The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 11-07-19

Episode Date: November 7, 2019

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 11/7/19The Show Must Go On (0:00)Dr Roto (18:08)Reid Ryan is no longer President of the Astros (36:06)

It's larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. In H-Town, what's happening, lunchtomers? Yeah, I know. It is a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. I am Matt, you're humble, an ailing host. Ross has the day off.

Nick is an amazing producer, psychic friend of the show. And we are with you today until 3 o'clock, voice permitting. You know, we peel the curtain back on the show occasionally because I feel like it's honesty is the best policy. I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you some things. This would have been a really good day for me to call in sick

because I don't feel good, and I know you don't want to hear that. But you know what? We're real on the show here. I feel lousy. But Gordy is out going to the LSU Alabama bit. Ross has got a staycation going. And so we're just a little lean on people. So as they say in show business, the show must go on.

And yeah, I might sound like Barry White for a while. And yeah, you might be able to whisper sweet nothings to your gal to make her in a romantic mood for you. But honestly, I'd like to be taking a nap right now. But that doesn't mean we're not going to bring it to you today as we have a rocket's victory to get into today on the show We have dr. Roto coming up at a half an hour from now and we have an incredible case Of divas infiltrating sports in both the NBA level and the NFL level I will discuss that as a day progresses

All right so here is the key You're saying to yourself Matt are you okay big baby? Yeah, I'm fine but I'm really not. So today is a lot more of you and a lot more of Nick. We love Nick, but occasionally he says odd things. That's often as possible. Yeah. You're going to get a longer leash today, Nick.

I don't know if it's good for the radio show or bad. I don't know how that could be good. This is true. So, in this particular case, you would definitely want to be a part of the show at 713-212-5-790. 713-212-5-7-9 is how you reach a show today. If you want to reach out via Twitter, you can do that as well. At SportsMT, at ProNiclo. Sports RV getting a couple of days off.

So that's how we communicate. That's how we break down NBA games like a mudda. That's how we get to everything between now and 3 o'clock today, which again will feature early roto visit coming up in about 25 minutes from now. Last night at Toyota Center, and this is where I started to really feel lousy. You know, the TOTA Center is an amazing arena, but man, it's damn cold in the lower level. And you know how sometimes you hear the, you feel the draft coming, you're like, oh, this is not going to turn out well. I could feel my throat and my cold developing as the game was progressing.

And oh, by the way, I'm trying to screen baskets in front of 17,000 people at TOTA center, so it wasn't an optimum position. But nevertheless, you have to move on. You have to play the games. You have to do your job. and that's why I'm here here today and ready to visit with you. It was a really odd night because you're supposed to hate the Golden State Warriors. I mean, really, really, really, really hate the Golden State Warriors. And I always will.

Team that's been the most dominant team in the NBA. I don't even care about them losing last year in the NBA finals. We're just still talking about a Golden State team that has been part of excellence for about seven or eight years now. And sometimes injuries happen. sometimes players go elsewhere i mean kevin durrant leaving golden state to go play for brooklyn was a huge blow but it wasn't like they were bored of any other talent and then the injuries came into play we're talking about clay thompson we're talking about a gavon looney we're talking about uh you know step curry draymond green last night de angelo russell doesn't play so you had all that together

and the starting yeah man it's really like a perfect storm that the Golden State Warriors have hit as far as negatives it's almost almost like your day you have no Ross

no Gordy no anybody to help you out when you're sick this radio show is the Golden State Warriors usually when Ross is here and I'm there with you and I feel good we are a we are a

dominant and I'm going to embellishing just hang with me here we are a dynasty type sports radio show but today we are glenn robinson the third who actually played you know decently we are eric paskel we are willie culley stein who sucked in sacramento and now he sucks in golden state we are jordan pool we are kye bowman and then if it's then if it doesn't get any worse than that were Alec Berks, who actually was the best player last night for them coming off the bench, the former jazz man. We are Omari Spellman. We are Damian Lee.

And we are Mark East Chris who had a cup of coffee with the Rockets last year as part of the Ryan Anderson trade. As long as we're not Steve Kerr, I'm good with it. Here's the thing, Nick. He's going to suffer bad because all those wins he's had the last handful of years and that halacious winning percentage? Gonzo. Because I don't even know when Steph Curry comes back or when

Draymond Green comes back, they might be so under 500 that they're not going to be able to survive this. There's a realistic chance the Golden State Warriors are not in the playoffs after going to the NBA finals a year before.

I would say that's the likely outcome at this point. I think you're right. I think you're right. And if you think I'm going to cry over that, Oh, hell no. But as I'm doing the lineups last night for Golden State, you know how I get a little punchy when it comes to visiting teams? I couldn't even do it for them.

Because the only guy that I was really mad at was Jordan Poole. You say, Matt, why would you be mad at Jordan Poole? Jordan Poole, when he was in college two years ago at the University of Michigan, hit the game winning shot against the Cougars in the NCAA tournament. Thus, I'm mad at him. just like I'm mad at every member of the North Carolina State team in 1983, but I digress. You should have chuckled a little bit in between each name. That would have been funny and gotten under their skin.

Well, here's what you do. If you really worked it out properly, you go, Glenn Robbins in the third, and they go, who? Eric Paskill? Huh? I mean, literally, before the game started, could anybody that's a decent NBA fan, named five Golden State Warriors that played last night. They only went with nine. And it was awful, and the Rockets took advantage of it.

The rocket shot a lot better from the floor at 46%. They shot their best percentage from 3-point, making 21 of 45, didn't make all their free throws last night, took decent care of the basketball, and it was incredible. Every one of the starters last night on the plus-minus. I don't know how many people pay attention to that. every starter was a plus in the plus minus.

Westbrook plus 40, Capellan Harden plus 20, Tucker and House plus 32 and plus 33. Conversely, every one of the reserves, with the exception of Tyson Chandler, was a minus, meaning the Rockets bench sucked last night and a lot of Golden said to get back in the game. But again, I'm not a big fan of plus minus.

It was just ironic that those five starters were all heavily plus and the three reserves. Austin Rivers minus 23, Ben McLemore minus 20, Tavocephalosia minus 16. I mean, awful. But it doesn't matter because the Rockets were dominating a team that needed to be beaten, and you know what? You'll take your lumps against the second-tier teams when you can,

and the Rockets, despite the fact they have certainly, you have some defensive issues, they need to get fixed. They're still looking for the shot. You know, Eric Gordon didn't play last night because of a hamstring issue. They still comfortably won the game, and they're 5 and 3 through 8 games where they were basically 1 in 5 last year through 6 games last year.

So even though it doesn't feel like it's an awesome Rockets team, you'll take the 5 and 3 because if they resort back to the mean, meaning James starts hitting his shots, Russell gets a little bit better from his 3-point percentage, and Eric Gordon does anything,

this team's going to be one of the most prolific offensive scoring teams in recent history of the NBA. They are still putting up crazy, crazy point totals. despite the fact that their team is shooting well below their averages from the floor and from three-point range. All right, 713-212-5-7-9 if you'd like to join our conversation today. Remember, more of you and less of me is a really good thing. So come on in, be a part of the show.

Hell, Nick, let me make fun of me if they want to. But if you want to talk about the Rockets from last night, that's fair game. It is the by-week in the NFL for the Texans, so there isn't a whole lot of things to chew on. on on that because the guys are all on vacation somewhere, hopefully not suffering from the cold and cough like I am. And you've got the biggest college game of the season coming up this weekend in Tuscaloosa between LSU and Alabama. In fact, President Trump is going to the game. So they're asking people to get there even earlier than they normally would, which means even more alcohol to be consumed before the 230 kick. The Houston lunchtime sports conversation most respected by head coach Bill O'Brien.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Matt Thomas in his career here in Houston of sorts the Matt Thomas show Let's find out Who's feeling sorry for me on the radio program you want to Let's go to line one line one you're the Matt Thomas show. Thanks for saving my voice Okay, that's fine. I get it maybe some technical issues here maybe the rain. It's got a line two on the save Matt from Laryngitis and the flu go ahead. Okay, that's fine all right so what we're going to do today beyond give you amazing sports commentary even though i'm less than 100 percent is going to give you various examples of sports divaness i think i just made up that phrase

and the problem with that is you have super multi-millionaires that either forgot where they came from or have no common sense or just mean. Or they're just, you know, can't be bothered with something. Every team's got them. Every sport has it. There are very few genuine $75 to $175 million players that are like cool kids. Nick has the first example of it today. Yeah, Chicago Bears outside linebacker,

Khalil Mack found himself in the headlines this week. After one of his neighbors who was out with his children trick-or-treating that went by his house expecting a warm reception at Kaleo Mac's house with lots of candy for his kids and found something a little different. He actually, it turns out Kaleomack actually hired a guard to turn trick-or-treaters away. Let's go ahead and hear what that sounded like. We're approaching Kaleas. Oh, no. What did they tell you to say? This house isn't doing Halloween this year.

No way. What if I give you a bag of candy to hand out just to be neighborly? Can we do that? It's so a neighborly. It's legitimately the only house in the whole neighborhood not handing out candy. Really? Yes. All I know is I was just asked to stand out here and say this house isn't

participating this year. Wow, brutal. I hope he moves really soon. So a lot of people are also saying that if Khalil Mack was willing to pay a guard to stand outside of his front door, why couldn't he just pay someone to hand out some candy?

That is absolutely accurate. All right, do we know if that man actually lives in that neighborhood because, let me, I'm going to peel the curtain back. When I was younger, we would go to richer neighborhoods, tell you the truth, because the candy was better than in the poor neighborhoods? Absolutely. Do we know that this person actually lived in the same

neighborhood as Kalilmak? Well, he knew it was Kalilak's house. Well, I mean, you could go look it up on the web, That would be that difficult. I really can't verify that. There's nothing in the video telling us where this gentleman actually lived. Okay. So we have to be a little bit, we'd be fair and balanced here on the show.

If Khalil Mack's neighborhood has hundreds, excuse me, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids that are going around looking for treats from a famous Chicago bear and they don't live in the neighborhood, should we crush him for that? I don't think so. I mean, it's his right to do with his property what he wants. Now, to your argument, which makes incredible sense, have the security guard just hand out the candy. That would have been a much better way. Yeah, I agree.

And, I mean, you never really know what the reasoning behind him not wanting to participate is. I don't know if it's religious. I don't know his particular religious beliefs. I don't know if he was just tired from Thursday's practice and well he didn't want people coming to his house I mean that's just that's just the fact of it but what you do is if you know people are coming in your neighborhood which he obviously has lived there a couple of years been there for a while you set up the little stand in front of the house and you just I mean you don't necessarily hire your security guard you just hire somebody and hand the candy out and knock it back that way and and avoid this becoming

a topic on a Houston radio show. Or just do the lazy thing and just set a bowl out there. A big bowl. Yeah. Because even if the, even if kid one comes by and grabs 10 pieces, you know what? You get a bowl. I mean, how big of a bowl would you get? You would just get an, you would get an unsailing large bowl because nobody's going

to grab. No parents going to let a kid grab 75 pieces of candy. You'd just knock it out. I mean, again, this was a situation that could have been a four. I understand why he's he doesn't want people near his house. I get that. It's privacy. NFL players are that way.

