The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show : Lebron, Giancarlo, and Outlet Malls

Episode Date: February 19, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 2/19/20Live From Spring Training in West Palm BeachAstros Reliever Jared Hughes Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle and Josh James on possibly becoming a starterDaniel Tosh wants to Cancel HoustonLebron James on the Astros

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 1201 in H-town. And I got a little bit of my own echo voice coming back at me. What's happening, lunchtomers? Good afternoon to you, and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Alongside Ross, Villarreal, pro Nick Lowe.

Nick, if you get rid of that echo back on our end, we'd greatly appreciate that. We are here until 3 o'clock, courtesy of our friends at Carbock Brewing, and visit the palm beaches.com. Normacy has arrived, my friend. This is what it's sort of supposed to be at spring training, with the exception of all the players right now. Let's just say aren't spending a whole lot of time just chilling out. in front of their locker before the game or before workouts and after workouts.

We'll get some guys coming in here shortly, but it's not nearly as fluid. There isn't a lot of smiles. It's very much a workmanlike atmosphere right now. It's, is it normal, I guess, is that we're going with? I don't know what normal is, Matt. This is my first time out here. Yeah. It's really as normal as it's going to get, frankly.

It feels like to me that we're going to be in a spot where the smiles can't come out because if you smile, that means you weren't sorry. If you laugh, that means you're taking shots of other teams. There is no room for being a normal baseball player in 2020, at least for the Houston Astros. And by the way, can I just tell you this? And we're going to have some people coming up, including the newest member of the Astros bullpen,

Jared Hughes is going to join us here in a couple of minutes. I would like for y'all. And look, I follow a fair number of you. I try to keep the count down a little bit just because sometimes it's just too much but there are a lot of you that are retweeting people in their opinions on the Astros that I've never heard of. What do you mean?

For example, like writers that you've never heard of or media people? You know you can turn off people's retweets. Well, I don't want to do that because sometimes there are good retweets. Like friends, let me give you an example. This douche named Mark Gunnells. Mark A. Gunnells on Twitter.

I have never in my life heard of him but there are people that are responding to him retweeting him quote tweeting him and the thing they're going with is how can Astro fans even be fans anymore? Everything is so tainted now you can't even enjoy the championship okay you're going to let

Mark Gunnells Mark Gunnals who is a host of a podcast he is a member of the NABJ and at BSO and undisputed. He has 17,000 followers. He follows 10,000 people.

I'm just going to ask all of you that are listening with the sound of my voice, please, please, don't pay him any attention. Don't retweet people unless you really think it's like, for instance, when a buster only retweet something, that's one thing. If you have a Chandler-Rome, a Jake Kaplan, a Brian McTaggart, even a Bob Nightingale, there are going to be some people that are going to have some things to say or are going to provide information

that are going to be big for us to see. It's important. Nothing Mark Gunnell is ever going to tweet is ever going to impact my life unless he says Fottle SportsMT and a solicit he climbed towards 30,000. So if he follows you, you're okay. Well, following is nice part one. The other part is having other people follow me too so we get to 30,000. But there's nothing he could possibly say that's going to make me want to be. believe that he is worthy of anything he provides. So everyone is like, go to hell. You suck. You're in your own plate.

I don't want to hear that. Yeah, I'm with you. Everybody's opinion doesn't deserve a response. Yeah. The only opinion is that a deserve response are yours and mine. Of course. Well, I wouldn't get that crazy. And they're really nice people to listen to our show.

You mean he's a listen to show? Yeah. Your opinion doesn't count. It's like if you want to go after. every single person that has an opinion that's wrong or misinformed about this Astros thing and the scandal. You're going to be sending out like 10,000 tweets a minute. So I don't want to unfollow you or mute you or undo your retweets, but I just don't care what Mark Gunnell's has to say. I'll never care what Mark Gunnall's has to say.

Right. Under any circumstance. I don't even know who that is. I don't value his Astor's opinion. I value those that are around the baseball team every day. And if a player wants to say something, they're welcome to do that. Now, we'll get to the obligatory somebody's cranky today tweets. We'll get to that. But we're going to get to some players because we're going to try to install some bit of normalcy here at Astros Camp. It's never going to be 100% normal. Of course.

It isn't going to be as laid back as it has been in years past. But today felt like again a day where slowly but surely we're getting some things accomplished when talking about the baseball team and the upcoming 2020 season. 713-212-5-7-90 is how you reach his show. Jared Hughes is a new member of the Astros bullpen. He's 6'7-7-0-4-7. Yes. Which automatically, when I see someone that's 6-foot-7, A, I'm deathly afraid of it,

B, I'm thinking, should the rocket sign him? Because that's what they'd like to do, sign 6-foot-7 guys. Yeah, he'd be center on the rocket scene. He would be center. That is true. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. So we're going to, and you may think we're doing the wrong thing here. We're going to mix in commentary about. what's being said elsewhere because we got John Carlin Stanton saying something now we have

I mean it's just daily occurrence everybody's saying something about something so we'll mix them in with relative but we're also going to talk to some players and actually try to get you started ready for the 2020 season so we'll do that along the way we'll get into some NBA if you'd like to as well we've got Drew Bree saying he's going to return to the New Orleans Saints and there's a lot of Taseham Hill controversy about it is he is there controversy Probably in the Hill household there is. He just said he's really happy and excited for him to be back. I just don't know if I believe him.

I think he's lying. I think Jason Pell would like to be the starting quarterback for the New Orleans Saints. Remember, the average person lies at least three times a day. And Matt's at eight. Well, I'm probably a little larger than that. This is Sports Talk 790. Live from Astros' spring training. It's an excitement. You know, this is a new

beginning. Exclusive coverage from West Palm Beach is brought to you by Carbock Brewing, crafted for serious fun. And by the Palm Beach dot com. Our coverage here from spring training continues on the Matt Thomas show, Sports Talk 790 from West Palm Beach. We are happy to be joined now by the newest member of the team.

Jared Hughes. We were teasing Jared because you are 6-7. You would absolutely play the 5 for the Rockets. It would be perfect size for you. But you decided that basketball wasn't your thing. Is that right? I mean, I loved basketball as a kid. I wanted that to be my sport.

I tried everything I could do to make that my sport. But it turns out I can't run. I can't jump, I can't shoot, I can't dribble. So I can throw, though. So I found a better sport. Yeah, I was going to say, you're me except that you can throw. Your passing had to be decent in basketball, right? More full court.

Yeah, full court passing. You're taking that basketball. The outlet pass. Man, that guy's outlet pass is like really fast. Hey, someone need to talk to you sideways here. Looking at your resume, you have been with every team but the Cubs in the National League Central. Is that right? Yeah, that sounds right.

And yeah, they were actually, so I just signed on here, but they were interested this offseason. So I thought, like, I thought maybe there was a chance, but I would much rather be an astro. Well, that's nice here because you've got your family's in Dallas now, which we need to move you out of there. There's a bad virus in that metropolitan area. I don't know if you knew that or not, but there is. You're walking in here to obviously an interesting offseason and brand new manager. So give me a thought or two about what you know about Dusty Baker, who's got obviously strong ties to the national. league. And he has strong ties to the Cincinnati Reds, which is a team I played for over the last two years.

And everybody that I met in Cincinnati that knew Dusty, they loved him. And from Joey Votto to Homer Bailey, the guys that had played for him, they said that Dusty was the best baseball mind they had ever met and a great leader. And it was really just, he made it easy to talk to him. He was a good communicator as well. So those are like the main attractions as a player to a manager. If they can lead, if they're smart, if they're easy to communicate with. So Dusty being here and Houston definitely played in my decision to come here. That's really cool, as you would say that. We don't know a lot about him because there's one different style.

So I think he's doing as much feeling out of you guys as you are of him. You mentioned how much you did some recon. Did you ever do recon of other managers and maybe hear a reporter or two? And you don't have to mention who they were, but kind of like, oh, really, that's how they run their thing? Okay, I think I'll pass on going there. Is this the time where you want me to like bash other ALS teams? God, it sounds so good.

You really would endure yourself for our audience if you did. Yeah, I know. I would absolutely gain the trust and love of all the fans. But no, I would never speak poorly about any manager. So even if I heard anything that wasn't good, I would not tell you right now. All right. You tip out about 92. Is that right on the gun, basically?

Sure, yeah. I definitely am a low 90s sinker ball pitcher. I have a repertoire of a four seam that I can throw up. I can throw a slider down and a split finger down. But my pitch is my sinker. It's what I've done over the years. And I think the reason that Houston might like my sinker is because it's not a typical one. It's almost more like a power screwball.

I throw it from a lower slot. It comes out of my hand kind of funny. And it's a unique pitch. Love relievers with a different arm slot and release points. Always fun. Yeah, that's what we're looking for. It's arm slots around these parts. That's right.

Your pictures on Twitter are interesting. Somebody told me, I won't mention it was Astros, PR, said, go look at his pictures of his photo. I mean, you know what? You're just not going to be a temper. You're not a normal guy in the photo booth, basically, right? Well, I mean business, right? That's what you do. Anybody Googles you visiting with Jared Hughes?

You do mean all business in your photo there. It's a very serious look, and I want to make sure that when I come running into the game, because I'm the guy that sprints into the game. He sprints. Oh, we have so much respect for sprinter. You know, in the 80s, they had guys in golf carts. Would you tell the golf cart guy to go away, or would you tell him I want to race the golf cart or what?

Well, a few fields still have the golf cart, and I always turn it down, and they actually timed me against the golf cart. I'm much faster. It's not even close. I'm like double the speed. Long strider. Did you race Mr. Freeze in Atlanta any point? Yeah, I've talked to him. I know him well. He started out as a grounds crew guy in Atlanta, and they just said, hey, you're so fast. You're training to be a track star. You should do this race. And when he started out, I talked to him, and I said, hey, man, can we race? And he said, don't even try. This wouldn't even be close. It wouldn't he'd be funny because he's actually like a pro runner. So there's no video evidence of you guys going after each other? No, but we tried. We tried, but it got shot down. It wasn't going to happen.

This bullpen lost a very valuable member in Will Harris. You know, he's right down the street, as a matter of fact, literally. So there is a spot for a late inning guy. You're going to try to prove the Astor's organization that you can be that guy, that seventh-eighthending guy. What has been your approach going to a new baseball team, your off-season, knowing that there is a spot that somebody can easily have? Well, I'm myself, and I have to continue to be myself. and if they like who I am here, then I'll be an astro, right?

So I think I have things that can, aspects of how I play the game that can definitely influence them to choose me on this team. But I think things that I do well is that Sinker plays well against left-handed hitters. And I know Will had a lot of success against left-handed hitters. So I feel like I could definitely play into fulfilling that spot that's open. But overall, like I just got to be myself. And if they like me, then that's great. If not, well, that's a bummer. but I think they will.

How much you know about Brent Stromb before coming here? You know, I've heard a lot of good things. And actually, when I signed on board, I had five or six buddies on other teams that texted me and said, hey, you're really going into a good spot with Brent. I talked to Garrett Cole last year. He and I went to breakfast in Cincinnati when he rolled through. And he told me nothing but good things about Stromi, about the whole pitching side of the team here and how the information is just outstanding.

He didn't get into detail with it because he wasn't allowed to share. But now that I'm here, I realize that it's supposed. Yeah, obviously no details, but is it eye opening or what have you noticed so far so far early on? It's unique. The information is unique and I'm an info guy. I love soaking it in and trying to learn because I want to keep getting better. But it's unique information. The way they present it is unique. The way they look at it is unlike any other team I've ever been on. And I think that it's going to make me a better player. You can say no to this. But we feel like Word is starting to travel around Major League Baseball that the Astros have some metrics on spin rate in particular.

Garrett is an example. His strikeout numbers went through the roof in his two years here. Is that moving around at this point or is everybody trying to sell you on? Our pitching, our intelligence can make you even a better pitcher than you were before. So every team is into the spin rate stuff, right? It's across the board of the major leagues now. Spin Axis spin rate. It's how you think it matters, right?

It's how you relate it to the game and it's how you teach that. And what I'm seeing here is something I haven't seen yet anywhere else. Oh, it's interesting. Yep. Okay. Biggest moment of your major league career beyond the first time you got the call to the show. Give me, if I was to look up Jared Hughes on YouTube, besides looking at a picture of your strange face, where would it be the biggest unbelievable? Yeah, that's Jared Hughes right there.

