The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 12-11-19

Episode Date: December 11, 2019

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 12/11/19Gerrit Cole Signs With Yankees For $324 Million (0:00)Will Fuller is IP (31:34)Brian McTaggart of MLB.com Discusses Carlos Correa Trade Rumors (38:08)Non Florida Stories (1:34:24)

Much larger than life. Yeah. You, sir! Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 1201 in H-town. What's happening in luncht timers? Good afternoon to you, and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790.

Terrible news for you, Houston, Texas. He's coming back, all right. It'll be just for one appearance a year. And maybe in the postseason. No. You're not surprised, Sports Harvey. I can't believe it. No, no.

Don't buy into this. I am floored. I am shocked. Don't believe this at all. I was holding on to the last hope of hopes. No. That Garrett Cole would remain a Houston Astro. Good afternoon from Cleveland and from Houston.

Why didn't he take a hometown discount? Why does he hate Houston? Oh, God. Is he going to say it's a dirty city like Chandler Parsons? Yeah, but Chandler Parsons can't move to New York. And you can't move to New York and call Houston dirty. Who sings this song, by the way? Player.

Great riff. Go ahead and play a few more of it. I told you this before. When I used to hear this song like three or four years ago, I wanted to go by a Swifter. You know one of those things you clean your kitchen with? This song reminds me of the Simpsons episode where they lose Lisa and Bart to child protective services and when they put them on hold at CPS they put baby come back on the really yeah i got news for you and i've told you this a few times before don't get mad at me i've

watched less than five episodes of the simpsons that's okay that's your loss but i've listened this song more than five times fired up nobody thought there was a hometown discount you know the funniest thing was ross is that there was reports out yesterday that there was a there was a you know there was one secret team and there might have been two and everybody was speculating whether or not the a the Astros would have been the secret team. Apparently they weren't. It's going to come out. Has it come out yet to this White Sox?

Because apparently the White Sox float that they've been involved in every big free agent just to keep their fans happy. But then, of course, it comes out that they don't get involved. Yeah. You know what? No, I don't buy into that. First of all, there are no White Sox fans. If you watch a game of the White Sox, they didn't even sell out their games of the World Series.

I have been to South Side at whatever they're calling it. It's a scary place of town. Is it a guaranteed rate field? Is that what they're calling it now? I think. Oh, God. All right. You used to be a U.S.

Sully. White Sox conversation for the show. There was no mystery team either. No, you know what there was? There was two of them, I thought. You know what there was? That's just an agent trick to drive up bargaining. There's all kinds of mystery teams.

There's always a mystery team. Guess what? The sports talk 7-Noney was a mystery team. We were ready to pony up some serious cash to help out the Astros. Like 7 to 8. $800? Here's the bit. That's a bit much.

Scott Boris floated the mystery team, and that got the Yankees wiggling a little bit, and they said, okay, we'll give you that ninth year. It sounded like to me it was going to be eight years, $36 million a year, and then the Yankees said, well, why not? He's going to cut his beard

and cut his hair short, so let's give him a ninth year. Because that's a rule with the Yankees. No facial hair, no long hair. That's the reason why Jake Moriznick is a Met and not a Yankee. And that's why Garrett Cole said, I'm going to get you and ding you for another year and another $36 million. Rossi, first of all, congratulations for a guy that can get it. Congratulations for Scott Boris, who, you remember last year on all of his free agents?

No one seemed to feel like he was getting much value in return for these guys, i.e. Dallas Keikle. He's done very well for himself. His two main clients, Stephen Strasbourg and Garrett Cole have absolutely struck it rich. So let me ask you this. What kind of money is Scott Boris making? Is it 3% I think? I think it's 3% normally until it gets to a certain threshold and then it drops to even as low as 1.5%. So like $5 million?

Yeah, he's doing okay for himself. Does he come out of every paycheck or does he get a lump sum? I think he gets, does he get a lump sum? You know what? Or payment? Does Scott Boris have to break down Garrett Colts door for, like, does he have to send collection agents over? Does he Venmo the money to the guy Or does he just take it out of his

Taxes? Maybe PayPal? Yeah. Do you think that Scott Boris has a PayPal account? Yes. You think he's got Venmo? Yes. It's 2019.

Just because you just got a Venmo like last year. I know. We've been begging you in our fantasy league to get it for like 10 years. Yeah, you're right. By the way, there's no way in the world that Scott Boris has either one of those two. Of course. Yes, he does. No chance.

Can you look it up? I don't know. Let me, Scott, Boris Venmo? Sure. Seriously, there's, Ross, he's never had to worry about a dime in any part of his adult life. Send him a Venmo request for money. What if he's out with a couple of buds and, you know, he's got to split the chili cheese fries? He's Venmo it on over. There are very few guarantees I can tell you on this radio show.

I'm guaranteeing you that Scott and Boris does not have a Venmo or a PayPal. I feel very confident in that. Extraordinarily confident in that. Okay, so you put a poll question out about whether or not Astro fans are going to boo Garrett Cole when he makes his one and only appearance, at least in a regular season. What are the results of said poll question? I get 1,200 votes. It's nice. Plus, let me see.

Last I checked, it was the dead heat of 50-50. 1, 230 votes. Let me ask you this. Why are we booing him? People are dumb. Why did Carlos Beltran get booed for like 15 years? That's true. People are, he's going to get booed.

There's no doubt in my mind. Well, here's, according to your poll, half of the stadium's going to boo. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, apparently have. Here's how I feel about booing. If Garrett Cole would have said after Game 7 of the World Series, hey guys, I'm coming to play for the Houston Astros next year. I'm going to sign a big four or five-year contract, six-year contract,

and we're going to get back to where we were and we're going to knock down that door. Everybody's fired up. All right, Garrett's coming back. Yeah. Then he does a 180. and signs with a bitter enemy, that's when you blew the hell out of him. But you knew, and we've talked about, Ross,

how many times on the show have we talked and nauseam about the fact that Garrett Cole wasn't coming back? That he was going to strike it rich. In fact, if there was any fan base that probably could be mad, it might be the Southern California folks because they thought they were going to get the, well, Garrett Cole's a cool California dude discount. That didn't happen.

He went for, what he wanted more than anything else and that is more money than any other pitcher in major league baseball this was driven by finances not about location and not about teammates it happens to help out that he's playing for a team that goes to the playoffs on a fairly regular basis and i think now have become the lead dog contenders to win the american league in 2020 but trust me on this if the Miami Marlins would have offered him nine years and $324 million, or the Milwaukee Brewers, or the Kansas City Royals, Garrett Cole was going to make cash.

Scott Borris said it's not about location. It's about the contract, and he got the contract he wanted. He's the richest pitcher in baseball. Congratulations to him. Hopefully. Well, I mean, the Yankees got us, they're going to have to sign Judge. They're going to have to sign Labor Torres. What's happening?

I mean, they're going to have to sign. going to be. Severino's already left, right? Or no, Gagorius left already. Yes, Gregorius signed with Phillies. Was it? I can't remember. It was an awkward day to be a baseball fan, especially Astros. Garrett Cole leaves. A.J. Hinch has a press conference where he basically can't say anything. We're going to play one soundbite to kind of give you a recap of what he couldn't say. Aaron Boone chimed in on the Astros' controversy, albeit again, not saying a whole lot.

And then the little nibble that Ken Rosenthal gave out to us last night, that the Astros have indeed been kicking the tires on trading Carlos Correa. Doesn't mean it's going to happen. Doesn't mean it's probable. But I told you all at the end of the year, they're going to try to trade them. And I think they are. I don't even know how it's so much Ross about the money. It's just maybe more about I'm not going to pay that guy what he thinks he's worth to play 85 games a year.

we'll see he's still not I mean he's got two what two more years of control that's right that's right yeah we said and I never said

that they wouldn't have conversations I said I wouldn't expect to get to get done because I think that Luna would value Correa more than other teams would but we'll see if he gets traded I would still be surprised

I would still be surprised too but I think this is more about not what they're not willing to they're just not willing to pay for a guy that's going to go on the injured list every year because, of course, he's IP.

Well, if he's IP, why are teams trading for him? Because they want to see if they can get good value for him. Well, they would get good value for him if he's injury prone? Well, here's the thing. There's a philosophy if he comes to work for us. He'll play 125 games for us. We'll make sure he's in the right situation. Again, talk is cheap.

Just because you talk about a trade, and when you should want to make one, doesn't mean it's going to happen. I don't think the Astros are doing this because they don't want to pay upper-end players. They'll pay for upper-end players who are going to be able to play six days a week. And unfortunately, Carlos, in the last handful of years, has not been able to prove he can do that.

All right, we've got a lot to get to today on the radio show. We have the winter meetings going on in San Diego where Brian McTaggart is going to join us at 1 o'clock today. AJ Hinch did speak very briefly yesterday. It was uncomfortable because we know how AJ is. And there was some news on Lance McCullors that might have been encouraging yet kind of sobering when it comes to what they expect from him in 2020. Texans are getting ready for the Titans starting today. Rockets here in Cleveland taking on the Cavaliers.

And we'll have Brazil as I said, Brian McTagher, plus the return of non-Florida stories here on a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas Show. It's Matt, and he's back. The Matt Thomas Show on 790. Houston's home for Houston. Houston teams. Time is 1219. It is the Matt Thomas show here from Cleveland. Ross and Nick are back in our Houston Studios,

the return of non-Florida stories later on this afternoon. You guys and ladies, don't be afraid. You're welcome to join us here today on the show. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Ross, who is the richest person you know? Personally? Yeah.

Eddie Martini? Or Michael Berry? you know what those are not bad examples those who you don't know eddie's our general manager our market president and michael is the czar of uh of radio talk not all no we're the czar of sports radio are we doesn't get sports okay well he's more well known than us this is true but when you're making i mean do you i don't know how often you do this because i have a lot of idle time unfortunately do you think about how much money garrett already has in his piggy bank and how much more he's going to get. I don't think he has a piggy bank. Well, but point being is, if I was to say, hey, James

Harden, how much money is you on your debit card? I mean, it's got to be like $70 million, right? I would imagine not. Well, if he's stupid, yes, you would have a lot of that money into like investment into funds and, I don't know, stocks and index funds and stuff like that. You would, like offshore. Yeah, you wouldn't keep a lot of liquid cash on you. So, okay, so we don't know the answer to this question. But what do you think the average rich person has on their debit card? They probably don't even use debit cards. They just run

on credit and pay it off every month. Dang. It's a different life. It's a different life, Matt. It is. And someday I hope to get there. Nobody's, I don't think, I don't think, like, I don't know, T. Boone Pickin. Wait, he's dead. When he was alive, T. Boone Pickens is running around with a pulse card.

I mean, how much I mean, I know the average super rich person probably carries, what, $10,000 in cash with them in all times, give or take? I doubt it. Probably not. I don't know. I mean, if you're talking about Floyd Mayweather or something, yes. But it's like one of those situations that it's one of those questions you never should ever ask, because it's frankly none of your business. Second of all, it's rude to ask about how much money a person makes.

But wouldn't that be like just a kind of a, you know, kind of a peek inside someone's life? I hope James Harden like sleeps on a bed of just cash, just $100 bills. That sounds uncomfortable. Russell Westbrook's in his hotel somewhere. And I don't know what a room number it is. But if I said, hey, Russ, do me a favor. Just for blanking giggles, how much cash do you have on you right now? I'm just, I'm, oh, I'm very curious about this for some reason.