But you could have turned in a really interesting story into a, now this guy is Baham bug on Christmas or on Halloween. Is it just as bad for this guy to post this video? Well, that's what America does. True. I mean, I guess it was bound to happen. If you get wrong by somebody, you don't directly talk to the person face face you go get your phone out you shoot video of the person do we know if von was actually in the

house i don't know if calil was actually a call or not i'm not sure if he was there or not he he just had all we see in the video is this guard who i can't let me run run through it while we talk here and see if i can see i can't tell if he's actually a hired police officer or just no trust me that he's not no most of these people that most people that have security guards are probably not trained to be security guards. Most of them are just buddies that they grew up with. Like if I ever get a security person, Nick, I'm probably going to hire you. That works.

I'll do it. Because you have Navy background training. You will not put up anybody's guff. And I would trust you because you wouldn't be looking to take all the money from me. So the security firm of Nick Lowe would be there for me if I ever needed a security person. All right. I'm down. Let's get to get this started.

All right. So we will be giving you random acts. of divinness on the show all throughout the day because that's what athletes do. We have a NBA player, a megastar player who makes an insane amount of money with his new team sitting out more than

one game. We have NFL players. Are you ready for this? Nick, we'll talk about this later on after Roto. We have an NFL player who's turning the sound down at the team's practice facility because he doesn't want to hear the national TV folks rip on their team.

So is this sound that they're using to simulate crowd noise? No, this is turning on ESPN and hearing about a said team sucking and underperforming, and you don't want to hear criticism. Okay. Why are they listening to that in the team meetings? Well, we'll talk. Well, not team meetings. It's just the TV around the facilities.

Yeah, you're walking around. Oh, there's a TV. Was everybody watching? Price is right? No, they're watching ESPN NFL Nation. What are they saying? Oh, we sell. Okay, turn the volume down.

It's devenous. And we got it in sports today more than ever before. Coverage that no national sports blogger living in his mom's basement can provide. Although sometimes we do our job in our underwear too, yeah. This is Houston Sports Talk 790. Home for your home teams. Who's that really? But Dr. Rono, we push him up a little bit today because he promised me he would talk.

90% of this segment between now and 1 o'clock. So that's when we brought them in, not only bringing you the good information, but we'll be able to tell you the do's and don'ts on your fantasy football week here as we get ready down the home stretch of fantasy football 2019. Good doctor. Do you have any of a sore throat and a cold?

I'm just curious. Let me ask you if you've got any good for me. I mean, I give you a lot of credit for being on today. I know it's not easy. Yeah, it's not. But let's get to, we got to win some games here. Let's go with tonight's Thursday night game first and foremost. These teams, we're talking about the Chargers and the Raiders need to win because they are in shouting distance of Kansas City and the AFC West, but we don't really care about wins and losses.

We care about how much L.A. is going to get going in Oakland and vice versa. Who do you like and who do you don't like in this matchup tonight? Yeah, I think a lot of this game depends on how well the Raiders stop the run. The Raiders have been pretty good stopping the run. If that happens, then I think Melvin Gordon doesn't have a big night. I think Mike Williams could have a very big night. He hasn't scored a touchdown all year, so I think he'll get one. And Hunter Henry has been out of his mind since he's returned from injury.

So I like him a lot. If Gordon is able to run the football and the Raiders can't stop him, then I think Gordon evolves and he could get 80 yards in a touchdown. I just don't think that goes that way for the Chargers. I'll go with the passing game. For the Raiders, Josh Jacobs, Josh Jacobs, Josh Jacobs, he's been tremendous. He's the one guy I start. Tyrell Williams, I probably bench because he's going to see a lot of Casey Hayward.

You've got to play Darren Waller. He hasn't been great the last two weeks, but there's no way that you bench him. The guy's been fantastic. All right. How has Matt Moore done as a chief? Have all the receivers and running backs been able to get their points even before the injury to Pat Mahomes? I mean, look, I think of Mahomes will be back this week. I don't think it's been said yet, but I believe Mahomes will be back this week.

Moore did a decent enough job. I mean, he kept them in games. He certainly won last week's game, so good for him. But, I mean, look, I love Tyree killed this week. Love him. I mean, Malcolm Butler is out for the year, and he was the Titans' best cover Corner. Nobody's going to be able to cover Tyree Kill. You play him.

Damien Williams showed some likes last week, which is great. Travis Kelsey. Once Mahomes is back, you get all your chiefs in the lineup. All right, let's get to Atlanta and New Orleans. Alvin Kamara, I guess, is slated to come back after missing the last two games. I went and got his backup, and he was very effective for me. Is there any thought of, you know, again, I've got a bunch of guys on by this week. Any thought of playing both of them, or is that hurting at one position?

Look, in a week like this where there's six teams out, you've got to do what you've got to do, right? When Kamara comes back, he's going to get about 18 to 20 touches. That should leave about 8 to 12 touches for Latavius Mari. Do I expect those to be great touches? No, but it's possible. I mean, they could be winning this game by 30 points, and he can get a touchdown late in the fourth quarter. That wouldn't surprise me. I love Drew Brees this week.

I love Michael Thomas this week. You might even want to play some Ted Ginn this week. He always plays better at all. Jared Cook, my surprise. And, of course, you're playing Camaro for the other side with the Falcons. I mean, obviously, Julio Jones, but you don't want to play Devonta Freeman. The Saints have been very stingy against the run. And Austin Hooper's been good.

That guy, you need to play him, and maybe Calvin Ridley. But, I mean, the Saints should really win this week, by a lot. Yeah, the Falcons have been, I think, the biggest disappointment right now in the NFL so far this year at 1 and 7. and I think Cleveland not far behind it, two and six. Can the Browns get fat and happy off of a Buffalo team that looked kind of pedestrian a couple of days ago? Or weeks ago, I should say. I don't think so. I think the bills are much better team than you think, and I think the Browns are worse than they even look.

Free Kitchen is terrible. I mean, really, they don't even know what to do with Odell back in Jr., right? He's like, oh, we've got to get them involved. You think? I mean, this should be the first thing that they've been doing. So now they're talking about bringing in Cream Hunt, and he's going to split carries with Chub. and Chubb has been like the best thing going on for the whole Browns, the Browns team this year.

So it's just a mess for the bills. They brought in Devon Singletary last week. I was waiting for that. I put that in my starts at column on Sports Illustrated. I said he was a great start last week. He's the guy that they're going to need to play well if they want to make the playoffs. He's much better than Frank Gore right now. And Singletary is a must start.

I would also start John Brown, too. All right. Baltimore at Cincinnati, the Ravens put up. huge numbers against probably one of the top two or three defenses in the NFL against the Patriots last week. I'm going to assume they're going to do similar types of things this week against Cincinnati, or will they be surprised a little bit by what the Bengals throw at him? No, they won't be surprised. Firstly, A.J. Green was feeling well, and then all of a sudden he wasn't.

Maybe the Bengals really don't want him to come back. I'm just throwing out a little conspiracy theory right there. So if you have A.J. Green, I'm not sure you're going to see him play. Ryan Finley's the new quarterback. That's not going to end well. You want to play the Ravens defense for sure. If they're available in your league, go get them and stream them now. I don't like Tyler Boyd.

I don't like Joe Mixon. I don't like anybody for Cincinnati. For Baltimore, obviously Lamar Jackson. You want to play Mark Ingram in a bi-week situation, Gus Edwards might steal a touchdown because you can run all day on the Bengals. I don't think Lamar Jackson is going to need to throw more than 20 times this game. All right, let's get to Indianapolis at 5 and 3. Were we on the situation involving Jacoby-Bron?

Reset and whether or not he'll play this week? Look, I know they said he's feeling better, but I would be absolutely shocked if he played this week. What purpose does it serve? You've got Brian Hoyer, who's a decent enough backup quarterback, and you're playing the Dolphins who have no interest in winning games. So I think you can win this game with Hoyer, and you can win this game with Marlon Mack,

and, you know, I know that Hilton and Paris Campbell are hurt, but really, I'd save Reset for one more week when they really need them. There's a home game. This is Dolphins. Hoyer can get this job done. You play Mac all over the place because he's going to run for 100 yards this week. All right.

I was stuck in Miami last week. I was in a Rockets Heath game, and the only game that was on TV was the Jets and the Dolphins. Yeah, it was awful. But they were scoring points. That's why I ask you, we need to forget about these records because Miami was throwing the ball all over the field down last week.

And Ryan Fitzpatrick got a decent game. So if we're in by trouble, guys off weeks, Can't you, you know, maybe sneak up and pick a couple of Miami Dolphid players that maybe aren't very recognizable? Yeah, I mean, look, Mike Iseki had a very good week last week, the tight end from Penn State. I mean, he's emerging now. They lost Preston Williams, who was actually one of my favorite players this year. He was one of my sneaky guys that I was taking in drafts. So without Preston Williams, Devonte Parker is legit.

And I think Alan Hurons might turn out to be a decent target. So there's always points available in fantasy, even from good teams and from, of course, from bad teams. But if you want a guy, take a look at Josh Reynolds. Brandon Cooks is going to be out with concussion issues. I think he's an interesting play. Sterling Shepard is going to be placed in the IR very soon. Gary Slaten is going to play. So, I mean, you could always find a nugget out there.

But for the dolphins, I like Gecki, and I like herds. If you've got a question for Dr. Ronald, you can shoot me an email. MT at Sports790.com. Go on our Twitter account at SportsMT or give us a doll at 713-212-5-790. calls in the next segment of the show. Anything of redeeming value between the Giants and the Jets this week? Well, look, Sterling Shepard is going to be out, and I think that's the right thing. I think that he's going to replace him in the I are because really his career is in jeopardy, and if they rush him back too soon and he has another concussion, that's going to be it,

and that's not good, right? You got rid of Beckham, and you have Shepard, you need to be very careful with him. So I like Golden Tate a lot this week because I think Evan Engram is going to miss the game as well. So you're looking at Barclay and you're looking at Tate for the Giants. For the Jets, I wouldn't be surprised at Loevin'embell misses this game, too. I don't think he wants to be there. I really don't. I don't think he wants to be playing. He signed a huge fat contract, but he plays for a crappy team. So, I mean, you know, look, you're happy for him that he got paid, but now he's miserable. That's on him. I think Jameson Crowder's a decent play. I mean, Darnold, it's the one guy he throws to. Maybe Chris Herndon, if he comes back, and he starts,

I would not start Robbie Anderson. Robbie Anderson is going to be with another team next year, and the Jets are phasing him out. All right, more with Dr. Roto, including some more of those late games. We've got really good at Sunday night and Monday night contests as well. Plus, we'll get to Dr. Roto's lock of the week. But you can also chime in right now if you'd like to at 713, 212, 5, 790. Don't leave Matt Thomas in your car.

Take him with you. Download the free iHeartRadio app for your phone at Sports790.com. Remember, you'll have to feed him. All right, the good doctor with us. He's not prescribing any medicine just yet, but he is giving us good information on football. Got an email in Dr. Roto. Alshan Jeffrey from Larry Fitzgerald. Would you do it?

As our comeback music. Do you like it? I like when we do the fantasy. I was a little throwing to MT. I'm sorry. I need a minute. Oh, you want, I know what you want. You want Earthwind and Fire, don't you?