Wow, a moment. Years ago, I think it was like 2014 or 15, we clinched when I was with the pirates, we clinched the playoffs. I came in and I had a four-pitch inning. to get a hold in that game. And it was like, it was like ground ball, two pitch ground ball, one pitch ground ball. Four pitches I was out of the inning, all sinkers. And I remember thinking like, not only are we clinching tonight,

but I just did what I'm here to do, and I was really fired up about it. And you didn't have to shower after the game because four pitchers, well, you may have to warm up with the bullpen. I've been a little bit of latherer at that point, right? The sprint in, usually. Oh, okay, so you're telling me that when we, will you sprint during a spring training game.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'll sprint honestly in my live BP. the next couple days. It'll just be like a little BP here on the spring training field. So I'll go from the bullpen and I'll sprint out there. Okay, can we come video that tomorrow? I would be honored, yes. Sure, we could. We could get some serious clicks on our website for this.

I think so. And as I just want to ask you, as a groundball guy, you got to be happy about this defense you're gonna have behind you. Extremely happy. I think that honestly it was a big part of why I chose to come here, yes. And I think that it will help me have more success and it'll help the team have more success. Good infield defense is something that makes me a better pitcher. When I was in college, I went to

Long Beach State in California. The left side of my infield was Evan Longoria and Troy Toulouliwitsky. So it was okay. Yes. And I said the only reason I got... So you're entitled now is what you are, right? I said the only reason I got drafted is because those guys just fielded every ground ball I was able to get. However, now I think with the information I'm getting, I will be able to strike more hitters out.

Okay. But having a Breggman and Correa and Al-Tuvay and Yule and Uly out there is not going to hurt. Without a doubt. They never want to take days off either. No, that's extremely exciting to me, just to hear those names, hear them being behind me on defense. I'm fired up. All right. So what time is your workout tomorrow? So I'm pitching in two days.

I mean, the workouts every day around 10 a.m. Yeah, you get up earlier, you hit the weight room. Okay, 10 a.m. Yeah, you're going to race them, right? No, I'm not racing. That actually would be funny, but I don't think the, it's kind of cranky right now, so I don't think I get on the fields. We have to give you a Mr. Freeze-like lead.

No, no, not. Here's the catch is when I sprint in, I'm not joking around. Yeah, right? I don't want to see you go over there mocking me because I'll probably give you an elbow. Yeah, run them over. That's what I'm saying. This isn't a joke. This is me getting ready to get after. Let me say something. If he's going to film me something, why would I want to make, be embarrassed?

I want to stay with you as long as I could, which would be about three seconds. Yeah, well, then you'll look at my face and you realize I don't want any part of this guy and you'll back off. So who told you how to, did dad tell you how to do this? Or, I mean, it's just something, just kind of your own idea. No, in the minor leagues, I was a struggling starter. I threw in the 80s. I wasn't that great. And they put me in the bullpen. I was kind of at the tail end of my career. And I had a buddy tell me, a catcher in the bullpen tell me, dude, you should just sprint in and try to throw every pitch as hard as you can.

I did it. I started throwing four or five miles an hour harder. I made it in the big leagues in two months. Perfect. Yeah. So it was the sprint changed my entire career. I'll do it forever for as long as I can play. All right. I've already been warned.

I'm going to warn you. Joe B. and he's going to talk your head off. So this is a funny story. I met him yesterday I met him. I sat down at breakfast across from him. And I said, I didn't know who he was because we had never met. And I said, oh, hi, I'm Jared. What's your name?

And he goes, good question. Good question. Oh, wait. What's your name, man? And he goes, uh-huh, yes. My name is Joe. And I was like, okay, this guy's unique, but he is hilarious. He's so sharp.

Everything he says is like, you can think about it in a different way. One of the smartest players I've ever played with, I already can tell you. I'm going to tell you something right now. We're going to have to clear a half-hour commercial space out because I don't think we can get him off the air once we bring him on. He's really chatty? See, I've got to get that out of him because I'm really chatty too. I'd love to talk to him about stuff.

All right. So tomorrow, if we can find you, we're going not to film me versus you because I don't want that to be embarrassing. I don't want to go hashtag viral. I just want to see you. Nobody does this in spring training. You're going to sprint from where you're going to start from where to where tomorrow? Just wherever.

Well, it's in two days. Oh, in two days. Oh, in two days. Okay, yeah. Wherever I warm up, I'm going to sprint from there into the live BP. And I do it because that's how I pitch. Why would I not practice how I do it in the games? You know what?

You got your game face on in February. We can respect that around these parts. Yeah, that's how you have to do it. All right. Don't be a stranger to our show. We want you, A, to be successful, and B, to come on the show as often as you can and tell stories all the time. I've got some.

Yeah, I mean, you got a meaty career ahead of you, I think, when you're done. I would love that. I don't know. I think I'm going to have to stay in baseball some way. I just love this game too much. Perfect. Jared Huggins with us here on the Matt Tuggan's show. What's that?

Do I say, do I call you Huggins? You did, but I'll take whatever. No, no, no. We were watching West Virginia basketball last night. I was watching West Virginia yesterday. Who's your college team? UCLA is who I grew up rooting for. Okay, we got Russell Westbrook plays for the Rockets.

You know him? Oh, yeah. I want to know him. I want to come. charity contests we do. We take celebrities and put them out there. Could you shoot a free throw from 15 feet? Oh, yeah.

Are you going to make it? Yeah, oh, yeah. Because many people don't make it. I mean, like, I'm like 50%. Oh, oh. There's only 17,000 people looking at you. You make it or you want, 50%. Remember, basketball wasn't my sport.

All right, Jared Hughes. Not to be confused with Jared Huggins, Bob's cousin, with us here on the Matt, Thomas. Welcome to Palm Beach and a new season of Astros baseball. I'm very excited. We can't wait to get out there and play again. Exclusive Astros' spring training coverage. on 7-9

is brought to you by Carbock Brewing crafted for Syria's fun and by thebombeaches.com We go from a lighthearted, funny, tall major league pitcher and Jared Hughes to

hey, it's, we're stealing a guest off the 18. Are we? Well, yeah. Are they going to get mad? Do you think they would have? Chandlerone makes one

rare visit on the matthumson? I would hope not. There's more, more than enough Chandler to go around. We may get a clinton Twitter rant here. Oh, my guy, and you're about to get bumped, I think, here very short. You guys probably should bump me for Josh James. All right.

So how's Josh doing, by the way? He looks good today. Yeah, hey. Looks styling profiling right now. Yeah, seriously, you're not on the road in the regularities in game yet. What are you looking so good for? Good, gracious. Yeah, so, yeah, Josh looked.

Josh looked good today. Live BP. It was him on one field, Austin Pruitt on the other field. It was kind of like what everybody's been waiting for, actual baseball. Yeah. To see the candidates. Oh, they're going to play games this year? I hadn't realized.

Sources confirmed. And by the way, things got normal when Ross and I got here. Just don't let you know that. You're welcome. Yeah, thank you. But, yeah, Josh James is on one field. Austin Pruitt's on the other field. Those are the two candidates for the, well, the two, as Dusty Baker put it today,

the foremost names for the Asher's fifth starter job. Both of them first live BPs. I thought both through pretty well. You saw Josh James had the unenviable task of facing Jordan Alvarez today. And then on the other field, you had Austin Pruitt against George Springer and Michael Brantley. So those two guys, obviously going through camp, that's going to be a competition that goes a little bit further and kind of lingers throughout camp. And that's a big question coming in.

Brent Strom said yesterday that those two guys and then Frommberg does are the three legitimate candidates. Josh, I'd say, we'll keep it short with you, but I do want to give you a thought. So things are going to be curious, four or five in the rotation. What they do with the 26th man? Do you think will be interesting or not interesting? I think unless someone surprises at spring training, unless maybe an infielder, unless Abraham Toro comes in and really, really plays well. I think that 26th spot is probably going to go to Kyle Tucker,

a guy that showed in September last year that he's worthy of an everyday roster spot. He played well in September. He obviously played well enough to make all three playoff rosters. They value his, you saw last postseason, his base running has improved a lot. He's more, A.J. Hinch even called him maybe a more daring base runner than Miles Straw, who we all know is really, really fast. And we all know he's probably going to entrench that fourth outfielder role as the Jake Mariznick type. But I think the 26th man is Kyle Tucker's to lose. Now, you could have a guy like Abraham Toro if he comes in and has a really nice spring.

Obviously, he's got the switch hit bat. He's a versatile guy defensively. Maybe he creeps his way on there, but it's going to go to a position player, and it's probably, at this point, it's Kyle Tucker still lose. And I'm very curious about Lance McCuller's out of the get-go, because it not only fills up a spot in the starting rotation, but there's all sorts of questions we get about is how many innings can he throw, and nobody knows the answer to that.

There's no track record of a lot of innings, but if he's the new improved Tommy Johns fixed everything, you're going to use that bullpen more than you want on starts for him, but to at least be able to hopefully rely on him for 26 weeks. to be something the Astros never been able to do. So I think it's important that when we talk about this ending's limit with Lance McCullors, you know, former GM Jeff Luno at the winter meetings had 120 a sort of a threshold. Last year, the Astros had a similar threshold on Jose Orkitti, and they blew through that by September

because they were not going to call him up in September. He said, I feel healthy, I feel good. He came up in September, shoved, and then threw in Game 5 of the World Series, and obviously we saw what he did there. um, innings limits are not set in stone. We're not, I don't think Lance McCullors is going to throw 200

innings this year, but I think it's, it may be a little, or a little premature to kind of already assume, you know, he's only going to throw this amount of innings. They're going to be careful with him. Dusty Baker said today they're going to have to put a governor on him

because Lance is not a guy that likes to take things slow. He likes to kind of go ramp it up and go full speed. And they're going to have to be careful with him. There will be some starts maybe that they pull them a little bit early. They may be, he may skip a start or two here. but I think it's a little premature to start, you know, just assuming that they're going to be without Lance McCullors for a certain length of time. This is, innings limits are made to be broken, but again, it's going to have to depend on his health.

You know, his career is far more important than one season. So it's going to depend on his health, and it's going to depend on how effective he is, because last year, Jose O'Cuddy was both healthy and effective, and they were able to blow through that inning's limit by about 50. You will make weekly appearances with Adam and Annan, but you've already had more fun with us today than you'll have the entire season with him. Would that be fair to say? Of course. Of course. Chandler Rome from the Houston Chronicle, thank you very much, my friend.

I'm going to pass over the headset to Josh James. I don't know very many individuals of my life that have ever thrown 100 miles an hour. I'll start with Nolan Ryan. And then I will start now with Josh James, who's now my new bestie here on the Matt Thomas shirt. Is he? Already? We're going to build a relationship, right? Yeah.

How are you doing? Why are you dressed up for a trip to Anaheim right now? I mean, you're already ready to go. I like it. He's ready to hit the club or something already. No, no. Just woke up this. morning I said I put it on. I really didn't have much to it. Yeah, what does a club seem like in

West Palm Beach? Don't answer that question. I was going to say, I don't know. I don't really go out much. You good. You should be in bed like we were last night at 9.30. Especially with the week camp goes. Yeah. Try to get to bed early. He's too busy playing 2K with heat. That's what he told us at fan fest. I am a I am a 2K guy. Played Joe Smith the other day. Oh, oh. Did you handle business? Yeah, yeah, unfortunately. He's getting, he's getting the hang of it. Okay. Joe plays pretty good defense. I would We're talking about video games.

I know what they were. He knows Pong, so it's a little different. Just don't even. It's old school. Okay, so let's get to it. When you walked in the club boss, you sat down, Strami came to you or maybe even Dusty, whatever.

What were some of the early things that were brought up to you and said, all right, here's what we envision, here's what you got a chance to do while you're down here in West Palm Beach. That speech mainly happened after the season when I got on the phone with Stromi. and he kind of just spoke to me about possibly coming in and being a starter and

and just kind of just be ready for anything like he wasn't going to say that I was going to start and I was set in stone he said that I could be a reliever but just to mentally be ready to start and that was it coming into camp so I had the idea and of that I was going to get a chance to start. And now I'm just kind of running with it and keeping my mind set on being a starter. And if the transition happens, then I've had a whole year of experience in the Penn. When you are at your best, tell me what that's like for you in terms of the relationship with you and your catcher. And then there were times last year where you would strike out three and walk three in one inning.