I don't know. I bet the answer would be zero. Okay. And they just carry one of those black cards with no limit. That's probably true. So Garrett Cole's got one of those black cards now. 300 plus million dollars Ross that is mind-blowing money let me ask you this can we get our crystal ball out right now nine years from now when Garrett Cole is testing free agency

yet again are is anybody is everybody going to say this was money well spent or are they going to say this is the deal that ultimately um handcuffed the Yankees for the long term because they spent so much money on a guy and so many years on a guy that frank on the average, even the superlative athletic body can't hold up to. This is the thing about these types of deals, and this is why I don't know how much you'll see the Astros do them. There could be points, Matt, where Garrett Cole's worth the money, right? But there would never be a point in that deal where Garrett Cole is outperforming the money.

Like, think about, for example, the Michael Brantley deal. Michael Brantley outperformed the deal that the Astro gave him, right? Right. So that's what you need to look to do. To me, there's such a, there's a lower floor. If there's injuries or he regresses or whatever, anything can happen there. But the ceiling is not very, there's a very low ceiling. You're never going to have Garrett Cole outperform that contract.

You're never going to say, wow, he's worth $45 million. No, it's just not going to happen. That's why I just philosophically don't like those deals. And does Garrett Cole have the same longevity as someone like Justin Verlander, for example, who's 36 now. So Cole's under this contract, it's 38. Yes.

But I don't think any of us think that Verlander is going to all of a sudden start slipping. I mean, Justin Verlander is performing to his contract. Right. Yeah, and he got an extension of what last year?

Yeah, and he's in that $30, $34 million range, correct? I'm just, you know, and again, I shouldn't be worried about other people's money, but I'm blown away by how a Yankee team sat in their border room, shut the door and said, yeah, we can take this on and we'll have zero regrets.

When you go nine years, was it $324 million or $342? I forget the number exactly. It's $36 million a year. He's got to pitch 30 times a year. He's got to win anywhere between 15 and 22 games. He's got to strike out comfortably 200. And oh, by the way, he can't get hurt. Or people are going to think, Ross, this is a bad deal.

the first time he gets hurt. Yeah, the first, like, blister he gets in spring training or something. It's good. The whispers will be out. Worst deal ever. Could you imagine first take? Stephen A. And what's his face?

Max Kellerman. He got a blister. The Yankees are stupid. How stupid are they? Why is he in the monkeys? What was that? I was trying to do a Stephen A. Smith with a cold. I'm trying.

Okay. I don't do great impersonation. I thought that was your Davy Jones. Davy Jones is British. That didn't tell you ever was British, did I? Okay. Forget it. I don't want to hear it.

Let's play it. We'll have you play it back. We'll have it played back for you. No, no. I just sound raspy, and I'm fine with that. I'm trying to conserve myself here. It's why you guys got to come in, and more of you and less of me might be a better thing. I thought you were to say, well, the blessedas, governor. I did not sound like I was from Britain.

You're selling a 1930s British chimney sweep. I am a monkey fan. Well, we know that. Jerry. What? Where did that sound bite come from? I don't know, but I'm okay with it. You know what? Come out and visit my monkeys. That's why

Nick Lowe gets the large per hour rate that we give him, because he finds sound bites that we just, no one else is just me and gear cool. Oh, I saw a tweet, by the way. If he stays healthy for the duration, he's going to make $9,000 every pitch he throws. $9,000.

Boom, pitch. Three, two, count. that's $45,000. Can I just go out there and throw one pitch for him? I'll be good. How much charity money will he give to people? I would imagine a lot. You get a big tax break, right? Like what would be, I mean...

The Garrett-Cole Foundation? Yeah, does he have a foundation? He can shave off his hair and give it to lesser-privileged people. It's like the lottery, Ross. When you win the lottery, you're really not supposed to tell anybody because everyone's going to come after you for money. Oh, I'm not telling anybody when I won the lottery. There's no chance.

We'll find out. How are you going to know? First of all, you're going to quit. You're going to come up here with my diamond-encrusted grill, and I guess that'll be a tip-off. You're going to be like, Matt, I own you. Go away from me. I'm going to be spending months in Las Vegas and Monte Carlo. I mean, I'll let you know, Matt. I'm taking care of all your house debt if I win the lotto.

I've only got one house, so that's a thing. That's very nice. But I thought you sold houses in like Utah and Minnesota and took huge losses on those. Oh, you have? It took a long while. Yeah, I did. But, yeah, I did take the loss of those. I'll just take one straight cash infusion. Okay.

I'll call you, oh, I'll buy you a yacht and call it Shastas Dan or something. Hmm. I love that idea. Everybody, y'all's tweeting to Ross when it's the lottery. What do you want from him? I'm not giving everybody something. Sure. You're my dear close personal, and you're my dear close personal friend.

I'm taking care of you, not everybody else. All right. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. So were you surprised when you heard the Carlos Correa kicking the tires on a potential? trade. Do you think it's because they don't want to pay him long term?

Or do you think it's they don't think he can play long term? Or they're just trying to get some financial relief right now because they've already got a lot of money tied up in guys like Alex Spregman and Jose Altuve. And you know that George Springer isn't too far behind. Real honest.

Real unbiased. Non-biased. Sports talk 790. Real Texas. Talk here. He got a blesta. The Yankees are stupid how stupid are they no chance no chance no chance I sound like an old Jewish guy from New York got off Lista the Yankees are stupid how stupid are they yeah not hearing it at all disappointment haunted for my dreams he got up list of the Yankees are stupid

How stupid are they? You're falling on a sort of this one. I didn't do any of this. Yeah, because you know it doesn't sound right. Do you want to do an insipole? No. Okay. No, no.

I'm all about the instapole, but not in this particular case. He got up Lista. The Yankees are stupid. How stupid are they? By the way, think about this. We did do an insipole yesterday. 4-0, the people think the Patriots are cheating. Oh, no question, right?

They're cheating. Probably. And remember what I tell you, the average person does every day, Ross. They lie? At least three times. Well, you're up to six or eight. I didn't lie at all of this yet. But there's a significant chance I'm going to lie before the end of the show.

Significant chance. I could see that. It's probably already happened a couple times. All right, 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5. 7.9. We've got some Garrett Cole, got some Carlos Korea folks that I want to talk. Brian McTagger joins us at 1 o'clock. Non-Florida stories today.

And is everybody getting fired up for Texans Titans, Ross? Can I get a hell yeah? Hell yeah. Can I get a, you better watch out, Tennessee. You better watch out Tennessee. Them boys on Kirby are headed up to Nashville. Watch out Nashville. Take what is theirs.

Watch out Nashville. Vegas. Here comes Texans. There comes the traveling Texans to vomit all on your. streets and watch their team lose. Hell yeah. Let me tell you, traveling Texans cannot wait to go to Nashville this week. Yeah, that's got to be a good trip. You know, I've only been to Nashville a handful of times. It's a really nice place.

It's cheap to get to. Food is good. The music is amazing. I've never been the Dolly World, so I can't speak to that. Yeah, I would never go to that. Yeah. All right, 713-212-5-790. Lewis, West Side of the Matt Thomas Show.

Lewis, how are you, sir? Hey, good. Thank you. Just thinking about what you said, Matt, about the Yankee brass in the boardroom and saying we can handle this. If I'm in that room and, you know, there's one win away from the World Series. And I'd say, hey, guys, let's spend, can we spend 150 million? Let's pass on Garrett Cold and we can give us one more win. I mean, it just shows you how crazy the money is.

that you know why do you spend the 300 million to get one more win i know things obviously change from one year to the next with other players but that's just an example of that well here's the question i have lewis if you're an elite pitcher in the year 2025 are you worth 36 million dollars a year i guess the answer is yes right i guess i don't see how there's so many examples of these guys not making it through that long of a contract and still being effective. So, I mean, I don't see it. Maybe another five years. Here's the thing.

And thank you for the phone call. Ross, we all said this about the Albert Poulho signing with the Angels. He's still playing. He still hits home runs. He is still treated with tremendous amount of respect. But that contract has been a terrible albatross around their neck, right? Yes. I want to know will the Garrett-Cold deal ever be, you know what?

As you mentioned earlier, this is smart money. This is good. We did the right thing. Remember, I mean, think about this, in 2027, they're in their boardroom. Again, door shut. Guys, remember when we back in 19 signed Garrett Cole to a nine-year deal? And look what he's done for us. Look at great value he's given us in return.

Is that ever going to happen? are they ever going to be in that ballroom with the door closed going that was good money spent it's just to me it's so ridiculous when it comes to the risk versus the reward and he was the best pitcher in baseball last year even though Justin Vernander won the sion the way that he performed for the Astros in the postseason put him in a different stratosphere we're not going to argue that and he is going to be missed here by the Astros but damn not I'm not What else in your life could you commit to nine years of? Name something in the work law.

Would you commit to nine years of? I can't commit to nine days of something, nine hours. I could commit to nine years of $324 million. Well, he did. I could do that. And, granted, I guess, again, when someone offers you this money, you can't say no. And clearly Scott Boris went to the Yankees and said, if you want him, he wants more years in Strasbourg and he wants a greater

per year deal. And he did get it. He got two more years and a million dollars additional. He is going to, every time he pitches, provided he pitches at least 30 times this year, he's going to make over a million dollars per start. That means there's

going to be a time where Garrett Cole is going to go on the hill and give up five runs in two and two thirds innings and that's going to cost the Yankees $1.24 million. It's just hard to imagine. But, like, Like I said, somebody's going to get it. There might be, you know what, guys?

There are people that make motion pictures that make ungodly amount of money for crap pictures, right? I mean, my buddy Adam Sandler, Ross, right? We've said that some of his recent work hasn't been very, very, very good. But he's made movies that have grossed over $4 billion. So at that point, the movie studio says, yeah, Adam, you may not give us a, great one every single time but what you're going to do for us long term is going to make us a lot of money and that's exactly right now what the Yankees got to be doing thinking is that yeah this hurts right now but if you bring us two world series rings and you win a Cy Young or two and you're

still in your early 30s with a prime and you've been able to stay healthy we'll make this work but I'm telling you could you imagine what the angels are front office and and that room is thinking about maybe even after the first year of their deal with the angels and how much it hurt their organization to have that much money tied into a guy who clearly was in the second half of his majorly career still productive but nowhere of the albert pool holes of an angel have you ever seen of him when he was in his heyday with the st louis cardinals 1240 on sports talk 790 let's go to next up let's say hi to stan in cyprus hi stan hey stan hey how you doing i was just calling up about the Carlos Correa,

he really hasn't been healthy when they needed him in crunch time the past three years. And I could see them trading them because of that. Because when it comes down to the playoffs and you need his back and he need his gloves, he hasn't been 100%. So I don't understand. I could see where they would trade him and try to get a return on him. Where you have somebody like Springer who has performed or outside. Tuve or Bregman or Gouriel, I think that money would be better spent.

You know, they've spent the money on Altuva and Gourriela on Bregman, but, you know, the money's better spent on players that actually show up when you need them. And, you know, Correa's kind of that guy that got the hot wife and then he turned into a flake and you don't want to invite him to your house anymore just because you don't want to have to put up with his craft. And that's where I see Correa going. It'll be your asking to see where Cole goes. Who catches Cole with the Yankees? Because he's not going to put up with Sanchez.