Yeah. I don't know. I'm just one of those people that, you know, I'm a creature that. What can I tie you? All right. Next week, I swear to God it's going to be that. All right. Would I trade that at Lausanne Jeffrey for Laherpichette? Lairfichael is a terrible. I mean, it's a really good matchup, but Kalamari hasn't been going to him. I'll stay with Jeffrey because you're going to go to two receiver sets, especially with DeShon Jackson out. Let's just keep a Jeffrey. Who's he been going with if he's not going to Fitzgerald?

Well, he didn't go to Christian Kirk last week. But he will go to Christian Kirk this week. Christian Kirk two weeks ago was eight for 97. Last week he couldn't do anything against Richard Sherman, but I think he has a big rebound week. It's not that Fitzgerald's been bad. He's out in the field. He's just not going in like in the old days where he was going 10 for 97.

So it's just getting older and he's just getting phased out of the offense. And I think David Johnson is going to be playing this week. And I think Tenyon and Drake will be in the backfield and you're thinking David Johnson going out for a lot of passes. All right. Let's go to a phone call and say hi to Mike on the north side for Dr. Go ahead, Mike. Robert Woods, Devonte Parker, or John Brown in one league,

and then Kirk Cousins or Jared Gough in the other. Yeah, I don't like Cousins this week. Adam Thielman is going to be out. They're playing the Cowboys. I think that's a bad matchup, so I will go with Jared Gough. The other one, it's hard to trust Devante Parker. I think I'll go with Robert Woods. Brandon Coach is going to be out of this game.

Cooper Cup is a superstar. But I think Woods could have a good week. All right. Thank you for the phone call. Thank you for said my voice. Excuse me. Let's go to Brian and Mission Ben on 790 for Dr. Roto. Go ahead, Brian.

Hey, guys. I was wondering, should I start Matthew Stafford this week or should I start Kyle Allen? Well, look, I don't like Matthew Stafford's matchup, but the Lions are not a running team anymore. They have to throw the football because you can't run the ball with Ty Johnson and J.D. McKissick, and Stafford's been really done. It's been great the last few weeks. So how do you bench him? I mean, for Kyle Allen,

I think the only thing that I'm looking for here with Kyle Allen is that there's garbage time. Because I think the Packers are going to kill him this week because after the Packers were embarrassed. So do you want to trust Stafford in what's perceived to be a bad matchup, or do you want to trust Kyle Allen in garbage time? I think I'm going to go with Stafford. All right. Thank you for that. Let's go to next up on the list of waiting. Let's go to Corey on Sports Talk 790 with the good Dr. Roto.

Hi, Corey. Howdy, Maddie. All right, two questions. Either Carr or Kirk Cousins and Bears defense or Cardinals defense. Like, what was the first one? Cousins or David, not David Carr. These are retired a long time. Derek Carr.

All right, yeah. I'll go with Derek Carr. Like I said, I just feel like without him feeling there, I would have been in on Cousins with feeling out of there. I just don't think Ola B.C. Johnson is scaring the Cowboys. They're going to double-cover stuff on Diggs. I don't really love that match-up. Bears and Cardinals, look, James Winston is good some weeks, and he's really bad other weeks.

I mean, I knew James was going to be good last week because it made no sense, right? They're playing in Seattle on the road. How bad it would be? And he was great. This week, when he's supposed to be great against the Cardinals, watch he puts up a dud. I actually like the Cardinals defense this week. I'm just curious. Who's the best quarterback?

I'm going to guess Matthew Stafford that outperforms his team's record. Is that fair? Or is there somebody else that comes to mind? That's a really good question. Let me see. Outperform. Matt Ryan?

Oh, yeah, that's true. I'm just thinking about teams that have been brilliant. Ryan's good. Yeah, yeah. All right. Something to think about. Let's go to Christian in Cyprus on Sports Talk 790. Christian, you are on with Dr. Roto.

Hey, doctor. I've got a question from my flex this week if I should start D.K. Metcalfe or Golden Tate? Yeah, I really want to start Golden Tate this week. Remember, Sterling Shepard is out, and I believe Edwin Engram is going to be out. He could even have a Louis-Frank injury, which is a big problem for the Giants. So they're going to be funneling all their passes to Barclay and Tate. Metcalfe, I like, but I think they're a tough matchup. I really want to see how Seattle plays against the 49ers who look terrific. Definitely start Tate. it feels like that Niners Seahawking could be low scoring but then when it feels like something's like that's going to happen and it winds up being like a 35 to 31 game how do you envision that and will that impact who you play

and who you sit this week? Well it's funny you say that because I think that is the NFL in a nutshell right? You're like oh this game should be 20 to 17 and then all of a sudden it's a big high scoring game and you're like what? I don't know anything about the NFL. Look I think these are two well-coached teams I think they have two teams who want to run

and pass when they can I like Tyler Lockett this week for sure. I like the running game for San Francisco. I'm mostly interested to see how Jimmy Garoppolo plays if Seattle's winning. We've seen how he plays when the 49ers are winning. He doesn't need to do that much. But if they're losing, can he take them back and lead him to victory? That's what I want to see.

I don't know if he can or not, but fantasy-wise, if he can do that, he may become a starter. I have a lot of friends of mine that love picking up on Minnesota players, Roto, when they play noon games. You put them in the primetime slots or the 325, and they struggle, namely Kirk Cousins. Can the light on the shine of the Vikings have any success against the Cowboys that Sunday down in Dallas? That's pretty funny about that.

I really haven't thought about it. I love the Cowboys this week. I really do. It's not that Minnesota's bad. I just think they're in a bad spot. Dallas will stop Dalvin Cook, and once again, without Adam's dealing there, I step on digs a real good player,

but Dallas has excellent cover guys, Byron Jones, going to cover Stefan Diggs. So I really feel like it's just a bad matchup. Dallas is going to run that football. Zique is going to thrive, Prescott. Now, Amari Cooper's not 100%, but he's still going to play. But my guy is Michael Gallup. Watch him have a big week. I think everybody should be starting him weekly.

All right, poor, let you go. Let's get the one player that absolutely is going to crush it this week and dominate our fantasy leagues. It is Dr. Roto's lock of the week. Yeah, I think it's going to be in the Tampa Bay Arizona game. I really like Chris Godwin. He's been quiet the last few weeks, but I think he's going to make a lot of noise come Sunday. Mike Evans is going to see a whole lot of Patrick Peterson, which is going to leave Chris Godwin being covered by Byron Murphy.

Murphy's a rookie. There's no way he covers Godwin. I think Godwin gets 100 yards in a touchdown. Lock it in. All right, there it is. Dr. Roto's lock of the week. All right, good doctor. Tell the folks where they can find you this weekend.

Sure, you can find me at full-time Fantasy.com and to the promo code Rodo 50 for 50% off your first two months. You could find me at sI.com backslash Fantasy and, of course, at Twitter at DRROTO. Thanks for being flexible on the time again. We'll get back on a normal slot next week and have a great weekend, my friend. Feel better, M-T. Thanks, friend. There you go. The good doctor, Dr. Roto with us here on Sports Talk 790. All right, it is 1 o'clock on Sports Talk 790.

I'm Matt Thomas. And again, nursing a cold, headache, chills, just normal flu symptoms. But you know what? The show must go on. We are with you until, I think, 3 o'clock. We may get one of the Adams to step in a little early. I do want to have you guys here a great interview this morning that Sean Salisbury did with Kirk Herbstre. And we are very fortunate here on Sports Talk 790 that I'll give you.

we get the opportunity on a semi-regular basis. We get Joe Clad every week with me, and he's the lead analyst on Fox. And then Kirk and Sean have a relationship back from his days when he worked at ESPN. So Kirk comes on every couple of weeks or so, three weeks or so. So I think it's a good time for us to replay that interview

because he'll talk about the college football playoff. And he'll obviously talk about the LSU Alabama game coming up Saturday in Tuscalo. And it gives me a chance to rest of my voice a little bit. So if you did not hear the interview today, with Kirk Herb Street. It's excellent. It's good.

It's full of information. It's entertaining. And it's coming up in about 15 or so minutes here on Sports Talk 790. One thing I did want to pay off on a tease a little while ago. And I don't think it's going to affect you as a baseball fan, but it does affect somewhat of us here at the radio station. The Astros announcing earlier today about 20 minutes ago that Jim Crane has updated some people.

to his executive team. Jared Crane, his son, has joined the leadership team at the Astros, and he will be on the executive team, and he will be in charge of all the business operations. Normally, that spot has gone to Reed Ryan, who you guys would hear with me during the week on Thursdays during the baseball season. Reed is stepping down,

and he is going to become an executive advisor of business relations. My guess is probably a consulting. sort of job. It says in the release that Ryan will have more opportunities to focus on his other business ventures. You know, the family has got a lot of things going on besides baseball, and he will still keep his hands involved in the Astros organization.

So, Reed has been with the team for seven years, and, excuse me, as the president of business operations, and now that will go to Jared, Jim's son. if you're asking for an opinion on this I don't really have one because I don't know Jared very well I don't know if his business acumen is awesome or horrible all I can tell you is that Reed has been a really good partner for us here at Sports Talk 790 for a long period of time

and we're going to miss having the day-to-day relationship with him and I hope this is something that he wants but really not more than just that I just don't know any of the details because it just came down a few minutes ago So I don't know if all the things of this past year have affected Reed's a desire to want to be a part of the baseball team anymore or vice versa. Maybe it was Jim that wanted his change. Who knows? But Reed is going to stay on as a consultant.

And Jared, Jim's son, is now going to handle much of the same responsibilities that Reed had when he was president of business operations. Do we know how Jim is on the bobblehead issue? Jim, no. I don't know how Jared feels about bobbleheads. How do you think Reed felt about bobbleheads? Well, Reid obviously loved bobbleheads. I think that's what everyone's worried about. Are we still going to have our bobbleheads?

You know what I want Jared to do? I want Jared to tell the team to wear those blue uniforms more often. You know the ones that only one on Sunday home games? Oh, yeah, yeah, that's good. Everybody, everybody that I know, not everybody, I shouldn't say that. Quite a few people when I do the on-deck show from the ballpark. Excuse me, I'm battling a terrible cold. Everybody that I see.

Not everybody. A lot of people I see wearing the blue uniform. I see more people wearing the blue uniforms than I do the white or the gray. So, Jared, if you're listening, let's get those blue uniforms in like 25 times a year. I'll be happy.

All right, 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Let's go to Gabriel on the north side at 104. Hi, Gabriel. Hey, how you doing? Yeah. I'm just trying to cure your throat, man. I've done this a long time ago.

I mean, the guy had came up to me. I used to suffer from a fruit through at least three times to a year. And this guy came out of nowhere. And I'm going to give you a remedy for that. So he's, I said, what is it? And said, well, you get honey and lemon. I said, I already know that one. So, well, no, no, hold on, man.

I said, and then you put brandy on it. About the same amount of each one, lemon, honey, and brandy. And just put it on the microwave for about a minute. It's going to be real hot and just take little sips of it. And I sure did, man. And it worked for me. I haven't got a short-proged in 10 years maybe. So it worked.

Well, I don't know. I mean, I think, unfortunately, the only thing I want to do right now, Gabriel, is sleep. Isn't that strange? Yeah, I understand. I understand. But if you do that one, I'll beg you to work for tomorrow. You'll be good tomorrow. I hope so.

At least. Yeah. Yeah. Two, three times. Do it at least two, three times, and it'll go away, man. All right. So tell me again what I'm supposed to use again. What am I supposed to use? Okay, honey? Okay. Yeah.