So give me, and be honest if you can, because our audience is looking out for you. gave me the best of you last year and the times that were the most difficult for you? The best, I think, you know, when I'm at my best, I'm attacking guys, and I get ahead, and when I get ahead, I get to put them away. Right. I've been saying this a lot, I gave away a lot at-bats towards the end of the season, or I'd say middle of the season. I was giving away a lot of bats when I came back from the shoulder.

soreness I was a little bit better but I gave away at bats I fell behind or or fell behind early or I would I'd get ahead and waste a couple pitches and put guys in in hitable counts and put myself in tougher spot so that's kind of like that was my downfall last year as I look back at a lot of film I just gave away too many of bats but when I was at my best I'd attack guys and got ahead and put them away. And I have the stuff to do that. So this year, that's kind of my focal point, is just get ahead, stay ahead, and put them away.

You talked about, there's been discussion about you altering your delivery for this year. What are some of the things you're changing and working on? Not really an alter. Just try to find a little tempo and rhythm in my wind up. instead of kind of stepping to the side this year, I'm going to try stepping behind and kind of like trying to build some kind of rhythm and tempo through that. Last year, I made a little bit of a change in my arm path and trying to feel a little bit more linear in that.

And that's kind of helping me this year. So far, I feel the most connected. And even when I miss, my misses are smaller. and to the side of the plate that I'm that I'm trying to go to. So I'm not really trying to change too much. I think I need to start realizing who I am and kind of just refining smaller points and I think I'll be better for it. Had they given you any indication, Josh,

that they're going to tell you on a certain date that would they envision you for the start of the season? No. You okay with that? I'm fine with that. I'm just, like I said, in my mind, I'm a starter. and I'm going to go through camp and prepare as if I was a starter. And if they tell me halfway through the season or halfway through the spring,

they're like, hey, you know, we best see you on the pen. And then I just transitioned back into a reliever in my mindset. I already know pretty much my routine and lifting and mental preparation for being a reliever. So you finished last year. When was the next time that you threw a pitch? Was it here or did you do some workouts at home before you came? I did. I worked out at two different places this year.

Early. I worked at a place called To the Top. It's in Fort Myers. Dan Vogelback, he's with the Mariners. First baseman. His brother owns a gym over there, so I went in there. Okay. Worked out with him.

And then for the majority of the rest of the all season, I was with Eric Cressy. Okay. So, I mean, when's a lot, before you got here, when checking it, can you check velocity during the off season? Or do you want to check it? I've gotten a couple checks just to kind of see where I'm at going into camp. And they use a what's called Rapsoto, which kind of measures spin and velocity and all that stuff. Just to kind of, it's not 100% accurate, but it gives you a really good description. Because if I threw one-on-one boys, I wouldn't let anybody touch my shoulder.

Like you're like in an airport line where you get in? Excuse me, this is my livelihood right here. I got to keep it strong, though. You know, you got to keep it strong. Got to see where I'm at every now and again. And I don't want to get, you know, too complacent and too satisfied with where I'm at. I'm always trying to get stronger and if that's possible. But, yeah, try to get stronger.

Yeah, I heard about like, do you have a consistent weight you try to stay out or get you said always trying to get? Because like, Forrest Whitley, they talk about gaining, you know, 30, 40 pounds or whatever. In camp, coming into camp, I always like to be around 240, just because when the season starts with the way travel and playing every day and working out and all that stuff, I tend to lose weight. So I always get to like the mark where I want to be is 235. And I sit at 235 all season. I fluctuate a little bit just depending on how much water, how much I ate the night before. but 240 if I come into camp 240 I'm I know I'm in a good spot I know I kind of flirted with the idea of maybe coming into camp a little lighter 230 but then I'm like if I go into camp 230 and I come out and by the time camps over the season starts I may drop down to to 220 to 25 and then I don't know how if I'm going to still be powerful or if my my villa will maintain yeah you got to keep the flames thrown I mean that just that's just that's just that's That's who you are, my man.

Get the Wauk down, total down, and you're going to find yourself in the starting rotation. Yeah. With a great team behind you. And that's my goal is to cut that down and just be in the zone a little bit more. Let my defense do do some more work. And that's it. I like it's a good simple formula. Josh, thanks for coming by or appreciate it.

No, thank you for having you guys. All right, Josh James joining us here on the Matt Thomas show here from spring training already in regular season form. It's just got wordy's last clock to pitch, 123 miles an hour. So my goodness, you'll be really careful that arm. Let's take a short time out, come back, and get to more of the, he threw 123, right? I don't think that's accurate, Matt. No, we're trying. So baseball normally is starting to kick in here in the old spring training.

Josh is a good conversation with him. So we've had a chance to visit with a couple members of the Astros arms. We'll forget to try to get a position player in here and not too long from now as well. A lot of time. I don't want to start off slow. It's a new season of Astros baseball. And this is exclusive Astros Spring. training coverage on 790.

Brought to you by Carbock Brewing. Crafted for serious fun. And by the Palm Beaches.com. All right. Busy first hour of the radio program. We had Chandler Rome for a little snack-sized edition of the show. You can hear Adam during the 18. And we will have astro-related guests all throughout the course of the season as well.

We're having them down here in Florida thanks to the Palm Beaches.com. And also by Carbock Brewing. thanks to them um so we'll save the daily somebody's bitching about the local team thing uh for the top of the hour because now it's rob manfred apologizing yesterday yes it's the major league baseball players association basically coming on and saying we knew exactly what rob manfred was doing because he called us and told us yes as compared to we were blindsided we had no idea they were offered immunity. Because this was happening. The union is mad at each other.

Clearly. When you have players on every baseball team in America telling us how much they hate the Astros, that goes in complete opposite of what the union did to protect its players and said, you know what, you want to talk to our players, you're

going to give them immunity. Now it didn't say in so many words, but that was clearly a result of these findings, is that we'll give you the good, you just make sure you don't find these guys. I will tell you one thing that is gaining a little bit of steam. And it's not because Ron Manfred has said it. It's not because Major League Baseball has thrown it out there.

There are a lot more media pundits trying to build a case for the commissioner to come back and take the title away. That's not going to happen. I don't think. And so, I mean, Manfred said it wasn't going to happen in that interview. And then the interview where it talks about the piece of metal, which was upset everybody. Yeah. and he had apologized for that. Well, it's because you're not looking in context.

If everybody wanted to get upset about that, yes, of course the trophy is more than metal. And yes, of course, Rob Manfred knows it. What he meant by that comment was that if he comes out and says, the Astros are no longer World Series champions, he's saying we're just going to confiscate the trophy. We're not going to forget those experiences. The fans aren't going to forget those experiences. It's not like those games weren't played and the memories and all that type of stuff.

Like he said, you're taking away the. trophy, you're not taking away that it happened. There's no way to do that. I think that's what Manfred was getting. He was way more metaphorical than people thought he was going to be. Yeah. Right. He was trying to make it a bigger point and then it just went over everybody's head and then made a bunch of players angry.

Because I told you. I bleed for this trophy. Yeah, we get it. The championship is a huge deal. I told you yesterday it was like holding a baby. I didn't want to drop it. I didn't want it to make sure it was the right person's hands. Right. That commissioner's trophy is amazing. But it's not going to change the memories.

not going to change that Houston was, you know, washed away by Hurricane Harvey, and there were people with nothing in their homes except for a TV watching the Astros and getting uplifted by them in that World Series championship. It's not going to get taken away. No. It's not. No. So at the top of the hour, we have another baseball player that is pontificating on this.

It feels like a daily occurrence. Oh, great. And it really is not about the Astros today. It's about what this person thinks he could have done if he would have had the intelligence, which There's a problem with that. Oh, gosh. That's coming up at the top of the hour. By the way,

Ryan Newman has left the hospital in Daytona Beach. Just got a word about that a few minutes ago. That's good. Honestly, when he first crashed, and not that we spent a lot of time on Daytona stuff, it looked like I didn't think he was going to survive that thing because it was a fiery crash. He flipped.

He was gone. But to walk out with his children is a huge, huge benefit. So there is some good news from the world of sports today. Feel good. There you go. Ryan Newman's going to be okay, it sounds like. I got to tell you something right now. I got a bone to pick with sports in general.

Okay. The all-star break in the NBA is too damn long. I kind of like it. There should have been games last night. I'm going to peel the curtain back. Ross and I were tired of AF yesterday. We wouldn't have dinner in a Mexican restaurant. You're saying Mexican restaurant at West Palm Beach?

It wasn't half bad. It was okay. The salsa was amazing. And the key to a good Mexican restaurant is at salsa. I would say the enchiladas and rice and beans and other things. Maybe, okay. And the margarita. The margarita was solid, too.

So we were extraordinarily tired from a long day. And so we went to bed early last night, like 9-15. Yeah. There was nothing on television except who gives a crap college basketball. Now, Kentucky LSU, I'm sure it's very intriguing. Baylor and Oklahoma was intriguing for some. Thank goodness tonight. Oklahoma State.

Or wait, no, who was playing Oklahoma State? West Virginia was. Yeah. Bob Huggins. who are, you know, Huggy Bear. Huggy Bear was on there. Jared Huggins on the show earlier today. Jared Huggins also wears a sweater vest.

Not a sway, was it a pullover he wears? But Huggie Bear does. He didn't wear a shirt and tie. He's more of a, yeah, V-neck sweater vest type of guy. Yeah, yeah. Like a Jim Tressel, if you will. Yeah, and he will. We needed an NBA last night.

No, it's fine. First of all, you could, if you needed to be on the road with the Rockets, Matt, you wouldn't be here. I know, but I'm talking about good NBA. Give me Clippers, Lakers, right out of the get-go. That's fine. Second half of the season. I like the little rest of a little break from actual serious sports. Yeah, Rockets, by the way, will open up the unofficial second half of the season Thursday in Golden State against the Warriors.

We'll visit with Mike Dan Tony tomorrow, as a matter of fact, for a few minutes. As we go coast to coast and border to border on the show. So we'll talk with him and some plus some more baseball stuff to get to as well. Second hour of the Matt Thomas show. We're expecting, I believe, one more live Astro guest as compared to one not with his live. I did talk to Joe Smith. We'll have a little bit of that conversation. We'll play on the show today.

How many questions did you ask about Allie LaFource? Zero. Really? Yeah. Okay. I'm surprised. I feel like that that's a low-hanging fruit and that this show is not about low-hanging fruit. Well, that's why I was going to say it was perfect for you.

Why I bring you on these trips are beyond me. 713-212-5-7-9 if you want to chime in. We actually got real baseball chatter going on the show, and we'll continue to do that for the next couple days. As Ross and I come to you from West Palm Beach, courtesy of the Palm Beach. and Carbach brewing is the Matt Thomas show we have a good friend of the show her name is ATX Hobo girl

and she's already attacking us on Twitter she just stopped bearing the lead how was Rachel's we did pass by it today I did see it we will pass by it on the way after the show today towards our hotel we have dinner plans tonight yes we do

Rachel's at this point is not a part of it. Oh. After party, even. After dinner plans? I have to ask all of you out there in Radio Land that travel for a living. How do you expense Rachel's? Does it show up as something else? Because some of those establishes show up as, you know, Donnie's steakhouse or something like that.

Well, I mean, Rachel's does serve steak, from what I understand. Okay. There's two of us. What can we get away with? Steak about $50 a pop. You think they're 50 there? Well, I know I'm saying what you can get away with is compared to what is actually being spent on for said purposes. You usually have to pay out of pocket sounds like.

Oh, okay. Well, that's when I know Matt's out. Very busy. You need to get my rest. Matt is Mr. Expense Report. All right. 713-212-5-7-9. I'm not an X-Rexmitsurperors.

I just don't want to get in trouble. All right, 7-13-212-5-7-9. If you'd like to join our radio show today, if you'd like to reach out to his feet at Twitter, you could do that as well. at SportsMT, at Sports Army, Ross, and, by way, at Pro Nick Lowe. We'll check it on on Nick. We'll give him his 60 seconds to shine on the next segment of the show. What is Nick Neal? For what? Check on him for what?

Just general thoughts of what's going on back in H-town. He's probably miserable that he's, it's 58 degrees raining, and we're sitting here bitching him morning about 82 degrees in sunny. It's beautiful. It is beautiful here. I get free barbecue all day to day, so I'm great. Oh, there it is. That was just 60 seconds.

