The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 10-08-19

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 10/8/19Verlander is the right decision for Game 4 (0:00)AJ Hinch Joins Matt Thomas As The Astros Prepare for Game 4 of ALDS (17:12)Aaron Reiss Joins Matt and Ross to Discuss The Texans Ahead of KC (55:59)

Much larger than life. Yeah. You sir! Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas Show. Yeah! 12 H-Town, what's happened at lunch timers from St. Petersburg. It's a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790.

2-1. And that's hit in the air pretty deep to right center. Racing back is Reddick at the wall. Looks up and that ball is gone. That ball is gone. A three-run home run for Kevin Kiermire. He almost hit it into the Ray tank in deep right center. And the Ray's lead for the first time in this series, 3-1.

Which is at sail. It's a Homer for Choi. He's now lead four to one on Choi's Homer. All runs have come with two outs. Slow curve balls ripped to left center. Backing up on it, Brayley. He's on the track, and it's gone. Over the wall in left center field for Brom.

Brandon Lowe, third home run given up by Grinky and the Ray's lead 5 to 1. Deep to left center field, Diaz is back looking up. See you later. Reyes hit their fourth home run of the game. Adamas with his second extra base hit of the day and Tampa Bay leads nine to three. Yeah, we got to get all because the focus has to be on finishing off the series tonight and they'll do it hopefully with Justin Verlander on the mound. Hey, it's the Matt Thomas show from St. Petersburg. The whole cast is back. Sports RV. I miss you.

Do you really, though? Well, I mean, I think you're a better roommate these other two gnom skulls I'm with, but other than that, not really. I can see that. Get into details some other time. Yeah, on the internet only show. Pro Nicola is our producer. That's Rossfield Real. I'm Matt Thomas,

and it's nice to have you with us where our 790 on the road is presented by Crawford Bach and the Crawford Brewing Company, Carbock Brewing Company, that is. And you know what? People have heard a lot from me, Ross. I know you did an hour show yesterday. You have to help me out. How was the temperament of the Greater City, Houston,

after a 10-3 beatdown by the raising game three? You know what? I was actually surprised. Well, first of all, in the nightcap last night, we had wall-to-wall calls. That was great. I was appreciative. There was a lot of reaction.

But most of the people were saying, you know what? I understand what's happening. and the race are a good team, and they're going to get one, and unfortunately, Zach Grinky didn't have it, and we're going to go with Verlander tomorrow, and I think I haven't even talked to you about this, Matt, so I'm interested to get your take. I'm all on board with Justin Verlander being the number four starter. I know that in years past, like in 2017, he only came on in relief in a game four scenario, but your starter in that game was Charlie Morton, and Charlie Morton, you can trust.

Charlie Morton you can count on. You can't count on obviously Wade Miley who was used in relief and you can't count on Jose Orkidi who's making his 10th who would be making his 10th ever major league baseball appearance. So I am all on board with Verlander starting today's game. It feels like there needs to be some heavy lifting done. I think frankly the Astros feel like their offense needs to generate some more, get some run support even if it doesn't and it's a lower scoring game. Who's got a better chance for Ross is surviving that? A young man who's a rookie

or a guy that has been there and done that? And that's the reason why. And the thing I'll say this to the audience is that I was in the media room as soon as the game was over with when it was asked about who's starting game four. And AJ was very matter of fact about it. Oh, it's Justin Verlander. And when asked why, he goes, well, because he's one of the greatest on earth. And I'm paraphrasing here a little bit.

But it was so like, I've had this in my playbook. He wasn't hesitating. he was very, not in a little, but very matter of fact about it. And it kind of gave you of, well, we should have thought of that earlier. The only thing, Ross, is to your point, is that he just hasn't done this ever in his major league career. I mean, there's a few little astric kind of things. But generally speaking, to throw 100 pitches four days ago and dominate the way that he did and then pitch on the three days rest, which is something that Justin, for all the amazing things he's done in his career, has it done,

you would think it would be more of a whoa moment. But AJ, I think, downplayed it, and it kind of downplayed the whole, you know, wow factor that was JV going on a short rest. Because here's the thing, Ross. If they win this game, it's not like JV's not going to pitch in one of those first two games in New York. He'll pitch game two at home against Minutemey as compared to game one.

And oh, by the way, your game one start will be Gary Cole. So you're picking your poison on this, and I think he just played all the percentages and said, my heavy hitters are still available to me in games one and two, even if I move JV in his number four spot today. Yeah, I think, like you said, he was very matter of fact about it, and then that was pretty much what he said.

He was asked why Justin Verlanner, he said, it's pretty simple. He's one of the best pitchers in the world. He's one of the best pitchers in the world. It's no more complicated than that. I mean, he's ready, and it's his game. So obviously we have a backup plan in games, in game five if we needed.

But he's one of the best pitchers in the world. It's pretty simple. It's hard to argue with that. Yeah, here's the storyline for me. The Astros batches aren't really crushing. And that even goes back to the first two games. I mean, a lot of late game clutch hitting. There were some home runs.

Jose Altoouvi kind of gave you pause for excitement early on when he went hit the home run early against Charlie in the first inning. And that's really been the storyline for me is it's not just Springer. It's not just the nine-hole hitter. whomever that may be. It's a combination of folks. And the truth of it is, Ross, and I know fans don't want to hear this sometimes, but this other team the Astros are facing is really good. Rossi, Charlie Morton's probably going to finish either third or fourth in the Cy Young contest, okay? Blake Snell won at the year before. This isn't the AAA raise the Astros are facing.

This isn't Seattle or Anaheim or the White Sox or Baltimore. This is the freaking team. Tampa Bay raise. They deserve respect. The Astros are clearly better than they are. I think they're going to finish it off tonight. I feel very confident about that. But this is a really good team that has built confidence. They want a wallet card game. They're gray in their building. The Astros are in this building. So it kind of all comes together to say, all right, if you really are better than Tampa Bay, like everybody thinks you are, including me and you, you're going to beat the race tonight. You're going to end this thing in four games. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the raise are on scholarship, too. The raise are professionals, too.

They're a really good team. They won 96 games. They beat the Oakland A's, who won 97 games. I mean, the pitching that they've thrown out, and then the bats have been quiet, Matt, but also I think you have to tip the cap a little bit to the race pitching. I mean, Charlie Morton, Tyler, Tyler, in Game 1, and Blake Snell, I mean, those guys, especially Glassnow early in his outing, and then the other two guys, they were really good, and they've been good all season, or at least in points of their career,

or Glassnow was really good in his four-starts since coming off of his injury. So, I mean, yes, you got the most potent. lineup in baseball, but the other guys are really good, too, and I think we obviously recognize that. And it's not like the, I mean, yes, they scored three yesterday, but they scored six in game two. I mean, and what was in game one, five, or whatever it was. So it's not like they've been just held to zero one runs at any point, but they've been running up against some good pitching. And the other guys are really good, too. And so now you've got to take care of business with Justin Verlander on the mound against a, I guess a collection of openers and, and, and, and, you're going to,

followers and follow what do you what do you call the second guy when there's an opener uh you know there is actually a term uh primary pitcher i think is what primary is what i want to go opener and followed by primary yeah i want to change that matt i think it should be the headliner like a concert you get the opener you get some guy to set the tone and then you get the headliner i want that change nationally to headliner how about the marquee hmm the marquee pitcher i like that one i like that one i that one too. But it's just, I mean, it's a variation of mine, but that's fine. Well, no, I'll give you credit. If yours

changes, you'll get the credit. Thank you, Matt. Although, I do want to assist. All right, let's do this. Let's take some phone calls. AJ Hanch is going to join us to the bottom of the hour from St. Petersburg. I'm guessing 15 minutes from here. Matt has eye trouble.

