The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 2-4-20

Episode Date: February 4, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 2/4/20Whatchu Talkin' Bout James Click (0:00)Astros New Slogan : "For The H" (9:18)Roughnecks already had #ForTheH (28:08)Astros Manager Dusty Baker Joins The Matt Thomas Show (36:31)Astros GM James Click Joins The Matt Thomas Show (53:18)

Much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 1204 in H-Town. What's happening in lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports 790 alongside Sports RV Ross Villarreal.

at ProNiclo, aka Nicklo. I'm Matt Thomas. Nice to have you guys with us today and ladies too. Always want to make sure the ladies are taken care of. What's up, ladies? Especially with the ones that are all mad about the excessive booty that you saw at the Super Bowl on Sunday. Well, not all of them are all mad about that.

Just 50%. Quite a Facebook rundown. If you know what I'm saying, if you went to your local Facebook in the last 24 hours, the debate raged on. Did it? Is it really? Yeah, I don't get it. Because if you go look at NFL cheerleader, they're shaking a lot more booty week after week than what those two women did at Super Bowl on Sunday.

But that's not like that. Rockets Power Dances tonight, Toyota Center. Come see them. I can name more Rocket Power Dancers than I can name Charlotte Hornets. Really? Yeah. Well, they have Kevin Bacon, don't they? Or do they?

Let me tell you something. Today's edition of Believe or Not is all things about the Charlotte Hornets. And I think it really will be a, let's just say, let's see, Ross has done three believe it's in a row. Yeah. Is this a Hornet or a member of the State Railroad Commission? All right. On the show today.

It's not Kevin Bacon. What's his real name, though? I don't know. I don't follow the Charlotte Hornets. You don't? They got a bacon on there. I know because Ackerman likes to make bacon puns and Bull as well. Yeah.

We'll get more into Charlotte. Dwayne Bacon. Dwayne Bacon. Dwayne Shaken Bacon. is that well yeah they haven't played the hornets at all this season have they so when they go on the road are you going to say that like if if duane bacon hits like three shots in a row are you going to he's sizzling yes i mean look or if or if james hardens crosses him up and he falls down bacon got crisp bacon got burnt this is why you listen to

this show right here for horrible puns on food toppings uh uh you You know, in the NBA, like, if we had a conversation today about getting into Philadelphia, Milwaukee, what other Eastern Conference team went? Boston, you'd have, you'd have some frame of reference. No one has any frame of reference in the NBA about the Charlotte Hornets. I mean, the most nondescript, neutral vanilla, plain, boring, unexciting, non-successful franchise. led by the greatest player ever to play in the NBA. Bill Russell owns the Hornets? Nice try.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan owns the Charlotte Hornets, and no one cares about them. People in Charlotte don't even care about them. The big issue today, however, is what's happening here locally. And that is, we have a new general manager. James Click. Long time. What was it?

16 years in Tampa Bay, Ray organization? Since 06. So 13 or 14 years. 15? Well, I mean, if you count this year. Not really. Just a long time.

Better than a decade's worth of work. Yeah, decade plus. Decade plus in the Ray's organization. And we've never done this before. I don't know how this is going to work. But we're going to put you to the test early sports RV with something we like to call this. What you do a mom? What you draw a mom?

James Click. What? Sabrina got involved early. James Glick. What are you talking about? I'm not Glick. I keep calling him. I called him Glick like three times last time.

And by the way, I don't know why. Let's put this out here for public. James Click, it does not look like Adam Clinton at all. Not at all. Not one iota. Go to Adam Clanton's Twitter account and tell them how much they don't look alike. Please run to add Adam Clinton and tell him that James Click and Adam. and Adam Clanton can be in the same room at the same time.

Please tell him that he does not have a striking look to the new general manager of this baseball team. One does not look like the evil twin of the other at all. Please do not look at Ross's tweets when he has Spider-Man zapping the other Spider-Man. Wherever that came from, it's just genius. I don't know. It's been a popular meme over the last few years.

So let's do this. Let's start out with... Well, I mean, I don't even know his... I don't know his personality. know his terror voice, I don't know his cadence. So I mean, how can I possibly go with what you're talking about James?

Click. Click. Not Glick. James Click. All right, James Click. All right, James Click. All right, here we go. 17.7 seconds. Slug is goal is to continue what the team has already done. 17 seconds.

Obviously, there's a proven track record of success with the Astros and I'm looking just to continue that going. The path has been set and I just look forward to winning some more championships here in Houston. So I think my philosophy is going to be, you know, to just continue doing what they're doing and continue to push it forward. This is a tremendously talented front office and I think that we're all going to be firing on all cylinders and we're going to have to in order to keep this

thing going in order to keep a championship caliber roster on the field for years to come. That was a Russell Westbrook layup right there is what that was. We'll take it. Next on James Click. on the culture in the Astros front office, 30 seconds. This is a little bit more of a challenge. Like the past culture and what he's going to bring? I think it's going to be the future. I think it's what we're going with on that.

Well, I mean, I just want to bring a culture of hard work and success. And obviously that's something that is with talking to Mr. Crane, that he has set the precedent. They have championship pedigree here. I want to continue that. And the only way to do that is to continue to work hard and not leave it. any stone unturned and just create a culture of winning, which has already been established here. I don't know what the culture is until you get there. You can get an impression of what a culture is of a place from afar, but there's no substitute to working alongside and with the Astros employees to feel what that is.

Culture is something that I take very seriously, and I think we'd like to do everything we can to continue to make sure that this is an employee-first culture, kind of place where people want to work and are involved and engaged. And I have every faith that we are going to be able to create that and continue the positive culture that we have here at the Astros. Whatever. Well, he was asked about the previous culture. All right, a couple more. I got a bad lead in.

A couple more. This one's only 10 seconds. You don't have much room for growth here in this one. What's his biggest challenge? The biggest challenge is just to keep on winning and improving and getting the roster better every single day and just continue this culture of success. Winning a championship. Winning a championship is going to be on the front burner at all times.

I'm really looking forward to getting to know Dusty and everybody here at the Astros and figuring out the best way to do that. Last one, this is a lab. This gives you a great chance to leave on a high note. I'm working with Dusty 30 seconds. I don't know what, does he have any kind of work? Dusty Baker has been a proven manager

in this league and he's had success everywhere he's gone. So looking forward to working from him and learning with him and talking with him as the seasons go along. All right. I go with that. Winning a championship. Winning a championship is going to be on the front. Thank you. Wrong one.

This is easy. I couldn't be happier to be working with Dusty. I mean, he's a legend in the game. And I'm looking forward to learning as much as I possibly can from him as quickly as possible. I do think disagreements are healthy. I don't think you learn anything from talking to people and having conversations with people who see the world the same way you do, who have walked the same paths that you have walked.

And so that's something that's really exciting to me to be up close and to work that closely with a guy like Dusty. One star. We have some breaking news. We'll get it to you next 1213 on the Matt Thomas show. Is it what is it involving? Um, ask the Astros. Ask the Astros?

No, no, the Astros. Oh, the Astros. I just, I misspoke. Breaking news on the Astros after I tell you about the Shell Federal Credit Union. Is it really good, juicy stuff? It's not that juicy. Okay, but it's still breaking news, right? Yes.

That's what I like to hear. Don't leave Matt Thomas in your car. Take him with you. Download the free IHeartRadio app for your phone at Sports790.com. Just remember you'll have to feel. feed him. All right, play that breaking news sounder 1219. There's a couple of breaking news sounders

revolving. All right. So go ahead and fire away. Well, the Astros have unveiled their 2020 season slogan. It, of course, was let's see, it was earn it for the championship year.

Then never settle in 2018. And then last year was... Baby come back. Well, no, it wasn't players... We got back? It wasn't, no. Sir Mixelot was not involved. It was Take It Back.

Okay. This year, it will be for the H. And they released a video that talks about, I mean, basically for the city and all that. We play for the H is basically what it's going to be. Houston is the city we love. A city of heart. Resolve determination. A city we invite as we suit up and step up.

and step on the field each day. We play for the H on our caps. For the legacy, we will build together. We play for our city. Our home for the H. Well, there you go, Matt. For the H. As you like to say, first blush.

And now you have me saying that now. Just FYI. You're not the only one. First blush, Matthew. I'm indifferent to it. Indifferent. I don't get into team slogans. You're not going to hashtag it all season?

Anytime you say Astros? No, I don't hashtag any slogans. Curious decision there from Dusty Baker to pull Roberto Osuna, hashtag for the H. Great win tonight over the Tampa Bay race. Must feel good for James Glick, hashtag for the H. Yeah, I don't, I'm not happy, sad. I've never heard a phrase it went, that's amazing. It should be the number one thing that these teams should do is just have really good fight songs.

Like the Astros, the electro piano song? Go Go Astros is amazing. I love that song. The Rockets don't have a fight song. Why not? Is it, is it Hakeem Olajian ones Unbeatable? Oh, un-dunbeatable. You know what I think of, when I think of the Houston Rockets, Dreamon.

You know that video they've played for years? the arena before games, all the highlights. When I hear Dream on on Aerosmith from Aerosmith, that's when I think of the fight song. It really isn't one. I think of Wump, there it is. Didn't they make a, like, a championship Rockets version of Wump, there it is? I don't know, but Channel 20 used to do theme songs when they used to carry the games. When you were a baby.

Hoop, there it is. With the Rockets in it? Yeah. Huh. Maybe if I heard it, I would remember it. but I remember Channel 20 would have little funny things like Rocketball is going to get you right out of your seat Rocket ball is going to get you right out of your seat

Rocket ball And they would do Astros baseball Who says it's only a game Why do they argue the umpire Here I'm singing corny ass 80 songs I don't know what's happening but I love it I just

This is the Rockets Is it the hoop there it is? Well, this sounds like the regular song. It says it's the Rockets Championship. Oh, there we go. It is? Rockets. Yes.

This is what I think of. I used to love this song. It's catchy. This used to get radio play. Yes. Yes. As a white guy, I can dance in this song. Look at me.

This was my jam. Like nine heroes. Ross. Man, this was my jam. Makes me feel because I wasn't nine men. Yeah. Okay.

So we got enough of that. So, yeah, I don't... I need to download that. That's a jam right there. Slogans don't do much for me. Okay. And I'm just not slogan person. Like, Chief's Kingdom does nothing for me.

It should look. I maintain it should be Chiefs' chiefdom, man. Well, of course, because you just wanted to bury that as much as you can. Yeah. Okay. The second thing that came out just a few minutes ago, that's funny. I say that, unfortunately, is there is a special night for the Astros in June. Yeah, that's right. June 24th will be Pride Night at Minamade Park. It's the first time the Astros have had Pride Night. And I think a lot of other teams have done so. Yes. And I know that the Pride community has been asking for that, and they're going to get it. Good. And another thing, all Astros giveaways this year will be for everybody who shows up.

So bobbleheads all that, not the first 10 that you don't have to camp out, all that stuff. Yeah. And that makes a lot of sense because think about the average bobblehead probably cost on the high end $5 to make. So you make 30,000 more at $150,000 total. Mm-hmm. And you're still selling all those tickets. Yeah. Yeah.