Was it? Yeah. It was more of like three seconds. I feel like if I give him the other 50-70, he's going to say, I think it's going to want to get suspension. A segment suspension would be the norm for him. Does Rachel's have a steak buffet? Most of those places have steak buffets.

We don't know. We don't know. Couldn't tell you. You should check it out. No clue. Jean-Cardle-Stanton. IP, Ross? Injury prone?

Yeah. I don't know. I don't have to look at his history. You tell me. Go look at his. You're the medical expert between us. You give me his season numbers of, say, the last three or four years, and then I will help you decide whether he's eyes.

IP or not. He is with obviously that he aren't Yankees. He was previously with the Florida slash Miami Orleans. So report today out of Tampa says that Jean Carlo, not to be confused with Giancarlo, he played 18 games last year. That's it. Yes. Before that, 158 and 159. Not IP. Before that, 119 and 74. Oh, okay. To be determined. 19 yesterday you said last year or 18 18 18 all right well he today had to tell us because can you imagine the throng I mean if the Astros are overwhelmed with the amount of media that are there for here for the Astros imagine what it's like in New York with all the daily

newspapers and the TV and the radio stations John Carlow believes that if he was given the same intelligence that the Astros received that he would have hit 80 home runs 8.0. Okay. He says not only has he lost all respect for the organization, he believes the 2017 World Series title should be vacated, the players should be punished, and questions why anyone would believe they stopped cheating after the 17 series. Stanton quoted today saying the investigation showed it was clear cut they cheated that year. So it should be taken away. If you cheat in another way during the same using performance enhancing drugs, you can't even be in the playoffs.

so pretty much the same difference. Stanton goes on to say they did a very poor job and he basically is throwing his own union out of the bus. They didn't have a problem being in front of the cameras and drawing all the lights when they were doing it in 2017 and now they have to explain themselves and point fingers and this guy is talking for this guy, yada yada yada, you have to own up to it. He thinks he can hit 80 home runs.

Okay. I think he's wrong. I think he is lashing out and the lash out factor is going to be strong. I think he's overselling it. I will last this every day. Why don't he say 100? You should have said 200.

Yeah, because if you get four at bats per game and you play 140 games, it's 560 plate appearances, give or take. Yeah. Well, yeah, 200 home runs for him. Well, let's see. George Springer hit 34 that year in 17. team.

Right. He, in 19, when nothing was going on, he was going on, he was 39. Yeah. Doesn't fit the narrative, though. Oh, okay. And I don't want to be that. I don't want to be that host, Ross.

You don't. I don't want to be that. Well, I got to have my back on these guys. I'm just saying, I'd like for it to be level-headed. And it's never, at least right now in the middle of February, it's not going to be level-headed. Yeah, like what we said about, yeah, like I was talking about yesterday, the thing about players is, like I said, we hold these professional athletes in this

high regard and we think they know the things or they're better than the regular person. Bottom line is, they don't. They're going to talk out of their ass just as much as anybody else or any other regular amount of people. They're going to be talking without being informed, as Carlos Correa said. I'm guessing that John Carl Stanton didn't sit down and read Manfred's report. I don't know. Maybe he did, but it doesn't seem like he did from the information that he's providing

these quotes. And it's just a lot of people speaking out of ignorance. And it's not going to stop because you have a new. batch of people coming in every town. Eventually it will stop just not right now. No, I mean, we'll put it this way. We're not going to be hearing form a new player every day until June. No, here's what will happen.

You will hear everything until the start of the season. The Astros will then go on the road and you'll face a new round of what's it like to wear in the gray uniform. Of course, right. And then it'll die down for a while. And then on top of that, then the All-Star break will be the crescendo of this. There might even be somebody getting hit or at a brawl. or anything like that.

They're like, this could escalate a little bit more than it is now, but eventually it will die out. All right. So, I think in large part, that's a good sign for the Astero is that today felt like another day of just baseball. And it certainly hopefully will be in the same spot here in the foreseeable future in terms of it being about, you know, like today, we had those two guys join us. Those are interesting things.

Guy filling a spot where now that Will Harris is gone. Sprinting like a muddah, as you would say. Like and by the way, don't let us forget Two days we're going to watch him do it. Yeah. I'm not going to run, but we're going to watch him do it. He's the Usain Bolt of the Astros. And again, he said sprinting.

It's a relative term. No, I think I've seen it. I was kind of just, you know, I don't know a whole lot about Jared Hughes. So before he were, I knew we were going to have him on. Yeah. He sprints. He runs as fast as he can. Do you go like, that's impressive or why are you wasting all this energy?

Um. It says it gives him a lot of enough. It gets some. You get some fired up to go. It worked for him. Why would he stop? If that's what got him up to the majors, and that helps him get fired up and start throwing hard,

go ahead and go ahead and do it. There was a pitcher that played for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was the Mad Hungarian. And he would do his warm-up pitches when he was with Atlanta Braves. And then before he'd get back on the rubber to throw his pitch, he would take the baseball and slam it into his glove and just basically scream at him. for five seconds.

And that's how he got himself motivated. Al-Rabowski. Al-Rabowski, the man of Hungarian. What would you do? Me? Yeah. Like, if you had, for instance, you could walk, you can sprint. I wouldn't be sprinting.

You can get it. I go for a light jog. I would take the golf cart. Yeah, I can see that. You know what? I don't want to burn energy. I want every bit of the energy that I'm going to hopefully help my baseball team. So if I get a chance to get like a, I don't know, a nice cold refreshing beer, maybe a Carbock.

Maybe if there was a Carbock in the golf cart and the way to the mound. Yeah, you take a couple sips. Just, yeah, you wouldn't drink the whole beer because you wouldn't want to, you'd go up there like, you know, I'm not feeling. Well, it's not a hopadillo. You don't want anything too strong while you're going to pitch. We would never want an IPA in any sort of baseball. No IPAs a lot. No Carbock hopadillo?

That'd be the exception, I think. Not even completely sure about that. Matt doesn't like IPAs. No, IPAs are the Antichrist. IPAs are delicious. IPAs make me gag. Okay. Yeah, I'll be damned if I drink an IPA.

I don't care who it's from. All right, Matt. Anti-A. Calm down. So, I'm in the golf cart. But you will drink a vodka cranberry. Absolutely, I will. Okay.

Anything grapefruit infused, absolutely as well. For sure. Great fruit. Yeah, I'm very inconsistent. I'm a fraud and I know it, at least, but I own up to my fraud. I'm just asking. or asking questions. What would you?

Okay, see, I'm in the golf cart. I got the low carb beer in the right-hand side. Okay. I get to the mound. That's when the energy goes. Okay. I go to light jog.

Get you worked up a little bit. It was like boxers hitting the mitts before their game. You got to work up. Yeah, when you watch boxers enter the ring, they don't sprint to the ring. That's true. They walk as slowly as possible,

usually with a rap act. This hollacious entourage with them. Yes, in an entourage. In fact, what I would like to do is, if I could, I'd like to be carried to the mound. Yeah. And having really attracted.

Oh, have like on a throne? Yeah, with attracted women feeding me grapes and cheese. You have like a throne and a scepter? Yes. I think I've just figured it out. That'd be cool. So let me tell you something, Jared. You can do all you one sprinting.

I'm going there as slowly as humanly possible. Plus, I'm very friendly to the corporate community. You can get extra commercial. We could walk out like Kenny Powers, La Flama Blanca. That's not a bad deal either. Not a bad deal either. 713-212-5-790. 713.

People are sending me the worst text. About Rachel's. It's just not right. Let those people eat their steak at Rachel's. Let them do it. As long as there's just no rose beef jokes. Yeah. 713-212-5-790. If you want to reach out to us on the phones,

we think one more astro guests joining us before the close of the show today. We're also going to hear from Joe Smith in a 2 o'clock hour and get into some other things, including some NFL news, on Drew Brees and why everybody in New Orleans is like this is a guarantee we're going to the Super Bowl. I felt like Drew Brees Rossi took a slight, and again a lot of it is because of the injury he suffered mid-season. But when he came back, was he the Dwight Drew Brees of old? Was he the same guy that was throwing those little BBs left and right across the field? I mean, obviously we saw it in the first week of the season when the owners,

the Texans lost of the Saints, but it felt like he just wasn't the same player. And maybe a healthy Drew Breeze completely through 2020 makes a difference, although it is a Drew Breeze who is 41 years old. This is Sports Talk 790. Live from Astros, spring trains and excitement. You know, this is a new beginning. Exclusive coverage from West Palm Beach is brought to you by Carbock Brewing, crafted for serious fun, and by the Palmbeaches.com.

All right, 119 on the Matt Thomas show. We come to you from West Palm Beach. We have not spent a lot of time on the phone today because we had some interesting guests joining us early. It was great to hear Josh James fight for that number five spot in the Astros or four spot for that matter. Did you ask Forrest Willie, what do you wait today, by the way, when you got video him? I did not. I feel like his weight has been a huge category. Not like he's like fat.

It's just that apparently it's fluctuated. And I just don't know. He's put on some weight for durability. It doesn't. It doesn't matter. Just make the rotation. First round picks need to be a part of the rotation by now, right? Those things do matter, Matt.

Durability matters. Weight matters. Josh James just talked to us for a couple minutes about fluctuating up and down, Wade. And to get yourself in the right amount of shape for you and your body. Nick, I got a question for you. Is Daniel Tosh funny? Depends on who you are, I guess. Are you like a 23-year-old?

girl, then yes. Okay, that's not Ross nor myself. I would say that most of our audience, we do have some females to listen to the show, but they are not 23. Although we would certainly, Ross, and certainly invite a 23-year-old female to listen to the show, right? Of course.

So Daniel Tosh now has this new hashtag out. I will say Daniel Tosh is funny. I'm not a 23-year-old girl, but I do think he's funny, and I used to watch his show a lot. Tosh point out. I don't really watch it that much anymore. Okay, well, he has the new hashtag out now that is gaining steam. Yes.

It is cancel Houston. Yes. What is this? Matt asked for douchy music and I don't know what he meant. Doce music? So I just picked something at random. I would say Maroon 5. I would say Maroon 5, anything by them. So I went to Twitter and I look for the hashtag cancel Houston.

This is what Daniel Tosh wants people to send him tweets. Okay. About how bad the Astros have to get their treatment in 2020. Yes. One. So, yeah, he was saying that the commissioner's not doing anything of the Astros. So this is some punishments they should have and use the hashtag. I canceled Houston.

Here we go. Astros have to travel via Spirit Airlines until every player from the 2017 team is retired. Well, Daniel Tosh said that one went too far. Astro players must be accompanied by Game of Thrones shame, none around the bases. Oh, I like that one. Shame. You don't know. You didn't watch that show, did you? I tried.

Shame. Let's see. Here we go. How about this one? All Astro's players have to wear the same child-sized uniform as Jose Al-Tuvae. That's not nice. Not nice. Here's one from Daniel directly.

During the seventh inning stretch, the wives of Astro players are allowed to cheat in their husbands with any fan in the 300 sections. Nice. I like that one. I like this one. Nolan Ryan has to pitch the first three innings of every Astros game. Here's something.

Houston pitchers are limited to only throwing fastballs, and every other team can select two players on their team to use steroids of the 2020 season. I like that. Um, here's one that's Daniel Tach, that's politically inclined. After every Astros victory, the entire team must visit the White House. Let's see, they have to pitch from the wind-up with men on base and no sunglasses ever. Astros must smoke saliva during the third inning of every game. Okay.

That seems a little. Salvia, I think. That was, wasn't that that stuff that, uh, what's her name was on? Oh, Salvia, that's right, it's on saliva. It's some kind of weird thing that I don't even know what it is. Carrie Underwoods, before he cheats, plays before every Astro batter walk-up song, both home and away. Damn, y'all are tough. Not y'all being Houston, just general people.

Daniel Toshes for the next four years, the Astros have to win every game by two. Seems a little ridiculous. And let's see what else here. Oh, the Astros must play the 2020 season with a Wiffleback. Hashtag cancel Houston. So that's what has become of this. It's national media getting their flesh, players getting their flesh, and social media getting their flesh. That's why we have to, and we're not going to be like, we're not at the front line, but we're going to help out here.