He's having trouble seeing Dallas win anything anytime soon. Sorry about that friends to the north. Not to the Matt the show. The time is 1218 with Ross and Nick back in Houston. I'm at St. Petersburg, Florida for game two of the, it's just a game four. American League Division Series. We'll have the coverage for beginning at 4 o'clock with the on-deck show. Net join at 530. First pitch at 6 o'clock, central time on sports talk 790. One thing I want to mention from one of our great sponsors,

and then we will go to your phone calls at 713-212-5-790. You guys have heard me talk about U.S. coins for quite some time, and they are big Astro fans. And so I got a text from Kenny this morning who runs the operation, the Duncan family, and says, look, if the Astros beat the raise tonight, anybody that comes by tomorrow, meaning Wednesday, while they're open, we'll get a free ounce of silver. It's a nice little consolation, a bonus prize, if you will. So if you are a collector of gold and silver or I'm thinking about starting to do so, tomorrow would be the day to get over to U.S. coins at 8435K. freeway. That's 8435 KD Freeway. And you can win a free ounce of silver

if the Astros beat the raise tonight. Rossi, I'm assuming and no one's directly asked, well, I ask AJ, and maybe he'll hold it close to the vest, but I can't imagine anything else. If the Astros do slip up tonight, which hopefully isn't the case, Garrett Cole's going game five, right?

The season's on the line. There's no other options, right? He would be, yeah, Garrett Cole, game five, and he would be on full rest, correct? Full rest, yeah. So, I don't want to bring that up. I didn't want to think about a game five. But let me tell you something, Ross. I respect the race.

They're not as good as the Astros, but the Astros bats, some of them, have been insanely quiet. We know about George so far. Michael Brantley. Michael Brantley. Reddick, Tucker.

And really, frankly, the outfield has just not done much so far in this series. Yeah, it's definitely a concern. I mean, even in the hit, I mean, Carl's Correa's got a couple of hits, but I think I would say only one of them was like a really good, well-struck hard hit. ball. There's just been some struggle. The other guys are hitting well, but we know the Astros are capable

of busting on any time. I mean, case in point, George Springer, when he was struggling. And remember Matt taking the calls of why is George Springer still leading off in the World Series? And then we know what happened there. Right. He had, he was the MVP. Yeah. Again, I'm going to tell you this, and I would tell you otherwise, if I really thought the Astros were Uber underperforming Ross, I think we would be strong enough to say that. This is a good race baseball team with a good bullpen, good starters, and as you said, 95 regular season wins. 96. 96.

You forget the. And a wildcard win. I mean, they don't mess around. This is not, you know, we make fun of their lack of fans or the crappy stadium or the fact that you, you know, that there's a waffle house every 75 yards. Their mascots killed Steve Irwin. Yeah. And that live mascot's kind of a really, really bizarre looking fuzzy thing. Ooh, really?

You know what his name is for $10,000 MT bucks? Ray. You're close. Raymond. I'm not lying to you. They went to the drawing board. This is what they did. This is the marketing meeting.

All right, guys, we're going to have this Tampa Bay Ray. He's going to be costumed. He's going to look really weird and fishy. And we've got to come up with a name. Come up with something Ray related, but something clever, something good. And then the manager walks out and everybody's like, all right, you good guys, good with Raymond? Yeah, sure, whatever. Let's go home.

Let's go to line. lunch. That was Ray's Marketing 101. Larry and Laporte on 790 and 1222. Hi, Larry. Hello, Matt. Hi. Top of the day to you. Sure.

Last time we talked, I remember asking you to ask AJ if he thought that his hitters were having a struggle with the outside pitch. You and Ross had a giggle about it. We do. I can tell you, I've watched the ball season long. They have a problem with the curve ball. And the players you just named have a problem with the outside pitch. They're trying to pull it instead of going with it.

The only prayer right now that's basically going with the pitch is Gereal. Brantley is trying to pull everything. The outside pitch, he's grounding until the shift. Go with the pitch. I mean, you ain't got nothing to lose. Correa will take a third track on the outside corner. waiting to pull the ball. I mean, pitchers now are the best of the league.

They can throw that ball three and four times where they want to. If he got a good curve ball, they can paint that outside corner, we're going to struggle. Verlander is good, but I have seen Burlander lose a game with two hits, two home runs. We lost the game, two to one. The hitters have the hit smart. You know what I like? I like how he just goes, starts to go up at the end of a sentence. They can't hit the curb ball.

Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Larry is a national treasure to this. Struggle! Why does it go low and then up? It's like a roller coaster ride listening to Larry. Some of the best orators do that all the time. That's true.

They're going to struggle. Do you remember Zig Zigler when we used to have to listen to him in sixth grade? No. I don't remember that or not. We would listen to motivational speaker Zig Zig Zigler. Oh, really? I thought that was a wrestler. No, no, he was a motivational speaker.

He's been long, gone. but he would say, and you can do the best things for you in your life. That's exactly what that guy sounded like. But be careful. You make wrong decisions and you might get in trouble. Larry, don't ever change. Don't ever change. That's why I will take his phone call until I'm 115 years old.

If I'm in a whole old folks home eating food out of a blender, I'm taking Larry's phone call. Because, man, he is going to go to that outside pitch card. It's like he's reading from the same Bible verse every day. Preaching the gospel of the outside pitch. Let's go to Randy and Spring on 790. Hi, Randy. Hi, how are you?

Wonderful. Yeah, I wanted to ask the contract status of five different pitchers that we have. Lance McCullors, Jr., Brad Peacock, Ryan Presley, Will Harris, and Roberto Osuna. Okay, I'm not sitting there looking at their contracts in front of me. I'm going to have to probably, you know what I'll do for you? I'm going to put you on hold, and we will go over all that for you coming out of AJ Hinch, because I've got AJ here. All I can tell you is McCullors under team control. Who are the other four?

Brad Peacock, Ryan Presley, Will Harris, and Roberta Osuna. Okay. I think Osuna is still under team control. I don't know, but the three. I'd have to go look. But yeah, give us a little bit of time. We'll hear some pretty sure as a free agent. The others, I'm not sure.

Okay. We'll put sports RV on the assignment on that. Well, I mean, you know, what do you do? What do you do the last couple of days? You can do this for us. Watching baseball? There you go. From one part of St. Petersburg, Florida, the other where you say hi

of the manager of your Houston Astros up two games to one in the ALDS against Tampa Bay. Skip, good afternoon. Thank you for the time. I don't ask a whole lot of, are you what your post game messages to guys, but was it dramatically different than any other normal loss? Or do you try to keep it even keel knowing that obviously a post-season setbacks a lot different than a regular season loss? Yeah, no, I think you have to stay consistent with how you operate.

I mean, I think the players look for me, look to me for consistency. And, you know, this group is very, very polished. very, very experienced, very aware of the moment. There's really no need to say much. There's not a real message to these guys after wins or losses. It's more, you know, kind of lay out the plan and what's at stake. I, you know, I think for me yesterday, the game is really about Charlie Morton escaping the first and then, you know, it's not being able to contain, contain their power.

And you look up and they win game three. And when you draw it up, this series is always about momentum. And the playoffs bring this anxiousness and reactiveness to all sorts of things. But I pride myself in being a pretty calm heartbeat in the room and deliver some messages, some encouragement to Springer on things he's doing that he can do well, some stuff with our catching and more than anything, just the positivity to get to the next game because you can't carry, you know, this, the ups and downs of it's such an emotional time of the year.