Oh, my God. How many past balls is Gary Sanchez going to let go? Thank you for the phone call, Stan. I hadn't thought much about that. Because Ross, Sanchez was a butcher this past off season. Every time the Astros and Yankees play, Sanchez cannot field his position. Are they going to keep him there? Well, I'm not aware of what the bottom pipeline is.

Right, me either. But, I mean, that's just overall philosophically, I mean, I feel like you could find some, you know, grizzled veteran catcher who can do a better job. And you should move Gary to first or, I mean, D.H him or whatever. Yeah, it seems like to me he'd be a great D.H. I bet. How's he going to make those tough pickups at first base? I mean, I think first base is too easy for people to say, hey, a guy sucks, put him at first base. I think it's a it's a position that is a lot more difficult to defend that people would think it would be.

Yeah, but it's still one of the easier ones. It is. So, I mean, it's either that or left field. You're not going to put him in short. Gary Sanchez is a shortstop? I would actually like to do that in a video game. That would be pretty cool. He can't, he won't get any errors because you won't get into it.

He won't get to anything. He's got limited range. A lot of singles to the left side. That's right. People bunning on them. There's no shifting. whatsoever. All right. More on this coming up at the top of the hour. We go to San Diego and visit with Brian McTaggart from MLB.com and Astros.com at the winter meetings. In fact, we'll stay with

baseball here. I don't know how much on the Texas we want to get into per se. At least you are welcome to join us on this. It's more of a seeing as believing moment. And that's how I kind of feel about how the team is coming up at the Sunday's game is that right now a lot of Houston fans are kind of like, you know what, you had a golden opportunity to really beat your chest, get out in front of the rest of the team's in the division, and now you've allowed Tennessee with a four-game winning streak and a terrible loss on your end to all of a sudden get back in this AFC South race.

So I think really the temperature on the Texans is very, very cool. A win against Tennessee. Well, traveling Texans fans are going to love that. Sports Harvey, maybe not so much. Next time, tell Alexa. Playing 790 on I-Heart Radio. Wherever you are, so is Matt Thomas. Bill O'Brien went to the podium a couple of minutes ago and was asked about Will Fuller's availability for Sunday's game against Tennessee.

The answer Ross was, I don't know. I don't know. When did the Texans receiving core become such a hot mess? I mean, you're supposed to be, I want to say stat. But Hopkins, Stills, Fuller, Couty? That was supposed to be a nice one through four. Yeah. I mean, and stills have been okay.

Yeah. He's just not as good as other two guys, but he is a, if he's your fourth receiver, you're like, I'm blessed. This is a ridiculously deep receiving core. You have Kiki Kootie who fumbles a ball after missing time and it hurt. You have Will Fuller who just don't know is ever going to play because he's always hurt. Man, I don't believe, I thought I was going to say this, but I think they're going to have to, address the wide receiver spot fairly early in the draft next year, don't you believe? How are they going to do that?

Yeah, how early are we talking? Well, when I say early, I mean fifth round, Nick. I mean fourth round or seven, six-round draft picks. You probably find a guy in the six-round. Oh, you can contribute down the line. All the time, yeah, for sure. Well, usually if you're not the Texas. Now, the reason why it's not the end of the end.

end of the world. It's because the Texans have still won football games without having either one of those two guys either playing or meaningful. And to their defense, Darren Fells and Jordan Aiken's have become tight ends that you can actually trust in kitchen to football. After the Texans really didn't even try to develop

any sort of tight in for a certain period of time. I think they should go with some double running back looks and just keep sending Duke Johnson out to the slot or something. I mean, they'll usually, when you see the personnel groupings, they'll put a linebacker on Duke and he can get by just about any linebacker in the league. And that's probably very fair, is that while

your receiving court isn't going, but the problem is Duke's not going to stretch the field. That's true. The one great thing that Will Fuller can do for you when he's out there is just run post routes over and over and over again, right? And at least take a member of the secondary

if not two people deep in that territory. Kenny Stills for as good as he is can't do that on a regular basis. The tight ends can't do that. Duke Johnson's going to not going able to do that. Now, DeAndre Hopkins can catch a deep ball with the best of them, but he's never going to be confused as an ultimate speedster. So my point is, if DeAndre is going to continue to be at the high level that he has been at, they're going to have to give somebody on the other

side of the football, on the other side of the line of scrimmage, that's going to be a better compliment than Will Fuller has, because if Will can't stay healthy and Kiki QT can't stay healthy and can't hold on to the football. I just think you're limiting what could be a pretty explosive offense. Yeah, I mean, I think that's been part of the problem that people aren't really talking about. When Will Fuller is out, I think he's the key because of, like you said, the way that he stretches the field, the way that defenses have to be aware at all times where he is, that is the key missing piece. And he's the perfect tandem for DeAndre Hopkins, who can stretch the field a little bit, I mean,

but he's not a burner, right? DeAndre Carter is not going to burn the extent the field. Right. Gany Still has had some great long catches this year, but no one's going to confuse him for, oh, my God, here he goes on a fly route and everything's going to be over. I'm just worried that underneath stuff, as much as the Texans use,

is going to be something that good defenses are going to scheme against. You know what I mean? Right. And, I mean, and honestly, when Sean Watson is at his best, he's out there, you know, making some moves and moving in the pocket and all that type stuff, and that gives you an extra couple of seconds, and you can have somebody like Will Fuller streaking down the field.

That's when the Texans' offense is at their best. You know what it does show you that, no matter how great you are, and when a high level you play at, the human body is always going to win, Ross. Will Fuller, what's his frame? What is his height and size? Oh, my gosh. I don't even know.

I'm going to say like 6-1-175 or 180 or something. This is me guessing on the time. Yeah, six, let me say. See, Arlads has him at six feet and 186. I don't know that he's 186. Okay, so let's presume he's even, he's even thinner than that. Wikipedia says, Wikipedia says 6 foot 172. Wow.

Okay, so I, you know what, I would trust yours over Arlads, unfortunately. So let's do this. How many guys that are six feet in 172 can legitimately stay in the NFL and be healthy? Look at today's wide receivers, how big they are. And that's the thing I mean when we talk about You know we have fun talking about injury prone Like one of the things that I will

Of course say people are injury prone If they have small frames I mean remember What was the The The cornerbacks named Kevin Johnson? Yes He's actually doing pretty well in Buffalo

Is he? Okay well he can I mean One of my concerns with him When he was even drafted Was he was about the same thing Like six foot 175 or whatever he was listed at And it's hard for you to take on the rigors of an NFL season when you have a small frame.

Because here's the thing. Will is a one-trick pony. You brought Will Fuller to be the perfect compliment to DeAndre. I mean, possession receiver is not in Will's vocabulary. Yeah, his route running is getting better, but you're right. He's not going to be like a West Welker type of guy or Julian Edelman. Yeah, and Ross, you didn't draft him to do that. You drafted him because you had been looking for that.

deep downfield threat that as good as DeAndre is, that's just not in his repertoire. He is the, I'll run 20 yards down the field, throw the ball up high in the air, and I'll catch anything you can get. And Will Fuller was the one that was, you know what, let's test the deep ball and see what happens. All right, we'll go to San Diego next. Talk to our friend Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. As the Matt Thomas show continues here on Sports Talk, 790. I'm on my way. Is the Matt Thomas show.

Matt Thomas with you from Cleveland, Rockets and Cavaliers. Tonight, we go about, I don't know, 2,500 miles to the west to San Diego, California, where Brian McTaggart covers the Astros and MLB Baseball for MLB.com, and he was at the winter meetings and joins us here for a couple of minutes on the show. Tag, first of all, thanks for joining me. Did you buy into any of the, there are mystery teams out there, or was this the Yankees all the way through? Well, I mean, it depends on, you know, what defines a mystery team.

I mean, you know, how I think anybody can call and try to get in the mix, but, you know, who's willing to spend that money? And there are very few teams that they could have hit that level. And, I mean, it was clearly the Dodgers and Angels and, of course, the Yankees. But, you know, if you're Scott Boris, you know, it doesn't hurt to float mystery team, even if there isn't one, just to spread a little bit of panic. But I think we all knew. going into the offseason. It was going to be one of the big giant market clubs.

And not surprised, the Yankees opening up the wallet big time for a move that probably swings the balance of power, I think, of the American League now of the Yankees. Yeah, we're speaking again of Garrett Cole's nine-year contract worth $324 million. I always felt like he wanted to be the richest guy. Steven Strasbourg started it with the seven years, $35 million a piece. you've been around baseball a long time and have seen him some incredulous contracts get your crystal ball out like I've had my audience

to the same thing how do you portray this how do you think this is going to ultimately end because of the fact that look Justin Verlander is in his mid the late 30s and he is progressing beautifully and pitching in a high level so it wouldn't be impossible so that Garrett can't do that

but man you are putting a lot of pressure in yourself not to have any disappointing performances or many of them because he's going to making more than a million dollars per start per se as long as he's healthy. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, I look at it two ways. I mean, yeah, it's a nine-year deal, and that's a long time and a lot of things can happen. But, I mean, if they sign, you know, they sign cold, I mean, if they win a World Series or two or three in the next, you know, four or five years, then it was worth it, I think,

for both sides. Even, you know, at the end of the deal, even if, you know, if a 37-year-old Garrett Cole is making $36 million and has broken down. But you look at a lot of these deals that have been signed. I mean, these massive deals like this, they usually don't pan out. I mean, and that's not a knock against Cole. It's just the length of the deals and the massive amount of money. It's hard for anyone to perform at that level to justify the worth.

I mean, look at, you know, David Price at the time, a massive deal. And, you know, has he pitched up to the contract level? No. But that's what you've got to do. I mean, that's the price of pitching nowadays. And Garic Cole hit free agency. it's perfect time, perfect storm, pitching the best baseball of his career. And with teams, you know, the revenues are up and teams are willing to spend money,

and he cashed in big time. But the proofs and the pudding. I mean, if they win a World Series or two, and Garrett Cole is a big part of that, then it's probably worth it. Brian McTaggart, MLB.com, with us from the owner's meetings in winter meetings, I should say, in San Diego. What do you make of the Carlos Correa rumor mill? I don't make much of it. I mean, I think they probably kicked it around because

and Jeff Luno told us yesterday that if they're going to bring any high-end people in at any point in the next couple of years as far as free agents or any trades, they're going to have to free up some payroll. I mean, they're just at unprecedented levels as far as their payroll. I mean, they're going to be over the luxury threshold next year. So it's kind of hard for them to really add anybody at this point. So they probably kicked it around, and you know what, Kare has, you know, got a couple of years left. His money's getting up there.

He's hurt a lot. he does have some value because he's a tremendous player when he's healthy. Maybe we can trade him. But, you know, I don't think it's going to happen. I mean, I don't think there's much to that. I wouldn't completely rule it out. But, yeah, I think Corp is going to be in an Astros uniform next year. You know, maybe next off season of his career, you know,

maybe they think about it again because they have some huge contract extensions taking him next year. Breggman's contract extension kicks in. two vaguely Burlander, $33,000. So they're at a payroll crunch like we've never seen before, and they're going to have to at some point find ways to save some money. Do you think Carlos Correa has a realistic view,

a point of what he thinks he's worth? I mean, is he thinking, if I can play 140 games next year and do the things that I did, maybe during the World Series run that the injury bug that I've been hit with the last two or three years will be just a bygone that I'll get what I think I deserve in the open market? Yeah, well, I mean, he's still a couple years away from free agency. So, you know, he's still got a couple years to, yeah, prove he's healthy, put together a full season and sort of add to his value.