You squeeze the lemon. Don't get no on the bottle of lemon juice. Yeah. And then you put brandy. The same amount of each one and just put it on the microwave for about a minute. It's going to be hot and just take little sips. Don't shunt it down your throat. Just little sense until you finish it. You'll be good, man. You'll take me later. Gabriel, if it works, I'm going to give you all the credit in the world, okay? Oh, buddy.

Not a problem. We'll see you later. Appreciate the phone call. See you later. Have a good one. That's why I love y'all. Y'all give me little remedies. Booze.

Helps everything. I'm not even not hungry either. That's the worst part. This is how you lose weight, but you don't want to lose weight this way. Again, all I want to do right now is sleep. But I have to entertain the tens of people that are listening this radio show right now, Nick, so I can't sleep right now.

All right. What do you want to go from here? We got the remedy. with the with the brandy we talked about a little bit about the rockets we have the astros with the front office change and like i said people you may call i mean i don't know how many of y'all care because i mean it's it's the interworking to the business side it's not like it's uh it's not like it's uh you know jefflinnowsing his job this is all on the business side of things i'm not saying that that reed is losing his job i'm just saying that they are reorganizing and

he's now a consultant. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Rockets beat the Warriors last night. Rockets in Chicago this Saturday to take on the Bulls, Monday, New Orleans against the Pelicans, as they again, is with the Rockets not shooting particularly well as a group, not defending particularly well as a group.

They're having an opportunity here to face some second-tier group teams as they're trying to fix their problems. Their schedule will get noticeably more difficult, coming up in the next week or so, especially starting next Wednesday when the Clippers are in town. Speaking of the Clippers, the Clippers are arresting Kauai Leonard on a semi-regular basis. And people are mad because these games are on national television. And Nick, I want to talk about this for a second. How do you solve this issue?

If you're Kauai Leonard and you are the Los Angeles Clippers and you want to win a championship, in your mind playing a game regardless of opponent in the month of November is not going to go a long way towards that, especially if you think you're good enough to win a seven-game series regardless of your record. But at the same time, there are 82 regular season games, and people have spent money, television networks have spent money to put these sexy regular season matchups on. And when you don't have a sexy matchup, because Quy Leonard is not playing, and already Paul George is still out, it doesn't make nearly the Clippers

as attractive of a TV opponent. And remember, these television ratings are how these ad rates are sold, and these are also how the money is given from the network to the league. So there is definitely a direct path to lousy TV ratings means not as much money from the TV networks,

which means not as much money to the players. So while, at an individual standpoint, And a team standpoint, it makes sense. But from a league standpoint, you've got Kauai Leonard already missing two games so far this year that were scheduled for national television. It hurts the league. It hurts the park because there's going to be people that are going to want to turn into what Kauai Linder does. As much as Montres Harrell's Nice and Pat Beverly, they're not turning a clipper game on to watch those two guys playing.

Yeah, these load management issue, you think it also hurt ticket sales for the teams themselves. People expecting to see Kauai Leonard all of a sudden need to check before. they buy whether or not he's going to sit out that's right here's the thing if i did not have season tickets to a particular sports team in the NBA and i wanted to see one of my favorite players i probably wouldn't wait until game day in order to buy those tickets because if i find out at 130 that quiet lern is not playing and i really wanted to see quai lundered guess what i'm not buying the ticket i don't know how many people do it that way but that's something that should be coming to considerations. You wait until a certain time to find out whether or not a certain players

playing, because that's part of the reason why in the charm that you're going to see them to begin with. Plus, I would expect that if Kawhi Leonard does sit out and a lot of people do do exactly what you say and wait for game day, those ticket prices on third party sites like Stubhub and stuff like that, the price is going to drop and it's just going to bottom out if Kawhi Leonard's out. Yeah. How about this? How about if you're Kauai Leonard and you're going to a city that's in an Eastern Conference city? You only see him one time a year. Think about that. Yeah, and he decides to sit out and... That happened a lot with

LeBron James when he would go to, like, to Memphis and stuff when he was with the Cavaliers or Miami that he would take a night off because he was tired, arrest, or load management, and Memphis was selling ticket packages based off of seeing LeBron James, and now they just don't be able to do that. Let's go to

line number one and say hi to Rick in League City on Sports Talk, 790. Hi, Rick. Hey, buddy. Sorry, you're not feeling good. Thank you. I met you one time. I'm Adrian his friend. I was in a wrestling business for 16 years, and if you want Jim Cornett, I can reach out to him and see if he would grant you an interview. I'm sure he would. Jim's a great guy. Yeah, that'd be great. I did send him an email. I've not received a response yet, but I do have his

email account, and I said who I was, and I what a big fan I was. We were trying to think of some different things to do during this bi-week, and unfortunately it's Friday, and he's not responded, so kind of bummed about it. But yeah, I'd love to talk to him because he has a new DVD out of the great moments in Houston wrestling history, and that's the wrestling that I grew up as a kid going down to the same Houston Coliseum. That's where, yeah, I did too. I can remember when it was, you know,

and Jim's like that. He's old school, you know, when everything was cave in the business and everything. Right. He has a problem with a lot of these cosplay wrestlers and a lot of the new, you know, things that are going on. But he was always a nice guy.

He always went out of his way to help young guys when we were in the business. He came into Global one time when I was wrestling there, and I got to wrestle against Stan Lane, and he had Steve Cox as the Midnight Express then. But, yeah, he's just, he's been in the business. He started as a photographer in Memphis. Yeah, oh, I know. I listen to his YouTube podcast all the time, so I'm very familiar with what he is.

He's very entertaining. He's very foul-mouse. We have to keep the delay button on and make sure he didn't swear on my show. But, yeah, he's got a DVD. He wants to promote, and I'm more than happy to do that. So if you know anybody that can get him to me, I'd love to have him on the show. Yeah, buddy, I'm not over at the place where y'all used to go before games anymore, so I haven't seen you in a while. But hope you get to feeling better, buddy.

Thank you. Jimmy, I'll be more than happy to do it for you, all right? Thank you, Rick. Have a wonderful day. I appreciate you calling it. That's nice you to do that. I think we've got a few people that love with them some old-school wrestling. I do.

I don't like the new stuff at all. I have not watched. I went to the WWE when they had a house show here, what, two months ago or so for a little while, and that was okay. but I'm all about NWAWCWCW, Mid-South wrestling back in the late 70s, early 80s. That was my jam. All right, I'm going to take a little time off of the throat and get a little rest while you guys hear an amazing conversation that Sean Salisbury had with Kirk Herb Street of ESPN. If you missed the conversation earlier today, I have wonderful news for you. You're going to get it next.

It's the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas is swinging for the fences here on Sports Talk 790. All right, the time is 120. It is the Matt Thomas show. Again, I pardon my lack of voice. I'm under the weather today. But Ross is off. Gordy's off. All of our plan B, plan C guys are unavailable. So that means the show must go on. Nick doing a great job producing.

And I thank all of you for being with me today here on the radio show. Earlier today on Sports Talk 790, we had a chance. Sean did Sean Salisbury to visit with ESPN's Kirk Herb Street. Great analysis on the college football playoff that just started, and the LSU game with Alabama this Saturday in Tuscaloosa. And Sean and Kirk started the conversation that today about why Ohio State got the top seed in the first college football playoff rankings. Well, I think if you're evaluating, you have to go by, excuse me, what's happening just in 2019. You know, everybody has their thoughts in the preseason. I think you watch the game.

And Ohio State, in comparison to LSU, for example, who's been dynamic offensively with Joe Burrow, and even Alabama has been outstanding with Tua. And Clemsons had, you know, people I think kind of not Clemson, but they've won seven of their nine games by 30 points or more. They had one little scare against North Carolina, and Trevor Lawrence has thrown a few picks, and it's almost like they're damaged good. There's still been a dominant team. But with Ohio State, when you watch them, I don't even care who they're playing.

It's how they're executing and how consistent on both sides of the ball. It's not just the offense with Justin Fields and J.K. Dobbins, who's a young man from Texas. It's been more about just how they've been able to do things offensively with Ryan Day, and their defense has been the biggest difference. Last year, they won despite their defense. They had to outscore people with Haskins throwing for 50 touchdown passes. This year they bring Jeff Hathley over, new defensive coordinator, comes over from the NFL, from the 49ers.

Greg Madison, a guy who's a grizzled veteran defensive mind, was with Michigan last year. So they're co-deensive coordinators. But the consistency, now they may lose coming up, but up to this point, they've been the best team, the most consistent team through their eight first day games of the year. And one more thing about Ohio State. You know what?

We always hear about Clemson and Alabama, you know, the reload. They lose eight guys to the draft, and boom, the next year they're just as good. We may not give Ohio State enough credit. They lose their head coach. Ryan Day steps in. They lose their – they're a 50-through-the-touchdown quarterback in Haskins, as you mentioned, fields of transfer steps in. I mean, they realize – you lose both, so you're just as good defense. It's crazy how good they are and how deep they are.

One last thing on them, Ryan Day takes over for Urban Meyer. I mean, you imagine dealing with that. Oh, my gosh. The first three games last year when Urban was – taken away from the team for the first three games because of the Zach Smith stuff. And he did a great job replacing him. And I think that's why Gene Smith gave him the reins. But you imagine, do I act like Urban?

Because they kept most everybody on the staff, same secretary, same doctors, same trainers, same strengths coach, most of the assistants of the same. They've got to mention just a few new changes. But do I act like Urban, do I act like myself? So he's had to really do a good job of just being Ryan Day. He's not Urban Meyer, who is a great leader, great motivator. But he's found a way and just being himself, an outstanding leader. And this team, you know what it's like, you get around teams.

And sometimes there's like a, you talk to them for longer than 30 seconds, 18 to 22 year old kids, you lose eye contact, you start messing with their shoes. They start, you know, grabbing their shirt. They lose their focus. Man, I wouldn't, he asked me to come back and speak to their team last spring. I spoke to them for an hour. I don't think any of them ever took their eyes off the discussion that was going on at the front of the run. I was so impressed with them as just the maturity and the motivation. I remember thinking that in my head when I left that day, it felt different.

Even from some Ohio State teams, recent very talented teams, maturity and the focus, I think they're mad at the world for doubting them to see if they could win without Urban Meyer, without Dwayne Haskins. I think that's really driven this focus and driven this team, at least up to this point, to eight games. Yeah, their demand and respect to Kirk Herb Street College Game Day. You know, the primetime game every Saturday night. You know, who you got this Saturday night, bud?

Who you calling? Well, we're going to have Penn State in Minnesota, which would have been an epic game. But the Big Ten has an interesting rule once you get to the month of November, that both teams have to agree to a primetime game. Minnesota said, are you kidding me? Give us that window. And James Franklin said, no, we're good. We'll do the 11 a.m. local kick.

So we're going to, the game of the week is obviously LSU, and Alabama. We're going to leave that scene of college game day and all the hype, and I'm flying to follow Clemson. Clemson plays NC States. We'll be doing the Clemson game. Okay, and we'll get to that and that team here in a second. To this LSU Alabama game. Herbie, this is the first time, you know how into college football I am, and I know obviously how into it you are. There's nobody better at it. This is the first time in all the years, well, let me say just two decades, maybe, that I can waltz into Tuscaloosa with Joe Burrow and Joe Brady in this offense and what they're doing.

and really deep down in places we don't talk about, believe that my offense may be better than yours in Tuscaloosa with a legitimate chance offensively to beat you. Am I right or wrong? Absolutely. They're averaging 46 and 47 points a game. Quarterbacks have been probably the story this year. The system has been the story.