You can't carry this stuff with you every single day. otherwise, you know, you'll regret it at the end. Yeah, I don't want to spend a whole lot of time about yesterday, but I'm curious. You got Charlie to 50 pitches, I think, through two innings. More times than not, especially in a playoff series, that's a good number to have. And so did it feel like to you a lot of missed opportunities

because the pitch count was so high early? Yeah, maybe the first inning is, and say missed opportunity, I mean, he's a really good pitcher who's, you know, arguably in the top five in the Saut Young race. So we've seen him be really good. And if you get them early and get them on the ropes, you know, I would have loved to have a single. in the first inning.

If you really can knock that two-out-based hit and all of a sudden it's three-knob, and I think Kevin Cash has to get the bullpen going and there's an anxiety that comes with an elimination game and you're losing. And we weren't able to break through with that and then he started locking in his breaking ball. It got really, really good as the game went on.

We saw him get stronger. He ran out of pitches, which was because of how he worked him in the first part of the game, but he got through five and their team had hit a couple balls out of the park and taken a lead in their bullpen got the momentum of the building and got their last out. So I wish if I, you know, do it over again, you'd roll a base hit through the infield, you know, an opportune time.

But these are really good teams that are playing against each other this time of year. So it doesn't shock me that their guys step up when needed as well. So you have it, just to be safe on this, you have not grabbed your entire outfield and said, what's the matter with your bats? Let's go. Come on, boys, right? You haven't done that at this juncture? I mean, if you think they're not trying?

I mean, it's a tough, it's tough, man. And obviously, we haven't swung the bats well. But then you can say what's going on with our hitters, or you can be reminded that this is one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. So I try to stay positive with them. We do need some better performances out of our guys and a couple timely hits. But I'm back these guys for 162. I'm not going to start reacting to some struggles against some really high-end pitching

just because it's the playoffs. It's just falling this together. and they're trying. They're working. They're trying to get good pitches. And it's a reminder. It's a tough level of league, and we're going to try to get it done tonight. I was in your press conference after the game,

and you were so matter of fact, Cool's a cucumber when it asked about the starter for tonight. You know, it's, oh, it's Justin Verland. And then you went on to explain it. He's one of the best out there. My wife is texting me during the game yesterday. She was like, AJ and Justin are talking a lot during the game. When you find out, I said, well, probably it's because dinner reservations or something.

But can you shed some light on maybe some of the game? on maybe some of the things you guys discuss as the game was progressing. Sure. Well, I mean, this discussion started after his game one started Houston where this time of year, every single team will talk about who's going to be able to come back on short rest or who's available on any given day.

And if you watch these games, and I'm watching every single playoff game that I can, and I see Clayton Kershaw in the bullpen. I saw Max Scher in the bullpen. You see all these starters that you never see down in the pen. They're always in the pen. And so that's just this time of year. certainly gotten popular across the league to utilize your best pitchers.

Corby came in the other day for Washington, didn't work out for him. So these guys are always available, it seems like, this time of year. So when JV. and I talked after his game one, sorry, I didn't want to distract him about game four until after game one. And I said, look, you're probably going to be available in game four. So your work between now and then kind of keep that in mind. So as the game, as the game's got on, Garrett goes out, goes his gem. We win game two.

Justin approached me on the off day. We were here in Tampa and, like, what do you think about a potential game four? And I said, let me think about it. And so we kind of went back and forth. And then yesterday during the game, I was just double and triple checking with him on how he was feeling, what he did. You know, I wanted him to get together with, I was kind of instructing. Hey, if we, if I'm losing this game, I am going to go to you, told him during the game,

that I'll announce it after the game. And I said, my thought, and I told him this. during the game is I'm going to pitch you tomorrow no matter what. Then preparing for a start getting the normal warm-up routine, there's no urge to bring you in with runners on base. It's as close to normal as possible if I'm going to use you anyway with Garrett Cole, possibly as a game five. So after the game ended, I said I'm going to announce it,

and let's go talk to the media and let's go win game four. So I don't think I've ever asked you this and all the time with JV as a member of your team. JV and a pitch count, should we even be thinking about it? looking at it at any point during the course of the game today? Well, I think it depends on effective. I think JV., and effectiveness is something I look at all the time. I mean, there's times I've taken them out in 80s. It's time I've taken them out in the 90s.

It's times you've gone 100 plus. I think it's just going to depend on the feedback that we get from the hitters on how they're reacting to his stuff and then how his stuff is coming out of his hand and how he's executing. So, I mean, I'm going to read the game as closely as I ever do and get constant feedback from JV. I'll probably approach him a little bit more today rather than I,

instead of the other games where I don't generally talk to him much until the end of his outing. I'll check with him to make sure he's good. But these guys are adrenaline junkies when it comes to getting themselves ready. I mean, I don't think this is as big a deal as everybody portrays it.

In fact, last year in 2018 ALCS, you know, I went into a game thinking that we had the Red Sox right where we wanted David Price was come back. He'd been injured. we weren't sure how far he was going to go and he did pretty well he kind of shoved it up our rear end so you know again I want to read the game

as naturally as possible I can put all sorts of expectations or limitations on him and he's probably going to exceed no matter what I plan for it 130 or whatever time it is right now well I got to tell you this in all honesty and it wasn't like I was nervous when you said it or thought about it but

I left your availability saw JVs a little bit I was like why didn't we make, I wouldn't say nobody made a big deal of it. It was just conjecture about, would you go with Wade or would you go with Jose or what would you do? Yeah, nobody asked me. Yeah, I mean, nobody asked me. It was never a thought

honestly, AJ, it was never a thought of us thinking about you going to JV being up to one. Down to one, I would have said, all right, he's going to have to do it because he wants to put the heavy horses in. So it's just amazing to me that for as long as he's been in the major leagues and as many innings and as much postseason

success, this is the first time that he will legitimately start a game on three days. So regardless of how what we think of him or how awesome he is or what he's been, there is a little mystery about this game tonight in that respect. There is. But I think there's a mystery about a lot of games. I mean, we've played a couple elimination games on the other end where you're not quite sure what you're going to get out of your starter.

Again, like, if I take a step outside of the Astros bubble that we're in and we're so focused on our own stuff and you watch other games, I mean, there's also a scenario in play where you get the game five and you don't get to utilize Jake and Cole in the same game as effectively as you want, either just by the way the game goes or now you're asking one of your pitchers to do not only something different, but do something different at the turn of a dime of a game and asking Gary Cole to get ready late in the game as well and not have his normal routine. So there's breaking your routine and what you're used to doing, and then there's the game five pressure that comes with that. or when, you know, I remember going into last season, whenever we had game seven, I'm sorry, 2017, Game 7 of the World Series, I didn't expect Lance McCullors to only go two plus. Yeah. I expected it to go a little bit further, but the pressure of the last game will lead to different decisions.

And again, I'm not thinking about game five right now. We've already made that decision. And we know what we're going to do if we get pressed to the, to the brink of elimination, like every team in the National League is tomorrow. But I think there's other context involved. to where, you know, this guy is Justin Verlander can go. I don't think the other side is like high-fiving that they have a Justin Verlander on three threats coming to the ballpark today.

They know they got their work cut out for them. All right. Last question for you. And you've gone through many bullpen games before. The race have done it for the last couple of years. And just a refresh audience, what do you tell your hitters when, in theory, they're probably not going to be facing the same pitcher more than once in a game, especially as important as this one is?

Yeah, we're a little used to it by now because every team does some form of this at some point. Maybe not at the rate that the race do, but we're kind of used to it. I think you just have to win today this at bat. If the win this, George Springer is going to face Diego Castia to lead off, like win that at bat. Just like we'd ask you to win it in the seventh inning or the eighth inning or whenever he normally pitches in a one at bat outing as a reliever, I think that's the only thing you can really do to prepare mentally. Now you're not setting a guy up. You're not going to look for a particular pitch and think you're going to get it later in the game.