You don't get gouged in the secondary market. You don't want people leaving the stadium that spent money thinking they're going to go to a game to get a bobblehead and be because they were 10,000 one not to get the bobblehead. So, wise decision in their part. Everybody's getting a bobblehead. Somebody's telling me they hired Paul Wall for the slogan. Oh, he came up with it. Well, they didn't hire me and I came up with Crush City. Yeah, but they didn't make that their yearly slogan.

They made it in 2015. The damn sure did. It was their slogan, slogan. It was Academy selling Astro shirts, logoed shirts with the word Crush City. You were just going to hold this grudge, aren't you? I'm going to hold it for a while. Okay. And again, I want to.

teach all of you youngans that are listening to show. When you come up with a great idea, trademark it as soon as possible. Do not care about business relationships. Because they don't care about you. Rossi, I would be on an island if I would have trademarked crush city for the Astros.

I don't think that's accurate. It is accurate. It was wide open. I should have done it. You think you would have made millions. No, but I have thousands. I don't know about that. You and I would have gone on an next trip to Vegas. My treat. I don't know if you're, we don't even know that your trademark would have been, it might have been denied.

You're right, I don't. I guess I was trying to be nice, and nice guys finished last. So when you come up with something, trademark it as soon as possible and ask for forgiveness later. That's my creed from your friend Matt here on the radio show.

That's what it was. This guy's tweeting me, who there it is, was on a CD that was given out by the Chronicle after they won the championship. They used to play that on the radio too, though, in Houston. By the way, the official real good song of the Rockets

after Dreamon is the Yao Ming song. No. A couple of words. It's that terrible Euro championship, Euro club mix of the championship song. You don't like Yao Ming, Yaming, yaming, yaming, ming. No.

The words are too complicated. No, they're not. It's a catchy tune. It is a catchy tune. But it just reminds me of a dark era. All I think of when I think of the Yao Ming era is what could have been. When you hear Dreamon, do you think of the Rockets? No.

I do. For sure. I've only seen that day a hundred times. Oddly enough, I think of Wayne's World. No, I don't think of live, but she's nice. How old is live these days? She's got to be like in her 40s. Yeah, because if dad's like in his mid-70s, she's got to be 40-something.

She is 42. Good looking woman, too. Sure. That song, Dream On was made in 1973. And it still holds of this day, right? Yeah. If I put Dream On in the middle of a crowd, people are jamming to it, correct? 71, Stephen Tyler.

Sheesh. Still done okay for himself. All right. He looks like an old librarian. Here's the bit. James Click, we know nothing about. We don't know if he's going to be great at his job. Obviously, he comes from tremendous pedigree.

13, 14 years, whatever it is with the Tampa Bay race. He's obviously got a huge analytical mind. He went to Yale. He ain't no dummy. And the raise, as I was telling this to Andy earlier today, Ross, This is a organization that has to rely on homegrown talent Because the race just don't have a reputation For spending lots of money on free agents

So he'll fit right here Well, I mean the Astros spend more money in free agency Than the Rays ever have I mean, not big free agents Ray's payroll was about 50 million last year Yeah, I mean the Astros payroll is going to be bigger than the raise I just mean one of the things Like you said, homegrown

And paying guys and making trades But they go get guys that make a lot of money They get guys who make a lot of money, but I'm saying they haven't, what's the biggest free agent deal they've had since, like, Carlos Leap? In terms of just like, wow money? I'm talking about free agent, not trade.

Free agent, not trade. Well, let's go through them. Reddick's deal was okay, but not major. That's what I'm saying. Brantley? I mean, look, I don't even mean to be like, I'm not trying to argue or anything. I'm just saying they like to build from within,

like the raise, and I think that's one of the reasons he's here, because they know that the, the biggest pillar of the franchise is going to be the farm system. Because those guys allow you to make those, to make a Verlander trade, to make a Grinkey trade, all that type of stuff. So if you start with the base of talent and the farm system, everything else will fall into place. Yeah.

So that's the one difference between Tampa and Houston is that the Astros have shown a history of going after guys in the trade deadline. The race just don't want to inherit those kind of contracts. 1229. It is a Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 7.9. if you want to comment on the Astros direction, do you like the term for the H? I put a poll on Twitter. And what's a poll question?

So far, it's Astro. Well, I put Astros 2019 slogan for the H. Thumbs up, thumbs down. 2020. Oh, no, I put 20-19. Oh, way, I'm an idiot. Get erase that. Eh, we'll delete it.

It's too late. People are going to run on you. It's 2020, Ross. It's fine. I made a mistake. That's on me. You can't make mistakes. I put asterisk 20-20.

You put an asterisk and correct yourself? everything's good. Oh, no. It saves everything. Don't, don't know. We don't want to talk about an asterix ever. It's 51% thumbs up, 49% thumbs down,

which is surprising me. Well, what's the... I thought more people would be with it. With it. I don't know. All right. This is James Arden. It goes to hard,

three to shoot, jacks up a three hits. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Are you kidding? 1235 on the Matt Thomas show. Right now, all the media people

that say they were, work really hard. Are there eating lunch or all testing out the new foods at a minute made part. Oh, man. How can we didn't get to go to that? Because we're here during the show. Oh, we're grinding. Yeah, we might be getting...

What are the new items? We might be getting either the manager or the general manager in the next few minutes. Really? No guarantees. Okay. It's a possibility. We'll be getting James Click or Dusty Baker on. I can't...

I'd like to meet them both. I'm very excited about both of them. I'm very accustomed to AJ, very comfortable with Jeff, having doing shows with both of them over the years. It's going to be a little bit of a culture shock for sure. By the way, those of you playing at home, hashtag for the city is at U.H. Cougar Ben's basketball. Hashtag for the H is the Astros.

So please don't get that confused. And apparently the person who tweeted me that it was a Paul Wall, they were joking. So it wasn't involved. Thanks. Twitter can be cruel. I always figure that seems like something they would do, so it seemed legit. But we'll stop.

That was my bad for running with that. All right. I've decided that I need a slogan for this show. You do? Yeah. And I'm going to put it up there right now on Twitter. Oh, no. At SportsMT.

For SportsMT. Oh, gosh. At sports. Yeah, you would make it about yourself. Let's see how many likes I get. boy you'll see people be nice to Matt they're not Twitter's mean

Twitter is very For sports intee is that what this show is that Is that the station slogan? That's what you think it should be We're all just here for you Nick I don't want your contributions I know you're going to say something surly We'll get you a segment to spend

I'm actually really busy I'm cutting more James Click audio he just spoke a little more After the first conference Did he really? And is juicy? No he's talking about Dusty Baker I'm about to have that ready for you All right. Some more of what you're talking about for Ross?

Really confusing. All right. 713. 212. 5790. 8 takes a little girl for the curse. Wrong. No.

Wrong. I don't even know what she's talking about. I don't either because we haven't had a curse in a long time. This Clint Capella stuff has really gained legs in the last 24 hours. He's out right now. Not playing tonight. By the way, Russell Westbrook, doubtful with a sprained thumb. But it's the Charlotte Hornets.

So James is going to... Over under points for James. He's looked good the last couple of games. I'll set it at 45. I'll take the under because he's not going to play in the fourth quarter. Hopefully. Have you seen this year's Rockets team? Have you seen the Charlotte Hornets?

Have you seen the Rockets play down and up to their competition? I've seen every game. You're right. It hasn't been particularly awesome at times against some of the second tier opponents. And you're missing Clint and you're missing Russ. Here we go. Dwayne Bacon, Nicholas Batum. Bismack Bionbo, Miles Bridges, Devante Graham.

It's Willie, but really it's pronounced something different. It's Ernan Gomez. His brother plays in the league, too, but I don't think Willie is pronounced. What is he? W-E-Y-Y-Y-Y. Michael Kidd-Kid-Gil-R-E-E-E. Michael Kidd-Kid-E-L-K-E-L-L-Y. So is it, if it's spelled L-L-L-Y, is it W-E-E-E?

Now I can't make me look it up, aren't you? I can't, I don't want to get the... Herni-Gom-Gom-Z. Michael Kid Gilchrist, Caleb Martin, Cody Martin. Do me a favor. Throw a Spanish accent in there tonight when you read it up a P.A.

Go Arnand Gomez. No. How about this? Every time that Dwayne Bacon gets an assist, you say with a side of bacon. Ooh, I like that. I'm going to refrain. Now, Craig tonight,

here's the assignment we have. Nick, you need to listen to the Rockets game. Anytime Craig goes into any sort of bacon reference, we need to record it. And tomorrow on the show, we'll judge on the, cheesy scale how cheesy Craig's mentions of bacon are. Would that be fair to do?

Oh, here's a good one. Hashtag for Peach Basket. I like that. Oh, my God. That's getting a retweet. And it's not getting a retweet. Too late. So I'm going to unfollow you on Twitter.

You're getting close to 10,000 people on Twitter. I'm close as a relative term, as you would say. Dang it. All your little phrases I keep saying. I hate it. But yes, at Sports RV, we are now 595 away from 10,000. All right. We're going to have a party for sure.

Are we? Yeah. We're supposed to have a 10-year party. I know. Let's do this. Well, I asked if we're going to have a 10-year party, but the sales party are like, we don't really care, Matt.

You're frankly lucky to be employed. We're not going to give you a party. Thanks, third floor. Love you. I mean it. James Click, just moments ago, telling us something I think we already knew. Dusty Baker is a legend.

The fact of the matter is that Dusty has a reputation, a well-deserved reputation, as just a tremendous communicator and a tremendous human being. And from everything that I know about him and from everything that I've talked to him about so far, it's lived up to the building. He's a legend and well-deserved legend. And I think I'm the one who, you know, is going to have to try to keep up. So just I think it'll be easy.

I mean, Dusty's just, there's not enough good things you can say about Dusty and just, you know, really looking forward to it. And you know the honest answer to that is, the response to that is because he knows that Dusty is going to help improve the image of the Astros organization. I don't think you could possibly argue that. No. I think part of the hire is to repair or fix or try to cut off any of the Astros are the most unlikable team in baseball. You can't be the most unlikable team in baseball with the nicest person running a baseball team. He's out there pruning grapes. But he's just, he has, it would take you.

months to final Google search. Dusty Baker treated me poorly. Dusty Baker didn't grant me an interview. Does Mark Pryor have a blog? That's true. By the way, Willie Hernan Gomez is Billy. It's pronounced Billy. It's B-I-L-L-Y. How would you phonetically pronounce that? Say again? B-I-L-L-Dash-Y. Billy. Yeah. Billy. So there you go. So Willie is Billy.

Billy. All right, but that's what you're going to drop on us tonight, right? Renan Gomez. I'll say Aaron and Gomez, for sure. No, because you try to do it. You know how they always say, like on the local news? I'm Daniela Guzman with Local 13. And we make fun of that.

Right. I think I want you to do that. No. You don't want to be made fun of it? No, I get that daily between 12 and 3. Why do you just tweet out? Why do you just tweet out for SportsMT then? Because that's what the station logo should be.

No, it should be more fun of it. If you go the exact opposite way and go, Hernan Gomez. Just completely butcher his name? Yeah. Then the PR director's come over and say. Another good one. Hashtag for Fancy Matt. I like that.

I don't get it. Not at all. Craig Bizjo here. The heart of the order is up right now. Matt Thomas is swinging for the fences here on Sports Talk 790. We got logo. We got slogan hell right now. Is that what it's called?