But, yeah, Carlos Correy had so up in the market right now, I think he would have a lot of suitors, and he would make a lot of money, but, you know, not as much if he plays 155 games and, you know, has OPS and 950, I mean, you know, if he plays a full season, he's one of the top two or three short stops in the game. But as we've seen, he just can't stay healthy. There's got to be questions about his back. You know, he's had a couple of years now where he's had back problems, and he's 25 years old, and that's sort of a red flag. But he was dancing around pretty good at his wedding over the weekend. They look like he's healthy and happy, so if he can carry that into the season and stay healthy, then I think he's going to set him up pretty nicely for pre-agency in a couple of years. Wait a minute.

Did you go to the Carle's career wedding? No, but it was all over Instagram, though. I can't believe you didn't see any of the videos. I don't follow athletes. I just follow Brian McTegger and MLB on Instagram. I was going to. I wasn't invited. All right.

So Lance McCullors, according to Jeff Luno and Lance when he was talking before the end of the season, it's like, you know, I'm ready to go, ready to go. And I think you or somebody asked him about what kind of pitch inning rate he could give this team in 2020. And it was reported up between 100 and 120 innings. While that's nice, that means they're going to have to come in and think about a six starter because no way in the world. Can you go with a five-man rotation with one of your guys, especially one of your top-end guys, throwing that few innings? So how much is starting pitching going to be talked about?

Not only because Cole is gone, but the fact that McCullors is clearly going to be on a pitch and inning count this year. Yeah, when we visited with Jeff Lindell, yesterday, and it's sweet, he brought that up. McClellan was throughout that number of 120 innings, and then he elaborated on a little bit and thought that was probably going to be about, you know, where they would have McCullors, you know, 120, 1, 130. So, yeah, they're going to need starting pitching. But I think it's going to be a case where they're going to use 12, 13 starting pitchers

at any point next year. They're going to have, you know, a couple of years ago, they had this five-man rotation that made every start until mid-August. It was just automatic. And, you know, those days are over. We're going to see, you know, Josh James is going to get stressed out. He'll get some starts. We're going to see, you know, maybe.

maybe later in the Air Force, Whitley gets in the mix. But guys like Framber Valdez, maybe Christian Javier makes his debut, they're going to have a lot of people make starts. And they're going to, you know, look at the innings that they lost cold through 250 innings, even Wade Miley through 170 innings

that were really quality. And so the last few, so it's not going to be a case where you're going to have the same five guys take the ball through five games. It's just not the way they're going to have to piece the in it together. They're going to have a lot of different guys. I wouldn't say a six-man rotation. I just think they're going to have a lot of starters. They're just going to have to go about things differently than maybe we were used to seeing the Astros.

The pitching rich Astros do in the last few years just because they have, even Archie is the guy that is not going to, you know, is he going to go north of 150 innings? If he does, he's going to have to be really good. So they've got the piece of the rotation together in different ways. A few more minutes here with Brian McTaggart, MLB.com at the winter meetings in San Diego. Well, where are we on free agency with relievers, and is there any danger of anybody leaving that was a core part of that bullpen group last year? Yeah, I mean, I certainly think they need to bring back Will Harris.

I mean, they need a reliever or two. I think right now they're trying to get a catcher, obviously. That's their number one priority because they don't have a starting catcher. They want to have a starting pitcher and a reliever. But, you know, Harris is out there. Joe Smith's been here at the winter meetings, believe it or not, every day sort of walking around. He's not like looking for a job. he's just been here.

So that's the guy that could be back. You know, they're not going to bring both those guys back. But if you look at their bullpen, they have Osuna coming back. You have Ryan Presley coming back. And then what? You know, I mean, Da Vinciky, Peacock, you know, guys who had up and down seasons, there's some depth there, but, you know, maybe the quality depth isn't there that they need. So, yeah, they're definitely going to have to get a reliever or two.

You know, I think, you know, Harris would be a very comfortable fit to come back. But again, Will Harris is a free agent for the first time. So he's going to want to strike it rich as much as he can and take advantage of his situation. So there's no doubt they need a reliever. No doubt they could use a starter. It's not going to be Madison Baumgartner or anybody like that. But right now, catchings are top priority because they really don't have a starter.

All right. Last question for you. Jeff and AJ did speak to the media. Obviously, we're peppered with questions concerning the cheating and the allegations. you were there for both of that. What was that like? And did you happen to see two gentlemen who are pretty forthcoming with the media put in different situations than they normally are, especially in AJ's case?

It's weird because at the owner's meetings, when you meet with the general manager, what happens is all the, and this happens for every team. The media goes up to the suite. I mean, each team has a suite where they have the big white raceboard and they have names on it. So at the end of the day, the media, media comes up there and, you know, Luno's sitting at the, you know, at a corner of the suite, and we just sit around a table and sort of talk, and it's pretty informal.

But, yeah, I mean, he was asked certainly about the allegations and, you know, he declined comment. Now, Hinch's thing yesterday was completely different because it's in the press conference room. He's sitting at a table. There were probably 50 or 60 reporters around this table, and Hinch started it with sort of an opening statement saying, you can't comment on the investigation. And then was peppered with probably seven to ten questions about the investigation. And, you know, it was a tough spot for him to be in. But, you know, he kind of towed the line and kind of had to you because he's been told

not to talk and not say anything. And I think there are things he wants to say that he will say eventually. But, you know, a couple of the reporters were trying to get some stuff out of them and just, you know, I didn't go anywhere. So, you know, I think once this is all settled, I think we'll hear more from both of them. And, you know, I certainly think AJ wanted to get out there and really tell what he feels, but he just can't do it. What is your guess on the timeline?

When do you think we'll have an eventual decision on this? Yeah, well, that's tough. I mean, basically baseball shuts down for a couple of weeks right before Christmas. So if this isn't settled in the next 10 days, I think we're going to look at this carrying over into 2020. And there's no way they let this leak into spring training. So it wouldn't surprise me if we hear the results of this investigation in the next 10 days. It seems like they've been pretty thorough. I mean, AJ says he's talked with him a couple of times.

Alex Cora, Carlos Beltron, were here, of course, managers. They were asked about it as well. They said they're cooperating. So it seems like they've done a lot of the due diligence already. So maybe in the next 10 days, I don't know. That's just kind of a guess, though. All right, we'll leave it at that. Safe Travels back to Houston.

Thank you, Tech, for the time as always. We really appreciate it. All right. Talk you later. You got it. Brian McTaggart, MLB and Astros.com with us here on the Matt Thomas show. This is the Matt Thomas Show. Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790.

Time is 120. It is the Matt Thomas show. I'm here in Cleveland where tonight the Rockets and the Cavaliers will play. Ross, the Cavs suck. Really, really, really, really suck. Well, you're a manned a few words on this. The Rockets have lost some sucky teams recently, so. Yeah, no.

What's for lunch today? I was just eating a cookie, sorry. That's all right. We mentioned... The break jumped on me. With Brian McTaggart about the comments that AJ Hinch said, I want you all to hear this. And again, you guys know with AJ being with me weekly,

a pretty forthcoming guy. He'll give you some things and not give you 100% coach speak. Very rarely does it give you coach speak. This was, I can't say a word speak. Here is AJ yesterday at the owner's meetings. I've committed my time and energy to cooperate with MLB. I've talked to them a couple times, and we continue to work with them as they navigate the investigation, and now we're waiting with everything in their hands.

So I know there's still going to be questions. I hope there's a day where, you know, I'm going to have to answer more questions, but today's not that day. And I know that can disappoint some people. It will not stop all of you from asking me questions about it, but I can ensure that you. share you. I'm not going to answer any questions about the ongoing investigation. All right. First blush thought about that, Ross,

is? I'm not too surprising. Didn't expect him to say too much. He wasn't going to expect him to say too much. And with good reason, there's nothing he can say that is really going to satisfy anybody. Unless he comes out and says, hey, we did it. We deserve every punishment. We're

getting coming our way, which he's never going to say. I mean, I was never, I mean, people were talking about, well, AJ Hinch is going to speak tonight. Jeff Luno is going to speak tonight. They're not going to say anything. Could you imagine? You know, it's like we like to recreate these things. Yes.

Hey, AJ, you're here. Can you say anything? Well, here's the thing. Major League Baseball told me not to say a word, but F them. I'm going to tell you everything that happens. Get your not pads out. Get your microphones out. Here's the complete detailed run of what we did.

Meanwhile, you have like PR directors. You have Major League Baseball. Scambling. Scambling. and pulling the microphone off the plug and turning the power off in the hotel. That would not be ideal. That would be so funny.

But yet it would be one of the most alarming things in the history of media, forgetting about anything going on with our president. You imagine a manager who has been told under numerous circumstances, not to say anything, just spills his guts. So Aaron Boone, who the Astros beat twice during this playoff run of the last handful. years, a manager of the Yankees. Now he is the boss, at least field boss, of one Garrett Cole.

He gave me even more of a mealy mouth. Didn't say a whole lot, but wanted to say something kind of response. You know, a little eye-popping, little eye-opening. You know, we'll see where it leads. We know, obviously, Major League Baseball is taking it very seriously, and sounds like going through a really thorough process of talking to a lot of people and really trying to get to what truly happened, didn't happen, what was going on. And hopefully in the end, the result is, you know, a better game, a more fair game between the lines. That's something that we should all want to strive for as a sport. And hopefully, you know, this process goes a long way and making sure that that's the case. Would you like to read between the lines on that?

he says he's saying i hope the astros get every punishment that's coming their way on this i hope those suckers get get the complete and utter destroy from the major league baseball office that's what everybody's saying we we ross i got terrible news for you i don't think the astros are beloved by major league baseball other teams no we're in the epicenter we're at ground zero and so i mean we're seeing where people are being a more uh hoping that mlb is going to be more lenient and all this type of stuff. Every other fan base in the major leagues or probably other players, managers, et cetera, want the MLB to come for blood when it comes to the US and Astros. I had dinner with an old co-worker here in Cleveland last night, and it took no more than about two minutes for him to say, so what's going on with this cheating bit? Was it Andre We were? No, why would Andre We're being Cleveland?

Was it Norm Hitchkus? We never worked together, but that's neither here nor there. No, it's just one of those situations that everybody wants to see what they did, how it's laid out. It's almost like the Mitchell Report, right? Here are the guys we knew did the steroids. We have them by name. We have them put on a piece of paper. There is no innuendo.

These are the people. These are the teams. And I feel like you and I are going to get this PDF file of about 100 pages. And we're going to have to read it. But, Ross, if it's 100 pages, first of all, we'll fall asleep. Second of all, if it's 100 pages, that means they did a lot of bad stuff. Yeah, I'll probably, I mean, whatever comes out, if there is some kind of report, I'm going to have, you mean, we're going to have to read it, right? Absolutely.