You've got to get your intel quickly. You're only going to face these guys once. And then we will, you know, adjust as they adjust. I don't know what they're going to do. And neither does he right now. I don't think Kevin Cash has a script that he's going to try to fill because he's got to read game as well. So focus on the bat that you have. Don't try to set them up for later in the game, win the bat and win the game.

We'll leave it that. Skip, thank you for the time. Best of luck tonight. Look forward to our wrap on this series up and visiting with you. later next week. Thanks for the time as always. You got it. All right, AJ Hitch with us here from St. Petersburg on Sports Talk 790. This is Craig Ackerman.

And the Rockets get the job done. Oh, here's another new catchphrase I have for you. Good gracious. Good gracious! You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Ross, did you get up early this morning to watch the Rockets against the hated Toronto Raptors? No. Yeah, that was kind of early.

Matt Thomas, by the way, did pretty well. I think he had a three-point and a rebound for Toronto. Who? Matt Thomas, the Raptors. Oh, there's a Matt Thomas and the Raptors? I am dying for him to make the team. Are you dying? Dying.

I mean, I'm serious. I will fully be confused with him and have zero problem with it. Okay. All right. Let's clear up something from an earlier caller. about the contract status, Ross, while I was interviewing AJ, did the research like a mudda like you always do on the show. Rossi, can you give us an update, please, on the contract of one, Lance McCullors? All right, Matthew, let's get you updates of all these people on the whims of what?

What are you playing in the background? The great entertainer? Yeah, I just get some music going for you. Okay, I'll go with that. Sure. Lance McCullors is going through arbitration this year This year! This year, and he's earliest of free agent at 2022.

Right. Well, what else he seems to throw me off? Should you do this in an old-timey voice since you have this? Lance McCullors is arbitration until two-out-two. Yeah. Ryan Presley, step in the stage, please. Ryan, when is your contractor? up.

Ryan Presley signed for... I can't even do it. I don't even know. Well, he signed for $8.75 million, Matt, for this year and next. He has a $10 million vesting option in 2022. Vests with 60 games played a piece in the year before. What the year after? This is confusing.

He's early as free agent in 2022. He's under contract for the next two years for 8. point seven five mil apiece. Will Harris. Is a free agent. Ooh. He's loving this year. Yeah.

Loving this year. Contract year. It's working out for him. Bradwick peacock. Bradley. Bradley Peacock is arbitration eligible this year, and this is his last year under team control.

Okay. And Robert Ratsuna. Roberto Osuna also arbitration eligible earliest free agent 2022 so he's got two meters of control man the 2022 season is going to be really impactful for us as astrophage it's Carlos Correa it's Roberto Osuna and Lance McCullors o'allors oh that's going to cost you some dollars if you want to keep all three of them well you know or you should just ship off Carlos Correa for junk as most people

on our Facebook comments want unfortunately they're all IP right What are you talking about? Okay, good. I don't want to make sure I don't want to slip that in just to slip in. Imperial Palace? Correct. 713212-1-2-5. Incontinent people?

Yeah. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-9 if you want to get in. Coming up next hour, we'll hear from Aaron Reese, talk some Texans football, as they get ready for Kansas City this week. More Astros on the conversation than Adam and Adam are actually going to step in and do two hours of a radio program today because we want them to grind it out leading into a phone. 4 o'clock on deck from the Trop. Let's go to Marvin on 790 at 1252. Marvin, good afternoon.

Hey, how's it going? You enjoying it there, Matt? It's not bad. It's been raining a lot here, but you know what? It's playoff baseball, so I don't really. If this beats being in like 41 degrees Minneapolis, I'll tell you that for sure. That's true, yeah. I saw where they had some rain.

Other ballpark's last night. You know, I was just going to ask you, we're asking way and two. And to me, as far as pitching, hitting, offense, you know, and, of course, the twins were able to hit the cover off the ball, but we knew the pitching wasn't that great. To me, down the stretch, what the race had to do to, you know, keep pace with the A's and get in the postseason, that the Astros may have drew the toughest team.

I mean, as far as, you know, overall, what do you think about that? No, they're all very good. I mean, Minnesota, you know, look, the Yankees are just way better of the Minnesota. The raise, if they were in this spot, I would have been surprised that they wouldn't want a game. I'm not saying that the Yankees are any better than the Astros are. Maybe the Rae's Yankees would have gone to four because, again, the raise and Yankees played each other all the time, and they've had a lot of success against each other. The twins have just been snake-bid in the postseason, but I don't think Oakland would have

possessed any bigger of a challenge of the Astros in Tampa. I mean, Tampa's good. Tampa's really good. There are a 96-win baseball team, and they need to be respected that way. So there's nothing fluky about this series going to a fourth game. The Rays have done very well in this building, and the Astros have not. So it's a perfect storm of guys that are struggling a little bit offensively. Zach Grinky was not good yesterday. But the wall card is that Verlander wants to go on three days, and so he's going to do so. And we'll see how it goes, and we'll just see how deep the bullpen goes,

because I will say this, Marvin, and thank you for the phone call. I firmly get the sense, Ross, that this is not going to be. seven innings and 110 pitches. This is going to be, and the reason why I brought a pitch count to AJ is I think they're going to keep a lot closer of a watch on it than they ever normally do with their ace pitcher. Yeah, I think so, but I mean,

I think, I expect Justin Verlander to be honest with AJ. And like AJ said, he can tell when he's kind of losing it or he can tell when he's getting gas and all that type of stuff. And we've heard in times past, like in 2017, the ALCS against the Yankees where

Justin Verlander and the dugouts, said and AJ said as well, he just went to him and said, hey, you know what? I'm out of gas. You've got to take me out. So I think Justin Verlander is smart. He's a veteran guy. He knows that when he's helping the team versus when he's hurting the team. And if he doesn't have it, he's going to speak up. And I expect him to do that. So all I will say is this. I think the bullpen plays a much bigger role. The question is, how do you slide that bullpen in? Let's say that get you six.

Can you go? I'll go under that. Okay, let's put, let's put something a little bit on it. Let's say he goes five and a third. Oh, that'd be great. That's three and two thirds. Perfect world.

They're winning. Do you go get Joe Smith to get you an out? Can you go get Harris to give you an inning, Presley an inning, and Osuna an inning? Could four guys finish up three and two thirds? Or do you feel like it could

be even, that's why today feels like, especially if J.B. doesn't get you the six, it could be one of those situations where AJ has got all the bullets in his gun ready to go. He might go position by position, you know, that typical playoff, one batter face, two better face kind of thing. Yeah, especially with the day off tomorrow, I would expect him to, uh, empty the clip as they say. Yeah, I will say this. And this is breaking no news to anybody. They need this one. I do believe they'd be still a very, very strong favorite to win a game five at home. But what it would do is if you have to go to five, it is going to put your front end of your rotation in kind of a tough spot.

Because the earliest that JV could throw would be game two of the American League Championship series. You're not going to put them back to back on short rest in two straight appearances. And then you've lost Cole for three or four, depending on what happens in game five, if it happens to be played on Thursday. Would that be cold be good for game three? yes of a potential a lsies Saturday Sunday month yeah yeah he'd be ready for game three okay so you go Grinky Verlander

Cole so in reverse order but you're still good in your three first three in the first three of the series but yeah not ideal I'm with you it would be kind of a situation like what happened to the Astros in the 2005 World Series where you had to burn thanks Brad Lidd you had to burn

Roy Oswald in the clenching game let me tell you this are we in a spot where Zach Granky may need to pitch at home. Does that make any sense to you? You mean in relief? No, I'm talking about Zach Granky.