We're going to, we're going to say that, look, there are some people that are with some massive regrets, and they're going to try to fix it by winning a bunch of games and really sticking to everybody else is taking these pot shots, right? That's the end game. That's fine. You got to wear some of this. This hashtag cancellation doesn't bother me. I think some of them are funny. It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be because let me tell you something.

If something would have happened, we did a cancel insert city. We'd be getting, we've met y'all. We'd be too. We know what you all be saying. So in reality, they're not terrible. Yeah. I'm okay with it. This doesn't bother me.

How about the woman, about the one that you get to go up and have sex with somebody in the 300s? with the player's wife. I don't think it will only during the 7th in stretch, though. Yeah, that's... You've got to be really quick on that. All right. I mean, some of us, that's not... Do you get this...

Do you get deep in the heart of Texas as well? Do you get both that and take me out to the ball game or just one or the other? Well, admit it may then then give you an extra 90 seconds. You're on the road. You've got 90 seconds. The rabbits rush around the brush. Deep in the heart of Texas. Way too soon on that.

way too soon all right 713212-1-2-5-7-90 if you want to get in who I don't go back to a central point here that I mentioned very late in the first hour there is more steam for the taking the trophy away

it's not going to happen I think wouldn't that steam up all you want yeah would that make the commissioner's office look worse they were not authoritative a tarative to begin with and that they basically, I mean, let me ask you this. In life, if public outcry is so crazy about something and you were thinking about it to begin with, do you respect that person, whatever it may be, to say, you know what, I made a mistake?

Because sometimes people make decisions. Like, for instance, this is a great example. You know how Ray Rice got suspended for two games? And everybody in their mother, everybody around sports was like, Roger, you know, Rydon, Godell you were too nice roger godell could have come up on a podium and said you know what we've seen we've heard the public backlash we've heard what's happened we know the situation and we aired we're going to give him four or six or eight now ultimately never came back but he would have gained some respect to go up and say you know what we goofed and i'm not saying that they the commissioner manfred you do this in this particular case but i do like When someone is in power, makes an original ruling, and if public eye cry is so consistent, which I don't know if it's so consistent here, obviously Houston's like, you can't take our trophy. We won that bad boy.

Even if you took the hardware, we have the memories of it. You can't take that from us. Well, let's think about the nuts and bolts of this. If this were to happen, can Manfred just say, he doesn't have, I don't believe, I don't know that he has that power. Would it have to go to some kind of voters, like owners votes or an owner's meeting? or this has to be, I mean, it couldn't be collectively bargained. It doesn't have to do with the players union, I guess. Can MLB just say, we are taking this away and the Astros have no recourse?

Well, here's the reason why I don't think it's going to be up for even conjecture. It's because Rob Manfred, just like any other commissioner, is employed by the team owners. Right. And if anything else happens with any team of yesteryear, steroid use, gambling, sign stealing, anything, does that open up a new box of, let's go find out every world champion and make sure they were crystal clear, clean during their days? Exactly. I think it opens up a box of worms. And, oh, by the way, Matt, who won the 2018 World Series Championship?

That would be the Boston Red Sox. And who are they are being investigated, correct? Yes, they are. They are. So, no, that's what I'm saying is you, if you're a Boston fan, you know that your World Series trophy is staying because the Astros didn't get theirs pulled. I mean, this is just me, you know, spitballing. and thinking out loud, would Jim Crane have recourse for a lawsuit as well and say, hey, you can't prove that this happened, number one, this happened in the postseason,

or that it even helped? Well, the question is, were there any guarantees that the trophy stayed with the Astros because they were so forthcoming? If Jim Crane can prove that, which I don't think there was, I don't think the commissioner could have done that because he obviously thought it was up for a potential punishment. I think there's just no way it happens. But it's the number one thing. It would be shocking to me.

I'm just telling you, Ross, it is, if you were to look at the landscape, forgetting about the jokes, forgetting about how everybody wants to beat somebody up, if you were to look at the heart of what people still want to this day, they want the trophy taken away. So what? So, okay, the trophy goes back in the major league offices, the door is closed. We always want blood in this society. We want, well, anytime somebody comes out and he says something that offends him, I want you to have, I want your job. I'm going to, I'm going to email your boss. I'm going to do this. I'm going to, anytime somebody gets offended.

or think, like, what, I mean, you think you've been wronged in some way and you need some restitution. Like, the Astros got punished. Is it going to make your day go better that if Commissioner Manfred comes out and says they're not the World Series championship? Is that really going to improve your life? Like, I don't understand. Yeah, the punishment feels like that's the easy part of this. The being constantly teased and ridiculed, that's going to be the hardest part for these guys, especially when the real games get going. Welcome to Palm Beach and a new season of Astros baseball.

excited. We can't wait to get out there and play again. Exclusive Astros' spring training coverage on 7-9 is brought to you by Carbock Brewing, crafted for Syria's fun, and by thebombeaches.com. 134, Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790, alongside Ross Villarreal. I'm Matt Thomas. Nick Lowe. I owe you 57 seconds. You want anything else? You want to get off your chest? We're going to start taking some more phone calls here? Not really, no. I think I'm good. Meaning potato salad right now.

Okay, so you basically been eating our barbecue nonstop since about 8 a.m. Is that right? Pretty much. Okay. That's the life of an executive producer, though, of the Matt Thomas show, for sure, right? Wow, executive producer? He got a new title? Yeah, you didn't hear.

I got promoted. Big raise. That's what I feel like. I feel like that was the easiest thing to do. Yeah, I'm the boss now. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Let's go to talk to some people here.

and see what y'all are thinking about and uh let's start with uh see my phone is bad here on this one who we going with first uh we're going to go with biscuit in the southwest side biscuit southwest side on 790 hello biscuit what do you got today yes sir what's up my brother you're on biscuit what's going on what's going on man hey i was uh well you all when you had uh you ovation when dr musberg was still there? Yes, I was one of his last students. Okay, okay, man. I know you, so I know you got a good education on reporting

and mass media. I'm trying to figure out, Matt, how they're, you know, these reporting, some of these reporters, man, is allowing some of this stuff to happen against the Astros. Man, this misinformation is going out there. Well, first of all, I'm curious, Biscuit. What has been misreported? well okay

first of all I was watching Morning Joe this morning and they're talking about well they was doing it in 2019 was that not the case okay Morning Joe is what channel MSNBC

Okay so that's where you go for your sports news MSNBC No I'm just saying it's the narrative has been spread widespread out there That's my point I'm making I'm not no and I don't I didn't see what they said.

I can't imagine they are putting it out there in type that says we know that stuff happened in 2019. I think my guess is if I went and looked at the exact same video that you're looking at, Biscuit, it's a lot about conjecture. What else from my point I'm making, though, Matt?

If we did proper reporting and ask the proper questions, it wouldn't be no room left. There is any, but you know what, Biscuit, they don't have to. Majorly Baseball. said the Astros behaved themselves in 2019.

The only thing that is in question about 2019, unless Ross, I'm missing this, is the buzzers with Jose Al-Tube. Well, I mean, there's no credible credibility with any of that. What I'm saying, Matt, the question is going to say, Mr. McPherson of Matt Ramford, was there any evidence of all that the Astro cheated in 2019? That question, this point blank, there's no beating around it. Was there any evidence at all?

Then he answers that. say okay let me ask another question he did he was answered that but he said he also said biscuit that he's not a hundred percent sure we have that quote too they found nothing in 2000 they said matter of fact the quote was it maybe nick you could find it for us he says look they told us everything about 2017 they told us about 2018 they told us about 2019 he's and mrs rob manfred's words he said why would they tell us the truth about two years and lie about one and he said Exactly. We've gone over the buzzers.

Is he 100% sure? No. But in life, you're not, are you however 100% sure? Exactly. Exactly. You're never 100% sure in life, you know. So another question that is being thrown out there is like our two-way is a one-hit wonder or something. I mean, this dude, let's bring up the stats, 14, 15, 16, 7.

This dude has been hitting for years, man. It's not like he needed, you know, the narrative now, it seems like I talked to some of my buddies across countries like Al Tuvae is, he needed those signals or whatever and to produce the way he's producing. No, man, this dude has been hitting. He's a batting three straight years. It's just, to me, Matt, it's just this and, I mean, it's just frustrating as our TV media to see all this misinformation out there. Yeah, journalism has clearly changed. it's great to hear your voice. I appreciate you dialing in. I don't think there has been anything so erroneous, Ross, that has made it... I mean, we're mad because there's a lot of opinion thrown into this stuff.

There is a lot of, well, it must have happened because it happened before. And that's irresponsible because, you know, today's reporters are supposed to report the facts, but today's reporters aren't reporters like they were 30 years ago. Jack Passon is brought on Sports Center and other shows to opine and give his opinion way more than what he's actually reported. Well, I mean, yeah, that's okay. People can have opinions if he has an opinion. He's getting asked his opinion as well. But I think one of the things that's also happening is you have people who have voices who are running fan websites and running with things that they say, I have sources for this and sources for that and speculation and all that type of stuff.

and then people take that as actual hard-hitting reporting and factual reporting when it's just some guy who runs a website, a fan site, and he's a Yankee fan. That's where all this came from. Yeah, and that's probably the worst part of it is there, was it named John Boy, J.O.M. Whatever. He doesn't have to adhere to any sort of journalistic integrity. He just wanted to get his clicks and get his mentions and get his follower count up. And he won.

Check, check, check, check. So good for him. Yeah. So. Off the backs of lies in speculation. Yeah. Thank you very much for the phone call. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Where are we going next, my friend? Let's go to... We've got Taylor in Baytown. Hi, Taylor. You're on 790 at 141. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, guys. I just wanted to ask if they were to take away the Charleston from this year.

you know, look at back the whole steroid era. How many World Series teams got won because of them taking steroids? So if they were to take away the trophy from the Astros this year, or 2017, I should say, then wouldn't we think go back and look at all the different World Series teams? That was my point 20 minutes ago. Yeah, Taylor, that was my point, is that if you start, if you initially put down a ruling and then you go back on it

while there is a certain level of respect for appearing and appeasing to what your constituency says there's also a part that says if you start pulling trophies away you better be really careful because you may be very busy doing that for the previous 20 or 25 World Series teams exactly sorry I'm in a work prophetic so I'm in and out of my truck I just probably didn't hear you say that that's okay hey

y'all do a great job for us thank you very much for your service Oh, thank you. You have a good day. All right. Appreciate the FedEx guys. All right. Thanks for the phone call. Right? I mean, that's what you do. That's why I think at the end of the day, Ross, they didn't go pull the trouble because that would then have Jim Crane saying, okay, you want to go, why don't you go look at that 86 team or that 94 team or that 2007 team? Absolutely. You show up a whole can of worms.

I mean, it would be unprecedented in baseball history. In professional sports history, has anybody has any NBA team? Or any NFL team had their trophy ripped away? The only thing, if we had college champions, have their trophies? Yes. We've had that, okay. It would be, I mean, the Louisville 2013 team, and then a number of other, you know, like lady, whoever's XYZ team,

Emery LaCross in 1976. Does UNLB still have theirs? I always lose track. I can't remember. I always feel like they're corrupt. They've had, you know, Calipari's had Final Fours vacated a couple of times. Yeah, Final Fours are one thing. It's winning the whole thing is a different.

I have to sneeze. You're going to be okay? Why don't you go ahead and do Matt Tom's favor. Follow him at SportsMT on Twitter. He's on the store. Okay. No, continue your phrase. Follow SportsMT.

And we are working our way towards Las Vegas. We will have a hilariously good time. I'm at 24-827. So I'm only 5173 away. Wonderful. Let's get it done. Let's go to Vegas. Have a good time.

I'll bring treat. I'm 503 away from 10,000. Now, if we combine ours, we're comfortably over 30,000. That's true. But I like to be separate in this situation. I know that. Okay. Hey, 713-21, 2, 1-2-5-70.

We need to read LeBron's tweet because LeBron chimed in on this. Oh, gosh. We have to. I know you don't want to hear that, but we have to. As long as we have the drop ready of Carlos Carrey saying, if you don't know the facts, shut them, bleed. I want two drops, Nick from you. I want that one, and I want LeBron James.

Oh, gosh, thanks. That is just the best. A lot of time? I don't want to start off slow. It's a new season of Astros baseball. And this is exclusive Astros spring training coverage on 790. Brought to you by Carbock Brewing, crafted for serious fun. And by the Palm Beaches.com.