Slogan gate? Not a good start. I don't know if the Astros didn't check with the roughnecks or they just don't care about the roughnecks or no one knew about the roughnecks. But their slogan on their Twitter account, which I didn't even realize they had one, was hashtag for the H. Yeah, and they started it on January 29th, it looks like. So they got like a seven-day head start. So we have two teams in our city that are hashtag for the age. What's wrong with that?

We can all be for the H, Matt. I think we need the rough-next comment on this. Maybe they're working together with the same slogan. You never know. I don't believe it to be accurate at all. What does June Jones have to say about this? Like, could you imagine if, what is McDonald's? Oh, if Berg-King said I'm loving it?

Fossued instantly. Yeah, that would be, that's a different. Yikes. All right. getting worried. We're going to get James Click to join us in 20 minutes or so. Wonderful. So be ready for that.

Coming up here on the mat. You're going to ask him about 4 the H? No, I'm not. I don't, I want him to be for the general manager. That's what my goal is for him to be for the draft picks starting the third round. For the key July 31st trade acquisition. Ross, how'd this happen? So we got for the city, for the age, for sports MT.

No, no, for sports MT. It's growing. No, it's not. It is. How many likes you got? Let me take a look. See, that's why I told you, the slogan bit's terrible. I got seven likes.

13 minutes. That's one every minute and a half. Yeah, I see eight. But it's not taking off. No. Taking off would be if you had like 50 by now. I know. It's amazing that both of these organizations came up with the same horrible slogan.

Why is it horrible? I don't like it. That says you don't like anything. Here come the heroin jokes. No. Nobody's saying for the H. No. No, nobody's saying take the H.

And no one's saying inject the H into my veins? Just you wait. Thankfully, this phrase wasn't using Dallas. No. I hope none of these players are getting trouble for drugs. Could you imagine the Mavericks said for the D? That would be funny. That would be good.

I don't see Dallas or Detroit or Denver. using these phrases. Thank God. That would get really uncomfortable. Mavericks basketball for the D. Or Fresno? Yeah, I think we're pretty much tapped out. Frisco?

No, I think I'm good with Dallas. You're extending it now. Oh, my goodness. 713-212-570. What an interesting day. The general manager gets announced. We'll have him here coming up shortly. We have Adam Clinton being confused with the new general manager James Flick.

Have we ever seen them both in the same place? Well, they may have been together at the press conference. You never know. Did Adam Clanton secretly go to Yale? You heard him. He sounds like Sam Houston, right? What does that mean? He's educated from the Harvard of I-45 and the Huntsville, Lexington.

Okay. The Harvard of Huntsville. The Harvard of North of our listening area. very north very north oh seriously the rough necks need to respond to this right can somebody from the roughnecks who may be listening

respond to the for that's our age not yours you can't have it meanwhile the asterers are like what are you again you're going to be going and win I seriously I can't believe again that two different sports organizations at the same time would use the same slogan

you know what I what do you do seriously If you want a trademark something, don't you have to run it through a bunch of different little things? Yeah, you got to go to the trademark. You got to file a trademark and then... But wouldn't you, if you were going to go with a slogan, wouldn't you want to go hashtag it and find out where else it's been used? No, yeah. If it's been used, I think that would be in the trademark.

Like, they have archives. But I'm talking about it, forgetting about trademarks, just if you're going to find a crutch phase for a particular season, wouldn't you want to find out when the last time it was used? I mean, maybe the Astros have had this. They probably had these wheels set in motion for weeks. Yeah. You would think because they have to come up with graphics and all this. other stuff. Dang. Yeah, somebody's tweeting out in Houston Roughneck

week. It's a hashtag for the age. These are the things we learn about here on a slow sports day. Although again, we're going to visit with the new general manager coming up in a few minutes, so it should be very good. Wonderful. 713-212-5-7-9. Let's go to Jake and Paralant on the Matt Thomas show. Jake, what do you got today?

Hey, so I know you're talking about for the age, and I'm actually Aggie, you know, a Tex-A&M, Maggie. I'm a lot and proud. But I thought a funny one would be for the CS. And that can kind of, you can kind of fill in your own blanks there. All right. We'll do that. You want to go ahead and fill those blanks? I got it. No. I got another neither.

So he's an Aggie. Is it for the CS? I mean, CS has a few different connotation you can certainly go with. Notably one college station. Mm-hmm. And I'm stuck after that. Counter strike? Yeah, it's good. We're good. We're good. Well, honestly, the Texans would be for Cal. No, no, that's not true. For Bill O'Brien. For the Bob.

For Bob. Because he runs everything now. General manager, coach, play caller, personnel manager. Capologist. Capologist. Timeout coordinator. Yeesh. Challenge coordinator.

That's, yeah, the Texans for Bob. For Bill? For Bill? For the bill? For any of them, yeah. For the O'Brien? Rockets would be for James, right? I guess so.

Russ has taken over a much greater... Well, they already hashtag one mission. That's true. They've already got theirs locked in. Did the Texans have a phrase? The one mission is, of course, to make a trade deadline deal. Oh, you know what the Texans is? Isn't it...

It's you suck too. It's you suck too. I was not repaired for that. You suck too Texans 2020 You suck too I like that That's why I told you Ross

These hashtags are just way out of control How about just go out there and play and win games for our team For the H Do it for the H Yes No matter what age Which what team you're rooting for Maybe for Ruffinx or for Humble

For the Humble Or Huntsville Or Huntsville Or Huntsville Haletsville, if you really want to go way on southern city limits. All right. One hour of Marconi in the books. Two more to go here on the Matt Thomas show.

713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. If you want to reach out via Twitter, you can do so at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Pro Nick Lowe. We've got the general manager of the Astros to join us here in a few minutes. Wonderful. Plus, should the other general manager in town, meaning Derrimori, really move Clint Capella?

I mean, is there a case on both sides of it? I think there probably is. We'll discuss that in a mere moment. Is the Matt Thomas show. All right. A nice surprise to the radio show right now. The brand new manager of the Houston Astros with us here on Your Home of the Astros. It is a Dusty Baker with us on the show.

Skip, it's Matt and Ross. It is a pleasure to have you in Houston, Texas. Welcome. How has your experience been in this few days you've been in our city? No, it's been great. You know, I've been coming here for years and I know a lot of people here, have relatives here, have got children here, and nephews. And so this is sort of like, you know, coming back to a second home that I never dreamed

that would be my home. So this is quite an experience. I mean, this town has certainly, certainly grown since I first came here in 1970 or 71. So this is a big town. Now, it's always been a great sports town, but I'm looking forward to, you know, to being here every day. Do me a favor. Make sure my good friend Enis Cabell doesn't make you buy a meal while you're in town. Is that fair? Why, man, Enis don't like to pay. Well, you said it not me. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you, Skip. Did someone prod you to go kick the tires in the Astros job or when you found out the situation that happened? You're like, you know what? I should throw a phone call to somebody to see if they're interested in me.

No, I didn't I didn't I didn't call anyone and you know like I said earlier it's always nice to be wanted you know like actually you know they called me and uh um out of the blue is just kind of surprised me because I thought that my my Phillies interview was my last interview period and so I gave way all my equipment I gave way everything you know when I left Washington and then when I got to Philly I was I was very disappointing because I thought I interviewed well. But hey, man, this guy opened up. And, you know, here I am. I mean, I'd have never, never, ever guessed if this job would have come open

and especially the way it did. Because, you know, I really like AJ Hinch and all the guys on the team here. So it was a situation kind of, you know, it was destined to be. So you just accepted and I've learned to not fight, you know, destiny sometimes. I'm so happy to talk baseball with you. so let's get right to it forgetting about all other stuff that's happened in the past. I think one of the things that we're most curious about is the back end of your starting rotation.

What notes have you taken so far? What have you thought about? And can a guy like maybe even a Forrest Whitley who has been on the radar do enough to impress you to put you in that every fifth day opportunity? Well, I've got to see him first. And I've got to talk to Brent Strong, who I've spoken to yet. Because that backside of your rotation is big. I mean, the better they are, the lesser bullpen has to. pitch and the less pressure you're going to put at the top of your your rotation.

So I got to talk to Brent Strom. I got to set eyes on these guys. I mean, you can watch video or you want to do, but you got to look in their eyes. You got to see, you know, what their endurance levels might be like. And so it's going to be a very interesting spring. It's going to be an information gathering spring. And then, you know, we'll sit down and get it together because all the decisions aren't mine because I don't know everybody. And so what you see off one guy in March, this guy might be totally different, you know, come, come April or May, you know, when you're in a championship season.

So I got to find out, you know, who's a fast starter, who's a slow starter, you know, who should you give, you know, more rope and leniency to, and which guy you've got to give them the quick hook. So, you know, that all remains to be seeing. I know everybody wants answers, but, you know, I don't have all the answers that everybody wants me to answer at this point. Astros manager, Dusty Baker here on the Matt Thomas show. And Dusty, what is this situation been like? You said, you've got to go through all these players. You don't know everybody. Obviously, this is a very unique situation.

So, I mean, are you just, I don't want to say your head's spinning, but I mean, what has this been like for you with everything moving so quickly? And now, James, Click, your general manager. Well, it is. It's been a little bit. I mean, I'm telling you, it's been kind of a whirlwind. you know, I hadn't planned on, you know, cleaning my garage or, you know, doing the stuff around the house, you know, and packing, because, like, I'd gotten out of the knack of packing, but good thing I kept all those suitcase. Did you check the dogs for the ticks?

Huh? Did you check the dogs for the ticks? No, my wife, she got mad. Okay, good. He goes, my dog doesn't have ticks, you know what I mean? And she treats me those dogs very, treats me sometimes, but that's okay. And, but, you know, there's a lot to do. I mean, when you're leaving for seven months that you hadn't planned on it,

and you got two weeks to go, I mean, there are things that you have to do. You know, I got a couple businesses that I had opened while I was out of game, one of a wine business, one of energy business. And so I had to make sure that that's all taking care of, you know, kiss my grandbaby, and I'm going to do this Sunday, see my son and my daughter and just, you know, general stuff that you got to do in life. So, you know, I'm excited. You know, everybody I talk to is excited, you know, for me and pulling.

You got a lot of Astro fans that you didn't have before. At least they're telling me that. So, you know, we'll see, you know, once we get there. You have managed just shy of 3,500 games. And I wouldn't say a handful, but obviously the majority of them as a nationally manager. What challenges do you think you'll have? it will be different in some sense because it'll be the first time

that you're managing an American League team? Well, on an everyday basis. You know, like we've done Interleague, you know, many, many years. But, you know, there are a few things. You know, like if you take the DH out, the pitcher has to go on that spot. And this year is a little different

because, you know, we're going to have 26 men instead of 25. And also, you know, some of the rule changes, I think. I got to study up on the rules again. little changes as far as a pitcher has to face, you know, three batters unless it's, uh, he gets out of the inning or something like that. But I'm going to rely on Brent Strom and rely on,

on Joe Espada that's, you know, you know, to keep me to speed on things. And like I said, I've, I like to study myself. So, you know, we'll see. I always wanted to manage in the American League toward end of my career to tell you the truth. and a few years ago, I was trying to get to Seattle, you know what I mean? Because that was one of my favorite spots. And so now I'm going into Seattle on another team. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing some of the America League.