Would he be better served pitching in Houston, Texas, as compared to somewhere else? You mean he would pitch better there? I'm confused. Meaning that maybe he's not nearly as good on the road as he is at home. If you're going to put him in a... If nerves are an issue and postseason problems of yesterday year creep up, is he better serve pitching in Houston, Texas?

I mean, that's not even really home to him. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not in the guy's brain. Nobody is. He's very hard to read. Let's see. He had his best postseason starts on pulling it up.

He's had his best postseason starts with the Dodgers. One was on the road at St. Louis and one was at home against St. Louis. Another one was at home against St. Louis. Yeah, maybe you know what? Maybe he's just better at home in the playoffs. Look at Jake Kaplan texting me about game three options. How about that? About pitching Jess and Verlinter on three days' rest.

He's trying to brag through text. The one and only Jake Kaplan's doing these things. Oh, he's listening to the show? He's a big fan of the show. Really? He's listening to AJ. Yeah. Was he listening right now?

I don't know, but he definitely listened to AJ talk to us a few minutes. Okay, good. Yeah, that's what he did. Yeah, that's pretty much. I'm sure. Okay, let's get the second hour start of the Matt Thomas show momentarily. We got Ross and Nick back in Houston. I'm here in St. Petersburg.

thanks to Carbock Brewing and the Crawford-Bock. And we want to remind you that you can join us right now at 7-13-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Hey, this is Russell Westbrook. Put a grand in your hand on Sports Talk 790. Text this nationwide keyword, pizza, P-I-Z-A to 200-200. You'll get a confirmation text and info. Standard data and message rates apply in this nationwide contest.

Put a grand in your hand. on Sports Talk 790, flagship station of your Rockets. Text Pizza to 200-200-200. Yeah. Is the Matt Thomas Show. Here we go at 103 on Sports Talk 790. A abbreviated edition of the Matt Thomas show here from St. Petersburg. Ross and I are going to take you to 2 o'clock, and then the A team will jump in an hour early

while I head over to Tropicana Field for game. four of the American League champ division series. Diego Castillo in an opener role will start for the raise. It'll be Justin Verlinder on three days' rest. If you guys want to jump in, we're open to the bottom of the hour when we visit with

Aaron Reese from the Athletic for a little Texans update. I don't see what's going on with your team that is tied for first place in the AFC South. 713-212 5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. And Ross, we can make a little bit of fun of the stadium known as

Tropicana field, but it was full. I wouldn't say it was crazy loud, although four home runs certainly makes it a lot of ballpark. And the race for me have done more home run hitting than I ever thought they were going to do. They had, what, four home runs in the game against Oakland Wallcard. They're a good hitting team, but not anywhere near the top five or six, I think, all season and home runs hit. So their power has come in the last handful of days and probably for them a way to keep them alive in this series.

Yeah, basically their formula is, well, it wasn't a close game yesterday, but their formula is to get by with enough hitting and then let their pitching do the talking. And that's what's been working for them the entire season. But, I mean, they got some guys that can hit in that lineup. G. Man, Choi gets chance for him. Travis Darnode is his thing. I mean, it's a good baseball team. Austin Meadows was good all year hitting.

I'm trying to pull up their team hitting now, like run scored numbers. Where were they compared to everybody else in America? I'd be curious to know where they are. Yeah, I'm trying to... Good bullpen, starting pitching with Charlie Borden and Blake Snell, although Snell only pitched a handful. You know, this is a good... It's a nice baseball team that must be defeated

because I don't want a bunch of nervous Nellys on the show tomorrow between 12 and 3. They were 18th in the entire Major League and runs scored, so ninth in the American League. So middle of the pack. Yeah. And it feels that way, too, right? Yeah. Yeah, certainly feels that way.

I will say this. And Ross, and I don't know if this is a sports stadium is a good example for you. Has there ever been a place that you've seen on television five million times and you go, oh, this is awesome? And then you get there and you go like, eh. And then there is places where you go, man, that place looks like hot garbage and it's not nearly as bad. The phrase for me that I've used like 500 times and I've been here is that the folks with the Tampa Bay Rays have literally put lipstick on a pig. They've done the most with a dump. That's good.

I mean, I guess I would kind of feel like the... the cotton bowl, but I like old. Like the cotton bowl is old and dumpy, but I kind of like that. Like there, you go to the bathroom and it's troughs and it has this. Oh, yeah. To me, there's like an old world charm with that and people are like, oh, we got to move this game to Jerry World. I was like, no, just keep it in the cotton bowl. It's old, but it's just, I mean, it's an old relic, but I kind of like that type of stuff.

I like dumps, actually. Yeah. The roof is just, it looks like it hasn't been power washed ever. I don't know if you can ever power wash it, whatever that is made of. Yeah, that's going to cost you, Matt. I'm going to get a group on for that or something. There are rips in it. What?

I told us to Michael Connor, I've been staring at the rips for like two days. I'm like, if it rains, which we've had rain here in each of the last couple of days since we've been here, if it rains, it's going to come in here and, you know, not that Minutemank Park hasn't had its issues with rain too, but there's, there's tears in the damn thing. That's terrifying. And then everything is just old. There's no creature comforts, but they've taken the best space they can. like apparently the outfield area's got a lot of cool different restaurants and bars and places to hang out, kind of like we have out in center field at Minutemade, and the Torchie's out in towards Wright Center. They're doing things, but it is just an old, dilapidated, narrow, non-luxurious park where, you know, Fenway has its charm,

Camden Yards, Minut Maid, Dodgers State. There's just nothing. Here, the easy way to describe it for the audience back home is there's just nothing charming about it. It's just a big round, multi-purpose stadium that just has never drawn people because over here in St. Petersburg, most of the population lives on the other side of the bay in Tampa, and it's just hard to get to. And that plus the fact there's not a lot of disposable income here, a lot of retirees. It's just they're really serious, by the way, about this. They still believe they got a shot at playing half their games in Montreal and the not-d-duty system future,

which I think would be awful for Major League Baseball. And my next question, Matt, is, what's the consideration? casino situation down there and have you gone. There is one in Tampa. There's not one here in St. Pete. But I've been to Waffle House, which is, let me just explain where we are. How far away is Tampa from St. Pete? 20 minutes.

Oh, okay. It's just over a bridge. Not like over a bridge, like a long causeways, what they call it. We are in St. Petersburg, a little dicey, to be honest with you. And we're budgeting because we're obviously watching the one of the team to go the World Series. And, you know, New York is going to cost a lot more money to travel to than, say, St. Pete, per se. So we have a nice hotel. We're very comfortable, but there is a racetrack gasoline convenience store next to our hotel, which is fine.

Wait a minute. It's a convenience store slash racetrack? No, racetrack is the name. Oh, okay, the brand. Yeah, yeah. No, yeah. They still have racetracks here? I haven't seen it.

Okay, yeah, okay. Okay. Next to that is a place called the Tropicana Inn where drug dealers are being done, convinced. Okay, would you buy? Well, as I told the Uber driver yesterday, I said, you buy it the Tropicana Inn. so you can actually use it here at the hotel that we are at. Okay. And then there's a Waffle House right next to that when we have been,

I've been there twice already since we've been here. So that's, so what did you do on your trip to St. Pete, honey? I went to the racetrack. Oh, cool. The horses, you put some bets down where they got the greyhounds? No, the convenience store. Convenience store, yeah. That's why I'm working and grinding here, sports RV.