149, Matt Thomas Show. We are here thanks to the Palm Beaches. We thank Carbock Brewing. And we thank our official hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn, West Palm Beach, the outlets. It's really a perfect spot. Close to here. Yes. Close to the freeway.

Uh-huh. Close to the outlets. Yes. And we're going to go get some, we're going to go shopping. We're going shopping and they have a great breakfast. So all that can be found at the Hilton Garden Inn, West Palm Beach, the outlets. Thanks for them helping us get down here to broadcast our coverage here from spring training. You guys going to buy some knockoff purses or something?

Not at the outlets. They have the real stuff. Yeah, they're outlets. They're cool. Why, do you need one? I'll take some fake some fake Nikes or something, yeah, sure. We're not going to a fake market.

It's the factory outlets. No, we're not going on Harwin. We're going to a real legitimate market. Why? Because we need socks. Well, Matt needs socks, and you know, I might get a couple of work polos, you know? You're going to pay like extra 30% for a Nike swoosh on your socks? I'm only getting clearance items.

And by the way, I spilled mustard on my shirt today and the question is. Matt did. Do I pull the shirt? We're going to dinner tonight with some people. Do I keep the shirt with the slight yellow stain on it or do I go with a fresh shirt? I have said yes because you don't want to go through the trouble. Did you pack extra shirts? One extra, but I was doing it more for Utah than it was for here. You don't want to burn the extra. And number two, it's it's, it's, you washed most of the yellow out and it's going to be presumably not dark. I mean, not a light. It's going to be dark in whatever restaurant we're in. That's true. It's very casual experience. Yeah. Okay. Well, I don't know if it's going to be like dimly lit romantic, but you're fine. I would hope not. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going to be. We're going. We're with a bunch of corn-ass men. Yeah, just tell them you got a little mustard stain there from the 7-Eleven dog.

We did do that, by the way. We didn't got 7-Eleven slurpees and hot dogs. Well, I didn't get a slurpee, but you did. But yeah. I'm going to tell you something right now. A quick snack. The slurpee is the greatest frozen drink. If you said, Matt, you could never have a margarita again, but you can have unlimited

slurpees. I'd do the slurpee over the margarita. I pass. Because I can drink margaritas non-frozen. But that cherry concoction they put together, I mean, Holy smokes is a kid. I guess you can still pour tequila in a slurpee. You could, but that would be ruining the essence of a slurpy because a slurpee is never supposed to have alcohol on it.

Why not? When you put alcohol in a slurpey and then becomes a frozen margarita or daquiry or whatever. It becomes a slurpy plus. Okay. So we just renamed it? Yes. Hi, Matt Tappas for 7-11. Come get a slurpy plus.

Yeah, it's a slurpy plus a little tequila. Let's say hi to Jim in the Heights on the Matt Thomas show at 152. Jim, thanks for holding good afternoon. Jim, are you there? I believe that is a no. Jim is speechless. Oh, there he is. Hi, Jim.

Hello. All right, this is not going. Hello, Jim. You're on. Go ahead. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes, sorry about that.

Hey, I just want to tell you I've missed you guys a bunch. I traded jobs and don't get to listen to you every day like I'm used to. So I missed you. And, hey, this thing's going to make the Astros stronger. It's going to make them tougher, and they're going to be just okay through this whole process, and they're going to get back on their winning ways. I wanted to ask you, though, because I need you to update me, what does the pitching rotation really look like?

And I'll hang up and listen. Okay, we can answer that. Verlander 1. Yes. Granky 2. Yes. The rest we're not sure about. That's what colors 3.

well provided that he comes out of camp healthy okay so let's let's assume that let's put it in here if he's healthy i'll put a voodoo hex on them come on no matter of fact i hope lance comes by we'd like lance lance lance is three then you are fighting with erkiti pruitt james framber about this missing anybody more framber alerts he was given way too many chances last year am i forgetting anybody um i think Brad Peacock, if he's healthy, but he looks like, sounds like he is out to the bullpen. They said they're going to want him in the bullpen. So the Brent Strom said that either yesterday or maybe earlier today.

I can't remember. Okay. Oh, and then we got the first pick. Forrest Whitley. Forest Whitley. Forrest Whitley. Now, Forrest Whitley sounds like he is in the old time west. Of course.

Forest Whitley. Okay, so there's eight guys for five spots. Verlander Granky, McCullors, Burkiti, Pruitt, Valdez, James Whitley. Whitley, yeah. Matter of fact, why don't you give us a few thoughts about you visit? I'm losing a little bit of my voice. You can do it, pull it off. All right, what do you want, do you have any questions about force?

Okay, see, so Ross today you saw Forrest Whitley in the clubhouse by his locker? What was that like today? Forrest Littley is a tall. Drink a wrong, young man. and the off-season is put on nearly 40 pounds. He did that, of course, laying out sacks of sand out by the bar in order to fortify it for the long summer. We appreciate Forrest Whitley because he's a man of many professions.

He can throw a football. He can milk a cow. And if he needs to slaughter a pig, we can ask him to do that on the farm. Forrest Whitley, will he make him make a cow? will he make the rotation? I have not a clue, but I know he has made a place in my heart for the Houston Astros.

And that's why I wanted to make the team because if he does, that music gets played. Josh James, music doesn't get played. Framber Valdez, no chance. Jose Orquetti? No, we tried that. Austin Pruitt's interesting. Austin Pruitt. Nobody in 1800s was named.

Austin. Stephen F. Austin. But that's last name. That's true. And like Lance McCullors, would be like straight up in 1986, California. Like Lance McCullors was an extra in Fast Times

at Regimonde High. That sounds like, okay, I'm buying that. Are you? Yeah. Austin Pruitt sounds like a NASCAR racer. Yeah. Austin Pruitt.

Yes. Or he sounds like a wrestler in Mid-South. Okay. 219 pounds from Parts Unknown. Austin Pruitt. That's just where they said There was kind of like a weird They would say parts unknown

Well you had to guess You didn't have to guess about Kamala the Uganda Giant because he was always there He's from Uganda Uganda And actually his name was like Larry Smith or something like that Final hour of the show starts with LeBron

Sports MT Theater Yes I'll read LeBron LeBron James And then we take some more phone calls And please have Correa ready to respond We need Correa and we need LeBron to respond And we need the kid to respond.

LeBron kid. Also, in the hour, we're going to hear a little bit from our friend. And he is a friend of the show, the one, the only Joe Smith. 157. Final hour, the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show. Here's from West Palm Beach, courtesy of the Palm Beach.

Courtesy of Carbock Brewing and the Hilton Garden Inn, Palm Beach Gardens, run-along I-95, very easy place to get to enjoy fine accommodations, all that Palm Beach has to offer and the awesome Outland Mall. All right, let's go to LeBron James. Now, Nick, do you have Carlos Correa and LeBron James, kids standing by for you to just put in randomly throughout the course of the two tweets that I read about him? I do, indeed.

All right, here we go. Listen, this is LeBron James 21 hours ago. listen i know i don't play baseball but i am in sports and i know if someone cheated me out of winning the title and i found out about it i would be blanking irate i mean like uncontrollable about what i could slash could do would slash could do sorry yeah sorry kid wood could do listen here baseball commissioner listen here baseball commissioner listen to your players speaking today about how disgusted, mad, hurt, broken, et cetera, et cetera about this.

Literally, the ball, and there's a baseball, is in your court, parentheses, or should I say field, close parentheses, and you need to fix this for the sake of sports. If you don't know the facts, then you got to show the... Thanks, Carlos. Carlos, I'm almost done. Okay. Hashed longest hashtag ever

Just my thoughts Coming from a sports Junkie regardless My own sport I play It doesn't know how to read Oh Oh no No no no no no

It's really bad It's so Man It's really bad It's really comprehension He didn't read the report Matt we've been saying this all week Did this ex-player read the nine-page report?

Did LeBron James read the nine-page Manfred report? Carlos Crayer, did LeBron James read that nine-page report? He doesn't know how to read. Oh, no. Oh, no. Okay, I'm not going to go that far. LeBron Jones. He just doesn't know the facts.

So he's speaking without knowing the facts. Well, he went to sports center and then you got to show the facts. Well, that would be nice, but clearly that's not the case for everybody when it comes to this. We understand. You want everybody to come for the title and all this type of stuff, but the deal was struck and they wouldn't have anything, and this would be an even bigger mess if the deal weren't struck. So I don't know how many different ways we can say this, Matthew.

Can I say this in all honesty? I don't get to see. I'm skipping the last Laker trip to Los Angeles in March, so I saw him a few weeks ago. he's still dynamic he's amazing for 30 what is it 37 35 35 been in the league 17 18 years whatever that is he's still much much must watch television yeah for all the other stuff I still like him good as you should Matt but I don't like his hashtags hashtag just my thoughts coming from a sports junkie regardless of my own sport I play how many

letters is that what does that I know how to read okay that's enough that's enough that's enough You're on You're on You're on emoji Drop drops Talking suspension At least for the rest of the hour Except for that one

We do like that one It's I mean LeBron's the long list Of the thousands of people Who are speaking without knowing The ins and outs of it And not knowing And yeah he has got easy

He carries incredible weight He's got 21,000 retweets on this So the idiot the idiot the idioty the idiotic he said easily gets to spread like a virus yeah all right let's go back to the phone [phone] a i'm going to go off an old list here so let's see hopefully this is right let's go to uh annie in baytown wants to help me get mustard off of my shirt this might be the most informative call of the day on the matt thomas show any how are you if you're still there i'm fine how are you today good what do you got for me give me the quick 30 second

anecdote here or anecdotes. Okay, quick 30 seconds. I don't care if you spell mustard mayonnaise, ketchup, blackberry juice, whatever it is on your shirt, take it off immediately, get you a flat surface,

get you some good cold ice cubes, and scrub away, both front and back. And I'll guarantee you it'll go away. That's what I told Matt to do with scrub with cold water. I just threw a bunch of water. No, no. Thank you. Oh, you're saying the ice cubes. And scrub, yeah. Did you do a lot of scrubbing?

Did you rub it together? I couldn't find an ice cube anywhere near here. We're drinking drinks without ice in him. Weren't you? At a 7-11? Yeah, he literally put about... See, this is where he screwed up. This is where Matt screwed up.

You know what I'm worried about, Nick? I'm worried about my Slurpy Plus. This is where we peel back the curtain on the show. Matt put... This is a... Humboldily, it was an extra large... It's 44 inches. This is 44?

Yeah. Matt filled at about 7th 8's full of ice. That's such a rookie move, isn't it, Nick? Yeah, you're wasting space. no no here's the thing i normally put it only in 10% ice but since i wanted this to last for a while i knew the ice would melt thus giving me more um liquid more watered down tea yeah which is fine okay i know what i was doing i never put seven eighth ice in there matter of fact every time i go to a restaurant a drive-th through what's the first word i say i'll have a drink light ice please i'll go

with easy ice i like easy i like easy like sunday morning but i also like the light ice too Thank you, Eddie, for that. Let's go to Scott and Cyprus at 2.08 on the Matt Thomas show. Scotty, good afternoon to you. What's going on? Hey, Matt. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate your show.

It's a joy to listen to you. Thank you. I have a question. And I want to get your thought. I think a lot of people have been saying this year to galvanize the Astros, you know, coming out, trying to prove everyone, everyone wrong. My contention is, I think it's a very precocious situation this year, because if they come out, let's say they come out and they don't do well. Let's say over the first month

of the season, they're 500 or they're below 500, then people are going to say even, you know, a lot much more about the cheating scandal that these guys aren't really the great athletes that weren't making them out to be. What do you think of that? What's your thought from that perspective? Oh, I think you're right on it. If this Astor team opens up the first month of season 500,

by the way, Alex Spragman is a slow starter, has been every year of his major league career. He came in a lighter, he said, to have better starts. So, Forrest Whitley gain weight. Josh James is a good weight.

I'm not playing the weight in a lighter. I'm not doing this. I don't know who weighs what. These are all the spring, the fun spring training fluff is what I've been calling it. You know? Okay. So we should play name that weight? Yeah, I don't think so. Keep that for. Okay. Googleable, believe it? Listed weight?

Those are going to be a little bit off. A little bit for sure. Vince Wilfork at like 315 late in his career when he was a Texan. You think he had been 315 since eighth grade? Yeah, the fact is, caller, you're absolutely right. The worst thing for Major League Baseball is the Astros will get up to like a 27 and 9 start. a nice nine-game lean the American League West. The best thing for the other teams would be for the aster's to struggle out of the get-go.