He's completing 79% of passes, 30 touchdown passes, four interceptions. I mean, if he hasn't already broken every LSU passing record, he's going to pass every record that they have. It's just been a different philosophy. It's like trying to all of a sudden speak a different language. I mean, for years, I mean, OBJ went there, Georgia's Landry went there. They had so much talent on offense, and yet they were a defense, a ball control, eye formation. everybody else is five receivers, four receivers spread, LSU, I form it. And it was effective.

I mean, they'd win a lot of games. They couldn't beat Alabama. They lost eight straight. But that's how they won games. They had a dynamic defense, great running back, and almost just tried not to lose the game on offense. That's who they've been. And all of a sudden, Coach O's says, I want to go to this spread.

They go visit the Saints. Sean Peyton says, you're not going to like this young guy we got, Joe Brady, sits down with him, goes over the RPO game. game and five receivers and opening things up. And they get done with that. And they're like, man, can we hire this guy? I mean, we'd love to have him. And he's 29 years old.

He was at Joe Moorhead before that as a GA up at Penn State. Goes to the Saints and as an analyst and is in the room with Payton or with Sean Peyton and Drew Brees. So he brings all of that to Baton Rouge. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard this before. They're not going to change. It's going to be same old LSU. We go to Austin.

And I'm like, what in the heck is going on? five receivers, and not only that, an aggressive mentality. They're up late in that game on the road. I'm thinking conventional wisdom, LSU, run the ball, make Texas use all their timeouts, punt, and then see if your defense holds up, make Linger drive the link to the field to win the game. No, no, no.

Third and 17, they throw it. They trust bro to throw it on the road. He makes a great throw to Justin Jefferson. They end up winning the game. And I remember thinking, holy cow, It's not just the system. It's the mentality. It's so different for LSU.

And that's what I can't wait to watch Saturday. They're going to be aggressive. And is that going to fight two heavy ways, two guys stepping in the middle of ring saying, I'm the alpha. No, no, no, no. I'm the alpha. And we'll find out who the real alpha is Saturday. Is it fair to say that the winner of this game, Alabama, LSU?

And if they run the table the rest of the way, if whoever loses this game, let's say LSU loses but runs the table. Do they still have a chance to be in the final four? So my different minds evaluate that differently, depending on who you talk to. If you look at the current rankings, Oklahoma all the way down at nine, you have Oregon and Utah, who in my opinion, unless there's a major upset, they're not going to lose. Agreed. For those kind of teams are going to meet in the past.

to a championship, both sitting there 11 and 1, right? And they're ahead of Oklahoma already. I think that if LSU, if Alabama loses at home because of their resume, they don't have a great non-conference win. They're out in my pick. Agreed. If LSU who went to Austin when Texas is playing pretty good and they beat them, if they lose, let's just say, that's all those games.

On a game winner, 2724, a late second field goal. Yeah, yeah, one of those kind of deals, 35, Burrow played great, they lose a close one. And they are going to have a strong argument at the end because I think you're going to have, let's just say if all the favorites win, if Ohio State wins the Big Ten, Clemson wins the ACC, let's just say Alabama wins out, wins the SEC. They're going to be sitting there with a one-loss Pack 12, potentially a one loss, Oklahoma, and then you're going to have, if LSU lost a close one at Alabama, that's their only loss, maybe Penn State, their only loss a close one at Ohio State, that'll be the discussion. Those four teams, Pac-12 Champ, Oregon, Big 12. champ, Oklahoma, one lost LSU, one lost Penn State, will be what the committee will have to debate

for that fourth and final spot, if, again, all the favorites would have went out. Exactly. Kirk Herb Street, a couple more minutes with him, college game day, you know the prime time game. He'll be Clemson, North Carolina State. I love Clemson's skill set. I know how I hear you talk about them and dabble on what they're building and what they've built

there. But tell me, if we're going, we're not giving a lifetime achievement award, I think that Clemson should be out of the top five right now. I do. And There's some that may even think Georgia's played better or even Oregon, for that matter. Tell me, are my eyes lying to me? Now, they're going to win the ACC and they're going to be undefeated and they're going to get in. But tell me if I'm missing something when I say they are not a top four team performance-wise,

not potential, but performance-wise, in the country right now. Well, you know, I think they, they, I was talking to Davo yesterday, preparing for this game, and he is fired up. Not just about the ranking. He fired up about how he feels there's a double standard out there. Alabama has a close game, and it's, oh, that SEC is tough. There's so much parity in that SEC. They're so good.

You know, Clinton has a close game against North Carolina. See, they're not that good. That's how he feels. He thinks they're better than they were a year ago. There's 15-0 last year. Right. Historic, one of the greatest teams ever. And he feels that Brent Venables has rewired.

this defense after all the losses up front. And if you look at the numbers, they are better than they were a year ago defensively. The only thing that's hurt their perception, and I told him, I said, people look at you and they remember the way you played against Alabama, not just anybody, but Alabama, you embarrass them. So the bar for Clemson is way up there. The bar for Trevor Lawrence is way up there. And so if they have a game or two or three or they don't live up to that bar,

that we saw them in the national championship against Alabama. It's like, man, I don't know. I don't know about Clemson. I just don't think. Yet if you look at the numbers and you look at the way they're performing, the only different between this team and last year is Trevor Lawrence has eight intersections last year for the whole year he had four. So I think it's hurt the perception.

It's hurt the buzz around them. And then the close call in Chapel Hill against North Carolina and Mack Brown. other than that, they've been a dominant team. Nobody's even, including Texas A&M, who's an SEC team, nobody's even been in a game with them. So I think now they're a championship season, as they call it, and they're getting ready for the stretch run. I think they're going to be an angry football team. I think if they went out, they're in the playoff, obviously, they win the ACC. Their challenge, most talented game they have left is a rivalry game in Columbia against South Carolina, another SEC.

team. Other than that, I don't really see anybody staying very close to them. And then they're going to enter the playoff with a, imagine this, defending national champ with a big chip on their shoulder, not doing the way to the world like most teams do. They're a motivated football team. So I think that Davo couldn't be any happier with the script and getting his team kind of mad at the world as they get ready here for this last month of the season. He definitely don't write clinson off i i think they're gonna make some noise here all right excellent stuff right there from kirk herb street with sean salisbury and that is a shone weekday morning six to ten here on sports talk seven and a great interview but uh saved my throat for 15 minutes so that was worth

it and again thanks to shone and for the great uh analysis that uh kirk brings the table i think we got it in college football we've got a great analyst uh joke lots i'm fantastic at fox and kirk is about as good as it gets on the ABC ESPN side. All right. Let's resume with you guys, if you're out there in Houston, Texas, on this kind of damp, drury day. 713-212-5-790 if you'd like to join our conversation.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. To speak on H-town sports, you have to live H-town sports. Sorry, ESP in Connecticut. This is Houston's Sports Talk 790. 140 on Sports Talk 790. Sorry. Getting a lot of text saying how awesome I sound. Like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Razor blades in the back of my throat. Oh, that's fair. I get you. When I'm back and healthy again, I will find you and I will destroy you. Thank you, Niccolo, for doing a great job producing a radio program today. Thanks again to Sean for getting Kirk Herbstry on. That was good stuff. All right, 7132-1-2-5-790 is how you reach our show.

Headlines of the day, Rocket Celebrated Victory over Santa Cruz Warriors, because that was not the Warriors team that we learned to love and hate for many seasons. They had a bunch of guys you never heard of before. The Houston Astros, Reed Ryan, is resigning as the president of business operations. Jared Crane, Jim's son, it's going to assume his role. Jim, I just say Reed is going to have. handle special projects in a consultant role it appears and like I said I you know mainly y'all are worried about the baseball side of things and who's the general manager and who runs

things that has not been touched it appears but you never know things could be changing so I don't think Jefflin knows any sort of trouble I'm just saying that today was a day that a release came out that said the business practice side of things is going to change I don't have an opinion out one way the other because I've been on the air the whole time but I will say again and it bears repeating that Reed was a great guy to work for with and our relationship with Sports Talk 790 and we will miss that relationship. He was a very fair man and looked out for the well-being of our radio station

and we like that a lot. So whatever Reed is doing, whether he wants to or his next adventure, you know, Reed's family, the Ryans have a lot of different things. Minor League Baseball teams are involved in banks. They're involved in a variety of things. I don't think he'll be hurting. Trust me. but it was nice to have a guy that you could actually have a beverage with and talk about baseball and talking about business and what was good for not only us is a radio station but his is a baseball team so he will be missed I want to bring up one thing that I saw yesterday and again it shows you the diva nature of professional sports we talked about earlier today about Khalil Mack not wanting to serve candy to kids at his house on Halloween he had a security

guard said the house was closed that is a diva factor my next example of diva factor is mitchell tribisky the third pick in the nfl draft for three years ago he has been i mean let's be brutally honest he has been a massive disappointment the chicago bears are under 500 they're comfortably in third place in the nfc north behind green bay and minnesota they have been a massive disappointment And so when you lose games and you don't perform well, the ESPNs, the FS-1s, the other networks that do sports, NFL, NFL Network, CBS, NBC, are going to take pot shots at you. Not pot shots. They're going to be analytical. They're going to say that, hey, you didn't do a good job.

This is the team. This is the reason why Chicago is failing. And frankly, a lot of it rides on the quarterback's shoulders, just like it is with any other NFL team. Quarterbacks, you've heard this five million times, get too much credit and too much blame. Well, I don't follow the Chicago Bears on a routine basis. Our buddy Joe George, who produces the afternoon show here on 7 and he does, and he probably can speak better to this. But every time I talk to him about Mitch Trubisky, he hates the guy.

He's been terrible. So what did Mitchell Trubesky do at the team's practice facility this couple days ago? Excuse me. He told everybody to turn the sound down on the various NFL shows. I've got his quote here. I don't have the audio, but I can read the quote if you want. Please do. Please do.

All right. Here's what Mr. Mitchell Tribiskey had to say. I've done pretty good with that trying to get some of these TVs in the building turned off because you've got too many people talking on TV about us and what they think about us and what we should do, what we are and what we are not. but they don't really know who we are and what we're capable of as people or what we're going through or what we're thinking.

It's just the outside viewers looking in. So tunnel vision, earmuffs, and just come to work every day and try to get better and get back to what we know we're capable of doing. I could buy into some of that, but the problem is this. You ready for this, Nick?

Every time the Chicago Bears play, they're on television. Yep. Every time. And when he says they don't know what they're capable of doing, well, they know what you were capable of doing thus far. Your record is who you says you are. You're three and five.

When anybody believe the Chicago Bears are not deserving of a three and five record, that's who they are. So here's my advice to Tribeschi. and that's three four and one matt let's let's give them what what they've earned no i got chicago here at three and five the lions are three four and one oh you're right i'm looking at the wrong line here yeah so if i'm him nick i absolutely do what he says turn the tv sound down maybe you change a channel but you know what i don't do i don't tell anybody i did it yeah just go through and

switch everything to cartoons or something why would why would Well, no, that is, I don't care what you put on. Just don't go in front of a press conference and say these things in front of reporters because then the reporters know that they've got you. Oh, yeah, that you're going to be worse. That you're a, that you are listening and you're reading everything that has said and talked about you. And now radio show hosts in Houston are talking about those. And now that's what I'm saying.