This is not a lap of luxury. This is about the covering an Astros baseball team. Is that what the Visitors Bureau told you to get you went to there and got a pamphlet and it said, come see our brand new racetrack? I don't even think it's new, but they have a, you know, I think the ice is are 89 cents all day long, no matter what the size of the ounce. So you got that going for you. Would you like some Jack Links beef jerky?

We can accommodate. Let's go to Jimmy in Indiana on 790 at 110. Jimmy, how are you, sir? I'm doing great. How are you all today? Good, good. Bringing up back when you were talking about Granky pitching at home, I brought up that same question to Sean this morning. Verlander pitched tonight, Cole pitch game one, Granky pitch game two, then Verlander again on game three.

For the fact that with Granky's anxiety, and one of the reports that came out when he was traded to us was that he didn't want to go to the Yankees because he didn't want to play in New York with his anxiety. Have a problem? Well, let me tell you something. He has got anxiety. Okay, that has been well documented. But he's also pitched in every major league ballpark and had some sort of success. I can't imagine, and I don't have his splits, but I can't imagine there is a venue that

is so porous that you couldn't pitch him in. I was just throwing that out just to kind of say that maybe from a comfort perspective because yesterday his changeup was flat. It didn't move around. He didn't keep the batters off speed. He didn't mix his pitches effectively enough, relied too much in the changeup, and those Tampa Bay hitters, knowing the scounder report on Granky, sat back, waited on it and unloaded. And he was not good yesterday.

And again, I have a terrible read on him because he just doesn't speak. He gives one word answers. I don't think it's the most professional thing in the world, but that's either here nor there. I don't care about it because I'm just saying, you know what, just we're not looking for four and a half minutes of baseball chatter, just politely answer the questions, but that's to each his own. I just want to pitch well.

I don't care if he's a yuckster or tells jokes or says anything. Just pitch well. He hasn't been bad. He just hasn't been nearly as good as a guys in front of him. And that's the thing that's unfair to Zach is that, frankly, Jimmy, is that when you have two guys that are so tightly contesting a Cy Young, anybody else that fattles him up isn't going to be nearly as good. And Zach's been good.

He just hasn't been nearly as what you'd want from your first two guys in your rotation. And that's why I was just thinking maybe like you, he'd feel more comfortable pitching and minute-made than he would be Yankee Stadium. You know, I don't know. I mean, that's a great question. I mean, you know what, when you get paid the kind of money, thank you for the phone call, Jimmy and Ross, I bet you're backing me up on this. When you make the kind of money that Zach makes, if we ask him to pitch in the Soviet Union he would play, you'd have to do it. You have to step up and rise the occasion if you're going to make the kind of money that Zach Rankies made so far in his majorling career. Yeah.

I mean, look, this was honestly, that was the worst start of his entire playoff career that he had. So he can only go up from here? Yeah. Plus, again, it's not like the Tropicana Field is this, you know, oh, my God. Pitchers walk in, but it don't come out kind of thing. The rabid fan, crazy fans. of Tampa. Like, they announced 32,000 here yesterday and I was like,

wow, 32,000. I don't think that an announcement said 32,000 in a long ass time. All right, 713-212-5-790. Hey, it's Carmelo Anthony. The Matt Thomas show. Continues. On your home of the Rockets. Sports Talk, 790. Yes.

7-1-3-212-5-79. If you want to get in, 7-1-3-2-2-5-7-90 with Ross and Nick Loughbackin. Houston, I'm at in St. Petersburg. Richard Sherman, apparently, Ross, before we go back to some more astral calls, was upset that Baker Mayfield did not shake his hand. Barstool Sports showing a video on their Twitter feed that says, yes, they did right after the game last night between the Browns and the 49ers.

And then now Richard Sherman apparently is clarified and said, I don't know why this is a controversy, but apparently clarified and said that Baker darted away after the toss. I don't even know what that means. the old darted away. He ran away too fast from us. I don't know. I'm not sure what I'm not sure what proper protocol is. I don't know what is happening or what it is.

But apparently Albert Breer saying he said it was Baker Mayfield darting away after the toss at anger to the Niners. He said, quote, that's it. They are making way too big of a story out of a blowout. He pissed us off. We put a foot in his ass end of story. Okay. That's there's 2019 for you right there. Rossi in 1997-98, we weren't worried about who was shaking hands after games.

I guess the only time I can think of it. That's not true. Wasn't it a big thing when, yeah. I was going to say. Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah Thomas and the Bulls and the Pistons. But that's really about it. I can't think of any other time that I thought to myself, oh goodness, we got to spend

five hours talking about this. People got mad about Cam Newton not shaking hands after his Super Bowl loss and then Tom Brady didn't shake hands with somebody after his Super Bowl. LeBron James, people are getting all upset with when he didn't shake hands after one of the playoff losses or playoff series losses in his career. So what should be, let's Ross and I have the protocol. Okay. How about we just doing it a lot simpler and just not do it anymore?

I got no problem with nobody wanting to shake hands or. If you all want to exchange pleasantries, go shower and go to the other locker room or go to like to do the conference meeting hall or whatever and do it there. But now you're going to have NFL cameras chasing Baker Mayfield for the rest of the foreseeable future to make sure he shakes hands of all the great defensive players who are trying to murder him for three hours. Yeah, I mean, look, if you don't want to shake hands after you lost or, I mean, whatever, I got no issue with it.

Is it make you a bad sport? Yes. Is it a huge news story? No. Again, I just refuse to get upset about it. I mean, like I said, here's the bit, though. Usually after series and the NBA, you're supposed to, because it's always been done that way.

So it does to set the alarm off. Wasn't it LeBron one time, or somebody didn't shake hands after a Miami-Boston series or something? I don't remember what it was, but usually after seven games, okay? I just, I go back and forth, and it's just to say that, man, let's just have good games, and we worry about the pleasantries after. I don't think Baker-Mainfield's trying to.

avoid Richard Sherman. Baker Mayfield is a D, but it's for different reasons, not because he's not trying to shake Richard Sherman's hands. Let's go next to Randy and Tom Ball at 123 on Sports Talk 7. I mean, hello Randy. How you doing, sir? Wonderful. You know, maybe I got this wrong. You still there? Well, we haven't gone anywhere, sir. Yes, sir. I. Now, my brother, he's more in the football. I'm more in the baseball. Okay. But didn't they say that Jackson was supposed to pitch today?

Who? Justin. I'm not really for sure. I'm trying to like out in that field. I don't really get to listen to you all. But you still there? No, I think I hung up about two minutes ago. Okay, okay.

But I thought Jackson was supposed to pitch today. Jackson? Jackson? Jackson or Joseph or whatever. No, let me, Randy, let me tell you something. Jackson is pitching the first three innings, then Joseph the next three after that. So it's Jackson and Joseph. Now, can I shame my piece here?

I think they should let the boy pitch his bitch because he came up from the little leagues. And then if he loses today, go ahead and call the game. That's my way of thinking. But then let Birdlander. So, and. The last Jackson I remember for the Astros was that... Not! Joseph.

Oh, there's Jackson and Joseph, Matt. That's true. There was Mike Jackson, that black dude reliever with the mustache. Remember him? Yep. He's available. He is available today. I don't think you made the playoff roster, Matt.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Don't confuse him. Jackson made the playoff roster? Joseph made the playoff roster. And then Verlanner might be able to go in game five with Colbeck and him up. But tonight it's Jackson and Joseph. The caller is correct. Jonathan Joseph?

Not just Joseph. All right. What's the J stand for in J.R. Richard? Okay, that's enough. Oh, it's James. Nope. Let me hear. James Rodney Richard, huh? So let me remind you.