America League has some great players in it. You know, I don't know them all, but, you know, I'm curious and interested to see them and beat him. Last question for you, Skip. You've had Justin Verlander and Zach Granky be major pains in your rear end during your managerial career. Now they're in your side. How surreal is that for you right now? Oh, my God, I'm telling you. I hate to see them on the other side. You know what I mean?

But now, now we're all on the same side. And I'm telling you, I mean, these guys are amongst two premier pitchers in the league. Well, athletes. I mean, these guys are good athletes. And, you know, that's what I like. I like to be around, you know, good ball players, athletes, whether

pitchers, or whatever, guys that I know want to win and guys that do everything they can to beat you. Well, we're coming down to Florida in a couple weeks. We look forward to meeting with you face-to-face. We've heard nothing but amazing things. Been a big fan of yours from a distance for a long time, and we're glad that you were in Astros gear.

Thank you for spending some time with us this afternoon. All right, guys. See you later. Take care of yourself. Dusty Baker, the manager of the Houston Astros. Let's go! Houston's official sports cliche translator. I'm working hard.

I'm trying to be a good teammate. I'm trying to go out here every day and do my job. Matt Thomas. Taking it one day at a time. 116. Good afternoon. It is the Matt Thomas show. Thanks again for Dusty Baker for joining us. 713212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. If you'd like to get in the conversation, thanks again to Dusty Baker. Good beginning the new general manager. What's his name, Ross? James. James Click. What is that name from? The Click. Click. I don't know of a number.

human being with the last name of Click in my life. Do you, I mean, where is that from? What do you say it is, Nick? Just guessing. I don't know. That isn't a weird name. I don't think I know anyone named Click either. Yeah, I bet he had remote control jokes thrown on him all the time as a kid.

It derives from the piece of land in the parish of Irmington near Plymouth. Or does it? in New South Wales Wait is that Wait is that Australian No Wales would be in England correct And New South Wales is in

Australia We won't ask him that if he joined the show Okay Click ironically enough was I think a very underrated Adam Sandler movie Irmington is in England of course It has variant spelling such as clique clique

like a leak it's fine you've lost the audience you don't want to know more about the surname click no I just was curious where he's from that's it

well it's an English name okay I don't know where he's from Tampa Bay yeah he's from Yale he went to Yale well I mean he's been in Tampa Bay for the last 15 some odd years I think we keep adding years

to his 10 he's from there he was back there since the 70s when the race weren't even around that's how long James Click's been in Tampa Let's go to the phones. Larry and Galveston on the Matt Thomas show at 118. Larry, how are you, sir? MT, I'm doing great.

I'll tell you what. G-Town is all clattered over today, but there's got to be sunshine someplace in the world. I have a very, very important question to ask you. Sure. I have a hat, a solid orange, Astros hat that is autographed by not only Mike Fires, but Alex Cora. If you have that hat, what would you do with it right now?

Because I find it very hard to ever think that I will ever think about wearing that hat once again in my life. All right. I have some very important questions for you. Go ahead. This is an orange cap. Does it have just their two names on it? Yes.

Nobody else's. Nobody else's. How did you get Mike Fires and Alex Cora on the same hat? I was standing down at the third baseline one day and both the guys walked by there on their way to the first base dugout, and they both signed it. Okay. Would you like to donate it to this radio station? I would love to.

Okay. Because I'm not looking to make any money on it. I just think it would be an amazing spectacle. We would put it in like a glass case, and then I don't know what we would do with it after. Any gentlemen, do you have any ideas? I mean, the easy thing would be to, burn it, but we're not going to do that. We're not burning anything. That's just stupid. Burning things are dumb. Auctioning it off to New York Yankees fans for charity.

I feel like, Larry, again, if you're being genuine with me and you're not lying to me, I don't think you have. You ever have a No, I'm serious as a heart as yet. I mean, my tires and Alex Cora both autographed his hat and I'll be damn if I'm, have you gone? Have you worn it since then? Have you warned it since then? Have you warned it since then? No. Doesn't have any sweat stains on or anything? Ooh. Well, it's being truthful.

Well, no, other than the ones that were, you know, on it before, you know, fires was the whistleblower on the Astros. Okay. All right. Well, Larry, we're going to have to talk about this. I want you to hold out of the hat for me. We know where to find you. And once we think of a great way to do something with this hat,

we're going to do something with the hat. And we will give you all the credit you so richly deserve. Great. And please call me and I'll jump right in there and help out any way that I can. We'll figure it out. Okay. Now you've given us a good puzzle. Thank you very much.

I love puzzles. Because what do we do with this hat? If indeed he's telling the truth, which again, Larry's been calling the show for years. So I don't think that he never not told us the truth. Do we try to sell the hat? I don't think anybody in Houston, Minnesota, would want it, right? Yeah, what are you going to do with that? But it is very interesting that of the people on the hat,

the two people that are most responsible for the Astros in 2017, it would be almost like, but do people in New York or Los Angeles want it? No, it doesn't do them any good. Who would be the person that would want that hat, and what would they do with it? Mike Fires? You think I should reach out of the A's and see if Mike Fires wants a hat with his name on it? Hmm

Here's the thing If we auction it off here in Houston We can get a couple hundred bucks For it You think so? Yeah, Oh, for sure.

Easy. And then someone would burn it right away. Well, how can we verify the signatures? I need it Does it have authentication? Sticker has it been authenticated?

My guess is Larry was down Section 115 In the 15th row screaming Mike, can you sign my hat please? And whoever you are, Alex, Cora? Sure.

Yeah, you sign it. Yeah, whoever gets an autograph from a bench coach She goes, man, I'm so happy I got this. Well, little that you know, he'd want to be the manager of the Red Sox. And such a big part of the 2017 team, too. See, that's a problem, Larry, and tell others,

I don't think we'd want to, we would do much with the hat, except because, again, whoever bought it from us is probably just going to light it up, and that's not the purpose of doing the hat. Could we get A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luno to come sign it? That's, again, segment suspension. Too, too soon. And Carlos Beltran? That's all you want.

So you're telling me, anybody that's involved with this needs to sign the hat. Anybody named in Rob Manfred's report? She wanted to text, Jeff. Hey, Jeff, I haven't talked to you in a few months. Sorry about the situation. By the way, we got this hat that needs your signature. Do you mind? That's not going to go well, gentlemen. The best thing he would do is not respond to my text. The worst thing, and he probably dropped several swear words on me. I don't think he would. Oh, my God. Yes, he would. Anybody would. It's definitely worth a try if we record it. So you're always looking for the radio bit angle of it. I see how you go on that. Okay, so my buddy Larry, just hang on to it there.

We'll figure out something appropriate to do with it. But I don't want it burned because I don't want anything Astros. I don't want anything burned, period. I think Bernie, Rossi, burning jerseys is the weakest take out there. I think most people in 2020 aren't burning jerseys. Oh, every year somebody's jersey is being burned. LeBron's jersey got burned in Cleveland. Kevin Durant, Jersey's got burned in Golden State.

Did they? Oh, no. Go Google. Go Google it. Go to the Google. The Google doesn't let you down. Burn Kevin Durand, Jersey. Why would you do that?

Because everybody likes to burn things. Hell, Ross, when teams won national championship, cities turn cars over. Okay, C fans. Are you talking about Golden State? Maybe his Oklahoma City fans. Yeah, they were definitely burning his jersey. And they boo him still to this day, right? Sure. That's unfortunate.

Has there ever been an Astros or any Houston players jersey ever burned here? Hmm. Scotty Pippin? No, probably not. Probably. I mean, who played for the teams that has hated in the city? Let's say hello to the brand new general manager. This has to sound really good.

The brand new general manager of the Houston Astros. James Click with us here on the Matt Thomas show. James, it is Matt and Ross. First of all, congratulations. Secondly, welcome to Houston. You've been here, obviously, many, many times. Third, I have to ask you to open up our conversation. When this job came open, you went to your bride and said, hey, we've lived in Tampa all these years.

What do you think about me kicking the tires about going to Houston? What was her initial reaction? To be honest, we didn't know that much about the town. I've been here a few times with the team. We came here during the playoffs in 2019, but coming on a baseball trip isn't really a good measure for what the town's really like. And I mean, her reaction was curiosity and excitement, but the more that we learned about the town, the more excited that we got about the culture and the diversity and everything the town has to offer. I'm always curious about what kind of questions are being asked in high-level baseball or sports organization meetings.

Obviously, they want to know your approach and how to build an organization. How fast did you have to learn the Astros modeling system, or did you have a really good grasp of it even before this job came open? Well, I had a grasp of it just because we have to keep tabs on the other 29 teams and have a feel for all the players and the assets that they have. But there's no substitute for being up close and talking to the coaches that are with these guys every day and talking to the front office staff that drafted them and developed them. So I have an outsider's grasp on it, but there's no substitute for the insider's grasp. All right. So you find out you get the job. when you took the flight over here,

maybe you've had a chance of laying in your hotel room. What's the very first thing you want to address beyond just trying to put together the 25-man roster to start the season, or is it really everything just about that right now?

Well, and I'm having trouble with this, too, but it's a 26-man. 26, I was just about to say. It's 26 now. It's really strange. Yeah. One extra decision. No, no, no.

I'm having trouble with it, too. I say 25 all the time. The job on day one is going to be the job on the last day, which is trying to put this organization in the position to win as many championships as possible. You know, what that looks like specifically, it's going to be a lot of communication, a lot of help from the staff that's already here. The staff that I've met have all been tremendous. I've been really, really impressed with the group that they have, and I'm going to be leaning hard on them, and I've told them as much, because they're the

experts. They know this organization inside and out, and I don't. Now, there's benefits to that outside perspective that I can bring, but, you know, day one, it's going to be, you know, just a lot of conversations with Dusty and the rest of the staff here and trying to get a handle on, you know, what they see and what they think needs to be done. Astros, GM, James Click here on the Matt Thomas show. And James, of course, when you heard about this job and coming here, obviously with everything that happened,

one of the things to factor in is the draft picks that have been taken away by Commissioner or Manfred, did that cross your mind at all? Did that matter at all or factor in? Or is it you're thinking more of the long term when you talked about becoming the Astros GM? Well, of course, it crosses your mind. I mean, every aspect of an organization has to cross your mind when you're considering taking a position like this. But that said, you know, the baseball draft is honestly famous for having, you know, players from the third, fourth, eighth, 31st, you know, rounds. Even guys you don't even get drafted at all, you know, can contribute at the major league level.

And so while it's definitely a challenge not having a first or second round pick the next two years, if we have the right processes in place and if we go out there and identify the talent and we line up the board properly, I think we have a chance to add a lot of really valuable talent to the organization, just like every other organization does when they do it right. And, you know, there's a reason the draft is 40 rounds and not two rounds. So we'll use the 38 picks that we have to grab as much talent as we can. James Clerk, General Manager of the Houston Astros with us here on the Matt Thomas show. James, we are always – have been accustomed in the last couple of years covering the team in spring training

that there has always been a nice big contract announcement, whether it be JV, whether it be about Jose Al-Tube. How much will George be on the mind for you and for Jim over the next month or so? Well, I guess I'd have a question for you. I mean, does Dusty and me sign in count as a big contract? contract announcement or... Let me tell you something, James. I've done my due diligence on you. You're a big time hire, my friend.