Should we do, like, readings in class, and we can have callers read certain pages, and then we can just all just, it'll be like, like you used to do back in school. Well, what I would like to do is take it one step further. I'd like for you, we'll get this PDF file, and then we'll pretend to our team. that we read it, but we really didn't. Okay. So you want me to write you spark notes on it? And then I'll be given a pop quiz where I will ask my friend who sits behind me to give me the answers, and I will give him double stuff Oreos as a treat.

Is that what you used to do, trade double stuff Oreos for all sorts of food? Really? Oh, absolutely. I guess young Matt Thomas probably had some snacks on him at all times. That's right. I was a little portly back then, Ross, and I also worked for McDonald's. So it was a double tour of awesomeness. So you just had like pocket full of nuggets.

Excuse me? Yeah, like a pocket full, you know, so because like UGK and Pimp C, they had a pocket full of stones, you had a pocket full of nuggets. You think I walked around campus at May Creek High School with nuggets in my pocket? You never know when you're going to get hungry, Matt. Matt, what's, do you have chicken nuggets in your pocket? Are you just happy to see me? It's chicken nuggets. Imagine if it was a McRib.

I could get some serious work done. Yeah. You probably want to put that in a plastic. bag first. Oh, stop. I always kept a double quarter pounder in my pocket. Or Big Mac. Here's a question for you, Houston. If you were to keep a sandwich in your pants,

oh, stop. The filet of fish could get messy. I'd go with a what a catch. Why? This tartar sauce on the fish sandwich? Yeah. No, you'd have to go probably, you'd have to go with a good old fashioned just regular old cheeseburgers. You know, I was having a conversation with somebody

and they told me they just discovered that Waterburger had a fish sandwich. What? Yeah. It's like what a catch has been around for years. Yeah, like BK has a big fish. Yeah. Remember what it was called before Big Fish? Uh, the smaller fish?

Nope. The whaler. Okay. Why I know what? Well, whaling's illegal, so hopefully they were involved in those activities. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't.

So just for the record, I did not walk around May Creek High School in 1988, 88, 89. and 90 with chicken nuggets in my pocket. Just to clear that up. It feels like it's a good, like, what do you call when you add a little wrap, right on improvisation? Or are you talking about freestyle? Freestyle. I can freestyle chicken nuggets in my pocket.

No, it's not true. Oh, boy. 713. We're going to drop him a fat beat, Nick? No. Whatever that means, no. At least now we know that losing sucks. And if anybody knows how much losing sucks,

It's Matt Thomas. I'm outstanding. This is Whitney Mercilis. Back to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk, 790. The time is 136. I'm Matt here in Cleveland. Ross and Nick are back in our Houston studio. 713-1-2-1-2-5-7-90.

We've got nine non-Flority stories coming up at 230 today. And we have, believe it on a 252. Tomorrow, Dr. Roto's on the show. And Rossi, I think we need to check in with our friends in Nashville, don't you think for the seismic tilt between the Texas huge we can oversell it the nation turns its eyes to Nashville Tennessee at whatever field they play at I can't even

remember how about this Jim Nance and Tony Romar are calling the call game so it's the number one CBS game this week Nissan Stadium how long has it been Nissan Stadium I didn't even know Nissan was still around What do you mean? Well, I mean, name a car. Centra. Okay.

No, go ahead. Duke, Rogue, Altima. So they are alive. All right, good for them. I heard the stadium sucks, though. I've never been there, but I heard it sucks. Really? Yeah.

How bad can it be? It's built it like 20 years ago. Looks like 70,000 C stadium to me. Looks like every one of them. It's like everybody tries to tell me, Matt, what's your favorite arena? I don't know. They all have luxury boxes and a course. court that's 94 feet long.

But you say, you say Madison Square Garden, don't you? Well, it's because of my vantage point. It's the worst up there. It's so high and so far. Plus, it is, it is, you know, I think it's the world's most overrated arena. I think the reason why Madison Square Garden gets the run that it gets is because of the fact that it's in New York City. And Billy Joe goes there all the time? Once a month,

still to this day. Wow, good for him. I got a serious question to ask you real quick, though. How far up are you in San Antonio? Because when you called that non-hardened dunk, you'd called it as a miss as well. Correct. All right. For those of you that can envision a basketball court, we're on the second deck of the arena,

second level of the AT&T center. You know how there's center court, and there's a baseline of the left. I am left of the baseline in the second deck, so I am probably 200 feet away from where James Hardin. Oh, really? Yeah, it's awful. You're like in a corner?

Yes. Wow. It's one of the three worst places of broadcasting game. Well, screw you, San Antonio Spurs. And to be brutally honest, that's going to happen occasionally because radio guys are just put so far back. It's not fair. It isn't fair. Radio Lives Matter, Matt.

Because you would think you'd want to put us closer because we're going through every single graphic detail, where the ball is, where the players are. how much time those TV divas they just go on there with their makeup and say one or two things and the television screen done does all the work it's true matt you're the one really grinding out there so when Hardin goes up for that dunk I've seen Ross and I mentioned this to the 18 last week I've seen 25 30 players miss a dunk like that I've never seen one where it was dunk so hard it went through the net and then almost went through a second time so as soon as I'm called it and missed the call, I looked down and saw the instant replay, and that's when I got Adam Clinton involved, who was our studio host that night, and I said, hey, you know, are you seeing the same thing that I'm seeing? And I'm seeing that ball went all the way through the net. And look, I'm not going to bemoan the wrong. I mean, it was just a CF, to be honest with you. They said that that Dan Tony didn't challenge in enough time. That's what was ridiculous. This whole challenge system has been just a mess.

It really has. Which should have been done. The nice, simplistic, easy thing. Because, as I told you yesterday, Ross, the NBA changes scoring calls all the time. They could have. Now, this happened, what, was seven and a half minutes left to go on the game, give or take?

Yes. They had plenty of time during a timeout to look at it and say, hey, everybody, we goofed. James Hardin made the basket. We need to give them those two points. and then none of this would have happened. There would have been no protest. There would have been no having the official have to answer this question to the media

and give out misinformation, which ultimately costs him some disciplinary action because he butchered it. It was just a bad, bad deal. But again, the ultimate thing is that the rocket shouldn't have given up the double-digit lead as much as they did in the contest. But I'm just telling you, if we're going to use technology, let's also use common sense in that technology. and at this point we're not doing that

because they were unaware of whether they were challenging, what they were challenging, which was it just added the confusion. The challenge system is really, really good, Ross. It's just still too confusing to the average person. It's confusing to me as a PA announcer. It's confusing to the coaches.

I got to think it's confusing to the 18,000 fans that go to an NBA game every night. Yeah, I still don't know what the hell's going on. All right. Let's go to Mark on 790 at 141. Mark, what do you got? Hey, Matt, hey, Ross. Y'all were talking about Correa, Ian McTaggart.

I agree. I think they ought to trade him before he becomes a free agent. Let's do this. It's probably not going to happen. Let's sign Rendon and put him at third. Move Bregman to short, which is his natural position, and trade Correa. Maybe we can get a three-team deal out of it or a decent pitcher.

You know what I'm saying? And then send Maldonado to New York, so Cole will have somebody to pitch to. That catcher for the Yankees is horrible. He lets more pass balls go than anybody I've ever seen. But it's probably not going to happen. But shoot, Rendon's a hell of a third base means a good hitter. You saw what he did in the World Series,

and I'll hang out and see what you think. See you, both. Yeah, Rendon should be a nice, easy acquisition, right, Ross? I think so. Nice and easy. Hometown discount? Who's the last person in life that ever took a hometown discount? Man, even when Roger Clemens came, he cost a lot of money.

So Rendon, who wants $30 million a year, right, over a six or seven year stretch. So the Astros can scoot Bregman over to second base. Okay. Or just a short stop. Okay. It seems very practical, quite easy, right? And then the Astros, who can then send Maldonado to New York, although Maldonado is not property of the Astros. Is that what I got for the interpretation of the call?

I think so. I'm sorry, I was Googling hometown discounts. Let's see. There's a story that says it's becoming more and more rare. I've given a hometown discount before. I give a hometown discount every paycheck. That's right. Mark, no, they're not going to be in the Anthony Rendon sweepstakes. I can feel very confident that they weren't even a secret team involved in the Anthony Rendon sweepstakes.

They're not, I don't think at this point they're willing to take on another multi-year player who's going to be making $30 plus million a year for a very long period of time. But hey, that's just me. on Sports Talk 790. We are 40 minutes away from non-Flority stories. I'll be in Orlando tomorrow, so that won't do me any good because we don't do Florida stories, but I don't want to be a part of the Florida story. Dr. Rodo will be on the show tomorrow,

plus we need to check in in Nashville, get you ready for the Texans and the Titans. We'll do that either Thursday or Friday from a perspective from Tennessee. Ross Dellinger, Ross, writes for Sports Illustrated, covers college football. name ring a bell to you. Yes, that's the one that took a picture of Chris Gordy in his co-cho sweater. Oh, so there are besties.

If you scroll down to his pictures, you can find a picture of Chris Gordy in a co-cho sweater in Ross Dellinger's media. By the way, I have hardly seen Gordy this week in the last couple weeks. Is he just on Cloud 9? Yes. Is he already got his Warton's National Championship playing set? Is there a big party? Is he going to the games?

The first game is the Peach Bowl. Bowl in Atlanta. So they just went there last week. So I think most people's plan is to go, if they make it, to the championship game, which is in New Orleans. Yep. So a bunch of drunk LSU fans in the Superdome to watch their team play for the national championship. That's going to be a party weekend, my friend. Good Lord. Good luck at decent table limits at Harris, too, by the way. All right, so the reason why I bring him Ross Dellinger, by the way, he said he just tweeted this out. Somebody retweeted this that I follow.

A Power 580 in New York this week said a specific eight-team playoff model is circulating around the CFB world. That would include incorporate Bulls, including a Bulls-sponsored national championship game. That sounds encouraging, right? That's interesting. Everybody has been saying eight teams. And I think everybody has been saying, here's how you do it. And the model that I'm about to tell you is what I've said it. I'm sure Ross has said it.

I'm sure every sports talk shows, any decent college football fan has been able to say, yeah, this makes sense. You give every Power 5 conference their championship winner an automatic bid. That puts 5, right? See, that's the one I actually didn't like. We've talked about this. I want 1 through 8 no matter what. Okay. Because who won the PAC 12 this year?

Oregon? I guess they made 6th. Well, I think you've got to play for a championship. I think you should play. The conference championship games should mean something. And that's why I do like this strategy. Yeah, but some years, I don't know, like I said, some years the Pac-12 or even the Big 12 has been not deserving of a playoff spot just because their conference is weak. So I like one through eight no matter what.

But go ahead. Okay. Five automatic bids for the P5 champions. Then you would have two at large. It doesn't matter if they're P5 or not. P5, the two best teams that don't have a conference championship. And then you would give a spot to the group of five best overall like they do now when they play on the New Year's Day 6.

So it would be five automatic bids, two at large, meaning probably the next two highest thought of teams in one group of five. Meaning a group of five team could be, let's say Houston and the American. let's say it could be Utah State in the Mountain West it could be Miami of Ohio in the Mac they don't necessarily have to be the conference champions although the presumption would be they would be the conference champions

but you're taking one of those and those net team is representing the group of five and still there's a reason I don't like that either because this year it's what Memphis yes Memphis is the 17th best team in the country. Like you're, I just, I don't know that they're deserving of. But through no fault of their own, though.