We're going to talk. We've got to get some Texans in because I think we all need to take a deep breath after Jackson and Joseph breakdown. Well, I'm trying to figure out who that he's even trying to talk about. No, don't. Randy Johnson, maybe? No. It's neither of those, but he's also available.

Hey, this is Joe Green. Sports Talk 790 is your home for Houston Rockers basketball. Time is 132. I'm Matt Thomas here in St. Petersburg with the Astros. Ross and Nick are back in Houston. Let's say how to our friend to Aaron Reese from the athlete. athletic. And I'm going to let Ross kind of handle this because he was the one watching that firsthand. Aaron, you were there as well. Help me out here with the audience. Look, the Texans

offensively were prolific on Sunday and they got their mojo back. But how bad was that Atlanta football team? Tell the God's honest truth, please. Yeah, you know, I think that it really weren't great. The thing that stuck out to me about that the Atlanta defense is the lack of blitzes, just given how how much the Texas had kind of seemed that seemed to be their Achilles heel on offense dealing with those blisters. But Atlanta had really brought a lot of extras from previous games. Maybe I shouldn't have been that surprised. But that was kind of a huge thing, a huge difference in the game ultimately.

Sean Watson only not sacked and hit once for the second time in his career, the other being against Miami last year. And the results show himself. And I mean, so that's the thing, Aaron. It's how much of this, I mean, we want to say, you know what the Texas look great, which they did. And absolutely, I mean, scoring 53 points, you're not against an actual NFL team. You're never going to be upset with that.

How much do you think was it the improvement on offense with the Texans, with Deshawn Watson getting the ball out faster, or how much it was it, you know, the Atlanta Falcons are just bad or probably just some mixture of both? Definitely a mixture of both. I mean, Sean Watson to get credit for, you know, the NFL next-gen stats tracked him at Auburn's time release the ball, 2.4 and 4 seconds, which is the fastest time of his career. in a single game. So, I mean, he is,

he was making quick decisions, which obviously neutralized the few times that Atlanta did blitz. But to general, he was making quick decisions, get rid of the ball and not protecting himself. And so that, they do get credit for that.

But I do think that this is an Atlanta team that seems to be, you know, kind of spiraling and just, have no, some of these, the defensive lapses are, you know, it was just the plan,

but the way there, you know, one of, one of the, one of Fowler's touchdowns. Three people won at the Andrew Hopkins at one direction, and left of the Lofler to be one guy at the up. that.

Other direction, you caught a touchdown, of course. I mean, I don't know if it will look that easy for the Texans in future weeks, but they were real signs of progress for the offensive line, which also featured the same starting line for them, only the first, the repeating starting line for the first time that season. Yeah, that was going to be the next direction I was going with. I mean, just your thoughts on the progress of the offensive line, and like you said, getting a consistent starting rotation is seeming to help from them.

Do you think, I mean, if I were to ask you to rate them, I don't know, just give them a grade or at least the last couple of weeks. A, B, C, D. What would you give them? Oh, man. You know, the last couple of weeks is hard because they really didn't do well to balance that out. I mean, I guess we've got those past couple weeks you would say like maybe a B-minus, right? Because this past performance is really good and the week before it was not great.

But I think the better way to look at it is how is this line that we saw on Sunday with Larry Tunsell and Mack Sharping, left guard, Nick Martin in the middle, Zach's well, the right guard, and tightest Howard or right tackle. That line, the other time we saw it prior to this was against the Chargers, and they played really well against Chargers, too. So, I mean, I think they have something here, sharpening at some penalties that weren't great, but otherwise they look pretty solid. Aaron Reese of the Athletic here on the Matt Thomas show,

and let's keep it on offense for a little bit with the running back situation. I just saw a tweet, Aaron, on Twitter, about how Duke Johnson is highly errated in some kind of elusive rating and causing miss tackles and yards after catch. And he has all these great stats. But it seems like Carlos Hyde is still getting the bulk of the load, especially when it comes to the running game. Do you think that is the way it should be? Or would you like to see more Duke Johnson? You know, I mean, I think that it's obviously like they view Duke Johnson as someone they can use on every down.

What that doesn't mean you use him all the time, right? And to some degree, it seems like the way that they view it kind of as effectiveness comes by having someone who can also wear out the defense like Carlos Hay. He's more of a ground-to-pound guy. I think that, you know, you'd consider the amount of value they gave up for Duke Johnson a fourth or potentially third round pick that maybe you get a little more work. But I think that they're figuring out that rotation that's looked pretty good regardless of far. Carlos Hyde has also played pretty well. But as of her now, both the best of top-field-fever-hammer. and he has the second highest success rate in the NFL,

according to football outsiders, and also his efficiency rate, like how north-south he runs on NFL next-juncts stats is about to his career. So, I mean, they're getting good production of both of those guys. All right, and how about evaluation of the defense? I mean, at the end of the day, we are focusing on the 53 points and the Texans getting a win, a double-digit win, but they did give up 32. How do you think they performed on Sunday?

You know, I thought they were okay. Obviously, they gave up one of those touchdowns after that muff pun, right? And at the end, towards the end of it, they were kind of dealing with a game in control for a while. I thought they did. I thought they did okay. Not great. You know, Atlanta, for all of its faults, does have some really good receivers. And a quarterback who's going to be pretty good at times.

So I think they were going to give up some points, but they ultimately were not that big of a problem this game. And finally, a U.S. defense back got an interception. strong gets up. And how about a DJ Reeder in the middle? I mean, that guy, to me, he has just been the engine for the defense. The push that he gets, and now he has a couple of, he got a sack on Sunday, he has two and a half on the season.

To me, I mean, what are the guys saying about him or Romeo Cornell, whoever? What are the other guys on the defense saying about the impact that he has? Yeah, I mean, I think everyone you talk to or hear talk about him. I mean, they all kind of say the same thing, which is that, you know, he's incredibly reliable in his job. He's always going to make problems for the opponents and always going to open up blame to other people.

He's done that basically every single week. And to some degree, he's been so dominant in doing so that he's obviously, like you mentioned, created some opportunities for himself. I don't think that shot caught that much higher, but, you know, we'll see. But he certainly, you know, he's played out his best season in his career.

And it'll be interesting because, you know, they didn't sign up to an extension before the season. I imagine the price for him is only going to go up if it keeps us up. Yeah, it seems like it's going up every single week. Aaron Reese of the Athletic here on The Matt Thomas show, and let's go ahead and move it to this week. A tough task, obviously, I mean, when you see this one on the schedule coming in,

you probably thinking you're counting L's and Ws, you count this one as an L. but, I mean, looking at the Chiefs, they lost at home last week to the Colts, they've had a couple of close games against the Lions and the Ravens who are turning out to maybe not be that great. Do you feel like the Chiefs are more vulnerable, now than you thought going into the season? Yeah, for sure. I mean, for one of the chiefs, obviously, are

really banged up, right? So that's part of it. And additionally, you know, I think that that run defense has been really bad for them. So, you know, we were talking earlier about Duke Johnson and Carlos Hyde, you know, if those guys can both get going against the Chiefs that allow Texans the whole little ball

for the law and keep Patrick Welles off the field, which was kind of obviously about the cult recipe for success. And beyond that, you know, if Patrick Holmes has banged up a little bit, ankle. If you're not Super Mobile, and the Texas pass rush that's been, you know, pretty good so far this season

and then get after a little bit. And those are kind of the things that are the Texans way to make a good game. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah, what is this scenario you see? I mean, I'm looking at the line. The Texans are 5.5 point dogs. And 55 is the total on that one,

which is the biggest total of the entire weekend slate. So, I mean, I guess you're thinking, you have to think there's just not much, many ways that the Texans are going to be able to stop the chief. so they're going to have to win this one in a shootout. Is that how you see it? Yeah. Yeah, win in a shootout or just, you know, run the ball incredibly, incredibly well

and control the time of possession. Because I think, you know, the Texas fast rush has been pretty good, but, you know, we haven't, I think, that many instances of the detection secondary really costing them games just because of the nature of the quarterbacks they've played and the nature of the sort of games they've played. But this is the sort of game where I think a secondary that's been kind of concerning at times,

look really concerning, obviously, against the best quarterback in the world. Yeah, and last thing before we get you out, Bill O'Brien, we obviously, when the Texans lose and he's making bad challenges or we think he's making bad play calls, we like to crush him. So you tell me, what did he do right on Sunday and the good qualities of Bill O'Brien that came out with the 53 points scored? Yeah, I think that the quick passing game was really good. I think that he had the right, you know, he kept off the balance of his running. and that kind of kept the pass rush from getting to Sean Watson.