I'm not going to get around. I mean, you left, let me tell you, you know what you left? You left horrible highways in Tampa, St. Petersburg. You left the great... What's the name of the convenience store that has a good sub-samblunches? You left that. For Tex-Mex here in Houston, Texas, you're already making the right decision. I appreciate that.

No, I am really excited about it. and the new opportunities. You know, with regards to the previous question, you know, that's something that I would want to talk to the staff about. I mean, when you, you know, enter into a long-term contract with the player, it's not just about the performance on the field, it's about the player off the field. And, you know, I've heard good things about the players, but would want to do my due diligence before, you know,

entering into any sort of negotiation with them for those reasons. have you in your mind created a structure how you want the baseball operations will they be moving pieces around that we will know not know about will it be subtle will they be massive how have you in your mind as you created your own department you now have how will that be configured do you think that depends on the staff that you have in place uh you know obviously at the raise we've done things one way and and you know but that's as much a reflection of the the personnel that you have there I wouldn't want to bring that exact structure to the Astros because it's entirely predicated on the people and their ability to do those jobs. And so, you know, for me, it's going to be a lot of listening and learning and talking to the incredible staff that we have here already and getting a feel for what they want to do and what they're capable of and what they're energized by and then trying to arrange the department and give them the support that they need to be as good at their job.

as they possibly can be. James, one of the things that Tampa Bay has been known for is the opening pitcher, and that hasn't really been something that's done here. And obviously, going to Justin Verlander and said, hey, you're going to have an opener today. That's probably not going to fly. But have you thought about that strategy and possibly using it here? And also, can you help me?

I think it should be, after the opener, you should call it the headliner instead of the primary pitcher. You know, somebody is going to come up with the right name for all these different pitching roles that people are coming up with, but it's not me. That's not my strength is those kind of things. But, you know, the strategy itself was born out of necessity. You know, at the point where we started doing it in Tampa, we had, you know, one or at times zero true starting pitchers on the roster. We had just been decimated by injuries.

And so, you know, it was a reaction to that. It was never a goal. The goal is to get five starters that can go out there and, you know, that can get the 27 outs or, you know, as many of them as they can. The goal in the game is get those 27 outs as efficiently and effectively as possible. And, you know, with the staff that we have here, I think that, you know, that we could do that more traditionally. But it's also a situation where as the roster changes and as people's roles change and as events come up, you know, injuries and the, like, I would hope that we would be open to trying different things and seeing if we can get those 27 ounces as effectively as possible.

Final question. What do you take away from your time from the raise? We were talking about how the history isn't there of spending big time on a free agency. Is it really good drafting? Is it staying with minor league prospects? Is it, I mean, what would be the one thing that you would like to bring over from your days in the raise to say, hey, I think we've done it pretty well this way, and we can certainly add it to a team that isn't afraid to spend money when necessary?

It's the culture more than anything. But that feeds back into all the successes that the raise have had over the years. But if you are going to ask people to take risks, if you're going to ask them to innovate, if you're going to ask them to do things differently, you have to create a culture where they know that you have their back and they know that the organization has their back. And that's what I'm hoping to bring here to Houston is to create a culture where every employee knows that they are valued. And when you create that, that's when the magic happens of people coming up with good ideas.

And they're not afraid to speak out and say, you know, I think this is something that we could try. It could help us win a few more ball games. And if you do that in scouting and player development and every other aspect of baseball operations, that's when you can really fire on all cylinders. And then championships come. And that's the goal. All right. Nobody in Tampa's listening.

So tell me how much are you going to miss the trap? you know it's going to be a weird experience going back to the drop in April and walking past the home clubhouse and having to go down there to say hi to guy Gallagher and his crew in the visiting clubhouse. I know that trap gets a bad rap from a lot of people, but I've really grown to love it. There's something about that place. I mean, we saw it in the playoffs when it gets rocking. It's a lot of fun. And, you know, I know that they've talked about wanting to do something different there. but to me there's always going to be something special about that.

Yeah, having Carver the series last year, my first trip to St. Petersburg for that, I will say, it got noisy, it was a lot more intimate, it wasn't as bad as it portrayed on television. I just think you're getting a nice upgrade here at Minute Maid Park. James, it is a pleasure to have you on our city. Congratulations on the new job experience. We look forward to getting to know you a little bit when we get to spring training in a couple weeks.

Awesome. Sounds good. Thank you. You got it. James click joining us. The new general manager of the Houston Astros. So it gets Dusty and James. Really nice to have both those gentlemen join us. here for a short period of time on Sports Talk 790. 135 is our time.

Hearing from these two gentlemen kind of helps show a little bit today. Yeah. Good stuff from both of them. Good stuff. Really? Can I say I like him a lot? I do. Is it okay? You can. Because I do too. Because I'm a big AJ guy. I'm a big Jeff guy. But I like those guys. And again, not five minute interview is going to make me change in my opinion ultimately of what

they're going to do. It's all about the results in the field. And one guy hired all of them. So, I mean, credit to Jim Crane, I think. And took his time with it, too. He did not rush to get, especially the manager when he had like eight or nine different candidates. Any comments you're welcome to it. Seven-13212-5-790. Cougars coach Kelvin Sapson here. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talks 790. If any of you miss the conversations with Dusty Baker and with the James

Click, the new general manager of the Astros, we're going to play them back-to-back at 2.30 this afternoon. Not the whole things, but just a little snippets of both. So it gives you a little feel of it. I mean, again, First impressions are only worth so much, but I loved them both. I think you can tell a lot about a person in the first impression, Matt. What do you think of the first impression? Except me. I think I make horrible first impressions. Yeah, when I thought, God, this Ross guy, he seems eager.

He's a guy that's timely, always one step ahead of the game, and then I've worked with you for the last 10 years. But I've exceeded all expectations. Yeah, my first impression of Nick was snarky. Yeah. Ill time comments, borderline rooted times, and that pretty much hit. Yeah, okay. That was accurate. Yeah.

All right. 713, 2125, 790. So if you had missed either one of those, first of all, shame on you. Second, we're going to play them between 230 and 245 today here on Sports Talk 790. Let's get to the Rockets for a little bit. They take on the Charlotte Hornets tonight. Clint Capella is not going to play. Russell Westbrook has an injured thumb and is doubtful for the game tonight.

James got his mojo. back the last couple of games, Sports Harvey. Yes, he has. Three's falling for him. I've had probably no less than 50 people ask me, do you like this short lineup? The answer to me is no. I mean, it's okay for a short term, but I'm not thinking the NBA championship is going to be won with a lineup that's got players 6-6 and less playing major minutes.

If they're going to move Capella, they've got to, either they're going to give Hartenstein the real true chest and playing and being an average NBA center with Tyson, with Tyson, and Chan are backing him up, or they're going to have to get a center in return. Yeah. Because you're going to wear out PJ playing the five. He's playing too many minutes as it is at the four slash five to give him the starting five spot in Daniel House. I mean, granted, he's a tallest player in that group at 6'6, but he's got no muscle to push guys around.

So, no, short term, it's been cool. Long term, like deep playoff run, good teams, Lakers, clippers, Knuggets. Portland, if they get in the playoffs. Who doesn't have a team that was at least a competent center that you wouldn't have to worry about? Porzingis at 7-2 is going to cause some problems. Yeah, he was causing problems when the Mavericks were playing them in the shoreline. He was shooting over PJ Tucker like he was like it was a dad in the driveway. Yeah, there isn't.

He wasn't jumping. He was just putting in like five-foot shots. I don't know of a team in the Western Conference, or for that matter, two teams in the Western Conference, and you could play in back-to-back series and go, okay, this really super small lineup is going to be good. Now, it does stretch people out. If you saw in the game against Utah Jazz, Rudy Gobert is not nearly as effective as he crosses the painted area past the free throw line, but that's only going to happen a certain period of time. So there really isn't anybody in the West that you could say, okay, I can see the

Rockets taking the title path to the Western Conference Championship without at least some sort of low post threat. And that's the reason why, again, I think this is just a very short-term fix. Lakers certainly owned the Rockets with Clint Capel last time. Clippers have two different low-post guys. Denver's got Yokic, Utah's got Gobert, Dallas has Porzingis. Stephen Adams is being talked about in potential trade conversations. Isn't it funny how all these centers are the talk of this year's trade season? I like Stephen Adams a lot. I do too. I do too. I do too. And again, between Memphis and Portland, I don't think it really matters.

Although I think Portland's probably better than Memphis. White side. And then if Yerich comes back, that could be a problem a little bit there too. But yeah, short term, sure. Long term, I'm not buying it. By the way, Rockets a game out of the fourth spot currently owned by Utah. The Jazz, after winning like 15 to 16, playing nothing but Atlanta's and Charlottes and Charlottes and Washington's have dropped four consecutive games.

They have come back down to Earth a little bit. The Rockets ruined them. So let me ask you this, in all seriousness, do you want support choice? Would you be devastated if Clinica Pella finds himself with another basketball team? I think not to cop out, but what are we getting him back? What's coming back? If you're getting a competent wing player and a competent center, then yes.

All right, let me just give you just, what if I got you back, Robert Covington in some center I can't name right now? Covington being the key piece to it. If it's, if the center is, I mean, we're just thinking out, if it's a center who can, I mean, play a little bit of defense and rebound and make alley-ups. If I give you the center of Willie Colley Stein's talent, love. And that's just a, that's just a name. But I mean, it would be no upper echelon center. It would be just basically about it.

Yeah, you're not going to get two all-star level players out of one Clint Capella, I don't think. Right. I think I'd be okay with it because I think they do they do need some defensive help this I mean this mishmash of Ben McLemore Daniel House Austin Rivers etc I think somebody like a Robert

Robert Covington who I think is more talented than that group I think would be a nice addition Do you know what I really want and I don't know how this comes out I want a younger JJ Redick or a younger Kyle Corver I want a Oh my God you left him open, that team's defense are going to pay for that.

I'll go for a younger Trevor Reza type. You don't even have to shoot 40%. A little bit of defense. Yeah. Because I mean, I don't want Kyle. Kyle Corver didn't play defense. But JJ already can play a little defense, especially early in his career. Not literally those players, but those types of players. Like a knockdown shooter that

is like a 42, 43% type of three-point shooter. Because really, the funny part is, in this Darrell Morey, era where you're trying to launch as many threes as possible. I mean, who has been their best three-point shooter over these last several years? Eric Gordon. I mean, one year, one year, why is his name escaping me? Anderson. Ryan Anderson.

Ryan, Ryan, Flying Ryan Anderson. I don't know what I was going to say, Robbie Anderson. Ryan Anderson was really good, I think, one year. and then the second year he kind of fell off. I mean, outside of those? I would say if you're going to trade the caliber of player that Clint is, now Clint's offensively going to be probably maxed out of who he is, but he still is a 14 and 14 guy.