Do I believe that other NFL teams have told players, players have said to turn the TV off because they don't hear negative? stuff yes but I don't hear them talking about it Mitch Trubisky talking about the fact that he told everybody to turn the sound down means that he's hearing the noise and that's what it really is at the end of the day it's just noise and if you're an NFL team and you're as strong as you say you are and you don't like it then by all means do you turn it off but you don't go to the press and say what you did because that makes you look

like that you are vulnerable and that's what people thought about you all along. So basically you're just fortifying what people said about you before you turn the sound down on your TV. Mitchell Tribesky doesn't like the TV, doesn't like to hear criticism. Let me tell you something. I don't like hearing criticism either. It's not

my friend. So you know what I do? I don't listen to it. 147 on the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-7-9. If you want to get in on the conversation, 7-13-212-5-7-90. Hey, Matt, do you think Mitchell Trubisky would be a spokesman for remote.u.biz? You know, I'm trying to keep it lean with that group. I don't think endorsements necessarily help. Again, I think the T-shirts that I put out there with a guy, you know, with a holding remote control,

with a TV, is all the marketing I can do. Houston's official sports cliche translator. I'm working hard. I'm trying to be a good teammate. I'm trying to go out here every day. and do my job. Matt Thomas. Taking it one day at a time.

153 on Sports Talk 790. This is a Matt Thomas show. I cannot wait to take a nap. Just being truthful. Nick, you're taking a nap today at 3 o'clock? You're going to listen to The 18 with Adam and Adam. I'm actually going to be stuck in traffic on 610 driving to my second job. Yeah, 610 sucks.

6.10 does suck. Sucks bad. We have not talked about Bill O'Brien today. You know what? He's got school board right now, right? Six and three? First place, AFC South? I mean, we're destined for our next AFC South championship.

Yeah, we do win a lot of those around these parts. We are, like, the Texans do that very well. They are nine and ten win strong. We're only more like nine. What was it, 11 last year? I mean, and it's the hardest thing for me as a sports talk host is to buy into it because every time that I ask you to buy into it, you don't. And then when they lose to an opponent, they have no business losing to like Indianapolis at home in a wildcard game and getting beat up. Excuse me.

You call me and say, Matt, I told you so. Nine and seven is not the bar. Well, I know, but it's been the norm. I mean, that'd be the bar. Fact of the matter is, I think we'll feel, and I've said this in the last couple days, if they can beat two of the three next opponents, the hardest part of their schedule is right here, followed by the softest part. The softest part includes two Tennessees, a Denver and a Tampa Bay.

All four teams not going to playoffs. So if you go three and one against that group of four, that puts you in nine and seven. If you just get one of the next three, which would be Baltimore, Indianapolis, and the New England, then you are not the norm. Then you are double-digit wins. And then you are maybe fighting for a number two seed in the playoffs. Because here's the thing. If you could beat the Ravens and you're in a tie with them at the end of the year,

you'll have the home field because you beat them in a head-dead match-up. Look at me putting the car well before the horse. Yeah, that's way ahead of the horse. But we spoke to Pat Starr earlier today on trenches, and he actually said that he believes, they just need to win one out of these three, and they'll have their playoff berth pretty much locked up based on the ease of their remaining schedule afterwards.

Yeah, I don't doubt that. I think one of the three gets you in. But there's a difference, I think, Nick, and I think the audience knows this too. There's a difference between getting in and thinking you're going to win some games, right? Well, I mean, does anyone really think they're going to win some games? Texans Karen does.

How many years has she been watching the Texans? Since 2002, since day one. Well, then she should know. but she don't care. Texans Karen believes they're going to win every single week. And if they don't win, it was because of either a bad referees call

or injuries or you know, we'll get them again next year. Texans Karen doesn't believe this team is ever going to underperform. Texans Karen will never get really mad at the team. She'll be disappointed. She might shed a tear, but she's never

going to get mad at them. She's never going to question Bill O'Brien's play calling. She never going to question his timeouts. They're going to question his two-minute drill work or his challenges. She is full throttle. I'm past getting mad at them. I just have Texans

apathy. Well, you know what it is? That's the thing that I'm trying to fight with here on this show is that I don't want, I mean, they're the team because let's be brutally honest, the rockets probably are not going to be front and center until after Christmas, maybe the first of the year, because we won't really know who they are at this point. I mean, it's still very

early this season, they still have about 74 games left to go. To get in and sink your teeth into it's not great. This should be the time where the Texans do command the conversation. And I'm not talking about just talking about how awesome they are. I'm talking about the good and the bad with them. And that's why I think I will not pay a whole lot of attention to the final four games because they should win those games. They are better than the three teams in those four games.

Yeah, it's just their history is. bred this apathy for anything they do just because we've seen how this story ends every year okay so if that's the case then why are there still millions and millions of people that care about them if we see the story every year i can't explain it man well it's because they love because you love football and you love sports i mean there's been a lot of frustrations with the rockets there are people that are still mad about the astros and losing games on the world series they're going to be their opening day they're going to plan their trip to spring training they're going to go figure out a way to go see 10 or 15 games

that's why we get into sports we are more often than not disappointed in the results only one team gets to celebrate the rest of us get mad but we go on and I'm going back because I swore to God after last year's January lost to Indianapolis I heard everybody calling up same old Texan same old Bill O'Brien

I'm done with them I don't know stadium still seems filled people so seem to be watching people are certainly excited they went to Jacksonville or 2-1 London and won that game. People still go to Cleveland Brown's games. That's true, and they've really sucked for a long period of time. All right, final hour of the Matt Thomas show coming up in a matter of moments.

Excuse me. 713-212-5-790. Is the Matt Thomas show. Here we go, the final hour of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790 with Nick. I'm Matt. Thanks for living through my sort of thing. Mark Berman over Channel 26 just tweeted out the following. Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan says in a text message that he will not continue in his role as an executive advisor to the owner of the Astros.

Quote, I will not be back with the club and we'll leave it at that. That is in correlation with the announcement earlier today that Reed Ryan is stepping down as the president of business operations and that Jared Crane, Jim's son, is now going to inherit much of those responsibilities. Reed will be as an advisor to the team on special projects. But that right there is pretty cryptic. I'll read it again. This is Mark Berman to read to Nolan Ryan in a text. Noel and Ryan says he will not continue in his role as an executive advisor to the owner of the Astros.

I will not be back with the club and I will leave it at that. So the Astros are doing some maneuvering, needless to say, on the front office side of things. I don't know how much that has to do with the Bram and Tobman situation. I don't know if there is a fall guy in this, beyond Tobman. And again, this is more stuff that doesn't necessarily relate to what you guys see as the product of the Astros. But Reed, I think, really loved being the president of the Astros. He was there for seven years. It was a team he grew up watching.

And again, from a personal aspect of it, it was fun to work with him. He was very professional, very accommodating for being a team president. And I'm surprised, frankly. And I don't know if there's any other shakeups, but that is the one today, is that Jared Crane, Jim's son, is now going to handle more of the administrative side or the business side of things. So that's the news today. And again, Nolan Ryan is coming out and saying that he's done as a special advisor.

That's tough because that's not a huge role for him, special advisor. It's just kind of cool that Noel and Ryan was hanging around the ballpark, that one of the greatest pictures in the history of the game, the all-time strikeout king, was hanging out at your ballpark on television, in your seats, watching great guys like Justin Verlander. So that apparently is going to end. I'm sure there could be some other fallout. I don't know.

And again, these will be people that you probably do not know or do not recognize. but some of the business community certainly well. So I don't know if there's more to it. There probably is, but Reed Ryan will now be a consultant on special projects and will no longer handle the day-to-day operations of the presidency of the business side of the Houston Astros. Not that we can get a whole lot into that,

but it is disappointing that Reed would, you know, that Ryan, I'd say no one would come out and say that I'm no longer with the organization, I'll leave it with that. Obviously, there's a lot of things he wants to say, but will not. 713-212-5-7-90 if you want to get in. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

Let's go to my buddy, Christian in Lamarck on 7-90 at 206. Christian, good afternoon to you. Good afternoon, Matt Thomas and Niccolo. I mean, I'm sorry if my voice is basically going bad. I have to do a podcast back on Sunday night, and my voice is still pathetic. Well, the show must go on, unfortunately. Yeah, I know. But other than that, I'm sorry to hear about your start, bro.

I know it must be hard to yell all those names out during their rocket game last night. Yeah, I was starting to feel bad about midway through the game yesterday. You know how you get sick you can just feel it? And that's exactly what it happened. Come to think of it, you should have tagged them. It'd be great to do the announcement instead of just fighting it out on your own. he's busy playing the music so we're all good what else you got today christian just one question i know that the college football playoff poll that was released during a double header on

the fashpm of college basketball this past tuesday was highly favorable towards south eastern conference but right with Alabama and lSU being the number two and number three in the college football playoff fall. How do you think that matchup will translate to, you know, those two potentially meeting in the college football playoff national championship game regardless of Saturday's results? Well, I do believe Saturday's results will have a lot to do with it. If it's a 27 to 24 game where it's back and forth and somebody wins on a late kick,

Christian, I think that it's going to be hard to bump any one of the two teams down dramatically to lose. I think if it's a 41 to 10 game and it's a blowout, I think one of them will take a pretty drastic drop because there are so many teams, Christian, as you know, that are undefeated and think they should be in that mix, including Clemson, who's right now on the outside looking in. So at this point, it's so early in the game

because it's just the first poll of the year, and there's a lot of things that can change over the next six or seven weeks. So even if one of them dramatically drops Christian, I wouldn't worry about it too much because they got a chance to fix it with a conference championship game or winning or beating somebody they're not supposed to to between now and the end of the year. So I wouldn't front it too much.

It's just more for conjecture today than anything else. Right, right. Especially considering the fact that when you already got three teams one same conference in that college football playoff, so it's already going to get pretty halations leading to now, I mean, between now and the end of the season. But other than that, that's all I wanted to talk to you about. I will talk to you on social media at sports.

I'm going to you. Thank you, friend. See, have a good day, Christian. Appreciate you listening. Christian's my PR man. I love the guy. You guys are going to follow me on Twitter at SportsMT. You can.

I can guarantee I'm not checking out the rest of the day. I'm going to sleep as soon as humanly possible, and then hopefully rally for tomorrow's show because tomorrow, Brian T. Smith will be on with us for a few minutes. And we'll also get you some handicapping advice. And we'll also have the Beat the Shmos contest tomorrow for someone with a chance to win dinner at Papa John's. pizza. Yeah, I'm looking

forward to Saturday's game. I don't have a dog in the fight. I have a lot of friends that have a lot of dogs in the fight, so to speak between LSU and Alabama. The one thing that they're over concerned about is, you know, there's going to be thousands and thousands of people that are in and around Bryant-Denny Stadium. Apparently,

the president is coming to the game on Saturday, which is going to even add an extra layer of security. And that's not foreign. I mean, presidents go to sporting events all the time. I'm just thinking, you know, Trump the wise thing a couple of weeks back. He went to the World Series game against the Astros and Nationals, but he decided to show up late.