And, you know, I think that too much, obviously people can criticize the trade itself and the value he got back for it. But Larry Thompson, if you're like a pro football-focused person, his grades have gone up every single week. He's like, he's starting to settle in now a little more. You're finally seeing a line that has taken shape with the two rookies. And, you know, I think everything's coming together as it's supposed to be or how they hope. At least he said, Matt, one game. We'll see you can continue. All right.

Aaron Reese of the Athletic here on the Matt Thomas show. Go ahead, Matt. I was just going to say, thank you, Aaron, for coming out. I was enjoying listening to conversation, catching up on the text and stuff. I've been so astrocentric here that I was listening to Brung at Mindsock NFL football. And I couldn't believe it was on my show. It's just normally not that way. So congratulations to you both.

Well, thanks for all of me, guys. You got it. Thank you, Aaron. Appreciate it. This is Carlos Correa. Matt Thomas. Sports sucks seven night. It's your home.

That's just baseball. Carlos Correy is going to speak to the media today at the ballpark. We'll have some of that for you. Also, if you missed my conversation with AJ Hinch, shame, shame, shame. We'll have that for you as part of on deck. Also, Mike Stanton from AT&T Sports. That's going to join us live at 430. And you'll hear Justin Rylander speak what he did yesterday

when he found out from his skipper. that he was going to start. Game number four, American League Division Series. You'll catch it right here on 790. Adam and Adam jump in in a few minutes. They'll take you to 4. And then Michael Connor and I will have on deck at 4 o'clock from Minute Made Park. 713-212-5-790.

Rossi, what is your gut to tell you about not only the final score, but how tonight's game gets played out? I'm nervous, if I'm being honest with me. Are you really? I'm a little nervous. But, I mean, that's my nature as a sports fan, I think. I don't ever go into a big game or anything like that and say, you know what,

we're just going to dominate and steamroll the competition. That's just not how I, it's not really my nature. I do think the Astros, if you're asking me to put a prediction on paper, I'm saying Astros win. But Justin Verlent for his first time on three days' rest, I'm nervous.

But I would say the same thing if Jose or Kiti were the starter. I'd be probably even more nervous. So I think I'm more calm from that sense. So I do think the Astros win. I think they score more run. I think they score over six runs today, and they win comfortably. And here's the thing. If you were talking about a pitch count for either one of the starters or Cuddy's pitch count would be probably a lot more watched.

His leash would be a lot shorter than a guy like Justin Verlander who's been there and done that. I did put a question up on the poll earlier. Over under on Verlander pitches. I put it 76. Rossi, I don't know if you saw the results, but if I gave you that, would you take the over or the under? I think I did see the poll, and I believe I voted under on it. Yeah, 77% have over. That's because the body of work shows that Verlander is a guy that always gets you to at least 90.

But it's not the same situation. It's three days' rest. It's not one day's rest. It's not like he pitched yesterday. But for a pitcher and for a sport who is so much, the belief is so much on routine, this is out of his norm for the first time, honestly, Ross, in his major league career. Yeah. This is how important this game four is to them. That's true, Matthew.

you and you know what i you know what i also uh have been forgetting that i've had this control of these audio this audio this whole show and i haven't taken advantage you know how much i love polls right you know how much i love polls right you know how much i love polls right seven one three two one two five seven ninety griswald in the gallery a hello gris may i call you gris yes sir you all doing wonderful A couple of things I want to say here. First of all, can we not panic? Can we not panic? We're going to be just fine tonight and love you guys.

That's all I want to say. Thanks. I see. Griswold coming in saying do not panic. Favorite Griswold of all time, Ross, quickly. Clark? Hmm. I was going to go, Matt Thomas, how would you describe that call?

Sucky, sucky, sucky. You and the number one chair is a dangerous. thing. You understand this? You like it hard? She likes it soft. How much worse can this show get in the final four minutes? You know what? Let's go and put mail mail in there. That'll be all right. To the phones.

Sorry, I'll stop. I'm like a child over here with these buttons. Yes, you are a child. I get a new toy. Brian, hello, Brian. What's going on this morning, Matt? I'm good. Hey, you know what? For all those you know, negative knuckleheads out there,

guys, it's one loss, okay? So let's not go overboard and jump off the ship, get off the cross bus, whatever. I mean, people are ridiculous. I mean, so many people are calling it. All of a sudden, Grinky, we need to get rid of him. The Astros can't hit, and AJ doesn't know what he's doing. People, get a hold of yourself. It was one game.

They're going to win tonight. I'm going to give him at least six or seven runs, and Jessam's going to throw about 80 pitches. I'll probably strike out about 10. How do you like that, Matt? All right. I don't know if 10's the number I would go with, but especially for a guy that's throwing 80 pitches. But again, I think if he gets you through six,

it's a win-win for the baseball team. But I would take the under a number of innings. I would say Rossi put the over-under innings. I put it at 5 in a 3rd, which means, again, let's recap for the audience. I'll do it first. You go a second. If I need 3 and 2-thirds, who we going with?

I'm going to go with a Joe Smith to get an out or 2-out. or two outs. I will go Presley the seventh, Harris the eighth, and Osuna the ninth. Okay. I'm on board. I'm a little scared, but I'm on board. Don't be scared. Just a little bit, I said.

All right. I think one more, we got one more person wants to get you off the ledge. Hi, Joe, and Clear Lake, you're on 790. What you got? Yeah, well, you guys, Matt, you guys are panicking, man. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not panic. Why would you think I'm panicking?

Nobody's panicked. Nobody's panicked. 107 wins. Matt Grinky's fine. There's nothing wrong. Matt Grinke. He had a bad out of him. He was off for 11 days.

You have Roilander coming in. You got an orders that's going in. You got a very good baseball team. One loss don't mean nothing. I figure we would probably drop one in Tampa. I mean, you're playing in Tampa Bay Rays. They get a good ball club. Yes.

The professionals on any given day, any team can beat you. This is a team that's going to compete for the World Series. So, nobody panicked, man. No, we're going to win tonight. You hear that, everybody? Joel and Clearlake says nobody panics. I think most people aren't panicked.

I mean, I picked them to win in four. Some people brazenly picked a sweep. I won't name names. Who? Me? Matt Thomas. Yeah, I don't know. I think four is just fine.

I will say this. Rossi, you and I get together tomorrow, and this series is two-two. I think there's going to be some panic. I actually will be pretty calm. Garrett Cole at home. I'm calm about that one. I'll be more worried about the series following.

Astros six, raise one. Ralander 5 and 2 thirds. 8 to 3, Astros. I'll take it either way. Before I get out of here and get you guys, the A team, let me tell you about TGS Insurance. If you are looking to save on your home policy, it's ridiculously simple.

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I'll talk to you in two hours from Tropicana Field. A team next on 790. Yay!