Rim protects, blocked shots, pretty good defender, has some success against some of the elite centers, others give him troubles. I want a jump shooter in return. That can play a little bit of defense. The question is if you're getting what I think I want, you are getting just about nothing in return from the five position, which means you're really going to be behind the eight ball

when it comes to who is going to play the minutes in a low block. And I just don't think that they're willing to give Isaiah Hartonson an opportunity. I don't think they think he's progressed enough to be that guy backed up by Tyson Channel. Hell, those guys don't even play anymore. It's really, really peculiar. There must be something in the intelligence that says, at the end of the day, Hartenstein's,

I mean, Chandler's 39 years old, so that's an easy, you know, you're playing him major minutes at this point in his career is just going to be counterproductive for you.

It's Hartnstein, who has done everything humanly possible at the G-League level to be a star, and he's had a few moments here and there with the Rockets. But I think if I was to really

get in the film room and turn it on, the foul trouble he gets in so quickly, and the spacing he has defensively, I think really, really precludes him from getting major minutes right now. Don't tell that to Rockets' Twitter.

He's the goat, according to them. This is the Matt Thomas show. The Matt Thomas show continues here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas is really emotional over this for the H. Controversy. All right. If you're just joining us.

We got Monster Jam tickets, by the way, for believe it or not, coming up at 255. Yeah, so we got a lot of people asking for those monster jam tickets. So get your act together on all things about what? Famous cliques. Now, I don't mean you and your pals in high school. Were you a part of a clique? No.

I wasn't either. I was clickless. Maybe because I want to be a part of the click and they're like, you're not a lot of I was sans clique. I had my 30-year high school reunion coming up this summer. I was more of a, I was kind of a quiet reserved chap, I think, in school. Well, see, I was involved in a lot of school. activities. I was, of course, the mascot. I was involved in choir. He was involved in speech.

I wasn't a good sportsmanship committee until I got too many ends in conduct and got kicked out of that. Wait a minute. What? Yeah. Matt, you were so raucous at a young age. Yeah, if you got ends in conduct, you didn't get to be a part of the good sportsmanship. It was ESN and you was the conducts. And I used to, I was always. I was always. As a kid, I was in elementary school. I was always proud of getting ease, and I've ever got an ass to come home and cry. And then you had a rebellious face. And then in junior high school, I got a lot of S's and I'm like, oh, this is fine.

And then I got to high school and I was like, I'm praying for asses. And then I one time I got four ends in the good sports and ships has already said, Matt, this is kind of embarrassing. You know, you're the mascot and you're supposed to be speaking of good spirits and everything. And we're going to have to suspend you for six weeks because you've gotten four ends on your conduct report and your, and you're what were you doing? What kind of trouble are you causing? Just too many

Back talking? No, just not being quiet. Fist fighting? Yeah, too many hands in a report card. Too much talking, really. Yeah.

That's where I am today. I could see that. And then the Fendick Complete was when I gave my English teacher a technical foul for writing a girl's name on the screen. Yeah, you went straight to the principal's office for that, right?

Yeah, he's like, what did you do again? I said, well, I gave Mrs. Exley a technical foul. He goes, whatever that is, don't do it again. Now go back to class. That's good. You know, you haven't been giving a tea in your life? I have not only by you.

It's very abusive. Or you give the Scott Foster, lowercase Tee? You take your two index fingers, you bump them together, and you put it the person. The lowercase T or the small T? That's what Joey Crawford used to do. He's got to give the big T-Mat. Yeah, Joey Crawford would, did the index fingers one time so hard he broke his index finger doing it.

That's, you know, you're a real jerk of a referee is when you're getting yourself injured over giving up players technical fouls. So, yeah, what were we going with this? Oh, clicks. So I wasn't in a click. I was involved with some of different things. I couldn't be in a click. Cool. And then 30 arenas coming up.

Oh, is it? Mm-hmm. Be ready, May Creek Class of 90. Wow, 30. I missed my 10. I told you. Coming after you. I slept through my 10 because I got hammered.

I told that story, right? Yeah, we will do a show in the summertime when my reunion is coming up about reunion dues and don'ts, right? Those when Texas had upset OU and I got really drunk that day, so I didn't make my reunion. But see the thing about reunions now is that they're not that big of a deal because we are on Facebooks. We see each other. That's true. All right. To the headlines of the day, we had both the general manager and the manager of the Houston Astros.

And we're going to play the best of both those conversations coming up at the bottom of the hours. If you missed that, stay tuned right here to Sports Talk 790. We have the Astros announcing today they're going to have a, is it a Pride Day in mid-July against Minnesota? June 24th, okay. And the Astros came out with a new slogan for the 2020 season. And the slogan is, for the age. Just one problem. The Houston Roughnecks had the term for the age.

Ross, if you checked their Twitter account, Has there been any correspondence from the Houston Roughnecks? Has there been a cease and desist? No, but I mean, their entire background is hashtag for the H, and they have the tweet from February 2nd, hashtag for the H. Now, do you think the Astros philosophy was, well, we goof, we messed up, we'll try something different, or they're like, you're the XFL, we're Major League Baseball, suck it.

But I don't know. I'm interested to see if anything happens, because, I mean, like I said, The Astros didn't just decide on this today. They came out with it today, but it's not like they went and said, oh, wow, for the H, XFL Roughnecks, that's a good one. We're going to do that. The question would be is,

did they do any research? Do they look up for the age anywhere else? And when they found out it was a Roughnecks, they said, well, it's just the XFL. Who cares? I don't think so, because I think this type of stuff takes weeks before you roll it out. And they probably, unless they have somebody who works with the roughnecks

and they specifically reached out, they would never know. The Roughnecks apparently put. this out like last week. And the Astros have probably been working on their hashtag for weeks or more. But don't you, but don't you daily check it on the Twitters? Just to make sure someone hasn't taken it from you?

Well, what are you going to do? If you've made your graphics and you were going to roll out this campaign and then all of a sudden two days before you're rolling it out, the XFL has it. So you just scrap the whole thing? Yeah, frankly, basically. I mean, I don't know what kind of logistics go into it. The Astros is going to say, sorry. We're going to have it, though.

Because the Astros have already spent time spent, you know, and energy towards building this logo and this brand. Yeah. And frankly, for the H is going to get a much more wider clearance from the Astros than we would from the Houston Roughness. There should be no reason they shouldn't be able to share it. There's no law. Yeah. You can be for the MT.

SportsMT. Oh, for the sports MT. For sports empty. Okay, for that too. Everybody, go to your nearest T-shirt shop. No, no, no. And get four sports MT in the front. Don't do that.

So we can get the 30,000 followers. We can go to Vegas. Oh, we do need to do that. Yeah. I'm going to hit 25,000 probably at the end of the bottom. the end of the month. Oh, that's good. Which still means a lot of meat left on that bone.

Yeah. When was your, when was your 20? Is that two years ago now? August of 20, August of 2018. So it takes about a year and a half. Okay. That's still too long. Again, if I do one viral thing.

Yeah, why don't you break some news? I don't want to hit it for the right, for the wrong reasons. This is what you do. I got it. You make one of those cryptic trade deadline type of tweets, like even just eye emojis. like minutes before the deadline. You'll get hundreds of retweets.

You just put side eye emoji or just wow and with exclamation points. And then if nothing happens, you'll be like, wow, I can't believe nothing happened. Okay. So here's what to do. You're making cryptic trade deadline type of... Thursday, I'll be in Los Angeles. Yes.

So remind me on the air at 159. Yes. To put up... Because the trade deadline's 2 o'clock. Yeah, eye emojis. Or do it like 156. Okay. eye emojis at 156. Yeah.

This is if nothing has happened. If there's like four Rockets deals by then, then they probably don't help. I need Darrow Maury not to do anything until the very last minute of the right. So you just tweet I emojis. And I can get more Twitter followers that way? I think so.

Okay. And you know what? I'll quote tweet it. Oh, Rocket's voice. Maybe something's in the air. Because here's what I'd like to do. I'd like for us to go this fall. But we're not going to Vegas with a group.

unless we get to 30,000. Now, you and I are going anyway, but that's a different story. We don't let our personal situation affect the Twitter growth. But, yeah, okay, I'm going to try it. See how it works. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. Mark, on the north side of the Matt Thomas show, Mark, how are you? Hey, man, how's going?

Good. Hey, you were talking about the Click. For what it's worth, I was telling you, producer, Nick. There was a group in the 60s called The Click, but it was spelled differently. It was C-L-I-Q-E-E. and they sound a lot like Tommy James and the Shandals so maybe Nick can fire one up

for what it's worth I'm an old guy you know I gotta go back Hey on the answer Did they do the original monie monie or something like that? Tommy James did Yeah I believe so Anyway on the Astros

Let's get serious I'm these logos and all this I'm glad they got the GM and their managers. Are they finished with arbitration and are they going to sign any free agents? Or we're just going to go to spring training like we are? As of now, there's nothing to be decided. Everybody's been signed, sealed, and somewhat delivered.

I mean, there's nothing. There are free agents out there, but it would be nobody that you would personally recognize. There's still room for trades. There's obviously opportunity for the Astros to get George Springer locked up into a contract. Thank you, Mark, for the phone call. But most of the heavy lifting has been done. And that's why James Click is going to learn on the job literally because there's nothing he, there's no like, there's not a stockpile of trades he's got to make or acquisitions he's

going to make for the sort of the season. This 25, 26 man roster is essentially set where it is, right? You ever take a spot here and there? I don't think so, yeah. Yeah. I don't think there's anything he has to necessarily have to do. And that's maybe the reason why the manager's job was hired first because he's got to get comfortable with his 26-man roster as compared to

a click who's got to figure out the long term. My guess is the very first thing he's got to worry about is formally in that roster and then start worrying on the draft because they're going to have to start thinking about that, which will be coming up in June. 2113 of the Matt Thomas Show, 713-213-213-2-790. The most awkward nooner you'll ever be a part of. This is the Matt Thomas Show. Not a woge bomb, but just a woge bit of information.

It sounds like the rockets are in talks with several teams about making it perhaps a four-way trade that would involve the rockets, the hawks, the wolves, and the warriors. Ross, if I told you, remember we were looking for that center? What if I said Robert Covington and Kavanaughan Looney as members of the Houston Rockets? Who's saying this now? Well, Wodges is saying this thing is getting really intense. It says, Minnesota orchestrating three-team trade talks with Houston and Atlanta, with hopes of ultimately turning discussion into a four-way deal that brings Golden States

DeAngelo Russell to the Timberwolves. They've been jones and for him badly for some reason. Hmm. Because apparently I think DeAngelo Russell and Carl Anthony Towns are very tight. So it would be out Capella and Picks in Robert Covington and... Kevonne Looney? at first thought not first blush at first thought well that hasn't those specifics haven't been made up because then jonathan fagin just tweeted uh because our friend jackson gallant producer here at 790

and does lockdown rockets he tweeted rocoe an looney sign me up jonathan fagin tweeted quote tweeted that and said maybe so um covington's numbers this year 35% from the floor career three point percentage 36 that's good double digits every year in the NBA, except for the one season he was with the Rockets. Oh, you've got to bring that up? Well, because he hardly played. He's only here for seven games. But for his four years in Philadelphia, double-digit numbers, and then he's two-plus seasons in Minnesota at double-digits.

And generally, players' career numbers go up when they come here because you get a lot, you're getting more open shots. Well, plus they're also, they're going to put them on the right space on the floor. The Rockets, when you walk into Rocketville, they sit you down. They say, the food is good. Yes. The women are beautiful. and here's we're going to shoot on the floor.