See and C, and they needed this. Are these must-win games early on, Matt? Now, you know how I feel about declaring something a must-win? You know how I feel about? You're wishy-washy. I'm consistent. I'm consistent telling you that the month of April is a must-win month. I'm going running the record with that.

Okay. 11 minutes past the hour to 2 o'clock. It is the Matt Thomas show. We take you to 3. clock we've got the conversation with Joe Smith with the Astros still to come we have your phone calls to get to as well and um just maybe here what is there anybody is oh uh we should mention come back one ross why don't you repeat with uh jean carlo uh stanton had to say today i must call him clinton jean carlo stanton had to say today about uh he would have hit 80 home runs

if he had known what was coming 80 80 80 80 80 would you think every major league baseball player would have hit 80 home runs oh you know well you know what matt if i was a major league hit her, and I knew it was coming. I would have hit 100. Proom me wrong. I would have batted 420? Yeah. Your favorite number? Yeah, I was going to say, why don't I go with 420 of all numbers? You know why. It's your favorite number, Matt. This is Sports Talk 790.

Live from Astros' spring trains. It's an excitement. You know, this is a new beginning. Exclusive coverage from West Palm Beach is brought to you by Carbock Brewing, crafted for serious fun, and by thephambeaches.com. I put a picture of me, which I don't like to do Twitter because y'all make fun of me a lot and I don't like that. Ross says I'm okay to not to go with the mustard shirt tonight,

but y'all have shame me. What's going on? Well, our good friend Christy Kroll, you know. Christy Bowl? Christy Bowl, Christy Crowell says you and Ross are going to be going to the outlet mall. Get a fresh polo for God's sakes. You can't go to dinner with a stain on your shirt, Matt. You are a major market guy that works with the Rockets.

at B-Mouth 73723 says Come on Matt Stop being the Al Bundy of Sports Radio and change your shirt Ouch Man you all I'm saying y'all are rude And then my buddy Alex who works over at Keynes He just sends me a tweet back SMH all in caps shaking my head

Oh I don't see any of that It's probably because he's blocked you Oh that's fine All right 713212 5757 79713-212-5sman i'm just telling you i just and then i said i would like a slurpy plus tequila and uh adam wexler says hashtag mustard on the side yeah wex great stuff there wex uh three to six here on sports talk seven yeah it's it's a show you do not want to miss under any circumstance all right uh week i can't read this call is it todd is that where it is we're going

next nick what are your issues here i can't expand this picture technology is not my friend that I nor is mustard here you go what is all right here we go it took a while let's say hi to todd we're here we just have bad Wi-Fi Todd and westbury on the matthomas show at 219 hi Todd hi guys I got to tell you I have not called the sports talk show in about 15 years so what today's the day what made this a special occasion my friend I'm sorry thank you what made this a special occasion? Well, you know, I've been an astro fan. I went to my first game in 1972. My dad had to make sure I saw Willie May. And every morning you wake up shaking your head about who someone got a microphone in front of them and they feel like it's their turn to bash the Astros and they feel

like it's, you know, what creative punishment can the next person come up with, you know? And I just want to know why do some things go underreported. When Cody Bellinger says they took a ring from us, why didn't anyone say, Cody, you set the record for most strikeouts in a World Series of anyone who has ever played in a World Series. No one has struck out more than you did. When the Yankees, I mean, it's like what Yankee hasn't made a comment, when Manchester City got their punishment in the British Soccer League, why wasn't there one person to ever describe them as Manchester City,

business partners of the New York Yankees? They co-own a soccer team together and a concessions company together. And finally, when Mike Trout says, you know, we feel like we have to invent statistics to make Mike Trout the greatest ball player of all time, And, I mean, you would think the off-season story more than the Astros would be that it was a member of the Angels PR department that gave Tyler Skaggs enough opioids to literally kill him. And the Angels guy, the Angels employee actually said that there were four to five other players who were also addicted. Seems to me that a team giving a player enough drugs to kill him is a bigger story than knowing the curveball was coming. I'm one of those people that I don't take every story that I talk about on a radio show or discuss with my friends,

and I don't put them on a scale of this is as bad as the other thing. That's just not how I roll. Okay. Some people roll the opposite way. A lot of that comes down to when some teams are punished for some things and some teams are punished for others. They go, well, that's not fair. Why does this person get this? Like, for instance, when somebody gets suspended four games for hitting somebody as compared to being only suspended two games for illegal use of drugs.

I'm not that person. So I'm never going to come to you and say what happened with the Angels, what happened with Manchester United, what happened with anybody else. because they're not a level playing field. Now, if the Boston Red Sox did the exact same thing for about the exact same length of time as the Astros did, and their punishment is lesser,

then I can argue with you and have a debate about why certain things didn't get punished the way they did. But I can't take five different individual acts, and maybe this is a fault of my own, but I'm not going to take five individual things that have happened in sports and try to put them on a pedestal

of what is more severe or less. I'm going to wait for the Boston Red Sox to find out what their punishment is. If indeed they did everything the Astros did in 2018, then you and I can have this conversation. So I don't know that's going to be a satisfactory answer to your question, but I'm not that kind of person. And I'm all I'm worried about is what the Astros have been penalized

and what other teams, notably the Boston Red Sox, who are currently under investigation, what their punishment's going to be. Do you want to follow up on that? though why are things underreported why are some things ignored why do you what's been ignored I mean the Skag's death was very much covered what was an angel's employee that provided him with the drugs of course yeah it was and it was it was discussed but but in terms of media attention that's not my responsibility no one in New York City said you know

I've heard about this terrible situation in LA, but it doesn't seem important to us, so we're going to move on to something else. I mean, this is a huge story. Nobody is hiding this, and no one is questioning whether it's being overreported or unreported. It's one of the biggest sports scandals in the history of sports. So it has to be treated that way, unfortunately. Well, and I'd also just like to say that, you know, Commissioner Manford is right to a certain extent. It is just a piece of metal.

the Ten Commandments said you shouldn't have idols before me. And it's not like we have pictures of Christy Matheson or Babe Ruth with the trophy because the trophy only came into existence in the late 60s. So it's not like this iconic piece of baseball lore that has been handed down from generation to generations. and it's a marketing tool, you know, like everything else is. Well, I would characterize it. Yeah, that's not what I would. No, I think he used a terrible choice of metaphors.

Thank you for the call. I think it was just misinterpreted. I don't think it was terrible. I get what his point was that you can't take away what happened. That's basically what he's saying. You take away the trophy. You're not taking away what happened. that's what Manfred was getting at.

None of this marketing stuff in the 1960s and all this other stuff the caller was named Todd or whatever his name is. None of that stuff that he's talking about. Yeah, we're going to hear from Joe Smith along the Astros bullpen in a second, but I do want you to hear. And Nick, I've just put the audio in

from Jean Carlo Stanton. Jean-Carlo de Stanton. Doesn't serve as good of Italian dishes as Locatelles as I can tell you that for sure. Jean-Carlo Stanton spoke to day to the media in the matter of fact I think it was where it was well I think he was on a radio

show in on WFAN if I'm not mistaken so Nicholas let's go to some of the sound bites there and you lead into them and let the audience then interpret after you lead to read this a lot go ahead oh let's start with this one where he is

agreeing that he believes the championship should be taken away it did their investigation and it was clean cut that they cheated that year, which means it should be taken away. I mean, if you cheat in another way during the season, you can't even be in the playoffs, so therefore it would be eliminated. So it's pretty much the same difference.

The Yankees were also disciplined for cheating in that season. Are we vacating all their wins? Yeah. All right. Continue on, Mr. Lowe. Yoncarlo also believes that this almost encouraging. encourages other players to cheat. I don't think the penalties were harsh enough.

Players-wise, player-wise. I think that at the end of the day, it gives you, it gives more incentive to do that if you're not going to punish the players. That took part of it. And then lastly, and certainly not least, He's giving himself some false stats, right, Niccolo? Yes, the one we've already been mentioning, but yeah, this is ridiculous. Here it goes.

How would I feel? If I knew I was coming in 17, I probably would have hit 80 plus home run. And there's the awkward media laugh. Obligatory. Well, it's awkward always, but is it always obligatory? Who know? Mike Trout got it this week? and then John Carnell Stanton got it this week

Wonderful All right Let's take another one We've got two more segments left to go on the radio shows If you'd like to come in and talk with us And I'm going to change the shirt You guys have shamed me Oh, I think it's fine Matt

Now you are you doing this because you want to prop me up as a mustard mascot I'm not going to mention I won't mention it once at dinner Don't worry Okay I will not Change the shirt We'll see what happens Okay

Welcome to Palm Beach and a new season of Astros baseball. I'm very excited. We can't wait to get out there and play again. Exclusive Astros spring training coverage on 7-9 is brought to you by Carbock Brewing, crafted for Syria's fun, and by the Palm Beaches.com. Houston Cougar basketball tonight against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane Sports RV. This is our Cougar update brought to you by the Joint Chiropractic, 8 o'clock start time over on 950 KPRC. Tulsa beat the Cougars the first time around. Time for revenge.

Time for the Cougars to bounce back after their loss and overtime to SMU last Saturday. Tonight, 8 o'clock, sports talk, actually our sister station, 950 KPRC. And as Cougar update is being presented to you by the joint chiropractic, the official chiropractor of your beloved Houston Cougars. There you go. Today was a nice day for us because we were talking some baseball. We had Josh James earlier with us today. We have our new favorite astral reliever.

The sprinter is with us now. And earlier today in the clubhouse, I had a chance to catch up with a guy that was hurt for much of last year, but made it a serious impact come September. And he is our favorite sidewinder. It is Joe Smith. Here's my visit with him earlier today. Dusty Baker walks in this clubhouse. Give me a couple thoughts about him as compared to AJ.

Obviously, everybody's different. And I think it was obviously it's going to be different moving forward. different voice. And for a lot of these guys that we have, you know, AJ was the only manager they'd known. And it's just weird. I think when you're sitting in a clubhouse and everything's the same except for one person. But obviously, Dusty's a guy who's been in this game for so very long, very intelligent man. And, you know, a guy that I've always wanted to play for. I didn't want it to happen under these circumstances. But, you know, seeing him through the years, watching and manage and getting to meet him just from the other side of the field and stuff he's always been relaxed you know come up to you and talk to you a type of guy and that's the feel he's throwing out right now you know very relaxed but go get it at kind of relax and go get it at a suit if that makes any sense you've been with a bunch of teams could you imagine being a walk into a clubhouse with a new manager and like oh my god this is not going to work i don't like this guy i mean thankfully you've had that great impression to him yeah no i mean it's good uh

Yeah, that would be tough. That would be tough. And I think, you know, I was glad the organization, you know, no offense. I know we were interviewing quite a bit of people. Right. I think it would have been tough for a younger guy with less experience to walk in here and truly handle all this stuff. And with the, you know, the veteran and the superstars we got on this team, you know,

a lot of it's controlling that. And obviously, Dusty's been through a lot of stuff over his, you know, 40 plus years in this game. A little normalcy probably would be the best thing he'll bring to the table. A year ago at this point, you were not in his clubhouse working out. I mean, this has got to be a complete 180 with a big smile on your face because you're healthy and ready to go. Yeah, I'm definitely, I can walk this year into camp, so that's a step in the right direction.

Could you imagine coming in last year with a cane or like one of those wheelie things? I mean, that wouldn't have a lot. I left those at home. Oh, you have them? Okay. No, no. I mean, last year, like, I was like, first day of spring. walking in. I'm not doing my wheel. Yeah, I had it. I was four weeks, four weeks, five weeks,

non-weight bearing? It's miserable. But, uh, now it's just fun, man. I mean, it's fun to get the baseball going. You know, there's been so much talk over the winter and, you know, I've been here for the past two years. I know what we did over the past two years. I know how hard guys worked. I understand, um, that. And, and that's why I wanted to come back, because what I saw over the last two years was good baseball, done the right way. And, Even with this looming, you know, obviously the decision wasn't out yet as far as the suspensions and so forth. But I know what we've done here, and I know how good we can be. You know, it's going to be, it's going to be a tough year.