Yeah, they could have went undefeated. Who'd they lose to? I don't know. The point being is this. Even if they would have won that team. They lost a temple. Okay. Temple's going to a bowl.

Right? I don't know a whole lot about Temple off. Yeah, they're 8 and 4. So if they would have not lost a temple and they would have gone undefeated, they would have probably been at very highest 12th. We don't know that. We have a pretty good feel. Memphis undefeated is not playing for the national champion.

Who's Memphis's best win? Houston. 15 to 10 over Ole Miss. Southern. What is USA? South Alabama. Okay. South Alabama?

Well, I will say this, Ross. It's going to ask those group of five teams to step up their schedule for sure. That's why I want top eight no matter what. Because when UCF was making it, they were getting up into top eight. When Boise State was making it, they were getting up into top eight. So if you have those years where a team is outside of the group of five or the power five, you can still make it. If you can still make it into the top eight, it's possible.

But it would require those teams to be undefeated. Right. Which you're essentially saying is, okay, group of five, we'll let you play with us as long as you don't have a single loss. Yeah, or if you have a good win. Memphis doesn't have a great, I mean, who's their best win outside of their conference? Well, Ole Miss is middle-the-run SEC. Again, I don't have their schedule for me, so I can't tell you that. I don't know.

I like it because it does give a faint hope for that group of five schools. I like auto bids. I like the top eight no matter who they are. I want to see the eight best teams in the country. I don't want to see somebody with the participation ribbon so I can go watch Memphis get pummeled by Ohio State 50s. Well, then you hate college basketball then. No, I don't hate college basketball.

Because Texas Tech was nowhere close to being a top 20 college basketball team last year. That's not true. What was their record last year going into the tournament? Texas Tech. Texas Tech. Were they not one of the better teams in basketball last year? I'm just telling you, I think they shocked the world when they went to the final four, yes? They won their last game against a big name opponent, but I don't, I mean, I don't think it was, I mean, I'm going to have to try to look at last year's rankings.

Well, all I'm saying is under your philosophy, which I understand you're not by yourself on this, you would not want any Cinderella's to go deep in the tournament. You'd only want to have a college basketball tournament with the theory. The last poll of the season, Texas Tech was number six and the coaches poll number seven in the AP. So they were all right. They're decent, yes. I'm just saying I think it's it gives everybody a chance now are they going to you know so you're telling me that one year you would not mind seeing Memphis knockoff Alabama's an eight versus a one seat don't we love that about underdogs they can do that if they call if they're one of the best deemed one of the best eight teams in the country the schedule's not going to let them do it there's not schedule not dictated the schedule even if you played one super heavyweight after the other the college landscape because of the difference between the power five and group of five conferences is not going to let that happen.

There have been teams that can crack the top eight outside of the Power 5. It's happened before. But not very often. Look at it out. Memphis is really good. They're really, really good. And you're telling me they're 17. Yeah.

I want to see Memphis go against, I bet Memphis could give Oklahoma all a good handling. Okay. Not that's what I'm trying to sell Memphis anybody. But point being, this has got legs to it. I like it. And I might have made a minority on this, and I can live with that. But give the conference championships a little umph. Give two at-large teams that either didn't win the championship game because they were bad,

or they came on late but couldn't win their conference. Give them two hopes. How about this? Let me close to you. What if Virginia upset Clemson over the weekend? And then all of a sudden, Virginia's in, and they're in the playoff. I think that's absolutely ridiculous. No, they won.

They played a game to win a championship. They were better than Clemson in that particular day. Absolutely. That they're not even close to one of the best eight teams in the country. So I wouldn't want them either. That's what I'm saying. I don't like the auto bid. What you're telling me is you don't like fluky wins on a particular Saturday.

I want the body of work of the entire season, whoever, the committee or whoever, I don't care who does it. The top eight teams, that's who I would want. Yeah, but if you're Virginia, I mean, if you're Clemson and you don't be Virginia in a chance to play for a national championship, then why do you deserve to begin with? Yeah, well, maybe Clemson wouldn't make it. But I'm not saying, I'm telling you Virginia doesn't. deserve to make it.

Conference championships. When you hold the belt, Ross, you must believe in them. I don't. Okay. We have a difference in agreement on this. I like it. What do you guys think? 713, 212-790.

Five conference champions, two at large, highest ranked group of five. Meaning, I guess the college football committee would select that one team. I think it gives everybody a chance, it still rewards championships, and it still rewards success.

And it gives us eight teams, so it gives us an extra week of playoffs. I think it's a great idea. Is the Matt Thomas show. Time is 203. It is the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

By the way, speaking of Texas Tech, How about my Texas Tech Red Raiders knocking off the number one team in the country, Louisville Cardinals last night? Good for them. You know why I say they're my Red Raiders? Because I spend a lot of tuition money in Texas Tech. Yes, you do. See, that's what I'll pay for if I won a lot of them. Matt, I'll just pay for all your kids' tuition.

All three of them. Wow. What kind of schools are we talking about? I mean, well, I mean, I think. No private institutions. Cameron is at Texas Tech. Let's get some scholarship. So I'm going to hire them from tutors.

I think Peyton wants to go to Texas A&M. Okay. That'll be cheap. All right. No, it won't. And then Carly just wants to play volleyball somewhere, so we can figure that out. You get her scholarship. Yeah.

Well, you also told me that Cameron was going to be in the major league. I did? Yeah. Well, he might work for a baseball team someday. He wants to get into sports. Well, when he was playing Little League, you were like, guys, I think I got a major league pitcher on my hands. Yeah, I didn't force it hard enough. That's on you.

You should have Tiger Woodsed him. Let me tell you something. Anytime you hear about fathers and mothers not pressing their kids to compete athletically, they're just bad parents. Push your children. Even when they don't want to play. Push them. Push them. So, like the Earl Williams's and the, I'm sorry, Richard Williams and the Earl Woodses of the world, they had it figured out.

The best. Cameron would say back in the sixth grade, dad, my arm hurts. Well, then use the other one. That's actually a good plan. A little crafty lefty. He can pitch forever. I've thrown 119 pitches. What's 20 more?

among friends. That's what college baseball is all about. Yeah. Augie Garito, never minded. All right. 713, 212-790. There is a proposal out there that has the group of five, best of that group, Power 5, each conference championship winner

and two at-large teams playing in a potential 18 bowl. I love the idea. I know Joe Clatt hates it. Ross doesn't like it either. What do you all think? 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Ethan. Ethan, and college station on 7-90. Ethan, good afternoon.

Hey, guys, I just wanted to ask the idea about how the SCS does it, where you have a 20-team playoff. You have the 10 conference winners, and then you have the 10 at-large teams. So I think you would provide, you know,

a fair opportunity for everybody. Plus, you'd have the 10 next best teams that aren't the conference championship winners, which will most majority be schools from the Power 5. I think the FCS has got it right. You'd obviously have to lower the number of games in the regular season,

but I think it would provide a better opportunity, I think a better playoff system than the FBS does it right now. So what do you think about that? I do not consider that to be an option. You get too many bowl games, too many things that have been already etched in stone in college athletics. I never think we'll get to 16. I don't think we'll get to 12.

There is room to make it eight. And I think at that point, you do want to still make it. I don't want everybody in their mother with a chance to play for national championship. I want the eight best teams to do it. And I want a chance for everybody that deserves the opportunity to play with the national championship. Get it. I just think if you make it a 20-team tournament, you're getting rid of bowl games. And while I think bowl games, a lot of times are a hot mess that nobody cares about,

those particular communities care about those bowl games. So far be it for me to tell the Alamo Bowl that, you know what, we don't need your bowl game anymore because we can't use you for a national for a playoff game. So I would say respectfully that the FCS formula is good but it's something that cannot be put done at the FBF level, FBS level. Agree or disagree, Ross. Yeah, I think 20 is a little much. I honestly

I think tapping it out at A is actually fine. I know people are going to want 16 after that but to me I mean eight best teams in the country is where you would go and I think that's where it would need to stay. And also this, Ross, into your philosophy of the eight best, I'll go with that too. I mean, I would like to see an expansion of it. I just love the number eight in terms of that seems like to be a fair amount. And it would definitely give a non-power five school if they were deemed of being, like, saying, the seventh best team.

You know, they never get a chance to play in one to four to at least get a crack at it if they were to make the top eight. So even if we went with your philosophy of only the eight best teams, there could be a power. a group of five schools sneak in once in a while? Yeah, I think so. Because right now they just can't sneak in. There's just no chance. You'd have to be a Houston team that won the American, and you'd have to have five or six teams in the conference in the top 25,

which actually they are this year. But then you'd have to beat Oklahoma. You'd have to beat what you'd have to have a perfect record, and you'd have to have every one of your non-conference games being a power five, and that's just not realistic. Yeah, I mean, it would be tough. I get it. it's understandable that some people would say that the,

what are you calling them now? The group of five was getting slighted and all that type of stuff. But I just want the eight best teams. I don't want auto bids. Like I said, the upsets can happen in these championship games. I want the body of work. Whoever is told,

and the body of work includes, you know, you can have a play in the American and then have a one or two tough non-conference games and win those. And I think you can crack the top eight and be deemed one of the top eight teams. I just like a one guaranteed spot. And maybe, Ross, if I was, if I went to school. Okay, how about one guaranteed spot and then the other top seven?

I'm okay with that too. I don't want auto conference bids. That's a compromise. I think you have to make the conference championship games mean something. If you're going to have them, they should mean something. Not just an extra game. I mean, if LSU lost, they were going to be in there anyways. So it didn't mean that much then.

If Ohio State, all right, so let's do this. If Ohio State lost, they were probably going to be in no matter what. Let's, all right, look at the final standings here, and maybe you can do this a little faster than I can. If we were to go under this current formula, who would have been in the college football playoff? Let's get to it. Pack 12 champion was Oregon. You had ACC champion, Clemson. You had LSU as the SEC champion.

You had Oklahoma as your Big 12. And your, who are we forgetting? Oh, Big Ten was Ohio State. Your at-large teams would have been what? Baylor, I want to say? Baylor and Georgia. Baylor and Georgia. And your group of five would have been Memphis, correct?

Yes. You take those eight teams, and you take them to the committee and say, there's your formula. Now, re-rank them one to eight. I think it would be great. You give me those eight teams playing for a national championship? My guess is it would be Memphis. versus LSU.

Yeah, by Memphis. Ohio State probably versus what, Baylor or Georgia? Baylor, yeah. Baylor. Clemson, Georgia. Clemson versus Georgia. OU, Oregon. OU, Oregon.

Tell me that doesn't sound great. Yeah, that sounds fine. That's this year. This year, a lot of the conference champions are the highest rated. That's not every year. I'm just saying, I don't think if I gave you that formula, we'd be very disappointed at all. 211 on the Matt Thomas show.

713212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Non-Florida story's coming up at the bottom of the hour. Ross, what is today's edition of Believe it or Not, at 252? Go ahead and play the crickets. 41 minutes away from one of the most hotly anticipated, believe it or not, ever. The Matt Thomas Show continues on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas Show, Sports Talk 790 here in Cleveland.