You're not going to take the mid-range. You are not going to shoot an awkward-looking three off a screen. We're going to position you in a certain spot where we think you can make the most of them, a la PJ Tucker takes 90% of history point shots on the baselines. So he can be successful here is what you're saying. So what I'm going to tell you this, and I'm not going to look up Kavana Looney's numbers right now. And again, the numbers aren't everything. But if you were to give me Kavanaugh and Robert Covington,

Okay, let me take a look at Kavanaughan has been hurt. The new My H-E-B app could win you a- Really? I need to turn my computer off. We've got to get you on your laptop one day. Yeah, he missed a lot of time. He missed from the middle, late December to the beginning of February. That's right.

What was that injury that he had? I want to doubt it's an ankle. Okay. It's just easier that way. Averaging 11.5 minutes in the last couple of games, just two points, probably playing guard. It's hard to gauge the Washington to the Golden's abdominal injury for Looney.

In his heyday. And Kevin Looney had a heyday? Well, congratulations to him. Let me sell this a little bit. He's 6-9, not 6-10, he's 6-9, so he'd be an undersized 5. That's fine. Power forward, whatever you want to call him. Six points a game and five rebounds. Last year for Golden State, the year before that, four points,

two, three rebounds. I mean, not much of a score, not much of a rebounder. Also, though, Matt, he's shooting 50% from three this year. But how many is he taking? He's only played in 12 games. He's taken two. Okay.

So, way to oversell that. 50% is 50%. Because here's my notion, if you're going to get significantly better on the wing, you are going to ultimately not be as good at the five. Clint Capella is a better center than Kavana Lune is. But Kavanaugh-Lunie, I don't believe, is chopped liver. I agree. I think you, if you're adding Covington and Loney...

Who's young, by the way, he's only 24. Or about to be 24. And Capella goes. And so your starting lineup then would be Russ and James, Yes. Covington and Tucker and Looney? Yes. That's better defensively. With House and Gordon coming off the bench. I like that. I like that a lot.

And McLemore, somewhere. And McLemore. And then either Hartnstein or Chandler, if you wanted to go with that five. Is, is, legit five? Is Daryl going to pull this off? I could call him, but I think he would probably swear at me. Hmm. I'm going to say this again and just let you all think about it for a minute.

Covington and Looney as members of the Rockets, If indeed you can get the warriors to be a part of the trade as well, the wolves are not going to get the warriors involved unless DeAngelo Russell is a part of it. Because, man, for some reason, they're Jones and for him. So you would have to get, there's a guy on Twitter for, he's like an amateur capologist for clutch fans. His name is Beema Thug. He's saying this looks realistic, but you'd have to get Houston, Atlanta, Minnesota, Golden State, all to cooperate on the big four-team deal.

Yeah. Neney has to be a part of that trade, I'm assuming at some point. Probably. Just to get him off the box. How's his adductor strain? I haven't seen him since last year. It must be the worst abductor strain in the history of a doctor's strains. Abductor.

Adductor. Well, it's so bad and we put a new name to it. It spread to the abductor. Yeah. Okay. Not. You know what? I don't even want to think about this because that would be an upgrade, I think.

because Covington can knock the three down, especially when you put him in the right spot. He helps you defensively, and he stretches out your rotation and extra body. Smart veteran guy. We know how Mike Dan Tony likes those. Yeah. And the Rockets have some reason

they'd like to bring back old players. He was first team all defense in 2018, Robert Covington. Not too far removed from that. How old is he? 29, I think. Okay. So he's got still very much in the prime of his NBA career.

December 14th. Shout out December birthdays. Okay. It's all. You know what? I'm on board with that. I am officially on board with Robert Covington and Kavana Looney becoming Houston Rockets.

What does Golden State get out of all this? Draft picks? Yeah, I don't know. What do they want? Because we're only talking about a hand... There's got to be Minnesota and or Atlanta draft picks headed that way. Yeah, where's Capella landing and all this? Capella goes to Atlanta.

He wouldn't go to Minnesota. Capella goes to Atlanta. Okay. DeAngelo Russell goes to Minnesota. Trey Young and Capella. Capella would get 15 a game there. For a young, dropping dimes on him. Yeah, Clint's going to be, let me tell you something.

This is not going to be, well, we got rid of a headache. Clint Capella is an NBA center. In fact, he's probably a top 12 NBA center? Yeah, he's comfortably in the upper half. Tier 2-ish. Yeah. This is going to hurt from some aspect, and he's going to make somebody better. The question is, here's the thing, they don't want to,

they being the Hawks, don't want to pay John Collins crazy money. because apparently it's a defensive sieve. Oh, he is? Yeah. I don't know. I wasn't sure about his defense because I don't watch a whole lot of hawks basketball. No, it doesn't matter. I'll tell you.

Let me tell you. When the Rockets play, when he was the last time you saw Atlanta and Charlotte on TNT together? There would be probably. Never 15th. It's never happened. Maybe 95? The last time Atlanta and Charlotte were on,

he had Larry Johnson playing for the Hornets and Dominique was in his last years of the Atlanta Hawks. And Kevin Willis there on the Hawks somewhere. Tonight for the shot from the Amni in Atlanta. TBS Sports presents the best in the NBA. Today it's Spudweb in Atlanta Hawks versus the rookie Alonzo Morning and the rest of the Charlotte Hornets. What's that voice? Alongside Rick Barry, I'm Skip Van, no, I'm Skip Kerry and Pete Van Waring with me here as well. That's just old Atlanta forces.

That was a terrible attempt. How was Rick Barry's toupee looking in those days? Ronald, southeast Houston. Hi, Ronald. Yes, sir. How are y'all doing today? Wonderful. All right. I just want to talk about the proposed trade for Capella. I don't think that's a good trade because basically I think you trade in two players that's probably kind of equal.

And it's not going to make the Rockies any better, I don't think. Well, go ahead and explain why. Because you trade, I think Cutherson, I might be wrong on this, but I think Coveston and Capella probably average about the same amount of points. And you can always find a Wien player that, you know, do 13 or 14. team points. That's not hard to do. And he's going to take shots away from Gordon and the other two guys' house. You know, I don't think he's making the racket as any better. Because my opinion of the West is I think it's all going to be won in the playoffs

because all the teams are so equal. You think because the number one team can be beat by the number seven, the number 18 in the West in the playoffs. And it wouldn't be such a big surprise, I don't think. because I think all the teams are so equal in the wish. And I don't think this is going to put the rockets over the top. So right now, you think it's currently constructed, and if you believe the answer is yes, I can value that as much as you say no.

But right now you think that if the rockets do not make any sort of moves to get better wing shooters and or defenders, they can win the Western Conference. No, no, but they can do better, but they're not going to put them over the top. You know, getting covetant is not going to make them any better than the Lakers. They're going to feel... We're only talking about players that are available. You know, LeBron James puts the rockets over the top. He's unavailable right now.

Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. If you don't have nothing that's going to really make... Put your team over the top, stand pat, because I guarantee you with Covetton is not going to make their chances any more better than we would compel us. I don't think because, like I said, I think there's kind of like equal players is not going to make the rackets any better.

And like I say, he's going to take shots away from goal. Gordon and McLemore, and he's not any better than those guys. But they're talking about different positions, though. If I didn't know. Yeah, Bright. He played small followers. He's played a small forward, right? Oh, I'm talking about you're talking about,

do you get better at the wing with Robert Covington shooting? I think the answer is yes. Better than who? Gordon. He's not better than Gordon, I don't think. He's not replacing Gordon. He's going to be taking minutes of Ben McLemore and Daniel House. He's going to be the small forward replacement for House and or McLemore.

Yeah, but you're giving away Capella for him. I don't think, you know, that's just my opinion. I think Capella can, you know, he's probably one of the few players that we have that might accidentally block a shot or two. You know, that's my opinion. I don't think it's going to make them any better. Like I say, and the West is so evenly matched, you know, any team can beat any team in the West right now.

And like I said, I don't think that's going to put the Rockets over the top. Okay. Thanks, Ronald. I want them to get better. That's just who I am. I am about training people at the deadlines all the time in any sport. If the rockets and other teams are kicking tires on improving their team, it's because they don't think they're good enough to win the championship.

And another thing, apparently this would get, according to John Hollinger, both the Warriors and the Rockets under the tags. And that's a factor. You can't hide it. Of course. Because at this point, I don't think the Rockets want to pay any sort of luxury tax.

I know. I know a lot of people are upset about that, but I understand it. Because you're paying it. Right. Everybody's like, fuck, pay the tax. Tillman, you're a billionaire. Tillman bought the Rockets. I mean, because he loves Houston and he wants to own the Rockets,

but he also didn't buy them to lose money. He also didn't buy to make a bad investment. Right, exactly. Just like any other sports team in town. Of course. there's a difference This is a business This is a difference in being miserly

Yes And being fiscally responsible Misorily is not spending any money Being on the floor As compared to being right at the top of the ceiling Right he's not going full Donald Sterling on the 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 Merciless Back to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. All right, real fast, a couple of calls, and I want to hit you guys a little bit of Dusty Baker if you missed it earlier today.

Daniel and downtown, go ahead, please. Daniel. What's going on, Matt? What's your got, friend? Not much. So, Looney, comparing him with Capella. Can he get an occasional three-pointer? I don't know enough about him.

I don't think he shoots a whole lot of them, to be honest with you. so he has no mid-range games. Capella can catch an alley-Uke and give occasional offensive rebound and putback. Yeah, this year he's taking, no, he's only taken 28 for his career, so I would not consider him to be a three-point shooter. No, not at all. So from what I remember, us playing Golden State, he's fair pretty good against Capella,

and he always showed up. Yeah, he did okay. I mean, like I said, and thank you for the call. I got a bad connection there, Daniel. He's not Ross going to be as good as Clint Capella. Whoever the center is, whomever it's going to be, whether it's the center's involved or not, you just, you don't want to go with a six-six-line-up.

You just don't. You can't go that lean and that short in the five-desion. You need somebody a little more bulk. Yeah, I agree with that. I don't think that's on the table for the Rockets. I just don't think you would ship Clint Capella out and say, we're going to be rolling with Isaiah Hardenstein, Tyson Chandler. If they are, I don't think that the team gets better.

No. Bill and Cinco Ranch on 7-0. Hi, Bill. Believe it. Hey, Matt, I love the way how you corrected that young man. Well, I don't want to say you corrected him, but, you know, I love your show. And when the guy kept saying, I think, I think, I think you see the end of all. So I think, I'm like, man, Matthew, you are, you are real smooth. What are you talking about? I don't even know what you're talking about. Seriously. No, because the guy kept saying, I think the rock was a video.

I think the Rockets. No, I wasn't trying to correct him under no circumstances. No, no, no, I know you wasn't, but it was funnier to me. But anyway, is there any way possible? Do you think Al Horford would fit in with this team? Now, I ain't going to be listening. Yeah, they're not, they're looking to save money. They're not looking to add money to the piggy bank.

What does Al make this year? Some crazy money? We'll get to that in a second. I want to, yeah, I don't know if they're looking to add any more cash. I think that's pretty much better. Yeah, they're trying to offload cash. Yeah.

Lucas and the Woodlands. Go ahead, Lucas. He's making 28. Yeah, not going to. Yeah. Hi, Al. Yeah, so, yeah.