It's going to be a fun year. And we just guys stick together and have each other's backs and play some baseball. Yeah, and that includes a bullpen. Obviously, Will not being here. Are you kind of curious to yourself as a part of this bullpen, how those innings get eaten up? I think we've got some opportunities out there. We've got some opportunities for Josh James to really step into himself. You know, he's been in the league now a couple years

and kind of gotten his feet wet, so to speak, and we've seen the greatness, and we've seen the not so good. And I'm really excited to see him, see if he can take off. I'm excited to see Lance back on the mound. We get Chris Devinsky. We get some more opportunity to see if he get back to his All-Star Forum that he was. And hopefully we get a full year with Brad Peacock in the bullpen. which, you know, two years ago and 18, and he's in the bullpen, he lights out,

and I think that will really help us. We're going to miss Will. I think everybody's got to miss Will because he's been a staple in this clubhouse, no doubt. But that's how this game goes, and, you know, somebody's got to step up. That, again, was our buddy, Joe Smith, and we don't normally talk in that lower tone. And just guys are getting ready for practice or, you know, workouts. And you don't want to run in there and go, hey, everybody, I'm talking to Joe Smith. And, by the way, zero out of the force question.

and so you're welcome. Okay. Could have broke down the NBA with her. Yeah, you could. If they ever want to do a radio show, they probably could supplant us. What would you call it? The Joe and...

The force? May the sports force be with you? May let force be with you. Like, who are the best... They're sunny and share. They're probably going to get sued if they make something like that. Sunny and Cher. Yeah.

Peaches and Herb. Okay. Peaches and Herb is one of the best? Cookies and cream. No. Amos and Andy? All time husband and Lewis. Husband wife duos.

Oh, husband and wife? Yeah. Captain and Tenil. Yeah, but they were in a level's marriage apparently. Oh, well, that's unfortunate. Geez, I don't know. The Partridge Family Parents. Would you like to produce Nick the Adela Forrest Joe Smith show better than ours?

Well, yeah, I bet they'd pay a lot better. It's probably paying a lot better. more. A lot of time off, too. Let's go to Kelly at 2.40 on the Matt Thomas show. Hi, Kelly. Kelly, you there with us? I'm sure your shirt looks fine, Matt. Thank you, Kelly. You can find it on Twitter at SportsMT. Kelly, let me tell you, I want you to go to my Twitter account, and if you think it's okay, I'm going to stay with it. Now I'm not going to have to get another one.

You said you're sticking with it anyways. I'm a little bit. Well, speaking of Twitter, I tweeted something. We probably already saw it. from Adam Clinton. But did you guys talk about the Joe Garardi video from 2018? Girardi. No, we haven't. Gerardi.

Well, here's what we'll do. We'll set it up for the audience and let them hear. You want to have a quick comment on it? No, I'm doing the same. Run around, run around here. Mr. Matt, it's like, obviously the actors are not alone. in this Chiefies Candle.

It doesn't make what we did right. But there's a lot of hypocrisy going on around the MLB. And, you know, you guys have been addressing that very clearly, and I appreciate it. And you guys tend to be unbiased, even though you're big Astros fan. So I appreciate that view as well. I know.

I appreciate it. And also, thanks for all the live updates in Florida, because it's nice and refreshing to hear new stuff and not all this other thing that's been going on since November, yeah. I know. Thanks, Kelly. Thank you for the phone call, Kelly. Good to hear from me. Let's really quickly let you hear.

Set this up, Ross, is it's Joe Girardi talking about electronic intelligence here? Well, she said this from 2018, which I don't know when it's from, but apparently Joe Girardi on MLB Network talking about, well, I'll just let you hear. Here he is on MLB Network. Who knows? So what did you guys use? Right, right? So you got to worry about it.

And sometimes you've got to worry about just how it's being relayed. I mean, that's the thing. Like, I was part of a system where it came from upstairs to someone in the dugout, to the hit, to the guy on second base. To the hit, to the guy on second base. To the hit to the guy in second base. To the hitter. To the hit to the guy in second base.

To the hit to the guy on second base. To the hit. And second base. Everything is fine except for the upstairs part. I guess so. The upstairs part is the hitting. Yeah. I need more, a little more context on that,

and what the conversation was about and what they were talking about. Yeah, all right. Let's get a quick time out. We've got one more time. We're not doing believe it or not today because we're on location, which means you and I can visit and Ross as well, and we can answer a poll question that Pat D. Stapp puts out there. And it's an easy one for you guys today to go to.

The question is, who is the hardest working radio team in Houston? The Matt Thomas Show or the A team. You know what? Don't even bother voting. It doesn't do any good. It's such a waste. The answer's clearly me. Is it?

Well, yeah. I mean, yeah. Those guys grind. Were they here at mid-spring training 845 this morning Eastern Time? That's true. They weren't. No. But they do Rockets games.

Of course, you do every Rockets game. And I do, I would say I do maybe about half the pre-imposed game shows. Maybe he'll shade more. Yeah, 73% right now is my show over the 18. So we're in a good spot. Do I count as part of the show? Oh, yeah, you're. Okay, great.

You are. Then yeah, it's us. A lot of time. I don't want to start off slow. It's a new season of Astros baseball. And this is exclusive Astros' spring training coverage on 790. Brought to you by Carbock Brewing, crafted for serious fun. and by the Palm Beaches.com.

All right, final segment here from West Palm Beach. Again, thanks to the Palm Beaches, thanks to Carbine Brewing, and thanks to our accommodations where we're going to be sleeping here in the not to do some future. We're in Florida. Are we supposed to take four o'clock naps? Are we napping? We're napping. I don't want to nap.

I'll just hit the hotel bar. That's at the Hilton Garden in Palm Beach. Yes. You need to check that out. I got a happy hour four to seven, they said. And everybody's happy between four and seven. Should I get a, should I hang out there for three straight hours? Now I can pick you up, yeah.

Okay. I'm going to stay in this. I made the executive decision. I'm staying in this shirt. Okay, good. I don't think the stain is so noticeable that people are going to walk up and say, dude, you came out here to have dinner with us with a stain like that. Yeah.

Okay, good. And if they do, it's because they looked at my Twitter account and they're going to make fun of me. And see, the thing is, like halfway in, as long as they don't admit, the first half of the meal, you could say, oh, well, it just happened. That's right. I need to get something of a mustard concoction, yes. A soft pretzel, if you will. Or at least a lemonade or something.

You should just immediately spill something on your shirt. The second you sit there. Right over the same spot? Yeah, it doesn't even matter what it is. So you're telling me that if I go, I sit down with these group people that we're going to dinner with tonight. And immediately just pour a convent on me, that's going to say me. Yeah, just a steak sauce on yourself the second you sit down. Would you rather people think you're clumsy or think you have a mustard stand on your shirt?

Um, mustard stain. I don't see what the big deal is. Well, I'm getting destroyed in the world of Twitter. You're not getting destroyed. That's a relative term. Nobody's telling you to go back to Dallas or anything. Yeah, that's coming eventually. All right.

On the show tomorrow and Friday, we're going to have two more days here. We're going to catch up with Dusty Baker. I see what you did there. We're going to hear from Dusty Baker. Yeah. We'll hear from the new Astros general manager, James Click. Ross, click with a C. Yes, James Click.

Hopefully we'll get some position players to come in here as well. We've had a lot of pitchers conversation. Truth be honest, told on this one, the temperature of the room is just very, very uneasy. They created these problems themselves. But doesn't mean they're not human. I'm speaking as a group. The Astros have felt like they have done their fair share of apologizing now.

They're going to apologize some more. They're going to apologize some more. And some may say, all right, you've done your due diligence. Thank you for doing this. Let's play ball. But there's going to be some that are going to still want retribution. And that will come in obviously down the road. So when we get these guys on with us, the players that you would clearly recognize from 2017,

that will be probably what we will address is, what will life be like in the baseball? Will we be able to May 15th be able to just focus on baseball? Or is this a topic, Ross, that is going to be inundating our show? because we love talking baseball in the show. We feel like we do a pretty decent job of doing that. Yeah, the games will start, and we will be talking about those and things that happened and what's happening with the back end of the rotation. Who should they go with?

How do we think Josh James looks? Or what's going on with Lance McCullers and his any? There's going to be so many multiple baseball topics. That's the biggest thing that needs to happen. The games need to stay. Breathing Hot Fire baseball topic to close out our show. How much pressurize it on there for Forrest Whitley and Kyle Tucker, and treat them separately to make some sort of influence?

impact on this season in the heart of a regular season. I think there's a lot of pressure on both of them. These guys have been completely intradable the last couple of years. Do not touch, don't ask. Yeah, like, they're completely off the table. And when you have guys like that who are untouchable, they need more form. And that's just the way it is because you've, for example, Alex Breggman was untouchable and a Chris Saleable.

And it worked out. It worked out. Derek Fisher was untouchable apparently a couple years in deals. And now he was touched. Jay Reid untouchable a few years ago. So I mean, so we'll see. It's a mixed bag. And we know, of course, the biggest leap that you make in professional baseball is from

AAA to the big leagues. And we'll see, we'll see how they go. And I think you got a small sample, but a good sample of what Kyle Tucker can do at the end of last year. I think he's, his upside for immediate impact is a lot greater because the Astros made a decision to trade Jake Mariznick. And whether that's Miles Straw that becomes the extra outfielder, whether that's Kyle Tucker, whether Kyle Tucker, whether Kyle Tucker.

and Josh Reddick are playing for serious playing time in right field, whether there is a, you know, in matter of fact, that you're on, Miles Straw. Mald Strau. Yordan Alvarez, Dusty Baker was asked about him today.

Said he'd like to play some more outfield. His knees are barking. But the knees are barking, which I'm thinking, man, I hope knees don't bark at 23. Dusty is so foxy. It's great. Yeah, Dusty Baker is so foxy

that it's almost like if you gathered a bunch of your friends you get down in your in your crisscross applesauce position you spill the same nesting stuff you can't say anyone and you'd like for him to sit up on a chair with a hat on and he'd like you'd like for him to read you a children's book I would love that or just tell stories

the year of 1983 I was closing in on my semi-successful major league career and I was with Pete Rose and Pete told me. Dusty, I'm thinking about betting on my team today. What do you think about those chances? Well, I hope he didn't say that. I really remember Dusty as a Dodger more than the else.

I don't remember Dusty as a player at all. Very vaguely. Okay. But I remember as a manager with several baseball teams. I've seen some old pictures of him. He had the polyester suit swag going. Let me tell you, I would have loved to have gotten to know Dusty Baker at 31. I'm getting looking forward to knowing him at 70, but 31 may be something special too.

You ask him his grape pruning techniques. I got to prune my grapes. You know, I mean, I got work to do. And what is work now is... That's not a euphemism, is it? No, no. He doesn't even... No, Dusty's immune from euphemisms.

Make sure my dogs don't have ticks. That's not a euphemism either, is it? I just love Dusty. I love Mike Dan Tony. I love Calvin Samson. I love Dana Holgerson. I don't know the Rice coaches, but I'm sure they're wonderful people. And they're probably great.

And I'm pretty much done. I mean, he's a great body. You know, it's like a young Adonis. Talk about Carlos Correa. Yes. All right. Tomorrow we'll hear from a lot of cool people, Astro-related, and Mike Dantonia for a few minutes as well.

Wow, jam-packed show. Thanks to Karbach. Thanks to the Palm Beach. Thanks to the Hilton Garden in Palm Beach Gardens. and thanks to the A team who are going to thrive in their three-hour time slot today. They're going to put a full three hours in. Look forward to that. And then Astraline tonight down at Pluckers at 6 o'clock.

Stand by. Shane Reynolds is going to be there. All right, that'll be nice get. I love some Shane Reynolds. A little split-finger fastball. Yep, great. Big City Wings coming up for you right now. Happy hour?

Right this second. Go by and check out a happy hour. Also, it's a whiskey Wednesday with specials on whiskeys at Big City Wings. And all their burgers are $8. $8 measly dollars comes to the side get the whiskey you get the wings and if you're in a crawfish mood you can get that too with their special seasoning only found at big city wings big on sports big on televisions big on we got good college basketball a night we got no long horns of longhorns tc u.s on espn u.s on uspn u. america turns its eyes to the longhorns as they take on the tc ufrogs live on longhorn

tonight. America rolls its eyes of the longhorns. America is going to watch U of H take on Tulsa at Big City Wings. BigCitywings.com for location near you. The A team is up next. Talk to you all tomorrow at noon here on Sports Talk 790.