Ross and Nick are back in our Houston Studio 713-212-5-7-90 is how you reach our show today if you'd like to join us. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Ross, excitement level for tonight's Rockets-Cabaliers game. It's a 12. Out of a 10? About 30.

Man, you're excited about Colin Sexton, huh? Who? Yeah. Other Cavaliers. He tore up the Rockets last year, didn't he? He sure did. He had to Kerr high at that point. Do you know he's got more double-digit games in the NBA?

That was a draft class of 18 than Luca Donchich has with the Dallas Mavericks. Double-digit what? Point games. Oh, really? Yeah. I'm good for him. Duke Adich is better. Way better.

Are you scared about how good Dallas could be? I'm not happy about it. going to be good for like, he's only 20. He's this good and he's only, he's going to get better. The problem, here's the thing we have to root for. That Chris Depp's Porzincas is never more than what he is right now. Yeah, he's pretty young too, right? Yeah, but he's been hurt a lot.

So you're kind of hoping that maybe he's injury riddled for his entire NBA career. He's 24. He's IP. Is he? I think so. Okay. But Dallas, I mean, Tim Hardaway Jr., putting, up shots,

Dorian Fennie Smith. I mean, that's a Dallas team. It could be pretty scary for the foreseeable future, which is terrible, because that means Mark Cuban's going to get a lot of airtime.

Yeah, nobody wants that. He gets enough airtime on Shark Tank. Do you ever watch Shark Tank? No. I feel like that's a hotel-only TV show. Like, if you were to put together the list, and you know, the list starts and ends with Judge Judy. Right.

It shows you will watch on the road. I'm watching one of them. right now, I've got in the upper left-hand corner on my room with my TV, and I've got family feud on. I don't know the last time I'm going to watch a family feud at home. But for some reason, family feud is always on my television when I'm on the road. Yeah, I'm not a shark tank guy, but I get it. Do you watch the other judge shows? I used to watch Judge Mathis back of the day.

Like divorce court? Judge Mathis, every single case, Judge Mathis would weave in like how he was from the ghetto. And how he grew up. I think he was quite angry, was he not? A little bit. He was entertaining. You know, I told you this before. There's a new judge show out this year.

It's Judge Jerry Springer. Yes. I guess he has a law background because he was a mayor of Cincinnati, right? Yeah, which is different than a mayor of most cities. It's more like a, not an honorary name, but I don't think he's like in the office. He didn't have any power? Yeah, I don't think the power of being a mayor in. Cincinnati is the same of the power.

Wait a minute. He was born in England? Jerry Springer was? Yeah. How old is he? He's got to be in his mid-70s. He's 75. Yeah.

So he sits on this dais, and people come in with the same small claims court thing. It's really nothing different than what Judge Judy does. It's just you're thinking that maybe people from the studio audience that Jerry Springer show

are coming up to settle their cases. And they're going to fight each other? Yes. That's how Jerry Springer's judge show should be different than the rest is that in the middle of these two people fighting over whatever small claims bit they're going through, they just attack each other.

And then you have that guy, Steve Wilco's, on nowhere just separating the people. Right. Like, you slept my sister, and he didn't even invite me. And then they're just going to start fighting again. So you're saying basically all of Arkansas are the cases. That's basically what Jerry Springer's show was, right?

Yeah. I still get into a Jerry Springer YouTube Rabbit Hole if I need to. A lot of meth. What was that? What was the compilation that they had? Like uncut and unfit for TV or whatever it was. Oh, I bought that. You did?

Oh, hell yeah. Because there was two things about it. This is probably 20 years ago. It was, you saw what they looked like naked. And they swore a lot more. You did that too, didn't you? No. You would buy things.

Did you buy the, I was like 12. I didn't have a credit card. I didn't have a visa. Did you buy the girls gone wild videos? No, I did not. Did you ever see them? I might have, you know, what?

The neighbor might have had them. Yeah. I might have ripped some of those off of the early state. It used to be a lot easier to pirate stuff back in the old wild west of the internet. Yeah, so you've seen girls go out a while, and you've seen the uncut version of Jerry Springer. Just like every other warm-blooded human being has. I'm trying to think what other shows would have that, that you would have, you'd have to buy to get the uncut version.

It's not like Saturday Night Live doesn't have an under- cut where they're swearing all the time. It's that, it's, because the girls gone wild was like PG, but then they really got crazy. Yeah.

And then there was lawsuits or they were coercing girls and getting them drunk and high. It was very awkward. Dastardly that you would get girls high in spring break in Daytona Beach. Well, there was still also coercion and all the, it's, it was in the answer.

It wasn't good, man. All right. Let's go. Let's say hi to Brian in downtown at 224. Ryan. Hey, what's going on, Matt? Hi. Hey, you know, if you want to see the best uncut version of anything, try in living color

if you can find that. That is freaking hilarious. But anyway, my question was, you know, when these guys decide who the final for us, who are these guys really and what qualifies them to do it? I mean, to me, I picture a bunch of guys, I picture a bunch of guys in big, thick glasses with, you know, bow ties and big red pencils. sitting around. Have they ever stepped on a football field? Do they know anything about

the game? I mean, who are these guys that decide on the history of college football by picking only four teams, which I agree should be eight? But, I mean, to me, that's what makes me disinterested in college football. I mean, I usually watch the game, you know, watch it at the end,

but to me, it's like somebody's always missing, or there should be a team in there that's not there. Or something's always kind of tainted about it, or maybe that's just me. I don't know. Maybe you can help me out. I have the list of the committee for you, Matt, if you want me to run through it. Yeah, please do. Okay, there's Rob Mullins, the athletic director at Oregon.

Gary Barter, the Iowa athletic director. Frank Beamer, former Virginia Tech head coach. Paola Boyvin, former Arizona Republic reporter. Joe Castiglion, Oklahoma, AD. Ken Hadfield, former coach. Chris Howard, the. Robert Morris University president, former Air Force running back. Ronnie Lott.

It's just randomly on there. I thought Condoleezza Rice was in that group, too. No, not anymore. Terry Moja here is the Arkansas State AD, then the former Army Chief of Staff, Ray O'Dierno. R.C. Slocum is on it? Wow. And Todd Stansberry, the Georgia Tech Athletic Director, and then the Florida Athletic Director, Scott Strickland.

So, to answer Brian's question, there's legitimate people doing it. Yeah, these are all ADs, one reporter, Ronnie Lott, and Ken Hatfield. Yeah. And the former Army Chief of Staff. You mean like the U.S. Army or Army Athletics? Well, a chief of staff would be the U.S. Army, right? Huh. Yeah, again, I've seen the names in the past.

They haven't really bothered me. I mean, it'd be a little bit different if they just got like rando people down the street and said, hey, we don't have come be a part of the college football committee? Sure. He commanded the fourth infantry division during the Iraq War. Hmm. This feels like I believe it or not someday. Wait, wait, it should be believe it or not today.

Okay, I'm just saying. I'm just saying. All right, 226 on the Matt Thomas show. Ross, Nick and myself once per week, come up with stories that will intrigue you that can't come from the state of Florida. Every other radio host in America does Florida stories. We're going to change things up and give you a non-Florida story. And we'll have him for you next.

It is the Matt Thomas Show, 713212-5-790. We ask you sometimes to help us vote on which of the best story you like. But I feel like Ross, the last few weeks we've tried to have people vote. They just make strange songs on the show. So I don't know if we want to keep that or not. Thomas continues on Sports Talk 790. Here's how it works. Ross, Nick, myself.

I'll have stories. Odd, peculiar. What are the three Ds that Ross, Nick brings to his stories? That would be dismemberment, defecation, and death. Okay, I don't have it usually in those in my stories, but I want to go to one that I think

has made quite a bit of headlines, and I think most people have seen, but just in case you haven't. Dateline Canada, Ross, where Walmart Canada is saying sorry, not sorry, but Sorry for making available a Christmas sweater to their Canadian consumers. Have you seen the sweater I'm speaking up? I have not. The sweater features an image of Santa Claus behind a table with three white lines that look similar to cocaine lines.

below those three lines the phrase let it snow is shown and this Santa Claus has a stick or a straw or whatever it is in his right hand so apparently in Canada to celebrate Christmas Santa wants to do a line or two or three lines with you so you leave that out for him instead of cookies

Well Walmart has backtracked Nick These sweaters sold by a third party seller at walmart.ca Do not represent Walmart's values And have no place on our website We have removed these products from our marketplace We apologize for any unintended offenses may have caused These sweaters by the way were not offered to any Walmart store Or walmart.com in the U.S.

Let it snow with Santa on a table with three lines of cocaine. That is my non-Florida story. Very nice, Matthew. Who's going next? Me or you, Nick? I don't care. Okay, go ahead. All right.

My story is all the way from Kazakhstan. Wow. I feel like you get these unverified international stories, but go ahead. Maybe, but they're good stories. Actor and bodybuilder by the name of Yuri Tolochco is recently engaged his girlfriend of eight months and he are

getting ready to tie the knot. You might ask why is that weird? Well, his girlfriend Margo is not a human. It is a purchased sex robot. He has a Instagram account

and he takes her everywhere. He buys her plane tickets. He just recently got her plastic surgery because she was beginning to develop a complex about her appearance, he says. Oh, man. It says here that he's

also managed to land her a job waiting tables. I don't know how that works. But he is planning to marry the doll. And shortly, they will become husband and wife. Man Murray's sex robot

is mine on Florida story. Most people are out there. You know, it's been a few weeks than we've done this segment. It feels like we're may take another break on it. Well, my story is probably not 100% clean either. I like yours. I think Ross is going to win this time. That's okay.

Matt, have you hung up your Christmas lights yet? Yes. Oh, well, you didn't do it personally, though, right? No. Well, let me take you to Johnson County in Kansas. Well, there's a Christmas light display that's causing a stir in a neighborhood in Lenoxa, Kansas. And for more on that? I will let Fox 6 News explain.

Santa's going to see more than a chimney on the roof of one Lenoxa home when he flies in on his sleigh. What do you think it looks like? It looks like a giant little. You know, a man's private parts. Until now, Marcelo and Christy Vergara haven't seen the display that's lighting up some people in their whispering hills neighborhood. Well, it's certainly a statement. I don't know what, but probably not appropriate. And we're blurring it to keep it PG-13.

Questions surrounded the monstrosity sitting on this roof formed by 60 feet of lights. Could it be a guitar? Maybe a funky sleigh. The neighborhood's kind of like vibes kind of gone down because everyone's kind of uptight. So it's more of kind of the onriness. We asked the creator, 24-year-old Shelby Gash, what is it? A giant glowing. At first, neighbors got a kick out of it.

I don't know what I would have done if I would have driven. I probably would direct my car. Laughing. Laughing. And that's what Shelby. be intended. People think it's hilarious. People are stopping in the middle of the night, taking photos and laughing. People think it's so much fun. I think there's a lot more laughter than it's bringing out anything. Sorry if this is actually really bothering people. I'm just trying to

make a laugh. So Shelby Gash. Excuse me? Shelby Gash. What? That's her name. Of Lenoxa, Kansas. Okay. Put up a light of light display of Santa and him having a giant member. And that's my non-Florida story. I vote for Ross.