So, first on caller, first of all, man, hardcore rocket span, bleeding in and out, but I think the whole trading thing, it's a lot bigger than what we're trying to do right now.

I think we've got to look at the bigger picture, maybe hopefully get James Hardin out of there, maybe another head coach, because we traded, trade up, Chris Paul for Westbrook and Chris Paul put a booking on his wife. a lot of people might disagree with me on that,

but I really think we've got to take a bigger look at this. Not right now, you're not. You're not going to trade James Arne right now. So what's, none of really needed to dignify that. Let's get to Dusty Baker. We had a conversation with him earlier today on the program. If you missed it, shame on you. But you know what?

We love you so much. We'll give you the opportunity. We really enjoyed visiting with him. And Nicholas will introduce how we appropriately began this segment. No, that's all right. I kept your introduction. into it. Oh, you did. We go ahead and just let you do it. Here's me talking to the skip.

I'm so happy to talk baseball with you, so let's get right to it forgetting about all other stuff that's happened in the past. I think one of the things that we're most curious about is the back end of your starting rotation. What notes have you taken so far? What have you thought about? And can a guy like maybe even a Forrest Whitley, who has been on the radar, do enough to impress you to put you in that every fifth day opportunity? Well, I've got to see him first, and I've got to talk to

Brent Strong, who I've spoken to yet. Because that backside of your rotation is big. I mean, the better they are, the less your bullpen has to pitch and the less pressure you're going to put at the top of your rotation. So I got to talk to Brent Strom. I've got to set eyes on these guys. I mean, you can watch video or you want to. You've got to look in their eyes.

You've got to see, you know, what their endurance levels might be like. And so it's going to be a very interesting spring. It's going to be an information gathering spring. And then, you know, we'll sit down and get it together because all the decisions aren't mine because I don't know everybody. And so what you see off one guy in March, this guy might be totally different, you know, come April or May, you know, when you're in the championship season. So I got to find out, you know, who's a fast starter, who's a slow starter, you know, who should you give, you know, more rope and leniency to, and which guy, you got to give them the quick hook. So, you know, that all remains to be seen.

I know everybody wants the answers, but, you know, I don't have all the answers that everybody wants me to answer at this point. Astros manager, Dusty Baker here on the Matt Thomas show. And Dusty, what has this situation been like? You said, you've got to go through all these players. You don't know everybody. Obviously, this is a very unique situation. So, I mean, are you just, I don't want to say your head spinning,

but, I mean, what has this been like for you with everything moving so quickly? and now James Click, your general manager. Well, it is. It's been a little bit. I mean, I'm telling you, it's been, it has been kind of a whirlwind. You know, I hadn't planned on, you know, cleaning my garage or, you know, doing the stuff around the house, you know, and packing because, like, I had gotten out of the knack of packing. But good thing, I kept all those suitcase. Did you check the dogs for the ticks?

Huh? Did you check the dogs for the ticks? No, my wife, she got mad at me. He goes, my dog. doesn't have ticks. You know what I mean? And teach me those dogs very treats me sometimes. But that's okay.

And, but, you know, there's a lot to do. I mean, when you're leaving for seven months that you hadn't planned on it and you got two weeks to go, I mean, there are things that you have to do. You know, I got a couple businesses that I had opened while I was out of game, one of wine business, one of energy business. And so I had to make sure that that's all taken care of, you know, kiss my grandbaby. And I'm going to do this Sunday. see my son and my daughter and just, you know, general stuff that you got to do in life.

So, you know, I'm excited. You know, everybody I talk to is excited, you know, for me and pulling. You got a lot of astro fans that you didn't have before. At least they're telling me that. So, you know, we'll see, you know, once we get there. You have managed just shy of 3,500 games. I wouldn't say a handful, but obviously the majority of them as a national league manager. What challenges do you think you'll have? Will it be different in some sense?

Because it'll be the first time that you're managing an American League team? Well, on an everyday basis. You know, like I've, you know, like we've done interleague, but, you know, many, many years. But, you know, there are a few things, you know, like if you take the DH out, the pitcher has to go on that spot. And this year is a little different because, you know, we're going to have 26 men instead of 25. And also, you know, some of the rule changes I think. I got to study up on the rules again. Little changes as far as a pitcher has to face, you know,

three batters unless he gets out of the inning or something like that. But I'm going to rely on Brent Strom and rely on Joe Espada that's, you know, you know, to keep me to speed on things. And like I said, I like to study myself. So, you know, we'll see. I always wanted to manage in the American League toward end of my career, to tell you the truth. And a few years ago,

I was trying to get to Seattle. You know what I mean? Because that was one of my favorite spots. And so now I'm going into Seattle on another team. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing some of the America League. America League has some great players in it. And that again was manager, Dusty Baker,

joining us here on Sports Talk 790. Darrell Mori here. Let's go, Robert. This is the Matt Thomas show. on Sports Talk 790. So what Ross is mentioning, John Hollinger, who does he write for? He's, he was in the Grizzlies front office for a little bit. He's athletic, senior consultants, former Memphis Grizzlies, vice president basketball

ups. Can you serve him on the show tomorrow? I guess, yeah. Why don't you see him can do that? Because I like to get him on. Okay. Adam Clanton goes at him on Twitter all the time. That's okay.

Just saying. What did he do wrong? Both of them? No, Adam likes to go with people. Okay, just get John Hollander on the show tomorrow. Just go to Adam Clanton's timeline and you'll see him. I think maybe John Hollinger doesn't always agree with the way the rockets operate, so you know how that goes with Adam.

Well, here's John Hollinger, former Memphis Grizzly executive, whatever that's worth. It says a four-team seven-player trade involving Robert Covington, Andrew Zewiggins, DeAngelo Roussel, Clint Capella, Kavana, Nunei, and Evan Turner would both get Golden State and Houston under the tax. Yeah, he's the creator of player efficiency rating. He's Hollinger's old school. Like, he's been with ESPN for year. I mean, I'm like, he's OG.

There's only one OG. He's been ESPN for years. And then he was, and then he, they brought him into the front office because they liked his analytics and all that type of stuff. And obviously that didn't work out. Okay. But now, yeah, I didn't know he was with the athletic. I thought he was back with ESPN.

Give him a shout-out. See him out. I'll see what I can do. Okay, I'd like to see that happen. The athletic folks are always looking to come on because they need help. They need to move units. No, I think they're doing well, right? I think so.

I'm not for sure. I don't know. And then Mike Dantone, we don't know what we're going to do with Mike because we can't really have him on before the trade deadline because it's a bunch of conjecture. And then if we say we're going to schedule him right after the deadline, maybe there's a player move. He's got to worry about working that. So my guess is we're going to try to get him on Friday. I'm off Friday with you. Brian T's coming.

in with you. But we may squeeze in Coach Dan Tony with you guys for Friday for a couple minutes. Okay, that sounds great. Because I think that's probably the better thing to do because the dust will have settled from the trade deadline and there may be a new player or players. Yeah, I like having the coach on when you're not around. We should make funnier.

On second thought, he'll be joining us tomorrow. No, I'm kidding. He likes doing them on game days. So let's do that. We'll try to get Coach Antonio for later this week. Five minutes up to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply call it B. Believe it or not.

And here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe it or not, brought to you by Houston Woodhouse Spas. Print out your gift card for the gift of relaxation at Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. Category today is all things about clicks. I'll read your question about a click. If it's completely 100% accurate, you'll say this.

Believe it. If it's erroneous, full of bunk and men-up, you will say this. Two believe it or not, it's on clicks. Win your prize, Ross. What's the prize? Matt, I've got a four pack of tickets and pre-event pit party passes to the first Monster Jam of 2018. This Saturday, February 8th at Energy Stadium.

You said that beautifully. Pre-event pit party passes. It's at four times fast. Matt on 790. You ready to play, believe it or not. Believe it. James Click graduated from Yale University where he was a history major. Believe it or not.

Believe it. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. James Click does not have a Twitter account. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. That is correct. Next up.

All right. Let's continue. Line number two. Bill on, is this really Bill? Yes, sir. I love your show. Man, I told you that, baby. Let's go.

In the 2006 film, Click, Adam Sandler's character, Michael Newman, is an architect. Believe it or not. I read it, I want these passes. Believe it. Believe it. Now you got it right. It's one more for the win. He said he doesn't want him.

Oh, in military... You want to just end this right now? Don't do that. Don't do that, ball. All right. He said you don't want to win. In military, just hang... Shut up.

In military terms, a click is a roughly... is roughly 500 yards. The name originates from the... What the hell is this? The name originates from the clicking sound of focusing binoculars. Believe it or not. You know what? Believe it. No, Ross made it up.

Yeah. That's really wordy. I almost had to proof of read that one. Yeah. Paul on 790. Paul, your favorite part of the radio show today? Paul? He's speechless.

Yeah. Favorite part of the radio show today. I'll probably just a Baker interview. All right. There is a Click, Texas, located northwest of Austin. Believe it or not? Not. Believe it, sorry.

Believe it. Get to get your maps out when you play the game. What's your favorite thing to do in Click Texas, Matt? Stop at the Waterburger. Daniel on 790. Ready to play Believe it or not? Believe it. In physics, a clicked state is used to describe subatomatic particles.

Subatomic. Subatomic particles that have complete wave function. Believe it or not? Believe it? No. Good gracious. Where did that one? It's made it up.

Let's go to line number three. Matt on 790, Matt, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. The 2001 Puddle of Mud Song, Click, Click, Boom. What? 2003 is what it should be. Okay, the 2003 Puddle of Mud Song, click, click, boom, reach number one in the U.S. Billboard charts.

Number 12. Can't read? No, number 12 in the U.S. Billboard charts. Believe it or not. Not. That is right. The song actually came out in 2001 and saliva was the band. Jeez, the semantics on this.

Statement number two for the win. In 2018, the FCC issued a memorandum warning websites about using clickbait headlines and promise to punish websites that abuse the tactic. Believe it or not. Believe it.

No, we can clickbait all you want. SportsTalk 790.com. We are the kings of clickbait. That in Ross's sports Twitter account. Afternoon delight. Yeah, go look at the afternoon delight. Go listen to our interviews.

You got work to do my phone. I'm busy. All right, plus our post-show show meetings. Ooh, that's true. We do that right after the show, so get ready for that. And remember again, Woodhouse Day Spas to print out the gift of relaxation. Houston Woodhouse Spas because your wife, your girlfriend, your mother, your aunt deserves a facial massage, you know, deep sleep treatment, whatever it takes. 70 different spa services.

Find them today. Northside for those of you in that area. You're going to go to the location up there. There's the south side as well in the Sugarland area, vintage what I was thinking about for the north-siders. Enjoy relaxation. Enjoy a great Valentine's Day gift. And enjoy printing it right off of your website and the web computer at Houston woodhouse spas.

com. Houston. Whathousepaws.com for all things, relaxation, 365. That's it for the show. Tomorrow, Ross is going to get John Hollinger on the show. We will not bring up Adam Clinton at all. and do not call Adam today and tell him he looks like the new general manager of the Astros. It could get him very, very frisky.

Just don't do that at all. Do not call the show and tell him he looks like him. Do not. Talk to the out they were in tonight for the Rockets and Hornets on 790.