Because if he shows up, tries to show up at first pitch or kickoff, that's going to delay people back and more even further. And that's a bad spot because you've got people paying obscene amounts of money to sit in the stand. And imagine having to be in the line for any additional length of time because a president is trying to get cleared. I know you have to do it, especially in today's world. But I don't know. Should presidents be allowed to go to sporting events? Big ones. Like if he wanted to go see LSU versus the Citadel, I'd be okay with that because that's not going to be a huge line.

If you want to go see a Wizards game, hell, there's only 12,000 people at that, so that's some big deal. Game 7 of the World Series was. one of the greatest baseball games anybody has ever seen yeah so i guess the one thing is that you should probably let him go because you would miss that analysis of how great game seven was the 2017 world series i'm donald trump and i approve this message i'm just telling you they're cranky down there they being people in alabama because they're going to be there already early enough as it is having a bunch of pops and on top of it they have to wait extra long in line because the president wants to go the game you shouldn't treat people that way that way that way it's going to be there

way well he's gonna get special treatment in fact president you will you'll get a better seat than most people you're probably in the suite hanging out with veterans you are a rude terrible person i'm not rude i'm just strictly bringing the facts out racism there's no racism you're making me laugh and that's not helping the cause nick it's going down the tubers all right two 12 on sports talk 790 i'm hoping adam and adam get here shortly because I'm down on my last... Oh. You didn't start doing shots like your listener and I told you to do?

No, you can't do shots in the middle of the show. I mean, I guess you could, but it wouldn't sound nearly as good. Maybe it sounded better. You never know. Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson here. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Time is 219. It is the Matt Thomas show.

I promise I'll make this up to you all. I know it's not easy to listen to a horse person on the radio, but bear with me. Ross and Gordier are out today, so we're kind of lean on people. Tomorrow I'll be able to get up to Hobby Airport before the Rock is head off through Chicago to take on the hated bulls on Saturday.

Ryan T. Smith will stop by for a few minutes. You guys can stop in as well at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. A lot of you are asking me on Twitter, what are these moves with the Astros Business Department have to do with the baseball side of it? I don't know,

because I don't deal with the baseball side. and at this point I don't know if I would necessarily believe there's anything directly correlated to it but if you have not heard Reid Ryan has resigned as president of business operations and Jim Crane's son is going to take over as

the leader in the business department. I don't know of any other moves I know there have been a couple of scouts that have left but that's not out of the ordinary especially with teams that are successful and they want to poach guys with their team so yeah I don't know if any anything else is going on at this point?

All I can tell you is that Reed Ryan has resigned and that Nolan Ryan via text to Mark Berman has said that I am no longer involved in the organization. He was a special advisor and he has said, I'm done with that. And it sounded on the text from Mark that Nolan's better. And I would expect them to be,

especially if the decision was made to move out his son as a president of a Major League Baseball team. 713-21. 2-5-7-9, excuse me. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Let's go to Brian and downtown on the Matt Thomas show. Brian, how are you? Hey, what's going on with you, Matt?

You know, you guys advertise Papa John's, but I'll tell you what, man, until you've had Frank's pizza? Man, you guys ain't tasted no pizza yet. But anyway, man, hey, what do you think it's going to take for Bill O'Brien to actually be hit to the Texas next year? year. I mean, do you have to win an AFC championship?

How far does you think he has to make it in the playoffs to actually still be here next year? He'll be here next year, regardless. No matter what. No matter what. Man, that hurts, but, well, we'll see how they're looking better. I hope they stay with it. Thanks, Matt. All, Brian. Yeah, Brian, I got news for you. Cal McNair is a big fan of Bill O'Brien's. His dad was, and he is.

Much bigger fan than I am. In fact, Cal McNair got a phone call or a text message from Bill O'Brien and said, Brian Gain is not the general manager we want. I want him out of here. So he did. And now they have been general managerless this entire season, and frankly, have not done a terrible job on that. So it's kind of weird that, as we've taught and teased about, that maybe Reed is, I mean, I should say maybe Bill O'Brien is a better GM than he's at coach.

Lambert Tunsell's been okay so far. The Jambian Clowny deal was terrible because you got nothing back in return. But the Duke Johnson acquisition has helped. Tunsel clearly has helped. That's true. That's true. And then also, uh, county stills has been a nice acquisition.

And Carlos Hyde, where would this team's running game be without Carlos Hyde? Here's a guy that was looking just to keep his NFL career alive and he's been very good. Have you really missed Lamar Miller since he's been gone? No, because that Carlos Hyde, Duke Johnson combination, has been really good, very effective. Both guys can run. I would say average runners, but Carlos has shown signs he can turn on the jets. And then Duke Johnson, really, for one of the few times this year in the game against Jacksonville,

was a really good catching receiver. We knew how good he was. We just didn't see a whole lot of it. And now we have. I thought those two guys, if those two guys can put up similar offensive numbers to what they did in the game, against the Jaguars in London, that is a valuable threat for Deshawn Watson out of the backfield because they can run it and they can catch it, especially when they are safety valves, especially when the heat comes, to have those two guys available to them, especially Duke Johnson

on the back field, they can catch everything. That could be the best part of this Texans offense because as good as Nuk has been this year, he hasn't been like overwhelming dominant. Frankly, the tight ends of catching everything has been the main storyline. The fact that you've not been able to use Will Fuller, the fact that Kiki Kui Kuton, he is in the doghouse. You would think the Texas offensively would be in trouble. In fact, they're not.

Two running backs helping the cause and a group of tight ends that are catching everything that Sean's throwing their way. And, oh, by the way, Deshawn is having an amazing season, too. Let's go to Pat in Sugar Land on the Matt Thomas Schott. 2.24. Hi, Pat.

How you doing, Matt? Low average. I was going to say, you sound a little under the weather, buddy. Thank you. Okay, well, first of all, that was a surprising news on the Ryan's. And when did that news break? I mean, like within the hour? Yeah, it was about a little before 1 o'clock.

And did they have a press conference, or did they just release a statement or what? No, just a statement. I'll read you the statement in just a second here. But, yeah, no press conference, just a statement. Well, I'm sorry to hear that on a few fronts. When Reed first came and took over the team, the baseball operations, I had called and complained because the slogan that year was it's not because they weren't winning. It's about the experience. And I had an exceptionally bad experience at the stadium.

And Barry Warner, I called him Barry Warner. Barry took down my name called Reed. Reed called me. And I had to sit down with him in his office. I mean, that's incredible. and I didn't know Reed. I knew of Reed, but didn't know him prior to that, but was impressed by him just for falling up with me and sitting town with me.

And now, just disappointing news. And with Nolan, and obviously Nolan didn't take it, take it well, if he stepped down. But what is that going to, what kind of contracts do we have? Because we just got Round Rock back a couple years ago, and they own that. team, right? I think so, yes. And he obviously was involved with Corpus too, right? Yeah, I don't know

exactly who owns Oon at what point, but I know that the relationships between those two cities are very strong. I'm wondering if we're going to see that change again. I kind of like that. I like the fact that all the minor league teams, or a lot of the minor league teams, were here instead of in Fresno

or New Orleans or whatever. In New Orleans wasn't bad. I mean, that's not far. But I guess back in the day, it was Tucson. But, you know, I'm wondering, and the skaters, and not that Reed would be interested in that enough or anything, but they were looking for somebody, I think, just in the last couple months. But I always wondered if the skaters had a way of getting in and getting maybe A-ball or something with, or getting an affiliation with the Astros. because I think that would be cool.

But, you know, it's just weird because Nolan did the same thing, but they relieved him of some kind of duties up in, as an advisor up in Arlington. And that's when, you know, he quickly signed on with us, started trying to finagle his team, but his minor league affiliate back with the Asher. I just hope that doesn't, there's not a domino effect from that. and we start losing those teams.

Yeah, Pat, I can't answer those questions. I think it's all fair points, and I'm sure that we'll be discussed in the upcoming days. Thank you for the phone call. Let me go ahead and give you the two statements that were read, that were in the release today. This is Jim Crane speaking about Reed. I want to personally thank Reed for his contributions

over the past seven seasons. Reed has been a tremendous help in the business operations and a great advocate for our fans, employees, and partners. We look forward to his continued presence. with support as we move forward. I am confident that our executive leadership team will continue to deliver

on the great fan experience and customer service we have always been committed to. Comment from Reed, Jim Crane has been a great owner for the city of Houston, and I thank him for the opportunity to lead the Houston Astros organization. Thank you the many employees, fans, and partners that have supported this

team during my tenure as president. Baseball is about bringing joy to people's lives and taking pride and knowing that we have made many memories for our fans while my role has changed I will remain with the Astros and look forward to another successful season in 2020 that again is the quote coming out just a few minutes ago about an hour ago that to read is stepping down obviously now no one is stepping down as a senior advisor whatever that may be that may be just I don't I mean I don't think he was a nine to five guy I put it

balance with you. But as I said a few minutes ago, it was cool to have a guy that has a stature of Reed Ryan being in and around, or Nolan Ryan in around your organization. 229 is the time. It is the Matt Thomas show. We'll take you to three o'clock today here on Sports Talk 790. More. Your phone call straight ahead. A team coming up in 30 minutes here on 790. The SportsMT show continues without SportsMT and without sports RV. Let's all pour one out for Matt, who was gutting it out over the first two and a half hours of the show. Clearly, not at his finest. Now he gets a little chance to rest up for the next time.

He'll be on the air, which hopefully, with a fast recovery, will be tomorrow. We'll pick it up from there and we'll get you ready for the A team. Adam Wexler here with you. Adam Clanton will join me shortly and then we'll take you on the full ride coming up from three to six. A lot of things have actually happened over the course of the day. And as you just spoke with Matt moments ago, we're talking about. changes over at Houston Astros complex on the business operations side the information

coming out from the team several hours ago that they were making changes Jared crane Jim crane's son was becoming a part of the business operations leadership team and Reid Ryan would no longer continue in the role of team president rather in an executive advisory role and as explained in the statement that he would have an opportunity to pursue and continue his work on other business interests, most of which have all been taking place over the last several years anyway, not something necessarily new on the plate or changes to what was already happening, but clearly changes within the organization, significant ones.

That's what you guys have been talking about, so we certainly can pick it back up from there and welcome your phone calls on that subject. And several others, interesting stuff regarding the Rockets, not all related to last night's win over the Golden State Warriors played without Eric Gordon, but with the return of Russell Westbrook and another heavy scoring night for James Harden. So we'll jump in on a couple of different things here as we slide in on the fly and sadly on a day where once again, a little water slowing a lot of people down on the roadways. Do keep an eye out for some flooding without quickly the rain came down. That has had an impact, but in a lot of other places it's

merely, oh look, it's raining. Let's drive slow. Let's get in on the phones here a little bit. Let's get out to the west side of town. What's going on, John? Yes. Interesting enough, with this new development, with the Astros, watching the... involving Astros this year, and never once do I remember, Norman Ryan, see there right behind home plate with his wife, standing up, smiling. It makes me wonder now inkling about what was going to happen

today. Who, Nolan? Yeah. Yeah. I'm totally lost by what you mean because Nolan Ryan was there all throughout the post season, just like he always was,

sitting behind there, and then the season came to a close. And what, I don't, maybe I missed something that you said. What do you mean he had an inkling? Because he did something differently? He did the same thing he always does.