Ross, I don't like the fact you're using audio to help you win these competitions. I'm not helping. We had to get the audio. We had to hear what Shelby Gash had to say. I don't want you saying her name ever again. What? Shelby G. Shelby G.

That's just inappropriate. That's her name, Matt. So she said, hey, I want to give Santa She wants to laugh, lighten up the neighborhood. Literally. So he's hung like a... Like a blitzin?

He's just hung. Did she get any blowback from anybody? Excuse me? That's a terrible phrase. Excuse me. I forget I said that. Sorry. Sorry.

Sorry. That was not what I meant to say. Oh. Oh my God. All right. So my story is the sweater from Walmart Canada that has the lines of cocaine in it. Nick, you would describe your story as man-marries sex robot. Yep.

And Rosses would have Shelby G. Shelby Gash in the well-hung Santa. In the well-hung Santa. Which of those three stories was your favorite non-Florida story? You'd like to vote? 713-212. 5-790. I'm deathly afraid how this is going to turn out.

Nick, you're going to have to have the delay button. Probably really close. We're ready to dump here. Why am I even doing this? This is going to be awful. 7-13-212-5-7-90 against my better judgment. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Line two, your favorite Florida story?

Not a Florida story? Oh, man. Chalk up those lines for Santa. There you go, man. All right. I get a vote for that on the Sanitas cocaine lines. Line four, your favorite now in Florida story, please. Hello? Hello, go on.

Your favorite now in Florida story. Oh, man. The Santa. All right. I wish Santa. You talking about the one that's hung or the one that's got Coke? Santa's been busy this week. Man, why are we ruining Santa's image?

I mean, how else is it going to stay up all through the night and travel around the world? Well, if you're hung, you probably can't like that, right? Line one, your favorite not in Florida story. Personally, I think Mrs. Gash is a genius. All right, it's. Thank you. That's what? I just, it's just, this is awful.

713, 212, 790. Line 3. Oh, thank God. No one wants to call and give us or not in Florida store. We've been blessed. You hung up on everybody. I did, because I just was definitely afraid. it was going to come out of their mouth. Oh, no, more people are calling. This is terrible.

713, 2, 112, 790. Line 1, your favorite non-flority story. Matt, you look like that guy from the 6th flag. Okay. Why does that guy do that every week? Yeah, we got to keep an eye on that number. Yeah, we got to make sure that number is under there. All right, well, I think we're done. No one's called anymore. That makes me feel better. No one's going to vote. Ross, you win by default.

Sure, why not? Thanks, Shelby. Thanks, Shelby Gash. Very awkward. 241. Believe it or not is next. After I tell you about improve my erection. Oh, this is a terrible segue.

What does Santa have to say about this one, Matt? What's that? What does Santa have to say about this one? Oh. He, Santa believes you should have sexual wellness. And that's why you're going to call 281, 496, 3355. 281, 496. 30355 you know the pills you hear about whether you've taken gum or shots or injections

that sort of stuff's going to last for a very little time before they stop working entirely pills also can't address the psychological component of the issue that's where the Rorick step in they want to get you physically back to where you want to be and mentally as well and if you subscribe to their service between now and the end of the year you get $1,200 in bonus services all by calling improve my erection and the folks that Dr. Rorick and his team over there 281 496 3355 281 496 3355 online at improved by erection.com more Matt Thomas now on sports talk 790 well Ross would you like some astro news that's going to ruin the positive vibe of hearing Christmas music on the Matt Thomas show

What happened, Matt? Rob Manfred had his state of the commissioner press conference today. And has said the Astros investigation is, quote, probably the most thorough investigation his office has ever done. He said 60 witnesses have been interviewed. Oh, boy. And 76,000 emails reviewed. as well as as well as a trove of instant messages.

And they found nothing. No timetable on when it will wrap up. You recognize that voice, Matt? No, don't know. I've never heard it. Stop! All right, I'm here to save the show. All right, Gordy, where you been, first of all, and secondly, how are you going to send the show today? I just wanted to plug

former Houston Rocket Corey Brewer expected to come in scheduled to come in studio next hour with the A team so keep it locked right here coming up at 3 o'clock By the way, can I plug something to?

Sure. Friday 130, Matt Thomas show, this station you listen to right now, the show you're listening to, Rudy Tomjanovich will be on the show. I thought you were going to make me do a football parody. Oh, yeah, that too.

What's the last time we've done one? Can we do one and debut it for Rudy T? He's not going to understand a word of it. Okay, I'm texting you right now. I should give out your number, but I won't. Chris, here's your reminder about a Friday football parody. 5.04. No, we're not doing that.

It's New Orleans. Everybody knows that. That's true. So are you going, have you bought your tickets for the championship game in New Orleans? No, because they're like the cheapest one right now is $1,000. Like what I'd like to do is probably go down there and like just be around everybody, but I'm not paying an arm and a leg for a ticket. Why don't we ask our bosses? We have immense people in our building that love LSU.

They'll buy your ticket. You work hard. Yeah, it's more like if you can find a corporate partner. Like so-and-so at Coke has a free pair of tickets, you know, that kind of thing. Why don't you do one of those GoFundMe accounts? No, it's not that important. I've been to a couple of national championships before, so I'm okay. Okay.

You know, because when your school is good, you win multiple national championships. Unlike, you know, Texas, who still replays the title game for both five? No, no, I'm talking about, you know, like recent decades. Like, not where you have to keep replaying the Vince Young game twice a week every week. Well, let's pump the brakes here for a little bit. Let, let Ohio State whip your ass and then we'll talk. You guys are one of our quality wins and you went and messed that up. Hold on seven and five, pal.

Alamo Bull birth. Can't wait for that. Alamo Bull. Taking on Utah. one of the best teams in the country. By the way, the- and the biggest football state in the country at the Alamo Bowl. Remember the Alamo

and remember the Valero Alamo Bowl. The Alamo Bowl will air on KPRC-950 on the night of New Year's because we will have rockets right here on 7-90. Huge game. Gordy comes in promoting all of our events. Corey Brewer is on the show today. Friday will have Verity T on the show.

Parity on Friday. you brought nothing but good news of the show today, and I appreciate that very much. Well, I had to chime in because I saw the same tweets you did about the Astros and this investigation, and they interviewed all these people, but they haven't said they found anything yet. They're not going to say anything, Gordy, come on. Just interviews. Just interviews. No evidence yet.

You really don't think that they didn't find anything? I'm just saying it's possible. They interviewed few, 59 people like, we got nothing. Let's interview one more. to 60. Well, still nothing. I guess to stop. If they interviewed five people. Hold on. Confess. Like, game over.

60 witnesses, 76,000 emails and whatever a trove means of instant messages. Right, because they haven't found anything. They keep looking. Oh, no. Oh, my God. I hope you're right. He's wrong. I like Gordy's optimism. Well, yeah. It's his evergreen optimism for LSU is finally paying

off for one year. They can finally get past Alabama. Yeah. You still want Tom Herman to coach LSU, by the way? Yeah. I said take them back. We don't want to know. No, we'll keep them right there, Texas. We need LSU to win, so then keep Will Harris fat and happy, and maybe he'll come stay in Houston for a discount.

Why would that affect Will Harris? Stay closer to home. So you're saying if LSU wins and helps. That's terrible. That's like Big Sarge logic. What are you talking about? Love you, Big Sarge. Big Sarge had a horrible take today on the Nd-D-Shia.

What did he say? He said that you shouldn't get mad at Kiki QT for Fummel. in the football because he hasn't played a whole lot and that it should be excusable that he fumbled the ball that went when he caught it. Yeah, we ripped him to shreds after that. It was maybe a bottom five horrific take

I've ever heard on sports radio. And I've heard some terrible sports takes. You said some terrible sports takes? I wreak him terrible sports takes. Did you guys see the picture of Garrett Cole, clean shaven? That was photoshopped, and you know it. It still is weird. I mean, that's what he's going to look like.

Yeah, he'll get over it. By the way, I was going to get a clean shave in New York. You know how expensive is in New York? I was going to get a, you know how bald guys shave their face and their head? You know how much it was going to cost me? And I said, no. Take a wild guess what a razor shave is for a bald guy. Real fast.

$80. What do you say, Ross? I'll like to bid $1.10. $110. Do you get a free cap of coal sandwich with it? It's New York. Wow. Shave and a delisage.

Whose accent's better, Nick? I think I found an accent worse than mine. I think Gordy's is still a little closer. Hey, New York. Welcome to New York. We were talking to subway. Five minutes on the show. Stephen A. Smith again.

What should we do? Please. We should play America's fastest scrimic sports game show. We simply call it believe it or not. And here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 7-13-2-1-1-3-1-1-1-1-7. 2.579. Today's edition of Believe it or Not is brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spies.

Print out your gift card for the gift of relaxation at Houston. Woodhouse Spons.com. The category today is all things about the football committee that determined the four best teams in college football. I'll read you a statement about one of those gentlemen, more ladies. Statements completely narrowly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. If it's erroneous, fellow bunk and made up, you'll say this. Not. Two believer in a row win your prize. Ross. What's the prize? Go ahead and tell us, Nick.

This is what we call awkward silence in the business? Well, I was getting destroyed. I normally grab it, but during this part where you were talking, but Gordy was in here. So I blame it. I blame Gordy. We've got a pair of tickets to Battleground 2K-19 at Toyota Center on December 18th at 4.30 p.m. This is a college basketball triple header featuring teams from Baylor, UTSA, Oregon State, Utah State, U.T. Martin, and South Florida, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the athletes against abuse initiative,

which was created to bring awareness to child abuse in our country. information at toyotocenter.com. Ross, you gave Nick a four-line read. More than that. Geez. Paul on 790. Paul, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansberry has a bachelor's in communications

and a master's in business administration from Toledo University. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, he doesn't. But he used to work at University. Oh, wow. Good for him. All right. Let's go to line number two.

on 7.90. Kevin, you're ready to play believe it or not. You better believe it. Excuse me. Man, are you okay? I just got a cold. I just need a rest. You've had a cold for like six weeks. Take some vitamin C. You know what it is? And honestly, it's moving between these ridiculous time zones. Who in the NBA office said, let's go from San Antonio, Toronto?

And then somebody said, let's go from Cleveland to Orlando. Yeah, I'm sorry. Moving on. Oregon athletic director Rob Mullins has two sons. Their names are Cooper and Tanner. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. This is such a lame, believe it or not.

Statement number two for the win. Iowa athletic director Gary Barta came to Iowa from Maine, and his first hire was Maine football head coach Kirk Forens. Believe it or not. Not. Not as correct. Congratulations. Nice work, nicely done.

All right, one more. Let's go to line number. five. Matt on 790. Matt, you ready to play believe it or not? Believe it. Former Rice head coach Ken Hatfield played defensive back at Arkansas and was teammates with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Believe it or not. Not. Believe it. Oh man. I've talked about it over and over. All right. Let's go to Coleman on 790. Coleman. You're ready to play believe it or not? Believe it. Former Army Chief of Staff Ray O'Diarno. Is that how you were saying it, Ross? Okay.

Highest rank in the Army was a four-star general. Believe it or not. Not. Oh, believe it. And that's it for today. We're talking about Cordy and his LSU Tigers. He ruined the whole segment. All right.

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Corey Brewer among their guests. Have a great day. We'll talk to you in a couple hours here on Sports Talk 790.