in Houston being seen by team doctors for elbow soreness. The two worst words in baseball right now, elbow soreness? And elbow discomfort. Yes, an elbow discomfort. 1042 on Sports Talk, 7.80.

1049 on the Matt Thomas Show with. loss. We've got Astros on deck coming up in about to 10 minutes from now, and the lead will be Rodel Blanco seeing the doctors. I didn't Uber to him over to the hospital. I mean, I'll do, I mean, if I can get a little, you know, kind of get the advance head. They can afford it. Now, Ronald does not speak English, so it would have been a short,

it would have been minimal conversation. He probably would have said Ow hurts me pain. Then a big extent of the English. I would imagine he knows more English than Ow hurts me pain. How hurts me pain. That sounds like an alias I can use at a hotel. Let's talk to Aggie Doug on 790. A.D., what's the good word?

Hey, what's up, fellows? And it's awful news about Blanco. And if it ends up being what we think it is, I think you have to legitimately look at trading Frumber for what we can get at this point. And I hate to say you need to wave the white flag, but just you got to see what you can do with the guys that you got because, I mean, to be fair, we're going to be really good as far as pitching for the next five years

because we're going to have all these guys coming back from Tommy John surgery that are going to be on really minimal contracts at that point. So I'm not real worried about the future, but, I mean, like you were saying, you kind of have to pull back a little bit as far as, like, y'all were talking about with the pitch clock. Like, it just might be the year that the Yordons down, you trade from her, you try to get Hunter Brown signed to at least a five, six year deal, and

you just kind of focus on the future because I think it's really bright as far as, you know, the pitching that we have coming, but it's just not going to happen this year. I just don't think it's going to happen. Thanks, Aidy. I would disagree with about 80% of your phone call.

I'm not going to be optimistic. I've got four guys on Tommy John. The future is bright. I'm about the future is murky at best. Yeah, I mean, if he's saying punt on this season and trade Framber, right. Here's the reality.

Erigetti is coming back. Yes. Hunter Brown is having a Syung-esque type season. Frumber's still looking like in a 1A most starts. Sometimes a 1B. I mean, he was giving you another quality start a couple days ago. The good thing is the division is still bad. That's the thing is, if the division is bad, there's no sport that plays a series that gives you an opportunity to be good for a little length of time like Major League Baseball does.

Can you see a world where you win a weak division and you get into the playoffs with Brown, Valdez, Araggetty, McCullors, as a viable playoff rotation? Or to be determined on the fourth. And it could be Lance, for sure. It'll be Blueball. Could be Colton Gordon looked good in his last start. Or who am I forgetting? I'm forgetting somebody. Well, you have.

Gusto. Gusto. I mean, yeah. There's a fourth guy that you throw for three, four innings in a playoff game and they go bullpeners. I don't think, frankly, that Brandon Walter is in a mix. It felt very much like a spot start for him. But, you know, he gave you nothing earned over five yesterday. That's the problem is you are running.

into a ridiculous run. And we were kind of afraid of this of guys that are getting you four and five. And that's really starting to wear in the bullpen. And I thought maybe there was a small sign of that yesterday. Yeah, it's a bad spot. By the way, I don't want anybody punting on a season when you are two and a half games out of first place. In May.

Could this decision? Yeah. Could what Aggie Doug say be true? could we get to middle of July and they're floundering or below 500 or worse? If this is the start of a downtrend, it could happen. It's 100% in the very close of the possible outcomes for the Astros. Yeah. Is that all these guys that are the McCullors doesn't work out.

And a blue ball, whoever. You start getting burned, baby, all these guys giving you less than six innings. Your bullpen gets burned out. And the hitting doesn't turn. Right. And then all of a sudden, you're 10, 12 games back, and it's time to sell. Absolutely could happen now. And it would be unfortunate, and a lot of it would be because of the injuries,

and, you know, other stuff with the bats not turning, whether it's declined from aged guys like Jose Altuvain and Christian Walker, and we'll see what happens with Yordon. But, yeah, maybe not right now what Doug is calling for, but it could happen in two months, absolutely. This could be a bad tipping point for the season. I don't want to overreact and say, oh, the season's over. But this is very well.

They could hold it together, too. But Eric Eddy's, what, a month away now? Has he even thrown of baseball? Well, the cast is smaller, but it's still a cast. And, by the way, he's going to have to absolutely have some rehab starts. He's got to rehab. He's going to build back up. He's got to stretch back out.

Yep, yeah. We need to hold on. Again, I don't agree with it, but we can revisit in 45 days. Absolutely. And, by the way, if you're making a move for Framber Valdez, you're not doing it on May 21st. you're going to wait to the very last second to see what you can get back in return. All right, real quick, before we get to Astros on deck. Biscuit is with us at 790 and 1055.

Biscuit, good morning. Hey, I thought about the morning to you, my brothers. Hey, man, real quick, man, Matt, the most famous guy from my hometown. Y'all mentioned him every baseball season. Oh, Tommy John, he's from my hometown. My uncle used to play baseball with him. He's going to get him. He's going to be a baseball season.

Yeah, he, I don't think Tommy John got enough of the, whatever the value is, using his name over and over again, but he's got it. Yeah, yeah. And quickly cheers, man. That was, man. That was my show, man. And the lineup was in the 80s family ties. Oh, I forgot about family ties.

Yeah. I think Night court was in the 90s. So, yeah, that's right. That's right. No, night court was there. A different world got inserted in because they realized whatever we were on in. No, I brought up a different world. I brought it up.

Yeah. Yeah. But, man, last night, And Ross, I don't know. You say it was 11 out of 14. I think it was 14 out of 17, wasn't it? On the free... Maybe you're right.

I can go back in a look. Yeah, but man, this... And the thing about it was, if you watch the replay, he's pushing off and they're calling the file on the deep of the guy. And it took the Minnesota players out of the game. I thought the one guy was going to go over there and push the refs. After one of the calls, they end up reversing it or whatever. But the calls by the refs took Minnesota.

Oh, to smooth out the game. Them dudes was like, and you could look at an ant man and what's name after the press conference after the game. And then, you know, it was totally frustrated. You can't, Mike didn't shoot that many free throws. And Harden shot a lot of free throws, but not in the playoffs. So I don't know what the NBA going to do, but they got to do something about that. All right. Thanks, Mr. President.

For the phone call. Appreciate it. With more on that. Real quick on the NFL, 30 seconds. Tush push stays. Okay. Tush push stays. So Philadelphia went to their Twitter account and said,

Push on or tush on or whatever. And the NFL and the Detroit Lions, Ross, to your dismay, pulling off the vote for a playoffs but not guaranteed home field advantage. The division winners will be guaranteed a home field game in a playoff. The Detroit Lions who initiated the conversation took it off the table. So the Buccaneers can go 8 and 8 and host a playoff game. Good for them. No, they can't.

They have to go 9 and 8 and 8. 9. 17 game season. Oh, whatever. Oh, that's right. 8 and 9 then. I got you at sabbatics. Good job. All right.

Astros on deck. 11 to 17, by the way, for Shea Gildes. I was correct. Okay, biscuit. You're now just toast now. All right. Let's get to Astros on deck with the main headline after Ross tells you about synergenic.