Well, you know, he was, he was, who's involved in the game. I mean, everybody else... What do you want Nolan Ryan to do? He's never involved in the game. Well, you know, the whole stadium was exploding with the fans at all, and he just...

All right. Well, definitely we saw things differently. If you recall, there actually was a pretty cool photo of what it looked like behind Jose Al-Tubez at bat, the last at bat of the American League Championship series. And you can see a lot of people associated with the Astros and their players behind them ready to go crazy. Kate Upton's right over there. See the crane duo of Jim and Whitney.

You see Nolan and Ruth Ryan there, and Nolan is grasping at the netting right behind home plate as he's about to rise up out of his seat. If you're trying to tell me Nolan was attending all these playoff games and sitting on his hands and begrudgingly taking his seat because he knew what was about to happen, I guess that's fine, just not what I saw or what I'm led to believe about anything,

and I just don't, I'm not sure that there's anything there. Just not something I saw. Appreciate your input there, John. According to Nolan in a text to Fox 26, he says he'll no longer be with the club. And again, the everything that goes on behind this is all that we're trying to uncover as we speak on the fly here over the course of this show and the one that follows when we hit you for the full A team coming up.

But it is an interesting shift in how things might be done from a business standpoint. How it affects the team itself unless there is, again, I could be a number of different guesses. Not enough money's coming in is a simple guess, which also is probably an inaccurate one. What are you trying to streamline operations? You want a different voice on the business side because something wasn't working. Or quite honestly, this was, you know, Reed's decision to, I don't want to be in this. this position anymore. I have more that I'd like to do rather than simply be the president of a baseball team, although that sounds pretty good. There's a lot of different angles this could take,

a lot of different reasons behind a decision like this from either side. And again, the more information I have about it, the more I'll be happy to share with you about it, but I'm not 100% sure exactly what has gone on here and what the reasoning is behind it. This is all in the midst of where the team itself is going to need to do a lot of thinking. Jeff Luno's the baseball ops side. It stood to reason they were going to need to add at least one executive on the baseball side because of the exit of Brandon Taubman. There also always is the possibility of their other baseball executives leaving for other opportunities.

They've got an assistant GM that went on to the Brewers that became the GM in Stearns. They had the same thing happen with Elias going to Baltimore, more of their personnel people leaving for other spots. Chris Young, another guy. Oza Campo has also left the team. team who served as both the translator where many of you probably saw him during the season, but also working within the baseball operations department in assisting with personnel over many, many years.

So there are going to be some changes with these particular changes and how they impact the product you're going to see on the field. That's a little bit tough to decipher at this point. And again, it won't necessarily have any impact on it unless it's dramatically changing their bottom line. and I don't really see how that is even possible. There's only so much money that can be brought in. You can find some new revenue streams that maybe bring in a little bit here, a little bit there,

streamline some operations to do the very same thing. But you're still looking at, relatively speaking, the same number of we can afford to spend right up into the luxury tax threshold of 208, or we can spend upwards of 220, 225, 230, and take on the penalties that come along with pushing ourselves up and over that luxury tax. mind, essentially on commitments alone, the infield is a little over 60 million, the outfield is a little over 60 million, the top two starters in the rotation are over 60 million. When you're talking about Zach Granky and Justin Verlander at 33 and 35 and change, million dollars apiece, granted some of the actual cash outlay to Zach Granky is being softened

a bit because of the money you got from the Arizona Diamondbacks, but the bottom line number and the cap figures and some of the things that go with, that that's the number you're going to see. And that's still without arbitration figures definitively known on players who are in line to get it. They can avoid arbitration with some of those players. They could come to a long-term agreement. Say, for instance, with George Springer, which maybe gives him a lower figure this year and a higher figure each succeeding year. But then you're just putting off the inevitable. When is that what you're going to have to be dealing with?

How much money he and Bregman and Altuve and Verlander and Granky. everybody else makes, but it's something they probably would like to have happen sooner rather than later, and not to mention all of their outfield is out of contract after 2020, other than the kids, other than Tucker or potentially Alvarez or Straw. Mariznick with one more arbitration year. Reddick's four-year deal expires after 2020. Brantley's two-year deal expires after 2020, and the final arbitration year for Springer is this season. So he would be out of contract after the 2020 season. A lot of things on the Astros plate in the midst of this news

that they're making major changes to the business side of operations. We'll welcome your input. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to tell you what we're going to do in the final five minutes of the show today coming up in about 12 minutes, but we'll figure it out along the way. 713-212-5-790 to join me for the remainder of the sports MT show and then we'll kick things off on the A-Team with Wex myself, Clanting along for the ride, and we hit you on the other side.

The most awkward nooner you'll ever be a part of This is the Matt Thomas show Lysalt and wipe things down And a commercial break so fast in my entire life Holy cow Nick, are you sick yet? Well, Matt wasn't even here, so... Oh. No worries.

He might have gotten it yesterday. I'll tell you. It's true. We were sitting in the media dining Before the Rockets game last night. He was fine. He was going over his notes for his PA duties as the rockets were preparing to destroy the Golden State Warriors' mash unit?

Did he sound fine today? He sound... No. No, it was terrible. It sounded like... I heard him. I can't say what he sounded like. He said it hit him about halfway through the game last night.

I mean, you know how you kind of feel it coming on? But you're not sick yet, but you just got this not quite right feeling. Maybe that's what it was. But he wasn't complaining before the game. That's weird. Half time? About halftime? Maybe he got a cookie that was contaminated or something.

He goes back there to get the popcorn and the cookies. I don't, you know, I'll leave it at that. I have the theory. Why don't you share it? You can't say you have a theory and not share it, Wex. By the way, this is the A-Team one segment early because Matt is on his deathbed. Get better, Matt. Is that our hashtag, Be Well?

Thoughts and Prayers, M.T. Nah, he's just sick. An M.T. What would you call it? Instead of an M.T. blessing, what would it be an M.T. Prescription? Yeah, was he a guest on his own show or something? I don't know.

I've never heard him that bad in my entire life. Well, unfortunately for him and, many of us in this biz. If he can't talk, he can't work. Yeah, he's got a lot of talking to do over the next few days. So he's going to need to rest up a little bit, so he will be making his way out on the road with the rockets as they get to Chicago, take on the Bulls on Saturday night.

And again, if we're going to get into the Rockets a little bit here, and we definitely want to continue the Astros conversation. As we're in the middle of free agency, again, it's nothing of great significance is likely to happen. You're still seeing a lot of teams fiddle with their own players. Are we going to pick up an option year? Are we going to agree to disagree? and make this player roll into his arbitration year.

You saw the Astros make a couple of moves with their roster just this week. Qualifying offer to Garrett Cole and reinstating Lance McCullors to the roster, reassessing what they have on the 40 man as Rule 5 instances will come up and players that they want to have on the 40 man. All that stuff is happening at the onset of free agency, but it is technically open. And when we get into our show, definitely interesting things coming out of New York as it relates to number of,

45, Garrett Cole. I posted something on the blog a little bit earlier today. The Baseball America put out their Player of the Year. It's league-wide, and it's not restricted to a position player or a pitcher. It's anybody. And their award went to Justin Verlander, the Major League League Baseball Player of the Year for Baseball America. And there's a lot of good stuff in the article, so I encourage you to check out the blog at Sports790.com, statistically speaking, why they chose him, what he did so well, historically, how some of his numbers stack up, things like that. Clearly, it's a regular season award, but definitely get to the end of the article. You'll like the article even more when you see who the runners up were.

There's three of them, and you'll like at least two of them. It'll show you what kind of season of 107 win Astros had this past season. So we'll dive in on there a little bit. It's Thursday. NFL football returns for the first game of week 10, the first time. the first week of the season that the Texans will not participate in with them getting their by week this week in advance of some of the best games on their schedule. And they've put themselves in position to have the league call them the best games on the schedule. When you're taking on the 7 and 2 Ravens or 8 and 2, or 6 and 3, depending on what they do, I'm going to go with 7 and 2.

I'm going to go out on a limb that say the Ravens don't go from one week beating the Patriots and handing them. their first loss of the season to the following week, losing to the winless Bengals and their new starting quarterback. I'm going to go out on a limb and say, I don't think that's going to happen. So the Texans will get the 7 and 2 Ravens a week from Sunday. They'll see the Colts on the following Thursday. The Colts also stand a reasonable chance of winning this week.

They've got the Dolphins visiting Indianapolis. The one in seven dolphins. Reasonable chance the Colts can find it in their football capabilities to get a win. And then the following week, they have the Jaguars coming to their place, the first restart of the season for Nick Foles. It'll be a second start of the season. He's hoping to finish his first game of the season. And then, of course, the following Sunday after the off Sunday that follows a Thursday game,

for those that are following along, they get the Patriots. This is the Texans regular season in a nutshell. these three weeks will tell you all you need to know about them. We'll put them in position to tell you can they be the one seed? Will they be a home field advantage team? Or are they stuck hoping that they're a playoff team trying to squeeze into a wildcard berth? You're likely going to know the answer to that after they get through this three-game stretch,

which takes you through December 1st. So very much looking forward to seeing what I think I know what they're made of. And I think they've shown me what they're made of, but they're just going to have to do it all over again. Yeah, I'm agreeing with. you and I was listening to Matt Labor, labor through this point earlier. And this little bump in the road, if you want to call it that, it might not be. It might be the peak of the season because, again, you get through these three games. I mean, theoretically, you're home free. You're going to make

the postseason. It's just a matter of where you're going to play that first game and whether or not you're going to win it, I guess, is the best way to put it. Because I still think there's a lot of question marks about this team, depth, you know, all that kind of stuff with the injuries, although I think they're going to be significantly healthy at certain positions when they come back from the buy. It happened at a very good time for them, as you heard Bill O'Brien say yesterday. It's going to be very interesting to see how this three-game stretch goes. This is appointment viewing. I haven't been, I guess, this excited about regular season stretch in quite some time because I'm anxious to see if they are for real. You know, I said it yesterday so many

times how I kind of felt like that stretch of nine wins in a row last year was kind of fool's gold to an extent. But this year, it's just got a different feel to it. And it's, you got to give credit where it's due as far as Bill O'Brien, too, because a lot of the personnel moves he has made have paid off. They're things that, they were, they're players that weren't here last year that are contributing to what they're doing right now. And, uh, like I said, because of all of that, all, you know, bundled together, I'm very excited to see what they do after the buy. It's going to be the longest buy. It's going to be the longest week in quite some time for the Texans.

Well, it's good because there's interest in what they're doing. And that's what means. And that's why people are waiting on it and wanting to know what's going to happen. So we're very much looking forward to the conversation that follows over the next three hours. We'll definitely hit on all of those things. We've got a head start on some of those things, including what's going on with the Astros in their front office on the business side. We'll revisit that topic as we get into our number one for us of the A team coming up on the other side. You can fire it up on the phone line, 713, 212, 5-2-5-790.

apologize to the prize whores out there. That'll be back in another day. Yeah, we can't do five minutes left in the show. What should we do? Because he couldn't even do that today. Well, there's five seconds left in the show, so we won't do it. Exactly. All right, A team coming up.

Officially, first hour next here on your home for Astros, baseball and Rockets basketball, sports talk 790. Get well, M.T.